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C1
AUSTRALIA'S SPORTING SUCCESS
– Reading 1
A

They play hard, they play often, and they play to win. Australian sports teams win
more than their fair share of titles, demolishing rivals with seeming ease. How do
they do it? A big part of the secret is an extensive and expensive network of
sporting academies underpinned by science and medicine. At the Australian
Institute of Sport (AIS), hundreds of youngsters and pros live and train under the
eyes of coaches. Another body, the Australian Sports Commission (ASC), finances
programmes of excellence in a total of 96 sports for thousands of sportsmen and
women. Both provide intensive coaching, training facilities and nutritional
advice.

Inside the academies, science takes centre stage. The AIS employs more than 100
sports scientists and doctors, and collaborates with scores of others in
universities and research centres. AIS scientists work across a number of sports,
applying skills learned in one - such as building muscle strength in golfers - to
others, such as swimming and squash. They are backed up by technicians who
design instruments to collect data from athletes. They all focus on one aim:
winning. ‘We can’t waste our time looking at ethereal scientific questions that
don’t help the coach work with an athlete and improve performance,’ says Peter
Pricker chief of science at AIS.
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A lot of their work comes down to measurement - everything from the exact
angle of a swimmer’s dive to the second-by-second power output of a cyclist. This
data is used to wring improvements out of athletes. The focus is on individuals,
tweaking performances to squeeze an extra hundredth of a second here, an extra
millimetre there. No gain is too slight to bother with. It's the tiny, gradual
improvements that add up to world-beating results. To demonstrate how the
system works, Bruce Mason at AIS shows off the prototype of a 3D analysis tool
for studying swimmers. A wire-frame model of a champion swimmer slices
through the water, her arms moving in slow motion. Looking side-on, Mason
measures the distance between strokes. From above, he analyses how her spine
swivels. When fully developed, this system will enable him to build a
biomechanical profile for coaches to use to help budding swimmers. Mason's
contribution to sport also includes the development of the SWAN (SWimming
ANalysis) system now used in Australian national competitions. It collects images
from digital cameras running at 50 frames a second and breaks down each part
of a swimmer's performance into factors that can be analysed individually -
stroke length, stroke frequency, average duration of each stroke, velocity, start,
lap and finish times, and so on. At the end of each race, SWAN spits out data on
each swimmer.

Take a look,' says Mason, pulling out a sheet of data. He points out the data on the
swimmers in second and third place, which shows that the one who finished
third actually swam faster. So why did he finish 35 hundredths of a second down?
‘His turn times were 44 hundredths of a second behind the other guy,’ says
Mason. ‘If he can improve on his turns, he can do much better. This is the kind of
accuracy that AIS scientists’ research is bringing to a range of sports. With the
Cooperative Research Centre for Micro Technology in Melbourne, they are
developing unobtrusive sensors that will be embedded in an athlete's clothes or
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running shoes to monitor heart rate, sweating, heat production or any other
factor that might have an impact on an athlete's ability to run. There's more to it
than simply measuring performance. Pricker gives the example of athletes who
may be down with coughs and colds 11 or 12 times a year. After years of
experimentation, AIS and the University of Newcastle in New South Wales
developed a test that measures how much of the immune-system protein
immunoglobulin A is present in athletes' saliva. If lgA levels suddenly fall below a
certain level, training is eased or dropped altogether. Soon, lgA levels start rising
again, and the danger passes. Since the tests were introduced, AIS athletes in all
sports have been remarkably successful at staying healthy.

Using data is a complex business. Well before a championship, sports scientists

and coaches start to prepare the athlete by developing a ‘competition model',
based on what they expect will be the winning times. 'You design the model to
make that time,' says Mason'. A start of this much, each free-swimming period
has to be this fast, with a certain stroke frequency and stroke length, with turns
done in these times. 'All the training is then geared towards making the athlete
hit those targets, both overall and for each segment of the race. Techniques like
these have transformed Australia into arguably the world's most successful
sporting nation.

