Environment - Test Compilation

The Climate Changers
The romantic notion that early humans lived in harmony with their environment has taken quite a
battering lately. Modem humans may have started eliminating other species right from the start; our
ancestors stand accused of wiping out mega fauna – from giant flightless birds in Australia to
mammoths in Asia and the ground sloth of North America – as they spread across the planet.
Even so, by around 6,000 years ago there were only about 12 million people on earth – less than a
quarter of the current population of Great Britain. That’s a far cry from today’s 6.6 billion, many of us
guzzling fossil fuels, churning out greenhouse gases and messing with our planet’s climate like
there’s no tomorrow. So it may seem far-fetched to suggest that humans have been causing global
warming ever since our ancestors started burning and cutting forests to make way for fields at least
7,000 years ago.
Yet that’s the view of retired climate scientist William Ruddiman, formerly of the University of
Virginia, Charlottesville. Ancient farmers were pumping climate-warming carbon dioxide and
methane into the atmosphere long before recorded history began, he says. Far from causing
catastrophe, however, early farmers halted the planet’s descent into another ice age and kept Earth
warm and stable for thousands of years.
Could a few primitive farmers really have changed the climate of the entire globe? If you find this
hard to believe, you’re not the only one. Ruddiman’s idea has been hugely controversial ever since
he proposed it in 2003. ‘Most new ideas, especially controversial ones, die out pretty fast. It doesn’t
take science long to weed them out,’ he says. Yet five years on, his idea is still not dead. On the
contrary, he says the latest evidence strengthens his case. ‘It has become clear that natural
explanations for the rise in greenhouse gases over the past few thousand years are the ones that
are not measuring up, and we can reject them,’he claims.
There is no doubt that the soaring levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that we see
in the atmosphere today – causing a 0.7° C rise in average global temperature during the 20thcentury
– are the result of human activities. In the late 1990s, however, Ruddiman started to suspect that our
contribution to the global greenhouse began to become significant long before the industrial age
began. This was when an ice core drilled at the Vostok station in Antarctica revealed how
atmospheric C02 and methane levels have changed over the past 400,000 years. Bubbles trapped in
the ice provide a record of the ancient atmosphere during the past three interglacials.
What we see is a regular pattern of rises and falls with a period of about 100,000 years, coinciding
with the coming and going of ice ages. There are good explanations for these cycles: periodic
changes in the planet’s orbit and axis of rotation alter the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth. We
are now in one of the relatively brief, warm interglacial periods that follow an ice age.
Within this larger pattern there are regular peaks in methane every 22,000 years that coincide with
the times when the Earth’s orbit makes summers in the northern hemisphere warmest. This makes
sense, because warm northern summers drive strong tropical monsoons in southern Asia that both
encourage the growth of vegetation and cause flooding, during which vegetation rotting in oxygen-
poor water will emit methane. Around the Arctic, hot summers thaw wetlands for longer, again
promoting both vegetation growth and methane emission.
In recent times, however, this regular pattern has changed. The last methane peak occurred around
11,000 years ago, at about 700 parts per billion (ppb), after which levels began to fall. But instead of
continuing to fall to what Ruddiman says should have been a minimum of about 450 ppb today, the
atmospheric methane began to climb again 5,000 years ago.
Working with climate modellers Stephen Verves and John Kutzbach, Ruddiman has shown that if
the levels of these gases had continued to fall rather than rising when they did, ice sheets would now
cover swathes of northern Canada and Siberia. The world would be heading into another ice age.
So why did both methane and C02 rise over the past few thousand years? In other words, why has
this interglacial period been different from previous ones? Could humans be to blame?
Agriculture emerged around the eastern Mediterranean some 11,000 years ago, then shortly
afterwards in China and several thousand years later in the Americas. Farming can release
greenhouse gases in various ways: clearing forests liberates lots of stored carbon as the wood rots
or is burned, for instance, while flooded rice paddies release methane just as wetlands do.
To find out more about early farming, Ruddiman began to dig around in studies of agricultural
history.These revealed that there was a sharp rise in rice cultivation in Asia around 5,000 years ago,
with the practice spreading across China and south-east Asia. Here at least was a possible source
for the unexpected methane rise.
Questions 1-3
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D
1. One of the claims Ruddiman makes is that
A population growth is responsible for global warming.
B people have affected the climate for thousands of years.
C his ideas are not in the least bit controversial.
D so far scientists have been wrong about global warming.
2. What information did the research at Vostok reveal for the first time?
A that methane levels stabilised about 11,000 years ago
B that Antarctic ice contains methane bubbles
C that the methane levels increased about 5,000 years ago
D that we are now living in a warm interglacial period
3. The climate changers of the title are
A modern humans.
B climate modellers.
C primitive farmers.
D natural causes.
Questions 4-8
Complete the summary.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
To many people the controversial idea that our 4 ………………. were responsible for global warming
appears 5 ………………. . Yet Ruddiman believes that high levels of carbon dioxide and methane –
both 6 ………………. , or greenhouse, gases – were being released into the Earth’s atmosphere in
times prior to 7 ………………. . However, Ruddiman claims that this
had a positive effect, as it may well have saved us from another 8 ………………. .
Questions 9-14
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?
In boxes 9-14 on your answer sheet write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if the there is no information on this
9 Some mega fauna have been eliminated by humans in the past 100 years.
10 Agriculture is considered a primary cause of global warming today.
11 Ruddimans idea caused a great deal of argument among scientists.
12 New scientific evidence proves for certain that Ruddimans theory is correct.
13 The 20th century has seen the greatest ever increase in global temperatures.
14 Changes in the Earths orbit can affect global temperatures.
Solution for: The Climate Changers
Answer Table
1. B 8. ice age
2. C 9. FALSE
3. C 10. NOT GIVEN
4. ancestors 11. TRUE
5. far-fetched 12. FALSE
6. climate-warming 13. NOT GIVEN
7. recorded history 14. TRUE

The 2003 Heatwave
It was the summer, scientists now realise, when global warming at last made itself unmistakably felt.
We knew that summer 2003 was remarkable: Britain experienced its record high temperature and
continental Europe saw forest fires raging out of control, great rivers drying to a trickle and
thousands of heat-related deaths. But just how remarkable is only now becoming clear.
The three months of June, July and August were the warmest ever recorded in western and central
Europe, with record national highs in Portugal, Germany and Switzerland as well as in Britain. And
they were the warmest by a very long way. Over a great rectangular block of the earth stretching
from west of Paris to northern Italy, taking in Switzerland and southern Germany, the average
temperature for the summer months was 3.78°C above the long-term norm, said the Climatic
Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia in Norwich, which is one of the world's leading
institutions for the monitoring and analysis of temperature records.
That excess might not seem a lot until you are aware of the context - but then you realise it is
enormous. There is nothing like this in previous data, anywhere. It is considered so exceptional that
Professor Phil Jones, the CRU's director, is prepared to say openly - in a way few scientists have
done before - that the 2003 extreme may be directly attributed, not to natural climate variability, but
to global warming caused by human actions.
Meteorologists have hitherto contented themselves with the formula that recent high temperatures
are “consistent with predictions” of climate change. For the great block of the map - that stretching
between 35-50N and 0-20E - the CRU has reliable temperature records dating back to 1781. Using
as a baseline the average summer temperature recorded between 1961 and 1990, departures from
the temperature norm, or “anomalies”, over the area as a whole can easily be plotted. As the graph
shows, such is the variability of our climate that over the past 200 years, there have been at least
half a dozen anomalies, in terms of excess temperature - the peaks on the graph denoting very hot
years - approaching, or even exceeding, 2°C. But there has been nothing remotely like 2003, when
the anomaly is nearly four degrees.
“This is quite remarkable,’ Professor Jones told The Independent. “It’s very unusual in a statistical
sense. If this series had a normal statistical distribution, you wouldn’t get this number. The return
period [how often it could be expected to recur] would be something like one in a thousand years. If
we look at an excess above the average of nearly four degrees, then perhaps nearly three degrees
of that is natural variability, because we’ve seen that in past summers. But the final degree of it is
likely to be due to global warming, caused by human actions.”
The summer of 2003 has, in a sense, been one that climate scientists have long been expecting.
Until now, the warming has been manifesting itself mainly in winters that have been less cold than in
summers that have been much hotter. Last week, the United Nations predicted that winters were
warming so quickly that winter sports would die out in Europe’s lower-level ski resorts. But sooner or
later, the unprecedented hot summer was bound to come, and this year it did.
One of the most dramatic features of the summer was the hot nights, especially in the first half of
August. In Paris, the temperature never dropped below 23°C (73.4°F) at all between 7 and 14
August, and the city recorded its warmest-ever night on 11-12 August, when the mercury did not
drop below 25.5°C (77.9°F). Germany recorded its warmest-ever night at Weinbiet in the Rhine
Valley with a lowest figure of 27.6°C (80.6°F) on 13 August, and similar record-breaking nighttime
temperatures were recorded in Switzerland and Italy.
The 15,000 excess deaths in France during August, compared with previous years, have been
related to the high night-time temperatures. The number gradually increased during the first 12 days
of the month, peaking at about 2,000 per day on the night of 12-13 August, then fell off dramatically
after 14 August when the minimum temperatures fell by about 5°C. The elderly were most affected,
with a 70 per cent increase in mortality rate in those aged 75-94.
For Britain, the year as a whole is likely to be the warmest ever recorded, but despite the high
temperature record on 10 August, the summer itself - defined as the June, July and August period -
still comes behind 1976 and 1995, when there were longer periods of intense heat. “At the moment,
the year is on course to be the third hottest ever in the global temperature record, which goes back
to 1856, behind 1998 and 2002, but when all the records for October, November and December are
collated, it might move into second place/' Professor Jones said. The ten hottest years in the record
have all now occurred since 1990. Professor Jones is in no doubt about the astonishing nature of
European summer of 2003. “The temperatures recorded were out of all proportion to the previous
record," he said.
“It was the warmest summer in the past 500 years and probably way beyond that. It was enormously
exceptional."
His colleagues at the University of East Anglia's Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research are
now planning a special study of it. “It was a summer that has not been experienced before, either in
terms of the temperature extremes that were reached, or the range and diversity of the impacts of
the extreme heat," said the centre's executive director, Professor Mike Hulme.
“It will certainly have left its mark on a number of countries, as to how they think and plan for climate
change in the future, much as the 2000 floods have revolutionised the way the Government is
thinking about flooding in the UK. The 2003 heatwave will have similar repercussions across
Europe."
Questions 1-6
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage? In boxes 1-6 on
your answer sheet write
YES if the statement agrees with the information

NO if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
1 The average summer temperature in 2003 is almost 4 degrees higher than the average
temperature of the past.
2 Global warming is caused by human activities.
3 Jones believes the temperature variation is within the normal range.
4 The temperature is measured twice a day in major cities.
5 There were milder winters rather than hotter summers before 2003.
6 Governments are building new high-altitude ski resorts.
Questions 7-8
Answer the questions below using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each
answer.
Write your answers in boxes 7-8 on your answer sheet.
7. What are the other two hottest years in Britain besides 2003?
8. What will also influence government policies in the future like the hot summer in 2003?
Questions 9-12
Complete the summary below using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each
answer.
9. The other two hottest years around the globe were .

10. The ten hottest years on record all come after the year .
11. This temperature data has been gathered since .
12. Thousands of people died in the country of .
Questions 13
Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D.
Write your answer in box 13 on your answer sheet.
13. Which one of the following can be best used as the title of this passage?
A Global Warming
B What Caused Global Warming
C The Effects of Global Warming
D That Hot Year in Europe
Solution for: The 2003 Heatwave
Answer Table
1. YES 8. 2000 floods
2. YES 9. 1998 and 2002
3. NO 10. 1990
4. NOT GIVEN 11. 1856
5. YES 12. France
6. NOT GIVEN 13. D
7. 1976, 1995
Glaciers
A
Besides the earth’s oceans, glacier ice is the largest source of water on earth. A glacier is a massive
stream or sheet of ice that moves underneath itself under the influence of gravity. Some glaciers
travel down mountains or valleys, while others spread across a large expanse of land. Heavily
glaciated regions such as Greenland and Antarctica are called continental glaciers. These two ice
sheets encompass more than 95 percent of the earth’s glacial ice. The Greenland ice sheet is
almost 10,000 feet thick in some areas, and the weight of this glacier is so heavy that much of the
region has been depressed below sea level. Smaller glaciers that occur at higher elevations are
called alpine or valley glaciers. Another way of classifying glaciers is in terms of their internal
temperature. In temperate glaciers, the ice within the glacier is near its melting point. Polar glaciers,
in contrast, always maintain temperatures far below melting.
B
The majority of the earth’s glaciers are located near the poles, though glaciers exist on all
continents, including Africa and Oceania. The reason glaciers are generally formed in high alpine
regions is that they require cold temperatures throughout the year. In these areas where there is little
opportunity for summer ablation (loss of mass), snow changes to compacted fim and then
crystallized ice. During periods in which melting and evaporation exceed the amount of snowfall,
glaciers will retreat rather than progress. While glaciers rely heavily on snowfall, other climactic
conditions including freezing rain, avalanches, and wind, contribute to their growth. One year of
below average precipitation can stunt the growth of a glacier tremendously. With the rare exception
of surging glaciers, a common glacier flows about 10 inches per day in the summer and 5 inches per
day in the winter. The fastest glacial surge on record occurred in 1953, when the Kutiah Glacier in
Pakistan grew more than 12 kilometers in three months.
C
The weight and pressure of ice accumulation causes glacier movement. Glaciers move out from
under themselves, via plastic deformation and basal slippage. First, the internal flow of ice crystals
begins to spread outward and downward from the thickened snow pack also known as the zone of
accumulation. Next, the ice along the ground surface begins to slip in the same direction. Seasonal
thawing at the base of the glacier helps to facilitate this slippage. The middle of a glacier moves
faster than the sides and bottom because there is no rock to cause friction. The upper part of a
glacier rides on the ice below. As a glacier moves it carves out a U-shaped valley similar to a
riverbed, but with much steeper walls and a flatter bottom.
D
Besides the extraordinary rivers of ice, glacial erosion creates other unique physical features in the
landscape such as horns, fjords, hanging valleys, and cirques. Most of these landforms do not
become visible until after a glacier has receded. Many are created by moraines, which occur at the
sides and front of a glacier. Moraines are formed when material is picked up along the way and
deposited in a new location. When many alpine glaciers occur on the same mountain, these
moraines can create a horn. The Matterhorn, in the Swiss Alps is one of the most famous horns.
Fjords, which are very common in Norway, are coastal valleys that fill with ocean water during a
glacial retreat. Hanging valleys occur when two or more glacial valleys intersect at varying
elevations. It is common for waterfalls to connect the higher and lower hanging valleys, such as in
Vosemite National Park. A cirque is a large bowlshaped valley that forms at the front of a glacier.
Cirques often have a lip on their down slope that is deep enough to hold small lakes when the ice
melts away.
E
Glacier movement and shape shifting typically occur over hundreds of years. While presently about
10 percent of the earth’s land is covered with glaciers, it is believed that during the last Ice Age
glaciers covered approximately 32 percent of the earth’s surface. In the past century, most glaciers
have been retreating rather than flowing forward. It is unknown whether this glacial activity is due to
human impact or natural causes, but by studying glacier movement, and comparing climate and
agricultural profiles over hundreds of years, glaciologists can begin to understand environmental
issues such as global warming.
Questions 1-5
Reading Passage 1 has five paragraphs, A-E. Choose the most suitable heading for each paragraph
from the list of headings below.
Write the appropriate numbers (i-viii) on your Answer Sheet
There are more headings than paragraphs, so you will not use them all.
List of Headings
i Glacial Continents
Formation and Growth of
1 Paragraph A ii
Glaciers
2 Paragraph B iii Glacial Movement
3 Paragraph C iv Glaciers in the Last Ice Age
4 Paragraph D v Glaciers Through the Years
5 Paragraph E vi Types of Glaciers
Glacial Effects on
vii
Landscape
viii Glaciers in National Parks
Questions 6-10
Do the following statements agree with the information in Passage 1 ? in boxes 6-10 on your Answer
Sheet, write
TRUE if the statement is true according to the passage.
FALSE if the statement contradicts the passage.
NOT GIVEN if there is no information about this in the passage.
6 Glaciers exist only near the north and south poles.
7 Glaciers are formed by a combination of snow and other weather conditions.
8 Glaciers normally move at a rate of about 5 to 10 inches a day.
9 All parts of the glacier move at the same speed.
10 During the last Ice Age, average temperatures were much lower than they are now.
Questions 11-15
Match each definition below with the term it defines.
Write the letter of the term, A-H, on your Answer Sheet
There are more terms than definitions, so you will not use them all
Terms
A fjord
B alpine glacier
C horn
D polar glacier
E temperate glacier
F hanging valley
G cirque
H surging glacier
11 a glacier formed on a mountain

12 a glacier with temperatures well below freezing
13 a glacier that moves very quickly
14 a glacial valley formed near the ocean
15 a glacial valley that looks like a bowl
Solution for: Glaciers
Answer Table
1. vi 9. FALSE
2. ii 10. NOT GIVEN
3. iii 11. B
4. vii 12. D
5. v 13. H
6. FALSE 14. A
7. TRUE 15. G
8. TRUE
Amateur Naturalists
From the results of an annual Alaskan betting contest to sightings of migratory birds,
ecologists are using a wealth of unusual data to predict the impact of climate change.
A Tim Sparks slides a small leather-bound notebook out of an envelope. The book's yellowing pages
contain bee-keeping notes made between 1941 and 1969 by the late Walter Coates of Kilworth,
Leicestershire. He adds it to his growing pile of local journals, birdwatchers' lists and gardening
diaries. "We're uncovering about one major new record each month," he says, "I still get surprised."
Around two centuries before Coates, Robert Marsham, a landowner from Norfolk in the east of
England, began recording the life cycles of plants and animals on his estate - when the first wood
anemones flowered, the dates on which the oaks burst into leaf and the rooks began nesting.
Successive Marshams continued compiling these notes for 211 years.
B Today, such records are being put to uses that their authors could not possibly have expected.
These data sets, and others like them, are proving invaluable to ecologists interested in the timing of
biological events, or phenology. By combining the records with climate data, researchers can reveal
how, for example, changes in temperature affect the arrival of spring, allowing ecologists to make
improved predictions about the impact of climate change. A small band of researchers is combing
through hundreds of years of records taken by thousands of amateur naturalists. And more
systematic projects have also started up, producing an overwhelming response. "The amount of
interest is almost frightening," says Sparks, a climate researcher at the Centre for Ecology and
Hydrology in Monks Wood, Cambridgeshire.
C Sparks first became aware of the army of "closet phenologists”, as he describes them, when a
retiring colleague gave him the Marsham records. He now spends much of his time following leads
from one historical data set to another. As news of his quest spreads, people tip him off to other
historical records, and more amateur phenologists come out of their closets. The British devotion to
recording and collecting makes his job easier - one man from Kent sent him 30 years' worth of
kitchen calendars, on which he had noted the date that his neighbour's magnolia tree flowered.
D Other researchers have unearthed data from equally odd sources. Rafe Sagarin, an ecologist at
Stanford University in California, recently studied records of a betting contest in which participants
attempt to guess the exact time at which a specially erected wooden tripod will fall through the
surface of a thawing river. The competition has taken place annually on the Tenana River in Alaska
since 1917, and analysis of the results showed that the thaw now arrives five days earlier than it did
when the contest began.
E Overall, such records have helped to show that, compared with 20 years ago, a raft of natural
events now occur earlier across much of the northern hemisphere, from the opening of leaves to the
return of birds from migration and the emergence of butterflies from hibernation. The data can also
hint at how nature will change in the future. Together with models of climate change, amateurs'
records could help guide conservation. Terry Root, an ecologist at the University of Michigan in Ann
Arbor, has collected birdwatchers' counts of wildfowl taken between 1955 and 1996 on seasonal
ponds in the American Midwest and combined them with climate data and models of future warming.
Her analysis shows that the increased droughts that the models predict could halve the breeding
populations at the ponds. "The number of waterfowl in North America will most probably drop
significantly with global warming," she says.
F But not all professionals are happy to use amateur data. "A lot of scientists won't touch them, they
say they're too full of problems," says Root. Because different observers can have different ideas of
what constitutes, for example, an open snowdrop. "The biggest concern with ad hoc observations is
how carefully and systematically they were taken," says Mark Schwartz of the University of
Wisconsin, Milwaukee, who studies the interactions between plants and climate. "We need to know
pretty precisely what a person's been observing - if they just say 'I noted when the leaves came out',
it might not be that useful." Measuring the onset of autumn can be particularly problematic because
deciding when leaves change colour is a more subjective process than noting when they appear.
G Overall, most phenologists are positive about the contribution that amateurs can make. "They get
at the raw power of science: careful observation of the natural world," says Sagarin. But the
professionals also acknowledge the need for careful quality control. Root, for example, tries to gauge
the quality of an amateur archive by interviewing its collector. "You always have to worry - things as
trivial as vacations can affect measurement. I disregard a lot of records because they're not rigorous
enough," she says. Others suggest that the right statistics can iron out some of the problems with
amateur data. Together with colleagues at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, environmental
scientist Arnold van Vliet is developing statistical techniques to account for the uncertainty in
amateur phenological data. With the enthusiasm of amateur phenologists evident from past records,
professional researchers are now trying to create standardised recording schemes for future efforts.
They hope that well-designed studies will generate a volume of observations large enough to drown
out the idiosyncrasies of individual recorders. The data are cheap to collect, and can provide breadth
in space, time and range of species. "It's very difficult to collect data on a large geographical scale
without enlisting an army of observers," says Root.
H Phenology also helps to drive home messages about climate change. "Because the public
understand these records, they accept them," says Sparks.
It can also illustrate potentially unpleasant consequences, he adds, such as the finding that more rat
infestations are reported to local councils in warmer years. And getting people involved is great for
public relations. "People are thrilled to think that the data they've been collecting as a hobby can be
used for something scientific - it empowers them," says Root.
Questions 1-7
Reading Passage has eight paragraphs A-H.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter A-H in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet.
1 The definition of phenology
2 How Sparks first became aware of amateur records
3 How people reacted to their involvement in data collection
4 The necessity to encourage amateur data collection
5 A description of using amateur records to make predictions
6 Records of a competition providing clues to climate change
7 A description of a very old record compiled by generations of amateur naturalists
Questions 8-10
Complete the sentences below with NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each
answer.
8 Walter Coates’s records largely contain the information of
9 Robert Marsham is famous for recording the of animals and plants on his land.
10 According to some phenologists, global warming may cause the number of waterfowl in North
America to drop significantly due to increased
Questions 11-14
11 Why do a lot of scientists discredit the data collected by amateurs?
A Scientific methods were not used in data collection.
B Amateur observers are not careful in recording their data.
C Amateur data is not reliable.
D Amateur data is produced by wrong candidates.
12 Mark Schwartz used the example of leaves to illustrate that
A amateur records can’t be used.
B amateur records are always unsystematic.
C the colour change of leaves is hard to observe.
D valuable information is often precise.
13 How do the scientists suggest amateur data should be used?
A Using improved methods
B Being more careful in observation
C Using raw materials
D Applying statistical techniques in data collection
14 What’s the implication of phenology for ordinary people?
A It empowers the public.
B It promotes public relations.
C It warns people of animal infestation.
D It raises awareness about climate change in the public.
Solution for: Amateur Naturalists
Answer Table
1. B 8. bee-keeping
2. C 9. life cycles
3. H 10. droughts
4. G 11. C
5. E 12. D
6. D 13. D
7. A 14. D
Issues Affecting the Southern Resident Orcas
A
Orcas, also known as killer whales, are opportunistic feeders, which means they will take a variety of
different prey species. J, K, and L pods (specific groups of orcas found in the region) are almost
exclusively fish eaters. Some studies show that up to 90 percent of their diet is salmon, with Chinook
salmon being far and away their favorite. During the last 50 years, hundreds of wild runs of salmon
have become extinct due to habitat loss and overfishing of wild stocks. Many of the extinct salmon
stocks are the winter runs of chinook and coho. Although the surviving stocks have probably been
sufficient to sustain the resident pods, many of the runs that have been lost were undoubtedly
traditional resources favored by the resident orcas. This may be affecting the whales’ nutrition in the
winter and may require them to change their patterns of movement in order to search for food.
Other studies with tagged whales have shown that they regularly dive up to 800 feet in this area.
Researchers tend to think that during these deep dives the whales may be feeding on bottomfish.
Bottomfish species in this area would include halibut, rockfish, lingcod, and greenling. Scientists
estimate that today’s lingcod population in northern Puget Sound and the Strait of Georgia is only 2
percent of what it was in 1950. The average size of rockfish in the recreational catch has also
declined by several inches since the 1970s, which is indicative of overfishing. In some locations,
certain rockfish species have disappeared entirely. So even if bottomfish are not a major food
resource for the whales, the present low numbers of available fish increases the pressure on orcas
and all marine animals to find food. (For more information on bottomfish see the San Juan County
Bottomfish Recovery Program.)
B
Toxic substances accumulate in higher concentrations as they move up the food chain. Because
orcas t are the top predator in the ocean and are at the top of several different food chains in the
environment, they tend to be more affected by pollutants than other sea creatures. Examinations of
stranded killer whales have shown some extremely high levels of lead, mercury, and polychlorinated
hydrocarbons. Abandoned marine toxic waste dumps and present levels of industrial and human
refuse pollution of the inland waters probably presents the most serious threat to the continued
existence of this orca population. Unfortunately, the total remedy to this huge problem would be
broad societal changes on many fronts. But because of the fact that orcas are so popular, they may
be the best species to use as a focal point in bringing about the many changes that need to be made
in order to protect the marine environment as a whole from further toxic poisoning.'
C
The waters around the San Juan Islands are extremely busy due to international commercial
shipping, fishing, whale watching, and pleasure boating. On a busy weekend day in the summer, it is
not uncommon to see numerous boats in the vicinity of the whales as they travel through the area.
The potential impacts from all this vessel traffic with regard to the whales and other marine animals
in the area could be tremendous.
The surfacing and breathing space of marine birds and mammals is a critical aspect of their habitat,
which the animals must consciously deal with on a moment-to-moment basis throughout their
lifetimes. With all the boating activity in the vicinity, there are three ways in which surface impacts
are most likely to affect marine animals: (a) collision, (b) collision avoidance, and (c) exhaust
emissions in breathing pockets.
The first two impacts are very obvious and don’t just apply to vessels with motors. Kayakers even
present a problem here because they’re so quiet. Marine animals, busy hunting and feeding under
the surface of the water, may not be aware that there is a kayak above them and actually hit the
bottom of it as they surface to breathe.
The third impact is one most people don’t even think of. When there are numerous boats in the area,
especially idling boats, there are a lot of exhaust fumes being spewed out on the surface of the
water. When the whale comes up to take a nice big breath of “fresh" air, it instead gets a nice big
breath of exhaust fumes. It’s hard to say how greatly this affects the animals, but think how breathing
polluted air affects us (i.e., smog in large cities like Los Angeles, breathing the foul air while sitting in
traffic jams, etc)._
D
Similar to surface impacts, a primary source of acoustic pollution for this population of orcas would
also be derived from the cumulative underwater noise of vessel traffic. For cetaceans, the
underwater sound environment is perhaps the most critical component of their sensory and
behavioral lives. Orcas communicate with each other over short and long distances with a variety of
clicks, chirps, squeaks, and whistles, along with using echolocation to locate prey and to navigate.
They may also rely on passive listening as a primary sensory source. The long-term impacts from
noise pollution would not likely show up as noticeable behavioral changes in habitat use, but rather
as sensory damage or gradual reduction in population health. A new study at The Whale Museum
called the SeaSound Remote Sensing Network has begun studying underwater acoustics and its
relationship to orca communication.
Questions 1-4
Reading Passage 3 has four sections (A-D). Choose the most suitable heading for each section
from the list of headings below.
Write the appropriate numbers (i-vii) in boxes 1-4 on your Answer Sheet
There are more headings than sections, so you will not use all of them.
List of Headings
i Top Ocean Predators
1 Section A ii Toxic Exposure
2 Section B iii Declining Fish Populations
3 Section C iv Pleasure Boating in the San Juan Islands
4 Section D v Underwater Noise
vi Smog in Large Cities vii Impact of Boat Traffic
vi Impact of Boat Traffic
Questions 5-6
For each question, choose the appropriate letter A-D and write it in boxes 5 and 6 on your Answer
Sheet
5 Killer whales (orcas) in the J, K, and L pods prefer to eat

A halibut.
B a type of salmon.
C a variety of animals.
D fish living at the bottom of the sea.
6 Some groups of salmon have become extinct because
A they have lost places to live.
B whales have eaten them.
C they don't get good nutrition.
D the winters in the area are too cold.
Questions 7-14
Complete the chart below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 7-14 on your Answer Sheet.
Cause Effect
Scientists believe some whales

These whales dive very deep.
feed 7 ……………..
Scientists believe that the area is being over Rockfish caught today is 8 …………….. than
fished. rockfish caught in the past.
9 …………….. affects orcas more than it does

Orcas are at the top of the ocean food chain.
other sea animals.
We can use orcas to make society aware of the

Orcas are a 10 …………….. species.
problem of marine pollution.
People enjoy boating, fishing, and whale On weekends there are 11 …………….. near
watching in the San Juan Islands. the whales.
Marine animals hit them when they come up

Kayaks are 12 ……………..
for air.
A lot of boats beep their motors running. Whales breathe 13 ……………..
Boats are noisy. Whales have difficulty 14 ……………..

