Passage 1

SECTION 1
READING PASSAGE 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on Reading
Passage 1 below.
Section A A decibel Hell:
It’s not difficult for a person to encounter sound at levels that can cause adverse health
effects. During a single day, people living in a typical urban environment can experience
a wide range of sounds in many locations, even once-quiet locales have become
polluted with noise. In fact, it’s difficult today to escape sound completely. In its 1999
Guidelines for Community Noise, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared,
“Worldwide, noise-induced hearing impairment is the most prevalent irreversible
occupational hazard, and it is estimated that 120 million people worldwide have
disabling hearing difficulties.” Growing evidence also points to many other health
effects of too much volume.
Mark Stephenson, a Cincinnati, Ohio-based senior research audiologist at the National
Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), says his agency’s definition of
hazardous noise is sound that exceeds the time-weighted average of 85 dBA, meaning
the average noise exposure measured over a typical eight-hour work day. Other
measures and definitions are used for other purposes.
Section B Growing Volume
In the United States, about 30 million workers are exposed to hazardous sound levels on
the job, according to NIOSH. Industries having a high number of workers exposed to
loud sounds include construction, agriculture, mining, manufacturing, utilities,
transportation, and the military.
Noise in U.S. industry is an extremely difficult problem to monitor, acknowledges Craig
Moulton, a senior industrial hygienist for the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA). “Still,” he says, “OSHA does require that any employer with
workers overexposed to noise provide protection for those employees against the
harmful effects of noise. Additionally, employers must implement a continuing, effective
hearing conservation program as outlined in OSHA’s Noise Standard.”
Section C Scary Sound Effects
Numerous scientific studies over the years have confirmed that exposure to certain
levels of sound can damage hearing. Prolonged exposure can actually change the

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structure of the hair cells in the inner ear, resulting in hearing loss. It can also cause
tinnitus, a ringing, roaring, buzzing, or clicking in the ears.
NIOSH studies from the mid to late 1990s show that 90% of coal miners have hearing
impairment by age 52 – compared to 9% of the general population – and 70% of male
metal/nonmetal miners will experience hearing impairment by age 60 (Stephenson
notes that from adolescence onward, females tend to have better hearing than males).
Neitzel says nearly half of all construction workers have some degree of hearing loss.
“NIOSH research also reveals that by age twenty-five, the average carpenter’s hearing is
equivalent to an otherwise healthy fifty-year-old male who hasn’t been exposed to
noise,” he says.
William Luxford, medical director of the House Ear Clinic of St. Vincent Medical Center in
Los Angeles, points out one piece of good news: “It’s true that continuous noise
exposure will lead to the continuation of hearing loss, but as soon as the exposure is
stopped, the hearing loss stops. So a change in environment can improve a person’s
hearing health.”
Research is catching up with this anecdotal evidence. In the July 2001 issue of Pediatrics,
researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that, based
on audiometric testing of 5,249 children as part of the Third National Health and
Nutrition, Examination Survey, an estimated 12.5% of American children have noise-
induced hearing threshold shifts – or dulled hearing – in one or both ears. Most children
with noise-induced hearing threshold shifts have only limited hearing damage, but
continued exposure to excessive noise can lead to difficulties with high-frequency sound
discrimination. The report listed stereos, music concerts, toys (such as toy telephones
and certain rattles), lawn mowers, and fireworks as producing potentially harmful
sounds.
Section D Beyond the Ears
The effects of sound don’t stop with the ears. Nonauditory effects of noise exposure are
those effects that don’t cause hearing loss but still can be measured, such as elevated
blood pressure, loss of sleep, increased heart rate, cardiovascular constriction, labored
breathing, and changes in brain chemistry.
The nonauditory effects of noise were noted as early as 1930 in a study published by E.L.
Smith and D.L. Laird in volume 2 of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. The
results showed that exposure to noise caused stomach contractions in healthy human
beings. Reports on noise’s nonauditory effects published since that pioneering study
have been both contradictory and controversial in some areas.
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Passage 1

