Questions 1 to 10 are based on the following passage.

A Microscopic Look at Hotel Hygiene

Philip Tierno doesn’t feel comfortable staying in hotels. He knows too much. The microbiologist
travels with an impervious mattress and pillow cover to protect against the unseen debris that
guests leave behind in what he compares to the lost Roman civilization, particles “literally buried
over time” in the bed. What I’m saying is it’s not just you in bed, it’s who comes after you,” said
Tierno, director of microbiology and immunology at New York University’s Langone Medical
Center. More disturbingly, it’s who comes before you, too. When it comes to hotel bedding,
allergens are the biggest problem for guests, Tierno said. Evidence of bedbugs is an immediate
dealbreaker for Tierno, but we’ll leave them out of the picture here since that problem is closely
related to the presence of guests, not germs.

You can probably imagine what might be lurking in the mattress, but here’s a sampling for those
who hesitated: skin cells (when human sleep they shed about 1.5 million cells or cell cluster an
hour), human hair, bodily secretions, fungi, bacteria, dust, dust mites, lint, insect parts, pollen,
cosmetics…and more. Some of the newer hotels use the type of impervious, waterproof covers
Tierno carries with him, but most don’t, he said, While the covers were developed for allergy
sufferers, Tierno encourages everyone to use them at home and on the road. Ask when you
reserve if the hotel uses allergy barriers on beds, While many hotels have followed in the
footsteps of Westin hotels and Resorts, adopting a duvet model of bedding, mimicking the
brand’s Heavenly Bed, plenty of chains on the lower end still use quilter bedspreads.

It’s certainly true that bedspreads, or the quilts inside duvet covers, don’t get thrown in with the
sheets for a daily wash. Hotels schedule periodic deep cleanings for rooms when tasks might
include pulling furniture away from walls to clean, flipping mattresses, cleaning vents,
shampooing carpet, changing mattress pads and replacing blankets and bedspreads, according to
Reneta McCarthy, a lecturer at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration. In some
cases, the cover that protects a duvet may not be changed from one guest to another if the bed
has a top and bottom sheet, McCarthy said. Big chains have brand standards and very specific
cleaning protocol, according to Howard Adler, director of the Center for the Study of Lodging
Operations at Purdue University. “It’s an ongoing battle to keep training at a high level to
maintain your high standards of cleanliness, of hygiene and all those things,” Adler said.

In hotel rooms that aren’t properly disinfected, some of the germiest areas tend to be the faucet
and sink areas, the fluster of the toilet, the underside of the toilet seat and the shower floor,
Tierno said. Tierno has conducted a number of scientific hotel room studies over the years and is
the author of The Secret Life of Germs. Improper cleaning techniques, such as using the same rag
in the bathroom and on the remote control, can spread gems around. Cleaning in a “cavalier
manner” doesn’t happen only in lower-end hotels, he said. Germs also tend to congregate in
places touched multiple times by multiple people that may not be cleaned thoroughly, if at all ---
the interior doorknob, the telephone, the remote control and the alarm clock. While he
acknowledges, “There’s no raging problem of communicable diseases contracted in hotels,”
cold, flu and gastrointestinal viruses can be spread on surfaces.“ When you have people,
unfortunately you have transmission of germs,” Tierno said.

There are codes in addition to those for food and beverage service that apply to hotels. The rules
and how they’re enforced vary state to state and inspections sometimes and conducted on the
county level. At most major hotels, managers do a checklist inspection of rooms after each
cleaning, Adler said, but there’s no 100 percent reliable method of making sure staffers don’t cut
corners. Still, exposure to germs in hotel rooms is generally nothing some timely and thorough
hand washing can’t fix, Tierno said. Of the 60,000 types of germs people might encounter over
the course of their lives, only 1% or 2% are capable of causing disease, he said. So while
Tierno’s not comfortable staying in hotels, he’s not afraid either. “I know where potential germs
lie within the hotel room and I know what to do to prevent myself from becoming ill.”

(Adapted from CNN Travel)

1. The main idea of paragraph 1 is

A. Philip Tierno does not like staying in hotels
B. the existence of allergens and germs in hotel beddings
C. hotel guests who bring bedbugs with them
D. exposure to germs

2. Hotel mattresses not only contain bedbugs but they might also
A. have impervious waterproof covers
B. carry samplings of allergy sufferers
C. bring along filthy microorganisms and bacterias in them
D.

3. Which of the following is incorrect?

A. Many other hotels utilised Heavenly Bed beddings in their rooms.

B. Other cheaper hotels have yet to make use of allergy barriers on their beds.
C. International class hotels have adopted Westin Hotel beddings in their rooms.

4. Which of the following is not part of the daily room cleaning procedures in hotels?
A. Face and room towels being changed and washed.
B. Bedspreads and quilts being changed and washed.
C. Bath towels and bedsheets being changed and washed.

