AMBROSIA HSG
Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars. SIMULATION TEST A. LISTENING Part 1
For questions 1-5, you will hear a part of a discussion between two language experts, George Steadman
and Angela Conti, who are talking about how advances in communication are affecting English usage.
Choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which fits best according to what you hear.
1. What point is made about the effect of the Internet on language?
A. It is making the standard written form of English obsolete
B. It will radically alter the way grammar rules are followed
C. It may have less serious consequences than feared
D. It will bring about more significant changes than TV and radio have
2. When discussing the main criticism of text messaging, George reveals
A. his concern that there is insufficient research
B. his understanding of the annoyance some people feel
C. his certainty that the criticism is totally unfounded
D. his doubt as to how widespread the criticism is
3. What view is stated about abbreviations in texting?
A. They are mainly to be found in commercial messages
B. Some are beginning to enter official documents
C. Adults are just as much to blame for them as teenagers
D. They are not as novel as many people imagine
4. When discussing the new genre of text-poetry, both researchers agree that
A. limiting a poem to a fixed number of letters is unhelpful
B. it will never match some of the conventional verse forms
C. it has potential if the writer is gifted
D. the means of delivery is effective
5. What final conclusion do both the researchers reach about the state of English today?
A. Language development need no longer be a concern in educational institutions
B. The negative predictions about its decline are mistaken
C. Children’s written style is improving in leaps and bounds
D. The pace of change is unprecedented Part 2
Listen to a piece of news on the failure of an Israeli spacecraft to land on the moon and decide whether
the following statements are true (T), false (F) or not given (NG)
6. Israel is the fourth country to be able to send its spacecraft flying around the moon.
7. Israel is sanguine about the future of landing on the moon successfully
8. The failure to land successfully is caused by the profusion of fuel on the engine.
9. This spacecraft project costs at least 80 million pounds.
10. Private space missions have been a long dream of Israel. Part 3
You are going to hear a report about how SpaceX was founded. For question 11-15, answer the question.
Write NO MORE THAN FOUR WORDS AND/OR NUMBERS:
11. How much did Elon Musk earn for himself from selling his company?
12. What did Elon intend to purchase in Russia?
13. What does SpaceX stand for?
14. What 3 adjectives were used to describe Elon’s ideal applicant?
15. What example of small details designed by SpaceX was mentioned? Part 4
For questions 16-25, listen to a piece of news about crime prevention in Scotland and complete the
summary using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR NUMBER for each gap. Write your answers in the space provided.
Thanks to the radical approach of treating violence as a disease, homicide rates in Glasgow, the Scottish
city once dubbed “the _______________ (16.) of Europe”, witnessed a significant decrease of 60%.
In the 1980s and early 2000s, the _______________ (17.) in Scotland was mainly caused by the increase
in levels of alcohol abuse, unemployment and inequality.
By 2005, the crime situation in Glasgow was particularly grave, with police officers constantly receiving
calls informing about ______________ (18.) outside premises or gang fights.
With crime rates soaring, Glasgow’s police force established the Violence Reduction Unit, which
uniquely addressed violence not as a _______________ (19.), but a preventable disease.
American physician Gary Slutkin, who inspired the VRU’s approach, discovered how patterns of violence
and those of contagious diseases are similar when _______________ (20.) in an endeavour to combat
the issue of gun violence in the U.S.
In 2000, Slutkin launched ________________ (21.) in Chicago, with an emphasis on _______________
(22.): pinpointing the cause and interrupting the transmission of violence, deterring potential violent
offenders, and changing existing viewpoints about violence.
In addition to implementing Slutkin’s approach, the VRU has also supported stronger crime penalties
by means of _______________ (23.).
Crime reductions have not only alleviated the burden on the Scottish healthcare system, but have also
resulted in _______________ (24.), with VRU’s annual operation cost significantly lower than the cost per homicide case.
Hoping to break the cycle of violence, London, which has recently witnessed a rise in knife crime with
a multitude of _______________ (25.) towards May 2018, has publicly stated that it will be following Scotland’s example. B. VOCABULARY AND GRAMMAR Part 1
Choose the word/phrase that best completes each of the following sentences. 1.
If the worst comes to the worst, you can always count on your friends to help you __________.
