IETLS A | READING | UNIT 9 – Page 129

READING
UNIT 9
SECTION 1
Introduction
Task type 9: Classification
What are candidates required to do?
With this item type, candidates are presented with a number of pieces of information and a
number of categories each of which is represented by one or more letters. The candidates are
required to assign each piece of information to one of the possible categories based on
common features.
Example: Look at the descriptions of thunderstorms below. Which type of storm (A-C)
does each feature 1-6 refer to?
+ Which type of thunderstorms A. Supercell or multicell storms
1. can occur throughout the year? Answer: C B. Air-mass storms
2. is connected with certain physical land features? C. Spanish Plume storms
3. features clouds at high and low altitudes?
4. is perpetuated by cyclical air currents?
5. is the most typical?
6. is intensified by the meeting of hot and cold air?

SECTION 2
Presentation
Features:
What is this item type designed to test?
This item type is designed to test candidates’ ability to recognize relationships and connections
between facts in the passage, and is most often used with texts dealing with factual
information; for example descriptive texts. Candidates need to be able to skim and scan the
passage in order to locate the required information and to read the details.
What skills are being tested?
This item type tests candidates’ ability to find out specific ideas in the reading passage.

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SECTION 3
Practice
Practice 1
Read the paragraph below then do the following task.
Metal Compounds
Which Break the Rules
In the quest for more efficient catalysts, a group of British chemists has uncovered a
series of metal compounds with structures that are upsetting conventional theories of
chemical bonding. Metal compounds that function as catalysts usually do so in an
unusually low oxidation state, in which fewer than the usual number of electrons has been
lost. Making such states stable is something of an art.
One way of stabilizing metals in low oxidation states is to form a compound, known as a
complex, with phosphine-phosphorus compounds with three organic groups attached.
Phosphines stabilize a low oxidation state because, as they bond to a metal, they pump
electrons back to the metal atom by forming a “back-bond” to the metal.
Noel McAuliffe, Stephan Godfrey and Tony Mackie of the University of Manchester
Institute of Science and Technology have discovered a way of making phosphine complexes
directly from metal powders using the reagents phosphine-bromine or phosphine-iodine
(Angewandte Chemie, International Edition, p.919; Journal of the Chemical Society,
Chemical Communications, 1992, p.484 and p.945). When they examined one of their
reagents, triphenylphosphine-bromine, they discovered that it had a structure which defies
conventional theories of bonding (Journal of the Chemical Society, Chemical
Communications, 1992, p.356).
Usually, chemists make metal phosphines by reacting metal bromides and iodides with
phosphine. But McAuliffe and his colleagues have discovered that a better way is to react
the phosphine first with bromine or iodine, then with the metal itself. The first step forms
compounds such as triphenylphosphine-bromine, (C6H5)3 Pbr2, and trimethyphosphine-
iodine, (C3H3)PI2. These were assumed to be ionic compounds, in keeping with
conventional theory, an idea supported by their behaviour in solution, which is that of an
electrically conducting material, for example, [(C6H5)3 Pbr]+ and Br-.
However, when Robin Pritchard, a crystallographer at UMIST, analysed the colourless
crystals of (C6H5)3 PI2 with X-rays he discovered that it was the first ever neutral molecule
in which phosphorus forms four covalent bonds and bromine forms two bonds. The iodine
compound, (C3H3)PI2, has the same chemical structure. Such structures defy the known
laws of chemistry, which in a neutral molecule require both the bromine atoms or iodine
atoms to be directly bonded to the phosphorus atom at the centre.
It is with compounds such as these that McAuliffe has been making unusual compounds.
Zinc power reacts with triethylphosphine-iodine dissolved in ether to give a 100 per cent
yield of a 1:1 zinc complex, the first ever zinc phosphine whose structure has been

