Exam 1

Passage 1. [C18T4] - Green roofs

A. Rooftops covered with grass, vegetable gardens and lush foliage are
now a common sight in many cities around the world. More and more
private companies and city authorities are investing in green roofs, drawn
to their wide- benefits. Among the benefits are saving on energy costs,
mitigating the risk of floods, making habitats for urban wildlife, tackling air
pollution and even growing food. 6- increasingly radical urban designs can
help cities adapt to the monumental problems they face, such as access to
resources and a lack of green space due to development. But the
involvement of city authorities, businesses and other institutions is crucial
to ensuring their success – as is research investigating different options to
suit the variety of rooftop spaces found in cities. The UK is relatively new
to developing green roofs, and local governments and institutions are
playing a major role in spreading the practice. London is home to much of
the UK’ green roof market, mainly due to forward- policies such as the
London Plan, which has paved the way to more than doubling the area of
green roofs in the capital.

B. Ongoing research is showcasing how green roofs in cities can integrate

with ‘living walls’: environmentally friendly walls which are partially or
completely covered with greenery, including a growing medium, such as
soil or water. Research also indicates that green roofs can be integrated
with drainage systems on the ground, such as street trees, so that the
water is managed better and the built environment is made more
sustainable. There is also evidence to demonstrate the social value of
green roofs. Doctors are increasingly prescribing time spent gardening
outdoors for patients dealing with anxiety and depression. And research
has found that access to even the most basic green spaces can provide a
better quality of life for dementia sufferers and help people avoid obesity.

C. In North America, green roofs have become mainstream, with a wide

array of expansive, accessible and food- roofs installed in buildings. Again,
city leaders and authorities have helped push the movement forward –
only recently, San Francisco, USA, created a policy requiring new buildings
to have green roofs. Toronto, Canada, has policies dating from the 1990s,
encouraging the development of urban farms on rooftops. These countries
also benefit from having newer buildings than in many parts of the world,
which makes it easier to install green roofs. Being able to keep enough
water at roof height and distribute it right across the rooftop is crucial to
maintaining the plants on any green roof – especially on ‘edible roofs’
where fruit and vegetables are farmed. And it’ much easier to do this in
newer buildings, which can typically hold greater weight, than to retro- old
ones. Having a stronger roof also makes it easier to grow a greater variety
of plants, since the soil can be deeper. 2024- 00:

D. For green roofs to become the norm for new developments, there needs
to be support from public authorities and private investors. Those
responsible for maintaining buildings may have to acquire new skills, such
as landscaping, and in some cases, volunteers may be needed to help out.
Other considerations include installing drainage paths, meeting health and
safety requirements and perhaps allowing access for the public, as well as
planning restrictions and disruption from regular activities in and around
the buildings during installation. To convince investors and developers
that installing green roofs is worthwhile, economic arguments are still the
most important. The term ‘natural capital’ has been developed to explain
the economic value of nature; for example, measuring the money saved
by installing natural solutions to protect against flood damage, adapt to
climate change or help people lead healthier and happier lives.

E. As the expertise about green roofs grows, official standards have been
developed to ensure that they are designed, constructed and maintained
properly, and function well. Improvements in the science and technology
underpinning green roof development have also led to new variations in
the concept. For example, ‘blue roofs’ enable buildings to hold water over
longer periods of time, rather than draining it away quickly – crucial in
times of heavier rainfall. There are also combinations of green roofs with
solar panels, and ‘brown roofs’ which are wilder in nature and maximise
biodiversity. If the trend continues, it could create new jobs and a more
vibrant and sustainable local food economy – alongside many other
benefits. 12- There are still barriers to overcome, but the evidence so far
indicates that green roofs have the potential to transform cities and help
them function sustainably long into the future. The success stories need to
be studied and replicated elsewhere, to make green, blue, brown and
food- roofs the norm in cities around the world.
Questions 1 - 5:
Reading Passage 1 has five paragraphs, A-E. Which paragraph contains
the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-E, in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
1
Mention of several challenges to be overcome before a green roof can be installed
2
Reference to a city where green roofs have been promoted for many years
3
A belief that existing green roofs should be used as a model for new ones
4
Examples of how green roofs can work in combination with other green urban initiatives
5
The need to make a persuasive argument for the financial benefits of green roofs

Questions 6 - 9:
6-9
Complete the summary below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 6-9 on your answer sheet.

Advantages of green roofs

City rooftops covered with greenery have many advantages. These include lessening the

likelihood that floods will occur, reducing how much money is spent on 6 and

creating environments that are suitable for wildlife. In many cases, they can also be used for

producing 7 .

