Se - Reading - Tach 100 TR

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CONTENT
READING PASSAGE 1 : The Concept of Childhood in Western Countries. ........... 3
READING PASSAGE 2 : Mechanisms of Linguistic Change. ............................ 6
READING PASSAGE 3 : Animal minds: Parrot Alex ...................................... 9
READING PASSAGE 4 : Movie of Metropolis. ........................................... 12
READING PASSAGE 5 : Mechanisms of Linguistic Change. .......................... 16
READING PASSAGE 6 : RISING SEA. ..................................................... 19
READING PASSAGE 7 : Putting the brakes on climate change… .................... 23
READING PASSAGE 8 : Looking at daily life in ancient Rome.. ...................... 26
READING PASSAGE 9 : Gamma Gardening ............................................ 29
READING PASSAGE 10 : DECISIONS, DECISIONS!.................................... 31
READING PASSAGE 11 : The fascinating world of attine ants ....................... 35
READING PASSAGE 12 : Becoming an expert ......................................... 38
READING PASSAGE 13 : The Tuatara of New Zealand ................................ 41
READING PASSAGE 14 : . Tasmanian tiger. ............................................ 44
READING PASSAGE 15 : Reading in a whole new way ................................ 48
READING PASSAGE 16 : Assessing the risk............................................. 52
READING PASSAGE 17 : some views on the use of headphones ................... 55
ANSWER KEY :. ................................................................................. 59
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READING PASSAGE 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Question 1-13 which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.
The Concept of Childhood in Western Countries

The history of childhood has been o heated topic in social history since the highly influential book
Centuries of Childhood', written by French historian Philippe Aries, emerged in 1960. He claimed that
'childhood' is a concept created by modern society.
Whether childhood is itself a recent invention has been one of the most intensely debated issues in the
history of childhood. Historian Philippe Aries asserted that children were regarded as miniature adults,
with all the intellect and personality that this implies, in Western Europe during the Middle Ages (up to
about the end of the 15th century). After scrutinising medieval pictures and diaries, he concluded that
there was no distinction between children and adults for they shared similar leisure activities and work;
However, this does not mean children were neglected, forsaken or despised, he argued. The idea of
childhood corresponds to awareness about the peculiar nature of childhood, which distinguishes the child
from adult, even the young adult. Therefore, the concept of childhood is not to be confused with affection
for children.
Traditionally, children played a functional role in contributing to the family income in the history. Under this
circumstance, children were considered to be useful. Back in the Middle Ages, children of 5 or 6 years old
did necessary chores for their parents. During the 16th century, children of 9 or 10 years old were often
encouraged or even forced to leave their family to work as servants for wealthier families or apprentices for
a trade.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, industrialisation created a new demand for child labour; thus many
children were forced to work for a long time in mines, workshops and factories. The issue of whether long
hours of labouring would interfere with children's growing bodies began to perplex social reformers. Some
of them started to realise the potential of systematic studies to monitor how far these early deprivations
might be influencing children's development.
The concerns of reformers gradually had some impact upon the working condition of children. For
example, in Britain, the Factory Act of 1833 signified the emergence of legal protection of children from
exploitation and was also associated with the rise of schools for factory children. Due partly to factory
reform, the worst forms of child exploitation were eliminated gradually. The influence of trade unions and
economic changes also contributed to the evolution by leaving some forms of child labour redundant
during the 19th century. Initiating children into work as 'useful' children was no longer a priority, and
childhood was deemed to be a time for play and education for all children instead of a privileged minority.
Childhood was increasingly understood as a more extended phase of dependency, development and
learning with the delay of the age for starting full-time work- Even so, work continued to play a significant, if
less essential, role in children's lives in the later 19th and 20th centuries. Finally, the 'useful child' has
become a controversial concept during the first decade of the 21st century, especially in the context of
global concern about large numbers of children engaged in child labour.
The half-time schools established upon the Factory Act of 1833 allowed children to worl and attend
school. Flowever, a significant proportion of children never attended school in the 1840s, and even if they
did, they dropped out by the age of 10 or 11. By the end of the 19th century in Britain, the situation changed
dramatically, and schools became the core to the concept of a 'normal' childhood.
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It is no longer a privilege for children to attend school and all children are expected to spend a significant
part of their day in a classroom. Once in school, children's lives could be separated from domestic life and
the adult world of work. In this way, school turns into an institution dedicated to shaping the minds,
behaviour and morals of the young. Besides, education dominated the management of children's waking
hours through the hours spent in the classroom, homework (the growth of 'after school' activities), and the
importance attached to parental involvement.
Industrialisation, urbanisation and mass schooling pose new challenges for those who are responsible for
protecting children's welfare, as well as promoting their learning. An increasing number of children are
being treated as a group with unique needs, and are organised into groups in the light of their age. For
instance, teachers need to know some information about what to expect of children in their classrooms,
what kinds of instruction are appropriate for different age groups, and what is the best way to assess
children's progress. Also, they want tools enabling them to sort and select children according to their
abilities and potential.
Questions 1-7
Do the following statements agree with the information give in Reading Passage 1?
In boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE if the statement is true
FALSE if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage
1 Aries pointed out that children did different types of work to adults during the Middle Ages.
2 Working children during the Middle Ages were generally unloved.
3 Some scientists thought that overwork might damage the health of young children.
4 The rise of trade unions majorly contributed to the protection of children from exploitation in
the 19th century.
5 the aid of half-time schools, most children went to school in the mid-19th century.
6 the 20th century, almost all children needed to go to school with a full-time schedule.
7 Nowadays, children's needs are much differentiated and categorised based on how old they are.
Questions 8-13
Answer the questions below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 8-13 on your answer sheet.
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8 What had not become a hot topic until the French historian Philippe Aries' book caused great
attention?
9 According to Aries, what was the typical image of children in Western Europe during the Middle
Ages?
10 What historical event generated the need for a large number of children to work for a long time in
the 18th and 19th centuries?
11 What bill was enacted to protect children from exploitation in Britain in the 1800s?
12 Which activities were becoming regarded as preferable for almost all children in the 19th century?
13 In what place did children spend the majority of time during their day in school?
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READING PASSAGE 2
Mechanisms of Linguistic Change

A The changes that have caused the most disagreement are those in pronunciation. We have various
sources of evidence for the pronunciations of earlier times, such as the spellings, the treatment of words
borrowed from other languages or borrowed by them, the descriptions of contemporary grammarians and
spelling-reformers, and the modern pronunciations in all the languages and dialects concerned From the
middle of the sixteenth century, there are in England writers who attempt to describe the position of the
speech-organs for the production of English phonemes, and who invent what are in effect systems of
phonetic symbols. These various kinds of evidence, combined with a knowledge of the mechanisms of
speech-production, can often give us a very good idea of the pronunciation of an earlier age, though
absolute certainty is never possible.
B When we study the pronunciation of a language over any period of a few generations or more, we find
there are always large-scale regularities in the changes: for example, over a certain period of time, just
about all the long [a:] vowels in a language may change into long [e:] vowels, or all the [b] consonants in a
certain position (for example at the end of a word) may change into [p] consonants. Such regular changes
are often called sound laws. There are no universal sound laws (even though sound laws often reflect
universal tendencies), but simply particular sound laws for one given language (or dialect) at one given
period
C It is also possible that fashion plays a part in the process of change. It certainly plays a part in the spread
of change: one person imitates another, and people with the most prestige are most likely to be imitated,
so that a change that takes place in one social group may be imitated (more or less accurately) by speakers
in another group. When a social group goes up or down in the world, its pronunciation of Russian, which
had formerly been considered desirable, became on the contrary an undesirable kind of accent to have, so
that people tried to disguise it. Some of the changes in accepted English pronunciation in the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries have been shown to consist in the replacement of one style of pronunciation by
another style already existing, and it is likely that such substitutions were a result of the great social
changes of the period: the increased power and wealth of the middle classes, and their steady infiltration
upwards into the ranks of the landed gentry, probably carried elements of middie-class pronunciation into
upper-class speech.
D A less specific variant of the argument is that the imitation of children is imperfect: they copy their
parents’ speech, but never reproduce it exactly. This is true, but it is also true that such deviations from
adult speech are usually corrected in later childhood. Perhaps it is more significant that even adults show
a certain amount of random variation in their pronunciation of a given phoneme, even if the phonetic
context is kept unchanged. This, however, cannot explain changes in pronunciation unless it can be shown
that there is some systematic trend in the failures of imitation: if they are merely random deviations they
will cancel one another out and there will be no net change in the language.
E One such force which is often invoked is the principle of ease, or minimization of effort. The change from
fussy to fuzzy would be an example of assimilation, which is a very common kind of change. Assimilation is
the changing of a sound under the influence of a neighbouring one. For example, the word scant was once
skamt, but the /m/ has been changed to /n/ under the influence of the following /t/. Greater efficiency has
hereby been achieved, because /n/ and /t/ are articulated in the same place (with the tip of the tongue
against the teeth-ridge), whereas /m/ is articulated elsewhere (with the two lips). So the place of
articulation of the nasal consonant has been changed to conform with that of the following plosive. A more
recent example of the same kind of thing is the common pronunciation of football as football.
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F Assimilation is not the only way in which we change our pronunciation in order to increase efficiency. It is
very common for consonants to be lost at the end of a word: in Middle English, word-final [-n] was often
lost in unstressed syllables, so that baken ‘to bake’ changed from [‘ba:kan] to [‘ba:k3],and later to [ba:k].
Consonant-clusters are often simplified. At one time there was a [t] in words like castle and Christmas,
and an initial [k] in words like knight and know. Sometimes a whole syllable is dropped out when two
successive syllables begin with the same consonant (haplology): a recent example is temporary, which in
Britain is often pronounced as if it were tempory.
Questions 1-4
Complete the summary below.
The pronunciation of living language undergo changes throughout thousands of years.
Large scale regular Changes are usually called 1…………………..There are three reasons
for these changes. Firstly, the influence of one language on another; when one person imitates another
pronunciation(the most prestige’s), the imitation always partly involving
factor of 2……………………Secondly, the imitation of children from adultsl language
sometimes are 3………………….., and may also contribute to this change if there are
insignificant deviations tough later they may be corrected Finally, for those random variations in
pronunciation, the deeper evidence lies in the 4………………………..or minimization of effort.
Questions 5-11
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?
5 It is impossible for modern people to find pronunciation of words in an earlier age
6 The great change of language in Russian history is related to the rising status and fortune
of middle classes.
7 All the children learn speeches from adults white they assume that certain language is
difficult to imitate exactly.
8 Pronunciation with causal inaccuracy will not exert big influence on
language changes.
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9 The word 'scant' can be pronounced more easily than 'skamt'
10 The [g] in gnat not being pronounced will not be spelt out in the future.
11 The sound of ‘temporary’ cannot wholly present its spelling.
Questions 12-14
Look at the following sentences and the list of statements below. Match each statement with the correct
sentence, A-D.
Write the correct letter, A-D, in boxes 12-14 on your answer sheet
A. Since the speakers can pronounce it with less effort

B. Assimilation of a sound under the influence of a neighbouring one
C. It is a trend for changes in pronunciation in a large scale in a given period
D. Because the speaker can pronounce [n] and [t] both in the same time
12 As a consequence, ‘b’ will be pronounced as
13 The pronunciation of [mt] changed to [nt]
14 The omit of ‘f in the sound of Christmas
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READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.
Animal minds: Parrot Alex

