Ha nam Light pollution

A
After hours of driving south in the pitch-black darkness of the Nevada desert, a dome of hazy gold
suddenly appears on the horizon. Soon, a road sign confirms the obvious: Las Vegas 30 miles.
Looking skyward, you notice that the Big Dipper is harder to find than it was an hour ago.
B
Light pollution – the artificial light that illuminates more than its intended target area – has become a
problem of increasing concern across the country over the past 15 years. In the suburbs, where over-
lit shopping mall parking lots are the norm, only 200 of the Milky Way’s 2,500 stars are visible on a
clear night. Even fewer can be seen from large cities. In almost every town, big and small, street lights
beam just as much light up and out as they do down, illuminating much more than just the street.
Almost 50 per cent of the light emanating from street lamps misses its intended target, and billboards,
shopping centers, private homes and skyscrapers are similarly over-illuminated.
C
America has become so bright that in a satellite image of the United States at night, the outline of the
country is visible from its lights alone. The major cities are all there, in bright clusters: New York,
Boston, Miami, Houston, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago – and, of course, Las Vegas. Mark Adams,
superintendent of the McDonald Observatory in west Texas, says that the very fact that city lights are
visible from on high is proof of their wastefulness. “When you’re up in an airplane, all that light you see
on the ground from the city is wasted. It’s going up into the night sky. That’s why you can see it.”
D
But don’t we need all those lights to ensure our safety? The answer from light engineers, light
pollution control advocates and astronomers is an emphasis “no”. Elizabeth Alvarez of the
International Dark Sky Association says that overly bright security lights can actually force neighbors
to close the shutters, which means that if any criminal activity does occur on the street, no one will
see it. And the old assumption thatbright lights deter crime appears to have been a false one: a new
Department of Justice report concludes that there is no relationship between the level of lighting and
the level of crime in an area. And contrary to popular belief, more crimes occur in broad daylight than
at night.
E
For drivers, light can actually create safety hazard. Glaring lights can temporarily blind drivers,
increasing the likelihood of an accident. To help prevent such accidents, some cities and states
prohibit the use of lights that impair night-time vision. For instance, New Hampshire law forbids the
use of “any lightalong a highway so positioned as to blind or dazzle the vision of travellers on the
adjacent highway”.
F
Badly designed lighting can pose a threat to wildlife as well as people. Newly hatched turtles in Florida
move toward beach lights instead of the more muted silver shimmer of the ocean. Migrating birds,
confused by lights on skyscrapers, broadcast towers and lighthouses, are injured, sometimes fatally,
after colliding with high, lighted structures. And light pollution harms air quality as well: Because most
of the country’s power plants are still powered by fossil fuels, more light means more air pollution.
G
So what can be done? Tucson, Arizona is taking back the night. The city has one of the best lighting
regulations in the country, and, not coincidentally, the highest concentration of observatories in the
world. Kitt Peak National Optical Astronomy Observatory has telescopes aimed skyward around the
city’s perimeter, and its cadre of astronomers needs a dark sky to work with.
H
For a while, that darkness was threatened. “We were totally losing the night sky,” Jim Singleton of
Tucson’s Lighting Committee told Tulsa, Oklahoma’s KOTV last March. Now after replacing inefficient
mercury lighting with low-sodium lights that block light from “trespassing” into unwanted areas like
bedroomwindows, and by doing away with some unnecessary light altogether, the city is softly
glowing rather than brightly beaming. The same thing is happening in a handful of otherstates,
including Texas, which just passed a light pollution bill last summer. “Astronomers can get what they
need at the same time that citizens get what they need: safety, security, and good visibility at night,”
says McDonald Observatory’s Mark Adams, who provided testimony at the hearings for the bill.
I
And in the long run, everyone benefits from reduced energy costs. Wasted energy from inefficient
lighting costs us between $1 and $2 billion a year, according to IDA. The city of San Diego, which
installed new, high-efficiency street lights after passing a light pollution law in 1985, now saves about
$3 million a year in energy costs.
J
Legislation isn’t the only answer to light pollution problems. Brian Greer, Central Ohio representative
for the Ohio Light Pollution Advisory Council, says that education is just as important, if not more so.
“There are some special situations where regulation is the only fix,” he says. “But the vast majority of
bad lighting is simply the result of not knowing any better.” Simple actions like replacing old bulbs and
fixtures with more efficient and better-designed ones can make a big difference in preserving the night
sky.

For questions 56-60, choose the correct headings for paragraphs A-F. Paragraph A has been
done as an example. There are extra headings that you do not need to use. Write your answers
in the corresponding space provided.

List of headings Your answers:

i Why lights are needed 0. Paragraph A ix

ii Lighting discourages law breakers 56. Paragraph B ___________
iii The environmental dangers 57. Paragraph C ___________
iv People at risk from bright lights 58. Paragraph D ___________
v Illuminating space 59. Paragraph E ___________
vi A problem lights do not solve 60. Paragraph F ___________
vii Seen from above

viii More light than is necessary

ix Approaching the city

For questions 61-64, complete the following statements with NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS
taken from the passage. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.

61. According to a recent survey, well-lit streets do not _______ or make neighbourhoods safer to live
in.
62. Inefficient lighting increases _______ because most electricity is produced from coal, gas or oil.
63. Efficient lights _______ from going into areas where it is not needed.
64. In dealing with light pollution, _______is at least as important as passing new laws.

Your answers:
61. 62. 63. 64.

For questions 65-68, decide whether the following statements are True (T), False (F) or Not
Given (NG). Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.

65. One group of scientists find their observations are made more difficult by bright lights.
66. It is expensive to reduce light pollution.
67. Many countries are now making light pollution illegal.
68. Old types of light often cause more pollution than more modern ones.

Your answers:
65. 66. 67. 68.

Part 3. In the passage below, seven paragraphs have been removed. For questions 69-75, read
the passage and choose from paragraphs A-H the one which fits each gap. There is ONE extra
paragraph which you do not need to use. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered
boxes provided.
The Singing Bullfinch
Although the bullfinch’s song is dull, it can learn to whistle complex tunes.
Ted Birkhead explores the hidden talent of one of our brainiest birds.
The bullfinch is an ornithological treasure. Not
only is the male one of Europe’s most colorful
birds but it also ranks among our best
songsters, though you would never realize that
while listening to one of these shy creatures
singing in the garden or hedgerow.
69.
Teaching a bird to sing another song or a
popular tune exploits the fact that under normal
circumstances birds learn their song by listening
to their father. Prevent them from doing this and
allow them to hear only the song of another
species, or a human whistle, and that is what
they will learn. Once they have learned this
song, it is fairly well fixed for life.
70.
But it wasn’t simply that people liked to hear a
recital by a bullfinch – the quality of the sound
and the perfection with which the birds
performed were both outstanding. Best of all
was the finches’ affection towards their owners.
71.
Whistling or piping bullfinches, as they were
known, were incredibly fashionable and good
singers fetched high prices. One dealer in the
1880s was offering birds that sang three tunes
‘extra fine’ for the equivalent of £3,000 at today’s
prices. Once the foresters themselves learnt to
whistle the British national anthem and some
English folk tunes, they began exporting their
birds to Britain. Whistling bullfinches became a
status symbol for the rich and famous: Queen
Victoria had one and so did Lizzie Siddal, the
Victorian equivalent of a supermodel.
72.
However, the bird that had been considered a
failure sang enough for him to realize that there
was something extraordinary going on. He
acquired some more bullfinches and, within a
The missing paragraphs:
year, under the supervision of Konrad Lorenz
(the Austrian zoologist who famously discovered
imprinting in goslings), he started a scientific
investigation of how these birds managed to
become such adept songsters.
73.
During his research, Nicolai determined that the
reason why bullfinches could achieve perfection
was that they were highly motivated to learn
their tunes. They would listen intently to their
tutor (himself) and practice relentlessly when
they were alone. Like a child memorizing a
nursery rhyme or poem, every time they made a
mistake, they would go back to the beginning
and start again until they got it right. Moreover,
the birds seemed to know what constituted a
tune because those individuals that could sing
two or three melodies never muddled them up
or ran into one another, and always started
each at the beginning.
74.
Another correction that the birds made came to
light when Nicolai compared the tunes whistled
by a forester with those performed by his
finches. He noticed that the man’s whistle was
often a little breathy and sometimes a bit
irregular. Remarkably, the birds filtered out the
breathiness and made a better job of the timing.
On top of all this, their tune had a wonderful,
flute-like quality, quite distinct from that of their
instructor.
75.
One of his bullfinches lived in a cage in the hall.
Whenever he put on his coat to go out, the bird
– like a pet dog – knew exactly what was
happening and instantly picked up some seed,
keeping it in its throat pouch ready for its
owner’s return. When Nicolai arrived home, the
bird would call and as Nicolai approached the
cage it would attempt to feed him as it would its
mate in the wild. Nicolai accepted the food
between his thumb and forefinger.
 A Unlike the foresters, who regarded the
extraordinary ability of bullfinches to learn
songs as nothing more than an opportunity
to make money, Nicolai saw much more in
his birds. Over and above the male’s
gorgeous plumage and the quality of their
whistling, he found the incredibly
affectionate bond bullfinches form with their
owners terribly appealing.
keeping them in small groups and whistling
folk tunes to them every day. After several
months of training, the majority of the young
males acquired their artificial song, yet the
females rarely did so. Most of these captive
male bullfinches perfected a single tune, but
some managed to learn two. A truly
exceptional individual could whistle three
refrains.

All of the foresters were men and their
B young bullfinches imprinted on them –
essentially with a view to treating them as
mates in later life. When sold, the birds
usually transferred their emotional
attachment to the buyer, though,
interestingly, some found it difficult to make
the switch to a female one.
C squeaky wheelbarrow makes. Yet with
Since the 1500s, bird keepers have known
that the bullfinch has the most extraordinary
propensity to mimic any tune whistled to it.
Bullfinches are not alone in this; from the
Middle Ages onwards, there was a trend to
train cage birds such as canaries to whistle
particular ditties. The difference was that
the bullfinch did it so much better than any
other species.
D German, had just returned home when a
From the 1500s onwards, bullfinches were
regarded as a menace due to their
fondness for apple, pear and plum blossom.
As fruit growing expanded in England and
Wales during the following centuries, a
bounty was paid for bullfinches. The
slaughter continued well into the 1970s.
While nearly all other birds were legally
protected, fruit growers were permitted to
cull bullfinches with impunity.
E the birds deliberately added a space
In the late 1700s, foresters in the
Vogelsburg region of central Germany
turned this into a commercial enterprise.
Taking young bullfinches from their nests
before their eyes were open, the men hand-
reared the birds,
One thing that made the bullfinch stand out
F from all other cage birds was that its natural
song is almost non-existent. A canary can
be taught to sing like a nightingale, but
since canaries have a fairly remarkable
song themselves, that isn’t so odd. The
bullfinch’s voice, on the other hand, is limp
and about as enticing as the sound a
appropriate training, one can flawlessly
whistle tunes like The Bluebells of Scotland
or Thou Art So Like a Flower.
G Whistling bullfinches remained popular well
into the mid-20th century, especially in
Germany. A chance encounter in 1947
resulted in a detailed scientific study of their
astounding abilities. Jurgen Nicolai, a young
bullfinch in a pet shop window caught his
eyes. Having kept canaries as a boy, he
was intrigued by the bird, which turned out
to be a forester’s reject and hence was
almost without value. Smitten, Nicolai
bought it.
H
Nicolai also noticed that the foresters,
perhaps through impatience, often whistled
one tune after another with no break, but
between tunes. The birds also transposed
the tune a semitone so if the trainer whistled
in G, the bullfinches always repeated the
whistled in G sharp. The reason for this
remains mystery.

Your answers:
69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75.

Part 4. For questions 76-85, read the article on the disappearance of a marine species and
choose the answer A, B, C or D which you think fits best according to the text. Write your
answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.

The Disappearing Menhaden

Most people have never heard of it, and they certainly have not eaten it in its original form, but
menhaden is the most important fish in the ocean. However, it is disappearing at an alarming rate.
The east coast of the United States once teemed with immense schools, some as many as a mile
across, but the devastation of the menhaden sticks over the last sixty years has led to severe
dislocations in the ocean’s ecosystems. The decline of the menhaden has had particularly disastrous
effects on fish species that feed on it, on bird species that use it as a food source, and on how clean
the oceans are.
Menhaden are a small fish belonging to the haddock family, and they are not very palatable to
humans, having a foul, oily taste and consisting of many bones. Commercial fishing of menhaden
since the end of World War II has primarily been for the production of feed for livestock, with ground-
up fish used to make meal for chicken, pigs and cows. Companies use spotter planes to find large
schools and direct fishing boats to the location. Catches have declined almost forty percent since the
1960s and show no sign of leveling off or increasing. Unlike other species that are protected by the
government quotas, menhaden are not, most likely because they are not a species consumed directly
by humans. This is unfortunate since the loss of the menhaden spells an eco-disaster of epic
proportions.
Of principle importance are the many species of fish and other animals that feed on menhaden.
They are the main diet for bluefish and striped bass, and both species have shown a serious decline
in numbers. The striped bass was once the prized catch of the Chesapeake Bay area, but the
specimens brought in by rod and reel now are weak sisters compared to the past.Not only do they
lack the bulk of their ancestors, but they are also dying at alarming rates. Fish are not the only
predators of menhaden, as birds also depend on them as a source of nourishment. Large colonies of
osprey all along the eastern seaboard have disappeared in recent years, with the numbers of nests
and birds reduced by fifty percent in some areas over the last ten years. There are similar statistics for
loons in Chesapeake Bay.
The greatest threat from the loss of the menhaden is that the oceans have lost one of their great
natural filterers. Menhaden swim in massive schools with their mouths open, allowing water to flow
through their gills, which serve to absorb oxygen and grab plankton and other detritus from the water.
They act like gigantic vacuum cleaners for the ocean. The cleaner water allows sunlight to penetrate
to greater depths, which stimulates plant life that harbors other fish and shellfish and produces oxygen
for the water. With the decline of the menhaden, this process is in serious jeopardy. Chemical run-off
from farms, lawns, and houses ends up in the oceans, increasing the nitrogen and phosphorous
levels in the water. Algae grow in greater numbers in these conditions, block the sunlight, and deplete
oxygen of the water. Entire coastal areas are lifeless, with the algae’s killing the fish. Menhaden had
reduced the levels of these chemicals, but now that there are fewer menhaden, the algae have taken
over.
The large companies thatprocess menhaden disagree with the findings of environmental scientists.
Since there is no accurate way to count the amount of menhaden in the oceans, they claim that the
fewer menhaden are a result of a cyclical event and that the stocks will grow again in time. Yet, much
of the menhaden catch consists of smaller fish, often less than one year old. These fish have not had
a chance to mature long enough to become reproductive, and thus the commercial fishing companies
are destroying future menhaden stocks in order to make a profit at the moment. The largest
companies have had to lay off many employees, and many of their vessels sit idle at the wharf. In the
long run, the menhaden will probably rebound once their numbers have reached the point where
catching them is no longer profitable. Hopefully, laws will soon be in place to protect them from their
greatest predator, mankind.

