IELTS READING TEST

Test 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on
Reading Passage 1 below.
How tennis rackets have changed
In 2016, the British professional tennis player Andy Murray was ranked as the
world’s number one. It was an incredible achievement by any standard – made
even more remarkable by the fact that he did this during a period considered to be
one of the strongest in the sport’s history, competing against the likes of Rafael
Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, to name just a few. Yet five years
previously, he had been regarded as a talented outsider who entered but never won
the major tournaments.
Of the changes that account for this transformation, one was visible and widely
publicised: in 2011, Murray invited former number one player Ivan Lendl onto his
coaching team – a valuable addition that had a visible impact on the player’s
playing style. Another change was so subtle as to pass more or less unnoticed. Like
many players, Murray has long preferred a racket that consists of two types of
string: one for the mains (verticals) and another for the crosses (horizontals). While
he continued to use natural string in the crosses, in 2012 he switched to a synthetic
string for the mains. A small change, perhaps, but its importance should not be
underestimated.
The modification that Murray made is just one of a number of options available to
players looking to tweak their rackets in order to improve their games. ‘Touring
professionals have their rackets customised to their specific needs,’ says Colin
Triplow, a UK-based professional racket stringer. ‘It’s a highly important part of
performance maximisation.’ Consequently, the specific rackets used by the world’s
elite are not actually readily available to the public; rather, each racket is
individually made to suit the player who uses it. Take the US professional tennis
players Mike and Bob Bryan, for example: ‘We’re very particular with our racket
specifications,’ they say. ‘All our rackets are sent from our manufacturer to Tampa,
Florida, where our frames go through a . . . thorough customisation process.’ They
explain how they have adjusted not only racket length, but even experimented with
different kinds of paint. The rackets they use now weigh more than the average
model and also have a denser string pattern (i.e. more crosses and mains).
The primary reason for these modifications is simple: as the line between winning
and losing becomes thinner and thinner, even these slight changes become more
and more important. As a result, players and their teams are becoming increasingly
creative with the modifications to their rackets as they look to maximise their
competitive advantage.
Racket modifications mainly date back to the 1970s, when the amateur German
tennis player Werner Fischer started playing with the so-called spaghetti-strung
racket. It created a string bed that generated so much topspin that it was quickly
banned by the International Tennis Federation. However, within a decade or two,
racket modification became a regularity. Today it is, in many ways, an aspect of
the game that is equal in significance to nutrition or training.
Modifications can be divided into two categories: those to the string bed and those
to the racket frame. The former is far more common than the latter: the choice of
the strings and the tension with which they are installed is something that nearly all
professional players experiment with. They will continually change it depending
on various factors including the court surface, climatic conditions, and game styles.
Some will even change it depending on how they feel at the time.
At one time, all tennis rackets were strung with natural gut made from the outer
layer of sheep or cow intestines. This all changed in the early 1990s with the
development of synthetic strings that were cheaper and more durable. They are
made from three materials: nylon (relatively durable and affordable), Kevlar (too
stiff to be used alone) or co-polyester (polyester combined with additives that
enhance its performance). Even so, many professional players continue to use a
‘hybrid set-up’, where a combination of both synthetic and natural strings are used.
Of the synthetics, co-polyester is by far the most widely used. It’s a perfect fit for
the style of tennis now played, where players tend to battle it out from the back of
the court rather than coming to the net. Studies indicate that the average spin from
a co-polyester string is 25% greater than that from natural string or other
synthetics. In a sense, the development of co-polyester strings has revolutionised
the game.
However, many players go beyond these basic adjustments to the strings and make
changes to the racket frame itself. For example, much of the serving power of US
professional player Pete Sampras was attributed to the addition of four to five lead
weights onto his rackets, and today many professionals have the weight adjusted
during the manufacturing process.
Other changes to the frame involve the handle. Players have individual preferences
for the shape of the handle and some will have the handle of one racket moulded
onto the frame of a different racket. Other players make different changes. The
professional Portuguese player Gonçalo Oliveira replaced the original grips of his
rackets with something thinner because they had previously felt uncomfortable to
hold.
Racket customisation and modification have pushed the standards of the game to
greater levels that few could have anticipated in the days of natural strings and
heavy, wooden frames, and it’s exciting to see what further developments there
will be in the future.
Questions 1–7
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage
1?
In boxes 1–7 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
1 People had expected Andy Murray to become the world’s top tennis player for
at least five years before 2016.
2 The change that Andy Murray made to his rackets attracted a lot of attention.
3 Most of the world’s top players take a professional racket stringer on tour with
them.
4 Mike and Bob Bryan use rackets that are light in comparison to the majority of
rackets.
5 Werner Fischer played with a spaghetti-strung racket that he designed himself.
6 The weather can affect how professional players adjust the strings on their
rackets.
7 It was believed that the change Pete Sampras made to his rackets contributed to
his strong serve.

Questions 8–13
Complete the notes below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 8–13 on your answer sheet.
The tennis racket and how it has changed
● Mike and Bob Bryan made changes to the types of 8………………… used on
their racket frames.
● Players were not allowed to use the spaghetti-strung racket because of the
amount of 9………………… it created.
● Changes to rackets can be regarded as being as important as players’ diets or
the 10………………… they do.
● All rackets used to have natural strings made from the 11………………… of
animals.
● Pete Sampras had metal 12………………… put into the frames of his rackets.
● Gonçalo Oliveira changed the 13………………… on his racket handles.
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READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14–26, which are based on
Reading Passage 2 below.
The pirates of the ancient Mediterranean
In the first and second millennia BCE, pirates sailed around the Mediterranean,
attacking ships and avoiding pursuers
A
When one mentions pirates, an image springs to most people’s minds of a crew of
misfits, daredevils and adventurers in command of a tall sailing ship in the
Caribbean Sea. Yet from the first to the third millennium BCE, thousands of years
before these swashbucklers began spreading fear across the Caribbean, pirates
prowled the Mediterranean, raiding merchant ships and threatening vital trade
routes. However, despite all efforts and the might of various ancient states, piracy
could not be stopped. The situation remained unchanged for thousands of years.
Only when the pirates directly threatened the interests of ancient Rome did the
Roman Republic organise a massive fleet to eliminate piracy. Under the command
of the Roman general Pompey, Rome eradicated piracy, transforming the
Mediterranean into ‘Mare Nostrum’ (Our Sea).
B
Although piracy in the Mediterranean is first recorded in ancient Egypt during the
reign of Pharaoh Amenhotep III (c 1390–1353 BCE), it is reasonable to assume it
predated this powerful civilisation. This is partly due to the great importance the
Mediterranean held at this time, and partly due to its geography. While the
Mediterranean region is predominantly fertile, some parts are rugged and hilly,
even mountainous. In the ancient times, the inhabitants of these areas relied
heavily on marine resources, including fish and salt. Most had their own boats,
possessed good seafaring skills, and unsurpassed knowledge of the local coastline
and sailing routes. Thus, it is not surprising that during hardships, these men turned
to piracy. Geography itself further benefited the pirates, with the numerous coves
along the coast providing places for them to hide their boats and strike undetected.
Before the invention of ocean-going caravels* in the 15th century, ships could not
easily cross long distances over open water. Thus, in the ancient world most were
restricted to a few well-known navigable routes that followed the coastline. Caught
in a trap, a slow merchant ship laden with goods had no other option but to
surrender. In addition, knowledge of the local area helped the pirates to avoid
retaliation once a state fleet arrived.
————————————-
* caravel: a small, highly manoeuvrable sailing ship developed by the Portuguese
C
One should also add that it was not unknown in the first and second millennia BCE
for governments to resort to pirates’ services, especially during wartime,
employing their skills and numbers against their opponents. A pirate fleet would
serve in the first wave of attack, preparing the way for the navy. Some of the
regions were known for providing safe harbours to pirates, who, in return, boosted
the local economy.
D
The first known record of a named group of Mediterranean pirates, made during
the rule of ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten (c 1353–1336 BCE), was in the
Amarna Letters. These were extracts of diplomatic correspondence between the
pharaoh and his allies, and covered many pressing issues, including piracy. It
seems the pharaoh was troubled by two distinct pirate groups, the Lukka and the
Sherden. Despite the Egyptian fleet’s best efforts, the pirates continued to cause
substantial disruption to regional commerce. In the letters, the king of Alashiya
(modern Cyprus) rejected Akhenaten’s claims of a connection with the Lukka
(based in modern-day Turkey). The king assured Akhenaten he was prepared to
punish any of his subjects involved in piracy.
E
The ancient Greek world’s experience of piracy was different from that of
Egyptian rulers. While Egypt’s power was land-based, the ancient Greeks relied on
the Mediterranean in almost all aspects of life, from trade to warfare. Interestingly,
in his works the Iliad and the Odyssey, the ancient Greek writer Homer not only
condones, but praises the lifestyle and actions of pirates. The opinion remained
unchanged in the following centuries. The ancient Greek historian Thucydides, for
instance, glorified pirates’ daring attacks on ships or even cities. For Greeks, piracy
was a part of everyday life. Even high-ranking members of the state were not
beyond engaging in such activities. According to the Greek orator Demosthenes, in
355 BCE, Athenian ambassadors made a detour from their official travel to capture
a ship sailing from Egypt, taking the wealth found onboard for themselves! The
Greeks’ liberal approach towards piracy does not mean they always tolerated it, but
attempts to curtail piracy were hampered by the large number of pirates operating
in the Mediterranean.
F
The rising power of ancient Rome required the Roman Republic to deal with
piracy in the Mediterranean. While piracy was a serious issue for the Republic,
Rome profited greatly from its existence. Pirate raids provided a steady source of
slaves, essential for Rome’s agriculture and mining industries. But this
arrangement could work only while the pirates left Roman interests alone. Pirate
attacks on grain ships, which were essential to Roman citizens, led to angry voices
in the Senate, demanding punishment of the culprits. Rome, however, did nothing,
further encouraging piracy. By the 1st century BCE, emboldened pirates kidnapped
prominent Roman dignitaries, asking for a large ransom to be paid. Their most
famous hostage was none other than Julius Caesar, captured in 75 BCE.
G
By now, Rome was well aware that pirates had outlived their usefulness. The time
had come for concerted action. In 67 BCE, a new law granted Pompey vast funds
to combat the Mediterranean menace. Taking personal command, Pompey divided
the entire Mediterranean into 13 districts, assigning a fleet and commander to each.
After cleansing one district of pirates, the fleet would join another in the next
district. The process continued until the entire Mediterranean was free of pirates.
Although thousands of pirates died at the hands of Pompey’s troops, as a long-term
solution to the problem, many more were offered land in fertile areas located far
from the sea. Instead of a maritime menace, Rome got productive farmers that
further boosted its economy.
Questions 14–19
Reading Passage 2 has seven paragraphs, A–G.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A–G, in boxes 14–19 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
14 a reference to a denial of involvement in piracy
15 details of how a campaign to eradicate piracy was carried out
16 a mention of the circumstances in which states in the ancient world would
make use of pirates
17 a reference to how people today commonly view pirates
18 an explanation of how some people were encouraged not to return to piracy
19 a mention of the need for many sailing vessels to stay relatively close to land
Questions 20 and 21
Choose TWO letters, A–E.
Write the correct letters in boxes 20 and 21 on your answer sheet.
Which TWO of the following statements does the writer make about inhabitants of
the Mediterranean region in the ancient world?
A They often used stolen vessels to carry out pirate attacks.
B They managed to escape capture by the authorities because they knew the area
so well.
C They paid for information about the routes merchant ships would take.
D They depended more on the sea for their livelihood than on farming.
E They stored many of the goods taken in pirate attacks in coves along the
coastline.
Questions 22 and 23
Choose TWO letters, A–E.
Write the correct letters in boxes 22 and 23 on your answer sheet.
Which TWO of the following statements does the writer make about piracy and
ancient Greece?
A The state estimated that very few people were involved in piracy.
B Attitudes towards piracy changed shortly after the Iliad and the Odyssey were
written.
C Important officials were known to occasionally take part in piracy.
D Every citizen regarded pirate attacks on cities as unacceptable.
E A favourable view of piracy is evident in certain ancient Greek texts.

