READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading
Passage 1 below.
How the first trans-Atlantic telegraph cable was laid
On August 16, 1858, the first telegraphic message crossed the Atlantic Ocean.
Travelling along a recently laid cable, the message from Britain’s Queen Victoria to US
President James Buchanan took just 16 hours. Prior to this, communication across the
Atlantic would have been by ship – and taken around 10 days.

People had been communicating via overland telegraph since 1844 and messages had
been passing between Britain and France since 1850 when the first submarine cable
was laid in the English Channel. But the attempt to span the Atlantic Ocean was the
most daring attempt yet – and was the talk of the age, the 19th-century equivalent of the
Apollo space mission. The idea that one could seemingly cheat time and space was
inspiring and it changed the way people thought about the world and their place in it.

The driving force behind the trans-Atlantic telegraph cable was an American
businessman called Cyrus Field. In 1856, he and Englishmen John Watkins Brett and
Charles Tilson Bright formed the Atlantic Telegraph company. They raised £350,000
mostly from businessmen in London, Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow. They also
secured £14,000 annually from the British government plus the loan of ships and a
similar amount from the US government.

Getting the cable made proved to be difficult. The distance between the west coast of
Ireland and Newfoundland is over 3,700km, and Field was unable to find a company
that was capable of supplying the required cable in the desired time frame. As a result,
two companies were engaged to fulfil the order. The cable had a core of seven copper
wires down which the signal would pass. These were insulated with several layers of
gutta- percha (a natural plastic made from tree sap) and then armoured with iron wire.
When it was complete, the weight of the cable proved too great for any single ship. It
was therefore loaded onto two: the British ship, HMS Agamemnon and the American
ship, USS Niagara.

The first attempt to lay the cable began on August 5 1857 with both ships departing
from the west coast of Ireland, near Ballycarbery Castle. The venture did not go
according to plan. The cable snapped on the first day, but was recovered from the
bottom and repaired. A few days later, mid-Atlantic, the cable snapped again, this time
in water 3km deep. It was lost and the expedition abandoned.

The next summer in 1858 they tried again. On this expedition, the two great ships met
mid- Atlantic, each carrying half the cable. The two ends were joined together and the
ships sailed away from each other. The cable broke three times and each time they
were
forced to start again. On July 29, with little hope of success, the cable was joined for the
fourth time and the ships sailed for home. This time they succeeded. The cable was
landed in Newfoundland on August 4 and in Ireland the following day. And a week or so
later Queen Victoria sent that first trans-Atlantic message to President Buchanan.

The celebrations were tremendous. One US newspaper proclaimed:

New York has seldom seen a more complete holiday than that on September 1 1858, in
celebration of the successful laying of the Atlantic cable. The enthusiasm of an entire
nation was expressed in this jubilee of its metropolis, and the era of a closer connection
with Europe was well ushered in by a day of genuine rejoicing and gaiety.

Celebrations were, however, short-lived: the cable performed badly and failed after just
three weeks. The project was put on hold, but the concept had been proved possible.
By 1865, further research had been carried out into the problems which had plagued the
earlier cables. In addition, cables had been successfully laid in the Mediterranean and in
the Persian Gulf. The cables that were used were better engineered, with thicker cores
and better insulation allowing faster transmission speeds.

In 1865, Field incorporated a second company to raise enough funds to try again. He
chartered the largest ship in the world at the time, the SS Great Eastern, which could
carry the entire Atlantic cable. Huge salt-water tanks and other state-of-the-art
machinery were fitted to ensure it remained in mint condition during its journey. All went
well until, in heavy winds 1000km off the coast of Newfoundland, the cable rubbed on
the side of the ship, snapped and plunged to the deep ocean floor.

