HOW THE MIND AGES

The way mental function changes is largely determined by three factors-mental lifestyle, the
impact of chronic disease and flexibility of the mind.
Experiments have shown that younger monkeys consistently outperform their older
colleagues on memory tests. Formerly, psychologists concluded that memory and other
mental functions in humans deteriorate over time because of changes in the brain. Thus
mental decline after young adulthood appeared inevitable. The truth, however, is not quite so
simple.
Stanley Rapoport at the National Institute of Health in the United States measured the flow of
blood in the brains of old and young people as they completed different tasks. Since blood
flow reflects neural activity. Rapoport could compare which networks of neurons were the
same, the neural networks they used were significantly different. The older subjects used
different internal strategies to accomplish comparable results at the same time,'Rapoport says.
At the Georgia Institute of Technology, psychologist Timothy Salthouse compared a group of
fast and accurate typists of college age with another group in their 60s. Both groups typed 60
words a minute. The older typists, it turned out, achieved their speed with cunning little
strategies that made them more efficient than their younger counterparts. They made fewer
finger shifts, gaining a fraction of a second here and there. They also read ahead in the test.
The neural networks involved in typing appear to have been reshaped to compensate for
losses in motor skills or other age changes.
In fact, there's evidence that deterioration in mental functions can actually be reversed.
Neuropsychologist Marion Diamond at the University of California has shown that mental
activity maks neurons sprout new dendrites* which establish connections with other neurons.
The dendrites shrink when the mind is idle. For example,'when a rat is kept in isolation, the
animal's brain shrinks, but if we put that rat with other rats in a large cage and give them an
assortment of toys, we can show, after four days, significant differences in its brain.'says
Diamond. After a month in the enriched surroundings, the whole cerebral cortex has
expanded, as has its blood supply.'But even in the enriched surroundings, rats get bored
unless the toys are varied. Animals are just like we are. They need stimulation,'says
Diamond. A busy mental lifestyle keeps the human mind fit, says Warner Schaie of Penn
State University. ‘People who regularly participate in challenging tasks retain their
intellectual abilities better than mental couch potatoes.'
In his studies, Schaie detected a decline in mental function among individuals who underwent
lengthy stays in hospital for chronic illness. He postulated it might be due to the mental
passivity encouraged by hospital routine.
One of the most profoundly important mental functions is memory. Memory exists in more
than one form, what we call knowledge- facts- is what psychologists such as Harry Bahrick
of Ohio Wesleyan University call semantic memory. Events, conversations and occurrences
in time and space, on the other hand, make up episodic memory. It's true that episodic
memory begins to decline when most people are in their 50s, but it's never perfect at any age.
Probing the longevity of knowledge, Bahrick tested 1,000 high school graduates to see how
well they remembered the school subject algebra. Some had completed the course a month
before, other 50 years earlier. Surprisingly, he found that a person's grasp of algebra did not
depend on how long ago he'd taken the course. The determining factor was the duration of
instruction. Those who had spent only a few months learning algebra forgot most of it within
two or three years while others who had been instructed for longer remembered better.
According to Bahrick,'the long-term residue of knowledge remains stable over the decades,
independent of the age of the person and the memory.'
Perhaps even more important than the ability to remember is the ability to manage memory- a
mental function known as metamemory.'You could say metamemory is a byproduct of going
to school,'says psychologist Robert Kail of Purdue University,'The question-and-answer
process,especially exam taking, helps children learn and teaches them how their memory
[Link] may be one reason why the better educated a person is, the more likely they
are to perform well in many aspects of life and in psychological assessments: A group of
adult novice chess players were compared with a group of child experts at the game. But
when asked to remember the patterns of chess pieces arranged on a board, the children won.'
Because they'd played a lot of chess, their knowledge of chess was better organized than that
of the adults, and their existing knowledge of chess served as a framework for new
memory,'explains Kail. Cognitive style, another factor in maintaining mental function, is
what Schaie calls the ability to adapt and roll with life's punches.'He measured mental
flexibility with questions and tests requiring people to carry out in an offbeat way an
everyday activity they had done millions of times. One example was asking people to copy a
paragraph substituting uppercase letters for lowercase ones. These tests seem silly, but
flexible-minded people manage to complete them,'says Schaie. The rigid person responds
with tension instead and performs poorly. Those who score highly on tests of cognition at an
advanced age are those who tested high in mental flexibility at middle age'.
On a more optimistic note, one mental resource that only improves with time is specialized
knowledge. Crystallised intelligence about one's occupation apparently does not decline at all
until at least age 75. Vocabulary is another such specialized form of knowledge. Research
clearly shows that vocabulary develops with time. Retired teachers and journalists
consistently score higher on tests of vocabulary and general information than college
students.
Questions 1-3
Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes 1-3 on your answer sheet.
1. What does the writer say about the performance of older typists on the test?
A. They used different motor skills from younger typists.
B. They had been more efficiently trained than younger typists.
C. They used more time-saving techniques than younger typists.
D. They had better concentration skills than younger typists.
2. The experiment with the rats showed that
A. brain structure only changed when the rats were given a familiar toy
B. the rats became anxious after a lengthy period of time alone
C. the rats lived longer then they were part of a social group
D. the rats'brains expanded or shrank depending on the level of mental activity
3. A comparison between adults and children who played chess showed that
A. the children were as capable as the adults of remembering a series of numbers
B. the children had better recall of the layout of pieces
C. the adults stored memories of chess moves in a more logical manner
D. the adults had clearer memories of chess games they had played
Questions 4-9
Complete the summary below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 17-22 on your answer sheet.
Types of memory
Psychologists distinguish between two different types of memory: 4.
____semantic__________ and 5. __episodic____________ memory. A study was
conducted into people's knowledge of 6. ___algebra___________ to determine recall ability.
This aspect of memory was found to be a function not of age but rather of length of tuition.
School also helps with a brain function called 7. __metamemory____________. This is why
a more highly educated person is generally more successful and does better in 8.
____psychological__________ tests.
Some of our mental functions remain unaffected by age or even improve. For example, as we
get older, our knowledge of 9. ___vocabulary___________ increases.
Questions 10-13
Look at the following statements and the list of people below.
Match each statement with the correct person, A-E.
Write the correct letter, A-E, in boxes 23-26 on your answer sheet.
10. The educational system makes students aware of how their memory works. => E
11. Although older people may use a different mental approach when completing a task, they
can still achieve the same result as younger people => A
12. Being open to new ways of doing things can have a positive impact on your mental
condition as we get older => C
13. Both animals and humans need to exist in an environment full of interest. => B
List of People
A. Stanley Rapoport
B. Marion Diamond
C. Warner Schaie
D. Harry Bahrick
E. Robert Kail
 Toxic Stress: A Slow Wear And Tear