Bronzaft and the school principal persuaded the school board to have acoustical tile
installed in the classrooms adjacent to the tracks. The Transit Authority also treated the
tracks near the school to make them less noisy. A follow-up study published in the
September 1981 issue of the Journal of Environmental Psychology found that children’s
reading scores improved after these interventions were put in place.
Section E Fighting for Quiet
Anti-noise activists say that Europe and several countries in Asia are more advanced
than the United States in terms of combating noise. “Population pressure has prompted
Europe to move more quickly on the noise issue that the United States has,” Hume says.
In the European Union, countries with cities of at least 250,000 people are creating
noise maps of those cities to help leaders determine noise pollution policies. Paris has
already prepared its first noise maps. The map data, which must be finished by 2007,
will be fed into computer models that will help test the sound impact of street designs
or new buildings before construction begins.
Activists in other countries say they too want the United States to play a more leading
role on the noise issue. But as in other areas of environmental health, merely having a
more powerful government agency in place that can set more regulations is not the
ultimate answer, according to other experts. Bronzaft stresses that governments
worldwide need to increase funding for noise research and do a better job coordinating
their noise pollution efforts so they can establish health and environmental policies
based on solid scientific research. “Governments have a responsibility to protect their
citizens by curbing noise pollution,” she says.

Questions 1-5
Complete the summary below
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.

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Passage 1

Nowadays it seems difficult for people to avoid the effects of living in a noisy world.
Noise is the sound beyond average of 1……………………… referring to the agency’s
definition. Scientific studies over the years from the mid to late 1990s have confirmed
that exposure to certain levels of sound can cause damage 2 ……………………… on certain
senior age.
From the testing of 5,249 children, those who are constantly exposed to excessive noise
may have trouble in 3……………………….. sound discrimination. The effects of sound don’t
stop with the ears, exposure to noise may lead to unease of 4……………………….. in healthy
people. Europe has taken steps on the noise issue, big cities of over 250,000 people are
creating 5……………………….. to help creating noise pollution policies.

Questions 6-10
Look at the following researchers and the list of findings below. Match each researcher
with the correct finding.
Write the correct letter in boxes 6-10 on your answer sheet.
List of people or organisations
A WHO
B William Luxford (the House Ear Clinic),
C Carig Moulton (OSHA)
D Arline Bronzaft
E Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

6 People can change the environment to improve hearing health.

7 Government should continue the research on anti-noise researches with fund.
8 companies should be required to protect the employees to avoid noise
9 Noise has posed effect on American children children’s hearing ability
10 noise has seriously affected human being where they live worldwide

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Passage 1

Questions 11-13
Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D
Write your answers in boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet.

11 The board of schools built close to the tracks are convinced to

A moved the classrooms away from the noisy track
B regulated the track usage to a less extent
C utilised a special material into classroom buildings lessening the effect of
outside noise
D organised a team for a follow-up study

12 In the European countries, the big cities’ research on noise focuses on

A How to record pollution details of the city on maps
B the impact of noise on population shift in the European cities
C how wide can a city be to avoid noise pollution
D helping the authorities better make a decision on management of the city

13 What is the best title of paragraph 1?

A How people cope with noise pollutions
B the fight against the noise with the powerful technology
C The Effects of Living in a Noisy World
D The Effects of noise on children’s learning

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Passage 2 TV Addiction 1

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

TV Addiction 1
A
The amount of time people spend watching television is astonishing. On average,
individuals in the industrialized world devote three hours a day to the pursuit – fully half
of their leisure time, and more than on any single activity save work and sleep. At this
rate, someone who lives to 75 would spend nine years in front of the tube. To some
commentators, this devotion means simply that people enjoy TV and make a conscious
decision to watch it. But if that is the whole story, why do so many people experience
misgivings about how much they view? In Gallup polls in 1992 and 1999, two out of five
adult respondents and seven out of 10 teenagers said they spent too much time
watching TV. Other surveys have consistently shown that roughly 10 percent of adults
call themselves TV addicts.
B
To study people’s reactions to TV, researchers have undertaken laboratory experiments
in which they have monitored the brain waves (using an electroencephalograph, or EEG)
to track behavior and emotion in the normal course of life, as opposed to the artificial
conditions of the lab. Participants carried a beeper, and we signaled them six to eight
times a day, at random, over the period of a week; whenever they heard the beep, they
wrote down what they were doing and how they were feeling using a standardized
scorecard.
C
As one might expect, people who were watching TV when we beeped them reported
feeling relaxed and passive. The EEG studies similarly show less mental stimulation, as
measured by alpha brain-wave production, during viewing than during reading. What is
more surprising is that the sense of relaxation ends when the set is turned off, but the
feelings of passivity and lowered alertness continue. Survey participants say they have
more difficulty concentrating after viewing than before. In contrast, they rarely indicate
such difficulty after reading. After playing sports or engaging in hobbies, people report
improvements in mood. After watching TV, people’s moods are about the same or

