READING TEXT 1 You should spend around 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on reading text 1.
THE VIKINGS AS EXPLORERS AND SETTLERS
As impressive as the Vikings’ accomplishments as raiders and warriors were, their accomplishments as explorers and settlers
were equally magnificent. The Vikings ventured far from their homelands in Scandinavia and became the first Europeans to
discover Greenland and even North America (which they called “Vinland”) – roughly 500 years before Christopher Columbus.
Along the way, they became the first people to establish sizable settlements in Iceland and other North Atlantic islands, and also
colonised the territories their warriors conquered throughout northern Europe. These explorations and settlements have had a
decisive impact on these places that persists even today.
The Vikings’ motivations for faring so far across the globe and founding new settlements in the lands they reached were as varied
as the individuals who undertook these tremendous projects. But a few motives stand out as being especially strong and generally
applicable. In places that the Vikings were the first sizable group to explore and/or settle, these were the quest for fame, prestige,
and honor; the desire for the level of personal freedom that one can only find in a sparsely-populated area with no pre-established
government; and the ability to take advantage of virgin natural resources.
In places where the Vikings conquered existing populations, they were driven by political ambitions, the desire for wealth through
tribute and the control of trade, and, as in newly-inhabited lands, the ability to make a name for oneself.
The Vikings didn’t just explore and settle new territories. They also settled in the lands in Europe that they conquered through
warfare. In such cases, it was sometimes just the warriors themselves who settled down, began working the land, and took wives
from among the native population. At other times, whole families moved from Scandinavia to the newly-conquered territories. In
the British Isles, for example, the Scandinavian genetic contribution to some areas is evenly split between men and women,
whereas in other places it’s overwhelmingly male.
Viking rulers in conquered territories largely adapted to what was expected of a ruler in those lands rather than simply imposing
Scandinavian customs on the populace. Viking rulers in non-Norse lands often maintained good relations with the Christian
Church, used written documents in governance, and even minted coins. Their Viking followers did likewise, to the point that
archaeologists often find it nearly impossible to distinguish the graves of Vikings from the graves of non-Vikings in Viking-
controlled territories.
The Viking conquest with the deepest and longest impact was that of the British Isles. The Scandinavians who migrated to
England, Scotland and Ireland forever changed the character of those countries. Perhaps this should be unsurprising given the
sheer extent of Viking rule in these places. By the late ninth century, the Norse controlled virtually all of England besides
Wessex, and large swaths of Scotland and Ireland as well.
Even after the English regained control of the country in the mid-tenth century, many Scandinavian settlers remained and had a
large influence on England’s culture, as loanwords, place-names, law codes, and other lines of evidence indicate. The modern
English language, for example, has no less than 600 loanwords from Old Norse, including such common words as “cast,” “knife,”
“take,” “window,” “egg,” “ill,” and “die.”
The Vikings settled northern Scotland especially heavily, mostly due to the fact that it was both close to Norway and a convenient
jumping-off point for raids in England and Ireland. The Norse found and conquered lots of already-thriving settlements there in
the ninth century, subjugating the local populations. The level of Norse influence upon the people of Scotland and its islands was
so great that today, Shetlanders have 44 percent Scandinavian DNA, the Orkneys’ inhabitants have 30 percent, and those who live
in the Western Isles have 15 percent. The inhabitants of the Orkney and Shetland Islands spoke Norn, a dialect of Old Norse, until
the nineteenth century. The influence didn’t just go one way, however. The Norse adapted to the local customs, including
becoming Christians.
Over the course of the ninth century, as the Vikings settled in Ireland, they became more and more integrated into Irish society.
They fought wars on behalf of Irish leaders, intermarried with the Irish, adopted Christianity, and so forth. The Irish had no
particular tradition of trade with the outside world and relied on the enterprising and well-connected Vikings to perform this
activity on their behalf so that they could enjoy the fruits of interaction with international markets. While Viking settlements in
Ireland were confined to trade towns – the Irish made a point to keep them out of the rest of the country – those trade towns had a
great impact on the contemporary and subsequent character of the country. One of them, Dublin, is now Ireland’s capital city.
