Passage 1 : CODE: 10

The Sun—A Mixed Blessing

A. People in Western countries have very mixed feelings about the sun. On the
one hand it evokes memories of beaches, summer holidays and playful times.
Children's books often personify the sun as a smiling, happy face—typically
contrasted with angry, moody rain clouds. In fact, the sun has such positive
connotations that the descriptor 'sunny' refers not only to a state of weather but
also to 'cheery, cheerful, or joyous' moods and dispositions amongst humans. On
the other hand, many people fear the sun because of its association with
cosmetic degeneration that can cause people to look much older than they
actually are. Even more seriously, many people see the sun as a killer—this is
because excessive sun exposure can lead to skin cancer which has a very high
mortality rate. So is the sun our friend or a foe? The answers are complex and
contradictory.
B. Let's start with the worst news about the sun. It is a carcinogen. As the
National Toxicology Program Report on Carcinogens from the Department of
Health and Human Services reports, broad-spectrum UV radiation and solar
radiation (what is known as 'sun rays') are thought to contribute to most of the
estimated 1.5 million skin cancers diagnosed in the United States each year. This
gives the sun the unfavourable distinction of being the leading carcinogen in the
United States—ahead of genetic mutations, bad diets, cigarettes, alcohol,
chemical exposure and other lifestyle factors. Of these diagnoses, 8,000
sufferers will perish from the condition. The primary cause of this mortality is
metastic melanoma—moles that become cancerous and then spread mutated
cells into the lymph nodes and eventually through the rest of the body.
C. Even if you are lucky enough to avoid skin cancer, the sun can still have
damaging effects on your skin. This is known as premature aging, so-called
because sun damage mimics the skin's natural aging process, but does so at a
much earlier age. The sun causes premature aging by breaking down and
mutating collagen—a fibrous, 'glue'-like substance that supports and connects
tissue and is responsible for the firmness, suppleness, elasticity and overall
appearance of the skin. Skin's collagen production slows and eventually stops
due to aging anyway, but sun exposure accelerates this process. It also mutates
collagen cells, producing visible abnormalities on the skin. The slowing collagen
production appears as wrinkles, sagging and fine lines, while the mutated cells
can take the form of a leathery skin texture, facial ruddiness and blemishes
known as liver spots. Together these can dissolve signs of youth and vitality
from a person's looks—an image that contrasts starkly with the smooth, tanned
and youthful-looking models we often associate with summer!
D. The sun does have a lot of positive things to offer humans, however. Firstly,
it staves off Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), an appropriate acronym for a
mood disorder caused by insufficient exposure to light—as such, it is typically
associated with winters and is sometimes called 'winter blues' or 'winter
depression'. SAD, once treated with scepticism by health experts but now widely
acknowledged to be a legitimate condition, can create a number of distressing
problems. Sufferers may oversleep and find it difficult to be roused in the
morning, crave 'comfort foods' high in carbohydrates, lack energy, find it
difficult to concentrate and may withdraw from social exposure. Together these
symptoms can lead to depression, pessimistic feelings of hopelessness and an
inability to find pleasurable activities. Researchers are not yet sure of the exact
physical mechanism that causes SAD, but they do know that exposure to bright
life is an effective remedy. The sun definitely has a palliative effect here.
E. In other ways, the health-improving effects of the sun can be even more
powerful. These effects typically relate to Vitamin D, of which the sun is a great
source for two reasons. Firstly, it is completely free, and secondly, our bodies
have natural mechanisms that prevent an overdose from internally-generated
Vitamin D from the sun. Although this vitamin can be sourced from milk, cod
liver oil and supplements, solar radiation is still the primary source for most
humans. It's preventative role is important: Vitamin D seems to protect against
prostate, breast, colon, kidney and ovarian cancers, benefit bone health, as well
as reduce overall mortality and the occurrence of cardiovascular events—
mortality from strokes and heart attacks is up to forty percent higher in some
countries during winter months, a connection linked to lack of sun exposure. In
fact, skin cancer rates rise with proximity to the equator amongst light-skinned
people, but the prognosis of most other cancers is exactly the opposite. Indeed,
the overall benefits of sun exposure outweigh the risks when it comes to cancer,
even though the sun is a well-documented carcinogen.
F. Ultimately, moderation and protection may be the key when it comes to sun
exposure. This is true of other carcinogens such as alcohol as well—studies
suggest that binge drinkers and teetotallers experience higher levels of many
health problems than people who drink moderate amounts of alcohol on social
occasions. Healthy access to the sun involves wearing broad-spectrum sunscreen
before every exposure (even in winter)and not staying in the sun any longer than
is necessary, which is about five minutes for adequate Vitamin D exposure.
With these simple steps, the sun once again becomes our friend and not our foe.

