Test 12

How tennis rackets have changed

In 2016, the British professional tennis player Andy Murray was ranked as the worlds number
one. It was an incredible achievement by any standard made even more remarkable by the fact
that he did this during a period considered to be one of the strongest in the sports history,
competing against the likes of Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, to name just a
few. Yet five years previously, he had been regarded as a talented outsider who entered but never
won the major tournaments.

Of the changes that account for this transformation, one was visible and widely publicised: in
2011, Murray invited former number one player Ivan Lendl onto his coaching team 3 a valuable
addition that had a visible impact on the players playing style. Another change was so subtle as
to pass more or less unnoticed. Like many players, Murray has long preferred a racket that
consists of two types of string: one for the mains (verticals) and another for the crosses
(horizontals). While he continued to use natural string in the crosses, in 2012 he switched to a
synthetic string for the mains. A small change, perhaps, but its importance should not be
underestimated.
The modification that Murray made is just one of a number of options available to players
looking to tweak their rackets in order to improve their games. Touring professionals have their
rackets customised to their special needs, says Colin Triplow, a UK-based professional racket
stringer. It’s a highly important part of performance maximisation. Consequently, the special
rackets used by the worlds elite are not actually readily available to the public; rather, each
racket is individually made to suit the player who uses it. Take the US professional tennis players
Mike and Bob Bryan, for example: “We’re very particular with our racket speciocations”, they
say. “All our rackets are sent from our manufacturer to Tampa, Florida, where our frames go
through a . . . thorough customisation process”. They explain how they have adjusted not only
racket length, but even experimented with different kinds of paint. The rackets they use now
weigh more than the average model and also have a denser string pattern (i.e. more crosses and
mains).
The primary reason for these modifications is simple: as the line between winning and losing
becomes thinner and thinner, even these slight changes become more and more important. As a
result, players and their teams are becoming increasingly creative with the modifications to their
rackets as they look to maximise their competitive advantage.

Racket modifications mainly date back to the 1970s, when the amateur German tennis player
Werner Fischer started playing with the so-called spaghetti-strung racket. It created a string bed
that generated so much topspin that it was quickly banned by the International Tennis
Federation. However, within a decade or two, racket modification became a regularity. Today it
is, in many ways, an aspect of the game that is equal in significance to nutrition or training.

Modifications can be divided into two categories: those to the string bed and those to the racket
frame. The former is far more common than the latter: the choice of the strings and the tension
with which they are installed is something that nearly all professional players experiment with.
They will continually change it depending on various factors including the court surface, climatic
conditions, and game styles. Some will even change it depending on how they feel at the time.
At one time, all tennis rackets were strung with natural gut made from the outer layer of sheep or
cow intestines. This all changed in the early 1990s with the development of synthetic strings that
were cheaper and more durable. They are made from three materials: nylon (relatively durable
and affordable), Kevlar (too stiff to be used alone) or co-polyester (polyester combined with
additives that enhance its performance). Even so, many professional players continue to use a
“hybrid set-up”, where a combination of both synthetic and natural strings are used.

Of the synthetics, co-polyester is by far the most widely used. It’s a perfect ot for the style of
tennis now played, where players tend to battle it out from the back of the court rather than
coming to the net. Studies indicate that the average spin from a co-polyester string is 25% greater
than that from natural string or other synthetics. In a sense, the development of co-polyester
strings has revolutionised the game.
However, many players go beyond these basic adjustments to the strings and make changes
to the racket frame itself. For example, much of the serving power of US professional player
Pete Sampras was attributed to the addition of four to five lead weights onto his rackets, and
today many professionals have the weight adjusted during the manufacturing process.
Other changes to the frame involve the handle. Players have individual preferences for the
shape of the handle and some will have the handle of one racket moulded onto the frame of
a different racket. Other players make different changes. The professional Portuguese player
Gonçalo Oliveira replaced the original grips of his rackets with something thinner because they
had previously felt uncomfortable to hold.
Racket customisation and modiocation have pushed the standards of the game to greater
Levels that few could have anticipated in the days of natural strings and heavy, wooden frames,
and it’s exciting to see what further developments there will be in the future.
Questions 1-7

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?