A. find your feet B. spread your wings
C. lift your shoulders up D. get your own back 2.
He took __________ me the minute we met. But I’m not worried; I can take care of myself. A. into B. for C. against D. after 3.
I have spoken to my roommate many a time about turning his light off after midnight, but I’m
just __________ my breath, apparently. A. swallowing B. speaking under C. losing D. wasting 4.
I know Ministers have a lot of paperwork but please put yourself in her __________. A. office B. view C. chair D. place 5.
I don’t think anyone __________ better given the situation he was in.
A. can have done B. would have done C. could do D. could have done 6.
Despite the public __________, there are many signs that East Asia's two great powers are edging closer together.
A. idiosyncrasies B. nuisances C. altercations D. hassle 7.
We were __________, my test was negative, so again I did not have to make the horrendous choice. A. in good standing B. in luck C. in safe hands D. in danger 8.
In general, last year was by most accounts a successful year for the fitness facility industry, __________.
A. all things considered B. after everything
C. in all events D. all being well 9.
Listening to children isn't only the right thing to do; it might actually pay __________here. A. expenses B. dividends C. credits D. prices
10. We have, in the long run, a great deal to gain from __________ the effects of global warming A. discounting B. mitigating C. disrupting D. confronting Part 2
The passage below contains 5 mistakes. Identify the mistakes and write the corrections in the
correspondent numbered boxes. There is an example at the beginning Line 1
A supermassive black hole is the largest type of black hole, containing a mass of an order of hundreds
of thousands, to billions of times, the mass of the Sun. Black holes are classes of astronomical
object that have undergone gravitational collapse, leaving behind spheroidal regions of space which
nothing can escape, not even light. Observational evidence indicates that mostly all 5
large galaxies contain a supermassive black hole, located at the galaxy's center. In the case of the Milky
Way, the supermassive black hole responds to the location of Sagittarius A* at the Galactic
Core. Accretion of interstellar gas onto supermassive black holes is the process responsible for
powering quasars and other types of active galactic nucleuses. Some astronomers have begun labeling
black holes of at least 10 billion Ms as ultra-massive black holes. Most of these are associated with 10
exceptionally energetic quasars. Line Mistakes Corrections 0. 1 an the 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Part 3
Complete each of the following sentences with a suitable preposition or article. Write your answers in the space provided.
1. There were gasps on the southern bank of the rivers as locals watched fire sweep across the roof, which slowly caved________.
2. Due to his good conduct in prison, Kha has been released_______parole.
3. In order to truly appreciate a heritage site, one needs to gen_________the history of that area
4. The party is supposed to be informal so you can wear anything you like, _______reason.
5. The car finally pegged_______at 20 miles from Paris. Part 4
Give the correct form of each bracketed word in the following passage. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes.
Notre-Dame cathedral, the epitome of the beauty of Paris, was scarred by a devastating fire that caused
the fall of its delicate spire, bruised the Parisian skies with smoke and further 1 ___________(heart) a
city already back on its heels after weeks of violent protests. The 12th-century cathedral is home to
invaluable works of art and is one of the world’s most famous tourist attractions,
2___________(mortal) in Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
The fire broke out about 6:30 p.m., upending Mr. Macron’s plans to deliver an important policy speech
about trying to heal the country from months of “Yellow Vest” demonstrations that had already
3_________(face) major landmarks in the capital and 4_________(figure) some of its wealthiest
streets. By 7pm, flames had burst through the roof of the cathedral and quickly 5___________(gulf)
the lead and wood structure of the cathedral’s spire, which collapsed. Some of the treasures inside
Notre Dame were reported saved, although officials have yet to release a full 6_________(invent) of
what was saved from the fire and what was lost.
Tourists and 7________(look) alike came to a(n) 8 _________(still), pulling out their phones to call
their loved ones. Older Parisians began to cry, lamenting how their national treasure was quickly being
lost. A nearby resident, Agnes Rechter said her parents and grandparents had lived on the Île Saint
Louis. “We have known the cathedral since childhood,” she said. “It’s part of our personal history, too.”
She said she thought most of all of “the centuries of work, of 9__________(craft), that went into that building”.
