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TEST 9
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.

The Clipper Races: an era of competition between cargo ships

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the British East India Company had the
monopoly on trade with China and India. This meant that because no rival could legally
importtea or other goods from these countries at this time, the company was rarely in a hurry
to transport its merchandise, Instead, its priority was to minimise costs by carrying as much as
possible on each ship. This meant that its ships- known as East Indiamen - were enormous,
strong and very slow.

By 1800, the average East Indiaman could carry 1,200 tons of merchandise. The trading
patternfor China tea usually meant the East Indiamen set sail from Britain in January, sailed
round the Cape of Good Hope at the southernmost tip of Africa, and arrived in China in
September. There they would load up that year's tea harvest, set off again and, depending on
the wind and weather, aim to arrive back by the following September, so even with favourable
sailing conditions, the round trip lasted almost two years, and if anything went wrong it could
take lot longer.

However, by 1834 the company had lost its trading monopoles, and tea had become a freely
traded item. Having no more use for its great ships, the company sold them off, and many
werebought by merchants or their captains, who continued to plough the seas between Britain
and China. But now that tea could be traded freely. A few smart sailors began to realise that
whoever brought each new harvest of tea to Britain first, stood to make the most money.

This was partly because if you were home first, you could sell your shipment of tea before your
competitors even arrived, and partly because consumers in Britain in the nineteenth century
believed that the fresher and earlier-picked the tea, the better the resulting drink. Tea traders
now needed faster, sleeker ships to bring their precious cargo back. Nevertheless, in Britain this
idea only caught on slowly, and while the 1840s saw a few faster ships launched, for the time
being many merchants remained satisfied with the slow but reliable East Indiamen.

In fact it was the Americans who pioneered the first clipper ships. These vessels were fast and
slender, with a narrow hull that was deeper at the back than at the front, and masses of sails
ontall masts. They earned their name from the way that they 'clipped off’ journey time.
British merchants resolved to build their own clippers to rival the Americans, and the first
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British tea clipper, Stornaway, was built in Aberdeen in 1850. More tea clippers were
designed and built in Britain throughout the 1850s and 1860s; they had a narrower beam than
their American equivalents, making them less powerful during storms, but faster in calmer
weather.
There was a great spirit of competition between the British and American ships plying the tea
trade, but to begin with the Americans had the edge. Then in 1851 a British ship owner,
Richard Green, built the aptly named clipper Challenger with the stated intention of beating
the American ships. Loaded with tea, Challenger left China for London in 1852 at the same
time as the American clipper Challenge, a much larger older ship, already greatly admired for
its speed. Large sums were bet on which would complete the journey first. In the event, the
British ship beat its rival to London by two days, amid much jubilation. From then on, such
international races grew in popularity.

After 1855, American participation in the British tea trade gradually stopped. But even
without the Anglo-American rivalry, the competitive spirit continued. It was really ignited
when new ports were opened up for trade in China. These included Fouchow, which was
much closer to the tea-producing areas than Canton, the port used previously. As a result, tea
could be loaded on board earlier and fresher, and the clippers could set off in late May or
early June - sometimes not even taking time to fill out the official paperwork - racing back to
Britain whatever the difficulties.

They sped down through the South China Sea and into the Indian Ocean, then raced to get
round the southernmost tip of Africa at the Cape of Good Hope. Then it was north across the
vast Atlantic, past the Azores, through the English Channel and into the estuary of the River
Thames. Once there, they would be towed by tugs, up the river and into the docks.

The cargo of the winning ship could earn premium of up to sixpence per pound - and so the
captain and crew were rewarded by the owners of the cargo. But the races were about more
than just money: the crews, about 40 men on each clipper, were expert sailors, proud of their
ships, and they delighted in competing against each other. Without their enthusiasm, the
raceswould never have happened, since home as fast as possible required the crew to be
totally dedicated and to sacrifice much of their rest for the duration of the race.

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Questions 1-6

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?

