READING COMPREHENSION

PRACTICE TESTS
PASSAGE 1:
The Power of Nothing
Want to devise a new form of alternative medicine? No problem. Here is the recipe. Be warm, sympathetic,
reassuring and enthusiastic. Your treatment should involve physical contact, and each session with your
patients should last at least half an hour. Encourage your patients to take an active part in their treatment
and understand how their disorders relate to the rest of their lives. Tell them that their own bodies possess
the true power to heal. Make them pay you out of their own pockets. Describe your treatment in familiar
words, but embroidered with a hint of mysticism: energy fields, energy flows, energy blocks, meridians,
forces, auras, rhythms and the like. Refer to the K J knowledge of an earlier age: wisdom carelessly swept
aside by the rise and rise of blind, mechanistic science. Oh, come off it, you are saying. Something invented
off the top of your head could not possibly work, could it?

Well yes, it could – and often well enough to earn you living. A good living if you are sufficiently
convincing, or better still, really believe in your therapy. Many illnesses get better on their own, so if you
are lucky and administer your treatment at just the right time you will get the credit. But that’s only part of
it. Some of the improvements really would be down to you. Your healing power would be the outcome of
a paradoxical force that conventional medicine recognizes but remains oddly ambivalent about: the placebo
effect.

Placebos are treatments that have no direct effect on the body, yet still work because the patient has faith
in their power to heal. Most often the term refers to a dummy pill, but it applies just as much to any device
or procedure, from a sticking plaster to a crystal to an operation. The existence of the placebo effect implies
that even quackery may confer real benefits, which is why any mention of placebo is a touchy subject for
many practitioners of complementary and alternative medicine, who are likely to regard it as tantamount to
a charge of charlatanism. In fact, the placebo effect is a powerful part of all medical care, orthodox or
otherwise, though its role is often neglected or misunderstood.

One of the great strengths of CAM may be its practitioners’ skill in deploying the placebo effect to
accomplish real healing. “Complementary practitioners are miles better at producing non-specific effects
and good therapeutic relationships,” says Edzard Ernst, professor of CAM at Exeter University. The
question is whether CAM could be integrated into conventional medicine, as some would like, without
losing much of this power.

At one level, it should come as no surprise that our state of mind can influence our physiology: anger opens
the superficial blood vessels of the face; sadness pumps the tear glands. But exactly how placebos work
their medical magic is still largely unknown. Most of the scant research done so far has focused on the
control of pain, because it’s one of the commonest complaints and lends itself to experimental study. Here,
attention has turned to the endorphins, morphine-like neurochemicals known to help control pain. “Any of
the neurochemicals involved in transmitting pain impulses or modulating them might also be involved in
generating the placebo response,” says Don Price, an oral surgeon at the University of Florida who studies
the placebo effect in dental pain.

“But endorphins are still out in front. “That case has been strengthened by the recent work of Fabrizio
Benedetti of the University of Turin, who showed that the placebo effect can be abolished by a drug,
naloxone, which blocks the effects of endorphins. Benedetti induced pain in human volunteers by inflating
a blood-pressure cuff on the forearm. He did this several times a day for several days, using morphine each

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time to control the pain. On the final day, without saying anything, he replaced the morphine with a saline
solution. This still relieved the subjects’ pain: a placebo effect. But when he added naloxone to the saline
the pain relief disappeared. Here was direct proof that placebo analgesia is mediated, at least in part, by
these natural opiates.

Still, no one knows how belief triggers endorphin release, or why most people can’t achieve placebo pain
relief simply by willing it. Though scientists don’t know exactly how placebos work, they have accumulated
a fair bit of knowledge about how to trigger the effect. A London rheumatologist found, for example, that
red dummy capsules made more effective painkillers than blue, green or yellow ones. Research on
American students revealed that blue pills make better sedatives than pink, a color more suitable for
stimulants. Even branding can make a difference: if Aspro or Tylenol are what you like to take for a
headache, their chemically identical generic equivalents may be less effective.

It matters, too, how the treatment is delivered. Decades ago, when the major tranquillizer chlorpromazine
was being introduced, a doctor in Kansas categorized his colleagues according to whether they were keen
on it, openly skeptical of its benefits or took a “let’s try and see” attitude. His conclusion: the more
enthusiastic the doctor, the better the drug performed. And this, year Ernst surveyed published studies that
compared doctors’ bedside manners. The studies turned up one consistent finding: “Physicians who adopt
a warm, friendly and reassuring manner,” he reported, “are more effective than those whose consultations
are formal and do not offer reassurance”.

Warm, friendly and reassuring are precisely CAM, s strong suits, of course. Many of the ingredients of that
opening recipe – the physical contact, the generous swathes of time, the strong hints of supernormal healing
power – are just the kind of thing likely to impress patients. It’s hardly surprising, then, that complementary
practitioners are generally best at mobilizing the placebo effect, says Arthur Kleinman, professor of social
anthropology at Harvard University.

Questions 1-6: Use the information in the passage to match the deed (listed A-H) with the people below.
Write the appropriate letters A-H in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.
NB you may use any letter more than once
A. Should easily be understood E. Needs to be treated at the right time
B. Should improve by itself F. Should give more recognition
C. Should not involve any mysticism G. Can earn valuable money
D. Ought to last a minimum length of time H. Do not rely on any specific treatment

1. Appointments with an alternative practitioner

2. An alternative practitioner’s description of the treatment
3. An alternative practitioner who has faith in what he does
4. The illness of patients convinced of alternative practice
5. Improvements of patients receiving alternative practice
6. Conventional medical doctors (who is aware of placebo)

Questions 7-9: Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

7. In the fifth paragraph, the writer uses the example of anger and sadness to illustrate that:
A. People’s feeling could affect their physical behavior
B. Scientists don’t understand how the mind influences the body.
C. Research on the placebo effect is very limited
D. How the placebo achieves its effect is yet to be understood.

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8. Research on pain control attracts most of the attention because
A. Scientists have discovered that endorphins can help to reduce pain.
B. Only a limited number of researchers gain relevant experience
C. Pain reducing agents might also be involved in the placebo effect.
D. Patients often experience pain and like to complain about it
9. Fabrizio Benedettfs research on endorphins indicates that
A. They are widely used to regulate pain.
B. They can be produced by willful thoughts.
C. They can be neutralized by introducing naloxone.
D. Their pain-relieving effects do not last long enough.
Questions 10-14: Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage
write:
TRUE if the statement is true
FALSE if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage

10. There is enough information for scientists to fully understand the placebo effect.
11. A London based researcher discovered that red pills should be taken off the market.
12. People’s preference for brands would also have an effect on their healing.
13. Medical doctors have a range of views of the newly introduced drug of chlorpromazine.
14. Alternative practitioners are seldom known for applying the placebo effect.

PASSAGE 2:
Source of Knowledge
A What counts as knowledge? What do we mean when we say that we know some-thing? What is the
status of different. kinds of knowledge? In order to explore those questions we are going to focus on one
particular area of knowledge medicine.

B How do you know when you are ill? This may seem to be an absurd question. You know you are ill
because you feel ill; your body tells you that you are ill. You may know that you feel pain or discomfort
Iml knowing you are ill is a bit. more complex. At times, people experience the symptoms of illness, but in
tact they are simply tired or over-worked or they may just have a hangover. At other limes, people may be
suffering from a disease and fail to be aware of the illness until it has reached a late stage in its development.
So how do we know we are ill, and what counts as knowledge?

C Think about this example. You feel unwell. You have a bad cough and always seem to be tired.
Perhaps it could be stress at work, or maybe you should give up smoking. You tool worse. You visit the
doctor who listens to your chest and heart, takes your temperature and blood pressure, and then finally
prescribes antibiotics for your cough.

D Things do not improve but you struggle on thinking you should pull yourself together, perhaps
things will ease off at work soon. A return visit to your doctor shocks you. This time the doctor, drawing
on yours of training and experience, diagnoses pneumonia. This means that you will need bed rest and a
consider able time off work. The scenario is transformed. Although you still have the same symptoms, you
no longer think that these are caused by pressure at work. You now have proof that you are ill. This is the
result of the combination of your own subjective experience and the diagnosis of someone who has the
status of a medical expert. You have a medically authenticated diagnosis and it appears that you are
seriously ill; you know you are ill and have evidence upon which to base this knowledge.

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E This scenario shows many different sources of knowledge. For example, you decide to consult the
doctor in the first place because you feel unwell - this is personal knowledge about your own body.
However, the doctor's expert diagnosis is based on experience and training, with sources of knowledge as
diverse as other experts, laboratory reports, medical textbooks and years of experience.

F One source of knowledge is the experience of our own bodies; the personal knowledge we have of
change's that might be significant, as well as the subjective experience of pain and physical distress. These
experiences are mediated by other forms of knowledge such as the words we have available to describe our
experience and the common sense of our families and friends as well as that drawn from popular culture.
Over the post decade, for example, Western culture has seen a significant emphasis on stress-related illness
in the media. Reference to being ‘stressed end' has become a common response in daily exchanges in the
workplace and has become port of popular common-sense knowledge. It is thus not surprising that we
might seek such an explanation of physical symptoms of discomfort.