Not one to quit, Field vowed to return the following year. This final 1866 expedition
proved to be successful and the cable was put into commercial service on July 28. One
month later, the 1865 cable was brought to the surface and repaired, providing a
second Atlantic telegraph link.
The service had obvious and immediate impact. People in government were able to
respond more swiftly to evolving situations. News travelled more quickly, which boosted
trade on both sides of the Atlantic. It also had a profound effect on things such as family
life and cultural ties. For example, it was no longer so difficult for immigrants in America
to keep in touch with their families back home.

The roller-coaster of cable-laying highs and lows between 1857 and 1866 caught the
imaginations of a generation the way the space race did in the 20th century. There was
immense public interest in the endeavour and in telegraphy more generally. At the time,
telegraphic science was reported widely in the newspapers and the fortunes of the
telegraph companies were followed closely. Discussions of the pitfalls and solutions to
spanning the Atlantic with cable became everyday topics of conversation, and endless
articles in the newspapers ensured that the project stayed in people’s thoughts.
Questions 1 – 6
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the text
In boxes 1 – 6 below, 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
1 Field failed to find a company that could produce all of the cable needed by the
specified date.
2 HMS Agamemnon and USS Niagara set sail from different locations on August 5,
1857.
3 On the 1858 expedition, the cable broke three times because of a manufacturing fault.
4 The newspaper quoted in the passage disapproved of the enthusiasm that met the
1858 expedition.
5 Many articles appeared in the press between 1857 and 1866 about the science
behind the telegraph.
6 Between 1857 and 1866, people talked about the problems related to the telegraph
project on a regular basis.
Questions 7 – 13
Complete the notes below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the text for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 7 – 13 below.
The history of the trans-Atlantic telegraph
The first attempts to lay cable:
 the Atlantic Telegraph company was set up by Field, Brett and Bright in 1856
 the central wires of the cable were made of 7…………………..
 the cable was put onto two ships due to its 8…………………..
 the 1857 attempt failed
 the cable was successfully laid in 1858
Events between 1858 and 1866:
 celebrations were brief since problems emerged
 further research led to the cable’s thickness and 9..........................being improved
 Field set up another company to get the 10...........................for another attempt
 the strong winds experienced by the SS Great Eastern led to the cable being lost
 the 1866 expedition was successful
The changes the trans-Atlantic telegraph brought about:
 members of the 11................................could react more quickly to events
 news could be relayed faster, thus improving 12…….. …………
 it became easier for US 13…………………..
 to maintain contact with their families
READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which are based on Reading
Passage 2 below.
Bird Migration
A. Birds have many unique design features that enable them to perform such amazing
feats of endurance. They are equipped with lightweight, hollow bones, intricately
designed feathers providing both lift and thrust for rapid flight, navigation systems
superior to any that man has developed, and an ingenious heat conserving design that,
among other things, concentrates all blood circulation beneath layers of warm,
waterproof plumage, leaving them fit to face life in the harshest of climates. Their
respiratory systems have to perform efficiently during sustained flights at altitude, so
they have a system of extracting oxygen from their lungs that far exceeds that of any
other animal. During the later stages of the summer breeding season, when food is
plentiful, their bodies can accumulate considerable layers of fat, to provide sufficient
energy for their long migratory flights.
B. The fundamental reason that birds migrate is to find adequate food during the winter
months when it is in short supply. This particularly applies to birds that breed in the
temperate and Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere, where food is abundant
during the short growing season. Many species can tolerate cold temperatures if food is
plentiful, but when food is not available, they must migrate. However, intriguing
questions remain.
C. One puzzling fact is that many birds journey much further than would be necessary
just to find food and good weather. Nobody knows, for instance, why British swallows,
which could presumably survive equally well if they spent the winter in equatorial Africa,
