SECTION 1 Questions 1 – 12

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-12, which are based on Reading Passage 1.
Cosmetic Surgery
A. Doctors at the Institute of Reconstructive Surgery in Guadalajara, Mexico, were shocked
at what they found when Maria Concepcion Lopez, a mother of four, came to them complaining
of pain following a cosmetic surgery operation she had had. Maria was just the first of many
patients they saw who showed strange symptoms following cosmetic surgery.
B. What all of these unlucky women, as well as 430 others in the Mexican city of Guadalajara,
had in common was that they had all had medical treatment from a woman called Myriam Yukie
Gaona, paying her up to $1,000 a day for the treatment. “She said she’d make us look like Barbie
dolls,” said Ms. Lopez. However, Ms. Gaona was a medically untrained ex-dancer who passed
herself off as a doctor and treated hundreds of women before she was finally arrested. She claimed
to be able to perform cosmetic surgery, but instead injected dangerous chemicals into her victims,
leaving many permanently scarred. The Mexican media called her “La Matabellas,” the beauty
killer, although her lawyer said “… but she didn’t kill anyone – and none of them are beautiful
anyway.”
C. Fortunately, not all plastic surgery is as unsuccessful as that of the victims in
Guadalajara, and most doctors who perform plastic surgery are far more skilled than Ms. Gaona.
There are two kinds of plastic surgery – reconstructive surgery, which is done to repair damage
caused by illness or accident; and cosmetic surgery, which is done to change features of the body
that a person doesn’t like. Cosmetic surgery is becoming increasingly popular in the United
States – according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (the industry association for
cosmetic surgeons), nearly 6.6 million cosmetic surgery procedures were carried out in 2002.
D. The most commonly performed procedures are breast augmentation (breast enlargement),
lipoplasty (fat removal), and face lifts (to remove wrinkles on the face), all of which involve
surgery. However, one non-surgical technique is rapidly increasing in popularity, involving an
injection of botulism toxin (Botox), a poison which temporarily paralyzes nerves. A ten-minute
treatment of Botox, injecting it into the wrinkles in the forehead, paralyzes the muscles there, and
can cause wrinkles to disappear for up to four months. In the first year of this treatment, over half a
million Americans tried it, and in 2002 there were over a million Botox procedures performed.
E. Many people think that cosmetic surgery is for women, and to an extent this is true – 85
percent of patients in 2002 were female. But, there were almost a million American men who
had cosmetic surgery in 2002. Why is cosmetic surgery so popular? In the words of one man
who has had several treatments: “People all think that I’m in my early thirties,” he says “…
when we’re talking, I like to tell them my actual age and watch their shocked reactions.”
Questions 1 – 5
Circle the letter(s) of the best answer A, B, C or D.
1. Which sentence about the women in Guadalajara is true?
A. They used to be dancers. C. Their doctor was not a real doctor.
B. They paid a thousand dollars for D. Their cosmetic surgeon worked at the Institute
their operations. of Reconstructive Surgery.
2. Face lifts are
A. non-surgical. C. a type of reconstructive surgery.
B. used to remove fat. D. probably performed most often on older people.
3. Which parts of the body does Botox affect?
A. Fat C. Muscles
B. Nerves D. Scars
4. What procedure would be best for someone who had been scarred in a fire?
A. Reconstructive surgery C. Lipoplasty
B. Cosmetic surgery D. Botox
5. The majority of cosmetic surgery procedures performed in the United States are
A. changes to people’s noses. C. performed on women.
B. performed in Guadalajara. D. non-surgical.

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Questions 6 – 12
Complete the following passage with suitable word(s) from the reading passage.
Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each space.
There was a terrible case in Mexico (6)…………………………………....…………… many women who complained
after receiving cosmetic surgery. In this case, patients received cosmetic treatment from an ex-
dancer who pretended to be (7)……………………………..……..……………. For the treatment, the woman
(8)…………………………………....…………… dangerous chemicals into her (9)……………………………..……..……………. Actually,
this (10)…………………………………....…………… is similar to another safe kind of cosmetic treatment using
(11)…………………………………….…..……… of a chemical called Botox. Botox paralyzes muscles in the face and
will (12)…………………………………….…………… remove wrinkles for up to four months.

