Month: May 2024

Section 1
Read the text below and answer questions 1-5.

Arriving in Singapore by plane

Baggage claim
You can refer to the flight information television screens on Level Two for the allocation of your baggage claim belt. Free trolleys are available near all baggage claim belts and our friendly porters are at your service on request. Should you require their assistance with carrying luggage, please ask at the Information Desk. You can proceed to the Lost and Found Counter for advice if you cannot find your baggage or would like to report damaged baggage.

Customs clearance
Please use the Green Channel for your baggage clearance if you do not have controlled or prohibited items to declare, or have not exceeded your Duty-Free Concession. Please use the Red Channel if you have items to declare or are in doubt.

Hotel reservations

You can make these at the hotel reservation counter with S$10.00 per reservation deposit, deductible from your hotel bill at the end of your stay. These counters do not handle the transit hotels. For these go to the reception desk on level three.

Question 1-5
Which places would you go to in the following situations? Write the correct letters A-H in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.

List of places
A Information Desk
B Hotel Reservation Counter
C Lost and Found Counter
D Red Channel
E Green Channel
F Level Two
G Reception Desk
H Baggage Claim Belt

1. You find after your flight that your suitcase has split
2. You want to reserve a room at a transit hotel
3. You are not sure if you have bought too much in the duty free shop
4. You are not sure where to collect your luggage after your flight
5. You need someone to help you with your suitcases

Read the text below and answer questions 6-10

Singapore Airport

Goods and Services Tax (GST) relief
A 3% GST is levied on the sale of all goods imported into Singapore. If you are a visitor returning citizen or permanent resident of Singapore you may be granted GST relief under certain conditions.

Tax free shopping
As a tourist or visitor you can apply for a refund at customs of the 3% GST on goods purchased during your stay in Singapore provided you:

– shop at stores with the ‘Tax free shopping’ logo spend a minimum amount of S$100 at any one shop and at least S$300 in total obtain a Global Refund Cheque from the place of purchase

When collecting your refund you have several choices – cash, bank cheque or Changi Airport Shopping Voucher which comes with an additional 10% in value.

Please note that a handling fee will be deducted from the GST amount for the refund service.

Questions 6-10
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the text. In boxes 6-10 write

TRUE                        if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE                      if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN            if there is no information on this

6. Everyone is obliged to pay 3% tax on goods they bring into Singapore
7. You can only reclaim tax on purchases made in certain shops
8. If you have spend a total of S$150 on your purchases you can get a tax refund
9. You have to reclaim your tax within a certain amount of time
10. You will be charged a certain amount for administration when you get the tax back

Read the text below and answer questions 11-14.

Singapore Guide: A walk around the Orchard Road District

The route begins just opposite the Orchard MRT station at the Singapore Marriott Hotel. This eye catching landmark has a distinctive Chinese styled green roof and red pillars.

In 1958 a former lace padler C K Tang, foresaw that the area could become a bustling shopping centre since residents in the neighbouring Tanglin district had to pass enroute to work at the commercial centre Raffles Place. So with roof tiles brought in from his hometown in the Swatow province of China, Tang built a department store on what was then a cheap isolated plot of land. The plot faced a cemetery which is consolidated a bad omen in Chinese culture. His foresight paid off. Today Tangs is one of Singapore’s most prominent and recognised home grown department stores proudly showcasing local fashion and household products. Even when the original building was torn down in 1982 to give way to the present superstore and skyscraper hotel it retained its unique Chinese architecture.

From the foyer at Tangs turn left to Lucky Plaza. One of the oldest along Orchard Road, this mall is a perennial favourite with shoppers. Be amazed by the staggering array of cosmetics, jewellery, leather goods and hi-fi equipment. Prices though are not always fixed so bring along a good set of bargaining skills.

Coming out of Lucky Plaza continue along Orchard Road and enter the Paragon Shopping Centre. Apart from a wide range of shops and restaurants there is also a Singapore Airlines Service centre to facilitate bookings and offer information to tourists. Also available are a number of computer terminals for self booking. Check out the life-sized sculptures by a well known Taiwanese sculptor Sun Yu-li outside the shopping centre. These were inspired by depictions of life in rock paintings dating back 20000 years ago in Inner Mongolia.

Questions 11-14
Complete the sentences below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage.

11. The Singapore Marriott Hotel is described as an …………..
12. The land that Tang bought was located opposite a ………….
13. The …….. of the new Tang building is very similar to that of the original building.
14. Access to several …………….. at the Singapore Airline Service Centre means that you don’t need to wait for assistance.

Section 2
Read the text below and answer questions 15-20.

Writing a personal CV that will attract employers

You are unique. No-one has the same behavioural make-up that you have. Likewise, everyone’s career history is also unique. Why is it then that a great many CVs are mostly descriptions of past jobs or standard CV templates and give away very little about the individual behind the CV? It’s almost as if the majority of job seekers are afraid to let their own personality shine through.

Perhaps in a corporate world where everyone feels they have to have the same professional image — dress in dark, formal suits, for example — the same is subconsciously felt to be true for CV writing. But there’s a difficulty here: you want your CV to stand out and yet at the same time are afraid of saying anything that might make you stand out? The problem with the above thinking is painfully clear. Your CV will be dull, and likely to be swiftly passed over by an employer. Surely it is much better to be brave? To define your personal brand, as marketers might say. This isn’t about making unsupportable statements: it’s about choosing words that describe the qualities that drive your success. In short, what makes you good at your job.

Writing about oneself can sometimes be difficult. It involves the ability to see yourself from different people’s viewpoints. Working with a professional CV writer is one way to achieve that and to present your character positively within a CV. Asking a colleague that you trust is also a good way to find out
how others see your strengths.

Try not to use classic recruitment clichés. Everyone says they have great. ‘communication’ or ‘organisational’ skills. This gets ignored by recruiters. So, instead think carefully about who you are and what you bring and then. try to describe yourself. In that way you give recruiters something original to engage With, something that grabs their attention.

Questions 15-20
Complete the sentences below. Choose ONLY ONE WORD from the passage.

15. Many job applicants do not dare to reveal in a CV what their real ……………. is.
16. If applicants do not include what makes them distinctive their CVs are likely to appear …………. to the reader.
17. Applicants need to find ways to define the …………… that make them do well in their work.
18. It can be helpful for applicants to try to base a consideration of themselves on the ………. of others.
19. Requesting the input of a dependable ……………….. can help an applicant work out their own good points.
20. It is best to avoid the …………… used by many applicants when describing themselves in a CV.

Read the text below and answer Questions 21-27.

The value of being organised at work

Being organised is one of the most effective skills a businessperson can acquire because when were organised. we think more clearly. We’re in tune With our targets and know how to reach them. Here are my top tips to bring order to your business life:

Organise your workspace
Don’t underestimate time lost or stress caused from an inefficient working
environment. To restore order:

Cut down documents and stationery to the bare essentials. Be ruthless and remove anything that doesn’t directly serve a function in your day-to-day activity. One or two carefully selected photos to make your desk feel like home are fine, but avoid too many.

Create locations where you will keep all your work materials to make retrieval easy. Do this logically based on where you tend to use the items; for example, store spare copy paper near the printer. Move outside your immediate reach anything you use infrequently. Always return items once you have used them so they’ll be where you expect them next time.

Frustration ensues when you’re searching for a client proposal, but it’s buried among random papers. Eliminate desktop chaos by using trays, magazine files, or whatever you fancy and add clear labels such as ‘In’, ‘Out’, ‘For Action’, ‘Current Projects’ or other relevant categories.

Be brutally honest about What you must keep. Studies suggest that 80% of what we file is never accessed again. Ask: do | know of a tax or legal requirement for retaining it? Why would this be important to me in future? Avoid ‘miscellaneous’ as a category — you Won’t remember What’s in there.

Effective planning
Plan your work; work your plan. Time spent planning saves untold hours in execution. Implementing regular planning strategies will sharpen your focus, thereby keeping you on track with your work. Start planning today for tomorrow. Near the close of each work day, implement a 10- to 15-minute routine to wrap up loose ends and prioritise key tasks. A good plan for tomorrow allows you to clear your head and enjoy your evening. Once a week, ring-fence a 60-to 90-minute appointment with yourself for larger scale planning. Use the time to do research or any of the thinking that normally takes aback seat.

Questions 21-27
Complete the notes below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage.

How to become more organised at work
Maintaining order in the work area involves
– keeping the minimum amount of necessary (21) ……………… and paperwork
– restricting the number of personal (22) ………….. on the work surface
– deciding on sensible (23) ……………… for things that are needed regularly or hardly ever
– placing containers on the desk identified by (24) ……………… to organise on going paperwork
– storing documents if there is an official (25) ……………… to do so

Planning ahead is important because
– in general it will improve the employee’s (26) ……………… on work
– thinking about the next day’s work ensure important (27) ……………. are given due attention

Section 3
Read the text below and answer questions 28-40.

A significant development in mining safety

A Coal has been used as a source of fuel for over 5,000 years, but for most of that time it was probably gathered from places where it was exposed on the surface of the ground. It is possible that the Romans undertook some mining, but coal mines across Europe largely date from the 13th century. Thereafter coal production increased steadily and it gradually replaced charcoal and wood as a source of heat and energy.

Initially, coal mines were fairly shallow, but they quickly reached the point where artificial lighting was necessary. At first the lights used would have been no different from those used domestically – candles and simple oil lamps. But as coal mines became deeper, miners encountered a new and terrible problem — firedamp. This was a natural gas, principally consisting of methane, that exploded on contact with a naked flame. The first known major firedamp explosion, which killed 99 people, took place in Belgium in 1514 and as new technology was used to mine at increasingly deep levels, the problem got worse.

B The simplest solution was to improve the ventilation of the mine. Many mines had only one shaft leading from the surface down to the working area below. Ventilation could be improved to some extent by dividing this into a downcast (bringing in fresh air) and an upcast (returning foul air and firedamp to the surface).

But what was really needed was a safe lamp that could not ignite firedamp. The earliest forms of safety lighting sought to produce light without using a naked flame. One early method tried to utilise the fact that skins removed from decaying fish contain the element phosphorus, which emits light in the form of phosphorescence. Unfortunately, this phosphorus is highly toxic, flammable and can self-ignite-hardly desirable properties in a safety light.

An alternative was a device invented in about 1750, consisting of a flint which struck against a piece of iron when a handle was turned, creating a shower of sparks which lit up the surrounding area. These were believed to be too cool to ignite firedamp. This device had major drawbacks — extra manpower had to be used to operate it continuously, and it also required regular maintenance and replacement. But worst of all, it was not in fact safe, and numerous accidents were caused when the sparks ignited firedamp. Nonetheless, it was considered to be the least dangerous form of lighting at the time.

C By about 1810 the problem was becoming acute, and in some cases there was no alternative to working in the dark. Some mines were being forced to stop production, with serious economic consequences for the mine owners and local communities. The general response, however, was to keep going and reluctantly accept the inevitable deaths from ignition of firedamp as a regrettable, but not especially remarkable, consequence of coal mining.

The miners themselves could do little w they were largely illiterate, and depended on the mine owners for a livelihood However, the clerical, medical and legal professions were beginning to take notice. After 92 men and boys were killed in 1812 by an explosion at Felling Colliery in northern England, several professional people took action and a society was set up to raise funds for the discovery of new methods of lighting and ventilating mines. The first report of the society stated, ‘It is to scientific men only that we must look up for assistance in providing a cheap and effectual remedy.’

D As the leading chemist of the day, and an expert on gases, Sir Humphrey Davy was a natural choice from whom to seek help, and he was approached by the society in 1815. The general belief nowadays is that he was the inventor of the first miners’ safety lamp, in which the flame was enclosed by a mesh screen containing very small holes. Air could enter the lamp through the holes, but they were too small to allow the flame of the lamp to pass through them and ignite any firedamp present in the mine tunnels. Davy presented a paper describing the lamp in November 1815, and it was trialled in January 1816.

However, a few weeks prior to Davy’s presentation, an engineer called George Stephenson had independently designed and demonstrated a lamp based on the same scientific principles. After much discussion and argument, he was eventually recognised as deserving equal credit for the discovery, but the time needed for this recognition to be given meant that the miners’ safety lamp had already been called the ‘Davy lamp’ and it is called that today.

E But in fact, the real inventor of the safety lamp was a man called Dr William Reid Clanny, who in 1813 had been awarded a silver medal by the Royal Society of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce for his own version of a safety lamp. Clancy’s first lamp did not fulfil the needs of the ordinary working miner as it was rather heavy and cumbersome.

But rather than seeking to glory in his achievement, he recognised its deficiencies and continued to work to improve it, as well as sharing his knowledge with others. George Stephenson acknowledged a debt to Clanny’s research, and Humphrey Davy visited him in 1815 shortly before completing the design for his own safety lamp but to this day Dr Clanny remains a forgotten hero.

Questions 28-32
The text has five sections A-E. Choose the correct heading for each section from the list below.

List of Headings
i A controversy over two versions of an invention
ii The need to mine deeper for good quality coal
iii Growing awareness of the need to improve conditioners for miners
iv A new danger caused by developments in mining
v The impact of poor air quality in mines on miner’s health
vi Early attempts to provide lighting without flames
vii A demand by miners for new technology
viii A person whose work never received full recognition

28. Section A
29. Section B
30. Section C
31. Section D
32. Section E

Questions 33-36
Complete the summary below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage.

The problem of providing artificial lighting in coal mines

Coal mines in Europe only really developed from the 13th century. As they became deeper, the methods used for lighting them created a risk of (33) ………………. due to the presence of fiAcredamp. One solution was to improve ventilation by separating the (34) ………….. into two parts. However better lighting was also needed. One suggestion was to use a chemical found in the skins of fish, but this was found to be unsafe. Another possibility was a device which created (35) ……………. as it was believed these would not ignite the gas. However, this required additional (36) …………… as well as maintenance and replacement and it was also unsafe.

Questions 37-40
Choose the correct letter A-D.

37. What does the write say about mine owners in 1810?
A Most of them disregarded safety issues
B They were criticised for conditions in the mines
C Most of them used unfair pressure to keep mines open
D They were unaware of how dangerous the mines were

38. According to the writer, what was the significance of the explosion at Felling Colliery in 1812?
A It led to increased legal protection for miners
B It led to a change in public attitudes to mining safety
C It demonstrated the lack of concern of certain groups towards the miners
D It started a movement to give miners proper training in safety procedures

39. The lamp presented by Davy was safer than previous methods of lighting because its flame?
A Could not remain alight for long time
B Did not get large enough to ignite the firedamp
C Did not have any contact with the air
D Could not pass beyond the mesh screen

40. What does the writer say about Davy and Stephenson?
A Davy refused to accept Stephenson’s work as it had not been fully trialled
B Davy insisted on the safety lamp being named after him rather than Stephenson
C Stephenson claimed Davy’s work was based on false principles
D Stephenson produced a working example of a safety lamp before Davy

Bats To The Rescue

There are few places in the world where relations between agriculture and conservation are more strained. Madagascar’s forests are being converted to agricultural land at a rate of one percent every year. Much of this destruction is fuelled by the cultivation of the country’s main staple crop: rice. And a key reason for this destruction is that insect pests are destroying vast quantities of what is grown by local subsistence farmers, leading them to clear forest to create new paddy fields. The result is devastating habitat and biodiversity lo^ on the island, but not all species are suffering. In fact, some of the island’s insectivorous bats currently thriving and this has important implications for farmers and conservationists alike.

Enter University of Cambridge zoologist Ricardo Rocha. He’s passionate about conservation, and bats. More specifically, he’s interested in bats are responding to human activity and deforestation in particular. Rocha’s new s’udy shows that several species of bats are giving Madagascar’s rice farmers a vital pest control service by feasting on plagues of insects. And this, he believes, can ease the financial pressure on farmers to turn forest into fields. Bats comprise roughly one-fifth of all mammal species in Madagascar and thirty-six recorded bat species are native to the island, making it one of the most important regions for conservation of this animal group anywhere in the world.

Co-leading an international team of scientists, Rocha found that several species of indigenous bats are taking advantage of habitat modification to hunt insects swarming above the country’s rice fields. They include the Malagasy mouse-eared bat, Major’s long-fingered bat, the Malagasy white-bellied free-tailed bat and Peters’ wrinkle-lipped bat. ‘These winner species are providing a valuable free service to Madagascar as biological pest suppressors,’ says Rocha. ‘We found that six species of bat are preying on rice pests, including the paddy swarming caterpillar and grass webworm. The damage which these insects cause puts the island’s farmers under huge financial pressure and that encourages deforestation.’

The study, now published in the journal Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, set out to investigate the feeding activity of insectivorous bats in the farmland bordering the Ranomafana National Park in the southeast of the country. Rocha and his team used state-of-the-art ultrasonic recorders to record over a thousand bat ‘feeding buzzes’ (echolocation sequences used by bats to target their prey) at 54 sites, in order to identify the favourite feeding spots of the bats. They next used DNA barcoding techniques to analyse droppings collected from bats at the different sites.

The recordings revealed that bat activity over rice fields was much higher than it was in continuous forest – seven times higher over rice fields which were on flat ground, and sixteen times higher over fields on the sides of hills – leaving no doubt that the animals are preferentially foraging in these man-made ecosystems. The researchers suggest that the bats favour these fields because lack of water and nutrient run-off make these crops more susceptible to insect pest infestations. DNA analysis showed that all six species of bat had fed on economically important insect pests. While the findings indicated that rice farming benefits most from the bats, the scientists also found indications that the bats were consuming pests of other crops, including the black twig borer (which infests coffee plants), the sugarcane cicada, the macadamia nut-borer, and the sober tabby (a pest of citrus fruits). ‘The effectiveness of bats as pest controllers has already been proven in the USA and Catalonia,’ said co-author James Kemp, from the University of Lisbon. ‘But our study is the first to show this happening in Madagascar, where the stakes for both farmers and conservationists are so high.’

Local people may have a further reason to be grateful to their bats. While the animal is often associated with spreading disease, Rocha and his team found evidence that Malagasy bats feed not just on crop pests but also on mosquitoes – carriers of malaria, Rift Valley fever virus and elephantiasis – as well as blackflies, which spread river blindness. Rocha points out that the relationship is complicated. When food is scarce, bats become a crucial source of protein for local people. Even the children will hunt them. And as well as roosting in trees, the bats sometimes roost in buildings, but are not welcomed there because they make them unclean. At the same time, however, they are associated with sacred caves and the ancestors, so they can be viewed as beings between worlds, which makes them very significant in the culture of the people. And one potential problem is that while these bats are benefiting from farming, at the same time deforestation is reducing the places where they can roost, which could have long-term effects on their Lumbers. Rocha says, ‘With the right help, we hope that farmers can promote this mutually beneficial relationship by installing bat houses.’

Rocha and his colleagues believe that maximising bat populations can help to boost crop yields and promote sustainable livelihoods. The team is now calling for further research to quantify this contribution. ‘I’m very optimistic,’ says Rocha. ‘If we give nature a hand, we can speed up the process of regeneration.’

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

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

1. Many Madagascan forests are being destroyed by attacks from insects.
2. Loss of habitat has badly affected insectivorous bats in Madagascar.
3. Ricardo Rocha has carried out studies of bats in different parts of the world.
4. Habitat modification has resulted in indigenous bats in Madagascar becoming useful to farmers.
5. The Malagasy mouse-eared bat is more common than other indigenous bat species in Madagascar.
6. Bats may feed on paddy swarming caterpillars and grass webworms.

Questions 7-13
Complete the table below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

The Study Carried Out By Rocha’s Team

Aim	– To investigate the feeding habits of bats in farmland near the Ronamafana National Park
Method	– Ultrasonic recording to identify favorite feeding spots – DNA analysis of bat (7)……………………
Findings	The bats – were most active in rice fields located on hills – ate pests of rice (8)………………..sugarcane, nuts and fruit – prevent the spread of disease by eating (9)…………..and blackflies Local attitudes to bats are mixed – they provide food rich in (10)……………… – the buildings where they roost become (11)……………… – they plan an important role in local (12)…………………
Recommendation	– Farmers should provide special (13)………………to support the bat population

Does Education Fuel Economic Growth?

