READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on Reading

Passage 1 below.

New Zealand Seaweed

Call us not weeds; we are flowers of the sea.
Section A
Seaweed is a particularly nutritious food, which absorbs and concentrates traces of a
wide variety of minerals necessary to the body’s health. Many elements may occur in
seaweed – aluminium, barium, calcium, chlorine, copper, iodine and iron, to name but a
few – traces normally produced by erosion and carried to the seaweed beds by river
and sea currents. Seaweeds are also rich in vitamins: indeed, Eskimos obtain a high
proportion of their bodily requirements of vitamin C from the seaweeds they eat.
The nutritive value of seaweed has long been recognised. For instance, there is a
remarkably low incidence of goitre amongst the Japanese, and for that matter, amongst
our own Maori people, who have always eaten seaweeds, and this may well be
attributed to the high iodine content of this food. Research into old Maori eating customs
shows that jellies were made using seaweeds, fresh fruit and nuts, fuchsia and tutu
berries, cape gooseberries, and many other fruits which either grew here naturally or
were sown from seeds brought by settlers and explorers.
Section B
New Zealand lays claim to approximately 700 species of seaweed, some of which have
no representation outside this country. Of several species grown worldwide, New
Zealand also has a particularly large share. For example, it is estimated that New
Zealand has some 30 species of Gigartina, a close relative of carrageen or Irish moss.
These are often referred to as the New Zealand carrageens. The gel-forming substance
called agar which can be extracted from this species gives them great commercial
application in seameal, from which seameal custard is made, and in cough mixture,
confectionery, cosmetics, the canning, paint and leather industries, the manufacture of
duplicating pads, and in toothpaste. In fact, during World War II, New
Zealand Gigartina were sent to Australia to be used in toothpaste.
Section C
Yet although New Zealand has so much of the commercially profitable red seaweeds,
several of which are a source of agar (Pterocladia, Gelidium, Chondrus, Gigartina),
before 1940 relatively little use was made of them. New Zealand used to import the
Northern Hemisphere Irish moss (Chondrus crispus) from England and ready-made
agar from Japan. Although distribution of the Gigartina is confined to certain areas
according to species, it is only on the east coast of the North Island that its occurrence
is rare. And even then, the east coast, and the area around Hokiangna, have a
considerable supply of the two species of Pterocladia from which agar is also available.
Happily, New Zealand-made agar is now obtainable in health food shops.
Section D
Seaweeds are divided into three classes determined by colour – red, brown and green –
and each tends to live in a specific location. However, except for the unmistakable sea
lettuce (Ulva), few are totally one colour; and especially when dry, some species can
change colour quite significantly – a brown one may turn quite black, or a red one
appear black, brown, pink or purple.
Identification is nevertheless facilitated by the fact that the factors which determine
where a seaweed will grow are quite precise, and they therefore tend to occur in very
well-defined zones. Although there are exceptions, the green seaweeds are mainly
shallow-water algae; the browns belong to medium depths, and the reds are plants of
the deeper water. Flat rock surfaces near mid-level tides are the most usual habitat of
sea bombs, Venus’ necklace and most brown seaweeds. This is also the location of the
purple laver or Maori karengo, which looks rather like a reddish-purple lettuce. Deep-
water rocks on open coasts, exposed only at very low tide, are usually the site of bull
kelp, strap weeds and similar tough specimens. Those species able to resist long
periods of exposure to the sun and air are usually found on the upper shore, while those
less able to stand such exposure occur nearer to or below the low-water mark.
Radiation from the sun, the temperature level, and the length of time immersed all play
a part in the zoning of seaweeds.
Section E
Propagation of seaweeds occurs by spores, or by fertilisation of egg cells. None have
roots in the usual sense; few have leaves, and none have flowers, fruits or seeds. The
plants absorb their nourishment through their fronds when they are surrounded by
water: the base or “holdfast” of seaweeds is purely an attaching organ, not an absorbing
one.
Section F
Some of the large seaweeds maintain buoyancy with air-filled floats; others, such as bull
kelp, have large cells filled with air. Some, which spend a good part of their time
exposed to the air, often reduce dehydration either by having swollen stems that contain
water, or they may (like Venus’ necklace) have | swollen nodules, or they may have
distinctive shape like a sea bomb. Others, like the sea cactus, are filled with slimy fluid
or have coating of mucilage on the surface. In some of the larger kelps, this coating is
not only to keep the plant moist but also to protect it from the violent action of waves.