A. Our bodies are built to respond when under attack. When we sense danger, our brain
goes on alert, our heart rate goes up, and our organs flood with stress hormones like
cortisol and adrenaline. We breathe faster, taking in more oxygen, muscles tense, our
senses are sharpened and beads of sweat appear. This combination of reactions to
stress is also known as the "fight-or-flight" response because it evolved as a survival
mechanism, enabling people and other mammals to react quickly to life-threatening
situations. The carefully orchestrated yet near-instantaneous sequence of hormonal
changes and physiological responses helps someone to fight the threat off or flee to
safety. Unfortunately, the body can also overreact to stressors that are not life-
threatening, such as traffic jams, work pressure, and family difficulties.
B. That's all fine when we need to jump out of the way of a speeding bus, or when
someone is following us down a dark alley. In those cases, our stress is considered
"positive", because it is temporary and helps us survive. But our bodies sometimes
react in the same way to more mundane stressors, too. When a child faces constant
and unrelenting stress, from neglect, or abuse, or living in chaos, the response stays
activated, and may eventually derail normal development. This is what is known as
"toxic stress". The effects are not the same in every child, and can be buffered by the
support of a parent or caregiver, in which case the stress is considered "tolerable". But
toxic stress can have profound consequences, sometimes even spanning generations.
Figuring out how to address stressors before they change the brain and our immune
and cardiovascular systems is one of the biggest questions in the field of childhood
development today.
C. In 1998, two researchers, Vincent Felitti and Robert Anda, pioneered in publishing a
study demonstrating that people who had experienced abuse or household dysfunction
as children were more likely to have serious health problems, like cancer or liver
diseases, and unhealthy lifestyle habits, like drinking heavily or using drugs as adults.
This became known as the "ACE Study," short for "adverse childhood experiences."
Scientists have since linked more than a dozen forms of ACEs - including
homelessness, discrimination, and physical, mental, and sexual abuse - with a higher
risk of poor health in adulthood.
D. Every child reacts to stress differently, and some are naturally more resilient than
others. Nevertheless, the pathways that link adversity in childhood with health
problems in adulthood lead back to toxic stress. As Jenny Anderson, senior reporter
at Quartz, explains, "when a child lives with abuse, neglect, or is witness to violence,
he or she is primed for that fight or flight all the time. The burden of that stress, which
is known as 'allostatic load or overload,' referring to the wear and tear that results
from either too much stress or from inefficient management of internal balance, eg,
not turning off the response when it is no longer needed, can damage small,
developing brains and bodies. A brain that thinks it is in constant danger has trouble
 organising itself, which can manifest itself later as problems of paying attention, or
sitting still, or following instructions - all of which are needed for learning".
E. Toxic is a loaded word. Critics say the term is inherently judgmental and may
appear to blame parents for external social circumstances over which they have little
control. Others say it is often misused to describe the source of stress itself rather
than the biological process by which it could negatively affect some children. The
term, writes John Devaney, centenary chair of social work at the University of
Edinburgh, "can stigmatise individuals and imply traumatic happenings in the past".
Some paediatricians do not like the term because of how difficult it is to actually fix
the stressors their patients face, from poverty to racism. They feel it is too fatalistic to
tell families that their child is experiencing toxic stress, and there is little they can do
about it. But Nadine Burke Harris, surgeon general of California, argues that
naming the problem means we can dedicate resources to it so that paediatricians feel
like they have tools to treat "toxic stress".
F. The most effective prevention for toxic stress is to reduce the source of the stress.
This can be tricky, especially if the source of the stress is the child's own family. But
parent coaching, and connecting families with resources to help address the cause of
their stress (sufficient food, housing insecurity, or even the parent's own trauma), can
help. Another one is to ensure love and support from a parent or caregiver. Young
children's stress responses are more stable, even in difficult situations, when they are
with an adult they trust.
As Megan Gunnar, a child psychologist and head of the Institute of Child at the
University of Minnesota, said: "When the parent is present and relationship is
secure, basically the parent eats the stress: the kid cries, the parent comes, and it
doesn't need to kick in the big biological guns because the parent is the
protective system". That is why Havard's Center on the Developing Child
recommends offering care to caregivers, like mental health or addiction support,
because when they are healthy and well, they can better care for their children.