The tragedy seemed to 10__________(score) the challenges heaped before French administration,
which has struggled to reconcile the formidable weight of France’s ideals and storied past with the
necessity for change to meet the demands of the 21st century. C. READING COMPREHENSION Part 1
For each gap, choose the correct answer A, B, C or D which best fits the context.
Belief perseverance is maintaining a belief despite new information that firmly contradicts it. Such
beliefs may even be strengthened when others attempt to present evidence _____ (1) them. According
to Lee Ross and Craig A. Anderson, "beliefs are remarkably resilient in the face of _____ (2) challenges
that seem logically devastating". Even when backed up with experiences, these beliefs remain
entrenched. The first study of belief perseverance was carried out by Festinger, Riecken, and Schachter.
These psychologists spent time with a _____ (3) whose members were convinced that the world would
end on December 21, 1954. After the prediction failed, most believers still clung to their faith. When
asked to _____ (4) probability estimates _____ (5) new information, subjects displayed a marked
tendency to give insufficient weight to the new evidence. Belief perseverance often involves _____ (6)
cognitive processes as well. "When the decisive facts did at length obtrude themselves upon my notice,"
says the great chemist Joseph Priestley, "it was very slowly, and with great hesitation, that I _____ (7)
to the evidence of my senses." Arthur Koestler _____ (8) the term snowblindness to refer "to that
remarkable form of blindness which often prevents the original thinker from perceiving the meaning
and significance of his own discovery. Jealousy apart, the antibody reaction directed against new ideas
seems to be much the same whether the idea was let _____ (9) by others–or oneself." The conclusion
is: Even when we deal with ideologically neutral conceptions of reality, when these conceptions have
been recently acquired, when they came to us from unfamiliar sources, when they were assimilated for
_____ (10) reasons, when their abandonment entails little tangible risks or costs, and when they are
sharply contradicted by subsequent events, we are, at least for a time, disinclined to doubt such
conceptions on the verbal level and unlikely to let go of them in practice. 1. A. debunking B. disclaiming C. shunning D. overruling 2. A. anecdotal B. experimental
C. circumstantial D. empirical 3. A. throng B. cult C. horde D. drove 4. A. reflect B. rerate C. re-establish D. reappraise 5. A. in light of B. by courtesy of C. in the view of D. by right of 6. A. intrapersonal B. personable C. interpersonal D. personage 7. A. resorted B. yielded C. internalized D. concurred 8. A. coined B. moneyed C. cashed D. charged 9. A. flop B. slide C. loose D. slack 10. A. cogent B spurious C. iniquitous D. corroborative
Part 2. Fill ONE suitable word in each blank. (15 pts)
It is hardly surprising, in (1)________ of their desperation, that the people of the developing world who
are on the very bottom (2)________ of the ladder have little time for the conservationists and
environmentalists who scream (3)________ murder at what they perceive to be a total disregard for
the environment in some parts of the "Third World". And while they - the nature campaigners, that is -
have, on the (4)________ of it, a very valid point - after all, serious, and, in some cases, irrevocable,
harm has been done to many precious habitats and the rare creatures that inhabit same - we must
understand that the rules of (5)________ and demand are in play here in the developing world just as
much as anywhere else. Believe me, for every bull elephants slaughtered for its ivory (6)________,
there is a rich, greedy, fat-cat collector ready to pay a (7)________ to acquire this 'find' - in fact, there
are probably ten of them. It is an absolute tragedy that endangered species of animals are being hunted
to the (8)________ of extinction, of this there can be no doubt. But we must try to understand the
reasons why this is happening. The reality is that poaching will continue (9)________ it is a lucrative
occupation and the prospects of finding other forms of employment are very poor. Developing
countries need our help, not our scorn. Save that for the few unscrupulous trophy hunters still out
there: rich, spoilt, despicable Western brats who get a (10)________ out of taking aim at some of the
world's most precious and endangered species. PART 3
Read the following passage and choose the answers (A, B, C or D). WRITING FICTION
Because I am a novelist myself, I am always faintly fussed by the idea of creative writing courses. I
completely accept that you can teach the craft, that you can give instruction on how to structure a
book, how to vary space and tension, how to write dialogue. But what you can’t teach, it seems to me,
is the right kind of interpretation of what has been observed. It worries me to think of all those earnest
pupils who have diligently mastered the mechanics, wondering with varying degrees of misery and rage
why the finished recipe just hasn’t somehow worked.
