The Cloud of Promise: The 2008 Olympic Torch and Relay

Prior to the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, Lenovo, an international China-based computer
company, signed up to be an Olympic sponsor in the 2006 Games as well as the 2008 Summer
Olympics in Beijing, China. Moreover, it won the bid to design the Olympic torch for 2008. The
company's design, 'Cloud of Promise', upstaged the designs of over 300 competitors. The 'Cloud of
Promise' sought to wed modern technological design with elements from traditional Chinese
aesthetics and culture. The design mimicked the form of a traditional Chinese scroll, which signified
the invention of paper - one of the four great inventions of ancient China - as well as the color red,
an auspicious colour in China, and swirling 'lucky clouds' that visually evoked the thought of the
Olympic rings. 

Yet it was not merely something pretty to look at. The cutting-edge technology used to create the
torch was part graphic design and part rocket science. Fashioned from polished, lightweight
aluminum-magnesium alloy, the torch came in at 72 cm in height and only 985 grams. The
international team of designers sought to create a torch that was 'attractive to those who see it, and
light for those who carry it'. Also contributing to the item's wieldable quality was the presence of a
thin rubber-based varnish on the handle to facilitate grip and ease of handling. 

For the internal portion of the torch, Lenovo turned to the China Aerospace Science and Industry
Group. Indeed, both the private and state-sponsored technological acumen of China were on full
display. Of crucial importance was the requirement that the flame remain lit for the entire duration of
the torch's long journey, including during a widely publicised side trip in which athletes lugged a
modified replica to the summit of the Himalayan mountain range. Inside the handle of the Olympic
torch was a small canister of pure liquid propane, which was presumably chosen over the
conventional precedent of using mixed gases due to propane's strong resistance to cold. When the
ignition switch was turned on, it created a sudden drop in pressure, causing the gas to vaporise and
flow through tiny holes at the top of the torch, fueling the 'never-ending' Olympic flame. 

The designers also came up with a pressure-stabilisation system and a heat-recovery device that
provided further security against the flame's extinguishment, and had the foresight to include a
special oxidiser in the replica to supply the necessary oxygen for propane to combust in
environmental conditions of low oxygen, such as on Mt. Everest, where this flame would have to
withstand extremely low air pressure, frigid temperatures, and high winds. All in all, the Olympic
torch was rumored to be able to withstand temperatures of minus 40 degrees Celsius, rains of five
centimetres per hour, and winds of 65 kilometres per hour, and the rigorous preparation paid off on 8
May when a team of mountaineers scaled the summit of the world's most famous mountain on live
television to be seen across the globe. This side trip was conducted separately from the main relay,
which at the time was occurring on the Chinese mainland. 

Of course, the carriers of the torch were the people selected to bear it in the prestigious Olympic
torch relay, and 21,800 participants got the opportunity to run with the torch in the main relay. The
relay was the longest in Olympic history, starting in March of 2008 in Olympia, Greece and ending in
August in Beijing, China with the lighting of the cauldron in the opening ceremonies. The
torchbearers traversed a route of 137,000 kilometres involving 6 continents, 21 countries and 113
Chinese cities, and was thus a true world tour. Although the relay was unprecedented in scale, its
magnificence was at times overshadowed by unusual and unfortunate circumstances. For instance,
the planned June trip through the province of Sichuan was postponed until August due to the
devastating 7.9 magnitude earthquake that happened there in May of 2008. 

In addition, the relay endured widespread political demonstrations and protests by activists
demanding that China change its position on Tibet and condemning its controversial human rights
record in general. As a result, the torch relay was unusually costly in terms of security: in London,
nearly 2,000 law enforcement officers were employed to confront thousands of protestors, who were
trying to extinguish the Olympic flame and encourage sponsors to boycott the relay and the Olympic
games, which cost £750,000. And in France, over 3,000 motorcycle police accompanied the torch
and torch bearers as they travelled through Paris. In a sense, the emotional and symbolic effects of
the torch representing goodwill and the Olympic image were muted by the controversy and
surrounding security presence, which inhibited the torch's public accessibility. The 'Journey of
Harmony' around the world had not been so harmonious after all, and the international press
pounced on the opportunity to make disparaging statements about the relay, using such headlines
as 'a Tour de Farce' or 'Torch's Journey Descends into Chaos'. 

In the end, however, the torch found its proper place, arriving in Beijing on 6 August and being
paraded around the capital for three days. The final relay was conducted by seven famous Chinese
athletes, each taking their turn in getting the torch to the stadium, where it was then turned over to
six-time Olympic gymnastics medallist, Ning Li. In a dramatic finale, the relay ended with Li being
lifted in the air by cables as if he had taken flight, and he 'flew' a complete lap around the stadium
before finally reaching and lighting the cauldron in a dazzling and triumphant display. 

