[ English Language Sessionals ] HUM LAB

Day 02:

A Spark, A Flint: How Fire Leapt To Life

Read the passage and answer the questions followed.
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To early man, the fire was a divine gift randomly delivered in the form of 1
lightning, forest fire or burning lava. Unable to make flame for themselves,
the earliest peoples probably stored fire by keeping slow burning logs alight
or by carrying charcoal in pots.

How and where man learnt how to produce flame at will is unknown. It was
probably a secondary invention, accidentally made during tool-making
operations with wood or stone. Studies of primitive societies suggest that
the earliest method of making fire was through friction. European peasants
would insert a wooden drill in a round hole and rotate it briskly between
their palms. This process could be speeded up by wrapping a cord around
the drill and pulling on each end.

The Ancient Greeks used lenses or concave mirrors to concentrate the sun’s
rays and burning glasses were also used by Mexican Aztecs and the
Chinese.

Percussion methods of fire-lighting date back to Paleolithic times, when

some Stone Age toolmakers discovered that chipping flints produced
sparks. The technique became more efficient after the discovery of iron,
about 5000 years ago. In Arctic North America, the Eskimos produced a
slow-burning spark by striking quartz against iron pyrites, a compound that
contains sulphur. The Chinese lit their fires by striking porcelain with
bamboo. In Europe, the combination of steel, flint and tinder remained the
main method of fire lighting until the mid 19th century.

Fire-lighting was revolutionized by the discovery of phosphorus, isolated in

1669 by a German alchemist trying to transmute silver into gold. Impressed
by the element’s combustibility, several 17th-century chemists used it to
manufacture fire-lighting devices, but the results were dangerously
inflammable. With phosphorus costing the equivalent of several hundred
pounds per ounce, the first matches were expensive.

The quest for a practical match really began after 1781 when a group of
French chemists came up with the Phosphoric Candle or Ethereal Match, a
sealed glass tube containing a twist of paper tipped with phosphorus. When
the tube was broken, air rushed in, causing the phosphorus self-combust.
An even more hazardous device, popular in America, was the Instantaneous
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Light Box — a bottle filled with sulphuric acid into which splints treated
with chemicals were dipped.

The first matches resembling those used today were made in 1827 by John
Walker, an English pharmacist who borrowed the formula from a military
rocket-maker called Congreve. Costing a shilling a box, Congreves were Page |
splints coated with sulphur and tipped with potassium chlorate. To light 2
them, the user drew them quickly through folded glass paper.

Walker never patented his invention, and three years later it was copied by
a Samuel Jones, who marketed his product as Lucifers. About the same
time, a French chemistry student called Charles Sauria produced the first
“strike-anywhere” match by substituting white phosphorus for the
potassium chlorate in the Walker formula. However, since white phosphorus
is a deadly poison, from 1845 match-makers exposed to its fumes
succumbed to necrosis, a disease that eats away jaw-bones. It wasn’t until
1906 that the substance was eventually banned.

That was 62 years after a Swedish chemist called Pasch had discovered non-
toxic red or amorphous phosphorus, a development exploited commercially
by Pasch’s compatriot J E Lundstrom in 1885. Lundstrom’s safety matches
were safe because the red phosphorus was non-toxic; it was painted on to
the striking surface instead of the match tip, which contained potassium
chlorate with a relatively high ignition temperature of 182 degrees
centigrade.

America lagged behind Europe in match technology and safety standards. It

wasn’t until 1900 that the Diamond Match Company bought a French patent
for safety matches — but the formula did not work properly in the different
climatic conditions prevailing in America and it was another 11 years before
scientists finally adapted the French patent for the US.

The Americans, however, can claim several “firsts” in match technology and
marketing. In 1892 the Diamond Match Company pioneered book matches.
The innovation didn’t catch on until after 1896, when a brewery had the
novel idea of advertising its product in match books. Today book matches
are the most widely used type in the US, with 90 percent handed out free by
hotels, restaurants and others.

Other American innovations include an anti-after-glow solution to prevent

the match from smoldering after it has been blown out; and the waterproof
match, which lights after eight hours in water.

Questions 1-8: Complete the summary below. Choose your answers from
the box. NB There are more words than spaces so you will not use them
all. You may use any of the words more than once.
[ English Language Sessionals ] HUM LAB

EARLY FIRE-LIGHTING METHODS

They tried to ...... (1) ...... burning logs or charcoal ...... (2) ...... that they
could create fire themselves. It is suspected that the first man-made flames
were produced by ...... (3) ...... . The very first fire-lighting methods
involved the creation of ...... (4) ...... by, for example, rapidly ...... (5) ...... a
wooden stick in a round hole. The use of ...... (6) ...... or persistent chipping Page |
was also widespread in Europe and among other peoples such as the
Chinese and ...... (7) ........ . European practice of this method continued
3
until the 1850s ....... (8) ....... the discovery of phosphorus some years
earlier.

Mexicans random heavenly realising despite

rotating preserve sunlight lacking percussion
chance without surprised friction unaware
make heating Eskimos until smoke
Questions 9-15: Look at the following notes that have been made about
the matches described in Reading Passage. Decide which type of match (A-
H) corresponds with each description and write your answers on your
answer sheet. NB There are more matches than descriptions so you will not
use them all. You may use any match more than once.

NOTES Types of Matches

9 made using a less poisonous type A the Ethereal Match
of phosphorus B the Instantaneous Light box
10 identical to a previous type of C Congreves
match D Lucifers
11 caused a deadly illness E the first strike-anywhere match
12 first to look like modern matches F Lundstrom’s safety match
13 first matches used for G book matches
advertising H waterproof matches
14 relied on an airtight glass
container
15 made with the help of an army
design

Day 03
Architecture - Reaching for the Sky
Read the passage and answer the questions followed.

Architecture is the art and science of designing buildings and structures. A

building reflects the scientific and technological achievements of the age as
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well as the ideas and aspirations of the designer and client. The appearance
of individual buildings, however, is often controversial.

The use of an architectural style cannot be said to start or finish on a

specific date. Neither is it possible to say exactly what characterises a
particular movement. But the origin of what is now generally known as Page |
modern architecture can be traced back to the social and technological 4
changes of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Instead of using timber, stone and traditional building techniques,

architects began to explore ways of creating buildings by using the latest
technology and materials such as steel, glass and concrete strengthened
steel bars, known as reinforced concrete. Technological advances also
helped bring about the decline of rural industries and an increase in urban
populations as people moved to the towns to work in the new factories.
Such rapid and uncontrolled growth helped to turn parts of cities into
slums.

By the 1920s architects throughout Europe were reacting against the

conditions created by industrialization. A new style of architecture emerged
to reflect more idealistic notions for the future. It was made possible by new
materials and construction techniques and was known as Modernism.

By the 1930s many buildings emerging from this movement were designed
in the International Style. This was largely characterized by the bold use of
new materials and simple, geometric forms, often with white walls
supported by stilt like pillars. These were stripped of unnecessary
decoration that would detract from their primary purpose to be used or
lived in.

Walter Gropius, Charles Jeanneret (better known as Le Corbusier) and

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe were among the most influential of the many
architects who contributed to the development of Modernism in the first
half of the century. But the economic depression of the 1930s and the
Second World War (1939-45) prevented their ideas from being widely
realised until the economic conditions improved and war-torn cities had to
be rebuilt. By the 1950s, the International Style had developed into a
universal approach to building, which standardised the appearance of new
buildings in cities across the world.

