B/ READING

I/ OPEN CLOZE TESTS

1/Fill in each blank in the following passage with a suitable word.
Feeling Tired
Because we feel tired at bedtime it is natural to assume that we sleep because we are tired.
The point seems so obvious that (1)_________anyone has ever sought to question it.
Nevertheless, we must ask “tired (2)____________ what?” People certainly feel tired at the
end of a hard day’s manual work, but it is also true that office workers feel equally tired when
bedtime comes. (3)_________ invalids, restricted to beds or wheelchairs, become tired as the
evening wears (4)_____________. Moreover, the manual worker (5)__________still feel
tired even (6)_________ an evening spent relaxing in front of the television or reading a
book, (7)_________which seem to (8)__________ a refreshing effect. There is no proven
connection (9) ___________ physical exertion and the (10)___________ for sleep. People
want to sleep, however little exercise they have had. (11)_________is the desire for sleep
(12)___________to mental fatigue. In fact, sleep comes more slowly to people who have had
an intellectually stimulating day, (13)_________ because their minds are still full of thoughts
as they retire. Ironically, one way of sending (14)___________ to sleep is to put him or her
into a boring situation (15)____________ the intellectual effort is minimal.
1 not 2of from3the 4out on 5 who may 6has after 7on 8have 9between 10 long desire 11it
seldom 12due related 13 mainly14someone 15 whose
2/ Fill in each blank in the following passage with a suitable word.
Illiteracy
literacy may be considered more as an abstract concept than a condition. When a famous
English writer used this word over two hundred years ago, he was actually referring to people
who could (1)___________ read Greek or Latin. (2)__________,it seems unlikely that
university examiners had (3)__________ sort of disability in mind when they reported on
creeping illiteracy” in a report on their students’ final examinations in 1988. Over the years,
university lecturers have (4)_________ aware of an increasing tendency (5)___________
grammatical sloppiness, poor spelling and general imprecision in their students’ ways
(6)_________ writing; and sloppy writing is all (7)____________ often a reflection of
sloppy thinking. Their complaint was that they had (8)____________to do teaching their own
subject (9)___________teaching their undergraduates to write. Some lecturers believe that
they have (10)____________ duty to stress the importance of maintaining standards of clear
thinking through the written word in a world dominated (11)___________visual
communications and images. They (12)___________on the connection between clear
thinking and a form of writing that is not (13)____________ clear, but also sensitive to
subtleties of meaning. The same lecturers argue that undergraduates appear to
(14)___________ the victims of a “softening process” that begins with the teaching of
English in schools, but this point of (15)__________ has, not surprisingly, caused a great deal
of controversy.
1not 2however 3a this 4 been 5towards 6of 7too 8 enough9without10perform a 11by
12worked focus 13be only 14 15view
3/ Fill in each blank in the following passage with a suitable word.
 The eighteen-century artist, Chardin, is recognized as the master of (1).......is known
as still life, painting of simple household objects. (2)......a long time art critics considered this
form of art inferior (3)........other subjects, for, after all, what does such a picture show other
(4).......things that (5).......one of us might find in the kitchen? In this picture of a glass of
water and a coffee pot, for example, (6)......seems at first sight to be (7)......special about their
arrangement or any natural relationship between them. It looks as though the artist has
(8).......to a great deal of trouble to paint nothing at (9)...... . But if you study the painting, you
realize that the objects are linked (10) .........by the atmosphere, the light that falls over the
whole composition. Chardin did not only paint inanimate objects, of course. He loved to
picture children playing and just (11).......the best photographs of children are often taken
when they are not aware of (12).......photographed, so his best paintings seem to have been
painted when he caught the child off his guard, in a manner of speaking. This was, and still
(13)......, an original approach to a human subject. Most of these paintings are portraits and
the sitter is provided with a suitable expression. But in Chardin’s picture of a young man
blowing bubbles, the man is concentrating on (14)........a simple action that it does not require
very (15).......effort and so there is no expression on his face, yet the picture is memorable
because it is entirely natural.
1which 2before 3to 4 other 5any 6 there 7nothing 8 gone 9all 10together 11 so (just so)
12being 13 is 14such15much
4/ Fill in each blank in the following passage with a suitable word.
Outer space has intrigued mankind ever since we first gazed upward. It was easy enough to
see stars in the night sky with the (1) _____ eye and many early civilizations also noticed that
certain groups appeared to form familiar shapes. They used these constellations to help with
navigation and as a (2) _____ of predicting the seasons and making calendars. Ancient
astronomers also perceived points of light (3) _____ moved. They believed they were
wandering stars and the word ‘planet’ (4) _____ from the Greek word for ‘wanderer’. For
much of human history, it was also believed that the Earth was the centre of the Universe and
that the planets circled the Earth, and that falling meteorites (5) _____ solar eclipses were
omens of disaster. It wasn’t (6) _____ the 16th century that Polish mathematician and
astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus presented a mathematical model of (7) _____ the sun
actually moved around the Earth, challenging the prevailing understanding of how the solar
(8) _____ worked. The Italian physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilei then used a telescope
to (9) _____ this theory to be correct. Many (10) _____ advances have allowed us to probe
into space since then, and one of the most pioneering was when the first manned spacecraft,
the Apollo 11, successfully (11) _____ through gravity and touched down on the moon’s
surface. Nevertheless, much of our research must be done from (12) _____ greater distances.
The Hubble Space Telescope was carried into orbit by a space shuttle in April 1990 and it has
(13) _____ cosmologists to gather incredible data. Most significantly, it has provided a great
deal of evidence to (14) _____ the Big Bang theory, that is, the idea that the Universe
originated as a hot, dense state at a certain time in the (15) _____ and has continued to
expand since then.
1naked 2method 3which 4coming 5from 6until 7which 8system 9prove 10technological
11went 12much 13many 14support 15 space
II/ IELTS READING

