IUE – SFL LEVEL D (UPPER-INTERMEDIATE) – Gateway Type Activities

2012/2013 Reading
Teacher Copy

You are going to read news items about different topics. For questions 1 to 8, decide which text (A‐
H) matches the topics listed. There is ONE EXTRA TEXT and ONE TEXT matches TWO TOPICS.

A) Apple, the company known for B) A survey conducted by the Associated C) The growth of popularity of e-books
constant technological advances, has Press (AP) shows that almost 60% of the has resulted in major financial losses for
just announced yet another updated world’s teenagers now use social traditional book publishing companies. E-
version of their popular i-phone. This networking. Websites such as Twitter and books allow people to download the latest
phone will have a larger screen, faster Facebook are increasingly popular as a way books immediately from home and as such
software, and offer users an even larger for teenagers to keep in touch. However, e-books are much more convenient than
range of applications. However, critics there is growing concern over the fact that traditional books. As a result, publishing
of the company say this is just another these sites are being used by teenagers to houses have seen a large decrease in their
attempt by the company to increase bully other teenagers. Instances of serious profits and are now working together to
revenues by persuading people who harassment have led to major psychological find ways to increase the popularity of
already use their products to update issues and even, unfortunately, to some books again.
unnecessarily. teenagers committing suicide because of the
bullying.
D) At a recent trade show, Samsung E) English teachers are worried that the
revealed their new ‘SMART’ televisions. increased popularity of text messaging is
These televisions are not only designed having a serious impact on their students
for watching television programmes on written English. The use of ‘text language’
but they also act as a fully integrated – basically abbreviated forms of common
computer. One of the most remarkable words – has resulted in a steep decline in
features of these new TVs is the size of their student’s ability to spell words
the screen. The latest TVs have screens correctly. There have even been instances
as large as 210cms wide – that is more where students have used the text
than the average man’s height. language in formal written examinations.

F) Amazon, the online store, has G) The Internet has revolutionized the way H) FIFA, the international organisation for
recently introduced a new version of the majority of people get information, shop football, has for many years been debating
their popular e-book, the Kindle. The and communicate. However, in under- whether technology should be used in
new versions feature the paperwhite developed countries access to computers is football matches. Many people believe
technology which allows users to read not something everybody has. Therefore, a that if some form of technology, such as
their Kindles in the dark. This follows new project recently introduced in Nigeria, video cameras, were introduced, disputes
on from the Kindle Fire which was hopes that by funding computers to be between players and referees would be
introduced last year. The Fire has a installed in villages all over the country they resolved much more easily and as such
coloured screen and has been even will be able to address this issue. Funding for relationships between football officials
seen as a cheaper rival to Apple’s i-pad. the project has come from the United and football teams would be stronger and
Nations’ Education and Science Programme. therefore improve the reputation of the
game overall.

1. ___E__ A concern over technology affecting learning

2. ___H__ Using technology to resolve conflicts

3. ___B__ The negative side of technology on personal health and happiness

4. ___C__ Technology challenging a conventional business

5. ___G__ Ensuring the latest technology is available to all

6. ___F__ Updating technology to compete with another company’s products

7. ___A__ Using technology to gain financial rewards

8. ___F__ A technological advance for night time

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2012/2013 Reading
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(Text D is not used)

Making Connections (High-Intermediate) – Unit 4 – Reading 2

Read the text below. For questions 1 to 9, choose the best answer.
1 Approximately ten thousand years ago, when the first permanent human settlements
emerged after about 2 million years of hunter-gatherer society, the total population of
the earth was only about 5 million people. Not until the beginning of the nineteenth
century did the population exceed 1 billion. During that time, the human species had
a negligible influence on the ecology of the planet as a whole.

2 By the beginning of the twentieth century, however, the population stood at 2 billion.
Then, in the next fifty years, it more than doubled, to 6.1 billion. According to the
United Nations’ projections, although the rate of population of growth will stabilize
and may fall in the future, the total population will continue to increase significantly
and will reach 9.3 billion by 2050. All of this growth will be in less-developed
countries, which will be home to more than 85 percent of the world’s people in 2050.
Today, as a direct result of population growth, the impact of human activities on the
world’s ecology is already substantial. In the future, it may be catastrophic.

3 Studies have shown that runaway population growth represents a massive threat to
the environment on the local, national, and global levels. In areas of Nepal, for
example, the pressure of overpopulation and poverty forces farmers into the hills,
where they cut down the vegetation to provide wood for heating and construction,
food for their animals, and land to raise crops. In a short time, the fertile topsoil is
eroded by rain because it is now without the protection offered by the natural
vegetation. The hillside fields then become unproductive, incapable of supporting the
people who have settled there.

4 Elsewhere, in the world’s tropical zones, to provide employment and earn money from
exports, nations like Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand have been cutting down their
hardwood forests faster than they can replace these valuable resources. Brazil, in a
desperate attempt to relieve poverty and create economic growth, has permitted the
destruction of vast areas of its Amazon rain forest for agricultural use. The sad irony
is that much of the cleared land proves unsuitable for traditional farming after a few
years because the destruction of the forest has interrupted the recycling of natural
nutrients to the soil.

5 By 2000, at least half the world’s tropical forests had disappeared. Their destruction
has consequences that cross national borders and are felt globally. First, the burning
of forests releases large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere – emissions
that are contributing to potentially disastrous changes in global climate patterns.
Second, as the forest vanishes, so too does its diverse plant and animal life. Thus,
the human race may be losing, along with the tropical forests, a vast potential source
of scientific knowledge.

