Extract 1: Few have explored the remote volcanic islands of the Galapagos archipelago, an otherworldly landscape inhabited by the

worlds largest tortoises and other fantastical creatures that inspired Charles Darwins theory of evolution. Soon it will take only the click of a mouse or finger swipe on a tablet to explore some of the Galapagos Islands most remote areas, surrounding waters and unique creatures. Mountain View, Calif.,-based Google sent hikers to the Galapagos with Street View gear called trekkers, 42-pound computer backpacks with large, soccer ball-like cameras mounted on a tower. Each orb has 15 cameras inside it that have captured panoramic views of some of the most inaccessible places on the Galapagos. Crews from The Caitlin Seaview Survey worked with Google to capture 360-degree views of selected underwater areas too. Further Reading: http://techland.time.com/2013/05/23/google-to-add-galapagosislands-to-street-view/ Questions: 1a) Explain in your own words why not many people have explored the Galapagos archipelago? (1) 1b) Which word in Paragraph 2 suggests that taking in the scenery at the Galapagos archipelago is going to get a lot easier? (1)

Extract 2: Researchers have long known that the age at which a person starts drinking or taking drugs is a good predictor of whether or not he or she will develop an addiction. A person who starts drinking between age 11 and 14, for example, has a 16% chance of becoming an alcoholic 10 years later, while the odds are just 1% for someone who starts at 19 or older, according to one large study. And there are several reasons for this elevated risk. Children who start drinking at 12 may turn to alcohol to escape a chaotic, unstable family situation, or to cope with their own psychological stress or anxiety; such a strategy, however, may prevent them from learning other ways of coping. Its also possible that the effects of alcohol on the brain during this period of development may make addiction more likely.

Further Reading: http://healthland.time.com/2013/05/24/if-drinking-starts-atpuberty-its-more-likely-to-lead-to-alcohol-problems/ Questions: 2a) Here is an extract of a conversation between Tom and Jane. Tom: I dont see what the problem with trying a few drinks is.

Jane: Well, firstly, you are underage. Secondly, this is a choice that may come back to haunt me in the future. What evidence can Jane give from Paragraph 1 to support her views? (1) 2b) Why is drinking an undesirable method of coping with stress or anxiety? (1)

Extract 3: In the old lectures, we fed students with endless facts that had to be regurgitated during examinations. This helped individuals do well in factual examinations, but not so well in improving knowledge and understanding. It also did not lead to long-term retention and understanding. Teaching students how to ask questions and encouraging them to do so is critical to working in the new knowledge economy and in grooming the next generation of thought leaders. We need to teach students how to ask questions that can lead to more questions. There are many kinds of questions: Questions to clarify, questions that synthesize questions that evaluate, questions that lead to creativity. There are also many ways to ask a question. Asking questions is how physicians, for instance, learn to understand their patients problems and how they proceed to treat them. Further Reading: http://www.todayonline.com/commentary/necessity-questions Questions: 3a) Suggest one reason why the author chose to put facts in quotation marks. (1) 3b) List two ways that educators can improve their teaching. (2)

Extract 4: Nadav Ben Yehuda's right hand can't grasp a pencil. No longer can he sit on the side of a mountain scrawling poetry in his climbing notebook. The nerve damage causes him to drop things without warning. But Ben Yehuda still has his life, which wasn't a certainty as he lay on his back on the Nepal side of Mount Everest a year ago, cursing and looking for hope in a sliver of sky between the rocks and clouds. In 2012, the 24-year-old set out to become the youngest Israeli to summit Mount Everest, with five years of ice climbing and three years of Israel Defense Forces training under his belt. Yet none of his training prepared him for the crowds he encountered at Everest base camp 18,000 feet above sea level. Ben Yehuda often climbed alone and welcomed run-ins with other adventurous souls, but there he found hundreds of people at the base of the world's highest peak.

Further Reading: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/25/travel/everest-2012anniversary/index.html?hpt=travel_hp_blogroll

Questions: 4a) Suggest one reason for Ben Yehudas nerve damage. (1) 4b) Quote the expression that tells you that Ben Yehuda nearly lost his life while climbing Mount Everest. (1) 4c) What evidence is there to show that Ben Yehuda was shocked by what he saw at the base of Mount Everest? (1)

Extract 5: Traditionally it has always been said that the Games started at Olympia in 776 BC, about the time that Homer was born. But for several centuries before that date Olympia had been a cult site for the worship of Zeus, a numinous location away from human dwellings, overlooked by a hill, with the sacred River Alph flowing through it. What was it that caused people to change from honouring Zeus solely with dedicatory offerings, to honouring him through athletics? Several factors seem to have been involved. One is the rise of the Greek polis, or city-state. As city-states in different locations grew, each wanted a means of asserting its supremacy, so would send representatives to Olympia to become supreme in physical competition. Connected with this is the development of military training. The Games were an attractive means of getting men fit. Another factor is the traditional Greek view that the gods championed a winner, so by establishing a competition aimed at producing supreme winners, they were thereby asserting the power and influence on humans of the supreme god, Zeus

Further Reading: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/greeks/greek_olympics_01.shtml#six Questions: 5a) What was Olympia known for apart from being the birthplace of the Games? (1) 5b) Explain in your own words why the various Greek city-states sent representatives to participate in the Games. (2)

Extract 6: For Cameron, the phobia was related to a lack of control and an anxious mind that spooled out dire scenarios, like engine failure. In fact, aerophobia, also known as aviatophobia and aviophobia, is a broad condition that is often a combination of related phobias, including claustrophobia (fear of enclosed spaces), acrophobia (fear of heights) and agoraphobia (fear of having panic attacks in certain spaces out of ones control).

