Muet Module PDF

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MALAYSIAN UNIVERSITY
ENGLISH TEST
IPGM MUET MODULE
INSTITUT PENDIDIKAN GURU

KEMENTERIAN PENDIDIKAN MALAYSIA
ARAS 1, ENTERPRISE BUILDING 3,
BLOK 2200, PERSIARAN APEC,
CYBER 6, 63000 CYBERJAYA
CONTENT PAGE
MUET structure i
MUET Test Scores ii
800/1 LISTENING
Tips for listening 2
Practice 1 4
Practice 2 7
Practice 3 10
Practice 4 13
Practice 5 16
Practice 6 19
Practice 7 22
Practice 8 25
Practice 9 28
800/2 SPEAKING
Tips for speaking 32
Practice 1 35
Practice 2 39
Practice 3 43
Practice 4 47
Practice 5 51
Practice 6 55
Practice 7 59
Practice 8 63
Practice 9 67
Practice 10 71
800/3 READING
Tips for reading 76

Practice 1 78
Practice 2 94
Practice 3 110
Practice 4 126
Practice 5 141
Practice 6 161
Practice 7 180
Practice 8 199
800/4 WRITING
Tips for writing question 1 220

Practice 1 225
Practice 2 226
Practice 3 227
Practice 4 228
Practice 5 229
Practice 6 230
Practice 7 231
Practice 8 232
Tips for writing question 2 233

Practice 1 – 20 237
References 239
Panel of Writers 240

Structure of the MUET paper
(MALAYSIAN UNIVERSITY ENGLISH TEST)
The MUET Paper tests all the four language skills. Candidates for the MUET exam are
required to sit for all four papers.
The structures of the papers are presented below.
LISTENING SPEAKING READING WRITING
Paper code 800/1 800/2 800/3 800/4
Time 30 minutes 30 minutes 90 minutes 90 minutes
Weighting (%) 15 15 40 30
Maximum 45 45 120 90
score
Number of 5 texts 2 tasks 6 texts 2 tasks

texts/tasks
No of questions 20 2 45 2
Question type  Information Multiple choice  Transfer of

transfer questions information from
 Short-answer a non-linear
questions  passages source to a
 Multiple choice  least one text linear text (150 -
– 3 or 4 option with graphic 200 words)
 Extended
writing (350
words)
Genre/topics Lecture, briefing, Contemporary Articles from Report, article,
talk, discussion, issues journals, letter, essay
interview, news, magazines,
telephone, newspapers,
conversation, academic texts,
announcement, electronic texts
instructions,
advertisement,
meeting,
documentary
i
MUET TEST SCORES
Description of Aggregated Scores
Aggregated Band User Communicative Comprehension Task

Score Ability Performance
260 - 300 6 Highly Very fluent; highly Very good Very high
proficient appropriate use of understanding of ability to
user language; hardly language and function in the
any grammatical context language
error
220 - 259 5 Proficient Fluent; Good High ability to
user appropriate use of understanding of function in the
language; few language and language
grammatical context
errors
180 - 219 4 Satisfactory Generally fluent; Satisfactory Satisfactory
user generally understanding of ability to
appropriate use of language and function in the
language; some context language
grammatical
errors
140 - 179 3 Modest Fairly fluent; fairly Fair Fair ability to
user appropriate use of understanding of function in the
language; many language and language
grammatical context
errors
100 – 139 2 Limited Not fluent; Limited Limited ability
user inappropriate use understanding of to function in
of language; very language and the language
frequent context
grammatical
errors
Below 100 1 Very limited Hardly able to use Very limited Very limited
user the language understanding of ability to
language and function in the
context language
Note: MUET exam will be held three times a year – in March, July and November.
ii
800/1
LISTENING
1
LISTENING SKILLS
Paper 1 of the MUET exam consists of three parts, Part I, Part II and Part III. Parts I and II have
one listening text each. Part III has three short texts. Candidates must answer 20 questions in
the form of short answer, information transfer and multiple-choice questions. Candidates will
listen to each recording twice. First, students will be given one minute to read the question.
Then, the listening text will be played for the first time. Students are required to either mark or
write their answers while listening to the text or after it is finished. The listening text will be
played for a second time and students are encouraged to check their answers then.
TIPS FOR LISTENING
STEP 1
PRE LISTENING STEP 2

– Get overview of the STEP 3
FIRST LISTENING
text
– Listen for specific
 Read all the information
questions and the SECOND LISTENING
 Listen actively for – Get missing
answer options
the required information/ answers
carefully
information (refer to
 Underline the key
the underlined key  Get any missing
words in the
words in Step 1) information
questions so that you
 Write down  Check answers
know what to listen
important notes
for later on
 e. g: What is the
main benefit of
writing a will
DO’S AND DON’TS
 Concentrate and listen actively

 Read and listen to the instructions
Do  Read ahead to be prepared
 You the words that you hear in your answers
 Use the pause to check your answers
 Get distracted
Don’t  Spend too much time on one question
 Panic if you miss a question – continue with the next
question and go back to the missed question later
 Leave any answer blank
2
TIPS
A. SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS
What you should do
1. Skim through all the questions and the answers options to get a general idea of the text
that you are going to listen.
2. Underline the key words in the questions so that you know what to listen for later on.
3. While listening, pay attention to the content and the flow of information delivered by the
speaker(s). Remember that usually the questions in Part I (Information Transfer) follow
the order of information in the recording.
4. Write down important points or idea/write down your answers.
5. During the second listening, get the information that you missed out. Check your
answers too.
6. Make a final check. Check for spelling and grammar. Make sure your answers follow the
word limit.
B. MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS
What you should do
 Skim through all the questions and the answer options to get a general idea of the text
that you are going to listen.
 Underline the key words in the questions so that you know what to listen for later on.
 Listen for the specific information. Pay attention to the content and the flow of
information delivered by the speaker(s).
 Check each possible option given carefully.
 Remember some of the most likely answers maybe paraphrased.
 You may find that some of the vocabulary given in the options is in the text.
 Choose the most suitable answer/response to the question.
3
PRACTICE 1
Part I (8 marks)
For questions 1 to 3, write your answer in NOT MORE THAN THREE WORDS.
1 Employers prefer confident people because they _____________________________

2 Self-confidence can be lost due to one’s ____________________________________
3 The speaker thinks that confidence levels can _______________________________
For questions 4 to 6, write your answer in NOT MORE THAN FIVE WORDS.
How to Become a More Confident Person

Main point One example
Accept yourself as you are Know your strengths and

limitations
Believe in yourself 4 __________________________
__________________________
Reduce uncertainty
5 _________________________
__________________________
6 ________________________ Stay away from negative people
____________________________
4
For questions 7 and 8, circle the correct answer.
7 The last tip on confidence given by the speaker is to

A. ooze charm
B. increase work success
C. pretend to be confident
8 A person with high self-esteem is likely to be

A. brave
B. appealing
C. hardworking
Part II (6 marks)
For questions 9 and 10, choose one letter A to F from the box below to complete each
sentence.
A just want to listen

B do not really have
problems
C need to empathise
D come to learn social skills
E put the blame on others
F make poor choices
9 The interviewer assumes that the counsellor’s clients ______________________

10 Some students who have problems socializing ____________________________
For questions 11 to 14, circle the correct answer.
11 A good approach in counseling is to

A. make an early judgment
B. empathise with the client
C. become the client’s friend
5
12 From the interview, we can infer that the counselor
A. finds her job stressful
B. is an emotional person
C. has to constantly monitor herself
13 The counselor said that she would quit her job if she
A. was offered a job by “Befrienders”
B. could not solve her own psychological problems
C. could not separate herself from her students’ problems
14 The interviewer concluded that a counsellor’s job is

A. difficult
B. rewarding
C. time-consuming
Part III (6 marks)
15 The production, transportation and disposal of plastic bottles result in _________________

_________________________________________________________________________
16 Flash floods are the result of drains being _______________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
17 Mammoths did not live on ice glaciers because they had to _________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
18 One reason mammoths became extinct is because of ______________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
19 Buses and taxis are at fault for holding up traffic because they do not wait ______________
_________________________________________________________________________
20 The speaker thinks that there are enough parking spaces if only the motorists were willing
to _______________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
6
PRACTICE 2
PART I (8 marks)
1 The original idea of cheerleading was to _________________________________________

2 When cheerleading first started, the members were ________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
Development of Cheerleading
Early Phase of
Cheerleading 3 Started ____________________________
4 Squad members created

Creativity in
Cheerleading ______________________________________
Technology in 5 _______________________________
Cheerleading
to make cheerleading louder.
Current Phase of
6 Competitive sport involving
Cheerleading
__________________________________
7
7 As cheerleading developed, it became

A. noisier but striking
B. cheaper but entertaining
C. more complex but dangerous
8 At the end of the talk, the speaker advises parents to be

A. cautious
B. encouraging
C. co-operative
PART II (6 marks)
For questions 9 and 10, choose one letter A to F from box below to complete each
sentence.
A Anthropology
B Education
C Counselling
D Intercultural studies
E Research
F Management
9 The field of study that has given Dr. Linda an advantage trainer is _________________
10 Dr. Linda’s interest in intercultural studies stems from her background in ___________
11 Dr. Linda’s job is to develop employees

A. facilitating skills
B. material designing skills
C. general management skills
12 Dr. Linda normally does a needs-analysis in order to

A. search for materials
B. assess the participants’ knowledge
C. find out the subject areas to be included
8
13 Compared to Malaysians, Americans are
A. proud
B. assertive
C. intimidating
14 To work together, Malaysians try to establish

A. an open relationship
B. a friendly relationship
C. a challenging relationship
PART III (6 marks)
15 The two diseases that are increasing among young adults are _______________________
_________________________________________________________________________
16 According to the study, most of the foods consumed by young adults are unhealthy
because these foods are _____________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
17 Banks are reducing costs by __________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
18 A drop in car sales will affect salesmen and ______________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
19 People tend to be the happiest when ___________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
20 Stress and relaxation levels experienced during holidays influence ____________________
_________________________________________________________________________
9
PRACTICE 3
PART I (8 marks)
1 Customers are sometimes unhappy with the product they have bought because it is
__________________________________________________________________________________
2 In the past, dissatisfied customers complained by writing letters ______________________
_________________________________________________________________________
3 The social media can harm the business because it ________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
How Dissatisfied Customers React
Stop buying the product
4 ____________________________
_____________________________
6 ___________________________
_____________________________
5 ___________________________
_____________________________
7 Word-of-mouth complaints have the most impact since

A. many people are informed about these complaints
B. these complaints are from familiar and trusted source
C. customers made these complaints on a face-to-face basis
10
8 The stores can benefit if customers complain to them directly because
A. they can bring more customers
B. they have a chance to remedy the situation
C. fewer people will know about the problem
PART II (6 marks)
sentence.
A cause fear
B create havoc
C create doubt
D cause infection
E cause discomfort
F cause destruction
9 Hospitals are concern that pets’ fleas and bugs might ______________________________
10 If a patient is allowed to receive visits from his pet, an anaconda or a monkey, his pet could
_________________________________________________________________________
11 Cats and dogs are allowed to visit

A. with other people apart from their owners
B. when they have the consent from all parties
C. because they have proof of rabies vaccination
12 The following are true except

A. more patients are considering having pets
B. hospitals have benefited from visits by pet
C. this policy allows visits only from certain pets
13 Having an enhanced emotional well-being would

A. allow young patients to play with their pets
B. increase patients’ chances of recovery from illness
C. encourage terminally ill patients to say a final goodbye
11
14 Which of the following statements summarizes the speaker’s feeling at the end?
A. He feels that everyone concerned can benefit from pet visits
B. He feels that times have changed, and hospitals have not done so
C. He feels that in future, animals like fathers, can enter delivery rooms
PART III (6 marks)
15 Tanjung Piai is best known for _________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________
16 Visitors are attracted to the park by the __________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
17 The speaker says that applying for a scholarship can be ____________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
18 It is recommended that someone else can help to proofread your application to ensure that
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
19 The construction worker’s head was ____________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
20 The incident was described as a miracle because _________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
12
PRACTICE 4
PART I (8 marks)
1 Organizing a study group can help you to ________________________________________

2 Effective study groups differ from casual discussion groups in their membership and ______
_________________________________________________________________________
3 In an effective study group, the selected members should be ________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
Preparation for First Study Group Meeting
STEP I
Decide on goals
STEP 2
4 Determine_______________________________________
of meeting.
STEP 3
Circulate contact details
STEP 4
5 Identify __________________________________________
STEP 5
Prepare an agenda
STEP 6
6 Give ________________________________________
STEP 7
Hold the meeting
13
7 The speaker thinks a study group meeting should be run like

A. company meetings
B. informal gatherings
C. academic discussions
8 To obtain maximum success from study groups

A. invite only members who have reasons
B. include friends as members of the group
C. limit the number of members in the group
PART II (6 marks)
sentence.
A is better than taking plain water

B improves health
C wards off the build up of cholesterol
D has potential as a sports drink
E gives a bitter taste
F helps to promote tourism
9 Generally, coconut water ________________________________________________

10 Coconut water from nuts that are younger than five months _______________________
11 The taste of coconut water may be different according to

A. the age of the tree
B. the size of the nut
C. the place the tree is planted
14
12 Which of the following properties of coconut water will help blood circulation?
A. 46 calories
B. High fat content
C. Fibre and protein
13 In cosmetics, coconut water can

A. prevent acne
B. moistures the skin
C. replace shower gel
14 At the end of the talk, the speaker cautions listeners against

A. consuming too much coconut water
B. drinking coconut water during pregnancy
C. confusing coconut water with coconut milk
PART III (6 marks)
15 It is hard to believe that people ________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________
16 The gastroenterologist had to use special tools ___________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
17 The object in the photograph taken by NASA’s space vehicle seems to be ______________
_________________________________________________________________________
18 The mission of the space vehicle is expected to complete ___________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
19 Red-coloured sports clothing symbolises ________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
20 The study at Sunderland University found that men with ____________________________
_____________________________ are more likely to choose red instead of other colours.
15
PRACTICE 5
Part I (8 marks)
1 “Help Yourself to Health” is the name of a ________________________________________

2 Dr Rodiah is a ________________________________________________________ at the
National Health Institute.
3 The topic discussed the week before was the _____________________________________
For questions 4 to 6, write your answer in NOT MORE THAN FIVE WORDS
Outline of the Radio Programme

I – Introductory Remarks
II – Topics to be Discussed
4 _________________________________ Ways to reduce sugar in our diet
III – Consumption of Sugar
1970: 17 teaspoons of sugar daily 5 Now: __________________________
IV – Types of Sugar
Visible Sugar 6 _______________________________
V – Examples of Food and Drinks Containing Sugar
7 Most people are unaware they consume too much sugar because they
A. think only of visible sugar
B. consume only seven to ten teaspoons of sugar
C. follow recommendations by health professionals
16
8 With reference to the talk, which of the following is not an example of ‘hidden sugar’?
A. Coffee
B. Soy sauce
C. Chilli sauce
Part II (6 marks)
For questions 9 and 10, complete the sentence using the letters A to F from the box
below.
A 11⁄2
B 2
C 4
D 17
E 18
F 20
The human brain weighs about 9 ____________ kilogrammes and uses 10 _____________
per cent of the body’s blood.
11 Smart people may be called “bright sparks” because they think more and ________than
other people.
A. sleep less
B. use more energy
C. produce more energy
12 Humans are born with a brain which

A. always remembers
B. is in excellent condition
C. creates new connection while they think
17
13 The third suggestion given by the speaker to train the brain is to
A. read
B. watch television
C. exercise regularly
14 Training the brain through learning new skills can be achieved by memorising
A. lyrics
B. shopping list
C. phone numbers
Part III (6 marks)
15 One reason for setting up a history gallery is to encourage students to _________________

_________________________________________________________________________
16 Displays of photos, films and other materials would help to show _____________________
_________________________________________________________________________
17 The main purpose of the consumers’ squad is to __________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
18 Members of the squad receive a free membership card that _________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
19 The speaker wants listeners to ________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
20 One advantage LEDs have over ordinary bulbs is they _____________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
18
PRACTICE 6
PART I (8 marks)
1 In the past, people stayed in one job until they retired because there were _______________
__________________________________________________________________________
Two reasons why people switch jobs are:
2 __________________________________________________________________________
3 __________________________________________________________________________
Advice on Choosing a Job
Do’s Dont’s
Choose each job carefully. Look at the salary alone
4 ________________________________ 6. _____________________________________
_________________________________ _____________________________________
5_________________________________
_________________________________

_________________________________
7 Employers may think that job-hoppers
A. are difficult to train
B. have personality problems
C. lack necessary qualifications
8 The audience for this talk is probably made up of

A. students
B. employees
C. job-hoppers
19
PART II (6 marks)
For question 9, circle the correct answer.
9 The earliest flag was first found in

A. Egypt
B. Persia
C. Greece
sentence.
A symbolise a country
B guide soldiers
C indicate the final destination
D show control over a country
E show the country of origin
F show ownership
10 In the past, flags were used in battles to _____________________________________

11 Upon entering any port, ships are required to fly a flag to ________________________
12 The flag used before 1949 had

A. a tiger in the middle
B. blue and white stripes
C. a white star and a white moon
13 The Malayan flag was first used in

A. 1950
B. 1957
C. 1963
20
14 The inclusion of Sabah, Sarawak and the Federal Territory in the Malaysian flag was
indicated in the change of
A. colour of the moon
B. colour of the stripes
C. number of points in the star
PART III (6 marks)
15 One reason for the increased demand for fish in Malaysians is _______________________
_________________________________________________________________________
16 The demand for high quality fresh fish comes from ________________________________
17 Other than at the workplace, the speaker thinks the ‘rat race’ can also be applied to the
_________________________________________________________________________
18 With regards to the invention of new gadgets, the speaker hopes _____________________
_________________________________________________________________________
19 _____________________________________________________ is one example of how
ants use swarm intelligence.
20 One basic rule fish and birds follow is: __________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
21
PRACTICE 7
PART 1 (8 marks)
1 The seriousness of the food problem is shown by the statistics that a billion people
suffer from _______________________________________________________________
2 The speaker finds it strange that some people in the world are starving while other people
suffer from ________________________________________________________________
Reasons for the food problem
Increased demand for food due to: Increased demand for food due to:
Growing population 4____________________________
3_____________________________ Cropland used for settlements
Production of fuel for cars 5____________________________
6____________________________
7. The following are measures to reduce food wastage at restaurants except

A. on the spot cooking
B. serving only adequate amounts at buffets
C. limiting the number of reservations obtained
8. In general, the speaker feels _________________ about the world’s food situation.
A. sad
B. helpless
C. concerned
22
Part II (6 marks)
For questions 9 and 10, choose one letter A to F from the box below to complete the
sentence.
A paralysis
B a disease
C coordination problems
D blindness
E deafness
F depression
The discussion initially focused on a patient suffering from 9 ____________________ which

was accompanied by 10 ______________________.
11 According to Puan Siti, the disabled would come to her centre when
A. they accept their disability
B. they are able to work again
C. they can get to the centre easily
12 The parking incident narrated by Mr. Rajan illustrates

A. the lack of public consideration for the disabled
B. the high number of the disabled who drive
C. the varied amenities for the disable
13 Mr Rajan expressed his unhappiness about the authorities not

A. listening to experts
B. gathering enough feedback
C. having adequate monitoring
14 Dr Lee hopes that more money could be given

A. to care for the disabled
B. to improve amenities for the disabled
C. to provide medical aid for the disabled
23
PART III (6 marks)
15 The kite festivals have attracted both ___________________________________________

participants.
16 Apart from watching the kites being flown, visitors can also _________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
17 Apart from the natural urge to suck, most babies suck their thumbs because
_________________________________________________________________________
18 Children who suck their thumbs after the age of five, may develop ____________________
_________________________________________________________________________
19 Serious injuries occur in judo because students __________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
20 The talk deals mainly with ___________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
24
PRACTICE 8
Part I (8 marks)
For questions 1 and 2, write your answer in NOT MORE THAN THREE WORDS.
1 Miss Chan’s talk can be described as interesting and _______________________________

__________________________________________________________________________
2 Harun was surprised how much money _______________________________________ by
the hospitality industry.
For questions 3 to 6, write you answer NOT MORE THAN FIVE WORDS.
Customer Service
3 ___________________________
_____________________________
_
Regular
Chance 4 ___________________
customers
customers
____________________
Know their 5 _____________ Attract their 6 ________________ Differentiate

needs attention between local
______________ _________________ and foreign
customers
______________ _________________
______________ _________________
25
7 Harun’s uncle who works on a cruise liner is likely to

A. look for another job
B. have many girlfriends
C. make longer land visits
8 Alvin cannot find a job because

A. he has yet to finish his training
B. there are few vacancies for pilots
C. the hospitality industry is saturated
Part II (6 marks)
sentence.
A reduce the need for health supplements

B increase happiness
C relieve pain and aid digestion
D reduce stress
E relax muscles
F improve the immune system
9 In the past, scientists knew that laughter was able to _______________________________

10 Recent research has shown that laughter protects us against infections because it could
______________________________
11 The speaker says we laugh when

A. someone laughs spontaneously
B. our funnybone is disturbed
C. things are in our favour
26
12 Endorphin is a brain chemical that
A. makes us feel relaxed
B. stimulates our emotions
C. helps recall fond memories
13 When one is sad, one should try

A. “silent laughter”
B. “hearty laughter”
C. “humming laughter”
14 The talk is about

A. the best way to stimulate laughter
B. how to use laughter to stay healthy
C. the difference between real and fake laughter
Part III (6 marks)
For questions 15 to 20, write your answers in NOT MORE THAN FIVE WORDS
15 The competition requires teams to recognize _____________________________________

in the time given.
16 The main purpose of the Fraser’s Hill International Bird Park is not to win but to encourage
_________________________________________________________________________
17 The main reason for the increased cost of electricity is the ___________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
18 One alternative source of energy mentioned is from ________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
19 The speaker says the negative side of advertising is that ____________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
20 The example of the cell phone shows that advertisements can _______________________
__________________________________________________________________________
27
PRACTICE 9
Part 1 (6 marks)
1 A barcode scan sheet is used for items __________________________________________

2 Compared to old-fashioned price tags, barcodes are better because they _______________
__________________________________________________________________________
3 In a supermarket, when many items are purchased, scanning helps in _________________
__________________________________________________________________________
How A Barcode Is Used
The cashier scans the barcode
4. The scanner reads ______________________________________
The scanner transfers information to a computer
5. The computer __________________________________________
The information appears on the screen
6. The cashier prints ______________________________________
7 If a scanner fails to read the barcode, the cashier will

A. print the items sold
B. type in the numbers manually
C. obtain the details of the purchase
28
8. The speaker’s intention is to
A. discuss the benefits of barcodes
B. compare barcodes with price tags
C. promote the use of barcodes in shops
Part II (6 marks)
sentence
A headaches
B temporary blindness
C disorientation
D fatigue
E sleep disruption
F anxiety
9 Staring at neon signs can cause _______________________________________________

10 Intrusion of street lights into homes can lead to ___________________________________
For questions 11 to 14, circle the correct answer
11 According to Dr. Yeoh, the problem of excessive lighting in Malaysia is

A. critical
B. exaggerated
C. under control
12 In what way are night hunters affected by artificial lights?

A. They lose their way
B. They lose their prey
C. They lose their vision
29
13 What is Dr. Yeoh’s recommendation?
A. Countries should use less oil
B. Countries should use less electricity
C. Countries should use less artificial lights
14 Dr. Yeoh’s talk is mainly on

A. the effects of excessive lighting
B. the types of excessive lighting indoors
C. the differences between interior and exterior lighting
Part III (6 marks)
15 Poorer health is experienced by those who commuted by car or public transport compared
to those who ______________________________________________________________
16 Drivers who commuted more than an hour had better health because they ______________
_________________________________________________________________________
17 The risk of large earthquakes a century ago and today _____________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
18 Researchers in the University of California found that the earthquakes in South America
and Japan ________________________________________________________________
19 The news item is interesting because the couple __________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
20 The phrase ‘can’t stand the sight of each other’ means _____________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
30
800/2
SPEAKING
31
TIPS FOR SPEAKING
Introduction
 The purpose of the Speaking Test (Paper 2) is to assess a candidate’s ability to

converse in English naturally and fluently.
 This test consists of two parts, Part A and Part B. For the first part, each candidate is
required to make an individual presentation. For the second part, the candidate is
required to participate in a group discussion.
Part A
 Candidates are given two minutes to prepare their points on a topic they are given.
 They are then given two minutes to make their oral presentation.
 Other candidates, who will be listening to the presentation, are required to make notes
which they are to use for the group discussion in Part B.
Helpful Tips
Preparation
Since the time for preparation is only two minutes, you need to think fast and make the best of
the time given. Here are some strategies:
 When you are given the situation, read it carefully. Understand the tasks you are given.
 Think of at least three main points.
 Give plausible reasons and suggestions to support the main points.
 Jot down the points and then elaborate on them when you are presenting. You do not
have time to write out the whole presentation.
Part A
How you say something is as important as what you say. Keep the following in mind:
 Speak clearly. Make sure you enunciate your words. Stress words in the right places.
 Speak in complete sentences.
 Although you should aim for grammatically correct sentences, do not sacrifice
fluency for grammatical accuracy.
32
 If you are stuck for words, try to express your ideas in simple sentences; otherwise
move on to the next point.
 Present your points logically and systematically.
 For Task A, you have to make eye contact with the examiner to show that you are
confident. For Task B, you should make eye contact with the other members of the
group.
Part B
 Candidates are divided into groups of four.
 Each candidate is given two minutes to prepare points either to support or oppose
the points raised by the other three members of the group.
 The group is then given 10 minutes for their group discussion.
 The aim of this discussion is to arrive at a decision as to which argument, point of
view, reasoning or suggestion is the best or most relevant for the given topic or
stimulus.
Helpful tips
Part B
 You will need to familiarize yourself with language functions like turn-taking, asking
for and giving information, making suggestions, giving reasons, giving opinions,
persuading, drawing conclusions, agreeing and disagreeing, interrupting, managing
a discussion etc.
 Listen to what the others are saying and make appropriate responses.
 Non-verbal communication cues are important. Nodding will show agreement.
 You need to cooperate with the other members of the group so that the discussion
can be carried out smoothly.
 If member of a group is very quiet, ask relevant question to draw him into the
discussion. This will help him to increase his/her confidence level.
 At the end of the discussion, the group must arrive at a definite conclusion/decision
on the best solution or course of action to take.
33
More helpful tips.
The diagram below illustrates a sample activity of the individual presentation and group
interaction
34
PRACTICE 1
CANDIDATE A
Instructions to candidates:
This test consists of two tasks. Task A and Task B.

Task A is carried out first followed by Task B. You are given one minute to read the instructions
and the tasks given.
Task A: Individual Presentation (2 minutes)
 You have two minutes to prepare your response.

 You have two minutes to present your views.
 Listen to the others while they are making their presentations and take down notes for
the group interaction in Task B.
Situation
It is a dream of many Malaysian to achieve something great. Suggest some feats that can be
achieved.
Task A: You want to be the first Malaysian to go to the moon. Elaborate.
Task B: Group interaction (10 minutes)
 You have two minutes to prepare for the discussion.

 You may maintain or change your views presented in Task A.
 In your discussion, you may support or oppose the other candidates’ views.
 At the end of the discussion, try to come to a group decision.
 You are given ten minutes for the discussion
Situation
It is a dream of many Malaysian to achieve something great. Suggest some feats that can be
achieved.
Task B: Discuss which of the following would be the greatest achievement for a Malaysian.
(i) To go to the moon

(ii) To win an Olympic gold medal
(iii) To be a world-famous singer
(iv) To be an internationally-known chef
35
PRACTICE 1
CANDIDATE B

 You have two minutes to prepare your response.

 You have two minutes to present your views.
 Listen to the others while they are making their presentations and take down notes for
Situation
It is a dream of many Malaysians to achieve something great. Suggest some feats that can be
achieved.
Task A: You want to be the first Malaysian to win an Olympic gold medal. Elaborate.

 You are given ten minutes for the discussion.
Situation
achieved.

36
PRACTICE 1
CANDIDATE C


Situation
achieved.
Task A: You want to be the first Malaysian to be a world-famous singer. Elaborate.

Situation
achieved.

37
PRACTICE 1
CANDIDATE D


Situation
achieved.
Task A: You want to be the first Malaysian to be an internationally-known chef. Elaborate.

Situation
achieved.

38
PRACTICE 2
CANDIDATE A


Situation
In the event of an emergency, who would you contact?
Task A: You would contact a family member. Why?

Situation
Task B: Discuss which of the following should be the first to be contacted in an emergency.
(i) A family member

(ii) An emergency hotline
(iii) A friend
(iv) A neighbour
39
PRACTICE 2
CANDIDATE B


Situation
Task A: You would contact an emergency hotline. Why?

Situation
(i) A family member

(iii) A friend
(iv) A neighbour
40
PRACTICE 2
CANDIDATE C


Situation
Task A: You would contact a friend. Why?

Situation
(i) A family member

(iii) A friend
(iv) A neighbour
41
PRACTICE 2
CANDIDATE D


Situation
Task A: You would contact a neighbour. Why?

Situation
(i) A family member

(iii) A friend
(iv) A neighbour
42
PRACTICE 3
CANDIDATE A


Situation
You are planning to live on your own. How do you prepare yourself for this life?
Task A: You have to learn how to manage your money. Why is this important?

Situation
Task B: Discuss which of the following is the most important step to take to prepare yourself
to live on your own.
(i) Learn how to manage your money

(ii) Learn how to cook
(iii) Learn how to keep your home clean
(iv) Learn how to manage your time
43
PRACTICE 3
CANDIDATE B


Situation
Task A: You have to learn how to cook. Why is this important?

Situation
Task B: Discuss which of the following is the most important step to take to prepare
yourself to live on your own.

44
PRACTICE 3
CANDIDATE C


Situation
Task A: You have to learn how to keep your home clean. Why is this important?

Situation

45
PRACTICE 3
CANDIDATE D


Situation
Task A: You have to learn how to manage your time. Why is this important?

Situation

46
PRACTICE 4
CANDIDATE A


Situation
Many teenagers like to watch movies. What type of movies do they like?
Task A: Teenagers like to watch action movies. Why?

Situation
Task B: Discuss which of the following is the most popular type of movie teenagers like to
watch.
(i) Action movies

(ii) Science fiction movies
(iii) Romantic movies
(iv) Horror movies
47
PRACTICE 4
CANDIDATE B


Situation
Task A: Teenagers like to watch science fiction movies. Why?

Situation
watch.
(i) Action movies

(iv) Horror movies
48
PRACTICE 4
CANDIDATE C


Situation
Task A: Teenagers like to watch romantic movies. Why?

Situation
watch.
(i) Action movies

(iv) Horror movies
49
PRACTICE 4
CANDIDATE D


Situation
Task A: Teenagers like to watch horror movies. Why?

Situation
watch.
(i) Action movies

(iv) Horror movies
50
PRACTICE 5
CANDIDATE A


Situation
There is a need to promote healthy living among children. Who can help to do this?
Task A: The mass media can help to promote healthy living among children. Explain.

Situation
Task B: Discuss which of the following can contribute the most to promote healthy
living among children.
(i) The mass media

(ii) Parents
(iii) Schools
(iv) Friends
51
PRACTICE 5
CANDIDATE B


Situation
There is a need to promote healthy living among children.
Task A: Parents can help to promote healthy living among children. Explain.

Situation
(i) The mass media

(ii) Parents
(iii) Schools
(iv) Friends
52
PRACTICE 5
CANDIDATE C


Situation
Task A: Schools can help to promote healthy living among children. Explain.

Situation
(i) The mass media

(ii) Parents
(iii) Schools
(iv) Friends
53
PRACTICE 5
CANDIDATE D


Situation
Task A: Friends can help to promote healthy living among children. Explain.

Situation
(i) The mass media

(ii) Parents
(iii) Schools
(iv) Friends
54
PRACTICE 6
CANDIDATE A


Situation
There are many social problems today that affect our society. What are some of the problems?
Task A: One social problem is illegal racing on public roads. Explain.