76. According to the passage, the Atlantic Ocean menhaden are ______.
A. quite well-known to most people in the United States
B. eaten only by other fish and not at all by humans
C. not in any immediate danger of disappearing from the ocean
D. eaten by birds and other fish as a part of their diets
77. The word “palatable” in the passage is closest in meaning to ______.
A. partial B. edible C. disgusting D. stable
78. According to the passage, all of the following are reasons for the decline of the menhaden stocks
EXCEPT: ______
A. There is a lack of laws providing government protection.
B. Improved fishing technology has helped catch more fish.
C. People desire directly to consume them as a food fish.
D. Farmers have a strong dependence on fish-fed livestock.
79. It can be inferred from the passage that humans consume menhaden ______.
A. as a result of eating livestock raised on menhaden meal
 B. directly from the oceans in their original form
C. only in the eastern coastal areas of the United States
D. for the healthy benefits from eating its oily flesh
80. Which of the following sentences best expresses the meaning of the underlined sentence in
Paragraph 3?
A. There are prizes given for the best striped bass caught by sport fishermen in Chesapeake Bay.
B. The striped bass caught by sport fishermen in Chesapeake Bay are not as large as those caught
in the past.
C. The Chesapeake Bay area is prized for the striped bass that can be caught by fishermen there.
D. In the past the Chesapeake Bay striped bass fishery was more valuable than it is nowadays.
81. According to the passage, the main influence on the oceans as a result of declining menhaden
numbers is ______.
A. an increase in the number of lifeless areas
B. an overbalance of plankton near the coast
C. the decline of fish stocks that feed on menhaden
D. increased human dumping of chemicals in the ocean
82. Which of the following square brackets [A], [B], [C], or [D] best indicates where in the paragraph
the sentence “In addition, the algae sink to the ocean floor and prevent shellfish and oxygen-
producing plants from growing.” can be inserted?
[A] With the decline of the menhaden, this process is in serious jeopardy. [B] Chemical run-off from
farms, lawns, and houses ends up in the oceans, increasing the nitrogen and phosphorous levels in
the water. [C]Algae grow in greater numbers in these conditions, block the sunlight, and deplete
oxygen of the water.[D]
A. [A] B. [B] C. [C] D. [D]
83. The word “their” in the passage refers to ______.
A. commercial fishing companies B. menhaden stocks
C. largest companies D. many employees
84. According to the passage, large commercial fishing companies argue that the shrinking menhaden
stocks are the result of ______.
A. a normal cycle that will end some time in the near future
B. environmental factors that are totally beyond their control
C. fishing technology that has developed in recent years
D. a lack of oxygen in the ocean as a result of too much algae
85. Why does the author mention the fact that commercial fishing companies are catching smaller and
younger fish?
A. To show that menhaden stocks are not safe for the future
B. To prove that the declining menhaden stocks are not an illusion
C. To counter their disagreements with the environmental scientists
D. To explain why they have had to lay off employees and leave boats idle

Your answers:
76. 77. 78. 79. 80.

81. 82. 83. 84. 85.

Part 5. For questions 86-95, read the extract from a review of a book on philosophy and
choose from the sections (A-E). The sections may be chosen more than once. Write your
answers in the corresponding numbered spaces provided.

Switch on your brain

A book seeks to explain how minds work through the maze of consciousness ~ Eric Banks
Intuition pumps and other tools for thinking by Daniel C. Dennett

A You don’t have to conduct a thought experiment to see why some philosophers want to write
for an audience cheerfully indifferent to the ways of the seminar room and the strictures of the
referred journal. Beyond the fame and fortune, perhaps more important is the sense that if
one’s work is worth doing at all, it ought to reach the widest possible audience. Some, I
imagine, also relish the bonus frisson of mixing it up in the rowdy rough-and-tumble of the
 public arena. If you’re like Daniel C. Dennett – one of whose many mantras is Gore Vidal’s “It
is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.” – what’s the point of felling the philosopher’s tree
if there’s no one to hear it? Since the publication of his book Consciousness Explained in
1991, Dennett has gladly risen to the challenge, merrily taking on all comers, in works that
play to a packed house most philosophers could never dream of.

For Dennett, the experience of communicating to a broad readership his brawny materialist
B
agenda has an ancillary and less obvious boon. Specialists, he writes, tend to under-explain to
one another the very terms of their discussions. These experts benefit from translating their
respective position down, as it were, so that they might be presented to ‘curious non-experts’,
as Dennett puts in in Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking. They will be forced to think
anew and paradoxically think harder. The notion that a ‘position’ might get fine-tuned just as
neatly in the imagined company of a well-intentioned fast learner as it would among scholarly
peers is ingrained in Dennett’s go-go style of doing philosophy and its winner-take-all stakes.
As set out in Intuition Pumps, his narrative approach, plain-talk prose and gotcha argument
stoppers will prove as roundly appealing to some as it will seem pandering to others.

C Part of Dennett’s role in Intuition Pumps is to serve as a kind of design engineer. With the
concept of ‘intuition pump’, he repurposes the thought experiment – a form of argumentation
of ancient and venerable purpose in philosophy (and in other disciplines, especially physics) –
in order to transform its somewhat neutral-sounding disposition into a power tool, one that
addresses a basic question: Is it designed well enough to get the job done? First renamed
‘intuition pumps’ in The Mind’s I, the hybrid work Dennett coproduced with Douglas Hofstadter,
these narrative devices can condense a complex set of propositions and suppositions into an
imaginable story that summarizes or illustrates a position. Hence their extreme popularity in
the history of philosophy, from Plato’s cave to Parfit’s amoeba. They can be positive or critical,
launching a new idea or yanking the rug from under someone else’s pet position. Either way,
such thought experiments are designed to jolt the reader’s sense of intuition.

D But what is the difference between a good intuition pump and a flawed one? Searle’s Chinese
Room, famously objected to by Dennett, has spawned scores of counter-thought experiments,
replicating itself in many variations; by the mid-90s, Steve Pinker commented that it had
become the source of at least a hundred papers. It has allowed articulations of positions from
a vast number of academic fields, from proponents of Al to linguists, and generated
commentary on semantics, consciousness and evolution. Sounds like a pretty fecund tool for
thinking to me! But for the budding philosophy student reading Intuition Pumps, Dennett
reserves the right to select the hammer and pick the gauge of nail. But what good is it to
present this book as a collection of helpful ‘tools for thinking’ when it turns out the only
successful tools just happen to run on precisely the same voltage as Dennett’s own particular
theories and propositions?
E
Intuition Pumps is valuable in providing an overview of a body of recent work in the philosophy
of mind, but it also suffers from Dennett’s penchant for cleverness which causes it to become
tiresome and tacky. He returns to a long-ago verbal conflict with Stepan Jay Gould to discuss
rhetorical sleights of hand, and even coins a new word to describe the tendency to advance
straw-man arguments and false dichotomies –‘Goulding’. How is that a better ‘thinking tool’?
He mocks philosopher Ned Block and condescendingly takes the opportunity to chide Thomas
Nagel for not consulting ‘the experts’ on evolutionary biology. All this sour score-settling with
Dennett’s philosophical peers is definitely less witty than I imagine he takes it to be. But in the
spirit of Dennett’s tactic, I’d offer one historical vignette that characterizes his frequent
summoning of an army of scientists at his back, and call that future-perfect feint a Ledru-
Rollin. That would be in honor of the hectoring French propagandist of 1848 who famously
bellowed, ‘There go my people. I must follow them, for I am their leader!’

Hai duong The Do-gooders

The people who changed the morals of English society.
In the last decades of the 18th century, the losers seriously outnumbered the winners. Those
who were fortunate enough to occupy the upper levels of society, celebrated their good
fortune by living a hedonistic life of gambling, parties and alcohol. It was their moral right,
they felt, to exploit the weak and the poor. Few of them thought their lives should change,
even fewer believed it could.
1. _____________
But the decisive turning point for moral reform was the French revolution. John Bowlder, a
popular moralist of the time, blamed the destruction of French society on a moral crisis.
Edmund Burke, a Whig statesman agreed. 'When your fountain is choked up and polluted,' he
wrote, 'the stream will not run long or clear.' If the English society did not reform, ruin
would surely follow.
2. _____________
Englishmen were deeply afraid that the immorality of France would invade England. Taking
advantage of this, Burke was able to gain considerable support by insisting that the French
did not have the moral qualifications to be a civilised nation. He pronounced 'Better this
island should be sunk to the bottom of the sea that than... it should not be a country of
religion and morals.'
3. _____________
Sobering though these messages were, the aristocracy of the time was open to such reforms,
not least due to fear. France's attempt to destroy their nobility did much to encourage the
upper classes to examine and re-evaluate their own behaviour. Added to this was the arrival
of French noble émigrés to British shores. As these people were dependent on the charity of
the British aristocracy, it became paramount to amend morals and suppress all vices in order
to uphold the state.
4. _____________
Whether the vices of the rich and titled stopped or were merely cloaked is open to question.
But it is clear that by the turn of the century, a more circumspect society had emerged. Styles
of dress became more moderate, and the former adornments of swords, buckles and
powdered hair were no longer seen. There was a profusion of moral didactic literature
available. Public hangings ceased and riots became much rarer.
5. _____________
One such person was Thomas Wackley who in 1823 founded a medical journal called 'the
Lancet'. At this time, Medicine was still a profession reserved for the rich, and access to
knowledge was impossible for the common man. The Lancet shone a bright light on the
questionable practices undertaken in medicine and particularly in surgery, and finally led to
improved standards of care.
6. _____________
How though did changes at the top affect the people at the bottom of the societal hierarchy?
Not all reformers concerned themselves which changes at the authoritative and governmental
levels. Others concentrated on improving the lives and morals of the poor. In the midst of the
industrial revolution, the poorest in society were in dire straits. Many lived in slums and
sanitation was poor. No-one wanted the responsibility of improvement.
7. _____________
Could local authorities impose such measures today? Probably not. Even so, the legacy of the
moral reform of the late 1800s and 1900s lives on today. Because of it, the British have come
to expect a system which is competent, fair to all and free from corruption. Nowadays
everyone has a right to a home, access to education, and protection at work and in hospital.
This is all down to the men and women who did not just observe society's ills from a
distance, but who dared to take steps to change it.
Paragraphs
A. But a moral makeover was on the horizon, and one of the first people to promote it was
William Wilberforce, better known for his efforts in abolishing the slave trade. Writing to a
friend, Lord Muncaster, he stated that 'the universal corruption and profligacy of the
times...taking its rise amongst the rich and luxurious has now ... spread its destructive poison
through the whole body of the people.'
B. But one woman, Octavia Hill, was willing to step up to the mark. Hill, despite serious
opposition by the men who still dominated English society, succeeded in opening a number
of housing facilities for the poor. But, recognising the weaknesses of a charity-dependent
culture, Hill enforced high moral standards, strict measures in hygiene and cleanliness upon
her tenants, and, in order to promote a culture of industry, made them work for any financial
handouts.
C. At first, moralists did not look for some tangible end to moral behaviour. They concerned
themselves with the spiritual salvation of the rich and titled members of society, believing
that the moral tone set by the higher ranks would influence the lower orders. For example,
Samuel Parr, preaching at London's St Paul's Cathedral, said 'If the rich man...abandons
himself to sloth and all the vices which sloth generates, he corrupts by his example. He
permits...his immediate attendants to be, like him, idle and profligate.'
D. In time, the fervour for improved morals strayed beyond personal behaviour and towards a
new governance. People called for a tightening of existing laws which had formerly been
enforced only laxly. Gambling, duelling, swearing, prostitution, pornography and adultery
laws were more strictly upheld to the extent that several fashionable ladies were fined fifty
pounds each for gambling in a private residence.
E. So far, however, circumspection in the upper classes had done little to improve the lives of
those in the lower classes. But that was to change. Against a backdrop of the moral high
ground, faults in the system started to stand out. One by one, people started to question the
morality of those in authority.
F. The attitudes of the upper classes became increasingly critical during the latter part of the
eighteenth century. In 1768, the Lord of the Treasury was perfectly at ease to introduce his
mistress to the Queen, but a generation later, such behaviour would have been unacceptable.
Such attitudes are also seen in the diaries of Samuel Pepys, who, in 1793 rambles without
criticism about his peer's many mistresses. A few years later, his tone had become infinitely
more critical.
G. Similar developments occurred in the Civil Service. Civil servants were generally
employed as a result of nepotism or acquaintance, and more often than not took advantage of
their power to provide for themselves at the expense of the public. Charles Trevelyan, an
official at the London Treasury, realised the weaknesses in the system and proposed that all
civil servants were employed as a result of entrance examinations, thus creating a system
which was politically independent and consisted of people who were genuinely able to do the
job.
H. These prophecies roused a little agitation when first published in 1790,but it was the
events in 1792-93, which shocked England into action. Over in France, insurrection had led
to war and massacre. The King and Queen had been tried and executed. France was now
regarded as completely immoral and uncivilized, a country where vice and irreligion reigned.

