Reading comprehension exercises

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READING COMPREHENSION EXERCISES (Part 3) MULTIPLE MATCHING Passage 23
CHEER UP: LIFE ONLY GETS BETTER
Human’s capacity for solving problems has been improving out lot for 10,000 years, says Matt Ridley A
The human race has expanded in 10,000 years from less than 10 million people to around 7 billion.
Some live in even worse conditions than those in the Stone Age. But the vast majority are much better fed
and sheltered, and much more likely to live to old age than their ancestors have ever been. It is likely that
by 2110 humanity will be much better off than it is today and so will the ecology of our planet. This view,
which I shall call rational optimism, may not be fashionable but it is compelling. This belief holds that the
world will pull out of its economic and ecological crises because of the way that markets in goods, services
and ideas allow human beings to exchange and specialise for the betterment of all. But a constant drumbeat
of pessimism usually drowns out this sort of talk. Indeed, if you dare to say the world is going to go on
being better, you are considered embarrassingly mad. B
Let me make a square concession at the start: the pessimists are right when they say that if the world
continues as it is, it will end in disaster. If agriculture continues to depend on irrigation and water stocks
are depleted, then starvation will ensue. Notice the word “if’. The world will not continue as it is. It is my
proposition that the human race has become a collective problem-solving machine which solves problems
by changing its ways. It does so through invention driven often by the marker: scarcity drives up price and
that in turn encourages the development of alternatives and efficiencies. History confirms this. When
whales grew scarce, for example, petroleum was used instead as a source of oil. The pessimists’ mistake is
extrapolating: in other words, assuming that the future is just a bigger version of the past. In 1943 IBM’s
founder Thomas Watson said there was a world market for just five computers – his remarks were true
enough at the time, when computers weighed a ton and cost a fortune. C
Many of today’s extreme environmentalists insist that the world has reached a ‘turning point’ –
quite unaware that their predecessors have been making the same claim for 200 years. They also maintain
the only sustainable solution is to retreat – to halt economic growth and enter progressive economic
recession. This means not just that increasing your company’s sales would be a crime, but that the failure
to shrink them would be too. But all this takes no account of the magical thing called the collective human
brain. There was a time in human history when big-brained people began to exchange things with each
other, to become better off as a result. Making and using tools saved time – and the state of being ‘better
off’ is, at the end of the day, simply time saved. Forget dollars of gold. The true measure of something’s
worth is indeed the hours it takes to acquire it. The more humans diversified as consumers and specified as
producers, and the more they exchanged goods and services, the better off they became. And the good news
is there is no inevitable end to this process. D
I am aware that an enormous bubble of debt has burst around the world, with all that entails. But is
this the end of growth? Hardly. So long as somebody allocates sufficient capital to innovation, then the
credit crunch will not prevent the relentless upward march of human living standards. Even the Great
Depression of the 1930s, although an appalling hardship for many, was just a dip in the slope of economic
progress. All sorts of new products and industries were born during the depression: by 1937, 40% of
Dupont’s sales came from products that had barely existed before 1929, such as enamels and cellulose film.
Growth will resume – unless it is stifled by the wrong policies. Somebody, somewhere, is still tweaking a
piece of software, testing a new material, of transferring a gene that will enable new varieties of rice to be
grown in African soils. The latter means some Africans will soon be growing and selling more food, so
they will have more money to spend. Some of them may then buy mobile phones from a western company. 2
As a consequence of higher sales, an employee of that western company may get a pay rise, which she may
spend on a pair of jeans made from cotton woven in an African factory. And so on. Forget wars, famines
and poems. This is history’s greatest theme: the metastasis of exchange and specialisation.
In which section does the writer Your answers:
exemplify how short-term gloom tends to lift? 1.
mention a doom-laden prophecy that is obvious? 2.
express his hope that progress is not hindered by abominable decisions? 3.
acknowledge trying to find common ground with his adversaries? 4.
identify unequivocally how money needs to be invested? 5.
suggest that his views are considered controversial? 6.
indicate an absurd scenario resulting from an opposing view to his own? 7.
mention the unfortunate consequences of taking a positive stance? 8.
define prosperity in life in an original approach? 9.
give an example of well-intentioned ongoing research? 10. Passage 24 IT’S NOT FAIR
Do animals share our sense of unfairness over displays of greed? A
How often have you seen rich people take to the streets, shouting that they're earning too much?
Protesters are typically blue-collar workers yelling that the minimum wage has to go up, or that their jobs
shouldn't go overseas. Concern about fairness is always asymmetrical, stronger in the poor than the rich.
And the underlying emotions aren't as lofty as the ideal itself. Children become thoroughly indignant at the
slightest discrepancy in the size of their slice of pizza compared to their sibling's. Their shouts of "That's
not fair!" never transcend their own desires. We're all for fair play so long as it helps us. There's even an
old story about this, in which the owner of a vineyard rounded up labourers at different times of the day.
Early in the morning, he went out to find labourers, offering each 1 denarius. But he offered the same to
those hired later in the day. The workers hired first thing in the morning expected to get more since they
had worked through the heat of the day, yet the owner didn't feel he owed them any more than he had originally promised. B
That this sense of unfairness may turn out to be quite ancient in evolutionary terms as well became
clear when graduate student Sarah Brosnan and I discovered it in monkeys. When testing pairs of capuchin
monkeys, we noticed how much they disliked seeing their partner get a better deal. We would offer a pebble
to one of the pair and then hold out a hand so that the monkey could give it back in exchange for a cucumber
slice. Alternating between them, both monkeys would happily barter 25 times in a row. The atmosphere
turned sour, however, as soon as we introduced inequity. One monkey would still receive cucumber, while
its partner now enjoyed grapes, a favourite food with monkeys. While that monkey had no problem, the
one still working for cucumber would lose interest. Worse, seeing its partner with juicy grapes, this monkey
would get agitated, hurl the pebbles out of the test chamber, sometimes even those measly cucumber slices.
