NEC FOUNDATION 05.

READING
WEEK 2 - LESSON 3 - 31/05/2024

Part 1. For questions 1-13, read the following passage and do the tasks that follow.
Bismarck: A master of political and diplomatic juggling?

A. Otto Von Bismarck’s rise up the political ladder was swift and relentless. Having entered
parliament in 1847, he always harboured lofty ambitions, chief among them perhaps being the
reunification of Germany into one strong, centrally controlled state, though his own personal
thirst for power was arguably even stronger. On becoming Prussian Chancellor, he set about
fulfilling his ambitions and in doing so proved himself to be a diplomat of some considerable skill.
Victory in the Austro-Prussian war effectively ended Austria as a factor in German affairs. His
political and military juggling was taken a step further when he orchestrated a situation where
France declared war on Germany in 1870, making the French seem responsible for a conflict he
had always intended to create. And following another swift military triumph, this time over the
French, the German empire was proclaimed in January 1871. i

B. In little more than nine years, Bismarck realised his lifelong ambition, steering Germany to
reunification. And by defeating Austria and France in quick succession, he also created a power
vacuum on mainland Europe, which he was determined to fulfil himself. This was another
opportunity for Bismarck to demonstrate his political and diplomatic cunning. He set about
creating a dictatorial Germany in which he, as head of the Prussian parliament, would
automatically become chancellor of the German empire. He drafted a new German constitution
to suit his own purposes and, despite maintaining a veneer of democracy, the German parliament
was effectively powerless to oppose him. Provinces that were slow to support him were enticed
with bribes and before long the German empire was his to command.

C. It is a testament to his political skill that Bismarck achieved so much so quickly. At this point in
his colourful political career, he did appear, for all intents and purposes, a master of political and
diplomatic juggling. But challenges lay ahead and Bismarck’s next target was the Catholic
church, which he deemed too powerful and a threat to his political dominance. He proceeded to
enact a series of laws that seriously eroded the power of the church. However, his plans backfired
and Bismarck was forced to make a political U-turn. Though here again, he somehow managed to
save face. The damage to his reputation was limited and indeed by the late 1870s, he had even
managed to win over the church whose support he now needed.

D. Bismarck viewed the growing popularity of the Socialist Democratic Party as a serious threat.
He bided his time and used the attempted assassination of the Kaiser as an excuse to attack the
socialists in 1878, blaming them for the attempt on the Kaiser’s life. He immediately arrested the
leaders, banned party meetings, and suppressed socialist newspapers. But despite his efforts to
destroy the socialist movement, its popularity had trebled by 1890. Just as his interventions with
the church had not gone as planned, Bismarck once again failed to achieve his objective; though,
to his credit, he held on to power. vii

E. His domestic position was relatively secure after 1871, Bismarck devoted a lot of his time to
foreign policy. Having used war to unite Germany and make her great, Bismarck now believed
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that his ambitions were best served by peace. His plan to isolate a hostile France would require
all his considerable diplomatic skills. The Dreikaiserbund agreement of 1873 between Germany,
Austria-Hungary, and Russia was a first step towards doing just that. The Balkan crisis, a conflict
involving Russia and Austria Hungary, severely tested his diplomatic credentials, but his answer
was to offer himself as an ‘honest broker’ to help resolve the dispute. The subsequent Congress of
Berlin which he hosted was an outstanding success and only served to reinforce Bismarck’s
reputation as a shrewd diplomat. Bismarck’s foreign policy would continue in this vein throughout
his reign as Chancellor. He built up strategic alliances with the big powers, Russia, Italy, and
Austria-Hungary, in the hope that he could keep his main threats, France and Britain, isolated. vi

F. In truth, Bismarck’s reign as chancellor of the German empire does seem to confirm him as a
shrewd and wily diplomat and politician, one whose objectives were broadly achieved. Does this
mean his so-called juggling was a success? Perhaps, but Bismarck left a less than perfect legacy.
He created a Germany in which the Kaiser had the ultimate say in domestic affairs and enjoyed
far too much power should he choose to wield it. This meant that the future of the empire largely
depended on the strength and character of just one man, the Kaiser. A weak Kaiser would be
disastrous for the country’s welfare, and so it would soon prove. In the final analysts, Bismarck
put Germany back on the map again as a great power during his reign, but we should not forget
that he created the political situation that would be the downfall of his country in the end. His
political and diplomatic juggling, therefore, simply cannot be considered a total success.