G We might also rely on the observations of others who know us. Comments from friends and family
such as ‘you do look ill' or 'that's a bad cough' might be another source of knowledge. Complementary
health practices, such as holistic medicine, produce their own sets of knowledge upon which we might also
draw in deciding the nature and degree of our ill health and about possible treatments.

H Perhaps the most influential and authoritative source of knowledge is the medical knowledge
provided by the general practitioner. We expect the doctor to have access to expert knowledge. This is
socially sanctioned. It would not be acceptable to notify our employer that we simply felt too unwell to turn
up for work or that our faith healer, astrologer, therapist or even our priest thought it was not a good idea.
We need an expert medical diagnosis in order to obtain the necessary certificate it we need to be off work
for more than the statutory self-certificaion period. The knowledge of the medical sciences is privileged in
this respect in contemporary Western culture. Medical practitioners are also seen as having the required
expert knowledge that permits then legally to prescribe drugs and treatment to which patients would not.
otherwise have access. However there is a rauge of different knowledge upon which we draw when making
decisions about our own state of health.

I However, there is more than existing knowledge in this little story; new knowledge is constructed
within it. Given the doctor's medical training and background, she may hypothesize 'is this now
pneumonia?' and then proceed to look for eevidence about it. She will use observations and instruments to
assess the evidence and-critically-interpret it in the light of her training and new experience both for you
and for the doctor. This will then be added to the doctor's medical knowledge and may help in future
diagnosis of pneumonia.
Questions 1-6: Complete the table. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for
each answer.

Source of knowledge Examples

Symptoms of a (1) ………………………… and tiredness

Personal experience Doctor’s measurement by taking (2) ………………………… and temperature
Common judgment from (3) ………………………… around you

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 Medical knowledge from the general (4) …………………………
e.g. doctor’s medical (5) …………………………
Scientific evidence
Examine the medical hypothesis with the previous drill and (6)
…………………………

Question 7-14: The reading Passage has nine paragraphs A- I. Which paragraph contains the following
information?
7. the contrast between the nature of personal judgment and the nature of doctor’s diagnosis
8. a reference of culture about pressure
9. sick leave will not be permitted without the professional diagnosis
10. how doctors’ opinions are regarded in the society
11. the illness of patients can become part of new knowledge
12. a description of knowledge drawn from non-specialized sources other than personal knowledge
13. an example of collective judgment from personal experience and professional doctor
14. a reference that some people do not realize they are ill

PASSAGE 3:
Overdosing on nothing
A An international protest this week aims to demonstrate the truth about homeopathy-that there’s
literally nothing in it, says Martin Robbins AT 10.23 am on 30 January, more than 300 activists in the UK,
Canada, Australia and the US will take part in a mass homeopathic “overdose”. Skeptics will publicly
swallow an entire bottle of homeopathic pills to demonstrate to the public that homeopathic remedies, the
product of a scientifically unfounded 18th-century ritual, are simply sugar pills. Many of the skeptics will
swallow 84 pills of arsenicum album, a homeopathic remedy based on arsenic which is used to treat a range
of symptoms, including food poisoning and insomnia. The aim of the “10:23” campaign, led by the
Merseyside Skeptics Society, based in Liverpool, UK, is to raise public awareness of just exactly what
homeopathy is, and to put pressure on the UK’s leading pharmacist, Boots, to remove theremedies from
sale. The campaign is called 10:23 in honor of the Avogadro constant (approximately 6 x 1023, the number
of atoms or molecules in onemole of a substance), of which more later.

B That such a protest is even necessary in 2010 is remarkable, but somehow the homeopathic industry
has not only survived into the 21st century, but prospered. In the UK alone more than £40 million is spent
annually on homeopathic treatments, with £4 million of this being sucked from the National Health Service
budget. Yet the basis for homeopathy defies the laws of physics, and high-quality clinical trials have never
been able to demonstrate that it works beyond the placebo effect.

C The discipline is based on three “laws”; the law of similars, the law of infinite simals and the law of
succession. The law of similars states that something which causes your symptoms will cure your
symptoms, so that, for example, as caffeine keeps you awake, it can also be a cure for insomnia. Of course,
that makes little sense, since drinking caffeine, well, keeps you awake. Next is the law of infinitesimals,
which claims that diluting a substance makes it more potent. Homeopaths start by diluting one volume of
their remedy arsenic oxide, in the case of arsenicumalbum-in 99 volumes of distilled water oralcohol to
create a “centesimal”. They then dilute one volume of the centesimal in 99volumes of water or alcohol, and
so on, up to 30 times. Application of Avogadro’s constant tells you that a dose of such a“30C” recipe is
vanishingly unlikely to contain even a single molecule of the active ingredient. The third pillar of
homeopathy is the law of succession. This states-and I’m not making this up-that by tapping the liquid in a

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special way during the dilution process, a memory of the active ingredient is somehow imprinted on it. This
explains how water is able to carry a memory of arsenic oxide, but apparently not of the contents of your
local sewer network.

D The final preparation is generally dropped onto a sugar pill which the patient swallows. Homeopaths
claim that the application of these three laws results in a remedy that, even though it contains not a single
molecule of the original T-T-J. – ingredient, somehow carries an “energy signature” of it that nobody can
measure or detect. Unsurprisingly, when tested under rigorous scientific conditions, in randomized,
controlled and double blind trials, homeopathic remedies have shown to be no better than a placebo. Of
course, the placebo effect is quite powerful, but it’s a bit like justifying building a car without any wheels
on the basis that you can still enjoy the comfy leather seats and play with the gear shift.

E Even some retailers who sell the treatments have admitted there is no evidence that they work. In
November, Paul Bennett, the super intendent pharmacist at Boots, appeared before the UK parliament’s
Commons Science and Technology Committee’s “evidence check” on homeopathy. He was questioned by
Member of Parliament Phil Willis, who asked: “Do they work beyond the placebo effect?” I have no
evidence before me to suggest that they are efficacious,” Bennett replied. He defended Boots’s decision to
sell homeopathic remedies on the grounds of consumer choice. “A large number of our consumers actually
do believe they are efficacious, but they are licensed medicinal products and, therefore, we believe it is
right to make the mavailable,” he said.

F You might agree. You might also argue that homeopathy is harmless: if people want to part with their
money for sugar pills and nobody is breaking the law, why not let them? To some extent that’s true-there’s
only so much damage you can do with sugar pills short of feeding them to a diabetic or dropping a large
crate of them on someone’s head. However, we believe there is a risk in perpetuating the notion that
homeopathy is equivalent to modern medicine. People may delay seeking appropriate treatment for
themselves or their children.

G We accept that we are unlikely to convince the true believers. Homeopathy has many ways to sidestep
awkward questions, such as rejecting the validity of randomized controlled trials, or claiming that
homeopathic remedies only work if you have symptoms of the malady they purport to cure. Our aim is to
reach out to the general public with our simple message: “There is nothing in it”. Boots and other retailers
are perfectly entitled to continue selling homeopathic remedies if they so wish and consumers are perfectly
entitled to keep on buying them. But hopefully the 10:23 campaign will ram home our message to the
public. In the 21st century, with decades of progress behind us, it is surreal that governments are prepared
to spend millions of tax pounds on homeopathy. There really is nothing in it.

Questions 1-7: The reading passage has seven paragraphs, A-G. Choose the correct heading for
paragraphs A-G from the list below. Write the correct number, i-ix, in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet.
List of Headings
i The definition of three laws
ii Quoting three laws to against the homeopathy
iii There are many methods of avoiding answering ambiguous questions.
iv The purpose of illustrating the effectiveness of homeopathy
v The constant booming of homeopathy
vi Some differences between homeopathy and placebo
vii Placebo is better than homeopathy
viii An example of further demonstrating the negative effect of homeopathy
ix The purpose of staging an demonstration to against homeopathy

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 1. Paragraph A 5. Paragraph E
2. Paragraph B 6. Paragraph F
3. Paragraph C 7. Paragraph G
4. Paragraph D

Questions 8-14: Do the following statements agree with the information given in the reading passage?
Write
TRUE if the statement is true
FALSE if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage
8. Skeptics planning to hold a demonstration in "10.23" campaign is to against UK's leading pharmacist,
Boots.
9. National Health Service budget gained a small portion of homeopathic industry.
10. The example of Caffeine is to present that homeopathy resists the laws of similars.
11. Instilling the idea to people that homeopathy is equal to modern medicine poses danger.
12. Paul Bennett claimed effectiveness of taking the homeopathic medicine is proved.
13. The adoption of homeopathy mainly contributes to the delay of seeking appropriate treatment for
themselves or their children.
14. The campaign has exerted heavy pressure on Boots and other retailers.

PASSAGE 4:
READING THE SCREEN
Are the electronic media exacerbating illiteracy and making our children stupid? On the contrary, says
Colin McCabe, they have the potential to make us truly literate.

