TEST 1
READING PASSAGE 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.
Angkor Wat
Angkor Wat is simply unique, a stunning blend of spirituality, and symmetry, an enduring example of
man’s devotion to his gods. Relish the very first approach, as that spine-tickling moment when you
emerge on the inner causeway will rarely be felt again. It is the largest and undoubtedly the most
breathtaking of the monuments at Angkor, and is widely believed to be the largest religious structure
in the world. It is also the best-preserved temple at Angkor, as it was never abandoned to the elements,
and repeat visits are rewarded with previously unnoticed details. It was probably built as a funerary
temple for Suryavarman II to honour Vishnu, the Hindu deity with whom the king identified.
There is much about Angkor Wat that is unique among the temples of Angkor. The most significant
point is that the temple is oriented towards the west. This is symbolically the direction of death, which
once led a large number of scholars to conclude that Angkor Wat must have existed primarily as a
tomb. This idea was supported by the fact that the magnificent bas-reliefs of the temple were designed
to be viewed in an anticlockwise direction, a practice that has precedents in ancient Hindu funerary
rites. Vishnu, however, is also frequently associated with the west, and it is now commonly accepted
that Angkor Wat most likely served both as a temple and a mausoleum for Suryavarman II.
Apsara
Angkor Wat is famous for its beguiling apsara (heavenly nymphs). There are more than 3,000 carved
into the walls of the temple, each of them unique, and there are more than 30 different hairstyles for
budding stylists to check out. Many of these exquisite apsara were damaged during Indian efforts to
clean the temples with chemicals during the 1980s, the ultimate bad acid trip, but they are now being
restored by the teams of the German Apsara Conservation Project (GACP). The organization operates
a small information booth in the northwest corner of Angkor Wat, where beautiful black-and-white
postcards and images of Angkor are available.
Symbolism
Visitors to Angkor Wat are struck by its imposing grandeur and, at close quarters, its fascinating
decorative flourishes and extensive bas-reliefs. However, a scholar at the time of its construction would
have revelled in its multilayered levels of meaning in much the same way as a contemporary literary
scholar might delight in James Joyce’s, “Ulysses”.
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David Chandler, drawing on the research of Eleanor Moron, points out in his book, “History of
Cambodia”, that the spatial dimensions of Angkor Wat parallel the lengths of the four ages (Yuga)
of classical Hindu thought. Thus, the visitor to Angkor Wat who walks the causeway to the main
entrance and through the courtyards to the final main tower, which once contained a statue of
Vishnu, is metaphorically travelling back to the creation of the universe.
Like the other temples of Angkor, Angkor Wat also replicates the spatial universe in miniature.
The central tower is Mt Meru, with its surrounding smaller peaks, bounded in turn by continents
(the lower courtyards) and the oceans (the moat). The seven-headed Naga becomes a symbolic
rainbow bridge for man to reach the abode of the gods.
Architectural Layout
Angkor Wat is surrounded by a moat, 190m wide, which forms a giant rectangle measuring 1.5km
by 1.3km. From the west, a sandstone causeway crosses the moat; the holes in the paving stones
held wooden pegs that were used to lift and position the stones during construction. The pegs were
then sawn off and have since rotted away. The sandstone blocks from which Angkor Wat was built
were quarried more than 50km away (from the district of Svay Leu at the eastern foot of Phnom
Kulen) and floated down the Stung Siem Reap (Siem Reap River) on rafts. The logistics of such an
operation are mind-blowing, consuming the labour of thousands - an unbelievable feat given the
lack of cranes and trucks that we take for granted in contemporary construction projects.
The rectangular outer wall, which measures 1,025m by 800m, has a gate on each side, but the main
entrance, a 235m-wide porch richly decorated with carvings and sculptures, is on the western side.
In the gate tower, to the right as you approach, is a statue of Vishnu, 3.25m in height and hewn
from a single block of sandstone. Vishnu’s eight arms hold a mace, a spear, a disk, a conch and
other items. You may even see locks of hair lying about. These are an offering by both young
women and men preparing to get married or by people who seek to give thanks for their good
fortune.
The central temple complex consists of three storeys, each made of laterite, which enclose a square
surrounded by intricately interlinked galleries. The Gallery of a Thousand Buddhas used to house
hundreds of Buddha images before the war, but many of these were removed or stolen, leaving the
broken remnants we see today.
