Reading Practice

Orientation of birds
A For many of US, the way birds are able to orientate is both astounding and difficult to
appreciate fully. For instance, the annual migration of tire golden plover of the Pacific takes
it from Alaska to Hawaii on a flight of well over 3000 kilometres, and if it were to deviate by
only one degree, it would miss the island on which it nests.

B The first systematic studies on orientation in birds were made possible by the ‘homing
instinct’ exhibited by so many species. Birds are caught at a time when they show an
attachment to their territory, especially during the nesting season. They are taken to some
spot, released, and the percentage of returns is recorded. The distance can be varied, and
the direction, as well as the method of transporting them, and then the influence of climatic
and other factors on their ability to find their way home can be studied. These experiments
have shown a wide variation in ability to home, and three types of homing behaviour have
been identified.

C In the first type, birds methodically explore the area in which they are released until they
pick up some familiar feature, and then they quickly find their way back to the nest. Such
birds possess a highly developed visual memory, as experiments with pigeons have
shown. Domestic pigeons have been trained to peck at a certain point on an aerial
photograph, with a system of rewards, and four years later the birds were still able to
respond to this training when placed on the aerial photograph. Birds’ eyes have a power of
resolution two to three times greater than ours, enabling them to pick up very fine details. If
a bird uses only this type of homing behaviour, however, it can only succeed if the point of
release is not too far away. If the birds are transported 800 kilometres from their nest, it is
only by good fortune that they find their way back as a result of long exploratory flights.
Usually, the area known to a bird is its feeding territory. Released within this area, the birds
soon make their return; release them outside it and far fewer return. However, if a bird is
released for a second time in the same place, its visual memory comes into play, and the
bird, no longer requiring tedious exploratory flights, will return much more quickly.

D The second type of homing behaviour is shown by birds that are capable of choosing
their flight direction and holding to it for the rest of their journey. How do they decide what
direction to take? They appear to choose their normal migration direction even if they are
released in a different place from their usual stalling point. If, for example, birds which
normally fly to the north-east to reach latitude 45 degrees north are released at that
latitude, they will immediately start flying north-east anyway. So if they’re released further
to the west, they’ll maintain the correct direction, but fly west of their destination, and so fail
to arrive.

E The third type of homing behaviour shows the highest degree of orientation. Released at
one point, the birds immediately take stock of it, compare its position with that of the nest,
decide on the direction and fly off. This happens even if the birds are in a country right off
their migration routes, where they have never been before. In one example, a laysan
albatross returned to its nesting area on Midway Island in the middle of the Pacific, having
flown over 5000 kilometres from the west coastal of the USA in just over ten days. This is a
perfect example of the third type of homing, for the albatross clearly couldn’t rely on any
landmarks over the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean.

F The percentage of successful birds varies greatly, being highest in those species with a

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strong migratory behaviour. Thus the lesser black-backed gull is more migratory than the
herring gull and more often reaches ‘home’. Great migrants such as the swift have the
highest percentage of returns. In one case, seven out of nine alpine swifts were recaptured
at their nests after being displaced some 1400 kilometres; one made the journey in three
days.

G What part does heredity play in all this? Two research studies suggest that instinctive,
i.e. genetically inherited, behaviour patterns play a part in navigation. The first was carried
out by Ernst Schuz and it is highly significant. Schuz caught first year European storks and
released them later, after the departure of the adult storks at a time when they normally
make their south-west autumn migration to Africa. The recaptures showed that, in spite of
thefact that there were no adults to guide them, the birds unanimously headed south-west.
This was a most striking finding, for it showed that the birds had an innate and unlearned
attraction for the African wintering area that they have occupied for thousands of years.

H The case of starlings is a little different. These birds have a great aptitude for homing, but
this behaviour differs in the different age groups. Birds that were shifted to the south-east of
their normal migration route split into two lots. The adults, in full possession of their gift for
orientation, found their wintering area by modifying their direction by 90 degrees, whereas
the juveniles sought their winter quarters to the south-east of their real position.

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Questions 1-5
Complete the summery below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.

Types of homing behaviour

First type:

Birds rely on their sophisticated 1...................... However, they are generally most
successful if they are released within their feeding territory.

Second type:

Birds select their accustomed 2....................., no matter where they are released. As a
result, they may miss their 3.....................

Third type:

Birds orientate correctly, even when they are released in an unfamiliar place and have no
4..................... to make use of. One bird with this type of skill is the 5.....................

Questions 7-9
Reading Passage has eight paragraphs, A-H

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 7-9 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

6..................... the effects of distance on some birds’ ability to find their nests

7..................... a methodology for testing the general ability of birds to find their nests

8..................... one aspect of physical ability in humans and birds

9..................... how some birds’ migration was delayed for experimental purposes

Questions 10-13
Look at the following types of birds (Questions 10-13) and the list of points which the author
wishes to illustrate below.

Match each bird with the point which it illustrates, A-G.

Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet.

10..................... domestic pigeon

11..................... alpine swift

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12..................... European stork

13..................... starling

List of points which the author wishes to illustrate

A an ability to orientate without previous training

B the speed at which birds can fly

C the ability to remember things seen previously

D the effect of age on homing ability

E the strength required to fly a great distance

F a high success rate in finding nests

G the importance of seasonal cues for migrating birds

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Solution:
1. visual memory 8. C
2. migration direction 9. G
3. destination 10. C
4. landmarks 11. F
5. (laysan) albatross 12. A
6. C 13. D
7. B

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Reading Practice

The Clipper Races: an era of competition between cargo

ships
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the British East India Company had the
monopoly on trade with China and India. This meant that because no rival could legally
import tea or other goods from these countries at this time, the company was rarely in a
hurry to transport its merchandise. Instead, its priority was to minimise costs by carrying as
much as possible on each ship. This meant that its ships - known as East Indiamen - were
enormous, strong and very slow.

By 1800, the average East Indiaman could carry 1,200 tons of merchandise. The trading
pattern for China tea usually meant the East Indiamen set sail from Britain in January,
sailed round the Cape of Good Hope at the southernmost tip of Africa, and arrived in China
in September. There they would load up that year's tea harvest, set off again and,
depending on the wind and weather, aim to arrive back by the following September. So
even with favourable sailing conditions, the round trip lasted almost two years, and if
anything went wrong it could take a lot longer.

However, by 1834 the company had lost its trading monopolies, and tea had become a
freely traded item. Having no more use for its great ships, the company sold them off, and
many were bought by merchants or their captains, who continued to plough the seas
between Britain and China. But now that tea could be traded freely, a few smart sailors
began to realise that whoever brought each new harvest of tea to Britain first, stood to
make the most money.

This was partly because if you were home first, you could sell your shipment of tea before
your competitors even arrived, and partly because consumers in Britain in the nineteenth
century believed that the fresher and earlier-picked the tea, the better the resulting drink.
Tea traders now needed faster, sleeker ships to bring their precious cargo back.
Nevertheless, in Britain this idea only caught on slowly, and white the 1840s saw a few
faster ships launched, for the time being many merchants remained satisfied with the slow
but reliable East Indiamen.

In fact it was the Americans who pioneered the first clipper ships. These vessels were fast
and slender, with a narrow hull that was deeper at the back than at the front and masses of
sails on tall masts. They earned their name from the way that they clipped off journey times
British merchants resolved to build their own clippers to rival the Americans and the first
British tea clipper, Stornaway, was built in Aberdeen in 1850 More tea clippers were
designed and built in Britain throughout the 1850s and 1860s, they had a narrower beam
than their American equivalents, making them less powerful during storms, but faster in
calmer weather.

There was a great spirit of competition between the British and American ships plying the
tea trade, but to begin with the Americans had the edge. Then in 1851 a British ship owner,
Richard Green, built the aptly named clipper Challenger, with the stated intention of beating
the American ships. Loaded with tea, Challenger left China for London in 1852 at the same
time as the American clipper Challenge, a much larger, older ship, already greatly admired
for its speed. Large sums were bet on which would complete the journey first. In the event,
the British ship beat its rival to London by two days, amid much jubilation. From then on,

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such international races grew in popularity.

After 1855, American participation in the British tea trade gradually stopped. But even
without the Anglo-American rivalry, the competitive spirit continued. It was really ignited
when new ports were opened up for trade in China. These included Fouchow, which was
much closer to the tea-producing areas than Canton, the port used previously. As a result,
tea could be loaded onboard earlier and fresher, and the clippers could set off in late May
or early June - sometimes not even taking time to fill out the official paperwork - racing
back to Britain whatever the difficulties.

They sped down through the South China Sea and into the Indian Ocean, then raced to get
round the southernmost tip of Africa at the Cape of Good Hope. Then it was north across
the vast Atlantic, past the Azores, through the English Channel and into the estuary of the
River Thames. Once there, they would be towed by tugs, up the river and into the docks.

The cargo of the winning ship could earn a premium of up to sixpence per pound-and so
the captain and crew were rewarded by the owners of the cargo. But the races were about
more than just money the crews, about 40 men on each clipper, were expert sailors, proud
of their ships, and they delighted in competing against each other. Without their
enthusiasm, the races would never have happened, since getting the ship home as fast as
possible required the crew to be totally dedicated and to sacrifice much of their rest for the
duration of the race.

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Questions 1 - 6
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1? In
boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

1..................... In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the British East India Company
faced a lot of competition.

2..................... Before 1800, cargo size was the most important consideration for the East
India Company.

3..................... At best, voyages of the East Indiamen to China and back took nearly two
years to complete.

4..................... Before 1834, voyages to and from China were considered to be highly
dangerous.

5..................... After 1834, the ships which had served the East India Company stopped
being used for commercial purposes.

6..................... In the nineteenth century, British drinkers preferred tea made from mature
leaves to that made from younger leaves.

Questions 7-13
Complete the notes below.

Choose ONE WORD ONL Y from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 7-13 on your answer sheet.

Clipper races

The ships

Clipper ships were first used for trading by American merchants.

The ships were remarkable for the number of 7..................... they had.

The performance of British tea clippers was particularly affected when there were
8..................... at sea.

The races

It was in a ship called 9..................... that the British first competed successfully against
the Americans.

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Richard Green’s ship arrived two days ahead of its competitor.

Competition increased when additional Chinese trading 10..................... were established.

Merchants were occasionally in such a hurry that they failed to complete the
11..................... before leaving China.

At the end of their journey, the ships needed the help of 12.....................

The rewards

The crews were motivated by both 13..................... and their enthusiasm for the
competition.

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Solution:
1. FALSE 8. storms
2. TRUE 9. Challenger
3. TRUE 10. ports
4. NOT GIVEN 11. paperwork
5. FALSE 12. tugs
6. FALSE 13. money
7. sails

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Reading Practice

What makes a musical expert?

How does someone become expert in music? And IS it really possible to have a ‘talent’ for
music?

Does that class of people acknowledged to be musical experts just have more of the same
basic skills we are all endowed with, or do they have a set of abilities - or neural structures
- that are totally different from those of the rest of US? Are high levels of musical
achievement simply the result of training and practice, or are they based on innate brain
structure - what we refer to as ‘talent’? Talent can be defined as something that originates
in genetic structures and that is identifiable by trained people who can recognize its
existence before a person has achieved exceptional levels of performance. The emphasis
on early identification means that to investigate it, we study the development of skills in
children.

It is evident that some children acquire skills more rapidly than others: the age of onset for
walking and talking varies widely, even between children in the same household. There
may be genetic factors at work, but these are closely linked with other factors - with a
presumably environmental component - such as motivation and family dynamics. Similar
factors can influence musical development and can mask the contribution of genetics to
musical ability.

Brain studies, so far, haven’t been of much use in sorting out the issues. Gottfried Schlaug
at Harvard collected brain scans of individuals with absolute pitch (AP) and showed that a
region in the brain called the planum temporale is larger in these people than in others.
This suggests that the planum is involved in AP, but it’s not clear if it starts out larger in
people who eventually acquire AP, or if the acquisition of AP makes the planum increase in
size.

Results of research into the areas of the brain involved in skilled motor movement are more
conclusive. Studies of violin players have shown that the region of the brain responsible for
controlling the movement of the left hand (the hand that requires greater precision in violin
playing) increases in size as a result of practice. We do not know yet if the propensity for
increase pre-exists in some-peopled not others.

The evidence against talent comes from research on how much training the experts do.
Like experts in mathematics, chess, or sports, experts in music require lengthy periods of
instruction and practice. In several studies, the very best music students

Were found to have practiced more than twice as much as the others. In another study,
students were secretly divided into two groups based on teachers’ perceptions of their
talent. Several years later, it was found that the students who achieved the highest
performance ratings had practiced the most, irrespective of which ‘talent’ group they had
been assigned to, suggesting that practice does not merely correlate with achievement, but
causes it.

Anders Ericsson, at Florida state University, approaches the topic of musical expertise as a
general problem in cognitive psychology. He takes as a starting point the assumption that
there are certain issues involved in becoming an expert at anything; that we can learn
about musical expertise by studying expert chess players, athletes, artists, mathematicians,

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as well as the musicians themselves. The emerging picture from such studies is that ten
thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being
a world-class expert - in anything. In study after study, of composers, ice skaters, concert
pianists, chess players and master criminals, this number comes up again and again.
Someone would do this amount of practice if they practiced, for example, roughly 20 hours
a week for ten years. Of course, this does not address why some people do not seem to
get anywhere when they practice, and why some people get more out of their practice
sessions than others. But no-one has yet found a case in which true world-class expertise
was accomplished in less time. It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that
it needs to know to achieve true mastery.

The ten-thousand-hour theory is consistent with what we know about how the brain learns.
Learning requires the assimilation and consolidation of information in neural tissue. The
more experiences we have with something, the stronger the memory/learning trace for that
experience becomes. Although people differ in how long it takes them to consolidate
information neutrally, it remains true that increased practice leads to a greater number of
neural traces, which create stronger memory representation.

The classic rebuttal to this theory goes something like this: ‘What about Mozart? I hear that
he composed his first symphony at the age of four!’ First, there is a factual error here:
Mozart did not write it until he was eight, still, this is unusual, to say the least. However, this
early work received little acclaim and was not performed very often. In fact, the only reason
we know about it is because the child who wrote it grew up to become Mozart. And Mozart
had an expert teacher in his father, who was renowned as a teacher of musicians all over
Europe. We do not know how much Mozart practiced, but if he started at age two and
worked thirty- two hours a week (quite possible, given that his father was a stern
taskmaster) he would have made his ten thousand hours by the time he composed his first
symphony. This does not mean that there are no genetic factors involved in Mozart’s
greatness, but that inborn traits may not be the only cause.

[1] individuals with absolute pitch: people who can identify or sing any musical note
correctly without help

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Questions 1-4
Choose the correct letter, A, B, c or D.

Write the correct letter in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.

1. In the first paragraph, the writer suggests that a musician who IS talented someone

A who is aware of being set apart from other people.

B whose brain structure is unlike that of other people,

C who can perform extremely well in early childhood.

D whose essential skills are more varied than those of ordinary people.

2. According to the writer, what is unclear about the findings of Gottfried Schlaug?

A which part of the brain is linked to a particular musical skill.

B which type of musical skill leads to the greatest change in the brain.

C whether a feature of the brain is a cause or an effect of a musical skill.

D whether the acquisition of a musical skill is easier for some people than others.

3. According to the writer, what has been established by studies of violin players?

A Changes may occur in the brain following violin practice.

B Left-handed violinists have a different brain structure from other people,

C A violinist’s hand size is not due to practice but to genetic factors.

D Violinists are born with brains that have a particular structure

4. According to the writer, findings on the amount of practices done by expert musicians
suggest that

A talent may have little to do with expertise.

B practice may actually prevent the development of talent.

C talent may not be recognised by teachers.

D expertise may be related to quality of instruction.

Questions 5-10
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage? In
boxes 5-10 on your answer sheet, write

YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer

NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer

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NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

5..................... Anders Ericsson's work with cognitive psychology has influenced other
researchers.

6..................... Different areas of expertise seem to have one specific thing in common.

7..................... In order to be useful, practice must be carried out regularly every day.

8..................... Anyone who practices for long enough can reach the level of a world-class
expert.

9..................... Occasionally, someone can become an expert at global level with fewer
than 10,000 hours' practice.

10..................... Existing knowledge of learning and cognitive skills supports the importance
of practice.

Questions 12-14
Complete the summary using the list of words, A-J, below.

Write the correct letter, A-J, in boxes 12-14 on your answer sheet.

Mozart

The case of Mozart could be quoted as evidence against the 10,000-hour-practice theory.
However, the writer points out that the young Mozart received a lot of 11..................... from
his father, and that the symphony he wrote at the age of 12..................... was not
13..................... and may be of only academic interest. The case therefore supports the
view that expertise is not solely the result of 14..................... characteristics.
A popular B artistic c completed
D eight E tuition F encouragement
G inherited H four 1 practice
J two

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Solution:
1. C 8. NO
2. C 9. NO
3. A 10. YES
4. A 11. E
5. NOT GIVEN 12. D
6. YES 13. A
7. NOT GIVEN 14. G

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Reading Practice

The discovery of a baby mammoth

A near-perfect frozen mammoth offers clues to a great vanished species

A On a May morning in 2007, on the Yamal Peninsula in northwestern Siberia, a Nenets

reindeer herder named Yuri Khudi stood on a sandbar on the Yuribey River, looking
carefully at a diminutive corpse. Although he'd never seen such an animal before, Khudi
had seen many mammoth tusks, the thick corkscrew shafts that his people found each
summer, and this persuaded him the corpse was a baby mammoth. It was eerily well
preserved. Apart from its missing hair and toenails, it was perfectly intact. Khudi realised
the find might be significant and he knew he couldn't just return home and forget all about
it. He therefore decided to travel to the small town of Yar Sale to consult an old friend
named Kirill Serotetto. His friend took him to meet the director of the local museum, who
persuaded the local authorities to fly Khudi and Serotetto back to the Yuribey River to
collect the baby mammoth.

