Advanced Reading & Listening

Quizlet Flashcards

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Advanced Reading Lesson 1

Practice Test 1

Reading Passage 1

1. TRUE (Paragraph 2)

Psychologist Dr Maria Richter argues that urge to collect is a basic human characteristic. According to her, in the very first years of life we form emotional connections with lifeless objects such as soft toys. And these positive relationships are the starting point for our fascination with collecting objects.

2. TRUE (Paragraph 2)

Scientists suggest that for some ancient humans living hundreds of thousands of years ago, collecting may have had a serious purpose. Only by collecting sufficient food supplies to last through freezing winters or dry summers could our ancestors stay alive until the weather improved.

3. FALSE (Paragraph 3)

Woolley had travelled to the region intending only to excavate the site of a palace. Instead, to his astonishment, he dug up artefacts, which appeared to belong to a 2,500-year-old museum.

4. TRUE (Paragraph 3)

And accompanying some of the artefacts were descriptions like modern-day labels. These texts appeared in three languages and were carved into pieces of clay.

5. NOT GIVEN (Paragraph 3)

It seems likely that this early private collection of objects was created by Princess Ennigaldi, the daughter of King Nabonidus. However, very little else is known about Princess Ennigaldi or what her motivations were for setting up her collection.

6. FALSE (Paragraph 4)

Cabinets of Curiosities typically included fine paintings and drawings, but equal importance was given to exhibits from the natural world such as animal specimens, shells and plants.

7. banking (Paragraph 5)

The Medicis became a powerful political family in Italy and later a royal house, but banking was originally the source of all their wealth.

8. windows (Paragraph 5)

In 1570 a secret 'studio' was built inside the Palazzo Medici to house their growing collection. This exhibition room had solid walls without windows to keep the valuable collection safe.

9. illustration (Paragraph 6)

He also owned a great auk, species of bird that has now become extinct, and the illustration he produced of it has been of value to later scientists.

10. pottery (Paragraph 7)

She also travelled widely throughout Europe acquiring old and rare pottery, which she added to her collection at home in southern England. When Lady Charlotte died in 1895 this collection was given to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

11. lectures (Paragraph 7)

His legacy, the Mayer Trust, continues to fund public lectures in accordance with his wishes.

12. fossils (Paragraph 8)

Most of these were donated to London's Natural History Museum, but Beatrix held on to her cabinets of fossils, which she was particularly proud of.

13. stress (Paragraph 8)

The stress associated with being president was easier to cope with, Roosevelt said, by taking time out to focus on his collection.

Reading Passage 2

14. iv (Paragraph A)

For a number of reasons, documentaries were frequently ignored by critics and film studies courses at universities. Firstly, the very idea of documentary film made some people suspicious... Lastly, there were also concerns about the ethics of filming subjects without their consent.

15. vii (Paragraph B)

It is often claimed that Nanook of the North was the first documentary… However, that 1922 starting point has been disputed by supporters of an earlier date.

16. i (Paragraph C)

According to film writer Paula Murphy, the principles and methods of Direct Cinema brought documentaries to the attention of universities and film historians as never before. Documentaries started to be recognized as a distinct genre worthy of serious scholarly analysis.

17. viii (Paragraph D)

The flexibility and low cost of these devices meant that anyone could now be a filmmaker. Amateurs working from home could compete with professionals.

18. v (Paragraph E)

It could be argued that Catfish (2010) was a perfect example of this new trend... The film chronicles the everyday lives and interactions of the social media generation.

19. iii (Paragraph F)

The popularity and variety of documentaries today is illustrated by the large number of film festivals focusing on the genre around the world.

20. D (Maria Fiala) (Paragraph D)

But as critic Maria Fiala has pointed out, ‘The arguments sometimes put forward that these innovations immediately transformed what the public expected to see in a documentary isn’t entirely accurate.’

21. C (Paula Murphy) (Paragraph C)

According to film writer Paula Murphy, the principles and methods of Direct Cinema brought documentaries to the attention of universities and film historians as never before.

22. A (Dr Helmut Fischer) (Paragraph A)

As the critic Dr Helmut Fischer put it, ‘Documentary makers might have ambitions to tell the truth and show only facts but there is no such thing as a non-fiction film. That’s because, as soon as you record an incident on camera, you are altering its reality in a fundamental way.’

23. E (Josh Camberwell) (Paragraph E)

Filmmaker Josh Camberwell maintains that Catfish embodies a new realization that documentaries are inherently subjective and that this should be celebrated.

24. three minutes (Paragraph F)

As its name suggests, Hamburg specializes in short films, but one category takes this to its limits; entries may not exceed three minutes in duration.

25. first timers (Paragraph F)

The small size of the festival means that for first timers this is the ideal venue to try to get some recognition for their films.

26. animations (Paragraph F)

Atlanta welcomes all established types of documentaries and recognises the growing popularity of animations, with a category specifically for films of this type.

Reading Passage 3

27. NO (Paragraph A)

But few people have seen a jellyfish living in its natural habitat... so it is inevitable that jellyfish are often considered ugly and possibly dangerous.

28. YES (Paragraph A)

Disappointingly little research was carried out into jellyfish, as marine biologists took the easy option and focused on physically stronger species such as fish, crabs, and shrimp.

29. NOT GIVEN (Paragraph B)

Scientists now believe that in shallow water alone there are at least 38 million tonnes of jellyfish and these creatures inhabit every type of marine habitat, including deep water.

30. NO (Paragraph B)

Dr Karen Hansen was the first to suggest that jellyfish are in fact the centre of entire ecosystems… This proposition has subsequently been conclusively proven by independent studies.

31. NOT GIVEN (Paragraph C)

Research studies around the world have recorded a massive growth in jellyfish populations in recent years and some scientists have linked this to climate change. However, while this may be credible, it cannot be established with certainty as other factors might be involved.

32. YES (Paragraph C)

Observations made by Paul Dewar and his team showed that this was incorrect. As a result, the scientific community now recognises that species including sharks, tuna, swordfish, and some salmon all prey on jellyfish.

33. B (Paragraph D)

It is still widely assumed that jellyfish are among the simplest lifeforms... However, we now know they possess senses that allow them to see, feel, and interact with their environment in subtle ways.

34. A (Paragraph E)

Jellyfish, though, are not harmless... On the other hand, jellyfish are a source of medical collagen used in surgery and wound dressings.

35. C (Paragraph F)

Jellyfish have existed more or less unchanged for at least 500 million years... Research in the Mediterranean Sea has now shown, remarkably, that in old age and on the point of death, certain jellyfish are able to revert to an earlier physical state.

36. B (Paragraph G)

Studies of jellyfish in class known as scyphozoa have shown a lifecycle of three distinct phases... This is further evidence of just how sophisticated and unusual these lifeforms are.

37. C (Paragraph A)

Scientists have discovered that sound bounces harmlessly off jellyfish, so in the Arctic and Norway, researchers are using sonar to monitor jellyfish beneath the ocean’s surface.

38. E (Paragraph B)

DNA sequencing and isotope analysis have provided further insights, including the identification of numerous additional species of jellyfish unknown to science only a few years ago.

39. A (Paragraph D)

Analysis of so-called 'upside-down jellyfish' shows that they shut down their bodies and rest in much the same way that humans do at night, something once widely believed to be impossible for jellyfish.

40. D (Paragraph F)

Research in the Mediterranean Sea has now shown, remarkably, that in old age and on the point of death, certain jellyfish are able to revert to an earlier physical state, leading to the assertion that they are immortal.

Practice Test 2

Reading Passage 1

1. population (Paragraph 1)

In the first half of the 1800s, London's population grew at an astonishing rate...

2. suburbs (Paragraph 2)

His idea was to relocate the poor workers who lived in the inner-city slums to newly constructed suburbs...

3. businessmen (Paragraph 2)

Pearson's ideas gained support amongst some businessmen...

4. funding (Paragraph 3)

The organisation had difficulty in raising the funding for such a radical and expensive scheme...

5. press (Paragraph 3)

not least because of the critical articles printed by the press.

6. soil (Paragraph 4)

A two-metre-deep layer of soil was laid on top of the tunnel and the road above rebuilt.

7. FALSE (Paragraph 5)

The Metropolitan line, which opened on 10 January 1863, was the world's first underground railway.

8. NOT GIVEN (Paragraph 5)

On its first day, almost 40,000 passengers were carried... (No mention of whether this exceeded expectations)

9. TRUE (Paragraph 6)

However, smoke and fumes remained a problem, even though ventilation shafts were added to the tunnels.

10. TRUE (Paragraph 7)

'Cut and cover' method of construction was not an option in this part of the capital.

11. FALSE (Paragraph 8)

The carriages were narrow and had tiny windows just below the roof...

12. FALSE (Paragraph 8)

Although the City & South London Railway was a great technical achievement, it did not make a profit.

13. NOT GIVEN (Paragraph 9)

(No information about punctuality.)

Reading Passage 2

14. A

Today, however, stadiums are regarded with growing scepticism. Construction costs can soar above £1 billion, and stadiums finished for major events such as the Olympic Games or the FIFA World Cup have notably fallen into disuse and disrepair.

15. F

The latter, inaugurated in 2009, has 8,844 photovoltaic panels producing up to 1,14 GWh of electricity annually. This reduces the annual output of carbon dioxide by 660 tons and supplies up to 80 percent of the surrounding area when the stadium is not in use.

16. E

There's a growing trend for stadiums to be equipped with public spaces and services that serve a function beyond sport, such as hotels, retail outlets, conference centres, restaurants and bars, children's playgrounds and green space.

17. D

But some of the flexibility was lost at the beginning of the 20th century, as stadiums were developed using new products such as steel and reinforced concrete, and made use of bright lights for night-time matches.

18. fortress (Paragraph C)

The amphitheatre of Arles in southwest France, with a capacity of 25,000 spectators, is perhaps the best example of just how versatile stadiums can be. Built by the Romans in 90 AD, it became a fortress with four towers after the fifth century, and was then transformed into a village containing more than 200 houses.

19. bullfights (Paragraph C)

With the growing interest in conservation during the 19th century, it was converted back into an arena for the staging of bullfights, thereby returning the structure to its original use as a venue for public spectacles.

20. opera (Paragraph C)

The imposing arena of Verona in northern Italy, with space for 30,000 spectators, which was built 60 years before the Arles amphitheatre and 40 years before Rome's famous Colosseum. It has endured the centuries and is currently considered one of the world's prime sites for opera, thanks to its outstanding acoustics.

21. salt (Paragraph C)

The site evolved in a similar way to Arles and was progressively filled with buildings from the Middle Ages until the 19th century, variously used as houses, a salt depot and a prison.

22. shops (Paragraph C)

But rather than reverting to an arena, it became a market square, designed by Romanticist architect Lorenzo Nottolini. Today, the ruins of the amphitheatre remain embedded in the various shops and residences surrounding the public square.

23. 24. C, D (in either order) (Paragraph D)

Many such stadiums are situated in suburban areas, designed for sporting use only and surrounded by parking lots. These factors mean that they may not be as accessible to the general public, require more energy to run and contribute to urban heat.

25. 26. B, E (in either order) (Paragraph E, F)

Creating mixed-use developments such as this reinforces compactness and multi-functionality, making more efficient use of land and helping to regenerate urban spaces. Stadiums are ideal for these purposes, because their canopies have a large surface area for fitting photovoltaic panels and rise high enough (more than 40 metres) to make use of micro wind turbines.

Reading Passage 3

27. H (strategic alliance) (Paragraph 1)

The young Charles II sacrificed one of the very principles his father had died for and did a deal with the Scots...

28. J (religious conviction) (Paragraph 1)

...accepting Presbyterianism as the national religion in return for being crowned King of Scots.

29. F (decisive victory) (Paragraph 1)

After being comprehensively defeated on the meadows outside the city by the Parliamentarian army...

30. B (large reward) (Paragraph 1)

...the 21-year-old king found himself the subject of a national manhunt, with a huge sum offered for his capture.

31. D (relative safety) (Paragraph 1)

...he managed, through a series of heart-poundingly close escapes, to evade the Parliamentarians before seeking refuge in France.

32. NOT GIVEN (Paragraph 2)

His intention when asking Pepys to commit his story to paper was to ensure that this most extraordinary episode was never forgotten.

