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Test 1
READING AND USE OF ENGLISH (1 hour 30 minutes)
Part 1
For questions 1-8, read the text below and decide which answer (A, B, C or D) best fits each gap.
There is an example at the beginning (0)
Mark your answers on the separate answer sheet.
Example:
0 Aesteemed B viewed C regarded —_—D believed
° ESD DEG Meme
ooo
The camera never lies
Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the Sherlock Holmes stories, (0) ........ himself to be a
rational man, a scientist even, But in 1920, when he saw photographs of fairies taken in
a garden (1) ........, he thought he was seeing scientific proof that these tiny creatures
really existed. He published the photographs alongside an article he wrote, (2) ...
fairies as supernatural wonders. It was not until 1939 that the two ladies who took the
photos admitted these were (3) . They simply cut out pictures of fairies from a book
and (4) ........ them among flowers. The results are (6) ........ beautiful. But the simplicity
of the trick (6) ........ a basic principle of photography, that the camera cannot lie.
But it can, and always could. Today, we are used to computer software (7) ........ US
to rework our digital images and it is a (8) ........ that photography ever had a true
age of innocence. From the moment cameras began capturing reality, that reality was
being altered.venue
calling
false
arranged
categorically
weakens
letting
fantasy
setting
naming
faulty
spaced
unavoidably
undermines
supporting
legend
° 000
°
background
attributing
fake
settled
substantially
demolishes
enabling
dream
Reading and Use of English
D surrounding
D acknowledging
D fictional
D distributed
D undeniably
D. dismantles
D_ empowering
D mythTest 1
Part 2
For questions 9-16, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only
‘one word in each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0).
Write your answers IN CAPITAL LETTERS on the separate answer sheet.
Example: [o][{ i]t] |
Online passwords - what everyone should know
When (0) comes to online security, we all know what we ought to do: choose a different,
random set of letters and numbers for every email account, shopping site or bank account. But
hardly (9) ........ does this, because memorising them all is impossible. So we use the same familiar
words for every site, (10) ........ @ pet's name or, even worse, the word ‘password’, occasionally
remembering to replace the letter O with a zero, or choosing to (11) ........ use of a capital letter.
Even if we opt (12) ........ a random group of letters such as ‘fpqzy’, there is now software available
which can make a thousand guesses per second, enabling a hacker to get to your password in
just under four hours
Interestingly, (13) ........ increasing your password to twenty random letters, you increase a
hacker's guessing time to 6.5 thousand trillion centuries. The problem is that you would (14) ........
no chance of ever remembering those 20 letters. The solution, apparently, is to come (15) ...
with three or four short, unrelated words and work (16) a way to remember them. Easy!
10Reading and Use of English
Part 3
For questions 17-24, read the text below. Use the word given in capitals at the end of some of the
lines to form a word that fits in the gap in the same line. There is an example at the beginning (0).
Write your answers IN CAPITAL LETTERS on the separate answer sheet.
Example: [o][i]n|c]rlelals|1|nie
Too many climbers on Mount Everest
Mount Everest in Nepal is becoming (0) ........ popular as a destination
for adventure tourism. During the month of May, (17) ........ weather
presents a number of safe opportunities to make the climb, As a result, the
sheer number of climbers has brought an (18) . problem, potentially
‘even more dangerous than low temperatures and changeable weather -
overcrowded conditions. The fact that there are so many climbers, many
of them complete (19) , means that at times people are queuing for
hours to reach the summit.
This hazard has led to calls for stricter assessments of new learner climbers,
their (20) .
climbers are sometimes ignoring the advice of their Nepalese guides, which
as to reach the mountain's summit such inexperienced
may (21) ........ everyone's lives.
Perhaps one (22) ....... would be to make the charges for climbing
the mountain so high that only a few people could afford the climb. Or
(23) .
leaving Everest to the very best (24) ..
. , one could ban the use of artificial oxygen and local guides,
Extreme, maybe, but it may just
prove necessary,
INCREASE
FAVOUR
EXPECT
BEGIN
DESPERATE
DANGER
SOLVE
ALTERNATE,
MOUNTAIN
utTest 1
Part 4
For questions 25-30, complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first
sentence, using the word given. Do not change the word given. You must use between three
and six words, including the word given. Here is an example (0).
Example:
‘0 James would only speak to the head of department alone.
ON
James .. to the head of department alone.
‘The gap can be filled with the words ‘insisted on speaking’, so you write:
Example: | 0 | | INSISTED ON SPEAKING
Write only the missing words IN CAPITAL LETTERS on the separate answer sheet.