B Mammoths became extinct between 14,000 and 10,000 years ago and since the
extinctions coincided with the end of the most recent Ice age, many researchers believe
that the primary cause of the great die-off was the sharp rise in temperature, which
dramatically altered the vegetation. 'We have strong evidence that the temperature rise
played a significant part in their extinction.’ says Adrian Lister, a palaeontologist and
mammoth expert at London's Natural History Museum. 'In Eurasia, the timing of the two
events matches closely.' The extinctions also coincided, however, with the arrival of
modern humans. In addition to exploiting mammoths for food, they used their bones and
tusks to make weapons, tools, and even dwellings. Some scientists believe humans were
as much to blame as the temperature rise for the great die-off. Some say they caused it.

C The body of the baby mammoth was eventually sent to the st Petersburg Zoological
Museum in Russia. Alexei Tikhonov, the museum's director, was one of the first scientists
to view the baby, a female. According to Tikhonov, Khudi had rescued 'the best preserved
mammoth to come down to US from the Ice Age', and he gratefully named her Lyuba, after
Khudi's wife. Tikhonov knew that no-one would be more excited by the find than Dan
Fisher, an American colleague at the University of Michigan who had spent 30 years
researching the lives of mammoths. Tikhonov invited Fisher, along with Bernard Buigues, a
French mammoth hunter, to come and view the baby mammoth. Fisher and Buigues had
examined other specimens together, including infants, but these had been in a relatively
poor state. Lyuba was another story entirely, other than the missing hair and toenails, the
only flaw in her pristine appearance was a curious dent above the trunk.

D Fisher was particularly excited about one specific part of Lyuba's anatomy: her milk
tusks. Through his career, Fisher has taken hundreds of tusk samples. Most of these came
from the Great Lakes region of North America, and his research showed that these animals
continued to thrive, despite the late Pleistocene* temperature change. On the other hand,
Pleistocene era: the time between roughly 2.6 million years ago and 10.000 years ago to
Fisher the tusks often revealed telltale evidence of human hunting. His samples frequently
came from animals that had died in the autumn, when they should have been at their peak
after summer grazing, and less likely to die of natural causes, but also when humans would
have been most eager to stockpile meat for the coming winter. He has done limited work in
Siberia, but his analysis of tusks from Wrangel Island, off the coast of Siberia, suggests the

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same conclusion.

E In December 2007, Buigues arranged for the specimen to be transported to Japan to

undergo a CT scan by Naoki Suzuki of the Jikei University School of Medicine. The test
confirmed her skeleton was undamaged, and her internal organs seemed largely intact. It
also showed that the end of her trunk, and her throat, mouth, and windpipe were filled with
dense sediment. Six months later, in a laboratory in st Petersburg, Fisher, Buigues, Suzuki,
Tikhonov and other colleagues began a three-day series of tests on Lyuba. During these,
Fisher noted a dense mix of clay and sand in her trunk, mouth and throat, which had been
indicated earlier by the scan. In fact, the sediment in Lyuba's trunk was packed so tightly
that Fisher saw it as a possible explanation for the dent above her trunk. If she was
frantically fighting for breath and inhaled convulsively, perhaps a partial vacuum was
created in the base of her trunk, which would have flattened surrounding soft tissue. To
Fisher, the circumstances of Lyuba's death were clear: she had asphyxiated. Suzuki,
however, proposed a different interpretation, seeing more evidence for drowning than
asphyxiation.

F Studies are ongoing, but Lyuba has begun to shed the secrets of her short life and some
clues to the fate of her kind. Her good general health was shown in the record of her dental
development, a confirmation for Fisher that dental research is useful for evaluating health
and thus key to investigating the causes of mammoth extinction. Analysis of her well-
preserved DNA has revealed that she belonged to a distinct population of Mammuthus
primigenius and that, soon after her time, another population migrating to Siberia from
North America would take their place. Finally, Lyuba's premolars and tusks revealed that
she had been born in late spring and was only a month old when she died.

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Questions 1-5
Reading Passage has six paragraphs, A-F.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.

1..................... Similarities between studies of mammoth remains from different parts of the
world.

2..................... Details of the uses to which mammoth body parts were put.

3..................... A theory that accounts for the damage to lyuba’s face.

4..................... An explanation of how an individual was able to identify a small corpse.

5..................... A comparison between lyuba and other young mammoth corpses.

Questions 6-10
Look at the following statements (Questions 6-10) and the list of people below.

Match each statement with the correct person, A-G.

Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 6-10 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

6..................... The indications are that mammoths died as a result of climate change.

7..................... Teeth analysis is important in discovering why mammoths died out.

8..................... The corpse of the baby mammoth is in better condition than any other that
has been discovered.

9..................... It would be a mistake to ignore the baby mammoth’s discovery, because of

its potential importance.

10..................... Mammoths often died at a time of year when they should have been in
good physical condition.
List of People
A Yuri Khudi
Kirill
B
Serotetto
c Adrian Lister
Alexei
D
Tikhonov
E Dan Fisher

F Bermard
Buigues

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G Naoki Suzuki

Questions 11-13
Complete the sentences below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet.

11. Some researchers say that a marked rise in temperature impacted on mammoths by
changing the type of 11..................... available.

12. Fisher concluded that many of the mammoth tusks he looked at displayed signs of
12......................

13. Not long after Lyuba’s death, the Mammuthus primigenius group she belonged to was
replaced by another group that came from 13......................

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Solution:
1. D 8. D
2. B 9. A
3. E 10. E
4. A 11. Vegetable
5. C 12. Human hunting
6. C 13. North America
7. E

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Reading Practice

The development of the silk industry

Silk, a natural fibre produced by a particular worm called a silkworm, has been used in
clothing for many centuries.

When silk was first discovered in China over 4,500 years ago, it was reserved exclusively
for the use of the emperor, his close relations and the very highest of his dignitaries. Within
the palace, the emperor is believed to have worn a robe of white silk; outside, he, his
principal wife, and the heir to the throne wore yellow, the colour of the earth.

Gradually silk came into more general use, and the various classes of Chinese society
began wearing tunics of silk. As well as being used for clothing and decoration, silk was
quite quickly put to industrial use, and rapidly became one of the principal elements of the
Chinese economy. It was used in the production of musical instruments, as string for
fishing, and even as the world’s first luxury paper. Eventually even the common people
were able to wear garments of silk.

During the Han dynasty (206 BC-220 AD), silk ceased to be a mere fabric and became a
form of currency. Farmers paid their taxes in grain and silk, and silk was used to pay civil
servants and to reward subjects for outstanding services. Values were calculated in lengths
of silk as they had previously been calculated in weight of gold. Before long, silk became a
currency used in trade with foreign countries, which continued into the Tang dynasty (616-
907 AD). It is possible that this added importance was the result of a major increase in
production. Silk also found its way so thoroughly into the Chinese language that 230 of the
5,000 most common characters of Mandarin* have 'silk' as their key component. Silk
became a precious commodity, highly sought after by other countries from an early date,
and it is believed that the silk trade.

actually existed before the Silk Road1" was officially opened in the second century BC. An
Egyptian mummy with a silk thread in her hair, dating from 1070 BC, has been discovered
in the village of Deir el Medina near the Valley of the Kings, and is probably the earliest
evidence of the silk trade. During the second century BC, the Chinese emperor Han Wu
Di’s ambassadors travelled as far west as Persia and Mesopotamis, bearing gifts including
silks. A range of important finds of Chinese silks have also been made along the Silk Road.
One of the most dramatic of these finds was some Tang silk discovered in 1900. It is
believed that around 1015 AD Buddhist monks, possibly alarmed by the threat of invasion
by Tibetan people, had sealed more than ten thousand manuscripts and silk paintings, silk
banners and textiles in caves near Dunhuang, a trading station on the Silk Road in north-
west China.

Some historians believe the first Europeans to set eyes upon the fabulous fabric were the
Roman legions of Marcus Licinius Crassus, Governor of Syria. According to certain
accounts of the period, at an important battle near the Euphrates River in 53 BC, the
Roman soldiers were so startled by the bright silken banners of the enemy that they fled in
panic. Yet, within decades Chinese silks were widely worn by the rich and noble families of
Rome. The Roman Emperor Heliogabalus (218-222 AD) wore nothing but silk. By 380 AD,
the Roman historian Marcellinnus Ammianus reported that. The use of silk, which was
one confined to the nobility, has now spread to all classes without distinction - even to the
lowest. The desire for silk continued to increase over the centuries. Despite this demand,
the price of silk remained very high.

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In spite of their secrecy about production methods, the Chinese eventually lost their
monopoly on silk production. Knowledge of silk production methods reached Korea around
200 BC, when waves of Chinese immigrants arrived there. Shortly after 300 AD, it travelled
westward, and the cultivation of the silkworm was established in India.

Around 550 AD silk production reached the Middle East. Records indicate that two monks
from Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), capital of the Byzantine Empire, appeared at
their emperor’s court with silkworm eggs which they had obtained secretly, and hidden in
their hollow bamboo walking sticks. Under their supervision the eggs hatched into worms,
and the worms spun silk threads. Byzantium was in the silk business at last. The Byzantine
church and state created imperial workshops, monopolising production and keeping the
secret to themselves. This allowed a silk industry to be established, undercutting the
market for ordinary-grade Chinese silk. However, high quality silk textiles, woven in China
especially for the Middle Eastern market, continued to achieve high prices in the West, and
trade along the Silk Road continued as before. By the sixth century the Persians, too, had
mastered the art of silk weaving, developing their own rich patterns and techniques. But it
wasn’t until the 13th century that Italy began silk production, with the introduction of 2,000
skilled silk weavers from Constantinople. Eventually, silk production became widespread
throughout Europe.

World silk production has approximately doubled during the last 30 years in spite of
manmade fibres replacing certain uses of silk. Before this period, China and Japan were
the two main producers, together manufacturing more than 50 per cent of world production
each year. After the late 1970s, however, China dramatically increased its silk production,
and once again became the world’s leading producer.

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Questions 1-7
Complete the notes below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet.

Chinese silk

Early Uses

Clothing

-at first, silk only available to Chinese of high rank

-emperor wore 1..................... silk indoors

In industry

-silk items included parts of musical instruments, fishing strings and 2.....................

Currency

-silk was used as payment of 3..................... as well as for wages and rewards
-silk replaced 4..................... as a unit of value
-silk soon used as payment in 5..................... trade

Evidence of silk trade

1070 BC, Egypt:

-hair of a 6..................... contained silk 2nd century BC, Persia and Mesopotamia:gifts of
silk were presented by Chinese ambassadors1015 AD, north-west China:silk objects
were hidden inside 7.....................

Questions 8-13
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1 ?

In boxes 8-13 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

8..................... Their first sight of silk created fear among Roman soldiers.

9..................... The quality of Chinese silk imported by the early Romans varied widely.

10..................... The Byzantine emperor first acquired silkworm eggs from the Chinese
emperor.

11..................... The price of high-grade Chinese silk fell due to competition from Middle-

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Eastern producers.

12..................... Silk was produced in the Middle East several centuries before it was
produced in Europe.

13..................... Global silk production has declined in recent years.

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Solution:
1. white 8. TRUE
2. paper 9. NOT GIVEN
3. taxes 10. FALSE
4. gold 11. FALSE
5. foreign 12. TRUE
6. mummy 13. FALSE
7. caves

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Reading Practice

Classical music over the centuries

INDIAN CLASSICAL MUSIC

The origins of Indian classical music can be found from the oldest of scriptures, part of the
Hindus tradition, the Vedas.

Samaveda, one of the four Vedas, describes music at length. Indian classical music has its
origins as a meditation tool for attaining self realization. All different forms of these
melodies (ragas) are believed to affect various “chakras” (energy centers, or “mood”) in the
path of the Kundalini. However, there is little mention of these esoteric beliefs in Bharat’s
Natyashastra , the first treatise laying down the fundamental principles of drama, dance
and music. The Samadeva, one of the four Vedas, created out of riga-veda so that its
hymns could be sung as Samagana, established its first pop.

Indian classical music has one of the most complex and complete musical systems ever
developed. Like Western classical music, it divides the octave s into 12 Semitones of which
the 7 basic notes are Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni Sa, replacing Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do.
However, it uses the just intonation tuning (unlike western classical music which uses the
equal temperament tuning system).

Indian classical music is monophonic in nature and based around a single melody line
which is played over a fixed drone. The performance is based melodically on particular
rages and rhythmically on talas.

NATIONAL SYSTEM

Scholars of Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth century were enormed by Indian
music. With no facility to record the sound they explored for some existing system that
might exist system that express sounds in the composition. There were pointers to an
ancient notations system which scholars had also translated into Persian: still’ complexity
of Indian classical music could not be expressed in writing. Though some western scholars
did record compositions in staff notation system, Indian musicians used [Link]
system. Though more accurate, this relies on Devanagari script rather than symbols and
hence is cumbersome at times. A new notation system has been proposed which uses
symbols and offers instantaneous comprehension like staff notation system. It is with
standardization of a notation system that hitherto unknown compositions would see the
light of day.

INSTRUMENTS

Instruments typically used in Hindustani music include sitar, sarood,tanpura, bansuri,

shehnai, sarangi, and table. Instruments typically used in carnatic music include flute,
gottuvadyam, veena mridangam, kanjira, ghatam and violon

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Questions 1-8
Do the following statements agree with the information in reading passage? In
boxes 1-8 in your answer sheet write

YES if the statement reflects the claims of the writer

NO if the statement contradicts the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

1..................... Out of four Vedas, music is only described in samaveds.

2..................... Music is believed to have an effect on human body.

3..................... Indian classical music system is simple and sophisticated.

4..................... There are 7 basic notes and 12 semitones in Indian classical music.

5..................... Talas in the Indian music is derived from western music

6..................... Indian classical music could express in writing.

7..................... The composition used by Indian musicians was based on Devnagri script.

8...................... New script used for music had no symbols.

Question 9-12
9. “Chakras” is a name given to energy centers in the path of 9.....................

10. Out of all kind of music, Indian classical music is 10..................... and having complete
system.

11. Monophonic music system is based on a single 11......................

12. The instruments flute, veena and violinare 12..................... in carnation music.

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Solution:
1. NO 7. YES
2. YES 8. NO
3. NO 9. Kundalin
4. YES 10. Most complex
5. NOT GIVEN 11. Melody line
6. NO 12. Typically used

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Reading Practice

The Discovery of Uranus

Someone once put forward an attractive though unlikely theory. Throughout the Earth’s
annual revolution around the sun, there is one point of space always hidden from our eyes.
This point is the opposite part of the Earth’s orbit, which is always hidden by the sun. Could
there be another planet there, essentially similar to our own, but always invisible?

If a space probe today sent back evidence that such a world existed it would cause not
much more sensation than Sir William Herschel’s discovery of a new planet, Uranus, in
1781. Herschel was an extraordinary man — no other astronomer has ever covered so
vast a field of work — and his career deserves study. He was born in Hanover in Germany
in 1738, left the German army in 1757, and arrived in England the same year with no
money but quite exceptional music ability. He played the violin and oboe and at one time
was organist in the Octagon Chapel in the city of Bath. Herschel’s was an active mind, and
deep inside he was conscious that music was not his destiny; he therefore, read widely in
science and the arts, but not until 1772 did he come across a book on astronomy. He was
then 34, middle-aged by the standards of the time, but without hesitation he embarked on
his new career, financing it by his professional work as a musician. He spent years
mastering the art of telescope construction, and even by present-day standards his
instruments are comparable with the best.

Serious observation began 1774. He set himself the astonishing task of ‘reviewing the
heavens’, in other words, pointing his telescope to every accessible part of the sky and
recording what he saw. The first review was made in 1775; the second, and most
momentous, in 1780-81. It was during the latter part of this that he discovered Uranus.
Afterwards, supported by the royal grant in recognition of his work, he was able to devote
himself entirely to astronomy. His final achievements spread from the sun and moon to
remote galaxies (of which he discovered hundreds), and papers flooded from his pen until
his death in 1822. Among these, there was one sent to the Royal Society in 1781, entitled
An Account of a Comet. In his own words:

On Tuesday the 13th of March, between ten and eleven in the evening, while I was
examining the small stars in the neighbourhood of H Geminorum, I perceived one that
appeared visibly larger than the rest; being struck with its uncommon magnitude, I
compared it to H Geminorum and the small star in the quartile between Auriga and Gemini,
and finding it to be much larger than either of them, suspected it to be a comet.

Herschel’s care was the hallmark of a great observer; he was not prepared to jump any
conclusions. Also, to be fair, the discovery of a new planet was the last thought in
anybody’s mind. But further observation by other astronomers besides Herschel revealed
two curious facts. For the comet, it showed a remarkably sharp disc; furthermore, it was
moving so slowly that it was thought to be a great distance from the sun, and comets are
only normally visible in the immediate vicinity of the sun. As its orbit came to be worked out
the truth dawned that it was a new planet far beyond Saturn’s realm, and that the ‘reviewer
of the heavens’ had stumbled across an unprecedented prize. Herschel wanted to call it
georgium sidus (Star of George) in honour of his royal patron King George III of Great
Britain. The planet was later for a time called Herschel in honour of its discoverer. The
name Uranus, which was first proposed by the German astronomer Johann Elert Bode,
was in use by the late 19th century.

