READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading
Passage 1 on pages 2 and 3

A Brief Introduction to Pepper

Pepper, the spice, comes from the berries of a plant that is a woody climbing vine. In the
botanical world, pepper belongs to a genus of plants called Piper. This genus was
created in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus, the Swedish botanist whose system for classifying
plants is still in use today. He placed seventeen species in the piper genus and probably
used the ancient Greek name for black pepper, Peperi, as the basis for the group.

Pepper isn't a fast-maturing plant. It takes several years for the branching woody vines
to mature, and during their growth the vines can reach up to thirty feet. The pepper
berries- which grow in clusters and dangle from the vines-are picked by hand when they
are ready for harvesting, which usually begins two or three years after the vine is first
planted. Black pepper is picked when the berries are still green, while white pepper is
picked later, when the berries have turned from green to red. Preparing the berries for
sale involves a lengthy process of drying, cleaning and sorting. Once the berries have
been dried, they are then referred to as peppercorns, and these are what are used in
food preparation around the world.

The pepper plant loves the warm, humid, rainy tropics, in a narrow band around the
equator. Pepper also requires well-drained soils, and its preferred habitat is forests.

Unshaded plants which are exposed too long to the sun will not yield many berries. The
colourful mixes of whole peppercorns seen in many markets today contain green and
black peppercorns. Although there are pink peppercorns, the ripest berries, these are
more fragile and are therefore more costly than other kinds. This is why there are few of
them in a peppercorn mix.

No one knows when the first human bit into a peppercorn and decided it would taste
good on a piece of meat or in a vegetable stew, but in the West it was the ancient
Romans who apparently first made pepper an essential part of their meals. Food was
only part of the reason for pepper's popularity; health played an equally important role.

In the Roman Empire, pepper was employed to relieve the pain that was a common
consequence of numerous medical conditions and complaints. If you showed signs of
a fever, it was common practice to be given a liquid that had some pepper in it.

The Romans were not the first to embrace pepper as a medicine. Belief in the spice's
considerable usefulness is reflected in India's ancient Ayurvedic system of medicine,
which is more than three thousand years old. In Sanskrit (a language of ancient India),
black pepper is known as maricha or marica, meaning an ability to get rid of poison,
which suggests it was used in patients for this purpose. Pepper was also believed by the
Indians to have other qualities as well. For example, physicians would frequently apply
pepper-based lotions to reduce the effects of decay in teeth, which made it an extremely
popular remedy.
In the Middle Ages (5th-15th centuries) black peppers renown made it a must-have item
for the European wealthy, who loved the spice. At that time, pepper was guarded by
servants in royal households and kept in the private wardrobes of the rich. It was
considered a privilege to cook with pepper and many of the recipes from the period
called for substantial quantities of pepper, which might be considered very unappetising
today. But for most people, pepper was too expensive. In the year 1439, a pound of
pepper was roughly equal to more than two days' pay in England. Meanwhile, pepper
could be exchanged for gold, and also became a form of payment for peoples work. In
some of the larger cities, it was even possible to use pepper as rent in some kinds of
accommodation. Employees in the pepper industry were not allowed to have pockets in
their jackets or trousers so that this valuable commodity would not be stolen.

The huge demand for pepper and the money it could bring encouraged people to risk
adventure on foreign oceans and in foreign lands, and it is within this context that the
story of pepper really begins.
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 Carl Linnaeus method for categorising plants has been replaced by a better
one.

2 The ancient Greeks originally took the word for pepper from another language.

3 Machines are used to harvest pepper berries.

4 Pepper berries are riper than black pepper berries when they are picked.

5 Pepper vines need a lot of sunlight to produce a large harvest of berries.

6 Pink peppercorns are more expensive to buy than other varieties.

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.

The Many Uses of Pepper

Ancient Rome

• the Romans used pepper to reduce 7........................caused by many health

issues
• 8 ....................... containing pepper was used as medicine to bring down high
temperatures

India

• pepper has been used in Ayurvedic medicine for thousands of years

• pepper was thought to be able to extract 9 ......................... from people, as
indicated by its name in Sanskrit.
• pepper was used to treat problems with peoples 10 .........................