Unfortunately, this Modernist interest in geometric simplicity and function

became exploited for profit. The rediscovery of quick-and-easy-to-handle
reinforced concrete and an improved ability to prefabricate building
sections meant that builders could meet the budgets of commissioning
authorities and handle a renewed demand for development quickly and
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cheaply. But this led to many badly designed buildings, which discredited
the original aims of Modernism.

Influenced by Le Corbusier's ideas on town planning, every large British

city built multi-storey housing estates in the 1960s. Mass produced, low-
cost high-rises seemed to offer a solution to the problem of housing a Page |
growing inner-city population. But far from meeting human needs, the new 5
estates often proved to be windswept deserts lacking essential social
facilities and services. Many of these buildings were poorly designed and
constructed and have since been demolished.

By the 1970s, a new respect for the place of buildings within the existing
townscape arose. Preserving historic buildings or keeping only their facades
(or fronts) grew common. Architects also began to make more use of
building styles and materials that were traditional to the area. The
architectural style usually referred to as High Tech was also emerging. It
celebrated scientific and engineering achievements by openly parading the
sophisticated techniques used in construction. Such buildings are commonly
made of metal and glass; examples are Stansted airport and the Lloyd's
building in London.

Disillusionment at the failure of many of the poor imitations of Modernist

architecture led to interest in various styles and ideas from the past and
present. By the 1980s the coexistence of different styles of architecture in
the same building became known as Post-Modern. Other architects looked
back to the classical tradition. The trend in architecture now favours
smaller scale building design that reflects a growing public awareness of
environmental issues such as energy efficiency. Like the Modernists, people
today recognise that a well-designed environment improves the quality of
life but is not necessarily achieved by adopting one well-defined style of
architecture.

Twentieth century architecture will mainly be remembered for its tall

buildings. They have been made possible by the development of light steel
frames and safe passenger lifts. They originated in the US over a century ago
to help meet the demand for more economical use of land. As construction
techniques improved, the skyscraper became a reality.

Questions 1-7: Complete the table below using information from Reading
Passage. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.

Period Style Of Period Building Materials Characteristics

Before
Example :
18th ... (1) ...
traditional
century
1920s introduction of steel, glass and exploration of latest
[ English Language Sessionals ] HUM LAB

…... (2) ...... concrete technology

1930s -
…... (3) …… geometric forms
1950s
pre-fabricated
1960s decline of Modernism …... (4) …...
sections
traditional ...... (5) …...
1970s end of Modernist era Page |
materials of historic buildings
sophisticated 6
beginning of .. (6) ..
1970s metal and glass techniques
era
paraded
1980s Post-Modernism …... (7) …...

Questions 8-12: Reading Text describes a number of cause and effect

relationships. Match each Cause (8-12) in List A, with its Effect (A-H) in
List B. Write your answers (A-H) on your answer sheet. NB There are more
effects in List B than you will need, so you will not use all of them. You may
use any effect more than once if you wish.

Causes
RESULTS
8 A rapid movement of people A The quality of life is improved.
from rural areas to cities is B Architecture reflects the age.
triggered by technological C A number of these have been
advance. knocked down.
9 Buildings become simple and D Light steel frames and lifts are
functional. developed.
10 An economic depression and E Historical buildings are preserved.
the second world war hit Europe. F All decoration is removed.
11 Multi-storey housing estates G Parts of cities become slums.
are built according to H Modernist ideas cannot be put into
contemporary ideas on town practice until the second half of the
planning. 20th century.
12 Less land must be used for
building.

Day 04
Right and left-handedness in humans
Read the passage and answer the questions followed.

Why do humans, virtually alone among all animal species, display a distinct
left or right-handedness? Not even our closest relatives among the apes
possess such decided lateral asymmetry, as psychologists call it. Yet about
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90 percent of every human population that has ever lived appears to have
been right-handed. Professor Bryan Turner at Deakin University has studied
the research literature on left-handedness and found that handedness goes
with sidedness. So nine out of ten people are right-handed and eight are right-
footed. He noted that this distinctive asymmetry in the human population is
itself systematic. “Humans think in categories: black and white, up and down, Page |
left and right. It”s a system of signs that enables us to categorise phenomena
that are essentially ambiguous.’
7

Research has shown that there is a genetic or inherited element to

handedness. But while left-handedness tends to run in families, neither left
nor right-handers will automatically produce offspring with the same
handedness; in fact about 6 percent of children with two right-handed
parents will be left-handed. However, among two left-handed parents,
perhaps 40 percent of the children will also be left-handed. With one right
and one left-handed parent, 15 to 20 percent of the offspring will be left
handed. Even among identical twins who have exactly the same genes, one
in six pairs will differ in their handedness.
What then makes people left-handed if it is not simply genetic? Other
factors must be at work and researchers have turned to the brain for clues.
In the 1860s the French surgeon and anthropologist, Dr Paul Broca, made
the remarkable finding that patients who had lost their powers of speech as
a result of a stroke (a blood clot in the brain) had paralysis of the right half
of their body. He noted that since the left hemisphere of the brain controls
the right half of the body, and vice versa, the brain damage must have been
in the brain’s left hemisphere. Psychologists now believe that among right-
handed people, probably 95 percent have their language centre in the left
hemisphere, while 5 percent have right sided language. Left-handers,
however, do not show the reverse pattern but instead a majority also has
their language in the left hemisphere. Some 30 per cent have right
hemisphere language.

Dr Brinkman, a brain researcher at the Australian National University in

Canberra, has suggested that evolution of speech went with right-handed
preference. According to Brinkman, as the brain evolved, one side became
specialised for fine control of movement (necessary for producing speech)
and along with this evolution came right-hand preference. According to
Brinkman, most left-handers have left hemisphere dominance but also some
capacity in the right hemisphere. She has observed that if a left-handed
person is brain-damaged in the left hemisphere, the recovery of speech is
quite often better and this is explained by the fact that left-handers have a
more bilateral speech function.
In her studies of macaque monkeys, Brinkman has noticed that primates
(monkeys) seem to learn a hand preference from their mother in the first
year of life but this could be one hand or the other. In humans, however, the
specialisation in (function of the two hemispheres results in anatomical
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differences: areas that are involved with the production of speech are
usually larger on the left side than on the right. Since monkeys have not
acquired the art of speech, one would not expect to see such a variation but
Brinkman claims to have discovered a trend in monkeys towards the
asymmetry that is evident in the human brain.
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Two American researchers, Geschwind and Galaburda, studied the brains of 8
human embryos and discovered that the left-right asymmetry exists before
birth. But as the brain develops, a number of things can affect it. Every
brain is initially female in its organisation and it only becomes a male brain
when the male foetus begins to secrete hormones. Geschwind and
Galaburda knew that different parts of the brain mature at different rates;
the right hemisphere develops first, then the left. Moreover, a girl’s brain
develops somewhat faster than that of a boy. So, if something happens to
the brain’s development during pregnancy, it is more likely to be affected in
a male and the hemisphere more likely to be involved is the left. The brain
may become less lateralised and this, in turn, could result in left-
handedness and the development of certain superior skills that have their
origins in the left hemisphere such as logic, rationality and abstraction. It
should be no surprise then that among mathematicians and architects, left-
handers tend to be more common and there are more left-handed males than
females.

The results of this research may be some consolation to left-handers who

have for centuries lived in a world designed to suit right-handed people.
However, what is alarming, according to Mr. Charles Moore, a writer and
journalist, is the way the word “right” reinforces its own virtue. Subliminally
he says, language tells people to think that anything on the right can be
trusted while anything on the left is dangerous or even sinister. We speak of
lefthanded compliments and according to Moore, “it is no coincidence that
left-handed children, forced to use their right hand, often develop a
stammer as they are robbed of their freedom of speech”. However, as more
research is undertaken on the causes of left-handedness, attitudes towards
left-handed people are gradually changing for the better. Indeed when the
champion tennis player Ivan Lendl was asked what the single thing was that
he would choose in order to improve his game, he said he would like to
become a lefthander.