25 ‘You should stop your children watching so much television,’ Mary's sister told her.
LET
Mary's sister advised her so much television.
26 The local council wants to impose a ban on driving at more than 30 kilometres per hour
anywhere in this area.
ILLEGAL
The local council wants to .
anywhere in this area.
sss at more than 30 kilometres per hour
27 ‘Tommissed his plane because he was late leaving for the airport.
TIME
Ifonly ... for the airport, he wouldn't have missed his plane.
12Reading and Use of English
28 The guidelines for the appointment of new staff need to be thoroughly revised.
THOROUGH
There needs .. the guidelines for the appointment of new staff.
29. The employment rate rose gradually as the economy began to recover.
GRADUAL
There ...
... the employment rate as the economy began to recover.
30 The change in the company’s logo didn't make any difference to the majority of its
customers.
CONSEQUENCE
The change in the company's logo ..
customers.
to the majority of its
13Test 1
PartS
You are going to read an article about a famous psychologist. For questions 31-36, choose the
answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text.
Mark your answers on the separate answer sheet.
Jean Piaget
Jean Piaget, the pioneering Swiss philosopher and psychologist, became famous for his theories
‘on child development. A child prodigy, he became interested in the scientific study of nature at
an early age. He developed a special fascination for biology, having some of his work published
before graduating from high school. When, aged 10, his observations led to questions that could
be answered only by access to the university library, Piaget wrote and published some notes on
the sighting of an albino sparrow in the hope that this would persuade the librarian to stop treating
him like a child. It worked. Piaget was launched on a path that led to his doctorate in zoology and a
lifelong convietion that the way to understand anything is to know how it evolves.
Piaget went on to spend much of his professional life listening to and watching children, and poring
over reports of researchers who were doing the same. He found, to put it succinctly, that children
don't think like adults. After thousands of interactions with young people often barely old enough to
talk, Piaget began to suspect that behind their cute and seemingly illogical utterances were thought
processes that had their own kind of order ang their own special logic. Albert Einstein, the renowned
physicist, deemed this a discovery ‘so simple that only a genius could have thought of I’
Piaget's insight opened a new window into the inner workings of the mind. Several new fields of
science, among them developmental psychology and cognitive theory, came into being as a result of
his research. Although not an educational reformer, he championed a way of thinking about children
that provided the foundation for today’s education reform movements. One might say that Piaget was
the first to take children’s thinking seriously. Others who shared this respect for children may have
fought harder for immediate change in schools, but Piaget's influence on education remains deeper
and more pervasive.
Piaget has been revered by generations of teachers inspired by the belief that children are not empty
vessels to be filled with knowledge, as traditional academic thinking had it, but active builders of
knowledge — little scientists who are constantly creating and testing their own theories of the world.
‘And while he may not be as famous as Sigmund Freud, Piaget's contribution to psychology may be
Tonger lasting. As computers and the Internet give children greater autonomy to explore ever larger
digital worlds, the ideas he pioneered become ever more relevant.
In the 1940s, working in Alfred Binet’s child-psychology lab in Paris, Piaget noticed that children
of the same age, regardless of their background or gender, made comparable errors on true-false
intelligence tests. Back in Switzerland, the young scientist began watching children play, scrupulously
recording their words and actions as their minds raced to find reasons for why things are the way
they are, Piaget recognised that a five-year- old's beliefs, while not correct by any adult criterion, are
not ‘incorrect’ either. They are entirely sensible and coherent within the framework of the child's ‘way
of knowing’. In Piaget's view, classifying them as ‘true’ or ‘false’ misses the point and shows a lack
fof respect for the child. What Piaget was after was a theory that could find coherence and ingenuity
in the child's justification, and evidence of a kind of explanatory principle that stands young children
in very good stead when they don’t know enough or don't have enough skill to handle the kind of
explanation that grown-ups prefer.
The core of Piaget’s work is his belief that looking carefully at how children acquire knowledge
sheds light on how adults think and understand the world. Whether this has, in fact, led to deeper
understanding remains, like everything about Piaget, contentious. In recent years, Piaget has been
vigorously challenged by the current emphasis on viewing knowledge as an intrinsic property of the
brain, Ingenious experiments have demonstrated that newborn infants already have some of the
knowledge that Piaget believed children constructed. But for those of us who still see Piaget as the
giant in the field of cognitive theory, the disparity between what the baby brings and what the adult nas,
ig so immense that the new discoveries do not significantly reduce the gap, only increase the mystery.
