The Earth and Space Foundation

The community that focuses its efforts on the exploration of space

has largely been different from the community focused on the study
and protection of the Earth's environment, despite the fact that both
fields of interest involve what might be referred to as "scientific
exploration'. The reason for this dichotomous existence is chiefly
historical. The exploration of the Earth has been occurring over
many centuries, and the institutions created to do it are often very
different from those founded in the second part of the 20th century
to explore space. This separation is also caused by the fact that
space exploration has attracted experts from mainly non-biological
disciplines - primarily engineers and physicists - but the study of
Earth and its environment is a domain heavily populated by
biologists.

The separation between the two communities is often reflected in

attitudes. In the environmental community, it is not uncommon for
space exploration to be regarded as a waste of money, distracting
governments from solving major environmental problems here at
home. In the space exploration community, it is not uncommon for
environmentalists to be regarded as introspective people who divert
attention from the more expansive visions of the exploration of
space - the ‘new frontier’. These perceptions can also be negative in
consequence because the full potential of both communities can be
realised better when they work together to solve problems. For
example, those involved in space exploration can provide the
satellites to monitor the Earth’s fragile environments, and
environmentalists can provide information on the survival of life in
extreme environments.

In the sense that Earth and space exploration both stem from the
same human drive to understand our environment and our place
within it, there is no reason for the split to exist. A more accurate
view of Earth and space exploration is to see them as a continuum
of exploration with many interconnected and mutually beneficial
links. The Earth and Space Foundation, a registered charity, was
established for the purposes of fostering such links through field
research and by direct practical action.

Projects that have been supported by the Foundation include

environmental projects using technologies resulting from space
exploration: satellite communications, GPS, remote sensing,
advanced materials and power sources. For example, in places
where people are faced with destruction of the forests on which
their livelihood depends, rather than rejecting economic progress
and trying to save the forests on their intrinsic merit, another
approach is to enhance the value of the forests - although these
schemes must be carefully assessed to be successful. In the past,
the Foundation provided a grant to a group of expeditions that used
remote sensing to plan eco-tourism routes in the forests of
Guatemala, thus providing capital to the local communities through
the tourist trade. This novel approach is now making the protection
of the forests a sensible economic decision.

The Foundation funds expeditions making astronomical

observations from remote, difficult- to-access Earth locations,
archaeological field projects studying the development of early
civilisations that made significant contributions to astronomy and
space sciences, and field expeditions studying the way in which
views of the astronomical environment shaped the nature of past
civilisations. A part of Syria - ‘the Fertile Crescent’ - was the
birthplace of astronomy, accountancy, animal domestication and
many other fundamental developments of human civilisation. The
Foundation helped fund a large archaeology project by the

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Society for Syrian Archaeology at the University of California, Los

Angeles, in collaboration with the Syrian government that used GPS
and satellite imagery to locate mounds, or ’tels’, containing
artefacts and remnants of early civilisations. These collections are
being used to build a better picture of the nature of the civilisations
that gave birth to astronomy.

Field research also applies the Earth’s environmental and biological

resources to the human exploration and settlement of space. This
may include the use of remote environments on Earth, as well as
physiological and psychological studies in harsh environments. In
one research project, the Foundation provided a grant to an
international caving expedition to study the psychology of explorers
subjected to long-term isolation in caves in Mexico. The
psychometric tests on the cavers were used to enhance US
astronaut selection criteria by the NASA Johnson Space Center.

Space-like environments on Earth help us understand how to

operate in the space environment or help us characterise
extraterrestrial environments for future scientific research. In the
Arctic, a 24-kilometrewide impact crater formed by an asteroid or
comet 23 million years ago has become home tc a Mars- analogue
programme. The Foundation helped fund the NASA Haughton-Mars
Project to use this crater to test communications and exploration
technologies in preparation for the human exploration of Mars. The
crater, which sits in high Arctic permafrost, provides an excellent
replica of the physical processes occurring on Mars, a
permafrosted, impact-altered planet. Geologists and biologists can
work at the site to help understand how impact craters shape the
geological characteristics and possibly biological potential of Mars.

In addition to its fieldwork and scientific activities. the Foundation

has award programmes. These include a series of awards for the
future human exploration of Mars, a location with a diverse set of
exploration challenges. The awards will honour a number of ‘firsts’
on Mars that include landing on the surface, undertaking an
overland expedition to the Martian South Pole, undertaking an
overland expedition to the Martian North Pole, climbing Olympus
Mons, the highest mountain in the solar system, and descending to
the bottom of Valles Marineris, the deepest canyon on Mars. The
Foundation will offer awards for expeditions further out in the solar
system once these Mars awards have been claimed. Together, they
demonstrate that the programme really has no boundary in what it
could eventually support, and they provide longevity for the
objectives of the Foundation.

