Listening to the Ocean

A. The oceans of Earth cover more than 70 percent of the planet’s surface, yet,
until quite recently, we knew less about their depths than we did about the surface
of the Moon. Distant as it is, the Moon has been far more accessible to study
because astronomers long have been able to look at its surface, first with the naked
eye and then with the telescope-both instruments that focus light. And, with
telescopes tuned to different wavelengths of light, modem astronomers can not
only analyze Earth’s atmosphere, but also determine the temperature and
composition of the Sun or other stars many hundreds of light-years away. Until the

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twentieth century, however, no analogous instruments were available for the study

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of Earth’s oceans: Light, which can travel trillions of miles through the vast
vacuum of space, cannot penetrate very far in seawater.

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B. Curious investigators long have been fascinated by sound and the way it travels

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in water. As early as 1490, Leonardo da Vinci observed: “If you cause your ship to
stop and place the head of a long tube in the water and place the outer extremity to
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your ear, you will hear ships at a great distance from you.” In 1687, the first
mathematical theory of sound propagation was published by Sir Isaac Newton in
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his Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, Investigators were measuring
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the speed of sound in air beginning in the mid-seventeenth century, but it was not
until 1826 that Daniel Colladon, a Swiss physicist, and Charles Sturm, a French
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mathematician, accurately measured its speed in water. Using a long tube to listen
underwater (as da Vinci had suggested), they recorded how fast the sound of a
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submerged bell traveled across Lake Geneva. Their result-1,435 meters (1,569
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yards) per second in water of 1.8 degrees Celsius (35 degrees Fahrenheit)- was
only 3 meters per second off from the speed accepted today. What these
investigators demonstrated was that water – whether fresh or salt- is an excellent
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medium for sound, transmitting it almost five times faster than its speed in air
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C. In 1877 and 1878，the British scientist John William Strutt, third Baron
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Rayleigh, published his two-volume seminal work, The Theory of Sound, often
regarded as marking the beginning of the modem study of acoustics. The recipient
of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1904 for his successful isolation of the element
argon, Lord Rayleigh made key discoveries in the fields of acoustics and optics
that are critical to the theory of wave propagation in fluids. Among other things,
Lord Rayleigh was the first to describe a sound wave as a mathematical equation
(the basis of all theoretical work on acoustics) and the first to describe how small
particles in the atmosphere scatter certain wavelengths of sunlight, a principle that
also applies to the behavior of sound waves in water.
 D. A number of factors influence how far sound travels underwater and how long
it lasts. For one, particles in seawater can reflect, scatter, and absorb certain
frequencies of sound – just as certain wavelengths of light may be reflected,
scattered, and absorbed by specific types of particles in the atmosphere. Seawater
absorbs 30 times the amount of sound absorbed by distilled water, with specific
chemicals (such as magnesium sulfate and boric acid) damping out certain
frequencies of sound. Researchers also learned that low-frequency sounds, whose
long wavelengths generally pass over tiny particles, tend to travel farther without
loss through absorption or scattering. Further work on the effects of salinity,

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temperature, and pressure on the speed of sound has yielded fascinating insights

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into the structure of the ocean. Speaking generally, the ocean is divided into
horizontal layers in which sound speed is influenced more greatly by temperature

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in the upper regions and by pressure in the lower depths. At the surface is a sun-
warmed upper layer, the actual temperature and thickness of which varies with the

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season. At mid-latitudes, this layer tends to be isothermal, that is， the temperature
tends to be uniform throughout the layer because the water is well mixed by the
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action of waves, winds, and convection currents; a sound signal moving down
through this layer tends to travel at an almost constant speed. Next comes a
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transitional layer called the thermocline, in which temperature drops steadily with
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depth; as the temperature falls, so does the speed of sound.

