PASSAGE 1

Meditation
Meditation is a mind and body practice that has a long history of use for increasing calmness
and physical relaxation, improving psychological balance, coping with illness, and enhancing
overall health and well-being. There are many types of meditation, but most have four
elements in common: a quiet location with as few distractions as possible; a specific,
comfortable posture (sitting, lying down, walking, or in other positions); a focus of attention (a
specially chosen word or set of words, an object, or the sensations of the breath); and an open
attitude (letting distractions come and go naturally without judging them).
Although there is little recorded history on meditation, its roots go back to ancient times.
Teacher and practitioner Mary Rogers explains: "Researchers speculate that primitive hunter-
gatherer societies may have discovered meditation and its altered states of consciousness while
gazing at the flames of their fires. Then, over thousands of years, meditation evolved into a
structured practice." It seems meditation was first popular in the East with Indian scriptures
known as 'tantras' mentioning meditation techniques five thousand years ago. Meditation took
thousands of years to spread to Western societies and it was not until the twentieth century
when it finally started to spread to Western societies and it was not until the twentieth century
when it finally started to gain popularity in the West. Historian David Luttley describes how this
happened: "Meditation spread to the West initially due to an increase in the popularity of
Buddhism. Meditation being a central part of this religion meant that as Buddhism spread,
other countries and cultures soon adopted many different forms of meditation."
Supporters of meditation claim that it can be a part of people's lives in different ways and is
often practiced to acquire balance in people's physical, emotional, and merital states. Oliver
Sachs, an Australian businessman, is an ardent fan. "I find that the deep rest that meditation
gives me enables me to make better choices. I can work better all through the day and I sleep
better at night." Meditation has also been used to help people quit smoking and conquer drug
and alcohol addictions. Doctor Kristina Smith has researched meditation and found that there
are definite biological and psychological benefits. "Proficient meditative practices help to
integrate the brain functions and regulate various physiological mechanisms resulting in a state
of mental and physical well-being."
One of the most important claimed benefits of meditation is how it releases stress from
people's bodies. Psychologist Angela Matthews is an expert in this field and has theorised that
there is a connection to mankind's development over time due to evolution. "When people's
bodies are exposed to a sudden threat, they respond with the characteristic fight or flight
reaction that is known as an adrenaline rush. If people are in extreme danger, these reactions
are of great assistance and gain to them. The same response is now triggered in our daily lives
when people are in a traffic hold-up or someone irritates us at work If people do not confront
things (andsome things are beyond their control), they end up being in a permanent state of
stress."
Related to stress, a recent study found that meditation helped college students decrease
psychological distress and increase coping ability. These kinds of students are also at high risk
for developing hypertension, and the meditation was also associated with decreases in blood
pressure. The study's researchers randomly assigned students to a meditation group or a
control group. They also created a high-risk subgroup, based on blood pressure readings, family
history. and weight. The meditation group received a seven-step course in meditation
techniques, with invitations to attend refresher meetings, and kept track of how often they
practised meditation. At the beginning of the study and after three months, researchers tested
all participants for blood pressure and psychological measures. The study's director, Anton
Hayden, was happy with the results, but also gave another suggestion. "These findings suggest
that young adults at risk of developing hypertension may be able to reduce that risk by
practicing meditation. However, we recommend that future studies of meditation in college
students evaluate long-term effects on blood pressure and psychological distress, so that our
short-term results can be endorsed."
Finally, it seems that meditation can have various beneficial effects on the brain. Long-term
meditators apparently have better-preserved brains than non-meditators as they age, as well as
an increase in the thickness of the hippocampus, which governs learning and memory.
Meditators also have more development in the areas of the brain that play roles in emotion
regulation and self-referential processing. Younger developing brains can also be beneficially
affected and there has been increasing interest from educators and researchers in bringing
meditation to school kids, who are dealing with the usual stressors inside school, and often
additional stress and trauma outside school. San Francisco high school principal, Nicola Roberts,
explains how her school has been transformed. "Although I was sceptical at first, we started a
twice daily meditation program and saw suspensions decrease, GPA's increase and absenteeism
decrease."
Although meditation has many detractors, those who practise it are vociferous in their support.
More and more people are starting to take up meditation at home and work and increasing
numbers of doctors are starting to prescribe it. Additional studies are also being conducted
about the effects of meditation and, as more expertise is gathered, meditation will become a
more accurately and frequently approved treatment.
Questions 1-7
Look at the following statements (questions 1-7) and the list of people below.
Match each statement with the correct person's initials.
Write the correct initials in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet.
1 Meditation can help people enjoy a better night's sleep.
2 More research is required to confirm the effectiveness of meditation at lowering
hypertension in young adults. Ah
3 It is theorised that early civilisations developed what is now called meditation by staring
into their fires. mg
4 Properly conducted meditation can lead to more effective performance in the brain.
5 Religion is theorised to be responsible for meditation first coming to the West. D
6 Meditation has allowed attendances to increase in at least one US school.
7 Modern lifestyles can create situations of permanent stress for some people.
MR Mary Rogers
DL David Luttley
Os Oliver Sachs
KS Kristina Smith
AM Angela Matthews
AH Anton Hayden
NR Nicola Roberts
Questions 8-13 Complete the sentences below.
Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the text for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 8-13 on your answer sheet.
8 Meditation only became popular in the West in the ..........................
9.One expert feels that the changes people have experienced from thexpe.................can result
in reactions that lead to constant high stress.
10 Those participants in the college student stress study that were not in a meditation group
were placed into a group used for...............
11 Participants in the college student stress study had their...................taken and their
psychological well-being tested.
12. If the .................... meditation use. of the hippocampus is enlarged, this can indicate long-
term
13.Meditation will probably be more commonly prescribed when there is
more .................available.

