ESSAY WRITING

ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES

TYPE 1: Discuss the advantages and disadvantages

Ex: Some people leave home before 20 for job or study. Discuss the advantages and disadvatges of
this trend.

Introduction:
1. General statement: paraphrase lại đề bài
Nowadays,… / It is increasingly clear that ..... There is an irrefutable fact that…..
2. Thesis statement: xét cả 2 mặt tốt và xấu của vấn đề được nêu ra (không đưa ra ý kiến cá nhân)
It is also believed that ...... has its/ their own advantages and disadvantages
3. Writing purpose:
The following essay will discuss both the merits and demerits of this trend/ issue.
Within the scope of this writing, both pros and cons of this trend/ issue will be discussed as
follow
Ex: There is an irrefutable fact that youngsters’ lifestyle has changed dramatically. It is also
believed that living independently before the age of 20 for working or studying purposes has its own
advantages and disadvantages. The following essay will discuss both the merits and demerits of this
trend.
Body:
Paragraph 1: Viết về mặt tốt của vấn đề. (1 số synonyms thay thế cho từ advantage: benefit, merit,
positive aspect, strong point)
Câu topic sentence 1: It can be said that ..... has some noteworthy positive effects.
Nói về ưu điểm 1: The main/most important advantage/benefit of .... is that ....
Nói về ưu điểm 2: One/Another/An additional advantage of .... would be ....

Ex: It can be said that independent life has some noteworthy positive effects. The most important
benefit of such way of living is that these young adults are given a golden opportunity to experience
new things and do what they love or dream of like traveling or enjoying a mid-night movie show,
which is impossible at home. Another plus would be a good preparation for their adulthood. The
reason for this is that when having to do everything on their own, they can equip for themselves
critical basic living skills. Reality has proved that those who must manage their own lives from young

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age are more mature, responsible and caring, a good contributor to their future success especially to
their marriage life.

Paragraph 2: Viết về mặt xấu của vấn đề. (1 số synonyms thay thế cho từ disadvantages:
drawbacks, weakness, handicap, weak point, negative aspect)
Câu topic sentence 2: Despite these aforementioned benefits, several drawbacks do exist.
OR However, .... is not completely beneficial, there are several negative
aspects that should be taken into consideration.
Nói về khuyết điểm 1: The main/most serious disadvantage of ... is ...
Nói về khuyết điểm 2: One/An additional disadvantage of .... would be ....

Ex: Despite these aforementioned benefits, several drawbacks do exist. The most serious handicap
(of such lifestyle) is the formation of an unhealthy lifestyle. Undoubtedly, without parental
supervision and poor awareness, these youngsters tend to be out of routine. They may not eat and
sleep properly as a consequence of nurturing their interests too much. An additional disadvantage
would be the danger of forming bad habits and characteristics. This is simply because, unable to
resist temptations or restrain their desires is likely to lead them to addiction to bad things like alcohol,
smoking or games online.

Conclusion:
Paraphrase thesis statement và nói tóm tắt lại các advantage & disadvantage (KHÔNG NÊU QUAN
ĐIỂM CỦA MÌNH)

- As can be seen from the above, there are some advantages and disadvantages to …. No
matter how this issue is dealt with, cautions should be taken due to two opposite aspects
like what has been discussed.
- In conclusion, … could bring about certain benefits, but its negative consequences should
not be overlooked

Ex: In conclusion, it is worth considering that there are both advantages and disadvantages of leaving
for work or study before 20. No matter how this issue is dealt with, cautions should be taken due to
two opposite aspects like what has been discussed.

USEFUL VOCAB:
ADVANTAGE:
advantage: benefit, merit, positive aspect, strong point
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Structures
The main advantage/disadvantage of ...... is ......
Another reason is that it would benefit/handicap.......
One/another additional advantage …. is ..….
What makes ….. important ..… is …...
One/Another point in favor of …... is ..
DISADVANTAGE:
disadvantage: drawbacks, weakness, handicap, weak point, negative aspect.
Structures:
The main/most/serious disadvantage of ... is ...
Another negative aspect of .... would be ....
One/another/an additional disadvantage of …. is ….

CHUYỂN ĐOẠN
Để chuyển đoạn, bạn nên sử dụng linh hoạt một số liên từ hoặc mẫu câu mang ý nghĩa nhượng bộ/đối
lập. Dưới đây là một số mẫu câu ví dụ mà bạn có thể áp dụng cho mọi đề bài.
Despite these attractions, however, some drawbacks do exist…
Although … has many advantages, there still exist some noteworthy disadvantages.
However, … is not completely beneficial; there are some negative aspects that should be
taken into consideration.

SUGGESTED BODY FRAMEWORK:

BODY PARA1.:

(1) As the beginning part of the discussion, advantages are worth mentioning initially. In this
way we can see that + MAIN ADVANTAGE. (2) From this, what is meant is that, +
EXPLANATION. (3) One additional factor can be found in the fact that, + ANOTHER
ADVANTAGE. (4) To be more specific, + EXPLANATION. (5) To illustrate this, + EXAMPLE/
EVIDENCE.

BODY PARA.2:

(1) On the other hand, there are certainly some limits/disadvantages/drawbacks worth
mentioning. First, + MAIN DISADVANTAGE. (2) To clarify it, …. (3) It is also note-worthy

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 that, + ANOTHER DISADVANTAGE. (4) That is to say + EXPLANATION. (5) A case in point is
that + EXAMPLE/ EVIDENCE.

USING CLAUSES OF CONTRAST:

You also have plenty of opportunities in the Advantages/Disadvantages essay to use Clauses of
Contrast: e.g. although, while, despite
We use these clauses to show that we are contrasting and weighing up the advantages and the
disadvantages.
E.g. Although the internet is effective in delivering us information at high-speed, we cannot always
rely on computers in the same way that we can with books.
Remember the grammar needed with these structures:
Although + full clause (Although the internet is effective…)
While + full clause (While the internet is effective…)
Despite + verb-ing (Despite being effective…)
Despite the fact that + full clause (Despite the fact that the internet is effective)

PRACTICE:

1. It is becoming increasingly popular to have a year off between finishing high school and going
to university. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this?
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the Internet?
3. Computers are becoming an essential part of school lessons. Discuss the advantages and
disadvantages and give your own opinion.
4. Many elderly people are no longer looked after by their families but are put in care home or
nursing homes. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this trend?

TYPE 2:
• Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?
• Discuss the advantages and disadvantages and give your own opinion.

EX:

1. It is becoming increasingly popular to have a year off between finishing school and going to
university. Do the advantages of having a year off outweigh the disadvantages?

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2. Social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, are replacing face-to-face contact in this century. Do you
think the advantages of this way outweigh the disadvantages?

INTRODUCTION:

1. General statement: paraphrase lại đề bài

Nowadays,… / It is increasingly clear that ..... There is an irrefutable fact that…..

2. Writing purpose: nêu quan điểm cá nhân

- In my opinion, the benefits of ….outweigh its drawbacks.
- While ……. may bring about some benefits/ drawbacks, I would argue they are eclipsed by
the drawbacks/benefits.

Example: There is an irrefutable fact that the trend of taking a year break after the completion
of school and before starting the college courses has gain greater popularity. While taking a
gap year may bring about some benefits, I would argue they are eclipsed by the drawbacks.

BODY: Topic sentence

1. On the one hand, … offers people several merits.

2. On the other hand, I am of the opinion that the aforementioned upsides outnumber their
downsides.

CONCLUSION:

- In conclusion, while………may have some positive aspects, I believe they are outweighed by
the more significant negative aspects.
- In conclusion, it seems to me that the disadvantages of ……… are more considerable than
its advantages.

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 A PROBLEM/SOLUTON ESSAY

I. ABOUT THE TASK

- The Problem/Solution task tests your ability to write about a problem and suggest ways to
solve it.
- Here are the basic rules for writing Problem/Solution Essays:
✓ Read and analyse the problem and the questions carefully.
✓ Write about the causes of the problem and propose possible solutions.
✓ Write a brief, well-organised introduction, at least two main paragraphs and a short
conclusion.
✓ Support your answer by giving reasons from your own knowledge or experience.
✓ Use an academic register or style.
✓ Write at least 350 words.
✓ Complete the task in about 60 minutes.

Be sure to answer BOTH questions. You need to give the causes of the problem and you need to
propose possible solutions.

Work in pairs. Look at the writing task below and answer the questions.

Every year millions of people around the world suffer from poor health as a result of air
pollution.

What do you think are the causes of this?

What solutions can you suggest?

1. What problem is the task asking you to discuss?

2. What does the first question ask you to do?
3. What does the second question ask you to do?
4. With your partner, think of some answers to the first and second question.
5. Do you have any personal experiences or knowledge related to this problem?

II. SAMPLE QUESTION:

Write about the following topic.

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Cycling is more environmentally friendly than other forms of transport. Why is it not
popular in many places? And how to increase its popularity?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge and
experience.

Write at least 300 words.

III. SKILLS-BUILDING EXERCISES

In the introduction to a Problem-Solution essay, you should restate the problem in your own words
and then explain why this problem is a serious one, one that people should try to solve.

Look at the task below. Then look at three introductions for the essay. Which one is best?
Why? What problems do you see in the other two introductions?

In many parts of the world, illiteracy rates are still high.

What do you think are the causes of this?

What solutions can you suggest?

a. It is true that in many parts of the world, illiteracy rates are still high. There are a number
of causes for this. There are also some solutions I suggest.
b. Illiteracy is a global problem. The main cause of this problem is poverty. When poverty
decrease, so does illiteracy. However, there are also some ways to improve this situation.
Providing more education television programs might be one solution.
c. Illiteracy is a problem in almost every country and every community. It affects the
economy of a nation and causes difficulties for businesses. Most of all, the inability to read
and write lowers people’s quality of life.

A. WRITING THE INTRODUCTION:

Introducing the theme and the issue

✓ In a modern world, among a number of issues people have to deal with, (Broader Theme)
is one of them and along with it arises something more specific-(This Topic Theme).
✓ Talking about (Broader Theme), one cannot avoid a look through (This Topic Theme).
✓ The matter of (Broader Theme) is currently discussed by different people at different
angles of views.

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 ✓ Over the past few years, (Broad Theme) has become a cause of concern for many
societies/ communities, in which (This Topic Theme) is increasing at an alarming rate/
rising alarmingly.

Introducing the writing purposes

✓ Within the scope of this writing, a number of reasons/effects/problems will be discussed

and from then solutions will be mentioned.
✓ This essay will discuss some reasons why this has occurred and examine the
consequences of this worrying trend.
✓ In fact, its reasons/effects/problems are multiple and certainly, the solutions to
accompany them are various as well. We will be taking a glance at them below.

B. WRITING BODY PARAGRAPHS:

1. LEAD-IN PHRASES:

BLOCK PATTERN PARALLEL PATTERN

Body para. 1
- The first to mention in terms of (effects/ - As the beginning part of the discussion,
reasons/) for this discussion/issue is reasons/effects are worth mentioning
that … initially. In this way, we can see that
- The first reason/effect worth …(side 1 of the pair) ….Accordingly,
mentioning is that … …(side 2 of the pair) …
- As the beginning part of the discussion, - This discussion should be started by a
problems/ reasons/effects are worth glance at the reasons/effects of the issue.
mentioning initially. In this way we can In this way, we can see that …(side 1 of the
see that …. pair) ….Apart from it, there are some
- effects/solutions accordingly.

Body para. 2
- In addition, let us look further into other - In addition to it, let us consider the
causes/effects/problems to this issue. This additional cause and effect/ cause and
is to say, … solution/ effect and solution to this
- In a different angle, the second matter. In this way, it can be seen that, …
cause(s)/effect(s) to this question is/are …

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 - Additionally, cause(s)/effect(s) to this -In a different angle, another significant
matter can be found in the fact that … cause and effect/ cause and solution/
- Furthermore, the additional cause(s) effect and solution to this matter is that …
/effect(s) to this question is/are … - Furthermore, the additional cause and
effect/ cause and solution/ effect and
solution to this matter is that...
Body para. 3
- Effects/causes to this issue, lastly, are - Finally, the additional cause and solution/
normally accompanied by a number of effect and solution to this matter is that…
solutions/Effects. This is to say, … - It would not be complete if we neglected
- Finally, to come up with solutions/ the additional cause and solution/ effect
/mentioning effects for this issue, we can and solution to this matter. More
see that … specifically…

2. GIVING REASONS AND EXAMPLES

These words and phrases can be used to explain why a problem exists.

CAUSE -> EFFECT

therefore/consequently Many drivers lack proper training; therefore, they do not know what
to do in an emergency

so Sometimes drivers use their cell phones, so they are too distracted to
avoid dangerous situations.

as a result/consequence Sometimes drivers use their cell phones; as a result, they are too
distracted to avoid dangerous situations.

results in/ leads to I accounts for Equipment failure also plays a role. For example, a loss
of brakes results in accidents.

causes / leads to/ gives rise to/ is responsible for

Bad weather conditions in winter leads to an increase in the number

of accidents on the roads.

EFFECT <- CAUSE

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because / Since The most important cause of traffic accidents is excessive speed.
Because they are travelling so fast, drivers do not have time to react.

due to/because of/owing to

Tiredness is a common cause of traffic accidents. Last year, 50 per

cent of accidents were due to drivers not taking frequent breaks
whilst driving.

is/are caused by Poor weather conditions, such as icy roads, may also play a role. In
the winter, many accidents are caused by icy roads.

a. Complete the sentences with words or phrases from the language box above. (More
than one answer may be possible.)
1. In my country, a fairly large proportion of the population is illiterate ________________they
are poor.
2. Some teachers are unable to teach students to read and write ________________ a lack of
proper training.
3. Many families barely earn enough to pay for food; ________________, education is a luxury
they cannot afford.
4. Illiteracy in one generation often ________________ illiteracy in the next generation.
5. In some cases, the problem ________________ by geographical factors ________________ some
people live in isolated communities in the mountains or the desert, their children cannot
attend regular schools.

3. GIVING EXPLANATIONS:
- This is to say…/To clarify it, …, /It means…/From this, what is meant is that …
- This is simply because (of) …….
- To be more detailed/more specific/more particular, …
- In detail/particular, …
- Specifically, /Particularly, ….

4. GIVING EXPANSION:
- In addition, /Additionally, /Apart from it, /It can be added that,
- One additional factor can be found in the fact that, …

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 - As an addition, we can see that, …

5. GIVING EXAMPLES/EVIDENCE:

Example:

- For instance, …/For example, …/A case in point is that, …

- An illustration for this point can be seen in the fact that, …
- To illustrate this, …
- A typical/good example can be found in (the fact that), ….
- Take for example ……

Evidence:

- In reality, …
- Reality has shown that, …
- Reality has proved/confirmed/revealed that, …

b. Look at the task below. You are going to write a paragraph discussing the causes of
stress-related illnesses in the modern world.
1. Read the task and underline the key words.
2. Brainstorm a number of causes for this problem and then choose two or three to discuss
in your essay.
3. Write a topic sentence for your paragraph.
4. Write the main paragraph, using linking words.

Nowadays, stress-related illnesses are becoming increasingly common.

What do you think are the causes of this?

What solutions can you suggest?

c. Work in pairs. Look at six possible topic sentences for a paragraph describing
solutions to the problem of high illiteracy rates. Three of them would be good topic
sentences. What problems do you see in the other three sentences? Discuss your
answers.
1. There are a number of ways the problem of illiteracy can be approached.
2. Furthermore, there are some effective ways to deal with illiteracy.

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 3. Although illiteracy is a persistent worldwide problem, there are a number of steps that
can be taken to correct it.
4. Just as there is no single factor behind the problem of illiteracy, there is no single solution.
5. I would like to suggest that every child receive a cheap laptop or tablet loaded with how-
to-read programs.
6. Let us take a look at the reasons why illiteracy is such a big problem.

INTRODUCING AND PROPOSING SOLUTIONS

Verbs Modal verbs Nouns

recommend must recommendation
suggest should suggestion
propose ought to solution
might idea
may proposal
could

Reference structures:

- Tackling such problems will not be easy, but there are measures that can be taken.
- It is for someone to do something.
- It is time for someone to do something.
- It is time someone did something.
- It is advisable for someone to do something
- In order to deal with/solve/tackle/figure out this problem, something should be done.

Examples:

1. I recommend that young drivers be required to take an additional motorway driving test
before they get their driving license.
2. My recommendation is that the following steps be taken.
3. It is time for the government do this right away. /
It is time the government did this right away.
4. I propose that the government identify dangerous roads and fix the problems.
5. Manufacturers should build safer vehicles.
6. Laws requiring seat belts must be enforced.

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Remember, the question asks you to suggest solutions - not just one solution. Use linking words
such as first, another, finally and so on, to propose alternative solutions.

d. Complete these sentences with words or phrases from the language box above.
(More than one answer may be possible.)
1. One _____________ is for the government to spend more money on training teachers.
2. Another _____________ is to produce and broadcast more television shows that teach
children to read and write.
3. Finally, I _____________ that simple reading materials be made available for free.

e. Look at the task again. Write a paragraph proposing possible solutions to the
problem of stress-related illnesses.
1. Brainstorm a number of solutions to the problem and then choose two or three to discuss
in your essay.
2. Write a topic sentence for your paragraph.
3. Write the second main paragraph, using linking words.