Situation
Task B: Discuss which of the following social problems poses the greatest threat to our
society.
(i) Illegal racing on public roads

(ii) Drug - related issues
(iii) Bullying in schools
(iv) Misuse of the Internet
55
PRACTICE 6
CANDIDATE B


Situation
Task A: One social problem is drug-related issues. Explain.

Situation
Task B: Discuss which of the following social problems poses the greatest threat to our society.

56
PRACTICE 6
CANDIDATE C


Situation
Task A: One social problem is bullying in schools. Explain.

Situation
Task B: Discuss which of the following social problems poses the greatest threat to our
society.

57
PRACTICE 6
CANDIDATE D


Situation
Task A: One social problem is misuse of the Internet. Explain

Situation
Task B: Discuss which of the following social problems poses the greatest threat to our society.

58
PRACTICE 7
CANDIDATE A


Situation
It is important that a group project be successful. Discuss ways to ensure the success of a
group project.
Task A: One way is to choose the right team. Elaborate.

Situation
It is important that a group project be successful.
Task B: Discuss which of the following can best ensure the success of a group project.
(i) Choose the right team

(ii) Distribute the work equally
(iii) Set a realistic plan
(iv) Have good teamwork among members.
59
PRACTICE 7
CANDIDATE B


Situation
group project.
Task A: One way is to distribute the work equally. Elaborate.

Situation
60
PRACTICE 7
CANDIDATE C


Situation
group project.
Task A: One way is to set a realistic plan. Elaborate.

Situation

61
PRACTICE 7
CANDIDATE D


Situation
group project.
Task A: One way is to have good teamwork among members. Elaborate.

Situation

62
PRACTICE 8
CANDIDATE A


Situation
Television provides many useful programmes for us. Discuss a television programme that is
useful in our daily lives.
Task A: Television programmes on travelling. Elaborate.

Situation
Television provides many useful recreational programmes for us. Discuss a television
programme that is useful in our daily lives.
Task B: Discuss which type of television programme is the most useful in our daily lives.
(i) Travelling.
(ii) Cooking.
(iii) Health issues.
(iv) Current issues
63
PRACTICE 8
CANDIDATE B


Situation
Task A: Television programmes on cooking. Elaborate.

Situation
(i) Travelling.
(ii) Cooking.
(iv) Current issues
64
PRACTICE 8
CANDIDATE C


Situation
Task A: Television programmes on health issues. Elaborate.

Situation
(i) Travelling.
(ii) Cooking.
(iv) Current issues
65
PRACTICE 8
CANDIDATE D


Situation
Task A: Television programmes on current issues. Elaborate.

Situation
(i) Travelling.
(ii) Cooking.
(iv) Current issues
66
PRACTICE 9
CANDIDATE A


Situation
Fruits and vegetables are important source of vitamins. Discuss why people should grow
their own fruits and vegetables.
Task A: Good for the family budget. Elaborate.

Situation
Fruits and vegetables are important source of vitamins.
Task B: Discuss which is the best reason why people should grow their own fruits and
vegetables.
(i) Family budget

(ii) The environment.
(iii) Health
(iv) Making use of available land
67
PRACTICE 9
CANDIDATE B


Situation
Task A: Good for the environment. Elaborate.

Situation
vegetables.
(i) Family budget

(iii) Health
68
PRACTICE 9
CANDIDATE C


Situation
Task A: Good for health. Elaborate.

Situation
vegetables.
(i) Family budget

(iii) Health
69
PRACTICE 9
CANDIDATE D


Situation
Fruits and vegetables are important source of vitamins. Discuss why people should grow their
own fruits and vegetables.
Task A: Good for making use of available land. Elaborate.

Situation

.
vegetables.
(i) Family budget

(iii) For health
70
PRACTICE 10
CANDIDATE A


Situation
Tiredness is normal part of life. Discuss ways to overcome tiredness.

.
Task A: Have a good sleep and rest

Situation
Tiredness is a normal part of life.

.
Task B: Discuss which is the best way to overcome tiredness.
(i) Have a good sleep and rest

(ii) Have a balance between work and play
(iii) Have healthy eating habits
(iv) Exercise regularly
71
PRACTICE 10
CANDIDATE B


Situation
Tiredness is a normal part of life. Discuss ways to overcome tiredness.
Task A: Have a balance between work and play. Elaborate.

Situation

.

(iii) Have healthy eating habits
72
PRACTICE 10
CANDIDATE C


Situation
Task A: Practice healthy eating habits. Elaborate.

Situation

.

(iii) Practice healthy eating habits
73
PRACTICE 10
CANDIDATE D


Situation
Task A: Exercise regularly. Elaborate.

Situation

.

(iii) Practice healthy eating habits
74
800/3
READING
75
GENERAL GUIDE AND TIPS FOR MUET READING
No Item Description
1 Basic criteria for text selection Length (200-700 words), level of complexity
(content and language), text type
2 Possible genres Articles from journals, newspaper and
magazines, academic texts, electronic texts
3 Rhetorical style Analytical, descriptive, persuasive,
argumentative, narrative
4 Skills tested Assessment will cover the following:
i) comprehension
 skimming and scanning
 extracting specific information
 identifying supporting details
 deriving the meaning of words, phrases,
sentences from context
 understanding linear and non-linear texts
 understanding relationships
- within a sentence
- between sentences
 recognising a paraphrase
ii) application
 predicting outcomes
 applying a concept to a new situation
ii) analysis
 understanding language functions
 interpreting linear and non-linear texts
 distinguishing the relevant from the
irrelevant
 distinguishing fact from opinion
 making inferences
iii) synthesis
 relating ideas and concepts
- within a paragraph
- between paragraphs
 following the development of a point or an
argument
 summarising information
iv) evaluation
 appraising information
 making judgements
 drawing conclusions
 recognising and interpreting writer’s
views, attitudes or intentions
76
TIPS FOR READING GRAPHICAL TEXT
Before Reading During Reading
 Determine the type of text and the  Read all the labels and examine
elements used. how they are related to the graphics.
 Examine the titles, headings,  Follow the arrows and lines.
captions and images.  Look for colour or symbols and the
 Recall what you already know about legend or key that explains them.
the topic or subject.  Study the image carefully and use
 Record some questions you might the figure number or title and key.
have about the information words to find the related information
presented. in the text.
 Identify the relationships among the
visual and information presented.
TIPS FOR READING LITERARY TEXTS
Before Reading During Reading
 Read the title and think what the  Ask questions and make
passage might be about. predictions.
 Look at any illustrations.  Form opinions and think about
 Look the text over and note its possible responses.
length, organisation, level of  Picture the settings, events or
language and structure. images in your mind.
 Make connections to what you
already know.
77
PRACTICE 1
Questions 1 to 7 are based on the following passage.
1 People everywhere are living longer, according to the World Health Statistics 2014
published by World Health Organisation (WHO). Based on global averages, a girl
who was born in 2012 can expect to live to around 73 years, and a boy to the age
of 68. This is six years longer than the average global life expectancy for a child
born in 1990. 5
2 WHO’s annual statistics report shows that low-income countries have made
the greatest progress, with an average increase in life expectancy by nine years
from 1990 to 2012. The top six countries where life expectancy increased the most
were Liberia which saw a 20-year increase (from 42 years in 1990 to 62 years in
2012) followed by Ethiopia (from 45 to 64 years), Maldives (58 to 77 years), 10
Cambodia (54 to 72 years), Timor-Leste (50 to 66 years) and Rwanda (48 to 65
years).
3 ‘An important reason why global life expectancy has improved so much is that
fewer children are dying before their fifth birthday,” says Dr Margaret Chan, WHO
Director-General. “But there is still a major rich-poor divide: People in high-income 15
countries continue to have a much better chance of living longer than people in
low-income countries.”
Wherever they live in the world, women live longer than men. The gap
4
between male and female life expectancy is greater in high-income countries
20
where women live around six years longer than men. In low-income countries, the
difference is around three years.
78
5 “In high-income countries, much of the gain in life expectancy is due to
success in tackling non-communicable diseases,” says Dr Ties Boerma, Director
of the Department of Health Statistics and Information Systems at WHO. “Fewer
men and women are dying before they get to their 60th birthday from heart disease 25
and stroke. Richer countries have become better at monitoring and managing high
blood pressure for example.” Declining tobacco use is also a key factor in helping
people live longer in several countries.
(Adapted from World Health Statistics, 2014)
1 According to WHO, a boy born in 1990 can expect to live until the age of 62
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
2 From 1990 to 2012, Cambodia showed an increase of life expectancy by nine years.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
3 There is a major gap between rich and poor countries in terms of life expectancy since
parents in richer countries have fewer children.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
4 Fewer children under the age of five are dying because parents, income has
increased.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
5 Figure 1 shows that a boy born in 2012 in a high-income country can expect to live to
the age of about 72.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
6 Women live longer because fewer of them smoke.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
79
7. In low-income countries, it is more difficult to control communicable than non-
communicable diseases.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
1 Could nature tourism be bad for wild animals’ health? It is an idea that has been
suggested in a recent report that tested for stress hormones in orangutan
excrement.
2 Researchers from the University of Indiana and eco-tourism group Red Ape
Encounters spent 14 years studying two apes in Sabah, Malaysia, which were 5
used to seeing humans. By testing the animals’ faeces they found that the
orangutans’ stress levels were higher than normal the day after coming into
contact with humans. “As for the unknown wild orangutans that were also able to
gather samples from, we found numerically, but not statistically, higher stress
hormone levels in these animals following contact with researchers than in the 10
rehabilitated animals,” said Michael Muehlenbein, of the University of Indiana and
one of the authors of the report.
3 Muehlenbein is keen to point out that there was no indication from the study
of any long term changes in behaviour of the orangutans, as Red Ape Encounters
limits the number of people on their tours to seven and the visits to one hour. Yet 15
pathological effects like impaired cognition, growth and reproduction could be a
consequence of less sensitive wildlife tours, believes Muehlenbein.
4 As the value of eco-tourism increases each year, so too do the chances of

money being more important than animal welfare. However Liz Macfie, gorilla
coordinator for the Wildlife Conservation Society and co-author of the 20
International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) “Best Practice Guidelines
for Great Ape Tourism” believes that most eco-tour companies are trying to do
the right thing.
5 “More and more sites are trying hard to minimise the impact on the animals,”
she said, pointing out the success of conservation and tourism projects with 25
mountain gorillas in central Africa. “Mountain gorilla tourism is one of the reasons
they have continued to flourish. They are the only sub-species of gorilla whose
number is actually growing and they are visited by tourists on a daily basis. “The
gorillas are worth more to Rwanda, Uganda and Congo because of the tourism.
Not just the value of the tour, but the money the tourists then put into the local 30
economy. So they have a monetary value.”
80
6 Yet Macfie is aware that only a limited number of sites could have the success
seen with mountain gorillas. As long as travellers are aware of the environmental
impact of the tours they take, and operators are adhering to the principles of the
IUNC guidelines, Macfie believes that the growth in eco-tourism is generally 35
positive.
7 “Tourists don’t all want to drive around a savannah park with hundreds of
other vehicles and I think that’s the same with ape tourism,” she said. Sometimes
there can be over one hundred people crowded around feeding stations, looking
at two or three orangutans that have come in. In that situation there’s great 40
potential for disease transmission and interaction between humans and
orangutans.”
(Adapted from Orangutans stressed by eco-tourists, CNN, March 26, 2012)
8 Stress hormones can be found in animal faeces.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
9 There are many wildlife tours that consider the impact of human contact on
orangutans.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
10 Not many visitors are interested to go on wildlife tours.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
11 Eco-tourism companies are considered ethical although
A. there appears to be an impact on the animal welfare

B. monetary considerations seem to outweigh the welfare of the animals
C. The Best Practice Guidelines for Great Ape Tourism are not strictly followed
12 Paragraph 5 illustrates the success story of
A. conservation efforts and tourism

B. inter-government efforts and wildlife conservation
C. the breeding of animals and growing number of tourist sites
13 An increased number of tourists to savannah parks could lead to

A. overfeeding of the apes
B. too much interaction between humans and apes
C. the spread of diseases between humans and apes
81
14 What is Macfie’s attitude towards eco-tourism in general?
A. She is optimistic about the development of eco-tourism.

B. She is apprehensive of tour operators’ commitment to the IUCN guidelines.
C. She is sceptical about the awareness of eco-tourists regarding the environment.
1 Take a close look at your fingertips. Use a magnifying glass if you have to. Look
at the whorls, loops and arches. If you have a concentric whorl, high chances are
that you have high levels of initiative, enthusiasm and determination. You may
also be independent, competitive and bossy. A tented arch is a sign of a good
learner but it may also indicate impulsiveness. A loop pointing towards the thumb 5
signifies an easy-going personality but at the same time, you could also be one
sensitive soul. If you have a combination of all three, there is a high chance that
you possess multiple characteristics and may even be volatile.
2 Welcome to the world of “dermatoglyphics” or, in short, the business of self-

discovery through the study of one’s fingerprints. Explaining how it all works is 10
Marcus Leng, 29, from GeneCode International, which makes use of
dermatoglyphics to provide consultation services on talent profiling for individual
and corporate clients.
3 A member of the American Dermatoglyphics Association with three years’

experience and having handled over a thousand cases, Leng was drawn to the 15
field of fingerprint study when a Chinese professor did a scanning and analysis
for him at a seminar. In 2006, Leng took a 10-day course in the subject at the
Taiwan Overseas Chinese Convention Centre. The event was organised by the
Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission (OCAC) in collaboration with Yuen Ze
University. 20
4 Dermatoglyphics, asserts Leng, is not palmistry presented in a different

packaging. “We do not give ‘predictions’ on what is going to happen. Instead, we
adopt a positive stance by looking at the ridge counts which indicates a person’s
learning efficiency and inborn talents,” says Leng. To show the relation of fingertip
patterns and the personalities of an indivudal, Leng refers to the document 25
entitled Using Dermatoglyphics From Down Syndrome And Class Populations To
Study The Genetics of A Complex Trait. The thesis was written in 1990 by
Thomas Fogle, an associate professor in the biology department at Saint Mary’s
College, United States. Fogle’s research interests include the chromosomal study
of humans and exotic zoo animals. 30
5 According to Fogle’s paper, fingerprint patterns can start to form from as early
as the sixth or the seventh week of fertilisation. Ridge growth and patterning is
believed to coincide with nerve and tissue development. The whole process
inadvertently boils down to genetic influences or nerve growth. “There is a full
82
explanation on the above theory in a research paper from the Centre of 35
Anthropological Studies at Fudan University, Shanghai, in 2003. During practical
sessions, the finger and palm prints of mentally retarded children were recorded
and studied. This research states that the total number of ridge counts are an
indication of a person’s learning capabilities,” says Leng.
6 And yes, humankind has used the knowledge to their benefit. One of Leng’s 40
favourite examples is revealing how the former Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics (USSR) and the People’s Republic of China had used dermatoglyphics
to recruit talents for the Olympic games in the 1970s. As it turned out, the USSR
took home 50 gold medals in 1972 and 125 in 1976. By the 1980s, China had
also adopted the Russian method of selecting sporting talents. 45
7 Not surprisingly, the field of dermatoglyphics is also gaining popularity in

Taiwan, Hong Kong and China, achieving a market value of several hundred
million dollars in Taiwan alone. Most times, it is the parents who send their
children’s fingerprints for analysis, in the hope that the results will help them plan
for their children’s education. 50
8 In addition to free demos in local schools and universities, Leng has also
done analyses for various organisations and companies. “The whole idea is to
help the CEOs understand their staff’s talents for human resource optimisation
purposes,” says Leng. No doubt, fingerprint study is seen as an invaluable tool
for discovering one’s abilities and in determining the right career paths. 55
(Adapted from The Star Online, January 2010)
15 In paragraph 1, the writer gives examples of
A. whorls, loops and arches on fingerprints

B. personality that determines a person’s fingerprints
C. how a person’s fingerprints are usually interpreted
16 Which of the following is true about paragraph 3?
A. Leng studied further about dermatoglyphics in Taiwan.

B. Leng was introduced to a Chinese professor who became his teacher.
C. Leng became interested in fingerprint study after he joined the association.
17 The main idea of paragraph 4 is that
A. studies related to dermatoglyphics have shown positive results

B. dermatoglyphics is different from the predictive style of palmistry
C. a person’s talents can be revealed through the ridge counts on the fingerprints
83
18 Why did Leng mention Fudan University research?
A. To support Fogle’s research findings

B. To emphasise the importance of fingerprint study
C. To describe how fingerprint study can help mentally retarded children
19 Dermatoglyphics is popular Asian countries because
A. It is well marketed in these countries

B. Parents want to plan their children’s future
C. The educational level of children can be predicted
20 Dermatoglyphics has contributed in the following areas except
A. selection of talents in sports

B. recruitment of new employees
C. determining one’s learning abilities
21 The writer ends the passage by

A. stating his optimism on fingerprint study as a career
B. giving assurance on the usefulness of fingerprint study
C. expressing his belief that fingerprint study will develop further
84
1 We live on a malarious planet. It may not seem that way from the vantage point
of a wealthy country, where malaria is sometimes thought of, if it is thought of at
all, as a problem that has mostly been solved, like smallpox or polio. In truth,
malaria now affects more people than ever before. It is endemic to 106 nations,
threatening half of the world’s population. In recent years, the parasite has grown 5
so entrenched and has developed resistance to so many drugs that the most
potent strains can scarcely be controlled. This year malaria will strike up to half a
billion people. At least a million will die, most of them under the age of five, the
vast majority living in Africa. That is more than twice the annual toll a generation
ago. 10
2 Only in the past few years has malaria captured the full attention of aid
agencies and donors. The World Health Organisation has made malaria reduction
a chief priority. Bill Gates, who has called malaria “the worst thing on the planet,”
has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to the effort. Funds donated to malaria
have doubled since 2003. The idea is to disable the disease by combining virtually 15
every known malaria-fighting technique, from the ancient (Chinese herbal
medicines) to the old (mosquito nets) to the ultramodern (multidrug cocktails). At
the same time, malaria researchers are pursuing a long-sought elusive goal: A
vaccine that would curb the disease for good.
3 Much of the aid is going to a few hard-hit countries scattered across sub- 20
Saharan Africa. If these nations can beat back the disease, they will serve as
templates for the global antimalarial effort. One of these spotlighted countries is
Zambia. It is difficult to comprehend how thoroughly Zambia has been devastated
by malaria. In some provinces, at any time given, more than a third of all children
under the age of five are sick with the disease. Worse than the sheer numbers is 25
the type of malaria found in Zambia. Four species of malaria parasites routinely
infect humans: The most virulent, by far, is Plasmodium falciparum. About half of
all malaria cases worldwide are caused by falciparum, and 95 per cent of the
deaths. It is the only form of malaria that can attack the brain. With it can do so
With extreme speed – few infectious agents can overwhelm the body as swiftly 30
as falciparum. Falciparum is a major reason nearly 20 per cent of all Zambian
babies born do not live to see their fifth birthday.
4 All of Zambia, it seems – from the army to the Boy Scouts to local theatre
troupes – has been mobilised to stop malaria. In 1985, the nation’s malaria-
control budget was 30 000 dollars. Now, supported with international grant 35
money, it is more than 40 million. Posters have been hung throughout the country,
informing people of the causes and symptoms of malaria and stressing the
importance of medical intervention. The vast majority of the nation’s malaria
cases are never treated by professionals. Zambia’s plan is to educate the public,
and then beat the disease through a three-pronged assault. 40
85
5 The country has dedicated itself to dispensing the newest malaria cure, which
also happens to be based on one of the oldest herbal medicines called Artemisia.
The new version, artemisinin, is as powerful as quinine with few of the side
effects. To help reduce the odds that a mutation will also disarm artemisinin,
derivatives of the drug are mixed with other compounds in an antimalarial 45
baggage known as artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT). Zambia is also
purchasing enough insecticide to spray every house in several of the most
malarious areas every year, just before the rainy season. It has already returned
to dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) – though just for indoor use, in
controlled quantities. Finally, the Zambian government is distributing insecticide- 50
treated mosquito nets to ward off mosquitoes during the night, when the malaria-
carrying Anopheles almost always bites.
6 Despite difficulties in the dispensing of drugs and distribution of mosquito

nets, Zambia’s campaign has started to produce results. In 2000, a study showed
that fewer than two per cent of children under the age of five slept under an 55
insecticide-treated bed net. Six years later, the number had risen to 23 per cent.
The government of Zambia says an AZT known as Coartem is now available, cost
free to the entire population. In a country that was steadily losing 50 000 children
a year to malaria, early indications are that the death rate has already been
reduced by more than a third. 60
(Adapted from National Geographic, July 2007)
22 In paragraph 1, which of the following is not a fact?
A. Malaria has been wiped out in prosperous countries.

B. Malaria is difficult to curb because the parasites are resistant to drugs.
C. Malaria kills double the number of African children it did a generation ago.
23 The main focus of paragraph 2 is the

A. Search for a vaccine that would curb malaria
B. Involvement of aid agencies in combating malaria
C. Use of a combination of techniques to control malaria
24 The word templates (line 22) is closet in meaning to
A. copies
B. models
C. imitations
25 What is true about falciparum malaria?

A. It is mostly attacks children below five.
B. It is the most dangerous form of disease.
C. It causes the deaths of about 20 percent of children in Zambia.
86
26
All of Zambia, it seems-from the army to the Boy Scouts to local theatre-has
been mobilised to stop malaria ( lines 33 and 34 )
This means that Zambia is

A. Involving everyone in the fight against malaria
B. Making everyone help to raise funds for malaria control
C. Informing everyone of the importance of getting treatment for malaria
27 The phrase a three-pronged assault (line 40) involves the use of
A. drugs, sprays and mosquito nets

B. knowledge, funds and treatment
C. professional help, insecticides and ACT
28 What is possibly the most effective solution to curb malaria?
A. A vaccine
B. Insecticide-treated bed nets
C. An ACT known as Coartem
29 The article ends on
A. a neutral note
B. a cautious note
C. a promising note
87
1 Are we all just puppets on a string? Most people would like to assume that their
fate lies in their own hands. But they would be wrong. Often, we are as helpless,
being jerked about by someone else’s subtle influence.
2 “What we’re finding more and more in psychology is that lots of the decisions
we make are influenced by things we are not aware of,” says Jay Olson at McGill 5
University, who recently created an ingenious experiment showing just how
easily we are manipulated by the gentlest persuasion. The question is, can we
learn to spot those tricks, and how can we use them to our own advantage?
3 Olson has spent a lifetime exploring the subtle ways of tricking people’s
perception, and it all began with magic. “I started magic tricks when I was five 10
and performing when I was seven,” he says. As an undergraduate in psychology,
he found the new understanding of the mind often chimed with the skills he had
learnt with his hobby. “Lots of what they said about attention and memory were
just what magicians had been saying in a different way,” he says.
4 One card trick, in particular, captured his imagination as he set about his 15
research. It involved flicking through a deck in front of an audience member, who
is asked to pick a card randomly. Unknown to the volunteer, he already worked
out which card they would choose, allowing him to reach into his pocket and pluck
the exact card they had named – much to the astonishment of the crowd.
5 The secret apparently, is to linger on your chosen card as you riffle through 20
the deck. In our conversation, Olson would not divulge how he engineers that to
happen, but others claim that folding the card very slightly seems to cause it to
stick in sight. Those few extra milliseconds mean that it sticks in the mind,
causing the volunteer to pick it when they are pushed for a choice.
6 As a scientist, Olson’s first task was to formally test his success rate. He 25
already knew he was pretty effective, but the results were truly staggering –
Olson managed to direct 103 out of 105 of the participants. Unsurprisingly, that
alone has attracted a fair amount of media attention – but it was the next part of
the study that was most surprising to Olson, since it shows us just how easily our
mind is manipulated. 30
7 For instance, when he questioned the volunteers afterwards, he was shocked

to find that 92 per cent of the volunteers had absolutely no idea that they had
been manipulated and felt that they had been in complete control of their
decisions. Even more surprisingly, a large proportion went as far as to make up
imaginary reasons for their choice. “One person said ‘I chose the 10 of hearts 35
because 10 is a high number and I was thinking of hearts before the experiment
started’,” says Olson – despite the fact that it was really Olson who had made the
decision. What is more, Olson found that things like personality type did not seem
to have much influence on how likely someone was to be influenced – we all
88
seem equally vulnerable. Nor did the specific properties of the cards – the colour 40
or number – seem to make success any less likely.
8 The implications extend far beyond the magician’s stage, and should cause
us to reconsider our perceptions of personal will. Despite a strong sense of
freedom, our ability to make deliberate decisions may often be an illusion.
“Having a free choice is just a feeling – it isn’t linked with the decision itself,” says 45
Olson.
9 Don’t believe him? Consider when you go to a restaurant for a meal. Olson
says you are twice as likely to choose from the very top or very bottom of the
menu – because those areas first attract your eye. “But if someone asks you why
did you choose the salmon, you’ll say you were hungry for salmon, “says Olson. 50
“You won’t say it was one of the first things I looked at on the menu.” In other
words, we confabulate to explain our choice, despite the fact it had already been
primed by the restaurant.
10 Clearly, this kind of knowledge could be used for coercion in the wrong
hands, so it’s worth knowing how to spot others trying to bend you to their will 55
without you realising. We may all be puppets guided by subtle influences, but if
you can start to recognise who’s pulling the strings, you can at least try to push
back.
(Adapted from BBC News, March 24,2015)
30 ‘puppets on a string…..(line 1) refers to individuals who
A. are weak
B. accept their fate
C. are being controlled
D. obey rules and regulations
31 The point the writer is making in paragraph 3 is
A. people can be easily tricked by magic

B. magicians think differently from others
C. magic is a figment of one’s imagination
D. psychologists and magicians share the same understanding of attention and
memory
32 What conclusion can be drawn from the results of Olson’s study?
A. People can easily persuaded.

B. People often fall for magic tricks.
C. People tend to justify their choices.
D. People seldom admit they have been tricked.
89
33 That (line 29) refers to
A. first task
B. the study
C. success rate
D. staggering results
34 According to the writer, when someone places an order at a restaurant, the decision
A. was randomly made

B. was guided by attractive visuals
C. was influenced by the restaurant
D. was based on personal preference
35 confabulate (line 52) means
A. to tell a lie
B. to make a guess
C. to describe in detail
D. to make up a reason
36 The advice given in the last paragraph is for all to
A. keep away from influences

B. identify others trying to influence you
C. be aware of influences and to try to resist them
D. be conscious of the existence of influences and tactics used
37 The intention of the writer is
A. to entertain
B. to motivate
C. to persuade
D. to enlighten
90
1 It is easy to see why economists would embrace cities, warts and all, as engines
of prosperity. It has taken longer for environmentalists. By increasing income,
cities increase consumption and pollution too. If what you value most is nature,
cities look like concentrated piles of damage - until you consider the alternative,
which is spreading the damage. From an ecological standpoint, says Stewart 5
Brand, founder of the Whole Earth Catalog and now a champion of urbanisation,
a back-to-the-land ethic would be disastrous. Cities allow half of humanity to live
on around four per cent of the arable land, leaving more space for open country.
Per capita, city dwellers tread more lightly in other ways as well, as David Owen
explains in Green Metropolis. Their roads, sewers, and power lines are shorter 10
and so use 10 fewer resources. Their apartments take less energy to heat, cool,
and light than do houses. Most important, people in dense cities drive less. Their
destinations are close enough to walk to, and enough people are going to the
same places to make public transit practical. In cities like New York, per capita
energy use and carbon emissions are much lower than the national average. 15
2 Cities in developing countries are even denser and use fewer resources. But
that is mostly because poor people do not consume a lot. Dharav, Mumbai's
largest slum, may be a "model of low emissions," says David Satterthwaite of
London's International Institute for Environment and Development, but its
residents lack safe water, toilets and garbage collection. So do perhaps a billion 20
other city dwellers in 2C developing countries. And it is such cities the United
Nations (UN) projects, that will absorb most of the world's population increase
between now and 2050 - more than two billion people. How their governments
respond will affect us all. Many are responding the way Britain did to the growth
of London in the 19th century: By trying to stop it. A UN survey reports that 72 per 25
cent of developing countries have adopted policies designed to stem the tide of
migration to their cities. But it is a mistake to see urbanisation itself as evil rather
than as an inevitable part of development, says Satterthwaite, who advises
governments and associations of slum dwellers around the world. “I don’t get
scared by rapid growth,” he says. “I meet African mayors who tell me, “There are 30
too many people moving here!” I tell them, “No, the problem is your inability to
govern them.”
3 The fear of urbanisation has not been good for cities, or for their
countries, or for the planet. In 1971, as Seoul's population was skyrocketing past
five million, its leader surrounded the city with a wide greenbelt to halt further 35
development, just as London had in 1947. Both greenbelts preserved open
space, but neither stopped the growth of the city; people now commute from
suburbs that leapfrogged the restraints. "Greenbelts have had the effect of
pushing people farther out, sometimes absurdly far," says Peter Half, a planner
and historian at University College London. Brasilia, the planned capital of Brazil, 40
was designed for 500 000 people; two million more now live beyond the lake and
park that were supposed to block the city's expansion. When you try to stop urban
growth, it seems, you just amplify sprawl.
91
4 Sprawl preoccupies urban planners today, as its antithesis, density, did a
century ago. London is no longer decried as a tumour. Greenbelts are hardly the 45
cause of sprawl; most cities do not have them. Other government policies, such
as subsidies for highways and home ownership, have coaxed the suburbs
outward. So has that other great shaper of the destiny of cities - the choices made
by individual residents. Sprawl is not just a Western phenomenon. By consulting
satellite images, old maps, and census data, Shalom Angel, an urban planning 50
professor at New York University, has tracked how 120 cities changed in shape
and population density between 1990 and 2000. Even in developing countries
most cities are spreading out faster than people pour into them. What is driving
the expansion? Rising incomes and cheap transportation. "When income rises,
people have money to buy more space," Angel explains. 55
5 Developing cities will inevitably expand, says Angel. Somewhere between

the anarchy that prevails in many today and the utopianism that has often
characterised urban planning lies a modest kind of planning that could make a
big difference. It requires looking decades ahead, Angel says, and reserving land,
before the city grows over it, for parks and a dense grid of public-transit corridors. 60
It starts looking at growing cities in a positive way - not as diseases, but as
concentrations of human energy to be organised and tapped.
(Adapted from National Geographic, December 2011)
38 The main idea of paragraph 1 is

A. the benefits of cities
B. cities lifting people out of poverty
C. city dwellers require fewer resources
D. city dwelling being the solution to the population boom
39 Which of the statements is true of paragraph 2?
A. Curbing urban migration is an effective policy.

B. Mumbai is a model city of environment conservation.
C. London has been successful in managing the inflow of migrants.
D. Most cities in developing countries are overcrowded because of poor planning.
40 In paragraph 2, the main concern is
A. lack of basic facilities in the cities

B. creation of more slums in the cities
C. increasing flow of migration into the cities
D. authority’s response to the rapid growth of the cities
92
41 Which of the following is Satterthwaite’s opinion?
A. Growth of cities is an essential part of development.