Questions 1-7
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?
In boxes 1-7 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 

1   The design and technology that went into the torch were solely developed by Lenovo. 
2   Lenovo's 2008 torch required a different type of propane when it was taken to the Himalayas. 
3   Turning the torch's ignition switch on resulted in an instantaneous decrease in pressure. 
4   Although the 2008 torch relay was a momentous undertaking, it was not the longest in history. 
5   The security cost for the London portion of the relay was highest along the entire route.
6   In Paris, the public's access to the torch was high due to a smaller security presence.
7   Some media outlets made negative comments about the torch relay. 

Questions 8-13
Answer the questions below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 8-13 on your answer sheet. 

8     Which traditional Chinese motif was the physical design of the Olympic torch largely based on?
9     What was added to the exterior of the torch to make it easier to carry?
10   What did athletes carry when they went to the top of the Himalayas? 
11   Which part of the torch allowed the flame to withstand the harsh conditions on Mt. Everest? 
12   What natural disaster was mentioned as a disruption to the schedule of the torch relay? 
13   What allowed the final athlete in the relay to appear suspended above the stadium? 

READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14–26, which are based on the Reading
passage 2 below.

The Scent of Bygone Days: Is Smell Uniquely Intertwined with Memory? 

A There is a popular and widely circulated claim that odours are the strongest cues to memory. This
adage has been promulgated in scientific as well as popular publications. Take Diane Ackerman's
1990 declarations that 'Perfume is liquid memory' and 'Smells detonate softly in our memory like
poignant land mines' as examples, and the role of the olfactory sense in emotion and memory
comes vividly to life in literary allusion and allegory. 

B Through smell, we are instantaneously taken back to an intact simulated excerpt from our past. In
1991, Trygg Engen wrote that smell generates episodic memory, providing a richly detailed
autobiographical episode borne totally complete in a single memory unit. He contrasted this to
semantic memory, which relies on words, categories, indexing, and the like. In his view, smell may
be the most primal of the senses and a product of a primitive world prior to language. But is scent
really such a powerful cue for reminiscences as received wisdom would suggest? 

C The phenomenon of smell-induced recollection has been studied in experiments, with mixed
results. David Rubin and his colleagues at Duke University sought to investigate the assumption that
an actual scent, rather than the idea of a scent, had a special function in memory. In 1984, they
recruited forty student participants and assigned them randomly to either be presented with an odour
or written words representing the odour. They utilised what they thought would be familiar smells,
particularly ones that might provoke an early memory; these included Johnson & Johnson's baby
powder, plasters, soap, peanut butter, etc. 

D Then participants were asked to describe any memories awakened by the scents or descriptions
and respond to questions like 'How clear or vivid was the memory?' or 'How did you feel emotionally
at the time of the memory?' In a second experiment, the researchers used a similar method but
added photographs representative of an odour in addition to the actual scent and written words. The
team made some surprising discoveries, such as that a memory triggered by an actual scent was
likely to have never been thought of before, or thought of less often, and odour might often evoke a
more pleasing or emotional memory than pictures or words. 

E Subsequent experiments have shed additional light on the issue. In 2000, British psychologist
John Downes of the University of Liverpool discovered that the connection between an actual scent
and a memory seems to be tied to age. He gathered subjects in their late 60s and early 70s,
presented them with olfactory cues or verbal cues (smell-related words), and asked them to describe
a related autobiographical experience that came to mind. Their analysis revealed that the actual
odours triggered memories from a much younger age than the verbal cues. The former tended to
revive recollections from age 6 to 10, whereas the latter generally evoked memories from between
11 and 25 years of age. This suggests both that smell is a crucial factor in providing a backdrop of
contextual details for childhood experiences and that it is indeed closely tied to episodic memory
because semantic abilities are still limited in late childhood and continue to form well into
adolescence. 

F Another interesting experiment was described in a 1999 article in the British Journal of
Psychology. The author, John Aggleton of Cardiff University, employed a double-cueing
methodology in an ingenious manner: he sought to test the relationship between odour and memory
outside the laboratory, so he visited the Jorvik Viking Centre, a museum in York, where an exhibition
had piped 'Viking odours' into the exhibit area for a multisensory effect. Aggleton wanted to know if
these odours would aid repeat visitors in remembering details of the exhibit years later. He gave
three groups of returning museum goers questionnaires in various conditions - in the presence of the
same original 'Viking odours', a control odour, and no odour. He then repeated the test but with
changed conditions for each group. Only the group that took the second test in the presence of
'Viking odours' improved their performance on the questionnaire. Thus, Aggleton concluded that
odours 'can provide strong contextual cues that aid in the recall of information originally presented in
the presence of those odours'. 