6 Clearly, if action is not taken soon, the ecological damage caused by overpopulation
and unwise development threatens to run out of control. A partial solution to the crisis
may lie in the family-planning programs that have been operating in a number of
developing countries for some time. In Indonesia, for example, the family-planning
program established a large number of village centres that distribute free
contraceptives and information about birth control. The program has had
considerable success. Between 1972 and 1988, the fertility rate fell by almost 40
percent, and the number of couples practicing birth control increased fifty-fold. A
reduction in the birthrate has also been experienced in by other countries with family-
planning programs, including South Korea, Thailand, Mexico and Tunisia. And there is
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2012/2013 Reading
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clear evidence, too, that lower birthrates can bring economic benefits to developing
nations. According to a 2002 U.N. report, declines in birthrate accounted for 33
percent of the economic growth in East Asia between 1960 and 1995.

1. The world’s population when the first permanent human settlements appeared
_______.
A) was over 1 billion
B) had a major effect on the planet’s ecology
C) was under 2 million
D) was approximately 5 million
2. According to the United Nations, world population growth _______.
A) will continue to rise at the current rate in the future
B) will remain stable or even decrease in the future
C) was at it’s highest in the first half of the 20 th century
D) will continue to rise in both developed and under developed countries
3. According to Paragraph 2, by 2050 ______.
A) more than 80% of the world’s population will be living in less
developed countries
B) there will be a major change in human activity
C) the world’s ecology will have stabilised
D) the world will have ended catastrophically
4. The writer gives the example of Nepal to show _______.
A) the impact the weather has on farming
B) the possible negative effects of population growth
C) that hillside fields are not good places to grow crops
D) that population growth only has a negative effect in Asia

5. The cutting down of areas of forest in countries such as Indonesia and Brazil
_______.
A) provides new homes for poor people
B) helps improve the soil
C) has a negative result in the long term
D) is happening slowly
6. The word diverse in Paragraph 5 probably means _______.
A) invisible
B) natural
C) similar
D) varying
7. According to Paragraph 6, family-planning programmes in developing
countries ______.
A) started in 1972
B) have not been particularly successful
C) teach people about birth control
D) only operate in poor villages

8. One result of the family planning programmes is ______.

A) people have 50% less children
B) all couples in less developed countries now practise birth control
C) a large decrease in the number of children being born in poorer
countries
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2012/2013 Reading
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D) large economic growth all over the world

9. The main idea of Paragraph 6 is: ______.
A) Controlling overpopulation has economic and ecological benefits
B) People in under developed countries should have less children
C) The only solution to potential ecological disaster is family-planning
D) The birth rate in underdeveloped countries has fallen substantially

Language Leader (Upper Intermediate) – Unit 12 – p. 126

Read the text below. Seven sentences are missing. Choose from the
sentences (A-I) the one which fits each gap (1-7). There are TWO extra
sentences.

NO GOING BACK TO NATURE

1 The times, they are a-changing – and a lot more quickly today than when Bob
Dylan sang those words 40 years ago. We are doubling the rate of
technological innovation every ten years. Great news for human development,
you’d have thought. Not everyone thinks so. 1 _______. As a result, they are
doing their best to hold it up.

2 The modern world must be an alarming place for anti-technology movements,

given the extraordinary pace of development. Whereas the telephone took 50
years to be adopted by a quarter of the US population, the cell phone did that
in just seven. 2 ________. Greater changes are on their way, such as the use of
RNA interference, which can turn genes off, and gene therapy, which can add
new ones. Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have
designed a device the size of a blood cell that can find and destroy cancer cells
in the bloodstream; within 20 years, each of us could have millions of them in
our bodies keeping us healthy. 3 ________. Will that make us less human? I
don’t believe so. We have always extended our mental and physical reach with
technology in a way no other species has.

3 Anti-technology groups do not think this way. For an example of why they are
dangerous, consider their opposition to the genetic engineering of cotton to
remove the toxin gossypol from the seeds so that they can be eaten. 4
________. A similar example is ‘golden rice’: a variety of rice produced through
genetic engineering to be used in areas where there is a shortage of dietary
vitamin A. Some groups have been against the use of ‘golden rice’ and it is
currently not available for consumption. 5 ________. And if they had been less
critical, thousands of children in poorer areas would not be blind today. Such
attitudes are unfortunate because they are a major obstacle to relieving
suffering.

4 The democratisation of technology and its inevitable consequence – giving

anyone the means to find the equipment and know-how to produce bio-
weapons – has encouraged the call to reject technologies such as
biotechnology, nanotechnology and artificial intelligence. 6 ________. Also, most
importantly, it would drive these developments underground, where they would
be impossible to regulate.

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5 Rather than stop this kind of research, we need to speed it up. If we devoted
more resources to modern technology, we could have avoided many modern-
day problems. We need to reassure people of the profound benefits that
today’s rapid advances in technology will bring, while developing defences
against their abuse. 7 ________.

A) This advance could help feed millions of people in climates where other food is
hard to grow
B) We should not let anti-technologist groups hold us back
C) We must consider the negative impact technological innovations can have on
our health
D) Many people are fearful of this pace of progress in science and technology, and
the way it is challenging basic ideas about the nature of human life
E) In the near future, we will be more inclined to live a life which does not have
any room for technology.
F) Five years ago most people didn’t use search engines; imagine that now
G) If these groups had not opposed its development so strongly, it would have
been produced in many countries
H) By the 2030s, we will be more non-biological than biological
I) This is a bad idea: if we didn’t develop such technologies, we would not receive
the important benefits they will bring

ANSWER KEY
1. D 2. F 3. H 4. A 5. G 6. I 7. B
“C” and “E” are extra.

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