Category: IELTS Reading

The Hidden Lives Of Solitary Bees

There are 275 different species of bee in Greet Britain and Ireland. Apart from the familiar honeybee and 25 species of bumblebee, the rest are known as solitary bees

Solitary bees are unlike ‘social’ honeybees and bumblebees, which live in large colonies consisting of a queen whose function is to lay the eggs, while the workers gather pollen and nectar to feed the tiny grubs with solitary bees, there are typically just males and females. They mate, the mate dies and the female makes a nest.

Ian Beavis is a naturalist and blogger with a mission to raise the profile of the many solitary bees, whose pollinating services are so important, yet so little recognised, Solitary bees inhabit gardens, parks, woodlands, fields and cliffs. In fact they represent 95% of the world’s bee species. Leading wildlife illustrator Richard Lewington. best known for his beautiful paintings of butterflies, says, ‘Solitary bees are so useful to gardeners and commercially valuable. Yet until recently they barely registered in the public consciousness. I wanted to help publicise their vital role in our lives’ The problem with solitary bees has long been one of identification – with more than 240 species to choose from, and no accessible guidebook, where do people start? So Richard Lewington has spent any spare time over the past few years working on a new guide to the bees of Great Britain and Ireland. This, amazingly, is the first book of its kind to be published for over a century.

How do solitary bees live? A female solitary bee constructs a nest and then lays her eggs in individual cells, lining or sealing them with various materials depending on the species of bee – red mason bees use mud leafcutter bees use sections of leaf The female leaves what naturalists call a ‘parcel’ of pollen and nectar for each other little grubs to feed on When the female has laid all her eggs, she dies. The emerging grubs eat. grow and develop into adults the following year.

While some bees are plentiful and widespread, others have been designated as rare. Or are very local in distribution. In 2013. Ian Beavis came across what has long been known as one of Britain’s rarest species, the banded mining bee. An impressive species with white hairs on its face, the banded mining bee nests in the ground, typically on steep banks. Ian Beavis explains that it always chooses bare earth because it doesn’t like having to eat through plant roots to make its nest Females feed on a variety of plants, but seem particularly fond of yellow dandelions that bloom from spring to autumn.

Another bee that has attracted naturalists’ attention is the ivy bee. It was only identified as a distinct species in 1993. It is one of a number of bees that have been able to establish themselves in Britain due to the recent warmer winters. About the same size as a with distinctive orange-yellow banding on its abdomen, it was initially thought to feed on y on ivy, but has since been seen visiting other plants.

The discoveries about ivy bees show how rewarding the study of solitary bees can be but it’s not the only species whose habits are changing. Ian Beavis believes we can see in solitary bees the beginning of social behaviour. He explains that many species make their nests close to each other in huge groups, and there are some, like Andrena scotica, where several bees use the same entrance without becoming aggressive. It’s not difficult to see how this behaviour, which could be seen as the foundation of social behaviour, might evolve in future into worker bees sharing care of the grubs. Indeed some of Britain’s solitary bees, Lasioglossum malachurum for example, are already demonstrating this type of social behaviour. So will all solitary bees evolve into social insects? Not necessarily. According to Ian Beavis, there are advantages to social behaviour but there are also advantages to nesting alone. Bees that nest socially are a target for predators, diseases and parasites.

Pesticides can also pose a threat to solitary bees. At the University of Sussex in England. Beth Nicholls is conducting research into the effects of certain pesticides on the red mason bee. She explains. ‘We know that pesticides harm social bees, but very little research has been done into solitary bees.’ Honeybees fly throughout the summer, so they may be exposed to different levels of pesticides. But if the shorter flight period of solitary bees – the red mason bee only flies from March to May – coincides with peak pesticide levels, that might be disastrous. If the red mason bee declines dramatically, it could affect the fruit growing industry. According to Beth Nicholls, it is much more efficient at pollinating orchard trees. Social bees carry pollen in ‘baskets’ on their back legs, but a female red mason bee carries it on the underside of her abdomen. This is a messier way of transporting it, and so more pollen is transferred to other flowers. The social bees’ method is much ‘tidier’, so once they have collected the pollen and tucked it away behind their legs, it won’t be dropped.

Solitary bees are all around us. We need to start paying attention to them before it’s too late.

Questions 1-4
Choose the correct tetter. A, B, C or D.

1. Ian Beavis and Richard Lewlngton both believe that solitary bees
A are as interesting as many butterfly species.
B have an extremely varied range of habitats.
C should be appreciated much more widely.
D are valued by many gardeners.

2. What does the writer think is surprising about the new book on bees?
A There is such a wide range of species in it.
B Some of the species in it are hard to differentiate.
C Richard Lewington chose to give up his main work to write It.
D It was so long since a guide like this had been produced.

3. Beth Nicholls explains that red mason bees
A have had more studies into their behaviour than others.
B may suffer more from pesticides than social bees.
C have an advantage because of when they fly.
D have certain similarities with honey bees.

4. Why does Beth Nicholls consider red mason bees to be valuable pollinators?
A They regularly lose some of the pollen they are carrying.
B They transport pollen with great care.
C Their pollination season is longer than that of social bees.
D The females do most of the pollen collection.

Questions 5-8
Look at the following statements (Questions 5-8) and the list of solitary bees below. Match each statement with the correct bee, A-E. Write the correct letter. A-E, in boxes 5-8 on your answer sheet. NB: You may use any letter more than once.

List of Solitary Bees
A The banded mining bee
B The ivy bee
C Andrena scotica
D Lasrogfossum malachurum
E The red mason bee

5. Some members of this species have started to contribute more to the care of the young
6. This species avoids areas covered with vegetation when selecting nest sites.
7. This species has a favourite flower that it feeds on,
8. This species has only been found in Britain in the past few years.

Questions 9-13
Complete the summary below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the text for each answer

The life of the solitary bee

Female solitary bees make their nests with separate (9)……………… where single eggs are deposited. Females try to ensure the survival of all their (10)……………….. They do this by providing suitable food in what is referred to as a (11)……………………. Solitary bees use a range of substances to make their nests comfortable and secure, such as plant material or (12)……………….Although some solitary bees are common, certain species are thought to be (13)………………..The different solitary bees vary widely in their distribution, some being found all over Britain while others are much more restricted geographically.

How War Debris Could Cause Cancer

A Could the mystery over how depleted uranium might cause genetic damage be closer to being solved? It may be, if a controversial claim by two researchers is right. They say that minute quantities of the material lodged in the body may kick out energetic electrons that mimic the effect of beta radiation. This, they argue, could explain how residues of depleted uranium scattered across former war zones could be increasing the risk of cancers and other problems among soldiers and local people.

B Depleted uranium is highly valued by the military, who use it in the tips of armour­piercing weapons. The material’s high density and self-sharpening properties help it to penetrate the armour of enemy tanks and bunkers. Its use in conflicts has risen sharply in recent years. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates that shells containing 1700 tonnes of the material were fired during the 2003 Iraq war. Some researchers and campaigners are convinced that depleted uranium left in the people exposed to it. Governments and the military disagree, and point out that there is no conclusive epidemiological evidence for this. And while they acknowledge that the material is weakly radioactive, they say this effect is too small to explain the genetic damage at the levels seen in war veterans and civilians.

C Organisations such as the UK’s Royal Society, the US Department of Veterans Affairs and UNEP have called for more comprehensive epidemiological studies to clarify the link between depleted uranium and any ill effects. Meanwhile, various test­tube and animal studies have suggested that depleted uranium may increase the risk of cancer, according to a review of the scientific literature published in May 2008 by the US National Research Council. The authors of the NRC report argue that more long-term and quantitative research is needed on the effects of uranium’s chemical toxicity. They say the science seems to support the theory that genetic damage might be occurring because uranium’s chemical toxicity and weak radioactivity could somehow reinforce each other, though no one knows what the mechanism for this might be.

D Now two researchers, Chris Busby and Ewald Schnug, have a new theory that they say explains how depleted uranium could cause genetic damage. Their theory invokes a well-known process called the photoelectric effect. This is the main mechanism by which gamma photons with energies of about 100 kiloelectronvolts (keV) or less are blocked by matter: the photon transfers its energy to an electron in the atom’s electron cloud, which is ejected into the surroundings.

An atom’s ability to stop photons by this mechanism depends on the fourth power of its atomic number – the number of protons in its nucleus – so heavy elements are far better at intercepting gamma radiation and X-rays than light elements. This means that uranium could be especially effective at capturing photons and kicking out damaging photoelectrons: with an atomic number of 92, uranium blocks low-energy gamma photons over 450 times as effectively as the lighter element calcium, for instance.

E Busby and Schnug say that previous risk models have ignored this well-established physical effect. They claim that depleted uranium could be kicking out photoelectrons in the body’s most vulnerable spots. Various studies have shown that dissolved uranium – ingested in food or water, for example – is liable to attach to DNA strands within cells, because uranium binds strongly to DNA phosphate. “Photoelectrons from uranium are therefore likely to be emitted precisely where they will cause most damage to genetic material,” says Busby.

F Busby and Schnug base their claim on calculations of the photoelectrons that would be produced by the interation between normal background levels of gamma radiation and uranium in the body. “Our detailed calculations indicate that the phantom photoelectrons are the predominant effect by far for uranium genome toxicity, and that uranium could be 1500 times as powerful as an emitter of photoelectrons than as an alpha emitter.” Their computer modelling results are described in a peer-reviewed paper to be published in this month by the IPNSS in a book called Loads and Fate of Fertiliser Derived Uranium.

G Hans-Georg Menzel, who chairs the International Commission on Radiological Protection’s committee on radiation doses, acknowledges that the theory should be considered, but he doubts that it will prove significant. He suspects that under normal background radiation the effect is too weak to inflict many of the “double hits” of energy that are known to be most damaging to cells. “It is very unlikely that individual cells would be subject to two or more closely spaced photoelectron impacts under normal background gamma irradiation,” he says. Despite his doubts, Menzel raised the issue last week with his committee in St Petersburg, Russia, and says that several colleagues “intended to collect relevant data and perform calculations to check whether there was any possibility of a real effect in living tissues”. Organisations in the UK, including the Ministry of Defence and the Health Protection Agency, say they have no plans to investigate Busby’s hypothesis.

H Radiation biophysicist Mark Hill of the University of Oxford would like to see a fuller investigation, though he suggests this might show that the photoelectric effect is not as powerful as Busby claims. “We really need more detailed calculations and dose estimates for realistic situations with and without uranium present,” he says. Hill’s doubts centre on an effect called Compton scattering, which he believes needs to be factored into any calculations. With Compton scattering, uranium is only 4.5 times as effective as calcium at stopping gamma photons, so Hill says that taking it into account would reduce the relative importance of uranium as an emitter of secondary electrons. If he is right, this would dilute the mechanism proposed by Busby and Schnug.

I The arguments over depleted uranium are likely to continue, whatever the outcome of these experiments. Whether Busby’s theory holds up or not remains to be seen, but investigating it can only help to clear up some of the doubts about this mysterious substance.

Questions 14-18
The reading Passage has nine paragraphs A-I. Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter A-I, in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet. NB you may use any letter more than once

14. a famous process is given relating to the new theory.
15. a person who acknowledges but suspects the theory.
16. the explanation of damage to DNA.
17. a debatable and short explanation of the way creating the problems of soldiers.
18. Busby’s hypothesis is not in the investigation plans of organizations.

Questions 19-22
Do the following statements agree with the information given in reading passage? In boxes 19-22 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

19. All people believe that depleted uranium is harmful to people’s health.
20. Heavier elements can perform better at preventing X-rays and gamma radiation.
21. By particular calculations, it is known that the main effect of uranium genome toxicity is phantom photoelectrons.
22. Most scientists support Mark Hill’s opinion.

Questions 23-26
Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of reading passage using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the reading passage for each answer.

(23)…………………..attaches importance to depleted uranium due to its (24)…………………. and (25)……………….. features, which are helpful in the war. However, it has ill effects in people, and then causes organisations’ appeal to do more relative studies. According to some scientists, we should do research about the impact of uranium’s (26)…………………. which may be enhanced with weak radioactivity.

The Discovery Of Uranus

Someone once put forward an attractive though unlikely theory. Throughout the Earth’s annual revolution around the sun, there is one point of space always hidden from our eyes. This point is the opposite part of the Earth’s orbit, which is always hidden by the sun. Could there be another planet there, essentially similar to our own, but always invisible?

If a space probe today sent back evidence that such a world existed it would cause not much more sensation than Sir William Herschel’s discovery of a new planet, Uranus, in 1781. Herschel was an extraordinary man — no other astronomer has ever covered so vast a field of work — and his career deserves study. He was born in Hanover in Germany in 1738, left the German army in 1757, and arrived in England the same year with no money but quite exceptional music ability. He played the violin and oboe and at one time was organist in the Octagon Chapel in the city of Bath. Herschel’s was an active mind, and deep inside he was conscious that music was not his destiny; he therefore, read widely in science and the arts, but not until 1772 did he come across a book on astronomy. He was then 34, middle-aged by the standards of the time, but without hesitation he embarked on his new career, financing it by his professional work as a musician. He spent years mastering the art of telescope construction, and even by present-day standards his instruments are comparable with the best.

Serious observation began 1774. He set himself the astonishing task of ‘reviewing the heavens’, in other words, pointing his telescope to every accessible part of the sky and recording what he saw. The first review was made in 1775; the second, and most momentous, in 1780-81. It was during the latter part of this that he discovered Uranus. Afterwards, supported by the royal grant in recognition of his work, he was able to devote himself entirely to astronomy. His final achievements spread from the sun and moon to remote galaxies (of which he discovered hundreds), and papers flooded from his pen until his death in 1822. Among these, there was one sent to the Royal Society in 1781, entitled An Account of a Comet. In his own words:

On Tuesday the 13th of March, between ten and eleven in the evening, while I was examining the small stars in the neighbourhood of H Geminorum, I perceived one that appeared visibly larger than the rest; being struck with its uncommon magnitude, I compared it to H Geminorum and the small star in the quartile between Auriga and Gemini, and finding it to be much larger than either of them, suspected it to be a comet.

Herschel’s care was the hallmark of a great observer; he was not prepared to jump any conclusions. Also, to be fair, the discovery of a new planet was the last thought in anybody’s mind. But further observation by other astronomers besides Herschel revealed two curious facts. For the comet, it showed a remarkably sharp disc; furthermore, it was moving so slowly that it was thought to be a great distance from the sun, and comets are only normally visible in the immediate vicinity of the sun. As its orbit came to be worked out the truth dawned that it was a new planet far beyond Saturn’s realm, and that the ‘reviewer of the heavens’ had stumbled across an unprecedented prize. Herschel wanted to call it georgium sidus (Star of George) in honour of his royal patron King George III of Great Britain. The planet was later for a time called Herschel in honour of its discoverer. The name Uranus, which was first proposed by the German astronomer Johann Elert Bode, was in use by the late 19th century.

Uranus is a giant in construction, but not so much in size; its diameter compares unfavourably with that of Jupiter and Saturn, though on the terrestrial scale it is still colossal. Uranus’ atmosphere consists largely of hydrogen and helium, with a trace of methane. Through a telescope the planet appears as a small bluish-green disc with a faint green periphery. In 1977, while recording the occultation 1 of a star behind the planet, the American astronomer James L. Elliot discovered the presence of five rings encircling the equator of Uranus. Four more rings were discovered in January 1986 during the exploratory flight of Voyager 2 2 , In addition to its rings, Uranus has 15 satellites (‘moons’), the last 10 discovered by Voyager 2 on the same flight; all revolve about its equator and move with the planet in an east—west direction. The two largest moons, Titania and Oberon, were discovered by Herschel in 1787. The next two, Umbriel and Ariel, were found in 1851 by the British astronomer William Lassell. Miranda, thought before 1986 to be the innermost moon, was discovered in 1948 by the American astronomer Gerard Peter Kuiper.

Glossary:
‘Occultation‘ : in astronomy, when one object passes in front of another and hides the second from view, especially, for example, when the moon comes between an observer and a star or planet. ‘Voyager 2‘ : an unmanned spacecraft sent on a voyage past Saturn, Uranus and Jupiter in 1986; during which it sent back information about these planets to scientists on earth .

Questions 27-31
Complete the table below. Write a date for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet.

Event	Date
Herschel began investigating astronomy	(27)……………………………
Discovery of the planet Uranus	(28)……………………………
Discovery of the moons Titania and Oberon	(29)……………………………
First discovery of Uranus’ rings	(30)……………………………
Discovery of the last 10 moons of Uranus	(31)……………………………

Questions 32-36
Do the following statements reflect the claims of the writer of the reading passage? In boxes 32-36 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

32. It is improbable that there is a planet hidden behind the sun.
33. Herschel knew immediately that he had found a new planet.
34. Herschel collaborated with other astronomers of his time.
35. Herschel’s newly-discovered object was considered to be too far from the sun to be a comet.
36. Herschel’s discovery was the most important find of the last three hundred years.

Questions 37-40
Complete each of the following statements (Questions 37-40) with a name from the reading passage.
Write your answers in boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet.

The suggested names of the new planet started with (37)…………………….., then (38)……………., before finally settling on Uranus. The first five rings around Uranus were discovered by (39)……………….. From 1948 until 1986, the moon (40)…………………… was believed to be the moon closest to the surface of Uranus.

Reclaiming the future of aral sea

A The Aral Sea gets almost all its water from the Amu and Syr rivers. Over millennium the Amu’s course has drifted away from the sea, causing it to shrink. But the lake always rebounded as the Amu shifted back again. Today heavy irrigation for crops such as cotton and rice siphons off much of the two rivers, severely cutting flow into their deltas and thus into the sea. Evaporation vastly outpaces any rainfall, snowmelt or groundwater supply, reducing water volume and raising salinity. The Soviet Union hid the sea’s demise for decades until 1985, when leader Mikhail Gorbachev revealed the great environmental and human tragedy. By the late 1980s the sea’s level had dropped so much that the water had separated into two distinct bodies: the Small Aral (north) and the Large Aral (south). By 2007 the south had split into a deep western basin, a shallow eastern basin and a small, isolated gulf. The Large Aral’s volume had dropped from 708 to only 75 cubic kilometers (km3), and salinity had risen from 14 to more than 100 grams per liter (g/1). The 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union divided the lake between newly formed Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, ending a grand Soviet plan to channel in water from distant Siberian rivers and establishing competition for the dwindling resource.

B Desiccation of the Aral Sea has wrought severe consequences. Greatly reduced river flows ended the spring floods that sustained wetlands with freshwater and enriched sediment. Fish species in the lakes dropped from 32 to 6 because of rising salinity and loss of spawning and feeding grounds (most survived in the river deltas). Commercial fisheries, which caught 40,000 metric tons of fish in 1960, were gone by the mid-1980s; more than 60,000 related jobs were lost. The most common remaining lake occupant was the Black Sea flounder, a saltwater fish introduced in the 1970s, but by 2003 it had disappeared from the southern lakes because salinity was more than 70 g/1, double that of a typical ocean. Shipping on the Aral also ceased because the water receded many kilometers from the major ports of Aralsk to the north and Moynak in the south; keeping increasingly long channels open to the cities became too costly. Groundwater levels dropped with falling lake levels, intensifying desertification.

C The receding sea has exposed and dried 54,000 square kilometers of seabed, which is choked with salt and in some places laced with pesticides and other agricultural chemicals deposited by runoff from area farming. Strong windstorms blow salt, dust and contaminants as far as 500 km. Winds from the north and northeast drive the most severe storms, seriously impacting the Amu delta to the south—the most densely settled and most economically and ecologically important area in the region. Afrbome sodium bicarbonate, sodium chloride and sodium sulfate kill or retard the growth of natural vegetation and crops—a cruel irony given that irrigating those crops starves the sea. Health experts say the local population suffers from high levels of respiratory illnesses, throat and esophageal cancer, and digestive disorders caused by breathing and ingesting salt-laden air and water. Liver and kidney ailments, as well as eye problems, are common. The loss of fish has also greatly reduced dietary variety, worsening malnutrition and anemia, particularly in pregnant women.

D Returning the entire Aral Sea to its 1960s state is unrealistic. The annual inflow from the Syr and Amu rivers would have to be quadrupled from the recent average of 13 km3. The only means would be to curtail irrigation, which accounts for 92 percent of water withdrawals. Yet four of the five former Soviet republics in the Aral Sea basin (Kazakhstan is the exception) intend to expand irrigation, mainly to feed growing populations. Switching to less water- intensive crops, such as replacing cotton with winter wheat, could help, but the two primary irrigating nations, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, intend to keep cotton to earn foreign currency. The extensive irrigation canals could be greatly improved; many are simply cuts through sand, and they allow enormous quantities of water to seep away. Modernizing the entire system could save 12 km3 a year but would cost at least $16 billion. The basin states do not have the money or the political will. Kazakhstan has nonetheless tried to partially restore the northern Aral.

E We expect salinities in the Small Aral to settle at three to 14 g/1, depending on location. At these levels many more indigenous species should return, although the saltwater kambala would disappear from most places. Further restoration is possible. For example, if irrigation improvements raised the average annual inflow from the Syr to 4.5 km3, which is entirely feasible, the lake’s level could stabilize at about 47 meters. This change would bring the shoreline to within eight kilometers of Aralsk, the former major port city, close enough to allow recovery of an earlier channel that connected the city to the receding waters. The channel would give large commercial fishing vessels access to the sea, and shipping could restart. Marshlands and fish populations would improve even more because of a further reduction in salinity. Outflow to the southern lakes could also increase, helping then restoration. Such a plan would require a much longer and higher dike, as well as reconstruction of the gate facility, and it is not clear that Kazakhstan has the means or desire to pursue it. The country is, however, now discussing more modest proposals to bring water closer to Aralsk.

F The Large Aral faces a difficult future; it continues to shrink rapidly. Only a long, narrow channel connects the shallow eastern basin and the deeper western basin, and this could close altogether. If countries along the Amu make no changes, we estimate that at current rates of groundwater in and evaporation out, an isolated eastern basin would stabilize at an area of 4,300 square kilometers (km2). But it would average only 2.5 meters deep. Salinity would exceed 100 g/1, possibly reaching 200 g/1; the only creatures that could live in it would be brine shrimp and bacteria. The western basin’s fate depends on ground- water inflow, estimates for which are uncertain. Someone has noted numerous fresh- water springs on the western cliffs. The most reliable calculations indicate that the basin would settle at about 2,100 km2. The lake would still be relatively deep, reaching 37 meters in spots, but salinity would rise well above 100 g/1.