The great writer Samuel Coleridge explained it. He said that there are two kinds of imagination, the
primary and the secondary. We all, he said, possess the primary imagination, we all have the capacity
to perceive, to notice. But what only poets (loosely translated as all truly creative people, I suppose)
have - the secondary imagination is the capacity to select, and then translate and illuminate everything
that has been observed so that it seems to the audience something entirely new, something entirely
true, something exciting, wonderful and terrible.
There is, after all, nothing new to say about the human condition. There is nothing to say that
Shakespeare or Sophocles hasn’t already, inimitably, brilliantly, said. Codes of product, fashions in
morality and ethics, all may come and go. But what the human heart has desired - and feared - down
the ages goes on being very much the same. The novelist’s task is to follow the well-trodden, time-worn
path of human hopes and terrors. Never forget: betrayal may be as old as time, it may happen every
nanosecond of every minute that’s ever been, but the first time it happens to you feels like the first
time in the history of the world. A cliché is a cliché only if it is comfortably taking place in someone else’s life.
This empathy is vital in the writing of fiction. Coleridge’s view of the poet as prophet to the hungry
hordes is, in truth, a bit grand for me. I admire it, but I am not, personally, quite up to it. I am happier
seeing the novelist, sleeves rolled up, in the thick of it alongside the reader, bleeding when pricked, in
just the same way that the reader does. The only capacity I would claim is that I have an instinct to
select, from everything I have noticed in half a century’s beady-eyed people- watching, the telling detail,
the apt phrase. I seem to be good at the rhythms of dialogue. I seem to know how not to overwrite. But
that is it really. Except that the older I get, the more prepared I am to surrender and trust to the power
of the unconscious mind. Maybe this is a modest form of the secondary imagination, maybe not.
Whatever it is, it produces a level and intensity of communication that causes people to buy my books
and write to me about them in numbers that I still can’t get over.
What I do believe, fervently, is that we are all in this boat together – writer, reader, critic. I have a
tattered little quotation that lies on my desk and becomes more valuable to me as time goes on. It
comes from the autobiography of the celebrated nineteenth-century writer Anthony Trollope. He said
many remarkable things in this book, but my own personal favourite is on the subject of the novelist’s
central preoccupation. Trollope is not so much concerned with the landscape of the grand passions as
with something else, something less glamorous perhaps, but just as intense and certainly more
universal: ‘My task’, he wrote, ‘is to chronicle those little daily lacerations upon the spirit.’
I feel a thrill of recognition every time I read that, or even think about it. That is what the writer’s life is
all about for me. The point of it is to emphasise that we are none of us immune to longing, or
disappointment (much under-rated, in my view, as a source for distress), or frustration, or idiotic hope,
or bad behaviour. What fiction does, in this difficult world, is to reassure us that we are not alone, nor
we are (most of us) lost causes. There is a theory that suffering strengthens and elevates us in a way
that joy can never somehow do. I’m not so sure about that. Isn’t it just that we have, on the whole, so
much more suffering than joy that we have resolved, out of our great surviving instinct, to insist that
something worthwhile must be made of it? And isn’t fiction a handrail, of a kind, which we can all grasp
while we blunder about in the dark? Isn’t fiction written by people for people about people? And is
there a subject more fascinating or more important?