A food normally devoured with gusto had become distasteful. C
There is a similarity here with the way we reject an unfair share of money. Where do these reactions
come from? They probably evolved in the service of cooperation. Caring about what others get may seem
petty and irrational, but in the long run it keeps one from being taken advantage of. Had we merely
mentioned emotions, such as "resentment" or "envy," our findings might have gone unnoticed. Now we
drew the interest of philosophers, anthropologists and economists, who almost choked on the monkey
comparison. As it happened, our study came out at the very time that there was a public outcry about the
multimillion dollar pay packages that are occasionally given out on Wall Street and elsewhere. 3
Commentators couldn't resist contrasting human society with our monkeys, suggesting that we could learn a thing or two from them. D
Our monkeys have not reached the point at which their sense of fairness stretches beyond egocentric
interests – for example, the one who gets the grape never levels the outcome by giving it to the other – but
in cooperative human societies, such as those in which men hunt large game, anthropologists have found
great sensitivity to equal distribution. Sometimes, successful hunters aren't even allowed to carve up their
own kill to prevent them from favouring their family. These cultures are keenly aware of the risk that
inequity poses to the social fabric of their society. Apes, as opposed to monkeys, may have an inkling of
this connection. High-ranking male chimpanzees, for example, sometimes break up fights over food
without taking any for themselves. During tests, a female received large amounts of milk and raisins, but
noticed her friends watching her from a short distance. After a while, she refused all rewards. Looking at
the experimenter, she kept gesturing to the others, until they were given a share of the goodies. She was
doing the smart thing. Apes think ahead, and if she had eaten her fill right in front of the rest, there might
have been repercussions when she rejoined them later in the day.
In which section does the writer mention Your answers:
A robust response to news of the writer’s research? 1.
One animal harbouring resentment towards another? 2.
An animal thinking of the consequences of their actions? 3.
Any unfairness provoking a strong and egocentric reaction? 4.
The animal behaviour shown not going as far as equivalent human behaviour? 5.
A sense of injustice from people having to cope with adverse conditions? 6.
A justification for the irrational sense of unfairness? 7.
An animal’s feeling of injustice leading to preposterous behaviour? 8.
Unfairness among humans being perceived by those who are less well-off? 9.
Examples of both humans and animals behaving with fairness? 10. Passage 25
Critics give their personal opinions of films they have seen recently A Blues Brothers 2000
Eighteen years after the original Blues Brothers movie, director John Landis and his co-writer Dan Ackroyd
have decided to revive the franchise. Unfortunately, the thrill has gone, although the music is as brash and
energetic as ever and Elwood’s stunt driving continues to astound. Sequences such as the huge, ghostly
skeletons of cowboys galloping across the night during the Blues Brothers’ spirited rendition of ‘Riders in
the Sky (A Cowboy Legend)’ look stunning in themselves, but have no bearing on the story.
Blues fans will doubtless relish the wealth of musical talent on display (it’s a far richer array than the first
film’s). Over time Blues Brothers 2000 will probably attain the same massive cult status as its predecessor,
but only the most indulgent of audiences is likely to be happy with this sequel. B
Journey to the Beginning of the World
This is not Manoel de Oliveira’s final film – the tireless 90-year-old director has since made a follow-up.
However, it was the last appearance of Marcello Mastroianni, playing a film director called Manoel, to all
appearances a representation of Oliveira himself.
Oliveira is arguably the most marginal of Europe’s major directors, especially for British audiences – his
only previous release here (and then only just) was 1993’s Abraham Valley. However, on the festival circuit
Oliveira is revered, as much for his longevity as for his varied and highly eccentric output. The film’s
opening section offers us something dauntingly simple, shot with audacious economy – a series of close-
ups of people talking in the back of a car. It promises a sort of film symposium in the guise of a road movie: 4
after all, on most road trips, there’s little to do but talk and watch the scenery. At times, Oliveira simply
has his camera gaze out of the car’s rear window as the road recedes. C City of Angels
Although it is not without flaws, City of Angels stands out from the dreary succession of recent Hollywood
remakes of European movies. This is partly due to Dana Stevens’ screenplay and Brad Silberling’s
direction, which grab hold of the theme of director Wim Wenders’ 1987 film Wings of Desire and head off
very much in their own direction with it. Most of all, however, City of Angels pleases because it is quite
simply so surprising for a mainstream Hollywood movie. Designer Shay Cunliffe hits the tone precisely,
with the angels in baggy suits and long black duster coats, which are especially effective when they gather
in some of their preferred meeting places – the beach at dawn and dusk, in the city library during the day –
invisible to all but each other (and us).
