Reading

READING

READING PASSAGE 1

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

THE STOBY Or. SII,I(

The historq of the world's most luxurious fabric,
from ancient China to the present daA
Silk is a fine, smooth material produced Originally, sillavorm farming was solely
from the cocoons - soft protective shells restricted to women, and it was they
- that are made by mulberry sillovorms who were responsible for the growing,
(insect larvae). Legend has it that it was harvesting and weaving. Silk quickly grew
Lei Tzu, wife of the Yellow Emperor, into a s;rmbol of status, and originally,
ruler of China in about 3000 BC, who only royalty were entitled to have clothes
discovered sillc,arorms. One account of the made of silk. The rules were gradually
story goes that as she was taking a walk relaxed over the years until flnally during
in her husband's gardens, she discovered the Qing Dynasty (164,1-1911AD), even
that sillarorrns were responsible for the peasants, the lowest caste, were also
destruction of several mulberry trees. She entitled to wear silk. Sometime during the
collected a number of cocoons and sat Han Dynasty (2068C-220 AD), silk was
down to have a rest. It just so happened so prized that it was also used as a unit of
that while she was sipping some tea, one currency. Government officials were paid
of the cocoons that she had collected their salary in silk, and farmers paid their
landed in the hot tea and started to taxes in grain and silk. Silk was also used
unravel into aflne thread. Lei Tzu found 2s diplomatic gifts by the emperor. Fishing
that she could wind this thread around her lines, bowstrings, musical instruments
fingers. Subsequently, she persuaded her and paper were all made using silk. The
husband to allow her to rear silkworms earliest indication of silk paper being used
on a grove of mulberry trees. She also was discovered in the tomb of a noble
devised a special reel to draw the flbres who is estimated to have died around
from the cocoon into a single thread so 168 AD.
that they would be strong enough to be
woven into fabric. While it is unlanown Demand for this exotic fabric eventually
just how much of this is true, it is certainly created the lucrative trade route now
lcrown that silk cultivation has existed in Icrown as the Silk Road, taking silk
China for several milleruria. weshvard and bringing go1d, silver and

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wool to the East. It was named the Silk swept ttrough these lands. Andalusia in
Road ffier its most precious commodity, southern Spain was Europe's main silk-
which was considered to be wor[h more producing centre in the tenth century. By
than gold. The Siik Road stretched over the thirteenth centur5/, however, Italy had
6,000 kilometres from Eastern China to become Europe's leader in silk production
the Mediterranean Sea, following the and export. Venetian merchants traded
Great Wall of China, climbing the Pamir extensively in silk and encouraged silk
mountain range, crossing modem-day growers to set[Ie in Italy. Even now,
Afghanistan and going on to the Middle silk processed in the province of Como
East, with a major trading market in in northern Italy enjoys an esteemed
Darnascus. From there, the merchandise reputation.
was shipped across the Mediterranean
Sea. Few merchants travelled the entire The nineteenth century and
route; goods were handled mostly by a industrialisation saw the dowmfall of the
series of middlemen. European silk industry. Cheaper Japanese
silk, trade in which was greatly facitritated
With the mulberry silkrvorm being native by the opening of the Suez Canal, was one
to China, the cor.rntry was the world's sole of the many factors driving the trend. Then
producer of silk for many hundreds of in the twentieth century, new marrmade
yearc. The secret of silk-making eventually flbres, such as nylon, started to be used in
reached the rest of the world via the what had traditionally been silk products,
Byzantine Empire, which ruled over the such as stockings and parachutes. The two
Mediterranean region of southern Europe, world wars, which intermpted the supply
North Africa and the Middle East during of raw material from Japan, also stffied the
the period 330*1453 AD. According to European silk industry. After the Second
another legend, monks working for the World War, Japan's silk production was
Byzantine emperor Justinian smuggled restored, with improved production and
silkworm eggs to Constantinople quality of raw silk. Japan was to remain
(Istanbul in modern-day Tirkey) in 550 the world's biggest producer of raw silk,
AD, concealed inside hollow bamboo and practically the orily m4jor exporter
walking calres. The Byzantines were as of raw silk, until the 1970s. However, in
secretive as the Chinese, however, and more recent decades, China has gradually
for many centuries the weaving and recaptured its position as the world's
trading of silk fabric was a strict imperial biggest producer and exporter ofraw
monopoly. Then in the seventh centur;/, silk and silk yarn. Today, around 125,000
the Arabs conquered Persia, capturing metric tons of silk are produced in the
their magnfficent silks in the process. world, and almost two thirds of that
Silk production thus spread through production takes piace in China.
Africa, Sicily and Spain as the Arabs

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 Reading

Questions 1-9

Complete the notes below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 1-9 on your answer sheet.