The corners of the second and third storeys are marked by towers, each topped with pointed cupolas
(domed structures). Rising 31m above the third level, and 55m above the ground, is the central
tower, which gives the whole ensemble its sublime unity.
Once at the central tower, the pilgrimage is complete: soak up the breeze, take in the views and
then find a quiet corner in which to contemplate the symmetry and symbolism of this Everest of
temples.
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Questions 1 - 4
Answer the questions below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers
in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.
1. In which direction does Angkor Wat face?
__________________________________________________
2. What was originally in the main tower?
__________________________________________________
3. What happened to the wooden pegs used to construct the causeway?
__________________________________________________
4. What do you finally do when your journey through Angkor Wat is over?
__________________________________________________
Questions 5 - 8
Complete the summary.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in
boxes 5-8 on your answer sheet.
Angkor Wat was built inside a large rectangular 5 _______________ and can be reached by walking
across a 6_______________ . The blocks used to build it were first 7_______________ and then
transported on rafts. The ability to do this without 8_______________ is hard to believe.
Questions 9 - 13
Complete the sentences below.
Choose TWO WORDS ONLY from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 9-13
on your answer sheet.
9. Angkor Wat is far more__________________than any other building to be seen here.
10. The__________________are responsible for restoring many of the carvings.
11. The temples of Angkor are a representation of the __________________
12. The statue of Vishnu was carved from __________________
13. The central tower marks the end of your __________________
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READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which are based on Reading Passage 2
below.
The Wild West Village near Tabernas
Sandwiched between the mountains of the Sierra Nevada, Gador, Filabres and Alhamilla is one of
the most dramatic landscapes in Spain, the desolate Desierto de Tabernas. The only semi-desert in
Europe; there is a surreal, lunar quality about its weirdly eroded ravines, dry river beds and barren
slopes apparently devoid of vegetation, bleached by the sun and occasionally singed with ochre
hues. With its poor soils, low rainfall and temperatures that range from -5°C to 48°C, the landscape
has been little changed by agriculture or other human activity, with just a few pockets of subsistence
farming.
Film makers have long been attracted to its landscape, with its similar appearance to the North
American Wild West, and so the desert has been the scene of many a spaghetti western. Mini-
Hollywood 7km south of Tabernas, is where many westerns were filmed.
Tabernas desert is one of the most geologically interesting landscapes in Europe, since it clearly
shows the process of natural desertification and erosion. Its features include sheer-sided gullies,
carved out by the infrequent but torrential rains that only fall on a few days in the year. Another
feature is piping, where water permeates through the top of a slope and emerges farther down
through a hole, the water creating an underground pipe in the process. In certain places there are so
many holes that they have created a Swiss cheese effect.
Eight million years ago, in the Miocene period, the sea covered the Tabernas desert area, reaching
inland as far as the foothills of the Sierra de los Filabres, where today a strip of fossilised coral
dunes delineates the former coastline. The deposited material consisted of sand and loam and this
is what makes up the Tabernas desert today. A million years later the Sierra Alhamilla rose up,
cutting off the Tabernas desert area from the ocean and creating an inland sea, where more sand,
loam, clay, limestone and gypsum were deposited. At the end of the Pliocene epoch the sea receded,
leaving the seabed exposed to erosion.
Although the desert may look like it has scarce vegetation, it in fact harbours a fair variety of
xerophyte flora accustomed to surviving in semi-arid areas, including some plants that are unique
to the Desierto de Tabernas. Among these species are the attractive sea lavender, Limonium
insignis, in danger of extinction.
Another is the winter-flowering toadflax, Linaria nigricans lange, which after a wet autumn, clothe
the usually barren desert slopes around Tabernas in white and release their vanilla scent into the
air. You can find it on flat land next to the Solar Platform of Almeria (a vast expanse of solar panels,
installed to take advantage of the 3,000 hours of sun received in this area every year) near Tabernas,
off the road north to Senes. It also grows in dry river beds.
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With its annual rainfall of 240mm concentrated in no more than four days a year, the plants that
thrive here are those adapted to semi-arid zones, such as succulents like prickly pears that store
water in their leaves, or tiny plants that can shelter from the relentless and moisture-sapping sun
under rocks, or in the shadow of bigger plants. With high levels of salinity in the soil, plants also
need to be salt-resistant, like the saltwort, Salsola genistoides, commonly seen here.