Question 1-6
The reading passage has six paragraphs, A-F.
Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number (i – vii) in boxes.
List of Headings
i The controversy around the word “toxic”
ii Effects of different types of stress
iii How to protect children from toxic stress
iv An association of adverse experience with health problems and unhealthy habits
v Body’s reactions in response to the perceived harmful event
vi Signs of being under sustained stress
vii Negative impacts of toxic stress on children’s mental health
1. Paragraph A => V
2. Paragraph B => II
3. Paragraph C => IV
4. Paragraph D => VII
5. Paragraph E => I
6. Paragraph F => III
Question 7-9

Choose TRUE if the statement agrees with the information given in the text,
choose FALSE if the statement contradicts the information,
or choose NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this.
7. Felitti and Anda were the first to show that ACEs create impacts regarding health and
habits later on in life. => TRUE
8. Some children have the same level of vulnerability to stressful events. => FALSE
9. Several paediatricians consider poverty and racism the primary contributors to toxic stress.
=> NOT GIVEN
Question 10-13
Look at the following people and the list of statements below.
Match each person with the correct statement, A-E.
Write the correct letter A-E in boxes.
List of statements
A. Traumatic experiences in childhood might lead to poor self-management.
B. Supportive and responsive relationships with caring parents can prevent or reverse the
damaging effects of toxic stress responses.
C. Properly naming a type of stress can facilitate its treatment process.
D. The real name of a particular form of stress could denounce a number of people.
E. Toxic stress can cause the next generations to suffer from negative consequences on both
mental and physical health problems.
10. Megan Gunnar => B
11. Jenny Anderson => A
12. John Devaney => D
13. Nadine Burke Harris => C