THE STOBY Or. SII,K

Early silk production in China
. Around 3000 BC, according to legend:
silkworm cocoon fell into emperor's wife's 1 ......................

emperor's wife invented a2 to pull out silk fibres

. Only 3...................... were allowed to produce silk
. Only 4...................... were allowed to wear silk
. Silk used as a form of 5......................

e.g. farmers'taxes consisted partly of silk

. Silk used for many purposes
e.g. evidence found of 6...................... made from silk around 168 AD

Silk reaches rest of world

. Merchants use Silk Road to take silk westward and bring back 7...................... and
precious metals
. 550 AD: 8 hide silkworm eggs in canes and take them to Constantinople
. Silk production spreads across Middle East and Europe
. 20th century: 9...................... and other manmade fibres cause decline in silk production

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Quesfions 1F13

Do the following statements agree with the information in Reading Passage 1?

ln boxes 1U13 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 Gold was the most valuable material transported along the Silk Road.
11 Most tradesmen only went along certain sections of the Silk Road.
12 The Byzantines spread the practice of silk production across the West.
13 Silk yarn makes up the majority of silk currently exported from China.

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 Reading

READING PASSAGE 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1*2Q which are based on Reading
Passage 2 below.

Great Migrations
Animal migration, however it is defined, Reaching some gravelly coastline in the
is far more than just the movement of Arctic, upon which other arctic terns have
animals. lt can loosely be described as travel converged, will serve its larger purpose
that takes place at regular intervals - often as shaped by evolution: finding a place, a
in an annual cycle - that may involve many time, and a set of circumstances in which it
members of a species, and is rewarded only can successfully hatch and rear offspring.
after a long journey. lt suggests inherited
instinct. The biologist Hugh Dingle has But migration is a complex issue, and
identified five characteristics that apply, in biologists define it differently, depending
varying degrees and combinations, to all in part on what sorts of animals they study.
migrations. They are prolonged movements Joel Berger, of the University of Montana,
that carry a n mals,outside famil iar habitats;
i who works on the American pronghorn
they tend to be linear, notzigzaggy; they and other large terrestrial mammals, prefers
involve special behaviours concerning what he calls a simple, practical definition
preparation (such as overfeeding) and suited to his beasts: 'movements from
arrival; they demand special allocations a seasonal home area away to another
of energy. And one more: migrating home area and back again'. Generally the
animals maintain an intense attentiveness reason for such seasonal back-and-forth
to the greater mission, which keeps movement is to seek resources that aren't
them undistracted by temptations and available within a single area year-round.
undeterred by challenges that would turn
other animals aside. But daily vertical movements by
zooplankton in the ocean - upward by
An arctic tern, on its 20,000 km flight night to seek food, downward by day to
from the extreme south of South America escape predators - can also be considered
to the Arctic circle, will take no notice migration. So can the movement of aphids
of a nice smelly herring offered from a when, having depleted the young leaves
bird-watcher's boat along the way. While on one food plant, their offspring then
local gulls will dive voraciously for such fly onward to a different host plant, with
handouts, the tern flies on. Why? The arctic no one aphid ever returning to where it
tern resists distraction because it is driven sta rted.
at that moment by an instinctive sense of
something we humans find admirable: Dingle is an evolutionary biologist who
larger purpose. ln other words, it is studies insects. His definition is more
determined to reach its destination. The intricate than Bergers, citing those five
bird senses that it can eat, rest and mate features that distinguish migration from
later. Right now it is totally focused on other forms of movement. They allow
the journey; its undivided intent is arrival. for the fact that, for example, aphids will

