TEST 4

For questions 1-7, choose which of the paragraphs A-H fit into the numbered gaps in the
following magazine article. There is one extra paragraph which does not fit in any of the gaps.

Mountain Challenge
When the Army asked him to go on a climbing mission, Alex Wade said 'Yes, sir!'

I was managing the mountain climb fairly well until we got to the crevasse - a two-metre wide crack in the
ice. 'What do I do with my ice axe?' I yelled. 'Don't worry about it: the leader of the expedition, Mark Smyth,
shouted back at me. 'Just jump.' I obeyed but with the knowledge that a tumble on the other, lower, side
would result in an express ride to the perilous glacier below. I just about made it. For an average climber
like myself, this seemed more like a military operation!
H
1. 

I had met Mark a year previously on a climb in Russia. He had dropped me a line: 'I'm climbing Mont Blanc
in June. Interested?' I'd had a rough time there on a previous attempt, failing to reach the summit because
of altitude sickness. Here was a chance to try again with a serious mountaineer. But still, this was a full
military expedition, so, technically, I wouldn't be his responsibility. If I climbed with them, would I be OK?
'Put it this way, I'm not going to let you fall off,’ he said.
D
2. 

As Mark put it, 'Climbing Mont Blanc from this approach is not technically difficult but is never to be
underestimated. The weather can change in minutes, and freezing temperatures and 120kph winds are
common. At over 5,000 metres, these extreme conditions test the endurance limit of all but the hardiest of
mountaineers.'
F
3. 

Looks can be deceptive. After a few days' walking to acclimatize to the altitude I was exhausted. Come the
climb itself, we camped on the Col du Midi (3,542 metres), having hiked down the exposed ridge from the
cable car station. Everyone was coping fine with the altitude, and the warm sunlight made Mont Blanc seem
harmless. Around 3 am the next morning we began the long slog up Tacul. From the shoulder of Tacul we
had a perfect view of the route across the Col du Mont Maudit. It was on the Col that I had turned back two
years ago.
A
4. 

Even digging snow pits for the tents was a real struggle. Teams of two or three dug holes, got their tents up
and got warm. On my own, I was the first to start digging and the last to finish. No one said much, too
exhausted to waste energy on speech.
E
5. 

I couldn't have been more wrong. The descent made everything that had gone before seem easy. After
eventually negotiating the crevasses, we staggered down to just above the glacier - all that lay between us
and safety. The ice on the glacier would be unstable, but there was a chance we would make it. Then a
lump of ice the size of a house crashed to pieces right on our prospective path.
B
6. 

Sure enough, as I forced my legs to go down the agonizingly steep slope, I slipped. Though I managed to
slam my axe into the ice, I committed the worst crime of failing to secure my feet before I stood up. I slid
further down, ice axe stuck in the snow above me, into the next man on the rope. Fortunately neither of us
slid any further.
G
7. 

We had done it. We had climbed Mont Blanc the hard way. Some of the soldiers were muttering that the
glacier was the scariest they'd ever experienced. No one looked keen to take up mountaineering on a
regular basis. For Mark, though, this was routine. 'The aim of the expedition was achieved,’ he said. 'Now
they know what it's like to be on a mountain.'

A  This time it seemed I was having better luck and the climb went well save for the near-vertical ice wall
which stood before our next brief stop on the Col de la Brenva. We laboured up the wall and I could
scarcely stand by the time we came to camp. By this stage, though, everyone was suffering and slowing
down.

B  It looked like the decision had been made for us. There was no choice but to trudge back up the
mountain and spend the night at the Grands Mulets refuge. Next morning we headed off to re-attempt our
glacier crossing. But it only takes a moment to make a mistake, and they usually happen when you're tired.

C  I wasn't the only one! Our destination seemed no nearer although we'd been on the move for hours, and
so far, we'd all managed to maintain a reasonable pace. But at this point, we could hardly turn around and
head back. And more than this, I didn't want to let Mark down.

D  Despite that welcome reassurance, I wondered whether I could keep up with the other, very fit expedition
members. I didn't feel too optimistic when I learned of the route - 'The Grand Traverse' - which takes in two
other mountains, Mont Blanc du Tacul and Mont Maudit, and is often done in a day starting from the Aiguille
de Midi cable car station. We would be carrying full rucksacks with food and equipment for three days.

E  After another early start in temperatures of around -20, we finally made it to the summit. The wind was
now roaring and I could barely see the peaks of the mountains around us. It was a long way to come for
such a poor view but at least the worst was over.

F  To add to my apprehension, it was this same route that had beaten me the last time around. But after two
months of frantic aerobic training since Mark's invitation, there I was, with the army in Chamonix. They
seemed a decent bunch, and didn't appear too fit.

G  Despite my humiliation and exhaustion, I went on with the rest and I found some extra energy to move
quickly when I felt the ice shudder beneath us. Eventually, thanks to superb route¬finding by Mark and
despite many further stumbles, we made it over the ice to the cable car.

