MOCK TEST 1 (17/11/2022)

READING PASSAGE 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on
Reading Passage 1 below.

THE STUDY OF NOISE POLLUTION

People living in a typical urban environment experience a wide range of sounds

on a daily basis. In its Guidelines for Community Noise the World Health
Organisation (WHO) declared, noise-induced hearing impairment is the most
prevalent irreversible occupational hazard, and it is estimated that 120 million
people worldwide now have disabling hearing difficulties. The growing noise
pollution problem has many different sources. Booming population growth and
the loss of rural land to urban sprawl both play a role. Other factors include the
inability of authorities in many parts of the world to implement noise-reducing
legislation: the electronic nature of our age, which encourages many noisy
gadgets; the rising number of vehicles on streets, and busier airports.

Sound intensity is measured in decibels (dB); the unit A-weighted dB (dBA) is

used to indicate how humans hear a given sound. Zero dBA is considered the
point at which a person begins to hear sound. A soft whisper at three feet equals
30 dBA, a busy freeway at 50 feet is around 80 dBA, and a chainsaw can reach
110 dBA. Mark Stephenson, a senior research audiologist at the National Institute
for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), says his agency’s definition of
hazardous noise is sound that exceeds 85 dBA, meaning the average noise
exposure measured over a typical eight-hour workday. In the United States,
about 30 million workers are exposed to hazardous sound levels on the job,
according to NIOSH. Noise in the US industry is an extremely difficult problem to
monitor, acknowledges Craig Moulton, an industrial hygienist for the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Still, he says, OSHA does
require that any employer with staff overexposed to noise safeguard those
employees against the harmful impact of noise’.
‘For many people in the United States, noise has drastically affected the quality
of their lives, says Arline Bronzaft, chair of the Noise Committee of the New York
City Council of the Environment, and a psychologist who has done pioneering
research on the effects of noise on children’s reading ability. ‘My daughter lives
near La Guardia airport in New York City, and she can’t open a window or enjoy
her backyard in the summer because of the airplane noise’. The United States is
not the only country where noise pollution is affecting the quality of life. In Japan,
noise pollution caused by public loudspeaker announcements and other forms of
city noise has forced many Tokyo citizens to wear earplugs as they go about their
daily lives. In Europe, about 65% of the population is exposed to ambient sound
at levels above 55 dBA, while about 17% is exposed to levels about 65 dBA,
according to the European Environment Agency.

Numerous scientific studies over the years have confirmed that exposure to certain
levels of sound can damage hearing. NIOSH studies from the mid to late 1990s
show that 90% of coal miners have hearing impairment by age 52 - compared to
9% of the general population. NIOSH research also reveals that by age twenty-
five, the average carpenter’s hearing is equivalent to that of a fifty-year-old male
who has not been exposed to noise. In 2001, researchers from the Center for
Disease Control and Prevention reported that, based on audiometric testing of
5,249 children, an estimated 12.5% of American children have noise-induced
hearing threshold shifts - or dulled hearing - in one or both ears. Most children
with dulled hearing have only limited hearing damage, but continued exposure to
excessive noise can lead to difficulties with high-frequency sound discrimination.

The effects of sound do not stop with the ears. The non-auditory effects of noise
were noted as far back as 1930 in a study published by South and D. L. Laird in
the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. The results showed that
exposure to noise caused stomach problems in healthy human beings. Noise has
also been shown to affect learning ability. In 1975, Bronzaft collaborated on a
study of children in a school near a train track that showed how exposure to noise
affects reading ability. Half of the students in the study were in classrooms facing
the train track and the other half were in classrooms in the school’s quieter
section. The findings were that students on the quieter side performed better on
reading tests. Bronzaft and the school principal persuaded the school board to
have acoustical tiles installed in the classrooms adjacent to the tracks. The Transit
Authority also undertook work on the track near the school in order to reduce
noise levels. A follow-up study in 1981 found that children’s reading scores
improved after these interventions were put in place.

