READING PASSAGE 2

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

DISAPPEARING DELTA

The fertile land of the Nile delta is being eroded along Egypt's Mediterranean
coast at an astounding rate, in some parts estimated at 100 metres per year.
In the past, land scoured away from the coastline by the currents of the
Mediterranean Sea used to be replaced by sediment brought down to the
delta by the River Nile, but this is no longer happening.

Up to now, people have blamed this loss of delta land on the two large dams
at Aswan in the south of Egypt, which hold back virtually all of the sediment
that used to flow down the river. Before the dams were built, the Nile flowed
freely, carrying huge quantities of sediment north from Africa's interior to be
deposited on the Nile delta. This continued for 7,000 years, eventually
covering a region of over 22,000 square kilometres with layers of fertile silt.
Annual flooding brought in new, nutrient-rich soil to the delta region,
replacing what had been washed away by the sea, and dispensing with the
need for fertilizers in Egypt's richest food-growing area. But when the Aswan
dams were constructed in the 20th century to provide electricity and
irrigation, and to protect the huge population centre of Cairo and its
surrounding areas from annual flooding and drought, most of the sediment
with its natural fertilizer accumulated up above the dam in the southern,
upstream half of Lake Nasser, instead of passing down to the delta.

Now, however, there turns out to be more to the story. It appears that the
sediment-free water emerging from the Aswan dams picks up silt and land as
it erodes the river bed and banks on the 800-kilometre trip to Cairo. Daniel
Jean Stanley of the Smithsonian Institute noticed that water samples taken in
Cairo, just before the river enters the delta, indicated that the river
sometimes carries more than 850 grams of sediment per cubic metre of
water - almost half of what it carried before the dams were built. 'I'm
ashamed to say that the significance of this didn't strike me until after I had
read 50 or 60 studies,' says Stanley in Marine Geology. 'There is still a lot of
sediment coming into the delta, but virtually no sediment comes out into the
Mediterranean to replenish the coastline. So this sediment must be trapped
on the delta itself.'
D

Once north of Cairo, most of the Nile water is diverted into more than 10,000
kilometres of irrigation canals and only a small proportion reaches the sea
directly through the rivers in the delta. The water in the irrigation canals is
still or very slow-moving and thus cannot carry sediment, Stanley explains.
The sediment sinks to the bottom of the canals and then is added to fields by
farmers or pumped with the water into the four large freshwater lagoons that
are located near the outer edges of the delta. So very little of it actually
reaches the coastline to replace what is being washed away by the
Mediterranean currents.

The farms on the delta plains and fishing and aquaculture in the lagoons
account for much of Egypt's food supply. But by the time the sediment has
come to rest in the fields and lagoons it is laden with municipal, industrial
and agricultural waste from the Cairo region, which is home to more than 40
million people. 'Pollutants are building up faster and faster,' says Stanley.
Based on his investigations of sediment from the delta lagoons, Frederic
Siegel of George Washington University concurs. 'In Manzalah Lagoon, for
example, the increase in mercury, lead, copper and zinc coincided with the
building of the High Dam at Aswan, the availability of cheap electricity, and
the development of major power-based industries,' he says. Since that time
the concentration of mercury has increased significantly. Lead from engines
that use leaded fuels and from other industrial sources has also increased
dramatically. These poisons can easily enter the food chain, affecting the
productivity of fishing and farming. Another problem is that agricultural
wastes include fertilizers which stimulate increases in plant growth in the
lagoons and upset the ecology of the area, with serious effects on the fishing
industry.

According to Siegel, international environmental organisations are beginning

to pay closer attention to the region, partly because of the problems of
erosion and pollution of the Nile delta, but principally because they fear the
impact this situation could have on the whole Mediterranean coastal
ecosystem. But there are no easy solutions. In the immediate future, Stanley
believes that one solution would be to make artificial floods to flush out the
delta waterways, in the same way that natural floods did before the
construction of the dams. He says, however, that in the long term an
alternative process such as desalination may have to be used to increase the
amount of water available. 'In my view, Egypt must devise a way to have
more water running through the river and the delta,' says Stanley. Easier
said than done in a desert region with a rapidly growing population.
SESSION 2: QUESTIONS 14-26
Questions 14 – 17

Reading Passage 2 has six paragraphs, A-F.

Choose the correct heading for paragraphs B and D—F from the
list of headings below.

Write the correct number i-viii in boxes 14-17 on your answer

sheet.