H  But that, however, was exactly what it was. I was the 13th man on an army expedition to climb Mont
Blanc. As Mark said, 'The aim is to put the soldiers into a challenging environment in order to develop the
qualities of team spirit and self-confidence.' A good aim, yes, but the difference between them and me is
that I was the sole civilian.

You are going to read an extract from a magazine article. Six paragraphs have been removed from
the extract. Choose from the paragraphs A – G the one which fits each gap (1 – 6). There is one extra
paragraph which you do not need to use.
A  One city that has managed this well is Seoul, Korea. Between 1960 and 2000, Korea’s population
more than tripled. It also went from being one of the world’s poorest countries to one of its richest. Not
long ago many of its population lived in shanties. Now most are densely homed in apartment blocks.
Uninspiring perhaps, but friendly and convenient, and offering all the amenities that a modern
population needs.

B  In 1800, London was one of three cities in the world with populations greater than one million. In
1900, this figure had grown to 16, and the majority of these were in Europe and the United States.
Over the next hundred years, the number of ‘million-cities’ surged and there are now over 442 of them.
In the early half of the century, new million cities predominantly arose in Asia and South America. Now
more are appearing in Africa.

C  On the periphery of this fetid, overcrowded city lived Ebeneezer Howard, a stenographer who sired
six children in a cramped rental house. His response to the conditions which surrounded him was to
publish a slim book which set out his own vision of how people should live; a book which, fifty years
later was laying the foundation of urban planning.

D  This is how western cities grew. They were designed around the car, so that people could live in
spacious surroundings and breathe fresh air. This now is seen somewhat as a historical downturn, as
many US cities are trying to redensify the urban centres. According to Glaeser, the future city should
be based around the elevator, not around the car..

E  Cities can be seen as advantageous not only from an economic point of view, but from an
environmental one as well. They mainly appear as concentrated piles of damage, but the alternative –
widespread damage, is unthinkable. Cities require fewer resources to build roads, sewers and power
lines. Apartments need less energy to heat. People drive less and higher populations make mass
transit options more viable. .

F   Interestingly, something else is changing too. Expert opinion now states that urbanization is no
longer being seen as bad news, but as an advantage. Cities are considered the best hope of lifting
countries out of poverty. After all, according to Harvard economist Edward Glaesser, ‘there is no such
thing as rich rural country’.

G  The first of these to be built was Letchworth, constructed in the early nineteen hundreds in the
UnIted Kingdom. It went on to influence future towns and cities including Canberra in Australia and
Hellerau in Germany. Interestingly, its design ignored the new invention of the time, the motor car,
meaning that everywhere was accessible on foot. These days, it can hardly be described as self-
contained, as Howard originally conceived. The surrounding farmers sell their produce to national
companies, and the majority of its citizens commute to London, but in essence, Howard’s dream was
realised.

1880s London was bursting with people. They lived a squalid existence, one or more families
crammed into a single room. The place reeked. One sanitary inspector at the time reported finding a
father, mother, three children and four pigs in one tenement. Elsewhere was a widow and a child who
had been dead for thirteen days.
C
1
His proposal was to draw people away from sordid metropolises to garden cities. These would be new,
self-contained urban regions set in the countryside, where there was plenty of space. Citizens would
live in houses with gardens and work in factories at the periphery. They would be fed from farms on
the greenbelt, which would prevent the town from getting too large. When populations grew too large,
a new city would be built.
G
2
Yet Howard was wrong about the future of cities. The global trend is still for people to move into urban
areas. In Latin America, the number of people living in cities is now 70 percent.  Most cities around the
world consist of about half a million people, but the number of cities with populations in excess of five
million continues to grow. There are now 54 of these, mostly in Asia.
F
3
Mumbai’s slums and Rio de Janeiro’s favelas are signs of vitality, he says. The cities are where the
money is. In the modern cities, there are increased returns on being educated. Information is passed
on more effectively from one person to another. Even the uneducated earn more, as capital spills over
from the wealthy to the poor.
E
4
The reality, though, echoes the conditions of Victorian Britain. Many city dwellers worldwide lack safe
drinking water, proper sewage and garbage collection. Municipalities’ response to urban growth is also
the same: they attempt to stem or even reverse the trend. But it is a mistake to see urbanization as an
evil as opposed to an inevitable part of development. The challenge is not how to stop urbanization, it
is how to manage and govern the population as it arrives.
A
5
The fear is that cities such as this will sprawl. Once people grow wealthier, they inevitably seek a
better lifestyle: more space, a detached home, a garden, a car. This increases the size of the city.
Howard’s solution was to create a greenbelt, an area of land encircling the city which is never built on.
The intention is that the greenbelt limits growth and prevents spread. In reality, however, it pushes
people further out, and forces them to commute through the greenbelt, amplifying the amount of
resources needed.
D
6
Not that this is likely to happen. In China and India, for example, people are flooding to buy cars as
soon as their incomes allow it. Whether people aspire to car ownership for status or convenience is
immaterial. Cities will sprawl. What is important is that areas of urban expansion are planned well in
advance; that land is reserved for transit corridors before it is too late. Growing cities need to be
perceived as concentrations of human energy to be managed and tapped, not as a blight on society
and growth.