Passage 1

TRAPPING BIRDS

The infinite variety of nets used in the capture of various birds requires almost a chapter by itself;
but it will suffice for the present one if we mention those most generally used, or the most striking
varieties. First, then, comes the ordinary "clap-net" of the London and provincial birdcatchers. The
"Edinburgh Encyclopaedia" says, with regard to clap-nets:

"Birds are also taken with nets during the day, and especially in those seasons of the year when they
change their situation; in the month of October, for instance, when the wild birds begin to fly, and in
March, when the smaller kinds assemble for pairing. They are chiefly on the wing from daybreak to
noon, and always fly against the wind. The bird catchers, therefore, lay their nets towards that point
to which the wind blows. The nets employed in this way are generally 12.5 yards long and 2.5 yards
wide, and are spread on the ground parallel to each other, in such a manner as to meet when turned
over. They are provided with lines, fastened in such a way that, by a sudden pull, the birdcatcher is
able to draw them over the birds that may have alighted in the space between those parallel sides.
In order to entice the wild birds to alight amongst the nets, call birds are employed, of which there
must be one or two of each of the different kinds which are expected to be caught, such as linnets,
goldfinches, greenfinches, etc.. Besides the call birds there are others denominated cage birds. The
call birds and cage birds are deposited in cages at a little distance from the nets, and as soon as they
see or hear the approach of the wild birds, which they perceive long before it can be observed by the
birdcatcher, they announce the intelligence from cage to cage with the greatest appearance of joy,
and they proceed to invite them to alight by a succession of notes or short jerks, as they are termed
by the birdcatcher, which may often be heard at a considerable distance. The moment that the call is
heard by the wild birds they stop their flight and descend towards the net, and so great is the
ascendancy and fascination of the call birds that they can induce the others to return repeatedly to
the nets till every bird in the flock be caught."

Being somewhat afraid that this description would not meet all the practical requirements of the
case, I interviewed a man of knowledge. I asked him to impart his stock of birdcatching knowledge,
and also to correct my rough sketches when necessary.

The sum and substance of my interview is as follows: The nets, which are of two pieces, are each
about twelve yards long by two-and-a-half yards wide, and are made with a three-quarter mesh of
what is technically called two-thread. The staves at each end, to which the nets are permanently
attached, are made of red deal, ferruled and jointed at the middle, in the manner of a fishing rod, for
the convenience of carriage. The length of each when put together is about five feet six inches, being
thus shorter than the width of the net. This, it will be readily observed, allows for the bagging of the
net — an important particular, as, if the nets were strained tight with no allowance made for
bagging, the birds would flutter along the ground until they got out at one end or the other. As it is,
they roll themselves up in the meshes, and effectively entangle themselves while attempting to
escape.
A strong line, called the top line, passes the whole length of each net, and is protracted some feet
past the staves at either end. A similar line runs along the bottom made of three-thread or whip
thread. This is called the bottom line. There are then two cords of some strength attached to the
centre of the so-called fork line, called the pull line, which, when required for use, can be pulled by
the birdcatcher.

Eight pegs are used, made of hardwood, generally ash, four of which are called the "chief pegs." All
of the pegs are notched, for the convenience of attaching a line.

The first thing to be done is to lay down the right-hand net, and to drive in the two chief pegs at the
bottom of the staves, to which they are attached by a loop of strong cord, acting as a hinge. The two
end pegs are then driven in the ground at some little distance from and in an exact line to the chief
pegs. The bottom line is then made fast at each end, as also the continuation of the top line. The two
pegs, lines, and staff thus form a triangle at each end. The other net is then laid in such a manner
that when both are pulled over, one net shall overlap the other to the extent of six inches. It is then
turned back and pegged down in the same way as the right-hand net.

Exactly in the centre of the forked line the pull line is knotted, at the other end of which the
birdcatcher stands at varying distances, according to the bird he wishes to catch; for instance, for
linnets or goldfinches, thirty to forty yards; for starlings a greater distance is required; or to capture
these wary birds a better plan is to place the nets in one field while you retire into another, bringing
the pull line through an intervening hedge.

Cages containing birds are dispersed about on the outer edges of the nets; in fact, my informant
thinks that if all the cages were placed a greater distance away from the nets it would be better, as
he has found that the usual red or green cages have been the means of "bashing "--i.e., frightening
— the wild birds away from the nets.

Source: The Project Gutenberg EBook of Practical Taxidermy, by Montagu Browne

Questions 1 - 5

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

1. The clap net is

A. the only type of net used in birdcatching.

B. exclusively used in cities.
C. the most commonly used type of birdcatching net.
D. used to catch only one type of bird.

