Instituto de Educación Superior Nº 28 “Olga Cossettini” 1

Reading Comprehension: Self Access

READING COMPREHENSION
Self Access Material
READING TEXT Nº 1

READ THIS EXTRACT CAREFULLY

It was his last chance. The capital had been taken, cities were falling by the hour and border towns
like this one would soon be subjected to military ‘protection’.

He had known that a through ticket would have meant suspicion followed by questions; his accent
would have immediately identified him as a foreigner. But as soon as he stepped off of the train, ten
minutes before the customs post closed for the night, he realized he would have to ask for directions.
Two words: ¿La frontera? He had practised under his breath, just in case, for the last 200 kilometres.
He had worked on the vowels--no diphthongs, keep them clear; the consonants--roll both ‘r’s; the
intonation--start low, rise a little.

Then he saw the stationmaster. His uniform and bearing reeked of authority. But there were no
porters, there were no other passengers: it had to be him. A shiver as the sweat on his back turned
suddenly cold, a few determined paces forward, eye contact established and the question was asked.
Not the question he had intended, though. At the last moment the name of the town across the frontier
flashed into his mind and he pronounced it faultlessly.

The answer was brisk and dismissive; there would be no repetition for a native speaker. Had he said
derecho--straight on, or derecha-- to the right? The railway line--no lights, no bends in sight--seemed
both the safer and the quicker option, but after covering a few hundred metres he found himself in a
winding cutting where the trees blocked out such moonlight as there was. Still no sign of the border,
and although he could not see his watch in the gloom he knew it was very close to midnight. His
senses were scalpel sharp; he had already picked up the characteristic smells of eucalyptus wafting
on the lazy warm air when he heard low voices ahead. He was getting near. He turned off to the right,
following a path for some minutes and miraculously found himself right outside the border post just as
the sound of helicopter blades clattered through the night.

The building was in darkness except for one office; he strode and greeted the seated policemen with a
well-rehearsed buenas noches, simultaneously registering the unfamiliar uniforms. He was wondering
whether they were part of a newly-arrived specialist force, and what the implications of that would be,
when one of them answered him in Portuguese and took his passport. It dawned on him: he had
unwittingly walked right across the frontier. He had made it.

FIND EVIDENCE IN THE TEXT TO SUPPORT OR DISPROVE THESE STATEMENTS. WRITE

TRUE OR FALSE AND JUSTIFY YOUR CHOICE QUOTING KEY WORDS OR PHRASES FROM
THE TEXT. DO NOT QUOTE FULL SENTENCES.

The first one has been done for you.

0. The man was determined to cross the border.
TRUE: ‘It was his last chance’
1. The man had bought a ticket to get across the border into Portugal.
2. He was able to pronounce the question to the stationmaster properly because he had
been practising it on the train.
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Reading Comprehension: Self Access

3. Asking the stationmaster to repeat his answer would have betrayed his foreign origin.
4. Although at first the railway line had seemed to him the safer and quicker option, then
he decided to take a short cut through the woods.
5. He realized he had managed to cross the frontier when he found himself outside the
border post.

READING TEXT Nº 2
READ THE ARTICLE CAREFULLY AND MATCH EACH OF THE SENTENCES BELOW IT WITH
THE APPROPRIATE BLANK IN THE TEXT. BE CAREFUL, THERE IS ONE EXTRA SENTENCE.
The first one has been done for you.
Are you a teacher or a “teacher for learning”?
The answers we give and the comments we make say a lot about us. 0- ___D___. So, what do your
answers and comments suggest about your priorities in the classroom? In my job as an education
consultant, I am frequently asking teachers: “How was that lesson?” Here are some recent and very
typical responses:

 “Pretty good. I wanted the group to cover pages 22 to 23. By the end of the lesson, we got there,
just! 1- ___________.”

 “A bit disappointing. I’d spent a long time preparing that activity but it didn’t seem to work as well as
I’d expected.”

 “Good. I like it when my lessons go as planned. When you put so much time and energy into the
preparation, it’s really satisfying when it goes well.”
2- ___________. All teachers know that coverage, well organised groups, set activities and good
planning are all important factors for making lessons successful. But they do give a clue to what
matters most to these teachers. All the points they emphasised – coverage, activities, planning – are
about their teaching, rather than about their pupils’ learning.
3- ____________. Instead, they might have said:

 “We covered the planned pages today but only Beth really got it. I’m going to revisit the lesson
tomorrow or we’ll have just wasted our time.”

 “The activity didn’t work out as I’d planned, but it didn’t matter because most of the class learned
what I intended for them.”

 “The lesson went to plan. The problem was that I realised I hadn’t checked how much the children
could already do. It went perfectly but they weren’t challenged. 4-___________. Must change
things for tomorrow.”
If the first set of (true) comments shows that teaching is what matters, the second set of (revised)
comments show that learning is what matters.
As a teacher, there’s always so much to focus on – it’s not easy. 5-___________. I find that the ‘best’
teachers aren’t always those who are better at instructing pupils – it’s those who have different
expectations of their lessons and who are different in the way they critique themselves.

In my work with teachers, I start with one question that seems to help everyone apply a new
perspective to what they do. I invite you to use it at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of
every lesson. It’s this: are your pupils busy or are they busy learning?
6- ___________. Let’s be ‘teachers for learning’ rather than simply teachers.
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Reading Comprehension: Self Access

A- If these teachers had learning at the centre of their thinking they may have answered quite
differently.
B- There’s nothing wrong with any of these comments, of course.
C- But I think we all should view our classes through a new lens.
D- They give a good sense of what we value.
E- We should set goals and enable students to reach them.
F- Perfect plan but poor learning.
G- Let’s change the lens and improve the learning.
H- We’re on target to cover everything by the end of the year.

READING TEXT Nº 3

The following four sentences have been taken from the text below them. There is a sentence
missing in the first, second, fourth, and fifth paragraphs, and you have to decide where each
one of sentences 1-4 has been taken from. Write the letter of the right sentence where
this sentence should go.

a) Their existence on the border between food and medicine has given rise to their new
catch-all handle ‘nutraceuticals’.
b) It is full of the amino-acids of which we ourselves are composed – and has a taste that
compares favourably to a light sparkling Moselle.
c) Today there are endless mind foods, smart drugs, potions and compounds available to
counter the unwelcome side effects of life.
d) This is the only food some patients can take.

NUTRACEUTICALS

Those of us who doze our way through life have always been the target of mountebanks and
quacks. ______ Some, of course, work only because we want them to work. Suggestibility is
a vital part of the healing process. ______
But others show signs of increasing popularity and acceptance. _____
At Charing Cross Hospital in West London, for example, the appearance of lively cocktail
waiters on the cancer wards has done much to improve patients’ daily nutritional intake.
Patients get a welcome opportunity to engage with the volunteers who run the service on a
light hearted level that is, frankly, fun. ______ The cocktails are made from a variety of
nutraceutical food supplements, fruit juices and yogurt. _____
In the commercial market, there are items such as Kombucha, a naturally fermented elixir of
what the French call le champignon de longue vie. _____ Obtain a Kombucha ‘mother’ (like a
ginger beer ‘plant’), look after it well, and drink the liquor to keep your metabolism well-tuned
and the effects of age at bay.______
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Reading Comprehension: Self Access

READING TEXT Nº 4

Read the text and do the exercises on it.

