ASSORTED TEST 1

I. LISTENING (50 POINTS)

Part 1. For questions 1-9, listen to a conversation in a tourist information office in Guernsey and decide
whether these statements are True (T) or False (F).
1. There is a concert at the old castle on Saturday night.
2. St James concert hall is an ideal place to learn about the history of the island.
3. The woman says that Hauteville House was the home of a famous writer.
4. The guided walk in St Peter Port starts at 5.00 and lasts 1.5 hours.
5. To join the guided walk, visitors must buy a ticket from the information office.
6. The man plans to take part in the Autumn Walking Festival.
7. The name Tennerfest is related to the price offered.
8. Tennerfest will start in six weeks’ time.
9. The man is not interested in visiting the island of Jersey.
Part 2. For questions 10-15, listen to a radio interview with the comedian Brain Conley, who does a
considerable amount of work in panto, a type of family-friendly show which is popular at Christmas and
choose the correct answer A, B or C which fits best according to what you hear.
10. Brian likes Birmingham because
A. it has provided him with a steady income. B. it is where he grew up C. it was where he first became
famous
11. When they discuss children’s participation in panto, Brian says that
A. he prefers children not to come up on stage.
B. it’s important to get the parents’ permission if a child wants to participate.
C. he thinks that children’s participation adds a certain quality to the show.
12. According to Brian, the advantage of panto is that
A. all the actors can change their lines to reflect current events.
B. the qualities required in panto match his talents.
C. it gives him the chance to play a comedy character.
13. Brian became involved in comedy because
A. he had wanted to do it since he was a child.
B. his friends at school encouraged him to do it.
C. he found he could earn more by doing comedy.
14. What does Brian say about providing comedy for corporate events?
A. It is easy because the audience has had a lot to drink.
B. He has learnt how to respond to comments from the audience.
C. It’s the only way for many comedians to find work.
15. What does Brian feel with regards to nerves?
A. He agrees with a comment someone made early in his career
B. He no longer feels nervous because he is more experienced
C. The extent of his nerves has changed over the years.
Part 3. For questions 16-25, listen to a talk about the history of the electric guitar and supply the blanks with
the missing information. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS taken from the recording for each answer in
the space provided.

DATE MAKER NAME OF GUITAR FEATURES

1890s Orville Gibson no name similar in shape to a 16.___________

1925 Jogn Dopyera The National Guitar made of metal, good for playing 17._____

1930s C.F. Martin Company The Dreadnought strings made of 18.__________

1931 George Beauchamp The 19.________________ used two 20.________________shaped
like horseshoes to increase sound
1935 Adolph Rickenbacker The Rickenbacker Electro made from 21.________________
Spanish
1941 Les Paul The Log the first to be completely 22.___________

1950 Leo Fender The Fender Broadcaster its simplicity made it ideal for 23.______

1951 Leo Fender The 24.________________ easy to carry around

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1952 Ted McCarty The Gibson Les Paul 25.________________in colour