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Uranus is a giant in construction, but not so much in size; its diameter compares
unfavourably with that of Jupiter and Saturn, though on the terrestrial scale it is still
colossal. Uranus’ atmosphere consists largely of hydrogen and helium, with a trace of
methane. Through a telescope the planet appears as a small bluish-green disc with a faint
green periphery. In 1977, while recording the occultation 1 of a star behind the planet, the
American astronomer James L. Elliot discovered the presence of five rings encircling the
equator of Uranus. Four more rings were discovered in January 1986 during the
exploratory flight of Voyager 2 2 , In addition to its rings, Uranus has 15 satellites (‘moons’),
the last 10 discovered by Voyager 2 on the same flight; all revolve about its equator and
move with the planet in an east—west direction. The two largest moons, Titania and
Oberon, were discovered by Herschel in 1787. The next two, Umbriel and Ariel, were found
in 1851 by the British astronomer William Lassell. Miranda, thought before 1986 to be the
innermost moon, was discovered in 1948 by the American astronomer Gerard Peter
Kuiper.

Glossary:
‘Occultation‘ : in astronomy, when one object passes in front of another and hides the
second from view, especially, for example, when the moon comes between an observer
and a star or planet .
‘Voyager 2‘ : an unmanned spacecraft sent on a voyage past Saturn, Uranus and Jupiter
in 1986; during which it sent back information about these planets to scientists on earth .

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Questions 1-5
omplete the table below. Write a date for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.
Event Date

Example Answer
William Herschel was born 1738
Herschel began investigating
1.....................
astronomy
Discovery of the planet Uranus 2.....................
Discovery of the moons Titania
3.....................
and Oberon
First discovery of Uranus’ rings 4.....................
Discovery of the last 10 moons of
5.....................
Uranus

Questions 6-10
Do the following statements reflect the claims of the writer of the Reading Passage?
In boxes 6-10 on your answer sheet write

YES if the statement reflects the claims of the writer

NO if the statement contradicts the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

Example Answer
Herschel was multi-talented YES

6..................... It is improbable that there is a planet hidden behind the sun.

7..................... Herschel knew immediately that he had found a new planet.
8..................... Herschel collaborated with other astronomers of his time.
9..................... Herschel’s newly-discovered object was considered to be too far from the
sun to be a comet.
10..................... Herschel’s discovery was the most important find of the last three
hundred years.

Questions 11-14
Complete each of the following statements (Questions 11-14) with a name from the
Reading Passage.
Write your answers in boxes 11-14 on your answer sheet.

The suggested names of the new planet started with 11....................., then 12.....................,
before finally settling on Uranus. The first five rings around Uranus were discovered
by 13...................... From 1948 until 1986, the moon 14..................... was believed to be
the moon closest to the surface of Uranus.

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Solution:
1. 1772 8. NOT GIVEN
2. 1781 9. YES
3. 1787 10. NOT GIVEN
4. 1977 11. georgium sidus
5. 1986 12. Herschel
6. YES 13. James L. Elliot
7. NO 14. Miranda

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Reading Practice

Children's comprehension
A In 1874, long before the advent of television, the English Parliament passed a law to
protect children ‘from their own lack of experience and from the wiles of pushing tradesmen
and moneylenders’ (James, 1965). The act is one of the earliest governmental policies to
address children’s vulnerability to commercial exploitation and was produced before major
corporations earned huge profits by marketing products directly to children. Yet the issues
underlying this 19th-century policy remain much the same in the 21st century.

B Television has long been the predominant medium that advertisers have chosen for
marketing products to children. It is estimated that the average child sees more than
40.000 television commercials a year, most of which are 15 to 30 seconds in length
(Kunkel, 2001). According to another estimate, children aged 14 years and under make
$24 billion in direct, purchases and influence $190 billion in family purchases, underscoring
the high stakes involved (McNeal, 1987).

C A number of factors have contributed to an unprecedented growth in both the amount

and type of advertising directed at children. First and foremost among these are changes in
the media environment. In decades past, television programming targeted at children was
limited and relegated to time slots unpopular with their parents, such as Saturday
mornings of television advertising

(Turow, 1981). Today, the number of channels received in the average US home has
escalated with the diffusion of cable television and satellite technologies. In this new multi-
channel era, there are numerous national program services devoted exclusively to children.
Naturally, these channels deliver significant amounts of child- oriented marketing
messages. Although parent may be pleased that their youngsters can now watch children’s
programming at any hour of the day, they may not recognize that such viewing
opportunities entail much greater exposure to advertising than any previous generation of
youth has experienced.

D Approximately 80% of all advertising targeted at children falls within four product
categories: toys, cereals, candies, and fast-food restaurants (Kunkel et al, 1992).
Commercials are highly effective at employing specific features designed to attract
children’s attention. For example, they use the strategy of introducing unique sound effects
and rapidly moving images (Greer et al, 1982). The other most common persuasive
strategy employed in advertising to children is to associate the product with playfulness and
happiness, rather than to provide any actual product-related information (Kunkel et al,
1992). For example, a commercial featuring Ronald McDonald dancing, singing, and
smiling in McDonald’s restaurants without any mention of the actual food products available
reflects a playful or happy theme. This strategy is also found frequently with cereal ads,
which often include cartoon characters to help children identify the product. In contrast,
most commercials fail to mention even the major grain used in each cereal.

E Another common feature of advertising to children is the use of product disclosures such
as 'batteries not included’ or 'each part sold separately'. Studies make clear that young
children do not comprehend the intended meaning of these disclaimers. For example,
fewer than one in four kindergarten through second grade children could grasp the
meaning of 'some assembly required' in a commercial. In contrast, the use of child-friendly
language such as 'you have to put it together' more than doubled the proportion of children

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who understood the qualifying message (Liebert et al, 1977). The phrase 'part of a
balanced breakfast’ is also a frequent disclosure included in most cereal ads to combat the
concern that sugared cereal holds little nutritional value for children. Research shows that
most children below age 7 years have no idea what the term ‘balanced breakfast’ means
(Palmer & McDowell, 1981). Rather than informing young viewers about the importance of
a nutritious breakfast, this common disclaimer actually leaves many children with the
misimpression that cereal alone is sufficient for a meal. This pattern of employing creative
terminology in advertising content so as to obscure certain information that might be
unhelpful to the sponsor is a long-standing practice that often misleads the consumer
(Geis, 1982).

F Very young children do not recognize that there are two fundamentally different
categories of television content: programs and commercials. Most children below the age
of 4 or 6 exhibit low awareness of the concept of commercials, frequently explaining them
as if they were a scene in the program itself. Once this confusion diminishes, children first
recognize the difference between programs and commercials based on either affective
(‘commercials are funnier than TV programs') or perceptual (‘commercials are short and
programs are long’) cues (Blatt et al, 1972).

G Although most children's programs indicate that a commercial break is coming (e.g. by
saying 'We’ll be right back after these messages’), research reveals that these ‘separators'
generally do not help children to recognize advertising content (Palmer & McDowell, 1979).
This likely occurs because they are not perceptually distinct from the adjacent
programming that surrounds them; in fact, many separators feature characters that appear
in the same show that the commercial has just interrupted. When an ad includes one of the
characters featured in a program, this is known as host-selling. This type of advertising
makes the task of discriminating between program and commercial content particularly
difficult for young children (Kunkel, 1988) and is thus restricted in the US by the Federal
Communications Commission during children’s programs.

H In sum, because young children lack the cognitive skills and abilities of older children and
adults, they do not comprehend commercial messages in the same way as more mature
audiences, and are therefore uniquely susceptible to advertising influence.

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Questions 1-5
Reading Passage has eight paragraphs, A-H.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

1..................... a description of recent innovations in TV broadcasting

2..................... a mention of the main goods and services advertised to children

3..................... a reference to a current limitation on television advertising aimed at children

4..................... two techniques used to encourage children to watch TV commercials

5..................... a type of advertisement that may make children believe the opposite of what
is true

Questions 6-9
Look at the following statements (Questions 6-9) and the list of researchers below. Match
each statement with the correct researcher(s). A-H

Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 6-9 on your answer sheet.

6..................... Ads often aim to teach children that a brand is fun rather than telling them
about what is being sold.

7..................... Originally, children’s programmes were only broadcast when adults rarely
watched TV.

8..................... Children have a significant impact on what adults buy.

9..................... Tests showed that children can follow information if simple words are used.
List of Researchers
A Kunkel
B Kunkel et al
c McNeal
D Turow
c Greer et al
F Liebert et al
Palmer &
G
McDowell
H Geis

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Questions 10-13
Complete the summary below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your
answers in boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet.

How very young children perceive commercials

Children below the age of 4 or 6 do not understand the difference between television
programmes and commercials. In fact, these children often mistake an advertisement for a
10..................... from the programe they are watching. This is despite the fact that

children’s TV programmes usually include announcements called 11..................... to show

that there is going to be a commercial break. The problem is made more difficult because
of a technique called 12...................... Whereby a person or cartoon

figure from the programme is used to sell a product during the commercial break. From the
age of 4 or 6, children begin to realise that commercials are different from TV programmes;
for example, they may recognise that there is a difference in length or that advertisements
are 13..................... than actual TV.

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Solution:
1. C 8. C
2. D 9. F
3. G 10. scene
4. D 11. separators
5. E 12. host-selling
6. B 13. funnier
7. D

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Reading Practice

Nature works Polylactic acid

A dozen years ago, scientists at Cargill got the idea of converting lactic acid made from
corn into plastic while examining possible new uses for materials produced from corn wet
milling processes. In the past, several efforts had been made to develop plastics from lactic
acid, but with limited success. Achieving this technological breakthrough didn’t come easily,
but in time the efforts did succeed. A fermentation and distillation process using com was
designed to create a polymer suitable for a broad variety of applications.

As an agricultural based firm, Cargill had taken this product as far as it could by 1997.

The company needed a partner with access to plastics markets and polymerization
capabilities, and began discussions with The Dow Chemical Company. The next step was
the formation of the joint venture that created Cargill Dow LLC. Cargill Dow’s product is the
world’s first commercially available plastic made from annually renewable resources such
as com:

-Nature Works™ PLA is a family of packaging polymers (carbon-based molecules)

made from non-petroleum based resources.
-Ingeo is a family of polymers for fibers made in a similar manner.

By applying their unique technology to the processing of natural plant sugars, Cargill Dow
has created a more environmentally friendly material that reaches the consumer in clothes,
cups, packaging and other products. While Cargill Dow is a stand-alone business, it
continues to leverage the agricultural processing, manufacturing and polymer expertise of
the two parent companies in order to bring the best possible products to market.

The basic raw materials for PLA are carbon dioxide and water. Growing plants, like com,
take these building blocks from the atmosphere and the soil. They are combined in the
plant to make carbohydrates (sucrose and starch) through a process driven by
photosynthesis. The process for making Nature Works PLA begins when a renewable
resource such as corn is milled, separating starch from the raw material. Unrefined
dextrose, in turn, is processed from the starch.

Cargill Dow turns the unrefined dextrose into lactic acid using a fermentation process
similar to that used by beer and wine producers. This is the same lactic acid that is used as
a food additive and is found in muscle tissue in the human body. Through a special
condensation process, a lactide is formed. This lactide is purified through vacuum
distillation and becomes a polymer (the base for Natureworks PLA) that is ready for use
through a solvent-free melt process. Development of this new technology allows the
company to “harvest” the carbon that living plants remove from the air through
photosynthesis. Carbon is stored in plant starches, which can be broken down into natural
plant sugars. The carbon and other elements in these natural sugars are then used to

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make Natureworks PLA.

Nature Works PLA fits all disposal systems and is fully compostable in commercial
composting facilities. With the proper infrastructure, products made from this polymer can
be recycled back to a monomer and re-used as a polymer. Thus, at the end of its life cycle,
a product made from Nature Works PLA can be broken down into its simplest parts so that
no sign of it remains.

PLA is now actively competing with traditional materials in packaging and fiber applications
throughout the world; based on the technology’s success and promise, Cargill Dow is
quickly becoming a premier player in the polymers market. This new polymer now
competes head-on with petroleum-based materials like polyester. A wide range of products
that vary in molecular weight and crystallinity can be produced, and the blend of physical
properties of PLA makes it suited for a broad range of fiber and packaging applications.
Fiber and non-woven applications include clothing, fiberfill, blankets and wipes. Packaging
applications include packaging films and food and beverage containers.

As Nature Works PLA polymers are more oil- and grease-resistant and provide a better
flavor and aroma barrier than existing petroleum-based polymers, grocery retailers are
increasingly using this packaging for their fresh foods. As companies begin to explore this
family of polymers, more potential applications are being identified. For example, PLA
possess two properties that are particularly useful for drape fabrics and window furnishings.
Their resistance to ultraviolet light is particularly appealing as this reduces the amount of
fading in such fabrics, and their refractive index is low, which means fabrics constructed
from these polymers can be made with deep colors without requiring large amounts of dye.
In addition, sportswear makers have been drawn to the product as it has an inherent ability
to take moisture away from the skin and when blended with cotton and wool, the result is
garments that are lighter and better at absorbing moisture.

PLA combines inexpensive large-scale fermentation with chemical processing to produce a

value-added polymer product that improves the environment as well. The source material
for PLA is a natural sugar found in plants such as com and using such renewable feedstock
presents several environmental benefits. As an alternative to traditional petroleum-based
polymers, the production of PLA uses 20%-50% less fossil fuel and releases a lower
amount of greenhouse gasses than comparable petroleumbased plastic; carbon dioxide in
the atmosphere is removed when the feedstock is grown and is returned to the earth when
the polymer is degraded. Because the company is using raw materials that can be
regenerated year after year, it is both cost- competitive and environmentally responsible.

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Questions 1-4
Write the letters A-F in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.

1..................... scientists manage to

2..................... Cargill needs to have contacts with
3..................... Nature work is used for
4..................... Ingeo is used to

A make things like clothes

B produce plastic from plant

C selling plastic in market

D fermentation process

E drape fabrics

F wrapping products

Questions 5-8
Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage.

Using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 31-34 on your answer sheet.

Process: Polylactic acid

5.....................
6.....................
7.....................
8.....................

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Questions 9-10
Choose the correct letter, A, B, c or D.

Write your answers in boxes 9-10 on your answer sheet.

9. Why did choose the PLA as material for food packaging?

A It smells good

B It can save food freshness

C It can be used on other materials

D Some other things need to be revised about it.

10. What is PLA packaging is used for?

A absorbing moisture

B composting facilities

C Packaging fresh food

D manufacturing

Questions 11-12
Which two features of PLA are correct?

A It takes in moisture of skin

B It is waterproof

C comfortable sportswear

D It’s fading under the sun

E It is only made in deep color

Questions 13-14
Which two features of PLA are correct?

A It is made of renewable raw materials

B It involves the removal of carbon dioxide

C It is no use of fossil fuel product

D It uses renewable raw resources

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E It is sustenance which can absorb the CO2 in the atmosphere

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Solution:
1. B 8. polymer
2. C 9. B
3. F 10. C
4. A 11. A
5. starch 12. D
6. fermentation 13. A
7. condensation 14. C

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Reading Practice

Marketing And Mind Control

How marketing and advertising appeal to the associative nature of the brain

While there had been a long tradition of giving rings as a commitment to marry, the custom
of giving diamond engagement rings was in large part manufactured by one of the most
effective marketing campaigns in history . In the early 1900s, diamond sales were
declining, posing a serious problem for the company that essentially had control over the
diamond market. In 1938, this company hired an advertising agency. Which proposed
reshaping social attitudes toward diamonds? As well as magazines showing film stars
draped in diamonds, the agency arranged for movies to incorporate diamond engagement
rings into their plots. The campaign culminated with the slogan:' A diamond is forever. At
the time, the approach was unique. Rather than pushing a brand, the objective was to
promote diamonds as the symbol of everlasting love. This was achieved by exploiting the
associative nature of the brain: associating neurons! Activated by the concept of' love ' with
neurons that encoded the concept of “diamonds. By 1941, diamond sales had increased by
55 %.

Advertising comes in many forms, from blatant neon signs to subtly embedded products in
movies. In each case, the goal is to mould our habits, desires and opinions. Our visual
system is targeted by an avalanche of information on the internet, street posters, and
billboards and in movie theatres. Our auditory system submits to catchy radio jingles and
telemarketers. More surreptitiously, our olfactory system is targeted by variations of vanilla
and citrus perfumes aimed at enticing US to linger in a retail outlet. It is difficult to measure
how effective these campaigns are, but as in the ' A diamond is forever ’ campaign, they
can be so successful that they change the fabric of our culture. In the case of bottled water,
we are swayed by advertising into paying for something that we can obtain for free. Most
people cannot distinguish bottled from tap water, much less between brands of bottled
water, which is why you rarely hear of a bottled water company proposing a blind taste test.

So why is marketing such an effective mind - control technique? It is interesting to consider

whether other animals exhibit anything analogous to humans ' susceptibility to advertising.
If we provide a lab rat with two types of cereal, it will consume approximately the same
amount of each. However, if we put that rat with another rat that spent its day eating just
one type, when faced with a choice, our rat will now show a preference for the same type
as the other rat was eating. Psychologists call this ' socially transmitted food preference ‘.

What many regard as the first documented examples of cultural learning in primates started
with a clever monkey that lived in a colony of Japanese monkeys on the island of Koshima.
She began taking her dirt - covered sweet potatoes to the river to wash them before eating
them. Upon seeing this, a few 11 other open - minded monkeys picked up on the idea.
Potato washing then spread from monkey to monkey and, over the course of a few years,
most monkeys were eating clean potatoes. Humans are clearly not the only animals to
engage in imitation and social learning.

Learning by observation can be an extraordinarily valuable brain feature, this is how we

learn to communicate and perform motor skills as well as deal with many everyday
problems. For example, a newcomer struggling to purchase tickets and navigate the
subway system in a foreign city may step back to learn from the people nearby. Humans
and other primates exhibit multiple forms of imitative learning and this is called cultural

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transmission.