Solution for: Issues Affecting the Southern Resident
Orcas
Answer Table
1. iii 8. less
2. ii 9. pollution
3. vii 10. popular
4. v 11. numerous boats/vessels
5. B 12. quiet
6. A 13. exhaust fumes
7. (on) bottomfish 14. communicating (with others)

The problem of climate change
A
The climate of the Earth is always changing. In the past it has altered as a result of natural causes.
Nowadays, however, the term ‘climate change’ is generally used when referring to changes in our
climate which have been identified since the early part of the twentieth century. The changes we’ve
seen over recent years and those which are predicted to occur over the next 100 years are thought
by many to be largely a result of human behavior rather than due to natural changes in the
atmosphere. And this is what is so significant about current climactic trends; never before has man
played such a significant role in determining long-term weather patterns – we are entering the
unknown and there is no precedent for what might happen next.
B
The greenhouse effect is very important when we talk about climate change as it relates to the
gases which keep the Earth warm. Although the greenhouse effect is a naturally occurring
phenomenon, it is believed that the effect could be intensified by human activity and the emission of
gases into the atmosphere. It is the extra greenhouse gases which humans have released which are
thought to pose the strongest threat. Certain researchers, such as Dr Michael Crawley, argue: ‘even
though this natural phenomenon does exist it is without a doubt human activity that has worsened its
effect; this is evident when comparing data regarding the earth’s temperature in the last one hundred
years with the one hundred years prior to that.’ Some scientists, however, dispute this as Dr Ray
Ellis suggests: ‘human activity may be contributing a small amount to climate change but this
increase in temperature is an unavoidable fact based on the research data we have compiled.
C
Scientists around the globe are looking at all the evidence surrounding climate change and using
advanced technology have come up with predictions for our future environment and weather. The
next stage of that work, which is just as important, is looking at the knock-on effects of potential
changes. For example, are we likely to see an increase in precipitation and sea levels? Does this
mean there will be an increase in flooding and what can we do to protect ourselves from that? How
will our health be affected by climate change, how will agricultural practices change and how will
wildlife cope? What will the effects on coral be? Professor Max Leonard has suggested, ‘while it may
be controversial some would argue that climate change could bring with it positive effects as well as
negative ones’.
D
There are many institutions around the world whose sole priority is to take action against these
environmental problems. Green Peace is the organisation that is probably the most well-known. It is
an international organisation that campaigns in favour of researching and promoting solutions to
climate change, exposes the companies and governments that are blocking action, lobbies to
change national and international policy, and bears witness to the impacts of unnecessary
destruction and detrimental human activity.
E
The problem of climate change is without a doubt something that this generation and the
generations to come need to deal with. Fortunately, the use of renewable energy is becoming
increasingly popular, which means that less energy is consumed as renewable energy is generated
from natural resources—such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat—which can be
naturally replenished. Another way to help the environment, in terms of climate change, is by
travelling light. Walking or riding a bike instead of driving a car uses fewer fossil fuels which release
carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In addition, using products that are made from recycled paper,
glass, metal and plastic reduces carbon emissions because they use less energy to manufacture
than products made from completely new materials. Recycling paper also saves trees and lets them
continue to limit climate change naturally as they remain in the forest, where they remove carbon
from the atmosphere. Professor Mark Halton, who has completed various studies in this field, has
stated: ‘with all this information and the possible action that we can take, it isn’t too late to save our
planet from over-heating and the even worse side-effects of our own activity
Question 1–5
Reading Passage has 5 paragraphs, A–E.
Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter A–E in the boxes below.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
1 A natural phenomenon that could also affect climate change.
2 Steps we can take to help reverse the situation.
3 An explanation of what climate change is.
4 Organisations that want to help.
5 Possible effects of climate change.
Question 6-9
Look at the following people (Questions 6-9) and the list of statements below.
Match each person with the correct statement, A-F.
A. We have the ability to change the situation
B. Climate Change is Inevitable
C. Humans have made the situation much worse
D. Climate Change might not be all bad
E. Human activity and natural weather phenomena
F. While we may not be too late to save our planet, there are bound to be some extreme side-effects
of past human activity one way or the other
6 Professor Max Leonard
7 Dr Michael Crawley
8 Professor Mark Halton
9 Ray Ellis
Questions 10-13
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage? In spaces 10-
13 below, write
TRUE if the statements agrees with the information
FALSE if the statements contradicts the information
10 Man is not entirely responsible for global warming.
11 Scientists have come up with new evidence about the negative effects of carbon-free sources of
energy such as nuclear power
12 One of the purposes of Green Peace is to find out which companies and governments are doing
things which don’t help the actions of environmentalists.
13 Most people aren’t willing to start using renewable energy.
Solution for: The problem of climate change
Answer Table
1. B 8. A
2. E 9. B
3. A 10. TRUE
4. D 11. NOT GIVEN
5. C 12. TRUE
6. D 13. FALSE
7. C
THE LITTLE ICE AGE
A
This book will provide a detailed examination of the Little Ice Age and other climatic shifts, but,
before I embark on that, let me provide a historical context. We tend to think of climate - as opposed
to weather - as something unchanging, yet humanity has been at the mercy of climate change for its
entire existence, with at least eight glacial episodes in the past 730,000 years. Our ancestors
adapted to the universal but irregular global warming since the end of the last great Ice Age, around
10,000 years ago, with dazzling opportunism. They developed strategies for surviving harsh drought
cycles, decades of heavy rainfall or unaccustomed cold; adopted agriculture and stock-raising, which
revolutionised human life; and founded the world’s first pre-industrial civilisations in Egypt,
Mesopotamia and the Americas. But the price of sudden climate change, in famine, disease and
suffering, was often high.
B
The Little Ice Age lasted from roughly 1300 until the middle of the nineteenth century. Only two
centuries ago, Europe experienced a cycle of bitterly cold winters; mountain glaciers in the Swiss
Alps were the lowest in recorded memory, and pack ice surrounded Iceland for much of the year.
The climatic events of the Little Ice Age did more than help shape the modern world. They are the
deeply important context for the current unprecedented global warming. The Little Ice Age was far
from a deep freeze, however; rather an irregular seesaw of rapid climatic shifts, few lasting more
than a quarter-century, driven by complex and still little understood interactions between the
atmosphere and the ocean. The seesaw brought cycles of intensely cold winters and easterly winds,
then switched abruptly to.years of heavy spring and early summer rains, mild winters, and frequent
Atlantic storms, or to periods of droughts, light northeasterly winds, and summer heat waves.
C
Reconstructing the climate changes of the past is extremely difficult, because systematic weather
observations began only a few centuries ago, in Europe and North America. Records from India and
tropical Africa are even more recent. For the time before records began, we have only ‘proxy
records’ reconstructed largely from tree rings and ice cores, supplemented by a few incomplete
written accounts. We now have hundreds of tree-ring records from throughout the northern
hemisphere, and many from south of the equator, too, amplified with a growing body of temperature
data from ice cores drilled in Antarctica, Greenland, the Peruvian Andes, and other locations. We are
close to a knowledge of annual summer and winter temperature variations over much of the northern
hemisphere going back 600 years.
D
This book is a narrative history of climatic shifts during the past ten centuries, and some of the ways
in which people in Europe adapted to them. Part One describes the Medieval Warm Period, roughly
900 to 1200. During these three centuries, Norse voyagers from Northern Europe explored northern
seas, settled Greenland, and visited North America. It was not a time of uniform warmth, for then, as
always since the Great Ice Age, there were constant shifts in rainfall and temperature. Mean
European temperatures were about the same as today, perhaps slightly cooler.
E
It is known that the Little Ice Age cooling began in Greenland and the Arctic in about 1200. As the
Arctic ice pack spread southward, Norse voyages to the west were rerouted into the open Atlantic,
then ended altogether. Storminess increased in the North Atlantic and North Sea. Colder, much
wetter weather descended on Europe between 1315 and 1319, when thousands perished in a
continent-wide famine. By 1400, the weather had become decidedly more unpredictable
and stormier, with sudden shifts and lower temperatures that culminated in the cold decades of the
late sixteenth century. Fish were a vital commodity in growing towns and cities, where food supplies
were a constant concern. Dried cod and herring were already the staples of the European fish trade,
but changes in water temperatures forced fishing fleets to work further offshore. The Basques,
Dutch, and English developed the first offshore fishing boats adapted to a colder and stormier
Atlantic. A gradual agricultural revolution in northern Europe stemmed from concerns over food
supplies at a time of rising populations. The revolution involved intensive commercial farming and
the growing of animal fodder on land not previously used for crops. The increased productivity from
farmland made some countries self-sufficient in grain and livestock and offered effective
protection against famine.
F
Global temperatures began to rise slowly after 1850, with the beginning of the Modern Warm Period.
There was a vast migration from Europe by land-hungry farmers and others, to which the famine
caused by the Irish potato blight contributed, to North America, Australia, New Zealand, and
southern Africa. Millions of hectares of forest and woodland fell before the newcomers’ axes
between 1850 and 1890, as intensive European farming methods expanded across the world. The
unprecedented land clearance released vast quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere,
triggering for the first time humanly caused global warming. Temperatures climbed more rapidly in
the twentieth century as the use of fossil fuels proliferated and greenhouse gas levels continued to
soar. The rise has been even steeper since the early 1980s. The Little Ice Age has given way to a
new climatic regime, marked by prolonged and steady warming. At the same time, extreme weather
events like Category 5 hurricanes are becoming more frequent.
Questions 1-4
Reading Passage 2 has six paragraphs, A-F.
Choose the correct heading for paragraphs B and D-F from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number, i-ix, in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.
List of Headings
Example Answer
i Predicting climatic changes
Paragraph A viii
ii The relevance of the Little Ice Age today
1 Paragraph B
iii How cities contribute to climate change
Example Answer
iv Human impact on the climate
Paragraph C v v How past climatic conditions can be determined
2 Paragraph D
vi A growing need for weather records
3 Paragraph E
vii A study covering a thousand years
4 Paragraph F
viii People have always responded to climate change
ix Enough food at last
Questions 5-9
Complete the summary using the list of words, A-I, below.
Write the correct letter, A-I, in boxes 5-9 on your answer sheet.
Weather during the Little Ice Age

Documentation of past weather conditions is limited: our main sources of knowledge of conditions in
the distant past are 5 ……………………. and 6 ……………………. We can deduce that the Little
Ice Age was a time of 7 ……………………. rather than of consistent freezing. Within it there were
some periods of very cold winters, others of 8 ……………………. and heavy rain, and yet others
that saw 9 ……………………. with no rain at all.
A climatic shifts B ice cores C tree rings
D glaciers E interactions F weather observations
G heat waves H storms I written accounts

Questions 10-13
Classify the following events as occurring during the
A Medieval Warm Period
B Little Ice Age
C Modern Warm Period
Write the correct letter, A, B or C, in boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet.

10 Many Europeans started farming abroad.
11 The cutting down of trees began to affect the climate.
12 Europeans discovered other lands.
13 Changes took place in fishing patterns.
Solution for: THE LITTLE ICE AGE
Answer Table
1. ii 8. H
2. vii 9. G
3. ix 10. C
4. iv 11. C
5. 18&19 IN EITHER ORDER C,B 12. A
6. 18&19 IN EITHER ORDER C,B 13. B
7. A
The Truth about the Environment
For many environmentalists, the world seems to be getting worse. They have developed a hit-list of
our main fears: that natural resources are running out; that the population is ever growing, leaving
less and less to eat; that species are becoming extinct in vast numbers, and that the planet's air and
water are becoming ever more polluted.
But a quick look at the facts shows a different picture. First, energy and other natural resources have
become more abundant, not less so, since the book The Limits to Growth' was published in 1972 by
a group of scientists. Second, more food is now produced per head of the world's population than at
any time in history. Fewer people are starving. Third, although species are .indeed becoming extinct,
only about 0.7% of them are expected to disappear in the next 50 years, not 25-50%, as has so
often been predicted. And finally, most forms of environmental pollution either appear to have been
exaggerated, or are transient - associated with the early phases of industrialisation and therefore
best cured not by restricting economic growth, but by accelerating it. One form of pollution - the
release of greenhouse gases that causes global warming - does appear to be a phenomenon that is
going to extend well into our future, but its total impact is unlikely to pose a devastating problem. A
bigger problem may well turn out to be an inappropriate response to it.
Yet opinion polls suggest that many people nurture the belief that environmental standards are
declining and four factors seem to cause this disjunction between perception and reality.
One is the lopsidedness built into scientific research. Scientific funding goes mainly to areas with
many problems. That may be wise policy, but it will also create an impression that many more
potential problems exist than is the case.
Secondly, environmental groups need to be noticed by the mass media. They also need to keep the
money rolling in. Understandably, perhaps, they sometimes overstate their arguments. In 1997, for
example, the World Wide Fund for Nature issued a press release entitled: 'Two thirds of the world's
forests lost forever'. The truth turns out to be nearer 20%.
Though these groups are run overwhelmingly by selfless folk, they nevertheless share many of the
characteristics of other lobby groups. That would matter less if people applied the same degree of
scepticism to environmental lobbying as they do to lobby groups In other fields. A trade organisation
arguing for, say, weaker pollution controls is instantly seen as self-interested. Yet a green
organisation opposing such a weakening is seen as altruistic, even if an impartial view of the
controls in question might suggest they are doing more harm than good.
A third source of confusion is the attitude of the media. People are clearly more curious about bad
news than good. Newspapers and broadcasters are there to provide what the public wants. That,
however, can lead to significant distortions of perception. An example was America's encounter with
El Nino in 1997 and 1998. This climatic phenomenon was accused of wrecking tourism, causing
allergies, melting the ski-slopes and causing 22 deaths. However, according to an article in the
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, the damage it did was estimated at US$4 billion but
the benefits amounted to some US$19 billion. These came from higher winter temperatures (which
saved an estimated 850 lives, reduced heating costs and diminished spring floods caused by
meltwaters).
The fourth factor is poor individual perception. People worry that the endless rise in the amount of
stuff everyone throws away will cause the world to run out of places to dispose of waste. Yet, even if
America's trash output continues to rise as it has done in the past, and even if the American
population doubles by 2100, all the rubbish America produces through the entire 21st century will
still take up only one-12.000th of the area of the entire United States.
So what of global warming? As we know, carbon dioxide emissions are causing the planet to warm.
The best estimates are that the temperatures will rise by 2-3°C in this century, causing considerable
problems, at a total cost of US$5,000 billion.
Despite the intuition that something drastic needs to be done about such a costly problem, economic
analyses clearly show it will be far more expensive to cut carbon dioxide emissions radically than to
pay the costs of adaptation to the increased temperatures. A model by one of the main authors of
the United Nations Climate Change Panel shows how an expected temperature increase of 2.1
degrees in 2100 would only be diminished to an increase of 1.9 degrees. Or to put ft another way,
the temperature increase that the planet would have experienced in 2094 would be postponed to
2100.
So this does not prevent global warming, but merely buys the world six years. Yet the cost of
reducing carbon dioxide emissions, for the United States alone, will be higher than the cost of
solving the world's single, most pressing health problem: providing universal access to clean drinking
water and sanitation. Such measures would avoid 2 million deaths every year, and prevent half a
billion people from becoming seriously ill.
It is crucial that we look at the facts if we want to make the best possible decisions for the future. It
may be costly to be overly optimistic - but more costly still to be too pessimistic.
Questions 1-6
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage?
In boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet, write
YES if the statement agrees with the writer's claims
NO if the statement contradicts the writer's claims
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
1 Environmentalists take a pessimistic view of the world for a number of reasons.

2 Data on the Earth’s natural resources has only been collected since 1972.
3 The number of starving people in the world has increased in recent years.
4 Extinct species are being replaced by new species.
5 Some pollution problems have been correctly linked to industrialisation.
6 It would be best to attempt to slow down economic growth.
Questions 7-11
Choose the correct letter. A, B. C or D.
7. What aspect of scientific research does the writer express concern about in paragraph 4?
A the need to produce results
B the lack of financial support
C the selection of areas to research
D the desire to solve every research problem
8. The writer quotes from the Worldwide Fund for Nature to illustrate how
A influential the mass media can be.
B effective environmental groups can be.
C the mass media can help groups raise funds.
D environmental groups can exaggerate their claims.
9. What is the writer’s main point about lobby groups in paragraph 6?

A Some are more active than others.
B Some are better organised than others.
C Some receive more criticism than others.
D Some support more important issues than others.
10. The writer suggests that newspapers print items that are intended to
A educate readers.
B meet their readers’ expectations.
C encourage feedback from readers.
D mislead readers.
11. What does the writer say about America’s waste problem?
A It will increase in tine with population growth.
B It is not as important as we have been led to believe.
C It has been reduced through public awareness of the issues.
D It is only significant in certain areas of the country.
Questions 12-13
Complete the summary with the list of words A-I below.
Write the correct letter A-I in boxes 12-13 on your answer sheet.
GLOBAL WARMING
The writer admits that global warming is a 12 ………………. challenge, but says that it will not have
a catastrophic impact on our future, if we deal with it in the 13 ………………. way.
If we try to reduce the levels of greenhouse gases, he believes that it would only have a minimal
impact on rising temperatures. He feels it would be better to spend money on the
more 14 ………………. health problem of providing the world’s population with clean drinking water.
A unrealistic
B agreed
C expensive
D right
E long-term
F usual
G surprising
H personal
I urgent
Solution for: The Truth about the Environment
Answer Table
1. YES 8. D
2. NOT GIVEN 9. C
3. NO 10. B
4. NOT GIVEN 11. B
5. YES 12. E
6. NO 13. D
7. C 14. I
Rain-forests and the implications for course design
Adults and children are frequently confronted with statements about the alarming rate of loss of
tropical rainforests. For example, one graphic illustration to which children might readily relate is the
estimate that rainforests are being destroyed at a rate equivalent to one thousand football fields
every forty minutes - about the duration of a normal classroom period. In the face of the frequent and
often vivid media coverage, it is likely that children will have formed ideas about rainforests - what
and where they are, why they are important, what endangers them - independent of any formal
tuition. It is also possible that some of these ideas will be mistaken.
Many studies have shown that children harbour misconceptions about ‘pure’, curriculum science.
These misconceptions do not remain isolated but become incorporated into a multifaceted, but
organised, conceptual framework, making it and the component ideas, some of which are erroneous,
more robust but also accessible to modification. These ideas may be developed by children
absorbing ideas through the popular media. Sometimes this information may be erroneous. It seems
schools may not be providing an opportunity for children to re-express their ideas and so have them
tested and refined by teachers and their peers.
Despite the extensive coverage in the popular media of the destruction of rainforests, little formal
information is available about children’s ideas in this area. The aim of the present study is to start to
provide such information, to help teachers design their educational strategies to build upon correct
ideas and to displace misconceptions and to plan programmes in environmental studies in their
schools.
The study surveys children’s scientific knowledge and attitudes to rainforests. Secondary school
children were asked to complete a questionnaire containing five open-form questions. The most
frequent responses to the first question were descriptions which are self-evident from the term
‘rainforest’. Some children described them as damp, wet or hot. The second question concerned the
geographical location of rainforests. The commonest responses were continents or countries: Africa
(given by 43% of children), South America (30%), Brazil (25%). Some children also gave more
general locations, such as being near the Equator.
Responses to question three concerned the importance of rainforests. The dominant idea, raised by
64% of the pupils, was that rainforests provide animals with habitats. Fewer students responded that
rainforests provide plant habitats, and even fewer mentioned the indigenous populations of
rainforests. More girls (70%) than boys (60%) raised the idea of rainforest as animal habitats.
Similarly, but at a lower level, more girls (13%) than boys (5%) said that rainforests provided human
habitats. These observations are generally consistent with our previous studies of pupils’ views
about the use and conservation of rainforests, in which girls were shown to be more sympathetic to
animals and expressed views which seem to place an intrinsic value on non-human animal life.
The fourth question concerned the causes of the destruction of rainforests. Perhaps encouragingly,
more than half of the pupils (59%) identified that it is human activities which are destroying
rainforests, some personalising the responsibility by the use of terms such as ‘we are’. About 18% of
the pupils referred specifically to logging activity.
One misconception, expressed by some 10% of the pupils, was that acid rain is responsible for
rainforest destruction; a similar proportion said that pollution is destroying rainforests. Here, children
are confusing rainforest destruction with damage to the forests of Western Europe by these factors.
While two fifths of the students provided the information that the rainforests provide oxygen, in some
cases this response also embraced the misconception that rainforest destruction would reduce
atmospheric oxygen, making the atmosphere incompatible with human life on Earth.
In answer to the final question about the importance of rainforest conservation, the majority of
children simply said that we need rainforests to survive. Only a few of the pupils (6%) mentioned that
rainforest destruction may contribute to global warming. This is surprising considering the high level
of media coverage on this issue. Some children expressed the idea that the conservation of
rainforests is not important.
The results of this study suggest that certain ideas predominate in the thinking of children about
rainforests. Pupils’ responses indicate some misconceptions in basic scientific knowledge of
rainforests’ ecosystems such as their ideas about rainforests as habitats for animals, plants and
humans and the relationship between climatic change and destruction of rainforests.
Pupils did not volunteer ideas that suggested that they appreciated the complexity of causes of
rainforest destruction. In other words, they gave no indication of an appreciation of either the range
of ways in which rainforests are important or the complex social, economic and political factors
which drive the activities which are destroying the rainforests. One encouragement is that the results
of similar studies about other environmental issues suggest that older children seem to acquire the
ability to appreciate, value and evaluate conflicting views. Environmental education offers an arena
in which these skills can be developed, which is essential for these children as future decision-
makers.
Questions 1-8
1 The plight of the rainforests has largely been ignored by the media.
2 Children only accept opinions on rainforests that they encounter in their classrooms.
3 It has been suggested that children hold mistaken views about the ‘pure’ science that they study
at school.
4 The fact that children’s ideas about science form part of a larger framework of ideas means that it
is easier to change them.
5 The study involved asking children a number of yes/no questions such as ‘Are there any
rainforests in Africa?’
6 Girls are more likely than boys to hold mistaken views about the rainforests’ destruction.
7 The study reported here follows on from a series of studies that have looked at children’s
understanding of rainforests.
8 A second study has been planned to investigate primary school children’s ideas about
rainforests.
Questions 9-13
The box below gives a list of responses A-P to the questionnaire discussed in Reading Passage 1.
Answer the following questions by choosing the correct responses A-P.
A There is a complicated combination of reasons for the loss of the rainforests.
The rainforests are being destroyed by the same things that are destroying the forests of
B
Western Europe.
C Rainforests are located near the Equator.
D Brazil is home to the rainforests.

E Without rainforests some animals would have nowhere to live.
F Rainforests are important habitats for a lot of plants.
G People are responsible for the loss of the rainforests.
H The rainforests are a source of oxygen.
I Rainforests are of consequence for a number of different reasons.
J As the rainforests are destroyed, the world gets warmer.
K Without rainforests there would not be enough oxygen in the air.
L There are people for whom the rainforests are home.
M Rainforests are found in Africa.
N Rainforests are not really important to human life.
O The destruction of the rainforests is the direct result of logging activity.
P Humans depend on the rainforests for their continuing existence.
9 What was the children’s most frequent response when asked where the rainforests were?
10 What was the most common response to the question about the importance of the rainforests?
11 What did most children give as the reason for the loss of the rainforests?
12 Why did most children think it important for the rainforests to be protected?
13 Which of the responses is cited as unexpectedly uncommon, given the amount of time spent on
the issue by the newspapers and television?
Questions 14
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C, D or E.
Which of the following is the most suitable title for Reading Passage?
A The development of a programme in environmental studies within a science curriculum

B Children’s ideas about the rainforests and the implications for course design
C The extent to which children have been misled by the media concerning the rainforests
D How to collect, collate and describe the ideas of secondary school children
E The importance of the rainforests and the reasons for their destruction
Solution for: Rain-forests and the implications for
course design
Answer Table
1. FALSE 8. NOT GIVEN
2. FALSE 9. M
3. TRUE 10. E
4. TRUE 11. G
5. FALSE 12. P
6. NOT GIVEN 13. J
7. TRUE 14. B
Climate Change and the Inuit
The threat posed by climate change in the Arctic and the problems faced by Canada's Inuit people
A
Unusual incidents are being reported across the Arctic. Inuit families going off on snowmobiles to
prepare their summer hunting camps have found themselves cut off from home by a sea of mud,
following early thaws. There are reports of igloos losing their insulating properties as the snow drips
and refreezes, of lakes draining into the sea as permafrost melts, and sea ice breaking up earlier
than usual, carrying seals beyond the reach of hunters. Climate change may still be a rather abstract
idea to most of us, but in the Arctic it is already having dramatic effects - if summertime ice continues
to shrink at its present rate, the Arctic Ocean could soon become virtually ice-free in summer. The
knock-on effects are likely to include more warming, cloudier skies, increased precipitation and
higher sea levels. Scientists are increasingly keen to find out what's going on because they consider
the Arctic the 'canary in the mine' for global warming - a warning of what's in store for the rest of the
world.
B
For the Inuit the problem is urgent. They live in precarious balance with one of the toughest
environments on earth. Climate change, whatever its causes, is a direct threat to their way of life.
Nobody knows the Arctic as well as the locals, which is why they are not content simply to stand
back and let outside experts tell them what's happening. In Canada, where the Inuit people are
jealously guarding their hard-won autonomy in the country's newest territory, Nunavut, they believe
their best hope of survival in this changing environment lies in combining their ancestral knowledge
with the best of modern science. This is a challenge in itself.
C
The Canadian Arctic is a vast, treeless polar desert that's covered with snow for most of the year.
Venture into this terrain and you get some idea of the hardships facing anyone who calls this home.
Farming is out of the question and nature offers meagre pickings. Humans first settled in the Arctic a
mere 4,500 years ago, surviving by exploiting sea mammals and fish. The environment tested them
to the limits: sometimes the colonists were successful, sometimes they failed and vanished. But
around a thousand years ago, one group emerged that was uniquely well adapted to cope with the
Arctic environment. These Thule people moved in from Alaska, bringing kayaks, sleds, dogs, pottery
and iron tools. They are the ancestors of today's Inuit people.
D
Life for the descendants of the Thule people is still harsh. Nunavut is 1.9 million square kilometres of
rock and ice, and a handful of islands around the North Pole. It's currently home to 2,500 people, all
but a handful of them indigenous Inuit. Over the past 40 years, most have abandoned their nomadic
ways and settled in the territory's 28 isolated communities, but they still rely heavily on nature to
provide food and clothing. Provisions available in local shops have to be flown into Nunavut on one
of the most costly air networks in the world, or brought by supply ship during the few ice-free
weeks of summer. It would cost a family around £7,000 a year to replace meat they
obtained themselves through hunting with imported meat. Economic opportunities are scarce, and
for many people state benefits are their only income.
E
While the Inuit may not actually starve if hunting and trapping are curtailed by climate change, there
has certainly been an impact on people's health. Obesity, heart disease and diabetes are beginning
to appear in a people for whom these have never before been problems. There has been a crisis of
identity as the traditional skills of hunting, trapping and preparing skins have begun to disappear. In
Nunavut's 'igloo and email' society, where adults who were born in igloos have children who may
never have been out on the land, there's a high incidence of depression.
F
With so much at stake, the Inuit are determined to play a key role in teasing out the mysteries of
climate change in the Arctic. Having survived there for centuries, they believe their wealth of
traditional knowledge is vital to the task. And Western scientists are starting to draw on this wisdom,
increasingly referred to as 'Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit', or IQ. 'In the early days scientists ignored us
when they came up here to study anything. They just figured these people don't know very much so
we won't ask them,' says John Amagoalik, an Inuit leader and politician. 'But in recent years IQ has
had much more credibility and weight.' In fact it is now a requirement for anyone hoping to get
permission to do research that they consult the communities, who are helping to set the research
agenda to reflect their most important concerns. They can turn down applications from scientists
they believe will work against their interests, or research projects that will impinge too much on their
daily lives and traditional activities.
G
Some scientists doubt the value of traditional knowledge because the occupation of the Arctic
doesn't go back far enough. Others, however, point out that the first weather stations in the far north
date back just 50 years. There are still huge gaps in our environmental knowledge, and despite the
scientific onslaught, many predictions are no more than best guesses. IQ could help to bridge the
gap and resolve the tremendous uncertainty about how much of what we're seeing is natural
capriciousness and how much is the consequence of human activity.
Questions 1-6
Reading Passage has seven paragraphs, A-G.
Choose the correct heading for paragraphs B-G from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number, i-ix, in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.
List of Headings
i The reaction of the limit community to climate change
ii Understanding of climate change remains limited
iii Alternative sources of essential supplies
¡v Respect for limit opinion grows
v A healthier choice of food
vi A difficult landscape
vii Negative effects on well-being
viii Alarm caused by unprecedented events in the Arctic
ix The benefits of an easier existence
Example Answer
Paragraph A viii
1 Paragraph B
2 Paragraph C
3 Paragraph D
4 Paragraph E
5 Paragraph F
6 Paragraph G
Questions 7-14
Complete the summary of paragraphs C and D below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from paragraphs C and D for each answer.
If you visit the Canadian Arctic, you immediately appreciate the problems faced by people for whom
this is home.
It would clearly be impossible for the people to engage in 7 ………………….. as a means of
supporting themselves.
For thousands of years they have had to rely on
catching 8 ………………….. and 9 ………………….. as a means of sustenance.
The harsh surroundings saw many who tried to settle there pushed to their limits, although some
were successful.
The 10 ………………….. people were an example of the latter and for them the environment did not
prove unmanageable. For the present inhabitants, life continues to be a struggle.
The territory of Nunavut consists of little more than ice, rock and a few 11 …………………..
In recent years, many of them have been obliged to give up their 12 ………………….. lifestyle, but
they continue to depend mainly on 13 ………………….. for their food and clothes.
14 ………………….. produce is particularly expensive.
Solution for: Climate Change and the Inuit
Answer Table
1. i 8. sea mammals, fish IN EITHER ORDER
2. vi 9. sea mammals, fish IN EITHER ORDER
3. iii 10. Thule
4. vii 11. islands
5. iv 12. nomadic
6. ii 13. nature
7. farming 14. imported

Here today, gone tomorrow
The Arctic and Antarctica are now within reach of the modern tourist, with many going to see these
icy wildernesses before it's too late. Christian Amodeo reports on the growth of polar tourism.
Travel at the North and South Poles has become an expensive leisure activity, suitable for tourists of
all ages. The poles may be inhospitable places, but they are seeing increasing numbers of visitors.
Annual figures for the Arctic, where tourism has existed since the 19th century, have increased from
about a million in the early 1990s to more than 1.5 million today. This is partly because of the
lengthening summer season brought about by climate change.
Most visitors arrive by ship. In 2007, 370,000 cruise passengers visited Norway, twice the number
that arrived in 2000. Iceland, a country where tourism is the second-largest industry, has enjoyed an
annual growth rate of nine percent since 1990. Meanwhile, Alaska received some 1,029,800
passengers, a rise of 7.3 percent from 2006. Greenland has seen the most rapid growth in marine
tourism, with a sharp increase in cruise-ship arrivals of 250 percent since 2004.
The global economic downturn may have affected the annual 20.6 percent rate of increase in visitors
to the Antarctic - last season saw a drop of 17 percent to 38,200 - but there has been a 760 percent
rise in land-based tourism there since 1997. More people than ever are landing at fragile sites, with
light aircraft, helicopters and all-terrain vehicles increasingly used for greater access, while in the
past two seasons, ‘fly-sail’ operations have begun. These deliver tourists by air to ships, so far more
groups can enjoy a cruise in a season; large cruise ships capable of carrying up to 800 passengers
are not uncommon.
In addition, it seems that a high number of visitors return to the poles. ‘Looking at six years’ worth of
data, of the people who have been to the polar regions, roughly 25 percent go for a second time,’
says Louisa Richardson, a senior marketing executive at tour operator Exodus.
In the same period that tourism has exploded, the ‘health’ of the poles has ‘deteriorated’. ‘The
biggest changes taking place in the Antarctic are related to climate change,’ says Rod Downie,
Environmental Manager with the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). Large numbers of visitors increase
these problems.
Although polar tourism is widely accepted, there have been few regulations up until recently. At the
meeting of the Antarctic Treaty in Baltimore, the 28 member nations adopted proposals for limits to
tourist numbers. These included safety codes for tourist vessels in Antarctic waters, and improved
environmental protection for the continent. They agreed to prevent ships with more than 500
passengers from landing in Antarctica, as well as limit the number of passengers going ashore to a
maximum of 100 at any one time, with a minimum of one guide for every 20 tourists. ‘Tourism in
Antarctica is not without its risks,’ says Downie. After all, Antarctica doesn’t have a coastguard
rescue service.’
‘So far, no surveys confirm that people are going quickly to see polar regions before they change,’
says Frigg Jorgensen, General Secretary of the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators
(AECO). ‘However, Hillary Clinton and many other big names have been to Svalbard in the
northernmost part of Norway to see the effects of climate change. The associated media coverage
could influence others to do the same.’
These days, rarely a week passes without a negative headline in the newspapers. The suffering
polar bear has become a symbol of a warming world, its plight a warning that the clock is ticking. It
would seem that this ticking clock is a small but growing factor for some tourists. ‘There’s an element
of “do it now”,’ acknowledges Prisca Campbell, Marketing director of Quark Expeditions, which takes
7,000 People to the poles annually. Leaving the trip until later, it seems, may mean leaving it too
late.
Questions 1-7
Complete the summary below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.
Polar tourism - the figures

Tourism in the Arctic began in the 1 …………………… and visitor numbers have risen since that
time.
These days, over 2 …………………… people travel there, mostly by ship.
The country with the greatest increase in visitors is 3 . ……………………
Tourism has expanded in the Arctic because the 4 …………………… lasts longer than it used to.
Travel to the Antarctic has fallen by 5 …………………… over the past year.
However, many more people are using small planes and 6 …………………… to land on the ice.
Aircraft are also taking visitors to huge ships that hold as many as 7 …………………… tourists.
Questions 8-12
Look at the following statements and the list of people below.
Match each statement with the correct person, A-D.
8 Some tourists believe they should not delay their trip to the poles.
9 There are some dangers to travelling in Antarctica.
10 Some famous people have travelled to polar regions to look at the impacts of global warming.
11 Some tourists make more than one trip to the poles.
12 There is no evidence that visitors are hurrying to the poles.
List of People
A Louisa Richardson
B Rod Downie
C Frigg Jorgensen
D Prisca Campbell
Solution for: Here today, gone tomorrow
Answer Table
1. 19th century 7. 800
2. 1.5 million 8. D
3. Greenland 9. B
4. summer 10. C
5. 17 percent 11. A
6. helicopters 12. C
RISING SEA
Paragraph 1. INCREASED TEMPERATURES