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Passage 2 TV Addiction 1

worse than before. That may be because viewers’ vague learned sense that they will
feel less relaxed if they stop viewing. So they tend not to turn the set off. Viewing begets
more viewing which is the same as the experience of habit-forming drugs. Thus, the
irony of TV: people watch a great deal longer than they plan to, even though prolonged
viewing is less rewarding. In our ESM studies the longer people sat in front of the set,
the less satisfaction they said they derived from it. For some, a twinge of unease or guilt
that they aren’t doing something more productive may also accompany and depreciate
the enjoyment of prolonged viewing. Researchers in Japan, the U.K. and the U.S. have
found that this guilt occurs much more among middle-class viewers than among less
affluent ones.
D
What is it about TV that has such a hold on us? In part, the attraction seems to spring
from our biological ‘orienting response.’ First described by Ivan Pavlov in 1927, the
orienting response is our instinctive visual or auditory reaction to any sudden or novel
stimulus. It is part of our evolutionary heritage, a built-in sensitivity to movement and
potential predatory threats. In 1986 Byron Reeves of Stanford University, Esther
Thorson of the University of Missouri and their colleagues began to study whether the
simple formal features of television – cuts, edits, zooms, pans, sudden noises – activate
the orienting response, thereby keeping attention on the screen. By watching how brain
waves were affected by formal features, the researchers concluded that these stylistic
tricks can indeed trigger involuntary responses and ‘derive their attentional value
through the evolutionary significance of detecting movement… It is the form, not the
content, of television that is unique.’
E
The natural attraction to television’s sound and light starts very early in life. Dafna
Lemish of Tel Aviv University has described babies at six to eight weeks attending to
television. We have observed slightly older infants who, when lying on their backs on
the floor, crane their necks around 180 degrees to catch what light through yonder
window breaks. This inclination suggests how deeply rooted the orienting response is.
F
The Experience Sampling Method permitted us to look closely at most every domain of
everyday life: working, eating, reading, talking to friends, playing a sport, and so on. We
found that heavy viewers report feeling significantly more anxious and less happy than
light viewers do in unstructured situations, such as doing nothing, daydreaming or
waiting in line. The difference widens when the viewer is alone. Subsequently, Robert D.
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Passage 2 TV Addiction 1

McIlwraith of the University of Manitoba extensively studies those who called

themselves TV addicts on surveys. On a measure called the Short Imaginal Processes
Inventory (SIPI), he found that the self described addicts are more easily bored and
distracted and have poorer attentional control than the non-addicts. The addicts said
they used TV to distract themselves from unpleasant thoughts and to fill time. Other
studies over the years have shown that heavy viewers are less likely to participate in
community activities and sports and are more likely to be obese than moderate viewers
or non-viewers.
G
More than 25 years ago psychologist Tannis M. MacBeth Williams of the University of
British Columbia studied a mountain community that had no television until cable finally
arrived. Over time, both adults and children in the town became less creative in
problem solving, less able to persevere at tasks, and less tolerant of unstructured time.
H
Nearly 40 years ago Gary A. Steiner of the University of Chicago collected fascinating
individual accounts of families whose set had broken. In experiments, families have
volunteered or been paid to stop viewing, typically for a week or a month. Some fought,
verbally and physically. In a review of these could-turkey studies, Charles Winick of the
City University of New York concluded: ‘The first three or four days for most persons
were the worst, even in many homes where viewing was minimal and where there were
other ongoing activities. In over half of all the households, during these first few days of
loss, the regular routines were disrupted, family members had difficulties in dealing with
the newly available time, anxiety and aggressions were expressed…. By the second
week, a move toward adaptation to the situation was common.’ Unfortunately,
researchers have yet to flesh out these anecdotes; no one has systematically gathered
statistics on the prevalence of these withdrawal symptoms.
I
Even though TV does seem to meet the criteria for substance dependence, not all
researchers would go so far as to call TV addictive. McIlwraith said in 1988 that
‘displacement of other activities by television may be socially significant but still fall
short of the clinical requirement of significant impairment.’ He argued that a new
category of ‘TV addiction’ may not be necessary if heavy viewing stems from conditions
such as depression and social phobia. Nevertheless, whether or not we formally
diagnose someone as TV-dependent, millions of people sense that they cannot readily
control the amount of television they watch.
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Passage 2 TV Addiction 1

Questions 14-18
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 2?
In boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE if the statement is true
FALSE if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage

14 Study shows that males are more likely to be addicted to TV than females.
15 Greater improvements in mood are experienced after watching TV than playing
sports.
16 TV addiction works in similar ways as drugs.
17 It is reported that people’s satisfaction is in proportion to the time they spend
watching TV.
18 Middle-class viewers are more likely to feel guilty about watching TV than the poor.