Nowadays, stress-related illnesses are becoming increasingly common.

What do you think are the causes of this?

What solutions can you suggest?

C. WRITING THE CONCLUSION:

a. Work in pairs. Read the conclusion for an essay about the illiteracy problem. Then read
the explanations of the role of each sentence in the conclusion. Match the sentences in
the conclusion (1-4) with the explanations (A-E). One of the explanations will not be used.

In many parts of the world, illiteracy rates are still high.

What do you think are the causes of this?

What solutions can you suggest?

(1) There is no single cause of the problem of illiteracy, but certainly, the higher the
rate of poverty, the higher the rate of illiteracy. (2) Because poverty is such a stubborn
problem, illiteracy is not an easy problem to solve. (3) However, there are some

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practical steps that can be taken, such as improved teacher training programs, that
can improve the situation. (4) Teaching people to read and write not only give them
richer lives, it benefits society as a whole.

A. This sentence explains the benefits of solving the problem.

B. This sentence gives an example of a solution that might be effective.

C. This sentence gives the most important cause of illiteracy.

D. This sentence explains what will happen if the problem is not solved.

E. This sentence explains why solving the problem will be difficult.

THEME DEVELOPMENT-ENVIRONMENT

ISSUES:
1. Climate change, global warming

2. Air pollution, increase in rubbish / garbage

3. Energy crisis, water shortage, deforestation

4. Natural disasters: acid rain, sandstorms, drought, flood

CAUSES:
Population growth, industrial development, long-term human activities

SOLUTIONS:
1. Global cooperation: reach the agreement, set international standards for environmental
protection

2. Make laws, encourage low-carbon economy

3. Exploit renewable, green energy, invest in energy-saving technologies

4. Promote environment-friendly products, lead green consuming habits

5. Raise public’s green awareness, encourage low-carbon lifestyle

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RELATED ESSAY QUESTIONS:
1. Nowadays, people always throw the old things away when they buy new things, some people
claim that the broken things should be repaired and used again. What factors cause this
phenomenon? What effects the phenomenon leads to?

2. Research shows that global warming is caused by human activity. What are the possible effects
of climate change and what can governments and individuals do to reduce these?

3. It is often said that we are living in a world full of plastic bags and rubbish. Discuss the reasons
for this and suggest how the situation might be improved or resolved.

RELATED WORDS AND PHRASES

- low-carbon (n) có lượng cacbon thấp
- green (adj) thân thiện với môi trường
- environment-friendly (adj) thân thiện với môi trường
- eco-friendly (adj) thản thiện với hệ sinh thái
- ecosystem (n) hệ sinh thái
- environmental protection (n) việc bảo vệ môi trường
- preserve (v) = conserve bảo tồn
- sustainable development (n) sự phát triển bền vững
- deplete natural resources (v) làm cạn kiệt ngĩtồn tài nguyên thiên nhiên -> depletion (n)
- leave a carbon footprint (v) để lại khí nhà kính
- discharge/release pollutants into the environment (v) thải chất gây ô nhiễm ra môi trường
- greenhouse effect (n) hiệu ứng nhà kính
- global warming (n) hiện tượng trái đất nóng dần lên
- discharge (v) thải ra
- harness (v) khai thác để sản xuất năng lượng; chế ngự
Ex: There is a great deal of interest in harnessing wind and waves as new sources of power
- toxic (adj) = contaminated/poisonous
- contaminate/ poison (v) gây ô nhiễm/ làm nhiễm độc
- degrade (v) xuống cấp -> degration (n)
- deteriorate (v) làm xuống cấp –deterioration (n)
- shortage of (n) lack of/ dearth of scarcity of/ deficiency: sự thiếu hụt
- lack (v) thiếu

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- fight climate change (v) chống lại sự biến đổi khi hậu
- improve air quality (v) cải thiện chất lượng không khí
- conserve energy (v) bảo tồn năng lượng
- renewable energies such as wind, hydro and solar power (n) những năng lượng có thể tái tạo
như năng lượng gió, nước và mặt trời
- fuel-efficient vehicles (n) xe tiết kiệm nhiên liệu
- take public transit, carpool or ride a bicycle (v) sử dụng phương tiện giao thông công cộng, đi
chung xe hoặc đi xe đạp
- avoid using throw-away products (n) tránh sử dụng những sản phẩm dùng một lần
- environment-friendly products (n) các sản phẩm thân thiện với môi trường
- eco-friendly alternatives/substitutions/replacements (n) các sản phẩm thay thế thân thiện với
môi trường
- sort/classify the daily garbage (v) phân loại rác thải hàng ngày
- consume less and recycle more (n) tiêu thụ ít hơn và tái chế nhiều hơn

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 TRUE/FALSE/NOT GIVEN & YES/NO/NOT GIVEN QUESTIONS

1. The question types

In fact, there are two question types here:

True/False/Not given: fact based
Yes/No/Not given: opinion based
In each case you need to decide if the information in the text agrees with the information in the
question. You should note that in the “Yes/No/Not given” questions, you are normally asked to
look for the writer’s opinions rather than facts.

2. Note the key skill

The key skill here is to understand that you are interpreting the text and the question. This means
that you need to read very closely and pay attention to what the writer means. Don’t think of it
just as a skimming question, rather a question where you need to read parts of the text and the
whole question closely and decide what the writer means.

3. How to get the answers right

True/Yes
There is information in the text that agrees exactly with the statement in the question. Note that
you will almost certainly need to look for synonyms here and match meaning and not words.
False/No
There is information in the text that is directly opposite to or contradicts the statement in the
question. Again note that you will also need to think about meaning here. You should pay careful
attention to “little” words that qualify or change meaning such as: some, all, often, occasionally
Not Given
This is the one that normally causes the most problems. Something is not given if there is no
information about it in the text. Do not spend ages looking for Not Given answers because you
will waste time.

4. Guessing intelligently

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This is probably the hardest question type. Don’t despair though you have a good chance of
guessing correctly. In fact, the questions are hard because you have a one in three chance of
guessing! Here is my suggestion
a. if you find information in the text about the statement in the question: guess True or False but
remember to read the whole question and not just match words in it.
b. if you find no information in the text about the statement guess Not Given – don’t waste time.
Typically, answers are Not Given when they match just one or two words in the question
c. if you have no idea, then guess Not Given. You have a one in three chance of being right and
you may have no idea because it isn’t there!

5. Some examples of how the questions work

Macallan is one of the four top selling brands of malt whisky in the world. It is made in barrels
made of Spanish oak that have previously been used for sherry because this adds sweetness to
its flavour.
True
Macallan is globally successful.
This is true because top selling brands of malt whisky in the world matches globally successful.

False
Macallan is made in metal containers.
This is false because the text says it us made in barrels of Spanish oak. Because oak is a wood this
contradicts the words in the question metal containers. Note that you need to think about
meaning

Not Given
Macallan is made in Spain.
There is no information about where it is made. Be careful of the trap of seeing the words Spanish
and made in the text. Usually with Not Given answers you will find some words in the text that
match words in the question without matching the meaning of the whole question.

6. A difficulty – Not Given

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The “Not Given” variation is probably what makes this type of question so difficult. How can you
deal with this problem? You need to understand that:

 “Not given” does not mean no words in the question are used in the text. Typically, you
will find some of words from the question in the text – they simply don’t answer the whole
question
 You cannot add information that is probably true: you can only use the information given
in the text

7. Some practical tips

Read the whole question. Do NOT focus on key words. Think about the meaning of the
question.
Be especially careful with words such as “often” and “some”. They can change the
meaning of the question dramatically.
Be careful with questions beginning “The writer says”: here you need to think about the
writer’s opinions and not about facts.
The questions will follow the order of the text: if you can’t find answer 12, you know it
must be somewhere between 11 and 13.
Do not spend too long on any one question. If the answer is “Not Given”, there may be
nothing for you to find.
One possibility is to mark all the “True” answers and all the “False” answers and then
guess “Not Given” for the others.

8. Control Practice:

Exercise 1:
Measuring Snowfall
Despite the many high-tech instruments now available to scientists who study the weather, one
measurement remains relatively difficult to make, and that's calculating how much snow actually
falls in any particular place during a snowstorm. This explains why the National Center for
Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in the USA is experimenting with new ways of achieving a greater
level of accuracy in snowfall figures. As their representative Ethan Guttmann points out, 'You'd
think it was just a matter of going out and sticking a ruler in the snow and measuring how much
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is on the ground. The problem is, if you move the ruler over just a few centimetres, you may get
a different reading.'
In fact, the taking of measurements is complicated by a number of factors. For example, the first
snowflakes may melt as soon as they hit warm surfaces, while others are whisked away by the
wind, leaving some ground bare and other places buried under deep snowdrifts. Guttman's
colleagues have been testing a number of new snow measuring devices, including ultrasonic
snow depth sensors, which send out a pulse of noise and measure how long it takes to bounce
back from the surface below the snow, and laser sensors which work on the same basic principle
but use light instead of sound. Another device for measuring snowfall is a type of open container
with motor-vehicle antifreeze inside it. The antifreeze melts the snow as it falls and sensors
measure the weight of the resulting liquid.
NCAR scientists have also experimented with using Global Positioning Satellites (GPS) to
measure snow depth. It may be possible for signals sent from these satellites to measure the
distance to both the surface of the snow and to the ground beneath it. Not only would this
method be more cost-effective than other methods, but it might also be particularly useful for
measuring the snow in remote locations such as inaccessible upland areas and the highest
mountain peaks and ranges. Accurate measurement of snowfall in these areas is important as
entire regions may depend on spring run-off of melted snow for their water supply.
The scientists also learned that they could improve the results of both manual and high-tech
methods of snow measurement by using something known as a snow board. Basically, this is just
a flat piece of white-painted wood on which snow can accumulate. Windshields placed around
these can also add to the accuracy of measurements.

Questions 1-6:
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage?
Next to each question, 1-6, 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

1. NCAR accepts the need for more precise methods of measuring snowfall.
2. Researchers have found ultrasonic sensors more reliable than laser sensors.

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 3. The device that uses motor-vehicle antifreeze measures the amount of snow both before
and after it melts.
4. Using GPS technology would be more expensive than using the alternative devices being
tried out.
5. GPS technology could allow snowfall to be measured across a wider range of landscapes.
6. The use of a snow board is particularly effective in areas with high winds.

Exercise 2:
WHAT PRICE FRESH FLOWERS?

Flowers have long been symbols of love and caring. People send them to express sympathy, to
apologise, or just wish someone well. But today, floriculture - the growing and selling of flowers
- is very big business, worth £2.2 billion a year in the UK alone. The majority of the cut-flowers
sold there are imported, these days mostly from countries such as Colombia and Kenya. The
Netherlands is the traditional centre of flower production in Europe, and remains a major supplier
of flowers. In recent years, however, as labour and production costs have soared, attention there
has shifted from flower production to flower trading. Meanwhile, the Kenyan cut-flower industry
has grown rapidly, and now provides a vital income for around two million people. It is the
country's largest agricultural foreign exchange earner after tea, producing £165 million annually.

For the environmentally conscious, it might seem wasteful that a commodity such as flowers
should travel halfway around the world before arriving at a supermarket or florist shop. Just as
some environmentalists say that it's better to buy fruit and vegetables grown locally, some also
advocate the buying of locally-grown flowers. Thanks to globalisation, however, the UK cut-
flower industry now supplies just ten per cent of the country's needs. Twenty years ago it was
more like half. What's more, it is suggested that reversing this trend would actually have serious
environmental consequences. Research published in 2006 by Cranfield University in the UK
showed that the production of Kenyan flowers, including delivery by air freight and truck,
resulted in a carbon footprint nearly six times smaller than that caused by the production of
Dutch flowers. Kenya has optimal growing conditions and the warm African sun provides heat
and light, whereas growers in the Netherlands and other developed countries require significant
inputs of gas and electricity to grow flowers year-round in artificial climate-controlled
environments.

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But there are other environmental factors to consider. A vast range of pesticides, fertilisers and
fumigants are used in producing cut flowers. Lake Naivasha, the centre of Kenya's flower
industry, is the ideal place to grow roses, thanks to its high altitude and abundant sunlight and
water. However, environmental damage has resulted from the development that has followed
in the wake of floriculture. Lake Naivasha itself has shrunk to half its original size, with water
levels dropping by three metres, fish catches falling and the native hippopotamus feeling the
effects of pollution.

Meanwhile, transporting flowers over long distances poses its own set of challenges. Roses, for
example, have to be shipped by air rather than sea because they require constant refrigeration
and wilt quickly. Transporting other types of flowers by sea can also be tricky compared to air
freight. Demand is difficult to predict which means entire shipping containers can seldom be
filled with a single species, but mixing flowers is often inadvisable because some varieties emit
gases that spoil others. One strategy is to opt for heartier breeds such as carnations and lilies
which are easier to ship and require less refrigeration than roses.

Questions 1- 8

Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage?
Next to each question, 1-8, 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

1. In recent years, cut flowers have become more expensive to grow in the Netherlands.
2. More people are employed in the cut-flower industry in Kenya than in Europe.
3. Flowers represent Kenya's most valuable agricultural export.
4. The UK has seen a marked decline in the proportion of locally-grown cut flowers on sale.
5. The Cranfield study concentrated on the environmental effects of transporting cut
flowers.
6. The Lake Naivasha region produces a range of cut flowers including roses.
7. Supplies of some local food items have been affected by the impact of floriculture around
Lake Naivasha.
8. Transporting cut flowers by sea is generally more successful than using other means of
transport.

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Exercise 3:

Addicted to Tech?

Smartphones, social networking and the Internet are destroying our identities and ruining our
lives. At least, that is what two new books, iDisorder by Larry Rosen and Digital Vertigo by Andrew
Keen, would have you believe. I'm not so sure.

Rosen, a psychologist at California State University, argues that over-reliance on technology can
cause psychological problems, the 'iDisorders' of the book's title, but I struggled to find any
causal link in chapter after chapter of correlations. He describes how overuse of hand-held
devices and general exposure to technology can cause various psychological disorders. But of
course, the disorders existed before these technologies, and Rosen fails to convince that their
incidence is on the rise.

Digital Vertigo is equally unconvincing. Keen, whose previous book The Cult of the Amateur spoke
out against user generated content, states that privacy 'is being dumped into the dustbin of
history', warning that we cannot trust the large corporations that run the Internet with our
precious personal data. It's a viewpoint I'm entirely sympathetic with, but Keen's argument,
woven between name-dropping anecdotes from Silicon Valley conferences and well known
quotes from the film The Social Network, left me unconvinced. As Keen points out, we must all
take personal responsibility for the information we put online. However, social media needn't
inevitably lead to the problems he suggests. I have found Twitter, Facebook and other online
services essential for initiating and maintaining major social connections. In fact, without social
networking, I would be short one wife, one job and at least half a dozen close friends.

These technologies are tools, and like all tools they must be used correctly. Cars are far more
dangerous to society than Facebook. According to the World Health Organization, 1.2 million
people die in road traffic accidents each year. As a society we accept this because of the benefits
that cars offer, and we work to mitigate the downsides. It should be the same with smartphones
and social networking. If you can't go five minutes without a status update then, yes, you should
probably step away from the touchscreen, but let's not ignore the great opportunities these
technologies offer for fear of some unproven and unrealised disaster. People used to worry
about the effects of the telephone on society, but 150 years on, we seem to be managing just
fine.

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Questions 1-6

Do the following statements agree with the information in the Reading Passage?

Next to each statement, write

YES if the statement agrees with the views/claims of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the views/claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
1. Rosen has demonstrated a connection between overuse of technology and certain
psychological conditions.
2. Rosen provides evidence that the conditions he describes are becoming more common.
3. Keen's previous book has been very influential.
4. Keen is right to warn about the threat to privacy posed by the Internet.
5. An international body is concerned that social networking might be addictive.
6. There may be people who are over-dependent on electronic devices.

Exercise 4:

FIELDWORK ON THE FINAL FRONTIER

What is it like to work in the remote forests of Papua New Guinea?

Biologist Vojtech Novotny knows better than most.

Let me tell you about our work in Papua New Guinea. We've built a research station on the
northern coast. About five per cent of all species live in Papua New Guinea. With the Amazon
and the Congo, it is one of the three largest areas of rainforest still left.

Papua New Guinea has about 800 different languages, a really amazing diversity, and there are
20 different ones within a 20-mile radius of our station. Because different tribes speak such
different languages, they also speak one universal language, pidgin English. Once you learn that
- and Europeans usually manage this in less than six months - you can speak directly to the local
people. This is socially very rewarding because there is a coming together of tribal culture and
high-level academic culture.