Questions 24–26
Complete the summary below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 24–26 on your answer sheet.

Ancient Rome and piracy

Piracy was an issue ancient Rome had to deal with, but it also brought some
benefits for Rome. For example, pirates supplied slaves that were important for
Rome’s industries. However, attacks on vessels transporting 24………………… to
Rome resulted in calls for 25…………………for the pirates responsible.
Nevertheless, piracy continued, with some pirates demanding
a 26………………… for the return of the Roman officials they captured.
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READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27–40, which are based on
Reading Passage 3 below.
The persistence and peril of misinformation
Brian Southwell looks at how human brains verify information and discusses some
of the challenges of battling widespread falsehoods
Misinformation – both deliberately promoted and accidentally shared – is perhaps
an inevitable part of the world in which we live, but it is not a new problem. People
likely have lied to one another for roughly as long as verbal communication has
existed. Deceiving others can offer an apparent opportunity to gain strategic
advantage, to motivate others to action, or even to protect interpersonal bonds.
Moreover, people inadvertently have been sharing inaccurate information with one
another for thousands of years.
However, we currently live in an era in which technology enables information to
reach large audiences distributed across the globe, and thus the potential for
immediate and widespread effects from misinformation now looms larger than in
the past. Yet the means to correct misinformation might, over time, be found in
those same patterns of mass communication and of the facilitated spread of
information.
The main worry regarding misinformation is its potential to unduly influence
attitudes and behavior, leading people to think and act differently than they would
if they were correctly informed, as suggested by the research teams of Stephan
Lewandowsky of the University of Bristol and Elizabeth Marsh of Duke
University, among others. In other words, we worry that misinformation might
lead people to hold misperceptions (or false beliefs) and that these misperceptions,
especially when they occur among large groups of people, may have detrimental,
downstream consequences for health, social harmony, and the political climate.
At least three observations related to misinformation in the contemporary mass-
media environment warrant the attention of researchers, policy makers, and really
everyone who watches television, listens to the radio, or reads information online.
First of all, people who encounter misinformation tend to believe it, at least
initially. Secondly, electronic and print media often do not block many types of
misinformation before it appears in content available to large audiences. Thirdly,
countering misinformation once it has enjoyed wide exposure can be a resource-
intensive effort.
Knowing what happens when people initially encounter misinformation holds
tremendous importance for estimating the potential for subsequent problems.
Although it is fairly routine for individuals to come across information that is false,
the question of exactly how – and when – we mentally label information as true or
false has garnered philosophical debate. The dilemma is neatly summarized by a
contrast between how the 17th-century philosophers René Descartes and Baruch
Spinoza described human information engagement, with conflicting predictions
that only recently have been empirically tested in robust ways. Descartes argued
that a person only accepts or rejects information after considering its truth or
falsehood; Spinoza argued that people accept all encountered information (or
misinformation) by default and then subsequently verify or reject it through a
separate cognitive process. In recent decades, empirical evidence from the research
teams of Erik Asp of the University of Chicago and Daniel Gilbert at Harvard
University, among others, has supported Spinoza’s account: people appear to
encode all new information as if it were true, even if only momentarily, and later
tag the information as being either true or false, a pattern that seems consistent
with the observation that mental resources for skepticism physically reside in a
different part of the brain than the resources used in perceiving and encoding.
What about our second observation that misinformation often can appear in
electronic or print media without being preemptively blocked? In support of this,
one might consider the nature of regulatory structures in the United States:
regulatory agencies here tend to focus on post hoc detection of broadcast
information. Organizations such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) offer
considerable monitoring and notification functions, but these roles typically do not
involve preemptive censoring. The FDA oversees direct-to-consumer prescription
drug advertising, for example, and has developed mechanisms such as the ‘Bad
Ad’ program, through which people can report advertising in apparent violation of
FDA guidelines on drug risks. Such programs, although laudable and useful, do not
keep false advertising off the airwaves. In addition, even misinformation that is
successfully corrected can continue to affect attitudes.
This leads us to our third observation: a campaign to correct misinformation, even
if rhetorically compelling, requires resources and planning to accomplish necessary
reach and frequency. For corrective campaigns to be persuasive, audiences need to
be able to comprehend them, which requires either effort to frame messages in
ways that are accessible or effort to educate and sensitize audiences to the
possibility of misinformation. That some audiences might be unaware of the
potential for misinformation also suggests the utility of media literacy efforts as
early as elementary school. Even with journalists and scholars pointing to the
phenomenon of ‘fake news’, people do not distinguish between demonstrably false
stories and those based in fact when scanning and processing written information.
We live at a time when widespread misinformation is common. Yet at this time
many people also are passionately developing potential solutions and remedies.
The journey forward undoubtedly will be a long and arduous one. Future remedies
will require not only continued theoretical consideration but also the development
and maintenance of consistent monitoring tools – and a recognition among fellow
members of society that claims which find prominence in the media that are
insufficiently based in scientific consensus and social reality should be countered.
Misinformation arises as a result of human fallibility and human information
needs. To overcome the worst effects of the phenomenon, we will need
coordinated efforts over time, rather than any singular one-time panacea we could
hope to offer.
Questions 27–30
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes 27–30 on your answer sheet.
27 What point does the writer make about misinformation in the first paragraph?
A Misinformation is a relatively recent phenomenon.
B Some people find it easy to identify misinformation.
C Misinformation changes as it is passed from one person to another.
D There may be a number of reasons for the spread of misinformation.
28 What does the writer say about the role of technology?
A It may at some point provide us with a solution to misinformation.
B It could fundamentally alter the way in which people regard information.
C It has changed the way in which organisations use misinformation.
D It has made it easier for people to check whether information is accurate.
29 What is the writer doing in the fourth paragraph?
A comparing the different opinions people have of misinformation.
B explaining how the effects of misinformation have changed over time
C outlining which issues connected with misinformation are significant today
D describing the attitude of policy makers towards misinformation in the media
30 What point does the writer make about regulation in the USA?
A The guidelines issued by the FDA need to be simplified.
B Regulation does not affect people’s opinions of new prescription drugs.
C The USA has more regulatory bodies than most other countries.
D Regulation fails to prevent misinformation from appearing in the media.
Questions 31–36
Complete the summary using the list of phrases, A–J, below
Write the correct letter, A–J, in boxes 31–36 on your answer sheet.

