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

Australian parrots and their adaptation to habitat change

A
Parrots are found across the tropic and in all southern hemisphere continents except
Antarctica, but nowhere do the display such a richness of diversity and form as in
Australia. One- sixth of the world’s 345 parrot species are found there, and Australia
has long been renowned for the number and variety of its parrots.

B
In the 16th century, the German cartographer Mercator made a world map that
included a place, somewhere near present-day Australia, that he named Terra
Psittacorum – the Land of Parrots – and the first European settlers in Australia often
referred to the country as Parrot Land. In 1865, the celebrated British naturalist and
wildlife artist John Gould said: “No group of birds gives Australia so tropical and
benign an air as the numerous species of this great family by which it is tenanted.

C
Parrots are descendants of an ancient line. Due to their great diversity, and since
most species inhabit Africa, Australia and South America, it seems almost certain
that parrots originated millions of years ago on the ancient southern continent of
Gondwana, before it broke up into the separate southern hemisphere continents we
know today. Much of Gondwana comprised vast rainforests intersected by huge
slow-flowing rivers and expansive lakes, but by eight million years ago, great
changes were underway. The center of the continent of Australia had begun to dry
out, and the rainforests that once covered it gradually contracted to the continental
margins, where, to a limited extent, they still exist today.

D
The creatures that remained in those shrinking rainforests had to adapt to the drier
conditions or face extinction. Reacting to these desperate circumstances, the parrot
family, typically found in jungles in other parts of the world, has populated some of
Australia’s harshest environments. The parrots spread from ancestral forests through
eucalypt woodlands to colonies the central deserts of Australia, and as a consequence
they diversified into a wide range of species with adaptations that reflect the many
changes animals and plants had to make to survive in these areas.

E
These evolutionary pressures helped mould keratin, the substance from which breaks
are made into a range of tools capable of gathering the new food types favored by
various species of parrot. The size of a parrot’s short, blunt beak and the length of
that beak’s do curved upper section are related to the type of food each species eats.
Some have comparatively long beaks that are perfect for extracting seeds from fruit;
others have broader and stronger beaks that are designed for cracking hard seeds.

F
Differently shaped beaks are not the only adaptations that have been made during
the developing relationship between parrots and their food plants. Like all of
Australia’s many honey eating birds, the rainbow-coloured lorikeets and the flowers
on which they feed have long co-evolved with features such as the shape and colour
of the flowers adapted to the bird’s particular needs, and physical a example, red is
the most attractive colour to birds, and thus flowers which depend on birds for
pollination are more often red, and lorikeets’ to gues have bristles which help them
to collect as much pollen as possible.

G
Today, most of Australia’s parrots inhabit woodland and open forest, and their
numbers decline towards both deserts and wetter areas. The majority are nomadic to
some degree, moving around to take advantage of feeding and breeding places. Two
of the dry country parrots, the pink and grey galah and the pink, white and yellow
corella have expanded their ranges in recent years. They are among the species that
have adapted well to the changes brought about by European settlement forest telling
created grasslands where galahs and corellas thrive.

H
But other parrot species did not fare so well when their environments were altered.
The clearing of large areas of rainforest is probably responsible for the disappearance
of the double-eyed fig parrot, and numbers of ground parrots declined when a great
part of their habitat was destroyed by the draining of coastal swamps. Even some
parrot species that benefited from forest clearing at first are now comforted by a
shortage of nesting sites due to further man-made changes.

I
New conditions also sometimes favour an incoming species over one that originally
inhabited the area. For example, after farmers cleared large areas of forest on
Kangaroo Island off the coast of South Australia, the island was colonised by galahs.
They were soon going down holes and destroying black cockatoo eggs in order to
take the hole for their own use. Their success precipitated a partial collapse in the
black cockatoo population when the later lost the struggle for scarce nesting hollows.

J
There may be no final answer to ensuring an equitable balance between parrot
species. Nest box programmers help ease the shortage of nesting sites in some places,
but there are not enough, they are expensive and they are not an adequate substitute
by large, old trees, such as the habitat they represent and nectar, pollen and seeds
they provide. Competition between parrots for nest sites is a result of the changes
we humans have made to the Earth. We are the most widespread and dangerous
competitors that parrots have ever had to face, but we also have the knowledge and
skill to maintain the wonderfully rich diversity of Australia’s parrots. All we need is
the wild to do so.