Questions 1-6
Reading passage has six paragraphs A-F.
Choose the correct heading, i - ix, from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number i-ix in the boxes 1-6.

i The pace at which Bismarck advanced his ambitions

ii Separating church and state
iii A change of mind
iv Unexpected ramifications of socialist threat
v Unremitting efforts to create a virtual dictatorship
vi External objectives and activities
vii Abortive attempts to curb a movement
viii Political power on the wane
ix A critical analysis

1. Paragraph A
2. Paragraph B
3. Paragraph C
4. Paragraph D
5. Paragraph E
6. Paragraph F

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Questions 7-13
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage?
In boxes 7-13, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

7. Germany defeated France and Austria successively to claim the dominant position in Europe.
8. The Congress of Berlin was a great personal success for Bismarck.
9. After Bismarck enacted laws to weaken the Catholic Church, he was forced to change his policy
and made a church an ally.
10. The Socialist Democratic Party took power from Bismarck in 1890.
11. Bismarck’s foreign policy was to wage war with all countries that posed a military threat.
12. Bismarck considered his reign as German chancellor a failure.
13. It can be concluded that Bismarck was not actually a master of political juggling.

Part 2. For questions 14-23, read an extract from an article and choose the answer A, B, C or
D that fits best according to the text. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered
boxes provided
Super memorisers

There are people in this world who are innately possessed of an ability to remember things with
quite an extraordinary degree of detail and exactness. These super memorisers, as they are
known, typically possess a brain naturally and distinctively wired to maximize its memorizing
potential. They are gifted such that they require no particular training or effort to sharpen their
memories; they remember things just as effortlessly as most people forget them. Few of us are
born with such gifts, sadly, but there is much cause for optimism yet for those looking to improve
their brain’s performance tangibly in this area; a fact which Boris Konrad is testament to.

Konrad is a champion memoriser who, in winning gold in the German Memory Championships one
year, recognized and recalled the names of 195 people in just fifteen minutes. [■] His powers of
recollection, then, are as admirable as they are undisputed, but Konrad is self-trained and started
out with a recall capacity that was unremarkable. [■] Instead, he spent years developing
memory strategies and employing those strategies to improve in the area through practice and
dedication. [■] He, then, is a living proof that the average Joe with a gift for forgetfulness can
reinvent himself in the area. [■]However, his example is as much a reminder of the extent of
devotion that is required to reach this level as it is of the possibilities if one is prepared to put in
the effort, and there are not many people prepared to expend a similar level of effort to this end,
which is what really makes Konrad unique.

That said, whilst you may not become a super memoriser overnight, new research suggests that it
is possible to tangibly improve your memory in a relatively short space of time by devoting
roughly half an hour of your every day to the process. It is necessary to learn and employ
memorizing strategies such as the Memory Palace technique Konrad uses, though, to yield such
results; otherwise, you might as well be doing something else. In one recent study, for example,
participants spent one month training their memories in the aforementioned technique for 30
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minutes every day, which more than doubled their ability to remember a list of information after
just 40 days. More impressively, recall performance remained high whether or not training
continued at the end of one month, which suggests after rewiring of the brain it can be
permanent.

Even innately gifted memorisers use such mnemonic techniques to enhance their recall ability,
and, of the recall methods which exist, the methods of loci, which has already been referred to
here as the Memory Palace method, is the most prevalent one adopted as revealed by a recent
study of 35 memory champions. Indeed, at a more rudimentary level, this method has been
employed by orators and others required to remember long strings of interconnected information
for some time, and it actually dates back to Ancient Greece, where it was first conceived of,
remaining prevalent right through to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. It is only a new
method then, today, in the sense that the skill had been lost as such to most people for a very
long time. Indeed, many of today’s super memorisers employed it intuitively rather than in a
conscious effort to enhance their recall powers.