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. People had expected Andy Murray to become the world’s top tennis player for at

least five years before 2016.

2. The change that Andy Murray made to his rackets attracted a lot of attention.

3. Most of the world’s top players take a professional racket stringer on tour with them.

4. Mike and Bob Bryan use rackets that are light in comparison to the majority

of rackets.

5. Werner Fischer played with a spaghetti-strung racket that he designed himself.

6. The weather can affect how professional players adjust the strings on their rackets.

7. It was believed that the change Pete Sampras made to his rackets contributed to

his strong serve.

Questions 8 –13

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

The tennis racket and how it has changed

• Mike and Bob Bryan made changes to the types of 8………………….. used on

their racket frames.

• Players were not allowed to use the spaghetti-strung racket because of the

amount of 9………………….. it created.

• Changes to rackets can be regarded as being as important as players’ diets or

the 10………………….. they do.

• All rackets used to have natural strings made from the 11………………….. of animals.

• Pete Sampras had metal 12………………….. put into the frames of his rackets.

• Gonçalo Oliveira changed the 13………………….. on his racket handles.

Questions 14 – 20

List of Headings

i. Levels of wealth affected by several other influences besides climate

ii. The failure of vaccination programmes

iii. The problems experienced by small countries

iv. The role of governments in creating wealth

v. The best use of financial assistance

vi. The inspiration for Masters’s research

vii. The advantages of cold weather to people and agriculture

viii. Positive correlations between climate and economy

ix. Reflecting on the traditional view

x. Crop spread in Europe and other continents

14. Paragraph A

15. Paragraph B

16. Paragraph C

17. Paragraph D

18. Paragraph E

19. Paragraph F

20. Paragraph G
 The economic effect of climate

Latitude is crucial to a nation's strength, says Anjana Ahuja

A Dr William Masters was reading a book about mosquitoes when an idea struck him. 'There
was this anecdote about the yellow fever epidemic that hit Philadelphia in 1793,' Masters recalls.
'This epidemic decimated the city until the first frost came.' The sub-zero temperatures froze out
the insects, allowing Philadelphia to recover. If weather could be the key to a city's fortunes,
Masters thought, then why not to the historical fortunes of nations? And could frost lie at the
heart of one of the most enduring economic mysteries of all – why are almost all the wealthy,
industrialised nations to be found where the climate is cooler?

B After two years of research, he thinks that he has found a piece of the puzzle. Masters, an
agricultural economist from Purdue University in Indiana, and Margaret McMillan at Tufts
University, Boston, show that annual frosts are among the factors that distinguish rich nations
from poor ones. Their study is published this month in the Journal of Economic Growth. The pair
speculate that cold snaps have two main benefits – they freeze pests that would otherwise destroy
crops, and also freeze organisms, such as those carried by mosquitoes, that carry disease. The
result is agricultural abundance and a big workforce.

C The academics took two sets of information. The first was average income for countries, the
second was climate data provided by the University of East Anglia. They found a curious tally
between the sets. Countries having five or more frosty days in the winter months are uniformly
rich; those with fewer than five are impoverished. The authors speculate that the five-day figure
is important: it could be the minimum time needed to kill pests in the soil. To illustrate this,
Masters notes: 'Finland is a small country that is growing quickly, but Bolivia is a small country
that isn’t growing at all. Perhaps climate has something to do with that.'

D Other minds have applied themselves to the split between poor and rich nations, citing
anthropological, climatic and zoological reasons for why temperate nations are the most affluent.
Jared Diamond, from the University of California at Los Angeles, pointed out in his book “Guns,
Germs and Steel” that Eurasia is broadly aligned east-west, while Africa and the Americas are
aligned north-south. So in Europe, crops could move quickly across latitudes because climates
are similar. One of the first domesticated crops, einkorn wheat, extended quickly from the
Middle East into Europe; it took twice as long for it to get from Mexico to what is now the
eastern United States. This easy movement along similar latitudes in Eurasia would also have
meant a faster dissemination of other technologies, such as the wheel and writing, Diamond
speculates.