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Questions 1-5

Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in

the reading passage? Write

YES
NO
NOT GIVEN

if the statement agrees with the views of the writer if the statement
contradicts the views of the writer

if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

Activities related to environmental protection and space exploration
have

2..................... It is unclear why space exploration evolved in a

different way from environmental studies on Earth.

3..................... Governments tend to allocate more money to

environmental projects than space exploration.

4..................... Unfortunately, the environmental and space

exploration communities have little to offer each other in terms of
resources.

5..................... The Earth and Space Foundation was set up later

than it was originally intended.

Questions 6-9

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

1.....................
a common theme.

What was the significance of the ’novel approach' adopted in the

Guatemala project? A It minimised the need to protect the forests.
B It reduced the impact of tourists on the forests.
C It showed that preserving the forests can be profitable.

D It gave the Foundation greater control over the forests. GPS and
satellite imagery were used in the Syrian project to A help
archaeologists find ancient items.
B explore land that is hard to reach.
C reduce the impact of archaeological activity.
D evaluate some early astronomical theories.

One of the purposes of the Foundation’s awards is to A attract non-

scientists to its work.
B establish priorities for Mars exploration.
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C offer financial incentives for space exploration.

D establish the long-term continuity of its activities. 9 What is the

writer’s purpose in the passage?

A to persuade people to support the Foundation

B to explain the nature of the Foundation’s work
C to show how views on the Foundation have changed D to reject
earlier criticisms of the Foundation’s work

Questions 10-14

Complete the summary using the words, A-l, below.

Field research: Applying the Earth's environment to the settlement
of space Some studies

have looked at how humans function in 10..................... situations.

In one project, it was decided to review cave explorers in Mexico
who tolerate

11..................... periods on their own.

It is also possible to prepare for space exploration by studying
environments on Earth that

are 12..................... to those on Mars.

A huge crater in the Arctic is the 13..................... place to test the

technologies needed to explore Mars and gather other relevant
14..................... information.

1. A comparable
2. B extreme
3. C connected

D ideal
E unexpected F beneficial

GHI

scientific extended individual

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4

Solution:
1. YES
2. NO
3. NOT GIVEN 4. NO

5. NOT GIVEN 6. C
7. A

8. D 9. B 10. B 11. H 12. A 13. D 14. G

The new way to be a fifth-grader

I peer over his shoulder at his laptop screen to see the math
problem the fifth-grader is pondering. It's a trigonometry problem.
Carpenter, a serious-feced ten-year-old, pauses for a second,
fidgets, then clicks on ”0 degrees." The computer tells him that he's
correct. "It took a while for me to work it out," he admits
sheepishly. The software then generates another problem, followed
by another, until eventually he's done ten in a row.

Last November, his teacher, Kami Thordarson, began using Khan

Academy in her class. It is an educational website on which
students can watch some 2,400 videos. The videos are anything but
sophisticated. At seven to 14 minutes long, they consist of a
voiceover by the site's founder, Salman Khan, chattily describing a
mathematical concept or explaining how to solve a problem, while
his hand-scribbled formulas and diagrams appear on-screen. As a
student, you can review a video as many times as you want,
scrolling back several times over puzzling parts and fast-forwarding
through the boring bits you already know. Once you've mastered a
video, you can move on to the next one.

Initially, Thordarson thought Khan Academy would merely be a

helpful supplement to her normal instruction. But it quickly became
far more than that. She is now on her way to "flipping" the way her
class works. This involves replacing some of her lectures with
Khan's videos, which students can watch at home. Then in class,
they focus on working on the problem areas together. The idea is to
invert the normal rhythms of school, so that lectures are viewed in
the children's own time and homework is done at school. It sounds
weird, Thordarson admits, but this reversal makes sense when you
think about it. It is when they are doing homework that students are
really grappling with a subject and are most likely to want someone
to talk to. And Khan Academy provides teachers with a dashboard
application that lets them see the instant a student gets stuck.

For years, teachers like Thordarson have complained about the

frustrations of teaching to the "middle" of the class. They stand at
the whiteboard trying to get 25 or more students to learn at the
same pace. Advanced students get bored and tune out, lagging ones
get lost and tune out, and pretty soon half the class is not paying
attention. Since the rise of personal computers in the 1980s,
educators have hoped that technology could save the day by
offering lessons tailored to each child. Schools have spent millions
of dollars on sophisticated classroom technology, but the effort has
been in vain. The one-to-one instruction it requires is, after all,
prohibitively expensive. What country can afford such a luxury?

Khan never intended to overhaul the school curricula and he doesn't

have a consistent, comprehensive plan for doing so. Nevertheless,
some of his fans believe that he has stumbled onto the solution to
education's middle-of-the-class mediocrity. Most notable among
them is Bill Gates, whose foundation has invested $1.5 million in
Khan's site. Students have pointed out that Khan is particularly
good at explaining all the hidden, small steps in math problems—
steps that teachers often gloss over. He has an uncanny ability to
inhabit the mind of someone who doesn't already understand
something.

