2ND GIFT

Full name: …………………………………………………..Date: ………………..

SECTION A: LISTENING
PART 1
You will hear three different extracts
For questions 1-6, choose the answer (A, B or C) which fits best according to what you hear. There are
two questions for each extract.
In the exam you will hear extract twice.

Extract One
You hear part of a talk about negotiating with others
1. The speaker says that both soft and hard ways of negotiating
A. are more suitable in some situations than in others
B. tend to result in outcomes that were not anticipated
C. indicate a lack of confidence on the part of those using them
2. The speaker says that principled negotiation involves
A. accepting that life can be unfair
B. greater effort from both sides
C. the use of objective criteria
Extract Two
You hear part of a radio programme about a pottery
3. What does the reporter emphasize about the pottery?
A. how seldom anyone visits it these days
B. how deceptive its appearance is
C. how much it seems to belong to a previous era
4. When describing the history of the pottery, Roly Curtis
A. mentions a problem common to many potteries
B. refers to a mistake he believes was made
C. expresses support for what his father did
Extract Three
You hear part of a radio programme about the stars of silent films
5. The speaker says that Harold Lloyd became very successful because he
A. acted on a suggestion made by a colleague
B. changed the character he portrayed in films
C. became more ambitious than he had previously been
6. The speaker says that Lloyd’s career suffered because
A. his character’s attitude ceased to be appealing
B. he was reluctant to make films with sound
C. he lost confidence in his abilities as a performer
Part II. For questions 7-14, listen to a piece of news from the CNN and fill in the missing information.
Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS taken from the recording for each answer in the spaces
provided.

It's 1:00 p.m here in Washington. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very
much for joining us. We're following major breaking news unfolding this hour but we're awaiting waiting
word to hear from president Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh after a rather rowdy start
to his (7)____________ hearing up on Capitol Hill. Democrats calling for a delay as protesters
repeatedly disrupted the proceeding. Also what's being described as a truly(8)___________ of a totally
dysfunctional Trump White House. Bob Woodward's brand-new book says president Trump's aides are
deeply worried that he represents a danger to national security.
We're gonna have more. The (9)____________ claims from the book just coming out major
breaking news on that and tropical storm Gordon takes aim at the Gulf Coast of the United States. It's
expected to make landfall later tonight it has a hurricane. Hurricane warnings are now already in effect
for parts of Mississippi and Alabama.
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 But let's start with the breaking news. CNN is learning truly stunning new details about life inside
a chaotic Trump White House from soon-to-be officially released book by the(10)___________ Bob
Woodward. Some of the details include how senior staff members took truly (11)____________ to stop
the President of the United States from making decisions. They consider to be a genuine threat to US
national security and that included taking official documents papers from the president's desk so he
wouldn't be able to sign them.
The book also provides specific details about the (12)____________ some of the president's
closest advisors displayed including his White House chief of staff. John Kelly who calls the president in
this book at various meetings quote an idiot and (13) ______________ and the defense secretary of the
United States General James Madison complaining that the President of the United States had the
understanding and I'm quoting him now of a fifth or sixth grader. Those quotes from Bob Woodward's
book ourspecial correspondent Jamie Jan Gehl has a copy of the book has been going through it. Our
White House (14)____________ Kate Collins is getting reaction over at the White House Jamie. Let me
start with you these revelations are truly extraordinary looks like Bob Woodward has done it again.
You've actually read the entire book three times.
Your answers:

PART 3. You will hear an interview with a sports writer about football referees. For questions 15 -19
choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which fits best according to what you hear

15. Martin says that referees become concerned if

A. they are no longer chosen for important matches
B. they cease to cause strong reations
C. they feel that other referees do not regard them highly
D. they attract a lot of attention from strangers
16. Martin say that referees think they gain the respect of players by
A. resorting to strict discipline when it is necessary
B. adopting different approaches with different players
C. showing that they do not care what players think of them
D. treating players with a certain amount of tolerance
17. According to Martin, it would be wrong to believe that referees
A. are not passionately interested in football
B. do not feel that they are performing a duty
C. are largely motivated by their own vanity
D. are poorly paid for their efforts.
18. What does Martin say about the system for assessing referees?
A. It causes some referees to be indecisive
B. It requires referees not to be sensitive people
C. It enables poor referees to be identified quickly
D. It leads to inconsistencies in referees’ decisions
19. Martin says that a referee should deal with the bad behaviour of players by
A. informing them that they cannot influence his decisions
B. admitting to them when he has made a mistake under pressure
C. deciding rapidly what a player’s real intention was
D. treating the worst offences with the greatest severity
Part 4: You will hear two people, John and Sandra, talking about their health. For question 20-25,
decide whether the opinions are expressed by only one of the speakers, or whether the speakers agree.
Write J for John
S for Sandra
Or B for Both, where they agree