There is nothing in Silberling’s previous career – which comprises directing episodes of LA Law and NYPD
Blue for television, followed by the kids’ film Casper – to prepare one for the confidence with which he
handles a film in which tone is all. City of Angels is the sort of one-off we should surely welcome. D Dad Savage
Strikingly shot in the bleak flatlands of Norfolk, Dad Savage is a British thriller that manages to conjure up
a whole new cinematic landscape, and populates it without falling back on the stereotypes of bent policeman
and East End gangsters. Making her feature debut, television director Betsan Morris Evans shows that she
can put the wide Super 35 frame to impressive use as well. In the claustrophobic scenes in the cellar (to
which the film keeps returning in between flashbacks), she charts the characters’ changing allegiances
through the way she arranges them across the screen. Above ground, meanwhile, the wide screen captures
the yawning emptiness of the East Anglian marshes, and hints at the corresponding emptiness of the
backwater life Vic, Bob and H are trying to escape from by turning to crime.
If anything, the structure is a bit too intricate: the transitions in and out of flashback are jolting, and it’s not
always clear whose point of view we’re flashing back from. E Mojo
Adapted from Jez Butterworth’s acclaimed stage play, Mojo occupies the same strange netherworld as last
year’s little-seen The SlabBoys, directed by John Byrne. Both were directed by their original writers; and
both were brought to the big screen through television funding, which underlines their ultimate smallscreen
destiny. Where Mojo has the edge on Slab Boys, however, is in the sheer quality of its performances, which
consistently hold the audience’s attention even as the narrative shambles distractingly.
The fact that Mojo’s chances of making much impact among cinema-goers are remote shouldn’t dampen
Butterworth’s obvious enthusiasm. On this evidence, he has enough talent to suggest triumphs ahead,
although one wonders whether the screen or the theatre will prove more enticing for his trade. F The Wedding Singer
The Wedding Singer is the third collaboration between the comedian Adam Sandler and writer Tim Herlihy,
and as you might expect from the men behind Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore, it’s not a particularly
clever comedy. The 1985 setting, of no importance to the plot, is the pretext for some cheap retro humour.
But somehow, for all its simple-mindedness, this turns out to be a very winning romantic comedy. A
pleasant surprise is Sandler’s singing. Playing opposite him is Drew Barrymore, who has managed to
become a celebrity without ever having a lead role in a decent movie. As Julia in this film, however, she
does wonders with an unremarkable part.
For which of the films does the reviewer state the following? Your answers:
One of the actors gets the most out of an uninspiring role. 1. 5
It is a follow-up to an earlier film. 2.
It is not likely to be a commercial success. 3.
The public has already had a chance to see it in a different medium. 4.
There are some impressive scenes which are of no significance to the narrative. 5.
It is more successful than other films of its kind. 6.
One of the characters in the film is likened to the director. 7.
There is no justification for setting the film in the past. 8.
The lives of the characters are mirrored in the scenery. 9.
It has an unusual setting for a film of this kind. 10. Passage 26
John McCarthy - Computer Pioneer A
John McCarthy was often described as the father of “artificial intelligence” (AI), a branch of
computer science founded on the notion that human intelligence can be simulated by machines. McCarthy,
who coined the term in 1956, defined it as “the science and engineering of making intelligent machines”
and created the Lisp computer language to help researchers in the AI field. He maintained that there were
aspects of the human mind that could be described precisely enough to be replicated: “The speeds and
memory capacities of present computers may be insufficient to simulate many of the higher functions of
the human brain,” he wrote in 1955, “but the major obstacle is not lack of machine capacity but our inability
to write programs taking full advantage of what we have.” B
McCarthy went on to create AI laboratories at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and later
at Stanford University where he became the laboratory’s director in 1965. During the 1960s he developed
the concept of computer time-sharing, which allows several people to use a single, central, computer at the
same time. If this approach were adopted, he claimed in 1961, “computing may someday be organised as a
public utility”. The concept of time-sharing made possible the development so-called “cloud computing”
(the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product). Meanwhile, his Lisp programming language,
which he invented in 1958, underpinned the development of voice recognition technology. C
McCarthy’s laboratory at Stanford developed systems that mimic human skills – such as vision,
hearing and the movement of limbs – as well as early versions of a self-driving car. He also worked on an
early chess-playing program, but came to believe that computer chess was a distraction, observing in 1997
that it had developed much as genetics might have if the geneticists had concentrated their efforts starting
in 1910 on breeding racing Drosophila. “We would have some science, but mainly we would have very fast fruit flies.” D
The concept of AI inspired numerous books and sci-fi films, notably Stanley Kubrick’s dystopian
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). In the real world, however, the technology made slow progress, and
McCarthy later admitted that there was some way to go before it would be possible to develop computer
programs as intelligent as humans. Meanwhile he applied himself to addressing theoretical issues about the
nature of human and robotic decision-making and the ethics of creating artificial beings. He also wrote a
sci-fi story, The Robot and the Baby, to “illustrate my opinions about what household robots should be
like”. The robot in the story decides to simulate love for a human baby. E
McCarthy taught himself mathematics as a teenager by studying textbooks at the California Institute
of Technology. When he arrived at the institute to study the subject aged 16, he was assigned to a graduate
course. In 1948 a symposium at Caltech on “Cerebral Mechanisms in Behaviour”, that included papers on
automata and the brain and intelligence, sparked his interest in developing machines that can think like
people. McCarthy received a doctorate in Mathematics from Princeton University in 1951 and was 6
immediately appointed to a chair in the subject. It was at Princeton that he proposed the programming
language Lisp as a way to process more sophisticated mathematical concepts than Fortran, which had been
the dominant programming medium until then. McCarthy joined the Stanford faculty in 1962 after short
appointments at Princeton, Dartmouth and MIT, remaining there until his official retirement in 2000. F
During the 1970s he presented a paper on buying and selling by computer, prophesying what has
become known as e-commerce. He also invited a local computer hobby group, the Homebrew Computer
Club, to meet at the Stanford laboratory. Its members included Steve Jobs and Steven Wozniak, who would
go on to found Apple. However, his own interest in developing time-sharing systems led him to
underestimate the potential of personal computers. When the first PCs emerged in the 1970s he dismissed
them as “toys”. McCarthy continued to work as an emeritus professor at Stanford after his official
retirement, and at the time of his death was working on a new computer language called Elephant.