Questions 1-6
Reading Passage 1 has six sections A-F.
Choose the correct heading for each section from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number i-x in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.
List of Headings
i       Locations and features of different seaweeds
ii      Various products of seaweeds
iii     Use of seaweeds in Japan
iv     Seaweed species around the globe
v      Nutritious value of seaweeds
vi     Why it doesn’t dry or sink
vii    Where to find red seaweeds
viii   Underuse of native species
ix     Mystery solved
x      How seaweeds reproduce and grow
1   Section A
2   Section B
3   Section C
4   Section D
5   Section E
6   Section F

Questions 7-10
Complete the flow chart below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 7-10 on your answer sheet.
Gigartina
(also called as 7 _________)
↓ made into
8 ___________

↙ ↘
9 __________ medicine
canned or bottled food (e.g. 10 __________) toothpaste others
 

Questions 11-13
Classify the following description as relating to
A   Green seaweeds
B   Brown seaweeds
C   Red seaweeds
Write the correct letter A, B, or C in boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet.
11   Can resist exposure to sunlight at high-water mark
12   Grow in far open sea water
13   Share their habitat with karengo

READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26 which are based on Reading
Passage 2 below. 

THE BRIDGE THAT SWAYED

When the London Millennium footbridge was opened in June 2000, it swayed
alarmingly. This generated huge public interest and the bridge became known as
London’s “wobbly bridge.”
The Millennium Bridge is the first new bridge across the river Thames in London since
Tower Bridge opened in 1894, and it is the first ever designed for pedestrians only. The
bridge links the City of London near St Paul’s Cathedral with the Tate Modern art gallery
on Bankside.
The bridge opened initially on Saturday 10th June 2000. For the opening ceremony, a
crowd of over 1,000 people had assembled on the south half of the bridge with a band
in front. When they started to walk across with the band playing, there was immediately
an unexpectedly pronounced lateral movement of the bridge deck. “It was a fine day
and the bridge was on the route of a major charity walk,” one of the pedestrians
recounted what he saw that day. “At first, it was still. Then it began to sway sideways,
just slightly. Then, almost from one moment to the next, when large groups of people
were crossing, the wobble intensified. Everyone had to stop walking to retain balance
and sometimes to hold onto the hand rails for support.” Immediately it was decided to
limit the number of people on the bridge, and the bridge was dubbed the ‘wobbly’ bridge
by the media who declared it another high-profile British Millennium Project failure. In
order to fully investigate and resolve the issue the decision was taken to close the
bridge on 12th June 2000.
Arup, the leading member of the committee in charge of the construction of the bridge,
decided to tackle the issue head on. They immediately undertook a fast-track research
project to seek the cause and the cure. The embarrassed engineers found the
videotape that day which showed the center span swaying about 3 inches sideways
every second and the south span 2 inches every 1.25 seconds. Because there was a
significant wind blowing on the opening days (force 3-4) and the bridge had been
decorated with large flags, the engineers first thought that winds might be exerting
excessive force on the many large flags and banners, but it was rapidly concluded that
wind buffeting had not contributed significantly to vibration of the bridge. But after
measurements were made in university laboratories of the effects of people? walking on
swaying platforms and after large-scale experiments with crowds of pedestrians were
conducted on the bridge itself, a new understanding and a new theory were developed.
The unexpected motion was the result of a natural human reaction to small lateral
movements. It is well known that a suspension bridge has tendency to sway when
troops march over it in lockstep, which is why troops are required to break step when
crossing such a bridge. “If we walk on a swaying surface we tend to compensate and
stabilise ourselves by spreading our legs further apart but this increases the lateral
push”. Pat Dallard, the engineer at Arup, says that you change the way you walk to
match what the bridge is doing. It is an unconscious tendency for pedestrians to match
their footsteps to the sway, thereby exacerbating it even more. “It’s rather like walking
on a rolling ship deck you move one way and then the other to compensate for the roll.”
The way people walk doesn’t have to match exactly the natural frequency of the bridge
as in resonance the interaction is more subtle. As the bridge moves, people adjust the
way they walk in their own manner. The problem is that when there are enough people
on the bridge the total sideways push can overcome the bridge’s ability to absorb it. The
movement becomes excessive and continues to increase until people begin to have
difficulty in walking they may even have to hold on to the rails.
Professor Fujino Yozo of Tokyo University, who studied the earth-resistant Toda Bridge
in Japan, believes the horizontal forces caused by walking, running or jumping could
also in turn cause excessive dynamic vibration in the lateral direction in the bridge. He
explains that as the structure began moving, pedestrians adjusted their gait to the same
lateral rhythm as the bridge; the adjusted footsteps magnified the motion just like when
four people all stand up in small boat at the same time. As more pedestrians locked into
the same rhythm, the increasing oscillation led to the dramatic swaying captured on film
until people stopped walking altogether, because they could not even keep upright.
In order to design a method of reducing the movements, an immediate research
program was launched by the bridge’s engineering designer Arup. It was decided that
the force exerted by the pedestrians had to be quantified and related to the motion of
the bridge. Although there are some descriptions of this phenomenon in existing
literature, none of these actually quantifies the force. So there was no quantitative
analytical way to design the bridge against this effect. The efforts to solve the problem
quickly got supported by a number of universities and research organisations.
The tests at the University of Southampton involved a person walking on the spot on a
small shake table. The tests at Imperial College involved persons walking along a
specially built, 7.2m-long platform, which could be driven laterally at different
frequencies and amplitudes. These tests have their own limitations. While the Imperial
College test platform was too short that only seven or eight steps could be measured at
one time, the “walking on the spot” test did not accurately replicate forward walking,
although many footsteps could be observed using this method. Neither test could
investigate any influence of other people in a crowd on the behavior of the individual
tested.
The results of the laboratory tests provided information which enabled the initial design
of a retrofit to be progressed. However, unless the usage of the bridge was to be greatly
restricted, only two generic options to improve its performance were considered
feasible. The first was to increase the stiffness of the bridge to move all its lateral
natural frequencies out of the range that could be excited by the lateral footfall forces,
and the second was to increase the damping of the bridge to reduce the resonant
response.