2. When catching birds that are migrating, it is important to note that the birds

A. are in the air from dawn until dusk.

B. consistently fly in the opposite direction to the wind current.
C. usually fly to the west.
D. typically go in the same direction as the wind.

3. When using a clap net, call birds

A. are used with the purpose of encouraging wild birds to land on the net.
B. are always of different breeds to the ones the birdcatcher is aiming to trap.
C. can only number one or two in total.
D. are encouraged to fly freely near to the net.

4. The success of the call birds

A. depends on the direction of the wind.

B. usually enables the birdcatcher to catch the whole flock of wild birds.
C. can be repeated monthly.
D. is incredibly fascinating for the writer of the text.

5. The writer interviewed a birdcatching expert

A. because he didn’t have any previous knowledge of the subject.

B. to get help with selling his own clap net.
C. because he wanted to learn about the most commonly caught types of birds.
D. in order to support the information he’d gained from his reading.
Questions 6 - 10

Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A - G.

6. Birds are caught in particular seasons of the year,

7. The call birds and cage birds can sense the presence of wild birds
8. If the nets in a clap net were flat,
9. When trying to catch more cautious types of birds it is recommended
10. In order not to frighten the wild birds away,

A. long before the birdcatcher sees them.

B. because it is more practical for the birdcatcher.
C. that the birdcatcher stand in a different field.
D. it wouldn’t be possible to open them after the catching of the birds.
E. the birds would be able to get out of each end.
F. the cage birds should be placed further from the nets.
G. especially when wild birds fly and smaller birds pair up.

Questions 11-13

Complete the sentences below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the text for each answer.

11. The writer learns from the birdcatching expert that when birds caught in a clap-net try to
escape , they get tangled up in the net.
12. The pegs in a clap-net are notched in order to make it easier to connect a line to the net.
13. The chief pegs of the right-hand net are connected to the staves by means of a cord.
 Passage 2

MAGNETS
A

It is related by Nicander that among the shepherds who tended their flocks on the sides of Mount
Ida was one named Magnes, who noticed, that, while taking his herds to pasture, his shepherd's
crook adhered to some of the rocks. From this man's name some have supposed the name magnet
to have been derived. It is, however, generally believed to have received its name from the ancient
city of Magnesia in Asia Minor, near which the loadstone or magnetic substance was found. This
rock, which possesses the remarkable property of attracting and holding to itself small pieces of iron
or steel, is now known to be one of the ores of iron, and is called magnetite by mineralogists. The
iron is chemically combined with oxygen, which forms 72.5 per cent of its weight. There is another
ore of iron, known as hematite, which contains seventy per cent of iron; but the difference of two
and a half per cent of iron in the ore is enough to make the difference between a magnetically inert
substance, and one which may be able to lift a mass of iron equal to many times its own weight.

Sir Isaac Newton is said to have worn in a finger-ring a small loadstone weighing three grains, which
would lift seven hundred and fifty grains, which is equal to two hundred and fifty times its own
weight. The most powerful magnet now known is owned by M. Obelliane of Paris. It can lift forty
times its own weight. Large pieces, however, do not support proportionally greater weights, seldom
more than one or two times their own weight.

There are in many places in the world immense beds of magnetic iron-ore. Such are to be found in
the Adirondack region in Northern New York, and in Chester County, Pennsylvania. The celebrated
iron-mines of Sweden consist of it, and in Lapland there are several large mountains of it. It must not
be inferred, that, because the mineral is called magnetite, all specimens possess the property called
magnetism. The large masses seldom manifest any such force, any more than ordinary pieces of iron
or steel manifest it: yet any of it will be attracted by a magnet in the same way as iron will be. The
most powerful native magnets are found in Siberia, and in the Hartz, a range of mountains in
Northern Germany.

When a piece of this magnetically endowed ore is placed in a mass of iron-filings, it will be seen that
the filings adhere to it in greatest quantity upon two opposite ends or sides, and these are named
the poles of the magnet. If the piece be suspended by a string so as to turn freely, it will invariably
come to rest with the same pole turned towards the north; and this pole is therefore called the
north pole of the magnet, and the action is called directive action. This directive action was known to
the Chinese more than three thousand years ago. In traversing those vast steppes of Tartary they
employed magnetic cars, in which was the figure of a man, whose movable, outstretched arm
always
pointed to the south. Dr. Gilbert affirms that the compass was brought from China to Italy in 1260,
by a traveller named Paulus Venetus.

When a piece of hardened steel is rubbed upon a natural magnet, it acquires the same directive
property; and, as the steel could be easily shaped into a convenient form for use, a steel needle has
generally been used for the needle of a compass. The directive power of the magnet has been and
still is of incalculable value to all civilized nations. Ocean navigation would be impossible without it,
and territorial boundaries are fixed by means of it; but there are other properties and relations of a
magnet, which have been discovered within the last fifty years, which are destined to be as
important to mankind as that of the compass has been.