McCarthy won the Turing Award from the Association for Computing Machinery in 1972, the Kyoto Prize
in 1988 and the National Medal of Science in 1990. Despite his disappointment with AI, McCarthy
remained confident of the power of mathematics: “He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk
nonsense,” he wrote in 1995.
In which section are the following mentioned? Your answers:
the speed at which McCarthy made progress in his career 1.
an opinion McCarthy had which proved to be mistaken 2.
McCarthy’s belief that one of his ideas could have a widespread function 3.
McCarthy’s attention to the moral aspects of an area of research 4.
what inspired McCarthy to go into a certain area of research 5.
McCarthy’s view of what was the cause of a certain problem 6.
McCarthy’s attempt to introduce a rival to something commonly used 7.
McCarthy’s continuing belief in the importance of a certain field 8.
a prevailing notion about the stature of McCarthy 9.
McCarthy’s criticism of an area of research he had been involved in 10. Passage 27
Has technology robbed travel of its riches? A Jan Morris
I began travelling professionally just after the end of the Second World War, and I travelled mostly in
Europe, where famous old cities lay ravaged. Travelling in this disordered region was not easy. Currencies
were hard to come by, visas were necessary almost everywhere, food was often scarce, trains were grimy
and unreliable and air travel was reserved largely for privileged officialdom. I’m sorry to have to say it,
because those times were cruel indeed for many Europeans, but I greatly enjoyed my travelling then. The
comfort and safety of modern transport means that while travel is a lot less fraught than it used to be, it has
lost some of its allure for me. Partly, I am almost ashamed to admit, this is because now everybody else
does it too! Travelling abroad is nothing unusual, and even if we haven't actually been to the forests of
Borneo or the Amazon jungles, have certainly experienced them via television or the Internet. B Pico Iyer
The world is just as interesting – as unexpected, as unvisited, as diverse – as it ever was, even though the
nature of its sights and our experience of them have sometimes changed. I once spent two weeks living in
and around Los Angeles airport – that hub of modern travel and, although it wasn't a peaceful holiday, it
offered as curious and rich a glimpse into a new century of crossing cultures as I could imagine. Places are
like people for me and, as with people, the wise, rich, deeply rooted places never seem to change too much,
even though they might lose some hair or develop wrinkles... Though the tides of history keep washing 7
against a Havana or a Beirut, for instance, their natural spiritedness or resilience or sense of style never
seems greatly diminished. My motto as a traveller has always been that old chestnut from the writings of
Marcel Proust: "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new sights, but in seeing with new eyes". C Benedict Allen
Now, the world is open to us all. Grab your camera or pen and hike! So these couldn't be better times for
the average person – we may all share in the privilege. Is it exploration? Well, if it's not advancing
knowledge, no. Those who today flog to the Poles are not explorers, they are simply athletes. Yet,
exploration isn't entirely about assembling proven fact. Dr David Livingstone made many discoveries in
Africa but his biggest role was actually as communicator, giving the nineteenth-century Europeans a picture
of the continent. Take Ed Stafford's recent walk along the length of the Amazon. Not a greatly significant
journey in itself, with 2,000 miles of it along what is essentially a shipping lane. Yet the journey was saved
from irrelevance and self-indulgence because along the way he documented the Amazon for his time, which is our time. D Vicky Baker
Personally, I relish the fact that we can now forge new contacts all around the world at the click of a button
and a quick email can result in the type of welcome usually reserved for a long lost friend. I also relish the
fact that we are less likely to lose touch with those whose paths we cross on the road that we get to explore
places we wouldn’t have stumbled across had we left it all to chance. Does all this detract from the
experience? I hardly think so. There is nothing to stop you following a random tip you saw on an obscure
blog and ending up who knows where. Sure, it's a far cry from what came before, but one day these will be
a generation's "good old days" too. And if you have the time and the money to go off into the back of
beyond without so much as a guidebook let alone a smartphone, if haphazard wandering is your thing, those days aren't over either. E Rolf Potts
Many of the older travellers I met when I first started vagabonding fifteen years ago – some of them veterans
of the 1970s hippy trail across Asia – argued that my travel experiences were tainted by luxuries such as
email and credit cards. These days I am myself tempted to look at younger travellers and suggest that
smartphones and micro-blogging are compromising their road experiences. Any technology that makes
travel easier is going to connect aspects of the travel experience to the comforts and habits one might seek
back home - and can make travel feel less like travel. There are times when a far-flung post office encounter
or directions scribbled onto a scrap of paper can lead a person into the kind of experiences that make travel
so surprising and worthwhile. That means 21st-century travellers must be aware of when their gadgets are
enhancing new experiences, and when those gadgets are getting in the way. Which writer Your answers:
suggests that places retain their essential identity despite the passage of time? 1.
refers to a tendency for each generation of travellers to look down on the next? 2.
expresses a personal feeling of nostalgia for some of the hardships in the past? 3.
feels that travel can still be spontaneous and unpredictable in the age of the internet? 4.
explains how even seemingly pointless journeys can have a worthwhile outcome? 5.
questions the use of a term in relation to one type of traveller? 6.
reveals a slight sense of guilt in an attitude towards the modern traveller? 7.
offers a word of caution for those who want to get the most out of a trip? 8.
mentions valuable insights gained from observing other travellers? 9.
insists that modern travellers can do without modern technology if they so desire? 10. 8 Passage 28 A Monosodium Glutamate
Good food is one of life’s pleasures and even 1,200 years ago, oriental cooks knew that food tasted better
when prepared with a soup stock made from a type of seaweed. But it was only in 1908 that Japanese
scientists identified the ingredient responsible for enhancing flavour.
