READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on Reading
Passage 1 below.
The megafires of California
Drought, housing expansion, and oversupply of tinder make for bigger, hotter fires in
the western United States
Wildfires are becoming an increasing menace in the western United States, with
Southern California being the hardest hit area. There’s a reason fire squads battling
more frequent blazes in Southern California are having such difficulty containing the
flames, despite better preparedness than ever and decades of experience fighting fires
fanned by the ‘Santa Ana Winds’. The wildfires themselves, experts say, are generally
hotter, faster, and spread more erratically than in the past.
Megafires, also called ‘siege fires’, are the increasingly frequent blazes that burn
500,000 acres or more – 10 times the size of the average forest fire of 20 years ago.
Some recent wildfires are among the biggest ever in California in terms of acreage
burned, according to state figures and news reports.
One explanation for the trend to more superhot fires is that the region, which usually
has dry summers, has had significantly below normal precipitation in many recent
years. Another reason, experts say, is related to the century- long policy of the US
Forest Service to stop wildfires as quickly as possible.
The unintentional consequence has been to halt the natural eradication of underbrush,
now the primary fuel for megafires.
Three other factors contribute to the trend, they add. First is climate change, marked
by a 1-degree Fahrenheit rise in average yearly temperature across the western states.
Second is fire seasons that on average are 78 days longer than they were 20 years ago.
Third is increased construction of homes in wooded areas.
‘We are increasingly building our homes in fire-prone ecosystems,’ says Dominik
Kulakowski, adjunct professor of biology at Clark University Graduate School of
Geography in Worcester, Massachusetts. ‘Doing that in many of the forests of the
western US is like building homes on the side of an active volcano.’
In California, where population growth has averaged more than 600,000 a year for at
least a decade, more residential housing is being built. ‘What once was open space is
now residential homes providing fuel to make fires burn with greater intensity,’ says
Terry McHale of the California Department of Forestry firefighters’ union. ‘With so
much dryness, so many communities to catch fire, so many fronts to fight, it becomes
an almost incredible job.’
That said, many experts give California high marks for making progress on
preparedness in recent years, after some of the largest fires in state history scorched
thousands of acres, burned thousands of homes, and killed numerous people. Stung in
the past by criticism of bungling that allowed fires to spread when they might have
been contained, personnel are meeting the peculiar challenges of neighborhood – and
canyon- hopping fires better than previously, observers say.
State promises to provide more up-to-date engines, planes, and helicopters to fight
fires have been fulfilled. Firefighters’ unions that in the past complained of dilapidated
equipment, old fire engines, and insufficient blueprints for fire safety are now praising
the state’s commitment, noting that funding for firefighting has increased, despite huge
cuts in many other programs. ‘We are pleased that the current state administration has
been very proactive in its support of us, and [has] come through with budgetary
support of the infrastructure needs we have long sought,’ says Mr. McHale of the
firefighters’ union.
Besides providing money to upgrade the fire engines that must traverse the mammoth
state and wind along serpentine canyon roads, the state has invested in better
command-and-control facilities as well as in the strategies to run them. ‘In the fire
sieges of earlier years, we found that other jurisdictions and states were willing to offer
mutual-aid help, but we were not able to communicate adequately with them,’ says
Kim Zagaris, chief of the state’s Office of Emergency Services Fire and Rescue
Branch.
After a commission examined and revamped communications procedures, the
statewide response ‘has become far more professional and responsive,’ he says. There
is a sense among both government officials and residents that the speed, dedication,
and coordination of firefighters from several states and jurisdictions are resulting in
greater efficiency than in past ‘siege fire’ situations.
In recent years, the Southern California region has improved building codes,
evacuation procedures, and procurement of new technology. ‘I am extraordinarily
impressed by the improvements we have witnessed,’ says Randy Jacobs, a Southern
California- based lawyer who has had to evacuate both his home and business to
escape wildfires. ‘Notwithstanding all the damage that will continue to be caused by
wildfires, we will no longer suffer the loss of life endured in the past because of the
fire prevention and firefighting measures that have been put in place,’ he says.
Questions 1-6
Complete the notes below.
Choose ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.
Wildfires
● Characteristics of wildfires and wildfire conditions today compared to the past:
– occurrence: more frequent
– temperature: hotter
– speed: faster
– movement: 1……………. more unpredictably
– size of fires: 2……………. greater on average than two decades ago
● Reasons wildfires cause more damage today compared to the past:
– rainfall: 3……………. average
– more brush to act as 4……………..
– increase in yearly temperature
– extended fire 5……………..
– more building of 6……………. in vulnerable places
Questions 7-13
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?
In boxes 7-13 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
7 The amount of open space in California has diminished over the last ten years.
8 Many experts believe California has made little progress in readying itself to fight
fires.
9 Personnel in the past have been criticised for mishandling fire containment.
10 California has replaced a range of firefighting tools.
11 More firefighters have been hired to improve fire-fighting capacity.
12 Citizens and government groups disapprove of the efforts of different states and
agencies working together.
13 Randy Jacobs believes that loss of life from fires will continue at the same levels,
despite changes made.
READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26 which are based on Reading
Passage 2 below.
Second nature
Your personality isn’t necessarily set in stone. With a little experimentation, people can
reshape their temperaments and inject passion, optimism, joy and courage into their
lives
A
Psychologists have long held that a person’s character cannot undergo a transformation
in any meaningful way and that the key traits of personality are determined at a very
young age. However, researchers have begun looking more closely at ways we can
change. Positive psychologists have identified 24 qualities we admire, such as loyalty
and kindness, and are studying them to find out why they come so naturally to some
people. What they’re discovering is that many of these qualities amount to habitual
behaviour that determines the way we respond to the world. The good news is that all
this can be learned.
