UNIT 2: URBAN & RURAL LIFE

READING PASSAGE 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on Reading Passage
1 below. (C10, T4)
The megafires of California
Drought, housing expansion, and oversupply of tinder make for bigger, hotter fires in
the western United States

Wildfires are becoming an increasing menace in the western United States, with
Southern California being the hardest hit area. There’s a reason fire squads battling
more frequent blazes in Southern California are having such difficulty containing the
flames, despite better preparedness than ever and decades of experience fighting fires
fanned by the ‘Santa Ana Winds’. The wildfires themselves, experts say, are
generally hotter, faster, and spread more erratically than in the past.
Megafires, also called ‘siege fires’, are the increasingly frequent blazes that burn
500,000 acres or more – 10 times the size of the average forest fire of 20 years ago.
Some recent wildfires are among the biggest ever in California in terms of acreage
burned, according to state figures and news reports.
One explanation for the trend to more superhot fires is that the region, which usually
has dry summers, has had significantly below normal precipitation in many recent
years. Another reason, experts say, is related to the century- long policy of the US
Forest Service to stop wildfires as quickly as possible.
The unintentional consequence has been to halt the natural eradication of underbrush,
now the primary fuel for megafires.
Three other factors contribute to the trend, they add. First is climate change, marked
by a 1-degree Fahrenheit rise in average yearly temperature across the western states.
Second is fire seasons that on average are 78 days longer than they were 20 years
ago. Third is increased construction of homes in wooded areas.
‘We are increasingly building our homes in fire-prone ecosystems,’ says Dominik
Kulakowski, adjunct professor of biology at Clark University Graduate School of
Geography in Worcester, Massachusetts. ‘Doing that in many of the forests of the
western US is like building homes on the side of an active volcano.’
In California, where population growth has averaged more than 600,000 a year for at
least a decade, more residential housing is being built. ‘What once was open space is
now residential homes providing fuel to make fires burn with greater intensity,’ says
Terry McHale of the California Department of Forestry firefighters’ union. ‘With so
much dryness, so many communities to catch fire, so many fronts to fight, it becomes
an almost incredible job.’
That said, many experts give California high marks for making progress on
preparedness in recent years, after some of the largest fires in state history scorched
thousands of acres, burned thousands of homes, and killed numerous people. Stung in
the past by criticism of bungling that allowed fires to spread when they might have
been contained, personnel are meeting the peculiar challenges of neighborhood – and
canyon- hopping fires better than previously, observers say.
State promises to provide more up-to-date engines, planes, and helicopters to fight
fires have been fulfilled. Firefighters’ unions that in the past complained of

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dilapidated equipment, old fire engines, and insufficient blueprints for fire safety are
now praising the state’s commitment, noting that funding for firefighting has
increased, despite huge cuts in many other programs. ‘We are pleased that the current
state administration has been very proactive in its support of us, and [has] come
through with budgetary support of the infrastructure needs we have long sought,’
says Mr. McHale of the firefighters’ union.
Besides providing money to upgrade the fire engines that must traverse the mammoth
state and wind along serpentine canyon roads, the state has invested in better
command-and-control facilities as well as in the strategies to run them. ‘In the fire
sieges of earlier years, we found that other jurisdictions and states were willing to
offer mutual-aid help, but we were not able to communicate adequately with them,’
says Kim Zagaris, chief of the state’s Office of Emergency Services Fire and Rescue
Branch.
After a commission examined and revamped communications procedures, the
statewide response ‘has become far more professional and responsive,’ he says.
There is a sense among both government officials and residents that the speed,
dedication, and coordination of firefighters from several states and jurisdictions are
resulting in greater efficiency than in past ‘siege fire’ situations.
In recent years, the Southern California region has improved building codes,
evacuation procedures, and procurement of new technology. ‘I am extraordinarily
impressed by the improvements we have witnessed,’ says Randy Jacobs, a Southern
California- based lawyer who has had to evacuate both his home and business to
escape wildfires. ‘Notwithstanding all the damage that will continue to be caused by
wildfires, we will no longer suffer the loss of life endured in the past because of the
fire prevention and firefighting measures that have been put in place,’ he says.

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Questions 1-6. Complete the notes below.

Choose ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.

Wildfires
● Characteristics of wildfires and wildfire conditions today compared to the past:
– occurrence: more frequent
– temperature: hotter
– speed: faster
– movement: 1……………. more unpredictably
– size of fires: 2……………. greater on average than two decades ago
● Reasons wildfires cause more damage today compared to the past:
– rainfall: 3……………. average
– more brush to act as 4……………..
– increase in yearly temperature
– extended fire 5……………..
– more building of 6……………. in vulnerable places

Questions 7-13
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?
In boxes 7-13 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
7 The amount of open space in California has diminished over the last ten years.
8 Many experts believe California has made little progress in readying itself to fight fires.
9 Personnel in the past have been criticised for mishandling fire containment.
10 California has replaced a range of firefighting tools.
11 More firefighters have been hired to improve fire-fighting capacity.
12 Citizens and government groups disapprove of the efforts of different states and agencies
working together.
13 Randy Jacobs believes that loss of life from fires will continue at the same levels, despite
changes made.