B. There are too many people moving into the cities.
C. Urbanisation is bad for developing countries.
D. There is a need to supervise city dwellers.
42 The following are the effects of greenbelts except
A. expanding sprawls
B. preserving open spaces
C. restricting city development
D. increasing commuting into cities
43 … antithesis (line 44) can best be replaced by
A. comparison
B. characteristic
C. direct opposite
D. clear distinction
44 Which of the following has the least impact on sprawl?
A. Greenbelts
B. Rising income
C. Personal choice
D. Home ownership subsidy
45 The article ends with

A. a suggestion to plan ahead
B. a warning of overcrowding
C. a recommendation for more parks
D. a justification for developing more public transportation
93
PRACTICE 2
1 Since 1995, the National Sporting Goods Association has been tracking the
number of American children and adults who participate in various sports. By
comparing 1995 to 2005, we can see that while some old standards like baseball,
swimming, tennis and volleyball are declining in the number of participants – by
an average of 13 per cent – what is on the rise are the more individual, nature- 5
based sports, many of which, twenty years ago, no one had ever heard of.
Changes in Sports Participation, 1995 -2005 (Selected Sports)

1995 2005
Sports Participants Participants Percentage
(in million) (in million) growth
Skateboarding 4.5 12.2 171.1
Kayaking/rafting 3.5 7.6 117.1
Snowboarding 2.8 6.0 114.3
Archery 4.9 6.8 38.8
Mountain-biking 6.7 9.2 37.3
Backpacking/camping 10.2 13.3 30.4
Hunting 5.3 6.6 24.5
(bow and arrow)
Soccer 12 14.1 17.5
Golf 24 24.7 2.9
Basketball 30.1 29.9 -0.7
Fishing 44.2 43.3 -0.2
Swimming 61.5 58 -5.7
Baseball 15.7 14.6 -7.0
Tennis 12.6 11.1 -11.9
Bicycle-riding 56.3 43.1 -23.4
Volleyball 18 13.2 -26.7
Roller-skating 23.9 13.1 -45.2
2 As you can see from the chart above, the fastest growing sport in America in
the past ten years was skateboarding, now taken up by over 12 million people.
That is nearly the same number of Americans who have ever played baseball.
Next was kayaking/rafting, at over 7 million – and then snowboarding. No one 10
ever heard of snowboarding until 1980, and now 6 million people do it.
Snowboarders make up almost 1 in 3 users of ski resorts. Other fast growing
sports in America are mountain-biking, with 9 million participants: archery, with
nearly 7 million; backpacking, with 13 million; and-get this-hunting with bow and
arrow, with nearly 7 million! 15
What is going on here is that Big Sports (baseball and basketball) have for
3
some people, become just a little too big, and smaller sports give them just a little
more space to play, breathe and engage their hearts. In the past ten years,
watching and playing Big Sports have become increasingly taxing. Furthermore,
Big Sports are perceived as hyper-corporate – what with their stadiums, garish 20
wall-to-wall advertisements, and out-of-control player salaries. Of course, there
are still plenty of available fans, but Big Sports are facing some significant
leakage to new activities.
94
4 The niching of sports is a perfect example of how more and more people are
splintering off from the crowd to find greater individual satisfaction. Whereas 25
sports used to be the way that the whole school – and later, the whole city –
would come together to cheer the community’s toughest males in battle against
their rivals, now a growing number of people are saying: good luck at the game,
but I’m going kayaking.
5 Sports in America are far from declining. They are just shifting from a 30
communal rite to a personal one. What used to be a galvanising event to bring
us all together has become the opposite. Now sports help us retreat often alone,
and often to the mountains, the woods or the water. The growing trend in sports
in America skews towards the individual, the quiet and the natural. As for me, I’m
35
all for the cheering crowd.
(Adapted from Mark J.Penn, Micro Trends, Twelve,

Hachette Book Group USA, 2007)
1 The National Sporting Goods Association studied trends in sports participation

in America over a twenty year period.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
2 Skateboarding attracted the most number of participants in 2005.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
3 The writer is surprised that hunting with a bow and arrow attracted nearly 7
million participants.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
4 Golf has grown at more than twice the rate of the growth of soccer.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
5 More people are watching Big Sports than participating in them.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
95
6 The expression ….but I’m going kayaking (line 29) implies that people are
moving away from communal to individual sports.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
7 The writer prefers the current trend in sports participation.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
96
1 Pepsi and Starbucks share a problem. The second biggest maker of cola and the
world’s largest chain of coffee shops are both worried about how customers
perceive their brands. “Pepsi has always been about ‘experience’, says a
marketing executive. The trouble is that consumers are increasingly experiencing
healthier soft drinks and bottled water, rather than sugary cola. Starbucks, 5
meanwhile, may have expanded too quickly, which is why Howard Schulz, its
chairman, worries that the ‘Starbucks experience’ is under threat.
2 In an internal memo sent to senior Starbucks executives, which was leaked

onto the Internet, Schulz says that the expression from 1000 to more than 13 000
shops over the past ten years has led to a watering down of the Starbucks 10
experience and to what some might call the ‘commoditisation of the brand’. One
result, says Schulz, is that some people find its stores “sterile, cookie-cutter, no
longer reflecting the passion our partners feel about coffee.”
3 Starbucks and Pepsi rank among the 50 most valuable brands in the world,
according to Brandz, a market research company. Both have prospered by 15
exploiting their strong brands to sell what are really commodities – coffee and
cola – at premium prices. A cup of coffee costs about three times more at
Starbucks than at an ordinary coffee shop and Pepsi sells for 60% to 70% more
per litre than supermarkets’ own-label cola. Now both companies are at risk from
a growing sense that their products are indeed just commodities, says Passikoff, 20
founder of Brand Keys, a brand consultancy.
4 In his memo, Schulz suggests that the company needs to go back to its roots.
From its beginnings in the 1970s, Starbucks set out to be a ‘third place’ to spend
time, in addition to home and work. The smell of fresh coffee beans is supposed
to waft through brightly lit cafes fitted with tables and comfortable chairs. 25
Electrical plugs let customers recharge their portable music-players or laptop
computers. Most Starbucks in America, and in some other countries, provide
wireless Internet access.
5 But during its expansion, Starbucks installed automatic espresso machines

rather than hand-pulled ones, added drive-through windows for motorists and 30
started to sell hot food, mugs and even CDs. As McDonald’s, Dunkin Donuts and
other fast-food chains moved up-market, Starbucks looked less distinctive.
Consumer Reports, an American magazine that publishes reviews of consumer
products, recently rated McDonald’s coffee more highly than that sold at
Starbucks. 35
6 Pepsi’s problem is that it is a big brand in a shrinking market. Sales of

carbonated soft drinks declined from 10.24 billion cases in 2004 to 10.18 billion
cases in 2005, according to Beverage Marketing, a research company. The main
reason for the decline is growing concern about obesity. Last month, Pepsi
launched a global restyling of its Pepsi cans, with a series of 35 new designs with 40
themes such as music, sports or fashion. The globe logo and the lettering on the
97
cans will remain the same, but a new theme will make its debut every few weeks.
Each one has its own website with video clips and other enticements to engage
consumers. The aim is to represent the ‘fun, optimistic and youthful’ spirit of
Pepsi, says the firm. “It’s a facelift, but I am not sure whether it will make such 45
difference to margins,” says Robert Van Brugge, a beverage analyst at Stanford
Bernstein. Passikoff says changing the packaging is a tired brand’s last refuge.
7 During its 109-year history, Pepsi has undergone many re-brandings, but
none on this scale. By next year, the current red, blue and white Pepsi containers
would have disappeared from the shelves. The company instead promises a 50
‘sustained discovery’ for people of all ages and –not surprisingly – a new
‘experience’.
(Adapted from The Economist, March 3, 2007)
8 Pepsi and Starbucks are worried that their brands are losing their
distinctiveness.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
9 The rapid expansion of Starbucks has led to a loss of revenue.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
10 Pepsi and Starbucks are losing their customers mainly because pf their high
prices.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
11 The main point of paragraph 4 is to
A. describe the original set-up of Starbucks.

B. compare the atmosphere of Starbucks and the home.
C. recommend that Starbucks returns to its original business strategies.
12 ……fast-food chains moved up-market (line 32) means that
A. their products have become more expensive and appealing to the rich
B. they have expanded their range of products
C. they have relocated to exclusive areas
13 Robert Van Brugge and Passikoff ___________ about Pepsi’s rebranding

efforts.
A. worried
B. doubtful
C. enthusiastic
98
14 Pepsi’s profits have dropped because
A. Pepsi is considered old fashioned.

B. too much was spent on advertising.
C. consumers have become more health conscious.
1 Big, bad carbon dioxide (CO2) gets most of the attention when it comes to
greenhouse gases, but it is not the only one that is warming the earth. Methane
– a gas that is found in everything from landfills to cow stomachs also plays a big
role. Although global methane-emissions levels are much lower than CO2
emissions, pound for pound methane is a more powerful greenhouse gas; a ton 5
of it has 23 times the warming effect of a CO2. And methane, like CO2 is on the
rise, thanks to us: about 60% of global methane emissions come from man-made
sources, and the atmospheric concentration of methane has increased by around
150% since 1950, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Now there is new focus on a pair of methane sources that we usually do not think 10
of as natural polluters: wetlands and rice paddies.
2 Separating the factors that contribute to climate change from the things that
help reverse it is not always easy because sometimes they are one and the same.
Trees sop up CO2, for example, but when they die and decay, they release it
back into the air. Wetlands and rice paddies serve a similar dual role for both 15
CO2 and methane, acting as sources and sinks simultaneously. The challenge
has been trying to tease out how those two functions balance out, but a new
paper in the January 14 issue of Science has provided some hard numbers.
Using satellite data, investigators determined that wetlands contribute from 53%
to 58% of global methane emissions and that rice paddies are responsible for 20
more than a quarter of that output. The study could help make climate-change
models more accurate, and help scientists understand whether increasing
temperatures will lead to even higher methane emissions in the future. “It’s all
about more accurately describing climate in these models,” says Paul Palmer, a
geoscientist at the University of Edinburgh and co-author of the Science paper. 25
3 There has been a steady increase in wetlands methane emissions from 003
and 2007 – and most of that increase was due to wetlands in the temperate
regions north or south of the tropics. Moreover, emissions from Arctic wetlands –
they do exist – were increasing fastest of all, up more than 30% between 2003
and 2007. That could be due to overall warming. “Most climate models say the 30
surface is going to warm at higher latitudes, and this is going to have serious
implications for emissions from wetlands,” says Palmer.
4 Indeed, many scientists worry that we could reach a tipping point at which
warming could begin to melt the Arctic permafrost and unleash masses of buried
methane – which would them further warm the atmosphere, releasing more 35
methane and continuing in a dangerous feedback cycle. But if we are going to
prevent that from happening, we are going to have to find a way other than
99
reducing methane emissions from wetlands. Global food requirements mean that
we cannot cut back seriously on rice paddy cultivation, and wetlands are far too
important to the environment as groundwater filters and buffers against coastal 40
floods. “I just don’t see any way to control methane emissions from wetlands,”
says Palmer. Instead, we will need to focus on methane emissions from man-
made sources – like landfills or natural gas drilling – and cut what is still
greenhouse gas number 1:CO2
(Adapted from http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1953751,00.html)
15 In paragraph 1, the writer says that methane is
A. a stronger greenhouse gas than CO2

B. more to be blamed than CO2 for global warming
C. not usually identified as an agent in global warming
16 It is difficult to control global warming because
A. wetlands and paddy fields release both methane and CO2 at the same
time
B. the sources of methane and CO2 are themselves beneficial to the
environment
C. of the inability to balance advantages against disadvantages of methane
and CO2
17 The comment they do exist ( line 29 ) conveys a sense of
A. disbelief
B. certainty
C. disappointment
18 ………and this is going to have serious implications ……(lines 31 and 32).

This refers to
A. overall warming
B. warming at higher latitudes
C. methane emission from the Arctic wetlands
19 ……a tipping point ( line 33 ) means
A. a crucial moment that will trigger a serious reaction

B. a position that is considered to be uncertain
C. a stage at which conditions start to improve
20 Man-made sources of methane
A. will cause more harmful effects than natural sources

B. are the fastest-rising sources of polluters today
C. are easier to control than natural sources
100
21 Which of the following are mentioned in paragraph 4?
I Controlling CO2 is the best way to reduce global warming.

II The possibility of controlling methane from natural sources is slim.
III Coastal floods worsen methane emission in the paddy fields and wetlands.
A. I and II
B. I and III
C. II and III
1 It has not been easy to find a bright spot in the global economy for a couple of
years now. But in the last few months, economists, consultants, and other
business types have begun to track the rise of a new emerging market, one that
may end up being the largest and most powerful of all: women.
2 According to a new study by the Boston Consulting Group, women are now 5
poised to drive the post-recession world economy, thanks to an estimated $5
trillion in new female-earned income that will be coming on line over the next five
years. Worldwide, total income for men ($23.4 trillion) is still more than double
that for women ($10.5 trillion), but the gap is poised to shrink significantly because
the vast majority of new income growth over the next few years will go to women, 10
due to a narrowing wage gap and rising female employment. That means women
will be the ones driving the shopping – and, economists hope, the recovery. That
growth represents the biggest emerging market in the history of the planet – more
than twice the size of the two hottest developing markets, India and China,
combined. 15
3 It is seismic stuff, the impact of the shift will be broad and deep. A report by
Goldman Sachs entitled “The Power of the Purse” proclaims women the
economic engine of the future, nothing that future spending by women, which
tends to focus more on health, education, and children’s well-being, “should
support the development of human capital” to a greater extent than spending by 20
men, thus “fuelling economic growth in the years ahead.” At the same time, the
report notes, economic growth continues to bolster gender equality, a virtuous
circle that has already had massive impacts on the status of women around the
world.
4 While most of us know intuitively that women’s place in the world has risen in 25
the last several decades, a look at the hard data is startling, in a good way. Huge
improvements in female access to education around the world mean that the
literacy rates for young women, which used to trail those of men by 30 per cent
or more, are now almost universally within a single digit of men’s. Labour-force
participation, already high in rich countries, has jumped exponentially in large 30
swaths of the developing world over the last few years; 70 per cent of women in
countries like China and Vietnam now work. Health has improved dramatically,
101
and fertility rates have dropped. Around the world, nations are changing laws to
give women more equal standing in areas like property, inheritance, and divorce
rights. In many cases, technology and globalisation have played an important role 35
in changing attitudes. A 2007 study by the National Bureau of Economic
Research on rural India found that within six to seven months of getting cable TV,
men and women alike had become more open to the idea of women’s autonomy,
and more accepting of female participation in household decision making.
5 In fact, women already make the majority of the world’s purchasing 40

decisions. Boston Consulting Group estimates that women control some $12
trillion of the world’s $18.4 trillion in annual consumer spending, and that
percentage will likely rise as a new upwardly mobile class of young female
professionals overtake their male peers in wealth and status. In developed
countries, there is already an elite cadre of urban women who are more powerful 45
than their male counterparts.
6 Higher female earners in the developed world, coupled with growing female
employment participation in poorer countries, is the reason that women’s earned
income is growing at 8.1 per cent versus 5.8 per cent for men. The financial crisis
has widened this gap, by hitting male job hardest. Some 80 per cent of job losses 50
in the U.S during the downturn have fallen men, in part because male-dominated
areas like manufacturing and financial services have been gutted during the
recession.
7 The rise of women as a grand, cross-border emerging market could have

implications as profound as the rise of India and China. There is a wide body of 55
research to suggest that women’s spending patterns may be exactly what the
world needs at this moment.
(Adapted from Newsweek, September 21, 2009)
22 The purchasing power of women is higher because
A. more women now work than men

B. women now earn almost as much as men
C. women now own more property than men
23 Why does the writer compare women to India and China?
A. To highlight potential impact

B. To emphasise the large numbers
C. To reflect the recent emergence of power
24 The word seismic ( line 16 ) can be best replaced by
A. nerve wrecking
B. earth shattering
C. groundbreaking
102
25 The spending power of women should support the development of human
capital (lines 19 and 20). This means that
A. women’s pattern of expenditure generates development of manpower

B. employment will be increased because of women’s demand for goods
C. there will be greater employment opportunities for women
26 The writer mentions 2007 study ( line 36 ) to highlight the fact that
A. technology has resulted in a more liberal attitude towards women

B. cable TV has influenced the attitudes of both men and women
C. globalisation has opened up more opportunities for women
27 In paragraph 4, the writer develops his idea mainly through
A. comparison and contrast

B. listing and elaboration
C. cause and effect
28 Which of the following statements is true of paragraph 6?
A. Women’s income is growing at a faster rate than men’s.

B. In developed countries, women earn more than men.
C. 80 per cent of men lost their jobs during recession.
29 The writer’s attitude towards the rise of women is
A. neutral
B. positive
C. ambiguous
103
1 And here I thought my Botoxed friends were happy, mellow, and sweet tempered
because a couple of injections of a neurotoxin had eliminated their frown lines,
knocked years off their apparent age, and made them no longer look “tired and
unapproachable,” as the company’s website cheerfully puts it. But no! According
to an amusing little study, by paralysing the frown muscles that ordinarily are 5
engaged when we feel angry, Botox short-circuits the emotion itself.
2 It is a version of the classic finding in psychology that facial expressions can

produce the very emotion they usually reflect. Called the facial feedback
hypothesis, it implies that forcing your lips and cheeks into a smile can make you
feel happy and scowling can make you feel annoyed, at least a little. Building on 10
that research, graduate student David Havas, of the University of Wisconsin-
Madison decided to study people who had received Botox treatments that
paralysed one pair of their corrugator muscles, which can cause the forehead to
constrict into a frown. The idea is to see whether the treatment affected their
ability to feel certain emotions. We already know that Botox affect the ability to 15
convey emotions such as anger, and a 2006 study found that it might even
alleviate depression, presumably by the same mechanism: block the facial
expression of sadness, prevent the related emotion.
3 Havas found an even deeper effect. He had 40 volunteers, who were

planning to be Botoxed in two weeks, to read statements with particular emotions: 20
angry (“the pushy telemarketer won’t let you run to your dinner”), sad (“you open
your e-mail inbox on your birthday to find no new e-mails”), or happy (“the water
park is refreshing on a hot summer day”). After reading each sentence, the
volunteers pushed a button to indicate they had understood it. Then, two weeks
after their Botox injections, they repeated the exercise, reading and 25
understanding another list of emotion-producing sentences.
4 The volunteers pressed the “I’ve read and understood this” button just as
quickly when the sentence conveyed something happy. But when it conveyed
something infuriating or unhappy, people took longer to read and understand it.
The emotions just did not compute as easily as before their sadness and anger 30
muscles were paralysed.
5 This is the first study suggesting that Botox affects the ability to understand
and emotional content of language. “Normally, the brain would be sending signals
to the periphery to frown, and the extent of the frown would be sent back to the
brain,” UW-Madison Professor Emeritus of psychology, Arthur Glenberg (and 35
Havas’ adviser) said in a statement. “But here, that loop is disrupted, and the
intensity of the emotion and of our ability to understand it when embodied in
language is disrupted.” Even though the temporal delay is less than a second,
says Glenberg, “in conversation, people respond to fast, subtle cues about each
other’s understanding, intention, and empathy. If you are slightly slower reacting 40
as I tell you about something that made me really angry, that could signal to me
104
that you did not pick up my message.”
6 The research is part of a burgeoning field called “embodied cognition” which

posits that all our cognitive processes are rooted in, and reflected in the body.
Research in embodied cognition has shown that people pitch forward when they 45
talk about events in the future, for instance, but lean back when they discuss the
past. When they hold a mug of hot coffee, they judge people as warmer and
friendlier than when they clutch an iced latte. When they ponder their moral
transgressions, they have an urge to wash. Other researchers have also reported
that figurative or literal connection between all things dirty can be amazingly 50
specific. When volunteers left an unethical message on someone’s voice mail
(telling a lie, making a threat), they have an urge to wash out their mouth, but
when they sent the same message by e-mail (using their hands to type), they
wanted to wash their hands.
7 The body, it is clear, is no more bystander in our thoughts and emotions. At 55

least before Botox.
(Adapted from Newsweek, February 8, 2010)
30 But no! ( line 4 ) demonstrates the author’s feeling of
A. relief
B. regret
C. surprise
D. disappointment
31 Which of the following illustrates short-circuits the emotion (line 6)?
A. Knocked years off their apparent age (line 3)

B. Paralysing the frown muscles (line 5)
C. Cause the forehead to constrict into a frown (lines 13 and 14)
D. Block the facial expression of sadness (lines 17 and 18)
32 Hava’s study found that
A. Botox mars the users’ ability to feel sad

B. Botox does not affect the users’ emotions
C. Botox enhances the users’ feelings of happiness
D. Botox users respond faster to sadness than happiness
33 What is one consequence when that loop is disrupted….(line 36)
A. An inability to react to cues

B. A delayed response to anger
C. An inability to understand messages
D. A difficulty in conveying intense emotion
105
34 What is the significance of Havas’ study?
A. It warns Botox users against its use.

B. The findings support Arthur Glenberg’s study.
C. It contributes to the field of embodied cognition.
D. It leads to more investigations on the purpose of Botox.
35 Which of the following is an example of embodied cognition (line 43)?
A. Sitting upright when telling a lie

B. Washing one’s face after a quarrel
C. Washing one’s hands after shoplifting
D. Leaning comfortably in a chair when telling a lie
36 According to the passage, Botox does not
A. relieve the user’s depression

B. make the user unable to frown
C. affect the user’s expression of feelings
D. cause the user to become insensitive to others
37 The writer concludes that
A. Botox is harmful to the body

B. Botox disrupts our thoughts and emotions
C. there is interrelatedness of body, mind and feeling
D. there is connection between our emotions and our intellect
106
1 For as long as most people can remember, food has been getting cheaper and
farming has been in decline. Food today is so cheap that the West is battling
gluttony even as it scrapes piles of half-eaten leftovers into the bin.
2 That is why this year’s price rise has been so extraordinary. Since the
spring, wheat prices have doubled and almost every crop under the sun – maize, 5
milk, oilseeds, you name it – is at or near a peak in nominal terms. The
Economist’s food-price index is higher today than at any time since it was
created in 1845. Prices have jumped by 75 per cent since 2005. No doubt
farmers will meet higher prices with investment and more production, but dearer
food is likely to persist for years. That is because “agflation” is under-pinned by 10
long-running changes in diet that accompany the growing wealth of emerging
economies – the Chinese consumer who ate 20 kg of meat in 1985 will consume
over 50kg of the stuff this year. That in turn pushes up demand for grain: it takes
8 kg of grain to produce 1 kg of beef.
3 But the rise in prices is also the self-inflicted result of America’s reckless 15
ethanol subsidies. This year biofuels will take a third of America’s (record) maize
harvest. That affects food markets directly: fill up an SUV’s fuel tank with ethanol
and you have used enough maize to feed a person for a year. And it affects
them indirectly, as farmers switch to maize from other crops. The 30 million
tonnes of extra maize going to ethanol this year amounts to half the fall in the 20
world’s overall grain stocks.
4 Dearer food has the capacity to do enormous good and enormous harm. It
will hurt urban consumers, especially in poor countries, by increasing the price
of what is already the most expensive item in their household budgets. It will
benefit farmers and agricultural communities by increasing the rewards of their 25
labour, in many poor rural places it will boost the most important source of jobs
and economic growth.
5 Although the cost of food is determined by fundamental patterns of demand

and supply, the balance between good and ill also depends in part on
governments. If politicians do nothing, or the wrong things, the world faces more 30
misery, especially among the urban poor. If they get the policy right, they can
help increase the wealth of the poorest nations, aid the rural poor, rescue
farming from subsidies and neglect – and minimise the harm to the slum-
dwellers and landless labourers.
6 Three-quarters of the world’s poor live in rural areas. The depressed world 35
prices created by farm policies over the past few decades have had a
devastating effect. There has been a long-term fall in investment in farming and
the things that sustain it, such as irrigation. The share of public spending going
to agriculture in developing countries has fallen by half since 1980. Poor
countries that used to export food now import it. 40
107
7 Reducing subsidies in the West would help reverse this. The World Bank
reckons that if you free up agricultural trade, the prices of things poor countries
specialise in (like cotton) would rise and developing countries would capture the
gains by increasing exports. And because farming accounts for two-thirds of
jobs in the poorest countries, it is the most important contributor to the early 45
stages of economic growth. According to the World Bank, the really poor get
three times as much extra income from an increase in farm productivity as from
the same gain in industry or services. In the long term, thriving farms and open
markets provide a secure food supply.
8 However, there is an obvious catch – and one that justifies government 50

help. High prices have a mixed impact on poverty: they hurt anyone who loses
more from dear food than he gains from higher income. And that means over a
billion urban consumers (and some landless labourers), many of whom are
politically influential in poor countries. Given the speed of this year’s food-price
rises, governments in emerging markets have no alternative but to try to reduce 55
the impact.
9 Where they can, these governments should subsidise the incomes of the
poor, rather than food itself, because that minimises price distortions. Where
food subsidies are unavoidable, they should be temporary and targeted on the
poor. So far, most government interventions in the poor world have failed. 60
Politicians who seem to think cheap food is part of the natural order of things
have imposed price and export controls which hurt farmers.
10 Over the past few years, a sense has grown that the rich are hogging the
world’s wealth. In poor countries, widening income inequality takes the form of
a gap between the city and country: income has been rising faster for urban 65
dwellers than for rural ones. If handled properly, dearer food is a once-in-a-
generation chance to narrow income disparities and to wean rich farmers from
subsidies and help poor ones. The ultimate reward, though, is not merely theirs:
it is to make the world richer and fairer.
(Adapted from The Economist, December 8, 2007)
38 …..this year’s price rise has been so extraordinary (line 4) because
A. consumers are earning more

B. food has been cheap for many years
C. world markets have been falling steadily
D. the West continues to waste a lot of food
39 Which of the following information is not true of paragraph 2?
A. Price of wheat has doubled

B. With higher prices, farmers will increase production.
C. Dietary patterns have changed with increasing income.
D. Demand for grain decreases when more meat is consumed.
108
A. biofuels has become increasingly popular

B. farmers have switched to maize from other crops
C. the use of maize for ethanol has increased food prices
D. a tank of ethanol is equivalent to a person’s annual consumption of grain
41 Dearer food has the capacity to do enormous good and enormous harm
(line 22). This means that dearer food will benefit
A. farmers but not urban consumers

B. urban consumers as well as the rural poor
C. the urban poor but not agricultural communities
D. agricultural communities as well as the urban poor
42 The following are reasons for dearer food except
A. ethanol subsidies
B. government policies
C. changes in diet
D. higher wages
43 The intention of the writer in paragraph 7 is to
A. highlight the benefits of developing farming

B. argue for less control and opening up of agricultural trade
C. compare the situation before and after introducing subsidies
D. explain how poor countries can benefit from importing food
44 However, there is an obvious catch (line 50). The word catch means
A. a good offer
B. a disadvantage
C. no way of escape
D. something worth getting
45 The writer is ___________ dearer food.
A. indifferent towards
B. depressed over
C. frustrated with
D. in favour of
109
PRACTICE 3
1 The world's biggest multinationals are becoming increasingly happy to carry out
their Research and Development (R&D) in emerging markets. Companies in the
Fortune 500 list have 98 R&D facilities in China and India. Some have more than
one. Knowledge- intensive companies such as Information Technology (IT)
specialists and consultancies have hugely stepped up the number of people they 5
employ in developing countries.
2 Both Western and emerging-country companies have also realised that they
need to try harder if they are to prosper in these booming markets. It is not enough
to concentrate on the Gucci and Mercedes crowd; they have to learn how to appeal
to the billions of people who live outside of Shanghai and Bangalore, from the rising 10
middle classes in second-tier cities to the farmers in isolated villages. That means
rethinking everything from products to distribution systems.
3 But the opportunities are equally extraordinary. The potential market is huge:
populations are already much bigger than in the developed world and growing much
faster (see Figure 1), and both China and India hundreds of millions of people will 15
enter the middle class in the coming decades. The economies are set to grow faster
too (see Figure 2). Brainpower is relatively cheap and abundant: in China, over five
million people graduate every year and in India about three million, respectively four
times and three times the numbers a decade ago.
4 This combination of challenges and opportunities is producing a fizzing cocktail 20

of creativity because so many consumers are poor, companies have to go for
volume But because piracy is so commonplace, they also have to keep upgrading
their products. In a way, these emerging-companies are turning problems into
advantages.
( Adapted from The Economist, 2012)
110
1 Most of the multinationals that are doing research in emerging markets are from the
United States of America.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
2 In Figure 1, Africa’s population is projected to double by 2050.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
3 The survival of multinationals depends on their strategies to adjust to their new target
customers.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
4 In figure 2, the GDP of advanced markets is projected to grow at a slower rate after
2010.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
5 In figure 2, the GDP of advanced economies is expected to shrink in the near future.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
6 The challenge for emerging market companies is to attract more affluent consumers.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
7 Multinational companies invested a high percentage of their expenditure on R&D.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
111
Questions 8 to14 are based on the following passage.
1 In Panama, the rainy season lasts most of the year. Rivers flood, runoff pours down
hillsides, and the red clay roads become impassable. Horses strain forward against
thick mud rising almost to their chest, soaked riders urging them on. The village of
Limon, 300 people and a two-room school house, both depend on and fight against
the rain. The small town grew up near a river that used to serve as transportation 5
to the coast. Although the area was once pure rainforest, almost none of it remains.
It has been transformed into cattle pasture, slash-and-burn farming fields, and
shade-grown coffee farms. The vast majority of families run subsistence farms and
build their own houses out of wood and palm leaves. There is a government-run
agricultural resource outpost, but it is located over two hours away and the staff 10
rarely visits.
2 I lives in Limon as a volunteer for over a year, getting to know the families and
learning from their many kindnesses. It is impossible in Limon, and most other rural
Panamanian towns, to visit someone and leave without having been stuffed full of
banana, or fried plantain (a type of green banana), or a little rice, all accompanied 15
with a very thick black cup of coffee rich with sugar. In turn, I taught in the school
and ran seminars on organic composting, coffee plantation diseases, and seed
saving.
3 One of the first things I noticed was although everyone raised their own food
from chicken to pigs, to rice and corn, there were few vegetables. To buy tomatoes 20
or cucumbers or carrots you would have to travel two hours in the chiva, a modified
and jam-packed pickup truck that served a local public transportation, to a very
small shop that carried them. The vegetables were imported from several
provinces away, where farmers have access to consistent running water,
electricity, and government assistance. Most meals were pure starches: rice, 25
tapioca, plantain, over and over again. Occasionally a fruit tree would be in season,
and there would be a glut of starfruit or marinon (the fruit that produces the cashew
nut), but it never lasted long. Although the area was lush with mango trees, none
of them ever bore fruit. Several of the older men would reminisce about the days
when there was more forest and they could hunt the deer and tapir that lived there. 30
4 Before I joined as a volunteer, I was sure I had all the answers for the town
where I would work. After living there I saw how easily the crops could be lost to
fungi, disease, and flooding during the wet season. How the soil, already marginal
at best, could barely support most of what was grown. How all the forest had been
cut down in an attempt to continue to provide enough food. How crops that could 35
enhance diets were incredibly fragile in the nutrient-deficient and harsh
environment. While my composting lessons could improve soil health, they could
do little to remedy the complete lack of food security. I could not change the
climate, the availability of water, or the pests plaguing the crops. The only variable
that could be changed was the genetic makeup of the crops themselves. 40
5 Marginal arable lands such as the rainforest can be transformed into healthy
foundations for farming. But in a world facing severe and sudden climate change,
112
the families of LIMON need more immediate help than increasing soil health over
the course of several years. Even with healthy soils, the town would still face
severe yearly flooding. Crops capable of resisting drought, flood, and disease 45
could provide immediate nutritional relief and added food security. By focusing on
intensive farming and bolstering soil on key desirable acres, the rest of the forest
could be left to grow once again.
(Adapted from the National Geographic, 2012 )
8 The river is the only form of transportation in Limon
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
9 Coffee farming is the main source of income for the people of Limon.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
10 Cattle is reared for the villagers’ own consumption.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
11 It is impossible in Limon, and most other rural Panamanian towns, to visit someone
and leave without having been stuffed full of banana, or fried plantain (a type of green
banana), or a thick rice, all accompanied with a very thick black coffee rich with sugar
(lines 13 to 16). This shows that the villagers are
A. generous
B. charitable
C. hospitable
12 Before I joined as a volunteer, I was sure I had all the answers for the town where I
would work (lines 31 to 32). The writer could be described as
A. boastful
B. confident
C. ambitious
13 Vegetables are not easily available to the villagers because of the following except
A. they have to be imported

B. they are difficult to grow
C. they are difficult to transport
113
14 The author ends on a note of
A. hope
B. despair
C. uncertainty

Pro
1 Forget about the spurious benefits of eating shark fin soup, a traditional Chinese
delicacy that is to be responsible for the needless destruction of some 73 million
sharks a year. In Palau, the first country in the world to proclaim a shark
sanctuary, the sharks that frequent the Pacific Island country’s reefs generate
enormous financial benefits. A single reef shark can contribute almost US$2 5
million in lifetime to the economy of Palau, according to a new study by the
Australia Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and the University of Western
Australia.
2 “The analysis quantified the economic benefits of the shark-diving industry

to the Pacific Island nation and found that its value far exceeded that of shark 10
fishing,” Pew said in a news statement about the research. Pew Environment
Group – a Washington-based group that works to advance scientific
understanding of the causes and consequences of environmental problems,
design innovative policy solutions to these problems and mobilise public support
for their implementation – commissioned the study. 15
3 The research focused on an estimated 100 reef sharks that frequent the five
major sites in Palau. The study did not take into account the sharks in Palau
waters that do not regularly visit the dive sites.
4 "Sharks can literally be a 'million-dollar' species and a significant economic

driver,” said Mark Meekan, principal research scientist at AIMS. "Because of their 20
low rates reproduction and late maturity, shark population have been driven into a
global decline due to fishing. Yet your study shows that these animals can
contribute for more as a tourism resource than as a catch target."
5 Sharks are the top predators that keep the ecosystem healthy, and on top of
that bring much more money through tourism than fishing, said marine ecologist 25
Enric Sala, a National Geographic Fellow. Sala is actively engaged in research,
exploration, communication, and application of scientific knowledge related to the
conservation of marine ecosystems. “If everyone is worried about the economy, it
makes much more sense to keep sharks in the water than killing them. They are
the sharks with the golden eggs," he said in an email to National Geographic News 30
Watch.
6 There were several interesting findings from the AIMS study, which looked at
the reef sharks observed at Palau's major dive sites. The estimated annual value
to the tourism industry of an individual reef shark that frequents these sites was
US$179000 or US$1.9 million over its lifetime. Shark diving alone brings 35
114
approximately US$18 million annually to the Palauan economy, approximately
eight per cent of the country’s gross domestic product. The annual income in
salaries paid by the shark-diving industry was an estimated US$1.2 million, and
the annual tax income to Palau generated by shark diving was approximately 14
per cent of the country’s business tax revenue. 40
7 “Globally, up to 73 million sharks are killed every year primarily for their fins,
which are used in the Asian delicacy shark fin soup,” Pew Environment Group said
in its statement. “The Pacific Island States have been among the first to recognise
the danger of this unsustainable rate of consumption. In 2009, Palau President,
Johnson Toribiong declared Palauan waters to be a shark sanctuary in his address 45
to the United Nations General Assembly. Since then, the U.S. state of Hawaii, the
territories of Guam and the Northern Marianas, and the republic of the Marshall
Islands all banned the possession, sale or distribution of shark fins."
8 "Shark tourism can be a viable economic engine," said Matt Rand, director of
Global Shark Conservation for the Pew Environment Group. "Overfishing of 50
sharks can have disastrous effects on ocean ecosystems, but this study provides
a compelling case that can convince more countries to embrace these animals for
their benefit to the ocean and their value to a country's financial well-being.
(Adapted from the National Geographic, 3 May 2011)
15 In paragraph 1, the writer’s main intention is to
A. highlight the economic value of sharks

B. promote the shark sanctuary in Palau
C. discourage the consumption of shark fins soup
16 The significance of the Pew study is
A. shark diving is a profitable industry

B. shark population needs to be protected
C. reef sharks are attached to Palau waters
17 What is the main idea of paragraph 5?
A. Sharks are a source of income

B. The value of sharks to the ecosystem
C. The advantages of keeping sharks alive
18 Which of the following is true of paragraph 6?