Of course, there's nothing to stop other countries copying - and many have tried.
Some years ago, the AIS unveiled coolant-lined jackets for endurance athletes. At
the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996, these sliced as much as two per cent off
cyclists' and rowers’ times. Now everyone uses them. The same has happened to
the 'altitude tent' , developed by AIS to replicate the effect of altitude training at
sea level. But Australia's success story is about more than easily copied
technological fixes, and up to now no nation has replicated its all-encompassing
system.
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Questions 1-7

Reading Passage 1 has six paragraphs, A-F.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter A-F in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once

1 a reference to the exchange of expertise between different sports  

2 an explanation of how visual imaging is employed in investigations  
3 a reason for narrowing the scope of research activity  
4 how some AIS ideas have been reproduced  
5 how obstacles to optimum achievement can be investigated  
6 an overview of the funded support of athletes  
7 how performance requirements are calculated before an event 

Questions 8-11

Classify the following techniques according to whether the writer states they -

   A are currently exclusively used by Australians

   B will be used in the future by Australians
   C are currently used by both Australians and their rivals

Write the correct letter A, B, C or D in boxes 8-11 on your answer sheet.

   8 cameras  
   9 sensors  
   10 protein tests  
   11 altitude tents 
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Questions 12 and 13

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the Reading

Passage 1 for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 12 and 13 on your answer sheet.

12 What is produced to help an athlete plan their performance in an event?  

13 By how much did some cyclists' performance improve at the 1996 Olympic
Games?
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Air Traffic Control in the USA –

Reading 2
A   An accident that occurred in the skies over the Grand Canyon in 1956 resulted
in the establishment of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to regulate
and oversee the operation of aircraft in the skies over the United States, which
were becoming quite congested. The resulting structure of air traffic control has
greatly increased the safety of flight in the United States, and similar air traffic
control procedures are also in place over much of the rest of the world.

B   Rudimentary air traffic control (АТС) existed well before the Grand Canyon
disaster. As early as the 1920s, the earliest air traffic controllers manually guided
aircraft in the vicinity of the airports, using lights and flags, while beacons and
flashing lights were placed along cross-country routes to establish the earliest
airways. However, this purely visual system was useless in bad weather, and, by
the 1930s, radio communication was coming into use for АТС. The first region to
have something approximating today's АТС was New York City, with other major
metropolitan areas following soon after.

C  In the 1940s, АТС centres could and did take advantage of the newly
developed radar and improved radio communication brought about by the
Second World War, but the system remained rudimentary. It was only after the
creation of the FAA that full-scale regulation of America's airspace took place,
and this was fortuitous, for the advent of the jet engine suddenly resulted in a
large number of very fast planes, reducing pilots' margin of error and practically
demanding some set of rules to keep everyone well separated and operating
safely in the air.

D   Many people think that АТС consists of a row of controllers sitting in front of
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their radar screens at the nation's airports, telling arriving and departing traffic
what to do. This is a very incomplete part of the picture. The FAA realised that
the airspace over the United States would at any time have many different kinds
of planes, flying for many different purposes, in a variety of weather conditions,
and the same kind of structure was needed to accommodate all of them.

E  To meet this challenge, the following elements were put into effect. First, АТС
extends over virtually the entire United States. In general, from 365m above the
ground and higher, the entire country is blanketed by controlled airspace. In
certain areas, mainly near airports, controlled airspace extends down to 215m
above the ground, and, in the immediate vicinity of an airport, all the way down
to the surface. Controlled airspace is that airspace in which FAA regulations
apply. Elsewhere, in uncontrolled airspace, pilots are bound by fewer regulations.
In this way, the recreational pilot who simply wishes to go flying for a while
without all the restrictions imposed by the FAA has only to stay in uncontrolled
airspace, below 365m, while the pilot who does want the protection afforded by
АТС can easily enter the controlled airspace.

F  The FAA then recognised two types of operating environments. In good

meteorological conditions, flying would be permitted under Visual Flight Rules
(VFR), which suggests a strong reliance on visual cues to maintain an acceptable
level of safety. Poor visibility necessitated a set of Instrumental Flight Rules
(IFR), under which the pilot relied on altitude and navigational information
provided by the plane's instrument panel to fly safely. On a clear day, a pilot in
controlled airspace can choose a VFR or IFR flight plan, and the FAA regulations
were devised in a way which accommodates both VFR and IFR operations in the
same airspace. However, a pilot can only choose to fly IFR if they possess an
instrument rating which is above and beyond the basic pilot's license that must
also be held.
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G   Controlled airspace is divided into several different types, designated by