The debate surrounding literacy is one of the most charged in education. On the one hand there is an army
of people convinced that traditional skills of reading and writing are declining. On the other, a host of
progressives protest that literacy is much more complicated than a simple technical mastery of reading and
writing. This second position is supported by most of the relevant academic work over the past 20 years.
These studies argue that literacy can only be understood in its social and technical context. In Renaissance
England, for example, many more people could read than could write, and within reading there was a
distinction between those who could read print and those who could manage the more difficult task of
reading manuscript. An understanding of these earlier periods helps us understand today's 'crisis in literacy'
debate. There does seem to be evidence that there has been an overall decline in some aspects of reading
and writing – you only need to compare the tabloid newspapers of today with those of 50 years ago to see
a clear decrease in vocabulary and simplification of syntax. But the picture is not uniform and doesn't
readily demonstrate the simple distinction between literate and illiterate which had been considered
adequate since the middle of the 19th century.
While reading a certain amount of writing is as crucial as it has ever been in industrial societies, it is doubtful
whether a fully extended grasp of either is as necessary as it was 30 or 40 years ago. While print retains
much of its authority as a source of topical information, television has increasingly usurped this role. The
ability to write fluent letters has been undermined by the telephone and research suggests that for many
people the only use for writing, outside formal education, is the compilation of shopping lists.

The decision of some car manufacturers to issue their instructions to mechanics as a video pack rather than
as a handbook might be taken to spell the end of any automatic link between industrialization and literacy.
On the other hand, it is also the case that ever-increasing numbers of people make their living out of writing,
which is better rewarded than ever before. Schools are generally seen as institutions where the book rules

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– film, television and recorded sound have almost no place; but it is not clear that this opposition is
appropriate. While you may not need to read and write to watch television, you certainly need to be able to
read and write in order to make programmes.

Those who work in the new media are anything but illiterate. The traditional oppositions between old and
new media are inadequate for understanding the world which a young child now encounters. The computer
has re-established a central place for the written word on the screen, which used to be entirely devoted to
the image. There is even anecdotal evidence that children are mastering reading and writing in order to get
on to the Internet. There is no reason why the new and old media cannot be integrated in schools to provide
the skills to become economically productive and politically enfranchised.

Nevertheless, there is a crisis in literacy and it would be foolish to ignore it. To understand that literacy
may be declining because it is less central to some aspects of everyday life is not the same as acquiescing
in this state of affairs. The production of school work with the new technologies could be a significant
stimulus to literacy. How should these new technologies be introduced into the schools? It isn't enough to
call for computers, camcorders and edit suites in every classroom; unless they are properly integrated into
the educational culture, they will stand unused. Evidence suggests that this is the fate of most information
technology used in the classroom. Similarly, although media studies are now part of the national
curriculum, and more and more students are now clamouring to take these course, teachers remain uncertain
about both methods and aims in this area.

This is not the fault of the teachers. The entertainment and information industries must be drawn into a
debate with the educational institutions to determine how best to blend these new technologies into the
classroom.

Many people in our era are drawn to the pessimistic view that the new media are destroying old skills and
eroding critical judgment. It may be true that past generations were more literate but – taking the pre-19th
century meaning of the term – this was true of only a small section of the population. The word literacy is
a 19th-century coinage to describe the divorce of reading and writing from a full knowledge of literature.
The education reforms of the 19th century produced reading and writing as skills separable from full
participation in the cultural heritage.

The new media now point not only to a futuristic cyber-economy, they also make our cultural past available
to the whole nation. Most children's access to these treasures is initially through television. It is doubtful
whether our literary heritage has ever been available to or sought out by more than about 5 per cent of the
population; it has certainly not been available to more than 10 per cent. But the new media joined to the
old, through the public service tradition of British broadcasting, now makes our literary tradition available
to all.
Questions 1-4: Choose the appropriate letters A-D.
1. When discussing the debate on literacy in education, the writer notes that _____.
A. children cannot read and write as well as they used to
B. academic work has improved over the last 20 years
C. there is evidence that literacy is related to external factors
D. there are opposing arguments that are equally convincing
2. In the 4th paragraph, the writer's main point is that _____.
A. the printed word is both gaining and losing power
B. all inventions bring disadvantages as well as benefits
C. those who work in manual jobs no longer need to read
D. the media offers the best careers for those who like writing

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3. According to the writer, the main problem that schools face today is _____.
A. how best to teach the skills of reading and writing
B. how best to incorporate technology into classroom teaching
C. finding the means to purchase technological equipment
D. managing the widely differing levels of literacy amongst pupils
4. At the end of the article, the writer is suggesting that _____.
A. literature and culture cannot be divorced
B. the term 'literacy' has not been very useful
C. 10 per cent of the population never read literature
D. our exposure to cultural information is likely to increase

Questions 5-10: Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in the passage? Write your
answers in the corresponding numbered box provided.
YES if the statement agrees with the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
5. It is not as easy to analyse literacy levels as it used to be.
6. Our literacy skills need to be as highly developed as they were in the past.
7. Illiteracy is on the increase.
8. Professional writers earn relatively more than they used
9. A good literacy level is important for those who work in television.
10. Computers are having a negative impact on literacy in schools.

Questions 11- 13: Complete the sentences below with words taken, from the passage. Use NO MORE
THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.
In Renaissance England, the best readers were those able to read (11)________________.
The writer uses the example of (12)____________ to illustrate the general fall in certain areas of literacy.
It has been shown that after leaving school, the only things that a lot of people write are (13)__________.

PASSAGE 5:
Assessing the risk
A As a title for a supposedly unprejudiced debate on scientific progress, “Panic attack: interrogating our
obsession with risk” did not bode well. Held last week at the Royal Institution in London, the event brought
together scientists from across the world to ask why society is so obsessed with risk and to call for a “more
rational” approach. “We seem to be organising society around the grandmotherly maxim of ‘better safe
than sorry’,” exclaimed Spiked, the online publication that organised the event. “What are the consequences
of this overbearing concern with risks?”

B The debate was preceded by a survey of 40 scientists who were invited to describe how awful our
lives would be if the “precautionary principle” had been allowed to prevail in the past. Their response was:
no heart surgery or antibiotics, and hardly any drugs at all; no aeroplanes, bicycles or high-voltage power
grids; no pasteurisation, pesticides or biotechnology; no quantum mechanics; no wheel; no “discovery” of
America. In short, their message was: no risk, no gain.

C They have absolutely missed the point. The precautionary principle is a subtle idea. It has various
forms, but all of them generally include some notion of cost-effectiveness. Thus the point is not simply to
ban things that are not known to be absolutely safe. Rather, it says: “Of course you can make no progress
without risk. But if there is no obvious gain from taking the risk, then don’t take it.”

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D Clearly, all the technologies listed by the 40 well-chosen savants were innately risky at their
inception, as all technologies are. But all of them would have received the green light under the
precautionary principle because they all had the potential to offer tremendous benefits – the solutions to
very big problems – if only the snags could be overcome.

E If the precautionary principle had been in place, the scientists tell us, we would not have antibiotics.
But of course, we would – if the version of the principle that sensible people now understand had been
applied. When penicillin was discovered in the 1920s, infective bacteria were laying waste to the world.
Children died from diphtheria and whooping cough, every open-drain brought the threat of typhoid, and
any wound could lead to septicaemia and even gangrene.

F Penicillin was turned into a practical drug during the Second World War when the many pestilences
that result from were threatened to kill more people than the bombs. Of course antibiotics were a priority.
Of course, the risks, such as they could be perceived, were worth taking.

G And so with the other items on the scientists’ list: electric light bulbs, blood transfusions. CAT scans,
knives, the measles vaccine – the precautionary principle would have prevented all of them, they tell us.
But this is just plain wrong. If the precautionary principle had been applied properly, all these creations
would have passed muster, because all offered incomparable advantages compared to the risks perceived
at the time.

H Another issue is at stake here. Statistics are not the only concept people use when weighing up risk.
Human beings, subtle and evolved creatures that we are, do not survive to three-score years and ten simply
by thinking like pocket calculators. A crucial issue is the consumer’s choice. In deciding whether to pursue
the development of new technology, the consumer’s right to choose should be considered alongside
considerations of risk and benefit. Clearly, skiing is more dangerous than genetically modified tomatoes.
But people who ski choose to do so; they do not have skiing thrust upon them by portentous experts of the
kind who now feel they have the right to reconstruct our crops. Even with skiing, there is the matter of cost-
effectiveness to consider: skiing, I am told, is exhilarating. Where is the exhilaration in GM soya?

I Indeed, in contrast to all the other items on Spiked’s list, GM crops stand out as an example of a
technology whose benefits are far from clear. Some of the risks can at least be defined. But in the present
economic climate, the benefits that might accrue from them seem dubious. Promoters of GM crops believe
that the future population of the world cannot be fed without them. That is untrue. The crops that really
matter are wheat and rice, and there is no GM research in the pipeline that will seriously affect the yield of
either. GM is used to make production cheaper and hence more profitable, which is an extremely
questionable ambition.