There are also social benefits of green roofs. For example, the medical profession

recommends 8 as an activity to help people cope with mental health issues.

Studies have also shown that the availability of green spaces can prevent physical problems such

as 9 .

Questions 10 - 11:
Choose TWO letters, A-E.
Write the correct letters in boxes 10 - 11 on your answer sheet.
10- 11
Which TWO advantages of using newer buildings for green roofs are mentioned in Paragraph C
of the passage?

A a longer growing season for edible produce

B more economical use of water

C greater water-storage capacity

D ability to cultivate more plant types

E a large surface area for growing plants

Questions 12 - 13:
Choose TWO letters, A-E.
Write the correct letters in boxes 12 - 13 on your answer sheet.
12- 13
Which TWO aims of new variations on the concept of green roofs are mentioned in Paragraph E
of the passage?

A to provide habitats for a wide range of species

B to grow plants successfully even in the wettest climates

C to regulate the temperature of the immediate environment

D to generate power from a sustainable source

E to collect water to supply other buildings

Passage 2. [C14T1] - The growth of bike-sharing schemes around the world

How Dutch engineer Luud Schimmelpennink helped to devise urban bike-sharing schemes

A. The original idea for an urban bike-sharing scheme dates back to a

summer’s day in Amsterdam in 1965. Provo, the organization that came
up with the idea, was a group of Dutch activists who wanted to change
society.They believed the scheme, which was known as the Witte
Fietsenplan, was an answer to the perceived threats of air pollution and
consumerism.In the centre of Amsterdam, they painted a small number of
used bikes white. They also distributed leaflets describing the dangers of
cars and inviting people to use the white bikes.The bikes were then left
unlocked at various locations around the city, to be used by anyone in
need of transport.

B. Luud Schimmelpennink, a Dutch industrial engineer who still lives and

cycles in Amsterdam, was heavily involved in the original scheme. He
recalls how the scheme succeeded in attracting a great deal of attention –
particularly when it came to publicising Provo’s aims – but struggled to get
off the ground. The police were opposed to Provo’s initiatives and almost
as soon as the white bikes were distributed around the city, they removed
them.However, for Schimmelpennink and for bike-sharing schemes in
general, this was just the beginning. ‘The first Witte Fietsenplan was just a
symbolic thing,’ he says. ‘We painted a few bikes white, that was all.
Things got more serious when I became a member of the Amsterdam city
council two years later.’

C. Schimmelpennink seized this opportunity to present a more elaborate

Witte Fietsenplan to the city council. ‘My idea was that the municipality of
Amsterdam would distribute 10,000 white bikes over the city, for everyone
to use,’ he explains. ‘I made serious calculations. It turned out that a white
bicycle – per person, per kilometer – would cost the municipality only 10%
of what it contributed to public transport per person per
kilometer.’Nevertheless, the council unanimously rejected the plan. ‘They
said that the bicycle belongs to the past. They saw a glorious future for the
car,’says Schimmelpennink. But he was not in the least discouraged.

D. Schimmelpennink never stopped believing in bike-sharing, and in the

mid-90s, two Danes asked for his help to set up a system in Copenhagen.
The result was the world’s first large-scale bike-share programme. It
worked on a deposit: ‘You dropped a coin in the bike and when you
returned it, you got your money back.’ After setting up the Danish system,
Schimmelpennink decided to try his luck again in the Netherlands – and
this time he succeeded in arousing the interest of the Dutch Ministry of
Transport. ‘Times had changed,’ he recalls. ‘People had become more
environmentally conscious, and the Danish experiment had proved that
bike-sharing was a real possibility.’A new Witte Fietsenplan was launched
in 1999 in Amsterdam. However, riding a white bike was no longer free; it
cost one guilder per trip and payment was made with a chip card
developed by the Dutch bank Postbank. Schimmelpennink designed
conspicuous, sturdy white bikes locked in special racks which could be
opened with the chip card – the plan started with 250 bikes, distributed
over five stations.

E. Theo Molenaar, who was a system designer for the project, worked
alongside Schimmelpennink. ‘I remember when we were testing the bike
racks, he announced that he had already designed better ones. But of
course, we had to go through with the ones we had.’ The system,
however, was prone to vandalism and theft. ‘After every weekend there
would always be a couple of bikes missing,’ Molenaar says. ‘I really have
no idea what people did with them, because they could instantly be
recognised as white bikes.’But the biggest blow came when Postbank
decided to abolish the chip card, because it wasn’t profitable. ‘That chip
card was pivotal to the system,’ Molenaar says. ‘To continue the project
we would have needed to set up another system, but the business partner
had lost interest.’