Anti-noise activists say that Europe and several countries in Asia are more
advanced than the United States in terms of combating noise. ‘Population
pressure has prompted Europe to move more quickly on the noise issue,’ says
Ken Hume, a principal lecturer in human physiology at the Manchester
Metropolitan University in England. European cities with at least 250,000 people
are developing noise maps of those cities to help leaders determine noise
pollution strategies. Paris has already prepared its first noise maps. The map data
will be fed into computer models that will help test the sound impact of new road
layouts or buildings before construction begins. Bronzaft stresses that
governments worldwide need to direct more financial resources towards studies
investigating the effects of noise and do a better job coordinating their noise
pollution efforts, so they can establish health and environmental policies based
on solid scientific research.
Questions 1-4
Complete the sentences below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the
passage for each answer.
Write your answer in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.

1. Experts consider noise levels to be harmful if they go above _________.

2. Children with “dulled hearing” may eventually have trouble distinguishing
_________ sounds.

3. Early research into physical effects other than hearing problems revealed that
adults may suffer from ________ if exposed to noise.
4. Some European cities are creating __________ in order to help governments
develop noise policies.

Questions 5-10
Look at the following statements (questions 5-10) and the list of people and
organisations below.
Match each statement with the correct person or organisation, A – E.
Write the correct letter A-E in boxes 5-10 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

List of People and Organisations

A World Health Organisation (WHO)

B National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)

C Craig Moulton

D Arline Bronzaft

E Center for Disease Control and Prevention

5. ____ A significant proportion of American children have suffered some
hearing loss as a result of exposure to noise.

6. ____ Noise in our environment can affect the kind of lifestyle we have.

7. ____ American companies are expected to protect workers from the effects
of excessive noise.

8. ____ Authorities should increase funding for noise pollution research.

9. ____ Permanent hearing loss caused by noise is the most commonly

occurring danger in the global workplace today.

10. ____ Workers in certain occupations in the US have high rates of hearing
damage.

Questions 11-13
Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet.

11. As a result of the findings from Bronzaft’s train track study, __________.
A. The school moved the classrooms located near the track
B. The track was treated to make it less noisy
C. The classrooms facing the track were no longer used
D. The amount of traffic on the track was reduced

12. According to the passage, European countries are examining how noise levels
will be affected by __________.
A. Population distribution
B. The size of cities
C. Street design
D. The purpose of tower blocks
13. Which of the following is the most suitable title for Reading Passage 1?
A. Effects of noise on workers’ job performance
B. The cities most effective at reducing noise
C. Educating workers about noise
D. Living in a noisy world
READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26 which are based on
Reading Passage 2 below.

BIODIVERSITY

A
It seems biodiversity has become a buzzword beloved of politicians,
conservationists, protesters and scientists alike. But what exactly is it? The
Convention on Biological Diversity, an international agreement to conserve and
share the planet’s biological riches, provides a good working definition:
biodiversity comprises every form of life, from the smallest microbe to the largest
animal or plant, the genes that give them their specific characteristics and the
ecosystems of which they are apart.

B
In October, the World Conservation Union (also known as the IUCN) published
its updated Red List of Threatened Species, a roll call of 11,167 creatures facing
extinction – 121 more than when the list was last published in 2000. But the new
figures almost certainly underestimate the crisis. Some 1.2 million species of
animal and 270,000 species of plant have been classified, but the well-being of
only a fraction has been assessed. The resources are simply not available. The
IUCN reports that 5714 plants are threatened, for example, but admits that only
4 per cent of known plants has been assessed. And, of course, there are
thousands of species that we have yet to discover. Many of these could also be
facing extinction.

