Bài 1:

For seventeen days every four years the world is briefly arrested by the captivating,

dizzying spectacle of athleticism, ambition, pride and celebration on display at the

Summer Olympic Games. After the last weary spectators and competitors have

returned home, however, host cities are often left awash in high debts and costly

infrastructure maintenance. The staggering expenses involved in a successful Olympic

bid are often assumed to be easily mitigated by tourist revenues and an increase in

local employment, but more often than not host cities are short changed and their

taxpayers for generations to come are left settling the debt.

Olympic extravagances begin with the application process. Bidding alone will set

most cities back about $20 million, and while officially bidding only takes two years

(for cities that make the shortlist), most cities can expect to exhaust a decade working

on their bid from the moment it is initiated to the announcement of voting results from

International Olympic Committee members. Aside from the financial costs of the bid

alone, the process ties up real estate in prized urban locations until the outcome is

known. This can cost local economies millions of dollars of lost revenue from private

developers who could have made use of the land, and can also mean that particular

urban quarters lose their vitality due to the vacant lots. All of this can be for nothing if

a bidding city does not appease the whims of IOC members – private connections and

opinions on government conduct often hold sway (Chicago’s 2012 bid is thought to

have been undercut by tensions over U.S. foreign policy).

Bidding costs do not compare, however, to the exorbitant bills that come with hosting

the Olympic Games themselves. As is typical with large-scale, one-off projects,

budgeting for the Olympics is a notoriously formidable task. Los Angelinos have only

recently finished paying off their budget-breaking 1984 Olympics; Montreal is still in

debt for its 1976 Games (to add insult to injury, Canada is the only host country to

have failed to win a single gold medal during its own Olympics). The tradition of

runaway expenses has persisted in recent years. London Olympics managers have

admitted that their 2012 costs may increase ten times over their initial projections,

leaving tax payers 20 billion pounds in the red.

Hosting the Olympics is often understood to be an excellent way to update a city’s

sporting infrastructure. The extensive demands of Olympic sports include aquatic

complexes, equestrian circuits, shooting ranges, beach volleyball courts, and, of

course, an 80,000 seat athletic stadium. Yet these demands are typically only

necessary to accommodate a brief influx of athletes from around the world. Despite

the enthusiasm many populations initially have for the development of world-class

sporting complexes in their home towns, these complexes typically fall into disuse

after the Olympic fervour has waned. Even Australia, home to one of the world’s most

sportive populations, has left its taxpayers footing a $32 million-a-year bill for the

maintenance of vacant facilities.

Another major concern is that when civic infrastructure developments are undertaken

in preparation for hosting the Olympics, these benefits accrue to a single metropolitan

centre (with the exception of some outlying areas that may get some revamped sports

facilities). In countries with an expansive land mass, this means vast swathes of the
population miss out entirely. Furthermore, since the International Olympic Committee

favours prosperous “global” centres (the United Kingdom was told, after three failed

bids from its provincial cities, that only London stood any real chance at winning), the

improvement of public transport, roads and communication links tends to concentrate

in places already well-equipped with world-class infrastructures. Perpetually by-

passing minor cities creates a cycle of disenfranchisement: these cities never get an

injection of capital, they fail to become first-rate candidates, and they are constantly

passed over in favour of more secure choices.

Finally, there is no guarantee that an Olympics will be a popular success. The “feel

good” factor that most proponents of Olympic bids extol (and that was no doubt

driving the 90 to 100 per cent approval rates of Parisians and Londoners for their

cities’ respective 2012 bids) can be an elusive phenomenon, and one that is tied to that

nation’s standing on the medal tables. This ephemeral thrill cannot compare to the

years of disruptive construction projects and security fears that go into preparing for

an Olympic Games, nor the decades of debt repayment that follow (Greece’s

preparation for Athens 2004 famously deterred tourists from visiting the country due

to widespread unease about congestion and disruption).

There are feasible alternatives to the bloat, extravagance and wasteful spending that

comes with a modern Olympic Games. One option is to designate a permanent host

city that would be re-designed or built from scratch especially for the task. Another is

to extend the duration of the Olympics so that it becomes a festival of several months.

Local businesses would enjoy the extra spending and congestion would ease

substantially as competitors and spectators come and go according to their specific

interests. Neither the “Olympic City” nor the extended length options really get to the

heart of the issue, however. Stripping away ritual and decorum in favour of

concentrating on athletic rivalry would be preferable.