J The precautionary principle provides the world with a very important safeguard. If it had been in
place in the past it might, for example, have prevented insouciant miners from polluting major rivers with
mercury. We have come to a sorry pass when scientists, who should above all be dispassionate scholars,
feel they should misrepresent such a principle for the purposes of commercial and political propaganda.
People at large continue to mistrust science and the high technologies it produces partly because they doubt
the wisdom of scientists. On such evidence as this, these doubts are fully justified.
Questions 1-6: Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage.
Write:
TRUE if the statement is true
FALSE if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage

10
1. The title of the debate is not unbiased.
2. All the scientists invited to the debate were from the field of medicine.
3. The message those scientists who conducted the survey were sending was people shouldn’t take risks.
4. All the 40 listed technologies are riskier than other technologies.
5. It was worth taking the risks to invent antibiotics.
6. All the other inventions on the list were also judged by the precautionary principle.

Questions 7-13: Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage. Using NO
MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer.
When applying the precautionary principle to decide whether to invent a new technology, people should
also the consideration of the (7)………………………………, along with the usual consideration of
(8)……………………………… For example, though risky and dangerous enough, people still enjoy
(9)……………………………… for the excitement it provides. On the other hand, experts believe that
future population desperately needs (10)……………………………… in spite of their undefined risks.
However, the researchers conducted so far have not been directed towards increasing the yield of
(11)………………………………, but to reduce the cost of (12)……………………………… and to bring
more profit out of it. In the end, such selfish use of the precautionary principle for business and political
gain has often led people to (13)………………………………science for they believe scientists are not to
be trusted.

Question 14: Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

14. What is the main theme of the passage?
A. people have the right to doubt science and technologies
B. the precautionary principle could have prevented the development of science and technology
C. there are not enough people who truly understand the precautionary principle
D. the precautionary principle bids us take risks at all costs

PASSAGE 6:
The Significant Role of Mother Tongue in Education
A. One consequence of population mobility is an increasing diversity within schools. To illustrate, in
the city of Toronto in Canada, 58% of kindergarten pupils come from homes where English is not the usual
language of communication. Schools in Europe and North America have experienced this diversity for
years, and educational policies and practices vary widely between countries and even within countries.
Some political parties and groups search for ways to solve the problem of diverse communities and their
integration in schools and society. However, they see few positive consequences for the host society and
worry that this diversity threatens the identity of the host society. Consequently, they promote unfortunate
educational policies that will make the “problem” disappear. If students retain their culture and language,
they are viewed as less capable of identifying with the mainstream culture and learning the mainstream
language of the society.

B. The challenge for educator and policy-makers is to shape the evolution of national identity in such a
way that rights of all citizens (including school children) are respected, and the cultural linguistic, and
economic resources of the nation are maximised. To waste the resources of the nation by discouraging
children from developing their mother tongues is quite simply unintelligent from the point of view of
national self-interest. A first step in providing an appropriate education for culturally and linguistically
diverse children is to examine what the existing research says about the role of children’s mother tongues
in their educational development.

11
C. In fact, the research is very clear. When children continue to develop their abilities in two or more
languages throughout their primary school, they gain a deeper understanding of language and how to use it
effectively. They have more practice in processing language, especially when they develop literacy in both.
More than 150 research studies conducted during the past 25 years strongly support what Goethe, the
famous eighteenth-century German philosopher, once said: the person who knows only one language does
not truly know that language. Research suggests that bilingual children may also develop more flexibility
in their thinking as a result of processing information through two different languages.

D. The level of development of children’s mother tongue is a strong predictor of their second language
development. Children who come to school with a solid foundation in their mother tongue develop stronger
literacy abilities in the school language. When parents and other caregivers (e.g. grandparents) are able to
spend time with their children and tell stories or discuss issues with them in a way that develops their
mother tongue, children come to school well- prepared to learn the school language and succeed
educationally. Children’s knowledge and skills transfer across languages from the mother tongue to the
school language. Transfer across languages can be two-way: both languages nurture each other when the
educational environment permits children access to both languages.

E. Some educators and parents are suspicious of mother tongue-based teaching programs because they
worry that they take time away from the majority language. For example, in a bilingual program when 50%
of the time is spent teaching through children’s home language and 50% through the majority language,
surely children won’t progress as far in the latter? One of the most strongly established findings of
educational research, however, is that well- implemented bilingual programs can promote literacy and
subject-matter knowledge in a minority language without any negative effects on children’s development
in the majority language. Within Europe, the Foyer program in Belgium, which develops children’s
speaking and literacy abilities in three languages (their mother tongue, Dutch and French), most clearly
illustrates the benefits of bilingual and trilingual education (see Cummins, 2000).

F. It is easy to understand how this happens. When children are learning through a minority language,
they are learning concepts and intellectual skills too. Pupils who know how to tell the time in their mother
tongue understand the concept of telling time. In order to tell time in the majority language, they do not
need to re-learn the concept. Similarly, at more advanced stages, there is transfer across languages in other
skills such as knowing how to distinguish the main idea from the supporting details of a written passage or
story, and distinguishing fact from opinion. Studies of secondary school pupils are providing interesting
findings in this area, and it would be worth extending this research.

G. Many people marvel at how quickly bilingual children seem to “pick up” conversational skills in the
majority language at school (although it takes much longer for them to catch up with native speakers in
academic language skills). However, educators are often much less aware of how quickly children can lose
their ability to use their mother tongue, even in the home context. The extent and rapidity of language loss
will vary according to the concentration of families from a particular linguistic group in the neighborhood.
Where the mother tongue is used extensively in the community, then language loss among young children
will be less. However, where language communities are not concentrated in particular neighborhoods,
children can lose their ability to communicate in their mother tongue within 2-3 years of starting school.
They may retain receptive skills in the language but they will use the majority language, in speaking with
their peers and siblings and in responding to their parents. By the time children become adolescents, the
linguistic division between parents and children has become an emotional chasm. Pupils frequently become
alienated from the cultures of both home and school with predictable results.

12
Question 1-4: Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
1. What point did the writer make in the second paragraph?
A. Some present studies on children’s mother tongues are misleading.
B. A culturally rich education programme benefits some children more than others.
C. Bilingual children can make a valuable contribution to the wealth of a country.
D. The law on mother tongue use at school should be strengthened.
2. Why does the writer refer to something that Goethe said?
A. to lend weight to his argument B. to contradict some research
C. to introduce a new concept D. to update current thinking
3. The writer believes that when young children have a firm grasp of their mother tongue _____.
A. they can teach older family members what they learnt at school
B. they go on to do much better throughout their time at school
C. they can read stories about their cultural background
D. they develop stronger relationships with their family than with their peers
4. Why are some people suspicious about mother tongue-based teaching programmes?
A. They worry that children will be slow to learn to read in either language.
B. They think that children will confuse words in the two languages.
C. They believe that the programmes will make children less interested in their lessons.
D. They fear that the programmes will use up valuable time in the school day.

Question 5-9: Complete the summary using the list of word, A-J, below.
Bilingual Children
It was often recorded that bilingual children acquire the (5)…………………… to converse in the majority
language remarkable quickly. The fact that the mother tongue can disappear at a similar
(6)…………………… is less well understood. This phenomenon depends, to a certain extent, on the
proposition of people with the same linguistic background that have settled in a particular
(7)……………………. If this is limited, children are likely to lose the active use of their mother tongue.
And thus no longer employ it even with (8)……………………, although they may still understand it. It
follows that teenager children in these circumstances experience a sense of (9)…………………… in
relation to all aspects of their lives.

A. teachers B. schools C. dislocation D. rate E. time

F. family G. communication H. type I. ability J. area

Questions 10-14: Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage.
Write:
YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

10. Less than half of the children who attend kindergarten in Toronto have English as their mother tongue.
11. Research proves that learning the host country language at school can have an adverse effect on a child’s
mother tongue.
12. The Foyer program is accepted by the French education system.
13. Bilingual children are taught to tell the time earlier than monolingual children.
14. Bilingual children can apply reading comprehension strategies acquired in one language when reading
in the other.

13
PASSAGE 7
Motivating Drives
Scientists have been researching the way to get employees motivated for many years. This research is a
relational study which builds the fundamental and comprehensive model for study. This is especially true
when the business goal is to turn unmotivated teams into productive ones. But their researchers have
limitations. It is like studying the movements of car without taking out the engine.

Motivation is what drives people to succeed and plays a vital role in enhancing an organizational
development. It is important to study the motivation of employees because it is related to the emotion and
behavior of employees. Recent studies show there are four drives for motivation. They are the drive to
acquire, the drive to bond, the drive to comprehend and the drive to defend.

The Drive to Acquire

The drive to acquire must be met to optimize the acquire aspect as well as the achievement element. Thus
the way that outstanding performance is recognized, the type of perks that is provided to polish the career
path. But sometimes a written letter of appreciation generates more motivation than a thousand dollar check,
which can serve as the invisible power to boost business engagement. Successful organizations and leaders
not only need to focus on the optimization of physical reward but also on moving other levers within the
organization that can drive motivation.