Questions 1-6
The reading Passage has seven paragraphs A-F. Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter A-F, in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet. NB You may use any letter more than once.

1. A mission impossible
2. An extremely worrying trend for one main part of Aral Sea
3. An uncompleted project because of political reasons
4. A promising recovery in the future
5. A strongly affected populated district
6. The disclosure of a big secret

Questions 7-9
Do the following statements agree with the information given in reading passage? In boxes 7-9 on your answer sheet, write

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

7. In response to the increasingly growing number in the population, not all nations near the Aral Sea consider plans which will enhance the severity of the problems the Aral Sea is faced with.
8. The willingness for Kazakhstan to take the restoration action to save the Small Aral Sea is somehow not certain.
9. The western basin seems to have a destined future regardless of the influx of the groundwater.

Questions 10-13
Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of reading passage, using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the reading passage for each answer.

The (10)……………….. produced by the floodwaters, which were ceased because of the decrease in (11)……………….. of the Aral Sea, are main sources to keep the survival of the wetlands. The types of fishes living in it experienced a devastating tragedy out of the increase in (12)……………… and decrease in spots for (13)……………. with a good example of the extinction of a specific fish. What is more, fisheries and shipping suffered greatly from these vast changes.

Conflicting climatic phenomena co-existing on the Mars

A On Mars, signs of wetness keep pouring in: deeply carved river valleys, vast deltas and widespread remnants of evaporating seas have convinced many experts that liquid water may have covered large parts of the Red Planet for a billion years or more. But most efforts to explain how Martian climate ever permitted such clement conditions come up dry. Bitterly cold and parched today, Mars needed a potent greenhouse atmosphere to sustain its watery past. A thick layer of heat-trapping carbon dioxide from volcanoes probably shrouded the young planet, but climate models indicate time and again that C02 alone could not have kept the surface above freezing.

B Now, inspired by the surprising discovery that sulfur minerals are pervasive in the Martian soil, scientists are beginning to suspect that C02 had a warm-up partner: sulfur dioxide (S02). Like C02, S02 is a common gas emitted when volcanoes erupt, a frequent occurrence on Mars when it was still young. A hundredth or even a thousandth of a percent S02 in Mars’s early atmosphere could have provided the extra boost of greenhouse warming that the Red Planet needed to stay wet, explains geochemist Daniel p. Schrag of Harvard University.

C That may not sound like much, but for many gases, even minuscule concentrations are hard to maintain. On our home planet, S02 provides no significant long-term warmth because it combines almost instantly with oxygen in the atmosphere to form sulfate, a type of salt. Early Mars would have been virtually free of atmospheric oxygen, though, so S02 would have stuck around much longer.

D “When you take away oxygen, it’s a profound change, and the atmosphere works really differently,” Schrag remarks. According to Schrag and his colleagues, that difference also implies that S02 would have played a starring role in the Martian water cycle—thus resolving another climate conundrum, namely, a lack of certain rocks.

E Schrag’s team contends that on early Mars, much of the S02 would have combined with airborne water droplets and fallen as sulfurous acid rain, rather than transforming into a salt as on Earth. The resulting acidity would have inhibited the formation of thick layers of limestone and other carbonate rocks. Researchers assumed Mars would be chock-full of carbonate rocks because their formation is such a fundamental consequence of the humid, C02-rich atmosphere. Over millions of years, this rock-forming process has sequestered enough of the carbon dioxide spewed from earthly volcanoes to limit the buildup of the gas in the atmosphere. stifling this C02-sequestration step on early Mars would have forced more of the gas to accumulate in the atmosphere—another way S02 could have boosted greenhouse warming, Schrag suggests.

F Some scientists doubt that S02 was really up to these climatic tasks . Even in an oxygen-free atmosphere, S02 is still extremely fragile; the sun’s ultraviolet radiation splits apart S02 molecules quite readily, points out James F. Kasting, an atmospheric chemist at Pennsylvania state University. In Easting’s computer models of Earth’s early climate, which is often compared with that of early Mars, this photochemical destruction capped S02 concentrations at one thousandth as much as Schrag and his colleagues describe. “There may be ways to make this idea work,” Kasting says. “But it would take some detailed modeling to convince skeptics, including me, that it is actually feasible.”

G Schrag admits that the details are uncertain, but he cites estimates by other researchers who suggest that early Martian volcanoes could have spewed enough S02 to keep pace with the S02 destroyed photochemically. Previous findings also indicate that a thick C02 atmosphere would have effectively scattered the most destructive wavelengths of ultraviolet radiation—yet another example of an apparently mutually beneficial partnership between C02 and S02 on early Mars.

H Kasting maintains that an S02 climate feedback could not have made early Mars as warm as Earth, but he does allow for the possibility that S02 concentrations may have remained high enough to keep the planet partly defrosted, with perhaps enough rainfall to form river valleys. Over that point, Schrag does not quibble. “Our hypothesis doesn’t depend at all on whether there was a big ocean, a few lakes or just a few little puddles,” he says. ” Warm doesn’t mean warm like the Amazon. It could mean warm like Iceland— just warm enough to create those river valleys . ” with S02, it only takes a little. If sulfur dioxide warmed early Mars, as a new hypothesis suggests, minerals called sulfites would have formed in standing water at the surface. No sulfites have yet turned up, possibly because no one was looking for them. The next-generation rover, the Mars Science Laboratory, is well equipped for the search. Scheduled to launch in 2009, the rover (shown here in an artist’s conception) will be the first to carry an x-ray diffractometer, which can scan and identify the crystal structure of any mineral it encounters.

Questions 14-19
The reading Passage has seven paragraphs A-H. Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter A-H, in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet. NB You may use any letter more than once.

14. A problem indirectly solved by SO2
15. A device with an astounding ability for detection
16. A potential contributor to the warmth of the Mars interacting with CO2
17. The destructive effect brought by the sunlight proposed by the opponents
18. A specific condition on early Mars to guarantee the SO2 to maintain in the atmosphere for a long time
19. Conflicting climatic phenomena co-existing on the Mars

Questions 20-22
Do the following statements agree with the information given in reading passage? In boxes 20-22 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

20. Schrag has provided concrete proofs to fight against the skeptics for his view.
21. More and more evidences show up to be in favor of the leading role SO2 has for the warming up the Mars.
22. The sulfites have not been detected probably because of no concern for them.

Questions 23-26
Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of reading passage, using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the reading passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 23-26 on your answer sheet.

An opinion held by Schrag’s team indicates that (23)…………….formed from the integration of SO2 with (24)……………….. would have stopped the built up of thick layers of limestone as well as certain carbonate rocks. Wetness and abundance in CO2 could directly result in the good production rocky layer of (25)…………….. As time went by, sufficient CO2 was emitted from the volcanoes and restricted the formation of the gas in the air. To stop this process made SO2 possible to accelerate (26)………………

The Nagymaros Dam

When Janos Vargha, a biologist from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, began a new career as a writer with a small monthly nature magazine called Buvar, it was 9 years after the story behind the fall of the Berlin Wall had started to unfold. During his early research, he went to a beauty spot on the river Danube outside Budapest known as the Danube Bend to interview local officials about plans to build a small park on the site of an ancient Hungarian capital.

One official mentioned that passing this tree-lined curve in the river, a popular tourism spot for Hungarians was monotonous. Also, it was to be submerged by a giant hydroelectric dam in secret by a much-feared state agency known simply as the Water Management.

Vargha investigated and learned that the Nagymaros dam (pronounced “nosh-marosh”) would cause pollution, destroy underground water reserves, dry out wetlands and wreck the unique ecosystem of central Europe’s longest river. Unfortunately, nobody objected. “Of course, I wrote an article. But there was a director of the Water Management on the magazine’s editorial board. The last time, he went to the printers and stopped the presses, the article was never published. I was frustrated and angry, but I was ultimately interested in why they cared to ban my article,” he remembers today.

He found that the Nagymaros dam was part of a joint project with neighbouring Czechoslovakia to produce hydroelectricity, irrigate farms and enhance navigation. They would build two dams and re-engineer the Danube for 200 kilometres where it created the border between them. “The Russians were working together, too. They wanted to take their big ships from the Black Sea right up the Danube to the border with Austria.”

Vargha was soon under vigorous investigation, and some of his articles got past the censors. He gathered supporters for some years, but he was one of only a few people who believed the dam should be stopped. He was hardly surprised when the Water Management refused to debate the project in public. After a public meeting, the bureaucrats had pulled out at the last minute. Vargha knew he had to take the next step. “We decided it wasn’t enough to talk and write, so we set up an organization, the Danube Circle. We announced that we didn’t agree with censorship. We would act as if we were living in a democracy.” he says.

The Danube Circle was illegal and the secret publications it produced turned out to be samizdat leaflets. In an extraordinary act of defiance, it gathered 10,000 signatures for a petition objecting to the dam and made links with environmentalists in the west, inviting them to Budapest for a press conference.

The Hungarian government enforced a news blackout on the dam, but articles about the Danube Circle began to be published and appear in the western media. In 1985, the Circle and Vargha, a public spokesman, won the Right Livelihood award known as the alternative Nobel prize. Officials told Vargha he should not take the prize but he ignored them. The following year when Austrian environmentalists joined a protest in Budapest, they were met with tear gas and batons. Then the Politburo had Vargha taken from his new job as editor of the Hungarian version of Scientific American.

The dam became a focus for opposition to the hated regime. Communists tried to hold back the waters in the Danube and resist the will of the people. Vargha says, “Opposing the state directly was still hard.” “Objecting to the dam was less of a hazard, but it was still considered a resistance to the state.”

Under increasing pressure from the anti-dam movement, the Hungarian Communist Party was divided. Vargha says, “Reformists found that the dam was not very popular and economical. It would be cheaper to generate electricity by burning coal or nuclear power.” “But hardliners were standing for Stalinist ideas of large dams which mean symbols of progress.” Environmental issues seemed to be a weak point of east European communism in its final years. During the 1970s under the support of the Young Communist Leagues, a host of environmental groups had been founded. Party officials saw them as a harmless product of youthful idealism created by Boy Scouts and natural history societies.

Green idealism steadily became a focal point for political opposition. In Czechoslovakia, the human rights of Charter 77 took up environmentalism. The green-minded people of both Poland and Estonia participated in the Friends of the Earth International to protest against air pollution. Bulgarian environmentalists built a resistance group, called Ecoglasnost, which held huge rallies in 1989. Big water engineering projects were potent symbols of the old Stalinism.

Questions 27-34
Complete the summary, using the list of words and phrases, A-L, below. Write the correct letter, A-L, in boxes 27-34 on your answer sheet.

A severe
B discharged
C constructing a park of small-scale
D passed
E reformist
F swallowed up
G separated
H favourable
I established
J collision
K combined
L environmentalists

The story of the fall of the Berlin Wall had started to unfold 9 years earlier, Janos Vargha visited the river Danube out of Budapest to discuss a matter of (27)………………. with executives. However, unfortunately, the tree-lined curve in the river was (28)……………… by a colossal dam which caused a lot of fear. He noticed the negative impact of the Nagymaros dam would be (29)………………. on the ecosystem around the main river. Besides, the dam was engineering public works, generating hydroelectricity, irrigating farmlands and developing sailing trade which was (30)………………….. with a border of Czechoslovakia.

After one public meeting, Vargha (31)…………….. the Danube Circle for showing the autonomy of the people in a democracy. Despite every effort, he who would eventually become the editor of the Hungarian edition was (32)……………… by the Politburo. Fortunately, with plenty of pressure from the anti-dam movement, east European communism’s final symbol was opposed by the (33)…………………. Overall, between political processing and environmentalists have been on a (34)……………….of views.

Questions 35-39
Do the following statements reflect the claims of the writer in reading passage? In boxes 35-39 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. Janos Vargha predicted that the Nagymaros dam would wreck the natural atmosphere before it was built.
36. The Nagymaros dam’s project was managed by the Russians only.
37. The Danube Circle was an unauthorised group for opposing the dam.
38. The Politburo accepted Vargha as editor of the Hungarian edition.
39. The human rights Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia accepted green thoughts.

Question 40
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

40. In this passage, the Nagymaros dam’s main purpose was
A related to Russian Water Management.
B to develop a source of electronic power, farming and sail.
C to connect the Black Sea and the Danube.
D to develop a beauty spot on the river Danube.

Radio Automation

Today they are everywhere. Production lines controlled by computers and operated by robots. There’s no chatter of assembly workers, just the whirr and click of machines. In the mid-1940s, the workerless factory was still the stuff of science fiction. There were no computers to speak of and electronics was primitive. Yet hidden away in the English countryside was a highly automated production line called ECME, which could turn out 1500 radio receivers a day with almost no help from human hands.

A John Sargrove, the visionary engineer who developed the technology, was way ahead of his time. For more than a decade, Sargrove had been trying to figure out how to make cheaper radios. Automating the manufacturing process would help. But radios didn’t lend themselves to such methods: there were too many parts to fit together and too many wires to solder. Even a simple receiver might have 30 separate components and 80 hand-soldered connections. At every stage, things had to be tested and inspected. Making radios required highly skilled labour—and lots of it.

B In 1944, Sargrove came up with the answer. His solution was to dispense with most of the fiddly bits by inventing a primitive chip—a slab of Bakelite with all the receiver’s electrical components and connections embedded in it. This was something that could be made by machines, and he designed those too. At the end of the war, Sargrove built an automatic production line, which he called ECME (electronic circuit-making equipment), in a small factory in Effingham, Surrey.

C An operator sat at one end of each ECME line, feeding in die plates. She didn’t need much skill, only quick hands. From now on, everything was controlled by electronic switches and relays. First stop was the sandblaster, which roughened the surface of the plastic BO that molten metal would stick to it The plates were then cleaned to remove any traces of grit The machine automatically checked that the surface was rough enough before sending the plate to the spraying section. There, eight nozzles rotated into position and sprayed molten zinc over both sides of the plate. Again, the nozzles only began to spray when a plate was in place. The plate whizzed on. The next stop was the milling machine, which ground away the surface layer of metal to leave the circuit and other components in the grooves and recesses. Now the plate was a composite of metal and plastic. It sped on to be lacquered and have its circuits tested. By the time it emerged from the end of the line, robot hands had fitted it with sockets to attach components such as valves and loudspeakers. When ECME was working flat out; the whole process took 20 seconds.

D ECME was astonishingly advanced. Electronic eyes, photocells that generated a small current when a panel arrived, triggered each step in the operation, BO avoiding excessive wear and tear on the machinery. The plates were automatically tested at each stage as they moved along the conveyor. And if more than two plates in succession were duds, the machines were automatically adjusted—or if necessary halted In a conventional factory, I workers would test faulty circuits and repair them. But Sargrove’s assembly line produced circuits so cheaply they just threw away the faulty ones. Sargrove’s circuit board was even more astonishing for the time. It predated the more familiar printed circuit, with wiring printed on aboard, yet was more sophisticated. Its built-in components made it more like a modem chip.

E When Sargrove unveiled his invention at a meeting of the British Institution of Radio Engineers in February 1947, the assembled engineers were impressed. So was the man from The Times. ECME, he reported the following day, “produces almost without human labour, a complete radio receiving set. This new method of production can be equally well applied to television and other forms of electronic apparatus.

F The receivers had many advantages over their predecessors, wit components they were more robust. Robots didn’t make the sorts of mistakes human assembly workers sometimes did. “Wiring mistakes just cannot happen,” wrote Sargrove. No w ừ es also meant the radios were lighter and cheaper to ship abroad. And with no soldered wires to come unstuck, the radios were more reliable. Sargrove pointed out that the drcuit boards didn’t have to be flat. They could be curved, opening up the prospect of building the electronics into the cabinet of Bakelite radios.

G Sargrove was all for introducing this type of automation to other products. It could be used to make more complex electronic equipment than radios, he argued. And even if only part of a manufacturing process were automated, the savings would be substantial. But while his invention was brilliant, his timing was bad. ECME was too advanced for its own good. It was only competitive on huge production runs because each new job meant retooling the machines. But disruption was frequent. Sophisticated as it was, ECME still depended on old- fashioned electromechanical relays and valves—which failed with monotonous regularity. The state of Britain’s economy added to Sargrove’s troubles. Production was dogged by power cuts and post-war shortages of materials. Sargrove’s financial backers began to get cold feet.

H There was another problem Sargrove hadn’t foreseen. One of ECME’s biggest advantages—the savings on the cost of labour—also accelerated its downfall. Sargrove’s factory had two ECME production lines to produce the two c ữ cuits needed for each radio. Between them these did what a thousand assembly workers would otherwise have done. Human hands were needed only to feed the raw material in at one end and plug the valves into then sockets and fit the loudspeakers at the other. After that, the only job left was to fit the pair of Bakelite panels into a radio cabinet and check that it worked.

I Sargrove saw automation as the way to solve post-war labour shortages. With somewhat Utopian idealism, he imagined his new technology would free people from boring, repetitive jobs on the production line and allow them to do more interesting work. “Don’t get the idea that we are out to rob people of then jobs,” he told the Daily Mnror. “Our task is to liberate men and women from being slaves of machines.”

J The workers saw things differently. They viewed automation in the same light as the everlasting light bulb or the suit that never wears out—as a threat to people’s livelihoods. If automation spread, they wouldn’t be released to do more exciting jobs. They’d be released to join the dole queue. Financial backing for ECME fizzled out. The money dried up. And Britain lost its lead in a technology that would transform industry just a few years later.

Questions 1-7
Complete the following chart of the paragraphs of reading passage, using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the reading passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet.

The following diagram explains the process of ECME:

Questions 8-11
Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of reading passage using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the reading passage for each answer. Writes your answers inboxes 8-11 on your answer sheet

Sargrove had been dedicated to create a (8)………………… radio by automation of manufacture. The old version of radio had a large number of independent (9)…………………. . After this innovation made, wireless-style radios became (10)…………………and inexpensive to export oversea. As the Saigrove saw it, the real benefit of ECME’s radio was that it reduced (11)……………….. of manual work; which can be easily copied to other industries of manufacturing electronic devices.

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

12. What were workers attitude towards ECME Model initialy
A anxious
B welcoming
C boring
D inspiring

13. What is the main idea of this passage?
A approach to reduce the price of radio
B a new generation of fully popular products and successful business
C in application of die automation in the early stage
D ECME technology can be applied in many product fields

The Cacao: A Sweet history

A Chapter 1
Most people today think of chocolate as something sweet to eat or drink that can be easily found in stores around the world. It might surprise you that chocolate was once highly treasured. The tasty secret of the cacao (Kah Kow) tree was discovered 2,000 years ago in the tropical rainforests of the Americas. The story of how chocolate grew from a local Mesoamerican beverage into a global sweet encompasses many cultures and continents.

B Chapter 2
Historians believe the Maya people of Central America first learned to farm cacao plants around two thousand years ago. The Maya took cacao trees from the rainforests and grew them in their gardens. They cooked cacao seeds, the crushed them into a soft paste. They mixed the paste with water and flavorful spices to make an unsweetened chocolate drink. The Maya poured the chocolate drink back and forth between two containers so that the liquid would have a layer of bubbles or foam.

Cacao and chocolate were an important part of Maya culture. There are often images of cacao plants on Maya buildings and art objects. Ruling families drank chocolate at special ceremonies. And, even poorer members of society could enjoy the drink once in a while. Historians believe that cacao seeds were also used in marriage ceremonies as a sign of the union between a husband and a wife.

The Aztec culture in current-day Mexico also prized chocolate. But, cacao plants could not grow in the area where the Aztecs lived. So, they traded to get cacao. They even used cacao seeds as a form of money to pay taxes. Chocolate also played a special role in both Maya and Aztec royal and religious events. Priests presented cacao seeds and offerings to the gods and served chocolate drinks during sacred ceremonies. Only the very wealthy in Aztec societies could afford to drink chocolate because cacao was so valuable. The Aztec ruler Montezuma was believed to drink fifty cups of chocolate every day. Some experts believe the word for chocolate came from the Aztec word “xocolatl” which in the Nahuatl language means “bitter water.” Others believe the word “chocolate” was created by combining Mayan and Nahuatl words.

C Chapter 3
The explorer Christopher Columbus brought cacao seeds to Spain after his trip to Central America in 1502. But it was the Spanish explorer Hernando Cortes who understood that chocolate could be a valuable investment. In 1519, Cortes arrived in current-day Mexico. He believed the chocolate drink would become popular with Spaniards. After the Spanish soldiers defeated the Aztec empire, they were able to seize the supplies of cacao and send them home. Spain later began planting cacao in its colonies in the Americans in order to satisfy the large demand for chocolate. The wealthy people of Spain first enjoyed a sweetened version of chocolate drink. Later, the popularity of the drink spread throughout Europe. The English, Dutch and French began to plant cacao trees in their own colonies. Chocolate remained a drink that only wealthy people could afford to drink until the eighteenth century. During the period known as the Industrial Revolution, new technologies helped make chocolate less costly to produce.

D Chapter 4
Farmers grow cacao trees in many countries in Africa, Central and South America. The trees grow in the shady areas of the rainforests near the Earth’s equator. But these trees can be difficult to grow. They require an exact amount of water, warmth, soil and protection. After about five years, cacao trees start producing large fruits called pods, which grow near the trunk of the tree. The seeds inside the pods are harvested to make chocolate. There are several kinds of cacao trees. Most of the world’s chocolate is made from the seed of the forastero tree. But farmers can also grow criollo or trinitario cacao plants. Cacao trees grown on farms are much more easily threatened by diseases and insects than wild trees. Growing cacao is very hard work for farmers. They sell their harvest on a futures market. This means that economic conditions beyond their control can affect the amount of money they will earn. Today, chocolate industry officials, activists, and scientists are working with farmers. They are trying to make sure that cacao can be grown in a way that is fair to the timers and safe for the environment.