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READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26. (C14, T2)
Back to the future of skyscraper design
Answers to the problem of excessive electricity use by skyscrapers and large public buildings can
be found in ingenious but forgotten architectural designs of the 19th and early-20th centuries
A
The Recovery of Natural Environments in Architecture by Professor Alan Short is the
culmination of 30 years of research and award-winning green building design by Short
and colleagues in Architecture, Engineering, Applied Maths and Earth Sciences at the
University of Cambridge.
‘The crisis in building design is already here,’ said Short. ‘Policy makers think you can
solve energy and building problems with gadgets. You can’t. As global temperatures
continue to rise, we are going to continue to squander more and more energy on keeping
our buildings mechanically cool until we have run out of capacity.’
B
Short is calling for a sweeping reinvention of how skyscrapers and major public
buildings are designed – to end the reliance on sealed buildings which exist solely via
the ‘life support’ system of vast air conditioning units.
Instead, he shows it is entirely possible to accommodate natural ventilation and cooling
in large buildings by looking into the past, before the widespread introduction of air
conditioning systems, which were ‘relentlessly and aggressively marketed’ by their
inventors.
C
Short points out that to make most contemporary buildings habitable, they have to be
sealed and air conditioned. The energy use and carbon emissions this generates is
spectacular and largely unnecessary. Buildings in the West account for 40-50% of
electricity usage, generating substantial carbon emissions, and the rest of the world is
catching up at a frightening rate. Short regards glass, steel and air-conditioned
skyscrapers as symbols of status, rather than practical ways of meeting our
requirements.
D
Short’s book highlights a developing and sophisticated art and science of ventilating
buildings through the 19th and earlier-20th centuries, including the design of
ingeniously ventilated hospitals. Of particular interest were those built to the designs of
John Shaw Billings, including the first Johns Hopkins Hospital in the US city of
Baltimore (1873-1889).
‘We spent three years digitally modelling Billings’ final designs,’ says Short. ‘We put
pathogens* in the airstreams, modelled for someone with tuberculosis (TB) coughing in
the wards and we found the ventilation systems in the room would have kept other
patients safe from harm.
* pathogens: microorganisms that can cause disease
E
‘We discovered that 19th-century hospital wards could generate up to 24 air changes an
hour – that’s similar to the performance of a modern-day, computer-controlled operating
theatre. We believe you could build wards based on these principles now.
Single rooms are not appropriate for all patients. Communal wards appropriate for
certain patients – older people with dementia, for example – would work just as well in
today’s hospitals, at a fraction of the energy cost.’

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Professor Short contends the mindset and skill-sets behind these designs have been
completely lost, lamenting the disappearance of expertly designed theatres, opera
houses, and other buildings where up to half the volume of the building was given over
to ensuring everyone got fresh air.

F
Much of the ingenuity present in 19th-century hospital and building design was driven
by a panicked public clamouring for buildings that could protect against what was
thought to be the lethal threat of miasmas – toxic air that spread disease. Miasmas were
feared as the principal agents of disease and epidemics for centuries, and were used to
explain the spread of infection from the Middle Ages right through to the cholera
outbreaks in London and Paris during the 1850s. Foul air, rather than germs, was
believed to be the main driver of ‘hospital fever’, leading to disease and frequent death.
The prosperous steered clear of hospitals.
While miasma theory has been long since disproved, Short has for the last 30 years
advocated a return to some of the building design principles produced in its wake.
G
Today, huge amounts of a building’s space and construction cost are given over to air
conditioning. ‘But I have designed and built a series of buildings over the past three
decades which have tried to reinvent some of these ideas and then measure what
happens.
‘To go forward into our new low-energy, low-carbon future, we would be well advised
to look back at design before our high-energy, high-carbon present appeared. What is
surprising is what a rich legacy we have abandoned.’
H
Successful examples of Short’s approach include the Queen’s Building at De Montfort
University in Leicester. Containing as many as 2,000 staff and students, the entire
building is naturally ventilated, passively cooled and naturally lit, including the two
largest auditoria, each seating more than 150 people. The award-winning building uses a
fraction of the electricity of comparable buildings in the UK.
Short contends that glass skyscrapers in London and around the world will become a
liability over the next 20 or 30 years if climate modelling predictions and energy price
rises come to pass as expected.
I
He is convinced that sufficiently cooled skyscrapers using the natural environment can
be produced in almost any climate. He and his team have worked on hybrid buildings in
the harsh climates of Beijing and Chicago – built with natural ventilation assisted by
back-up air conditioning – which, surprisingly perhaps, can be switched off more than
half the time on milder days and during the spring and autumn.
Short looks at how we might reimagine the cities, offices and homes of the future.
Maybe it’s time we changed our outlook.

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Questions 14-18
Reading Passage 2 has nine section, A-I
Which section contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-I, in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet.
14 why some people avoided hospitals in the 19th century
15 a suggestion that the popularity of tall buildings is linked to prestige
16 a comparison between the circulation of air in a 19th-century building and modern
standards
17 how Short tested the circulation of air in a 19th-century building
18 an implication that advertising led to the large increase in the use of air conditioning
Questions 19-26
Complete the summary below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 19-26 on your answer sheet.
Ventilation in 19th-century hospital wards
Professor Alan Short examined the work of John Shaw Billings, who influenced the
architectural 19 ……………………… of hospitals to ensure they had good ventilation. He
calculated that 20 ……………………….. in the air coming from patients suffering
form 21……………………… would not have harmed other patients. He also found that the
air in 22…………………………. In hospitals could change as often as in a modern operating
theatre. He suggests that energy use could be reduced by locating more patients
in 23 …………………… areas.
A major reason for improving ventilation in 19th-century hospitals was the demand from
the 24 ………………………….. for protection against bad air, known
as 25 …………………………… These were blamed for the spread of disease for hundreds
of years, including epidemics of 26…………………………… in London and Paris in the
middle of the 19th century.