We have a team of what we call para-ecologists. These are people we train in scientific methods
and pay to work with us. The local people are perfect for this. They not only have an intimate
knowledge of the local geography, they also have an extensive knowledge of taxonomy,

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especially of the trees. We connect the Latin names with their local language names and then
explain that we need caterpillars from this list of trees, and ask them to collect them for us. On
one occasion, we were studying tiny larvae that bore tunnels in leaves. I put a fairly high reward
for every live insect. We were expecting that our collectors might earn £5 a day, which is
reasonable by Papua New Guinea standards and by our budget. But embarrassingly, they found
so many that we had to lower the rate because otherwise we would have gone bankrupt.

This collaboration with local people helps our research because it opens up possibilities that
others don't have. For instance, we have contacts with people who own the forest that they cut
down for their subsistence, using traditional 'slash-and-burn' agricultural methods. We always
like to shock our fellow biologists at conferences by describing how we are cutting down tropical
forests so that we can survey insects from the canopy. But that's exactly what we are doing.
When local people were clearing their part of the forest, we worked with them, slowly taking the
forest apart, collecting caterpillars, ants, everything.

We have devised a 3D structure of insects and plants in the forest. Our inventory came up with
about 9,500 insect species feeding on 200 species of tree, and they do it in 50,000 different ways.
Even for us ecologists, this is a mind-boggling complexity. However, ecologists also tend to get
overexcited by the huge diversity we see in rainforests and extrapolate it to unrealistic numbers
of species for the entire planet. Previous estimates put the number of insect species worldwide
at 30 million. We put it at six million. We found that a tree species has about the same number of
insect species feeding on it whether it grows in Papua New Guinea or Europe: tropical forests are
so rich in insects only because they have so many species of tree.

Questions 1-6

Do the following statements agree with the information in the Reading Passage?

Next to each statement, write

YES if the statement agrees with the views/claims of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the views/claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
1. The range of languages in the region makes communication difficult for Europeans.
2. The training of para-ecologists costs less in Papua New Guinea than in Europe.
3. Reducing the rate of pay offered to specimen collectors can reduce their effectiveness.
4. The fact that some local collaborators are also landowners is an advantage.

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 5. The researchers try to discourage the use of destructive agricultural practices.
6. There is a tendency for scientists to underestimate the diversity of species in existence in
the world.

9. FULL TEST PRACTICE:

READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1
below.

Thomas Young

THE LAST TRUE-KNOW-IT-ALL

Thomas Young (1773-1829) contributed 63 articles to the Encyclopedia Britannica, including 46
biographical entries (mostly on scientists and classicists) and substantial essays on "Bridge,"
"Chromatics," "Egypt," "Languages" and "Tides". Was someone who could write authoritatively
about so many subjects a polymath, a genius or a dilettante? In an ambitious new biography,
Andrew Robinson argues that Young is a good contender for the epitaph "the last man who
knew everything." Young has competition, however: The phrase, which Robinson takes for his
title, also serves as the subtitle of two other recent biographies: Leonard Warren's 1998 life of
paleontologist Joseph Leidy (1823-1891) and Paula Findlen's 2004 book on Athanasius Kircher
(1602-1680), another polymath.

Young, of course, did more than write encyclopedia entries. He presented his first paper to the
Royal Society of London at the age of 20 and was elected a Fellow a week after his 21st birthday.
In the paper, Young explained the process of accommodation in the human eye-on how the eye
focuses properly on objects at varying distances. Young hypothesised that this was achieved by
changes .in the shape of the lens. Young also theorised that light traveled in waves and he
believed that, to account for the ability to see in color, there must be three receptors in the eye
corresponding to the three "principal colors" to which the retina could respond: red, green,
violet. All these hypotheses were subsequently proved to be correct.

Later in his life, when he was in his forties, Young was instrumental in cracking the code that
unlocked the unknown script on the Rosetta Stone, a tablet that was "found" in Egypt by the
Napoleonic army in 1799. The stone contains text in three alphabets: Greek, something
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unrecognisable and Egyptian hieroglyphs. The unrecognisable script is now known as demotic
and, as Young deduced, is related directly to hieroglyphic. His initial work on this appeared in his
Britannica entry on Egypt. In another entry, he coined the term Indo-European to describe the
family of languages spoken throughout most of Europe and northern India. These are the
landmark achievements of a man who was a child prodigy and who, unlike many remarkable
children, did not disappear into oblivion as an adult.

Born in 1773 in Somerset in England, Young lived from an early age with his maternal grandfather,
eventually leaving to attend boarding school. He had devoured books from the age of two, and
through his own initiative he excelled at Latin, Greek, mathematics and natural philosophy. After
leaving school, he was greatly encouraged by his mother's uncle, Richard Brocklesby, a physician
and Fellow of the Royal Society. Following Brocklesby's lead, Young decided to pursue a career
in medicine. He studied in London, following the medical circuit, and then moved on to more
formal education in Edinburgh, Gottingen and Cambridge. After completing his medical training
at the University of Cambridge in 1808, Young set up practice as a physician in London. He soon
became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and a few years later was appointed physician
at St. George's Hospital.

Young's skill as a physician, however, did not equal his skill as a scholar of natural philosophy or
linguistics. Earlier, in 1801, he had been appointed to a professorship of natural philosophy at the
Royal Institution, where he delivered as many as 60 lectures in a year. These were published in
two volumes in 1807. In 1804 Young had become secretary to the Royal Society, a post he would
hold until his death. His opinions were sought on civic and national matters, such as the
introduction of gas lighting to London and methods of ship construction. From 1819 he was
superintendent of the Nautical Almanac and secretary to the Board of Longitude. From 1824 to
1829 he was physician to and inspector of calculations for the Palladian Insurance Company.
Between 1816 and 1825 he contributed his many and various entries to the Encyclopedia
Britannica, and throughout his career he authored numerous books, essays and papers.

Young is a perfect subject for a biography-perfect, but daunting. Few men contributed so much
to so many technical fields. Robinson's aim is to introduce non-scientists to Young's work and
life. He succeeds, providing clear expositions of the technical material (especially that on optics
and Egyptian hieroglyphs). Some readers of this book will, like Robinson, find Young's
accomplishments impressive; others will see him as some historians have-as a dilettante. Yet

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despite the rich material presented in this book, readers will not end up knowing Young
personally. We catch glimpses of a playful Young, doodling Greek and Latin phrases in his notes
on medical lectures and translating the verses that a young lady had written on the walls of a
summerhouse into Greek elegiacs. Young was introduced into elite society, attended the theatre
and learned to dance and play the flute. In addition, he was an accomplished horseman.
However, his personal life looks pale next to his vibrant career and studies.

Young married Eliza Maxwell in 1804, and according to Robinson, "their marriage was a happy
one and she appreciated his work." Almost all we know about her is that she sustained her
husband through some rancorous disputes about optics and that she worried about money when
his medical career was slow to take off. Very little evidence survives about the complexities of
Young's relationships with his mother and father. Robinson does not credit them, or anyone else,
with shaping Young's extraordinary mind. Despite the lack of details concerning Young's
relationships, however, anyone interested in what it means to be a genius should read this book.

Questions 1-7

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?

In boxes 1-7 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
1. 'The last man who knew everything' has also been claimed to other people.
2. All Young's articles were published in Encyclopedia Britannica.
3. Like others, Young wasn't so brilliant when growing up.
4. Young's talent as a doctor surpassed his other skills.
5. Young’s advice was sought by people responsible for local and national issues.
6. Young was interested in various social pastimes.
7. Young suffered from a disease in his later years.

Questions 8-13

Answer the questions below.

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.

8. How many life stories did Young write for the Encyclopedia Britannica?

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 9. What aspect of scientific research did Young focus on in his first academic paper?
10. What name did Young introduce to refer to a group of languages?
11. Who inspired Young to start his medical studies?
12. Where did Young get a teaching position?
13. What contribution did Young make to London?

READING PASSAGE 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which are based on Reading Passage 2
below.

Antarctica - in from the cold?

A. A little over a century ago, men of the ilk of Scott, Shackleton and Mawson battled against
Antarctica's blizzards, cold and deprivation. In the name of Empire and in an age of heroic
deeds they created an image of Antarctica that was to last well into the 20th century-an
image of remoteness, hardship, bleakness and isolation that was the province of only the
most courageous of men. The image was one of a place removed from everyday reality,
of a place with no apparent value to anyone.
B. As we enter the 21st century, our perception of Antarctica has changed. Although
physically Antarctica is no closer and probably no warmer, and to spend time there still
demands a dedication not seen in ordinary life, the continent and its surrounding ocean
are increasingly seen to be an integral part of Planet Earth, and a key component in the
Earth System. Is this because the world seems a little smaller these days, shrunk by TV and
tourism, or is it because Antarctica really does occupy a central spot on Earth's mantle?
Scientific research during the past half century has revealed-and continues to reveal-that
Antarctica's great mass and low temperature exert a major influence on climate and ocean
circulation, factors which influence the lives of millions of people all over the globe.
C. Antarctica was not always cold. The slow break-up of the super-continent Gondwana with
the northward movements of Africa, South America, India and Australia eventually
created enough space around Antarctica for the development of an Antarctic Circumpolar
Current (ACC), that flowed from west to east under the influence of the prevailing
westerly winds. Antarctica cooled, its vegetation perished, glaciation began and the
continent took on its present-day appearance. Today the ice that overlies the bedrock is
up to 4km thick, and surface temperatures as low as -89.2deg C have been recorded. The

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 icy blast that howls over the ice cap and out to sea-the so-called katabatic wind-can reach
300 km/hr, creating fearsome wind-chill effects.
D. Out of this extreme environment come some powerful forces that reverberate around the
world. The Earth's rotation, coupled to the generation of cells of low pressure off the
Antarctic coast, would allow Astronauts a view of Antarctica that is as beautiful as it is
awesome. Spinning away to the northeast, the cells grow and deepen, whipping up the
Southern Ocean into the mountainous seas so respected by mariners. Recent work is
showing that the temperature of the ocean may be a better predictor of rainfall in
Australia than is the pressure difference between Darwin and Tahiti-the Southern
Oscillation Index. By receiving more accurate predictions, graziers in northern Queensland
are able to avoid overstocking in years when rainfall will be poor. Not: only does this limit
their losses but it prevents serious pasture degradation that may take decades to repair.
CSIRO is developing this as a prototype forecasting system, but we can confidently predict
that as we know more about the Antarctic and Southern Ocean we will be able to enhance
and extend our predictive ability.
E. The ocean's surface temperature results from the interplay between deep-water
temperature, air temperature and ice. Each winter between 4 and 19 million square km of
sea ice form, locking up huge quantities of heat close to the continent. Only now can we
start to unravel the influence of sea ice on the weather that is experienced in southern
Australia. But in another way the extent of sea ice extends its influence far beyond
Antarctica. Antarctic krill-the small shrimplike crustaceans that are the staple diet for
baleen whales, penguins, some seals, flighted sea birds and many fish-breed well in years
when sea ice is extensive and poorly when it is not. Many species of baleen whales and
flighted sea birds migrate between the hemispheres and when the krill are less abundant
they do not thrive.
F. The circulatory system of the world's oceans is like a huge conveyor belt, moving water
and dissolved minerals and nutrients from one hemisphere to the other, and from the
ocean's abyssal depths to The surface. The ACC is the longest current in the world, and has
the largest flow. Through it, the deep flows of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans are
joined to form part of a single global thermohaline circulation. During winter, the howling
katabatics sometimes scour the ice off patches of the sea's surface leaving large ice-locked
lagoons, or 'polynyas'. Recent research has shown that as fresh sea ice forms, it is

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 continuously stripped away by the wind and may be blown up to 90km in a single day.
Since only fresh water freezes into ice, the water that remains becomes increasingly salty
and dense, sinking until it spills over the continental shelf. Cold water carries more oxygen
than warm water, so when it rises, well into the northern hemisphere, it reoxygenates and
revitalises the ocean. The state of the northern oceans, and their biological productivity,
owe much to what happens in the Antarctic.

Questions 14-18

Reading Passage 2 has six paragraphs, A-F.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet.

14. The example of a research on building weather prediction for agriculture

15. An explanation of how Antarctic sea ice brings back oceans' vitality
16. The description of a food chain that influences animals' living pattern
17. The reference of an extreme temperature and a cold wind in Antarctica
18. The reference of how Antarctica was once thought to be a forgotten and insignificant
continent

Questions 19-21

Match the natural phenomenon with the correct determined factor.

Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 19-21 on your answer sheet.

19. Globally, Antarctica's massive size and would influence our climate.
20. circulated under contributory force from wind blowing from the west.
21. The ocean temperature and index based on air pressure can help predict in Australia.
A. Antarctic Circumpolar C. rainfall
Current (ACC) D. temperature
B. katabatic winds E. glaciers
F. pressure

Questions 22-26

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write the correct letter in boxes 22-26 on your answer sheet.

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 22. In paragraph B, the author intends to
A. show Antarctica has been a central topic of global warming discussion in Mass media.
B. illustrate how its huge sea ice brings food to millions of lives in the world.
C. emphasise the significance of Antarctica to the global climate and ocean contents.
D. illustrate the geographical location of Antarctica as the central spot on Earth.
23. Why should Australian farmers keep an eye on the Antarctic ocean temperature?
A. It can help farmers reduce their economic loss.
B. It allows for recovery of grassland lost to overgrazing.
C. It can help to prevent animals from dying
D. It enables astronauts to have a clear view of the Antarctic continent.
24. The decrease in the number of whales and seabirds is due to
A. killer whales' activity around Antarctica.
B. the correlation between sea birds' migration and the salinity level of the ocean.
C. the lower productivity of food source resulting from less sea ice.
D. the failure of seals to produce babies.
25. What is the final effect of the katabatic winds?
A. Increasing the moving speed of ocean current
B. Increasing the salt level near ocean surface
C. Bringing fresh ice into the oceans
D. Piling up the mountainous ice cap respected by mariners
26. What factor drives Antarctic water to move beyond the continental shelf?
A. The increase of salt and density of the water
B. The decrease of salt and density of the water
C. The rising temperature due to global warming
D. The melting of fresh ice into the ocean

READING PASSAGE 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3
below.

Source of knowledge

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A. What counts as knowledge? What do we mean when we say that we know something?
What is the status of different kinds of knowledge? In order to explore these questions,
we are going to focus on one particular area of knowledge medicine.
B. How do you know when you are ill? This may seem to be an absurd question. You know
you are ill because you feel ill; your body tells you that you are ill. You may know that you
feel pain or discomfort but knowing you are ill is a bit more complex. At times, people
experience the symptoms of illness, but in fact they are simply tired or over-worked or
they may just have a hangover. At other times, people may be suffering from a disease
and fail to be aware of the illness until it has reached a late stage in its development. So
how do we know we are ill, and what counts as knowledge?
C. Think about this example. You feel unwell. You have a bad cough and always seem to be
tired. Perhaps it could be stress at work, or maybe you should give up smoking. You feel
worse. You visit the doctor who listens to your chest and heart, takes your temperature
and blood pressure, and then finally prescribes antibiotics for your cough.
D. Things do not improve but you struggle on thinking you should pull yourself together,
perhaps things will ease off at work soon. A return visit to your doctor shocks you. This
time the doctor, drawing on years of training and experience, diagnoses pneumonia. This
means that you will need bed rest and a considerable time off work. The scenario is
transformed. Although you still have the same symptoms, you no longer think that these
are caused by pressure at work. You now have proof that you are ill. This is the result of
the combination of your own subjective experience and the diagnosis of someone who
has the status of a medical expert. You have a medically authenticated diagnosis and it
appears that you are seriously ill; you know you are ill and have evidence upon which to
base this knowledge.
E. This scenario shows many different sources of knowledge. For example, you decide to
consult the doctor in the first place because you feel unwell-this is personal knowledge
about your own body. However, the doctor's expert diagnosis is based on experience and
training, with sources of knowledge as diverse as other experts, laboratory reports,
medical textbooks and years of experience.
F. One source of knowledge is the experience of our own bodies; the personal knowledge
we have of changes that might be significant, as well as the subjective experience of pain
and physical distress. These experiences are mediated by other forms of knowledge such

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 as the words we have available to describe our experience and the common sense of our
families and friends as well as that drawn from popular culture. Over the past decade, for
example, Western culture has seen a significant emphasis on stress-related illness in the
media. Reference to being 'stressed out' has become a common response in daily
exchanges in the workplace and has become part of popular common-sense knowledge.
It is thus not surprising that we might seek such an explanation of physical symptoms of
discomfort.
G. We might also rely on the observations of others who know us. Comments from friends
and family such as 'you do look ill' or 'that's a bad cough' might be another source of
knowledge. Complementary health practices, such as holistic medicine, produce their own
sets of knowledge upon which we might also draw in deciding the nature and degree of
our ill health and about possible treatments.
H. Perhaps the most influential and authoritative source of knowledge is the medical
knowledge provided by the general practitioner. We expect the doctor to have access to
expert knowledge. This is socially sanctioned. It would not be acceptable to notify our
employer that we simply felt too unwell to turn up for work or that our faith healer,
astrologer, therapist or even our priest thought it was not a good idea. We need an expert
medical diagnosis in order to obtain the necessary certificate if we need to be off work for
more than the statutory self-certification period. The knowledge of the medical sciences
is privileged in this respect in contemporary Western culture. Medical practitioners are
also seen as having the required expert knowledge that permits them legally to prescribe
drugs and treatment to which patients would not otherwise have access. However, there
is a range of different knowledge upon which we draw when making decisions about our
own state of health.
I. However, there is more than existing knowledge in this little story; new knowledge is
constructed within it. Given the doctor's medical training and background, she may
hypothesise 'is this now pneumonia?' and then proceed to look for evidence about it. She
will use observations and instruments to assess the evidence and-critically-interpret it in
the light of her training and experience. This results in new knowledge and new
experience both for you and for the doctor. This will then be added to the doctor's medical
knowledge and may help in future diagnosis of pneumonia.