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determined. Previous attempts to make such a compound exclude moisture and air, while
the new reaction goes easily and smoothly.
Similarly, nickel formed a complex, NiI3[(CH3)3P]2, with oxidation state III, and cobalt
produces a complex with a unique pattern of five bonds to the central cobalt atom. Not
only that, but a reaction between cobalt powder and tributyphosphine-iodine yielded
crystals not of the expected product but of what the authors calls a “frozen transition
state”. In these crystals, the reaction has been stopped at its halfway stage. X-ray analysis
showed that they had frozen the phosphine-iodide reagent in the act of attacking the
cobalt atom. One phosphine-iodine molecule had surrendered its iodine atoms to cobalt
with backup from another, while a third phosphine-iodine molecule attacked the cobalt
from the other side.
In a reaction with manganese powder, the product consisted of two complexed
manganese atoms linked together through iodine atoms. While such bridged complexes
are quite common, this particular one has one of the manganese atoms in oxidation state
II and the the other is in oxidation state III.

Below are stages that occur in the usual way and the new way of making metal
phosphines. Write U if it is the usual way and N if it is the new way.

1. After reacting with bromine or iodine, the phosphine reacts with the metal itself.

2. Phosphines react with metal bromines and iodines.

3. Moisture and air are excluded.

Practice 2
Read the passage and answer the questions.

A light Bulb that Lasts

Consider a light bulb – the ordinary, incandescent kind, invented by Thomas Edison in
1879. It is a big improvement on the candle, but it works essentially the same way, by
heating something until it glows. This obviously is not the most efficient way to produce
light; some 90 per cent of the energy consumed by incandescent bulbs is wasted as heat,
and the filament burns out after six to twelve months of normal use. A fluorescent bulb,
which produced light by the excitation of phosphor atoms coating the inside of a glass
cylinder, eliminates these drawbacks. But the tubular model used in most offices never
really caught on in homes. “Compact” fluorescents that srew into ordinary sockets have
recently become available, but even they are too big to fit some fixtures and cannot be used
with dimmer switches. Last week a small California company announced that it had solved
these problems. By next year, it plans to market the “E-(for electronic) Lamp,” a bulb that

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will be completely interchangeable with incandescents, use a quarter as much energy, and
last a decade or more.
The secret is a tiny radio-frequency generator in each bulb, transitting energy to a
surrounding cloud of mercury gas and in turn to the fluorescent coating. The principle is
not new, the breakthrough lies in shielding the bulb to avoid interference with other
electronic devices, especially televisions and radios. Since any ordinary substance that
blocks radio waves would also be opaque to light, the solution must be ingenious.
Unfortunately, Intersource Technologies, which developed the bulb with backing from
Ohio-based American Electric Power Co., the nation's second largest utility, isn't saying
how it's done.
This ingenuity comes at a price. Like compact fluorescents, E-Lamps should cost around
$15 per bulb at first, less as they go into mass marketing. But counting the cost of the bulb
and the electricity to run it, a 25-watt E-Lamp should save around 20 cents a week
compared with a 100-watt incandescent, and give the same amount of light. There are
some 1.5 billion light sockets in the United States; each incandescent that is replaced by an
E-lamp would save an estimated ton of carbon dioxide from electrical generating stations
over the life of the bulb, a small step toward reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.
Durable Good: As for the high price, Intersource chairman Pierre Villere expects
consumers will treat the bulb as a durable good. Eventually, he predicts, it will take its
place “next to the hair dryer, the microwave and the food processor” as an indispensable
convenience. Since the electronic components last indefinitely, the bulb should fail only
when the phosphor deteriorates (or some knock the lamp off the table). And instead of
burning out with a “pop”, the new bulbs will gradually become less bright. Someday lamps
and fixtures may have the electronic components built into their base, and consumers will
just slip on a cheap replaceable glass jacket containing the mercury and phosphor. Then
we will truly have come a long way from the candle. As Villere puts it: “it's almost
inconceivable that an invention that is so much a part of our lives as the light bulb has
been around since Edison with so little innovation.”

Identify the following features to incandescent bulb or E-lamp. Write I for incandescent
bulb and E for E-Lamp.
1. Most energy is wasted.
2. Short life.
3. Fails only when the phosphor deteriorates.
4. Eventually reduces house emissions of greenhouse gases.
5. Works essentially the same way as candles.