Questions 1-8 Do the following statements agree with the information given in text 1 above? In boxes 1-8 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 present
1. The Vikings were renowned for their ability to travel and discover new places.
2. The Vikings were happy to bow to the rule of the lands they found, with little initiative among them.
3. The Vikings claimed many new places through battles.
4. Viking elders were tough and often unkind to those that they ruled over.
5. In England, the Vikings contributed to the development of its personality
6. The impact of Old Norse on the English Language was nil.
7. The Vikings preferred to raid Scotland as there was a smaller population.
8. All of Ireland was commanded by the Norse culture.
Questions 9-13 Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D. Write your answers in boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet.
9 .When the Vikings left Scandinavia they
A. sailed around the world.
B. tried to impress rulers.
C. discovered and colonised new lands.
D. terrorised many populations.
10 .What are we told about the Vikings in the fifth paragraph?
A. Viking rulers enforced strict laws.
B. The Vikings adapted well to new customs.
C. They ignored the Christian Church.
D. They merged their own culture with that of the place they settled.
11. The Vikings who settled in England, Scotland and Ireland
A. helped to shape aspects of the culture of the nation.
B. raided the lands.
C. held many battles with the people of the lands.
D. decided to leave.
12. What is the writer doing in the seventh paragraph?
A. Criticising the Norse culture.
B. Explaining how Old Norse words have been integrated into the English language.
C. Describing how the English language has developed.
D. Rejecting the idea that the English language has an outside influence.
13. What is the writer's main point in the final paragraph?
A. That the Vikings adopted Irish customs.
B. The Irish people disliked the Viking culture and all that was associated with it.
C. Explaining the wealth of influence the Vikings had in Ireland.
D. The Irish people allowed the Vikings to settle wherever they wished, with lands given to them as spoils of war.
R E A D I N G 2 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which are based on reading text 2.
Hating the Elite
A. Many deride the wealthy elite as symbols of inequality in democratic societies supposedly founded on equality.
Why do people hate them so much? If we hate them, why do we tolerate them? Hunter -gatherer bands had few clear
status distinctions apart from th ose of age and gender. Headmen, and occasionally head women, functioned as servant
leaders who spent much of their time offering free counselling and conflict resolution services to members of the
band. In these societies, headmen were more likely to marry a second wife but received no other benefits of office.
Successful hunters had high status in the group and were in greater demand as extramarital partners, but they were
always careful to avoid seeming boastful.
B. Anthropologists struggle to explain why inequality first arose but the transition to agriculture is a plausible
explanation. Neolithic farmers in Europe had inherited status as revealed by analysis of objects buried with them
(grave goods). Men buried with stone adzes (likely used to construct their wooden houses) were of higher status than
others and acquired this rank from being raised on fertile loess soil that they inherited from their fathers. Fertile land
is a valuable resource and much early warfare involved territorial aggression over la nd. Warfare required increased
social organisation and political leadership increases a person's status. The conversion of material wealth into political
power may be the most common mechanism through which inequality arises. Arguably, the Native American
Potlatches were not so very different from Hugo Chavez giving away refrigerators to Venezuela's poor.
C. The same theme is expressed in Egypt's Pharaohs controlling their population by creating a monopoly on storable
food, such as wheat. The first large city – Uruk - was maintained by a highly productive agricultural system that was
based on extensive irrigation. The rulers controlled the public works necessary to provide irrigation water and their
administration was by means of an elaborate hierarchy of ci vil servants with slaves at the bottom and the monarch at
the top. Agriculture may have been the earliest form of heritable wealth, but it pales in significance compared to the
power of money and modern financial institutions. Unequal distribution of wealt h today reflects ownership of
financial assets (particularly stocks and bonds). Steady appreciation of these assets over time means that developed
countries are increasingly divided into haves and have-nots. That creates problems.
D. Income inequality produces two main kinds of adverse effect. First, it produces or aggravates, many health
problems. Second, it undermines social trust thereby impeding the smooth functioning of a society. The health
problems are by now fairly well appreciated. Low-income groups have a substantially lower life expectancy. This is
another way of saying that they experience a wide variety of health problems that subtract from their longevity. The
underlying mechanisms are complex and cause range from environmental pollution to psychological stress, bad diet,
and poor lifestyle, all of which are strongly associated with income. Unequal societies lack social trust. There is a
pervasive feeling that the social contract is broken so that no one can be expected to obey laws, participate in politics,
or invest in their local communities. Of course, some segments of the community are more disaffected than others and
their communities are the most dysfunctional and crime-plagued. All of these problems are so serious, and so clearly
produced by inequality that inequality itself can be considered a problem that must somehow be addressed, difficult
though that might be.