1. What view does the novelist express about creative writing courses?
A. A few good books emerge from them.
B. It would be inappropriate for her to teach on them.
C. Students are frustrated by the poor teaching on them.
D. Some aspects of writing skills can be successfully taught on them.
2. The novelist implies that a writer’s most valuable asset is ______.
A. an instinct for the unusual
B. a gift for meticulous observation
C. the ability to put a fresh interpretation on the everyday world
D. the ability to highlight sensational aspects of our existence
3. What is stated about writers in the third paragraph?
A. They should not exploit their readers’ fears.
B. They should revisit well-established themes.
C. They should be prepared to exaggerate their personal experience.
D. They should not try to keep pace with changes in literary tastes.
4. The phrase ‘the well-trodden, time-worn path’ refers to themes of writing that are ______.
A. familiar and long-standing
B. extraordinary and profound
C. up-to-date and catchy D. simple and soulful
5. The word ‘prophet’ refers to writer as a(n) ______ person.
A. conservative B. receptive C. impartial D. emotional
6. The novelist states that one of her own strengths as a writer lies in ______.
A. her depiction of character B. her construction of plot
C. her command of language D. her knowledge of psychology
7. Why does novelist admire Anthony Trollope?
A. He portrays the fact that everyone suffers in some way.
B. He realises that all writers need a strong sense of place.
C. He understands that everyone craves deep emotion.
D. He is aware that all writers have a particular obsession.
8. The word ‘lacerations’ refers to ______ events.
A. exhilarating B. epoch-making C. pathetic D. trivial
9. The novelist describes fiction as ‘a handrail, of a kind’ because it ______.
A. reflects the negative aspects of emotion
B. enables us to deal with failure
C. helps us make sense of complex events
D. offers reassurance in an uncertain world
10. Which theme recurs in this text?
A. The need for novelists to avoid complex philosophical questions
B. The need for novelists to develop their writing techniques
C. The need for novelists to give an accurate reflection of the spirit of the time
D. The need for novelists to identify closely with readers’ preoccupations
Part 4. Read the following passage and do the tasks that follow.
Internal Market: Selling the inside
A. When you think of marketing, you more than likely think of marketing to your customers:
How can you persuade more people to buy what you sell? But another "market" is just as
important: your employees, the very people who can make the brand come alive for your
customers. Yet in our work helping executives develop and carry out branding campaigns, my
colleagues and I have found that companies very often ignore this critical constituency.
B. Why is internal marketing so important? First, because it's the best way to help employees
make a powerful emotional connection to the products and services you sell. Without that
connection, employees are likely to undermine the expectations set by your advertising. In
some cases, this is because they simply don't understand what you have promised the public,
so they end up working at cross-purposes. In other cases, it may be they don't actually believe
in the brand and feel disengaged or, worse, hostile toward the company. We've found that
when people care about and believe in the brand, they're motivated to work harder and their
loyalty to the company increases. Employees are united and inspired by a common sense of purpose and identity.
C. Unfortunately, in most companies, internal marketing is done poorly, if at all. While
executives recognise the need to keep people informed about the company's strategy and
direction, few understand the need to convince employees of the brand's power—they take it as a given.
D. Employees need to hear the same messages that you send out to the marketplace. At most
companies, however, internal and external communications are often mismatched. This can
be very confusing, and it threatens employees' perceptions of the company's integrity: They
are told one thing by management but observe that a different message is being sent to the
public. One health insurance company, for instance, advertised that the welfare of patients
was the company's number one priority, while employees were told that their main goal was
to increase the value of their stock options through cost reductions. And one major financial
services institution told customers that it was making a major shift in focus from being a
financial retailer to a financial adviser, but, a year later, research showed that the customer
experience with the company had not changed. It turned out that company leaders had not
made an effort to sell the change internally, so employees were still churning out transactions
and hadn't changed their behavior to match their new adviser role.
E. Enabling employees to deliver on customer expectations is important, of course, but it's not
the only reason a company needs to match internal and external messages. Another reason is
to help push the company to achieve goals that might otherwise be out of reach. In 1997,
when IBM launched its e-business campaign (which is widely credited for turning around the
company's image), it chose to ignore research that suggested consumers were unprepared to
embrace IBM as a leader in e-business. Although to the outside world this looked like an
external marketing effort, IBM was also using the campaign to align employees around the
idea of the Internet as the future of technology. The internal campaign changed the way
employees thought about everything they did, from how they named products to how they
organised staff to how they approached selling. The campaign was successful largely because
it gave employees a sense of direction and purpose, which in turn restored their confidence in
IBM's ability to predict the future and lead the technology industry. Today, research shows
that people are four times more likely to associate the term "e-business" with IBM than with its nearest competitor.