Questions 2 7-34

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Reading Passage 3 has nine paragraphs, A-1.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A-L in boxes 27-34 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

27. the contrast between the nature of personal judgment and the nature of doctor's
diagnosis
28. a reference of culture about pressure
29. sick leave will not be permitted without professional diagnosis
30. how doctors' opinions are regarded in the society
31. the illness of patients can become part of new knowledge
32. a description of knowledge drawn from non-specialised sources other than personal
knowledge
33. an example of collective judgment from personal experience and professional doctor
34. a reference that some people do not realise they are ill

Questions 35-40

Complete the notes below.

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 35-40 on your answer sheet.

Source of knowledge Examples

Personal experience Symptoms of a 35 ________ and tiredness
Doctor's measurement by taking 36 ________ and
temperature
Common judgment from 37 ________around you
Scientific evidence Medical knowledge from the general 38 ________
e.g. doctor's medical 39 ________
Examine the medical hypothesis with the previous drill and
40 ________.

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 SENTENCE COMPLETION & SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS

SECTION 1: SENTENCE COMPLETION

In this kind of question, you are given a number of sentences with gaps (usually at the end of
the sentence), which you must complete with words from the text. These questions are testing
your ability to rea d for specific information.

What do you need to do?

• Read each sentence carefully and try to predict what could be missing.
• Identify the key word s from the sentence and scan the text to find those words or
synonyms.
• Choose words FROM THE TEXT to complete the sentence.
• Reread your sentences to make sure they are grammatically correct.
TIP The questions in this exercise follow the order of the text.
The missing section is usually, but not always, a noun phrase.
Do not change the words from the text in any way: if they don’t fit, it's the wrong
answer.

Activity 1: Guided practice

How atoms were discovered
Hundreds of years ago in 1785 Dutch scientist Jan Ingenhousz was studying a strange
phenomenon that he couldn’t quite make sense of. Minute particles of coal dust were darting
about on the surface of some alcohol in his lab.
About 50 years later, in 1827, the Scottish botanist Robert Brown described something
curiously similar. He had his microscope trained on some pollen grains. Brown noticed that
some of the grains released tiny particles – which would then move away from the pollen
grain in a random jittery dance.
At first, Brown wondered if the particles were really some sort of unknown organism. He
repeated the experiment with other substances like rock dust, which he knew wasn’t alive,
and saw the same strange motion again.

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 It would take almost another century for science to offer an explanation. Einstein came along
and developed a mathematical formula that would predict this very particular type of
movement – by then called Brownian motion, after Robert Brown.
Einstein’s theory was that that the particles from the pollen grains were being moved around
because they were constantly crashing into millions of tinier molecules of water – molecules
that were made of atoms.
By 1908, observations backed with calculations had confirmed that atoms were real. Within
about a decade, physicists would be able to go further. By pulling apart individual atoms they
began to get a sense of their internal structure.
It might come as a surprise that atoms can be broken down – particularly since the very name
atom derives from a Greek term “atomos”, which means “indivisible”. But physicists now
know that atoms are not solid little balls. It’s better to think of them as tiny electrical,
“planetary” systems. They’re typically made up of three main parts: protons, neutrons and
electrons. Think of the protons and neutrons as together forming a “sun”, or nucleus, at the
centre of the system. The electrons orbit this nucleus, like planets.

Sentence completion questions:

1. The type of random jittery movement of tiny particles is called _____________________.
ð Key words: __________________________ (in which paragraph?)
ð Same meaning phrase: _______________________
ð The answer: _____________________

2. Einstein explained the phenomenon of particles' strange motion by the fact that they
were collapsing with _____________________.
ð Key words: __________________________ (in which paragraph?)
ð Same meaning phrase: _______________________
ð The answer: _____________________
3. Nowadays, scientists consider atoms' structures similar to tiny _____________________.
ð Key words: __________________________ (in which paragraph?)
ð Same meaning phrase: _______________________
ð The answer: _____________________
4. _____________________ are parts that are circling around the nucleus.

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 ð Key words: __________________________ (in which paragraph?)
ð Same meaning phrase: _______________________
ð The answer: _____________________

Activity 2: Exam-style practice

Here is another, similar exercise. This time you will only be given the text and the questions as
you would in the exam. Follow the same steps as you did in Activity 1 to find the answers.
Suggested time: 8 minutes
3D heart printed using multiple imaging techniques
Congenital heart experts from Spectrum Health Helen DeVos Children's Hospital have
successfully integrated two common imaging techniques to produce a three-dimensional
anatomic model of a patient's heart.
The 3D model printing of patients' hearts has become more common in recent years as part
of an emerging, experimental field devoted to enhanced visualization of individual cardiac
structures and characteristics. But this is the first time the integration of computed tomography
(CT) and three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography (3DTEE) has successfully been
used for printing a hybrid 3D model of a patient's heart. A proof-of-concept study authored by
the Spectrum Health experts also opens the way for these techniques to be used in combination
with a third tool - magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
"Hybrid 3D printing integrates the best aspects of two or more imaging modalities, which can
potentially enhance diagnosis, as well as interventional and surgical planning," said Jordan
Gosnell, Helen DeVos Children's Hospital cardiac sonographer, and lead author of the study.
"Previous methods of 3D printing utilize only one imaging modality, which may not be as accurate
as merging two or more datasets."
The team used specialized software to register images from the two imaging modalities to
selectively integrate datasets to produce an accurate anatomic model of the heart. The result
creates more detailed and anatomically accurate 3D renderings and printed models, which may
enable physicians to better diagnose and treat heart disease.

Complete the sentences below.

Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

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 1. A three-dimensional _________________ of a patient's heart was created by integrating
two imaging techniques.
2. Spectrum Health scientists have found a way to combine and use three techniques:
computed tomography, three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography and
_________________.
3. The new method of 3D printing is more efficient than previous methods because it merges
two and more _________________.
4. With more accurate 3D renderings and _________________, physicians will be able to
better diagnose and treat heart disease.

Activity 3: Exam-style practice

Read the text and answer the questions below.
Suggested time: 8 minutes
Worms
About a quarter of the world's population could have worms living in their guts. For many
years experts have recommended treating large groups at risk of infection - but is this mass
approach worthwhile?
Evidence showing the benefits of large-scale deworming projects has come under scrutiny in
recent weeks - the debate has even been dubbed "worm wars". Parasites, such as roundworm,
hookworm and whipworm could be living inside more than 1.5 billion people according to the
World Health Organization (WHO).
"People are usually infected through contaminated food but hookworm larvae can also
burrow into feet, get into blood vessels and make their way to the heart and lungs. From there
they can climb up to the oesophagus* and be swallowed, ending up in the gut where they grow.
Worms are not usually fatal but in serious cases they can cause abdominal pain, diarrhoea, loss
of appetite, weight loss, fatigue and anaemia. In children, they can also contribute to
malnutrition, stunted growth, and absences from school. A nurse gives deworming treatment to
a boy in India
*oesophagus – throat

Complete the sentences below.

Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

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 1. Now scientists doubt whether it is __________________ to treat large groups of possibly
infected people.
2. The experts called the debate __________________.
3. Hookworm larvae might make his way to the __________________ and then be
swallowed.
4. Although dangerous, worms are rarely __________________.

Activity 4: Exam-style practice

Read the text and answer the questions below.
Suggested time: 8 minutes
A giant panda at a zoo in the United States has given birth to twin cubs.
Keepers at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington DC only discovered Mei Xiang was
pregnant during an ultrasound scan last week. The zoo said both cubs appeared healthy. Giant
pandas are one of the most endangered species in the world and are notoriously hard to breed
in captivity.
The National Zoo is one of only four zoos in the US to have pandas, which are on loan from
China. Mei Xiang, who has two other offspring, is one of the zoo's star attractions and a Panda
Cam on her enclosure crashed within seconds of the birth of the first cub being announced
because of the volume of interest.
Female pandas are able to conceive for only two or three days a year, leading to a very low
reproduction rate. Mei Xiang was artificially inseminated with sperm from the zoo's resident
male Tian Tian and a panda named Hui Hui from Wolong, China. It will not be known for a while
which is the father, or what sex the cubs are.
It has previously taken months before Mei Xiang's cubs have been introduced to the public.
AP news agency reports that her first cub, Tai Shan, was born in 2005 and returned to China in
2010; her second cub, Bao Bao, is two years old on Sunday and still lives at the zoo. The panda
population is threatened by habitat loss as land is increasingly inhabited by humans, with about
1,800 pandas left in the wild in China. However, the number living in the wild in China has gone
up over the last 10 years.

Complete the sentences below.

Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

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 1. Mei Xiang pregnancy was discovered with an ________________ last week.
2. Pandas from the USA National Zoo are ________________ from China.
3. Due to the short conceiving period, pandas have a low ________________.
4. Pandas are in danger because their lands are increasingly ________________.

Activity 5: Exam-style practice

Read the text and answer the questions below.
Suggested time: 12 minutes
European Settlement of Australia
European settlement of Australia began in 1788 when a British penal colony was established on
the east coast. From this starting point Australia grew rapidly and continually, expanding across
the entire continent.
A number of reasons contributed to Britain's decision to colonise Australia. The most important
factor was Britain's need to relieve its overcrowded prisons. Several violent incidents at
overcrowded prisons convinced the British government of the need to separate unruly elements
from the rest of the prison populace.
Additionally, Australia was of strategic importance to Britain, and it provided a base for the Royal
Navy in the eastern sea. Also, Australia could be used as an entry point to the economic
opportunities of the surrounding region. All these points figured in the decision by Lord Sydney,
secretary of state of home affairs, to authorise the colonisation.
To this affect, on May 13, 1787, Captain Arthur Phillip, commanding eleven ships full of convicts,
left Britain for Australia. He successfully landed a full fleet at Botany Bay on January 18, 1788.
However, they left the bay eight days later because of its openness and poor soil, and settled
instead at Port Jackson, a few kilometres north. The ships landed 1,373 people, including 732
convicts, and the settlement became Sydney. Australia Day is now celebrated on 26 January each
year, to commemorate this first fleet landing.
Questions 1-5
Complete the following statements using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS.
1. Australia was originally founded as a _____________.
2. The major consideration in colonizing Australia was Britain’s _____________.
3. It was thought that _____________ could be gained in that part of the world due to the
access provided via Australia.

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 4. Lord Sydney took every factor into account when he gave official permission for the
_____________ of Australia.
5. Botany Bay was abandoned by the settlers due to the lack of cover and _____________.

Activity 6: Exam-style practice

Read the text and answer the questions below.
Suggested time: 12 minutes

Virtual Excavation Aims to Unearth Stonehenge Secrets

James Hayes
1 What's claimed to be the world's most extensive 'virtual excavation' has begun at the
Stonehenge prehistoric monument in Wiltshire. The Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project is
using advanced geophysical imaging technology to survey the 14 sq km site over approximately
nine weeks spread over a three-year period.
2 The project will be the first time that Stonehenge has been subjected to such a detailed
archaeological survey, with every inch of the targeted terrain scanned to a depth of three metres
using high-frequency ground-penetrating radar (GPR) systems from Swedish firm MALA
Geoscience. The survey is scheduled around the needs of farmers and small-holders whose lands
abut the Stonehenge site.
3 Led by the University of Birmingham's Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity, the project brings
together a 12-member multi-disciplinary team that includes archaeologists, geophysicists,
historians, and computing specialists. As well as the GPR they will use laser scanning and
magnetometer technology to enhance their understanding of the site.
4 'The Stonehenge landscape is one of the most intensively examined in the world, but despite
this much of it remains terra incognita,' says project leader Professor Vince Gaffney. 'We don't
even know if we are aware of all the monuments that may exist under the Stonehenge site itself.
Even people connected with Stonehenge are surprised that it has not been surveyed in this level
of detail before. We can discover the "hidden landscape" in a way that you can't really do through
invasive work. '
5 The excavation data will be processed by the University of Birmingham's IBM Visual and Spatial
Technology Centre (VISTA), which supports academic research and development for spatial
analysis, visualisation, and imaging applications. Using the University's Blue BEAR high

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performance computing resource running on Scientific Linux 5.2, the project will eventually
produce two- and three-dimensional images of the mapped areas.
6 'Technology has taken a massive step forward in recent years,' adds Professor Gaffney. 'The
data capture side is now on a par, capability-wise, with the data-processing systems. We now
have mobile ground-penetrating radar working through close-spaced cluster-form sensors that
enable us to digitally chart this famous landscape. '
7 Funding for the project has come from the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological
Prospection and Virtual Archaeology in Vienna and the University of Birmingham, with additional
support from English Heritage and the National Trust.
TIPS: Words that are hyphenated (e.g. long-sleeved) are counted in English as one word.

Complete the sentences below.

Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
1. Stonehenge is being surveyed using __________.
2. The ground-penetrating radar system scans to __________ under the ground.
3. The surveyors must work around __________.
4. Laser-scanning and magnetometer technology are to be utilized in addition to the
__________.
5. Below Stonehenge there may be undiscovered __________.
6. Staff from VISTA will process the __________.
7. The project is possible because data capture technology is now as advanced as
__________.
8. The University of Birmingham and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute are providing project
__________.

NOTES:
After finishing a sentence completion task, you should make a table to list words and
phrases that are paraphrased in the text to memorize.
Keywords in questions Similar words in the passage
began founded
most important factor major consideration
entry point access

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region part of the world
all these points figured took every factor into account
authorise official permission
left abandoned
openness lack of cover

Common paraphrases in Sentence Completion Task.

plenty of
loads of
a great deal of
a lot of
a huge number of
multiple
numerous

resemble
be like
similar to

huge
big
enormous

chance opportunity

change alter

different kinds of…. a variety of

enough sufficient

significant
necessary
important vital
crucial
essential

enhance
improve
better …..

be referred to as “…”
be known as “…”
called “….”

most majority

new novel

objective
purpose
aim

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 target

small (nhỏ) tiny

FURTHER PRACTICE
The Impact of the Potato
Jeff Chapman relates the story of history’s most important vegetable
The potato was first cultivated in South America between three and seven thousand years ago,
though scientists believe they may have grown wild in the region as long as 13,000 years ago. The
genetic patterns of potato distribution indicate that the potato probably originated in the
mountainous west-central region of the continent.
Early Spanish chroniclers who misused the Indian word batata (sweet potato) as the name for
the potato noted the importance of the tuber to the Incan Empire. The Incas had learned to
preserve the potato for storage by dehydrating and mashing potatoes into a substance called
Chuño. Chuño could be stored in a room for up to 10 years, providing excellent insurance against
possible crop failures. As well as using the food as a staple crop, the Incas thought potatoes made
childbirth easier and used it to treat injuries.
The Spanish conquistadors first encountered the potato when they arrived in Peru in 1532 in
search of gold and noted Inca miners eating Chuño. At the time the Spaniards failed to realise
that the potato represented a far more important treasure than either silver or gold, but they did
gradually begin to use potatoes as basic rations aboard their ships. After the arrival of the potato
in Spain in 1570, a few Spanish farmers began to cultivate them on a small scale, mostly as food
for livestock.
Throughout Europe, potatoes were regarded with suspicion, distaste and fear. Generally
considered to be unfit for human consumption, they were used only as animal fodder and
sustenance for the starving. In northern Europe, potatoes were primarily grown in botanical
gardens as an exotic novelty. Even peasants refused to eat from a plant that produced ugly,
misshapen tubers and that had come from a heathen civilisation. Some felt that the potato
plant’s resemblance to plants in the nightshade family hinted that it was the creation of witches
or devils.
In meat-loving England, farmers and urban workers regarded potatoes with extreme distaste.