E. Elites elicit hatred because they control resources that others wish they could enjoy. Moreover, humans have
always preferred equality in social interactions, judging from the flatness of hunter -gatherer societies. So why do we
accept a hereditary elite instead of insisting upon liberty, equality, and brotherly love, as expressed in the slogan of
the French Revolution? One fairly obvious answer is in terms of the power structure, whether political or economic.
Neolithic farmers who occupied loess soil were healthier and stronger than rivals that enabled them to repel; rivals
and perpetuate their hereditary advantage of controlling better land. Analogous advantages are built into other kinds
of elites, whether it is the higher earning power of more intelligent people or the systematic advantages enjoyed by
financial elites compared to workers.
F. Economists cannot help but be impressed by the fact that financial wealth increases exponentially across
generations whereas wages increase more slowly. This means that the financial system, of itself, exacerbates
inequality. It is a giant squid that sucks value out of worker effort and s ecretes it in the accounts of the wealthy, a
process that continues until there is a financial collapse. Such shocks may bankrupt the wealthy – unless they get
bailed out by the government. The fact that elites may sometimes get bailed out is often dismiss ed as a side effect of
corruption in government but it also suggests that wealthy institutions, such as banks play an essential role in
facilitating the smooth functioning of economies. Much as we may hate the elites, there is also a sense that we are
actually worse off without them and levelling experiments from the French Revolution to China's Cultural Revolution
did not go well. Whether the authority of the monarch, the lending power of the banker, the enterprise of an
entrepreneur, or the glamour of a celebrity, the elites may satisfy practical or psychological needs of their victims. Or
we are just stuck with them because they have all the power.
Questions 14-18 Text 2 has six paragraphs, A-F.
Which paragraphs contain the following information? Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 14-18 on your
answer sheet.
NB you may use any letter more than once.
14. The class system started many years ago and now has grown out of control.
15. The upper class have formed good connections with finance companies and the government.
16. The ownership of certain items gives a person status.
17. Many people are envious of what the elected population have.
18. The suggestion that fortunate workers held more status.
Questions 19 and 20 Choose TWO letters, A-E. Write the correct letters in boxes 19-20 on your answer
sheet. Which TWO of these possible reasons for hating the elite are mentioned in the text?
A. They are obnoxious.
B. They are financially prosperous.
C. They promote a certain type of lifestyle.
D. They are mostly bankers.
E. They hold power in society.
Questions 21 and 22 Choose TWO letters, A-E. Write the correct letters in boxes 21 and 22 on your answer
sheet.
The list below shows possible forms of proof that people hate the elite. Which TWO possible forms of proof
does the writer say has been found?
A. People have started petitions.
B. They control the media and the masses do not want this.
C. There have been large-scale protests.
D. They have been saved by financial institutions when needed, furthering the gap between those who have
and those who have not.
E. In social situations, the elite are ignored.
Questions 23-26 Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in text 2? In boxes 23 -26
on your answer sheet, write
YES - if the statement agrees with the views or claims
NO - if the statement contradicts the views or claims
NOT GIVEN - it is impossible to say what the writer's views/claims are
23. The elite should receive more funds from the government.
24. There are problems between the elite and society.
25. The elite has been integral in helping to shape and form communities.
26. There is evidence to support the writers claims that people hate the elite.
R E A D I N G T E X T 3 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on
reading text 3. Juvenile Crime in the 19th Century
Novels such as Oliver Twist have made Victorian child-thieves familiar to us, but to what extent did juvenile crime
actually, exist in the 19th century? Drawing on contemporary accounts and printed ephemera, Dr Matthew White
uncovers the facts behind the fiction. The success of Oliver Twist owes much to the biting satire and keen social
observations contained within its pages. The misery of wor khouses, the morally corrosive effects of poverty and the
degradation of life in Victorian slums all received Dickens’s close attention. The novel’s prominent theme though is
criminality, witnessed most vividly in the activities of Fagin’s gang of nimble-fingered child-thieves. But how
realistic was Dickens’s portrayal of criminality among Victorian boys and girls?