F. Perhaps even more important, by taking employees into account, a company can avoid
creating a message that doesn't resonate with staff or, worse, one that builds resentment. In
1996, United Airlines shelved its "Come Fly the Friendly Skies" slogan when presented with a
survey that revealed the depth of customer resentment toward the airline industry. In an
effort to own up to the industry's shortcomings, United launched a new campaign, "Rising," in
which it sought to differentiate itself by acknowledging poor service and promising
incremental improvements such as better meals. While this was a logical premise for the
campaign given the tenor of the times, a campaign focusing on customers' distaste for flying
was deeply discouraging to the staff. Employee resentment, ultimately made it impossible for
United to deliver the improvements it was promising, which in turn undermined the "Rising"
pledge. Three years later, United decided employee opposition was undermining its success
and pulled the campaign. It has since moved to a more inclusive brand message with the line
"United," which both audiences can embrace. Here, a fundamental principle of advertising—
find and address a customer concern—failed United because it did not consider the internal market.
G. When it comes to execution, the most common and effective way to link internal and external
marketing campaigns is to create external advertising that targets both audiences. IBM used
this tactic very effectively when it launched its e-business campaign, It took out an eight-page
ad in the Wall Street Journal declaring its new vision, a message directed at both customers
and internal stakeholders. This is an expensive way to capture attention, but if used sparingly,
it is the most powerful form of communication; in fact, you need do it only once for everyone
in the company to read it. There's a symbolic advantage as well. Such a tactic signals that the
company is taking its pledge very seriously; it also signals transparency—the same message going out to both audiences.
H. Advertising isn’t the only way to link internal and external marketing. At Nike, a number of
senior executives now hold the additional title of "Corporate Storyteller." They deliberately
avoid stories of financial successes and concentrate on parables of "just doing it," reflecting
and reinforcing the company's ad campaigns. One tale, for example, recalls how legendary
coach and Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman, in an effort to build a better shoe for his team,
poured rubber into the family waffle iron, giving birth to the prototype of Nike's famous
Waffle Sole. By talking about such inventive moves, the company hopes to keep the spirit of
innovation that characterises its ad campaigns alive and well within the company.
I. But while their messages must be aligned, companies must also keep external promises a
little ahead of internal realities. Such promises provide incentives for employees and give
them something to live up to. In the 1980s, Ford turned "Quality Is Job 1" from an internal
rallying cry into a consumer slogan in response to the threat from cheaper, more reliable
Japanese cars. It did so before the claim was fully justified, but by placing it in the public
arena, it gave employees an incentive to match the Japanese. If the promise is pushed too far
ahead, however, it loses credibility. When a beleaguered British Rail launched a campaign
announcing service improvements under the banner "We're Getting There," it did so
prematurely. By drawing attention to the gap between the promise and the reality, it
prompted destructive press coverage. This, in turn, demoralised staff, who had been
legitimately proud of the service advances they had made.
The Reading has seven paragraphs, A-G. Choose the most suitable heading for each paragraph from the List of Headings below List of headings I.
An elucidation of internal marketing II.
The status quo in numerous corporations III.
Cross-claims on messages to audiences IV.
An instance for the importance of harmonious messages between the external and the internal V.
A method applied in popularity VI.
Another path for companies to follow VII. An one-sided perspective 1. Paragraph A. 2. Paragraph B. 3. Paragraph C. 4. Paragraph D. 5. Paragraph E. 6. Paragraph G 7. Paragraph H
Do the following statements agree with the information in the given text?
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts with the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information of this
8. It is a preeminent objective of companies to strike a balance between internal and external marketing.
9. A more promising future prospect that companies give their staff results in improvements in efficiency at corporations.
10. The “Rising” campaign by the United Airlines aimed to respond to the situation by bettering their
service on the ground of the current shortcomings awareness. PART 5
Read an extract from an article about the attitudes of parents toward their children. For question 1 – 10,
identify where each of the following is mentioned and write letter A to F in corresponding numbered
boxes. One section might be chosen more than once. Parental Favouritism A.
The American science writer has just published a book in which he argues that,
whether we admit it or not, parental favouritism is hard-wired into the human psyche. “It is my
belief that 95 per cent of the parents in the world have a favourite child, and the other five per
cent are lying,” he declares in The Sibling Effect: What the Bonds Among Brothers and Sisters
Reveal About Us. That particular figure may be guesswork, but there is plenty of evidence that
would seem to back him up. Kluger cites a Californian study of 384 families, who were visited
three times a year and videotaped as they “worked through conflicts”. The study found that 65
percent of mothers and 70 percent of fathers exhibited a preference for one child. And those
numbers are almost certainly under-representative, since people behave less naturally when they are being watched. B.