‘Salty’ rice plant boosts harvests

British scientists are breeding a new generation of rice plants that will be able to grow in soil
contaminated with salt water. Their work may enable abandoned farms to become productive
once more, writes Sean Hargrave.
Tim Flowers and Tony Yeo, from Sussex University’s School of Biological Sciences, have
spent several years researching how crops, such as rice, could be made to grow in water that
has become salty.
The pair have recently begun a three-year programme, funded by the Biotechnology and
Biological Sciences Research Council, to establish which genes enable some plants to
survive saline conditions. The aim is to breed this capability into crops starting with rice.
It is estimated that each year more than 10 m hectares of agricultural land are lost because
salt gets into the soil and stunts plants. The problem is caused by several factors. In the
tropics, mangroves that create swamps and traditionally form barriers to sea water have been
cut down. In the Mediterranean, a series of droughts have caused the water table to drop,
allowing sea water to seep in. In Latin America, irrigation often causes problems when water
is evaporated by the heat, leaving salt deposits behind.
Excess salt then enters the plants and prevents them functioning normally. Heavy
concentration of minerals in the plants curbs the process of osmosis and stop them drawing
up the water they need to survive.
To overcome these problems, Flowers and Yeo decided to breed rice plants that take in
very little salt and store what they do absorb in cells that do not affect the plant’s growth. They
have started to breed these characteristics into a new rice crop, but it will take about eight
harvests until the resulting seeds are ready to be considered for commercial use.
Once the characteristics for surviving salty soil are known, Flowers and Yeo will try to breed
the appropriate genes into all manner of crops and plants. Land that has been abandoned to
nature will then be able to bloom again, providing much needed food in the poorer countries
of the world.

1- Complete the notes below. Choose ONE WORD FROM THE PASSAGE for each answer.

Aim of research: to identify a) ____________________ that promote growth in salt water

Problem: b) __________________ inhibits plant growth

Causes of problem:
 Natural c)____________________ to sea water have been destroyed (in tropics)
 Water levels have gone down after d) _______________________ (in Mediterranean)
 Salt remains after e) _______________________ (in Latin America)

2- Using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS, complete the following sentences WITH
WORDS FROM THE PASSAGE.
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Reading Comprehension: Self Access

Some farms have been a)______________________________ because the soil is too salty.
The research team hope to assist in the adaptation of other b)_______________________
_________ to salt water.
c)___________________________________ of farmland are ruined annually.
The team aims to develop rice plants that d)__________________________________ excess salt.
The team must wait for e)______________________________________ before they know whether
they have been successful.

READING TEXT Nº 5

Read the text below and then answer the questions about it.

Prehistoric insects spawn new drugs

by Steve Connor, Science Correspondent

A Insects entombed in fossilised amber for tens of millions of years have provided the key to
creating a new generation of antibiotic drugs that could wage war on modern diseases. Scientists
have isolated the antibiotics from microbes found either inside the intestines of the amber-encased
insects or in soil particles trapped with them when they were caught by sticky tree resin up to 130
million years ago. Spores of the microbes have survived an unprecedented period of suspended
animation, enabling scientists to revive them in the laboratory.
B Research over the past two years has uncovered at least four antibiotics from the microbes and
one has been able to kill modern drug-resistant bacteria that can cause potentially deadly diseases in
humans. Present-day antibiotics have nearly all been isolated from micro-organisms that use them as
a form of defence against their predators or competitors. But since the introduction of antibiotics into
medicine 50 years ago, an alarming number have become ineffective because many bacteria have
developed resistance to the drugs. The antibiotics that were in use millions of years ago may prove
more deadly against drug-resistant modern strains of disease-causing bacteria.
C Raul Cano, who has pioneered the research at the California Polytechnic State University at San
Luis Obispo, said the ancient antibiotics had been successful in fighting drug-resistant strains of
staphylococcus bacteria, a “superbug” that has threatened the health of patients in hospitals
throughout the world. He now intends to establish whether the antibiotics might have harmful side
effects. “The problem is how toxic it is to other cells and how easy it is to purify,” said Cano.
D A biotechnology company, Ambergene, has been set up to develop the antibiotics into drugs. If
any ancient microbes are revived that resemble present-day diseases, they will be destroyed in case
they escape and cause new epidemics. Drug companies will be anxious to study the chemical
structures of the prehistoric antibiotics to see how they differ from modern drugs. They hope that one
ancient antibiotic molecule could be used as a basis to synthesise a range of drugs.
E There have been several attempts to extract material such as DNA from fossilised life-forms
ranging from Egyptian mummies to dinosaurs but many were subsequently shown to be
contaminated. Cano’s findings have been hailed as a breakthrough by scientists. Edward Golenberg,
an expert on extracting DNA from fossilised life-forms at Wayne State University in Detroit, said:
“They appear to be verifiable, ancient spores. They do seem to be real.” Richard Lenski, professor of
microbial ecology at Michigan State University, said the fight against antibiotic-resistant strains of
bacteria, such as tuberculosis and staphylococcus, could be helped by the discovery.
F However, even the discovery of ancient antibiotics may not halt the rise of drug-resistant bacteria.
Stuart Levy, a micro-biologist at Tufts University in Boston, warned that the bacteria would eventually
evolve to fight back against the new drugs. “There might also be an enzyme already out there that can
degrade it. So the only way to keep the life of that antibiotic going is to use it sensibly and not
excessively,” he said.
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Reading Comprehension: Self Access

1. The text has six paragraphs labelled A-F. Which paragraphs contain the following
information? Write the appropriate letters A-F in the boxes.

NB You only need ONE letter for each answer.

You may use any letter more than once.

Two examples of bacteria that can resist antibiotic drugs

The length of time we have been using antibiotics
The original source of new drugs being discussed
The scientist responsible for setting up the research into fossilised insects
Examples of other similar studies that have been undertaken

2. Below there is a summary of the main ideas in the article you have just read, but it has
been broken down into gapped sentences. Complete the sentences by selecting the
correct word from the box below the summary. Use the words you choose ONCE
ONLY.

SUMMARY
a) Microbes that may supply new antibiotic drugs have been ____________________ in the
bodies of fossilised insects.

b) The discovery may help destroy bacteria that are no longer ____________________ to
modern medicine.

c) What needs to be done now is to find out how ____________________ the antibiotics will be.

d) Microbes that seem to have the characteristics of __________________ diseases will have to
be killed.

e) It is thought that a _______________________ molecule could lead to a whole series of

drugs.

f) Other scientists who have tried to produce antibiotics in a similar way have been
_______________________.

g) This work is considered a _______________________ achievement.

h) It is necessary to be ____________________ about maintaining the life of the antibiotics

LIST OF WORDS
deadly resistant responding modern
safe significant preserved single
unsuccessful successful careful prehistoric
combined particular contributing lifetime
unusual placed serious excited
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Reading Comprehension: Self Access