What happens when people encounter misinformation?

Although people have 31……………… to misinformation, there is debate about
precisely how and when we label something as true or untrue. The philosophers
Descartes and Spinoza had 32……………… about how people engage with
information. While Descartes believed that people accept or reject information
after considering whether it is true or not, Spinoza argued that people accepted all
information they encountered (and by default misinformation) and did not verify or
reject it until afterwards. Moreover, Spinoza believes that a
distinct 33……………… is involved in these stages. Recent research has
provided 34……………… for Spinoza’s theory and it would appear that people
accept all encountered information as if it were true, even if this is for an
extremely 35………………, and do not label the information as true or false until
later. This is consistent with the fact that the resources for scepticism and the
resources for perceiving and encoding are in 36……………… in the brain.

A constant conflict B additional evidence C different locations

 D experimental subjects E short period F extreme distrust
G frequent exposure H mental operation I dubious reason
J different ideas

Questions 37–40
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage
3?
In boxes 37–40 on your answer sheet, write
YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
37 Campaigns designed to correct misinformation will fail to achieve their
purpose if people are unable to understand them.
38 Attempts to teach elementary school students about misinformation have been
opposed.
39 It may be possible to overcome the problem of misinformation in a relatively
short period.
40 The need to keep up with new information is hugely exaggerated in today’s
world.
Test 2

READING PASSAGE 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on
Reading Passage 1 below.
The Industrial Revolution in Britain
The Industrial Revolution began in Britain in the mid-1700s and by the 1830s and
1840s has spread to many other parts of the world, including the United States. In
Britain, it was a period when a largely rural, agrarian* society was transformed
into an industrialised, urban one. Goods that had once been crafted by hand started
to be produced in mass quantities by machines in factories, thanks to the invention
of steam power and the introduction of new machines and manufacturing
techniques in textiles, iron-making and other industries.
The foundations of the Industrial Revolution date back to the early 1700s, when
the English inventor Thomas Newcomen designed the first modern steam engine.
Called the ‘atmospheric steam engine’, Newcomen’s invention was originally used
to power machines that pumped water out of mines. In the 1760s, the Scottish
engineer James Watt started to adapt one of Newcomen’s models, and succeeded
in making it far more efficient. Watt later worked with the English manufacturer
Matthew Boulton to invent a new steam engine driven by both the forward and
backward strokes of the piston, while the gear mechanism it was connected to
produced rotary motion. It was a key innovation that would allow steam power to
spread across British industries.
The demand for coal, which was a relatively cheap energy source, grew rapidly
during the Industrial Revolution, as it was needed to run not only the factories used
to produce manufactured goods, but also steam-powered transportation. In the
early 1800s, the English engineer Richard Trevithick built a steam-powered
locomotive, and by 1830 goods and passengers were being transported between the
industrial centres of Manchester and Liverpool. In addition, steam-powered boats
and ships were widely used to carry goods along Britain’s canals as well as across
the Atlantic.
Britain had produced textiles like wool, linen and cotton, for hundreds of years, but
prior to the Industrial Revolution, the British textile business was a true ‘cottage
industry’, with the work performed in small workshops or even homes by
individual spinners, weavers and dyers. Starting in the mid-1700s, innovations like
the spinning jenny and the power loom made weaving cloth and spinning yarn and
thread much easier. With these machines, relatively little labour was required to
produce cloth, and the new, mechanised textile factories that opened around the
country were quickly able to meet customer demand for cloth both at home and
abroad.
The British iron industry also underwent major change as it adopted new
innovations. Chief among the new techniques was the smelting of iron ore with
coke (a material made by heating coal) instead of the traditional charcoal. This
method was cheaper and produced metals that were of a higher quality, enabling
Britain’s iron and steel production to expand in response to demand created by the
Napoleonic Wars (1803-15) and the expansion of the railways from the 1830s.
The latter part of the Industrial Revolution also saw key advances in
communication methods, as people increasingly saw the need to communicate
efficiently over long distances. In 1837, British inventors William Cooke and
Charles Wheatstone patented the first commercial telegraphy system. In the 1830s
and 1840s, Samuel Morse and other inventors worked on their own versions in the
United States. Cooke and Wheatstone’s system was soon used for railway
signalling in the UK. As the speed of the new locomotives increased, it was
essential to have a fast and effective means of avoiding collisions.
The impact of the Industrial Revolution on people’s lives was immense. Although
many people in Britain had begun moving to the cities from rural areas before the
Industrial Revolution, this accelerated dramatically with industrialisation, as the
rise of large factories turned smaller towns into major cities in just a few decades.
This rapid urbanisation brought significant challenges, as overcrowded cities
suffered from pollution and inadequate sanitation.
Although industrialisation increased the country’s economic output overall and
improved the standard of living for the middle and upper classes, many poor
people continued to struggle. Factory workers had to work long hours in dangerous
conditions for extremely low wages. These conditions along with the rapid pace of
change fuelled opposition to industrialisation. A group of British workers who
became known as ‘Luddites’ were British weavers and textile workers who
objected to the increased use of mechanised looms and knitting frames. Many had
spent years learning their craft, and they feared that unskilled machine operators
were robbing them of their livelihood. A few desperate weavers began breaking
into factories and smashing textile machines. They called themselves Luddites
after Ned Ludd, a young apprentice who was rumoured to have wrecked a textile
machine in 1779.
The first major instances of machine breaking took place in 1811 in the city of
Nottingham, and the practice soon spread across the country. Machine-breaking
Luddites attacked and burned factories, and in some cases they even exchanged
gunfire with company guards and soldiers. The workers wanted employers to stop
installing new machinery, but the British government responded to the uprisings by
making machine-breaking punishable by death. The unrest finally reached its peak
in April 1812, when a few Luddites were shot during an attack on a mill near
Huddersfield. In the days that followed, other Luddites were arrested, and dozens
were hanged or transported to Australia. By 1813, the Luddite resistance had all
but vanished.
——————————–
* agrarian: relating to the land, especially the use of land for farming
Questions 1–7
Complete the notes below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 1–7 on your answer sheet.

Britain’s Industrial Revolution

Steam power
● Newcomen’s steam engine was used in mines to remove water.
● In Watt and Boulton’s steam engine, the movement of the 1………………. was
linked to a gear system.
● A greater supply of 2………………. was required to power steam engines.
Textile industry
● Before the Industrial Revolution, spinners and weavers worked at home and
in 3………………. .
● Not as much 4………………. was needed to produce cloth once the spinning
jenny and power loom were invented.
Iron industry
● Smelting of iron ore with coke resulted in material that was
better 5………………. .
● Demand for iron increased with the growth of the 6………………. .
Communications
● Cooke and Wheatstone patented the first telegraphy system.
● The telegraphy system was used to prevent locomotives colliding.
Urbanisation
● Small towns turned into cities very quickly.
● The new cities were dirty, crowded and lacked sufficient 7………………. .