1954 Leo Fender The Fender Stratocaster double cutaway design

II. PHONETICS (10 POINTS)

Part 1. Choose the word whose underlined part is pronounced differently from the others.
26. A. failed B. reached C. absorbed D. solved
27. A. loses B. houses C. rises D. shoes
28. A. says B. pays C. stays D. bays
29. A. scheme B. parachute C. architect D. psychology
30. A. mahout B. foul C. poultry D. drought
Part 2. Choose the word which is stressed differently from the others.
31. A. remote B. receive C. prevent D. recent
32. A. preferential B. congratulate C. development D. preservative
33. A. abnormal B. initial C. innocent D. impatient
34. A. interchange B. infamous C. overeat D. undercurrent
35. A. aphorism B. extremism C. barbarism D. feminism
III. LEXICO-GRAMMAR (40 POINTS)
Part 1. For questions 36-55, choose the correct answer A, B, C or D to each of the following questions and
write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
36. Standing on the tip of the cape, ________________.
A. people have seen a lighthouse far away B. lies a lighthouse in the middle of the sea
C. a lighthouse can be seen from the distance D. we can see the lighthouse in the distance
37. John: “Do you think we should use public transport to protect our environment?”
Laura: “________________”
A. Of course not. You bet! B. Well. that’s very surprising.
C. There’s no doubt about it. D. Yes, it’s an absurd idea.
38. __ visit the British Museum while you are in London, you mustn't forget to look at the famous Rosetta Stone.
A. In case you B. If you should C. For fear that you D. When you might
39. Paul: “ I was late because I got caught in traffic.”
Kevin: “________________, lateness will not be tolerated in this office.”
A. Be that as it may B. If need be C. Then so be it D. Whatever it may be
40. The hostage was released unharmed by the kidnappers, but they were never caught and charged with ______.
A. fraud B. forgery C. abduction D. trafficking
41. On his first day in the Milanese office, the German executive experienced ________________ on the part of
the employees in the office, who saw him as a threat.
A. inadequacy B. hostility C. equality D. degradation
42. The only room available was, to say the least________________. There was no carpet, no curtains, and the
only furniture was a bed and a small bedside table.
A. snug B. dreary C. stark D. cushy
43. Regional parliaments allow ________________ for remote parts of the country or islands far from the capital.
A. self-government B. self-sufficiency C. self-regulation D. self-support
44. Zoe’s plan to study at university _______when she didn’t get the required grades in her school leaving exams.
A. fell through B. wrote off C. got back D. put in
45. It’s not advisable to buy goods from street vendors – there’s a good chance you’ll be ____________.
A. ripped off B. forked out C. paid off D. scraped by
46. We all agreed to cover some of the cost – so come on, ________________!
A. dip in B. put aside C. bail out D. cough up
47. I ate some tinned sardines that had expired and ended up feeling so sick that I _______all the food I had eaten.
A. brought up B. passed out C. packed up D. went off
48. He was too sure of himself to pay ________________ to the warnings against the danger.
A. notice B. attention C. respect D. recognition
49. All nations should ________________ hands to work out a plan to solve the problem of global warming.
A. join B. hold C. shake D. lend
50. At the age of 11, Taylor Swift was already trying to ________________ a record deal in Nashville.
A. land B. create C. steal D. grab
51. Please ________________ these figures to memory, so that you will be able to answer the investors’
questions easily and confidently.
A. memorise B. recall C. retain D. commit
52. He’s sometimes bad-tempered but he’s a good fellow ________________.
A. at heart B. with heart C. by heart D. in heart
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53. When it comes to the ________________, Alice always support her friends.
A. point B. crunch C. mark D. crisis
54. Although he came to work the day before his retirement, everyone knew he was just ________________.
A. going with the flow B. going through the motions
C. going against the grain D. going along with them
55. I had a ________________this morning when a tractor trailer unexpectedly swerved into my lane.
A. deep end B. dead beat C. close shave D. tight corner
Part 2. For questions 56-60, write the correct form of each bracketed word in the numbered space provided.
Whilst 56.________________(urban) was characteristic of an earlier era, many young people are choosing to do
exactly the opposite of their forebears. As a result of financial 57.________________(stable) in the city and
worries about inadequate public services, numerous educated, young individuals, either alone or with their
families are willingly moving back to smaller towns and villages in search of a better and more
58.________________(afford) way of life.
When families are 59.________________(root) from their homes, there are a lot of negative repercussions;
educated graduates may face competition from skilled workers, who, while having no formal qualifications, have
been working the land for years, and city children may find themselves 60.________________(margin) at school.

