Passage 1:

At 11.39 p.m. on the evening of Sunday 14 April 1912, lookouts Frederick

Fleet and Reginald Lee on the forward mast of the Titanic sighted an eerie,
black mass coming into view directly in front of the ship. Fleet picked up the
phone to the helm, waited for Sixth Officer Moody to answer, and yelled
'Iceberg, right ahead!' The greatest disaster in maritime history was about to
be set in motion.
Thirty-seven seconds later, despite the efforts of officers in the bridge and
engine room to steer around the iceberg, the Titanic struck a piece of
submerged ice, bursting rivets in the ship's hull and flooding the first five
watertight compartments. The ship's designer, Thomas Andrews, carried out
a visual inspection of the ship's damage and informed Captain Smith at
midnight that the ship would sink in less than two hours. By 12.30 a.m., the
lifeboats were being filled with women and children, after Smith had given
the command for them to be uncovered and swung out 15 minutes earlier.
The first lifeboat was successfully lowered 15 minutes later, with only 28 of
its 65 seats occupied. By 1.15 a.m., the waterline was beginning to reach
the Titanic's name on the ship's bow, and over the next hour every lifeboat
would be released as officers struggled to maintain order amongst the
growing panic on board.
The closing moments of the Titanic's sinking began shortly after 2 a.m., as
the last lifeboat was lowered and the ship's propellers lifted out of the
water, leaving the 1,500 passengers still on board to surge towards the stern.
At 2.17 a.m., Harold Bride and Jack Philips tapped out their last wireless
message after being relieved of duty as the ship's wireless operators, and
the ship's band stopped playing. Less than a minute later, occupants of the
lifeboats witnessed the ship's lights flash once, then go black, and a huge
roar signalled the Titanic's contents plunging towards the bow, causing the
front half of the ship to break off and go under. The Titanic's stern bobbed
up momentarily, and at 2.20 a.m., the ship finally disappeared beneath the
frigid waters.
What or who was responsible for the scale of this catastrophe? Explanations
abound, some that focus on very small details. Due to a last minute change
in the ship's officer line-up, iceberg lookouts Frederick Fleet and Reginald
Lee were making do without a pair of binoculars that an officer transferred
off the ship in Southampton had left in a cupboard onboard, unbeknownst
to any of the ship's crew. Fleet, who survived the sinking, insisted at a
subsequent inquiry that he could have identified the iceberg in time to avert
disaster if he had been in possession of the binoculars.
Less than an hour before the Titanic struck the iceberg, wireless operator
Cyril Evans on the Californian, located just 20 miles to the north, tried to
contact operator Jack Philips on the Titanic to warn him of pack ice in the
area. 'Shut up, shut up, you're jamming my signal', Philips replied. 'I'm busy.'
The Titanic's wireless system had broken down for several hours earlier that
day, and Philips was clearing a backlog of personal messages that passengers
had requested to be sent to family and friends in the USA. Nevertheless,
Captain Smith had maintained the ship's speed of 22 knots despite multiple
earlier warnings of ice ahead. It has been suggested that Smith was under
pressure to make headlines by arriving early in New York, but maritime
historians such as Richard Howell have countered this perception, noting
that Smith was simply following common procedure at the time, and not
behaving recklessly.
One of the strongest explanations for the severe loss of life has been the fact
that the Titanic did not carry enough lifeboats for everyone on board.
Maritime regulations at the time tied lifeboat capacity to ship size, not to
the number of passengers on board. This meant that the Titanic , with room
for 1,178 of its 2,222 passengers, actually surpassed the Board of Trade's
requirement that it carry lifeboats for 1,060 of its passengers. Nevertheless,
with lifeboats being lowered less than half full in many cases, and only 712
passengers surviving despite a two and a half hour window of opportunity,
more lifeboats would not have guaranteed more survivors in the absence of
better training and preparation. Many passengers were confused about
where to go after the order to launch lifeboats was given; a lifeboat drill
scheduled for earlier on the same day that the Titanic struck the iceberg was
cancelled by Captain Smith, in order to allow passengers to attend church.
Complete the table below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the text for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.
Time Person/s Position Action
11.39 1 2 Reported sighting
p.m. of iceberg
3 Andrews Ship's Reported how long
designer the Titanic could
stay afloat
12.15 Smith Captain Ordered 4 to
a.m. be released
2.17 Bride & 5 Relayed final 6
a.m. Philips