G Still, the vast majority of experts agree that the notion of smell being the 'best' cue to memory is
largely unfounded because there is no proof that an odour-evoked memory is more accurate than
that of any of the other stimuli. However, there does seem to be a consensus that odour-related
memories are more emotional in essence. According to Rachel Hertz's article in The Oxford
Handbook of Social Neuroscience, when an odour evokes a memory, this first creates emotional
sensations, 'After which the event which initially brought about the emotion emerges. In other words,
the experiential order of odour-evoked memory appears to follow the temporal sequence of the
neurological pathways that are involved.' This order progresses from the sensory-perceptual, to the
limbic-emotional and then on to higher cognitive structures. Hertz claims that the 'bottom-up versus
top-down temporal unfolding of odour-evoked memory may distinguish it from other memory
experiences'. 

H Thus, the strong association between olfaction and emotional recollection likely has an
evolutionary basis as it has undoubtedly played a key role in human survival. Anatomically, olfactory
centres are in close proximity to the most basic portions of the brain, which are directly responsible
for emotional experience and memory. Only two synapses separate the olfactory nerve from the
amygdala, a set of neurons responsible for emotion, emotional behaviour, and motivation. In
evolutionary terms, this integrative emotional centre - indeed, the entire limbic system - arose from
the olfactory area of the brain. Considering this, some researchers, such as Michael Jawer, have
suggested that without a sense of smell, we may have never evolved to have emotions at all. 

Questions 14-19
Reading Passage 2 has eight paragraphs, A-H.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet. 

14    the use of photos to signify smells

15    examples of well-known scents
16    a reference to the use of smell in metaphor
17    a mention of how feelings arise from memories
18    a description of a study conducted in a real-life setting
19    how different cues evoke the memories of different age periods 

Questions 20-23
Complete the notes below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 20-23 on your answer sheet. 

Smell and Memory

— Smells may be the most powerful 20.......... in bringing up memory 

Types of memory
— Trygg Engen: smells can offer an entire 21.......... of someone's life in one
memory
— Smell might be the most primitive of the senses 

Evoking childhood memories

— John Downes: smells set off memories of childhood more than statements —
Smell gives background information for 22.......... from youth 

Order of smell memory

— Rachel Hertz: smell related memories progress from sense/perception,
limbic/ emotional to advanced 23.......... structures 
— Smell has a strong basis in evolution 
Questions 24-26
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2?
In boxes 24-26 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 

24    Photographs bring up more moving memories than smells.

25    Odour is more effective than taste for memory.
26    The better accuracy of smell for remembering is not proven. 

READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27–40, which are based on the Reading passage
3 below.

Group Behaviour 

Most people consider themselves autonomous individuals who make their own decisions. However,
studies have shown that conformity is a natural human impulse, and people will go to astonishing
lengths just to fit in. 

In sociology, the similarity with which members of a group behave is known as group behaviour, and
a peculiar aspect of people in groups is that they tend to conform to the beliefs, opinions, and
behaviours of the other members. At times, people may even engage in conduct that conflicts with
their personal moral and ethical code. Some violate these conventional codes because they
perceive membership as too valuable to compromise. In such cases, their conscience may become
disturbed, but they tend to go along with the group anyway. Many studies have explored or
attempted to explain this phenomenon. 

A series of tests conducted by Solomon Asch, an American Gestalt psychologist, examined the
willingness of a group member to conform to the viewpoint of fellow members even if the members'
viewpoint was incorrect. In each test, he put people in groups of seven at a table and showed them
two cards - one with a single line and one with three lines of varying lengths. The participants were
then asked which of the three lines on the second card was the same length as the single line on the
first card. However, there was a catch. In each experiment, only one out of the seven subjects was
'real'; the others had been coached to respond to questions in a certain way. Specifically, they were
told to purposely answer some questions incorrectly to pressure the real student to conform. Asch
discovered that more than half of the real subjects went along with the incorrect answer at least
once. 

But is this really a simple matter of peer pressure or fear of going against the mainstream?
Neurologist Gregory Berns sought a physiological explanation and conducted an experiment with
MRI scanners to determine which parts of the brain were 'activated' when a person accepted a
decision that was in conformation with the group, even when they felt it was incorrect. He reasoned
that if peer pressure was responsible, he would see changes in activity in the forebrain, which is
involved in monitoring conflicts. But what Berns discovered was that when people follow a group's
opinion, the posterior areas of the brain were stimulated. This indicated that a change in spatial
perception had occurred, and led Berns to conclude that the incorrect responses the false
respondents had provided literally altered the perception of the true participants. Thus, he
challenged the notion that the participants in the Asch experiment were merely giving in to peer
pressure. In fact, they were actually seeing the length of the lines differently from how they would
have if no false responses were given. 