Participants in the study were separated into three distinct groups, with one group receiving no
memory training whatsoever and making no notable recall gains during the process. The second
group dedicated time and effort to upping their recall capacity, but employed an everyday
technique. However, those using the Memory Palate technique more than doubled their initial
recall capacity by the process’s end. What’s more, their brain functions actually changed and
their brain patterns began to bear more of a likeness to those of innate super memorisers,
leading researchers to speculate that a total rewire might well be possible over time, such that a
normal individual’s recall capacity could match that of any memory champion. The conclusion,
therefore, was that memory is not necessarily an innately bestowed gift you either are possessed
of or not. Most of us have the potential to hone and expand our memories very meaningfully
indeed.

14. According to the first paragraph, people with marvelous power of retention usually
A. undergo rigorous practice to become that way.
B. demonstrate brain functions resembling anyone else.
C. throw in little effort to commit things to memory.
D. be tangibly more intelligent than other people.

15. Why are Konrad’s achievements mentioned in paragraph two?

A. To underline the excellence of inborn super memorisers
B. To demonstrate the disparity between laymen and super memorisers
C. To prove that almost every individual can make a significant enhancement in their retention
powers
D. To show how even innate super memorisers have to exert themselves

16. What does the writer mean in the phrase ‘you might as well be doing something else’ in
paragraph three?
A. It is futile to invest time in improving recall capacity.
B. People should concentrate on their strengths.
C. The Memory Palace technique is not universally suitable.
D. Progress is only visible if you train in the right way.

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17. What did the study mentioned in the third paragraph conclude?
A. The implication of moderate brain exercises can be enduring.
B. The maintenance of a decent recall capacity requires continuous training.
C. Your recall ability can more than double within one month.
D. Progress is only noticeable with at least 30 minutes spent on brain training.

18. What do we learn about the method of loci?

A. It is superior to the Memory Palace method.
B. Most skillful memorisers purposefully adopt it.
C. It has evolved from methods first employed in Ancient Greece.
D. It has been widely used among super memorisers.

19. What did the results of the study mentioned in the final paragraph reveal?
A. How the brains of super memorisers function is inimitable.
B. The application of appropriate technique exerts a tremendous influence on the brain.
C. Memory training is futile unless employing a confirmed technique.
D. Most super memorisers are not talented at memorizing at birth.

20. The word "mnemonic techniques” in paragraph 4 mostly means

A. gimmicks used to improve brain functions.
B. endowed talents of super memorisers.
C. tips specifically designed to aid the process of retaining information.
D. skills adopted by super memorisers to avoid absent-mindedness.

21. Look at the four squares [■] that indicate where the following sentence could be added
to the passage.
Indeed, after just 30 seconds, examination, he is able to retain the order of an entire deck of
cards.
Where would the sentence best fit?
A. First square
B. Second square
C. Third square
D. Fourth square

22. The word "orators” in paragraph 4 mostly means

A. language experts
B. body language experts
C. oral students
D. proficient speakers

23. The paragraph following the passage would most probably discuss
A. further research into the workings of brains of super memorisers.
B. the defeat of a normal person over a super memoriser in terms of recalling capacity.
C. potential ways to expand our power of retention.
D. the popularity of memory palace technique.

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Part 3. In the passage below, seven paragraphs have been removed. For questions
24-30, read the passage and choose from the paragraphs A-H the one which fits each
gap. There is ONE extra paragraph which you do not need to use. Write your
answers in the corresponding numbered box provided.
Blind to Change

How much of the world around you do you really see? You only take in tiny pieces of information
at a time and that can have unnerving consequences, says Laura Spinney.