instead of fly several thousands of miles further to their preferred winter home in South
Africa’s Cape Province. Another mystery involves the huge migrations performed by
arctic terns and mudflat-feeding shorebirds that breed close to Polar Regions. In
general, the further north a migrant species breeds, the further south it spends the
winter. For arctic terns, this necessitates an annual round trip of 25,000 miles. Yet, en
route to their final destination in far-flung southern latitudes, all these individuals overfly
other areas of seemingly suitable habitat spanning two hemispheres. While we may not
fully understand birds’ reasons for going to particular places, we can marvel at their
feats.
D. One of the greatest mysteries is how young birds know how to find the traditional
wintering areas without parental guidance. Very few adults migrate with juveniles in tow,
and youngsters may even have little or no inkling of their parents’ appearance. A
familiar example is that of the cuckoo, which lays its eggs in another species’ nest and
never reencounters its young. It is mind-boggling to consider that, once raised by its
host species, the young cuckoo makes its way to ancestral wintering grounds in the
tropics before returning single-handedly to northern Europe the next season to seek out
a mate among its kind. The obvious implication is that it inherits from its parents an
inbuilt route map and direction-finding capability, as well as a mental image of what
another cuckoo looks like. Yet nobody has the slightest idea as to how this is possible.
E. Mounting evidence has confirmed that birds use the positions of the sun and stars to
obtain compass directions. They also seem to be able to detect the earth’s magnetic
field, probably due to having minute crystals of magnetite in the region of their brains.
However, accurate navigation also requires an awareness of position and time,
especially when lost. Experiments have shown that after being taken thousands of miles
over an unfamiliar landmass, birds are still capable of returning rapidly to nest sites.
Such phenomenal powers are the product of computing several sophisticated cues,
including an inborn map of the night sky and the pull of the earth’s magnetic field. How
the birds use their ‘instruments’ remains unknown, but one thing is clear: they see the
world with a superior sensory perception to ours. Most small birds migrate at night and
take their direction from the position of the setting sun. However, as well as seeing the
sun go down, they also seem to see the plane of polarized light caused by it, which
calibrates their compass. Travelling at night provides other benefits. Daytime predators
are avoided and the danger of dehydration due to flying for long periods in warm, sunlit
skies is reduced. Furthermore, at night the air is generally cool and less turbulent and
so conducive to sustained, stable flight.
F. Nevertheless, all journeys involve considerable risk, and part of the skill in arriving
safely is setting off at the right time. This means accurate weather forecasting and
utilizing favourable winds. Birds are adept at both, and, in laboratory tests, some have
been shown to detect the minute difference in barometric pressure between the floor
and ceiling of a room. Often birds react to weather changes before there is any visible
sign of them. Lapwings, which feed on grassland, flee west from the Netherlands to the
British Isles, France, and Spain at the onset of a cold snap. When the ground surface
freezes, the birds could starve. Yet they return to Holland ahead of a thaw, their arrival
linked to a pressure change presaging an improvement in the weather.
G. In one instance a Welsh Manx shearwater carried to America and released was back
in its burrow on Skokholm Island, off the Pembrokeshire coast, one day before a letter
announcing its release! Conversely, each autumn a small number of North American
birds are blown across the Atlantic by fast-moving westerly tailwinds. Not only do they
arrive safely in Europe, but, based on ringing evidence, some make it back to North
America the following spring, after probably spending the winter with European migrants
in sunny African climes.
Questions 14-20
Reading passage has seven paragraphs, A-G.
Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number, i-x, in boxes 14-20 on your answer sheet.
List of headings
i. The best moment to migrate
ii. The unexplained rejection of closer feeding ground
iii.The influence of weather on the migration route
iv. Physical characteristics that allow birds to migrate
v. The main reason why birds migrate
vi. The best wintering grounds for birds
vii. Research findings on how birds migrate
viii. Successful migration despite the trouble of wind
ix. The contrast between long-distance migration and short-distance migration
x. Mysterious migration despite lack of teaching