C
It is important to develop a picture of the diversity of life on Earth now so that
comparisons can be made in the future and trends identified. But it isn’t necessary
to observe every single type of organism in an area to get a snapshot of the
health of the ecosystem. In many habitats, there are species that are particularly
susceptible to shifting conditions, and these can be used as indicator species.
D
In the media, it is usually large, charismatic animals such as pandas, elephants,
tigers and whales that get all the attention when a loss of biodiversity is discussed.
However, animals or plants far lower down the food chain are often the ones vital
for preserving habitats – in the process saving the skins of those more glamorous
species. There are known as keystone species.

E
By studying the complex feeding relationships within habitats, species can be
identified that have a particularly important impact on the environment. For
example, the members of the fig family are the staple food for hundreds of different
species in many different countries, so important that scientists sometimes call figs
“jungle burgers”. A whole range of animals, from tiny insects to birds and large
mammals, feed on everything from the tree’s bark and leaves to its flowers and
fruits. Many fig species have very specific pollinators. There are several dozen
species of the fig tree in Costa Rica, and a different type of wasp has evolved to
pollinate each one. Chris Lyle of the Natural History Museum in London – who is
also involved in the Global Taxonomy Initiative of the Convention on Biological
Diversity – points out that if fig trees are affected by global warming, pollution,
disease or any other catastrophe, the loss of biodiversity will be enormous.

F
Similarly, sea otters play a major role in the survival of giant kelp forests along
the coasts of California and Alaska. These “marine rainforests” provide a home
for a wide range of other species. The kelp itself is the main food of purple and
red sea urchins and in turn, the urchins are eaten by predators, particularly sea
otters. They detach an urchin from the seabed then float to the surface and lie
on their backs with the urchin shell on their tummy, smashing it open with a
stone before eating the contents. Urchins that are not eaten tend to spend their
time in rock crevices to avoid predators. This allows the kelp to grow – and it can
grow many centimetres in a day. As the forests form, bits of kelp break off and
fall to the bottom to provide food for the urchins in their crevices. The sea otters
thrive hunting for sea urchins in the kelp, and many other fish and invertebrates
live among the fronds. The problems start when the sea otter population declines.
As large predators they are vulnerable – their numbers are relatively small to
disease or human hunters can wipe them out. The result is that the sea urchin
population grows unchecked, and they roam the seafloor eating young kelp
fronds. This tends to keep the kelp very short and stops forests developing, which
has a huge impact on biodiversity.

G
Conversely, keystone species can also make dangerous alien species: they can
wreak havoc if they end up in the wrong ecosystem. The cactus moth, whose
caterpillar is a voracious eater of prickly pear was introduced to Australia to
control the rampant cacti. It was so successful that someone thought it would be
a good idea to introduce it to Caribbean islands that had the same problem. It
solved the cactus menace, but unfortunately, some of the moths have now
reached the US mainland – borne on winds and in tourists’ luggage – where they
are devastating the native cactus populations of Florida.

H
Organisations like the Convention on Biological Diversity work with groups such
as the UN and with governments and scientists to raise awareness and fund
research. A number of major international meetings – including the World Summit
on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg this year – have set targets for
governments around the world to slow the loss of biodiversity. And the CITES
meeting in Santiago last month added several more names to its list of
endangered species for which trade is controlled. Of course, these agreements
will prove of limited value if some countries refuse to implement them.

I
There is cause for optimism, however. There seems to be a growing
understanding of the need for sustainable agriculture and sustainable tourism to
conserve biodiversity. Problems such as illegal logging are being tackled through
sustainable forestry programmes, with the emphasis on minimising the use of
rainforest hardwoods in the developed world and on rigorous replanting of
whatever trees are harvested. CITES is playing its part by controlling trade in
wood from endangered tree species. In the same way, sustainable farming
techniques minimise environmental damage and avoid monoculture.