F. Schimmelpennink was disappointed, but – characteristically – not for

long. In 2002 he got a call from the French advertising corporation JC
Decaux, who wanted to set up his bike-sharing scheme in Vienna. ‘That
went really well. After Vienna, they set up a system in Lyon. Then in 2007,
Paris followed. That was a decisive moment in the history of bike-sharing.’
The huge and unexpected success of the Parisian bike-sharing
programme, which now boasts more than 20,000 bicycles, inspired cities
all over the world to set up their own schemes, all modelled on
Schimmelpennink’s. ‘It’s wonderful that this happened,’ he says. ‘But
financially I didn’t really benefit from it, because I never filed for a patent.’

G. In Amsterdam today, 38% of all trips are made by bike and, along with
Copenhagen, it is regarded as one of the two most cycle-friendly capitals
in the world – but the city never got another Witte Fietsenplan. Molenaar
believes this may be because everybody in Amsterdam already has a bike.
Schimmelpennink, however, cannot see that this changes Amsterdam’s
need for a bike-sharing scheme. ‘People who travel on the underground
don’t carry their bikes around. But often they need additional transport to
reach their final destination.’Although he thinks it is strange that a city like
Amsterdam does not have a successful bike-sharing scheme, he is
optimistic about the future. ‘In the ‘60s we didn’t stand a chance because
people were prepared to give their lives to keep cars in the city. But that
mentality has totally changed. Today everybody longs for cities that are
not dominated by cars.’

Questions 1 - 5:
Reading Passage 2 has seven paragraphs, A-G. Which paragraph contains the following
information? Write the correct letter, A-G on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
1
a description of how people misused a bike-sharing scheme
2
an explanation of why a proposed bike-sharing scheme was turned down
3
a reference to a person being unable to profit their work
4
an explanation of the potential savings a bike-sharing scheme would bring
5
a reference to the problems a bike-sharing scheme was intended to solve

Questions 6 - 7:
Choose TWO letters, A-E. Write the correct letters in boxes 6 - 7 on your answer sheet.
6- 7
Which TWO of the following statements are made in the text about the Amsterdam bike-sharing
scheme of 1999?

A It was initially opposed by a government department.

B It failed when a partner in the scheme withdrew support.

C It aimed to be more successful than the Copenhagen scheme.

D It was made possible by a change in people’s attitudes.

E It attracted interest from a range of bike designers.

Questions 8 - 9:
Choose TWO letters, A-E. Write the correct letters in boxes 8 - 9 on your answer sheet.
8- 9
Which TWO of the following statements are made in the text about Amsterdam today?

A The majority of residents would like to prevent all cars from entering the city.

B There is little likelihood of the city having another bike-sharing scheme.

C More trips in the city are made by bike than by any other form of transport.

D A bike-sharing scheme would benefit residents who use public transport.

E The city has a reputation as a place that welcomes cyclists.

Questions 10 - 13:
10-13
Complete the summary below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet.

The first urban bike-sharing scheme

The first bike-sharing scheme was the idea of the Dutch group Provo. The people who belonged

to this group were 10 They were concerned about damage to the environment

and about 11 , and believed that the bike-sharing scheme would draw attention
to these issues. As well as painting some bikes white, they handed out 12 that

condemned the use of cars.

However, the scheme was not a great success: almost as quickly as Provo left the bikes around

the city, the 13 Took them away. According to Schimmelpennink, the scheme

was intended to be symbolic. The idea was to get people thinking about the issues.

Passage 3. [C18T1] - Conquering Earth’s space junk problem

Satellites, rocket shards and collision debris are creating major traffic risks
in orbit around the planet. Researchers are working to reduce these
threats

A. Last year, commercial companies, military and civil departments and

amateurs sent more than 400 satellites into orbit, over four times the
yearly average in the previous decade. Numbers could rise even more
sharply if leading space companies follow through on plans to deploy
hundreds to thousands of large constellations of satellites to space in the
next few years.

All that traffic can lead to disaster. Ten years ago, a US commercial Iridium
satellite smashed into an inactive Russian communications satellite called
Cosmos-2251,creating thousands of new pieces of space shrapnel that
now threaten other satellites in low Earth orbit – the zone stretching up to
2,000 kilometres in altitude. Altogether, there are roughly 20,000 human-
made objects in orbit, from working satellites to small rocket pieces. And
satellite operators can’t steer away from every potential crash, because
each move consumes time and fuel that could otherwise be used for the
spacecraft’s main job.