The average air temperature at the surface of the earth has risen this century, as has the
temperature of ocean surface waters. Because water expands as it heats, a warmer ocean means
higher sea levels. We cannot say definitely that the temperature rises are due to the greenhouse
effect; the heating may be part of a “natural” variability over a long time-scale that we have not yet
recognized I our short 100 years of recording. However, assuming the build up of greenhouse gases
is responsible, and that the warming will continue. Scientists and inhabitants of low-lying coastal
areas would like to know the extent of future sea level rises.
Paragraph 2.
Calculating this is not easy. Models used for the purpose have treated the oceans as passive,
stationary and one-dimensional. Scientists have assumed that heat simply diffused into the sea from
the atmosphere. Using basic physical laws, they then predict how much a known volume of water
would expand for a given increase in temperature. But the oceans are not one-dimensional, and
recent work by oceanographers, using a new model which takes into account a number of subtle
facets of the sea-including vast and complex ocean currents-suggests that the rise in sea level may
be less than some earlier estimates had predicted.
Paragraph 3
An international forum on climate change, in 1986, produced figures for likely sea-level rises of 20
cm and 1.4 m, corresponding to atmospheric temperature increases of 1.5 and 4.5C respectively.
Some scientists estimate that the ocean warming resulting from those temperature increases by the
year 2050 would raise the sea level by between 10 cm and 40 cm. This model only takes into
account the temperature effect on the oceans; it does not consider changes in sea level brought
about by the melting of ice sheets and glaciers, and changes in groundwater storage. When we add
on estimates of these, we arrive at figures for total sea-level rises of 15 cm and 70 cm respectively.
Paragraph 4
It’s not easy trying to model accurately the enormous complexities of the ever-changing oceans, with
their great volume, massive currents and sensitively to the influence of land masses and
the atmosphere. For example, consider how heat enters the ocean. Does it just “diffuse” from the
warmer air vertically into the water, and heat only the surface layer of the sea? (Warm water is less
dense than cold, so it would not spread downwards). Conventional models of sea-level rise have
considered that this the only method, but measurements have shown that the rate of heat transfer
into the ocean by vertical diffusion is far lower in practice than the figures that many models have
adopted.
Paragraph 5
Much of the early work, for simplicity, ignored the fact that water in the oceans moves in three
dimensions. By movement, of course, scientists don’t mean waves, which are too small individually
to consider, but rather movement of vast volumes of water in huge currents. To understand
the importance of this, we now need to consider another process-advection. Imagine smoke rising
from a chimney. On a still day it will slowly spread out in all directions by means of diffusion. With a
strong directional wind, however, it will all shift downwind, this process is advection-the transport of
properties (notably heat and salinity in ocean) by the movement of bodies of air or water, rather than
by conduction or diffusion.
Paragraph 6
Massive oceans current called gyres do the moving. These currents have far more capacity to store
heat than does the atmosphere. Indeed, just the top 3 m of the ocean contains more heat than the
whole of the atmosphere. The origin of the gyres lies in the fact that more heat from the Sun reaches
the Equator than the Poles, and naturally heat trends to move from the former to the latter. Warm
air rises at the Equator, and draws more air beneath it in the form of winds (the “Trade Winds")
that, together with other air movements, provide the main force driving the ocean currents.
Paragraph 7
Water itself is heated at the Equator and moves poleward, twisted by the Earth’s rotation and
affected by the positions of the continents. The resultant broadly circular movements between about
10 and 40 ' North and South are clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. They flow towards the east
at mind latitudes in the equatorial region. They then flow towards the Poles, along the eastern sides
of continents, as warm currents. When two different masses of water meet, once will move beneath
the other, depending on their relative densities in the subduction process. The densities are
determined by temperature and salinity. The convergence of water of different densities from the
Equator and the Poles deep in the oceans causes continuous subduction. This means that water
moves vertically as well as horizontally. Cold water from the Poles travels as depth-it is denser than
warm water-until it emerges at the surface in another part of the world in the form of a cold current.
Paragraph 8. HOW THE GREENHOUSE EFFECTS WILL CHANGE OCEAN TEMPERATURES
Ocean currents, in three dimensions, from a giant “conveyor belt”, distributing heat from the thin
surface layer into the interior of the oceans and around the globe. Water may take decades
to circulate in these 3-D gyres in the lop kilometer of the ocean, and centuries in the deep water.
With the increased atmospheric temperatures due to the greenhouse effect, the oceans conveyor
belt will carry more heat into the interior. This subduction moves heat around far more effectively
than simple diffusion. Because warm water expands more than cold when it is heated, scientists had
presumed that the sea level would rise unevenly around the globe. It is now believed that these
inequalities cannot persist, as winds will act to continuously spread out the water expansion. Of
course, of global warming changes the strength and distribution of the winds, then this “evening-out”
process may not occur, and the sea level could rise more in some areas than others.
Questions 1-6
Reading Passage 2 has 8 Paragraphs, 1-8. The first paragraph and the last have been given
headings. Choose the correct heading for the remaining 6 Paragraphs from the list below.
There are more headings than paragraphs, so you will not use all the headings.
Write the correct number, A-I, in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet
List of Headings
A The gyre principle
B The Greenhouse Effect

1 Paragraph 2
C How ocean waters move
2 Paragraph 3
3 Paragraph 4 D Statistical evidence
4 Paragraph 5 E The advection principle

5 Paragraph 6
F Diffusion versus advection
6 Paragraph 7
G Figuring the sea level changes
H Estimated figures
I The diffusion model
Questions 7-8
Write the correct letter in boxes 7-8 on your answer sheet.
7 Scientists do not know for sure why the air and surface of oceans temperatures are rising
because
A there is too much variability
B there is no enough variability
C they have not been recording these temperatures for enough time
D the changes have only been noticed for 100 years
8 New search leads scientists to believe that
A the oceans are less complex
B the oceans are more complex
C the oceans will rise more than expected
D the oceans will rise less than expected
Questions 9
Look at the following list of factors A-F and select THREE which are mentioned in the Reading
Passage 2 which may contribute to the rising ocean levels.
Write the correct THREE letters A-F in the box 9 on your answer sheet.
A thermal expansion
B melting ice
C increased air temperature
D higher rainfall
E changes in the water table
F increased ocean movement
Questions 10-14
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2? Write
10 The surface layer of the oceans is warmed by the atmosphere.
11 Advection of water changes heat and salt levels.
12 A gyre holds less heat than there is in the atmosphere.
13 The process of subduction depends on the water density.
14 The sea level is expected to rise evenly over the Earth’s surface.
Solution for: RISING SEA
Answer Table
1. G 8. D
2. H 9. B C E
3. I 10. NOT GIVEN
4. E 11. TRUE
5. A 12. FALSE
6. C 13. TRUE
7. C 14. FALSE
Reducing the Effects of Climate Change
Mark Rowe reports on the increasingly ambitious geo-engineering projects being explored by
scientists
A
Such is our dependence on fossil fuels, and such is the volume of carbon dioxide already released
into the atmosphere, that many experts agree that significant global warming is now inevitable. They
believe that the best we can do is keep it at a reasonable level, and at present the only serious
option for doing this is cutting back on our carbon emissions. But while a few countries are making
major strides in this regard, the majority are having great difficulty even stemming the rate of
increase, let alone reversing it. Consequently, an increasing number of scientists are beginning to
explore the alternative of geo-engineering — a term which generally refers to the intentional large-
scale manipulation of the environment. According to its proponents, geo-engineering is the
equivalent of a backup generator: if Plan A - reducing our dependency on fossil fuels - fails, we
require a Plan B, employing grand schemes to slow down or reverse the process of global warming.
B
Geo-engineering; has been shown to work, at least on a small localised scale. For decades, MayDay
parades in Moscow have taken place under clear blue skies, aircraft having deposited dry ice, silver
iodide and cement powder to disperse clouds. Many of the schemes now suggested look to do the
opposite, and reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the planet. The most eye-catching idea of all is
suggested by Professor Roger Angel of the University of Arizona. His scheme would employ up to
16 trillion minute spacecraft, each weighing about one gram, to form a transparent, sunlight-
refracting sunshade in an orbit 1.5 million km above the Earth. This could, argues Angel, reduce the
amount of light reaching the Earth by two per cent.
C
The majority of geo-engineering projects so far carried out — which include planting forests in
deserts and depositing iron in the ocean to stimulate the growth of algae - have focused on
achieving a general cooling of the Earth. But some look specifically at reversing the melting at the
poles, particularly the Arctic. The reasoning is that if you replenish the ice sheets and frozen waters
of the high latitudes, more light will be reflected back into space, so reducing the warming of the
oceans and atmosphere.
D
The concept of releasing aerosol sprays into the stratosphere above the Arctic has been proposed
by several scientists. This would involve using sulphur or hydrogen sulphide aerosols so that sulphur
dioxide would form clouds, which would, in turn, lead to a global dimming. The idea is modelled on
historic volcanic explosions, such as that of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991, which led to a
short-term cooling of global temperatures by 0.5 °C. Scientists have also scrutinised whether it's
possible to preserve the ice sheets of Greenland with reinforced high-tension cables, preventing
icebergs from moving into the sea. Meanwhile in the Russian Arctic, geo-engineering plans include
the planting of millions of birch trees. Whereas the -regions native evergreen pines shade the snow
an absorb radiation, birches would shed their leaves in winter, thus enabling radiation to be reflected
by the snow. Re-routing Russian rivers to increase cold water flow to ice-forming areas could also be
used to slow down warming, say some climate scientists.
E
But will such schemes ever be implemented? Generally speaking, those who are most cautious
about geo-engineering are the scientists involved in the research. Angel says that his plan is ‘no
substitute for developing renewable energy: the only permanent solution'. And Dr Phil Rasch of the
US-based Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is equally guarded about the role of geo-
engineering: 'I think all of us agree that if we were to end geo-engineering on a given day, then the
planet would return to its pre-engineered condition very rapidly, and probably within ten to twenty
years. That’s certainly something to worry about.’
F
The US National Center for Atmospheric Research has already suggested that the proposal to inject
sulphur into the atmosphere might affect rainfall patterns across the tropics and the Southern Ocean.
‘Geo-engineering plans to inject stratospheric aerosols or to seed clouds would act to cool the
planet, and act to increase the extent of sea ice,’ says Rasch. ‘But all the models suggest some
impact on the distribution of precipitation.’
G
A further risk with geo-engineering projects is that you can “overshoot Y says Dr Dan Hunt, from the
University of Bristol’s School of Geophysical Sciences, who has studied the likely impacts of the
sunshade and aerosol schemes on the climate. ‘You may bring global temperatures back to pre-
industrial levels, but the risk is that the poles will still be warmer than they should be and the tropics
will be cooler than before industrialisation.’To avoid such a scenario,” Hunt says, “Angel’s project
would have to operate at half strength; all of which reinforces his view that the best option is to avoid
the need for geo-engineering altogether.”
H
The main reason why geo-engineering is supported by many in the scientific community is that most
researchers have little faith in the ability of politicians to agree - and then bring in — the necessary
carbon cuts. Even leading conservation organisations see the value of investigating the potential of
geo-engineering. According to Dr Martin Sommerkorn, climate change advisor for the World Wildlife
Fund’s International Arctic Programme, ‘Human-induced climate change has brought humanity to a
position where we shouldn’t exclude thinking thoroughly about this topic and its possibilities.’
Questions 1-3
Reading Passage has eight paragraphs A-H
Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 1-3 on your answer sheet.
1 mention of a geo-engineering project based on an earlier natural phenomenon
2 an example of a successful use of geo-engineering
3 a common definition of geo-engineering
Questions 4-10
Complete the table below.
Choose ONE WORD from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 4-10 on your
answer sheet.
GEO-ENGINEERING PROJECTS
Procedure Aim
put a large number to create a 4 ……………….

of tiny spacecraft into that would reduce the amount
orbit far above Earth of light reaching Earth
place 5 ………………. to encourage 6 ……………….

in the sea to form
to create 7 ……………….
release aerosol sprays
that would reduce the amount
into the stratosphere
of light reaching Earth
fix strong 8 ……………….

to prevent icebergs moving into the sea
to Greenland ice sheets
plant trees in Russian Arctic

to allow the 9 ……………….
that would lose their leaves
to reflect radiation
in winter
change the direction of to bring more cold water into

10 ………………. ice-forming areas
Questions 11-14
Look at the following statements (Questions 11-14) and the list of scientists below.
Match each statement with the correct scientist, A-D.
Write the correct letter, A-D, in boxes 11-14 on your answer sheet.
List of Scientists
A Roger Angel
B Phil Rasch
C Dan Lunt
D Martin Sommerkorn
11 The effects of geo-engineering may not be long-lasting.

12 Geo-engineering is a topic worth exploring.
13 It may be necessary to limit the effectiveness of geo-engineering projects.
14 Research into non-fossil-based fuels cannot be replaced by geo-engineering.
Solution for: Reducing the Effects of Climate Change
Answer Table
1. D 8. cables
2. B 9. snow
3. A 10. rivers
4. sunshade 11. B
5. iron 12. D
6. algae 13. C
7. clouds 14. A
A New Ice Age
William Curry is a serious, sober climate scientist, not an art critic. But he has spent a lot of time
perusing Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze’s famous painting “George Washington Crossing the Delaware”,
which depicts a boatload of colonial American soldiers making their way to attack English and
Hessian troops the day after Christmas in 1776. “Most people think these other guys in the boat are
rowing, but they are actually pushing the ice away,” says Curry, tapping his finger on a reproduction
of the painting. Sure enough, the lead oarsman is bashing the frozen river with his boot. “I grew up in
Philadelphia. The place in this painting is 30 minutes away by car. I can tell you, this kind of thing
just doesn’t happen anymore.”
But it may again soon. And ice-choked scenes, similar to those immortalised by the 16th-century
Flemish painter Pieter Brueghel the Elder, may also return to Europe. His works, including the 1565
masterpiece “Hunters in the Snow”, make the now-temperate European landscapes look more like
Lapland. Such frigid settings were commonplace during a period dating roughly from 1300 to 1850
because much of North America and Europe was in the throes of a little ice age. And now there is
mounting evidence that the chill could return. A growing number of scientists believe conditions are
ripe for another prolonged cooldown, or small ice age. While no one is predicting a brutal ice sheet
like the one that covered the Northern Hemisphere with glaciers about 12,000 years ago, the next
cooling trend could drop average temperatures 5 degrees Fahrenheit over much of the United States
and 10 degrees in the Northeast, northern Europe, and northern Asia.
“It could happen in 10 years,” says Terrence Joyce, who chairs the Woods Hole Physical
Oceanography Department. “Once it does, it can take hundreds of years to reverse.” And he is
alarmed that Americans have yet to take the threat seriously.
A drop of 5 to 10 degrees entails much more than simply bumping up the thermostat and carrying
on. Both economically and ecologically, such quick, persistent chilling could have devastating
consequences. A 2002 report titled “Abrupt Climate Change: Inevitable Surprises”, produced by the
National Academy of Sciences, pegged the cost from agricultural losses alone at $100 billion to
$250 billion while also predicting that damage to ecologies could be vast and incalculable. A grim
sampler: disappearing forests, increased housing expenses, dwindling fresh water, lower crop
yields, and accelerated species extinctions.
The reason for such huge effects is simple. A quick climate change wreaks far more disruption than
a slow one. People, animals, plants, and the economies that depend on them are like rivers; says
the report: "For example, high water in a river will pose few problems until the water runs over the
bank, after which levees can be breached and massive flooding can occur. Many biological
processes undergo shifts at particular thresholds of temperature and precipitation.”
Political changes since the last ice age could make survival far more difficult for the world's poor.
During previous cooling periods, whole tribes simply picked up and moved south, but that option
doesn't work in the modern, tense world of closed borders. "To the extent that abrupt climate change
may cause rapid and extensive changes of fortune for those who live off the land, the inability to
migrate may remove one of the major safety nets for distressed people,” says the report.
But first things first. Isn't the earth actually warming? Indeed it is, says Joyce. ‘ In his cluttered office,
full of soft light from the foggy Cape Cod morning, he explains how such warming could actually be
the surprising culprit of the next mini-ice age. The paradox is a result of the appearance over the
past 30 years in the North Atlantic of huge rivers of fresh water - the equivalent of a 10-foot-thick
layer - mixed into the salty sea. No one is certain where the fresh torrents are coming from, but a
prime suspect is melting Arctic ice, caused by a build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that
traps solar energy.
The freshwater trend is major news in ocean-science circles. Bob Dickson, a British oceanographer
who sounded an alarm at a February conference in Honolulu, has termed the drop in salinity and
temperature in the Labrador Sea - a body of water between northeastern Canada and Greenland
that adjoins the Atlantic - "arguably the largest full-depth changes observed in the modern
instrumental oceanographic record”.
The trend could cause a little ice age by subverting the northern penetration of Gulf Stream waters.
Normally, the Gulf Stream, laden with heat soaked up in the tropics, meanders up the east coasts of
the United States and Canada. As it flows northward, the stream surrenders heat to the air. Because
the prevailing North Atlantic winds blow eastward, a lot of the heat wafts to Europe. That’s why many
scientists believe winter temperatures on the Continent are as much as 36 degrees Fahrenheit
warmer than those in North America at the same latitude. Frigid Boston, for example, lies at almost
precisely the same latitude as balmy Rome. And some scientists say the heat also warms
Americans and Canadians. “It’s a real mistake to think of this solely as a European phenomenon,"
says Joyce.
Having given up its heat to the air, the now-cooler water becomes denser and sinks into the North
Atlantic by a mile or more in a process oceanographers call thermohaline circulation. This massive
column of cascading cold is the main engine powering a deep-water current called the Great Ocean
Conveyor that snakes through all the world’s oceans. But as the North Atlantic fills with fresh water,
it grows less dense, making the waters carried northward by the Gulf Stream less able to sink. The
new mass of relatively fresh water sits on top of the ocean like a big thermal blanket, threatening the
thermohaline circulation. That in turn could make the Gulf Stream slow or veer southward. At some
point, the whole system could simply shut down, and do so quickly. “There is increasing evidence
that we are getting closer to a transition point, from which we can jump to a new state.”
Questions 1-4
1. The writer uses paintings in the first paragraph to illustrate
A possible future climate change.
B climate change of the last two centuries.
C the river doesn’t freeze in winter anymore.
D how George Washington led his troops across the river.
2. Which of the following do scientists believe to be possible?
A The temperature may drop over much of the Northern Hemisphere.
B It will be colder than 12,000 years ago.
C The entire Northern Hemisphere will be covered in ice.
D Europe will look more like Lapland.
3. Why is it difficult for the poor to survive the next ice age?
A People don’t live in tribes anymore.
B Politics are changing too fast today.
C Abrupt climate change causes people to live off their land.
D Migration has become impossible because of closed borders.
4. Why is continental Europe much warmer than North America in winter?
A Wind blows most of the heat of tropical currents to Europe.
B Europe and North America are at different latitudes.
C The Gulf Stream has stopped yielding heat to the air.
D The Gulf Stream moves north along the east coast of North America.
Questions 5-9
Look at the following statements (Questions 5-9) and the list of people in the box below.
Match each statement with the correct person A-D.
Write the appropriate letter A-D in boxes 5-9 on your answer sheet.
5 Most Americans are not prepared for the next ice age.
6 The result of abrupt climate change is catastrophic.
7 The world is not as cold as it used to be.
8 Global warming is closely connected to the ice age.
9 Alerted people to the change of ocean water in a conference
List of People
A William Curry
B Terrence Joyce
C Bob Dickson
D National Academy of Sciences
Questions 10-13
Complete the flow chart below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Solution for: A New Ice Age
Answer Table
1. B 8. B
2. A 9. C
3. D 10. heat
4. A 11. denser
5. B 12. Great Ocean Conveyor
6. D 13. fresh water
7. A
The megafires of California
Drought, housing expansion, and oversupply of tinder make for bigger, hotter fires in the western
United States
Wildfires are becoming an increasing menace in the western United States, with Southern California
being the hardest hit area. There's a reason fire squads battling more frequent blazes in Southern
California are having such difficulty containing the flames, despite better preparedness than ever
and decades of experience fighting fires fanned by the ‘Santa Ana Winds’. The wildfires themselves,
experts say, are generally hotter, faster, and spread more erratically than in the past.
Megafires, also called ‘siege fires’, are the increasingly frequent blazes that burn 500,000 acres or
more - 10 times the size of the average forest fire of 20 years ago. Some recent wildfires are among
the biggest ever in California in terms of acreage burned, according to state figures and news
reports.
One explanation for the trend to more superhot fires is that the region, which usually has dry
summers, has had significantly below normal precipitation in many recent years. Another reason,
experts say, is related to the century- long policy of the US Forest Service to stop wildfires as quickly
as possible.
The unintentional consequence has been to halt the natural eradication of underbrush, now the
primary fuel for megafires.
Three other factors contribute to the trend, they add. First is climate change, marked by a 1-degree
Fahrenheit rise in average yearly temperature across the western states. Second is fire seasons that
on average are 78 days longer than they were 20 years ago. Third is increased construction of
homes in wooded areas.
‘We are increasingly building our homes in fire-prone ecosystems,’ says Dominik Kulakowski,
adjunct professor of biology at Clark University Graduate School of Geography in Worcester,
Massachusetts. ‘Doing that in many of the forests of the western US is like building homes on the
side of an active volcano.'
In California, where population growth has averaged more than 600,000 a year for at least a decade,
more residential housing is being built. ‘What once was open space is now residential homes
providing fuel to make fires burn with greater intensity,’ says Terry McHale of the California
Department of Forestry firefighters' union. ‘With so much dryness, so many communities to catch
fire, so many fronts to fight, it becomes an almost incredible job.'
That said, many experts give California high marks for making progress on preparedness in recent
years, after some of the largest fires in state history scorched thousands of acres, burned thousands
of homes, and killed numerous people. Stung in the past by criticism of bungling that allowed fires to
spread when they might have been contained, personnel are meeting the peculiar challenges of
neighborhood - and canyon- hopping fires better than previously, observers say.
State promises to provide more up-to-date engines, planes, and helicopters to fight fires have been
fulfilled. Firefighters’ unions that in the past complained of dilapidated equipment, old fire engines,
and insufficient blueprints for fire safety are now praising the state's commitment, noting that funding
for firefighting has increased, despite huge cuts in many other programs. ‘We are pleased that the
current state administration has been very proactive in its support of us, and [has] come through with
budgetary support of the infrastructure needs we have long sought,' says Mr. McHale of the
firefighters’ union.
Besides providing money to upgrade the fire engines that must traverse the mammoth state and
wind along serpentine canyon roads, the state has invested in better command-and-control facilities
as well as in the strategies to run them. ‘In the fire sieges of earlier years, we found that other
jurisdictions and states were willing to offer mutual-aid help, but we were not able to communicate
adequately with them,’ says Kim Zagaris, chief of the state's Office of Emergency Services Fire and
Rescue Branch.
After a commission examined and revamped communications procedures, the statewide response
‘has become far more professional and responsive,’ he says. There is a sense among both
government officials and residents that the speed, dedication, and coordination of firefighters from
several states and jurisdictions are resulting in greater efficiency than in past ‘siege fire’ situations.
In recent years, the Southern California region has improved building codes, evacuation procedures,
and procurement of new technology. ‘I am extraordinarily impressed by the improvements we have
witnessed,’ says Randy Jacobs, a Southern California- based lawyer who has had to evacuate both
his home and business to escape wildfires. ‘Notwithstanding all the damage that will continue to be
caused by wildfires, we will no longer suffer the loss of life endured in the past because of the fire
prevention and firefighting measures that have been put in place,’ he says.
Questions 1-6
Complete the notes below.
Choose ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.
Wildfires
• Characteristics of wildfires and wildfire conditions today compared to the past:
- occurrence: more frequent
- temperature: hotter
- speed: faster
- movement: 1 ………………… more unpredictably
- size of fires: 2 ………………… greater on average than two decades ago
• Reasons wildfires cause more damage today compared to the past:

- rainfall: 3 ………………… average
- more brush to act as 4 …………………
- increase in yearly temperature
- extended fire 5 …………………
- more building of 6 ………………… in vulnerable places
Questions 7-13
7 The amount of open space in California has diminished over the last ten years.
8 Many experts believe California has made little progress in readying itself to fight fires.
9 Personnel in the past have been criticised for mishandling fire containment.
10 California has replaced a range of firefighting tools.
11 More firefighters have been hired to improve fire-fighting capacity.
12 Citizens and government groups disapprove of the efforts of different states and agencies
working together.
13 Randy Jacobs believes that loss of life from fires will continue at the same levels, despite
changes made.
Solution for: The megafires of California
Answer Table
1. spread 8. FALSE
2. 10/ten times 9. TRUE
3. below 10. TRUE
4. fuel 11. NOT GIVEN
5. seasons 12. FALSE
6. homes/housing 13. FALSE
7. TRUE
Deforestation in the 21st century
When it comes to cutting down trees, satellite data reveals a shift from the patterns of the past
A
Globally, roughly 13 million hectares of forest are destroyed each year. Such deforestation has long
been driven by farmers desperate to earn a living or by loggers building new roads into pristine
forest. But now new data appears to show that big, block clearings that reflect industrial
deforestation have come to dominate, rather than these smaller-scale efforts that leave behind long,
narrow swaths of cleared land. Geographer Ruth DeFries of Columbia University and her colleagues
used satellite images to analyse tree-clearing in countries ringing the tropics, representing 98 per
cent of all remaining tropical forest. Instead of the usual ‘fish bone' signature of deforestation from
small-scale operations, large, chunky blocks of cleared land reveal a new motive for cutting down
woods.
B
In fact, a statistical analysis of 41 countries showed that forest loss rates were most closely linked
with urban population growth and agricultural exports in the early part of the 21st century - even
overall population growth was not as strong an influence. ‘In previous decades, deforestation was
associated with planned colonisation, resettlement schemes in local areas and farmers clearing land
to grow food for subsistence,' DeFries says. ‘What we’re seeing now is a shift from small-scale
farmers driving deforestation to distant demands from urban growth, agricultural trade and exports
being more important drivers.’
C
In other words, the increasing urbanisation of the developing world, as populations leave rural areas
to concentrate in booming cities, is driving deforestation, rather than containing it. Coupled with this
there is an ongoing increase in consumption in the developed world of products that have an impact
on forests, whether furniture, shoe leather or chicken feed. ‘One of the really striking characteristics
of this century is urbanisation and rapid urban growth in the developing world,’ DeFries says, ‘People
in cities need to eat.’ ‘There’s no surprise there,’ observes Scott Poynton, executive director of the
Tropical Forest Trust, a Switzerland-based organisation that helps businesses implement and
manage sustainable forestry in countries such as Brazil, Congo and Indonesia. ‘It’s not about people
chopping down trees. It's all the people in New York, Europe and elsewhere who want cheap
products, primarily food.’
D
Dearies argues that in order to help sustain this increasing urban and global demand, agricultural
productivity will need to be increased on lands that have already been cleared. This means that
better crop varieties or better management techniques will need to be used on the many degraded
and abandoned lands in the tropics. And the Tropical Forest Trust is building management systems
to keep illegally harvested wood from ending up in, for example, deck chairs, as well as expanding
its efforts to look at how to reduce the ‘forest footprint’ of agricultural products such as palm oil.
Poynton says, ‘The point is to give forests value as forests, to keep them as forests and give them a
use as forests. They’re not going to be locked away as national parks. That’s not going to happen.’
E
But it is not all bad news. Halts in tropical deforestation have resulted in forest regrowth in some
areas where tropical lands were previously cleared. And forest clearing in the Amazon, the world’s
largest tropical forest, dropped from roughly 1.9 million hectares a year in the 1990s to 1.6 million
hectares a year over the last decade, according to the Brazilian government. 'We know that
deforestation has slowed down in at least the Brazilian Amazon,’ DeFries says. ‘Every place is
different. Every country has its own particular situation, circumstances and driving forces.’
F
Regardless of this, deforestation continues, and cutting down forests is one of the largest sources of
greenhouse gas emissions from human activity - a double blow that both eliminates a biological
system to suck up C02 and creates a new source of greenhouse gases in the form of decaying
plants. The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that slowing such deforestation could
reduce some 50 billion metric tons of C02, or more than a year of global emissions. Indeed,
international climate negotiations continue to attempt to set up a system to encourage this, known as
the UN Development Programme’s fund for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest
degradation in developing countries (REDD). If policies [like REDD] are to be effective, we need to
understand what the driving forces are behind deforestation, DeFries argues. This is particularly
important in the light of new pressures that are on the horizon: the need to reduce our dependence
on fossil fuels and find alternative power sources, particularly for private cars, is forcing governments
to make products such as biofuels more readily accessible. This will only exacerbate the pressures
on tropical forests.
G
But millions of hectares of pristine forest remain to protect, according to this new analysis from
Columbia University. Approximately 60 percent of the remaining tropical forests are in countries or
areas that currently have little agricultural trade or urban growth. The amount of forest area in places
like central Africa, Guyana and Suriname, DeFries notes, is huge. ‘There’s a lot of forest that has not
yet faced these pressures.’
Questions 1-6
Reading Passage 2 has seven paragraphs, A-G.
NB: You may use any letter more than once.
1 two ways that farming activity might be improved in the future
2 reference to a fall in the rate of deforestation in one area
3 the amount of forest cut down annually
4 how future transport requirements may increase deforestation levels
5 a reference to the typical shape of early deforested areas
6 key reasons why forests in some areas have not been cut down
Questions 7-8
Choose TWO letters, A-E.
Which TWO of these reasons do experts give for current patterns of deforestation?
A to provide jobs
B to create transport routes
C to feed city dwellers
D to manufacture low-budget consumer items

E to meet government targets
Questions 9-10
Choose TWO letters, A-E.
The list below gives some of the impacts of tropical deforestation.
Which TWO of these results are mentioned by the writer of the text?
A local food supplies fall
B soil becomes less fertile
C some areas have new forest growth
D some regions become uninhabitable
E local economies suffer
Questions 11-13
Complete the sentences below.
11 The expression ‘a ’ is used to assess the amount of wood used in certain types of production.
12 Greenhouse gases result from the that remain after trees have been cut down.
13 About of the world’s tropical forests have not experienced deforestation yet.
Solution for: Deforestation in the 21st century
Answer Table
1. D 8. C OR D IN EITHER ORDER
2. E 9. B, C (in either order)
3. A 10. B, C (in either order)
4. F 11. forest footprint
5. A 12. decaying plants
6. G 13. 60 percent
7. C OR D IN EITHER ORDER
Environmental Management
Section A
The role of governments in environmental management is difficult but inescapable. Sometimes, the
state tries to manage the resources it owns, and does so badly. Often, however, governments act in
an even more harmful way. They actually subsidise the exploitation and consumption of natural
resources. A whole range of policies, from farm- price support to protection for coal-mining, do
environmental damage and (often) make no economic sense. Scrapping them offers a two-fold
bonus: a cleaner environment and a more efficient economy. Growth and environmentalism can
actually go hand in hand, if politicians have the courage to confront the vested interest that subsidies
create.
Section B
No activity affects more of the earth's surface than farming. It shapes a third of the planet's land
area, not counting Antarctica, and the proportion Is rising. World food output per head has risen by 4
per cent between the 1970s and 1980s mainly as a result of increases in yields from land already in
cultivation, but also because more land has been brought under the plough. Higher yields have been
achieved by increased irrigation, better crop breeding, and a doubling in the use of pesticides and
chemical fertilisers in the 1970s and 1980s.
Section C
All these activities may have damaging environmental impacts. For example, land clearing for
agriculture is the largest single cause of deforestation; chemical fertilisers and pesticides may
contaminate water supplies; more intensive farming and the abandonment of fallow periods tend to
exacerbate soil erosion; and the spread of mono-Culture and use of high-yielding varieties of crops
have been accompanied by the disappearance of old varieties of food plants which might have
provided some insurance against pests or diseases in future. Soil erosion threatens the productivity
of land In both rich and poor countries. The United States, where the most careful measurements
have been done, discovered in 1982 that about one-fifth of its farmtand as losing topsoil at a rate
likely to diminish the soil's productivity. The country subsequently embarked upon a program to
convert 11 per cent of its cropped land to meadow or forest. Topsoil in India and China is vanishing
much faster than in America.
Section D
Government policies have frequently compounded the environmental damage that farming can
cause. In the rich countries, subsidies for growing crops and price supports for farm output drive up
the price of land.The annual value of these subsidies is immense: about $250 billion, or more than
all World Bank lending in the 1980s.To increase the output of crops per acre, a farmer's easiest
option is to use more of the most readily available inputs: fertilisers and pesticides. Fertiliser use
doubled in Denmark in the period 1960-1985 and increased in The Netherlands by 150 per cent. The
quantity of pesticides applied has risen too; by 69 per cent In 1975-1984 in Denmark, for example,
with a rise of 115 per cent in the frequency of application in the three years from 1981.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s some efforts were made to reduce farm subsidies. The most
dramatic example was that of New Zealand, which scrapped most farm support in 1984. A study of
the environmental effects, conducted in 1993, found that the end of fertiliser subsidies had been
followed by a fall in fertiliser use (a fall compounded by the decline in world commodity prices, which
cut farm incomes). The removal of subsidies also stopped land-clearing and over-stocking, which in
the past had been the principal causes of erosion. Farms began to diversify. The one kind of subsidy
whose removal appeared to have been bad for the environment was the subsidy to manage soil
eroslon,
In less enlightened countries, and in the European Union, the trend has been to reduce rather than
eliminate subsidies, and to introduce new payments to encourage farmers to treat their land In
environmentally friendlier ways, or to leave it follow. It may sound strange but such payments need
to be higher than the existing incentives for farmers to grow food crops. Farmers, however, dislike
being paid to do nothing. In several countries they have become interested in the possibility of using
fuel produced from crop residues either as a replacement for petrol (as ethanol) or as fuel for power
stations (as biomass). Such fuels produce far less carbon dioxide than coal or oil, and absorb carbon
dioxide as they grow.They are therefore less likely to contribute to the greenhouse effect. But they
die rarely competitive with fossil fuels unless subsidised - and growing them does no less
environmental harm than other crops.
Section E
In poor countries, governments aggravate other sorts of damage. Subsidies for pesticides and
artificial fertilisers encourage farmers to use greater quantities than are needed to get the highest
economic crop yield. A study by the International Rice Research Institute Of pesticide use by
farmers in South East Asia found that, with pest-resistant varieties of rice, even moderate
applications of pesticide frequently cost farmers more than they saved.Such waste puts farmers on a
chemical treadmill: bugs and weeds become resis-tant to poisons, so next year's poisons must be
more lethal. One cost is to human health, Every year some 10,000 people die from pesticide
poisoning, almost all of them in the developing countries, and another 400,000 become seriously ill.
As for artificial fertilisers, their use world-wide increased by 40 per cent per unit of farmed land
between the mid 1970s and late 1980s, mostly in the developing countries. Overuse of fertilisers
may cause farmers to stop rotating crops or leaving their land fallow. That, In turn, may make soil
erosion worse.
Section F
A result of the Uruguay Round of world trade negotiations Is likely to be a reduction of 36 per cent In
the average levels of farm subsidies paid by the rich countries in 1986-1990. Some of the world's
food production will move from Western Europe to regions where subsidies are lower or non-
existent, such as the former communist countries and parts of the developing world. Some
environmentalists worry about this outcome. It will undoubtedly mean more pressure to convert
natural habitat into farmland. But it will also have many desirable environmental effects. The intensity
of farming in the rich world should decline, and the use of chemical inputs will diminish. Crops are
more likely to be grown p the environments to which they are naturally suited. And more farmers in
poor countries wilt have the money and the incentive to manage their land in ways that are
sustainable in the long run. That is important. To feed an increasingly hungry world, farmers need
every incentive to use their soil and water effectively and efficiently.
Questions 1-5
Reading Passage 2 has six sections A-F.
Choose the most suitable headings for sections A-D and F from the list of headings below.
Write the appropriate numbers i-ix in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.
List of Headings
i The probable effects of the new international trade agreement
ii The environmental impact of modern farming
iii Farming and soil erosion
iv The effects of government policy in rich countries
v Governments and management of the environment
vi The effects of government policy in poor countries
vii Farming and food output
viii The effects of government policy on food output
ix The new prospects for world trade
1 Section A
2 Section B
3 Section C
4 Section D
Example Answer
Paragraph E vi
5 Section F
Questions 6-9
Complete the table below using the information in sections B and C of Reading Passage 2.
Choose your answers A-G from the box below the table and write them in boxes 6-9 on your answer
sheet.
Agricultural practice Environmental damage that may result
• 6 ……………… • Deforestation
• 7 ……………… • Degraded water supply
• More intensive farming • 8 ………………
• Expansion of monoculture • 9 ………………
A Abandonment of fallow period
B Disappearance of old plant varieties
C Increased use of chemical inputs
D Increased irrigation
E Insurance against pests and diseases
F Soil erosion
G Clearing land for cultivation
Questions 10-14
Choose the appropriate letters A-D and write them in boxes 10-14 on your answer sheet.
10 Research completed in 1982 found that in the United States soil erosion
A reduced the productivity of farmland by 20 per cent.
B was almost as severe as in India and China.
C was causing significant damage to 20 per cent of farmland.
D could be reduced by converting cultivated land to meadow or forest.
11 By the mid-1980s, farmers in Denmark
A used 50 per cent less fertiliser than Dutch farmers.
B used twice as much fertiliser as they had in 1960.
C applied fertiliser much more frequently than in 1960.
D more than doubled the amount of pesticide they used in just 3 years.
12 Which one of the following increased in New Zealand after 1984?

