READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading
Passage 1 on pages 2 and 3.

Computer games
The early days of the video game business
It’s not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game. In the age of computers,
that statement takes on new meanings: video game cannot ever really be defeated
because, no matter how high the score, It is always the human who tries first or makes
the fatal error. But millions of people continue to play, because microelectronic
technology has enabled game designers to conveniently and inexpensively transform
plain screens into playfields of extraordinary capability. At the same time, a multi-billion
dollar industry has grown from very humble beginnings in just a few decades.
The technological roots of video game can be traced back to 1962, when an MIT
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology) graduate student demonstrated Spacewar, a
science-fiction fantasy game played on a mainframe computer and a large screen. That
game immediately attracted a wide cult following among computer buffs. The next
important step came in 1968, when a console was developed that could be used to play
game on ordinary televisions. But it was not until the early 1970s that a young University
of Utah engine to the point that adaptation of Spacewar from a large computer into coin-
operated form, for use in video game arcades, was becoming economically feasible.
Bushnell and his associates began working on such a machine in a converted bedroom
workshop, but were unsuccessful. What they ultimately developed instead was a simple
tennis-like game that they named Pong.
Pong took the industry by storm and quickly became the first coin-operated video-game
Hit. And soon thereafter commercial Pong. style home video games also appeared. Yet
despite early enthusiasm, consumer interest in this area proved leas sustained than had
been anticipated and, as prices started to drop and losses mounted, most of the early
manufacturers withdrew from the field. Profits proved to be just as elusive at Bushnell’s
company, Atari, where a rapidly growing market presence in coin-operated machine and
home video required greater injections of capital and more professional management
than the company was able to provide. In 1976, the founders of Atari sold their share of
the company for a sum that was only equivalent to their sales in that year.
At that point, coin-operated video games seemed just another passing fad. But the
introduction of Space Invaders-an arcade model produced by Japanese manufacture
Taito-proved otherwise. With its vibrant graphics it was so different from the previous
black and white games that Space Invaders immediately captured public interest. There
soon followed a rush of popular video that employed the same or better hardware and
even more imaginative software. Of these, Pac-Man (in 1908) was especially significant,
because now females began to take an interest.
By this time, the same software improvement and technological advances (faster
microprocessors and larger memories) that permitted designers to produce spectacular
audio and visual effects for coin-operated machines were also being applied to home
video units. It was thus only a short while before the programmable consoles that had
been unpopular for lack of software suddenly began to sell in large numbers:
consumers had discovered that they could finally play a reasonable version of their
favorite arcade games in the comfort of their own home. The impact on Atari was
astounding. Unprofitable for the first three years, Atari had by the end of 1979, become
a success. By either self-designing or licensing the most popular arcade concepts for
cartridge format for use at home, the company had captured some 80 percent of the
worldwide market for home video games.
All of this, however, was too good to last. By late 1982, the publics fascination with
arcade games had begun to low down, and fewer potential best-sellers were becoming
available for conversion to cartridges that could be used on an Atari machine. At the
same time, the market was flooded with illegal software of all types. It was thus not until
the late 1980s that the unstructured nature of the industry, at least on the software side,
had stabilized and become restructured in a manner similar, in many respects, to the
book publishing business.
Until 1986, when Japan-based Nintendo introduced a more technologically
sophisticated and user-friendly game console, the hardware side was also in disarray.
But with tight control of software development and marketing, Nintendo was able to
revive and then capture up to 80 percent of a once-again booming market in which no
significant competition appeared until the early 1990s. By that point, the annual
operating profits of Nintendo had already grown to over $1 billion-an amount exceeding
the 1991 profits of all the major Hollywood film studios combined. In 1999, sales of
game hardware and software, led by Playstation, were equal in size (around s7 billion)
to US domestic box-office revenues.
With change the only constant, the game industry has moved on to become what it is
today. However, no matter what the technology or the format, the essence of a
successful game will always be the same: it is simple to understand and to play on an
elementary level, but it is compulsive and maddeningly difficult- in fact, forever
impossible-to master fully.
Questions 1-6
Complete the notes below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each
answer. Write your answers in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.
A history of video games
1960s
• Spacewar was first played on a computer and special screen.
1970s
• Advances in technology led to cheaper 1 adaptation and the possibility of coin-
operated video games.
• The first successful coin-operated video game was 2 Pong
• 3 Atari was bought from its original owners.
• Space Invaders was successful because of its colourful 4 graphics
1980s
• Pac-Man was the first game to attract 5 females
1990s
• At first one company dominated the market.
• By the end of the decade 6 Playstation had become the biggest selling home
entertainment product.
Questions 7-13
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1? In
boxes 7-13 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
7. Spacewar was unpopular at first. FALSE
8. Bushnell and his team failed to create a coin-operated version of Spacewar.
TRUE
9. From the beginning the home video game market has been commercially
successful. FALSE
10. Atari was successful for the first time in 1979. TRUE
11. Video arcade game usage continued strongly in the 1980s. FALSE
12. The time taken to produce a video game can be compared to producing a book.
NOT GIVEN
13. The qualities needed for a video game to become successful have been
researched thoroughly. NOT GIVEN
Words in questions Similar words in the text
1 cheaper economically feasible
3 original owners founders
4 colorful vibrant
5 attract females females took an interest
6 by the end of the decade 1999
7 unpopular (con) immediately attracted a cult
following
8 failed to create unsuccessful
9 commerical succesfull (con) profits were elusive
10 succesfful become a success
11 usage continued strongly (con) public fasciantion began to low
down
12 producing a book book publishing business
READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which are based on Reading
Passage 2 on pages 6 and 7