Failing that, the Olympics could simply be scrapped altogether. International

competition could still be maintained through world championships in each discipline.

Most of these events are already held on non-Olympic years anyway – the

International Association of Athletics Federations, for example, has run a biennial

World Athletics Championship since 1983 after members decided that using the

Olympics for their championship was no longer sufficient. Events of this nature keep

world-class competition alive without requiring Olympic-sized expenses.

Questions 14–18

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

Write the correct letter, A–K, in boxes 14–18 on your answer sheet.

14 Bids to become a host city

15 Personal relationships and political tensions

16 Cost estimates for the Olympic Games

17 Purpose-built sporting venues

18 Urban developments associated with the Olympics

A often help smaller cities to develop basic infrastructure.

B tend to occur in areas where they are least needed.

C require profitable companies to be put out of business.

D are often never used again once the Games are over.

E can take up to ten years to complete.

F also satisfy needs of local citizens for first-rate sports facilities.

G is usually only successful when it is from a capital city.

H are closely related to how people feel emotionally about the Olympics.

I are known for being very inaccurate.

J often underlie the decisions of International Olympic Committee members.

K are holding back efforts to reform the Olympics

Questions 19–25 Do the following statements agree with the information given in
Reading Passage 2? In boxes 19–25 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

19 Residents of host cities have little use for the full range of Olympic facilities.

20 Australians have still not paid for the construction of Olympic sports facilities.

21 People far beyond the host city can expect to benefit from improved infrastructure.

22 It is difficult for small cities to win an Olympic bid.

23 When a city makes an Olympic bid, a majority of its citizens usually want it to win.

24 Whether or not people enjoy hosting the Olympics in their city depends on how
athletes from their country perform in Olympic events.

25 Fewer people than normal visited Greece during the run up to the Athens
Olympics.

Questions 26 and 27 Choose TWO letters, A–E. Write the correct letters in boxes 26
and 27 on your answer sheet. Which TWO of the following does the author propose
as alternatives to the current Olympics?

A The Olympics should be cancelled in favour of individual competitions for

each sport.

B The Olympics should focus on ceremony rather than competition.

C The Olympics should be held in the same city every time.

D The Olympics should be held over a month rather than seventeen days.

E The Olympics should be made smaller by getting rid of unnecessary and

unpopular sports.

Bài 2:
Time travel took a small step away from science fiction and toward science recently

when physicists discovered that sub-atomic particles known as neutrinos – progeny of

the sun’s radioactive debris – can exceed the speed of light. The unassuming particle –

it is electrically neutral, small but with a “non-zero mass” and able to penetrate the

human form undetected – is on its way to becoming a rock star of the scientific world.

Researchers from the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva

sent the neutrinos hurtling through an underground corridor toward their colleagues at

the Oscillation Project with Emulsion-Tracing Apparatus (OPERA) team 730

kilometres away in Gran Sasso, Italy. The neutrinos arrived promptly – so promptly, in

fact, that they triggered what scientists are calling the unthinkable – that everything

they have learnt, known or taught stemming from the last one hundred years of the

physics discipline may need to be reconsidered.

The issue at stake is a tiny segment of time – precisely sixty nanoseconds (which is

sixty billionths of a second). This is how much faster than the speed of light the
neutrinos managed to go in their underground travels and at a consistent rate (15,000

neutrinos were sent over three years). Even allowing for a margin of error of ten

billionths of a second, this stands as proof that it is possible to race against light and

win. The duration of the experiment also accounted for and ruled out any possible

lunar effects or tidal bulges in the earth’s crust.

Nevertheless, there’s plenty of reason to remain sceptical. According to Harvard

University science historian Peter Galison, Einstein’s relativity theory has been

“pushed harder than any theory in the history of the physical sciences”. Yet each prior

challenge has come to no avail, and relativity has so far refused to buckle.

So is time travel just around the corner? The prospect has certainly been wrenched

much closer to the realm of possibility now that a major physical hurdle – the speed of

light – has been cleared. If particles can travel faster than light, in theory travelling

back in time is possible. How anyone harnesses that to some kind of helpful end is far

beyond the scope of any modern technologies, however, and will be left to future

generations to explore.