Questions 1-7: Use the information in the text to match the people (listed
A-E) with the opinions (listed 1-7) below. Some people match more than one
opinion.

1. Human beings started to show a preference

for right-handedness when they first
A Dr Broca developed language.
B Dr Brinkman 2. Society is prejudiced against left-handed
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people.
C Geschwind and 3. Boys are more likely to be left-handed.
Galaburda 4. After a stroke, left-handed people recover
D Charles Moore their speech more quickly than right handed
E Professor Turner people.
5. People who suffer strokes on the left side of Page |
the brain usually lose their power of speech.
9
6. The two sides of the brain develop different
functions before birth.
7. Asymmetry is a common feature of the human
body.

Questions 8-10: Using the information in the passage, complete the table
below. rite your answers on your answer sheet.
Percentage of children left-
handed
One parent left-handed …… (8) ……
One parent right-handed
Both parents left-handed …… (9) ……
Both parents right-handed …… (10) ……

Questions 11-12: Choose the appropriate letters A-D and answer.

11 A study of monkeys has shown that
A monkeys are not usually right-handed.
B monkeys display a capacity for speech.
C monkey brains are smaller than human brains.
D monkey brains are asymmetric.
12 According to the writer, left-handed people
A will often develop a stammer.
B have undergone hardship for years.
C are untrustworthy.
D are good tennis players.

Day 05
Glass: Capturing the dance of light
Read the passage and answer the questions followed.

A Glass, in one form or another, has long been in noble service to humans.
As one of the most widely used of manufactured materials, and certainly the
most versatile, it can be as imposing as a telescope mirror the width of a
tennis court or as small and simple as a marble rolling across dirt. The uses
of this adaptable material have been broadened dramatically by new
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technologies glass fibre optics — more than eight million miles — carrying
telephone and television signals across nations, glass ceramics serving as
the nose cones of missiles and as crowns for teeth; tiny glass beads taking
radiation doses inside the body to specific organs, even a new type of glass
fashioned of nuclear waste in order to dispose of that unwanted material.
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B On the horizon are optical computers. These could store programs and 10
process information by means of light - pulses from tiny lasers - rather than
electrons. And the pulses would travel over glass fibres, not copper wire.
These machines could function hundreds of times faster than today’s
electronic computers and hold vastly more information. Today fibre optics
are used to obtain a clearer image of smaller and smaller objects than ever
before - even bacterial viruses. A new generation of optical instruments is
emerging that can provide detailed imaging of the inner workings of cells. It
is the surge in fibre optic use and in liquid crystal displays that has set the
U.S. glass industry (a 16 billion dollar business employing some 150,000
workers) to building new plants to meet demand.

C But it is not only in technology and commerce that glass has widened its
horizons. The use of glass as art, a tradition spins back at least to Roman
times, is also booming. Nearly everywhere, it seems, men and women are
blowing glass and creating works of art. “I didn’t sell a piece of glass until
1975,” Dale Chihuly said, smiling, for in the 18 years since the end of the
dry spell, he has become one of the most financially successful artists of the
20th century. He now has a new commission - a glass sculpture for the
headquarters building of a pizza company - for which his fee is half a million
dollars.

D But not all the glass technology that touches our lives is ultra-modern.
Consider the simple light bulb; at the turn of the century most light bulbs
were hand blown, and the cost of one was equivalent to half a day’s pay for
the average worker. In effect, the invention of the ribbon machine by
Corning in the 1920s lighted a nation. The price of a bulb plunged. Small
wonder that the machine has been called one of the great mechanical
achievements of all time. Yet it is very simple: a narrow ribbon of molten
glass travels over a moving belt of steel in which there are holes. The glass
sags through the holes and into waiting moulds. Puffs of compressed air
then shape the glass. In this way, the envelope of a light bulb is made by a
single machine at the rate of 66,000 an hour, as compared with 1,200 a day
produced by a team of four glassblowers.

E The secret of the versatility of glass lies in its interior structure. Although
it is rigid, and thus like a solid, the atoms are arranged in a random
disordered fashion, characteristic of a liquid. In the melting process, the
atoms in the raw materials are disturbed from their normal position in the
molecular structure; before they can find their way back to crystalline
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arrangements the glass cools. This looseness in molecular structure gives

the material what engineers call tremendous “formability” which allows
technicians to tailor glass to whatever they need.

F Today, scientists continue to experiment with new glass mixtures and

building designers test their imaginations with applications of special types Page |
of glass. A London architect, Mike Davies, sees even more dramatic 11
buildings using molecular chemistry. “Glass is the great building material of
the future, the dynamic skin,” he said. “Think of glass that has been treated
to react to electric currents going through it, glass that will change from
clear to opaque at the push of a button, that gives you instant curtains.
Think of how the tall buildings in New York could perform a symphony of
colours as the glass in them is made to change colours instantly.” Glass as
instant curtains is available now, but the cost is exorbitant. As for the glass
changing colours instantly, that may come true. Mike Davies’s vision may
indeed be on the way to fulfilment.

Questions 1-5; Reading Passage has six paragraphs (A-F). Choose the
most suitable heading/or each paragraph from the list of headings below.
Write the appropriate numbers (i-x) on your answer sheet. NB You may use
any heading more at once.

List of Headings Paragraph A

i Growth in the market for glass
crafts 1 Paragraph B
ii Computers and their dependence on 2 Paragraph C
glass 3 Paragraph D
iii What makes glass so adaptable 4 Paragraph E
iv Historical development of glass 5 Paragraph F
v Scientists’ dreams cost millions
vi Architectural experiments with
glass
vii Glass art galleries flourish
viii Exciting innovations in fibre optics
ix A former glass technology
x Everyday uses of glass

Questions 6-8: The diagram below shows the principle of Coming’s ribbon
machine. Label the diagram by selecting NO MORE THAN THREE
WORDS from the Reading Passage to fill each numbered space. Write your
answers on your answer sheet.
[ English Language Sessionals ] HUM LAB

Page |
12

Questions 9-13: Look at the list below of the uses of glass. According to
the text, state whether these uses exist today, will exist in the future/are not
mentioned by the writer.

Write 09 dental fittings

A if the uses exist today 10 optical computers
B if the uses will exist in the future 11 sculptures
C if the uses are not mentioned by the 12 fashions
writer 13 curtains

Day 06
Airports on Water
Read the passage and answer the questions followed.

River deltas are difficult places for map makers. The river builds them up,
the sea wears them down; their outlines are always changing. The changes
in China's Pearl River delta, however, are more dramatic than these natural
fluctuations. An island six kilometers long and with a total area of 1248
hectares is being created there. And the civil engineers are as interested in
performance as in speed and size. This is a bit of the delta that they want to
endure.

The new island of Chek Lap Kok, the site of Hong Kong's new airport, is
83% complete. The giant dumper trucks rumbling across it will have
finished their job by the middle of this year and the airport itself will be
built at a similarly breakneck pace.
As Chek Lap Kok rises, however, another new Asian island is sinking back
[ English Language Sessionals ] HUM LAB

into the sea. This is a 520-hectare island built in Osaka Bay, Japan, that
serves as the platform for the new Kansai airport. Chek Lap Kok was built in
a different way, and thus hopes to avoid the same sinking fate.