20. Very large closes of conventional medicine might harm your immune system.
21. The unpleasant odor of garlic could prove disadvantageous in its use as a herbal remedy
22. Exploiting the goodness of herbs in our diet is not a new thing.
23. There is a particular herb which apparently helps the body find its natural balance
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24. Natural preventive measures can increase life expectancy
25. Herbs might provide a cure where other medicines have failed.

Your answers
20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25.

SECTION B: LEXICO-GRAMMAR
Part 1: Choose the word or phrase (A, B, C, or D) which best completes each sentence.
26. The _________ of the pudding is in the eating
A. control B. proof C. probation D. trial
27. I was _________ by his lack of intelligence. I couldn’t believe anyone could be so stupid
A. shattered B. staggered C. speechless D. startled
28. My manager is a typical working mother who has to deal with _________activities everyday
A. miscellaneous B. multifarious C. many D. manifold
29. Don’t thank me for helping in the garden. It was _________pleasure to be working out of doors.
A. plain B. mere C. simple D. sheer
30. If she wins the prize again this year, It’ll be a real _________in her cap
A. nutshell B. gemstone C. feather D. landmark
31. We managed to _________the last economical depression by cutting down our workforce
A. weather B. surmount C. override D. float
32. I think I’ll_________out my father and see if he would lend me his car for a few days?
A. chance B. probe C. check D. sound
33. The renewed interest in Elizabethan times is evident in the _________of new Hollywood film set
during that period.
A. spate B. hypocrisy C. transience D. demise
34. The price of bread has just doubled, but with_________inflation what can you expect?
A. rampant B. steadfast C. profuse D. staunch
35. She’s a bit down in the_________at the moment-her husband has just lost his job
A. would B dumps C. heart D. bottom

Part 2: For questions 36-40, read the text below. Use the word given in capitals in some of the lines to
form a word that fits in the space in the same line. Write your answer in the numbered box.
FENG SHUI
Feng Shui is the ancient Chinese art of bringing balance to one’s immediate surroundings. It aims
to harness energy flow within the home to make it a nice, healthy place in which to live. Although in the
West it has only recently gained acceptance in China, it is deemed indispensable to have recourse to a
Feng Shui(36. PRACTICE) ______________ before moving house or establishing a business. On a
mundane level, it is the art of furniture placement, but on deeper examination meaningful philosophical
and religious roots are found (37.PIN) _______________ this venerable art form. The Taoist philosophy
out of which it grew sees the world as made up of potent but invisible energy called ‘chi’. Feng Shui
aspires to divert this hidden flow to create a harmonious environment. Although this is an unfamiliar
concept to the Western world, the rise of Feng Shui continues(38. ABATE) _____________. Feng Shui
offers some basic rules with which to augment the potential of one’s environment. Removal of clutter is
said to promote feelings of (39. LUCID) __________ and calmness. The utilisation of plants (40.ACT)
____________ the detrimental effect of machinery, computers and so on. Finally, because chi energy
enters through the front door, it is provident to keep one’s door in perfect condition to take away any
impediment to the passage of entering chi energy.
Part 3: There are FIVE mistakes in the following passage. Find and correct them.
“The originality of human language is truly secret and marvelous” wrote Jacob Grimm in 1851. The
marvelous secret has long proved a launch padding for strange ideas. “Primitive man was likely to make
sounds like “meuh” when sensed danger,’ claimed Charles Caller in 1928. “Meuh” has a plaintive sound.
The human who wandered over a hostile land habited by awesome beasts uttering desperate noises, and