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Passage 2 TV Addiction 1

Questions 19-23
Look at the following researchers (Questions 19-23) and the list of statements below.
Match each researcher with the correct statements.
Write the correct letter A-H in boxes 19-23 on your answer sheets.
19 Byron Reeves and Esther Thorson
20 Dafna Lemish
21 Robert D. McIlwraith
22 Tannis M. MacBeth Williams
23 Charles Winick
List of Statements
A Audiences would get hypnotized from viewing too much television.
B People have been sensitive to the TV signals since a younger age.
C People are less likely to accomplish their work with television.
D A handful of studies have attempted to study other types of media addiction.
E The addictive power of television could probably minimize the problems.
F Various media formal characters stimulate people’s reaction on the screen.
G People who believe themselves to be TV addicts are less likely to join in the
group activities.
H It is hard for people to accept the life without TV at the beginning.

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Passage 2 TV Addiction 1

Questions 24-26
Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes 24-26 on your answer sheet.
24 People in the industrialized world
A devote ten hours watching TV on average
B spend more time on TV than other entertainment
C call themselves TV addicts.
D enjoy working best.

25 When compared with light viewers, heavy viewers

A like playing sport more than reading.
B feel relaxed after watching TV.
C spend more time in daydreaming.
D are more easily bored while waiting in line.

26 Which of the following statements is true about the family experiment?

A Not all subjects participate in the experiment for free.
B There has been a complete gathered data.
C People are prevented from other activities during the experiment.
D People can not adapt to the situation until the end.

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Passage 3 Communication in science

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

Communication in science
A
Science plays an increasingly significant role in people’s lives, making the faithful
communication of scientific developments more important than ever. Yet such
communication is fraught with challenges that can easily distort discussions, leading to
unnecessary confusion and misunderstandings.
B
Some problems stem from the esoteric nature of current research and the associated
difficulty of finding sufficiently faithful terminology. Abstraction and complexity are not
signs that a given scientific direction is wrong, as some commentators have suggested,
but are instead a tribute to the success of human ingenuity in meeting the increasingly
complex challenges that nature presents. They can, however, make communication
more difficult. But many of the biggest challenges for science reporting arise because in
areas of evolving research, scientists themselves often only partly understand the full
implications of any particular advance or development. Since that dynamic applies to
most of the scientific developments that directly affect people’s lives global warming,
cancer research, diet studies – learning how to overcome it is critical to spurring a more
informed scientific debate among the broader public.
C
Ambiguous word choices are the source of some misunderstandings. Scientists often
employ colloquial terminology, which they then assign a specific meaning that is
impossible to fathom without proper training. The term “relativity,” for example, is
intrinsically misleading. Many interpret the theory to mean that everything is relative
and there are no absolutes. Yet although the measurements any observer makes
depend on his coordinates and reference frame, the physical phenomena he measures
have an invariant description that transcends that observer’s particular coordinates.
Einstein’s theory of relativity is really about finding an invariant description of physical
phenomena. True, Einstein agreed with the idea that his theory would have been better

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Passage 3 Communication in science

named “Invarianten theorie.” But the term “relativity” was already entrenched at the
time for him to change.
D
“The uncertainty principle” is another frequently abused term. It is sometimes
interpreted as a limitation on observers and their ability to make measurements.
E
But it is not about intrinsic limitations on any one particular measurement; it is about
the inability to precisely measure particular pairs of quantities simultaneously? The first
interpretation is perhaps more engaging from a philosophical or political perspective.
It’s just not what the science is about.
F
Even the word “theory” can be a problem. Unlike most people, who use the word to
describe a passing conjecture that they often regard as suspect, physicists have very
specific ideas in mind when they talk about theories. For physicists, theories entail a
definite physical framework embodied in a set of fundamental assumptions about the
world that lead to a specific set of equations and predictions – ones that are borne out
by successful predictions. Theories aren’t necessarily shown to be correct or complete
immediately. Even Einstein took the better part of a decade to develop the correct
version of his theory of general relativity. But eventually both the ideas and the
measurements settle down and theories are either proven correct, abandoned or
absorbed into other, more encompassing theories.
G
“Global warming” is another example of problematic terminology. Climatologists predict
more drastic fluctuations in temperature and rainfall – not necessarily that every place
will be warmer. The name sometimes subverts the debate, since it lets people argue
that their winter was worse, so how could there be global warming? Clearly “global
climate change” would have been a better name. But not all problems stem solely from
poor word choices. Some stem from the intrinsically complex nature of much of modern
science. Science sometimes transcends this limitation: remarkably, chemists were able
to detail the precise chemical processes involved in the destruction of the ozone layer,
making the evidence that chlorofluorocarbon gases (Freon, for example) were
destroying the ozone layer indisputable.