Questions 8–13
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage
1?
In boxes 8–13 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
8 Britain’s canal network grew rapidly so that more goods could be transported
around the country.
9 Costs in the iron industry rose when the technique of smelting iron ore with
coke was introduced.
10 Samuel Morse’s communication system was more reliable than that developed
by William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone.
11 The economic benefits of industrialisation were limited to certain sectors of
society.
12 Some skilled weavers believed that the introduction of the new textile
machines would lead to job losses.
13 There was some sympathy among local people for the Luddites who were
arrested near Huddersfield.
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READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14–26, which are based on
Reading Passage 2 below.
Athletes and stress
A
It isn’t easy being a professional athlete. Not only are the physical demands greater
than most people could handle, athletes also face intense psychological pressure
during competition. This is something that British tennis player Emma Raducanu
wrote about on social media following her withdrawal from the 2021 Wimbledon
tournament. Though the young player had been doing well in the tournament, she
began having difficulty regulating her breathing and heart rate during a match,
which she later attributed to ‘the accumulation of the excitement and the buzz’.
B
For athletes, some level of performance stress is almost unavoidable. But there are
many different factors that dictate just how people’s minds and bodies respond to
stressful events. Typically, stress is the result of an exchange between two factors:
demands and resources. An athlete may feel stressed about an event if they feel the
demands on them are greater than they can handle. These demands include the
high level of physical and mental effort required to succeed, and also the athlete’s
concerns about the difficulty of the event, their chance of succeeding, and any
potential dangers such as injury. Resources, on the other hand, are a person’s
ability to cope with these demands. These include factors such as the competitor’s
degree of confidence, how much they believe they can control the situation’s
outcome, and whether they’re looking forward to the event or not.
C
Each new demand or change in circumstances affects whether a person responds
positively or negatively to stress. Typically, the more resources a person feels they
have in handling the situation, the more positive their stress response. This positive
stress response is called a challenge state. But should the person feel there are too
many demands placed on them, the more likely they are to experience a negative
stress response – known as a threat state. Research shows that the challenge states
lead to good performance, while threat states lead to poorer performance. So, in
Emma Raducanu’s case, a much larger audience, higher expectations and facing a
more skilful opponent, may all have led her to feel there were greater demands
being placed on her at Wimbledon – but she didn’t have the resources to tackle
them. This led to her experiencing a threat response.
D
Our challenge and threat responses essentially influence how our body responds to
stressful situations, as both affect the production of adrenaline and cortisol – also
known as ‘stress hormones’. During a challenge state, adrenaline increases the
amount of blood pumped from the heart and expands the blood vessels, which
allows more energy to be delivered to the muscles and brain. This increase of
blood and decrease of pressure in the blood vessels has been consistently related to
superior sport performance in everything from cricket batting, to golf putting and
football penalty taking. But during a threat state, cortisol inhibits the positive effect
of adrenaline, resulting in tighter blood vessels, higher blood pressure, slower
psychological responses, and a faster heart rate. In short, a threat state makes
people more anxious – they make worse decisions and perform more poorly. In
tennis players, cortisol has been associated with more unsuccessful serves and
greater anxiety.
E
That said, anxiety is also a common experience for athletes when they’re under
pressure. Anxiety can increase heart rate and perspiration, cause heart palpitations,
muscle tremors and shortness of breath, as well as headaches, nausea, stomach
pain, weakness and a desire to escape in more extreme cases. Anxiety can also
reduce concentration and self-control and cause overthinking. The intensity with
which a person experiences anxiety depends on the demands and resources they
have. Anxiety may also manifest itself in the form of excitement or nervousness
depending on the stress response. Negative stress responses can be damaging to
both physical and mental health – and repeated episodes of anxiety coupled with
negative responses can increase risk of heart disease and depression.
F
But there are many ways athletes can ensure they respond positively under
pressure. Positive stress responses can be promoted through the language that they
and others – such as coaches or parents — use. Psychologists can also help athletes
change how they see their physiological responses – such as helping them see a
higher heart rate as excitement, rather than nerves. Developing psychological
skills, such as visualisation, can also help decrease physiological responses to
threat. Visualisation may involve the athlete recreating a mental picture of a time
when they performed well, or picturing themselves doing well in the future. This
can help create a feeling of control over the stressful event. Recreating competitive
pressure during training can also help athletes learn how to deal with stress. An
example of this might be scoring athletes against their peers to create a sense of
competition. This would increase the demands which players experience compared
to a normal training session, while still allowing them to practise coping with
stress.
Questions 14–18
Reading Passage 2 has six paragraphs, A–F.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A–F, in boxes 14–18 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
14 reference to two chemical compounds which impact on performance
15 examples of strategies for minimising the effects of stress
16 how a sportsperson accounted for their own experience of stress
17 study results indicating links between stress responses and performance
18 mention of people who can influence how athletes perceive their stress
responses
Questions 19–22
Complete the sentences below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 19–22 on your answer sheet.
19 Performance stress involves many demands on the athlete, for example, coping
with the possible risk of ……………………… .
20 Cortisol can cause tennis players to produce fewer good ………………………
.
21 Psychologists can help athletes to view their physiological responses as the
effect of a positive feeling such as ……………………… .
22 ……………………… is an example of a psychological technique which can
reduce an athlete’s stress responses.
Questions 23 and 24
Choose TWO letters, A–E.
Write the correct letters in boxes 23 and 24 on your answer sheet.
Which TWO facts about Emma Raducanu’s withdrawal from the Wimbledon
tournament are mentioned in the text?
A the stage at which she dropped out of the tournament
B symptoms of her performance stress at the tournament
C measures which she had taken to manage her stress levels
D aspects of the Wimbledon tournament which increased her stress levels
E reactions to her social media posts about her experience at Wimbledon

Questions 25 and 26
Choose TWO letters, A–E.
Write the correct letters in boxes 25 and 26 on your answer sheet.
Which TWO facts about anxiety are mentioned in Paragraph E of the text?
A the factors which determine how severe it may be
B how long it takes for its effects to become apparent
C which of its symptoms is most frequently encountered
D the types of athletes who are most likely to suffer from it
E the harm that can result if athletes experience it too often
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READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27–40, which are based on
Reading Passage 3 below.
An inquiry into the existence of the gifted child
Let us start by looking at a modern ‘genius’, Maryam Mirzakhani, who died at the
early age of 40. She was the only woman to win the Fields Medal – the
mathematical equivalent of a Nobel prize. It would be easy to assume that someone
as special as Mirzakhani must have been one of those ‘gifted’ children, those who
have an extraordinary ability in a specific sphere of activity or knowledge. But
look closer and a different story emerges. Mirzakhani was born in Tehran, Iran.
She went to a highly selective girls’ school but maths wasn’t her interest – reading
was. She loved novels and would read anything she could lay her hands on. As for
maths, she did rather poorly at it for the first couple of years in her middle school,
but became interested when her elder brother told her about what he’d learned. He
shared a famous maths problem from a magazine that fascinated her – and she was
hooked.
In adult life it is clear that she was curious, excited by what she did and also
resolute in the face of setbacks. One of her comments sums it up. ‘Of course, the
most rewarding part is the “Aha” moment, the excitement of discovery and
enjoyment of understanding something new … But most of the time, doing
mathematics for me is like being on a long hike with no trail and no end in sight.’
That trail took her to the heights of original research into mathematics.
Is her background unusual? Apparently not. Most Nobel prize winners were
unexceptional in childhood. Einstein was slow to talk as a baby. He failed the
general part of the entry test to Zurich Polytechnic – though they let him in because
of high physics and maths scores. He struggled at work initially, but he kept
plugging away and eventually rewrote the laws of Newtonian mechanics with his
theory of relativity.
There has been a considerable amount of research on high performance over the
last century that suggests it goes way beyond tested intelligence. On top of that,
research is clear that brains are flexible, new neural pathways can be created, and
IQ isn’t fixed. For example, just because you can read stories with hundreds of
pages at the age of five doesn’t mean you will still be ahead of your
contemporaries in your teens.
While the jury is out on giftedness being innate and other factors potentially
making the difference, what is certain is that the behaviours associated with high
levels of performance are replicable and most can be taught – even traits such as
curiosity.
According to my colleague Prof Deborah Eyre, with whom I’ve collaborated on
the book Great Minds and How to Grow Them, the latest neuroscience and
psychological research suggests most individuals can reach levels of performance
associated in school with the gifted and talented. However, they must be taught the
right attitudes and approaches to their learning and develop the attributes of high
performers – curiosity, persistence and hard work, for example – an approach Eyre
calls ‘high performance learning’. Critically, they need the right support in
developing those approaches at home as well as at school.
Prof Anders Ericsson, an eminent education psychologist at Florida State
University, US, is the co-author of Peak: Secrets from the New Science of
Expertise. After research going back to 1980 into diverse achievements, from
music to memory to sport, he doesn’t think unique and innate talents are at the
heart of performance. Deliberate practice, that stretches you every step of the way,
and around 10,000 hours of it, is what produces the goods. It’s not a magic number
– the highest performers move on to doing a whole lot more, of course. Ericsson’s
memory research is particularly interesting because random students, trained in
memory techniques for the study, went on to outperform others thought to have
innately superior memories – those who you might call gifted.
But it is perhaps the work of Benjamin Bloom, another distinguished American
educationist working in the 1980s, that gives the most pause for thought. Bloom’s
team looked at a group of extraordinarily high achieving people in disciplines as
varied as ballet, swimming, piano, tennis, maths, sculpture and neurology. He
found a pattern of parents encouraging and supporting their children, often in areas
they enjoyed themselves. Bloom’s outstanding people had worked very hard and
consistently at something they had become hooked on when at a young age, and
their parents all emerged as having strong work ethics themselves.
Eyre says we know how high performers learn. From that she has developed a high
performing learning approach. She is working on this with a group of schools, both
in Britain and abroad. Some spin-off research, which looked in detail at 24 of the
3,000 children being studied who were succeeding despite difficult circumstances,
found something remarkable. Half were getting free school meals because of
poverty, more than half were living with a single parent, and four in five were
living in disadvantaged areas. Interviews uncovered strong evidence of an adult or
adults in the child’s life who valued and supported education, either in the
immediate or extended family or in the child’s wider community. Children talked
about the need to work hard at school, to listen in class and keep trying.
Let us end with Einstein, the epitome of a genius. He clearly had curiosity,
character and determination. He struggled against rejection in early life but was
undeterred. Did he think he was a genius or even gifted? He once wrote: ‘It’s not
that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer. Most people say it is
the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.’
Questions 27–32
Complete the summary using the list of phrases, A–K, below.
Write the correct letter, A–K, in boxes 27–32 on your answer sheet.

Maryam Mirzakhani
Maryam Mirzakhani is regarded as 27………………… in the field of mathematics
because she was the only female holder of the prestigious Fields Medal – a record
that she retained at the time of her death. However, maths held
little 28………………… for her as a child and in fact her performance was below
average until she was 29………………… by a difficult puzzle that one of her
siblings showed her.
Later, as a professional mathematician, she had an inquiring mind and proved
herself to be 30………………… when things did not go smoothly. She said she
got the greatest 31………………… from making ground-breaking discoveries and
in fact she was responsible for some extremely 32………………… mathematical
studies.