33. NO (Paragraph 2)

...the king related to him in great detail his personal recollections of the six weeks he had spent as a fugitive.

34. NO (Paragraph 2)

After the battle was so absolutely lost as to be beyond hope of recovery, I began to think of the best way of saving myself.

35. YES (Paragraph 3)

One of the joys of Spencer’s book, a result not least of its use of Charles II’s own narrative...

36. B (Paragraph 1)

The two sides finally faced one another at Worcester... After being comprehensively defeated...

37. C (Paragraph 3)

...just how close the reader gets to the action. The day-by-day retelling of the fugitives' doings provides delicious details...

38. A (Paragraph 4)

It is hard to imagine many other kings marking the lowest point in their life so enthusiastically...

39. B (Paragraph 5)

He has even-handed sympathy for both the fugitive king and the fierce republican regime that hunted him...

40. D (Paragraph 6)

Would Charles II have been a different king had these six weeks never happened? ... This is the one area where the book doesn’t quite hit the mark.

Advanced Reading Lesson 2

Practice Test 3

Reading Passage 1

1. TRUE (Paragraph A)

Exactly when these explorers arrived has often been a matter of debate, but today the general understanding is that it was during the 13th century that their canoes eventually landed on New Zealand's shores.

2. NOT GIVEN (Paragraph A)

Europeans first arrived in the early 17th century. They sought opportunities, but to the Maori, they seemed strange.

3. NOT GIVEN (Paragraph B)

Polynesians... were also skilled craftsmen. There is archaeological evidence that the tools they produced were of high quality... Craftsmen were also occupied with making weapons.

4. FALSE (Paragraph B)

Interestingly, some crafts that had once been popular in Polynesian islands were no longer done in New Zealand, although researchers are unsure why. Pottery is an example of this, despite the fact that the clay needed to make pots and bowls could easily be found in the country.

5. TRUE (Paragraph C)

The same term can also apply to weaving; the crafting of, for example, woven baskets and mats all required knowledge and skill.

6. FALSE (Paragraph C)

Further, because of this mineral’s rarity, any greenstone object, such as a piece of jewellery or cutting blade, was a prized possession. For that reason, it was the few people of high status rather than low-ranking members of a tribe who would possess such objects.

7. feathers (Paragraph D)

In the case of superior cloaks made for chiefs or the more important members of a tribe, feathers from kiwi, pigeons or other native birds might be attached.

8. hood (Paragraph D)

All flax cloaks were rectangular in shape, so had no sleeves, and neither was a hood a feature of this garment.

9. shoulder (Paragraph D)

Short cloaks were fastened around a person’s neck, and came only to the waist. Pins made of bone, wood or greenstone allowed longer cloaks to be secured at the shoulder.

10. insulation (Paragraph D)

A cloak made from fur or wool could provide insulation from the cold, but not so a cloak made of flax.

11. water (Paragraph E)

It is not clear to researchers what the entire process involved, but they believe the fibres were left to soak in water over a period of time in order to soften them and make them easier to weave together.

12. iron (Paragraph E)

To do this, Maori weavers covered it in a special kind of mud they had collected from riverbeds. This was rich in iron due to New Zealand’s volcanic landscape.

13. spear tips (Paragraph E)

The particular advantage of these cloaks was that the tough cabbage tree fibres they were woven from could reduce the impact of spear tips during a fight with enemy tribes.

Reading Passage 2

14. E (Paragraph E)

Sleep research shows that we sleep in 90-minute cycles, and it's only towards the end of each that we go into deep sleep. Each cycle comprises of NREM sleep (non-rapid eye movement sleep), followed by REM (rapid eye movement) sleep.

15. B (Paragraph B)

We want to seem busy, and one way we express that is proclaiming how little sleep we're getting. When I give lectures, people wait behind until there is no one around and then tell me quietly: ‘I seem to be one of those people who need eight or nine hours' sleep,’ It's embarrassing to say it in public.

16. E (Paragraph E)

For example, they should not be regularly working late into the night as this affects cognitive functioning. Depending on sleep pills is also not a good idea, as it can have a damaging effect on memory.

17. A (Paragraph A)

But when did you ever see a National Health Service poster urging sleep on people? When did a doctor prescribe, not sleeping pills, but sleep itself? It needs to be prioritized.

18. B (Paragraph B)

In 1942, less than 8% of the population was trying to survive on six hours or less sleep a night; in 2017, almost one in two people is.

19. blood pressure (Paragraph C)

More than 20 studies all report the same relationship: the shorter your sleep, the shorter your life. For example, adults aged 45 years or older who sleep less than six hours a night are 200% more likely to have a heart attack, as compared with those sleeping seven or eight. This is because even one night of sleep reduction will affect a person's heart and significantly increase their blood pressure as a result.

20. obesity crisis (Paragraph C)

However, processed food and sedentary lifestyles do not adequately explain its rise. It's now clear that sleep is that third ingredient.

21. flu vaccine (Paragraph D)

The well-rested also respond better to the flu vaccine so this is something people should bear in mind before visiting their doctors.

22. aggressive behavior (Paragraph D)

If they don’t get enough, managing aggressive behavior becomes harder and harder.

23. D, E

We can also systematically measure our sleep by using personal tracking devices. ‘People use alarms to wake up,’ Walker says. ‘So why don’t we have a bedtime alarm to tell us we’ve got half an hour, that we should start cycling down?’

24. D, E (Paragraphs D, E)

We can also systematically measure our sleep by using personal tracking devices. ‘People use alarms to wake up,’ Walker says. ‘So why don’t we have a bedtime alarm to tell us we’ve got half an hour, that we should start cycling down?’

25. A, E (Paragraphs A, E)

Matthew Walker dreads the question ‘What do you do?’ I give myself a non-negotiable eight-hour sleep opportunity every night, and I keep very regular hours.

26. A, E

Matthew Walker dreads the question ‘What do you do?’ I give myself a non-negotiable eight-hour sleep opportunity every night, and I keep very regular hours.

Reading Passage 3

27. D (Paragraph A)

The World Health Organisation has produced a report predicting that 9.8 billion of us will be living on this planet by 2050. Of that number, 72% will be living in urban areas—a higher proportion than ever before.

28. F (Paragraph A)

At the top of the list of survey respondents’ concerns is the fact that competition amongst tenants for rental properties has driven the median price up so much that people need to hold down two or more jobs to meet all their expenses.

29. H (Paragraph A)

Another issue the survey highlighted is the difficulty commuters face. Overcrowding means that seats are often not available on long journeys, but more significant is that schedules are unreliable. Many studies have shown the effect that has on a country's productivity.

30. A (Paragraph A)

Interestingly, certain problems seem more common in some cities than others: respondents from increasingly crowded European cities, including Manchester and Barcelona, commented on how their quality of life was affected by loud machinery, other people's music and car alarms.

31. C (Paragraph A)

Something the survey failed to ask about was the value people placed on having access to nature in urban neighborhoods. However, some countries are already moving forward. Singapore is a prime example; its rooftop gardens make the city a far more desirable place to live.

32. A (Paragraph B)

But whenever I leave my room in search of an outlet providing fruit or anything with nutritional value, none can be found.

33. C (Paragraph C)

Instead, they are more likely to remain inactive indoors.

34. D (Paragraph D)

The issue here is that it often attracts the same few voices with the same few wishes.

35. B (Paragraph E)

Smart planning and skillful construction mean they take up very little room.

36. A. YES (Paragraph F)

Successful development is taking place in many urban areas around the world, and city planners have a duty to see for themselves the transforming effect this can have on residents' lives.

37. C. NOT GIVEN (Paragraph: Not mentioned explicitly.)

38. B. NO (Paragraph F)

The idea of cars determining urban planning, and indeed the whole concept of private car ownership, is now outdated and must be abandoned.

39. B. NO (Paragraph F)

At the heart of the development should be a cultural area, providing venues for art, music, and street theatre. Such activities bring communities together, and do far more for positive relations than a new mall or shopping precinct.

40. A. YES (Paragraph F)

Finally, planners and developers must be obliged to create, within the same neighbourhood, different types of homes for wealthy professionals, for families, for the elderly and for young people just starting out.

Practice Test 4

Reading Passage 1

1. carnivorous (Paragraph 2)

In terms of feeding, it was exclusively carnivorous.

2. scent (Paragraph 2)

During long-distance chases, thylacines were likely to have relied more on scent than any other sense.

3. pouch (Paragraph 3)

Newborns crawled into the pouch on the belly of their mother, and attached themselves to one of the four teats, remaining there for up to three months.

4. fossil (Paragraph 4)

The most recent, well-dated occurrence of a thylacine on the mainland is a carbon-dated fossil from Murray Cave in Western Australia, which is around 3,100 years old.

5. habitat (Paragraph 5)

These include competition with wild dogs introduced by European settlers, loss of habitat along with the disappearance of prey species, and a distemper-like disease which may also have affected the thylacine.

6. TRUE (Paragraph 5)

The dramatic decline of the thylacine in Tasmania, which began in the 1830s and continued for a century, is generally attributed to the relentless efforts of sheep farmers and bounty hunters with shotguns.

7. FALSE (Paragraph 6)

There was only one successful attempt to breed a thylacine in captivity, at Melbourne Zoo in 1899.

8. NOT GIVEN (Paragraph 6)

The famous naturalist John Gould foresaw the thylacine's demise when he published his Mammals of Australia between 1848 and 1863.

9. FALSE (Paragraph 7)

However, there seems to have been little public pressure to preserve the thylacine, nor was much concern expressed by scientists at the decline of this species in the decades that followed.

10. NOT GIVEN (Paragraph 7)

A notable exception was T.T. Flynn, Professor of Biology at the University of Tasmania. In 1914, he was sufficiently concerned about the scarcity of the thylacine to suggest that some should be captured and placed on a small island.

11. FALSE (Paragraph 7)

But it was not until 1929, with the species on the very edge of extinction, that Tasmania's Animals and Birds Protection Board passed a motion protecting thylacines only for the month of December, which was thought to be their prime breeding season.

12. TRUE (Paragraph 8)

The last known wild thylacine to be killed was shot by a farmer in 1930, leaving just captive specimens.

13. NOT GIVEN (Paragraph 9)

There have been numerous expeditions and searches for the thylacine over the years, none of which has produced definitive evidence that thylacines still exist.

Reading Passage 2

1. F (Paragraph F)

Oil palm plantations produce at least four and potentially up to ten times more oil per hectare than soybean, rapeseed, sunflower or other competing oils. That immensely high yield – which is predominantly what makes it so profitable – is potentially also an ecological benefit.

2. G (Paragraph G)

The industry is now regulated by a group called the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), consisting of palm growers, retailers, product manufacturers, and other interested parties.

3. A (Paragraph A)

It's almost certainly in the soap we wash with in the morning, the sandwich we have for lunch, and the biscuits we snack on during the day.

4. H (Paragraph H)

Ellwood believes that reintroducing the bird's nest fern into oil palm plantations could potentially allow these areas to recover their biodiversity, providing a home for all manner of species, from fungi and bacteria, to invertebrates such as insects, amphibians, reptiles and even mammals.

5. B (Paragraph B)

Between 1990 and 2012, the global land area devoted to growing oil palm trees grew from 6 to 17 million hectares, now accounting for around ten percent of total cropland in the entire world.

6. E (Paragraph E)

Is it desirable to have palm oil boycotted, replaced, eliminated from the global supply chain, given how many low-income people in developing countries depend on it for their livelihoods?

7. C (Paragraph C)

Endangered species – most famously the Sumatran orangutan, but also rhinos, elephants, tigers, and numerous other fauna – have suffered from the unstoppable spread of oil palm plantations.

8. B & C (in any order) (Paragraph G)

The RSPO insists upon no virgin forest clearing, transparency and regular assessment of carbon stocks, among other criteria. Over the past decade or so, an agreement has gradually been reached regarding standards that producers of palm oil have to meet in order for their product to be regarded as officially 'sustainable'.

9. solid (Paragraph A)

Primarily because its unique properties - such as remaining solid at room temperature – make it an ideal ingredient for long-term preservation.

10. (Sumatran) orangutan (Paragraph C)

Endangered species – most famously the Sumatran orangutan, but also rhinos, elephants, tigers, and numerous other fauna – have suffered from the unstoppable spread of oil palm plantations.