Assessing the risk

A
As a title for a supposedly unprejudiced debate on scientific progress, “Panic attack:
interrogating our obsession with risk” did not bode well. Held last week at the Royal
Institution in London, the event brought together scientists from across the world to ask why
society is so obsessed with risk and to call for a “more rational” approach. “We seem to be
organising society around the grandmotherly maxim of ‘better safe than sorry’,” exclaimed
Spiked, the online publication that organised the event. “What are the consequences of this
overbearing concern with risks?”
B
The debate was preceded by a survey of 40 scientists who were invited to describe how awful
our lives would be if the “precautionary principle” had been allowed to prevail in the past.
Their response was: no heart surgery or antibiotics, and hardly any drugs at all; no
aeroplanes, bicycles or high-voltage power grids; no pasteurisation, pesticides or
biotechnology; no quantum mechanics; no wheel; no “discovery” of America. In short, their
message was: no risk, no gain.
C
They have absolutely missed the point. The precautionary principle is a subtle idea. It has
various forms, but all of them generally include some notion of cost-effectiveness. Thus the
point is not simply to ban things that are not known to be absolutely safe. Rather, it says: “Of
course you can make no progress without risk. But if there is no obvious gain from taking the
risk, then don’t take it.”
D
Clearly, all the technologies listed by the 40 well-chosen savants were innately risky at their
inception, as all technologies are. But all of them would have received the green light under
the precautionary principle because they all had the potential to offer tremendous benefits –
the solutions to very big problems – if only the snags could be overcome.
E
If the precautionary principle had been in place, the scientists tell us, we would not have
antibiotics. But of course, we would – if the version of the principle that sensible people now
understand had been applied. When penicillin was discovered in the 1920s, infective bacteria
were laying waste to the world. Children died from diphtheria and whooping cough, every
open-drain brought the threat of typhoid, and any wound could lead to septicaemia and even
gangrene.
F
Penicillin was turned into a practical drug during the Second World War when the many
pestilences that result from were threatened to kill more people than the bombs. Of course
antibiotics were a priority. Of course, the risks, such as they could be perceived, were worth
taking.
G
And so with the other items on the scientists’ list: electric light bulbs, blood transfusions.
CAT scans, knives, the measles vaccine – the precautionary principle would have prevented
all of them, they tell us. But this is just plain wrong. If the precautionary principle had been
applied properly, all these creations would have passed muster, because all offered
incomparable advantages compared to the risks perceived at the time.
H
Another issue is at stake here. Statistics are not the only concept people use when weighing
up risk. Human beings, subtle and evolved creatures that we are, do not survive to three-score
years and ten simply by thinking like pocket calculators. A crucial issue is the consumer’s
choice. In deciding whether to pursue the development of new technology, the consumer’s
right to choose should be considered alongside considerations of risk and benefit. Clearly,
skiing is more dangerous than genetically modified tomatoes. But people who ski choose to
do so; they do not have skiing thrust upon them by portentous experts of the kind who now
feel they have the right to reconstruct our crops. Even with skiing, there is the matter of cost-
effectiveness to consider: skiing, I am told, is exhilarating. Where is the exhilaration in GM
soya?
I
Indeed, in contrast to all the other items on Spiked’s list, GM crops stand out as an example
of a technology whose benefits are far from clear. Some of the risks can at least be defined.
But in the present economic climate, the benefits that might accrue from them seem dubious.
Promoters of GM crops believe that the future population of the world cannot be fed without
them. That is untrue. The crops that really matter are wheat and rice, and there is no GM
research in the pipeline that will seriously affect the yield of either. GM is used to make
production cheaper and hence more profitable, which is an extremely questionable ambition.
J
The precautionary principle provides the world with a very important safeguard. If it had
been in place in the past it might, for example, have prevented insouciant miners from
polluting major rivers with mercury. We have come to a sorry pass when scientists, who
should above all be dispassionate scholars, feel they should misrepresent such a principle for
the purposes of commercial and political propaganda. People at large continue to mistrust
science and the high technologies it produces partly because they doubt the wisdom of
scientists. On such evidence as this, these doubts are fully justified.
 