Questions 1-6
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. An example of how one parrot species may survive at the expense of another 1
I
________
F
2. A description of how plants may adapt to attract birds 2________
3. Example of two parrot species which benefited from changes to the environment
G
3________
4. How the varied Australian landscape resulted in a great variety of parrot species
4________
D
5. A reason why most parrot species are native to the southern hemisphere
C
5________
6. An example of a parrot species which did not survive changes to its habitat
H
6________

Questions 7-9
Choose the correct letter A, B, c, or D
Write the correct letter in boxes 7-9 on your answer sheet
7. The writer believes that most parrot species
A. Move from Africa and South America to Australia
B. Had ancestors in either Africa, Australia or South America
C. Had ancestors in a continent which later split up
D. Came from a continent now covered by water

8. What does the Writer say about parrot’s beak?

A. They are longer than those of other birds
B. They are made of a unique material
C. They are used more efficiently than those of other species
D. They are specially adapted to suit the diet

9. Which of the following is NOT mentioned by the writer as a disadvantage of

nesting boxes?
A. They cost too much
B. They need to be maintained
C. They provide only shelter, not food
D. They are too few of them

Questions 11-13
Complete the summary below
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage
for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet
 Parrots in Australia
There are 345 varieties of parrot in existence and, of these, 10 ________ one - sixth live in
Australia. As early as the 11 16th
________
century , the mapmaker 12 ________recognized
Mercator that
parrots lived in that part of the world. 13 ________
John Gould , the famous painter of animals
and birds, commented on the size and beauty of the Australian parrot family.

READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26 which are based on
Reading Passage 2 below.

Toxic stress a slow wear and tear

A. Our bodies are built to respond when under attack. When we sense danger, our
brain goes on alert, our heart rate goes up, and our organs flood with stress hormones
like cortisol and adrenaline. We breathe faster, taking in more oxygen, muscles
tense, our senses are sharpened and beads of sweat appear. This combination of
reactions to stress is also known as the “fight-or-flight” response because it evolved
as a survival mechanism, enabling people and other mammals to react quickly to
life-threatening situations. The carefully orchestrated yet near-instantaneous
sequence of hormonal changes and physiological responses helps someone to fight
the threat off or flee to safety. Unfortunately, the body can also overreact to stressors
that are not life-threatening, such as traffic jams, work pressure, and family
difficulties.

B. That’s all fine when we need to jump out of the way of a speeding bus, or when
someone is following us down a dark alley. In those cases, our stress is considered
“positive”, because it is temporary and helps us survive. But our bodies sometimes
react in the same way to more mundane stressors, too. When a child faces constant
and unrelenting stress, from neglect, or abuse, or living in chaos, the response stays
activated, and may eventually derail normal development. This is what is known as
“toxic stress”. The effects are not the same in every child, and can be buffered by
the support of a parent or caregiver, in which case the stress is considered
“tolerable”. But toxic stress can have profound consequences, sometimes even
spanning generations. Figuring out how to address stressors before they change the
brain and our immune and cardiovascular systems is one of the biggest questions in
the field of childhood development today.

C. In 1998, two researchers, Vincent Felitti and Robert Anda, pioneered in

publishing a study demonstrating that people who had experienced abuse or
household dysfunction as children were more likely to have serious health problems,
like cancer or liver diseases, and unhealthy lifestyle habits, like drinking heavily or
using drugs as adults. This became known as the “ACE Study,” short for “adverse
childhood experiences.” Scientists have since linked more than a dozen forms of
ACEs – including homelessness, discrimination, and physical, mental, and sexual
abuse – with a higher risk of poor health in adulthood.
D. Every child reacts to stress differently, and some are naturally more resilient than
others. Nevertheless, the pathways that link adversity in childhood with health
problems in adulthood lead back to toxic stress. As Jenny Anderson, senior reporter
at Quartz, explains, “when a child lives with abuse, neglect, or is witness to violence,
he or she is primed for that fight or flight all the time. The burden of that stress,
which is known as ‘allostatic load or overload,’ referring to the wear and tear that
results from either too much stress or from inefficient management of internal
balance, eg, not turning off the response when it is no longer needed, can damage
small, developing brains and bodies. A brain that thinks it is in constant danger has
trouble organising itself, which can manifest itself later as problems of paying
attention, or sitting still, or following instructions – all of which are needed for
learning”.