11. carbon stocks (Paragraph G)

The RSPO insists upon no virgin forest clearing, transparency and regular assessment of carbon stocks, among other criteria.

12. biodiversity (Paragraph H)

Ellwood believes that reintroducing the bird's nest fern into oil palm plantations could potentially allow these areas to recover their biodiversity.

Reading Passage 3

27. D (Paragraph 1)

The book combines geology, history, economics, and a lot of data to explain why business clusters developed where they did and how the early decisions of workers and firms shaped the skyline we see today.

28. B (Paragraph 3)

I would have liked Barr to expand upon his claim that existing tenements prevented skyscrapers in certain neighborhoods because 'likely no skyscraper developer was interested in performing the necessary “slum clearance”.'

29. C (Paragraph 6)

While less technical than the research paper on which the chapter is based, it is probably more technical than would be preferred by a general audience.

30. D (Paragraph 9)

Chapter eight contains lengthy discussions of urban economic theory that may serve as a distraction to readers primarily interested in New York.

31. C (Paragraph 10)

The data work that went into these estimations is particularly impressive.

32. NO (Paragraph 2)

Barr begins chapter one by taking the reader on a ‘helicopter time-machine’ ride – giving a fascinating account of how the New York landscape in 1609 might have looked from the sky.

33. YES (Paragraph 3)

Both chapters are informative and well-researched and set the stage for the economic analysis that comes later in the book.

34. NOT GIVEN (Paragraph 4)

Barr identifies four primary immigrant enclaves and analyzes their locations in terms of the amenities available in the area.

35. NO (Paragraph 4)

Most of these enclaves were located on the least valuable land, between the industries located on the waterfront and the wealthy neighborhoods bordering Central Park.

36. H (Paragraph 7)

The assumption that the absence of bedrock close to the surface between Downtown and Midtown New York is the reason for skyscrapers not being built between the two urban centers.

37. D (Paragraph 7)

Rather, Barr argues that while deeper bedrock does increase foundation costs, these costs were neither prohibitively high nor were they large compared to the overall cost of building a skyscraper.

38. I (Paragraph 7)

These costs were neither prohibitively high nor were they large compared to the overall cost of building a skyscraper.

39. B (Paragraph 7)

He describes the use of caissons, which enable workers to dig down for considerable distances, often below the water table, until they reach bedrock.

40. F (Paragraph 7)

Barr’s thorough technological history discusses not only how caissons work, but also the dangers involved.

Advanced Reading Lesson 3

Practice Test 5

Reading Passage 1

1. TRUE (Paragraph A)

And, perhaps unusually for academics, dance historians hold remarkably similar views when it comes to identifying early 1900s...

2. FALSE (Paragraph A)

dancers quite deliberately moved away from previous approaches.

3. NOT GIVEN (Paragraph A)

No mention of whether she danced alone or with others.

4. FALSE (Paragraph B)

Duncan refused to wear elaborate costumes, preferring to dance in plain dresses and bare feet.

5. NOT GIVEN (Paragraph B)

No mention of criticism from other dancers regarding her music choice.

6. TRUE (Paragraph B)

Ruth St Denis was bringing the dance training academy with her husband with the intention of passing on her approach and style to the next generation of American dancers.

7. walking (Paragraph C)

Graham looked within herself to find her dance style, examining how her body moved as she breathed, but also observing the patterns made by her limbs when walking...

8. book (Paragraph C)

Her book The Art of Making Dances, which detailed her approach to dance composition, was highly influential...

9. humour (Paragraph D)

Among Holm’s many other innovations was bringing her own humour to these performances - audiences adored it.

10. documentary (Paragraph E)

Taylor’s career was the subject of a documentary that provided valuable insights into this period of dance.

11. lecturing (Paragraph F)

After retirement she travelled widely to universities throughout America lecturing on ethnic dance, which became her main priority.

12. comics (Paragraph G)

Mark Morris’s hugely popular work The Hard Nut includes sensational costumes and a stage design inspired by the comics he’d always enjoyed.

13. mirrors (Paragraph G)

In rehearsal his dancers have no mirrors, feeling their movements from within themselves, a break from traditional dance custom.

Reading Passage 2

14. B (Paragraph B)

It is almost impossible to imitate laughter; even trained actors struggle to mimic a laugh convincingly.

15. A (Paragraph A)

All the studies show that we laugh more frequently than we realise.

16. D (Paragraph D)

In general, however, it is possible for most people to suppress laughter in circumstances where it would be inappropriate.

17. A (Paragraph A)

It has also been established that laughter improves cardiovascular function, boosts the immune system and releases beneficial hormones into the bloodstream.

18. C (Paragraph C)

There is a rare neurological disorder named aphonogelia that prevents some people from laughing out loud.

19. D (Paragraph E)

Intrigued, Mackenzie conducted an international online survey to establish exactly what makes people laugh and what doesn’t, and was surprised by the diverse and often contradictory variety of topics and scenarios.

20. C (Paragraph C)

Heinrich Ahrends has studied many such ancient sources and concluded that tastes in jokes have evolved markedly with the passing of the centuries.

21. E (Paragraph E)

Making jokes for a living is a serious business. You need to be a psychologist and social commentator, be empathetic, self-aware, observant, stubborn and have great timing.

22. B (Paragraph B)

There is a widespread belief outside the scientific community that we laugh because something is humorous. While this is true, just as commonly the real purpose of laughter is to promote bonding.

23. eyes (Paragraph B)

No crow's feet appear if the smile is put on.

24. book (Paragraph C)

A long and detailed joke book called The Laughter Lover, which was written in ancient Rome, still exists today.

25. school (Paragraph D)

In January 1962 in Tanzania contagious laughter spread through a group of students. Ninety-five pupils were affected.

26. crying (Paragraph E)

She hopes her work may provide further insights to explain the processes involved when laughter occurs simultaneously with other, seemingly contradictory emotions, such as crying.

Reading Passage 3

27. YES (Paragraph D)

This common generalisation overlooks the significant contribution of Muhammad Yunus.

28. NO (Paragraph D)

His cynical view is disproved by the evidence.

29. NOT GIVEN (Paragraph D)

The Quorate Group has conducted extensive research into the impact of SRBs, but there is no indication that it operates as an SRB itself.

30. NO (Paragraph D)

Firms like Concern Consultancy will almost inevitably multiply.

31. YES (Paragraph D)

Professor Drew’s persuasive analysis links the rise of SRBs to the digital revolution.

32. F (Paragraph D)

Renew has built a profitable enterprise by designing affordable furniture using salvaged materials.

33. D (Paragraph D)

Indulge is a community hub, offering a meeting place for local residents and running workshops, film evenings, and art exhibitions.

34. H (Paragraph D)

Some corporations contribute staff time to the Green Scheme, where employees volunteer to plant trees and restore local ecosystems.

35. A (Paragraph D)

Johann Jensen is developing new biodegradable materials from bamboo and soya beans.

36. C (Paragraph D)

Greener Good provides fresh produce, ensuring local communities have access to high-quality vegetables and fruits.

37. C (Paragraph D)

Both businesses and consumers have played a role in driving the rise of SRBs, influencing each other’s decisions.

38. B (Paragraph D)

Mitchell’s role as a procurement officer highlights how local, state, and national governments support SRBs through purchasing decisions.

39. A (Paragraph D)

While environmental protection is the most common goal, it would be good to see greater diversity as the SRB concept evolves.

40. D (Paragraph D)

Despite these challenges, SRBs can overcome their difficulties through increased professionalism and business school education.

Practice Test 6

Reading Passage 1

1. FALSE (Paragraph 1)

Much of this destruction is fuelled by the cultivation of the country's main staple crop: rice. And a key reason for this destruction is that insect pests are destroying vast quantities of what is grown by local subsistence farmers, leading them to clear forest to create new paddy fields.

2. FALSE (Paragraph 1)

The result is devastating habitat and biodiversity loss on the island, but not all species are suffering. In fact, some of the island's insectivorous bats are currently thriving.

3. NOT GIVEN (Paragraph Not mentioned)

No information about Rocha’s studies outside Madagascar

4. TRUE (Paragraph 4)

Co-leading an international team of scientists, Rocha found that several species of indigenous bats are taking advantage of habitat modification to hunt insects swarming above the country's rice fields.

5. NOT GIVEN (Paragraph Not mentioned)

The passage lists it as one of several species but does not compare their numbers.

6. TRUE (Paragraph 5)

We found that six species of bat are preying on rice pests, including the paddy swarming caterpillar and grass webworm.

7. droppings (Paragraph 7)

They next used DNA barcoding techniques to analyse droppings collected from bats at the different sites.

8. coffee (Paragraph 8)

While the findings indicated that rice farming benefits most from the bats, the scientists also found indications that the bats were consuming pests of other crops, including the black twig borer (which infests coffee plants), the sugarcane cicada, the macadamia nut-borer, and the sober tabby (a pest of citrus fruits).

9. mosquitoes (Paragraph 9)

Rocha and his team found evidence that Malagasy bats feed not just on crop pests but also on mosquitoes – carriers of malaria, Rift Valley fever virus and elephantiasis – as well as blackflies, which spread river blindness.

10. protein (Paragraph 10)

When food is scarce, bats become a crucial source of protein for local people.

11. unclean (Paragraph 10)

Even the children will hunt them. And as well as roosting in trees, the bats sometimes roost in buildings, but are not welcomed there because they make them unclean.

12. culture (Paragraph 10)

At the same time, however, they are associated with sacred caves and the ancestors, so they can be viewed as beings between worlds, which makes them very significant in the culture of the people.

13. houses (Paragraph 10)

With the right help, we hope that farmers can promote this mutually beneficial relationship by installing bat houses.

Reading Passage 2

14. E (Paragraph E)

One way to look at whether education causes economic growth is to 'hold wealth constant'. This involves following the lives of different people with the same level of wealth over a period of time.

15. A (Paragraph A)

It includes court records, guild ledgers, parish registers, village censuses, tax lists and - the most recent addition - 9,000 handwritten inventories listing over a million personal possessions belonging to ordinary women and men across three centuries.

16. D (Paragraph D)

The database also reveals the case of Juliana Schweickherdt, a 50-year-old spinster living in the small Black Forest community of Wildberg, who was reprimanded in 1752 by the local weavers' guild for 'weaving cloth and combing wool, counter to the guild ordinance'.

17. F (Paragraph F)

'German-speaking central Europe is an excellent laboratory for testing theories of economic growth,' she explains.

18. C (Paragraph C)

From badger skins to Bibles, sewing machines to scarlet bodices - the villagers' entire worldly goods are included.

19. descendants (Paragraph D)

We can follow the same people – and their descendants - across 300 years of educational and economic change.

20. sermon (Paragraph D)

Ana Regina and Magdalena Riethmüllerin, who were chastised in 1707 for reading books in church instead of listening to the sermon.

21. fine (Paragraph E)

She was summoned before the guild court and told to pay a fine equivalent to one third of a servant's annual wage.

22. innovation (Paragraph E)

The dominance of guilds not only prevented people from using their skills, but also held back even the simplest industrial innovation.

23. B (Paragraph B)

During this period, Germany and Scandinavia had excellent literacy rates, but their economies grew slowly and they industrialised late.

24. E (Paragraph B)

Modern cross-country analyses have also struggled to find evidence that education causes economic growth, even though there is plenty of evidence that growth increases education.

25. B (Paragraph F)

In villages throughout the region, guilds blocked labour migration and resisted changes that might reduce their influence.

26. D (Paragraph F)

It was also the case that local guilds and merchant associations were extremely powerful and legislated against anything that undermined their monopolies.

Reading Passage 3

27. D (Paragraph D)

To the uninitiated, blindfold chess seems to call for superhuman skill. But displays of the feat go back centuries. The first recorded game in Europe was played in 13th-century Florence.

28. E (Paragraph E)

Accomplished players can develop the skill of playing blind even without realising it. The nature of the game is to run through possible moves in the mind to see how they play out.

29. F (Paragraph F)

He was not exceptional on any of these standard tests, said Rissman. We didn't find anything other than playing chess that he seems to be supremely gifted at.

30. B (Paragraph B)

In the hope of understanding how he and others like him can perform such mental feats, researchers at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) called him in for tests.

31. H (Paragraph H)

The most important part of blindfold chess for me is that I have found the one thing that I can fully dedicate myself to.