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In 1662, the Royal Society recommended the cultivation of the tuber to the English government
and the nation, but this recommendation had little impact. Potatoes did not become a staple
until, during the food shortages associated with the Revolutionary Wars, the English government
began to officially encourage potato cultivation. In 1795, the Board of Agriculture issued a
pamphlet entitled “Hints Respecting the Culture and Use of Potatoes”; this was followed shortly
by pro-potato editorials and potato recipes in The Times. Gradually, the lower classes began to
follow the lead of the upper classes.
A similar pattern emerged across the English Channel in the Netherlands, Belgium, and France.
While the potato slowly gained ground in eastern France (where it was often the only crop
remaining after marauding soldiers plundered wheat fields and vineyards), it did not achieve
widespread acceptance until the late 1700s. The peasants remained suspicious, in spite of a 1771
paper from the Faculté de Paris testifying that the potato was not harmful but beneficial. The
people began to overcome their distaste when the plant received the royal seal of approval:
Louis XVI began to sport a potato flower in his buttonhole, and Marie-Antoinette wore the purple
potato blossom in her hair.
Frederick the Great of Prussia saw the potato’s potential to help feed his nation and lower the
price of bread but faced the challenge of overcoming the people’s prejudice against the plant.
When he issued a 1774 order for his subjects to grow potatoes as protection against famine, the
town of Kolberg replied: “The things have neither smell nor taste, not even the dogs will eat
them, so what use are they to us?” Trying a less direct approach to encourage his subjects to
begin planting potatoes, Frederick used a bit of reverse psychology: he planted a royal field of
potato plants and stationed a heavy guard to protect this field from thieves. Nearby peasants
naturally assumed that anything worth guarding was worth stealing, and so snuck into the field
and snatched the plants for their home gardens. Of course, this was entirely in line with
Frederick’s wishes.
Historians debate whether the potato was primarily a cause or an effect of the huge population
boom in industrial-era England and Wales. Prior to 1800, the English diet had consisted primarily
of meat, supplemented by bread, butter and cheese. Few vegetables were consumed, most
vegetables being regarded as nutritionally worthless and potentially harmful. This view began to
change gradually in the late 1700s. The Industrial Revolution was drawing an ever-increasing
percentage of the populace into crowded cities, where only the richest could afford homes with
ovens or coal storage rooms, and people were working 12-16 hour days which left them with little

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time or energy to prepare food. High yielding, easily prepared potato crops were the obvious
solution to England’s food problems.
Whereas most of their neighbours regarded the potato with suspicion and had to be persuaded
to use it by the upper classes, the Irish peasantry embraced the tuber more passionately than
anyone since the Incas. The potato was well suited to the Irish soil and climate, and its high yield
suited the most important concern of most Irish farmers: to feed their families.
The most dramatic example of the potato’s potential to alter population patterns occurred in
Ireland, where the potato had become a staple by 1800. The Irish population doubled to eight
million between 1780 and 1841, this without any significant expansion of industry or reform of
agricultural techniques beyond the widespread cultivation of the potato. Though Irish land-
holding practices were primitive in comparison with those of England, the potato’s high yields
allowed even the poorest farmers to produce more healthy food than they needed with scarcely
any investment or hard labour. Even children could easily plant, harvest, and cook potatoes,
which of course required no threshing, curing or grinding. The abundance provided by potatoes
greatly decreased infant mortality and encouraged early marriage.

Questions 1-5:
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?
In boxes 1-5 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.

1. The early Spanish called potato as the Incan name ‘Chuno’.

2. The purpose of Spanish coming to Peru was to find potatoes.
3. The Spanish believed that the potato has the same nutrients as other vegetables.
4. Peasants at that time did not like to eat potatoes because they were ugly.
5. The popularity of potatoes in the UK was due to food shortages during the war.

Questions 6-13
Complete the sentences below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 6-13 on your answer sheet.

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 6. In France, people started to overcome their disgusting about potatoes because the King
put a potato _____________in his button hole.
7. Frederick realised the potential of potato, but he had to handle the _____________
against potatoes from ordinary people.
8. The King of Prussia adopted some _____________psychology to make people accept
potatoes.
9. Before 1800, the English people preferred eating _____________ with bread, butter, and
cheese.
10. The obvious way to deal with England food problems was to grow high yielding potato
_____________.
11. The Irish _____________and climate suited potatoes well.
12. Between 1780 and 1841, based on the _____________of the potatoes, the Irish population
doubled to eight million.
13. The potato’s high yields helped the poorest farmers to produce more healthy food almost
without _____________or hard physical work.

SECTION 2: SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS

What do they test?
These questions test your ability to identify and locate in the passage the precise information
being asked for. Therefore, they are used with passages relating to factual information and
specific details.
The questions are in the same order as the information is presented in the passage.
What do you need to do?
• You will need to skim- read the article to get a general idea and then scan the text for specific
information that the question asks for.
• Note the instructions given with the short answer question, quickly.
• Skim-read the text to get a general idea of the text.
• Read the questions and underline key words.
• Scan the text for words, phrases or numbers that answer the given questions. (They may not
be the same words as the key words you underlined in the question.)

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• Write your answers: copy the words from the original text with correct spelling onto the
Answer Sheet.

Activity 1: Guided practice

Read the passage below and do the task that follows.
Suggested time: 8 minutes
Peanut allergy theory backed up by new research
The effects of eating peanut products as a baby to avoid the risk of allergy have been backed up
by new research. In 2015, a study claimed early exposure to peanut products could cut the risk of
allergy by 80%. Now researchers say "long-lasting" allergy protection can be sustained - even
when the snacks are later avoided for a year. The New England Journal of Medicine study looked
at 550 children deemed prone to developing a peanut allergy. The latest paper builds on the
results of the 2015 research, which was also carried out by King's College London and marked the
first time scientists were able to suggest that exposing children to small amounts of peanut
snacks could stave off an allergy.
The new study suggests that if a child has consumed peanut snacks within the first 11 months of
life, then at the age of five they can afford to stop eating the food entirely for a year, and maintain
no allergy. Lead author Prof Gideon Lack said: "[The research] clearly demonstrates that the
majority of infants did in fact remain protected and that the protection was long-lasting." He said
that part of the problem was that people lived in a "culture of food fear". "I believe that this fear
of food allergy has become a self-fulfilling prophecy, because the food is excluded from the diet
and, as a result, the child fails to develop tolerance," he told the BBC News website. The
researchers used the same children who took part in the 2015 study - half of whom had been
given peanut snacks as a baby while the remainder had been fed on a diet of breast milk alone.
"The study found that at six years of age, there was no statistically significant increase in allergy
after 12 months of avoidance, in those who had consumed peanut during the [2015] trial," the
authors said. The children taking part in the study were considered prone to peanut allergy,
because they had already developed eczema as a baby - an early warning sign of allergies. Prof
Lack said that further studies were needed to see if the resistance lasts for considerably longer
than the 12-month abstinence period. He said that in the UK and US combined, 20,000 babies a
year are being diagnosed with peanut allergies. He also said that between 1995 and 2005, the
number of people being diagnosed had trebled, and this was not because detection methods

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had become any more advanced as they had remained the same. Prof Barry Kay, from Imperial
College London, said the study's results "point the way to completely fresh thinking on the
mechanisms of tolerance to allergenic foods in 'at risk' infants". Speaking about both pieces of
research, Michael Walker, a consultant analyst and medical adviser to the government, said:
"Taken together these are reassuring findings that pave the way to stem the epidemic of peanut
allergy."
Answer the questions below using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS or A NUMBER from the passage
for each answer.
1. What is the number of children that the New England Journal of Medicine studied?
2. At what age can the child stop eating peanuts for a year if it has consumed peanut snacks
within the first 11 months of life?
3. What part of the infants remained protected for a long-lasting period?
4. What's the illness that 20,000 babies in the UK and US combined are diagnosed with each
year?

Activity 2: Exam-style practice

Read the text and answer the questions below.
Suggested time: 12 minutes
Museum of Lost Objects: Mar Elian Monastery
For centuries, Christians and Muslims have visited the small Syrian town of al-Qaryatain to
venerate a saint known as Mar Elian. But in August 2015, the shrine was bulldozed by the group
that calls itself Islamic State and the multifaith community was torn apart. About 1,500 years ago,
an elderly and pious man called Julian, from the far east of Mesopotamia, went on a pilgrimage
to Jerusalem with his disciples. As he travelled home, Julian had an inkling that he was going to
die before he made it. "If such a fate befalls me," he told his companions, "put my body on an ox
cart and set it loose. Where the oxen stop is where I should be buried."
Julian did indeed die, his body was loaded on to the cart, and the oxen plodded on until they
came to a stop near a small town. Julian's disciples built a tomb for him and in time a monastery
grew up around the shrine. That at least is the legend of St Julian the Old Man, or, as he is known
in Arabic, Mar Elian. What's certainly true is that Mar Elian's shrine has existed since at least the
6th Century, near the remote town of al-Qaryatain, located in the desert between Damascus and
Palmyra. Mar Elian is not only venerated as a saint by Christians, however. The local Sunni

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population regard him as a Sufi leader and call him Sheikh Ahmed Ghouri ("ghouri" means
"priest"). Until its destruction last year, Mar Elian's sarcophagus was draped in green satin, a
traditional mark of homage to a Sufi holy man.
When the British archaeologist, Emma Loosley, travelled to al-Qaryatain 15 years ago to excavate
and redevelop the monastery she found the tumbledown ruins of the original complex, a run-
down church from the 1930s and a friendly priest - Father Jacques Murad - who immediately
decamped to a house in a nearby village. "We couldn't cause any scandal by sleeping in the same
place," she says. "That meant I was the only permanent resident of the monastery at that point,
and I had to live in this half-ruined mud-brick tower in the corner of the cloister. "Our shower was
tainted because the well had sulphur, so I used to smell like rotten eggs every time I washed."
But the Qurwani, the people of al-Qaryatain, made up for the grotty living conditions. Loosley
found the remote desert community to be remarkably open-hearted and tolerant. They even had
a myth to explain why Sunni Muslims and Christians - who accounted for about a fifth of the
population in 2001 - lived together so harmoniously. "Their belief is that there were two tribes
living in this place," says Loosley. "With the coming of Islam, the tribes got together and they
decided that one tribe would stay Christian and that the other one would try the new religion.
"Then they had a pact that whichever religion became dominant, they would look after their
brothers who stayed in the minority religion."

Answer the questions below.

Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
1. Christians and Muslims were visiting al-Qaryatain to appreciate what saint?
2. What local population regard Mar Elian as a Sufi leader?
3. Who found the tumbledown ruins of the original complex?
4. What did the community have to explain why Sunni Muslims and Christians lived together
in harmony?

Activity 3: Exam-style practice

Read the text and answer the questions below.
Suggested time: 8 minutes
THE MIT FACTOR: CELEBRATING 150 YEARS OF MAVERICK GENIUS
By Ed Pilkington

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The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has led the world into the future for 150 years with
scientific innovations.
The musician Yo-Yo Ma’s cello may not be the obvious starting point for a journey into one of the
world’s great universities. But, as you quickly realise when you step inside the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, there’s precious little going on that you would normally see on a
university campus. The cello, resting in a corner of MIT’s celebrated media laboratory - a hub of
creativity - looks like any other electric classical instrument. But it is much more. Machover, the
composer, teacher and inventor responsible for its creation, calls it a ‘hyperinstrument’, a sort of
thinking machine that allows Ma and his cello to interact with one another and make music
together. ‘The aim is to build an instrument worthy of a great musician like Yo-Yo Ma that can
understand what he is trying to do and respond to it,’ Machover says. The cello has numerous
sensors across its body and by measuring the pressure, speed, and angle of the virtuoso’s
performance it can interpret his mood and engage with it, producing extraordinary new sounds.
The virtuoso cellist frequently performs on the instrument as he tours around the world.
Machover’s passion for pushing at the boundaries of the existing world to extend and unleash
human potential is not a bad description of MIT as a whole. This unusual community brings highly
gifted, highly motivated individuals together from a vast range of disciplines, united by a
common desire: to leap into the dark and reach for the unknown.
The result of that single unifying ambition is visible all around. For the past 150 years, MIT has
been leading the world into the future. The discoveries of its teachers and students have become
the common everyday objects that we now all take for granted. The telephone, electromagnets,
radars, high-speed photography, office photocopiers, cancer treatments, pocket calculators,
computers, the Internet, the decoding of the human genome, lasers, space travel ... the list of
innovations that involved essential contributions from MIT and its faculty goes on and on.
From the moment MIT was founded by William Barton Rogers in 1861, it was clear what it was
not. While Harvard stuck to the English model of a classical education, with its emphasis on Latin
and Greek, MIT looked to the German system of learning based on research and hands-on
experimentation. Knowledge was at a premium, but it had to be useful.
This down-to-earth quality is enshrined in the school motto, Mens et manus - Mind and hand - as
well as its logo, which shows a gowned scholar standing beside an ironmonger bearing a hammer
and anvil. That symbiosis of intellect and craftsmanship still suffuses the institute’s classrooms,
where students are not so much taught as engaged and inspired.

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Take Christopher Merrill, 21, a third-year undergraduate in computer science. He is spending most
of his time on a competition set in his robotics class. The contest is to see which student can most
effectively program a robot to build a house out of blocks in under ten minutes. Merrill says he
could have gone for the easiest route - designing a simple robot that would build the house
quickly. But he wanted to try to master an area of robotics that remains unconquered -
adaptability, the ability of the robot to rethink its plans as the environment around it changes, as
would a human. ‘I like to take on things that have never been done before rather than to work in
an iterative way just making small steps forward,’ he explains.
Merrill is already planning the start-up he wants to set up when he graduates in a year’s time. He
has an idea for an original version of a contact lens that would augment reality by allowing
consumers to see additional visual information. He is fearful that he might be just too late in
taking his concept to market, as he has heard that a Silicon Valley firm is already developing
something similar. As such, he might become one of many MIT graduates who go on to form
companies that fail. Alternatively, he might become one of those who go on to succeed in
spectacular fashion. And there are many of them. A survey of living MIT alumni* found that they
have formed 25,800 companies, employing more than three million people, including about a
quarter of the workforce of Silicon Valley.
What MIT delights in is taking brilliant minds from around the world in vastly diverse disciplines
and putting them together. You can see that in its sparkling new David Koch Institute for
Integrative Cancer Research, which brings scientists, engineers, and clinicians under one roof.
Or in its Energy Initiative, which acts as a bridge for MIT’s combined work across all its five
schools, channelling huge resources into the search for a solution to global warming. It works to
improve the efficiency of existing energy sources, including nuclear power. It is also forging
ahead with alternative energies from solar to wind and geothermal, and has recently developed
the use of viruses to synthesise batteries that could prove crucial in the advancement of electric
cars.
In the words of Tim Berners-Lee, the Briton who invented the World Wide Web, ‘It’s not just
another university. Even though I spend my time with my head buried in the details of web
technology, the nice thing is that when I do walk the corridors, I bump into people who are
working in other fields with their students that are fascinating, and that keeps me intellectually
alive.’
adapted from the Guardian

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* people who have left a university or college after completing their studies there.
Answer the questions below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the reading passage for each answer.
1. What proportion of workers at Silicon Valley are employed in companies set up by MIT
graduates?
2. What problem does MIT’s Energy Initiative aim to solve?
3. Which ‘green’ innovation might MIT’s work with viruses help improve?
4. In which part of the university does Tim Berners-Lee enjoy stimulating conversations with
other MIT staff?

Activity 4: Exam-style practice

Read the text and answer the questions below.
Suggested time: 12 minutes
1. The length of a day - as based on daylight or the period between sunrise and sunset - varies
over the course of a year. While the days tend to be longer than nights in summer, they
become shorter than nights in winter. The change in the length of day is gradual, starting
from the longest day of the year to the shortest day. Similarly, starting from the shortest
day of the year, the length of a day increases gradually until it is the longest day of the
next calendar year.
2. The occurrence of the longest or shortest day of the year is attributed to the astronomical
event known as 'solstice·, which occurs twice in a calendar year - first when the apparent
position of the Sun is at its northernmost limit [Tropic of Cancer/23.5° North], and again,
when the apparent position of the Sun is at its southernmost limit [Tropic of Capricorn/23
.5° South].
3. This event of astronomy is further categorized into two parts – summer solstice, which is
the longest day of the year, and winter solstice, which is the shortest day of the year. When
the Sun is at its northernmost limit at 23.5°N, it is referred to as summer solstice, and when
it is at its southernmost limit at 23.5°S, it is referred to as winter solstice.
4. On the other hand, when the Sun's apparent position is just above the equator, it is
referred to as equinox - which occurs twice a year. This, however, only applies to the
northern hemisphere of the Earth.

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 5. In the southern hemisphere, summer solstice occurs when the Sun is at its southernmost
limit at 23.5° South and winter solstice occurs when the Sun is at its northernmost limit at
23.5° North. Owing to the differences in apparent position of the Sun, each of the two
hemispheres experiences summer solstice and winter solstice at different times of the
year. When the Sun is positioned at the northernmost limit, the northern hemisphere
experiences more daylight as compared to the southern hemisphere. Contrary to this,
when the Sun is at its southernmost extreme the southern hemisphere experiences more
daylight as compared to its northern counterpart. For a resident of the northern
hemisphere, the longest day is when the Sun is at the Tropic of Cancer, and the shortest is
when it is at the Tropic of Capricorn.
6. If you happen to be a resident of some country in the southern hemisphere, you will
experience the longest day when the Sun is at the Tropic of Capricorn and the shortest
day when it is at the Tropic of Cancer. Generally, the Sun is at the Tropic of Cancer on 20
or 21 June [sometimes on 19 or 22 June! and at the Tropic of Capricorn on 21 or 22 December
[sometimes on 20 or 23 December]. Going by these dates, the longest day of the year has
to be 20 or 21 June for the northern hemisphere, but 21 or 22 December for the southern
hemisphere. Similarly, the shortest day of the year has to be 21 or 22 December for the
northern hemisphere, but 20 or 21 June for the southern hemisphere.
7. Interestingly, when the Sun is positioned at the 23.5° North latitude, the region around the
North Pole experiences 24 hours of daylight [day] while the region around the South Pole
experiences 24 hours of darkness [night] at a stretch. Similarly, when the Sun is positioned
at the 23.5° South latitude the North Pole and surrounding areas experience 24 hours
darkness while the South Pole and surrounding areas receive 24 hours of daylight.
American National Sleep Foundation
Answer the following questions.
Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS to complete each sentence.
1. What two natural events mark the start and end of the daylight period of a day?
2. In which season does the longest day of the year occur in the northern hemisphere?
3. What other name is given to the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere?
4. How often does equinox occur?
5. Which region experiences darkness over a long period, when the Sun is positioned at 23.5°
North latitude?