A component of advertising relies on the marketer's ability to tap into the brain’s propensity
for imitation. Anybody who has watched TV knows advertisements are disproportionately
populated with attractive, successful looking individuals. If we are going to imitate
someone, we are more inclined to imitate those who appear to be popular and appealing.

Although not all researchers are convinced by the findings, a number of studies indicate
that some animals also imitate dominant members of their group. Primatologist Frans de
Waal provides anecdotal evidence of preferential imitation among chimpanzees. He noted
that in one particular group the dominant male was hurt and was limping as a result. Soon
unlikely if a non-dominant male had been injured.

Imitation is undoubtedly an invaluable ability, but often our propensity to imitate generalises
indiscriminately, leading to poor decisions. When athlete Dick Fosbury revolutionised the
high jump by jumping over the bar backward in 1968, imitators obviously copied his
jumping style, not his brand of sports shoes. However, today, sports people appear in
advertisements asking US to buy the laptops or sports drinks that they promote. Rationally,
we know these people's success did not depend on these products, so it seems our
propensity to purchase products relates more to neural programs that evolved to
encourage imitation of those further up the social ladder. Today , companies engage in
stealth marketing campaigns in which people are paid to frequent bars or websites to
covertly promote certain products , Companies also perform studies in which they track the
eye movements of people viewing displays , and carefully craft names , packages and
jingles associated with their products. While we may like to believe that manipulation on a
grand scale would not be possible, that's not to say that advertising is innately harmful. To
the contrary, the marketing of products or ideas is essential to human culture. The point is
that we should ensure our choices reflect our actual goals and desires, and we must
distinguish between the dissemination of information which is for our own good, and our
manipulation for the benefit of companies

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Questions 1-5
Choose the correct letter, A, B, c or D.

Write the correct letter in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.

1. According to the writer, which marketing technique attempts to make consumers stay in
a shop for longer?

in a shop for longer?

A playing appealing music

B emitting pleasant scents

C displaying attractive posters

D making in - store announcements

2. The writer mentions bottled water in order to show that

A consumers buy it because of the fact that it is marketed.

B people purchase it despite the fact that it has no taste.

C marketers need not do taste tests when a campaign is effective.

D tests prove that people cannot differentiate it from tap water.

3. According to the writer, socially transmitted food preference occurs when

A only dominant members of an animal group influence what others eat.

B the same types of animals naturally prefer the same types of food.

C animals are influenced by what any other animals of the same species eat.

D a food type is more desirable because an animal views that food as scarce.

4. According to the writer, how is learning by observation and imitation a useful feature of
the brain?

A it helps people overcome challenges.

B positive models can influence social behaviour.

C it can give an advantage when communicating with others.

D cultural norms and relationships can be understood more easily

5. According to the writer, how does television advertising exploit the human tendency to
imitate others ?

A It shows buying behaviour that marketers want to encourage in viewers.

B It features people who have a desirable image.

C It shows older people whom teenagers admire.

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D It features successful people endorsing products responsible for their success.

Questions 6-10
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage ?

In boxes 6-10 on your answer sheet, write

YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer

NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer

NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

6..................... The diamond campaign worked by making a connection in people's minds

between diamonds and luxury

7..................... People are more aware of visual marketing than auditory marketing.

8..................... The campaign advertising diamonds had a positive influence on society.

9..................... There is still some uncertainty about whether animals copy the behaviour of
the most powerful animals among them.

10..................... Consumers make a logical connection between celebrities ' achievements

and the products they promote.

Questions 11-14
Complete each sentence with the correct ending , A - G , below

Write the correct letter, A - G , in boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet.

11..................... The behaviour of the monkeys on the island of Koshima showed that

12..................... Primatologist Frans de Waal found that

13..................... Dick Fosbury is mentioned in order to show that

14..................... A feature of some modern marketing campaigns is that

A. people imitated behaviour that was linked with success .

B. younger animals of a certain species are more likely to imitate each other.
C. an animal would imitate another that had higher status .
D. imitation of popular sportspeople has occurred for many decades .
E. products are marketed to potential consumers who are unaware that marketing is
occurring .
F. animals can develop new habits by observation.
G. incentives are provided for consumers who behave in a certain way.

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Solution:
1. B 8. NOT GIVEN
2. A 9. YES
3. C 10. NO
4. D 11. F
5. B 12. C
6. NO 13. A
7. NOT GIVEN 14. E

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Reading Practice

Multitasks
A

Do you read while listening to music? Do you like to watch TV while finishing your
homework? People who have these kinds of habits are called multi-taskers.

Multitasks are able to complete two tasks at the same time by dividing their focus.
However, Thomas Lehman, a researcher in Psychology, believes people never really do
multiple things simultaneously. Maybe a person is reading while listening to music, but in
reality, the brain can only focus on one task. Reading thewords in a book will cause you to
ignore some of the words of the music. When people think they are accomplishing two
different tasks efficiently, what they are really doing is dividing their focus. While listening to
music, people become less able to focus on their surroundings. For example, we all have
experience of times when we talk with friends and they are not responding properly. Maybe
they are listening to someone else talk, or maybe they are reading a text on their smart
phone and don't hear what you are saying. Lehman called this phenomenon “email voice"

the world has been changed by computers and its spin offs like smart-phones or
cellphones. Now that most individuals have a personal device, like a smart-phoneor a
laptop, they are frequently reading, watching or listening to virtual information. This raises
the occurrence of multitasking in our day to day life. Nowwhen you work, you work with
your typewriter, your cellphone, and some colleagues who may drop by at any time to
speak with you. In professional meetings, when one normally focuses and listens to one
another, people are more likely to have a cell phone in their lap, reading or communicating
silently with more people than ever, liven inventions such as the cordless phone has
increased multitasking. In the old days, a traditional wall phone would ring, and then the
housewife would have to stop her activities to answer it. When it rang, the housewife will sit
down with her legs up. and chat, with no laundry or sweeping or answering the door. In the
modern era, our technology is convenient enough to not interrupt our daily tasks.

Earl Miller, an expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, studied the prefrontal
cortex, which controls the brain while a person is multitasking. According to his studies, the
size of this cortex varies between species, He found that for humans, the size of this part
constitutes one third of the brain, while it is only 4 to 5 percent in dogs, and about 15% in
monkeys. Given that this cortex is larger on a human, it allows a human to be more flexible
and accurate in his or her multitasking.. However, Miller wanted to look further into whether
the cortexwas truly processing information about two different tasks simultaneously. He
designed an experiment where he presents visual stimulants to his subjects in a wax that
mimics multi-tasking. Miller then attached sensors tothe patients " heads to pick up the
electric patterns of the brain. This sensor would show if" the brain particles, called neurons,
were truly processing two different tasks. What he found is that the brain neurons only lit up
in singular areas one at a time, and never simultaneously.

Davis Meyer, a professor of University of Michigan, studied the young adults in a similar

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experiment. He instructed them to simultaneously do math problems and classify simple
words into different categories. For this experiment. Meyer found that when you think you
are doing several jobs at the same time, you are actuallyswitching between jobs. Even
though the people tried to do the tasks at the sametime, and both tasks were eventually
accomplished, overall, the task look more time than if the person focused on a single task
one at a time.

People sacrifice efficiency when multitasking, Gloria Mark set office workers as his
subjects. He found that they were constantly multitasking. He observed that nearly every
11 minutes people at work were disrupted. He found that doing different jobs at the same
time may actually save time. However, despite the fact that they are faster, it does not
mean they are more efficient. And we are equally likely to self-interrupt as be interrupted by
outside sources. He found that in office nearly every 12 minutes an employee would stop
and with no reason at all,cheek a website on their computer, call someone or write an
email. If they concentrated for more than 20 minutes, they would feel distressed. He
suggestedthat the average person may suffer from a short concentration span. This short
attention span might be natural, but others suggest that new technology may be the
problem. With cellphones and computers at our sides at all times, people will never run out
of distractions. The format of media, such as advertisements, music, news articles and TV
shows are also shortening, so people are used to paying attention to information for a very
short time

So even though focusing on one single task is the most efficient way for our brainsto work,
it is not practical to use this method in real life. According to human nature, people feel
more comfortable and efficient in environments with a varietyof tasks, Edward Hallowell
said that people are losing a lot of efficiency in the workplace due to multitasking, outside
distractions and self-distractions. As it matter of fact, the changes made to the workplace
do not have to be dramatic.

No one is suggesting we ban e-mail or make employees focus on only one task. However,
certain common workplace tasks, such as group meetings, would be more efficient if we
banned cell-phones, a common distraction. A person can alsoapply these tips to prevent
self-distraction. Instead of arriving to your office and checking all of your e-mails for new
tasks, a common workplace ritual, a person could dedicate an hour to a single task first
thing in the morning. Self-timing is a great way to reduce distraction and efficiently finish
tasks one by one, instead of slowing ourselves down with multi-tasking.

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Questions 1-5
Reading Passage 2 has six paragraphs, A-F.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet

1..................... a reference to a domestic situation that does not require multitasking

2..................... a possible explanation of why we always do multitask together

3..................... a practical solution to multitask in work environment

4..................... relating multitasking to the size of prefrontal cortex

5..................... longer time spent doing two tasks at the same time than one at a time

Questions 6-10
Look at the following statements (Questions 6-10) and the list of scientists below.

Match each statement with the correct scientist, A-E.

Write the correct letter, A-E, in boxes 6-10 on your answer sheet. NB

You may use any letter more than once.

List of Scientists

A Thomas Lehman

B Earl Miller

c David Meyer

D Gloria Mark

E Edward Hallowell

6..................... When faced multiple visual stimulants, one can only concentrate on one of
them.
7..................... Doing two things together may be faster but not better.
8..................... People never really do two things together even if you think you do.
9..................... The causes of multitask lie in the environment.
10..................... Even minor changes in the workplace will improve work efficiency

Questions 11-13
Complete the sentences below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your
answers in boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet.

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A term used to refer to a situation when you are reading a text and cannot focuson your
surroundings is 11......................

The 12..................... part of the brain controls multitasking.

The practical solution of multitask in work is not to allow use of cellphone in

13......................

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Solution:
1. B 8. A
2. E 9. E
3. F 10. E
4. C 11. email voice
5. D 12. prefrontal cortex
6. B 13. group meetings
7. D

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Reading Practice

Skyscraper Farming
With a global food crisis predicted, a group of scientists is advocating an innovative
alternative to conventional farming that could radically transform the way that food is
produced .

A Today's environment scientists are in no doubt that the world's resources of fertile sol are
rapidly deteriorating, and that new land for agriculture is becoming ever more sparse
Intensive farming urbanisation, desertification and sea-level rises are all putting growing
pressure on the planers agricultural land and therefore on food supplies. Currently 24 per
cent of the worlds 11.5 billion hectares of cultivated land has already undergone human-
induced soil degradation particularly through erosion, according to a recent study by the UK
Government Office for Science.

B. The global population is expected to exceed nine billion by 2050 - up a third from today's
level and studies suggest that food production will have to go up by 70 per cent if we are to
feed all of those new mouths This means that scientists will have to develop new ways of
growing crops if we are to avoid a humanitarian crisis. Indeed, UN Food and Agriculture
Organization figures suggest that the number of undernourished people is already growing.
And with escalating climate change, crop yields in many areas have been projected to
decline

C. With this in mind, some scientists and agricultural experts are advocating an innovative
alternative to traditional farming whereby skyscrapers packed with shelf-based systems for
growing vegetables on each storey -known as 'vertical farms' - could hold the key to
revolutionising agriculture. Columbia University professor Dickson Despommier claims that
vertical farming could boost crop yields many times over. A single 20-storey vertical farm
could theoretically feed 50 000 people, according to Despommier. And if the theory
translates Into realty as proposed. 160 skyscraper-sized vertical farms could feed the entire
population of New York City, while 180 would be needed to feed London, 289 to feed Cairo
and 302 to feed Kolkata a.

D It's a compelling vision, and one that has already been put into practice in Asia. Albeit on
a smaller scale But there are problems, such as initial investment and operating costs that
are too great' says a spokesman for Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
Nevertheless Tokyo-based mushroom producer Hokuto Corporation is a model example of
how a vertical farm can be profitable. With 28 vertical mushroom farms operating across
the country, it produces some 68,000 tonnes of mushrooms annually. Vertical mushroom
fams have more advantages than ground-level farms,' says Hokuto's Ted Yamanoko.
Yamanoko goes on to highlight the relative cost-effectiveness of his organisation's farming
practices together with reduced emissions of greenhouse gases

E And the impact of vertical farms could extend beyond feeding established urban
populations. Despommier sees them as being capable of helping centres of displaced
persons - such as refugee camps - in much the same way that Mobile Army Surgical
Hospital (MASH) units are deployed in emergency situations. "Developing an
emergencyresponse system for crop production inside specially constructed modular and
highly transportable greenhouses would allow for humanitarian interventions, at least tor
refuges that are forced out of their countries by political tumor, he says. If you have three or
four storeys of food already growing some place, they could become mobile units that

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could be picked up by helicopters and dropped into the middle of a crisis zone. The food
would be ready to pick and eat. It could be designed to supply people with all the nutrition
they need to make it through the crisis."

F But it isn't only about increasing food production. Despommier is concerned about the
harm which farming has done to the world's landscape over a relatively short time span,
particularly the elimination of hardwood forests. Farming is only 12,000 years old, 'he
points allow US for the first time to feed everyone on earth and still return land to its original
ecological function.' Natalie Jeremijenko, associate professor at New York University,
agrees. The challenge that we have now is how we can design urban agriculture systems
that not only reduce food miles, but also improve the world's ecosystems,' she says. By
significantly reducing the amount of land required for food production, vertical farms could
help to enrich biodiversity. And according to Jeremijenko, this can, in turn, help to improve
the productivity of conventional farms, as the health of agricultural land is often tied to the
health of the surrounding ecosystems. Furthermore, vertical farming could dramatically cut
the utilisation of fossil fuels. And also reduce geopolitical tensions in countries where poor
farming conditions cause conflict and malnutrition.

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Questions 1-6
Reading Passage has six paragraphs. A-F

Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.

Write the correct number, in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.

List of Headings

i. Potential production capabilities of vertical farms

ii. Opposition to new ideas about food production
iii. A successful application of vertical farming technology
iv. The potential to provide urgent relief
v. The original inspiration for vertical farming
vi. Various environmental benefits of vertical farming
vii. An increasing problem for farmers worldwide
viii. A return to traditional farming methods
ix. A rising demand for food

1..................... Paragraph A

2..................... Paragraph B

3..................... Paragraph C

4..................... Paragraph D

5..................... Paragraph E

6..................... Paragraph F

Questions 7-9
Complete the sentences below

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 7-9 on your answer sheet.

7. A UK Government study found that 7..................... is a significant factor contributing to

worldwide levels of soil degradation

8. Disadvantages of vertical taming projects include the expense of setting them up, as well
as their high 8.....................

9. 9..................... could potentially be used to take vertical farming facilities to areas where
there is a critical food shortage

Questions 10-13
Look at the following statements (Questions 10-13) and the list of people below Match each

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statement with the correct person, A.B or c

Write the correct letter A, B or c, in boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet

NB You may use any letter more than once

10..................... Vertical farming can have financial benefits

11..................... Traditional farming has had a negative effect on the natural world

12..................... Vertical farming could dramatically increase world food production.

13..................... Traditional farms may benefit from wider use of vertical farming

List of people

A. A Dickson Despommier
B. Ted Yamanoko
C. Natalie Jeremijenko

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Solution:
1. vii 8. Operating costs
2. ix 9. Helicopters
3. i 10. B
4. iii 11. A
5. iv 12. A
6. vi 13. C
7. Erosion

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Reading Practice

The pesticide-free village

Gerry Marten and Dona Glee Williams report on reliance on the Indian village of Punukula,
so nearly destroyed by reliance on pesticides.

Around 20 years ago, a handful of families migrated from the Guntur district of Andhra
Pradesh, south-east India, into Punukula, a community of around 900 people farming plots
of between two and ten acres. The outsiders from Guntur brought cotton culture with them,
and this attracted resident farmers by promising to bring in more hard cash than the mixed
crops they were already growing to eat and sell, such as millet, mung beans, chilli and rice.
But growing cotton meant using pesticides and fertilisers - until then a mystery to the
mostly illiterate farmers of the community.

Local agro-chemical dealers obligingly filled the need for information and supplies.
These'middlemen' sold commercial seeds, fertilisers and insecticides on credit, and
guaranteed purchase of the crop. They offered technical advice provided by the companies
that supplied their products. The farmers depend on the dealers. If they wanted to grow
cotton - and they did - it seemed they had no choice.

A quick ‘high’ of booming yields and incomes hooked growers during the early years of
cotton in the region. Outlay on insecticides was fairly low because cotton pests hadn't
moved in yet. Many farmers were so impressed with the chemicals that they started using
them on their other crops as well. The immediate payoffs from chemically-dependent cotton
agriculture both ensured and obscured the fact that the black dirt fields had gone into a
freefall of environmental degradation, dragged down by a chain of cause and effect.

Soon cotton-eaters, such as bollworms and aphids, plagued the fields. Repeated spraying
killed off the most susceptible pests and left the strongest to reproduce and pass on their
resistance to generations of ever-hardier offspring. As the bugs grew tougher and more
abundant, farmers applied a greater variety and quantity of poisons, something mixing
'cocktails' of as many as ten insecticides. At the same time, cotton was gobbling up the
nutrients in the soil, leaving the growers no option but to invest in chemical fertilisers.

By the time some farmers tried to break free of their chemical dependence, insecticides
had already decimated the birds, wasps, beetles, and other predators that had once
provided natural control of crop pests. Without their balancing presence, pests ran riot if
insecticide was cut back. As outlays for fertilisers and insecticides escalated, the cost of
producing cotton mounted. Eventually the expense of chemical inputs outgrew the cash
value of the crop, and farmers fell further and further into debt and poverty.