SECTION 2 Questions 13 – 26
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 13-26, which are based on Reading Passage 2.
Spiraling Prices Create World Hunger Crisis
A. Hunger and malnutrition may soon hit the world’s largest and poorest cities. This was
the dire warning from the United Nations on February 25th. Josette Sheeran, head of the UN’s
World Food Programme (WFP) warned that sky-rocketing food and oil prices are making it
very hard for the organization to feed the world’s poorest people. Food prices have risen by up
to 40 per cent in the past year.
B. Ms Sheeran told reporters that spiraling global inflation has created a “new face of
hunger”. She gave the bare and basic facts that the UN no longer had enough money to feed
the world’s hungry. “We will have a significant gap if commodity prices remain this high, and
we will need an extra half billion dollars just to meet existing needs,” she said. The WFP feeds
less than one tenth of the world’s hungry and starving. That figure will greatly decrease if
prices continue to escalate.
C. A worrying new development created by the sharp rises in commodities is that hunger
will affect billions of people in cities. Many of those on less than a dollar a day will only be
able to afford one daily meal. Sheeran warned that many people can now no longer buy basic
food items. She said: “There is food on shelves but people in urban areas are priced out of the
market … There are food riots in countries where we have not seen them before.”
D. There are so many different reasons for this upcoming crisis. Developing countries like
India and China are demanding more animal feed and their expanding middle classes are
buying more food, farmers are using more of their land to grow crops for biofuels, and climate
change is creating more floods and droughts. Ms Sheeran appealed to rich countries to donate
more money so the WFP could feed the 73 million who rely on it every day.
Questions 13 – 20
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage? Write:
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information;
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information.
13. There may soon be many hungry people in many world cities. ………………...

14. The United Nations can still feed all the people it needs to. ………………...

15. Food prices have gone up by as much as 14 percent in a year. ………………...

16. The UN only feeds about ten per cent of the world’s hungry. ………………...

17. People on a dollar a day will only be able to buy two meals a day. ………………...

18. Although there is food on shop shelves, there are food riots. ………………...

19. People are going hungry because countries need to feed animals. ………………...

20. Farmers are using more land to produce crops for biofuels. ………………...

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Questions 21 – 26
Find word(s) in the article ‘Spiraling Prices Create World Hunger Crisis’ with these meanings.
21. starvation ……………………………………………………. 24. increase …………………………………………………….

22. terrible ……………………………………………………. 25. steep …………………………………………………….

23. serious ……………………………………………………. 26. food …………………………………………………….