Uses in Europe in the Middle Ages

• ......................................................................................................... in wealthy
households, pepper was stored in 11 ...............................................
• ............................. 12 written at that time required large amounts of pepper
• rent could be paid in the form of pepper in city areas
• people who worked with pepper had to wear clothes without 13 .............
to discourage theft
READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Question 14-26, which are based on Reading
Passage 2 on pages 6 and 7

Australian parrots
and their adaptation to habitat change

A Parrots are found across the tropic and in all southern hemisphere continents except
Antarctica, but nowhere, do the display such a richness of diversity and form as in
Australia. One-sixth of the world's 345 parrot species are found there, and Australia has
long been renowned for the number and variety of its parrots.

B In the 16th century, the German cartographer Mercator made a world map that
included a place, somewhere near present-day Australia, that he named Terra
Psittacorum - the Land of Parrots - and the first European settles in Australia often
referred to the country as Parrot Land. In 1865, the celebrated British naturalist and
wildlife artist John Gould said: "No group of birds gives Australia so tropical and benign
an air as the numerous species of this great family by which it is tenanted.

C Parrots are descendants of an ancient line. Due to their great diversity, and since
most species inhabit Africa, Australia and South America, it seems almost certain that
parrots originated millions of years ago on the ancient southern continent of Gondwana,
before it broke up into the separate southern hemisphere continents we know today.
Much of Gondwana comprised vast rainforests intersected by huge slow-flowing rivers
and expansive lakes, but by eight million years ago, great changes were underway. The
centre of the continent of Australia had begun to dry out, and the rainforests that once
covered it gradually contracted to the continental margins, where, to a limited extent,
they still exist today.

D The creatures that remained in those shrinking rainforests had to adapt to the drier
conditions or face extinction. Reacting to these desperate circumstances, the parrot
family, typically found in jungles in other parts of the world, has populated some of
Australia's harshest environments. The parrots spread from ancestral forests through
eucalypt woodlands to colonies the central deserts of Australia, and as a consequence
they diversified into a wide range of species with adaptations that reflect the many
changes animals and plants had to make to survive in these areas.

E These evolutionary pressures helped mould keratin, the substance from which breaks
are made into a range of tools capable of gathering the new food types favored by
various species of parrot. The size of a parrot's short, blunt beak and the length of that
beak's do curved upper section are related to the type of food each species eats. Some
have comparatively long beaks that are perfect for extracting seeds from fruit; others
have broader and stronger beaks that are designed for cracking hard seeds.
F Differently shaped beaks ate not the only adaptations that have been made during the
developing relationship between parrots and their food plants. Like all of Australia's
many honey-eating birds, the rainbow-coloured lorikeets and the flowers on which they
feed have long co-evolved with features such as the shape and colour of the flowers
adapted to the bird's particular needs, and physical a example, red is the most attractive
colour to birds, and thus flowers which depend on birds for pollination are more often
red, and lorikeets' to gues have bristles which help them to collect as much pollen as
possible.

G Today, most of Australia's parrots inhabit woodland and open forest, arid their
numbers decline towards both deserts and wetter areas. The majority are nomadic to
some degree, moving around to take advantage of feeding and breeding places.
Two of the dry country parrots, the pink and grey galah and the pink, white and yellow
corella have expanded their ranges in recent years. They are among the species that
have adapted well to the changes brought about by European settlement forest telling
created grasslands where galahs and corellas thrive.

H But other parrot species did not fare so well when their environments were altered.
The clearing of large areas of rainforest is probable responsible for the disappearance
of the double-eyed fig parrot, and numbers of ground parrots declined when a great part
of their habitat was destroyed by the draining of coastal swamps. Even some parrot
species that benefited from forest clearing at first are now comforted by a shortage of
nesting sites due to further man-made changes.

I New conditions also sometimes favour an incoming species over one that originally
inhabited the area. For example, after farmers cleared large areas of forest on
Kangaroo Island off the coast of South Australia, the island was colonised by galahs.
They were soon going down holes and destroying black cockatoo eggs in order to take
the hole for their own use. Their success precipitated a partial collapse in the black
cockatoo population when the later lost the struggle for scarce nesting hollows.