Their vicious cycle was only broken by the willingness of a prominent village elder to
experiment with something different. He had been among the first villagers to grow cotton,
and he would be the first to try it without chemicals, as set out by a programme in Non-
Pesticide Management (NPM). This had been devised for Punukala with the help of a Non-
Government Organisation called SECURE that had become aware of the hardships caused
by the pesticide trap.

It involved turning to neem, a fast-growing, broad-leaved evergreen tree related to

mahogany. Neem protects itself against insects by producing a multitude of natural
pesticides that have evolved specifically to defeat plant-eating insects. Thus they are

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generally harmless to human and other animals, including birds and insects that eat pests.

The plant is native to India and Burma, where it has been used for centuries to control
pests and to promote health. To protect cotton, neem seeds are simply ground into a
powder, soaked overnight in water, and sprayed onto the crop at least every 10 days.
Neem cake applied to the soil kills insect pests and doubles as an organic fertiliser high in
nitrogen. As neem grows locally and is easy to process, it is much less expensive than the
chemical insecticides sold for profit by the dealers and their corporate suppliers.

Quick, short-term gains had once pushed Punukula into chemical-dependent agriculture.
Now they found that similar immediate rewards were helping to speed change in the other
direction: the harvest of the next 20 NPM farmers was as good as the harvest of farmers
using insecticides, and they came out ahead because they weren't buying insecticides,
instead of investing cash (in short supply) in chemicals, they invested time and labour in
NPM practices.

By the end of 2000, all the farmers in Punukula village were using NPM rather than
chemicals for cotton, and they began to use it on other crops as well. The was using it. The
status and economic opportunities of women improved - neem change gathered
momentum as NPM became even more effective once everyone became a source of
income for some of them, as they gathered seeds from the surrounding area to sell for
NPM in other villages. The improve situation meant that families could afford to put more
land under cultivation.

In 2004, the panchayat (village government) formally declared Punukula to be a pesticide-

free village. And they have big plans for the future, such as water purification. The village
now serves as a model for disseminating NPM to other communities, with around 2000
farmers visiting each year.

What began as a few farmers desperate to find a way to farm without poisons has become
a movement with the potential to pull an entire region back from ecological disaster.

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Questions 1-4
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?

Write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

1..................... Cotton growing was expected to raise more money than other crop.

2..................... Some of the local agro-chemical dealers had been farmers in the past.

3..................... Initially the farmers’ cotton yields were low.

4..................... At first, the farmers failed to notice the negative effects on their fields of
pesticide use.

Questions 5-10
Complete the notes below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your
answers in boxes 5 -10 on your answer sheet.

Non-Pesticide-Management Programme

-Developed with the aid of SECURE

-Based on use of an 5..................... called neem
-Neem contains many 6..................... that target plant-eating predators

Neem

-Used as a pesticide
-7..................... formed by grinding seeds
-left 8..................... to soak in water
-Sprayed regularly
-Used as a pesticide and as a fertilizer
-added in 9..................... form to soil
-contains a lot of 10.....................

Questions 11-13
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the

passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 11 -13 on your answer sheet.

11 .In which year did farmers finally stop using chemicals on cotton crops in Punukula?
11.....................

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 12. What did the women of Punukula collect to make money? 12.....................
13. What project do the authorities in Punukula hope to set up in the future?
13.....................

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Solution:
1. TRUE 8. Overnight
2. NOT GIVEN 9. Cake
3. FALSE 10. Nitrogen
4. TRUE 11. 2000
5. Evergreen tree 12. Neem seeds
6. Natural
13. Water purification
Pesticides
7. A powder

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Reading Practice

The Cane Toad in Australia

Paragraph A

The cane toad was introduced into Australia in 1935 to control sugar cane pests in
Queensland. One hundred and one cane toads arnved at Edmonton in June in 1935.
Breeding occurred almost immediately. The cane toad is tough and adaptable, as well as
being poisonous throughout Its life cycle, and has few predators in Australia.

Paragraph B

Cane toads are large heavily-built amphibians with dry, warty skin. They have a bony head
and over their eyes are bony ndges that meet above the nose They sit upright and move in
short rapid hops. Their hind feet have leathery webbing between the toes and their front
feet are unwebbed. Adult cane toads have large swellings - the parotoid glands - on each
shoulder behind the eardrum. Cane toads may be grey, yellowish, olive-brown or reddish-
brown, and their bellies are pale with dark mottling. Average-sized adults are ten to fifteen
centimetres long. The largest female measured in Queensland was twenty-four centimetres
long and weighed one point three kilograms Male cane toads are smaller and wartier than
females. Dunng the breeding season males develop dark lumps (nuptial pads) on their first
two fingers; these help them cling to a female while mating. Their mating call is a long loud
purnng tnll. Cane toad spawn is exclusive in Australia. It is laid in long strings of
transparent jelly enclosing double rows of black eggs The spawn tangles in dense dark
masses around water plants, and hangs in ropy strands if picked up

Paragraph c

The natural range of cane toads extends from the southern United States to tropical South
Amenca. In 2002, cane toads occurred throughout the eastern and northern half of
Queensland and have extended their range to the river catchments surrounding Kakadu
National Park in the Northern Temtory. In New South Wales, they occur as far south as
Yamba and Port Macquarie.

Paragraph D

Cane toads tolerate a broad range of environmental and climatic conditions and appear to
be able to adjust and survive in almost any environment system, including sea water for
short penods of time. This to a large extent explains their success in their spreading in
Australia. Cane toads are found in environments ranging from sand dunes and coastal
heath to the margins of rainforest and mangroves. They are most abundant in open
clearings in urban areas, and in grassland and woodland.

Paragraph E

Cane toads eat almost anything they can swallow, including pet food, carrion and
household scraps, but most of their food consists of living insects Beetles, honey bees.
ants, winged termites, cnckets and bugs are eaten in abundance Marine snails, smaller
toads and native

frogs, small snakes, and small mammals are occasionally eaten by cane toads. The
tadpoles of cane toads eat algae and other aquatic plants which they rasp off with five rows

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of tiny peg-like teeth. They also filter organic matter from the water. Large tadpoles
sometimes eat cane toad eggs

Paragraph F

Cane toads were introduced to Australia to eat French s Cane Beetle and the Greyback
Cane Beetle The whitegrub larvae of these beetles eat the roots of sugar cane and kill or
stunt the plants. The Australian Bureau of Sugar Experimental Stations imported about a
hundred toads from Hawaii to the Meringa Experimental Station near Cairns. The toads
bred quickly and more than three thousand were released in the sugar cane plantations of
north Queensland in July 1935. At that time, some naturalists and scientists warned of the
dangers of liberating cane toads in Australia. Their protests resulted in a brief moratohum
on the release of toads, but releases resumed in 1936. The protestors were right. Firstly,
cane toads compete for the resources of native animals, like food, which affects native
populations. Secondly, cane toads don't have as many established predators as native
animals and so their population grows quickly. Finally, some native animals who would
normally feed on frogs try to eat toads and get poisoned.

Paragraph G

All stages of the cane toad's life-cycle are poisonous. No humans have died in Australia
from cane toad poison, but overseas, people have died after eating toads and even soup
made from boiled toad eggs Cane toads are also poisonous to pets. In Hawaii, up to fifty
dogs a year have died after having cane toads in their mouths Signs of dogs being
poisoned through ingestion include profuse salivation, twitching, vomiting, shallow
breathing, and collapse of the hind limbs. Death may occur by cardiac arrest within fifteen
minutes. A cane toad responds to threat by turning side-on so Its parotoid glands are
directed towards the attacker. The poison usually oozes out of the glands, but toads can
squirt a fine spray for a short distance if they want. The poison is absorbed through mucous
membranes such as eyes, mouth and nose, and in humans may cause intense pain,
temporary blindness and inflammation

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Questions 1-6
The reading passage The Cane Toad in Australia has paragraphs (A - G).

From the list of headings below (i - X) choose the most suitable headings for paragraphs B
-G

Write the appropriate number (i - X) in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.

NB There are more headings than paragraphs, so you will not use them all
Example Answer
Paragraph A v

i Diet
ii Habitat
iii Pollution Effects
iv Danger
V Arrival In Australia
Vi Food for Snakes
vii Identification
viii Captivity
ix Distribution
x Environmental Impacts
1...........
Paragraph B
..........
2...........
Paragraph C
..........
3...........
Paragraph D
..........
4...........
Paragraph E
..........
5...........
Paragraph F
..........
6...........
Paragraph G
..........

Questions 7-10
Reading Passage The Cane Toad in Australia, has 7 paragraphs (A - G). Which
paragraphs offer information on the following ideas? Write the appropriate letters (A - G) in

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boxes 7-10 on your answer sheet.

7..................... Male cane toads grow protuberances dunng mating penods.

8..................... The cane toad's unique way of laying eggs in Australia.

9..................... Opposition to Vie introduction of cane toads in Australia.

10..................... The danger of eating cane toad eggs

Questions 11-13
Complete each of the following statements (Questions 11-13) with words taken from the
box below.

Write your answers in boxes 38 - 40 on your answer sheet.

11. When suspended, the eggs of the cane toad resemble 11.....................

12. Cane toads were introduced into Australia in order to stop beetle young eating sugar
cane 12.....................

13. The text says that dogs affected by cane toad poisoning may have problems
with 13.....................
flowers heanng hair walking
leaves roots smelling tadpoles
stalks rope seeds sleeping

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Solution:
1. vii 8. B
2. ix 9. F
3. ii 10. G
4. i 11. Rope
5. x 12. Roots
6. iv 13. walking
7. B

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Reading Practice

The Tuatara of New Zealand

Tuatara are lizard-like reptiles, found only in New Zealand. They are representative of
ancient life forms Tuatara are the only living representatives of an ancient lineage of
reptiles called Sphenodontia, which is over 250 million years old. Because tuatara still look
like fossils of reptiles that lived during the age of dinosaurs, they are often called living
fossils. Now just two species of tuatara survive, and only in New Zealand. One is the
Brothers Island tuatara which, until recent re-introductions to sanctuaries (safe places for
wildlife), only survived on North Brother Island. The other species is the common tuatara,
which survives on many other offshore islands. Although the tuatara species appear
similar, they have genetic differences. Tuatara bones have been found in many parts of
New Zealand. Where dated, they are usually a few hundred to 5,000 years old. It is not
known whether these bones are from the two living species or other species that are now
extinct.

Many anatomical features distinguish tuatara from other living reptiles - for example, they
have a defining pattern of openings in the skull and a unique type of haemoglobin in the
blood, and males have no external reproductive organ. Adults are between 30 and 75
centimetres long, and weigh between 250 and 1.200 grams. Males are larger than females,
and have more developed spines in the crest along the neck, back and tail.

The male tuatara courts the female by approaching her with a proud walk. Tuatara mate in
late summer, and the female usually lays 6-10 eggs the following spring, in a shallow nest
at ground level. She may guard the nest for a few nights, then return to her burrow
underground. The eggs incubate for about a year, so hatchlings emerge about the time that
eggs are being laid the following season. Evidence indicates the gender of tuatara
hatchlings is determined by both genetic and environmental factors. It is said that it is more
likely for warmer eggs to produce male tuatara, and cooler eggs to produce females. The
hatchlings receive no parental care and need to find their own food.

Tuatara live for a relatively long time, reaching reproductive maturity at about 15 years, and
may breed for many decades. Their maximum lifespan is not known for certain, but many
tuatara have reached 80 years still looking vigorous and healthy. Tuatara live in
underground burrows and are more active at night, but will come out during the day to bask
in the sun. Both sexes are territorial, and males aggressively defend their territory by
posing and fighting if necessary. Teeth are their main weapons, and a bite can cause
serious injury. Tuatara are carnivorous, eating invertebrates, lizards and the baby seabirds
with which they often share burrows.

Tuatara were once widespread and abundant on the New Zealand mainland, but when
Polynesian settlers arrived in New Zealand, in about 1250-1300 AD, they brought with
them Pacific rats which killed tuatara. By the time of European settlement, in the 1840s,
tuatara were almost extinct on the New Zealand mainland. Some islands provided
temporary havens, but soon these too began to be invaded by rats and other mammalian
predators.

Gradually tuatara became restricted to 32 nearshore islands. Many of these islands were
tiny, some as small as only one hectare. A few, such as the Poor Knights common tuatara
lives on islands off the north-eastern coast of New Zealand, and on some islands in Cook
Strait. The Brothers Island tuatara survived only on the of the Brothers Island tuatara have

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been created on Titi Island in the Marlborough Sounds, and on Somes Island in Wellington
Harbour.

Tuatara can live in remarkably dense populations. Most tuatara islands have 50- 100
tuatara per square hectare - so an island of only 10 hectares may have a population of
hundreds. Larger islands with many seabirds and invertebrates, which tuatara eat, may
have greater densities. The largest population is on Stephens Island, where there are
estimated to be as many as 2,500 per hectare in some places, and a total of at least
30,000. The total number of tuatara on all the islands is estimated to be between 50,000
and 100,000.

Legal protection, was granted to tuatara and the islands they occupied in 1895, but the
reptiles continued to decline. Since then, active conservation management has reversed
the decline, and new populations have become established on predator- free islands. In the
mid-1980s the New Zealand Wildlife Service and its successor, the Department of
Conservation, developed ways to eradicate rats from islands. Rats have now gone from
almost all of the tuatara islands, making them safe for many threatened native species. In
addition, the collection by conservationists of eggs for incubation in captivity, breeding in
captivity, and moving tuatara to ratislands off the Northland coast, or Stephens Island in
Cook Strait, were never invaded by rats, and had few of the other mammals that threaten
native animals. The tiny, 4 hectare North Brother Island, in Cook Strait. However, two new
populations free islands, have increased the number of islands that are inhabited by tuatara
to 37. Many new tuatara populations are planned for islands and mainland reserves that
have been freed of predators.

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Questions 1 - 6
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?

In boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

1..................... The two living species of tuatara look alike

2..................... Many of the tuatara bones that have been found are millions of years old.

3..................... The tails of male tuatara are a different colour from the tails of female
tuatara.

4..................... The female tuatara lays eggs in a burrow.

5..................... There are higher numbers of female hatchlings than males.

6..................... Once they have hatched, young tuatara have to look after themselves.

Questions 7 -13
Complete the notes below. Choose ONE WORD AND/OR A

NUMBER from the passage for each answer

Write your answers in boxes 7-13 on your answer sheet.

The tuatara

Lifespan

-maximum lifespan unknown

-many live to at least 7..................... years old

Behaviour

-attack other creatures with their 8.....................

-eat young 9..................... that live in the same burrows, invertebrates and reptiles

Population

-abundant until rats were introduced by 10..................... people

-by the 1840s, hardly any tuatara found on the 11.....................
-islands off the north-eastern coast and in Cook Strait now home to the

12..................... tuatara

-Brothers Island tuatara found on North Brother Island

-density of tuatara on Stephens Island is up to 13..................... tuatara for every hectare

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Protection of the species

-tuatara population dropped until rats eradicated from islands

-eggs were gathered by the Department of Conservation

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Solution:
1. TRUE 8. tech
2. FALSE 9. Seabirds
3. NOT GIVEN 10. Polynesian
4. FALSE 11. Mainland
5. NOT GIVEN 12. common
6. TRUE 13. 2500
7. 80

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Reading Practice

Save the Turtles (Leatherback turtles)

A. Leatherback turtles follow the general sea turtle body plan of having a large,
flattened, round body with two pairs of very large flippers and a short tail. Like other
sea turtles, the leatherback’s flattened forelimbs are adapted for swimming in the
open ocean. Claws are absent from both pairs of flippers. The Leatherback’s flippers
arc the largest in proportion to its body among extant sea turtles. Leatherback’s front
flippers can grow up to 2.7 meters (9 ft) in large specimens, the largest flippers (even
in comparison to its body) of any sea turtle. As the last surviving member of its family,
the leatherback turtle has several distinguishing characteristics that differentiate it
from other sea turtles. Its most notable feature is that it lacks the bony carapace of
the other extant sea turtles.
B. During the past month, four turtles have washed up along Irish coasts from Wexford
to Kerry. These turtles arc more typical of warmer waters and only occur in Irish
waters when they stray off course. It is likely that they may have originated from
Florida, America. Two specimens have been taken to Coastal and Marine Resources
Centre (stored at the National Maritime College), University College Cork, where a
necropsy (post mortem for animals) will be conducted to establish their age, sex and
their exact origin. During this same period, two leatherback turtles were found in
Scotland, and a rare Kemp’s Ridley turtle was found in Wales, thus making it an
exceptional month for stranded turtles in Ireland and the UK.
C. Actually, There has been extensive research conducted regarding the sea turtles’
abilities to return to their nesting regions and sometimes exact locations from
hundreds of miles away. In the water, their path is greatly affected by powerful
currents. Despite their limited vision, and lack of landmarks in the open water, turtles
are able to retrace their migratory paths. Some explanations of this phenomenon
have found that sea turtles can detect the angle and intensity of the earth’s magnetic
fields.
D. However, Loggerhead turtles are not normally found in Irish waters, because water
temperatures here are far too cold for their survival. Instead, adult loggerheads prefer
the warmers waters of the Mediterranean, the Caribbean and North America’s east
coast. The four turtles that were found have probably originated from the North
American population of loggerheads. However it will require genetic analysis to
confirm this assumption. It is thought that after leaving their nesting beach as
hatchlings (when they measure 4.5 cm in length), these tiny turtles enter the North
Atlantic Gyre (a giant circular ocean current) that takes them from America, across to
Europe (Azores area), down towards North Africa, before being transported back
again to America via a different current. This remarkable round trip may take many
years during which these tiny turtles grow by several centimetres a year.
Loggerheads may circulate around the North Atlantic several times before they settle
in the coastal waters of Florida or the Caribbean.
E. These four turtles were probably on their way around the Atlantic when they strayed a
bit too far north from the Gulf Stream. Once they did, their fate was sealed, as the

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 cooler waters of the North East Atlantic are too cold for loggerheads (unlike
leatherback turtles which have many anatomical and physiological adaptations to
enable them to swim in our seas). Once in cool waters, the body of a loggerhead
begins to shut down as they get ‘cold stunned’, then get hypothermia and die.
F. Leatherbacks are in immanent danger of extinction. A critical factor (among others) is
the harvesting of eggs from nests. Valued as a food delicacy, Leatherback eggs are
falsely touted to have aphrodisiacal properties in some cultures. The leatherback,
unlike the Green Sea turtle, is not often killed for its meat; however, the increase in
human populations coupled with the growing black market trade has escalated their
egg depletion, other critical factors causing the leatherbacks’ decline are pollution
such as plastics (leatherbacks eat this debris thinking it is jellyfish; fishing practices
such as longline fishing and gill nets, and development on habitat areas. Scientists
have estimated that there are only about 35,000 Leatherback turtles in the world.
G. We are often unable to understand the critical impact a species has on the
environment—that is, until that species becomes extinct. Even if we do not know the
role a creature plays in the health of the environment, past lessons have taught US
enough to know that every animal and plant is one important link in the integral chain
of nature. Some scientists now speculate that the Leatherback may play an important
role in the recovery of diminishing fish populations. Since the Leatherback consumes
its weight in jellyfish per day, it helps to keep Jellyfish populations in check. Jellyfish
consume large quantities of fish larvae. The rapid decline in Leatherback populations
over the last 50 years has been accompanied by a significant increase in jellyfish and
a marked decrease in fish in our oceans. Saving sea turtles is an International
endeavor.