However, not all educators are enamoured with Khan and his site.
Gary Stager, a longtime educational consultant and advocate of
laptops in classrooms,, thinks Khan Academy is not innovative at
all. The videos and software modules, he contends, are just a high-
tech version of the outdated teaching techniques—lecturing and
drilling. Schools have become

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"joyless test-prep factories," he says, and Khan Academy caters to

this dismal trend.

As Sylvia Martinez, president of an organization focusing on

technology in the classroom, puts it, "The things they're doing are
really just rote." Flipping the classroom isn't an entirely new idea,
Martinez says, and she doubts that it would work for the majority of
pupils: "I'm sorry, but if they can't understand the lecture in a
classroom, they're not going to grasp it better when it's done
through a video at home."

Another limitation of Khan's site is that the drilling software can

only handle questions where the answers are unambiguously right
or wrong, like math or chemistry; Khan has relatively few videos on
messier, grey-area subjects like history. Khan and Gates admit
there is no easy way to automate the teaching of writing—even
though it is just as critical as math.

Even if Khan is truly liberating students to advance at their own

pace, it is not clear that schools will be able to cope. The very
concept of grade levels implies groups of students moving along
together at an even pace. So what happens when, using Khan
Academy, you wind up with a ten-year- old who has already
mastered high-school physics? Khan's programmer, Ben Kamens,
has heard from teachers who have seen Khan Academy
presentations and loved the idea but wondered whether they could
modify it "to stop students from becoming this advanced."

Khan's success has injected him into the heated wars over school
reform. Reformers today, by and large, believe student success
should be carefully tested, with teachers and principals receiving
better pay if their students advance more quickly. In essence, Khan
doesn't want to change the way institutions teach; he wants to
change how people learn, whether they're in a private school or a
public school—or for that matter, whether they're a student or an
adult trying to self-educate in Ohio, Brazil, Russia, or India. One
member of Khan's staff is spearheading a drive to translate the
videos into ten major languages. It's classic start-up logic: do
something novel, do it with speed, and the people who love it will
find you.

Adapted from Wired Magazine

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Questions 1-5

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

1. 1 What do you learn about the student in the first paragraph?

 A He has not used the maths software before.
B He did not expect his answer to the problem to be correct.
C He was not initially doing the right maths problem.
D He did not immediately know how to solve the maths
problem.

2. 2 What does the writer say about the content of the Khan
Academy videos? A They have been produced in a professional
manner.
B They include a mix of verbal and visual features.
C Some of the maths problems are too easy.

D Some of the explanations are too brief.

3. 3 What does this reversal refer to in line 40?

A going back to spending fewer hours in school

B students being asked to explain answers to teachers
C swapping the activities done in the class and at home
D the sudden improvement in students’ maths performance

4. 4 What does the writer say about teaching to the ‘middle’ of

the class? A Teachers become too concerned about weaker
students.
B Technology has not until now provided a solution to the
problem. C Educators have been unwilling to deal with the
issues.

D Students in this category quickly become bored.

5. 5 Students praise Khan’s videos because they

A show the extent of his mathematical knowledge. B deal with

a huge range of maths problems.
C provide teaching at different ability levels.
D cover details that are often omitted in class.

Questions 6-10

Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in

the reading passage?

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Write
YES
NO
NOT GIVEN

if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer if the

statement contradicts the claims of the writer

if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

6.....................
turned out to be wrong.

7..................... 8.....................

different rates. 9..................... 10.....................

Khan wished to completely change the way courses are taught in

schools. School grade levels are based on the idea of students
progressing at

Some principals have invited Khan into their schools to address

students. Khan has given advice to other people involved in start-up
projects.

Thordarson's first impressions of how she would use Khan Academy

Questions 11-14

Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-G, below.

11. 11 Bill Gates thinks Khan Academy11.....................

12. 12 According to Gary Stager. Khan Academy12.....................
13. 13 Sylvia Martinez regrets that Khan Academy13.....................
14. 14 Ben Kamens has been told that Khan
Academy14.....................

A is only suited to subjects where questions have exact answers.

B can teach both the strongest and the weakest pupils in a class.
C means the teaching of other school subjects will have to be
changed. D only prepares students to pass exams.
E could cause student achievement to improve too quickly.
F requires all students to own the necessary technology.
G is unlikely to have a successful outcome for most students.

