The Making of 'Tipping Point'

Many of the most expensive commercials ever made are those in which an A-list celebrity flashes a
beautiful smile at the cameras 1._____ Their recent television advertisement, the most expensive in British
history, cost ten million pounds, and it features, not the rich and famous, but villagers from the mountains
of Argentina. 
The advertisement features a game of dominoes. It begins in a darkened room where several thousand
ordinary dominoes are set up on a specially-designed table 2.______  Dominoes knock over books, which
in turn knock bigger household objects such as suitcases, tyres, pots of paint, oil drums and even cars. The
final piece in the chain reaction is a huge tower of books. These flutter open to reveal a structure in the
shape of a pint of Guinness. 
The location chosen for the commercial was Iruya, a village high up in the mountains of north-west
Argentina 3.______  The journey there could take up to ten hours. Asked why this remote destination
was chosen for the shoot, the director said that even though it was the most difficult location they could
have picked, it was perfect. 
For one month, the village, population thousand, increased in size by almost thirty percent. One hundred
and forty crew members descended on the village. These included the world record holders in domino
toppling, Weijers Domino productions from the Netherlands 4.______  
Creating this film was no easy task. Preparations for filming took well over a month. Twenty six truckloads
of objects were brought in. 5.______  They included 10,000 books, 400 tyres, 75 mirrors, 50 fridges, 45
wardrobes and 6 cars. Setting the objects up took skill and patience. They needed to be arranged so they
would fall over easily, and this involved balancing them on stones. Some of the sequences had to be reshot
15 times and 24 hours of footage was captured. However, the sequence in which six cars fell over was
successfully shot in just one take. 
Filming in this location was not without its difficulties. Firstly, being so isolated, it was hard to obtain
resources at short notice. The second problem was the high altitude. 6.____  It was also hard working
with the villagers who had no experience of film-making. Finally, setting and resetting the props caused a
good deal of frustration. 
These days when CGI is all the rage, it was surprising that so little of the work was done using computer
effects. The only sequence that used computer graphics was the one in which the tower of books fluttered
open to reveal a pint of Guinness. 7. ___  Even so, this was no simple matter. They had to ensure that all
the books in the tower had a different appearance. 
Director Nicolai Fuglsig said about the project : ‘Despite all the challenges, the cast was fantastic and it was
a really amazing experience.’ Whether or not the effort put into the advert pays off is another matter
entirely.

You are going to read an article about the making of an unusual television commercial. Seven sentences
have been removed from the article. Choose from the sentences A-H the one which fits each gap. There is
one extra sentence which you do not need to use.

A  Then the falling dominoes head out of the room into the streets, causing progressively larger objects to
tumble.
B  These were all chosen to suit the town and fit in with the people’s way of life.
C  Getting there involved driving along 48 kilometres of dirt roads and crossing twelve rivers.
D  Iruya is situated 3000 metres above sea level and the film crew was not used to working in such
conditions.
E  The prop department did construct a small version on site, but most of the work was done in a studio in
London.
F  Added to this was the total of one hundred and thirty 'actors' who were recruited from a five neighbouring
towns.
G  Setting up the dominoes on the table took a team of experts three days, but took just 14 seconds to
topple.
H  Not so with the famous Irish drink company Guinness.
THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA

Walls and wall building have played a very important role in Chinese culture. These people, from
the dim mists of prehistory have been wall-conscious; from the Neolithic period – when ramparts of
pounded earth were used - to the Communist Revolution, walls were an essential part of any village.
Not only towns and villages; the houses and the temples within them were somehow walled, and the
houses also had no windows overlooking the street, thus giving the feeling of wandering around a
huge maze. The name for “city” in Chinese (ch’eng) means wall, and over these walled cities,
villages, houses and temples presides the god of walls and mounts, whose duties were, and still are,
to protect and be responsible for the welfare of the inhabitants. Thus a great and extremely
laborious task such as constructing a wall, which was supposed to run throughout the country, must
not have seemed such an absurdity.
However, it is indeed a common mistake to perceive the Great Wall as a single architectural
structure, and it would also be erroneous to assume that it was built during a single dynasty. For the
building of the wall spanned the various dynasties, and each of these dynasties somehow
contributed to the refurbishing and the construction of a wall, whose foundations had been laid
many centuries ago. It was during the fourth and third century B.C. that each warring state started
building walls to protect their kingdoms, both against one another and against the northern nomads.
Especially three of these states: the Ch’in, the Chao and the Yen, corresponding respectively to the
modern provinces of Shensi, Shanzi and Hopei, over and above building walls that surrounded their
kingdoms, also laid the foundations on which Ch’in Shih Huang Di would build his first continuous
Great Wall.
The role that the Great Wall played in the growth of Chinese economy was an important one.
Throughout the centuries many settlements were established along the new border. The garrison
troops were instructed to reclaim wasteland and to plant crops on it, roads and canals were built, to
mention just a few of the works carried out. All these undertakings greatly helped to increase the
country’s trade and cultural exchanges with many remote areas and also with the southern, central
and western parts of Asia – the formation of the Silk Route. Builders, garrisons, artisans, farmers
and peasants left behind a trail of objects, including inscribed tablets, household articles, and
written work, which have become extremely valuable archaeological evidence to the study of
defence institutions of the Great Wall and the everyday life of these people who lived and died
along the wal

Q1 Chinese cities resembled a maze

 because they were walled.

 because the houses has no external windows.

 because the name for cities means 'wall'.

 because walls have always been important there.

Q2 - Constructing a wall that ran the length of the country

 honoured the god of walls and mounts.

 was an absurdly laborious task.

 may have made sense within Chinese culture.

  made the country look like a huge maze.

Q3 - The Great Wall of China

 was built in a single dynasty.

 was refurbished in the fourth and third centuries BC.

 used existing foundations.

 was built by the Ch’in, the Chao and the Yen

Q4 - Crops were planted

 on wasteland.

 to reclaim wasteland.

 on reclaimed wasteland.

 along the canals.

Q5 - The Great Wall

 helped build trade only inside China.

 helped build trade in China and abroad.

 helped build trade only abroad.

 helped build trade only to remote areas

ANSWER KEY

1. PASSAGE 1. H 2. A 3. C 4 .F 5.B 6.D 7.E

2.PASSAGE 1.B 2. C 3.C 4.C 5.B