Reading passage 1

Sustainable tourism, also called eco-tourism or green tourism, is one of the fastest growing sectors of
the tourism industry. It is constantly promoted as something that is very different from mass tourism,
which many agree is ruining many popular travel destinations. It is often called the ‘friendly face of
travel’. But is it?

If managed well, sustainable tourism offers many benefits. It does very little harm to the environment
and builds awareness and respect for the local culture and environment. It employs and benefits local
people, and educates visitors about local social, political and environmental issues. Part of the money
made goes
directly to the local community, which is then used in conservation programmes (by establishing a
wildlife habitat, for example), and visitors carry new ideas back home to influence their own
environment. Ideally, money generated from sustainable tourism also encourages governments at
national and local level to invest in various conservation programmes.
A recent survey of travellers indicates that 23 per cent went on what they perceived to be a sustainable
trip. However, there is some doubt as to how sustainable some of their trips actually were.
‘Sustainable tourism is supposed to bring people closer to nature, and thus instil a greater desire to
protect it,’ says Heidi Manning of GreenSpace Tours. ‘However, it is difficult to say what sustainable
tourism actually is and what it involves, so not all activities do this equally well. Is swimming with
captive dolphins in a pool sustainable? Is driving a jeep across the desert sustainable? They are, but
only to a certain extent, and they probably impart different impressions of nature and the desire to
preserve it. The question we need to ask is: Did those 23% have a positive or negative impact on the
local environment?’
‘One promise of sustainable tourism is that it increases the value of biological systems,’ says Robert
Moriarty, an environmental systems lecturer at Briarwood University. ‘This means that people make
more money by preserving a forest, for example, than by cutting the trees down to create farmland. The
problem is that
some kinds of sustainable tourism do not contribute much to the local economy. Usually, only a few
people benefit, and those who are left out have little incentive to engage in conservation.’
Emily Thompson, an environmental campaigner, is concerned about something called ‘greenwash’.
‘Greenwash occurs when an organisation tries to present a positive public image in order to hide the
damage it is doing to the environment,’ she says. ‘They advertise positive environmental practices
while doing the opposite. A recent case concerned a travel company who had built a resort for
ecotourists in a forest. In order to build it, they destroyed 200 acres of the forest, and forced 80 local
people to move. They then diverted a river for their water supply and employed staff from a city many
miles away. When we complained, they insisted that they were acting to preserve the local environment,
which of course they weren’t!
Complete the summary. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the
passage for each answer.
The sustainable tourism (1) ……………….. is support to provide a more environmentally-friendly
alternative to (2) ……………. In theory, people who go on a sustainable trip do not do much
(3) …………… to the place they are visiting. A sustainable tourism organization (4) …………………
its staff from the immediate area. The (5) ………….. benefits financially as a result, and they use some
of the money they make to pay for (6) ……………… Unfortunately, not everyone believes that all of
the (7) ……………….of tourists who had a sustainable trip truly benefited the place they visited.
Read the article again. What do people say? Match each opinion with the correct person (A-D)
from the drop-down lists. You may use any letter more than once.
8. People are told tourism is sustainable when it is not sustainable at all.
9. Sustainable tourism is supposed to make environmental protection financially attractive.
10. People are not sure what sustainable tourism really means.
11. People sometimes harm the environment while thinking they are helping it.
12. The majority of local people are not encouraged to preserve the local environment.
A. Heidi Manning
B. Robert Moriarty
C. Emily Thomson
D. Martin Gomez
Reading Passage 2.
Many parents are concerned about the fact that their children play many video and computer games.
Perhaps the best way to address concerns over the effects of video games is to emphasize their vast
potential to educate. Even games with no educational intentions require players to learn a great deal.
Games are complex, adaptive and force players to make a huge number of decisions. Gamers must
learn rules through trials and errors, solve problems and puzzles, develop strategies and get help from
other players via the Internet when they get stuck. The problem- solving mechanism that underlies most
games is like the 90% of an iceberg below the waterline— Invisible to non-gamers. It is the pleasure of
this problem-solving, not the violence which is sometimes included in games, that can make gaming such
a satisfying experience. Nobody is using violent games in schools, of course, but other off-the-shelf
games such as “Sim City”, which contain model economies, are used in education. By playing them it
is possible to understand how such models work. In “Sim City”, for example, in which the player assumes
the role of a city payor, no amount of spending on health care is ever enough to satisfy patients, and the
fastest route to popularity is to cut taxes.
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the paragraph?
TRUE if the statement agrees with the text
FALSE if the statement contradicts the text
NOT GIVEN if no information is given
1. The writer believes that video games which are not designed to be educational can still en-
courage children to learn.
2. The writer believes that decision-making in video games is educational.
 3. According to the writer, people who don’t play video games know the games are
educational but choose to ignore this fact.
4. The writer believes that, for gamers, violent games are not the most attractive ones.
5. According to the writer, “Sim City” is unrealistic because the amount of money a player spends
on health care is never high enough.

Reading passage 3.
If you have ever been snorkelling or diving along a tropical coral reef, then you have probably
heard regular crunching sounds while underwater. These are made when the colourful parrotfish
remove algae from the reef's surface by biting and scraping it with their parrot-like beaks. The
lifecycle of these fascinating fish begins when they travel into the open sea to discharge their eggs,
where they hatch. Following this their early life is spent as larvae in the ocean’s plankton population.
They then move to the mangroves as juveniles and then to a reef where they will both hide from
predators and clean the reef. Interestingly, throughout these stages of development, all parrotfish are
drably coloured females. This is because parrotfish are sequential hermaphrodites, meaning they
change gender as they age. When they enter the terminal phase of their lives, the young female
parrotfish morph into more colourful males. These males then collect a harem of younger female
parrotfish and spawn to produce yet another all-female group of larval parrotfish. A further Interesting
aspect of the parrotfish Is its importance in the reefs survival. According to researchers at the
International Union for Conservation of Nature, without the cleaning activities of the parrotfish, the
reefs would soon be overrun with algae and die.

Complete the flow-chart below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Parrotfish Lifecycle
Spawning
Adult parrotfish move into the open ocean to release their (1) ……….

Initial Stage
Parrotfish enter the ocean’s plankton fields as (2) ………………..

Juvenile Stage
Juvenile parrotfish spend time in the (3) ……………….. before moving to the reefs

Terminal Stage
Adult male parrotfish live on the reef with a group of females.