READING TEXT Nº 6

Welfare wagon-train to the west

Many Irish families are packing up and moving to small farms in the wild west,
rejuvenating rural communities ravaged by generations of emigration.
One Sunday last June, Anthony Boland read an article in an Irish newspaper about
a man called Jim Connolly. A sculptor who grew up on the wild windswept peninsula
of Loop Head in county Clare in the west of Ireland, Connolly looked around his
village one day thinking something was missing and then realised what it was: the
people had gone. So what Connolly did was start up Rural Resettlement from his front
room, offering city families like the Bolands a chance to move to the country. It is a
harsh landscape. A pitiless north-west wind bends the telegraph poles and for four
months last winter it did not stop raining.
In 1990, Connolly went on Irish radio with a message: go west and I'll help you
find a house and a plot of land. One hundred and thirty-eight families have been
resettled through the scheme and so far only nine have given up and returned home.
Paul Murphy, a former Dublin bus driver, has become Connolly's second-in-
command and spends his time looking for empty houses – of which there are many.
Now there are 2,300 families on their waiting list. The filing cabinet is stuffed with
applications from Dublin, Glasgow and London – the waves of emigrants who have
left the land since the Fifties and who now want to return home and bring up their
children. And there are city-dwellers who fear that the humble dream of a house, a
family and, most of all, a job, might never be fulfilled.
Nine-year-old Rebecca Boland is already beginning to sound like a country girl
from Clare. Rebecca and her brothers and sisters go to Doonaha school at the bottom
of the road, where they make the numbers up to 24 in the stone building that looks
out onto the Atlantic.
The Bolands have no car and the shopping is brought home on a tractor from
Kilrush, 10 miles away. Noeleen Boland, 30, misses going to the shops herself. What
Anthony Boland misses are chicken curries from his favourite take-away in Dublin.
Other than that, they look at each other across the table and agree that there's
nothing they really miss.
Anthony's mother told him he was mad to be leaving Dublin. Now she tells him he's
looking like a Californian surfer, with his blond hair bleached by the sun and his
shoulders made broad and muscular by digging the land. When the Bolands first
came to Clare, their plans to rent a house fell through. They left their second house
after four months. They had no phone and lived miles from their nearest neighbour.
Once, Rebecca was choking on a piece of meat and there was no way of getting
medical help. Noeleen said they had to go back to Dublin. She would not risk her
children's lives again.
Their return was short. Youths kept ramming their garden wall with stolen cars on
the way through to waste land near their home. Sometimes the car thieves did not
make it and Anthony remembers a Ford Fiesta that came into his garden. “I was
watching my son talking to his pal. The mate was saying to him. “Did you see the
Fiesta last night. Wasn't it great?” “Yep”, said my son, “fab”. What worried me was
that he would start doing the same thing when he got older. Now he's out in the fields
with me saying, “How long does it take to be a vet?” He wants to be a vet or a
farmer – not a thief.”
In Dublin, Anthony Boland was just another figure on the unemployment register. “I
was watching him get more and more depressed”, Noeleen says. The Bolands, like
many of those living along the western seaboard, depend on welfare to survive.
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Reading Comprehension: Self Access

Anthony hopes to find work as a farm labourer. Local people's worries about “blow-
ins” (new arrivals) taking what few jobs are left in the area have been largely
calmed. Paul Murphy's standard response is that for generations the people of the
west have been going to cities; now the trend has reversed.
The arrival of 260 extra children has also meant that local teachers have kept
their jobs. Mary Roche watched the numbers at her school dwindle from 65 in 1974 to
only 16 in 1994. Without the arrival of the settlement children she would have lost her
job. Now she has been made principal and another teacher, who is married to a local
farmer, has been taken on.
The process of integration has been slow but the “blow-ins” seem committed. Three
of the Gaelic football team are resettled children and their father trains the team. A
“jackeen” (Dubliner) arranges the music for the choir, and Paul Murphy's history of
Loop Head has sold more than 700 copies and raised IR2,000 for the local
community. Murphy has bigger plans. He has written a film script about his family's
odyssey from the city to the west coast. What Do You Think Of The Wind? is with an
agent.
Murphy thinks that he is a romantic and that anyone who makes it in the west has
to be. For many, it's the children that are the chief motivation and the act of moving
helps people strike out in new directions. “It is like joining a wagon-train,” Connolly
says. “By taking a brave step, you can boost your spirit and your sense of enterprise.”

1- Answer questions 1-15 by choosing from the names A-F.

A Anthony Boland D Rebecca Boland

B Jim Connolly E Noeleen Boland
C Paul Murphy F Mary Roche

Which person
had to withstand criticism from a parent? 1…….
is doing a completely different kind of work? 2 …… 3…….
has an accent that has changed? 4…….
has responded to fears voiced by local people? 5…….
has recently been joined by a new colleague? 6…….
is still without job? 7…….
wanted to attract people back to the community? 8……..
has written a history of his/her new home? 9……..
thought living in the countryside was dangerous? 10……
provided a scheme giving practical help? 11……
was alarmed by something a child said? 12……
has used the family's experiences for artistic purposes? 13……
ran the risk of being made redundant? 14……
is now much fitter physically? 15……

2- Replace the words in italics with a phrasal verb. Then look back at the text to check your
answers.
a- Connolly founded Rural Resettlement…
b- …their plans to rent a house failed.
c- (Rebecca and her brothers and sisters) increase the number to 24…
d- …the building that faces the Atlantic.
e- (emigrants) want to return home and raise their children…
f- (another teacher) has been hired.
 Instituto de Educación Superior Nº 28 “Olga Cossettini”
Reading Comprehension: Self Access
g- …the act of moving helps people go in new directions
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READING TEXT Nº 7
Working mothers: what children say.
1- Look at the five questions below and then
read the text about Debbie Hollobon to find
the answers.
a- Why was it a difficult time for Debbie when
her mother started working full-time?
b- How did she feel about her sister at that
time?
c- What did she soon enjoy about the new
arrangement?
d- Does she feel that her mother neglected her
in any way?
e- What advantages does Debbie think there
were in having a working mother?
Debbie Hollobon, aged 21, comes from
Daventry, Northamptonshire. Her
mother, head of the mail room in a
staff agency, has worked full time
since Debbie was aged 13 and her
sister, Sarah was ten.
“I didn’t like it a bit when she took a full
time job and, as the elder sister, I had to
look after Sarah. Everything seemed to
come at once: we’d just moved to
Daventry and I was in my second year at
comprehensive school and meeting new
people and making new friends. I felt I
had enough on my plate without having
Sarah tagging along every time I went
out. I went trough a stage where I
couldn’t stand her; she seemed to get in
the way of everything I wanted to do”.
I never told my mum how I felt. I knew
she’d have been miserable sitting at home
alone in a town where she didn’t know
anyone, so the job was very good for her.
Once the initial shock wore off, I got to
like it, being trusted with my own key and
feeling grown up and independent.
However much she had to do, coming
home to the cooking and cleaning after a
day’s work, she always had time for us
when we wanted to talk. There was never
a time when she shrugged us off because
she was too tired or too busy.
I probably helped around the house more
10
2- Now read the five questions about Peter
Swift and the text below.
a- What does he dislike about having a working
mother?
b- What did his mother agree to before she started
work?
c- Does he feel that his mother has neglected him
at all?
d- What advantages does Peter think there have
been in having a working mother?
e- Does he think the advantages make up for the
disadvantages?
Peter Swift, aged 15, lives near Leeds.
His mother has worked as a graphic
designer for the last three years.
“I hate it; I’ve always hated it. Mum
disappears at 7.30 am and doesn’t get home
until about 7.30 pm, so we come home to an
empty house. It doesn’t worry my sister
Elizabeth. She’s a year older than me and
she has loads of homework, so she sits
upstairs working and I’m left on my own.
When she first had the chance of going
back to work we all talked about it and she
said that it was only a trial period and if we
weren’t happy with it she could give it up.
But it wasn’t a fair test because in the
beginning it was all rather thrilling being on
our own; like a big adventure. I didn’t realise
what it would be like long term.
She started her new job two days before I
started at comprehensive school and I had
to go by myself, when all the other boys had
their mothers with them. Of course,
everybody was much more interested in
what had happened at the new job than what
had happened at the new school. Elizabeth
and I both have our own chores. I load the
dishwasher and I sometimes wash the car or
mow the grass. Elizabeth does the ironing-
well, she says she does, but she never seems
to get round to ironing my shirts. We get
extra pocket money because we help out, so
I suppose it’s fair, but all my friends do
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Reading Comprehension: Self Access

than I would have done with a stay-at-
home mother, but she never told me to do
any chores before she got home. I did
what I felt like when I felt like it and I
knew she wouldn’t nag if it wasn’t done.
Since I got married, last June, I’ve
appreciated the extra independence that
came from looking after myself for part
of the day. I know what things cost
because I’m used to shopping and I know
how much work goes into running a house.
A lot of the girls I grew up with, who
never learned to fend for themselves,
must have come down to earth with a
bump. When I have children, I just hope
I can do as well as my mother, but I don’t
know if I will have enough patience and
energy.
absolutely nothing around the house.
There is a good side to it. Mum has lots of
interesting things to tell us and I like to
hear her talk about the people she meets.
We probably get more freedom, too- I can
make my models on the table without
getting told off. We wouldn’t have as much
money for trips to France or hobbies like
photography if she didn’t work, but I’d swap
all that if it meant she’d be at home like she
used to be. I don’t think a woman’s place is
in the home or anything like that, but I don’t
think a career should be fitted round the
children, not the other way round, and in my
opinion what the children think should come
first.”