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E. The U.S. Navy was quick to appreciate the usefulness of low-frequency sound
and the deep sound channel in extending the range at which it could detect
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submarines. In great secrecy during the 1950s，the U.S. Navy launched a project
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that went by the code name Jezebel; it would later come to be known as the Sound
Surveillance System (SOSUS). The system involved arrays of underwater
microphones, called hydrophones, that were placed on the ocean bottom and
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connected by cables to onshore processing centers. With SOSUS deployed in both

deep and shallow waters along both coasts of North America and the British West
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Indies, the U.S. Navy not only could detect submarines in much of the northern
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hemisphere, it also could distinguish how many propellers a submarine had,

whether it was conventional or nuclear, and sometimes even the class of sub.
F. The realization that SOSUS could be used to listen to whales also was made by
Christopher Clark, a biological acoustician at Cornell University, when he first
visited a SOSUS station in 1992. When Clark looked at the graphic representations
of sound, scrolling 24 hours day, every day, he saw the voice patterns of blue,
finback, minke, and humpback whales. He also could hear the sounds. Using a
SOSUS receiver in the West Indies, he could hear whales that were 1,770
kilometers (1,100 miles) away. Whales are the biggest of Earth’s creatures. The
blue whale, for example, can be 100 feet long and weigh as many tons. Yet these
animals also are remarkably elusive. Scientists wish to observe blue time and
position them on a map. Moreover, they can track not just one whale at a time, but
many creatures simultaneously throughout the North Atlantic and the eastern North
Pacific. They also can learn to distinguish whale calls. For example, Fox and
colleagues have detected changes in the calls of finback whales during different
seasons and have found that blue whales in different regions of the Pacific ocean
have different calls. Whales firsthand must wait in their ships for the whales to
surface. A few whales have been tracked briefly in the wild this way but not for
very great distances, and much about them remains unknown. Using the SOSUS
stations, scientists can track the whales in real time and position them on a map.

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Moreover, they can track not just one whale at a time, but many creatures

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simultaneously throughout the North Atlantic and the eastern North Pacific. They
also can learn to distinguish whale calls. For example, Fox and colleagues have

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detected changes in the calls of finback whales during different seasons and have
found that blue whales in different regions of the Pacific Ocean have different

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calls.
G. SOSUS, with its vast reach, also has proved instrumental in obtaining
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information crucial to our understanding of Earth’s weather and climate.
Specifically, the system has enabled researchers to begin making ocean
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temperature measurements on a global scale – measurements that are keys to

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puzzling out the workings of heat transfer between the ocean and the atmosphere.
The ocean plays an enormous role in determining air temperature the heat capacity
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in only the upper few meters of ocean is thought to be equal to all of the heat in the
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entire atmosphere. For sound waves traveling horizontally in the ocean, speed is
largely a function of temperature. Thus, the travel time of a wave of sound between
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two points is a sensitive indicator of the average temperature along its path.
Transmitting sound in numerous directions through the deep sound channel can
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give scientists measurements spanning vast areas of the globe. Thousands of sound
paths in the ocean could be pieced together into a map of global ocean
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temperatures and, by repeating measurements along the same paths overtimes,

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scientists could track changes in temperature over months or years.

H. Researchers also are using other acoustic techniques to monitor climate.

Oceanographer Jeff Nystuen at the University of Washington, for example, has
explored the use of sound to measure rainfall over the ocean. Monitoring changing
global rainfall patterns undoubtedly will contribute to understanding major climate
change as well as the weather phenomenon known as El Nino. Since 1985,
Nystuen has used hydrophones to listen to rain over the ocean, acoustically
measuring not only the rainfall rate but also the rainfall type, from drizzle to
thunderstorms. By using the sound of rain underwater as a “natural” rain gauge, the
measurement of rainfall over the oceans will become available to climatologists.
Questions 1-4

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

In boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage

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1. In the past, difficulties of research carried out on Moon were much easier than

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that of now.
2. The same light technology used in the investigation of the moon can be

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employed in the field of the ocean.
3. Research on the depth of ocean by the method of the sound-wave is more time-

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consuming.
4. Hydrophones technology is able to detect the category of precipitation.
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Questions 5-8
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The reading Passage has seven paragraphs A-H.

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Which paragraph contains the following information?

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Write the correct letter A-H, in boxes 5-8 on your answer sheet.
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NB You may use any letter more than once

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5. Elements affect sound transmission in the ocean.