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading

Passage 1? In boxes 7-13 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
7
The binoculars for the men on watch had been left in a crew locker in
Southampton.
TRUE
FALSE
NOT GIVEN
8.The missing binoculars were the major factor leading to the collision with
the iceberg.
TRUE
FALSE
NOT GIVEN
9.Philips missed notification about the ice from Evans because the Titanic s
wireless system was not functioning at the time.
TRUE
FALSE
NOT GIVEN
10.Captain Smith knew there was ice in the area.
TRUE
FALSE
NOT GIVEN
11.Howell believed the captains failure to reduce speed was an irresponsible
action.
TRUE
FALSE
NOT GIVEN
12.The Titanic was able to seat more passengers in lifeboats than the Board
of Trade required.
TRUE
FALSE
NOT GIVEN
13.A lifeboat drill would have saved more lives.
TRUE
FALSE
NOT GIVEN

Passage 2:
A. In the theatre of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, on the evening of
27 September 1922, a new form of film-making made its commercial debut:
3-D 1 . The film, The Power of Love , was then shown in New York City to
exhibitors and press, but was subsequently not picked up for distribution
and is now believed to be lost. The following three decades were a period of
quiet experimentation for 3-D pioneers, as they adapted to new
technologies and steadily improved the viewing experience. In 1952 the
'golden era' of 3-D is considered to have begun with the release of Bwana
Devil , and over the next several years audiences met with a string of films
that used the technology. Over the following decades it waxed and waned
within film-making circles, peaking in the 1970s and again in the 1990s when
IMAX gained traction, but it is only in the last few years that 3-D appears to
have firmly entered mainstream production.
B. Released worldwide in December 2009, the fantasy film Avatar quickly
became the highest-grossing film ever made, knocking Titanic from the top
slot. Avatar , set in 2154 on a planet in a distant solar system, went on to
become the only film to have earned US$2 billion world-wide, and is now
approaching the $3 billion mark. The main reason for its runaway popularity
appears to be its visual splendour; though most critics praised the film, it
was mostly on account of its ground-breaking special effects. Kenneth Turan
of the Los Angeles Times praised Avatar's 'powerful' visual
accomplishments, but suggested the dialogue was 'flat' and the
characterisations 'obvious'. A film analyst at Exhibitor Relations has agreed,
noting that Avatar has cemented the use of 3-D as a production and
promotional tool for blockbuster films, rather than as a mere niche or
novelty experiment. 'This is why all these 3-D venues were built', he said.
'This is the one. The behemoth... The holy grail of 3-D has finally arrived'.
C. Those who embrace 3-D note that it spices up a trip to the cinema by
adding a more active 'embodied' layer of experience instead of the viewer
passively receiving the film through eyes and ears only. A blogger on
Animation Ideas writes, '...when 3-D is done well—like in the flying scenes
in Up , How to Train Your Dragon and Avatar , there is an added feeling of
vertigo. If you have any fear of heights, the 3-D really adds to this element...'
Kevin Carr argues that the backlash against 3-D is similar to that which
occurred against CGI 2 several years ago, and points out that CGI is now
widely regarded as part of the film-maker's artistic toolkit. He also notes that
new technology is frequently seen to be a 'gimmick' in its early days,
pointing out that many commentators slapped the first 'talkie' films of the
early 1920s with this same label.
D. But not everyone greets the rise of 3-D with open arms. Some
ophthalmologists point out that 3-D can have unsettling physical effects for
many viewers. Dr. Michael Rosenberg, a professor at Northwestern
University, has pointed out that many people go through life with minor eye
disturbances—a slight muscular imbalance, for example—that does not
interrupt day-to-day activities. In the experience of a 3-D movie, however,
this problem can be exacerbated through the viewer trying to concentrate
on unusual visual phenomena. Dr. Deborah Friedman, from the University of
Rochester Medical Center, notes that the perception of depth conjured
through three dimensions does not complement the angles from which we
take in the world. Eyestrains, headaches and nausea are therefore a problem
for around 15% of a 3-D film audience.
E. Film critic Roger Ebert warns that 3-D is detrimental to good film-making.
Firstly, he argues, the technology is simply unnecessary; 2-D movies are
'already' 3-D, as far as our minds are concerned. Adding the extra dimension
with technology, instead of letting our minds do the work, can actually be
counter-purposeful and make the over-all effect seem clumsy and contrived.
Ebert also points out that the special glasses dim the effect by soaking up
light from the screen, making 3-D films a slightly duller experience than they
might otherwise be. Finally, Ebert suggests that 3-D encourages film-makers
to undercut drama and narrative in favour of simply piling on more gimmicks
and special effects. 'Hollywood is racing headlong toward the kiddie market,'
he says, pointing to Disney's announcement that it will no longer make
traditional films in favour of animation, franchises, and superheroes.
F. Whether or not 3-D becomes a powerful force for the film-maker's vision
and the film-going experience, or goes down in history as an over-hyped,
expensive novelty, the technology certainly shows no signs of fading in the
popularity stakes at the moment. Clash of the Titans , Alice in
Wonderland and How to Train Your Dragon have all recently benefited at the
box office due to the added sales that 3-D provides, and with Avatar's record
set to last some time as a totem of 3-D's commercial possibilities, studios
are not prepared to back down.
*1. Three Dimensional
*2. Computer Generated Imagery