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languages have preserved some echo of his lamentation such as malaria meaning “fever” or the Latin
moors meaning “death”.
SECTION C: READING

Part 1: For questions 46-55, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each space. Use
only one word for each space. Write your answer in the numbered box.
Many ants (46)_________ across the countryside in large numbers and undertake mass migrations;
these activities (47)_________ because one ant lays a trail on the ground for the others tofollow. As a
worker ant returns home after finding a source of food, it marks the route by intermittently touching its
stinger on the ground and depositing a tiny amount of trail pheromone - a mixture of (48) _______ that
delivers diverse messages as the context changes. These trails incorporate no directional information and
may be followed by other ants in either direction.
Unlike some other messages, such as the one arising from a dead ant, a food trail has to be kept secret
from members of other species. It is notsurprising then that ant species use a wide variety of
(49)_________ as trail pheromones. Ants can be extremely(50) _________ to these signals. Investigators
working with the trail pheromone of the leafcutter ant Attatexana calculated that one milligram of this
substance would (51)_________ to lead a column of ants three times around Earth.
The vapor of the evaporating pheromone over the trail guides an ant along the way, and the ant detects
this signal with (52)_________ in its antennae. A trail pheromone will evaporate to furnish the highest
concentration of vapor right over the trail, (53) ________ what is called a vapor space. In following the
trail, the ant moves to the right and left, oscillating from side to side across the line of the trail (54)
_______, bringing first one and then the other antenna into the vapor space. As the ant moves to the right,
its left antenna arrives in the vapor space. The signal it receives (55)_________ it to swing to the left, and
the ant then pursues this new course until its right antenna reaches the vapor space. It then swings back to
the right, and so weaves back and forth down the trail.
Part 2: Read the following passage and decide which answer (A, B, C, or D) best fits each gap. Write
your answer in the numbered box.
LONDON’S BLACK CABS
Black cabs, officially known as Hackney Carriages, are (56) _______ London and are special for a
number of reasons. For a start, they are the only taxis in the city that can be (57) _______ from the kerb
with a raised hand signal to get the driver’s attention. Currently, it is estimated that there are 20,000 black
cabs(58) _______ on the capital’s streets. Their origin, in fact, can be (59) _______ the name ‘Hackney
Carriage’ said to derive from the French word haquenée referring to the type of horse used to pull the
carriages in the days of horse-drawn carriages. The first horse-drawn Hackney coaches appeared on
London’s streets in the 17th century during the (60) _______ of Queen Elizabeth I. As transport developed
and motor cars were (61) _______, motor cabs replaced the horse-drawn carriages. Since the end of the
19th century, various car manufacturers’ vehicles have been used as motor cabs but it was not until the
mid-20th century that the cabs we have been (62) _______ over the last decades first appeared.
It is such a(n) (63) _______ of becoming a black cab driver in London and it is (64) _______. If you
want to gain this honour you will need to have passed the (65) _______ test known as ‘the Knowledge’,
which was first introduced in 1851 following (66) _______ of complaints by passengers whose cab
drivers got lost. This incredibly difficult test can take around three or four years to prepare for and you
can often catch a(n) (67) _______ of those drivers who are doing just this zipping around London on their
mopeds, with a map (68) _______ to a clipboard on their handlebars. These people are essentially trying
not only to master the 25,000 or so streets within a six-mile radius of Charing Cross, but also to work out
the most direct routes from place to place. They must know thousands of ‘points of interest’ such as
hotels, hospitals, places of worship, theatres, stations, sports and leisure facilities, to name but a few.
Practically everywhere and anywhere that a potential passenger would wish to be taken to or from must
be known, so a(n) (69) _______, for a black cab driver, is (70) _______, and perhaps this is the most
difficult part, knowing the quickest way to get from one place to another. Little wonder so few people are
successful.

