TesfS

READING

READING PASSAGE 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on
Reading Passage 1 on the following pages.
Questions 1-7
Reading Passage 1 has seven paragraphs, A-G.
Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number, i-x, in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet.
List of Headings
i

How deforestation harms isolated trees

ii

How other plants can cause harm

iii

Which big trees support the most diverse species

iv

Impact of big tree loss on the wider environment

Measures to prevent further decline in big tree populations

vi

How wildlife benefits from big trees

vii

Risk from pests and infection

viii Ways in which industry uses big tree products

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ix

How higher temperatures slow the rate of tree growth

Factors that enable trees to grow to significant heights

Paragraph A

Paragraph B

Paragraph C

Paragraph D

Paragraph E

Paragraph F

Paragraph G

Reading

Trees in trouble
What is causing the decline of the world's giant forests?
A Big trees are incredibly important ecologically. For a start, they sustain countless
other species. They provide shelter for many animals, and their trunks and branches
can become gardens, hung with green ferns, orchids and bromeliads, coated with
mosses and draped with vines. With their tall canopies* basking in the sun, they
capture vast amounts of energy. This allows them to produce massive crops of fruit,
flowers and foliage that sustain much of the animal life in the forest.
B Only a small number of tree species have the genetic capacity to grow really big. The
mightiest are native to North America, but big trees grow all over the globe, from the
tropics to the boreal forests of the high latitudes. To achieve giant stature, a tree needs
three things: the right place to establish its seedling, good growing conditions and lots
of time with low adult mortality*. Disrupt any of these, and you can lose your
biggest trees.
C In some parts of the world, populations of big trees are dwindling because their
seedlings cannot survive or grow. In southern India, for instance, an aggressive nonnative shrub, Lantana camara, is invading the floor of many forests. Lantana grows
so thickly that young trees often fail to take root. With no young trees to replace
them, it is only a matter of time before most of the big trees disappear. Across much
of northern Australia, gamba grass from Africa is overrunning native savannah
woodlands. The grass grows up to four metres tall and burns fiercely, creating superhot fires that cause catastrophic tree mortality.
D Without the right growing conditions trees cannot get really big, and there is
some evidence to suggest tree growth could slow in a warmer world, particularly
in environments that are already warm. Having worked for decades at La Selva
Biological Station in Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui, Costa Rica, David and Deborah Clark
and colleagues have shown that tree growth there declines markedly in warmer
years. "During the day, their photosynthesis* shuts down when it gets too warm,
and at night they consume more energy because their metabolic rate increases, much
as a reptile's would when it gets warmer," explains David Clark. With less energy
produced in warmer years and more being consumed just to survive, there is even
less energy available for growth.
E The darks' hypothesis, if correct, means tropical forests would shrink over time.
The largest, oldest trees would progressively die off and tend not to be replaced.
According to the Clarks, this might trigger a destabilisation of the climate; as older
trees die, forests would release some of their stored carbon into the atmosphere,
prompting a vicious cycle of further warming, forest shrinkage and carbon emissions.
F Big trees face threats from elsewhere. The most serious is increasing mortality,
especially of mature trees. Across much of the planet, forests of slow-growing ancient
trees have been cleared for human use. In western North America, most have been
replaced by monocultures of fast-growing conifers. Siberia's forests are being logged
at an incredible rate. Logging in tropical forests is selective but the timber cutters
usually prioritise the biggest and oldest trees. In the Amazon, my colleagues and I
found the mortality rate for the biggest trees had tripled in small patches of rainforest

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surrounded by pasture land. This happens for two reasons. First, as they grow taller,
big trees become thicker and less flexible: when winds blow across the surrounding
cleared land, there is nothing to stop their acceleration. When they hit the trees, the
impact can snap them in half. Second, rainforest fragments dry out when surrounded
by dry, hot pastures and the resulting drought can have devastating consequences:
one four-year study has shown that death rates will double for smaller trees but will
increase 4.5 times for bigger trees.
Particular enemies to large trees are insects and disease. Across vast areas of western
North America, increasingly mild winters are causing massive outbreaks of bark
beetle. These tiny creatures can kill entire forests as they tunnel their way through
the inside of trees. In both North America and Europe, fungus-causing diseases such
as Dutch elm disease have killed off millions of stately trees that once gave beauty to
forests and cities. As a result of human activity, such enemies reach even the remotest
corners of the world, threatening to make the ancient giants a thing of the past.
Glossary
a canopy: leaves and branches that form a cover high above the
ground
mortality: the number of deaths within a particular group
photosynthesis: a process used by plants to convert the light energy
from the sun into chemical energy that can be used as food

Questions 8-13
Complete the sentences below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 8-13.
8

The biggest trees in the world can be found in

Some trees in northern Australia die because of...

gamba grass.