Part 3. For questions 61-65, write the correct form of each bracketed word in the numbered space provided.
61. The discussions reached a new level of ________________(intense) and by lunchtime the exchanges were
becoming very heated.
62. Alvin met the genial master poet Langston Hughes, who became a lifelong friend and __________(confide).
63. There is an ________ (speak) recognition of a certain disposition or habitus among the social classes.
64. It has to be said it was rather __________ (genus) of him to ask a complete stranger to look after his luggage.
65. Sometimes a sympathetic friend can be a constant source of discouragement, all ___________ (know).
Part 4. For questions 66-75, find and correct 10 mistakes in the passage.
The huge mountain of Kilimanjaro is one of the most distinct entities within the severe land of the African
wilderness. Rivers carry life to the forests and jungles below flow from beneath the eminence, whereas in the
endless plains of this continent an astonishing diversity of animal species have evolved to take advantage of the
immense African habitat. They have adapted and survived in their different shapes and sizes. Some of them are
big, some small, some eat plans and some live by meat. There are those which wander alone, unlike the others
which gather in herd. The multiplying millions of herbivores are balanced by the frightened meat eaters -
carnivores whose body build has been shaped for speed and for the strength indispensable to outmanoeuvre their
prey. These superior predators which have conducted their daily struggle for survival in the harsh African
environment all live in unfavourable surroundings where the punishment for weakness is often dead. The reality
of Africa best pictures the exciting cruelty of nature towards the weakness of individual animals as only the
existence of the whole species is essential. However, big predators like lions or tigers don't usually tolerate with
company and might, then, be exposed to mortal danger, were it not for their perfect attributes and an
uncomparable skill at killing. They should never be judged by human standards. It is obvious they don't kill out of
hatred, but for the simple reason of remaining lively during their lone struggle in this hostile habitat.
III. READING (50 POINTS)
Part 1. For questions 76-85, fill each of the following numbered blanks with ONE suitable word
A number of scientists around the world are investigating a phenomenon called synaesthesia that may affect as
76.______ as one in 2,000 people. The name 77._______ from the Greek words for together and perception and
means that some people’s senses work in combination. For example, some people see colour when they hear
particular 78.__________. Similarly, a smell or taste may be perceived as a 79._______to information received
from the eyes. However, the most common form of synaesthesia occurs 80.______ people who associate certain
letter of words with colours. Scientists at Cambridge University conducted experiments to determine whether this
is actually a product of mental activity or if some individuals are just highly 81.______. They discovered that
synaesthetes, people 82.______ experience synaesthesia, consistently associate the same letters or words with the
same colours. Brain scans revealed unusual activity in the brain when subjects were listening to words, suggesting
that it is a 83._______condition. The 84._______plausible explanation is that synaesthetes have slightly different
connections between the areas of the brain which control their senses. Synaesthesia is not a medical problem,
however, and synaesthetes often 85.______ from an unusually good memory, probably because they have extra
information to help them recall things like names and numbers.
Part 2. For questions 86-95, read the text below and decide which answer A, B, C or D best fits each gap.
When LL Zamenhof constructed the auxiliary language of Esperanto in the late 1880s, he did so with certain key
goals in mind: to 86.__________ the study of language easier and more learner-friendly; and to develop a
universal language as a means of international communication and as a 87._________ for promoting concord and
understanding in a 88.__________ world. His goals were influenced very much by his own experiences of
growing up in Bialystok, which is part of modern-day Poland. A multitude of different ethnic groups lived there
at the time and were constantly 89.__________ with each one another. It was this at which Zamenhof despaired,
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and he reasoned that the 90.__________ cause of dispute was the barriers to communication present on account
of the lack of a common language. Therefore, he set out to create one: Esperanto.
His goals were incredibly ambitious, but was the new language a success? Well, in so far as it is the most widely
spoken artificial one in existence today, with an estimated two-plus-million people worldwide fluent to some
91.__________, you would have to say yes. However, the fact remains that Esperanto has not 92.__________
English as the lingua franca of international communication, nor has it been nearly so widely 93.__________ as
Zamenhof himself would have hoped.
Therefore, judged against Zamenhof’s own 94.__________ ambitions for the language, the conclusion could not
be in the affirmative. That said, his intentions in building an entirely new language were incredibly noteworthy
and that the language has 95.__________ even to the extent that it has done, with millions of active speakers, is,
in and of itself quite remarkable.
86. A. render B. prove C. adjust D. portray
87. A. mechanism B. utensil C. device D. scheme
88. A. discordant B. analogous C. congruent D. comparable
89. A. quarrelling B. disputing C. debating D. conflicting
90. A. outlying B. underlying C. outstanding D. underlining
91. A. scope B. breadth C. matter D. degree
92. A. promoted B. usurped C. overturned D. reversed
93. A. endured B. embraced C. embodied D. enhanced
94. A. reckless B. modest C. lofty D. pushy
95. A. enriched B. cultivated C. stretched D. prospered
Part 3. For questions 96-108, read the following passage and do the tasks that follow.
The Mystery of Sleep
Sleep takes up precious time and leaves us vulnerable, so why do we do it?
A. The question of why we sleep has been on people’s minds at least since the time of Aristotle, who believed
that the warming and cooling of the body as a result of digestion caused sleep. Though we know this is incorrect
today, other early theories have held up better. The possibility of a ‘sleep toxin’ – a substance that built up during
the day, causing drowsiness, and was subsequently relieved by sleep – was put forward by Henri Pieron in the
early 1900s, and this concept is not unlike some contemporary ideas about sleep that researchers are pursuing
today. It was not until 1953 that Nathaniel Kleitman and his colleagues identified two different kinds of sleep;
REM and non-REM sleep. Many say that this breakthrough paved the way for modern sleep research. But since
then, despite the great deal of effort that has been made to better understand sleep, it is still largely a mysterious
phenomenon.