PASSAGE 2:
Optimism and Health
A Faced with 12 months of plummeting economics and rising human distress, staunchly
maintaining a rosy view might seem deucedly Pollyannaish. But here we encounter the
optimism paradox. As Brice Pitt, an emeritus professor of the psychiatry of old age at Imperial
College, London, told me: optimists are unrealistic. Depressive people see things as they really
are, but that is a disadvantage from an evolutionary point of view. Optimism is a piece of
evolutionary equipment that carried us through millennia of setbacks.
B It has been known that optimistic has something to do with the long life, and optimists have
plenty to be happy about. In other words, if you can convince yourself that things will get
better, the odds of it happening will improve – because you keep on playing the game. In this
light, optimism “is a habitual way of explaining your setbacks to yourself’, reports Martin
Seligman, the psychology professor and author of Learned Optimism. The research shows that
when times get tough, optimists do better than pessimists – they succeed better at work,
respond better to stress, suffer fewer depressive episodes and achieve more personal goals.
C Studies also show that belief can help with the financial pinch. Chad Wallens, a social
forecaster at the Henley Centre who surveyed middle-class Britons’ beliefs about income, has
found that “he people who feel wealthiest, and those who feel poorest, actually have almost
the same amount of money at their disposal. Their attitudes and behaviour patterns, however,
are different from one another.”
D Optimists have something else to be cheerful about-in general, they are more robust. For
example, a study of 660 volunteers by the Yale University psychologist Dr Becca Levy, found
that thinking positively adds an average of 7 years to your life. Other American research claims
to have identified a physical mechanism behind this. A Harvard Medical School study of 670
men found that the optimists have significantly better lung function. The lead author, Dr
Rosalind Wright, believes that attitude somehow strengthens the immune system. “Preliminary
studies on heart patients suggest that, by changing a person’s outlook, you can improve their
mortality risk，” she says.
E Few studies have tried to ascertain the proportion of optimists in the world. But a 1995
nationwide survey conducted for the American magazine Adweek found that about half the
population counted themselves as optimists, with women slightly more apt than men (53 per
cent versus 48 per cent) to see the sunny side.
F Although some optimists may be accurate in their positive beliefs about the future, others
may be unrealistic-their optimism is misplaced, according to American Psychological
Association. Research shows that some smokers exhibit unrealistic optimism by
underestimating their relative chances of experiencing disease. An important question is
whether such unrealistic optimism is associated with risk-related attitudes and behavior. We
addressed this question by investigating if one’s perceived risk of developing lung cancer, over
and above one’s objective risk, predicted acceptance of myths and other beliefs about smoking.
Hierarchical regressions showed that those individuals who were unrealistically optimistic were
more likely to endorse beliefs that there is no risk of lung cancer if one only smokes for a few
years and that getting lung cancer depends on one’s genes.
G Of course, there is no guarantee that optimism will insulate you from the crunch’s worst
effects, but the best strategy is still to keep smiling and thank your lucky stars. Because (as
every good sports coach knows) adversity is character-forming-so long as you practise the skills
of resilience. Research among tycoons and business leaders shows that the path to success is
often littered with failure: a record of sackings, bankruptcies and blistering castigations. But