That ingredient is known today by its scientific name, monosodium glutamate. It is often referred to as
MSG and it is an amino acid found in virtually all foods. The bound form is linked to other amino acids in
proteins and is manufactured in the human body. The free form of glutamate in foods enhances food
flavours. Tomatoes, cheese and mushrooms are just some free glutamate rich foods. Free glutamate content
increases during ripening, bringing out a fuller taste in many foods and is made as a flavour enhancer by a
fermentation process similar to that used for making soy sauce and vinegar.
People have long known about the four basic tastes – sweet, sour, salty and bitter. But now a fifth basic
taste called umami has been recognised. This is imparted to foods by glutamate and is responsible for the
savoury taste of many foods, such as tomatoes and cheese. B
Organic Food & Business!
Organic farmers pride themselves on fostering sustainable agriculture, but it remains to be seen if the
industry’s rapid growth is in fact sustainable. One challenge facing the industry is to bring the price of
organic products more in line with those of conventional products. The price of organic ingredients is
improving but demand still outpaces supply. However, supply issues are overshadowed by the fact that the
organic foods sector continues to grow faster than the food industry as a whole, fundamentally due to the
natural alliance between organic crops and processed foods. Firstly, organic foods earmarked for processing
do not have to be as cosmetically perfect as their fresh counterparts. In addition, freezing or tinning reduces
many of the shelf-life problems associated with fresh produce. It was only a question of time before
mainstream food companies woke up to these synergies.
The pioneers of the organic food industry view the growing presence of major food companies in their
markets as a mixed blessing. Many smaller companies fear that the ideals of organic agriculture will be
compromised. Others think major food companies will help persuade consumers to buy organic products
through the power of their branding. C Chilli
Capsicums, commonly known as chillis, come in all dimensions and colours from the tiny, pointed,
extremely hot, bird’s eye chilli, to the large, mild, fleshy peppers like the Anaheim. Indigenous to Central
and South America and the West Indies, they were cultivated long before the Spanish conquest, which was
the eventual cause of their introduction to Europe. Chillis along with tomatoes, avocados, vanilla and
chocolate changed the flavours of the known world. Today, there are around 400 different varieties of chillis
grown. They are easy to cultivate and are one of the world’s most widely distributed crops, available for sale at most food outlets.
In 1902, a method was developed for measuring the strength of a given variety of capsicum, ranking it on
a predetermined scale. This originally meant tasting the peppers, but nowadays it can be done more
accurately with the help of computers to rate the peppers in units to indicate parts per million of capsaicin.
This potent chemical not only causes the fiery sensation, but also triggers the brain to produce endorphins,
natural painkillers that promote a sense of well-being. D Writing about Cooking
Two cookery writers are often credited with the present revival of interest in food and cooking. Elizabeth
David discovered her taste for good food when she lived with a French family for two years. After returning
to England she learnt to cook so that she could reproduce some of the food that she had come to appreciate
in France. Her first book appeared when rationing was still in force after the war and most of the ingredients 9
she had so lovingly described were not available. At the time her book was read rather than used, and it
created a yearning for good ingredients and for a way of life that saw more in food than mere sustenance.
Her later books confirmed her position as the most inspirational and influential cookery writer in the English
language. She shared with Jane Grigson an absorbing interest in the literature of cookery.
Jane Grigson was brought up in the north-east of England, where there is a strong tradition of good eating,
but it was not until she began to spend time in France that she became really interested in food. She was
renowned for her fine writing on food and cookery, often catching the imagination with a deftly chosen
fragment of history or poetry, but never failing to explain the ‘why’ as well as the ‘how’ of cookery.
In which section are the following mentioned? Your answers:
a group of foods that changed the way an area of the world cooked 1.
a period of time when access to food was restricted 2.
a comparison of the process of producing a substance with that used for some other 3. foods, too
the global popularity of a particular food 4.
an interest in discovering more about unfamiliar types of food 5.
the discrepancy between the amount of a type of food produced and the demand for it 6.
a substance that reinforces the savoury aspect of food 7.
a way of determining the strength of a foodstuff 8.
using literary forms to talk about food dishes 9.
worries about the ethical future of a food industry 10. Passage 29
Unleashing Your Inner Genius
Creative people reveal how they find inspiration A
Sally Jones, playwright
I'm a very aural person; as soon as I hear a lyric or phrase, I'm transported to a particular time and place.
When I was writing my play Body Parts, I listened to Love Her Madly by the American rock band The
Doors, which seemed to suggest a lot about the characters' relationship with each other. A line from one of
their songs even made it into the play's plotline. I'm also very fidgety and seem to work best when my hands
are occupied with something other than what I'm thinking about. During rehearsals, for example, I find
myself drawing little pictures or symbols that are somehow connected to the play. Then I'll look back at
my doodles, and random snatches of dialogue for another play will occur to me. Another thing I do is to go
to the forest near my house to think through a character or situation. It works every time. B
Rachael Carter, ballet dancer
Ideas sit inside me for a while, before they emerge. When I'm preparing for a particular character, I keep
looking for ideas about her wherever I can – in film, theatre, music, and in watching other ballet companies.
