Month: May 2024

Tackling Obesity In The Western World

A Obesity is a huge problem in many Western countries and one which now attracts considerable medical interest as researchers take up the challenge to find a ‘cure’ for the common condition of being seriously overweight. However, rather than take responsibility for their weight, obese people have often sought solace in the excuse that they have a slow metabolism, a genetic hiccup which sentences more than half the Australian population (63% of men and 47% of women) to a life of battling with their weight. The argument goes like this: it doesn’t matter how little they eat, they gain weight because their bodies break down food and turn it into energy more slowly than those with a so-called normal metabolic rate.

B ‘This is nonsense,’ says Dr Susan Jebb from the Dunn Nutrition Unit at Cambridge in England. Despite the persistence of this metabolism myth, science has known for several years that the exact opposite is in fact true. Fat people have faster metabolisms than thin people. ‘What is very clear,’ says Dr Jebb, ‘is that overweight people actually burn off more energy. They have more cells, bigger hearts, bigger lungs and they all need more energy just to keep going.’

C It took only one night, spent in a sealed room at the Dunn Unit to disabuse one of their patients of the beliefs of a lifetime: her metabolism was fast, not slow. By sealing the room and measuring the exact amount of oxygen she used, researchers were able to show her that her metabolism was not the culprit. It wasn’t the answer she expected and probably not the one she wanted but she took the news philosophically.

D Although the metabolism myth has been completely disproved, science has far from discounted our genes as responsible for making us whatever weight we are, fat or thin. One of the world’s leading obesity researchers, geneticist Professor Stephen O’Rahilly, goes so far as to say we are on the threshold of a complete change in the way we view not only morbid obesity, but also everyday overweight. Prof. O’Rahilly’s groundbreaking work in Cambridge has proven that obesity can be caused by our genes. ‘These people are not weak- willed, slothful or lazy,’ says Prof. O’Rahilly, ‘They have a medical condition due to a genetic defect and that causes them to be obese.’

E In Australia, the University of Sydney’s Professor Ian Caterson says while major genetic defects may be rare, many people probably have minor genetic variations that combine to dictate weight and are responsible for things such as how much we eat, the amount of exercise we do and the amount of energy we need. When you add up all these little variations, the result is that some people are genetically predisposed to putting on weight. He says while the fast/slow metabolism debate may have been settled, that doesn’t mean some other subtle change in the metabolism gene won’t be found in overweight people. He is confident that science will, eventually, be able to ‘cure’ some forms of obesity but the only effective way for the vast majority of overweight and obese people to lose weight is a change of diet and an increase in exercise.

F Despite the $500 million a year Australians spend trying to lose weight and the $830 million it costs the community in health care, obesity is at epidemic proportions here, as it is in all Western nations. Until recently, research and treatment for obesity had concentrated on behaviour modification, drugs to decrease appetite and surgery. How the drugs worked was often not understood and many caused severe side effects and even death in some patients. Surgery for obesity has also claimed many lives.

G It has long been known that a part of the brain called the hypothalamus is responsible for regulating hunger, among other things. But it wasn’t until 1994 that Professor Jeffery Friedman from Rockerfeller University in the US sent science in a new direction by studying an obese mouse. Prof. Friedman found that unlike its thin brothers, the fat mouse did not produce a hitherto unknown hormone called leptin. Manufactured by the fat cells, leptin acts as a messenger, sending signals to the hypothalamus to turn off the appetite. Previously, the fat cells were thought to be responsible simply for storing fat. Prof. Friedman gave the fat mouse leptin and it lost 30% of its body weight in two weeks.

H On the other side of the Atlantic, Prof. O’Rahilly read about this research with great excitement. For many months two blood samples had lain in the bottom of his freezer, taken from two extremely obese young cousins. He hired a doctor to develop a test for leptin in human blood, which eventually resulted in the discovery that neither of the children’s blood contained the hormone. When one cousin was given leptin, she lost a stone in weight and Prof. O’Rahilly made medical history. Here was the first proof that a genetic defect could cause obesity in humans. But leptin deficiency turned out to be an extremely rare condition and there is a lot more research to be done before the ‘magic’ cure for obesity is ever found.

Questions 1-8
Reading Passage 1 has seven paragraphs A-H. From the list of headings below choose the most suitable heading for each paragraph.

List of Headings
i Obesity in animals
ii Hidden dangers
iii Proof of the truth
iv New perspective on the horizon
v No known treatment
vi Rodent research leads the way
vii Expert explains energy requirements of obese people
viii A very uncommon complaint
ix Nature or nurture
x Shifting the blame
xi Lifestyle change required despite new findings

1. Paragraph A
2. Paragraph B
3. Paragraph C
4. Paragraph D
5. Paragraph E
6. Paragraph F
7. Paragraph G
8. Paragraph H

Questions 9-13
Complete the summary of Reading Passage 1 (Questions 9-13) using words from the box.

weight	exercise	sleep	mind	body
metabolism	less	behavior	more	physical
use	metal	consume	genetic

They do this by seeking to blame their (9)……………………..for the fact that they are overweight and erroneously believe that they use (10)…………………..energy than thin people to stay alive. However, recent research has shown that a (11)………………………problem can be responsible for obesity as some people seem programmed to (12)……………………….more than others. The new research points to a shift from trying to change people’s (13)…………………..to seeking an answer to the problem in the laboratory.

Wheel Of Fortune

A Since moving pictures were invented a century ago, a new way of distributing entertainment to consumers has emerged about once every generation. Each such innovation has changed the industry irreversibly; each has been accompanied by a period of fear mixed with exhilaration. The arrival of digital technology, which translates music, pictures and text into the zeros and ones of computer language, marks one of those periods.

B This may sound familiar, because the digital revolution, and the explosion of choice that would go with it, has been heralded for some time. In 1992, John Malone, chief executive of TCI, an American cable giant, welcomed the ‘500-channel universe’. Digital television was about to deliver everything except pizzas to people’s living rooms. When the entertainment companies tried out the technology, it worked fine – but not at a price that people were prepared to pay.

C Those 500 channels eventually arrived but via the Internet and the PC rather than through television. The digital revolution was starting to affect the entertainment business in unexpected ways. Eventually it will change every aspect of it, from the way cartoons are made to the way films are screened to the way people buy music. That much is clear. What nobody is sure of is how it will affect the economics of the business.

D New technologies always contain within them both threats and opportunities. They have the potential both to make the companies in the business a great deal richer, and to sweep them away. Old companies always fear new technology. Hollywood was hostile to television, television terrified by the VCR. Go back far enough, points out Hal Varian, an economist at the University of California at Berkeley, and you find publishers complaining that ‘circulating libraries’ would cannibalise their sales. Yet whenever a new technology has come in, it has made more money for existing entertainment companies. The proliferation of the means of distribution results, gratifyingly, in the proliferation of dollars, pounds, pesetas and the rest to pay for it.

E All the same, there is something in the old companies’ fears. New technologies may not threaten their lives, but they usually change their role. Once television became widespread, film and radio stopped being the staple form of entertainment. Cable television has undermined the power of the broadcasters. And as power has shifted the movie studios, the radio companies and the television broadcasters have been swallowed up. These days, the grand old names of entertainment have more resonance than power. Paramount is part of Viacom, a cable company; Universal, part of Seagram, a drinks-and-entertainment company; MGM, once the roaring lion of Hollywood, has been reduced to a whisper because it is not part of one of the giants. And RCA, once the most important broadcasting company in the world, is now a recording label belonging to Bertelsmann, a large German entertainment company.

F Part of the reason why incumbents got pushed aside was that they did not see what was coming. But they also faced a tighter regulatory environment than the present one. In America, laws preventing television broadcasters from owning programme companies were repealed earlier this decade, allowing the creation of vertically integrated businesses. Greater freedom, combined with a sense of history, prompted the smarter companies in the entertainment business to re-invent themselves. They saw what happened to those of their predecessors who were stuck with one form of distribution.

So, these days, the powers in the entertainment business are no longer movie studios, or television broadcasters, or publishers; all those businesses have become part of bigger businesses still, companies that can both create content and distribute it in a range of different ways.

G Out of all this, seven huge entertainment companies have emerged – Time Warner, Walt Disney, Bertelsmann, Viacom, News Corp, Seagram and Sony. They cover pretty well every bit of the entertainment business except pornography. Three are American, one is Australian, one Canadian, one German and one Japanese. ‘What you are seeing’, says Christopher Dixon, managing director of media research at PaineWebber, a stockbroker, ‘is the creation of a global oligopoly. It happened to the oil and automotive businesses earlier this century; now it is happening to the entertainment business.’ It remains to be seen whether the latest technology will weaken those great companies, or make them stronger than ever.

Questions 14-21
Reading Passage 2 has seven paragraphs A-G. Which paragraph mentions the following (Questions 14-21)? NB Some of the paragraphs will be used more than once.

14. the contrasting effects that new technology can have on existing business
15. the fact that a total transformation is going to take place in the future in the delivery of all forms of entertainment
16. the confused feelings that people are known to have experienced in response to technological innovation
17. the fact that some companies have learnt from the mistakes of others
18. the high cost to the consumer of new ways of distributing entertainment
19. uncertainty regarding the financial impact of wider media access
20. the fact that some companies were the victims of strict government policy
21. the fact that the digital revolution could undermine the giant entertainment companies

Questions 22-25
The writer refers to various individuals and companies in the reading passage. Match the people or companies (A-E) with the points made in Questions 22-25 about the introduction of new technology.

A John Malone
B Hal Valarian
C MGM
D Walt Disney
E Christopher Dixon

22. Historically, new forms of distributing entertainment have alarmed those well-established in the business.
23. The merger of entertainment companies follows a pattern evident in other industries.
24. Major entertainment bodies that have remained independent have lost their influence.
25. News of the most recent technological development was published some years ago.

Questions 26-27
Choose the appropriate letters A-D and write them in boxes 26-27 on your answer sheet.

26. How does the writer put across his views on the digital revolution?
A by examining the forms of media that will be affected by it
B by analysing the way entertainment companies have reacted to it
C by giving a personal definition of technological innovation
D by drawing comparisons with other periods of technological innovation

27. Which of the following best summarises the writer’s views in Reading Passage 2?
A The public should cease resisting the introduction of new technology.
B Digital technology will increase profits in the entertainment business.
C Entertainment companies should adapt to technological innovation.
D Technological change only benefits big entertainment companies.

Reading Passage 3

What do we mean by being ‘talented’ or ‘gifted’? The most obvious way is to look at the work someone does and if they are capable of significant success, label them as talented. The purely quantitative route – ‘percentage definition’ – looks not at individuals, but at simple percentages, such as the top five per cent of the population, and labels them – by definition – as gifted. This definition has fallen from favour, eclipsed by the advent of IQ tests, favoured by luminaries such as Professor Hans Eysenck, where a series of written or verbal tests of general intelligence leads to a score of intelligence.

The IQ test has been eclipsed in turn. Most people studying intelligence and creativity in the new millennium now prefer a broader definition, using a multifaceted approach where talents in many areas are recognised rather than purely concentrating on academic achievement. If we are therefore assuming that talented, creative or gifted individuals may need to be assessed across a range of abilities, does this mean intelligence can run in families as a genetic or inherited tendency? Mental dysfunction – such as schizophrenia – can, so is an efficient mental capacity passed on from parent to child?

Animal experiments throw some light on this question, and on the whole area of whether it is genetics, the environment or a combination of the two that allows for intelligence and creative ability. Different strains of rats show great differences in intelligence or ‘rat reasoning’. If these are brought up in normal conditions and then through a maze to reach a food goal, the ‘bright’ strain make far fewer wrong turns that the ‘dull’ ones. But if the environment is made dull and boring the number of errors becomes equal. Return the rats to an exciting maze and the discrepancy returns as before – but is much smaller. In other words, a dull rat in a stimulating environment will almost do as well as a bright rat who is bored in a normal one. This principle applies to humans too – someone may be born with innate intelligence, but their environment probably has the final say over whether they become creative or even a genius.

Evidence now exists that most young children, if given enough opportunities and encouragement, are able to achieve significant and sustainable levels of academic or sporting prowess. Bright or creative children are often physically very active at the same time, and so may receive more parental attention as a result – almost by default – in order to ensure their safety. They may also talk earlier, and this, in turn, breeds parental interest. This can sometimes cause problems with other siblings who may feel jealous even though they themselves may be bright. Their creative talents may be undervalued and so never come to fruition. Two themes seem to run through famously creative families as a result. The first is that the parents were able to identify the talents of each child, and nurture and encourage these accordingly but in an even-handed manner. Individual differences were encouraged, and friendly sibling rivalry was not seen as a particular problem. If the father is, say, a famous actor, there is no undue pressure for his children to follow him onto the boards, but instead their chosen interests are encouraged. There need not even by any obvious talent in such a family since there always needs to be someone who sets the family career in motion, as in the case of the Sheen acting dynasty.

Martin Sheen was the seventh of ten children born to a Spanish immigrant father and an Irish mother. Despite intense parental disapproval he turned his back on entrance exams to university and borrowed cash from a local priest to start a fledgling acting career. His acting successes in films such as Badlands and Apocalypse Now made him one of the most highly-regarded actors of the 1970s. Three sons – Emilio Estevez, Ramon Estevez and Charlie Sheen – have followed him into the profession as a consequence of being inspired by his motivation and enthusiasm.

A stream seems to run through creative families. Such children are not necessarily smothered with love by their parents. They feel loved and wanted, and are secure in their home, but are often more surrounded by an atmosphere of work and where following a calling appears to be important. They may see from their parents that it takes time and dedication to be master of a craft, and so are in less of a hurry to achieve for themselves once they start to work.

The generation of creativity is complex: it is a mixture of genetics, the environment, parental teaching and luck that determines how successful or talented family members are. This last point – luck – is often not mentioned where talent is concerned but plays an undoubted part. Mozart, considered by many to be the finest composer of all time, was lucky to be living in an age that encouraged the writing of music. He was brought up surrounded by it, his father was a musician who encouraged him to the point of giving up his job to promote his child genius, and he learnt musical composition with frightening speed – the speed of a genius. Mozart himself simply wanted to create the finest music ever written but did not necessarily view himself as a genius – he could write sublime music at will, and so often preferred to lead a hedonistic lifestyle that he found more exciting than writing music to order.

Albert Einstein and Bill Gates are two more examples of people whose talents have blossomed by virtue of the times they were living in. Einstein was a solitary, somewhat slow child who had affection at home but whose phenomenal intelligence emerged without any obvious parental input. This may have been partly due to the fact that at the start of the 20th Century a lot of the Newtonian laws of physics were being questioned, leaving a fertile ground for ideas such as his to be developed. Bill Gates may have had the creative vision to develop Microsoft, but without the new computer age dawning at the same time he may never have achieved the position on the world stage he now occupies.

Questions 28-29
Complete the notes, which show how the approaches to defining ‘talent*have changed. Choose ONE OR TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

• ‘percentage definition’
• (28)……………………
• (29)……………………

Questions 30-32
Which THREE of the following does the writer regard as a feature of creative families?

A a higher than average level of parental affection
B competition between brothers and sisters
C parents who demonstrate vocational commitment
D strong motivation to take exams and attend university
E a patient approach to achieving success
F the identification of the most talented child in the family

Questions 33-34
Choose the appropriate letters A—D and write them in boxes 33-34 on your answer sheet.

33. The rat experiment was conducted to show that
A certain species of rat are more intelligent than others.
B intelligent rats are more motivated than ‘dull’ rats.
C a rat’s surroundings can influence its behaviour.
D a boring environment has little impact on a ‘bright’ rat.

34. The writer cites the story of Martin Sheen to show that
A he was the first in a creative line.
B his parents did not have his creative flair.
C became an actor without proper training.
D his sons were able to benefit from his talents.

Questions 35-39
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3? In boxes 35-39 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

35. Intelligence tests have now been proved to be unreliable.
36. The brother or sister of a gifted older child may fail to fulfil their own potential.
37. The importance of luck in the genius equation tends to be ignored.
38. Mozart was acutely aware of his own remarkable talent.
39. Einstein and Gates would have achieved success in any era.

Question 40

40. From the list below choose the most suitable title for the whole of Reading Passage 3.
A Geniuses in their time
B Education for the gifted
C Revising the definition of intelligence
D Nurturing talent within the family

In Praise of Amateurs

Despite the specialization of scientific research, amateurs still have an important role to play.

During the scientific revolution of the 17th century, scientists were largely men of private means who pursued their interest in natural philosophy for their own edification. Only in the past century or two has it become possible to make a living from investigating the workings of nature. Modern science was, in other words, built on the work of amateurs. Today, science is an increasingly specialized and compartmentalized subject, the domain of experts who know more and more about less and less. Perhaps surprisingly, however, amateurs – even those without private means – are still important.

A recent poll carried out at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science by astronomer Dr Richard Fienberg found that, in addition to his field of astronomy, amateurs are actively involved in such fields as acoustics, horticulture, ornithology, meteorology, hydrology and palaeontology. Far from being crackpots, amateur scientists are often in close touch with professionals, some of whom rely heavily on their co-operation.

Admittedly, some fields are more open to amateurs than others. Anything that requires expensive equipment is clearly a no-go area. And some kinds of research can be dangerous; most amateur chemists, jokes Dr Fienberg, are either locked up or have blown themselves to bits. But amateurs can make valuable contributions in fields from rocketry to palaeontology and the rise of the Internet has made it easier than before to collect data and distribute results.

