Read Text A, and then answer Questions 1(a)-(o) on the question paper

Text A: The problem with plastics

This article warns of the dengers of plastics.

Plastics are wonder materials: adaptable and durable. We produce and use more
plastics than we do almost any other man-made materials, apart from steel, cement
and brick. Scientists calculate the total plastic ever made as 8.3 billion tonnes as
heavy as one billion elephantsan astonishing mass of material.

Mass-manufacturing of plastics began in the 1950s. Plastics are now all around us, in
everything from food wrapping to aeroplane parts and flame retardants. It is precisely
plastics' amazing qualities that present a growing problem.

We're rapidly heading towards "Planet Plastic". If we don't want to live in that kind of
worid we have to rethink how we use materials, particularly plastic, explains
environmental scientist, Dr Ros Gaia. "None of the commonly used plastics are 10
biodegradable. You can permanently dispose of plastic waste by incinerating it but
thats complicated by concens about health and
emissions.
Plastic items tend to be used for very short periods before being discarded. Waste
plastic is sent largely to landfill; much of it just litters the wider environment, including
the oceans. 15
Dr Gaia commented: 'People need to realise that a plastic bottle could be recycled 20
times. Currentily, poor design limits us. The whole point of recycling is keeping material
in use for ever if you can. Actually 90 per cent of the material that does get recycled
only gets recycled once.'

In the meantime, the waste mounts up. Recycling rates are increasing, and there are 20
new biodegradable alternatives, but manufacturing plastic is so cheap that there is little
incentive for change. Each year eight million tonnes of plastic end up in the oceans,
with clear evidence that some gets into the food chains because marine creatures ingest
small fragments of micro-plasticsS.

Dr Gaia explains: We're facing a tsunami of plastic waste. The global waste industry 25
needs to get its act together. We need a radical shift. On current trends, it will take until
2060 before more plastic gets recycled than landfilled and lost to the environment. We
can't wait that long.'
 this question paper.

Question 1
(a) Give three examples of man-made materials humans use more than plastic.
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(b) Using your own words, explain what the text means by:
() adaptable and durable' (line 1):

**************************************************************nanan

**********************************************************************unennneeno . ..

() an astonishing mass' (line 4):

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2

()Re-read paragraph 3( "We're rapidly ...

emissions.")
Give two reasons why disposing of plastics is difficult.

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[2
 words, explain the reasons why the problem of plastic waste is not being
Using your own
deait with quickly enough.

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.......enn****
**

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 Text A: The city or the lost glants

This text is about a mysterious ancient city in Ecuador that appears once to have been occupied
by giants.
Ecuadorian legends tell of an ancient city of As matter of
giants. a fact, tribes from all
over the Amazonian basin recollect the existence of an ancient race of giants that
inhabited thriving cities long before 'regular-sized' humans arrived in the area.

Locals talk about the prehistoric stone city with a mixture offear and respect. The reason
behind their attitude becomes clear when you first view the ancient structures on site. 5

80-metres-wide pyramid with inclination

The largest structure is an 80-metres-tall by an

hundreds huge boulders, each weighing

too high to be natural. It was built using of one
approximately 2 tonnes.
Furthermore, bones much larger than those of an
in
average-sized human discovered nearby
were The most interestingdiscovery
caves. 10
however, came in the form of tools. Oversized and they litterthe forest fioor.
ancient,
Their purpose isunknown but it suspected they were used inmetalworking.One
is that
thing is certain, though: their size would have made it very dificult for a normal-sized
human to wield them.

This evidence has been wilfully ignored by the authorities. In 2013, the ECuadorian
saw the 15
Ministry of Culture sent one of their teams to briefly inspect the pyramid. They
regular size of the blocks, yet stll concluded that it was nothing more than a natural
formation. Researchers at the ancient with which
city disagree and pointto the precision
ho blocks wOra u t and then aceembled as roof of their artificial origin.
 Ncd palagap
believe an ancient race of giants once existed, according to the text.

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ss*e** * ****** ************

(6) Using your own words, explain what the text means by:

( thriving cities' (line 3):

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******************************************************************************************************e***eeee-
2

(UD) ancient structures (line 5)

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(2

(c) Re-read paragraph 3 ('The largest structure is . . .

to wield them.).
Give two reasons why it might be assumed that the giants worked hard.

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 artificial
(d) Re-read paragraph 4 (This evidence has . .

origin.).
(0) Identity two pieces of evidence that the Ecuadorian authorities did not want to believe
the findings.

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(II) Explain why researchers believe that these are man-made pyramids.

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(o) Re-read paragraph 5 (Furthermore, several other... leader is buried.").

Using your own words, explain why it is possible that the researchers are wrong in their
theories.

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 ne rest

In this text, the writer describes his visit to the Crooked Forest in Western Poland. The Crooked
Forest consists of approximately 400 pine trees that grow in an unusual way outwards from their
base. The writer is very interested in how they are fomed.

My visit to the Crooked Forest took me by train to the station of Dolna Odra. I say station
and not town, because I really felt like I was in the middle of nowhere, with no people
about and just a small gravel road heading off towards the forest. I wandered down this
rough track, contemplating the popular idea that the deformation of these trees had
resulted during the invasion of Poland in the Second World War.