A farm incomes
B use of fertiliser
C over-stocking
D farm diversification
13 The writer refers to some rich countries as being ‘less enlightened’ than New Zealand because
A they disapprove of paying farmers for not cultivating the land.
B their new fuel crops are as harmful as the ones they have replaced.
C their policies do not recognise the long-term benefit of ending subsidies.
D they have not encouraged their farmers to follow environmentally friendly practices.
14 The writer believes that the Uruguay Round agreements on trade will
A encourage more sustainable farming practices in the long term.
B do more harm than good to the international environment.
C increase pressure to cultivate land in the rich countries.
D be more beneficial to rich than to poor countries.
Solution for: Environmental Management
Answer Table
1. v 9. B
2. vii 10. C
3. ii 11. B
4. iv 12. D
5. i 13. C
6. G 14. A
7. C 15. A
8. F
Indoor Pollution
Since the early eighties we have been only too aware of the devastating effects of large-scale
environmental pollution. Such pollution is generally the result of poor government planning in many
developing nations or the short-sighted, selfish policies of the already industrialised countries which
encourage a minority of the world’s population to squander the majority of its natural resources.
While events such as the deforestation of the Amazon jungle or the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl
continue to receive high media exposure, as do acts of environmental sabotage, it must be
remembered that not all pollution is on this grand scale. A large proportion of the world’s pollution
has its source much closer to home. The recent spillage of crude oil from an oil tanker accidentally
discharging its cargo straight into Sydney Harbour not only caused serious damage to the harbour
foreshores but also created severely toxic fumes which hung over the suburbs for days and left the
angry residents wondering how such a disaster could have been allowed to happen.
Avoiding pollution can be a fulltime job. Try not to inhale traffic fumes; keep away from chemical
plants and building-sites; wear a mask when cycling. It is enough to make you want to stay at home.
But that, according to a growing body of scientific evidence, would also be a bad idea. Research
shows that levels of pollutants such as hazardous gases, particulate matter and other chemical
‘nasties’ are usually higher indoors than out, even in the most polluted cities. Since the average
American spends 18 hours indoors for every hour outside, it looks as though many environmentalists
may be attacking the wrong target.
The latest study, conducted by two environmental engineers, Richard Corsi and Cynthia Howard-
Reed, of the University of Texas in Austin, and published in Environmental Science and Technology,
suggests that it is the process of keeping clean that may be making indoor pollution worse. The
researchers found that baths, showers, dishwashers and washing machines can all be significant
sources of indoor pollution, because they extract trace amounts of chemicals from the water that
they use and transfer them to the air.
Nearly all public water supplies contain very low concentrations of toxic chemicals, most of them left
over from the otherwise beneficial process of chlorination. Dr. Corsi wondered whether they stay
there when water is used, or whether they end up in the air that people breathe. The team
conducted a series of experiments in which known quantities of five such chemicals were mixed with
water and passed through a dishwasher, a washing machine, a shower head inside a shower stall or
a tap in a bath, all inside a specially designed chamber. The levels of chemicals in the effluent water
and in the air extracted from the chamber were then measured to see how much of each chemical
had been transferred from the water into the air.
The degree to which the most volatile elements could be removed from the water, a process known
as chemical stripping, depended on a wide range of factors, including the volatility of the chemical,
the temperature of the water and the surface area available for transfer. Dishwashers were found to
be particularly effective: the high-temperature spray, splashing against the crockery and cutlery,
results in a nasty plume of toxic chemicals that escapes when the door is opened at the end of the
cycle.
In fact, in many cases, the degree of exposure to toxic chemicals in tap water by inhalation is
comparable to the exposure that would result from drinking the stuff. This is significant because
many people are so concerned about water-borne pollutants that they drink only bottled water,
worldwide sales of which are forecast to reach $72 billion by next year. D. Corsi’s results suggest
that they are being exposed to such pollutants anyway simply by breathing at home.
The aim of such research is not, however, to encourage the use of gas masks when unloading the
washing. Instead, it is to bring a sense of perspective to the debate about pollution. According to Dr
Corsi, disproportionate effort is wasted campaigning against certain forms of outdoor pollution, when
there is as much or more cause for concern indoors, right under people’s noses.
Using gas cookers or burning candles, for example, both result in indoor levels of carbon monoxide
and particulate matter that are just as high as those to be found outside, amid heavy traffic.
Overcrowded classrooms whose ventilation systems were designed for smaller numbers of children
frequently contain levels of carbon dioxide that would be regarded as unacceptable on board a
submarine. ‘New car smell’ is the result of high levels of toxic chemicals, not cleanliness. Laser
printers, computers, carpets and paints all contribute to the noxious indoor mix.
The implications of indoor pollution for health are unclear. But before worrying about the problems
caused by large-scale industry, it makes sense to consider the small-scale pollution at home and
welcome international debate about this. Scientists investigating indoor pollution will gather next
month in Edinburgh at the Indoor Air conference to discuss the problem. Perhaps unwisely, the
meeting is being held indoors.
Questions 1-6
1. In the first paragraph, the writer argues that pollution
A has increased since the eighties.
B is at its worst in industrialised countries.
C results from poor relations between nations.
D is caused by human self-interest.
2. The Sydney Harbour oil spill was the result of a

A ship refuelling in the harbour.
B tanker pumping oil into the sea.
C collision between two oil tankers.
D deliberate act of sabotage.
3. In the 3rd paragraph the writer suggests that

A people should avoid working in cities.
B Americans spend too little time outdoors.
C hazardous gases are concentrated in industrial suburbs.
D there are several ways to avoid city pollution.
4. The Corsi research team hypothesised that

A toxic chemicals can pass from air to water.
B pollution is caused by dishwashers and baths.
C city water contains insufficient chlorine.
D household appliances are poorly designed.
5. Asa result of their experiments, Dr Corsi’s team found that

A dishwashers are very efficient machines.
B tap water is as polluted as bottled water.
C indoor pollution rivals outdoor pollution.
D gas masks are a useful protective device.
6. Regarding the dangers of pollution, the writer believes that
A there is a need for rational discussion.
B indoor pollution is a recent phenomenon.
C people should worry most about their work environment.
D industrial pollution causes specific diseases.
Questions 7-13
Reading Passage 1 describes a number of cause and effect relationships.
Match each Cause (Questions 7-13) in List A with its Effect (A-J) in List B.
Write the appropriate letters (A-J) in boxes 7-13 on your answer sheet.
List A: CAUSES
7 Industrialised nations use a lot of energy.
8 Oil spills into the sea.
9 The researchers publish their findings.
10 Water is brought to a high temperature.
11 People fear pollutants in tap water.
12 Air conditioning systems are inadequate.
13 Toxic chemicals are abundant in new cars.
List B: EFFECTS
A The focus of pollution moves to the home.
B The levels of carbon monoxide rise.
C The world’s natural resources are unequally shared.
D People demand an explanation.
E Environmentalists look elsewhere for an explanation.
F Chemicals are effectively stripped from the water.
G A clean odour is produced.
H Sales of bottled water increase.
I The levels of carbon dioxide rise.
J The chlorine content of drinking water increased.
Solution for: Indoor Pollution
Answer Table
1. D 8. D
2. B 9. A
3. D 10. F
4. B 11. H
5. C 12. I
6. A 13. G
7. C
FUELING THE FUTURE
The world’s 750 million motor vehicles emit well over 900 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide each
year. Traffic-related air pollution has been responsible for 6% of deaths per year and is associated
with certain forms of leukaemia, inflammatory lung diseases, increased cardio-vascular disease, low
birth-weight babies and male infertility. It stands to reason that tackling traffic- related air pollution
should be high on any government’s list of priorities. Thus, in an attempt to minimise this situation
many governments around the world have been looking at ways to implement alternative fuel sources.
The most widely accepted way of doing this is to replace the crude oil that our vehicles currently run
on with renewable, ‘environmentally friendly’ One serious contender put forward as a solution to the
pollution problem is ethanol.
Ethanol is a type of alcohol made by fermenting plant material. Water and organic matter from the
plants including com, sorghum, sugar cane and wood are mixed together and fermented to make
ethanol. After fermentation there are three layers remaining. The first is water and small particles of
grain and alcohol. It takes on a syrup consistency. The second layer is the remaining grain, which is
17 per cent dry matter. The third layer is the actual ethanol – a colourless, volatile, flammable liquid.
It is the only layer sold and accounts for exactly one-third of the total dry matter used for its production.
There are three primary ways that it is used as a fuel for transportation: as a blend of 10 per cent
ethanol with 90% unleaded fuel (E10); as a component of reformulated gasoline and; as a primary fuel
with 85 parts of ethanol blended with 15 parts of unleaded fuel (E-85). In the 1800s in the USA, it was
first used as lamp fuel. Later on, due to skyrocketing oil prices in the 1970s, E10 was produced as a
type of ‘fuel-extender’ for vehicles with E-85 being produced in the 1990s. Brazil has also used ethanol-
blended fuels. Like America, the high prices in the 1970s prompted a government mandate to produce
vehicles which could be fuelled by pure ethanol Today there are more than 4,2 million ethanol-
powered vehicles in Brazil (40 per cent passenger carrying) which consume 4 billion gallons of ethanol
annually. Today, Brazil is the largest transportation ethanol fuel market in the world.
Given that Ethanol is made from a variety of plant substances when it is used in fuel production, it
increases the monetary value of feed grains grown by farmers. In fact, in the USA, the largest ethanol
consuming nation in the world, ethanol production adds £4.5 billion to the farm economy every year.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, ethanol production adds 30 cents to the
value of a bushel of corn. Another of its benefits, according to Brian Keating, deputy chief of Australia’s
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is that a 10% ethanol blend
(E10) would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2 to 5% over the full lifecycle of ethanol production
and consumption. Said Keating, “The precise benefits depend on specific factors in the production
cycle. An important component of which is the energy source used by the ethanol factory. If it’s being
powered by coal or oil, there are obviously associated greenhouse gas emissions.” In America, The
Clean Air Act of 1990 and the National Energy Policy Act of 1992 have both created new market
opportunities for cleaner, more efficient fuels with many state governments in America’s Mid-west
purchasing fleet vehicles capable of running on E-85 fuels.
Although it makes a good fuel, some drawbacks have been documented. The economics of ethanol
production are improving as the technology improves but ethanol has two problems: It does not
explode like gasoline, and it can absorb water, which can cause oxidation, rust and corrosion. The
claims of possible damage to vehicles from the use of ethanol blends above 10% has therefore
attracted considerable negative publicity. Compared to diesel – the standard fuel in the heavy moving
industry – ethanol is known to have a lower energy content so ethanol trucks require larger fuel tanks
to achieve the same range as a diesel-powered vehicle. In Australia, a government review’ into the
impacts of a 20% ethanol blend on vehicles found the information to be insufficient or conflicting, but
did identify a number of problems such as the possible perishing and swelling of elastomeric and
plastic materials in fuel systems. Stakeholders in the motor vehicle industry have slated that warranties
on motor vehicles and pump dispensing equipment could be at risk with the use of blends above 10%
ethanol. Principle economist for the Australian Bureau of Agriculture Andrew Dickson points out that
the money sugarcane growers get for their cane is not determined by the domestic consumption or
domestic demand for ethanol, it is entirely determined by the world sugar market and the world trade
in molasses He believes that the only way the sugar industry’ can benefit from the existence of an
ethanol industry is if they invest in the ethanol industry. “The sugar producer does not get any more
money for their molasses so what incentive do they have to produce any more?.” The cost of
production also represents some challenges. In Australia, fuel ethanol costs around 70 cents per litre
compared with around 35 cents per litre for unleaded petrol. In America, one report revealed that even
with government assistance, ethanol is dose to 35 per cent more than the price of diesel.
Consequently, production of ethanol requires government assistance to be competitive. A recent study
by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economies found that without assistance, large-
scale production of ethanol would not be commercially viable in Australia.
Regardless of whether the Australian sugar industry will benefit from a mandated 10% ethanol mix,
the expansion of ethanol production would certainly lead to increased economic activity in farming
areas. It is inevitable that some expansion would be at the expense of existing industry. If ethanol
becomes more popular, there will soon be more plants producing it. This means there will be a need
for workers for the plants. The American National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition (NBVC) projects that
employment will be boosted by 200,000 jobs and the balance of trade will be improved by over $2 The
future of ethanol looks promising, for better or worse ethanol looks to be a serious contender for
tomorrow’s fuel.
Questions 1-5
YES if the statement reflects the claims of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
1 The need to control air pollution is why ethanol came into use.
2 Brazil uses more ethanol for transportation than America.
3 Select food crops become more expensive due to ethanol production
4 The Australian sugar industry will benefit from the production of ethanol.
5 Primary ethanol (E-85) has been extensively tested in Australia.
Questions 6-9
Look at the following list of descriptions (Questions 6-9) and the list of fuel types below.
Match each description to the fuel type.
Write the correct letter A-D in boxes 6-9 on your answer sheet.
A. regular gasoline
B. unleaded gasoline
C. ethanol
D. diesel
6 . costs about half the price of ethanol
7 . reacts poorly with some metals
8 . is the reason why trucks have been fitted with larger fuel tanks
9 . commonly used in the trucking industry
Question 10-14
Classify the following statements according to which country they apply to.
Write the appropriate letters A-D in boxes 10-14 on your answer sheet.
A. Australia only
B. America only
C. both Australia and America
D. neither Australia nor America
10 . makes ethanol out of sugar cane

11 . uses more ethanol than any other country in the world
12 . receives government assistance for ethanol production
13 . proved ethanol production is costly
14 . their government bought ethanol-friendly cars
Solution for: FUELING THE FUTURE
Answer Table
1. NO 8. C
2. YES 9. D
3. YES 10. A
4. NO 11. B
5. NOT GIVEN 12. B
6. B 13. C
7. C 14. B
Green Wave Washes Over Mainstream Shopping
Research in Britain has shown that green consumers' continue to flourish as a significant group
amongst shoppers. This suggests that politicians who claim environmentalism is yesterday's issue
may be seriously misjudging the public mood.
A report from Mintel, the market research organisation, says that despite recession and financial
pressures, more people than ever want to buy environmentally friendly products and a 'green wave'
has swept through consumerism, taking in people previously untouched by environmental concerns.
The recently published report also predicts that the process will repeat itself with 'ethical' concerns,
involving issues such as fair trade with the Third World and the social record of businesses.
Companies will have to be more honest and open in response to this mood.
Mintel's survey, based on nearly 1,000 consumers, found that the proportion who look for green
products and are prepared to pay more for them has climbed from 53 per cent in 1990 to around 60
per cent in 1994. On average, they will pay 13 per cent more for such products, although this
percentage is higher among women, managerial and professional groups and those aged 35 to 44.
Between 1990 and 1994 the proportion of consumers claiming to be unaware of or unconcerned
about green issues fell from 18 to 10 per cent but the number of green spenders among older people
and manual workers has risen substantially. Regions such as Scotland have also caught up with the
south of England in their environmental concerns. According to Mintel, the image of green
consumerism as associated in the past with the more eccentric members of society has virtually
disappeared. The consumer research manager for Mintel, Angela Hughes, said it had become firmly
established as a mainstream market. She explained that as far as the average person is concerned
environmentalism has not gone off the boil'. In fact, it has spread across a much wider range of
consumer groups, ages and occupations.
Mintel's 1994 survey found that 13 per cent of consumers are 'very dark green', nearly always buying
environmentally friendly products, 28 per cent are 'dark green', trying 'as far as possible' to buy such
products, and 21 per cent are 'pale green' - tending to buy green products if they see them. Another
26 per cent are 'armchair greens'; they said they care about environmental issues but their concern
does not affect their spending habits. Only 10 per cent say they do not care about green issues.
Four in ten people are 'ethical spenders', buying goods which do not, for example, involve dealings
with oppressive regimes. This figure is the same as in 1990, although the number of 'armchair
ethicals' has risen from 28 to 35 per cent and only 22 per cent say they are unconcerned now,
against 30 per cent in 1990. Hughes claims that in the twenty-first century, consumers will be
encouraged to think more about the entire history of the products and services they buy, including
the policies of the companies that provide them and that this will require a greater degree of honesty
with consumers.
Among green consumers, animal testing is the top issue - 48 per cent said they would be deterred
from buying a product it if had been tested on animals - followed by concerns regarding irresponsible
selling, the ozone layer, river and sea pollution, forest destruction, recycling and factory farming.
However, concern for specific issues is lower than in 1990, suggesting that many consumers feel
that Government and business have taken on the environmental agenda.
Questions 1-6
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer of Reading Passage ?
YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
1 The research findings report commercial rather than political trends.
2 Being financially better off has made shoppers more sensitive to buying 'green'.
3 The majority of shoppers are prepared to pay more for the benefit of the environment according
to the research findings.
4 Consumers' green shopping habits are influenced by Mintel's findings.
5 Mintel have limited their investigation to professional and managerial groups.
6 Mintel undertakes market surveys on an annual basis.
Questions 7-9
7 Politicians may have 'misjudged the public mood' because ...
A they are pre-occupied with the recession and financial problems.
B there is more widespread interest in the environment agenda than they anticipated.
C consumer spending has increased significantly as a result of 'green' pressure.
D shoppers are displeased with government policies on a range of issues.
8 What is Mintel?
A an environmentalist group
B a business survey organisation
C an academic research team
D a political organisation
9 A consumer expressing concern for environmental issues without actively supporting such
principles is...
A an 'ethical spender'.
B a 'very dark green' spender.
C an 'armchair green'.
D a 'pale green' spender.
Questions 10-13
Complete the summary using words from the box below.
NB There are more answers than spaces, so you will not use them all.
The Mintel report suggests that in future companies will be forced to practise
greater 10 …………………….. in their dealings because of the increased awareness
amongst 11 …………………….. of ethical issues. This prediction is supported by the growth in the
number of12 …………………….. identified in the most recent survey published. As a consequence,
it is felt that companies will have to think more carefully about their 13 ……………………..
environmental research armchair ethicals
honesty and openness environmentalists
ethical spenders consumers
politicians political belief social awareness
financial constraints social record
Solution for: Green Wave Washes Over Mainstream
Shopping
Answer Table
1. YES 8. B
2. NO 9. C
3. YES 10. honesty and openness
4. NOT GIVEN 11. consumers
5. NO 12. armchair ethicals
6. NOT GIVEN 13. social record
7. B
Air pollution
Part One
A
Air pollution is increasingly becoming the focus of government and citizen concern around the globe.
From Mexico City and New York, to Singapore and Tokyo, new solutions to this old problem are
being proposed, Mailed and implemented with ever increasing speed. It is feared that unless
pollution reduction measures are able to keep pace with the continued pressures of urban growth,
air quality in many of the world’s major cities will deteriorate beyond reason.
B
Action is being taken along several fronts: through new legislation, improved enforcement and
innovative technology. In Los Angeles, state regulations are forcing manufacturers to try to sell ever
cleaner cars: their first of the cleanest, titled "Zero Emission Vehicles’, hove to be available soon,
since they are intended to make up 2 per cent of sales in 1997. Local authorities in London are
campaigning to be allowed to enforce anti-pollution lows themselves; at present only the police have
the power to do so, but they tend to be busy elsewhere. In Singapore, renting out toad space to
users is the way of the future.
C
When Britain’s Royal Automobile Club monitored the exhausts of 60,000 vehicles, it found that 12
per cent of them produced more than half the total pollution. Older cars were the worst offenders;
though a sizeable number of quire new cars were also identified as gross polluters, they were simply
badly tuned. California has developed a scheme to get these gross polluters off the streets: they
offer a flat $700 for any old, run-down vehicle driven in by its owner. The aim is to remove the
heaviest-polluting, most decrepit vehicles from the roads.
D
As part of a European Union environmental programme, a London council is resting an infra-red
spectrometer from the University of Denver in Colorado. It gauges the pollution from a passing
vehicle - more useful than the annual stationary rest that is the British standard today - by bouncing
a beam through the exhaust and measuring what gets blocked. The councils next step may be to
link the system to a computerised video camera able to read number plates automatically.
E
The effort to clean up cars may do little to cut pollution if nothing is done about the tendency to drive
them more. Los Angeles has some of the world’s cleanest cars - far better than those of Europe - but
the total number of miles those cars drive continues to grow. One solution is car-pooling,
an arrangement in which a number of people who share the same destination share the use of one
car. However, the average number of people in o car on the freeway in Los Angeles, which is 1.0,
has been falling steadily. Increasing it would be an effective way of reducing emissions as well as
easing congestion. The trouble is, Los Angeles seem to like being alone in their cars.
F
Singapore has for a while had o scheme that forces drivers to buy a badge if they wish to visit a
certain part of the city. Electronic innovations make possible increasing sophistication: rates can vary
according to road conditions, time of day and so on. Singapore is advancing in this direction, with a
city-wide network of transmitters to collect information and charge drivers as they pass certain
points. Such road-pricing, however, can be controversial. When the local government in Cambridge,
England, considered introducing Singaporean techniques, it faced vocal and ultimately successful
opposition.
Part Two
The scope of the problem facing the world’s cities is immense. In 1992, the United Nations
Environmental Programme and the World Health Organisation (WHO) concluded that all of a sample
of twenty megacities - places likely to have more than ten million inhabitants in the year 2000 -
already exceeded the level the WHO deems healthy in at least one major pollutant. Two-thirds of
them exceeded the guidelines for two, seven for three or more.
Of the six pollutants monitored by the WHO - carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, sulphur
dioxide, lead and particulate matter - it is this last category that is attracting the most attention from
health researchers. PM10, a sub-category of particulate matter measuring ten-millionths of a metre
across, has been implicated in thousands of deaths a year in Britain alone. Research being
conducted in two counties of Southern California is reaching similarly disturbing conclusions
concerning this little- understood pollutant.
A world-wide rise in allergies, particularly asthma, over the past four decades is now said to be
linked with increased air pollution. The lungs and brains of children who grow up in polluted air offer
further evidence of its destructive power The old and ill, however, are the most vulnerable to the
acute effects of heavily polluted stagnant air. It con actually hasten death, os it did in December
1991 when a cloud of exhaust fumes lingered over the city of London for over a week.
The United Nations has estimated that in the year 2000 there will be twenty-four mega-cities and a
further eighty-five cities of more than three million people. The pressure on public officials,
corporations and urban citizens to reverse established trends in air pollution is likely to grow in
proportion with the growth of cities themselves. Progress is being made. The question, though,
remains the same: ‘Will change happen quickly enough?’
Questions 1-5
Look at the following solutions (Questions 1-5) and locations. Match each solution with one location.
Write the appropriate locations in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any location more than once.
LOCATIONS
Singapore
Tokyo
London
New York
Mexico City
Cambridge
Los Angeles
SOLUTIONS
1 Manufacturers must sell cleaner cars.
2 Authorities want to have power to enforce anti-pollution laws.
3 Drivers will be charged according to the roads they use.
4 Moving vehicles will be monitored for their exhaust emissions.
5 Commuters are encouraged to share their vehicles with others.
Questions 6-10
Do the following statements reflect the claims of the writer in Reading Passage?
YES if the statement reflects the claims of the writer
6 According to British research, a mere twelve per cent of vehicles tested produced over fifty per
cent of total pollution produced by the sample group.
7 It is currently possible to measure the pollution coming from individual vehicles whilst they are
moving.
8 Residents of Los Angeles are now tending to reduce the yearly distances they travel by car.
9 Car-pooling has steadily become more popular in Los Angeles in recent years.
10 Charging drivers for entering certain parts of the city has been successfully done in Cambridge,
England.
Questions 11-13
Choose the appropriate letters A—D and write them in boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet.
11 How many pollutants currently exceed WHO guidelines in all megacities studied?
A one
B two
C three
D seven
12 Which pollutant is currently the subject of urgent research?

A nitrogen dioxide
B ozone
C lead
D particulate matter
13 Which of the following groups of people are the most severely affected by intense air pollution?
A allergy sufferers
B children
C the old and ill
D asthma sufferers
Solution for: Air pollution
Answer Table
1. Los Angeles 8. NO
2. London 9. NO
3. Singapore 10. NO
4. London 11. A
5. Los Angeles 12. D
6. YES 13. C
7. YES
THE WILD SIDE OF TOWN
The countryside is no longer the place to see wildlife, according to Chris Barnes. These days
you are more likely to find impressive numbers of skylarks, dragonflies and toads in your
own back garden.
The past half century has seen an interesting reversal in the fortunes of much of Britain's wildlife.
Whilst the rural countryside has become poorer and poorer, wildlife habitat in towns has burgeoned.
Now, if you want to hear a deafening dawn chorus of birds or familiarise yourself with foxes, you can
head for the urban forest.
Whilst species that depend on wide open spaces such as the hare, the eagle and the red deer may
still be restricted to remote rural landscapes, many of our wild plants and animals find the urban
ecosystem ideal. This really should be no surprise, since it is the fragmentation and agrochemical
pollution in the farming lowlands that has led to the catastrophic decline of so many species.
By contrast, most urban open spaces have escaped the worst of the pesticide revolution, and they
are an intimate mosaic of interconnected habitats. Over the years, the cutting down of hedgerows on
farmland has contributed to habitat isolation and species loss. In towns, the tangle of canals, railway
embankments, road verges and boundary hedges lace the landscape together, providing first-class
ecological corridors for species such as hedgehogs, kingfishers and dragonflies.
Urban parks and formal recreation grounds are valuable for some species, and many of them are
increasingly managed with wildlife in mind. But in many places their significance is eclipsed by the
huge legacy of post-industrial land demolished factories, waste tips, quarries, redundant railway
yards and other so-called ‘brownfield’ sites. In Merseyside, South Yorkshire and the West Midlands,
much of this has been spectacularly colonised with birch and willow woodland, herb-rich grassland
and shallow wetlands. As a consequence, there are song birds and predators in abundance over
these once-industrial landscapes.
There are fifteen million domestic gardens in the UK. and whilst some are still managed as lifeless
chemical war zones, most benefit the local wildlife, either through benign neglect or positive
encouragement. Those that do best tend to be woodland species, and the garden lawns and flower
borders, climber-covered fences, shrubberies and fruit trees are a plausible alternative. Indeed, in
some respects gardens are rather better than the real thing, especially with exotic flowers extending
the nectar season. Birdfeeders can also supplement the natural seed supply, and only the millions of
domestic cats may spoil the scene.
As Britain’s gardeners have embraced the idea of ‘gardening with nature’, wildlife’s response has
been spectacular. Between 1990 and the year 2000. the number of different bird species seen at
artificial feeders in gardens increased from 17 to an amazing 81. The BUGS project (Biodiversity in
Urban Gardens in Sheffield) calculates that there are 25.000 garden ponds and 100.000 nest boxes
in that one city alone.
We are at last acknowledging that the wildlife habitat in towns provides a valuable life support
system. The canopy of the urban forest is filtering air pollution, and intercepting rainstorms, allowing
the water to drip more gradually to the ground. Sustainable urban drainage relies on ponds and
wetlands to contain storm water runoff, thus reducing the risk of flooding, whilst reed beds and other
wetland wildlife communities also help to clean up the water. We now have scientific proof that
contact with wildlife close to home can help to reduce stress and anger. Hospital patients with a view
of natural green space make a more rapid recovery and suffer less pain.
Traditionally, nature conservation in the UK has been seen as marginal and largely rural. Now we
are beginning to place it at the heart of urban environmental and economic policy. There are now
dozens of schemes to create new habitats and restore old ones in and around our big cities.
Biodiversity is big in parts of London. thanks to schemes such as the London Wetland Centre in the
south west of the city.
This is a unique scheme masterminded by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust to create a wildlife
reserve out of a redundant Victorian reservoir. Within five years of its creation the Centre has been
hailed as one of the top sites for nature in England and made a Site of Special Scientific Interest. It
consists of a 105-acre wetland site, which is made up of different wetland habitats of shallow, open
water and grazing marsh. The site attracts more than 104 species of bird, including nationally
important rarities like the bittern.
We need to remember that if we work with wildlife, then wildlife will work for us and this is the very
essence of sustainable development.
Questions 1-6
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2?
1 There is now more wildlife in UK cities than in the countryside.
2 Rural wildlife has been reduced by the use of pesticides on farms.
3 In the past, hedges on farms used to link up different habitats.
4 New urban environments are planned to provide ecological corridors for wildlife.
5 Public parks and gardens are being expanded to encourage wildlife.
6 Old industrial wastelands have damaged wildlife habitats in urban areas.
Questions 7-10
Answer the questions below, using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from
the passage for each answer.
7 Which type of wildlife benefits most from urban gardens?
8 What type of garden plants can benefit birds and insects?
9 What represents a threat to wildlife in urban gardens?
10 At the last count, how many species of bird were spotted in urban gardens?
Questions 11-13
Choose THREE letters A-G.
In which THREE ways can wildlife habitats benefit people living in urban areas?
A They can make the cities greener.
B They can improve the climate.
C They can promote human well-being.
D They can extend the flowering season.
E They can absorb excess water.
F They can attract wildlife.
G They can help clean the urban atmosphere.
Questions 14
Choose the correct answer, A, B, C or D.
14 The writer believes that sustainable development is dependent on
A urban economic policy.
B large restoration schemes.
C active nature conservation.
D government projects.
Solution for: THE WILD SIDE OF TOWN
Answer Table
1. NOT GIVEN 8. exotic flowers
2. TRUE 9. (domestic) cats
3. TRUE 10. 81
4. NOT GIVEN 11. C, E, G (IN ANY ORDER)
5. NOT GIVEN 12. C, E,G (IN ANY ORDER)
6. FALSE 13. C, E, G (IN ANY ORDER)
7. woodland species 14. C