When I first danced the French ballet Giselle, I found the Danish director Lars von Trier's film Dancer in
the Dark incredibly inspiring. It was so dark, and it felt just like a modern-day version of the ballet – it
brought the part alive for me. I believe that to be truly inspired, you must learn to trust your instinct. In my
profession, I feel that you shouldn’t over-rehearse a part, or you'll find you get bored with it. Of course,
hard work is important, but a good, technically correct performance without instinct will never be magical. C Sarah Kent, musician
For me, the image of the tortured artist is a myth – you don't need to be miserable to write songs. In fact, if
I am feeling down, the last thing I want to do is write; although it's important sometimes just to sit down
and get on with it, however you're feeling. Your creativity is like a tap: if you don't use it, it gets clogged up. 10
One of the most difficult things about writing music is the sheer number of distractions. When you're
writing, you have to be very disciplined, to the point of being impolite: turn off your phone and avoid seeing
other people. Another thing you have to deal with is that small voice that tells us we're rubbish. We need
to know how to silence it. I try to avoid listening to records by other musicians while I’m writing something
– comparing myself to others often makes me think, “Why do I bother?”. D
Margaret McCall, singer-songwriter
I definitely don't have rules – I’m pretty disorganised. In fact, I often have to guilt-trip myself into sitting
down to write. It is so easy to let your life get filled up with other stuff – going to the bank, looking after
the baby. These things do come through in my songwriting, though. Most of my songs are defined by a
sense of loneliness, of isolation, that I get from spending a lot of time on my own. When I first moved to
New York, I used to go to concerts every night. Now that I'm a songwriter myself, I find watching other
musicians can be frustrating – I want to be the one up there performing. But every so often I see someone
who inspires me to try something different. I go home thinking: "I should really try something like that." E Judith Keane, artist
I’ve learned not to wait for a good idea to come to me. It’s best to start by realising an average idea –
remember, no one has to see it. If I hadn't made the works I'm ashamed of, the ones I'm proud of probably
wouldn't exist. Also remember that hard work isn't always productive. I think of the brain as a field lying
fallow; keep harvesting and the crops won't mature. Not restricting yourself to your own medium is also
important. It is just as possible to be inspired by a filmmaker, fashion designer, writer or friend as by another
artist. Cross-pollination makes for an interesting outcome. Finally, don't be afraid to scrap all your hard
work and planning and do it differently at the last minute. Which person Your answers:
says that creative people need periods of mental inactivity? 1.
says a commonly held belief about creativity is mistaken? 2.
encourages creative people to make spontaneous decisions where necessary? 3.
says that finding inspiration is a gradual process? 4.
says creative people need to contain their sense of insecurity? 5.
mentions making direct use of part of someone else’s work? 6.
mentions the need to persevere regardless of one’s mood? 7.
says some of the themes in her work reflect the situation she finds herself in? 8.
finds value in creating what she regards as substandard pieces of work? 9.
discusses the benefits of limiting the preparation time for a piece of work? 10. Passage 30 The Machine Age A
As the pace of technological development advances at ever greater speeds, society has had to come
to terms with some exceedingly rapid changes. This has led to some deep collective soul searching about
the effects of technology on ordinary lives. The question being as to whether the sudden adoption of the
virtual world of cyberspace is having a profound effect on human isolation. Do people talk anymore? Or is
communication now mainly through the various electronic media that so many people use? Many lament
the rise of these media within society and wonder how far this virtual life will go. Will we reach the stage
where we can actually transpose our brains into an avatar and live our lives vicariously in cyberspace? This
could finally be the route to immortality that has long been a subtle human desire, the ability to cheat death once and for all. B
But just how real the fears about the role of technology in our lives are, is a complex question to
answer. And there is some evidence that we are simply worrying about the wrong thing. Research does not 11
support the idea that the increased connectivity afforded people by the internet has led to greater social
isolation. In fact, it appears to have had the opposite effect, in that the people who are the most connected
on social networks tend to have greater social interaction and are more engaged in public life than those
who do not use them. The ease of use and convenience of new technologies have induced people to adapt
to them and to do so at great speed. It is this speed of change that has alarmed some people. It’s a
phenomenon that could simply be described as ‘The Shock of the New’ and it’s one that has greeted all
major societal changes throughout history and it could, reasonably, be regarded as nothing more alarming
than a process by which change comes to be accepted. C
So, are there any valid fears with regard to this sudden rise in technological breakthroughs? One
possibly legitimate fear is that the machines may, in the not so distant future, attain greater intelligence than
humans. As technology becomes more sophisticated, we come closer to the reality of an artificial
intelligence that exceeds our own. The danger of this is that with so much of our future lives likely to be
very deeply interconnected with machines, they will, in a real sense, control our behaviour even if it is only
in very subtle, unobtrusive ways. There is also something to be said for the idea that even now machines
have extensive control in the developed world. Were they to be suddenly switched off, entire sectors of our
society would simply collapse. There would be no access to banking, shopping, transport or communication. D
In the end, we need to ask ourselves, as a society, whether this interconnectedness with technology
is something we should embrace or resist. And the truth of the matter is that it is almost impossible to
envisage an ideology that would seek to reverse the march of technology. Technology is now an inherent
part of our society and culture, and so interwoven into every aspect of our lives that to remove it would
essentially mean the collapse of our civilisation as it currently exists. No one would have thought it credible
that suddenly, in the 19th century, the brakes should have been put on the industrial revolution and Europe
and North America should have returned to a rural farming existence. The same argument stands for the technology of today. E
So, in essence, we have no real choice but to embrace technology and its inexorable rise within
society. To try to do otherwise is counterproductive to our own good as a species as well as an exercise in
futility. That the machines will gain in intelligence in the near future is inevitable, but there are ways to
safeguard our systems from nefarious control, as long as we remember that all systems need to have built-
in checks and balances, whether that be the systems within, or external to, the machines in our lives.