Every couple of years, in fact, a new report comes out purporting to lift the lid on
parental favouritism. Most often – though as we shall see, by no means always – older siblings
seem to come out on top. In 2009 two British professors, David Lawson and Ruth Mace,
published a study of 14,000 families in the Bristol area. They found that each successive sibling
received “markedly” less care and attention from their parents than their predecessors. Older
siblings were even fed better, as a result of which they were likely to be up to 3 cm taller than
their younger siblings. They also had higher IQs, probably because they had the benefit of their
parents’ undivided attention for the first part of their lives. C.
Anthropologists and evolutionary psychologists argue that there is a sound Darwinian
logic to this. A firstborn automatically absorbs a huge amount of parental time and energy; and
once you’ve invested that much in one child, you might as well keep going – if only to protect the
investment. However, a survey of 1,803 British parents with two children claimed to show that
younger siblings were given preferential treatment 59% of the time. Parents were more likely to
side with a younger child in an argument, lavish them with affection and let them have their own way. D.
It’s at this point, I must admit, that I start to feel a bit impatient with the experts. A
science that can absorb so many contradictory variables hardly seems like science at all. And if,
as the experts all seem to agree, favouritism is so common as to be almost universal, doesn’t
that make it just – well, normal? Undoubtedly there are families where favouritism is blatant and
sustained enough to be seriously destructive. But in most cases, surely, it does not merit such pathologising. E.
When I solicited confessions of favouritism from my fellow parents, I had no luck at
all. Lots of people admitted to treating their children differently at different times, according to
their needs (and how annoying they’re being). But not one felt this reflected any fundamental
preference. It is simply part of the warp and weft of family life. The truth is that favouritism is an
awfully blunt word for such a complicated subject. How we treat our children is affected by any
number of shifting, interlacing factors: birth order, gender, changes in circumstances, our own
childhood experiences. Then, too, some characters just hit it off better than others. F.
“I think most of us have short-term favourites, depending on who’s going through a
‘phase’,” says Suzanne, a mother of four. “You can feel immense affection for one child on a
Tuesday who then drives you to distraction on Wednesday. But the underlying love is just as
intense for all of them. I think long-term favouritism is bookselling nonsense in the majority of
cases.” In an anonymous online survey for the website Mumsnet, 16 percent of mothers
admitted to having a favourite child. That’s quite a lot – it’s a big deal to admit to such parental
malpractice, if only to yourself – but it hardly amounts to the psychological pandemic of Kluger’s
imaginings. On the other hand, things do tend to look different from a child’s perspective. Even
in the happiest families, siblings instinctively compete for their parents’ love. Scrupulous
emotional accountants, they are constantly totting up incidents of perceived unfairness. So it
makes sense for parents, too, to keep a watchful eye on their own behaviour
A general pattern that emerges from the majority of investigations into favouritism. 1.
The need for parents to be conscious of the way they treat each of their children. 2.
A theory as to why a certain child may be the subject of favouritism. 3.
The extent to which children focus on their parents’ attitude towards them. 4.
A feeling that the study of favouritism may not be worthwhile. 5.
Evidence of parents’ greater tolerance for a certain child. 6.
The large variety of reasons affecting parents’ attitudes towards their children. 7.
A factor that could affect the reliability of research into favouritism. 8.
Distrust of what some parents would say about favouritism in research. 9.
How difficult it is for parents to acknowledge favouritism. 10. D. WRITING Part 1
Use your own words to summarize the following passage. The summary should be about 140 words.
A useful definition of an air pollutant is a compound added directly or indirectly by humans to the
atmosphere in such quantities as to affect humans, animals, vegetations, or materials adversely. Air
pollution requires a very flexible definition that permits continuous change. When the first air pollution
laws were established in England in the fourteenth century, air pollutants were limited to compounds
that could be seen or smelled-a far cry from the extensive list of harmful substances known today. As
technology has developed and knowledge of the health aspects of various chemicals has increased, the
list of air pollutants has lengthened. In the future, even water vapor might be considered an air pollutant under certain conditions.