One such plant adapted to desert conditions is the endemic crucifer Euzomodendron bourgaeanum
cosson. Flowering from February to July, it can be seen growing in abandoned cultivated fields
near Tabernas or in the scrubland close to dried-up river beds, like the Rambla de Tabernas or
Rambla Seca. Other frequently seen plants are false esparto grass and jujube trees.
The desert is riddled with numerous dry river beds (ramblas), which provide a unique microclimate
that is more humid than any other place in this otherwise parched landscape. Here you can see
reeds, oleanders and tamarisks. There are also many spots where subterranean water emerges. This
is usually saline, so plants that thrive in these places - often forming dense patches of vegetation -
are halophytes like saltwort.
It may appear as if this harsh landscape is incapable of supporting much in the way of fauna, but
along the edges of the seasonal rivers there is a wealth of vertebrates, most notably reptiles and
birds. The most commonly seen reptiles are ladder snakes, spiny-footed lizards and ocellated
lizards. Around the more moist areas of the dry river beds you can see amphibians such as marsh
frogs, natterjack toads and terrapins.
Birds of prey, including Bonelli's eagles and peregrines, come from the nearby Sierra de Alhamilla
Natural Area to use the desert as a hunting ground. Other raptors are kestrels and eagle owls. There
are birds characteristic of rocky slopes like blue rock thrushes, rock sparrows, black wheateaters
and rock buntings inhabiting the dry river courses of the ramblas. Many other birds nest in gullies
near the ramblas, like common kestrels, little owls, crag martins and black-eared wheateaters. The
tamarisk and oleander vegetation next to the ramblas are favoured by warblers, goldfinches, golden
orioles and serins.
In the steppe region, including former areas of cereal cultivation, are stone curlews, black-bellied
sandgrouse, lesser short-toed larks, Dupont's larks and little bustards. This is one of Europe's few
refuges for trumpeter finches, a common resident of oases in the Sahara desert. They hide
themselves away in the numerous rocky crevices in this Spanish desert, along with the Sierra de
Alhamilla and the Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park. Bee-eaters make their nests in holes in the
rocky slopes.
Given the arid conditions, mammals are less common with around 20 species inhabiting the park,
the most important being the Algerian hedgehog. As a north African species, this is one of only
several places, concentrated in eastern Spain, where it is found in the Iberian Peninsula. Abundant
rabbits, hares and dormice provide plentiful prey for the carnivores and raptors in the area.
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Questions 14 - 18
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2?
In boxes 14-18 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
14. Most westerns made in Europe are filmed in Tabernas.
15. The area is perfect for the development of alternative energy.
16. Different plants find different ways to adapt to the heat.
17. The hottest place in the desert is in the dry river beds.
18. Bonelli's eagles live in the desert.
Questions 19 - 23
Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-H, below. Write the correct letter A-H, in
boxes 19-23 on your answer sheet.
19. The plants that grow in the desert adapt to
20. The lunar type landscape has not been affected much by
21. The trumpeter finches are protected by
22. The Swiss cheese effect has been caused by
23. floral fragrance of vanilla is produced by
A the rocky crevices.
B the oases.
C the saltwater.
D the winter flowering toadflax.
E the gullies.
F water permeating through the rocks.
G good soil.
H farmers.
Questions 24
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write your answer in box 24 on your answer sheet.
24. Why is the surreal quality of the desert deceiving?
A. because it looks like the moon. C. because it has a lot of vegetation
B. because it has barren slopes D. because it is bleached by the sun
Questions 25 - 26
Complete the sentences below.
Choose NO MORE THAN ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each
answer. Write your answers in boxes 25-26 on your answer sheet.
25. The rainy season only lasts for up to_____________ and so plants must adapt to a semi-arid
environment.
26. The Algerian hedgehog is one example of a number of different______________that live
there.
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READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3
below.
TEA
The East India Company was perhaps the most powerful commercial organisation that the world
has ever seen. In its heyday it not only had a monopoly on British trade with India and the Far East,
but it was also responsible for the government of much of the vast Indian sub-continent. Both of
these factors mean that the East India Company (or, to call it by its proper name, the British East
India Company) was crucial to the history of the tea trade.