Although youth crime had been a concern since the 1700s, a decline in formal apprenticeships and the disruptive
effects of industrialisation on family life after 1800 did much to create fears among the general public about the
activities of criminal gangs of boys and girls in London and elsewhere.
Sensational stories of crime and violence filled the pages of the popular press after 1800 with details of juvenile crime
appearing in newspapers, broadsides and pamphlets. The activities of so-called ‘lads-men’ were regularly reported.
These were criminal bosses who supposedly trained young boys to steal and then later sold the stolen goods they
received from them. Thomas Duggin, for example, was an infamous ‘thief-trainer’ who worked in London’s notorious
St Giles slum in 1817, and as late as 1855 The Times newspaper reported the activities of Charles King, a man who
ran a gang of professional pick-pockets. Among King’s gang was a 13-year-old boy named John Reeves, who stole
over £100 worth of property in one week alone. Similarly, Isaac ‘Ikey’ Solomon was a well-known receiver of stolen
goods in the 1810s and 1820s who was arrested several times, and on one occasion escaped from custody. Solomon
gained notoriety for being a trainer of young thieves and was for some time (incorrectly) considered to be the
inspiration behind
Dickens’s character of Fagin owing to his similar Jewish heritage.
‘Flash-houses’ also received regular attention from the police during the first half of the century. These were pubs or
lodging houses where stolen property was ‘fenced’, and was considered by the police and magistrates to be ‘nurseries
of crime’. One report in 1817 described flash-houses as containing ‘distinct parties or gangs’ of young boys, while
later in 1837 a police witness recalled how one lodging house in London had ‘20 boys and ten girls under the age of
16’ living together, most of whom were ‘encouraged in picking pockets’ by their ‘captain’.
Evidence from the courts and newspaper articles during the first half of the 19th century suggests that juvenile crime
was indeed a genuine problem. Dr Valerie Watters reported that the picking of pockets was especially troublesome,
particularly the theft of silk handkerchiefs, which had a relatively high resale value and could thus be easily sold.
Field Lane in London for example (the setting of Fagin’s den in Oliver Twist) was the home to several notorious
receivers of stolen goods, where it was believed more than 5,000 handkerchiefs were handled each week. Often these
were hung on poles outside the shops for sale to passers-by, many of whom went there to buy back their own stolen
property.
Crowded places such as fairs, marketplaces and public executions were particularly profitable for young thieves. In
1824, for example, a 15-year-old boy, Joseph Mee, was charged with picking pockets at a public execution taking
place at the Old Bailey; a youth described by the magistrate as a ‘hardened and unconcerned’ offender. At Greenwich
Fair in 1835 13-year-old Robert Spencer was caught by a policeman drawing a handkerchief from the pocket of a
gentleman in the crowd, while later in 1840 another constable stated in court how he witnessed 11 -year-old Martin
Gavan and another boy ‘try several pockets’ before stealing a gentleman’s handkerchief among a crowd that had
gathered around a traffic accident.
Around three in every four petty thefts of personal property recorded in the county of Middlesex in the first quarter of
the 19th century were committed by people under 25 years old, the vast majority of whom were teenagers or younger
boys. Between 1830 and 1860, over half of all defendants tried at the Old Bailey for picking pockets were younger
than 20 years of age.
London Labour and the London Poor Mayhew described life in the capital’s ‘low-lodging houses’, where he found
several young boys engaged in daily petty thefts, including one who recounted how he was regularly drunk at the age
of 10. Mayhew also described the activities of ‘Mudlarks’: boys and girls aged between eight and 15, who plundered
goods from barges moored on the River Thames. However, historians have debated the true extent of juvenile crime in
the 19th century. Changes in the way that children could be prosecuted after 1847, more sophisticated ways of
gathering statistics and an over-emphasis on child criminality by moral reformers may have contributed to an
exaggeration of an assumed increase in ‘juvenile delinquency’.
To modern eyes, the treatment of juvenile criminals in the 19th century appears particularly savage. After 1800
children between the ages of seven and 14 were considered incapable of forming criminal intentions, but could
nevertheless be found guilty where this was proven beyond doubt. In theory, children convicted of serious felonies,
therefore, faced the full penalty of the law: namely sentences of imprisonment, transportation and death.