A Over the last decade, a huge database about the lives of southwest German villagers between 1600 and 1900 has been compiled by a team led by Professor Sheilagh Ogilvie at Cambridge University’s Faculty of Economics. It includes court records, guild ledgers, parish registers, village censuses, tax lists and – the most recent addition – 9,000 handwritten inventories listing over a million personal possessions belonging to ordinary women and men across three centuries. Ogilvie, who discovered the inventories in the archives of two German communities 30 years ago, believes they may hold the answer t a conundrum that has long puzzled economists: the lack of evidence for a causal link between education and a country’s economic growth.

B As Ogilvie explains, ‘Education helps us to work more productively, invent better technology, and earn more … surely it must be critical for economic growth? But, if you look back through history, there’s no evidence that having a high literacy rate made a country industrialise earlier.’ Between 1600 and 1900, England had only mediocre literacy rates by European standards, yet its economy g -ew fast and it was the first country to industrialise. During this period, German and Scandinavia had excellent literacy rates, but their economies grew slowly and they industrialised late. ‘Modern cross-country analyses have also struggled to find evidence that education causes economic growth, even though there is plenty of evidence that growth increases education,’ she adds.

C In the handwritten inventories that Ogilvie is analysing are the belongings of women and men at marriage, remarriage and death. From badger skins to Bibles, sewing machines to scarlet bodices – the villagers’ entire worldly goods are included. Inventories of agricultural equipment and craft tods reveal economic activities; ownership of books and education- related objects like pens and slates suggests how people learned. In addition, the tax lists included in the database record the value of farms, workshops, assets and debts; signatures and people’s estimates of their age indicate literacy and numeracy levels; and court records reveal obstacles (such as the activities of the guilds) that stifled industry. Previous studies usually had just one way of linking education with economic growth – the presence of schools and printing presses, perhaps, or school enrolment, or the ability to sign names. According to Ogilvie, the database provides multiple indicators for the same individuals, making it possible to analyse links between literacy, numeracy, wealth, and industriousness, for individual women and men over the long term.

D Ogilvie and her team have been building the vast database of material possessions on top of their full demographic reconstruction of the people who lived in these two German communities. ‘We can follow the same people – and their descendants – across 300 years of educational and economic change,’ she says. Individual lives have unfolded before their eyes. Stories like that of the 24-year-olds Ana Regina and Magdalena Riethmullerin, who were chastised in 1707 for reading books in church instead of listening to the sermon. ‘This tells us they were continuing to develop their reading skills at least a decade after leaving school,’ explains Ogilvie. The database also reveals the case of Juliana Schweickherdt, a 50-year-old spinster living in the small Black Forest community of Wildberg, who was reprimanded in 1752 by the local weavers’ guild for ‘weaving cloth and combing wool, counter to the guild ordinance’. When Juliana continued taking jobs reserved for male guild members, she was summoned before the guild court and told to pay a fine equivalent to one third of a servant’s annual wage. It was a small act of defiance by today’s standards, but it reflects a time when laws in Germany and elsewhere regulated people’s access to labour markets. The dominance of guilds not only prevented people from using their skills, but also held back even the simplest industrial innovation.

E The data-gathering phase of the project has been completed md now, according to Ogilvie, it is time ‘to ask the big questions’. One way to look at whether education causes economic growth is to ‘hold wealth constant’. This involves following the lives of different people with the same level of wealth over a period of time. If wealth is constant, it is possible to discover whether education was, for example, linked to the cultivation of new crops, or to the adoption of industrial innovations like sewing machines. The team will also ask what aspect of education helped people engage more with productive and innovative activities. Was it, for instance, literacy, numeracy, book ownership, years of schooling? Was there a threshold level – a tipping point – that needed to be reached to affect economic performance?

F Ogilvie hopes to start finding answers to these questions over the next few years. One thing is already clear, fie says: the relationship between education and economic growth is far from straightforward. ‘German-speaking central Europe is an excellent laboratory for testing theor.es of economic growth,’ she explains. Between 1600 and 1900, literacy rates and book ownership were high and yet the region remained poor. It was also the case that local guilds and merchant associations were extremely powerful and legislated against anything that undermined their monopolies. In villages throughout the region, guilds blocked labour migration and resisted changes that might reduce their influence. ‘Early findings suggest that the potential benefits of education for the economy can be held back by other barriers, and this has implications for today,’ says Ogilvie. ‘Huge amounts are spent improving education in developing countries, but this spending can fail to deliver economic growth if restrictions block people – especially women and the poor – from using their education in economically productive ways. If economic institutions are poorly set up, for instance, education can’t lead to growth.’

Questions 14-18
Reading Passage has six sections, A-F. Which section contains the following information?

14. an explanation of the need for research to focus on individuals with a fairly consistent income
15. examples of the sources the database has been compiled from
16. an account of one individual’s refusal to obey an order
17. a reference to a region being particularly suited to research into tie link between education and economic growth
18. examples of the items included in a list of personal possessions

Questions 19-22
Complete the summary below. Choose ONE WORD from the passage for each answer.

Demographic reconstruction of two German communities

The database that Ogilvie and her team has compiled sheds light on the lives of a range of individuals, as well as those of their (19) ……………….. , over a 300-year period. For example, Ana Regina and Magdalena Riethmullerin were reprimanded for reading while they should have been paying attention to a (20) ……………… There was also Juliana Schweickherdt, who came to the notice of the weavers’ guild in the year 1752 for breaking guild rules. As a punishment, she was later given a (21) …………………. Cases like this illustrate how the guilds could prevent (22) ………………. and stop skilled people from working.

Questions 23 and 24
Choose TWO letters, A-E. Write the correct letters in boxes 23 and 24 on your answer sheet.

Which TWO of the following statements does the writer make about literacy rates in Section B?
A Very little research has been done into the link between high literacy rates and improved earnings.
B Literacy rates in Germany between 1600 and 1900 were very good.
C There is strong evidence that high literacy rates in the modern world result in economic growth.
D England is a good example of how high literacy rates helped a country industrialise.
E Economic growth can help to improve literacy rates.

Questions 25 and 26
Choose TWO letters, A-E. Write the correct letters in boxes 25 and 26 on your answer sheet.

Which TWO of the following statements does the writer make in Section F about guilds in German-speaking Central Europe between 1600 and 1900?
A They helped young people to learn a skill.
B They were opposed to people moving to an area for work.
C They kept better records than guilds in other parts of the world.
D They opposed practices that threatened their control over a trade.
E They predominantly consisted of wealthy merchants.

Timur Gareyev – Blindfold Chess Champion

A Next month, a chess player named Timur Gareyev will take on nearly 50 opponents at once. But that is not the hard part. While his challengers will play the games as normal, Gareyev himself will be blindfolded. Even by world record standards, it sets a high bar for human performance. The 28-year-old already stands out in the rarefied world of blindfold chess. He has a fondness for bright clothes and unusual hairstyles, and he gets his kicks from the adventure sport of BASE jumping. He has already proved himself a strong chess player, too. In a 10-hour chess marathon in 2013, Gareyev played 33 games in his head simultaneously. He won 29 and lost none. The skill has become his brand: he calls himself the Blindfold King.

B But Gareyev’s prowess has drawn interest from beyond the chess-playing community. In the hope of understanding how he and others like him can perform such mental feats, researchers at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) called him in for tests. They now have their first results. ‘The ability to play a game of chess with your eyes closed is not a far reach for most accomplished players,’ said Jesse Rissman, who runs a memory lab at UCLA. ‘But the thing that’s so remarkable about Timur and a few other individuals is the number of games they can keep active at once. To me it is simply astonishing.’

C Gareyev learned to play chess in his native Uzbekistan when he was six years old. Tutored by his grandfather, he entered his first tournament aged eight and soon became obsessed with competitions. At 16, he was crowned Asia’s youngest ever chess grandmaster. He moved to the US soon after, and as a student helped his university win its first national chess championship. In 2013, Gareyev was ranked the third best chess player in the US.

D To the uninitiated, blindfold chess seems to call for superhuman skill. But displays of the feat go back centuries. The first recorded game in Europe was played in 13th-century Florence. In 1947, the Argentinian grandmaster Miguel Najdorf played 45 simultaneous games in his mind, winning 39 in the 24-hour session.

E Accomplished players can develop the skill of playing blind even without realising it. The nature of the game is to run through possible moves in the mind to see how they play out. From this, regular players develop a memory for the patterns the pieces make, the defences and attacks. ‘You recreate it in your mind,’ said Gareyev. ‘A lot of players are capable of doing what I’m doing.’ The real mental challenge comes from playing multiple games at once in the head. Not only must the positions of each piece on every board be memorised, they must be recalled faithfully when needed, updated with each player’s moves, and then reliably stored again, so the brain can move on to the next board. First moves can be tough to remember because they are fairly uninteresting. But the ends of games are taxing too, as exhaustion sets in. When Gareyev is tired, his recall can get patchy. He sometimes makes moves based on only a fragmented memory of the pieces’ positions.

F The scientists first had Gareyev perform some standard memory tests. These assessed his ability to hold numbers, pictures and words in mind. One classic test measures how many numbers a person can repeat, both forwards and backwards, soon after hearing them. Most people manage about seven. ‘He was not exceptional on any of these standard tests,’ said Rissman. ‘We didn’t find anything other than playing chess that he seems to be supremely gifted at.’ But next came the brain scans. With Gareyev lying down in the machine, Rissman looked at how well connected the various regions of the chess player’s brain were. Though the results are tentative and as yet unpublished, the scans found much greater than average communication between parts of Gareyev’s brain that make up what is called the frontoparietal control network. Of 63 people scanned alongside the chess player, only one or two scored more highly on the measure. ‘You use this network in almost any complex task. It helps you to allocate attention, keep rules in mind, and work out whether you should be responding or not,’ said Rissman.

G It was not the only hint of something special in Gareyev’s brain. The scans also suggest that Gareyev’s visual netwik is more highly connected to other brain parts than usual. Initial results suggest that the areas of his brain that process visual images – such as chess boards – may have stronger links to other brain regions, and so be more powerful than normal. While the analyses are not finalised yet, they may hold the first clues to Gareyev’s extraordinary ability.

H For the world record attempt, Gareyev hopes to play 47 blindfold games at once in about 16 hours. He will need to win 80% to claim the title. ‘I don’t worry too much about the winning percentage, that’s never been an issue for me,’ he said. ‘The most important part of blindfold chess for me is that I have found the one thing that I can fully dedicate myself to. I miss having an obsession.’

Questions 27-32
Reading Passage has eight paragraphs, A-H. Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 27-32 on your answer sheet. NB You may use any letter more than once.

27. a reference to earlier examples of blindfold chess
28. an outline of what blindfold chess involves
29. a claim that Gareyev’s skill is limited to chess
30. why Gareyev’s skill is of interest to scientists
31. an outline of Gareyev’s priorities
32. a reason why the last part of a game may

Questions 33-36
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage? In boxes 33-36 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there s no information about this

33. In the forthcoming games, all the participants will be blindfolded.
34. Gareyev has won competitions in BASE jumping.
35. UCLA is the first university to carry out research into blindfold chess players.
36. Good chess players are likely to be able to play blindfold chess.

Questions 37-40
Complete the summary below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet.

How the research was carried out

The researchers started by testing Gareyev’s (37) ……………………. ; for example, he was required to recall a string of (38) ……………………. in order and also in reverse order. Although his performance was normal, scans showed an unusual amount of (39) …………………. within the areas of Gareyev’s brain that are concerned with
directing attention. In addition, the scans raised the possibility of unusual strength in the parts of his brain that deal with (40) …………………….. input.

The thylacine

The extinct thylacine, also known as the Tasmanian tiger, was a marsupial that bore a superficial resemblance to a dog. Its most distinguishing feature was the 13-19 dark brown stripes over its back, beginning at the rear of the body and extending onto the tail. The thylacine’s average nose- to-tail length for adult males was 162.6 cm, compared to 153.7 cm for females.

The thylacine appeared to occupy most types of terrain except dense rainforest, with open eucalyptus forest thought to be its prime habitat. In terms of feeding, it was exclusively carnivorous, and its stomach was muscular with an ability to distend so that it could eat large amounts of food at one time, probably an adaptation to compensate for long periods when hunting was unsuccessful and food scarce. The thylacine was not a fast runner and probably caught its prey by exhausting it during a long pursuit. During long-distance chases, thylacines were likely to have relied more on scent than any other sense. They emerged to hunt during the evening, night and early morning and tended to retreat to the hills and forest for shelter during the day. Despite the common name ‘tiger’, the thylacine had a shy, nervous temperament. Although mainly nocturnal, it was sighted moving during the day and some individuals were even recorded basking in the sun.

The thylacine had an extended breeding season from winter to spring, with indications that some breeding took place throughout the year. The thylacine, like all marsupials, was tiny and hairless when born. New-borns crawled into the pouch on the belly of their mother, and attached themselves to one of the four teats, remaining there for up to three months. When old enough to leave the pouch, the young stayed in a lair such as a deep rocky cave, well-hidden nest or hollow log, whilst the mother hunted.

Approximately 4,000 years ago, the thylacine was widespread throughout New Guinea and most of mainland Australia, as well as the island of Tasmania. The most recent, well-dated occurrence of a thylacine on the mainland is a carbon-dated fossil from Murray Cave in Western Australia, which is around 3,100 years old. Its extinction coincided closely with the arrival of wild dogs called dingoes in Australia and a similar predator in New Guinea. Dingoes never reached Tasmania, and most scientists see this as the main reason for the thylacine’s survival there.

The dramatic decline of the thylacine in Tasmania, which began in the 1830s and continued for a century, is generally attributed to the relentless efforts of sheep farmers and bounty hunters with shotguns. While this determined campaign undoubtedly played a large part, it is likely that various other factors also contributed to the decline and eventual extinction of the species. These include competition with wild dogs introduced by European settlers, loss of habitat along with the disappearance of prey species, and a distemper-like disease which may also have affected the thylacine.

There was only one successful attempt to breed a thylacine in captivity, at Melbourne Zoo in 1899. This was despite the large numbers that went through some zoos, particularly London Zoo and Tasmania’s Hobart Zoo. The famous naturalist John Gould foresaw the thylacine’s demise when he published his Mammals of Australia between 1848 and 1863, writing, ‘The numbers of this singular animal will speedily diminish, extermination will have its full . way, and it will then, like the wolf of England and Scotland, be recorded as an animal of the past.’

However, there seems to have been little public pressure to preserve the thylacine, nor was much concern expressed by scientists at the decline of this species in the decades that followed. A notable exception was T.T. Flynn, Professor of Biology at the University of Tasmania. In 1914, he was sufficiently concerned about the scarcity of the thylacine to suggest that some should be captured and placed on a small island. But it was not until 1929, with the species on the very edge of extinction, that Tasmania’s Animals and Birds Protection Board passed a motion protecting thylacines only for the month of December, which was thought to be their prime breeding season. The last known wild thylacine to be killed was shot by a farmer in the north-east of Tasmania in 1930, leaving just captive specimens. Official protection of the species by the Tasmanian government was introduced in July 193′, 59 days before the last known individual died in Hobart Zoo on 7th September, 1936.

There have been numerous expeditions and searches for the thylacine over the years, none of which has produced definitive evidence that thylacines still exist. The species was declared extinct by the Tasmanian government in 1986.

Questions 1-5
Complete the notes below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

The thylacine

Appearance and behaviour
• Looked rather like a dog
• Had a series of stripes along its body and tail
• Ate an entirely (1) ……………… diet
• Probably depended mainly on (2) ………………. when hunting
• Young spent first months of life inside its mother’s (3) …………………..

Decline and extinction
• Last evidence in mainland Australia is a 3100 year old (4) ………………
• Probably went extinct in mainland Australia due to animals knows as dingoes
• Reduction in (5) ………………. and available sources of food were partly responsible for decline in Tasmania

Questions 6-13
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage? In boxes 6-13 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

6. Significant numbers of thylacines were killed by humans from the 1830s onwards.
7. Several thylacines were born in zoos during the late 1800s.
8. John Gould’s prediction about the thylacine surprised some biologists.
9. In the early 1900s, many scientists became worried about the possible extinction of the thylacine.
10. T. T. Flynn’s proposal to rehome captive thylacines on an island proved to be impractical.
11. There were still reasonable numbers of thylacines in existence when a piece of legislation protecting the species during their breeding season was passed.
12. From 1930 to 1936, the only known living thylacines were all in captivity.
13. Attempts to find living thylacine’ are now rarely made.

Palm oil

A Palm oil is an edible oil derived from the fruit of the African oil palm tree, and is currently the most consumed vegetable oil in the world. It’s almost certainly in the soap we wash with in the morning, the sandwich we have for lunch, and the biscuits we snack on during the day. Why is palm oil so attractive for manufacturers? Primarily because its unique properties – such as remaining solid at room temperature – make it an ideal ingredient for long-term preservation, allowing many packaged foods on supermarket shelves to have ‘best before’ dates of months, even years, into the future.

B Many farmers have seized the opportunity to maximise the planting of oil palm trees. Between 1990 and 2012, the global land area devoted to growing oil palm trees grew from 6 to 17 million hectares, now accounting for around ten percent of total cropland in the entire world. From a mere two million tonnes of palm Nil being produced annually globally 50 years ago, there are now around 60 million tonnes produced every single year, a figure looking likely to double or even triple by the middle of the century.

C However, there are multiple reasons why conservationists cite the rapid spread of oil palm plantations as a major concern. There are countless news stories of deforestation, habitat destruction and dwindling species populations, all as a direct result of land clearing to establish oil palm tree monoculture on an industrial scale, particularly in Malaysia and Indonesia. Endangered species – most famously the Sumatran orangutan, but also rhinos, elephants, tigers, and numerous other fauna – have suffered from the unstoppable spread of oil palm plantations.

D ‘Palm oil is surely one of the greatest threats to global biodiversity,’ declares Dr Farnon Ellwood of the University of the West of England, Bristol. ‘Palm oil is replacing rainforest, and rainforest is where all the species are. That’s a problem.’ This has led to some radical questions among environmentalists, such as whether consumers should try to boycott palm oil entirely. Meanwhile Bhavani Shankar, Professor at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, argues, ‘It’s easy to say that palm oil is the enemy and we should be against it. It makes for a more dramatic story, and it’s very intuitive. But given the complexity of the argument, I think a much more nuanced story is closer to the truth.’

E One response to the boycott movement has been the argument for the vital role palm oil plays in lifting many millions of people in the developing world out of poverty. Is it desirable to have palm oil boycotted, replaced, eliminated from the global supply chain, given how many low-income people in developing countries depend on it for their livelihoods? How best to strike a utilitarian balance between these competing factors has become a serious bone of contention.

F Even the deforestation argument isn’t as straightforward as it seems. Oil palm plantations produce at least four and potentially up to ten times more oil per hectare than soybean, rapeseed, sunflower or other competing oils. That immensely high yield – which is predominantly what makes it so profitable – is potentially also an ecological benefit. If ten times more palm oil can be produced from a patch of land than any competing oil, then ten times more land would need to be cleared in order to produce the same volume of oil from that competitor. As for the question of carbon emissions, the issue really depends on what oil palm trees are replacing. Crops vary in the degree to which they sequester carbon – in other words, the amount of carbon they capture from the atmosphere and store within the plant. The more carbon a plant sequesters, the more it reduces the effect of climate change. As Shankar explains: ‘[Palm oil production] actually sequester- more carbon in some ways than other alternatives. […] Of course, if you’re cutting down virgin forest it’s terrible – that’s what’s happening in Indonesia and Malaysia, it’s been flowed to get out of hand. But if it’s replacing rice, for example, it might actually sequester more carbon.’