Dirty River But Clean Water
Floods can occur in rivers when the flow rate exceeds the capacity of the river channel, particularly
at bends or meanders in the waterway. Floods often cause damage to homes and businesses if they
are in the natural flood plains of rivers. While riverine flood damage can be eliminated by moving
away from rivers and other bodies of water, people have traditionally lived and worked by rivers
because the land is usually flat and fertile and because rivers provide easy travel and access to
commerce and industry.
A Fire and flood are two of humanity’s worst nightmares. People have,therefore,always sought to
control them. Forest fires are snuffed out quickly. The flow of rivers is regulated by weirs and dams.
At least, that is how it used to be. But foresters have learned that forests need fires to clear out the
brash and even to get seeds to germinate. And a similar revelation is now – dawning on
hydrologists. Rivers – and the ecosystems they support – need floods. That is why a man-made
torrent has been surging down the Grand Canyon. By Thursday March 6th it was running at full
throttle, which was expected to be sustained for 60 hours.
B Floods once raged through the canyon every year. Spring Snow from as far away as Wyoming
would melt and swell the Colorado river to a flow that averaged around 1,500 cubic metres (50,000
cubic feet) a second. Every eight years or so, that figure rose to almost 3,000 cubic metres. These
floods infused the river with sediment, carved its beaches and built its sandbars.
C However, in the four decades since the building of the Glen Canyon dam, just upstream of the
Grand Canyon, the only sediment that it has collected has come from tiny, undammed tributaries.
Even that has not been much use as those tributaries are not powerful enough to distribute the
sediment in an ecologically valuable way.
D This lack of flooding has harmed local wildlife. The humpback chub,for example, thrived in the
rust-redwaters of the Colorado. Recently, though, its population has crashed. At first sight, it looked
as if the reason was that the chub were being eaten by trout introduced for sport fishing in the mid-
20th century. But trout and chub co-existed until the Glen Canyon dam was built, so something else
is going on. Steve Gloss, of the United States’ Geological Survey (USGS), reckons that the chub’s
decline is the result of their losing their most valuable natural defense, the Colorado’s rusty
sediment. The chub were well adapted to the poor visibility created by the thick, red water which
gave the river its name, and depended on it to hide from predators. Without the cloudy water the
chub became vulnerable.
E And the chub are not alone. In the years since the Glen Canyon dam was built, several species
have vanished altogether. These include the Colorado pike-minnow, the razorback sucker and the
round-tail chub. Meanwhile, aliens including fathead minnows, channel catfish and common carp,
which would have been hard, put to survive in the savage waters of the undammed canyon, have
move din.
F So flooding is the obvious answer. Unfortunately, it is easier said than done. Floods were sent
down the Grand Canyon in 1996 and 2004 and the results were mixed. In 1996 the flood was
allowed to go on too long. To start with,all seemed well. The floodwaters built up sandbanks and
infused the river with sediment. Eventually, however, the continued flow washed most of the
sediment out of the canyon. This problem was avoided in 2004, but unfortunately, on that occasion,
the volume of sand available behind the dam was too low to rebuild the sandbanks. This time, the
USGS is convinced that things will be better. The amount of sediment available is three times
greater than it was in 2004. So if a flood is going to do some good, this is the time to unleash one.
G Even so, it may turn out to be an empty gesture. At less than 1,200 cubic metres a second, this
flood is smaller than even an average spring flood, let alone one of the mightier deluges of the past.
Those glorious inundations moved massive quantities of sediment through the Grand Canyon,wiping
the slate dirty, and making a muddy mess of silt and muck that would make modern river rafters
cringe.
Questions 1-7

1 Damage caused by fire is worse than that caused by flood.
2 The flood peaks at almost 1500 cubic meters every eight years.
3 Contribution of sediments delivered by tributaries has little impact.
4 Decreasing number of chubs is always caused by introducing of trout since mid 20th century.
5 It seemed that the artificial flood in 1996 had achieved success partly at the very beginning.
6 In fact, the yield of artificial flood water is smaller than an average natural flood at present.
7 Mighty floods drove fast moving flows with clean and high quality water.
Questions 8-13
The eco-impact of the Canyon Dam

Floods are people’s nightmare. In the past, canyon was raged by flood every year. The snow from
far Wyoming would melt in the season of 8 ……………….. and caused a flood flow peak in Colorado
river. In the four decades after people built the Glen Canyon dam, it only could
gather 9 ……………….. together from tiny, undammed tributaries.
Humpback chub population on reduced, why?
Then, several species disappeared including Colorado pike-minnow, 10……………….. and the
round-tail chub. Meanwhile, some moved in such as fathead minnows, channel catfish
and 11 ……………….. . The non-stopped flow leaded to the washing away of the sediment out of the
canyon, which poses great threat to the chubs because it has poor 12 ……………….. away from
predators. In addition, the volume of 13 available behind the dam was too low to rebuild the bars
and flooding became more serious.
Solution for: Dirty River But Clean Water
Answer Table
1. NOT GIVEN 8. spring
2. FALSE 9. sediment
3. TRUE 10. razorback sucker
4. FALSE 11. common carp
5. TRUE 12. visibility
6. TRUE 13. sand
7. NOT GIVEN
Making Every Drop Count
A
The history of human civilisation is entwined with the history of the ways we have learned to
manipulate water resources. As towns gradually expanded, water was brought from increasingly
remote sources, leading to sophisticated engineering efforts such as dams and aqueducts. At the
height of the Roman Empire, nine major systems, with an innovative layout of pipes and well-built
sewers, supplied the occupants of Rome with as much water per person as is provided in many
parts of the industrial world today.
B
During the industrial revolution and population explosion of the 19th and 20th centuries, the demand
for water rose dramatically. Unprecedented construction of tens of thousands of monumental
engineering projects designed to control floods, protect clean water supplies, and provide water for
irrigation and hydropower brought great benefits to hundreds of millions of people. Food production
has kept pace with soaring populations mainly because of the expansion of artificial
irrigation systems that make possible the growth of 40 % of the world’s food. Nearly one fifth of all
the electricity generated worldwide is produced by turbines spun by the power of falling water.
C
Yet there is a dark side to this picture: despite our progress, half of the world’s population still
suffers, with water services inferior to those available to the ancient Greeks and Romans. As the
United Nations report on access to water reiterated in November 2001, more than one billion people
lack access to clean drinking water; some two and a half billion do not have adequate sanitation
services. Preventable water-related diseases kill an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 children every day,
and the latest evidence suggests that we are falling behind in efforts to solve these problems.
D
The consequences of our water policies extend beyond jeopardising human health. Tens of millions
of people have been forced to move from their homes - often with little warning or compensation - to
make way for the reservoirs behind dams. More than 20 % of all freshwater fish species are now
threatened or endangered because dams and water withdrawals have destroyed the free-flowing
river ecosystems where they thrive. Certain irrigation practices degrade soil quality and
reduce agricultural productivity. Groundwater aquifers* are being pumped down faster than they are
naturally replenished in parts of India, China, the USA and elsewhere. And disputes over shared
water resources have led to violence and continue to raise local, national and even international
tensions.
*underground stores of water
E
At the outset of the new millennium, however, the way resource planners think about water is
beginning to change. The focus is slowly shifting back to the provision of basic human and
environmental needs as top priority - ensuring ‘some for all,’ instead of ‘more for some’. Some water
experts are now demanding that existing infrastructure be used in smarter ways rather than building
new facilities, which is increasingly considered the option of last, not first, resort. This shift in
philosophy has not been universally accepted, and it comes with strong opposition from
some established water organisations. Nevertheless, it may be the only way to address successfully
the pressing problems of providing everyone with clean water to drink, adequate water to grow food
and a life free from preventable water-related illness.
F
Fortunately - and unexpectedly - the demand for water is not rising as rapidly as some predicted. As
a result, the pressure to build new water infrastructures has diminished over the past two decades.
Although population, industrial output and economic productivity have continued to soar in
developed nations, the rate at which people withdraw water from aquifers, rivers and lakes has
slowed. And in a few parts of the world, demand has actually fallen.
G
What explains this remarkable turn of events? Two factors: people have figured out how to use
water more efficiently, and communities are rethinking their priorities for water use. Throughout the
first three-quarters of the 20th century, the quantity of freshwater consumed per person doubled on
average; in the USA, water withdrawals increased tenfold while the population quadrupled. But since
1980, the amount of water consumed per person has actually decreased, thanks to a range of new
technologies that help to conserve water in homes and industry. In 1965, for instance, Japan used
approximately 13 million gallons* of water to produce $1 million of commercial output; by 1989 this
had dropped to 3.5 million gallons (even accounting for inflation) - almost a quadrupling of water
productivity. In the USA, water withdrawals have fallen by more than 20 % from their peak in 1980.
H
On the other hand, dams, aqueducts and other kinds of infrastructure will still have to be built,
particularly in developing countries where basic human needs have not been met. But such projects
must be built to higher specifications and with more accountability to local people and their
environment than in the past. And even in regions where new projects seem warranted, we must find
ways to meet demands with fewer resources, respecting ecological criteria and to a smaller budget.
* 1 gallon: 4.546 litres
Questions 1-7
Reading Passage has seven paragraphs, A-H.
Choose the correct heading for paragraphs A and C-H from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number, i-xi, in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet.
List of Headings
i Scientists’ call for a revision of policy
ii An explanation for reduced water use
iii How a global challenge was met
iv Irrigation systems fall into disuse
v Environmental effects
vi The financial cost of recent technological improvements
vii The relevance to health
viii Addressing the concern over increasing populations
ix A surprising downward trend in demand for water
x The need to raise standards
xi A description of ancient water supplies
1 Paragraph A
Example Answer
Paragraph B iii
2 Paragraph C
3 Paragraph D
4 Paragraph E
5 Paragraph F
6 Paragraph G
7 Paragraph H
Questions 8-13
8 Water use per person is higher in the industrial world than it was in Ancient Rome.
9 Feeding increasing populations is possible due primarily to improved irrigation systems.
10 Modern water systems imitate those of the ancient Greeks and Romans.
11 Industrial growth is increasing the overall demand for water.
12 Modern technologies have led to a reduction in domestic water consumption.
13 In the future, governments should maintain ownership of water infrastructures.
Solution for: Making Every Drop Count
Answer Table
1. xi 8. NO
2. vii 9. YES
3. v 10. NOT GIVEN
4. i 11. NO
5. ix 12. YES
6. ii 13. NOT GIVEN
7. x
The Future of fish
The face of the ocean has changed completely since the first commercial fishers cast their nets and
hooks over a thousand years ago. Fisheries intensified over the centuries, but even by the
nineteenth century it was still felt, justifiably, that the plentiful resources of the sea were for the most
part beyond the reach of fishing, and so there was little need to restrict fishing or create protected
areas. The twentieth century heralded an escalation in fishing intensity that is unprecedented in the
history of the oceans, and modern fishing technologies leave fish no place to hide. Today, the only
refuges from fishing are those we deliberately create. Unhappily, the sea trails far behind the land in
terms of the area and the quality of protection given.
For centuries, as fishing and commerce have expanded, we have held onto the notion that the sea is
different from the land. We still view it as a place where people and nations should be free to come
and go at will, as well as somewhere that should be free for us to exploit. Perhaps this is why we
have been so reluctant to protect the sea. On land, protected areas have proliferated as human
populations have grown. Here, compared to the sea, we have made greater headway in our struggle
to maintain the richness and variety of wildlife and landscape. Twelve percent of the world’s land is
now contained in protected areas, whereas the corresponding figure for the sea is but three-fifths of
one percent. Worse still, most marine protected areas allow some fishing to continue. Areas off-limits
to all exploitation cover something like one five-thousandth of the total area of the world’s seas.
Today, we are belatedly coming to realise that ‘natural refuges’ from fishing have played a critical
role in sustaining fisheries, and maintaining healthy and diverse marine ecosystems. This does not
mean that marine reserves can rebuild fisheries on their own - other management measures are
also required for that. However, places that are off-limits to fishing constitute the last and most
important part of our package of reform for fisheries management. They underpin and enhance all
our other efforts. There are limits to protection though.
Reserves cannot bring back what has died out. We can never resurrect globally extinct species, and
restoring locally extinct animals may require reintroductions from elsewhere, if natural dispersal from
remaining populations is insufficient. We are also seeing, in cases such as northern cod in Canada,
that fishing can shift marine ecosystems into different states, where different mixes of species
prevail. In many cases, these species are less desirable, since the prime fishing targets have gone
or are much reduced in numbers, and changes may be difficult to reverse, even with a complete
moratorium on fishing. The Mediterranean sailed by Ulysses, the legendary king of ancient Greece,
supported abundant monk seals, loggerhead turtles and porpoises. Their disappearance through
hunting and overfishing has totally restructured food webs, and recovery is likely to be much harder
to achieve than their destruction was. This means that the sooner we act to protect marine life, the
more certain will be our success.
To some people, creating marine reserves is an admission of failure. According to their logic,
reserves should not be necessary if we have done our work properly in managing the uses we make
of the sea. Many fisheries managers are still wedded to the idea that one day their models will work,
and politicians will listen to their advice. Just give the approach time, and success will be theirs. How
much time have we got? This approach has been tried and refined for the last 50 years. There have
been few successes which to feather the managers’ caps, but a growing litany of failure. The
Common Fisheries Policy, the European Union’s instrument for the management of fisheries and
aquaculture, exemplifies the worst pitfalls: flawed models, flawed advice, watered-down
recommendations from government bureaucrats and then the disregard of much of this advice by
politicians. When it all went wrong, as it inevitably had to, Europe sent its boats to other countries in
order to obtain fish for far less than they were actually worth.
We are squandering the wealth of oceans. If we don’t break out of this cycle of failure, humanity will
lose a key source of protein, and much more besides. Disrupting natural ecosystem processes, such
as water purification, nutrient cycling, and carbon storage, could have ramifications for human life
itself. We can go a long way to avoiding this catastrophic mistake with simple common sense
management. Marine reserves lie at the heart of the reform. But they will not be sufficient if they are
implemented only here and there to shore up the crumbling edifice of the ‘rational fisheries
management’ envisioned by scientists in the 1940s and 1950s. They have to be placed centre stage
as a fundamental underpinning for everything we do in the oceans. Reserves are a first resort, not a
final resort when all else fails.
Questions 1-5
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 3? Write
1 It is more than a thousand years since people started to catch fish for commercial use.
2 In general, open access to the oceans is still regarded as desirable.
3 Sea fishing is now completely banned in the majority of protected areas.
4 People should be encouraged to reduce the amount of fish they eat.
5 The re-introduction of certain mammals to the Mediterranean is a straightforward task.
Questions 6-8
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
6 What does the writer mean with the question, ‘How much time have we got?’ in the fifth
paragraph?
A Fisheries policies are currently based on uncertain estimates.
B Accurate predictions will allow governments to plan properly.
C Fisheries managers should provide clearer information.
D Action to protect fish stocks is urgently needed.
7 What is the writer’s comment on the Common Fisheries Policy?

A Measures that it advocated were hastily implemented.
B Officials exaggerated some of its recommendations.
C It was based on predictions which were inaccurate.
D The policy makers acquired a good reputation.
8 What is the writer’s conclusion concerning the decline of marine resources?

A The means of avoiding the worst outcomes needs to be prioritised.
B Measures already taken to avoid a crisis are probably sufficient.
C The situation is now so severe that there is no likely solution.
D It is no longer clear which measures would be most effective.
Questions 9-14
Complete the summary using the list of words/phrases, A-J, below.
Measures to protect the oceans

Up till the twentieth century the world’s supply of fish was sufficient for its needs.
It was unnecessary to introduce 9 ……………….. of any kind, because large areas of the oceans
were inaccessible.
However, as 10 ……………….. improved, this situation changed, and in the middle of the twentieth
century, policies were introduced to regulate 11 ……………….. .
These policies have not succeeded. Today, by comparison with 12 ……………….. the oceans have
very little legal protection.
Despite the doubts that many officials have about the concept of 13 ……………….. , these should
be at the heart of any action taken.
The consequences of further 14 ……………….. are very serious, and may even affect our
continuing existence.
A action
B controls
C failure
D fish catches
E fish processing
F fishing techniques
G large boats
H marine reserves
I the land
J the past
Solution for: The Future of fish
Answer Table
1. YES 8. A
2. YES 9. B
3. NO 10. F
4. NOT GIVEN 11. D
5. NO 12. I
6. D 13. H
7. C 14. C
What Do Whales Feel?
An examination of the functioning of the senses in cetaceans, the group of mammals

comprising whales, dolphins and porpoises
Some of the senses that we and other terrestrial mammals take for granted are either reduced or
absent in cetaceans or fail to function well in water. For example, it appears from their brain structure
that toothed species are unable to smell. Baleen species, on the other hand, appear to have some
related brain structures but it is not known whether these are functional. It has been speculated that,
as the blowholes evolved and migrated to the top of the head, the neural pathways serving sense of
smell may have been nearly all sacrificed. Similarly, although at least some cetaceans have taste
buds, the nerves serving these have degenerated or are rudimentary.
The sense of touch has sometimes been described as weak too, but this view is probably mistaken.
Trainers of captive dolphins and small whales often remark on their animals’ responsiveness to
being touched or rubbed, and both captive and free- ranging cetacean individuals of all species
(particularly adults and calves, or members of the same subgroup) appear to make frequent contact.
This contact may help to maintain order within a group, and stroking or touching are part of the
courtship ritual in most species. The area around the blowhole is also particularly sensitive and
captive animals often object strongly to being touched there.
The sense of vision is developed to different degrees in different species. Baleen species studied at
close quarters underwater - specifically a grey whale calf in captivity for a year, and free-ranging
right whales and humpback whales studied and filmed off Argentina and Hawaii - have obviously
tracked objects with vision underwater, and they can apparently see moderately well both in water
and in air. However, the position of the eyes so restricts the field of vision in baleen whales that they
probably do not have stereoscopic vision.
On the other hand, the position of the eyes in most dolphins and porpoises suggests that they have
stereoscopic vision forward and downward. Eye position in freshwater dolphins, which often swim on
their side or upside down while feeding, suggests that what vision they have is stereoscopic forward
and upward. By comparison, the bottlenose dolphin has extremely keen vision in water. Judging
from the way it watches and tracks airborne flying fish, it can apparently see fairly well through the
air-water interface as well. And although preliminary experimental evidence suggests that their in-air
vision is poor, the accuracy with which dolphins leap high to take small fish out of a trainer’s hand
provides anecdotal evidence to the contrary.
Such variation can no doubt be explained with reference to the habitats in which individual species
have developed. For example, vision is obviously more useful to species inhabiting clear open
waters than to those living in turbid rivers and flooded plains. The South American boutu and
Chinese beiji, for instance, appear to have very limited vision, and the Indian susus are blind, their
eyes reduced to slits that probably allow them to sense only the direction and intensity of light.
Although the senses of taste and smell appear to have deteriorated, and vision in water appears to
be uncertain, such weaknesses are more than compensated for by cetaceans’ well-developed
acoustic sense. Most species are highly vocal, although they vary in the range of sounds they
produce, and many forage for food using echolocation1. Large baleen whales primarily use the lower
frequencies and are often limited in their repertoire. Notable exceptions are the nearly song-like
choruses of bowhead whales in summer and the complex, haunting utterances of the humpback
whales. Toothed species in general employ more of the frequency spectrum, and produce a wider
variety of sounds, than baleen species (though the sperm whale apparently produces a monotonous
series of high-energy clicks and little else). Some of the more complicated sounds are clearly
communicative, although what role they may play in the social life and ‘culture’ of cetaceans has
been more the subject of wild speculation than of solid science.
Questions 1-7
Complete the table below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from Reading Passage for each answer.
SENSE SPECIES ABILITY COMMENTS

toothed no evidence from brain structure
Smell
baleen not certain related brain structures are present
nerves linked to their 1 ……………….. are

Taste some types poor
underdeveloped
Touch all yes region around the blowhole very sensitive
2 ……………….. yes probably do not have stereoscopic vision
dolphins,
yes probably have stereoscopic vision 3 ………………..
porpoises
probably have stereoscopic vision forward and

4 ……………….. yes
upward
Vision
bottlenose exceptional in 5 ……………….. and good
yes
dolphin in air-water interface
boutu and beiji poor have limited vision
Indian susu no probably only sense direction and intensity of light
usually use 6 ……………….. ;

most large baleen yes
repertoire limited
Hearing
7 ………………..
yes song-like
whales and
humpback
whales
use more of frequency spectrum; have wider

toothed yes
repertoire
Questions 8-12
Answer the questions below using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each
answer.
8 Which of the senses is described here as being involved in mating?

9 Which species swims upside down while eating?
10 What can bottlenose dolphins follow from under the water?
11 Which type of habitat is related to good visual ability?
12 Which of the senses is best developed in cetaceans?
Solution for: What Do Whales Feel?
Answer Table
1. taste buds 7. bowhead
2. baleen/the baleen whales 8. touch/sense of touch
3. IN EITHER ORDER; BOTH REQUIRED FOR 9. freshwater dolphin(s)/the freshwater dolphin(s)

ONE MARK forward (and) downward
4. freshwater dolphin(s)/the freshwater dolphin(s) 10. airborne flying fish
5. water/the water 11. clear water(s)/clear open water(s)
6. lower frequencies/ the lower frequencies 12. acoustic sense/the acoustic sense
The Rufous Hare-Wallaby
The Rufous Hare-Wallaby is a species of Australian kangaroo, usually known by its Aboriginal name,
‘mala’. At one time, there may have been as many as ten million of these little animals across the
arid and semi-arid landscape of Australia, but their populations, like those of so many other small
endemic species, were devastated when cats and foxes were introduced - indeed, during the 1950s
it was thought that the mala was extinct. But in 1964, a small colony was found 450 miles northwest
of Alice Springs in the Tanami Desert. And 12 years later, a second small colony was found nearby.
Very extensive surveys were made throughout historical mala range - but no other traces were
found.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, scientists from the Parks and Wildlife Commission of the Northern
Territory monitored these two populations. At first it seemed that they were holding their own. Then
in late 1987, every one of the individuals of the second and smaller of the wild colonies was killed.
From examination of the tracks in the sand, it seemed that just one single fox had been responsible.
And then, in October 1991, a wild-fire destroyed the entire area occupied by the remaining colony.
Thus the mala was finally pronounced extinct in the wild.
Fortunately, ten years earlier, seven individuals had been captured, and had become the founders of
a captive breeding programme at the Arid Zone Research Institute in Alice Springs; and that group
had thrived. Part of this success is due to the fact that the female can breed when she is just five
months old and can produce up to three young a year. Like other kangaroo species, the mother
carries her young - known as a joey - in her pouch for about 15 weeks, and she can have more than
one joey at the same time.
In the early 1980s, there were enough mala in the captive population to make it feasible to start a
reintroduction programme. But first it was necessary to discuss this with the leaders of the Yapa
people. Traditionally, the mala had been an important animal in their culture, with strong medicinal
powers for old people. It had also been an important food source, and there were concerns that any
mala returned to the wild would be killed for the pot. And so, in 1980, a group of key Yapa men was
invited to visit the proposed reintroduction area. The skills and knowledge of the Yapa would play a
significant and enduring role in this and all other mala projects.
With the help of the local Yapa, an electric fence was erected around 250 acres of suitable habitat,
about 300 miles'northwest of Alice Springs so that the mala could adapt while protected from
predators. By 1992, there were about 150 mala in their enclosure, which became known as the Mala
Paddock. However, all attempts to reintroduce mala from the paddocks into the unfenced wild were
unsuccessful, so in the end the reintroduction programme was abandoned. The team now faced a
situation where mala could be bred, but not released into the wild again.
Thus, in 1993, a Mala Recovery Team was established to boost mala numbers, and goals for a new
programme were set: the team concentrated on finding suitable predator-free or predator-controlled
conservation sites within the mala’s known range. Finally, in March 1999, twelve adult females, eight
adult males, and eight joeys were transferred from the Mala Paddock to Dryandra Woodland in
Western Australia. Then, a few months later, a second group was transferred to Trimouille, an island
off the coast of western Australia. First, it had been necessary to rid the island of rats and cats - a
task that had taken two years of hard work.
Six weeks after their release into this conservation site, a team returned to the island to find out how
things were going. Each of the malas had been fitted with a radio collar that transmits for about 14
months, after which it falls off. The team was able to locate 29 out of the 30 transmitters - only one
came from the collar of a mala that had died of unknown causes. So far the recovery programme
had gone even better than expected.
Today, there are many signs suggesting that the mala population on the island is continuing to do
well.
Questions 1-5
Complete the flow chart below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each
answer.
The Wild Australian mala

Distant past: total population of up to 1 ………………. in desert and semi-desert regions.
Populations of malas were destroyed by 2 ……………….
1964/1976: two surviving colonies were discovered.
Scientists 3 ………………. the colonies.
1987: one of the colonies was completely destroyed.
1991: the other colony was destroyed by 4 ……………….
The wild mala was declared 5 ……………….
Questions 6-9
Answer the questions below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each
answer.
6 At what age can female malas start breeding?
7 For about how long do young malas stay inside their mother’s pouch?
8 Apart from being a food source, what value did malas have for the Yapa people?
9 What was the Yapa’s lasting contribution to the mala reintroduction programme?
Questions 10-13
Write
10 Natural defences were sufficient to protect the area called Mala Paddock.
11 Scientists eventually gave up their efforts to release captive mala into the unprotected wild.
12 The mala population which was transferred to Dryandra Woodland quickly increased in size.
13 Scientists were satisfied with the initial results of the recovery programme.
Solution for: The Rufous Hare-Wallaby
Answer Table
1. 10/ten million 8. (strong) medicinal powers
2. cats and foxes/ foxes and cats 9. skills and knowledge
3. monitored 10. FALSE
4. fire 11. TRUE
5. extinct 12. NOT GIVEN
6. 5/five months 13. TRUE
7. 15/fifteen weeks
IT’S ECO-LOGICAL
Planning an eco-friendly holiday can be a minefield for the well- meaning traveller, says Steve
Watkins. But help is now at hand.
If there were awards for tourism phrases that have been hijacked, diluted and misused then
‘ecotourism’ would earn top prize. The term first surfaced in the early 1980s reflecting a surge in
environmental awareness and a realisation by tour operators that many travellers wanted to believe
their presence abroad would not have a negative impact. It rapidly became the hottest marketing tag
a holiday could carry.
These days the ecotourism label is used to cover anything from a two-week tour living with remote
Indonesian tribes, to a one-hour motorboat trip through an Australian gorge. In fact, any tour that
involves cultural interaction, natural beauty spots, wildlife or a dash of soft adventure is likely to be
included in the overflowing ecotourism folder. There is no doubt the original motives behind the
movement were honourable attempts to provide a way for those who cared to make informed
choices, but the lack of regulations and a standard industry definition left many travellers lost in an
ecotourism jungle.
It is easier to understand why the ecotourism market has become so overcrowded when we look at
its wider role in the world economy. According to World Tourism Organisation figures, ecotourism is
worth US$20 billion a year and makes up one-fifth of all international tourism. Add to this an annual
growth rate of around five per cent and the pressure for many operators, both in developed and
developing countries, to jump on the accelerating bandwagon is compelling. Without any widely
recognised accreditation system, the consumer has been left to investigate the credentials of an
operator themselves. This is a time-consuming process and many travellers usually take an
operator’s claims at face value, only adding to the proliferation of fake ecotours.
However, there are several simple questions that will provide qualifying evidence of a company’s
commitment to minimise its impact on the environment and maximise the benefits to the tourism
area’s local community. For example, does the company use recycled or sustainable, locally
harvested materials to build its tourist properties? Do they pay fair wages to all employees? Do they
offer training to employees? It is common for city entrepreneurs to own tour companies in country
areas, which can mean the money you pay ends up in the city rather than in the community being
visited. By taking a little extra time to investigate the ecotourism options, it is not only possible to
guide your custom to worthy operators but you will often find that the experience they offer is far
more rewarding.
The ecotourism business is still very much in need of a shake-up and a standardised approach.
There are a few organisations that have sprung up in the last ten years or so that endeavour to
educate travellers and operators about the benefits of responsible ecotourism. Founded in 1990, the
Ecotourism Society (TES) is a non-profit organisation of travel industry, conservation and ecological
professionals, which aims to make ecotourism a genuine tool for conservation and sustainable
development. Helping to create inherent economic value in wilderness environments and threatened
cultures has undoubtedly been one of the ecotourism movement’s most notable achievements. TES
organises an annual initiative to further aid development of the ecotourism industry. This year it is
launching ‘Your Travel Choice Makes a Difference’, an educational campaign aimed at helping
consumers understand the potential positive and negative impacts of their travel decisions. TES also
offers guidance on the choice of ecotour and has established a register of approved ecotourism
operators around the world.
A leading ecotourism operator in the United Kingdom is Tribes, which won the 1999 Tourism
Concern and Independent Traveller’s World ‘Award for Most Responsible Tour Operator’. Amanda
Marks, owner and director of Tribes, believes that the ecotourism industry still has some way to go to
get its house in order. Until now, no ecotourism accreditation scheme has really worked, principally
because there has been no systematic way of checking that accredited companies actually comply
with the code of practice. Amanda believes that the most promising system is the recently re-
launched Green Globe 21 scheme. The Green Globe 21 award is based on the sustainable
development standards contained in Agenda 21 from the 1992 Earth Summit and was originally
coordinated by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC). The scheme is now an independent
concern, though the WTTC still supports it. Until recently, tour companies became affiliates and
could use the Green Globe logo merely on payment of an annual fee, hardly a suitable qualifying
standard. However, in November 1999 Green Globe 21 introduced an annual, independent check on
operators wishing to use the logo.
Miriam Cain, from the Green Globe 21 marketing development, explains that current and new
affiliates will now have one year to ensure that their operations comply with Agenda 21 standards. If
they fail the first inspection, they can only reapply once. The inspection process is not a cheap
option, especially for large companies, but the benefits of having Green Globe status and the
potential operational cost savings that complying with the standards can bring should be significant.
‘We have joint ventures with organisations around the world, including Australia and the Caribbean,
that will allow us to effectively check all affiliate operators,’ says Miriam. The scheme also allows
destination communities to become Green Globe 21 approved.
For a relatively new industry it is not surprising that ecotourism has undergone teething pains.
However, there are signs that things are changing for the better. With a committed and unified
approach by the travel industry, local communities, travellers and environmental experts could make
ecotourism a tag to be proud of and trusted.
Questions 1-6
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 2?
YES if the statement agrees with the writer’s views
NO if the statement contradicts the writer’s views
1 The term ‘ecotourism’ has become an advertising gimmick.
2 The intentions of those who coined the term ‘ecotourism’ were sincere.
3 Ecotourism is growing at a faster rate than any other type of travel.
4 It is surprising that so many tour organisations decided to become involved in ecotourism.
5 Tourists have learnt to make investigations about tour operators before using them.
6 Tourists have had bad experiences on ecotour holidays.
Questions 7-9
According to the information given in the reading passage, which THREE of the following are true of
the Ecotourism Society (TES)?
Write the appropriate letters A-F in boxes 7-9 on your answer sheet.
A It has monitored the growth in ecotourism.
B It involves a range of specialists in the field.
C It has received public recognition for the role it performs.
D It sets up regular ecotour promotions.
E It offers information on ecotours at an international level.
F It consults with people working in tourist destinations
Questions 10-11
According to the information given in the reading passage, which TWO of the following are true of
the Green Globe 21 award?
Write the appropriate letters A-D in boxes 10-11 on your answer sheet.
A The scheme is self-regulating.
B Amanda Marks was recruited to develop the award.
C Prior to 1999 companies were not required to pay for membership.
D Both tour operators and tour sites can apply for affiliation.
E It intends to reduce the number of ecotour operators.
Questions 12-14
Using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS, answer the following questions.
12 Which body provides information on global tourist numbers?
13 Who often gains financially from tourism in rural environments?
14 Which meeting provided the principles behind the Green Globe 21 regulations?
Solution for: IT’S ECO-LOGICAL
Answer Table
1. YES 8. B OR D OR E IN EITHER ORDER
2. YES 9. B OR D OR E IN EITHER ORDER
3. NOT GIVEN 10. A OR D IN EITHER ORDER
4. NO 11. A OR D IN EITHER ORDER
5. NO 12. World Tourism Organisation
6. NOT GIVEN 13. city entrepreneurs
7. B OR D OR E IN EITHER ORDER 14. 1992 Earth Summit

Honey bees in trouble
Can native pollinators fill the gap?