In 1825, William Sturgeon of Woolwich, England, discovered that if a copper wire were wound
around a piece of soft iron, and a current of electricity sent through the wire, the soft iron would
become a magnet, but would retain its magnetism no longer than while the current of electricity was
passing through the coil. The magnetism developed in this way was called electro-magnetism, and
the iron so wound was called an electro-magnet. The first electro-magnet was made by winding bare
wire upon the soft iron. This method will not produce very strong magnets. In 1830, Professor Henry
insulated the wire by covering it with silk, and was the first to produce powerful magnets.

On a soft iron bar of fifty-nine pounds weight he used twenty-six coils of wire, thirteen on each leg,
all joined to a common conductor by their opposite ends, and having an aggregate length of seven
hundred and twenty-eight feet. This apparatus was found able to sustain a weight of twenty-five
hundred pounds. This electro-magnet is now owned by Yale College.

The power of the electro-magnet is enormously greater than that of any permanent magnet. A
permanent magnet made by Jamin of Paris, which is made up of many strips of thin steel bound
together, and weighing four pounds, is able to support a weight of one hundred pounds; but Dr. Joule
made an electro-magnet, by arranging the coils to advantage, that would support thirty-five hundred
times its own weight, or one hundred and forty times the proportionate load of Sir Isaac Newton's
ring magnet.

Source: The Telephone - An Account of the Phenomena of Electricity, Magnetism, and Sound, as
Involved in Its Action by A. E. Dolbear
Questions 14 - 18

Reading passage 2 has 6 sections A-F.

Choose the correct heading for sections A-D and F from the list of headings i-ix below.

List of Headings
i Magnets are important for lifting weights
ii The creation of the electro-magnet
iii Magnets help give us direction
iv The discovery of magnets
v The locations of magnetic rock
vi The power of magnets
vii Helping sailors find north
viii What is magnetic rock?
ix The great strength of the electro-magnet

14. Section A viii

15. Section B i
16. Section C
17. Section D iii

Example: Section E ii

18. Section F ix
Questions 19 - 22

Complete the sentences below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the text for each answer.

19. Magnetic rock, called magnetite, is now known to be one of the ores of iron and its iron
is chemically combined with a large proportion of oxygen.
20. Just because ore is called magnetite we cannot assume that the rock has the power of
magnetism; the large pieces seldom have the power even though it is all attracted a
magnet just as iron is.
21. Directive action is the term given to the way magnets’ poles consistently point to the
same direction.
22. In recent years, discoveries of magnets’ further features are deemed to be as important
as the compass.

Questions 23 - 27

Match each question from the text (questions 23 - 27) and the list of people below.

Which of the people (A - E) in the box below ...

23. had a magnetic piece of jewellery? G

24. discovered electro-magnetism? B
25. arranged coils to create an electro-magnet with super weight-bearing properties? E
26. told a story that led many people to come to conclusions about how magnets got their
name? D
27. documented China’s discovery of the compass and its passage to Europe? A

List of people

A Dr Gilbert
B William
Sturgeon C Paulus
Venetus D
Nicander
E Dr Joule
F Magnes
G Sir Isaac Newton
 Passage 3