10 The Clarks believe that the release of

to the death of more trees.
11
12
13

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Strong

made worse by
from dead trees could lead

are capable of damaging tall trees in the Amazon.

has a worse impact on tall trees than smaller ones.

In western Northern America, a species of

trees.

has destroyed many

Reading

READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which are based on
Reading Passage 2 below.

Whale Strandings
Why do whales leave the ocean and become stuck on beaches?
When the last stranded whale of a group
bubbles block the flow of blood to vital organs,
eventually dies, the story does not end there.
and can ultimately lead to death.
A team of researchers begins to investigate,
Plausible as this seems, it is still a theory and
collecting skin samples for instance, recording
anything that could help them answer the crucial based on our more comprehensive knowledge
of land-based animals. For this reason, some
question: why? Theories abound, some more
scientists are wary. Whale expert Karen Evans is
convincing than others. In recent years, navy
sonar has been accused of causing certain whales one such scientist. Another is Rosemary Gales,
a leading expert on whale Strandings. She says
to strand. It is known that noise pollution from
offshore industry, shipping and sonar can impair sonar technology cannot always be blamed for
mass Strandings. "It's a case-by-case situation.
underwater communication, but can it really
Whales
have been stranding for a very long time drive whales onto our beaches?
pre-sonar." And when 80% of all Australian whale
In 1998, researchers at the Pelagos Cetacean
Strandings occur around Tasmania, Gales and her
Research Institute, a Greek non-profit scientific
team must continue in the search for answers.
group, linked whale Strandings with lowWhen animals beach next to each other at the
frequency sonar tests being carried out by the
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). They same time, the most common cause has nothing
to do with humans at all. "They're highly social
recorded the stranding of 12 Cuvier's beaked
creatures," says Gales. "When they mass strand whales over 38.2 kilometres of coastline. NATO
it's
complete panic and chaos. If one of the group
later admitted it had been testing new sonar
strands
and sounds the alarm, others will try to
technology in the same area at the time as the
Strandings had occurred. 'Mass' whale Strandings swim to its aid, and become stuck themselves."
involve four or more animals. Typically they
Activities such as sonar testing can hint at when
all wash ashore together, but in mass atypical
a stranding may occur, but if conservationists are
Strandings (such as the one in Greece), the
to reduce the number of Strandings, or improve
whales don't strand as a group; they are
rescue operations, they need information on
scattered over a larger area.
where Strandings are likely to occur as well.
With this in mind, Ralph James, physicist at the
For humans, hearing a sudden loud noise
University of Western Australia in Perth, thinks
might prove frightening, but it does not induce
he may have discovered why whales turn up only
mass fatality. For whales, on the other hand,
on some beaches. In 1986 he went to Augusta,
there is a theory on how sonar can kill. The
Western Australia, where more than 100 false
noise can surprise the animal, causing it to
killer whales had beached. "I found out from
swim too quickly to the surface. The result is
chatting to the locals that whales had been
decompression sickness, a hazard human divers
stranding there for decades. So I asked myself,
know all too well. If a diver ascends too quickly
what is it about this beach?" From this question
from a high-pressure underwater environment
that James pondered over 20 years ago, grew the
to a lower-pressure one, gases dissolved in
university's Whale Stranding Analysis Project.
blood and tissue expand and form bubbles. The

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Test5
Data has since revealed that all mass strandings
around Australia occur on gently sloping sandy
beaches, some with inclines of less than 0.5%. For
whale species that depend on an echolocation
system to navigate, this kind of beach spells
disaster. Usually, as they swim, they make
clicking noises, and the resulting sound waves
are reflected in an echo and travel back to them.
However, these just fade out on shallow beaches,
so the whale doesn't hear an echo and it crashes
onto the shore.

we can. They have found trends which could

be used to forecast 'bad years' for strandings in
the future. In 2005, a survey by Klaus Vanselow
and Klaus Ricklefs of sperm whale strandings in
the North Sea even found a correlation between
these and the sunspot cycle, and suggested that
changes in the Earth's magnetic field might be
involved. But others are sceptical. "Their study
was interesting... but the analyses they used were
flawed on a number of levels," says Evans. In the
same year, she co-authored a study on Australian
strandings that uncovered a completely different
But that is not all. Physics, it appears, can help
trend. "We analysed data from 1920 to 2002 ...
with the when as well as the where. The ocean
and observed a clear periodicity in the number
is full of bubbles. Larger ones rise quickly to
of whales stranded each year that coincides with
the surface and disappear, whilst smaller ones
a major climatic cycle." To put it more simply,
- called microbubbles - can last for days. It is
she says, in the years when strong westerly and
these that absorb whale 'clicks'. "Rough weather
southerly winds bring cool water rich in nutrients
generates more bubbles than usual," James adds. closer to the Australia coast, there is an increase
So, during and after a storm, echolocating whales
in the number of fish. The whales follow.
are essentially swimming blind.
So what causes mass strandings? "It's probably
Last year was a bad one for strandings in
many different components," says James. And he
Australia. Can we predict if this - or any other
is probably right. But the point is we now know
year - will be any better? Some scientists believe
what many of those components are.