E Chapter 5
To become chocolate, cacao seeds go through a long production process in a factory. Workers must sort, clean and cook the seeds. Then they break off the covering of the seeds so that only the inside fruit, or nibs, remain. Workers crush the nibs into a soft substance called chocolate liquor. This gets separated into cocoa solids and fat called cocoa butter. Chocolate makers have their own special recipes in which they combine chocolate liquor with exact amounts of sugar, milk and cocoa fat. They finely crush this “crumb” mixture in order to make it smooth. The mixture then goes through two more processes before it is shaped into a mold form.

Chocolate making is big business. The market value of the yearly cacao crop around the world is more than five billion dollars. Chocolate is especially popular in Europe and the United States. For example, in 2005, the United States bought 1.4 billion dollars worth of cocoa products. Each year, Americans eat an average of more than five kilograms of chocolate per person. Speciality shops that sell costly chocolates are also very popular. Many offer chocolate lovers the chance to taste chocolates grown in different areas of the world.

Questions 14-18
Reading passage has 5 chapters. Which chapter contains the following information? Write your answers in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet

14. the part of cacao trees used to produce chocolate
15. average chocolate consumption by people in the US per person per year
16. risks faced by fanners in the cacao business
17. where the first sweetened chocolate drink appeared
18. how ancient American civilizations obtained cacao

Questions 19-23
Do the following statements agree with the information given in reading passage? In boxes 19-23 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

19. use cacao and chocolate in ceremonies were restricted Maya royal families
20. The Spanish explorer Hernando Cortes invested in chocolate and chocolate drinks.
21. The forastero tree produces the best chocolate.
22. some parts in cacao seed are get rid of during the chocolate process
23. Chocolate is welcomed more in some countries or continents than other parts around the world.

Questions 24-27
The flow chart below shows the steps in chocolate making. Complete the flow chart using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each blank

• Cacao seeds
• sorting, cleaning and cooking ridding seeds of their (24)………………
• Nibs
• crushing (25)………………
• Add sugar, milk and (26)……………
• Crumb mixture
• Crush finely then come into a shape in a (27)……………

Extinct: the Giant Deer

Toothed cats, mastodons, giant sloths, woolly rhinos, and many other big, shaggy mammals are widely thought to have died out around the end of the last ice age, some 10,500 years ago.

A The Irish elk is also known as the giant deer (Megaloceros giganteus). Analysis of ancient bones and teeth by scientists based in Britain and Russia show the huge herbivore survived until about 5,000 B.C. – more than three millennia later than previously believed. The research team says this suggests additional factors, besides climate change, probably hastened the giant deer’s eventual extinction. The factors could include hunting or habitat destruction by humans.

B The Irish elk, so-called because its well-preserved remains are often found in lake sediments under peat bogs in Ireland, first appeared about 400,000 years ago in Europe and Central Asia. Through a combination of radiocarbon dating of skeletal remains and the mapping of locations where the remains were unearthed, the team shows the Irish elk was widespread across Europe before the last “big freeze.” The deer’s range later contracted to the Ural Mountains, in modern-day Russia, which separate Europe from Asia.

C The giant deer made its last stand in western Siberia, some 3,000 years after the ice sheets receded, said the study’s co-author, Adrian Lister, professor of palaeobiology at University College London, England. “The eastern foothills of the Urals became very densely forested about 8,000 years ago, which could have pushed them on to the plain,” he said. He added that pollen analysis indicates the region then became very dry in response to further climatic change, leading to the loss of important food plants. “In combination with human pressures, this could have finally snuffed them out,” Lister said.

D Hunting by humans has often been put forward as a contributory cause of extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna. The team, though, said their new date for the Irish elk’s extinction hints at an additional human-made problem – habitat destruction. Lister said, “We haven’t got just hunting 7,000 years ago – this was also about the time the first Neolithic people settled in the region. They were farmers who would have cleared the land.” The presence of humans may help explain why the Irish elk was unable to tough out the latest of many climatic fluctuations – periods it had survived in the past.

E Meanwhile, Lister cast doubt on another possible explanation for the deer’s demise – the male’s huge antlers. Some scientists have suggested this exaggerated feature – the result of females preferring stags with the largest antlers, possibly because they advertised a male’s fitness – contributed to the mammal’s downfall. They say such antlers would have been a serious inconvenience in the dense forests that spread northward after the last ice age. But, Lister said, “That’s a hard argument to make because the deer previously survived perfectly well through wooded interglacials [warmer periods between ice ages].” Some research has suggested that a lack of sufficient high-quality forage caused the extinction of the elk. High amounts of calcium and phosphate compounds are required to form antlers, and therefore large quantities of these minerals are required for the massive structures of the Irish Elk. The males (and male deer in general) met this requirement partly from their bones, replenishing them from food plants after the antlers were grown or reclaiming the nutrients from discarded antlers (as has been observed in extant deer). Thus, in the antler growth phase, Giant Deer was suffering from a condition similar to osteoporosis. When the climate changed at the end of the last glacial period, the vegetation in the animal’s habitat also changed towards species that presumably could not deliver sufficient amounts of the required minerals, at least in the western part of its range.

F The extinction of megafauna around the world was almost completed by the end of the last ice age. It is believed that megafauna initially came into existence in response to glacial conditions and became extinct with the onset of warmer climates. Tropical and subtropical areas have experienced less radical climatic change. The most dramatic of these changes was the transformation of a vast area of North Africa into the world’s largest desert. Significantly, Africa escaped major faunal extinction as did tropical and sub-tropical Asia. The human exodus from Africa and our entrance into the Americas and Australia were also accompanied by climate change. Australia’s climate changed from cold-dry to warm-dry. As a result, surface water became scarce. Most inland lakes became completely dry or dry in the warmer seasons. Most large, predominantly browsing animals lost their habitat and retreated to a narrow band in eastern Australia, where there were permanent water and better vegetation. Some animals may have survived until about 7000 years ago. If people have been in Australia for up to 60 000 years, then megafauna must have co-existed with humans for at least 30 000 years. Regularly hunted modern kangaroos survived not only 10 000 years of Aboriginal hunting, but also an onslaught of commercial shooters.

G The group of scientists led by A.J. Stuart focused on northern Eurasia, which he was taking as Europe, plus Siberia, essentially, where they’ve got the best data that animals became extinct in Europe during the Late Pleistocene. Some cold-adapted animals, go through into the last part of the cold stage and then become extinct up there. So you’ve actually got two phases of extinction. Now, neither of these coincide – these are Neanderthals here being replaced by modern humans. There’s no obvious coincidence between the arrival of humans or climatic change alone and these extinctions. There’s a climatic change here, so there’s a double effect here. Again, as animals come through to the last part of the cold stage, here there’s a fundamental change in the climate, reorganization of vegetation, and the combination of the climatic change and the presence of humans – of advanced Paleolithic humans – causes this wave of extinction. There’s a profound difference between the North American data and that of Europe, which summarize that the extinctions in northern Eurasia, in Europe, are moderate and staggered, and in North America severe and sudden. And these things relate to the differences in the timing of human arrival. The extinction follows from human predation, but only at times of fundamental changes in the environment.

Questions 28-32
Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of reading passage using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer.

The giant deer made its last stand in western Siberia, some 3,000 years after the ice sheets receded, said the study’s co-author, Adrian Lister, professor of palaeobiology at University College London, England. “The eastern foothills of the Urals became very densely forested about (28)…………….years ago, which could have pushed them on to the plain,” he said. He added that pollen analysis indicates the region then became very dry in response to further climatic change, leading to the loss of important food plants. “In combination with human pressures, this could have finally snuffed them out,” Lister said. Hunting by humans has often been put forward as a contributory cause of extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna. The team, though, said their new date for the Irish elk’s (29)…………… hints at an additional human-made problem – habitat destruction. Lister said, “We haven’t got just hunting (30)……………. years ago – this was also about the time the first (31)…………..people settled in the region. They were farmers who would have cleared the land.” The presence of humans may help explain why the Irish elk was unable to tough out the latest of many climatic (32)………….. – periods it had survived in the past.

Questions 33-35
Answer the questions below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.

33. What kind of physical characteristics eventually contributed to the extinction of Irish elk?
34. What kind of nutrient substance needed in maintaining the huge size of Irish elk?
35. What geographical evidence suggested the advent of human resulted in the extinction of Irish elk?

Questions 36-39
Choose the letter A-D and write your answers in boxes 36-39 on your answer sheet.

A Eurasia
B Australia
C Asia
D Africa

36. the continents where humans imposed a little impact on large mammals extinction
37. the continents where the climatic change was mild and fauna remains
38. the continents where both humans and climatic change are the causes
39. the continents where the climatic change along caused a massive extinction

Question 40

40. Which statement is true according to the Stuart team’s finding?
A Neanderthals rather than modern humans caused the extinction in Europe
B Paleolithic humans in Europe along kill the big animals such as Giant deer
C climatic change was not solely responsible for the megafauna extinction in Europe
D moderate and staggered extinction was mainly the result of fundamental climatic change

Father of modern management

A Peter Drucker was one of the most important management thinkers of the past hundred years. He wrote about 40 book and thousands of articles and he never rested in his mission to persuade the world that management matters. “Management is an organ of institutions … the organ that converts a mob into an organisation, and human efforts into performance.” Did he succeed? The range of his influence was extraordinary. Wherever people grapple with tricky management problems, from big organizations to small ones, from the public sector to the private, and increasingly in the voluntary sector, you can find Drucker’s fingerprints.

B His first two books – The End of Economic Man (1939) and The Future of Industrial Man (1942) – had their admirers, including Winston Churchill, but they annoyed academic critics by ranging so widely over so many different subjects. Still, the second of these books attracted attention with its passionate insistence that companies had a social dimension as well as an economic purpose. His third book, The Concept of the Corporation, became an instant bestseller and has remained in print ever since.

C The two most interesting arguments in The Concept of the Corporation actually had little to do with the decentralization fad. They were to dominate his work. The first had to do with “empowering” workers. Drucker believed in treating workers as resources rather than just as costs. He was a harsh critic of the assembly-line system of production that then dominated the manufacturing sector – partly because assembly lines moved at the speed of the slowest and partly because they failed to engage the creativity of individual workers. The second argument had to do with the rise of knowledge workers. Drucker argued that the world is moving from an “economy of goods” to an economy of “knowledge” – and from a society dominated by an industrial proletariat to one dominated by brain workers. He insisted that this had profound implications for both managers and politicians. Managers had to stop treating workers like cogs in a huge inhuman machine and start treating them as brain workers. In turn, politicians had to realise that knowledge, and hence education, was the single most important resource for any advanced society. Yet Drucker also thought that this economy had implications for knowledge workers themselves. They had to come to terms with the fact that they were neither “bosses” nor “workers”, but something in between: entrepreneurs who had responsibility for developing their most important resource, brainpower, and who also needed to take more control of their own careers, including their pension plans.

D However, there was also a hard side to his work. Drucker was responsible for inventing one of the rational school of management’s most successful products – “management by objectives”. In one of his most substantial works, The Practice of Management (1954), he emphasised the importance of managers and corporations setting clear long-term objectives and then translating those long-term objectives into more immediate goals. He argued that firms should have an elite corps of general managers, who set these long-term objectives, and then a group of more specialised managers. For his critics, this was a retreat from his earlier emphasis on the soft side of management. For Drucker it was all perfectly consistent: if you rely too much on empowerment you risk anarchy, whereas if you rely too much on command-and-control you sacrifice creativity. The trick is for managers to set long-term goals, but then allow their employees to work out ways of achieving those goals. If Drucker helped make management a global industry, he also helped push it beyond its business base. He was emphatically a management thinker, not just a business one. He believed that management is “the defining organ of all modern institutions”, not just corporations.

E There are three persistent criticisms of Drucker’s work. The first is that he focused on big organisations rather than small ones. The Concept of the Corporation was in many ways a fanfare to big organisations. As Drucker said, “We know today that in modern industrial production, particularly in modern mass production, the small unit is not only inefficient, it cannot produce at all.” The book helped to launch the “big organisation boom” that dominated business thinking for the next 20 years. The second criticism is that Drucker’s enthusiasm for management by objectives helped to lead the business down a dead end. They prefer to allow ideas, including ideas for long-term strategies, to bubble up from the bottom and middle of the organisations rather than being imposed from on high. Thirdly, Drucker is criticised for being a maverick who has increasingly been left behind by the increasing rigour of his chosen field. There is no single area of academic management theory that he made his own.

F There is some truth in the first two arguments. Drucker never wrote anything as good as The Concept of the Corporation on entrepreneurial start-ups. Drucker’s work on management by objectives sits uneasily with his earlier and later writings on the importance of knowledge workers and self-directed teams. But the third argument is short-sighted and unfair because it ignores Drucker’s pioneering role in creating the modern profession of management. He produced one of the first systematic studies of a big company. He pioneered the idea that ideas can help galvanise companies. The biggest problem with evaluating Drucker’s influence is that so many of his ideas have passed into conventional wisdom. In other words, he is the victim of his own success. His writings on the importance of knowledge workers and empowerment may sound a little banal today. But they certainly weren’t banal when he first dreamed them up in the 1940s, or when they were first put in to practice in the Anglo-Saxon world in the 1980s. Moreover, Drucker continued to produce new ideas up until his 90s. His work on the management of voluntary organisations remained at the cutting edge.

Questions 1-6
Reading Passage has six paragraphs, A-F. Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list below. Write the correct number, i-ix, in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.

List of Headings
i The popularity and impact of Drucker’s work
ii Finding fault with Drucker
iii The impact of economic globalisation
iv Government regulation of business
v Early publications of Drucker’s
vi Drucker’s view of balanced management
vii Drucker’s rejection of big business
viii An appreciation of the pros and cons of Drucker’s work
ix The changing role of the employee

1. Paragraph A
2. Paragraph B
3. Paragraph C
4. Paragraph D
5. Paragraph E
6. Paragraph F

Questions 7-10
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage? In boxes 7-10 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

7. Drucker believed the employees should enjoy the same status as the employers in a company
8. Drucker argued the managers and politicians will dominate the economy during a social transition
9. Drucker support that workers are not simply put themselves just in the employment relationship and should develop their resources of intelligence voluntarily
10. Drucker’s work on the management is out of date in moderns days

Questions 11-12
Choose TWO letters from A-E. Write your answers in boxes 12 and 13 on your answer sheet.

Which TWO of the following are true of Drucker’s views?
A High rank executives and workers should be put in balanced positions in management practice
B Young executives should be given chances to start from low level jobs
C More emphasis should be laid on fostering the development of the union
D Management should facilitate workers with tools of self-appraisal instead of controlling them from the outside force
E Leaders should go beyond the scope of management details and strategically establish goals

Questions 13-14
Choose TWO letters from A-E. Write your answers in boxes 13 and 14 on your answer sheet.

Which TWO of the following are mentioned in the passage as criticisms to Drucker and his views?
A His lectures focus too much on big organisations and ignore the small ones
B His lectures are too broad and lack of being precise and accurate about the facts
C He put a source of objectives more on corporate executives but not on average workers
D He acted much like a maverick and did not set up his own management groups
E He was overstating the case for knowledge workers when warning businesses to get prepared

New Agriculture in Oregon, US

A Onion growers in eastern Oregon are adopting a system that saves water and keeps topsoil in place while producing the highest quality “super-colossal” onions. Pear growers in southern Oregon have reduced their use of some of the most toxic pesticides by up to two-thirds, and are still producing top-quality pear. Range managers throughout the state have controlled the poisonous weed tansy ragwort with insect predators and saved the Oregon livestock industry up to $4.8 million a year.

B These are some of the results Oregon growers have achieved in collaboration with Oregon State University (OSU) researchers as they test new farming methods including integrated pest management (IPM). Nationwide, however, IPM has not delivered results comparable to those in Oregon. A recent U.S General Accounting Office (GAO) report indicates that while integrated pest management can result in dramatically reduced pesticide use, the federal government has been lacking in effectively promoting that goal and implementing IPM. Farmers also blame the government for not making the new options of pest management attractive. “Wholesale changes in the way that farmers control the pests on their farms is an expensive business.” Tony Brown, of the National Farmers Association, says. “If the farmers are given tax breaks to offset the expenditure, then they would willingly accept the new practices.” The report goes on to note that even though the use of the riskiest pesticides has declined nationwide, they still make up more than 40 percent of all pesticides used today; and national pesticide use has risen by 40 million kilograms since 1992. “Our food supply remains the safest and highest quality on Earth but we continue to overdose our farmland with powerful and toxic pesticides and to under-use the safe and effective alternatives,” charged Patrick Leahy, who commissioned the report. Green action groups disagree about the safety issue. “There is no way that habitual consumption of foodstuffs grown using toxic chemical of the nature found on today’s farms can be healthy for consumers,” noted Bill Bowler, spokesman for Green Action, one of many lobbyists interested in this issue.

C The GAO report singles out Oregon’s apple and pear producers who have used the new IPM techniques with growing success. Although Oregon is clearly ahead of the nation, scientists at OSU are taking the Government Accounting Office criticisms seriously. “We must continue to develop effective alternative practices that will reduce environmental hazards and produce high-quality products,” said Paul Jepson, a professor of entomology at OSU and new director of

D OSU’s Integrated Plant Protection Centre (IPPC). The IPPC brings together scientists from OSU’s Agricultural Experiment Station, OSU Extension service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Oregon farmers to help develop agricultural systems that will save water and soil, and reduce pesticides. In response to the GAO report, the Centre is putting even more emphasis on integrating research and farming practices to improve Oregon agriculture environmentally and economically.

E “The GAO report criticizes agencies for not clearly communicating the goals of IPM,” said Jepson. “Our challenge is to greatly improve the communication to and from growers, to learn what works and what doesn’t. the work coming from OSU researchers must be adopted in the field and not simply languish in scientific journals.”

F In Oregon, growers and scientists are working together to instigate new practices. For example, a few years ago scientists at OSU’s Malheur Experiment Station began testing a new drip irrigation system to replace old ditches that wasted water and washed soil and fertilizer into streams. The new system cut water and fertilizer use by half kept topsoil in place and protected water quality.

G In addition, the new system produced crops of very large onions, rated “super-colossal” and highly valued by the restaurant industry and food processors. Art Pimms, one of the researchers at Malheur comments: “Growers are finding that when they adopt more environmentally benign practices, they can have excellent results. The new practices benefit the environment and give the growers their success.”

H OSU researcher in Malheur next tested straw mulch and found that it successfully held soil in place and kept the ground moist with less irrigation. In addition, and unexpectedly, the scientists found that the mulched soil created a home for beneficial beetles and spiders that prey on onion thrips – a notorious pest in commercial onion fields – a discovery that could reduce the need for pesticides. “I would never have believed that we could replace the artificial pest controls that we had before and still keep our good results,” commented Steve Black, a commercial onion farmer in Oregon, “but instead we have actually surpassed expectations.”

I OSU researchers throughout the state have been working to reduce dependence on broad-spectrum chemical spays that are toxic to many kinds of organisms, including humans. “Consumers are rightly putting more and more pressure on the industry to change its reliance on chemical pesticides, but they still want a picture-perfect product,” said Rick Hilton, an entomologist at OSU’s Southern Oregon Research and Extension Centre, where researches help pear growers reduce the need for highly toxic pesticides. Picture perfect pears are an important product in Oregon and traditionally they have required lots of chemicals. In recent years, the industry has faced stiff competition from overseas producers, so any new methods that growers adopt must make sense economically as well as environmentally. Hilton is testing a growth regulator that interferes with the molting of codling moth larvae. Another study used pheromone dispensers to disrupt codling moth mating. These and other methods of integrated pest management have allowed pear growers to reduce their use of organophosphates by two-thirds and reduce all other synthetic pesticides by even more and still produce top-quality pears. These and other studies around the state are part of the effort of the IPPC to find alternative farming practices that benefit both the economy and the environment.

Questions 15-22
Use the information in the passage to match the people (listed A-G) with opinions or deeds below. Write the appropriate letters A-G in boxes 15-22 on your answer sheet. NB You may use any letter more than once

A Tony Brown
B Patrick Leahy
C Bill Bowler
D Paul Jepson
E Art Pimms
F Steve Black
G Rick Hilton

15. There is a double-advantage to the new techniques.
16. The work on developing these alternative techniques is not finished.
17. Eating food that has had chemicals used in its production is dangerous to our health.
18. Changing current farming methods into a new one is not a cheap process.
19. Results have exceeded the anticipated goal.
20. The research done should be translated into practical projects.
21. The U.S. produces the best food in the world nowadays.
22. Expectations of end-users of agricultural products affect the products.

Questions 23-27
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage? In boxes 23-27 on your answer sheet, write:

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

23. Integrated Pest Management has generally been regarded as a success in across the US.
24. Oregon farmers of apples and pears have been promoted as successful examples of Integrated Pest Management.
25. The IPPC uses scientists from different organisations globally
26. Straw mulch experiments produced unplanned benefits.
27. The apple industry is now facing a lot of competition from abroad.

Terminated Dinosaur Era

A Day after day, we hear about how anthropogenic development is causing global warming. According to an increasingly vocal minority, however, we should be asking ourselves how much of this is media hype, and how much is based on real evidence. It seems – as so often is the ease – that it depends on which expert you listen to, or which statistics you study.

B Yes, it is true that there is a mass of evidence to indicate that the world is getting warmer, with one of the world’s leading weather predictors stating that air temperatures have frown an increase of just under half a degree Celsius since the beginning of the twentieth century. And while this may not sound like anything worth losing sleep over, the interna­tional press would have us believe that the consequences could be devastating. Other ex­perts, however, are of the opinion that what we are seeing is just part of a natural upward and downward swing that has always been part of the cycle of global weather. An analysis of the views of major meteorologists in the United States showed that less than 20% of them believed that any change in temperature over the last hundred years was our own fault – the rest attributed it to natural cyclical changes.

C There is, of course, no denying that we are still at a very early stage in understanding weather. The effects of such variables as rainfall, cloud formation, the seas and oceans, gases such as methane and ozone, or even solar energy are still not really understood, and therefore the predictions that we make using them cannot always be relied on.

Dr James Hansen, in 19BH, was predicting that the likely effects of global warming would be a raising of the world temperature which would have disastrous consequences for mankind: “a strong cause arid effect relationship between the current climate and human alteration of the at­mosphere”. He has now gone on record as stating that using artificial models of climate as a way of predicting change is all but impossible. In fact, he now believes that, rather than getting hotter, our planet is getting greener as a result of the carbon dioxide increase, with the prospect of increasing vegetation in areas which in recent history have been frozen wastelands.