56. A. commensurate with B. equivalent to C. synonymous with D. tantamount to

57. A. acclaimed B. acknowledged C. hailed D. summoned
58. A. hereabouts B. hither and thither C. or thereabouts D. there and then
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 59. A. ferreted out from B. hunted down from C. mapped out to D. traced back to
60. A. incumbency B. leadership C. reign D. sovereignty
61. A. all the rage B. of high standing C. of repute D. in vogue
62. A. clued in on B. genned up on C. in the know about D. no stranger to
63. A. handiwork B. procurement C. realisation D. undertaking
64. A. beyond you B. no brainer C. no mean feat D. over your head
65. A. abominable B. infamous C. loathsome D. unscrupulous
66. A. droves B. hordes C. packs D. swarms
67. A. gander B. geek C. glance D. glimpse
68. A. chained B. fastened C. linked D. sealed
69. A. nodding acquaintance B. insight into London C. profundity of London D. smattering knowledge
70. A. beyond measure B. beyond redemption C. beyond the pale D. beyond the veil

Part 3: Six paragraphs have been removed from the passage. For questions 71-76, choose from
paragraphs A–G the one which fits each gap. There is one extra paragraph which you do not need to
use. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
IT’S A PITY READING PLEASURE CAN’T BE TESTED
We force children into reading far too early.
Today Einstein, who learnt to read at 10, would be in remedial class, argues Anne Karpf.

A good news story about education? It sounds like 74. _______

an oxymoron, but blazoned on Monday’s front Elsewhere there’s no shortage of horror stories, like
pages was the finding of a major new international the parents of four-year-olds, who formerly wouldn’t
survey that ‘UK pupils move close to top of world have even been in school, paying for coaching to help
class’, especially in reading. This will have been them keep up with the fast readers. The mother of a
gratifying to a government for whom ‘education, four-and-a-half-year-old was told that her son had to
education, education’ increasingly seems to be a apply himself to reading because the school didn’t
euphemism for ‘reading, reading, reading’. But such want him to end up at the bottom of the pile. This
singlemindedness has had other, unacknowledged, from an excellent teacher, herself under pressure to
consequences. produce results: by their Sats shall we judge them.
71. _________ Einstein may have learned to read only at 10, but
Orthodox educationalists, however, maintain that today he’d be stigmatised and in remedial reading.
you’re never too young to learn to read: on the 75. _______
contrary, the earlier the better. Reading, and Learning to read is rather like potty training. The
especially early reading, is considered so self- parents of kids who do it young proclaim it abroad, yet
evidently good that children are coaxed, pressed most people get there in the end. How they do so is
and, if required, bribed into submission. paramount for future pleasure, and the result of an
72. _______ unpredictable, serendipitous combination of factors
My own position has changed radically between my different for each of us. But we’ve a government
first and second children. The first taught herself to which has confused standards with standardisation.
read at the age of four. Thereafter she secreted You can, just about, drill children into learning to read,
books around her bed like contraband, and had to be but you can’t compel them to enjoy it. In a culture
physically prised from them at the dinner table. increasingly in thrall to what is measurable, what a
When her younger sister started school last year, I pity reading pleasure can’t be tested.
expected a repeat performance. 76. _______
73. _______ As for my own now almost-six-year-old, who I think
Should I be vacuuming away her words, and would have preferred this approach, something has
pumping in someone else’s? Should I have been recently clicked in the reading part of her brain, and
coercing her to try to read when she was plainly she is on the way to becoming a voracious reader. It’s
unwilling? I can coerce for England, but the probably sheer coincidence that this transformation
thought of becoming her personal politburo in the was over exactly the same period that she started
matter of when she learned to read seemed so awful learning the violin.
that I became a covert refusenik instead. I decided
to stop meddling altogether.