The usual way to reclaim land is to pile sand rock on to the seabed. When
the seabed oozes with mud, this is rather like placing a textbook on a wet Page |
sponge: the weight squeezes the water out, causing both water and sponge 13
to settle lower. The settlement is rarely even: different parts sink at
different rates. So buildings, pipes, roads and so on tend to buckle and
crack. You can engineer around these problems, or you can engineer them
out. Kansai took the first approach; Chek Lap Kok is taking the second.
The differences are both political and geological. Kansai was supposed to be
built just one kilometer offshore, where the seabed is quite solid. Fishermen
protested, and the site was shifted a further five kilometers. That put it in
deeper water (around 20 meters) and above a seabed that consisted of 20
meters of soft alluvial silt and mud deposits. Worse, below it was a not-very-
firm glacial deposit hundreds of meters thick.

The Kansai builders recognized that settlement was inevitable. Sand was
driven into the seabed to strengthen it before the landfill was piled on top,
in an attempt to slow the process; but this has not been as effective as had
been hoped. To cope with settlement, Kansai's giant terminal is supported
on 900 pillars. Each of them can be individually jacked up, allowing wedges
to be added underneath. That is meant to keep the building level. But it
could be a tricky task.

Conditions are different at Chek Lap Kok. There was some land there to
begin with, the original little island of Chek Lap Kok and a smaller outcrop
called Lam Chau. Between them, these two outcrops of hard, weathered
granite make up a quarter of the new island's surface area. Unfortunately,
between the islands there was a layer of soft mud, 27 meters thick in
places.

According to Frans Uiterwijk, a Dutchman who is the project's reclamation

director, it would have been possible to leave this mud below the reclaimed
land, and to deal with the resulting settlement by the Kansai method. But
the consortium that won the contract for the island opted for a more
aggressive approach. It assembled the worlds largest fleet of dredgers,
which sucked up l50m cubic meters of clay and mud and dumped it in
deeper waters. At the same time, sand was dredged from the waters and
piled on top of the layer of stiff clay that the massive dredging had laid
bare.

Nor was the sand the only thing used. The original granite island which had
hills up to 120 meters high was drilled and blasted into boulders no bigger
than two meters in diameter. This provided 70m cubic meters of granite to
[ English Language Sessionals ] HUM LAB

add to the island's foundations. Because the heap of boulders does not fill
the space perfectly, this represents the equivalent of 105m cubic meters of
landfill. Most of the rock will become the foundations for the airport's
runways and its taxiways. The sand dredged from the waters will also be
used to provide a two-meter capping layer over the granite platform. This
makes it easier for utilities to dig trenches –granite is unyielding stuff. Most Page |
of the terminal buildings will be placed above the site of the existing island. 14
Only a limited amount of pile-driving is needed to support building
foundations above softer areas.

The completed island will be six to seven meters above sea level. In all,
350m cubic meters of material will have been moved. And much of it, like
the overloads, has to be moved several times before reaching its final
resting place. For example, there has to be a motorway capable of carrying
150-tonne dump-trucks; and there has to be a raised area for the 15,000
construction workers. These are temporary; they will be removed when the
airport is finished.

The airport, though, is here to stay. To protect it, the new coastline is being
bolstered with a formidable twelve kilometers of sea defenses. The brunt of
a typhoon will be deflected by the neighboring island of Lantau; the sea
walls should guard against the rest. Gentler but more persistent bad
weather - the downpours of the summer monsoon – is also being taken into
account. A mat-like material called geo textile is being laid across the island
to separate the rock and sand layers. That will stop sand particles from
being washed into the rock voids, and so causing further settlement. This
island is being built never to be sunk.

Questions 1–5: Classify the following statements as applying to

Example Answer
built on a man-made island C

1 having an area of over 1000 hectares

2 built in a river delta A Chek Lap Kok airport
3 built in the open sea only
4 built by reclaiming land B Kansai airport only
5 built using conventional methods of C Both airports
reclamation

Questions 6–9: Complete the labels on Diagram B below. Choose your

answers from the box below the diagram. NB: There are more
words/phrases than spaces, so you will not use them all.

DIAGRAM A:
[ English Language Sessionals ] HUM LAB

Cross-section of the original area around Chek Lap Kok before work began

Page |
15

DIAGRAM B: Cross-section of the same area at the time the article was
written

granite runways and taxiways mud water

stiff clay terminal building site sand

Questions 10–13: Complete the summary below. Choose your answers

from the box below the summary. NB There are more words than spaces, so
you will not use them all.
When the new Chek Lap Kok airport has been completed, the raised area
and the.......... ( Example: motorway ) .......... will be removed.

The island will be partially protected from storms by ....(10).... and also by
....(11)... . Further settlement caused by .....(12)..... will be prevented by
the use of ....(13)..... .

construction dump-trucks Lantau Island rock voids

workers
coastline motorway rock and sand typhoons
geotextile rainfall sea walls
[ English Language Sessionals ] HUM LAB

Day 07
The Motor Car
Read the passage and answer the questions followed.
Page |
A There are now over 700 million motor vehicles in the world - and the
number is rising by more than 40 million each year. The average distance 16
driven by car users is growing too - from 8 km a day per person in western
Europe in 1965 to 25 km a day in 1995. This dependence on motor vehicles
has given rise to major problems, including environmental pollution,
depletion of oil resources, traffic congestion and safety.

B While emissions from new cars are far less harmful than they used to be,
city streets and motorways are becoming more crowded than ever, often
with older trucks, buses and taxis, which emit excessive levels of smoke and
fumes. This concentration of vehicles makes air quality in urban areas
unpleasant and sometimes dangerous to breathe. Even Moscow has joined
the list of capitals afflicted by congestion and traffic fumes. In Mexico City,
vehicle pollution is a major health hazard.

C Until a hundred years ago, most journeys were in the 20 km range, the
distance conveniently accessible by horse. Heavy freight could only be
carried by water or rail. The invention of the motor vehicle brought
personal mobility to the masses and made rapid freight delivery possible
over a much wider area. Today about 90 percent of inland freight in the
United Kingdom is carried by road. Clearly, the world cannot revert to the
horse-drawn wagon. Can it avoid being locked into congested and polluting
ways of transporting people and goods?

D In Europe, most cities are still designed for the old modes of transport.
Adaptation to the motor car has involved adding ring roads, one-way
systems and parking lots. In the United States, more land is assigned to car
use than to housing. Urban sprawl means that life without a car is next to
impossible. Mass use of motor vehicles has also killed or injured millions of
people. Other social effects have been blamed on the car such as alienation
and aggressive human behaviour.

E A 1993 study by the European Federation for Transport and Environment

found that car transport is seven times as costly as rail travel in terms of the
external social costs it entails such as congestion, accidents, pollution, loss
of cropland and natural habitats, depletion of oil resources, and so on. Yet
cars easily surpass trains or buses as a flexible and convenient mode of
personal transport. It is unrealistic to expect people to give up private cars
in favour of mass transit.
[ English Language Sessionals ] HUM LAB

F Technical solutions can reduce the pollution problem and increase the
fuel efficiency of engines. But fuel consumption and exhaust emissions
depend on which cars are preferred by customers and how they are driven.
Many people buy larger cars than they need for daily purposes or waste fuel
by driving aggressively. Besides, global car use is increasing at a faster rate
than the improvement in emissions and fuel efficiency which technology is Page |
now making possible. 17
G One solution that has been put forward is the long-term solution of
designing cities and neighbourhoods so that car journeys are not necessary
- all essential services being located within walking distance or easily
accessible by public transport. Not only would this save energy and cut
carbon dioxide emissions, it would also enhance the quality of community
life, putting the emphasis on people instead of cars. Good local government
is already bringing this about in some places. But few democratic communities
are blessed with the vision - and the capital - to make such profound changes in
modern lifestyles.