32. E (Paragraph E)

But the ends of games are taxing too, as exhaustion sets in. When Gareyev is tired, his recall can get patchy.

33. FALSE (Paragraph A)

While his challengers will play the games as normal, Gareyev himself will be blindfolded.

34. NOT GIVEN (Paragraph A)

He has a fondness for bright clothes and unusual hairstyles, and he gets his kicks from the adventure sport of BASE jumping.

35. NOT GIVEN (Paragraph B)

In the hope of understanding how he and others like him can perform such mental feats, researchers at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) called him in for tests.

36. TRUE (Paragraph E)

A lot of players are capable of doing what I'm doing.

37. memory (Paragraph F)

The scientists first had Gareyev perform some standard memory tests.

38. numbers (Paragraph F)

One classic test measures how many numbers a person can repeat, both forwards and backwards, soon after hearing them.

39. communication (Paragraph G)

The scans found much greater than average communication between parts of Gareyev's brain that make up what is called the frontoparietal control network.

40. visual (Paragraph G)

The scans also suggest that Gareyev’s visual network is more highly connected to other brain parts than usual.

Advanced Reading Lesson 4

Practice Test 7

Reading Passage 1

1. TRUE (Paragraph 1)

Although her university degree merely touched on the Roman occupation of ancient Britain, providing a very general overview of everyday activities...

2. NOT GIVEN (Paragraph 2)

Durrand had previously worked on other projects where pieces of ancient pottery and the discovery of an old sword had led archaeologists to unearth sizeable Roman settlements.

3. NOT GIVEN (Paragraph 1)

Despite their discoloration, Katherine had no doubt they were historically significant. The passage states that Sheen recognized the coins as historically significant but does not mention whether she considered them financially valuable.

4. FALSE (Paragraph 2)

As the team continued their work, they looked for evidence that might indicate whether the villa had been attacked and purposely demolished, or fallen into such a poor state that it eventually collapsed. Looking at the way a set of slate roof tiles had fallen to the ground, they decided on the latter.

5. NOT GIVEN (Paragraph 2)

Another find was six blue beads, crafted from glass, which the archaeologists speculated were part of a necklace. Durrand has previously found gold bracelets on other sites, but for him the beads are no less significant.

6. FALSE (Paragraph 3)

On one is carved what the archaeologists made out to be a Latin inscription. But as the stone itself has endured centuries of erosion, the team has yet to work out what it says.

7. TRUE (Paragraph 3)

From this, Durrand assumes that a bath house would have been a feature of the villa.

8. twigs (Paragraph 4)

The furnace that produced the hot air needed to be kept burning all the time, a task that would have fallen to the villa’s slaves. As large branches would have taken too long to produce the heat required, it is more likely that twigs would have been gathered from surrounding woodland instead.

9. distribution (Paragraph 4)

The gap this created meant that the hot air coming out of the furnace was not trapped and restricted. Instead, its distribution around the pilae and under the floor was free flowing.

10. concrete (Paragraph 4)

Floor tiles were not placed directly onto the pilae but separated by a layer of concrete, or at least a primitive version of it.

11. hollow bricks (Paragraph 4)

The walls of the rooms above the heating system were made of bricks, but the key point here is that they were hollow, in order to allow heat to rise around the rooms and provide insulation.

12. gas (Paragraph 5)

The principal reason for including the pipes was to let out air through a vent in the roof once it had cooled down. What the Romans may not have realised, however, was that gas produced by the burning fuel was expelled in this way too. In high doses, it could have been lethal if it had leaked into the upper levels.

13. indoor climate (Paragraph 5)

Inside the rooms in the villa, a layer of plaster would have been applied to the walls and painted in rich colours. Sadly, none of the original plaster at Hensham still exists. However, some of the tiles that the family would have walked on have survived. They would certainly have felt warm underfoot and helped generate an indoor climate that the family could relax in.

Reading Passage 2

14. C (Paragraph C)

According to Professor Richard Wiseman, it appears that adults typically tell two major lies per day, and that one-third of adult conversations contain an element of dishonesty.

15. E (Paragraph E)

As part of his research into deception, he has invited a range of experts to view videos of people telling lies and of others telling the truth... None of these experts have shown they can detect dishonestly any better than people without their experience.

16. F (Paragraph F)

Liars also put some psychological distance between themselves and their lies. For that reason, they avoid the use of 'I' when narrating their stories. The reverse is true, however, when people write fake reviews.

17. D (Paragraph D)

By far the most common is our desire to cover up our own wrongdoing. Second to this are lies we tell to gain economic advantage... Interestingly, 'white lies'... account only for a small percentage of our untruths.

18. B (Paragraph B)

Secret cameras showed that 30% of two-year-old children lied about not looking. This went up to 50% for three-year-olds and almost 80% of eight-year-olds.

19. C (Tali Sharot) (Paragraph C)

She has found that while we might initially experience a sense of shame about small lies, this feeling eventually wears off. The result, Sharot has found, is that we progress to more serious ones.

20. A (Karen Goodger) (Paragraph D)

Professor Goodger thinks it has something to do with our strong desire for certain information we hear to be true, even when we might suspect it isn't. This is because we might be 'comforted by others' lies or excited by the promise of a good outcome'.

21. A (Karen Goodger) (Paragraph A)

People use words to lie, but for animals with higher brain functions, there's also a higher probability that they'll demonstrate manipulative behaviours.

22. B (Kang Lee) (Paragraph B)

Lee is reassured by this trend, seeing it as evidence in each case that the cognitive growth of a human child is progressing as it should.

23. gesture (Paragraph F)

A common claim, for example, is that liars won't look people in the eye during their explanations or while being questioned. Another is that they are likely to gesture as they tell their story.

24. details (Paragraph F)

A difficulty that liars face is having to remember exactly what they said, which is why they don't provide as many details as a person giving an honest account would.

25. stage (Paragraph F)

It is also typical of liars to mentally rehearse their story, and this is why one stage follows another in apparently chronological fashion.

26. still (Paragraph F)

Recent research has also disproved the widely believed notion that liars have a habit of fidgeting in their seats. Rather, it seems that they keep still, especially in the upper body, possibly hoping to give the impression of self-assurance.

Reading Passage 3

27. A (Paragraph 1)

Forests and the trees that form them are commonly perceived as objects lacking awareness, like rocks or stones. But here, Wohlleben would beg to differ. From his observations, he has concluded that they are conscious in a way we do not fully understand.

28. C (Paragraph 2)

What sets it apart is its approach to description: at the start Wohlleben announces that 'When you know the trees... have memories and that tree parents live together with their children, then you can no longer just chop them down.' Not everyone will be comfortable with this kind of anthropomorphism.

29. B (Paragraph 3)

But after a while he began to appreciate trees for more than just their commercial worth. He gives some of the credit for this realisation to the tourists that would come to the forest, who were more enchanted by bent, crooked, which did not conform to the straight ideal.

30. B (Paragraph 4)

More than anything else, it was this encounter that prompted him to look further into the hidden behaviour of trees.

31. NO (Paragraph 5)

Simard’s findings made complete sense to Wohlleben, who believes that this kind of nutrient exchange between neighbours is typical of a healthy forest.

32. YES (Paragraph 5)

Discussions with them reinforced his beliefs about the way trees thrived...

33. NOT GIVEN (Paragraph 5)

He finally succeeded in persuading local villagers that the forest should be allowed to return to a natural state: this involved banning the use of machinery for logging, and giving up on pesticides for a start.

34. NOT GIVEN (Paragraph 5)

Humour and straightforward narrative make it instantly appealing to readers without a science background - elements that have successfully been translated into over a dozen languages.

35. YES (Paragraph 6)

Critics of Wohlleben point out that proper academic studies need to be done to prove all his claims are factually accurate.

36. NO (Paragraph 6)

Will it transform the way we produce timber for the manufacturing industry? As large corporations tend to focus on immediate profits, they are hardly likely to adopt the longer-term practices that Wohlleben recommends.

37. E (Paragraph 7)

But Wohlleben claims this spacing prevents vital root interaction, and so lowers resistance to drought.

38. F (Paragraph 7)

For instance, when pines require more nitrogen, the fungi growing at their base release a poison into the soil... this is absorbed by the trees' roots. In return, the fungi receive photosynthesised sugar from pines.

39. A (Paragraph 7)

Then Wohlleben explores the way trees employ scent, giving the example of acacia trees in sub-Saharan Africa. When giraffes begin feeding on an acacia’s leaves, the tree emits ethylene gas as a warning to neighbouring acacias.

40. B (Paragraph 7)

Although scientific research has now established that if branches are broken off or the trunk is hit with an axe, a tree will emit electrical signals from the site of the wound...

Practice Test 8

Reading Passage 1

1. **(**deer) antlers (Paragraph 2)

First, Neolithic Britons used primitive tools, which may have been fashioned out of deer antlers, to dig a massive circular ditch and bank, or henge.

2. **(**timber) posts (Paragraph 2)

Deep pits dating back to that era and located within the circle may have once held a ring of timber posts, according to some scholars.

3. tree trunks (Paragraph 4)

According to one long-standing theory among archaeologists, Stonehenge's builders fashioned sledges and rollers out of tree trunks to lug the bluestones from the Preseli Hills.

4. oxen (Paragraph 4)

More recent archaeological hypotheses have them transporting the bluestones with supersized wicker baskets on a combination of ball bearings and long grooved planks, hauled by oxen.

5. glaciers (Paragraph 5)

Some scientists have suggested that it was glaciers, not humans, that carried the bluestones to Salisbury Plain.

6. druids (Paragraph 7)

In the 17th century, archaeologist John Aubrey made the claim that Stonehenge was the work of druids, who had important religious, judicial and political roles in Celtic society.

7. burial ground (Paragraph 9)

While there is consensus among the majority of modern scholars that Stonehenge once served the function of burial ground, they have yet to determine what other purposes it had.

8. calendar (Paragraph 10)

In the 1960s, the astronomer Gerald Hawkins suggested that the cluster of megalithic stones operated as a form of calendar, with different points corresponding to astrological phenomena such as solstices, equinoxes and eclipses occurring at different times of the year.

9. TRUE (Paragraph 6)

At this point, sandstone slabs known as 'sarsens' - were arranged into an outer crescent or ring; some were assembled into the iconic three-pieced structures called trilithons that stand tall in the centre of Stonehenge.

10. FALSE (Paragraph 6)

Radiocarbon dating has revealed that work continued at Stonehenge until roughly 1600 BCE, with the bluestones in particular being repositioned multiple times.

11. FALSE (Paragraph 7)

However, in the mid-20th century, radiocarbon dating demonstrated that Stonehenge stood more than 1,000 years before the Celts inhabited the region.

12. TRUE (Paragraph 8)

Many modern historians and archaeologists now agree that several distinct tribes of people contributed to Stonehenge, each undertaking a different phase of its construction. Bones, tools and other artefacts found on the site seem to support this hypothesis.

13. NOT GIVEN (Paragraph 10)

While his theory has received a considerable amount of attention over the decades, critics maintain that Stonehenge's builders probably lacked the knowledge necessary to predict such events or that England's dense cloud cover would have obscured their view of the skies.

Reading Passage 2

14. C (Paragraph 1)

But many experts believe this restriction is very temporary. By mid-century, we may have artificial general intelligence (AGI) – machines that can achieve human-level performance on the full range of tasks that we ourselves can tackle. If so, there's little reason to think it will stop there.

15. A (Paragraph 2)

Machines will be free of many of the physical constraints on human intelligence. Our brains run at slow biochemical processing speeds on the power of a light bulb, and their size is restricted by the dimensions of the human birth canal.

16. B (Paragraph 3)

Folklore is full of tales of people who ask for the wrong thing, with disastrous consequences – King Midas, for example, might have wished that everything he touched turned to gold, but didn't really intend this to apply to his breakfast.

17. D (Paragraph 4)

So we need to create powerful AI machines that are 'human-friendly' – that have goals reliably aligned with our own values. One thing that makes this task difficult is that we are far from reliably human-friendly ourselves.

18. C (Paragraph 5)

For safety’s sake, then, we want the machines to be ethically as well as cognitively superhuman. If there are routes to the moral high ground, they’ll be better than us at finding them, and steering us in the right direction.