instead of curling into a foetal ball beneath the coffee table, they resiliently pick themselves up,
learn from their pratfalls and march boldly towards the next opportunity.
H The American Psychological Association defines resilience as the ability to adapt in the face of
adversity, trauma or tragedy. A resilient person may go through difficulty and uncertainty, but
he or she will doggedly bounce back.
I Optimism is one of the central traits required in building resilience, say Yale University
investigators in the Annual Review of Clinical Psychology. They add that resilient people learn to
hold on to their sense of humour and this can help them to keep a flexible attitude when big
changes of plan are warranted. The ability to accept your lot with equanimity also plays an
important role, the study adds.
J One of the best ways to acquire resilience is through experiencing a difficult childhood, the
sociologist Steven Stack reports in the Journal of Social Psychology. For example, short men are
less likely to commit suicide than tall guys, he says, because shorties develop psychological
defense skills to handle the bullies and mickeytaking that their lack of stature attracts. By
contrast, those who enjoyed adversity-free youths can get derailed by setbacks later on
because they’ve never been inoculated against agro.
K Learning to overcome your fears. If you are handicapped by having had a happy childhood,
then practising proactive optimism can help you to become more resilient. Studies of resilient
people show that they take more risks; they court failure and learn not to fear it. And despite
being thick-skinned, resilient types are also more open than average to other people. Bouncing
through knock backs is all part of the process. It’s about optimistic risk-taking-being confident
that people will like you. Simply smiling and being warm to people can help. It’s an altruistic
path to self-interest-and if it achieves nothing else, it will reinforce an age-old adage: hard times
can bring out the best in you.
QUESTIONS
Questions 14-18 Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading
Passage,using no more than TWO words from the Reading Passage for each answer. Write your
answers in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet.
Summary
Optimists generally are more robust. Yale University psychologist Dr Becca Levy found that an
extension of around 14 …………….. to your life will be achieved by positive attitude toward life. A
Harvard Medical School conduct a research which study of 15 …………….. male volunteers found
that the optimists have remarkably better 16 …………….. And Dr Rosalind Wright believes
optimistic life may enhance the 17 …………….. ” some initiative studies on 18 …………….. indicate
that people can improve their mortality risk by changing into a positive outlook.
Questions 19-23 Use the information in the passage to match the people or organization (listed
A-E) with opinions or deeds below. Write the appropriate letters A-E in boxes 19-23 on your
answer sheet.
NB you may use any latter more than once
A Brice Pitt
B American Psychological Association
C Martin Seligman
D Chad Wallens of Henley Centre
E Annual Review of Clinical Psychology
F Steven Stack
G American magazine Adweek
19 Different optimism result found according to gender.
20 There is no necessary relationship between happiness and money.
21 Excessive optimism may be incorrect in everyday life.
22 Optimists is advantageous for human evolution.
23 Occurrence of emergency assists resilient people in a positive way.
Questions 24-26 Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading
Passage 2?
TRUE if the sataement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
24 The link between longevity and optimism has been long known.
25 Optimists have better personal relationship than those pessimists.
26 People who had a happy childhood do not need to practise optimism.