SECTION 3 Questions 27 – 40
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3.
Why Were Chemicals Leaked into Willits?
A. Emergency rooms are supposed to heal people but Dr. John Sterngold wonders if
working in an ER in Willits made him sick. When Sterngold would first walk in the hospital,
within about a minute he had had the feeling that it was like Freon was being poured down his
airway, and then it felt like a bottle-brush. Then he would cough and cough.
B. The ER was downwind of the Remco chrome-plating plant. Sterngold used to sit facing
that window and kind of daydream out the window, looking at Remco, looking at the fog coming
out of there. What Dr. Sterngold didn’t know was that Remco was spewing Chromium VI into
the air – a chemical known to cause cancer and respiratory problems in humans. A recent state
health department study found that people who were in Willits when Remco was in operation
from 1964 to 1995 are at higher risk for cancer and asthma because of Chromium VI exposure.
Today Dr. Sterngold has lots of time to play his guitar. It turns out he has a form of asthma.
Hospital chemicals trigger coughing so brutal that he has broken ribs and it has cost him his
career. Others in this town believe the Chromium has made them sick, too, and their families.
Olson had tumours and his children also had tumours when they grew up.
C. Chromium VI was classified as a carcinogen thirty years ago. Twenty years ago, a state
scientific panel found no exposure level below which carcinogenic effects would not have some
probability of occurring. No safe level. Still, Remco was allowed to spew Chromium VI into the
air. How does this happen? In the battle to balance public health and a healthy economy, laws
often favour business.
D. According to Alan Ramo, a professor of law at Golden Gate University, there is a real
drive to have employment and to prosper. When there is a real job that is available and abstract
risk or a theoretical risk of a chemical, jobs win out. And chemicals are allowed to flood the
marketplace. When it comes to pharmaceuticals, the federal government requires rigorous testing
before any drugs can be sold. But if you think the same is true of industrial chemicals, think
again. The vast majority are put into use with little testing of any kind. A thousand new
chemicals hit the market each year and only 6% have any kind of toxicity testing at all –
chemicals that people like us, you and me might be exposed to.
E. Marilyn Underwood is with the California state health department. “You need to have a
weight of evidence that something is bad to then start regulating it.” So in most cases, chemicals
are not tested until someone notices a problem. Take asbestos, which was used in products like
floor and ceiling tiles. As early as 1963, scientists were concerned that it might cause lung
cancer. It turns out they were right, but the Environmental Protection Agency didn’t restrict
asbestos until 1989.
F. “I think that if people really knew what really goes on with environmental protection I
think they would be outraged and they should be outraged.” says Professor Ramo. In the
meantime, people like John Sterngold wonder if the unregulated chemical market is playing
Russian roulette with their health. According to Sterngold, it might be valuable for other people
to know what has happened to him, not for him but for them because they might be in an
analogous situation because of where they work. With 80,000 largely unregulated chemicals in
use today that may be more likely than you think.

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Questions 27 – 29
Complete the following sentences.
Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.
27. Dr. Sterngold thinks that the Remco chrome-plating plant was responsible for his asthma
since ………………………………………………..……………. coming out of it came right into the hospital.
28. People who lived in Willits from 1964 to 1995 are more susceptible to ………………………………..…….………..…………….
29. Remco (the chrome-plating plant) operated for ………………………………………………..……………. after Chromium
VI was classified as a carcinogen.

Questions 30 – 34
Choose the correct answer: A, B, C or D.
30. Why does Dr. Sterngold compare the unregulated chemical market to “Russian Roulette”?
A. Most of the chemicals came from Russia.
B. It’s just a game.
C. There’s always a chance that some of the chemicals will hurt people.
D. All of the chemicals will hurt people.
31. What are some of the problems that Chromium VI can cause?
A. Respiratory problems C. Tumors
B. Asthma D. All of the above
32. Why does Dr. Sterngold have plenty of time to play his guitar?
A. He decided to join a band.
B. He was not a good doctor.
C. Remco fired him.
D. He got severe asthma and could not continue working as a doctor.
33. When are new chemicals for industry tested?
A. When they are first used. C. When someone notices a problem.
B. When the plant closes. D. Ten years after they are first used.
34. What does Professor Ramo mean when saying “I think that if people knew what really goes on
with environmental protection I think they would be outraged and they should be outraged.”
A. The environmental protection agency may not be protecting the people.
B. The Russian Roulette game is a big problem.
C. You shouldn’t give up jobs for theoretical risks.
D. The ER was downwind of the chrome-plating plant.

Questions 35 – 40
Number the items below in the correct order in which they occurred in time.
Choose the numbers 1-6 to list the sentences in the correct time order.
35. Scientists determine there is no safe level of exposure to Chromium VI.

36. Scientists determine that Chromium VI causes cancer.

37. Dr. Sterngold and many other citizens of Willits get ill.

38. Remco chrome-plating plant opens in Willits, CA.

39. Dr. Sterngold has to leave his job.

40. The chrome-plating plant stops operation in Willits, CA.

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