A. Almost ten per cent pf Palau’s gross domestic income comes from sharks
B. Salaries paid by the shark diving industry total approximately US$18 million
annually
C. Taxes collected from the shark industry account for more than 10 per cent of Palau
business tax revenue
115
19 The danger of this unsustainable rate of consumption (line 44) promoted several island
republics to
A. prohibit shark fin trade

B. stop the fishing of sharks
C. work together to save sharks
20 The best title for this passage is
A. Sharks: Priceless resource

B. Sharks: Endangered species
C. Sharks: The Palau experience
21 The passage ends with a

A. solution
B. summary
C. prediction
116
1 We have now become the dominant force shaping our planet. Some geologists
now believe that human activity has so irrevocably altered our planet that we have
entered a new geological age. As the global climate shifted at the end of the last
Ice Age, some 10 000 ago, humans put their fire-making skills to great use, blazing
a trail across continents to clear trees for grazing and agriculture, enabling 5
societies to develop from hunter-gatherecs to rooted civilizations that produced
complex technologies.
2 We were even able to improve on our external sources of energy by

expanding our range of fuels: rather than relying on fuel that grew in forests and
the continual recycling of bio-matter, we delved deep into the ground to extract 10
fossil fuels made over geological timescales.
3 Humans proved so clever and successful that we were able to overcome

almost all the environmental limitations that restricted other species to their
ecological niches. The Industrial Revolution began a march towards control of the
planet and its resources, which, over the past 50 years, has become truly global. 15
Our population soared from around 10 000 individuals 10 000 years ago to 7 billion
today. It is estimated that it will pass a colossal 9 billion by 2050.
4 We have changed the covering of the planet by chopping down trees

(currently we fell 130 000 sq km per year, according to the Food and Agricultural
Organization of the United Nations), rerouting rivers (we manage more than half 20
of the planet's available freshwater) and constructing highways and cities. More
than half of the world's population now lives in urban areas. At least 75 per cent of
the world's land surface has been modified by humans.
5 Some of our changes are geologically profound - deforestation and the

elimination and distribution of species, for example, are scarring the rocks to leave 25
tell-tale evidence of our human influence for geologists to discover many thousands
of years into the future. Others are immediately obvious to anyone who has looked
down at our continents from the window of an aircraft and seen the patchwork of
farmland monocultures or the mountain tops we have removed in our quest for coal.
But some are more subtle and harder to see directly - the way we are changing the 30
climate, or interfering in the nitrogen cycle, or selecting some metals but not others
from the Earth's crust.
We are pretty resourceful and innovative, which is why we have managed to

6
"geo- engineer" our planet to produce ever more food, to double human life
expectancy in much of the world, and control freshwater sources and most other 35
species. However, we are now faced with some planetary limitations that threaten
our survival. If we are going to accommodate 9 billion humans in the next 35
years, and if those people are going to live in comfort, with enough food, water,
energy and other important trappings of a liveable existence, then we are going
to have to recognise these limitations and come up with innovative ways to 40
overcome them.
117
7 In most cases, the problem is that we are using the resource faster than it can
be replenished through natural processes. The solution may be to assist the
replenishment or to use less of the resources. Either way, the solution calls for a
combination of clever engineering, technology and social tools. 45
(Adapted from Smart Planet, 2012)
22 Which of the following ideas is not found in paragraph 1?

A. Man’s capacity to alter the climate
B. Man’s ability to develop and use resource
C. Man’s skilful re-shaping of the environment
23 Which of the following questions does paragraph 2 attempt to answer?

A. How are external sources of energy expanded?
B. When did man first extract their source of energy?
C. Why did man produce a variety of sources of energy?
24 The main point of paragraph 3 is

A. the world is increasingly becoming overpopulated
B. the Industrial Revolution has led to much progress
C. the human species is capable of developing its potential
25 The main purpose of paragraph 5 is to emphasise

A. the extensiveness of change brought about by Man
B. the work of the Food and Agricultural Organization
C. the extent of urbanisation
26 Profound ( line 24 ) means

A. significant
B. extensive
C. intense
27 However, we are now faced with some planetary limitations that threaten our
survival.
(lines 36 and 37)
In the statement above, the writer’s intention is to
A. predict
B. advise
C. warn
118
28 The passage is developed mainly through
A. comparison and contrast

B. problem and solution
C. cause and effect
29 Which of the following is not a solution to the problem mentioned in the last
paragraph?
A. Using available resources sparingly

B. Replenishing whatever that has been used up
C. Striking a balance between engineering and social tools
119
term,
1 We like to think our intelligence is self-made: it happens inside our heads, the
product of our inner thoughts alone. But the rise of Google, Wikipedia and other
online tools has made many people question the impact of these technologies on
our brains. Is typing in the search term, "Who has played James Bond in the
movies?" the same as knowing that the answer is Sean Connery, George 5
Lacenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig? Can
we say we know the answer to this questions when what we actually know is how
to rapidly access the information?
2 An influential theory among psychologists is that we are cognitive misers. This

is the idea that we are reluctant to do mental work unless we have to. We will try 10
to avoid thinking things fully when a short cut is available. For instance, if you were
asked to name the street where the restaurant serving the best Japanese food in
town is located, what would you do? More often than not, you would type on
Google for the information you need. By your action you have exemplified yourself
as a cognitive miser. The theory explains why we would rather type than memorise 15
and recall the location of a venue - it is so much easier to do so.
3 Research shows that people do not rely on their memories for things they can
easily access. Things like the world in front of our eyes can be change quite
radically without people noticing. Experiments have shown that buildings can
somehow disappear from pictures we are looking at, or the people we are talking 20
to can be switched with someone else, and often we would not notice - a
phenomenon called "change blindness". This is not as an example of human
stupidity. Far from it, in fact, this is an example of mental efficiency. The mind relies
on the world as a better record than memory, and usually that is a good
assumption. 25
4 As a result, philosophers have suggested that the mind is designed to spread

itself out over the environment. So much so that, they suggest the thinking is really
happening in our brains. The philosopher Andy Clark called humans "natural born
cyborgs", beings with minds that naturally incorporate new tools, ideas and
abilities. From Clark's perspective, the route to a solution is not the issue – having 30
the right tools really do mean you know the answers, just as much as already
knowing the answer.
5 A memory study by Harvard University provides a neat example of this effect.

Couples were asked to go into the laboratory to take a memorisation test. Half the
couples were kept together, and half were reassigned to pair up with someone 35
they did not know. Both groups then studied a list of words in silence, and were
then tested individually. The pairs that were made up of a couple in a relationship
could remember more items, both overall and as individuals.
6 What happened, according to psychologist Wegner, was that the couples in a

relationship had a good understanding of their partners. Because of this they would 40
quietly divide up the work between them, so that, say, one partner would remember
120
words to do with technology, assuming the other would remember the words to do
with sports. In this way, each partner could concentrate on their strengths, and so
individually they outperformed people in couples where on mental division of labour
was possible. Just as you rely on a search engine for answers, you can rely on 45
people you deal with regularly to think about certain things, developing a shared
system for committing items to memory and bringing them out again.
7 So as well as having a physical environment – like the rooms or buildings we

live or work in – we also have a mental environment. This means that when I ask
you where your mind is, you should not point toward the centre of your forehead. 50
As research shows, our minds are made up just as much by the people and tools
around us as they are by the brain cells inside our skull.
( Adapted from Smart Planet, 2012)
30 Which of the following statements captures the main idea of paragraph 1?
A. Many intelligent actors have played the role of James Bond

B. Our intelligence is partly self-made and technology-aided
C. Our intelligence is the product of our inner thoughts
D. New technologies are taking over our intelligence
31 According to psychologists we are cognitive misers because
A. we would avoid thinking if there is a shortcut

B. we would like to save our mental capacity for other tasks
C. we are by nature lazy thinkers, we find mental work too hard
D. we do not want to clutter our minds with too much information
32 Change blindness (line 22) is a phenomenon in which when change happens
A. it causes confusion
B. it may not be noticed
C. it affects our memory
D. it reduces our mental efficiency
33 What does the philosopher Andy Clark mean when he called humans “natural born
cyborgs” (lines 28 and 29) ?
A. Human depend on gadgets to do work

B. Human need technology to solve their problems
C. Humans are instinctively able to adapt to technology
D. Human naturally turn to the environment to find answers
121
34 The Harvard University study illustrates the successful
A. use on search engine

B. mental division of work
C. development of memory test
D. memorisation of information
35 What does the writer mean when he say “you should not point toward the centre of
your forehead” (line 50)
A. We should not just work alone

B. We should not just memorise facts
C. We should not just work with tools
D. We should not just rely on our mental intelligence
36 The intention of the writer is to ______________ the readers.

A. enlighten
B. entertain
C. persuade
D. advise
37 The most appropriate title for the passage is
A. Impact of Technologies on Our Brains

B. Natural Born Cyborgs
C. Change Blindness
D. Cognitive Misers
122
term,
1 One of the most striking end-of-year statistics pumped out recently by the Chinese
government was an update on the number of Internet users in the country, which
had reached 210 million. It is a staggering figure, up by more than 50 per cent on
the previous year and more than three times the number for India, the emerging
Asian giant with which China is most often compared. Within a few months, China 5
will have more Internet users than America, the current leader. And because of the
proportion of the population using the Internet is so low, at just 16 per cent, rapid
growth is likely to continue for some time.
2 That such a big, increasingly wealthy and technologically adept country has
embraced the Internet is no surprise, but it has done so in a very different way from 10
other countries. That is in large part the result of the government’s historically
repressive approach towards information and entertainment. News is censored,
television is controlled by the state, and bookshops and cinemas, shuttered during
the Cultural Revolution, are still scarce.
3 The Internet itself is also tightly controlled. Access to many foreign websites 15
(such as Wikipedia) is restricted, and Google’s Chinese site filters its results to
exclude politically sensitive material. New rules governing online video came into
force this week. Electronic retailing is in its infancy, thanks to an unwieldy
government-controlled payment system, so most shopping still done in person.
The attempt by eBay, the world’s leading online auction site, to enter the Chinese 20
market was a flop. Alibaba, a site often described as the eBay of China, is in fact
more an electronic yellow pages, helping buyers find sellers, than an online auction
room.
4 Yet, it is all these limitations, paradoxically, that make the Internet so

popular in China. In the West, online activities have transformed existing 25
businesses; in China, by contrast, the Internet fills gaps and provides what is
unavailable, particularly for young people. More than 70 per cent of Chinese
Internet users are under 30, precisely the opposite of America, and there is an
enormous pent-up demand for entertainment, amusement and social interaction.
Rich rewards await those entrepreneurial Internet companies which are able to 30
meet that demand and establish themselves in the market: operating profit margins
for leading Internet firms are 28 per cent in China, compared with 15 per cent in
America. An Internet companies’ share prices have shot up, with their collective
market capitalisation nearly doubling every year since 2003 to reach over US$50
billion today. 35
5 So, what is the Internet used for in China? Its most obvious use is to
distribute free pirated films, television shows and music. Even though China’s
censors do an excellent job of restricting access to content that might cause
political problems, they are strangely unable to stem the flow of pirated foreign
media. On December 30th, an appeal court in Beijing ruled in favour of Baidu, 40
china’s leading search engine, which had been accused by the world’s big record
companies of copyright violation by providing links to pirated music files. Even so,
piracy is starting to worry the government, not least because the availability of free
foreign content is holding back the development of the domestic media industry.
But for the time being, the free for all continues. 45
( Adapted from The Economist, February 2008)
123
38 In paragraph 1, the writer makes the point that
A. China will have more Internet users than America

B. the number of Internet users than America
C. China will beat India in terms of the number of Internet users
D. the proportion of China’s population using the Internet is low
39 What is the main reason why China has embraced the Internet in a very different way
from other countries?
A. Access to foreign websites.

B. The government had controlled information and entertainment.
C. The profile of the Chinese Internet users is different from the West.
D. The Chinese are becoming wealthier and are technologically advanced.
40 The attempt by eBay, the world’s leading online auction site, to enter the Chinese market
was a flop (lines 20 and 21). This is because
A. access to eBay is restricted

B. Chinese shoppers do not like to shop online
C. Chinese Internet users prefer the site, Alibaba
D. government controlled payment system is not user-friendly
41 Yet, it is all these limitations, paradoxically, that make the Internet so popular in China
(lines 24 and 25). What is the paradox?
A. New laws have made online video more popular.

B. The tight control of the Internet has increased its popularity.
C. Restriction of foreign websites has increased interest in them.
D. Although electronic retailing is problematic, Internet shopping is on rise.
42 Which statement about China’s online activities is true?
A. China’s Internet companies require high operating costs.

B. China’s Internet users prefer to visit social interaction sites.
C. China’s Internet services have transformed the existing businesses.
D. China’s Internet companies provide services that are not available in the country.
43 Even though China’s censors do an excellent job of restricting access to content that
might cause political problems, they are strangely unable to stem the flow of pirated
foreign media (lines 37 to 40). This implies that China
A. has no regret for copyright laws

B. wants to win over its young Internet users
C. is unwilling to stop the flow of pirated foreign media
D. is only concerned about content that is politically-sensitive
44 The phrase even so (line 42) can be replaced by
A. regardless
B. eventually
C. therefore
D. besides
124
45 What is true about the distribution of free pirated materials in China?
A. The court has ruled that it is a violation of copyright.

B. The growth of China’s media market will be hampered.
C. The government is coming up with regulations to control it.
D. The government is worried that it might cause political problems.
125
PRACTICE 4
1 A growing number of men are making Asia one of the fastest growing markets
for men’s skin care. Asia accounts for USS2.1 billion, or 65 per cent of the 3.3
billion spent globally in 2013 on such items as male skin creams, lotions and
whiteners, according to data compiled by Euromonitor, a market research firm.
2 That amount dwarfs the US$286.4 million spent by North American men and 5
the US$682.9 million used by Western European males on the same products.
China, including Hong Kong, is the largest market for men's skin care, at
US$974.8 million, an amount that is forecast to grow to US$1.2 billion this year.
In second place is South Korea, which spent US$635 million.
3 "This is where the market's development is happening. It's very concentrated 10

in Asia," says Nicole Tyrimou, a beauty analyst for Euromonitor in London.
4 Men are still far from rivalling women - the women's skin care market is valued
at more than 30 times the men's at US$107.6 billion. But men's skin care products
are growing at a much faster pace, 9.4 per cent compared with 4.8 percent for
women's skin care. And as men have only recently considered buying items like 15
serums and deep-cleansing moisturising soap, beauty companies see much more
potential for expansion among males, compared with the mature women's skin
care market.
5 The most enthusiastic adoption, by far, is in South Korea, where male

celebrities, like singer and actor Rain, have long endorsed skin care in billboards 20
and television advertisements, paving the way for broader acceptance. South
Korean men spent USS25.3 per capita on skin care in 2013. Asian countries
account for five of the top 10 countries in per capita spending.
126
6 "There is a wider idea of skin care being effeminate in many countries, but in
Korea this doesn't seem to be the case," says Simon Duffy, co-founder of the 25 25
United Kingdom brand Bulldog, which started selling its line in Korean stores last
year.
7 Some retail experts attribute Asian men 's relative affinity for skin care to
simply following the lead of the women around them. "If your mother has a nine-
step skin care routine, which happens a lot in Korea, you're going to do five," says 30
Ms Tyrimou.
(Adapted from The Wall Street Journal, May 29, 2014)
1 Male skin creams are the fastest selling products in Asia.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
2 The figures given in the chart are derived from the annual sales figures for
male’s skin care products.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
3 Beauty companies are concentrating on male’s skin products because of the

declining market for female’s cosmetics.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
4 Male skin care products account for 65 per cent of the global skin care market.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
5 Sales of male skin care products in Africa is the slowest.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
6 The growth of male skin care products in Latin America and Eastern Europe is
the same.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
127
7 In Korea, the negative perception about men’s grooming has been changed by
extensive promotion.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
1 Emily Howell is not yet ten. But that did not stop her from composing six musical
scores and releasing two classical albums. Some say her style resembles that of
the great composers Bach and Mozart. No wonder her father, Professor David
Cope, is a proud man. Oh yes, by the way, Emily Howell is a computer
programme. 5
2 If you ever thought that creativity was the secluded corner where humans are
safe from machine invasion, well, you need to find a new corner. Most people are
oblivious to the creative adventures of computer algorithms – a set of rules that
are used to solve problems. So how can computer algorithms be creative? Yet,
music and computer science professor, Cope built a highly sophisticated and 10
refined algorithm to create music based on the works of great artistes but in his
own style. Emily Howell, the algorithm solves the problem of creating great
symphonies.
3 Algorithms are slowly replacing writers too. Professor Phil Parker, a

marketing professor at Insead Graduate Business school in France, has published 15
on Amazon more than a million business reports. And he did all that in just a
couple of years. According to Professor Parker, the number of released reports
changes by the hour. How can one man execute this monstrous task on his own?
It turns out Professor Parker has developed an algorithm that produces a report
in 10 to 20 minutes instead of about four weeks, which it typically takes one to do 20
manually.
4 We could question the effectiveness of algorithms on intangible dimensions

such as creativity. “Perhaps, for many people, human creativity is still highly
distinguishable from the creations of algorithms.” But one area where algorithms
trounce human beings mercilessly is stock trading. With every passing day, more 25
and more stocks around the world are traded by computer programmes. Their
algorithms execute trades at lightning speeds and carry out numerous
transactions every second.
5 On the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the average time taken to
complete a transaction is approximately 600 microseconds. Didn’t you blink when 30
you saw that number? To put things in perspective, if you blinked, it takes you 300
milliseconds to do that, during which the NYSE executed 500 transactions.
6 Arguably, the highest achievement in algorithms is IBM’s Watson
128
supercomputer. Never before has an algorithm posed such a formidable
challenge to human superiority in reason, logic and other skills. Watson is perhaps 35
better known for winning the game show, Jeopardy in 2011 and with it the US$1
million prize. But this popular anecdote overshadows the critical fact that Watson
is poised to revolutionise the medical field. According to IBM, “Watson uses
natural language capabilities, hypothesis generation, and evidence-based
learning to support medical professionals as they make decision.” 40
7 This will help physicians make more accurate and fact-based diagnoses. My
unscientific survey of comments on Watson-related Internet articles suggests that
many people are more willing to trust Watson than even their physicians. Although
Dr Watson will not be seeing patients any time soon on its own, we will definitely
see assistant Watson helping oncologists in cancer treatment. 45
(Adapted from The Straits Times, May 3, 2012)
8 Emily Howell was designed specifically for composing music.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
9 Creativity is confined to human brains only.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
10 Algorithms can produce better quality business reports.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
11 Which of the following sentences is the topic sentence in paragraph 4?
A. We could question the effectiveness of algorithms on intangible

dimensions such as creativity. (lines 22 and 23)
B. Perhaps, for many people, human creativity is still highly distinguishable
from the creations of algorithms. (lines 24 and 25)
C. Their algorithms execute trades at lightning speeds and carry out
numerous transactions every second. (lines 26 to 28)
12 Which idea is supported by paragraph 5?
A. The fantastic speed of algorithms in operation at work

B. The high volume of transactions in the New York Stock Exchange
C. The speed of human transactions compared to the use of algorithms
13 Which of the following is true about Watson?
A. Watson has great potential in many fields.

B. Watson can replace medical professionals.
C. Watson’s best capabilities was showcased when it won Jeopardy in 2011.
129
14 The writer’s tone may be described as
A. forceful
B. persuasive
C. argumentative
1 In the 1990s John Dilulio, a conservative American academic, argued that a new
breed of “superpredators”, “kids that have absolutely no respect for human life
and no sense of the future”, would terrorise Americans almost indefinitely. He
was not alone. Experts were convinced that crime would keep rising. Law-abiding
citizens would retreat to gated communities, patrolled by security guards. Police 5
chiefs could do little except bluster and try to fiddle the statistics.
2 Mr. Dilulio later recanted and it is clear that the pessimists were wrong. Even
as he wrote, America’s crime wave was breaking. Its cities have become vastly
safer, and the rest of the developed world has followed. From Japan to Estonia,
property and people are now safer than at almost any time since the 1970s. 10
Confounding expectations, the recession has not interrupted the downward trend.
3 Some crimes have all but died out. Last year there was just 69 armed
robberies of banks in England and Wales, compared with 500 a year in the 1990s.
In 1990 some 147 000 cars were stolen in New York. Last year fewer than 10 000
were stolen. In the Netherlands and Switzerland street dealers and hustlers have 15
been driven out of city centres; addicts there are now elderly men, often
alcoholics, living in state hostels. In countries such as Lithuania and Poland the
gangsters who trafficked people and drugs in the 1990s have moved into less
violent activities such as fraud.
4 Cherished social theories have been discarded. Conservatives who insisted 20

that the decline of the traditional nuclear family and growing ethnic diversity would
unleash an unstoppable crime wave have been proven wrong. Young people are
increasingly likely to have been brought up by one parent and to have played a
lot of computer games. Yet they are far better behaved than previous generations.
Experts who argued that crime could never be curbed unless inequality was 25
reduced look just as silly.
There is no single cause of the decline; rather, several have coincided.

5
Western societies are growing older, and most crimes are committed by young
men. Policing has improved greatly in recent decades, especially in big cities such
as New York and London, with forces using computers to analyse the incidence 30
of crime; in some parts of Manhattan this helped to reduce the robbery rate by
over 95 per cent. The epidemics of crack cocaine and heroine appear to have
burnt out.
130
6 The biggest factor may be simply that security measures have improved. Car
immobilisers have killed joyriding; bulletproof screens, security guards and 35
marked money have reduced bank robbery. Alarms and DNA databases have
increased the chance a burglar will be caught. At the same time, the rewards for
burglary have fallen because electronic gizmos are so cheap. Even small shops
now invest in CCTV cameras and security tags. Some crimes now look very risky
And that matters because as every survey of criminals shows the main deterrent 40
to crime is the fear of being caught.
(Adapted from The Economist, July 20, 2013)
15 What is the main point of paragraph 1?
A. Crime would keep increasing

B. Young children would turn to crime
C. People are taking more security measures
16 The information in paragraph 2 _........................... that of paragraph 1.
A. illustrates
B. elaborates
C. contradicts
17 America’s crime wave was breaking (line 8) means that
A. the crime rate fluctuated.

B. the crime rate was declining
C. the crime rate remained static
18 What conclusion can be made of paragraph 4?
A. Disintegration of nuclear family leads to crime.

B. Social inequality is not the main cause crime.
C. Children of single parents are more likely to commit crime.
19 The number of robberies in Manhattan has dropped drastically mainly

because
A. there is improved policing

B. there are fewer drug addicts
C. there are fewer young people
20 The following crimes are declining except
A. fraud
B. robbery
C. drug trafficking.
21 In the last paragraph, the writer attributes the drop in crime to
A. inexpensive security gadgets

B. widespread use of security devices
C. the use of sophisticated tracking gizmos
131
1 Bilingual education in schools has long been a political hot potato in the United
States – it was banned in California by a 1998 ballot measure, which the state
Senate is now asking voters to repeal. But politics aside, there is an increasing
amount of scientific support for the benefits of knowing (at least) two languages.
2 Now, a new study published by the Annals of Newlogy finds that you do not 5
even need to learn that second (or third, or fourth) tongue at a very young age.
Picking up a new language even a little later in life can have serious cognitive
benefits for the ageing brain. Many recent studies have pointed out that
bilingualism seems to be good exercise for the brain, and later in life, might even
help delay the onset of dementia. 10
3 But what if it is a self-selecting crowd? What if the people who learned two
languages are just smarter to begin with? To help rule that factor out, researchers
at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland studied 853 people who first took an
intelligence test in 1947 when they were about 11 years old as part of a group
called the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936, and retested them around 2008 to 2010 15
when they were in their early 70s.”Reflecting the society of its time,” the study
authors wrote, “the cohort is remarkably homogenous; they are English native
speakers, of European origin, born, raised and living in and around Edinburg.
None was an immigrant.” That was good for the study, given that it mostly wipes
out potentially confounding differences, such as ethnicity and immigration status, 20
that might complicate the relationship between bilingualism and cognitive decline.
4 In the study, a total of 262 of the septuagenarians (roughly a third of the study
group) reported having learned at least one language other than English enough
to communicate in it. Of those, 195 said they learned it before age of 18; 65 said
they learned it thereafter. It is unclear what happened to the remaining two 25
people. Also, few participants seemed to have learned their second language in
early childhood: 19 of the under-18 crowd said they learned it before age 11.
5 The researchers gave the participants a battery of cognitive tests, including

tests of their verbal reasoning, vocabulary and reading abilities, verbal fluency
and ability to process information quickly. They found that bilingual speakers 30
performed much better than expected from their baseline cognitive ability,
particularly in reading and general intelligence. Those who knew three or more
languages performed even better. Bilingualism’s effects were comparable to
factors such as “the effect of variation in the gene for apolipoprotein E, physical
fitness, and smoking or not smoking”, the authors wrote. 35
6 Learning a language seemed to make as much difference in people’s later-

in-life cognitive decline as a gene that has been tied to risk of Alzheimer’s disease
and smoking or non-smoking habits. These participants mostly learned their
second languages after 11. So, the researchers could not study the perfect, early
parallel acquisition of both languages – what they call the “classical” scenario. 40
But in this way, the results actually make a very compelling point- you do not have
132
to be fluent speaker of a language to get the benefits, and you can start later in
life too.
7 “Millions of people across the world acquire their second language later in
life; in school, university or work, or through migration or marriage to a member 45
of another linguistic community. Many never reach native-like perfection,” the
study authors pointed out. “For this population,” they continued, “Our results are
particularly relevant; bilingualism in its broad definition, even if acquired in
adulthood, might have beneficial effects on cognition.” Maybe it is time to blow
the dust off of that Spanish textbook or dig up that Mandarin audio CD and learn 50
something new.
(Adapted from The Star (Fit For Life), June 2014)
22 Bilingual education in schools is being referred to as a political hot potato

(line1). This means that bilingual education is
A. popular
B. difficult
C. controversial
23 What is the main point in paragraph 2?
A. Young people pick up languages faster.