B. Among living things, sleep is practically universal. Even jellyfish, which have no brains, experience something
called sleep pressure – the need to rest longer after being kept awake. Tiny worms, with only a few neurons,
spend time in a sleep-like state and die more quickly when exposed to stress if this state is prevented. Sharks and
dolphins, which must keep moving at all times in order to breathe, have the ability to sleep with one hemisphere
of the brain at a time. Yet, when an animal sleeps, it cannot protect itself from danger, it cannot eat or reproduce.
Sleep is high-risk and costly, so why is it such a universal phenomenon? Clearly, it must be important.

C. One theory about the reason for sleep is that it arose simply as a way to save energy. If there were times when
it was difficult or hazardous for an animal to move around, then it might make sense for them to simply enter a
sleep state when all of their physical systems slow down. That way, they would require less food, and could hide
away from danger. The observation that animals with few natural predators, lions, for example, sleep up to 15
hours a day, while small prey animals seldom sleep more than 5 hours a day, seems to contradict this, however. In
addition, the objection has been raised that sleep only lowers the metabolism by 10-15 per cent, so not much
energy is, in fact, saved. According to Serge Daan, a researcher who studied arctic ground squirrels, something
else must be taking place. He found that the ground squirrels would periodically come out of their suspended-
animation-like state of hibernation in order to sleep. For these animals, sleep was actually energetically
expensive, so it must serve some other essential purpose.

D. It is well established that the act of sleeping is important for essential brain functions such as memory and
learning. A rapidly increasing body of cognitive research suggests that sleep allows us to consolidate and process
information that has been acquired during the day. Sleep scientist Matthew Walker used MRI scans to visualise
activity in the brains of people who were learning a series of finger movements. One group was allowed to sleep
and the other was not. He found differences in the areas of the brain that were activated when they recalled the
movements; the group that had slept showed less activity in the brain, and better recollection of the task. In other
words, the way the memory was stored had become more efficient. Walker believes that this could explain why
toddlers, who are constantly learning new motor skills, require so much more sleep than adults. Furthermore, Ted
Abel, while assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania, found that mice deprived of sleep for the first
five hours after learning did not remember their physical surroundings, while their memory of facts and events
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was not affected. This result allowed him to specify that sleep regulates memory in a specific part of the brain, the
hippocampus, which is responsible for memories related to spatial and contextual information. But despite
numerous studies, there are still more questions than answers on the role of sleep in memory and learning.

E. Another theory about the role of sleep is that it is essential for cleanup and repair in the brain and body.
Support for this theory is provided by research that shows periods of REM sleep increase following periods of
sleep deprivation and strenuous physical activity. During sleep, the body also increases its rate of cell division
and protein synthesis, further suggesting that repair and restoration occurs during sleeping periods. Recently, new
evidence supporting the repair and restoration theory has been uncovered. Research has shown that the cellular
structure of the brain is altered during sleep, and more space forms between cells. This allows fluid to move
between the cells and flush out toxic waste products. It is believed that these toxins increase in the central nervous
system during waking times, and the restorative function of sleep is a consequence of their removal.