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Practice 3
Read “The risk of cigarette smoke”

The risk of cigarette smoke

Discovered in the early 1800s and named ‘nicotianine’, the oily essence now called
nicotine is the main active ingredient of tobacco. Nicotine, however, is only a small
component of cigarette smoke, which contains more than 4,700 chemical compounds,
including 43 cancer causing sustances. In recent times, scientific research has been
providing evidence that years of cigarette smoking vastly increases the risk of developing
fatal medical conditions.
In addition to being responsible for more than 85 per cent of lung cancers, smoking is
associated with cancers of, amongst others, the mouth, stomach and kidneys, and is
thought to cause about 14 per cent of leukemia and cervical cancers. In 1990, smoking
caused more than 84,000 deaths, mainly resulting from such problems as pneumonia,
bronchitis and influenza. Smoking, it is believed, is responsible for 30 per cent of all deaths
from cancer and clearly represents the most important preventable cause of cancer in
countries like the United States today.
Passive smoking, the breathing in of the sidestream smoke from the burning of tobacco
between puffs or of the smoke exhaled by a smoker, also causes a serious health risk. A
report published in 1992 by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) emphasized
the health dangers, especially from sidestream smoke. This type of smoke contains more
smaller particles and is therefore more likely to be deposited deep in the lungs. On the
basis of this report, the EPA has classified environmental tobacco smoke in the highest risk
category for causing cancer.
As an illustration of the health risks, in the case of a married couple where one partner
is a smoker and one a nonsmoker, the latter is believed to have a 30 per cent higher risk of
death from heart disease because of passive smoking. The risk of lung cancer also
increases over the years of exposure and the figure jumps to 80 per cent if the spouse has
been smoking four packs a day for 20 years. It has been calculated that 17 per cent of cases
of lung cancer can be attributed to high levels of exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke
during childhood and adolescence.
A more recent study by researchers at the University of California at San Francisco
(UCSF) has shown that secondhand cigarette smoke does more harm to nonsmokers than

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to smokers. Leaving aside the philosophical question of whether anyone should have to
breathe someone else’s cigarette smoke, the report suggests that the smoke experienced by
many people in their daily lives is enough to produce substantial adverse effects on a
person’s heart and lungs.
The report, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (AMA),was
based on the researchers’ own earlier research but also includes a review of studies over
the past few years. The American Medical Association represents about half of all US
doctors and is a strong opponent of smoking. The study suggests that people who smoke
cigarettes are continually damaging their cardiovascular system, which adapts in order to
compensate for the effects of smoking. It further states that people who do not smoke do
not have the benefit of their system adapting to the smoke inhalation. Consequently, the
effects of passive smoking are far greater on nonsmokers than on smokers.
This report emphasizes that cancer is not caused by a single element in cigarette
smoke; harmful effects to health are caused by many components. Carbon monoxide, for
example, competes with oxygen in red blood cells and interferes with the blood’s ability to
deliver life giving oxygen to the heart. Nicotine and other toxins in cigarette smoke
activate small blood cells called platelets, which increases the likelihood of blood clots,
thereby affecting blood circulation throughout the body.
The researchers criticize the practice of some scientific consultants who work with the
tobacco industry for assuming that cigarette smoke has the same impact on smokers as it
does on nonsmokers. They argue that those scientists are underestimating the damage
done by passive smoking and, in support of their recent findings, cite to the previous
research which points to passive smoking as the cause for between 30,000 and 60,000
deaths from heart attacks each year in the United States. This means that passive smoking
is the third most preventable cause of death after active smoking and alcohol related
diseases.
The study argues that the type of action needed against passive smoking should be
similar to that being taken against illegal drugs and AIDS (SIDA). The UCSF researchers
maintain that the simplest and most cost effective action is to establish smoke free work
places, schools and public places.

Questions 1 –3
Classify the following statements as being
A. a finding of the UCSF study C. a finding of the EPA report
B. an opinion of the UCSF study D. an assumption of consultants to the tobacco industry

Write the correct letter A, B, C or D in boxes 1-3

1. Smokers’ cardiovascular systems adapt to the intake of environmental smoke.

2. Smoke free public places offer the best solution.

3. The intake of sidestream smoke is more harmful than smoke exhaled by a smoker.

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SECTION 4
Vocabulary Practice
Vocabulary Practice 1
Work
Match sentences 1-6 in part A with one of the sentences A-F in part B.