Reading Passage: Changing Our Understanding of Health

based on Reading Passage sample below.

Questions 14-18

The reading passage has six paragraphs, B-F. Choose the most suitable

headings for paragraphs B-F from the list of headings below.

Write the appropriate numbers (i-ix) in boxes 14-18 on your answer

sheet.

NB There are more headings than paragraphs, so you will not use them

all.

List of Headings

i) Ottawa International Conference on Health Promotion

ii) Holistic approach to health

iii) The primary importance of environmental factors

iv) Healthy lifestyles approach to health

v) Changes in concepts of health in Western society

vi) Prevention of diseases and illness

vii) Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion

ix) Socio-ecological view of health

Example Answer

Paragraph A v

14. Paragraph B

15. Paragraph C

16. Paragraph D

17. Paragraph E

18. Paragraph F

Changing Our Understanding of Health

and groups. These meanings of health have also changed over time.

This change is no more evident than in Western society today, when

notions of health and health promotion are being challenged and

expanded in new ways.

B For much of recent Western history, health has been viewed in the

physical sense only. That is, good health has been connected to the

smooth mechanical operation of the body, while ill health has been
attributed to a breakdown in this machine. Health in this sense has been

defined as the absence of disease or illness and is seen in medical

terms. According to this view, creating health for people means providing

medical care to treat or prevent disease and illness. During this period,

there was an emphasis on providing clean water, improved sanitation

and housing.

C In the late 1940s the World Health Organisation challenged this

physically and medically oriented view of health. They stated that 'health

is a complete state of physical, mental and social well-being and is not

merely the absence of disease' (WHO, 1946). Health and the person

were seen more holistically (mind/body/spirit) and not just in physical

terms.

D The 1970s was a time of focusing on the prevention of disease and

illness by emphasising the importance of the lifestyle and behaviour of

the individual. Specific behaviours which were seen to increase the risk

of diseases, such as smoking, lack of fitness and unhealthy eating

habits, were targeted. Creating health meant providing not only medical
health care, but health promotion programs and policies which would

help people maintain healthy behaviours and lifestyles. While this

individualistic healthy lifestyle approach to health worked for some (the

wealthy members of society), people experiencing poverty,

unemployment, underemployment or little control over the conditions of

their daily lives benefited little from this approach. This was largely

because both the healthy lifestyles approach and the medical approach

to health largely ignored the social and environmental conditions

affecting the health of people.

E During 1980s and 1990s there has been a growing swing away from

seeing lifestyle risks as the root cause of poor health. While lifestyle

factors still remain important, health is being viewed also in terms of the

social, economic and environmental contexts in which people live. This

broad approach to health is called the socio-ecological view of health.

The broad socio-ecological view of health was endorsed at the first

International Conference of Health Promotion held in 1986, Ottawa,

Canada, where people from 38 countries agreed and declared that:

education, food, a viable income, a stable eco-system, sustainable

resources, social justice and equity. Improvement in health requires a

secure foundation in these basic requirements. (WHO, 1986) .

It is clear from this statement that the creation of health is about much

more than encouraging healthy individual behaviours and lifestyles and

providing appropriate medical care. Therefore, the creation of health

must include addressing issues such as poverty, pollution, urbanisation,

natural resource depletion, social alienation and poor working conditions.

The social, economic and environmental contexts which contribute to the

creation of health do not operate separately or independently of each

other. Rather, they are interacting and interdependent, and it is the

complex interrelationships between them which determine the conditions

that promote health. A broad socio-ecological view of health suggests

that the promotion of health must include a strong social, economic and

environmental focus.

F At the Ottawa Conference in 1986, a charter was developed which

ecological view of health. This charter, known as the Ottawa Charter for

Health Promotion, remains as the backbone of health action today. In

exploring the scope of health promotion it states that:

Good health is a major resource for social, economic and personal

development and an important dimension of quality of life. Political,

economic, social, cultural, environmental, behavioural and biological

factors can all favour health or be harmful to it. (WHO, 1986) .

The Ottawa Charter brings practical meaning and action to this broad

notion of health promotion. It presents fundamental strategies and

approaches in achieving health for all. The overall philosophy of health

promotion which guides these fundamental strategies and approaches is

one of 'enabling people to increase control over and to improve their

health' (WHO, 1986).

Questions 19-22

Using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDSfrom the passage, answer the

following questions.

Write your answers in boxes 19-22 on your answer sheet.

terms of mental, physical and social well-being?

20. Which members of society benefited most from the healthy lifestyles

approach to health?

21. Name the three broad areas which relate to people's health,

according to the socio-ecological view of health.

22. During which decade were lifestyle risks seen as the major

contributors to poor health?

Questions 23-27

Do the following statements agree with the information in the Reading

Passage?

In boxes 23-27 on your answer sheet, write -

YES if the statement agrees with the information.

NO if the statement contradicts the information.

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this in the passage.

23. Doctors have been instrumental in improving living standards in

Western society.

24. The approach to health during the 1970s included the introduction of
health awareness programs.

25. The socio-ecological view of health recognises that lifestyle habits

and the provision of adequate health care are critical factors governing

health.

26. The principles of the Ottawa Charter are considered to be out of date

in the 1990s.

27. In recent years a number of additional countries have subscribed to

the Ottawa Charter.