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A. Being against it is like being against vitamins or B. For the best part of a year I schlepped her wretched
bank holidays – frankly perverse. Among the over bookbag to and from school without opening it, and
half-million web pages devoted to teaching children resolved as far as possible to follow her own reading
to read, none of those I browsed are on learning to timetable. Her reception teacher adopted what today is
read too soon. a rare, daring stance: there isn’t much you can do to
C. Early reading is all part of the extension of make a child read before they’re ready.
formal reading back into pre-school. Nurseries are E. Like other reception class mothers, I peeked at her
now bestrewn with targets, and the children know it. friends’ bookbags to see if the books they were
Imagine the blow that might have dealt to his reading were more advanced. Invariably they were.
creative genius. Also, one problem with exerting My growing anxiety was assuaged by a wise fellow
such pressure on pre-school children is that it can mother remarking that my exuberant child was busily
make children resistant to reading. Once affecting engaged in things, like pretend games and drawing,
extravagant interest in my daughter’s new book- which delighted her more. She also loves books, but
title, I was rewarded with: “You’re just trying to get often pleads for the right to be able to make up her
me to read it and I won’t.” own stories to the pictures (frequently more exciting
D. Those who consider such misgivings a middle- than those confected by the author).
class luxury should look at Europe. We’re alone in F. The obsession with reading has led to a major
bullying children to read so young. The Norwegians decline in the time and energy given over to music, art
don’t start until they’re seven, when it’s usually and drama. And the heresy that dare not speak its
painless. This also allows dyslexics to be diagnosed name is that children are being pressurised to learn to
before and not after they’ve been labelled poor read too early.
readers. Sylvia Hopland, headteacher of the G. When I asked her to tell me what she thought of
Norwegian School in London, says: “We know that her classes, she was unabashedly sincere: ‘I like books
we could teach children to read at four if we wanted with pictures, but books with too many words are
to but we want them to spend those years playing. boring.’ My immediate urge was to force her, threaten
Here you teach them to give the right answers. We her or coax her nose into her books. Until it suddenly
want to teach them to solve problems, cooperate dawned on me: at what age did I start reading?
with others and cope with life.” Steiner schools in
Britain also concentrate on stimulating children’s
creative faculties until “a new kind of knowing”
emerges at seven.
Your answers
71. 72. 73. 74.
75. 76. 77. 78.

For questions 77–80, choose the best answer A, B, C or D. Write your answers in the corresponding
numbered boxes provided.
77. The phrase “the thought of becoming her personal politburo”implies the writer’s notion of _______.
A. becoming an orthodox traditionalist C. helping the child see education in a positive light
B. forcing the child to read against her will D. resisting change and favouring established ideas

78. In the context, “at the bottom of the pile” mostly means being _______ of the class.

A. the black sheep B. the fair-haired C. the least academic D. the weakest

79. According to the text, “something has recently clicked” implies a change has taken place in _______.
A. coaching the child on extensive reading C. the child’s attitude towards reading
B. bribing the child to read D. the child’s joy of reading books

80. According to the text, the phrase “And the heresy that dare not speak its names” indicates _______.
A. a belief that people feel uncomfortable about expressing
B. a situation where contradictory incidents co-occur
C. a subtle support and encouragement
D. an unacceptably unconventional and unreasonable pedagogy
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 Your answers
78. 79. 80.

Part 4:Read the following passage and answer the following questions.

BENEATH THE CANOPY

1. The world's tropical rainforests comprise some 6% of the Earth's land area and contain more than
half of all known life forms, or a conservative estimate of about 30 million species of plants and animals.
Some experts estimate there could be two or even three times as many species hidden within these
complex and fast- disappearing ecosystems; scientists will probably never know for certain, so vast is the
amount of study required.
2. Time is running out for biological research. Commercial development is responsible for the loss of
about 17 million hectares of virgin rainforest each year - a figure approximating 1% of what remains of
the world's rainforests.
3. The current devastation of once impenetrable rainforest is of particular concern because, although
new tree growth may in time repopulate felled areas, the biologically diverse storehouse of flora and
fauna is gone forever. Losing this bountiful inheritance, which took millions of years to reach its present
highly evolved state, would be an unparalleled act of human stupidity.
4. Chemical compounds that might be extracted from yet-to-be-discovered species hidden beneath
the tree canopy could assist in the treatment of disease or help to control fertility. Conservationists point
out that important medical discoveries have already been made from material found in tropical
rainforests. The drug aspirin, now synthesised, was originally found in the bark of a rainforest tree. Two
of the most potent anti- cancer drugs derive from the rosy periwinkle discovered in the 1950s in the
tropical rainforests of Madagascar.
5. The rewards of discovery are potentially enormous, yet the outlook is bleak. Timber-rich
countries mired in debt, view potential financial gain decades into the future as less attractive than short-
term profit from logging. Cataloguing species and analysing newly-found substances takes time and
money, both of which are in short supply.
6. The developed world takes every opportunity to lecture countries which are the guardians of
rainforest . Rich nations exhort them to preserve and care for what is left, ignoring the fact that their
wealth was in large part due to the exploitation of their own natural world.
7. It is often forgotten that forests once covered most of Europe. Large tracts of forest were
destroyed over the centuries for the same reason that the remaining rainforests are now being felled -
timber. As well as providing material for housing, it enabled wealthy nations to build large navies and
shipping fleets with which to continue their plunder of the world's resources.
8. Besides, it is not clear that developing countries would necessarily benefit financially from
extended bioprospecting of their rainforests. Pharmaceutical companies make huge profits from the sale
of drugs with little return to the country in which an original discovery was made.
9. Also, cataloguing tropical biodiversity involves much more than a search for medically useful and
therefore commercially viable drugs. Painstaking biological fieldwork helps to build immense databases
of genetic, chemical and behavioural information that will be of benefit only to those countries developed
enough to use them.
10. Reckless logging itself is not the only danger to rainforests. Fires lit to clear land for further
logging and for housing and agricultural development played havoc in the late 1990s in the forests of
Borneo. Massive clouds of smoke from burning forest fires swept across the southernmost countries of
South-East Asia choking cities and reminding even the most resolute advocates of rainforest clearing of
the swiftness of nature's retribution.
11. Nor are the dangers entirely to the rainforests themselves. Until very recently, so-called "lost"
tribes - indigenous peoples who have had no contact with the outside world - still existed deep within
certain rainforests. It is now unlikely that there are any more truly lost tribes. Contact with the modern
world inevitably brings with it exploitation, loss of traditional culture, and, in an alarming number of
instances, complete obliteration.