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6. Relationship between global climate and ocean temperature

7. Examples of how sound technology help people research ocean and creatures in
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8. Sound transmission underwater is similar to that of light in any condition.

Questions 9-13

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

Write your answers in boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet.

9. Who of the followings is dedicated to the research of rate of sound?

 A. Leonardo da Vinci
B. Isaac Newton
C. John William Strutt
D. Charles Sturm

10. Who explained that the theory of light or sound wavelength is significant in
water?

A. Lord Rayleigh
B. John William Strutt

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C. Charles Sturm

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D. Christopher Clark

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11. According to Fox and colleagues, in what pattern does the change of finback
whale calls happen

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A. Change in various seasons
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B. Change in various days
C. Change in different months
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D. Change in different years
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12. In which way does the SOSUS technology inspect whales?

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A. Track all kinds of whales in the ocean

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B. Track bunches of whales at the same time

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C. Track only finback whale in the ocean

D. Track whales by using multiple appliances or devices
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13. what could scientists inspect via monitoring along a repeated route?
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A. Temperature of the surface passed

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B. Temperature of the deepest ocean floor

C. Variation of temperature
D. Fixed data of temperature
Reading Passage 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which are
based on Reading Passage 2

The beginning of the consumer age

How the public became mass consumers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries

A. By 1900 all major industralised countries had become aware of the

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importance not only of production, but also of the consumption of goods by

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their citizens. As a result, a culture of consumption emerged, and this played
an important role in the shaping of a country’s social and economic identity.

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One feature of this new culture was a heightened awareness of social status
and a strong desire at all levels to show off newly acquired wealth. New
aspirations were expressed most visibly through the acquisition of consumer

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goods, and the concept of style became increasingly significant as a measure
of social status.
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B. One of the ways in which manufacturers tried to encourage consumption
was by identifying a particular market and deliberately making their goods
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look attractive to potential customers. However, the dissemination of goods
to a mass market depended on more than the efforts of manufacturers and
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designers to inject style into products. It also required a whole network of

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activities and institutions. These included changes in production methods so

that more goods could be manufactured; the development of new kinds of
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retail outlets; and the expansion of advertising to promote sales. The

introduction of a credit system of buying, initiated by the Singer Sewing
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Machine Company in the US in the 1860s and later adopted elsewhere by

furniture and electrical appliance manufacturers. also went a long way
towards making more goods available to more people.
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C. There were also changes to the selling environment. The department stores
established in the second half of the 19th century – Bon Marche in Paris,
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Macy’s in New York. Harvey Nichols in London were joined, about the turn
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of the century, by multi-branch retailers appealing to the lower end of the

market, such as John Jacob’s furniture stores in England. In US department
stores, interior areas expanded and large shop windows were introduced to
show off new products to their best advantage. Electric lighting increased
their visual appeal. This idea was pioneered in 1877 by the US store-owner
John Wanamaker, who persuaded inventor Thomas Edison to install
electricity in his Philadelphia department store.
 D. In the United States where there were large distances between urban centres,
mail order became a vital means whereby the rural population could acquire
goods that they would not otherwise have been able to buy. Chicago
entrepreneur Montgomery Ward launched the concept producing a single-
sheet mail-order catalogue in 1872. Three years later, his catalogue had
nearly four thousand items listed on it. Businessman Richard Sears followed
suit in 1891, and together with partner Alvah C.Roebuck, moved on to
develop the largest mail-order company of 20th the century.
E. By the end of the 19th century, consumer culture had taken root in
industrialized countries and was changing the way people lived and
perceived their own status. People were becoming increasingly conscious of

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their own status, which was expressed through the acquisition of consumer

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goods and the concept of style. In response, manufacturers began to create
goods that were more appealing to the public and retailers expanded their

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advertising and sales efforts.
F. Retail stores adapted to meet the demands of consumers, with large

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department stores opening in major cities and multi-branch retailers
appealing to the lower end of the market. The selling environment was
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changed with large shop windows, electric lighting, and the expansion of
interior areas to showcase goods. Additionally, mail-order catalogs became
popular in the United States as a way for rural populations to access goods
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they wouldn’t otherwise have access to. These developments helped to drive
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the growth of consumer culture and the associated economy.