Questions 1-6
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 3?
In boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE               if the statement is true
FALSE              if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN    if the information is not given in the passage
1   The title of the debate is not unbiased. T
2   All the scientists invited to the debate were from the field of medicine. NG
3   The message those scientists who conducted the survey were sending was people
shouldn’t take risks. F
4   All the 40 listed technologies are riskier than other technologies. NG
5   It was worth taking the risks to invent antibiotics. T
6   All the other inventions on the list were also judged by the precautionary principle. NG
 

Questions 7-13
Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage
Using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 7-13 on your answer sheet.
When applying the precautionary principle to decide whether to invent a new technology,
people should also the consideration of the 7……risk……………………., along with the
usual consideration of 8……advantages …………………….. For example, though risky and
dangerous enough, people still enjoy 9…skiing……………………….. for the excitement it
provides. On the other hand, experts believe that future population desperately needs 10……
…………………… in spite of their undefined risks. However, the researchers conducted so
far have not been directed towards increasing the yield of 11…wheat and
rice………………………, but to reduce the cost of 12……
production…………………………. and to bring more profit out of it. In the end, such selfish
use of the precautionary principle for business and political gain has often led people
to 13……doubt …………………….. science for they believe scientists are not to be trusted.
 

Question 14
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
14   What is the main theme of the passage?
A   people have the right to doubt science and technologies
B   the precautionary principle could have prevented the development of science and
technology
C   there are not enough people who truly understand the precautionary principle
D   the precautionary principle bids us take risks at all costs

1naked 2method 3which 4coming 5and 6until 7which 8system 9prove 10technological
11broke 12much 13allow 14support 15 space
III/ CAE, CPE READING

You are going to read an extract from an article about traffic congestion. For questions
1 — 6, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text.

TRAFFIC CONGESTION REASSESSED

Congestion is the bane of modern life, yet no more than we deserve. It is the result of our
commodity-obsessed stupidity. In Joel Schumacher's 1992 film falling Down, a demented
Michael Douglas finally cracks under the stresses of modern American life — in a traffic
jam. The heat, the fumes, the flies and the sweat all accentuate his sense of suffocation. He
has to get away, breathe again, decongest his tubes, empty his barrels. Traffic jams feature,
too, in Jean Luc Godard's critique of consumerism run wild, Weekend (1968). Following one
gruesome pile-up, a hysterical woman runs back to the carnage, not to help the dying, but to
rescue her Hermes handbag.