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Reading

Questions 14-17
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 14-17 on your answer sheet.
14

What do researchers often take from the bodies of whales?

15

What do some industries and shipping create that is harmful to whales?

16

In which geographical region do most whale strandings in Australia happen?

17

Which kind of whale was the subject of a study in the North Sea?

Questions 18-21
Label the diagram below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 18-21 on your answer sheet.
coastline

X.ls,^___

Be cause 18
di< appear on
sh allow beaches,
w lales don't realise
th e beach is near.

.^
M*t*^\

E)ctra 19
in
th e water attract
fi ;h and therefore
w hales to South
A ustralian coasts.

deeper ocean

'.^

Storms create
20

which absorb
whales ' clicks.

-cDr:.' ._^

d'
**.

'

Sona may result in

supply of
in whalp
21
bodies.

3 hln :ked

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Test5
Questions 22-26
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2?
In boxes 22-26 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE
FALSE
NOT GIVEN

238

if the statement agrees with the information

if the statement contradicts the information
if there is no information on this

22

The aim of the research by the Pelagos Institute in 1998 was to prove that navy
sonar was responsible for whale strandings.

23

The whales stranded in Greece were found at different points along the coast.

24

Rosemary Gales has questioned the research techniques used by the Greek
scientists.

25

According to Gales, whales are likely to try to help another whale in trouble.

26

There is now agreement amongst scientists that changes in the Earth's magnetic
fields contribute to whale strandings.

Reading

READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3
below.

Science in Space
How w/7/ NASA transform the International Space Station from a building site
into a cutting-edge research laboratory?
A premier, world-class laboratory in low Earth
couldn't be tested for long enough to prove whether
orbitThat was how the National Aeronautics
they were effective. It's been calculated that to
properly assess a centrifuge's impact on human
and Space Administration agency (NASA) sold
physiology, astronauts would have to ride it for 30
the International Space Station (ISS) to the US
Congress in 2001.Today no one can doubt the
minutes a day for at least two months. The only
way to test this is in weightlessness, and the only
agency's technological ambition.The most complex
time we have to do that is on the space station,'
engineering project ever attempted has created an
enormous set of interlinked modules that orbits
says Laurence Young, a space medicine expert at the
the planet at more than 27,000 kilometres per hour. Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology.
It might be travelling fast but, say critics, as a lab it is
There are certainly plenty of ideas for other
going nowhere. So far, it has gone through
experiments: but many projects have yet to fly.
$150 billion.
Even if the centrifuge project gets the green light,
it will have to wait another five years before the
So where should its future priorities lie? This
question was addressed at the recent 1st annual
station's crew can take a spin. Lengthy delays
ISS research and development conference in
like this are one of the key challenges for NASA,
Colorado.Among the presenters was Satoshi Iwase
according to an April 201 I report from the US
National Academy of Sciences. Its authors said
of Aichi Medical University in Japan who has spent
several years developing an experiment that could
they were 'deeply concerned' about the state of
help solve one of the key problems that humans
NASA's science research, and made a number
will face in space: keeping our bodies healthy in
of recommendations. Besides suggesting that
the agency reduces the time between approving
weightlessness. One thing that physiologists have
learned is that without gravity our bodies begin
experiments and sending them into space, it also
to lose strength, leaving astronauts with weakened
recommended setting clearer research priorities.
bones, muscles and cardiovascular systems.To
NASA has already begun to take action, hiring
counter these effects on a long-duration mission
management consultants ProOrbis to develop a plan
to, say, Mars, astronauts will almost certainly
to cut through the bureaucracy.And Congress also
need to create their own artificial gravity.This is
directed NASA to hire an independent organisation,
where Iwase comes in. He leads a team designing
the Centre for the Advancement of Science in
a centrifuge for humans. In their preliminary
Space (CASIS), to help manage the station's US lab
design, an astronaut is strapped into the seat of a
facilities. One of CASIS's roles is to convince public
machine that resembles an exercise bike. Pedalling
and private investors that science on the station
provides a workout for the astronaut's muscles and
is worth the spend because judged solely by the
cardiovascular system, but it also causes the seat to
number of papers published, the ISS certainly seems
rotate vertically around a central axis so the rider
poor value: research on the station has generated
experiences artificial gravity while exercising.
about 3,100 papers since !998.The Hubble Space
Telescope, meanwhile, has produced more than
The centrifuge project highlights the station's
potential as a research lab. Similar machines have
I 1,300 papers in just over 20 years, yet it cost less
than one-tenth of the price of the space station.
flown in space aboard NASA's shuttles, but they