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Question 14-19:
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Match the headings

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i The emergence of consumer culture and its impact on social and economic
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culture
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ii The strategies adopted by manufacturers to promote consumption

iii The expansion of retail networks to meet market demands
iv The innovations in the selling environment to enhance product presentation
v The significance of mail order in bridging the rural-urban divide
vi The interplay of social aspirations, consumer goods, and style in shaping
consumer culture
vii The proliferation of credit systems and its impact on widespread availability of
goods
viii The development of large department stores and multi-branch retailers to cater
to a wider market
ix The underlying drivers behind the growth of consumer culture and its economy

Questions 20-24:
Complete the sentences below:
Choose one word only from the passage for each answer.

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20. By 1900, all industrialized countries were aware of the importance of both

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and consumption.
21. The culture of consumption played a crucial role in shaping a country’s

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and economic identity.
22. People expressed their newly acquired wealth through the acquisition of

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goods. _a
23. The dissemination of goods to a mass market required a network of activities
and .
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24. John Wanamaker was the first to use in his department store to increase
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the visual appeal of goods.

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Questions 25 and 26:

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Choose TWO letters A-E

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Which of the following played a role in the development of consumer culture in

industrialized countries?
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A) The Singer Sewing Machine Company

B) The department stores established in the second half of the 19th century
C) The large distances between urban centers
D) The expansion of interior areas in retail stores
E) The four thousand items listed in a mail-order catalog
 Digital diet
{A} Telecommuting, Internet shopping and online meetings may save
energy as compared with in-person alternatives, but as the digital age
moves on, its green reputation is turning a lot browner. E-mailing,
number crunching and Web searches in the U.S. consumed as much as
61 billion kilowatt-hours last year, or 1.5 per cent of the nation’s
electricity-half of which comes from coal. In 2005 the computers of the
world ate up 123 billion kilowatt-hours of energy, a number that will

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double by 2010 if present trends continue, according to Jonathan

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Koomey, a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. As

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a result, the power bill to run a computer over its lifetime will surpass
the cost of buying the machine in the first place giving Internet and

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computer companies a business reason to cut energy costs, as well as an
environmental one.
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{B} One of the biggest energy sinks comes not from the computers
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themselves but from the air-conditioning needed to keep them from

overheating. For every kilowatt-hour of energy used for computing in a
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data centre, another kilowatt-hour is required to cool the furnace-like

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racks of servers.
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{C} For Internet giant Google, this reality has driven efforts such as the
installation of a solar array that can provide 30 per cent of the peak
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power needs of its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters as well as

increased purchases of renewable energy. But to deliver Web pages
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within seconds, the firm must maintain hundreds of thousands of

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computer servers in cavernous buildings. “It’s a good thing to worry

about server energy efficiency,” remarks Google’s green energy czar
Bill Weihl. “We are actively working to maximize the efficiency of our
data centres, which account for most of the energy Google consumes
worldwide.” Google will funnel some of its profits into a new effort,
dubbed RE<C (for renewable energy cheaper than coal, as Google
translates it) to make sources such as solar-thermal, high-altitude wind
and geothermal cheaper than coal “within years, not decades, according
to Weihl.
{D} In the meantime, the industry as a whole has employed a few tricks
to save watts. Efforts include cutting down on the number of
transformations the electricity itself must undergo before achieving the
correct operating voltage; rearranging the stacks of servers and the
mechanics of their cooling; and using software to create multiple
“virtual” computers, rather than having to deploy several real ones. Such

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virtualization has allowed computer maker Hewlett-Packard to

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consolidate 86 data centers spread throughout the world to just three,
with three backups, says Pat Tiernan, the firm’s vice president of social

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and environmental responsibility.

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{E} The industry is also tackling the energy issue at the computer-chip
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level. With every doubling of processing power in recent years has come
a doubling in power consumption. But to save energy, chipmakers such
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as Intel and AMD have shifted to so-called multicore technology, which

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packs multiple processors into one circuit rather than separating them.
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“When we moved to multicore-away from a linear focus on megahertz

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and gigahertz—and throttled down microprocessors, the energy savings

were pretty substantial,” says Allyson Klein, Intel’s marketing manager
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for its Ecotech Initiative. Chipmakers continue to shrink circuits on the

nanoscale as well, which means a chip needs less electricity” to deliver
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the same performance, she adds.