Imagine you’re walking across a college campus when an unknown man asks you for directions.
While you’re talking, two men pass between you carrying a door. After an irritating minute of
interruption you carry on describing the route. When you’ve finished you are informed that you’ve
just taken part in a psychology experiment, and asked if you noticed any changes after the two
men passed by the door. “No”, you reply uneasily. The unknown man then explains that the man
who approached you initially walked off behind the door, leaving this man in his place. You are
stunned; the two men are dressed differently and have different voices and haircuts.
24

Rather than logging every detail of the visual scene, we are actually highly selective about what
we take in. Our impression of seeing everything is just that – an impression. In fact we extract a
few details and rely on memory, or perhaps even our imagination, for the rest.
25

Yet in 1991, the controversial claim was made that our brains hold only a few salient details about
the world - and that this is the reason we are able to function at all. We don’t store elaborate
pictures in short-term memory, because it isn’t necessary and would take up valuable computing
power.
26

Just a year later, at a conference on perception in Vancouver, it was reported that people shown
computer-generated pictures of natural scenes were blind to changes that were made during an
eye movement. In a typical laboratory demonstration of this you might be shown a picture on a
computer screen of, say, a couple dining on a terrace.
27

It’s an unnerving experience. But to some extent, such “change blindness” is artificial because the
change is masked in some way. In real life, there tends to be a visible movement that signals the
change. But not always. For instance, we have all had the experience of not noticing a traffic
signal change because we had briefly looked away.
28

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For instance, an experiment was done at Harvard in which people were shown a videotape of a
basketball game and asked to count the passes made by one or other team. After about 45
seconds a man dressed in a gorilla suit walked slowly across the scene, passing between the
players. Although he was visible for five seconds, an amazing 40 per cent of the viewers failed to
notice him.
29

Such lapses raise important questions about vision. For instance, how can we reconcile these
gross lapses with our subjective experience of having continuous access to a rich visual scene?
One researcher has actually shown that imagining a scene activates parts of the visual cortex in
the same way as seeing it. He says that this supports the idea that we take in just what
information we consider important at the time, and fill in the gaps where the details are less
important. The illusion that we see “everything” is partly a result of filling in the gaps using
memory. Such memories can be created based on beliefs and expectations.
30

This particular idea has not been generally accepted. Yet most researchers in the field do agree
that of all the myriad visual details of any scene that we could record, we take only what is
relevant to us at the time. This leads us to the uncomfortable realization that, for all our
subjective experience of a rich visual world, it may, in fact, be impossible to tell what is real and
what is imagined.

A. Now imagine that the task absorbing their attention had been driving a car, and the
distraction had been a pedestrian crossing their path. According to some estimates, nearly half of
all motor-vehicle accidents in the US can be attributed to driver error, including momentary loss
of attention. It is more than just academic interest that has made both forms of cognitive error
hot research topics.

B. The image would disappear, to be replaced for a fraction of a second by a blank

screen, before reappearing significantly altered - by the raising of a railing in the
background, perhaps. Many people search the screen for up to a minute before they see
the change. A few never spot it.

C. In contrast, other researchers argue that we can get the impression of visual richness without
holding any of that richness in our heads. For instance, the “grand illusion” theory argues that we
held no picture of the visual world in our brains at all. Instead, we refer back to the external
visual world as different aspects become important. The illusion arises from the fact that as soon
as you ask yourself “Am I seeing this or that?” you turn your attention to it and see it.

D. It sounds impossible, but when this test was carried out, a full 50 per cent of those who took
part failed to notice the substitution. The subjects had succumbed to what is called change
blindness. Taken with a glut of recent experimental results, this phenomenon suggests we see far
less than we think we do.

E. The relationships between attention, awareness and vision have yet to be clarified. Because we
have a less than complete picture of the world at any one time, there is the potential for
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distortion and error. How that complete picture could be objectively established is controversial,
but there is one obvious way forward.

F. This flies in the face of what vision researchers have long believed: that seeing really means
making pictures in the brain. According to this theory, by building detailed internal
representations of the world, and comparing them over time, we would be able to pick out
anything that changed.

G. And there’s a related phenomenon called inattentional blindness, that doesn’t need any
experimental visual trick at all: if you are not paying attention to some feature of a scene, you
won’t see it.

H. Rather, we log what has changed and assume the rest has stayed the same. Of course: this is
bound to mean that we miss a few details. Experimenters had already shown that we may ignore
items in the visual field if they appear not to be significant - a repeated word or line on a page of
text for instance. But nobody realized quite how little we really do “see”.