14 Paragraph A
15 Paragraph B
16 Paragraph C
17 Paragraph D
18 Paragraph E
19 Paragraph F
20 Paragraph G
Questions 21 and 22
Choose TWO letters, A-E.
Write the correct letters in your answer sheet. Which TWO of the following statements
are true of bird migration?

A Birds often fly further than they need to

B Birds travelling in family groups are safe.
C Birds flying at night need less water.
D Birds have much sharper eyesight than humans.
E Only shorebirds are resistant to strong winds.

Question 23-26
Complete the sentences below using NO MORE THAN ONE WORD OR A
NUMBER from the passage.
Write your answers in your answer sheet

23 It is a great mystery that young birds like cuckoos can find their wintering grounds
without....................assistence.

24 Evidence shows birds can tell directions like a...…………. by observing the sun and
the stars.

25 One advantage for birds flying at night is that they can avoid contact with ………….
Avoid contact = avoid

26 Laboratory tests show that birds can detect weather without.............................signs.

READING PASSAGE 3

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

Decisions, Decisions.

Research explores when we can make a vital decision quickly and we need to proceed
more deliberately

A A widely recognised legend tells us that in Gordium (in what is now Turkey) in
the fourth century BC an oxcart was roped to a pole with a complex knot. It was said
that the first person to untie it would become the king of Asia. Unfortunately, the knot
proved impossible to untie. The story continues that when confronted with this problem,
rather than deliberating on how to untie the Gordian knot. Alexander, the famous ruler
of the Greeks in the ancient world, simply took out his sword and cut it in two – then
went on to conquer Asia. Ever since the notion of a ‘Gordian solution’ has referred to
the attractiveness of a simple answer to an otherwise intractable problem.

B Among researchers in the psychology of decision making, however, such

solutions have traditionally held little appeal. In particular, the ‘conflict model’ of decision
making proposed by psychologists Irving Janis and Leon Mann in their 1977 book,
Decision Making, argued that a complex decision-making process is essential for
guarding individuals and groups from the peril of ‘group-think’. Decisions made without
thorough canvassing, surveying, weighing, examining and reexamining relevant
information and options would be suboptimal and often disastrous. One foreign affair
decision made by a well-known US political leader in the 1960s is typically held us as an
example of the perils of inadequate thought, whereas his successful handling of a water
crisis is cited as an example of the advantages of careful deliberation. However,
examination of these historical events by Peter Suedfield, a psychologist at the
University of British Columbia, and Roderick Kramer, a psychologist at the Stanford
Graduate School of Business, found little difference in the two decision-making
processes; both crises required and received complex consideration by the political
administration, but later only the second one was deemed to be the effective.

C In general, however, organizational and political science offers little evidence

that complex decisions fare better than simpler ones. In fact, a growing body of work
suggests that in many situations simply ‘snap’ decisions with being routinely superior to
more complex ones – an idea that gained widespread public appeal with Malcolm
Gladwell’s best-selling book Blink (2005).

D An article by Ap Dijksterhuis of the University of Amsterdam and his colleagues,

Making the Right Choice: the Deliberation-without-attention Effect’, runs very much in
the spirit of Gladwell’s influential text. Its core argument is that to be effective,
conscious (deliberative) decision making requires cognitive resources. Because
increasingly complex decisions place increasing strain on those resources, the quality
of our
decisions declines as their complexity increases. In short, complex decisions overrun
our cognitive powers. On the other hand, unconscious decision making (what the author
refer to as ‘deliberation without attention’) requires no cognitive resources, so task
complexity does not Effectiveness. The seemingly counterintuitive conclusion is that
although conscious thought enhances simple decisions, the opposite holds true for
more complex decisions.

E Dijksterhuis reports four Simple but elegant studies supporting this argument. In
one, participants assessed the quality of four hypothetical cars by considering either
four attributes (a simple task) or 12 attributes (a complex task). Among participants
who considered four attributes, those who were allowed to engage in undistracted
deliberative thought did better at discriminating between the best and worst cars.
Those who were distracted and thus unable to deliberate had to rely on their
unconscious thinking and did less well. The opposite pattern emerged when people
considered 12 criteria. In this case, conscious deliberation led to inferior discrimination
and poor decisions.