letters of the alphabet. Uncontrolled airspace is designated Class F, while
controlled airspace below 5,490m above sea level and not in the vicinity of an
airport is Class E. All airspace above 5,490m is designated Class A. The reason for
the division of Class E and Class A airspace stems from the type of planes
operating in them. Generally, Class E airspace is where one finds general aviation
aircraft (few of which can climb above 5,490m anyway), and commercial
turboprop aircraft. Above 5,490m is the realm of the heavy jets, since jet engines
operate more efficiently at higher altitudes. The difference between Class E and A
airspace is that in Class A, all operations are IFR, and pilots must be instrument-
rated, that is, skilled and licensed in aircraft instrumentation. This is because АТС
control of the entire space is essential. Three other types of airspace, Classes D, С
and B, govern the vicinity of airports. These correspond roughly to small
municipal, medium-sized metropolitan and major metropolitan airports
respectively, and encompass an increasingly rigorous set of regulations. For
example, all a VFR pilot has to do to enter Class С airspace is establish two-way
radio contact with АТС. No explicit permission from АТС to enter is needed,
although the pilot must continue to obey all regulations governing VFR flight. To
enter Class В airspace, such as on approach to a major metropolitan airport, an
explicit АТС clearance is required. The private pilot who cruises without
permission into this airspace risks losing their license.

Question 14 – 19

Reading passage 2 has seven paragraphs, A-G

Choose the correct heading for paragraphs A and C – G from this list below

Write the correct number, I – X, in boxes 14 – 19 on your answer sheet

List of headings

i Disobeying FAA regulations

ii Aviation disaster prompts action

iii Two coincidental developments

iv setting altitude zones

v An oversimplified view

vi Controlling pilots’ licenses

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14 Paragraph A

Example Answer

Paragraph B x

15 Paragraph C

16 Paragraph D

17 Paragraph E

18 Paragraph F

19 Paragraph G

Question 20-26
Do the following statements agrees with the given information of the reading
passage?
In boxes 20-26 on your answer sheet, write:

TRUE    if the statement agrees with the information

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

20. The FAA was created as a result of the introduction of the jet engine.
21. Air traffic control started after the Grand Canyon crash in 19 56.
22. Beacons and flashing lights are still used by the ATC today.
23. Some improvements were made in radio communication during World War
II.
24. Class F airspace is airspace which is below 365m and not near airports.
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25. All aircraft in class E airspace must use AFR.

26. A pilot entering class C airspace is flying over an average-sized city.
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The psychology of innovation – Reading 3

Why are so few companies truly innovative?

Innovation is key to business survival，and companies put substantial

resources into inspiring employees to develop new ideas. There are,
nevertheless, people working in luxurious, state-of-the-art centres
designed to stimulate innovation who find that their environment
doesn’t make them feel at all creative. And there are those who don’t
have a budget, or much space, but who innovate successfully.

For Robert B. Cialdini, Professor of Psychology at Arizona State

University, one reason that companies don’t succeed as often as they
should is that innovation starts with recruitment. Research shows that
the fit between an employee’s values and a company’s values makes a
difference to what contribution they make and whether, two years
after they join, they’re still at the company. Studies at Harvard
Business School show that, although some individuals may be more
creative than others, almost every individual can be creative in the
right circumstances.

One of the most famous photographs in the story of rock’n’roll

emphasises Ciaidini’s views. The 1956 picture of singers Elvis Presley,
Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis jamming at a piano in
Sun Studios in Memphis tells a hidden story. Sun’s ‘million-dollar
quartet’ could have been a quintet. Missing from the picture is Roy
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Orbison’ a greater natural singer than Lewis, Perkins or Cash. Sam

Phillips, who owned Sun, wanted to revolutionise popular music with
songs that fused black and white music, and country and blues.
Presley, Cash, Perkins and Lewis instinctively understood Phillips’s
ambition and believed in it. Orbison wasn’t inspired by the goal, and
only ever achieved one hit with the Sun label.

The value fit matters, says Cialdini, because innovation is, in part, a
process of change, and under that pressure we, as a species, behave
differently, ‘ When things change, we are hard-wired to play it safe .’
Managers should, therefore, adopt an approach that appears
counterintuitive -they should explain what stands to be lost if the
company fails to seize a particular opportunity. Studies show that we
invariably take more gambles when threatened with a loss than when
offered a reward.

Managing innovation is a delicate art. It’s easy for a company to be

pulled in conflicting directions as the marketing, product
development, and finance departments each get different feedback
from different sets of people. And without a system which ensures
collaborative exchanges within the company, it’s also easy for small
‘pockets of innovation‟ to disappear. Innovation is a contact sport. You
can‟t brief people just by saying, ‘We’re going in this direction and I’m
going to take you with me.’