Certainly, any prospective time travellers may have to overcome more physical and

logical hurdles than merely overtaking the speed of light. One such problem, posited

by René Barjavel in his 1943 text Le Voyageur Imprudent is the socalled grandfather

paradox. Barjavel theorised that, if it were possible to go back in time, a time traveller

could potentially kill his own grandfather. If this were to happen, however, the time

traveller himself would not be born, which is already known to be true. In other
words, there is a paradox in circumventing an already known future; time travel is

able to facilitate past actions that mean time travel itself cannot occur.

Other possible routes have been offered, though. For Igor Novikov, astrophysicist

behind the 1980s’ theorem known as the self-consistency principle, time travel is

possible within certain boundaries. Novikov argued that any event causing a paradox

would have zero probability. It would be possible, however, to “affect” rather than

“change” historical outcomes if travellers avoided all inconsistencies. Averting the

sinking of the Titanic, for example, would revoke any future imperative to stop it from

sinking – it would be impossible. Saving selected passengers from the water and

replacing them with realistic corpses would not be impossible, however, as the

historical record would not be altered in any way.

A further possibility is that of parallel universes. Popularised by Bryce Seligman

DeWitt in the 1960s (from the seminal formulation of Hugh Everett), the many-worlds

interpretation holds that an alternative pathway for every conceivable occurrence

actually exists. If we were to send someone back in time, we might therefore expect

never to see him again – any alterations would divert that person down a new

historical trajectory.

A final hypothesis, one of unidentified provenance, reroutes itself quite efficiently

around the grandfather paradox. Non-existence theory suggests exactly that – a person

would quite simply never exist if they altered their ancestry in ways that obstructed

their own birth. They would still exist in person upon returning to the present, but any
chain reactions associated with their actions would not be registered. Their “historical

identity” would be gone.

So, will humans one day step across the same boundary that the neutrinos have?

World-renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking believes that once spaceships can

exceed the speed of light, humans could feasibly travel millions of years into the

future in order to repopulate earth in the event of a forthcoming apocalypse. This is

because, as the spaceships accelerate into the future, time would slow down around

them (Hawking concedes that bygone eras are off limits – this would violate the

fundamental rule that cause comes before effect).

Hawking is therefore reserved yet optimistic. “Time travel was once considered

scientific heresy, and I used to avoid talking about it for fear of being labelled a crank.

These days I’m not so cautious.

Questions 28–33

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 3?

In boxes 28–33 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

28 It is unclear where neutrinos come from.

29 Neutrinos can pass through a person’s body without causing harm.

30 It took scientists between 50-70 nanoseconds to send the neutrinos from Geneva to

Italy.

31 Researchers accounted for effects the moon might have had on the experiment.
32 The theory of relativity has often been called into question unsuccessfully.

33 This experiment could soon lead to some practical uses for time travel.

Questions 34–39

Complete the table below.

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 34–39 on your answer sheet

Question 40

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D. Write the correct letter in box 40 on your
answer sheet. Stephen Hawking has stated that

A Human time travel is theoretically possible, but is unlikely to ever actually occur.

B Human time travel might be possible, but only moving backward in time.

C Human time travel might be possible, but only moving forward in time.
D All time travel is impossible

Bài 3:

A wolf pack is an extremely well-organised family group with a well-defined social

structure and a clear-cut code of conduct. Every wolf has a certain place and function

within the pack and every member has to do its fair share of the work. The supreme

leader is a very experienced wolf – the alpha – who has dominance over the whole

pack. It is the protector and decision-maker and directs the others as to where, when

and what to hunt. However, it does not lead the pack into the hunt, for it is far too

valuable to risk being injured or killed. That is the responsibility of the beta wolf, who

assumes second place in the hierarchy of the pack. The beta takes on the role of

enforcer – fighter or ‘tough guy’– big, strong and very aggressive. It is both the

disciplinarian of the pack and the alpha’s bodyguard.

The tester, a watchful and distrustful character, will alert the alpha if it encounters

anything suspicious while it is scouting around looking for signs of trouble. It is also

the quality controller, ensuring that the others are deserving of their place in the pack.

It does this by creating a situation that tests their bravery and courage, by starting a

fight, for instance. At the bottom of the social ladder is the omega wolf, subordinate

and submissive to all the others, but often playing the role of peacemaker by

intervening in an intra-pack squabble and defusing the situation by clowning around.

Whereas the tester may create conflict, the omega is more likely to resolve it.
The rest of the pack is made up of mid- to low-ranking non-breeding adults and the

immature offspring of the alpha and its mate. The size of the group varies from around

six to ten members or more, depending on the abundance of food and numbers of the

wolf population in general.