Part 3. Read an extract from an article on anthropology and choose the answer A, B, C
or D that fits best according to the text. (8 points)
Anthropology distinguishes itself from the other social sciences by its greater
emphasis on fieldwork as the source of new knowledge. The aim of such studies is to develop
as intimate an understanding as possible of the phenomena investigated. Although the length
of field studies varies from a few weeks to years, it is generally agreed that anthropologists
should stay in the field long enough for their presence to be considered ‘natural’ by the
permanent residents.
 Realistically, however, anthropologists may never reach this status. Their foreign
mannerisms make them appear clownish, and so they are treated with curiosity and
amusement. If they speak the local language at all, they do so with a strange accent and
flawed grammar. They ask tactless questions and inadvertently break rules regarding how
things are usually done. Arguably this could be an interesting starting point for research,
though it is rarely exploited. Otherwise, anthropologists take on the role of the ‘superior
expert’, in which case they are treated with deference and respect, only coming into contact
with the most high-ranking members of the society. Anthropologists with this role may never
witness the gamut of practices which take place in all levels of the society.
No matter which role one takes on, anthropologists generally find fieldwork
extremely demanding. Anthropological texts may read like an exciting journey of
exploration, but rarely is this so. Long periods of time spent in the field are generally
characterised by boredom, illness and frustration. Anthropologists in the field encounter
unfamiliar climates, strange food and low standards of hygiene. It is often particularly trying
for researchers with middle-class, European backgrounds to adapt to societies where being
alone is considered pitiful. It takes a dedicated individual to conduct research which is not in
some way influenced by these personal discomforts.
Nonetheless, fieldwork requires the researcher to spend as much time as
possible in local life. A range of research methodologies can be utilised to extract
information. These can be classified as emic or etic. A native’s point of view of his own
lifestyle is emic, while the analytical perspective of the outsider is etic. While emic
descriptions are considered more desirable nowadays, they are difficult to attain, even if the
researcher does his utmost to reproduce the facts from the natives’ point of view. More often
than not, aspects of the researcher’s own culture, perspective and literary style seep into the
narrative. Moreover, research generally involves translations from one language to another
and from speech into writing. In doing this, the meaning of utterances is changed. The
only truly emic descriptions can be those given by the natives themselves in their own
vernacular.
The least invasive type of research methodology is observation. Here, the researcher
studies the group and records findings without intruding too much on their privacy. This is
not to say, however, that the presence of the researcher will have minimal impact on the
findings. An example was Richard Borshay Lee, who, in studying local groups in the
Kalahari refused to provide the people with food so as not to taint his research, leading to an
inevitable hostility towards the researcher which would not otherwise have been present.
A variant on the observation technique, participant observation requires that the
anthropologist not only observes the culture, but participates in it too. It allows for
deeper immersion into the culture studied, hence a deeper understanding of it. By
developing a deeper rapport with the people of the culture, it is hoped they will open up
and divulge more about their culture and way of life than can simply be observed.
Participant observation is still an imperfect methodology, however, since populations
may adjust their behavior around the researcher, knowing that they are the subject of
research.
The participatory approach was conceived in an attempt to produce as emic a
perspective as possible. The process involves not just the gathering of information from local
people, but involves them in the interpretation of the findings. That is, rather than the
researcher getting actively involved in the processes within the local community, the
process is turned on its head. The local community is actively involved in the research
process.
1. The main reason for anthropological researchers remaining in a community for an
extended period of time is that:
A. they can gather as much information as possible.
B. they can try out a range of different research methodologies.
C. they want local people to behave naturally around them.
D. they need time to become accustomed to the conditions
2. What does the passage say about researchers who are considered a ‘clown’ by locals?
A. They do culturally unacceptable things without realising it.
B. They do not gain respect among high-ranking members of the community.
C. They cannot conduct any research of value.
D. They do not study the language and culture of the region before their arrival.
3. What does ‘gamut’ mean?
A. idea or impression B. prohibition or taboo
C. range or extent D. secret or mystery
4. The writer believes that the most difficult aspect of fieldwork for educated westerners is
A. the lack of companionship. B. poor sanitary conditions.
C. failure to meet expectations. D. never being left alone.
5. In paragraph 3, it is implied that:
A. the fieldworker’s emotions and mood prejudice the research.
B. the longer a researcher spends in the field, the more depressed he gets.
C. middle-class Europeans find field research more difficult than researchers from
other backgrounds.
D. anthropological texts tend to exaggerate the difficult conditions that researchers
experience.
6. Why is the example of Richard Borshay Lee given in paragraph 5?
A. to demonstrate that observation is an ineffective method of gathering data.
B. to highlight why it is important that researchers minimize their impact on a community.
C. to show the dangers of researchers trying to lessen their impact on a community.
D. to show how a researcher’s choice of methodology can influence the validity of his
findings.
7. How does participant observation differ vary from straightforward observation?
A. It requires the researcher to become actively involved in the daily lives of those being
studied.
B. It allows the subjects of the research a greater degree of privacy.
C. It eradicates the problem of research subjects altering their behaviour towards researchers.
D. It takes longer to perform this type of research effectively.
8. Which of the following is NOT true of the participatory approach?
A. It attempts to reduce etic accounts of a culture to a minimum.
B. It does not require a researcher to be present.
C. It aims to involve the subjects in both information gathering and analysis.
D. It is the reverse of the participant observation technique.

Part 4. Reading the passage and answer the questions that follow. (13 points)
The reading passage has seven paragraphs, A—G. Choose the correct heading for paragraphs
B—G from the list of headings below.
List of Headings
i. The biological clock
ii. Why dying is beneficial
iii. The ageing process of men and women
iv. Prolonging your life
v. Limitations of life span
vi. Modes of development of different species
vii. A stable lifespan despite improvements
viii. Energy consumption
ix. Fundamental differences in ageing of objects and organisms
x. Repair of genetic material
Example Answer
Paragraph A v
1. Paragraph B
2. Paragraph C
3. Paragraph D
4. Paragraph E
5. Paragraph F
6. Paragraph G
HOW DOES THE BIOLOGICAL CLOCK TICK?
A. Our life span is restricted. Everyone accepts this as 'biologically' obvious. 'Nothing lives
forever!' However, in this statement, we think of artificially produced, technical objects,
products which are subjected to natural wear and tear during use. This leads to the result that
at some time or other the object stops working and is unusable ('death' in the biological
sense). But are the wear and tear and loss of function of technical objects and the death of
living organisms really similar or comparable.
B. Our 'dead' products are 'static', closed systems. It is always the basic material which
constitutes the object and which, in the natural course of things, is worn down and becomes
'older'. Age, in this case, must occur according to the laws of physical chemistry and of
thermodynamics. Although the same law holds for a living organism, the result of this law is
not inexorable in the same way. At least as long as a biological system has the ability to
renew itself it could actually become older without ageing; an organism is an open, dynamic
system through which new material continuously flows. Destruction of old material and
formation of new material are thus in permanent dynamic equilibrium. The material of which
the organism is formed changes continuously. Thus our bodies continuously exchange old
substance for new, just like a spring which more or less maintains its form and movement,
but in which the water molecules are always different.
C. Thus ageing and death should not be seen as inevitable, particularly as the organism
possesses many mechanisms for repair. It is not, in principle, necessary for a biological
system to age and die. Nevertheless, a restricted life span, ageing, and then death are basic
characteristics of life. The reason for this is easy to recognise: in nature, the existent
organisms either adapt or are regularly replaced by new types. Because of changes in the
genetic material (mutations), these have new characteristics and in the course of their
individual lives, they are tested for optimal or better adaptation to the environmental
conditions. Immortality would disturb this system — it needs room for new and better life.
This is the basic problem of evolution.
D. Every organism has a life span which is highly characteristic. There are striking
differences in life span between different species, but within one species the parameter is
relatively constant. For example, the average duration of human life has hardly changed in
thousands of years. Although more and more people attain an advanced age as a result of
developments in medical care and better nutrition, the characteristic upper limit for most
remains 80 years. A further argument against the simple wear and tear theory is the
observation that the time within which organisms age lies between a few days (even a few
hours for unicellular organisms) and several thousand years, as with mammoth trees.
E. If a life span is a genetically determined biological characteristic, it is logically necessary
to propose the existence of an internal clock, which in some way measures and controls the
ageing process and which finally determines death as the last step in a fixed programme. Like
the life span, the metabolic rate has for different organisms a fixed mathematical relationship
to the body mass. In comparison to the life span this relationship is 'inverted': the larger the
organism the lower its metabolic rate. Again this relationship is valid not only for birds, but
also, similarly on average within the systematic unit, for all other organisms (plants, animals,
unicellular organisms).
F. Animals which behave 'frugally' with energy become particularly old, for example,
crocodiles and tortoises. Parrots and birds of prey are often held chained up. Thus they are
not able to 'experience life' and so they attain a high life pan in captivity. Animals which save
energy by hibernation or lethargy (e.g. bats or hedgehogs) live much longer than those which
are always active. The metabolic rate of mice can be reduced by a very low consumption of
food (hunger diet). They then may live twice as long as their well-fed comrades. Women
become distinctly (about 10 per cent) older than men. If you examine the metabolic rates of
the two sexes you establish that the higher male metabolic rate roughly accounts for the lower
male life span. That means that they live life 'energetically' — more intensively, but not for as
long.
G. It follows from the above that sparing use of energy reserves should tend to extend life.
Extreme high-performance sports may lead to optimal cardiovascular performance, but they
quite certainly do not prolong life. Relaxation lowers metabolic rate, as does adequate sleep
and in general an equable and balanced personality. Each of us can develop his or her own
'energy saving programme' with a little self-observation, critical self-control and, above all,
logical consistency. Experience will show that to live in this way not only increases the
lifespan but is also very healthy. This final aspect should not be forgotten.

Questions 7-10. Complete the notes below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS
from the passage for each answer.
• Objects age in accordance with principles of (7) ________________ and of
(8)_________________
• Through mutations, organisms can (9) ______________________ better to the
environment
• (10) ______________________ would pose a serious problem for the theory of
evolution

Questions 11-13: Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in the
reading passage?
YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

11. The wear and tear theory applies to both artificial objects and biological systems.
12. In principle, it is possible for a biological system to become older without ageing.
13. Within seven years, about 90 per cent of a human body is replaced as new.

Part 5. Read the text and do the task that follows. (10 points)

AN ARTICLE ON TWO BOOKS

Section A: Both Purple Hibiscus and Once Were Warriors are post-colonial novels, in the
sense that they were written, and deal with subjects of the position of independence as
opposed to the colonial state of being in both a universalising sense and a personal one.
Purple Hibiscus was published in 2004 and is set in Nigeria, the author Cinamanada Ngozi
Adichie’s homeland. Once Were Warriors was written by a Maori New Zealander, Alan
Duff, in 1990 and has since met with international acclaim through the silver screen. But,
what has contributed to making this is another lengthy tale. Both books sit happily on the
shelf labelled “postcolonial literature,” but such careless sweeps of the categorising tongue
are exactly what such authors are attempting to avoid. Their works don’t reinforce the
boundaries, leaving readers feeling warm and cosy. Colonialism, precolonialism and a whole
set of other blunt “isms” can be argued as being explored by these authors.

Section B That remnants of colonialism and pre-colonialism are present in each text indicates
the boundaries between pre-colonial and colonial states of being are not as established, in a
postcolonial existence, as the frame of the words denote. What are the implications of
depicting, potential pre-colonial situations within the colonial tongue? Both Once Were
Warriors and Purple Hibiscus, potentially present colonial and pre-colonial notions of history
or histories, but from different post-colonial positions. With Nigeria having been a colony of
occupation, as opposed to the settler colony of New Zealand, relations between the coloniser
and the colonised differ greatly between the two cultural entities. With the coloniser,
potentially, obscuring and abstracting the area between pre-colonial and postcolonial
existences, any pre-colonial notions must always be partly located within a colonial
perspective. Nonetheless, the precolonial uttered in the colonial tongue renders that colonial
tongue as being somewhat altered in the process. The colonial tongue both makes and
unmakes itself by using the same tools for different ends. The dragging of heels back and
forth over the hot coals of second-hand languages renders the happy branding of
“postcolonial” of those who dare to make the colonial tongue their own seem like an
unrefined broad-brushes attempt to depict the hairline cracks in a china doll.

Section C Both texts deal with the uncertainties of the formation and reformation of
identities. Working with, yet at the same time questioning and unsettling, the bildungsroman
format, Once Were Warriors and Purple Hibiscus present identities snaking through notions
of pre-colonial identities alongside colonial and postcolonial ones. The certainty of the very
survival of Kambili and Beth in Once Were Warriors seems, to an extent, to be staked on pre-
colonial notions of identity formation. The chief at Beth’s funeral articulates this in sorrow
for the young girls death; ‘we are what we are only because of our past […] we should never
forget our past or our future is lost’. The death of Grace directly influences Beth to address
her situation and that of the individuals in Pine Block. Although Grace’s death is linked to the
rape, Beth, who is unaware of this, questions her involvement in the death of her daughter.
‘Could I have prevented it?’ echoes out from every movement Beth makes after this. Why
does the young girl have to die? Is it to highlight injustices in the Maori community, to make
the community, to an extent, stand up and demand to be heard?