5. It’s an ongoing battle to keep training at a high level to maintain your high standards of
cleanliness, of hygiene (lines 31 – 32). This means that
 A. hotel managements have difficulty in ensuring their cleaning staff sustain high level of
cleanliness in their rooms
B. hotel managements have to raise the level of training of their cleaning staff especially in
the wet areas around the room
C. hotel managements need to upgrade the cleanliness level of their rooms to more difficult
levels to ensure that cleanliness can be maintained

6. Philip Tierno is of the opinion that

A. “cavalier manner” cleaning is limited to lower-end hotels
B. his book, The Secret Life of Germs would unveil some scientific hotel room studies
C. the germiest areas concentrate in the restroom area of the hotel rooms

7. Philip Tierno is __________ viruses and germs are being transmitted in hotels.
A. confident
B. suprised
C. anxious

Vegetable Gardens Are Booming in a Stagnant Economy

WEST LIBERTY, KENTUCKY – As the economy continues to stagnate in towns and cities
across the United States, here in eastern Kentucky it is causing things to sprout. Garden plots are
dug into the green hills, laid out in fuller force than people have seen in years. People call them
sturdy patches of protection in uncertain times. “You see a lot more people turning up ground,”
said Wanda Hamilton, 61, a lifelong gardener who sells her surplus vegetables at the farmers’
market in West Liberty, a small town in the Appalachian foothills. “It’s the economy. You just
can’t afford to shop at the grocery store anymore.”

It is not just eastern Kentucky. Vegetable gardening has been on the rise across the country,
according to Bruce Butterfield, research director at the National Gardening Association, driven
by rising food prices and a growing contingent of health-conscious consumers. Garden-store
retailers have reported increased sales over the past two years, he said, and many community
gardens have waiting lists. “Our sales have skyrocketed,” said George Ball, chief executive of
Burpee, one of the largest vegetable-seed retailers. The jump, he said, began around the time
Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008, when anxiety about money started to rise.

In urban areas, the words “locally grown” conjure images of affluent shoppers in pricey farmers’
markets. But in rural America, consumers are opting for locally grown food – from their own
gardens and neighbouring farmers – largely because it is cheaper. Rebecca Frazier, a teacher
here, said she had cut her food bill in half by growing her own and preserving and by buying in
bulk from local farmers. She recently paid $10 for 40 pounds of sweet potatoes, a fraction of the
store price. “I’m getting twice the food for a whole lot less money,” she said.
Timothy Woods, a professor of agricultural economics at the University of Kentucky who has
studied the evolution of farmers’ markets in the state, said more rural residents were selling
surplus out of their gardens for supplemental income, a pattern that has helped double the
number of farmers’ markets in eastern Kentucky since 2004. Those markets are geared to
shoppers who want to buy in bulk at the lowest possible price in order to pickle, can, dry and
freeze, Mr Woods said – unlike urban markets, where customers pay double rural prices and
typically eat what they buy right away. “You won’t see certified organic products or any fancy
marketing,” he said of rural markets. “It’s a very different world.”

Another motivation for bigger gardens: the financial uncertainly that comes with retirement.
Brenda Engle, 56, an apparel factory employee, and her husband, Leon, 64, a former
telecommunications company employee who works at Wal-Mart, are trying to squeeze their
budget down to the size of their future retirement check. They grew a year’s worth of beans. “We
want to be self-sufficient,” said Ms Engle, who has even started making her own laundry
detergent.

The garden also serves as a therapy. “ When I’m in the garden,” she said, “the world is gone.”
Sarah G. Fannin, an agriculture educator who works with the University of Kentucky’s
cooperative extension service to take research to people in the country, said calls for gardening
assistance had doubled in the past three years, many from young people. Gardening classes have
been full, she said, as has a class on canning taught by a colleague. “Ten years ago, we hadn’t
really been thinking about where our food was coming from other than the drive-through or the
grocery store,” Ms Fannin said. “Now there’s more concern.” That is because – at least in the
opinion of Ms Frazier, the teacher – health has become a bigger issue for more people here,
partly as a hedge against rising health care costs. She said she planted her garden in 2008 after
her daughter started having health problems.

Ms Fannin said vegetables could be part of this area’s economics future. She has urged farmers
to start growing sweet potatoes, a hardy crop in vogue in urban kitchens. Robert Bradley, a coal
worker turned farmer, said he had been laughed at when he first planted them, but his crop
turned out so well that other farmers want to try. His ultimate insurance policy, however, is his
own garden. “When I go to my cellar and get my own green beans and potatoes, I know I won’t
go hungry,” he said.

(Adapted from The New York Times 9 September 2011)

8. In the opening paragraph, the writer makes the point that stagnant economy in the United
Sates is causing
A. plants to sprout in towns and cities across the country
B. vegetable gardening to increase in popularity
 C. people not to shop in the grocery store anymore

9. The word skyrocketed (line14) means that the sales of vegetable-seed was
A. boosted
B. controlled
C. stagnanted

10. Which of the following questions is answered by paragraph 2?

A. Why do the American people turn to vegetable gardening across the country?
B. Why is there a growing contingent of health-conscious consumers in the
United States?
C. What is the link between vegetable gardening and the National Gardening
Association?

11. Which of the following is not found in paragraph 3?

A. High food prices drove people in rural America to plant their own
vegetables.
B. In urban areas, locally grown vegetables are available in expensive farmers’
markets.
D. People who plant their own vegetables increase their food bill by half.

15. The food sold by the rural residents in farmers’ markets in eastern Kentucky
would
A. help to augment their income
B. be resold in the urban markets
C. be sent out as surplus produce

16. The following are advantages, as mentioned in the text, of having a vegetable
garden except
A. it is cost-effective
B. it is eco-friendly
C. it supplements income

17. Currently more and more people are interested in vegetable gardening partly
due to
A. awareness of being healthy in view of increasing cost of health care
B. past ignorance of food sources
C. gardening assistance classes being offered in universities

18. Vegetable produce from gardens help to

A. protect growers from fluctuating economics growth in their areas
B. tighten growers’ belts during the current economics downturn
C. supplement food supplies and reduce household bills