FUNGI

A- The rigid utilitarian will hardly be satisfied with the short catalogue which can be furnished of the
uses of fungi. Excepting those which are employed more or less for human food, very few varieties of
fungi are of any practical value in arts or medicine. It is true that imperfect conditions of fungi exert a
very important influence on fermentation, and thus become useful; but, unfortunately, fungi have
the reputation of being more destructive and offensive than valuable or useful. Notwithstanding
that a large number of species have from time to time been enumerated as edible, yet those
commonly employed and recognized are very few in number, prejudice in many cases, and fear in
others, militating strongly against additions to the number. In Great Britain this is especially the case,
and however advisable it may be to exercise great care and caution in experimenting on untried or
doubtful species, it can only be regarded as prejudice which prevents good, in fact, excellent, edible
species being more extensively used, instead of allowing them to rot by thousands on the spots
where they have grown. Poisonous species are also plentiful, and no golden rule can be established
by means of which anyone may detect at a glance good from bad, without that kind of knowledge
which is applied to the discrimination of species. Yet, after all, the characters of half a dozen good
edible fungi are acquired as easily as the distinctions between half a dozen birds such as any
ploughboy can discriminate.
B- The common mushroom is the best known edible variety, whether in its uncultivated or in a
cultivated state. In Britain, many thousands of people, notably the lower classes, will not recognize
any other as fit for food, whilst in Italy the same classes have a strong prejudice against this very
species. In Vienna, we found by personal experience that, although many others are eaten, it is this
which has the most universal preference, yet it appears but sparingly in the markets as compared
with others. In Hungary, it does not enjoy by any means so good a reputation. In France and in
Germany, it is a common article of consumption. The different varieties found, as the results of
cultivation, present some variation in colour and other minor features, whilst remaining true to the
constituent characters of the species. Although it is not our intention to enumerate here the
botanical distinctions of the species to which we may call attention, yet, as mistakes (sometimes
fatal) are often being recorded, in which other fungi are confounded with this, we may be permitted
a hint or two which should be remembered. The spores are purple, the gills are at first delicate pink,
afterwards purple; there is a permanent ring or collar round the stem, and it must not be sought in
woods. Many accidents might have been spared had these facts been remembered.
C- The meadow mushroom is common in meadows and lowland pastures, and is usually of a larger
size than the preceding, with which it agrees in many particulars, and is sent in enormous quantities
to Covent Garden. Some people prefer this, which has a stronger flavour, to the ordinary mushroom,
and it is the species most commonly sold in the autumn in the streets of London and provincial
towns. According to Persoon, it is preferred in France; and, in Hungary, it is considered as a special
gift from St. George. It has acquired in England the name of horse mushroom, from the enormous
size it sometimes attains. Withering mentions a specimen that weighed fourteen pounds.
D- One of the commonest (in our experience the most common) of all edible fungi in the public
markets of Vienna is the Hallimasche, which in England enjoys no good reputation for flavour or
quality; indeed, Dr. Badham calls it “nauseous and disagreeable,” and adds that “not to be poisonous
is its only recommendation.” In Vienna it is employed chiefly for making sauce; but we must confess
that even in this way, and with a prejudice in favour of Viennese cookery, our experience of it was
not satisfactory. It is at best a sorry substitute for the mushroom. In the summer and autumn this is a
very common species in large tufts on old stumps. In similar localities, and also in tufts, but neither
so large, nor so common, Agaricus fusipes is found. It is preferable to the foregoing as an edible
variety, and is easily recognized by the spindle-shaped stem.
E- Agaricus rubescens, belongs to a very suspicious group of fungi, in which the cap is commonly
studded or sprinkled with paler warts. To this group the poisonous but splendid fly-agaric belongs.
Notwithstanding its bad company, this agaric has a good reputation, especially for making ketchup;
and Cordier reports it as one of the most delicate mushrooms of the Lorraine. Its name is derived
from its tendency to become red when bruised.
The white variety of an allied species (Agaricus vaginatus) has been commended, and Dr. Badham
says that it will be found inferior to but few agarics in flavour.
F- A scaly-capped fungus, with a slender stem, called sometimes the parasol mushroom, from its
habit, is an esteemed edible mushroom. In Italy and France it is in high request, and is included in
the majority of continental works on the edible fungi. In Austria, Germany, and Spain, it has special
“vulgar” names, and is eaten in all these countries. It is much more collected in England than
formerly, but deserves to be still better known. When once seen it can scarcely be confounded with
any other British species, save one of its nearest allies, which partakes of its own good qualities
(Agaricus rachodes), though not quite so good.
Source: Fungi: Their Nature and Uses by Mordecai Cubitt Cooke
Questions 28 - 32

Complete the table below.

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from reading passage 3.

Species appearance size locations locations

popular unpopular

Common Ring or collar 28. Britain, Vienna, Italy, 29.

mushroom France, Germany

Meadow enormous size Britain,

mushroom 30. and

Hallimasche Vienna 31.

Parasol Cap is scaly, has Italy, France,

mushroom 32. Austria,
Germany, Spain,
England

Questions 33 - 36

Do the following statements agree with the information in the

text? For questions 33-36, choose

TRUE if the statement agrees with the

information FALSE if the statement contradicts the
information NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

33. It is easy for everyone to learn to recognise a few types of edible mushrooms.
34. The heaviest recorded meadow mushroom was fourteen pounds.
35. English people like the Hallimasche mushroom because of its quality and taste.
36. The parasol mushroom is not collected as much in Spain as it is in England.
Questions 37 - 40

Reading passage 3 has 6 paragraphs A-F.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

For questions 37-40, choose the correct letter A-F.

37. The Italians dislike the most popular mushroom in Britain.

38. Even mushrooms belonging to a family of fungi with poisonous species can be highly
valued.
39. Due to fear of poisonous mushrooms, many edible species are left to decay.
40. Although food in Vienna is usually tasty, this mushroom sauce is not recommended.