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Passage 3 Communication in science

H
A better understanding of the mathematical significance of results and less insistence on
a simple story would help to clarify many scientific discussions. For several months,
Harvard was tortured months, Harvard was tortured by empty debates over the relative
intrinsic scientific abilities of men and women. One of the more amusing aspects of the
discussion was that those who believed in the differences and those who didn’t used
the same evidence about gender-specific special ability? How could that be? The answer
is that the data shows no substantial effects. Social factors might account for these tiny
differences, which in any case have an unclear connection to scientific ability. Not much
of a headline when phrased that way, is it? Each type of science has its own source of
complexity and potential for miscommunication. Yet there are steps we can take to
improve public understanding in all cases. The first would be to inculcate greater
understanding and acceptance of indirect scientific evidence. The information from an
unmanned space mission is no less legitimate than the information from one in which
people are on board.
I
This doesn’t mean never questioning an interpretation, but it also doesn’t mean
equating indirect evidence with blind belief, as people sometimes suggest. Second, we
might need different standards for evaluating science with urgent policy implications
than research with purely theoretical value. When scientists say they are not certain
about their predictions, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve found nothing substantial. It
would be better if scientists were more open about the mathematical significance of
their results and if the public didn’t treat math as quite so scary; statistics and errors,
which tell us the uncertainty in a measurement, give us the tools to evaluate new
developments fairly.
J
But most important, people have to recognize that science can be complex. If we accept
only simple stories, the description will necessarily be distorted. When advances are
subtle or complicated, scientists should be willing to go the extra distance to give proper
explanations and the public should be more patient about the truth. Even so, some
difficulties are unavoidable. Most developments reflect work in progress, so the story is
complex because no one yet knows the big picture.

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Passage 3 Communication in science

Questions 27-31
Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D.
Write your answers in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet.

27 Why the faithful science communication important?

A Science plays an increasingly significant role in people’s lives.
B Science is fraught with challenges public are interested in.
C The nature of complexity in science communication leads to confusion.
D Scientific inventions are more important than ever before.

28 what is the reason that the author believe for the biggest challenges for science
reporting
A phenomenon such as global warming, cancer research, diet studies are too
complex.
B Scientists themselves often only partly understand the Theory of Evolution
C Scientists do not totally comprehend the meaning of certain scientific
evolution
D Scientists themselves often partly understand the esoteric communication
nature

29 According to 3rd paragraph, the reference to the term and example of “theory of
relativity” is to demonstrate
A theory of relativity is about an invariant physical phenomenon
B common people may be misled by the inaccurate choice of scientific phrase
C the term “relativity,” is designed to be misleading public
D everything is relative and there is no absolutes existence

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Passage 3 Communication in science

30 Which one is a good example of appropriate word choice:

A Scientific theory for uncertainty principle
B phenomenon of Global warming
C the importance of ozone layer
D Freon’s destructive process on environmental

31 What is surprising finding of the Harvard debates in the passage?

A There are equal intrinsic scientific abilities of men and women.
B The proof applied by both sides seemed to be of no big difference.
C The scientific data usually shows no substantial figures to support a debated
idea.
D Social factors might have a clear connection to scientific ability.

Questions 32-35
Do the following statement agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?
In boxes 32-35 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE if the statement is true
FALSE if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage

32 “Global warming” scientifically refers to greater fluctuations in temperature and

rainfall rather than a universal temperature rise.
33 More media coverage of “global warming” would help public to recognize the
phenomenon.
34 Harvard debates should focus more on female scientist and male scientists
35 Public understanding and acceptance of indirect scientific evidence in all cases
would lead to confusion

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Passage 3 Communication in science

Questions 36-40
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 36-40 on your answer sheet.

Science Communication is fraught with challenges that can easily distort discussions,
leading to unnecessary confusion and misunderstandings. Firstly, Ambiguous
36…………………… are the source of some misunderstandings. Common people without
proper training do not understand clearly or deeply a specific scientific meaning via the
37 …………………. scientists often employed. Besides, the measurements any
38…………………… makes can not be confined to describe in a(n) constant
39…………………….. yet the phenomenon can be. What’s more, even the word “theory”
can be a problem. Theories aren’t necessarily shown to be correct or complete
immediately since scientists often evolved better versions of specific theories, a good
example can be the theory of 40 ……………………. Thus, most importantly people have to
recognize that science can be complex.