J There may be no final answer to ensuring an equitable balance between parrot

species. Nest box programmers help ease the shortage of nesting sites in some places,
but there are not enough, they are expensive and they are not an adequate substitute
by large, old trees, such as the habitat they represent and nectar, pollen and seeds they
provide. Competition between parrots for nest sites is a result of the changes we
humans have made to the Earth. We are the most widespread and dangerous
competitors that parrots have ever had to face, but we also have the knowledge and
skill to maintain the wonderfully rich diversity of Australia's parrots. All we need is the
wild to do so.
Questions 14-19

Reading Passage 2 has ten paragraphs A-J Which

paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-J in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet

14 An example of how one parrot species may survive at the expense of another

15 A description of how plants may adapt to attract birds

16 Example of two parrot species which benefited from changes to the environment

17 How the varied Australian landscape resulted in a great variety of parrot species

18 A reason why most parrot species are native to the southern hemisphere

19 An example of a parrot species which did not survive changes to its habitat

Questions 20 - 22

Choose the correct letter A, B, C, or D

Write the correct letter in boxes 22-22 on your answer sheet

20 The writer believes that most parrot species
A Move from Africa and South America to Australia B Had
ancestors in either Africa, Australia or South America
C Had ancestors in a continent which later split up
D Came from a continent now covered by water

21 What does the Writer say about parrot's beak?

A They are longer than those of other birds
B They are made of a unique material
C They are used more efficiently than those of other species
D They are specially adapted to suit the diet

22 Which of the following is NOT mentioned by the writer as a disadvantage of

nesting boxes?
A They cost too much
B They need to be maintained
C They provide only shelter, not food D
They are too few of them
Questions 23 - 26 Complete the summary below
Choose NO MORE THANH TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for
each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 23 -26 on your answer sheet

Parrots in Australia

There are 345 varieties of parrot in existence and, of these, 23 ....................... live in

Australia. As early as the 24 ...................... , the mapmaker 25 ....................

recognized that parrots lived in that part of the world. 26 ........................ , the famous

painter of animals and birds, commented on the size and beauty of the Australian

parrot family.
READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on Reading
Passage on pages 10 and 11.

Insect-inspired robots
A recent conference reports on developments in biorobotics

A A tiny insect navigates its way across how reliable they are as navigational
featureless salt-pans. A cockroach aids. The landmarks are then scaled,
successfully works out how to scramble from small to large, so that the robot can
over an obstacle. The mantis shrimp recognise whether it is getting closer to
scans its aquatic world through or further away from them. Their location
hyperspectral eyes. Using the most is built into a map in its 'mind', which
basic of equipment and brains tinier than operates at different scales and instructs
a pinhead, insects constantly solve the robot whether to turn left or right at a
complex problems of movement, vision particular mark. The technology provides
and navigation - processing data that a general way for a machine to navigate
would challenge a supercomputer. How an unknown landscape.
they do it is driving one of the most
exciting new fields of technology - C For three decades, Professor
biomimetics and biorobotics, the Ruediger Wehner has journeyed from
imitation of insect systems to control Switzerland to the Sahara desert where
man-made machines. Delegates at a Cataglyphis, a tiny ant with a brain
recent conference presented some weighing just 0.1 mg, performs acts of
outcomes of their work in this area. navigational genius when it leaves its
nest, forages for food and returns
B Dr Alex Zelinsky suggested that the successfully. Cataglyphis uses polarised
method by which wasps use landmarks light, caused when air molecules scatter
to find their way back to the nest may light, to orient and steer itself. Wehner's
one day be part of a system for team found the ant has a set of
navigating cars tha t'know' where to go. specialised photoreceptors along the
A research team led by Dr Zelinsky has upper rim of its eyes that detect
shown that a robot can navigate its way polarised light, while other receptors
among 50 different landmarks by perform different navigational tasks. As
recognising them individually using a the sun moves, the ant notes its
panoramic camera. 'The inspiration direction each time it leaves the nest and
came from biology, where wasps use a updates its internal compass. Using
practice called "turn back and look" to other eye receptors it stores a 'snapshot'
orient themselves as they emerge from image of landmarks close to the nest
the nest. By flying to and fro, they lock in entrance in its eyes and compares this
images of the nest from different angles with what it sees as it returns. The ant
and perspectives, so they can recognise also has a way of measuring distance
it again,' he explained. The robot's travelled, while a "path integrator'
panoramic camera logs the surrounding periodically informs the ant of its current
area and its key landmarks, which are position relative to its point of departure.
then sorted in its computer according to Rather than integrate all the information
it receives in its brain, the ant actually without having to consult the brain.
performs a number of complex Quinn and Ritzmann are drawing on
calculations in different organs. Like a cockroach skills to create robotic walkers
supercomputer, the ant has many and control strategies that capture the
separate subroutines going on remarkable capacity of these insects to
simultaneously. Using the ant's ability to traverse complex terrain and navigate
steer by polarised light and to store and safely toward goals while avoiding
reuse landscape images, Wehner and obstacles. The team has already
colleagues have built 'Sahabot', a small designed a series of robots that run on
vehicle that uses polarisers and a digital six legs or on whegs, enabling them to
CCD camera to store 360° images of its handle surprisingly rugged terrain.
surroundings. It navigates by using
polarised sunlight and comparing the F International experts believe there are
current images of landmarks to the ones tremendous opportunities in biorobotics.
in its memory. However, delegates at the conference
had differing visions for the future of the
D Professor Robert Michelson had a science. While some were concerned
different desert challenge - to design a that the initial applications of biorobotics
flying robot that can not only navigate may be military, others, such as Dr
but also stay aloft and hover in the thin Barbara Webb, predicted swarms of tiny,
atmosphere of Mars. Drawing inspiration cheap, insect-like robots as society's
from insect flight, he has gone beyond cleaners and collectors. Sonja Kleinlogel
nature to devise a completely new hoped the study of the hyperspectral
concept for a flying machine. The eyes of the mantis shrimp might yield
'Entomopter' is a sort of double-ended remote sensors that keep watch over the
dragonfly whose wings beat reciprocally. environmental health of our oceans.
Michelson says that the flapping-wing Several delegates were concerned
design gives the craft unusually high lift about the ethical implications of
compared with a fixed-wing flyer, biorobotics, and urged that close
enabling it to fly slowly or hover in the attention be paid to this as the science
thin Martian air - whereas a fixed-wing and technologies develop.
craft would have to move at more than
400 km/h and could not stop to explore.