F. It may seem that all of this new evidence is not making the question of why we sleep any clearer; indeed, the
evidence seems to point to different explanations. In this context, it seems important to remember that there may
not be one correct answer, but instead it could be a combination. While the idea that sleep is a method of energy
conservation seems to be falling out of favour, it seems more and more likely that benefits for memory and
learning, the cleanup of the brain and the repair of the body can all be attributed to a good night’s sleep

Questions 96-101: There are six paragraphs marked A-F in the passage. In which paragraph is the following
mentioned? Write your answers in the corresponding numbered box provided.
96. how researchers can see what is happening inside the brain
97. how many reasons for sleep there might realistically be
98. an example of lack of sleep being deadly
99. a particular discovery that was essential for how we view sleep today
100. how sleep might have arisen from threatening conditions
101. how the brain physically changes during sleep

Questions 102-104: Look at the following statement and the list of researchers below. Match each statement
with the correct researcher, A-E. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered box provided.
A Henri Pieron
B Nathaniel Kleitman
C Serge Daan
D Matthew Walker
E Ted Abel
102. Sleep is essential for the recollection only of certain types of memory.
103. The fact that sleep requirements vary with age alludes to its role.
104. A chemical that promotes sleep accumulates throughout the day.

Questions 105-106: Choose TWO letters, A-E. Which TWO theories does the writer question the validity of?
Write your answers in the corresponding numbered box provided.
A Sleep pressure is proof of the necessity of sleep.
B Animals’ sleeping habits are related to their place on the food chain.
C Sleep is related to changes in body temperature.
D Sleep prevents the unnecessary burning of calories.
E There are different types of sleep with different functions. 

Questions 107-108: Choose TWO letters, A-E. Which TWO points does the writer mention in support of the
importance of sleep for memory? Write your answers in the corresponding numbered box provided.
A During sleep, unimportant memories are removed.
B Sleep makes recollection more effortless.
C Sleep results in more activity throughout the brain.
D The function of a specific brain region is affected by sleep.
E Sleep duration modifies learning
Part 4. For questions 109-118, read the following passage and choose the answer A, B, C or D that fits best
according to the text. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
Forget global terrorism - for most of the world's population, ticking time bombs like earthquakes, supervolcanoes
and hurricanes pose a far greater threat. Natural disaster expert Bill McGuire reveals a
few of the top catastrophes waiting to happen.

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With NASA's eminent climate scientist, Jim Hansen, concerned that collapsing polar ice sheets could result in sea
levels rising 1-2m this century and several more in the next, prospects for the Earth's coastal zones are bleak. A
1m rise would threaten one-third of the world's agricultural land, while a 4m rise would maroon Miami 60km
offshore. Rising sea levels is not the only threat to coastal regions. The Cumbre Vieja volcano on the Canary
Island of La Palma is slowly creeping seawards. During a future eruption, this gigantic landslide will plunge into
the ocean, pushing up a bulge of water close to a kilometre high, spawning a mega-tsunami capable of devastating
all the coastal areas surrounding the
North Atlantic.
Coastal regions also face the menace of desertification. By 2030, over half a billion people living around the
shores of the Mediterranean will be viewing the encroaching desert with increasing panic. An area bigger than the
UK, and home to 16 million people, is threatened - by the end of the century - with transformation from a green
and pleasant land to a baking wilderness of sand and rock.
However, these disasters seem pale in comparison to the mega-catastrophes waiting to happen like
supervolcanoes, for instance. Every 50 millennia or so, a colossal volcanic blast expels sufficient ash and gas to
cover a continent and block the Sun's rays for years on end, heralding a bitter volcanic winter. At Yellowstone in
Wyoming, US, two such super-eruptions have shattered the crust in the last 2.1 million years and the volcano
there remains restless. An asteroid attack is another threat which would have devastating consequences. A total
of 713 asteroids with diameters of 1km or more, and the potential to clobber the Earth at some future date, have
been identified. A 2km asteroid would load the atmosphere with dust and trigger a sustained global freeze.
Harvests would fail and billions would die. Fortunately, such collisions only happen every couple of million
years.