D In fact, there is some evidence to suggest that as our computer-based weather models have become more sophisticated, the predicted rises In temperature have been cut back. In addi­tion, if we look at the much-reported rise in global temperature over the last century, a close analysis reveals that the lion’s share of that increase, almost three quarters in total, occurred before man began to “poison” his world with industrial processes and the accom­panying greenhouse gas emissions in the second half of the twentieth century.

E So should we pay any attention to those stories that scream out at us from billboards and television news headlines, claiming that man, with his inexhaustible dependence on oil-based machinery and ever more sophisticated forms of transport is creating a nightmare level of greenhouse gas emissions, poisoning his environment and ripping open the ozone layer?

Doubters point to scientific evidence, which can prove that, of all the greenhouse gases, only two per cent come from man-made sources, the rest resulting from natural emissions. Who, then, to believe: the environmentalist exhorting us to leave the car at home, to buy re-usable products packaged in recycled paper and to plant trees in our back yard? Or the sceptics, including, of course, a lot of big businesses who have most to lose, when they tell us that we are making a mountain out of a molehill? And my own opinion? The jury’s still out as for as I am concerned!

Questions 28-32
Choose the appropriate letters A-D.

28.The author …
A believes that man is causing global warming
B believes that global warming is a natural process
C is sure what the causes of global warming are
D does not say what he believes the causes of global warming are

29. As to the cause of global warming, the author believes that …
A occasionally the fact depends on who you are talking to
B the facts always depend on who you are talking to
C often the fact depends on which expert you listen to
D you should not speak to experts

30. More than 80% of the top meteorologists in the United States are of the opinion that…
A global warming should make us lose sleep
B global warming is not the result of oil natural cyclical changes, but man-made
C the consequences of global warming will be deviating
D global warming is not man-made, but the result of natural cyclical changes.

31. Our understanding of the weather…
A leads to reliable predictions
B is variable
C cannot be denied
D is not very developed yet

32. Currently, Dr. James Hansen’s beliefs include the fact that …
A It is nearly impossible to predict weather change using artificial models
B the consequences of global warming would be disastrous in mankind
C there is a significant link between the climate now, mid man’s changing of the atmosphere
D Earth is getting colder

Questions 33-38
Do the statements below agree with the information in Reading Passage? In Boxes 33-38, 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

33. At the same time that computer-based weather models have become more sophisticated, weather forecasters have become more expert.
34. Most of the increase in global temperature happened in the second half of the twentieth century.
35. The media wants us to blame ourselves for global warming.
36. The media encourages the public to use environment-friendly vehicles, such as electric cars to combat global warming.
37. Environmentalists are very effective at persuading people to be kind to the environment.
38. Many big businesses are on the side of the sceptics as regards the cause of global warming.

Questions 39-40
Complete the sentences below. Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each blank space.

As well as planting trees and not driving, the environmentalist would like us to choose products that are wrapped (39)…………………. and can be used more than once.

Big businesses would have us believe that we are making too much fuss about global warming, because they have (40)………………….

Light pollution

A If humans were truly at home under the light of the moon and stars, we would go into darkness happily, the midnight world as visible to us as it is to the vast number of nocturnal species on this planet. Instead, we are diurnal creatures, with eyes adapted to living in the sun’s light. This is a basic evolutionary fact, even though most of us don’t think of ourselves as diurnal beings any more than we think of ourselves as primates or mammals, or Earthlings. Yet it’s the only way to explain what we’ve done to the night: We’ve engineered it to receive us by filling it with light.

B This kind of engineering is no different than damming a river. Its benefits come with consequences—called light pollution—whose effects scientists are only now beginning to study. Light pollution is largely the result of bad lighting design, which allows artificial light to shine outward and upward into the sky, where it’s not wanted, instead of focusing it downward, where it is. Ill-designed lighting washes out the darkness of night and radically alters the light levels and light rhythms—to which many forms of life, including ourselves, have adapted.

C Now most of humanity lives under intersecting domes of reflected, refracted light, of scattering rays from overlit cities and suburbs, from light-flooded highways and factories. Nearly all of nighttime Europe is a nebula of light, as is most of the United States and all of Japan. In the south Atlantic the glow from a single fishing fleet squid fishermen during their prey with metal halide lamps—can be seen from space, burning brighter, in fact, than Buenos Aires or Rio de Janeiro.

D We’ve lit up the night as if it were an unoccupied country when nothing could be further from the truth. Among mammals alone, the number of nocturnal species is astonishing. Light is a powerful biological force, and in many species, it acts as a magnet, a process being studied by researchers such as Travis Longcore and Catherine Rich, co-founders of the Los Angeles-based Urban Wildlands Group. The effect is so powerful that scientists speak of songbirds and seabirds being “captured” by searchlights on land or by the light from gas flares on marine oil platforms, circling and circling in the thousands until they drop. Migrating at night, birds are apt to collide with brightly lit tall buildings; immature birds on their first journey suffer disproportionately.

E Insects, of course, cluster around streetlights, and feeding at those insect clusters is now ingrained in the lives of many bat species. In some Swiss valleys, the European lesser horseshoe bat began to vanish after streetlights were installed, perhaps because those valleys were suddenly filled with light-feeding pipistrelle bats. Other nocturnal mammals—including desert rodents, fruit bats, opossums, and badgers-forage more cautiously under the permanent full moon of light pollution because they’ve become easier targets for predators.

F Some birds—blackbirds and nightingales, among others—sing at unnatural hours in the presence of artificial light. Scientists have determined that long artificial days— and artificially short nights induce early breeding in a wide range of birds. And because a longer day allows for longer feeding, it can also affect migration schedules. One population of Bewick’s swans wintering in England put on fat more rapidly than usual, priming them to begin their Siberian migration early. The problem, of course, is that migration, like most other aspects of bird behaviour, is a precisely timed biological behaviour. Leaving early may mean arriving too soon for nesting conditions to be right

G Nesting sea turtles, which show a natural predisposition for dark beaches, find fewer and fewer of them to nest on. Their hatchlings, which gravitate toward the brighter, more reflective sea horizon, find themselves confused by artificial lighting behind the beach. In Florida alone, hatchling losses number in the hundreds of thousands every year. Frogs and toads living near brightly lit highways suffer nocturnal light levels that are as much as a million times brighter than normal, throwing nearly every aspect of their behaviour out of joint, including their nighttime breeding choruses.

H Of all the pollution we face, light pollution is perhaps the most easily remedied. Simple changes in lighting design and installation yield immediate changes in the amount of light spilt into the atmosphere and, often, immediate energy savings.

I It was once thought that light pollution only affected astronomers, who need to see the night sky in all its glorious clarity. And, in fact, some of the earliest civic efforts to control light pollution—in Flagstaff, Arizona, half a century ago—were made to protect the view from Lowell Observatory, which sits high above that city. Flagstaff has tightened its regulations since then, and in 2001 it was declared the first International Dark Sky City. By now the effort to control light pollution has spread around the globe. More and more cities and even entire countries, such as the Czech Republic, have committed themselves to reducing unwanted glare.

J Unlike astronomers, most of us may not need an undiminished view of the night sky for our work, but like most other creatures we do need darkness. Darkness is as essential to our biological welfare, to our internal clockwork, as light itself. The regular oscillation of waking and sleep in our lives, one of our circadian rhythms—is nothing less than a biological expression of the regular oscillation of light on Earth. So fundamental are these rhythms to our being that altering them is like altering gravity.

Questions 1-6
The reading Passage has ten paragraphs A-J. Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter A-J, in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.

1. A reason that contributes to light pollution.
2. A city’s effort to mitigate light pollution.
3. The importance of darkness.
4. The popularity of light pollution in the world.
5. Methods to reduce light pollution.
6. The reason why we have changed the night.

Questions 7-8
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C, or D.

7. How does light pollution influence creatures?
A by bad lighting design
B by changing the cities and suburbs creatures are used to
C by changing the directions of light
D by changing the light creatures are used to

8. Some aspects of animals’ lives are affected by unwanted light, EXCEPT:
A Migration
B Reproduction
C Natural life span
D Feeding

Questions 9-13
Light pollution has affected many forms of life. Use the information in the passage to match the animals with the relevant information below. Write the appropriate letters A-G in boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet.

9. Songbirds
10. Horseshoe bat
11. Nightingales
12. Bewick’s swans
13. Sea turtles

A eat too much and migrate in advance.
B would not like to sing songs at night.
C is attracted by the light and then a crash happens.
D suffers from food shortages because of competitors.
E have become easier targets for predators.
F be active at unusual times.
G have trouble inbreeding.

Lighting up the lies

A Last year Sean A. Spence, a professor at the school of medicine at the University of Sheffield in England, performed brain scans that showed that a woman convicted of poisoning a child in her care appeared to be telling the truth when she denied committing the crime. This deception study, along with two others performed by the Sheffield group, was funded by Quickfire Media, a television production company working for the U.K.’s Channel 4, which broadcast videos of the researchers at work as part of a three-part series called “Lie Lab.” The brain study of the woman later appeared in the journal European Psychiatry.

B Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) purports to detect mendacity by seeing inside the brain instead of tracking peripheral measures of anxiety—such as changes in pulse, blood pressure or respiration —measured by a polygraph. Besides drawing hundreds of thousands of viewers, fMRI has pulled in entrepreneurs. Two companies—Cephos in Pepperell, Mass., and No Lie MRI in Tarzana, Calif.—claim to predict with 90 percent or greater certitude whether you are telling the truth. No Lie MRI, whose name evokes the casual familiarity of a walk-in dental clinic in a strip mall, suggests that the technique may even be used for “risk reduction in dating” .

C Many neuroscientists and legal scholars doubt such claims—and some even question whether brain scans for lie detection will ever be ready for anything but more research on the nature of deception and the brain. An fMRI machine tracks blood flow to activated brain areas. The assumption in lie detection is that the brain must exert extra effort when telling a lie and that the regions that do more work get more blood. Such areas light up in scans; during the lie studies, the illuminated regions are primarily involved in decision making.

D To assess how fMRI and other neurocience findings affect the law, the Mac- Arthur Foundation put up $10 million last year to pilot for three years the Law and Neuroscience Project. Part of the funding will attempt to set criteria for accurate and reliable lie detection using fMRI and other brain-scanning technology. “I think it’s not possible, given the current technology, to trust the results,” says Marcus Raichle, a neuroscientist at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis who heads the project’s study group on lie detection. “But it’s not impossible to set up a research program to determine whether that’s possible.” A major review article last year in the American Journal of Law and Medicine by Henry T. Greely of Stanford University and Judy Illes, now at the University of British Columbia, explores the deficiencies of existing research and what may be needed to move the technology forward. The two scholars found that lie detection studies conducted so far (still less than 20 in all) failed to prove that fMRI is “effective as a lie detector in the real world at any accuracy level.”

E Most studies examined groups, not individuals.Subjects in these studies were healthy young adults—making it unclear how the results would apply to someone who takes a drug that affects blood pressure or has a blockage in an artery. And the two researchers questioned the specificity of the lit-up areas; they noted that the regions also correlate with a wide range of cognitive behaviors, including memory, self- monitoring and conscious self-awareness.

F The biggest challenge for which the Law and Neuroscience Project is already funding new research—is how to diminish the artificiality of the test protocol. Lying about whether a playing card is the seven of spades may not activate the same areas of the cortex as answering a question about whether you robbed the comer store. In fact, the most realistic studies to date may have come from the Lie Lab television programs. The two companies marketing the technology are not waiting for more data. Cephos is offering scans without charge to people who claim they were falsely accused if they meet certain criteria in an effort to get scans accepted by the courts. Allowing scans as legal evidence could open a potentially huge and lucrative market. “We may have to take many shots on goal before we actually see a courtroom,” says Cephos chief executive Steven

Laken. He asserts that the technology has achieved 97 percent accuracy and that the more than 100 people scanned using the Cephos protocol have provided data that have resolved many of the issues that Greely and Illes cited.

G But until formal clinical trials prove that the machines meet safety and effectiveness criteria, Greely and Illes have called for a ban on non-research uses. Trials envisaged for regulatory approval hint at the technical challenges. Actors, professional poker players and sociopaths would be compared against average Joes. The devout would go in the scanner after nonbelievers. Testing would take into account social setting. White lies—“no, dinner really was fantastic”—would have to be compared against untruths about sexual peccadilloes to ensure that the brain reacts identically.

H There potential for abuse prompts caution. “The danger is that people’s lives can be changed in bad ways because of mistakes in the technology,” Greely says. “The danger for the science is that it gets a black eye because of this very high profile use of neuroimaging that goes wrong.” Considering the long and controversial history of the polygraph, gradualism may be the wisest course to follow for a new diagnostic that probes an essential quality governing social interaction.

Questions 14-20
Use the information in the passage to match the people (listed A-D) with opinions or deeds below. Write the appropriate letters A-D in boxes 14-20 on your answer sheet. NB you may use any letter more than once

A Henry T. Greely &Judy Illes
B Steven Laken
C Henry T. Greely
D Marcus Raichle

14. The possibility hidden in a mission impossible
15. The uncertain effectiveness of functional magnetic resonance imaging for detecting lies
16. The hazard lying behind the technology as a lie detector
17. The limited fields for the use of lie detection technology
18. Several successful cases of applying the results from the lie detection technology
19. Cons of the current research related to lie-detector tests
20. There should be some requested work to improve the techniques regarding lie detection

Questions 21-23
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage? In boxes 21-23 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

21. The lie detection for a convicted woman was first conducted by researchers in Europe.
22. The legitimization of using scans in the court might mean a promising and profitable business.
23. There is always something wrong with neuroimaging.

Questions 24-26
Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of reading passage, using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer.

It is claimed that functional magnetic resonance imaging can check lies by observing the internal part of the brain rather than following up (24)………………….. to evaluate the anxiety as (25)…………………. does. Audiences as well as (26)……………….. are fascinated by this amazing lie-detection technology.

Carbon Capture and Storage

High coal dependence

Renewable energy is much discussed, but coal still plays the greatest role in the generation of electricity, with recent figures from the International Energy Agency showing that China relies on it for 79% of its power, Australia for 78%, and the US for 45%. Germany has less reliance at 41%, which is also the global average. Furthermore, many countries have large, easily accessible deposits of coal, and numerous highly skilled miners, chemists, and engineers. Meanwhile, 70% of the world’s steel production requires coal, and plastic and rayon are usually coal derivatives.

Currently, coal-fired power plants fed voracious appetites, but they produce carbon dioxide (CO2) in staggering amounts. Urbanites may grumble about an average monthly electricity bill of $113, yet they steadfastly ignore the fact that they are not billed for the 6-7 million metric tons of CO2 their local plant belches out, which contribute to the 44% of global CO2 levels from fossil-fuel emissions. Yet, as skies fill with smog and temperatures soar, people crave clean air and cheap power.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that advises the United Nations has testified that the threshold of serious harm to the Earth’s temperature is a mere 2° Celsius above current levels, so it is essential to reduce carbon emissions by 80% over the next 30 years, even as demand for energy will rise by 50%, and one proposal for this is the adoption of carbon capture and storage (CCS).

Underground carbon storage

Currently, CO2 storage, or sequestration as it is known, is practised by the oil and gas industry, where CO2 is pumped into oil fields to maintain pressure and ease extraction – one metric ton dissolves out about three barrels, or separated from natural gas and pumped out of exhausted coal fields or other deep seams. The CO2 remains underground or is channelled into disused sandstone reservoirs. However, the sale of oil and natural gas is profitable, so the $17-per-ton sequestration cost is easily borne. There is also a plan for the injection of CO2 into saline aquifers, 1,000 metres beneath the seabed, to prevent its release into the atmosphere.

Carbon capture

While CO2 storage has been accomplished, its capture from power plants remains largely hypothetical, although CCS plants throughout Western Europe and North America are on the drawing board.

There are three main forms of CCS: pre-combustion, post-combustion, and oxy-firing. In a 2012 paper from the US Congressional Budget Office (CBO), post-combustion capture was viewed most favourably since existing power plants can be retrofitted with it, whereas pre-combustion and oxy-firing mean the construction of entirely new plants. However, pre-combustion and oxy-firing remove more CO2 than post-combustion and generate more electricity.

Post-combustion capture means CO2 is separated from gas after coal is burnt but before electricity is generated, while in oxy-firing, coal is combusted in pure oxygen. In pre-combustion, as in an Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle system (IGCC), oxygen, coal, and water ae burnt together to produce a synthetic gas called Syngas – mainly hydrogen – which drives two sets of turbines, firstly gas-driven ones, then, as the cooling Syngas travel through water, steam-driven ones. Emissions from this process contain around ten percent of the CO2 that burning coal produces.

The pros and cons of CCS

Several countries are keen to scale up CCS as it may reduce carbon emissions quickly, and powerful lobby groups for CCS exist among professionals in mining and engineering. Foundries and refineries that produce steel and emit carbon may also benefit, and the oil and gas industry is interested because power-plant equipment consumes their products. In addition, recent clean energy acts in many countries mandate that a percentage of electricity be generated by renewables or by more energy-efficient systems, like CCS.

As with desalination, where powerful lobbies wield influence, states sometimes find it easier to engage in large projects involving a few players rather than change behaviours on a more scattered household scale. Furthermore, replacing coal with zero-emission photovoltaic (PV) cells to produce solar energy would require covering an area nearly 20,720 square kilometres, roughly twice the size of Lebanon or half of Denmark.

Still, there are many reservations about CCS. Principally, it is enormously expensive: conservative estimates put the electricity it generates at more than five times the current retail price. As consumers are unlikely to want to bear this price hike, massive state subsidies would be necessary for CCS to work.

The capital outlay of purchasing equipment for retrofitting existing power plants is high enough, but the energy needed to capture CO2 means one third more coal must be burnt, and building new CCS plants is at least 75% more expensive than retro-fitting.

Some CCS technology is untried, for example, the Syngas-driven turbines in an IGCC system have not been used on an industrial scale. Post capture, CO2 must be compressed into a supercritical liquid for transport and storage, which is also costly. The Qatar Carbonates and Carbon Storage Research Centre predicts 700 million barrels per day of this liquid would be produced if CCS were adopted modestly. It is worth noting that current oil production is around 85 million barrels per day, so CCS would produce eleven times more waste for burial than oil that was simultaneously being extracted.

Sequestration has been used successfully, but there are limited coal and oil fields where optimal conditions exist. In rock that is too brittle, earthquakes could release the CO2. Moreover, proposals to store CO2 in saline aquifers are just that – proposals: sequestration has never been attempted in aquifers.

Most problematic of all, CCS reduces carbon emissions but does not end them, rendering it a medium-term solution.

Alternatives

There are at least four reasonably-priced alternatives to CCS. Firstly, conventional pulverised coal power plants are undergoing redesign so more electricity can be produced from less coal. Before coal is phased out – as ultimately it will have to be – these plants could be more cost-effective. Secondly, hybrid plants using natural gas and coal could be built. Thirdly, natural gas could be used on its own. Lastly, solar power is fast gaining credibility.

In all this, an agreed measure of cost for electricity generation must be used. This is called a levelized cost of energy (LCOE) – an average cost of producing electricity over the lifetime of a power plant, including construction, financing, and operation, although pollution is not counted. In 2012, the CBO demonstrated that a new CCS plant had an LCOE of about $0.09-0.15 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), but according to the US Energy Information Administration, the LCOE from a conventional natural gas power plant without CCS is $0.0686/kWh, making it the cheapest way to produce clean energy.

Solar power costs are falling rapidly. In 2013, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power reported that energy via a purchase agreement from a large solar plant was $0.095/kWh, and Greentech Media, a company that reviews environmental projects, found a 2014 New Mexico solar project that generates power for $0.0849/kWh.

Still, while so much coal and so many coal-fired plants exist, decommissioning them all may not be realistic. Whatever happens, the conundrum of cheap power and clean air may remain unsolved for some time.

Questions 27-28
Choose the correct letter A, B, C, or D.

27. What is the global average for electricity generated from coal?
A 41%
B 44%
C 49%
D 70%

28. What does the average American pay each month for CO2 produced by a local power plant?
A $17
B $80
C $113
D Nothing

Questions 29-34
Label the diagrams on the following page. Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 29-34 on your answer sheet.

Carbon dioxide sequestration

29. ……………..
30. ………………
31. ……………
32. ……………
33. ……………
34. ……………

Questions 35-40
Complete the notes below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer. Write your answer in boxes 35-40 on your answer sheet.

Advantages of CCS

• Sequestration is already used in the oil and gas sector. CCS may cut (35)………….. in a short time.
• (36)…………… in labour, industry, and states already support CCS.
• Alternatives, like (37)………………….energy, take up vast amounts of space.

Disadvantage of CCS

• The construction of new and the conversion of existing power plants and the liquefaction and transport of CO2 are very costly. While sequestration is possible, the scale would be enormous. Therefore, CCS would need (38)……………..
• Some CCS technology is (39)……………. Gas-driven turbines for IGCC have not been used on an industrial scale. Shallow underground storage may be limited; deep ocean storage is currently impossible. Geologists fear leaks in quake-prone regions.
• Natural gas and solar PVs are cheaper. LCOE estimates for CCS = $0.09-15/kWh; for natural gas= (40)………….and, for solar PV = $0.0849/kWh.

Environmentally-Friendly! Vehicles

A In the early 1990s, the California Air Resources Board (CARB), the government of California’s “clean air agency”, began a push for more fuel-efficient, lower-emissions vehicles, with the ultimate goal being a move to zero-emissions vehicles such as electric vehicles. In response, automakers developed electric models, including the Chrysler TEVan, Ford Ranger EV pickup truck, GM EV1 and S10 EV pickup, Honda EV Plus hatchback, Nissan lithium-battery Altra EV miniwagon and Toyota RAV4 EV. Ford Fusion is manufactured at Ford’s Hermosillo Stamping & Assembly plant, located in Sonora Mexico. I thought going green was supposed to provide the U.S. with more jobs.