Exactly which field of study has benefited most from the contributions of amateurs is a matter of some dispute. Dr Fienberg makes a strong case for astronomy. There is, he points out, a long tradition of collaboration between amateur and professional sky watchers. Numerous comets, asteroids and even the planet Uranus were discovered by amateurs. Today, in addition to comet and asteroid spotting, amateurs continue to do valuable work observing the brightness of variable stars and detecting novae- ‘new’ stars in the Milky Way and supernovae in other galaxies. Amateur observers are helpful, says Dr Fienberg, because there are so many of them (they far outnumber professionals) and because they are distributed all over the world. This makes special kinds of observations possible:’ if several observers around the world accurately record the time when a star is eclipsed by an asteroid, for example, it is possible to derive useful information about the asteroid’s shape.

Another field in which amateurs have traditionally played an important role is palaeontology. Adrian Hunt, a palaeontologist at Mesa Technical College in New Mexico, insists that his is the field in which amateurs have made the biggest contribution. Despite the development of high-tech equipment, he says, the best sensors for finding fossils are human eyes – lots of them.

Finding volunteers to look for fossils is not difficult, he says, because of the near universal interest in anything to do with dinosaurs. As well as helping with this research, volunteers learn about science, a process he calls ‘recreational education’.

Rick Bonney of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York, contends that amateurs have contributed the most in his field. There are, he notes, thought to be as many as 60 million birdwatchers in America alone. Given their huge numbers and the wide geographical coverage they provide, Mr Bonney has enlisted thousands of amateurs in a number of research projects. Over the past few years their observations have uncovered previously unknown trends and cycles in bird migrations and revealed declines in the breeding populations of several species of migratory birds, prompting a habitat conservation programme.

Despite the successes and whatever the field of study, collaboration between amateurs and professionals is not without its difficulties. Not everyone, for example is happy with the term ‘amateur’. Mr Bonney has coined the term ‘citizen scientist’ because he felt that other words, such as ‘volunteer’ sounded disparaging. A more serious problem is the question of how professionals can best acknowledge the contributions made by amateurs. Dr Fienberg says that some amateur astronomers are happy to provide their observations but grumble about not being reimbursed for out-of-pocket expenses. Others feel let down when their observations are used in scientific papers, but they are not listed as co-authors. Dr Hunt says some amateur palaeontologists are disappointed when told that they cannot take finds home with them.

These are legitimate concerns but none seems insurmountable. Provided amateurs and professionals agree the terms on which they will work together beforehand, there is no reason why co-operation between the two groups should not flourish. Last year Dr S. Carlson, founder of the Society for Amateur Scientists won an award worth $290,000 for his work in promoting such co-operation. He says that one of the main benefits of the prize is the endorsement it has given to the contributions of amateur scientists, which has done much to silence critics among those professionals who believe science should remain their exclusive preserve.

At the moment, says Dr Carlson, the society is involved in several schemes including an innovative rocket-design project and the setting up of a network of observers who will search for evidence of a link between low- frequency radiation and earthquakes. The amateurs, he says, provide enthusiasm and talent, while the professionals provide guidance ‘so that anything they do discover will be taken seriously’. Having laid the foundations of science, amateurs will have much to contribute to its ever – expanding edifice.

Questions 1-8
Complete the summary below. Choose ONE OR TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Summary

Prior to the 19th century, professional (1)………………..did not exist and scientific research was largely carried out by amateurs. However, while (2)…………………………today is mostly the domain of professionals, a recent US survey highlighted the fact that amateurs play an important role in at least seven (3)………………….and indeed many professionals are reliant on their (4)……………………..In areas such as astronomy, amateurs can be invaluable when making specific (5)……………………..on a global basis. Similarly in the area of palaeontology their involvement is invaluable and helpers are easy to recruit because of the popularity of (6)…………………….Amateur birdwatchers also play an active role and their work has led to the establishment of a (7)………………….Occasionally the term ‘amateur’ has been the source of disagreement and alternative names have been suggested but generally speaking, as long as the professional scientists (8)………………..the work of the non-professionals, the two groups can work productively together.

Questions 9-13
Reading Passage 1 contains a number of opinions provided by four different scientists. Match each opinion (Questions 9-13) with the scientists A-D. NB You may use any of the scientists A-D more than once.

Name of scientists
A Dr Fienberg
B Adrian Hunt
C Rick Bonney
D Dr Carlson

9. Amateur involvement can also be an instructive pastime.
10. Amateur scientists are prone to accidents.
11. Science does not belong to professional scientists alone.
12. In certain areas of my work, people are a more valuable resource than technology.
13. It is important to give amateurs a name which reflects the value of their work.

READING THE SCREEN

Are the electronic media exacerbating illiteracy and making our children stupid? On the contrary, says Colin McCabe, they have the potential to make us truly literate.

The debate surrounding literacy is one of the most charged in education. On the one hand there is an army of people convinced that traditional skills of reading and writing are declining. On the other, a host of progressives protest that literacy is much more complicated than a simple technical mastery of reading and writing. This second position is supported by most of the relevant academic work over the past 20 years. These studies argue that literacy can only be understood in its social and technical context. In Renaissance England, for example, many more people could read than could write, and within reading there was a distinction between those who could read print and those who could manage the more difficult task of reading manuscript. An understanding of these earlier periods helps us understand today’s ‘crisis in literacy’ debate.

There does seem to be evidence that there has been an overall decline in some aspects of reading and writing – you only need to compare the tabloid newspapers of today with those of 50 years ago to see a clear decrease in vocabulary and simplification of syntax. But the picture is not uniform and doesn’t readily demonstrate the simple distinction between literate and illiterate which had been considered adequate since the middle of the 19th century.

While reading a certain amount of writing is as crucial as it has ever been in industrial societies, it is doubtful whether a fully extended grasp of either is as necessary as it was 30 or 40 years ago. While print retains much of its authority as a source of topical information, television has increasingly usurped this role. The ability to write fluent letters has been undermined by the telephone and research suggests that for many people the only use for writing, outside formal education, is the compilation of shopping lists.

The decision of some car manufacturers to issue their instructions to mechanics as a video pack rather than as a handbook might be taken to spell the end of any automatic link between industrialisation and literacy. On the other hand, it is also the case that ever-increasing numbers of people make their living out of writing, which is better rewarded than ever before. Schools are generally seen as institutions where the book rules – film, television and recorded sound have almost no place; but it is not clear that this opposition is appropriate. While you may not need to read and write to watch television, you certainly need to be able to read and write in order to make programmes.

Those who work in the new media are anything but illiterate. The traditional oppositions between old and new media are inadequate for understanding the world which a young child now encounters. The computer has re-established a central place for the written word on the screen, which used to be entirely devoted to the image. There is even anecdotal evidence that children are mastering reading and writing in order to get on to the Internet. There is no reason why the new and old media cannot be integrated in schools to provide the skills to become economically productive and politically enfranchised.

Nevertheless, there is a crisis in literacy and it would be foolish to ignore it. To understand that literacy may be declining because it is less central to some aspects of everyday life is not the same as acquiescing in this state of affairs. The production of school work with the new technologies could be a significant stimulus to literacy. How should these new technologies be introduced into the schools? It isn’t enough to call for computers, camcorders and edit suites in every classroom; unless they are properly integrated into the educational culture, they will stand unused. Evidence suggests that this is the fate of most information technology used in the classroom. Similarly, although media studies are now part of the national curriculum, and more and more students are now clamouring to take these course, teachers remain uncertain about both methods and aims in this area.

This is not the fault of the teachers. The entertainment and information industries must be drawn into a debate with the educational institutions to determine how best to blend these new technologies into the classroom.

Many people in our era are drawn to the pessimistic view that the new media are destroying old skills and eroding critical judgement. It may be true that past generations were more literate but – taking the pre-19th century meaning of the term – this was true of only a small section of the population. The word literacy is a 19th-century coinage to describe the divorce of reading and writing from a full knowledge of literature. The education reforms of the 19th century produced reading and writing as skills separable from full participation in the cultural heritage.

The new media now point not only to a futuristic cyber-economy, they also make our cultural past available to the whole nation. Most children’s access to these treasures is initially through television. It is doubtful whether our literary heritage has ever been available to or sought out by more than about 5 per cent of the population; it has certainly not been available to more than 10 per cent. But the new media joined to the old, through the public service tradition of British broadcasting, now makes our literary tradition available to all.

Questions 14-17
Choose the appropriate letters A-D and write them in boxes 14-17 on your answer sheet.

14. When discussing the debate on literacy in education, the writer notes that
A children cannot read and write as well as they used to.
B academic work has improved over the last 20 years.
C there is evidence that literacy is related to external factors.
D there are opposing arguments that are equally convincing.

15. In the 4th paragraph, the writer’s main point is that
A the printed word is both gaining and losing power.
B all inventions bring disadvantages as well as benefits.
C those who work in manual jobs no longer need to read.
D the media offers the best careers for those who like writing.

16. According to the writer, the main problem that schools face today is
A how best to teach the skills of reading and writing.
B how best to incorporate technology into classroom teaching.
C finding the means to purchase technological equipment.
D managing the widely differing levels of literacy amongst pupils.

17. At the end of the article, the writer is suggesting that
A literature and culture cannot be divorced.
B the term ‘literacy’ has not been very useful.
C 10 per cent of the population never read literature.
D our exposure to cultural information is likely to increase.

Questions 18-23
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 2? In boxes 18-23 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

18. It is not as easy to analyse literacy levels as it used to be.
19. Our literacy skills need to be as highly developed as they were in the past.
20. Illiteracy is on the increase.
21. Professional writers earn relatively more than they used to.
22. A good literacy level is important for those who work in television.
23. Computers are having a negative impact on literacy in schools

Questions 24-26
Complete the sentences below with words taken from Reading Passage 2. Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.

In Renaissance England, the best readers were those able to read (24)…………………

The writer uses the example of (25)……………………to illustrate the general fall in certain areas of literacy.

It has been shown that after leaving school, the only things that a lot of people write are (26)……………….

The Revolutionary Bridges of Robert Maillart

Swiss engineer Robert Maillart built some of the greatest bridges of the 20th century. His designs elegantly solved a basic engineering problem: how to support enormous weights using a slender arch.

A Just as railway bridges were the great structural symbols of the 19th century, highway bridges became the engineering emblems of the 20th century. The invention of the automobile created an irresistible demand for paved roads and vehicular bridges throughout the developed world. The type of bridge needed for cars and trucks, however, is fundamentally different from that needed for locomotives. Most highway bridges carry lighter loads than railway bridges do, and their roadways can be sharply curved or steeply sloping. To meet these needs, many turn-of-the-century bridge designers began working with a new building material: reinforced concrete, which has steel bars embedded in it. And the master of this new material was Swiss structural engineer, Robert Maillart.

B Early in his career, Maillart developed a unique method for designing bridges, buildings and other concrete structures. He rejected the complex mathematical analysis of loads and stresses that was being enthusiastically adopted by most of his contemporaries. At the same time, he also eschewed the decorative approach taken by many bridge builders of his time. He resisted imitating architectural styles and adding design elements solely for ornamentation. Maillart’s method was a form of creative intuition. He had a knack for conceiving new shapes to solve classic engineering problems] And because he worked in a highly competitive field, one of his goals was economy – he won design and construction contracts because his structures were reasonably priced, often less costly than all his rivals’ proposals.

C Maillart’s first important bridge was built in the small Swiss town of Zuoz. The local officials had initially wanted a steel bridge to span the 30-metre wide Inn River, but Maillart argued that he could build a more elegant bridge made of reinforced concrete for about the same cost. His crucial innovation was incorporating the bridge’s arch and roadway into a form called the hollow-box arch, which would substantially reduce the bridge’s expense by minimising the amount of concrete needed. In a conventional arch bridge the weight of the roadway is transferred by columns to the arch, which must be relatively thick. In Maillart’s design, though, the roadway and arch were connected by three vertical walls, forming two hollow boxes running under the roadway (see diagram). The big advantage of this design was that because the arch would not have to bear the load alone, it could be much thinner – as little as one-third as thick as the arch in the conventional bridge.

D His first masterpiece, however, was the 1905 Tavanasa Bridge over the Rhine river in the Swiss Alps. In this design, Maillart removed the parts of the vertical walls which were not essential because they carried no load. This produced a slender, lighter-looking form, which perfectly met the bridge’s structural requirements. But the Tavanasa Bridge gained little favourable publicity in Switzerland; on the contrary, it aroused strong aesthetic objections from public officials who were more comfortable with old-fashioned stone-faced bridges. Maillart, who had founded his own construction firm in 1902, was unable to win any more bridge projects, so he shifted his focus to designing buildings, water tanks and other structures made of reinforced concrete and did not resume his work on concrete bridges until the early 1920s.

E His most important breakthrough during this period was the development of the deck-stiffened arch, the first example of which was the Flienglibach Bridge, built in 1923. An arch bridge is somewhat like an inverted cable. A cable curves downward when a weight is hung from it, an arch bridge curves upward to support the roadway and the compression in the arch balances the dead load of the traffic. For aesthetic reasons, Maillart wanted a thinner arch and his solution was to connect the arch to the roadway with transverse walls. In this way, Maillart justified making the arch as thin as he could reasonably build it. His analysis accurately predicted the behaviour of the bridge but the leading authorities of Swiss engineering would argue against his methods for the next quarter of a century.

F Over the next 10 years, Maillart concentrated on refining the visual appearance of the deck-stiffened arch. His best-known structure is the Salginatobel Bridge, completed in 1930. He won the competition for the contract because his design was the least expensive of the 19 submitted – the bridge and road were built for only 700,000 Swiss francs, equivalent to some $3.5 million today. Salginatobel was also Maillart’s longest span, at 90 metres and it had the most dramatic setting of all his structures, vaulting 80 metres above the ravine of the Salgina brook. In 1991 it became the first concrete bridge to be designated an international historic landmark.

G Before his death in 1940, Maillart completed other remarkable bridges and continued to refine his designs. However, architects often recognised the high quality of Maillart’s structures before his fellow engineers did and in 1947 the architectural section of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City devoted a major exhibition entirely to his works. In contrast, very few American structural engineers at that time had even heard of Maillart. In the following years, however, engineers realised that Maillart’s bridges were more than just aesthetically pleasing – they were technically unsurpassed. Maillart’s hollow-box arch became the dominant design form for medium and long- span concrete bridges in the US. In Switzerland, professors finally began to teach Maillart’s ideas, which then influenced a new generation of designers.

Questions 27-33
Reading Passage 3 has seven paragraphs A-G. From the list of headings below choose the most suitable heading for each paragraph.

List of headings
i The long-term impact
ii A celebrated achievement
iii Early brilliance passes unrecognised
iv Outdated methods retain popularity
v The basis of a new design is born
vi Frustration at never getting the design right
vii Further refinements meet persistent objections
viii Different in all respects
ix Bridge-makers look elsewhere
x Transport developments spark a major change

27. Paragraph A
28. Paragraph B
29. Paragraph C
30. Paragraph D
31. Paragraph E
32. Paragraph F
33. Paragraph G

Questions 34-36
Complete the labels on the diagrams below using ONE OR TWO WORDS from the reading passage. Write your answers in boxes 34-36 on your answer sheet.

Questions 37-40
Complete each of the following statements (Questions 37-40) with the best ending (A-G) from the box below.

37. Maillart designed the hollow-box arch in order to
38. Following the construction of the Tavanasa Bridge, Maillart failed to
39. The transverse walls of the Flienglibach Bridge allowed Maillart to
40. Of all his bridges, the Salginatobel enabled Maillart to

A prove that local people were wrong.
B find work in Switzerland.
C win more building commissions.
D reduce the amount of raw material required.
E recognise his technical skills.
F capitalise on the spectacular terrain.
G improve the appearance of his bridges.

Make That Wine!

Australia is a nation of beer drinkers. Actually, make that wine. Yes, wine has now just about supplanted beer as the alcoholic drink of choice, probably because of the extensive range of choices available and the rich culture behind them. This all adds a certain depth and intimacy to the drinking process which beer just cannot match. In addition, although wine drinkers seldom think about it, moderate consumption seems to be beneficial for the health, lowering the incidence of heart disease and various other ailments.

Wine is the product of the fermentation of grape juice, in which yeast (a fungus) consumes the natural sugars within, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide as waste. Yeast grows naturally on many varieties of grapes, often visible as a white powder, and causing fermentation directly on the plant. Thus, the discovery of wine-making was inevitable at some stage in human history. The evidence shows that this was at least 8,000 years ago in the Near East. From there, wine-making spread around the ancient Mediterranean civilisations, where the liquid was extensively produced, drunk, and traded. To this day, the biggest drinkers of wine remain the Mediterranean countries, with France leading the way.

This leads to the classification of wines, which is quite complex. It often begins with the colour: red or white. Most people do not know that the colour of wine is not due to the grapes used (whose skins are either green or purple), but to the wine-making process itself. All grape juice is clear. Red wines are produced by leaving the grape skin in contact with the juice during fermentation; white wines by not doing so. Thus, white wine can be made from dark-coloured grapes, provided that the skin is separated early, although the resultant wine may have a pinkish tinge.

A similar wine classification is based more specifically on the grape species used, giving such well-known names as Pinot Noir and Merlot. Chardonnay grapes remain one of the most widely planted, producing an array of white wines, rivaling the cabernet sauvignon grape, a key ingredient in the world’s most widely recognised, and similarly named, red wines. When one grape species is used, or is predominant, the wine produced is called varietal, as opposed to mixing the juices of various identified grapes, which results in blended wines. The latter process is often done when wine-makers, and the people who drink their product, want a consistent taste, year after year. Far from being looked down upon, it often results in some of the world’s most expensive bottles, such as the Cote Rotie wines in France.