1431
34
Reading and Use of English
In the first paragraph, the writer suggests that as a child Piaget
vom>
was particularly eager to teach others about animals.
was confident his research would help other children.
was already certain about the career he would follow.
was determined that nothing should hold back his progress.
In quoting Einstein, the writer is
vom>
questioning the simplicity of Piaget's ideas.
supporting the conclusion that Piaget reached.
suggesting that Piaget's research methods were unprecedented.
recommending a less complicated approach than Piaget's,
In the third paragraph, the writer puts forward the view that
vom>
Piaget's work with children was difficult to put to a practical use.
Piaget's theories about children were less revolutionary than he thought.
Piaget laid the basis for our current understanding of how children’s minds work.
Piaget was actually committed to radical change in the education system.
The phrase ‘empty vessels’ (paragraph 4) refers to
A
B
c
D
why children should be encouraged to study more independently.
‘what traditional academic theory said about children and learning.
how teachers can increase children’s motivation to learn,
the kind of knowledge that children need to acquire.
The writer says Piaget was unwilling to categorise children’s ideas as true or false because
A
B
c
D
he realised that the reasoning behind a child's statement was more important.
he knew that this could have long-term effects on a child,
he felt that this did not reflect what happens in real life.
he felt that children are easily influenced by what adults have told them.
What does the writer conclude about newer theories that have appeared?
gom>
They completely undermine Piaget's ideas.
They put greater emphasis on scientific evidence.
They are an interesting addition to the body of knowledge.
They are based on flawed research.
15Test 1
Part 6
You are going to read four contributions to an online debate about advertising. For questions
37-40,
, choose from the contributions A-D. The contributions may be chosen more than once.
Mark your answers on the separate answer sheet.
16
The role of advertising in society today
‘Almost all public spaces nowadays have advertisements in sight, and all forms of media, from
newspapers to the cinema to the Internet, ae filed with adverts. This all-pervasive presence reflects
the value of advertising to us. Without it, businesses of all types and sizes would struggle to inform
potential customers about the products or services they provide, and consumers would be unable
QOimake informed assessments when looking for products to buy and services to use. Without
Severtsing, the promotion of products and practices that contribute to our physical and psychological
Welkbeing ~ medicines to treat minor ailments, insurance schemes to protect us, clothes and
SSematicg to make us look and feel better - would be infinitely more problematic than it is. And
Suithout advertisements and the aspirations represented in them, the world would be a far duller place.
Advertising is everywhere, and it's often so subtle that we don't realise i's there at some level of our
Gonsciousness. The ultimate aim, of course, is to get us to buy things, regardless of whether it makes
sense for us to do so. In fact, adverts mostly impair rational decision-making. A recent study in the
UK found that 90% of customers failed to understand the truth about what was on offer in adverts for
broadband internet services. This itrational dimension is evident in the success advertisers enjoy not
only in getting us to buy products that, directly or indirectly, cause physical damage to us, but also
in raising Our expectations about vhat our lives should be like — expectations that inevitably imply
something is wrong with us if we don’t meet them. Having said this, advertising is fundamental to the
workings of modern economies, so the chances are that it will only continue to grow in significance.
“There is a tendency to underestimate people's intelligence and to invest advertising with powers
it doesn’t have. Certain dubious techniques have been banned - like the use of subliminal images
Shown so quickly that viewers don’t consciously realise they've seen them — but other forms of
advertising are simply manifestations of creativity. Audiences understand this and are able to enjoy
eaverts without falling prey to some complex deception. They know that an advert tells them a product
exists and suggests they might benefit from having it. They don’t expect itto provide objective details,
Confirming why they should or should not go ahead with a purchase. They are also smart enough to
know that vihat they see in advertisements is fiction and, therefore, not something they should feel
bad about if they don't have it. The bottom line, however, is that advertising helps the wheels of the
economy to turn, a crucial role which societies are likely to depend on for the foreseeable future,
‘Advertising is a worldwide, multi-billion dollar industry and inevitably tends to favour large businesses,
‘unich can afford advertising costs, rather than smaller companies, which can't. In that way, it makes
iio aver more difficult for that sector of the economy - small and medium-sized businesses — which
is the key to a nation’s prosperity. Advertising also encourages certain patterns of consumption — fast
food, cars, labour-saving devices and so on - which characterise a sedentary ifestyle and undermine
physical well-being, while also generating a sense of inadequacy and unhappiness among people
Pins feel inferior if they don’t possess a product or conform to certain ideas of what Is ‘beautiful
or cool". And far from providing consumers with clear, reliable information enabling them to make
Sonsible decisions about what to spend their money on, advertisers use underhand methods to
confuse and manipulate feelings and thoughts.Reading and Use of English
Which contributor
expresses a different view from the others about the impact that advertising 37
has on a country’s economy?
has a different opinion from the others on the extent to which advertising helps | 48
people to make choices?
takes a similar view to contributor D about the influence advertising can have 39
on people's self-esteem?
expresses a different opinion from contributor B regarding public awareness 40
of how advertising works?