Questions 14-17
Choose FOUR letters, A-I.
Write the correct letters in boxes 14-17 on your answer sheet.
Which FOUR of the following could be seen on the day when the bridge opened to the
public?
A   the bridge moved vertically
B   the bridge swayed from side to side
C   the bridge swayed violently throughout the opening ceremony
D   it was hard to keep balance on the bridge
E   pedestrians walked in synchronised steps
F   pedestrians lengthened their footsteps
G   a music band marched across the bridge
H   the swaying rhythm varied to the portions of the bridge
I    flags and banners kept still on the bridge

Questions 18-23
Complete the summary below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 18-23 on your answer sheet.
To understand why the Millennium Bridge swayed, engineers of Arup studied the
videotape taken on the day of the opening ceremony. In the beginning they thought the
forces of 18 ________ might have caused the movement because there were many
flags and banners on the bridge that day. But quickly new understandings arose after
series of tests were conducted on how people walk on 19 ________ floors. The tests
showed people would place their leg 20 ________ to keep balance when the floor is
shaking. Pat Dallard even believes pedestrians may unknowingly adjust
their 21 ________ to match the sway of the bridge. Professor Fujino Yozo’s study found
that the vibration of a bridge could be caused by the 22 ________. of people walking,
running and jumping on it because the lateral rhythm of the sway could make
pedestrians adjust their walk and reach the same step until it is impossible to
stand 23 ________.

Questions 24-26
Complete the table below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 24-26 on your answer sheet
Test conducted by Problems of the test
24 ________ Not enough data collection
25 ________ Not long enough
26 ________ Not like the real walking experience

READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40 which are based on Reading
Passage 3 below.