Increasingly, however, market recognition is based on the location of the wine production, resulting in labels such as Bordeaux in France, Napa Valley in California, and the Barossa Valley in Australia. Traditional wines made in these places carry trademarks, respected by serious wine drinkers. However, an example of the blurred lines is the term ‘champagne’. This was once expected to be made from grapes grown in the Champagne region of France, with all the expertise and traditions of that area, but, despite legal attempts to trademark the term, it has become ‘semi-generic’, allowing it to be used for any wine of this type made anywhere in the world.

Finally, we come to the vinification method as a means of classification. One example is, in fact, champagne, known as a ‘sparkling’ wine. By allowing a secondary fermentation in a sealed container, it retains some of the waste carbon dioxide. Another variation is to stop the fermentation before all the natural sugars are consumed, creating dessert wines, ranging from slight to extreme sweetness. Yet again, grapes can be harvested well beyond their maximum ripeness, creating ‘late harvest wines’, or allowed to become partially dried (or ‘raisoned’), creating ‘dried grape wines’. Clearly, there are many possibilities, all producing uniquely flavoured products.

One of the best-known terms relating to wine is ‘vintage’. This signifies that the product was made from grapes that were grown in a single labeled year. If that year is eventually acknowledged to have produced exceptionally fine grapes and resultant wines (‘a good vintage’), bottles from that period are often saved for future consumption. Of course, the appreciation and assessment of wine is an inexact science, meaning that the significance of a particular vintage often promotes much speculation and disagreement. A non-vintage wine is usually a blend from the produce of two or more years, which is done, as mentioned before, for consistency and quality control.

This leads to the rich and varied world of wine assessment, and its descriptive terminology. Wine has such a variety of aromas, flavours, textures, and aftertastes that serious wine drinkers demand an agreed vocabulary so that the drinking sensations can be reliably described in writing. From bouquet to biscuity, mellow to musky, vivid to vegetal, the conceited connoisseur can perplex the listener with some really purple prose. Perhaps the opportunity to posture pretentiously with all this jargon is the main reason why wine enthusiasts are so taken with this product. Cheers!

Questions 1-4
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage One? 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. Wine is popular in Australia because it is healthy.
2. Yeast is white-coloured.
3. Wine is popular in the Near East.
4. Blended wines are usually cheaper.

Questions 5-10
Complete the table. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Classification based on	Associated fact	Related example
Colour	red wines use (5)…………………in fermentation	(6)……………….
Grape species	can be (7)…………………or blended	Cote robe wines
Location	drinkers of wine (8)………………this	Barossa Valley
(9)……………………..	can allow (10)…………………to remain	Dessert wine

Questions 11-13
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C, or D.

11. Vintage wines are
A mostly better.
B often preferred.
C often discussed.
D more costly.

12. The author thinks that wine terminology is
A unnecessary.
B serious.
C good.
D bad.

13. Wine
A is more popular than beer, in Australia.
B is most popular in France.
C can be simply classified.
D is often ‘raisoned’.

That Vision Thing

In the past, management took a minor role in influencing motivation. It was generally considered that if the correct tools, training, and environment were provided, individuals would do their jobs, and that this was sufficient in itself. People in organisations were considered ‘personnel’. But look how it has now changed. ‘Personnel’ have become ‘human resources’. and staff are now seen in terms of strategic potential, and with appropriate development, are one of the most important assets organisations may have.

A key aspect of this is motivation, and to achieve it, the latest buzzword is envisioning. We often hear management gurus propounding the thesis that any leader of worth must have a vision. This can unite, inspire, and direct the energies of the staff in the right direction. In the absence of such a ‘visionary leader’, the organisation necessarily flounders in complete aimlessness – or at least, that is what we are led to believe. And yet I strongly disagree that this ‘vision thing’ (as famously referred to by former American President, George Bush Senior) is worth much at all. I’d even go further, stating that it can be distinctly bad for the organisation.

The first fact to realise is that ‘envisioning’ fails to acknowledge the true human nature of organisations. These places are not composed of lemmings., all with a simplistic and single-minded dedication towards one goal. They are most obviously composed of groups of human beings, and with their rich variety of personalities and experiences, no such community can be homogenous and share exactly the same sat of personal values. These people are, in fact, merely loosely-bound cohorts pursuing different objectives (status, money, power, or individually defined agendas), in different manners. Thus a truly shared and meaningful vision is very difficult, and often impossible, to generate.

Yet the ‘visionary’ manager attempts to do just this. The trouble is, the high-minded dictates of his fresh MBA do not mention becoming bogged down in a long, laboured excess of word-smithing, or how, in order to reach a consensus, the vision necessarily loses all individuality. The books do not mention the passionless and sterile written exhortation which is ultimately produced, of working towards ‘unshakeable integrity’. As admirable in content as these may be, they are merely corporate mantras rather than words to be lived by. Few will believe in something imposed from above, instead merely complying at a superficial level.

The unfortunate fact is, when turning from rhetoric to reality, the contradictions can be overwhelming. Deep down, all staff members know that envisioning is attempted not to create a more egalitarian company, but only as a means of enriching the company directors. But what about those staff member? Few of them work merely for the love of their job. In a materialistic and consumer-driven world, they work for hard and tangible rewards. This can take many forms, but certainly involves the company giving back profit in the form of salary, overtime, TOIL, bonuses, perks and extra days off. Personal visions never, ever, mention these.

Here’s another reason why envisioning is dubious at best. Workers do not like to be treated as products in the service of profits, or cogs in the organisational machine, yet envisioning ranks them as even worse – as animals in a sociological experiment. The assumption is that they lack their own personal vision and are helplessly adrift, deficits which can only be remedied by a great leader who can herd the lost sheep in the right direction. This is not a feeling likely to enhance commitment to the cause, and often make staff feel the very opposite, a fact about which I can personally testify from my own experiences of working in big companies where the envisioning farce was played out.
Personal visions are, in fact, necessarily complex. Almost everyone would surely have difficulties in articulating their deepest motivations, as well as in being honest about this to themselves. They would similarly have some reluctance to openly talk on the subject, often with people who might be competitors for that next promotion. Furthermore, envisioning begs the question of whether a vision is even necessary. Some people are not driven by a determination to stridently blaze a trail through life. This may merely show a spiritual calm, and a desire to appreciate the present. It may also be a smarter and more strategic approach to life’s unpredictable turns, applying equally well to the business world. In short, a lack of vision may be better – much better.

George Bush, as with many presidents, occasionally did not articulate his thoughts clearly, but his famously dismissive comment about envisioning speaks volumes. ‘That vision thing’ is remarkable in its concision. In just three words, it encapsulates the trendy, contrived, pigeon-holing, simplistic, top-down, and often insulting and hypocritical nature of the process. Mr Bush, you have my vote.

Questions 14-17
Answer the questions. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer

14. Broadly, what do staff need in order to most benefit a company?
15. Which people advise envisioning?
16. What do they believe a lack of vision might cause?
17. What aspect can groups of people never have in common?

Questions 18-23
Complete the flow chart. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Questions 24-26
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C, or D.

24. Most people
A can define what makes them want to succeed.
B will discuss their personal visions with others.
C are interested in promotions.
D express their deeper feelings truthfully.

25. Personal visions
A take people forward in life.
B result in the absorption of immediate details.
C provide defence against unexpected events.
D help calm people’s minds.

26. With regard to envisioning, the author feels
A critical.
B contemptuous.
C impartial.
D suspicious.

Destination Mars

Mars is the closest potentially habitable planet. It has solid ground, protective surface features, a thin atmosphere, more closely mimics the gravitational and lighting conditions on Earth, and is reachable – just. Most importantly, studies have found that this planet has vast reserves of frozen water, and there are other basic minerals as well. In contrast, the closest heavenly body – the moon – is dusty, barren, hostile, and dark. Settlement of the moon would be much easier, but since there are no resources there, it would ultimately be more costly and of little use. If there is any extra-terrestrial site where humankind will ultimately settle, it must be Mars.

Yet this planet is much more distant than the moon, making the logistics daunting. Food, water, oxygen, and life-support systems for such a journey would be too heavy for current rocket science. Technological innovations would be necessary, and the timing of the trip absolutely critical. The different orbits of Mars and Earth mean that they most closely approach each other every 26 months, but this event itself fluctuates on a 15-year cycle. This means that only once in that time does a launch window open. That is quite few and far between, yet missions must necessarily leave at these times.

The trouble is, even then, the journey to Mars and back would take over a year, and the human body suffers profoundly when left in micro-gravity for that length of time. Without the need to stand, there is almost no flexing or pressure on the back or the leg muscles. These gradually shrink and weaken, while bones lose their density, and lungs their aerobic capacity. When left long enough in space, astronauts are unable to function properly. Yet these people will need their full physical strength and alertness for the many operational duties required. These include docking in space, approaches and landing on Mars, remote manipulation of machines, and dealing with any emergencies that arise.

Another hazard of such duration in a hermetically sealed spacecraft is disease. Human bodies constantly shed waste material (sweat, skin-flakes, hair, moisture, mucus, and the products of digestion), all of which allow microbes to breed prolifically. Coughs and sneezes spray fluids into the air, which, without gravity to pull them down to surfaces, simply float as airborne particles in those cramped confines, causing easy microbial exchange between crew members. Bacterial infections and fungal attacks can be prevalent, and human immune systems are weakened in micro-gravity. Thus, a long mission to Mars would require the best air-cleansing system available, rigorous disinfecting and hygiene procedures, plus an excellent supply of antibiotics.

On reaching Mars, the problems only increase. Staying on the planet for any significant length of time will be difficult. In the absence of a thick protective atmosphere or magnetosphere to burn up or deflect objects, respectively, astronauts will be exposed, to potentially lethal UV radiation, micro-meteoroids, solar flares, and high-energy particles, all of which regularly bombard the surface. Spacecraft and land-based capsules will need special shielding, which adds to the weight and expense. Construction of living quarters will be time-consuming, difficult, and dangerous. For a longer stay on Mars, the only solution, it seems, is to go underground.

One of the most interesting discoveries in this respect is of possible cave entrances on the side of Arsia Mons, a large Martian volcano. Seven such entrances have been identified in satellite imagery, showing circular holes resembling the collapse of cave ceilings. The hope is that these may lead to more extensive cave formations, or perhaps lava tubes, offering the protection necessary in such a hostile terrain. An additional benefit is the potential access to vital minerals, and most importantly of all, the possibility of frozen water. These sites therefore open up the possibility of independent and permanent settlement on this planet.

The most exciting option is to attempt that on the very first trip – in other words, making it a oneway journey. The advantage is that the duration of space travel is immediately halved, reducing the technological, biological, and financial challenges. This very strong argument is somewhat offset by the difficulties in establishing a permanent presence, as well as the necessary ongoing commitment to it – for example, in the delivery of food and supplies via unmanned spacecraft. Similarly, the psychological effects on these pioneers of permanent isolation from Barth and its community, as well as being crowded into confined Martian living quarters with the same companions, raise issues of whether such a settlement is humanly feasible.

This begs the question of why undertake such missions at all. The answer, according to proponents, is that it is our destiny. Throughout history, explorers have regularly embarked on journeys in the full knowledge that death may await them, or that even if they succeeded, their health and wellbeing would be severely compromised. And today, people regularly practise extreme sports, or work in dangerous occupations, all of which significantly lower their life expectancy. The risks involved in being a Martian pioneer are no different, and so, it is argued, there is no reason why they should deter us now.

Questions 27-30
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage One? 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

27. The greatest advantage of Mars is that it has many basic minerals.
28. Settlement of the moon would be more expensive.
29. The magnetosphere burns up objects.
30. A one-way expedition to Mars is better.

Questions 31-35
Complete the table. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Problems involved in travelling to Mars	Associated fact
inadequate rocketry	scientists would need (31)…………………….
infrequent (32)………………….	once every 15 years
effect of space on (33)……………….	bones (34)…………………
disease	lack of gravity facilitates (35)……………………

Questions 36-40
Give TWO examples of the following categories. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each example.

Categories	Example	Another example
Human attributes needed for important space activities	physical strength	(36)…………………
Specific medical conditions which could occur in space	(37)………………….	fungal attack
Solid objects which could strike astronauts on Mars	(38)……………….	high-energy particles
Useful substances inside Martian caves	vital minerals	(39)………………….
High-risk activities happening now on Earth	extreme sports	(40)………………

Pine Trees

I am looking at a very thick twisted trunk, rising to medium height, at which point appears a stumpy canopy of spiky needles. It’s a tree, but a very special one. Ron Simonson, a park ranger explains. “It’s a bristlecone pine, and it’s been given the name, Methuselah”. I ask the obvious question, and Ron replies, “Because like Methuselah from the bible, this tree is very old, one of the oldest living things on Earth in fact.” I ask the next obvious question, and Ron replies, “Basically Methuselah has existed throughout virtually all of recorded human history.” I look again at this quiet and unassuming tree, beginning to realise it is worthy of great respect.

Being in a cold climate, facing limited summer seasons, rooted in nutrient poor and dry soil, and subject to high winds and withering winters, bristlecone pines mature very slowly indeed. Yet mature they do, as with all pines becoming fractionally thicker every year as another growth ring is added to their truck. By counting these, we can accurately state that, as of 2011, Methuselah was4,842 years old, meaning that it sprouted as a seedling in 2832 BC, centuries before the ancient Egyptians began building their pyramids. And that’s just one fascinating fact about that well-known species of tree – the pine.

Pines trees are native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. Several species have adapted to the harsh conditions of high elevations and latitudes, including Methuselah himself, growing among the peaks of the White Mountains of Northern California.

Pines can be small, such as the Siberian Dwarf Pine, or huge, such as the Ponderosa Pine in the wilds of Oregon, and there are over 100 varieties in all. They have been introduced in to the more temperate portions of the Southern Hemisphere, where they are now grown widely, becoming a familiar feature in parks and gardens. It would not be too much of an exaggeration to say that almost everyone knows pines.

These trees certainly have many telltale characteristics. They are evergreen, usually with needle-like foliage and a sharp pleasant ‘pine smell. They are often large and imposing, with thick scaly bark, and always produce their signature pine cones. These formations are certainly not simple. They can be male (small, inconspicuous, and shedding pollen) or female (large, woody, and containing seeds), even when appearing on the same tree. They have numerous scales arranged in a spiral, with seeds (on the female) tucked within. As the cone opens, the seeds eventually fall out, mostly to be dispersed by the wind, or sometimes by birds. In some varieties, the cones remain closed until their binding resin is melted by forest fires.

This last fact – the need for wildfires for regeneration – is another fascinating aspect of many pine species. In fire-prone areas, it can result in extensive stands of pines, a good example being in ‘pine barrens’. These are eco-regions of sandy nutrient-poor soil dominated by pines, since the frequency of natural (usually lightning-induced) fires weeds out the less fire-tolerant species. It is perhaps sad that modern fire prevention methods have resulted in the decline of many pine species in the wild, and most ancient pine barrens are now being taken over by other forest vegetation.

However, the situation is very different for home and commercial use, which has seen pines become a very common sight. As these trees grow fast, can be planted in dense arrays, and produce attractive and easily moulded wood, they are favourites for commercial plantations. The wood is fragrant, but prone to decay, so it is most suitable for indoor or dry carpentry, rather than outdoors, where more durable varieties are necessary. As for other uses of pines, their branches are valued as Christmas trees, and their wood is also pulped in factories for paper and chipboard production. Pine resin is a byproduct, and this is collected for distillation into turpentine, an important industrial solvent.

In a more homely sense, perhaps what people most like are the cones, the largest of which are regularly used by children and craft enthusiasts. With the widespread distribution of pines across the Northern Hemisphere, cones form part of the many traditional cultures there, where they are used for decorative purposes, fire starters, bird feeders, or just intriguing natural playthings for young children. Many people lament that modern manufactured toys in the more affluent of these countries have displaced cones, although some Nordic communities still teach traditional ‘cone-craft’ in high schools.

For some reason, I always come back to Methuselah. Ron tells me a story. In 1964, a student was taking a coring sample from another bristlecone pine in the area. His coring toll broke, so the tree was cut down to allow dating by an examination of a cross-section of its trunk. Upon doing this, to the astonishment of all, 4,844 rings were counted, signifying that the tree was even older than Methuselah. Ron smiles wryly at the thought. ‘We deliberately killed the oldest life on Earth. That’s one reason why we keep the location of Methuselah a secret. This tree is precious, and must be kept free from all human interference.’

Questions 1-4
Complete the sentences. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Every year, pine trees gain another (1)……………………

The pyramids were built hundreds of years after (2)…………………

Typical of all pines are their (3)………………..

The wood from pines is not very (4)……………………

Questions 5-8
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage One? 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

5. Ponderosa pines are the largest.
6. Pines are familiar to most people.
7. Birds usually spread pine seeds.
8. Lightning storms benefit pine barrens.

Questions 9-11
Choose THREE answers from the list, and write the correct letter, A-F, next to the questions.

Which THREE groups of people, A-F, particularly like pine trees?

A plantation owners
B outdoor carpenters
C people interested in craft
D certain native communities
E factory owners
F users of turpentine

Questions 12-13
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C, or D.