G The industry is now regulated by a group called the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), consisting of palm growers, retailers, product manufacturers, and other interested parties. Over the past decade or so, an agreement has gradually been reached regarding standards that producers of palm oil have to meet in order for their product to be regarded as officially ‘sustainable’. The RSPO insists upon no virgin forest clearing, transparency and regular assessment of carbon stocks, among other criteria. Only once these requirements are fully satisfied is the oil allowed to be sold as certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO). Recent figures show that the RSPO now certifies around 12 million tonnes of palm oil annually, equivalent to roughly 21 percent of the world’s total palm oil production.

H There is even hope that oil palm plantations might not need to be such sterile monocultures, or ‘green deserts’, as Ellwood describes them. New research at Ellwood’s lab hints at one plant which might make all the difference. The bird’s nest fern (Asplenium nidus) grows on trees in an epiphytic fashion (meaning it’s dependent on the tree only for support, not for nutrients), and is native to many tropical regions, where as a keystone species it performs a vital ecological role. Ellwood believes that reintroducing the bird’s nest fern into oil palm plantations could potentially allow these areas to recover their biodiversity, providing a home for all manner of species, from fungi and bacteria, to invertebrates such as insects, amphibians, reptiles and even mammals.

Questions 14-20
Reading Passage has eight sections, A-H. Which section contains the following information?

14. examples of a range of potential environmental advantages of oil palm tree cultivation
15. description of an organisation which controls the environmental impact of palm oil production
16. examples of the widespread global use of palm oil
17. reference to a particular species which could benefit the ecosystem of oil palm plantations
18. figures illustrating the rapid expansion of the palm oil industry
19. an economic justification for not opposing the palm oil industry
20. examples of creatures badly affected by the establishment of oil palm plantations

Questions 21 and 22
Choose TWO letters, A-E.

Which TWO statements are made about the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)?
A Its membership has grown steadily over the course of the last decade.
B It demands that certified producers be open and honest about their practices.
C It took several years to establish its set of criteria for sustainable palm oil certification.
D Its regulations regarding sustainability are stricter than those governing other industries.
E It was formed at the request of environmentalists concerned about the loss of virgin forests.

Questions 23-26
Complete the sentences below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

23. One advantage of palm oil for manufacturers is that it stays ………………………. Even when not refrigerated.
24. The …………………….. is the best known of the animals suffering habitat loss as a result of the spread of oil palm plantations.
25. As one of its criteria for the certification of sustainable palm oil, the RSPO insists that growers check ………………… on a routine basis.
26. Ellwood and his researchers are looking into whether the bird’s nest fern could restore ……………….. in areas where oil palm trees are grown.

Building the Skyline: The Birth and Growth of Manhattan’s Skyscrapers

In Building the Skyline, Jason Barr takes the reader through a detailed history of New York City. The book combines geology, history, economics, and a lot of data to explain why business clusters developed where they did and how the early decisions of workers and firms shaped the skyline we see today. Building the Skyline is organized into two distinct parts. The first is primarily historical and addresses New York’s settlement and growth from 1609 to 1900; the second deals primarily with the 20th century and is a compilation of chapters commenting on different aspects of New York’s urban development. The tone and organization of the book changes somewhat between the first and second parts, as the latter chapters incorporate aspects of Barr’s related research papers.

Barr begins chapter one by taking the reader on a ‘helicopter time-machine’ ride – giving a fascinating account of how the New York landscape in 1609 might have looked from the sky. He then moves on to a subterranean walking – our of the city, indicating the location of rock and water below the subsoil, before taking the reader back to the surface. His love of the city comes through as he describes various fun facts about the location of the New York residence of early 19th-century vice-president Aaron Burr a.- well as a number of legends about the city.

Chapters two and three take the reader up to the Civil War (1861-1865), with chapter two focusing on the early development of land and the implementation of a grid system in 1811. Chapter three focuses on land use before the Civil War. Both chapters are informative and well researched and set the stage for the economic analysis that comes later in the book. I would have liked Barr to expand upon his claim that existing tenements prevented skyscrapers in certain neighbourhoods because ‘likely no skyscraper developer was interested in performing the necessary “slum clearance”’. Later in the book, Barr makes the claim that the depth of bedrock was not a limiting factor for developers, as foundation costs were a small fraction of the cost of development. At first glance, it is not obvious why slum clearance would be limiting, while more expensive foundations would not.

Chapter four focuses on immigration and the location of neighborhoods and tenements in the late 19th century. Barr identifies four primary immigrant enclaves and analyzes their locations in terms of the amenities available in the area. Most of these enclaves were located on the least valuable land, between the industries located on the waterfront and the wealthy neighborhoods bordering Central Park.

Part two of the book begins with a discussion of the economics of skyscraper height. In chapter five, Barr distinguishes between engineering height, economic height, and developer height — where engineering height is the tallest building that can be safely made at a given time, economic height is the height that is most efficient from society’s point of view, and developer height is the actual height chosen by the developer, who is attempting to maximize return on investment.

Chapter five also has an interesting discussion of the technological advances that led to the construction of skyscrapers. For example, the introduction of iron and steel skeletal frames made thick, load-bearing walls unnecessary, expanding the usable square footage of buildings and increasing the use of windows and availability of natural light. Chapter six then presents data on building height throughout the 20th century and uses regression analysis to ‘predict’ building construction. While less technical than the research paper on which the chapter is based, it is probably more technical than would be preferred by a general audience.

Chapter seven tackles the ‘bedrock myth’, the assumption that the absence of bedrock close to the surface between Downtown and Midtown New York is the reason for skyscrapers not being built between the two urban centers. Rather, Barr argues that while deeper bedrock does increase foundation costs, these costs were neither prohibitively high nor were they large compared to the overall cost of building a skyscraper. What I enjoyed the most about this chapter was Barr’s discussion of how foundations are actually built. He descries the use of caissons, which enable workers to dig down for considerable distances, often below the water table, until they reach bedrock. Barr’s thorough technological history discusses not only how caissons work, but also the dangers involved. While this chapter references empirical research papers, it is a relatively easy read.

Chapters eight and nine focus on the birth of Midtown and the building boom of the 1920s. Chapter eight contains lengthy discussions of urban economic theory that may serve as a distraction to reader ’ primarily interested in New York. However, they would be well-suited for undergraduates learning about the economics of cities. In the next chapter, Barr considers two of the primary explanations for the building boom of the 1920s — the first being exuberance, and the second being financing. He uses data to assess the viability of these two explanations and finds that supply and demand factors explain much of the development of the 1920s; though it enabled the boom, cheap credit was not, he argues, the primary cause.

In the final chapter (chapter 10), Barr discusses another of his empirical papers that estimates Manhattan land values from the mid-19th century to the present day. The data work that went into these estimations is particularly impressive. Toward the end of the chapter, Barr assesses ‘whether skyscrapers are a cause or an effect of high land values’. He finds that changes in land values predict future building height, but the reverse is not true. The book ends with an epilogue, in which Barr discusses the impact of climate change on the city and makes policy suggestions for New York going forward.

Questions 27-31
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

27. What point does Shester make about Barr’s book in the first paragraph?
A It gives a highly original explanation for urban development.
B Elements of Barr’s research papers are incorporated throughout the book.
C Other books that are available on the subject have taken a different approach.
D It covers a range of factors that affected the development of New York.

28. How does Shester respond to the information in the book about tenements?
A She describes the reasons for Barr’s interest.
B She indicates a potential problem with Barr’s analysis.
C She compares Barr’s conclusion with that of other wipers.
D She provides details about the sources Barr used for his research.

29. What does Shester say about chapter six of the book?
A It contains conflicting data.
B It focuses too much on possible trends.
C It is too specialised for most readers.
D It draws on research that is out of date.

30. What does Shester suggest about the chapters focusing on the 1920s building boom?
A The information should have been organised differently.
B More facts are needed about the way construction was financed.
C The explanation / a is given for the building boom is unlikely.
D Some parts will have limited appeal to certain people.

31. What impresses Shester the most about the chapter on land values?
A the broad time period that is covered
B the interesting questions that Barr asks
C the nature of the research into the topic
D the recommendations Barr makes for the future

Questions 32-35
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage? In boxes 32-35 on your answer sheet, write

YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

32. The description in the first chapter of how New York probably looked from the air in the early 1600s lacks interest.
33. Chapters two and three prepare the reader well for material yet to come.
34. The biggest problem for many nineteenth-century New York immigrant neighbourhoods was a lack of amenities.
35. In the nineteenth century, New York’s immigrant neighbourhoods tended to concentrate around the harbour.

Questions 36-40
Complete the summary using the list of phrases, A-J, below. Write the correct letter, A-J, in boxes 36-40 on your answer sheet.

The bedrock myth

In chapter seven, Barr indicates how the lack of bedrock close to the surface does not explain why skyscrapers are absent from (36) ………………… He points out that although the cost of foundations increases when bedrock is deep below the surface, this cannot be regarded as (37) …………………. Especially when compared to (38)………………. A particular enjoyable part of the chapter was Barr’s account of how foundations are built. He describes not only how (39) ………………. are made possible by the use of caissons, but he also discusses their (40) ………… The chapter is well researched but relatively easy to understand.

A development plans
B deep excavations
C great distance
D excessive expense
E impossible tasks
F associated risks
G water level
H specific areas
I total expenditure
J construction guidelines

The Dead Sea Scrolls

In late 1946 or early 1947, three Bedouin teenagers were tending their goats and sheep near the ancient settlement of Qumran, located on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea in what is now known as the West Bank. One of these young shepherds tossed a rock into an opening on the side of a cliff and was surprised to hear a shattering sound. He and his companions later entered the cave and stumbled across a collection of large clay jars, seven of which contained scrolls with writing on them. The teenagers took the seven scrolls to a nearby town where they were sold for a small sum to a local antiquities dealer. Word of the find spread, and Bedouins and archaeologists eventually unearthed tens of thousands of additional scroll fragments from 10 nearby caves; together they make up between 800 and 900 manuscripts. It soon became clear that this was one of the greatest archaeological discoveries ever made.

The origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were written around 2,000 years ago between 150 BCE and 70 CE, is still the subject of scholarly debate even today. According to the prevailing theory, they are the work of a population that inhabited the area until Roman troops destroyed the settlement around 70 CE. The area was known as Judea at that time, and the people are thought to have belonged to a group called the Essenes, a devout Jewish sect.

The majority of the texts on the Dead Sea Scrolls are in Hebrew, with some fragments written in an ancient version of its alphabet thought to have fallen out of use in the fifth century BCE. Bu’ there are other languages as well. Some scrolls are in Aramaic, the language spoken by many inhabitants of the region from the sixth century BCE to the siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE. In addition, several texts feature translations of the Hebrew Bible into Greek.

The Dead Sea Scrolls include fragments from every book of the Old Testament of the Bible except for the Book of Esther. The only entire book of the Hebrew Bible preserved among the manuscripts from Qumran is Isaiah; this copy, dated to the first century BCE, is considered the earliest biblical manuscript still in existence. Along with biblical texts, the scrolls include documents about sectarian regulations and religious writings that do not appear in the Old Testament.

The writing on the Dead Sea Scrolls is mostly in black or occasionally red ink, and the scrolls themselves are nearly all made of either parchment (animal skin) or an early form of paper called ‘papyrus’. The only exception is the scroll numbered 3Q15, which was created out of a combination of copper and tin. Known as the Copper Scroll, this curious document features letters chiselled onto metal – perhaps, as some have theorized, to better withstand the passage of time. One of the most intriguing manuscripts from Qumran, this is a sort of ancient treasure map that lists dozens of gold and silver caches. Using an unconventional vocabulary and odd spelling, it describes 64 underground hiding places that supposedly contain riches buried for safekeeping. None of these hoards have been recovered, possibly because the Romans pillaged Judea during the first century CE. According to various hypotheses, the treasure belonged to local people, or was rescued from the Second Temple before its destruction or never existed to begin with.

Some of the Dead Sea Scrolls have been on interesting journeys. In 1948, a Syrian Orthodox archbishop known as Mar Samuel acquired four of the original seven scrolls from a Jerusalem shoemaker and part-time antiquity dealer, paying less than $100 for them. He then travelled to the United States and unsuccessfully offered them to a number of universities, including Yale. Finally, in 19M, he placed an advertisement in the business newspaper The Wall Street Journal’ – under the category ‘Miscellaneous Items for Sale’ – that read: ‘Biblical Manuscripts : dating back to at least 200 B.C. are for sale. This would be an ideal gift to an educational or religious institution by an individual or group.’ Fortunately, Israeli archaeologist and statesman Yigael Yadin negotiated their purchase and brought the scrolls back to Jerusalem, where they remain to this day.

In 2017, researchers from the University of Haifa restored and deciphered one of the last untranslated scrolls. The university’s Eshbal Ratson and Jonathan Ben-Dov spent one year reassembling the 60 fragments that make up the scroll. Deciphered from a band of coded text on parchment, the find provides insight into the community of people who wrote it and the 364-day calendar they would have used. The scroll names celebrations that indicate shifts in seasons and details two yearly religious events known from another Dead Sea Scroll. Only one more known scroll remains untranslated.

Questions 1-5
Complete the notes below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

The Dead Sea Scrolls
Discovery
Qumran, 1946/7
• three Bedouin shepherds in their teens were near an opening on side of cliff
• heard a noise of breaking when one teenager threw a (1) …………………….
• teenagers went into the (2) …………………. and found a number of containers made of (3) ………………..

The scrolls
• date from between 150 BCE and 70 CE
• thought to have been written by group of people known as the (4) ………………….
• written mainly in the (5) …………………. language
• most are on religious topics, written using ink on parchment or papyrus

Questions 6-13
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage? In boxes 6-13 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

6. The Bedouin teenagers who found the scrolls were disappointed by how little money they received for them.
7. There is agreement among academics about the origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
8. Most of the books of the Bible written on the scrolls are incomplete.
9. The information on the Copper Scroll is written in an unusual way.
10. Mar Samuel was given some of the scrolls as a gift.
11. In the early 1950s, a number of educational establishments in the US were keen to buy scrolls from Mar Samuel.
12. The scroll that was pieced together in 2017 contains information about annual occasions in the Qumran area 2.000 yea-s ago.
13. Academics at the University of Haifa are currently researching how to decipher the final scroll.

A second attempt at domesticating the tomato

A It took at least 3,000 years for humans to learn how to domesticate the wild tomato and cultivate it for food. Now two separate teams in Brazil and China have done it all over again in less than three years. And they have done it better in some ways, as the re-domesticated tomatoes are more nutritious than the ones we eat at present. This approach relies on the revolutionary CRISPR genome editing technique, in which changes are deliberately made to the DNA of a living cell, allowing genetic material to be added, removed or altered. The technique could not only improve existing crops, but could also be used to turn thousands of wild plants into useful and appealing foods. In fact, a third team in the US has already begun to do this with a relative of the tomato called the groundcherry.

This fast-track domestication could help make the world’s food supply healthier and far more resistant to diseases, such as the ‘us fungus devastating wheat crops. ‘This could transform what we eat,’ says Jo-g Kudla at the University of Munster in Germany, a member of the Brazilian team. ‘There are 50,000 edible plants in the world, but 90 percent of our energy comes from just 15 crops.’ ‘We can now mimic the known domestication course of major crops like rice, maize, sorghum or others,’ says Caixia Gao of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. ‘Then we might try to domesticate plants that have never been domesticated.’

B Wild tomatoes, which, are native to the Andes region in South America, produce pea-sized fruits. many generations, peoples such as the Aztecs and Incas transformed the pint by selecting and breeding plants with mutations in their genetic structure, which resulted in desirable traits such as larger fruit. But every time a single plant with a mutation is taken from a larger population for breeding, much genetic diversity is lost. And sometimes the desirable mutations come with less desirable traits. For instance, the tomato strains grown for supermarkets have lost much of their flavour. By comparing the genomes of modern plants to those of their wild relatives, biologists have been working out what genetic changes occurred as plants were domesticated. The teams in Brazil and China have now used this knowledge to reintroduce these changes from scratch while maintaining or even enhancing the desirable traits of wild strains.

C Kudla’s team made six changes altogether. For instance, they tripled the size of fruit by editing a gene called FRUIT WEIGHT, and increased the number of tomatoes per truss by editing another called MULTIFLORA. While the historical domestication of tomatoes reduced levels of the red pigment lycopene – thought to have potential health benefits – the team in Brazil managed to boost it instead. The wild tomato has twice as much lycopene as cultivated ones; the newly domesticated one has five times as much. ‘They are quite tasty,’ says Kudla. ‘A little bit strong. And very aromatic.’ The team in China re-domesticated several strains of wild tomatoes with desirable traits lost in domesticated tomatoes. In this way they managed to create a strain resistant to a common disease called bacterial spot race, which can devastate yields. They also created another strain that is more salt tolerant – and has higher levels of vitamin C.

D Meanwhile, Joyce Van Eck at the Boyce Thompson Institute in New York state decided to use the same approach to domesticate the groundcherry or goldenberry (Physalis pruinosa) for the first time. This fruit looks similar to the closely related Cape gooseberry (Physalis peruviana). Groundcherries are already sold to a limited extent in the US but they are hard to produce because the plant has a sprawling growth habit and the small fruits fall off the branches when ripe. Van Ecks team has edited the plants to increase fruit size, make their growth more compact and to stop fruits dropping. ‘There’s potential for this to be a commercial e^,’ says Van Eck. But she adds that taking the work further would be expensive because of the need to pay for a licence for the CRISPR technology and get regulatory approval.

E This approach could boost the use of many obscure plants, says Jonathan Jones of the Sainsbury Lab in the UK. But it will be hard for new foods to grow so popular with farmers and consumers that they become new staple crops, he thinks. The three teams already have their eye on other plants that could be ‘catapulted into the mainstream’, including foxtail, oat-grass and cowpea. By choosing wild plants that are drought or heat tolerant, says Gao, we could create crops that will thrive even as the planet warms. But Kudla didn’t want to reveal which species were in his team’s sights, because CRISPR has made the process so easy. ‘Any one with the right skills could go to their lab and do this.’

Questions 14-18
Reading Passage has five sections, A-E. Which section contains the following information? Write the correct letter, A-E, in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet. NB You may use any letter more than once.

14. a reference to a type of tomato that can resist a dangerous infection
15. an explanation of how problems can arise from focusing only on a certain type of tomato plant.
16. a number of examples of plants that are not cultivated at present but could be useful as food sources
17. a comparison between the early domestication of the tomato and more recent research
18. a personal reaction to the flavour of a tomato that has been genetically edited

Questions 19-23
Look at the following statements (Questions 19-23) and the list of researchers below. Match each statement with the correct researcher, A-D. Write the correct letter, A-D, in boxes 19-23 on your answer sheet. NB You may use any letter more than once.

19. Domestication of certain plants could allow them to adapt to future environmental challenges.
20. The idea of growing and eating unusual plants may not be accepted on a large scale.
21. It is not advisable for the future direction of certain research to be made public.
22. Present efforts to domesticate one wild fruit are limited by the costs involved.
23. Humans only make use of a small proportion of the plant food available on Earth.

List of Researchers
A Jorg Kudla
B Caixia Gao
C Joyce Van Eck
D Jonathan Jones

Questions 24-26
Complete the sentences below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 24-26 on your answer sheet.

24. An undesirable trait such as loss of …………………. may be caused by a mutation in a tomato gene.
25. By modifying one gene in a tomato plant, researchers made the tomato three times its original ……………
26. A type of tomato which was not badly affected by …………………… and was rich in vitamin C, was produced by a team of researchers in China.

Insight or evolution?