109. Which best serves as the title for the passage?

A. Disasters in Waiting B. Threats to the Earth’s Coastal Zones
C. The Mega-catastrophes That Could End the World D. Surprising Facts about Supervolcanoes
110. According to the passage, what poses an imminent threat to us?
A. the increase of global terrorism
B. the rise in the world's population
C. the consequences of climate change and natural disasters
D. time bombs waiting to go off
111. The word “bleak” in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to __________
A. auspicious B. promising C. commanding D. gloomy
112. Which aspect of the Cumbre Vieja eruption will have the worst effects?
A. the eruption itself B. the subsequent mega-tsunami
C. the plunge into the ocean D. the resulting landslide
113. The word “maroon” in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to __________
A. push B. leave C. surge D. pull
114. The process of desertification threatening the shores of the Mediterranean will occur __________
A. gradually B. at the end of this century
C. to an area not quite as big as the UK D. all of a sudden
115. The word “menace” in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to __________
A. acceleration B. spread C. threat D. process
116. How often does a supervolcano take place?
A. once every century B. once every 50 thousand years
C. once every couple of million years D. once every 50 million years
117. The word “there” in paragraph 4 refers to __________
A. the continent B. Yellowstone C. The US D. the crust
118. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?
A. Terrorism is the most challenging issue facing the world.
B. Rising sea levels wreak greater havoc on coastal regions than volcanoes do.
C. The UK is one of the countries most heavily affected by desertification.
D. Both super volcanoes and asteroid attacks lead to extremely cold weather conditions.
Part 5. In the passage below, seven paragraphs have been removed. For questions 119-125, read the passage
and choose from the paragraphs A-H the one which fits each gap. There is ONE extra paragraph which you
do not need to use. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered box provided.

Living in a Dream World

Daydreaming can help solve problems, trigger creativity, and inspire great works of art and science. By Josie
Glazier.
Most people spend between 30 and 47 per cent of their waking hours spacing out, drifting off, lost in thought,
wool-gathering or building castles in the air. Yale University emeritus psychology professor Jerome L. Singer
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defines daydreaming as shifting attention “away from some primary physical or mental task toward an unfolding
sequence of private responses” or, more simply, “watching your own mental videos.” He also divides
daydreaming styles into two main categories: “positive-constructive,” which includes upbeat and imaginative
thoughts, and “dysphoric,” which encompasses visions of failure or punishment. 
119.
Such humdrum concerns figured prominently in one study that rigorously measured how much time we spend
mind wandering in daily life. In a 2009 study, Kane and his colleague Jennifer McVay asked 72 students to carry
Palm Pilots that beeped at random intervals eight times a day for a week. The subjects then recorded their
thoughts at that moment on a questionnaire. The study found that about 30 per cent of the beeps coincided
with thoughts unrelated to the task at hand and that mind wandering increased with stress, boredom or
sleepiness or in chaotic environments and decreased with enjoyable tasks. That may be because enjoyable
activities tend to grab our attention.
120.
We may not even be aware that we are daydreaming. We have all had the experience of “reading” a book yet
absorbing nothing—moving our eyes over the words on a page as our attention wanders and the text turns into
gibberish. “When this happens, people lack what I call ‘meta-awareness,’ consciousness of what is currently
going on in their mind,” he says. But aimless rambling can be productive as they can allow us to stumble on
ideas and associations that we may never find if we intentionally seek them.
121.
So, why should daydreaming aid creativity? It may be in part because when the brain is floating in unfocused
mental space it serves a specific purpose. It allows us to engage in one task and at the same time trigger
reminders of other, concurrent goals so that we do not lose sight of them. There is also the belief that we can
boost the creative process by increasing the amount of daydreaming we do or replaying variants of the millions
of events we store in our brains.
122.
The mind's freedom to wander during a deliberate tuning out could also explain the flash of insight that may
coincide with taking a break from an unsolved problem. A study conducted at the University of Lancaster in
England into this possibility found that if we allow our minds to ramble during a moderately challenging task, we
can access ideas that are not easily available to our conscious minds. Our ability to do so is now known to
depend on the normal functioning of a dedicated daydreaming network deep in our brain.
123.
It was not until 2007, however, that cognitive psychologist Malia Fox Mason, discovered that the default network
— which lights up when people switch from an attention-demanding activity to drifting reveries with no specific
goals, becomes more active when mind wandering is more likely. She also discovered that people who daydream
more in everyday life show greater activity in the default network while performing monotonous tasks.
124.
The conclusion reached in this ground-breaking study was that the more complex the mind wandering episode
is, the more of the mind it is going to consume. This inevitably leads to the problem of determining the point at
which creative daydreaming crosses the boundary into the realms of compulsive fantasising. Although there is
often a fine dividing line between the two, one question that can help resolve the dilemma relates to whether
the benefits gained from daydreaming outweigh the cost to the daydreamer’s reputation and performance.
125.