B. Learning new languages at any age is beneficial.
C. People who learn new languages will not experience dementia.
24 that factor (line12) refers to
A. age
B. memory
C. intelligence
25 “The cohort is remarkably homogenous…..” (line 17) shows that researchers

are pleased that the sample
A. lives in the same area

B. is of a similar age group
C. has uniform characteristics
26 Which of the following is a finding of the study on bilingualism?
A. Smoking has an effect on language learning

B. Learning new languages improves reading abilities
C. Inborn abilities determine the success in language learning
27 Why did the writer enclose the information in lines 22 and 23 in brackets?
A. To show it is an after thought

B. To contradict the previous data
C. To indicate that it is of lesser significance
133
28 From the findings, the researchers strongly believed that people can benefit
from language learning
A. when they begin before age 11

B. regardless of their level of mastery
C. if they start learning two languages at the same time
29 The message in the last paragraph is
A. it is never too late to learn a new language

B. you can learn a new language on your own
C. Mandarin is learnt more easily through using audio CD
134
1 If you are like most people, you are way too smart for advertising. You flip right
past newspaper ads, click on ads online and leave the room during TV
commercials. That, at least, is what we tell ourselves. But what we tell ourselves
is nonsense. Advertising works, which is why, even in hard economic times,
Madison Avenue is a $34 billion-a-year business. And if Martin Lindstrom, author 5
of the best seller Buyology and a marketing consultant for Fortune 500
companies, including PepsiCo and Disney – is correct, trying to tune this stuff out
is about to get a whole lot harder.
2 Lindstrom is a practitioner of neuromarketing research, in which consumers

are exposed to ads while hooked up to machines that monitor brain activity, pupil 10
dilation, sweat responses and flickers in facial muscles, all of which are markers
of emotion. According to his studies, 83 per cent of all forms of advertising
principally engage only one of our senses; sight. Hearing, however, can be just
as powerful, though advertisers have taken only limited advantage of it.
Historically, ads have relied on jingles and slogans to catch our ear, largely 15
ignoring everyday sounds – a steak sizzling, a baby laughing and other noises
our bodies can’t help paying attention to. Weave this stuff into an ad campaign,
and we may be powerless to resist it.
3 To figure out what most appeals to our ear, Lindstrom wired up his
volunteers, then played them recordings of dozens of familiar sounds, from 20
McDonald’s ubiquitous “I’m Lovin’ It” jingle to birds chirping and cigarettes being
lit. The sound that blew the doors off all the rest – both in terms of interest and
positive feelings – was a baby giggling. The other high-ranking sounds were less
primal but still powerful. The hum of a vibrating cell phone was Lindstrom’s
second place finisher. Others that followed were an ATM dispensing cash, a 25
steak sizzling on a grill and a soda being popped and poured.
4 In all of these cases, it didn’t take a Mad Man to invent sounds, infuse them
with meaning and then play them over and over until the subjects internalised
them. Rather, the sounds already had meaning and thus triggered a cascade of
reactions; hunger, thirst, happy anticipation. 30
5 “Cultural messages that get into your nervous system are very common and
make you behave in certain ways,” says neuroscientist Read Montague of Baylor
College of Medicine. Advertisers who fail to understand that pay a price.
Lindstrom admits to being mystified by TV ads that give viewers close-up shots
of meat on a grill but accompany that with generic jangly guitar music. One of his 35
earlier brain studies showed that numerous regions, including the insula and
orbital frontal cortex, jump into action when such discordance occurs, trying to
make sense of it.
6 TV advertisers aren’t the only ones who may start putting sound to greater
use. Retailers are also catching on. The 0101 department store in Japan, for 40
example, has been designed as a series of soundscapes, playing different sound
135
effects such as children at play, birdsongs and lapping water in the sportswear,
fragrance and formal-wear sections. Lindstrom is consulting with clients about
employing a similar strategy in European supermarkets, piping the sound of
percolating coffee or fizzing soda into the beverage department or that of a baby 45
cooing into the baby – food aisle.
7 None of this means that advertisers just have to turn the audio dials and
consumers will come running. Indeed, sometimes the consumers flee. In the early
years of mainstream cell-phone use, the Nokia ringtone was recognised by 42
per cent of people in the United Kingdom – and soon became widely-loathed. 50
That, Lindstrom says, was partly because so few users practised cell-phone
etiquette and the blasted things kept going off in movie theatres. The Microsoft
start-up sound has taken on similarly negative associations, because people so
often hear it when they are rebooting after their computer has crashed. In these
cases, manufactures themselves must reboot by changing the offending sound 55
slightly or replacing it entirely.
8 If history is any indication, marketers will keep getting more manipulative,

and the storm of commercial noise will become more focused. Even then, there
may be hope: Lindstrom’s testing shows that people respond to a sound better
when it subtler. If nothing else, smart marketers may at least keep the volume 60
low.
(Adapted from Time Magazine,March 1, 2010)
30 What is the main idea of paragraph 1?
A. Advertising is a big business

B. People avoid advertisements when they can
C. When the economy is bad, advertisement revenue suffers
31 In paragraph 2, the writer makes the point that
A. Advertisers aim to influence our emotions

B. Advertisers have not yet taken full advantage of our hearing
C. Advertisements set into motion different markers emotion
D. Advertisements work because of our reactions to what we see and hear
32 blew the doors off all the rest (line 22) means
A. the most special

B. the most popular
C. the most effective
D. the most interesting
136
33 “In all of these cases, it didn’t take a Mad Man to invent the sounds, infuse
them with meaning and then play them over and over until the subjects
internalised them (lines 27 to 29). The writer is implying that
A. advertisers use sounds wrongly in their advertisements

B. making advertisements involves a lot of time and money
C. some advertisers are unware of the strategies that do work
D. making use of sounds in advertisements is not a complex process
34 Which of the following is an example of discordance (line 37)?
A. Chirpy nursery rhymes being played with close-ups of smiling children’s

faces.
B. Loud alternative music being played with clips of models clad in trendy
clothes.
C. Classical music being played with shots of racing mountain bikers racing
downhill.
D. Slow jazzy music being played with different shots of a fancy restaurant at
dinner time.
35 Retailers are also catching on (line 40) means that they are
A. increasing their advertising campaigns

B. using the same strategies as advertisers
C. getting better at marketing than advertisers
D. competing with advertisers for the same consumers
36 The Nokia ringtone and the Microsoft start-up sound were mentioned to
support the idea that
A. music has been overused in advertising

B. all electronic gadgets have distinctive tunes
C. certain sounds are associated with particular gadgets
D. overuse of the same sound can have a negative effect
37 The writer concludes that
A. advertisers should continue to carry out research

B. advertisements will become increasingly more effective
C. sound should be used more conspicuously in advertisements
D. Lindstrom’s research findings have contributed to better advertising
137
1 The price of wheat is setting an all-time high in the United Kingdom. Food riots
are spreading across Algeria. Russia is importing grain to sustain its cattle herds
until spring grazing begins. India is wrestling with an 18 per cent annual food
inflation rate, sparking protests. China is looking abroad for potentially massive
quantities of wheat and corn. The Mexican government is buying corn futures to 5
avoid unmanageable tortilla price rises. And on January 5, the United Nations
(UN) Food and Agriculture Organisation announced that its food price index for
December hit an all-time high.
2 But in years past, it has been weather that has caused a spike in
commodities prices, now it is trends on both sides of the food supply and demand 10
equation that are driving up prices. On the demand side, the culprits are
population growth rising affluence, and the use of grain to fuel cars. On the supply
side; soil erosion, aquifer depletion, the loss of cropland to nonfarm uses, the
diversion of irrigation water to cities, the plateauing of crop yields in agriculturally
advanced countries, and –due to climate change- crop withering heat waves and 15
melting mountain glaciers and ice sheets. These climate-related trends seem
destined to take a far greater toll in the future.
3 There is at least a glimmer of good news on the demand side: World

population growth, which peaked at two per cent per year around 1970, dropped
below 1.2 per cent per year in 2010. But because the world population has nearly 20
doubled since 1970, we are still adding 80 million people each year. Tonight,
there will be 219 000 additional mouths to feed at the dinner table, and many of
them will be greeted with empty plates. Another 219 000 will join us tomorrow
night. At some point, this relentless growth begins to tax both the skills of farmers
and the limits of the earth’s land and water resources. 25
4 Beyond population growth, there are now some three billion people moving
up the food chain, eating greater qualities of grain-intensive livestock and poultry
products. The rise in meat, milk, and egg consumption in fast-growing developing
countries has no precedent. Total meat consumption in China today is already
nearly doubled that in the United States (US). 30
5 The third major source of demand growth is the use of crops to produce fuel
for cars. In the United States, which harvested 416 million tons of grain in 2009,
119 million tons went to ethanol distilleries to produce fuel for cars. That is enough
to feed 350 million people for a year. The massive US investment in ethanol
distilleries sets the stage for direct competition between cars and people for the 35
world grain harvest. In Europe, where much of the auto fleet runs on diesel fuel,
there is growing demand for plant-based diesel oil, principally from rapeseed and
palm oil. This demand for oil-bearing crops is not only reducing the land available
to produce food crops in Europe, it is also driving the clearing of rainforests in
Indonesia and Malaysia for palm oil plantations. 40
138
6 The combined effect of these three growing demands is stunning; a doubling
in the annual growth in world grain consumption from an average of 21 million
tons per year in 1990-2005 to 41 million tons per year in 2005-2010. Most of this
huge jump is attributable to the excessive investment in ethanol distilleries in the
US in 2006-2008. 45
7 While the annual demand growth for grain was doubling, new constraints
were emerging on the supply side, even as longstanding ones such as soil
erosion intensified. An estimated one third of the world’s cropland is losing its
inherent productivity. Two huge dust bowls are forming, one across northwest
China, western Mongolia, and central Asia; the other in central Africa. Each of 50
these dwarfs the US dust bowl of the 1930s.
8 Meanwhile, aquifer depletion is fast shrinking the amount of irrigated area in

many parts of the world; this relatively recent phenomenon is driven by the large
scale use of mechanical pumps to exploit underground water. Today, half the
world’s people live in countries where water tables are falling as over pumping 55
depletes aquifers.
9 Irrigated area is shrinking in the Middle East, notably in Saudi Arabia, Syria,
Iraq, and possibly Yemen. In Saudi Arabia, which was totally dependent on a
now-depleted fossil aquifer for its wheat self-sufficiency, production is in a freefall.
From 2007 to 2010, Saudi wheat production fell by more than two thirds. By 2012, 60
wheat production will likely and entirely, leaving the country totally dependent on
imported grain.
(Adapted from Foreign Policy, January 10, 2011)
38 The intention of the writer in paragraph 1 is to highlight
A. The trend in global food imports

B. The seriousness of the food crisis globally
C. The dissatisfaction over increasing food prices
D. The steps taken by governments to tackle the food crisis
39 Which of the following is the demand factor that causes an increase in the
prices of commodities?
A. Soil erosion
B. Bad weather
C. Population growth
D. Reduction in farmland
40 ……..the plateauing of crop yields (line 14) means that crop yields have
A. declined
B. increased
C. started fluctuating
D. remained constant
139
41 Which of the following would have the most serious impact on world
commodity prices in the future?
A. Drastic climate change

B. Rapid population growth
C. Rising affluence of people
D. Massive depletion of cropland
42 ….. a glimmer of good news ….(line18) refers to
A. an increase of food production

B. a drop in the use of water resources
C. a decline in world population growth
D. an improvement in farming technique
43 …….there are now some three billion people moving up the food chain
(lines 26 and 27). This means that more people are
A. eating larger amounts of meat

B. moving to food producing areas
C. developing a taste for milk-based products
D. migrating to countries where food is easily available
44 The writer mentions dust bowls in China, Africa and the US dust bowl of 1930s
to support the idea that
A. the dust bowls are natural processes

B. the demand for cropland is increasing
C. the cropland is being excessively depleted
D. the dust bowls are a longstanding problem
45 What is true about aquifer depletion?
A. It is not a recent occurrence.

B. It will affect half the countries in the world.
C. It is slowly reducing the amount of irrigated land.
D. It is the result of the wide use of mechanical pumps.
140
PRACTICE 5
1 For all Britain’s hard work to boost organ donation, around 1000 people die
each year for lack of a transplant. The active waiting list numbers more than
7600, and 10 000 may be a fairer reflection of the need. As hypertension,
obesity and the miracles of modern medicine proliferate, that gap is likely to
increase – unless donation rates rise drastically. Deceased donors are twice 5
as numerous in Spain as in Britain, per million people (Figure 1). Even the
European Union (EU) average is higher. Britain does better when living
donors are included, but dead donors are more useful because they can part
with a wider range of organs. Why the difference?
Figure 1: Organ donor rate per million population, 2010
(Source: Council of Europe)
2 For many, the answer lies in Britain’s “opt-in” regime of informed 10

consent. A potential donor has to signal his intent by enrolling on an official
Organ Donor Register. Though 90 per cent of Britons say they approve of
donation, only 30 per cent have signed up. Spain and most EU members,
have instead embraced some form of presumed consent, in which everyone
is assumed to be a donor unless he expressly “opts out”. This week the 15
British Medical Association (BMA), which represents doctors, urged switching
systems.
141
3 Even if the 50 per cent target is met, the number of people who needs
transplants will still greatly exceed the number of organs available. So, the
BMA thinks more controversial measures should be debated. These include 20
taking hearts from dead newborns, using organs from higher-risk donors and
putting dying patients on a ventilator to retrieve organs later. A sustained
public-information campaign, plus an expansion of medical specialists and
intensive-care capacity, might do the job while raising fewer problems.
(Adapted from The Economist, 18 February 2012)
Most people who require organ transplants are obese and suffer from
1 hypertension.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
2 More organs are now required due to medical advancements.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
3 In Figure 1, although Spain and Norway have almost the same number of
organ donors, Spain is in a better position than Norway in terms of availability
of organs.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
A Spaniard is assumed to have given his consent for organ donation unless
4 he has opted out of the system
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
142
5 A country with more deceased donors will have more organs available for
transplant.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
6 To meet the 50 per cent target, Britain is implementing extreme methods to

obtain organs.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
7 Britain has replaced the “opt-in” with the “opt-out” organ donation system
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
143
1 What is talent? If you ask the average grade school teacher to identify her
most talented student, she is likely to reject the question (All my students are
equally talented). But of course, this answer is not quite true. Anyone who
has worked with numerous young people over the years knows that some
students catch on quickly, almost instantly, to new skills and understandings, 5
while others must go through the same drill, with depressingly little
improvement over time. As misguided as the teacher’s response, is the
viewpoint put forward by some psychological researchers and those most
recently popularised in Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success.
This is the notion that there is nothing mysterious about talent: no need to 10
crack open the lockbox: Anyone who works hard enough over a long period
of time can end up at the top of his or her field.
2 But anyone who has the opportunity to observe or read about a prodigy -
be it Mozart or Yo-Yo Ma in music, Tiger Woods in golf, John von Neumann
in mathematics – knows that achievement is not just hard work. The 15
differences between performance at time one and successive performances
at times two, three, and four are vast, not simply the result of additional
sweat. It is said that if algebra had not already existed, the philosopher and
logician Saul Kripke would have invented it in elementary school: such a
characterisation would be ludicrous if applied to most individuals. 20
For the first time, it should be possible to delineate the nature of talent.
3
This breakthrough will come about through a combination of findings from
genetics (do highly-talented individuals have a distinctive, recognisable
genetic profile?), neuroscience (are there structural or functional neural
signatures, and can these be recognised early in life?), cognitive psychology 25
(are the mental representations of talented individuals distinctive when
contrasted to those of hard workers?), and the psychology of motivation (why
are talented individuals often said to have “a rage to learn, a passion to
master”?)
4 This interdisciplinary scientific breakthrough will allow us to understand 30

what is special about Picasso, Gauss, and J.S. Mill. And it will illuminate the
question whether a talented person can achieve equally in different domains
(Could Mozart have been a great physicist? Could Newton have been a great
musician?). However, it will not illuminate two other issues:
(a) What makes someone original, creative? Talent and expertise are 35
necessary but not sufficient.
(b) What determines how talents are applied? Are they applied to
constructive or destructive ends?
144
5 These answers are likely to come from historical or cultural case studies 40
rather than from biological or psychological science. Part of the maturity of
the sciences is an appreciation of which questions are best left to other
disciplinary approaches.
(Adapted from Cracking Open the Lockbox of Talent,

Howard Gardner, HarperCollins 2010)
8 The teacher’s claim that all her students are equally talented is valid.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
9 The notion of talent as proposed by psychological researchers has become a

popular belief.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
10 The writer cites the example of Mozart to support the idea that talent is more
than just hard work.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
The main idea of paragraph 3 is that

11
A. the work of interdisciplinary scientists will help us to understand talent
better
B. while science has provided some answers about talent, it has raised
more questions
C. biological science has contributed more to our understanding of talent
than psychological science
12 The scientific breakthrough regarding talent will answer one of the following
questions.
A. Could Newton have been a great musician? (lines 33 and 34)

B. What makes someone original, creative? (line 35)
C. Are they applied to constructive or destructive ends? (lines 37 and 38)
145
13 The writer ends by
A. predicting the future

B. suggesting a balanced approach
C. presenting an optimistic outlook
14
The ideas in this passage are mainly _____________ in nature.
A. argumentative
B. innovative
C. speculative
146
1 Since the reef first found footing, ice ages have come and gone, and ocean
and atmospheric conditions have fluctuated wildly. The reef has seen many
changes – expanding and eroding, being defaced and re-inhabited at
nature’s whim. “A history of the Great Barrier Reef,” Veron, a coral expert,
says, “is a catalogue of disasters” caused by planetary chaos. But they are 5
disasters from which the reef has always recovered. Today, new disasters
endanger the reef and the prospect for recovery is uncertain.
2 The relative quick shift in the world’s climate, scientists say, appears to
be devastating for reefs. In corals, warming temperatures and increased
exposure to the sun’s violet rays lead to stress response called bleaching – 10
when the colourful algae in coral cells become toxic and are expelled, turning
the host animals skeletal white. Fleshy seaweeds may then choke out the
remains. Heat is also implicated in a 60-year decline in ocean phytoplankton
– the microscopic organisms that not only gobble greenhouse gases but also
feed, directly or indirectly, almost every other living thing in the sea. Changes 15
in sea level, either up or down, have a dire impact as well, exposing shallow
corals to too much sun or drowning them in deeper water, where they are
hidden from the light.
3 Of course, to the two million tourists who visit the reef each year, the
promise of an underwater paradise teeming with life is still fulfilled. But the 20
blemishes are there if you know where to look. The reef bears a two-mile-
long scar from a collision with a coral carrier in April of last year. Other ship
groundings and occasional oil spills have marred the habitat. Sediment
plumes from flooding and nutrients from agriculture and development also do
very real damage to the ecosystem. The captain of the boat who took me 25
diving put it this way: “Without the reef, there is nothing out here but a whole
lot of salty water.” To many locals, he adds, “the reef is a loved one whose
loss is too sad to contemplate.”
4 This challenge scientists face is to keep the reef healthy despite rapid
change. “To fix a car engine, you need to know how it works,” says Veron. 30
“The same is true for reefs.” He and others have been investigating how
these ecosystems function so that efforts to prevent damage can be doubly
effective. High on the to-do list: Determine the full impact of over-fishing.
Traditionally, commercial fishermen could work along the reef, even after
133 000 square miles of ocean habitat was designated a marine park. But, 35
with rising concern about the big take, the Australian government in 2004
made a third of that area off-limits to all fishing – including for sport. The
biological recovery has been bigger and faster than expected: within two
years after the
147
ban, for example, numbers of coral trout doubled on the once heavily fished 40
reef.
5 Scientists also want to know what makes specific corals extra tenacious
during times of change. “We know some reefs experience much more
stressed conditions than others,” says reef ecologist Peter Mumby. He says
understanding how corals recover from bleaching – and figuring how new 45
polyps grow – can help in designing reserves. Even Veron acknowledges
that coral survival is possible in the long-term if the onslaughts against reef
are halted – soon. Indeed one lesson is that despite today’s weighty threats,
the Great Barrier Reef will not crumble. It has, after all, toughed it out through
catastrophic change before. And all kinds of marine life are around to keep 50
the reef whole.
(Adapted from National Geographic, May 2011)
15 The writer’s main intention in paragraph 1 is to
A. explain why in the past, the reef was able to recover

B. highlight the environmental disruptions threatening the reef
C. contrast the effects of disasters on the reef in the past and today
16 Which of the following is one of the new disasters (line 6) endangering the
reef?
A. An increase in ocean temperature

B. A stress condition called bleaching
C. Microscopic organisms feeding on greenhouse gases
In paragraph 2, the writer develops his ideas mainly through

17
A. listing
B. exemplification
C. cause and effect
18 The following are blemishes (line 21) except
A. oil spills
B. a long scar
C. a damaged habitat
148
19 The increase in the number of coral trout is due to
A. a healthier ecosystem
B. the creation of the marine park
C. the ban on fishing in protected zones
20 The word tenacious (line 41) means
A. hardy
B. flexible
C. productive
21 Which of the following best summarises the writer’s belief about the future of
the Great Barrier Reef?
A. It will thrive
B. It will recover with time
C. It will face more stress conditions
149
1 Vishal, the son of a farm labourer, is almost four. He should weigh around 16
kilogrammes. But the needle of the weighing scale stops at just over 10
kilogrammes – what a healthy one-year-old should weigh. That his teacher
does not look perturbed is unsurprising. Nearly half of India’s small children
are malnourished: one of the highest rates of underweight children in the 5
world.
2 Almost as shocking as the prevalence of malnutrition in India is the

country’s failure to reduce it. Since 1991, its Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
has more than doubled, while malnutrition has decreased by only a few
percentage points. Meanwhile, the chasm between the lucky and unlucky 10
Indian children is growing: under-fives in rural areas are more likely to be
underweight than urban children, low-caste children than higher-caste
children, girls rather than boys. And, the disparities are growing.
3 Malnutrition places a heavy burden on India. It is linked to half of all child

deaths and nearly a quarter of cases of diseases. Malnourished children tend 15
not to reach their potential, physically or mentally, and they do worse at
school than they otherwise would. This has a direct impact on productivity:
the World Bank reckons that in low-income Asian countries, physical
impairments caused by nutrition knock three per cent off the GDP. Why,
then, has India done so little to reduce it? There are many reasons. Most 20
fundamentally, poor parents find it hard to buy enough food; but that is by no
means the only factor. Impoverished and rural families are also less likely to
go to a doctor when their children fall sick, which they do a lot, thanks to dirty
water and poor hygiene. Inadequate nutrition lowers the immune system,
increasing the risk of infectious disease; illness, in turn, depletes a child’s 25
nutritional stocks.
4 Even the children of wealthier families suffer surprisingly high rates of

malnutrition. Government data show that a third of children from the
wealthiest fifth of India’s population are malnourished. This is because poor
feeding practices – foremost among them a failure exclusively to breast-feed 30
in the first six months – play as big a role in India’s malnutrition rates as food
shortages. Here lies an opportunity: educating parents about how to feed
their children should be more quickly achieved than ensuring that the 410
million Indians who live below the United Nation’s estimated poverty line of
US$1.25 a day have enough to eat. 35
5 The government, however, has largely failed in both areas. Two big,
expensive schemes designed to reduce malnutrition – a Public Distribution
System (PDS) that provides subsidised food to the poor and a vast midday-
150
meal scheme, to which 120 million children are signed up – are hampered by
inefficiency and wastage. But the government’s main effort to tackle child 40
malnutrition, the Integrated Childhood Development Service (ICDS), has
failed for rather different reasons.
6 The ICDS, launched in 1975, is the world’s biggest early-childhood

scheme. Each centre is responsible for providing nutritional care to pregnant
women and all children up to six. However, overburdened by a long list of 45
responsibilities, workers have tended to focus on the group they see every
day: children over the age of two whose mothers take advantage of free child
care and daily meals offered by the centres. While these meals – supposedly
providing each child with an extra 500 calories a day – are certainly
beneficial, they do not replace the nutritional guidance the parents of young 50
children need. More seriously, this emphasis on older children means that
the under-twos and pregnant women barely get a turn. Unfortunately, these
are precisely the groups the government should be targeting. Most growth
retardation occurs by the age of two and is irreversible. Often it starts during
pregnancy. More than half the women of childbearing age in India are 55
anaemic – a condition that can be much improved by fortifying food.
7 Fortifying the food handed out by the PDS would be an effective way to
lower rates of anaemia and increase nutrition. But this would need a lot of
money and so far India has resisted the idea. But most experts agree that the
country will make a serious dent in child malnutrition only when it focuses on 60
pregnant women and very young children. “India has missed its big window
of opportunity by not giving priority to mothers and the under-twos,” says
Victor Aguayo, chief of The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)’s
nutrition programme in India. “It cannot afford to do so any longer.”
(Adapted from The Economist, 25th September – 1st October 2010)
22
That his teacher does not look perturbed is unsurprising (lines 3 and 4).
Why?
A. The teacher does not expect Vishal to put any weight.

B. The children of farm labourers are often underweight.
C. Underweight children are a common sight in India.
151
23
And, the disparities are growing (line 13).
The disparities here refer to the
A. urban and rural children

B. lucky and unlucky children
C. below and above-five years olds
24 Which of the following best summarises paragraph 3?
A. Malnutrition is a serious problem in India but little has been done

about it.
B. Malnutrition has adversely affected productivity, causing a reduction in
GDP.
C. Malnutrition is linked to child deaths, diseases and physical and mental
retardation
25 The government, however, has largely failed in both areas (line 36).
The areas are
A. providing sufficient food and raising the income of the poor

B. encouraging good feeding habits and educating parents on nutrition
C. subsidising basic food items and organising effective meal-schemes
The word irreversible (line 54) means

26
A. cannot be put right
B. cannot be modified
C. cannot be changed to the original state
In order to reduce malnutrition, the writer recommends

27
A. focusing government action on pregnant women and children under twos.
B. fortifying the nutritional value of the food handed out at the centres.
C. increasing the allocation for the meal-schemes for the poor.
152
28 The phrase make a serious dent (line 60) means that India will
A. have a great impact

B. create further trouble
C. face an urgent problem
29 It cannot afford to do so any longer (line 64) implies that
A. India is facing difficulty in feedings its growing population

B. India should change in the way it addresses malnutrition
C. India should adopt UNICEF’s nutrition programme
153
1 Try to imagine a world with three Americas. Three giant economic

powerhouses, with citizens who buy, sell and consume, all in pursuit of their
versions of the American Dream. Difficult to envision? But that is where
economists say we are heading. The broad consensus is that China will
overtake the United States to become the world’s biggest economy within 5
two decades. And by 2050, will be as big as well. On current trends, the
World Bank and the International Monetary Fund expect global economic
output to grow between six and sevenfold between 2005 and 2050. Asia’s
total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will grow from around US$30 trillion
now to about US$230 trillion. This is an astonishing number. But is it really 10
desirable – or even possible?
2 If the United States is joined by two more economic masses, our planet
will become unimaginably stressed. Already we have passed the earth’s
regenerative capacity, yet this is hardly factored into economic projections
about growth. 15
Take energy. If the Chinese and Indians were to use as much energy
3
per capita as Americans use, their total power consumption would be 14
times as great as that of the United States. Even if Asians were to restrict
themselves to lower European levels of energy usage, they would still
consume eight to nine times as much power as America does today. 20
However we look at it, the world cannot expect to see its energy usage grow
by such an extent. Conventional forms of power generation will produce
carbon in such volumes that our planet will be condemned to unmanageable
climate change, while the alternatives – even nuclear power – are simply not
viable within the time frames mentioned. 25
4 Or take cars. Estimates suggest that if China, India and other developing
countries reach Western levels of car ownership, there would be three billion
cars bin the world, four times the current total, within four decades. Where
will the fuel come from for these vehicles, and what about their environmental
impact? Similar calculations can be made for everything from chicken to 30
iPads. Quite simply, this world just does not have enough for two more
consumption-driven Americas.
5 Asian government must reject the blinkered views of those who urge
Asians to consume relentlessly – be they Western economists and leaders
who want the region to become a “motor of growth” to rebalance the world 35
economy or Asian governments convinced that ever-expending economies
are what their populations need. That is not to suggest that people must
remain poor. Nor is it an argument against economic development. Rather it
154
is a call for constrained consumption, funnelled in ways that do not increase
the demands on our resource base; deplete or degrade our environment; 40
produce more emissions and pollutants, and put at risk the livelihood and
health of millions.
6 If Asia is to achieve prosperity for the broad majority of its population, the
countries of the region must find alternative ways of promoting human and
economic development. What Asia must prioritise are incentives that reward 45
“more is less” activities – ones built around putting the management of
resources at the center of all policy-making. The crucial first steps in this
direction are carbon and resources taxes that provide incentives for
companies to use far fewer materials and far less energy in their products.
This in turn will change consumption habits. This step alone, led by Asia, 50
would mark the start of a new industrial revolution – one that, unlike the
previous one, does not underprice resources or externalise its true costs.
This will be the move away from today’s extreme capitalism, reshaping it to
suit the needs of a crowded twenty first century.
(Adapted from New York Times, 7 June 2011)
30 What is the point that the writer is making in paragraph 1?
A. India will be as big as China economically.

B. China and India will become another America.
C. It is desirable for Asia’s GDP to grow to about US$230 trillion.
D. China, India and America are competing for economic power.
31 This (line 10) refers to
A. the planet becoming over-exploited

B. the inability of the earth to heal itself
C. the world’s projected economic growth
D. the world having three economic power houses
32 ... factored into (line 14) means
A. targeted
B. prioritised
C. considered
D. recognised
155
33 The writer talks about energy and cars in paragraphs 3 and 4 to support the
point that
A. China and India should not become another America

B. the earth cannot sustain three major economic powers
C. climate change will get worse with an increase in the number of cars
D. alternative sources of energy are needed to cope with the increase in
demand
34 According to the writer, the view that Asia should consume relentlessly
(line 34) is
A. narrow
B. illogical
C. shocking
D. disputable
35 The writer supports the following views except
A. Asia should be economically-developed

B. Asia should be constrained in its consumption
C. Asia should be concerned about the well-being of its people
D. Asia should become an engine of growth to rebalance the world’s
economy
36 The term more is less (line 46) suggests
A. providing more incentives

B. manufacturing more products
C. reducing energy consumption
D. managing resources efficiently
37 The writer’s intention is to
A. criticise
B. describe
C. persuade
D. condemn
156
1 News flash – “Frankenfish” will be served on dinner tables in households by

2012, if the United States (US) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has its
way. The US is mulling a decision to approve a new breed of fast-growing
genetically modified (GM) salmon for human consumption. Frankenfish
comes from the term “Frankenstein food” referring to any foodstuff that has 5
been genetically modified.
2 GM foods are nothing new. The first product, the now-defunct Flavr Savr
tomato, hit supermarket shelves in the US in 1994. The tomato was
developed out of US consumers’ disdain for tasteless and hard off-season
tomatoes that were picked green and chemically ripened. The Flavr Savr 10
tomato was engineered to stay fresh longer, develop more flavour, and ship
long distances without rotting.
3 GM crops are produced by snipping off genes from other forms of life –
plants, insects, bacteria and even viruses, and splicing it with plants to alter
their genetic makeup. For instance, fish genes that are resistant to the cold 15
are added to strawberries to create a frost-resistant version of the fruit. And
despite the initial uproar raised by critics and scientists, processed foods
containing GM corn and soy ingredients started showing up in late 1995.
4 Proponents of GM technology say GM crops have allowed farmers to cut

down on chemicals used to kill weeds, and pests, boosting crop yields and 20
cutting costs and potential harm to the environment. High yields also mean
that more crops can be grown on smaller plots of land to feed our burgeoning
world population.
5 In the last decade, genetically modified organisms or transgenic

organisms (GMOs) have seeped into many industries other than food, some 25
of which include medicines, vaccines, animal feeds, and fibres. By 2006, 102
million hectares of transgenic crops were planted in 22 countries by 10.3
million farmers. Most of these crops were herbicide and insect-resistant
soybeans, corn, cotton, canola, and alfalfa. Other commercially-grown or
field-tested crops planted now are iron-and-vitamin-boosted rice that will 30
allegedly alleviate chronic malnutrition in Asian countries, and a variety of
plants able to withstand extreme weather conditions. More than half of these
crops are grown in the US, followed by countries like Argentina, Brazil,
Canada and South Africa.
6 But here is the alarming news – studies have shown that GM foods can 35
cause birth defects, infertility, infant mortality, damage to your kidneys and
liver and trigger allergic reactions.
157
7 The latest study released by Surov’s Institute of Ecology and Evolution
of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the National Association for Gene
Security (July 2010) reveals that after feeding hamsters for two years over 40
three-generations, those on high GM soy diets showed chilling results. By the
third generation, these GM soy-fed hamsters became infertile and with a high
mortality rate among the pups that were born.
8 Unlike safety evaluations for drugs there are no human clinical trials for
GM foods. But soy allergies skyrocketed by 50 per cent in the United 45
Kingdom soon after GM soy was introduced.
9 The American Academy of Enviromental Medicine (AAEM) reported that

“several animal studies” indicate serious health risk associated with GM Food
including infertility, immune problems, accelerated ageing, faulty insulin
regulation, and changes in major organs and the gastrointestinal system. 50
Based on the findings of the AAEM report, the stomach lining of rats fed
10
with GM potatoes showed excessive cell growth, a condition that could lead
to cancer. Thousands of sheep, buffaloes, and goats in India die after
grazing on GM cotton plants. Apart from that a study by the Committee of
Research and Information on Genetic Engineering (CRIGEN) and 55
Universities of Caen and Rouen, France showed organ lesions, altered liver
and pancreas, cells-changed enzyme levels, in animals fed with GM
potatoes.
11 The only published human feeding experiment revealed that the genetic
material spliced into GM soy is transferred into bacteria living inside our 60
intestines. This means long after we stop eating GM foods, our bodies may
still habour GM proteins. Before the FDA decided to allow GMOs into food
without labeling, FDA scientists had repeatedly warned that GM foods can
create unpredictable, hard to detect side effects, including allergies, toxins,
new diseases, and nutritional problems. Their pleas for long-term safety 65
studies was ignored.
(Adapted from Preferred, Volume VIX, 2010)
158
38 News flash – “Frankenfish” will be served on dinner tables in households
by 2012, if the United States (US) Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
has its way (lines 1, 2 and 3)
From this sentence, it can be inferred that
A. there are oppositions to the FDA’s plan

B. approval will be given by the FDA soon
C. Americans are eager to serve the fish for dinner
D. news about “Frankenfish” has received wide media coverage
39 The term, Frankenstein food (line 5) suggests
A. a strange taste
B. an altered origin
C. an odd appearance
D. the use of chemicals
40 The writer is doubtful about the enhanced properties of iron-and-vitamin-

boosted rice (line 30) because of the use of the word
A. commercially-grown (line 29)

B. field-tested (line 30)
C. allegedly (line 31)
D. chronic (line 31)
41 The main focus of paragraph 4 is
A. the advantage of GM technology

B. the solution to the world’s food crisis
C. GM technology supplies cheaper food
D. GM technology is environmentally-friendly
42 The information in paragraph 6 provides
A. an overview
B. an argument
C. a comparison
D. a clarification
43 chilling (line 41) can be replaced by
A. exciting
B. revealing
C. surprising
D. frightening
159
44 What is not true about the studies mentioned in paragraph 10?
A. GM food can lead to cancer.