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Question 1-6
Choose the most suitable headings for paragraphs B-G from the list of headings below.

Write appropriate numbers (i-x) in boxes 1 -6 on your answer sheet.

NB There are more headings than paragraphs, so you will not use them all.

List of Headings

i. Sea turtles are found in unusual locations

ii. Unique features of the Leatherbacks
iii. The Leatherback’s contribution
iv. Methods used for routes tracking
v. Predict the migration routes
vi. Remains multiplicity within the species
vii. The progress of hatching
viii. The fate of the lost turles
ix. How trips suppose to look like?
x. Factors leading to population decline

1..................... Paragraph B

2..................... Paragraph C

3..................... Paragraph D

4..................... Paragraph E

5..................... Paragraph F

6..................... Paragraph G

Question 7 -13
Choose words from the passage to answer the questions 7-13.

Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.

7..................... How many Leatherback turtles are there in the world?

8..................... What is the most noticeable difference between other sea turtles and
leatherbacks?

9..................... What candle therback turtles to die in Irish waters?

10..................... Where did the four turtles probably come from?

11..................... By which means can sea turtles retrace their migratory paths?

12..................... For what purpose are Green Sea turtles killed by people?

13..................... What kind of species will benefits from a decline in Leatherback

populations?

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Solution:
1. i 8. the bony carapace
2. iv 9. cold waters
3. ix 10. Florida
4. viii 11. magnetic fields
5. x 12. its meat
6. iii 13. jellyfish
7. 35,000

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Reading Practice

A Brief History of Tea

A

The story of tea began in ancient China over 5,000 years ago. According to legend, the
Emperor Shen Nung was a skilled ruler, creative scientist and patron of the arts. His
farsighted edicts required, among other things, that all drinking water be boiled as a
hygienic precaution. One summer day while visiting a distant region of his realm, he and
the court stopped to rest. In accordance with his ruling, the servants began to boil water for
the court to drink. Dried leaves from a nearby bush fell into the boiling water, and as the
leaves infused the water turned brown. As a scientist, the Emperor was intrigued by the
new liquid, drank some, and found it very refreshing. And so, according to legend, tea was
created.

Tea consumption spread throughout Chinese culture, reaching into every aspect of the
society: The first definitive book was written on tea - a book clearly reflecting Zen Buddhist
philosophy - 1,200 years ago, The first tea seeds were brought to Japan by a returning
Buddhist priest, who had seen the value of tea in enhancing meditation in China. As a
result, he is known as the 'Father of Tea' in Japan. Because of this early association, tea in
Japan has always been linked with Zen Buddhism. Tea received the Japanese Emperots
support almost instantly and spread rapidly from the royal court and monasteries to other
sections of society.

Tea was elevated to an art form in the Japanese tea ceremony, in which supreme
importance is given to making tea in the most perfect, most polite, most graceful, most
charming manner possible. Such a purity of expression prompted the creation of a
particular form of architecture for tea house: duplicating the simplicity of a forest cottage.
The cultural/artistic hostesses of Japan, the geishas, began to specialize in the
presentation of the tea ceremony. However, as more and more people became involved in
the excitement surrounding tea, the purity of the original concept was lost, and for a period
the tea ceremony became corrupted, boisterous and highly embellished. Efforts were then
made to return to the earlier simplicity, with the result that, in the 15th and 16th centuries,
tea was viewed as the ultimate gift. Even warlords paused for tea before battles.

While tea was at this high level of development in parts of Asia, information concerning the
then unknown beverage began to filter back to Europe. Earlier traders had mentioned it, btit
were unclear as to whether tea should be eaten or drunk. The first European to personally
encounter tea and write about it was Portuguese - Portugal, with her technologically
advanced navy, had been successful in gaining the first right of trade with China.

Tea finally arrived in Europe in the 16tr’ century, brought to Holland by the country's navy,
and becoming very fashionable in the Dutch capital, the Hague. This was due in part to tea
being very expensive (over $100 per pound), which immediately made it the domain of the
wealthy. Slowly, as the amount of tea imported increased, the price fell, and by 1675 it was
available in common food shops throughout Holland.

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F

As the consumption of tea increased dramatically in Dutch society, doctors and university
authorities in Holland argued as to its benefits or drawbacks. The public largely ignored the
scholarly debate and continued to enjoy their new beverage, through the controversy lasted
from 1635 to roughly 1657. Throughout this period, France and Holland led Europe in the
use of tea.

As the craze for all things oriental swept through Europe, tea became part of the way of life.
Adding milk to the drink was first mentioned in 1680. Around that time, Dutch inns provided
the first restaurant service of tea. Innkeepers would furnish guests with a portable tea set
complete with a heating unit. The Dutchman would then prepare tea for himself and his
friends outside in the inn garden. Tea remained popular in France for only about fifty years,
being replaced by a preference for wine, chocolate, and exotic coffees. Tea was introduced
into England in 1660 by King Charles II and his Portuguese queen, who were both
confirmed tea drinkers. Tea mania swept across England as it had earlier spread
throughout France and Holland. By 1708 tea importation had risen to thirteen times the
1699 level. Tea was drunk by all levels of society.

The Russian interest in tea began as early as 1618, when the Chinese embassy in Moscow
presented several chests of tea to the Emperor, Czar Alexis. Later in the century, a trade
treaty between Russia and China allowed caravans to cross back and forth freely between
the two countries. Still, the journey was not easy. The average caravan consisted of 200 to
300 camels, and the 18,000-kilometre trip took over 16 months to complete. Eventually,
however, tea became - as it still is - one of the most popular drinks in the country.

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Question 1- 8
Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.

Write the correct number, i-xi, in boxes 1-8..On your answer sheet.

List of Headings

i. Not enough tea to meet demand

ii. Religious objections
iii. in - and sometimes out of- fashion
iv. A connection between tea and religion
v. A luxury item
vi. News of tea reaches another continent
vii. Is tea a good or bad thing?
viii. A chance discovery
ix. Tea-making as a ritual
x. Difficulties in importing tea

1..................... Paragraph A

2..................... Paragraph B

3..................... Paragraph c

4..................... Paragraph C

5..................... Paragraph E

6..................... Paragraph F

7..................... Paragraph G

8..................... Paragraph H

Question 9-13
Look at the following statements (Question 9-13) and the list ofcountries below.

Match each statement with the correct country, A-G.

Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 9-13 On your answer sheet.

List of Countries

A China

B Japan

c Portugal

D Holland

E France

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F England

G Russia

9..................... Claims that tea might be harmful failed to affect it popularity.

10..................... Tea lost favour to other drinks.

11..................... Special buildings were constructed in which to drink tea.

12..................... Animals were involved in importing tea.

13..................... A ruler's specialist knowledge led to an interest in tea.

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Solution:
1. viii 8. x
2. iv 9. D
3. ix 10. E
4. vi 11. B
5. v 12. G
6. vii 13. A
7. iii

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Reading Practice

Australia's Megafauna Controversy

Just how long did humans live side by side with megafauna in Australia? Barry Brook,
Richard Gillespie and Paul Martin dispute previous claims of a lengthy coexistence

Over the past 50 millennia, Australia has witnessed the extinction of many species of large
animals, including a rhinoceros-sized wombat and goannas the size of crocodiles Debate
about the possible cause of these extinctions has continued for more than 150 years and
one the crucial questions raised is how long humans and megafauna coexisted in Australia.
We need to know the overlap of time to make an informed choice between the two main
theories regarding the causes of these extinctions. If humans and megafauna coexisted for
a protracted period then climate change is the more likely cause. However, if the
megafauna became extinct shortly after the arrival of humans, then humans are the likely
culprits

The archaeological site at Cuddie Springs in eastern Australia appears to be well

preserved. This dusty claypan holds within its sediments a rich cache of flaked stone and
seed-grinding tools, and side by side with these clear signals of human culture are the
bones of a dozen or more species of megafauna. Drs Judith Field and Stephen Wroe of the
University of Sydney, who excavated the site, claim that it provides unequivocal evidence
of a long overlap of humans and megafauna, and conclude that aridity leading up to the
last Ice Age brought about their eventual demise. In the long-standing explanation of this
site, artefacts such as stone tools and extinct animals remain were deposited over many
thousands of years in an ephemeral lake- a body of water existing for a relatively short time
- and remained in place and undisturbed until the present day.

There is no disputing the close association of bones and stones at Cuddie Springs, as both
are found 1 to 1.7 metres below the modern surface. The dating of these layers is accurate:
ages for the sediments were obtained through radiocarbon dating of charcoal fragments
and luminescence dating of sand grains from the same levels (revealing when a sample
was last exposed to sunlight). Intriguingly, some of the stone show surface features
indicating their use for processing plants, and a few even have well-preserved blood and
hair residues suggesting they were used in butchering animals.

But is the case proposed by Field aside Wroe clear-cut? We carried out a reanalyse of the
scientific data from Cuddie Springs that brings into question their conclusions. The amount
of anthropological evidence found at the site is remarkable: we estimate there are more
than 3 tonnes of charcoal and more than 300 tonnes of stone buried there. Field and Wroe
estimate that there are approximately 20 million artefacts. This plethora of tools is hard to
reconcile with a site that was only available for occupation when the lake was dry.
Furthermore, no cultural features such as oven pits have been discovered. If the sediment
layers have remained undisturbed since being laid down, as Field and Wroe contend, then
the ages of those sediments should increase with depth. However, our analysis revealed a
number of inconsistencies.

First, the charcoal samples are all roughly 36,000 years old. Second, sand in the two upper
levels is considerably younger than charcoal from the same levels. Third, Field and Wroe
say that the tools and seed-grinding stones used for plant and animal processing are
accient, yet they are very similar to implements found elsewhere that were in use only a
few thousand years ago. Also interest is the fact that a deep drill core made a mere 60

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metres from the site recovered no stone artefact or fossil bones whatsoever. These points
suggests strongly that the sediments have been moved about and some of the old charcoal
has been re-deposited in younger layers. Indeed, one sample of cow bone found I metre
below the surface came from sediments where charcoal dated at 6,000 and 23,000 years
old is mixed with 17,000-year-old sand. The megafauna bones themselves have not yet
dated, although new technological developments make this a possibility in the near future.

We propose that the archaeologists have actually been sampling the debris carried by
ancient flood channels beneath the site, including charcoal transported from bushfires that
intermittently occurred within the catchment. Flood events more likely explain the
accumulation of megafauna remains, and could have mixed old bones With fresh deposits.
European graziers also disturbed the site in 1876 by constructing a well to provide water
their cattle. Given the expense of well-digging, we speculate that the graziers made sure it
was protected from the damage caused by cattle hooves by lining the surface with small
stones collected from further afield, including prehistoric quarries. This Idea Is consistent
with the thin layer of stones spread over a large area, with cattle occasionally breaking
through the gravel surface and forcing the stone and even cattle bones deeper into the
waterlogged soil.

The lack of conclusive evidence that humans and megafauna coexisted for a lengthy
period casts doubt on Field and Wroe's assertion that climate change was responsible for
the extinction of Australia's megafauna. However, we do not suggest that newly arrived,
well-armed hunters systematically slaughtered all the large beasts they encountered.
Recent studies based on the biology of modern-day large

Mammals, combined with observations of people who still practise a traditional

huntergatherer lifestyle, reveal an unexpected paradox and suggest a further possible
explanation as to what happened. Using a mathematical model, It was found that a group
of 10 people killing only one juvenile Diprotodon each year would be sufficient to bring
about the extinction of that spaces within 1,000 years. This suggests that here, as in other
parts of the word, the arrival of humans in lands previously inhabited only by animals
created a volatile combination in which large animals fared badly.

Note: The Diprotodon (a rhinoceros-sized wombat), an example of Australia’s now extinct

megafauna

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Questions 1-4
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage? In
boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

1..................... Field and Wroe argue that findings at the Cuddie Springs site show that
people lived in this area at the same time as megafauna.

2..................... Field and Wroe believe it is likely that smaller megafauna species survived
the last Ice Age

3..................... The writers believe that the dating of earth up to 1.7m below the present
surface at Cuddie Springs is unreliable.

4..................... Some artefacts found at Cuddie Springs were preserved well enough to
reveal their function

Questions 5-9
Complete the summary using the list of words, A-l, below

Write the correct letter, A-l in boxes 5-9 on your answer sheet

The writers’ arguments against Field and Wroe's analysis of the scientific data
from Cuddie Springs

One objection to Field and Wroe's interpretation is the large quantity of charcoal,
5..................... and artefacts found at Cuddie Springs. Such large numbers of artefacts
would impossible if the area had been covered with 6..................... for a period. There is
also a complete lack of man-made structures, for instance those used for 7......................

Other evidence that doubt on Field and Wroe’s claim is the fact that while some material in
the highest levels of sediment is 36,000 years old, the 8..................... in the same levels is
much more recent. The tools used to process plants and animals may also be newer than
Field and Wroe believe. Further evidence against human occupation of the area is the
absence of tools and 9..................... a short distance away.
A seeds B stone C sand
D cooking E deep drill core F water
G fossil bones H sediment I storage

Questions 10-14
Choose the letter, A, B, c or D.

Write the correct letter in boxes 10-14 on your answer sheet.

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10. What conclusions did the writers reach about the inconsistencies in the data from
Cuddie Springs?

A The different layers of sediment have been mixed over time.

B The sand evidence is unhelpful and should be disregarded.

C The area needs to be re-examined when technology improves.

D The charcoal found in the area cannot be dated.

11. According to the writers, what impact could a natural phenomenon have had on this
site?

A Floods could have caused the death of the megafauna.

B Floods could have disturbed the archaeological evidence.

C Bushfires could have prevented humans from settling in the area for any length of time

D Bushfires could have destroyed much of the evidence left by megafauna and humans.

12. What did the writers speculate about the people who lived at this site in 1876?

A They bred cattle whose bones could have been confused with megafauna

B They found that the soil was too waterlogged for farming

C They allowed cattle to move around freely at the site

D They brought stones there from another area

13. In the final paragraph what suggestion do the writers hide about Australia’s
megafauna?

A A rapid change in climate may have been responsible for the extinction of the
megafauna.

B Megafauna could have died out as a result of small numbers being killed year after year.

C The population of humans at that time was probably insufficient to cause the extinction of
the megafauna.

D The extinction of ancient animals should not be compared to that of modern-day species.

14. Which of the following best represents the writers' criticism of Field and Wroe?

A Their methods were not well thought out

B Their excavations did not go deep enough.

C Their technology failed to obtain precise data.