The Drive to Bond

The drive to bond is also key to driving motivation. There are many kinds of bonds between people, like
friendship, family. In company, employees also want to be an essential part of company. They want to
belong to the company. Employees will be motivated if they find personal belonging to the company. In
the meantime, the most commitment will be achieved by the employee on condition that the force of
motivation within the employee affects the direction, intensity and persistence of decision and behavior in
company.

The Drive to Comprehend

The drive to comprehend motivates many employees to higher performance. For years, it has been known
that setting stretch goals can greatly impact performance. Organizations need to ensure that the various job
roles provide employees with simulation that challenges them or allow them to grow. Employees don’t
want to do meaningless things or monotonous job. If the job didn’t provide them with personal meaning
and fulfillment, they will leave the company.

The Drive to Defend

The drive to defend is often the hardest lever to pull. This drive manifests itself as a quest to create and
promote justice, fairness, and the ability to express ourselves freely. The organizational lever for this basic
human motivator is resource allocation. This drive is also met through an employee feeling connection to
a company. If their companies are merged with another, they will show worries.

Two studies have been done to find the relations between the four drives and motivation. The article based
on two studies was finally published in Harvard Business Review. Most authors’ arguments have laid
emphasis on four-drive theory and actual investigations. Using the results of the surveys which executed
with employees from Fortune 500 companies and other two global businesses (P company and H company),
the article mentions about how independent drives influence employees’ behavior and how organizational
levers boost employee motivation.

14
The studies show that the drive to bond is most related to fulfilling commitment, while the drive to
comprehend is most related to how much effort employees spend on works. The drive to acquire can be
satisfied by a rewarding system which ties rewards to performances, and gives the best people opportunities
for advancement. For drive to defend, a study on the merging of P company and H company shows that
employees in former company show an unusual cooperating attitude.

The key to successfully motivate employees is to meet all drives. Each of these drives is important if we
are to understand employee motivation. These four drives, while not necessarily the only human drives, are
the ones that are central to unified understanding of modern human life.

Questions 1-5: Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D.

1. According to the passage, what are we told about the study of motivation?
A. The theory of motivating employees is starting to catch attention in organizations in recent years.
B. It is very important for managers to know how to motivate their subordinates because it is related to
the salary of employees.
C. Researchers have tended to be too theoretical to their study.
D. The goal of employee motivation is to increase the profit of organizations.
2. What can be inferred from the passage about the study of people’s drives?
A. Satisfying employees’ drives can positively lead to the change of behavior.
B. Satisfying employees’ drives will negatively affect their emotions.
C. Satisfying employees’ drives can increase companies’ productions.
D. Satisfying employees’ drives will result in employees’ outstanding performance.
3. According to paragraph three, in order to optimize employees’ performance, are needed.
A. Drive to acquire and achievement element
B. Outstanding performance and recognition
C. Career fulfillment and a thousand dollar check
D. Financial incentive and recognition
4. According to paragraph five, how does “the drive to comprehend” help employees perform better?
A. It can help employees better understand the development of their organizations.
B. It can help employees feel their task is meaningful to their companies.
C. It can help employees set higher goals.
D. It can provide employees with repetitive tasks.
5. According to paragraph six, which of following is true about “drive to defend”?
A. Organizational resource is the most difficult to allocate.
B. It is more difficult to implement than the drive to comprehend.
C. Employees think it is very important to voice their own opinions.
D. Employees think it is very important to connect with a merged corporation.

Questions 6-8: Choose THREE letters, A-F.Which THREE of the following statements are true?
A. Employees will be motivated if they feel belonged to the company.
B. If employees get an opportunity of training and development program, their motivation will be enhanced.
C. If employees’ working goals are complied with organizational objectives, their motivation will be
reinforced.
D. If employees’ motivation is very low, companies should find a way to increase their salary as their first
priority.
E. If employees find their work lacking challenging, they will leave the company.
F. Employees will worry if their company is sold.

Questions 9-14: Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in the Reading Passage

15
Write:
YES if the statement agree with the claims of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
9. Increasing pay can lead to the high work motivation.
10. Local companies benefit more from global companies through the study.
11. Employees achieve the most commitment if their drive to comprehend is met.
12. The employees in former company presented unusual attitude toward the merging of two companies.
13. The two studies are done to analyze the relationship between the natural drives and the attitude of
employees.
14. Rewarding system cause the company to lose profit.

PASSAGE 8:
The future of the World’s Language
A Of the world’s 6,500 living languages, around half are expected to the out by the end of this century,
according to UNESCO. Just 11 are spoken by more than half of the earth’s population, so it is little wonder
that those used by only a few are being left behind as we become a more homogenous, global society. In
short, 95 percent of the world’s languages are spoken by only five percent of its population – a remarkable
level of linguistic diversity stored in tiny pockets of speakers around the world. Mark Turin, a university
professor, has launched WOLP (World Oral Language Project) to prevent the language from the brink of
extinction.

B He is trying to encourage indigenous communities to collaborate with anthropologists around the

world to record what he calls “oral literature” through video cameras, voice recorders and other multimedia
tools by awarding grants from a £30,000 pot that the project has secured this year. The idea is to collate
this literature in a digital archive that can be accessed on demand and will make the nuts and bolts of lost
cultures readily available.

C For many of these communities, the oral tradition is at the heart of their culture. The stories they tell
are creative as well as communicative. Unlike the languages with celebrated written traditions, such as
Sanskrit, Hebrew and Ancient Greek, few indigenous communities have recorded their own languages or
ever had them recorded until now.

D The project suggested itself when Turin was teaching in Nepal. He wanted to study for a PhD in
endangered languages and, while discussing it with his professor at Leiden University in the Netherlands,
was drawn to a map on his tutor’s wall. The map was full of pins of a variety of colours which represented
all the world’s languages that were completely undocumented. At random, Turin chose a “pin” to
document. It happened to belong to the Thangmi tribe, an indigenous community in the hills east of
Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. “Many of the choices anthropologists and linguists who work on these
traditional field-work projects are quite random,” he admits.

E Continuing his work with the Thangmi community in the 1990s, Turin began to record the language
he was hearing, realising that not only was this language and its culture entirely undocumented, it was
known to few outside the tiny community. He set about trying to record their language and myth of origins.
“I wrote 1,000 pages of grammar in English that nobody could use – but I realised that wasn’t enough. It
wasn’t enough for me, it wasn’t enough for them. It simply wasn’t going to work as something for the
community. So then I produced this trilingual word list in Thangmi, Nepali and English.”

16
F In short, it was the first ever publication of that language. That small dictionary is still sold in local
schools for a modest 20 rupees, and used as part of a wider cultural regeneration process to educate children
about their heritage and language. The task is no small undertaking: Nepal itself is a country of massive
ethnic and linguistic diversity, home to 100 languages from four different language families. What’s more,
even fewer ethnic Thangmi speak the Thangmi language. Many of the community members have taken to
speaking Nepali, the national language taught in schools and spread through the media, and community
elders are dying without passing on their knowledge.

G Despite Turin’s enthusiasm for his subject, he is baffled by many linguists’ refusal to engage in the
issue he is working on. “Of the 6,500 languages spoken on Earth, many do not have written traditions and
many of these spoken forms are endangered,” he says. “There are more linguists in universities around the
world than there are spoken languages – but most of them aren’t working on this issue. To me it’s amazing
that in this day and age, we still have an entirely incomplete image of the world’s linguistic diversity. People
do PhDs on the apostrophe in French, yet we still don’t know how many languages are spoken.”

H “When a language becomes endangered, so too does a cultural world view. We want to engage with
indigenous people to document their myths and folklore, which can be harder to find funding for if you are
based outside Western universities.”

I Yet, despite the struggles facing initiatives such as the World Oral Literature Project, there are
historical examples that point to the possibility that language restoration is no mere academic pipe dream.
The revival of a modern form of Hebrew in the 19th century is often cited as one of the best proofs that
languages long dead, belonging to small communities, can be resurrected and embraced by a large number
of people. By the 20th century, Hebrew was well on its way to becoming the main language of the Jewish
population of both Ottoman and British Palestine. It is now spoken by more than seven million people in
Israel.
J Yet, despite the difficulties these communities face in saving their languages, Dr Turin believes that the
fate of the world’s endangered languages is not sealed, and globalisation is not necessarily the nefarious
perpetrator of evil it is often presented to be. “I call it the globalisation paradox: on the one hand
globalisation and rapid socio-economic change are the things that are eroding and challenging diversity.
But on the other, globalisation is providing us with new and very exciting tools and facilities to get to places
to document those things that globalisation is eroding. Also, the communities at the coal-face of change are
excited by what globalisation has to offer.”