F In other studies, Dijksterhuis surveyed people shopping for clothes (‘simple’

products) and furniture (‘complex’ products). Compared with those who said they
had deliberated long and hard, shoppers who bought with little conscious
deliberation felt less happy with their simple clothing purchase but happier with the
complex furniture purchases. Deliberation without attention actually produced better
results as the decisions became more complex.

G From there, however, the researchers take a big leap. They write: There is no
reason to assume that the deliberation-without-attention effect does not generalize to
other types of choices – political, managerial or otherwise. In such cases, it should
benefit the individual to think consciously about simple matters and to delegate thinking
about more complicated matters to the unconscious.

H This radical inference contradicts standard political and managerial theory but
doubtless comforts those in politics and management who always find the simple
solution to the complex problem an attractive proposition. Indeed, one suspects many of
our political leaders already embrace this wisdom.

I Still, it is there, in the realms of society and its governance, that the more
problematic implications of deliberation without attention begin to surface. Variables
that can be neatly circumscribed in decisions about shopping lose clarity in a world of
group dynamics, social interaction, history and politics. Two pertinent questions arise.
First, what counts as a complex decision? And second, what counts as a good
outcome?

J As social psychologist Kurt Lewin (1890 – 1947) noted, a ‘good’ decision that
nobody respects is actually bad, his classic studies of decision making showed that
participating in deliberative processes makes people more likely to abide by the results.
The issue here is that when political decision-makers make mistakes, it is their politics,
or the relationship between their politics and our own, rather than psychology which is at
fault.

K Gladwell’s book and Dijksterhuis’s paper are invaluable in pointing out the
limitations of the conventional wisdom that decision quality rises with decision-making
complexity. But this work still tempts us to believe that decision making is simply a
matter of psychology, rather than also a question of politics, ideology and group
membership. Avoiding social considerations in a search for general appeal rather
than toward it.
Questions 27-31
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write your answers in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet.

27 The legend of the Gordian knot is used to illustrate the idea that
A anyone can solve a difficult problem
B difficult problems can have easy solutions
C the solution to any problem requires a lot of thought
D people who can solve complex problems make good leaders

28 The ‘conflict model’ of decision making proposed by Janis and Mann requires that
A opposing political parties be involved
B all-important facts be considered
C people be encouraged to have different ideas
D previous similar situations be thoroughly examined

29 According to recent thinking reinforced by Malcolm Gladwell, the best decisions

A involve consultation
B involve complex thought
C are made very quickly
D are the most attractive option

30 Dijksterhuis and his colleagues claim in their article that

A our cognitive resources improve as tasks become more complex
B conscious decision making is negatively affected by task complexity
C unconscious decision making is a popular approach
D deliberation without attention defines the way we make decisions

31 Dijksterhuis’s car study found that, in simple tasks, participants

A were involved in lengthy discussions
B found it impossible to make decisions quickly
C were unable to differentiate between the options
D could make a better choice when allowed to concentrate
Questions 32-35
Complete the summary using the list of words A-I below.
Write the correct letter, A-I, in boxes 32-35 on your answer sheet.

Dijksterhuis’s shopping study and its

conclusions

Using clothing and furniture as examples of different types of purchases, Dijksterhuis

questioned shoppers on their satisfaction with what they had bought. People who
spent 32.......time buying simple clothing items were more satisfied than those who had
not. However, when buying furniture, shoppers made 33...................purchasing decisions
if they didn’t think too hard. From this, the researchers concluded that in other choices,
perhaps more important than shopping. 34.........................decisions are best made by
the unconscious. The writer comments that Dijksterhuis’s finding is apparently 35 ..
…………… but nonetheless true.

A more B counterintuitive C simple

D better E conscious F obvious
G complex H less I worse

Questions 36-40
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading
Passage? In boxes 36-40 on your answer sheet, write
YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

36 Dijksterhuis’s findings agree with existing political and management theories.

37 Some political leaders seem to use deliberation without attention when
making complex decisions.
38 All political decisions are complex ones.
39 We judge political errors according to our own political beliefs.
40 Social considerations must be taken into account for any examination of
decision making to prove useful.