Two scientists consider the origins of discoveries and other innovative behavior Scientific discovery is popularly believed to result from the sheer genius of such intellectual stars as naturalist Charles Darwin and theoretical physicist Albert Einstein. Our view of such unique contributions to science often disregards the person’s prior experience and the efforts of their lesser-known predecessors. Conventional wisdom also places great weight on insight in promoting breakthrough scientific achievements, as if ideas spontaneously pop into someone’s head – fully formed and functional.

There may be some limited truth to this view. However, we believe that it largely misrepresents the real nature of scientific discovery, as well as that of creativity and innovation in many other realms of human endeavor. Setting aside such greats as Darwin and Einstein – whose monumental contributions are duly celebrated – we suggest that innovation is more a process of trial and error, where two steps forward may sometimes come with one step back, as well as one or more steps to the right or left. This evolutionary view of human innovation undermines the notion of creative genius and recognizes the cumulative nature of scientific progress.

Consider one unheralded scientist John Nicholson, a mathematical physicist working in the 1910s who postulated the existence of ‘proto-elements’ in outer space. By combining different numbers of weights of these proto-elements’ atoms, Nicholson could recover the weights of all the elements in the then-known periodic table. These successes are all the more noteworthy given the fact that Nicholson was wrong about the presence of proto-elements: they do not actually exist. Yet, amid his often fanciful theories and wild speculations, Nicholson also proposed a novel theory about the structure of atoms. Niels Bohr, the Nobel prize-winning father of modern atomic theory, jumped off from this interesting idea to conceive his now-famous model of the atom.

What are we to make of this story? One might simply conclude that science is a collective and cumulative enterprise. That may be true, but there may be a deeper insight to be gleaned. We propose that science is constantly evolving, much as species of animals do. In biological systems, organisms may display new characteristics that result from random genetic mutations. In the same way, random, arbitrary or accidental mutations of ideas may help pave the way for advances in science. If mutations prove beneficial, then the animal or the scientific theory will continue to thrive and perhaps reproduce.

Support for this evolutionary view of behavioral innovation comes from many domains. Consider one example of an influential innovation in US horseracing. The so-called ‘acey-deucy’ stirrup placement, in which the rider’s foot in his left stirrup is placed as much as 25 centimeters lower than the right, is believed to confer important speed advantages when turning on oval tracks. It was developed by a relatively unknown jockey named Jackie Westrope. Had Westrope conducted methodical investigations or examined extensive film records in a shrewd plan to outrun his rivals? Had he foreseen the speed advantage that would be conferred by riding acey-deucy? No. He suffered a leg injury, which left him unable to fully bend his left knee. His modification just happened to coincide with enhanced left-hand turning performance. This led to the rapid and widespread adoption of riding acey-deucy by many riders, a racing style which continues in today’s thoroughbred racing.

Plenty of other stories show that fresh advances can arise from error, misadventure, and also pure serendipity – a happy accident. For example, in the early 1970s, two employees of the company 3M each had a problem: Spencer Silver had a product – a glut which was only slightly sticky – and no use for it, while his colleague Art Fry was trying to figure out how to affix temporary bookmarks in his hymn book without damaging its pages. The solution to both these problems was the invention of the brilliantly simple yet phenomenally successful Post-It note. Such examples give lie to the claim that ingenious, designing minds are responsible for human creativity and invention. Far more banal and mechanical forces may be at work; forces that are fundamentally connected to the laws of science.

The notions of insight, creativity and genius are often invoked, but they remain vague and of doubtful scientific utility, especially when one considers the diverse and enduring contributions of individuals such as Plato, Leonardo da Vinci, Shakespeare, Beethoven, Galileo, Newton, Kepler, Curie, Pasteur and Edison. These notions merely label rather than explain the evolution of human innovations. We need another approach, and there is a promising candidate.

The Law of Effect was advanced by psychologist Edward Thorndike in 1898, some 40 years after Charles Darwin published his ground breaking work on biological evolution, On the Origin of Species. This simple law holds that organisms tend to repeat successful behaviors and to refrain from performing unsuccessful ones. Just like Darwin’s Law of Natural Selection, the Law of Effect involves a entirely mechanical process of variation and selection, without any end objective in sight.

Of course, the origin of human innovation demands much further study. In particular, the provenance of the raw material on which the Law of Effect operates is not as clearly known as that of the genetic mutations on which the Law of Natural Selection operates. The generation of novel ideas and behaviors may not be entirely random, but constrained by prior successes and failures – of the current individual (such as Bohr) or of predecessors (such as Nicholson). The time seems right for abandoning the naive notions of intelligent design and genius, and for scientifically exploring the true origins of creative behavior.

Questions 27-31
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

27. The purpose of the first paragraph is to
A defend particular ideas.
B compare certain beliefs.
C disprove a widely held view.
D outline a common assumption.

28 What are the writers doing in the second
A criticising an opinion
B justifying a standpoint
C explaining an approach
D supporting an argument

29. In the third paragraph, what do the writers suggest about Darwin and Einstein?
A They represent an exception to a general rule.
B Their way of working has been misunderstood.
C They are an ideal which others should aspire to.
D Their achievements deserve greater recognition.

30. John Nicholson is an example of a person whose idea
A established his reputation as an influential scientist.
B was only fully understood at a later point in history.
C laid the foundation for someone else’s breakthrough.
D initially met with scepticism from the scientific community.

31. What is the key point of interest about the ‘acey-deucy’ stirrup placement?
A the simple reason why it was invented
B the enthusiasm with which it was adopted
C the research that went into its development
D the cleverness of the person who first used it

Questions 32-36
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage? In boxes 32-36 on your answer sheet, write

YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

32. Acknowledging people such as Plato or da Vinci as geniuses will help us understand the process by which great minds create new ideas.
33. The Law of Effect was discovered at a time when psychologies were seeking a scientific reason why creativity occurs.
34. The Law of Effect states that no planning is involved in the behaviour of organisms.
35. The Law of Effect sets out clear explanations about sources of new ideas and behaviours.
36. Many scientists are now turning away from the notion of intelligent design and genius.

Questions 37-40
Complete the summary using the list of words, A-G, below. Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet.

The origins of creative behaviour

The traditional view of scientific discovery is that breakthroughs happen when a single great mind has sudden (37) ………………….. Although this can occur, it is not often the case. Advances are more likely to be the result of a longer process. In some cases, this process involves (38) ………………… , such as Nicholson’s theory about proto-elements. In others, simple necessity may provoke innovation, as with Westrope’s decision to modify the position of his riding stirrups. There is also often an element of (39) …………………….. , for example, the coincidence of ideas that led to the invention of the Post-It note. With both the Law of Natural Selection and the Law of Effect, there may be no clear (40) …………………….. involved, but merely a process of variation and selection.

A invention
B goals
C compromise
D mistakes
E luck
F inspiration
G experiments

The development of the London underground railway

In the first half of the 1800s, London’s population grew at an astonishing rate, and the central area became increasingly congested. In addition, the expansion of the overground railway network resulted in more and more passengers arriving in the capital. However, in 1846, a Royal Commission decided that the railways should not be allowed to enter the City, the capital’s historic and business centre. The result was that the overground railway stations formed a ring around the City. The area within consisted of poorly built, overcrowded slums and the streets were full of horse-drawn traffic. Crossing the City became a nightmare. It could take an hour and a half to travel 8 km by horse-drawn carriage or bus. Numerous schemes were proposed to resolve these problems, but few succeeded.

Amongst the most vocal advocates for a solution t0 London’s traffic problems was Charles Pearson, who worked as a solicitor for the City of London. He saw both social and economic advantages in building an underground railway that would link the overground railway stations together and clear London slums at the same time. His idea was to relocate the poor workers who lived in the inner-city slums to newly constructed suburbs, and to provide cheap rail travel for them to get to work. Pearson’s ideas gained support amongst some businessmen and in 1851 he submitted a plan to Parliament. It was rejected, but coincided with a proposal from another group for an underground connecting line, which Parliament passed.

The two groups merged and established the Metropolitan Railway Company in August 1854. The company’s plan was to construct an underground railway line from the Great Western Railway’s (GWR) station at Paddington to the edge of the City at Farringdon Street – a distance of almost 5 km. The organisation had difficulty in raising the funding for such a radical and expensive scheme, not least because of the critical articles printed by the press. Objectors argued that the tunnels would collapse under the weight of traffic overhead, buildings would be shaken and passengers would be poisoned by the emissions from the train engines. However, Pearson and his partners persisted.

The GWR, aware that the new line would finally enable them to run trains into the heart of the City, invested almost £250,000 in the scheme. Eventually, over a five-year period, £1m was raised. The chosen route ran beneath existing main roads to minimise the expense of demolishing buildings. Originally scheduled to be completed in 21 months, the construction of the underground line took three years. It was built just below street level using a technique known as ‘cut and cover’. A trench about ten metres wide and six metres deep was dug, and the sides temporarily held up with timber beams. Brick walls were then constructed, and finally a brick arch was added to create a tunnel. A two-metre-deep layer of soil was laid on top of the tunnel and the road above rebuilt.

The Metropolitan line, which opened on 10 January 1863, was the world’s first underground railway. On its first day, almost 40,000 passengers were carried between Paddington and Farringdon, the journey taking about 18 minutes. By the end of the Metropolitan’s first year of operation, 9.5 million journeys had been made. Even as the Metropolitan began operation, the first extensions to the line wen being authorised; these were built over the next five years, reaching Moorgate in the east of London and Hammersmith in the west. The original plan was to pull the trains with steam locomotives, using firebricks in the boilers to provide steam, but these engines were never introduced. Instead, the line used specially designed locomotives that were fitted with water tanks in which steam could be condensed. However, smoke and fumes remained a problem, even though ventilation shafts were added to the tunnels.

Despite the extension of the underground railway, by the 1880s, congestion on London’s streets had become worse. The problem was partly that the exiting underground lines formed a circuit around the centre of London and extended *o tie suburbs, but did not cross the capital’s centre. The ‘cut and cover’ method of construction; not an option in this part of the capital. The only alternative was to tunnel deep underground. Although the technology to create these tunnels existed, steam locomotives could not be used in such a confined space. It wasn’t until the development of a reliable electric motor, and a means of transferring power from the generator to a moving train, that the world’s first deep-level electric railway, the City & South London, became possible. The line opened in 1890, and ran from the City to Stockwell, south of the River Thames. The trains were made up of three carriages and driven by electric engines. The carriages were narrow and had tiny windows just below the roof because it was thought that passengers would not want to look out at the tunnel walls. The line was not without its problems, mainly caused by an unreliable power supply. Although the City & South London Railway was a great technical achievement, it did not make a profit. Then, in 1900, the Central London Railway, known as the ‘Tuppenny Tube’, began operation using new electric locomotives. It was very popular and soon afterwards new railways and extensions were added to the growing tube network. By 1907, the heart of today’s Underground system was in place.

Questions 1-6
Complete the notes below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

The London underground railway
The problem
• The (1) ………………… of London increased rapidly between 1800 and 1850
• The streets were full of horse-drawn vehicles

The proposed solution
• Charles Pearson, a solicitor, suggested building an underground railway
• Building the railway would make it possible to move people to better housing in the (2) ……………….
• A number of (3) …………………. agreed with Pearson’s idea
• The company initially had problems getting the (4) …………………. needed for the project
• Negative articles about the project appeared in the 5

The construction
• The chosen route did not require many buildings to be pulled down
• The ‘cut and cover’ method was used to construct the tunnels
• With the completion of the brick arch, the tunnel was covered with (6) ………………….

Questions 7-13
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage? In boxes 7-13 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

7. Other countries had built underground railways before the Metropolitan line opened.
8. More people than predicted travelled on the Metropolitan line on ‘he first day.
9. The use of ventilation shafts failed to prevent pollution in the tunnels.
10. A different approach from the ‘cut and cover’ technique was required in London’s central area.
11. The windows on City & South London trains were at eye level.
12. The City & South London Railway was a financial success.
13. Trains on the ‘Tuppenny Tube’ nearly always ran on time.

Stadiums: past, present and future

A Stadiums are among the oldest forms of urban architecture: vast stadiums where the public could watch sporting events were at the centre of western city life as far back as the ancient Greek and Roman Empires, well before the construction of the great medieval cathedrals and the grand 19th- and 20th-century railway stations which dominated urban skylines in later eras. Today, however, stadiums are regarded with growing scepticism. Construction costs can soar above £1 billion, and stadiums finished for major events such as the Olympic Games or the FIFA World Cup have notably fallen into disuse and disrepair. But this need not be the case. History shows that stadiums can drive urban development and adapt to the culture of every age. Even today, architects and planners are finding new ways to adapt the mono-functional sports arenas which became emblematic of modernisation during the 20th century.

B The amphitheatre of Arles in southwest France, with a capacity of 25,000 spectators, is perhaps the best example of just how versatile stadiums can be. Built by the Romans in 90 AD, it became a fortress with four towers after the fifth century, and was then transformed into a village containing more than 200 houses. With the growing interest in conservation during the 19th century, it was converted back into an arena for the staging of bullfights, thereby returning the structure to its original use as a venue for public spectacles. Another example is the imposing arena of Verona in northern Italy, with space for 30,000 spectators, which was built 60 years before the Arles amphitheatre and 40 years before Rome’s famous Colosseum. It has endured the centuries and is currently considered one of the world’s prime sites for opera, thanks to its outstanding acoustics.

C The area in the centre of the Italian town of Lucca, known as the Piazza dell’ Anfiteatro, is yet another impressive example of an amphitheatre becoming absorbed into the fabric of the city. The site evolved in a similar way to Arles and was progressively filled with buildings from the Middle Ages until the 19th century, variously used as houses, a salt depot and a prison. But rather than reverting to an arena, it became a market square, designed by Romanticist architect Lorenzo Nottolini. Today, the ruins of the amphitheatre remain embedded in the various shops and residences surrounding the public square.

D There are many similarities between modern stadiums and the ancient amphitheatres intended for games. But some of the flexibility was lost at the beginning of the 20th century, as stadiums were developed using new products such as steel and reinforced concrete, and made use of bright lights for night-time matches. Many such stadiums are situated in suburban areas, designed for sporting use only and surrounded by parking lots. These factors mean that they may not be as accessible to the general public, require more energy to run and contribute to urban heat.

E But many of today’s most innovative architects see scope for the stadium to help improve the city. Among the current strategies, two seem to be having particular success: the stadium as an urban hub, and as a power plant.
There’s a growing trend for stadiums to be equipped with public spaces and services that serve a function beyond sport, such as hotels, retail outlets, conference centres, restaurants and bars, children’s playgrounds and green space. Creating mixed-use developments such as this reinforces compactness and multi-functionality, making more efficient use of land and helping to regenerate urban spaces. This opens the space up to families and a wider cross-section of society, instead of catering only to sportspeople and supporters. There have been many examples of this in the UK: the mixed-use facilities at Wembley and Old Trafford have become a blueprint for many other stadiums in the world.

F The phenomenon of stadiums as power stations has arisen from the idea that energy problems can be overcome by integrating interconnected buildings by means of a smart grid, which is an electricity supply network that uses digital communications technology to detect and react to local changes in usage, without significant energy losses. Stadiums are ideal for these purposes, because their canopies have a large surface area for fitting photovoltaic panels and rise high enough (more than 4) metres) to make use of micro wind turbines. Freiburg Mage Solar Stadium in Germany is the first of a new wave of stadiums as power plants, which also includes the Amsterdam Arena and the Kaohsiung Stadium. The latter, inaugurated in 2009, has 8,844 photovoltaic panels producing up to 1.14 GWh of electricity annually. This reduces the annual output of carbon dioxide by 660 tons and supplies up to 80 percent of the surrounding area when the stadium is not in use. This is proof that a stadium can serve its city, and have a decidedly positive impact in terms of reduction of CO2 emissions.

G Sporting arenas have always been central to the life and culture of cities. In every era, the stadium has acquired new value and uses: from military fortress to residential village, public space to theatre and most recently a field for experimentation in advanced engineering. The stadium of today now brings together multiple functions, thus helping cities to create a sustainable future.

Questions 14-17
Reading Passage has seven sections, A-G. Which section contains the following information? Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 14-17 on your answer sheet. NB You may use any letter more than once.

14. a mention of negative attitudes towards stadium building projects
15. figures demonstrating the environmental benefits of a certain stadium
16. examples of the wide range of facilities available at some new stadiums
17. reference to the disadvantages of the stadiums built during a certain era

Questions 18-22
Complete the summary below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 18-22 on your answer sheet.

Roman amphitheatres
The Roman stadiums o’1 Europe have proved very versatile. The amphitheatre of Arles, for example, was converted first into a (18) …………………. , then into a residential area and finally into an arena where spectators could watch (19) …………………… Meanwhile, the arena in Verona, one of the oldest Roman amphitheatres, is famous today as a venue where (20) ………………. is performed. The site of Lucca’s amphitheatre has also been used for many purposes over the centuries, including the storage of (21) ………………….. It is now a market square with (22) …………………….. and homes incorporated into the remains of the Roman amphitheatre.

Questions 23 and 24
Choose TWO letters, A-E. Write the correct letters in boxes 23 and 24 on your answer sheet.

When comparing twentieth-century stadiums to ancient amphitheatres in Section D, which TWO negative features does the writer mention?
A They are less imaginatively designed.
B They are less spacious.
C They are in less convenient locations.
D They are less versatile.
E They are made of less durable materials.

Questions 25 and 26
Choose TWO letters, A-E. Write the correct letters in boxes 25 and 26 on your answer sheet.

Which TWO advantages of modern stadium design does the writer mention?
A offering improved amenities for the enjoyment of sports events
B bringing community life back into the city environment
C facilitating research into solar and wind energy solutions
D enabling local residents to reduce their consumption of electricity
E providing a suitable site for the installation of renewable power generators

To catch a king

Charles Spencer’s latest book, To Catch a King, tells us the story of the hunt for King Charles II in the six weeks after his resounding defeat at the Battle of Worcester in September 1651. And what a story it is. After his father was executed by the Parliamentarians in 1649, the young Charles II sacrificed one of the very principles his father had died for and did a deal with the Scots, thereby accepting Presbyterianism as the national religion in return for being crowned King of Scots. His arrival in Edinburgh prompted the English Parliamentary army to invade Scotland in a pre-emptive strike. This was followed by a Scottish invasion of England. The two sides finally faced one another at Worcester in the west of England in 1651. After being comprehensively defeated on the meadows outside the city by the Parliamentarian army, the 21-year-old king found himself the subject of a national manhunt, with a huge sum offered for his capture. Over the following six weeks he managed, through a series of heart-poundingly close escapes, to evade the Parliamentarians before seeking refuge in France. For the next nine years, the penniless and defeated Charles wandered around Europe with only a small group of loyal supporters.

Years later, after his restoration as king, the 50-year-old Charles II requested a meeting with the writer and diarist Samuel Pepys. His intention when asking Pepys to commit his story to paper was to ensure that this most extraordinary episode was never forgotten. Over two three-hour sittings, the king related to him in great detail his personal recollections of the six weeks he had spent as a fugitive. As the king and secretary settled down (a scene that is surely a gift for a future scriptwriter), Charles commenced his story: ‘After the battle was so absolutely lost as to be beyond hope of recovery, I began to think of the best way of saving myself.’

One of the joys of Spencer’s book, a result not least of its use of Charles II’s own narrative as well as those of his supporters, is just how close the reader gets to the action. The day-by-day retelling of the fugitives’ doings provides delicious details: the cutting of the king’s long hair with agricultural shears, the use of walnut leaves to dye his pale skin, and the day Charles spent lying on a branch of the great oak tree in Boscobel Wood as the Parliamentary soldiers scoured the forest floor below. Spencer draws out both the humour – such as the preposterous refusal of Charles’s friend Henry Wilmot to adopt disguise on the grounds that it was beneath his dignity – and the emotional tension when the secret of king’s presence was cautiously revealed to his supporters.