12. Pine cones are
A complicated
B male
C mostly the same size.
D often used as toys in affluent countries.

13. Methuselah is
A 4,842 years old.
B the oldest tree ever.
C visited by tourists.
D not subject to much sunshine.

An Insanely Dangerous Activity

Agnes Milowka was one of the foremost cave divers in the world. Female, photogenic, and experienced, she had gained international recognition for her exploratory work in many underground caverns around the world. In early 2011, she entered Tank Cave, near Mount Gambier, a seven-kilometre maze of narrow tunnels – yet ones she had explored many times before. Deep inside, she parted company from her dive buddy to explore a tight passageway through which only one person could pass. What happened next will never be exactly known, but the nature of the cave suggests that she became disoriented during a ‘silt-out’. Unable to manoeuvre quickly, with visibility almost zero, she could not find her way back, and her air ran out.

Thinking of these last moments is disturbing, but illustrates the obvious dangers of cave diving. When anything goes wrong, divers cannot swim vertically to the surface, but must instead navigate the entire way back. The dive is immediately abandoned, but even with the full team at hand, the return is complicated by narrow tunnels, often lined with sand, mud, or clay, all of which can be easily disturbed – the dreaded ‘silt-out’ – where, in a few seconds, the diver is in a panic-inducing soup of sediment, virtually blind. Artificial light is swallowed in the pitch blackness, and there always needs to be sufficient breathing gas. In short, cave diving seems an insanely dangerous activity.

Yet the cave-diving community disputes this, arguing that their sport is actually safer than normal open-sea recreational diving. This is due to the much greater degrees of experience and training, and the special equipment used. Most fatalities that have occurred are a result of breaking accepted protocols, where improperly trained and inadequately equipped divers take on caves well beyond their capabilities. Cave divers maintain that, if the rules and guidelines are followed, their sport becomes acceptably safe. In the rare cases where deaths have happened while following these, there have typically been unusual circumstances, such as unexpected currents or rock falls.

So, what are those protocols? There are five major ones, all decided upon after extensive accident analysis (the breaking down of accident reports to find their most common causes). Firstly, a cave diver should be trained and experienced. This is done in carefully documented components, each dealing with increasingly complex facets of cave diving, and accompanied with relevant, dive time before progression onwards is allowed. The next rule is the same as with all diving, whether open-sea or cave. It concerns the maximum depths and the decompression stops needed to allow the release of dissolved nitrogen from the blood. This is all carefully calculated in a dive plan before entering the water, and every diver must strictly adhere to this.

The next two protocols each concern a vital piece of equipment. Firstly, a guide rope is an absolute necessity. This is secured at the cave entrance, and fed into the cave by the lead diver. Sufficient tension is always maintained, and often the rope is tied up at regular lengths within the cave interior to ensure this. In the event of a silt-out, all divers, in theory, can find this rope, using it to guide their way back to the cave entrance. Equally crucial are the lights. A diver without lights is effectively marooned, unable to go anywhere. Each diver is therefore required to have three independent sources: a primary, and two backups. These are checked under the water when entering the cave, and the protocol states that if even one of these fails, the dive is abandoned for all members of the team.

The final protocol is, in some ways, the most basic, and concerns the breathing gas. With no quick escape, the ‘rule of thirds’ prevails. Here, one third of the gas is reserved for exploring into the cave, one third for retreating out of it, and one third as a reserve in the event of an emergency, or to support fellow divers. Most protocols suggest keeping each third in a separate air system, so that the loss of one – for example, due to a valve rupture – will not imperil the other two. Another variation is to ensure that these three separate systems are used equally, so that the remaining air is kept balanced. Again, this is a defence against the loss of one system, maximising the amount of air remaining for the return.

By following all such protocols, the risk is minimised, so that cave diving, as far as can be proven with the limited statistics available, is said to be safer than driving a car. Yet, as the sad death of Agnes Milowka shows, lethal mishaps can always occur. The question to be asked then is why anyone would want to dive into cold, confined, pitch-dark, subterranean cave systems in the first place. The answer is supplied by a cave-diving leader: ‘You get to see things that human beings have never seen before. Nothing on Earth can compare to that.’

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

14. Agnes Milowka was
A famous for her photography.
B familiar with Tank Cave.
C diving alone.
D manoeuvring too quickly.

15. In cave-diving emergencies,
A the return is difficult.
B there is vertical escape.
C divers often experience silt-outs.
D some team members stay behind.

16. Cave-diving accidents usually happen
A when equipment breaks.
B more than in open-sea diving.
C with bad equipment.
D with a lack of equipment.

Questions 17-23
Complete the table. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

	Protocol	Detail
1st	have sufficient training and experience	progression not permitted unless there is (17)………………..
2nd	(18)……………….must be followed	must have sufficient (19)………………….
3rd	must use a (20)………………	must keep (21)…………………..
4th	must have at least three independent lights	dives do not go ahead of (22)……………………
5th	must obey rule of thirds	each system usually kept separate, sometimes breathed (23)………………

Questions 24-26
Complete the summary. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

After she (24)…………………….from her diving companion, Agnes Milowka died, illustrating the dangers involved in cave diving, yet there are (25)…………………….which prove it is acceptably safe, and the attraction of seeing sights (26)…………………..before lures people on.

Criminal Rehabilitation: A Difficult Issue

When convicted criminals have served long terms of imprisonment, it is obvious that, upon their release, one cannot necessarily expect them to be reformed and able to reintegrate into society. In the potential ly rough and violent ganglands of prisons, quite the opposite may occur, which raises a difficult dilemma in the criminal justice system. To maintain social order, those who break the law are expected to be punished, yet that same maintenance of order means that rehabilitation must be given a high emphasis.

The ethic of rehabilitation is based on the assumption that criminal tendencies are not necessarily permanent, and that former inmates can successfully lead lives in which they contribute positively to society. The ultimate goal is to prevent them from reoffending, an event technically known as criminal recidivism. Prisons therefore contain systems of education or therapy, as well as assessment to determine whether inmates have truly developed remorse for past misdeeds, an ability to reintegrate into society, and intentions to do so. Assessing this accurately is a difficult issue, and it must be accepted that there are some people who can never be rehabilitated, however much we try.

The term psychopath is often used here, one of the key determiners of this condition being an inability to learn from past mistakes. Techniques towards improving their behaviour are thus unlikely to work. Obviously, recidivism is highly correlated with this condition, yet studies have shown that psychopathie prisoners are equally likely to be released from prisons as non-psychopathic ones. This is often explained by the fact that psychopathic individuals develop better strategies at disguising their intentions, and become more adept at tricking others. Treatment and therapy merely give them knowledge of penal and judicial procedures, which they can then twist to their advantage, colloquially known as ‘system cracking’.

Cases such as these reveal the biggest problem with rehabilitation: the difficulty of reading the deepest intentions of human beings. Nevertheless, inmates will be released, and consequently need assistance for their reintegration into society. This is most commonly done through parole, which involves serving the remainder of a sentence outside of prison. This is different from probation, which is used instead of prison sentences, and consequently places greater restrictions upon the subject. A similar system is supervised release, where the subject faces the same restrictions as probation, but only after serving the entire prison sentence. Whatever the case, the parole officer will monitor the released inmate, offering support and assistance wherever possible.

The decision about whether to grant parole usually lies with a parole board. Members may be judges, psychiatrists, criminologists, and appointed citizens from the local community. The common factor is that they all have a good education, and are judged to be of high moral standing. Yet again, trying to assess the inmate’s psychological state and what intentions lie within is problematic at best. Good conduct while inside the prison system is the most obvious prerequisite, but other factors based on the support networks existing outside also play a role. Having already established a permanent residence, and having gained employment, is usually mandatory.

Upon being released on parole, there are still a variety of regulatory conditions to be met. These include the obvious, such as obeying the law, and contacting the parole officer at specified intervals, but may be more individual and specific, such as the non-use of drugs and alcohol, and return to the home residence before a certain time (known as a curfew). Upon ignoring any of these, an arrest warrant is issued, parole time is stopped, and there follows a parole violation hearing. The parole board then makes a decision about whether to revoke the parole (which sees the subject reincarcerated) or to allow parole to continue. As mentioned, such decisions are not a hard science, and mistakes can be made.

it is this which can make parole a controversial and politically charged issue. It only takes one highly publicised crime from a person on parole to sway public opinion violently against this system. Thus, the political will is often lacking, which has seen, for example, some US states abolish the parole system completely, and others having done so for specific offences. This is often a response to public pressure, rather than a considered assessment of the pros and cons. As always, the same argument applies without parole as an intermediate step, released inmates may face an uphill battle to avoid recidivism, costing society much more in the longer term.

A more innovative method to encourage rehabilitation is ‘time off for good behaviour’. For each year of imprisonment, it automatically allots inmates who exhibit good behaviour a certain number of days. This means that, year after year, the ‘good time’ is accrued, resulting in an eventual release perhaps one third of the sentence earlier. However, if the inmates commit more than a certain number of infractions, or particularly serious ones, they then forfeit their time, and must complete the full, duration of their sentence.

Questions 27-31
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage Three? 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

27. Many prison inmates can become worse in prison.
28. Prisons usually have good education and therapy systems.
29. Psychopathic prisoners often reoffend after being released.
30. Supervised release is stricter than parole.
31. The abolition of the parole system is usually done after much thought.

Questions 32-35
Complete the flow chart. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Questions 36-40
Write the specific term for each definition. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Specific term	Definition
(36)…………………………	reoffending, after being released from prison
(37)…………………………	manipulating prison officials and procedures
(38)…………………………	an alternative to prison sentences
(39)…………………………	having to be at one’s home by a predetermined time
(40)…………………………	time deducted from the sentences of well-behaved prisoners

It’s Only A Cockroach

I turn on the light in my kitchen that night, and then I see it. I draw back, and my first instinct is to scream. I control myself with difficulty, but find myself shuddering, unable to deal with the creature before me. It’s only a cockroach, but its large size, long antennae, shiny appearance, and spiny legs, all present a particularly disgusting appearance. And this is not just to me, but to everyone it seems, even to the point of phobic responses.

This is certainly the over-riding reason I want these creatures totally eradicated from my apartment, but with their offensive odour, passive transportation of microbes, and trails of droppings, they also pose a distinct threat to domestic hygiene. Clearly, cohabitation is not possible. So, I do all I can to keep these pests away. Food is stored in sealed containers, garbage cans have tight lids, my kitchen is kept spotlessly clean, and my apartment swept and mopped nightly. I have also sealed up possible entry points, but still, these loathsome things find their way inside. I need a way to kill them.

The most precise cockroach killer is, typically, another insect. A specific species of wasp targets these creatures. With a quick accurate swoop, it bites the cockroach at the main nerve centre of its body, which results in a temporary paralysis. This is very necessary, as we all know just how fast cockroaches can run. The wasp has only a few minutes to prepare its next sting, in the exact area of the brain which controls the cockroaches’ instinct to escape. After the paralysis departs, the cockroach is subdued and docile, and doomed. The wasp bites off the antennae to further discourage flight, then drags its victim away.

Faced with such predation, cockroaches usually conceal themselves during the day, and with their ability to flatten their bodies, they can disappear into just about any tiny nook, crevice, and cranny. There, they wait patiently for darkness before emerging to search for food, and will usually run away when exposed to light. Given this, I am told that the slim and agile house centipede is probably the most effective cockroach predator, able to track down and root out the most carefully hidden prey. Unfortunately, I would say that centipedes are even more disgusting to have in one’s house, if that’s possible. I just can’t win this game.

Can anyone win? These insects are just about the hardiest, on the planet. Some can wait for up to three months before meals, some can survive on the barest hint of nutrition (such as the glue on the back of postage stamps), and some can live without air for over half an hour. They do not, however, handle cold weather well, preferring the warm conditions and security found within buildings.

Hidden there, the female lays egg capsules containing around 40 eggs, and with the insect’s relatively long lifespan (about a year), some 300 to 400 offspring can ultimately be produced. The result: once these insects have infested a building, they are very difficult to eradicate.

Cockroaches do, however, have some subtleties. They leave chemical messages in their droppings, as well as emit airborne pheromones to signal other cockroaches about sources of food and water, and alert them to their own presence. The latter is more important, for these insects are actually somewhat gregarious. Research has shown that cockroaches make group-based decisions, and tend to co-operate. One study placed a large number of cockroaches in a dish with three small shelters, and the insects divided themselves equally between two of them, leaving the third one empty. When these shelters were exchanged for two very large ones, all the cockroaches arranged themselves in just one. These creatures, it seems, prefer the company of others, and a rather fair al location of resources.

Should I therefore feel any admiration? It is hard – in fact, in Western culture, cockroaches are almost universally depicted as repulsive and dirty pests. In the insect’s most famous literary appearance – Franz Kafka’s ‘The Metamorphosis’ – a man, Gregor, is transformed overnight into a monstrous insect, probably a cockroach (although the story never quite makes that clear). Gregor’s transformation results in very predictable responses from his family and friends, who can never accept him again. He eventually dies, outcast and lonely, despised and mistreated – a potent symbol of alienation and rejection. Yet in the Pixar animated feature ‘Wall-E’, a cockroach provides essential companionship to a lone robot living on a planet scorched by a nuclear holocaust.

Whatever the case, I am faced with a big problem: a large ugly cockroach crawling slowly across my sink, antennae waving as it explores around. If I try to grab it, it will dart away, and I doubt whether I’ll be able to catch it before it disappears into the numerous cracks and crevices of my old apartment. So, I carefully remove my slipper, determined to squash the insect, but then almost scream again as it lifts on its legs, raises membranous wings, and with a loud buzzing noise, flies away. Oh, just what I need they can fly, too.

Questions 1-4
Answer the questions. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer

1. What aspect of cockroaches makes the author want them removed from the home?
2. What human aspect do they endanger?
3. Which insect is the best cockroach killer?
4. What can cockroaches do to easily hide?

Questions 5-8
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage One? 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

5. The author finds cockroaches more repulsive than centipedes.
6. Cockroaches live longer than many other insects.
7. Cockroaches will fight over food.
8. Cockroaches are often the subject of research.

Questions 9-11
Complete the summary of the second half of the passage. Choose ONE WORD from the passage for each answer.

Cockroaches use (9)………………..in the air to communicate, and show a willingness to (10)……………….yet the author struggles to feel (11)………………….for these insects.

Questions 12-13
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C, or D.

12. Gregor
A becomes a cockroach.
B is a famous character.
C despises his friends.
D needs companionship.

13. The author wants to
A catch the cockroach.
B kill the cockroach.
C touch the cockroach.
D fly like a cockroach.

Such A Fascinating Game

It is one of the world’s most popular games, played by millions of people at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments. It is chess, a humble arrangement where two players stare at a checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid, eyeing their 16 pieces each as the first move is played. When the opponent’s king is checkmated, the game is over, but between the beginning and the end, a wealth of elegant, complicated, and fascinating moves and combinations can unfold.

The origins of chess lie in Northwest India, around the 6th century. At that time there existed a game known as caturanga, which means ‘four division’, those divisions being of the military, represented by the infantry, cavalry, elephants, and chariotry. These pieces were eventually to become the pawn, knight, bishop, and rook, respectively, in the modern descendant of the game. Around 600 AD, caturanga spread to Persia, then, after the Muslim conquest of that region (beginning around that time), the game gained ground throughout the Islamic world, from where it eventually spread to Europe.

Around 1200 AD, Southern Europe began modifying the rules, and within 300 years the game had become recognisably the one we play today. The queen had long replaced the earlier vizier to become the most powerful piece, while the pawns were given the option of advancing two squares on the first move in order to accelerate play. These new rules quickly spread across Western Europe, creating the game now known as ‘western chess’ or ‘international chess’, to distinguish it from older or regional variants of the game.

As for the players themselves, one world think that the best of them are necessarily smart, with extremely high IQs; however, research has not been able to confirm this link. Some studies have shown that good chess players may have strong IQs, but there appears to be no direct correlation between this and chess ability. Paradoxically, the academically brilliant may even be less able at chess, and vice versa. Evidently, there are other factors involved, such as spacio-visual insight and subliminal memory, not necessarily picked up by conventional intelligence tests, readily noticeable, or even useful in real life.

But there are non-mental factors which clearly play a role. No one can doubt that raw talent is necessary, but even the best and brightest must systematically undergo at least 10 to 15 years of theoretical study and competitive practice before reaching world championship levels. The American chess genius, Bobby Fischer, was only 13 when he produced the ‘Game of the Century’, but he was not world champion until he was 29. The Russian chess player, Garry Kasparov, was the youngest world champion ever, at 22, but he began dedicated state-sponsored training from the age of ten onwards, complete with personal chess coaches.

All this shows the fixed place chess has in western culture, meaning also that this region has, historically, produced all the greatest players. However, interest in chess is now growing in the East, although there is one problem being the stiff competition it faces with local board games, such as Xiangqi and Go. These are more popular by a wide margin, but regarding China for example, with its huge population and state-sponsored training, it is fast becoming a major chess power. The reigning women’s world chess champion is Chinese, and the country performs well in chess Olympiads. The future for the game in this country looks bright indeed.

Talking about the future inevitably leads to the subject of computer chess. Serious chess-playing machines began to emerge in the 1970s and 1980s, but their abilities were far below that of the top human players. Progress, although slow, was steady, and with increasing memory and faster processing, it was inevitable that one day a computer would be able to match humans. Yet this is merely by brutally going through all the possible moves, millions per second, deeper and deeper into the position. The final move-choices give the appearance of intuition and long-term strategy, when in actual fact they are simply based on an unthinking and directionless material count.

