Name: ____________________

Class: 12CA2 – Number: ____

TEST
PART 1: You are going to read a newspaper article. For questions 1-6, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits
best according to the text. Mark your answers on the separate answer sheet.
Birdwatching
Bird expert Tim Birkhead looks at the fascinating subject of what we know or can know about birds.
The sight of two lovebirds nibbling each other's necks is enough of a cliche that we barely give it a second thought. These small parrots
are called lovebirds because their closeness and mutual preening resemble human affection. But what do they feel when they behave
like that? Indeed, do they feel anything at all? Even asking the question seems wrong somehow, especially if you consider yourself an
ethologist, a student of animal behaviour. The Nobel Prize winner, Niko Tinbergen, warned fellow ethologists to steer well clear of
feelings. 'This is not the method we shall follow in our study of animal behaviour,' he announced in 1951. Like most ethologists, through
much of my career I nave hardly deviated from this hard-nosed approach. But every so often, I have seen something that simply wouldn't
sit easily with it.
When my boyhood birdwatching became an obsession rather than simply a hobby, my despairing father warned me that I'd never make
a career out of it, but luckily I did. Birdwatching is the best possible training for studying animal behaviour: to study birds well, you
have to almost think like a bird. I spent years on various remote islands watching those great seabirds, guillemots. Intensely social,
guillemots live shoulder-to-shoulder in huge city-like colonies. Like us they form friendships and long-term pair bonds and, like
lovebirds, they show their affection for their partners through mutual preening and striking greeting ceremonies.
Once as I watched, an incubating guillemot stood up from its egg and roared out its greeting - apparently to no one. I was perplexed, but
on looking out to sea - hundreds of metres away - there was a guillemot flying towards the colony. A few seconds later, it landed beside
its partner. Guillemots were never quite the same for me after this. They can see so much better than I can, and they have some kind of
guillemot-recognition system in their brain. The moment eventually inspired me to explore and write about the way birds use vision,
hearing, touch, smell, taste and feelings to experience the world.
While it was relatively straightforward to describe how much better or worse a bird sees, hears, smells or touches than we do, trying to
understand - scientifically - how a bird feels is fraught with difficulties. As the philosopher Thomas Nagel pointed out in his 1974 essay
'What is it like to be a bat?', we cannot know what it is like to be another person, let alone another species. He chose bats because they
are mammals and we share a lot of physiology and neurobiology with them, and because bats possess a sense most of us don't have:
echolocation (listening for echoes to locate things). I suspect Nagel thought that no human can echolocate, but in fact some blind people
do so extremely well. Nagel's point, however, is this: because it is impossible to know what it is like to be another person, trying to
imagine what non-humans feel is a waste of time.
It isn't. The behavioural thinking that I have followed all these years has served me, and other scientists like me, well. But it's also a
kind of trap. Anything that doesn't fit gets ignored because the intellectual framework doesn't permit one to say something different for
fear of being labelled unprofessional. But ways of thinking come and go. As our knowledge of animal behaviour has increased, and with
it the realisation that so many behaviours we once considered uniquely human, like tool use and language, aren't, the boundaries are
changing.
It's all very well to study the survival value of long-term pair bonds or mutual preening, but without knowing anything about the sensory
bases for these behaviours, our understanding is always going to be incomplete. A few years ago, behaviourial zoologists discovered
'symmetry', and assumed that symmetry (for example, in a perfectly proportioned human face or a peacock's tail) constituted beauty and
quality, and was therefore the basis for the selection of partners. Few researchers bothered to test whether animals could assess symmetry
in the same way as we can. One who did checked whether female starlings could distinguish males based on the symmetry of their
feathers. These highly social birds couldn't. Their senses weren't up to it. Any study that had assessed starling partner choice on the basis
of symmetry without knowing this would have reached false conclusions. In contrast, the sense of vision in starlings (and most other
birds) is far better than our own: they can discriminate many more colours than we can, and they use this to assess potential partners.
1. What does the writer suggest about birds in the first paragraph?
A. The names commonly given to them can be inappropriate.
B. People are often too subjective in the way they think about them
C. Insufficient attention is paid to the way they behave towards each other
D. Most serious research on them ignores the idea they might have emotions.
2. What does the writer say about himself in the second paragraph?
A. His personal sympathies lie with particular species of birds.
B. He has managed to achieve what was expected of him.
C. He recognised early on how unusual his interests were.
D. His understanding of birds stems from lengthy observation.
3. The writer describes a particular incident in the third paragraph to explain
A. what originally attracted him to guillemots.
B. what led him to investigate birds' senses.
C. the challenges that birdwatchers encounter.
D. the sophistication of guillemot communication.
4. Why does the writer refer to an idea put forward by Thomas Nagel?
A. to underline the differences between birds and mammals
B. to explain scientists' neglect of an aspect of animal research
C. to emphasise the significance of the subject he is studying
D. to draw attention to advances in scientific knowledge
5. What point does the writer make in the fifth paragraph?
A. The way animals behave may have changed over time.
B. Scientific debate has become more and more competitive.
C. Research has shown the limitations of certain ideas about animals.
D. The cautious approach he adopted in his work is a source of regret to him.
6. The writer discusses the study of 'symmetry' to illustrate
A. the danger of ignoring birds' senses as a subject of study.
B. the fact that birds tend to have better eyesight than humans.
C. the idea that theories in science are disproved on a regular basis.
D. the error in regarding beauty as a key factor in birds' choice of partners.