E Engineer Roger Quinn and

entomologist Professor Roy Ritzmann
are taking their inspiration from
cockroaches. According to Quinn and
Ritzmann, the ability of cockroaches to
run very fast over rough terrain may one
day give rise to a completely new all-
terrain vehicle with six legs, or maybe
even wheel-like legs called 'whegs'. The
key to the cockroach's remarkable cross-
country performance lies partly in the
fact that its legs do a lot of the 'thinking'
Questions 27 - 32

Reading Passage 3 has six sections, A-F.

Which section contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 27-32 on your answer sheet.

27 positive and negative possibilities for the use of insect-inspired robots

28 how perceived size is used as an aid to navigation

29 an example of decision-making taking place in the limbs

30 a description of a potential aid in space exploration

31 the range of skills that have inspired biorobotics

32 how a variety of navigational methods operate at the same time

Questions 33 - 36 Answer the

questions below.

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

your answers in boxes 33-36 on your answer sheet.

33 Which creature sees particularly well under water?

34 In addition to a computer, what technical equipment is fitted in Dr Zelinsky's
robot?

35 Where is the Cataglyphis ant found?

36 What atmospheric effect helps the Cataglyphis ant to know its direction?
Questions 37 - 40

Look at the following people (Questions 37-40) and the list of robots below.

Match each person or people with the correct robot, A-G.

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

37 Dr Alex Zelinsky
38 Professor Ruediger Wehner
39 Professor Robert Michelson
40 Roger Quinn and Professor Roy Ritzmann

List of Robots
A a robot that
makes use of light as well as stored images for navigational

purposes
B a robot that can contribute to environmental health
can move over difficult surfaces
c a robot that
D a robot that categories information from the environment according to its

usefulness
E a robot that can be used to clean surfaces and collect rubbish
has improved on the ability of the insect on which it is based
F a robot that
can replace soldiers in war
G a robot that
A Brief Introduction to Pepper Insect-inspired robots
1. FALSE 27. F
2. NOT GIVEN 28. B
3. FALSE 29. E
4. TRUE 30. D
5. FALSE 31. A
6. TRUE 32. C
7. pain 33. mantis shrimp
8. liquid 34. panoramic camera
9. poison 35. the Sahara desert
10. teeth 36. polarised light
11. wardrobes 37. D
12. recipes 38. A
13. pockets 39. F
40. C
Australian parrots 14.1
15. F
16. G
17. D
18. C
19. H
20. C
21. D
22. B
23. one-sixth 24.16th century
25. Mercator
26. John Gould