Reading Passage 2 has six sections, A-F.

Choose the correct headings for sections A-F from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number, i-x, in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet.
List of Headings
i. Construction of special cinemas for 3-D
ii. Good returns forecast for immediate future
iii. The greatest 3-D film of all time
iv. End of traditional movies for children
v. Early developments
vi. New technology diminishes the art
vii. The golden age of movies
viii. In defence of 3-D
ix. 3-D is here to stay
x. Undesirable visual effects
14.Section A
15.Section B
16.Section C
17.Section D
18.Section E
19.Section F
Look at the following statements (Questions 20-26) and the list of people
below.
Match each statement with the correct person, A-G.
Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 20-26 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
NB Some options may not be used.
List of People
A. Kenneth Turan
B. Exhibitor Relations' analyst
C. Animation Ideas' blogger
D. Kevin Can'
E. Dr Michael Rosenberg
F. Dr Deborah Friedman
G. Roger Ebert
20.3-D conflicts with our mental construct of our surroundings.
21.3-D encourages an over-emphasis on quick visual thrills.
22.Effective use of 3-D technology may increase our sensation of elevation.
23.3-D viewing can worsen an existing visual disorder.
24.Avatar is the most powerful example of 3-D yet to arrive in cinemas.
25. Avatar's strength is found in its visual splendour, not in aspects of story.
26. People already have the mental capacity to see ordinary movies in three
dimensions.
Passage 3:
Does water have memory?
The practice of homeopathy was first developed by the German physician
Samuel Hahnemann. During research in the 1790s, Hahnemann began
experimenting with quinine, an alkaloid derived from cinchona bark that
was well known at the time to have a positive effect on fever. Hahnemann
started dosing himself with quinine while in a state of good health, and
reported in his journals that his extremities went cold, he experienced
palpitations, an 'infinite anxiety', a trembling and weakening of the limbs,
reddening cheeks and thirst—'in short', he concluded, 'all the symptoms of
relapsing fever presented themselves successively...' Hahnemann's main
observation was that things which create problems for healthy people cure
those problems in sick people, and this became his first principle of
homeopathy: simila similibus (with help from the same). While diverging
from the principle of apothecary practice at the time—which was contraria
contrariis (with help from the opposite)—the efficacy of simila similibus was
reaffirmed by subsequent developments in the field of vaccinations.
Hahnemann's second principle was minimal dosing—treatments should be
taken in the most diluted form at which they remain effective. This negated
any possible toxic effects of simila similibus . In 1988 the French
immunologist Jacques Benveniste took minimal dosing to new extremes
when he published a paper in the prestigious scientific journal Nature in
which he suggested that very high dilutions of the anti-lgE antibody could
affect human basophil granulocytes, the least common of the granulocytes
that make up about 0.01% to 0.3% of white blood cells. The point of
controversy, however, was that the water in Benveniste's test had been so
diluted that any molecular evidence of the antibodies no longer existed.
Water molecules, the researcher concluded, had a biologically active
component that a journalist later termed 'water memory'. A number of
efforts from scientists in Britain, France and the Netherlands to duplicate
Benveniste's research were unsuccessful, however, and to this day no peer-
reviewed study under broadly accepted conditions has been able to confirm
the validity of 'water memory'.
The third principle of homeopathy is 'the single remedy'. Exponents of this
principle believe that it would be too difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain
the potential effects of multiple homeopathic remedies delivered
simultaneously. If it did work, they suggest, one could not know quite why it
worked, turning homeopathy into an ambiguous guessing game. If it did not
work, neither patient nor practitioner would know whether the ingredients