MAORI FISH HOOKS

A. Maori fish hooks, made from wood, bone, stone and flax, are intended to have the best
possible design and function. The hooks are designed to target specific species with
precision. In the industry of commercial long-line fishing, there are some Maori hook designs
which are making a splash.
B. When Polynesians first came New Zealand sometime within the years 1100-1300 AD,
they didn’t have the technology necessary to heat and manipulate metal out of rocks.
Meanwhile, fish was the settlers’ main food source at the time, so fishermen made their
hooks and fishing gear out of wood, bone, stone and shells. Other plants native to the island
of New Zealand, like as flax (harakeke), cabbage tree (ti) and astelia (kiekie) gave the
necessary fibrous material to make fishing lines and nets of greater or equal strength to the
jute, which was being used by the Europeans at the time. However, as a material, metal is
more malleable, and can be changed into any shape, while natural materials are limited in the
shapes they can take on. The Maori fish hooks needed to be more innovative in the ways that
they dealt with these limitations.
C. Early accounts of Europeans who settled and explored New Zealand claimed that Maori
hooks, known as matau, were “odd”, “of doubtful efficacy”, “very clumsy affairs” or
“impossible looking.” Archaeologists from more recent times have also mentioned the round
hook appearing as odd, with comments such as, “shaped in a manner which makes it very
difficult to imagine could ever be effective in catching a fish.” William Anderson, who was
aboard the Resolution during Cook’s third voyage in 1777 as the ship’s surgeon, commented
that the Maori “live chiefly by fishing, making use…of wooden fish hooks pointed with bone,
but so oddly made that a stranger is at a loss to know how they can answer such a purpose.”
(CÂU 9 FALSE)
D. The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa did their own recent study on Maori
fish hooks two hundred and thirty years later, and were able to demonstrate that the unique
hook design was a matter of function. The hook’s design allowed it to catch fish by spinning
away from the direction of the point and catching their jaws, instead of poking a hole through
the fish or by being used as a lever, which some archaeologists also suggested. It seems that
the design of the Maori fish hook is, perhaps, the world’s most efficiently and masterfully
designed fish hook, likely superior to any modern metal fish hook of today.
E. To make larger hooks, Maori used shanks made of strong wood, with stout points made of
bone or shell. They tied tree branches and saplings together to grow them into the ideal
shapes for building, then harvested the plants when they grew to the appropriate size. They
hardened wood by carefully drying it and burying underground with fires lit above it. Human
bone was often used for bone points, which they lashed securely to a groove at the end of the
shank with pre-made flax materials (muka). When they wanted to catch larger species like
sharks, groper and ling, they used composite hook. However, average the traditional hook
was usually not longer than a three finger breadth (128 mm length).
F. To capture seabirds for food and feathers, like albatross, the islanders used slender hooks
which can be differentiated from other hooks intended to catch fish by their lighter build and
lack of an inturned point. Many of these hooks were collected by early explorers, suggesting
that the taking of seabirds with hook and line was an important source of food and feathers
for Maori. (105 mm length).
G. Maori adopted new materials quickly once they became available with European
explorers, sealers and whalers who began to arrive towards the end of the 1700s. At this
point, the Maori were still making their fish hooks, but now using metals and imported
materials. Wooden and flax parts of old, abandoned fish hooks decomposed quickly as
traditional hooks were cast away in favor of new ones. Tools made of luxury materials such
as ivory or greenstone may have been kept around as decorations items, with stylized Maori
fish hooks seen today as a symbol of cultural revitalization.
H. The Maori kept recreating traditional designs even as new materials poured in, preferring
hook shapes which were introduced by Pakeha into the 1800s. By following the tradition of
the rotating hook design, they remained connected with a part of their traditional culture. In
the end, though, it was only a matter of time before the amount of mass-produced metal
European hooks finally overwhelmed the area, highlighting the difficulty of making hooks
from nails, horseshoes and other metal objects, and finally the use of the traditional designs
fell out of favor.