List of Headings

i Effects of irrigation on sedimentation

ii The danger of flooding the Cairo area
iii Causing pollution in the Mediterranean
iv Interrupting a natural process
v The threat to food production
vi Less valuable sediment than before
vii Egypt's disappearing coastline
viii Looking at the long-term impact
14
Paragraph B
15
Paragraph D
16
Paragraph E
17
Paragraph F
Questions 18 – 23
Do the following statements reflect the claims of the writer in
Reading Passage 2?

In boxes 18-23 on your answer sheet, write

YES if the statement reflects 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
18
Coastal erosion occurred along Egypt's Mediterranean coast
before the building of the Aswan dams.
19
Some people predicted that the Aswan dams would cause land
loss before they were built.
20
The Aswan dams were built to increase the fertility of the Nile
delta.
21
Stanley found that the levels of sediment in the river water in
Cairo were relatively high.
22
Sediment in the irrigation canals on the Nile delta causes flooding
23
Water is pumped from the irrigation canals into the lagoons.
Questions 24 – 26

Complete the summary of paragraphs E and F with the list of

words A-H below.

Write the correct letter A-H in boxes 24-26 on your answer

sheet.

A. artificial floods
B. desalination
C. delta waterways
D. natural floods
E. nutrients
F. pollutants
G. population control
H. sediment
In addition to the problem of coastal erosion, there has been a
marked increase in the level of 24.................. contained in the
silt deposited in the Nile delta. To deal with this, Stanley suggests
the use of 25..................... in the short term, and increasing the
amount of water available through 26................... in the longer
term.

READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Question 1-13, which are based on
Reading Passage 1 below.

EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

New Zealand's National Party spokesman on education, Dr Lockwood

Smith, recently visited the US and Britain. Here he reports on the findings of
his trip and what they could mean for New Zealand's education policy.

'Education To Be More' was published last August. It was the report of the
New Zealand Government's Early Childhood Care and Education Working
Group. The report argued for enhanced equity of access and better funding
for childcare and early childhood education institutions. Unquestionably,
that’s a real need; but since parents don't normally send children to pre-
schools until the age of three, are we missing out on the most important
years of all?

A 13-year study of early childhood development at Harvard University has

shown that, by the age of three, most children have the potential to
understand about 1000 words - most of the language they will use in
ordinary conversation for the rest of their lives.

Furthermore, research has shown that while every child is born with a
natural curiosity, it can be suppressed dramatically during the second and
third years of life. Researchers claim that the human personality is formed
during the first two years of life, and during the first three years children
learn the basic skills they will use in all their later learning both at home and
at school. Once over the age of three, children continue to expand on
existing knowledge of the world.

It is generally acknowledged that young people from poorer socio-economic

backgrounds tend to do less well in our education system. That's observed
not just in New Zealand, but also in Australia, Britain and America. In an
attempt to overcome that educational under-achievement, a nationwide
programme called 'Headstart' was launched in the United States in 1965. A
lot of money was poured into it. It took children into pre-school institutions at
the age of three and was supposed to help the children of poorer families
succeed in school.

Despite substantial funding, results have been disappointing. It is thought

that there are two explanations for this. First, the programme began too late.
Many children who entered it at the age of three were already behind their
peers in language and measurable intelligence. Second, the parents were
not involved. At the end of each day, 'Headstart' children returned to the
same disadvantaged home environment.

As a result of the growing research evidence of the importance of the first

three years of a child's life and the disappointing results from 'Headstart', a
pilot programme was launched in Missouri in the US that focused on parents
as the child's first teachers. The 'Missouri' programme was predicated on
research showing that working with the family, rather than bypassing the
parents, is the most effective way of helping children get off to the best
possible start in life. The four-year pilot study included 380 families who
were about to have their first child and who represented a cross-section of
socio-economic status, age and family configurations. They included single-
parent and two-parent families, families in which both parents worked, and
families with either the mother or father at home.

The programme involved trained parent- educators visiting the parents'

home and working with the parent, or parents, and the child. Information on
child development, and guidance on things to look for and expect as the
child grows were provided, plus guidance in fostering the child's intellectual,
language, social and motor-skill development. Periodic check-ups of the
child's educational and sensory development (hearing and vision) were made
to detect possible handicaps that interfere with growth and development.
Medical problems were referred to professionals.

Parent-educators made personal visits to homes and monthly group

meetings were held with other new parents to share experience and discuss
topics of interest. Parent resource centres, located in school buildings,
offered learning materials for families and facilitators for child core.