A appeal B determined
C intrigued
D single E achievement
F devoted
G involved H unique
I innovative
J satisfaction K intent
Questions 33–37
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage
3?
In boxes 33–37 on your answer sheet, write
YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
33 Many people who ended up winning prestigious intellectual prizes only
reached an average standard when young.
34 Einstein’s failures as a young man were due to his lack of confidence.
35 It is difficult to reach agreement on whether some children are actually born
gifted.
36 Einstein was upset by the public’s view of his life’s work.
37 Einstein put his success down to the speed at which he dealt with scientific
questions.
Questions 38–40
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes 38–40 on your answer sheet.
38 What does Eyre believe is needed for children to equal ‘gifted’ standards?
A strict discipline from the teaching staff
B assistance from their peers in the classroom
C the development of a spirit of inquiry towards their studies
D the determination to surpass everyone else’s achievements
39 What is the result of Ericsson’s research?
A Very gifted students do not need to work on improving memory skills.
B Being born with a special gift is not the key factor in becoming expert.
C Including time for physical exercise is crucial in raising performance.
D 10,000 hours of relevant and demanding work will create a genius.
40 In the penultimate paragraph, it is stated the key to some deprived children’s
success is
A a regular and nourishing diet at home.
B the loving support of more than one parent.
C a community which has well-funded facilities for learning.
D the guidance of someone who recognises the benefits of learning.
Test 3

READING PASSAGE 1

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

Archaeologists discover evidence of prehistoric island settlers

In early April 2019, Dr Ceri Shipton and his colleagues from Australian National
University became the first archaeologists to explore Obi, one of many tropical
islands in Indonesia’s Maluku Utara province. The research team’s discoveries
suggest that the prehistoric people who lived on Obi were adept on both land and
sea, hunting in the dense rainforest, foraging on the seashore, and possibly even
voyaging between islands.

The excavations were part of a project to learn more about how people first
dispersed from mainland Asia, through the Indonesian archipelago and into the
prehistoric continent that once connected Australia and New Guinea. The team’s
earlier research suggested that the northernmost islands in the group, known as the
Wallacean islands, including Obi, would have offered the easiest migration route.
It also seemed likely that these islands were crucial ‘stepping stones’ on humans’
island-hopping voyages through this region millennia ago. But to support this idea,
they needed archaeological evidence for humans living in this remote area in the
ancient past. So, they travelled to Obi to look for sites that might reveal evidence
of early occupation.

Just inland from the village of Kelo on Obi’s northern coast, Shipton and his
colleagues found two caves containing prehistoric rock shelters that were suitable
for excavation. With the permission and help of the local people of Kelo, they dug
a small test excavation in each shelter. There they found numerous artefacts,
including fragments of axes, some dating to about 14,000 years ago. The earliest
axes at Kelo were made using clam shells. Axes made from clam shells from
roughly the same time had also previously been found elsewhere in this region,
including on the nearby island of Gebe to the northeast. As on Gebe, it is highly
likely that Obi’s axes were used in the construction of canoes, thus allowing these
early peoples to maintain connections between communities on neighbouring
islands.

The oldest cultural layers from the Kelo site provided the team with the earliest
record for human occupation on Obi, dating back around 18,000 years. At this time
the climate was drier and colder than today, and the island’s dense rainforests
would likely have been much less impenetrable than they are now. Sea levels were
about 120 metres lower, meaning Obi was a much larger island, encompassing
what is today the separate island of Bisa, as well as several other small islands
nearby.

Roughly 11,700 years ago, as the most recent ice age ended, the climate became
significantly warmer and wetter, no doubt making Obi’s jungle much thicker.
According to the researchers, it is no coincidence that around this time the first
axes crafted from stone rather than sea shells appear, likely in response to their
heavy-duty use for clearing and modification of the increasingly dense rainforest.
While stone takes about twice as long to grind into an axe compared to shell, the
harder material keeps its sharp edge for longer.
Judging by the bones which the researchers unearthed in the Kelo caves, people
living there mainly hunted the Rothschild’s cuscus, a possum-like creature that still
lives on Obi today. As the forest grew more dense, people probably used axes to
clear patches of forest and make hunting easier.

Shipton’s team’s excavation of the shelters at the Kelo site unearthed a volcanic
glass substance called obsidian, which must have been brought over from another
island, as there is no known source on Obi. It also revealed particular types of
beads, similar to those previously found on islands in southern Wallacea. These
finds again support the idea that Obi islanders routinely travelled to other islands.

The excavations suggest people successfully lived in the two Kelo shelters for
about 10,000 years. But then, about 8,000 years ago, both were abandoned. Did the
residents leave Obi completely, or move elsewhere on the island? Perhaps the
jungle had grown so thick that axes were no longer a match for the dense
undergrowth. Perhaps people simply moved to the coast and turned to fishing
rather than hunting as a means of survival.

Whatever the reason for the departure, there is no evidence for use of the Kelo
shelters after this time, until about 1,000 years ago, when they were re-occupied by
people who owned pottery as well as items made out of gold and silver. It seems
likely, in view of Obi’s location, that this final phase of occupation also saw the
Kelo shelters used by people involved in the historic trade in spices between the
Maluku islands and the rest of the world.

Questions 1–7

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage
1?

In boxes 1–7 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

1 Archaeological research had taken place on the island of Obi before the arrival
of Ceri Shipton and his colleagues.

2 At the Kelo sites, the researchers found the first clam shell axes ever to be
discovered in the region.

3 The size of Obi today is less than it was 18,000 years ago.

4 A change in the climate around 11,700 years ago had a greater impact on Obi
than on the surrounding islands.

5 The researchers believe there is a connection between warmer, wetter weather

and a change in the material used to make axes.

6 Shipton’s team were surprised to find evidence of the Obi islanders’ hunting
practices.

7 It is thought that the Kelo shelters were occupied continuously until about 1,000
years ago.

Questions 8–13

Complete the notes below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 8–13 on your answer sheet.

Archaeological findings on Obi

Excavations of rock shelters inside 8………………… near the village of Kelo

revealed:

● axes from around 14,000 years ago, probably used to make canoes

● axes made out of 9…………………, dating from around 11,700 years ago

● 10………………… of an animal: evidence of what ancient islanders ate

● evidence of travel between islands:

– obsidian: a material that is not found naturally on Obi

 – 11………………… which resembled ones found on other islands.

It is thought that from 8,000 years ago, Obi islanders:

● may have switched from hunting to fishing

● had 12………………… as well as items made out of metal

● probably took part in the production and sale of 13………………… .

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READING PASSAGE 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14–26, which are based on
Reading Passage 2 below.

The global importance of wetlands

Wetlands are areas where water covers the soil, or is present either at or near the
surface of the soil, for all or part of the year. These are complex ecosystems, rich in
unique plant and animal life. But according to the World Wide Fund for Nature
(WWFN), half of the world’s wetlands have disappeared since 1990 – converted or
destroyed for commercial development, drainage schemes and the extraction of
minerals and peat*. Many of those that remain have been damaged by agricultural
pesticides and fertilizers, industrial pollutants, and construction works.

—————————
* peat: a brown deposit formed by the partial decomposition of vegetation in wet
acidic conditions, often cut out and dried for use as fuel

Throughout history, humans have gathered around wetlands, and their fertile
ecosystems have played an important part in human development. Consequently,
they are of considerable religious, historical and archaeological value to many
communities around the world. ‘Wetlands directly support the livelihoods and
well-being of millions of people,’ says Dr Matthew McCartney, principal
researcher and hydrologist at the International Water Management Institute
(IWMI). ‘In many developing countries, large numbers of people are dependent on
wetland agriculture for their livelihoods.’

They also serve a crucial environmental purpose. ‘Wetlands are one of the key
tools in mitigating climate change across the planet,’ says Pieter van Eijk, head of
Climate Adaptation at Wetlands International (WI), pointing to their use as buffers
that protect coastal areas from sea-level rise and extreme weather events such as
hurricanes and flooding. Wetland coastal forests provide food and water, as well as
shelter from storms, and WI and other agencies are working to restore those forests
which have been lost. ‘It can be as simple as planting a few trees per hectare to
create shade and substantially change a microclimate,’ he says. ‘Implementing
climate change projects isn’t so much about money.’

The world’s wetlands are, unfortunately, rich sources for in-demand commodities,
such as palm oil and pulpwood. Peatlands – wetlands with a waterlogged organic
soil layer – are particularly targeted. When peatlands are drained for cultivation,
they become net carbon emitters instead of active carbon stores, and, according to
Marcel Silvius, head of Climate-smart Land-use at WI, this practice causes six per
cent of all global carbon emissions. The clearance of peatlands for planting also
increases the risk of forest fires, which release huge amounts of CO₂. ‘We’re
seeing huge peatland forests with extremely high biodiversity value being lost for a
few decades of oil palm revenues,’ says Silvius.

The damage starts when logging companies arrive to clear the trees. They dig
ditches to enter the peat swamps by boat and then float the logs out the same way.
These are then used to drain water out of the peatlands to allow for the planting of
corn, oil palms or pulpwood trees. Once the water has drained away, bacteria and
fungi then break down the carbon in the peat and turn it into CO₂ and methane.
Meanwhile, the remainder of the solid matter in the peat starts to move
downwards, in a process known as subsidence. Peat comprises 90 per cent water,
so this is one of the most alarming consequences of peatland clearances. ‘In the
tropics, peat subsides at about four centimetres a year, so within half a century,
very large landscapes on Sumatra and Borneo will become flooded as the peat
drops below water level,’ says Silvius. ‘It’s a huge catastrophe that’s in
preparation. Some provinces will lose 40 per cent of their landmass.’