In 1989, the computer ‘Deep Thought’ scored some wins against top human players, although the world champion at that time, Garry Kasparov, easily defeated the machine in some arranged games. In 1996, however, IBM brought out the next generation computer, ‘Deep Blue’ , Pitting it in s match with this same player. Although it managed to score the first win against a reigning world champion, by losing three and drawing two of the remaining games, it lost the match. However, a return match the following year saw Kasparov facing an even better machine, ‘Deeper Blue’. This time, the computer triumphed 3 1/2 – 2 1/2. And they are only getting better.

As impressive as these results seem, most people agree that it is similar to a forklift beating a weightlifter – somehow not a valid contest, and of little significance. Yes, computers can win games, but creativity and intelligence are still the province of human players. It is these factors, as well as the tense psychological struggle of minds and the personalities involved, together with the limitless artistry of the positions themselves, which will always make chess such a fascinating game.

Questions 14-16
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage Two? 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

14. There are 32 pieces at the beginning of a chess game.
15. Caturanga was more complicated than modern chess.
16. The popularity of caturanga increased after the Muslims took control.

Questions 17-19
Answer the questions. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

17. Which piece replaced the elephant?
18. Why were pawns given an extra ability?
19. Who was the youngest world champion?

Questions 20-24
Give TWO examples of the following categories. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each example.

Categories	An example	Another example
Mental abilities which great chess players must have	spacio-visual insight	(20)…………………..
Requirements, apart from talent which create great chess players	(21)………………..	competitive practice
Reasons accounting for China’s chess success	(22)………………..	state-sponsored training
Factors which enable computers to equal human chess players	increasing memory	(23)……………….
Assets which human players have that computers do not	creativity	(24)……………..

Questions 25-26
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C, or D.

25. Deep Blue
A was stronger than Deeper Blue.
B was stronger than Deep Thought.
C won several games against Kasparov.
D eventually triumphed over Kasparov.

26. Computers
A have significant creativity.
B provide tense psychological struggles.
C are comparable to forklifts.
D analyse billions of positions per second.

What’s In Blood?

A Blood is the most specialised fluid within living animals, playing an absolutely critical role. It symbolises life (‘new blood’), health (‘get your blood running’), personality (‘good or bad blood’), and family (‘your bloodline’). This red fluid itself is something which most people would rather not see, yet it contains such a complex soup of proteins, sugars, ions, hormones, gases, and basic cellular components that it is certainly worth considering in some detail.

B By volume, half of blood is the liquid part, called plasma. The rest comprises specialised components, the main one being red blood cells (technically known as erythrocytes). These transport oxygen molecules throughout the body, and also give blood its colour (from the hemoglobin protein within, which turns red when combined with oxygen). Red blood cells, as with all cells in the human body, have a limited operating life. They are produced within the marrow of bones, principally the larger ones, and live for about four months before they fall inactive, to be then reabsorbed by the spleen and liver, with waste products absorbed into the urine.

C This contrasts with the other main cells of human blood: the white blood cells, technically known as leukocytes. Similarly produced in the bone marrow, they are active only for three or four days, yet they are essential in defending the body against infections. White blood cells come in many different types, each designed to deal with a different sort of invader bacteria, virus, fungus, or parasite. When one of these enters the body, the white blood cells quickly determine its nature, then, after mustering sufficient numbers of a specific type (the period in which you are sick), they launch themselves into the fight, enveloping each individual invasive cell, and breaking it down (leading to recovery).

D That leaves the last main component of blood: platelets. Their technical name is thrombocytes, and they are much smaller than red and white blood cells. Also circulating freely, they are responsible for clotting the blood, and this is necessary to heal both external and internal injuries. Again, they are produced in the bone marrow, and have the interesting ability to change shape. There are several diseases related to the breakdown in the regulation of their numbers. If too low, excessive bleeding can occur, yet if too high, internal clotting may result, causing potentially catastrophic blockages in parts of the body and medical ailments we know as strokes, heart attacks, and embolisms.

E Blood’s complexity presents particular difficulties in the advent of emergency transfusions. These are avoided whenever possible in order to lower the risk of reactions due to blood incompatibility. Unexpected antigens can trigger antibodies to attack blood components, with potentially lethal results. Thus, if transfusions are to take place, a thorough knowledge and classification of blood is essential, yet with 30 recognised blood-group systems, containing hundreds of antigens, this presents quite a challenge. The ABO system is the most important. On top of this is the Rhesus factor, which is not as simple as positive or negative (as most people think), but comprises scores of antigens. These can, however, be clustered together into groups which cause similar responses, creating some order.

F Of course, the simplest system to avoid adverse transfusion reactions is for patients to receive their own blood – for example, in a series of blood donations in anticipation of an operation scheduled some months in advance. The second best system is to undertake cross-matching, which involves simply mixing samples of the patients’ blood with the donors’, then checking microscopically for clumping – a key sign of incompatibility. Both of these systems are obviously impractical in an emergency situation, which is why meticulous testing, documentation, and labeling of blood are necessary.

G In a true emergency, a blood bank is needed, with an array of various types of blood on hand. Hence, blood donations must be a regular occurrence among a significant segment of the population. In the developed world, unpaid volunteers provide most of the blood for the community, whereas in less developed nations, families or friends are mostly involved. In the era of HIV and other insidious blood-borne diseases, potential donors are carefully screened and tested, and a period of about two months is recommended before successive whole blood donations.

H Given the vital role which blood plays, it is strange to think that for almost 2000 years bloodletting was a widespread medical practice. It was based on the belief that blood carried ‘humours’, whose imbalances resulted in medical illnesses. Bleeding a patient was supposed to remove an undesirable excess of one of these. Furthermore, the fact that blood circulated around the body was unknown. It was instead assumed to be quickly created, and equally quickly exhausted of its value, after which it could stagnant unhealthily in the bodily extremities. Although the logic was there, it goes without saying that very few patients responded positively to such treatment.

Questions 27-33
Reading Passage Three has eight paragraphs, A-H. Choose the correct heading for Paragraphs B-H from the list of headings.

List of headings
i Not as big, but needing just enough
ii Some attitudes to blood
iii Good, but not so quick
iv Two ideas see a wrong conclusion
v Complicated identification
vi An interesting treatment
vii A shorter life, but just as important
viii The Principal part that adds some colour
ix Bone marrow and blood
x Maintaining supplies

Example Paragraph A Answer ii

27. Paragraph B
28. Paragraph C
29. Paragraph D
30. Paragraph E
31. Paragraph F
32. Paragraph G
33. Paragraph H

Questions 34-37
Complete the table. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Blood component	Associated fact
Red cells	upon dying, dealt with by (34)……………………
White cells	require (35)……………….before attacking invaders
Platelets	their numbers need careful (36)……………….
(37)………………..	many varieties exist

Questions 38-40
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage Three? 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

38. Blood cross-matching can be done without special equipment.
39. In poorer countries, family members often donate blood.
40. Bleeding people was a painful process.

The Dams That Changed Australia

SECTION ONE
Inland Australia has had a problem with drought from the time of white settlement in 1788 until today, and this is why the Snowy Mountains Scheme was conceived and founded. Before the Snowy Scheme a large proportion of the snowfields on Australia’s highest mountains (the Snowy Mountains) melted into the Snowy River every year. Hence, Snowy River water flowed, ultimately, into the sea, not toward the dry interior of the country, where people needed it so desperately. This was first recognised by the Polish geologist and explorer Strezlecki in 1840, who commented that there could be no development of the inland without adequate water supply. The rivers would have to be diverted if irrigation were to succeed.

Before Federation in 1901, Australia consisted of a group of colonies, all anxious to protect their own interests. After Federation the states retained rights to the water, and thus to what might happen to the rivers. Arguments between New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia led to a deadlocked Premiers’ Conference in 1947. Despite this serious dispute, the Federal Parliament passed the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Power Act just two years later, on July 7. The project was officially commenced on October 17 that year, barely three months after the act had been passed.

The scheme set out to harness water for electricity and to divert it back to the dry inland areas for irrigation. To do this, thousands of kilometres of tunnels had to be drilled through the mountains, and sixteen major dams and seven hydro-electric power stations built over a period of nineteen years. The first of these was Guthega Power Station, which was commissioned in 1954. and the last one to be finished was Tumut III.

SECTION TWO
The Snowy Mountains Scheme was to alter the face of Australia forever. One important change was the recruitment of people from outside Australia to work on the scheme. In 1949, while the world was still recovering from the effects of World War II (1939 to 1945), the Australian government needed immense numbers of people to work on the Snowy. It sought labour from overseas, and 60,000 of the 100,000 people who worked on the scheme came from outside the country.

They came from thirty different countries: from Italy, Yugoslavia, and Germany, from sophisticated cities like Budapest, Paris and Vienna, and from tiny hamlets. These European workers left countries which had fought against each other during the war, and which had vastly different cultures, and they found themselves in a country which was still defining itself. They were adventurous young men, some highly skilled, some not, and they came to a place which offered both enormous challenges and primitive conditions. Many were housed in tents in the early days of the scheme, although some fortunate men were placed in barracks. The food was basic, female company extremely scarce and entertainment lacking.

SECTION THREE
Many new arrivals spoke only limited English, and were offered English classes after work. The men needed primarily to understand safety instructions, and safety lectures were conducted in English and other languages. In fact, a great deal of communication underground was by sign language, especially when the conditions were noisy. The signs were peculiar to the business at hand: for instance, a thumb placed near the mouth meant water, but did not indicate whether the water was needed on the drill the man was using, or for a drink.

The constant reference to the men who worked on the Snowy is appropriate because few women worked on the scheme, and those who were employed usually held office jobs. Women, however, were active in the community, and the members of the Country Women’s Association gave English lessons. Other English instruction was provided by the Australian Broadcasting Commission, which ran daily broadcasts to help the newcomers with the language.

SECTION FOUR
These circumstances could have caused great social trouble, but there were relatively few serious problems. The men worked long and hard, and many saved their money with a view to settling in Australia or returning home. At a reunion in 1999 many were happy to remember the hardships of those days, but it was all seen through a glow of achievement. This satisfaction was felt not only by the men who worked directly on the project, but by the women, many of whom had been wives and mothers during the scheme, and indicated that they had felt very much part of it.

The children of these couples went to school in Happy Jack, a town notable for having the highest school in Australia, and the highest birth rate. In one memorable year there were thirty babies born to the eighty families in Happy Jack. Older children went to school in Cooma, the nearest major town.

SECTION FIVE
The scheme is very unlikely to be repeated. The expense of putting the power stations underground would now be prohibitive, and our current information about ecology would require a different approach to the treatment of the rivers. Other hydro-electric schemes like the Tennessee Valley Authority preceded the Snowy Mountains Scheme, and others have followed. The Snowy Mountains Scheme is the only hydro-electric scheme in the world to be totally financed from the sale of its electricity.

As well as being a great engineering feat, the scheme is a monument to people from around the world who dared to change their lives. Some are living and working in Australia, many have retired there, some have returned to their countries of origin. Every one of them contributed to altering Australian society forever.

Questions 1-5
Reading Passage 1 contains five sections. Choose the correct heading for Sections One to Five from the fist of headings below.

List of Headings
i Using sign language on the Snowy Mountains
ii The workers and their families
iii Development of inland Australia
iv The cost of the Snowy Mountains Scheme
v The unique nature of the scheme
vi Housing the Snowy Mountains’ workforce
vii Why the Snowy Mountains Scheme began
viii Learning new ways to communicate
ix Recruiting people for the Snowy Mountains Scheme
x Social problems of the workers

1. Section One
2. Section Two
3. Section Three
4. Section Four
5. Section Five

Questions 6-10
Complete the table below. Choose ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER from Reading Passage 1 for each answer.

Year	Event
1788	white settlement begins
1840	awareness that the (6)……………….could not be developed without irrigation
1901	federation
1947	dispute between the states on the rivers’ future, resulting in a (7)…………………Premiers’ Conference
(8)………………..	snowy mountains scheme begins recruitment of (9)………………people from abraod
1954	work on Guthega Power Stations begins
(10)……………..	Tumut III Power Station completed

Questions 11-13
Complete the sentences. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Communicating using (11)………………..was necessary for the labourers because of the conditions.

The workers reminisced about the (12)…………………endured in the early days at their reunion.

The Snowy Mountains Scheme was considered an (13)………………which altered Australian society thereafter.

Power From The Earth

A Geothermal power refers to the generation of electrical power by making use of heat sources found well below the earth’s surface. As is well-known, if a hole were to be drilled deep into the earth, extremely hot, molten rock would soon be encountered. At depths of 30 to 50 km, temperatures exceeding 1000 degrees Celsius prevail. Obviously, accessing such temperatures would provide a wonderful source for geothermal power. The problem is, such depths are too difficult to access: drilling down some 30 or more kilometres is simply too costly with today’s technology.

B Fortunately, sufficiently hot temperatures are available at considerably shallower depths. In certain areas, where the earth’s surface has been altered over time—through, for example, volcanic activity-temperatures exceeding 300 degrees Celsius can be found at depths of a mere 1 to 3 km, which can be feasibly accessed. These particular areas are potentially ideal for the generation of electricity through geothermal means.

C It is possible to explain geothermal power generation as a steam power system that utilizes the earth itself as a boiler. When water is sent down to the depths of 1 to 3 km, it returns to the surface as steam and is capable of generating electricity. Electricity generated in this manner hardly produces any carbon dioxide or other waste materials. If the steam and hot water are routed back underground, the generation of electricity can be semi-permanent in nature.

D Furthermore, geothermal power can provide a stable supply of electricity unlike other natural energy sources such as solar power and wind power, which both rely heavily on weather conditions. Accordingly, the generation of electricity through geothermal power is four to five times more efficient than through solar power. As for wind power, geothermal power is some two times more cost effective. Only the generation of hydroelectric power comes close— the cost of power production from each is about the same.

E Although geothermal power generation appears to be a most attractive option, development has been slow. The world’s first successful attempt at geothermal power generation was accomplished in Italy in 1904. Power generation in Japan first started in 1925 at Beppu City. Since that time, countries as diverse as Iceland and New Zealand have joined the list of nations making use of this valuable source of energy. In the year 2000, Beppu City hosted the World Geothermal Congress, whose goal was to promote the adoption of geothermal energy production throughout the world.

F The international geothermal community at the World Geothermal Congress 2000 called upon the governments of nations to make strong commitments to the development of their indigenous geo-thermal resources for the benefit of their own people, humanity and the environment. However, several factors are still hindering the development of geothermal power generation. Firstly, it has a low density of energy which makes it unsuitable for large-scale production in which, for example, over 1,000,000 kilowatts need to be produced. Secondly, the cost is still high when compared to today’s most common sources of energy production: fossil fuels and atomic energy.

G A further consideration is the amount of risk involved in successfully setting up a new geothermal power production facility. The drilling that must extend 2,000 to 3,000 m below the surface must be accurate to within a matter of just a few metres one side or the other of the targeted location. To achieve this, extensive surveys, drilling expertise and time are needed. It is not uncommon for a project to encompass ten years from its planning stage to the start of operations. The extent of the risks involved is clear.

H Although it has long been considered a resource-poor nation, Japan, which is thought to have about 10% of the world’s geothermal resources, may well have considerable advantages for tapping into geothermal power. It does have one of the longest serving power stations using geothermal energy. The station, built in 1966, pointed the way to the future when the country was affected by the two global oil shocks in the 1970s. Now there are some 17 plants in operation throughout the country which are responsible for a total output of over 530,000 kilowatts. This figure, though impressive, accounts for a mere 0.4% of Japan’s total generation of electricity.

I Clearly then, further progress needs to be made in the development of geothermal energy. As long as costs remain high in comparison to other sources of energy, geothermal power wilt struggle to match the efficiency of existing power sources. Further research and innovation in the field, as well as government support and a sense of urgency, are needed to help propel geothermal energy towards its promising future.

Questions 14-19
Reading Passage 2 has nine paragraphs, A-l. Which paragraph contains the following information?

14. the history of the development of geothermal power
15. one country’s use of geothermal power
16. a comparison between various energy sources
17. how geothermal energy can produce electricity
18. conditions which permit access to geothermal power
19. problems of geothermal exploration

Questions 20-26
Do the following statements agree with the writer s claims in Reading Passage 2? In boxes 20-26 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

20. Accessing geothermal energy at depths greater than 3 km is currently not possible.
21. The generation of geothermal power produces a considerable amount of by-products that can be damaging to the environment.
22. The World Geothermal Congress has been able to raise money for research in this area.
23. Geothermal energy is still relatively expensive lo generate.
24. It can take a decade to develop a single geothermal power station.
25. Japan is capable of generating one quarter of its energy needs using geothermal energy.
26. The future of geothermal energy depends upon the decline of fossil fuel resources.

Are We Managing To Destroy Science?

The government in the UK was concerned about the efficiency of research institutions and set up a Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) to consider what was being done in each university. The article which follows is a response to the imposition of the RAE. In the year ahead, the UK government is due to carry out the next Research Assessment Exercise (RAE ). The goal of this regular five-yearly check-up of the university sector is easy to understand: to increase productivity within public sector research. But striving for such productivity can lead to unfortunate consequences. In the case of the RAE, one risk attached to this is the creation of an overly controlling management culture that threatens the future of imaginative science.