At the age of three, the children who had been involved in the 'Missouri'
programme were evaluated alongside a cross-section of children selected
from the same range of socio-economic backgrounds and family situations,
and also a random sample of children that age. The results were
phenomenal. By the age of three, the children in the programme were
significantly more advanced in language development than their peers, had
made greater strides in problem solving and other intellectual skills, and
were further along in social development. In fact, the average child on the
programme was performing at the level of the top 15 to 20 per cent of their
peers in such things as auditory comprehension, verbal ability and language
ability.

Most important of all, the traditional measures of 'risk', such as parents' age
and education, or whether they were a single parent, bore little or no
relationship to the measures of achievement and language development.
Children in the programme performed equally well regardless of socio-
economic disadvantages. Child abuse was virtually eliminated. The one
factor that was found to affect the child's development was family stress
leading to a poor quality of parent-child interaction. That interaction was not
necessarily bad in poorer families.

These research findings are exciting. There is growing evidence in New

Zealand that children from poorer socio-economic backgrounds are arriving
at school less well developed and that our school system tends to perpetuate
that disadvantage. The initiative outlined above could break that cycle of
disadvantage. The concept of working with parents in their homes, or at their
place of work, contrasts quite markedly with the report of the Early
Childhood Core and Education Working Group. Their focus is on getting
children and mothers access to childcare and institutionalised early
childhood education. Education from the age of three to five is undoubtedly
vital, but without a similar focus on parent education and on the vital
importance of the first three years, some evidence indicates that it will not
be enough to overcome educational inequity.

SESSION 1: QUESTIONS 1-13

Questions 1 – 4
Reading Passage 1 has six sections, A-F. Which paragraph
contains the following information?

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

A
B
C
D
E
F
details of the range of family types involved in an education
programme
1
reasons why a child's early years are so important
2
reasons why an education programme failed
3
a description of the positive outcomes of an education
programme
4
Questions 5 – 10

Classify the following features as characterising

Write the correct letter A, B, C or D in boxes 5-10 on your

answer sheet.
A the 'Headstart' programme
B the 'Missouri' programme
C both the 'Headstart' and the 'Missouri' programmes
D neither the 'Headstart' nor the 'Missouri'programme
5
was administered to a variety of poor and wealthy families
6
continued with follow-up assistance in elementary schools
7
did not succeed in its aim
8
supplied many forms of support and training to parents
9
received insufficient funding
10
was designed to improve pre-schoolers' educational development
Questions 11 – 13

Do the following statements agree with the information given in

Reading Passage 1?

In boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with in information
FALSE if the statement contradicts in information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
11
Most "Missouri' programme three-year-olds scored highly in areas
such as listening, speaking, reasoning and interacting with others.
12
'Missouri' programme children of young, uneducated, single
parents scored less highly on the tests.
13
The richer families in the 'Missouri' programme had higher stress
levels.

READING PASSAGE 3

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

THE RETURN OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

It is becoming acceptable again to talk of computers performing

human tasks such as problem-solving and pattern-recognition

A.

After years in the wilderness, the term 'artificial intelligence' (AI) seems
poised to make a comeback. AI was big in the 1980s but vanished in the
1990s. It re-entered public consciousness with the release of AI, a movie
about a robot boy. This has ignited public debate about AI, but the term is
also being used once more within the computer industry. Researchers,
executives and marketing people are now using the expression without irony
or inverted commas. And it is not always hype. The term is being applied,
with some justification, to products that depend on technology that was
originally developed by AI researchers. Admittedly, the rehabilitation of the
term has a long way to go, and some firms still prefer to avoid using it. But
the fact that others are starting to use it again suggests that AI has moved
on from being seen as an over- ambitious and under-achieving field of
research.

B.

The field was launched, and the term 'artificial intelligence' coined, at a
conference in 1956, by a group of researchers that included Marvin Minsky,
John McCarthy, Herbert Simon and Alan Newell, all of whom went on to
become leading figures in the field. The expression provided an attractive
but informative name for a research programme that encompassed such
previously disparate fields as operations research, cybernetics, logic and
computer science. The goal they shared was an attempt to capture or mimic
human abilities using machines. That said, different groups of researchers
attacked different problems, from speech recognition to chess playing, in
different ways; AI unified the field in name only. But it was a term that
captured the public imagination.

C.