Cialdini believes that this ‘follow-the-leader syndrome, is dangerous,

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not least because it encourages bosses to go it alone. ‘It’s been

scientifically proven that three people will be better than one at
solving problems, even if that one person is the smartest person in the
field.’ To prove his point, Cialdini cites an interview with molecular
biologist James Watson. Watson, together with Francis Crick,
discovered the structure of DNA, the genetic information carrier of all
living organisms. ‘When asked how they had cracked the code ahead
of an array of highly accomplished rival investigators, he said
something that stunned me. He said ” he and Crick had succeeded
because they were aware that they weren’t the most intelligent of the
scientists pursuing the answer. The smartest scientist was called
Rosalind Franklin who, Watson said, “was so intelligent she rarely
sought advice”.’

Teamwork taps into one of the basic drivers of human behaviour. ‘The
principle of social proof is so pervasive that we don’t even recognise
it,’ says Cialdini. ‘If your project is being resisted, for example, by a
group of veteran employees, ask another old-timer to speak up for it.’
Cialdini is not alone in advocating this strategy. Research shows that
peer power, used horizontally not vertically, is much more powerful
than any boss’s speech.

Writing, visualising and prototyping can stimulate the flow of new

ideas. Cialdini cites scores of research papers and historical events
that prove that even something as simple as writing deepens every
individual’s engagement in the project. It is, he says, the reason why
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all those competitions on breakfast cereal packets encouraged us to

write in saying, in no more than 10 words: ‘I like Kellogg’s Com Flakes
because… .’ The very act of writing makes us more likely to believe it.

Authority doesn’t have to inhibit innovation but it often does. The

wrong kind of leadership will lead to what Cialdini calls ”captainitis,
the regrettable tendency of team members to opt out of team
responsibilities that are properly their ’. He calls it captainitis because,
he says, ”crew members of multipilot aircraft exhibit a sometimes
deadly passivity when the flight captain makes a clearly wrong-
headed decision”. This behaviour is not, he says, unique to air travel,
but can happen in any workplace where the leader is overbearing.

At the other end of the scale is the 1980s Memphis design collective, a
group of young designers for whom ”the only rule was that there were
no rule”. This environment encouraged a free interchange of ideas,
which led to more creativity with form, function, colour and materials
that revolutionised attitudes to furniture design.

Many theorists believe the ideal boss should lead from behind, taking
pride in collective accomplishment and giving credit where it is due.
Cialdini says: ”Leaders should encourage everyone to contribute and
simultaneously assure all concerned that every recommendation is
important to making the right decision and will be given full attention
”. The frustrating thing about innovation is that there are many
approaches, but no magic formula. However, a manager who wants to
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create a truly innovative culture can make their job a lot easier by
recognising these psychological realities.

Questions 27-30
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes 27-30 on your answer sheet.
27. The example of the ‘million-dollar quartet’ underlines the writer’s
point about
   A. recognising talent.
   B. working as a team.
   C.  having a shared objective.
   D. being an effective leader.
28. James Watson suggests that he and Francis Crick won the race to
discover the DNA code because they
   A. were conscious of their own limitations.
   B. brought complementary skills to their partnership.
   C. were determined to outperform their brighter rivals.

   D. encouraged each other to realise their joint ambition.

29. The writer mentions competitions on breakfast cereal packets as
an example of how to
   A. inspire creative thinking.
   B. generate concise writing.
   C. promote loyalty to a group.
   D. strengthen commitment to an idea.
30. In the last paragraph, the writer suggests that it is important for
employees to
   A. be aware of their company's goals.
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   B. feel that their contributions are valued.

   C. have respect for their co-workers‟ achievements.
   D. understand why certain management decisions are made

Questions 31-35
Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-G, below.
Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 31-35 on your answer sheet
31. Employees whose values match those of their employers are more
likely to
32. At times of change, people tend to
33. If people are aware of what they might lose, they will often
34. People working under a dominant boss are liable to
35. Employees working in organisations with few rules are more
likely to

A. take chances.
B. share their ideas.
C. become competitive.
D. get promotion.
E. avoid risk.
F. ignore their duties.
G. remain in their jobs.

Questions 36-40
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in
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Reading Passage 3?
In boxes 36-40 on your answer sheet, write

YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer

NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this.

36. The physical surroundings in which a person works play a key role
in determining their creativity.
37. Most people have the potential to be creative.
38. Teams work best when their members are of equally matched
intelligence.
39. It is easier for smaller companies to be innovative.
40. A manager’s approval of an idea is more persuasive than that of a
colleague.