Ariving at the location, I had mixed reactions. While the trees were definitely as warped
as I had expected, the grove they OcCupied was small and sparse and, furthermore,
surounded by perfectly straight pine trees on all sides. Perplexed, I dismissed my
compelling image of heavy enemy tanks ploughing through the midst of a huge forest,
fiatening young saplings in all directions, and decided to take photographs instead. 10

The small group of pot-belliedstick figures posed jauntily for my camera lens. At their
bases, they extended outwards anything from three to nine feet and then their trunks
grew perfectly erect. It did seem highly unlikely that the trauma of being run over by
tanks would result in the odd yet unifom curvature, if the young trees
ridiculously heavy
survived at all. 5

Some kind of genetic mutation maybe? I remembered reading about a plant specialist
who discovered a
group of aspen trees in Canada that had become gnarled and twirly
as a consequence of genetic malfunction. But the whole tree had been affected in these
cases.

Back at the hotel, locals had been quite voluble in their theories. Talk of alien or 20
supernatural activity led to anecdotes about 'sightings', designed presumably to fool
gullible visitors. Meanwhile, the hotel manager eagerly hypothesised that fuctuations
in gravitational forces or a unique gravitational pull in the area could be responsible.
AsI contemplated the cartoon images of squat misshapen trees on my hotel room walls
it seemed to me that the manager's words ignored basic laws of physics that gravity 25
pulls downwards not sideways.

Sitting now on one of the very solid horizontal lower trunks and contemplating the
me on this early spring I too
white-coated landscape surrounding morning. wondered
about the effects of heavy snowfall. Still lobserved the vast number of perfectly vertical
pines foming a neat and protective circle around me. Were the curves in these trees 30
man-made then? l'd heard how people sculpted trees into furniture, knots or baskets,
Ilike the 'circus trees'at Gilroy Gardens in California. American Indians also bent marker
trees into symbols they used to navigate and communicate in the forest.

But these trees are often found solo, and not necessarily in Europe..
stion 1

According to Text B, why are the existing theories about how the Crooked Forest was fomed
unlikely to be correct?

You must use continuous writing (not note form) and use your owm words as far as possible.

Your summary should not be more than 120 words.

Up to 10 marks are available for the content of your answer and up to 5 marks for the
quality of your writing.

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*unnssuo****u*s*****o*********** ******osoo***uo *****a*******unaan**a** *******nnnan**

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 Text B: The rebirth of the bookshoP

This article explains how bookshops have changed in recent years.

Time was when bookshops appealed for being old-world and fusty with their confusing
layouts, musty smells and eccentric proprietors. Now a new breed of bookshops i
emerging. Luminous and spacious - the very opposite of the traditional bookstore.

Changing tastes in architecture and interior design are partly responsible for this trend,
but so, too, are economics and new book-buying habits. Fierce competition from online
retailers, cut-price supermarkets and e-books has seen the market for physical paper
books dwindle, causing many bookshops to close, but booksellers are fighting back.
One of their tactics is to hire cutting-edge architects to design shops with an alluring.
contemporary feel to help attract Customers day and night.

A case in point is Foyles bookshop, London, once famous for its quaintly chaotic warren
of rooms with books piled up everywhere- not just on shelves but in nooks under tables.
Last June, however, the mammoth store relocated. Interviewed recently, Foyles' chier
executive, Sam Husain, said that one reason why the shop moved was that its origina
layout was old-fashioned- higgledy piggledy and inefficient. Bycontrast. the new shop
boasts 6.4 kilometres of orderly bookshelves and stocks over 200.000 tites. Its interion
is clean-ined, minimalist and easy to navigate, geared to convenience in an age when
customers are used to snapping up goods online at lightning speed. Customers can
also use an in-store mobile search tool to see if the book is in stock and, f so, where.
With the aid of an interactive map, the book can be located.

Another survival tactic for this new generation of bookshops is to operate as a cultural
offer an
centre, not just a bookstore. To use that retail cliché, shops today must
experience- not just a 'shopportunity' - if they are to succeed. According to retai
expert Matthew Brown: 'Shops have never been about buying stuff-we can get that
online. We expect hospitality and service.

Worldwide there's an emergence of a new wave of bookstores businesses which

Bookstores like=
have diversified their product ranges, have increased their scope.
Livraria Cultura in São Paolo also sell electronics, DVDs, toys and stationery, and they
Cultura
function as event and meeting spaces for book and product launches. Livraria
boasts an exhibition space, conference area and garden
café. It's as much a
see-and-be-seen hangout as a bookshop. White bookshelves incorporating LEDs,
laminate surfaces and glass handrails on the stalrcases all contribute to the shop's
also has basement levels, with the lower one-
Juminous, transparentfeel. The shop wo
devoted to children's books, featurin9
and
funky, rainbow-striped ramp providing
a
access to shelves, and beanbags to recline on and read.

new leaf as they battle to survive in the internet

In short, bookshops are tuning over a
age.
TOU m u o t u n u o u S wriun9 (notnoIE Torm) ana u s e y o u r o w n w o r 0 s d s ldr d s possIDIe.

Your summary should not be more than 120

words
Up to 10 marks are avallable for the content of your answer and up to 5 marks for the
qualty of your writing9.
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