239

Tests
Yet Mark Uhran, assistant associate administrator
for the ISS, refutes the criticism that the station
hasn't done any useful research. He points to
progress made on a salmonella vaccine, for example.
To get the ISS research back on track, CASIS has
examined more than 100 previous microgravity
experiments to identify promising research themes.
From this, it has opted to focus on life science and
medical research, and recently called for proposals
for experiments on muscle wasting, osteoporosis
and the immune system.The organisation also
maintains that the ISS should be used to develop
products with commercial application and to test
those that are either close to or already on the
market. Investment from outside organisations is
vital, says Uhran, and a balance between academic
and commercial research will help attract this.
The station needs to attract cutting-edge research,
yet many scientists seem to have little idea what
goes on aboard it. Jeanne DiFrancesco at ProOrbis
conducted more than 200 interviews with people
from organisations with potential interests in low
gravity studies. Some were aware of the ISS but
they didn't know what's going on up there, she says.

240

'Others know there's science, but they don't know

what kind.'
According to Alan Stern, planetary scientist, the
biggest public relations boost for the ISS may come
from the privately funded space flight industry.
Companies like SpaceX could help NASA and its
partners when it comes to resupplying the ISS, as it
suggests it can reduce launch costs by two-thirds.
Virgin Atlantic's SpaceShipTwo or Zero2/nf/n/ty's highaltitude balloon could also boost the space station's
fortunes.They might not come close to the ISS's
orbit, yet Stern believes they will revolutionise the
way we, the public, see space. Soon everyone will be
dreaming of interplanetary travel again, he predicts.
More importantly, scientists are already queuing
for seats on these low-gravity space-flight services
so they can collect data during a few minutes of
weightlessness.This demand for low-cost space
flight could eventually lead to a service running on a
more frequent basis, giving researchers the chance
to test their ideas before submitting a proposal for
experiments on the ISS. Getting flight experience
should help them win a slot on the station, says Stern.

Reading

Questions 27-30
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes 27-30 on your answer sheet.
27

What does the writer state about the ISS in the first paragraph?
A
B
C
D

28

What are we told about Satoshi Iwase's experimental machine?

A
B
C
D

29

It is based on conventional exercise equipment.

It was originally commissioned by NASA.
It is designed only to work in low-gravity environments.
It has benefits that Iwase did not anticipate.

The writer refers to the Hubble Space Telescope in order to

A
B
C
D

30

Its manufacture has remained within the proposed budget.

It is a great example of technological achievement.
There are doubts about the speed it has attained.
NASA should have described its purpose more accurately.

show why investment in space technology has decreased.

highlight the need to promote the ISS in a positive way.
explain which kind of projects are more likely to receive funding.
justify the time required for a space project to produce results.

In the sixth paragraph, we are told that CASIS has

A
B
C
D

rejected certain applications for experiments on the ISS.

expressed concern about testing products used for profit.
questioned the benefits of some of the projects currently on the ISS.
invited researchers to suggest certain health-based projects.

241

Tests
Questions 31-35
Look at the following opinions (Questions 31-35) and the list of people below.
Match each opinion with the correct person, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter, A, B, C or D, in boxes 31-35 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
31

The ISS should be available for business-related ventures.

32

There is general ignorance about what kinds of projects are possible on the ISS.

33

The process of getting accepted projects onto the ISS should be speeded up.

34

Some achievements of the ISS are underrated.

35

To properly assess new space technology, there has to be an absence of gravity.

List of people
A
B
C
D

242

Laurence Young
Authors of the US National Academy of Sciences report
Mark Uhran
Jeanne DiFrancesco

Reading
Questions 36-39
Complete the summary using the lists of words, A-H, below.
Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 36-39 on your answer sheet.

The influence of commercial space flight on the ISS

According to Alan Stern, private space companies could affect the future of the ISS. He
believes they could change its image; firstly because sending food and equipment there
would be more 36

if a commercial craft were used, and secondly, because

commercial flights might make the whole idea of space exploration seem 37

to

ordinary people. Another point is that as the demand for space flights increases, there is
a chance of them becoming more 38

And by working on a commercial flight

first, scientists would be more 39

A safe
E rapid

if an ISS position came up.

B competitive
F regular

C flexible D real

G suitable

H economical

Question 40
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in box 40 on your answer sheet.
40

The writer's purpose in writing this article is to

A
B
C
D

promote the advantages of space flight in general.

illustrate how the ISS could become more effective.
criticise the ISS for its narrow-minded attitude.
contrast useful and worthless space projects.

243