B The automakers were accused of pandering to the wishes of CARB in order to continue to be allowed to sell cars in the lucrative Californian market, while failing to adequately promote their electric vehicles in order to create the impression that the consumers were not interested in the cars, all the while joining oil industry lobbyists in vigorously protesting CARB’s mandate. GM’s program came under particular scrutiny; in an unusual move, consumers were not allowed to purchase EV1s, but were instead asked to sign closed-end leases, meaning that the cars had to be returned to GM at the end of the lease period, with no option to purchase, despite lesser interest in continuing to own the cars. Chrysler, Toyota, and a group of GM dealers sued CARB in Federal court, leading to the eventual neutering of CARB’s ZEV Mandate.

C After public protests by EV drivers’ groups upset by the repossession of their cars, Toyota offered the last 328 RAV4-EVs for sale to the general public during six months, up until November 22, 2002. Almost all other production electric cars were withdrawn from the market and were in some cases seen to have been destroyed by their manufactures. Toyota continues to support the several hundred Toyota RAV4-EV in the hands of the general public and in fleet usage. GM famously de-activated the few EV1s that were donated to engineering schools and museums.

D Throughout the 1990s, the appeal of fuel-efficient or environmentally friendly cars declined among Americans, who instead favored sport utility vehicles, which were affordable to operate despite their poor fuel efficiency thanks to lower gasoline prices. American automakers chose to focus their product lines around the truck-based vehicles, which enjoyed larger profit margins than the smaller cars which were preferred in places like Europe or Japan. In 1999, the Honda Insight hybrid car became the first hybrid to be sold in North America since the little-known Woods hybrid of 1917.

E In 1995, Toyota debuted a hybrid concept car at the Tokyo Motor Show, with testing following a year later. The first Prius, model NHW10, went on sale on December 10, 1997. It was available only in Japan, though it has been imported privately to at least the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. The first-generation Prius, at its launch, became the world’s first mass-produced gasoline-electric hybrid car. The NHW10 Prius styling originated from California designers, who were selected over competing designs from other Toyota design studios.

F In the United States, the NHW11 was the first Prius to be sold. The Prius was marketed between the smaller Corolla and the larger Camry. The published retail price of the car was US$19,995. The NHW11 Prius became more powerful partly to satisfy the higher speeds and longer distances that Americans drive. Air conditioning and electric power steering were standard equipment. The vehicle was the second mass-produced hybrid on the American market, after the two-seat Honda Insight. While the larger Prius could seat five, its battery pack restricted cargo space.

G Hybrids, which featured a combined gasoline and electric powertrain, were seen as a balance, offering an environmentally friendly image and improved fuel economy, without being hindered by the low range of electric vehicles, albeit at an increased price over comparable gasoline cars. Sales were poor, the lack of interest attributed to the car’s small size and the lack of necessity for a fuel-efficient car at the time. The 2000s energy crisis brought renewed interest in hybrid and electric cars. In America, sales of the Toyota Prius jumped, and a variety of automakers followed suit, releasing hybrid models of their own. Several began to produce new electric car prototypes, as consumers called for cars that would free them from the fluctuations of oil prices.

H In 2000, Hybrid Technologies, later renamed Li-ion Motors, started manufacturing electric cars in Mooresville, North Carolina. There has been increasing controversy with Li-ion Motors though due to the ongoing ‘Lemon issues’ regarding their product. And their attempt to cover it up. California electric-car maker Tesla Motors began development in 2004 on the Tesla Roadster, which was first delivered to customers in 2008. The Roadster remained the only highway-capable EV in serial production and available for sale until 2010. Senior leaders at several large automakers, including Nissan and General Motors, have stated that the Roadster was a catalyst which demonstrated that there is pent-up consumer demand for more efficient vehicles. GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said in 2007 that the Tesla Roadster inspired him to push GM to develop the Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in hybrid sedan prototype that aims to reverse years of dwindling market share and massive financial losses for America’s largest automaker. In an August 2009 edition of The New Yorker, Lutz was quoted as saying, “All the geniuses here at General Motors kept saying lithium-ion technology is 10 years away, and Toyota agreed with us – and boom, along comes Tesla. So I said, ‘How come some tiny little California startup, run by guys who know nothing about the car business, can do this, and we can’t?’ That was the crowbar that helped break up the log jam.”

Questions 1-4
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

1. What does the author think of the factory in Sonora in Mexico where the ford fusion is manufactured?
A the factory should be helpful in the US soil business
B Employment of US will be created as consumers change their awareness
C More competitive cars will be introduced into the market
D this issue is hard to give a predict

2. In the 1990s, what dropped in America for environmentally friendly vehicles?
A production
B Attractiveness
C Announcement
D Expectation

3. What did GM notably send to engineering schools and museums?
A EV 1
B CARB
C RAV4
D MINI E

4. Nissan and GM high-level leaders declared the real reason for the popularity of Roaster is its
A legendary concert
B huge population in the market
C bursting demand
D engine quality

Questions 5-9
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage? In boxes 5-9 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

5. Some automakers mislead and suppressed the real demand for electric cars of keeping profit in a certain market by luring the want of CARB.
6. Toyota started to sell 328 RAV4-EVs for taking up the market share
7. In some countries, American auto-makers would like to grab the opportunity to earn money in the vehicle of bigger litre engine cars rather than smaller ones
8. Hybrids cars are superior vehicles that combine the impression of an environmental friend electric power engine and a lower price in the unit sale.
9. an inspiration to make an effort to produce hybrid cars is to cope with economic difficulties result from a declining market for General Motors.

Questions 10-14
Complete the summary using the list of words, A-L below. Write the correct letter, A-L in boxes 10-14 on your answer sheet.

A electric car
B United Kingdom
C Market
D concept car
E longer distances
F Emissions
G battery
H Consumers
I gasoline-electricity
J inspiration
K cargo space
L orientation

A (10)…………………. was firstly introduced by Car maker Toyota in 1995. Then it started for sale in 1997 with a new first-generation model. Not only in Japan but included other countries such as (11)…………….. and Oceania in which the Prius was imported to. The first-generation Prius was the first car in mass production which is powered by (12)……………… The model NHW10 was designed by a winning Californian designer. The innovated NHW 11 Prius has considerably higher running velocity and (13)……………….. than American counterparts. Still, the load capacity of current Prius version was limited in its (14)……………….

Hunting Perfume in Madagascar

A Ever since the unguentari plied their trade in ancient Rome, perfumers have to keep abreast of changing fashions. These days they have several thousand ingredients to choose from when creating new scents, but there is always demand for new combinations. The bigger the “palette7 of smells, the better the perfumer’s chance of creating something fresh and appealing. Even with everyday products such as shampoo and soap, kitchen cleaners and washing powders, consumers are becoming increasingly fussy. And many of today’s fragrances have to survive tougher treatment than ever before, resisting the destructive power of bleach or a high temperature wash cycle. Chemists can create new smells from synthetic molecules, and a growing number of the odours on the perfumer’s palette are artificial. But nature has been in the business far longer.

B The island of Madagascar is an evolutionary hot spot; 85% of its plants are unique, making it an ideal source for novel fragrances. Last October, Quest International, a company that develops fragrances for everything from the most delicate perfumes to cleaning products, sent an expedition to Madagascar in pursuit of some of nature’s most novel fragrances. With some simple technology, borrowed from the pollution monitoring industry, and a fair amount of ingenuity, the perfume hunters bagged 20 promising new aromas in the Madagascan rainforest. Each day the team set out from their “hotel”—a wooden hut lit by kerosene lamps, and trailed up and down paths and animal tracks, exploring the thick vegetation up to 10 meters on either side of the trail. Some smells came from obvious places, often big showy flowers within easy reach- Others were harder to pin down. “Often it was the very small flowers that were much more interesting, says Clery. After the luxuriance of the rainforest, the little-known island of Nosy Hara was a stark, dry place geologically and biologically very different from the mainland, “Apart from two beaches, the rest of the Island Is impenetrable, except by hacking through the bush, says Clery. One of the biggest prizes here was a sweet- smelling sap weeping from the gnarled branches of some ancient shrubby trees in the parched Interior. So far no one has been able to identify the plant.

C With most flowers or fruits, the hunters used a technique originally designed to trap and identify air pollutants. The technique itself is relatively simple. A glass bell jar or flask Ỉ S fitted over the flower. The fragrance molecules are trapped in this “headspace” and can be extracted by pumping the air out over a series of filters which absorb different types of volatile molecules. Back home in the laboratory, the molecules are flushed out of the filters and injected into a gas chromatograph for analysis. If it Is Impossible to attach the headspace gear, hunters fix an absorbent probe close to the source of the smell. The probe looks something like a hypodermic syringe, except that the ‘needle’ is made of silicone rubber which soaks up molecules from the air. After a few hours, the hunters retract the rubber needle and seal the tube, keeping the odour molecules inside until they can.be injected into the gas chromatograph in the laboratory.

D Some of the most promising fragrances were those given, off by resins that oozed from the bark of trees. Resins are the source of many traditional perfumes, including frankincense and myrrh. The most exciting resin came from a Calophyllum tree, which produces a strongly scented medicinal oil. The sap of this Calophyllum smelt rich and aromatic, a little like church incense. But It also smelt of something the fragrance industry has learnt to live without castoreum a substance extracted from the musk glands of beavers and once a key ingredient in many perfumes. The company does not use animal products any longer, but à was wonderful to find a tree with an animal smell.

E The group also set out from the island to capture the smell of coral reefs. Odors that conjure up sun kissed seas are highly sought after by the perfume industry. “From the ocean, the only thing we have is seaweed, and that has a dark and heavy aroma. We hope to find something unique among the corals,” says Dir. The challenge for the hunters was to extract a smell from water rather than air. This was an opportunity to try Clery’s new “aquaspace” apparatus a set of filters that work underwater. On Nosy Hara, jars were fixed over knobs of coral about 2 meters down and water pumped out over the absorbent filters. So what does coral smell like? “It’s a bit like lobster and crab,” says Clery. The team’s task now is to recreate the best of then captured smells. First they must identify the molecules that make up each fragrance. Some ingredients may be quite common chemicals. But some may be completely novel, or they may be too complex or expensive to make in the lab. The challenge then is to conjure up the fragrances with more readily available materials. “We can avoid the need to import plants from the rainforest by creating the smell with a different set of chemicals from those in the original material,” says Clery. “If we get it right, you can sniff the sample and it will transport you straight back to the moment you smelt it in the rainforest.”

Questions 15-19
The reading passage has seven paragraphs A-E. Which paragraphs contains the following details. Write the correct number, A-E, in boxes 15-19 on your answer sheet. NB You may use any letter more than once.

15. One currently preferred spot to pick up plants for novel finding
16. A new task seems to be promising yet producing limited finding in fragrance source
17. The demanding conditions for fragrance to endure
18. A substitute for substance no longer available to the perfume manufacture
19. Description of an outdoor expedition on land chasing new fragrances

Questions 20-24
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage? In boxes 20-24 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

20. Manufacturers can choose to use synthetic odors for the perfume nowadays
21. Madagascar is chosen to be a place for hunting plants which are rare in other parts of the world
22. Capturing the smell is one of the most important things for creating new aromas
23. The technique the hunters used to trap fragrance molecules is totally out of their ; ingenuity
24. Most customers prefer the perfume made of substance extracted from the musk I glands of animals

Questions 25-27
Filling the blanks and answer the questions below with only ONE word.

25. ……………
26. …………..
27. …………..

Bondi Beach

A Bondi Beach, Australia’s most famous beach, is located in the suburb of Bondi, in the Local Government Area of Waverley, seven kilometers from the centre of Sydney. “Bondi” or “Boondi” is an Aboriginal word meaning water breaking over rocks or the sound of breaking waves. The Australian Museum records that Bondi means a place where a flight of nullas took place. There are Aboriginal Rock carving on the northern end of the beach at Ben Buckler and south of Bondi Beach near McKenzies Beach on the coastal walk.

B The indigenous people of the area at the time of European settlement have generally been welcomed to as the Sydney people or the Eora (Eora means “the people”). One theory describes the Eora as a sub-group of the Darug language group which occupied the Cumberland Plain west to the Blue Mountains. However, another theory suggests that they were a distinct language group of their own. There is no clear evidence for the name or names of the particular band(s) of the Eora that roamed what is now the Waverley area. A number of place names within Waverley, most famously Bondi, have been based on words derived from Aboriginal languages of the Sydney region.

C From the mid-1800s Bondi Beach was a favourite location for family outings and picnics. The beginnings of the suburb go back to 1809, when the early road builder, William Roberts, received from Governor Bligh a grant of 81 hectares of what is now most of the business and residential area of Bondi Beach. In 1851, Edward Smith Hall and Francis O’Brien purchased 200 acres of the Bondi area that embraced almost the whole frontage of Bondi Beach, and it was named the “The Bondi Estate.” Between 1855 and 1877 O’Brien purchased Hall’s share of the land, renamed the land the “O’Brien Estate,” and made the beach and the surrounding land available to the public as a picnic ground and amusement resort. As the beach became increasingly popular, O’Brien threatened to stop public beach access. However, the Municipal Council believed that the Government needed to intervene to make the beach a public reserve.

D During the 1900s beach became associated with health, leisure and democracy – a playground everyone could enjoy equally. Bondi Beach was a working-class suburb throughout most of the twentieth century with migrant people from New Zealand comprising the majority of the local population. The first tramway reached the beach in 1884. Following this, tram became the first public transportation in Bondi. As an alternative, this action changed the rule that only rich people can enjoy the beach. By the 1930s Bondi was drawing not only local visitors but also people from elsewhere in Australia and overseas. Advertising at the time referred to Bondi Beach as the “Playground of the Pacific”.

E There is a growing trend that people prefer having to relax near seaside instead of living unhealthily in cities. The increasing popularity of sea bathing during the late 1800s and early 1900s raised concerns about public safety and how to prevent people from drowning. In response, the world’s first formally documented surf lifesaving club, the Bondi Surf Bathers’ Life Saving Club, was formed in 1907. This was powerfully reinforced by the dramatic events of “Black Sunday” at Bondi in 1938. Some 35,000 people were on the beach and a large group of lifesavers were about to start a surf race when three freak waves hit the beach, sweeping hundreds of people out to sea. Lifesavers rescued 300 people. The largest mass rescue in the history of surf bathing, it confirmed the place of the lifesaver in the national imagination.

F Bondi Beach is the endpoint of the City to Surf Fun Run which is held each year in August. Australian surf carnivals further instilled this image. A Royal Surf Carnival was held at Bondi Beach for Queen Elizabeth II during her first visited in Australia in 1954. Since 1867, there have been over fifty visits by a member of the British Royal Family to Australia. In addition to many activities, the Bondi Beach Markets is open every Sunday. Many wealthy people spend Christmas Day at the beach. However, the shortage of houses occurs when lots of people crushed to the seaside. Manly is the seashore town which solved this problem. However, people still choose Bondi as the satisfied destination rather than Manly.

G Bondi Beach has a commercial area along Campbell Parade and adjacent side streets, featuring many popular cafes, restaurants, and hotels, with views of the contemporary beach. It is depicted as wholly modern and European. In the last decade, Bondi Beaches’ unique position has seen a dramatic rise in svelte houses and apartments to take advantage of the views and scent of the sea. The valley running down to the beach is the famous world over for its view of distinctive red-tiled roofs. Those architectures are deeply influenced by British coastal town.

H Bondi Beach hosted the beach volleyball competition at the 2000 Summer Olympics. A temporary 10,000-seat stadium, a much smaller stadium, 2 warm-up courts, and 3 training courts were set up to host the tournament. The Bondi Beach Volleyball Stadium was constructed for it and stood for just six weeks. Campaigners oppose both the social and environmental consequences of the development. The stadium will divide the beach in two and seriously restrict public access for swimming, walking, and other forms of outdoor recreation. People protest for their human rights of having a pure seaside and argue for health life in Bondi.

I “They’re prepared to risk lives and risk the Bondi beach environment for the sake of eight days of volleyball”, said Stephen Uniacke, a construction lawyer involved in the campaign. Other environmental concerns include the possibility that soil dredged up from below the sand will acidify when brought to the surface.

Questions 28-32
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage? In boxes 28-32 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

28. The name of the Bondi beach is first called by the British settlers.
29. The aboriginal culture in Australia is different when compared with European culture.
30. Bondi beach area holds many 5 star hotels
31. The seaside town in Bondi is affected by British culture for its characteristic red color
32. Living near Bondi seashore is not beneficial for health.

Questions 33-36
Answer the questions below using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR NUMBERS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 33-36 on your answer sheet

33. At the end of the 19th century, which public transport did people use to go to Bondi?
34. When did the British Royalty first visit Bondi?
35. Which Olympic event did Bondi hold in the 2000 Sydney Olympic games?
36. What would be damaged if the stadium was built for that Olympic event?

Questions 37-40
Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of reading passage, using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer.

Bondi beach holds the feature sports activities every year, which attracts lot of (37)………….. Choosing to live at this place during the holidays. But local accommodation cannot meet with the expanding population, a nearby town of (38)………………….. is the first suburb site to support the solution, yet people prefer (39)……………. as their best choice. Its seaside buildings are well-known in the world for the special scenic colored (40)………………. on buildings and the joyful smell from the sea.

Satellite Technology

The space-age began with the launch of the Russian artificial satellite Sputnik in 1957 and developed further with the race to the moon between the United States and Russia. This rivalry was characterized by advanced technology and huge budgets. In this process, there were spectacular successes, some failures, but also many spin-offs.

Europe, Japan, China, and India quickly joined this space club of the superpowers. With the advent of relatively low-cost high-performance mini-satellites and launchers, the acquisition of indigenous space capabilities by smaller nations in Asia has become possible. How, in what manner, and for what purpose will these capabilities be realized?

A Rocket technology has progressed considerably since the days of ‘fire arrows’ (bamboo poles filled with gunpowder) first used in China around 500 BC, and, during the Sung Dynasty, to repel Mongol invaders at the battle of Kaifeng (Kai-fung fu) in AD 1232. These ancient rockets stand in stark contrast to the present-day Chinese rocket launch vehicles, called the ‘Long March’, intended to place a Chinese astronaut in space by 2005 and, perhaps, to achieve a Chinese moon-landing by the end of the decade.

B In the last decade, there has been a dramatic growth in space activities in Asia both in the utilization of space-based services and the production of satellites and launchers. This rapid expansion has led many commentators and analysts to predict that Asia will become a world space power. The space-age has had dramatic effects worldwide with direct developments in space technology influencing telecommunications, meteorological forecasting, earth resource and environmental monitoring, and disaster mitigation (flood, forest fires, and oil spills). Asian nations have been particularly eager to embrace these developments.

C New and innovative uses for satellites are constantly being explored with potential revolutionary effects, such as in the field of health and telemedicine, distance education, crime prevention (piracy on the high seas), food and agricultural planning and production (rice crop monitoring). Space in Asia is very much influenced by the competitive commercial space sector, the emergence of low-cost mini-satellites, and the globalization of industrial and financial markets. It is not evident how Asian space will develop in the coming decades in the face of these trends. It is, however, important to understand and assess the factors and forces that shape Asian space activities and development in determining its possible consequences for the region.

D At present, three Asian nations, Japan, China, and India, have comprehensive end-to-end space capabilities and possess a complete space infrastructure: space technology, satellite manufacturing, rockets, and spaceports. Already self-sufficient in terms of satellite design and manufacturing, South Korea is currently attempting to join their ranks with its plans to develop a launch site and spaceport. Additionally, nations in Southeast Asia as well as those bordering the Indian subcontinent (Nepal, Pakistan, and Bangladesh), have, or are starting to develop indigenous space programmes. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has, in varying degrees, embraced space applications using foreign technology and over the past five years or so its space activities have been expanding. Southeast Asia is predicted to become the largest and fastest-growing market for commercial space products and applications, driven by telecommunications (mobile and fixed services), the Internet, and remote sensing applications. In the development of this technology, many non-technical factors, such as economics, politics, culture, and history, interact and play important roles, which in turn affect Asian technology.

E Asia and Southeast Asia, in particular, suffers from a long list of recurrent large-scale environmental problems including storms and flooding, forest fires and deforestation, and crop failures. Thus the space application that has attracted the most attention in this region is remote sensing. Remote sensing satellites equipped with instruments to take photographs of the ground at different wavelengths provide essential information for natural resource accounting, environmental management, disaster prevention and monitoring, land-use mapping, and sustainable development planning. Progress in these applications has been rapid and impressive. ASEAN members, unlike Japan, China, and India, do not have their own remote sensing satellites, however, most of its member nations have facilities to receive, process, and interpret such data from American and European satellites. In particular, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore have world-class remote sensing processing facilities and research programmes. ASEAN has plans to develop (and launch) its own satellites and in particular remote sensing satellites. Japan is regarded as the dominant space power in Asia and its record of successes and quality of technologies are equal to those of the West. In view of the technological challenges and high risks involved in space activities, a very long, and expensive, the learning curve has been followed to obtain those successes achieved. Japan, s satellite manufacturing was based on the old and traditional defense and military procurement methodologies as practiced in the US and Europe.

F In recent years there have been fundamental changes in the way satellites are designed and built to drastically reduce costs. The emergence of ‘small satellites’ and their quick adoption by Asian countries as a way to develop low-cost satellite technology and rapidly establish a space capability has given these countries the possibility to shorten their learning curve by a decade or more. The global increase of technology transfer mechanisms and use of readily available commercial technology to replace costly space and military-standard components may very well result in a highly competitive Asian satellite manufacturing industry.

G The laws of physics are the same in Tokyo as in Toulouse, and the principles of electronics and mechanics know no political or cultural boundaries. However, no such immutability applies to engineer practices and management; they are very much influenced by education, culture, and history. These factors, in turn, have an effect on costs, lead times, product designs and, eventually, international sales. Many Asian nations are sending their engineers to be trained in the West. Highly experienced, they return to work in the growing Asian space industry. Will this acquisition of technical expertise, coupled perhaps with the world-renowned Japanese manufacturing and management techniques, be applied to build world-class satellites and reduce costs?

Questions 1-5
The reading passage has seven paragraphs, A-G. Choose the correct heading for paragraphs A-G from the list below. Write the correct number, i-ix, in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.

List of Headings
i Western countries provide essential assistance
ii Unbalanced development for an essential space technology
iii Innovative application compelled by competition
iv An ancient invention which is related to the future
v Military purpose of the satellite
vi Rockets for application in ancient China
vii Space development in Asia in the past
viii Non-technology factors counts
ix competitive edge gained by more economically feasible satellite

1. Paragraph A
2. Paragraph B
3. Paragraph C
4. Paragraph E
5. Paragraph F

Questions 6-9
Match the following reasons for each question according to the information given in the passage. Write the correct letter A-F, in boxes 6-9 on your answer sheet.