A
In 1977 Irene Pepperberg, a recent graduate of Harvard University did something very bold. At a time when
animals still were considered automatons, she set out to find what was on another creature's mind by
talking to it. She brought a one-year-old African gray parrot she named Alex into her lab to teach him to
reproduce the sounds of the English language. "I thought if he learned to communicate, I could ask him
questions about how he sees the world."
When Pepperberg began her dialogue with Alex, who died last September at the age of 31, many scientists
believed animals were incapable of any thought. They were simply machines, robots programmed to react
to stimuli but lacking the ability to think or feel. Any pet owner would disagree. We see the love in our dogs'
eyes and know that, of course, they have thoughts and emotions. But such claims remain highly
controversial. Gut instinct is not science, and it is all too easy to project human thoughts and feelings onto
another creature. How, then, does a scientist prove that an animal is capable of thinking - that it is able to
acquire information about the world and act on it? "That's why I started my studies with Alex," Pepperberg
said. They were seated - she at her desk, he on top of his cage - in her lab, a windowless room about the
size of a boxcar, at Brandéis University. Newspapers lined the floor; baskets of bright toys were stacked on
the shelves. They were clearly a team - and because of their work, the notion that animals can think is no
longer so fanciful.
Certain skills are considered key signs of higher mental abilities: good memory, a grasp of grammar and
symbols, self-awareness, understanding others' motives, imitating others, and being creative. Bit by bit, in
ingenious experiments, researchers have documented these talents in other species, gradually chipping
away at what we thought made human beings distinctive while offering a glimpse of where our own
abilities came from. Scrub jays know that other jays are thieves and that stashed food can spoil; shee can
recognize faces; chimpanzees use a variety of tools to probe termite mounds and even use weapons to
hunt small mammals; dolphins can imitate human postures; the archerfish, which stuns insects with a
sudden blast of water, can learn how to aim its squirt simply by watching an experienced fish perform the
task. And Alex the parrot turned out to be a surprisingly good talker.
Thirty years after the Alex studies began; Pepperberg and a changing collection of assistants were still
giving him English lessons. The humans, along with two younger parrots, also served as Alex's flock,
providing the social input all parrots crave. Like any flock, this one - as small as it was - had its share of
drama. Alex dominated his fellow parrots, acted huffy at times around Pepperberg, tolerated the other
female humans, and fell to pieces over a male assistant who dropped by for a visit. Pepperberg bought Alex
in a Chicago pet store where she let the store's assistant pick him out because she didn't want other
scientists saying later that she'd particularly chosen an especially smart bird for her work. Given that Alex's
brain was the size of a shelled walnut, most researchers thought Pepperberg's interspecies
communication study would be futile.
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E "Some people actually called me crazy for trying this," she said. "Scientists thought that chimpanzees
were better subjects, although, of course, chimps can't speak." Chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas have
been taught to use sign language and symbols to communicate with us, often with impressive results. The
bonobo Kanzi, for instance, carries his symbol-communication board with him so he can "talk" to his
human researchers, and he has invented combinations of symbols to express his thoughts. Nevertheless,
this is not the same thing as having an animal look up at you, open his mouth, and speak. Under
Pepperberg's patient tutelage, Alex learned how to use his vocal tract to imitate almost one hundred
English words, including the sounds for various foods, although he calls an apple a "banerry." "Apples taste
a little bit like bananas to him, and they look a little bit like cherries, so Alex made up that word for them,"
Pepperberg said.
It sounded a bit mad, the idea of a bird having lessons to practice, and willingly doing it. But after listening
to and observing Alex, it was difficult to argue with Pepperberg's explanation for his behaviors. She wasn't
handing him treats for the repetitious work or rapping him on the claws to make him say the sounds. "He
has to hear the words over and over before he can correctly imitate them," Pepperberg said, after
pronouncing "seven" for Alex a good dozen times in a row. "I'm not trying to see if Alex can learn a human
language," she added. "That's never been the point. My plan always was to use his imitative skills to get a
better understanding of avian cognition."
In other words, because Alex was able to produce a close approximation of the sounds of some English
words, Pepperberg could ask him questions about a bird's basic understanding of the world. She couldn't
ask him what he was thinking about, but she could ask him about his knowledge of numbers, shapes, and
colors. To demonstrate, Pepperberg carried Alex on her arm to a tall wooden perch in the middle of the
room. She then retrieved a green key and a small green cup from a basket on a shelf. She held up the two
items to Alex's eye. "What's same?" she asked. Without hesitation, Alex's beak opened: "Co-lor." "What's
different?" Pepperberg asked. "Shape," Alex said. His voice had the digitized sound of a cartoon character.
Since parrots lack lips (another reason it was difficult for Alex to pronounce some sounds, such as ba), the
words seemed to come from the air around him, as if a ventriloquist were speaking. But the words - and
what can only be called the thoughts - were entirely his.
For the next 20 minutes, Alex can through his tests, distinguishing colors, shapes, sizes, and materials
(wool versus wood versus metal). He did some simple arithmetic, such as accounting the yellow toy blocks
among a pile of mixed hues. And, then, as if to offer final proof of the mind inside his bird's brain, Alex
spoke up. "Talk clearly!" he commanded, when one of the younger birds Pepperberg was also teaching
talked with wrong pronunciation. "Talk clearly!" "Don't be a smart aleck," Pepperberg said, shaking her
head at him. "He knows all this, and he gets bored, so he interrupts the others, or he gives the wrong
answer just to be obstinate. At this stage, he's like a teenager; he's moody, and I'm never sure what he'll
do."
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Questions 1-6
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?
1 Firstly, Alex has grasped quite a lot of vocabulary.
2 At the beginning of the study, Alex felt frightened in the presence of humans.
3 Previously, many scientists realized that the animal possesses the ability of thinking.
4 It has taken a long time before people get to know cognition existing in animals.
5 As Alex could approximately imitate the sounds of English words, he was capable of roughly
answering Irene's questions regarding the world.
6 By breaking in other parrots as well as producing the incorrect answers, he tried to be focused.
Questions 7-10
Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage.
Using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer.
After the training of Irene, Parrot Alex can use his vocal tract to pronounce more than
7…………….. , while other scientists believe that animals have no this advanced
ability of thinking, they would rather teach 8…………………… Pepperberg clarified that
she wanted to conduct a study concerning 9………………….. but not to teach him to
talk. The store's assistant picked out a bird at random for her for the sake of avoiding other scientists saying
that the bird is 10…………………….. afterwards.
Questions 11-13
Answer the questions 11-13 below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.
11 What did Alex reply regarding the similarity of the subjects showed to him?
12 What is the problem of the young parrots except for Alex?
13 To some extent, through the way, he behaved what we can call him?
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READING PASSAGE 4
You should spend about 20 minutes on Question 28-40 which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.
Movie of Metropolis
...being the science-fiction film that is steadily becoming a fact A
When German director Fritz Lang visited the United States in 1924, his first glimpse of the country was a
night-time view of the New York skyline from the deck of an ocean liner. This, he later recalled, was the
direct inspiration for what is still probably the most innovative and influential science-fiction film ever
made - Metropolis.
Metropolis is a bleak vision of the early twenty-first century that is at once both chilling and exhilarating.
This spectacular city of the future is a technological marvel of high-rise buildings connected by elevated
railways and airships. It's also a world of extreme inequality and social division. The workers live below
ground and exist as machines working in an endless routine of mind-numbing 10-hour shifts while the
city's elite lead lives of luxury high above. Presiding over them all is the Master of Metropolis, John
Fredersen, whose sole satisfaction seems to lie in the exercise of power.
Lang's graphic depiction of the future is conceived in almost totally abstract terms. The function of the
individual machines is never defined. Instead, this mass of dials, levers and gauges symbolically stands for
all machines and all industry, with the workers as slave-live extensions of the equipment they have to
operate. Lang emphasizes this idea in the famous shift-change sequence at the start of the movie when
the workers walk in zombie-like geometric ranks, all dressed in the same dark overalls and all exhibiting the
same bowed head and dead-eyed stare. An extraordinary fantasy sequence sees one machine
transformed into a huge open-jawed statue which then literally swallows them up.
On one level the machines and the exploited workers simply provide the wealth and services which allow
the elite to live their lives of leisure, but on a more profound level, the purpose of all this demented industry
is to serve itself. Power, control and the continuance of the system from one 10-hour shift to the next is all
that counts. The city consumes people and their labour and in the process becomes a perverse parody of a
living being.
It is enlightening, I think, to relate the film to the modern global economy in which multinational
corporations now routinely close their factories in one continent so that they can take advantage of cheap
labour in another. Like the industry In Metropolis, these corporations' goals of increased efficiency and
profits have little to do with the welfare of the majority of their employees or that of the population at large.
Instead, their aims are to sustain the momentum of their own growth and to increase the monetary
rewards to a tiny elite - their executives and shareholders. Fredersen himself is the essence of the big
company boss: Rupert Murdoch would probably feel perfectly at home in his huge skyscraper office with
its panoramic view of the city below. And it is important that there is never any mention of government in
Metropolis - the whole concept is by implication obsolete. The only people who have power are the
supreme industrialist, Fredersen, and his magician/scientist cohort Rotwang.
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F
So far so good: when the images are allowed to speak for themselves the film is impeccable both in its
symbolism and in its cynicism. The problem with Metropolis is its sentimental story-line, which sees
Freder, Fredersen's son, instantly falling in love with the visionary Maria. Maria leads an underground
pseudo-religious movement and preaches that the workers should not rebel but should await the arrival of
a 'Mediator' between the 'Head' (capital) and the 'Hands' (labour). That mediator is the 'Heart' - love, as
embodied, finally, by Freder's love of Maria and his father's love of him.
Lang wrote the screenplay in collaboration with his then-wife Thea von Harbou. In 1933 he fled from the
Nazis (and continued a very successful career in Hollywood). She stayed in Germany and continued to
make films under the Hitler regime. There is a constant tension within the film between the too-tidy
platitudes of von Harbou's script and the uncompromisingly caustic vigour of Lang's imagery.
To my mind, both in Metropolis and in the real world, it's not so much that the 'Head' and 'Hands' require a
'Heart' to mediate between them but that the 'Hands' need to develop their own 'Head', their own political
consciousness, and act accordingly - through the ballot box, through buying power and through a sceptical
resistance to the materialistic fantasies of the Fredersens.
All the same, Metropolis is probably more accurate now as a representation of industrial and social
relations than it has been at any time since its original release. And Fredersen is certainly still the most
potent movie symbol of the handful of elusive corporate figureheads who increasingly treat the world as a
Metropolis-like global village.
Questions 27-30
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3?
YES if the statement is true
NO if the statement is false
27 The inspiration of the movie-/V7etropo//s-comes from the director's visit in the USA in 1924.
28 The Master of Metropolis, John Fredersen, is portrayed from an industrialist that the director met
in the US.
29 The start of the movie exhibits the workers working in full energy.
30 The director and his wife got divorced because his wife decided to stay in Germany.
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Questions 31-36
Using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer. Write your answers in
boxes 31-36 on your answer sheet.
The director depicts a world of inequality and 31…………………………..In the future, the
mindless masses of workers living underground are treated as 32……………………….And
the master of them is 33…………………………….., who is in charge of the whole city. The writer
claims that the director, Fritz Lang, presents the movie in an 34……………………………..term,
where the 35………………………………….of the individual machines is not defined. Besides the
writer compares the film to the modern global economy in which multinational corporations concern more
about the growing 36…………………………………and money.
Questions 37-40
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
37 The first sentence in paragraph B indicates
A. the author's fear about technology
B. the inspiration of the director
C. the contradictory feelings towards future
D. the city elite's well management of the workers
38 Why the function of the individual machines is not defined?
A Because Lang sticks to theme in a symbolic way.
B Because workers are more important to exploit.
C Because the fantasy sequence is difficult to take.
D Because the focus of the movie is not about machines.
39 The writer's purpose in paragraph five is to
A. emphasize the multinational corporations' profit-oriented goal.
B. compare the movie with the reality in the modern global economy
C. exploit the difference between fantasy and reality
D. enlighten the undeveloped industry
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40 What is the writer's opinion about the movie?
A. The movie's story-line is excellent.
B. The movie has a poor implication in symbolism.
C. The movie is perfect in all aspects.
D. The movie is good but could be better.
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READING PASSAGE 5
Mechanisms of Linguistic Change
A The changes that have caused the most disagreement are those in pronunciation. We have various
sources of evidence for the pronunciations of earlier times, such as the spellings, the treatment of words
borrowed from other languages or borrowed by them, the descriptions of contemporary grammarians and
spelling-reformers, and the modern pronunciations in all the languages and dialects concerned From the
middle of the sixteenth century, there are in England writers who attempt to describe the position of the
speech-organs for the production of English phonemes, and who invent what are in effect systems of
phonetic symbols. These various kinds of evidence, combined with a knowledge of the mechanisms of
speech-production, can often give us a very good idea of the pronunciation of an earlier age, though
absolute certainty is never possible.
B When we study the pronunciation of a language over any period of a few generations or more, we find
there are always large-scale regularities in the changes: for example, over a certain period of time, just
about all the long [a:] vowels in a language may change into long [e:] vowels, or all the [b] consonants in a
certain position (for example at the end of a word) may change into [p] consonants. Such regular changes
are often called sound laws. There are no universal sound laws (even though sound laws often reflect
universal tendencies), but simply particular sound laws for one given language (or dialect) at one given
period
C It is also possible that fashion plays a part in the process of change. It certainly plays part in the spread
of change: one person imitates another, and people with the most prestige are most likely to be imitated,
so that a change that takes place in one social group may be imitated (more or less accurately) by speakers
in another group. When a social group goes up or down in the world, its pronunciation of Russian, which
had formerly been considered desirable, became on the contrary an undesirable kind of accent to have, so
that people tried to disguise it. Some of the changes in accepted English pronunciation in the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries have been shown to consist in the replacement of one style of pronunciation by
another style already existing, and it is likely that such substitutions were a result of the great social
changes of the period: the increased power and wealth of the middle classes, and their steady infiltration
upwards into the ranks of the landed gentry, probably carried elements of middle-class pronunciation into
upper-class speech.
D A less specific variant of the argument is that the imitation of children is imperfect: they copy their
parents’ speech, but never reproduce it exactly. This is true, but it is also true that such deviations from
adult speech are usually corrected in later childhood. Perhaps it is more significant that even adults show
a certain amount of random variation in their pronunciation of a given phoneme, even if the phonetic
context is kept unchanged. This, however, cannot explain changes in pronunciation unless it can be shown
that there is some systematic trend in the failures of imitation: if they are merely random deviations they
will cancel one another out and there will be no net change in the language.
E One such force which is often invoked is the principle of ease, or minimization of effort. The change from
fussy to fuzzy would be an example of assimilation, which is a very common kind of change. Assimilation is
the changing of a sound under the influence of a neighbouring one. For example, the word scant was once
skamt, but the /m/ has been changed to /n/ under the influence of the following /t/. Greater efficiency has
hereby been achieved, because /n/ and /t/ are articulated in the same place (with the tip of the tongue
against the teeth-ridge), whereas /m/ is articulated elsewhere (with the two lips). So the place of
16
articulation of the nasal consonant has been changed to conform with that of the following plosive. A more
recent example of the same kind of thing is the common pronunciation of football as football.
F Assimilation is not the only way in which we change our pronunciation in order to increase efficiency. It is
very common for consonants to be lost at the end of a word: in Middle English, word-final [-n] was often
lost in unstressed syllables, so that baken ‘to bake’ changed from [‘ba:kan] to [‘ba:k3],and later to [ba:k].
Consonant-clusters are often simplified. At one time there was a [t] in words like castle and Christmas,
and an initial [k] in words like knight and know. Sometimes a whole syllable is dropped out when two
successive syllables begin with the same consonant (haplology): a recent example is temporary, which in
Britain is often pronounced as if it were tempory.
Questions 1-4
The pronunciation of living language undergo changes throughout thousands of years.
Large scale regular Changes are usually called 1…………………There are three reasons
for these changes. Firstly, the influence of one language on another; when one person imitates another
pronunciation(the most prestige’s), the imitation always partly involving
factor of 2……………………………Secondly, the imitation of children from adultsl language
sometimes are 3…………………………………., and may also contribute to this change if there are
insignificant deviations tough later they may be corrected Finally, for those random variations in
pronunciation, the deeper evidence lies in the 4……………………………….or minimization of effort.
Questions 5-11
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
5 It is impossible for modern people to find pronunciation of words in an
earlier age
6 The great change of language in Russian history is related to the rising
status and fortune of middle classes.
17
7 All the children learn speeches from adults white they assume that certain
language is difficult to imitate exactly.
8 Pronunciation with causal inaccuracy will not exert big influence on
language changes.
9 The word 'scant' can be pronounced more easily than 'skamt'
10 The [g] in gnat not being pronounced will not be spelt out in the future.
11 The sound of ‘temporary’ cannot wholly present its spelling.
Questions 12-14
Look at the following sentences and the list of statements below. Match each statement with the correct
sentence, A-D.
Write the correct letter, A-D, in boxes 12-14 on your answer sheet
A. Since the speakers can pronounce it with less effort
B. Assimilation of a sound under the influence of a neighbouring one
C. It is a trend for changes in pronunciation in a large scale in a given period
D. Because the speaker can pronounce [n] and [t] both in the same time
12 As a consequence, ‘b’ will be pronounced as
13 The pronunciation of [mt] changed to [nt]
14 The omit of ‘f in the sound of Christmas
18
READING PASSAGE 6
RISING SEA
Paragraph 1. INCREASED TEMPERATURES
The average air temperature at the surface of the earth has risen this century, as has the temperature of
ocean surface waters. Because water expands as it heats, a warmer ocean means higher sea levels. We
cannot say definitely that the temperature rises are due to the greenhouse effect; the heating may be part
of a “natural” variability over a long time-scale that we have not yet recognized I our short 100 years of
recording. However, assuming the build up of greenhouse gases is responsible, and that the warming will
continue. Scientists and inhabitants of low-lying coastal areas would like to know the extent of future sea
level rises.
Paragraph 2.
Calculating this is not easy. Models used for the purpose have treated the oceans as passive, stationary
and one-dimensional. Scientists have assumed that heat simply diffused into the sea from the
atmosphere. Using basic physical laws, they then predict how much a known volume of water would
expand for a given increase in temperature. But the oceans are not one-dimensional, and recent work by
oceanographers, using a new model which takes into account a number of subtle facets of the sea-
including vast and complex ocean currents-suggests that the rise in sea level may be less than some
earlier estimates had predicted.
Paragraph 3
An international forum on climate change, in 1986, produced figures for likely sea-level rises of 20 cm and
1.4 m, corresponding to atmospheric temperature increases of 1.5 and 4.5C respectively. Some scientists
estimate that the ocean warming resulting from those temperature increases by the year 2050 would raise
the sea level by between 10 cm and 40 cm. This model only takes into account the temperature effect on
the oceans; it does not consider changes in sea level brought about by the melting of ice sheets and
glaciers, and changes in groundwater storage. When we add on estimates of these, we arrive at figures for
total sea-level rises of 15 cm and 70 cm respectively.
Paragraph 4
It’s not easy trying to model accurately the enormous complexities of the ever-changing oceans, with their
great volume, massive currents and sensitively to the influence of land masses and the atmosphere. For
example, consider how heat enters the ocean. Does it just “diffuse” from the warmer air vertically into the
water, and heat only the surface layer of the sea? (Warm water is less dense than cold, so it would not
spread downwards). Conventional models of sea-level rise have considered that this the only method, but
measurements have shown that the rate of heat transfer into the ocean by vertical diffusion is far lower in
practice than the figures that many models have adopted.
Paragraph 5
Much of the early work, for simplicity, ignored the fact that water in the oceans moves in three dimensions.
By movement, of course, scientists don’t mean waves, which are too small individually to consider, but
rather movement of vast volumes of water in huge currents. To understand the importance of this, we now
need to consider another process- advection. Imagine smoke rising from a chimney. On a still day it will
19
slowly spread out in all directions by means of diffusion. With a strong directional wind, however, it will all
shift downwind, this process is advection-the transport of properties (notably heat and salinity in ocean) by
the movement of bodies of air or water, rather than by conduction or diffusion.
Paragraph 6
Massive oceans current called gyres do the moving. These currents have far more capacity to store heat
than does the atmosphere. Indeed, just the top 3 m of the ocean contains more heat than the whole of the
atmosphere. The origin of the gyres lies in the fact that more heat from the Sun reaches the Equator than
the Poles, and naturally heat trends to move from the former to the latter. Warm air rises at the Equator,
and draws more air beneath it in the form of winds (the “Trade Winds") that, together with other air
movements, provide the main force driving the ocean currents.
Paragraph 7
Water itself is heated at the Equator and moves poleward, twisted by the Earth’s rotation and affected by
the positions of the continents. The resultant broadly circular movements between about 10 and 40 ' North
and South are clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. They flow towards the east at mind latitudes in the
equatorial region. They then flow towards the Poles, along the eastern sides of continents, as warm
currents. When two different masses of water meet, once will move beneath the other, depending on their
relative densities in the subduction process. The densities are determined by temperature and salinity. The
convergence of water of different densities from the Equator and the Poles deep in the oceans causes
continuous subduction. This means that water moves vertically as well as horizontally. Cold water from the
Poles travels as depth-it is denser than warm water-until it emerges at the surface in another part of the
world in the form of a cold current.
Paragraph 8. HOW THE GREENHOUSE EFFECTS WILL CHANGE OCEAN TEMPERATURES
Ocean currents, in three dimensions, from a giant “conveyor belt”, distributing heat from the thin surface
layer into the interior of the oceans and around the globe. Water may take decades to circulate in these 3-
D gyres in the lop kilometer of the ocean, and centuries in the deep water. With the increased atmospheric
temperatures due to the greenhouse effect, the oceans conveyor belt will carry more heat into the interior.
This subduction moves heat around far more effectively than simple diffusion. Because warm water
expands more than cold when it is heated, scientists had presumed that the sea level would rise unevenly
around the globe. It is now believed that these inequalities cannot persist, as winds will act to continuously
spread out the water expansion. Of course, of global warming changes the strength and distribution of the
winds, then this “evening- out” process may not occur, and the sea level could rise more in some areas
than others.
20
Questions 1-6
Reading Passage 2 has 8 Paragraphs, 1-8. The first paragraph and the last have been given headings.
Choose the correct heading for the remaining 6 Paragraphs from the list below.
There are more headings than paragraphs, so you will not use all the headings.
Write the correct number, A-l, in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet
1…………………. Paragraph 2
2………………… Paragraph 3
Questions 7-8
Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes 7-8 on your answer sheet.
7 Scientists do not know for sure why the air and surface of oceans temperatures are rising because
A there is too much variability
B there is no enough variability
C they have not been recording these temperatures for enough time
D the changes have only been noticed for 100 years
8 New search leads scientists to believe that
A the oceans are less complex
B the oceans are more complex
C the oceans will rise more than expected
D the oceans will rise less than expected
Questions 9
Look at the following list of factors A-F and select THREE which are mentioned in the Reading Passage 2
which may contribute to the rising ocean levels.
Write the correct THREE letters A-F in the box 9 on your answer sheet.
A. thermal expansion
B. melting ice
C. increased air temperature
21
D. higher rainfall
E. changes in the water table
F. increased ocean movement
Questions 10-14
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2? Write
10 The surface layer of the oceans is warmed by the atmosphere.
11 Advection of water changes heat and salt levels.
12 A gyre holds less heat than there is in the atmosphere.
13 The process of subduction depends on the water density.
14 The sea level is expected to rise evenly over the Earth’s surface.
22
READING PASSAGE 7
PUTTING THE BRAKES ON CLIMATE CHANGE: ARE HYDROGEN
CARS THE ANSWER?
A
It is tempting to think that the conservation of coral reefs and rainforests is a separate issue from traffic
and air pollution. But it is not. Scientists are now confident that rapid changes in the Earth’s climate are
already disrupting and altering many wildlife habitats. Pollution from vehicles is a big part of the problem.
The United Nation’s Climate Change Panel has estimated that the global average temperature rise
expected by the year 2100 could be as much as 6°C, causing forest fires and dieback on land and coral
bleaching in the ocean. Few species, if any, will be immune from the changes in temperature, rainfall and
sea levels. The panel believes that if such catastrophic temperature rises are to be avoided, the quantity of
greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, being released into the atmosphere must be reduced. That
will depend on slowing the rate of deforestation and, more crucially, finding alternatives to coal, oil and gas
as our principal energy sources.
Technologies do exist to reduce or eliminate carbon dioxide as a waste product of our energy
consumption. Wind power and solar power are both spreading fast, but what are we doing about traffic?
Electric cars are one possible option, but their range and the time it takes to charge their batteries pose
serious limitations. However, the technology that shows the most potential to make cars climate-friendly is
fuel-cell technology. This was actually invented in the late nineteenth century, but because the world’s
motor industry put its effort into developing the combustion engine, it was never refined for mass
production. One of the first prototype fuel-cell-powered vehicles have been built by the Ford Motor
Company. It is like a conventional car, only with better acceleration and a smoother ride. Ford engineers
expect to be able to produce a virtually silent vehicle in the future.
So what’s the process involved - and is there a catch? Hydrogen goes into the fuel tank, producing
electricity. The only emission from the exhaust pipe is water. The fuel-cell is, in some ways similar to a
battery, but unlike a battery, it does not run down. As long as hydrogen and oxygen are supplied to the cell,
it will keep on generating electricity. Some cells work off methane and a few use liquid fuels such as
methanol, but fuel-ceils using hydrogen probably have the most potential. Furthermore, they need not be
limited to transport. Fuel-cells can be made in a huge range of size, small enough for portable computers
or large enough for power stations. They have no moving parts and therefore need no oil. They just need a
supply of hydrogen. The big question, then, is where to get it from.
One source of hydrogen is water. But to exploit the abundant resource, electricity is needed, and if the
electricity is produced by a coal-fired power station or other fossil fuel, then the overall carbon reduction
benefit of the fuel-cell disappears. Renewable sources, such as wind and solar power, do not produce
enough energy for it to be economically viable to use them in the ‘manufacture’ of hydrogen as a transport
fuel. Another source of hydrogen is, however, available and could provide a supply pending the
23
development of more efficient and cheaper renewable energy technologies. By splitting natural gas
(methane) into its constituent parts, hydrogen and carbon dioxide are produced. One way round the
problem of what to do with the carbon dioxide could be to store it back below ground - so-called geological
sequestration. Oil companies, such as Norway’s Statoil, are experimenting with storing carbon dioxide
below ground in oil and gas wells.
With freak weather conditions, arguably caused by global warming, frequently in the headlines, the urgent
need to get fuel-cell vehicles will be available in most showrooms. Even now, fuel-cell buses are operating
in the US, while in Germany a courier company is planning to take delivery of fuel-cell-powered vans in the
near future. The fact that centrally-run fleets of buses and vans are the first fuel-cell vehicles identifies
another challenge - fuel distribution. The refueling facilities necessary to top up hydrogen-powered
vehicles are available only in a very few places at present. Public transport and delivery firms are logical
places to start since their vehicles are operated from central depots.
Fuel-cell technology is being developed right across the automotive industry. This technology could have a
major impact in slowing down climate change, but further investment is needed if the industry - and the
world’s wildlife - is to have a long-term future.
Questions 1-6
Reading Passage has seven paragraphs, A-G.
Choose the correct heading for paragraphs A-F from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number, i-ix, in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.
List of Headings
i Action already taken by the United Nations
ii Marketing the hydrogen car
iii Making the new technology available worldwide
iv Some negative predictions from one group of experts
v How the new vehicle technology works
vi The history of fuel-cell technology
vii A holistic view of climatic change
viii Locating the essential ingredient
ix Sustaining car manufacture
1 Paragraph A
2 Paragraph B
3 Paragraph C
24
4 Paragraph D
5 Paragraph E
6 Paragraph F
Questions 7-10
Complete the sentences below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
7. In the late nineteenth century, the car industry invested in the development of the
7…………………………… , rather than fuel-cell technology.
8. Ford engineers predict that they will eventually design an almost 8…………………….. car.
9. While a fuel-cell lasts longer, some aspects of it are comparable to a 9……………………….
10. Fuel-cells can come in many sizes and can be used in power stations and in 10………………… as well
as in vehicles.
Questions 11-14
Do the following statements agree, with the information given in Reading Passage? In boxes 11-14 on your
answer sheet, write
11 Using electricity produced by burning fossil fuels to access sources of
hydrogen may increase the positive effect of the fuel-cell.
12 The oil company Statoil in Norway owns gas wells in other parts of the
world.
13 Public transport is leading the way in the application of fuel-cell
technology.
14 More funding is necessary to ensure the success of the fuel-cell vehicle
industry.
25
READING PASSAGE 8
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 on pages
10 and 11.
Looking at daily life in ancient Rome