And while these industries affect wetlands in ways that can easily be documented,
Dr Dave Tickner of the WWFN believes that more subtle impacts can be even
more devastating. ‘Sediment run-off and fertilizers can be pretty invisible,’ says
Tickner. ‘Over-extraction of water is equally invisible. You do get shock stories
about rivers running red, or even catching fire, but there’s seldom one big impact
that really hurts a wetland.’ Tickner does not blame anyone for deliberate damage,
however. ‘I’ve worked on wetland issues for 20 years and have never met anybody
who wanted to damage a wetland,’ he says. ‘It isn’t something that people
generally set out to do. Quite often, the effects simply come from people trying to
make a living.’

Silvius also acknowledges the importance of income generation. ‘It’s not that we
just want to restore the biodiversity of wetlands – which we do – but we recognise
there’s a need to provide an income for local people.’ This approach is supported
by IWMI. ‘The idea is that people in a developing country will only protect
wetlands if they value and profit from them,’ says McCartney. ‘For sustainability,
it’s essential that local people are involved in wetland planning and decision
making and have clear rights to use wetlands.’

The fortunes of wetlands would be improved, Silvius suggests, if more

governments recognized their long-term value. ‘Different governments have
different attitudes,’ he says, and goes on to explain that some countries place a
high priority on restoring wetlands, while others still deny the issue. McCartney is
cautiously optimistic, however. ‘Awareness of the importance of wetlands is
growing,’ he says. ‘It’s true that wetland degradation still continues at a rapid pace,
but my impression is that things are slowly changing.’
Questions 14–17

Reading Passage 2 has eight paragraphs, A–H.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A–H, in boxes 14–17 on your answer sheet.

14 reference to the need to ensure that inhabitants of wetland regions continue to

benefit from them

15 the proportion of wetlands which have already been lost

16 reference to the idea that people are beginning to appreciate the value of
wetlands

17 mention of the cultural significance of wetlands

Questions 18–22

Complete the sentences below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 18–22 on your answer sheet.

18 Peatlands which have been drained begin to release ……………………

instead of storing it.

19 Once peatland areas have been cleared, …………………… are more likely to
occur.

20 Clearing peatland forests to make way for oil palm plantations destroys the
…………………… of the local environment.

21 Water is drained out of peatlands through the …………………… which are

created by logging companies.

22 Draining peatlands leads to …………………… : a serious problem which can

eventually result in coastal flooding and land loss.

Questions 23–26
Look at the following statements (Questions 23–26) and the list of experts below.

Match each statement with the correct expert, A–D.

Write the correct letter, A–D, in boxes 23–26 on your answer sheet.

23 Communities living in wetland regions must be included in discussions about

the future of these areas.

24 Official policies towards wetlands vary from one nation to the next.

25 People cause harm to wetlands without having any intention to do so.

26 Initiatives to reserve environmental damage need to be complex.

List of Experts

A Matthew McCartney

B Pieter van Eijk

C Marcel Silvius

D Dave Tickner

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READING PASSAGE 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27–40, which are based on
Reading Passage 3 below.

Is the era of artificial speech translation upon us?

Once the stuff of science fiction, technology that enables people to talk using
different languages is now here. But how effective is it?

Noise, Alex Waibel tells me, is one of the major challenges that artificial speech
translation has to meet. A device may be able to recognize speech in a laboratory,
or a meeting room, but will struggle to cope with the kind of background noise I
can hear in my office surrounding Professor Waibel as he speaks to me from Kyoto
station in Japan. I’m struggling to follow him in English, on a scratchy line that
reminds me we are nearly 10,000 kilometers apart – and that distance is still an
obstacle to communication even if you’re speaking the same language, as we are.
We haven’t reached the future yet. If we had, Waibel would have been able to
speak more comfortably in his native German and I would have been able to hear
his words in English.

At Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, where he is a professor of computer science,

Waibel and his colleagues already give lectures in German that their students can
follow in English via an electronic translator. The system generates text that
students can read on their laptops or phones, so the process is somewhat similar to
subtitling. It helps that lecturers speak clearly, don’t have to compete with
background chatter, and say much the same thing each year.

The idea of artificial speech translation has been around for a long time. Douglas
Adams’ science fiction novel, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, published in
1979, featured a life form called the ‘Babel fish’ which, when placed in the ear,
enabled a listener to understand any language in the universe. It came to represent
one of those devices that technology enthusiasts dream of long before they become
practically realizable, like TVs flat enough to hang on walls: objects that we once
could only dream of having but that are now commonplace. Now devices that look
like prototype Babel fish have started to appear, riding a wave of advances in
artificial translation and voice recognition.

At this stage, however, they seem to be regarded as eye-catching novelties rather

than steps towards what Waibel calls ‘making a language-transparent society.’
They tend to be domestic devices or applications suitable for hotel check-ins, for
example, providing a practical alternative to speaking traveler’s English. The
efficiency of the translator is less important than the social function. However,
‘Professionals are less inclined to be patient in a conversation,’ founder and CEO
at Waverly Labs, Andrew Ochoa, observes. To redress this, Waverly is now
preparing a new model for professional applications, which entails performance
improvements in speech recognition, translation accuracy and the time it takes to
deliver the translated speech.

For a conversation, both speakers need to have devices called Pilots (translator
earpieces) in their ears. ‘We find that there’s a barrier with sharing one of the
earphones with a stranger,’ says Ochoa. That can’t have been totally unexpected.
The problem would be solved if earpiece translators became sufficiently prevalent
that strangers would be likely to already have their own in their ears. Whether that
happens, and how quickly, will probably depend not so much on the earpieces
themselves, but on the prevalence of voice-controlled devices and artificial
translation in general.

Waibel highlights the significance of certain Asian nations, noting that voice
translation has really taken off in countries such as Japan with a range of systems.
There is still a long way to go, though. A translation system needs to be
simultaneous, like the translator’s voice speaking over the foreign politician being
interviewed on the TV, rather than in sections that oblige speakers to pause after
every few remarks and wait for the translation to be delivered. It needs to work
offline, for situations where internet access isn’t possible, and to address
apprehensions about the amount of private speech data accumulating in the cloud,
having been sent to servers for processing.

Systems not only need to cope with physical challenges such as noise, they will
also need to be socially aware by addressing people in the right way. Some cultural
traditions demand solemn respect for academic status, for example, and it is only
polite to respect this. Etiquette-sensitive artificial translators could relieve people
of the need to know these differing cultural norms. At the same time, they might
help to preserve local customs, slowing the spread of habits associated with
international English, such as its readiness to get on first-name terms.

Professors and other professionals will not outsource language awareness to

software, though. If the technology matures into seamless, ubiquitous artificial
speech translation, it will actually add value to language skills. Whether it will help
people conduct their family lives or relationships is open to question—though one
noteworthy possibility is that it could overcome the language barriers that often
arise between generations after migration, leaving children and their grandparents
without a shared language.

Whatever uses it is put to, though, it will never be as good as the real thing. Even if
voice-morphing technology simulates the speaker’s voice, their lip movements
won’t match, and they will look like they are in a dubbed movie. The contrast will
underline the value of shared languages, and the value of learning them. Sharing a
language can promote a sense of belonging and community, as with the
international scientists who use English as a lingua franca, where their
predecessors used Latin. Though the practical need for a common language will
diminish, the social value of sharing one will persist. And software will never be a
substitute for the subtle but vital understanding that comes with knowledge of a
language.

Questions 27–30

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write the correct letter in boxes 27–30 on your answer sheet.

27 What does the reader learn about the conversation in the first paragraph?

A The speakers are communicating in different languages.

B Neither of the speakers is familiar with their environment.

C The topic of the conversation is difficult for both speakers.

D Aspects of the conversation are challenging for both speakers.

28 What assists the electronic translator during lectures at Karlsruhe Institute of

Technology?

A the repeated content of lectures

B the students’ reading skills

C the languages used

D the lecturers’ technical ability

29 When referring to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the writer suggests
that

A the Babel fish was considered undesirable at the time.

B this book was not seriously intending to predict the future.

C artificial speech translation was not a surprising development.

D some speech translation techniques are better than others.

30 What does the writer say about sharing earpieces?

A It is something people will get used to doing.

B The reluctance to do this is understandable.

C The equipment will be unnecessary in the future.

D It is something few people need to worry about.

Questions 31–34

Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A–F, below.

Write the correct letter, A–F, in boxes 31–34 on your answer sheet.

31 Speech translation methods are developing fast in Japan

32 TV interviews that use translation voiceover methods are successful

33 Future translation systems should address people appropriately

34 Users may be able to maintain their local customs

A but there are concerns about this.

B as systems do not need to conform to standard practices.

C but they are far from perfect.

D despite the noise issues.

E because translation is immediate.

F and have an awareness of good manners.