E There are exceptions to the ‘cold equals rich’ argument. There are well-heeled tropical
countries such as Singapore, a result of its superior trading position. Likewise, not all European
countries are moneyed. Masters stresses that climate will never be the overriding factor – the
wealth of nations is too complicated to be attributable to just one factor. Climate, he feels,
somehow combines with other factors – such as the presence of institutions, including
governments, and access to trading routes – to determine whether a country will do well.

F In the past, Masters says, economists thought that institutions had the biggest effect on the
economy, because they brought order to a country in the form of, for example, laws and property
rights. With order, so the thinking went, came affluence. ‘But there are some problems that even
countries with institutions have not been able to get around,’ he says. ‘My feeling is that, as
countries get richer, they get better institutions. And the accumulation of wealth and
improvement in governing institutions are both helped by a favourable environment, including
climate.’

G This does not mean, he insists, that tropical countries are beyond economic help and destined
to remain penniless. Instead of aid being geared towards improving administrative systems, it
should be spent on technology to improve agriculture and to combat disease. Masters cites one
example: ‘There are regions in India that have been provided with irrigation – agricultural
productivity has gone up and there has been an improvement in health.’ Supplying vaccines
against tropical diseases and developing crop varieties that can grow in the tropics would break
the poverty cycle.
Questions 21 – 26

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

21. Philadelphia recovered from its ............ when the temperature dropped dramatically.

22. ............ is an example of a small country whose economy is expanding.

23. ............ spread more slowly from Mexico than it did from the Middle East.

24. Technology spread more quickly in ............ than in Africa.

25. ............ is economically rich in spite of its tropical climate.

26. Aid should be used to improve agriculture rather than to improve ............
 A closer examination of a study on verbal and non-verbal messages

A study of non-verbal communication carried out in 1967 continues to be widely quoted today.
David Lapakko looks at limitations in the original study

Description of the Study

The findings of a study on verbal and non-verbal messages in communication by Albert

Mehrabian and his colleagues at UCLA in 1967 have been quoted so frequently that they are
now often regarded as a self-evident truth.

In the first experiment, subjects were asked to listen to a recording of a female saying the word
'maybe' in three tones of voice to convey liking, neutrality and disliking. The subjects were then
shown photos of female faces expressing the same three emotions and were asked to guess the
emotions in the recorded voice and the photos. It was found that the photos got more accurate
responses than the voices. In the second experiment, subjects listened to nine recorded words
spoken in different tones of voice. Three words had positive meanings (e.g. honey), three were
neutral (e.g. oh) and three were negative (e.g. terrible). Again, the subjects had to guess the
speaker's emotions. It was found that tone of voice carried more meaning than the individual
words. From these experiments the researchers concluded that 7% of our feeling towards a
speaker is based on the actual words they use, 38% on their tone of voice, and 55% on their body
language (e.g. facial expression).

Methodological Issues

However, a closer look at the study reveals several limitations. The first is that the entire study
involved only 62 subjects. Of these, 25 were used to select the word for the first experiment,
while the key issue – comparing verbal and non-verbal communication – was determined by only
the 37 remaining subjects. All were female undergraduates who participated as part of their
introductory psychology course, and their ages and academic qualifications seem remarkably
uniform. Thus, the findings may simply be a product of the nature of the sample.

Critics have also pointed out that the 7-38-55 formula is flawed since it was pieced together from
two different experiments, neither of which involved all three channels (verbal, vocal, and
facial). In addition, in the first experiment the single word maybe was used throughout so it was
impossible for the effects of changes in verbal input to be assessed. The researchers intentionally
used a 'neutral' word, so naturally, the subjects found little meaning there. Clearly, such a
methodology lacks validity. In the real world, people communicate in a particular context and
speak in phrases and full-blown sentences, making extensive use of the multi-faceted vehicle of
language.

My concern is that interpretations of this study have gained such prominence in our pedagogical
literature. This 7-38-55 formula appears in many basic texts, used for training in public speaking,
interpersonal communication and organizational communication.