Many of the more important air pollutants, such as sulfur oxides, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen
oxides, are found in nature. As the Earth developed, the concentrations of these pollutants were altered
by various chemical reactions; they became components in biogeochemical cycles. These serve as an
air purification scheme by allowing the compounds to move from the air to the water or soil on a global
basis, nature's output of these compounds dwarfs that resulting from human activities. However,
human production usually occurs in a localized area, such as a city.
In this localized regions, human output may be dominant and may temporarily overload the natural
purification scheme of the cycle. The result is an increased concentration of noxious chemicals in the
air. The concentrations at which the adverse effects appear will be greater than the concentrations that
the pollutants would have in the absence of human activities. The actual concentration need not be
large for a substance to be a pollutant; in fact the numerical value tells us little until we know how much
of an increase this represents over the concentration that would occur naturally in the area. For
example, sulfur dioxide has detectable health effects at 0.08 parts per million (ppm), which is about
400 times its natural level. Carbon monoxide, however, as a natural level of 0.1 ppm and is not usually
a pollutant until its level reaches about 15 ppm. Part 2
The table shows data about the average length of time that people of different ages spend in a
consultation with family doctors in a number of countries.
Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
Minutes spent with a doctor on average Age France Brazil Japan USA India Kenya UK Italy Chile (years) 0-10 16 12 14 13 12 15 9 17 32 10-20 18 21 12 17 14 14 12 18 32 20-40 25 23 16 19 20 12 13 23 34 40-60 29 26 15 21 21 12 15 24 36 60-70 34 23 13 27 19 11 15 27 38 70+ 38 20 14 31 11 10 21 29 39 Part 3
People in the modern world are becoming more and more dependent on each other. Nevertheless, some
believe that people are more independent.
Discuss both views and give your opinion. KEY LISTENING PART 1 1. C 2. C 3. D 4. C 5. B PART 2 6. F 7. T 8. T 9. F 10. NG PART 3 11. $165 million
12. (Refurbished) intercontinental ballistic missiles
13. Space Exploration Technologies 14. Young, single, educated 15. (The) circuitry PART 4 16. murder capital 21. a pilot project 17. social crisis
22. three key areas/ 3 key areas 18. group disorder 23. lobbying 19. criminal matter 24. economic benefits 20. mapping crime data 25. fatal stabbings VOCABULARY Part 1: 1.A 2.C 3.D 4.D 5.D 6.C 7.B 8.A 9.B 10.B Part 2: Line Mistakes Corrections 0. 1 an the 1. 2 are classes is a class 2. 4 which from which 3. 5 mostly nearly/ almost 4. 6 responds corresponds 5. 9 nucleuses nuclei Part 3: 1. In 2. On 3. Up on 4. Within 5. Out Part 4: 1. Disheartened 6. Inventory 2. Immortalized 7. Onlookers 3. Defaced 8. Standstill 4. Disfigured 9. Craftsmanship 5. Engulfed 10. Underscore READING PART 1: 1. A 3. B 5. A 7. B 9. C 2. D 4. D 6. A 8. A 10. B PART 2: 1. light/view 6. tusks 2. rung 7. premium 3. blue/ bloody 8. verge/brink 4. face 9. while 5. supply 10. kick PART 3 1. D 3. B 5. B 7. A 9. D 2. C 4. A 6. C 8. C 10. D PART 4: 1. VII 2. I 3. II 4. III 5. IV 6. V 7. VI 8. NG 9. F 10. T PART 5:
A general pattern that emerges from the majority of investigations into 1. B (line 2-3) favouritism.
The need for parents to be conscious of the way they treat each of their children. 2. F (line 9)
A theory as to why a certain child may be the subject of favouritism. 3. C (line 2-3)
The extent to which children focus on their parents’ attitude towards them. 4. F (line 7-8)
A feeling that the study of favouritism may not be worthwhile. 5. D (line 1-2)
Evidence of parents’ greater tolerance for a certain child. 6. C (line 3-4)
The large variety of reasons affecting parents’ attitudes towards their children. 7. E (line 5-6)
A factor that could affect the reliability of research into favouritism. 8. A (line 7-8)
Distrust of what some parents would say about favouritism in research. 9. A (line 2-3)
How difficult it is for parents to acknowledge favouritism. 10. F (line 5) WRITING Part 1 Suggested outline
- The changing definition of air pollutants
- The natural mechanism of air purification, which is reversed by man-made impacts.