Questions 35–40

Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage
3?
In boxes 35–40 on your answer sheet, write

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

35 Language translation systems will be seen as very useful throughout the

academic and professional worlds.

36 The overall value of automated translation to family life is yet to be shown.

37 Automated translation could make life more difficult for immigrant families.

38 Visual aspects of language translation are being considered by scientists.

39 International scientists have found English easier to translate into other

languages than Latin.

40 As far as language is concerned, there is a difference between people’s social

and practical needs.

Test 4

READING PASSAGE 1

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

The impact of climate change on butterflies in Britain

According to conservationists, populations of around two thirds of butterfly species

have declined in Britain over the past 40 years. If this trend continues, it might
have unpredictable knock-on effects for other species in the ecosystem. Butterfly
eggs develop into caterpillars and these insects, which are the second stage in a
new butterfly’s lifecycle, consume vast quantities of plant material, and in turn act
as prey for birds as well as bats and other small mammals. Only by arming
themselves with an understanding of why butterfly numbers are down can
conservationists hope to halt or reverse the decline.
Butterflies prefer outdoor conditions to be ‘just right’, which means neither too hot
nor too cold. Under the conditions of climate change, the temperature at any given
time in summer is generally getting warmer, leaving butterflies with the challenge
of how to deal with this. One of the main ways in which species are ensuring
conditions suit them is by changing the time of year at which they are active and
reproduce. Scientists refer to the timing of such lifecycle events as ‘phenology’, so
when an animal or plant starts to do something earlier in the year than it usually
does, it is said to be ‘advancing its phenology’.

These advances have been observed already in a wide range of butterflies – indeed,
most species are advancing their phenology to some extent. In Britain, as the
average spring temperature has increased by roughly 0.5°C over the past 20 years,
species have advanced by between three days and a week on average, to keep in
line with cooler temperatures. Is this a sign that butterflies are well equipped to
cope with climate change, and readily adjust to new temperatures? Or are these
populations under stress, being dragged along unwillingly by unnaturally fast
changes? The answer is still unknown, but a new study is seeking to answer these
questions.

First, the researchers pulled together data from millions of records that had been
submitted by butterfly enthusiasts – people who spend their free time observing the
activities of different species. This provided information on 130 species of
butterflies in Great Britain every year for a 20-year period. They then estimated the
abundance and distribution of each species across this time, along with how far
north in the country they had moved. The data also, crucially, allowed researchers
to estimate subtle changes in what time of the year each species was changing into
an adult butterfly.

Analyzing the trends in each variable, the researchers discovered that species with
more flexible lifecycles were more likely to be able to benefit from an earlier
emergence driven by climate change. Some species are able to go from caterpillar
to butterfly twice or more per year, so that the individual butterflies you see flying
in the spring are the grandchildren or great-grandchildren of the individuals seen a
year previously.
Among these species, researchers observed that those which have been advancing
their phenology the most over the 20-year study period also had the most positive
trends in abundance, distribution and northwards extent. For these species, such as
Britain’s tiniest butterfly, the dainty Small Blue, whose colonies are up to a
hundred strong, some develop into butterflies early in spring, allowing their
summer generations to complete another reproductive cycle by autumn so that
more population growth occurs.

Other species, however, are less flexible and restricted to a single reproductive
cycle per year. For these species, there was no evidence of any benefit to emerging
earlier. Indeed, worryingly, it was found that the species in this group that
specialize in very specific habitat types, often related to the caterpillar’s preferred
diet, actually tended to be most at harm from advancing phenology. The beautiful
High Brown Fritillary, often described as Britain’s most endangered butterfly, is in
this group. It is found only in coppiced woodland and limestone pavement habitats.
It is also a single-generation butterfly that has advanced its phenology. This
suggests that climate change, while undoubtedly not the sole cause, might have
played a part in the downfall of this species.

All is not lost, however. Many of Britain’s single-generation species show the
capacity, in continental Europe, to add a second generation in years that are
sufficiently warm. Therefore, as the climate continues to warm, species like the
Silver-studded Blue might be able to switch to multiple generations in the UK as
well, and so begin to extract benefits from the additional warmth, potentially
leading to population increases.

More immediately, conservationists can arm themselves with all this knowledge to
spot the warning signs of species that may be at risk. The White Admiral of
southern England, a much sought-after butterfly, experienced a significant increase
in numbers from the 1920s but has shown a considerable decline in the past 20
years. This may be because the caterpillar exists solely on a diet of a plant called
honeysuckle. But it is also likely to be due to climate change.

Questions 1–6

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage
1?
In boxes 1–6 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

1 Forty years ago, there were fewer butterflies in Britain than at present.

2 Caterpillars are eaten by a number of different predators.

3 ‘Phenology’ is a term used to describe a creature’s ability to alter the location of

a lifecycle event.

4 Some species of butterfly have a reduced lifespan due to spring temperature

increases.

5 There is a clear reason for the adaptations that butterflies are making to climate
change.

6 The data used in the study was taken from the work of amateur butterfly
watchers.

Questions 7–13

Complete the notes below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 7–13 on your answer sheet.

Butterflies in the UK

The Small Blue

● lives in large 7……………….

● first appears at the start of 8……………….

● completes more than one reproductive cycle per year

The High Brown Fritillary

● has one reproductive cycle

● is considered to be more 9………………. than other species

● its caterpillars occupy a limited range of 10……………….

The Silver-studded Blue

● is already able to reproduce twice a year in warm areas of 11……………….

The White Admiral

● is found in 12………………. areas of England

● both climate change and the 13………………. of the caterpillar are possible
reasons for decline

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READING PASSAGE 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14–26, which are based on
Reading Passage 2 below.

Deep-sea mining

Bacteria from the ocean floor can beat superbugs and cancer. But habitats are at
risk from the hunger for marine minerals

When Professor Mat Upton found that a microbe from a deep-sea sponge was
killing pathogenic bugs in his laboratory, he realised it could be a breakthrough in
the light against antibiotic-resistant superbugs, which are responsible for thousands
of deaths a year in the UK alone. Further tests confirmed that an antibiotic from the
sponge bacteria, found living more than 700 metres under the sea at the Rockall
trough in the north-east Atlantic, was previously unknown to science, boosting its
potential as a life-saving medicine. But Upton, and other scientists who view the
deep ocean and its wealth of unique and undocumented species as a prospecting
ground for new medicines, fear such potential will be lost in the rush to exploit the
deep sea’s equally rich metal and mineral resources.
B

‘We’re looking at the bioactive potential of marine resources, to see if there are
any more medicines or drugs down there before we destroy it for ever,’ says
Upton, a medical microbiologist at the University of Plymouth. He is among many
scientists urging a halt to deep-sea mining, asking for time to weigh up the pros
and cons. ‘In sustainability terms, this could be a better way of exploiting the
economic potential of the deep sea,’ he argues. Oceanographers using remotely
operated vehicles have spotted many new species. Among them have been sea
cucumbers with tails allowing them to sail along the ocean floor, and a rare
‘Dumbo’octopus, found 3,000 metres under the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of
California. Any one of these could offer lifesaving potential. Upton estimates it
could take up to a decade for a newly discovered antibiotic to become a medicine –
but the race towards commercial mining in the ocean abyss has already begun.

The deep sea contains more nickel, cobalt and rare earth metals than all land
reserves combined, according to the US Geological Survey. Mining corporations
argue that deep-sea exploration could help diversify the supply of metals and point
to the fact that demand for resources such as copper, aluminum, cobalt for electric
car batteries and other metals to power technology and smartphones, is soaring.
They say that deep-sea mining could yield far superior ore to land mining with
little, if any, waste. Different methods of extraction exist, but most involve
employing some form of converted machinery previously used in terrestrial mining
to excavate materials from the sea floor, at depths of up to 6,000 meters, then
drawing a seawater slurry, containing rock and other solid particles, from the sea
floor to ships on the surface. The slurry is then ‘de-watered ’ and transferred to
another vessel for shipping. Extracted seawater is pumped back down and
discharged close to the sea floor.

But environmental and legal groups have urged caution, arguing there are
potentially massive and unknown ramifications for the environment and for nearby
communities, and that the global regulatory framework is not yet drafted. ‘Despite
arising in the last half century, the “new global gold rush” of deep-sea mining
shares many features with past resource scrambles – including a general disregard
for environmental and social impacts, and the marginalisation of indigenous
peoples and their rights,’ a paper, written by Julie Hunter and Julian Aguon, from
Blue Ocean Law, and Pradeep Singh, from the Center for Marine Environmental
Sciences, Bremen, argues. The authors say that knowledge of the deep seabed
remains extremely limited. ‘The surface of the Moon, Mars and even Venus have
all been mapped and studied in much greater detail, leading marine scientists to
commonly remark that, with respect to the deep sea, “We don’t yet know what we
need to know”.’

Scientific research – including a recent paper in Marine Policy journal has

suggested the deep seabed, and hydrothermal vents, which are created when
seawater meets volcanic magma, have crucial impacts upon biodiversity and the
global climate. The mineral-rich vents and their surrounds are also home to many
well-known animals including crustaceans, tubeworms, clams, slugs, anemones
and fish. ‘It is becoming increasingly clear that deep-sea mining poses a grave
threat to these vital seabed functions,’ the paper says. ‘Extraction methods would
produce large sediment plumes and involve the discharge of waste back into the
ocean, significantly disturbing seafloor environments,’ the paper continues. ‘On
deep sea vents, scientists are clear,’ says Dr Jon Copley of the National
Oceanography Centre, Southampton: ‘We don’t want mining on them.’