Section D Indeed, it is death that stalks the corridors of these two novels. It is the death of
Eugene, the ‘colonial product’ in Purple Hibiscus alongside the death of Papa-Nnukwu the
‘pre-colonial product’ that lead to questions of where to turn in terms of identity formation.
The colonial figure is dead; he doesn’t present ways of being to his children that seem
acceptable to them; he is too violent, too dominating for their generation. But, as well,
PapaNnukwu, who is adored by his grandchildren, seems like an inadequate role model to
wholly guide the younger generation into futures that are still in the making.

Section E By introducing Purple Hibiscus with the sentence ‘Things fall apart’, Adichie is
immediately paying homage to Chinua Achebe’s same-named novel published in the mid-
twentieth century, which depicted a hamlet in Africa on the eve of nineteenth-century
colonialism. Everyday lives and everyday disputes fill page after page. The reader is with the
hamlet when its inhabitants are devastated. We are invited to sit in another seat. To see how it
might have felt to be utterly subjugated by foreigners. The beauty of comparing the two
Nigerian novels is in their dealings with Christianity. Indeed, in Things Fall Apart, church
missionaries come to the hamlet to ‘save them from hell and damnation’ and Okonkwo, the
head of the hamlet, is immediately distrustful. He is closed to change as is the Catholic
‘colonial product’ of Eugene in Purple Hibiscus. The stubbornness each character shows, but
towards different ends, demonstrates the meaninglessness of assertions of power for the sake
of assertions of power.
In which section are the following mentioned?
1. The feeling of being responsible for a death
2. The problem of putting literature into categories
3. Another novel refered to in the novel
4. Using language in different ways
5. Characters who don’t easily accept change
6. The refusal to embrace the way of life of either of two elders
7. Different types of colonies
8. One of the novels being made into a film
9. Death playing a role to help a community
10. The difficulty in defining the subgenre of certain publications

D. WRITING (60 points)

Part 1. Write a short summary of 80-90 words of the following paragraph. (15 points)
Traffic congestion in Britain could be eased if it weren't for the nation's addiction to the
absurd cult of the lone driver. But let's face it, sharing cars is something the British just don't
do. Next Monday morning the streets will be overflowing with cars once again, most with
spare seats front and back, and there will be few lifts on offer for those friends or colleagues
who have no choice but to trudge through fumes or jostle in bus queues.
Many drivers, it seems, echo the view of one former transport minister who observed, albeit
light-heartedly, that with cars “you have your own company, your own temperature control
and your own choice of music —and you don't have to put up with dreadful human beings
sitting alongside you.” Many a true word, it seems, is said in jest. Indeed, sharing would
threaten the very independence that makes the car such an attractive option in the first place.
Offer a colleague a regular lift and you're locked into a routine as oppressive as any other,
with all individual flexibility lost. So, what's in it for the driver?
But even in a motor-obsessed city such as Los Angeles, drivers have been won over by the
idea of car-sharing. It is attractive because cars with more than one occupant are allowed
access to fast-moving priority lanes. So desirable are these amid the six lanes of jam-packed
traffic that, in the early days, Californian students charged motorists several dollars a time to
pick them up.

TÂY NINH V2

Alfred Nobel
The man behind the Nobel Prize
A. Since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been honoring men and women from all corners of
the globe for outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and
for work in peace. The foundations for the prize were laid in 1895 when Alfred Nobel
wrote his last will, leaving much of his wealth to the establishment of the Nobel Prize.
B. Alfred Nobel was born in Stockholm on October 21, 1833. His father Immanuel
Nobel was an engineer and inventor who built bridges and buildings in Stockholm. In
connection with his construction work Immanuel Nobel also experimented with
different techniques for blasting rocks. Successful in his industrial and business
ventures, Immanuel Nobel was able, in 1842, to bring his family to St. Petersburg.
There, his sons were given a first class education by private teachers. The training
included natural sciences, languages and literature. By the age of 17 Alfred Nobel was
fluent in Swedish, Russian, French, English and German. His primary interests were
in English literature and poetry as well as in chemistry and physics. Alfred’s father,
who wanted his sons to join his enterprise as engineers, disliked Alfred’s interest in
poetry and found his son rather introverted.
C. In order to widen Alfred’s horizons his father sent him abroad for further training
in chemical engineering. During a two year period Alfred Nobel visited Sweden,
Germany, France and the United States. In Paris, the city he came to like best, he
worked in the private laboratory of Professor T. J. Pelouze, a famous chemist. There
he met the young Italian chemist Ascanio Sobrero who, three years earlier, had
invented nitroglycerine, a highly explosive liquid. But it was considered too
dangerous to be of any practical use. Although its explosive power greatly exceeded
that of gunpowder, the liquid would explode in a very unpredictable manner if
subjected to heat and pressure. Alfred Nobel became very interested in nitroglycerine
and how it could be put to practical use in construction work. He also realized that the
safety problems had to be solved and a method had to be developed for the controlled
detonation of nitroglycerine.
D. After his return to Sweden in 1863, Alfred Nobel concentrated on developing
nitroglycerin as an explosive. Several explosions, including one (1864) in which his
brother Kmil and several other persons were killed, convinced the authorities that
nitroglycerine production was exceedingly dangerous. They forbade further
experimentation with nitroglycerine within the Stockholm city limits and Alfred
Nobel had to move his experimentation to a barge anchored on Lake Malaren. Alfred
was not discouraged and in 1864 he was able to start mass production of
nitroglycerine. To make the handling of nitroglycerine safer Alfred
Nobel experimented with different additives. He soon found that mixing
nitroglycerine with kieselguhr would turn the liquid into a paste which could be
shaped into rods of a size and form suitable for insertion into drilling holes. In 1867 he
patented this material under the name of dynamite. To be able to detonate the
dynamite rods he also invented a detonator (blasting cap) which could be ignited by
lighting a fuse. These inventions were made at the same time as the pneumatic drill
came into general use. Together these inventions drastically reduced the cost of
blasting rock, drilling tunnels, building canals and many other forms of construction
work.
E. The market for dynamite and detonating caps grew very rapidly and Alfred Nobel
also proved himself to be a very skillful entrepreneur and businessman. Over the years
he founded factories and laboratories in some 90 different places in more than 20
countries. Although he lived in Paris much of his life he was constantly traveling.
When he was not traveling or engaging in business activities Nobel himself worked
intensively in his various laboratories, first in Stockholm and later in other places. He
focused on the development of explosives technology as well as other chemical
inventions including such materials as synthetic rubber and leather, artificial silk, etc.
By the time of his death in 1896 he had 355 patents.
F. Intensive work and travel did not leave much time for a private life. At the age of
43 he was feeling like an old man. At this time he advertised in a newspaper
“wealthy, highly-educated elder gentleman seeks lady of mature age, versed in
languages, as secretary and supervisor of household.” The most qualified applicant
turned out to be an Austrian woman, Countess Bertha Kinsky. After working a very
short time for Nobel she decided to return to Austria to marry Count Arthur von
Suttner. In spite of this Alfred Nobel and Bertha von Suttner remained friends and
kept writing letters to each other for decades. Over the years Bertha von Suttner
became increasingly critical of the arms race. She wrote a famous book, Lay Down
Your Arms and became a prominent figure in the peace movement. No doubt this
influenced Alfred Nobel when he wrote his final will which was to include a Prize for
persons or organizations who promoted peace. Several years after the death of Alfred
Nobel, the Norwegian Storting (Parliament) decided to award the 1905 Nobel Peace
Prize to Bertha von Suttner.
G. Alfred Nobel died in San Remo, Italy, on December 10, 1896. When his will was
opened it came as a surprise that his fortune was to be used for Prizes in Physics,
Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature and Peace. The executors of his
will were two young engineers, Ragnar Sohlman and Rudolf Lilljequist. They set
about forming the Nobel Foundation as an organization to take care of the financial
assets left by Nobel for this purpose and to coordinate the work of the Prize-
Awarding Institutions. This was not without its difficulties since the will was
contested by relatives and questioned by authorities in various countries.
H. Alfred Nobel’s greatness lay in his ability to combine the penetrating mind of the
scientist and inventor with the forward-looking dynamism of the industrialist.
Nobel was very interested in social and peace-related issues and held what
were considered radical views in his era. He had a great interest in literature and
wrote his own poetry and dramatic works. The Nobel Prizes became an extension and
a fulfillment of his lifetime interests.
For questions 56-61, decide whether the following statements are True (T), False
(F) or Not Given (NG). Write your answers in the corresponding numbered
boxes provided.
56. The first Nobel Prize was awarded in 1895.
57. Nobel’s father wanted his son to have better education than what he had had.
58. Nobel was an unsuccessful businessman.
59. Bertha von Suttner was selected by Nobel himself for the first peace prize.
60. The Nobel Foundation was established after the death of Nobel
61. Nobel’s social involvement was uncommon in the 1800’s.
Your answers:
56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61.
For questions 62-66, complete the summary with NO MORE THAN TWO
WORDS taken from the passage. Write your answers in the corresponding
numbered boxes provided.
Having accumulated a great fortune in his business, Nobel’s father determined to give
his son the best education and sent him abroad to be trained in (62) _________.
During Nobel’s study in Paris, he worked in a private laboratory, where he came
in contact with a young scientist (engineer) (63) _________ and his invention
nitroglycerine, a more powerful explosive than (64) _________.
Benefits in construction works:
Nobel became really interested in this new explosive and experimented on it. But
nitroglycerine was too dangerous and was banned for experiments within the city of
Stockholm. So Nobel had to move his experiments to a lake. To make nitroglycerine
easily usable, Nobel invented dynamite along with (65) _________ while in the
meantime pneumatic drill became popular, all of which dramatically lowered the (66)
_________ of construction works.
Your answers:
62. 63. 64. 65. 66.

Part 3: In the passage below, seven paragraphs have been removed. For
questions 67-73, read the passage and choose from paragraphs A-H the one
which fits each gap. There is ONE extra paragraph which you do not need to use.
Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
As the pilot announced that we would shortly be touching down in Manchester, half of
the passengers began gathering up their books and magazines, and the other half
began turning off tablets and laptops as they’d been requested to do. I, however,
continued to gaze through the window at the tiny fields bordered by hedges, the
assortment of shapes and colours reminding me of a patchwork quilt.
67
Despite the familiarity of the landscape, I was still impressed by the various shades of
green on display and the regular arrangement of fields. It was then that I realised, it
had been more than a decade since I’d left England to live in Greece. I was only now
returning to my homeland and, after living abroad for so long, I was seeing it through
the eyes of a foreigner.
68
The politeness instilled into the English was in evidence again as we drove away from
the airport in the early morning traffic. No drivers could be seen gesticulating wildly
at each other, no horns sounded impatiently as an elderly gentleman ambled across the
pedestrian crossing, no motorbikes weaved precariously in and out of the lines of
vehicles. It goes without saying that everybody seemed to be carefully sticking to the
speed limit.
69
I grinned, as I remembered my mother’s constant battle against the elements in order
to get the washing dry. She would laboriously peg it out one minute in sunshine and
blustery winds, only to hastily run out and bring it in again because of a sudden
downpour the next.
 70
Evidence that my dad wasn’t alone in this habit was obvious as we wound our way
through the maze of narrow streets. Tiny squares of grass were bordered by lovingly-
maintained flower beds, proudly bearing a profusion of plants in a riot of colour.
Garden gnomes peeked out from behind ornamental wells, and ceramic hedgehogs
and owls were strategically dotted around.
71
Some houses still had milk bottles on their doorstep while the residents stole an extra
few minutes’ sleep. The doors of other houses opened to reveal early birds in their
dressing gowns bending down to pick up the glass bottles that are delivered
religiously each day.
72
And, of course, the British would want fresh milk delivered every morning; milk
being an essential component of the ritual of tea drinking. Whereas other nationalities
take their tea black, with lemon or honey, for example, the typical Englishman will
want milk and sugar in his cup of tea. More surprising still, is the frequency with
which he will indulge in this practice, that is to say, every couple of hours or so. Tea,
for the British, is omnipresent and a cure-all. If someone suffers a shock, hot, sweet
tea is prescribed; an interval during working hours is a tea break, and a social visit to
someone’s home is incomplete without a ‘cuppa’.
73
There on the doorstep were my parents: my father just collecting the newspaper and
my mother with the milk. Their faces lit up as they realised I had arrived.
“Here she is, at last!” said my dad, “Welcome home, love.”
“Hello, darling, you look exhausted after your flight,” said Mum. “Let’s go in and
have a nice cup of tea. You’ll soon be as right as rain.”

The missing paragraphs:

A. The compact two-storey residences nestling within these boundaries of shrubs were
obviously cared for just as devotedly. Windows gleamed from recent polishing, the
paintwork on doors and window ledges was free of blemishes and hanging baskets
stuffed with colourful blossoms swung from porch corners.
B. As the taxi turned the corner and the house I grew up in came into view, my heart
skipped a beat. My head flooded with childhood memories of learning to ride a bike
on the driveway, and doing handstands on the lawn. Though as a teenager the wet
weather was the bane of my life, my earlier childhood seemed to be bursting with
nothing but sunny days packed with fun and activity.
C. Of course I knew these outward appearances could be deceiving. Underneath these
calm, courteous English exteriors, people were just as likely to be angry and mean-
spirited as anywhere else on the planet. They were just experts at hiding it behind
seemingly inane conversations about the weather. I was reminded about how they got
away with this tactic, as on our short journey we experienced everything from brilliant
sunshine to gentle drizzle to thunderous rain. With such frequent and unexpected
variations, the subject is inexhaustible.
D. The taxi driver waited patiently as I counted out the unfamiliar money. I’d
forgotten what pounds looked like, having used only euros for the past decade. He
took my heavy suitcases out of the boot of the car and I wished there had been
somebody there to help me with my luggage on the next part of my journey.
E. Waiting to go through passport control was the first culture shock. Nobody voiced
any complaints about the length of the queue, nobody dug me in the ribs or rammed
their suitcase into my calves. Everyone stood there patiently, having murmured
conversations, until it was their turn to hand over their documents to the smiling,
welcoming official.
F. Another similar custom still remaining in Britain is the delivery of newspapers. To
a city dweller like me, who has a selection of shops selling both newspapers and milk
within a five-minute walk of her home, having such goods brought to your doorstep
first thing in the morning seemed like an old-fashioned and yet somehow luxurious
tradition.
G. The weather is one factor partly responsible for another British fascination, namely
gardening, since the abundance of rainfall helps plants to flourish. Another
recollection came back to me. This time it was my father, nipping out to tend his roses
or do some weeding whenever the sun came out in defiance of the heavy grey clouds
hanging low in the sky.
H. From above, the little square houses looked like matchboxes sitting in
handkerchief-sized gardens, and a smile played on my lips as I remembered myself as
a teenager mowing the lush green lawn in order to squeeze some extra pocket money
out of my dad.