Musical Maladies
Norman M. Weinberger reviews the latest work of Oliver Sacks on music.
Music and the brain are both endlessly fascinating subjects, and as a neuroscientist
specialising in auditory learning and memory, I find them especially intriguing. So I had
high expectations of Musicophilia, the latest offering from neurologist and prolific author
Oliver Sacks. And I confess to feeling a little guilty reporting that my reactions to the
book are mixed.
Sacks himself is the best part of Musicophilia. He richly documents his own life in the
book and reveals highly personal experiences. The photograph of him on the cover of
the book— which shows him wearing headphones, eyes closed, clearly enchanted as
he listens to Alfred Brendel perform Beethoven’s Pathétique Sonata—makes a positive
impression that is borne out by the contents of the book. Sacks’s voice throughout is
steady and erudite but never pontifical. He is neither self-conscious nor self-promoting.
The preface gives a good idea of what the book will deliver. In it Sacks explains that he
wants to convey the insights gleaned from the “enormous and rapidly growing body of
work on the neural underpinnings of musical perception and imagery, and the complex
and often bizarre disorders to which these are prone” He also stresses the importance
of “the simple art of observation” and “the richness of the human context.” He wants to
combine “observation and description with the latest in technology,” he says, and to
imaginatively enter into the experience of his patients and subjects. The reader can see
that Sacks, who has been practicing neurology for 40 years, is torn between the “old-
fashioned” path of observation and the new-fangled, high-tech approach: He knows that
he needs to take heed of the latter, but his heart lies with the former.
The book consists mainly of detailed descriptions of cases, most of them involving
patients whom Sacks has seen in his practice. Brief discussions of contemporary
neuroscientific reports are sprinkled liberally throughout the text. Part I, “Haunted by
Music,” begins with the strange case of Tony Cicoria, a nonmusical, middle-aged
surgeon who was consumed by a love of music after being hit by lightning. He suddenly
began to crave listening to piano music, which he had never cared for in the past. He
started to play the piano and then to compose music, which arose spontaneously in his
mind in a “torrent” of notes. How could this happen? Was the cause psychological? (He
had had a near-death experience when the lightning struck him.) Or was it the direct
result of a change in the auditory regions of his cerebral cortex? Electro
encephalography (EEG) showed his brain waves to be normal in the mid-1990s, just
after his trauma and subsequent “conversion” to music. There are now more sensitive
tests, but Cicoria has declined to undergo them; he does not want to delve into the
causes of his musicality. What a shame!
Part II, “A Range of Musicality,” covers a wider variety of topics, but unfortunately, some
of the chapters offer little or nothing that is new. For example, chapter 13, which is five
pages long, merely notes that the blind often have better hearing than the sighted. The
most interesting chapters are those that present the strangest cases. Chapter 8 is about
“amusia,” an inability to hear sounds as music, and “dysharmonia,” a highly specific
impairment of the ability to hear harmony, with the ability to understand melody left
intact. Such specific “dissociations” are found throughout the cases Sacks recounts.
To Sacks’s credit, part III, “Memory, Movement and Music,” brings us into the
underappreciated realm of music therapy. Chapter 16 explains how “melodic intonation
therapy” is being used to help expressive aphasic patients (those unable to express
their thoughts verbally following a stroke or other cerebral incident) once again become
capable of fluent speech. In chapter 20, Sacks demonstrates the near-miraculous power
of music to animate Parkinson’s patients and other people with severe movement
disorders, even those who are frozen into odd postures. Scientists cannot yet explain
how music achieves this effect.
To readers who are unfamiliar with neuroscience and music behavior, Musicophilia may
be something of a revelation. But the book will not satisfy those seeking the causes and
implications of the phenomena Sacks describes. For one thing, Sacks appears to be
more at ease discussing patients than discussing experiments. And he tends to be
rather uncritical in accepting scientific findings and theories.
It’s true that the causes of music-brain oddities remain poorly understood. However,
Sacks could have done more to draw out some of the implications of the careful
observations that he and other neurologists have made and of the treatments that have
been successful. For example, he might have noted that the many specific dissociations
among components of music comprehension, such as loss of the ability to perceive
harmony but not melody, indicate that there is no music center in the brain. Because
many people who read the book are likely to believe in the brain localisation of all
mental functions, this was a missed educational opportunity.
Another conclusion one could draw is that there seem to be no “cures” for neurological
problems involving music. A drug can alleviate a symptom in one patient and aggravate
it in another, or can have both positive and negative effects in the same patient.
Treatments mentioned seem to be almost exclusively antiepileptic medications, which
“damp down” the excitability of the brain in general; their effectiveness varies widely.
Finally, in many of the cases described here the patient with music-brain symptoms is
reported to have “normal” EEG results. Although Sacks recognises the existence of new
technologies, among them far more sensitive ways to analyze brain waves than the
standard neurological EEG test, he does not call for their use. In fact, although he
exhibits the greatest compassion for patients, he conveys no sense of urgency about
the pursuit of new avenues in the diagnosis and treatment of music-brain disorders.
This absence echoes the hook’s preface, in which Sacks expresses fear that “the
simple art of observation may be lost” if we rely too much on new technologies. He does
call for both approaches, though, and we can only hope that the neurological community
will respond.

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   Why does the writer have a mixed feeling about the book?
A   The guilty feeling made him so.
B   The writer expected it to be better than it was.
C   Sacks failed to include his personal stories in the book.
D   This is the only book written by Sacks.
28   What is the best part of the book?
A   the photo of Sacks listening to music
B   the tone of voice of the book
C   the autobiographical description in the book
D   the description of Sacks’s wealth
29   In the preface, what did Sacks try to achieve?
A   make terms with the new technologies
B   give detailed description of various musical disorders
C   explain how people understand music
D   explain why he needs to do away with simple observation
30   What is disappointing about Tony Cicoria’s case?
A   He refuses to have further tests.
B   He can’t determine the cause of his sudden musicality.
C   He nearly died because of the lightening.
D   His brain waves were too normal to show anything.

Questions 31-36
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 3?
In boxes 31-36 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
31   It is difficult to give a well-reputable writer a less than favorable review.
32   Beethoven’s Pathétique Sonata is a good treatment for musical disorders.
33   Sacks believes technological methods is not important compared with observation
when studying his patients.
34   It is difficult to understand why music therapy is undervalued.
35   Sacks should have more skepticism about other theories and findings.
36   Sacks is impatient to use new testing methods.

Questions 37-40
Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-F, below.
Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet.
37   The dissociations between harmony and melody
38   The study of treating musical disorders
39   The EEG scans of Sacks’s patients
40   Sacks believes testing based on new technologies
A    show no music-brain disorders.
B    indicates that medication can have varied results.
C    is key for the neurological community to unravel the mysteries.
D    should not be used in isolation.
E    indicate that not everyone can receive good education.
F    show that music is not localised in the brain.