B. GM cotton plants lead to fatality.
C. They involve both animals and human.
D. They focus on the effects of consuming GM potatoes and cotton
plants.
45 The main intention of the writer is to
A. argue that GM foods are harmful

B. object the introduction of GM foods
C. produce the results of studies done on GM foods
D. compare the advantages and disadvantages of GM foods.
160
PRACTICE 6
1 The hotel business is relentless. The management has to provide twenty-four

hours service, 365 days a year, and every single day is just as important as
any other day. Not surprisingly, M&M Hotel, which prides itself on providing
excellent customer service, had for many years a deeply-ingrained culture of
‘face time’ – the more hours you put in, the better. That philosophy of ‘see 5
and be seen’ was effective for serving customers, but it had a price: the
management were finding it increasingly tough to recruit talented people and
some existing managers were leaving, often because they wanted to spend
more time with their families.
In the following year, M&M hotel implemented a test programme to help 10

2
managers strike a better balance between their professional and personal
lives while maintaining the quality of its customer service and the bottom line
of its financial results. They found a lot of quick fixes by eliminating
redundant meetings and other inefficient procedures. For instance, they
learnt that managers could file certain business reports less frequently and 15
that many of the regular scheduled meetings were unnecessary. They also
re-examined certain hotel procedures they were following, traditionally. For
instance, the scheduled overlap time of front desk manager with the person
on the next shift was reduced from one hour to only fifteen minutes.
Additionally, managers were given better Information Technology (IT) 20
support so that they could communicate with customers through email and
get connected to relevant sections within minutes to get immediate
assistance.
Figure 1: Attitude Adjustment
161
3 At the end of the test programme, managers reported working an
average of five hours less each week. Perhaps, more important, was the 25
change in attitudes (Figure 1)
4 Before the test programme, 77% of managers felt that their jobs were so
demanding that they could not take adequate care of their personal and
family responsibilities. At the end of the programme, that percentage had
plummeted to 43%. In addition, the percentage of managers who felt that the 30
emphasis was on hours worked, plunged from 43% to 15%. One of the most
important things shown was that people could be just as productive when
they worked fewer hours. This is so because they are extra-motivated to get
things done and they do not waste time in doing what they need to do.
(Adapted from Harvard Business Review, November 2001)
1 In the ‘face time’ work culture, the longer a manager spends time at work, the
better it is.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
2 The main objective of the test programme was to change the employees’
attitude towards their job.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
3 The test programme that was implemented reviewed the work procedures.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
4 In Figure 1, the test programme showed an increase in the percentage of

managers who felt tired at the end of the day.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
162
5 From Figure 1, it can be inferred that the managers were happy with the
changes made.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
6 Work productivity declined with fewer hours at work.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
7 It can be concluded from the passage that working in a hotel industry is

rewarding.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
163
Caffeine Myths
1 Through the years, the public has been buffeted by much misguided
information about caffeine and its most common source, coffee. In March,
the centre for Science in the Public Interest published a comprehensive
appraisal of scientific reports in its Nutrition Action Health newsletter. Its
findings and those of other research reports follows. 5
2 Hydration. It was long thought that caffeinated beverages were

diuretics, but studies reviewed last year found that poeple who consumed
drinks containing up to 550 milligrams of caffeine produced no more urine
than when drinking fluids free of caffeine. Above 575 milligrams, the drug
was a diuretic. 10
3 So even a Starbucks Grande, with 330 milligrams of caffeine, will not

send you to a bathroom any sooner than if you drank 16 ounces of pure
water. Drinks containing usual doses of caffeine are hydrating and, like
water, contribute to the body’s daily water needs.
4 Cancer. Panic swept this coffee-dependent nation in 1981 when a 15

Harvard study tied the drink to a higher risk of pancreatic cancer. Coffee
consumption temporarily plummeted, and the researchers later concluded
that perhaps smoking, not coffee, was the culprit.
In an international review of 66 studies last year, scientists found coffee

5
drinking had little if any effect on the risk of developing kidney cancer. In fact, 20
another review suggested that compared with people who do not drink
coffee, those who do have half the risk of developing liver cancer.
6 And a study of 59 000 women in Sweden found no connection between

coffee, tea or caffeine consumption and breast cancer.
7 Weight loss. Here’s a bummer. Although caffeine speeds up 25

metabolism, with 100 milligrams burning an extra 75 to 100 calories a day,
no long-term benefit to weight control has been demonstrated. In fact, in a
study of more than 58 000 health professionals followed for 12 years, both
men and women who increased their caffeine consumption gained more
weight than those who did not. 30
8 Probably the most important effects of caffeine are its ability to enhance
mood, mental and physical performance. At consumption levels up to 200
milligrams, consumers report an improved sense of well-being, happiness,
energy, alertness and sociability. Roland Griffiths of the Johns Hopkins
School of Medicine reported that higher amounts sometimes cause anxiety 35
164
and stomach upset.
Millions of sleep-deprived Americans depend on caffeine to help them

9
make it through their day and drive safely. The drug improves alertness and
reaction time. In the sleep-deprived, it improves memory and the ability to
perform complex tasks. 40
10 For the active, caffeine enhances endurance in aerobic activities and

performance in anaerobic ones, perhaps because it blunts the perception of
pain and aids the ability to burn fat for fuel.
11 Another review found that compared with non-coffee drinkers, people

who drank four to six cups of coffee a day, with or without caffeine, had a 28 45
percent lower risk of Type 2 diabetes. This benefit probably comes from
coffee’s antioxidants and chlorogenic acid.
(Adapted from New York Times, August 5, 2008)
The research findings presented in this article are taken from a study carried
8 out by the Centre for Science in the Public Interest.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
A person who drinks 700 milligrams of coffee will pass more urine than
9 someone who drinks the same amount of a caffeine-free drink.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
Scientists say that coffee hydrates our body better than water.
10
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
Findings of the study on coffee and cancer concluded that

11
A. there is no clear link between coffee drinking and cancer
B. there is a clear link between pancreatic cancer and caffeine
C. more research is needed to draw the connection between caffeine and
breast cancer
165
12 The writer uses the phrase, Here’s a bummer (line 25) to
A. expose side effects

B. express dissatisfaction
C. debunk a misconception
13 In paragraph 8, it can be inferred that
A. a higher level of caffeine will lead to greater alertness

B. one should not consume more than 200 milligrams of caffeine
C. consuming caffeine will affect one’s mood more than physical
performance
14 After reading the text, the reader could be persuaded to
A. drink more coffee

B. stop drinking coffee
C. reduce coffee consumption
166
1 When Ariel Lugo takes visitors to the rainforests of Puerto Rico, he likes to
play a little trick. First, the ecologist shows off the beautiful surroundings: the
diversity of plant life on the forest floor; the densely-packed trees merging
into a canopy, high overhead. Only when his audience is suitably impressed
does he reveal that they are actually in the midst of what many 5
conservationists would dismiss as weeds – a collection of non-native species
growing uncontrolled, on land once used for agriculture.
2 His guests are almost always taken aback, and who wouldn’t be? For
years we have been told that invasive alien species are driving native ones to
extinction and eroding the integrity of ancient ecosystems. The post-invasion 10
world is supposed to be bleak, biologically-impoverished wasteland, not
something you could mistake for untouched wilderness.
3 Lugo is one of a small but growing number of researchers who think

much of what we have been told about non-native species is wrong. Alien
species, they argue, are rarely as monstrous a threat as they have been 15
painted. In fact, in a world that has been dramatically altered by human
activity, many could be important allies in rebuilding healthy ecosystems,
Given the chance, alien species may just save us from the worst
consequences of our own destructive actions.
4 Many conservationists cringe at such talk. They view non-native species 20

as ecological tumours, spreading uncontrollably at the expense of natives. To
them the high rate of accidental introductions – hundreds of alien species are
now well established in ecosystems from the Mediterranean Sea to Hawaii –
is one of the biggest threats facing life on Earth. Mass extinction of native
species is one fear. Another is the loss of what many regard as the key to 25
environmental health: the networks of relationships that exist between native
species after thousands or even millions of years of co-evolution.
5 Such concerns have fuelled an all-out war. Vast sums are being spent on
campaigns to eradicate or control the spread of highly-invasive exotics.
Conservation groups enlist teams of volunteers to uproot garlic mustard from 30
local parks. Government agencies fill waterways with poisonous chemicals to
halt the advance of Asian carp. Most governments have no choice but to join
the fight; under the terms of the Convention of Biological Diversity.
6 Advocates for non-native species do not deny that they can sometimes
create major problems, particularly in cases where disease-causing microbes 35
are introduced into a new host population. But they argue that often the
threat is overblown. For one thing, many species are not nearly as
167
problematic as they are made out to be.
7 The notorious cane toad, introduced into Australia in the 1930s to control
pests of the sugar cane crop, is considered a major threat to the continent’s 40
unique fauna. Its highly-toxic skin has long been seen as a death sentence
for native predators, while its rapid spread is thought to have occurred at the
expense of other amphibians. Yet, the first serious impact study on the cane
toad recently concluded that they may in fact be innocent of all charges.
(Adapted from New Scientist, January 20, 2011)
15 What is the little trick (line 2) played by Ariel Lugo when he takes visitors to
the rainforests of Puerto Rico?
A. He shows the visitors uncontrolled weeds instead of the rainforests.

B. He makes them believe that what they are seeing is native to the land.
C. He takes them to see the impoverished wasteland and not the
wilderness.
16 In paragraph 2, the guests are described as almost always taken aback

(line 8). This is because
A. weeds have overtaken former agricultural land

B. non-native species have flourished alongside native species
C. the beautiful surroundings are actually inhabited by non-native species
17 The main idea of paragraph 3 is that
A. non-native species could be allies in the fight to save the ecosystems

B. it is a popular belief that alien species are a threat to the environment
C. the effects of human activity can be more disastrous than that of alien
species
18 Conservationists are of the opinion that
A. non-native species will destroy the natives

B. relationships between native species will be altered with time
C. alien species are now more established than natives in the ecosystems
168
19 The writer mentions the use of volunteers to uproot garlic mustard from local
parks to
A. lend support to the work of the Convention of Biological Diversity

B. illustrate the attempts at controlling the spread of non-native species
C. show the extent of money spent on campaigns to eradicate alien
invaders.
20 In paragraph 6, advocates for non-native species claim that
A. the dangers of introducing non-native species have been proven

B. problems created by alien species are not as serious as made out to be
C. introducing disease-causing microbes into the host population can be
fatal
21 The following are true of the cane toad except
A. its skin is poisonous

B. it kills other amphibians
C. it was introduced into Australia to control pests of the sugar cane
169
1 Today, when we think of the world’s teeming billions of humans, we tend to

think of overpopulation, poverty, disease, instability and environmental
destruction. Humans are the cause of most of the planet’s problems. What if
that were to change? What if the average humans were able to contribute
more than consume? To add more than subtract? Think of the world as if 5
each person drives a balance sheet. On the negative side are the resources
they consume without replacing. On the positive side are the contributions
they make in the form of resources they produce, the artifacts of value they
build, and the ideas and technologies that might create a better future for
their families, their communities, and the planet as a whole. Our future hangs 10
on whether the sum of those balance sheets can turn positive.
2 What might make that possible? One key reason for hope is that so far
we have barely scraped the surface of human potential. Throughout history,
the vast majority of humans have not been the people they could have been.
Take this simple thought experiment. Pick your favourite scientist, 15
mathematician, or cultural hero. Now imagine that instead of being born
when and where there were, they had instead been born with the same
abilities in a poverty-stricken village. Would they have made the same
contribution they did make? Probably not. They would not have received the
education and encouragement it took to achieve what they did. 20
3 If only we could find a way of unlocking that potential. Two keys might be
enough: knowledge and inspiration. If you learn how to transform your life for
the better and you are inspired to act on that knowledge, there is a good
chance that your life will indeed improve.
4 There are many scary things about today’s world, but what is thrilling is 25
that the means of spreading both knowledge and inspiration have never been
greater. Five years ago, a teacher or professor who is able to change the
lives of his or her students, could realistically hope to reach maybe a hundred
of them a year. Today, the same teacher can communicate through video to
millions of eager students. The cost of distributing a recorded lecture 30
anywhere in the world via the Internet has effectively fallen to zero. This has
happened with breathtaking speed and its implications are not yet widely
understood. But it is surely capable of transforming global education.
For one thing, the realization that today’s best teachers can become
5
global celebrities will boost the calibre of those who teach. For the first time, 35
it is possible to imagine ambitious, brilliant eighteen-year-olds putting
‘teacher’ at the top of their career choice list. Indeed, the very definition of
‘great teacher’ will expand, as numerous people outside the profession who
170
can communicate important ideas find new incentive to make that talent
available to the world. Additionally, teachers can amplify their own abilities by 40
inviting into their classrooms, on video, the world’s greatest scientists,
visionaries and tutors.
6 Now, think of this from the pupils’ perspective. In the past, your success
depended on whether you were lucky enough to have a great mentor or
teacher in your neighbourhood. The vast majority have not been that 45
fortunate. But a young girl born in Africa today will probably have access, in
ten years’ time, to a cell phone with a high-resolution screen, a Web-
connection, and more power than the computer you own today. We can
imagine her obtaining face-to-face insight from her choice of the world’s great
teachers. She will get the chance to be what she can be. 50
(Adapted from This Will Change Everything, John Brockman (Ed.)

HarperCollins, 2010)
22 The writer introduces his article with a gloomy picture of the world to
A. contrast it with his vision of a better world

B. explain that the world’s problems are man-made
C. highlight the reality that it would be difficult to change the world
23 The question To add more than subtract? (line 5) ___________the previous

question.
A. restates
B. illustrates
C. elaborates
24 What might make that possible? (line 12)
What is the answer to the question above?
A. More resources should be produced

B. Human potential should be exploited more fully
C. Contributions should balance with consumption
25 The writer brings in the simple thought experiment (line 15) to
A. show that people have different abilities

B. compare the contributions of past heroes with today’s heroes
C. support the idea that the poor have-limited opportunities to excel
171
26 Paragraph 4 lists the following reasons why the Internet can transform
education globally except
A. it can quickly reach huge student populations

B. it is a cheap means to distribute recorded lectures
C. it adopts teaching techniques that students are familiar with
27 The main outcome of making great teachers accessible to the masses

through the Web is
A. that they will become celebrities

B. people will learn to communicate better
C. the teaching profession would attract more talent
28 In paragraph 6, the writer makes the following points except
A. children can decide whom they want to learn from

B. every child will have equal opportunity to education
C. even children from remote areas can learn from great teachers
29 Which of the following best expresses the central idea of the passage?
A. A Web-empowered revolution is taking place in education

B. Web-based education has replaced the traditional classroom
C. The Web the power to inspire and disseminate knowledge
172
1 Stories and psychological description are effective ways of building emotional

appeal. Emotional appeal works best when people want to be persuaded.
2
Even when you need to provide statistics or numbers to convince the
careful reader that your anecdote is a representative example, telling a story
first makes your message more persuasive. Experiments with both high 5
school teachers and quantitatively-trained Master of Business Administration
(MBA) students show that people are more likely to believe a point and more
likely to be committed to it when points were made by examples, stories and
statistics; the combination was more effective than statistics alone. In another
experiment, attitude changes lasted longer when the audience had read 10
stories than when they had only read numbers. Recent research suggests
that stories are more persuasive because people remember them.
3 As with other appeals, the emotional appeal should focus on the reader.
To describe its service of gathering up and renting good-quality used
cardboard boxes, Boomerang Boxes could focus on its innovative thinking, 15
but its Website appeals to readers by telling them they can “Save time, save
money and save trees!” The company tells its story with descriptive
language: “No longer do you have to drive around aimlessly searching for
good quality boxes behind supermarkets and liquor stores. No longer do you
have to contribute to the destruction of strong healthy trees, just so more 20
cardboard boxes can be made, used (often only once) and thrown away.”
That story is likely to resonate with many apartment-renting students who
have scrounged boxes for a low-cost moving day.
4 Sense impressions – what the reader sees, hears, smells, tastes, feels –
evoke a strong emotional response. Psychological description means 25
creating a scenario rich with sense impressions so readers can picture
themselves using your product or service and enjoying its benefits. You can
also use psychological description to describe the problem your product will
solve. Psychological description works best early in the message to catch
readers’ attention. 30
5 In psychological description, you’re putting your reader in a picture. If the

reader doesn’t feel that the picture fits him or her, the technique backfires. To
prevent this, psychological description often uses subjunctive verbs (“if you
like ...” “if you were ...”) or the words maybe and perhaps.
6 The best phrasing depends on your relationship to the reader. When you 35
ask for action from people who report directly to you, orders (“Get me the
Ervin file.”) and questions (“Do we have the third-quarter numbers yet?”) will
173
work. When you need action from co-workers, superiors, or people outside
the organisation, you need to be more forceful but also more polite.
7
How you ask for action affects whether you build or destroy positive 40
relationships with other employees, customers and suppliers. Professor and
consultant, Dan Dieterich, notes that the calls to action in many messages
are:
 Buried somewhere deep in the middle of the correspondence.
 Disguised as either statements or questions. 45
 Insulting because they use “parental language”.
8 Such messages, Dieterich points out, “lower productivity within the

organisation and reduce or eliminate the goodwill customers have towards
the organisation ... Those two things ... can put the organisation out of
business.” 50
9 Avoiding messages that sound parental or preachy is often a matter of

tone. Saying “Please” is a nice touch, especially to people on your level or
outside the organisation. Tone will also be better when you give reasons for
your request or reasons to act promptly.
10 When you write to people you know well, humour can work. Just make 55
sure that the message is not insulting to anyone who does not find the
humour funny.
(Adapted from Business and Administrative Communication.

7th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2006)
30 Even when you need to provide statistics or numbers to convince the careful
reader that your anecdote is a representative example, telling a story first
makes your message more persuasive. (lines 3-5). This sentence means
A. facts and figures are more convincing than stories

B. persuasive message has more anecdotal elements than facts and figures
C. a combination of statistics, numbers and examples will improve
communication
D. telling a story before presenting facts and figures will make the message
more effective
31 The story told by Boomerang Boxes is likely to appeal to many apartment-

hunting students. This is because the story
A. is told in descriptive language

B. is communicated through a website
C. reflects their concerns and experiences
D. presents an innovative way of doing things
174
32 In paragraph 4, the following are recommendations to evoke a strong
emotional response except
A. making a connection with the senses

B. highlighting the benefits of the product
C. introducing the psychological description early
D. focusing on the seriousness of related problems
33 The phrase, the technique backfires (line 32) means that the technique
brings
A. adverse effects
B. expected results
C. surprising feedback
D. unpredictable consequences
34 The message, get me the Ervin file (lines 36 and 37) is considered
appropriate if given by
A. clients
B. a friend
C. a superior
D. colleagues
35 Which of the messages below is likely to be labelled as parental or preachy?
A. If necessary, please call us at this number.

B. Can’t you leave the gym shoes in the basket?
C. Everyone is expected to comply with these regulations.
D. Even on casual days, visitors expect us to dress professionally.
36 Which of the following is not a condition for humour to work?
A. If it is really funny
B. If it is not insulting
C. If it is not in writing
D. If it is used with people you know well
37 The main topic under discussion in the passage is
A. writing to persuade
B. avoiding emotions in writing
C. the reasons for requests made
D. the structure of product advertisement
175
1 Last year the skyrocketing cost of food was a wake-up call for the planet.
Between 2005 and 2008, the price of wheat and corn tripled, and the price of
rice climbed five-fold, spurring food riots in nearly two dozen countries and
pushing 75 million more people into poverty. But unlike previous shocks
driven by short-term shortages, this time, the high prices were a symptom of 5
a large problem. Simply put: For most of the past decade, the world has been
consuming more food than it has been producing. After years of drawing
stockpiles, in 2007, the world saw global stocks fall to 61 days of global
consumption, the second lowest on record.
2
This was not the first time the world had stood at the brink of a food 10
crisis. At 83, Gurcharan Singh Kalkat has lived long enough to remember
one of the worst famines of the 20th century. In 1943, as many as four million
people died in the Bengal Famine. For the following two decades, India had
to import million of tons of grain to feed its people. Then came the green
revolution. In the 1960s, as India was struggling to feed its people during yet 15
another crippling drought, an American plant breeder named Norman
Borlaug was working with Indian researchers to bring his high-yielding wheat
varieties to Punjab. Borlaug was born in Iowa and saw his mission as
spreading the high-yielding farm methods that had turned the American
Midwest into the world’s breadbasket to impoverished places throughout the 20
world. His new dwarf wheat varieties with short stems supporting full, fat
seeds were a breakthrough. They could produce grain like no other wheat
ever seen – as long as there was plenty of water and synthetic fertilizer and
little competition from weeds or insects. To that end, the Indian government
subsidized canals, fertilizer, and the drilling of tube wells for irrigation. The 25
new wheat varieties quickly spread throughout Asia, changing the traditional
farming practices of millions of farmers, and were soon followed by new
strains of ‘miracle’ rice. The new crops matured faster and enabled farmers
to grow two crops a year instead of one.
3 Today, though, the miracle of the green revolution is over in Punjab: 30

Yield growth has flattened since the mid-1990’s. Over-irrigation has led to
steep drops in the water table while thousands of hectares of productive land
have been lost to water-logged soils. Forty years of intensive irrigation,
fertilization, and pesticides have not been kind to the fields of Punjab. Nor, in
some cases, to the people themselves. In the farming village of Bhuttiwala, 35
home to some 6000 people, village elder, Jagsir Singh adds up the toll:
“We’ve had 49 deaths due to cancer in the last four years,” he says. “Most of
them were young people. The water is not good. It’s poisonous,
contaminated water. Yet, people drink it. The green revolution has brought us
only downfall. The government has sacrificed the people of Punjab for grain.” 40
176
4 Others, of course, see it differently. Rattan Lal, a soil scientist believes it
was the abuse – not the use – of green revolution technologies that caused
most of the problems. That includes the overuse of fertilizers, pesticides, and
irrigation and the removal of all crop residues from the fields. “I realize the
problems of water quality and water withdrawal,” says Lal. “But it saved 45
hundreds of millions of people. We paid a price in water, but the choice was
to let people die.” In terms of production, the benefits of the green revolution
are hard to deny. India has not experienced famine since Borlaug brought his
seed to town, while world grain production has more than doubled.
Many crop scientists believe the solution to our food crisis lies in a 50
5
second green revolution, based largely on our newfound knowledge of the
gene. Plant breeders now know the sequence of nearly all of the 50 000 or
so genes in corn and soybean plants and are using that knowledge. Robert
Farley, chief technology officer for the agricultural giant Monsanto, is
convinced that genetic modification, which allows breeders to bolster crops 55
with beneficial traits from other species, will lead to new varieties with higher
yields, reduced fertilizer needs and drought tolerance. He believes
biotechnology will make it possible to double yields of corn, cotton, and
soybeans by 2030.
6 But is a reprise of the green revolution the answer to the world’s food 60
crisis? Last year, a six-year study concluded that the production increases
brought about by science and technology in the past 30 years have failed to
improve food access for many of the world’s poor. The study called for a
paradigm shift in agriculture towards more sustainable and ecologically-
friendly practices the would benefit the world’s 900 million small farmers, not 65
just agribusiness. And so a shift has already begun to small, under-funded
projects scattered across Africa and Asia. Some call it agroecology, others
sustainable agriculture, but the underlying idea is revolutionary: that we must
stop focusing on maximizing grain yields at any cost and consider the
environmental and social impacts on food production. Vandana Shiva, an 70
agroecologist, argues that small-scale, biologically-diverse farms can
produce more food with fewer petroleum-based inputs. Her research has
shown that using compost instead of natural-gas-derived fertilizer increases
organic matter in the soil. “If you are talking about solving the food crisis,
these are the methods you need,” adds Shiva. 75
7 Regardless of which model prevails – agriculture as a diverse ecological art,

as a high-tech industry, or some combination of the two – the challenge of
putting enough food in nine billion mouths by 2050 is daunting.
(Adapted from National Geographic, June 2009)
177
38 The main point of paragraph 1 is
A. the reasons for a global food crisis

B. shortage of food leads to high prices
C. the effects of long-term food shortages
D. consumption of food exceeds production
39 The following are reasons for the skyrocketing cost of food except
A. low yield of crops

B. depleted food stockpiles
C. steeply-rising population
D. increasing dependence on imported grains
40 Which of the following did Borlaug introduce to India?

I. A higher-yielding wheat strain
II. Growing of two crops together
III. The building of tube wells for irrigation
IV. The American industrial farming method
A. I and III
B. I and IV
C. II and III
D. II and IV
41
In paragraph 3, the writer’s intention is to
A. explain the failure of the green revolution

B. compare the pros and cons of the green revolution
C. account for the effects of the green revolution on water
D. draw attention to the poor soil condition as a result of the green revolution
42 In paragraph 4, the writer began with Others, of course, see it differently

(line 41). What is the different view?
A. The green revolution is too costly to sustain.

B. The green revolution has caused much damage.
C. The abuse of green revolution technologies was the culprit.
D. The problem of shortage of food was resolved by the green revolution.
43 The most distinguishing feature in the second green revolution (line 51)
A. doubling the yield of grains

B. reduction in the use of fertilizers
C. crops are no longer affected by drought
D. genetically-modified crop varieties are used
178
44 The study called for a paradigm shift (line 64) in agricultural practices. The
following are attributes of the shift except
A. less funding is needed

B. more focus on increasing grain yield
C. use of compost as the main fertilizer
D. more emphasis on small-scale farming
45 In the last paragraph, the writer is of the opinion that
A. agriculture is essentially more a science than an art

B. the agricultural models all have their merits and demerits
C. applying a combination of agricultural technologies will solve the food
crisis
D. no matter which model is adopted, it will be difficult to feed the rising
population
179
PRACTICE 7
1 In August 2008, the World Bank presented a major overhaul to its estimates
of global poverty, incorporating what is described as new and better data.
The World Bank’s long-held estimate of the number of people living on the
equivalent of US Dollar 1.00 a day has now been changed to US Dollars 1.25
a day. The World Bank also adds that the previous US Dollar 1.00 a day 5
estimate for the International poverty line would have been US Dollars 1.45 a
day at 2005 prices if only inflation was accounted for.
2 Poverty lines include US Dollar 1.00 a day, US Dollars 1.25 a day, US

Dollars 1.45 a day, US Dollars 2.00 a day (typical for many developing
countries), and US Dollars 2.50 a day (which includes a poverty level for 10
some additional countries), and US Dollars 10.00 a day, which a World Bank
report referred to if looking at poverty from the level of a wealthy country,
such as the United States.
3 But even with some poverty reduction, inequality is quite high in many
regions around the world. While poverty alleviation is important, so too is 15
tackling inequality. Inequality is often discussed in the context of relative
poverty, as opposed to absolute poverty.
4 That is, even in the wealthiest countries, the poor may not be in absolute
poverty (the most basic of provisions may be obtainable for many) or their
level of poverty may be a lot higher than those in developing countries, but in 20
terms of their standing in society, their relative poverty can also have serious
consequences such as deteriorating social cohesion, increasing crime and
violence, and poorer health.
5 Some of these things are hard to measure, such as social cohesion and
the level of trust and comfort people will have in interacting with one another 25
in the society. Nonetheless, over the years, numerous studies have shown
that sometimes the poor in wealthy countries can be unhappier or find it
harder to cope than poor people in poorer countries.
6 In the context of tackling poverty then, the World Bank for example, sees
the key factors in reducing poverty as the increase in the rate of growth as 30
well as the reduction in income differences.
7 The World bank also adds that as well as increased growth, additional
key factors to reducing poverty will be the reduction in inequality and the
reduction in income differences.
8 A few places around the world do see increasing rate of growth in a 35

positive sense. But globally, there is also a negative change in income
180
distribution. The reality, unfortunately, is that the gap between the rich and
poor is quite wide in most places.
(Adapted from http://www.globalissues.org/print/article/4)
Figure 1: Income Distribution
(Source: World Bank Development Indicators 2008)
1 The poor in rich countries are not grateful that they are better off than the
poor in really poor countries.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
2 In wealthy countries the poverty line is at US Dollars 2.50 a day.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
181
3 Reducing income differences is not an important factor in reducing poverty.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
4 In most places, the rich will always get richer and the poor will always get
poorer.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
5 The poor in the wealthiest countries create serious social problems in

society.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
6 Studies have shown that the poor in wealthy countries are able to cope better
than the poor in poorer countries.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
7 Figure 1 shows the gap between the richest and the poorest in South Asia is
smaller than that in Latin America.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
182
1 Almost unnoticed, one of the great civil rights struggles of our times is being
fought out in our midst. Across the Indian subcontinent, in Afghanistan and in
Africa, supporters of universal girls’ education are being threatened,
assaulted, bombed and murdered. Within the past two weeks alone, a 41-
year-old teacher was gunned down 200 meters from her all-girls school near 5
the Pakistan-Afghan border; two classrooms in an all-girls school in the north
of Pakistan were blown up; and at an award ceremony in the heart of
Karachi, a principal was shot to death and another teacher and four pupils
were wounded after grenades were hurled into a school that specialised in
enrolling girls. 10
2 For the first time, it is not adults but girls themselves who are pushing
this civil rights movement forward. A few months ago, when Morocco’s
education minister visited a Marrakech school, he told a 12-year-old named
Raouia Ayache, she would be better off leaving school and becoming a child
bride: “You! Your time would be better spent looking for a man!”. But Raouia 15
stood up to him and stayed in school, her family protesting to the government
about how the education minister had betrayed his obligation to promote
education.
3 Across the Indian subcontinent, teenage girls are joining together, village
by village, to create “child-marriage-free zones”. In Bangladesh, the so-called 20
“wedding-busters” have now created 19 such zones, pledging that they will
support one another to stay in school and resist being married against their
will. With the child-marriage-free zones, the petitions against child labour and
the growing movement exposing child trafficking, teenage girls are trying to
uphold and affirm their human dignity and battling for their rights, doing so far 25
from the glare of publicity, fighting a daily unrecorded battle for human
decency and fair treatment.
Of course many of the rights the girls are fighting for are those that have
4
been taken for granted at least for a century, in most countries. We have
moved from an old world where, if you were a girl, your rights were what 30
others decreed, your status what others ascribe to you and if your mother
was poor, so too would you always be. But today’s movement is not just for
emancipation – a twentieth century demand for demand for freedom to make
the most of your talents.
5 Next week, the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, and the 35
president of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, will meet with countries that are
off-track to discuss the legislation, incentives, reforms – and money – needed
to speed up the enrolment of girls in schools.
183
6 I will share with them the testimonies, of two girls, Kainat Riaz and
Shazia Ramzan. I have talked twice to the girls, and, as they repeated to a
foreign television crew only a few weeks ago, they are being persecuted but 40
will never again be cowed.
7 Four years ago, Kainat says, girls were hiding books under their burqas.
Now, she says, the oppressors “can’t stop us from going to school. I want to
study. I am not afraid.” Now, Shazia says, “We are strong.” 45
(Adapted from The International Herald Tribune)
Traditionally, adults are the ones who initiate the civil rights movement for
8 female education.
A True
B. False
C. Not stated
The movement for female education has gained momentum though it is an

9 uphill battle.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
The Morocco education minister was reported forcing Raouia to leave

10 school.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
Countries that are off-track (line 37) means that they

11
A. are not sure about their roles
B. are not moving in the right direction
C. do not have enough financial resources
The purpose of paragraph 3 is to show

12
A. how girls suffered to get their rights to education
B. the determined efforts of the girls in the fight for civil rights
C. girls in India and Bangladesh cooperating to get fair treatment
184
13 Which of the statements is true about empowerment (paragraph 4)?
A. It is more difficult to achieve than emancipation.

B. It is as important as emancipation in female education.
C. It has gained more emphasis than emancipation in recent years.
14 Kianat’s and Shazia’s testimonies will help
A. to convince the World Bank to finance female education.