Charles’s adventures after losing the Battle of Worcester hide the uncomfortable truth that whilst almost everyone in England had been appalled by the execution of his father, they had not welcomed the arrival of his son with the Scots army, but had instead firmly bolted their doors. This was partly because he rode at the head of what looked like a foreign invasion force and partly because, after almost a decade of civil war, people were desperate to avoid it beginning again. This makes it all the more interesting that Charles II himself loved the story so much ever after. As well as retelling it to anyone who would listen, causing eye-rolling among courtiers, he set in train a series of initiatives to memorialise it. There was to be a new order of chivalry, the Knights of the Royal Oak. A series of enormous oil paintings depicting the episode were produced, including a two-metre-wide canvas of Boscobel Wood and a set of six similarly enormous paintings of the king on the run. In 1660, Charles II commissioned the artist John Michael Wright to paint a flying squadron of cherubs carrying an oak tree to the heavens on the ceiling of his bedchamber. It is hard to imagine many other kings marking the lowest point in their life so enthusiastically, or indeed pulling off such an escape in the first place.

Charles Spencer is the perfect person to pass the story on to a new generation. His pacey, readable prose steers deftly clear of modern idioms and elegantly brings to life the details of the great tale. He has even-handed sympathy for both the fugitive king and the fierce republican regime that hunted him, and he succeeds in his desire to explore far more of the background of the story than previous books on the subject have done. Indeed, the opening third of the book is about how Charles II found himself at Worcester in the first place, which for some will be reason alone to read To Catch a King.

The tantalising question left, in the end, is that of what it all meant. Would Charles II have been a different king had these six weeks never happened? The days and nights spent in hiding must have affected him in some way. Did the need to assume disguises, to survive on wit and charm alone, to use trickery and subterfuge to escape from tight corners help form him? This is the one area where the book doesn’t quite hit the mark. Instead its depiction of Charles II in his final years as an ineffective, pleasure-loving monarch doesn’t do justice to the man (neither is it accurate), or to the complexity of his character. But this one niggle aside, To Catch a King is an excellent read, and those who come to it knowing little of the famous tale will find they have a treat in store.

Questions 27-31
Complete the summary using the list of phrases, A-J, below. Write the correct letter, A-J, in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet.

The story behind the hunt for Charles II

Charles II’s father was executed by the Parliamentarian forces in 1649. Charles II then formed a (27) …………………. with the Scots, and in order to become King of Scots, he abandoned an important (28) …………………… that was held by his father and had contributed to his father’s death. The opposing sides then met outside Worcester in 1651. The battle led to a (29) ……………….. for the Parliamentarians and Charles had to flee for his life. A (30) …………………. was offered for Charles’s capture, but after six weeks spent in hiding, he eventually managed to reach the (31) ……………………. of continental Europe.

A military innovation
B large reward
C widespread conspiracy
D relative safety
E new government
F decisive victory
G political debate
H strategic alliance
I popular solution
J religious conviction

Questions 32-35
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage? In boxes 32-35 on your answer sheet, write

YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

32. Charles chose Pepys for the task because he considered him to be trustworthy.
33. Charles’s personal recollection of the escape lacked sufficient detail.
34. Charles indicated to Pepys that he had planned his escape before the battle.
35. The inclusion of Charles’s account is a positive aspect of the book.

Questions 36-40
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

36. What is the reviewer’s main purpose in the first paragraph?
A to describe what happened during the Battle of Worcester
B to give an account of the circumstances leading to Charles II’s escape
C to provide details of the Parliamentarians’ political views
D to compare Charles Il’s beliefs with those of his father

37. Why does the reviewer include examples of the fugitives’ behaviour in the third paragraph?
A to explain how close Charles II came to losing his life
B to suggest that Charles II’s supporters were badly prepared
C to illustrate how the events of the six weeks are brought to life
D to argue that certain aspects are not as well known as they should be

38. What point does the reviewer make about Charles II in the fourth paragraph?
A He chose to celebrate what was essentially a defeat.
B He misunderstood the motives of his opponents.
C He aimed to restore people’s faith in the monarchy.
D He was driven by a desire to be popular.

39. What does the reviewer say about Charles Spencer in the fifth paragraph?
A His decision to write the book comes as a surprise.
B He takes an unbiased approach to the subject matter.
C His descriptions of events would be better if they included more detail.
D He chooses language that is suitable for a twenty-first-century audience.

40. When the reviewer says the book ‘doesn’t quite hit the mark’, she is making the point that
A it overlooks the impact of events on ordinary people.
B it lacks an analysis of prevalent views on monarchy.
C it omits any references to the deceit practised by Charles II during his time in hiding.
D it fails to address whether Charles II’s experiences had a lasting influence on him.

Section 1
Read the text below and answer questions 1-7.

The best ice cream makers

Have you ever considered making ice cream at home but thought it would be too complicated? Here is a selection of machines that could change your mind

A Magimix Gelato Expert
If you’re an ice cream fanatic, it doesn’t get better than this. It’s quick, taking as little as 20 minutes, and consistent in its results, while the three automated programmes are very easy to use and it has an unusually generous two-litre capacity. On the other hand, we found it noisier than many, and the ice cream is softer than we might have liked.

B Shake n Make Ice Cream Maker
If you want to make some basic soft ice cream, this is a fun little gadget that gets decent results. You add a little ice and salt to the base, then your ingredients to the stainless-steel tub, pop the lid on and give it a good shake for at least three minutes. Provided you measure everything exactly and shake back and forth consistently, it’s surprisingly efficient.

C Sage Smart Scoop
This is a seriously smart machine. Our favourite feature is the built-in sensor that works out whether the consistency of your ice cream or frozen yoghurt is right for you (from the 12 hardness settings) so that it can stop mixing when it’s ready, alerting you with a fun tune. As you’d expect from the considerable price tag, there’s a built-in freezer and it feels beautifully engineered.

D Lakeland Digital Ice Cream Maker
You simply pop on the lid and pour in the ingredients, then set the timer using the nice, clear digital display. Some customers reportedly struggled to disassemble it in order to wash the bowl and paddle, but we didn’t have that problem. We’re also giving it extra points for the recipe book, which has some really tasty ideas.

E Judge Ice Cream Maker
We had a few criticisms, perhaps not surprisingly when you consider this is one of the cheapest models in our selection – notably the fact that the paddle isn’t as robust as the ones in other models. We’d have liked more recipes, too. But, for a budget machine, this is a bargain.

F KitchenAid Artisan Ice Cream Maker
If you own a KitchenAid food mixer, this attachment (one of 15 that fits this machine) is a good way to start ice cream making. You simply freeze the bowl before use and attach it to the mixer (a quick and easy job) and pour in your favourite fresh ingredients, with some recipes taking just 20 minutes.

Questions 1-7
Look at the six advertisements for ice cream makers, A-F. For which ice cream maker are the following statements true?

1. Users of this machine will need to put some physical effort into making ice cream.
2. Users of this machine can decide how soft they want their ice cream to be.
3. This ice cream maker can be fixed onto an existing kitchen appliance.
4. It is possible to make a larger amount of ice cream at one time than in most other machines.
5. This machine has features that make it worth the high price.
6. People might find it difficult to take this machine apart.
7. This machine makes an enjoyable sound when the ice cream is prepared.

Read the text below and answer Questions 8-14.

Photography weekend course on the coast of Cornwall

Our three-night photography weekend is designed to appeal to all levels. Participants will be able to enjoy some of the fantastic locations on this beautiful coastline, with its ever-changing light, while staying in a comfortable hotel and enjoying some typical dishes of this south-western region of Britain.

Price includes: Personal daily tuition, discussions, welcome reception, and dinner, bed and breakfast for three nights in a twin or double room.

Price does not include: Insurance and photographic equipment plus transport to photographic venues. Participants are required to arrange this. Car share during the weekend is a popular option.

Course information
• Our courses are relaxed but comprehensive, and the content is largely dictated by those attending. Included within the sessions are editing workshops at the hotel and photo shoots down by the sea. Visits further away are also undertaken to experiment with different landscapes.
• Arrival by mid-afternoon on the first day will allow you to check into the hotel and enjoy some Cornish refreshments before heading out into the fresh air for our first shoot together at sunset. Dinner and a good night’s sleep and you’ll be ready to start at sunrise the next day. In the evenings you will have a chance to unwind at the hotel, share your thoughts on the day and spend time looking at images and sharing editing techniques.
• Maximum numbers: Four photographers per course.
• The following equipment is essential: A digital SLR or bridge camera with its instruction manual, batteries and charger; memory cards; comfortable walking footwear with good grip; warm outdoor clothing and waterproofs.
• Recommended equipment: A tripod, filters, a laptop with editing software and charger.

Questions 8-14
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the text? In boxes 8-14 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE                            if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE                          if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN               if there is no information on this

8. The course is aimed at people who are already skilled photographers.
9. Three meals a day are included in the course fee.
10. The only way to reach the hotel is by car.
11. The topics covered on the course depend mainly on the wishes of the participants.
12. Participants are expected to get up early on their first morning to take photographs.
13. The tutor will show participants examples of her work after dinner.
14. Participants should be prepared for bad weather.

Section 2
Read the text below and answer Questions 15-21.

Respiratory Protective Equipment – advice for factory employees

You need to wear Respiratory Protective Equipment (RPE) when you’re doing work where you could breathe in hazardous substances in the air such as dust, vapour or gas. Common health effects from breathing hazardous substances include sore eyes and headaches. Make sure you are using the right RPE for the task. For example, negative pressure respirators should not be used in low oxygen environments.

Some types of RPE must have a tight seal around the facial area to be effective. Your employer will arrange a yearly facial fit test to ensure that you are given RPE that fits properly. This checks that the seal between the respirator and the facial area is secure, by releasing a substance that you can smell or taste if the RPE is not working properly. RPE will only provide effective protection if you are clean shaven. Facial hair growth makes it almost impossible to get a good seal so, if you have a beard, you should talk to your employer about other forms of RPE that do not rely on a tight facial fit. Jewellery and long hair can also compromise an effective fit.

Using your RPE
You should complete a visual check of your RPE for signs of damage before you use it. If you are using RPE that requires a tight fit, you must check it fits properly before entering a hazardous area.

Cleaning your RPE
Wash and dry your RPE after using it. Use a mild detergent, as harsh products such as solvents can cause damage. Use a brush and warm water and rinse with clean water. This will remove excess detergent that can cause skin irritation. Dry your RPE on a solid wooden rack or suspend from a clothes line.

Maintaining your RPE
Inspect your RPE after each use and during cleaning. Make sure you check the straps for breaks, tears, fraying edges and deterioration of elasticity. Check the inhalation and exhalation valves are working and not damaged.

Storing your RPE
Improper storage can cause distortion to your RPE. Store your RPE in a clean, dry plQGe, QWay from dust, oil and sunlight. RPE should be stored so that it doesn’t get crushed.

Questions 15-21
Complete the sentences below. Choose ONE WORD from the text for each answer.

15. Some respirators are unsuitable for use in areas with limited levels of ………………
16. Facial fit tests should be conducted on a …………………. basis.
17. For workers who have a ……………………., an alternative to tight-fitting RPE may be required.
18. Workers should avoid cleaning their RPE with ……………….
19. RPE can either be hung up or placed on a timber …………….. in order to dry it.
20. It is important to ensure that the RPE ……………. are not ripped and can still stretch.
21. RPE should not be exposed to direct ………………. when it is being stored.

Read the text below and answer Questions 22-27.

Working with cows in a dairy Guidelines for employers

Slips and trips
Slips and trips are one of the most common accidents when working in farm dairies. They often happen when working with cows in a dairy during milking, and during maintenance and cleaning.

The following three hazards make it more likely that employees will slip or trip:
1. Surfaces which are wet or dirty
• Have a system for cleaning up milk, oil, cleaning fluid and grain spills as soon as it happen, and make sure it is followed.
• Install non-slip mats in wet work areas and make sure that footwear is slip-resistant.

2. Obstacles such as pipes or cables in the farm dairy
• Reduce tripping accidents by hanging hoses and pipes along walls out of people’s way and remove unused fittings, like bolt fasteners in floors.
• Move obstacles from walkways and entrances where possible. Tripping hazards which cannot be removed should be clearly indicated with yellow tape. If there are obstacles overhead, these should be wrapped in padding to avoid risk of injury.

3. Steps which are too high or not deep enough, or steps in poorly lit areas
• Build steps properly and use non-slip surfaces.
• Handrails should also be fitted.
• The provision of good lighting can also help to reduce the risk of injury.

Lifting and carrying
The following tasks pose risks to dairy workers:
• lifting buckets of grain, water and milk
• lifting calves.

Managing the hazards
• Balance the load by using two buckets, one in each hand.
• Where possible, use trolleys and other mechanical aids to replace manual tasks.

Milking by hand
Specific tasks in milking which cause injury are:
• bending in an awkward position
• putting on and removing milking equipment from cows.

Managing the hazards
• Think about designing or changing the milking area so workers can change the height they are working at to suit them. Ensure that all equipment needed is close by to avoid workers having to overreach or adopt a bending position.
• Alternate between jobs to reduce repetitious manual handling tasks, including a rotation between putting on and removing milking equipment.

Questions 22-27
Complete the table below. Choose ONE WORD from the text for each answer.

Hazard	Managing the hazard
Slips and trips
Slippery floor surfaces	Remove solid spills such as grain immediately. Ensure all items of (22) …………. have good grip.
Hoses and pipes	Ensure they are fitted to walls where possible. Highlight obstructions with brightly coloured tape.
Overhead obstacles	Ensure they are covered with (23) …………..
Unsuitable steps	Provide good lighting and install (24) …………
Lifting and carrying
Transporting containers and calves	Spread the weight evenly between both hands. Try to avoid moving containers by hand, and use equipment such as (25) ………… instead.
Milking by hand
Repetitive handling of milking equipment	Keep everything accessible so that employees don’t need to bend or (26) ……………. Introduce a system of (27) ………… to increase variety.

Section 3
Read the text below and answer Questions 28-40.

Questions 28-34
The text has seven sections, A-G. Choose the correct heading for each section from the list of headings below. Write the correct number, i-viii, in boxes 28-34 on your answer sheet.

List of Headings
i How chance contributes to conditions being right
ii Concern about the changing environment
iii The process of photographing animals at night is getting easier
iv How human developments are affecting wildlife
v Photographing objects that can’t be seen in detail
vi A season that may seem unsuitable for photographers
vii No longer too expensive
viii A less ambitious approach

28. Section A
29. Section B
30. Section C
31. Section D
32. Section E
33. Section F
34. Section G

Night photography in autumn

A November in the northern hemisphere is not the most inspiring of months for the photographer. The days shorten appreciably as winter approaches and the last autumn leaves are blown free by high winds and frequent rain. Nature seems dormant, as many birds have long since flown to warmer climates, fungi break through the earth, and many animal species sleep until spring’s warm awakening.

It would seem a good time also to put the camera to bed and forget about photography until the first snowfall. Well, not quite. With the days being shorter and daylight less bright, November is an excellent month to turn your attention to what can be found in the long darkness from dusk to dawn. In the nocturnal hours a vast number of life forms still thrive, and provide a completely different set of subjects to those the daylight hours present.

B As the most noticeable object in the night sky, the moon is an obvious subject when making your initial attempts at night photography. The timing of an evening moonrise is important to know because, not only does it vary according to the time of year, but the moon always appears largest at this point, when it is closest to the horizon. To capture the moon at its brilliant best, you need a bit of luck too: a time when its brightest phase – a full moon – coincides with the ideal weather forecast of a cloudless night sky. The moon is not a direct light source such as the sun or the stars; instead it is reflecting the light of the sun hitting its surface. On such a night, a full moon will reflect only about ten percent of the sunlight, but that is still enough to illuminate buildings, trees, bridges and other landscape features.

C With today’s cameras, far greater detail can be rendered. Whole constellations consisting of thousands of points of starlight filling the frame and even galaxies such as our own Milky Way can be captured. This is a type of night photography for which few of us had suitable equipment a decade ago, but now it has become accessible to all photographers, thanks to the much improved, affordable technology.

However, photographers choosing to shoot the moon may be less concerned by this, as they tend to prefer to use telephoto lenses to magnify the size of the moon, particularly when it is low in the sky and can be shown in relation to a landmark or recognisable structure within the frame.

D Of course, the nocturnal world offers other subjects closer to the ground, some that are even familiar to us by day. As cities and towns spread further into our green spaces, some wild animals move further afield to escape our intrusions, while others adapt to their new urbanised surroundings.

In European cities, sightings of foxes at night are increasingly common, as they thrive thanks to the cover of darkness and a ready supply of residents’ waste bins, which they use as feeding stations. Deer and wild boar are larger mammals that have also adapted to the urban fringes in recent years, emerging from the cover of parks and nearby forests to forage into residential gardens by night.

E Such is the proliferation of urban wildlife that some photographers now specialise in documenting the nocturnal animals that have developed a taste for city nightlife. The improvement in camera technology that has made night sky images more accessible has also extended the creative repertoire of the wildlife photographer. It is now possible to photograph some wild species at night, or soon after dusk, without having to always resort to the use of specialist equipment. More exciting still is how the techniques of astro-photography and the wildlife camera-trap have combined in recent years, to produce images of nocturnal animals against a background of a star-studded night sky. This marriage of two photographic genres has created an innovative style of night photography.

F If that all sounds a bit too complex and time-consuming, with too many variables to spoil the hoped-for result, then consider using the fading light of the night sky in the brief time after dusk in a more opportunistic manner. Dusk is the part of the nocturnal phase when the light of the sun is still visible, though the sun itself has disappeared completely. During the earliest phase of dusk there is enough ambient light remaining to enable features in our surroundings to be seen without the aid of artificial light sources such as floodlights or street lamps.

G While many of us shoot sunsets, the period of dusk also provides an opportunity to use the ambient light low in the sky as a backdrop to photographing foreground subjects in varying stages of illumination, or even as shadowy outlines against the fading sky. The variety of possible subjects includes ships at sea, flocks of low-flying birds, trees, windmills, skyscrapers and high bridges. These are all well known by day, but against a night sky at dusk they lack colour, so any compositional strength is determined by the graphic appeal of their distinct and recognisable shapes.

Questions 35-40
Complete the sentences below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the text for each answer.

35. November is a time when ………………. grow.
36. The apparent size of the moon depends on its position in relation to the ………………
37. Sunlight is reflected by the …………………. of the moon.
38. When the night sky is clear, many objects in the …………………… e.g., buildings, are visible.
39. With modern cameras, it is possible to photograph not only constellations but also ………………
40. Deer and wild boar may search for food in …………………. in towns.

Section 1
Read the text below and answer questions 1-7.

Manly Beaches

Next time you visit Manly, 30 minutes by ferry from the centre of Australia’s biggest city, Sydney, try some of these less famous beaches

A Fairy Bower
Located in a marine protection area, the water is perfect for paddling, snorkelling or even scuba diving. There is a small gift shop for unusual souvenirs, and a kiosk that rents stand-up paddleboards. Buses do not stop nearby so a walk is necessary.

B North Steyne
This popular beach is a little further from the ferry than the main beach and it always feels less crowded. North Steyne has professional lifeguards on duty, but the surf can be hazardous so check conditions if swimming with young ones. If you want to try surfing for the first time, Manly Surf School operates out of the surf club located on the beach. Please note that boards are reserved for students and are not available for rent.

C Delwood
Delwood’s secluded cove is a scenic walk from the ferry along the harbour walkway. There are no shops, so bring a picnic and have a peaceful swim off the rocks. You’ll probably have the beach to yourself.

D Little Manly
This popular harbour beach has a net that encloses the swimming area. It is a good option for families as the protected area makes it easy to keep an eye on kids playing in the water. There is also a large playground, a public barbecue that anyone can use and toilet facilities, which make this a great spot for a family day out.