Reading Passage 1 has six paragraphs, A-F.

Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.
1 A description of the physical process that makes someone look older
2 Recommendations for how to be safe in the sun
3 Examples of emotional ailments that contact with the sun can treat
4 Evidence that the sun can lower death rates
5 An explanation of how a single word can have contrasting connotations
6 Several causes of cancer

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

Write your answer in box 7 on your answer sheet.
7 Which of the following is NOT given as a symptom of premature aging?
A. Loose skin
B. Organ problems
C. Redness on face
D. Rough, dry feel to skin

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading

Passage 1?
In boxes 8-13 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

8 Sun exposure can result in SAD.

9 Experts no longer consider SAD to be a health problem.
10 Artificial sources of light are not very good at treating SAD.
11 The sun cannot give us too much Vitamin D.
12 Most people get their Vitamin D from the sun.
13 The sun can both cause and prevent cancer.
A New Planet Is Discovered CODE: 10
[Humans have long been fascinated by the possibility of extra-terrestrial fife.
Novels, films and folk-tales have encouraged curiosity and speculation about
what might be 'out there' in space. More recently, scientists have joined in on the
collective wonderment after the first discovery by astronomers of a new planet
—Gliese 581g—that could almost certainly support such organisms. In fact,
Steven Vogt—one of the two astronomers credited with discovering the planet
—has declared that ' the chances of life on this planet are 100 percent' and that
he has 'almost no doubt about it'. ]
A. Although we currently know very little about Gliese 581g, a couple of its
features strongly indicate that this planet might harbour the existence of
organisms. Firstly, Gliese 581g is located at almost exactly the right distance
from its red dwarf parent star (Gliese 581) in order to sustain liquid water, which
is the only known criterion for organic formation. Planets that orbit too close to
or too far away from their stars do not have a suitable climate; this can only be
found in a slender strip of solar space around each star known to astronomers as
a 'habitable zone'. Around our star—the Sun—Earth is the only planet that
occupies this zone, although it nearly stretches to Venus and Mars. Gliese 581g
is also the right size for organic life. It is about 3.1 to 4.3 times the size of Earth,
and this relatively low mass means it should be made mostly of rock. Planets
that grow beyond 10 times the size of Earth tend to become gaseous and
uninhabitable, without the solid or liquid infrastructure necessary for organisms.
B. Gliese 581g is part of a string of planets in the Gliese 581 solar system. Two
of Gliese 581g's siblings—Gliese 581e and Gliese 581b—orbit too close to their
parent star to support any kind of life on them. Gliese 581c skims the near side
of the habitable zone, but scientists suggest that it does not have enough of a
toehold in this zone to provide a stable infrastructure for organic formations—
roughly the same goes for Gliese 581d, which has a stronger presence in the
habitable zone on its far side, but may not be hot enough for liquid water—
opinion is not 'completely settled' on this matter, says James Kasting of
Pennsylvania State University. Kasting, who has studied the two Gliese 581
planets on the outer edges of the habitable zone, suggests that Gliese581g is
'smack dab in the middle' of the zone which, along with its size and
composition, makes it the most exciting and realistic prospect for extra-
terrestrial life yet.
C. The comparisons between the Earth and Gliese 581g should not be
overstated, however. Even if Gliese 581g can sustain organisms, it would be a
very different place to live. The main difference is that Gliese 581g orbits much
closer to its star than the Earth does to the Sun. Because Gliese 581 is only one
percent as bright as the Sun, it exudes little warmth, and its habitable zone lies
much closer than the Sun's. At this closer distance, planets in the zone get
locked into strong gravitational pulls that tend to slow their circular movements
over time. Eventually, they become stuck with one side constantly facing the
star—just as the Moon always shows the Earth the same face. Because of this, it
is likely that Gliese 581g experiences permanent daytime on the side facing the
star and permanent shadow on the other side. It is estimated therefore that
average temperatures on the star side would be about 71 degrees C and average
temperatures on the other much chillier: -34℃. Nevertheless, Steven Vogt
suggests that Gliese 581g probably has a comfortable area along the midpoint,
known as the terminator. Any life here would always see the star sitting on the
horizon and consequently experience eternal sunrise or sunset.
D. Even if there is no life on Gliese 581g, its discovery reveals that habitable
planets are quite common, with around 10 to 20 percent of red dwarves and sun-
like stars boasting them. Gliese 581 is one of just nine stars at that particular
distance which astronomers have searched with high enough precision to
uncover a planet in the habitable zone. While the odds may prove to be slightly
lower than 10 percent, the evidence of life—or at least, the high possibility of
life—is still overwhelming. There are at least a few hundred billion stars in our
galaxy, which means that around 20 to 40 billion planets have the potential for
the development of organisms.
E. And so, the search for life continues. Unfortunately, Gliese 581g is not
particularly amenable to observation. The next step in finding out the chances of
life on the planet would be to measure its light spectrum, a process that would
reveal molecular oxygen if indeed it exists. The glare from the parent star makes
this impossible to do with current instruments, however. Another way to gather
information would be to transport a vessel to and from the planet. The
technology currently exists to do this, but at 20 light years from earth, it would
take 200 years for astronomers to receive the result. Luckily, new information
may just be a few years away. Astronomers suggest that many rocky planets are
likely to be found in habitable zones during the coming years, and some of these
will provide a better platform for research with current instruments.