K In the meantime, the race is on to collect and protect as many of the languages as possible, so that the
Rai Shaman in eastern Nepal and those in the generations that follow him can continue their traditions and
have a sense of identity. And it certainly is a race: Turin knows his project’s limits and believes it inevitable
that a large number of those languages will disappear. “We have to be wholly realistic. A project like ours
is in no position, and was not designed, to keep languages alive. The only people who can help languages
survive are the people in those communities themselves. They need to be reminded that it’s good to speak
their own language and I think we can help them do that – becoming modern doesn’t mean you have to
lose your language.”
Questions 1-5: Complete the summary using the list of words, A-J, below.
Of the world’s 6,500 living languages, about half of them are expected to be extinct. Most of the world’s
languages are spoken by a (1)…………………… of people. However, Professor Turin set up a project
WOLP to prevent (2)…………………… of the languages. The project provides the community with
(3)…………………… to enable people to record their endangered languages. The oral tradition has great
cultural (4)…………………… An important (5)…………………… between languages spoken by few
people and languages with celebrated written documents existed in many communities.

17
 A. similarity B. significance C. funding D. minority
E. education F. difference G. education H. diversity
I. majority J. disappearance
Questions 6-9: Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage. Write
TRUE if the statement is true
FALSE if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage
6. Turin argued that anthropologists and linguists usually think carefully before selecting an area to
research.
7. Turin concluded that the Thangmi language had few similarities with other languages.
8. Turin has written that 1000-page document was inappropriate for Thangmi community;
9. Some Nepalese schools lack resources to devote to language teaching.

Questions 10-14: Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

10. Why does Turin say people do PhDs on the apostrophe in French?
A. He believes that researchers have limited role in the research of languages.
B. He compares the methods of research into languages.
C. He thinks research should result in a diverse cultural outlook.
D. He holds that research into French should focus on more general aspects.
11. What is discussed in the ninth paragraph?
A. Forces driving people to believe endangered languages can survive.
B. The community where people distrust language revival.
C. The methods of research that have improved language restoration.
D. Initiatives the World Oral Literature Project is bringing to Israel.
12. How is the WOLP’s prospect?
A. It would not raise enough funds to achieve its aims.
B. It will help keep languages alive.
C. It will be embraced by a large number of people.
D. It has chance to succeed to protect the engendered languages.
13. What is Turin’s main point of globalisation?
A. Globalisation is the main reason for endangered language.
B. Globalisation has both advantages and disadvantages.
C. We should have a more critical view of globalisation.
D. We should foremost protect our identity in face of globalisation.
14. What does Turin suggest that community people should do?
A. Learn other languages.
B. Only have a sense of identity.
C. Keep up with the modern society without losing their language.
D. Join the race to protect as many languages as possible but be realistic.

PASSAGE 9:
E-training
A E-learning is the unifying term to describe the fields of online learning, web-based training, and
technology-delivered instruction, which can be a great benefit to corporate e-learning. IBM, for instance,
claims that the institution of its e-training program, Basic Blue, whose purpose is to train new managers,
saved the company in the range of $200 million in 1999. Cutting the travel expenses required to bring
employees and instructors to a central classroom accounts for the lion’s share of the savings. With an online

18
course, employees can learn from any Internet- connected PC, anywhere in the world. Ernst and Young
reduced training costs by 35 percent while improving consistency and scalability.

B In addition to generally positive economic benefits, other advantages such as convenience,

standardized delivery, self-paced learning, and variety of available content, have made e-learning a high
priority for many corporations. E-learning is widely believed to offer flexible “any time, any place”
learning. The claim for “any place” is valid in principle and is a great development. Many people can
engage with rich learning materials that simply were not possible in a paper or broadcast distance learning
era. For teaching specific information and skills, e-training holds great promise. It can be especially
effective at helping employees prepare for IT certification programs. E-learning also seems to effectively
address topics such as sexual harassment education,5 safety training and management training – all areas
where a clear set of objectives can be identified. Ultimately, training experts recommend a “blended”
approach that combines both online and in-person training as the instruction requires. E-learning is not an
endall solution. But if it helps decrease costs and windowless classrooms filled with snoring students, it
definitely has its advantages.

C Much of the discussion about implementing e-learning has focused on the technology, but as
Driscoll and others have reminded us, e-learning is not just about the technology, but also many human
factors. As any capable manager knows, teaching employees new skills is critical to a smoothly run
business. Having said that, however, the traditional route of classroom instruction runs the risk of being
expensive, slow and, oftentimes, ineffective. Perhaps the classroom’s greatest disadvantage is the fact that
it takes employees out of their jobs. Every minute an employee is sitting in a classroom training session is
a minute they’re not out on the floor working. It now looks as if there is a way to circumvent these traditional
training drawbacks. E- training promises more effective teaching techniques by integrating audio, video,
animation, text and interactive materials with the intent of teaching each student at his or her own pace. In
addition to higher performance results, there are other immediate benefits to students such as increased
time on task, higher levels of motivation, and reduced test anxiety for many learners. A California State
University Northridge study reported that e-learners performed 20 percent better than traditional learners.
Nelson reported a significant difference between the mean grades of 406 university students earned in
traditional and distance education classes, where the distance learners outperformed the traditional learners.

D On the other hand, nobody said E-training technology would be cheap. E-training service providers,
on the average, charge from $10,000 to $60,000 to develop one hour of online instruction. This price varies
depending on the complexity of the training topic and the media used. HTML pages are a little cheaper to
develop while streaming-video (presentations or flash animations cost more. Course content is just the
starting place for cost. A complete e-learning solution also includes the technology platform (the computers,
applications and network connections that are used to deliver the courses). This technology platform,
known as a learning management system (LMS), can either be installed onsite or outsourced. Add to that
cost the necessary investments in network bandwidth to deliver multimedia courses, and you’re left holding
one heck of a bill. For the LMS infrastructure and a dozen or so online courses, costs can top $500,000 in
the first year. These kinds of costs mean that custom e-training is, for the time being, an option only for
large organizations. For those companies that have a large enough staff, the e-training concept pays for
itself. Aware of this fact, large companies are investing heavily in online training. Today, over half of the
400-plus courses that Rockwell Collins offers are delivered instantly to its clients in an e-leaming format,
a change that has reduced its annual training costs by 40%. Many other success stories exist.

E E-learning isn’t expected to replace the classroom entirely. For one thing, bandwidth limitations are
still an issue in presenting multimedia over the Internet. Furthermore, e-training isn’t suited to every mode
of instruction or topic. For instance, it’s rather ineffective imparting cultural values or building teams. If

19
your company has a unique corporate culture it would be difficult to convey that to first-time employees
through a computer monitor. Group training sessions are more ideal for these purposes. In addition, there
is a perceived loss of research time because of the work involved in developing and teaching online classes.
Professor Wallin estimated that it required between 500 and 1,000 person-hours, that is, Wallin-hours, to
keep the course at the appropriate level of currency and usefulness. (Distance learning instructors often
need technical skills, no matter how advanced the courseware system.) That amounts to between a quarter
and half of a person-year. Finally, teaching materials require computer literacy and access to equipment.
Any e-Learning system involves basic equipment and a minimum level of computer knowledge in order to
perform the tasks required by the system. A student that does not possess these skills, or have access to
these tools, cannot succeed in an e-learning program.

F While few people debate the obvious advantages of e-learning, systematic research is needed to
confirm that learners are actually acquiring and using the skills that are being taught online, and that e-
learning is the best way to achieve the outcomes in a corporate environment. Nowadays, a go-between style
of the Blended learning, which refers to a mixing of different learning environments, is gaining popularity.
It combines traditional face-to-face classroom methods with more modem computer-mediated activities.
According to its proponents, the strategy creates a more integrated approach for both instructors and
learners. Formerly, technology-based materials played a supporting role to face-to-face instruction.
Through a blended learning approach, technology will be more important.

Questions 1-6: The reading passage has seven paragraphs, A-F. Choose the correct heading for
paragraphs A-F from the list below.
List of Headings
i Overview of the benefits for the application of E-training
ii IBM’s successful choice of training
iii Future direction and a new style of teaching
iv Learners achievement and advanced teaching materials
v Limitations when E-training compares with traditional class
vi Multimedia over the Internet can be a solution
vii Technology can be a huge financial burden
viii The distance learners outperformed the traditional university learners in worldwide
ix Other advantages besides economic consideration
x Training offered to help people learn using computers
1. Paragraph A 4. Paragraph D
2. Paragraph B 5. Paragraph E
3. Paragraph C 6. Paragraph F
Questions 7-10: The reading Passage has seven paragraphs A-F. Which paragraph contains the following
information?
7. Projected Basic Blue in IBM achieved a great success.
8. E-learning wins as a priority for many corporations as its flexibility.
9. The combination of the traditional and e-training environments may prevail.
10. Example of a fast electronic delivery for a company’s products to its customers.

Questions 11-13: Choose Three correct letters, among A-E.

A. Technical facilities are hardly obtained.
B. Presenting multimedia over the Internet is restricted due to the bandwidth limit.
C. It is ineffective imparting a unique corporate value to fresh employees.
D. Employees need block a long time leaving their position attending training.
E. More preparation time is needed to keep the course at the suitable level.