Lessons to consider

Clearly, one appealing aspect of the Mehrabian study is its numerical precision. Communication
is a complex phenomenon, but it seems less so when we can rely on these three magical
numbers. In contrast to the ambiguities of language, numbers seem to possess exactness. And the
popular appeal of the study has given the 7-38-55 formula enormous credibility. There is a
certain mystique about non-verbal communication, and the continued references to this research
sustain it, encouraging people to believe in the overwhelming importance of the non-verbal
message compared with the verbal one. Yet we know that even one ill-chosen word to a
colleague or friend can make or break a communicative effort. Words do matter. Bradley (1991),
one of the few textbook writers to criticize the Mehrabian study, makes the same point when he
observes, ‘If we could communicate 93% of information and attitudes with vocal and facial cues,
it would be wasteful to spend time learning a language.’

Mehrabian himself believes his research should not be interpreted to devalue the role of language
in communication, saying:

"Please remember that all my findings... dealt with communications of feelings and attitudes... it
is absurd to imply or suggest that the verbal portion of communication constitutes only 7% of the
message... anytime we communicate abstract relationships (e.g., x = y – the square of z) clearly
100% of the entire communication is verbal. (Mehrabian, 1995)"

To be fair, many textbook writers attempt to be faithful to the context of Mehrabian’s research.
For example, Stewart and D’Angelo (1988) write: 'Mehrabian argues that when we’re uncertain
about what someone’s feeling, or about how much we like him or her, we rely... only 7% on the
words that are spoken'. Others try to play down the specific percentages, saying that an
understanding of the general importance of non-verbal cues is more important. Nonetheless,
other textbook authors simply use the numbers without placing any limits on their meaning.

Conclusion

Since this relatively small study was first published it has achieved an influence far beyond its
intended scope. We need to put it into its proper perspective and learn some important lessons
from it regarding social science research, communication pedagogy, and the forces which have
created widespread misunderstanding about communication.

Questions 27 – 30

Complete the summary using the list of words and phrases, A-H, below.

Mehrabian’s 1967 study

Albert Mehrabian and his colleagues carried out an influential study comparing the 27 ............ of
verbal and non-verbal communication. This involved two experiments. In both experiments,
subjects had to identify the 28 ............ being communicated by other people. The two main areas
focused on in the first experiment were voice tones and 29 ............ , while the second focused
mainly on voice tones and 30 ............ .

A. facial expressions B. purposes C. printed words

D. effects E. word meanings F. gender differences

G. feelings H. characteristics
Questions 31 – 35

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

31. One limitation of the study was that there were too few subjects involved.

32. The fact that the subjects in the study came from a similar background was an advantage.

33. The two experiments should have been carried out in a different order.

34. The researchers’ choice of a neutral word was helpful in the context of the study.

35. The study would have been more valid if it had included a range of languages.

Questions 36 – 40

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

36. What does the writer say about the ‘numerical precision’ of Mehrabian’s study?

A. It makes the claims more attractive.

B. It is the strongest point of the study.

C. It will appeal to superstitious people.

D. It allows comparison between languages.

37. What does the writer say about the popularity of the 7-38-55 formula?

A. It is unlikely to maintain its present status.

B. It is leading to an undervaluing of language.

C. It should be applied in a more practical way.

D. It may help understanding of non-verbal messages.

38. What point is Bradley making about language learning?

A. Language could be learned more efficiently than it is.

B. More research is needed into attitudes to communication.

C. More time should be spent looking at tone and body language.

D. Language must be important since we make an effort to acquire it.

39. What does Mehrabian himself say about his findings?

A. They are relevant to only one area of communication.

B. It is only in maths that 100% of communication is verbal.

C. Feelings are more difficult to communicate than numerical facts.

D. Non-verbal communication is the main part of the message.

40. What is the writer’s purpose in the paragraph beginning ‘To be fair…’?

A. to justify the strong points of Mehrabian’s study

B. to outline other research on non-verbal behaviour

C. to present varying interpretations of Mehrabian’s study

D. to show that textbooks tend to ignore non-verbal behaviour