H A more likely scenario seems to be a combination of mass transit systems

for travel into and around cities, with small 'low emission' cars for urban
use and larger hybrid or lean burn cars for use elsewhere. Electronically
tolled highways might be used to ensure that drivers pay charges geared to
actual road use. Better integration of transport systems is also highly
desirable - and made more feasible by modern computers. But these are
solutions for countries which can afford them. In most developing countries,
old cars and old technologies continue to predominate.

Questions 1-6: Reading Passage has eight paragraphs (A-H). Which

paragraphs concentrate on the following information? Write the appropriate
letters (A-H) on your answer sheet. NB You need only ONE letter for each
answer.
1 a comparison of past and present transportation methods
2 how driving habits contribute to road problems
3 the relative merits of cars and public transport
4 the writer's own prediction of future solutions
5 the increasing use of motor vehicles
6 the impact of the car on city development

Questions 7-13
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading
Passage? On your answer sheet write
YES if the statement agrees with the information
NO if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this in the passage
[ English Language Sessionals ] HUM LAB

7 Vehicle pollution is worse in European cities than anywhere else.

8 Transport by horse would be a useful alternative to motor vehicles.
9 Nowadays freight is not carried by water in the United Kingdom.
10 Most European cities were not designed for motor vehicles.
11 Technology alone cannot solve the problem of vehicle pollution.
12 People's choice of car and attitude to driving is a factor in the pollution Page |
problem.
18
13 Redesigning cities would be a short-term solution.

Day 08
William Henry Perkin: The man who invented synthetic dyes
Read the passage and answer the questions followed.

William Henry Perkin was born on March 12, 1838, in London, England. As
a boy, Perkin’s curiosity prompted early interests in the arts, sciences,
photography, and engineering. But it was a chance stumbling upon a run-
down, yet functional, laboratory in his late grandfather's home that
solidified the young man`s enthusiasm for chemistry.

As a student at the City of London School, Perkin became immersed in the

study of chemistry. His talent and devotion to the subject were perceived by
his teacher, Thomas Hall, who encouraged him to attend a series of lectures
given by the eminent scientist Michael Faraday at the Royal Institution.
Those speeches tired the young chemist`s enthusiasm further, and he later
went on to attend the Royal College of Chemistry, which he succeeded in
entering in 1853, at the age of 15.

At the time of Perkin’s enrollment, the Royal College of Chemistry was

headed by the noted German chemist August Wilhelm Hofmann. Perkin’s
scientific gifts soon caught Hofmann’s attention and within two years, he
became Hofmann’s youngest assistant. Not long after that, Perkin made the
scientific breakthrough that would bring him both fame and fortune.

At the time, quinine was the only viable medical treatment for malaria. The
drug was derived from the bark of the cinchona tree, native to South
America and by 1856 demand for the drug was surpassing the available
supply. Thus, when Hofmann made some passing comments about the
desirability of a synthetic substitute for quinine, it was unsurprising that his
star pupil was moved to take up the challenge.

During his vacation in 1856, Perkin spent his time in the laboratory on the
top floor of his family's house. He was attempting to manufacture quinine
[ English Language Sessionals ] HUM LAB

from aniline, an inexpensive and readily available coal tar waste product.
Despite his best efforts, however, he did not end up with quinine. Instead,
he produced a mysterious dark sludge. Luckily, Perkins scientific training
and nature prompted him to investigate the substance further.
Incorporating potassium dichromate and alcohol into the aniline at various
stages of the experimental process, he finally produced a deep purple Page |
solution. And, proving the truth of the famous scientist Louis Pasteur's 19
words 'chance favors only the prepared mind'. Perkin saw the potential of
his unexpected find.

Historically, textile dyes were made from such natural sources as plants and
animal excretions. Some of these, such as the glandular mucus of snails,
were difficult to obtain and outrageously expensive. Indeed, the purple
colour extracted from a snail was once so costly that in society at the time
only the rich could afford it. Further, natural dyes tended to be muddy in
hue and fade quickly. It was against this backdrop that Perkin‘s discovery
was made.

Perkin quickly grasped that his purple solution could be used to colour
fabric, thus making it the world’s first synthetic dye. Realising the
importance of this breakthrough, he lost no time in patenting it. But
perhaps the most fascinating of all Perkin`s reactions to his find was his
nearly instant recognition that the new dye had commercial possibilities.

Perkin originally named his dye Tyrian Purple, but it later became
commonly known as mauve (from the French for the plant used to make the
colour violet). He asked advice of Scottish dye works owner Robert Pullar,
who assured him that manufacturing the dye would be well worth it if the
colour remained fast (i.e. would not fade) and the cost was relatively low.
So, over the fierce objections of his mentor Hofmann, he left college to give
birth to the modern chemical industry.

With the help of his father and brother, Perkin set up a factory not far from
London. Utilizing the cheap and plentiful coal tar that was an almost
unlimited byproduct of London's gas street lighting, the dye works began
producing the world’s first synthetically dyed material in 1857. The
company received a commercial boost from the Empress Eugenio of France,
when she decided the new color flattered her. Very soon, mauve was the
necessary shade for all the fashionable ladies in that country. Not to be
outdone, England`s Queen Victoria also appeared in public wearing a
mauve gown, thus making it all the rage in England as well. The dye was
bold and fast, and the public clamoured for more. Perkin went back to the
drawing board.

Although Perkin’s fame was achieved and fortune assured by his first
discovery, the chemist continued his research. Among other dyes he
[ English Language Sessionals ] HUM LAB

developed and introduced were aniline red (1859) and aniline black (1863)
and in the late 1860s, Perkin's green. It is important to note that Perkin's
synthetic dye discoveries had outcomes far beyond the merely decorative.
The dyes also became vital to medical research in many ways. For instance,
they were used to stain previously invisible microbes and bacteria, allowing
researchers to identify such bacilli as tuberculosis, cholera, and anthrax. Page |
Artificial dyes continue to play a crucial role today. And, in what would have 20
been particularly pleasing to Perkin, their current use is in the search for a
vaccine against malaria.

Question 1-7: Do the following statements agree with the information

given in Reading Passage? On your answer sheet, write:

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this more than once.

1. Michael Faraday was the first person to recognize Perkin's ability as a

student of chemistry.
2. Michael Faraday suggested Perkin should enroll in the Royal College of
Chemistry.
3. Perkin employed August Wilhelm Hofmann as his assistant.
4. Perkin was still young when he made the discovery that made him rich
and famous.
5. The trees from which quinine is derived grow only in South America.
6. Perkin hoped to manufacture a drug from a coal tar waste product.
7. Perkin was inspired by the discoveries of the famous scientist Louis
Pasteur.

Question 8-13: Answer the Questions below: Choose NO MORE THAN

TWO WORDS for each answer.

8. Before Perkin’s discovery, with what group in society was the colour
purple associated?
9. What potential did Perkin immediately understand that his new dye had?
10. What was the name finally used to refer to the first color Perkin
invented?
11. What was the name of the person Perkin consulted before setting up his
own dye works?
12. In what country did Perkins newly invented colour first become
fashionable?
13. According to the passage, which disease is now being targeted by
researchers using synthetic dyes?
[ English Language Sessionals ] HUM LAB

Day 09
BAKELITE: The Birth Of Modern Plastics
Read the passage and answer the questions followed.
Page |
In 1907, Leo Hendrick Baekeland, a Belgian scientist working in New York,
discovered and patented a revolutionary new synthetic material. His 21
invention, which he named 'Bakelite', was of enormous technological
importance, and effectively launched the modern plastics industry.