D Their conclusions were based on inconsistent data.40##qa

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Solution:
1. YES 8. C
2. NOT GIVEN 9. G
3. NO 10. A
4. YES 11. B
5. B 12. D
6. F 13. B
7. D 14. D

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Reading Practice

Keeping the water away

New approaches to flood control

A. Recently, winter floods on the rivers of central Europe have been among the worst for
600 to 700 years, and dams and dykes (protective sea walls) have failed to solve the
problem. Traditionally, river engineers have tried to get rid of the water quickly,
draining it off the land and down to the sea in rivers reengineered as high-
performance drains. But however high they build the artificial riverbanks, the floods
keep coming back. And when they come, they seem to be worse than ever
B. Engineers are now turning to a different plan: to sap the water’s destructive strength
by dispersing it into fields; forgotten lakes and floods plains. They are reviving river
bends and marshes to curb the flow, and even plugging city drains to encourage
floodwater to use other means to go underground. Back in the days when rivers took
a winding path to the sea, floodwaters lost force and volume while meandering across
flood plains and inland deltas, but today the water tends to have a direct passage to
the sea. This means that, when it rains in the uplands, the water comes down all at
once.
C. Worse, when the flood plains are closed off, the river's flow downstream becomes
more violent and uncontrollable; by turning complex river systems into the simple
mechanics of a water pipe, engineers have often created danger where they
promised safety. The Rhine, Europe’s most engineered river; is a good example. For
a long time engineers have erased its backwaters and cut it off from its plain. The aim
was partly to improve navigation, and partly to speed floodwaters out of Alps and
down to the North Sea. Now, when it rains in the Alps, the peak flows from several
branches of the Rhine coincide where once they arrived separately, and with four-
fifths of the Lower Rhine's flood plain barricaded off, the waters rise. The result is
more frequent flooding and greater damage. The same thing has happened in the US
on the Mississippi river, which drains the world’s second largest river catchment into
the Gulf of Mexico. Despite some $7 billion spent over the last century on levees
(embankments) the situation is growing worse.
D. Specialists in water control now say that a new approach is needed - one which takes
the whole landscape into consideration. To help keep London's feet dry, the UK
Environment Agency is reflooding 10 square kilometres of the ancient flood plain of
the River Thames outside Oxford. Nearer to London, it has spent £100 million
creating new wetlands and a relief channel across 16 kilometres of flood plain.
Similar ideas ate being tested in Austria, in one of Europe's largest river restorations
to date. The engineers calculate that the restored flood plain of the Drava River can
now store up to 10 million cubic metres of floodwater, and slow down storm surges
coming out of the Alps by more than an hour, protecting towns not only in Austria, but
as far downstream as Slovenia and Croatia.
E. The Dutch, for whom preventing floods is a matter of survival, have gone furthest.
This nation, built largely on drained marshes and seabed, has had several severe
shocks in the last two decades, when very large numbers of people have had to be

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 evacuated. Since that time, the Dutch have broken one of their most enduring
national stereotypes by allowing engineers to punch holes in dykes. They plan to
return up to a sixth of the country to its former waterlogged state in order to better
protect the rest.
F. Water use in cities also needs to change. At the moment, cities seem to create floods;
they are concreted and paved so that rains flow quickly into rivers. A new breed of
‘soft engineers’ wants cities to porous, Berlin is one place where this is being done.
Tough new rules for new developments mean that drains will be prevented from
becoming overloaded after heavy rains. Architects of new urban buildings are
diverting rainwater from the roofs for use in toilets and the irrigation of roof gardens,
while water falling onto the ground is collected in ponds, or passes underground
through porous paving. One high-tech urban development can store a sixth of its
annual rainfall, and reuse most of the rest
G. Could this be expanded to protect a whole city? The test case could Los Angeles.
With non-porous surfaces covering 70% of the city, drainage is a huge challenge.
Billions of dollars have been spent digging huge drains and concreting riverbeds, but
many communities still flood regularly. Meanwhile this desert city ships water from
hundreds of kilometres away to fill its taps and swimming pool. Los Angeles has
recently launched a new scheme to utilise floodwater in the Sun Valley section of the
city. The plan is to catch the rain that falls on thousands of driveways, parking lots
and rooftops in the valley. Trees will soak up water from parking lots; houses and
public buildings will capture roof water to irrigate gardens and parks, and road drains
will empty into old gravel pits to recharge the city's underground water reserves.
Result: less flooding and more water for the city. It may sound expensive, until we
realise how much is spent trying to drain cities and protect areas from flooding, and
bow little this method achieves.

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Questions 1-6
Reading Passage 2 has seven paragraphs, A-G,

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter. A-G, in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet

1..................... how legislation has forced building designers to improve water use

2..................... two reasons why one river was isolated from its food plain

3..................... how natural water courses in the past assisted flood control

4..................... an example of flood control on one river, affecting three countries

5..................... a country which has partly destroyed one of its most typical features in order
to control water

6..................... the writer's comment on the comparative cost effectiveness of traditional

flood control and newer methods

Questions 7-8
Choose TWO letters A-E.

Write the correct letter, in boxes 7-8 on your answer sheet

According to the article, which TWO of these statements are true of the new approach to
flood control?

A It aims to slow the movement of water to the sea.

B It aims to channel water more directly into rivers.

C It will cost more than twice as much as former measures.

D It will involve the loss of some areas of land.

E It has been tested only in The Netherlands.

Questions 9-13
Complete the sentences below.

Choose NO MORE THAN MO WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your
answers in boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet.

9. Some of the most severe floods for many centuries have recently occurred in parts of
9.....................

10. The Rhine and the 10..................... rivers have experienced similar problems with water
control

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11. An area near Oxford will flooded to protect the city of 11.....................

12. Planners who wish to allow water to pass more freely through city surfaces are called
12.....................

13.A proposal for part of the city of 13..................... could show whether small-scale water
projects could apply on a large scale.

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Solution:
1. F 8. D
2. C 9. Europe
3. B 10. Mississippi
4. D 11. London
5. E 12. Soft engineers
6. G 13. Los Angeles
7. A

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Reading Practice

Should space be explored by robots or by humans?

A The advisability of humans participating directly in space travel continues to cause many
debates. There is no doubt that the presence of people on board a space vehicle makes its
design much more complex and challenging, and produces a large increase in costs, since
safety requirements are greatly increased, and the technology providing necessities for
human passengers such as oxygen, food water must be guaranteed. Moreover, the
systems required are bulky and costly, and their complexity increases for long-duration
missions. Meanwhile, advances in electronics and computer science allow increasingly
complex tasks to be entrusted to robots, and unmanned space probes are becoming
lighter, smaller and more convenient.

B However, experience has shown that the idea of humans in space is popular with the
public. Humans can also be useful; there are many cases when only direct intervention by
an astronaut or cosmonaut can correct the malfunction of an automatic device. Astronauts
and cosmonauts have proved that they can adapt to conditions of weightlessness and work
in space without encountering too many problems, as was seen in the operations to repair
and to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. One human characteristic which is
particularly precious in space missions, and which so far is lacking in robots, is the ability to
perform a great variety of tasks. In addition, robots are not good at reacting to situations
they have not been specifically prepared for. This is especially important in the case of
deep space missions. While, in the case of the Moon, it is possible for someone on Earth to
'tele-operate' a robotic device such as a probe, as the two-way link time is only a couple of
seconds, on Mars the two- way link time is several minutes, so sending instructions from
Earth is more difficult.

C Many of the promises of artificial intelligence are still far from being fulfilled. The
construction of machines simulating human logical reasoning moves towards ever more
distant dates. The more the performance of computers improves, the more we realise how
difficult it is to build machines which display logical abilities. In the past it was confidently
predicted that we would soon have fully automated factories in which all operations were
performed without any human intervention, and forecasts of the complete substitution of
workers by robots in many production areas were made. Today, these perspectives are
being revised. It seems that all machines, even the smartest ones, must cooperate with
humans. Rather than replacing humans, the present need appears to be for an intelligent
machine capable of helping a human operator without replacing him or her. The word
'cobot', from 'collaborative robot', has been invented to designate this type.

D A similar trend is also apparent in the field of space exploration. Tasks which were in the
past entrusted only to machines are now performed by human beings, sometimes with the
aim of using simpler and less costly devices, sometimes to obtain better performance. In
many cases, to involve a person in the control loop is a welcome simplification which may
lower the cost of a mission without compromising safety. Many operations originally
designed to be performed under completely automatic control can be performed more
efficiently by astronauts, perhaps helped by their 'cobots'. The human-machine relationship
must evolve towards a closer collaboration.

E One way this could happen is by adopting the Mars Outposts approach, proposed by the
Planetary Society. This would involve sending a number of robotic research stations to

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Mars, equipped with permanent communications and navigational systems. They would
perform research, and establish the infrastructure needed to prepare future landing sites for
the exploration of Mars by humans. It has also been suggested that in the most difficult
environments, as on Venus or Jupiter, robots could be controlled by human beings located
in spaceships which remain in orbit around the planet. In this case the link time for
communication between humans and robots would be far less than it would be from Earth.

F But if space is to be more than a place to build automatic laboratories or set up industrial
enterprises in the vicinity of our planet, the presence of humans is essential. They must
learn how to voyage through space towards destinations which will be not only scientific
bases but also places to live. If space is a frontier, that frontier must see the presence of
people. So the aim for humankind in the future will be not just the exploration of space, but
its colonisation. The result of exploring and living in space may be a deep change in the
views which humankind has of itself. And this process is already under way. The images of
Earth taken from the Moon in the Apollo programme have given humankind a new
consciousness of its fragility, its smallness, and its unity. These impressions have triggered
a realisation of the need to protect and preserve it, for it is the place in the solar system
most suitable for US and above all it is the only place we have, at least for now.

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Questions 1-6
Reading Passage has six paragraphs, A-F.

Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.

Write the correct number, i-ix. in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet

List of Headings

i. Robots on Earth - a re-evaluation

ii. The barriers to cooperation in space exploration
iii. Some limitations of robots in space
iv. Reduced expectations for space exploration
v. A general reconsideration of human/robot responsibilities in space
vi. Problems in using humans for space exploration
vii. The danger to humans of intelligent machines
viii. Space settlement and the development of greater self-awareness
ix. Possible examples of cooperation in space

1..................... Paragraph A

2..................... Paragraph B

3..................... Paragraph c

4..................... Paragraph D

5..................... Paragraph E

6..................... Paragraph F

Questions 7-8
Choose TWO letters, A-E.

Write the correct letters in boxes 7-8 on your answer sheet.

According to the writer, which TWO predictions about artificial intelligence have not yet
been fulfilled?

A Robots will work independently of humans.

B Robots will begin to oppose human interests,

C Robots will be used to help humans perform tasks more efficiently.

D Robots will think in the same way as humans.

E Robots will become too costly to use on space missions.

Questions 9-13

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Complete the summary below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each
answer. Write your answers in boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet.

Humans in space - the Mars Outposts approach and its implications

One way of exploring space would be through collaboration between humans and robots.
For example, when exploring the planet Mars, robots could be used to set up
9..................... and do initial research before humans arrive. In other cases, humans could
stay in orbiting 10..................... and give orders to robots working on the surface of the
planet.

This would increase the speed of 11..................... with the robots. In such ways, robots
might be used to work in space in commercial enterprises or 12...................... However, the
final aim of humankind may be the 13..................... of space and this could in turn change
people's attitudes towards Earth.

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Solution:
1. vi 8. D
2. iii 9. infrastructure
3. i 10. spaceships
4. v 11. communication
5. ix 12. laboratories
6. viii 13. colonisation
7. A

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Reading Practice

Caral: an ancient South American city

Huge earth and rock mounds rise out of the desert of the Supe Valley near the coast of
Peru in South America. These immense mounds appear simply to be part of the
geographical landscape in this arid region squeezed between the Pacific Ocean and the
Andes [Link] looks deceive. These are actually human-made pyramids strong
evidence indicates they are the remains of a city known as Caral that flourished nearly
5,000 years ago. It true, it would be the oldest known urban center in the America and
among the most ancient in the world.

Research undertaken by Peruvian archaeologist Ruth Shady suggests that the 150-acre
plex of pyramids, plazas and residential buildings was a thriving metropolis when Egypt's
great pyramids were still being built. Though discovered in 1905, for years Caral attracted
little attention, largely because archaeologists believed the structures were rainy recent.
But the monumental scale of the pyramids had long interested Shady, who began
excavations at the site in 1996, about 22 kilometers from the coast and 190 kilometers
north of Peru's capital city of Lima.

Shady and her crew searched for broken remains of the pots and containers that most
such sites contain. Not finding any only made her more excited: it meant Caral could be
what archaeologists term pre-ceramic, that is, existing before the advent in the area of pot-
firing techniques. Shady's team undertook the task of excavating Piramide Mayor, the
largest of the pyramids. After carefully clearing away many hundreds of years' worth of
rubble and sand, they identified staircases, walls covered with remnants of colored plaster,
and brickwork. In the foundations, they found the remains of grass-like reeds woven into
bags. The original workers, she surmised, must have filled these bags with stones from a
nearby quarry and laid them atop one another inside retaining walls, gradually giving rise to
the pyramid's immense structure. Shady had samples of the reeds subjected to
radiocarbon dating and found that the reeds were 4,600 years old. This evidence indicated
that Caral was, in fact, more than 1,000 years older than what had previously been thought
to be the oldest urban center in the Americas.

What amazed archaeologists was not just the age, but the complexity and scope of Caral.
Piramide Mayor alone covers an area nearly the size of four football fields and is 18 meters
tall. A nine-meter-wide staircase rises from a circular plaza at the foot of the pyramid,
passing over three terraced levels until it reaches the top. Thousands of manual laborers
would have been needed to build such a project, not counting the many architects,
craftsmen, and managers. Shady's team found the remains of a large amphitheater,
containing almost 70 musical instruments made of bird and deer bones Clearly music
plaved an important role in Caral's society. Around the perimeter of Caral are a series of
smaller mounds and various buildings. These indicate a hierarchy of living arrangements:
large, well-kept rooms atop pyramids for the elite, ground-level quarters for shabbier
outlying dwellings for workers

But why had Caral been built in the first place? Her excavations convinced Shady that
Caral once served as a trade center for the region, which extends from the rainforests of
the Amazon to the high forests of the Andes. Shady found evidence of a rich trading
environment, including seeds of the cocoa bush and necklaces of shells, neither of which
was native to the immediate Caral area. This environment gave rise to people who did not

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take part in the production of food, allowing them to become priests and planners, builders
and designers. Thus occupational specialization, elemental to an urban society, emerged.

But what sustained such a trading center and drew travelers to it? Was it food? Shady and
her team found the bones of small edible fish, which must have come from the Pacific
coast to the west, in the excavations. But they also found evidence of squash, sweet
potatoes and beans having been grown locally. Shady theorized that Caral's early farmers
diverted the area's rivers into canals, which still cross the Supe Valley today, to irrigate
their [Link] because she found no traces of maize, which can be traded or stored and
used in times of crop failure, she concluded that Caral's trade leverage was not based on
stockpiling food supplies.

It was evidence of another crop in the excavations that gave Shady the best clue to Caral’s
success. In nearly every excavated building, her team discovered evidence of cotton -
seeds, fibers and textiles. Her theory fell into place when a large fishing net made of those
fibers, unearthed in an unrelated dig on Peru's coast, turned out to be as old as Caral. 'The
farmers of Caral grew the cotton that the fishermen needed to make their nets, Shady
speculates. And the fishermen gave them shellfish and dried fish in exchange for these
nets.' In essence, the people of Caral enabled fishermen to work with larger and more
effective nets, which made the resources of the sea more readily available, and the
fishermen probably used dried squash grown by the Caral people as flotation devices for
their nets.

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Questions 1-6
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage ? In
boxes 1 -6 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

1..................... Caral was built at the same time as the construction of the Egyptian
pyramids.

2..................... The absence of pottery at the archaeological dig gave Shady a significant
clue to the age of the site.

3..................... The stones used to build Piramide Mayor came from a location far away

4..................... The huge and complicated structures of Piramide Mayor suggest that its
construction required an organised team of builders.

5..................... Archaeological evidence shows that the residents of Caral were highly
skilled musicians.

6..................... The remains of housing areas at Caral suggest that there were no class
distinctions in residential areas.

Questions 7-13
Complete the notes below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 7-13 on your answer sheet.

Caral as a trading centre

Items discovered at Caral but not naturally occurring in the area

-the 7..................... of a certain plant

-8..................... used to make jewellery
-the remains of certain food such as 9.....................

Clues to farming around Caral

-10..................... still in existence today indicate water diverted from rivers

-no evidence that 11..................... was grown

Evidence of relationship with fishing communities

-the excavation findings and fishing nets found on the coast suggest Caral farmers
traded 12.....................
-dried squash may have been used to aid 13.....................

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Solution:
1. FALSE 8. shells
2. TRUE 9. fish
3. FALSE 10. canals
4. TRUE 11. maize
5. NOT GIVEN 12. cotton
6. FALSE 13. flotation
7. seeds

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Reading Practice

Bodie: America's most famous ghost town

If you peek inside on of the broken- down buildings in Bodie, California, you might see
dust- covered furniture an old muffin pan, rusty tins, and broken kerosene lamps or a fully
stocked general store with original wooden boxes and shelves with tin cans Situated in a
sagebrush- covered valley in the eastern foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range the
old goldmining town, once busy with life began in the 1870s, when prospective miners
arrived in the town in hopes of finding gold and becoming wealthy. By the 1940s, the golds
was gone and the last mine closed. Today not many structures remain in Bodie, there is
about 20 percent of the number that stood in the 1870a, when the town had up to 8.000
inhabitants.

In the 1870s, thirty mines were built and began producing large pieces of gold in large
quantities. The standard Company was one of the first factories in American to extract the
remaining traces of gold using electricity. Chemical processing was done in two stages. In
the first stage, workers washed ground up ore over copper sheets covered with gold-
grabbing mercury, then they heated in to release and condense the mercury, and turned
the melted mixture into the shape of golf bars. In a second stage devised to obtain any
remaining gold and silver particles, the one, now the consistency of sand was soaked in
watered- down potassium cyanide. This drew the metals out into a form that could be
trapped by trays containing small pieces of zine. This process went on for about 70 years,
until the gold mines dried up.

When the California state Parks Department took over Bodie in 1962, it began a program of
“arrested decay,’ maintaining the run- down structures just as they appeared at the time the
department acquired the town.

According to Charley Spiller, a Bodie maintenance mechanic, the greatest enemies of

preservation are wind, which can gust up to 100 miles an hour on nearby mountains, and
snow, which average 13 feet a year. When snow gets into a building and sits and.... Into
the floors, the condition of the floors gets worse, and they often rot. Currently, a team of
three or four workers spends six months of each year.

Strengthening walls, repairing roofs, and replacing smashed windows. Spiller and his team
rebuild walls using pine similar to the native Jeffrey pine that was originally used without
constant attention, most houses would fall apart. Nearby towns similar to Bodie have
already disappeared because, for one reason or another, they weren’t maintained.