A Recently, ominous headlines have described a mysterious ailment, colony collapse disorder(CCD)
，that is wiping out the honeybees that pollinate many crops. Without honeybees, the story goes,
fields will be sterile, economies will collapse, and food will be scarce.
B But what few accounts acknowledge is that what’s at risk is not itself a natural state of affairs. For
one thing, in the United States, where CCD was first reported and has had its greatest impacts,
honeybees are not a native species. Pollination in modem agriculture isn’t alchemy, it’s industry. The
total number of hives involved in the U.S. pollination industry has been somewhere between 2.5
million and 3 million in recent years. Meanwhile, American farmers began using large quantities of
organophosphate insecticides, planted large-scale crop monocultures, and adopted “clean farming”
practices that scrubbed native vegetation from field margins and roadsides. These practices killed
many native bees outright—they’re as vulnerable to insecticides as any agricultural pest—and made
the agricultural landscape inhospitable to those that remained. Concern about these practices and
their effects on pollinators isn’t new—in her 1962 ecological alarm cry Silent Spring, Rachel Carson
warned of a ‘Fruitless Fall’ that could result from the disappearance of insect pollinators.
C If that ‘Fruitless Fall, has not—yet—occurred, it may be largely thanks to the honeybee, which
farmers turned to as the ability of wild pollinators to service crops declined. The honeybee has been
semi-domesticated since the time of the ancient Egyptians, but it wasn’t just familiarity that
determined this choice: the bees’ biology is in many ways suited to the kind of agricultural system
that was emerging. For example, honeybee hives can be closed up and moved out of the way when
pesticides are applied to a field. The bees are generalist pollinators, so they can be used to pollinate
many different crops. And although they are not the most efficient pollinator of every crop,
honeybees have strength in numbers, with 20,000 to 100,000 bees living in a single hive. “Without a
doubt, if there was one bee you wanted for agriculture, it would be the honeybee, “says Jim Cane, of
the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The honeybee, in other words, has become a crucial cog in the
modem system of industrial agriculture. That system delivers more food, and more kinds of it, to
more places, more cheaply than ever before. But that system is also vulnerable, because making a
farm field into the photosynthetic equivalent of a factory floor, and pollination into a series of
continent-long assembly lines, also leaches out some of the resilience characteristic of natural
ecosystems.
D Breno Freitas, an agronomist, pointed out that in nature such a high degree of specialization
usually is a very dangerous game: it works well while all the rest is in equilibrium, but runs quickly to
extinction at the least disbalance. In effect, by developing an agricultural system that is heavily
reliant on a single pollinator species, we humans have become riskily overspecialized. And when the
human-honeybee relationship is disrupted, as it has been by colony collapse disorder, the
vulnerability of that agricultural system begins to become clear.
E In fact, a few wild bees are already being successfully managed for crop pollination. “The problem
is trying to provide native bees in adequate numbers on a reliable basis in a fairly short number of
years in order to service the crop，” Jim Cane says. “You’re talking millions of flowers per acre in a
two-to three-week time frame, or less, for a lot of crops.” On the other hand, native bees can be
much more efficient pollinators of certain crops than honeybees, so you don’t need as many to do
the job. For example, about 750 blue orchard bees (Osmia lignaria) can pollinate a hectare of apples
or almonds, a task that would require roughly 50,000 to 150,000 honeybees. There are bee tinkerers
engaged in similar work in many comers of the world. In Brazil, Breno Freitas has found that Centris
tarsata, the native pollinator of wild cashew, can survive in commercial cashew orchards if growers
provide a source of floral oils, such as by interplanting their cashew trees with Caribbean cherry.
F In certain places, native bees may already be doing more than they’re getting credit for. Ecologist
Rachael Winfree recently led a team that looked at pollination of four summer crops (tomato,
watermelon, peppers, and muskmelon) at 29 farms in the region of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Winfiree’s team identified 54 species of wild bees that visited these crops, and found that wild bees
were the most important pollinators in the system: even though managed honeybees were present
on many of the farms, wild bees were responsible for 62 percent of flower visits in the study. In
another study focusing specifically on watermelon, Winfree and her colleagues calculated that native
bees alone could provide sufficient pollination at 90 percent of the 23 farms studied. By contrast,
honeybees alone could provide sufficient pollination at only 78 percent of farms.
G “The region I work in is not typical of the way most food is produced，” Winfree admits. In the
Delaware Valley, most farms and farm fields are relatively small, each fanner typically grows a
variety of crops, and farms are interspersed with suburbs and other types of land use which means
there are opportunities for homeowners to get involved in bee conservation, too. The landscape is a
bee-friendly patchwork that provides a variety of nesting habitat and floral resources distributed
among different kinds of crops, weedy field margins, fallow fields, suburban neighborhoods, and
semi natural habitat like old woodlots, all at a relatively small scale. In other words, ’’pollinator-
friendly” farming practices would not only aid pollination of agricultural crops, but also serve as a key
element in the over all conservation strategy for wild pollinators, and often aid other wild species as
well.
H Of course, not all farmers will be able to implement all of these practices. And researchers are
suggesting a shift to a kind of polyglot agricultural system. For some small-scale farms, native bees
may indeed be all that’s needed. For larger operations, a suite of managed bees—with honeybees
filling the generalist role and other, native bees pollinating specific crops—could be augmented by
free pollination services from resurgent wild pollinators. In other words, they’re saying, we still have
an opportunity to replace a risky monoculture with something diverse, resilient, and robust.
Questions 1-4
YES - if the statement agrees with the information
NO - if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN - if there is no information on this
1 In the United States, farmers use honeybees in a large scale over the past few years
2 Cleaning farming practices would be harmful to farmers’
3 The blue orchard bee is the most efficient pollinator among native bees for every crop
4 It is beneficial to other local creatures to protect native bees
Questions 5-9
Choose the correct letter, A,B,C or D.
5. The example of the ‘Fruitless Fair underlines the writer’s point about
A needs for using pesticides.
B impacts of losing insect pollinators.
C vulnerabilities of native bees.
D benefits in building more pollination industries.
6. Why can honeybees adapt to the modem agricultural system?

A the honeybees can pollinated more crops efficiently
B The bees are semi-domesticated since ancient times.
C Honeybee hives can be protected away from pesticides.
D The ability of wild pollinators using to serve crops declines.
7. The writer mentions factories and assembly lines to illustrate

A one drawback of the industrialised agricultural system.
B a low cost in modem agriculture.
C the role of honeybees in pollination.
D what a high yield of industrial agriculture.
8. In the 6th paragraph，Wlnfree’s experiment proves that

A honeybee can pollinate various crops.
B there are many types of wild bees as the pollinators.
C the wild bees can increase the yield to a higher percentage
D wild bees work more efficiently as a pollinator than honey bees in certain cases
9. What does the writer want to suggest in the last paragraph?

A the importance of honey bees in pollination
B adoption of different bees in various sizes of agricultural system
C the comparison between the intensive and the rarefied agricultural system
D the reason why farmers can rely on native pollinators
Questions 10-14
Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-F, below.
Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 10-14 on your answer sheet
10 Headline of colony collapse disorder states that

11 Viewpoints of Freitas manifest that
12 Examples of blue orchard bees have shown that
13 Centris tarsata is mentioned to exemplify that
14 One finding of the research in Delaware Valley is that
A. native pollinators can survive when a specific plant is supplied.

B. it would cause severe consequences both to commerce and agriculture.
C. honey bees cannot be bred.
D. some agricultural landscapes are favorable in supporting wild bees.
E. a large scale of honey bees are needed to pollinate.
F. an agricultural system is fragile when relying on a single pollinator
Solution for: Honey bees in trouble
Answer Table
1. YES 8. D
2. NOT GIVEN 9. B
3. NO 10. B
4. YES 11. F
5. B 12. E
6. C 13. A
7. A 14. D
Zoo conservation programmes
One of London Zoo’s recent advertisements caused me some irritation, so patently did it distort
reality. Headlined “Without zoos you might as well tell these animals to get stuffed”, it was bordered
with illustrations of several endangered species and went on to extol the myth that without zoos like
London Zoo these animals “will almost certainly disappear forever”. With the zoo world’s rather
mediocre record on conservation, one might be forgiven for being slightly sceptical about such an
advertisement.
Zoos were originally created as places of entertainment, and their suggested involvement with
conservation didn’t seriously arise until about 30 years ago, when the Zoological Society of London
held the first formal international meeting on the subject. Eight years later, a series of world
conferences took place, entitled “The Breeding of Endangered Species”, and from this point onwards
conservation became the zoo community’s buzzword. This commitment has now been clear defined
in The World Zoo Conservation Strategy (WZGS, September 1993), which although an important
and welcome document does seem to be based on an unrealistic optimism about the nature of the
zoo industry.
The WZCS estimates that there are about 10,000 zoos in the world, of which around 1,000 represent
a core of quality collections capable of participating in coordinated conservation programmes. This is
probably the document’s first failing, as I believe that 10,000 is a serious underestimate of the total
number of places masquerading as zoological establishments. Of course it is difficult to get accurate
data but, to put the issue into perspective, I have found that, in a year of working in Eastern Europe,
I discover fresh zoos on almost a weekly basis.
The second flaw in the reasoning of the WZCS document is the naive faith it places in its 1,000 core
zoos. One would assume that the calibre of these institutions would have been carefully examined,
but it appears that the criterion for inclusion on this select list might merely be that the zoo is a
member of a zoo federation or association. This might be a good starting point, working on the
premise that members must meet certain standards, but again the facts don’t support the theory.
The greatly respected American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums (AAZPA) has had
extremely dubious members, and in the UK the Federation of Zoological Gardens of Great Britain
and Ireland has occasionally had members that have been roundly censured in the national press.
These include Robin Hill Adventure Park on the Isle of Wight, which many considered the most
notorious collection of animals in the country. This establishment, which for years was protected by
the Isle’s local council (which viewed it as a tourist amenity), was finally closed down following a
damning report by a veterinary inspector appointed under the terms of the Zoo Licensing Act 1981.
As it was always a collection of dubious repute, one is obliged to reflect upon the standards that the
Zoo Federation sets when granting membership. The situation is even worse in developing countries
where little money is available for redevelopment and it is hard to see a way of incorporating
collections into the overall scheme of the WZCS.
Even assuming that the WZCS’s 1,000 core zoos are all of a high standard complete with scientific
staff and research facilities, trained and dedicated keepers, accommodation that permits normal or
natural behaviour, and a policy of co-operating fully with one another what might be the potential for
conservation? Colin Tudge, author of Last Animals at the Zoo (Oxford University Press, 1992),
argues that “if the world”s zoos worked together in co-operative breeding programmes, then even
without further expansion they could save around 2,000 species of endangered land vertebrates’.
This seems an extremely optimistic proposition from a man who must be aware of the failings and
weaknesses of the zoo industry the man who, when a member of the council of London Zoo, had to
persuade the zoo to devote more of its activities to conservation. Moreover, where are the facts to
support such optimism?
Today approximately 16 species might be said to have been “saved” by captive breeding
programmes, although a number of these can hardly be looked upon as resounding successes.
Beyond that, about a further 20 species are being seriously considered for zoo conservation
programmes. Given that the international conference at London Zoo was held 30 years ago, this is
pretty slow progress, and a long way off Tudge’s target of 2,000.
Questions 1-7
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage? In boxes 1-
7 write
YES if the statement agrees with the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the writer
Example Answer
London Zoo’s advertisements are poorly presented. NOT GIVEN
1 London Zoo’s advertisements are dishonest.
2 Zoos made an insignificant contribution to conservation up until 30 years ago.
3 The WZCS document is not known in Eastern Europe.
4 Zoos in the WZCS select list were carefully inspected.
5 No-one knew how the animals were being treated at Robin Hill Adventure Park.
6 Colin Tudge was dissatisfied with the treatment of animals at London Zoo.
7 The number of successful zoo conservation programmes is unsatisfactory.
Questions 8-10
8 What were the objectives of the WZCS document?
A to improve the calibre of zoos world-wide
B to identify zoos suitable for conservation practice
C to provide funds for zoos in underdeveloped countries
D to list the endangered species of the world
9 Why does the writer refer to Robin Hill Adventure Park?

A to support the Isle of Wight local council
B to criticise the 1981 Zoo Licensing Act
C to illustrate a weakness in the WZCS document
D to exemplify the standards in AAZPA zoos
10 What word best describes the writer’s response to Colin Tudges’ prediction on captive breeding
programmes?
A disbelieving
B impartial
C prejudiced
D accepting
Questions 11-13
The writer mentions a number of factors which lead him to doubt the value of the WZCS document
Which THREE of the following factors are mentioned? Write your answers (A-F) in boxes 11-13 on
your answer sheet.
List of Factors
A the number of unregistered zoos in the world
B the lack of money in developing countries
C the actions of the Isle of Wight local council
D the failure of the WZCS to examine the standards of the “core zoos”
E the unrealistic aim of the WZCS in view of the number of species “saved” to date
F the policies of WZCS zoo managers
Solution for: Zoo conservation programmes
Answer Table
1. YES 8. B
2. YES 9. C
3. NOT GIVEN 10. A
4. NO 11. A/D/E
5. NO 12. A/D/E
6. NOT GIVEN 13. A/D/E
7. YES
The Impact of the Potato
Jeff Chapman relates the story of history the most important vegetable
A The potato was first cultivated in South America between three and seven thousand years ago,
though scientists believe they may have grown wild in the region as long as 13,000 years ago. The
genetic patterns of potato distribution indicate that the potato probably originated in the mountainous
west-central region of the continent.
B Early Spanish chroniclers who misused the Indian word batata (sweet potato) as the name for the
potato noted the importance of the tuber to the Incan Empire. The Incas had learned to preserve the
potato for storage by dehydrating and mashing potatoes into a substance called Chuchu could be
stored in a room for up to 10 years, providing excellent insurance against possible crop failures. As
well as using the food as a staple crop, the Incas thought potatoes made childbirth easier and used
it to treat injuries.
C The Spanish conquistadors first encountered the potato when they arrived in Peru in 1532 in
search of gold, and noted Inca miners eating chuchu. At the time the Spaniards failed to realize that
the potato represented a far more important treasure than either silver or gold, but they did gradually
begin to use potatoes as basic rations aboard their ships. After the arrival of the potato in Spain in
1570，a few Spanish farmers began to cultivate them on a small scale, mostly as food for livestock.
D Throughout Europe, potatoes were regarded with suspicion, distaste and fear. Generally
considered to be unfit for human consumption, they were used only as animal fodder and
sustenance for the starving. In northern Europe, potatoes were primarily grown in botanical gardens
as an exotic novelty. Even peasants refused to eat from a plant that produced ugly, misshapen
tubers and that had come from a heathen civilization. Some felt that the potato plant’s resemblance
to plants in the nightshade family hinted that it was the creation of witches or devils.
E In meat-loving England, farmers and urban workers regarded potatoes with extreme distaste. In
1662, the Royal Society recommended the cultivation of the tuber to the English government and the
nation, but this recommendation had little impact. Potatoes did not become a staple until, during the
food shortages associated with the Revolutionary Wars, the English government began to officially
encourage potato cultivation. In 1795, the Board of Agriculture issued a pamphlet entitled “Hints
Respecting the Culture and Use of Potatoes”； this was followed shortly by pro-potato editorials and
potato recipes in The Times. Gradually, the lower classes began to follow the lead of the upper
classes.
F A similar pattern emerged across the English Channel in the Netherlands, Belgium and France.
While the potato slowly gained ground in eastern France (where it was often the only crop remaining
after marauding soldiers plundered wheat fields and vineyards), it did not achieve widespread
acceptance until the late 1700s. The peasants remained suspicious, in spite of a 1771 paper from
the Facult de Paris testifying that the potato was not harmful but beneficial. The people began to
overcome their distaste when the plant received the royal seal of approval: Louis XVI began to sport
a potato flower in his buttonhole, and Marie-Antoinette wore the purple potato blossom in her hair.
G Frederick the Great of Prussia saw the potato’s potential to help feed his nation and lower the
price of bread, but faced the challenge of overcoming the people’s prejudice against the plant. When
he issued a 1774 order for his subjects to grow potatoes as protection against famine, the town of
Kolberg replied: “The things have neither smell nor taste, not even the dogs will eat them, so what
use are they to us?” Trying a less direct approach to encourage his subjects to begin planting
potatoes, Frederick used a bit of reverse psychology: he planted a royal field of potato plants and
stationed a heavy guard to protect this field from thieves. Nearby peasants naturally assumed that
anything worth guarding was worth stealing, and so snuck into the field and snatched the plants for
their home gardens. Of course, this was entirely in line with Frederick’s wishes.
H Historians debate whether the potato was primarily a cause or an effect of the huge population
boom in industrial-era England and Wales. Prior to 1800，the English diet had consisted primarily of
meat, supplemented by bread, butter and cheese. Few vegetables were consumed, most vegetables
being regarded as nutritionally worthless and potentially harmful. This view began to change
gradually in the late 1700s. The Industrial Revolution was drawing an ever increasing percentage of
the populace into crowded cities, where only the richest could afford homes with ovens or coal
storage rooms, and people were working 12-16 hour days which left them with little time or energy to
prepare food. High yielding, easily prepared potato crops were the obvious solution to England’s
food problems.
I Whereas most of their neighbors regarded the potato with suspicion and had to be persuaded to
use it by the upper classes, the Irish peasantry embraced the tuber more passionately than anyone
since the Incas. The potato was well suited to the Irish the soil and climate, and its high yield suited
the most important concern of most Irish farmers: to feed their families.
J The most dramatic example of the potato’s potential to alter population patterns occurred in
Ireland, where the potato had become a staple by 1800. The Irish population doubled to eight million
between 1780 and 1841，this without any significant expansion of industry or reform of agricultural
techniques beyond the widespread cultivation of the potato. Though Irish landholding practices were
primitive in comparison with those of England, the potato’s high yields allowed even the poorest
farmers to produce more healthy food than they needed with scarcely any investment or hard labor.
Even children could easily plant, harvest and cook potatoes, which of course required no threshing,
curing or grinding. The abundance provided by potatoes greatly decreased infant mortality and
encouraged early marriage.
Questions 1-5
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 1?
1 The early Spanish called potato as the Incan name ‘Chuchu’
2 The purposes of Spanish coming to Peru were to find out potatoes
3 The Spanish believed that the potato has the same nutrients as other vegetables
4 Peasants at that time did not like to eat potatoes because they were ugly
5 The popularity of potatoes in the UK was due to food shortages during the war
Questions 6-13
Complete the sentences below with NO MORE THAN ONE WORD from the passage for each
answer.
6. In France, people started to overcome their disgusting about potatoes because the King put a
potato ………………… in his button hole.
7. Frederick realized the potential of potato but he had to handle the ………………… against
potatoes from ordinary people.
8. The King of Prussia adopted some ………………… psychology to make people accept potatoes.
9. Before 1800，the English people preferred eating ………………… with bread, butter and cheese.
10. The obvious way to deal with England food problems were high yielding potato …………………
11. The Irish ………………… and climate suited potatoes well.
12. Between 1780 and 1841, based on the ………………… of the potatoes, the Irish population
doubled to eight million.
13. The potato’s high yields help the poorest farmers to produce more healthy food almost
without …………………
Solution for: The Impact of the Potato
Answer Table
1. FALSE 8. reverse
2. FALSE 9. meat
3. NOT GIVEN 10. crops
4. TRUE 11. soil
5. TRUE 12. cultivation
6. flower 13. investment
7. prejudice
Biological control of pests
The continuous and reckless use of synthetic chemicals for the control of pests which pose a threat
to agricultural crops and human health is proving to be counter-productive. Apart from engendering
widespread ecological disorders, pesticides have contributed to the emergence of a new breed of
chemical-resistant, highly lethal superbugs.
According to a recent study by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), more than 300 species
of agricultural pests have developed resistance to a wide range of potent chemicals. Not to be left
behind are the disease-spreading pests, about 100 species of which have become immune to a
variety of insecticides now in use.
One glaring disadvantage of pesticides’ application is that, while destroying harmful pests, they also
wipe out many useful non-targeted organisms, which keep the growth of the pest population in
check. This results in what agroecologists call the ‘treadmill syndrome’. Because of their tremendous
breeding potential and genetic diversity, many pests are known to withstand synthetic chemicals and
bear offspring with a built-in resistance to pesticides.
The havoc that the ‘treadmill syndrome’ can bring about is well illustrated by what happened to
cotton farmers in Central America. In the early 1940s, basking in the glory of chemical-based
intensive agriculture, the farmers avidly took to pesticides as a sure measure to boost crop yield.
The insecticide was applied eight times a year in the mid-1940s, rising to 28 in a season in the mid-
1950s, following the sudden proliferation of three new varieties of chemical-resistant pests.
By the mid-1960s, the situation took an alarming turn with the outbreak of four more new pests,
necessitating pesticide spraying to such an extent that 50% of the financial outlay on
cotton production was accounted for by pesticides. In the early 1970s, the spraying frequently
reached 70 times a season as the farmers were pushed to the wall by the invasion of genetically
stronger insect species.
Most of the pesticides in the market today remain inadequately tested for properties that cause
cancer and mutations as well as for other adverse effects on health, says a study by United
States environmental agencies. The United States National Resource Defense Council has found
that DDT was the most popular of a long list of dangerous chemicals in use.
In the face of the escalating perils from indiscriminate applications of pesticides, a more effective
and ecologically sound strategy of biological control, involving the selective use of natural
enemies of the pest population, is fast gaining popularity - though, as yet, it is a new field with
limited potential. The advantage of biological control in contrast to other methods is that it provides
a relatively low-cost, perpetual control system with a minimum of detrimental side-effects.
When handled by experts, bio-control is safe, non-polluting and self-dispersing.
The Commonwealth Institute of Biological Control (CIBC) in Bangalore, with its global network of
research laboratories and field stations, is one of the most active, non-commercial
research agencies engaged in pest control by setting natural predators against parasites. CIBC also
serves as a clearing-house for the export and import of biological agents for pest control world-wide.
CIBC successfully used a seed-feeding weevil, native to Mexico, to control the obnoxious
parthenium weed, known to exert devious influence on agriculture and human health in both
India and Australia. Similarly the Hyderabad-based Regional Research Laboratory (RRL),
supported by CIBC, is now trying out an Argentinian weevil for the eradication of water hyacinth,
another dangerous weed, which has become a nuisance in many parts of the world. According to
Mrs Kaiser Jamil of RRL, ‘The Argentinian weevil does not attack any other plant and a pair of adult
bugs could destroy the weed in 4-5 days.’ CIBC is also perfecting the technique for breeding
parasites that prey on ‘disapene scale’ insects - notorious defoliants of fruit trees in the US and
India.
How effectively biological control can be pressed into service is proved by the following examples. In
the late 1960s, when Sri Lanka’s flourishing coconut groves were plagued by leaf-mining hispides, a
larval parasite imported from Singapore brought the pest under control. A natural predator
indigenous to India, Neodumetia sangawani, was found useful in controlling the Rhodes grass-scale
insect that was devouring forage grass in many parts of the US. By using Neochetina bruci, a beetle
native to Brazil, scientists at Kerala Agricultural University freed a 12-kilometre-long canal from the
clutches of the weed Salvinia molesta, popularly called ‘African Payal’ in Kerala. About 30,000
hectares of rice fields in Kerala are infested by this weed.
Questions 1-4
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C, or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.
1 The use of pesticides has contributed to
A a change in the way ecologies are classified by agroecologists.
B an imbalance in many ecologies around the world.
C the prevention of ecological disasters in some parts of the world.
D an increase in the range of ecologies which can be usefully farmed.
2 The Food and Agriculture Organisation has counted more than 300 agricultural pests which
A are no longer responding to most pesticides in use.
B can be easily controlled through the use of pesticides.
C continue to spread disease in a wide range of crops.
D may be used as part of bio-control’s replacement of pesticides.
3 Cotton farmers in Central America began to use pesticides

A because of an intensive government advertising campaign.
B in response to the appearance of new varieties of pest.
C as a result of changes in the seasons and the climate.
D to ensure more cotton was harvested from each crop.
4 By the mid-1960s, cotton farmers in Central America found that pesticides

A were wiping out 50% of the pests plaguing the crops.
B were destroying 50% of the crops they were meant to protect.
C were causing a 50% increase in the number of new pests reported.
D were costing 50% of the total amount they spent on their crops.
Questions 5-8
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 2?
5 Disease-spreading pests respond more quickly to pesticides than agricultural pests do.
6 A number of pests are now born with an innate immunity to some pesticides.
7 Biological control entails using synthetic chemicals to try and change the genetic make-up of the
pests’ offspring.
8 Bio-control is free from danger under certain circumstances.
Questions 9-13
Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-I, below.
Write the correct letter, A-I, in boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet.
A forage grass. F parthenium weed.

B rice fields. G Brazilian beetles.
C coconut trees. H grass-scale insects.
D fruit trees. I larval parasites.
E water hyacinth.
9 Disapene scale insects feed on
10 Neodumetia sangawani ate
11 Leaf-mining hispides blighted
12 An Argentinian weevil may be successful in wiping out
13 Salvinia molesta plagues
Solution for: Biological control of pests
Answer Table
1. B 8. YES
2. A 9. D
3. D 10. H
4. D 11. C
5. NOT GIVEN 12. E
6. YES 13. B
7. NO
Leaf-Cutting Ants and Fungus
The ants and their agriculture have been extensively studied over the years, but the recent research
has uncovered intriguing new findings about the fungus they cultivate, how they domesticated it and
how they cultivate it and preserve it from pathogens. For example, the fungus farms, which the ants
were thought to keep free of pathogens, turn out to be vulnerable to a devastating mold, found
nowhere else but in ants’ nests. To keep the mold in check, the ants long ago made a discovery that
would do credit to any pharmaceutical laboratory.
Leaf-cutting ants and their fungus farms are a marvel of nature and perhaps the best known
example of symbiosis, the mutual dependence of two species. The ants’ achievement is remarkable
-he biologist Edward O. Wilson has called it “one of the major breakthroughs in animal evolution” -
because it allows them to eat, courtesy of their mushroom’s digestive powers, the otherwise
poisoned harvest of tropical forests whose leaves are laden with terpenoids, alkaloids and other
chemicals designed to sicken browsers
Fungus growing seems to have originated only once in evolution, because all gardening ants belong
to a single tribe, the descendants of the first fungus farmer. There are more than 200 known species
of the attine ant tribe, divided into 12 groups, or genera. The leaf-cutters use fresh vegetation; the
other groups, known as the lower attines because their nests are smaller and their techniques more
primitive, feed their gardens with detritus like dead leaves, insects and feces. In 1994 a team of four
biologists, Ulrich G. Mueller and Ted R. Schultz from Cornell University and Ignacio H. Chapela and
Stephen A. Rehner from the United States Department of Agriculture, nanlyzed the DNA of ant
funguses. The common assumption that the funguses are all derived from a single strain, they
found, was only half true.
The leaf-cutters’ fungus was indeed descended from a single strain, propagated clonally, or just by
budding, for at least 23 million years. But the lower attine ants used different varieties of the fungus,
and in one case a quite separate species, the four biologists discovered. Cameron R. Currie, a Ph.D.
student in the University of Toronto, it seemed to Mr. Currie, resembled the monocultures of various
human crops, that are very productive for a while and then succumb to some disastrous pathogen,
such as the Irish potato blight. Monocultures, which lack the genetic diversity to respond to changing
environmental threats, are sitting ducks for parasites. Mr. Currie felt there had to be a parasite in the
ant- fungus system. But a century of ant research offered no support for the idea. Textbooks
describe how leaf-cutter ants scrupulously weed their gardens of all foreign organisms. “People kept
telling me, ‘You know the ants keep their gardens free of parasites, don’t you?’ “ Mr. Currie said of
his efforts to find a hidden interloper.
But after three years of sifting through attine ant gardens, Mr. Currie discovered they are far from
free of infections. In last month’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, he
and two colleagues, Dr. Mueller and David Mairoch, isolated several alien organisms, particularly a
family of parasitic molds called Escovopsis. Escovopsis turns out to be a highly virulent pathogen
that can devastate a fungus garden in a couple of days. It blooms like a white cloud, with the garden
dimly visible underneath. In a day or two the whole garden is enveloped. “Other ants won’t go near it
and the ants associated with the garden just starve to death,” Dr. Rehner said. “They just seem to
give up, except for those that have rescued their larvae.”
Evidently the ants usually manage to keep Escovopsis and other parasites under control. But with
any lapse in control, or if the ants are removed, Escovopsis will quickly burst forth. Although new
leaf-cutter gardens start off free of Escovopsis, within two years some 60 percent become infected.
The discovery of Escovopsis’s role brings a new level of understanding to the evolution of the attine
ants. “In the last decade, evolutionary biologists have been increasingly aware of the role of
parasites as driving forces in evolution,” Dr. Schultz said. There is now a possible reason to explain
why the lower attine species keep changing the variety of fungus in their mushroom gardens, and
occasionally domesticating new ones— to stay one step ahead of the relentless Escovopsis.
Interestingly, Mr. Currie found that the leaf-cutters had in general fewer alien molds in their gardens
than the lower attines, yet they had more Escovopsis infections. It seems that the price they pay for
cultivating a pure variety of fungus is a higher risk from Escovopsis. But the leaf-cutters may have
little alternative: they cultivate a special variety of fungus which, unlike those grown by the lower
attines, produces nutritious swollen tips for the ants to eat.
Discovery of a third partner in the ant-fungus symbiosis raises the question of how the attine ants,
especially the leaf-cutters, keep this dangerous interloper under control. Amazingly enough, Mr.
Currie has again provided the answer. “People have known for a hundred years that ants have a
whitish growth on the cuticle,” said Dr. Mueller, referring to the insects’ body surface. “People would
say this is like a cuticular wax. But Cameron was the first one in a hundred years to put these things
under a microscope. He saw it was not inert wax. It is alive.” Mr. Currie discovered a specialized
patch on the ants’ cuticle that harbors a particular kind of bacterium, one well known to the
pharmaceutical industry, because it is the source of half the antibiotics used in medicine. From each
of 22 species of attine ant studied, Mr. Cameron and colleagues isolated a species of Streptomyces
bacterium, they reported in Nature in April. The Streptomyces does not have much effect on ordinary
laboratory funguses. But it is a potent poisoner of Escovopsis, inhibiting its growth and suppressing
spore formation. Because both the leaf-cutters and the lower attines use Streptomyces, the
bacterium may have been part of their symbiosis for almost as long as theEscovopsis mold. If so,
some Alexander Fleming of an ant discovered antibiotics millions of years before people did. Even
now, the ants are accomplishing two feats beyond the powers of human technology. The leaf-cutters
are growing a monocultural crop year after year without disaster, and they are using an antibiotic
apparently so wisely and prudently that, unlike people, they are not provoking antibiotic resistance in
the target pathogen.
Questions 1-6
Use the information in the passage to match the options (listed A-C) with activities or features of
ants below.
Write the appropriate letters A-C in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet
NB you may use any letter more than once
A Leaf-cutting ants
B Lower attines
C Both leaft-cutting ants and lower attine ants
1 can use toxic leaves to feed fungus

2 build small nests and live with different foreign fungus
3 use dead vegetation to feed fungus
4 raise a single fungus which do not live with other variety of foreigners
5 normally keep a highly dangerous parasite under control
6 use special strategies to fight against Escovopsis
Questions 7-11
The reading Passage has ten paragraphs A-J.
Write the correct letter A-J, in boxes 7-11 on your answer sheet.
7 Dangerous outcome of Escovopsis.
8 Risk of growing single fungus.
9 Comparison of features of two different nests for feeding gardens.
10 Discovery of significant achievements made by ants earlier than human.
11 Advantage of growing new breed of fungus in the ant farm.
Questions 12-13
12. How does author think of Currie’s opinion on the saying “ants keep their gardens free of
parasites”?
A his viewpoint was verified later.
B his earlier study has sufficient evidence immediately.
C there is no details mentioned in the article.
D his opinion was proved to be wrong later on.
13. What did scientists find on the skin of ants under microscope?
A some white cloud mold embed in their skin
B that wax is all over their skin
C a substance which is useful to humans
D a substance which suppresses growth of fungus.
Solution for: Leaf-Cutting Ants and Fungus
Answer Table
1. A 8. D
2. B 9. C
3. B 10. H
4. A 11. F
5. A 12. A
6. C 13. C
7. E
The effects of light on plant and animal species
Light is important to organisms for two different reasons. Firstly it Is used as a cue for the timing of
daily and seasonal rhythms in both plants and animals, and secondly it is used to assist growth in
plants.
Breeding in most organisms occurs during a part of the year only, and so a reliable cue is needed to
trigger breeding behaviour. Day length is an excellent cue, because it provides a perfectly
predictable pattern of change within the year. In the temperate zone in spring, temperatures fluctuate
greatly from day to day. but day length increases steadily by a predictable amount. The seasonal
impact of day length on physiological responses is called photoperiodism, and the amount of
experimental evidence for this phenomenon is considerable. For example, some species of birds’
breeding can be induced even in midwinter simply by increasing day length artificially (Wolfson
1964). Other examples of photoperiodism occur in plants. A short-day plant flowers when the day is
less than a certain critical length. A long-day plant flowers after a certain critical day length is
exceeded. In both cases the critical day length differs from species to species. Plants which flower
after a period of vegetative growth, regardless of photoperiod, are known as day-neutral plants.
Breeding seasons in animals such as birds have evolved to occupy the part of the year in which
offspring have the greatest chances of survival. Before the breeding season begins, food reserves
must be built up to support the energy cost of reproduction, and to provide for young birds both when
they are in the nest and after fledging. Thus many temperate-zone birds use the increasing day
lengths in spring as a cue to begin the nesting cycle, because this is a point when adequate food
resources will be assured.
The adaptive significance of photoperiodism in plants is also clear. Short-day plants that flower in
spring in the temperate zone are adapted to maximising seedling growth during the growing season.
Long-day plants are adapted for situations that require fertilization by insects, or a long period of
seed ripening. Short-day plants that flower in the autumn in the temperate zone are able to build up
food reserves over the growing season and over winter as seeds. Day-neutral plants have an
evolutionary advantage when the connection between the favourable period for reproduction and
day length is much less certain. For example, desert annuals germinate, flower and seed whenever
suitable rainfall occurs, regardless of the day length.
The breeding season of some plants can be delayed to extraordinary lengths. Bamboos are
perennial grasses that remain in a vegetative state for many years and then suddenly flower, fruit
and die (Evans 1976). Every bamboo of the species Chusquea abietifolio on the island of Jamaica
flowered, set seed and died during 1884. The next generation of bamboo flowered and died between
1916 and 1918, which suggests a vegetative cycle of about 31 years. The climatic trigger for this
flowering cycle is not yet known, but the adaptive significance is clear. The simultaneous production
of masses of bamboo seeds (in some cases lying 12 to 15 centimetres deep on the ground) is more
than all the seed-eating animals can cope with at the time, so that some seeds escape being eaten
and grow up to form the next generation (Evans 1976).
The second reason light is important to organisms is that it is essential for photosynthesis. This is
the process by which plants use energy from the sun to convert carbon from soil or water into
organic material for growth. The rate of photosynthesis in a plant can be measured by calculating the
rate of its uptake of carbon. There is a wide range of photosynthetic responses of plants to variations
in light intensity. Some plants reach maximal photosynthesis at one-quarter full sunlight, and others,
like sugarcane, never reach a maximum, but continue to increase photosynthesis rate as light
intensity rises.
Plants in general can be divided into two groups: shade-tolerant species and shade-intolerant
species. This classification is commonly used in forestry and horticulture. Shade-tolerant plants have
lower photosynthetic rates and hence have lower growth rates than those of shade-intolerant
species. Plant species become adapted to living in a certain kind of habitat, and in the process
evolve a series of characteristics that prevent them from occupying other habitats. Grime (1966)
suggests that light may be one of the major components directing these adaptations. For example,
eastern hemlock seedlings are shade-tolerant. They can survive in the forest understorey under very
low light levels because they have a low photosynthetic rate.
Questions 1-7
1 There is plenty of scientific evidence to support photoperiodism.