19. D (Paragraph 6)

However, there are two big problems with this utopian vision. One is how we get the machines started on the journey, the other is what it would mean to reach this destination... We often ignore the suffering of strangers, and even contribute to it, at least indirectly. How then, do we point machines in the direction of something better?

20. YES (Paragraph 7)

Machines who are better than us at sticking to the moral high ground may be expected to discourage some of the lapses we presently take for granted. We might lose our freedom to discriminate in favour of our own communities, for example.

21. NOT GIVEN (Paragraph 8)

They might be so good at doing it that we won’t notice them; but few of us are likely to welcome such a future.

22. NO (Paragraph 9)

But are we ready for ethical silicon police limiting our options? They might be so good at doing it that we won’t notice them; but few of us are likely to welcome such a future.

23. YES (Paragraph 10)

For our own safety, we need to point these new thinkers in the right direction, and get them to act well for us. It is not yet clear whether this is possible, but if it is, it will require a cooperative spirit, and a willingness to set aside self-interest.

24. C (Paragraph 11)

AI already has some input into how resources are used in our National Health Service (NHS) here in the UK.

25. A (Paragraph 11)

However, we’d be depriving some humans (e.g. senior doctors) of the control they presently enjoy.

26. E (Paragraph 11)

However, we’d be depriving some humans (e.g. senior doctors) of the control they presently enjoy.

Reading Passage 3

27. NOT GIVEN (Paragraph 1)

The word 'genius' is universally associated with the name of Leonardo da Vinci.

28. NOT GIVEN (Paragraph 2)

Today, the world is on the cusp of a climate crisis, which is predicted to cause widespread displacement, extinctions and death, if left unaddressed.

29. TRUE (Paragraph 2)

Then, as now, radical solutions were called for to revolutionise the way people lived and safeguard humanity against catastrophe.

30. FALSE (Paragraph 3)

Following a typical Renaissance trend, he began to work on an 'ideal city' project, which - due to its excessive costs - would remain unfulfilled.

31. TRUE (Paragraph 3)

Yet given that unsustainable urban models are a key cause of global climate change today, it's only natural to wonder how Leonardo might have changed the shape of modern cities.

32. NOT GIVEN (Paragraph 4)

These works surely inspired Leonardo's decision to rethink the design of medieval cities, with their winding and overcrowded streets and with houses piled against one another.

33. FALSE (Paragraph 5)

It is not easy to identify a coordinated vision of Leonardo's ideal city because of his disordered way of working with notes and sketches.

34. transport (Paragraph 5)

He designed the city for the easy transport of goods and clean urban spaces.

35. staircases (Paragraph 6)

Leonardo wanted the city to be built on several levels, linked with vertical outdoor staircases.

36. engineering (Paragraph 7)

But the true originality of Leonardo's vision was its fusion of architecture and engineering. Leonardo designed extensive hydraulic plants to create artificial canals throughout the city.

37. rule (Paragraph 7)

Leonardo also thought that the width of the streets ought to match the average height of the adjacent houses: a rule still followed in many contemporary cities across Italy.

38. Roman (Paragraph 8)

Although some of these features existed in Roman cities, before Leonardo's drawings there had never been a multi-level, compact modern city which was thoroughly technically conceived.

39. Paris (Paragraph 8)

Indeed, it wasn't until the 19th century that some of his ideas were applied. For example, the subdivision of the city by function ... is an idea that can be found in Georges-Eugène Haussmann's renovation of Paris under Emperor Napoleon III between 1853 and 1870.

40. outwards (Paragraph 9)

Many scholars think that the compact city, built upwards instead of outwards, integrated with nature (especially water systems), with efficient transport infrastructure, could help modern cities become more efficient and sustainable.

Advanced Reading Lesson 5

Practice Test 9

Reading Passage 1

1. FALSE (First paragraph)

Still today, 80% of houses in the USA are built of wood. In Australia the proportion is slightly smaller...

2. TRUE (First paragraph)

Certainly, there are problems associated with wooden constructions: wood can rot when exposed to water and is said to be a fire risk. However, with modern technology these issues can be eliminated...

3. NOT GIVEN (Second paragraph)

No mention of different species of tree being used, only that the structure is made of wood.

4. TRUE (Second paragraph)

Many of these advances have been made possible by research at the Technical Institute in Graz, Austria, where new engineering systems based on wood construction have been pioneered.

5. glue (Third paragraph)

The first stage in the construction of the building saw large planks of Douglas fir being fastened to one another with glue, which these days can be stronger than nails or screws.

6. lasers (Third paragraph)

These sheets then had to be precision cut to create the thousands of columns and beams necessary—the team employed lasers for this purpose.

7. cake (Third paragraph)

The building was constructed one storey at a time, layer upon layer, not unlike the system used to make a large cake.

8. recycled (Third paragraph)

When the Wood Innovation and Design Centre eventually has to be demolished, it will be possible for its principal building material to be recycled.

9. major repairs (Fourth paragraph)

One thing that has been learned from maintaining the Höryü-ji Temple over many centuries is that it is often simpler to make major repairs to wooden structures than to those made of concrete and steel.

10. regulations (Fourth paragraph)

Until quite recently, regulations in Japan have made the construction of very large wooden structures difficult. However, in recognition of new technologies, these are being relaxed by the government, with the result that ever more ambitious projects are being announced.

11. attractive interiors (Fifth paragraph)

Engineers in New Zealand believe that wood construction can significantly improve building safety in the event of a natural disaster, as has been demonstrated at the new Wynn Williams House. The wood has been left exposed inside the house to showcase how this type of construction provides attractive interiors as well.

12. water (Fifth paragraph)

In Australia, the benefits of light weight have been taken advantage of in the city of Melbourne, where a large wooden library has been constructed directly beside water, on land so soft that a heavier building would have been impossible.

13. heat insulation (Fifth paragraph)

In Finland, where winter temperatures can fall to -30°C, wood provides all the load-bearing structures for the Puukuokka Block, but also guarantees excellent heat insulation as well.

Reading Passage 2

14. iii (Paragraph A)

AI is now enabling an alternative approach to coaching... Computers are being trained to understand the rules and objectives of sports so they can coach more directly.

15. vii (Paragraph B)

A research experiment was conducted into the Spanish football league using an AI algorithm to analyse the passing strategies of 20 teams.

16. iv (Paragraph C)

Professor of sports education Rebecca Graves believes that AI can provide coaches with invaluable insights.

17. viii (Paragraph D)

Coaching practices in professional basketball, American football and tennis are also being transformed by AI.

18. vi (Paragraph E)

Henri Simeonson... is particularly worried that AI is vulnerable to hackers, who might be able to influence the outcome of a tournament.

19. i (Paragraph F)

Baseball is keeping supporters informed with all the up-to-the-minute developments... These initiatives are crucial to increasing a player or team's revenue stream.

20-21. B, E (Paragraph C)

Professor Graves argues that AI allows preparations for a match to be tailored to individual players with much greater precision.

22. injuries (Paragraph B)

Dr Johann Muller... found that the number of injuries a team suffers increases when they play in a style that prioritises offence.

23. sneakers (Paragraph D)

An Indian company has employed wearable technology developed in other fields to analyse stride patterns.”

24. safety (Paragraph D)

Coaches involved in the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) believe that AI algorithms not only help drivers go faster but also enhance the safety of the sport.

25. hackers (Paragraph E)

Henri Simeonson... is particularly worried that AI is vulnerable to hackers, who might be able to influence the outcome of a tournament.

26. journalism (Paragraph F)

Minor League Baseball... is promoting the sport and seeking new fans with the use of AI-enhanced journalism.

Reading Passage 3

27. NO (Paragraph 1)

Crime fiction books, in which detectives hunt for the perpetrators of crimes, have been popular with readers for many decades—so popular, in fact, that at a recent London Book Fair sales of the genre overtook general fiction for the first time ever, a development that had been widely anticipated.

28. YES (Paragraph 1)

Prominent in this group is Sebastian Franklin, who has argued that most crime fiction books better resemble crossword puzzles than literature. His view is shared by other literary critics.

29. NOT GIVEN (Paragraph 2)

Crime writing really came to prominence in the 1920s and 30s with the books of the British author Agatha Christie, and to a slightly lesser extent the American James M. Cain. (No mention of whether they admired each other.)

30. YES (Paragraph 2)

However, the majority of the general public have never picked up one of her books and are more familiar with Christie from the numerous adaptations of her work for films.

31. YES (Paragraph 2)

The colourful locations around the world where Christie set many of her stories were not fictional depictions, but were informed by her extensive travels, on the Orient Express train, to Cairo and the River Nile, and elsewhere.

32. NOT GIVEN (Paragraph 2)

Success brought Christie considerable wealth and international fame, though she never lost her appetite for work, continuing writing and publishing until shortly before her death in 1976. (No mention of whether she enjoyed it.)

33. D (Paragraph 3)

Without doubt there are certain elements that tend to be repeated in Christie's books... The location is often a confined space of some sort: a train, an island, a boat, an isolated house or a village.

34. A (Paragraph 4)

The writer Michael Utley argues that Christie's characters lack depth and are not convincing people we can believe in. This is a not infrequent complaint, but it is quite untrue.

35. C (Paragraph 5)

It is worth reading a Christie book a second time just to notice how carefully she hides crucial information about the criminal's identity. It was there all along, but we just fail to see it because she has created such tension and so many exciting distractions.

36. B (Paragraph 6)

Certainly, the digital revolution has transformed crime fighting. But a survey of contemporary crime writing shows that Agatha Christie's legacy is more important now than at any time previously.

37. E (Paragraph 2)

Her memoir, Come, Tell Me How You Live, published in 1946, is a non-fiction account of these real-life travels, so is unique among Christie's publications.

38. F (Paragraph 4)

Her very first book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, features the amateur detective Hercule Poirot.

39. C (Paragraph 4)

The survey asked readers to identify the villain revealed in the final pages of Christie's sixteenth book, Murder on the Orient Express. Most readers could not recall, because for them the really important aspect of the book had been the interplay between the characters, not the outcome.

40. D (Paragraph 6)

If we take just one of her books, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, we find near perfect examples of conventions that are still used today... Perhaps this is why Christie herself is believed to have ranked The Murder of Roger Ackroyd above all her other work.

Practice Test 10

Reading Passage 1

1. D (Paragraph D)

Other considerations include installing drainage paths, meeting health and safety requirements and perhaps allowing access for the public, as well as planning restrictions and disruption from regular activities in and around the buildings during installation.

2. C (Paragraph C)

Toronto, Canada, has policies dating from the 1990s, encouraging the development of urban farms on rooftops.

3. E (Paragraph E)

The success stories need to be studied and replicated elsewhere, to make green, blue, brown and food-producing roofs the norm in cities around the world.

4. B (Paragraph B)

Ongoing research is showcasing how green roofs in cities can integrate with 'living walls' [...] Research also indicates that green roofs can be integrated with drainage systems on the ground, such as street trees, so that the water is managed better and the built environment is made more sustainable.

5. D (Paragraph D)

To convince investors and developers that installing green roofs is worthwhile, economic arguments are still the most important.

6. energy (Paragraph A)

Among the benefits are saving on energy costs, mitigating the risk of floods, making habitats for urban wildlife.

7. food (Paragraph A)

Rooftops covered with grass, vegetable gardens and lush foliage are now a common sight in many cities around the world.

8. gardening (Paragraph B)

Doctors are increasingly prescribing time spent gardening outdoors for patients dealing with anxiety and depression.

9. obesity (Paragraph B)

And research has found that access to even the most basic green spaces can provide a better quality of life for dementia sufferers and help people avoid obesity.

10. 11. C (Paragraph C)

Being able to keep enough water at roof height and distribute it right across the rooftop is crucial to maintaining the plants on any green roof. And it's much easier to do this in newer buildings, which can typically hold greater weight, than to retro-fit old ones.

12. 13. A (Paragraph E)

For example, 'blue roofs' enable buildings to hold water over longer periods of time, rather than draining it away quickly – crucial in times of heavier rainfall. There are also combinations of green roofs with solar panels, and 'brown roofs' which are wilder in nature and maximise biodiversity.

Reading Passage 2

14. B (Paragraph A)

Then, in the early 20th century, progressive thinkers revolted against the notion that inherent ability is destiny. Instead, educators such as John Dewey argued that every child's intelligence could be developed, given the right environment.