Wolves have earned themselves an undeserved reputation for being ruthless predators

and a danger to humans and livestock. The wolf has been portrayed in fairy tales and

folklore as a very bad creature, killing any people and other animals it encounters.

However, the truth is that wolves only kill to eat, never kill more than they need, and

rarely attack humans unless their safety is threatened in some way. It has been

suggested that hybrid wolf-dogs or wolves suffering from rabies are actually

responsible for many of the historical offences as well as more recent incidents.

Wolves hunt mainly at night. They usually seek out large herbivores, such as deer,

although they also eat smaller animals, such as beavers, hares and rodents, if these are

obtainable. Some wolves in western Canada are known to fish for salmon. The alpha

wolf picks out a specific animal in a large herd by the scent it leaves behind. The prey

is often a very young, old or injured animal in poor condition. The alpha signals to its

hunters which animal to take down and when to strike by using tail movements and

the scent from a gland at the tip of its spine above the tail.

Wolves kill to survive. Obviously, they need to eat to maintain strength and health but

the way they feast on the prey also reinforces social order. Every member of the

family has a designated spot at the carcass and the alpha directs them to their places

through various ear postures: moving an ear forward, flattening it back against the

head or swivelling it around. The alpha wolf eats the prized internal organs while the
beta is entitled to the muscle-meat of the rump and thigh, and the omega and other low

ranks are assigned the intestinal contents and less desirable parts such as the backbone

and ribs.

The rigid class structure in a wolf pack entails frequent displays of supremacy and

respect. When a higher-ranking wolf approaches, a lesser-ranking wolf must slow

down, lower itself, and pass to the side with head averted to show deference; or, in an

extreme act of passive submission, it may roll onto its back, exposing its throat and

belly. The dominant wolf stands over it, stiff-legged and tall, asserting its superiority

and its authority in the pack.

Questions 1–6 Classify the following statements as referring to

A the alpha wolf

B the beta wolf

C the tester wolf

D the omega wolf

Write the correct letter, A, B, C or D in boxes 1–6 on your answer sheet. NB You may

use any letter more than once.

1 It is at the forefront of the pack when it makes a kill.

2 It tries to calm tensions and settle disputes between pack members.

3 It is the wolf in charge and maintains control over the pack.

4 It warns the leader of potential danger.

5 It protects the leader of the pack.

6 It sets up a trial to determine whether a wolf is worthy of its status in the pack.

Questions 7–13 Do the following statements agree with the information given in

Reading Passage 1? In boxes 7–13 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

7 Wolves are a constant danger to humans.

8 Crossbred wolves or sick wolves are most likely to blame for attacks on people.

9 Canadian wolves prefer to eat fish, namely salmon.

10 The wolf pack leader identifies a particular target for attack by its smell.

11 When wolves attack a herd, they go after the healthiest animal.

12 The piece of a dead animal that a wolf may eat depends on its status in the pack.

13 A low-ranking wolf must show submission or the dominant wolf will attack it

SECTION 2

Questions 14–26 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14–26, which are

based on Reading Passage 2 below.

Environmental medicine – also called conservation medicine, ecological medicine, or

medical geology –
A In simple terms, environmental medicine deals with the interaction between human

and animal health and the environment. It concerns the adverse reactions that people

have on contact with or exposure to an environmental excitant1 . Ecological health is

its primary concern, especially emerging infectious diseases and pathogens from

insects, plants and vertebrate animals.

B Practitioners of environmental medicine work in teams involving many other

specialists. As well as doctors, clinicians and medical researchers, there may be

marine and climate biologists, toxicologists, veterinarians, geospatial and landscape

analysts, even political scientists and economists. This is a very broad approach to the

rather simple concept that there are causes for all illnesses, and that what we eat and

drink or encounter in our surroundings has a direct impact on our health.

C Central to environmental medicine is the total load theory developed by the clinical

ecologist Theron Randolph, who postulated that illness occurs when the body’s ability

to detoxify environmental excitants has reached its capacity. His wide-ranging

perception of what makes up those stimuli includes chemical, physical, biological and

psychosocial factors. If a person with numerous and/or chronic exposures to

environmental chemicals suffers a psychological upset, for example, this could

overburden his immune system and result in actual physical illness. In other words,

disease is the product of multiple factors.