Art and engineering

A
Work of engineering and technology are sometime viewed as having nothing to do with
art and humanity. Think of the connotation of assembly lines, robots and computer. The
positive values associated with these creation can be overwhelmed by the negative
associations of repetitive, stressful work and threatened jobs. Critics of technology
protest against what they see as the same time, megastructures such as the Brooklyn
and Golden Gate Bridges in the US are hailed as majestic human achievements, as
well as great engineering monuments that have come to embody the spirit of their
respective cities. The relationship between art and engineering has seldom been easy
or consistent.
B
Arguably, the assembly line process associated with Henry Ford made workers tools of
the system. The human worker may have appeared to be only a cog in the wheel of
industry, yet photographers such as Lewis Hine revealed the beauty of line and
composition in his study of a worker using a wrench to turn a bolt. Hine focused on the
individuals engaged in the work. In the period around World War I, he visited New York
and was given the opportunity to record the construction of the famous Empire State
Building, the tallest building of its time. This resulted in a series of striking photographs
which have become familiar images of daring. Hine put his own life at risk to photograph
workers suspended on cables hundreds of feet in the air, or sitting on a high girder
eating lunch.
C
When Ford's enormous River Rouge plant opened in 1927, the painter, photographer
Charles Sheeler was chosen to photograph it. The world's largest car plant captured the
imagination of Sheeler, who described it as the most thrilling subject he had ever had to
work with.
D
Long before Hine and Sheeler, other photographers and painters had seen the art and
humanity in works of engineering and technology. This is perhaps nowhere more
evident than in the Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron, at Ironbridge in Shropshire in the
UK. In the late 18th century, Abraham Darby cast the large iron ribs that formed the
world's first iron bridge, a dramatic departure from the classic stone and timber bridges
that dotted the countryside and had been captured in numerous landscape paintings.
This structure still spans the River Severn, and the Coalbrookdale Museum is crowded
with its portraits, showing the iron structure not as a blight on the landscape, but as its
focal point. This is how Michael Rooker shows the iron bridge in his late 18th-century
painting, in which the surrounding area radiates out from the bridge and pales behind it.
Countless other contemporary representations of the bridge hang in the nearby museum.
E
In the 19th century, the railways were another feat of engineering which captured the
imagination of painters, and the steam engine in the distance of a landscape became as
much a part of it as the herd of cows in the foreground. The Impressionist Claude Monet
painted railway stations - such as the Gare St-Lazare in Paris - as well as flower and
gardens. By the 20th century, engineering, technology and industry were very well
established as subjects for artists.
F
American-born artist Joseph Pennell portrayed buildings under construction and
shrouded in scaffolding, and recorded scenes of industry during World War I. He is
perhaps best known for his prints of the Panama Canal as it neared completion and of
the partially completed Hell Gate and Delaware River Bridges. Pennell has often been
quoted as saying, "Great engineering is great art", a sentiment that he expressed
repeatedly. He wrote of his contemporaries: I understand nothing of engineering, but I
know that engineers are the greatest architects and the most pictorial builders since the
(ancient) Greeks. Pennell called the sensation that he felt when he looked at a great
construction project the "Wonder of Work". He saw engineering as a process
memorialized in every completed dam, skyscraper, bridge or other great engineering
feat.
G
Today, one of the most innovative and influential engineers is Santiago Calatrava, who
also trained as an architect. His bridges and other structures provide public spaces on a
human scale, and stand as pieces of sculpture in their own right. Increasingly,
commissioners of bridges in the US are looking to such individuals, to teams of
engineers and architects who work with artists. The growing awareness of the intangible
added value of art is sure to give us more masterpieces like the Brooklyn Bridge. They
in turn will continue to be noble monuments to civilization, and will be welcome subjects
for artists of all kinds.
Questions 14-19
Reading Passage 2 has seven paragraphs, A-G
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter A-G in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
14. a time when a transport system became an inspiration for artists E
15. a reference to the current trend of including artists in engineering projects G
16. reasons for the idea that art and engineering are difficult to combine A
17. how the depiction of human labour involved danger to an artist B
18. a reference to an artist who celebrated a number of unfinished structures F
19. a reference to two large engineering works that are symbols of their locations A
Questions 20-22
Look at the following statements (Questions 20-22) and the list of people below.
Match each statement with the correct person, A-G
Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 20-22 on your answer sheet.
20. His engineering constructions are also regarded as works of art. G
21. He created images of builders constructing an iconic American skyscraper. A
22. He painted a building connected with a significant innovation in transport. E
List of People
A Lewis Hine
B Charles Sheeler
C Abraham Darby
D Michael Rooker
E Claude Monet
F Joseph Pennell
G Santiago Calatrava
Questions 23-26
Complete the summary below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 23-26 on your answer sheet.
The iron bridge
Before the late 18th century, bridges were traditionally constructed of wood and
23 stone. Then the engineer 24 Abraham Darby manufactured the elements of an
innovative bridge across the 25 River Severn This iron bridge was the subject of a
number of artworks, including a notable one by 26 Michael Rooker While some may
have viewed it as ugly, artists regarded the bridge as a central feature of the landscape.