15. C (Paragraph B)

A major focus of the growth mindset in schools is coaxing students away from seeing failure as an indication of their ability, and towards seeing it as a chance to improve that ability.

16. D (Paragraph C)

This group had inferred that success or failure is due to innate ability, and this 'fixed mindset' had led them to fear of failure and lack of effort.

17. C (Andrew Gelman) (Paragraph E)

The statistician Andrew Gelman claims that 'their research designs have enough degrees of freedom that they could take their data to support just about any theory at all'.

18. B (Carol Dweck) (Paragraph F)

In fact, she argues that her work has been misunderstood and misapplied in a range of ways.

19. A (Alfred Binet) (Paragraph A)

Psychologist Alfred Binet, the developer of the first intelligence tests, was one of many 19th-century scientists who held that earlier view and sought to quantify cognitive ability.

20. E (David Yeager and Gregory Walton) (Paragraph G)

Growth mindset supporters David Yeager and Gregory Walton claim that interventions should be delivered in a subtle way to maximise their effectiveness.

21. B (Carol Dweck) (Paragraph F)

For me the growth mindset is a tool for learning and improvement. It's not just a vehicle for making children feel good.

22. D (Timothy Bates) (Paragraph E)

Professor of Psychology Timothy Bates, who has been trying to replicate Dweck's work, is finding that the results are repeatedly null. He notes that: 'People with a growth mindset don't cope any better with failure ... Kids with the growth mindset aren't getting better grades, either before or after our intervention study.'

23. YES (Paragraph F)

Much of this criticism is not lost on Dweck, and she deserves great credit for responding to it and adapting her work accordingly.

24. NO (Paragraph H)

There is a strong correlation between self-perception and achievement, but there is evidence to suggest that the actual effect of achievement on self-perception is stronger than the other way round.

25. NOT GIVEN (Not mentioned)

Not found

26. YES (Paragraph H)

Paradoxically, however, that aspiration is not well served by direct interventions that try to instil it.

Reading Passage 3

27. YES (Introduction)

His book on the subject, The Origin of Continents and Oceans, went through four editions and was the focus of an international controversy in his lifetime and for some years after his death.

28. NOT GIVEN (Not explicitly stated)

Not provided in the passage

29. NO (Second paragraph)

Wegener showed in great detail how such continental movements were plausible and how they worked, using evidence from a large number of sciences including geology, geophysics, paleontology, and climatology.

30. NO (Second paragraph)

Plate tectonics is in many respects quite different from Wegener's proposal, in the same way that modern evolutionary theory is very different from the ideas Charles Darwin proposed in the 1850s about biological evolution.

31. I (Fourth paragraph)

One of the most intriguing things about him for me was that, although he came up with a theory on continental drift, he was not a geologist.

32. F (Third paragraph)

He trained as an astronomer and pursued a career in atmospheric physics.

33. A (Third paragraph)

When he proposed the theory of continental displacements in 1912, he was a lecturer in physics and astronomy at the University of Marburg, in southern Germany. However, he was not an 'unknown'.

34. C (Third paragraph)

In 1906 he had set a world record (with his brother Kurt) for time aloft in a hot-air balloon: 52 hours.

35. H (Third paragraph)

Between 1906 and 1908 he had taken part in a highly publicized and extremely dangerous expedition to the coast of northeast Greenland.

36. E (Third paragraph)

He had also made a name for himself amongst a small circle of meteorologists and atmospheric physicists in Germany as the author of a textbook, Thermodynamics of the Atmosphere (1911).

37. B (Fifth paragraph)

My own feeling, however, is that the parts do not make as much sense on their own as do all of his activities taken together. In this respect I urge readers to try to experience Wegener's life as he lived it.

38. A (Sixth paragraph)

He was not active (with a few exceptions) in scientific societies, and did not seek to find influence or advance his ideas through professional contacts and politics, spending most of his time at home in his study reading and writing, or in the field collecting observations.”

39. D (Seventh paragraph)

Some famous scientists, such as Newton, Darwin, and Einstein, left mountains of written material behind, hundreds of notebooks and letters numbering in the tens of thousands.

40. C (Final paragraph)

I am firmly of the opinion that most of us, Wegener included, are not in any real sense the authors of our own lives. We plan, think, and act, often with apparent freedom, but most of the time our lives 'happen to us'.

Advanced Reading Lesson 6

Practice Test 11

Reading Passage 1

1. 1,000 (First paragraph)

With very little rainfall during summer, this reduced to around 1,000, still a remarkable size.

2. birds (First paragraph)

Today the consequences of Lake Poopo’s disappearance are dramatic; many people who lived in the villages around it have left, since there are no more fish to be caught. Environmentalists also point to the fact that the lake had been the stopover point for thousands of birds as they migrated to other regions.

3. cotton (Second paragraph)

But then water from these rivers was diverted for irrigation purposes. Rice is a crop that needs huge quantities of water to survive in desert areas.

4. salt (Second paragraph)

Because the floor of the lake is now exposed, the salt that lies there is often carried by the wind across a radius of 300 kilometres.

5. protein (Third paragraph)

Warming has disrupted its ecosystem, and fish numbers have dropped sharply. In turn, this decline in fish stocks has impacted on families living in villages and towns around the lake, since they have no other source of protein.

6. employment (Third paragraph)

Furthermore, around 100,000 people depend on the fisheries established around Lake Tanganyika. These companies provide them with regular employment, without which communities will not survive.

7. bacteria (Fourth paragraph)

However, the water now has a red tint. The reason for this is that bacteria quickly multiply in the warm waters of a shallow lake.

8. tourism (Fourth paragraph)

As a result, in the last decade, there has been a downturn in tourism in the area, an industry many people depended on.

9. TRUE (First paragraph)

While scientists had suspected that Poopo would eventually run dry, they didn’t expect that this would occur for at least another thousand years.

10. NOT GIVEN (First paragraph)

The local mining industry had already contributed to the pollution of the lake, but scientists believe global warming, drought and irrigation projects are all responsible for its disappearance.

11. TRUE (Third paragraph)

On average, the surface water of the world’s lakes has gone up in temperature by 0.34°C every ten years since 1985... This would be Lake Fracksjön in Sweden, where an increase of 1.35°C per decade has been observed – a figure which is estimated to rise.

12. FALSE (Fifth paragraph)

The cause of the lake's decline has not yet been established, but drought is among the suspects.

13. NOT GIVEN (Fifth paragraph)

Clay, sand and other fine material plugged the hole and the lake started to fill with water again.

Reading Passage 2

14. D (Paragraph D)

If used in a different crop - one that already produces oil in its seeds or fruit - the hope is that oil output could be doubled, though that idea is yet to be put to the test.

15. E (Paragraph E)

This is a process which uses heat and pressure to break apart molecules in whole plants and remove oxygen, so that the raw material is turned to refine the crude oil is also refined. After this, it can then be turned into different kinds of fuel.

16. F (Paragraph F)

Hemp crops, for instance, could be used for their oil, but also for their fibre. Some car manufacturers have already used it as a soundproofing material in their vehicles, and others may do the same.

17. A (Paragraph A)

Fossil fuels we depend upon, and which drive global warming and disrupt weather patterns by releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

18. C (Paragraph C)

Not all biofuels have been grown on land, but the once-popular idea of generating them from microscopic algae grown in ponds or tanks has largely been forgotten.

19. D (Paragraph D)

While plant oils can be extracted and turned into biodiesel for vehicles and machinery, currently the process is very expensive – much more so than the process for fossil fuels.

20. B (Researcher B (Professor Rachel Burton))

Biofuels maybe don't need to be as cheap as we think they do, because you can make money out of the other things.

21. A (Researcher A (Professor Bill Laurance))

Indirect impacts can be no less devastating for the environment and are far more of a challenge to anticipate.

22. C (Researcher C (Dr Allan Green))

Eventually, the biofuel industry could well develop into a very diverse one, with no one crop or process dominating the market.

23. B (Researcher B (Professor Rachel Burton))

Burton and others are looking to tough plants that grow on land too dry or salty for conventional crops.

24. corn (Paragraph B)

When farmers in the US opted out of soy in favour of corn as a biofuel crop, soy prices soared, suddenly making it an attractive crop for Brazilian farmers.

25. biodiversity (Paragraph B)

But while deforestation can certainly lead to economic benefits for farmers, it also puts biodiversity at risk.

26. fertilizer (Paragraph B)

That means applying large quantities of fertilizer, and while this helps the plants to shoot up, there is also the possibility it will lead to the contamination of local rivers.

Reading Passage 3

27. YES (First paragraph)

Built around 3,500 years ago entirely from earth, it consists of six semi-circular ridges and five mounds.

28. NOT GIVEN (No information in the passage about it being the first of its kind.)

No information in the passage about it being the first of its kind.

29. NO (Paragraph 1)

But the creators of the Poverty Point monument were hunter-gatherers, who functioned in a more democratic way. They may have looked to elders for guidance, but these would not have exerted a commanding influence over their small groups.

30. NOT GIVEN (Paragraph 2)

Archaeologists have been excavating Poverty Point for more than a century. However, the truly remarkable nature of Mound A only emerged a few years ago.

31. YES (Paragraph 2)

However, the truly remarkable nature of Mound A only emerged a few years ago. This was when a team led by Tristram Kidder of Washington University drilled into the mound. They saw for the first time that it consisted of neat layers of differently coloured earth.

32. YES (Paragraph 2)

It rains a lot around Poverty Point, and we know that fluctuations in temperature and increased flooding eventually led to its abandonment.

33. B (emphasise the number of workers required to build the mound.) (Paragraph 3)

There were no trucks, of course, nor any other heavy machinery, animals like mule to carry the earth, or wheelbarrows. Assuming it did take 90 days, Kidder's group calculated that around 3,000 bucket-carrying individuals would have been needed to get the job done.

34. C (islanders stopped making statues when their lives became easier.) (Paragraph 4)

They argue further that by making statues, people's energy was directed into peaceful interactions and information-sharing. They ceased crafting statues, Lipo claims, precisely because daily existence became less of a challenge, and it was no longer so important that they work together.

35. D (the builders had no intention of creating permanent structures.) (Paragraph 5)

The apparent disposability of these monuments makes sense if the main aim was building a team rather than a lasting structure.

36. C (He doubts that Carl Lipo has identified the key reason for monument making.) (Paragraph 6)

The sceptics include Tristram Kidder. For him, the interesting question is not 'Did cooperative building promote group survival' but 'What did the builders think they were doing?'

37. D (Paragraph 7)

Another is 'leaving no trace', meaning that whatever festival-goers create they destroy before departing.

38. A (Paragraph 7)

Wilson says there is evidence that such cooperative ventures matter more today than ever because we are dependent on a wider range of people than our ancestors were. Food, education, security: all are provided by people beyond our family group.

39. F (Paragraph 7)

Recently, as part of his Neighbourhood Project in Binghamton, Wilson and his colleagues helped locals create their own parks. 'This brought people together and enabled them to cooperate in numerous other contexts,' he explains.

40. E (Paragraph 7)

Her research shows, for example, that they can help break down the ill-informed views that people hold towards others they have observed but do not usually interact with.

Practice Test 12

Reading Passage 1

1. FALSE (First paragraph)

Yet five years previously, he had been regarded as a talented outsider who entered but never won the major tournaments.

2. FALSE (Second paragraph)

Another change was so subtle as to pass more or less unnoticed.

3. NOT GIVEN (Third paragraph)

Touring professionals have their rackets customised to their specific needs.

4. FALSE (Third paragraph)

The rackets they use now weigh more than the average model.

5. NOT GIVEN (Fifth paragraph)

Racket modifications mainly date back to the 1970s, when the amateur German tennis player Werner Fischer started playing with the so-called spaghetti-strung racket.

6. TRUE (Sixth paragraph)

They will continually change it depending on various factors including the court surface, climatic conditions, and game styles.

7. TRUE (Eighth paragraph)

Much of the serving power of US professional player Pete Sampras was attributed to the addition of four to five lead weights onto his rackets.

8. paint (Third paragraph)

They explain how they have adjusted not only racket length, but even experimented with different kinds of paint.

9. topspin (Fifth paragraph)

It created a string bed that generated so much topspin that it was quickly banned.

10. training (Fifth paragraph)

Today it is, in many ways, an aspect of the game that is equal in significance to nutrition or training.