In boxes 1-6 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

20 In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the British East India Company faced
a lot of competition.

21 Before 1800, cargo size was the most important consideration for the East India Company.

22 At best, voyages of the East Indiamen to China and back took nearly two years to complete.

23 Before 1834, voyages to and from China were considered to be highly dangerous.

24 In After 1834, the ships which had served the East India Company stopped being
used for commercial purposes.

25 In the nineteen century, British drinkers preferred tea made from mature leaves to
that made from younger leaves.

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Questions 7-13

Complete the notes below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each

answer. Write your answers in boxes 7-13 on your answer

sheet.

CLIPPER RACE

The ships

• Clipper ships were first used for trading by American merchants.

• The ships were remarkable for the number of 7 ........ they had.
• The performance of British tea clippers was particularly affected when there were 8……. at
sea.

The races

It was in a ship called 9………… that the British first competed successfully against the
Americans.
• Richard Green’s ship arrived two days ahead of its competitor

• Competition increased when additional Chinese trading 10 ................. were

established.
• Merchants were occasionally in such a hurry that they failed to
complete the 11………….. before leaving China.
• At the end of their journey, the ships needed the help of 12 ……………….

The rewards

• The crews were motivated by both 13 ..................... and their enthusiasm

for the competition.

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READING PASSAGE 2

Answer Questions 14-26, which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.

Coastal Archaeology of Britain

The recognition of the wealth and diversity of England’s coastal archaeology has been
one of the most important developments of recent years. Some elements of this
enormous resource have long been known. The so-called ‘submerged forests’ off the
coasts of England, sometimes with clear evidence of the human activity, had attracted
the interest of antiquarians since at least the eighteenth century, but serious and
systematic attention has been given to the archaeological potential of the coast only
since the early 1980s.

It is possible to trace a variety of causes for this concentration of effort and

interest. In the 1980s and 1990s scientific research into climate change and its
environmental impact spilled over into a much broader public debate as awareness of
these issues grew; the prospect of rising sea levels over the next century, and their
impact on current coastal environments, has been a particular focus for concern. At
the same time, archaeologists were beginning to recognize that the destruction
caused by natural processes of coastal erosion and by human activity was having an
increasing impact on the archaeological resource of the coast.

The dominant process affecting the physical form of England in the post- glacial period
has been rising in the altitude of sea level relative to the land, as the glaciers melted
and the landmass readjusted. The encroachment of the sea, the loss of huge areas of
land now under the North Sea and the English Channel, and especially the loss of the
land bridge between England and France, which finally made Britain an island, must
have been immensely significant factors in the lives of our prehistoric ancestors. Yet
the way in which prehistoric communities adjusted to these environmental changes
has seldom been a major theme in discussions of the period. One factor contributing to
this has been that, although the rise in relative sea level is comparatively well
documented, we know little about the constant reconfiguration of the coastline. This
was affected by many processes, mostly quiet, which have not yet been adequately
researched. The detailed reconstruction of coastline histories and the changing
environments available for human use will be an important theme for future research..

So great has been the rise in sea level and the consequent regression of the coast that
much of the archaeological evidence now exposed in the coastal zone. Whether being
eroded or exposed as a buried land surface, is derived from what was originally terrestrial
occupation. Its current location in the coastal zone is the product of later unrelated
processes, and it can tell us little about past adaptations to the sea. Estimates of its
significance will need to be made in the context of other related evidence from dry land
sites. Nevertheless, its physical environment means that preservation is often excellent,
for example in the case of the Neolithic structure excavated at the Stumble in Essex.