A Because it helps administrate the crops.
B Because there are some unapproachable areas.
C Because the economic level in that area is low.
D Because there are influences from some other social factors.
E Because it can be used in non-peaceful purpose.
F Because disasters such as bush fire happened in Southeast Asia.

6. Why remote-photographic technology is used to resolve environmental problems?
7. Why satellites technology is used in the medicine area?
8. Why Asian countries satellite technology is limited for development?
9. Why satellites technology is deployed in an agricultural area?

Questions 10-13
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage? In boxes 10-13 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

10. Ancient China had already deployed rockets as a military purpose as early as 500 years ago.
11. Space technology has enhanced the literacy of Asia.
12. photos taken by satellites with certain technology help predict some natural catastrophes prevention and surveillance.
13. commercial competition constitutes a boosting factor to Asian technology development.

Koalas

A Koalas are just too nice for their own good. And except for the occasional baby taken by birds of prey, koalas have no natural enemies. In an ideal world, the life of an arboreal couch potato would be perfectly safe and acceptable.

B Just two hundred years ago, koalas flourished across Australia. Now they seem to be in decline, but exact numbers are not available as the species would not seem to be ‘under threat’. Their problem, however, has been man, more specifically, the white man. Koala and aborigine had co-existed peacefully for centuries.

C Today koalas are found only in scattered pockets of southeast Australia, where they seem to be at risk on several fronts. The koala’s only food source, the eucalyptus tree has declined. In the past 200 years, a third of Australia’s eucalyptus forests have disappeared. Koalas have been killed by parasites, chlamydia epidemics and a tumour-causing retro-virus. And every year 11000 are killed by cars, ironically most of them in wildlife sanctuaries, and thousands are killed by poachers. Some are also taken illegally as pets. The animals usually soon die, but they are easily replaced.

D Bush fires pose another threat. The horrific ones that raged in New South Wales recently killed between 100 and 1000 koalas. Many that were taken into sanctuaries and shelters were found to have burnt their paws on the glowing embers. But zoologists say that the species should recover. The koalas will be aided by the eucalyptus, which grows quickly and is already burgeoning forth after the fires. So the main problem to their survival is their slow reproductive rate – they produce only one baby a year over a reproductive lifespan of about nine years.

E The latest problem for the species is perhaps more insidious. With plush, grey fur, dark amber eyes and button nose, koalas are cuddliness incarnate. Australian zoos and wildlife parks have taken advantage of their uncomplaining attitudes, and charge visitors to be photographed hugging the furry bundles. But people may not realise how cruel this is, but because of the koala’s delicate disposition, constant handling can push an already precariously balanced physiology over the edge.

F Koalas only eat the foliage of certain species of eucalyptus trees, between 600 and 1250 grams a day. The tough leaves are packed with cellulose, tannins, aromatic oils and precursors of toxic cyanides. To handle this cocktail, koalas have a specialised digestive system. Cellulose- digesting bacteria in the break down fibre, while a specially adapted gut and liver process the toxins. To digest their food properly, koalas must sit still for 21 hours every day.

G Koalas are the epitome of innocence and inoffensiveness. Although they are capable of ripping open a man’s arm with their needle-sharp claws, or giving a nasty nip, they simply wouldn’t. If you upset a koala, it may blink or swallow, or hiccup. But attack? No way! Koalas are just not aggressive. They use their claws to grip the hard smooth bark of eucalyptus trees.

H They are also very sensitive, and the slightest upset can prevent them from breeding, cause them to go off their food, and succumb to gut infections. Koalas are stoic creatures and put on a brave face until they are at death’s door. One day they may appear healthy, the next they could be dead. Captive koalas have to be weighed daily to check that they are feeding properly. A sudden loss of weight is usually the only warning keepers have that their charge is ill. Only two keepers plus a vet were allowed to handle London Zoo’s koalas, as these creatures are only comfortable with people they know. A request for the koala to be taken to meet the Queen was refused because of the distress this would have caused the marsupial. Sadly, London’s Zoo no longer has a koala. Two years ago the female koala died of a cancer caused by a retrovirus. When they come into heat, female koalas become more active, and start losing weight, but after about sixteen days, heat ends and the weight piles back on. London’s koala did not. Surgery revealed hundreds of pea-sized tumours.

Almost every zoo in Australia has koalas – the marsupial has become the Animal Ambassador of the nation, but nowhere outside Australia would handling by the public be allowed. Koala cuddling screams in the face of every rule of good care. First, some zoos allow koalas to be passed from stranger to stranger, many children who love to squeeze. Secondly, most people have no idea of how to handle the animals; they like to cling on to their handler, all in their own good time and use his or her arm as a tree. For such reasons, the Association of Fauna and Marine parks, an Australian conservation society is campaigning to ban koala cuddling. Policy on koala handling is determined by state government authorities. “And the largest of the numbers in the Australian Nature Conservation Agency, with the aim of instituting national guidelines. Following a wave of publicity, some zoos and wildlife parks have stopped turning their koalas into photo.

Questions 14-18
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

14. The main reason why koala declined is that they are killed EXCEPT FOR
A by poachers
B by diseases they got
C giving too many birth yet survived little!
D accidents on the road

15. What can help koalas folly digest their food?
A toxic substance in the leaves
B organs that dissolve the fibres
C remaining inactive for a period to digest
D eating eucalyptus trees

16. What would koalas do when facing the dangerous situation?
A show signs of being offended
B counter attack furiously
C use sharp claws to rip the man
D use claws to grip the bark of trees.

17. In what ways Australian zoos exploit koalas?
A encourage people to breed koalas as pets
B allow tourists to hug the koalas
C put them on the trees as a symbol
D establish a koala campaign

18. What would the government do to protect koalas from being endangered?
A introduce koala protection guidelines
B close some of the zoos
C encourage people to resist visiting the zoos
D persuade the public to learn more knowledge

Questions 19-25
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage? In boxes 19-25 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

19. New coming human settlers caused danger to koalas.
20. Koalas can still be seen in most of the places in Australia.
21. It takes decade for the eucalyptus trees to recover after the fire.
22. Koalas will fight each other when food becomes scarce.
23. It is not easy to notice that koalas are ill.
24. Koalas are easily infected with human contagious disease via cuddling
25. Koalas like to hold a person’s arm when they are embraced.

Question 26
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

26. From your opinion this article written by
A a journalist who write for magazine
B a zoo keeper in London Zoo.
C a tourist who traveling back from Australia
D a government official who studies koalas to establish a law

Detection of a meteorite Lake

A As the sun rose over picturesque Lake Bosumtwi, a team of Syracuse University researchers prepared for another day of using state-of-the-art equipment to help bottom. Nestled in the heart of Ghana, the lake holds an untapped reservoir of information that could help scientists predict future climate changes by looking at evidence from the past. This information will also improve the scientists’ understanding of the changes that occur in a region struck by a massive meteorite.

B The project, led by earth sciences professor Christopher Scholz of the College of Arts and Sciences and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), is the first large-scale effort to study Lake Bosumtwi, which formed 1.1 million years ago when a giant meteor crashed into the Earth’s surface. The resulting crater is one of the largest and most well-preserved geologically young craters in the world, says Scholz, who is collaborating on the project with researchers from the University of Arizona, the University of South Carolina, the University of Rhode Island, and several Ghanaian institutions. “Our data should provide information about what happens when an impact hits hard, pre-Cambrian, crystalline rocks that are a billion years old,” he says.

C Equally important is the fact that the lake, which is about 8 kilometers in diameter, has no natural outlet. The rim of the crater rises about 250 meters above the water’s surface. Streams flow into the lake, Scholz says, but the water leaves only by evaporation, or by seeping through the lake sediments. For the past million years, the lake has acted as a tropical rain gauge, filling and drying with changes in precipitation and the tropical climate. The record of those changes is hidden in the sediment below the lake bottom. “The lake is one of the best sites in the world for the study of tropical climate changes,” Scholz says. “The tropics are the heat engine for the Earth’s climate. To understand the global climate, we need to have records of climate changes from many sites around the world, including the tropics.”

D Before the researchers could explore the lake’s subsurface, they needed a boat with a large, working deck area that could carry eight tons of scientific equipment. The boat – dubbed R/V Kilindi – was built in Florida last year. It was constructed in modules that were dismantled, packed inside a shipping container, and reassembled over a 10-day period in late November and early December 1999 in the rural village of Abono, Ghana. The research team then spent the next two weeks testing the boat and equipment before returning to the United States for the holidays.

E In mid-January, five members of the team – Keely Brooks, an earth sciences graduate student; Peter Cattaneo, a research analyst; and Kiram Lezzar, a postdoctoral scholar, all from SU; James McGill, a geophysical field engineer; and Nick Peters, a Ph.D. student in geophysics from the University of Miami – returned to Abono to begin collecting data about the lake’s subsurface using a technique called seismic reflection profiling. In this process, a high-pressure air gun is used to create small, pneumatic explosions in the water. The sound energy penetrates about 1,000 to 2,000 meters into the lake’s subsurface before bouncing back to the surface of the water.

F The reflected sound energy is detected by underwater microphones – called hydrophones – embedded in a 50-meter-long cable that is towed behind the boat as it crosses the lake in a carefully designed grid pattern. On-board computers record the signals, and the resulting data are then processed and analyzed in the laboratory. “The results will give us a good idea of the shape of the basin, how thick the layers of sediment are, and when and where there were major changes in sediment accumulation,” Scholz says. “We are now developing a three-dimensional perspective of the lake’s subsurface and the layers of sediment that have been laid down.”

G Team members spent about four weeks in Ghana collecting the data. They worked seven days a week, arriving at the lake just after sunrise. On a good day, when everything went as planned, the team could collect data and be back at the dock by early afternoon. Except for a few relatively minor adjustments, the equipment and the boat worked well. Problems that arose were primarily non-scientific – tree stumps, fishing nets, cultural barriers, and occasional misunderstandings with local villagers.

H Lake Bosumtwi, the largest natural freshwater lake in the country, is sacred to the Ashanti people, who believe their souls come to the lake to bid farewell to their god. The lake is also the primary source of fish for the 26 surrounding villages. Conventional canoes and boats are forbidden. Fishermen travel on the lake by floating on traditional planks they propel with small paddles. Before the research project could begin, Scholz and his Ghanaian counterparts had to secure special permission from tribal chiefs to put the R/V Kilindi on the lake.

I When the team began gathering data, rumors flew around the lake as to why the researchers were there. “Some thought we were dredging the lake for gold, others thought we were going to drain the lake or that we had bought the lake,” Cattaneo says. “But once the local people understood why we were there, they were very helpful.”

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

27. With the investigation of the lake, the scientist may predict the climate changes in the future.
28. The crater resulted from a meteorite impact is the largest and most preserved one in the world.
29. The water stored in lake Bosumtwi was gone only by seeping through the lake sediments.
30. Historical climate changes can be detected by the analysis of the sediment in the lake.
31. The greatest obstacle to the research of scientists had been the interference by the locals due to their indigenous

Questions 32-35
There are three steps of collecting data from the lake as followings, please fill the blanks in the Flow Chart below:

32. ……………
33. ………….
34. ………….
35. ………….

Questions 36-40
Complete the following summary of the paragraph of reading passage using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 36-40 on your answer sheet.

The boat-double R/V Kilindi crossed the lake was dismantled and stored in a (36)………………. The technology they used called (37)………………..; They created sound energy into 1000-2000 metres into the bottom of the lake and used separate equipment to collect the returned waves. Then the data had been analyzed and processed in the (38)……………… Scholz also added that they were now building (39)…………….. View of the sediment or sub-image in the bottom of the lake. The whole set of equipment works well yet the ship should avoid physical barrier including tree stumps or (40)……………….. Floating on the surface of the lake.

The success of cellulose

A Not too long ago many investors made the bet that renewable fuels from bio-mass would be the next big thing in energy. Converting corn, sugarcane, and soybeans into ethanol or diesel-type fuels lessens our nation’s dependence on oil imports while cutting carbon dioxide emissions. But already the nascent industry faces challenges. Escalating demand is hiking food prices while farmers clear rainforest habitats to grow fuel crops. And several recent studies say that certain biofuel-production processes either fail to yield net energy gains or release more carbon dioxide than they use.

B A successor tier of start-up ventures aims to avoid those problems. Rather than focusing on the starches, sugars, and fats of food crops, many of the prototype bioethanol processes work with lignocellulose, the “woody” tissue that strengthens the cell walls of plants, says University of Massachusetts Amherst chemical engineer George W. Huber. Although cellulose breaks down less easily than sugars and starches and thus requires a complex series of enzyme-driven chemical reactions, its use opens the industry to nonfood plant feedstocks such as agricultural wastes, wood chips, and switchgrass. But no company has yet demonstrated a cost-competitive industrial process for making cellulosic biofuels.

C So scientists and engineers are working on dozens of possible biofuel-processing routes, reports Charles Wyman, a chemical engineer at the University of California, Riverside, who is a founder of Mascoma Corporation in Cambridge, Mass., a leading developer of cellulosic ethanol processing.” There’s no miracle process out there,” he remarks. And fine-tuning a process involves considerable money and time. “The oil companies say that it takes 10 years to fully commercialize an industrial processing route,” warns Huber, who has contributed some thermochemical techniques to another biomass start-up, Virent Energy Systems in Madison, Wis.

D One promising biofuel procedure that avoids the complex enzymatic chemistry to break down cellulose is now being explored by Coskata in Warrenville, Ill., a firm launched in 2006 by high-profile investors and entrepreneurs (General Motors recently took a minority stake in it as well). In the Coskata operation, a conventional gasification system will use heat to turn various feedstocks into a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen called syngas, says Richard Tobey, vice president of Engineering and R&D. The ability to handle multiple plant feedstocks would boost the flexibility of the overall process because each region in the country has access to certain feedstocks but not others.

E Instead of using thermochemical methods to convert the syngas to fuel- a process that can be significantly more costly because of the added expense of pressurizing gases, according to Tobey – the Coskata group chose a biochemical route. The group focused on five promising strains of ethanol-excreting bacteria that Ralph Tanner, a microbiologist at the University of Oklahoma, had discovered years before in the oxygen-free sediments of a swamp. These anaerobic bugs make ethanol by voraciously consuming syngas.

F The “heart and soul of the Coskata process,” as Tobey puts it, is the bioreactor in which the bacteria live. “Rather than searching for food in the fermentation mash in a large tank, our bacteria wait for the gas to be delivered to them,” he explains. The firm relies on plastic tubes, the filter-fabric straws as thin as human hair. The syngas flows through the straws, and water is pumped across their exteriors. The gases diffuse across the selective membrane to the bacteria embedded in the outer surface of the tubes, which permits no water inside. “We get an efficient mass transfer with the tubes, which is not easy,” Tobey says. “Our data suggest that in an optimal setting we could get 90 percent of the energy value of the gases into our fuel.” After the bugs eat the gases, they release ethanol into the surrounding water. Standard distillation or filtration techniques could extract the alcohol from the water.

G Coskata researchers estimate that their commercialized process could deliver ethanol at under $1 per gallon-less than half of today’s $2-per-gallon wholesale price, Tobey claims. Outside evaluators of Argonne National Laboratory measured the input-output “energy balance” of the Coskata process and found that, optimally, it can produce 7.7 times as much energy in the end product as it takes to make it.

H The company plans to construct a 40,000-gallon-a-year pilot plant near the GM test track in Milford, Mich., by the end of this year and hopes to build a full-scale, 100-million-gallon-a-year plant by 2011. Coskata may have some company by then; Bioengineering Resources in Fayetteville, Ark., is already developing what seems to be a similar three-step pathway in which syngas is consumed by bacteria isolated by James Gaddy, a retired chemical engineer at the University of Arkansas. Considering the advances in these and other methods, plant cellulose could provide the greener ethanol everyone wants.

Questions 1-6
Use the information in the passage to match the people (listed A-D) with opinions or deeds below. Write the appropriate letters A-D in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet. NB you may use any letter more than once

A George W. Huber
B James Gaddy
C Richard Tobey
D Charles Wyman

1. A key component to gain success lies in the place where the organisms survive.
2. Engaged in separating fixed procedures to produce ethanol in the homologous biochemical way.
3. Assists to develop certain skills.
4. It needs arduous efforts to achieve highly efficient transfer.
5. There is no shortcut to expedite the production process.
6. A combination of chemistry and biology can considerably lower the cost needed for the production company.

Questions 7-10
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage? In boxes 7-10 on your answer sheet, write

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

7. A shift from conventionally targeted areas of the vegetation to get ethanol takes place.
8. It takes a considerably long way before a completely mature process is reached.
9. The Coskata group sees no bright future for the cost advantage available in the production of greener ethanol.
10. Some enterprises are trying to buy the shares of Coskata group.

Questions 11-13
Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage, using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet.

Tobey has noticed that the Coskata process can achieve huge success because it utilizes (11)………………. as the bioreactor on whose exterior surface the bacteria take the syngas going through the coated (12)…………….. To produce the ethanol into the water outside which researchers will later (13)………………….by certain techniques. The figures show a pretty high percentage of energy can be transferred into fuel which is actually very difficult to achieve.

Life code: unlocked!

A On an airport shuttle bus to the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics in Santa Barbara, Calif., Chris Wiggins took a colleague’s advice and opened a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. It had nothing to do with the talk on biopolymer physics he was invited to give. Rather the columns and rows of numbers that stared back at him referred to the genetic activity of budding yeast. Specifically, the numbers represented the amount of messenger RNA (MRNA) expressed by all 6,200 genes of the yeast over the course of its reproductive cycle. “It was the first time I ever saw anything like this,” Wiggins recalls of that spring day in 2002. “How to make sense of all this data?”

B Instead of shirking from this question, the 36-year-old applied mathematician and physicist at Columbia University embraced it-and now six years later he thinks he has an answer. By foraying into fields outside his own, Wiggins has drudged up tools from a branch of artificial intelligence called machine learning to model the collective protein-making activity of genes from real-world biological data. Engineers originally designed these tools in the late 1950s to predict output from input. Wiggins and his colleagues have now brought machine learning to the natural sciences and tweaked it so that it can also tell a story-one not only about input and output but also about what happens inside a model of gene regulation, the black box in between.

C The impetus for this work began in the late 1990s, when high-throughput techniques generated more mRNA expression profiles and DNA sequences than ever before, “opening up a completely different way of thinking about biological phenomena,” Wiggins says. Key among these techniques were DNA microarrays, chips that provide a panoramic view of the activity of genes and their expression levels in any cell type, simultaneously and under myriad conditions. As noisy and incomplete as the data were, biologists could now query which genes turn on or off in different cells and determine the collection of proteins that give rise to a cell’s characteristic features, healthy or diseased.

D Yet predicting such gene activity requires uncovering the fundamental rules that govern it. “Over time, these rules have been locked in by cells,” says theoretical physicist Harmen Bussemaker, now an associate professor of biology at Columbia. “Evolution has kept the good stuff.” To find these rules, scientists needed statistics to infer the interaction between genes and the proteins that regulate them and to then mathematically describe this network’s underlying structure-the dynamic pattern of gene and protein activity over time. But physicists who did not work with particles (or planets, for that matter) viewed statistics as nothing short of an anathema. “If your experiment requires statistics,” British physicist Ernest Rutherford once said, “you ought to have done a better experiment.”

E But in working with microarrays, “the experiment has been done without you,” Wiggins explains. “And biology doesn’t hand you a model to make sense of the data.” Even more challenging, the building blocks that makeup DNA, RNA, and proteins are assembled in myriad ways; moreover, subtly different rules of interaction govern their activity, making it difficult, if not impossible, to reduce their patterns of interaction to fundamental laws. Some genes and proteins are not even known. “You are trying to find something compelling about the natural world in a context where you don’t know very much,” says William Bialek, a biophysicist at Princeton University. “You’re forced to be agnostic.” Wiggins believes that many machine-learning algorithms perform well under precisely these conditions. When working with so many unknown variables, “machine learning lets the data decide what’s worth looking at,” he says.

F At the Kavli Institute, Wiggins began building a model of a gene regulatory network in a yeast-the set of rules by which genes selectively orchestrate how vigorously DNA is transcribed into mRNA. As he worked with different algorithms, he started to attend discussions on gene regulation led by Christina Leslie, who ran the computational biology group at Columbia at the time. Leslie suggested using a specific machine-learning tool called a classifier. Say the algorithm must discriminate between pictures that have bicycles in them and pictures that do not. A classifier sifts through labeled examples and measures everything it can about them, gradually learning the decision rules that govern the grouping. From these rules, the algorithm generates a model that can determine whether or not new pictures have bikes in them. In gene regulatory networks, the learning task becomes the problem of predicting whether genes increase or decrease their protein-making activity.

G The algorithm that Wiggins and Leslie began building in the fall of 2002 was trained on the DNA sequences and mRNA levels of regulators expressed during a range of conditions in yeast-when the yeast was cold, hot, starved, and so on. Specifically, this algorithm-MEDUSA (for motif element discrimination using sequence agglomeration) -scans every possible pairing between a set of DNA promoter sequences, called motifs, and regulators. Then, much like a child might match a list of words with their definitions by drawing a line between the two, MEDUSA finds the pairing that best improves the fit between the model and the data it tries to emulate. (Wiggins refers to these pairings as edges.) Each time MEDUSA finds a pairing, it updates the model by adding a new rule to guide its search for the next pairing. It then determines the strength of each pairing by how well the rule improves the existing model. The hierarchy of numbers enables Wiggins and his colleagues to determine which pairings are more important than others and how they can collectively influence the activity of each of the yeast’s 6,200 genes. By adding one pairing at a time, MEDUSA can predict which genes ratchet up their RNA production or clamp that production down, as well as reveal the collective mechanisms that orchestrate an organism’s transcriptional logic.

Questions 14-19
The reading passage has seven paragraphs, A-G. Choose the correct heading for paragraphs A-G from the list below. Write the correct number, i-x, in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet.