Academic institutions are already preparing for the RAE with some anxiety—understand-ably so, for the financial consequences of failure are severe. Departments with a current rating of four or five (research is rated on a five point scale, with five the highest) must maintain their score or face a considerable loss of funding. Meanwhile, those with ratings of two or three are fighting for their survival. The pressures are forcing research management onto the defensive. Common strategies for increasing academic output include grading individual researchers every year according to RAE criteria, pressurising them to publish anything regardless of quality, diverting funds from key and expensive laboratory science into areas of study such as management, and even threatening to close departments. Another strategy being readily adopted is to remove scientists who appear to be less active in research and replace them with new, probably younger, staff.

Although such measures may deliver results in the RAE , they are putting unsustainable pressure on academic staff. Particularly insidious is the pressure to publish. Put simply, RAE committees in the laboratory sciences must produce four excellent peer-reviewed publications per member of staff to meet the assessment criteria. Hence this is becoming a minimum requirement for existing members of staff, and a benchmark against which to measure new recruits. But prolific publication does not necessarily add up to good science. Indeed, one young researcher was told in an interview for a lectureship that, although your publications are excellent, unfortunately, there are not enough of them. You should not worry so much about the quality of your publications.’

In a recent letter to Nature, the publication records of ten senior academics in the area of molecular microbiology were analysed. Each of these academics is now in very senior positions in universities or research institutes, with careers spanning a total of 262 years. All have achieved considerable status and respect within the UK and worldwide. However, their early publication records would preclude them from academic posts if the present criteria were applied.

Although the quality of their work was clearly outstanding—they initiated novel and perhaps risky projects early in their careers, which have since been recognised as research of international importance— they generally produced few papers over the first ten years after completing their PhDs. Indeed, over this period, they have an average gap of 3-8 years without the publication or production of a cited paper. In one case there was a five-year gap. Although these enquiries were limited to a specific area of research, it seems that this model of career progression is widespread in all of the chemical and biological sciences.

It seems that the atmosphere surrounding the RAE may be stifling talented young researchers or driving them out of science altogether. There urgently needs to be a more considered and careful nurturing of our young scientific talent. A new member of academic staff in the chemical or biological laboratory sciences surely needs a commitment to resources over a five- to ten-year period to establish their research. Senior academics managing this situation might be well advised to demand a long-term view from the government.

Unfortunately, management seems to be pulling in the opposite direction. Academics have to deal with more students than ever and the paperwork associated with the assessment of the quality of teaching is increasing. On top of that, the salary for university lecturers starts at only £32,665 (rising to £58,048). Tenure is rare, and most contracts are offered on a temporary contract basis. With the mean starting salary for new graduates now close to £36,000, it is surprising that anybody still wants a job in academia.

It need not be like this. Dealings with the many senior research managers in the chemical and water industries at the QUESTOR Centre (Queen’s University Environmental Science and Technology Research Centre) provided some insight. The overall impression is that the private sector has a much more sensible and enlightened long-term view of research priorities. Why can the universities not develop the same attitude?

All organisations need managers, yet these managers will make sure they survive even when those they manage are lost. Research management in UK universities is in danger of evolving into such an overly controlled state that it will allow little time for careful thinking and teaching, and will undermine the development of imaginative young scientists.

Questions 27-34
Complete the summary. Choose NO MORE THAN ONE WORD from the passage for each answer.

In the UK, every five years, the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) inspects research institutions to determine their rate of (27)…………………….This tends to cause (28)…………………….in academic institutions because any failure would lead to (29)…………………..financial consequences. RAE’s purpose, however, is to increase the academic output within research institutions. In response to the (30)………………..of RAE, the research institutions are changing the way they do things. Some are forcing their research staff to (31)……………..almost anything, while others are moving (32)…………………from a laboratory focus to that of management. Another common approach utilised by management is to remove and (33)………………….underperforming research staff. The authors of this paper feel that the pressure on UK research institutions is (34)…………….

Questions 35-38
Do the following statements agree with the writer’s claims in Reading Passage 3? In boxes 35-38 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

35. Good researchers are usually prolific publishers.
36. People in industry seem to understand the long-term nature of research.
37. The private sector has produced more in the way of quality research than universities.
38. Management may be the only winners under the new system.

Questions 39-40
Choose the appropriate letter, A, B, C or D.

39. The early publishing records of senior researchers would
A prevent institutions from employing them.
B rule out their chances of achieving any status using the current standards.
C support their application for an academic posting under the present criteria.
D hinder their academic prospects under the current criteria.

40. Gifted new scientists need to be
A managed over a decade by senior academics.
B guided over a ten-year period to develop their research.
C supported with resources over a decade to establish their research.
D advised of the government’s long-term view on research.

Hazardous Compound Helps To Preserve Crumbling Books

Librarians may be able to save millions of books from slowly crumbling with a new chemical process that uses a hazardous flammable compound, diethyl zinc (DEZ). Chemists in the US have successfully completed an 18-month trial of the technique, which neutralises the acids in paper which cause books to decay. The method was developed by the Dutch chemical giant, Akzo, in collaboration with the US Library of Congress. It can treat 1,000 books at a time at a fraction of the cost of digitising. The world’s libraries and archives are today stocked mainly with books that are destroying themselves because of a new way of making paper that was introduced over a hundred years ago. In this process, wood pulp became the main source of the cellulose from which paper was made, replacing the cotton or linen rags used previously.

Unfortunately, book publishers were unaware that the slightly acidic nature of wood pulp would eventually threaten their work. The acid attacks the cellulose polymer of paper, breaking it down into shorter and shorter pieces until the paper’s structure collapses. The only answer is to neutralise the acids in the paper by chemical means. This has generally been done by unbinding the book, treating it page by page with a carbonate solution, and then rebinding it. The cost can be as much as £200 per volume. Akzo’s method can be done without taking the binding off the book.

On the face of it, DEZ would seem the last chemical that should be brought in contact with paper. This volatile liquid bursts into flames when it comes in contact with air. However, it is not DEZ’s sensitivity to oxidation which is the key to its use as a preserving agent, but its ability to neutralise acids by forming zinc salts with them. Because DEZ is volatile, it permeates the pores in paper. When it meets an acid molecule, such as sulphuric acid, it reacts to form zinc sulphate and ethane gas. DEZ is such a strong base that it will react with any acid, including the weaker organic ones. It will also react with any residual water in the paper to form zinc oxide. This is an added bonus for the book conservators, since it buffers the paper against future attack by acidic gases from the atmosphere, such as sulphur dioxide.

Not only will DEZ protect against acid attack, but it is also capable of neutralising alkalis, which threaten some kinds of paper, it can do this because zinc oxide is amphoteric — capable of reacting with either acids or alkalis. The Akzo method treats books that are closed, yet protects every page. It adds about two per cent of zinc oxide to the weight of the book. Much of this is deposited near the edges of the pages, the parts which are most affected by the acid from readers’ fingers or environmental pollution. The only risk in the Akzo process comes from the DEZ itself; this compound caused a fire at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center where earlier tests on the method were carried out.

For the process, the books are gently heated under vacuum for a day to remove residual traces of moisture. The chamber is then flushed with dry nitrogen gas for five hours to remove the remaining air before DEZ is introduced at a low pressure into the gas stream. DEZ is passed through for about eight hours. Unreacted DEZ is trapped out of the exit gases and recycled, while the ethane is burned off. When the process is complete, the chamber is purged with nitrogen to remove residual DEZ. The whole process takes about three days. The cost per book is about £2, considerably less than the £40 for digitising.

This work was originally funded by the US Library of Congress, which has over 10 million books now at risk. According to Dick Miller, Akzo’s director for book preservation, tests have shown that the method can deal with hundreds of books at a time. A million books a year could be rescued by the new process, for which Akzo has been granted exclusive rights. The treated books should then survive for hundreds of years. Another national institution, the British Library, launched an adopt-a-book scheme to help it meet the costs of processing books. The British Library has so far raised over £80,000. But if the traditional method were used, this would barely cover a twentieth of one per cent of the two million books the Library needs to treat. Edmund King of the British Library’s preservation service says that the Library has developed another method which coats the individual fibres of the paper with ethyl acrylate polymer, protecting the books not only against acid attack but actually making them stronger. The British Library is now seeking an industrial partner to exploit its work.

Questions 1-4
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1? In boxes 1-4 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. The Akzo preservation method is more expensive than other techniques.
2. DEZ’s ability to neutralise acids is the reason why it is used as a preserving agent.
3. The US Library of Congress has exclusive rights to the new book preserving process.
4. Preservation scheme of the British Library is more efficient than the scheme of the US Library of Congress.

Questions 5-8
Choose FOUR letters A-H.

Which FOUR of the following attributes describing diethyl zinc (DEZ) are mentioned in the passage?

A it bursts into flames when it comes in contact with an
B it forms a protective layer of zinc oxide on the surface of the paper
C it changes acid into zinc sulphate throughout the paper
D it reacts with acids to produce zinc salts and water
E it can react with both acids and alkalis
F the chemical reactions it causes make books heavier
G it coats the fibres of the paper with ethyl acrylate polymer
H it tends to retain water within the paper structure

Questions 9-13
Complete the flow chart below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

AKZO BOOK PRESERVING METHOD

books are heated under vacuum in chamber	moisture removed
(9)………………..is circulated for five hours	residual air removed
diethyl zinc is channelled into (10)…………………..
DEZ is circulated	leftover diethyl zinc is removed and (11)……………..ethane is removed and (12)…………..
chamber is flushed using (13)…………………	remaining diethyl zinc is removed

Drugs And Obesity

A Thin is in, in America. Not only fashion magazines, but also doctors proclaim the importance of a slim, healthy body. Yet despite the current obsession with the trim, taut and terrific body, Americans are putting on weight. In studies conducted in 1995, one quarter of Americans were found to be overweight. Fifteen years later, that number had risen to one third of the population.

B In the past, doctors have always recommended a combination of diet and exercise to combat obesity. With the increase in the number of people who are overweight, however, this solution is increasingly being seen to be ineffective.

C Given that diet and exercise often do not help produce weight loss, scientists are becoming convinced that, for many, obesity is a genetic disorder. In fact, a research group at Rockefeller University discovered in experiments on mice what is now called the obesity, or ‘ob’ gene. In turn, this discovery led to the identification of a hormone, leptin, that signals to the brain the amount of fat stored in the body. When injected into the rodents, the hormone reduced appetite and increased the body’s utilisation of calories, the energy produced by food which the body may convert to fat. With findings like these, a large number of medical experts are turning to a selection of drugs which appear to be safe and effective in reducing weight and maintaining lower weight levels.

D Because they see obesity as an illness, these authorities claim that treatment should involve not only diet and exercise but drugs as well. What they have in mind is not just a short course of medication to produce small degrees of weight loss. They want to prescribe longterm, perhaps lifetime, drug therapies, just as they might for high blood pressure or diabetes. Obesity’s victims, these doctors hope, will not only be able to lose weight, but will also keep that weight off forever.

E Not everyone in the medical community is satisfied with the new therapies. Conservatives are seriously worried that the new drugs are, in fact, merely placebos (‘medicines’ that have no medical effect but may benefit the patient psychologically), or, worse, are actually detrimental to patients’ health. Their concerns are understandable.

F In the past, amphetamines—nicknamed ‘uppers’ or ‘speed’—were widely prescribed to control weight. Patients became slimmer, but suffered from tension and irritability, higher pulse rates, and sleepless nights, side effects that may have outweighed the medical benefits of lower body weight. Conservatives also point out that risky as amphetamines were, they were generally prescribed only for temporary use. Advocates of new drug treatments leave open the possibility that the medications will be prescribed for a lifetime.

G While there are at least five now diet drugs waiting approval by the US Drug and Food Administration, at the moment, the only diet medication that is normally used in the US is ‘fen-phen’, a combination of the drugs fenfluramine and phentermine. Fenfluramine boosts serotonin, which elevates mood, while phentermine mimics other substances in the brain. Together, the drugs suppress appetite and increase the rate of burning of calories. As its success becomes more widely known, demand for this medication is increasing.

H For several reasons, however, fen-phen is not the perfect diet medication. First, there is some debate over safety, although most fen-phen researchers say the drugs pose minor health risks compared with amphetamines. For most patients the short-term side effects are negligible; phentermine heightens alertness while persuading the body to burn more calories, and fenfluramine, thought to cut cravings for starches and sweets, can cause drowsiness. But some users experience a racing heartbeat and, although rarely, high blood pressure. While its effects are milder than those of amphetamines, the feeling of higher energy that fen-phen creates can be habit forming. Used alone, phentermine has enough of a positive psychological effect to appeal to recreational drug users, who call it ‘bumblebee’. Perhaps even more importantly for dieters, while the drug may cause initial weight loss, over a period of several years, subjects taking the drugs tended to regain some of the weight they had lost—although at a slower rate than those who did not take fen-phen.

I Many conservative doctors, moreover, still remain reluctant to diagnose obesity as a disease. In a survey of 318 physicians, two thirds said their obese patients lacked self-control, and 39% described them as lazy. This traditional view holds that obesity results from a lack of discipline, correctable by diet and exercise.

Since studies show that most dieters eat more than they say—or even think—they do, there is probably some truth in this view.

J On the other hand, the traditional view is challenged by the discovery of the ‘ob’ gene, which would seem to place significant weight loss outside the individual’s control. Then there is the problem of the ever-increasing numbers of obese people, with the resulting increase in hypertension, and diabetes, leading to kidney failure and heart disease. All of these conditions require medication, and perhaps even costly equipment and surgery. If all of these effects of obesity must be treated with medication, then why not use medical treatment to help control body weight. Prevention is considered better than a cure, generally.

Questions 14-20
Reading Passage 2 has ten paragraphs, A-J. Which paragraph contains the following information?

14. the traditionalist viewpoint under attack
15. research findings concerning obesity as an illness
16. details of the effects of fen-phen on dieters
17. one group’s assessment of the new drugs
18. conservative view on the causes of obesity
19. data on weight gain within the population
20. an explanation of the diet medication currently available

Questions 21-26
Complete the sentences. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

The traditional weight-loss methods were seen as an (21)……………….solution to combating obesity.

There was evidence to suggest that obesity is related to the body’s production of (22)………………and therefore is an illness.

Some authorities are hopeful that long-term drug therapies will help (23)……………….sustain weight loss.

The kind of (24)……………………..caused by amphetamines may have counteracted the medical benefits of weight loss.

The heightened feeling some drugs create can be (25)…………………

The discovery of the obesity gene seems to put the responsibility for losing weight outside (26)……………….

The Development Of Artificial Life

They come into a world where they must struggle to survive. Over many generations, they evolve. But are they alive? Of course, one might say. But the discussion is not about amoebae, ants or alligators. Rather, it’s about computer programs. The occurrence of artificial life’ exists only within PCs and more powerful computers, but its existence in the electronic universe parallels many elements of life in the biological world. Some programs flock like birds. Others organise like bees. Some mutate swiftly from chaotic hordes to complex, stable populations in a process similar to Darwinian evolution.

As a group, artificial life programs represent the most exciting work on the edge of computer research. Study of artificial life holds promise for new ways of solving complex problems and fresh opportunities to model biology and society. Perhaps, far in the future, such research will yield the ability to blueprint living organisms. The basics behind artificial life are surprisingly simple. The programs follow a few simple rules, applying them with a speed and persistence that’s possible only inside a computer. When many such programs are run simultaneously, amazingly complex patterns can emerge. In many cases, these patterns seem like strange replications of natural behaviours.

Programs work together against common enemies and devise new ways of surviving when their environment changes. These results aren’t surprising when you consider that biological life itself consists of nothing more than variations on four simple bits of code: the four compounds that constitute DNA, the building block of all genes and therefore all life. In artificial life, computer instructions take the place of DNA code. The father of modern artificial life, research, Christopher Langton of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the U.S., sees his work this way: ‘For us, artificial life is the study of man-made systems that exhibit behaviours characteristic of natural living systems. We’re attempting to abstract logical forms of life, not matter. We can obtain some of the same dynamics as life, albeit with different materials.’

Langton took up the study of self-replicating programs begun earlier by John von Neumann, a Hungarian mathematician whose theories contributed to the development of the programmable digital computer. An example of how programs mimic biology can be found in cellular automata (cell-like machines): structures that arise from tiny programs that each display a seemingly independent existence based on a few simple rules. Analogies between programs like this and actual life forms are inevitable. When simulated organisms cluster together, leaving rectilinear tracks on the screen, researchers call them ants’. When they do this in a three-dimensional model, they’re called ‘bees’. And perhaps the most disturbing analogy with biological life can be found in computer viruses’, self-replicating programs that display purposeful behaviour and tolerate any small physical changes in their environment.

Although some scientists regard viruses as the first programs capable of existing without the wilful cooperation of humans, the fact is that without humans to design them, they wouldn’t exist at all. Still, some of the work demonstrated at a recent gathering of the artificial life research group evoked confused excitement. ‘During five intense days’, said Langton, ‘we saw a wide variety of models of living systems, including mathematical models for the origins of life, self-reproducing automata, computer programs using the mechanisms of Darwinian evolution to produce co-adapted ecosystems, simulations of flocking birds and schooling fish, the growth and development of artificial plants, and much, much more.’

Craig Reynolds of Symbolics demonstrated his ‘boids’, computer-animated, bird-shaped creatures that flock like real birds. Reynolds programmed the ‘boids’ to follow three simple rules: they maintain a minimum distance from the nearest object; they match velocity with the nearby flock; and they fly toward the greatest concentration of the flock. The resulting flocking behaviour is shockingly real. ‘Ants’, the creation of David Jefferson and Robert Collins, also appeared. Colonies of these randomly generated creatures have developed the ability to navigate electronic mazes and search for symbols that represent food.