Social psychologist Stanley Milgram went even further in his experiments at Yale University in the
early 1960s. The Milgram experiments were groundbreaking in that they were the first extensive
ones carried out that focused on extreme obedience to authority and its potentially destructive
repercussions. Milgram told the subjects that they were participating in a study about learning and
memory and then assigned them to be 'teachers; with the stated goal of determining the role of
punishment in learning. However, what Milgram actually wanted to do was find out the extremes to
which people would go to punish others when instructed to do so. In the experiment Milgram
designed, the subjects were instructed to punish the 'learners; who in fact were actors, by giving
them an electric shock each time they failed to offer the correct answer. His experiments
demonstrated that even when the actors screamed in agony for the test to stop, the majority of
'teachers' continued to administer the shocks at the request of the experimenter. 

An even more ominous experiment conducted by a high school teacher in Palo Alto, California
underscores the dangers of conforming. History teacher Ron Jones was teaching his class about
totalitarianism when he was interrupted by a question asking how the citizens of any nation could be
convinced to accept living under a dictatorship. This gave him an idea. The next week, he began
lecturing on the positive qualities of discipline and instituted new rules, under the name 'Third Wave',
which mandated that students answer questions succinctly, in three words or less. He also
introduced slogans like 'Strength through discipline; strength through community' and had the
students stand and recite the new mottos. Furthermore, he introduced a Third Wave salute and
membership cards, and suggested that members report others who were breaking rules. He was
astounded when they willingly did so. 

On the fourth day of the experiment, Jones told the students that Third Wave was based on an
actual political movement in history and that he would reveal the leader of the movement the next
day, and he did this by showing a film which featured Adolf Hitler and footage of the German labour
camps during World War II. The students were stunned, and some were in tears. Jones pointed out
to them that out of regard for the group's objectives, they had failed to examine their own convictions
and the principles on which the group was founded. The name 'Third Wave' had not been accidental.
Indeed, a new Third Reich had nearly been born. 

Experiments aside, it goes without saying that in any society, group members must conform to some
degree for cooperation and sound decision making. Yet the dangers of rigid conformity must be
avoided, or it can result in 'groupthink', creating excessive loyalty to an idea, cause, action, or
decision at the expense of critical thinking. So, then, in any group, deviance in some form is
necessary to guarantee that the ramifications of a proposition are explored from every possible
angle. Still, deviance in its extreme form can lead to stalemates, arguments, or even anarchy. Thus,
it is imperative that constructive forms of criticism be encouraged while destructive criticism is
regarded with the utmost vigilance. 

Questions 27-31
Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-G, below.
Write the correct answer, A-G, in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet. 
27   When membership of a group is considered so desirable, people
28   According to Berns, the false responses
29   In Milgram's experiment, subjects were told to
30   The Third Wave experiment required that students must
31   Strict compliance should be avoided because it can 

A  have changed the participant's actual perception.

B  respond to questions with concise answers.
C  go against the accepted code.
D  prove that conformity influences behaviour.
E  get in the way of critical thinking.
F  have an impact on group decisions.
G  impose punishment at false responses. 
Questions 32-35 
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 3? 
In boxes 32-35 on your answer sheet, 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 

32   Asch found that only a few of the real participants chose incorrect answers. 
33   Milgram intended to test how much punishment a person would inflict on another when told to. 
34   Any form of deviance will ensure that an idea is effective enough to realise. 
35   Criticism which is not beneficial must be viewed with the greatest caution. 

Questions 36-40
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes 36-40 on your answer sheet. 

36   What was Solomon Asch trying to find out?

A     what type of people conform to a group consensus
B     how people reacted to the correct choice
C     whether people could identify a group's incorrect viewpoint
D     whether people would conform to a wrong opinion 

37   The false participants in Asch's study were there to

A     challenge the answers of real participants.
B     agree with the answers of other members of the group.
C     pressure the real participant to conform by giving wrong answers.
D     ask the other participants to conform. 

38   When conducting his experiment, Gregory Berns found that

A     accepting group decisions created activity in the posterior regions of the brain.
B     the participants were the same as those who were used in Asch's experiments.
C     physiological explanations had been largely ignored by previous researchers.
D     the front area of the brain is responsible for people's tendency to conform. 

39    According to the writer, Milgram's experiments were innovative because

A     they investigated the relationship between learning and punishment.
B     they emphasised the possible negative consequences of accepting authority.
C     they were the first to make use of electric shock on unsuspecting participants.
D     they were sceptical of the role that memory plays in overall student learning. 
40   The teacher who conducted the Third Wave experiment was shocked when students
A     came up with punishment for violation.
B     strongly opposed the rules.
C     organised a group to resist him.
D     told on classmates who didn't follow the rules.