List of Headings

i The search for the better-fit matching between the model and the gained figures to foresee the activities of the genes
ii The definition of MEDUSA
iii A flashback of commencement for a far-reaching breakthrough
iv A drawing of the gene map
v An algorithm used to construct a specific model to discern the appearance of something new by the joint effort of Wiggins and another scientist
vi An introduction of a background tracing back to the availability of mature techniques for detailed research on genes
vii A way out to face the challenge confronting the scientist on the deciding of researchable data.
viii A failure to find out some specific genes controlling the production of certain proteins
ix The use of a means from another domain for reference
x A tough hurdle on the way to find the law governing the activities of the genes

Example: Paragraph A iii

14. Paragraph B
15. Paragraph C
16. Paragraph D
17. Paragraph E
18. Paragraph F
19. Paragraph G

Questions 20-22
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage? In boxes 20-22 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

20. Wiggins is the first man to use DNA microarrays for the research on genes.
21. There is almost no possibility for the effort to decrease the patterns of interaction between DNA, RNA, and proteins.
22. Wiggins holds a very positive attitude on the future of genetic research.

Questions 23-26
Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage, using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 23-26 on your answer sheet.

Wiggins states that the astoundingly rapid development of techniques concerning the components of genes aroused the researchers to look at (23)…………………. from a totally new way. (24)……………….. is the heart and soul of these techniques and no matter what the (25)………………. were, at the same time they can offer a whole picture of the genes’ activities as well as (26)………………. in all types of cells. With these techniques, scientists could locate the exact gene which was on or off to manipulate the production of the proteins.

THE MPEMBA EFFECT

In 300 BC, the famous philosopher Aristotle wrote about a strange phenomenon that he had observed: “Many people, when they want to cool water quickly, begin by putting it in the sun.” Other philosophers over the ages noted the same result, but were unable to explain it.

In 1963, a young Tanzanian student named Erasto Mpemba noticed that the ice cream he was making froze faster if the mix was placed in the freezer while warm than if it were at room temperature. He persisted in questioning why this occurred, and eventually physicist Denis Osborne began a serious investigation into what is now known as the Mpemba Effect. He and Mpemba co-authored a paper in New Scientist in 1969, which produced scientific descriptions of some of the many factors at work in freezing water.

It was initially hypothesised that the warm bowl melted itself a place in the ice on the freezer shelf, thus embedding its base in a ‘nest’ of ice, which would accelerate freezing. The hypothesis was tested by comparing the result when bowls of warm water were placed on ice and on a dry wire shelf; this demonstrated that the ice nest actually had little effect. A second suggestion was that the warmer water would be evaporating at its surface, thus reducing the volume needing to be frozen, but this idea was also shown to be insignificant.

Thermometers placed in the water showed that the cooler water dropped to freezing temperature well before the warmer bowlful, and yet the latter always froze solid first. Experiments at different temperatures showed that water at 50C took longest to freeze in a conventional freezer, while water initially at 350C was quickest. On further examination, an explanation for this paradox began to emerge. Losing heat from the water occurs at the points where it is in touch with the colder atmosphere of the freezer, namely the sides of the bowl and the water surface.

A warm surface will lose heat faster than a cold one because of the contrast between the temperatures; but of course there is more heat to be lost from one bowl than the other! If the surface can be kept at a higher temperature, the higher rate of heat loss will continue. As long as the water remains liquid, the cooling portion on top will sink to the bottom of the bowl as the warmer water below rises to take its place. The early freezing that may occur on the sides and base of the container will amplify the effect.

The bowl that is more uniformly cold will have far less temperature difference so the water flow will be minimal. Another inhibiting factor for this container is that ice will also form quite quickly on the surface. This not only acts as insulation, but will virtually stop the helpful effects of the water circulating inside the bowl.

Ultimately, the rate of cooling the core of this body of water becomes so slow that the other warmer one is always fully frozen first. While there are limitations to this comparison (for example, we would not see such a result if one quantity were at 10C and another at 990C) this counter-intuitive result does hold true within the 5–350C range of temperatures indicated previously.

Since this paper was published, the validity of the research findings has been questioned by a number of reviewers. They point out that the initial experimental question was not clearly defined; for example, the researchers needed to decide on exactly what constituted freezing the water. They also state that the rate at which water freezes depends on a large number of variables.

Container size is one of these; for the Mpemba Effect to be noticed, the container must be large enough to allow a free circulation of water to take place, yet small enough for the freezing areas of the side and base to be effective at extracting heat too. Secondly, research at a University in St Louis, Missouri, suggests that the Mpemba Effect may be affected by water purity, or by dissolved gas in the water.

Distilled water is totally free of the particles that are common in normal drinking water or mineral water. When suspended in water, these particles may have a small effect on the speed of cooling, especially as ice molecules tend to expel them into the surrounding water, where they become more concentrated. Just as salt dissolved in water will raise the boiling point and lower the temperature at which it freezes, the researchers found that the final portion of ordinary water needed extra cooling, below zero, before all was frozen solid.

One more factor that can distort the effect is observed if the bowls are not placed simultaneously into the same freezer. In this case, the freezer thermostat is more likely to register the presence of a hotter bowl than a colder one, and therefore the change in internal temperature causes a boost of freezing power as the motor is activated.

The Mpemba Effect is still not fully understood, and researchers continue to delve into its underlying physics. Physicists cannot reach consensus. Some suggest that supercooling1 is involved; others that the molecular bonds in the water molecules affect the rate of cooling and freezing of water. A 2013 competition to explain the phenomenon run by the Royal Society of Chemistry attracted more than 22,000 entries, with the winning one suggesting supercooling as an important factor so it seems the question and its underlying explanation continue to fascinate.

Questions 27-33
Write the correct letter, A–P, in boxes 27-33 on your answer sheet.

For more than 2000 years people have wondered why raising the (27)……………..of cold water before cooling it results in more rapid cooling. At first researchers thought that a warm container created its own icy (28)………………. which made the water freeze faster, but comparisons with containers resting on a dry (29)…………………indicated that this was inaccurate. Evaporation of water proved not to be a (30)…………….
Temperature measurements showed that, although the water in the cooler container reached 00C before the warmer one, it took longer to actually solidify. The water temperature drops the most at the top and sides of the container. Provided there is a temperature (31)…………………., the water will continue to circulate and to cool down. Cooler water will have less water (32)…………………. and thus a slower rate of freezing. If ice forms on the top of the water, this will further slow the (33)……………………of freezing, but if it forms on the bottom and the sides of the container, this will increase the rate of cooling.

A melt
B element
C process
D centre
E acceleration
F surface
G factor
H hollow
I matter
J circulation
K limit
L significance
M theory
N difference
O result
P temperature

Questions 34-39
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage? In boxes 34-39 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

34. The Mpemba Effect cannot be seen when comparing liquids with an extreme temperature difference.
35. Osborne and Mpemba’s results are still widely accepted today.
36. The size of the container does not alter the Mpemba Effect.
37. Osborne and Mpemba experimented on both pure and impure water.
38. One variable is the timing of containers in a freezer.
39. Physicists now agree that supercooling accounts for the Mpemba Effect.

Question 40
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

40.The Mpemba Effect is best summed up as the observation that
A ice cream freezes at different temperatures.
B different sources of heat result in water cooling at different rates.
C salt water freezes at a lower temperature than ordinary water.
D warmer water can freeze faster than colder water.

Paul Nash

A Paul Nash, the elder son of William Nash and his first wife, Caroline Jackson, was born in London on 11th May 1889. His father was a successful lawyer who became the Recorder of Abingdon. According to Ronald Blythe: “In 1901 the family returned to its native Buckinghamshire, where the garden of Wood Lane House at Iver Heath, and the countryside of the Chiltern Hills, with its sculptural beeches and chalky contours, were early influences on the development of the three children. Their lives were overshadowed by their mother’s mental illness and Nash himself was greatly helped by his nurse who, with some elderly neighbors, introduced him to the universe of plants.”

B Nash was educated at St. Paul’s School and the Slade School of Art, where he met Dora Carrington. Unlike some of his contemporaries at the Slade School, Nash remained untouched by the two post-impressionist exhibitions organized by Roger Fry in 1910 and 1912. Instead, he was influenced by the work of William Blake. He also became a close friend of Gordon Bottomley, who took a keen interest in his career.

C Nash had his first one-man show, of ink and wash drawings, at the Carfax Gallery in 1912. The following year he shared an exhibition at the Dorian Leigh Gallery with his brother, John Nash. Myfanwy Piper has added: “Nash had a noteworthy sense of order and of the niceties of presentation; his pictures were beautifully framed, drawings mounted, his studio precisely and decoratively tidy, and oddments which he collected were worked up into compositions.”

D Paul Nash was strongly attracted to Dora Carrington: He later recalled: “Carrington… was the dominating personality, I got an introduction to her and eventually won her regard by lending her my braces for a fancy-dress party. We were on the top of a bus and she wanted them then and there.”

E On the outbreak Nash considered the possibility of joining the British Army. He told a friend: “I am not keen to rush off and be a soldier. The whole damnable war is too horrible of course and I am all against killing anybody, speaking off-hand, but besides all that I believe both Jack and I might be more useful as ambulance and red cross men, and to that end we are training. Nash enlisted in the Artists’ Rifles. He told Gordon Bottomley: “I have joined the Artists’ London Regiment of Territorials, the old Corps which started with Rossetti, Leighton, and Millais as members in 1860. Every man must do his bit in this horrible business so I have given up painting. There are many nice creatures in my company and I enjoy the burst of exercise – marching, drilling all day in the open air about the pleasant parts of Regents Park and Hampstead Heath.”

F In March 1917 he was sent to the Western Front Nash, who took part in the offensive at Ypres, had reached the rank of lieutenant in the Hampshire Regiment by 1916. Whenever possible, Nash made sketches of life in the trenches. In May 1917 he was invalided home after a non-military accident. While recuperating in London, Nash worked from his sketches to produce a series of war paintings. This work was well-received when exhibited later that year. As a result of this exhibition, Charles Masterman, head of the government’s War Propaganda Bureau (WPB), and the advice of Edward Marsh and William Rothenstein, it was decided to recruit Nash as a war artist. In November 1917 in the immediate aftermath of the battle of Passchendaele Nash returned to France.

G Nash was unhappy with his work as a member of the War Propaganda Bureau. He wrote at the time: “I am no longer an artist. I am a messenger who will bring back word from the men who are fighting to those who want the war to go on forever. Feeble, inarticulate will be my message, but it will have a bitter truth and may burn their lousy souls.” However, as Myfanwy Piper has pointed out: “The drawings he made then, of shorn trees in ruined and flooded landscapes, were the works that made Nash’s reputation. They were shown at the Leicester Galleries in 1918 together with his first efforts at oil painting, in which he was self-taught and quickly successful, though his drawings made in the field had a more immediate public impact.

H In 1919 Nash moved to Dymchurch in Kent, beginning his well-known series of pictures of the sea, the breakwaters, and the long wall that prevents the sea from flooding Romney Marsh. This included the Winter Sea and Dymchurch Steps. Nash also painted the landscapes of the Chiltern Hills. In 1924 and 1928 he had successful exhibitions at the Leicester Galleries. Despite this popular acclaim in 1929, his work became more abstract. In 1933 Nash founded Unit One, the group of experimental painters, sculptors, and architects.

I During the Second World War Nash was employed by the Ministry of Information and the Air Ministry and paintings produced by him during this period include the Battle of Britain and Totes Meer. His biographer, Myfanwy Piper, has argued: “This war disturbed Nash but did not change his art as the last one had. His style and his habits were formed, and in the new war, he treated his new subjects as he had treated those he had been thinking about for so long. His late paintings, both oils, and watercolors are alternately brilliant and somber in color with the light of setting suns and rising moons spreading over wooded and hilly landscapes. “Paul Nash died at 35 Boscombe Spa Road, Bournemouth, on 11th July 1946.

Questions 1-4
Choose the correct letter, A-G? Write your answers in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet. What four statements are correct concerning Nash’s story?

A He did not make an effort after becoming a high ranking official in the army
B He had a dream since his childhood
C He once temporarily ceased his painting career for some reason
D He was not affected by certain shows attractive to his other peers
E He had cooperation in art with his relative
F Some of his paintings were presented in a chaotic way
G His achievement after being enlisted in the army did not gather as much attention as his previous works

Questions 5-10
The reading Passage has eleven paragraphs A-I. Write the correct letter A-I, in boxes 5-10 on your answer sheet. Which paragraph contains the following information? NB You may use any letter more than once.

5. a charming lady in Nash’s eyes
6. Nash’s passion for following particularly appreciated artists
7. Nash’s works with contrast elements
8. the true cause for Nash to join the military service
9. the noticeable impact on Nash’s growth exerted from the rearing environment
10. high praise for Nash’s unique taste of presenting his works

Questions 11-13
Answer the questions below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.

11. Because of a popular display of Nash’s works created in the army, what did his leader designate him as?
12. How did Nash learn oil painting?
13. What change took place for Nash’s painting style in the late second decade of the twentieth century?

Tool for ancient writing

A With time, the record-keepers developed systematized symbols from their drawings. These symbols represented words and sentences but were easier and faster to draw and universally recognized for meaning. The discovery of clay made portable records possible (you can’t carry a cave wall around with you). Early merchants used clay tokens with pictographs to record the quantities of materials traded or shipped. These tokens date back to about 8,500 B.C. With the high volume and the repetition inherent in record keeping, pictographs evolved and slowly lost their picture detail. They became abstract figures representing sounds in spoken communication. The alphabet replaced pictographs between 1700 and 1500 B.C. in the Sinaitic world. The current Hebrew alphabet and writing became popular around 600 B.C. About 400 B.C. the Greek alphabet was developed. Greek was the first script written from left to right. From Greek followed the Byzantine and the Roman (later Latin) writings. In the beginning, all writing systems had only uppercase letters, when the writing instruments were refined enough for detailed faces, lowercase was used as well (around 600 A.D.)

B The earliest means of writing that approached pen and paper as we know them today was developed by the Greeks. They employed a writing stylus, made of metal, bone, or ivory, to placemarks upon wax-coated tablets. The tablets are made in hinged pairs, closed to protect the scribe’s notes. The first examples of handwriting (purely text messages made by hand) originated in Greece. The Grecian scholar, Cadmus invented the written letter – text messages on paper sent from one individual to another.

C Writing was advancing beyond chiselling pictures into stone or wedging pictographs into wet clay. The Chinese invented and perfected ‘Indian Ink’. Originally designed for blacking the surfaces of raised stone-carved hieroglyphics, the ink was a mixture of soot from pine smoke and lamp oil mixed with the gelatin of donkey skin and musk. The ink invented by the Chinese philosopher, Tien-Lcheu (2697 B.C.), became common by the year 1200 B.C. Other cultures developed inks using natural dyes and colours derived from berries, plants, and minerals. In early writings, different coloured inks had ritual meanings attached to each colour.

D The invention of inks paralleled the introduction of the paper. The early Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, and Hebrews, used papyrus and parchment papers. One of the oldest pieces of writing on papyrus known to us today is the Egyptian “Prisse Papyrus” which dates back to 2000 B.C. The Romans created a reed-pen perfect for parchment and ink, from the hollow tubular stems of marsh grasses, especially from the jointed bamboo plant. They converted bamboo stems into a primitive form of a fountain pen. They cut one end into the form of a pen nib or point. A writing fluid or ink filled the stem, squeezing the reed forced fluid to the nib

E By 400 A.D. a stable form of ink developed, a composite of iron salts, nutgalls, and gum, the basic formula, which was to remain in use for centuries. Its colour when first applied to paper was a bluish-black, rapidly turning into a darker black and then over the years fading to the familiar dull brown colour commonly seen in old documents. Wood-fiber paper was invented in China in 105 A.D. but it only became known about (due to Chinese secrecy) in Japan around 700 A.D. and was brought to Spain by the Arabs in 711 A.D. Paper was not widely used throughout Europe until paper mills were built in the late 14th century

F The writing instrument that dominated for the longest period in history (over one thousand years) was the quill pen. Introduced around 700 A.D., the quill is a pen made from a bird feather. The strongest quills were those taken from living birds in the spring from the five outer left wing feathers. The left wing was favoured because the feathers curved outward and away when used by a right-handed writer. Goose feathers were most common; swan feathers were of a premium grade being scarcer and more expensive. For making fine lines, crow feathers were the best, and then came the feathers of the eagle, owl, hawk, and turkey.

G There were also disadvantages associated with the use of quill pens, including a lengthy preparation time. The early European writing parchments made from animal skins required much scraping and cleaning. A lead and a ruler made margins. To sharpen the quill, the writer needed a special knife (origins of the term “pen-knife”.) Beneath the writer’s high-top desk was a coal stove, used to dry the ink as fast as possible.

H Plant-fiber paper became the primary medium for writing after another dramatic invention took place: Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press with replaceable wooden or metal letters in 1436. Simpler kinds of printing e.g. stamps with names used much earlier in China, did not find their way to Europe. During the centuries, many newer printing technologies were developed based on Gutenberg’s printing machine e.g. offset printing.

I Articles written by hand had resembled printed letters until scholars began to change the form of writing, using capitals and small letters, writing with more of a slant and connecting letters. Gradually writing became more suitable to the speed the new writing instruments permitted. The credit of inventing Italian ‘running hand’ or cursive handwriting with its Roman capitals and small letters, goes to Aldus Manutius of Venice, who departed from the old set forms in 1495 A.D. By the end of the 16th century, the old Roman capitals and Greek letterforms transformed into the twenty-six alphabet letters we know today, both for upper and lower-case letters. When writers had both better inks and paper, and handwriting had developed into both an art form and an everyday occurrence, man’s inventive nature once again turned to improving the writing instrument, leading to the development of the modern fountain pens.

Questions 14-15
What two features do record retention possess in nature?

A Easier and faster
B Capaciousness
C Portable
D Convenient
E Iterance

Question 16
16. What hurts the technique of producing wooden paper from popularity for a long time?

A Scarcity
B Complexity
C Confidentiality by the inventors
D High cost

Questions 17-23
The reading Passage has eleven paragraphs A-I. Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter A-I, in boxes 17-23 on your answer sheet. NB You may use any letter more than once.

17. the working principle of the primitive pens made of plant stems
18. a writing tool commonly implemented for the longest time
19. liquid for writing firstly devised by Chinese
20. majuscule scripts as the unique written form originally
21. the original invention of today’s correspondences
22. the mention of two basic writing instruments being invented coordinately
23. a design to safeguard the written content

Questions 24-26
Answer the questions below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.

24. What makes it not so convenient to use the quill pens?
25. When did one more breakthrough occur following the popularity of paper of plant fibres?
26. What inventions were the results of human’s creative instinct of developing writing tools?

The Bite That Heat

A Michael decided to go for a swim. He was on vacation with his family in Guerrero, Mexico, and it was hotter than blazes. He grabbed his swimming trunks from where they’d been drying on a chair, slid them on, and jumped into the pool. Instead of cool relief, a burning pain ripped through the back of his thigh. Tearing off his trunks, he leaped naked from the pool, his leg on fire. Behind him a small, ugly, yellow creature was treading water. He scooped it into a Tupperware container, and the caretaker of the house rushed him to the local Red Cross facility, where doctors immediately identified his attacker: a bark scorpion, Centruroides sculpturatus, one of the most venomous species in North America. The fierce pain from a sting is typically followed by what feels like electric shocks racking the body. Occasionally victims die.

B Luckily for Michael (who asked me not to give his Ml name), the bark scorpion is common in the area, and antivenom was readily available. He had an injection and was released a few hours later. In about 30 hours the pain was gone. What happened next could not have been predicted. For eight years Michael had endured a condition called ankylosing spondylitis, a chronic autoimmune disease of the skeleton, a sort of spinal arthritis. No one knows what triggers it. In the worst cases the spine may fuse, leaving the patient forever stooped and in anguish. “My back hurt every morning, and during bad flare-ups it was so horrible I couldn’t even walk,” he says.

C But days after the the scorpion sting, the pain went away, and now, two years later, he remains essentially pain free and off most of his medications. As a doctor himself, Michael is cautious about overstating the role of the scorpion’s venom in his remission. Still, he says, “if my pain came back, I’d let that scorpion sting me again.” Venom-the stuff that drips from the fangs and stingers of creatures lurking on the hiking trail or hiding in the cellar or under the woodpile—is nature’s most efficient killer. Venom is exquisitely honed to stop a body in its tracks. The complex soup swirls with toxic proteins and peptides——short strings of amino acids similar to proteins. The molecules may have different targets and effects, but they work synergistically for the mightiest punch. Some go for the nervous system, paralyzing by blocking messages between nerves and muscle. Some eat away at molecules so that cells and tissues collapse. Venom can kill by clotting blood and stopping the heart or by preventing clotting and triggering a killer bleed.

D All venom is multifaceted and multitasking. (The difference between venom and poison is that venom is injected, or dibbled, into victims by way of specialized body parts, and poison is ingested.) Dozens, even hundreds, of toxins can be delivered in a single bite, some with redundant jobs and others with unique ones. In the evolutionary arms race between predator and prey, weapons and defenses are constantly tweaked. Drastically potent concoctions can result: Imagine administering poison to an adversary, then jabbing him with a knife, then finishing him off with a bullet to the head. That’s venom at work.

E Ironically, the properties that make venom deadly are also what make it so valuable for medicine. Many venom toxins target the same molecules that need to be controlled to treat diseases. Venom works fast and is highly specific. Its active components—those peptides and proteins, working as toxins diabetes have been derived from venom. New treatments for autoimmune diseases, cancer, and pain could be available within a decade.

F “We aren’t talking just a few novel drugs but entire classes of drugs,” says National Geographic Society Emerging Explorer Zoltan Takacs, a toxinologist and herpetologist. So far, fewer than a thousand toxins have been scrutinized for medicinal value, and a dozen or so major drugs have made it to market. “There could be upwards of 20 million venom toxins out there waiting to be screened,” Takacs says. “It’s huge. Venom has opened up whole new avenues of pharmacology.” Toxins from venom and poison sources are also giving us a clearer picture of how proteins that control many of the body’s crucial cellular functions work. Studies of the deadly poison tetrodotoxin (TTX) from puffer fish, for instance, have revealed intricate details about the way nerve cells communicate.