11. intestines / gut (Sixth paragraph)

At one time, all tennis rackets were strung with natural gut made from the outer layer of sheep or cow intestines.

12. weights (Eighth paragraph)

Much of the serving power of US professional player Pete Sampras was attributed to the addition of four to five lead weights onto his rackets.

13. grips (Eighth paragraph)

The professional Portuguese player Gonçalo Oliveira replaced the original grips of his rackets with something thinner because they had previously felt uncomfortable to hold.

Reading Passage 2

1. D (Paragraph D)

In the letters, the king of Alashiya (modern Cyprus) rejected Akhenaten's claims of a connection with the Lukka (based in modern-day Turkey). The king assured Akhenaten he was prepared to punish any of his subjects involved in piracy.

2. G (Paragraph G)

In 67 BCE, a new law granted Pompey vast funds to combat the Mediterranean menace. Taking personal command, Pompey divided the entire Mediterranean into 13 districts, assigning a fleet and commander to each. After cleansing one district of pirates, the fleet would join another in the next district.

3. C (Paragraph C)

One should also add that it was not unknown in the first and second millennia BCE for governments to resort to pirates' services, especially during wartime, employing their skills and numbers against their opponents.

4. A (Paragraph A)

When one mentions pirates, an image springs to most people's minds of a crew of misfits, daredevils and adventurers in command of a tall sailing ship in the Caribbean Sea.

5. G (Paragraph G)

Although thousands of pirates died at the hands of Pompey’s troops, as a long-term solution to the problem, many more were offered land in fertile areas located far from the sea.

6. B (Paragraph B)

Before the invention of ocean-going caravels in the 15th century, ships could not easily cross long distances over open water. Thus, in the ancient world most were restricted to a few well-known navigable routes that followed the coastline.

7. B (Paragraph B)

In addition, knowledge of the local area helped the pirates to avoid retaliation once a state fleet arrived.

8. D (Paragraph B)

In the ancient times, the inhabitants of these areas relied heavily on marine resources, including fish and salt.

9. C (Paragraph E)

Even high-ranking members of the state were not beyond engaging in such activities. According to the Greek orator Demosthenes, in 355 BCE, Athenian ambassadors made a detour from their official travel to capture a ship sailing from Egypt, taking the wealth found onboard for themselves!

10. E (Paragraph E)

Interestingly, in his works the Iliad and the Odyssey, the ancient Greek writer Homer not only condones, but praises the lifestyle and actions of pirates.

11. grain (Paragraph F)

Pirate attacks on grain ships, which were essential to Roman citizens, led to angry voices in the Senate, demanding punishment of the culprits.

12. punishment (Paragraph F)

Pirate attacks on grain ships, which were essential to Roman citizens, led to angry voices in the Senate, demanding punishment of the culprits.

13. ransom (Paragraph F)

By the 1st century BCE, emboldened pirates kidnapped prominent Roman dignitaries, asking for a large ransom to be paid.

Reading Passage 3

27. D (There may be a number of reasons for the spread of misinformation.) (First paragraph)

Deceiving others can offer an apparent opportunity to gain strategic advantage, to motivate others to action, or even to protect interpersonal bonds. Moreover, people inadvertently have been sharing inaccurate information with one another for thousands of years.

28. A (It may at some point provide us with a solution to misinformation.) (Second paragraph)

Yet the means to correct misinformation might, over time, be found in those same patterns of mass communication and of the facilitated spread of information.

29. C (Outlining which issues connected with misinformation are significant today.) (Fourth paragraph)

At least three observations related to misinformation in the contemporary mass-media environment warrant the attention of researchers, policy makers, and really everyone who watches television, listens to the radio, or reads information online.

30. D (Regulation fails to prevent misinformation from appearing in the media.) (Paragraph 8)

Such programs, although laudable and useful, do not keep false advertising off the airwaves.

31. G (frequent exposure) (Paragraph 6)

Knowing what happens when people initially encounter misinformation holds tremendous importance for estimating the potential for subsequent problems.

32. J (Paragraph 6)

The dilemma is neatly summarized by a contrast between how the 17th-century philosophers René Descartes and Baruch Spinoza described human information engagement, with conflicting predictions that only recently have been empirically tested in robust ways.

33. H (Paragraph 6)

Spinoza argued that people accept all encountered information (or misinformation) by default and then subsequently verify or reject it through a separate cognitive process.

34. B (Paragraph 6)

In recent decades, empirical evidence from the research teams of Erik Asp of the University of Chicago and Daniel Gilbert at Harvard University, among others, has supported Spinoza's account.

35. E (Paragraph 6)

People appear to encode all new information as if it were true, even if only momentarily, and later tag the information as being either true or false.

36. C (Paragraph 6)

Mental resources for skepticism physically reside in a different part of the brain than the resources used in perceiving and encoding.

37. YES (Paragraph 9)

For corrective campaigns to be persuasive, audiences need to be able to comprehend them.

38. NOT GIVEN (No evidence found in passage.)

No evidence found in passage.

39. NO (Last paragraph)

To overcome the worst effects of the phenomenon, we will need coordinated efforts over time, rather than any singular one-time panacea we could hope to offer.

40. NOT GIVEN (No evidence found in passage.)

No evidence found in passage.

---

Advanced Listening Lesson 1

Practice Test 1

Part 1

1. brushes

What you'd need to do is get yourself some brushes – I'd suggest a range of them, you know, in different sizes.

2. 285

$285. And we do find that a lot of people sign up for a couple of terms - it's such a great class.

3. Ramdhanie

The tutor? He's a local artist. You might have heard of him. Steve Ramdhanie.

4. bowls

No, in the first term, you'd just be producing two or three bowls. That means learning how to shape and glaze them.

5. shirt

Best not to. I'd recommend wearing something old – that you didn't mind getting dirty.

6. Thursday

It's on a Thursday, isn't it? Yes, my mistake.

7. library

Well, I think you begin by drawing the library.

8. sandwich

Well, the people who do the class - they tend to make a sandwich for themselves, and bring that along.

9. Station

Everyone usually heads along just before 11a.m., and they meet each other at the top of Victoria Street, at the Station Road end.

10. 0217856361

It's 021 785 6361. Just text her if there's a problem.

Part 2

11. 12. A , E (in any order)

please take the time to view a training video for the operating system we’re now using.you’ll need to attend a session on things like – what to do if you hear the fire alarm go off, and where to meet if you have to evacuate the buildings.

13. 14. A, C (in any order)

We’ve replaced some dividing walls with coloured glass panels. They look great.We’ve also invested in some adjustable chairs. You can lower or raise them to whatever height feels right for you.

15. I

If you look at the lower half of your plan, on the right, there are two long buildings that are parallel to each other. The conference centre is the one with a view of the river.

16. B

So what we’ve done is move the office space further away from the road – into the building that directly joins on to Reception.

17. F

We also decided to move the Stores building, so it could be a lot closer to the warehouse.

18. C

Well, the Finance building is about halfway along that road. On the plan, the factory’s just above it.

19. E

The café, just so you know, is in the same place as before... So, whereas before you looked straight from the café onto the large car park, now there’s a line of trees separating them.

20. D

It’s that square building you see right in the centre of the plan – one of the closest buildings to the larger car park.

Part 3

21. G

Or they'd been in contact with something poisonous or harmful. Something they’d handled or eaten. Doctors had no other explanation for it.

22. E

Joseph Goldberger – he realised people who basically lived off corn – they were getting ill because they weren’t eating anything else.

23. H

Well, in the 1930s those governments were worried about people’s general health, because everyone was suddenly buying canned fruit, artificial butter, meat in tins…that kind of thing.

24. I

So in the weekly magazines housewives read, the companies made exaggerated claims about what the supplements could do, and they showed pictures of rats in a laboratory before and after they were given vitamins.

25. D

Well, manufacturers had discovered how to produce vitamins artificially and in enormous quantities in their factories.

26. B

Companies changed their promotional strategy to increase their sales. They used movie stars to say how effective the supplements were.

27. A

According to the research I read, many Australians are just taking a more active approach to staying well. They don’t want to rely on their doctor for everything, so they’re turning to vitamins.

28. C

Most of my own research has been about the US vitamin supplement industry. Did you know the industry is under no obligation to prove that their supplements actually work? I don’t think that’s right.

29. B

But the ‘high dose’ people were just as likely to get sick as the people not taking any vitamins. That’s not to say that scientists now know everything about vitamins.

30. C

Hardly. No one likes being told what they can or can’t buy… especially where health is concerned.

Part 4

31. gardens

The gardens that people have nowadays don’t always contain the kind of plant that insects need.

32. climate change

They put this down to climate change, rather than, say, the fragmentation of habitat – but more research has to be done.

33. memory

Pesticide might not kill bees directly, but we know that it impacts on their spatial skills – meaning they cannot make sense of what they see around them – and also their memory.

34. food chain

Pretty much everywhere on the planet, with the exception of Antarctica, insects are at the bottom of the food chain.

35. medicine

It’s also worth remembering that scientists are now studying plants to find out whether they might be a source of medicine in the future.

36. meat

If we cut down on how much meat we ate, some of the land now used for grazing could be turned back into insect-friendly environments.

37. bricks

Because they needed to build houses, they removed tons and tons of the sand and turned it into bricks.

38. eggs

It was on this plant that it laid its eggs, so yes, you can see why the buckwheat was important.

39. fire

In the last decade, a significant number of butterflies and plants have been destroyed in the Antioch Dunes by fire.

40. conservation

But in this case, relatively little land was required. But the important thing is to leave it undisturbed.

Practice Test 2

Part 1

1. Kaeden

KAEDEN: Hello Charlotte. I’m Kaeden, one of the supervisors. Welcome to the team.

CHARLOTTE: Hi Aiden.

KAEDEN: It’s Kaeden.

CHARLOTTE: I’m so sorry.

KAEDEN: Don’t worry. People often get my name wrong; they never know how to spell it. It’s K-A-E-D-E-N, in case you ever need to write it.

2. lockers

Put your coat and rucksack in one of the lockers there. Take whichever one is free.

3. passport

HR need to take a note of the number in it.

4. uniform

Tiffany will give you a uniform.

5. third

HR are a couple of floors above that, on the third floor.

6. 0412 665 903

It’s oh-four-one-2 double-six-five nine-oh-three.

7. yellow

Put a yellow one on the package, next to the original price.

8. plastic

Beneath those is where we keep the plastic boxes.

9. ice

The fish is laid on ice, but when that starts to melt, you’ll need to get more from the cold-room.

10. gloves

Make sure you put on thermal gloves when you take anything out of the cold-room.

Part 2

11. 12. C, E

They don’t work for everyone – especially if you suffer from something like a heart condition or asthma, because they’re aimed at people with average fitness and running ability. Another thing is that everyone is different – and if you have any specific questions related to your needs, there’s no one to provide any answers.

13. 14. A, D

You should run at a speed that feels comfortable, but time yourself and try to run a bit faster each time. Listening to music can be very helpful – it takes your mind off things and helps your body get into a rhythm.

15. A

Ceri, for example, joined the club two years ago at the age of 40. She’d always enjoyed running at school but wasn’t sure if she’d be able to do it. She was worried about being left behind and being the slowest runner.

16. B

James had always hated the idea of running but a friend encouraged him to come along for a taster session and he hasn’t looked back.

17. C

Leo was worried about having to commit himself to training sessions every week and wasn’t sure he’d be able to fit training into his busy schedule.

18. A

It took him months to find the courage to contact us but felt reassured immediately.

19. C

I managed to complete it in four hours, but I felt like giving up halfway through – it was only the support of the spectators that kept me going.

20. B

After you’ve been training for a few weeks, it’s worth putting your name down for a 5K.

Part 3

21. A

Well, I guess it’s just common sense, really – making sure things are packed safely so they don’t get damaged.

22. C

I wouldn’t want to part with them – they remind me of him, and I love having them on my shelves.

23. A

We both think hardback books are nice to have on display.

24. B

I always remember this one time when I was a kid – I pulled a book off the shelf too quickly, and a whole pile of them fell on me!

25. C

But new books can be really expensive, and not everyone has the money to buy them.

26. D

Rare books are kept up on the high shelves to keep them out of reach.

27. F

Children’s books are in a specially designed space with low shelves and cushions.

28. A

There’s a section near the entrance where people leave books they don’t want anymore.