17Test 1
Part7
You are going to read a magazine article about whale sharks. Six paragraphs have been removed
from the article. Choose from the paragraphs A-G the one which fits each gap (41-46). There is
one extra paragraph which you do not need to use,
Mark your answers on the separate answer sheet.
Secrets of the deep
Until recently, little was known about the movements of the whale shark. But a pioneering
project is shedding new light on this ocean giant. Project scientist Jonathan Green reports.
When an animal the size of a very large double-
decker bus — the largest fish in the ocean — makes
a sudden 90° turn, it has to be for a good reason.
{As the satellite tracks started to come in from whale
sharks which we had tagged off the Galapagos
Islands, they clearly showed that as the sharks were
swimming away from the islands, they were all
reaching a certain point and then making a very
abrupt change in direction.
at
‘That, among other things, was what The
Galapagos Whale Shark Project was attempting
to find out. Established to study the population of
sharks that visits the islands each year, the primary
aim of the research was to find out more about
whale shark movements on a local scale,
42
‘This involved two main processes. ‘To begin with,
we had to be able to identify individual sharks. We
used a modified version of photo software initially
developed for the mapping of stars and deep-space
objects. This worked because the characteristic
‘white spots of the whale shark rescmble the human
fingerprint in that each paitern is individually unique.
By running photographs of the sharks” sides through
the software, we could characterise the patterns of
spots, and figure out which shark was which.
a
‘We also attached tags to the sharks to track their
movements. This was done by inserting a small dart
through the thick skin into @ fatty layer beneath
using a pneumatic spear gun and then tethering the
18
tags with a piece of steel cable. They were intended
to be towed alongside or above the dorsal fin in
order to break the surface and transmit data by
satellite. But getting the tags to stay on was easier
said than done. For reasons unknown, some came
off in less than 24 hours.
i J
‘The sharks used common departure routes soon
after we had tagged them. They headed due north,
following a series of sea fissures until they reached
the Galapagos Rift Valley system. This zone is
where the divergence of two oceanic plates has
created a rift system similar to that which runs
through eastern Africa. Many reached the margin
between the two plates and most then turned west.
a a
Conversely, one juvenile female’s track was
astounding, overlaying almost perfectly the rift
system as it runs west. It's clear that she and the
other whale sharks are using geological features as
route indicators, just as motorists use, say, familiar
buildings. But how the sharks perceive such features
thousands of meters below on the ocean floor is as
yet unresolved.
46
‘The theory we are working on is that the Earth’s
‘magnetic field reverses its polarity intermittently
over the course of time, thus supplying a source of
directional information. Fault systems, rift valleys,
‘ocean trenches and plate margins all emit a distinct
magnetic signature that can be used by whale
sharks and other species as a virtual map.A. There may be a number of explanations: the
sharks might have rubbed up against rocks, or
the tags may have been ripped off by associated
species, such as silky sharks, that mistook them
for prey. Having begun with a 1.8-metre tether,
we shortened this to 1.3 metres, which seerned
to be more effective.
B After three months, all the sharks that had
retained their tags proceeded to head south
‘They converged on three mountain chains
that run westwards from the edge of Peru’s
continental shelf. There, one by one, they shed
their tags and continued on to destinations
unknown.
C However, it wasn’t until we overlaid them onto
a map of the sea floor that we saw that these
movements were apparently in response to
geological features deep in the ocean that the
sharks couldn't possibly see. It became clear that
they must somehow be using faults, fissures and
plate boundaries. But how?
Reading and Use of English
After all, the marine environment, in
‘comparison to that on land, has few apparent
points of reference, The waters are often murky
and the maximum penetration of light only
extends into the upper levels. So how do marine
creatures navigate over long distances?