3- Say whether the following statements are true or false in your opinion and why.
a- Both Debbie and Peter have similar relationships with their sisters.
b- Neither Debbie nor Peter liked their mothers working at the beginning.
c- They both feel that the opportunity to work has been good for the mothers.
d- They were both given special jobs to do around the house.
e- Both their mothers started working at difficult times for their children.
f- Both Debbie and Peter admire their mothers for what hey have done.
g- Debbie feels that other girls probably find it more difficult than she did when they first leave home.
h- Peter thinks the trial period at the beginning worked well.

4- Debbie uses several idiomatic expressions. Choose the best explanation for the examples
below, which are underlined in the text:
A) . . . I had enough on my plate . . .
a- enough things to deal with b- enough food to eat c- enough work to do.
B) . . . Sarah tagging along . . .
a- watching me b- waiting for c- following me
C) . . . she shrugged us off . . .
a- behaved violently towards us b- made us angry c- treated us as unimportant.
D) . . . she wouldn’t nag . . ..
a- understand b- complain c- approve.

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Reading Comprehension: Self Access

READING TEXT Nº 8

1- Read the following magazine article. Choose which of the paragraphs from A to G fit into the
gaps. There is one extra paragraph, which does not fit in any of the gaps.

Chewing gum culture

It’s fashionable, classless and Americans chew 12 million sticks of it a
day. Discover how an ancient custom became big business.

Chewing gum contains fewer than ten
calories per stick, but it is classified as a food
and must therefore conform to the standards
of the American Food and Drug
Administration.
Today’s gum is largely synthetic, with
added pine resins and softeners which help to
hold the flavour and improve the texture.
1 fear for the livelihood.
American colonists followed the example of
the Amero-Indians of New England and
chewed the resin that formed on spruce trees
when the bark was cut. Lumps of spruce for
chewing were sold in the early 1800s, making
it the first commercial chewing gum in the
country.
Modern chewing gum has its origins in the
late 1860s with the discovery of chicle, a
milky substance obtained from the sapodilla
tree of the Central American rainforest.
2 eat, causes this. Our saliva, which
Yet repeated attempts to cultivate sapodilla
commercially have failed. As the chewing
gum market has grown, synthetic alternatives
have had to be developed.
3
chiclero will shin up a mature tree in
minutes to cut a path in the bark for the
white sap to flow down to a bag below.
4
Yet, punishing though this working
environment is, the remaining chicleros
Not so long ago, the United States
alone imported 7,000 tonnes of chicle a
year from Central America. Last year
just 200 tonnes were tapped in the
whole of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula.
As chewing gum sales have soared, so
the manufacturers have tuned to
synthetics to reduce costs and meet
demands.
5
Plaque acid, which forms when we
neutralises the acid and supplies
minerals such as calcium, phosphate
and fluoride, is the body’s natural
defence. Gum manufacturers say 20
minutes of chewing can increase your
salivary flow.
6

In addition, one hundred and thirty-

Most alarming is the unpleasant little chicle
seven square kilometres of America is
fly that likes to lodge its eggs in the tapper’s
devoted entirely to producing the mint
ears and nose.
that is used in the two most popular
Braving these hazards, barefooted and with chewing gums in the world.
only a rope and an axe, an experienced

Paragraphs
A Gum made from this resulted in a smoother, more satisfying and more elastic chew, and soon a
whole industry was born based on this product.
B Meanwhile, the world’s gum producers are finding ingenious ways of marketing their products. In
addition to all the claims made for gum – it helps you relax, peps you up and eases tension
(soldiers during both world wars were regularly supplied with gum) – gum’s greatest claim is that it
reduces tooth decay.
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Reading Comprehension: Self Access

C Research continues on new textures and flavours. Glycerine and other vegetable oil products are
now used to blend the gum base. Most new flavours are artificial – but some flavours still need
natural assistance.
D This was not always the case, though. The ancient Greeks chewed a bum-like resin obtained from
the bark of the mastic tree, a shrub found mainly in Greece and Turkey. Grecian women,
especially, favoured mastic gum to clean their teeth and sweeten their breath.
E Each chiclero must carry the liquid on his back to a forest camp, where it is boiled until sticky and
made into bricks. Life at the camp is no picnic either, with a monotonous and often deficient
maize-based diet washed down by a local alcohol distilled from sugar cane.
F The chicleros grease their hands and arms to prevent the sticky gum sticking to them. The gum is
then packed into a wooden mould, pressed down firmly, initialled and dated ready for collection
and export.
G Today the few remaining chicle gatherers, chicleros, eke out a meagre and dangerous living,
trekking for miles to tap scattered sapodilla in near 100 % humidity. Conditions are appalling:
highly poisonous snakes lurk ready to pounce and insects abound.

2- Say if these statements are True or False. Justify your answer quoting from the text.
a- The ancient chewing gum was not synthetic.
b- The gum business started in the 19th century.
c- Sapodilla was found in Greece and Central America.
d- Manufacturers are concerned about the serious dangers chicleros are exposed to.
e- Mint is the most popular substance in the world.

3- Look at the words underlined in the passage. Read the text around each of them carefully
and decide WHO or WHAT is referred to in each case.
a- It ...................................................................................... .
b- Their ................................................................................ .
c- It ...................................................................................... .
d- This ................................................................................. .
e- Tapper’s .......................................................................... .
f- Hazards ........................................................................... .
g- Their ................................................................................ .
h- This .................................................................................. .

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READING TEXT Nº 9

1) Before reading, predict whether each of the following statements is true or false.

a) Not having the right balance in our diet can damage our health.
b) If other members of our family get fat quite easily, we probably will too.
c) If we like eating sweet things, it’s probably a habit we learnt from our parents.
d) Men are just as likely to get fatter as they grow older as women are.
e) Most people don’t eat enough protein.
f) It’s useless for most people to take vitamin pills.
g) The more calories we eat in food, the more energetic we will feel.
h) We should try to reduce the amount of bread and potatoes we eat.
 Instituto de Educación Superior Nº 28 “Olga Cossettini” 14

Reading Comprehension: Self Access

2) Now read the article and check your predictions.

Food and Us
1-
The average person swallows about half-a-ton of food a year – not counting drink – and though the
body is remarkably efficient at extracting just what it needs from this huge mixture, it can only cope up
to a point.
If you go on eating too much of some things and not enough of others, you’ll eventually get out of
condition and your health will suffer.
So think before you start eating. It may look good. It may taste good. Fine! But how much good is it
really doing you?

2-
What you eat and the way it affects your body depend very much on the kind of person you are. For
one thing, the genes you inherit from your parents can determine how your body-chemistry
(metabolism) copes with particular foods. The tendency to put on weight rather easily, for example,
often runs in families – which means that they have to take particular care.
And your parents may shape your future in another way. Your upbringing shapes some basic
attitudes to food – like whether you have a sweet tooth, nibble between meals, take big mouthfuls or
eat chips with everything.
Eating habits, good or bad, tend to get passed on.
And then there’s your lifestyle. How much you spend on food (time as well as money), how much
exercise you get – these can alter the balance between food and fitness.
And finally, both your age and your sex may affect this balance. For example, you’re more likely to put
on weight as you get older, especially if you’re a woman.
So, everybody’s different and the important thing is to know yourself. Read on and see if you think you
are striking the right balance.