2 Some types of bird can be encouraged to breed out of season.
3 Photoperiodism is restricted to certain geographic areas.
4 Desert annuals are examples of long-day plants.
5 Bamboos flower several rimes during their life cycle.
6 Scientists have yet to determine the cue for Chusquea ubietifolia's seasonal rhythm.
7 Eastern hemlock is a fast-growing plant.
Questions 8-14
Complete the sentences.
8 Day length is a useful cue for breeding in areas where ……………… are unpredictable.
9 Plants which do not respond to light levels are referred to as ………………
10 Birds in temperate climates associate longer days with nesting and the
availability of ………………
11 Plants that flower when days are long often depend on ……………… to help them reproduce.
12 Desert annuals respond to ……………… as a signal for reproduction.
13 There is no limit to the photosynthetic rate in plants such as ………………
14 Tolerance to shade is one criterion for the ……………… of plants in forestry and horticulture.
Solution for: The effects of light on plant and animal
species
Answer Table
1. TRUE 8. temperatures
2. TRUE 9. day-neutral / day-neutral plants
3. NOT GIVEN 10. food / food resources / adequate food / adequate

food resources
4. FALSE 11. insects / fertilization by insects
5. FALSE 12. rainfall / suitable rainfall
6. TRUE 13. sugarcane
7. FALSE 14. classification

Cork
Cork - the thick bark of the cork oak tree (Quercus suber) - is a remarkable material. It is tough,
elastic, buoyant, and fire-resistant, and suitable for a wide range of purposes. It has also been used
for millennia: the ancient Egyptians sealed then sarcophagi (stone coffins) with cork, while the
ancient Greeks and Romans used it for anything from beehives to sandals.
And the cork oak itself is an extraordinary tree. Its bark grows up to 20 cm in thickness, insulating
the tree like a coat wrapped around the trunk and branches and keeping the inside at a constant
20°C all year round. Developed most probably as a defence against forest fires, the bark of the cork
oak has a particular cellular structure - with about 40 million cells per cubic centimetre - that
technology has never succeeded in replicating. The cells are filled with air, which is why cork is so
buoyant. It also has an elasticity that means you can squash it and watch it spring back to its original
size and shape when you release the pressure.
Cork oaks grow in a number of Mediterranean countries, including Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece and
Morocco. They flourish in warm, sunny climates where there is a minimum of 400 millimetres of rain
per year, and no more than 800 millimetres. Like grape vines, the trees thrive in poor soil, putting
down deep root in search of moisture and nutrients. Southern Portugal’s Alentejo region meets all of
these requirements, which explains why, by the early 20th century, this region had become the
world’s largest producer of cork, and why today it accounts for roughly half of all cork production
around the world.
Most cork forests are family-owned. Many of these family businesses, and indeed many of the trees
themselves, are around 200 years old. Cork production is, above all, an exercise in patience. From
the planting of a cork sapling to the first harvest takes 25 years, and a gap of approximately a
decade must separate harvests from an individual tree. And for top-quality cork, it’s necessary to
wait a further 15 or 20 years. You even have to wait for the right kind of summer’s day to harvest
cork. If the bark is stripped on a day when it’s too cold - or when the air is damp - the tree will be
damaged.
Cork harvesting is a very specialised profession. No mechanical means of stripping cork bark has
been invented, so the job is done by teams of highly skilled workers. First, they make vertical cuts
down the bark using small sharp axes, then lever it away in pieces as large as they can manage.
The most skilful cork- strippers prise away a semi-circular husk that runs the length of the trunk from
just above ground level to the first branches. It is then dried on the ground for about four months,
before being taken to factories, where it is boiled to kill any insects that might remain in the cork.
Over 60% of cork then goes on to be made into traditional bottle stoppers, with most of the
remainder being used in the construction trade, Corkboard and cork tiles are ideal for thermal and
acoustic insulation, while granules of cork are used in the manufacture of concrete.
Recent years have seen the end of the virtual monopoly of cork as the material for bottle stoppers,
due to concerns about the effect it may have on the contents of the bottle. This is caused by a
chemical compound called 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA), which forms through the interaction of plant
phenols, chlorine and mould. The tiniest concentrations - as little as three or four parts to a trillion -
can spoil the taste of the product contained in the bottle. The result has been a gradual yet steady
move first towards plastic stoppers and, more recently, to aluminium screw caps. These substitutes
are cheaper to manufacture and, in the case of screw caps, more convenient for the user.
The classic cork stopper does have several advantages, however. Firstly, its traditional image is
more in keeping with that of the type of high quality goods with which it has long been associated.
Secondly - and very importantly - cork is a sustainable product that can be recycled without difficulty.
Moreover, cork forests are a resource which support local biodiversity, and prevent desertification in
the regions where they are planted. So, given the current concerns about environmental issues, the
future of this ancient material once again looks promising.
Questions 1-5
1 The cork oak has the thickest bark of any living tree.
2 Scientists have developed a synthetic cork with the same cellular structure as natural cork.
3 Individual cork oak trees must be left for 25 years between the first and second harvest.
4 Cork bark should be stripped in dry atmospheric conditions.
5 The only way to remove the bark from cork oak trees is by hand.
Questions 6-13
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Comparison of aluminium screw caps and cork

bottle stoppers
Advantages of aluminium screw caps
• do not affect the 6 ……………….. of the bottle contents
• are 7 ……………….. to produce
• are 8 ……………….. to use
Advantages of cork bottle stoppers
• suit the 9 ……………….. of quality products
• made from a 10 ……………….. material
• easily 11 ………………..
• cork forests aid 12 ………………..
• cork forests stop 13 ……………….. happening
Solution for: Cork
Answer Table
1. NOT GIVEN 8. convenient
2. FALSE 9. image
3. FALSE 10. sustainable
4. TRUE 11. recycled
5. TRUE 12. biodiversity
6. taste 13. desertification
7. cheaper
A little-known island community comes in from
the cold
Back in early 1961, few outside the corridors of dwindling British power had heard of the archipelago
centred on the main island of Tristan da Cunha, from which the scattered islands that make up the
group took their name.
It would take a dramatic volcanic eruption, and an emergency evacuation that would grab the
attention of the media, to bring attention to this mysterious outpost of the British Empire. It seemed
that the islands, no more than pin-pricks in the Southern Atlantic Ocean, almost equidistant between
Buenos Aires in South America and Cape Town in South Africa, preferred not to be found.
The same can be said of the 290 or so residents of Tristan da Cunha at that time. They lived on the
remotest island on the entire planet.There was no airport, nor was there space to build one on this
mountainous carbuncle projecting from the ocean.The only harbour, impenetrable during rough
weather, was 1,500 miles distant from the nearest mainland port. Cape Town. Communications with
the outside world relied predominantly on signals to passing fishing boats and the annual visit of the
vessel that supplied the islanders with the goods they could not produce themselves.
For this was a self-reliant community, proud of their ability to survive and help each other in times of
adversity. Colonised early in the 19th century, until December 1942, money had not been exchanged
on the island. However, war-time conditions and new development, in particular a new fishing
industry, saw the beginnings of links which meant that the islanders had to accept they were now
part of the modern world, however much the older members of the community might resist such
change.
The lives of the islanders ticked quietly along, largely ignored as the government of Britain struggled
with larger events on the world stage, until the beginning of August 1961. Earth tremors and rock
falls began on the 6th, but by October the situation had got so bad that the island had to be
evacuated.The entire population eventually found themselves in England, where they were met with
unwanted and unexpected attention from the media. They were housed at a military camp just
outside the port of Southampton.
Coming from a sub-tropical island and having had little exposure to the illnesses and chill endured
by the natives of the British Isles during winter, several of the elder islanders succumbed. The
government did not seem to know what to offer the islanders, there was no news about what was
happening to their homeland, and the future looked very bleak.These were people who had built up
their own way of life for over one hundred and fifty years. They were a compact community who
shared only seven family names between them, and now it seemed that their way of life was to be
destroyed.
Fortunately, and despite the islanders reluctance to have any dealings with the media, who they
suspected looked on them as historical curiosities, the attention helped keep their plight in the public
eye. Eventually, word came through that the island was again habitable and, despite strong
resistance from the British Government, the vast majority of the islanders voted to return, turning
their backs on the temptations of the brighter lights of their temporary home in favour of their own.
The last of the returning islanders arrived in November 1963 and, with the rebuilding of the crawfish
canning industry and a growing demand for the island’s stamps amongst dedicated collectors
following the publicity caused hy the volcanic eniption, the local economy soon recovered, although
communications remained as difficult as they had ever been. Michael Parsons, a young British
teacher who was employed on the island, recalls that there was no television and mail from the
outside world arrived just eight times a year. ‘I was allowed to send a 100-word telegram home once
a month,’he recalls,’and getting news from home brought a lump to my throat’
Things have changed with developments in technology, but at the beginning of the present century
the island was again cut off from the rest of the world when, on May 23rd2001, a hurricane tore
through the area. It caused extensive damage, knocking out the radio station and satellite telephone
link as well as leaving the islanders without electricity. It would be a week before news of the
disaster reached London and several more weeks before a rescue package could be agreed to help
the islanders rebuild.
Today the island boasts its own internet café. For the first time people can see what the items they
wish to obtain from abroad actually look like before they purchase them – a big bonus in a place
where you have to wait many months to receive an order which might prove to be unsuitable for the
purpose you had in mind. At last, it seems, Tristan da Cunha has joined the world.
Questions 1-2
1 The writer describes the islands of Tristan da Cunha as
A difficult to find in an emergency.
B a place the media didn’t understand.
C somewhere different countries claimed to own.
D unknown to most members of the public.
2 What does the writer say about the islanders?

A They could go for years with no contact with outsiders.
B They had no means of leaving the island to speak to others.
C They exchanged messages with boats that went past them.
D They travelled to the mainland on the supply ship.
Questions 3-8
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage? Write
YES if the statement agrees with the writers views
NO if the statement contradicts the writer s views
3 People living on Tristan da Cunha are totally self-sufficient.
4 The islanders often get ill.
5 Some islanders were reluctant to return after the volcanic eruption.
6 The selling of postage stamps has generated revenue for the islanders.
7 There is no television service on Tristan da Cunha.
8 Communications with the island are often interrupted.
Questions 9-14
Complete the summary.
First colonised in the early part of the 19th century, Tristan da Cunha remained unknown to many
people in the rest of the world until a 9 ……………….. forced the small population of this remote
island to evacuate their homes and brought their existence to the attention of 10 ……………….. .
After spending two years as refugees in 11……………….. , the British Government reluctantly
allowed them to return to the island once it had been established that the danger had passed.
The 12 ……………….. of the island improved when rebuilding work had been completed, partly
because of a new interest in the 13 ……………….. Disaster was to strike the island again nearly
forty years later when a 14 ……………….. destroyed many buildings on the island.
Solution for: A little-known island community comes in
from the cold
Answer Table
1. D 8. NOT GIVEN
2. C 9. volcanic eruption
3. NO 10. the media
4. NOT GIVEN 11. England
5. YES 12. (local) economy
6. YES 13. island’s stamps
7. NOT GIVEN 14. hurricane

Humpback whale breaks migration record
A whale surprises researchers with her journey. A lone humpback whale travelled more than 9,800
kilometres from breeding areas in Brazil to those in Madagascar, setting a record for the longest
mammal migration ever documented.
Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) are known to have some of the longest migration
distances of all mammals, and this huge journey is about 400 kilometres farther than the previous
humpback record. The finding was made by Peter Stevick, a biologist at the College of the Atlantic in
Bar Harbor, Maine.
The whale’s journey was unusual not only for its length, but also because it travelled across almost
90 degrees of longitude from west to east. Typically, humpbacks move in a north-south direction
between cold feeding areas and warm breeding grounds - and the longest journeys which have been
recorded until now have been between breeding and feeding sites.
The whale, a female, was first spotted off the coast of Brazil, where researchers photographed its tail
fluke and took skin samples for chromosome testing to determine the animal's sex. Two years later,
a tourist on a whale-watching boat snapped a photo of the humpback near Madagascar.
To match the two sightings, Stevick’s team used an extensive international catalogue of photographs
of the undersides of tail flukes, which have distinctive markings. Researchers routinely compare the
markings in each new photograph to those in the archive.
The scientists then estimated the animal’s shortest possible route: an arc skirting the southern tip of
South Africa and heading north-east towards Madagascar. The minimum distance is 9,800
kilometres, says Stevick, but this is likely to be an underestimate, because the whale probably took a
detour to feed on krill in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica before reaching its destination.
Most humpback-whale researchers focus their efforts on the Northern Hemisphere because the
Southern Ocean near the Antarctic is a hostile environment and it is hard to get to, explains Rochelle
Constantine, who studies the ecology of humpback whales at the University of Auckland in New
Zealand. But, for whales, oceans in the Southern Hemisphere are wider and easier to travel across,
says Constantine. Scientists will probably observe more long-distance migrations in the Southern
Hemisphere as satellite tracking becomes increasingly common, she adds.
Daniel Palacios, an oceanographer at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, says that the record-
breaking journey could indicate that migration patterns are shifting as populations begin to recover
from near-extinction and the population increases. But the reasons why the whale did not follow the
usual migration routes remain a mystery. She could have been exploring new habitats, or simply
have lost her way. 'We generally think of humpback whales as very well studied, but then they
surprise us with things like this,’ Palacios says. ‘Undoubtedly there are a lot of things we still don’t
know about whale migration.’
Questions 1-2
What TWO aspects of the whale’s journey surprised researchers?
A the destination
B the direction
C the distance
D the reason
E the season
Questions 3-4
The passage mentions reasons why whales generally migrate.
What TWO reasons are given?
A to avoid humans
B to be safe
C to eat
D to keep warm
E to produce young
Questions 5-6
What TWO methods did researchers use to record the identity of the whale near Brazil?
A They analysed part of the whale’s body.
B They marked its tail.
C They made notes of its behaviour.
D They recorded the sounds it made.
E They took a picture.
Questions 7-8
The passage mentions places the whale may have passed close to on its journey.
Which TWO places may the whale have passed?
A Antarctica
B Hawaii
C Maine
D New Zealand
E South Africa
Questions 9-10
The passage says that more research is done in the Northern Hemisphere.
Which TWO reasons are given for this?
A It contains more whales.
B It has friendlier surroundings.
C There are more samples available.
D It is easier to reach.
E It contains smaller whales.
Questions 11-12
The passage suggests why the whale made a different journey from usual.
Which TWO reasons does it suggest?
A She did not know where she was going.
B She did not want to breed.
C She wanted to escape a danger.
D She was looking for a new place to live.
E She was recovering from an illness.
Questions 13-14
Which TWO methods of finding out where whales migrate are mentioned in the passage?
A attaching radio transmitters
B comparing pictures taken in different place
C following them in boats
D placing cameras in key positions
E following their movements from space.
Solution for: Humpback whale breaks migration
record
Answer Table
1. B, C (in either order) 8. A OR E IN EITHER ORDER
2. B, C (in either order) 9. B OR D IN EITHER ORDER
3. C, E (in either order) 10. B OR D IN EITHER ORDER
4. C, E (in either order) 11. A OR D IN EITHER ORDER
5. A OR E IN EITHER ORDER 12. A OR D IN EITHER ORDER
6. A OR E IN EITHER ORDER 13. B OR E IN EITHER ORDER
7. A OR E IN EITHER ORDER 14. B OR E IN EITHER ORDER

THE SUN
Imagine a world where the sun never sets. Children can laugh and play in the streets all through the
night. Fishermen enjoy 24 hours of daylight on the open sea. To get any sleep, people must block all
the light from their windows.
Now imagine a world with only darkness. Even in the middle of the day, the sun does not shine. The
only light comes from the moon and the stars in the black sky. Cars must drive with their lights on all
the time. When people awake in the morning, it looks like the middle of the night.
This is the situation for people who live above the Arctic Circle. The sun clearly influences their lives.
This includes people in northern Russia, Canada, Alaska and Greenland. For part of the year they
cannot see the sun. And part of the year the sun never disappears.
But do you ever think about the sun? All life depends on the power of the sun. Year after year, the
sun warms the earth, gives us light, builds life on our planet, and even keeps us healthy.
Whatever early people thought about the sun, they did not know much about it. But as people began
to use science they learned more about the sun. In 1543, Nicholas Copernicus demonstrated that
the earth travels around the sun. One hundred years later, scientists estimated the distance to the
sun. And as recently as 1904, a man named Ernest Rutherford showed how the sun produced such
large amounts of heat. These people discovered that the sun is a star like all the other stars in the
sky. However, for our planet, it is a very special star.
The earth is 150 million kilometers from the sun. Here is one way to imagine this great distance.
Imagine that you are standing on the sun. Your friends are on the earth. If they turned on a light, it
would take eight minutes for you to see it! But this is the perfect distance for the earth to use the
sun's heat.
The temperature of the sun is around 6,000 degrees Celsius at its surface, and 15 million degrees at
its centre! If the earth were any closer, we would burn. But if the earth were any further away, we
would freeze. And yet, the sun is more than a big heater.
The sun also helps provide us with fresh air. The sun heats the oceans. Then the water heats the
air. The changing air temperatures create most of the world's wind. Wind moves air to different
places so plants can remove carbon dioxide from the air and create oxygen.
But the sun also affects plants directly. The sun makes plants grow through the process of
photosynthesis. Plants can change light from the sun into energy. They use the energy to grow
bigger and stronger. All life on earth depends on plants. Without the sun, we could not grow food for
ourselves or for our animals.
Plants are not the only things who capture the power of the sun. Human can turn sunlight into
electricity with solar cells. A solar cell collects the power of the sun and stores it. Then, this power
can be used to run anything that uses electricity: cars, computers, or homes.
Besides all these amazing things, the sun also helps us to do something very simple, but needed.
Without the sun, we would not be able to see anything!
The sun also helps people to be healthy and strong. It acts as a natural cleaner for our skin. The sun
can help kill harmful bacteria that live on our skin. And the sun helps our bodies produce vitamin D.
People need vitamin D to have strong bones.
The sun can also improve our mental health. In places where the sun does not shine, people can
suffer from seasonal affective disorder. This is a kind of depression. People with season affective
disorder do not have energy and feel sad. They are treated by sitting near a special light. But nothing
is as good as being in real sunlight. Sunlight can help prevent depression and keep people happy.
When the sun is shining, people have more hope about the future.
The sun does many other things as well. It helps us tell time. It controls the where and when animals
travel. The sun's gravity keeps the planet in orbit. It even lets us see at night. This is because the
sun shines on the moon and the moon sends the light down to the earth. The sun makes the colors
of a rainbow after it rains. And it paints the sky during a sunset.
There are many things we still do not know about the sun. But the more we learn about the sun, the
more we can thank God for giving us this wonderful gift.
Questions 1-9
1. For part of the year people who live above the 1…………………. cannot see the sun.
2. In 1543, Nicholas Copernicus demonstrated that the 2. …………………. travels around the sun.
3. The earth is 3 …………………. kilometers from the sun.
4. It takes sunlight an average of 4 …………………. minutes to travel from the Sun to the Earth.
5. The temperature of the sun is around 5 …………………. million degrees at its centre.
6. The sun makes plants grow through the process of 6 …………………. .
7. Human can turn sunlight into electricity with 7…………………. .
8. The sun helps our bodies produce 8 …………………. which is needed for us to have strong
bones.
9. The sun's 9 …………………. keeps the planet in orbit.
Solution for: THE SUN
Answer Table
1. Arctic Circle 6. photosynthesis
2. earth 7. solar cells
3. 150 million 8. vitamin D
4. eight 9. gravity
5. 15
Great Migrations
Animal migration, however it is defined, is far more than just the movement of animals. It can loosely
be described as travel that takes place at regular intervals - often in an annual cycle - that may
involve many members of a species, and is rewarded only after a long journey. It suggests
inherited instinct. The biologist Hugh Dingle has identified five characteristics that apply, in varying
degrees and combinations, to all migrations. They are prolonged movements that carry animals
outside familiar habitats; they tend to be linear, not zigzaggy; they involve special behaviours
concerning preparation (such as overfeeding) and arrival; they demand special allocations of energy.
And one more: migrating animals maintain an intense attentiveness to the greater mission, which
keeps them undistracted by temptations and undeterred by challenges that would turn other animals
aside.
An arctic tern, on its 20,000 km flight from the extreme south of South America to the Arctic circle,
will take no notice of a nice smelly herring offered from a bird-watcher's boat along the way.
While local gulls will dive voraciously for such handouts, the tern flies on. Why? The arctic tern
resists distraction because it is driven at that moment by an instinctive sense of something we
humans find admirable: larger purpose. In other words, it is determined to reach its destination.
The bird senses that it can eat, rest and mate later. Right now it is totally focused on the journey; its
undivided intent is arrival.
Reaching some gravelly coastline in the Arctic, upon which other arctic terns have converged, will
serve its larger purpose as shaped by evolution: finding a place, a time, and a set of circumstances
in which it can successfully hatch and rear offspring.
But migration is a complex issue, and biologists define it differently, depending in part on what sorts
of animals they study. Joe! Berger, of the University of Montana, who works on the American
pronghorn and other large terrestrial mammals, prefers what he calls a simple, practical
definition suited to his beasts: 'movements from a seasonal home area away to another home area
and back again'. Generally the reason for such seasonal back-and-forth movement is to seek
resources that aren't available within a single area year-round.
But daily vertical movements by zooplankton in the ocean - upward by night to seek food, downward
by day to escape predators - can also be considered migration. So can the movement of
aphids when, having depleted the young leaves on one food plant, their offspring then fly onward to
a different host plant, with no one aphid ever returning to where it started.
Dingle is an evolutionary biologist who studies insects. His definition is more intricate than Berger's,
citing those five features that distinguish migration from other forms of movement. They allow for the
fact that, for example, aphids will become sensitive to blue light (from the sky) when it's time for
takeoff on their big journey, and sensitive to yellow light (reflected from tender young leaves)
when it's appropriate to land. Birds will fatten themselves with heavy feeding in advance of a long
migrational flight. The value of his definition, Dingle argues, is that it focuses attention on what the
phenomenon of wildebeest migration shares with the phenomenon of the aphids, and therefore
helps guide researchers towards understanding how evolution has produced them all.
Human behaviour, however, is having a detrimental impact on animal migration.
The pronghorn, which resembles an antelope, though they are unrelated, is the fastest land mammal
of the New World. One population, which spends the summer in the mountainous Grand
Teton National Park of the western USA, follows a narrow route from its summer range in
the mountains, across a river, and down onto the plains. Here they wait out the frozen months,
feeding mainly on sagebrush blown clear of snow. These pronghorn are notable for the invariance of
their migration route and the severity of its constriction at three bottlenecks. If they can't
pass through each of the three during their spring migration, they can't reach their bounty of summer
grazing; if they can't pass through again in autumn, escaping south onto those windblown plains,
they are likely to die trying to overwinter in the deep snow. Pronghorn, dependent on distance vision
and speed to keep safe from predators, traverse high, open shoulders of land, where they can see
and run. At one of the bottlenecks, forested hills rise to form a V, leaving a corridor of open
ground only about 150 metres wide, filled with private homes. Increasing development is leading
toward a crisis for the pronghorn, threatening to choke off their passageway.
Conservation scientists, along with some biologists and land managers within the USA's National
Park Service and other agencies, are now working to preserve migrational behaviours, not just
species and habitats. A National Forest has recognised the path of the pronghorn, much of which
passes across its land, as a protected migration corridor. But neither the Forest Service nor the Park
Service can control what happens on private land at a bottleneck. And with certain other migrating
species, the challenge is complicated further - by vastly greater distances traversed, more
jurisdictions, more borders, more dangers along the way. We will require wisdom and resoluteness
to ensure that migrating species can continue their journeying a while longer.
Questions 1-5
1 Local gulls and migrating arctic terns behave in the same way when offered food.
2 Experts’ definitions of migration tend to vary according to their area of study.
3 Very few experts agree that the movement of aphids can be considered migration.
4 Aphids’ journeys are affected by changes in the light that they perceive.
5 Dingles aim is to distinguish between the migratory behaviours of different species.
Questions 6-9
Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-G, below.
Write the correct letter, A-G. in boxes 6-9 on your answer sheet
A be discouraged by difficulties.
B travel on open land where they can look out for predators.
C eat more than they need for immediate purposes.
D be repeated daily. '
E ignore distractions.
F be governed by the availability of water.
G follow a straight line.
6 According to Dingle, migratory routes are likely to ………………

7 To prepare for migration, animals are likely to ………………
8 During migration, animals are unlikely to ………………
9 Arctic terns illustrate migrating animals’ ability to ………………
Questions 10-13
The migration of pronghorns

Pronghorns rely on their eyesight and 10 ……………… to avoid predators. One particular
population’s summer habitat is a national park, and their winter home is on
the 11 ……………… where they go to avoid the danger presented by the snow at that time of year
However, their route between these two areas contains three 12………………
One problem is the construction of new homes in a narrow 13……………… of land on
the pronghorns’ route.
Solution for: Great Migrations
Answer Table
1. FALSE 8. A
2. TRUE 9. E
3. NOT GIVEN 10. speed
4. TRUE 11. plains
5. FALSE 12. bottlenecks
6. G 13. corridor/passageway
7. C
The economic importance of coral reefs
A lot of people around the world are dependent, or partly dependent, on coral reefs for their
livelihoods. They often live adjacent to the reef, and their livelihood revolves around the direct
extraction, processing and sale of reef resources such as shell fish and seaweeds. In addition, their
homes are sheltered by the reef from wave action.
Reef flats and shallow reef lagoons are accessible on foot, without the need for a boat, and so allow
women, children and the elderly to engage directly in manual harvesting, or ‘reef-gleaning’. This is a
significant factor distinguishing reef-based fisheries from near-shore sea fisheries. Near-shore
fisheries are typically the domain of adult males, in particular where they involve the use of boats,
with women and children restricted mainly to shore-based activities. However, in a coral-reef fishery
the physical accessibility of the reef opens up opportunities for direct participation by women, and
consequently increases their independence and the importance of their role in the community. It also
provides a place for children to play, and to acquire important skills and knowledge for later in life.
For example, in the South West Island of Tobi, in the Pacific Ocean, young boys use simple hand
lines with a loop and bait at the end to develop the art of fishing on the reef. Similarly, in the Surin
Islands of Thailand, young Moken boys spend much of their time playing, swimming and diving in
shallow reef lagoons, and in doing so build crucial skills for their future daily subsistence.
Secondary occupations, such as fish processing and marketing activities, are often dominated by
women, and offer an important survival strategy for households with access to few other physical
assets (such as boats and gear), for elderly women, widows, or the wives of infirm men. On Ulithi
Atoll in the western Pacific, women have a distinct role and rights in the distribution of fish catches.
This is because the canoes, made from mahogany logs from nearby Yap Island, are obtained
through the exchange of cloth made by the women of Ulithi. Small-scale reef fisheries support the
involvement of local women traders and their involvement can give them greater control over the
household income, and in negotiating for loans or credit. Thus their role is not only important in
providing income for their families, it also underpins the economy of the local village.
Poor people with little access to land, labour and financial resources are particularly reliant on
exploiting natural resources, and consequently they are vulnerable to seasonal changes in
availability of those resources. The diversity of coral reef fisheries, combined with their physical
accessibility and the protection they provide against bad weather, make them relatively stable
compared with other fisheries, or land-based agricultural production.
In many places, the reef may even act as a resource bank, used as a means of saving food for
future times of need. In Manus, Papua New Guinea, giant clams are collected and held in walled
enclosures on the reef, until they are needed during periods of rough weather. In Palau, sea
cucumbers are seldom eaten during good weather in an effort to conserve their populations for
months during which rough weather prohibits good fishing.
Coral reef resources also act as a buffer against seasonal lows in other sectors, particularly
agriculture. For example, in coastal communities in northern Mozambique, reef harvests provide key
sources of food and cash when agricultural production is low, with the peak in fisheries production
coinciding with the period of lowest agricultural stocks. In Papua New Guinea, while agriculture is the
primary means of food production, a large proportion of the coastal population engage in sporadic
subsistence fishing.
In many coral-reef areas, tourism is one of the main industries bringing employment, and in many
cases is promoted to provide alternatives to fisheries-based livelihoods, and to ensure that local reef
resources are conserved. In the Caribbean alone, tours based on scuba-diving have attracted 20
million people in one year. The upgrading of roads and communications associated with the
expansion of tourism may also bring benefits to local communities. However, plans for development
must be considered carefully. The ability of the poorer members of the community to access the
benefits of tourism is far from guaranteed, and requires development guided by social, cultural and
environmental principles. There is growing recognition that sustainability is a key requirement, as
encompassed in small-scale eco-tourism activities, for instance.
Where tourism development has not been carefully planned, and the needs and priorities of the local
community have not been properly recognised, conflict has sometimes arisen between tourism and
local, small-scale fishers.
Questions 1-7
1 In most places, coral-reef gleaning is normally carried out by men.
2 Involvement in coral-reef-based occupations raises the status of women.
3 Coral reefs provide valuable learning opportunities for young children.
4 The women of Ulithi Atoll have some control over how fish catches are shared out.
5 Boats for use by the inhabitants of Ulithi are constructed on Yap Island.
6 In coral reef fisheries, only male traders can apply for finance.
7 Coral reefs provide a less constant source of income than near-shore seas.
Questions 8-13
How coral-reef-based resources protect people

during difficult times
Coral reefs can provide
• a resource bank, e.g. for keeping clams and 8 …………………

• a seasonal back-up, when 9 ………………… products are insufficient,
e.g. in northern Mozambique.
• a tourist attraction, e.g. 10 ………………… tours in the Caribbean.
Benefits for local people include:
• The creation of jobs.