ADJECTIVES
ADVERBS
S+V
Sentence order in English
1 grammar
2 collocation
3 logic

Words in questions Similar words in the passage

14 transport system railways
imagination for artsits captured the imagination of painters
15 current trend today, increasingly
16 difficult to combine has seldom been easy
17 involved danger to an artist put his own life at risk
18 unfinsihed structures buildings under construction; neared
completion; partially completed
19 two large engineering works Brookly and Golden Gate Bridge
symbol emobdy
20 regarded as works of art sculptures in their own right
21 iconic American skyscrpare tallest building of its time – Empire State
Building
22 significant innovation in transport raiways an important feat of engineering
23 wood timber
24 innovative bridge iron bridge
READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40 which are based Reading
Passage 3 on pages 10 and 11
Charles Darwin, the brilliant anthropologist and creator of the theory of evolution, is not
normally associated with the modern business world. Nevertheless, Darwinian
evolutionary theory is the foundation of a new wave of ideas about human behavior in
general and particularly the way people behave in the workplace; these ideas have
given the title of evolutionary psychology. Evolutionary psychology revolves around the
notion that our brains, like our bodies, have an inherited evolutionary design that has
scarcely changed for 10,000 years. As respected evolutionary psychology experts Leda
Cosmides and John Tooby comment, our modern skulls house a Stone Age mind.’ The
US biologist Edward O Wilson sees evolutionary psychology as being a discipline which
is based on both socio-biology, which is the study of the biological basis of social
behavior, and psychology, which is the systematic study of human behavior.
Nigel Nicholson, an organisational psychologist from the London Business School, is a
strong supporter of evolutionary psychology and on this subject has published
Managing the Human Animal. His book takes the reader on a journey from the Stone
Age plains of the savannah to the modern office, and includes a discussion of
Darwinism and behavioural psychology together with a dissection of dysfunctional
organisational behavior. It is an effective approach explaining why people behave as
they do, particularly at work. Evolutionary psychology is increasingly being cited in
management circles, where managers are trying to understand puzzling aspects of
human behaviour and by doing so improve the workplace. Nicholson believes that
evolutionary psychology can help managers understand what goes wrong in
organisational life and what they can do about it.
Nicholson maintains that evolutionary psychology dismisses the long-held assumption
that our minds are like blank pages just waiting for culture and experience to write on
them and shape our nature. He points out that sophisticated research shows the brain
actually houses a store of knowledge when we are born, and now genetic research is
establishing there are certain genes that account for abilities, tastes and tendencies.
The stored knowledge in the human brain has not changed much since the Stone Age.
As Tooby and Cosmides stress, there have not been enough generations for a brain
that is well adapted to our post-industrial life to evolve through natural selection.
The evolutionary psychology version of human nature revolves around some key
elements which we have inherited from our hunter-gather minds. One key element is
emotion. Emotion was originally essential to keep early man alive and safe from
predators. Emotion was, and continues to be our radar, guiding us throughout today's
techno-defined business world. Despite this, the business world emphasises rational not
emotional behaviour, and does not admit the importance of emotion. We still use the
emotional part of our minds to make sense other people's behaviour and to create an
impression, so we can often be taken in by appearances. This mental predisposition
actually works best in small communities (the tribe), not in much larger environments
filled with people we barely know (the modern workplace). Our minds naturally try to re-
create our ancestral communities with networks of no more than 150 people, where
there are clear hierarchies and leaders. As a consequence, it takes very little to trigger
people's innate distrust of others because our safety in antiquity depended on
supporting our near family and friends whom we valued more than other people.
So what advice does Nicholson have for the corporate world? He thinks that by knowing
the reasons for people's behaviour it is possible to mould corporate environments into