3
Your food should balance your body’s need for:
NUTRIENTS (proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and water) – the raw materials needed
to build and repair the body-machine.
ENERGY (calories) – to power the body-machine, all the thousands of different mechanisms that keep
you alive and active.
DIETARY FIBRE (a complex mixture of natural plant substances) – the value of which we are just
beginning to understand

4
If you’re eating a fairly varied diet, it is just about impossible to go short of proteins, vitamins or
minerals. It is likely, too, that you have more than enough fats and carbohydrates.
Take proteins for instance. On average, we eat about twice as much protein as we need.
Vitamin pills aren’t likely to help either. A varied diet with plenty of fresh fruit, vegetables and cereals
along with some fish, eggs, meat and dairy products will contain more than enough vitamins. Unless
you have some special medical reason, it is a waste of time and money to take vitamin pills.
As for minerals, there is no shortage in the average diet and it is useless to have more than you need.

5-
Just about everything you eat contains energy – measured as calories; the higher the number of
calories, the more energy. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that eating extra energy-rich foods
will make you more energetic. The amount of energy in your daily diet should exactly balance the
energy your body-machine burns up. If you eat more than you use, the extra energy is stored as body
fat. And this is the big problem.

6-
Over hundreds of thousands of years, man’s food came mainly from plants.
 Instituto de Educación Superior Nº 28 “Olga Cossettini” 15

Reading Comprehension: Self Access

He ate cereals (like wheat), pulses (like beans and peas), vegetables, fruit and nuts. So our ancestors
were used to eating the sort of food that contains a lot of fibre.
In comparison with our ancestors, the sort of food we eat today contains very little fibre. Our main
foods are meat, eggs and dairy products, which contain no fibre at all.
Lack of fibre seems to be connected with various disorders of the digestive system. Some experts also
believe that lack of fibre may even lead to heart disease.
If you’re worried about your weight, eating more fibre may actually help you to slim! Food with plenty
of fibre like potatoes or bread can be satisfying without giving you too many calories.

3) Each sentence below (A-G) is a summary of one section of the article. Choose a summary
sentence for each section and write the correct letter in the spaces (1-6). There is one extra
sentence which you do not need to use.
A If we eat food with more calories than we need, we get fat.
B Fibre is an important part of a good diet.
C It is better to eat regular meals than to wait for one big feast at the end of the day.
D We all need the right mixture of different types of food in our diet.
E People differ in the food they enjoy and also in the way food affects them.
F We are likely to get all the proteins, vitamins and minerals we need in a good balanced diet.
G A bad diet can damage our health.

4) Now look at Sections 1 and 2 again and find the words which mean the same as:
Section 1 Section 2
1. able to do a job well 6. receive
2. taking out 7. decide
3. very big 8. training and caring for a child
4. manage successfully 9. take small bites
5. in the end 10. change

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READING TEXT Nº 10

DO MEN AND WOMEN SPEAK THE SAME LANGUAGE?

A Do men and women understand the
same things from the spoken word? Judging by
the misinterpretation, misunderstanding and
general mystification that can arise from a
single simple sentence, there are grave
reasons for doubt. In fact, I would put it even
stronger. Do we even speak the same
language?
 First – and contrary to the general
impression – men use language more. “Like
everyone else, I used to believe that women
were the talkative sex,” says Dale Spender, a
sociolinguist. “But when I analysed the results
of over one hundred and forty recorded
conversations between men and women, the
result was quite the opposite. Whether we’re
talking about social gatherings or business
meetings, one element never changes: in any
conversation with a man, a woman who talks
more than a third of the time is seen as talking
too much.
 Nowhere is this more obvious than on
radio or TV talkshows. One host, Robert
Robinson, once said, “It’s difficult to find the
right kind of woman to participate in my
programme. Most of them can’t stand up to me
and so stay silent. They also find interrupting a
bit tricky.” On one occasion, a well-known
female thinker became so cross and unhappy
at being what she regarded as “shouted down”
that she remained silent for the last fifteen
minutes of the programme. Even those women
who are perfectly capable of holding their own
are notably less talkative than their male
counterparts.
 Another female characteristic is the belief
that conversation should be a reciprocal
exchange rather than an attempt to dominate
the other person. According to sociologist
 Instituto de Educación Superior Nº 28 “Olga Cossettini”
Reading Comprehension: Self Access
Jennifer Coates, “When a woman in a group
raises a topic, the others will encourage,
sympathise or elaborate. The next female
speaker may enlarge on some point, add a
personal anecdote, or simply make ‘Go on’
interjections. But one thing she won’t do is flatly
contradict the previous speaker and abruptly
change the subject. But men in a group with
women often get bored with what they see as
the slow build-up of a topic.” The tried and
tested method of avoiding this hazard is by
doing what most women hate: interrupting.
 “The effect constant interruption has on
women is that they become silent,” says Dr
Coates. It isn’t solely that men regard
conversation as a contest; there is also a clash
of styles.” We all think we know what a
question is. But with men and women it triggers
different reactions. Men think questions are
requests for information, whereas women think
they are part of the way in which a co-operative
conversation works. If a woman asks a man a
question, she’s trying to keep the conversation
going, while the man thinks this is a request for
information, so he gives her a lecture.” In social
situations, this different view of the polite
enquiry can often cause bad feeling. “The
woman thinks, ‘What is he on about? I didn’t
want a run-down on company accountancy,’
and the man thinks, ’Why is she looking so
cross? If she didn’t want to know, why did she
ask?’ “
 Although women have much greater
sensitivity to what the other person is feeling, it
is equally true that, in situations where power is
1. For questions 1 – 5, choose the answer which you think fits best.
1) Before Dale Spender undertook her research, she
A intended to show what made women aggressive.
B thought she knew what the outcome would be.
C realised men tended to speak more than women.
D wanted to discover the situations where women spoke most.
2) When women appear on his chat show, Robert Robinson
A is delighted they have agreed to appear.
B provide special support.
C has found their behaviour inappropriate.
D has thought them to be impolite.
3) According to Dr Coates, in a mixed group of speakers
A men tend to contradict.
B women concentrate on talking about themselves.
C women discuss boring topics.
D men experience feelings of frustration.
16
concerned, the men’s cut-and-thrust style is the
norm. “Male language allows them to have
clear goals, stick to decisions, answer directly
without fudging and assert themselves,” says
Natasha Josefowitz, author of Paths to Power.
“Women say ‘I think I can’, where men say, ’I
can’. And though the woman may be right –
who knows if she can carry out a particular task
until she is doing it? – what employers go for is
confidence.” In female conversation, this
general tentativeness emerges in the use of
‘soft’ phrases such us ‘ I wonder if I might ...?’,
and ‘ Perhaps this isn’t the moment to disturb
you but ...’ instead of the simpler expressions
‘Please may I ...?’ or ‘Can I come in?’.
 Dr Coates believes female politeness
involves other factors as well. “Partly it is a
recognition that other people may not be
imposed on. If I go next door, I say, ‘ I hope
you don’t mind, but could you possibly lend me
a pint of milk, please?’ not ‘ Can I have some
milk?’, which allows my neighbour the freedom
to say ‘Yes, of course’ or ‘ I’m sorry, I haven’t
got one.’ What it is doing is giving the other
person a chance to get out of an obligation
without losing face. Partly, too, it is a question
of giving what Dr Coates calls ‘positive face’,
which means reassuring others about their own
value.
 The reason for such discrepancies is
something that frequently makes male English
a rather different language from the female
version of English: most men use language to
conceal their feelings whereas women see it as
means of revealing their emotions
 Instituto de Educación Superior Nº 28 “Olga Cossettini” 17

Reading Comprehension: Self Access

4) Dr Coates considers that questions can cause bad feelings if

A the reason behind the question is misunderstood.
B a sensitive subject has been raised.
C there is a desire to hide the truth.
D an uninteresting topic has been introduced.