The term 'plastic' comes from the Greek plassein, meaning 'to mould'. Some
plastics are derived from natural sources, some are semi-synthetic (the
result of chemical action on a natural substance), and some are entirely
synthetic, that is, chemically engineered from the constituents of coal or oil.
Some are 'thermoplastic', which means that, like candlewax, they melt when
heated and can then be reshaped. Others are 'thermosetting': like eggs,
they cannot revert to their original viscous state, and their shape is thus
fixed forever., Bakelite had the distinction of being the first totally synthetic
thermosetting plastic.

The history of today's plastics begins with the discovery of a series of semi-
synthetic thermoplastic materials in the mid-nineteenth century. The
impetus behind the development of these early plastics was generated by a
number of factors - immense technological progress in the domain of
chemistry, coupled with wider cultural changes, and the pragmatic need to
find acceptable substitutes for dwindling supplies of 'luxury' materials such
as tortoiseshell and ivory.

Baekeland's interest in plastics began in 1885 when, as a young chemistry

student in Belgium, he embarked on research into phenolic resins, the
group of sticky substances produced when phenol (carbolic acid) combines
with an aldehyde (a volatile fluid similar to alcohol). He soon abandoned the
subject, however, only returning to it some years later. By 1905 he was a
wealthy New Yorker, having recently made his fortune with the invention of
a new photographic paper. While Baekeland had been busily amassing
dollars, some advances had been made in the development of plastics. The
years 1899 and 1900 had seen the patenting of the first semi-synthetic
thermosetting material that could be manufactured on an industrial scale.
In purely scientific terms, Baekeland's major contribution to the field is not
so much the actual discovery of the material to which he gave his name, but
rather the method by which a reaction between phenol and formaldehyde
could be controlled, thus making possible its preparation on a commercial
basis. On 13 July 1907, Baekeland took out his famous patent describing
this preparation, the essential features of which are still in use today.
[ English Language Sessionals ] HUM LAB

The original patent outlined a three-stage process, in which phenol and

formaldehyde (from wood or coal) were initially combined under vacuum
inside a large egg-shaped kettle. The result was a resin known as Novalak,
which became soluble and malleable when heated. The resin was allowed to
cool in shallow trays until it hardened, and then broken up and ground into
powder. Other substances were then introduced: including fillers, such as Page |
woodflour, asbestos or cotton, which increase strength and. moisture 22
resistance, catalysts (substances to speed up the reaction between two
chemicals without joining to either) and hexa, a compound of ammonia and
formaldehyde which supplied the additional formaldehyde necessary to
form a thermosetting resin. This resin was then left to cool and harden, and
ground up a second time. The resulting granular powder was raw Bakelite,
ready to be made into a vast range of manufactured objects. In the last
stage, the heated Bakelite was poured into a hollow mould of the required
shape and subjected to extreme heat and pressure; thereby 'setting' its form
for life.

The design of Bakelite objects, everything from earrings to television sets,

was governed to a large extent by the technical requirements of the
moulding process. The object could not be designed so that it was locked
into the mould and therefore difficult to extract. A common general rule was
that objects should taper towards the deepest part of the mould, and if
necessary the product was moulded in separate pieces. Moulds had to be
carefully designed so that the molten Bakelite would flow evenly and
completely into the mould. Sharp corners proved impractical and were thus
avoided, giving rise to the smooth, 'streamlined' style popular in the 1930s.
The thickness of the walls of the mould was also crucial: thick walls took
longer to cool and harden, a factor which had to be considered by the
designer in order to make the most efficient use of machines.

Baekeland's invention, although treated with disdain in its early years, went
on to enjoy an unparalleled popularity which lasted throughout the first half
of the twentieth century. It became the wonder product of the new world of
industrial expansion -'the material of a thousand uses'. Being both non-
porous and heat-resistant, Bakelite kitchen goods were promoted as being
germ-free and sterilisable. Electrical manufacturers seized on its insulating:
properties, and consumers everywhere relished its dazzling array of shades,
delighted that they were now, at last, no longer restricted to the wood tones
and drab browns of the prepfastic era. It then fell from favour again during
the 1950s, and was despised and destroyed in vast quantities. Recently,
however, it has been experiencing something of a renaissance, with
renewed demand for original Bakelite objects in the collectors' marketplace,
and museums, societies and dedicated individuals once again appreciating
the style and originality of this innovative material.
[ English Language Sessionals ] HUM LAB

Questions 1-3: Complete the [Link] ONE WORD ONLY for

each answer.

Some plastics behave in a similar way to 1 ......................... in that they melt

under heat and can be moulded into new forms. Bakelite was unique
because it was the first material to be both entirely 2 ........................ in Page |
origin, and thermosetting.
23
There were several reasons for the research into plastics in the nineteenth
century, among them the great advances that had been made in the field of
3 ........................ and the search for alternatives to natural resources like
ivory.
[ English Language Sessionals ] HUM LAB

Questions 4-8: Complete the [Link] ONE WORD ONLY for

each aanswer.

Page |
24
[ English Language Sessionals ] HUM LAB

Questions 9-10: Which TWO of the following factors influencing the

design of Bakelite objects are mentioned in the text?
A the function which the object would serve
B the ease with which the resin could fill the mould
C the facility with which the object could be removed from the mould
D the limitations of the materials used to manufacture the mould Page |
E the fashionable styles of the period
25
Questions 11-13: Do the following statements agree with the information
given. Write:
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
11 Modern-day plastic preparation is based on the same principles as that
patented in 1907. 12 Bakelite was immediately welcomed as a practical and
versatile material.
13 Bakelite was only available in a limited range of colours.

Day 10
Hearing Impairment
Read the passage and answer the questions followed.

A Hearing impairment or other auditory function deficit in young children

can have a major impact on their development of speech and
communication, resulting in a detrimental effect on their ability to learn at
school. This is likely to have major consequences for the individual and the
population as a whole. The New Zealand Ministry of Health has found from
research carried out over two decades that 6-10% of children in that
country are affected by hearing loss.

B A preliminary study in New Zealand has shown that classroom noise

presents a major concern for teachers and pupils. Modem treading
practices, the organization of desks in the classroom, poor classroom
acoustics, and mechanical means of ventilation such as air-conditioning
units all contribute to the number of children unable to comprehend the
teachers voice. Education researchers Nelson and Soli have also suggested
that recent trends in learning often involve collaborative interactions of
multiple minds and tools as much as individual possession of information.
This all amounts to heightened activity and noise levels, which have the
potential to be particularly serious for children experiencing auditory
function deficit. Noise in classrooms can only exacerbate their difficulty in
comprehending and processing verbal communication with other children
and instructions from the teacher.
[ English Language Sessionals ] HUM LAB

C Children with auditory function deficit are potentially failing to learn to

their maximum potential because of noise levels generated in classrooms.
The effects of noise on the ability of children to team effectively in typical
classroom environments are now the subject of increasing concern. The
International Institute of Noise Control Engineering(I-INCE), on the advice
of the World Health Organization, has established an international working Page |
party, which includes New Zealand, to evaluate noise and reverberation 26
control for school rooms.

D While the detrimental effects of noise in classroom situations are not

limited to children experiencing disability, those with a disability that
affects their processing of speech and verbal communication could be
extremely vulnerable. The auditory function deficits in question include
hearing impairment, autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) and attention deficit
disorders MDD/ADHD).