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{F} With such chips, more personal computers will meet various
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efficiency standards, such as Energy Star compliance (which mandates

that a desktop consume no more than 65 watts). The federal government,
led by agencies such as NASA and the Department of Defense may soon
require all their purchases to meet the Electronic Product Environmental
Assessment Tool standard. And Google, Intel and others have formed
the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, an effort to cut power
consumption from all computers by 50 per cent by
2010.
{G} Sleep modes and other power management tools built into most
operating systems can offer savings today. Yet about 90 per cent of
computers do not have such settings enabled, according to Klein.
Properly activated, they would prevent a computer from leading to the
emission of thousands of kilograms of carbon dioxide from power plants
every year. But if powering down or unplugging the computer (the only
way it uses zero power) is not an option, then perhaps the most
environmentally friendly use of all those wasted computing cycles is in
helping to model climate change. The University of Oxford’s

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ClimatePrediction.net offers an opportunity to at least predict the

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consequences of all that coal burning.

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{H} CO2 Stats is a free tool that can be embedded into any Website to
calculate the carbon dioxide emissions associated with using it. That

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estimate is based on an assumption of 300 watts of power consumed by
the personal computer, network and server involved- or 16.5 milligrams
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of CO2 emitted every second of use. “The typical carbon footprint is
roughly equivalent to 1.5 people breathing,” says physicist Alexander
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Wissner-Gross of Harvard University, who co-created the Web tool.

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Questions 27-32
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Use the information in the passage to match the people (listed A-E)
with opinions or deeds below. Write the appropriate letters A-E in
boxes 27-32 on your answer sheet.
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NB you may use any letter more than once

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(A) Jonathan Koomey

(B) Allyson Klein
(C) Pat Tiernan
(D) Bill Weihl
(E) Alexander Wissner-Gross
27 Figuring ways to optimize the utilization of energy in certain
significant departments in the company
28 A revolutionary improvement in a tiny but quite imperative component
of the computers
29 Targeting at developing alternative sources within the near future
30 An astounding estimate on the energy to be consumed by computers in
a short period based on an unchangeable trend
30 A powerful technique developed for integration of resources

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or
32 A failure for the vast majority of computers to activate the use of some
internal tools already available in them

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Questions 33-36

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Do the following statements agree with the information given in
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Reading Passage? In boxes 7-10 on your answer sheet, write
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True if the statement is true
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False if the statement is false

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NOT GIVEN if there is no information about this in the passage

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33.To chill the server does not take up the considerable amount of
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energy needed for the computer.

34.It seems that the number of servers has a severe impact on the
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speed of the internet connection.

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35.Several companies from other fields have a joint effort

with the internet industry to work on ways to save energy.
 36.Actions taken at a governmental level are to be expected to help
with savings in energy in the near future.

Questions 37-40
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 37-40 on your answer

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sheet.

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The 37. has also been reached to save up energy in every

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possible way and the philosophy behind it lies in the fact that there is a
positive correlation between the ability to process and the need for
energy. In this context, some firms have switched to 38.

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which means several processors are integrated into one single circuit to
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make significant energy savings. What is more, they go on
to 39. on an even more delicate level for the chips to save
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more energy while staying at the constant level in terms of

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the 40. .
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1 True 14 A 1 27 D
2 False 15 B 7 28 B
3 Not given 16 C 4 29 D

4 True 17 D 5 30 A
5 D 18 E 6 31 C
6 G 19 F9 32 B
7 F 20 production 33 False

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8 D 21 social 34 True

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9 D 22 consumer 35 Not given

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1 A 23 institutions 36 True
0

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1 A 24 electricity 37 Computer-chip level
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1 B 25 D or E
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38 So-called multicore technology
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2
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1 C 26 E or D 39 Shrink circuits
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3
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40 Performance
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