In some cases these buried land surfaces do contain evidence for human exploitation
of what was a coastal environment, and elsewhere along the modem coast, there is

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similar evidence. Where the evidence does relate to past human exploitation of the
resources and the opportunities offered by the sea and the coast, it is both diverse and as
yet little understood. We are not yet in a position to make even preliminary estimates of
answers to such fundamental questions as the extent to which the sea and the coast
affected human life in the past, what percentage of the population at any time lived
within reach of the sea, or whether human settlements in coastal environments
showed a distinct character from those on inland.
The most striking evidence for use of the sea is in the form of boats, yet we still have
much to learn about their production and use. Most of the known wrecks around
our coast are not unexpectedly of post-medieval date, and offer an unparalleled
opportunity for research which has yet been little used. The prehistoric sewn-plank
boats such as those from the Humber estuary and Dover all seem to belong to the
second millennium BC; after this, there is a gap in the record of a millennium, which
cannot yet be explained before boats reappear, but it built using a very different
technology. Boatbuilding must have been an extremely important activity around much
of our coast, yet we know almost nothing about it. Boats were some of the most
complex artefacts produced by pre-modem societies, and further research on their
production and use make an important contribution to our understanding of past
attitudes to technology and technological change.

Boats need landing places, yet here again, our knowledge is very patchy. In many cases
the natural shores and beaches would have sufficed, leaving little or no archaeological
trace, but especially in later periods, many ports and harbors, as well as smaller facilities
such as quays, wharves, and jetties, were built. Despite a growth of interest in the
waterfront archaeology of some of our more important Roman and medieval towns,
very little attention has been paid to the multitude of smaller landing places.
Redevelopment of harbor sites and other development and natural pressures along the
coast are subject these important locations to unprecedented threats, yet few surveys
of such sites have been undertaken.

One of the most important revelations of recent research has been the extent of
industrial activity along the coast. Fishing and salt production are among the better
documented activities, but even here our knowledge is patchy. Many forms of fishing
will leave a little archaeological trace, and one of the surprises of the recent survey
has been the extent of past investment in facilities for procuring fish and shellfish.
Elaborate wooden fish weirs, often of considerable extent and responsive to aerial
photography in shallow water, have been identified in areas such as Essex and the
Severn estuary. The production of salt, especially in the late Iron Age and early Roman
periods, has been recognized for some time, especially in the Thames estuary and
around the Solent and Poole Harbor, but the reasons for the decline of that industry
and the nature of later coastal salt working are much less well understood.
Other industries were also located along the coast, either because the raw materials
outcropped there or for ease of working and transport: mineral resources such as
sand, gravel, stone, coal, ironstone, and alum were all exploited. These industries are
poorly documented, but their remains are sometimes extensive and striking..

Some appreciation of the variety and importance of the archaeological remains preserved
in the coastal zone, albeit only in preliminary form, can thus be gained from recent
work, but the complexity of the problem of managing that resource is also being realized.

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The problem arises not only from the scale and variety of the archaeological remains,
but also from two other sources: the very varied natural and human threats to the
resource, and the complex web of organizations with authority over, or interests in,
the coastal zone. Human threats include the redevelopment of historic towns and old
dockland areas, and the increased importance of the coast for the leisure and tourism
industries, resulting in pressure for the increased provision of facilities such as marinas.
The larger size of ferries has also caused an increase in the damage caused by their wash
to fragile deposits in the intertidal zone. The most significant natural threat is the
predicted rise in sea level over the next century especially in the south and east of
England. Its impact on archaeology is not easy to predict, and though it is likely to be
highly localized, it will be at a scale much larger than that of most archaeological sites.
Thus protecting one site may simply result in transposing the threat to a point further
along the coast. The management of the archaeological remains will have to be
considered in a much longer time scale and a much wider geographical scale than is
common in the case of dry land sites, and this will pose a serious challenge for
archaeologists.

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

Write your answers in boxes 14-16 on your answer sheet.

14 What has caused public interest in coastal archaeology in recent years?

A The rapid development of England’s coastal archaeology

B The rising awareness of climate change
C The discovery of an underwater forest
D The systematic research conducted on coastal archaeological
findings

15 What does the passage say about the evidence of boats?

A There’s enough knowledge of the boatbuilding

technology of the prehistoric people.
B Many of the boats discovered were found in harbours.
C The use of boats had not been recorded for a thousand years.
D Boats were first used for fishing.