E. Toxic is a loaded word. Critics say the term is inherently judgmental and may
appear to blame parents for external social circumstances over which they have little
control. Others say it is often misused to describe the source of stress itself rather
than the biological process by which it could negatively affect some children. The
term, writes John Devaney, centenary chair of social work at the University of
Edinburgh, “can stigmatise individuals and imply traumatic happenings in the past”.

F. Some paediatricians do not like the term because of how difficult it is to actually
fix the stressors their patients face, from poverty to racism. 19iii. They feel it is too
fatalistic to tell families that their child is experiencing toxic stress, and there is little
they can do about it. But Nadine Burke Harris, surgeon general of California, argues
that naming the problem means we can dedicate resources to it so that paediatricians
feel like they have tools to treat “toxic stress”.

G. The most effective prevention for toxic stress is to reduce the source of the stress.
This can be tricky, especially if the source of the stress is the child’s own family.
But parent coaching, and connecting families with resources to help address the
cause of their stress (sufficient food, housing insecurity, or even the parent’s own
trauma), can help. Another one is to ensure love and support from a parent or
caregiver. Young children’s stress responses are more stable, even in difficult
situations, when they are with an adult they trust.

H. As Megan Gunnar, a child psychologist and head of the Institute of Child at the
University of Minnesota, said: “When the parent is present and relationship is secure,
basically the parent eats the stress: the kid cries, the parent comes, and it doesn’t
need to kick in the big biological guns because the parent is the protective system”.
That is why Havard’s Center on the Developing Child recommends offering care to
caregivers, like mental health or addiction support, because when they are healthy
and well, they can better care for their children.

Question 14 - 19
The reading passage has six paragraphs, A-F.
Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number (i – vii) in boxes.

List of Headings
i The controversy around the word “toxic”
ii Effects of different types of stress
iii How to protect children from toxic stress
iv An association of adverse experience with health problems and unhealthy habits
v Body’s reactions in response to the perceived harmful event
vi Signs of being under sustained stress
vii Negative impacts of toxic stress on children’s mental health

14. Paragraph A v
15. Paragraph B ii
16. Paragraph C iv
17. Paragraph D vii
18. Paragraph E i
19. Paragraph F iii

Question 20-22
Choose TRUE if the statement agrees with the information given in the text, choose
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information, or choose NOT GIVEN if there
is no information on this.

20. Felitti and Anda were the first to show that ACEs create impacts regarding health
and habits later on in life. NG
21. Some children have the same level of vulnerability to stressful events. F
22. Several paediatricians consider poverty and racism the primary contributors to
toxic stress. T

Question 23-26
Look at the following people and the list of statements below.
Match each person with the correct statement, A-E.
Write the correct letter A-E in boxes.

List of statements
A Traumatic experiences in childhood might lead to poor self-management.
B Supportive and responsive relationships with caring parents can prevent or reverse
the damaging effects of toxic stress responses.
C Properly naming a type of stress can facilitate its treatment process.
D The real name of a particular form of stress could denounce a number of people.
E Toxic stress can cause the next generations to suffer from negative consequences
on both mental and physical health problems.

23 Megan Gunnar B
24 Jenny Anderson A
25 John Devaney D
26 Nadine Burke Harris C
READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40 which are based on
Reading Passage 3 below

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–O, in boxes 27-33 on your answer sheet.

For more than 2000 years people have wondered why raising the
 P
27 _________ of cold water before cooling it results in more rapid cooling. At first
H
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
F
_________ indicated that this was inaccurate. Evaporation of water proved not to be
G
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_________
N , the water will continue to circulate and to cool down.
J
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 F. Surface K. Limit

B. Element G. Factor L. Significance
C. Process H. Hollow M. Theory
D. Centre I. Matter N. Difference
E. Acceleration J. Circulation O. Result
P. Temperature

Questions 34-39
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage ?
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. T
35. Osborne and Mpemba’s results are still widely accepted today. F
36. The size of the container does not alter the Mpemba Effect. F
37. Osborne and Mpemba experimented on both pure and impure water. NG
38. One variable is the timing of containers in a freezer. T
39. Physicists now agree that supercooling accounts for the Mpemba Effect. F

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