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FURTHER PRACTICE
Read the passage below and then answer the questions that follow.

VANCOUVER
Vancouver is quite different from virtually any other city in North America. Despite the fact it is
a large modern cosmopolitan city, it seems to have a relaxed small town, close-to-nature feel
about it. There is little comparison with other large Canadian cities such as Toronto or Montreal,
which are more akin to the large eastern US centers like New York and Chicago. Vancouver, like
all large North American cities, is a conglomerate of high-rise cubic office towers, although urban
planners have kept the heights down. There are, however, some notable exceptions such as the
Marine Building at the north foot of Burrrard Street, once the tallest structure in the British
Empire, the courthouse at Howe & Robson, and the library at Georgia & Hamilton.
Vancouver offers a wide range of attractions catering to all tastes, but those with only a day to
spare cannot be better advised than to take one of the many organized excursions
recommended by the Vancouver Tourist Office.
Stanley Park, a 1,000-acre nature preserve, is Vancouver’s best-known landmark and a must for
any visitor. It was established in 1887 and, in the opinion of many, is the most beautiful urban
park in the world. Contrary to popular belief, this park was not established through the foresight
of the city council of the day, but at the urging of a real estate developer called Oppenheimer.
He is now considered the father of Stanley Park. All areas of the park are accessible to the public
except for Dead Man’s Island, which has a small naval base.
The Eco Walk is a fun and informative way to see the park. The guide gives information on
the trees, plants, birds, and animals as well as on the rich aboriginal culture and legends of the
park. The walking is medium paced, taking 3 hours to complete and covering 5 miles of relatively
flat paved and graveled trails over selected seawall and forest paths. This walk is suitable for
families, including active seniors.
There is also a world-class aquarium in the park and was the first to have killer whales in
captivity and probably the first one to stop making them into a sideshow. The aquarium feels
the purpose in keeping the whales, namely reeducating the public and stopping the hunting of
them, has been accomplished. In 2000, the last remaining killer whale at the aquarium was sold
to Sealand in California, where it died shortly after arriving. The main threat to the park is the
sheer volume of people who want to be in it. Efforts are being made to restrict the amount of

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automobile traffic passing through it. One of the ultimate goals is to eliminate the causeway
leading to Lions Gate Bridge but this will not likely occur until well into the 21st century.
Beaches are also a big attraction, and temperatures are usually high enough to tempt
most people to have a swim. However, one of the biggest days on these beaches is on New
Year’s Day when the annual “Polar Bear Swim” attracts several hundred die-hard individuals out
to prove that Vancouver is a year-round swimming destination.
Chinatown is North America’s third largest, in terms of area, after San Francisco and New
York. It is steeped in history and is well worth walking around. It is most active on Sundays when
people head to any of a wide selection of restaurants that offer dim sum. Chinatown also
contains the world’s thinnest building at only 1.8 meters wide.

Questions 1-7
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in the reading passage? Write
YES if the statement reflects the claims of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
1. When compared with Toronto, Vancouver is very similar.
2. If time is limited, it is inadvisable to go on any of the official day trips available.
3. Oppenheimer built Stanley Park with the help of the city council.
4. The majority of the park is open to the public.
5. The Toronto aquarium killed its last killer whale.
6. The main problem in the park is that the people are too loud.
7. Vancouver’s Chinatown has the third largest Chinese population in North America.
Questions 8-12
Answer the questions below using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each
answer.
8. What famous building was once the highest in the British Empire?
9. What was the profession of the park’s founding father?
10. What is one of the final aims in the park?
11. What event is organized to encourage people to swim?
12. What can you eat in Chinatown?

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 MATCHING HEADINGS

The aim of this type of question is, to test if you are able to understand the main idea of each
paragraph.
There are two possible strategies for answering matching heading questions:
1) Read text first, then headings.
2) Read headings first, then text.

Strategy 1 – Read Text First, Then Headings

Follow these steps.
1. Read the instructions
It is vital that you understand what you have to do.
There will sometimes be a sample answer for illustration. Immediately cross out ‘example heading’
in the list of headings and eliminate it from further consideration.
2. Read the first paragraph
Your aim is to identify the main idea. Focus on the first one or two sentences and the last sentence
as these will usually introduce and summarise this main idea. Skim read the rest of the text. You do
not need to know the detail for this type of question.
Note that occasionally a section will contain more than one paragraph. In this case, you’ll need to find
the main idea in each paragraph.
3. Summarise the main idea
Briefly sum up the main idea of the paragraph in your own words as if you were writing your own
heading. Do it in just a few words or a short phrase at the most. Write this beside it.
4. Read the headings
Now, it is time to read the list of headings. As you do so, try to match your summary of the first
paragraph to one of the headings. Make sure that you read them all carefully and do not just select the
first one that seems to match as there may be two that are very similar in meaning.
Look out for key words as clues but also synonyms as these are very likely to be used.
5. Repeat for all sections
Repeat these steps for each section of the text.
If you get stuck on a particular paragraph, move on and come back to it when you have matched more
heading and crossed them off the list. It will be easier to find the one you are struggling with when
there are fewer headings to choose from
6. Similar headings
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Where you have two very similar headings and cannot decide which is the right one, write them out
one under the other to help you focus in on the difference between them.
7. Eliminate used headings
Once you have matched a heading, cross through it in pencil to eliminate it from further consideration.

Strategy 2 – Read Headings First, Then Text

Follow these steps.
1. Read the headings
First, read the full instructions, including the headings, then focus in on the headings.
Read each carefully and try to understand what it means. Remember, each will summarise the main
idea of the paragraph it matches.
Also remember that there will be more headings than paragraphs so you will not need them all.
2. Underline key words
If a heading contains names, numbers, dates or place names, underline these to identify them as key
words that should be easy to spot in the text. Or there may be a key noun that stands out. It could be
one that occurs in more than one heading.
Doing this will help you to match information in the text and headings as you read each paragraph.
3. Identify similar titles
There will often be two headings with a similar meaning which can make it difficult to decide which
one is the correct match.
If you do spot two similar headings, make a note of this. It will remind you to look at them both
closely when you think one of them is the match.
4. Read the first paragraph
Your aim is to identify the main idea. Focus on the first one or two sentences and the last sentence as
these will probably introduce and summarise this main idea. Skim read the rest of the text. You do
not need to know the detail for this type of question.
Look out for any keywords you underlined in the heading. Be aware that synonyms could be used
instead.
Note that occasionally a section will contain more than one paragraph. In this case, you will need to
find the main idea in each paragraph.
5. Choose the matching heading
Now that you understand the main idea of the first paragraph, go back to the headings and select the
best match. Where you have two possible headings, write them out one under the other to help you
focus in on the difference between them.
COMPILED & DESIGNED BY NGUYEN THI THU TRANG – MA TESOL Page 2 of 16
Once you have made your decision and filled in your answer, cross through the heading in pencil to
eliminate it from further consideration.
6. Move on
If you are struggling to find the correct heading, move on and come back to it once you have
eliminated more headings and have fewer to choose between.
7. Repeat for all sections
Repeat these steps for each section of the text.

TIPS FOR MATCHING HEADINGS:

• Pay attention to headings that are similar or different from each other.
• Spend time paraphrasing keywords in possible headings.
• Read the paragraphs to find the main idea.
• Distinguish between the main ideas and extra information in the paragraph.
• The heading should provide the main idea of the paragraph.
• Do not try to match words-this is about paragraph aims.
• Not all headings might be used.
• Your answer will be a numeral (for example i, iii, vii…).
• There can only be 1 possible heading for each paragraph.

ACTIVITY 1: GUIDED PRACTICE

Questions 1-6
The reading passage has seven paragraphs: A – G.
Choose the most suitable paragraph headings B – G from the list of headings.
Write the correct number, i-ix, in boxes 1-6.
NB There are more paragraph headings than paragraphs so you will not use them all.

List of Paragraph Headings

i. Town facilities
ii. Colonisation
iii. Urban divisions
iv. Architectural home styles
v. Types of settlements
vi. Historical foundations
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 vii. Domestic arrangements
viii. City defenses
ix. The residences of the rulers
x. Government buildings

Match the heading with the paragraph

Example: Paragraph A Answer: v
1. Paragraph B
2. Paragraph C
3. Paragraph D
4. Paragraph E
5. Paragraph F
6. Paragraph G
Yoruba Town
A. The Yoruba people of Nigeria classify their towns in two ways. Permanent towns with their
own governments are called “ilu”, whereas temporary settlements, set up to support work
in the country are “aba”. Although ilu tend to be larger than aba, the distinction is not one of
size, some aba are large, while declining ilu can be small, but of purpose. There is no “typical”
Yoruba town, but some features are common to most towns.
B. In the 19th century most towns were heavily fortified and the foundations of these walls are
sometimes visible. Collecting tolls to enter and exit through the walls was a major source of
revenue for the old town rulers, as were market fees. The markets were generally located
centrally and in small towns, while in large towns there were permanent stands made of
corrugated iron or concrete. The market was usually next to the local ruler’s palace.
C. The palaces were often very large. In the 1930’s, the area of Oyo’s palace covered 17 acres,
and consisted of a series of courtyards surrounded by private and public rooms. After
colonisation, many of the palaces were completely or partially demolished. Often the rulers
built two storey houses for themselves using some of the palace grounds for government
buildings.
D. The town is divided into different sections. In some towns these are regular, extending out
from the center of the town like spokes on a wheel, while in others, where space is limited,
they are more random. The different areas are further divided into compounds called “ile”.

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 These vary in size considerably from single dwellings to up to thirty houses. They tend to be
larger in the North. Large areas are devoted to government administrative buildings. Newer
developments such as industrial or commercial areas or apartment housing for civil servants
tends to be built on the edge of the town.
E. Houses are rectangular and either have a courtyard in the center or the rooms come off a
central corridor. Most social life occurs in the courtyard. They are usually built of hardened
mud and have roofs of corrugated iron or, in the countryside, thatch. Buildings of this material
are easy to alter, either by knocking down rooms or adding new ones. And can be improved
by coating the walls with cement. Richer people often build their houses of concrete blocks
and, if they can afford to, build two storey houses. Within compounds there can be quite a
mixture of building types. Younger well-educated people may have well-furnished houses
while their older relatives live in mud walled buildings and sleep on mats on the floor.
F. The builder or the most senior man gets a room either near the entrance or, in a two storied
house, next to the balcony. He usually has more than one room. Junior men get a room each
and there are separate rooms for teenage boys and girls to sleep in. Younger children sleep
with their mothers. Any empty room are used as storage, let out or, if they face the street,
used as shops.
G. Amenities vary. In some towns most of the population uses communal water taps and only
the rich have piped water, in others piped water is more normal. Some areas have toilets, but
bucket toilets are common with waste being collected by a “night soil man”. Access to water
and electricity are key political issues.

ACTIVITY 2: EXAM-STYLE PRACTICE

Questions 1-5
The reading passage has five paragraphs, A-E.
Choose the correct heading for paragraphs A-E from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number, i-x, in boxes 1-5.
List of Headings
i. Effect of city life on mental health
ii. Stress reduction in animals
iii. Two types of stress
iv. The fallout of cell death

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 v. The best type of exercise
vi. How stress can be useful
vii. Managing stress in job interviews
viii. One reason behind bad tempers
ix. Neuron loss in childhood
x. Regrowing the brain with exercise
1. Paragraph A
2. Paragraph B
3. Paragraph C
4. Paragraph D
5. Paragraph E

A
Despite its bad reputation, stress historically had a vital role to play. Commonly referred to as the
‘fight or flight’ mode, the sudden release of stress hormones like adrenalin and cortisol causes the
heart to beat faster, airways to dilate and blood vessels to open up, all of which push the body towards
optimal performance and, ultimately, survival. In the rest of the animal kingdom, this is still often the
difference between life and death. As he springs off to freedom, the lucky gazelle who escapes the
lion can thank this primal evolutionary response.
B
In ordinary modern life, although we’re in little danger of being stalked by wild beasts down city
streets, our bodies react to stress in the same ways. Experiencing anxiety, fear and stress is considered
a normal part of life when it is occasional and temporary, such as feeling anxious and stressed before
an exam or a job interview. It is when these acute reactions are prolonged or cannot be switched off,
however, that serious physical, social and cognitive issues can result. In contrast to the normal
everyday stress of modern life, chronic stress is a pathological state which can significantly interfere
with daily living activities such as work, school and relationships, wreaking havoc on the body’s
immune, metabolic and cardiovascular systems.
C
Of major concern is the impact on the brain. Researchers have found that the hippocampus, the control
centre of memory and our ability to learn, can physically shrink in response to prolonged release of
stress hormones like cortisol which result from chronic stress. Neurons in this area do not just get
smaller, but actually die, which weakens the neural connections, affecting the way memories are

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organised and stored in the brain. A chronically stressed person would recognise this as a ‘brain fog’,
and it also has ramifications for other areas such as creativity and adaptability.
D
While this part of the brain gets smaller, another area, the amygdala, which is involved in processing
emotions, can grow with chronic stress. Across species, a larger amygdala has been found to correlate
with aggression and this, coupled with the weakened connection to the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s
decision-making centre, can profoundly impact mood and behaviour. With the link between emotions
and decision-making compromised, a person is much less able to stop and reflect, becoming instead
reactive and short-fused. Think of the difference between being able to tolerate a screaming child and
instead giving in to the desire to scream back.
E
In the past, it was accepted that there was a limited number of neurons in the brain and as they died
off as a result of ageing, stress or substance abuse, for instance, they were lost forever. It turns out,
however, that this is not the case and that stem cells within the brain are actually able to create new
neurons. In other words, lost neurons can be replaced. What makes this discovery even more powerful
is the fact that replenishing neurons is rather straightforward. One of the most powerful stimulants for
neuron growth is physical activity. So, in addition to its role in the reduction of stress hormones in
the first place, and its ability to stimulate the release of endorphins, exercise has now been shown to
contribute to the repair of the chronically stressed brain.

ACTIVITY 3: EXAM-STYLE PRACTICE

Questions 1-7
The reading passage has eight paragraphs, A-H.
Choose the correct heading for paragraphs A-H from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number, i-x, in boxes 1-7.
List of Headings
i. Environmentalists’ reaction
ii. Differing yields in developing and 'first' worlds
iii. Increased yields in Bt cotton
iv. Hong Kong government's 'marketing' of GM foods
v. Legal implications
vi. Reactions to GM cotton
vii. Growing importance of GM foods

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 viii. GM crops and viruses
ix. Attitudes worldwide to GM foods
x. Supermarkets' policy

Example Paragraph A - vii

1. Paragraph B
2. Paragraph C
3. Paragraph D
4. Paragraph E
5. Paragraph F
6. Paragraph G
7. Paragraph H

Divided opinions over genetically modified crops and foods

A. Europeans tend to be skeptical about the consumption of genetically modified foods and
there is strong consumer pressure, supported by the Green parties, to ban farmers from
growing GM crops in the European Union (EU). However, 5.5 million farmers worldwide,
mainly in the US, Argentina, Canada and China, now grow GM crops covering more than 50
million hectares, an area the size of Spain. Other Asian countries such as India are enthusiastic
and Indonesia is about to join the GM club, so despite the Europeans, GM crop growth is
increasing globally.

B. A recent British scientists' report emphasizes that inserting genes into plants is still a very
inexact science, so unexpected biochemical side effects are possible, affecting foodstuffs and
human consumers. Legally, GM companies have to demonstrate that their crops are
"substantially equivalent" to the originals, but what does this mean? That they should contain
the same nutrients? That they should look and smell similar? Scientists who not long ago
dismissed public concerns as hysteria are now concurring with green consumer activists and
advising tougher regulation.

C. More consensus and definition is required on this controversial topic. Currently, it seems that
most American consumers trust GM food producers and associated big businesses, whilst
Europeans do not. Canadians are skeptical: their studies of cross pollinated "super strains"

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 indicate problems such as potential super viruses. Dutch studies however, suggest that
engineered sugar beet is friendlier to wildlife and less damaging to the environment: it needs
less herbicide for the same yield, allowing more weed biomass and increased insects and
spiders, which in turn feed increased birdlife. These results are significant, as European law
states that GM crops may be banned if they can be proved to damage the environment.