20
PASSAGE 10:
How should reading be taught?
By Keith Rayncr a Barbara R Foorman
A Learning to speak is automatic for almost all children, but learning to read requires elaborate
instruction and conscious effort. Well aware of the difficulties, educators have given a great deal of thought
to how they can best help children learn to read. No single method has triumphed. Indeed, heated arguments
about the most appropriate form of reading instruction continue to polarize the teaching community.

B Three general approaches have been tried. In one, called whole-word instruction, children learn by
rote how to recognise at a glance a vocabulary of 50 to 100 words. Then they gradually acquire other words,
often through seeing them used over and over again in the context of a story.
Speakers of most languages learn the relationship between letters and the sounds associated with them
(phonemes). That is, children are taught how to use their knowledge of the alphabet to sound out words.
This procedure constitutes a second approach to teaching reading – phonics.
Many schools have adopted a different approach: the whole-language method. The strategy here relies on
the child’s experience with the language. For example, students are offered engaging books and are
encouraged to guess the words that they do not know by considering the context of the sentence or by
looking for clues in the storyline and illustrations, rather than trying to sound them out.
Many teachers adopted the whole-language approach because of its intuitive appeal. Making reading fun
promises to keep children motivated, and learning to read depends more on what the student does than on
what the teacher does. The presumed benefits of whole-language instruction – and the contrast to the
perceived dullness of phonics – led to its growing acceptance across American during the 1990s and a
movement away from phonics.

C However, many linguists and psychologists objected strongly to the abandonment of phonics in
American schools. Why was this so? In short, because research had clearly demonstrated that understanding
how letters related to the component sounds in words is critically important in reading. This conclusion
rests, in part, on knowledge of how experienced readers make sense of words on a page. Advocates of
whole-language instruction have argued forcefully that people often derive meanings directly from print
without ever determining the sound of the word. Some psychologists today accept this view, but most
believe that reading is typically a process of rapidly sounding out words mentally. Compelling evidence
for this comes from experiments which show that subjects often confuse homophones (words that sound
the same, such as rose and ‘rows). This supports the idea that readers convert strings of letters to sounds.

D In order to evaluate different approaches to teaching reading, a number of experiments have been
carried out, firstly with college students, then with school pupils. Investigators trained English-speaking
college students to read using unfamiliar symbols such as Arabic letters (the phonics approach), while
another group learned entire words associated with certain strings of Arabic letters (whole-word). Then
both groups were required to read a new set of words constructed from the original characters. In general,
readers who were taught the rules of phonics could read many more new words than those trained with a
whole-word procedure.
Classroom studies comparing phonics with either whole-word or whole-language instruction are also quite
illuminating. One particularly persuasive study compared two programmes used in 20 first-grade
classrooms. Half the students were offered traditional reading instruction, which included the use of phonics
drills and applications. The other half were taught using an individualised method that drew from their
experiences with languages; these children produce their own booklets of stories and developed sets of
words to be recognised (common components of the whole-language approach). This study found that the
first group scored higher at year’s end on tests of reading and comprehension.

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E If researchers are so convinced about the need for phonics instruction, why does the debate continue?
Because the controversy is enmeshed in the philosophical differences between traditional and progressive
(or new) approaches, differences that have divided educators for years. The progressive challenge the
results of laboratory tests and classroom studies on the basis of a broad philosophical skepticism about the
values of such research. They champion studentcentred learned and teacher empowerment. Sadly, they fail
to realise that these very admirable educational values are equally consistent with the teaching of phonics.

F If schools of education insisted that would-be reading teachers learned something about the vast
research in linguistics and psychology that bears on reading, their graduates would be more eager to use
phonics and would be prepared to do so effectively. They could allow their pupils to apply the principles
of phonics while reading for pleasure. Using whole-language activities to supplement phonics instruction
certainly helps to make reading fun and meaningful for children, so no one would want to see such tools
discarded. Indeed, recent work has indicated that the combination of literature-based instruction and
phonics is more powerful than either method used alone.
Teachers need to strike a balance. But in doing so, we urge them to remember that reading must be grounded
in a firm understanding of the connections between letters and sounds. Educators who deny this reality are
neglecting decades of research. They are also neglecting the needs of their students.
Questions 1-5: This Reading Passage has six sections, A-F. Choose the correct heading for sections B-F
from the list of headings below.
List of Headings
i Disagreement about the reading process
ii The roots of the debate
iii A combined approach
iv Methods of teaching reading
v A controversial approach
vi Inconclusive research
vii Research with learners
viii Allowing teachers more control
ix A debate amongst educators
Example: Section A: ix
1. Section B 4. Section E
2. Section C 5. Section F
3. Section D

Questions 6-10: Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage?
Write:
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
6. The whole-language approach relates letters to sounds.
7. Many educators believe the whole-language approach to be the most interesting way to teach children to
read.
8. Research supports the theory that we read without linking words to sounds.
9. Research has shown that the whole-word approach is less effective than the whole-language approach.
10. Research has shown that phonics is more successful than both the whole-word and whole- language
approaches.
Questions 11-14: Complete the summary of sections E and F using the list of words, A-G, below.
In the teaching community, (11)……… question the usefulness of research into methods of teaching
reading. These critics believe that (12)……… is incompatible with student-centred learning. In the future,

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teachers need to be aware of (13)……… so that they understand the importance of phonics. They should
not, however, ignore the ideas of (14)……… which make reading enjoyable for learners.

A. the phonics method B. the whole-word method C. the whole-language method

D. traditionalists E. progressives F. linguistics G. research studies

PASSAGE 11
Putting the brakes on climate change
Are hydrogen cars the answer?
A It is tempting to think that the conservation of coral reefs and rainforests is a separate issue from
traffic and air pollution. But it is not. Scientists are now confident that rapid changes in the Earth's climate
are already disrupting and altering many wildlife habitats. Pollution from vehicles is a big part of the
problem.

B The United Nation’s Climate Change Panel has estimated that the global average temperature rise
expected by the year 2100 could be as much as 6°C, causing forest fires and dieback on land and coral
bleaching in the ocean. Few species, if any, will be immune from the changes in temperature, rainfall and
sea levels. The panel believes that if such catastrophic temperature rises are to be avoided, the quantity of
greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, being released into the atmosphere must be reduced. That will
depend on slowing the rate of deforestation and, more crucially, finding alternatives to coal, oil and gas as
our principal energy sources.

C Technologies do exist to reduce or eliminate carbon dioxide as a waste product of our energy
consumption. Wind power and solar power are both spreading fast, but what are we doing about traffic?
Electric cars are one possible option, but their range and the time it takes to charge their batteries pose
serious limitations. However, the technology that shows the most potential to make cars climate-friendly is
fuel-cell technology. This was actually invented in the late nineteenth century, but because the world's
motor industry put its effort into developing the combustion engine, it was never refined for mass
production. One of the first prototype fuel-cell-powered vehicles has been built by the Ford Motor
Company. It is like a conventional car , only with better acceleration and a smoother ride. Ford engineers
expect to be able to produce a virtually silent vehicle in the future.
D So what’s the process involved - and is there a catch? Hydrogen goes into the fuel tank, producing
electricity. The only emission from the exhaust pipe is water. The fuel-cell is, in some ways similar to a
battery, but unlike a battery it does not run down. As long as hydrogen and oxygen are supplied to the cell,
it will keep on generating electricity. Some cells work off methane and a few use liquid fuels such as
methanol, but fuel-ceils using hydrogen probably have the most potential. Furthermore, they need not be
limited to transport. Fuel-cells can be made in a huge range of size, small enough for portable computers
or large enough for power stations. They have no moving parts and therefore need no oil. They just need a
supply of hydrogen. The big question, then, is where to get it from.

E One source of hydrogen is water. But to exploit the abundant resource, electricity is needed, and if
the electricity is produced by a coal-fired power station or other fossil fuel, then the overall carbon reduction
benefit of the fuel-cell disappears. Renewable sources, such as wind and solar power, do not produce
enough energy for it to be economically viable to use them in the 'manufacture' of hydrogen as a transport
fuel. Another source of hydrogen is, however, available and could provide a supply pending the
development of more efficient and cheaper renewable energy technologies. By splitting natural gas
(methane) into its constituent parts, hydrogen and carbon dioxide are produced. One way round the problem
of what to do with the carbon dioxide could be to store it back below ground – so-called geological

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sequestration. Oil companies, such as Norway's Statoil, are experimenting with storing carbon dioxide
below ground in oil and gas wells.

F With freak weather conditions, arguably caused by global warming, frequently in the headlines, the
urgent need to get fuel-cell vehicles will be available in most showrooms. Even now, fuel-cell buses are
operating in the US, while in Germany a courier company is planning to take delivery of fuel-cell-powered
vans in the near future. The fact that centrally-run fleets of buses and vans are the first fuel-cell vehicles
identifies another challenge – fuel distribution. The refueling facilities necessary to top up hydrogen-
powered vehicles are available only in a very few places at present. Public transport and delivery firms are
logical places to start, since their vehicles are operated from central depots.