In this preface to a history, the writer explains the factors affecting the scope of his study
If our ideas on Roman life are not to become lost in confusion, we must study it within a strictly defined
time. Nothing changes more rapidly than human customs. Looking at our own more familiar world, apart
from the great scientific discoveries of recent centuries which have turned it upside down - steam,
electricity, railways, motor cars and aeroplanes, for example - it is clear that the elementary forms of
everyday life have been subject to increasing change. Potatoes, for example, were not introduced into
Europe until the sixteenth century, coffee was first drunk there in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth,
and the banana w'as used in desserts in Europe at the beginning of the twentieth. The law of change was
not less operative in antiquity. It was a commonplace of Roman rhetoric to contrast the crude simplicity of
the Republic (509BC-27BC) with the luxury and refinement of the imperial times which followed. There is
no common measure, whether of home, or house, or furniture, between ages which are so different.
Since a choice of time must necessarily be made, this history will confine itself to studying the generation
which was bom about the middle of the first century AD, toward the end of the reign of Claudius (41-54AD)
or the beginning of the reign of Nero (54-68AD), and which lived on into the reign of Trajan (98-117AD) and
of Hadrian (117-138AD). This generation saw the Roman Empire at its most powerful and prosperous. It
was witness to the last conquests of the Caesars: the conquest of Dacia, in modem-day eastern Europe,
which brought vast mineral wealth into the Empire, and the conquest of Arabia, which helped to bring the
riches of India and East Asia flooding into Rome. In the material domain, this generation attained the
pinnacle of ancient civilisation.
By a fortunate coincidence - all the more fortunate in that Latin* literature was soon to run nearly dry - this
generation is the one whose records combine to offer us the most complete picture of Roman life that we
possess. We have a profusion of vivid and picturesque descriptions, precise and colourtul, in such works
as the Epigrams of Martial, the Satires of Juvenal and the Letters of Pliny. In addition, the Forum of Trajan in
Rome itself and the ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii, the two prosperous resorts buried by the eruption
of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD, supply an immense fund of archaeological evidence. Later excavations have
also restored to us the ruins of the city of Ostia, which date in the main from the time when the Emperor
Hadrian created this great commercial city as a realisation of his town planning ideas. Fortune has
favoured the historian of this time.
It is not enough to focus our study of Roman life only on a fixed time. It would lack foundation and
consistency if we did not also focus it in space - in the country or in the town. Even today when the
facilities for communication bring something of the city into the smallest and most isolated country
cottage, there remains a significant difference between rural existence and the excitement of city life: a
much greater gulf separated the peasant from the townsman of antiquity. So large was the inequality
between them that, according to the historian Rostovtzeff, it pitted one against the other in a fierce and
silent struggle which pierced the wall protecting the Roman privileged classes from the barbarian flood
from the nort. When the barbarian forces began to invade Roman territory, the peasants decided to fight
alongside them.
The townsman, in fact, enjoyed all the goods and resources of the earth. The peasant knew nothing but
unending labour without profit, and was unable to enjoy the activities available in even the poorest of
26
cities: the liveliness of the sports field, the warmth of the public baths and the magnificence of public
spectacles. In a work on the history of everyday life, we must give up any attempt to blend two such
dissimilar pictures into one, and must choose between them. The time which we have chosen to describe
day by day is that of those Roman subjects who spent their time exclusively in the town, or rather in The
City, Rome, which they regarded as the hub and centre of the universe, proud and wealthy ruler of a world
which seemed at that time to have been pacified for ever.
To perform our task well, we must first try to form an adequate picture of the surroundings in which our
subjects lived, and by which their lives were coloured, freeing ourselves from any misconceptions
concerning it. We must seek to reconstruct the physical nature of the great city and the social milieu of the
various classes of the hierarchy by which it was governed. We must also investigate the moral background
of thought and sentiment which can help explain both its strength and its weaknesses. The way in which
the Romans of Rome employed their time can only be studied satisfactorily after we have plotted out the
main lines of the framework within which they lived and outside of which the routine of their daily life would
be more or less unintelligible.
Questions 27 - 30
Mite the correct letter in boxes 27-30 on your answer sheet.
27 What does the writer say about the period mentioned in the second paragraph?
A There was a high level of immigration into Rome.
B The export of minerals made Rome rich.
C Rome sent armies to control trade with India and East Asia.
D The Roman standard of living reached its highest level.
28 Ostia is mentioned as
A. a city which often features in literature.
B. an important area for archaeological research.
C. the birthplace of a Roman Emperor.
D. a city whose layout was similar to that of Rome.
29 The statement that ‘Fortune has favoured the historian of this time’ refers to the fact that
A. historians of this period have become wealthy as a result of their discoveries.
B. works on this period are popular among the reading public.
C. a wide range of sources is available for this period.
D. this period has been less studied than many others.
30 In comparing urban and rural life in the Roman Empire, the writer states that
27
A. rural Romans were largely illiterate.
B. rural life and urban life had little in common.
C. little information is available concerning rural life.
D. most readers of history are more interested in city life.
Questions 31-36
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3?
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
31 Rome’s conquest of Arabia resulted in large-scale immigration from the east into Rome.
32 More can be learned about Roman life from the literature of the period studied in this book than from
later Latin literature.
33 Discoveries at Herculaneum and Pompeii showed that certain beliefs about Roman life were wrong.
34 Roman peasants provided assistance to the Empire when it was attacked.
35 Rural inhabitants of the Roman Empire had a difficult life.
36 Entertainment facilities were limited to the city of Rome itself.
Questions 37 - 40
Complete the summary using the list of words, A-I, below.
Write the correct letter, A-I, in boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet.
The scope of the writer’s study