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become sensitive to blue light (from the pass through again in autumn, escaping
sky) when it's time for takeoff on their south onto those windblown plains, they
big journey, and sensitive to yellow light are likely to die trying to overwinter in the
(reflected from tender young leaves)when deep snow. Pronghorn, dependent on
it's appropriate to land. Birds will fatten distance vision and speed to keep safe from
themselves with heavy feeding in advance predators, traverse high, open shoulders
of a long migrational flight. The value of his of land, where they can see and run. At
definition, Dingle argues, is that it focuses one of the bottlenecks, forested hills rise to
attention on what the phenomenon form a V, leaving a corridor of open ground
of wildebeest migration shares with only about 150 metres wide, filled with
the phenomenon of the aphids, and private homes. lncreasing development is
therefore helps guide researchers towards leading toward a crisis for the pronghorn,
understanding how evolution has produced threatening to choke off their passageway.
them all.
Conservation scientists, along with some
Human behaviour, howeve6 is having a biologists and land managers within the
detrimental impact on animal migration. USA's National Park Service and other
The pronghorn, which resembles an agencies, are now working to preserve
antelope, though they are unrelated, migrational behaviours, not just species
is the fastest land mammal of the New and habitats. A National Forest has
World. One population, which spends the recognised the path of the pronghorn,
summer in the mountainous Grand Teton much of which passes across its land, as a
National Park of the western USA, follows a protected migration corridor. But neither
narrow route from its summer range in the the Forest Service nor the Park Service
mountains, across a river, and down onto can control what happens on private
the plains. Here they wait out the frozen land at a bottleneck. And with certain
months, feeding mainly on sagebrush other migrating species, the challenge is
blown clear of snow. These pronghorn are complicated further - by vastly greater
notable for the invariance of their migration distances traversed, more j urisdictions,
route and the severity of its constriction more borders, more dangers along the way.
at three bottlenecks. lf they can't pass We will require wisdom and resoluteness to
through each of the three during their ensure that migrating species can continue
spring migration, they can't reach their their journeying a while longer.
bounty of summer grazing; if they can't

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*M
 Reading

Quesfions 14-18

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2?

ln boxes 14-18 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

14 Local gulls and migrating arctic terns behave in the same way when offered food.
15 Experts'definitions of migration tend to vary according to their area of study.
16 Very few experts agree that the movement of aphids can be considered migration.
17 Aphids' journeys are affected by changes in the light that they perceive.
18 Dingle's aim is to distinguish between the migratory behaviours of different species.

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Quesfions 19-22

Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-G, below.

Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 19-22 on your answer sheef.

19 According to Dingle, migratory routes are likely to

20 To prepare for migration, animals are likely to
21 During migration, animals are unlikely to
22 Arctic terns illustrate migrating animals'ability to

A be discouraged by difficulties.
B travel on open land where they can look
out for predators.
C eat more than they need for immediate
purposes.
D be repeated daily.
E ignore distractions.
F be governed by the availability of water.
G follow a straight line.

Quesfions 23-26

Complete the summary below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 23-26 on your answer sheef.

The migration of pronghorns

Pronghorns rely on their eyesight and 23 ...................... to avoid predators. one particular
population's summer habitat is a national park, and their winter home is on
the 24 , where they go to avoid the danger presented by the snow at that time
of year. However, their route between these two areas contains three 25
One problem is the construction of new homes in a narrow 26...................... of land on the
pronghorns' route.

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 Reading

READING PASSAGE 3

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

Preface to 'How the other half thinks:

Adventures in mathematical reasoning'
A Occasionally, in some difficult musical compositions, there are beautiful, but easy
parts - parts so simple a beginner could play them. So it is with mathematics as
well. There are some discoveries in advanced mathematics that do not depend on
specialized knowledge, not even on algebra, geometry, or trigonometry. lnstead
they may involve, at most, a little arithmetic, such as 'the sum of two odd numbers
is even', and common sense. Each of the eight chapters in this book illustrates this
phenomenon. Anyone can understand every step in the reasoning.
The thinking in each chapter uses at most only elementary arithmetic, and
sometimes not even that. Thus all readers will have the chance to participate in a
mathematical experience, to appreciate the beauty of mathematics, and to become
familiar with its logical, yet intuitive, style of thinking.
One of my purposes in writing this book is to give readers who haven't had the
opportunity to see and enjoy real mathematics the chance to appreciate the
mathematical way of thinking. I want to reveal not only some of the fascinating
discoveries, but, more importantly, the reasoning behind them.
ln that respect, this book differs from most books on mathematics written for the
general public, Some present the lives of colorful mathematicians. Others describe
important applications of mathematics. Yet others go into mathematical procedures,
but assume that the reader is adept in using algebra.
I hope this book will help bridge that notorious gap that separates the two cultures:
the humanities and the sciences, or should I say the right brain (intuitive) and the
left brain (analytical, numerical). As the chapters will illustrate, mathematics is not
restricted to the analytical and numerical; intuition plays a significant role. The
alleged gap can be narrowed or completely overcome by anyone, in part because
each of us is far from using the full capacity of either side of the brain. To illustrate
our human potential, I cite a structural engineer who is an artist, an electrical
engineer who is an opera singer, an opera singer who published mathematical
research, and a mathematician who publishes short stories.
Other scientists have written books to explain their fields to non-scientists, but have
necessarily had to omit the mathematics, although it provides the foundation of their
theories. The reader must remain a tantalized spectator rather than an involved
participant, since the appropriate language for describing the details in much of
science is mathematics, whether the subject is expanding universe, subatomic
particles, or chromosomes. Though the broad outline of a scientific theory can be