Your answers:

67. 68. 69. 70. 71. 72. 73.

Part 4: For questions 74-80, read an extract from a book about the history of the
US and choose the answer A, B, C or D which you think fits best according to the
text. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
Progressive in the US
The United States had reached a point, in the closing years of the 19 th century, when
radical improvements in its political, social and economic arrangements were so
plainly necessary that they were actually attempted, and therefore may be called
inevitable. Women and men, young and middle-aged, rich, poor and in-between,
West, South and North, all acknowledged the necessity and had some hand in shaping
the improvements. It was an epoch very much to the American taste, for it seemed a
proof that faith in progress, and particularly in the potential for progress in America,
was justified. The word ‘progressive’ had long been a favorite in common speech;
now it became attached to a political party, a movement, an era. It remains a curiously
empty word, but historians will never be able to do without it. And after all due
reservations have been made, it would be churlish to deny that the United States did in
many respects move forward during this period, did begin to tackle a good many
serious problems intelligently. It is a moderately encouraging story.
Big business made itself felt at every stage in the progressive story, and not by any
means as a purely reactionary force. All the same, it would be a mistake to suppose
that business, however profoundly it had shaped and now colored the day-to-day
operations of American life, was the key to progressivism. Nor could the industrial
working class, however active, muster the power necessary to dominate the epoch.
That privilege belonged to the new middle class.
This class had emerged as, numerically, the chief beneficiary of the great
transformation of American society. America’s rapid development under the impact of
industrialism and urbanization implied an equally rapidly developing need for
professional services. The need for a new order was generally felt, and implied the
recruitment and training of new men, and new women, to administer it. Society was
now rich enough to pay for their services. Hence in the last decades of the 19 th century
there was a mushroom growth among the professions. Doctors and lawyers, of course;
but also engineers, dentists, professors, journalists, social workers, architects. This
was the age of the expert; he was given a free hand, such as he has seldom enjoyed
since. Each new technical marvel – the telephone, the phonograph, the motor-car, the
aeroplane – increased the faith that there was a sound technical answer to every
problem, even to the problem of government. When a devastating hurricane and flood
wrecked the port of Galveston, Texas, in 1901, the local businessmen proclaimed the
regular authorities incompetent to handle the task of reconstruction and handed the
city’s government over to a commission of experts – a pattern that was to be widely
followed in the next few years.
This may stand very well for what was happening generally. The new class, conscious
of its power and numbers, was anxious to get hold of American society and remake it
according to plan. All round were problems that needed solving – crime, disease, bad
housing, political corruption – and the new class thought it knew what to do about
them. Just as the experts themselves had taken advantage of a society open to the rise
of the talented, so they wanted their disadvantaged fellow-citizens to rise also. And
this democratic individualistic ideology made it seem perfectly legitimate to bid for
political power, that is, for votes: to go down into that arena was simply to carry out
one’s civic duty. Motives did not need to be examined too closely, since they were
self-evidently virtuous. What was new, and important at least to the experts, was the
tool-kit they brought to their tasks: their improved spanners, so to speak. The new
middle class set out to apply their spanners to such various contraptions as the state
and city machines of the old political parties, and the new urban wastelands.
Behind the zeal of these technocrats lay an older tradition, betrayed in the world they
used to describe the philanthropic centres they established in the slums, ‘settlements’:
to them the cities were wildernesses, the inhabitants alien savages and the new settlers
were bringers both of superior techniques and superior ideas, like the settlers of old. It
is thus possible to see in the very approach of these progressives certain limitations, a
certain inexperience, which were likely to impede their quest. They were mostly of
old American stock, brought up on the old pieties, which their new expertise only
veneered. The progressives were too conservative in their instincts, too parochial in
their outlook, ever to propose, let alone carry out, fundamental changes in the
American system.
Still, it cannot be denied that the progressives were an impressive generation, as
intelligent, high-minded, energetic and good-hearted as any in American history. If
their achievements were limited and flawed, they were real; they greatly assisted the
adaptation of America to the requirements of modern government; and they laid the
foundations, intellectual, personal, ideological – even organizational – of that
liberalism which was to become one of the chief creative forces in American politics
and society. This is not small praise.
74. What does the writer say about the word ‘progressive’ in the first paragraph?
A. It should only be used with regard to this period in the US.
B. No other word has been generally adopted to describe this period in the US.
C. It was sometimes used inappropriately during this period in the US.
D. No other word could have united diverse people during this period in the US.
75. What does the writer say about big business during this period?
A. It ensured that the industrial working class was lacking in power.
B. It paid too little attention to the importance of the new middle class.
C. It was beginning to have too great an impact on everyday life in the US.
D. It played a significant part in the development of progressivism.
76. The writer says that the ‘mushroom growth’ among the professions
A. was expected to be only a short-term phenomenon.
B. resulted from a desire among professionals for greater freedom.
C. was a natural consequence of other changes at the time.
D. resulted from fears among Americans about changes in their society.
77. The writer uses events in Galveston to illustrate
A. the high regard in which specialists were held during that period.
B. problems which had never been dealt with satisfactorily before.
C. the speed at which solutions were found during that period.
D. disagreements caused by the desire for technical solutions.
78. The writer says that when members of the new class tried to get political power,
A. they sometimes underestimated the social problems of the time.
B. people made assumptions about their reasons for doing so.
C. they tended to overestimate the potential of their fellow citizens.
D. people had realistic expectations of what they could achieve.
79. According to the writer, the use of the word ‘settlements’ reveals
A. the insincerity of some of the progressives concerning social problems.
B. the misunderstandings behind some of the progressives’ beliefs.
C. the confusion that surrounded the progressives’ approach to problems.
D. the similarities between the progressives and previous generations.
80. The writer’s general view of the progressives is that
A. they did not achieve as much as is widely supposed.
B. their ideas were more radical than they believed.
C. their impact was not enormous but it was lasting.
D. they have not been given the credit they deserve.

Your answers:

74. 75. 76. 77. 78. 79. 80.

Part 5: You are going to read an article about call-centre workers who give
advice to people over the phone. For questions 81-95, choose from the people (A-
D). The call-center workers may be chosen more than once. Write your answers
in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
Which of the call-centre workers say that she …
81. advises people on the legal background to a problem?
82. enjoys the variety of things which people call about?
83. finds the equipment that she works with reassuring?
84. used to find it hard to work with only a spoken description of people’s
problems?
85. gets back to certain callers within a given period of time?
86. can arrange for an expert to visit callers at home?
87. has identified a regular pattern in calls on certain subjects?
88. helps people to solve unexpected problems at night?
89. was sorry not to be in direct touch with the people she had the skills to help?
90. finds some people have unrealistic expectations of the service she can provide?
91. sometimes has to convince people that their problems will be taken seriously?
92. sometimes has to correct information obtained elsewhere?
93. gets the same people calling back more than once?
94. was initially apprehensive about the type of problems people would call with?
95. looks forward to the challenge of unexpected individual enquiries?
A. Claire Lippold, 23, works for the Bat Conservation Trust
I did a degree in biology, and studied bats as part of my thesis. When I saw the
ad for this job, I thought it would be perfect for me. We get about ten thousand
calls a year, many from people worried that if they have bats in their loft they
can’t have any building work done. They need the right advice, because the law
protests bats. We’re contracted by an organization called Natural England to
arrange a service whereby anybody with bats on their property can have a
specialist volunteer come out and give information and advice about the
creatures they’re living with. Generally, once they have the information,
they’re happy. It’s the sign of a really green environment if you have bats. In
the summer, we get calls when bats have flown uninvited into people’s houses
after dark. We advise turning the lights out, shutting the door, leaving the
window open and allowing the bat to find its own way out. One of the most
common myths we have to explode is that bats always turn left when they leave
roofs. Apparently that was printed in a magazine recently, so we got a clutch of
calls about it. We also get people calling and humming the entire Batman
theme tune down the phone. The jokes are pretty predictable, I’m afraid.
B. Anthea McNufty, 26, works for NHS Direct, the phone-in helpline
operated by the National Health Service
Having worked in nurse training for a while, I found I missed the patient
contact I’d enjoyed doing nursing itself. When I saw this job, I thought of it as
a way of getting some of that contact back – without the cleaning up! I
remember the dread of what the calls might be about on my first day, but they
give you so much training before you’re let loose that you can handle it. It was
a bit difficult not having the physical clues I’d have been able to pick up on the
 wards. But you very quickly get used to working with the computer, it makes
you feel safe. Occasionally, there are problems with the system but you’re
never left with a blank screen, and because we’re a national service there’s
always somebody else who can take a call. The most common calls are about
coughs and colds, things people can manage on their own, but I need to look
out for anything that will indicate that they might need to go and see a doctor.
People can be too embarrassed to go to a hospital with what seem like minor
ailments, and we do have to reassure them that if they do have to go in, people
aren’t going to laugh at them.
C. Agnes Thomson, 60, works for a major broadcasting company
Yesterday, I got lots of calls relating to weekly programs, though there was
quite a contrast: the radio show for the blind, ‘In Touch’, and ‘Watchdog’ on
TV. The ‘In Touch’ callers had heard of some new equipment and wanted
further details. ‘Watchdog’ is a consumer program and people generally call
me because they have a problem with a product from a company we’ve
covered on the show. We have regular callers, some very nice and some not so
nice, and you get to know them. Quite often people phone to complain
spontaneously, and when we call them again within ten days with a response,
which we promise to do in some cases, they’ve forgotten what made them
cross. Television programs probably generate more calls, particularly medical
programs or programs about children. People have a sense that we’re a general
repository of knowledge and wisdom – which we’re not! There’ll have been a
show that has covered most things at one time or another so I can always look
things up. As a result, I have a lot of what you might call useless knowledge.
D. Caroline Hickman, 34, works for a company with a wide range of
household products
I really get a lot out of the work. We have such a wide range of products – from
beauty and haircare through to nappies and household cleaners – that no two
calls are ever the same. With laundry products, for example, we get lots of
specific queries – people want to know what to use with certain types of
material. We can’t always go into details of all the settings of different brands
of machine, though. We also get a lot of calls about skincare from people who
want to know about specific ingredients in our products. You also get
fascinating insight into the country’s lifestyles. For instance, we tend to get lots
of calls about cleaning products on a Monday, presumably because people buy
them over the weekend, then, towards Friday we’ll get haircare and beauty
because they’re planning a night out. I also long for one-off problems I can
really get my teeth into – the ones that come out of blue. We once had a call
from a woman who’d seen a wedding dress on one of our TV adverts and
wanted one identical to it for her own big day. We found that it was still at the
television studio and was available for her to borrow – which she did. It just
goes to show that it’s always worth asking!

Your answers:

81. 82. 83. 84. 85.

 86. 87. 88. 89. 90.
91. 92. 93. 94. 95.

LAO CAI

INDIVIDUALISM OR SOCIETY

The human trait known as individualism can be understood in two distinct ways. The first implies
an individual’s aspiration to self-reliance or independence, and the need to exist as individual
human beings. The second, by contrast, is understood as a social theory which prioritizes
freedom of action by individuals over the authority of an all-powerful state. As far as the second
conception is concerned, individualism as a discrete construct of Western thought really came to
the fore with the onset of capitalism in the late seventeenth century. The two most influential
English political philosophers of that period - and since — Hobbes and Locke, outlined ideal
models of government of a distinctly individualist hue. In their view, the state’s function was to
protect a citizen’s individual liberties and interfere with any citizen’s actions only when those
actions violated another individual’s right to act freely. For both, society is nothing more than an
agglomeration of individuals; it has no reality independent of the individuals that make it up.

In practice, in the context of late twentieth and early twenty-first century developed societies,
the term ‘individualism’ is generally congruent with a world view whose adherents wage a
metaphorical low-level war against what they perceive to be the incessant and incremental
growth in the power of the state. True individualists would undoubtedly arẹue that society’s
attempts to regulate the individualist’s two most closely guarded spheres of personal liberty -
economic and civil - will always represent individualism’s most keenly fought over battlegrounds.
This strongly individualistic view of the role of society is often referred to as ‘libertarianism’.

An intriguing characteristic of those professing to be libertarians is that they can happily

disagree, equally vehemently, with a government policy on, say, education, from either a
distinctly ‘left’ or a distinctly ‘right’, libertarian perspective. Indeed, commentators and opinion
formers in the mass media readily admit that one of the most fascinating aspects of these
manifestations of modern individualism of either kind is just how frequently both claim to be the
authentic standard bearers of libertarianism. Thus anarchists arguing for their particular vision of
libertarianism would never be seen dead breaking bread with right wing neo-liberal libertarians -
or vice versa.

In the 1980s，champions of ‘deregulation’ announced their mission to ‘set the people free’ from
the suffocating yoke of ‘big ‘government’ or the ‘stranglehold of regulation’. So it was that in
Britain enterprises once state-owned were privatized and public utilities such as telecoms, gas,
electricity ， and water were rapidly sold off. Moreover, unified transport systems took on
multiple identities when the networks of trains and buses, most of which had previously been
owned by the state, were put up for sale and then snapped up by a host of individual private
companies.