B. to motivate people to support the rights of girls to education
C. to get more news coverage about the problems with education.
185
1 Over the years, the world tobacco industry has had its fair share of
controversies. In the United States, for example, many tobacco companies
have lost millions in major legal settlements. But this has not stopped them
from investing more. This happens despite the advertising ban on cigarettes
and the constant anti-smoking campaigns of lobby groups everywhere. Not 5
to mention the mandatory health warnings on their packaging.
2 But such constraints have not deterred the industry’s growth. How is it
that in spite of all the scientific evidence of tobacco’s negative health record,
the population of smokers worldwide continues to rise? Somehow, the “kick”
from smoking appears to be worth all the associated risks. 10
3 In Malaysia for many years now, tobacco farming has been the bread-
and-butter of many rural households, especially in Kelantan and Terengganu.
In 2004, Malaysia recorded its highest-ever tobacco production at 13 million
kg. In 2006, this declined to only six million kg.
4 In Malaysia, with the advent of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), 15
tobacco farming is expected to decline. Under AFTA, Malaysia has to reduce
duties on tobacco imports by 2010. This will negatively impact the
competitiveness of Malaysian tobacco, where the cost of production – about
RM10 per kilo – is almost twice that of Thailand’s. Indonesia’s cost of
production is even lower. 20
5 What happens after 2010 concerns not only farmers but also the
government. That will be when the full effects of AFTA will be felt. The
government has in recent years put in place programmes to wean farmers
away from tobacco and into alternative commercial crops. Kenaf is one
option. Under the recently launched East Coast Economic Region (ECER), 25
the target area for kenaf is about 10 000 hectares.
6 This is expected to increase the income of 10 000 marginal tobacco

farmers and create more jobs. But the market for kenaf is still uncertain. One
potential product outlet is natural fibre for insulation. Another is as composite
material for the automotive industry. The question is, will farmers enjoy the 30
same if not a better income than from growing tobacco?
7 Another possible crop is jatropha. Unlike kenaf, where the market

prospects are still uncertain, jatropha has potential as biofuel. Jatropha,
being a non-edible oil, is a viable option to replace palm oil as a base
material for biodiesel. However, much research is still needed if jatropha is to 35
match the consistency and yield of oil palm.
186
8 Lately, yet another option has emerged: “molecular farming”.
Essentially, this involves producing new compounds from tobacco through
the engineering of the tobacco plant.
9 The new compouds can include pharmaceutical products such as

medical drugs, vaccines or antibodies. This is starting to enter the 40
commercial phase in the West. As tobacco is among the easiest plants to
transform genetically, it is emerging as a popular commercial crop to achieve
what some call “molecular pharming”.
10 Unlike kenaf and jatropha, the market for pharmaceuticals is more or

less assured. This is because the tobacco plant is genetically engineered to 45
produce medicines and vaccines that are already being used in the
marketplace.
11 There are many reasons for this sudden interest in plant-based

pharmaceuticals. So far, commercial production of clinical-grade
pharmaceuticals has relied on two major production routes; microbial cells or 50
animal cells. Both use fermentation and are, therefore, expensive to build
and operate. There is also concern that animal cells can harbour human
disease-carrying microbes.
12 Factor in the growing demand for halal vaccines, and a plant-based

production system immediately becomes attractive. This is also the reason 55
why the plant-based production platform has attracted strong corporate
interest from companies involved in pharmaceuticals as well as
agrotechonology.
13 Tobacco is a prime contender in this field. Tobacco has a well-established

technology for gene transfer, and offers potentially high biomass yield per 60
hectare. There is available large-scale infrastructure for processing that does
not come into contact with the human and animal food chains.
14 Most of all, tobacco farmers can continue to grow the crop for which they
have amassed many years of experience and expertise.
(Adapted from New Straits Times, March 12, 2008)
In paragraph 1, the main idea is that the tobacco industry

15
A. has been involved in many legal disputes
B. has continued to grow despite its many constraints
C. has been affected by the harmful effects of smoking
187
16 In Malaysia tobacco industry is expected to decline after AFTA because
A. the cost of producing tobacco will double

B. it will become cheaper to import than to grow tobacco
C. the heavy duties on tobacco will make tobacco farming less attractive
17 The following statements are true about kenaf except
A. it can be used as a fibre for insulation

B. it will be grown mostly on the East Coast
C. kenaf farmers will earn more than tobacco farmers
A. jatropha has potential as a biofuel

B. jatropha has more advantages than other commercial crops
C. jatropha will replace palm oil as base material for biodiesel
19 Molecular farming (line 37) of tobacco is better than growing other

commercial crops because
A. it generates more by-products

B. genetic engineering of plants is cheaper
C. there is a ready demand for pharmaceutical products
20 Plant-based pharmaceuticals are attractive because
A. their production process is less complex

B. they are in greater demand than other types of pharmaceuticals
C. they are cheaper to produce than clinical-grade pharmaceuticals
21
Factor in the growing demand for halal vaccines ... (line 55).
The phrase “factor in” can be best replaced by
A. add
B. review
C. evaluate
188
1 Lead has for sometimes been implicated in poisoning. Lead poisoning is also
associated with lead-containing paint, lead-contaminated dust in older
buildings and lead-contaminated water and soil. However, many people may
not know that some medicines may also contain lead.
2 As observed by the United States Centre for Diseases Control and 5

Prevention (CDC), lead has been found in some folk medicines used by
Indian, Middle Eastern, West Asian, and Hispanic cultures. Lead and other
heavy metals are added to certain folk medicines on purpose because these
metals are thought to be useful in treating some ailments. CDC adds: “lead
poisoning from folk remedies can cause illness and even death”. Lead
10
poisoning is a medical condition often called plumbism, caused by increased
levels of the element lead in the body.
3 Lately there is a resurgence in the use of traditional medicinal products

partly due to their promotion by various governments in the form of
alternative medicine: and partly due to the fact that those products are 15
regulated less by various governmental agencies.
4 Most of the traditional medical practices like Ayurveda, and Chinese

Medicine employ plant products in the treatment of various human ailments.
Interestingly, at least some of those plant extracts proved their reputation in
modern methods of testing using in-vitro cell cultures and experimental 20
animals. However, there is a downside, for some reasons. The belief that
heavy metals have medicinal properties has spread its roots to the traditional
therapies of different regions of the ancient world and heavy metals have
become part of some ancient drug formulations. Although it is not entirely
clear if these metallic salts are directly added to the drug formulations, heavy 25
metal, for example, the lead content of some traditional drugs is scientifically
well-documented. According, to the World Health Organisation , “improper
manufacturing processes may result in dangerously high levels of heavy
metals remaining in the final product”.
5 The acute symptoms of lead poisoning typically include extreme 30

discomfort in the stomach followed by diarrhea, and pain in the joints and
muscles. Activation and increased expression of liver enzymes may be
responsible for some of these symptoms. If left untreated extreme forms of
lead poisoning can cause organ failure and death. Reports of lead poisoning
35
from traditional Eastern medicines came from the United States of America,
Australia, New Zealand, India, and Hong Kong as published in scientific
journals. It was reported that some of these formulations contain as high as
30 per cent by weight of these powders and pills.
189
6 These findings and observations do not undermine the potential of
traditional medicine. In fact there is a major effort by pharmaceuticals and 40
researchers to identify biologically active chemical compounds in the plant
materials used in these potent formulations. Nevertheless, according to the
CDC, approximately 250 000 children in the United States aged 1 to 5 years
have high blood lead levels which are worrying. CDC recommends public
health actions be initiated. Nearly every system in the body may be affected 45
by lead poisoning.
7 The United States and other developed countries have made big strides
in reducing human exposure to lead such as limiting lead in the gasoline, and
banning lead based paints. It is an irony that ancient medical practices can
antagonise that success. In India, drug stores selling traditional medicines 50
are as busy as those selling non-traditional ones. Many customers are not
aware of lead poisoning. It is time various governments develop a system to
monitor and control heavy metal content of traditional drug formulations.
(Adapted from Science Debate, 2011)
Which of the following sentences introduces the main idea of the passage?
22
A. Lead has for sometimes been implicated in poisoning. (line 1)
B. Lead poisoning is also associated with lead-containing paint, lead-
contaminated dust in older buildings and lead-contaminated water and
soil. (lines 1 to 3)
C. However, many people may not know that some medicines may also
contain lead. (lines 3 and 4)
The main purpose of paragraph 2 is to

23
A. highlight the usefulness and dangers of folk medicines
B. alert users about the potential dangers of folk medicines
C. discuss the work of the Centre for Diseases Control and Prevention
(CDC)
The main point of paragraph 3 is

24
A. traditional medicine is gaining popularity
B. traditional medicine is heavily promoted today
C. traditional medicine is not under strict control by the government
190
25 downside (line 21) can be replaced with
A. conflict
B. disagreement
C. negative effect
26
these potent formulations (line 42) refers to
A. plant materials
B. traditional medicine
C. chemical compounds
27 Which of the following is the irony mentioned in the concluding paragraph?
A. People are still patronising traditional medicines in spite of its high lead
content.
B. Many people are not aware of lead poisoning despite numerous
government efforts.
C. Governments have banned lead in conventional medicines but not in
traditional medicines.
28 The writer ends the passage with
A. a call for action

B. a note of caution
C. a strong criticism
29 Based on the passage what word of caution would you give users of
traditional medicine?
A. Do not buy traditional medicine

B. Do not patronise traditional medical practitioners
C. Do not consult unauthorised medical practitioners.
191
1 Are you one of those people who can perform well under pressure, blocking
out burdensome thoughts of failure – or do you tend to freeze just when you
need to perform your best, so crippled by fear and consumed by the
consequences of doing poorly that you fall far short of what you know you
can achieve? 5
2 Choking under pressure is a familiar phenomenon for most of us – who

has not occasionally been paralysed by fear and failure when faced with a
seemingly impossible task? But as researchers report in Science, some are
more affected by performance anxiety, scientists at the University of Chicago
turned to an undeniably angst-ridden situation that nearly all of us can 10
understand – taking a test.
3 Building on earlier evidence that linked expressive writing exercises to a

reduction in stress following a traumatic or emotionally scarring event, as well
as studies that suggested that depressed individuals were able to spend less
time ruminating with melancholy thoughts after putting their feelings on 15
paper, psychologist Sian Beilock decided to investigate whether writing could
help anxious students to relieve their stress immediately before an
examination.
4 In a series of four separate studies, both in the laboratory and in the

classroom, Beilock and her colleagues showed that giving students the 20
opportunity to write freely about their fears and anxieties about the upcoming
test helped them to score better on the examination than those who were not
given the writing exercise. In the first experiment, which took place in the
laboratory, the scientists asked a group of college students to take a
mathematics test twice; before the first test, the students were instructed to 25
simply do their best, but before the second examination, they were told their
results would be used to determine a monetary reward, and that their ranking
was tied to that of a teammate’s who had already scored well. Half of the
volunteers in the second experiment were also given 10 minutes to write
about their worries concerning the pending test, while the other half sat 30
quietly, worrying. The worrying group suffered a 12 per cent drop in their
accuracy on the examination, while the writing group improved their scores
by 5 per cent.
5
Fine, thought the scientists, but was it the exercise of writing itself – the
physical act of putting words on paper could be a stress releaser – or was it 35
the content of the essays that helped half of the students? After all, some
researchers suggest that harping on a source of fear or anxiety only makes it
worse, not better. To find out, in the next experiment, half of the volunteers
192
who wrote before the test were instructed to express their fears about the
examination, while the other half were told to write about anything but the 40
test they were about to take. The same pattern emerged – the control
subjects and those that wrote about unrelated topics showed a 7 per cent
drop in accuracy between their two examinations, while those who wrote
about their worries improved by 4 per cent.
6 The researcher then put their simple anxiety-releaser to the ultimate test 45
– in a classroom. Not only did writing about their test-taking fears and anxiety
improve scores among a group of ninth-grade biology students sitting for
their first high school final examination, but the exercise helped particularly
anxious “chokers” to perform at the same level as those who were more
comfortable taking tests. In other words, the simple act of writing about their 50
anxiety helped these students to relieve that same anxiety prior to their
examination received a B+ average on their test, while their similarly anxiety-
prone friends who did not write, averaged a B-.
The benefits of writing, she speculates in the paper, might be related to

7
the fact that when you worry, anxious thoughts occupy the working memory 55
of the brain, thus crowding out other thoughts or knowledge relevant to the
pressure-packed task at hand. Writing about the fear provides an outlet for
these nerve-wrecking thoughts, freeing up the working memory to
concentrate on other things.
8 So is easy essay-writing the magic bullet for test-choking students? 60

Perhaps. In a release describing the results, Beilock notes, “We think this
type of writing will help people perform their best in a variety of pressure-filled
situations – whether it is a big presentation to a client, a speech to an
audience or even a job interview,” she says in a release describing the study.
Who knew that a good way to calm nerves is to simply take pen to paper 65
9
and vent?
(Adapted from Time Magazine, January 13, 2011)
30 ... fall far short of what you know you can achieve? (lines 4 and 5) is to
A. achieve nothing
B. achieve very little
C. achieve less than you expect to
D. achieve less than your potential
193
31 Paragraph 3 is mainly about
A. what factors cause stress

B. previous studies on stress reduction
C. ways to help student to overcome stress
D. what prompted Beilock to conduct her studies
32 In the first experiment (paragraph 4), what is the purpose of telling the
students that their performance will be ranked?
A. To create anxiety
B. To encourage competition
C. To motivate better performance
D. To make them take the test seriously
33 The aim of Sian Beilock’s second experiment (paragraph 5) was to

investigate if
A. writing helps students to relieve stress

B. writing help students to perform better
C. there is a relationship between fear and writing
D. harping on an anxiety in writing causes more stress
34
It can be concluded from the second experiment (paragraph 5) that
A. doing a test twice improves students’ performance

B. writing just before an exam improves students’ performance
C. writing about what stresses them improves students’ performance
D. expressing their feelings on paper improves students’ performances
crowding out (line 56) can be replaced with

35
A. releasing
B. changing
C. substituting
D. suppressing
36
Beilock believes that writing before an examination is beneficial. Why?
A. When students write, they worry less.

B. When students write, their thoughts will start to flow.
C. After writing about their fears, the students can concentrate better.
D. After writing about their fears, the students begin to understand them.
194
37 The last sentence emphasises that the solution to relieving stress
A. has been found

B. is surprisingly easy
C. is widely applicable
D. has to be taken seriously
195
1 Parents who had few avenues for meaningful social involvements found it
very difficult to let go or give up control of their grown children. But parents
who had other friendships and interests or good marriages generally let go of
their children, since they did not rely on them to meet their social needs. This
sheds some light on why mothers in my sample held on and fathers became 5
remote. For many mothers, their family world was their only world, whereas
many fathers had an alternative, external world separate from their family
which meant that they could let go. This was also one reason why many
daughters had trouble letting go. The fact is that mothers and daughters had
fewer involvements outside the family than fathers and sons. It was the 10
socially isolated women who held on the most. Socially isolated fathers - a
much smaller group – were more likely to hold on than other fathers and
were more likely the mothers in general. My findings therefore are consistent
with Chodorow’s argument about social structure. She observes that in
Western Society: 15
A middle-class woman’s daily life is not centrally involved in relations
with other women. She is isolated with her children for most of the work day.
It is not surprising then that she ... looks to them for her own re-affirmation ...
Her life situation leads her to an over-involvement in her children’s lives.
(Chodorow 1978:212) 20
2 While not all women live this sort of solitary life it remains true that
relatively speaking women are more isolated in Western culture than in many
other cultures. In non-industrialised societies the smaller communities and
organisation of daily life means that women have close ongoing contact with
other people other than family members. This in turn enables women to 25
separate from their children. Chodorow argues that the structure of the
Western nuclear family produces a great need for relationships among
women but the isolation of the family and women makes it difficult for women
to satisfy this need and this, together with the small size of the family,
produces intense, over-involved relationships with children, particularly 30
daughters.
3 A key feature of the way modern society is organised is the separation of

work and home. This is fundamental in producing the isolation of women.
Industrialisation has had their lasting consequences: the separation of the
man from intimate, daily routines of domestic life; the economic dependence 35
of women and children on men; the isolation of housework and child-care
from other work. Hence, through the allocation to women of housework and
child-care, through modern definitions of the role of housewife and the role of
the mother, industrialisation has meant the restriction of the woman-
housewife to the home. (Oakley 1976:59) 40
196
4 Men have followed the work out of the home and mothers have been left
holding the baby. This means that children will develop much more intense
relationships with their mother than with their often absent father; and since
for many mothers child-rearing is their main task, those who remain at home
are driven to a greater dependence on their children for social contact and a 45
purpose in life. When combined with the way in which popular psychology
makes mothers feel totally responsible for their children’s happiness and
success it is hardly surprising that so many mothers continue to feel the
burden of responsibility for their children – even after the children have grown
up. 50
5 Even when women work outside the home, children and housework
occupy a great deal of their attention. We know that working women simply
add their work to their domestic and family responsibilities, thus leaving them
with very little energy, much less time, to take advantage of the social world
provided by the workplace or to keep up their social life and sustain leisure 55
interests. Working therefore may not reduce the social isolation of women as
much as expected.
(Adapted from David de Vaus, Letting Go, Oxford University Press,

Australia, 1994)
38 Why are mothers more likely to hold on to their children compared to fathers?
A. They are happy to stay at home.

B. They bond better with their children.
C. They are dependent on their children.
D. They are on their own most of the time.
39 The phrase sheds some light (line 5) means to
A. make it clearer
B. expose the source
C. reveal inner thoughts
D. give an alternative view
40 The writer quotes Chodorow’s work to
A. support his own research findings

B. restate the argument about social structure
C. present the situation of the middle-class woman
D. contrast his findings with those of other authorities
197
41 The following factors contributed to mothers’ over-involvement in their
children’s lives except
A. small family size

B. fear of neglecting the children
C. structure of the nuclear family
D. lack of contact with other adults
42 The idea in paragraph 4 contain
A. enumeration
B. exemplification
C. cause and effect
D. compare and contrast
43 Which of the following best summarises Oakley’s point?
A. Separation of work and home

B. Separation of men from domestic life
C. Impact of industrialisation on society
D. Modern definitions of the role of women
44 Which of the following is not a reason why mothers continue to feel

responsible for their children?
A. Women prefer a domestic to a public role.

B. Child-care has become the main purpose of their lives.
C. Women continue to exemplify the woman-housewife role.
D. Fathers work and are often removed from domestic affairs.
45 The main idea of the last paragraph is
A. working outside the home offers more leisure pursuits

B. working does not reduce the social isolation of women
C. women seldom participate in social activities at their workplace
D. women include their work outside the home as family responsibilities
198
PRACTICE 8
1 When a new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) arrives, most senior executives
worry about their jobs. Many worry that their history of successes and failures
may not count for much. Anecdotal stories of what happens to executive
teams during CEO transitions are hardly comforting. Firings, organisational
reshuffles and cancelled strategies result in abrupt and unwelcome career 5
change for a host of senior managers.
2 On average, turnover among all executive officers was only a little when
the new CEO came from within the company, but quite a lot when the CEO
came from outside. In the latter situation, more than 25 per cent of the
executives left within a year, and the odds of an involuntary departure more 10
than doubled.
3 What happens to executives who leave? Is losing their job, as the cliché
goes, “the best thing that ever happened to them”? Do they in fact land on
their feet, or do they suffer massive career setbacks?
An executive who has been doing a good job may assume that even if he 15
4
is asked to leave, he will find an equal or better job elsewhere and so many
tend to be relaxed about his fate under the new leader. Unfortunately, the
data of a study do not support this optimistic outlook. Of the approximately
400 senior executives who left following the arrival of a new CEO in 2002 or
2003, none moved to an equal job in any large firm. 20
Figure 1: Executives Turnover in Companies in the United States, 2002-2003
199
The broader group of exiting executives generally fared poorly, too (see
5 Figure 1). The researchers discovered this by comparing the executives’
previous companies and job titles with their new ones. They separated the
executives into four categories – winners, laterals, setbacks and dropouts –
based on the combination of changes in their title and their new company. For 25
example, a person who acquired a higher title at a slightly smaller firm might
be classified as a lateral, but someone who accepted a lesser title at a much
smaller firm would be classified as a setback. Winners are those who
accepted a better position at a similarly-sized company or kept the same title
but moved to a larger company; while dropouts are those who joined an 30
extremely small venture or completely disappeared from the corporate radar
screen.
The results are sobering. Winners were rarely – only 4 per cent of
6 executives fell into this category. Twenty-eight percent fell into the laterals
category. Three percent were designated setbacks. The majority, a sizeable 35
65 per cent dropouts, moved to sole proprietorship or to companies with sales
of less than US$10million, or disappeared altogether. It seems likely that this
last group either retired or moved quite far down the corporate ladder.
(Adapted from Harvard Business Review, September 2011)
1 The appointment of a new CEO may bring about career change for some
executives.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
2 More executives are fired when a new CEO is from within the organisation.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
3 Many senior executives leave their company because they do not share the
vision of the new CEO.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
200
4 Data from the study show that generally executives do not hold better
positions in their new jobs.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
5 The criteria for categorising the types of executives turnover are job titles,
salary and size of the company.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
6 Figure 1 presents a bleak picture of executive turnover.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
7 A preference to retire from work was the main reason for the high dropout
percentage among executives.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
201
1 A man wakes up in a New York apartment, brews coffee and goes out into the
world, and everything that can appear on a smart phone or iPad appears
before his eyes instead – weather reports, calendar reminders, messages
from friends, walking maps of New York, his girlfriend’s smiling face.
2 This is the promise of Google’s Project, which released the video I have 5
just described earlier, as a preview of a still percolating project that aspires to
implant the equivalent of an iPhone into a pair of science-fiction spectacles.
3 Even if the project itself never comes to fruition, the idea deserves a life
of its own, as a window into what our era promises and what it threatens to
take away. If modernity’s mix of achievement and alienation was once 10
embodied by the Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, now it is embodied by the Man
in the Google Glasses.
4 On the one hand, the video is a testament to modern technology’s

extraordinary facts – not only instant communication across blocks or
continents, but also an almost god-like access to information about the world 15
around us. The Man in the Google Glasses can find his way effortlessly
through the mazes of Manhattan; he can photograph anything he sees; he
can make an impulse purchase from any corner of the world.
5 But the video also captures the sense of isolation that coexists with our
technological mastery. The Man in the Google Glasses lives alone, in a drab, 20
impersonal apartment. He meets a friend for coffee, but the video cuts away
from this live interaction, leaping ahead to the moment when he snaps a
photograph of some “cool” graffiti and shares it online. He has a significant
other, but she is far away. When sunset arrives, he climbs up on a roof and
shares the scenery with her via video, while she grins from a window at the 25
bottom of his field of vision.
6 He is, in other words, a characteristic twenty-first century American, more

electronically-networked but more personally isolated than ever before. There
are now more Americans living by themselves than there are Americans in
intact nuclear family households. Children are much more likely to grow up 30
with only a single parent in the home; adults marry less and divorce relatively
frequently; seniors are more likely to face old age alone.
7 The question hanging over the future of American social life then, is
whether all the possibilities of virtual community – the connections forged by
Facebook and Twitter and the hums of virtual conversations that are available 35
any hour of the day can make up for the weakening of flesh-and-blood ties
202
and the declined traditional communal institution.
8 The optimists say yes. The buzzing hive of the Internet is well on its way
to generating a kind of “cognitive surplus” which promises to make group
interactions even more effective and enriching than they were before the 40
Web. The pessimists, on the other hand, worry that online life offers only a
surreal community. As one author argues, the lure of Internet relationships,
constantly available but inherently superficial, might make both genuine
connection and genuine solitude impossible.
9
Today, social media are hailed for empowering dissidents and bringing 45
the downfall of tyrannies around the world. Yet it is hard not to watch the
Google video and agree with critics that such a technology could ultimately
accelerate the arrival of the persistent and pervasive citizen surveillance state
in which everything you see and do can be recorded, reported and
subpoenaed. In this kind of world, the Man in the Google Glass might feel like 50
a king of infinite space. But he could actually be inhabiting a comfortable, full-
serviced cage.
(Adapted from The New York Times, April 16, 2012)
8 Information found on a smartphone can also appear on the Google Glasses.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
9 The Google Glass project is nearing completion.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
10
While Google Glass provide instant access to information to its user, it also
alienates him from his community.
A. True
B. False
C. Not stated
11 The following statements are true about the Man in the Google Glass video
except
A. he often travels across continents

B. he can access information instantly
C. he can buy things from anywhere in the world
203
12 The focus in paragraph 7 is
A. the decline of traditional communities

B. virtual conversations that can take place anytime
C. virtual communities forged through Facebook and Twitter
13 surreal (line 42) means
A. strange
B. imagined
C. temporary
14 The writer develops the concluding paragraph through
A. cause and effect

B. problem and solution
C. comparison and contrast
204
1 Across a patch of pineapples shrouded in smoke, Idris Hadrianyani battled a

menace that has left his family sleepless and sick. Against the advancing
flames, he waved a hose with a handmade nozzle crafted from a plastic soda
bottle. This lopsided struggle is part of a battle against one of the biggest,
and more over-looked causes of global climate change: a vast and often 5
smouldering layer of coal-black peat that has made Indonesia the world’s
third biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after China and the United States.
2 Unlike the noxious gases pumped into the atmosphere by petrol-guzzling

vehicles in the United States and smoke-belching factories in China, the
danger here in the heart of Borneo rises from the ground itself. Peat, formed 10
over thousands of years from decomposed trees, grass and scrub, contains
gigantic quantities of carbon dioxide (CO2), which used to stay locked in the
ground. It is now dying and disintegrating and when it burns, carbon dioxide
gushes into the atmosphere. For Agus Purnomo, head of Indonesia’s
National Council of Climate Change, dealing with peat requires that the world 15
answers a difficult duestion: How to make protection of the environment as
economically rewarding as its often lucrative destruction?
3 Carbon trading was meant to do just that, by allowing developing

countries that cut their emissions to sell carbon credits. Carbon credits are
tradeable equities in global market exchanges just as securities and 20
commodities in the stock markets. But this and other incentives for
conservation developed since a United Nations conference in Kyoto, Japan,
in 1977 has done nothing to protect Indonesia’s abused peatlands.
4 Less than a quarter of a century ago, 75 per cent of Kalimantan was

covered in thick forests. Cleared away since by loggers, oil palm plantations 25
and grandiose projects, the forests have shrunk by about half. Fires,
meanwhile, have grown more frequent and serious. For centuries,
Kalimantan locals burned forest land to create plots for farming. But what
used to be small, controlled fires have become fearsome conflagrations as
dry and degraded peat goes up in smoke. In 2006, according to Wetlands 30
International, Indonesia’s peatlands released roughly 1.9 billion tonnes of
CO2. This is equal to the combined emissions in that year of Germany,
Britain and Canada, and more than emissions from road and air travel of the
United States.
5 How dirt became so dangerous – and why reversing the damage is so 35

difficult – is on grim display here in Central Kalimantan, inhabited by about
two million people and a rapidly dwindling population of orang-utans.
Economic logic here is firmly on the side of those wrecking the environment.
205
For example, Hadrianyani, the fire-fighter in Taruna Jaya, also has another
job: he clears peatland of trees and scrub for cultivation – a task done most 40
easily by burning. That work earns him about US$8 (RM28) a day – twice
what he gets for putting out fires.
6 The uneven match of reality and good intentions have put Central
Kalimantan’s government in a bind. “The carbon here is huge. It should be
safeguarded,” said Humda Pontas, head of the economics department at the 45
regional planning board. “But palm plantations, though a serious threat to
carbon-rich peatland, are the only real investment opportunity. These
plantations employ people and pay taxes. The rest is just theory,” he said.
(Adapted from The Star, February 23, 2010)
15 In paragraph 1, the writer mentions Idris Hadrianyani to
A. emphasise the harmful effects of peat fire on health

B. contrast between the global problem of peat fire against the feeble
attempt at fire fighting
C. highlight the skills of the locals at fire fighting in spite of the lack of
sophisticated equipment
16 The word lopsided (line 4) can best be replaced by
A, unwieldy
B. unbalanced
C. unimaginable
How to make protection of the environment as economically rewarding as

17 its often lucrative destruction? (lines 16 to 17)
This means that
A. the money gained from destroying the environment should be spent on

conserving it
B. protecting the environment should be more profitable than destroying it
C. saving the environment and destroying it should be equally profitable
206
18 Which of the following are true of carbon trading (line 18)?
I. It serves as an incentive for conservation of the environment.