E Autism is considered a neurological and genetic life-long disorder that

causes discrepancies in the way information is processed. This disorder is
characterized by interlinking problems with social imaginations, social
communication and social interaction. According to Jenzen, this affects the
ability to understand and relate in typical ways to people, understand
events and objects in the environment, and understand or respond to
sensory stimuli. Autism does not allow learning or thinking in the same
ways as in children who are developing normally. Autistic spectrum
disorders often result in major difficulties in comprehending verbal
information and speech processing. Those experiencing these disorders
often find sounds such as crowd noise and the noise generated by machinery
painful and distressing. This is difficult to scientifically quantify as such extra-
sensory stimuli vary greatly from one autistic individual to another. But a child
who finds any type of noise in their classroom or learning space intrusive is
likely to be adversely affected in their ability to process information.

F The attention deficit disorders are indicative of neurological and genetic

disorders and are characterized by difficulties with sustaining attention,
effort and persistence, organization skills and disinhibition. Children
experiencing these disorders find it difficult to screen out unimportant
information, and focus on everything in the environment rather than
attending to a single activity. Background noise in the classroom becomes a
major distraction, which can affect their ability to concentrate.

G Children experiencing an auditory function deficit can often End speech

and communication very difficult to isolate and process when set against
high levels of background noise. These levels come from outside activities
that penetrate the classroom structure, from teaching activities, and other
noise generated inside, which can be exacerbated by room reverberation.
Strategies are needed to obtain the optimum classroom construction and
[ English Language Sessionals ] HUM LAB

perhaps a change in classroom culture and methods of teaching. ln

particular, the effects of noisy classrooms and activities on those
experiencing disabilities in the form of auditory function deficit need
thorough investigation. It is probable that many undiagnosed children exist
in the education system with 'invisible' disabilities. Their needs are less
likely to be met than those of children with known disabilities Page |
27
H The New Zealand Government has developed a New Zealand Disability
Strategy and has embarked on a wide-ranging consultation process. The
strategy recognizes that people experiencing disability face significant
barriers in achieving a full quality of life in areas such as attitude,
education, employment and access to services. Objective 3 of the New
Zealand Disability Strategy is to ’Provide the Best Education for Disabled
People' by improving education so that all children, youth learners and
adult learners will have equal opportunities to learn and develop within
their already existing local school. For a successful education, the learning
environment is vitally significant, so any effort to improve this is likely to be
of great benefit to all children, but especially to those with auditory function
disabilities.

I A number of countries are already in the process of formulating their own

standards for the control and reduction of classroom noise. New Zealand
will probably follow their example. The literature to date on noise in school
rooms appears to focus on the effects on schoolchildren in general, their
teachers and the hearing impaired. Only limited attention appears to have
been given to those students experiencing the other disabilities involving
auditory function deficit. lt is imperative that the needs of these children are
taken into account in the setting of appropriate international standards to
be promulgated in future.

Questions 1-6: The Reading Passage has nine sections, A-I. Which section
contains the following information? Write the correct letter A-l, on your
answer sheet.
1. an account of a national policy initiative
2. a description of a global team effort
3. a hypothesis as to one reason behind the growth in classroom
noise
4. a demand for suitable worldwide regulations
5. a list of medical conditions which place some children more at risk
from noise than others
6. the estimated proportion of children in New Zealand with auditory
problems.

Questions 7-10: Answer the questions below. Choose NO MORE THAN

TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.
[ English Language Sessionals ] HUM LAB

7. For what period of time has hearing loss in schoolchildren been

studied in New Zealand?
8. In addition to machinery noise, what other type of noise can upset
children with autism?
9. What term is used to describe the hearing problems of
schoolchildren which have not been diagnosed? Page |
10. What part of the New Zealand Disability Strategy aims to give
28
schoolchildren equal opportunity?
Questions 11-12: Choose TWO letters, A-E .Write the correct letters on
your answer sheet. The list below includes factors contributing to classroom
noise.
Which TWO are mentioned by the writer of the passage?
A. current teaching B. echoing corridors C. cooling systems
methods
D. large class size E. loud-voiced F. playground
teachers games

Questions 13: What is the writer‘s overall purpose in writing this article?
A. to compare different methods oi dealing with auditory
problems
B. to provide solutions for overly noisy learning environments
C. to increase awareness of the situation oi children with
auditory problems
D. to promote New Zealand as a model for other countries to
follow
Day 11 (Extra)
Green Wave Washes Over Mainstream Shopping
Read the passage and answer the questions followed.

Research in Britain has shown that green consumers' continue to flourish as

a significant group amongst shoppers. This suggests that politicians who
claim environmentalism is yesterday's issue may be seriously misjudging
the public mood.

A report from Mintel, the market research organisation, says that despite
the recession and financial pressures, more people than ever want to buy
environmentally friendly products and a 'green wave' has swept through
consumerism, taking in people previously untouched by environmental
concerns. The recently published report also predicts that the process will
repeat itself with 'ethical' concerns, involving issues such as fair trade with
the Third World and the social record of businesses. Companies will have to
be more honest and open in response to this mood.
[ English Language Sessionals ] HUM LAB

Mintel's survey, based on nearly 1,000 consumers, found that the

proportion who look for green products and are prepared to pay more for
them has climbed from 53 percent in 1990 to around 60 per cent in 1994.
On average, they will pay 13 percent more for such products, although this
percentage is higher among women, managerial and professional groups
and those aged 35 to 44. Page |
Between 1990 and 1994 the proportion of consumers claiming to be 29
unaware of or unconcerned about green issues fell from 18 to 10 percent
but the number of green spenders among older people and manual workers
has risen substantially. Regions such as Scotland have also caught up with
the south of England in their environmental concerns. According to Mintel,
the image of green consumerism as associated in the past with the more
eccentric members of society has virtually disappeared. The consumer
research manager for Mintel, Angela Hughes, said it had become firmly
established as a mainstream market. She explained that as far as the
average person is concerned environmentalism has not gone off the boil'. In
fact, it has spread across a much wider range of consumer groups, ages and
occupations.

Mintel's 1994 survey found that 13 percent of consumers are 'very dark
green', nearly always buying environmentally friendly products, 28 per cent
are 'dark green', trying 'as far as possible' to buy such products, and 21
percent are 'pale green' - tending to buy green products if they see them.
Another 26 per cent are 'armchair greens'; they said they care about
environmental issues but their concern does not affect their spending
habits. Only 10 percent say they do not care about green issues.
Four in ten people are 'ethical spenders', buying goods which do not, for
example, involve dealings with oppressive regimes. This figure is the same
as in 1990, although the number of 'armchair ethicals' has risen from 28 to
35 percent and only 22 percent say they are unconcerned now, against 30
per cent in 1990. Hughes claims that in the twenty-first century, consumers
will be encouraged to think more about the entire history of the products
and services they buy, including the policies of the companies that provide
them and that this will require a greater degree of honesty with consumers.

Among green consumers, animal testing is the top issue - 48 percent said
they would be deterred from buying a product it if had been tested on
animals -followed by concerns regarding irresponsible selling, the ozone
layer, river and sea pollution, forest destruction, recycling and factory
farming. However, concern for specific issues is lower than in 1990,
suggesting that many consumers feel that Government and business have
taken on the environmental agenda.