I. By the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, tourists and collectors’ demands
for Maori artifacts had grown, leading manufacturers to produce large quantities of forged
hooks. These replicas were then traded with both Maoris and Europeans to use as forgeries of
the real thing, sometimes directly commissioned by artifact dealers themselves. Fake hooks
can be spotted by their cheap construction (1I), inconsistent materials, rudimentary lashings,
odd or over-elaborate decorative carvings, and finally, by the lack of in-turned points or
angled grooves used to actually attach the fishing line.
J. The ways that matau have changed throughout their history is somewhat symbolic of how
Maori have adapted to use European tools, materials and technology to their purposes over
time, as well as the ways that European influence and technology contributed to, rather
overtook, generally compatible Maori skills, and traditional materials were replaced or
complemented by metals and, more recently, artificial materials. Commercial longline
fishermen everywhere have begun using the circle hook design today, one that is nearly the
same as the traditional matau in both its appearance and functionality. It seems that the
advantages and improved catch rates of this Maori technology have been recognized once
more.
Questions 1-8
The reading passage has ten paragraphs labelled A-J.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter A-J in boxes 1-8 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
1. Instruction on how to recognise authentic Maori hooks from counterfeit ones => I
2. A description of a different type of hooks that are not used to catch fish => E
3. An acknowledgement that Maori design and craftsmanship are still relevant in the modern
world => H
4. An investigation into how the hooks functioned so effectively => D
5. A description of how modern technology began to dominate and eventually took over from
traditional hook construction => H
6. A list of raw materials used to construct hooks => A
7. An outline of how different styles of hooks and types of materials were employed to catch
larger fish => E
8. An account of how the Maori employed new technology and adapted it => G
Questions 9-13
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the reading passage? In
boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet, write
YES – if the statement reflects 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
9. The early European settlers quickly understood how the Maori fish hook worked => NO
10. The hook works by making a hole and embedding itself in the mouth of the fish => NOT
GIVEN
11. The Maoris catch seabirds by their feet => NOT GIVEN
12. There used to be a demand for Maori fish hooks and many counterfeit ones were
produced => YES
13. Today European style hooks have completely replaced the traditional styles used by the
Maoris => NO
 AUSTRALIAN PARROTS AND THEIR ADAPTATION TO
HABITAT CHANGE