B. Concern about space junk goes back to the beginning of the satellite
era, but the number of objects in orbit is rising so rapidly that researchers
are investigating new ways of attacking the problem. Several teams are
trying to improve methods for assessing what is in orbit, so that satellite
operators can work more efficiently in ever-more-crowded space. Some
researchers are now starting to compile a massive data set that includes
the best possible information on where everything is in orbit. Others are
developing taxonomies of space – working on measuring properties such
as the shape and size of an object, so that satellite operators know how
much to worry about what’s coming their way.

The alternative, many say, is unthinkable. Just a few uncontrolled space

crashes could generate enough debris to set off a runaway cascade of
fragments, rendering near-Earth space unusable. ‘If we go on like this, we
will reach a point of no return,’ says Carolin Frueh, an astrodynamical
researcher at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.

C. Even as our ability to monitor space objects increases, so too does the
total number of items in orbit. That means companies, governments and
other players in space are collaborating in new ways to avoid a shared
threat.International groups such as the Inter-Agency Space Debris
Coordination Committee have developed guidelines on space
sustainability.Those include inactivating satellites at the end of their useful
life by venting pressurised materials or leftover fuel that might lead to
explosions.The intergovernmental groups also advise lowering satellites
deep enough into the atmosphere that they will burn up or disintegrate
within 25 years. But so far, only about half of all missions have abided by
this 25-year goal, says Holger Krag, head of the European Space Agency’s
space-debris office in Darmstadt, Germany.Operators of the planned large
constellations of satellites say they will be responsible stewards in their
enterprises in space, but Krag worries that problems could increase,
despite their best intentions. ‘What happens to those that fail or go
bankrupt?’ he asks. They are probably not going to spend money to
remove their satellites from space.’

D. In theory, given the vastness of space, satellite operators should have

plenty of room for all these missions to fly safely without ever nearing
another object. So some scientists are tackling the problem of space junk
by trying to find out where all the debris is to a high degree of precision.
That would alleviate the need for many of the unnecessary manoeuvres
that are carried out to avoid potential collisions. ‘If you knew precisely
where everything was, you would almost never have a problem,’ says
Marlon Sorge, a space-debris specialist at the Aerospace Corporation in El
Segundo, California.
E. The field is called space traffic management, because it’s similar to
managing traffic on the roads or in the air.Think about a busy day at an
airport, says Moriba Jah, an astrodynamicist at the University of Texas at
Austin: planes line up in the sky, landing and taking off close to one
another in a carefully choreographed routine. Air-traffic controllers know
the location of the planes down to one metre in accuracy. The same can’t
be said for space debris. Not all objects in orbit are known, and even those
included in databases are not tracked consistently.

F. An additional problem is that there is no authoritative catalogue that

accurately lists the orbits of all known space debris. Jah illustrates this with
a web-based database that he has developed. It draws on several sources,
such as catalogues maintained by the US and Russian governments, to
visualise where objects are in space. When he types in an identifier for a
particular space object, the database draws a purple line to designate its
orbit. Only this doesn’t quite work for a number of objects, such as a
Russian rocket body designated in the database as object number 32280.
When Jah enters that number, the database draws two purple lines: the US
and Russian sources contain two completely different orbits for the same
object. Jah says that it is almost impossible to tell which is correct, unless
a third source of information made it possible to cross-correlate.

Jah describes himself as a space environmentalist: ‘I want to make space a

place that is safe to operate, that is free and useful for generations to
come.’Until that happens, he argues, the space community will continue
devolving into a tragedy in which all spaceflight operators are polluting a
common resource.

Questions 1 - 5:
Which section contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.
1
A reference to the cooperation that takes place to try and minimise risk
2
An explanation of a person’s aims
3
A description of a major collision that occurred in space
4
A comparison between tracking objects in space and the efficiency of a transportation system
5
A reference to efforts to classify space junk
Questions 6 - 9:
6-9
Complete the summary below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 6-9 on your answer sheet.

The Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee

The committee gives advice on how the 6 of space can be achieved. The

committee advises that when satellites are no longer active, any unused 7 or

pressurised material that could cause 8 should be removed.

Although operators of large satellite constellations accept that they have obligations as stewards

of space, Holger Krag points out that the operators that become 9 are unlikely

to prioritise removing their satellites from space.

Questions 10 - 14:
Match each statement with the correct person, A, B, C or D. Write the correct letter, A, B, C or
D, in boxes 10-14 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.