Questions 1-6: Do the following statements agree with the claims of the
writer of Reading Passage? On your answer sheet write
[ English Language Sessionals ] HUM LAB

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 Page |
1. The research findings report commercial rather than political trends.
30
2. Being financially better off has made shoppers more sensitive to buying
'green'.
3. The majority of shoppers are prepared to pay more for the benefit of the
environment according to the research findings.
4. Consumers' green shopping habits are influenced by Mintel's findings.
5. Mintel have limited their investigation to professional and managerial
groups.
6. Mintel undertakes market surveys on an annual basis.

Questions 7-9: Choose the appropriate letters A-D and write on your
answer sheet.
7 Politicians may have 'misjudged the public mood' because ...
A. they are pre-occupied with the recession and financial problems.
B. there is more widespread interest in the environment agenda than they
anticipated.
C. consumer spending has increased significantly as a result of 'green'
pressure.
D. shoppers are displeased with government policies on a range of issues.
8 What is Mintel?
A. an environmentalist group, B. a business survey
organisation
C. an academic research team, D. a political organisation
9 A consumer expressing concern for environmental issues without
actively supporting such principles is.....
A. an 'ethical spender', B. a 'very dark green' spender.
C. an 'armchair green'. D. a 'pale green' spender.

Questions 10-13: Complete the summary using words from the box below.
NB There are more answers than spaces, so you will not use them all.
The Mintel report suggests that in future companies will be forced to
practise greater ...... (10) ...... in their dealings because of the increased
awareness amongst...... (11)...... of ethical issues. This prediction is
supported by the growth in the number of ...... (12)...... identified in the
most recent survey published. As a consequence, it is felt that companies
will have to think more carefully about their ...... (13).......

environmental research armchair ethicals honesty and openness

environmentalists consumers politicians
[ English Language Sessionals ] HUM LAB

political beliefs social awareness financial constraints

ethical spenders social record
Day 12 (Extra)
Air pollution Page |
Read the passage and answer the questions followed.
31
PART 1
A Air pollution is increasingly becoming the focus of government and
citizen concern around the globe. From Mexico City and New York to
Singapore and Tokyo, new solutions to this old problem are being proposed,
Mailed and implemented with ever increasing speed. It is feared that unless
pollution reduction measures are able to keep pace with the continued
pressures of urban growth, air quality in many of the world’s major cities
will deteriorate beyond reason.

B Action is being taken along several fronts: through new legislation,

improved enforcement and innovative technology. In Los Angeles, state
regulations are forcing manufacturers to try to sell ever cleaner cars: their
first of the cleanest, titled "Zero Emission Vehicles’, have to be available
soon, since they are intended to make up 2 percent of sales in 1997. Local
authorities in London are campaigning to be allowed to enforce anti-
pollution laws themselves; at present only the police have the power to do
so, but they tend to be busy elsewhere. In Singapore, renting out road space
to users is the way of the future.

C When Britain’s Royal Automobile Club monitored the exhausts of 60,000

vehicles, it found that 12 percent of them produced more than half the total
pollution. Older cars were the worst offenders; though a sizeable number of
quite new cars were also identified as gross polluters, they were simply
badly tuned. California has developed a scheme to get these gross polluters
off the streets: they offer a flat $700 for any old, run-down vehicle driven in
by its owner. The aim is to remove the heaviest-polluting, most decrepit
vehicles from the roads.

D As part of a European Union environmental programme, a London

council is resting an infra-red spectrometer from the University of Denver in
Colorado. It gauges the pollution from a passing vehicle - more useful than
the annual stationary rest that is the British standard today - by bouncing a
beam through the exhaust and measuring what gets blocked. The council’s
next step may be to link the system to a computerised video camera able to
read number plates automatically.

E The effort to clean up cars may do little to cut pollution if nothing is done
about the tendency to drive them more. Los Angeles has some of the world’s
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cleanest cars - far better than those of Europe - but the total number of
miles those cars drive continues to grow. One solution is car-pooling, an
arrangement in which a number of people who share the same destination
share the use of one car. However, the average number of people in a car
on the freeway in Los Angeles, which is 1.0, has been falling steadily.
Increasing it would be an effective way of reducing emissions as well as Page |
easing congestion. The trouble is, Los Angelinos seem to like being alone in 32
their cars.

F Singapore has for a while had a scheme that forces drivers to buy a badge
if they wish to visit a certain part of the city. Electronic innovations make
possible increasing sophistication: rates can vary according to road
conditions, time of day and so on. Singapore is advancing in this direction,
with a city-wide network of transmitters to collect information and charge
drivers as they pass certain points. Such road-pricing, however, can be
controversial. When the local government in Cambridge, England, considered
introducing Singaporean techniques, it faced vocal and ultimately successful
opposition.

PART 2
The scope of the problem facing the world’s cities is immense. In 1992, the
United Nations Environmental Programme and the World Health
Organisation (WHO) concluded that all of a sample of twenty megacities -
places likely to have more than ten million inhabitants in the year 2000 -
already exceeded the level the WHO deems healthy in at least one major
pollutant. Two-thirds of them exceeded the guidelines for two, seven for
three or more.

Of the six pollutants monitored by the WHO - carbon dioxide, nitrogen

dioxide, ozone, sulphur dioxide, lead and particulate matter - it is this last
category that is attracting the most attention from health researchers.
PM10, a sub-category of particulate matter measuring ten-millionths of a
meter across, has been implicated in thousands of deaths a year in Britain
alone. Research being conducted in two counties of Southern California is
reaching similarly disturbing conclusions concerning this little-understood
pollutant.

A worldwide rise in allergies, particularly asthma, over the past four

decades is now said to be linked with increased air pollution. The lungs and
brains of children who grow up in polluted air offer further evidence of its
destructive power the old and ill; however, are the most vulnerable to the
acute effects of heavily polluted stagnant air. It can actually hasten death,
so it did in December 1991 when a cloud of exhaust fumes lingered over the
city of London for over a week.
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The United Nations has estimated that in the year 2000 there will be
twenty-four mega-cities and a further eighty-five cities of more than three
million people. The pressure on public officials, corporations and urban
citizens to reverse established trends in air pollution is likely to grow in
proportion with the growth of cities themselves. Progress is being made. The
question, though, remains the same: ‘Will change happen quickly enough?’ Page |
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Questions 1-5: Look at the following solutions (Questions 1-5) and
locations. Match each solution with one location. Write the appropriate
locations on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any location more than once.
SOLUTIONS
1 Manufacturers must sell cleaner cars.
2 Authorities want to have the power to enforce anti-pollution laws.
3 Drivers will be charged according to the roads they use.
4 Moving vehicles will be monitored for their exhaust emissions.
5 Commuters are encouraged to share their vehicles with others.
Locations: Singapore, Tokyo, London, New York, Mexico City, Cambridge, Los
Angeles

Questions 6-10: Do the following statements reflect the claims of the

writer in Reading Passage? On your answer sheet write
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
6 According to British research, a mere twelve percent of vehicles tested
produced over fifty percent of total pollution produced by the sample group.
7 It is currently possible to measure the pollution coming from individual
vehicles whilst they are moving.
8 Residents of Los Angeles are now tending to reduce the yearly distances they
travel by car.
9 Car-pooling has steadily become more popular in Los Angeles in recent
years.
10 Charging drivers for entering certain parts of the city has been
successfully done in Cambridge, England.
Questions 11-13: Choose the appropriate letters A—D.
11 How many pollutants currently exceed WHO guidelines in all mega
cities studied?
A one,
B two,
C three,
D seven
12 Which pollutant is currently the subject of urgent research?
A nitrogen dioxide,
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B ozone,
C lead,
D particulate matter
13 Which of the following groups of people are the most severely affected
by intense air pollution?
A allergy sufferers, Page |
B children,
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C the old and ill,
D asthma sufferers