It is fair to say that notwithstanding the social and political manifestations of individualism, which
are still pillars of orthodoxy in many developed western countries - such as the USA and Britain
一 probably the most striking evidence of the enduring strength of individualism, and just how
deeply this view of society has permeated all fields and forms of the contemporary arts, is the
celebrity culture that surrounds us nowadays. Being famous, or better, being famous for just
being famous, has become almost an article of faith for wannabes everywhere. The seemingly
insatiable public appetite for reality TV and tabloid newspapers, in addition to the all-pervasive
celebrity photo journalism that fills a plethora of ubiquitous glossy magazines, are living
testimony to Andy Warhol’s dictum that anyone ‘can be famous for fifteen minutes’ these days.
But the cult of celebrity alone does not convey the enduring power of individualism. Pause to
reflect for a moment, and try to think of one truly great film, play, or popular song that could
ever have achieved such universal acclaim without an individual voice at its narrative core.
Surely, this is why Frank Sinatra timelessly strikes a chord with the individualist in all of us when
he sings ‘I did it my way’.

Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in the Reading
Passage?

YES ifthe statement agrees with the views of the writer.

NO ifthe statement contradicts the views of the writer.
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this.

56. There are two discrete interpretations of the term individualism

57. The rise of individualism caused disquiet among governments in Europe.
58. The prominence of individualism as a concept coincided with the rise of capitalism.
59. Hobbes and Locke had little impact in the late 1700s.
60. Hobbes and Locke's ideas about the state were not pro-individualist.
61. Individual liberties must be preserved because they guarantee protection against the state.
56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61.

Answer the questions below using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage
for each answer.
62. According to individualists, which two areas of personal freedom must be protected from
state regulation? _____________________________
63. What name is given to the view that society should not limit individuals' rights to do as they
wish?
64. Before the 1980s, who owned most of the transport networks in Britain?
65. According to the writer, what is the clearest evidence of the continuing importance of
individualism in society? _____________________________
66. According to the writer, what feature must a film or song have to make it popular?
______________________________
Choose the correct answer for the following questions.
67. What strange trait does the writer mention about individualists?
A. They can hold completely opposite political positions.
B. They do not often disagree with government policy.
C. Their opinions are shaped by the mass media.
D. They have different views on the role of the government in education.
68. Which of the following statements best summarizes the writer's view of
individualism?
A. Individualism has become less important since its conception in the late seventeenth century.
B. The adherents of individualism disagree over how much the government should regulate
personal liberty.
C. The strength of individualism is reflected in many aspects of contemporary politics and
culture.
D. Individualism is the cause of most conflicts in society today.

62. 63. 64. 65.

66. 67. 68.
Part 3: You are going to read a newspaper article about great explorations. Seven
paragraphs have been removed from the extract. Choose from the paragraphs A-H
the one which fits each gap (69-75). There is one extra paragraph which you do not
need to use.

GREAT EXPLORATIONS

When I left that nautical shop in Ushuaia, Argentina with just a few postcards, I had no idea how
much I would regret it later. I couldn't imagine the real need for a human being to have a
nautical chart of Cape Horn, the southernmost point on the whole planet. Mainly since this would
only become a reality after three intense days of navigating the waters that changed the history
of the world and viewing the same landscapes that Charles Darwin and Ferdinand Magellan saw.
69. ________
There was nothing ordinary about that chart. The pen scratches showed the exact route that the
vessel had taken in the first stretch of the course, which went from the capital of the archipelago
to Cape Horn in Drake Passage where fearsome waters must be overcome to reach the
Antarctic. There were over ten nationalities occupying the sixty-four cabins on the boat, which,
with its siblings, exclusively covers the extreme south of Patagonia. They’ve known as expedition
cruises and feature lectures on fauna and flora and documentaries on Shackleton's expedition to
Antarctica.
70. ________
'Ninety dollars,’ said the Frenchman. He was on his honeymoon and his reason for wanting to
buy the map was a strong one. His bride, who had always dreamed of spending her post-nuptial
days in Madagascar, wasn't able to hold him back since she was napping in the cabin.
71. ________
The first expedition to reach Cape Horn in 1616 was composed of two ships and eighty-seven
men. It left from Holland in 1615 with the mission of finding a passage from the Atlantic to the
Pacific that could serve as an alternative to the Strait of Magellan, discovered in 1520 and
monopolized by the East India Company.
72. ________
The island where we disembarked on that morning didn't seem like the kind of place where no
less than 500 shipwrecks took place. It was cold and windy but the sun provided a more
hospitable atmosphere. On one of its extremities there was a monument; on the other, a
lighthouse which is home to traffic controller Patricio Ubal, his wife and their children.
73. ________
A seasick Charles Darwin did not disembark at Cape Horn. It was 1832 and the young,
inexperienced British naturalist had joined the second expedition of Captain Robert Fitzroy on his
frigate, the Beagle, in exchange for financial help from his father. On board were also three
natives of Tierra del Fuego whom Fitzroy had taken to England on his last voyage. The most
famous of these was Yamana Jeremy Button.
74. ________
The glaciers there remain in the same place, however, exactly as Darwin saw them. The deep
blue of the millennial ice is as impressive as the ferocious noise coming from the huge chunks
that break off that living mass. It is an unforgettable spectacle.
75. ________
The auction had come to an end, but our voyage had not. The next morning, hours before the
boat docked in Punta Arenas, we visited the Magellanic penguins on Isla Magdalena. This was
the moment Sao Paulo native Lidia Senatore had been waiting for. Coincidentally, the nautical
chart auctioned off had been purchased by her for $150. Luckily for Francois, Valentine never
heard about that.

MISSING PARAGRAPHS

A. Ushuaia is an unusual place. Half an hour from the city center, the Cerro Castor ski station is
the southernmost in the world and runs until the end of October, when all the others in South
America have already closed and the European stations haven’t even opened.
B. ‘Going once, going twice..." In a fit of obsession, Francois raises his hand, ‘sold to the
gentleman for $250.’ Afterwards Valentine snorts: ‘How can you pay $250 for a piece of paper?

C. All the people gathered that night in one of the lounges of the Chilean boat Mare Australis
had been through this experience and now, on the last night of our journey, were staring at the
auctioneer with a genuine greed for that tube with the paper inside. I couldn’t help myself. I
started off the bidding.

D. These are fascinating people. The coldness with which his mother received her son two years
after his disappearance provoked reports of amazement from Darwin，who witnessed this at Isla
Navarino, where we disembarked that afternoon. But, instead of the people who used to live
there, we only came across the tracks of beavers.

E. ‘How much is the chart of such an historic voyage worth?’ chanted the auctioneer in order to
raise the bidding, which had already passed $200. I’d stopped at 150 but the Frenchman and the
table of Americans showed no signs of giving up.

F. ‘Cape Horn was a dream for me. You can’t go any further. It’s difficult and dangerous to get
there and I wanted to share this with her,’ lawyer Francois Marty told me later. He only told his
new wife Valentine that they were going to South America. ‘Pack a bag for every season,
everything from a bikini to ski clothes,’ he advised her.

G. This is just a temporary position - it lasts less than a year - but a solitary one. It means
having to pass the entire time isolated from the world, without seeing civilization and not even
being visited by it during the winter months.

H. More common for visitors are the itineraries which peruse the Patagonian canals further
north. Other ships cover an even wider course but they don’t pass by Cape Horn. And it was this
mythical little island that had attracted those who were in that room.

Your answers:
69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75.

Part 4: For question 76-85, read an article on desert formation and choose the
answer A, B, C or D which you think fits best according to the text. Write your
answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
DESERT FORMATION
The deserts，which already occupy approximately a fourth of the Earth's land surface, have in
recent decades been increasing at an alarming pace. The expansion of desertlike conditions into
areas where they did not previously exist is called desertification. It has been estimated that an
additional one-fourth of the Earth’s land surface is threatened by this process.

Desertification is accomplished primarily through the loss of stabilizing natural vegetation and the
subsequent accelerated erosion of the soil by wind and water. In some cases the loose soil is
blown completely away, leaving a stony surface. In other cases, the finer particles may be
removed, while the sand-sized particles are accumulated to form mobile hills or ridges of sand.

Even in the areas that retain a soil cover, the reduction of vegetation typically results in the loss
of the soil’s ability to absorb substantial quantities of water. The impact of raindrops on the loose
soil tends to transfer fine clay particles into the tiniest soil spaces, sealing them and producing a
surface that allows very little water penetration. Water absorption is greatly reduced,
consequently runoff is increased, resulting in accelerated erosion rates. The gradual drying of the
soil caused by its diminished ability to absorb water results in the further loss of vegetation ，so
that a cycle of progressive surface deterioration is established.
In some regions, the increase in desert areas is occurring largely as the result of a trend toward
drier climatic conditions. Continued gradual global warming has produced an increase in aridity
for some areas over the past few thousand years. The process may be accelerated in sub-
sequent decades if global warming resulting from air pollution seriously increases.

There is little doubt, however, that desertification in most areas results primarily from human
activities rather than natural processes. The semiarid lands bordering the deserts exist in a deli-
cate ecological balance and are limited in their potential to adjust to increased environmental
pressures. Expanding populations are subjecting the land to increasing pressures to provide
them with food and fuel. In wet periods, the 丨 and may be able to respond to these stresses.
During the dry periods that are common phenomena along the desert margins, though, the
pressure on the land is often far in excess of its diminished capacity, and desertification results.

Four specific activities have been identified as major contributors to the desertification
processes: overcultivation, overgrazing, firewood gathering ， and overirrigation. The cultivation
of crops has expanded into progressively drier regions as population densities have grown.
These regions are especially likely to have periods of severe dryness, so that crop failures are
common. Since the raising of most crops requires the prior removal of the natural vegetation,
crop failures leave extensive tracts of land devoid of a plant cover and susceptible to wind and
water erosion.

[A] The raising of livestock is a major economic activity in semiarid lands, where grasses are
generally the dominant type of natural vegetation. [B] The consequences of an excessive
number of livestock grazing in an area are the reduction of the vegetation cover and the
trampling and pulverization of the soil. [C] This is usually followed by the drying of the soil and
accelerated erosion. [D].

Firewood is the chief fuel used for cooking and heating in many countries. The increased pres-
sures of expanding populations have led to the removal of woody plants so that many cities and
towns are surrounded by large areas completely lacking in trees and shrubs. The increasing use
of dried animal waste as a substitute fuel has also hurt the soil because this valuable soil
conditioner and source of plant nutrients is no longer being returned to the land.

The final major human cause of desertification is soil salinization resulting from overirrigation.
Excess water from irrigation sinks down into the water table. If no drainage system exists, the
water
table rises，bringing dissolved salts to the surface. The water evaporates and the salts are left
behind, creating a white crustal layer that prevents air and water from reaching the underlying
soil.

The extreme seriousness of desertification results from the vast areas of land and the
tremendous numbers of people affected, as well as from the great difficulty of
reversing or even slowing the process. Once the soil has been removed by erosion, only the
passage of centuries or millennia will enable new soil to form. In areas where considerable soil
still remains, though, a rigorously enforced program of land protection and cover-crop planting
may make it possible to reverse the present deterioration of the surface.

Question 76: According to paragraph 3 ，the loss of natural vegetation has which of
the following consequences for soil?
A. Increased stony content B. Reduced water absorption
C. Increased numbers of spaces in the soil D. Reduced water runoff

Question 77: The word delicate in the passage is closest in meaning to

______________.
A. fragile B. predictable C. complex D. valuable

Question 78: According to paragraph 5 ，in dry periods, border areas have difficulty
________.
A. adjusting to stresses created by settlement B. retaining their fertility after
desertification
C. providing water for irrigating crops D. attracting populations in search of food
and fuel

Question 79: According to paragraph 6 ， which of the following is often associated

with raising crops?
A. Lack of proper irrigation techniques B. Failure to plant crops suited to the
particular area
C. Removal of the original vegetation D. Excessive use of dried animal waste
Question 80: The phrase devoid of in the passage is closest in meaning to
A. consisting of B. hidden by C. except for D. lacking in
Question 81: According to paragraph 9, the grounds absorption of excess water is a
factor in desertification because it can ______________
A. interfere with the irrigation of land B. limit the evaporation of water
C. require more absorption of air by the soil D. bring salts to the surface
Question 82: All of the following are mentioned in the passage as contributing to
desertification EXCEPT ________
A. soil erosion B. global warming
C. insufficient irrigation D. the raising of livestock
Question 83: Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information
in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect answer choices change the
meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.

A. Desertification is a significant problem because it is so hard to reverse and affects large areas
of land and great numbers of people.
B. Slowing down the process of desertification is difficult because of population growth that has
spread over large areas of land.
C. The spread of deserts is considered a very serious problem that can be solved only if large
numbers of people in various countries are involved in the effort.
D. Desertification is extremely hard to reverse unless the population is reduced in the vast areas
affected.

Question 84: It can be inferred from the passage that the author most likely believes
which of the following about the future of desertification?
A. Governments will act quickly to control further desertification.
B. The factors influencing desertification occur in cycles and will change in the future.
C. Desertification will continue to increase.
D. Desertification win soon occur in all areas of the world.
Question 85: Look at the four squares [ ■] that indicate where the following sentence
can be added to the passage.
This economic reliance on livestock in certain regions makes large tracts of land sus-
ceptible to overgrazing.
Where would the sentence best fit?
A. [A] B. [B] C. [C] D. [D]

Your answer
 76. 77. 78. 79. 80.
81. 82. 83. 84. 85.