Independent programmer John Nagle argued that the next generation of supercomputers should challenge researchers to create ‘squirrels’, computer models with the intelligence level of a biological rodent with one gram of brain mass. Langton’s contribution, ‘Computation at the edge of chaos’, was one of the most unusual presentations. Biologists maintain that life began in a spontaneous outburst of activity that occurred when Earth’s environment reached critical thresholds of heat, atmosphere and chemical composition. A few variations on any of these variables would have altered the course of the planet into either chaos or barrenness.

Langton’s presentation was based on a computer model demonstrating similar principles. Changing a parameter in the model acts like changing the temperature of a computer-generated petri dish of single-cell creatures. When this variable passes a critical threshold, the colonies of Langton’s artificial life programs neither freeze nor evaporate but settle into recurring patterns conducive to the orderly transmission of information. ‘At one end, activity freezes; at the other end, it’s too volatile,’ notes Langton. As a result, he wonders whether ‘computation may emerge spontaneously and come to dominate the dynamics of physical systems’ much as life has. In fact, Langton speculates that life itself may have started as a chance computation on the cusp of liquid and gaseous states.

Questions 27-33
Complete the summary below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Research has shown there are possible similarities between the ‘real’ or (27)……………….and computer programs. In studying so-called (28)……………………. scientists have found that images from computer-generated graphics seem to imitate the behaviour of insects and birds, while others mutate from the disorderly into highly organised populations much like in (29)…………………Artificial life programs may allow researchers to re-evaluate models of biology and society, and may even provide the possibility to (30)…………………….living organisms. Patterns which can emerge from such programs replicate (31)…………………. Being able to adapt to environmental changes, these programs mimic (32)…………………….which, essentially, is built upon four basic codes of information. The only difference, however, is that their DNA code is replaced by (33)……………….

Questions 34-37
Look at the following artificial life programs (Questions 34 37) and the list of descriptions below. Match each artificial life program with the appropriate: description, A-H.

34. Bees
35. Boids
36. Squirrels
37. Ants

List of Descriptions

A can match the intelligence of a bird
B can group together in a rectangular form
C can cluster together moving in straight lines in 3D
D will have a gram of intelligence
E can keep a minimum distance from another object
F are able to group and form a track in 3D
G will be as intelligent as a rodent…..
H are capable of locating symbols depicting food

Questions 38-40
Choose the appropriate letter, A, B or C.

38. Researchers studying artificial life are trying to
A find how life forms impact on computer programs.
B study behavioural characteristics exhibited by man.
C identify logical forms which correspond to living matter.

39. Computer virus programs
A can change behaviour to suit their environment,
B resemble biological life closely but need human input,
C can create biological life independently of humans,

40. Researchers argue that life itself started
A on the basis of chemical variations.
B by chance, spontaneously in a particular environment.
C by a spontaneous computation of physical activity.

Myths About Public Speaking

A Fear of public speaking results not only from what one does not know or understand about public communication, but also from misconceptions and myths about public encounters. These misconceptions and myths persist among professional people as well as the general public. Persistent myths about public communication simply increase fear in people and prevent their development into competent public speakers.

B Perhaps the most persistent myth about public communication is that it is a ‘special’ activity reserved for unusual occasions. After all, public speeches are not made that often. There are only a few special occasions during the year when even an outgoing professional person will step behind a podium to give a public speech, and many professional people can count on one hand the number of public speeches given in a career. Surely, then, public communication is a rare activity reserved for especially important occasions. This argument, of course, ignores the true nature of public communication and the nature of the occasions in which it occurs. To engage with people whom one does not know well, to solve problems, share understanding and perspectives, advocate points of view, or seek stimulation, means to engage in public speaking. Public communication, therefore, is a familiar, daily activity which occurs in the streets, restaurants, boardrooms, courtrooms, parks, offices, factories and meetings. Contrary to widespread misunderstandings, public speaking is not an unusual activity reserved for special occasions and restricted to the lectern or the platform. Rather it is, and should be developed as, an everyday activity occurring in any location where people come together.

C A related misconception about public communication is the belief that the public speaker is a specially gifted individual with innate abilities and God-given propensities. While most professional people would reject the idea that public speakers are born, not made, they never the less often feel that the effective public communicator has developed unusual personal talents to a remarkable degree. At the heart of this misconception—like the myth of public speaking as a ‘special’ activity—is an overly narrow view of what a public person is and does. Development as an effective public communicator begins with the understanding that it is not necessary to be a nationally-known, speak-for-pay, professional platform speaker to be a competent public person. The public speaker is an ordinary person who confronts the necessity of being a public person and uses common abilities.

D A less widespread but serious misconception of public speaking is reflected in the belief that public speeches have a lasting purpose. A public speech is something viewed as an historical event which will be part of a continuing and generally available public record. Some public speeches are faithfully recorded, transcribed, reproduced and made part of broadly available historical records. Those instances are rare compared to the thousands of unrecorded public speeches made’ every day. Public communication is usually situation-specific and ephemeral. Most audiences do well if they remember as much as 40 per cent of what a speaker says immediately after the speaker concludes; even less is retained as time goes by. This fact is both reassuring and challenging to the public communicator. On the one hand, it suggests that there is room for human error in making public pronouncements; on the other hand, it challenges the public speaker to overcome the poor listening habits of most audiences.

E Finally, professional people, perhaps more than other groups, often subscribe to the misconception that public communication must be an exact science, that if it is done properly it will succeed. The troublesome corollary to this reasoning is that if public communication fails, it is because it was improperly prepared or executed. This argument unfortunately ignores the uncertainties of human interaction. Public speakers achieve their goals through their listeners, and the only truly predictable aspect of human listeners is their unpredictability. Further, public messages may succeed despite inadequate preparation and dreadful delivery.

F It should be added that professional people often mismanage their fears of public communication. However, once an understanding of what public encounters assume and demand, once the myths which handicap the growth of a public person are unburdened, development as a competent public communicator can properly begin.

Questions 1-5
Reading Passage 1 has six sections, A-F. Which section contains the following information?

1. A person’s ability to be a public speaker
2. Conditions under which one begins developing as a public speaker
3. A definition of public speaking
4. The relationship of preparation to success in public speaking
5. Reasons why public speaking is feared

Questions 6-11
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 1? In boxes 6-11 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

6. An ongoing misunderstanding about public communication is that it is an uncommon activity.
7. Expressing a point of view does not fall into the category of engaging in public communication.
8. Most professional people believe that good public communicators are born, not made.
9. There is little place for public speaking in the life of the ordinary person.
10. Public speaking can be learned at specially designated schools.
11. It is impossible to predict how a speech will be received.

Questions 12-13
Complete the sentences below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

The writer defines public speaking as any activity where people jointly explore problems, knowledge and opinions, or look for (12)…………………..

One of the most difficult challenges facing a public speaker is dealing with the (13)…………………..of audiences.

Environmental Effects Of Offshore Drilling And Production

A main public concern about petroleum exploration and production seems to be that a blowout will cause a major oil spill.

Oil often exists in the subsurface at great pressure and, in the early days, when wells were drilled with only air or water in the hole, the oil could rush into and up the hole and ‘blowout’ at the surface.

For reasons of economy and safety, the early oil men soon put a. stop to that practice. Rotary drilling technology developed rapidly, including special drilling fluids with additives to control their density and consistency, and counterbalance the pressure of inflowing oil or gas. Modern drilling rigs are also fitted with blowout prevention controls: complex systems of metal clamps and shutters which can be used to seal the hole if unexpected high pressures are encountered.

There can be no denying that major blowouts still occur, and cause loss of life, as well as severe ecological trauma and economic loss.

AUSTRALIAN DRILLING RECORD
• Total number of incident on offshore facilities over a 30-year period, involving spills 320 litres, or causing injury or damage – 51
• Platform oil spills – 27
• Explosions and fires – 13
• Blowout – 6
• Pipeline breaks and leaks – 2
• Other – 3
• Total number of wells drilled – 1.100
• Total number of kilolitres (barrels) of oil produced – 480,000,000 (3,100,000,000)
• Total number of kilolitres (barrels) of oil spilt – 70 (440)
• Largest single spill in kilolitres (barrels) – 10 (63)

Source: Oil Spills in the Commonwealth of Australia offshore areas connected with Petroleum Exploration and Development Activities. Department of Primary Industries and Energy. Fortunately, the available technology and proper precautions make them very rare events. Since offshore drilling commenced in Australia in the mid-twentieth century, there has not been a single oil blowout.

On the other hand, six gas blowouts occurred during that time: five in Bass Strait and one in the Timor Sea. The Bass Strait blowouts were all controlled relatively quickly; the Petrel well in the Timor Sea flowed gas for 15 months.

It is a comment on improving technology and safety procedures that four of the incidents occurred in the initial decades of offshore drilling. The number of incidents, however, declined progressively over time.

The statistics on oil spills from offshore exploration and production in Australian Commonwealth waters are shown in the adjacent table. The total spill- age, over a 30-year period, is roughly equivalent in size to a large backyard swimming pool (70 kilolitres). The main spills have actually occurred in the loading of fuel onto production platforms; they had nothing to do with the oil well itself.

In addition to the oil spill issue, there are concerns about other discharges from the drilling and production facilities: sanitary and kitchen wastes, drilling fluid, cuttings and produced water. Putrescible sanitary and kitchen wastes are discharged into the ocean but must be processed in accordance with regulations set by the Federal government. This material is diluted rapidly and contributes to the local food chain, without any risk of nutrient oversupply. All solid waste must be brought ashore. The cuttings are sieved out of the drilling fluid and usually discharged into the ocean. In shallower waters they form a low mound near the rig; in deeper water a wider-spread layer forms, generally within one kilometre of the drill site, although this depends on a number of factors. Some benthic (bottom-dwelling) organisms may be smothered, but this effect is local and variable, generally limited to within about 100 metres of the discharge point. Better-adapted organisms soon replace them and storm-driven wave activity frequently sweeps away the material.

Drilling fluid is also discharged directly into the ocean. Most of the common constituents of water-based fluids used in Australia have low-to-nil toxicity to marine organisms. Some additives are toxic but are used in small concentrations and infrequently. The small amounts of heavy metals present are not absorbed into the bodies of marine organisms, and therefore it is unlikely that they would pose a problem for animals higher up the food chain. Field studies have shown that dilution is normally very rapid, ranging to 1,000-fold within 3 metres of the discharge point. At Rivoli-1 well in Exmouth Gulf, the input was chemically undetectable 560 metres away.

Oil-based drilling fluids have a more toxic component, and discharge to the marine environment is more significant. However, they are used only rarely in Australia, and the impact remains relatively local. At Woodside’s North Rankin A Platform offshore Western Australia, the only facility currently using oil-based fluids, the discharge is diluted 2,000-fold within 1 kilometre downcurrent, and undetectable beyond 200 metres either side. In the event of a discovery, the presence of a permanent production facility and the discharge of ‘produced water are additional concerns. Produced water is the water associated with the oil or gas deposit, and typically contains some petroleum, dissolved organic matter and trace elements. Most produced water is effectively non-toxic but, even when relatively toxic, is quickly diluted to background levels.

The impact occurs mainly within about 20 metres of the discharge point, but is observable in some instances for about 1 kilometre downcurrent. Government regulations limit the oil content allowed to be discharged, and the produced water is treated on the platforms to meet those specifications, The discharge points are carefully selected to maximise dispersion and dilution, and avoid any particularly sensitive local environments. Ultimately the best test of the real environmental effect of drilling and producing operations may be the response of the environment to the fixed production platforms. In many areas the platforms quickly become artificial reefs, with the underwater supports of the platforms providing a range of habitats, from sea-bottom to surface, and quickly colonised by a wide range of marine plants and animals.

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

14. Oil sometimes ‘blows out’ of a drilling hole because
A The technology has developed too quickly.
B Special drilling fluids are used.
C The surface pressure is not stable.
D Oil exists under pressure under the ground.

15. Sudden high pressure can be controlled using
A Special valves which seal any holes.
B Metal clamps and shutters fitted to the rig.
C Water to counterbalance the pressure of the oil.
D Rubber pressure valves fitted to the rig.

16. Since offshore drilling began in Australia
A Oil and gas blowouts have been a major problem.
B Oil blowouts have occurred occasionally.
C Most gas blowouts were rapidly controlled.
D Gas blowouts have occurred regularly up to the present,

Questions 17-19
Answer the questions below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.

17. How much oil was spilt in the largest accident on offshore facilities?
18. How many incidents were the result of blowouts?
19. According to the table, what was the major cause of spillage of oil?

Questions 20-27
Complete the table. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Types of discharge	Source/ location	Comments
Putrescible wastes	the ocean	nutrients for the (20)………………
(21)…………………….	on shore	no discharging into the ocean
(22)…………………..	the ocean	impact on benthic organisms is (23)………………..
Drilling fluid	water based fluids	toxic additives, such as (24)…………………not absorbed by marine organisms
	(25)……………..	impact of toxins on marine environment is local
Produced water	oil or (26)……………….	mostly non-toxic which are quickly reduced in strength to (27)……………….

Garbage In Garbage Out

There are many ways of obtaining an understanding of people’s behaviour. One of these is to study the objects discarded by a community, objects used in daily lives. The study of the refuse of a society is the basis for the science of archaeology in which the lives and behaviour of past societies are minutely examined. Some recent studies have indicated the degree to which rubbish is socially defined.

For several years the University of Arizona, USA, has been running a Garbage Project, in which garbage is collected, sorted out and noted. It began with an arrangement whereby the City of Tucson collected for analysis garbage from randomly selected households in designated census collection districts. Since then the researchers have studied other cities, both in the USA and Mexico, refining their techniques and procedures in response to the challenges of validating and understanding the often unexpected results they have obtained. Garbage is sorted according to an extremely detailed schedule, a range of data for each item is recorded on a standardised coding form, and the researchers cross-tabulate their findings with information from census and other social surveys.

This project arose out of courses designed to teach students at the University the principles of archaeological methodology and to sensitise them to the complex and frequently surprising links between cultural assumptions and physical realities. Often a considerable discrepancy exists between what people say they do—or even think they do—and what they actually do. In one Garbage Project study, none of the Hispanic (Spanish-speaking) women in the sample admitted to using as much as a single serving of commercially-prepared baby food, clearly reflecting cultural expectations about proper mothering. Yet garbage from the Hispanic households with infants contained just as many baby food containers as garbage from non-Hispanic households with infants.

The project leaders then decided to took not only at what was thrown away, but what happened to it after that. In many countries waste is disposed of in landfills; the rubbish is compacted and buried in the ground. So the project expanded its activities to include the excavation of landfills across the United States and Canada. Surprisingly, no-one had ever attempted such excavations before.

The researchers discovered that far from being sites of chemical and biological activity, the interiors of waste landfills are rather inactive, with the possible exception of those established in swamps. Newspapers buried 20 or more years previously usually remained perfectly legible, and a remarkable amount of food wastes of similar age also remained intact.

While discarded household products such as paints, pesticides, cleaners and cosmetics result in a fair amount of hazardous substances being contained in municipal landfills, toxic leachates pose considerably less danger than people fear, provided that a landfill is properly sited and constructed. Garbage Project researchers have found that the leachates do not migrate far, and tend to get absorbed by the other materials in the immediate surrounds.

The composition of landfills is also strikingly different from what is commonly believed. In a recent US survey people were asked whether particular items were a major cause of garbage problems. Disposable nappies (baby diapers) were identified as a major cause by 41 per cent of the survey respondents, plastic bottles by 29 per cent, all forms of paper by six per cent, and construction debris by zero per cent. Yet Garbage Project data shows that disposable nappies make up less than two per cent of the volume of landfills and plastic bottles less than one per cent. On the other hand, over 40 per cent of the volume of landfills is composed of paper and around 12 per cent is construction debris.

Packaging—the paper and plastic wrapping around goods bought— has also been seen as a serious cause of pollution. But while some packaging is excessive, the Garbage Project researchers note that most manufacturers use as little as possible, because less is cheaper. They also point out that modern product packaging frequently functions to reduce the overall size of the solid-waste stream.

This apparent paradox is illustrated by the results of a comparison of garbage from a large and socially diverse sample of households in Mexico City with a similarly large and diverse sample in three United States cities. Even after correcting for differences in family size,

US households generated far less garbage than the Mexican ones. Because they are much more dependent on processed and packaged foods than Mexican households, US households produce much less food debris. (And most of the leaves, husks, etc. that the US processor has removed from the food can be used in the manufacture of other products, rather than entering the waste stream as is the likely fate with fresh produce purchased by households.)

One criticism made of Western societies is that the people are wasteful, and throw things away while they are still useable. This, however, does not seem to be true. Garbage Project data showed that furniture and consumer appliances were entering the solid waste stream at a rate very much less than would be expected from production and service-life figures. So the researchers set up a study to track the fate of such items and thus gained an insight into the huge informal and commercial trade in used goods that rarely turns up in official calculations and statistics.

The Garbage Project’s work shows how many misconceptions exist about garbage. The researchers are therefore critical of attempts to promote one type of waste management, such as source reduction or recycling, over others, such as incineration or landfilling. Each has its advantages and disadvantages, and what may be appropriate for one locality may not be appropriate for another.

Questions 28-34
Complete the summary. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 28-34 on your answer sheet.