Part A
1. In the spring in America, people usually clean their houses or their apartments very well.

2. One way to sell old things is to have a garage sale.

3. Then they put old clothes, chairs or tables and other things they don't want any more in the
garage.

4. Garage sales are great places to buy things for your house or apartment.

5. If you buy new things at a store, prices can be high.

Part B
A. You can find good used things at low prices.

B. If a family doesn't have a garage, they can put the things they want to sell out in their yard.

C. When a family has a garage sale, they take their car out of the garage.

D. When they clean, they often find things like old clothes, books, toys, dishes, and chairs
that they don't want any more.

E. But if you buy used things at a garage sale, prices are usually not high.

Vocabulary Practice 2
Healthcare
Match the sentences telling abouthealth problems with their explanations. Use the
words in bold to help you.

Problems
1. Mrs Brady has suffered from terrible rheumatism for years.
2. More women than men are affected by arthritis.
3. Air conditioning units are often responsible for spreading infections around an office.
4. Cardiovascular disease is becoming more common in Britain.
5. Too much exposure to the sun can cause skin cancer.
6. It is important not to eat too much food with a high cholesterol content.

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7. Too many people these days live a sedentary lifestyle.

8. People in positions of responsibility often have stress-related illnesses.
9. Premature babies are vulnerable to illnesses.
10. The National Health Service is suffering from cutbacks and underfunding.
11. The AIDS virus is incurable.

Explanations
A. Illnesses which affect the circulation of blood are particularly common with people who
are overweight.
B. This is deposited on the walls of the arteries and can block them.
C. They can easily be spread from one person to another.
D. Pains or stiffness in the joints or muscles can be very difficult to live with.
E. They don’t get enough exercise.
F. Their immune system is not properly developed and can be easily hurt.
G. The painful inflammation of a joint may require surgery.
H. The government has reduced its expenditure in this area.
I. But there are drugs which can slow down its cell – destroying properties.
J. Once the body’s cells start growing abnormally, a cure can be difficult to find.
K. The pressures of a high-powered job can cause nervous strain, which may require drugs.

SECTION 5
Grammar Practice
Grammar revision
Use of modal verbs to express certainty and possibility
1. If we are certain of our facts, we use 'be' or any full verb.
Example: Jane is at home. Jane works at home. (certain facts)

2. If we are referring to possibility, we use 'may, might, or could + be/ have been:
Example: Jane may/ might /could be at home now.
She may / might / could have been at home yesterday.

Or we use 'may, might, could + full verb:

Jane may/might /could work (or … may / might / could be working) at home.
She may/might/could have worked (or … have been working) at home yesterday.

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Grammar Practice 1
Read these sentences and write C (Certain) or P (Possible) against each one.

1. My boss is away on holiday. C

2. His wife may be with him.

3. She will be back next week.

4. He could reply by the weekend.

5. He wasn't here last week.

6. She might have been to Paris.

7. She's returned from Paris.

8. He could be swimming right now.

Grammar Practice 2
Turn these certain statements into possible / less than certain statements.
1. He is at home now.

→ He may / might / could be at home now.

2. He will be at home tomorrow.

→ _______________________________________________________
3. He was at home yesterday.

→ _______________________________________________________
4. She leaves at 9.

→ _______________________________________________________
5. She will leave tomorrow.

→ _______________________________________________________
6. She left last night.

→ _______________________________________________________
7. She will have left by 9.

→ _______________________________________________________
8. He was working today.