5) Dr Coates thinks that the politeness of female language

A works against women.
B is helpful to other people.
C could easily be modified.
D allows others to be assertive.

2. For each of the eight paragraphs, choose the sentence that best summarises the main idea.
The first one has been done for you.
a) Usual misunderstandings between men and women hint that their use of language in conversation
is different.
b) Women regard male interruptions as an offensive strategy.
c) The incompatibility between men and women lies in the way they choose to reveal their emotions.
d) In an employer-employee relationship, the men’s style shows self-assurance whereas the women’s
shows caution.
e) Research beats the belief that women are the talkative sex.
f) Women’s co-operative style vs. men’s tendency to dominate.
g) The female tactful style encourages freedom of choice in the interlocutor.
h) Women want to keep the flow of the conversation while men just inform.

3. Explain the following expressions in your own words.

i) “Most of them can’t stand up to me ...”
j) “... the slow build-up of a topic...”
k) “... co-operative conversation...”
l) “ ... the men’s cut-and-thrust style...”

4. Suggest an alternative for:

a) “ shouted down ” d) “ a run-down “
b) “ flatly ” e) “ fudging “
c) “ hazard ”

READING TEXT Nº 11
The Risks of Cigarette Smoke
Discovered in the early 1800s and named nicotianine, the oily essence now called nicotine is the main
active ingredient of tobacco. Nicotine, however, is only a smallcomponent of cigarette smoke, which
contains more than 4,700 chemical compounds, including 43 cancer-causing substances. In recent
times, scientific research has been providing evidence that years of cigarette smoking vastly increases
the risk of developing fatal medical conditions.
In addition to being responsible for more than 85 per cent of lung cancers, smoking is associated with
cancers of, amongst others, the mouth, stomach and kidneys, and is thought to cause about 14 per cent
of leukemia and cervical cancers. In 1990, smoking caused more than 84,000 deaths, mainly resulting
 Instituto de Educación Superior Nº 28 “Olga Cossettini” 18

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from such problems as pneumonia, bronchitis and influenza. Smoking, it is believed, is responsible for
30 per cent of all deaths from cancer and clearly represents the most important preventable cause of
cancer in countries like the United States today.
Passive smoking, the breathing in of the side-stream smoke from the burning of tobacco between puffs
or of the smoke exhaled by a smoker, also causes a serious health risk. A report published in 1992 by
the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) emphasized the health dangers, especially from side-
stream smoke. This type of smoke contains more, smaller particles and is therefore more likely to be
deposited deep in the lungs. On the basis of this report, the EPA has classified environmental tobacco
smoke in the highest risk category for causing cancer.
As an illustration of the health risks, in the case of a married couple where one partner is a smoker and
one a non-smoker, the latter is believed to have a 30 per cent higher risk of death from heart disease
because of passive smoking. The risk of lung cancer also increases over the years of exposure and the
figure jumps to 80 per cent if the spouse has been smoking four packs a day for 20 years. It has been
calculated that 17 per cent of cases of lung cancer can be attributed to high levels of exposure to
secondhand tobacco smoke during childhood and adolescence.
A more recent study by researchers at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) has shown
that second-hand cigarette smoke does more harm to non-smokers than to smokers. Leaving aside the
philosophical question of whether anyone should have to breathe someone else’s cigarette smoke, the
report suggests that the smoke experienced by many people in their daily lives is enough to produce
substantial adverse effects on a person’s heart and lungs.
The report, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (AMA), was based on the
researchers’ own earlier research but also includes a review of studies over the past few years. The
American Medical Association represents about half of all US doctors and is a strong opponent of
smoking. The study suggests that people who smoke cigarettes are continually damaging their
cardiovascular system, which adapts in order to compensate for the effects of smoking. It further states
that people who do not smoke do not have the benefit of their system adapting to the smoke inhalation.
Consequently, the effects of passive smoking are far greater on non-smokers than on smokers.
This report emphasizes that cancer is not caused by a single element in cigarette smoke; harmful effects
to health are caused by many components. Carbon monoxide, for example, competes with oxygen in
red blood cells and interferes with the blood’s ability to deliver lifegiving oxygen to the heart. Nicotine
and other toxins in cigarette smoke activate small blood cells called platelets, which increases the
likelihood of blood clots, thereby affecting blood circulation throughout the body.
The researchers criticize the practice of some scientific consultants who work with the tobacco industry
for assuming that cigarette smoke has the same impact on smokers as it does on non-smokers. They
argue that those scientists are underestimating the damage done by passive smoking and, in support of
their recent findings, cite some previous research which points to passive smoking as the cause for
between 30,000 and 60,000 deaths from heart attacks each year in the United States. This means that
passive smoking is the third most preventable cause of death after active smoking and alcohol-related
diseases.
The study argues that the type of action needed against passive smoking should be similar to that being
taken against illegal drugs and AIDS (SIDA). The UCSF researchers maintain that the simplest and
most cost-effective action is to establish smoke-free work places, schools and public places.

Cambridge IELTS 3, Examination papers from the University of Cambridge Local

Examination Syndicate, Cambridge University Press.

a) Choose the appropriate letters A—D

1) According to information in the text, leukaemia and pneumonia
A are responsible for 84,000 deaths each year.
B are strongly linked to cigarette smoking.
C are strongly linked to lung cancer.
D result in 30 per cent of deaths per year.
 Instituto de Educación Superior Nº 28 “Olga Cossettini” 19

Reading Comprehension: Self Access

2) According to information in the text, intake of carbon monoxide

A inhibits the flow of oxygen to the heart.
B increases absorption of other smoke particles.
C inhibits red blood cell formation.
D promotes nicotine absorption.

3) According to information in the text, intake of nicotine encourages

A blood circulation through the body.
B activity of other toxins in the blood.
C formation of blood clots.
D an increase of platelets in the blood.

b) Do the following statements reflect the claims of the writer?

YES if the statement reflects 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

1) Thirty per cent of deaths in the United States are caused by smoking-related diseases.
2) If one partner in a marriage smokes, the other is likely to take up smoking.
3) Teenagers whose parents smoke are at risk of getting lung cancer at some time during their lives.
4) Opponents of smoking financed the UCSF study.

c) Choose ONE phrase from the list of phrases A—J below to complete each of the
following sentences (1-4).
1) Passive smoking ...
2) Compared with a non-smoker, a smoker ...
3) The American Medical Association ...

A includes reviews of studies in its reports.

B argues for stronger action against smoking in public places.
C is one of the two most preventable causes of death.
D is more likely to be at risk from passive smoking diseases.
E is more harmful to non-smokers than to smokers.
F is less likely to be at risk of contracting lung cancer.
G is more likely to be at risk of contracting various cancers.
H opposes smoking and publishes research on the subject.
I is just as harmful to smokers as it is to non-smokers.
J reduces the quantity of blood flowing around the body.

d) Classify the following statements as being

A a finding of the UCSF study
B an opinion of the UCSF study
C a finding of the EPA report
 Instituto de Educación Superior Nº 28 “Olga Cossettini” 20

Reading Comprehension: Self Access

D an assumption of consultants to the tobacco industry

NB You may use any letter more than once.

1) Smokers’ cardiovascular systems adapt to the intake of environmental smoke.

2) There is a philosophical question as to whether people should have to inhale others’ smoke.
3) Smoke-free public places offer the best solution.
4) The intake of side-stream smoke is more harmful than smoke exhaled by a smoker.

READING TEXT Nº 12

Hearing Problems
1) The old adage extols the virtue of silence by claiming it is golden, yet experience tells us that silence
is as hard to come by as the precious metal itself. The benefit of silence to the human ear is
scientifically demonstrable. Less superfluous noise, less impairment to the hearing. Yet this precious
commodity is no longer valued. Noise is ever present in modern life and is an accumulative experience.
The ill effects of noise pollution are of two kinds: acute – exposure to an individual instance of a very
loud noise, such as a gunshot or explosion; and chronic – the experience of too much noise over an
extended period of time.