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Solution: 1.D
2.B
3.C

4.B 5.D
6. YES 7. NO

8. NO
9. NOT GIVEN 10. NOT GIVEN 11. B
12. D
13. G
14. E

Out of Africa: Saharan Solar Energy

Vivienne Wait reports on how the Sahara Desert could offer a truly
green solution to Europe’s energy problems

For years, the Sahara has been regarded by many Europeans as a

terra incognita* of little economic value or importance. But this idea
may soon change completely. Politicians and scientists on both
sides of the Mediterranean are beginning to focus on the Sahara’s
potential to provide power for Europe in the future. They believe the
desert’s true value comes from the fact that it is dry and empty.
Some areas of the Sahara reach 45 degrees centigrade on many
afternoons. It is, in other words, a gigantic natural storehouse of
solar energy.

A few years ago, scientists began to calculate just how much

energy the Sahara holds. They were astonished at the answer. In
theory, a 90,600 square kilometre chunk of the Sahara - smaller
than Portugal and a little over 1% of its total area - could yield the
same amount of electricity as all the world’s power plants
combined. A smaller square of 15,500 square kilometres - about the
size of Connecticut - could provide electricity for Europe’s 500
million people.

'I admit I was sceptical until 1 did the calculations myself,’ says
Michael Pawlyn, director of Exploration Architecture, one of three
British environmental companies comprising the Sahara Forest
Project, which is testing solar plants in Oman and the United Arab
Emirates. Pawlyn calls the Sahara’s potential ’staggering’.

At the moment, no one is proposing the creation of a solar power

station the size of a small country. But a relatively well-developed
technology exists, which proponents say could turn the Sahara’s
heat and sunlight into a major source of electricity - Concentrating
Solar Power [CSP], Unlike solar panels, which convert sunlight
directly into electricity, CSP utilises mirrors which focus light on
water pipes or boilers to produce very hot steam to operate the
turbines of generators. Small CSP plants have produced power in
California’s Mojave Desert since the 1980s. The Sahara Forest
Project proposes building CSP plants in areas below sea level (the
Sahara has several such depressions) so that sea water can flow
into them. This water would then be purified and used for powering
turbines and washing dust off the mirrors. Waste water would then
supply irrigation to areas around the stations, creating lush oases -
hence the ’forest’ in the group’s name.

But producing Significant quantities of electricity means building

huge arrays of mirrors and pipes across hundreds of miles of remote
desert, which is expensive. Gerry Wolff, an engineer who heads
DESERTEC, an international consortium of solar-power scientists,
says they have estimated it will cost about $59 billion to begin
transmitting power from the Sahara by 2020.

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Building plants is just part of the challenge. One of the drawbacks

to CSP technology is that it works at maximum efficiency only in
sunny, hot climates - and deserts tend to be distant from population
centres. To supply Europe with 20% of its electricity needs, more
than 19,300 kilometres of cables would need to be laid under the
Mediterranean, says Gunnar Asplund, head of HVDC research at
ABB Power Technologies in Ludvika, Sweden. Indeed, to use
renewable sources of power, including solar, wind and tidal, Europe
will need to build completely new electrical grids. That’s because
existing infrastructures, built largely for the coal- fired plants that
supply 80% of Europe’s power, would not be suitable for carrying
the amount of electricity generated by the Sahara. Germany’s
government-run Aerospace Centre, which researches energy,
estimates that replacing those lines could raise the cost of building
solar plants in the Sahara and sending significant amounts of power
to Europe to about $485 billion over the next 40 years. Generous
government subsidies will be needed. ‘Of course it costs a lot of
money,’ says Asplund. ‘It’s a lot cheaper to burn coal than to make
solar power in the Sahara.’

Meanwhile, some companies are getting started. Seville engineering

company Abengoa is building one solar- thermal plant in Algeria and
another in Morocco, while a third is being built in Egypt by a
Spanish-Japanese joint venture. The next step will be to get cables
in place. Although the European Parliament has passed a law that
aids investors who help the continent reach its goal of getting 20%
of itg power from renewable energy by 2020, it could take years to
create the necessary infrastructure.

Nicholas Dunlop, secretary-general of the London-based NGO e-

Parliament, thinks companies should begin transmitting small
amounts of solar power as soon as the North African plants begin
operating, by linking a few cable lines under the Med. 'I call it the
Lego method,’ he says. ‘Build it piece by piece.’ If It can be shown
that power from the Sahara can be produced profitably, he says,
companies and governments will soon jump in. If they do, perhaps
airplane passengers flying across the Sahara will one day count the
mirrors and patches of green instead of staring at sand.

adapted from Time Magazine

*terra incognita - Latin, meaning ‘an unknown land'

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Questions 1-5

The reading passage has seven paragraphs, A-G. Which paragraph

contains the following information? Write the correct letter, A-G.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
1.....................

2.....................

3.....................

potential

4..................... 5.....................

Questions 6-9

a mention of systems which could not be used

estimates of the quantity of power the Sahara could produce
a suggestion for how to convince organisations about the Sahara’s

a short description of the Sahara at present

a comparison of the costs of two different energy sources

Look at the following statements (Questions 6-9) and the list of

organisations below.