→ _______________________________________________________

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SECTION 6
Homework
Homework 1
The order of Innovation
What do Charles Darwin, Nicholas Copernicus and Frank J. Sulloway have in common?
The first two, of course, were revolutionary scientific thinkers: Copernicus established that
the Earth revolves around the sun; Darwin discovered natural selection. And Sulloway?
He's a historian of science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has discovered
something else these two men – and indeed, most of the major innovators in science over
the last 400 years – have in common: they were, like Sulloway himself, preceded in birth by
at least one other sibling. Birth order, he found, is the most reliable indicator of whether a
scientist will embrace or attack radical innovations.
The third of four children, Sulloway has spent 20 years – the last five of them in a
windowless room in Cambridge, Massachusetts – searching out the birth order of 2,784
scientists who were on one side or the other of 28 scientific revolutions since the 16 th
century. With the aid of a grant from the MacArthur Foundation of Chicago, which
subsidizes unusual research projects, he discovered that 23 of the 28 revolutions were led
by later-borns.
You don't have to be a social scientist to join this debate. Every parent and every child
has an opinion about the effect of birth order – his, hers and all of ours. But social
scientists want to measure effects. And in recent years, several prominent scholars have
argued that the birth-order impact on behaviour is a myth. In 1983, for instance, Swiss
psychologists Cecile Ernst and Jules Angst published Birth Order, a book in which they
examined all existing studies Judith Blake concluded that birth order is significantly only in
families with more than seven children.
Sulloway's study took a different approach. He focused on the male-dominated world of
science and the sole issue he measured was willingness to challenge established opinions.
Those least likely to accept new theories were first-born with younger siblings. They were
followed by only children; next come later-born eldest sons (those with one or more older
sisters and at least one younger brother) and later-born only sons. The most radical were
younger sons with at least one older brother. “My data was drawn from all of the eminent
people who spoke out on every innovation in science,” says Sulloway. “There's no way that
anyone can refute the data.”
Sulloway's operative theory, which seems common-sensical enough, is that first-born
children identify more readily with parental authority because, among other things, they
are often put in charge of younger siblings. Through this identification, first-born absorb
the norms and values of society in ways that subsequent children do not. “The older child
gets responsibility – he's the company man,” says University of Michigan psychologist
Robert Zajonc, who agrees with Sulloway. In contrast, Zajonc observes, “the younger one

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tests the limits, tries to see whathe can get away with.”
NOVEL PUZZLE: Applying the theory to scientific revolutionaries, however, can be
tricky. Albert Einstein, a first-born, is clearly an exception to Sulloway's rule, although he
says that most of Einstein's early acolytes were later-borns. But what of James Watson and
Francis Crick, the pair, of first-borns who won the Nobel Prize for explaining the make-up
of DNA? “Nobel Prizes are given for solving clever puzzles,” says Sulloway – something
first-borns are good at. First-borns, he contends, tackles officially sanctioned puzzles while
later-born flock to the untried and the novel.
Sulloway reckons Darwin (fifth among six children) as a true revolutionary because his
theories were not only novel but considered heretical by Victorian churchmen. But
Sigmund Freud, about whom Sulloway has written a book, proved too complicated to
categorize according to birth order. The father of psychoanalysis was raised as a first-born
because his two stepbrothers no longer lived at home when he was born. However, in his
first three years, he was inseparable from his stepbrother's son, who was actually older; for
that period Freud was a later-born. Freud's theory, too, is a hybrid: it is first-born oriented,
says Sulloway, because it focuses on the parent-child relationship, but is later-born in its
revolutionary impact.
Despite such conundrums, Harvard psychologist Jerome Kagan calls Sulloway's work “a
brilliant study” and especially useful in studying extremes in behaviour. Indeed, Sulloway
interprets the Reformation as a conflict between first-born supporting Rome and later-
born Protestants. John Calvin was a younger child, he notes, and so were most of the
Anabaptists. And Martin Luther, though first-born, fits the pattern, Sulloway insists,
because he resented his strict father. The conclusion, though yet to be verified, is already
evident: life is a struggle, as Darwin argued, between children and parental figures, as
Freud suggested. It's first-borns against everybody, else, and the former are outnumbered.