Part 5: You are going to read about the experiences and opinions of five educators on
online courses and learning. For questions 86-95, choose from the sections (A-E).
The sections may be chosen more than once.
ONLINE STUDIES
A.
Educators have known for 30 years that students perform better when given one-on-one
tutoring and mastery learning – working on a subject until it is mastered, not just until a test is
schedules. Success also requires motivation, whether from an inner drive or from parents,
mentors or peers. For years my colleagues and I have given artificial-intelligence courses: we
lectured, assigned homework and gave everyone the same exam at the same time. Each
semester just 5 to 10 percent of students regularly engaged in deep discussion; the rest were
more passive. We felt there had to be a better way, so we created a free online course, which
was completed by only 23,000 participants of an initial ‘intake’ of 100,000. Our second scheme
was more successful as we made learning happen actively. This helped us increase motivation
and keep attention from wavering, both of which led to a much lower dropout rate. For our
class, teachers analysed the data generated by student participation, but an artificial-intelligence
system could perform this function and then make recommendations for what a student could
try next to improve.

B.
Today students in most classroom sit, listen and take notes while a professor lectures. Despite
there being 20 to 300 students in the room, there is little or no human interaction. Exam often
offer the first opportunity to get real information on how well the students digested the
knowledge. If the exam identifies a lack of understanding of a basic concept, the class still
moves on to a more advanced concept. Virtual tools are providing an opportunity to rethink this
methodology. If a lecture is removed from class rime and we have on-demand adaptive
exercises and diagnostics, we can enter the realm of ‘blended learning’. In the blended learning
reality, the professor’s role is moved up the value chain. Rather than spending the bulk of the
time lecturing, writing exams and grading them, the can interact with their students. Rather than
enforcing a sit-and-listen passivity, teacher will mentor and challenge their students to take
control of their rate of learning – the most valuable skill of all.

C.
Digital technologies have the potential to transform Indian higher education. A new model built
around massive open online courses (MOOCs) that are developed locally and combined with
those provided by too universities abroad could deliver higher education on a scale and at a
quality not possible before. India has experimented with online classes before, but their impact
has been marginal. A decade ago, the country began using the Internet to distribute video and
Web-based courses under a government-funded initiative, the National Program on Technology
Enhanced Learning. Developers created over 900 courses, focused mainly on science and
engineering with about 40 hours of instruction each. With limited interactivity and uneven
quality, these courses failed to attract a large body of students. Now, though, MOOCs have given
Indian academics a better sense of how a lecture could be restructured into short, self-contained
segments with high interactivity to engage students more effectively. This appears to be a step
in the right direction, but what is really needed is the right model to use MOOCs in an Indian
context. With a decade of experience in this space and a vibrant technology ecosystem, India
will most likely find its way very soon.

D.
The rapid evolution of digital resources like video, interactive multimedia and new modes of
assessment challenges us to reimage what we can and should do when we are face-to-face with
our students. As I develop online courses on cellular metabolism, for instance, I hypothesize that
the blend of animation and appropriate embedded assessments will communicate the intricacies
of electron transfer more effectively than that portion of my traditional lecture. After rebalancing
class assignments to include both reading and online materials, while maintaining the same
overall workload, I nonetheless gain time with my students in the classroom to discuss and
critically analyze the metabolic consequences of experimentally disrupting electron transfer.
Underlying this progress is the awareness that experimentation is the key and that we do not yet
know how best to harness the enormous positive potential of the online revolution for on-
campus learning. This is why every course or module should have associated research
component where student progress is measured.

E.
Technology is transforming education for the worse and one of its dubious uses is to grade
essays. Major testing companies are using software to score written test answers as machines
can work faster than teachers. However, they cannot evaluate the imaginative use of language.
Thus, students will learn to write according to the formula that the machine responds to best at
the expense of accuracy, creativity and imagination. Worse, the teacher will abandon the
important job of reading what the students write and will be less informed about how they think.
That is a loss for the quality of education. A more worrisome use of technology is the
accumulation and storage of personal, confidential data on a cloud. Who needs all this personal
information and why is it being shared? Advocates say that the goal is believe that the
information will be given or sold to vendors, who will use it to market products to children and
their parents.

In which section are the following mentioned?

Ha nam
Light pollution

A
After hours of driving south in the pitch-black darkness of the Nevada desert, a dome of hazy gold
suddenly appears on the horizon. Soon, a road sign confirms the obvious: Las Vegas 30 miles.
Looking skyward, you notice that the Big Dipper is harder to find than it was an hour ago.
B
Light pollution – the artificial light that illuminates more than its intended target area – has become a
problem of increasing concern across the country over the past 15 years. In the suburbs, where over-
lit shopping mall parking lots are the norm, only 200 of the Milky Way’s 2,500 stars are visible on a
clear night. Even fewer can be seen from large cities. In almost every town, big and small, street lights
beam just as much light up and out as they do down, illuminating much more than just the street.
Almost 50 per cent of the light emanating from street lamps misses its intended target, and billboards,
shopping centers, private homes and skyscrapers are similarly over-illuminated.
C
America has become so bright that in a satellite image of the United States at night, the outline of the
country is visible from its lights alone. The major cities are all there, in bright clusters: New York,
Boston, Miami, Houston, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago – and, of course, Las Vegas. Mark Adams,
superintendent of the McDonald Observatory in west Texas, says that the very fact that city lights are
visible from on high is proof of their wastefulness. “When you’re up in an airplane, all that light you see
on the ground from the city is wasted. It’s going up into the night sky. That’s why you can see it.”
D
But don’t we need all those lights to ensure our safety? The answer from light engineers, light
pollution control advocates and astronomers is an emphasis “no”. Elizabeth Alvarez of the
International Dark Sky Association says that overly bright security lights can actually force neighbors
to close the shutters, which means that if any criminal activity does occur on the street, no one will
see it. And the old assumption thatbright lights deter crime appears to have been a false one: a new
Department of Justice report concludes that there is no relationship between the level of lighting and
the level of crime in an area. And contrary to popular belief, more crimes occur in broad daylight than
at night.
E
For drivers, light can actually create safety hazard. Glaring lights can temporarily blind drivers,
increasing the likelihood of an accident. To help prevent such accidents, some cities and states
prohibit the use of lights that impair night-time vision. For instance, New Hampshire law forbids the
use of “any lightalong a highway so positioned as to blind or dazzle the vision of travellers on the
adjacent highway”.
F
Badly designed lighting can pose a threat to wildlife as well as people. Newly hatched turtles in Florida
move toward beach lights instead of the more muted silver shimmer of the ocean. Migrating birds,
confused by lights on skyscrapers, broadcast towers and lighthouses, are injured, sometimes fatally,
after colliding with high, lighted structures. And light pollution harms air quality as well: Because most
of the country’s power plants are still powered by fossil fuels, more light means more air pollution.
G
So what can be done? Tucson, Arizona is taking back the night. The city has one of the best lighting
regulations in the country, and, not coincidentally, the highest concentration of observatories in the
world. Kitt Peak National Optical Astronomy Observatory has telescopes aimed skyward around the
city’s perimeter, and its cadre of astronomers needs a dark sky to work with.
H
For a while, that darkness was threatened. “We were totally losing the night sky,” Jim Singleton of
Tucson’s Lighting Committee told Tulsa, Oklahoma’s KOTV last March. Now after replacing inefficient
mercury lighting with low-sodium lights that block light from “trespassing” into unwanted areas like
bedroomwindows, and by doing away with some unnecessary light altogether, the city is softly
glowing rather than brightly beaming. The same thing is happening in a handful of otherstates,
including Texas, which just passed a light pollution bill last summer. “Astronomers can get what they
need at the same time that citizens get what they need: safety, security, and good visibility at night,”
says McDonald Observatory’s Mark Adams, who provided testimony at the hearings for the bill.
I
And in the long run, everyone benefits from reduced energy costs. Wasted energy from inefficient
lighting costs us between $1 and $2 billion a year, according to IDA. The city of San Diego, which
installed new, high-efficiency street lights after passing a light pollution law in 1985, now saves about
$3 million a year in energy costs.
J
Legislation isn’t the only answer to light pollution problems. Brian Greer, Central Ohio representative
for the Ohio Light Pollution Advisory Council, says that education is just as important, if not more so.
“There are some special situations where regulation is the only fix,” he says. “But the vast majority of
bad lighting is simply the result of not knowing any better.” Simple actions like replacing old bulbs and
fixtures with more efficient and better-designed ones can make a big difference in preserving the night
sky.

For questions 56-60, choose the correct headings for paragraphs A-F. Paragraph A has been
done as an example. There are extra headings that you do not need to use. Write your answers
in the corresponding space provided.

List of headings Your answers:

i Why lights are needed 0. Paragraph A ix

ii Lighting discourages law breakers 56. Paragraph B ___________
iii The environmental dangers 57. Paragraph C ___________
iv People at risk from bright lights 58. Paragraph D ___________
v Illuminating space 59. Paragraph E ___________
vi A problem lights do not solve 60. Paragraph F ___________
vii Seen from above

viii More light than is necessary

ix Approaching the city

For questions 61-64, complete the following statements with NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS
taken from the passage. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.

61. According to a recent survey, well-lit streets do not _______ or make neighbourhoods safer to live
in.
62. Inefficient lighting increases _______ because most electricity is produced from coal, gas or oil.
63. Efficient lights _______ from going into areas where it is not needed.
64. In dealing with light pollution, _______is at least as important as passing new laws.

Your answers:
61. 62. 63. 64.

For questions 65-68, decide whether the following statements are True (T), False (F) or Not
Given (NG). Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.

65. One group of scientists find their observations are made more difficult by bright lights.
66. It is expensive to reduce light pollution.
67. Many countries are now making light pollution illegal.
68. Old types of light often cause more pollution than more modern ones.

Your answers:
65. 66. 67. 68.

Part 3. In the passage below, seven paragraphs have been removed. For questions 69-75, read
the passage and choose from paragraphs A-H the one which fits each gap. There is ONE extra
paragraph which you do not need to use. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered
boxes provided.

The Singing Bullfinch

Although the bullfinch’s song is dull, it can learn to whistle complex tunes.
Ted Birkhead explores the hidden talent of one of our brainiest birds.

The bullfinch is an ornithological treasure. Not
only is the male one of Europe’s most colorful
birds but it also ranks among our best
songsters, though you would never realize that
while listening to one of these shy creatures
singing in the garden or hedgerow.
69.
Teaching a bird to sing another song or a
popular tune exploits the fact that under normal
circumstances birds learn their song by listening
to their father. Prevent them from doing this and
allow them to hear only the song of another
species, or a human whistle, and that is what
they will learn. Once they have learned this
song, it is fairly well fixed for life.
70.
But it wasn’t simply that people liked to hear a
recital by a bullfinch – the quality of the sound
and the perfection with which the birds
year, under the supervision of Konrad Lorenz
(the Austrian zoologist who famously discovered
imprinting in goslings), he started a scientific
investigation of how these birds managed to
become such adept songsters.
73.
During his research, Nicolai determined that the
reason why bullfinches could achieve perfection
was that they were highly motivated to learn
their tunes. They would listen intently to their
tutor (himself) and practice relentlessly when
they were alone. Like a child memorizing a
nursery rhyme or poem, every time they made a
mistake, they would go back to the beginning
and start again until they got it right. Moreover,
the birds seemed to know what constituted a
tune because those individuals that could sing
two or three melodies never muddled them up
or ran into one another, and always started
each at the beginning.
 performed were both outstanding. Best of all
was the finches’ affection towards their owners.
71.
Whistling or piping bullfinches, as they were
known, were incredibly fashionable and good
singers fetched high prices. One dealer in the
1880s was offering birds that sang three tunes
‘extra fine’ for the equivalent of £3,000 at today’s
prices. Once the foresters themselves learnt to
whistle the British national anthem and some
English folk tunes, they began exporting their
birds to Britain. Whistling bullfinches became a
status symbol for the rich and famous: Queen
Victoria had one and so did Lizzie Siddal, the
Victorian equivalent of a supermodel.
72.
However, the bird that had been considered a
failure sang enough for him to realize that there
was something extraordinary going on. He
acquired some more bullfinches and, within a
The missing paragraphs:
A Unlike the foresters, who regarded the
extraordinary ability of bullfinches to learn
songs as nothing more than an opportunity
to make money, Nicolai saw much more in
his birds. Over and above the male’s
gorgeous plumage and the quality of their
whistling, he found the incredibly
affectionate bond bullfinches form with their
owners terribly appealing.
All of the foresters were men and their
B young bullfinches imprinted on them –
essentially with a view to treating them as
mates in later life. When sold, the birds
usually transferred their emotional
attachment to the buyer, though,
interestingly, some found it difficult to make
the switch to a female one.
C squeaky wheelbarrow makes. Yet with
Since the 1500s, bird keepers have known
that the bullfinch has the most extraordinary
propensity to mimic any tune whistled to it.
Bullfinches are not alone in this; from the
Middle Ages onwards, there was a trend to
train cage birds such as canaries to whistle
particular ditties. The difference was that
the bullfinch did it so much better than any
other species.
D German, had just returned home when a
From the 1500s onwards, bullfinches were
regarded as a menace due to their
74.
Another correction that the birds made came to
light when Nicolai compared the tunes whistled
by a forester with those performed by his
finches. He noticed that the man’s whistle was
often a little breathy and sometimes a bit
irregular. Remarkably, the birds filtered out the
breathiness and made a better job of the timing.
On top of all this, their tune had a wonderful,
flute-like quality, quite distinct from that of their
instructor.
75.
One of his bullfinches lived in a cage in the hall.
Whenever he put on his coat to go out, the bird
– like a pet dog – knew exactly what was
happening and instantly picked up some seed,
keeping it in its throat pouch ready for its
owner’s return. When Nicolai arrived home, the
bird would call and as Nicolai approached the
cage it would attempt to feed him as it would its
mate in the wild. Nicolai accepted the food
between his thumb and forefinger.
keeping them in small groups and whistling
folk tunes to them every day. After several
months of training, the majority of the young
males acquired their artificial song, yet the
females rarely did so. Most of these captive
male bullfinches perfected a single tune, but
some managed to learn two. A truly
exceptional individual could whistle three
refrains.
One thing that made the bullfinch stand out
F from all other cage birds was that its natural
song is almost non-existent. A canary can
be taught to sing like a nightingale, but
since canaries have a fairly remarkable
song themselves, that isn’t so odd. The
bullfinch’s voice, on the other hand, is limp
and about as enticing as the sound a
appropriate training, one can flawlessly
whistle tunes like The Bluebells of Scotland
or Thou Art So Like a Flower.
G Whistling bullfinches remained popular well
into the mid-20th century, especially in
Germany. A chance encounter in 1947
resulted in a detailed scientific study of their
astounding abilities. Jurgen Nicolai, a young
bullfinch in a pet shop window caught his
eyes. Having kept canaries as a boy, he
 fondness for apple, pear and plum blossom.
As fruit growing expanded in England and
Wales during the following centuries, a
bounty was paid for bullfinches. The
slaughter continued well into the 1970s.
While nearly all other birds were legally
protected, fruit growers were permitted to
cull bullfinches with impunity.
E the birds deliberately added a space
In the late 1700s, foresters in the
Vogelsburg region of central Germany
turned this into a commercial enterprise.
Taking young bullfinches from their nests
before their eyes were open, the men hand-
reared the birds,
was intrigued by the bird, which turned out
to be a forester’s reject and hence was
almost without value. Smitten, Nicolai
H bought it.
Nicolai also noticed that the foresters,
perhaps through impatience, often whistled
one tune after another with no break, but
between tunes. The birds also transposed
the tune a semitone so if the trainer whistled
in G, the bullfinches always repeated the
whistled in G sharp. The reason for this
remains mystery.