D Another Randolph concept is that of individual susceptibility or the variability in

the
response of individuals to toxic agents. Individuals may be susceptible to any number

of excitants but those exposed to the same risk factors do not necessarily develop the

same disease, due in large part to genetic predisposition; however, age, gender,

nutrition, emotional or physical stress, as well as the particular infectious agents or

chemicals and intensity of exposure, all contribute.

E Adaptation is defined as the ability of an organism to adjust to gradually changing

circumstances of its existence, to survive and be successful in a particular

environment. Dr Randolph suggested that our bodies, designed for the Stone Age,

have not quite caught up with the modern age and consequently, many people suffer

diseases from maladaptation, or an inability to deal with some of the new substances

that are now part of our environment. He asserted that this could cause exhaustion,

irritability, depression, confusion and behavioural problems in children. Numerous

traditional medical practitioners, however, are very sceptical of these assertions.

F Looking at the environment and health together is a way of making distant and

nebulous notions, such as global warming, more immediate and important. Even a

slight rise in temperature, which the world is already experiencing, has immediate

effects. Mosquitoes can expand their range and feed on different migratory birds than

usual, resulting in these birds transferring a disease into other countries. Suburban

sprawl is seen as more than a socioeconomic problem for it brings an immediate

imbalance to the rural ecosystem, increasing population density so people come into

closer contact with disease-carrying rodents or other animals. Deforestation also

displaces feral animals that may then infect domesticated animals, which enter the

food chain and transmit the disease to people. These kinds of connections are
fundamental to environmental medicine and the threat of zoonotic disease looms

larger.

G Zoonoses, diseases of animals transmissible to humans, are a huge concern.

Different

types of pathogens, including bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites, cause zoonoses.

Every year, millions of people worldwide get sick because of foodborne bacteria such

as salmonella and campylobacter, which cause fever, diarrhoea and abdominal pain.

Tens of thousands of people die from the rabies virus after being bitten by rabid

animals like dogs and bats. Viral zoonoses like avian influenza (bird flu), swine flu

(H1N1 virus) and Ebola are on the increase with more frequent, often uncontainable,

outbreaks. Some animals (particularly domestic pets) pass on fungal infections to

humans. Parasitic infection usually occurs when people come into contact with food

or water contaminated by animals that are infected with parasites like

cryptosporidium, trichinella, or worms.

H As the human population of the planet increases, encroaching further on animal

domains and causing ecological change, inter-professional cooperation is crucial to

meet the challenges of dealing with the effects of climate change, emergent cross-

species pathogens, rising toxicity in air, water and soil, and uncontrolled development

and urbanisation. This can only happen if additional government funds are channelled

into the study and practice of environmental medicine.

Questions 14–19
Reading Passage 2 has eight paragraphs, A–H. Which paragraph contains the

following information? Write the correct letter, A–H, in boxes 14–19 on your answer

sheet.

14 an explanation of how population expansion exposes humans to disease

15 the idea that each person can react differently to the same risk factors

16 types of disease-causing agents that move between species

17 examples of professionals working in the sphere of environmental medicine

18 a definition of environmental medicine

19 how ill health results from an accumulation of environmental stressors

Questions 20–26 Complete the sentences below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE

WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 20–26 on

your answer sheet.

20 According to Dr Randolph, people get sick because of ……………….. – in other

words, a failure to adjust to the modern environment.

21 Vague, far-off concepts like global warming are made more urgent when

……………….. are studied together.

22 Rising temperatures result in more widespread distribution of disease because

some

insects are able to ……………….. .

23 Large-scale removal of trees forces wildlife from their habitat and brings them into
contact with ……………….. .

24 Uncontrollable ……………….. of zoonotic viruses are becoming more numerous.

25 Collaboration between many disciplines is needed to confront the problems of

urban

development, pollution, ……………….. and new pathogens.

26 Environmental medicine should receive more ……………….. to help it meet

future

demands.

SECTION 3 Questions 27–40

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

Passage 3 on the following pages.

Questions 27–33 Reading Passage 3 has eight paragraphs, A–H. Choose the correct

heading for paragraphs A–H from the list of headings below. Write the correct

number, i–xi, in boxes 27–33 on your answer sheet.

A

The relationship between television and sports is not widely thought of as

problematic. For many people, television is a simple medium through which sports

can be played, replayed, slowed down, and of course conveniently transmitted live to

homes across the planet. What is often overlooked, however, is how television

networks have reshaped the very foundations of an industry that they claim only to

document. Major television stations immediately seized the revenue-generating

prospects of televising sports and this has changed everything, from how they are

played to who has a chance to watch them.