List of People
A Carolin Frueh
B Holger Krag
C Marlon Sorge
D Moriba Jah
10
Knowing the exact location of space junk would help prevent any possible danger.
11
Space should be available to everyone and should be preserved for the future.
12
A recommendation regarding satellites is widely ignored.
13
There is conflicting information about where some satellites are in space.
14
There is a risk we will not be able to undo the damage that occurs in space.
Exam 2
Passage 1. [C18T1] - Urban farming
In Paris, urban farmers are trying a soil-free approach to agriculture that uses less space and
fewer resources. Could it help cities face the threats to our food supplies?

On top of a striking new exhibition hall in southern Paris, the world’s

largest urban rooftop farm has started to bear fruit. Strawberries that are
small, intensely flavoured and resplendently red sprout abundantly from
large plastic tubes. Peer inside and you see the tubes are completely
hollow, the roots of dozens of strawberry plants dangling down inside
them. From identical vertical tubes nearby burst row upon row of lettuces;
near those are aromatic herbs, such as basil, sage and
peppermint.Opposite, in narrow, horizontal trays packed not with soil but
with coconut fibre, grow cherry tomatoes, shiny aubergines and brightly
coloured chards.

Pascal Hardy, an engineer and sustainable development consultant, began

experimenting with vertical farming and aeroponic growing towers - as the
soil-free plastic tubes are known – on his Paris apartment block roof five
years ago. The urban rooftop space above the exhibition hall is somewhat
bigger: 14,000 square metres and almost exactly the size of a couple of
football pitches. Already, the team of young urban farmers who tend it
have picked, in one day, 3,000 lettuces and 150 punnets of strawberries.
When the remaining two thirds of the vast open area are in production, 20
staff will harvest up to 1,000 kg of perhaps 35 different varieties of fruit
and vegetables, every day.‘We’re not ever, obviously, going to feed the
whole city this way,’ cautions Hardy. ‘In the urban environment you’re
working with very significant practical constraints, clearly, on what you
can do and where. But if enough unused space can be developed like this,
there’s no reason why you shouldn’t eventually target maybe between 5%
and 10% of consumption.’

Perhaps most significantly, however, this is a real-life showcase for the

work of Hardy’s flourishing urban agriculture consultancy, Agripolis, which
is currently fielding enquiries from around the world to design, build and
equip a new breed of soil-free inner-city farm. ‘The method’s advantages
are many,’ he says. ‘First, I don’t much like the fact that most of the fruit
and vegetables we eat have been treated with something like 17 different
pesticides, or that the intensive farming techniques that produced them
are such huge generators of greenhouse gases.I don’t much like the fact,
either, that they’ve travelled an average of 2,000 refrigerated kilometres
to my plate, that their quality is so poor, because the varieties are
selected for their capacity to withstand such substantial journeys, or that
80% of the price I pay goes to wholesalers and transport companies, not
the producers.’

Produce grown using this soil-free method, on the other hand - which
relies solely on a small quantity of water, enriched with organic nutrients,
pumped around a closed circuit of pipes, towers and trays - is ‘produced
up here, and sold locally, just down there. It barely travels at all,’ Hardy
says. ‘You can select crop varieties for their flavour, not their resistance to
the transport and storage chain, and you can pick them when they’re
really at their best, and not before.’No soil is exhausted, and the water
that gently showers the plants’ roots every 12 minutes is recycled, so the
method uses 90% less water than a classic intensive farm for the same
yield.
Urban farming is not, of course, a new phenomenon. Inner-city agriculture
is booming from Shanghai to Detroit and Tokyo to Bangkok. Strawberries
are being grown in disused shipping containers, mushrooms in
underground carparks.Aeroponic farming, he says, is ‘virtuous’. The
equipment weighs little, can be installed on almost any flat surface and is
cheap to buy: roughly 100 to 150 per square metre. It is cheap to run, too,
consuming a tiny fraction of the electricity used by some techniques.

Produce grown this way typically sells at prices that, while generally
higher than those of classic intensive agriculture, are lower than soil-based
organic growers.There are limits to what farmers can grow this way, of
course, and much of the produce is suited to the summer months. ‘Root
vegetables we cannot do, at least not yet,’ he says.‘Radishes are OK, but
carrots, potatoes, that kind of thing - the roots are simply too long. Fruit
trees are obviously not an option. And beans tend to take up a lot of space
for not much return.’Nevertheless, urban farming of the kind being
practised in Paris is one part of a bigger and fast-changing picture that is
bringing food production closer to our lives.

Questions 1 - 3:
1-3
Complete the sentences below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER
from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 1-3 on your answer sheet.

Urban farming in Paris

 Vertical tubes are used to grow strawberries, 1 and herbs.

 There will eventually be a daily harvest of as much as 2 in weight of fruit

and vegetables.