Your answers:
69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75.

Part 4. For questions 76-85, read the article on the disappearance of a marine species and
choose the answer A, B, C or D which you think fits best according to the text. Write your
answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.

The Disappearing Menhaden

Most people have never heard of it, and they certainly have not eaten it in its original form, but
menhaden is the most important fish in the ocean. However, it is disappearing at an alarming rate.
The east coast of the United States once teemed with immense schools, some as many as a mile
across, but the devastation of the menhaden sticks over the last sixty years has led to severe
dislocations in the ocean’s ecosystems. The decline of the menhaden has had particularly disastrous
effects on fish species that feed on it, on bird species that use it as a food source, and on how clean
the oceans are.
Menhaden are a small fish belonging to the haddock family, and they are not very palatable to
humans, having a foul, oily taste and consisting of many bones. Commercial fishing of menhaden
since the end of World War II has primarily been for the production of feed for livestock, with ground-
up fish used to make meal for chicken, pigs and cows. Companies use spotter planes to find large
schools and direct fishing boats to the location. Catches have declined almost forty percent since the
1960s and show no sign of leveling off or increasing. Unlike other species that are protected by the
government quotas, menhaden are not, most likely because they are not a species consumed directly
by humans. This is unfortunate since the loss of the menhaden spells an eco-disaster of epic
proportions.
Of principle importance are the many species of fish and other animals that feed on menhaden.
They are the main diet for bluefish and striped bass, and both species have shown a serious decline
in numbers. The striped bass was once the prized catch of the Chesapeake Bay area, but the
specimens brought in by rod and reel now are weak sisters compared to the past.Not only do they
lack the bulk of their ancestors, but they are also dying at alarming rates. Fish are not the only
predators of menhaden, as birds also depend on them as a source of nourishment. Large colonies of
osprey all along the eastern seaboard have disappeared in recent years, with the numbers of nests
and birds reduced by fifty percent in some areas over the last ten years. There are similar statistics for
loons in Chesapeake Bay.
The greatest threat from the loss of the menhaden is that the oceans have lost one of their great
natural filterers. Menhaden swim in massive schools with their mouths open, allowing water to flow
through their gills, which serve to absorb oxygen and grab plankton and other detritus from the water.
They act like gigantic vacuum cleaners for the ocean. The cleaner water allows sunlight to penetrate
to greater depths, which stimulates plant life that harbors other fish and shellfish and produces oxygen
for the water. With the decline of the menhaden, this process is in serious jeopardy. Chemical run-off
from farms, lawns, and houses ends up in the oceans, increasing the nitrogen and phosphorous
levels in the water. Algae grow in greater numbers in these conditions, block the sunlight, and deplete
oxygen of the water. Entire coastal areas are lifeless, with the algae’s killing the fish. Menhaden had
reduced the levels of these chemicals, but now that there are fewer menhaden, the algae have taken
over.
The large companies thatprocess menhaden disagree with the findings of environmental scientists.
Since there is no accurate way to count the amount of menhaden in the oceans, they claim that the
fewer menhaden are a result of a cyclical event and that the stocks will grow again in time. Yet, much
of the menhaden catch consists of smaller fish, often less than one year old. These fish have not had
a chance to mature long enough to become reproductive, and thus the commercial fishing companies
are destroying future menhaden stocks in order to make a profit at the moment. The largest
companies have had to lay off many employees, and many of their vessels sit idle at the wharf. In the
long run, the menhaden will probably rebound once their numbers have reached the point where
catching them is no longer profitable. Hopefully, laws will soon be in place to protect them from their
greatest predator, mankind.

76. According to the passage, the Atlantic Ocean menhaden are ______.
A. quite well-known to most people in the United States
B. eaten only by other fish and not at all by humans
C. not in any immediate danger of disappearing from the ocean
D. eaten by birds and other fish as a part of their diets
77. The word “palatable” in the passage is closest in meaning to ______.
A. partial B. edible C. disgusting D. stable
78. According to the passage, all of the following are reasons for the decline of the menhaden stocks
EXCEPT: ______
A. There is a lack of laws providing government protection.
B. Improved fishing technology has helped catch more fish.
C. People desire directly to consume them as a food fish.
D. Farmers have a strong dependence on fish-fed livestock.
79. It can be inferred from the passage that humans consume menhaden ______.
A. as a result of eating livestock raised on menhaden meal
B. directly from the oceans in their original form
C. only in the eastern coastal areas of the United States
D. for the healthy benefits from eating its oily flesh
80. Which of the following sentences best expresses the meaning of the underlined sentence in
Paragraph 3?
A. There are prizes given for the best striped bass caught by sport fishermen in Chesapeake Bay.
B. The striped bass caught by sport fishermen in Chesapeake Bay are not as large as those caught
in the past.
C. The Chesapeake Bay area is prized for the striped bass that can be caught by fishermen there.
D. In the past the Chesapeake Bay striped bass fishery was more valuable than it is nowadays.
81. According to the passage, the main influence on the oceans as a result of declining menhaden
numbers is ______.
A. an increase in the number of lifeless areas
B. an overbalance of plankton near the coast
C. the decline of fish stocks that feed on menhaden
D. increased human dumping of chemicals in the ocean
82. Which of the following square brackets [A], [B], [C], or [D] best indicates where in the paragraph
the sentence “In addition, the algae sink to the ocean floor and prevent shellfish and oxygen-
producing plants from growing.” can be inserted?
[A] With the decline of the menhaden, this process is in serious jeopardy. [B] Chemical run-off from
farms, lawns, and houses ends up in the oceans, increasing the nitrogen and phosphorous levels in
the water. [C]Algae grow in greater numbers in these conditions, block the sunlight, and deplete
oxygen of the water.[D]
A. [A] B. [B] C. [C] D. [D]
83. The word “their” in the passage refers to ______.
A. commercial fishing companies B. menhaden stocks
C. largest companies D. many employees
84. According to the passage, large commercial fishing companies argue that the shrinking menhaden
stocks are the result of ______.
A. a normal cycle that will end some time in the near future
B. environmental factors that are totally beyond their control
 C. fishing technology that has developed in recent years
D. a lack of oxygen in the ocean as a result of too much algae
85. Why does the author mention the fact that commercial fishing companies are catching smaller and
younger fish?
A. To show that menhaden stocks are not safe for the future
B. To prove that the declining menhaden stocks are not an illusion
C. To counter their disagreements with the environmental scientists
D. To explain why they have had to lay off employees and leave boats idle

Your answers:
76. 77. 78. 79. 80.

81. 82. 83. 84. 85.

Part 5. For questions 86-95, read the extract from a review of a book on philosophy and
choose from the sections (A-E). The sections may be chosen more than once. Write your
answers in the corresponding numbered spaces provided.

Switch on your brain

A book seeks to explain how minds work through the maze of consciousness ~ Eric Banks
Intuition pumps and other tools for thinking by Daniel C. Dennett

A You don’t have to conduct a thought experiment to see why some philosophers want to write
for an audience cheerfully indifferent to the ways of the seminar room and the strictures of the
referred journal. Beyond the fame and fortune, perhaps more important is the sense that if
one’s work is worth doing at all, it ought to reach the widest possible audience. Some, I
imagine, also relish the bonus frisson of mixing it up in the rowdy rough-and-tumble of the
public arena. If you’re like Daniel C. Dennett – one of whose many mantras is Gore Vidal’s “It
is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.” – what’s the point of felling the philosopher’s tree
if there’s no one to hear it? Since the publication of his book Consciousness Explained in
1991, Dennett has gladly risen to the challenge, merrily taking on all comers, in works that
play to a packed house most philosophers could never dream of.

B For Dennett, the experience of communicating to a broad readership his brawny materialist
agenda has an ancillary and less obvious boon. Specialists, he writes, tend to under-explain to
one another the very terms of their discussions. These experts benefit from translating their
respective position down, as it were, so that they might be presented to ‘curious non-experts’,
as Dennett puts in in Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking. They will be forced to think
anew and paradoxically think harder. The notion that a ‘position’ might get fine-tuned just as
neatly in the imagined company of a well-intentioned fast learner as it would among scholarly
peers is ingrained in Dennett’s go-go style of doing philosophy and its winner-take-all stakes.
As set out in Intuition Pumps, his narrative approach, plain-talk prose and gotcha argument
stoppers will prove as roundly appealing to some as it will seem pandering to others.
C Part of Dennett’s role in Intuition Pumps is to serve as a kind of design engineer. With the
concept of ‘intuition pump’, he repurposes the thought experiment – a form of argumentation
of ancient and venerable purpose in philosophy (and in other disciplines, especially physics) –
in order to transform its somewhat neutral-sounding disposition into a power tool, one that
addresses a basic question: Is it designed well enough to get the job done? First renamed
‘intuition pumps’ in The Mind’s I, the hybrid work Dennett coproduced with Douglas Hofstadter,
these narrative devices can condense a complex set of propositions and suppositions into an
imaginable story that summarizes or illustrates a position. Hence their extreme popularity in
the history of philosophy, from Plato’s cave to Parfit’s amoeba. They can be positive or critical,
launching a new idea or yanking the rug from under someone else’s pet position. Either way,
such thought experiments are designed to jolt the reader’s sense of intuition.
D
But what is the difference between a good intuition pump and a flawed one? Searle’s Chinese
Room, famously objected to by Dennett, has spawned scores of counter-thought experiments,
 replicating itself in many variations; by the mid-90s, Steve Pinker commented that it had
become the source of at least a hundred papers. It has allowed articulations of positions from
a vast number of academic fields, from proponents of Al to linguists, and generated
commentary on semantics, consciousness and evolution. Sounds like a pretty fecund tool for
thinking to me! But for the budding philosophy student reading Intuition Pumps, Dennett
reserves the right to select the hammer and pick the gauge of nail. But what good is it to
present this book as a collection of helpful ‘tools for thinking’ when it turns out the only
successful tools just happen to run on precisely the same voltage as Dennett’s own particular
theories and propositions?
E
Intuition Pumps is valuable in providing an overview of a body of recent work in the philosophy
of mind, but it also suffers from Dennett’s penchant for cleverness which causes it to become
tiresome and tacky. He returns to a long-ago verbal conflict with Stepan Jay Gould to discuss
rhetorical sleights of hand, and even coins a new word to describe the tendency to advance
straw-man arguments and false dichotomies –‘Goulding’. How is that a better ‘thinking tool’?
He mocks philosopher Ned Block and condescendingly takes the opportunity to chide Thomas
Nagel for not consulting ‘the experts’ on evolutionary biology. All this sour score-settling with
Dennett’s philosophical peers is definitely less witty than I imagine he takes it to be. But in the
spirit of Dennett’s tactic, I’d offer one historical vignette that characterizes his frequent
summoning of an army of scientists at his back, and call that future-perfect feint a Ledru-
Rollin. That would be in honor of the hectoring French propagandist of 1848 who famously
bellowed, ‘There go my people. I must follow them, for I am their leader!’

In which section are the following mentioned?

the idea that writing for the layperson means adopting new trains of thought 86. _______

the possibility that the author overestimates his ability to be amusing 87. _______

the lack of freedom associated with academic writing 88. _______

the author’s reluctance to accept positions that do not comply with his own 89. _______

the author’s predisposition to pour scorn on his colleagues 90. _______

the ability of a concept to dispel a philosopher’s favourite theory 91. _______

the possibility that the author has made an unjustified criticism in his book 92. _______

the use of a term that brings about a change in the connotation of a particular 93. _______

concept

the author’s belief that, when there is a disagreement, one point of view must 94. _______

prevail

a platform that is distinctly lacking in formality 95. _______

A strategy that helped the learners focus 86. ______

The reason why more data is required to make the best use of 87. ______
computer-based learning
Digital resources leading to the standardization of student 88. ______
learning
The necessity to adapt online courses to a specific culture 89. ______
A claim that information will be used to enhance product quality 90. ______
Personally combining digital and traditional tools to provide a 91. ______
more effective learning experience
The problem of gaps in students’ knowledge not being 92. ______
 addressed
Humans undertaking a task that machines could carry out 93. ______
The importance of students progressing at their own pace 94. ______
Computer-based courses that attracted a disappointing number 95. ______
of participants.

Your answer
86. 87. 88. 89. 90.
91. 92. 93. 94. 95.