READING 34/40

READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading
Passage 1 below.

The Blockbuster Phenomenon: a new museum trend

Museums in Australia, like other pleasure-giving public organizations, are adapting their
activities so that they more closely reflect the marketplace

A Since the 1980s, the term ‘blockbuster’ has become the fashionable word for spectacular,
high-profile museum exhibitions that have the ability to attract large crowds. A blockbuster is a ‘large-
scale loan exhibition that people who normally don’t go to museums will stand in line for hours to see’
(Elsen 1984). Once the museum that created the exhibition has shown it to their local market, it can
be offered to other organizations for a fee. This means that you can boost your own door takings and
make money from boosting someone else’s door takings.

B While partaking of the excitement of the blockbuster, visitors thus lured are likely to stay
longer at the museum. Betty Churcher, when Director of the Australian National Gallery, summed up
the new blockbuster creed as follows: ‘The bonus of the blockbuster exhibitions is that people come to
see the blockbuster and they stay to look at the permanent collection, so you are getting broader
exposure for your collection.’

C Museums across the UK, USA, Canada and Australia currently operate under a system of
plural funding: revenue raised through contributions by federal, state and/ or local governments,
combined with revenue raised through admission charges and other activities. Maintaining and
increasing visitor levels is this paramount and involves not only creating or hiring blockbuster
exhibitions, but providing regular exhibition changes and innovations. In addition, the visiting public
have become known as customers rather than visitors, and the skills that are valued in museums to
keep the new customers coming through the door have changed. Curators are now administrators
and being a museum director no longer requires an Arts degree - but public relations skills are
essential if the museum is going to compete with other museums to stage traveling exhibitions which
draw huge crowds.

D The convergence of museums, the heritage industry, tourism, profit-making and pleasure-
giving has resulted in the new ‘museology’. This has given rise to much debate about whether it is
appropriate to see museums primarily as tourist attractions. In literature from both UK and USA, the
words that are starting to appear in some descriptions of blockbusters are ‘less scholarly’, ‘non-elitist’
and ‘popularist’, while others extol the virtues encouraging scholars to co-operate on projects, and to
provide exhibitions that cater for a broad selection of community rather than an elite sector. Whatever
commentators may think, managers of museums worldwide are looking for artful ways to blend
culture and commerce, and blockbuster exhibitions are at the top of the list.

E But do blockbusters held in public institutions really create a surplus to fund other activities?
If the bottom line is profit, then according to the records of many major museums, blockbusters do
make money. For museums in some countries, it may be the money that they require to replace parts
of their collections or to fix buildings that are in need of attention. For some museums in Australia, it
may be the opportunity to illustrate that they are attempting to pay their way by recovering part of their
operating costs. Also, creating or hiring a blockbuster has many positive spin-offs: blockbusters mean
crowds, and crowds are good for the local economy, providing increased trade for shops, hotels,
restaurants, the transport industry, and retailers. The argument that the arts provide sustained
economic benefits has been well illustrated in impact studies in the USA and UK.

F However, blockbusters require large capital expenditure and draw on resources across all
branches of an organization, and the costs don’t end there. There is a Human Resource Management
cost in addition to a measurable ‘real dollar cost’. Receiving a touring exhibition draws resources from
across functional management structures in project management style. Everyone, from general
labourers to building services, front of house, technical, promotional, educational and administrative
staff, is required to perform additional tasks. Furthermore, as an increasing number of institutions try
their hand at increasing visitor numbers and memberships (and therefore revenue) by staging
blockbuster exhibitions, it may be less likely that blockbusters will continue to provide a surplus to
subsidize other activities due to the competitive nature of the market.

G It has been illustrated in both the UK and USA that the blockbuster ideology has resulted in
the false expectation that the momentum required to stage blockbusters can be maintained
continually. Creating, mounting, or hiring blockbusters is exhausting, with the real costs throughout an
institution difficult to calculate. Secondly, as some analysts have argued, the ‘shop keeping’ mentality
and cost-benefit analysis and a pure concentration on the bottom line, can squeeze substance out of
an exhibition. Taking out substance can be a recipe for blockbuster failure and therefore financial
failure.

H Perhaps the best pathway to take is one that balances both blockbusters and regular
exhibitions. However, this easy middle ground may only work if you have enough space, and have
alternate sources of funding to continue to support the regular, less exciting fare. Perhaps the advice
should be to make sure that you find out what your local community wants from you and make sure
that your regular activities and exhibitions are more appealing.