Most researchers agree that AI peaked around 1985. A public reared on

science-fiction movies and excited by the growing power of computers had
high expectations. For years, AI researchers had implied that a breakthrough
was just around the corner. Marvin Minsky said in 1967 that within a
generation the problem of creating 'artificial intelligence' would be
substantially solved. Prototypes of medical-diagnosis programs and speech
recognition software appeared to be making progress. It proved to be a false
dawn. Thinking computers and household robots failed to materialize, and a
backlash ensued. 'There was undue optimism in the early 1980s," says David
Leake, a researcher at Indiana University. 'Then when people realised these
were hard problems, there was retrenchment. By the late 1980s, the term AI
was being avoided by many researchers, who opted instead to align
themselves with specific sub-disciplines such as neural networks, agent
technology, case-based reasoning, and so on.'

D.

Ironically, in some ways AI was a victim of its own success. Whenever an

apparently mundane problem was solved, such as building a system that
could land an aircraft unattended, the problem was deemed not to have
been AI in the first place. 'If it works, it can't be AI,' as Dr Leake characterises
it. The effect of repeatedly moving the goal-posts in this way was that AI
came to refer to 'blue-sky' research that was still years away from
commercialization, Researchers joked that AI stood for 'almost
implemented'. Meanwhile, the technologies that made it onto the market,
such as speech recognition, language translation and decision-support
software, were no longer regarded as AI. Yet all three once fell well within
the umbrella of AI research.

E.

But the tide may now be turning, according to Dr Leake. HNC Software of
San Diego, backed by a government agency, reckon that their new approach
to artificial intelligence is the most powerful and promising approach ever
discovered. HNC claim that their system, based on a cluster of 30
processors, could be used to spot camouflaged vehicles on a battlefield or
extract a voice signal from a noisy background - tasks humans can do well,
but computers cannot. 'Whether or not their technology lives up to the
claims made for it, the fact that HNC are emphasizing the use of Al is itself
an interesting development,' says Dr Leake.

F.

Another factor that may boost the prospects for AI in the near future is that
investors are now looking for firms using clever technology, rather than just
a clever business model, to differentiate themselves. In particular, the
problem of information overload, exacerbated by the growth of e-mail and
the explosion in the number of web pages, means there are plenty of
opportunities for new technologies to help filter and categorize information -
classic AI problems. That may mean that more artificial intelligence
companies will start to emerge to meet this challenge.

G.

The 1969 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, featured an intelligent computer

called HAL 9000. As well as understanding and speaking English, HAL could
play chess and even learned to lipread. HAL thus encapsulated the optimism
of the 1960s that intelligent computers would be widespread by 2001. But
2001 has been and gone, and there is still no sign of a HAL-like computer.
Individual systems can play chess or transcribe speech, but a general theory
of machine intelligence still remains elusive. It may be. however, that the
comparison with HAL no longer seems quite so Important, and AI can now be
judged by what it can do, rather than by how well it matches up to a 30-year-
old science-fiction film. 'People are beginning to realize that there are
impressive things that these systems can do.' says Dr Leake hopefully.

SESSION 3: QUESTIONS 27-40

Questions 27 – 31
Reading Passage 3 has seven paragraphs, A-G.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter A-G in boxes 27-31 on your answer

sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

- how AI might have a military impact

27
- the fact that AI brings together a range of separate research
areas
28
- the reason why AI has become a common topic of conversation
again
29
- how AI could help deal with difficulties related to the amount of
information available electronically
30
- where the expression AI was first used
31
Questions 32 – 37

In boxes 32-37 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with in information
FALSE if the statement contradicts in information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
32
The researchers who launched the field of AI had worked together
on other projects in the past
33
In 1985, AI was at its lowest point.
34
Research into agent technology was more costly than research
into neural networks.
35
Applications of AI have already had a degree of success.
36
The problems waiting to be solved by AI have not changed since
1967.
37
The film 2001: A Space Odyssey reflected contemporary ideas
about the potential of AI computers.
Questions 38 – 40

38
According to researchers, in-the late 1980s there was a
feeling that
A
a general theory of AI would never be developed.
B
original expectations of AI may not have been justified.
C
a wide range of applications was close to fruition.
D
more powerful computers were the key to further progress.
39
In Dr. Leake's opinion, the reputation of AI suffered as a
result of
A
changing perceptions.
B
premature implementation.
C
poorly planned projects.
D
commercial pressures.
40
The prospects for AI may benefit from
A
existing Al applications.
B
new business models.
C
orders from internet-only companies.
D
new investment priorities.