 It may be possible that the farm’s produce will account for as much as 10% of the

city’s 3 overall.

Questions 4 - 7:
4-7
Complete the table below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. Write
your answers in boxes 4-7 on your answer sheet.

Intensive farming versus aeroponic urban farming

Growth Selection Sale

● quality not good

● wide range of 4 ● varieties of fruit and
Intensive ● 6
vegetables chosen that can
farming used receive very little of overall
survive long 5
● techniques pollute air income

Aeroponic ● no soil used ● produce chosen because

urban ● nutrients added to water,
farming which is recycled of its 7

Questions 8 - 13:
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?
In boxes 8-13 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
8
Urban farming can take place above or below ground.
9
Some of the equipment used in aeroponic farming can be made by hand.
10
Urban farming relies more on electricity than some other types of farming.
11
Fruit and vegetables grown on an aeroponic urban farm are cheaper than traditionally grown
organic produce.
12
Most produce can be grown on an aeroponic urban farm at any time of the year.
13
Beans take longer to grow on an urban farm than other vegetables.

Passage 2. [C14T2] - Back to the future of skyscraper design

Answers to the problem of excessive electricity use by skyscrapers and large public buildings
can be found in ingenious but forgotten architectural designs of the 19th and early-20th
centuries

A. The Recovery of Natural Environments in Architecture by Professor Alan

Short is the culmination of 30 years of research and award-winning green
building design by Short and colleagues in Architecture, Engineering,
Applied Maths and Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge.

‘The crisis in building design is already here,’ said Short. ‘Policy makers
think you can solve energy and building problems with gadgets. You can’t.
As global temperatures continue to rise, we are going to continue to
squander more and more energy on keeping our buildings mechanically
cool until we have run out of capacity.’

B. Short is calling for a sweeping reinvention of how skyscrapers and major

public buildings are designed – to end the reliance on sealed buildings
which exist solely via the ‘life support’ system of vast air conditioning
units.

Instead, he shows it is entirely possible to accommodate natural

ventilation and cooling in large buildings by looking into the past, before
the widespread introduction of air conditioning systems, which were
‘relentlessly and aggressively marketed’ by their inventors.

C. Short points out that to make most contemporary buildings habitable,

they have to be sealed and air conditioned. The energy use and carbon
emissions this generates is spectacular and largely unnecessary. Buildings
in the West account for 40-50% of electricity usage, generating substantial
carbon emissions, and the rest of the world is catching up at a frightening
rate. Short regards glass, steel and air-conditioned skyscrapers as symbols
of status, rather than practical ways of meeting our requirements.

D. Short’s book highlights a developing and sophisticated art and science

of ventilating buildings through the 19th and earlier-20th centuries,
including the design of ingeniously ventilated hospitals. Of particular
interest were those built to the designs of John Shaw Billings,including the
first Johns Hopkins Hospital in the US city of Baltimore (1873-1889).
‘We spent three years digitally modelling Billings’ final designs,’ says
Short. ‘We put pathogens* in the airstreams,modelled for someone with
tuberculosis (TB)coughing in the wards and we found the ventilation
systems in the room would have kept other patients safe from harm.

E. ‘We discovered that 19th-century hospital wards could generate up to

24 air changes an hour – that’s similar to the performance of a modern-
day, computer-controlled operating theatre.We believe you could build
wards based on these principles now.

Single rooms are not appropriate for all patients. Communal wards
appropriate for certain patients – older people with dementia, for example
– would work just as well in today’s hospitals, at a fraction of the energy
cost.’

Professor Short contends the mindset and skill-sets behind these designs
have been completely lost, lamenting the disappearance of expertly
designed theatres, opera houses, and other buildings where up to half the
volume of the building was given over to ensuring everyone got fresh air.

F. Much of the ingenuity present in 19th-century hospital and building

design was driven by a panicked public clamouring for buildings that could
protect against what was thought to be the lethal threat of miasmas –
toxic air that spread disease.Miasmas were feared as the principal agents
of disease and epidemics for centuries, and were used to explain the
spread of infection from the Middle Ages right through to the cholera
outbreaks in London and Paris during the 1850s.Foul air, rather than
germs, was believed to be the main driver of ‘hospital fever’, leading to
disease and frequent death. The prosperous steered clear of hospitals.

While miasma theory has been long since disproved, Short has for the last
30 years advocated a return to some of the building design principles
produced in its wake.

G. Today, huge amounts of a building’s space and construction cost are

given over to air conditioning. ‘But I have designed and built a series of
buildings over the past three decades which have tried to reinvent some of
these ideas and then measure what happens.