According to the Reading passage, first-born and later-born boys display, among other
things, the following different tendencies. Indicate whether it is the first-borns that
display each tendency by writing first-borns or later-borns in boxes 1 – 4.
Example: identify parental authority
Answer: first-borns

1. Try new puzzles

2. Challenge the rules

3. Support Roman Catholic Church

4. Accept new ideas

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Homework 2
Air conditioning the Earth
The circulation of air in the atmosphere is activated by convection, the transference of
heat resulting from the fact that warm gases or fluids rise while cold gases or fluids sink.
For example: if one wall of a room is heated whilst the opposite wall is cooled, air will rise
against the warm wall and flow across the ceiling to the cold wall before descending to
flow back across the floor to the warm wall again.
The real atmosphere, however, is like a very long room with a very low ceiling. The
distance from equator to pole is 10,000 km, while the “ceiling height” to the beginning of
the stratosphere is only about 10 km. The air therefore splits up into number of smaller
loops or convection cells. Between the equator and each pole there are three such cells and
within these the circulation is mainly north-south.

Large-scale air conditioning

The result of this circulation is a flow of heat energy towards the poles and a leveling
out of the climate so that both equatorial and polar regions are habitable. The atmosphere
generally retains its state of equilibrium as every north-going air current is
counterbalanced by a south-going one. In the same way depressions at lower levels in the
troposphere are counter-balanced by areas of high pressure in the upper levels, and vice
versa. The atmospheric transference of heat is closely associated with the movement of
moisture between sea and continent and between different latitudes. Moist air can
transport much greater quantities of energy than dry air.
Because the belts of convection cells run east to west, both climate and weather vary
according to latitude. Climatic zones are particularly distinguishable at sea where there
are no land masses to disturb the pattern.

Man and the winds

For thousands of years mankind has been dependent upon the winds: they brought rain
to the land and carried ships across the seas. Thus the westerly wind belts, the trade winds
and the monsoon winds of the global circulation systems, have been known to us for many
centuries. As recently as the present century Arab ships sailed on the south-west monsoon
winds from East Africa to India and back again on the north-east monsoon winds, without
need of a compass. The winds alone were sufficient. In the equatorial convergence zone
(the “doldrums”), and in the regions around the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricon
known as the “horse latitudes”, sailing ships could drift for weeks unable to steer, while the
“roaring forties” of the South Atlantic (40-500S) were notorious among mariners for their
terrible winds.
It was not until the development of the balloon at the end of the 18 th century, however,
that it became possible to study meteorological conditions at high altitudes. The balloon is
still a significant research device although today it carries a radar reflector or a set of

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instruments and a radio transmitter, rather than the scientists themselves. Nowadays
high-flying aircraft and satellites are also important aids to meteorology. Through them
we have discovered the west to east jet stream. This blows at speeds of up to 500 km/h at
altitudes of 9,000-10,000m along the border between the Arctic and temperate zone
convection belts.

Weather fronts
The circulation within the different convection cells is greater than the exchange of air
between them and therefore the temperate in two cells that are close to each other can
differ greatly. Consequently the borders between the different convection cells are areas in
which warm and cold air masses oppose each other, advancing and withdrawing. In the
northern hemisphere the dividing line between the Arctic and temperate convection zones
is the polar front, and it is this which determines the weather in northern Europe and
North America. This front is unstable, weaving sometimes northward, sometimes
southward, of an average latitude of 600N. Depressions become trapped within the deep
concavities of this front and these subsequently move eastward along it with areas of rain
and snowfall. In this way global air circulation determines not only the long-term climate
but also the immediate weather.

Several different wind patterns are mentioned in the passage. For each of the patterns
below, write a letter in the boxes 1-4.
Write:

U if the passage states that the patterns 1. West to east jet stream
are useful.
2. The roaring forties
P if the passage states that the patterns
present problems. 3. The horse latitudes
N if the passage does not state whether
4. North-east monsoon winds.
the patterns are useful or problematic.

Homework 3

Money as the Unit of Account

Section 1
The most difficult aspect of money to understand is its function as a unit of account.
In linear measurement we find the definition of a yard, or a metre, easy to accept. In
former times these lengths were defined in terms of fine lines etched onto brass rods
maintained in standards laboratories at constant temperatures. Money is much more

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difficult to define, however, because the value of anything is ultimately in the mind of
the observer, and such values will change with time and circumstance.
Sir Isaac Newton, as Master of the Royal Mint, defined the pound sterling (₤) in 1717
as 113 grains of pure gold. This took Britain off silver and onto gold as defining the
unit of account. The pound was 113 grains of pure gold, the shilling was 1/20 of that,
and the penny 1/240 of it.
By the end of the nineteenth century the gold standard had spread around most of the
trading world, with the result that there was a single world money. It was called by
different names in different countries, but all these supposedly different currencies
were rigidly interconnected through their particular definition in terms of a quantity
of gold.