E East Esplanade
Located next to Manly Wharf, East Esplanade is a popular spot all day. There is no beach closer to the ferry or buses than this one. Kayakers meet for a paddle here as the sun rises, and daytrippers sit on the sand during the day. People get together on the grass after work, and bring drinks, snacks and music to watch the sun go down.

F Shelly Beach
This is the best spot if you don’t like big waves. Rent a beach chair or head straight to the Boathouse Cafe, the perfect place for breakfast or lunch. Please note that Shelly Beach gets overly crowded at times, so avoid it on a sunny weekend afternoon.

Questions 1-7
Look at the six beach descriptions, A-F. For which beaches are the following statements true?

1. You can buy food at this beach.
2. You can learn to do a sport at this beach.
3. This beach can be uncomfortably busy.
4. Adults can supervise their children without much difficulty at this beach.
5. This beach is nearest to public transport.
6. People are employed to supervise swimmers at this beach.
7. You can hire sports equipment at this beach.

Read the text below and answer Questions 8-14.

Sydney Water: advice for customers paying a bill

About your bill
Sydney Water services over five million people in greater Sydney, and if you own a property, you’ll get a bill from us. Generally, this is just for your water and wastewater services, but there could be other charges. We send most bills quarterly, after we’ve read the meter. If your property has no meter, we send the bill at the start of each quarter.

When do we send the bill?
If you’d like monthly bills, simply ask us to read your meter monthly. It costs $32.52 a quarter to be billed this way and this additional fee will appear on the first bill each quarter. To arrange it, just call us on 13 20 92.

What if you can’t pay the bill?
We understand that it might be hard to pay your bill. If you’re having difficulties, we have a range of options to help. If you receive a pension, we may give you a reduction on your bill, but you must own and live in your home to qualify for this.

How can you get your billing history?
• Register for eBill. When you register for Sydney Water’s online billing facility, eBill, you’ll be able to see your past bills at any time. Once you’re registered, you’ll stop getting paper bills and start getting electronic ones.
• Still want paper bills? Simply cancel your registration after you have saved the electronic bills you need. Then you’ll go back to paper bills, but you won’t have access to the online bills after you cancel.
• Contact us. Simply contact us and we’ll give you a statement that shows the amounts we charged you and the payments we received on your last five bills.
• Need more history? If you need information that’s older than your last five bills, you need to pay $28.04 for a ‘billing record search statement’.

How do you stop a charge on a bill?
We’ll stop a fixed charge on your bill if a licensed plumber cuts off your water or wastewater service. Your plumber must apply for this disconnection and follow Sydney Water’s standard procedures.

Questions 8-14
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the text? In boxes 8-14 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE                        if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE                      if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN           if there is no information on this

8. All property owners receive Sydney Water bills.
9. Customers who don’t have a water meter must pay an extra charge.
10. Customers who choose to receive a bill every month pay extra.
11. Pensioners who live in rented accommodation might get a discount.
12. Customers registered for eBill receive both paper and electronic bills.
13. Customers who request information from the period before their last five bills must pay a fee.
14. A fixed charge can be avoided when the water supply is disconnected by a licensed plumber.

Section 2
Read the text below and answer Questions 15-20.

Company car parking policy

DG Contracts recognises that many people working in the organisation require a vehicle for business purposes and aims to provide parking facilities for as many individuals as possible. However, car parking provision is limited. DG Contracts therefore actively encourages staff to reduce their carbon footprint by using public transport, walking or cycling, or by organising ways of sharing the use of cars.

The car parking policy aims to allocate parking on a fair and equitable basis with spaces being given first to those employees who claim above a certain mileage of travel for business purposes. Individuals who are allocated a parking space will be issued with a parking permit and a number which corresponds to a car parking space. If there are any non-allocated car parking spaces, these can be utilised by employees on a first-come, first-served basis. In some cases, designated parking areas are required for company vehicles, which must be parked securely at night. However, employees may park in these areas in the daytime.

If any individual leaves the company prior to the expiry of their parking permit, this will be handed on to the member of staff who acts as their replacement, assuming that this person requires it. If any individual who has been issued a parking permit takes maternity leave or is signed off work for a lengthy period, their parking permit will be reallocated to the staff member appointed as cover for this individual during their absence.

Employees who park their cars in a DG company car park do so at their own risk and must follow the rules laid down in the parking policy. If you have any complaints concerning any aspect of car parking at DG company car parks, please address them to the HR Manager.

Questions 15-20
Complete the sentences below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the text for each answer.

15. Parking is limited, so the use of alternative methods of transport and the …………….. of cars is encouraged.
16. Staff with the highest ………………… are given parking spaces first.
17. Some parking spaces are reserved for company vehicles during the …………………. but may be used by staff at other times.
18. If an employee leaves the company permanently, their parking space will normally be given to their ………
19. If an employee takes extended leave, their parking space will be given to the person who provides …………. for the absent employee.
20. All …………… about car parking should be sent to the HR Manager.

Read the text below and answer Questions 21-27.

Ensuring safety in the office

It’s fairly obvious that safety and health hazards can exist on worksites filled with heavy machinery and equipment. However, a surprising number of hazards can also be present in the office.

The most common types of injuries are slips, trips and falls. Boxes, files and other items piled in walkways can create a tripping hazard. Be certain that all materials are safely stored in their proper location to prevent build-up of clutter. Further, in addition to posing an electrical hazard, stretching wires across walkways creates a tripping hazard, so ensure they are properly secured and covered.

Standing on rolling office chairs is a significant fall hazard. Workers who need to reach something at an elevated height should use a stepladder, which must be fully opened and placed on level ground.

Workers can collide when making turns in the hallways and around blind corners. This can be prevented by installing mirrors in these places so workers can see who is coming. Floors may also present a hazard. Marble or tile can become very slippery, particularly when wet. The use of carpets can help to reduce falls and can be especially helpful at main doors, where workers are likely to be coming in with wet shoes.

Another type of injury comes from workers being struck by an object. Filing cabinets may be in danger of tipping over if drawers are left open, and filing cabinets and desks may also create a tripping hazard if they are not properly closed. High piles of materials and equipment can cause major injuries if they are knocked over. Heavy objects should always be stored close to the ground, and the load capacity of shelves should never be exceeded.

Because office workers spend most of their day seated at a desk, they are prone to strains and other injuries related to posture and repetitive movement. Desks, seating, monitor stands, etc. should all be adjustable in order to accommodate the widest possible range of employees. Typing from hard copy can lead to neck strain if a worker is forced to look down repeatedly to the desk at the document being copied and back to the computer screen. This can be prevented by providing holders, which help to prevent muscle imbalance by positioning the document at the same level as the screen. Another cause of neck injuries is incorrect placement of the computer mouse – this should always be kept beside the keyboard, and at the same level.

Questions 21-27
Complete the notes below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the text for each answer.

Making sure offices are safe

To prevent slips, trips, falls and collisions, ensure that
• boxes, files, etc. are correctly stored
• items such as (21) ………… do not create a tripping hazard
• workers do not use (22) ……………. to reach high object
• (23) ……………. are fixed at corners
• floors are covered by (24) …………….. especially at entrances

To prevent injuries caused by objects, ensure that
• (25) …………….. in office furniture are kept closed
• objects which are heavy are kept near the floor

To prevent injuries due to posture and repetitive movement ensure that
• office furniture is (26) ……………..
• (27) ……………… are provided for documents
• the mouse is placed next to the computer keyboard

Section 3
Read the text below and answer questions 28-40.

Roman Roads

A The long straight roads built by the Romans have in many cases become just as famous in history as their greatest emperors and generals. Building upon more ancient routes and creating a huge number of new ones Roman engineers were fearless in their plans to join one point to another in as straight line as possible whatever the difficulties in geography and the costs in manpower. Consequently roads required bridges tunnels, viaducts and many other architectural and engineering features to create a series of breathtaking but highly useful monuments which spread from Europe to eastern parts of the Roman Empire.

B The Romans did not invent roads, but as in so many other areas, they took an idea which went back as far as the Bronze Age and extended that concept daring to squeeze from it the fullest possible potential. The first and most famous great Roman road was the Via Appia or Appian Way. Constructed from 312 BCE and covering 196 kilometers it linked Rome to ancient Capua in Italy in as straight a line as possible and was appropriately known to the Romans as the Regina Viarum or ‘Queen of Roads’. Much like a modern highway it bypassed small towns along the way and it largely ignored geographical obstacles. The road would later be extended to 569 kilometers in length.

C The network of public Roman roads covered over 120,000 kilometers. Besides permitting the rapid deployment of troops and more importantly the wheeled vehicles which supplied them with food and equipment, Roman roads allowed for an increase in trade and cultural exchange. Roads were also one of the ways Rome could demonstrate its authority. For this reason, many roads began and ended in a triumphal arch, and the imperial prestige associated with a road project was demonstrated in the fact that roads were very often named after the officials who funded them; for example, the Via Appia takes its name from the Roman magistrate Appius Claudius Caecus.

D To achieve the objective of constructing the shortest routes possible between two points, all manner of engineering difficulties had to be overcome. Once extensive surveying had been carried out, to ensure the proposed route was actually straight and to determine what various engineering methods were needed, marshes had to be drained, forests cut through, creeks diverted, bedrock channelled, mountainsides cut into rivers crossed with bridges, valleys traversed with viaducts and tunnels built through mountains. When all that was done, roads had to be levelled, reinforced with support walls or terracing and then, of course, maintained which they were for over 800 years.

E Major roads were around a standard 4.2 metres wide, which was enough space for two vehicles to pass each other. First a trench was dug in the earth, and a layer of large stones was used to form the foundation. This was followed by a substantial deposit of smaller broken materials – often crushed brick was used for this purpose, and on top of this, a layer of fine gravel was added. This upper section of the road was referred to as the nucleus and was then surfaced with blocks or slabs. Mountain roads might also have ridges running across the surface of the slabs, to give animals better grip, and have ruts cut into the stone to guide wheeled vehicles.

Roads were purposely inclined slightly from the centre down to the kerb to allow rainwater to run off along the sides. Many also had parallel ditches that collected the runoff and formed a drainage canal on each side of the road. A path of packed gravel for pedestrians typically ran along each side of the road, varying in width from 1 to 3 metres. Separating the path from the road were the kerb stones, which were regular upright slabs. Busier stretches of main roads had areas where vehicles could pull over, and some of these had services for travellers and their animals. Milestones were also set up at regular intervals along the road and these often recorded who was responsible for the upkeep of that stretch of the road and what repairs had been made.

F Lasting symbols of the imagination of Roman engineers are the many arched bridges and viaducts still standing today that helped achieve the engineers’ straight-line goal. The Romans built to last, and the piers of bridges which crossed rivers, for example, were often built with a resistant prow-shape and used massive durable blocks of stone, while the upper parts might be built of stone blocks strengthened with iron clamps. Perhaps the most impressive bridge was at Narni; 180 metres long, 8 metres wide and as high as 33 metres, it had 4 massive semicircular arches, one of which, stretching 32.1 metres, ranks as one of the longest block-arch spans in the ancient world. Recently hit by earthquakes, it is now having to undergo restoration work to repair the effects.

Such was the engineering and surveying skill of the Romans that many of their roads have provided the basis for hundreds of today’s routes across Europe and the Middle East. Many roads in Italy still use the original Roman name for certain stretches, and some bridges, such as at Tre Ponti in Venice, still carry road traffic today.

Questions 28-33
The text has six sections, A-F. Which section mentions the following?

28. the various functions of Roman roads
29. reference to some current remains of Roman road building
30. a description of preparations for building a road
31. the period in history when road building began
32. the consequence of damage caused by a natural disaster
33. the total distance once crossed by Roman roads

Questions 34-37
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

34. Which aspect of Roman road building does the writer mention in Section A?
A the strength and permanence of the roads
B the magnificence and practicality of the roads
C the number of people involved in building
D the powerful people who financed the roads

35. The writer compares the Appian Way to a modern highway because
A it was lengthened over time.
B it took a long time to construct.
C It was used by a large number of travellers.
D it was designed to avoid certain areas.

36. According to the writer, the purpose of the triumphal arches was to
A display the power of Rome.
B celebrate the opening of a road.
C show the name of important roads.
D provide access for important officials.

37. What common use of a milestone is mentioned in Section E?
A indicating to travellers the total length of the road
B highlighting areas of the road that needed repair
C noting details regarding the maintenance of the road
D marking rest places along the road for travellers and their animals

Questions 38-40
Label the diagram below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the text for each answer.

Section 1
Read the text below and answer questions 1-8.

Choosing the best sleeping bag

When choosing a sleeping bag, check what seasons it’s for, as well as how heavy it is if you’re backpacking. Also think about the filling. Natural duck down is very warm, has a longer lifespan and is easier to pack up, while synthetic materials are easier to clean, and they dry quicker and are cheaper.

A Vango Fuse -12
This all-year-round sleeping bag combines natural duck down and a new synthetic fibre. The result is a bag that’s warm and weighs 1.5kg. There’s a water-resistant finish to protect it from moisture.

B Outwell Campion Lux Double Sleeping Bag
This double sleeping bag – which is suitable for all seasons except winter – is soft and cosy, and there’s a handy pocket for essentials, located inside near the top. It also folds up remarkably small, given its size.

C Nordisk Oscar +10
At just 350g, this sleeping bag is remarkably light, and as it’s synthetic, it’s very easy to maintain. The pack size is just 13x20cm, which makes it ideal for backpacking. It will work perfectly for summer trekking.

D The Big Sleep 250GSM Single Cowl Sleeping
If you want a no-frills, budget sleeping bag that will last more than one summer, opt for this. It’s soft, comfy and simple to wash. Give yourself a bit of time to fit it back in the bag, though. Use it for spring, summer and autumn.

E Jack Wolfskin Smoozip +3
We like the extra insulation in this sleeping bag around the areas that tend to feel the cold (head, chest and feet). And the hood is cosy enough to use as a pillow.

F Vango Starwalker Dragon
This innovative, high-quality kids’ sleeping bag enables you to undo some zips and turn it into a fun, animal-themed coat. Once your youngster is ready for bed, simply zip the bottom back on and zip up the shoulders. Suitable for between 8 and 20 degrees Celsius.

G Outwell Conqueror
This sleeping bag has an integrated down duvet and lots of space. What’s more, it packs up compactly and is easy to get back in the bag. It’s light but too big for a rucksack.

Questions 1-8
Look at the seven reviews of sleeping bags, A-G, above. For which sleeping bag are the following statements true? Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 1-8 on your answer sheet.

1. This sleeping bag is not very easy to pack up.
2. People can use this sleeping bag in any season.
3. This sleeping bag has been designed to ensure certain parts of the body are warm.
4. This sleeping bag contains a useful storage area.
5. People who do not want to spend much on a sleeping bag will find this one suits their needs.
6. This sleeping bag can also keep the user warm during the daytime.
7. People who wish to avoid carrying heavy weights should try this sleeping bag.
8. This sleeping bag contains two different types of material.

Read the text below and answer Questions 9-14.

The Spread the Word Life Writing Prize

We are delighted to announce The Spread the Word Life Writing Prize in association with Goldsmiths Writers’ Centre.

Competition Rules

Entries should be original works of life writing of no more than 5,000 words. The word count will be checked and entries longer than 5,000 words will be disqualified. There is no minimum word count.

For the purposes of the Prize, Life Writing is defined as non-fiction and should be based on a significant portion from the author’s own experience. Traditional biographies, where the piece is only about the experience of someone else, are excluded.

Writers only submit one entry each. Multiple entries by the same author will result in only the first entry being considered for the Prize and any additional entries disqualified. Writers who have previously won or been highly commended in the Life Writing Prize are excluded from entering; otherwise, previous entrants may submit.

Entries must be the original, previously unpublished work of the entrant. Graphic novel-style entries, where drawings or photographs accompany text, are welcome. Entries can be self-contained pieces of life writing, or the first 5,000 words of a longer piece of work.

The Life Writing Prize is open to writers aged over 18 and resident in the UK who are emerging writers, which means they have not previously published in print a full-length work. We define a full-length work as, for example, a complete work of fiction or non-fiction over 30,000 words.

Entries that are simultaneously submitted elsewhere are welcome – but please let us know as soon as possible if a piece is to be published elsewhere or has won another prize so we can disqualify it from the Life Writing Prize.

The winner will receive £1,500, publication on Spread the Word’s website, two years’ membership of the Royal Society of Literature, and a development meeting with an editor and an agent. Two highly commended entries will receive £500 and two mentoring sessions, a development meeting with an editor and an agent, and be published on the Spread the Word website.

Questions 9-14
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the text? In boxes 9-14 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE                         if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE                       if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN            if there is no information on this

9. Writers can submit an entry of fewer than 5,000 words for the Life Writing Prize.
10. Writers can choose to write about the life of a person they know.
11. People who have entered an earlier Life Writing competition without achieving any success may enter again.
12. Writers who are between 19 and 25 years old and in full-time education have won the prize in previous years.
13. Only one prize is awarded at the end of the Life Writing competition.
14. Previous winners of the Life Writing Prize have gone on to become successful published writers.

Section 2
Read the text below and answer Questions 15-21.

Encouraging employees to be healthy: a guide for employers

Benefits
Putting effort into employee wellness can reduce absenteeism and encourage better teamwork in the workplace, as well as increased productivity. Once you’ve devised a program, continue to assess the outcomes and regularly survey your team to gather feedback.

Focus on general prevention
Consider offering flu vaccinations on site and look at offering employees incentives on health insurance. Some companies arrange for someone who specialises in health issues, such as a doctor, to visit the workplace and speak to employees.

Encourage a healthier diet
Most of us know that eating healthily can help prevent future diseases, but many are not aware that unhealthy eating is linked to a 66 percent increased risk of loss of productivity. It may be necessary to consciously develop a healthy food and drink workplace policy, including a healthy catering policy. A simple thing to do is substitute soda in any on-site vending machines with water or juice. Also investigate the nutritional value of food supplied for team meetings and work events. Consider putting a bowl of fruit out in the staff room and urge everyone to help themselves for free. You can encourage employees to bring in healthy lunches from home by making sure that there is a fridge in the break room.

Encourage more exercise
Encouraging employees to exercise needn’t be expensive as there are plenty of low-cost methods available. These might include: installing racks for bikes in your staff car park; encouraging employees to take part in fun runs and charity events; suggesting ‘walking meetings’ where people discuss business as they get fresh air and exercise; and putting in showers to assist those who ride or run to the workplace. Some companies negotiate group rates for their employees at a nearby gym.

Improve mental health
Recent reports have shown that ignoring mental health costs Australian companies at least $11 billion a year. We all have a responsibility to look out for one another. Some ways you can do this in the workplace include: running employee surveys to get valuable information on morale in the workplace; training managers on mental health strategies; offering rebates so employees are compensated for counselling if required; and refusing to accept any bullying and unprofessional behaviour in your workplace.

Questions 15-21
Complete the notes below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the text for each answer.

Encouraging employee health

Benefits
• improved efficiency
• less (15)…………

Preventing problems
• invite guests e.g. a doctor to give information
• provide vaccinations

Diets
• make healthier options available to replace (16)…………..
• have healthy food at meetings
• offer (17)…………..at no cost
• provide a (18)……………..for staff use

Exercise
• provide somewhere for employees to leave their (19)…………..
• provide (20)……………for workers who exercise

Mental health
• give managers appropriate training
• find out how employees feel at work by using (21)…………
• do not tolerate bullying or other inappropriate behaviour

Read the text below and answer Questions 22-27.

Marama Beach Hotel and Bistro: guidelines for working in the kitchen

The health and well-being of customers and staff is our first priority, and we expect all staff to take every step possible to maintain food safety and work in a hygienic manner.