J
Action at a national level often means investing in public education and
awareness. Getting people like you and me involved can be very effective.
Australia and many European countries are becoming increasingly efficient at
recycling much of their domestic waste, for example, preserving natural
resources and reducing the use of fossil fuels. This, in turn, has a direct effect on
biodiversity by minimising pollution, and an indirect effect by reducing the
number of greenhouse gases emitted from incinerators and landfill sites.
Preserving ecosystems intact for future generations to enjoy is obviously
important, but biodiversity is not some kind of optional extra. Variety may be “the
spice of life”, but biological variety is also our life-support system.
Questions 14-20
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2?
In boxes 14-20 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement is true

FALSE if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN if the information is not mentioned in the passage

14. ____ The term “biodiversity” consists of living creatures and the
environment that they live in.
15. ____ There are species that have not been researched because it’s
unnecessary to study all creatures.
16. ____ It is not necessary to investigate all creatures in a certain place.
17. ____ The press more often than not focuses on animals well-known.
18. ____ There is a successful case that cactus moth plays a positive role in
the US.
19. ____ Usage of hardwoods is forbidden in some European countries.
20. ____ Agriculture experts advise farmers to plant single crops in the field in
terms of sustainable farming.

Questions 21-26
Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage 2, using
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from Reading Passage 2 for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 21-26 on your answer sheet.

Because of the ignorance brought by media, people tend to neglect significant

creatures called 21. _______________. Every creature has diet connections with
others, such as 22. _______________, which provide a majority of foods for
other species. In some states of America, the decline in number of sea otters
leads to the boom of 23. _______________. An impressive case is that imported
24. _______________ successfully tackles the plant cacti in 25. _____________.
However, the operation is needed for the government to increase its financial
support in 26. ________________.
READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40 which are based on
Reading Passage 3 below.

Questions 27-32
Reading Passage 3 has seven paragraphs, A-G.
Choose the correct heading for paragraphs B-G from the list of headings below.

List of Headings

i A shift in our fact-finding habits

ii How to be popular
iii More personal information being known
iv The origins of online social networks
v The link between knowledge and influence
vi Information that could change how you live
vii The emotional benefits of online networking
viii A change in how we view our online friendships
ix The future of networking
x Doubts about the value of online socializing

27. ____ Paragraph B

28. ____ Paragraph C

29. ____ Paragraph D

30. ____ Paragraph E

31. ____ Paragraph F

32. ____ Paragraph G

 WANT TO BE FRIENDS?
Could the benefits of online social networking be too good to miss out on?

A
For many hundreds of thousands of people worldwide, online networking has
become enmeshed in our daily lives. However, it is a decades-old insight from a
study of traditional social networks that best illuminates one of the most
important aspects of today’s online networking. In 1973 sociologist Mark
Granovetter showed how the loose acquaintances, or ‘weak ties’, in our social
network exert a disproportionate influence over our behaviour and choices.
Granovetter’s research showed that a significant percentage of people get their
jobs as a result of recommendations or advice provided by a weak tie. Today our
number of weak-tie contacts has exploded via online social networking. ‘You
couldn’t maintain all of those weak ties on your own,’ says Jennifer Golbeck of
the University of Maryland. ‘Online sites, such as Facebook, give you a way of
cataloguing them.’ The result? It’s now significantly easier for the schoolfriend
you haven’t seen in years to pass you a tip that alters your behaviour, from
recommendation of a low-cholesterol breakfast cereal to a party invite where you
meet your future wife or husband.

B
The explosion of weak ties could have profound consequences for our social
structures too, according to Judith Donath of the Berkman Center for Internet
and Society at Harvard University. ‘We’re already seeing changes,’ she says. For
example, many people now turn to their online social networks ahead of sources
such as newspapers and television for trusted and relevant news or information.
What they hear could well be inaccurate, but the change is happening,
nonetheless. If these huge ‘supernets’ – some of them numbering up to 5,000
people – continue to thrive and grow, they could fundamentally change the way
we share information and transform our notions of relationships.
C
But are these vast networks really that relevant to us on a personal level? Robin
Dunbar, an evolutionary anthropologist at the University of Oxford, believes that
our primate brains place a cap on the number of genuine social relationships we
can actually cope with: roughly 150. According to Dunbar, online social
networking appears to be very good for ‘servicing’ relationships, but not for
establishing them. He argues that our evolutionary roots mean we still depend
heavily on physical and face-to-face contact to be able to create ties.