While the staff work to preserve the site’s empty look, a variety of natural life lives on in the
remains of the town. California ground squirrels tunnel into the shrub- covered earth,
feeding on meadow grass and bitterbrush. Coyotes- and from time to time a mountain lion,
bobcat, or bear- amble through the town. As people left their homes in Bodies and no one
else moved in, the houses became popular havens for species that thrive in the empty
places, such as deer, mice, snakes, and lizards. Trillions of microbes, life forms invisible to
the human eye, also live in the soil, some of which can consume the toxic mercury and
cyanide by- products of mining. One microbial ecologist found that deserts, like the one in
Bodie, contain up to twice as many bacterial species, roughly 10,000 per 10 square meters,
as do acidic rainforest soils. The deserts of the American West, where thousands of ghost
towns stand, are therefore surprisingly full of life.

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It is the life that left Bodies, however, that most interests the tourists who visit.’ Ghost towns
like Bodie, 1 cultural geographer Dydia DeLyser explains,1 are a powerful draw because
they are perceived as authentic- actual abandoned towns presented more or less as they
were left, and therefore as they once were Delyser says that visitors examine their
originality, asking questions like’ was all this stuff really just left here? Or “was it all set up
to make it look like a ghost town? If would be a mistake, Delyser says, for anyone to think
that the plates on the table or other items at Bodie were left behind in a rush to escape.

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Questions 1-7
Complete the notes below.

Choose ONE WORD AND/ OR A NUMBER from the Passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet.

Bodie’s past

About Bodie

-Located in a 1..................... in the Sierra Nevada.

-In the 1870s attracted people who wanted to be 2..................... in order to get rich.
-Saw the end of gold production in the 1940s.
-Now has about 3..................... Of the original buildings.

Gold mining and milling

-Large- scale production of gold

-Extraction of smaller amounts of gold required 4.....................
-Extraction by chemical processing involved:
-First stage:
-Ore was rinsed over mercury- covered sheets of 5.....................
-Melted mixture was formed into bars
-Second stage (to filter any leftover gold or silver particles):
-Ore with texture like 6..................... was immersed in potassium cyanide.
-Mentals were taken out and caught in containers filled with 7.....................

Question 8-13
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?

In boxed 8-13 on your answer sheet, wrire

TRUE if the statement agree with the information

FALE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this.

8..................... Wind and snow are the most difficult factors Bodie preservationists have to
deal with

9..................... The maintenance team in Bodie was unable to locate the Jeffrey pine the
settlers

10..................... Lack of funding has caused other towns like Bodie to disappear.

11..................... Many people left Bodie when wild animals started living in their homes.

12..................... Acidic rainforest soils tend to contain move microbes than the soil found in
places like.

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13..................... Some tourists doubt that items in Bodie were really used by people who
lived there.

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Solution:
1. valley 8. TRUE
2. miners 9. NOT GIVEN
3. 20 percent 10. NOT GIVEN
4. electricity 11. FALSE
5. copper 12. FALSE
6. sand 13. TRUE
7. zinc

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Reading Practice

Sir Francis Ronalds and Telegraph

A. RONALDS, Sir FRANCIS (1788-1873), inventor of the electric telegraph and
meteorologist, son of Francis Ronalds, a London merchant, and of his wife, Jane,
daughter of William Field, was born in London on 21 Feb. 1788. Ronalds was
educated at a private school at Cheshunt by the Rev. E. Cogan. At an early age he
displayed a taste for experiment, and he acquired great skill later in practical
mechanics and draughtsman ship. Under the influence of Jean Andre de Luc (1727-
1817), whose acquaintance he made in 1814, he began to devote himself to practical
electricity. In 1814 and 1815 he published several papers on electricity in Tilloch’s
'Philosophical Magazine,' one of which records an ingenious use of De Luc's 'electric
column' as a motive power for a clock.
B. Ronalds's name is chiefly remembered as the inventor of an electric telegraph. Since
1753, when the first proposal for an electric telegraph worked by statical electricity
was made by a writer signing 'C. ' (said to be Charles Morrison) in the 'Scots
Magazine', successive advances had been made abroad by Volta, Le Sage, Lomond,
Cavallo, Salva, and others; but much was needed to perfect the invention.
C. In 1816 Francis Ronalds, then living at Upper Mall, Hammersmith, built in his back
garden two frames to accommodate eight miles of wire for his new invention of an
electrostatic telegraph. It used clockwork-driven rotating dials, engraved with letters
of the alphabet and numbers, synchronized with each other, at both ends of the
circuit. For the past three or four years, encouraged by the octogenarian Swiss
meteorologist, Jean Andre De Luc, Ronalds had been enthusiastically experimenting
with electrostatic clockwork devices. When someone desired to send a message he
earthed the wire at his end at the moment when the dial indicated the desired letter.
At the receiving end the pith balls would fall together when earthed and the recipient
noted the letter showing on his dial at that moment. The system was slow and
depended on the two dials staying in step, but Ronalds successfully transmitted and
received letters over 150 meters of wire ; later he succeeded in sending messages
through eight miles of iron wire suspended above his garden in London.
D. After sending messages along his wires on the frame, he developed another version
in which the wires were enclosed in glass tubes buried in the ground. At each end of
the line a clockwork mechanism turned synchronously revolving discs with letters on
them. A frictional-electricity machine kept the wire continuously charged, while at
each end two pith balls hung from the wire on silk threads, and since they were
similarly charged from the wire they stayed apart. Ronalds 'S instrument was of real
practical use, and the brilliant idea of using synchronously rotating discs, now
employed in the Hughes printing apparatus, was entirely his own. The only defect in
his invention was the comparative slowness with which a succession of symbols
could be transmitted.
E. With communications between London and Portsmouth in mind, he believed his
telegraph would work over distances of 800km. In the same year, Ronalds wrote to
offer his invention to the Admiralty. In fact, in 1806, Ralph Wedgwood submitted a

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 telegraph based on frictional electricity to the Admiralty, but was told that the
semaphore was sufficient for the country. In a pamphlet he suggested the
establishment of a telegraph system with public offices in different centers. Francis
Ronalds, in 1816, brought a similar telegraph of his invention to the notice of the
Admiralty, and was politely informed that 'telegraphs of any kind are now wholly
unnecessary.' John Barrow, Secretary to the Admiralty, replied that "Telegraphs of
any kind are now wholly unnecessary; and no other than the one now in use will be
adopted." (The one in use was a semaphore system. Only a year after the end of the
Napoleonic Wars, the Admiralty saw no need for improved communications, even
though the semaphore was usable only in daylight and good weather.
F. After this disappointment, Ronalds set off for the continent. He travelled throughout
Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean, taking notes, sketching and collecting
scientific books between 1816 and 1823. He had begun collecting his large library of
works on electricity and kindred subjects. The last activity formed the beginnings of
the Ronalds Library, left in trust to the IEE (now the IET) after his death. In a small
pamphlet published in 1823, Ronalds described his invention and listed some of its
possible uses, "Why should not government govern at Portsmouth almost as promptly
as in Downing Street? Why should our defaulters escape by default of our foggy
climate? Let US have Electrical Conversazione offices communicating with each
other all over the kingdom if we can." In 1825 he invented and patented a perspective
tracing instrument, intended to facilitate drawing from nature, which he improved
about 1828, and described in a work called 'Mechanical Perspective.' These
instruments seem to be the only ones for which he took out patents.
G. However, Ronalds never patented his invention in electric telegraph. Ronalds seems
to have made few or no practical contributions to science. In the meanwhile, one
person did benefit from this work-Charles Wheatstone who saw the telegraph as a
boy. When Charles Wheatstone was quite a child, his father had seen the Ronalds
telegraph at work. Later, the invention of an electric telegraph had been marvelously
developed by Wheatstone, who had seen many of the Hammersmith experiments, in
conjunction with Mr. William Fothergill Cooke, and these two men together devised
and patented in 1837 the first electric telegraph used publicly and commercially in
England. When, in 1855, a controversy arose between Wheatstone and Cooke with
regard to their respective shares in the invention, Wheatstone at once acknowledged
his direct debt to Ronalds, and Cooke, though less fully, acknowledged the priority of
Ronalds's work; Until 1855 Ronalds's share in the invention had been forgotten by
the public.
H. Early in 1843 Ronalds was made honorary director and superintendent of the
Meteorological Observatory, which was then established at Kew by the British
Association for the Advancement of Science. He began work on a system for
registering meteorological data using photography and this time was awarded a grant
to continue his work. A similar system was developed independently by Charles
Brooke, aided like Ronalds by grants from the Royal Society, had invented
independently about this time. But the British Association confirmed Ronalds's
priority. This was the beginning of automatic, accurate recording of meteorological
data and remained in use for some years after Ronalds's death.

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 I. Ronalds lived long enough to see his prophecies come to fruition and to receive
belated official recognition: in 1870, three years before he died, he was knighted by
Queen Elizabeth I, for his "early and remarkable labors in telegraphic investigations."

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Question 1-5
Matching the each correct year to the historical event in the passage,

and write the correct answer into box of 1-5 in the answer sheet
A 1753 B 1806 c 1816 D 1823
E 1825 F 1837 G 1843

1..................... When did Francis Ronalds achieve a satisfactory result in the electricity
experiment conducted first time?

2..................... When was the first proposal of an electric telegraph based on static
electricity?

3..................... When did Ronalds get patent of his invention firstly?

4..................... Ronalds first made it known and revealed the applicable significance of his
telegram to public.

5..................... The contribution being done by Ronalds' invention in meteorological data

Question 6-9
Answer the questions below.

Choose NO MORE THAN FOUR WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for
each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 6-9 on your answer sheet.

6. What were carved in the experimental dials when doing Ronalds' experiment this in
garden? 6.....................

7. What were enclosed with the buried telegram wires when Ronalds did the improved
experiment? 7.....................

8. What is the greatest distance Ronalds believed his telegram can send? 8.....................

9. What kind of power supplied to keeping the wire charged continuously? 9.....................

Question 10-14
The passage has paragraphs as A-l; which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the appropriate letter A-l for box 10-14 on your answer sheet.

10..................... the fundamental aims of mapmaking remain unchanged.

11..................... the possibilities of satellite mapping are infinite.
12..................... There is a commercial use of the telegram.
13..................... There is a contributory influence on Ronalds from a fellow he got to know.

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14..................... Ronalds’s proposal was rejected as the preceding reference to another
application.

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Solution:
1. C 8. 800km
9. frictional-electricity
2. A
machine
3. E 10. G
4. D 11. A
5. G 12. E
6. letters and
13. D
numbers
7. glass
14. I
tubes

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Reading Practice

Revolutions in Mapping
A. Today, the mapmaker's vision is no longer confined to what the human eye can see.
The perspective of mapmaking has shifted from the crow's nest of the sailing vessel,
mountain top and airplane to 'new orbital heights. Radar, which bounces microwave
radio signals off a given surface to create images of its contours and textures, can
penetrate jungle foliage and has produced the first maps of the mountains of the
planet Venus. And a combination of sonar and radar produces charts of the seafloor,
putting much of Earth on the map for the first time. ‘Suddenly it's a whole different
world for US,’ says Joel Morrison, chief of geography at the U.S. Bureau of the
Census, ‘Our future as mapmakers - even ten years from now - is uncertain.’
B. The world's largest collection of maps resides in the basement of the Library of
Congress in Washington, D.c. The collection, consisting of up to 4,6 million map
sheets and 63,000 atlases, includes magnificent bound collections of elaborate maps-
the pride of the golden age of Dutch cartography*. In the reading room scholars,
wearing thin cotton gloves to protect the fragile sheets, examine ancient maps with
magnifying glasses. Across the room people sit at their computer screens, studying
the latest maps, with their prodigious memories, computers are able to store data
about people, places and environments - the stuff of maps - and almost instantly
information is displayed on the screen in the desired geographic context, and at the
dick of a button, a print-out of the map appears.
C. Measuring the spherical Earth ranks as the first major milestone in scientific
cartography. This was first achieved by the Greek astronomer Eratosthenes, a
scholar at the famous Alexandrian Library in Egypt in the third century BC. He
calculated the Earth's circumference as 25,200 miles, which was remarkably
accurate. The longitudinal circumference is known to be 24,860 miles.
D. Building on the ideas of his predecessors, the astronomer and geographer Ptolemy,
working in the second century AD, spelled out a system for organizing maps
according to grids of latitude and longitude. Today, parallels of latitude are often
spaced at intervals of 10 to 20 degrees and meridians** at 15 degrees, and this is the
basis for the width of modern time zones. Another legacy of Ptolemy's is his advice to
cartographers to create maps to scale. Distance on today's maps is expressed as a
fraction or ratio of the real distance. But mapmakers in Ptolemy's time lacked the
geographic knowledge to live up to Ptolemy's scientific principles. Even now, when
surveyors achieve accuracies down to inches and satellites can plot potential missile
targets within feet, maps are not true pictures of reality.
E. However, just as the compass improved navigation and created demand for useful
charts, so the invention of the printing press in the 15th century put maps in the
hands of more people, and took their production away from monks, who had tended
to illustrate theology rather than geography. Ocean-going ships launched an age of
discovery, enlarging both what could and needed to be mapped, and awakened an
intellectual spirit and desire for knowledge of the world.
F. Inspired by the rediscovered Ptolemy, whose writing had been preserved by Arabs

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 after the sacking of the Alexandrian Library in AD 931, mapmakers in the 15th century
gradually replaced theology with knowledge of faraway places, as reported by
travelling merchants like Marco Polo.
G. Gerhardus Mercator, the foremost shipmaker of the 16th century, developed a
technique of arranging meridians and parallels in such a way that navigators could
draw straight lines between two points and steer a constant compass course
between them. This distortion formula, introduced on his world map of 1569, created
the ‘Greenland problem’. Even on some standard maps to this day, Greenland looks
as large as South America - one of the many problems when one tries to portray a
round world on a flat sheet of paper. But the Mercator projection was so practical that
it is still popular with sailors.
H. Scientific mapping of the land came into its own with the achievements of the Cassini
family- father, son, grandson and great-grandson. In the late 17th century, the Italian
- born founder, Jean-Dominique, invented a complex method of determining longitude
based on observations of Jupiter's moons. Using this technique, surveyors were able
to produce an accurate map of France. The family continued to map the French
countryside arid his great-grandson finally published their famous Cassini map in
1793 during the French Revolution. While it may have lacked the artistic appeal of
earlier maps, it was the model of a social and geographic map showing roads, rivers,
canals, towns, abbeys, vineyards, lakes and even windmills. With this achievement,
France became the first country to be completely mapped by scientific methods.
I. Mapmaking has come a long way since those days. Today's surveyors rarely go into
the field without being linked to navigation satellites. Their hand-held receivers are
the most familiar of the new mapping technologies, and the satellite system,
developed and still operated by the US Defense Department, is increasingly used by
surveyors. Even ordinary hikers, sailors and explorers can tap into it for data telling
them where they are. Simplified civilian versions of the receivers are available for a
few hundred dollars and they are also the heart of electronic map displays available in
some cars. Cartography is pressing on to cosmic frontiers, but its objective is, and
always has been, to communicate a sense of ‘here’ in relation to ‘there’, however far
away ‘there’ may be.

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Questions 1-5
Choose the correct letter, A, B, c or D.

Write the correct letter in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.

1. According to the first paragraph, mapmakers in the 21st century

A combine techniques to chart unknown territory.

B still rely on being able to see what they map.
C are now able to visit the darkest jungle.
D need input from experts in other fields.

2. The Library of Congress offers an opportunity to

A borrow from their collection of Dutch maps.

B learn how to restore ancient and fragile maps.
C enjoy the atmosphere of the reading room.
D create individual computer map to order.

3. Ptolemy alerted his contemporaries to the importance of

A measuring the circumference of the world.

B organizing maps to reflect accurate ratios of distance.

C working out the distance between parallels of latitude.

D accuracy and precision in mapping.

4. The invention of the printing press

A revitalized interest in scientific knowledge.

B enabled maps to be produced more cheaply.

C changed the approach to mapmaking.

D ensured that the work of Ptolemy was continued.

5. The writer concludes by stating that

A mapmaking has become too specialized.

B cartographers work in very harsh conditions.

C the fundamental aims of mapmaking remain unchanged.

D the possibilities of satellite mapping are infinite.

Questions 6-7
Look at the following list of achievements (Questions 6-7) and the list of mapmakers below.

Match each achievement with the correct mapmaker, A, B, C or D.

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Write the correct letter, A, B, C or D, in boxes 6-7 on your answer sheet.

6..................... came very close to accurately measuring the distance round the Earth

7..................... produced maps showing man-made landmarks

8..................... laid the foundation for our modem time zones

List of Mapmakers

A Mercator

B Ptolemy

C Cassini family

D Eratosthenes

Questions 9-13
Complete the summary below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet.

Ancient maps allow US to see how we have come to make sense of the world. They also
reflect the attitudes and knowledge of the day. The first great step in mapmaking took place
in 9..................... in the 3rd century BC. Work continued in this tradition until the 2nd
century AD but was then abandoned for over a thousand years, during which time maps
were the responsibility of 10..................... scientists.

Fortunately, however, the writings of 11..................... rather than had been kept, and
interest in scientific mapmaking was revived as scholars sought to produce maps, inspired
by the accounts of travellers. These days, 12..................... are vital to the creation of maps
and radar has allowed cartographers to map areas beyond our immediate world. In
addition, this high-tech equipment is not only used to map faraway places, but cheaper
versions have also been developed for use in 13......................

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Solution:
1. A 8. B
2. D 9. Egypt
3. B 10. monks
4. C 11. Ptolemy
5. C 12. satellites
6. D 13. cars
7. C

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