Humanity is, without doubt, now set firmly on a path which is dominated by the integral coexistence of man and machine.
In which section are the followings mentioned? Your answers:
a refutation of a popular assumption about the way people socialise nowadays 1.
the possibility of living forever in the form of an avatar 2.
an explanation for anxiety about the advancing intelligence of machines 3.
the idea that face-to-face contact is diminishing rapidly 4.
why concern about intelligent machines may be justified 5.
the possibility of human existence becoming an entirely virtual experience 6.
the need to ensure that all structures within society have measures to prevent them 7. from becoming corrupt
the inevitability of the development of the intellectual capability of machines 8.
an example from the past used to illustrate the ridiculousness of a current idea 9.
the parts of society already entirely dependent on machine input 10. 12
Passage 31. You are going to read about the experiences and opinions of five educators on online courses
and learning. For questions 1-10, choose from the sections (A-E). The sections may be chosen more than once. Online studies A
Educators have known for 30 years that students perform better when given one-on-one tutoring
and mastery learning – working on a subject until it is mastered, not just until a test is scheduled. Success
also requires motivation, whether from an inner drive or from parents, mentors or peers. For years my
colleagues and I have given artificial-intelligence courses: we lectured, assigned homework and gave
everyone the same exam at the same time. Each semester just 5 to 10 per cent of students regularly engaged
in deep discussion; the rest were more passive. We felt there had to be a better way, so we created a free
online course, which was completed by only 23,000 participants of an initial 'intake' of 100,000. Our second
scheme was more successful as we made learning happen actively. This helped us increase motivation and
keep attention from wavering, both of which led to a much lower dropout rate. For our class, teachers
analysed the data generated by student participation, but an artificial-intelligence system could perform this
function and then make recommendations for what a student could try next to improve. B
Today students in most classrooms sit, listen and take notes while a professor lectures. Despite there
being 20 to 300 students in the room, there is little or no human interaction. Exams often offer the first
opportunity to get real information on how well the students digested the knowledge. If the exam identifies
a lack of understanding of a basic concept, the class still moves on to a more advanced concept. Virtual
tools are providing an opportunity to rethink this methodology. If a lecture is available online, class time
can be freed for discussion, peer-tutoring or professor-led exploration. If a lecture is removed from class
time and we have on-demand adaptive exercises and diagnostics, we can enter the realm of 'blended
learning'. In the blended learning reality, the professor's role is moved up the value chain. Rather than
spending the bulk of their time lecturing, writing exams and grading them, they can interact with their
students. Rather than enforcing a sit- and-listen passivity, teachers will mentor and challenge their students
to take control of their rate of learning – the most valuable skill of all. C
Digital technologies have the potential to transform Indian higher education. A new model built
around massive open online courses (MOOCs) that are developed locally and combined with those
provided by top universities abroad could deliver higher education on a scale and at a quality not possible
before. India has experimented with online classes before, but their impact has been marginal. A decade
ago, the country began using the Internet to distribute video and Web-based courses under a government-
funded initiative, the National Program on Technology Enhanced Learning. Developers created over 900
courses, focused mainly on science and engineering with about 40 hours of instruction each. With limited
interactivity and uneven quality, these courses failed to attract a large body of students. Now, though,
MOOCs have given Indian academics a better sense of how a lecture could be restructured into short, self-
contained segments with high interactivity to engage students more effectively. This appears to be a step in
the right direction, but what is really needed is the right model to use MOOCs in an Indian context. With a
decade of experience in this space and a vibrant technology ecosystem, India will most likely find its way very soon. D
The rapid evolution of digital resources like video, interactive multimedia and new modes of
assessment challenges us to reimagine what we can and should do when we are face-to-face with our
students. As I develop online courses on cellular metabolism, for instance, I hypothesise that the blend of
animation and appropriate embedded assessments will communicate the intricacies of electron transfer
more effectively than that portion of my traditional lecture. After rebalancing class assignments to include
both reading and online materials, while maintaining the same overall workload, I nonetheless gain time
with my students in the classroom to discuss and critically analyse the metabolic consequences of 13
experimentally disrupting electron transfer. Underlying this progress is the awareness that experimentation
is the key and that we do not yet know how best to harness the enormous positive potential of the online
revolution for on- campus learning. This is why every course or module should have an associated research
component where student progress is measured. E
Technology is transforming education for the worse and one of its dubious uses is to grade essays.
Major testing companies are using software to score written test answers as machines can work faster than
teachers. However, they cannot evaluate the imaginative use of language. Thus, students will learn to write
according to the formula that the machine responds to best at the expense of accuracy, creativity and
imagination. Worse, the teacher will abandon the important job of reading what the students write and will
be less informed about how they think. That is a loss for the quality of education. A more worrisome use
of technology is the accumulation and storage of personal, confidential data on a cloud. Who needs all this
personal information and why is it being shared? Advocates say that the goal is to create better products
for individual students. Critics believe that the information will be given or sold to vendors, who will use
it to market products to children and their parents.