THE GARBAGE PROJECT

Studying the (28)……………………of a community is one means by which an understanding of peoples behaviour can be obtained. Researchers running a Garbage Project found from their initial analysis of collected garbage that it was necessary to refine their techniques and procedures because of the difficulties they faced in substantiating some (29)……………………. The investigation involved entering data on a standardised coding form and comparing these results with those from other (30)…………………. The Garbage Project actually came about through courses aimed at teaching archaeological methodology and making students aware of the often unexpected connection between (31)………………………and what in fact happens in reality. This kind of (32)…………………was observed in a sample of Hispanic women who claimed not to have used store-bought baby food, obviously expressing that which would be culturally expected insofar as (33)…………………….is concerned. Their household garbage, however, told another story. It had the same quantity of (34)………………. as the non-Hispanic households with infants.

Questions 35-40
Look at the following misconceptions about garbage and the list of counter arguments below. Match each misconception with the appropriate counter argument.

35. Certain household items are a major cause of garbage problems in landfills.
36. Western households generate far more waste than others.
37. Germs and bacteria are active and widespread in landfills.
38. Western societies waste many useable items.
39. Harmful substances are widespread in municipal landfills.
40. Paper wrapping is wasteful and causes excess garbage.

List of Counter Arguments
A Toxins are contained in designated sites only.
B Fresh food creates less debris.
C Perishable items are often almost unchanged, even after long periods of time
D It is used sparingly in the manufacturing industry
E Businesses process food debris into other products.
F Household goods constituted a smaller-than-expected part of solid waste
G Disposable nappies make up less than 2% of landfills
H Leachates are confined to surrounding areas.
I It is used far more efficiently by manufactures these days.
J Paper constitutes 6% of landfill.

Weathering In The Desert

A In the deserts, as elsewhere, rocks at the earth’s surface are changed by weathering, which may be defined as the disintegration of rocks where they lie. Weathering processes are either chemical, when alteration of some of the constituent particles is involved; or mechanical, when there is merely the physical breaking apart and fragmentation of rocks. Which process will dominate depends primarily on the mineralogy and texture of the rock and the local climate, but several individual processes usually work together to the common end of rock disintegration.

B The great daily changes in temperature of deserts have long been supposed to be responsible for the disintegration of rocks, either by the differential heating of the various rock-forming minerals or by differential heating between the outer and inner parts of rock masses. However, both field observations and laboratory experiments have led to a reassessment of the importance of ’ exposure to the sun’s rays in desert weathering. Almost half a century ago Barton remarked that the buried parts of some of the ancient monuments in Egypt were more weathered than were those parts fully exposed to the sun’s rays, and attributed this to the effects of water absorption below the ground surface. Laboratory experiments have shown that rocks subjected to many cycles of large temperature oscillations (larger than those experienced in nature) display no evidence of fissuring or fragmentation, as a result. However, when marked fluctuations of temperature occur in moist conditions small rock fragments quickly form.

C The expansive action of crystallising salts is often alleged to exert sufficient force to disintegrate rocks. Few would dispute that this mechanism is capable of disrupting fissile or well-cleaved rocks or rocks already weakened by other weathering agencies; wood is splintered, terracotta tiles disintegrated and clays disturbed by the mechanism, but its importance when acting upon fresh and cohesive crystalline rocks remains uncertain.

D Weathering achieves more than the disintegration of rocks, though this is its most important geomorphic effect. It causes specific landforms to develop. Many boulders possess a superficial hard layer of iron oxide and/or silica, substances which have migrated in solution from the inside of the block towards the surface. Not only is the exterior thus case-hardened but the depleted interior disintegrates easily. When weathering penetrates the shell the inside is rapidly attacked and only the hard outer layer remains to give hollowed or ‘tortoiseshell’ rocks.

E Another superficial layer, the precise nature of which is little understood, is the well-known desert varnish or patina, a shiny coat on the surface of rocks and pebbles and characteristic of arid environments. Some varnishes are colourless, others light brown, yet others so dark a brown as to be virtually black. It’s origin is unknown but is significant, for it has been suggested that the varnish grows darker with the passage of time; obviously before such a criterion could be used with confidence as a chronological tool its origin must be known with precision. Its formation is so slow that in Egypt, for example, it has been estimated that a light brown coating requires between 2,000 and 5,000 years to develop, a fully formed blackish veneer between 20,000 and 50,000 years.

F The development of relatively impermeable soil horizons that are subsequently exposed at the surface because of erosion of once overlying, easily eroded materials, and which thus become surface crusts, is widespread in arid regions, although it is also known outside the deserts, and indeed many of the examples in arid lands probably originated in former periods of humid climate. The crusts prevent the waters of occasional torrential downpours from penetrating deeply into the soil, and thus they contribute to the rapid run-off associated with desert storms. Also, after erosion has cut through the crust and exposed underlying soil layers, the hard layer forms a resistant capping (duricrust) on plateaux and mesas, such as are common in many parts of arid and semi-arid Australia.

G Some duricrust layers have been used as time markers for landforms and geological formations. The necessary conditions for this are that the crust forms fairly rapidly, and that it is sufficiently distinct in appearance to preclude the possibility of confusion with other crusts formed at other times. The Barrilaco calcrete of Mexico for instance is believed to date from about 7,000 B.C. The main silcrete of the northern districts of South Australia is believed to date from the Lower Miocene, the laterite of northern Australia to be of the Lower or Middle Miocene age.

Questions 1-7
Reading Passage 1 has seven sections, A-G. Which paragraph contains the following information?

1. the idea that crystalline salts may not disintegrate solid rock as easily as other substances
2. the fact that daily temperature changes cause rocks to weather may not be as important as supposed
3. the regions where weathering creates a thick layer of earth that water cannot penetrate easily
4. the fact that weathering not only breaks down rocks, but also shapes the landscape
5. the idea of using impenetrable layers of earth to measure chronology
6. the two different kinds of weathering in rocks
7. the possibility of using the colour of the shiny surface on rocks to measure chronology

Questions 8-13
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1? In boxes 8-13 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

8. Desert rocks can become weathered when there is a chemical reaction within the rock.
9. The parts of Egyptian monuments exposed to sunlight were found to be affected by the weather more than those below the ground.
10. Granite which has been subjected to huge temperature swings tends not to exhibit any signs of disintegration as a result.
11. It is estimated that dark patina originated between 2,000 and 5,000 years ago.12. Because of surface crusts, water from torrential rains cannot be fully absorbed into the ground and as a result causes run offs in arid regions.
13. Duricrust layering is no longer used as an indicator of time because of the confusion with similar crusts.

Fashion And Society: A Historical Perspective

In all societies the body is ‘dressed’, and everywhere dress and adornment play symbolic and aesthetic roles. The colour of clothing often has special meaning: a white wedding dress symbolising purity; or black clothing indicating remembrance for a dead relative. Uniforms symbolise association with a particular profession. For many centuries purple, the colour representing royalty, was to be worn by no one else. And of course, dress has always been used to emphasise the wearer’s beauty, although beauty has taken many different forms in different societies. In the 16th century in Europe, for example, Flemish painters celebrated women with bony shoulders, protruding stomachs and long faces, while women shaved or plucked their hairlines to obtain the fashionable egg-domed forehead. These traits are considered ugly by today’s fashion.

The earliest forms of ‘clothing’ seem to have been adornments such as body painting, ornaments, scarifications (scarring), tattooing, masks and often constricting neck and waist bands. Many of these deformed, reformed or otherwise modified the body. The bodies of men and of children, not just those of women, were altered: there seems to be a widespread human desire to transcend the body’s limitations, to make it what it is, by nature, not.

Dress in general seems then to fulfil a number of social functions. This is true of modern as of ancient dress. What is added to dress as we ourselves know it in the west is fashion, of which the key feature is rapid and continual changing of styles. The growth of the European city in the 14th century saw the birth of fashion. Previously, loose robes had been worn by both sexes, and styles were simple and unchanging. Dress distinguished rich from poor, rulers from ruled, only in that working people wore more wool and no silk, rougher materials and less ornamentation than their masters.

However, by the 14th century, with the expansion in trade, the growth of city life, and the increasing sophistication of the royal and aristocratic courts, rapidly changing styles appeared in western Europe. These were associated with developments in tailored and fitted clothing; once clothing became fitted, it was possible to change the styling of garments almost endlessly. By the 15th and 16th centuries it began to seem shameful to wear outdated clothing. So those who could afford to do so began discarding unfashionable clothing simply because it was not in style. Cloth, which was enormously expensive, was literally, and symbolised, wealth in medieval society.

In modern western societies there is no form of clothing which has not felt the impact of fashion: fashion sets the terms of all dress behaviour. Even uniforms have been designed by some of the top fashion houses; even the dress code in the workplace has shifted from formal, business attire to the more relaxed, smart casual look; even the less affluent enjoy haute couture – they wear cheaper versions of the top designs and top labels.

Even the unfashionable wear clothes that represent a reaction against what is in fashion. To be unfashionable is not to ignore fashion; it is rather to protest against the social values of the fashionable. Last century the hippies of the 1960s created a unique appearance out of an assortment of second hand clothes, craft work and army surplus, as a protest against the wastefulness of the consumer society. They rejected the way mass production ignored individuality, and also the wastefulness of luxury.

Looked at in historical perspective, the styles of fashion display a mad relativism. At one time the rich wear cloth of gold embroidered with pearls, at another beige cashmere and grey suiting. In one epoch men parade in elaborately curled hair, high heels and rouge, at another to do so is to court outcast status and physical abuse. It is in some sense inherently ironic that a new fashion starts from rejection of the old and often an eager embracing of what was previously considered ugly. A case in point is the outlandish, fashion statement made by the non-conforming, rebellious youth of today who have tattoos, metal studs and body piercings. They defied mainstream fashion only to see their defiance become the fashion of the day in the broader community. Moreover, having once defined style in centuries past, these adornments have now come full circle.

Despite its apparent irrationality, fashion cements social solidarity and imposes group norms. It forces us to recognise that the human body is not only a biological entity, but an organism in culture. To dress the way that others do is to signal that we share many of their morals and values. Conversely, deviations in dress are usually considered shocking and disturbing. In western countries a man wearing a pink suit to a job interview would not be considered for a position at a bank. He would not be taken seriously. Likewise, even in these ‘liberated’ times, a man in a skirt in many western cultures causes considerable anxiety, hostility or laughter.

However, while fashion in every age is normative, there is still room for clothing to express individual taste. In any period, within the range of stylish clothing, there is some choice of colour, fabric and style. This was even more true last century, because in the 20th century, fashion, without losing its obsession with the new and the different, was mass produced. Originally, fashion was largely for the rich, but since the industrial period the mass production of fashionably styled clothes has made possible the use of fashion as a means of self-enhancement and self-expression for the majority.

Questions 14-19
Complete the table below. Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.

Period	Clothing behavior	Types of clothing
Earliest times	wearing (14)…………………	body painting, tattooing, masks
Pre- (15)………………	simple, unchanging styles	(16)……………….
14th century	(17)…………………….	(18)…………………
15th-16th century	(19)……………………	use of cloth

Questions 20-23
Complete each sentence with the appropriate ending, A-J, below.

20. The styling of apparel
21. Wearing outdated clothing
22. The impact of fashion
23. Mass production of fashionable clothing

A allowed the less affluent to buy styled clothes.
B was fell by top designers seeing fake, less expensive designer clothing on the market.
C was made possible with the development of tailored and fitted clothing.
D gave the individual a means of self-expression.
E caused anxiety and hostility in western cultures.
F was made possible with the increase in sophistication of the royal courts.
G was seen as something shameful in earlier times.
H had little effect on nonconforming youth.
I distinguished the rich from the poor in earlier times.
J was felt in the workforce with the change to informal wear.

Questions 24-26
Answer the questions below. Choose NO MORE THAN ONE WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 24-26 on your answer sheet.

24. A kind of adornment worn by defiant young people these days besides body piercings and metal studs
25. What was a symbol of wealth in medieval times?
26. Name ONE group of people who protested against the social values of the fashionable.

Mass Production

Car manufacturer Henry Ford s 1908 Model T automobile was his twentieth design over a five-year period that began with the production of the original Model A in 1903. With his Model T, Ford finally achieved two objectives. He had a car that was designed for manufacture, and one that was easily operated and maintained by the owner. These two achievements laid the groundwork for the revolutionary change in direction for the entire motor vehicle industry.

The key to mass production wasn’t the moving, or continuous, assembly line. Rather, it was the complete and consistent interchangeability of parts and the simplicity of attaching them to each other. These were the manufacturing innovations that made the assembly line possible. To achieve interchangeability, Ford insisted that the same gauging system be used for every part all the way through the entire manufacturing process. Previously, each part had been made to a slightly different gauge, so skilled fitters had to file each part individually to fit onto the other parts of the car. Ford’s insistence on working to gauge throughout was driven by his realisation of the payoff he would get in the form of savings on assembly costs. Ford also benefited from recent advances in machine tools able to work on pre-hardened metals. The warping or distortion that occurred as machined parts were being hardened had been the bane of previous attempts to standardise parts. Once the warping problem was solved, Ford was able to develop innovative designs that reduced the number of parts needed and made these parts easy to attach. For example, Ford’s four-cylinder engine block consisted of a single, complex casting. Competitors cast each cylinder separately and bolted the four together. Taken together, interchangeability, simplicity, and ease of attachment gave Ford tremendous advantages over his competition.

Ford’s first efforts to assemble his cars, beginning in 1903, involved setting up assembly stands on which a whole car was built, often by one fitter. In 1908, on the eve of the introduction of the Model T, a Ford assembler’s average task cycle, that is the amount of time he worked before repeating the same operations, totalled 514 minutes, or 8.56 hours. Each worker would assemble a large part of a car before moving on to the next. For example, a worker might put all the mechanical parts, such as wheels, springs, motor, transmission and generator, on the chassis (body), a set of activities that took a whole day to complete. The assembler/fitters performed the same set of activities over and over at their stationary assembly stands. They had to get the necessary parts, file them down so they would fit (Ford hadn’t yet achieved perfect interchangeability of parts), then bolt them in place.

The first step Ford took to make this process more efficient was to deliver the parts to each workstation. Now the assemblers could

remain at the same spot all day. Later in 1908, when Ford finally achieved perfect part interchangeability, he decided that the assembler would perform only a single task and move from vehicle to vehicle around the assembly hall. By August of 1913, just before the moving assembly line was introduced, the task cycle for the average Ford assembler had been reduced from 514 to 2.3 minutes. Naturally, this reduction spurred a remarkable increase in productivity, partly because complete familiarity with a single task meant the worker could perform it faster, but also because all filing and adjusting of parts had by now been eliminated. Workers simply popped on parts that fitted every time.

Ford soon recognised the problem with moving the worker from assembly stand to assembly stand: walking, even if only for a yard or two, took time, and jam-ups frequently resulted as faster workers overtook the slower workers in front of them. Ford’s stroke of genius in the spring of 1913, at his new Highland Park plant in Detroit, was the introduction of the moving assembly line, which brought the car past the stationary worker. This innovation cut cycle time from 2.3 minutes to 1.19 minutes; the difference lay in the time saved in the worker’s standing still rather than walking and in the faster work pace which the moving line could enforce. The moving assembly sped up production so dramatically that the savings Ford could realise from reducing the inventory of parts waiting to be assembled far exceeded this trivial outlay.

Even more striking, Ford’s discovery simultaneously reduced the amount of human effort needed to assemble an automobile. What’s more, the more vehicles Ford produced, the more the cost per vehicle fell. Even when it was introduced in 1908, Ford’s Model T, with its fully interchangeable parts, cost less than its rivals. By the time Ford reached peak production volume of 2 million identical vehicles a year in the early 1920s, he had cut the real cost to the consumer by an additional two-thirds.

To appeal to his target market of average consumers, Ford had also designed unprecedented ease of operation and maintainability into his car. He assumed that his buyer would be a farmer with a modest tool kit and the kinds of mechanical skills needed for fixing farm machinery. So the Model T’s owner’s manual explained in 64 pages how the owner could use simple tools to solve any of the 140 problems likely to occur with the car.

Ford’s competitors were as amazed by this designed-in repairability as by the moving assembly line. This combination of competitive advantages catapulted Ford to the head of the world’s motor industry and virtually eliminated craft-production companies unable to match its manufacturing economies.

Questions 27-32
Complete the flow chart below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 27-32 on your answer sheet.

IMPROVING PRODUCTIVITY
• Manufacturing innovations gave Ford a huge advantage over the (27)…………………

ASSEMBLING THE CAR
• Assembly stands set up
• (28)………………………..performed repeatedly.

MAKING THE PROCESS MORE EFFICIENT
• Parts delivered to (29)…………………….
• Fitter remained stationary all day.

ACHIEVING PERFECT (30)………………
• Fitter carried out a single task only.
• Assembler moved around the hall from car to car.
• Reduction in the (31)…………………….increased productivity.

INTRODUCING THE MOVING ASSEMBLY LINE
• Vehicle moved from one workstation to the next
• Increase in (32)……………………….implemented because of the stationary assembler.

Questions 33-37
According to the passage, classify the following characteristics of mass production as relating to

A an advantage
B a disadvantage
C neither an advantage nor a disadvantage

33. shaping each part to fit individually with all other parts
34. having a single, complex casting for the four-cylinder engine block
35. designing 20 Ford automobiles within a five-year period
36. hardening of machined parts for standardisation
37. using identical gauges for each part throughout the production

Questions 38-40
Choose the appropriate letter, A, B, C or D.

38. Which graph best describes the change in task time resulting from workers performing a single task only?

39. Which graph best describes the cost of building a moving assembly line in comparison to the money saved?

40. Which graph best describes the relationship between the number of vehicles produced and the cost of the vehicles?