On the other hand, there are psychologists who feel that the boundary is not so easily defined. They argue that
mind wandering is not inherently good or bad as it depends to a great extent on context. When, for example,
daydreaming occurs during an activity that requires little concentration, it is unlikely to be costly. If, however, it
causes someone to suffer severe injury or worse by say, walking into traffic, then the line has been crossed.

A Although these two findings were significant, mind wandering itself was not measured during the scans. As a
result, it could not be determined exactly when the participants in her study were “on task” and when they were
daydreaming. In 2009 Smallwood, Schooler and Kalina Christoff of the University of British Columbia published
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the first study to directly link mind wandering with increased activity in the default network. Scans on the
participants in their study revealed activity in the default network was strongest when subjects were unaware they
had lost focus.
B However, intense focus on our problems may not always lead to immediate solutions. Instead allowing the
mind to float freely can enable us to access unconscious ideas hovering underneath the surface — a process that
can lead to creative insight, according to psychologist Jonathan W. Schooler of the University of California, Santa
Barbara
C Yet to enhance creativity, it is important to pay attention to daydreams. Schooler calls this “tuning out” or
deliberate “off-task thinking.”, terms that refer to the ability of an individual to have more than just the mind-
wandering process. Those who are most creative also need to have meta-awareness to realise when a creative idea
has popped into their mind.
D On the other hand, those who ruminate obsessively—rehashing past events, repetitively analyzing their causes
and consequences, or worrying about all the ways things could go wrong in the future - are well aware that their
thoughts are their own, but they have intense difficulty turning them off. The late Yale psychologist Susan Nolen-
Hoeksema does not believe that rumination is a form of daydreaming, but she has found that in obsessive
ruminators, the same default network as the one that is activated during daydreaming switches on.
E Other scientists distinguish between mundane musings and extravagant fantasies. Michael Kane, a cognitive
psychologist at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, considers “mind wandering” to be “any thoughts
that are unrelated to one's task at hand.” In his view, mind wandering is a broad category that may include
everything from pondering ingredients for a dinner recipe to saving the planet from alien invasion. Most of the
time when people fall into mind wandering, they are thinking about everyday concerns, such as recent encounters
and items on their to-do list. 
F According to Schooler, there are two steps you need to take to make the distinction. First, notice whether you
are deriving any useful insights from your fantasies. Second, it is important to take stock of the content of your
daydreams. To distinguish between beneficial and pathological imaginings, he adds, “Ask yourself if this is
something useful, helpful, valuable, pleasant, or am I just rehashing the same old perseverative thoughts over and
over again?” And if daydreaming feels out of control, then even if it is pleasant it is probably not useful or
valuable.
G Artists and scientists are well acquainted with such playful fantasizing. Filmmaker Tim Burton daydreamed his
way to Hollywood success, spending his childhood holed up in his bedroom, creating posters for an imaginary
horror film series. Orhan Pamuk, the Turkish novelist who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006, imagined
“another world,” to which he retreated as a child, Albert Einstein pictured himself running along a light wave—a
reverie that led to his theory of special relativity.
H Like Facebook for the brain, the default network is a bustling web of memories and streaming movies, starring
ourselves. “When we daydream, we're at the center of the universe,” says neurologist Marcus Raichle of
Washington University in St. Louis, who first described the network in 2001. It consists of three main regions that
help us imagine ourselves and the thoughts and feelings of others, draw personal memories from the brain and
access episodic memories.
Part 2. The bar chart below shows the percentage of Australian men and women in different age groups who
did regular physical activity in 2010. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features,
and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.

Part 3. Write an essay of 300 words on the following topic:

8
Nowadays there is a growing shift towards the use of cashless transactions. While some people argue in
support of a cashless society, claiming that it is beneficial to citizens, others raise concerns about security.
Which side of this argument do you, personally, agree with, and why?