Section II
In economic life the prices of different commodities and services are always changing
with respect to each other. If the potato crop, for example, is ruined by frost or flood,
then the price of potatoes will go up. The consequences of that particular price
increase will be complex and unpredictable. Because of the high price of potatoes,
prices of other things will decline, as demand for them declines. Similarly, the
argument that the Middle East crisis following the Iraqi annexation of Kuwait would,
because of increased oil prices, have led to sustained general inflation is, although
widely accepted, entirely without foundation. With sound money (money whose
purchasing power does not decline overtime) a sudden price shock in any one
commodity will not lead to a general price increase, but to changes in relative prices
throughout the economy. As oil increases, other goods and services will drop in price,
and oil substitutes will rise in price, as the consequences of the oil price increase
work their unpredictable and complex way through the economy.
The use of gold as the unit of account during the days of the gold standard meant that
the price of all other commodities and services would swing up and down with
reference to the price of gold, which was fixed. If gold supplies diminished, as they
did when the 1850s gold rushes in California and Australia petered out, the deflation
(a general price level decrease) would set in. When new gold rushes followed in
South Africa and again in Australia, in the 1880s and 1890s, the general price level
increased, gently, around the world.

Section III
The end of the gold standard began with the introduction of the Bretton-Woods
Agreement in 1946. This fixed the value of all world currencies relative to the US

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dollar, which in turn was fixed to a specific value of gold (US$0.35 /oz). However, in
1971 the US government finally refused to exchange US dollars for gold, and other
countries soon followed. Governments printed as much paper money or coinage as
they wanted, and the more that was printed, the less each unit of currency was worth.
The key problem with these government “fiat” currencies is that their value is not
defined; such value is subject to how much money a government cares to print. Their
future value is unpredictable, depending as it does on political chance. In our
economic calculations concerning the past we automatically convert incomes and
expenditures to dollars of a particular year, using CPI deflators which are stored in
our computers. When we perform economic calculations into the future we guess at
inflation rates and include these guesses in our figures. Our guesses are entirely
based on past experience. In Australia most current calculations assume a 3 to 4 per
cent inflation rate.

Section IV
The great advantage of the nineteenth-century gold standard was not just that it
defined the unit of account, but that it operated throughout almost the entire world. A
price in England was the same as a price in Australia and in North America. Anthony
Trolloped tells us in his diaries about his Australian travels in 1872 that a pound of
meat, selling in Australia for twopence, would have cost tenpence or even a shilling
in the UK. It was this price difference which drove investment and effort into the
development of shipboard refrigeration, and opening up of major new markets for
Australian meat, at great benefit to the British public.
Today we can determine price differences between countries by considering the
exchange rate of the day. In twelve months' time, even a month's time, however, a
totally different situation may prevail, and investments of time and money made on
the basis of an opportunity at an exchange rate of the day, become completely wasted
because of subsequent exchange rate movements.
The great advantage of having a single stable world money is that such money has
very high information content. It tells people where to invest their time, energy and
capital, all around the world, with much greater accuracy and predictability than
would otherwise be possible.

Read the text then do the following task.

In the reading, the writer compares money based on a gold standard, and fiat money.

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 Page 144 - IELTS A | READING | UNIT 9

Using the information in the passage, match a phrase A, B, or C in LIST 1 with the
writer's opinions in LIST 2 to show which kind of money is meant.

List 1
A. Money based on a gold standard

B. Government fiat monopoly currencies

C. Both money based on a gold standard and fiat currencies

List 2
1. The writer states that it has a clearly defined value.

2. The writer states that its value by definition varies over time.

3. The writer describes its future value as predictable.

4. The writer knows or can calculate its past value.

5. The writer believes it makes international investment easier.

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