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12. Forest-dwellers who have managed to live in harmony with their environment have much to teach
us of life beneath the tree canopy. If we do not listen, the impact will be on the entire human race. Loss of
biodiversity, coupled with climate change and ecological destruction will have profound and lasting
consequences.

Questions 81 – 86: Answer the following questions.

81. How many medical drug discoveries does the article mention?

82. What two shortages are given as the reason for the writer's pessimistic outlook?

83. Who will most likely benefit from the bioprospecting of developing countries' rainforests?

84. The amount of rainforest destroyed annually is _________.

A. approximately 6% of the Earth's land area
B. such that it will only take 100 years to lose all the forests
C. fluctuating at an alarming rate
D. responsible for commercial development
85. In Borneo in the late 1990s, _________.
A. burning forest fires caused air pollution problems as far away as Europe
B. reckless logging resulted from burning forest fires
C. fires were lit to play the game of havoc
D. none of the above
86. Many so-called "lost" tribes of certain rainforests_________.
A. have been destroyed by contact with the modern world
B. do not know how to exploit the rainforest without causing harm to the environment
C. are still lost inside the rainforest
D. must listen or they will impact on the entire human race.
Questions 87 – 90. Match each quotation with the correct explanation.
Example: ' a conservative estimate': ......B......
Quotation Explanation
Ex: 'a conservative estimate' (paragraph 1) A. with many trees but few financial resources
87. 'biologically diverse storehouse of flora and B. purposely low and cautious reckoning
fauna' (paragraph 3) C. large-scale use of plant and wildlife
88. 'timber-rich countries mired in debt' D. profit from an analysis of the plant and
(paragraph 5) animal life
89. 'exploitation of their own natural E. wealth of plants and animals
world' (paragraph 6) F. being less rich in natural wealth
90. 'benefit financially from extended
bioprospecting of their rainforests' (paragraph 8)

Your answers:
87. 88. 89. 90.

Part 5:Read the passage and do the following tasks.

A. Read through the nutritional information on the food in your freezer, refrigerator or kitchen pantry,
and you are likely to find a simple, innocuous-looking ingredient recurring on a number of products:
“natural flavor”. The story of what natural flavour is, how it got into your food, and where it came
from, is the result of more complex processes than you might imagine.