The oceans occupy around 70% of the planet and are relatively unexplored, says
Mike Johnston, chief executive of Nautilus, a Canadian underwater exploration
company: ‘It makes sense to explore this untapped potential in an environmentally
sustainable way, instead of continually looking at the fast depleting land resources
of the planet to meet society’s rising needs.’ Those leading the global rush to place
giant mining machines thousands of metres below the sea surface say the
environmental impacts will be far lower than on land. But critics say exotic and
little-known ecosystems in the deep oceans could be destroyed and must be
protected. ‘Mining will be the greatest assault on deep-sea ecosystems ever
inflicted by humans,’ according to hydrothermal vent expert Verena Tunnicliffe, at
the University of Victoria in Canada. She argues that active vents must be off-
limits for mining to protect the new knowledge and biotechnology spin-offs they
can deliver, and that strict controls must be in place elsewhere.

Questions 14–17

Reading Passage 2 has six paragraphs, A–F.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A–F, in boxes 14–17 on your answer sheet.

14 reference to the rapidly increasing need for one raw material in the transport
industry

15 a rough estimate of the area of the Earth covered by the oceans

16 how a particular underwater habitat, where minerals and organisms co-exist, is

formed

17 reference to the fact that the countries of the world have yet to agree on rules
for the exploration of the seabed

Questions 18–23

Look at the following statements (Questions 18–23) and the list of people below.

Match each statement with the correct person or people, A-E.

Write the correct letter, A-E, in boxes 18–23 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

18 A move away from the exploration of heavily mined reserves on land is a good
idea.

19 The negative effects of undersea exploration on local areas and their

inhabitants are being ignored.

20 There are more worthwhile things to extract from the sea than minerals.
21 No other form of human exploration will have such a destructive impact on
marine life as deep-sea mining.

22 More is known about outer space than about what lies beneath the oceans.

23 There is one marine life habitat where experts agree mining should not take
place.

List of People

A Professor Mat Upton

B Julie Hunter, Julian Aguon and Pradeep Singh

C Dr Jon Copley

D Mike Johnston

E Verena Tunnicliffe

Questions 24–26

Complete the summary below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 24–26 on your answer sheet.

Mining the sea floor

Mining corporations believe that the mineral resources lying under the sea may be
superior to those found in the earth. They also say that these can be removed
without producing much 24………………… .

The extraction is often done by adapting the 25………………… that has already
been used to work on land. The method of excavation involves removing the
seawater from the slurry that is brought up to ships and returning it to the seabed.
However, concerned groups strongly believe that 26………………… is necessary
due to the possible number of unidentified consequences.

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READING PASSAGE 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27–40, which are based on
Reading Passage 3 below.

The Unselfish Gene

A psychologist gives his view on how humans became self-centred

There has long been a general assumption that human beings are essentially selfish.
We’re apparently ruthless, with strong impulses to compete against each other for
resources and to accumulate power and possessions. If we are kind to one another,
it’s usually because we have ulterior motives. If we are good, it’s only because we
have managed to control and transcend our innate selfishness and brutality.

This bleak view of human nature is closely associated with the science writer
Richard Dawkins, whose 1976 book The Selfish Gene became popular because it
fitted so well with – and helped to justify – the competitive and individualistic
ethos that was so prevalent in late 20th-century societies. Like many others,
Dawkins justifies his views with reference to the field of evolutionary psychology.
Evolutionary psychology theorises that present-day human traits developed in
prehistoric times, during what is termed the ‘environment of evolutionary
adaptedness’.

Prehistory is usually seen as a period of intense competition, when life was such a
brutal battle that only those with traits such as selfishness, aggression and
ruthlessness survived. And because survival depended on access to resources –
such as rivers, forests and animals – there was bound to be conflict between rival
groups, which led to the development of traits such as racism and warfare. This
seems logical. But, in fact, the assumption on which this all rests – that prehistoric
life was a desperate struggle for survival – is false.

It’s important to remember that in the prehistoric era, the world was very sparsely
populated. According to some estimates, around 15,000 years ago, the population
of Europe was only 29,000, and the population of the whole world was less than
half a million. Humans at that time were hunter-gatherers: people who lived by
hunting wild animals and collecting wild plants. With such small population
densities, it seems unlikely that prehistoric hunter-gatherer groups had to compete
against each other for resources or had any need to develop ruthlessness and
competitiveness, or to go to war.

There is significant evidence to back this notion from contemporary hunter-

gatherer groups, who live in the same way as prehistoric humans did. As the
anthropologist Bruce Knauft has remarked, hunter-gatherers are characterized by
‘extreme political and sexual egalitarianism’. Knauft has observed that individuals
in such groups don’t accumulate property or possessions and have an ethical
obligation to share everything. They also have methods of preserving
egalitarianism by ensuring that disparities of status don’t arise.

The !Kung people of southern Africa, for example, swap arrows before going
hunting and when an animal is killed, the acclaim does not go to the person who
fired the arrow, but to the person the arrow belongs to. And if a person becomes
too domineering, the other members of the group ostracise them, exiling the
offender from society. Typically in such groups, men do not dictate what women
do. Women in hunter-gatherer groups worldwide often benefit from a high level of
autonomy, being able to select their own marriage partners, decide what work they
do and work whenever they choose to. And if a marriage breaks down, they have
custody rights over their children.

Many anthropologists believe that societies such as the !Kung were normal until a
few thousand years ago, when population growth led to the development of
agriculture and a settled lifestyle. In view of the above, there seems little reason to
assume that traits such as racism, warfare and male domination should have been
selected by evolution – as they would have been of little benefit in the prehistoric
era. Individuals who behaved selfishly and ruthlessly would be less likely to
survive, since they would have been ostracised from their groups.

It makes more sense, then, to see traits such as cooperation, egalitarianism,

altruism and peacefulness as innate characteristics of human beings. These were
the traits that were prevalent in human life for tens of thousands of years. So
presumably these traits are still strong in us now.

But if prehistoric life wasn’t really as brutal as has often been assumed, why do
modern humans behave so selfishly and ruthlessly? Perhaps these negative traits
should be seen as a later development, the result of environmental and
psychological factors. Research has shown repeatedly that when the natural
habitats of primates such as apes and gorillas are disrupted, they tend to become
more violent and hierarchical.

So, it could well be that the same thing has happened to us. I believe that the end of
the hunter-gatherer lifestyle and the advent of farming was connected to a
psychological change that occurred in some groups of people. There was a new
sense of individuality and separateness, which led to a new selfishness, and
ultimately to hierarchical societies, patriarchy and warfare. At any rate, these
negative traits appear to have developed so recently that it doesn’t seem feasible to
explain them in adaptive or evolutionary terms.

Questions 27–30

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write the correct letter in boxes 27–30 on your answer sheet.

27 What is the writer doing in the first paragraph?

A setting out two opposing views about human nature

B justifying his opinion about our tendency to be greedy

C describing a commonly held belief about people’s behaviour

D explaining why he thinks that humans act in a selfish manner

28 What point is made about Richard Dawkins’ book The Selfish Gene?

A Its appeal lay in the radical nature of its ideas.

B Its success was due to the scientific support it offered.

C It presented a view that was in line with the attitudes of its time.

D It took an innovative approach to the analysis of human psychology.

29 What does the writer suggest about the prehistoric era in the fourth paragraph?

A Societies were more complex than many people believe.

B Supplies of natural resources were probably relatively plentiful.

C Most estimates about population sizes are likely to be inaccurate.

D Humans moved across continents more than was previously thought.

30 The writer refers to Bruce Knauft’s work as support for the idea that

A selfishness is a relatively recent development in human societies.

B only people in isolated communities can live in an unselfish manner.

C very few lifestyles have survived unchanged since prehistoric times.

D hunter-gatherer cultures worldwide are declining in number.

Questions 31–35

Complete the summary below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 31–35 on your answer sheet.

Contemporary hunter-gatherer societies

Bruce Kauft’s research shows that contemporary hunter-gatherer societies tend to

exhibit a high level of 31………………… in all areas of life. In these cultures,
distributing resources fairly among all members is a moral obligation. These
societies also employ strategies to prevent differences in 32…………………
occurring: for example, the !Kung follow a custom whereby the credit for one
person’s success at 33………………… is given to another member of the group.
Individuals who behave in a 34………………… manner are punished by being
excluded from the group, and women have a considerable amount
of 35………………… in choices regarding work and marriage.

Questions 36–40

Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage
3?

In boxes 36–40 on your answer sheet, write

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

36 Some anthropologists are mistaken about the point when the number of
societies such as the !Kung began to decline.

37 Humans who developed warlike traits in prehistory would have had an

advantage over those who did not.

38 Being peaceful and cooperative is a natural way for people to behave.

39 Negative traits are more apparent in some modern cultures than in others.

40 Animal research has failed to reveal a link between changes in the

environment and the emergence of aggressive tendencies.