Match each statement with the correct organisation, A-G.

6..................... They have set a time for achieving an objective.

7..................... They believe that successful small-scale projects will

demonstrate that larger projects are possible.

8..................... They have a number of renewable energy projects

under construction. 9..................... They are already experimenting
with solar- energy installations in other

parts of the world.

List of Organisations
A Exploration Architecture B DESERTEC
C ABB Power Technologies D Aerospace Centre
E Abengoa
F The European Parliament G e-Parliament

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Questions 10-13
Complete the summary below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each
answer.

Concentrating Solar Power (CSP)

Unlike solar panels, CSP concentrates the sun's rays on boilers by
using 10......................

The resulting heat produces high-temperature 11.....................,

which in turn moves the turbines which generate electricity.

CSP plants will be situated in 12..................... to allow sea water to

run in. This, when purified, can be used to wash the equipment.

The resulting dirty water will be used for 13..................... around the
power plant, and in this way oases will be formed.

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Solution:
1.E 8.E
2.B 9.A
3.G 10. mirrors
4.A 11. steam
5.E 12. depressions 6.F 13. irrigation
7. G

Striking Back at Lightning With Lasers

Seldom is the weather more dramatic than when thunderstorms
strike. Their electrical fury inflicts death or serious injury on around
500 people each year in the United States alone. As the clouds roll
in, a leisurely round of golf can become a terrifying dice with death -
out in the open, a lone golfer may be a lightning bolt’s most inviting
target. And there is damage to property too. Lightning damage costs
American power companies more than $100 million a year.

But researchers in the United States and Japan are planning to hit
back. Already in laboratory trials they have tested strategies for
neutralising the power of thunderstorms, and this winter they will
brave real storms, equipped with an armoury of lasers that they will
be pointing towards the heavens to discharge thunderclouds before
lightning can strike.
The idea of forcing storm clouds to discharge their lightning on
command is not new. In the early 1960s, researchers tried firing
rockets trailing wires into thunderclouds to set up
an easy discharge path for the huge electric charges that these
clouds generate. The technique survives to this day at a test site in
Florida run by the University of Florida, with support from the
Electrical Power Research Institute (EPRI), based in California.
EPRI, which is funded by power companies, is looking at ways to
protect the United States’ power grid from lightning strikes. ‘We can
cause the lightning to strike where we want it to using rockets,’
says Ralph Bernstein, manager of lightning projects at EPRI. The
rocket site is providing precise measurements of lightning voltages
and allowing engineers to check how electrical equipment bears up.

Bad behaviour

But while rockets are fine for research, they cannot provide the
protection from lightning strikes that everyone is looking for. The
rockets cost around $1,200 each, can only be fired at a limited
frequency and their failure rate is about 40 per cent. And even when
they do trigger lightning, things still do not always go according to
plan. ‘Lightning is not perfectly well behaved,’ says Bernstein.
‘Occasionally, it will take a branch and go someplace it wasn’t
supposed to go.’

And anyway, who would want to fire streams of rockets in a

populated area? ‘What goes up must come down,’ points out Jean-
Claude Diels of the University of New Mexico. Diels
is leading a project, which is backed by EPRI, to try to use lasers to
discharge lightning safely- and safety is a basic requirement since
no one wants to put themselves or their expensive equipment at
risk. With around $500,000 invested so far, a promising system is
just emerging from the laboratory.

The idea began some 20 years ago, when high-powered lasers were
revealing their ability to extract electrons out of atoms and create
ions. If a laser could generate a line of ionisation in the air all the
way up to a storm cloud, this conducting path could be used to
guide lightning to Earth, before the electric field becomes strong
enough to break down the air in an uncontrollable surge. To stop the
laser itself being struck, it would not be pointed straight at the
clouds. Instead it would be directed at a mirror, and from there into
the sky. The mirror would be protected by placing lightning
conductors close by. Ideally, the cloud- zapper (gun) would be cheap
enough to be installed around all key power installations, and
portable enough to be taken to international sporting events to
beam up at brewing storm

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clouds.

A stumbling block

However, there is still a big stumbling block. The laser is no nifty

portable: it’s a monster that takes up a whole room. Diels is trying
to cut down the size and says that a laser around the size of a small
table is in the offing. He plans to test this more manageable system
on live thunderclouds next summer. Bernstein says that Diels’s
system is attracting lots of interest from the power companies.

But they have not yet come up with the $5 million that EPRI says
will be needed to develop a commercial system, by making the
lasers yet smaller and cheaper. I cannot say I have money yet, but
I’m working on it,’ says Bernstein. He reckons that the forthcoming
field tests will be the turning point - and he’s hoping for good news.
Bernstein predicts ‘an avalanche of interest and support’ if all goes
well. He expects to see cloud-zappers eventually costing $50,000 to
$100,000 each.