Questions 1-4

Reading Passage 1 has eight paragraphs, A-H.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

1 The reason why museum directors need to constantly alter and update their exhibits C 

2 Mention of the length of time people will queue up to see a blockbuster A

3 Terms that people have used when referring to blockbusters D

4 The various ways that institutions like museums get financial support C

Questions 5-8

Complete the sentences below.

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

Write your answers in boxes 5-8 on your answer sheet.

5 These days, museum visitors tend to be referred to as … customers …

6 Museum curators now need …… public relations skills ……… rather than academic
qualifications.

7 The linking of a range of public institutions that entertain the public is known as ……
museology…

8 There is discussion about whether museums can be regarded in the same way as other
…… tourist attractions …
 Questions 9 and 10

Choose TWO letters, A-E.

Write the correct letters in boxes 9 and 10 on your answer sheet.

Which TWO of the following are mentioned by the writer as advantages of blockbusters?

A. Some of the money they raise can be used for structural repairs. 

B. They can provide funds to help support amateur artists.

C. Local services benefit from the extra business they bring about. 

D. They encourage overseas workers into the local area.

E. They raise employee performance levels.

Questions 11-13

Chooses THREE letters, A-G.

Write the correct letters in boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet.

Which THREE of the following are mentioned by the writer as disadvantages of

blockbusters?

A. They do not suit museum management styles.

B. Specialist business advice has to be paid for.
C. They involve an increased workload for personnel. 

D. They do not increase overall annual visitor numbers.

E. They are very tiring to put on. 

F. What is popular in one country may not be popular in another.

G. The content can be weakened through financial pressure. 

READING PASSAGE 2

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

Saving the Bittern

A The bittern, a British waterbird, does not have a good record as far as survival is concerned.
By 1886, habitat destruction and other pressures had pushed it close to extinction.
Fortunately, it recovered a few decades later, and in 1950 the numbers of mature male
bitterns rose to a peak of about 70. By the 1980s, however, it was clear that the bird was in
trouble again. The bittern needs extensive wet reedbeds to survive, and long periods of
drainage, pollution and lack of management had destroyed most of its habitat. By 1997, it
again faced imminent extinction. To prevent this, the British government set up a plan for the
bittern, aiming to establish a population of 50 males by 2010. However,this target was
reached six years early, a rate of recovery faster than anyone had dared hope for. We at the
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) now claim the bittern as one of Britain’s
greatest wildlife success stories, since figures reveal that the number of these rare birds has
increased fivefold in just seven years.

B Bitterns have feathers that help them to conceal themselves and a shy nature; they usually
remain hidden within the cover of reedbed vegetation. Our first challenge was to develop
standard methods to monitor their numbers. The booming call of the male bittern is its most
 distinctive feature during the breeding season, and we developed a method to count them
using the sound patterns unique to each individual. This not only allowed us to be much
more certain of the number of booming males in the UK, but also enabled us to estimate
local survival of males from one year to the next.

C Our first direct understanding of what breeding bitterns require in their ideal habitat came
from comparisons of reedbed sites that had lost their male birds with those that retained
them. This research showed that bitterns had been retained in reedbeds where the natural
process of drying out had been slowed through management. Based on this work, broad
recommendations on how to manage and rehabilitate reedbeds for bitterns were made, and
funding was provided through a European Union (EU) wildlife fund to manage 13 sites within
the core breeding range.

D To refine these recommendations and provide fine-scale, quantitative habitat prescriptions

on the bitterns’ preferred feeding habitat, we started radio-tracking male bitterns on the
RSPB’s Minsmere and Leighton Moss reserves. This showed clear preferences for feeding in
the wetter reedbed areas, particularly within reedbed next to larger open pools. The average
home range sizes of the male bitterns we followed (about 20 hectares) provided a good
indication of the area of reedbed necessary when managing or creating habitat for this
species. Female bitterns undertake all the incubation and care of the young, so it was
important to understand their requirements as well. Over the course of our research, we
located 87 bittern nests and found that female bitterns preferred to nest in areas of
continuous vegetation, well into the reedbed, but where water was still present during the
driest part of the breeding season.