2) City and urban dwellers exist in an increasingly noise-ridden environment, and it is now almost
impossible to escape exposure to high noise levels. Even if we exclude the more obvious sources of
noise pollution such as jetplane engines, road works, power tools, loud music at dance parties and so
on, it is clear that noise is a constant and often unwelcome companion. We have only to walk through a
suburban shopping mall or department store, or catch a bus or train to be subjected to noise levels that a
few decades ago would have been considered beyond human endurance. The popular practice of
'layering' sound, by adding a louder source of noise to that which already exists in order to mask it,
merely compounds the problem. Because of the accumulative nature of noise abuse, constant noise is
worse than noisy periods interspersed with silence.

3) Our noise level acceptance threshold is rising in step with the number of persons developing hearing
problems. Data available from a recent survey conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show
that 7.4% of people over 14 years of age have some discernible hearing problem. According to the
survey, 24.6% of the 7.4% of persons with affected hearing have problems caused by subjection to a
constant barrage of noise, either at work, in the everyday living environment, or as the result of a
particular choice of leisure activity. The problem is most severe for males aged between 25 and 64
years of age, 9.1% of whom have a hearing disability, and for which the cause is constant noise in
44.4% of cases.

4) Of current concern to acoustical engineers and psychologists at the National Acoustics Laboratories
in Sydney, Australia, is the potential for damage to the ear drum caused by the transmission of loud
sound through earphones placed directly into the ear canal. An almost universal fad among young
people, the pocket-sized radio-cassette player (commonly known by the brand name 'Walkman') may
be exposing its owner to greater than the maximum safe dosage of noise recommended for industrial
workers - 90 decibels* over a period of 8 hours. This dosage, called Dose 1, can be achieved much
sooner by exposing the ear to only slightly more than 90 decibels. Increases to the decibel level
logarithmically shorten the exposure time required to reach a given dose. For instance, to achieve Dose
1 in 4 hours, it is necessary to raise the decibel exposure level by a mere 3 decibels.

5) One danger posed to young ears is that the peak sound level from these radio-cassette players is
often far too great; at high volume it is all too easy to receive Dose 1 in a short period of time. Any
further noise heard above 90 decibels that day and the recipient is causing measurable damage to his or
her ears. Another danger is the likelihood of a change in the pain threshold of noise resulting in users
compensating by increasing the volume to levels way above what is considered safe. Finally, insertable
earphones block the ear canal, thereby further increasing the noise level absorbed.
 Instituto de Educación Superior Nº 28 “Olga Cossettini” 21

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6) But perhaps the most alarming potential for danger caused by insertable earphones is the ease with
which the listener can exceed the safe time length of exposure to noise. The small earphones can be
comfortably worn for extended periods of time. What is more, there is the danger of falling asleep with
the earphones inserted, leading to an accumulation of excess noise while unconscious.

7) Noise abuse soon leads to varying degrees of hearing loss. What may begin as an acute temporary
condition, in time becomes a chronic and irreversible disability. A common complaint is 'tinnitus', or a
'ringing in the ears' which fails to subside after the ears are subjected to a short but extreme dose of
noise. It is an exhausting condition that can seriously threaten the composure of the sufferer who can be
driven to near madness. It is believed the composer Beethoven was particularly aggravated by this
malady. At present, there is little that can be done in the majority of cases, although the victim might be
able to obtain some temporary relief by using a masking device which blocks out the offending
frequencies of sound with other, less annoying frequencies.

8) Inevitably, though, years of excessive noise accumulation take their toll and partial or complete
deafness results. If silence is the cure for ailing ears (or, at least, the best way to prevent further
deterioration of one's hearing), it is sobering to realise that it is also the unfortunate and permanent
curse of a lifetime of noise abuse caused by ignoring the warnings.

* decibel: standard unit of sound measurement

(http://education.kulichki.net/lang/ieread.html)

1) Skim the text and match paragraphs 1-8 to these subheadings (a-l). Be careful! There are more
headings than required. The last paragraph heading has been completed for you as an example.
A. Research into earphones inserted in the ear canal. _____
B. Listening through earphones for too long. _____
C. The maximum noise level of the 'Walkman.' _____
D. The benefit of silence. _____
E. An environment of constant noise. _____
F. Three problems caused by inserted earphones. _____
G. The maximum safe noise dosage. _____
H. The curse of silence. __8__
I. A cure for 'tinnitus'. _____
J. Alarming statistical evidence. _____
K. A chronic hearing loss impairment _____
L. The danger of falling asleep. _____

2) Read the statements below and write True or False. The first one has been done for you as an
example.

a) Silence is not beneficial to the human ear F

b) Silence is no longer a precious commodity.
c) There are basically two kinds of noise pollution.
d) The noise from a jet plane engine is not an obvious form of noise pollution.
e) 'Layering' sound reduces the overall amount of sound by masking it.
f) More males than females suffer the consequences of constant noise.
g) To achieve Dose 1 in 4 hours, the ear needs to be exposed to 93 decibels for that period of
time.
h) The passage outlines four main dangers from using insertable earphones.
i) Deafness is caused by not listening to the warnings about noise abuse.
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Reading Comprehension: Self Access

3) Answer the questions below by using words and phrases taken from the reading passage. You can
use a maximum of three words for each answer.
a) In Paragraph 1, what are the words of the old adage?
b) In Paragraph 1, less damage to the hearing is the result of
c) How many sources are given for hearing problems caused by constant noise?
d) What might a sufferer of 'tinnitus' get by blocking out certain sound frequencies?

ANSWERS TO READING EXERCISES

READING TEXT Nº 1:
Items between brackets are correct but not necessary for a full mark.

1. The man had bought a ticket to get across the border into Portugal.
FALSE: ‘a through ticket would have meant suspicion followed by questions; his accent would
have immediately identified him as a foreigner’.
2. He was able to pronounce the question to the stationmaster properly because he had been
practising it on the train.
FALSE. ‘and the question was asked… Not the question he had intended, though.’
3. Asking the stationmaster to repeat his answer would have betrayed his foreign origin.
TRUE: ‘there would be no repetition for a native speaker’

4. Although at first the railway line had seemed to him the safer and quicker option, then he
decided to take a short cut through the woods.

FALSE: ‘(but after covering a few hundred metres) he found himself in a winding cutting’

5. He realized he had managed to cross the frontier when he found himself outside the border
post.
FALSE: ‘when one of them answered him in Portuguese and took his passport’

READING TEXT Nº 2:

1. h 4. f
2. b 5. c
3. a 6. g

READING TEXT Nº 3

NUTRACEUTICALS
Those of us who doze our way through life have always been the target of mountebanks and quacks. __C____
Some, of course, work only because we want them to work. Suggestibility is a vital part of the healing process.
______
But others show signs of increasing popularity and acceptance. __A___
At Charing Cross Hospital in West London, for example, the appearance of lively cocktail waiters on the cancer
wards has done much to improve patients’ daily nutritional intake.
Patients get a welcome opportunity to engage with the volunteers who run the service on a light hearted level
that is, frankly, fun. ______ The cocktails are made from a variety of nutraceutical food supplements, fruit juices
and yogurt. __D___
In the commercial market, there are items such as Kombucha, a naturally fermented elixir of what the French
call le champignon de longue vie. __B___ Obtain a Kombucha ‘mother’ (like a ginger beer ‘plant’), look after it
well, and drink the liquor to keep your metabolism well-tuned and the effects of age at bay.______
 Instituto de Educación Superior Nº 28 “Olga Cossettini” 23

Reading Comprehension: Self Access

READING TEXT Nº 4

1-
Aim of research: to identify a)genes that promote growth in salt water

Problem: b) salt inhibits plant growth

Causes of problem:

Natural c) barriers to sea water have been destroyed (in tropics)

Water levels have gone down after d)droughts (in Mediterranean)

Salt remains after e) irrigation (In Latin America)

2-Some farms have been a)abandoned because the soil is too salty.
The research team hope to assist in the adaptation of other b) crops to salt water.
c) 10m hectares of farmland are ruined annually.
The team aims to develop rice plants that d)store excess salt.
The team must wait for e)8/eight harvests before they know whether they have been successful.