D
Nonetheless, there is evidence that online networking can transform our daily
interactions. In an experiment at Cornell University, psychologist Jeff Hancock
asked participants to try to encourage other participants to like them via instant
messaging conversation. Beforehand, some members of the trial were allowed to
view the Facebook profile of the person they were trying to win over. He found
that those with Facebook access asked questions to which they already knew the
answers or raised things they had in common, and as result were much more
successful in their social relationships. Hancock concluded that people who use
these sites to keep updated on the activities of their acquaintances are more
likely to be liked in subsequent social interactions.

E
Online social networking may also have tangible effects on our well-being. Nicole
Ellison of Michigan State University found that the frequency of networking site
use correlates with greater selfesteem. Support and affirmation from the weak
ties could be the explanation, G says Ellison. ‘Asking your close friends for help
or advice is nothing new, but we are seeing a lowering of barriers among
acquaintances,’ she says. People are readily sharing personal feelings and
experiences to a wider circle than they might once have done. Sandy Pentland at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology agrees. The ability to broadcast to our
social group means we need never feel alone,’ he says. The things that befall us
are often due to a lack of social support. There’s more of a safety net now.’
F
Henry Holzman, also at MIT, who studies the interface between online social
networking and the real world, points out that increased visibility also means our
various social spheres – family, work, friends – are merging, and so we will have
to prepare for new societal norms. ‘Well have to learn how to live a more
transparent life,’ he says. ‘We may have to give up some ability to show very
limited glimpses of ourselves to others.’

G
Another way that online networking appears to be changing our social structures
is through dominance. In one repeated experiment, Michael Kearns of the
University of Pennsylvania asked 30 volunteers to quickly reach consensus in an
online game over a choice between two colours. Each person was offered a cash
reward if they succeeded in persuading the group to pick one or other colour. All
participants could see the colour chosen by some of the other people, but certain
participants had an extra advantage: the ability to see more of the participants’
chosen colours than others. Every time Kearns found that those who could see
the choices of more participants (in other words, were better connected)
persuaded the group to pick their colour, even when they had to persuade the
vast majority to give up their financial incentive. While Kearns warns that the
setting was artificial, he says it’s possible that greater persuasive power could lie
with well-connected individuals in the everyday online world too.
Questions 33-36
Look at the following findings (Questions 33-36) and the list of researchers below.
Match each finding with the correct researcher, A-F.
Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 33-36 on your answer sheet.

List of researchers

A Mark Granovetter
B Judith Donath
C Robin Dunbar
D Jeff Hancock
E Nicole Ellison
F Michael Kearns

33. People who network widely may be more able to exert pressure on others.
34. We have become more willing to confide in an extensive number of people.
35. There is a limit to how many meaningful relationships we can maintain.
36. There is a social advantage in knowing about the lives of our online contacts.

Questions 37-40
For Questions 37-40, choose TWO answers, A-E.
Write your answers in boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet.

37-38
Which TWO of these advantages of online social networking are mentioned in
Reading Passage 3?
A Social networking sites can be accessed on any day and at any time.
B Online socialising is an efficient way of keeping in touch with a lot of people.
C It is very easy to establish new friendships online.
D Online social networking can solve problems in real-world relationships.
E It can be reassuring to be part of an online social network.
39-40
Which TWO of these disadvantages of online social networking are mentioned in
Reading Passage 3?
A Information from online social contacts may be unreliable.
B We may become jealous of people who seem to have a wide circle of friends.
C We may lose the ability to relate to people face-to-face.
D It is easy to waste a lot of time on social networking sites.
E Using social networking sites may result in a lack of privacy.