In which section are the following mentioned?
1. a strategy that helped the learners focus
2. the reason why more data is required to make the best use of computer-based learning
3. digital resources leading to the standardisation of student learning
4. the necessity to adapt online courses to a specific culture
5. a claim that information will be used to enhance product quality
6. personally combining digital and traditional tools to provide a more effective learning experience
7. the problem of gaps in students' knowledge not being addressed
8. humans undertaking a task that machines could carry out
9. the importance of students progressing at their own pace
10. computer-based courses that attracted a disappointing number of participants
Passage 32. You are going to read an article about young people who are trying to find solutions to some
important issues. For questions 1-10, choose from the sections (A-E). The sections may be chosen more than one. Making a difference A Zhan
In the minds of most, Chinese political activists are well-worn lawyers and scholarly types who, once part
of the 'in crowd', have been ostracised for their dissident ideas and beliefs. Zhan, a Shanghai pupil, simply
isn't from that same preconceived mould. She is an unlikely activist and campaigner against the country's
harsh residence registration system – a system which was created to prevent countless numbers of migrant
workers from ever leaving the countryside. This system negatively affected Zhan's life chances as it
excluded her from taking Shanghai's high school entrance exam. The only choices left open to Zhan were
to attend vocational school or return to her village. Weil-aware of the fact that neither of these options
allowed for much advancement, Zhan decided to make her voice heard in the form of an organised
demonstration and an avalanche of rebellious messages posted online. While Zhan did get the opportunity
to speak out, the consequences were dire... her father was sent to prison and her family faced possible
eviction from the city. Luckily for Zhan, the national media let her plead her case in the form of an article
which appeared in the China Daily. In a recent interview Zhan quoted the late essayist, Hu Shi, saying,
'Fighting for your rights, is fighting for the nation's rights...' B Kelvin
Kelvin, born in war-torn Sierra Leone, did not know peace until he was six years old. Raised in a single- 14
parent household, Kelvin says he owes his life to his mother's 'resilience and self-belief”. Now in his late
teens, Kelvin has become a kind of poster-child for the West African nation and its attempts to move
forward and has appeared in a viral video on YouTube. Kelvin was a precocious child with a great gift for
engineering. Seeing the need for a reliable source of electricity to power his neighbourhood, Kelvin used
recycled parts to build a generator from scratch. After winning a competition, Kelvin travelled to the USA
where he gave a speech to the Meet the Young Makers panel in New York. Despite his youth, Kelvin
became a hit at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he showcased his inventions, and at
Harvard College, where he participated in on-going research and gave lectures to engineering students.
Kelvin's mentor, a PhD student at MIT, feels that Kelvin and the YouTube video have been inspirational
and motivational to the youth of Sierra Leone, and indeed, to millions of people around the world. C Zea
Zea was never what one would call a 'tech geek'. Instead, she was the kind of person who thought
technology was as simple as getting computers to do what the user wanted them to do and resorting to
rebooting when they misbehaved. That attitude changed forever after Zea attended a 'Little Miss Geek'
workshop at her school in south London. While taking part in the workshop she had a revelation –
technology could be entertaining, and world-changing. Working on that premise, Zea and a friend designed
an app aimed at motivating people to recycle by making the tiresome task fun. 'Julie Andrew's character
Mary Poppins says that you find the fun and – snap! – the job's a game, and that's just what our application
does,' says Zea. The app, called Jazzy Recycling, is multi-purpose in nature; it gives information on the
where's and what's of recycling and then lets users scan, share and win points for their recycling efforts.
Exploiting the teen craze for sites like Facebook and Twitter, the app is 'liked' and 'shared' among 'friends'
and 'followers'. And Jazzy Recycling has celebrity backing; entrepreneur Raj Dhonota, who appeared on
the series The Apprentice, has extended a helping hand to make the app a success. D Rene
The average Brazilian teenager enjoys things like football, computer games and music, but not Rene; he
has made reversing negative stereotypes about the Brazilian 'favela' his sole aim. The ambitious Rene has
founded a newspaper, live-Tweeted a local police raid on the favela where he lives and penned a book... all
before his twentieth birthday. The favelas of Rio de Janeiro are notorious world-wide as poor areas
controlled by armed gangs, but Rene wants to change that false perception. He uses social media to portray
these neighbourhoods in a more humane light: to take the focus off illegal activity and to highlight the good
works being done there. Initially, Rene's family was sceptical about what he could actually accomplish; it
was not uncommon for his mother to berate him for coming home late because of his newspaper work.
Unsurprisingly, family support has grown by leaps and bounds now that the number of Rene's Twitter
followers has increased from a few hundred to tens of thousands and his newspaper has gained wide
recognition and, more importantly, financial backing in the form of sponsorship.
In which sections are the following mentioned?
1. someone who was scolded as a result of time spent on his/her cause
2. someone who symbolises a country's hope for the future
3. someone who makes use of social media to alleviate monotony
4. someone who uses the words of a deceased person to make a point
5. someone who credits a family member for his/her survival
6. someone who does not fit the usual description of a crusader
7. someone who yearns to atter a preconceived idea about his/her community
8. someone who has the support of a former television personality
9. someone who became a published author at a young age
10. someone whose actions brought about the incarceration of a loved one