‘To go forward into our new low-energy, low-carbon future, we would be

well advised to look back at design before our high-energy, high-carbon
present appeared. What is surprising is what a rich legacy we have
abandoned.’

H. Successful examples of Short’s approach include the Queen’s Building

at De Montfort University in Leicester. Containing as many as 2,000 staff
and students, the entire building is naturally ventilated, passively cooled
and naturally lit, including the two largest auditoria, each seating more
than 150 people. The award-winning building uses a fraction of the
electricity of comparable buildings in the UK.

Short contends that glass skyscrapers in London and around the world will
become a liability over the next 20 or 30 years if climate modelling
predictions and energy price rises come to pass as expected.

I. He is convinced that sufficiently cooled skyscrapers using the natural

environment can be produced in almost any climate. He and his team
have worked on hybrid buildings in the harsh climates of Beijing and
Chicago – built with natural ventilation assisted by back-up air conditioning
– which, surprisingly perhaps, can be switched off more than half the time
on milder days and during the spring and autumn.

Short looks at how we might reimagine the cities, offices and homes of the
future. Maybe it’s time we changed our outlook.

* pathogens: microorganisms that can cause disease

Questions 1 - 5:
Reading Passage 2 has nine section, A-I. Which section contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-I, in boxes on your answer sheet.
1
Why some people avoided hospitals in the 19th century.
2
A suggestion that the popularity of tall buildings is linked to prestige.
3
A comparison between the circulation of air in a 19th-century building and modern standards.
4
How Short tested the circulation of air in a 19th-century building.
5
An implication that advertising led to the large increase in the use of air conditioning.

Questions 6 - 13:
6-13
Complete the summary below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes on your answer sheet.

Ventilation in 19th-century hospital wards

Professor Alan Short examined the work of John Shaw Billings, who influenced the

architectural 6 of hospitals to ensure they had good ventilation. He calculated

that 7 in the air coming from patients suffering form 8 would

not have harmed other patients. He also found that the air in 9 In hospitals

could change as often as in a modern operating theatre. He suggests that energy use could be

reduced by locating more patients in 10 areas.

A major reason for improving ventilation in 19th-century hospitals was the demand from the 11

for protection against bad air, known as 12 These were blamed

for the spread of disease for hundreds of years, including epidemics of 13 in

London and Paris in the middle of the 19th century.

Passage 3. [C18T4] - Alfred Wegener: science, exploration and the theory of

continental drift

Introduction
This is a book about the life and scientific work of Alfred Wegener, whose
reputation today rests with his theory of continental displacements, better
known as ‘continental drift’. Wegener proposed this theory in 1912 and
developed it extensively for nearly 20 years. His book on the subject, The
Origin of Continents and Oceans, went through four editions and was the
focus of an international controversy in his lifetime and for some years
after his death.
Wegener’s basic idea was that many mysteries about the Earth’s history
could be solved if one supposed that the continents moved laterally,
rather than supposing that they remained fixed in place.Wegener showed
in great detail how such continental movements were plausible and how
they worked, using evidence from a large number of sciences including
geology, geophysics, paleontology, and climatology.Wegener’s idea – that
the continents move – is at the heart of the theory that guides Earth
sciences today: namely plate tectonics. Plate tectonics is in many respects
quite different from Wegener’s proposal, in the same way that modern
evolutionary theory is very different from the ideas Charles Darwin
proposed in the 1850s about biological evolution.Yet plate tectonics is a
descendant of Alfred Wegener’s theory of continental drift, in quite the
same way that modern evolutionary theory is a descendant of Darwin’s
theory of natural selection.

When I started writing about Wegener’s life and work, one of the most
intriguing things about him for me was that, although he came up with a
theory on continental drift, he was not a geologist.He trained as an
astronomer and pursued a career in atmospheric physics.When he
proposed the theory of continental displacements in 1912, he was a
lecturer in physics and astronomy at the University of Marburg, in
southern Germany. However, he was not an ‘unknown’.In 1906 he had set
a world record (with his brother Kurt) for time aloft in a hot-air balloon: 52
hours.Between 1906 and 1908 he had taken part in a highly publicized
and extremely dangerous expedition to the coast of northeast
Greenland.He had also made a name for himself amongst a small circle of
meteorologists and atmospheric physicists in Germany as the author of a
textbook, Thermodynamics of the Atmosphere (1911), and of a number of
interesting scientific papers.