Hygiene
• Long hair must be tied back and no rings may be worn if touching food.
• The regulation chefs’ shirts and trousers are to be freshly laundered before starting a new shift, along with aprons if they are worn.
• Cross-contamination between raw and cooked food must be avoided. To this end, staff must use a clean board each time they cut different types of food.
• Staff should not touch money and then food without washing their hands in between.
• In the case of illness or a skin problem, the staff member should inform the manager. Cuts on hands and arms must be properly wrapped or bandaged.

Safety rules
• All injuries must be reported to management immediately.
• Safety guards must not be altered in any way, and staff must always wear protective clothing and gloves when working with sharp, hot, cold or corrosive items or materials.
• Loose clothing or jewellery must not be worn.
• Defective appliances must be turned off and not used – staff must not try to fix them themselves.
• Heavy boxes should be lifted carefully with bent knees and a straight back, holding the box close to the body.
• Work areas should be clean and free of hazards.
• Spills on the floor must be dealt with immediately.
• Flammable liquids must be stored away from flames.
• If storing containers of chemicals in the kitchen, they must have clear labels, so as to avoid any confusion about the contents.

Breaks
Staff have 20 minutes of paid break time per 3 hours of work, during which time they may not leave the premises. Every staff member who works a shift exceeding 5 hours is entitled to a 30-minute unpaid break and free meals. However, please be aware that the kitchen may not always be able to provide this service, especially in peak times. Beverages kept in the storeroom may not be consumed by staff, but filtered water is provided free of charge in the staff room.

Questions 22-27
Complete the sentences below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the text for each answer.

22. Chefs’ uniforms and ………………… must be washed for every shift.
23. Kitchen staff need to change the ……………… when they start chopping another kind of food.
24. All staff must make sure their hands are clean after handling ……………
25. Workers in the kitchen should not attempt to repair …………..
26. ……………. are required to identify any chemicals kept in the kitchen.
27. It is forbidden for kitchen staff to have drinks from the ……………

Section 3
Read the text below and answer Questions 28-40.

A home-sewing revival: the return of Clothkits

In the 1970s, Clothkits revolutionised home sewing. Later, a woman from Sussex, England, revived the nostalgic brand and brought it up to date

A ‘I can’t remember many of the clothes I wore before I was six, but I have a vivid memory of a certain skirt whose patterns I can still trace in my mind. It was wraparound, with a belt that threaded through itself, decorated with cats in two shades of green. I wore it with a knitted red jersey my mum bought in a jumble sale, and brown sandals with flowers cut into the toes. It was 1979, and I was not yet five. I forgot about that skirt for a long time, but when a girlfriend mentioned the name Clothkits while we were chatting, it was as if a door suddenly opened on a moment in the past that resonated with vivid significance for me.’ The brand, founded in 1968, had by the late 1980s mostly vanished from people’s lives, but by a combination of determination and luck Kay Mawer brought it back.

B Clothkits was created by the designer Anne Kennedy, who came up with the ingenious idea of printing a pattern straight on to coloured fabric so that a paper pattern was not needed. It was accompanied by instructions that almost anyone could follow on how to cut the pieces out and sew them together. ‘I was rebelling against the formulaic lines of textile design at that time,’ Kennedy says. ‘My interest was in folk art and clothes that were simple to make as I had lots of unfinished sewing disasters in my cupboard.’ Clothkits has always embodied the spirit of the late 1960s and 1970s. Its initial design was a dress in a geometric stripe in orange, pink, turquoise and purple. It cost 25 shillings (£1.25), and after it was featured in the Observer newspaper, Kennedy received more than £2,000 worth of orders. She ran the company from Lewes in Sussex, where at its peak it employed more than 400 people, selling to 44 countries worldwide. Sew-your-own kits formed the core of the business, supplemented by knitwear. Kennedy’s children demonstrated the patterns by wearing them in photographs.

C Kennedy sold the company in the late 1980s. There had been a few administrative problems with postal strikes and a new computer system, which back then took up an entire room, ‘but the times were changing as well,’ she says. ‘More women were going out to work and sewing less for their children.’ She sold the company to one of her suppliers, who then sold it on to Freeman’s, which ran Clothkits alongside its own brand for a while, using Kennedy’s impressive database, but its ethos are big, corporate company did not sit well alongside the alternative and artistic of Clothkits. In 1991, Clothkits was made dormant, and there the story may have ended, were it not for Mawer’s fascination with discovering what happened Clothkits.

D Mawer’s mother bought her a sewing machine when she was ten and taught her basic pattern-cutting and garment construction, encouraging her to experiment with colour and design by trial and error. The first garment Mawer made was a pair of trousers, which she made by tracing around an existing pair of trousers. In her late twenties, she spent five years working on digital and sculptural installations. ‘It was an amazing, mind-expanding experience, but I knew it was unlikely I could make a living as a practising artist. I was definitely looking for a way that I could work in a creative industry with a commercial edge.’ The experience inspired Mawer to return to education, studying for a degree in fine art at the University of Chichester. Her passion for vintage fabric, which her mother had encouraged her to start collecting, led her back to Clothkits, and from there to a journey into the heart of Freeman’s. Negotiations with the company took 18 months, but in October 2007 Clothkits was hers.

E The ethos of Clothkits remains the same, and Mawer is proud that her fabric is printed either in London or the north of England, and that packaging is kept to an absolute minimum. ‘I wanted to feel that everyone involved in the brand, from design to production, was part of a process I could witness. I couldn’t see the point of manufacturing on the other side of the world, as that’s not what Clothkits has ever been about.’ The revival of Clothkits has also, of course, coincided with a growing sense of dissatisfaction at our disposable society, and the resulting resurgence of interest in skills such as sewing and knitting. ‘Making your own clothes gives you a greater appreciation of the craftsmanship in the construction of a garment,’ Mawer says. ‘When you know the process involved in making a skirt, you treasure it in a way you wouldn’t if you’d bought it from a mass- producing manufacturer.’

Questions 28-31
The text has five paragraphs, A-E. Which paragraph mentions the following?

28. mention of Mawer’s desire to oversee all the stages of her business
29. reference to changing employment patterns among the general population
30. the date when Clothkits was originally established as a product
31. the benefits of sewing a garment and then wearing it

Questions 32-35
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

32. In Paragraph A, the writer says that Kay Mawer was reminded about Clothkits by
A a shop she visited.
B a purchase she made.
C an outfit someone was wearing.
D a conversation with someone she knew.

33. What does the reader learn about Clothkits in the 1960s and 1970s?
A Its designs represented the attitudes of the time.
B Its products were only affordable for the wealthy.
C Its creator tried many times to launch her company.
D Its management was spread across numerous countries.

34. Why did Clothkits close in 1991?
A There were unexpected staffing problems.
B The funding for sewing activities was inadequate.
C Freeman’s was an unsuitable partner.
D Records on Kennedy’s database were lost.

35. What point does the writer make in Paragraph E?
A Clothkits will reach more markets than in the past.
B Clothkits will need bigger premises than in the past.
C People are more concerned about throwing away items than in the past.
D People do less sewing now than in the past.

Questions 36-40
Complete the summary below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the text for each answer.

The early days of Clothkits

Clothkits was started by a designer named Anne Kennedy. Her clothing company specialised in selling (36) …………. with a pattern printed on it. This came with (37) …………….. which meant that buyers were able to make their own garments.

The very first garment Anne Kennedy made was a multi-coloured striped dress with a (38) …………….. pattern. A (39) ………………… article led to many orders for this from around the world. As the company grew, she increased her workforce, and also sold (40) …………… as part of her business. She exhibited her designs using her children as models.

Section 1
Read the text below and answer questions 1-7.

What to do if your clothes have been lost or damaged by a dry cleaner

Dry cleaners are legally required to take reasonable care of anything left with them. You can claim compensation if your belongings are damaged or lost while in their care.

Even if the dry cleaning company has a sign saying they aren’t responsible for items left with them, this isn’t necessarily true. They can’t opt out of this responsibility just by putting up a sign.

As soon as you realise there’s a problem, contact them and explain the situation. They might offer you compensation straight away. If they don’t, you should ask them to either cover the cost of repairing the item or to pay for a replacement (if it can’t be repaired).

If they have to pay the cost of replacing a damaged or lost item, the maximum they’re obliged to offer you is the value of the item when it was left with them, not what it would cost to replace as new. You’ll probably be asked to provide evidence of how much it originally cost – for example, a receipt. The dry cleaner can then offer you a reduced amount depending on the condition of the item – you’ll have to negotiate the cost with them.

If the dry cleaner is part of a national chain, you could get in touch with the customer services department of their head office and make the complaint to them directly.

If the dry cleaner refuses to compensate you or they offer you too little, try the following steps:
• If the dry cleaner is a member of a trade association such as the UK Fashion and Textile Association, you can pass your complaint to them and they may be able to help you.
• You could get an independent organization to look at your issue and produce a report, but this could be expensive (often around £100).

If you’ve tried the options above and are still unhappy with the outcome, you could take your case to court. There’s a time limit for going to court – from when you took the item to the dry cleaner, you have up to six years.

Questions 1-7
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the text? In boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE                              if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE                            if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN                 if there is no information on this

1. Dry cleaners are generally responsible for items left with them, even if there’s a sign saying the opposite.
2. If the dry cleaner loses an item belonging to you, they should give you enough money to buy a completely new one.
3. If you have the receipt for a damaged item, the company should refund the amount you originally paid for it.
4. It may be possible to get support for your complaint from a dry cleaners’ trade association.
5. If you’re offered too little compensation, you can request a free report from an independent organisation.
6. Most people who take a case about a dry-cleaning company to court are satisfied with the outcome.
7. If an item was lost or damaged nine months ago, you can still take the dry cleaner to court.

Read the text below and answer Questions 8-14.

Groups for readers and writers

A Teenvision
This is a reading group for teens aged 12-16 which meets on the last Thursday of the month. We are a friendly group, with everybody keen to talk about what we’ve enjoyed reading recently and make suggestions on what we should read next. We are massive fans of action, fantasy and adventure but we try to include a mix of genres in our choices.

B Creative writing workshops
Would you like to share your writing with others and hear their constructive suggestions for how to improve it? Have you got a book inside you but need the inspiration to get started? Build your confidence to begin formulating ideas for storylines and characters at our regular workshops. Open to all – beginners and established writers.

C Books for now
We meet on the second and fourth Mondays of each month in members’ homes. The group is open to men and women who enjoy discussing the themes and issues found in science fiction novels. Our books are usually those written from the 1960s onwards and include feminist science fiction, cyberpunk and scientific romance.

D Readers’ book group
This is an open group for parents at the library, and toddlers are welcome to come along and play in the children’s library while the meeting is taking place. The group reads mainly fiction of different genres. Books are supplied by the library. Anyone is welcome – have a look at our website to see what the book is for the next meeting.

E The book club
Every month members of this group read a fabulous business book which is then discussed when we meet. At our meetings you’ll have the chance to network with other members – all like-minded businesswomen – in a relaxed environment. There will be lots of ideas to discuss, as well as refreshments and lots of fun!

F Poetry writing group
A writing group for young poets aged between 12 and 18 at the library. You will explore how to power up your imagination, and your poems will be displayed in the library and online. The group meets fortnightly on Saturdays from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. The group is currently full but anyone interested is welcome to join the membership waiting list.

Questions 8-14
The text 18 has six paragraphs, A-F. Which paragraph mentions the following? Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 8-14 on your answer sheet. NB You may use any letter more than once.

8. Members of this group share ideas for the books they would like to read.
9. It isn’t possible for any new members to join this group at present.
10. You can get feedback on your own work from other members of this group.
11. This group focuses on stories belonging to just one genre.
12. Work produced by members of this group will be available to the public.
13. This group doesn’t read or write either poetry or fiction.
14. This group would suit someone who thinks they could write a book.

Section 2
Read the text below and answer questions 15-22

Mechanical Lifting Equipment

If some simple precautions are taken, lifting equipment that is essential for construction and engineering projects can be used safely. Forklift trucks, lifting trolleys, mobile and fixed cranes and all their parts are classed as lifting equipment.

All equipment used for lifting or moving heavy loads should be properly constructed. For example, equipment bearing a CE mark has been constructed to international standards. In addition, equipment that meets these standards will have documented instructions for tests that should be adhered to prior to using the equipment. Certain types of machinery, such as cranes, must be inspected by a qualified engineer on a six-monthly basis.

For operations that use cranes, a formal lift plan must be prepared. Lift plans are a type of risk assessment, whereby the possible dangers of the operation are carefully calculated, and control measures are identified and put in place. Before any lift proceeds, the plan should be talked over with the lifting crew during what is often referred to as a Tool Box Talk’ (TBT). This is an important opportunity for them to ask questions about their role in the operation.

When heavy loads are being moved around, there are some practical things that should be done to prevent accidents. Firstly, if a load needs to be moved where workers or members of the public are present, the area must have barriers or other means to ensure no one is allowed to walk under the load while it is moving. Secondly, someone called a banksman should always be used when moving heavy loads by crane. As a crane driver often cannot see the load, especially during touch-down, this person tells him or her which way to move it.

It is very unusual for machinery such as cranes to fail. However, it is all too easy to ignore the importance of the secondary equipment. This refers to those items that are attached between the mechanical lifting machine and the load that is being lifted. Chains, slings, shackles and rigging are all examples of secondary lifting equipment, and it is perhaps surprising to note that most injuries occur due to faults or weaknesses in these items. It is essential that a six-monthly visual inspection is carried out to ensure there are no signs of wear or damage to the slings and shackles.

Questions 15-22
Complete the notes below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer from the passage.

Lifting equipment
• must be manufactured well e.g have a (15) ………………. on it
• may need to undergo (16) …………………
• may need a regular check by an (17) ………………

Lift plans
• relevant to cranes
• used to establish and carry out (18) …………… for any risks
• a (19) ………………. can be consulted during a ‘Tool Box Talk’

Preventing accidents with heavy loads
• use objects such as (20) ………………. to make sure the load does not pass over anyone’s head
• appoint (21) ………………. to give verbal directions to the crane driver

Secondary lifting equipment (chains, slings, etc.)
• more likely to cause (22) …………….

Read the text below and answer Questions 23-27.

Dealing with customer complaints

When a customer complains, it is usually for a good reason. Here are some strategies that will help you handle a customer complaint in a smooth and professional manner.

When a customer presents you with a complaint, keep in mind that the issue is not personal. Aiming to win the confrontation accomplishes nothing. He or she has usually made a purchase that did not meet their expectations – a product, service, or maybe a combination of the two. A worker who remains in control of their emotions deals from a position of strength.

Let the customer say what they need to. Respond with phrases such as, ‘Hmm’, ‘I see’, and Tell me more’. Then be quiet. As the customer expresses their annoyance yet sees you are not reacting, he or she will begin to relax. The customer needs to do this before being able to hear your solution.

When the customer has calmed down and feels you have heard his or her side, start asking questions. Be careful not to give scripted replies but use this as an opportunity to start a genuine conversation, building a relationship of trust with your customer. To help you understand the situation, get as many details as possible.

Take charge of the situation and let the customer know what you are going to do to solve the problem. One thing to keep in mind is that you should know what you can and cannot do within the policy of the business you work for. The cost could be minimal – maybe a simple upgrade on the customer’s next purchase or a small gift certificate. A simple gesture like this could result in a word-of-mouth recommendation to others, while making a promise you cannot commit to will only set you back.

Questions 23-27
Complete the table below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY for the answer from the passage.

Strategies for dealing with customer complaints
Strategy	Your approach	The customer…..
Stay calm	remember it is not a direct attack on youdo not try to (23) ……….. the argument	usually had (24) ……… that were not fulfilled
Listen well	use short phrases in reply	cannot recognise a (25)………… until calm
Get the facts	ask questions and begin a proper conversation	will start to trust you
Suggest action	be sure of your company’s (26) ……… on complaints	may well make a verbal (27) …………… in future

Section 3
Read the text below and answer Questions 28-40.

Questions 28-33
The text has six sections, A-F. Choose the correct heading for each section from the list of headings below. Write the correct number, l-viii, in boxes 28-33 on your answer sheet.

List of Headings
i An enterprise arising from success in other countries
ii The hope that storks will inspire a range of emotions and actions
iii Support from some organisations but not from others
iv Finding new types of habitat
v Opposition from the general public
vi A sign of hope in difficult times
vii Creatures which represent both joy and opposition
viii Storks causing delight and the revival of public events

28. Section A
29. Section B
30. Section C
31. Section D
32. Section E
33. Section F

White storks back in Britain after hundreds of years

These beautiful birds could be about to become a feature of the British landscape again

A The last definitive record of a pair of white storks successfully breeding in Britain was in 1416, from a nest on St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh. No one knows why storks disappeared from our shores. They often featured on the menus of medieval banquets so we might, quite simply, have consumed them all. But there could be a more ominous reason. Storks are migrants arriving after the end of winter, nesting on rooftops and happily associating with humans, and because of this they have long been a symbol of hope and new life. Yet their association with rebirth also meant they became a symbol of rebellion. Shortly after the restoration of King Charles II in 1660, while storks were rare but surviving, parliament debated putting greater effort into destroying them entirely for fear they might inspire republicanism. Today, fortunately, that notion has disappeared and the stork retains its association with new life, appearing on cards given to celebrate the arrival of a new child, as a bird carrying a baby in a sling held in its beak.

B So, after such a long absence, there was great excitement when in April of this year a pair of white storks built an untidy nest of sticks in the top branches of a huge oak in the middle of our rewilding project at Knepp Estate in West Sussex. Drone footage, taken before the pair started sitting on them, showed three large eggs. The fact that they were infertile and did not hatch was not too disappointing. The pair are only four years old, and storks can live to over thirty, with their first attempts to breed often failing. Prospects for next year are encouraging. These young storks are part of a project to return the species to Britain, inspired by reintroductions in European countries that more than reached their target. Imported from Poland, they have spent the best part of three years in a six-acre pen with a group of other juveniles and several injured, non-flying adults, also from Poland. Other birds have already shown strong loyalty to the site. Two years ago, a young bird from Knepp flew across the Channel to France and, this summer, returned to its companions.

C In the face of reports of unrelenting ecological loss (the UN estimates a million species are on the brink of extinction globally), the white stork’s return is refreshing news. As tens of thousands of people demonstrate about the growing climate crisis and eco-anxiety besets us, these glimpses of restoration are important. Featuring the storks in BBC television’s Springwatch in June, the ecologist Chris Packham described the project as ‘imaginative, intelligent, progressive and practical’.

D And yet its path to restoration in the UK has not been smooth. Support from conservation bodies has been surprisingly difficult to obtain; some were hard- pressed with their own initiatives, while others were simply reluctant to stick their necks out. In addition, the committee of the Sussex Wildlife Trust raised doubts about the stork ever having been a British bird. They also had concerns that English-bred birds would migrate across the Channel, and feared that their messy nests and closeness to humans would cause a hazard – rubbish falling down people’s chimneys.

So how has the reintroduction project managed to get going? What makes it in some ways special is that it has had to rely on private individuals actually building the introduction pens themselves and feeding the birds at their own expense. The expertise of tiny yet determined conservation charities such as the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation – responsible for the successful reintroductions of ospreys and white-tailed eagles to Britain – has been very welcome. And the support of Cotswold Wildlife Park, which quarantined the original Polish birds and continues to manage and cover the costs of the captive-breeding programme using its own well- trained staff and excellent facilities, has proved invaluable.

E Across Europe, as stork populations have suffered from the draining of wetlands and disappearance of insect-rich pastures and meadows, their loss has been felt deeply. A few years ago, a tearful old woman in a village in Belarus showed me the nest on her roof, empty of storks for the first time in living memory. Where storks have been reintroduced, they are greeted with great happiness and some historical stork festivals have been restored. The Spanish erect poles for nests along their motorways, and in Alsace householders install cartwheels for storks to build nests on their roofs. During a cold snap in Bulgaria last March, villagers even gave white storks access to their homes.