READING TEXT Nº 5

1.
Two examples of bacteria that can resist antibiotic drugs E
The length of time we have been using antibiotics B
The original source of new drugs being discussed A
The scientist responsible for setting up the research into fossilised insects C
Examples of other similar studies that have been undertaken E

2-SUMMARY
a) Microbes that may supply new antibiotic drugs have been preserved in the bodies of fossilised
insects.
b) The discovery may help destroy bacteria that are no longer responding to modern medicine.
c) What needs to be done now is to find out how safe the antibiotics will be.
d) Microbes that seem to have the characteristics of modern diseases will have to be killed.
e) It is thought that a single molecule could lead to a whole series of drugs.
f) Other scientists who have tried to produce antibiotics in a similar way have been unsuccessful.
g) This work is considered a significant achievement.
h) It is necessary to be careful about maintaining the life of the antibiotics

READING TEXT Nº 6: Welfare wagon-train to the west

1- Multiple matching.
1- A 6- F 11- B
2- C/B 7- A 12- A
3- B/C 8- B 13- C
4- D 9- C 14- F
5- C 10- E 15- A

2- Phrasal verbs
 Instituto de Educación Superior Nº 28 “Olga Cossettini” 24

Reading Comprehension: Self Access

a- started up e- bring up
b- fell through f- taken on
c- make the number up h- strike out
d- looks out on

READING TEXT Nº 7: Working mothers: what children say.

1)
a- Because she had just moved to Daventry and she was at her second year of comprehensive
school, meeting new people and friends.
b- She resented her.
c- Feeling grown up and independent.
d- No, her mother was always there for her.
e- Extra independence, and she knows how much goes into running a house.

2)
a- That his mother is never home and he is always on his own.
b- She said it would only be a trial period, and if they weren’t happy with it she would give it up.
c- Yes, what had happened at the new job seemed more interesting than what had happened at the
new school. (they don’t listen to him)
d- His mother has lots of interesting things to tell them about the people she meets at work, he has
more
freedom, extra money for trips and hobbies, and pocket money for doing some house chores.
e- No, he would swap all the advantages for a full time mom at home.

3)
a- F Debbie says at one time she couldn’t stand her, implying she now gets on with her, while Peter
hardly talks to his.
b- T Debbie had to take care of her things and of her sister all the time, and Peter found the
experience exciting though he felt neglected.
c- F Peter has always hated having a working mother.
d- F Peter has to do some chores. Debbie helps round the house but she was never told what to do.
e- T Debbie had just moved, and Peter was just starting comprehensive school.
f- F Debbie admires her mother, but Peter doesn’t.
g- T because a lot of the girls she grew up with never learned to fend for themselves.
h- F because it wasn’t a fair trial period, at the beginning it seemed ok, but he didn’t realise what it
would be like in the long term.

4):
a- A enough things to deal with. c- C treated us as unimportant.
b- C following. d- B complain.

Reading Text n° 8: Chewing gum culture

1)
1–D 4–E F – Extra paragraph!
2–A 5–B
3–G 6–C

2)
a – TRUE. “The ancient Greeks chewed a bum-like resin obtained from the bark of the mastic tree”
b – TRUE “Lumps of spruce for chewing were sold in the early 1800s”
c – FALSE “the mastic tree, a shrub found mainly in Greece and Turkey”. “the sapodilla tree of the
Central American rainforest.”
d – FALSE . No mention in the text.
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Reading Comprehension: Self Access

e – FALSE. ”mint that is used in the two most popular chewing gums in the world”

3)
a- It: chewing gum.
b- Their: Grecian women’s.
c- It: lump of spruce.
d- This: chicle (the substance obtained from the sapodilla tree).
e- Tapper’s: chiclero’s
f- Hazards: the dangers chicleros are exposed to such as poisonous snakes, insects and the
chicle fly.
g- Their: producers’.
h- This: tooth decay.

READING TEXT Nº 9: Food and Us

2)
a) T c) T e) F g) F
b) T d) F f) T h) F

3)
1) G 3) D 5) A
2) E 4) F 6) B

4)
1) efficient 5) eventually 9) nibble
2) extracting 6) inherit 10) alter
3) huge 7) determine
4) cope 8) upbringing

READING TEXT Nº 10: DO MEN AND WOMEN SPEAK THE SAME LANGUAGE?
Exercise 1
1–B 3–A 5–D
2–C 4–A

Exercise 2
Paragraph 1: Usual misunderstandings between men and women hint that their use of language in
conversation is different. (a)
Paragraph 2: Research beats the belief that women are the talkative sex. (e)
Paragraph 3 : Women regard male interruptions as an offensive strategy. (b)
Paragraph 4: Women’s co-operative style vs. men’s tendency to dominate. (f)
Paragraph 5 : Women want to keep the flow of the conversation while men just inform. (h)
Paragraph 6: In an employer-employee relationship, the men’s style shows self-assurance whereas
the women’s shows caution. (d)
Paragraph 7: The female tactful style encourages freedom of choice in the interlocutor. (g)
Paragraph 8: The incompatibility between men and women lies in the way they choose to reveal their
emotions. (c)

Exercise 3
a- they can’t defend themselves against the offensive interruptions of the host.
b- the topic is gradually enlarged by the different contributions of the women involved in the
conversation.
c- conversation built up with the many contributions of the women taking part so as to keep the
flow and enlarge the topic.
 Instituto de Educación Superior Nº 28 “Olga Cossettini” 26

Reading Comprehension: Self Access

d- their style consists of interrupting and moving quickly to another subject. Their language is
much more assertive and straight-forward.

Exercise 4
a- addressed loudly so that her voice couldn’t be heard.
b- firmly / definitely.
c- danger
d- a report, a brief summary ( informal )
e- avoiding important decisions.

READING PASSAGE Nº 11
a) b)
1) B // are strongly linked to cigarette smoking 1) NO // N
2) A // inhibits the flow of oxygen to the heart 2) NOT GIVEN // NG
3) C // formation of blood clots 3) YES // Y
4) NOT GIVEN // NG
c)
1) E // is more harmful to non-smokers than to smokers
2) G // is more likely to be at risk of contracting various cancers
3) H // opposes smoking and publishes research on the subject

d)
1) A // a finding of the UCSF study
2) B // an opinion of the UCSF study
3) B // an opinion of the UCSF study
4) C // a finding of the EPA report

READING PASSAGE Nº 12

Activity 1
A. Research into earphones inserted in the ear canal. Paragraph 4
B. Listening through earphones for too long. Paragraph 6
C. The maximum noise level of the 'Walkman.'
D. The benefit of silence. Paragraph 1
E. An environment of constant noise. Paragraph 2
F. Three problems caused by inserted earphones. Paragraph 5
G. The maximum safe noise dosage.
H. The curse of silence Paragraph 8 (example)
I. A cure for 'tinnitus' Paragraph 7
J. Alarming statistical evidence Paragraph 3
K. A chronic hearing loss impairment.
L. The danger of falling asleep.

Activity 2 f) T Activity 3
a) F g) T a) “Silence is golden”
b) F h) T b) less superfluous noise.
c) F i) T c) 3
d) F d) some temporary relief
e) F