Reading Passage 2 has five paragraphs, A-E.

Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-E, in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet.
14 A reason why we cannot learn much more about Gliese 581g in the near
future
15 An estimate of the number of planets in habitable zones
16 An explanation for why Gliese 581g may not rotate
17 Gliese 581g's location in relation to other planets
18 A pre-requisite for the beginning of life

Complete the diagram below.

Choose the correct letter A-E from the box below.
Write your answers in boxes 19-23 on your answer sheet.

A. Gliese 581c
B. Gliese 581d
C. Gliese 581e
D. Gliese 581g
E. Earth

Answer the questions below using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the
passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 24-26 on your answer sheet.
24 To what can Gliese 581g be compared because of its lack of circular motion?
25 What is the name for the central meridian on Gliese 581g where there is no
darkness?
26 What do astronomers now realise are not rare occurrences?
READING WARS CODE: 10
A. In many developed countries literacy skills are under siege. This is true even
in societies where access to primary education is universal and governments
invest heavily in education. New Zealand, for example, was leading the world in
literacy rates in 1970, but tumbled to thirteenth place in 2001 and then again to
twenty-fourth just a few years later. Test scores in the USA also slumped ten
percent during the 1990s despite the country riding an economic boom for much
of the decade. In some cases these statistics reverse trends that were in motion
for over a century and a haft. The steady, gradual expansion of literacy across
social groups and classes was one of the greatest successes of the period of
industrialisation that began in the mid-1850s.
B. This reversal of fortunes has lead to widespread contention over the
pedagogy of teaching literacy. What was once a dry and technical affair—the
esoteric business of linguists and policy analysts—rapidly escalated into a series
of skirmishes that were played out in high-visibility forums: Newspapers ran
special features, columns and letters-to-the-editor on the literacy crisis;
politicians successfully ran their national campaigns on improving reading test
scores; and parents had their say by joining Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs)
and lobby groups.
C. The arguments around reading pooled into two different classroom
methodologies: constructivism and behaviourism. The constructivist
methodology grew from a holistic conception of knowledge creation that
understood reading and writing to be innate, humanistic and interpretative
practices that suffered when they were spliced and formalised within rigid
doctrines, strict rules and universal skill-sets. Constructivists associate words
with meanings; each word might be thought of as a Chinese ideogram. Students
are encouraged to learn individual words and skip over and guess words they do
not understand, or learn to interpret those words by situating them within the
lexical infrastructure of the sentence and the story's wider narrative. These
practices materialise as learning processes centred on guided group reading and
independent reading of high-quality, culturally diverse literature or textual
composition that emphasises pupils conveying their own thoughts and feelings
for real purposes such as letters to pen pals or journal entries.
D. Behaviourism sees the pedagogical process in a less dialectical fashion—
words are initially taught not lexically, as vehicles to convey meaning, but rather
sub-lexically, as a combination of features that can be separated and learnt in a
schematic process. The behaviourist approach does not focus on words at all in
the early stages of learning. Rather, it is centred on a universally applicable
method of teaching students to isolate graphemes and phonemes with the
intention that students will eventually learn to synthesise these individual parts
and make sense of spoken words textually. In this way, individual components
are not equated with the strokes of a brush on a Chinese ideogram, but rather as
the focal pieces of interpretation—as in, for example, learning to read musical
notations or Morse Code. Because of its emphasis on universal rules,
behaviourism is much more conducive to formal examination and the