PART 2: You are going to read a magazine article about the ancient Maya civilisation in Central America. Six paragraphs
have been removed from the article. Choose from the paragraphs A-G the one which fits each gap (7-12). There is one extra
paragraph which you do not need to use. Mark your answers on the separate answer sheet.

The rise and fall of the ancient Maya civilisation

No civilisation has fallen quite like the Maya, seemingly swallowed by the jungle after centuries of urban, cultural and agricultural
evolution. What went wrong? Recent discoveries point not to a cataclysmic eruption, earthquake or plague but rather to climate change.
But first came the boom years, roughly AD300 to 660. At the beginning of the so-called Classic Maya period, some 60 Maya cities
sprang up across much of modern-day Guatemala, Belize and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsi.
(7) __________
But then came the bust, a decline that lasted at least two centuries. By 1100, the residents of once thriving Maya cities seem to have just
disappeared. In the nineteenth century, when explorers began discovering the overgrown ruins of 'lost cities', theorists imagined an
immense volcanic eruption or earthquake — or maybe an empire-wide pandemic.
(8) __________
One study of stalagmites in a cavern in Belize links swings in weather patterns to both the rise and fall of the empire. Formed by water
and minerals dripping from above, stalagmites grow more quickly in rainier years, giving scientists a reliable record of historical rainfall
trends. 'The early Classic Maya period was unusually wet,' according to lead researcher Douglas Kennett. And during this time, he says,
'the population proliferated, aided by a surge in agriculture.'
(9) __________
But the long wet spell turned out to be an anomaly. When the climate pendulum swung back, hard times followed. 'Mayan systems were
founded on those high rainfall patterns,' Kennett said. 'They could not support themselves when patterns changed.'
The following centuries were characterised by repeated and, at times extreme, drought. Agriculture declined and, not coincidentally,
social conflict rose.
(10) __________
But times would get even harder. The stalagmite record suggests that between 1020 and 1100 the region suffered its longest dry spell of
the last 2,000 years. With it, the study suggests, came crop failure, famine, mass migration and death. By the time Spanish conquistadors
arrived in the sixteenth century, inland Maya populations had decreased by 90 per cent, and urban centres and farms had been abandoned
and reclaimed by forest.
(11) __________
According to climate scientist, Benjamin Cook, this widespread deforestation reduced the flow of moisture from the ground to the
atmosphere, interrupting the natural rain cycle and in turn reducing rainfall. Computer simulations that Cook ran for one study show
that localised drying decreased atmospheric moisture by five to 15 per cent annually. 'Even a ten per cent decrease is considered an
environmental catastrophe,' he says.
(12) __________
But, according to Professor of Environment and Society B.L. Turner, 'that's the kind of oversimplification we're trying to get away from.
The Mayan situation is not applicable today - our society is just so radically different.' In his own study, Turner concludes that the natural
environment recovered rather quickly after the dry centuries. What happened to the Maya, he suggests, is that in order to escape
starvation and wars inland, many moved to coastal areas where life was comparatively easier. And once there, they may simply have
forgotten their great cities.