We see congestion as an urban disease; since the 19th century, city routes have been
described as arteries. Now, the new mayor thinks he has found the cure, with his proposals
for road charges in London. But what if the mayor's 'diagnosis is wrong? Is it possible that
traffic congestion is not a symptom of urban disease, even less a sign of social meltdown, but
rather a mark of robust health? Just as physicians no longer advocate bleeding, nor try to
stimulate the flow of the humours, perhaps traffic congestion is another aspect of circulation
that is best left alone. Before dismissing the idea, just try thinking of a decent world city that
is not regularly gripped by gridlock.

Congestion is slow-moving traffic. Nothing more complicated than that, although it is worth
noting the discriminatory definition of 'traffic', which is generally applied only to motor
traffic (20 cars waiting at traffic lights indicate traffic congestion, whereas 20 pedestrians
waiting to cross the same road do not). If we don't have congestion, then, we have two
alternatives: either fast-moving motor traffic or no motor traffic. Is either situation actually
any better than congestion?

Speeding up urban traffic dominated the minds of planners and city administrators throughout
the 20th century. The visions of Le Corbusier and the brutal realities of Robert Moses's New
York freeways are only the two most widely known cases. ''A city made for speed is made for
success," wrote Le Corbusier. The connection between the two notions still appears logical in
many circles — a successful economy or business is one in which money circulates, and
profits accrue, speedily.
But money is an abstract and increasingly amorphous concept. Cars are not. Allowing hard,
heavy, speeding vehicles to come into contact with fleshy mortals is a recipe for disaster.
Cutting the death toll has consistently dominated the minds of planners. Modernists such as
Le Corbusier and Moses engineered new types of urban road on which only motor vehicles
were permitted, but there are obvious limits to this approach. Not only is the cost prohibitive,
in terms of money and destruction, but there are people inside those vehicles, heading to a
place where they will want to get out, walk about, stay alive.

So, in cities around the world, planners sought ways to enable speeding motorists and
vulnerable non-motorists to coexist. It has proved a tortuous exercise, and one based on a
notion of compromise: that it must surely be possible to allow motorists to enjoy reasonable
speed while affording pedestrians a reasonable chance of survival. In this mood of give and
take, pedestrians have been contained and controlled, apparently for their own good. Walking
through many urban areas has become a pinball experience of pedestrian barriers, bollards,
street signage, constricted pavements, walk/don't walk signs, pedestrian underpasses,
overpasses, and jaywalking restrictions. Yet, in almost every city in the world, the violence
inflicted on human beings by motor vehicles still far outstrips the violence inflicted by crime.
Not much of a deal.

Then there have been the other costs associated with trying to manage the competing claims
of speed and safety, in particular those of the countless research institutions, university
departments, engineers, planners, systems analysts, etc, all apparently dedicated to finding
better means for managing motor traffic. Plus the costs of installing and operating their
solutions: the one-way systems, tidal-flow roads, urban clearways, gyratories, underpasses,
overpasses, eyes in the sky, traffic lights, parking restrictions, speed cameras, and so on. Few
of these experts would deny that somewhere in their heads was the kernel of that modernist
vision — flashing tail lights on elevated freeways — but the tabula rasa was mythical. These
were real cities and real people's lives that had to be devastated before they could be rebuilt.
Despite all this physical and mental exertion, average road journey times in London have
remained unchanged for a century.

1 In the first paragraph, the writer wishes to present traffic jams as

A one of the consequences of materialism.
B the result of hysteria.
C a staple of cinema critiques.
D the main element in scenes of death and destruction.
2 The writer draws a parallel between medical science and traffic in the second
paragraph to underline the
A deleterious effect of traffic on our health.
B tragic consequences traffic has for society.
C possibility that current thinking may be flawed.
D relationship between the mayor and medical practitioners.
3 What does the writer imply in the third paragraph?
A People are irrelevant to questions of urban traffic control.
B Congestion may not be so disastrous as we assume.
C It is easier for pedestrians to use roads than for drivers.
D Pedestrians need traffic-free streets.
4 The connection between speed of circulation and profitability is shown to be
A less obvious than some people imagine.
B the only logical conclusion to be drawn.
C the reason why people in vehicles stay alive.
D the overriding consideration as far as planners are concerned.
5 The writer suggests that the compromise between the interests of motorists and
pedestrians
A makes walking a more exciting experience.
B is the only reasonable balance achievable.
C is essential for the good of pedestrians.
D has not proved satisfactory.
6 What is implied about the traffic management ploys referred to in the last paragraph?
A They are unnecessary.
B They are always too costly to implement.
C Their overall effectiveness is open to question.
D They invoke mythical principles.