D. Attitudes to GM crops appear to depend on where one lives and what one does. Cotton
farmers in South Africa are very enthusiastic, as their first GM cotton crop proved extremely
successful, boosting yields by 50 - 90%. "Bt cotton" contains a gene for a bacterial toxin that
kills their major pest, bollworms and reduces the need for pesticides. Growing GM cotton
requires less labour time, an important factor in a region ravaged by HIV/AIDS. Bt cotton seed
yield shows increases of up to 129%; unsurprisingly, use grew from only 0.1 per cent of
farmers in 1997/98 to over 90 per cent by 2001/02. Opponents of GM crops claim that pests
will develop resistance soon and that small farmers relying completely on the modified strain
are particularly vulnerable to changes in market conditions.

E. India is also pleased with its high relative yields of GM cotton and generally, yield increases
in the developing world are turning out to be much higher than those of the 'first' world. It is
understandable therefore, that developing countries are keen to embrace GM foods and
farming methods, whilst many western farmers and consumers remain skeptical.

F. Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, the government's leaflet, 'GM Food Newsletter', is annoying
consumer activists and environmentalists. In the leaflet, a university biotechnology student
explains to her mother that all GM foods are safety-assessed and are "as safe as their
conventional counterparts". The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department says it was
published "with a view to enhancing the knowledge of the public on GM food".

G. Greenpeace call it "blatant pro-GM food propaganda" however, and claim "The government
is pushing GM food safety whilst at the same time understating the potential risks". It adds
the government's role is "to educate and inform the public, not to blatantly promote what is
an unproven technology." Greenpeace do not believe that a reasonable system of pre-market
safety assessments exists in Hong Kong and have been actively campaigning for the

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 compulsory labelling of GM ingredients. The government argues that assessment is adequate
enough to allay public fears and that labelling of GM foods should be voluntary.

H. Park'n'Shop and Wellcome allow distribution of the GM newsletter, but a spokeswoman said
this did not necessarily imply active approval of GM foods, adding they had previously helped
the government deliver a series of education leaflets, posters and information on SARS and
dengue fever. "Our policy on GM food is neutral" she said.

FURTHER PRACTICE:
READING PASSAGE 1:
Social Media Privacy: A Contradiction in Terms?
This article is by Naomi Trani, global GMO of Euro RSCG Worldwide.
A. Never in the course of human interaction have so many shared so much about themselves
with so many others - and with so little apparent concern for their privacy. Was it really just
a generation ago that people kept all but their most basic information under virtual lock and
key? Today, we happily share our date and place of birth, name of our first pet, mother's
maiden name, favourite movie or book, favourite colour, first school teacher - and myriad
other snippets of information required by online services as part of their security procedures.
B. The basic premise behind this information-sharing is nothing new. Consumers have long
handed over a little personal information in exchange for services such as banking and
finance, utilities and healthcare. The big difference now is that the information is digitized
and accessible online - and we're handing it out to virtually anyone who asks, regardless of
how briefly the business has been in existence. Of even greater concern to many is the
amount and variety of information being gathered about us without our explicit permission.
Whereas retailers and others used to tweeze out information gleaned through loyalty cards,
prize draws and catalogue mailing lists, now these old standbys have been massively
augmented by customers researching and purchasing online, leaving in their wake a digital
trail of cookie crumbs detailing their needs, tastes and desires.
C. And then there's social media. If this isn't the Holy Grail* for marketers, it's difficult to imagine
what would be. In this thoroughly 21st century communications channel, old notions of
privacy simply do not apply; sharing personal information, experiences and opinions is the
whole point of the service. And, wonder of wonders, consumers don't only provide it willingly

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 – they provide it for free! Sure, some people take the precaution of limiting access to their
Facebook or Google+ pages, but even these people typically are eager to share their thoughts
via comment sections on news sites, reviews on retail sites and in branded clubs and forums.
D. With all the time we spend online and all the forums we frequent, it's no wonder most of us
have grown accustomed to doling out little snippets of personal information with barely a
second thought. It helps that we rarely are asked to hand over a whole stack of personal
information in one massive data transfer; that would be too much trouble and might provoke
too much anxiety. Rather, we routinely hand it out a bit at a time.
E. Anybody over the age of 30 likely will remember that in the early days of mainstream
Internet, 10 to 15 years ago, consumers were wary about handing over private information.
A 2001 UCLA report, for instance, found high levels of consumer concern over online privacy
in general and credit card security in particular.
F. Since then hundreds of millions of people have come online and become regular users of
commerce sites and social media. Early concerns about online privacy have been sidelined by
the desire for more speed, more convenience, more choice and more great deals. Familiarity
has bred complacency and even foolhardiness; we've all heard about people uploading pretty
much everything, including the most intimate words and images.
G. Now, after a decade of consumers feeling increasingly free-and-easy with their personal
information online, we are seeing signs of a new wariness setting in. In a Euro RSCG global
survey conducted among 7,213 adults in 19 countries, we found that 55% of respondents are
worried that 'technology is robbing us of our privacy'; the figure was above 60% in a number
of countries, including the United States and China. Similarly, 61 % overall agreed 'People
share too much about their personal thoughts and experiences online; we need to go back
to being more private. '
H. And it's not just snooping companies and hackers that consumers fear. Nearly half the sample
(47%) - and a majority of millennials* - worry that friends or family will share inappropriate
personal information about them online. Around one-third overall already regret posting
personal information about themselves.
* Holy Grail - a desired ambition or goal (in Christian tradition, the cup used by Jesus at the Last
Supper with his followers)
* Millennials - people born between 1982 and 2000

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Questions 1-5
Reading Passage has eight sections, A-H. Choose the correct heading for sections B, C, D, F and G
from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number, i-x, in boxes 1-5.
i. A reverse in trends
ii. Blogging
iii. Digital technology: a threat to privacy
iv. Privacy versus ease
v. Online social networks and consumer information
vi. Little by little
vii. Phone hacking and privacy
viii. Attitudes at the tum of the century
Example: Paragraph E -viii
1. Paragraph B
2. Paragraph C
3. Paragraph D
4. Paragraph F
5. Paragraph G

Questions 6-10
Do the following statements agree with the information in the text?
Write TRUE if the statement is true.
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information in the text.
NOT GIVEN if there is no information about this.
6. In the past, people shared their personal details freely.
7. Nowadays, individuals give their personal information to online services because it makes
them feel safe.
8. Traditionally, financial organizations have asked their clients to provide a limited amount of
information.
9. The difference between the past and the present is that private information is available
digitally to a much larger number of people.
10. New businesses are not allowed to request personal information.

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READING PASSAGE 2:
You should spend 20 minutes on questions 1-13 which are based on reading passage 2.
Questions 1-7
The reading passage has nine paragraphs, A-I.
Choose the correct headings for paragraphs B-H from the list of headings below.
List of headings
i The effect of emphasis on short-term educational goals The limited effects of music
ii The future of music
iii Benefits for health
iv The effects of early exposure to music
v The skills involved in musical activity
vi A playwright's perception of music
vii Early exposure to Music in the USA
viii Music without instruments
ix The 'Mozart effect'
x Order or chaos?
xi The creation of The Voices Foundation
xii A method for training singers
xiii The use of music in Shakespeare's plays
Example: Paragraph A - xi
1. Paragraph B
2. Paragraph C
3. Paragraph D
4. Paragraph E
5. Paragraph F
6. Paragraph G
7. Paragraph H
Example Paragraph I- iii
A. Even the Greeks couldn't agree about it. Was music a source of order and proportion in
society, regulating its innate chaos in ways similar to the disciplines of geometry and
architecture? Or did its ability to express passionate emotions beyond the reach of words
create the potential for disorder and anarchy? Compare the behaviour of an audience

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 listening to classical string quartets with headbangers at a rave, and the age-old conflict
between Apollo and Dionysius is made manifest all over again in our own time.
B. Shakespeare, though, came clean. For him, 'the man who hath no music in himself, Nor is not
mov' d with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, strategems and spoils; The motions
of his spirit are dull as night ... ' Throughout his plays, Shakespeare perceives music as a
healing force, an art whose practice makes man whole.
C. Yet, despite the growth of the science of music therapy within the last two centuries, and
despite the huge weight of books published on the miraculous 'Mozart effect', our schools
and colleges have fallen strangely silent. The so-called 'Mozart effect' presents anecdotal and
statistical evidence for advances in both social and academic skills in those children exposed
in their formative years to the music of Mozart. But, in an age obsessed by pragmatism and
by short-term vocational learning, music has been marginalized in both primary and
secondary education. Compared with the holy trinity of reading, writing, and arithmetic,
music is regarded as a luxury pastime. As a result, children are leaving school not only totally
ignorant of their own musical heritage, but lacking in social, physical, and mental skills which
musical performance can uniquely promote.
D. Playing an instrument requires a degree of concentration and coordination which brings into
play a plethora of mental and physical skills which are being eroded in our push-button world.
Socialization and team-work are also involved. Schools with wind bands, string ensembles,
jazz groups, and orchestras are right up there at the top of the league tables. In excelling in
musical activity, the students' performance in many other fields of learning is refocused and
radically improved.
E. There are medical aspects too. Long before British primary schools discovered the recorder -
that most basic of all modern woodwind instruments -Australian Aborigines had developed
the didgeridoo. Like the clarinet and the flute, this haunting and beautiful instrument helped
to overcome both upper and lower respiratory tract problems and encouraged better sleep.
In playing a wind instrument, abdominal muscles are used to support the breathing system.
And these are the very muscles which come into play when an asthmatic is experiencing an
attack.
F. But what of those individuals and schools which simply cannot afford a musical instrument?
What of those institutions where not a single member of staff can read music? This is where
the human being's most primitive form of music-making comes into its own. Singing is free.

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 Everyone possesses a voice. And, with it, the body expresses itself in the most fundamental
and organic way.
G. The Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodaly knew this, and developed his own system of training
ear and voice within a simple yet comprehensive system of body language. Today, an
organization called The Voices Foundation adapts and applies Kodaly's methods, aiming to
give children back their singing voices, and to make our schools ring with music-making once
again. Their advisors and teachers have already achieved extraordinary tum-around effects
the length and breadth of Britain and in schools in the troubled areas of South Africa.
H. Important work is currently being done in Finland, Israel, and the United States on pre-school,
even pre-birth, musical education. Music in the womb is very much part of the life of the
unborn future citizens of Finland. And one has only to look at the educational standards,
health records, and professional musical activity in this small nation to see what dividends
music in education pays from the earliest days of human life.
I. Mozart has been celebrated in his anniversary years of 1991 and again in 2006. By the time
of the next Mozart-Year, shall we have allowed music to conjure a better society for us all?
Or, relegated to the ranks of mere entertainment, will music be eroded of its unique power
to heal and to make whole?
Questions 8-10
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in the reading passage? Write
YES if the statement agrees with the writer's claims
NO if the statement contradicts the writer's claims
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this.
8. In Shakespeare's dramas, music is seen in a positive light.
9. Schools lack the funds to buy luxury items like musical instruments.
10. Musical activity can only lead to a slight improvement in children's social, physical, and
mental skills.

Questions 11-13
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
11. According to the writer, studying music
A. may not help all students to improve in other areas of their studies.
B. means that students spend less time on reading, writing, and arithmetic.

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C. helps students to improve enormously in other areas of their studies.
D. means that students will excel as professional musicians.
12. The didgeridoo is an instrument that
A. has a negative effect on those suffering with breathing problems.
B. benefits those suffering with breathing problems.
C. tends to send those who listen to it to sleep.
D. sounds sad to most people.
13. Which of the following is the most suitable heading for Reading Passage 2?
A. The growth of music in the school curriculum
B. Music throughout the ages
C. Music for everyone
D. The beneficial effects of a musical education

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 IELTS READING MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

Multiple-choice questions are designed to test a wide range of reading skills. The questions
may require you to skim in order to have an overall understanding of the main idea of a
passage, or they may ask you to have a detailed understanding of particular points about
which you will need to scan for specific details.
There are two types of multiple-choice questions. The first type is standard multiple
choice, which is the most typical form with one question and four possible answers.
Specifically speaking, you have to choose one correct answer from the four alternatives
given in the question.
Another form is known as modified multiple choice, which requires you to choose more
than one out of several options given for a question.
Sample instructions

✓ Choose the correct letter, A, B, C, or D.

✓ Choose THREE letters, A-F.

Which THREE of the following reasons for … are mentioned by the writer?

Useful information about multiple choice questions:

✓ Questions follow the order of the text.

✓ Questions repeat key words (or their synonyms) from the text.
✓ Multiple choice questions have 3 or 4 answers, only one of which is correct. Usually,
there are such types of answers:
A. Irrelevant answer that gives information, which is not stated in the text.
B. Answer that gives completely opposite information.
C. Answer that gives information that figures in the text, but not what you're asked
about.
D. Correct answer.

Answering strategy:

1. Read the first question and underline the key words.

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 2. Read the text from the beginning, simultaneously scanning it for the information
that relates to the question.
3. Once you found the key words or their synonyms in the text - look for the answer
(it should be somewhere close).
4. One you've found the answer, read the next few lines of the text to make sure that it
is correct. Also, reread the question.
5. Repeat this strategy with other questions, but now read the text from the place where
you stopped the last time.

Tips:

• Scan text for the key words and their synonyms.

• Cross out the answers which are obviously wrong. This will help you to identify the
correct answers more quickly.
• The order of questions can help you. Answer for question 4 will be between answers
for questions 3 and 5 in the text.
• Don't rely on your own knowledge, the correct answer contains ONLY information
stated in the text.

Activity 1: Guided practice

Blogging the World
Just ten years after the coining of the term 'blog', or web log, there are now over one
hundred million of them. At current growth rates, the number of new blogs created is
doubling about every five months. They are not simply personal diaries or journals. Blogs
are meant for a larger audience. Whether that audience consists of just a small circle of
friends or millions of people dedicated to a political cause, blogs offer a way to connect
with each other and share ideas.
The first blogs required some technical expertise to maintain and publish the site. As the
Internet has grown, blogging sites have developed to the point where people need no
specialized knowledge. Anyone with access to a computer and the Internet can upload their
text entries, which are the core of what a blog is. People write on every sort of subject:
daily activities, celebrity gossip, political news, or their travelling experiences. The blogger

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can also include embedded hypertext links to other relevant websites. Others who see these
entries can then post comments on them. On the most popular blog sites, comment threads
can run many times longer than the original entry.
Usually, along the side of the blog, there are links to other blogs. This blogroll can consist
merely of the writer's friends or can be other thematically similar blogs. These links not
only help to define what kind of blogging is done on the site, but also help to increase
visibility and to produce better search results.
There are many variations on the blog, but one distinguishing feature between all of them
and other types of traditional publishing is their individual character. There is a certain
intimacy in reading a blog that has not been edited by a third party. The immediacy of
blogging has also forced the mainstream media and other institutions to rethink their
approach to news and branding.
Questions 1-5
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write your answers in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.

1. In recent times, blogs have

A. grown at a very fast pace.
B. transformed completely several times.
C. become unfashionable and unpopular.
D. not broken into the mainstream.
2. Over the years, blogs have become
A. quite irrelevant in people's daily life.
B. increasingly complicated to use.
C. unusually wordy and ungrammatical.
D. less difficult to create and to update.
3. Blog posts can
A. only discuss a narrow range of subjects.
B. include long discussions through readers' comments.
C. inhibit the flow of ideas.
D. replace all mainstream media.
4. People do not link their blogs to other sites to
A. decrease traffic on competing blogs.

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 B. shape what their blog is about.
C. attract readers who have similar interests.
D. appear more prominently on search engines.
5. One unique characteristic of blogs is their
A. text-based format.
B. ability to attract people who use the Internet.
C. ability to let individuals talk to each other directly.
D. numerous and large sources of money for reporting news.

Approach
Q1
STEP 1 Find two key words in the question.
STEP 2 Find a word associated with one of the key words in the second sentence of
paragraph 1.
STEP 3 Read the second sentence in paragraph 1 again to find relevant information.
STEP 4 Choose the correct option.
Q2
STEP 1 Find a key phrase in the question.
STEP 2 Find ideas associated with the key phrase in the second sentence of paragraph 2.
STEP 3 Read the second sentence in paragraph 2 again to find relevant information.
STEP 4 Choose the correct option.
Q3
STEP 1 Find a key phrase in the question.
STEP 2 Find two phrases associated with the key phrase in the last sentence of paragraph
2.
STEP 3 Read the last sentence of paragraph 2 again to find relevant information.
STEP 4 Choose the correct option.
Q4
STEP 1 Find one key word and one key phrase in the question.
STEP 2 Find associated ideas in paragraph 3.
STEP 3 Read all important information in paragraph 3.
STEP 4 Choose the correct option.
Q5
STEP 1 Find one key phrase in the question.
STEP 2 In the first sentence of paragraph 4, find a phrase that is similar in meaning to the

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key phrase in the question.
STEP 3 Read the second sentence of paragraph 4 to find relevant information.
STEP 4 Choose the correct option.