consolidation of results across regions and countries. The ability to master
language is considered to rest in the acquisition of a set of skills that exist
independently of individuals. Classroom learning is therefore based upon the
transmission of knowledge from tutor to student, rather than seen as an
internalised process that erupts within the students themselves.
E. So who comes out on top? It is not easy to say. Champions of behaviourism
have claimed victory because constructivist learning took over in the late 1980s,
just before test scores on literacy began sinking across the West. Constructivists,
however, can make the valid claim that the behaviourist approach has a heavy
methodological bias towards testing and examination, and that test results do not
represent the ability of individuals to use and interpret language freely and
creatively. Furthermore, different socio-economic groups respond in different
ways to each method. Those from wealthier families tend to do well regardless
of the method, but thrive on the constructivist approach implemented in the
1990s. Children from poorer families, however, are better served by
behaviourism. These outcomes have ramped up levels of socio-economic based
educational disparities in educational systems that have pushed the constructivist
method.
F. It is unlikely that either constructivism or behaviourism will be permanently
sidelined from curricula in the near future. Most teachers find it easier to
incorporate aspects of each approach. Constructivism may ultimately hold the
trump card because of its proven success with pupils who come from families
where they are introduced to reading and writing in various forms from a young
age—this process of 'living and learning' and immersing oneself in language is a
sound principle. In a world rife with social inequities, households with illiterate
parents and a scarcity of funding for education, however, the behaviourist
approach may have the upper hand in teaching children to access the basic skiffs
of literacy quickly and efficiently, even if some linguistic creativity is crushed in
the process.

Reading Passage 3 has six paragraphs, A-F.

Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 27-33 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
27 A reason why constructivism might increase inequalities in society
28 Ways in which people debated the merits of different ways of teaching
reading
29 A comparison between forms of communication that build meaning from
isolated parts
30 Reasons why a method that is theoretically superior might not always work
effectively in practice
31 An explanation of why measuring the success of different reading methods is
difficult
32 An example of an activity that teachers might use to develop writing skills
33 Evidence of a national decline in reading standards

Choose THREE letters, A-G.

Write your answers in boxes 34-36 on your answer sheet.
Which THREE of the following are features of constructivism?
A. Students learn best by working on their own.
B. People are naturally inclined to develop language abilities.
C. It is vital that a disciplined and regulated approach is used.
D. It is important that students understand every word they encounter.
E. Language is best learnt as a single, organic process.
F. Everyone learns to read and write in a similar manner.
G. Context can provide helpful cues to understanding words.
34

35

36

Choose THREE letters A-G.

Write your answers in boxes 37-39 on your answer sheet.
Which THREE of the following are features of behaviourism?
A. The whole of a word is less important than its parts.
B. There is not a common set of conventions.
C. Students learn best by working on their own.
D. Meaning is created by connecting word fragments.
E. Linguistic capacities are built into people.
F. Students learn by receiving information from teachers.
G. It is difficult to judge how well students are doing collectively.
37

38

39

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

Write your answer in box 40 on your answer sheet.
40
Which of the following statements best summarises the writer's general
conclusion?
A. Constructivism is better, while behaviourism leads to negative social
effects.
B. Each method complements the other, and their application should be
integrated.
C. Ideally constructivism would be used, but behaviourism is more
pragmatic.
D. Neither is particularly useful, and there needs to be a new alternative.