Before 1600, Portugal controlled most European trade with India and the Far East (an area known
then as the Indies). But in 1600 Queen Elizabeth I gave a royal charter to a new trading company,
the East India Company, by which it was given a monopoly over all British trade with the Indies.
The company soon began competing with the Portuguese, as did later East India Companies, set up
in the Netherlands, Denmark and France (though for ease, the term East India Company shall be
used here to describe the British East India Company). The East India Company's first major base
was in western India, where it found a rich source of exotic textiles and other produce, which could
be exported back to Britain or taken further east to exchange for spices.
The company successfully weathered the various political storms going on in Britain in the
seventeenth century. Oliver Cromwell provided the merchants with a new charter after Charles I
was deposed and the Commonwealth established in 1649. Then, when Charles II was restored to
the throne in 1660, the company ingratiated itself with him in order to protect its interests. In fact,
Charles II actually extended its privileges to allow the company to take military action to establish
itself in places where it wished to trade.
But where does tea fit into all this? Charles II's Queen, Catherine of Braganza, was a Portuguese
princess who had grown up with a taste for tea. When she married Charles and came to England,
tea gradually became a fashionable drink in courtly and aristocratic circles. This was made possible
by the East India Company which, in 1664, placed its first order for tea - for 100lbs of China tea to
be shipped from Java for import into Britain. This steady supply continued until 1678, when an
import of 4,713lbs swamped the market until 1685, when 12,070lbs was imported, swamping the
market again. This pattern continued until the end of the century. But the eighteenth century was
very different. Tea drinking really took hold as an activity for the whole population, and the East
India Company's imports rocketed. By 1750, annual imports had reached 4,727,992lbs.
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In fact though, tea was still very expensive, partly because of the company's monopoly on the trade
and partly because of high taxes imposed upon it. To satisfy the demand of the less wealthy, an
enormous amount of tea was smuggled in and sold illicitly - some was even brought in on the East
India Company's own ships, by crew members who then sold it on to smugglers. This situation
continued for years, until William Pitt the Younger became Prime Minister in 1783. With the
Commutation Act of 1784, he slashed the tax on tea so dramatically that smuggling became
pointless. Thereafter, virtually all tea was imported legally by the East India Company.
But in the decades leading up to Pitt the Younger's Commutation Act, tea smuggling had really hit
the profits of the East India Company. Needing to increase profits and offload the surplus tea that
the company had accumulated during the worst years of the smuggling, it asked the British
government for permission to export direct to America, which at this time was still a British colony.
Permission was granted, and it was decided that the tea would carry a tax of 3d per lb. The
Americans were outraged, many considered such British-imposed taxes illegal. They were doubly
angered by the decision that the company should also have a monopoly on distribution, another
move that was intended to help it out of financial trouble.
When the company's ships arrived in Boston in late 1773, the townspeople resolved that the tea
should not be brought ashore nor the duty on it paid. But the colonial administration would not
allow the ships to leave port. The deadlock eventually resulted in the Boston Tea Party, when a
mass of townspeople, dressed as Native Americans, boarded the ships and threw all the cargo of
tea overboard. This was one of the key events that sparked off the American War of Independence.
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Questions 27 - 33
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your
answers in boxes 27-33 on your answer sheet.
27. The East India Company was established to compete with the ……………….
28. Britain imported........................... or traded them for spices.
29. The company tried to protect itself by gaining favour with ………………
30. Tea started to become popular during the reign of ……………….
31. Tea became cheaper because of changes in taxation made by ……………….
32. Tea was shipped directly to America to help ……………….
33. The people in the Boston Tea Party were disguised as ……………….
Questions 34 - 37
Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-G, below. Write the correct letter, A-G, in
boxes 34-37 on your answer sheet.
34. As the popularity of tea grew
35. Ships were not allowed to leave American ports when
36. Profits increased for the East India Company when
37. Many Americans felt that
A permission was granted to increase taxes.
B the tea tax was not paid.
C people should pay taxes.
D taxes were illegal.
E the king put a tax on tea.
F Native Americans boarded the ships.
G people began to smuggle tea into Britain.
Questions 38 - 40
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the reading passage? In boxes
38-40 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
38. The British East India Company was an essential part of the developing tea trade in Britain.
39. More than one East India Company was established.
40. The East India Company always imported its tea into Britain from Java.