B Before television, for example, live matches could only be viewed in person. For

the

majority of fans, who were unable to afford tickets to the top-flight matches, or to

travel the long distances required to see them, the only option was to attend a local

game instead, where the stakes were much lower. As a result, thriving social networks

and sporting communities formed around the efforts of teams in the third and fourth

divisions and below. With the advent of live TV, however, premier matches suddenly

became affordable and accessible to hundreds of millions of new viewers. This shift in

viewing patterns vacuumed out the support base of local clubs, many of which

ultimately folded.

C For those on the more prosperous side of this shift in viewing behaviour, however,

the financial rewards are substantial. Television assisted in derailing long-held

concerns in many sports about whether athletes should remain amateurs or ‘go pro’,

and replaced this system with a new paradigm where nearly all athletes are free to

pursue stardom and to make money from their sporting prowess. For the last few

decades, top-level sports men and women have signed lucrative endorsement deals

and sponsorship contracts, turning many into multi-millionaires and also allowing

them to focus full-time on what really drives them. That they can do all this without

harming their prospects at the Olympic Games and other major competitions is a

significant benefit for these athletes.

D The effects of television extend further, however, and in many instances have led to

changes in sporting codes themselves. Prior to televised coverage of the Winter

Olympics, for example, figure skating involved a component in which skaters drew

‘figures’ in the ice, which were later evaluated for the precision of their shapes. This

component translated poorly to the small screen, as viewers found the whole

procedure, including the judging of minute scratches on ice, to be monotonous and

dull. Ultimately, figures were scrapped in favour of a short programme featuring more

telegenic twists and jumps. Other sports are awash with similar regulatory shifts –

passing the ball back to the goalkeeper was banned in football after gameplay at the

1990 World Cup was deemed overly defensive by television viewers.

F Another change in the sporting landscape that television has triggered is the framing

of sports not merely in terms of the level of skill and athleticism involved, but as

personal narratives of triumph, shame and redemption on the part of individual

competitors. This is made easier and more convincing through the power of close-up

camera shots, profiles and commentary shown during extended build-ups to live

events. It also attracts television audiences – particularly women – who may be less

interested in the intricacies of the sport than they are in broader ‘human interest’

stories. As a result, many viewers are now more familiar with the private agonies of

famous athletes than with their record scores or match day tactics.

G And what about the effects of male television viewership? Certainly, men have

always been willing to watch male athletes at the top of their game, but female

athletes participating in the same sports have typically attracted far less interest and, as

a result, have suffered greatly reduced exposure on television. Those sports where
women can draw the crowds – beach volleyball, for example – are often those where

female participants are encouraged to dress and behave in ways oriented specifically

toward a male demographic.

H Does all this suggest the influence of television on sports has been overwhelmingly

negative? The answer will almost certainly depend on who among the various

stakeholders is asked. For all those who have lost out – lower-league teams, athletes

whose sports lack a certain visual appeal – there are numerous others who have

benefitted enormously from the partnership between television and sports, and whose

livelihoods now depend on it.

Questions 34–37 Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in

Reading Passage 3? In boxes 34–37 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

34 Television networks were slow to recognise opportunities to make money from

televised sport.

35 The average sports fan travelled a long way to watch matches before live television

broadcasts.

36 Television has reduced the significance of an athlete’s amateur status.

37 The best athletes are now more interested in financial success rather than sporting

achievement.
Questions 38–40 Complete the notes below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO

WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 38–40 on

your answer sheet. Effect of television on individual sports

• Ice skating – viewers find ‘figures’ boring so they are replaced with a 38

………………..

• Back-passing banned in football.

• Tour de France great for TV, but wrestling initially dropped from Olympic Games

due to

39 ………………..

• Beach volleyball aimed at 40 ………………..

Bài 5:

The Scottish bacteriologist Dr Alexander Fleming (1881-1955) is credited with the

discovery of penicillin in London in 1928. He had been working at St Mary’s Hospital

on the bacteriology of septic wounds. As a medic during World War I, he had

witnessed the deaths of many wounded soldiers from infection and he had observed

that the use of harsh antiseptics, rather than healing the body, actually harmed the

blood corpuscles that destroy bacteria.