Part 4. The passage below consists of five sections marked A-E. For questions 31-40,
read the passage and do the task that follows. Write your answers (A-E) in the
corresponding numbered boxes provided.
Notorious Art 'Collector' Goes Free

Last week, Brian Barnes was acquitted of stealing a valuable ancient artefact. We asked some of
the key players about the trial.

A. Amelia Ashford (journalist)

I've been covering this case since the night of the robbery. A source from the museum contacted
me and told me that a priceless and irreplaceable ancient Egyptian gold statuette had been
stolen. This was not an opportunistic crime. The perpetrator knew in advance exactly where the
guards would be and had a meticulously crafted scheme for bypassing the museum's security
system.

The police investigation soon focused on Mr. Barnes, an art dealer with a shady past. They had
him under surveillance and an undercover officer, posing as a rich art collector, was negotiating
to buy the statuette. Mr. Barnes must have been tipped off, or realised what was going on, and
tried to flee the country. He was arrested at the airport, but this abrupt end to the police
operation meant that, when the case came to court, they didn't have enough evidence to secure
a conviction.

B. Brian Barnes (the defendant)

Justice was done. It's as simple as that. The jury delivered the only possible verdict. To be honest,
I take my hat off to whoever stole that statuette. It was an audacious crime, and the thieves
clearly baffled the police, but I had nothing to do with it. I'm just an honest businessman, and
when the robbery took place, I was at the theatre. Surely, if the police were unable to find anyone
who could corroborate that, that's their fault, not mine. Now, I just want to put this whole thing
behind me. I'm going to take a well-earned holiday, and then I'm looking forward to getting back
to work.
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C. Cristina Calviano (prosecution lawyer)

Obviously I'm very disappointed. I felt that we had a solid case against Mr. Barnes, and enough
persuasive arguments to get a conviction. The defendant clearly had the financial means to
mount an extravagant defence, and he took full advantage of that. What really hurt us, though,
was the judge's ruling that some of our key evidence could not be introduced in court. The jury
never heard that Mr. Barnes practically admitted stealing the statuette to an undercover police
officer or that we found a partial fingerprint at the scene of the crime that we believe is Mr.
Barnes'. We had to rely on a witness who saw the defendant with an item resembling the
statuette on the night in question, and sadly that wasn't enough to sway the jury in our favour.
Unfortunately, this means that the statuette is now unlikely to ever be recovered.

D. Daniel Dawson (defence barrister)

To begin with, I don't think it befits someone in Ms. Calviano's position to criticise in public the
way the court handled the case. There were good legal reasons why she wasn't allowed to present
the evidence that she mentioned. It's also disingenuous of her to claim that, had this evidence
been included, it would have altered the outcome of the trial. Take, for example, the partial
fingerprint that the police found (which, by the way, was the only tangible evidence that the
prosecution had). The experts disagreed about it, and even the police's forensic scientist
admitted that she wasn't able to state with 100% certainty that it was my client's print. Quite
frankly, this is a case that should never have come to court.

E. Ed Ellis (police detective)

Of course it's a shame, but that's the way it goes. You win some and you lose some. We'll have to
reopen our file on the case now but, after so much time and with no other suspects, I doubt that
my superiors will commit too many resources to it. We think that Barnes managed to pass the
statuette off to an accomplice before he was arrested, but after that the trail goes cold.

The only consolation is that Mr. Barnes doesn't seem like the sort of person who will be able to
keep a low profile. He's on our radar now, and I have a hunch that this won't be his last brush with
the law.

Which person (A—E) does the following?

31. states that the physical evidence in the case was inconclusive
32. believes that reinvestigating the case won’t be the police’s priorities
33. suggests Mr. Barnes may have been warned about the police investigation
34. suspects Mr. Barnes will be in trouble with the police again
35. mentions Mr. Barnes' affluence as his assisting factor
36. expresses admiration for the thieves
37. says that the robbery had been carefully planned
38. complains about a decision made by a court official
39. mentions that Mr. Barnes' alibi could not be confirmed
40. accuses somebody of acting in an unprofessional manner

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