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sketched intuitively, when a part of the physical universe is finally understood, its
description often looks like a page in a mathematics text.
Still, the non-mathematical reader can go far in understanding mathematical
reasoning. This book presents the details that illustrate the mathematical style
of thinking, which involves sustained, step-by-step analysis, experiments, and
insights. You will turn these pages much more slowly than when reading a novel
or a newspaper. lt may help to have a pencil and paper ready to check claims and
carry out experiments.
As I wrote, I kept in mind two types of readers: those who enjoyed mathematics
until they were turned off by an unpleasant episode, usually around fifth grade, and
mathematics aficionados, who will find much that is new throughout the book.
This book also serves readers who simply want to sharpen their analytical skills.
Many careers, such as law and medicine, require extended, precise analysis. Each
chapter offers practice in following a sustained and closely argued line of thought.
That mathematics can develop this skill is shown by these two testimonials:
G A physician wrote, 'The discipline of analytical thought processes [in mathematics]
prepared me extremely well for medical school. ln medicine one is faced with a
problem which must be thoroughly analyzed before a solution can be found. The
process is similar to doing mathematics.'
A lawyer made the same point, 'Although I had no background in law - not even
one political science course - I did well at one of the best law schools. I attribute
much of my success there to having learned, through the study of mathematics,
and, in particular, theorems, how to analyze complicated principles. Lawyers who
have studied mathematics can master the legal principles in a way that most others
cannot.'
I hope you will share my delight in watching as simple, even naiVe, questions
lead to remarkable solutions and purely theoretical discoveries find unanticipated
applications.

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 Reading

Quesfions 27-34

Reading Passage 3 has seven sections, A-G.

Which section contains the following information?

Write the correct leften A-G, in boxes 27-34 on your answersheef.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

27 a reference to books that assume a lack of mathematical knowledge
28 the way in which this is not a typical book about mathematics
29 personal examples of being helped by mathematics
30 examples of people who each had abilities that seemed incompatible
31 mention of different focuses of books about mathematics
32 a contrast between reading this book and reading other kinds of publication
33 a claim that the whole of the book is accessible to everybody
34 a reference to different categories of intended readers of this book

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Quesfions 3*40
Complete the sentences below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 3*40 on your answer sheef.

35 Some areas of both music and mathematics are suitable for someone who is
a ...................... .

36 lt is sometimes possible to understand advanced mathematics using no more than

a limited knowledge of ...................... .
37 The writer intends to show that mathematics requires thinking, as well as
analytical skills.
38 Some books written by...................... have had to leave out the mathematics that is
central to their theories.
39 The writer advises non-mathematical readers to perform while reading
the book.
40 A lawyer found that studying ......................helped even more than other areas of
mathematics in the studY of law.

76
 Writing

WRITIN G

WRITING TASK 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.

The graph below shows average carbon dioxide (co2) emrssions per person
in the united Kingdom, sweden,ltaly and Portugal between 196T and 2oor.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and
make comparisons where relevant.

Write at least 150 words.

Average carbon dioxide (GOz) emissions per person,lgGT-2007

12
o
o
C
c 10
o '- -\r.\
()
L

o
I
E United Kingdom
.s 6 Sweden
a
C
.9 ltaly
a 4
,a
E
(l)
- Portugal
(\l 2
o
o
0
1 967 1977 1987 1997 2407

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WRITING TASK 2

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic:

Some people say that the only reason for learning a foreign language is in
order to travel to or work in a foreign country. Others say that fhese are not
the only reasons why someone should learn a foreign language.

Drscuss both these views and give your own opiniotn.

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own
knowledge or experience.

Write at least 250 words.

78