It was important for the writer to limit several aspects of his 37……………………..He decided to
focus on a limited 38…………………..in Roman history, and to concentrate on the section of the
population who were 39………………………….The writer was interested in the physical environment, the
people that ruled the country and the 40…………………………that contributed both to Rome’s strength
and to its weaknesses.
A emperors B setting C values
D peasants E city-dwellers F social classes
G myths H period I investigation
28
READING PASSAGE 9
GAMMA GARDENING
A type of gardening craze that was popular in the mid-20th century
A. Visitors to garden shows across the US and in the UK in the 1960s could see science at work. Never
before had such giant peanuts been on display or so many huge tomatoes which kept on growing from a
single plant. In addition, there were multi-coloured flowers on a single bush, and seeds that promised to
grow a rare blue rose. Genetic abnormalities were plentiful in bunches of flowers which were displayed in
arrangements in order to advertise a new wave of gardening techniques. These were known to all as
‘gamma gardens’.
B. In 1959 in the UK, a woman named Muriel Howorth founded a society to promote gamma gardening and
published a book a year later about how to grow a gamma garden in a back yard. Members of Howorth’s
society received irradiated seeds which they planted in their gardens and were then requested to send
reports back to Howorth detailing which plants grew well and which ones failed. Howorth herself made
national news after growing a giant peanut plant from an irradiated nut. Howorth even organised gatherings
and film screenings on gamma gardening.
C. While scientists were the original gamma gardening pioneers, with labs in the US, UK, Japan, India,
Costa Rica and the ex-Soviet Union, gardening enthusiasts soon heard about the possibilities new plant
varieties posed. A Boston Globe story from 1961 asked,
‘Would you like to grow rose plants that might produce blossoms of several colours on the same bush? Or
would you prefer ten-foot marigolds or perhaps tomato plants that yield as many as 120 fruits per plant?’
Promotions and contests in US newspapers offered cash prizes of $1,000 for the ‘most unusual’ plants
reported to them.
D. The largest, usually lab-based, gamma gardens of the 1950s could cover as much as five acres, with
plants arranged in sections which were laid out in the shape of a circle. The way a gamma garden worked
was simple: radiation came from a radioactive metal pole which was stuck in the garden’s centre and
exposed the plants around it to its silent rays. Radiation slowly affected the plants’ DNA and changed how
their genes were expressed. The plants nearest to the radioactive source died, and the next farthest grew
unusual growths. But in the next group, the mutant action began to show. The radiation could cause a
desirable trait, primarily associated with size, like fatter tomatoes or larger rosebuds. Alternatively, even
plants that were resistant to cold could sometimes be produced. Once beneficial mutations appeared, the
seeds were bred to form more super¬plants or were exposed to radiation - in other words, irradiated - again
to further change the DNA. In home gardens, people normally used pre-irradiated seeds and bred their
plants for mutated traits, but some enthusiastic gamma gardeners obtained a licence from the
government to use cobalt-60, a solid radiation source, to irradiate plants and seeds.
E. While new and exciting plants were a focus of gamma gardening, the trend started with scientists who
aimed to build a new relationship between nuclear energy and the world. For the next few decades from
the 1950s onwards, scientists were interested in using radiation for good. They believed there must be a
way for our power over the atom to produce some positivity in the world. Their idea? Mutant plants.
Gamma gardening could speed up evolution, and it seemed like a solid answer to the problem of food
shortages and plant disease. The idea caught on. A New York Times article published in 1955 had the sub-
headline, ‘Irradiated Seed Will Make the Desert Bloom’. In it, the possible benefits of the new science were
outlined, highlighting scientists in Geneva and the US who were pioneering some of the research. The
‘implications for a food-short world were said to be “enormous”,’ the article claimed.
29
F. Humans have been selectively altering plants for millennia. Long ago, staple foods such as
potatoes and tomatoes were poisonous, but farmers bred them so they became edible. Farmers and
scientists throughout the ages continued to modify plants using selective breeding to enhance a
characteristic over a few plant generations, or through chemically induced mutations. Then, by the late
1950s, any average gardener could see the process of genetic variance at home. While the results could be
unpredictable, many gardeners enjoyed the experience of observing the changes to plants that occurred in
their own gardens. By 1962, agricultural fairs began featuring ‘atomic energised’ tomatoes, and the new
radiation-bred seeds and vegetables soon made their way to the supermarket.
G. However, while the initial excitement surrounding irradiated plants was strong, it didn’t last and
soon gamma gardening ceased to be done. This was because during the 1970s scientists grew frustrated
with the randomness of the genetic mutations the radiation produced. There was no way to control which
genes would pop up in a gamma garden or what their effects could be. The public had also become uneasy
about the relationship between radiation and disease and began worrying about the radioactive tools they
used to produce their plants and the impact these had on the safety of fruit and vegetables in particular. As
a result, scientists turned to the more accurate method of plant-gene splicing. It removes or replaces a few
very specific genes to produce, for example, disease-resistant plants, and is a method used in genetic
modification today.
Questions 21 and 22
Choose TWO letters, A-E.
Write the correct letters in boxes 21 and 22 on your answer sheet.
Which TWO of the following statements are true of Muriel Howorth?
A She was a well-regarded writer of scientific articles.
B She hoped to get information from the people about their gardening results.
C She received public recognition for one particular plant she grew.
D. She featured in a documentary about gamma gardening.
E She was criticised by the scientific community regarding her work.
Questions 23 - 26 .Complete the summary below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 23-26 on your
answer sheet.
The gamma gardens of the 1950s