Other scientists could also benefit. With a lightning ‘switch’ at their

fingertips, materials scientists could find out what happens when
mighty currents meet matter. Diels also hopes to see the birth of
‘interactive meteorology’ - not just forecasting the weather but
controlling it. ‘If we could discharge clouds, we might affect the
weather,’ he says.

And perhaps, says Diels, we’ll be able to confront some other

meteorological menaces. ‘We think we could prevent hail by
inducing lightning,’ he says. Thunder, the shock wave that comes
from a lightning flash, is thought to be the trigger for the torrential
rain that is typical of storms. A laser thunder factory could shake
the moisture out of clouds, perhaps preventing the formation of the
giant hailstones that threaten crops. With luck, as the storm clouds
gather this winter, laser-toting researchers could, for the first time,
strike back.

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Questions 1-3

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write the correct letter in boxes 1-3 on your answer sheet.

1. 1 The main topic discussed in the text is

A the damage caused to US golf courses and golf players by
lightning strikes. B the effect of lightning on power supplies in
the US and in Japan.
C a variety of methods used in trying to control lightning
strikes.
D a laser technique used in trying to control lightning strikes.
2. 2 According to the text, every year lightning
A does considerable damage to buildings during
thunderstorms. B kills or injures mainly golfers in the United
States.
C kills or injures around 500 people throughout the world.
D damages more than 100 American power companies.
3. 3 Researchers at the University of Florida and at the
University of New Mexico A receive funds from the same
source.
B are using the same techniques.
C are employed by commercial companies.

D are in opposition to each other.

Questions 4-6

Complete the sentences below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each
answer.

Write your answers in boxes 4-6 on your answer sheet.

4. 4 EPRI receives financial support from 4.....................

5. 5 The advantage of the technique being developed by Diels is
that it can be used

5.....................

6 The main difficulty associated with using the laser equipment is

related to its
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6.....................

Questions 7-10

Complete the summary using the list of words, A-I, below.

Write the correct letter, A-I, in boxes 7-10 on your answer sheet.

In this method, a laser is used to create a line of ionisation by

removing electrons from 7..................... This laser is then directed at
8..................... in order to control electrical charges, a method which
is less dangerous than using 9..................... As a protection for the
lasers, the beams are aimed firstly at 10......................

A cloud-zappers D mirrors
G rockets

Questions 11-13

B atoms
E technique H conductors

C storm clouds F ions

I thunder

Do the following statements agree with the information given in

Reading Passage 1? In boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet write

YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer

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

11..................... 12.....................

storms. 13.....................

Power companies have given Diels enough money to develop his

laser. Obtaining money to improve the lasers will depend on tests in
real

Weather forecasters are intensely interested in Diels’s system.

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Solution: 1. D
2. A
3. A

4. power companies 5. safely

6. size
7. B

8. C
9. G
10. D
11. NO
12. YES
13. NOT GIVEN

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The Value of a College Degree

The escalating cost of higher education is causing many to question
the value of continuing education beyond high school. Many wonder
whether the high cost of tuition, the opportunity cost of choosing
college over full-time employment, and the accumulation of
thousands of dollars of debt is, in the long run, worth the
investment.

The risk is especially large for low- income families who have a
difficult time making ends meet without the additional burden of
college tuition and fees.

In order to determine whether higher education is worth the

investment, it is useful to examine what is known about the value of
higher education and the rates of return on investment to both the
individual and to society.

~THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF HIGHER EDUCATION

There is considerable support for the notion that the rate of return
on investment in higher education is high enough to warrant the
financial burden associated with pursuing a college degree. Though
the earnings differential between college and high school graduates
varies over time, college graduates, on average, earn more than
high school graduates. According to the Census Bureau, over an
adult's working life, high school graduates earn an average of $1.2
million; associate’s degree holders earn about $1.6 million; and
bachelor’s degree holders earn about $2.1 million (Day and
Newburger, 2002).

These sizeable differences in lifetime earnings put the costs of

college study in realistic perspective. Most students today—about
80 percent of all students—enroll either in public four- year colleges
or in public two-year colleges. According to the U.S. Department of
Education report. Think College Early, a full-time student at a public
four-year college pays an average of $8,655 for in-state tuition,
room, and board (U.S. Department of Education, 2002). A fulltime
student in a public two-year college pays an average of $1,359 per
year in tuition (U.S. Department of Education, 2002).

These statistics support the contention that, though the cost of

higher education is significant, given the earnings disparity that
exists between those who earn a bachelor's degree and those who
do not, the individual rate of return on investment in higher
education is sufficiently high to warrant the cost.

~OTHER BENEFIT! OF HIGHER EDUCATION

College graduates also enjoy benefits beyond increased income.