E The success of the habitat prescriptions developed from this research has been spectacular.
For instance, at Minsmere, male bittern numbers gradually increased from one to ten
following reedbed lowering, a management technique designed to halt the drying out
process. After a low point of 11 mature males in 1997, bittern numbers in Britain responded
to all the habitat management work and started to increase for the first time since 1950.

F The final phase of research involved understanding the diet, survival and dispersal of bittern
chicks. To do this, we fitted small radio tags to young bittern chicks in the nest, to determine
their fate through fledging, when they begin to fly, and beyond. Many chicks did not survive
to this stage, and starvation was found to be the most likely reason for their demise. The fish
prey fed to chicks was mainly those species penetrating into the reed edge. So, an important
element of recent studies has been development of recommendations on habitat and water
conditions to promote native fish populations. Once independent, radio-tagged young bitterns
were found to seek out new sites during their first winter, a proportion of these would remain
on new sites to breed if the conditions were suitable. A second EU-funded project aims to
provide these suitable sites in new areas. A network of 19 sites developed through this
partnership project will secure a more sustainable UK bittern population with successful
breeding outside of the core area, less vulnerable to chance events and sea level rise.

G By 2004, the number of booming male bitterns in the UK had increased to 55. Almost all of
the increase occurred on those sites undertaking management based on advice derived from
our research. While rescuing the bittern, the work has helped a range of other spectacular
wetland species such as otters. Although science has been at the core of the bittern story,
success has only been achieved through the trust, hard work and dedication of all the
managers, owners, and wardens of sites that have implemented, in some cases very drastic,
management to secure the future of this wetland species in the UK.

Questions 14-20

Reading Passage 2 has seven paragraphs, A-G.

Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.

Write the correct number, i-ix, in boxes 14-20 on your answer sheet.
 List of Headings

i. Fluctuations in bittern numbers over time

ii. Research findings on habitat needs of adult bitterns

iii. Predators in the natural world

iv. The importance in the natural world

v. Initial habitat investigation and decisions

vi. The need for co-operation to ensure nature

preservation

vii. Impressive results of initial intervention

viii. Determining how many bittern there are

ix. Education as the key to preserving wildlife

14 Paragraph A I 

15 Paragraph B VIII

16 Paragraph C II  V

17 Paragraph D V  II

18 Paragraph E VII 

19 Paragraph F IV 

20 Paragraph G VI 

Questions 21-25

Choose ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 21-25 on your answer sheet.

21 When was the bittern population largest? 1950 

22 What word is used in the passage to describe the bittern’s character? shy

23 What is probably the main cause of death of bittern chicks? Starvation 

24 What food supply do bittern chicks depend on ? fish

25 What other creature mentioned in the passage have also benefited from improvement
made to the bittern’s habitat? otters

Question 26

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

Write the correct letter in the box on your answer sheet.

26 What is the main theme of Reading Passage 2?

A. How one species may be helped at the expense of another.
B. Disagreement among environmentalists on methods to protect species from
extinction.
C. Fighting the destruction of wetland reedbeds.
D. How research and good management can save an endangered species. 

READING PASSAGE 3

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

Flower Power

A Why do people give flowers? To offer condolence to those who are grieving. To
express gratitude. To ask for forgiveness. There is something undeniably powerful about
giving flowers; in fact, few objects provoke such a universal emotional response. In the
US alone, the flower industry is now worth about $5bn a year - which suggests that, at the
very least, they service a compelling human need.

B Research at the Department of Psychology at Rutgers State University of New

Jersey confirms that flowers are unique among living organisms in their ability to induce
profound changes in our emotional state. As the first part of their research, the Rutgers
team visited 150 women in their homes. Each was presented with a variety of gifts such
as flowers, fruit, or sweets. The women were unaware that the study was about the effect
of gifts on their emotions. They were told that it was a study about their daily moods, and
that they would receive a gift in return for taking part. Following the presentation of the
gifts, those receiving flowers were assessed as displaying a much more positive mood
than those who received other gifts, and this effect lasted for several days. After receiving
flowers, they were more willing to answer questions concerning their social circle and
intimate relationships with friends and family. The results suggest that flowers influence
our emotional behaviours, as well as having a strong effect on our immediate expression.