G Fuel-cell technology is being developed right across the automotive industry. This technology could
have a major impact in slowing down climate change, but further investment is needed if the industry – and
the world's wildlife – is to have a long-term future.

Questions 1-6: Choose the correct heading for paragraphs A-F from the list of headings below.
List of Headings
i Action already taken by the United Nations
ii Marketing the hydrogen car
iii Making the new technology available worldwide
iv Some negative predictions from one group of experts
v How the new vehicle technology works
vi The history of fuel-cell technology
vii A holistic view of climate change
viii Locating the essential ingredient
ix Sustaining car manufacture
1. Paragraph A 4. Paragraph D
2. Paragraph B 5. Paragraph E
3. Paragraph C 6. Paragraph F

Questions 7-10: Complete the sentences below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage
for each answer.
7. In the late nineteenth century, the car industry invested in the development of the _______________,
rather than fuel-cell technology.
8. Ford engineers predict that they will eventually design an almost _________________ car.
9. While a fuel-cell lasts longer, some aspects of it are comparable to a _________________.
10. Fuel-cells can come in many sizes and can be used in power stations and in _________________ as
well as in vehicles.

Questions 11-14: Do the following statements agree with the information given in THE Reading Passage?
Write:
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
11. Using electricity produced by burning fossil fuels to access sources of hydrogen may increase the
positive effect of the fuel-cell.
12. The oil company Statoil in Norway owns gas wells in other parts of the world.
13. Public transport is leading the way in the application of fuel-cell technology,
14. More funding is necessary to ensure the success of the fuel-cell vehicle industry.

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PASSAGE 12:
Does an IQ test prove creativity?
Everyone has creativity, some a lot more than others. The development of humans, and possibly the
universe, depends on it. Yet creativity is an elusive creature. What do we mean by it? What is going on in
our brains when ideas form? Does it feel the same for artists and scientists? We asked writers and
neuroscientists, pop stars and AI gurus to try to deconstruct the creative process-and learn how we can all
ignite the spark within.
A In the early 1970s, creativity was still seen as a type of intelligence. But when more subtle tests of IQ
and creative skills were developed in the 1970s, particularly by the father of creativity testing, Paul
Torrance, it became clear that the link was not so simple. Creative people are intelligent, in terms of IQ
tests at least, but only averagely or just above. While it depends on the discipline, in general beyond a
certain level IQ does not help boost creativity; it is necessary but not sufficient to make someone creative.

B Because of the difficulty of studying the actual process, most early attempts to study creativity
concentrated on personality. According to creativity specialist Mark Runco of California State University,
Fullerton, the “creative personality” tends to place a high value on aesthetic qualities and to have broad
interests, providing lots of resources to draw on and knowledge to recombine into novel solutions.
“Creatives” have an attraction to complexity and an ability to handle conflict. They are also usually highly
self-motivated, perhaps even a little obsessive. Less creative people, on the other hand, tend to become
irritated if they cannot immediately fit all the pieces together. They are less tolerant of confusion. Creativity
comes to those who wait, but only to those who are happy to do so in a bit of a fog.

C But there may be a price to pay for having a creative personality. For centuries, a link has been made
between creativity and mental illness.Psychiatrist Jamison of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore,
Maryland, found that established artists are significantly more likely to have mood disorders. But she also
suggests that a change of mood state might be the key to triggering a creative event, rather than the negative
mood itself. Intelligence can help channel this thought style into great creativity, but when combined with
emotional problems, lateral, divergent or open thinking can lead to mental illness instead.

D Jordan Peterson, a psychologist at the University of Toronto, Canada, believes he has identified a
mechanism that could help explain this. He says that the brains of creative people seem more open to
incoming stimuli than less creative types. Our senses are continuously feeding a mass of information into
our brains, which have to block or ignore most of it to save us from being snowed under. Peterson calls this
process latent inhibition, and argues that people who have less of it, and who have a reasonably high IQ
with a good working memory can juggle more of the data, and so maybe open to more possibilities and
ideas. The downside of extremely low latent inhibition may be a confused thought style that predisposes
people to mental illness. So for Peterson, mental illness is not a prerequisite for creativity, but it shares
some cognitive traits.

E But what of the creative act itself? One of the first studies of the creative brain at work was by Colin
Martindale, a psychologist from the University of Maine in Orono. Back in 1978, he used a network of
scalp electrodes to record an electroencephalogram, a record of the pattern of brain waves, as people made
up stories. Creativity has two stages: inspiration and elaboration, each characterised by very different states
of mind. While people were dreaming up their stories, he found their brains were surprisingly quiet. The
dominant activity was alpha waves, indicating a very low level of cortical arousal: a relaxed state, as though
the conscious mind was quiet while the brain was making connections behind the scenes. It’s the same sort
of brain activity as in some stages of sleep, dreaming or rest, which could explain why sleep and relaxation
can help people be creative. However, when these quiet minded people were asked to work on their stories,

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the alpha wave activity dropped off and the brain became busier, revealing increased cortical arousal, more
corralling of activity and more organised thinking. Strikingly, it was the people who showed the biggest
difference in brain activity between the inspiration and development stages who produced the most creative
storylines. Nothing in their background brain activity marked them as creative or uncreative. “It’s as if the
less creative person can’t shift gear,” says Guy Claxton, a psychologist at the University of Bristol, UK.
“Creativity requires different kinds of thinking. Very creative people move between these states
intuitively.” Creativity, it seems, is about mental flexibility: perhaps not a two-step process, but a toggling
between two states. In a later study, Martindale found that communication between the sides of the brain is
also important.

F Paul Howard-Jones, who works with Claxton at Bristol, believes he has found another aspect of
creativity. He asked people to make up a story based on three words and scanned their brains using
functional magnetic resonance imaging. In one trial, people were asked not to try too hard and just report
the most obvious story suggested by the words. In another, they were asked to be inventive. He also varied
the words so it was easier or harder to link them. As people tried harder and came up with more creative
tales, there was a lot more activity in a particular prefrontal brain region on the right-hand side. These
regions are probably important in monitoring for conflict, helping us to filter out many of of combining the
words and allowing us to pull out just the desirable connections, Howard-Jones suggests. It shows that there
is another side to creativity, he says. The story-making task, particularly when we are stretched, produces
many options which we have to assess. So part of creativity is a conscious process of evaluating and
analysing ideas. The test also shows that the more we try and are stretched, the more creative our minds
can be.

G And creativity need not always be a solitary, tortured affair, according to Teresa Amabile of Harvard
Business School. Though there is a slight association between solitary writing or painting and negative
moods or emotional disturbances, scientific creativity and workplace creativity seem much more likely to
occur when people are positive and buoyant. In a decade- long study of real businesses, to be published
soon, Amabile found that positive moods relate positively to creativity in organisations, and that the
relationship is a simple linear one. Creative thought also improves people’s moods, her team found, so the
process is circular. Time pressures, financial pressures and hard-earned bonus schemes on the other hand,
do not boost workplace creativity: internal motivation, not coercion, produces the best work.
H Another often forgotten aspect of creativity is social. Vera John-Steiner of the University of New
Mexico says that to be really creative you need strong social networks and trusting relationships, not just
active neural networks. One vital characteristic of a highly creative person, she says, is that they have at
least one other person in their life who doesn’t think they are completely nuts.

Questions 1-4: Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage?
Write:
TRUE if the statement is true
FALSE if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage
1. High IQ guarantees better creative ability in one person than that who achieves an average score in an
IQ test.
2. In a competitive society, individuals’ language proficiency is more important than other abilities.
3. A wider range of resources and knowledge can be integrated by more creative people into bringing about
creative approaches.
4. A creative person not necessarily suffers more mental illness.

Questions 5-9: Use the information in the passage to match the people (listedA-F) with opinions or deeds

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below.
A. Jamison B. Jordan Peterson C. Guy Claxton
D. Howard-Jone E. Teresa Amabile F. Vera John-Steiner

5. Instead of producing the negative mood, a shift of mood state might be the one important factor of
inducing a creative thinking.
6. Where the more positive moods individuals achieve, there is higher creativity in organizations.
7. Good interpersonal relationship and trust contribute to a person with more creativity.
8. Creativity demands an ability that can easily change among different kinds of thinking.
9. Certain creative mind can be upgraded if we are put into more practice in assessing and processing ideas.

Questions 10-13: Complete the summary paragraph described below. Write the correct answer with NO
MORE THAN THREE WORDS.
But what of the creative act itself? In 1978, Colin Martindale made records of pattern of brain waves as
people made up stories by applying a system constituted of many (10)…………………………… The two
phrases of creativity, such as (11)…………………………… were found. While people were still planning
their stories, their brains shows little active sign and the mental activity was showed a very relaxed state as
the same sort of brain activity as in sleep, dreaming or rest.
However, experiment proved the signal of (12)…………………………… went down and the brain became
busier, revealing increased cortical arousal, when these people who were in a laidback state were required
to produce their stories. Strikingly, it was found the person who was perceived to have the greatest
(13)…………………………… in brain activity between two stages, produced storylines with highest level
of creativity.

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