A1998 report published by the Institute for Higher Education Policy
reviews the individual benefits that college graduates enjoy,
including higher levels of saving, increased personal/professional
mobility, improved quality of life for their offspring, better consumer
decision making, and more hobbies and leisure activities (Institute
for Higher Education Policy, 1998). According to a report published
by the Carnegie Foundation, nonmonetary individual benefits of
higher education include the tendency for postsecondary students
to become more open-minded, more cultured, more rational, more
consistent, and less authoritarian; these benefits are also passed
along to succeeding generations (Rowley and Hurtado, 2002).
Additionally, college attendance has been shown to "decrease
prejudice, enhance knowledge of world affairs and enhance social
status" while

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increasing economic and job security for those who earn bachelor’s
degrees (Ibid.). Research has also consistently shown a positive
correlation between completion of higher education and good
health, not only for oneself, but also for one’s children. In fact,
"parental schooling levels (after controlling for differences in
earnings) are positively correlated with the health status of their
children" and Increased schooling (and higher relative income) are
correlated with lower mortality rates for given age brackets" (Cohn
and Geske, 1992).

~THE SOCIAL VALUE OF HIGHER EDUCATION

A number of studies have shown a high correlation between higher

education and cultural and family values, and economic growth.
According to Elchanan Cohn and Terry Geske (1992), there is the
tendency for more highly educated women to spend more time with
their children; these women tend to use this time to better prepare
their children for the future. Cohn and Geske (1992) report that
"college graduates appear to have a more optimistic view of their
past and future personal progress."

Public benefits of attending college include increased tax revenues,

greater workplace productivity, increased consumption, increased
workforce flexibility, and decreased reliance on government
financial support (Institute for Higher Education Policy, 1998)....

CONCLUSION

While it is clear that investment in a college degree, especially for

those students in the lowest income brackets, is a financial burden,
the long-term benefits to individuals as well as to society at large,
appear to far outweigh the costs.

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Questions 1-4

Do the following statements agree with the information in Reading

Passage 1? In boxes 1- 4 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.

1..................... 2..................... 3..................... 4.....................

Questions 5-9
The cost of a college education has remained steady for several
years.

Some people have to borrow large amounts of money to pay for

college.

About 80 percent of college students study at public colleges.

Public colleges cost less than private colleges.

Complete the fact sheet below.

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each
answer. Write your answers in boxes 5-9 on your Answer Sheet

Financial Costs and Benefits of Higher

Education
— The average high school graduate makes a little more than one
million dollars in 5.....................

 — The average person with an associate’s degree earns 6$

6.....................
 — The average 7..................... makes over two million dollars.
 — The average student at a four year college spends
8..................... $ a year on classes, housing, and food.

— The average student at a two-year college spends $1,359 on

9.....................

Questions 10-13

The list below shows some benefits which college graduates may
enjoy more of as compared to noncollege graduates.

Which four of these benefits are mentioned in the article?

Write the appropriate letters A-G in boxes 10-13 on your Answer
Sheet A They own bigger houses.
B They are more optimistic about their lives.

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C They save more money.

D They enjoy more recreational activities. E They have healthier
children.
F They travel more frequently.
G They make more purchases.

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Solution: 1. FALSE 2. TRUE

3. TRUE
4. NOT GIVEN

5. adult’s working life//a lifetime

6. 1.6 million 7. Bachelor's

Degree Holder

8. 8655 9. tuition

10. C, D, E, G IN ANY ORDERS

11. C, D, E, G IN ANY ORDERS

12. C, D, E, G IN ANY ORDERS

13. C, D, E, G IN ANY ORDERS

IMPLEMENTING THE CYCLE OF SUCCESS: A

CASE STUDY
Within Australia, Australian Hotels Inc (AHI) operates nine hotels
and employs over 2000 permanent full-time staff, 300 permanent
part-time employees and 100 casual staff. One of its latest ventures,
the Sydney Airport hotel (SAH), opened in March 1995. The hotel is
the closest to Sydney Airport and is designed to provide the best
available accommodation, food and beverage and meeting facilities
in Sydney's southern suburbs. Similar to many international hotel
chains, however, AHI has experienced difficulties in Australia in
providing long-term profits for hotel owners, as a result of the
country's high labour-cost structure. In order to develop an
economically viable hotel organisation model, AHI decided to
implement some new policies and practices at SAH.

The first of the initiatives was an organisational structure with only

three levels of management - compared to the traditional seven.
Partly as a result of this change, there are 25 per cent fewer
management positions, enabling a significant saving. This change
also has other implications. Communication, both up and down the
organisation, has greatly improved. Decision-making has been
forced down in many cases to front-line employees. As a result,
guest requests are usually met without reference to a supervisor,
improving both customer and employee satisfaction.