C In the second study, the psychologists observed participants being handed single
flowers, or alternative gifts, in a constrained and stressful situation - inside an elevator.
Contrary to predictions regarding gender differences, both men and women presented
with flowers were more likely to smile, to stand closer and to initiate conversation. Several
subjects who were given the alternative gift then learnt that flowers were also being
handed out, and returned to the elevator and demanded a flower. The scientists used
elevators for this study precisely because the most typical behaviour in sparsely occupied
elevators is for people to retreat to opposite corners. The subjects who received flowers,
however, closed up that space to a considerable extent - indicating that the flowers not
only induced a strong positive mood, but brought a significant affiliation among people
who had never previously met.
 D The third study involved regularly sending flowers to a selected sample of men
and women. The researchers found not only a profound elevation of mood but also
reliable improvements in other measures of cognitive function, like memory. In this series
of experiments, some participants produced such extraordinary emotional displays that
the psychologists were totally unprepared for them. Subjects gave spontaneous hugs and
kisses to the people who delivered the flowers, and sent invitations to the psychologists to
come to their homes for refreshments.

E Various evolutionary hypotheses attempt to explain the remarkably powerful

psychological effect of flowers. One is that our aesthetic preferences for fertile locations
and growing things stem from prehistory, when these clues in our environment could
mean the difference between starvation and survival. We may have become hardwired to
respond positively to flowers because, for early man, finding them in a particular location
predicted future food supplies and possibly a better place to rear children. Yet the flaw in
this argument is that the showy flowers which humans seem to find most visually
attractive are generally found on those plants which yield no edible products.

F The Rutgers psychologists’ findings show that the various physical attributes of
flowers combine to directly affect our emotions through multi-channel interactions. We
have evolved preferences for the particular colours, textures, patterned symmetries, and
specific floral odours which influence our moods. Indeed, previous research has
established that popular perfumes, which often have a floral ‘top-note’, will actually reduce
depression. The origins of these inclinations may well be as the evolutionary theories
suggest: the patterned symmetries of flowers can be detected easily as a recognisable
signal within a wide variety of visual arrays, and a response to certain colour tones is
important in finding ripe fruit against a leafy background. But, claim the Rutgers team,
these preferences have long been separated from their primary evolutionary use, and
become rewarding to us more generally. Thus, plants with preferred colours, shapes and
odours - despite having no other products - would therefore be protected and dispersed.

G The Rutgers study suggests that flowers may have actually evolved to exploit their
peculiar impact on humans. The team’s theory proposes a plant-human co-evolution, or
even domestication, based on the intense emotional rewards that flowers provide. The
idea that flowering plants, with no known food or other basic survival value to man, have
co-evolved with us by exploiting an emotional niche instead, is very much like the
scenario presented for the evolution of dogs. Flowers may be the plant equivalent of
‘companion animals’. If this is true, then there is a very real sense in which, when you next
give flowers, they are using you just as much as you are using them.

Questions 27–33

Reading Passage 3 has seven paragraphs, A-G.

Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.

Write the correct number, i-viii, in boxes 27-33 on your answer sheet.

List of Headings

i. A negative reaction to receiving flowers

ii. Some surprisingly strong responses to flowers

iii. A mutually beneficial relationship?

iv. Becoming more open about personal matters

v. Some common social functions of flowers

 vi. Sensory appeal versus practical purpose of flowers

vii. Bridging the gap between strangers in an enclosed

space

viii. An imperfect theory

27 Paragraph A V 

28 Paragraph B IV 

29 Paragraph C VII 

30 Paragraph D II 

31 Paragraph E VI  VIII

32 Paragraph F VIII  VI

33 Paragraph G I  III

Questions 34-37

Classify the following statements as referring to:

A the first study

B the second study
C the third study

Write the correct letter, A, B, or C, in boxes 34-37 on your answer sheet.

34 The study focused on participants’ short-term reaction to receiving flowers. A B

35 Participants were deliberately misled as to the aim of the study. A

36 Receiving flowers had a notable effect on participants’ mental capacities. C

37 Male and female responses were more uniform than expected. B

Questions 38-40

Complete the summary of paragraph E below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from paragraph E for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 38-40 on your answer sheet.

A possible explanation for the appeal of flowers

It has been suggested that our intense response to flowers originates in prehistoric times. The
presence of flowers might indicate a potential source of 38 … food … in a particular location,
and primitive humans would search for such signs when looking for a suitable site to raise their
39 … children … The interpretation of these signs was essential for the survival of our
ancestors. However, the problem with this idea is that the plants producing the most attractive
flowers do not usually have fruit which is
40 …… edible …