G “We ’re motivated to look for new compounds to lessen human suffering,” Angel Yanagihara of the University of Hawaii told me. “But while doing that, you may uncover things you don’t expect.” Driven in part out of revenge for a box jellyfish sting she endured 15 years ago, Yanagihara discovered a potential wound-healing agent within the tubules that contain jellyfish venom. “It had nothing to do with the venom itself,” she said. “By getting intimate with a noxious animal, I’ve been informed way beyond my expectations.”

H More than 100,000 animals have evolved to produce venom, along with the glands to house it and the apparatuses to expel it: snakes, scorpions, spiders, a few lizards, bees, sea creatures such as octopuses, numerous species of fish, and cone snails. The male duck-billed platypus, which carries venom inside ankle spurs, is one of the few venomous mammals. Venom and its components emerged independently, again and again, in different animal groups. The composition of the venom of a single snake species varies from place to place and between adults and their young. An individual snake’s venom may even change with its diet.

I Although evolution has been fine-tuning these compounds for more than a hundred million years, venom’s molecular architecture has been in place much longer. Nature repurposes key molecules from around the body—the blood, brain, digestive tract, and elsewhere—to serve animals for predation or protection. “It makes sense for nature to steal the scaffolds already in place,” Takacs says. “To make a toxin to wreck the nervous system, it’s most efficient to take a template from the brain that already works in that system, make some tiny changes, and there you have it: Now it’s a toxin.” Not all venom kills, of course—bees have it as a nonlethal defense, and the male platypus uses it to show rival males who’s boss during mating season. But mostly it’s for killing, or at least immobilizing, an animal’s next meal. Humans are often accidental victims. The World Health Organization estimates that every year some five million bites kill 100,000 people, although the actual number is presumed to be much higher. In rural areas of developing countries, where most bites occur, victims may not be able to get treatment or may instead choose traditional therapies and are therefore not counted.

Questions 27-35
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage? In boxes 27-35 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

27. Michael was unluckily hit by electric shocks and nearly lost his life during his vacation.
28. The disease Michael had suffered from for eight years was caused by an accident
29. Michael is grateful for the bark scorpion bite because it helped him recover from the ankylosing spondylitis.
30. No venom is just responsible for one job.
31. There is no difference between venom and poison.
32. Venom can kill while it can also be used as medicine to save.
33. New treatments for cancer are now available in the market.
34. So far 20 million venom toxins have been checked for medical use.
35. The majority of mammals carry venom inside their bodies.

Questions 36-40
Complete the sentences below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 36-40 on your answer sheet.

36. The way how venom works can be utilised to create………..
37. A venom source such as has helped to present complex facts about how nerve cells convey information to each other………
38. Tens of thousands of animals have developed and which are respectively responsible for storing and letting out venom………….
39. The makeup of venom of a snake may change with places, ages and ……………
40. Some animal uses venom to warn of its exclusive power during the mating season…………….

Finches On Islands

A Today, the quest continues. On Daphne Major-one of the most desolate of the Galápagos Islands, an uninhabited volcanic cone where cacti and shrubs seldom grow higher than a researcher’s knee-Peter and Rosemary Grant have spent more than three decades watching Darwin’s finch respond to the challenges of storms, drought and competition for food Biologists at Princeton University, the Grants know and recognize many of the individual birds on the island and can trace the birds’ lineages hack through time. They have witnessed Darwin’s principle in action again and again, over many generations of finches.

B The Grants’ most dramatic insights have come from watching the evolving bill of the medium ground finch. The plumage of this sparrow-sized bird ranges from dull brown to jet black. At first glance, it may not seem particularly striking, but among scientists who study evolutionary biology, the medium ground finch is a superstar. Its bill is a middling example in the array of shapes and sizes found among Galápagos finches: heftier than that of the small ground finch, which specializes in eating small, soft seeds, but petite compared to that of the large ground finch, an expert at cracking and devouring big, hard seeds.

C When the Grants began their study in the 1970s, only two species of finch lived on Daphne Major, the medium ground finch and the cactus finch. The island is so small that the researchers were able to count and catalogue every bird. When a severe drought hit in 1977, the birds soon devoured the last of the small, easily eaten seeds. Smaller members of the medium ground finch population, lacking the bill strength to crack large seeds, died out.

D Bill and body size are inherited traits, and the next generation had a high proportion of big-billed individuals. The Grants had documented natural selection at work-the same process that, over many millennia, directed the evolution of the Galápagos’ 14 unique finch species, all descended from a common ancestor that reached the islands a few million years ago.

E Eight years later, heavy rains brought by an El Nino transformed the normally meager vegetation on Daphne Major. Vines and other plants that in most years struggle for survival suddenly flourished, choking out the plants that provide large seeds to the finches. Small seeds came to dominate the food supply, and big birds with big bills died out at a higher rate than smaller ones. ‘Natural selection is observable,’ Rosemary Grant says. ‘It happens when the environment changes. When local conditions reverse themselves, so does the direction of adaptation.

F Recently, the Grants witnessed another form of natural selection acting on the medium ground finch: competition from bigger, stronger cousins. In 1982, a third finch, the large ground finch, came to live on Daphne Major. The stout bills of these birds resemble the business end of a crescent wrench. Their arrival was the first such colonization recorded on the Galápagos in nearly a century of scientific observation. ‘We realized,’ Peter Grant says, ‘we had a very unusual and potentially important event to follow.’ For 20 years, the large ground finch coexisted with the medium ground finch, which shared the supply of large seeds with its bigger-billed relative. Then, in 2002 and 2003, another drought struck. None of the birds nested that year, and many died out. Medium ground finches with large bills, crowded out of feeding areas by the more powerful large ground finches, were hit particularly hard.

G When wetter weather returned in 2004, and the finches nested again, the new generation of the medium ground finch was dominated by smaller birds with smaller bills, able to survive on smaller seeds. This situation, says Peter Grant, marked the first time that biologists have been able to follow the complete process of an evolutionary change due to competition between species and the strongest response to natural selection that he had seen in 33 years of tracking Galápagos finches.

H On the inhabited island of Santa Cruz, just south of Daphne Major, Andrew Hendry of McGill University and Jeffrey Podos of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst have discovered a new, man-made twist in finch evolution. Their study focused on birds living near the Academy Bay research station, on the fringe of the town of Puerto Ayora. The human population of the area has been growing fast-from 900 people in 1974 to 9,582 in 2001. Today Puerto Ayora is full of hotels and mai tai bars,’ Hendry says. ‘People have taken this extremely arid place and tried to turn it into a Caribbean resort.’

I Academy Bay records dating back to the early 1960s show that medium ground finches captured there had either small or large bills. Very few of the birds had mid-size bills. The finches appeared to be in the early stages of a new adaptive radiation: If the trend continued, the medium ground finch on Santa Cruz could split into two distinct subspecies, specializing in different types of seeds. But in the late 1960s and early 70s, medium ground finches with medium-sized bills began to thrive at Academy Bay along with small and large-billed birds. The booming human population had introduced new food sources, including exotic plants and bird feeding stations stocked with rice. Billsize, once critical to the finches’ survival, no longer made any difference. ‘Now an intermediate bill can do fine,’ Hendry says.

J At a control site distant from Puerto Ayora, and relatively untouched by humans, the medium ground finch population remains split between large- and small-billed birds. On undisturbed parts of Santa Cruz, there is no ecological niche for a middling medium ground finch, and the birds continue to diversify. In town, though there are still many finches, once-distinct populations are merging.

K The finches of Santa Cruz demonstrate a subtle process in which human meddling can stop evolution in its tracks, ending the formation of new species. In a time when global biodiversity continues its downhill slide, Darwin’s finches have yet another unexpected lesson to teach. ‘If we hope to regain some of the diversity that’s already been lost/ Hendry says, ‘we need to protect not just existing creatures, but also the processes that drive the origin of new species.

Questions 1-4
Complete the table now. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from Reading Passage 1 for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.

Year	Climate	Finch’s condition
1977	(1)……………..	small-beak birds failing to survive, without the power to open (2)………………
1985	(3)…………………brought by El Nino	big-beak birds dying out, with (4)……………. as the main food resource

Questions 5-8
Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage. Using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 5-8 on your answer sheet.

On the remote island of Santa Cruz, Andrew Hendry and Jeffrey Podos conducted a study on reversal (5)……………… due to human activity. In the early 1960s medium ground finches were found to have a larger or smaller beak. But in the late 1960s and early 70s, finches with (6)……………… flourished. The study speculates that it is due to the growing (7)…………………who brought in alien plants with intermediate-size seeds into the area and the birds ate (8)……………….. sometimes.

Questions 9-13
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage? In boxes 9-13 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

9. Grants’ discovery has questioned Darwin’s theory.
10. The cactus finches are less affected by food than the medium ground finch.
11. In 2002 and 2003, all the birds were affected by the drought.
12. The discovery of Andrew Hendry and Jeffrey Podos was the same as that of the previous studies.
13. It is shown that the revolution in finches on Santa Cruz is likely a response to human intervention.

Flight From Reality

Mobiles are barred, but passengers can lap away on their laptops to their hearts’ content. Is one really safer than the other? In the US, a Congressional subcommittee grilled airline representatives and regulators about the issue last month. But the committee heard that using cellphones in planes may indeed pose a risk albeit a slight one. This would seem to vindicate the treatment of Manchester oil worker Neil Whitehouse, who was sentenced last summer to a year in jail by a British court for refusing to turn off his mobile phone on a flight home from Madrid. Although he was only typing a message to be sent on landing not actually making a call, the court decided that hems putting the flight at risk.

A The potential for problems is certainly there. Modern airliners are packed with electronic devices that control the plane and handle navigation and communications. Each has to meet stringent safeguards to make sure it doesn’t emit radiation that would interfere with other devices in the plane-standards that passengers’ personal electronic devices don’t necessarily meet. Emissions from inside the plane could also interfere with sensitive antennae on the fixed exterior.

B But despite running a number of studies, Boeing, Airbus and various government agencies haven’t been able to find clear evidence of problems caused by personal electronic devices, including mobile phones. “We’ve done our own studies. We’ve found cellphones actually have no impact on the navigation system,” says Maryanne Greczyn, a spokeswoman for Airbus Industries of North America in Herndon, Virginia, Not do they affect other critical systems, she says The only impact Airbus found? “Sometimes when a passenger is starting or finishing a phone call, the pilot hears a wry slight beep in the headset,” she says.

C The best evidence yet of a problem comes from a report released this year by Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority. Its researchers generated simulated cellphone transmissions inside two Boeing aircraft. They concluded that the transmissions could create signals at a power and frequency that would not affect the latest equipment, but exceeded the safety threshold established in 1984 and might, therefore, affect some of the older equipment on board. This doesn’t mean “mission critical” equipment such as the navigation system and flight controls. But the devices that could be affected, such as smoke detectors and fuel level indicators, could still create serious problems for the flight crew if they malfunction.

D Many planes still use equipment certified to the older standards, says Dan Hawkes, head of avionics at the CAA’s Safely Regulation Croup. The CAA study doesn’t prove the equipment will actually fail when subjected to the signals but does show there’s a danger. “We’ve taken some of the uncertainty out of these beliefs,” he says Another study later this year will see if the cellphone signals actually cause devices to fail.

E In 1996, RTCA, a consultant hired by the Federal Aviation Administration in the US to conduct tests, determined that potential problems from personal electronic devices were “low”. Nevertheless, it recommended a ban on their use during “critical” periods of flight, such as take-off and landing. RTCA didn’t actually test cellphones, but nevertheless recommended their wholesale ban on flights, But if “better safe than sorry” is the current policy, it’s applied inconsistently, according to Marshall Cross, the chairman of Mega Wave Corporation, based in Boylston, Massachusetts. Why are cellphones outlawed when no one considers a ban on laptops? “It’s like most things in life. The reason is a little bit technical, a little bit economic and a little bit political,” says Cross.

F The company wrote a report for the FAA in 1998 saying it is possible to build an on-board system that can detect dangerous signals from electronic devices. But Cross’s personal conclusion is that mobile phones aren’t the real threat. “You’d have to stretch things pretty far to figure out how a cellphone could interfere with a plane’s systems,” he says. Cellphones transmit in ranges of around 400, 800 or 1800 megahertz. Since no important piece of aircraft equipment operates at those frequencies, the possibility of interference is very low, Cross says. The use of Computers and electronic game systems is much more worrying, lie says. They can generate very strong signals at frequencies that could interfere with plane electronics, especially if a mouse is attached {the wire operates as an antenna or if their built-in shielding is somehow damaged. Some airlines are even planning to put sockets for laptops in seatbacks.

G There’s fairly convincing anecdotal evidence that some personal electronic devices have interfered with systems. Aircrew on one flight found that the autopilot was being disconnected, and narrowed the problem down to a passenger’s portable computer. They could actually watch the autopilot disconnect when they switched the computer on. Boeing bought the computer, took it to the airline’s labs and even tested it on an empty flight. But as with every other reported instance of interference, technicians were unable to replicate the problem.

H Some engineers, however, such as Bruce Donham of Boeing, say that common sense suggests phones are more risky than laptops. “A device capable of producing a strong emission is not as safe as a device which does not have any intentional emission,” lie says. Nevertheless, many experts think it’s illogical that cellphones are prohibited when computers aren’t. Besides, the problem is more complicated than simply looking at power and frequency. In the air, the plane operates in a soup of electronic emissions, created by its own electronics and by ground-based radiation. Electronic devices in the cabin-especially those emitting a strong signal-can behave unpredictably, reinforcing other signals, for instance, or creating unforeseen harmonics that disrupt systems.

I Despite the Congressional subcommittee hearings last month, no one seems to be working seriously on a technical solution that would allow passengers to use their phones. That’s mostly because no one -besides cellphone users themselves-stands to gain a lot if the phones are allowed in the air. Even the cellphone companies don’t want it. They are concerned that airborne signals could cause problems by flooding a number of the networks’ base stations at once with the same signal This effect, called bigfooting, happens because airborne cellphone signals tend to go to many base stations at once, unlike land calls which usually go to just one or two stations. In the US, even if FAA regulations didn’t prohibit cellphones in the air, Federal Communications Commission regulations would.

J Possible solutions might be to enhance airliners’ electronic insulation or to fit detectors which warned flight staff when passenger devices were emitting dangerous signals. But Cross complains that neither the FAA, the airlines nor the manufacturers are showing much interest in developing these. So despite Congressional suspicions and the occasional irritated (or jailed) mobile user, the industry’s “better safe than sorry” policy on mobile phones seems likely to continue. In the absence of firm evidence that the international airline industry is engaged in a vast conspiracy to overcharge its customers, a delayed phone call seems a small price to pay for even the tiniest reduction in the chances of a Plane Crash. But you’ll still be allowed to use your personal computer during a flight. And while that remains the case, airlines can hardly claim that logic has prevailed.

Questions 14-17
Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 14-17 on your answer sheet.

The would-be risk surely exists, since the avionic systems on modern aircraft are used to manage flight and deal with (14)………………. Those devices are designed to meet the safety criteria which should be free from interrupting (15)………………… or interior emission. The personal use of a mobile phone may cause the sophisticated (16)…………………. outside of the plane to dysfunction. Though definite interference in piloting devices has not been scientifically testified, the devices such as those which detect (17)……………….. or indicate fuel load could be affected.

Questions 18-22
Use the information in the passage to match the Organization (listed A-E) with opinions or deeds below. Write the appropriate letters A-E in boxes 18-22 on your answer sheet.

A British Civil Aviation Authority
B Maryanne Greczyn
C RTCA
D Marshall Cross
E Boeing company

18. Mobile usages should be forbidden in specific fame.
19. Computers are more dangerous than cell phones.
20. Finding that the mobile phones pose little risk on flight’s navigation devices.
21. The disruption of laptops is not as dangerous as cellphones.
22. The mobile signal may have an impact on earlier devices.

Questions 23-26
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage? In boxes 23-26 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

23. Almost all scientists accept that cellphones have higher emission than that of personal computers.
24. Some people believe that radio emission will interrupt the equipment on the plane.
25. The signal interference-detecting device has not yet been developed because they are in priority for neither administrative department nor offer an economic incentive.
26. FAA initialed open debate with Federal Communications Commission.

Human Remain In Green Sahara

A On October 13,2,000, a small team of paleontologists led by Paul Sereno of the University of Chicago clambered out of three battered Land Rovers, filled their water bottles, and scattered on foot across the toffee-colored sands of the Tenere desert in northern Niger. The Tenere , on the southern flank of the Sahara, easily ranks among the most desolate landscapes on Earth. The Tuareg , turbaned nomads who for centuries have ruled this barren realm, refer to it as a “desert within a desert”-a California-size ocean of sand and rock, where a single massive dune might stretch a hundred miles, and the combination of 120-degree heat and inexorable winds can wick the water from a human body in less than a day. The harsh conditions, combined with intermittent conflict between the Tuareg and the Niger government, have kept the region largely unexplored.

B Mike Hettwer, a photographer accompanying the team, headed off by himself toward a trio of small dunes. He crested the first slope and stared in amazement. The dunes were spilling over with bones. He took a few shots with his digital camera and hurried back to the Land Rovers. “I found some bones:’ Hettwer said, when the team had regrouped. “But they’re not dinosaurs. They’re human.”

C In the spring of 2005 Sereno contacted Elena Garcea, an archaeologist at the University of Cassino, in Italy, inviting her to accompany him on a return to the site. Garcea had spent three decades working digs along the Nile in Sudan and in the mountains of the Libyan Desert, and was well acquainted with the ancient peoples of the Sahara. But she had never heard of Paul Sereno. His claim to have found so many skeletons in one place seemed far fetched, given that no other Neolithic cemetery contained more than a dozen or so. Some archaeologists would later be skeptical; one sniped that he was just a “moonlighting paleontologist.” But Garcea was too intrigued to dismiss him as an interloper. She agreed to join him.

D Garcea explained that the Kiffian were a fishing-based culture and lived during the earliest wet period, between 8,000 and 10,000 years ago. She held a Kiffian sherd next to a Tenerian one. “What is so amazing is that the people who made these two pots lived more than a thousand years apart.”

E Over the next three weeks, Sereno and Garcea-along with five American excavators, five Tuareg guides, and five soldiers from Nigeria’s army, sent to protect the camp from bandits—made a detailed map of the site, which they dubbed Gobero, after the Tuareg name for the area. They exhumed eight burials and collected scores of artifacts from both cultures. In a dry lake bed adjacent to the dunes, they found dozens of fishhooks and harpoons carved from animal bone Apparently the Kiffian fishermen weren’t just going after small fry: Scattered near the dunes were the remains of Nile perch, a beast of a fish that can weigh nearly 300 pounds, as well as crocodile and hippo bones.

F Sereno flew home with the most important skeletons and artifacts and immediately began planning for the next field season. In the meantime, he carefully removed one tooth from each of four skulls and sent them to a lab for radiocarbon dating. The results pegged the age of the tightly bundled burials at roughly 9,000 years old, the heart of the Kiffian era. The smaller “sleeping” skeletons turned out to be about 6,000 years old, well within the Tenerian period. At least now the scientists knew who was who.

G In the fall of 2006 they returned to Gobero, accompanied by a larger dig crew and six additional scientists. Garcea hoped to excavate some 80 burials, and the team began digging. As the skeletons began to emerge from the dunes, each presented a fresh riddle, especially the Tenerian. A male skeleton had been buried with a finger in his mouth.

H Even at the site, Arizona State University bio archaeologist Chris Stojanowski could begin to piece together some clues. Judging by the bones, the Kiffian appeared to be a peaceful, hard working people. “The lack of head and forearm injuries suggests they weren’t doing much fighting,” he told me. “And these guys were strong.” He pointed to a long, narrow ridge running along a femur. “That’s the muscle attachment,” he said. “This individual had huge leg muscles, which means he was eating a lot of protein and had a strenuous lifestyle — both consistent with a fishing way of life.” For contrast, he showed me the femur of a Tenerian male. The ridge was barely perceptible. “This guy had a much less strenuous lifestyle,” he said, “which you might expect of a herder.”

I Stojanowski’s assessment that the Tenerian were herders fits the prevailing view among scholars of life in the Sahara 6,000 years ago, when drier conditions favored herding over hunting. But if the Tenerian were herders, Sereno pointed out, where were the herds? Among the hundreds of animal bones that had turned up at the site, none belonged to goats or sheep, and only three came from a cow species. “It’s not unusual for a herding culture not to slaughter their cattle, particularly in a cemetery, M Garcea responded, noting that even modern pastoralists, such as Niger’s Wodaabe, are loath to butcher even one animal in their herd. Perhaps, Sereno reasoned, the Tenerian at Gobero were a transitional group that had not fully adopted herding and still relied heavily on hunting and fishing.

J Back in Arizona, Stojanowski continues to analyze the Gobero bones for clues to the Green Saharans’ health and diet. Other scientists are trying to derive DNA from the teeth, which could reveal the genetic origins of the Kiffian and Tenerian- and possibly link them to descendants living today. Sereno and Garcea estimate a hundred burials remain to be excavated. But as the harsh Tenere winds continue to erode the dunes, time is running out. “Every archaeological site has a life cycle,” Garcea said. “It begins when people begin to use the place, followed by disuse, then nature takes over, and finally it is gone. Gobero is at the end of its life.”

Questions 27-29
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage? In boxes 27-29 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

27. Hettwer accidentally found human remains in the desert.
28. Sereno and Garcea have cooperated in some archaeological activities before.
29. The pictures of rock engravings found in Green Sahara is similar to other places.

Questions 30-33
Answer the questions below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.

30. What did Sereno and Garcea produce in the initial weeks before digging work?
31. For what purpose did Sereno send one tooth from each of four skulls to the laboratory?
32. How old are the bigger tightly bundled burials being identified?
33. What part of the body remains did the scientists send for inspection to find out the genetic origins of the Kiffian and Tenerian?

Questions 34-40
Summary Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage, using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 34-40 on your answer sheet.

On the basis of bone judgment, kiffican seemed to be (34)…………………hardworking people, because we did not find (35)…………………..on head and forearm.

Through observation of the huge leg muscles, it can be inferred that their diet had plenty of (36)……………….and their lifestyle was (37)…………….. All evidence pointed to compliance with a fishing way of life.

On the other hand, Stojanowski presumed that Tenerian preferred to live on herding over (38)……………..,but only some animal bones such as (39)………………….were found, which Sereno supposed that Tenerian at Gobero lived in a (40)…………………..group at that time.