BIn his search for effective antimicrobial agents, Fleming was cultivating

staphylococcus bacteria in Petri dishes containing agar1 . Before going on holiday in

the summer of 1928, he piled up the agar plates to make room for someone else to use

his workbench in his absence and left the windows open. When he returned to work

two weeks later, Fleming noticed mould growing on those culture plates that had not

been fully immersed in sterilising agent. This was not an unusual phenomenon, except

in this case the particular mould seemed to have killed the staphylococcus aureus

immediately surrounding it. He realised that this mould had potential.

C Fleming consulted a mycologist called C J La Touche, who occupied a laboratory

downstairs containing many mould specimens (possibly the source of the original

contamination), and they concluded it was the Penicillium genus of ascomycetous

fungi. Fleming continued to experiment with the mould on other pathogenic bacteria,

finding that it successfully killed a large number of them. Importantly, it was also non-

toxic, so here was a bacteria-destroying agent that could be used as an antiseptic in

wounds without damaging the human body. However, he was unsuccessful in his

attempts to isolate the active antibacterial element, which he called penicillin. In 1929,

he wrote a paper on his findings, published in the British Journal of Experimental

Pathology, but it failed to kindle any interest at the time.

D In 1938, Dr Howard Florey, a professor of pathology at Oxford University, came

across Fleming’s paper. In collaboration with his colleague Dr Ernst Chain, and other
skilled chemists, he worked on producing a usable drug. They experimented on mice

infected with streptococcus. Those untreated died, while those injected with penicillin

survived. It was time to test the drug on humans but they could not produce enough –

it took 2,000 litres of mould culture fluid to acquire enough penicillin to treat a single

patient. Their first case in 1940, an Oxford police officer who was near death as a

result of infection by both staphylococci and streptococci, rallied after five days of

treatment but, when the supply of penicillin ran out, he eventually died.

E In 1941, Florey and biochemist Dr Norman Heatley went to the United States to

team

up with American scientists with a view to finding a way of making large quantities of

the drug. It became obvious that Penicillium notatum would never generate enough

penicillin for effective treatments so they began to look for a more productive species.

One day a laboratory assistant turned up with a melon covered in mould. This fungus

was Penicillium chrysogeum, which produced 200 times more penicillin than

Fleming’s original species but, with further enhancement and filtration, it was induced

to yield 1,000 times as much as Penicillium notatum. Manufacture could begin in

earnest.

F The standardisation and large-scale production of the penicillin drug during World

War II and its availability for treating wounded soldiers undoubtedly saved many

lives. Penicillin proved to be very effective in the treatment of pneumococcal

pneumonia – the death rate in WWII was 1% compared to 18% in WWI. It has since

proved its worth in the treatment of many life-threatening infections such as

tuberculosis, meningitis, diphtheria and several sexually-transmitted diseases.

G Fleming has always been acknowledged as the discoverer of penicillin. However,

the development of a commercial penicillin drug was due to the skill of chemical

scientists Florey, Chain and others who overcame the difficulties of converting it into

a usable form. Fleming and Florey received knighthoods in 1944 and they, together

with Chain, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945.

Heatley’s contribution seems to have been overlooked until, in 1990, he was awarded

an honorary doctorate of medicine by Oxford University – the first in its 800-year

history.

H Fleming was mindful of the dangers of resistance to penicillin early on and he

expressly warned on many occasions against overuse of the drug, because this would

lead to bacterial resistance. Ironically, the occurrence of resistance is pushing the drive

today to find new, more powerful antibiotics.

Questions 1–6 Reading Passage 1 has eight paragraphs, A–H. Which paragraph

contains the following information? Write the correct letter, A–H, in boxes 1–6 on

your answer sheet.

1 results of animal experiments

2 recognition of the scientists’ valuable work

3 a statement about the beginning of mass production

4 Fleming’s cautionary advice

5 examples of uses for penicillin

6 the starting point for Fleming’s original research

Questions 7–10 Complete the summary below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO

WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 7–10 on your

answer sheet.

Dr Fleming’s Accidental Discovery

In a bid to find a safe and effective antiseptic, Dr Fleming was growing

staphylococcus

aureus bacteria in his lab. On his return from 7 ……………….., he found mould on an

unsterilised plate and saw that it had destroyed the bacteria around it. A 8

……………….. helped him identify the mould. Fleming found that it was active

against several different 9 ……………….. and, because it was 10 ……………….., it

was safe to use in humans.

Questions 11–13 Complete the table below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO

WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 11–13 on

your answer sheet