places that have more chance of working efficiently and being pleasant places to work
in. Nicholson admits that not everybody in the business world agrees with his belief in
the effectiveness of evolutionary psychology in the workplace. One group that resists
the theory of evolutionary psychology is young MBA graduates who are just beginning
their careers and feel that evolutionary psychology will make their lives at work more
difficult. Older and wiser executives point out that they still tend to cling to the idea of a
magic formula to bring people into line with corporate strategy. But that is back-to-front
thinking according to Nicholson, who contends that we should be reinventing our
business structures, not our fundamental human nature.
At the end of his book, Nicholson gives his forecast of what will and will not change in
the business world. He believes that most people will still prefer more traditional forms
of work and throughout their lives will continue to aim at lifelong status advancement.
He also maintains that the line between work and home will be less defined, but that
people will prefer traditional working patterns if working from home leaves them isolated
from their work community. He doubts that the high-tech ideas of virtual companies will
ever be very successful because people will still want to meet each other face-to-face.
Nicholson describes his ideal organisation in the future: it would be decentralized, with
small sub-units: the staff would be from diverse backgrounds and be allowed a high
degree of self-determination. New endeavours and creativity would replace systems
and rationality. Nicholson acknowledges that there is a long way to go in terms of the
translation of his ideas of evolutionary psychology into practical propositions, but he is
confident more and more people will come round to his way of thinking.
Questions 27-31
Choose the correct letter A, B, C, or D
write the correct letter boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet.
27. The writer's purpose in the first paragraph is to
A. oppose the views of Charles Darwin.
B. compare experts' opinions of Darwin's theory.
C. explain the theory of evolutionary psychology.
D. name experts in the field of evolutionary psychology.
28. In the third paragraph which view about evolutionary psychology matches
Nicholson's opinion?
A. Our characters determine our career choices.
B. We begin life without any preconceived notions.
C. Our interests and skills depend on our environment.
D. We inherit ideas and characteristics from our ancestors.
29. The writer discusses the key element of emotion in order to
A. criticise primitive survival strategies.
B. explain attitudes and actions at work.
C. demonstrate the slowness of evolution.
D. suggest companies today are poorly structured.
30. Which of the following does Nicholson predict will happen in the business world?
A. Companies will remain in city centres.
B. Promotion will no longer motivate people.
C. Employees will be less independent than now.
D. Social interaction will remain important to workers.
31. Which of the following is the most suitable title for Reading Passage 3?
A. How successful companies manage change.
B. Understanding the origins of workplace behaviour.
C. Darwin's theories rejected by modern management.
D Why post-industrial organisations need to evolve more quickly.
Questions 32-35
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 3?
In boxes 32-36 on your answer sheet, write
YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
32. Nicholson makes a persuasive argument in his book. YES
33. Tooby and Cosmides believe natural selection through the generations has
prepared. NO
34. Our reliance on technology causes emotional problems in the workplace. NOT
GIVEN
35. People today are more trusting than they used to be. NO

Questions 36-40
Complete the summary using the list of words, A-I below.
Write the correct letter, A-I, in boxes 36-40 on your answer sheet.
Nicholson's advice to the corporate world
Nicholson believes that if we know why people act the way they do, we can change
36 H so employees will work more efficiently. Nicholson's ideas are unwelcome to 37 B
but some executives are more open to what evolutionary psychology says. However,
these executives still believe that there is a 38 E that will make employees act according
to the company's practices. According to Nicholson, these senior executives are
engaging in 39 G and we should not try to change 40 I but instead we should change
our business structures.

A. business leaders
B. MBA graduates
C. promotion structures
D. reward strategy
E. magic formula
F. strategic planning
G. back-to-front thinking
H. business environments
I. human nature