were all ineffective, or whether they were only ineffective in combination
with one another. Combination remedies are gaining in popularity, but
classical homeopaths who rely on the single remedy approach warn these
are not more potent, nor do they provide more treatment options. The
availability of combination remedies, these homeopaths suggest, has been
led by consumers wanting more options, not from homeopathic research
indicating their efficacy.
Homeopathy is an extremely contentious form of medicine, with strong
assertions coming from both critics and supporters of the practice.
'Homeopathy: There's nothing in it' announces the tagline to 10:23, a major
British anti-homeopathy campaign. At 10.23 a.m. on 30 January 2010, over
400 supporters of the 10:23 stood outside Boots pharmacies and swallowed
an entire bottle each of homeopathic pills in an attempt to raise awareness
about the fact that these remedies are made of sugar and water, with no
active components. This, defenders of homeopathy say, is entirely the point.
Homeopathic products do not rely on ingredients that become toxic at high
doses, because the water retains the 'memory' that allows the original
treatment to function.
Critics also point out the fact that homeopathic preparations have no
systematic design to them, making it hard to monitor whether or not a
particular treatment has been efficacious. Homeopaths embrace this
uncertainty. While results may be less certain, they argue, the non-toxic
nature of homeopathy means that practitioner and patient can experiment
until they find something that works without concern for side effects.
Traditional medicine, they argue, assaults the body with a cocktail of drugs
that only tackles the symptoms of disease, while homeopathy has its sights
aimed on the causes.
Homeopaths suggest this approach leads to kinder, gentler, more effective
treatment. Finally, critics allege that when homeopathy has produced good
results, these are exceedingly dependent on the placebo effect, and cannot
justify the resources, time and expense that the homeopathic tradition
absorbs. The placebo effect is a term that describes beneficial outcomes
from a treatment than can be attributed to the patient's expectations
concerning the treatment rather than from the treatment itself. Basically,
the patient 'thinks' himself into feeling better. Defenders suggest that
homeopathy can go beyond this psychological level. They point to the
successful results of homeopathy on patients who are unconscious at the
time of treatment, as well as on animals.
Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-K, below.
Write the correct letter, A-K, in boxes 27-32 on your answer sheet.
A. avoid the unpredictable outcomes of combining many remedies at once.
B. explain the success of 18th century apothecary medicine.
C. produce fever-like symptoms in a healthy person.
D. keep antibody molecules active in parts as low as 0.01%.
E. support the notion of simila similibus .
F. offer more remedial choice.
G. produce a less effective dose.
H. recreate the original results.
I. retain qualities of an antibody to which they were previously exposed.
J. satisfy the demand of buyers.
K. treat effectively someone with a fever.
27. In the late 18th century, Hahnemann discovered that quinine was able to
28. The effectiveness of vaccinations also helps to
29.Benveniste argued in the journal Nature that water molecules possess
the ability to
30. Attempts to verify Benvenistes findings were unable to
31. The purpose of the single remedy is to
32. Classical homeopaths suggest combination remedies have been created
to
Complete the table below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the text for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 33-40 on your answer sheet.
Arguments against Arguments for
homeopathy homeopathy
Has no Does not become
33____ ingredients. 34______ when
taken in large
quantities.
Lack of a Remedies can be
35_____ makes success trialed with no risk
or of
failure of treatments 37_____ ;
difficult to treatments tackle
36______ causes
and not just
38______ .
Too much reliance on Proven to work on
the 39______ . people who are
Works psychologically 40______.
but not physically.