The hotel also recognised that it would need a different approach to

selecting employees who would fit in with its new policies. In its
advertisements, the hotel stated a preference for people with some
'service' experience in order to minimise traditional work practices
being introduced into the hotel. Over 7000 applicants filled in
application forms for the 120 jobs initially offered at SAH. The
balance of the positions at the hotel (30 management and 40 shift
leader positions) were predominantly filled by transfers from other
AHI properties.

A series of tests and interviews were conducted with potential

employees, which eventually left 280 applicants competing for the
120 advertised positions. After the final interview, potential recruits
were divided into three categories. Category A was for applicants
exhibiting strong leadership qualities, Category C was for applicants
perceived to be followers, and Category B was for applicants with
both leader and follower qualities. Department heads and shift
leaders then composed prospective teams using a combination of
people from all three categories. Once suitable teams were formed,
offers of employment were made to team members.

Another major initiative by SAH was to adopt a totally multi-skilled

workforce. Although there may be some limitations with highly
technical jobs such as cooking or maintenance, wherever possible,
employees at SAH are able to work in a wide variety of positions. A
multi-skilled workforce provides far greater management flexibility
during peak and quiet times to transfer employees to needed
positions. For example, when office staff are away on holidays
during quiet periods of the year, employees in either food or
beverage or housekeeping departments can temporarily.

The most crucial way, however, of improving the labour cost

structure at SAH was to find better, more productive ways of
providing customer service. SAH management concluded this would
first require a process of 'benchmarking'. The prime objective of the
benchmarking process was to compare a range of service delivery
processes across a

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range of criteria using teams made up of employees from different

departments within the hotel which interacted with each other. This
process resulted in performance measures that greatly enhanced
SAH's ability to improve productivity and quality.

The front office team discovered through this project that a high
proportion of AHI Club member reservations were incomplete. As a
result, the service provided to these guests was below the standard
promised to them as part of their membership agreement. Reducing
the number of incomplete reservations greatly improved guest
perceptions of service.

In addition, a program modelled on an earlier project called 'Take

Charge' was implemented. Essentially, Take Charge provides an
effective feedback loop horn both customers and employees.
Customer comments, both positive and negative, are recorded by
staff. These are collated regularly to identify opportunities for
improvement. Just as importantly, employees are requested to note
down their own suggestions for improvement. (AHI has set an
expectation that employees will submit at least three suggestions
for every one they receive from a customer.)

Employee feedback is reviewed daily and suggestions are

implemented within 48 hours, if possible, or a valid reason is given
for non-implementation. If suggestions require analysis or data
collection, the Take Charge team has 30 days in which to address
the issue and come up with recommendations.

Although quantitative evidence of AHI's initiatives at SAH are

limited at present, anecdotal evidence clearly suggests that these
practices are working. Indeed AHI is progressively rolling out these
initiatives in other hotels in Australia, whilst numerous overseas
visitors have come to see how the program works.

This article has been adapted and condensed fem the article by R
Carter (19%), 'Implementing the cycle of success: A case study of
the Sheraten Pacific Division', Asia Pacific Journal of Human
Resources, 34(3): 111-23. Names and other details have been
changed and report findings may have been given a different
emphasis from the original. W eare grateful to Asia Pacific Journal
of Human Resources for allowing us to use, file material in this way.

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Questions 1-5

Choose the appropriate letters A-D and write them in boxes 1-5 on
your answer sheet.

1. 1 The high costs of running AHI's hotels are related to their ...

A management. B size.
C staff.
D policies.

2. 2 SAH's new organisational structure requires ... A 75% of the

old management positions.
B 25% of the old management positions.
C 25% more management positions.

D 5% fewer management positions.

3. 3 The SAH's approach to organisational structure required

changing practices in .. A industrial relations.
B firing staff.
C hiring staff.

D marketing.

4. 4 The total number of jobs advertised at the SAH was ... A 70.

B 120. C 170. D 280.

5. 5 Categories A, B and C were used to select... A front office

staff.
B new teams.

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C department heads. D new managers.

Questions 6-13
Complete the following summary of the last four paragraphs of
Reading Passage 1 using

ONE OR TWO words from the Reading Passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 6-13 on your answer sheet.

WHAT THEY DID AT SAH

Teams of employees were selected from different hotel
departments to participate in a 6..................... exercise.

The information collected was used to compare 7.....................

processes which, in turn, led to the development of 8.....................
that would be used to increase the hotel's capacity to improve
9..................... as well as quality.

Also, an older program known as '10.....................' was introduced at

SAH. In this program, 11..................... is sought from customers and
staff. Wherever possible 12..................... suggestions are
implemented within 48 hours. Other suggestions are investigated
for their feasibility for a period of up to 13.....................

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Solution: 1. C
2.A
3. C

4.B 5. B

6. benchmarking 7. service delivery

8. (performance) measures

9. productivity
10. (') Take Charge

(')
11. feedback

12. employee(s') // staff

13. 30 days

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