Activity 2: Exam-style practice

Here is another, similar exercise. This time you will only be given the text and the
questions as you would in the exam. Follow the same steps as you did in Activity 1 to
find the answers.
Suggested time: 8 minutes

Western Chess
The game of chess is thousands of years old. Chess has been played for so long now that
its place of origin is unclear. Regardless of where the game was first played, it eventually
reached ancient Persia. In the 8th century CE, conquering armies swept out from the
Arabian Peninsula creating an empire that stretched from India to Spain. From Persia, the
game of chess traveled throughout the empire to Spain, and from there, to the rest of
Europe.

Chess pieces and their functions are a small reflection of medieval European life. The
pawns are the most numerous types on the board and are often sacrificed to protect other
pieces. They represent serfs in the feudal system who were tied to the land they worked on
and had no say in the destiny of their own lives.

The two rooks are set on each side of the back row and are like the castles that protected
the nobles and the clergymen. The knights are the only pieces that move in an 'L' shape,
much like how the mounted and armored warriors had the ability to outflank opponents.
The Church in medieval times was much more relevant in daily life and politics than even
now and was represented by the bishops, which sat on both sides of the king and queen.

The queen is the most powerful chess piece on the whole board, though not the most
important. It is an interesting commentary on the precarious positions of such people in
medieval court life. The mobility of the king in chess is very limited, considering that it is
the most important piece in the game. Only the pawn has fewer options when moving. The
loss of one's king loses the game and thus speaks to t heir importance in the Middle Ages
as a physical embodiment of the state.

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Questions 1-4

Choose FOUR letters, A-J.

Write your answers in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.

NB Your answers may be given in any order.

Which FOUR of the following statements are true of European chess?

A. In chess, the king cannot be moved.

B. Capturing the opponent's king wins the game.
C. Rooks, representing stone castles, are the strongest piece in the game.
D. Historians have pinpointed the exact time and place where chess was created.
E. The pawn is the least mobile of all the pieces.
F. Chess has a short history since people started playing it only recently.
G. The game of chess embodies European life in the Middle Ages.
H. European chess started in a different area of the world.
I. There is a piece in European chess that represents cannons and artillery.
J. If all of a player's pawns are taken, he or she loses the game.

ACTIVITY 3:
Is violence innate?

In 1983, archaeologists in southern Germany discovered a mass grave containing 34

skeletons. They included 9 adult males, 7 adult females and 16 children.
All of the skeletons showed signs of fatal trauma, including head wounds. None of them
showed any signs of defensive wounds, suggesting they were killed whilst running away.
The "Talheim Death Pit" dates from the Stone Age, around 7,000 years ago. It offers
some of the oldest evidence of organised group violence between two communities: that
is, of war.
Clearly, humans have been fighting wars for thousands of years, and we may not be the
only ones. There is growing evidence that several other species also engage in warfare,
including our closest relatives the chimpanzees.

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 That suggests we have inherited our predilection for warfare from our ape-like
ancestors. But not everyone agrees that warfare is inbuilt.

QUESTIONS 1-4: Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

1. What did archaeologists in southern Germany discover?

A. remains of 34 dead animals
B. Graveyard containing 34 skeletons
C. Relics of early civilization
D. 9 adult males, 7 adult females and 16 children
2. Why did scientists suggested that those people were killed whilst running
away?
A. Their skeletons showed signs of fatal trauma
B. There were 16 children
C. During that period organised group violence was very frequent
D. Their skeletons didn't show any signs of defensive wounds
3. Why do human beings fight, according to the article?
A. Because they have been fighting wars for thousands of years
B. Because chimpanzees, who are humans' closest relatives, engage in warfare
C. Because humans inherited predilection for warfare from their ape-like ancestors
D. Because fighting is their inbuilt instinct
4. Which of the following phrases best describes the main aim of the Reading
Passage?
A. To describe fighting among different species
B. To introduce principles of contemporary archaeology and its application
C. To introduce some relics of humans' warfare for further discussion whether violence
is innate or not
D. To suggest ways of interpreting humans' violence

ACTIVITY 4:

August 1985: The worst month for air disasters

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There are many grim landmarks in the history of aviation. One, in particular, stands out.
Three decades ago, 720 travellers and crew lost their lives on board commercial aircraft in
a single month - more than in any other before or since.

The deaths occurred in four separate accidents in August 1985. Each disaster had quite
different causes. The aircraft involved ranged from a 747 with hundreds on board to a tiny
twin engine turboprop carrying just eight people.

There was Japan Air Lines flight 123, the worst single-aircraft accident in history, in which
520 of 524 on board were killed. A further 137 died when Delta flight 191 flew into heavy
winds as it approached Dallas-Fort Worth International. A fire on board British Air tours
flight 28M at Manchester Airport led to 55 deaths. And all those on board the smallest
aircraft, Bar Harbor Airlines flight 1808, lost their lives as it flew into a small airport in
Maine, USA.

Each, in their own way, had a lasting legacy, whether in the memories of those left bereaved
or in changes in technology and procedure introduced as a direct result. The worst death
toll was on Japan Air Lines Flight 123, a Boeing 747, which was en route from Tokyo to
Osaka on 12 August 1985 when the airtight bulkhead between its cabin and tail tore open.
The change in pressure blew off the vertical stabiliser, or tail fin. It also destroyed the
hydraulic systems. The plane lurched up and down.

QUESTIONS 1-4: Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

1. When did the 720 travellers die?

A. Thirteen decades ago.
B. A few decades ago.
C. 30 years ago.
D. There is no information about it.
2. Twin engine turboprop could carry
A. eight people.
B. four people.
C. two people.
D. only a pilot.
3. The worst accident in history, according to the paragraph, was
A. Flight 123.

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 B. Delta flight 191.
C. British Air tours flight 28M.
D. Bar Harbor Airlines flight 1808.
4. Why did the Japan Air Lines Flight 123 crashed?
A. The change in pressure blew off the vertical stabiliser.
B. Destruction of the hydraulic systems.
C. The airtight bulkhead between its cabin and tail tore open.
D. It is unknown.

FURTHER PRACTICE:

READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-14 which are based on Reading
Passage 1.

In or Out?
British further education colleges did not traditionally have any concerns about student
drop-out, because the origins of the sector were in vocational apprenticeship training for
employers where the apprentice could not drop out without endangering their job. In the
70s, this sector began to expand into more general education courses, which were seen both
as an alternative to school for 16–18-year-olds and a second chance for adults.

The philosophy was mainly liberal with students regarded as adults who should not be
heavily monitored, but rather free to make their own decisions; it was not uncommon to
hear academic staff argue that attendance at classes was purely voluntary.

In the 80s, with an increased consciousness of equal opportunities, the focus of the further
education college moved to widening participation, encouraging into colleges students
from previously under-represented groups, particularly from ethnic minorities. This, in
turn, led to a curriculum which was more representative of the new student body. For
example, there were initiatives to ensure the incorporation of literature by black writers
into A-level literature courses; history syllabuses were altered to move beyond a purely
Eurocentric view of the world; and geography syllabuses began to look at the politics of
maps.

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A turning point came in 1991 with the publication of a report on completion rates by the
government inspection body for education, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate for England, and
Wales, (HMI 1991). However, this report was based on academic staff’s explanations of
why students had left. It suggested that the vast majority left either for personal reasons or
because they had found employment and that only 10% left for reasons that could in any
way be attributed to the college.

Meanwhile, Britain had been going through the Thatcherite revolution and, in parallel to
the Reagan politics of the US, a key principle was the need to focus on radical taxation
reduction. At this point (and to a large extent still), further and higher education colleges
were almost entirely funded from the public purse. There had been many cuts in this
funding through the 80s, but no one had really looked at value for money. However, in the
early 90s, the Audit Commission with Office of Standards in Education (OFSTED) (the
new version of HMI) turned the spotlight onto further education and published a seminal
report, Unfinished Business (Audit Commission and OFSTED 1993), which showed that
drop-out was happening on a significant scale and, crucially given the politics of the time,
attributed a cost to the state of £500 million, arguing that this was a waste of public (i.e.
taxpayers’) money. To quote Yorke (1999), non-completion became political. The Audit
Commission report coincided with government moves to privatise the functions of the state
as much as possible; and with the decision to remove further education from the control of
local government and give it a quasi-dependent status, where colleges were governed by
independent boards of governors bidding to the state for funding to run educational
provision. As part of this, a new series of principles for funding and bidding were
developed (FEFC 1994) which incorporated severe financial penalties for student drop-
out. In essence, the system is that almost all the state funding is attached to the individual
student. There is funding for initial advice and guidance, on-course delivery, and student
achievement, but if the student drops out, the college loses that funding immediately, so
that loss of students in the first term leads to an immediate loss of college funding for the
other two terms. Not surprisingly, this focused the concern of colleges immediately and
sharply on the need to improve student retention rates.

Recently, therefore, there has been considerable effort to improve retention but, as
Martinez (1995) pointed out, there was no body of research on which to base strategies.
An additional complexity was that colleges had been slow to computerise their student data

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and most colleges were in the position of not knowing what their retention rates were or
any patterns involved. Where data did exist, it was held separately by either administrative
or academic staff with poor communication between these groups. Colleges, however,
jumped into a number of strategies based largely on experience, instinct and common sense
and publication of these began (Martinez 1996; Martinez 1997; Kenwright 1996;
Kenwright 1997).

The main strategies tried are outlined in the literature as summarised by Martinez (1996).
These include sorting activities around entry to ensure ‘best fit’, supporting activities
including childcare, financial support and enrichment/learner support, connecting activities
to strengthen the relationship between the college and the student, including mentoring and
tutorials and activities to transform the student, including raising of expectations and
study/career development support and tutoring.

Questions 1 - 3

Look at the following dates (Questions 1-3) and key events in the development of further
education below.

Match each date with a key event.

Write the correct letter A-G in boxes 1-3 on your answer sheet.

1. 1991
2. 1993
3. 1994

Key Event

A. Severe penalties for drop-out are developed as part of college funding mechanisms.
B. Serious attempts are made to improve student support.
C. An influential report showing that non-completion rates are significantly high is
published.
D. The lack of a strategical basis is officially recognised.
E. The HMI is created.
F. Data on student completion rates for further education are published.
G. A minor report showing that non-completion rates are significantly high is
published.

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Questions 4 - 8

Complete the sentences below with words taken from Reading Passage 1.

Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 4-8 on your answer sheet.

4. Further education colleges in Britain were originally not worried about student
drop-out, because students did not leave college for fear of __________________.
5. According to the writer, the philosophy at further education colleges was
__________________.
6. As people became more aware of equal opportunities, colleges encouraged students
from under-represented groups, as a move to __________________.
7. The HMI’s report focused on completion rates, based on. __________________of
reasons for students’ departure from college.
8. In the early 1990s, the political situation, both in Britain and the US, demanded a
major __________________.

Questions 9 - 14

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write your answers in boxes 9-14 on your answer sheet.

9. The report Unfinished Business

A. pointed out the politics of the time.
B. gave £500 million to the state.
C. linked drop-out to wasting money.
D. turned the spotlight.
10. The new series of principles developed in 1994 by the FEFC
A. gave money to each student.
B. was quasi-independent.
C. meant colleges had to turn their immediate attention to improving student retention
rates.
D. was aimed at improving teacher retention rates.
11. Attempts to reduce the student drop-out rate were hindered, because
A. there was a lack of research data upon which to base strategies.

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 B. colleges did not know what to do.
C. computers in colleges were slow.
D. colleges had no patterns.
12. Further hindrances in reducing the student drop-out rate were
A. colleges’ slowness in computerising data and not knowing their retention rates, nor
what patterns of retention existed.
B. college inertia and administrative incompetence.
C. computer glitches and strikes, which occurred at most colleges.
D. colleges not knowing their retention rates or where the patterns were.
13. Colleges’ strategies to deal with the problem of low retention
A. brought administrative and academic staff together.
B. varied enormously.
C. jumped.
D. were based on something other than data.
14. The main strategies to improve retention included
A. ‘best fit’ supporting activities.
B. activities to support and transform the student.
C. the raising of college expectations.
D. a summary by Martinez.

READING PASSAGE 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 15-28 which are based on Reading
Passage 2.

Tyes and Greens

There are a number of settlements in this part of East Anglia with names containing the
word ‘tye’. The word is Anglo-Saxon in origin, and the Oxford English Dictionary quotes
the earliest usage of the term as dating from 832. Essentially a ‘tye’ was a green, or a small
area of open common land, usually sited away from the main village or settlement, perhaps
at the junction of two or more routes. Local people and passing travellers had the right to
pasture their horses, pigs, and other farm animals on the tye.

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In the Pebmarsh area there seem to have been five or six of these tyes, all, except one, at
the margins of the parish. These marginal clearings are all away from the richer farming
land close to the river, and, in the case of Cooks Green, Hayles Tye, and Dorking Tye,
close to the edge of still existing fragments of ancient woodland. It seems likely then that,
here, as elsewhere in East Anglia, medieval freemen were allowed to clear a small part of
the forest and create a smallholding. Such unproductive forest land would, in any case,
have been unattractive to the wealthy baronial or monastic landowners. Most of the land
around Pebmarsh village belonged to Earls Colne Priory, a wealthy monastery about 10
kilometres to the south, and it may be that by the 13th and 14th centuries the tyes were
maintained by tenant farmers paying rent to the Priory.

Hayles Tye seems to have got its name from a certain John Hayle who is documented in
the 1380s, although there are records pointing to occupation of the site at a much earlier
date. The name was still in use in 1500 and crops up again throughout the 16th and 17th
centuries, usually in relation to the payment of taxes or tithes. At some point during the
18th century the name is changed to File’s Green, though no trace of an owner called File
has been found. Also, in the 18th century the original dwellings on the site disappeared.
Much of this region was economically depressed during this period and the land and its
dwellings may simply have been abandoned.

Several farms were abandoned in the neighbouring village of Alpha stone, and the
population dwindled so much that there was no money to support the fabric of the village
church, which became very dilapidated. However, another possibility is that the buildings
at File’s Green burnt down, fires being not infrequent at this time.

By 1817 the land was owned by Charles Townsend of Ferriers Farm, and in 1821 he built
two brick cottages on the site, each cottage occupied by two families of agricultural
labourers. The structure of these cottages was very simple, just a two-storey rectangle
divided in the centre by a large common chimney piece. Each dwelling had its own
fireplace, but the two families seem to have shared a brick bread-oven which jutted out
from the rear of the cottage. The outer wall of the bread-oven is still visible on the
remaining cottage. The fireplaces themselves and the chimney structure appear to be older
than the 1821 cottages and may have survived from the earlier dwellings. All traces of the
common land had long disappeared, and the two cottages stood on a small plot of less than
an acre where the labourers would have been able to grow a few vegetables and keep a few

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chickens or a pig. The bulk of their time was spent working at Ferriers farm.

Both cottages are clearly marked on maps of 1874, but by the end of the century one of
them had gone. Again, the last years of the 19th century were a period of agricultural
depression, and a number of smaller farms in the area were abandoned. Traces of one,
Mosse’s Farm, still partly encircled by a very overgrown moat, may be seen less than a
kilometre from File’s Green. It seems likely that, as the need for agricultural labour
declined, one of the cottages fell into disuse, decayed, and was eventually pulled down.
Occasional fragments of rubble and brick still surface in the garden of the remaining
cottage.

In 1933, this cottage was sold to the manager of the newly opened gravel works to the
north-west of Pebmarsh village. He converted these two dwellings into one. This, then, is
the only remaining habitation on the site, and is called File’s Green Cottage.

Questions 15 – 18

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write your answers in boxes 15-18 on your answer sheet.

15. A tye was

A. green.
B. a large open area.
C. common land with trees.
D. found at the junction of two or more routes.
16. The Pebmarsh area
A. probably had seven tyes.
B. probably had six tyes.
C. appears to have had five or six tyes.
D. was not in East Anglia.
17. The tyes in the Pebmarsh area were
A. near the river.
B. used by medieval freemen.
C. mostly at the margins of the parish.
D. owned by Earls Colne Priory.

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 18. According to the writer, wealthy landowners
A. did not find the sight of forest land attractive.
B. found the sight of forest land attractive.
C. were attracted by the sight of forest land.
D. considered forest land unproductive.

Questions 19 - 28

Complete the table below.

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 19-28 on your answer sheet.

1380s - John Hayle who is documented apparently gave his name to Hayles Tye.
1500s - The name of Hayles Tye was still 19. ______________ and 20.
______________ again in the following two centuries in relation to taxes.
18th Hayles Tye was renamed 21. ______________; the original dwellings may
Century - either have disappeared or were 22. ______________.
1817 - Charles Townsend of Ferriers Farm 23. ______________Files Green.
1821 - At File’s Green, Charles Townsend built 24. ______________ cottages,
which housed families employed as 25. ______________.
The chimney structure and the 26. ______________ appear to pre-date the
cottages.
1933 - The cottage now called File’s Green Cottage was bought by the local
27. ______________ manager who converted the cottage into 28.
______________.

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