A. Parrots are found across the tropic and in all southern hemisphere continents except
Antarctica, but nowhere do the display such a richness of diversity and form as in Australia.
One- sixth of the world’s 345 parrot species are found there, and Australia has long been
renowned for the number and variety of its parrots.
B. In the 16th century, the German cartographer Mercator made a world map that included a
place, somewhere near present-day Australia, that he named Terra Psittacorum – the Land of
Parrots – and the first European settlers in Australia often referred to the country as Parrot
Land. In 1865, the celebrated British naturalist and wildlife artist John Gould said: “No group
of birds gives Australia so tropical and benign an air as the numerous species of this great
family by which it is tenanted.
C. Parrots are descendants of an ancient line. Due to their great diversity, and since most
species inhabit Africa, Australia and South America, it seems almost certain that parrots
originated millions of years ago on the ancient southern continent of Gondwana, before
it broke up into the separate southern hemisphere continents we know today. Much of
Gondwana comprised vast rainforests intersected by huge slow-flowing rivers and expansive
lakes, but by eight million years ago, great changes were underway. The center of the
continent of Australia had begun to dry out, and the rainforests that once covered it gradually
contracted to the continental margins, where, to a limited extent, they still exist today.
D. The creatures that remained in those shrinking rainforests had to adapt to the drier
conditions or face extinction. Reacting to these desperate circumstances, the parrot family,
typically found in jungles in other parts of the world, has populated some of Australia’s
harshest environments. The parrots spread from ancestral forests through eucalypt woodlands
to colonies the central deserts of Australia, and as a consequence they diversified into a wide
range of species with adaptations that reflect the many changes animals and plants had to
make to survive in these areas.
E. These evolutionary pressures helped mould keratin, the substance from which breaks are
made into a range of tools capable of gathering the new food types favored by various species
of parrot. The size of a parrot’s short, blunt beak and the length of that beak’s do curved
upper section are related to the type of food each species eats. Some have comparatively long
beaks that are perfect for extracting seeds from fruit; others have broader and stronger beaks
that are designed for cracking hard seeds.
F. Differently shaped beaks are not the only adaptations that have been made during the
developing relationship between parrots and their food plants. Like all of Australia’s many
honey eating birds, the rainbow-coloured lorikeets and the flowers on which they feed have
long coevolved with features such as the shape and colour of the flowers adapted to the bird’s
particular needs, and physical a example, red is the most I attractive colour to birds, and thus
flowers which depend on birds for pollination are more often red, and lorikeets’ to gues have
bristles which help them to collect as much pollen as possible.
G. Today, most of Australia’s parrots inhabit woodland and open forest, and their numbers
decline towards both deserts and wetter areas. The majority are nomadic to some degree,
moving around to take advantage of feeding and breeding places. Two of the dry country
parrots, the pink and grey galah and the pink, white and yellow corella have expanded their
ranges in recent years. They are among the species that have adapted well to the changes
brought about by European settlement forest telling created grasslands where galahs and
corellas thrive.
H. But other parrot species did not fare so well when their environments were altered. The
clearing of large areas of rainforest is probably responsible for the disappearance of the
double-eyed fig parrot, and numbers of ground parrots declined when a great part of their
habitat was destroyed by the draining of coastal swamps. Even some parrot species that
benefited from forest clearing at first are now comforted by a shortage of nesting sites due to
further man-made changes.
I. New conditions also sometimes favour an incoming species over one that originally
inhabited the area. For example, after farmers cleared large areas of forest on Kangaroo
Island off the coast of South Australia, the island was colonised by galahs. They were soon
going down holes and destroying black cockatoo eggs in order to take the hole for their own
use. Their success precipitated a partial collapse in the black cockatoo population when the
later lost the struggle for scarce nesting hollows.
J. There may be no final answer to ensuring an equitable balance between parrot species.
Nest box programmers help ease the shortage of nesting sites in some places, but there are
not enough, they are expensive and they are not an adequate substitute by large, old trees,
such as the habitat they represent and nectar, pollen and seeds they provide. Competition
between parrots for nest sites is a result of the changes we humans have made to the Earth.
We are the most widespread and dangerous competitors that parrots have ever had to face,
but we also have the knowledge and skill to maintain the wonderfully rich diversity of
Australia’s parrots. All we need is the wild to do so.

Questions 1-6
Reading Passage has ten paragraphs A-J
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-J in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet
1. An example of how one parrot species may survive at the expense of another => I
2. A description of how plants may adapt to attract birds => F
3. Example of two parrot species which benefited from changes to the environment => G
4. How the varied Australian landscape resulted in a great variety of parrot species => D
5. A reason why most parrot species are native to the southern hemisphere => C
6. An example of a parrot species which did not survive changes to its habitat => H

Questions 7-9
Choose the correct letter A, B, c, or D
Write the correct letter in boxes 7-9 on your answer sheet
7. The writer believes that most parrot species
A. Move from Africa and South America to Australia
B. Had ancestors in either Africa, Australia or South America
C. Had ancestors in a continent which later split up
D. Came from a continent now covered by water
8. What does the Writer say about parrot's beak?
A. They are longer than those of other birds
B. They are made of a unique material
C. They are used more efficiently than those of other species
D. They are specially adapted to suit the diet
9. Which of the following is NOT mentioned by the writer as a disadvantage of nesting
boxes?
A. They cost too much
B. They need to be maintained
C. They provide only shelter, not food
D. They are too few of them

Questions 10-13
Complete the summary below
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for
each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet
Parrots in Australia
There are 345 varieties of parrot in existence and, of these, 10. ____________ live in
Australia. As early as the 11. ____________, the mapmaker 12. ____________ recognized
that parrots lived in that part of the world. 13. ____________ ,the famous painter of animals
and birds, commented on the size and beauty of the Australian parrot family.

=>
10. One-sixth
11. 16th century
12. Mercato
13. John Gould