16 What can be discovered from the air?

A Salt mines
B Roman towns
C Harbours
D Fisheries

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Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading

Passage 2? In boxes 17-23 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

17 England lost much of its land after the ice age due to the rising sea level.

18 The coastline of England has changed periodically.

19 Coastal archaeological evidence may be well protected by sea water.

20 The design of boats used by pre-modern people was very simple.

21 Similar boats were also discovered in many other European countries.

22 There are few documents relating to mineral exploitation.

23 Large passenger boats are causing increasing damage to the seashore.

Questions 24-26

Choose THREE letters A-G.

Write your answers in boxes 24-26 on your answer sheet.

Which THREE of the following statements are mentioned in the passage?

A How coastal archaeology was originally discovered

B It is difficult to understand how many people lived close to the sea.
C How much the prehistoric communities understand the climate change
D Our knowledge of boat evidence is limited.
E Some fishing ground was converted to ports.
F Human development threatens the archaeological remains.
G Coastal archaeology will become more important in the future.

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READING PASSAGE 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on
Reading Passage 3 on pages 10 and 11
The peopling of Patagonia

Anthropologists continue to investigate human migration to Patagonia at the souther tip of

South America

The human settlement of the southern extremity of the Americas has always fascinated pre-
historians. Viewed from a global perspective, this was the last major continental land mass to
be reached by human beings. The earliest occupation of Patagonia carries obvious
implications for understanding when the North and South American continents were peopled,
because it gives a baseline that all calculations regarding the rate of dispersion of humans
throughout both continents must take intoaccount.

For many years the human settlement of North and South America has been conceived of as
beginning in the far north and travelling progressively southwards toPatagonia.

However, fundamental disagreements developed concerning the length of time involved Some
scholars accepted a human presence in the Americas as early as 20,000 years ago, while
others proposed that it could date no earlier than 8,000 years ago, and the debate is still with
us today.

The idea of a relatively ‘late’ settlement of the Americas (around 8,000 years ago) implies that
a rapid process of migration took place. Herein lies a second debate which revolves around
the question of how migration is to be understood. The ‘late’ model demands a hypothetical
migration conceived of as a single, continually advancing wave of settlement. This has always
been difficult to take seriously and many scholars now support the idea of an ‘early’ model
that sees the migration as a less ordered migration, and this is surely the most realistic
scenario as migrants slowly adapted to the diverse natural habitats they would have met
while travelling through the continent.

Those who argue for an earlier settlement, however, must contend with the lack of unequivocal
evidence for archaeological sites older than around 14,000 years.

Nevertheless, evidence for human occupation of the centre of South America is now securely
dated to around 12,500 years ago at the Monte Verde site, which casts doubt on the ‘late
model’. The lack of archaeological evidence further south for this time period may be
explained by the obstacle to humans on foot posed by the huge glacial streams that were
present at that time.

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We can speculate then that the retreat of the Patagonian glaciers around 14,000 years ago
allowed the initial human intrusion into a pristine environment, which wassimilar to that of
early post-glacial Europe. Human settlement of the vast horizontal expanse of treeless high
country must have been tenuous at best, and the evidencefor this occupation remains
relatively scant, most of it coming from rock shelters in Argentina and Chile. There is,
however, reliable evidence from these sites to confirm the presence of humans by around
11,000 years ago in different habitats, and some hints of an even older occupation. However,
some other sites where evidence for even earlier human occupation was initially posited,
have recently come under fresh scrutiny. This is because anthropologists have come to
recognise that bones or other evidence may be deposited in caves by natural agency, in other
words by other forces such as floods or predators, and not necessarily by human

We shall turn now to a more detailed discussion of the archaeological evidence found in
various parts of Patagonia. At the site located beside Chinchihuapi Creek, excavations
have produced convincing evidence of human occupation, including hut foundations
and wooden artefacts. They were buried in layers of peat, which has the property of
preserving wood remarkably well, and as a result radiocarbon dating* tests have shown
these artefacts to date from around 12,500 years ago. One of the most famous
Patagonian sites is a cave known as Los Toldos. However, the evidence from this site has
recently been called into question, because dispersed flecks of carbon used in the test
process were taken unsystematically from many different places in the site. As a result,
the association of this material with the artefacts is not at all clear. About 150 kilometres
south is the site called El Ceibo, where a similar collection of artefacts to that found at
Los Toldos has been discovered from the lowest levels of the dig, but as yet no
radiocarbon dates are available and this sort of analysis of the existing evidence is
required before the site’s value can be confirmed.