As important as Wegener’s work on continental drift has turned out to be,

it was largely a sideline to his interest in atmospheric physics, geophysics,
and paleoclimatology*, and thus I have been at great pains to put
Wegener’s work on continental drift in the larger context of his other
scientific work, and in the even larger context of atmospheric sciences in
his lifetime. This is a ‘continental drift book’ only to the extent that
Wegener was interested in that topic and later became famous for it. My
treatment of his other scientific work is no less detailed, though I certainly
have devoted more attention to the reception of his ideas on continental
displacement, as they were much more controversial than his other work.

Readers interested in the specific detail of Wegener’s career will see that
he often stopped pursuing a given line of investigation (sometimes for
years on end), only to pick it up later. I have tried to provide guideposts to
his rapidly shifting interests by characterizing different phases of his life as
careers in different sciences, which is reflected in the titles of the
chapters. Thus, the index should be a sufficient guide for those interested
in a particular aspect of Wegener’s life but perhaps not all of it. My own
feeling, however, is that the parts do not make as much sense on their
own as do all of his activities taken together. In this respect I urge readers
to try to experience Wegener’s life as he lived it, with all the interruptions,
changes of mind, and renewed efforts this entailed.

Wegener left behind a few published works but, as was standard practice,
these reported the results of his work – not the journey he took to reach
that point. Only a few hundred of the many thousands of letters he wrote
and received in his lifetime have survived and he didn’t keep notebooks or
diaries that recorded his life and activities.He was not active (with a few
exceptions) in scientific societies, and did not seek to find influence or
advance his ideas through professional contacts and politics, spending
most of his time at home in his study reading and writing, or in the field
collecting observations.

Some famous scientists, such as Newton, Darwin, and Einstein, left

mountains of written material behind, hundreds of notebooks and letters
numbering in the tens of thousands. Others, like Michael Faraday, left
extensive journals of their thoughts and speculations, parallel to their
scientific notebooks. The more such material a scientist leaves behind, the
better chance a biographer has of forming an accurate picture of how a
scientist’s ideas took shape and evolved.

I am firmly of the opinion that most of us, Wegener included, are not in
any real sense the authors of our own lives. We plan, think, and act, often
with apparent freedom, but most of the time our lives ‘happen to us’, and
we only retrospectively turn this happenstance into a coherent narrative of
fulfilled intentions.This book, therefore, is a story both of the life and
scientific work that Alfred Wegener planned and intended and of the life
and scientific work that actually ‘happened to him’. These are, as I think
you will soon see, not always the same thing.

* Paleoclimatology – The study of past climates.

Questions 1 - 4:
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3?
In boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet, write:
YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
1
Wegener’s ideas about continental drift were widely disputed while he was alive.
2
The idea that the continents remained fixed in place was defended in a number of respected
scientific publications.
3
Wegener relied on a limited range of scientific fields to support his theory of continental drift.
4
The similarities between Wegener’s theory of continental drift and modern-day plate tectonics
are enormous.

Questions 5 - 10:
5-10
Complete the summary using the list of phrases, A-J, below. Write the correct letter, A-J, in boxes
5-10 on your answer sheet.

A modest fame B vast range

C record-breaking achievement D research methods

E select group F professional interests

G scientific debate H hazardous exploration

I biographer’s perspective J narrow investigation

 Wegener’s life and work

One of the remarkable things about Wegener from a 5 is that although he

proposed a theory of continental drift, he was not a geologist. His 6 were limited

to atmospheric physics. However, at the time he proposed his theory of continental drift in 1912,

he was already a person of 7 . Six years previously, there had been his 8

of 52 hours in a hot-air balloon, followed by his well-publicised but 9

of Greenland’s coast. With the publication of his textbook on thermodynamics, he

had also come to the attention of a 10 of German scientists.

Questions 11 - 14:
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes 11-14 on your answer sheet.
11
What is Mott T Greene doing in the fifth paragraph?

A describing what motivated him to write the book

B explaining why it is desirable to read the whole book

C suggesting why Wegener pursued so many different careers

D indicating what aspects of Wegener’s life interested him most

12
What is said about Wegener in the sixth paragraph?

A He was not a particularly ambitious person.

B He kept a record of all his scientific observations.

C He did not adopt many of the scientific practices of the time.

D He enjoyed discussing new discoveries with other scientists.

13
What does Greene say about some other famous scientists?

A Their published works had a greater impact than Wegener’s did.

B They had fewer doubts about their scientific ideas than Wegener did.

C Their scientific ideas were more controversial than Wegener’s.

D They are easier subjects to write about than Wegener.

14
What is Greene’s main point in the final paragraph?
A It is not enough in life to have good intentions.

B People need to plan carefully if they want to succeed.

C People have little control over many aspects of their lives.

D It is important that people ensure they have the freedom to act.