Some qualities are less challenging to develop than others, optimism being one of
them. However, developing qualities requires mastering a range of skills which are
diverse and sometimes surprising. For example, to bring more joy and passion into
your life, you must be open to experiencing negative emotions. Cultivating such
qualities will help you realise your full potential.
B
‘The evidence is good that most personality traits can be altered,’ says Christopher
Peterson, professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, who cites himself as
an example. Inherently introverted, he realised early on that as an academic, his
reticence would prove disastrous in the lecture hall. So he learned to be more outgoing
and to entertain his classes. ‘Now my extroverted behaviour is spontaneous,’ he says.
C
David Fajgenbaum had to make a similar transition. He was preparing for university,
when he had an accident that put an end to his sports career. On campus, he quickly
found that beyond ordinary counselling, the university had no services for students
who were undergoing physical rehabilitation and suffering from depression like him.
He therefore launched a support group to help others in similar situations. He took
action despite his own pain – a typical response of an optimist.
D
Suzanne Segerstrom, professor of psychology at the University of Kentucky, believes
that the key to increasing optimism is through cultivating optimistic behaviour, rather
than positive thinking. She recommends you train yourself to pay attention to good
fortune by writing down three positive things that come about each day. This will help
you convince yourself that favourable outcomes actually happen all the time, making it
easier to begin taking action.
E
You can recognise a person who is passionate about a pursuit by the way they are so
strongly involved in it. Tanya Streeter’s passion is freediving – the sport of plunging
deep into the water without tanks or other breathing equipment. Beginning in 1998,
she set nine world records and can hold her breath for six minutes. The physical
stamina required for this sport is intense but the psychological demands are even more
overwhelming. Streeter learned to untangle her fears from her judgment of what her
body and mind could do. ‘In my career as a competitive freediver, there was a limit to
what I could do – but it wasn’t anywhere near what I thought it was/ she says.
F
Finding a pursuit that excites you can improve anyone’s life. The secret about
consuming passions, though, according to psychologist Paul Silvia of the University of
North Carolina, is that ‘they require discipline, hard work and ability, which is why
they are so rewarding.’ Psychologist Todd Kashdan has this advice for those people
taking up a new passion: ‘As a newcomer, you also have to tolerate and laugh at your
own ignorance. You must be willing to accept the negative feelings that come your
way,’ he says.
G
In 2004, physician-scientist Mauro Zappaterra began his PhD research at Harvard
Medical School. Unfortunately, he was miserable as his research wasn’t compatible
with his curiosity about healing. He finally took a break and during eight months in
Santa Fe, Zappaterra learned about alternative healing techniques not taught at
Harvard. When he got back, he switched labs to study how cerebrospinal fluid
nourishes the developing nervous system. He also vowed to look for the joy in
everything, including failure, as this could help him learn about his research and
himself.
One thing that can hold joy back is a person’s concentration on avoiding failure rather
than their looking forward to doing something well. ‘Focusing on being safe might get
in the way of your reaching your goals,’ explains Kashdan. For example, are you
hoping to get through a business lunch without embarrassing yourself, or are you
thinking about how fascinating the conversation might be?
H
Usually, we think of courage in physical terms but ordinary life demands something
else. For marketing executive Kenneth Pedeleose, it meant speaking out against
something he thought was ethically wrong. The new manager was intimidating staff so
Pedeleose carefully recorded each instance of bullying and eventually took the
evidence to a senior director, knowing his own job security would be threatened.
Eventually the manager was the one to go. According to Cynthia Pury, a psychologist
at Clemson University, Pedeleose’s story proves the point that courage is not
motivated by fearlessness, but by moral obligation. Pury also believes that people can
acquire courage. Many of her students said that faced with a risky situation, they first
tried to calm themselves down, then looked for a way to mitigate the danger, just as
Pedeleose did by documenting his allegations.
Over the long term, picking up a new character trait may help you move toward being
the person you want to be. And in the short term, the effort itself could be surprisingly
rewarding, a kind of internal adventure.
Questions 14-18
Complete the summary below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet.
Psychologists have traditionally believed that a personality 14…………… was
impossible and that by a 15…………… a person’s character tends to be fixed. This is
not true according to positive psychologists, who say that our personal qualities can be
seen as habitual behaviour. One of the easiest qualities to acquire is 16…………….. .
However, regardless of the quality, it is necessary to learn a wide variety of
different 17…………….. in order for a new quality to develop; for example, a person
must understand and feel some 18……………… in order to increase their happiness.
Questions 19-22
Look at the following statements (Questions 19-22) and the list of people below.
Match each statement with the correct person, A-G.
Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 19-22 on your answer sheet.
19 People must accept that they do not know much when first trying something new.
20 It is important for people to actively notice when good things happen.
21 Courage can be learned once its origins in a sense of responsibility are understood.
22 It is possible to overcome shyness when faced with the need to speak in public.
List of People
A Christopher Peterson
B David Fajgenbaum
C Suzanne Segerstrom
D Tanya Streeter
E Todd Kashdan
F Kenneth Pedeleose
G Cynthia Pury
Questions 23-26
Reading Passage 2 has eight sections, A-H.
Which section contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 23-26 on your answer sheet.
23 a mention of how rational thinking enabled someone to achieve physical goals
24 an account of how someone overcame a sad experience
25 a description of how someone decided to rethink their academic career path
26 an example of how someone risked his career out of a sense of duty