Historian Martin Jones said, 'In reality, death sentences bestowed on children were almost always commuted to lesser
sentences on the grounds of leniency'. Of the 103 children aged 14 or under who were sentenced to dea th at the Old
Bailey between 1801 and 1836, not one was executed. Typically, when two 13 -year-olds and a 12-year-old were
convicted of a burglary in 1821, they were ‘recommended to mercy on account of their youth’: a phrase that was
regularly recorded by the courts. The last execution of a juvenile in England was probably that of John ‘Any Bird’
Bell, at Maidstone in Kent in 1831: a 14-year-old who committed a cold-blooded murder of a 12-year-old boy during a
bungled robbery. His sentence by this time was already considered exceptional.
Death sentences for girls and boys under 16 years of age were in practice usually commuted to transportation. By the
1830s, each year around 5,000 prisoners, some of whom were as young as 10, were carried by ship to penal co lonies
in Australia, to serve sentences of seven or 14 years (and occasionally life). Once safely arrived, the convicts were set
to work on public projects (such as building harbours or prisons) or were otherwise given manual tasks as servants to
private employers, all of which (it was hoped) would help reform the offenders. Transportation was finally abolished
in 1857 following concerns about the deterrent effect of the sentence on would -be criminals.
Questions 27-30 Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D. Write the correct letter in boxes 27-30 on your
answer sheet.
27. What does the writer state about juvenile crime in the 19th century in the first paragraph?
A. Poverty caused young people to commit crimes.
B. Many children were sold to workhouses.
C. The children were often in gangs.
D. That the novel Oliver Twist by Dickens gives us an insight.
28. What are we told about the punishments for juvenile crimes?
A. Children under the age of 15 were given light sentences.
B. The laws did not affect children younger than 8.
C. Young offenders received the same sentences as adults with the same punishments for heinous crimes.
D. Many children were allowed to complete their sentence in a workhouse.
29. The writer refers to death sentences and transportation in order to
A. Show the serious way in which all crimes were dealt with in the 19th century.
B. Relay the facts of available punishments for juveniles.
C. Explain which crimes would receive those punishments.
D. Justify the need for such serious punishments.
30. In the sixth paragraph, we are told that
A. Serious crimes were committed regularly.
B. Pickpockets were rife.
C. Young offenders worked in gangs and shared profits.
D. Many youths were held accountable for their actions.
Questions 31-35
Look at the following opinions and the list of people below.
Match each opinion with the correct person, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter, A, B, C or D, in boxes 31-35 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
31. Stealing from people was easy for children with small hands, particularly smaller luxury items
32. Children were often given shorter more lenient sentences.
33. The most problematic crime was stealing from pockets.
34. Wanted to find out the truth about youth crimes in the 19th Century.
35. Regular minor thefts were performed daily by young boys.
List of People C. Martin Jones
D. Dr Valerie Watters
A. Dr Matthew White
B. Mayhew
Questions 36-39 Complete the summary using the lists of words, A-H below. Write the correct letter, A-H,
in boxes 36-39 on your answer sheet.
Juvenile Crime In The 19th Century
According to Dr Matthew White, there have been varied accounts of juvenile crime in the 19th century, with
vivid accounts coming from the novels of 36................................... In truth, many youths were recruited
into 37. ............................... and trained to perform variously skilled robberies on unsuspecting victims.
Pickpockets often stole 38. ......................................... which were easy to sell on for a high price. The
consequences for crimes in the 19th century varied but were known to be severe,
including 39. ..................................... and even death.
Question 40 Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D. Write the correct letter in box 40 on your answer sheet.
40. The writer's purpose in writing the article is to
A. illustrate how the judiciary system worked in the 19th Century.
B. criticise the treatment of convicted children.
C. explain the various crimes and punishments of young people beginning from around the 1700's.
1. True
2. False
3. True
4. Not Given
5. True
6. False
7. Not Given
8. False
Questions 9-13
9. C
10. D
11. A
12. B
13. C
14 - F
15 - C
16 - B
17 - E
18 - A
Questions 19 and 20
19 - B
20 - E
Questions 21 and 22
21 - C
22 - D
Questions 23-26
23 - Not Given
24 - Yes
25 - No
26 - Yes
Questions 27-30
27 - D
28 - C
29 - A
30 - B
Questions 31-35
A - 34
B - 35
C - 32
D - 33
Questions 36-39
36 - C
37 - E
38 - G
39 - H
Question 40
C