Gamma gardens covered large areas to form a 23………………………In the middle of the garden there
was a 24…………………………………made from metal which emitted radiation. The plants that were furthest
away from the centre sometimes developed desirable traits like a difference in the size of produce. Another
characteristic that gardeners were looking for was a plant’s ability to survive
25………………………….better. Home gardeners could either purchase seeds that had already undergone
irradiation, or they could apply to the 26………………………………for a special licence that allowed them to
use a radiation source in their own gardens.
30
READING PASSAGE 10
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which ere based on Reading Passage on pages 10
and 11.
DECISIONS, DECISIONS!
Research explores when we can make a vital decision quickly and when we need to proceed more
deliberately
A widely recognised legend tells us that in Gordium (in what is now Turkey) in the fourth century BC an
oxcart was roped to a pole with a complex knot. It was said that the first person to untie it would become
the king of Asia. Unfortunately, the knot proved impossible to untie. The story continues that when
confronted with this problem, rather than deliberating on how to untie the Gordian knot, Alexander, the
famous ruler of the Greeks in the ancient world, simply took out his sword and cut it in two - then went on
to conquer Asia. Ever since, the notion of a ‘Gordian solution’ has referred to the attractiveness of a simple
answer to an otherwise intractable problem.
Among researchers in the psychology of decision making, however, such solutions have traditionally held
little appeal. In particular, the ‘conflict model’ of decision making proposed by psychologists Irving Janis
and Leon Mann in their 1977 book, Decision Making, argued that a complex decision-making process is
essential for guarding individuals and groups from the peril of‘group-think’. Decisions made without
thoroughly canvassing, surveying, weighing, examining and reexamining relevant information and options
would be suboptimal and often disastrous. One foreign affairs decision made by a well-known US political
leader in the 1960s is typically held up as an example of the perils of inadequate thought, whereas his
successful handling of a later crisis is cited as an example of the advantages of careful deliberation.
However, examination of these historical events by Peter Suedfield, a psychologist at the University of
British Columbia, and Roderick Kramer, a psychologist at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, found
little difference in the two decision-making processes; both crises required and received complex
consideration by the political administration, but later only the second one was deemed to be effective.
In general, however, organisational and political science offer little evidence that complex decisions fare
better than simpler ones. In fact, a growing body of work suggests that in many situations simple ‘snap’
decisions will be routinely superior to more complex ones - an idea that gained widespread public appeal
with Malcolm Gladwell’s best-selling book Blink (2006).
An article by Ap Dijksterhuis of the University of Amsterdam and his colleagues, ‘On Making the Right
Choice: the Deliberation-without-attention Effect’, runs very much in the spirit of Gladwell's influential text.
Its core argument is that to be effective, conscious (deliberative) decision making requires cognitive
resources. Because increasingly complex decisions place increasing strain on those resources, the quality
of our decisions declines as their complexity increases. In short, complex decisions overrun our cognitive
powers. On the other hand, unconscious decision making (what the authors refer to as ‘deliberation
without attention’) requires no cognitive resources, so tas complexity does not degrade effectiveness. The
seemingly counterintuitive conclusion is that although conscious thought enhances sirnplo decisions, the
opposite holds true for more complox decisions.
Dijksterhuis reports four simple but olcgnnt studies supporting this argument. In one, participants
assessed the quality of four hypothetical cars by considering either fouir attributes (a simple task) or 12
attributes (a complex task). Among participants who considered four attributes, those who were allowed to
31
engage in undistracted deliberative thought did better at discriminating between the best and worst cars.
Those who were distracted and thus unable to deliberate had to rely on their unconscious thinking and did
less well. The opposite pattern emerged when people considered 12 criteria. In this cAse, conscious
deliberation led to inferior discrimination and poor decisions.
In another study, Dijksterhuis surveyed people shopping for clothes (‘simple’ products) and furniture
Ccomplex’ products). Compared with those who said they had deliberated long and hard, shoppers who
bought with little conscious deliberation felt less happy with their simple clothing purchases but happier
with the complex furniture purchases. Deliberation without attention actually produced better results as
the decisions became more complex.
From there, however, the researchers take a big leap. They write
There is no reason to assume that the deliberation-without-attention effect does not generalise to other
types of choices - political, managerial or otherwise. In such cases, it should benefit the individual to think
consciously about simple matters and to delegate thinking about more complicated matters to the
unconscious.
This radical inference contradicts standard political and managerial theory but doubtless comforts those
in politics and management who always find the simple solution to the complex problem an attractive
proposition. Indeed, one suspects many of our political leaders already embrace this wisdom.
Still it is here, in the realms of society and its governance, that the more problematic implications of
deliberation without attention begin to surface. Variables that can be neatly circumscribed in decisions
about shopping lose clarity in a world of group dynamics, social interaction, history and politics. Two
pertinent questions arise. First, what counts as a complex decision? And second, what counts as a good
outcome?
As social psychologist Kurt Lewin (1890 - 1947) noted, a ‘good’ decision that nobody respects is actually
bad. His classic studies of decision making showed that participating in deliberative processes makes
people more likely to abide by the results. The issue here is that when political decision makers make
mistakes, it is their politics, or the relation between their politics and our own, rather than psychology
which is at fault.
Gladwell’s book and Dijksterhuis’s paper are invaluable in pointing out the limitations of the conventional
wisdom that decision quality rises with decision-making complexity. But this work still tempts us to believe
that decision making is simply a matter of psychology, rather than also a question of politics, ideology and
group membership. Avoiding social considerations in a search for general appeal can take us away from
enlightenment rather than toward it.
32
Questions 27 - 31
Choose the correct letter; A, B, C or D.
White the correct letter in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet.
27 The legend of the Gordian knot is used to Illustrate the idea that
A anyone can solve a difficult problem.
B difficult problems can have easy solutions.
C the solution to any problem requires a lot of thought.
D people who can solve complex problems make good leaders.
28 The 'conflict model’ of decision making proposed by Janis and Mann requires that
A opposing political parties be involved.
B all important facts be considered.
C people be encouraged to have different Ideas.
D previous similar situations be thoroughly examined.
29 According to recent thinking reinforced by Malcolm Gladwell, the best decisions
A involve consultation.
B involve complex thought.
C are made very quickly.
D are the most attractive option.
30 Dijksterhuis and his colleagues claim in their article that
A our cognitive resources improve as tasks become more complex.
B conscious decision making is negatively affected by task complexity.
C unconscious decision making is a popular approach.
D deliberation without attention defines the way we make decisions.
31 Dijksterhuis’s car study found that, in simple tasks, participants
A were involved in lengthy discussions.
B found it impossible to make decisions quickly.
C were unable to differentiate between the options.
D could make a better choice when allowed to concentrate.
33
Questions 32 - 35
Complete the summary using the list of wonts, AA, below.
Write the comect letter, A-l, in boxes 32-35 on your answer shoot.
DIJKSTERHULS'S SHOPPING STUDY AND ITS CONCLUSIONS
Using clothing and furniture as examples of different types of purchases, Dljksterhuls questioned
shoppers on their satisfaction with what they had bought. People who
spent 32……………………time buying simple clothing Items were more satisfied than those who had
not. However, when buying furniture, shoppers made 33…………………………purchasing decisions if
they didn’t think too hard. From this, the researchers concluded that in other choices,
perhaps more important than shopping, 34…………………………….decisions are best made by the
unconscious. The writer comments that Dijksterhuis's finding Is apparently 35……………………but
nonetheless true.
A more B counterintuitive C simple
D better E conscious F obvious
G complex H less I worse
Questions 36 - 40
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 3?
YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer
36 Dijksterhuis's findings agree with existing political and management theories.
37 Some political leaders seem to use deliberation without attention when making complex
decisions.
38 All political decisions are complex ones.
39 We judge political errors according to our own political beliefs.
40 Social considerations must be taken Into account for any examination of decision making to prove
useful.
34
READING PASSAGE 11
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which are based on Reading Passage on pages 6
and 7.
THE FASCINATING WORLD OF ATTINE ANTS

Nicholas Wade examines leaf-cutter ants and their amazing agriculture
A Leaf-cutting ants and their fungus* 'farms' are a marvel of nature and perhaps the best-known example
of symbiosis - the mutual dependence of two species.
The ants cultivate a mushroom-like fungus In 'farms'. Both the ants and their so- called 'agriculture' have
been extensively studied over the years, but recent research has uncovered Intriguing new findings.
Ants invented agriculture 50 million years before people did, and the leaf-cutters, members of the large
attine ant family, practice the most sophisticated example of it. They grow their fungus In underground
chambers that can reach the size of a football. A single leaf-cutter nest may contain a thousand such
chambers, embedded In an underground metropolis up to 18 feet deep, and support a society of more
than a million ants.
B These ant communities are the dominant plant-eaters of the Neotropics, the region comprising South
and Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean.
Biologists believe 15 per cent of the leaf production of tropical forests disappears down the nests of leaf-
cutter ants. In the nest, the leaves are shredded and added to the fungus, which digests the leaves and is
in turn eaten by the ants.
The attine ants' achievement is remarkable because it allows them to consume, courtesy of their
mushroom's digestive powers, the harvest of tropical forests whose leaves are laden with poisonous
chemicals.
C There are more than 200 known species of attine ant, divided into 12 groups.
The leaf-cutters use fresh vegetation while the other groups, known as the lower attines because their
nests are smaller and their techniques more primitive, feed their gardens with similar leaves which have
fallen on the ground and insects that lie on the forest floor. Lower attine ants are all a similar size. However,
leaf- cutter worker ants come In made-to-fit sizes - large ants to saw off leaves, medium ones to shred
them and miniature workers to seed them with fungus and clean off alien growths.
D In 1994, biologists from the United States Department of Agriculture analyzed the DNA of ant funguses.
They found that the leaf-cutters' *fungus was descended from a single pure strain, propagated for at least
23 million years. However, the funguses grown by lower attine ants fell Into four different groups, as If the
ants had domesticated wild funguses at least four times In evolutionary history. What could be driving
these two patterns of fungus gardening, the pure clone cultivation of the leaf-cutters and multiple varieties
of the lower attines?
_________________________________
*fungus: an organism such as a mushroom which obtains its food from decaying material.
35
E The answer has been suggested by Cameron Currie of the University of Toronto. The pure strain of fungus
grown by the leaf-cutters, It seemed to him, resembled the single crops grown by humans to the exclusion
of all others, such as potato growing. These 'monocultures' are very productive for a while but can
succumb to disease. Monocultures, which lack the genetic diversity to respond to changing environmental
threats, are particularly vulnerable to parasites - organisms which live and feed on their host, often causing
harm. Currie felt there had to be a parasite In the ant-fungus system. But a century of ant research did not
provide any evidence for his Idea. Textbooks describe how leaf-cutter ants scrupulously weed their
gardens of all foreign organisms. 'People kept telling me, the ants keep their gardens free of parasites,' said
Currie. Nevertheless, after three years of sifting through attine ant gardens, Currie discovered several alien
organisms, particularly a family of parasitic molds called 'Escovopsls'.
F Escovopsls is a deadly disease that can devastate a fungus garden in a couple of days. It blooms like a
white cloud which envelops the whole garden. Other ants won't go near it and the ants associated with the
garden just starve to death. Evidently, the ants usually manage to keep Escovopsls and other parasites
under control. Nevertheless, with any lapse In control Escovopsls will quickly burst forth. Although new
leaf-cutter gardens start off free of Escovopsls, within two years some 60 per cent become Infected.
G The discovery of Escovopsls's role brings a new level of understanding to the evolution of the attine ants.
In the last decade, evolutionary biologists have become increasingly aware of the role of parasites as
driving forces In evolution. With Currie's work, there Is now a possible reason for the different varieties of
fungus in the lower attine mushroom gardens - to stay one step ahead of the relentless Escovopsls.
Interestingly, the leaf-cutters had fewer alien molds In their gardens than the lower attlnes, yet more
Escovopsls Infections. Clearly, the price they pay for cultivating a pure variety of fungus Is a higher risk
from Escovopsls.
H So how do attine ants keep this parasite under control? People have known for a hundred years that ants
have a whitish growth on their body surface. It was thought to be a wax but, after examining it under a
microscope, Currie discovered a specialized patch on the ants' bodies that harbors a particular kind of
bacterium, one well known to the pharmaceutical industry and the source of many antibiotics used in
medicine. This bacterium Is a potent poisoner of Escovopsls, Inhibiting its growth and suppressing spore
formation.
Astoundingly, the leaf-cutter ants are accomplishing feats beyond the power of humans: they are growing a
monocultural crop year after year without disaster, and they are using an antibiotic apparently so wisely
that, unlike people, they are not provoking antibiotic resistance In the target disease-producing organism.
Questions 14 - 19
Reading Passage 2 has eight sections, A-H.
Which section contains the following Information?
Writs the cotrecl letter, A-H, in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet.
14 two things at which leaf-cutter ants have succeeded but humans have failed
15 a comparison between the nests of leaf-cutter and lower attine ants
16 an assessment of the impact leaf-cutter ants have on their environment
17 the effect Escovopsis has on ant communities
36
18 the advantage for lower attine ants of growing a range of funguses
19 the discovery of the age of the attine ant funguses
Questions 20 - 24
Classify the following features as belonging to
A leaf-cutter ants
B lower attine ants
C both leaf-cutter and lower attine ants
Write the correct letter, A, B or C, in boxes 20-24 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
20 the use of dead vegetation to cultivate their fungus
21 very small ants that keep the fungus free of foreign organisms
22 the ability to safely eat harmful plants
23 the cultivation of a single fungus
24 a nest with a very large number of rooms for growing fungus
Questions 25 and 26
Choose the correct letter, A, B, Cor D.
Write the correct letter in boxes 25 and 26 on your answer sheet.
25 What does the writer say about Cameron Currie's research?
A No previous work had been done In this area.
B Earlier studies did not support his theory.
C Textbooks on this subject lacked specific detail.
D Currie’s Initial theory had proven to be Incorrect.
26 Using a microscope, Currie wa9 the first to discover that the body of attine ants
A has a white covering.
B is covered in wax.
C is poisonous to humans.
D has a substance useful to humans.
37
READING PASSAGE 12
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage on pages 2
and 3.
Becoming an expert
What is the nature of expertise and what is the process by which one tnovesfrom being a novice, to a
journeyman, and eventually to becoming an expert?
Expertise is commitment coupled with creativity. It takes a considerable amount of time and regular
exposure to a large number of cases to become an expert. An individual enters a field of study as a novice.
The novice needs to acquire the guiding principles and rules of a given task in order to undertake that task.
Concurrently, the novice needs to be exposed to specific cases, or instances, that test the boundaries of
such rules. Generally, a novice will find a mentor to direct them through the process of acquiring new
knowledge.
In time, and with much practice, the novice begins to distinguish patterns of behavior within cases, and
thus becomes a journeyman. With more practice and exposure to increasingly complex cases, the
journeyman finds patterns not only within cases but also between cases. More importantly, the
journeyman learns that these patterns often repeat themselves over time. The journeyman still maintains
regular contact with a mentor to solve specific problems and learn more complex strategies.
When journeymen start to make and test hypotheses about future behavior based on past experiences,
they begin the next transition. Once they creatively generate knowledge, rather than simply matching
superficial patterns, they become experts.
At this point, they are confident in their knowledge and no longer need a mentor - they become responsible
for their own knowledge. Once they make predictions based on patterns, and test those predictions
against actual behavior, they are generating new knowledge.
This process is rather like an apprenticeship model. Apprenticeship may seem like a restrictive 18th-
century mode of education, but it is still a standard method of training for many complex tasks. Academic
doctoral programs are based on an apprenticeship model, as are fields like law, music, engineering, and
medicine. Graduate students enter such fields of study, find mentors, and begin the long process of
becoming independent experts and generating new knowledge in their respective domains.
Experts have a deeper understanding of their domains than novices have, and utilize higher-order
principles to solve problems. A novice, for example, would group objects together by color or size, whereas
an expert would group the same objects according to their function or utility. Experts comprehend the
meaning of data and weigh variables using different criteria within their domains better than novices.
Experts recognize variables that have the largest influence on a particular problem and focus their
attention on those variables.
38
Experts have better domain-specific short-term and long-term mcmoty than novices have. Moreover,
experts perform tasks faster than novices and commit fewer errors while solving problems. Interestingly,
experts go about solving problems differently than novices. Experts spend more time thinking about a
problem to hilly understand it at the beginning of a task than do novices, who immediately seek to find a
solution. Experts use their knowledge of previous cases as a context for creating mental models to solve
given problems.
Better at self-monitoring than novices, experts are more aware of instances where they have committed
errors or failed to understand a problem. Experts check their solutions more often than novices and
recognize when they are missing information necessary for solving a problem. Experts are aware of the
limits of their domain knowledge and apply their domain’s principles and rules to solve problems that fall
outside of their experience base.
The Contradiction of Expertise
The strengths of expertise can also be weaknesses. Although one would expect experts to be good
forecasters, they are not particularly good at making predictions about the future. The performance of
experts has been tested against predictions derived from pure statistical analysis of past events to
determine if they are better than these models. With more than 200 experiments in different domains, it is
clear that the answer is no.
Theorists and researchers differ when trying to explain why experts are less accurate forecasters than
statistical models. Some have argued that experts, like all humans, are inconsistent when using mental
models to make predictions. That is, the model an expert uses for predicting something in one month, is
different from the model used for predicting the same thing in a following month, although identical data
sets are used in both instances.
A number of other researchers point to human bias in order to explain unreliable expert predictions. During
the last 30 years, researchers have categorized, experimented with, and theorized about the different
aspects of forecasting.
Despite such efforts, the literature shows little consensus regarding the causes or manifestations of
human bias.
The very method by which one becomes an expert explains why experts are much better at describing,
explaining, performing tasks, and problem-solving within their domains than are novices, but, with a few
exceptions, are worse at forecasting than tables based on historical, statistical models.
39
Questions 1-5 Complete the flow-chatt below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer;
• have to learn the key 1………………. And………………of tasks before
performing them
• usually require the help of a 2 ………………………………………..
• recognise different 3……………………………….In cases that become more and
more 4 ……………………………………….
• are able to make and 5………………….. predictions
• can base predictions on experience and on what they know in order to create new knowledge
Questions 6-10
NOT GIVEN if there is no infonnation on this
6 Experts and novices use the same classification systems for objects.
7 Novices are often required to work on tasks that build memory skills.
8 Novices perform tasks more slowly than experts.
9 Novices begin a task by looking for an answer straight away.
10 Experts review their work more efficiently than novices.
Questions 11-13 Complete the summary below.
The Contradiction of Expertise