PART 2/ You are going to read extracts from an introductory book about studying the
law. For questions 1-10, choose from the sections (A-D). The extracts may be chosen
more than once. Mark your answers on the separate answer sheet.

In which extract are the following mentioned?

1. the relative frequency of certain types of legal cases

2. input by those who are not directly involved in a dispute B

3. how common transactions assume certain guarantees D

4. ascertaining the effectiveness of a legal system

5. determining the consequences of altering the legal system

6. the influence of popular depictions of the law A

7. a reluctance to submit to formal legal processes

8. how a decentralised legal system depends on a feeling of reciprocity C

Studying the law

A Ordinary people regularly encounter law in a variety of circumstances. Freely-negotiated
commercial contracts may bind them to act in particular ways. By becoming members of a
sports club or a trade union they agree to comply with a set of rules. Sometimes these forms
of law will use the courts to enforce their arrangements. In other cases privately-instituted
adjudication bodies are established, a third party being appointed to decide whether an
agreement or rule has been broken or not. These kinds of arrangements may seem very
different from the normal idea of law, especially if law is thought of mainly in terms of the
criminal law. However, it is possible to see law simply as a way of regulating our actions, of
deciding what can be done and what cannot be done. Most laws are not about something
spectacular but, rather, about the details of ordinary life. Every time a purchase is made, a
contract is made. Both parties make promises about what they will do; one to hand over the
goods, one to pay the price. In this and other ways, everybody is involved in law every day of
their lives.

B Legal rules can be divided up in many different ways. The rules show differences in
purpose, in origin and form, in the consequences when they are breached, and in matters of
procedure, remedies and enforcement. One of the most fundamental divisions in law is the
division between criminal and civil law. Newcomers to the study of law tend to assume that
criminal law occupies the bulk of a lawyer's caseload and of a law student's studies. This is an
interesting by-product of the portrayal of the legal system by the media. Criminal law weighs
very lightly in terms of volume when measured against non-criminal (that is, civil) law. There
are more rules of civil law than there are of criminal law; more court cases involve breach of
the civil law than that of the criminal law.

C The term 'national law' is used to mean the internal legal rules of a particular country, in
contrast to international law which deals with the external relationships of a state with other
states. There is no world government or legislature issuing and enforcing laws to which all
nations are subject. The international legal order has no single governing body and operates
by agreement between states. This means that the creation, interpretation and enforcement of
international law lie primarily in the hands of states themselves. Its scope and effectiveness
depend on the sense of mutual benefit and obligation involved in adhering to the rules.
Disputes about the scope and interpretation of international law are rarely resolved by the use
of international courts or binding arbitration procedures of an international organisation. This
is because submission to an international court or similar process is entirely voluntary and
few states are likely to agree to this if there is a serious risk of losing their case or where
important political or national interests are at stake.

D One source of detailed information about the legal system is statistical analyses.
Information about the number of cases handled by a court shows in specific terms what a
court's workload is. Changes in these from year to year may indicate some effects of changes
in the law and practice. Statistical tests can establish that there is a relationship, a correlation,
between different things. For example, the length of a sentence for theft may correlate with
the value of the items stolen or the experience of the judge who heard the case. This means
that the sentence will be longer if, for example, more items are stolen or the judge is more
experienced. A correlation can provide evidence for a theory. Such confirmation is important;
without it we have little to establish the impact the law has, being forced to rely on individual
instances of its application and having to assume that these have general truth. Empirical
study of the operation of law may reveal areas of improvement. It can also confirm that,
measured by particular standards, the courts are working well.