We undertook one of the most ambitious whale
shark programmes to date. The fieldwork was
carried out in three 15-day sorties
‘The frequency of transmissions from the tags
depended on the behaviour of the individual
sharks, Some spent a lot of time on or near the
surface, and their tags reported on a regular
basis. Others, such as the single male we tagged,
spent a great deal of the time diving ~ for six
‘weeks we didn’t receive a single transmission.
If spotted at the same location at a later date, or
a different location, the shark was ‘recaptured’
‘on a database, which stores photos of whale
sharks from around the globe, thus providing
details of their movements geographically and
over time,
19Test 1
Part 8
You are going to read an article about employees who do some or all of their work from home. For
questions 47-56, choose from the sections (A-D). The sections may be chosen more than once.
Mark your answers on the separate answer sheet.
In which section are the following mentioned?
the mistaken view that physical proximity at work automatically ensures 47
good supervision
the fact that the proportion of home workers in the labour force has
not matched expectations
the risk of an employer making unreasonable demands on a home worker
the fact that staff retention increases in firms that encourage home working
the duty of firms not to dismiss requests to work at home out of hand
2
one of the main obstacles to home working in employers’ minds being the
fear of loss of direct control
personal circumstances increasing the likelihood of an individual being allowed
to work at home
the wider benefits that home working brings to the community
the advisability of ensuring that home workers are not putting in
excessive hours
8/8) | 2) | sl | 8
a reduction in expenditure on premises as a result of home working
20Reading and Use of English
The Rise of Home Working
‘A Whether you call it working from home,
telecommuting or home-working, it's a growing
market. Banks, call centres, councils, software
companies, law firms, PR agencies: all are
increasingly allowing their staff to do it at least
Part-time. British Telecom, the pioneer of home
working in Britain, now has 65,000 flexible
workers, of whom 10,000 do not come into the
office at all. However, we're stil a long way from
the dreams of 25 years ago, which imagined
offices emptying of everyone who didn't operate
‘@ machine or wield a mop. So how do you get
fon the home-working bandwagon? In some
countries, if you have a child under 16, or 18 if
they are disabled, in a sense you have a head
start. Employers in Britain are legally obliged at
least to consider your case if you ask to work
flexibly, and that could include working at home
for at least part of the week. They must also
consider an application if you are caring for a
friend or a family member. But even if none of
those apply, you are still likely to have a strong
case - if you can persuade your company to
listen
B Not only do home workers cut down on the
need for large offices, they are often vastly more
productive. American studies show a 30-40%
increase, Noel Hodson, a key proponent of
home working, suggests that this is at least
partly down to the removal of the daily commute:
"What we found was that most of the time saved
went back into work. These workers valued their
new lifestyle and to protect it they did more
work.’ Companies that offer flexible working also
find it easier to attract staff, and to hang on to
them. At British Telecom, at least 97% of women
Who take maternity leave come back to work
afterwards, against a national average of about
half that. The downtime, the recruitment, the
instruction of each person at a very moderate
estimate would be around £10,000. So, not
only are they creating a more socially integrated
company in line with government guidelines,
they're saving £5m-£6m on skill losses.
c
D
‘And there are bonuses for society too. Home
working encourages a more diverse labour force,
introducing to the world of work, sometimes for
the first time, not just carers but disabled people
or those who live in remote locations. Then
there's the reduction in pollution and greenhouse
gases. So if home working is so great, why
aren't we all doing it? ‘The issues are human,
ot technological,” says Peter Thomson of the
Telework Association. ‘For the past 200 years
We have been in an environment where people
get together in the same place to work and a
manager stands there and watches what they
do.’ So the last barriers are attitudinal, but it's
‘a myth that someone is in total charge of what
people do just because they are all working
in the same location. Most managers who are
worried about this kind of thing are actually
holed up in their offices and rarely interact with
their people. Merely turning up is a really poor
Performance indicator.
Mark Thomas runs a PR consultancy whose
‘employees work at home. ‘We've come up with
measures of performance that are more to do
with what they produce than with desk time. This
is the way forward,’ he says. Some managers
are concerned that their home workers might
go shopping during the ‘working day’. This
‘goes against the idea of flexible working since
hours shouldn't matter so long as the required
productivity is there, The concern still remains
whether some employees will abuse this, but
the same technology that makes it possible to
escape the office makes it harder to get away
from your boss, which is surely true even if you
work in an office. It's well known that some
managers insist on interrupting their underlings’
evenings and weekends with ‘urgent’ enquiries
that could easily wait. So, many of us are already
on call 24/7. However, the great thing about
technology is that it has an ‘off button’. The best
employers will not just expect you to use it, but
worry if you don’t.
21