Researchers have conducted a large number of 11………………….in different areas which show
that statistical models provide more accurate predictions than experts. Some theorists think this may be
because experts can apply different mental models to the same data sets on different occasions.
Others suggest that forms of 12…………………may also influence experts, although there
is not a great deal of 13 ……………………………..about why or how this happens.
40
READING PASSAGE 13
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 t 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 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
41
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
Questions 1 - 6
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.
42
Questions 7-13
Complete the notes below. Choose ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer
The tuatara Lifespan

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
Protection of the species
-tuatara population dropped until rats eradicated from islands
-eggs were gathered by the Department of Conservation
43
READING PASSAGE 14
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26 which are based on Reading Passage 2
below.
TASMANIAN TIGER
A
Although it was called tiger, it looked like a clog with black stripes on its hack and it was the largest known
carnivorous marsupial of modem times. Yet, despite its fame for being one of the most fabled animals in
the world, it is one of the least understood of Tasmania's native animals. The scientific name for the
Tasmanian tiger is Thylacine and it is believed that they have become extinct in the 20th century.
Fossils of thylacines dating from about almost 12 million years ago have been dug up at various places in
Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. They were widespread in Australia 7,000 years ago, but
have probably been extinct on the continent for 2,000 years ago. This is believed to be because of the
introduction of dingoes around 8,000 years ago. Because of disease, thylacine numbers may have been
declining in Tasmania at the time of European settlement 200 years ago, but the decline was certainly
accelerated by the new arrivals. The last known Titsmanijin Tiger died in I lobar! Zoo in 193fi and the animal
is officially classified as extinct. Technically, this means that it has not been officially sighted in the wild or
captivity for 50 years. However, there are still unsubstantiated sightings.
Hans Naarding, whose study of animals had taken him around the world, was conducting a survey of a
species of endangered migratory bird. Hat he saw that night is now regarded as the most credible sighting
recorded of thylacine that many believe has been extinct for more than 70 years.
"I had to work at night." Naarding takes up the story. "I was in the habit of intermittently shining a spotlight
around. The beam fell on an animal in front of the vehicle, less than 10m away. Instead of risking
movement by grabbing for a camera, I decided to register very carefully what I was seeing. The animal was
about the size of a small shepherd dog, a very healthy male in prime condition. What set it apart from a
dog, though, was a slightly sloping hindquarter, with a fairly thick tail being a straight continuation of the
backline of the animal. It had 12 distinct stripes on its back, continuing onto its butt. I knew perfectly well
what I was seeing. As soon as I reached for the camera, it disappeared into the tea-tree undergrowth and
scrub."
The director of Tasmania's National Parks at the time, Peter Morrow, decided in his wisdom to keep
Naarding's sighting of the thylacine secret for two years. When the news finally broke, it was accompanied
by pandemonium. "I was besieged by television crews, including four to five from Japan, and others from
the United Kingdom, Germany, New Zealand and South America," said Naarding.
44
F
Government and private search parties combed the region, but no further sightings were made. The tiger,
as always, had escaped to its lair, a place many insist exists only in our imagination. But since then, the
thylacine has staged something of a comeback, becoming part of Australian mythology.
There have been more than 4,000 claimed sightings of the beast since it supposedly died out, and the
average claims each year reported to authorities now number 150. Associate professor of zoology at the
University of Tasmania, Randolph Rose, has said he dreams of seeing a thylacine. But Rose, who in his 35
years in Tasmanian academia has fielded countless reports of thylacine sightings, is now convinced that
his dream will go unfulfilled.
"The consensus among conservationists is that, usually; any animal with a population base of less than
1,000 is headed for extinction within 60 years," says Rose. "Sixty years ago, there was only one thylacine
that we know of, and that was in Hobart Zoo," he says.
Dr. David Pemberton, curator of zoology at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, whose PhD thesis was
on the thylacine, says that despite scientific thinking that 500 animals are required to sustain a population,
the Florida panther is down to a dozen or so animals and, while it does have some inbreeding problems, is
still ticking along. "I'll take a punt and say that, if we manage to find a thylacine in the scrub, it means that
there are 50-plus animals out there."
After all, animals can be notoriously elusive. The strange fish known as the coelacanth' with its "proto-
legs", was thought to have died out along with the dinosaurs 700 million years ago until a specimen was
dragged to the surface in a shark net off the south-east coast of South Africa in 1938.
Wildlife biologist Nick Mooney has the unenviable task of investigating all "sightings" of the tiger totaling
4,000 since the mid-1980s, and averaging about 150 a year. It was Mooney who was first consulted late last
month about the authenticity of digital photographic images purportedly taken by a German tourist while
on a recent bushwalk in the state. On face value, Mooney says, the account of the sighting, and the two
photographs submitted as proof, amount to one of the most convincing cases for the species' survival he
has seen.
And Mooney has seen it all - the mistakes, the hoaxes, the illusions and the plausible accounts of
sightings. Hoaxers aside, most people who report sightings end up believing they have been a thylacine,
and are themselves believable to the point they could pass a lie-detector test, according to Mooney.
Others, having tabled a creditable report, then become utterly obsessed like the Tasmanian who has
registered 99 thylacine sightings to date. Mooney has seen individuals bankrupted by the obsession, and
families destroyed. "It is a blind optimism that something is, rather than a cynicism that something isn't,"
Mooney says. "If something crosses the road, it's not a case of 'I wonder what that was?' Rather, it is a case
of 'that's a thylacine!' It is a bit like a gold prospector's blind faith, 'it has got to be there'."
45
M
However, Mooney treats all reports on face value. "I never try to embarrass people, or make fools of them.
But the fact that I don't pack the car immediately they ring can often be taken as ridicule. Obsessive
characters get irate that someone in my position is not out there when they think the thylacine is there."
But Hans Naarding, whose sighting of a striped animal two decades ago was the highlight of "a life of
animal spotting", remains bemused by the time and money people waste on tiger searches. He says
resources would be better applied to saving the Tasmanian devil, and helping migratory bird populations
that are declining as a result of shrinking wetlands across Australia.
Could the thylacine still be out there? "Sure," Naarding says. But he also says any discovery of surviving
thylacines would be "rather pointless". "How do you save a species from extinction? What could you do
with it? If there are thylacines out there, they are better off right where they are."
Questions 14-17
The Tasmanian tiger, also called thylacine, resembles the look of a dog and has
14……………………………….on its fur coat. Many fossils have been found, showing that thylacines
had existed as early as 15…………………………………………..years ago. They lived throughout
16……………………………before disappearing from the mainland. And soon after the
17…………………………………….settlers arrived the size of thylacine population in Tasmania shrunk at a
higher speed.
Questions 18-23
Look at the following statements (Questions 18-23) and the list of people below. Match each statement
with the correct person A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter A, B, Cor D in boxes 18-23 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
18 His report of seeing a live thylacine in the wild attracted international interest.
19 Many eye-witnesses' reports are not trustworthy.
20 It doesn't require a certain number of animals to ensure the survival of a species.
21 There is no hope of finding a surviving Tasmanian tiger.
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22 Do not disturb them if there are any Tasmanian tigers still living today.
23 The interpretation of evidence can be affected by people's beliefs.
List of People
A. Hans Naarding
B. Randolph Rose
C. David Pemberton
D. Nick Mooney
Questions 24-26
Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes 24-26 on your answer sheet.
24 Hans Naarding's sighting has resulted in
A. government and organisations' cooperative efforts to protect thylacine
B. extensive interests to find a living thylacine.
C. increase of the number of reports of thylacine worldwide.
D. growth of popularity of thylacine in literature.
25 The example of coelacanth is to illustrate
A. it lived in the same period with dinosaurs.
B. hos dinosaurs evolved legs.
C. some animals are difficult to catch in the wild.
D. extinction of certain species can be mistaken.
26 Mooney believes that all sighting reports should be
A. given some credit as they claim even if they are untrue.
B. acted upon immediately.
C. viewed as equally untrustworthy.
D. questioned and carefully investigated.
47
READING PASSAGE 15
READING IN A WHOLE NEW WAY