II. It has helped to reduce deforestation and burning in Indonesia.
III. Carbon credits are based on the quantity of CO2 reduced from
emissions.
A. I and II
B. I and III
C. II and III
19 For centuries, Kalimantan locals have burned forest land to create plots for
farming.
(lines 27 and 28)
This implies that this practice
A. was not harmful

B. could cause peat fires
C. released more carbon emission
20 The intention of the writer in mentioning emissions from road and air travel of
the United States (lines 33 and 34) is to
A. show that the United States ranks highest in CO2 emissions

B. highlight the huge quantity of CO2 emissions from Indonesia
C. compare it with CO2 emissions from Germany, Britain and Canada
21
The rest is just theory (line 48)
This implies that
A. the problem needs to be further investigated

B. clearing the land for plantations will continue
C. Central Kalimantan’s government cannot decide on a plan of action
207
1 The ideal – as we are often reminded – is to go organic, to trade processed

foods for fresh food, and the supermarkets for the farmers’ market. Organic
foods currently represent only about 3 per cent of the total United States
(U.S.) market, and anywhere from around 1 per cent to 7 per cent in
European countries. Japan has traditionally been the largest organic market 5
in Asia, but those in China, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and India are
growing as consumers are becoming more affluent. In India, the certified-
organic market has grown 200 per cent in the past two years. True, the
importance of going organic is less relevant in the developing world but those
who can afford it, so we are told, should support the movement. 10
2
That sounds like a great idea, but there is a price to be paid for it.
Organic fruits, vegetables, meat and milk usually cost more than ordinary
produce – and in some cases much more. What is more, while grass-fed
beef is lower in fat, and milk without chemicals is clearly a good idea, it is
less obvious that organic fruits and vegetables have a nutritional edge to 15
speak of. A 2009 study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found no
difference between organic and conventional produce with regard to all but
three of the vitamins and other food components studied, and conventional
produce actually managed to be better than organic produce.
3 “We draw these bright lines between organic and conventional food,” 20
says McWilliams. “But science does not draw those lines. They criss-cross,
and you have people on both sides of the argument. What is needed are not
arguments but answers.”
4 Keeping the food flowing – the prices low – requires a lot of industrial-
engineering tricks, and those have secondary effects of their own. In the 25
U.S., up to 10 million tonnes of chemical fertilizer per year are poured onto
fields to cultivate corn alone, which has increased yields by 23 per cent from
1990 to 2009 but this has led to toxic run offs that are poisoning the Gulf of
Mexico. China, which uses more chemicals on its crops than any other
country, goes through over 47 million tonnes of fertilizer annually. 30
5 The battle over meat generates the most ferocious disagreement in the
food wars. The vast majority of people in developed nations are carnivores.
The U.S. produces 36 billion kilogrammes of meat per year. The European
Union (E.U.) produces roughly the same amount, and all Asia produces a
total of 103 billion kilogrammes. It is now common knowledge that animals 35
are raised in poor conditions, jammed together on factory farms and filled
with high-calorie feed that fattens them up and moves them to slaughter as
fast as possible. The idea of animals living such short, brutish lives
208
introduces an element of altruism into the organic versus commercial debate.
6 There are material advantages to humane treatment. Cattle that eat 40

more grass have higher ratios of omega-3 fatty acids to omega-6, a balance
that is widely-believed to reduce the risk of cancer, heart disease and arthritis
and to improve cognitive function. Take the cows out of the pasture and stuff
them with corn-based feed, and omega-3 plummets. What is more, animals
not raised on feedlots have less chances of spreading E. coli bacteria 45
through contact with the manure of other animals.
Short of swearing off meat, there are no easy solutions. For one thing, if
7
we decided to switch to healthier meat, there would not be enough to go
around. What is more, the scarcity helps drive the prices higher still. Another
alternative is to eat more fish which is healthier because it is leaner, lower in 50
calories and higher in omega-3. But with fish stocks collapsing worldwide
because of over consumption, there is only so far that solution can take us. A
half-measure – but a very powerful one – is simply to cut back on whatever
meat we do eat, even if we cannot quit it altogether.
(Adapted from TIME, September 6, 2010)
22 In paragraph 1, the writer mentions that the Indian organic market has grown
200 per cent in the past two years. This is to
A. illustrate the rapid growth of the organic market in Asia

B. compare the growth of the organic markets in Europe and Asia
C. highlight the fact that India’s organic market is larger than in the U.S.
23 ...but those who can afford it, so we are told, should support the
movement. (lines 9 and 10)
This implies that the writer is of the opinion that
A. only the rich can afford organic food

B. we should be cautious about going organic
C. since organic food is now more available, we should buy it
24 Paragraph 4 is mainly about the
A. attempts at lowering food prices

B. effects of the heavy use of fertilizers
C. adverse effects of industrial-engineering on farming
209
25 The main reason for supporting organic beef is that
A. the cows are better treated

B. this increases the supply of chemical-free milk
C. the chemicals in commercially-reared beef are harmful
26 The following are advantages of grass-fed cattle except
A. its meat has more fatty acids

B. it may reduce the risk of various cancers
C. there is less possibility of E. coli transmission
27 The word plummets (line 44) means
A. to fall sharply
B. to remain constant
C. to increase gradually
28 According to the writer, which of the following is the preferred solution?
A. Eat more fish

B. Eat less meat of any kind
C. Eat only chemical-free meat
29 The purpose of this passage is to
A. evaluate the reasons for advocating organic products

B. help consumers choose between organic and conventional products
C. compare the advantages and disadvantages of organic and non-organic
products
210
1 Nnaemeka, for his own part, was very deeply-affected by his father’s grief.
But he kept hoping that it would pass away. If it had occured to him that
never in the history of his people had a man married a woman with a different
tongue, he might have been less optimistic. “It has never been heard,” was
the verdict of an old man speak a few weeks later. In that short sentence he 5
spoke for all of his people. This man had come with others to commiserate
with Okeke when news went round about his son’s behaviour. By that time
the son had gone back to Lagos.
2 “It has never been heard,” said the old man again with a sad shake of his
head. “What did our Lord say?” asked another gentleman. “Sons shall rise 10
against their Fathers; it is there in the Holy Book.”
“It is the beginning of the end.” said another.
The discussion thus tending to become theological, Madubogwu, a
highly practical man, brought it down once to the ordinary level.
“Have you thought of consulting a native doctor about your son?” he 15
asked Nnaemeka’s father.
“He isn’t sick,” was the reply.
“What is he then? The boy’s mind is diseased and only a good herbalist
can bring him back to his right senses. The medicine he requires is Amalile,
the same that women apply with success to recapture their husbands’ 20
straying affections.”
“Modubogwu is right,” said another gentleman. “This thing calls for
medicine.”
“I shall not call in a native doctor.” Nnaemeka’s father was known to be
obstinately ahead of his more superstitious neighbours in these matters. “If 25
my son were to kill himself, let him do it with his own hands. It is not for me to
help him.”
3 Six months later, Nnaemeka was showing his young wife a short letter
from his father:
It amazes me that you could be so unfeeling as to send me your 30
wedding picture. I would have sent it back. But on further thought I decided to
cut off your wife and send it back to you because I have nothing to do with
her. How I wish I have nothing to do with you either.
When Nene read through the letter and looked at the mutilated picture,
her eyes filled with tears, and she began to sob. 35
“Don’t cry my darling,” said her husband. “He is essentially good-natured
and will one day look more kindly on our marriage.” But years passed and
that one day did not come.
For eight years, Okeke would have nothing to do with his son,
Nnaemeka. Only three times when Nnaemeka asked to come home and 40
211
spend his leave did his father write to him.
“I can’t have you in my house,” he replied in one occasion. “It can be of
no interest to me where and how you spend your leave – or your life, for that
matter.”
4 The story eventually got to the village in the heart of the Ibo country that 45
Nnaemeka and his young wife were the most happy couple. But his father
was one of the few people in the village who knew nothing about this. He
always displayed so much temper whenever his son’s name was mentioned
that everyone avoided it in his presence. By tremendous effort of will, he had
succeeded in pushing his son to the back of his mind. The strain had nearly 50
killed him but he had persevered, and won.
5 The prejudice against Nnaemeka’s marriage was not confined to his little
village. In Lagos especially among his people who worked there, it showed
itself in a different way. Their women when they meet at their village meeting
were not hostile to Nene. Rather, they paid her such excessive deference as 55
to make her feel she was not one of them. But as time went on, Nene
gradually broke through some of this prejudice and began to make friends
among them. Slowly and grudgingly, they began to admit that she kept her
home much better than most of them.
6 Then, one day he received a letter from Nene, and in spite of himself he 60
began to glance through it perfunctorily until out of a sudden the expression
of his face changed and he began to read more carefully.
...Our two sons from the day they learnt that they had a grandfather,
have insisted on being taken to him. I find it impossible to tell them that you
will not see them. I implore you to allow Nnameka to bring them home for a 65
short time during his leave next month. I shall remain here in Lagos...
(Adapted from Smalzer, W. and Lim,P.L (1994). United States. Heinle &
Heinle Publishers)
The first paragraph tells us that the people from Nnaemeka’s village were
30
A. close knit
B. hospitable
C. interfering
D. conservative
212
31 Why did Okeke not want to call in a native doctor?
A. He was stubborn.
B. He disliked the use of herbal medicine.
C. He was less religious than the other villagers.
D. He was less supersitious than the other villagers.
32 The first letter written to his son shows that Okeke felt
A. betrayed by his son

B. rejected by Nnaemeka’s wife
C. unable to stand up to his peers
D. insulted for not being invited to the wedding
33 mutilated (line 34) means
A. rejected
B. damaged
C. discarded
D. disfigured
34 The subsequent letters written by Okeke revealed that he was
A. distant
B. distrustful
C. indifferent
D. unforgiving
35 By tremendous effort ... and won. (lines 49 and 51)
This description of Okeke shows his
A. lack of judgement
B. need to be independent
C. anguish over his decision
D. inability to stand up to his beliefs
213
36 ... they paid her such excessive deference as to make her feel she was not
one of them.
(lines 55 and 56)
The quote above can best be paraphrased as
A. Nene felt overwhelmed by their politeness

B. the womenfolk made Nene feel very unhappy
C. the womenfolk were so polite that Nene felt like a misfit
D. Nene was unable to integrate because she was different from them.
37 Nene’s letter can most aptly be described as
A. an appeal
B. an inquiry
C. a complaint
D. a negotiation
214
1 The World Health Organization (WHO) says the world is in the grip of a
“crisis” of non-infectious disease. Salt is one of the main culprits because of
its effect on blood pressure. Only one substance gives the WHO greater
cause for concern, and that is tobacco. For the past 40 years, doctors around
the world have been waging a war on salt. In some places they have been 5
very successful. And yet in recent months something has shifted. Headlines
have appeared questioning the benefits of eating less salt. Some have
claimed salt reduction is positively harmful; even Scientific American
declared: “It is time to end the war on salt.”
The food available to our hunter-gatherer ancestors would have been 10

2
low in salt so we have evolved an exquisite system detecting in our diet.
Unlike energy, our bodies cannot readily store salt and so we are experts at
hanging on to it, largely through a recycling unit in the kidneys. It is possible
to survive perfectly well on very little salt. But most people eat much more
salt than they need. While US dietary guidelines set an adequate intake of 15
3.75 grammes a day, the average Westerner eats about eight grammes; in
some parts of Asia, 12 grammes is the norm.
3 This effortless consumption of salt horrifies doctors. Our kidneys can

excrete some excess salt but to keep fluid concentrations stable, our bodies
retain extra water. An inevitable consequence of this excess fluid is a rise in 20
blood pressure. Exactly how is not clear. Nor is the reason why some people
are more sensitive than others. But the fact that it does is uncontroversial. It
is the effect on blood pressure that causes problems. High blood pressure is
one of the main risk factors for cardiovascular disease; even small increases
raise your risk of having a stroke. For this reason, salt reduction has become 25
one of the most important public health targets in the West. Dietary
guidelines vary, but generally recommend no more than five to six grammes
of salt a day.
4 In the United Kingdom, this kind of salt reduction was mooted in 1994
but hastily shelved after protests from food manufacturers. In the intervening 30
years, lobbying by scientists, public health groups gradually turned the tide –
not least by raising public awareness – and how the industry is broadly
reconciled to modest salt reductions. The most vigorous defender of the
status quo is the Salt Institute, a trade body representing 48 producers and
sellers of sodium chloride. This institute has a long history of trumpeting any 35
research that goes against the orthodoxy and picking holes in the evidence
against salt. So what is the evidence? Over the years dozens of studies have
been done and the findings are far from uniform.
215
5 One approach is to look for a link between how much salt people eat
when left to their own devices and their rates of heart attacks and strokes. In 40
2009, cardiologist, Francesco Cappuccio pooled all the data and found a
strong relationship between a salt diet and cardiovascular disease (British
Medical Journal (BMJ, vol. 339, p. 4567). Another way is to intervene directly
in people’s diets – take two groups of people, get one of them to eat less salt
for a while and see what the outcome is. These trials take more work than 45
observational studies but several have been done. The biggest managed to
get thousands of people to cut down on salt by about two grammes a day for
up to four years and saw a 25 per cent fall in cardiovascular disease (BMJ,
vol. 334, p. 885). Or you can look at whole countries, taking the before-and-
after approach. Fifteen years ago, northern Japan had one of the world’s 50
biggest appetites for salt – an average of 18 grammes a day, a person – and
shockingly high numbers of strokes. The government implemented a salt
reduction programme and by the late 1960s, an average salt consumption
had fallen by four grammes a day and stroke deaths were down by 80 per
55
cent. Finland, another salt-guzzling nation, achieved similar gains in the
1970s.
6 However, the evidence is not always so clear. In July, Cochrane

Collaboration, an international body dedicated to assessing medical
evidence, published a study on salt and cardiovascular disease. The study
was a “meta-analysis”, pooling the results of all the best-designed 60
randomised controlled trials that have been done. Seven trials met the quality
criteria, with over 6000 subjects in total. The analysis did show that people
who cut back on salt have slightly lower blood pressure and are less likely to
die from heart attacks. But crucially, the effect on deaths was not big enough
to be statistically significant. The research was published simultaneously by 65
Cochrane and the American Journal of Hypertension (vol. 24, p. 834), whose
editor Michael Alderson is a long-time critic of salt reduction. Alderson claims
that the Cochrane study is flawed. When he re-analysed the same data in a
slightly different way, he found a reduction that was statistically significant.
Far from casting doubt on salt reduction, some argued that the findings 70
supported it.
7 The Cochrane report was not the end of it. Last month, Alderson’s
journal published further meta-analysis purporting to show salt reduction
could actually be harmful. It concluded that while cutting salt lowered blood 75
pressure, blood levels of certain hormones were increased, which could raise
cardiovascular risk. But many of the studies included in the analysis lasted
just a few days and involved big salt reductions. Sudden and steep salt
reduction can lead to counter-productive hormonal changes but modest
reductions do not.
(Adapted from New Scientist, December 2011)
216
38 Which of the following questions best addresses the issue in paragraph 1?
A. Is salt a health hazard?

B. Is salt as bad as tobacco?
C. Is the war on salt ever going to end?
D. Is salt to be blamed for high blood pressure?
39 Which of the following is true of paragraph 2?
A. Our ancestors avoided salt in their food.

B. Asians’ consumption of salt is the highest.
C. Salt in our bodies is recycled in the kidneys.
D. Eating eight grammes of salt a day is about the right amount.
40 Based on paragraph 3, which of the following statements are accurate?
I. We know that there is a consensus on a safe limit of salt intake.

II. We know how excess liquid in the kidney increases blood pressure.
III. We know that excess fluid in the body causes a rise in blood pressure.
IV. We know why some people are more sensitive to excess fluid in the body.
A. I and III
B. I and IV
C. II and III
D. II and IV
41 What is the writer’s main intention in paragraph 5?
A. To create awareness of the importance of salt reduction

B. To evaluate the findings of some studies on salt reduction
C. To highlight studies that clearly show a relationship between salt intake
and heart disease
D. To explain the approaches adopted in studies on the relationship
between salt intake and heart disease
42 Which of the following is an observational study?
A. The study conducted in Japan. (line 50)

B. The study carried out in Finland. (line 55 and 56)
C. The study published in BMJ, vol. 339, p. 4567. (line 43)
D. The study reported in BMJ, vol. 334, p. 885. (lines 48 and 49)
217
43 The most significant finding of the Cochrane Collaboration study is
A. the higher the salt intake, the more likely death will strike
B. there is a direct link between salt intake and level of blood pressure
C. when blood pressure is lowered, death through heart attacks is reduced
D. the relationship between salt reduction and death rate is not statistically
significant
44 Alderson claims that the Cochrane study is flawed. What is his reason?
A. The sample size was small.

B. The data was wrongly analysed.
C. The meta-analysis approach was not suitable.
D. Only seven trials were included in the analysis.
45 The main purpose of this article is to
A. encourage research
B. resolve controversies
C. promote healthy living
D. present a balanced view
218
800/4
WRITING
219
QUESTION 1
 Candidates are suggested to use 40 minutes to complete this question.

 Transferring information from specific stimuli to a linear text.
 The stimuli / visuals may take the form of linear and/or non-linear texts.
 Link the information given in the two visuals.
 Write between 150 - 200 words.
DO’S AND DON’TS
DO DON’T
 Spend about 5 minutes to analyse  Copy the question or instruction

the stimuli  Write more than 200 words
 Focus on the key features or  Make own assumption
important trends  Bring in information outside of the
 Write a title visual given
 Write introduction (what does the  Only use data from one stimulus
chart show)  List and describe the information
 Write overall trend
 Use proper paragraphing
 Use appropriate tenses and time
frame
LANGUAGE
 Accurate – describe what is seen

 Meaning – idea and language come through
 Sentence structure:
 Avoid repetitive pattern.
 Avoid long sentences that may confuse reader.
 Use variety of sentences – simple, compound and complex
 Vocabulary – suitable choice of words used
 Grammar – correct and consistent use of tenses.
 Link of ideas – synthesis and analysis
 Organization – intro, body, conclusion & able to visualize the figures with the writing
 Use suitable paragraphing.
 Discourse marker - use suitable linkers
Eg: furthermore, but, in addition, in contrast, in comparison
220
DESCRIBING GRAPHS
Be familiar with vocabulary that is commonly associated with interpreting non-linear texts.
The following table gives you useful vocabulary to describe the graphic aids.
Chart movements
boomed maintained
climbed plateau
escalated remained steady
increased remained unchanged
rose stayed constant
surged
went up
declined fluctuated
decreased peaked at
peak
dipped rose and fell
dropped
fell
plunged
reduced
slumped
went down
Degree and speed of change
Use adjectives or adverbs to describe the changes.
Describing the degree of change Describing the speed of change
Adjectives Adverbs Adjectives Adverbs
1. abrupt 1. abruptly 11. rapid 11. rapidly

2. considerable 2. considerably 12. sharp 12. sharply
3. dramatic 3. dramatically 13. significant 13. significantly
4. enormous 4. enormously 14. slight 14. slightly
5. gradual 5. gradually 15. slow 15. slowly
6. immediate 6. immediately 16. steady 16. steadily
7. instant 7. instantly 17. steep 17. steeply
8. minimal 8. minimally 18. substantial 18. substantially
9. moderate 9. moderately 19. sudden 19. suddenly
10. quick 10. quickly 20. swift 20. swiftly
221
DESCRIBING RANK/ RANKING/ RATE/ RATING
You may also be asked to describe the rank, rate or position of certain data.
Example
the most important ...
the least important ...
the second/third/fourth important ...
rank/rate higher/lower than ...
Describing part of the chart/graph
the highest
the lowest percentage/
the most significant proportion/
the smallest number
the largest
QUESTION 1 GUIDELINE
TITLE
Give title of the essay
INTRODUCTION
 A good intro will show what is shown.
 Cover both visuals, correctly stated.
 Use the title of the visuals as a guide.
 Note the time frame in the visuals presented.
OVERALL TREND
 Shows connection between the two visuals or the general trend.
(the pattern – increasing or decreasing)
BODY / CONTENT:
 Analyse and synthesise the data
 5 elements to consider when analysing and synthesising data:
 Object (item) / point of reference / key features
 Duration / time frame
 Data – must accurate
 Comparison
 Trend / movement
 There is no need to analyse every single data
 Synthesise – link figure 1 with figure 2. Look for relationships between them.
CONCLUSION:
 A rewording of the overall trend
 A summary of the analysis
 You may begin your conclusion by writing:
 In conclusion ....................
 It can be seen that ...........
222
SAMPLE QUESTION 1
223
SAMPLE ANSWER QUESTION 1
TITLE Consumers' choice of venue for grocery shopping
INTRODUCTION Figure 1 shows places where consumers buy their groceries in 1985
 Info from the and 2010 and Table 1 shows the characteristics of the shopping
graph/table/chart outlets in 2010.
 Supermarket was the most preferred shopping outlet based on

 Overall trend certain characteristics in 2010.
 Consumers show a clear preference for shopping for groceries
at supermarket due to certain characteristics in 2010.
BODY  In 1985, wet market and grocery store were the two most
popular outlets for grocery shopping at 45% and 37%
 analysis (A) respectively. (A)
 synthesis (S)  In 1985, the two least frequented venues were the supermarket
(5%) and 24-hour store (2%). (A)
 However in 2010, supermarket became the most popular
shopping outlet at 60% because it offered big discounts,
comfort, variety and convenience. (S)
 In 2010, 35% of the shoppers still patronised wet market, night
market and grocery store as prices were negotiable at these
venues. (S)
 The 24 hour store was the least frequented outlet in 2010 as
convenience was the only pull factor. (S)
 The percentage of shoppers frequenting the night markets
remained the same at 11% in both 1985 and 2010. (A)
 Convenience, negotiable price and variety were the main
attractions for night market in 2010. (S)
 In 2010, the grocery store and wet market experienced a
market drop in popularity, 27% and 31% respectively. (A)
CONCLUSION In conclusion, it is clear that supermarket has overcome other

shopping outlets as the most popular venue for grocery shopping in
2010 in terms of what it offers consumers.
 Your answer must be written in paragraphs.
224
PRACTICE 1
225
PRACTICE 2
226
PRACTICE 3
227
PRACTICE 4
228
PRACTICE 5
229
PRACTICE 6
230
PRACTICE 7
231
PRACTICE 8
232
QUESTION 2
Extended writing based on a given topic.
 Give your stand on the question/issue given.

 Agree, disagree, neutral / discursive
 Support points with relevant reasons and examples – at least 2 very well developed or
3 well developed points.
 Have at least 5 paragraphs.
Introduction  Introduce the topic

 It can be a definition or an explanation of the topic
based on the question
 It should capture the interest of the reader.
 Have a strong thesis statement
- Thesis statement is a sentence that conveys the
writer’s main points in the essay
Body (3 points)  Write your ideas which should consist of:

 Topic sentence (main point of the paragraph)
 Specific /supporting details / elaboration
Conclusion  Sum up your discussion / summary of points

 Restate your thesis statement / opinion / stand
 Avoid sweeping statements and generalisations that you have no proof about. Stay away
from words like:
all, never, always, every, everyone, everything etc.
 You need to think in various styles when coming up with the 3 crucial points:
eg.
1. Short term, Mid term and Long term
(smoking: S=bad breath, M=wasting money, L=health problems like lung cancer)
2. Individual, Society and Government

(recycling: I=3Rs, S= community collection/fund raising, G=recycling campaigns)
3. Social, Economic & Political/Spiritual
 Use suitable cohesive devices / transition signals to link sentences, paragraphs and
ideas:
 Addition : also, in addition, moreover, besides, furthermore
 Contrast : but, however, nevertheless, in contrast, in spite f, on the contrary
 Comparison : similarly, likewise, in the same way
 Conclusion : in conclusion, finally, to conclude, to summarize
233
 Example : for example, for instance, namely, to illustrate
 Use correct and consistent grammar.
QUESTION 2 WRITING TEMPLATE
 INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, /In this era of ...

In my opinion, I strongly agree/disagree that...
In this essay, I will discuss three solid strategies for _____ which include
____________________, _____________________ and _________________.
(THESIS STATEMENT)
 BODY
 1st POINT
Firstly, /First and foremost, ... (TOPIC SENTENCE)
This is because...
Moreover,
For example, and so on.
Therefore, ...
 2nd POINT
Secondly, ... (TOPIC SENTENCE)
This means that...
Furthermore, in addition...
For instance, take for example... and many more.
Thus, hence...
 3rd POINT (TOPIC SENTENCE)

Finally, /Last but not least, ...
 CONCLUSION
In a nutshell, the three strategies I have suggested are _______________,

______________ and _______________.
In my opinion, I still agree/disagree that...
(summary of main points, restate your opinion on the topic or overview of solution)
234
SAMPLE OF A GOOD ESSAY
Information and communication technology (ICT) is the cause of today’s many social ills.
What is your opinion? Support your answer with examples. You should write at least 350
words. (60 marks)
ANGLE OF DISCUSSION
1. Agree - ICT is the cause and why

2. Disagree - ICT is not the cause but due to other factors
3. Discursive - ICT is the cause but up to a certain extent.
4. Disagree - ICT is not the cause, in fact it has contributed to society, benefitted society.
SAMPLE ESSAY
Information and communication technology (ICT) is a result of Introduction

mankind’s need to constantly improve our world. Most people are
familiar with the word ICT and to many, ICT has become deeply
intertwined with our daily lives. It is impossible to deny that ICT has had
a profound impact on society, however has this preoccupation with ICT
helped or damaged us? In my opinion, ICT may be the cause of today’s Opinion /
many social ills, but only to a certain extent. thesis statement
Through ICT, information, videos, stories, data and such are

practically available to everyone. As such, illegal activities such as the 1st point
passing of copyrighted songs and videos between internet users often (topic sentence)
occur. Dubbed as a form of piracy, companies and publishers find that
their revenues may not be as high as it should be. Piracy is deemed as
illegal, and yet governments find themselves helpless in stopping the
illegal transferring of such information as the number of internet users
doing this is innumerable. Artists and producers constantly voice their
frustrations against such situation, but the problem only seems to
worsen as more people are ICT savvy these days. Clearly the use of
ICT has brought losses to producers, publishers, singers and the like.
Has ICT brought about a world that has no respect for copyrights?
Another dark side to ICT is the dangers in the sheer amount of

2nd point
information that people are exposed to. There is a lot of misinformation
(topic sentence)
and undesirable elements like pornography floating around the Internet.
Excessive information without any control or filter is just as detrimental
to the psyche as complete ignorance. For example, people may try to
self-medicate based on information that may be incomplete or skewed.
Children today are exposed to much more information than children of
yesterday. Some of the computer games that they play are violent
which in turn tends to promote violence among children. Children are
easily influenced by what they see and do on the Internet and are not
mature enough to weigh what is right and what is wrong. This
unfortunately, may lead them to practise harmful behaviour in real life.
235
Despite the fact that ICT has caused some of today’s many
social ills, one cannot deny that ICT has brought about many positive
developments in today’s world. For instance, with the internet, a whole 3rd point
ocean of knowledge is a mere click away. People need not spend (topic sentence)
hours poring over heavy encyclopaedias in libraries anymore in a bid to
learn more about a topic of interest. Instead, search engines such as
‘Google’ and ‘Ask Jeeves’ are available to one’s whim and fancy. On
top of that, the internet caters knowledge to all ages, from toddlers to
senior citizens. Parents these days know that they must expose their
children to the internet world in order to give their children the best.
Through ICT, this modern generation is knowledgeable about
happenings throughout the world, and has a wider view of the world
outside one’s upbringing, culture and country.
In addition, ICT has helped save time in a world that is 4th point
constantly advancing. E-mails can be sent within seconds across the (topic sentence)
world, as compared to snail-mail, which takes a good few weeks if one
was to post a letter from Malaysia to America. Besides that, multi-
national companies need not waste time and money in meeting
together physically to hold meetings. Instead, most companies resort to
video conferencing these days. This method is efficient and is as
effective as a physical meeting. Besides that, many newspapers now
have online newspapers, updating the latest news about events that
are used to read only the following day. As such, it is unequivocal that
ICT saves one time, and plenty of it.
In conclusion, I reiterate that ICT may be the cause of today’s Conclusion

many social ills, but only to a certain extent, depending on the hand
that uses it. One cannot deny that ICT has brought along many positive
developments in this world. As the saying goes, ‘Nothing is perfect’. As
a society that wishes to improve this world and to eradicate social ills,
let us unite and ensure that the world of ICT contributes to our society
the way it should. Citizens, young and old alike should work hand-in
hand with governments to obliterate immoral activities that occur in the
online world. Governments should realize that by doing so, a whole
new generation worthy of bringing their countries to greater heights yet
to be achieved will become a reality.
236
PRACTICE QUESTION 2
You are advised to spend about 50 minutes on this task.
PRACTICE 1
Many tragedies can be avoided if people take preventive actions. Discuss. You should write
at least 350 words.
PRACTICE 2
In an arranged marriage, the choice of a husband or wife is made by parents or elders. What
do you think of this practice in today's society? Discuss. You should write at least 350
words.
PRACTICE 3
The most valuable thing in life is friendship. Do you agree? Discuss. You should write at
least 350 words.
PRACTICE 4
A person's career choice should be determined by his or her interest. Discuss. You should
write at least 350 words.
PRACTICE 5
Students’ participation in co-curriculum activities has been made one of the criteria for entry
into universities. What do you think of this requirement? Give your opinion and support it with
reasons. You should write at least 350 words.
PRACTICE 6
“Women make better leaders than men.” Do you agree? You should write at least 350
words
PRACTICE 7
Man's careless attitude is the main cause for the destruction of the environment. Discuss.
You should write at least 350 words.
PRACTICE 8
“Everyone should aim to become a millionaire by the age of 35.” Discuss. You should write
at least 350 words.
PRACTICE 9
The trend today among youths is to own the latest technological gadgets such as mobile
phones and other devices. Is this a healthy development among young people? Give your
opinion. You should write at least 350 words
PRACTICE 10
“There is a strong link between reading and academic success.” Discuss. You should write
at least 350 words.
237
PRACTICE 11
“The imbalance between the number of boys and girls pursuing university education creates
social problems.” To what extent is this statement true? Discuss. You should write at least
350 words.
PRACTICE 12
“Parents know best as far as careers are concerned.” Do you agree? Discuss. You should
PRACTICE 13
“The most important factor which contributes towards a person’s success is himself.” Do
you agree with the statement? Justify your stand, giving relevant examples where
appropriate. You should write at least 350 words.
PRACTICE 14
“The media is an educational tool.” Do you agree with the statement? Justify your stand by
giving relevant examples where appropriate. You should write at least 350 words.
PRACTICE 15
“Playing computer games is beneficial to everyone”. Discuss. You should write at least 350
words.
PRACTICE 16
“Education comes not from books, but from practical experience”. Do you agree with the
statement? Justify your stand by giving relevant examples where appropriate. You should
PRACTICE 17
“Failure is the first step to success”. Discuss. You should write at least 350 words.
PRACTICE 18
“Holding a part-time job while studying disrupts a student’s studies”. Do you agree with the
statement? Justify your stand by giving relevant examples where appropriate. You should
PRACTICE 19
The rising fuel price has pushed up the price of other consumer products. How will this affect
the society? Give your opinion. You should write at least 350 words.
PRACTICE 20
“Peer pressure can help mould a student’s life”. Discuss. You should write at least 350
words.
238
References
Ang Y.T., Francis A., Chew P.C., Lee S.K., Lee Y.L., Ng K.S. (2010). MUET Skills, Preparation
& Practice. Selangor: Federal Marshall Cavendish Education
Choo W.Y., Yeoh W. T., Stanley Nyanaprakasan, Yee S.F. (2013). Ace Ahead Text MUET. 5th
ed. Selangor: Oxford Fajar Sdn. Bhd.
Collection of MUET papers November 2012. (2013). Johor: Penerbit Pelangi Sdn Bhd.
Collection of MUET papers July 2013. (2013). Johor: Penerbit Pelangi Sdn Bhd.
Collection of MUET papers July 2014. (2014). Johor: Penerbit Pelangi Sdn Bhd.
Collection of MUET papers November 2013. (2014). Johor: Penerbit Pelangi Sdn Bhd.
Majlis Peperiksaan Malaysia. (2011). End-2011 MUET Paper 3 Reading.
Majlis Peperiksaan Malaysia. (2016). March 2016 MUET Paper 3 Reading.
Wiles, A. (2011). MUET My Way. Retrieved from http://muetmyway.blogspot.my
239
PANEL WRITERS
NAMA KELAYAKAN
1. Raja Zaida bt Raja Ahmad Kamar  M.A. (English)
Universiti Putra Malaysia
zaidaipgkpi@gmail.com  B.A. (HONS)
 Diploma in ESL, University Malaya
 Teaching Certificate (TESL)
Maktab Perguruan Pulau Pinang
 Postgraduate Certificate
(Trainer Development – English
Language Teaching)
University of St Mark & St John,
Plymouth,UK.
2. Pn. Hjh. Akmar bt Aminuddin  M. Ed. (TESL)

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
akmara66@yahoo.com  B.Ed (Hons)
University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, UK.
 Postgraduate Certificate
(Trainer Development – English
Language Teaching)
University of St Mark & St John,
Plymouth,UK.
3. Pn. Noraida bt Mustafa  M.Ed. (TESL)

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
aidajbi71@gmail.com  B.Ed.(Hons)TESL
Universiti Malaya
4. Pn. Veronica Cristobel a/p  M.Ed (Education Management)

Anthonysamy Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
 B.Ed.English (Hons)
veron9269@gmail.com Universiti Putra Malaysia
5. Pn. Lailatur Suraya Bt Jalaluddin  MA English Literature

laylasuraya@gmail.com  B.A (ELT)
University of Surrey
6. En. Malek bin Baseri  MEd. TESL

Universiti Perguruan Sultan Idris
malekbaseri@icloud.com  BEd. TESL
University Canterbury Christ Church, UK
7. Amrien Hamila binti Ma’arop  B. Ed (TESOL)

Macquarie University, Sydney.
amrienhamila@gmail.com
240

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IPGM MUET MODULE

INSTITUT PENDIDIKAN GURU

Tips for reading 76

Tips for writing question 1 220

Tips for writing question 2 233

Panel of Writers 240

The structures of the papers are presented below.

LISTENING SPEAKING READING WRITING

Paper code 800/1 800/2 800/3 800/4

Time 30 minutes 30 minutes 90 minutes 90 minutes

Number of 5 texts 2 tasks 6 texts 2 tasks

Question type  Information Multiple choice  Transfer of

Description of Aggregated Scores

Aggregated Band User Communicative Comprehension Task

TIPS FOR LISTENING

PRE LISTENING STEP 2

DO’S AND DON’TS

 Concentrate and listen actively

A. SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS

What you should do

What you should do

1 Employers prefer confident people because they _____________________________

How to Become a More Confident Person

Accept yourself as you are Know your strengths and

Believe in yourself 4 __________________________

6 ________________________ Stay away from negative people

7 The last tip on confidence given by the speaker is to

8 A person with high self-esteem is likely to be

A just want to listen

9 The interviewer assumes that the counsellor’s clients ______________________

For questions 11 to 14, circle the correct answer.

11 A good approach in counseling is to

14 The interviewer concluded that a counsellor’s job is

Part III (6 marks)

15 The production, transportation and disposal of plastic bottles result in _________________

1 The original idea of cheerleading was to _________________________________________

4 Squad members created

7 As cheerleading developed, it became

8 At the end of the talk, the speaker advises parents to be

For questions 11 to 14, circle the correct answer.

11 Dr. Linda’s job is to develop employees

12 Dr. Linda normally does a needs-analysis in order to

14 To work together, Malaysians try to establish

PART III (6 marks)

How Dissatisfied Customers React

Stop buying the product

For questions 7 and 8, circle the correct answer.

7 Word-of-mouth complaints have the most impact since

For questions 11 to 14, circle the correct answer.

11 Cats and dogs are allowed to visit

12 The following are true except

13 Having an enhanced emotional well-being would

PART III (6 marks)

15 Tanjung Piai is best known for _________________________________________________

1 Organizing a study group can help you to ________________________________________

Preparation for First Study Group Meeting

7 The speaker thinks a study group meeting should be run like

8 To obtain maximum success from study groups

A is better than taking plain water

9 Generally, coconut water ________________________________________________

For questions 11 to 14, circle the correct answer.

Know their 5 _ Attract their 6 ____ Differentiate