• Improvements to roads and 11 …………………
Important considerations:
• Development must be based on appropriate principles.

• Need for 12 …………………
Poorly-planned development can create 13 ………………… with local fishers.

What is a dinosaur?
A. Although the name dinosaur is derived from the Greek for "terrible lizard", dinosaurs were not, in
fact, lizards at all. Like lizards, dinosaurs are included in the class Reptilia, or reptiles, one of the five
main classes of Vertebrata, animals with backbones. However, at the next level of classification,
within reptiles, significant differences in the skeletal anatomy of lizards and dinosaurs have led
scientists to place these groups of animals into two different superorders: Lepidosauria, or
lepidosaurs, and Archosauria, or archosaurs.
B. Classified as lepidosaurs are lizards and snakes and their prehistoric ancestors. Included among
the archosaurs, or "ruling reptiles", are prehistoric and modern crocodiles, and the now extinct
thecodonts, pterosaurs and dinosaurs. Palaeontologists believe that both dinosaurs and crocodiles
evolved, in the later years of the Triassic Period (c. 248-208 million years ago), from creatures called
pseudosuchian thecodonts. Lizards, snakes and different types of thecodont are believed to have
evolved earlier in the Triassic Period from reptiles known as eosuchians.
C. The most important skeletal differences between dinosaurs and other archosaurs are in the
bones of the skull, pelvis and limbs. Dinosaur skulls are found in a great range of shapes and sizes,
reflecting the different eating habits and lifestyles of a large and varied group of animals that
dominated life on Earth for an extraordinary 165 million years. However, unlike the skulls of any
other known animals, the skulls of dinosaurs had two long bones known as vomers. These bones
extended on either side of the head, from the front of the snout to the level of the holes on the skull
known as the antorbital fenestra, situated in front of the dinosaur's orbits or eyesockets.
D. All dinosaurs, whether large or small, quadrupedal or bidepal, fleet-footed or slow-moving,
shared a common body plan. Identification of this plan makes it possible to differentiate dinosaurs
from any other types of animal, even other archosaurs. Most significantly, in dinosaurs, the pelvis
and femur had evolved so that the hind limbs were held vertically beneath the body, rather than
sprawling out to the sides like the limbs of a lizard. The femur of a dinosaur had a sharply in-turned
neck and a ball-shaped head, which slotted into a fully open acetabulum or hip socket. A supra-
acetabular crest helped prevent dislocation of the femur. The position of the knee joint, aligned
below the acetabulum, made it possible for the whole hind limb to swing backwards and forwards.
This unique combination of features gave dinosaurs what is known as a "fully improved gait".
Evolution of this highly efficient method of walking also developed in mammals, but among reptiles it
occurred only in dinosaurs.
E. For the purpose of further classification, dinosaurs are divided into two orders: Saurischia, or
saurischian dinosaurs, and Ornithischia, or ornithischian dinosaurs. This division is made on the
basis of their pelvic anatomy. All dinosaurs had a pelvic girdle with each side comprised of three
bones: the pubis, ilium and ischium. However, the orientation of these bones follows one of two
patterns. In saurischian dinosaurs, also known as lizard-hipped dinosaurs, the pubis points forwards,
as is usual in most types of reptile. By contrast, in ornithischian, or bird-hipped, dinosaurs, the pubis
points backwards towards the rear of the animal, which is also true of birds.
F. Of the two orders of dinosaurs, the Saurischia was the larger and the first to evolve. It is divided
into two suborders: Therapoda, or therapods, and Sauropodomorpha, or sauropodomorphs. The
therapods, or "beast feet", were bipedal, predatory carnivores. They ranged in size from the mighty
Tyrannosaurus rex, 12m long, 5.6m tall and weighing an estimated 6.4 tonnes, to the smallest
known dinosaur, Compsognathus, a mere 1.4m long and estimated 3kg in weight when fully grown.
The sauropodomorphs, or "lizard feet forms", included both bipedal and quadrupedal dinosaurs.
Some sauropodomorphs were carnivorous or omnivorous but later species were typically
herbivorous. They included some of the largest and best-known of all dinosaurs, such as
Diplodocus, a huge quadruped with an elephant-like body, a long, thin tail and neck that gave it a
total length of 27m, and a tiny head.
G. Ornithischian dinosaurs were bipedal or quadrupedal herbivores. They are now usually divided
into three suborders: Ornithipoda, Thyreophora and Marginocephalia. The ornithopods, or "bird feet",
both large and small, could walk or run on their long hind legs, balancing their body by holding their
tails stiffly off the ground behind them. An example is Iguanodon, up to 9m long, 5m tall and
weighing 4.5 tonnes. The thyreophorans, or "shield bearers", also known as armoured dinosaurs,
were quadrupeds with rows of protective bony spikes, studs, or plates along their backs and tails.
They included Stegosaurus, 9m long and weighing 2 tonnes.
H. The marginocephalians, or "margined heads", were bipedal or quadrupedal ornithschians with a
deep bony frill or narrow shelf at the back of the skull. An example is Triceratops, a rhinoceros-like
dinosaur, 9m long, weighing 5.4 tonnes and bearing a prominent neck frill and three large horns.
Questions 1-7
Reading Passage has 8 paragraphs (A-H).
Choose the most suitable heading for each paragraph from the List of headings below.
Write the appropriate numbers (i-xiii) in Boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet.
One of the headings has been done for you as an example.
NB. There are more headings than paragraphs, so you will not use all of them.
1 Paragraph A
2 Paragraph B
3 Paragraph C
4 Paragraph D
5 Paragraph E
6 Paragraph F
7 Paragraph G
Example : Paragraph H Answer: x
List of headings
i. 165 million years
ii. The body plan of archosaurs
iii. Dinosaurs - terrible lizards
iv. Classification according to pelvic anatomy
v. The suborders of Saurischia
vi. Lizards and dinosaurs - two distinct superorders
vii. Unique body plan helps identify dinosaurs from other animals
viii. Herbivore dinosaurs
ix. Lepidosaurs
x. Frills and shelves
xi. The origins of dinosaurs and lizards
xii. Bird-hipped dinosaurs
xiii. Skull bones distinguish dinosaurs from other archosaurs
Questions 8-10
Complete then sentences below.
Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each blank space.
8. Lizards and dinosaurs are classified into two different superorders because of the difference in
their ………………..
9. In the Triassic Period, ……………….. evolved into thecodonts, for example, lizards and snakes.
10. Dinosaur skulls differed from those of any other known animals because of the presence of
vomers: ………………..
Questions 11-14
Choose one phrase (A-H) from the List of features to match with the Dinosaurs listed below.
Write the appropriate letters (A-H) in boxes 11-14 on your answer sheet.
The information in the completed sentences should be an accurate summary of the points made by
the writer.
NB. There are more phrases (A-H) than sentences, so you will not need to use them all. You may
use each phrase once only.
Dinosaurs
11. Dinosaurs differed from lizards, because ………………..
12. Saurischian and ornithischian dinosaurs ………………..
13. Unlike therapods, sauropodomorphs ………………..
14. Some dinosaurs used their tails to balance, others ……………
List of features
A are both divided into two orders.
B the former had a "fully improved gait".
C were not usually very heavy.
D could walk or run on their back legs.
E their hind limbs sprawled out to the side.
F walked or ran on four legs, rather than two.
G both had a pelvic girdle comprising six bones.
H did not always eat meat.
Solution for: What is a dinosaur?
Answer Table
1. vi 8. skeletal anatomy
2. xi 9. eosuchians
3. xiii 10. two long bones
4. vii 11. B
5. iv 12. G
6. v 13. H
7. viii 14. F
Let's Go Bats
A
Bats have a problem: how to find their way around in the dark.They hunt at night, and cannot use
light to help them find prey and avoid obstacles. You might say that this is a problem of their own
making, one that they could avoid simply by changing their habits and hunting by day. But the
daytime economy is already heavily exploited by other creatures such as birds. Given that there is a
living to be made at night, and given that alternative daytime trades are thoroughly occupied, natural
selection has favoured bats that make a go of the night-hunting trade. It is probable that the
nocturnal trades go way back in the ancestry of all mammals. In the time when the dinosaurs
dominated the daytime economy, our mammalian ancestors probably only managed to survive at all
because they found ways of scraping a living at night. Only after the mysterious mass extinction of
the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago were our ancestors able to emerge into the daylight in any
substantial numbers.
B
Bats have an engineering problem: how to find their way and find their prey in the absence of light.
Bats are not the only creatures to face this difficulty today. Obviously the night-flying insects that
they prey on must find their way about somehow. Deep-sea fish and whales have little or no light by
day or by night. Fish and dolphins that live in extremely muddy water cannot see because, although
there is light, it is obstructed and scattered by the dirt in the water Plenty of other modern animals
make their living in conditions where seeing is difficult or impossible.
C
Given the questions of how to manoeuvre in the dark, what solutions might an engineer consider?
The first one that might occur to him is to manufacture light, to use a lantern or a searchlight.
Fireflies and some fish (usually with the help of bacteria) have the power to manufacture their own
light, but the process seems to consume a large amount of energy. Fireflies use their light for
attracting mates.This doesn't require a prohibitive amount of energy: a male’s tiny pinprick of light
can be seen by a female from some distance on a dark night, since her eyes are exposed directly to
the light source itself. However using light to find one's own way around requires vastly more energy,
since the eyes have to detect the tiny fraction of the light that bounces off each part of the scene.
The light source must therefore be immensely brighter if it is to be used as a headlight to illuminate
the path, than if it is to be used as a signal to others. In any event, whether or not the reason is the
energy expense, it seems to be the case that, with the possible exception of some weird deep-sea
fish, no animal apart from man uses manufactured light to find its way about.
D
What else might the engineer think of? Well, blind humans sometimes seem to have an uncanny
sense of obstacles in their path. It has been given the name 'facial vision’, because blind
people have reported that it feels a bit like the sense of touch, on the face. One report tells of a
totally blind boy who could ride his tricycle at good speed round the block near his home, using
facial vision. Experiments showed that, in fact, facial vision is nothing to do with touch or the front
of the face, although the sensation may be referred to the front of the face, like the referred pain in a
phantom limb.The sensation of facial vision, it turns out, really goes in through the ears.
Blind people, without even being aware of the fact, are actually using echoes of their own footsteps
and of other sounds, to sense the presence of obstacles. Before this was discovered, engineers had
already built instruments to exploit the principle, for example to measure the depth of the sea under
a ship. After this technique had been invented, it was only a matter of time before weapons
designers adapted it for the detection of submarines. Both sides in the Second World War relied
heavily on these devices, under such codenames as Asdic (British) and Sonar (American), as well
as Radar (American) or RDF (British), which uses radio echoes rather than sound echoes.
E
The Sonar and Radar pioneers didn't know it then, but all the world now knows that bats, or rather
natural selection working on bats, had perfected the system tens of millions of years earlier; and
their radar' achieves feats of detection and navigation that would strike an engineer dumb with
admiration. It is technically incorrect to talk about bat 'radar', since they do not use radio waves. It is
sonar. But the underlying mathematical theories of radar and sonar are very similar; and much of our
scientific understanding of the details of what bats are doing has come from applying radar theory to
them.The American zoologist Donald Griffin, who was largely responsible for the discovery of sonar
in bats, coined the term 'écholocation' to cover both sonar and radar, whether used by animals or by
human instruments.
Questions 1-5
Reading Passage has five paragraphs, A-E.
Write the correct letter, A-E, in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.
1 examples of wildlife other than bats which do not rely on vision to navigate by
2 how early mammals avoided dying out
3 why bats hunt in the dark
4 how a particular discovery has helped our understanding of bats
5 early military uses of echolocation
Questions 6-9
Facial Vision
Blind people report that so-called ‘facial vision' is comparable to the sensation of touch on the face.
In fact, the sensation is more similar to the way in which pain from a 6 …………….. arm or leg might
be felt. The ability actually comes from perceiving 7 …………….. through the ears. However, even
before this was understood, the principle had been applied in the design of instruments which
calculated the 8…………….. of the seabed. This was followed by a wartime application in devices
for finding 9 ……………..
Questions 10-13
10 Long before the invention of radar, …………….. had resulted in a sophisticated radar-like
system in bats.
11 Radar is an inaccurate term when referring to bats because …………….. are not used in their
navigation system.
12 Radar and sonar are based on similar ……………..
13 The word ‘echolocation’ was first used by someone working as a ……………..
Solution for: Let's Go Bats
Answer Table
1. B 8. depth
2. A 9. submarines
3. A 10. natural selection
4. E 11. radio waves/echoes
5. D 12. mathematical theories
6. phantom 13. zoologist
7. echoes/obstacles
The Lake Erie Canal
Begun in 1817 and opened in its entirety in 1825, the Erie Canal is considered by some to be the
engineering marvel of the nineteenth century. When the federal government concluded that the
project was too ambitious to undertake, the State of New York took on the task of carving 363 miles
of canal through the wilderness, with nothing but the muscle power of men and horses.
Once derided as ‘Clinton’s Folly’ for the Governor who lent his vision and political muscle to the
project, the Erie Canal experienced unparalleled success almost overnight. The iconic waterway
established settlement patterns for most of the United States during the nineteenth century, made
New York the financial capital of the world, provided a critical supply line that helped the North win
the Civil War, and precipitated a series of social and economic changes throughout a young
America.
Explorers had long searched for a water route to the west. Throughout the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries, the lack of an efficient and safe transportation network kept populations and
trade largely confined to coastal areas. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Allegheny
Mountains were the Western Frontier. The Northwest Territories that would later become Illinois,
Indiana, Michigan and Ohio were rich in timber, minerals, and fertile land for farming, but it took
weeks to reach these things. Travellers were faced with rutted turnpike roads that baked to hardness
in the summer sun. In the winter, the roads dissolved into mud.
An imprisoned flour merchant named Jesse Hawley envisioned a better way: a canal from Buffalo on
the eastern shore of Lake Erie to Albany on the upper Hudson River, a distance of almost 400 miles.
Long a proponent of efficient water transportation, Hawley had gone bankrupt trying to move his
products to market. Hawley’s ideas caught the interest of Assemblyman Joshua Forman, who
submitted the first state legislation related to the Erie Canal in 1808, calling for a series of surveys to
be made examining the practicality of a water route between Lake Erie and the Hudson River. In
1810, Thomas Eddy, and State Senator Jonas Platt, hoping to get plans for the canal moving
forward, approached influential Senator De Witt Clinton, former mayor of New York City, to enlist his
support. Though Clinton had been recruited to the canal effort by Eddy and Platt, he quickly became
one of the canal’s most active supporters and went on to successfully tie his very political fate to its
success.
On April 15th, 1817, the New York State Legislature finally approved construction of the Erie Canal.
The Legislature authorised $7 million for construction of the 363-mile long waterway, which was to
be 40 feet wide and eighteen feet deep. Construction began on July 4th 1817 and took eight years.
Like most canals, the Erie Canal depended on a lock system in order to compensate for changes in
water levels over distance. A lock is a section of canal or river that is closed off to control the water
level, so that boats can be raised or lowered as they pass through it. Locks have two sets of sluice
gates (top and bottom), which seal off and then open the entrances to the chamber, which is where
a boat waits while the movement up or down takes place. In addition, locks also have valves at the
bottom of the sluice gates and it is by opening these valves that water is allowed into and out of the
chamber to raise or lower the water level, and hence the boat.
The effect of the Erie Canal was both immediate and dramatic, and settlers poured west.
The explosion of trade prophesied by Governor Clinton began, spurred by freight rates from Buffalo
to New York of $10 per ton by canal, compared with $100 per ton by road. In 1829, there were 3,640
bushels of wheat transported down the canal from Buffalo. By 1837, this figure had increased to
500,000 bushels and, four years later, it reached one million. In nine years, canal tolls more than
recouped the entire cost of construction. Within 15 years of the canal’s opening, New York was the
busiest port in America, moving tonnages greater than Boston, Baltimore and New Orleans
combined. Today, it can still be seen that every major city in New York State falls along the trade
route established by the Erie Canal and nearly 80 per cent of upstate New York’s inhabitants live
within 25 miles of the Erie Canal.
The completion of the Erie Canal spurred the first great westward movement of American settlers,
gave access to the resources west of the Appalachians and made New York the preeminent
commercial city in the United States. At one time, more than 50,000 people depended on the Erie
Canal for their livelihood. From its inception, the Erie Canal helped form a whole new culture
revolving around canal life. For those who travelled along the canal in packet boats or passenger
vessels, the canal was an exciting place. Gambling and entertainment were frequent pastimes, and
often families would meet each year at the same locations to share stories and adventures. Today,
the canal has returned to its former glory and is filled with pleasure boats, fishermen, holidaymakers
and cyclists riding the former towpaths where mules once trod. The excitement of the past is alive
and well.
Questions 1-6
Write the correct letter, A-K, in any order in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.
Choose SIX letters, A-K.
What SIX of the following were effects of the Lake Erie Canal?
A It brought building materials to expand the city of Chicago.

B It established the financial dominance of New York City.
C It generated taxes that stimulated the whole region.
D It helped the north win the US Civil War.
E It was used for training troops in World War One.
F It helped boost a politician’s career.
G It stimulated the shipbuilding industry.
H It led to cheaper distribution for goods.
I It influenced New York State’s population distribution.
J It allowed damaging species of fish to travel to different ecosystems.
K It became a boost for tourism.
Questions 7-9
Label the diagram below.
Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the text for each answer.
Questions 10-13
Answer the questions below.
Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the text for each answer.
10. What was the beneficial factor for productive agriculture in the Northwest Territories at the
beginning of the nineteenth century?
11. In what commodity did the person who first came up with the idea of the Erie Canal trade?
12. How long did it take to build the Erie Canal?
13. How were the Erie Canal’s building costs recovered?
Solution for: The Lake Erie Canal
Answer Table
1. B,D,F,H,I,K IN ANY ORDER 8. (the) chamber
2. B,D,F,H,I,K IN ANY ORDER 9. Valves
3. B,D,F,H,I,K IN ANY ORDER 10. Fertile land
4. B,D,F,H,I,K IN ANY ORDER 11. Flour
5. B,D,F,H,I,K IN ANY ORDER 12. 8 years
6. B,D,F,H,I,K IN ANY ORDER 13. (Canal) tolls
7. (Sluice) gates
Migratory Beekeeping
Taking Wing
To eke out a full-time living from their honeybees, about half the nation’s 2,000 commercial
beekeepers pull up stakes each spring, migrating north to find more flowers for their bees.
Besides turning floral nectar into honey, these hardworking insects also pollinate crops for
farmers -for a fee. As autumn approaches, the beekeepers pack up their hives and go south,
scrambling for pollination contracts in hot spots like California’s fertile Central Valley.
Of the 2,000 commercial beekeepers in the United States about half migrate This pays off in two
ways Moving north in the summer and south in the winter lets bees work a longer blooming season,
making more honey — and money — for their keepers. Second, beekeepers can carry their hives to
farmers who need bees to pollinate their crops. Every spring a migratory beekeeper in California
may move up to 160 million bees to flowering fields in Minnesota and every winter his family may
haul the hives back to California, where farmers will rent the bees to pollinate almond and cherry
trees.
Migratory beekeeping is nothing new. The ancient Egyptians moved clay hives, probably on rafts,
down the Nile to follow the bloom and nectar flow as it moved toward Cairo. In the 1880s North
American beekeepers experimented with the same idea, moving bees on barges along the
Mississippi and on waterways in Florida, but their lighter, wooden hives kept falling into the water.
Other keepers tried the railroad and horse- drawn wagons, but that didn’t prove practical. Not until
the 1920s when cars and trucks became affordable and roads improved, did migratory beekeeping
begin to catch on.
For the Californian beekeeper, the pollination season begins in February. At this time, the beehives
are in particular demand by farmers who have almond groves; they need two hives an acre. For the
three-week long bloom, beekeepers can hire out their hives for $32 each. It’s a bonanza for the bees
too. Most people consider almond honey too bitter to eat so the bees get to keep it for themselves.
By early March it is time to move the bees. It can take up to seven nights to pack the 4,000 or so
hives that a beekeeper may own. These are not moved in the middle of the day because too many
of the bees would end up homeless. But at night, the hives are stacked onto wooden pallets, back-
to-back in sets of four, and lifted onto a truck. It is not necessary to wear gloves or a beekeeper’s veil
because the hives are not being opened and the bees should remain relatively quiet. Just in case
some are still lively, bees can be pacified with a few puffs of smoke blown into each hive’s narrow
entrance.
In their new location, the beekeeper will pay the farmer to allow his bees to feed in such places as
orange groves. The honey produced here is fragrant and sweet and can be sold by the beekeepers.
To encourage the bees to produce as much honey as possible during this period, the beekeepers
open the hives and stack extra boxes called supers on top. These temporary hive extensions contain
frames of empty comb for the bees to fill with honey. In the brood chamber below, the bees will stash
honey to eat later. To prevent the queen from crawling up to the top and laying eggs, a screen can
be inserted between the brood chamber and the supers. Three weeks later the honey can be
gathered.
Foul smelling chemicals are often used to irritate the bees and drive them down into the hive’s
bottom boxes, leaving the honey- filled supers more or less bee free. These can then be pulled off
the hive. They are heavy with honey and may weigh up to 90 pounds each. The supers are taken to
a warehouse. In the extracting room, the frames are lilted out and lowered into an “uncapper” where
rotating blades shave away the wax that covers each cell. The uncapped frames are put in a
carousel that sits on the bottom of a large stainless steel drum. The carousel is filled to capacity with
72 frames. A switch is flipped and the frames begin to whirl at 300 revolutions per minute; centrifugal
force throws the honey out of the combs. Finally the honey is poured into barrels for shipment.
After this, approximately a quarter of the hives weakened by disease, mites, or an ageing or dead
queen, will have to be replaced. To create new colonies, a healthy double hive, teeming with bees,
can be separated into two boxes. One half will hold the queen and a young, already mated queen
can be put in the other half, to make two hives from one. By the time the flowers bloom, the new
queens will be laying eggs, filling each hive with young worker bees. The beekeeper’s family will
then migrate with them to their summer location.
Adapted from “America's Beekeepers: Hives for Hire” by Alan Mairson, National Geographic.
Questions 1-7
The flow chart below outlines the movements of the migratory beekeeper as described in Reading
Passage.
Complete the flow chart.
Choose your answers from the box at the right of the page and write your answers in boxes 1-7 on
your answer sheet.
BEEKEEPER MOVEMENTS
Example
In February, Californian farmers hire bees to

help Answer: polinate almond trees.
↓
In March, beekeepers 1 ……………….. for migration at
night when the hives are 2 ……………….. and the bees are
generally tranquil. A little 3 ……………….. can ensure that List of Words/Phrases
this is the case.
smoke chemicals pay
↓ barrels protection charge

set off light split
They transport their hives to orange groves where pollinate machines supers
farmers 4 ……………….. beekeepers for placing them on
their land. Here the bees make honey. combs screen prepare
full empty queens
↓
After three weeks, the supers can be taken to a warehouse
where 5……………….. are used to remove the wax and
extract the honey from the 6 ……………….. .
↓
After the honey collection, the old hives are rejected. Good
double hives are 7 ……………….. and re-queened and the
beekeeper transports them to their summer base.
Questions 8-11
Label the diagram below.
Choose ONE OR TWO WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer.
A BEEHIVE
Questions 12-15
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage? In boxes 12-
15 write.
YES if the statement agrees with the information given
NO if the statement contradicts the information given
NOT GIVEN if there is no information about this
12 The Egyptians keep bees on the banks of the Nile.

13 First attempts at migratory beekeeping in America were unsuccessful.
14 Bees keep honey for themselves in the bottom of the hive.
15 The honey is spun to make it liquid.
Solution for: Migratory Beekeeping
Answer Table
1. prepare 9. frames (of comb)
2. full 10. screen
3. smoke 11. brood chamber
4. charge 12. NOT GIVEN
5. machines 13. YES
6. combs 14. YES
7. split 15. NO
8. (hexagonal) cells//comb
The birds of London
There are more than two hundred different species and sub-species of birds in the London area,
ranging from the magpie to the greenfinch, but perhaps the most ubiquitous is the pigeon. It has
been suggested that the swarms of feral pigeons are all descended from birds which escaped from
dovecotes in the early medieval period; they found a natural habitat in the crannies and ledges of
buildings as did their ancestors, the rock doves, amid the sea-girt cliffs. ‘They nest in small colonies,’
one observer has written, ‘usually high up and inaccessible’ above the streets of London as if the
streets were indeed a sea. A man fell from the belfry of St Stephens Walbrook in 1277 while in quest
of a pigeon’s nest, while the Bishop of London complained in 1385 of ‘malignant persons’ who threw
stones at the pigeons resting in the city churches. So pigeons were already a familiar presence,
even if they were not treated with the same indulgence as their more recent successors. A modicum
of kindness to these creatures seems to have been first shown in the late nineteenth century, when
they were fed oats rather than the customary stale bread.
From the end of the nineteenth century, wood pigeons also migrated into the city; they were quickly
urbanised, increasing both in numbers and in tameness. ‘We have frequently seen them on die roofs
of houses,’ wrote the author of Bird Life in London in 1893, apparently as much at home as any
dovecote pigeon.’ Those who look up today may notice their ‘fly-lines’ in the sky. from Lincoln’s Inn
Fields over Kingsway and Trafalgar Square to Battersea, with other lines to Victoria Park and to
Kenwood. The air of London is filled with such ‘fly-lines’, and to trace the paths of the birds would be
to envisage the city in an entirely different form; then it would seem linked and unified by thousands
of thoroughfares and small paths of energy, each with its own history of use.
The sparrows move quickly in public places, and they arc now so much part of London that they
have been adopted by the native population as the sparred; a friend was known to Cockneys as a
‘cocksparrer’ in tribute to a bird which is sweet and yet watchful, blessed with a dusky plumage
similar to that of the London dust, a plucky little bird darting in and out of the city’s endless uproar.
They are small birds which can lose body heat very quickly, so they are perfectly adapted to the
‘heat island’ of London. They will live in any small cranny or cavity, behind drainpipes or ventilation
shafts, or in public statues, or holes in buildings; in that sense diet are perfectly suited to a London
topography. An ornithologist who described the sparrow as peculiarly attached to man’ said it never
now breeds at any distance from an occupied building’. This sociability, bred upon the fondness of
the Londoner, is manifest in many ways. One naturalist, W.H. Hudson, has described how any
stranger in a green space or public garden will soon find that ‘several sparrows are keeping him
company … watching his every movement, and if he sits down on a chair or a bench several of them
will come close to him, and hop this way and that before him, uttering a little plaintive note of
interrogation — Have you got nothing for us? They have also been described as die urchins of the
streets — ‘thievish, self-assertive and pugnacious’ — a condition which again may merit the
attention and admiration of native Londoners. Remarkably attached to their surroundings, they rarely
create ‘fly-lines’ across the city; where they are born, like other Londoners, they stay.
There are some birds, such as the robin and the chaffinch, which are less approachable and trustful
in the city than in the country. Other species, such as the mallard, grow increasingly shyer as they
leave London. There has been a severe diminution of the number of sparrows, while blackbirds are
more plentiful. Swans and ducks have also increased in number. Some species, however, have all
but vanished. The rooks of London are, perhaps, the most notable of the disappeared, their
rookeries destroyed by building work or by tree-felling. Areas of London were continuously inhabited
by rooks for many hundreds of years. The burial ground of St Deinstalls in the East and the college
garden of the Ecclesiastical Court in Doctors’ Commons, the turrets of the Tower of London and the
gardens of Grays Inn, were once such localities. There was a rookery in the Inner Temple dating
from at least 1666, mentioned by Oliver Goldsmith in 1774. Rooks nested on Bow Church and on St
Olave’s. They were venerable London birds, preferring to cluster around ancient churches and the
like as if they were their local guardians. Yet, in the words of the nineteenth-century song, ‘Now the
old rooks have lost their places’. There was a grove in Kensington Gardens devoted to the rooks; it
contained some seven hundred trees forming a piece of wild nature, a matter of delight and
astonishment to those who walked among them and listened to the endless cawing that blotted out
the city’s noise. But the trees were torn down in 1880. The rooks have never returned.
Questions 1-4
Answer the questions below using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer. Write your
answers in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.
1 What kind of birds are the London pigeons descended from?
2 What were pigeons given to eat before attitudes towards them changed?
3 What are the routes taken by wood pigeons known as?
4 What TWO activities have contributed to the drastic reduction in the number of rooks ?
Questions 5-9
SPARROWS
Word meaning 5 …………….. is derived from the bird’s name suited to atmosphere of London
because of tendency to rapidly 6 …………….. always likely to reproduce close
to 7 …………….. characteristic noted: 8 …………….. because of attitude of people in London
make a sound that seems to he a kind of 9……………..
Question 10-13
Classify the following as being stated of
A pigeons
B wood pigeons
C sparrows
D chaffinches
E blackbirds
F rooks
Write the correct letter A-F in boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet.
10 They are happier with people when they are in rural areas.
11 They rapidly became comfortable being with people.
12 They used to congregate particularly at old buildings.
13 They used to be attacked by people.
Solution for: The birds of London
Answer Table
1. rockdoves 8. sociability
2. stale bread 9. interrogation
3. fly(-)lines 10. D
4. building work; tree(-)felling 11. B
5. friend 12. F
6. lose body heat 13. A
7. (an) occupied building

Environment - Test Compilation

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The Climate Changers

3. C 10. NOT GIVEN

4. ancestors 11. TRUE

5. far-fetched 12. FALSE

6. climate-warming 13. NOT GIVEN

7. recorded history 14. TRUE

YES if the statement agrees with the information

9. The other two hottest years around the globe were .

2. YES 9. 1998 and 2002

4. NOT GIVEN 11. 1856

5. YES 12. France

6. NOT GIVEN 13. D

11 a glacier formed on a mountain

2. ii 10. NOT GIVEN

5 Killer whales (orcas) in the J, K, and L pods prefer to eat

Scientists believe some whales

9 …………….. affects orcas more than it does

We can use orcas to make society aware of the

Marine animals hit them when they come up

A lot of boats beep their motors running. Whales breathe 13 ……………..

Boats are noisy. Whales have difficulty 14 ……………..

3. vii 10. popular

4. v 11. numerous boats/vessels

6. A 13. exhaust fumes

7. (on) bottomfish 14. communicating (with others)

4. D 11. NOT GIVEN

Weather during the Little Ice Age

A climatic shifts B ice cores C tree rings

D glaciers E interactions F weather observations

G heat waves H storms I written accounts

Write the correct letter, A, B or C, in boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet.

5. 18&19 IN EITHER ORDER C,B 12. A

6. 18&19 IN EITHER ORDER C,B 13. B

1 Environmentalists take a pessimistic view of the world for a number of reasons.

9. What is the writer’s main point about lobby groups in paragraph 6?

4. NOT GIVEN 11. B

A There is a complicated combination of reasons for the loss of the rainforests.

C Rainforests are located near the Equator.

D Brazil is home to the rainforests.

F Rainforests are important habitats for a lot of plants.

G People are responsible for the loss of the rainforests.

H The rainforests are a source of oxygen.

I Rainforests are of consequence for a number of different reasons.

J As the rainforests are destroyed, the world gets warmer.

K Without rainforests there would not be enough oxygen in the air.

L There are people for whom the rainforests are home.

M Rainforests are found in Africa.

N Rainforests are not really important to human life.

O The destruction of the rainforests is the direct result of logging activity.

P Humans depend on the rainforests for their continuing existence.

A The development of a programme in environmental studies within a science curriculum

6. NOT GIVEN 13. J

2. vi 9. sea mammals, fish IN EITHER ORDER

3. iii 10. Thule

4. vii 11. islands

7. farming 14. imported

Polar tourism - the figures

Paragraph 1. INCREASED TEMPERATURES

A The gyre principle

B The Greenhouse Effect

4 Paragraph 5 E The advection principle

I The diffusion model