As technology improves, how does the act of reading change?
Reading and writing, like all technologies, are constantly changing. In ancient times, authors often dictated
their books. Dictation sounded like an uninterrupted series of words, so scribes wrote these down in one
long continuous string, justastheyoccurinspeech. For this reason, text was written without spaces
between words until the 11th century.
This continuous script made books hard to read, so only a few people were accomplished at reading them
aloud to others. Being able to read silently to yourself was considered an amazing talent; writing was an
even rarer skill. In fact, in 15th-century Europe, only one in 20 adult males could write.
After Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press in about 1440, mass-produced books changed the way
people read and wrote. The technology of printing increased the number of words available, and more
types of media, such as newspapers and magazines, broadened what was written about. Authors no
longer had to produce scholarly works, as was common until then, but could write, for example,
inexpensive, heart-rending love stories or publish autobiographies, even if they were unknown.
In time, the power of the written word gave birth to the idea of authority and expertise. Laws were compiled
into official documents, contracts were written down and nothing was valid unless it was in this form.
Painting, music, architecture, dance were all important, but the heartbeat of many cultures was the turning
pages of a book. By the early 19th century, public libraries had been built in many cities.
Today, words are migrating from paper to computers, phones, laptops and game consoles. Some 4.5
billion digital screens illuminate our lives. Letters are no longer fixed in black ink on paper, but flitter on a
glass surface in a rainbow of colors as fast as our eyes can blink. Screens fill our pockets, briefcases, cars,
living-room walls and the sides of buildings. They sit in front of us when we work - regardless of what we do.
And of course, these newly ubiquitous screens have changed how we read and write.
The first screens that overtook culture, several decades ago - the big, fat, warm tubes of television -
reduced the time we spent reading to such an extent that it seemed as if reading and writing were over.
Educators and parents worried deeply that the TV generation would be unable to write. But the
interconnected, cool, thin displays of computer screens launched an epidemic of writing that continues to
swell. As a consequence, the amount of time people spend reading has almost tripled since 1980. By
2008, the World Wide Web contained more than a trillion pages, and that total grows rapidly every day.
But it is not book reading or newspaper reading, it is screen reading. Screens are always on, and, unlike
books, we never stop staring at them. This new platform is very visual, and it is gradually merging words
with moving images. You might think of this new medium as books we watch, or television we read. We
also use screens to present data, and this encourages numeracy: visualising data and reading charts,
looking at pictures and symbols are all part of this new literacy.
Screens engage our bodies, too. The most we may do while reading a book is to flip the pages or turn over a
corner, but when we use a screen, we interact with what we see. In the futuristic movie Minority Report, the
main character stands in front of a screen and hunts through huge amounts of information as if conducting
an orchestra. Just as it seemed strange five centuries ago to see someone read silently, in the future it will
seem strange to read without moving your body.
48
In addition, screens encourage more utilitarian (practical) thinking. A new idea or unfamiliar fact will cause
a reflex to do something: to research a word, to question your screen ‘friends’ for their opinions or to find
alternative views. Book reading strengthened our analytical skills, encouraging us to think carefully about
how we feel. Screen reading, on the other hand, encourages quick responses, associating this idea with
another, equipping us to deal with the thousands of new thoughts expressed every day. For example, we
review a movie for our friends while we watch it; we read the owner’s manual of a device we see in a shop
before we purchase it, rather than after we get home and discover that it can’t do what we need it to do.
Screens provoke action instead of persuasion. Propaganda is less effective, and false information is hard
to deliver in a world of screens because while misinformation travels fast, corrections do, too. On a screen,
it is often easier to correct a falsehood than to tell one in the first place. Wikipedia works so well because it
removes an error in a single click. In books, we find a revealed truth; on the screen, we assemble our own
truth from pieces. What is more, a screen can reveal the inner nature of things. Waving the camera eye of a
smartphone over the bar code of a manufactured product reveals its price, origins and even relevant
comments by other owners. It is as if the screen displays the object’s intangible essence. A popular
children’s toy (Webkinz) instills stuffed animals with a virtual character that is ‘hidden’ inside; a screen
enables children to play with this inner character online in a virtual world.
In the near future, screens will be the first place we’ll look for answers, for friends, for news, for meaning,
for our sense of who we are and who we can be.
Questions 1-5
1 What does the writer say about dictation?
A. It helped people learn to read.
B. It affected the way people wrote.
C. It was not used until the 11th century.
D. It was used mainly for correspondence.
2 According to the writer, what changed after the invention of the printing press?
A. Romance became more popular than serious fiction.
B. Newspapers became more popular than books.
C. Readers asked for more autobiographies.
D. Authors had a wider choice of topics.
3 In the third paragraph, the writer focuses on the
A. legal concerns of authors.
B. rapid changes in public libraries.
C. growing status of the written word.
D. recognition of the book as an art form.
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4 What does the writer say about screens in the fourth paragraph?
A. They are hard to read.
B. They are bad for our health.
C. They can improve our work.
D. They can be found everywhere.
5 According to the writer, computers differ from television because they
A. encourage more reading.
B. attract more criticism.
C. take up more of our leisure time.
D. include more educational content.
Questions 6-10
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 3?
Write
YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer
6 Screen reading has reduced the number of books and newspapers people
read.
7 Screen literacy requires a wider range of visual skills than book-based
literacy.
8 Screen reading is more active than book reading.
9 Screens and books produce similar thought patterns in their readers.
10 People are easily persuaded to believe lies on the screen.
Questions 11-14
Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-F, below.
11 The film Minority Report illustrates
12 Our behaviour when we watch a film shows
13 Wikipedia’s success relies on
14 Webkinz is an example of
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A the accuracy of its information.
B people’s ability to concentrate.
C the global use of the Internet.
D how people behave physically when they read screens.
E the screen’s ability to make an object seem real.
F how rapidly opinions can be communicated.
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READING PASSAGE 16
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40 which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.
ASSESSING THE RISK

A
As a title for a supposedly unprejudiced debate on scientific progress, "Panic attack: interrogating our
obsession with risk" did not bode well. Held last week at the Royal Institution in London, the event brought
together scientists from across the world to ask why society is so obsessed with risk and to call for a "more
rational" approach. "We seem to be organising society around the grandmotherly maxim of 'better safe
than sorry'," exclaimed Spiked, the online publication that organised the event. "What are the
consequences of this overbearing concern with risks?"
The debate was preceded by a survey of 40 scientists who were invited to describe how awful our lives
would be if the "precautionary principle" had been allowed to prevail in the past. Their response was: no
heart surgery or antibiotics, and hardly any drugs at all; no aeroplanes, bicycles or high-voltage power
grids; no pasteurisation, pesticides or biotechnology; no quantum mechanics; no wheel; no "discovery" of
America. In short, their message was: no risk, no gain.
They have absolutely missed the point. The precautionary principle is a subtle idea. It has various forms,
but all of them generally include some notion of cost-effectiveness. Thus the point is not simply to ban
things that are not known to be absolutely safe. Rather, it says: "Of course you can make no progress
without risk. But if there is no obvious gain from taking the risk, then don't take it."
Clearly, all the technologies listed by the 40 well-chosen savants were innately risky at their inception, as
all technologies are. But all of them would have received the green light under the precautionary principle
because they all had the potential to offer tremendous benefits - the solutions to very big problems - if only
the snags could be overcome.
If the precautionary principle had been in place, the scientists tell us, we would not have antibiotics. But of
course we would - if the version of the principle that sensible people now understand had been applied.
When penicillin was discovered in the 1920s, infective bacteria were laying waste to the world. Children
died from diphtheria and whooping cough, every open drain brought the threat of typhoid, and any wound
could lead to septicaemia and even gangrene.
Penicillin was turned into a practical drug during the Second World War, when the many pestilences that
result from was threatened to kill more people than the bombs. Of course antibiotics were a priority. Of
course the risks, such as they could be perceived, were worth taking.
52
G
And so with the other items on the scientists' list: electric light bulbs, blood transfusions. CAT scans,
knives, the measles vaccine - the precautionary principle would have prevented all of them, they tell us.
But this is just plain wrong. If the precautionary principle had been applied properly, all these creations
would have passed muster, because all offered incomparable advantages compared to the risks perceived
at the time.
Another issue is at stake here. Statistics are not the only concept people use when weighing up risk.
Human beings, subtle and evolved creatures that we are, do not survive to three-score years and ten
simply by thinking like pocket calculators. A crucial issue is consumer's choice. In deciding whether to
pursue the development of a new technology, the consumer's right to choose should be considered
alongside considerations of risk and benefit. Clearly, skiing is more dangerous than genetically modified
tomatoes. But people who ski choose to do so; they do not have skiing thrust upon them by portentous
experts of the kind who now feel they have the right to reconstruct our crops. Even with skiing there is the
matter of cost effectiveness to consider: skiing, I am told, is exhilarating. Where is the exhilaration in GM
soya?
Indeed, in contrast to all the other items on Spiked's list, GM crops stand out as an example of a
technology whose benefits are far from clear. Some of the risks can at least be defined. But in the present
economic climate, the benefits that might accrue from them seem dubious. Promoters of GM crops
believe that the future population of the world cannot be fed without them. That is untrue. The crops that
really matter are wheat and rice, and there is no GM research in the pipeline that will seriously affect the
yield of either. GM is used to make production cheaper and hence more profitable, which is an extremely
questionable ambition.
The precautionary principle provides the world with a very important safeguard. If it had been in place in
the past it might, for example, have prevented insouciant miners from polluting major rivers with mercury.
We have come to a sorry pass when scientists, who should above all be dispassionate scholars, feel they
should misrepresent such a principle for the purposes of commercial and political propaganda. People at
large continue to mistrust science and the high technologies it produces partly because they doubt the
wisdom of scientists. On such evidence as this, these doubts are fully justified.
Questions 27-32
27 The title of the debate is not unbiased.
28 All the scientists invited to the debate were from the field of medicine.
53
29 The message those scientists who conducted the survey were sending was people shouldn't take
risks.
30 All the 40 listed technologies are riskier than other technologies.
31 It was worth taking the risks to invent antibiotics.
32 All the other inventions on the list were also judged by the precautionary principle.
Questions 33-39
Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage
Using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer.
When applying precautionary principle to decide whether to invent a new technology, people should also
consideration of the 33…………………….., along with the usual consideration of
34………………………..For example, though risky and dangerous enough, people still enjoy
35……………………………………..for the excitement it provides. On the other hand, experts believe that
future population desperately needs 36…………………………………in spite of their undefined risks.
However, the researchers conducted so far have not been directed towards increasing the yield
of 37………………………………………., but to reduce the cost of 38………………………….and to bring more
profit out of it. In the end, such selfish use of precautionary principle for business and political
gain has often led people to 39…………………..science for they believe scientists are not to be trusted.
Question 40
Write your answers in boxes 40 on your answer sheet.
What is the main theme of the passage?
A. people have right to doubt science and technologies
B. the precautionary principle could have prevented the development of science and technology
C. there are not enough people who truly understand the precautionary principle
D. the precautionary principle bids us to take risks at all costs
54
READING PASSAGE 17
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 on pages
10 and 11.
Some views on the use of headphones