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B. During the 1980s, health watchdogs and nutritionists began turning their attention to cholesterol, a
waxy steroid metabolite that we mainly consume from animal-sourced products such as cheese, egg
yorks, beef, poultry, shrimp and pork. Nutritionists blamed cholesterol for contributing to the growing
rates of obesity, heart disease, diabetes and several cancers in Western societies. As extensive
recognition of the matter grew amongst the common people, Mc Donalds stopped cooking their
French fries in a mixture of cottonseed oil and beef tallow, and in 1990 the restaurant chain began
using 100% vegetable oil instead.
C. This substantially lowered the amount of cholesterol in Mc Donalds’ fries, but it created a new
dilemma. The beef tallow and cottonseed oil mixture gave the French fries high cholesterol content,
but it also gifted them with a rich aroma and “mouth-feel” that even James Beard, an American food
critic, admitted he enjoyed. Pure vegetable oil is bland in comparison. Looking at the current
ingredients’ list of Mc Donalds’ French fries, however, it is easy to see how they overcame this
predicament. Aside from a few preservatives, there are essentially three main ingredients: potato,
soybean oil, and the mysterious component of “natural flavor”.
D. Natural flavor also entered our diet through the rise in processed foods, which now make up over
90% (and growing) of the American diet, as well as representing a burgeoning industry in developing
countries such as China and India. Processed foods are essentially any foods that have been boxed,
bagged, canned or packaged, and have a list of ingredients on the label. Sometimes, the processing
involves adding a little sodium or sugar and a few preservatives. Often, however, it is coloured,
bleached, stabilized, emulsified, dehydrated, odour-concealed and sweetened. This process typically
saps any original flavour out of the product, and so, of course, flavour must be added back in as well.
E. Often this is “natural flavour”, but while the term may bring to mind images of fresh barley, hand-
ground spices and dried herbs being traded in a bustling street market, most of these natural sources
are in fact engineered to culinary perfection in a set of factories and plants off the New Jersey
Turnpike outside of New York. Here, firms such as International Flavors & Fragrances, Harmen &
Reimer, Flavor Dynamics, Frutarom and Elan Chemical isolate and manufacture the tastes that are
incorporated in much of what we eat and drink. The sweet, summery burst of naturally squeezed
orange juice, the wood-smoked aroma in barbeque sauces, and the creamy, buttery, fresh taste in many
dairy products do not come from sundrenched meadows or backyard grills, but are formed in the labs
and test tubes of these flavour industry giants.
F. The scientists-dubbed “flavourists”- who create the potent chemicals that set our olfactory senses to
overdrive use a mix of techniques that have been refined over many years. Part of it is dense, intricate
chemistry: spectrometers, gas chromatographs and headspace-vapouranalysers can break down
components of a flavour in amounts as minute as one part per billion. Not to be outdone, however, the
human nose can isolate aromas down to three parts per trillion. Flavourists therefore consider their
work as much an art as a science, and flavourism requires a nose “trained” with a delicate and poetic
sense of balance.
G. Should we be wary of the industrialization of natural flavour? On its own, the trend may not present
any clear reason for alarm. Nutritionists widely agree that the real assault on health in the last few
decades stems from an “unholy trinity” of sugar, fat and sodium in processed foods. Natural flavour
on its own is not a health risk. It does play a role, however, in helping these processed foods to taste
fresh and nutritious, even when they are not. So while the natural flavour industry should not be
considered the culprit, we might think of it as a willing accomplice.

Which paragraph contains the following information? You may use any letter more than once.
91. examples of companies that create natural flavours
92. an instance of a multi-national franchise responding to public pressure
93. a statement on the health effects of natural flavours
94. an instance where a solution turns into a problem
95. details about the transformation that takes place in processed grocery items
96. a comparison of personal and technological abilities in flavour detection

Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage?
TRUE: if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE: if the statement contradicts the information
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NOT GIVEN: if there is no information on this
97. On their own, vegetable oils do not have a strong flavour.
98. Soybean oil is lower in cholesterol than cottonseed oil.
99. Processed foods are becoming more popular in some Asian countries.
100. All food processing involves the use of natural flavours.

Your answers:
SECTION D: WRITING
Part 1: The graph below shows the quantities of goods transported in the UK between 1974 and 2002
by four different modes of transport.
Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where
relevant.You should write at least 150 words.

Part 2: Write about the following topic:

The desire for higher status or greater wealth than others is what motivates most people to succeed in
the world.
To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge and
experience.
Write at least 300 words
Some argue that the primary motivation for success stems from the desire for higher status or greater
== THE END==

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