A. To some extent, however, the Maya may have shaped their own decline. At the height of the civilisation, the area had a population
of tens of millions, and vast numbers of trees would have been cut down to make space for cities and farms, and to provide fuel.
B. Indeed, it was during the rainiest decades of this era, from AD440 to 660, that the cities sprouted. In fact, all the hallmarks of
Maya civilisation - sophisticated political systems, monumental architecture, complex religion - came into full flower during this
era.
C. One common misconception is that the Maya completely vanished after the arrival of the Spanish in the sixteenth century. There
are, in fact, Mayan people still in the area today, with their own culture and traditions. The mystery, historically, is why their
cities were abandoned and never reclaimed.
D. With their pyramids, squares, ball courts and government buildings, they were where the urban Maya discussed philosophy,
developed an accurate solar-year calendar and relished the world's first hot chocolate. Farmers, too, were riding high, turning
hillsides into terraced fields to feed the fast-growing population.
E. Add this to the broader trend and the situation becomes dire – a cautionary tale for the modern world, some warn. The fear is
that, as more and more forestland is turned into farms and cities, and as global temperatures continue to rise, we may risk the
same fate that believe the Maya.
F. The Maya religious and political system was based on the belief that rulers were in direct communication with the gods. When
these divine connections failed to produce rainfall and good harvests, tensions probably developer. In only 25 years between 750
and 775, for example, 39 rulers commissioned the same number of stone monuments - evidence of 'rivalry, war, and strategic
alliances,' according to Kennett's study.
G. Today, however, scientists generally agree that the Maya collapse has many roots, all intertwined - overpopulation, warfare,
famine, drought. And one of the hottest fields of inquiry in recent years has centred on climate change, perhaps of the Maya's
own doing.

Rewrite the following sentences, using the given words and/or the given beginnings/endings.
13. The phone bill was so expensive that Dave was furious. (SUCH)
à The phone bill _________________________________________ arms about it.
14. We will survive the year since business has improved. (PICKED)
à Had ______________________________________________________________________________
15. Why didn’t you talk to those in charge about that? (POWERS)
à You _________________________________________ about that.
16. The audience was surprised by how clearly the young contestant presented his ideas.
à The clarity _________________________________________ surprise.
17. The school play was criticised even though they had made a big effort with it. (WENT)
à However _________________________________________ for criticism.
18. She vividly described the expedition and that, not the people involved, made it seem exciting. (DESCRIPTION)
à It was _________________________________________ to life.
19. When I told him about my nervousness, John suggested a game of tennis to help me stop thinking about the exam. (VIEW)
à On _________________________________________ mind off the exam.
20. Everybody knows that they have been considering widening the road for some time now. (UNDER)
à It is common _________________________________________ for some time now.
21. Jack turned up unexpectedly, so there was not enough food. (BUT)
à There _________________________________________ the blue.
22. It’s highly likely that John will change his ways when he gets out of prison. (LEAF)
à There’s _________________________________________ when he gets out of prison.
23. Fluency in a foreign language is extremely beneficial, I believe. (NOTHING)
à As far ____________________________________________________________________________
24. This film has always made me cry. (FAILED)
à This is _________________________________________ my eyes.
25. The scheme looks practicable, but it won’t succeed. (DOOMED)
à Practicable _________________________________________ failure.
---THE END OF THE TEST---