F A driving motivation behind the project in the UK is the aspiration that the storks’ return will spark feelings of empathy and affection from townspeople who see their nests on rooftops. They might also encourage the public to feel worried about the wider area where they fly off to feed on earthworms, grasshoppers and frogs. White storks could be that charismatic species that connects urban communities directly with landscape restoration. Certainly, people once loved them here. The name of our local village, Storrington, was originally ‘Estorcheton’ or ‘home of the storks’. The public response has been overwhelming, with crowds coming to see white storks flying free in England for the first time in hundreds of years, and private landowners queueing up to offer more introduction sites. The flight of the white stork over Britain is the triumph of practical action over bureaucracy, self-interest and negativity.

Questions 34-37
Complete the summary below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the text for each answer.

Project to reintroduce white storks at Knepp Estate

Last spring, two white storks were observed nesting at Knepp Estate, putting (34) …………….. together high up in a large oak tree. The female laid three eggs, which unfortunately proved to be (35) …………… However, this
was not surprising for such young storks. Naturalists believe they are likely to breed successfully in the future.

These two storks were bred in (36) ……………. and, after arriving in the UK, were kept for several years together with a few fully mature storks and some fellow juveniles before being released at Knepp. It appears that other storks are developing a sense of (37) ………………… to their new home. One left Knepp for a year, only to fly back to be with the group again.

Questions 38—40
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

38. In Section A, we learn that in the past people thought white storks
A represented the deep snow and cold days of winter.
B had the power to ensure that babies were born safely.
C were a speciality that only the very rich were allowed to eat.
D might be used to encourage people to get rid of the monarchy.

39. The Sussex Wildlife Trust committee was unwilling to support the storks because
A it thought there might not be any safe breeding places locally.
B it worried whether they would survive in Britain long enough.
C it was unsure that they were actually a native species.
D it had too many other worthy projects to support.

40. What has been one effect of stork reintroductions in Europe?
A A variety of measures have been taken to create nesting sites.
B Changes have been made to the routes of some major roads.
C Special shelters have been made to protect the birds in bad weather.
D Some people have strengthened their roofs to support the birds’ weight.

Green roofs

A Rooftops covered with grass, vegetable gardens and lush foliage are now a common sight in many cities around the world. More and more private companies and city authorities are investing in green roofs, drawn to their wide-ranging benefits. Among the benefits are saving on energy costs, mitigating the risk of floods, making habitats for urban wildlife, tackling air pollution and even growing food. These increasingly radical urban designs can help cities adapt to the monumental problems they face, such as access to resources and a lack of green space due to development. But the involvement of city authorities, businesses and other institutions is crucial to ensuring their success – as is research investigating different options to suit the variety of rooftop spaces found in cities. The UK is relatively new to developing green roofs, and local governments and institutions are playing a major role in spreading the practice. London is home to much of the UK’s green roof market, mainly due to forward-thinking policies such as the London Plan, which has paved the way to more than doubling the area of green roofs in the capital.

B Ongoing research is showcasing how green roofs in cities can integrate with ‘living walls’: environmentally friendly walls which are partially or completely covered with greenery, including a growing medium, such as soil or water. Research also indicates that green roofs can be integrated with drainage systems on the ground, such as street trees, so that the water is managed better and the built environment is made more sustainable. There is also evidence to demonstrate the social value of green roofs. Doctors are increasingly prescribing time spent gardening outdoors for patients dealing with anxiety and depression. And research has found that access to even the most basic green spaces can provide a better quality of life for dementia sufferers and help people avoid obesity.

C In North America, green roofs have become mainstream, with a wide array of expansive, accessible and food-producing roofs installed in buildings. Again, city leaders and authorities have helped push the movement forward — only recently, San Francisco, USA, created a policy requiring new buildings to have green roofs. Toronto, Canada, has policies dating from the 1990s, encouraging the development of urban farms on rooftops. These countries also benefit from having newer buildings than in many parts of the world, which makes it easier to install green roofs. Being able to keep enough water at roof height and distribute it right across the rooftop is crucial to maintaining the plants on any green roof – especially on ‘edible roofs’ where fruit and vegetables are farmed. And it’s much easier to do this in newer buildings, which can typically hold greater weight, than to retro-fit old ones. Having a stronger roof also makes it easier to grow a greater variety of plants, since the soil can be deeper.

D For green roofs to become the norm for new developments, there needs to be support from public authorities and private investors. Those responsible for maintaining buildings may have to acquire new skills, such as landscaping, and in some cases, volunteers may be needed to help out. Other considerations include installing drainage paths, meeting health and safety requirements and perhaps allowing access for the public, as well as planning restrictions and disruption from regular activities in and around the buildings during installation. To convince investors and developers that installing green roofs is worthwhile, economic arguments are still the most important. The term ‘natural capital’ has been developed to explain the economic value of nature; for example, measuring the money saved by installing natural solutions to protect against flood damage, adapt to climate change or help people lead healthier and happier lives.

E As the expertise about green roofs grows, official standards have been developed to ensure that they are designed, constructed and maintained properly, and function well. Improvements in the science and technology underpinning green roof development have also led to new variations in the concept. For example, ‘blue roofs’ enable buildings to hold water over longer periods of time, rather than draining it away quickly – crucial in times of heavier rainfall. There are also combinations of green roofs with solar panels, and ‘brown roofs’ which are wilder in nature and maximise biodiversity. If the trend continues, it could create new jobs and a more vibrant and sustainable local food economy – alongside many other benefits. There are still barriers to overcome, but the evidence so far indicates that green roofs have the potential to transform cities and help them function sustainably long into the future. The success stories need to be studied and replicated elsewhere, to make green, blue, brown and food-producing roofs the norm in cities around the world.

Questions 1-5
Reading Passage has five paragraphs, A-E. Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter, A-E, in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet. NB You may use any letter more than once.

1. mention of several challenges to be overcome before a green roof can be installed
2. reference to a city where green roofs have been promoted for many years
3. a belief that existing green roofs should be used as a model for new ones
4. examples of how green roofs can work in combination with other green urban initiatives
5. the need to make a persuasive argument for the financial benefits of green roofs

Questions 6-9
Complete the summary below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 6-9 on your answer sheet.

Advantages of green roofs

City rooftops covered with greenery have many advantages. These include lessening the likelihood that floods will occur, reducing how much money is spent on (6)………………… and creating environments that are suitable for wildlife. In many cases, they can also be used for producing (7)…………………. There are also social benefits of green roofs. For example, the medical profession recommends (8)…………………as an activity to help people cope with mental health issues. Studies have also shown that the availability of green spaces can prevent physical problems such as (9)……………….

Questions 10 and 11
Choose TWO letters, A-E. Write the correct letters in boxes 10 and 11 on your answer sheet.

Which TWO advantages of using newer buildings for green roofs are mentioned in Paragraph C of the passage?
A a longer growing season for edible produce
B more economical use of water
C greater water-storage capacity
D ability to cultivate more plant types
E a large surface area for growing plants

Questions 12 and 13
Choose TWO letters, A-E. Write the correct letters in boxes 12 and 13 on your answer sheet.

Which TWO aims of new variations on the concept of green roofs are mentioned in Paragraph E of the passage?
A to provide habitats for a wide range of species
B to grow plants successfully even in the wettest climates
C to regulate the temperature of the immediate environment
D to generate power from a sustainable source
E to collect water to supply other buildings

Tie growth mindset

Over the past century, a powerful idea has taken root in the educational landscape. The concept of intelligence as something innate has been supplanted by the idea that intelligence is not fixed, and that, with the right training, we can be the authors of our own cognitive capabilities. Psychologist Alfred Binet, the developer of the first intelligence tests, was one of many 19th-century scientists who held that earlier view and sought to quantify cognitive ability. Then, in the early 20th century, progressive thinkers revolted against the notion that inherent ability is destiny. Instead, educators such as John Dewey argued that every child’s intelligence could be developed, given the right environment.

‘Growth mindset theory’ is a relatively new – and extremely popular – version of this idea. In many schools today you will see hallways covered in motivational posters and hear speeches on the mindset of great sporting heroes who simply believed their way to the top. A major focus of the growth mindset in schools is coaxing students away from seeing failure as an indication of their ability, and towards seeing it as a chance to improve that ability. As educationalist Jeff Howard noted several decades ago: ‘Smart is not something that you just are, smart is something that you can get.’

The idea of the growth mindset is based on the work of psychologist Carol Dweck in California in the 1990s. In one key experiment, Dweck divided a group of 10- to 12-year-olds into two groups. All were told that they had achieved a high score on a test but the first group were praised for their intelligence in achieving this, while the others were praised for their effort. The second group – those who had been instilled with a ‘growth mindset’ – were subsequently far more likely to put effort into future tasks. Meanwhile, the former took on only those tasks that would not risk their sense of worth. This group had inferred that success or failure is due to innate ability, and this ‘fixed mindset’ had led them to fear of failure and lack of effort. Praising ability actually made the students perform worse, while praising effort emphasised that change was possible.

One of the greatest impediments to successfully implementing a growth mindset, however, is the education system itself: in many parts of the world, the school climate is obsessed with performance in the form of constant testing, analysing and ranking of students – a key characteristic of the fixed mindset. Nor is it unusual for schools to create a certain cognitive dissonance, when they applaud the benefits of a growth mindset but then hand out fixed target grades in lessons based on performance.

Aside from the implementation problem, the original growth mindset research has also received harsh criticism. The statistician Andrew Gelman claims that ‘their research designs have enough degrees of freedom that they could take their data to support just about any theory at all’. Professor of Psychology Timothy Bates, who has been trying to replicate Dweck’s work, is finding that the results are repeatedly null. He notes that: ‘People with a growth mindset don’t cope any better with failure … Kids with the growth mindset aren’t getting better grades, either before or after our intervention study.’

Much of this criticism is not lost on Dweck, and she deserves great credit for responding to it and adapting her work accordingly. In fact, she argues that her work has been misunderstood and misapplied in a range of ways. She has also expressed concerns that her theories are being misappropriated in schools by being conflated with the self-esteem movement: ‘For me the growth mindset is a tool for learning and improvement. It’s not just a vehicle for making children feel good.’

But there is another factor at work here. The failure to translate the growth mindset into the classroom might reflect a misunderstanding of the nature of teaching and learning itself. Growth mindset supporters David Yeager and Gregory Walton claim that interventions should be delivered in a subtle way to maximise their effectiveness. They say that if adolescents perceive a teacher’s intervention as conveying that they are in need of help, this could undo its intended effects.

A lot of what drives students is their innate beliefs and how they perceive themselves. There is a strong correlation between self-perception and achievement, but there is evidence to suggest that the actual effect of achievement on self-perception is stronger than the other way round. To stand up in a classroom and successfully deliver a good speech is a genuine achievement, and that is likely to be more powerfully motivating than vague notions of ‘motivation’ itself.

Recent evidence would suggest that growth mindset interventions are not the elixir of student learning that its proponents claim it to be. The growth mindset appears to be a viable construct in the lab, which, when administered in the classroom via targeted interventions, doesn’t seem to work. It is hard to dispute that having faith in the capacity to change is a good attribute for students. Paradoxically, however, that aspiration is not well served by direct interventions that try to instil it. Motivational posters and talks are often a waste of time, and might well give students a deluded notion of what success actually means. Teaching concrete skills such as how to write an effective introduction to an essay then praising students’ effort in getting there is probably a far better way of improving confidence than telling them how unique they are, or indeed how capable they are of changing their own brains. Perhaps growth mindset works best as a philosophy and not an intervention.

Questions 14-16
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

14. What can we learn from the first paragraph?
A where the notion of innate intelligence first began
B when ideas about the nature of intelligence began to shift
C how scientists have responded to changing views of intelligence
D why thinkers turned away from the idea of intelligence being fixed

15. The second paragraph describes how schools encourage students to
A identify their personal ambitions.
B help each other to realise their goals.
C have confidence in their potential to succeed.
D concentrate on where their particular strengths lie.

16. In the third paragraph, the writer suggests that students with a fixed mindset
A tend to be less competitive.
B generally have a low sense of self-esteem.
C will only work hard if they are given constant encouragement.
D are afraid to push themselves beyond what they see as their limitations.

Questions 17-22
Look at the following statements (Questions 17-22) and the list of people below. Match each statement with the correct person or people, A-E. Write the correct letter, A-E, in boxes 17-22 on your answer sheet. NB You may use any letter more than once.

17. The methodology behind the growth mindset studies was not strict enough.
18. The idea of the growth mindset has been incorrectly interpreted.
19. Intellectual ability is an unchangeable feature of each individual.
20. The growth mindset should be promoted without students being aware of it.
21. The growth mindset is not simply about boosting students’ morale.
22. Research shows that the growth mindset has no effect on academic achievement.

List of People
A Alfred Binet
B Carol Dweck
C Andrew Gelman
D Timothy Bates
E David Yeager and Gregory Walton

Questions 23-26
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in reading passage? In boxes 23-26 on your answer sheet, write

YES                                  if the statement agrees with the views of the writer
NO                                    if the statement contradicts the views of the writer
NOT GIVEN                 if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

23. Dweck has handled criticisms of her work in an admirable way.
24. Students’ self-perception is a more effective driver of self-confidence than actual achievement is.
25. Recent evidence about growth mindset interventions has attracted unfair coverage in the media.
26. Deliberate attempts to encourage students to strive for high achievement may have a negative effect.

Alfred Wegener: science, exploration and the theory of continental drift

Introduction
This is a book about the life and scientific work of Alfred Wegener, whose reputation today rests with his theory of continental displacements, better known as ‘continental drift’. Wegener proposed this theory in 1912 and developed it extensively for nearly 20 years. His book on the subject, The Origin of Continents and Oceans, went through four editions and was the focus of an international controversy in his lifetime and for some years after his death.

Wegener’s basic idea was that many mysteries about the Earth’s history could be solved if one supposed that the continents moved laterally, rather than supposing that they remained fixed in place. Wegener showed in great detail how such continental movements were plausible and how they worked, using evidence from a large number of sciences including geology, geophysics, paleontology, and climatology. Wegener’s idea – that the continents move – is at the heart of the theory that guides Earth sciences today: namely plate tectonics. Plate tectonics is in many respects quite different from Wegener’s proposal, in the same way that modern evolutionary theory is very different from the ideas Charles Darwin proposed in the 1850s about biological evolution. Yet plate tectonics is a descendant of Alfred Wegener’s theory of continental drift, in quite the same way that modern evolutionary theory is a descendant of Darwin’s theory of natural selection.

When I started writing about Wegener’s life and work, one of the most intriguing things about him for me was that, although he came up with a theory on continental drift, he was not a geologist. He trained as an astronomer and pursued a career in atmospheric physics. When he proposed the theory of continental displacements in 1912, he was a lecturer in physics and astronomy at the University of Marburg, in southern Germany. However, he was not an ‘unknown’. In 1906 he had set a world record (with his brother Kurt) for time aloft in a hot-air balloon: 52 hours. Between 1906 and 1908 he had taken part in a highly publicized and extremely dangerous expedition to the coast of northeast Greenland. He had also made a name for himself amongst a small circle of meteorologists and atmospheric physicists in Germany as the author of a textbook, Thermodynamics of the Atmosphere (1911), and of a number of interesting scientific papers.

As important as Wegener’s work on continental drift has turned out to be, it was largely a sideline to his interest in atmospheric physics, geophysics, and paleoclimatology , and thus I have been at great pains to put Wegener’s work on continental drift in the larger context of his other scientific work, and in the even larger context of atmospheric sciences in his lifetime. This is a ‘continental drift book’ only to the extent that Wegener was interested in that topic and later became famous for it. My treatment of his other scientific work is no less detailed, though I certainly have devoted more attention to the reception of his ideas on continental displacement, as they were much more controversial than his other work.

Readers interested in the specific detail of Wegener’s career will see that he often stopped pursuing a given line of investigation (sometimes for years on end), only to pick it up later. I have tried to provide guideposts to his rapidly shifting interests by characterizing different phases of his life as careers in different sciences, which is reflected in the titles of the chapters. Thus, the index should be a sufficient guide for those interested in a particular aspect of Wegener’s life but perhaps not all of it. My own feeling, however, is that the parts do not make as much sense on their own as do all of his activities taken together. In this respect I urge readers to try to experience Wegener’s life as he lived it, with all the interruptions, changes of mind, and renewed efforts this entailed.

Wegener left behind a few published works but, as was standard practice, these reported the results of his work – not the journey he took to reach that point. Only a few hundred of the many thousands of letters he wrote and received in his lifetime have survived and he didn’t keep notebooks or diaries that recorded his life and activities. He was not active (with a few exceptions) in scientific societies, and did not seek to find influence or advance his ideas through professional contacts and politics, spending most of his time at home in his study reading and writing, or in the field collecting observations.

Some famous scientists, such as Newton, Darwin, and Einstein, left mountains of written material behind, hundreds of notebooks and letters numbering in the tens of thousands. Others, like Michael Faraday, left extensive journals of their thoughts and speculations, parallel to their scientific notebooks. The more such material a scientist leaves behind, the better chance a biographer has of forming an accurate picture of how a scientist’s ideas took shape and evolved.

I am firmly of the opinion that most of us, Wegener included, are not in any real sense the authors of our own lives. We plan, think, and act, often with apparent freedom, but most of the time our lives ‘happen to us’, and we only retrospectively turn this happenstance into a coherent narrative of fulfilled intentions. This book, therefore, is a story both of the life and scientific work that Alfred Wegener planned and intended and of the life and scientific work that actually ‘happened to him’. These are, as I think you will soon see, not always the same thing.

Questions 27-30
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in reading passage? In boxes 27-30 on your answer sheet, write

YES                               if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
NO                                 if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN              if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

27. Wegener’s ideas about continental drift were widely disputed while he was alive.
28. The idea that the continents remained fixed in place was defended in a number of respected scientific publications.
29. Wegener relied on a limited range of scientific fields to support his theory of continental drift.
30. The similarities between Wegener’s theory of continental drift and modern-day plate tectonics are enormous.

Questions 31-36
Complete the summary using the list of phrases, A-J, below. Write the correct letter, A-J, in boxes 31-36 on your answer sheet.

Wegener’s life and work

One of the remarkable things about Wegener from a (31)…………………is that although he proposed a theory of continental drift, he was not a geologist. His (32)……………….. were limited to atmospheric physics. However, at the time he proposed his theory of continental drift in 1912, he was already a person of (33)……………….Six years previously, there had been his (34)……………………….of 52 hours in a hot-air balloon, followed by his well-publicised but (35)…………………….of Greenland’s coast. With the publication of his textbook on thermodynamics, he had also come to the attention of a (36)……………………of German scientists.

A modest fame
B vast range
C record-breaking achievement
D research methods
E select group
F professional interests
G scientific debate
H hazardous exploration
I biographer’s perspective
J narrow investigation

Questions 37-40
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

37. What is Mott T Greene doing in the fifth paragraph?
A describing what motivated him to write the book
B explaining why it is desirable to read the whole book
C suggesting why Wegener pursued so many different careers
D indicating what aspects of Wegener’s life interested him most

38. What is said about Wegener in the sixth paragraph?
A He was not a particularly ambitious person.
B He kept a record of all his scientific observations.
C He did not adopt many of the scientific practices of the time.
D He enjoyed discussing new discoveries with other scientists.

39. What does Greene say about some other famous scientists?
A Their published works had a greater impact than Wegener’s did.
B They had fewer doubts about their scientific ideas than Wegener did.
C Their scientific ideas were more controversial than Wegener’s.
D They are easier subjects to write about than Wegener.

40. What is Greene’s main point in the final paragraph?
A It is not enough in life to have good intentions.
B People need to plan carefully if they want to succeed.
C People have little control over many aspects of their lives.
D It is important that people ensure they have the freedom to act.