The Arroyo Eeo site is located very close to the high plateau. The artefacts from the
earliest occupations were found at the same depth and have the same origins as those
from Los Toldos, and have been securely dated to around 9,000 years ago. Another site
that is mentioned in the debate is at Las Buitreras, where a number of stone flakes
associated with bone remains of various animals have been discovered. However,
anthropologists now believe that presumed cut marks on the bones are somewhat
dubious, and despite detailed testing there is no way of securely relating any of these
remains with human occupation. Finally some 50 kilometers to the south is the site at
Cueva Fell, which was the first Patagonian site to be systematically studied by modern
archaeological methods. However, it is now recognised that the utility of this site must
be restricted to its direct vicinity, given changes to the nearby area caused by flooding,
and findings cannot be freely extrapolated further afield. In conclusion, based on the
evidence from a number of reliable sites, it seems probable that human populations
reached Patagonia around 11,000 years ago.

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* radiocarbon dating: finding out the age of an organic object by examining carbon it contains

Questions 27-31
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet.

27 In the first paragraph, what is the writer’s main point about

migration to Patagonia?
A It started earlier than previously thought.
B Historians have overlooked its importance.
C It impacts on research into the wider region.
D Researchers have calculated its effects on the environment.

28 In the second paragraph, what is the writer’s purpose?

A to challenge previous research
B to propose new areas to investigate
C to summarise a scholarly debate
D to suggest reasons for human migration

29 The writer refers to the Tate' model in order to

A compare it with another theory of migration.
B evaluate the success of American migration.
C criticise the speed of research into migration.
D compare migration in different parts of the world.

30 What is the writer’s main point about the ‘early’ model?

A Scholars support the idea of fast migrations.
B It is too random to be a convincing theory.
C South America was more habitable at an earlier time.
D It is more consistent with the physical conditions of the land.

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31 What does the writer suggest about the Monte Verde site?
A It is much younger than researchers once estimated.
B It provides supporting evidence for relatively early
settlement.
C Archaeologists believe the site is of questionable value.
D Streams exposed the site, making new research possible.

Questions 32- 35
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading
Passage 3?
In boxes 32-35 on your answer sheet, write
YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer

NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer

NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about

this
32 The conditions encountered by the first migrants to Patagonia were unique.

33 In the high country the first migrants hunted wild animals for food.

34 Archaeologist have failed to draw conclusions from the evidence found rock

shelters in Argentina and Chile.

35 Archaeological evidence can be moved from place to place in a variety of

ways.

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Questions 36-40

Complete the summary using the list of words and phrases, A-J, below. Write

the correct letter, A-J, in boxes 36-40 on your answer sheet.

The archaeological evidence from Patagonia

Building remains and other evidence have been found in 36………………at the
Chinchihuapi Creek site, and because of this it has been possible to date them to
around 12,500 years ago. However, the 37 ………..of the samples taken from Los
Toldos means that this site is of doubtful value. El Ceibo is a more promising dig,
where the examination of artefacts would be beneficial in order to confirm the
usefulness of discoveries there. The remains found at the Arroyo Feo site show
38…………….anddate from around 9,000 years ago. Unfortunately no
39………canbe made between the samples taken from Las Buitreras and human
presence. The findings of the work carried out at Cueva Fell cannot provide useful
information beyond the 40…………. In conclusion, though the evidence is mixed,
it is believed that human population of Patagonia began about 11,000 years

[Link] date B. Random collection C. Similar

properties
D. Good condition E. Scientific evaluation F. Huge
quantities
G. New samples H. Reliable connection I. Skilled
preservation
J. Immediate surroundings

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