Unfortunately for those who suffer from aerophobia, the associated fears are many, ranging from a fear of crashing to a fear of turbulence even a fear of flying at night, or over water. And as unhappy flyers know, it can make trips miserable, with symptoms ranging from anxiety to hyperventilation, even panic attacks or vomiting. Further Reading: http://www.bbc.com/travel/blog/20130425-can-a-fear-of-flying-becured Questions: 6a) For Cameron, the phobia was related to a lack of control and an anxious mind that spooled out dire scenarios, like engine failure. Identify the word/phrase that suggests: 6ai) close connection: (1) 6aii) disastrous: (1) 6b) Suggest why aerophobia is not a straightforward problem to deal with and support your answer with evidence from the text. (2) Extract 7: I am not a cook. Since graduating college, Ive only lived in very large, very dense cities Hong Kong, Tokyo, New York and in very small apartments. I once went more than two years without actually connecting my stove to a gas supply. The inside of my refrigerator rarely contained more than beer, half-and-half and the remains of whatever Id ordered from the Thai takeout place th e night before or, if Im being honest, the week before. My cell phone was my main cooking utensil. My urban foraging method of food consumption wasnt just about laziness, though. Without a car I havent driven one regularly since high school its always been difficult for me to get to a large market and bring home a decent assortment of groceries. Im usually left with whatever I can carry from the local bodega or, because I live in Brooklyn, extremely expensive (but high-quality!) organic produce. Further Reading: http://science.time.com/2013/04/29/why-the-lazy-way-to-shop-forgroceries-online-is-the-green-way/

Questions: 7a) Why do you think the author says his cell phone is his main cooking utensil? (1) 7b) What does the expression urban foraging suggest about the authors way of handling his meals in the various cities he has lived in? (1)

Extract 8: A photo editors nightmare is when someone shows him a picture and then starts to explain whats in it. In the worst cases, the photographer starts to talk about important things that arent even in the shot.

In the simplest of terms, a storytelling photograph must show what the story is about. As the stories we want to tell with pictures get more complex, it becomes harder to fit all the elements into one frame. However, trying to make that happen is a great exercise. The first step is to photograph all aspects of the story. Get to know the subject until you can decide what visual elements help tell the tale of that place or person. Further Reading: http://intelligenttravel.nationalgeographic.com/2013/05/03/doyour-pictures-tell-a-story/ Questions: 8a) According to the author, what should photographers avoid doing with their photographs? (1) 8b) Explain in your own words why it is important to know your subject before photographing it. (1)

Extract 9: The experience of naval life in the 18th century has often been portrayed as one of suffering in something little more than a floating concentration camp, where an unwilling crew, raised by the press-gang, was systematically beaten, starved and terrorised into doing their duty. Meanwhile disease was ever present. This notion has undoubtedly partly arisen because of Doctor Johnson's famous observation that going to sea was akin to being in prison, with the added danger of drowning. Although those of us who served on the Endeavour replica found some elements of this image convincing, we recognised that we should not allow our delicate 21stcentury sensibilities to cloud our judgement. Historical research and a deeper understanding of the age provide a different picture. Our first contact with the alternative world of Captain Cook was the food. A diet of salt meat, hard biscuit and sauerkraut was a shock to us, but our predecessors would have considered it superior to anything available on shore. For them such regular, hot, protein-rich meals, together with a nearly limitless supply of beer, would have been a luxury. Furthermore, every ship's captain knew that food was the primary concern of his crew, so he would have ensured they were well fed, and kept their dinner time sacred, usually allowing the men 90 minutes to deal with their tough rations. They would only be called away from the mess table in an emergency. The lack of rum or beer on our modern voyage left our crew significantly worse off than our predecessors - although less likely to be injured while under the influence

Further Reading: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/life_at_sea_01.shtml Questions:

9a) Write down the word from Paragraph 1 that tells you that life aboard a ship in the 18th century was organised. (1) 9b) According to Paragraph 3, why was life at sea not as bad as people may have initially thought? (1)

Extract 10: Winding through corridors lined with poison-tipped umbrellas, pistols fashioned from lipstick tubes, and bulky button-hole cameras, visitors to Washingtons International Spy Museum will soon be confronted by a modern, everyday tool of the trade: a small black laptop. According to the computers owner, it was employed over a three year period to briefly knock WikiLeaks offline, disable almost 200 jihadist websites, and develop a handful of sophisticated hacking tools. The laptop, says International Spy Museum executive director Peter Earnest, will provide historical context to the ... world of espionage and the intelligence community, in this instance through the scope of cyberterrorism. But the laptops owner claims no affiliation with the intelligence community; nor can he, by any traditional definition, be classified as a spy. Hes a freelancer, a patriotic hacktivist who goes by the nom de guerre the Jesteror, in hacker argot, th3j35t3r. Within certain cybercircles, he has achieved mythical status. According to security analyst T.J. OConnor, the Jester has proved that a single individual is very capable of waging cyberwar at a level we previously attributed only to intelligence agencies or crime syndicates. Further Reading: http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2013/05/29/hackers-arespying-on-you-inside-the-world-of-digital-espionage.html Questions: 10a) Winding through corridors lined with poison-tipped umbrellas, pistols fashioned from lipstick tubes, and bulky button-hole cameras, visitors to Washingtons International Spy Museum will soon be confronted by a modern, quotidian tool of the trade: a small black laptop. Identify the words/phrases that suggest: 10ai) formed: (1) 10aii) mundane: (1) 10b) According to Paragraph 2, why are modern hackers so dangerous? (1)