Whether wearing headphones at work, or in other areas of everyday life, is a good thing or a bad thing has
generated a lot of research and opinion
To visit a typical modern office today is to walk into a room with possibly a dozen songs playing
simultaneously but to hear none of them. Up to half of younger workers listen to music on their
headphones, and nearly all of them think it makes them better at their jobs. In survey after survey, people
report with confidence that music makes them happier, better at concentrating, and more productive.
Scientists do not share this belief, they maintain that listening to music hurts people’s ability to recall other
things they should be doing, and any pop song, loud or soft, reduces overall performance for both
extroverts and introverts. A Taiwanese study linked music that has lyrics to lower marks on concentration
tests for college students, and other research has shown music with lyrics scrambles our brains’ verbal-
processing skills. ‘As silence has the best overall performance, it would still be advisable that people work
in silence,’ another reporter dryly concluded.
The question is therefore: if headphones are so bad for productivity, why do so many people at work have
them? One factor to consider is that countries like the USA have moved from a farming and manufacturing
economy to a service economy, with an emphasis on jobs in offices that require higher levels of
concentration, reflection and creativity. As an estimated 70 percent of office workers work in open-plan
office spaces, it is more important to create one’s own enclosing bubble of sound. Lending strength to the
argument for headphones at work is evidence that music relaxes our muscles, improves our mood, and
may even moderately reduce blood pressure, heart rate and anxiety.
The story of headphones began in 1910, when the US Navy received an odd letter written in purple ink on
blue-and-pink paper. The letter writer, an eccentric inventor and repairman named Nathaniel Baldwin,
from the USA state of Utah, made what at the time was an astonishing claim: he had built, in his kitchen, a
new kind of headset that could amplify sound. This was an opportune invention for the Navy, who asked for
a sound test and then enthusiastically adopted the headsets, later called headphones, and used them in
World War I for naval radio communication.
The purpose of headphones is to concentrate a quiet and private sound in the ear of the listener, which is a
radical departure from music’s social purpose in history. ‘Music, together with dance, co-evolved
biologically and culturally to serve as a technology of social bonding,’ Nills L Wallin and Bjorn Merker wrote
in The Origins of Music. Songs don’t leave behind fossils, but evidence of musical notation dates back to
Sumeria, 3,5000 years ago, and in 1995 archeologists discovered a bone flute in southern Europe
estimated to be 44,000 years old. If music evolved as a social glue for the species, as a way to make groups
and keep them together, headphones have done what writing and literacy did for language - they made
music private.
Author and columnist Stephen Marche wrote that separation from other people is one of the first things
ordinary Americans spend their money achieving. It is ‘a by-product of a long-standing national appetite for
independence,’ he said. Americans are not alone in their desire for personal independence and privacy.
55
Marche is right; wealth can buy - and modern technology can deliver - personal independence, and it is
this that people have always sought.
Dr Michael Bull, an expert on personal music devices from the University of Sussex in the UK, has
repeatedly made the larger point that personal music devices change how we relate to public spaces.
Controlling our public spaces is more important now that more people are moving from the edges of cities
to live in urban centers. ‘With the urban space, the more it’s inhabited, the safer you feel,’ Bull says. ‘You
feel safe if you can feel people there, but you don’t’ want to interact with them.’ Headphones create shields
for wearers, separating them from other people and their surroundings. Headphones have their own rules
of good manners; they are like wearing a ‘Do not disturb’ sign. We assume that people wearing them are
busy and we should respect their privacy, so now people wear them to appear busy. In fact, it is now
becoming quite common for people not to listen to anything at all, but just to wear headphones.
However, as pointed out at the beginning of this piece, although scientists have stated that headphones
are bad for productivity, people still wear them at work. It is not just that headphones create privacy out of
public areas, but also that music causes people to relax and reflect and pause. The outcome of relaxation,
reflection and pausing at work won’t be captured in minute-to-minute productivity metrics. What must be
considered is that in moments of extreme focus, our attention radiates outward, toward the problem,
rather than inward, on how to solve the problem. However, with music ‘When our minds are at ease, we’re
more likely to direct the spotlight of attention inward,’ Jonah Lehrer wrote in his book Imagine: How
Creativity Works. The answers have been there all along. We just weren't listening.’ In a crowded world, real
estate is the ultimate scarce resource, and a headphone is a small invisible fence around our minds-
making space, creating separation, and helping us listen to ourselves.
Questions 27-31
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3? In boxes 27-31 on
your answer sheet, write
if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer if it
is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
27 Young people are easily persuaded by surveys that listening to music is beneficial
28 Different studies share the same conclusions about the desirability of working in silence
29 Some doctors recommend wearing headphones to lower blood pressure
30 Nathaniel Baldwin was a respected government researcher
31 The effect of the invention of headphones is comparable to the effect of the invention of the writing
Questions 32-36
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D
Write the correct letter in boxes 32-36 on your answer sheet
56
32 What does the writer suggest about a service economy?
A. The work is mentally demanding
B. It provides employment for younger workers
C. It is a small part of a country’s economy
D. Workers have to live in urban centres
33 When the writer mentions the historical evidence for early music he is
A. emphasizing the diversity of musical forms
B. expressing his frustration with the limited archaeological evidence uncovered
C. lending support to the view that music has been important in human history
D. creating a geographical map of the evolution of music
34 What does the writer say about the social effects of listening to music through headphones?
A. It has caused a reduction in the number of people who listen to music
B. It has increased people's participation in music events
C. It has reduced the global variation of music styles
D. It has changed the traditional role of music in society
35 What does the writer say about personal independence?
A. Americans are unique in their desire for personal independence .
B. Personal independence is something that can be purchased
C. Striving for personal independence is a recent phenomenon
D. Personal independence destroys social connections
36 Why does the writer quote Jonah Lehrer in the last paragraph?
A. to support the writer’s own view
B. to draw attention to an authoritative book about music
C. to raise awareness of people’s loss of listening skills
D. to illustrate how music brings people closer to each other
57
Questions 37-40
Complete the summary using the list of words, A-l, below.
Write the correct letter, A-l, in boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet.
Headphones and city living

Dr Michael Bull believes that listening to music through headphones has changed the
37……………………………………the wearers of headphones have with public spaces. Living in the centre
of cities is becoming popular, as people become less keen on living in the 38……………………In densely
populated city centres, headphones form 39…………………………….that
isolate people from fellow citizens and from their environment. Wearers of headphones
are treated with 40………………………………….that other people do not receive. This is because if we
see someone wearing headphones, we believe they must be occupied in some way and should not be
interrupted.
A courtesy B relationship C difficulty
D countryside E suburbs F language
G barriers H obstacles I disapproval
58
59
I. The Concept of Childhood in 2. Mechanisms of Linguistic
Western Countries Change
1. FALSE 1. sound laws
2. FALSE 2. fashion
3. TRUE 3. imperfect
4. NOT GIVEN 4. principle of ease
5. FALSE 5. FALSE
6. NOT GIVEN 6. FALSE
7. TRUE 7. NOT GIVEN
8. history of childhood 8. TRUE
9. miniature adults 9. TRUE
10. industrialisation/industrialization 10. NOT GIVEN
11. the Factory Act 11. TRUE
12. play and education 12. C
13. (a) classroom 13. B
14. A
3. Animal minds: Parrot Alex 4. Movie of Metropolis
1. NOT GIVEN 27. YES
2. NOT GIVEN 28. NOT GIVEN
3. FALSE 29. NO
5. TRUE 31. social division
6. FALSE 32. machines
7. 100 English words 33. John Frederse
8. chimpanzees 34. abstract
9. avian cognition 35. function
10. particularly chosen 36. efficiency
11. color 37. C
12. wrong pronunciation 38. A
13. teenager 39. B
40. D
5. Mechanisms of Linguistic 6. RISING SEA
Change
1. G
1. sound laws 2. H
2. fashion 3. I
3. imperfect 4. E
4. principle of ease 5. A
5. FALSE 6. C
6. FALSE 7. C
7. NOT GIVEN 8. D
8. TRUE 9. BCE
10. NOT GIVEN 11. TRUE
11. TRUE 12. FALSE
12. C 13. TRUE
13. B 14. FALSE
14. A
60
7. PUTTING THE BRAKES ON CLIMATE 8. Looking at daily life in ancient Rome
CHANGE: ARE HYDROGEN CARS THE 27 D
ANSWER? 28 B
1. vii 8. silent 29 C
2. iv 9. battery 30 B
3. vi 10. portable computers 31 NO
4. v 11. FALSE 32 YES
5. viii 12. NOT GIVEN 33 NOT GIVEN
6. iii 13. TRUE 34 NO
7. combustion engine 14. TRUE 35 YES
36 NO
37 investigation
38 period
39 city-dwellers
40 social classes
10. DECISIONS, DECISIONS!
9. Gamma Gardening
27. B difficult problems can have easy
21B solutions.
22C 28. B all important facts be considered.
23 circle 29. C are made very quickly.
24 pole 30. B conscious decision making is
25 radiation negatively affected by task complexity. 3 l.D
26 government could make a better choice when allowed to
concentrate.
32. A
33. D
34. G
35. B
36. NO
37. NOT GIVEN
38. NO
39. YES
40. YES
11. THE FASCINATING WORLD OF ATTINE 12. Becoming an expert
ANTS
14. H 1. principles and rules
15. C 2. mentor
16. B 3. patterns of behavior
17. F 4. complex
18. G 5. test
19. D 6. FALSE
20. B 7. NOT GIVEN
21. A 8. TRUE
22. C 9. TRUE
23. A 10. TRUE
24. A 11. experiments
25. B Earlier studies did not support his 12. human bias
theory 13. consensus
26. D has a substance useful to humans.
61
13. The Tuatara of New Zealand 14. TASMANIAN TIGER
1. TRUE
2. FALSE 14. black stripes
3. NOT GIVEN 15. 12 million
4. FALSE 16. Australia
5. NOT GIVEN 17. European
6. TRUE 18. A
7. 80 19. D
8. tech 20. C
9. Seabirds 21. B
10. Polynesian 22. A
11. Mainland 23. D
12. common 24. B
13. 2500 25. D
26. A
15. 16. ASSESSING THE RISK
READING IN A WHOLE NEW WAY
1. B 27. TRUE
2. D 28. NOT GIVEN
3. c 29. FALSE
4. D 30. NOT GIVEN
5. A 31. TRUE
6. NOT GIVEN 32. NOT GIVEN
7. YES 33. consumer's right (to
8. YES choose)/consumer's choice
9. NO 34. risk and benefit
10. NO 35. Skiing
11. D 36. GM crops
12. F 37. wheat and rice
13. A 38. production
14. E 39. mistrust
40. A
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17. SOME VIEWS ON THE USE OF HEADPHONES
Questions 27-31
• 27. NO (Paragraph 1) - The passage says young people report confidence in music being
beneficial, not that surveys persuade them.
• 28. YES (Paragraph 2) - Scientific studies say silence is best “Taiwanese study, and other
research, another reporter” (Paragraph 2).
• 29. NOT GIVEN (The passage doesn't mention doctors recommending headphones for
blood pressure.)
• 30. NO (Paragraph 4) - The passage describes him as an eccentric inventor and repairman.
• 31. YES (Paragraph 5) - Both inventions made something previously social (music,
language) private. “If music evolved as a social glue for the species, as a way to make
groups and keep them together, headphones have done what writing and literacy did for
language - they made music private.”
Questions 32-36
• 32. A (Paragraph 3) - The passage says service jobs require high concentration and focus.
• 33. C (Paragraph 5) - It talks about music being important throughout history, referencing
Sumeria and bone flutes.
• 34. D (Paragraph 5) - Headphones make music private, contrasting with the social purpose
music historically had.
• 35. B (Paragraph 6) - The passage says wealth can buy personal independence, desired by
many.
• 36. A (Paragraph 8) - Jonah Lehrer's quote supports the writer's view that music can help
solve problems through inward focus.
Questions 37-40
• 37. B (Paragraph 7) - Dr. Bull talks about headphones changing the relationship (how we
relate to public spaces) with public spaces.
• 38. E (Paragraph 7) - People are moving from the suburbs (from the edges of cities) to city
centers.
• 39. G (Paragraph 7) - Headphones create barriers (shields) between wearers and their
surroundings.
• 40. A (Paragraph 7) - People wearing headphones are assumed to be busy and receive
courtesy (respect for privacy).
63
Answer Summary:
Dr. Michael Bull believes that listening to music through headphones has changed the
relationship (B) the wearers of headphones have with public spaces. Living in the center
of cities is becoming popular, as people become less keen on living in the suburbs (E). In
densely populated city centres, headphones form barriers (G) that isolate people from
fellow citizens and from their environment. Wearers of headphones are treated with
courtesy (A) that other people do not receive. This is because if we see someone wearing
headphones, we believe they must be occupied in some way and should not be interrupted.
64

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1

READING PASSAGE 2 : Mechanisms of Linguistic Change. ............................ 6

READING PASSAGE 3 : Animal minds: Parrot Alex ...................................... 9

READING PASSAGE 4 : Movie of Metropolis. ........................................... 12

READING PASSAGE 5 : Mechanisms of Linguistic Change. .......................... 16

READING PASSAGE 6 : RISING SEA. ..................................................... 19

READING PASSAGE 7 : Putting the brakes on climate change… .................... 23

READING PASSAGE 8 : Looking at daily life in ancient Rome.. ...................... 26

READING PASSAGE 9 : Gamma Gardening ............................................ 29

READING PASSAGE 10 : DECISIONS, DECISIONS!.................................... 31

READING PASSAGE 11 : The fascinating world of attine ants ....................... 35

READING PASSAGE 12 : Becoming an expert ......................................... 38

READING PASSAGE 13 : The Tuatara of New Zealand ................................ 41

READING PASSAGE 14 : . Tasmanian tiger. ............................................ 44

READING PASSAGE 15 : Reading in a whole new way ................................ 48

READING PASSAGE 16 : Assessing the risk............................................. 52

READING PASSAGE 17 : some views on the use of headphones ................... 55

ANSWER KEY :. ................................................................................. 59

The Concept of Childhood in Western Countries

In boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement is true

FALSE if the statement is false

NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage

2 Working children during the Middle Ages were generally unloved.

the 19th century.

Answer the questions below.

Write your answers in boxes 8-13 on your answer sheet.

Mechanisms of Linguistic Change

Complete the summary below.

Write your answers in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.

The pronunciation of living language undergo changes throughout thousands of years.

factor of 2……………………Secondly, the imitation of children from adultsl language

In boxes 5-11 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement is true

FALSE if the statement is false

NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage

5 It is impossible for modern people to find pronunciation of words in an earlier age

difficult to imitate exactly.

8 Pronunciation with causal inaccuracy will not exert big influence on

11 The sound of ‘temporary’ cannot wholly present its spelling.

A. Since the speakers can pronounce it with less effort

12 As a consequence, ‘b’ will be pronounced as

13 The pronunciation of [mt] changed to [nt]

14 The omit of ‘f in the sound of Christmas

Animal minds: Parrot Alex

In boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement is true

FALSE if the statement is false

NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage

1 Firstly, Alex has grasped quite a lot of vocabulary.

Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage.

Write your answers in boxes 7-10 on your answer sheet.

Answer the questions 11-13 below.

12 What is the problem of the young parrots except for Alex?

In boxes 27-30 on your answer sheet, write

YES if the statement is true

NO if the statement is false

NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage

Complete the summary below.