29. C

Books that customers have specifically requested are kept at the back of the shop.

30. G

We have a small selection of coursebooks in the café area for students to use.

Part 4

31. competition

Invasive species are a significant contributor to the current global biodiversity crisis and are often in competition with native species and may threaten their long-term survival.

32. food

These could include selecting trees that can contribute to wildlife conservation, improve the availability of food for the local community and maintain the stability of soil systems.

33. disease

Using seeds with low genetic diversity generally lowers the resilience of restored forests, which can make them vulnerable to disease and unable to adapt to climate change.

34. agriculture

Reforesting areas which are currently exploited for agriculture should be avoided as this often leads to other areas being deforested.

35. maps

Having detailed and up-to-date maps identifying high-priority areas for intervention is essential.

36. cattle

Drone technology is a useful tool in helping to prioritise and monitor areas of degraded forest for restoration. In Brazil, it’s being used to identify and quantify how parts of the Amazon are being devastated by human activities such as rearing cattle and illegal logging.

37. speed

They are central to tropical reforestation projects as they accelerate the speed of the recovery process by attracting animals and birds which act as natural seed dispersers.

38. monkeys

At this site, for example, after only three rainy seasons, monkeys started visiting to eat the fig fruits, naturally dispersing seeds through defecation.

39. fishing

Destruction of the mangrove forests had a terrible impact on plant and animal life, and also badly affected the fishing industry, which was a major source of employment for local people living in coastal areas.

40. flooding

The mangroves also act as a defence against the increased threat of flooding caused by climate change.

Advanced Listening Lesson 2

Practice Test 3

Part 1

1. pets

And also, please, pets are not permitted in the apartment.

2. fridge

And I've just replaced the fridge, so that's never been used.

3. shelves

Well, as a matter of fact, I've just arranged for a builder to come and put up a set of shelves on that wall there.

4. lamp

But if I wanted a lamp beside my bed, I guess I'd need to provide that myself?

5. gas

And the water heating, that looks like it's gas, right?

6. Connaught

It's Andrew Connaught. That's spelt: C-O-N-N-A-U-G-H-T.

7. interglobe

Well my email is andrew171 at interglobe.com - spelt: I-N-T-E-R-G-L-O-B-E.

8. E 738 2991 TP

Oh right, I've got that, hang on. It's: E 738 2991 TP.

9. 7 April

So how about the 7th of April?

10. 450

But I only ask for $450.

Part 2

11. C

In the past, the Festival has been based at the Victoria Theatre, which wasn't really big enough. So this year they're going to be using a number of other venues as well.

12. B

They've just announced a 20% discount on all tickets, to encourage a good turnout.

13. B

It's a chance for the whole family to learn about the science of the ocean and marine ecosystems and how to protect them.

14. A

I'd recommend you take a warm coat, though, because it can get quite windy up there.

15. A

This event is only held once a year, so these opportunities to tour the Civil aren't too frequent.

16. C

This is often really popular so get there in good time to be sure you beat the rush.

17. A

It was going to be in King's Square, but actually, it's now going to be held down on the waterfront.

18. B

The roads around the college can get pretty congested at that time on a Friday, so allow plenty of time to get there.

19. B

No parking at all in that part of the central city. And the train service is suspended on Sunday for repairs.

20. C

I know there'll be a huge turnout. If you haven't already got your ticket, I'd do so without delay to avoid disappointment.

Part 3

21. 22. B, E

Actually, they learn by interacting with their parents and other caregivers - that's the best approach. But what's important is that they investigate their own environment. They should examine the objects around them and experiment.

23. 24. C, B

The research shows that pretty much every baby prefers the paper to the present, whether male or female - it's just a human characteristic. It's amazing the research has produced so much specific information, just from studying presents!

25. 26. A, D

25-26. A, D

At the end of the experiment, each child could produce an average of 74 English words or phrases. Well, follow-up testing showed that the classes had a long-term benefit. The researchers deliberately selected teachers who all had the same education. They'd been trained to use a style that focused on play and social interaction. So because of that, the experiment was standardised across all the schools.

27. 28. C

28. C

The results showed that babies were happiest when parents or caregivers imitated their behaviour.

28. F

They wanted to give someone assistance if they could, if they thought someone else had a problem.

29. A

He believes they recognised that a certain thing would happen, as a result of a certain action.

30. E

This showed that babies as young as 16 months have some knowledge of how language is structured.

Part 4

31. academic

Jane Harrison is credited with being the first woman to be employed as an academic at a British university.

32. doctors

So dentists—there were 140 women, and there were 212 women who were employed as doctors at the end of the century.

33. floods

This was a method of building bridges that were so strong they could withstand even severe floods.

34. harbours

Sarah was involved in the project to build the Clifton Suspension Bridge together with her husband.

35. investor

Together with her husband, Sarah was an important investor in the project.

36. ships

One of her inventions was the so-called 'barnacle buster'. This was a device that increased the speed at which ships could sail.

37. erosion

Sarah encouraged trees and vegetation to be planted in cuttings to reduce the problem of erosion.

38. breakfast

One that stood out for me was a machine that made tea, kept toast warm and boiled an egg all at the same time, so you could sit down for a typical British breakfast without waiting for anything.

39. gym

She designed an early type of gym equipment that you could keep at home.

40. graduated

It wasn’t until 1906—54 years after Sarah's death—that a woman studied engineering at university and graduated as an engineer for the first time.

Practice Test 4

Part 1

1. Mathieson

He's called a 'coordinator' - his name's Gary Mathieson.

2. beginners

When I first spoke to Gary on the phone, he said it was a class for beginners.

3. college

Well, when I joined the group, they were meeting in Gary's home, but as the group got bigger, he decided to book a room at the college in town.

4. New

It's just beyond there at the bottom of New Street near the city roundabout.

5. 11

We meet on Thursdays. It used to be 10.30 and that suited me well, but now we meet at 11.

6. instrument

There's a website called 'The perfect instrument' that sells all kinds of guitars, violins and so on.

7. ear

Some people have an app they use, but others do it by ear.

8. clapping

Sometimes we all just start laughing because we're so bad at keeping time, so Gary starts clapping to help us.

9. recording

He often brings a recording of the song and plays it to us first.

10. alone

The only trouble is that he sometimes gets us to play one at a time - you know, alone.

Part 2

11. A

I'd been really keen on boats as a teenager, and I thought if I went to live by the sea, I might be able to pursue that interest a bit more in my free time.

12. B

It was built 15 years ago with funds provided by a generous member of the public who'd lived here all her life.

13. A

They gave me tests for colour blindness and they thought I might have a problem there, but it turned out I was OK.

14. B

Our target's to get there in five minutes, then we try to get the boat off the dock and out to sea in another six to eight minutes.

15. C

And it's ultimately my decision whether it's safe to launch the boat.

16. A

I speak to youth groups and sailing clubs in the area about the sorts of problems that sailors and swimmers can have if the weather suddenly gets bad.

17. 18. C, E

The training we get is a continuous process, focusing on technical competence and safe handling techniques, and it's given me the confidence to deal with extreme situations without panicking. They had a wave-tank where they could create extreme weather conditions - so we could get experience at what to do if the boat turned over in a storm at night, for example.

19. 20. A, B

They're a great group - we're like a family really, which helps when you're dragging yourself out of bed on a cold stormy night. But actually, it's the colder months that can be the most rewarding time. That's when the incidents tend to be more serious, and you realise that you can make a huge difference to the outcome.

Part 3

21. A

Well, before I started reading it, I thought recycling footwear, well, although it's quite interesting, perhaps there isn't enough to say about it...

22. B

I know. I guess they are very hard-wearing, but don't they look a bit casual for school uniform? I don't think they're right for that. Actually, I think some of them look quite smart on pupils... better than a scruffy old pair of shoes.

23. B

I must admit, I've recycled some perfectly good shoes, that haven't gone out of fashion and still fit, just because they don't look great on me any more.

24. B

No. But then it said that the amount of recycled footwear has fallen: it's 6 percent now compared to a previous level of 11 percent. That doesn't seem to make sense.

25. E

He said they were probably expensive - the material was suede and they were beige in colour - it looked like someone had only worn them once, but in a very wet field so the heels were too stained with mud and grass to re-sell them.

26. B

Apparently, the heels were worn - but that wasn't the problem. One of the shoes was a much lighter shade than the other one - it had obviously been left in the sun.

27. A

Oh yes - we're told to tie shoes together when we put them in a recycling bin, but people often don't bother. You'd think it would have been easy to find the other, but it wasn't.

28. C

One of the soles was so worn under the foot that you could put your finger through it.

29. C

It sounded like a good idea... I wasn't surprised that it failed, though. I mean who wants to buy second-hand shoes really? Think of all the germs you could catch! Well, people didn't refuse them for that reason, did they? It was because the pairs of shoes weren't identical.

30. A

It's not as simple as you first think, and we can show that by taking a very different approach to it.

Part 4

31. move

They are also sometimes called 'water bears': 'water' because that's where they thrive best, and 'bear' because of the way they move.

32. short

They have a body which is short, and also rounded - a bit like a barrel.

33. discs

Some species don't have any claws; what they have are discs, and these work by means of suction. They enable the tardigrade to cling on to surfaces or to grip its prey.

34. oxygen

Instead, oxygen and also blood are transported in a fluid that fills the cavity of the body.

35. tube

The tardigrade’s mouth is a kind of tube that can open outwards to reveal teeth-like structures known as 'stylets'.

36. temperatures

They're also able to withstand temperatures as cold as -200 degrees centigrade, or highs of more than 148 degrees centigrade.

37. protein

While in a state of cryptobiosis, tardigrades produce a protein that protects their DNA.

38. space

There are currently several tests taking place in space, to determine how long tardigrades might be able to survive there.

39. seaweed

They suck the juices from moss, or extract fluid from seaweed.

40. endangered

Tardigrades have not been evaluated by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and are not on any endangered list.

Advanced Listening Lesson 3

Practice Test 5

Part 1

1. May 15th

So, the deadline for getting the whole film made and sending it in to us is on Wednesday, May the 15th.

2. actors

That's fine, but you can't employ any professional actors, I'm afraid.

3. animal

One of your main characters has to be a child. Or, if you prefer, it could be an animal instead.

4. music

You might also need to get permission - say, for example - if you decided you wanted to add some music to the film.

5. subtitles

But if you're going to use another language, you've got to provide subtitles. And those do have to be in English, and 100% accurate.

6. script

In my opinion, it's the script that you should concentrate on.

7. comedy

I guess I shouldn't do a comedy because not everyone laughs at the same thing.

8. Hyslop

If you go to our website, have a look at last year's winner. His name was Greg Hyslop.

9. Imagine

The film is called Imagine. It really holds your attention.

10. Bridge

And of course, the winning films are shown in a theatre, so the public can see them too.

Part 2

11. B (remove branches)

A few big branches have come down and they're blocking the paths. We need volunteers to pull them off and pile them up somewhere else, so they're not in the way.

12. A (fix fences)

The storm has also blown down the fences on the north side of the wood - so we'll need you to give a hand with repairs.

13. A (gloves)

Gloves are essential. You don't want to end up with cuts and dirt all over your hands.

14. E (boots)

There are parts of Eskdale Wood which are still muddy after the storm, so I'd recommend boots.

15. C

To get one of those, you'll need to go online and find a website like e-Bird or NestWatch. If you've never signed up with them before, register your details, and they'll send a mobile app to your phone.

16. D

Once you've got that sorted, you need to consider exactly where you're going to count the birds.

17. G

The next thing to do is get some other people to come along and help you - a group that are also interested in birds.

18. H

You need to give all your helpers a printout showing pictures of the birds you're hoping to see.

19. B

How many birds of one species has everyone seen? Compare notes. It doesn't really matter if your totals are slightly different. Just get everyone to work out and decide - more or less - what the probable number was.

20. A

Finally, when you're ready to submit all the data you've collected, have a look at the pictures you've taken. Choose the best one - you want a sharp image of a single bird.

Part 3

21. A

Show some paintings that have been restored, and talk about why it was necessary.

22. B

Did you know that most of the restorers we met didn’t have a degree in art history? They’d done things like chemistry and archaeology. I never would have imagined that.

23. A

But the thing is, when someone owns the painting you’re working on, you’ve got to get it right. What if they didn’t like the colours you’d used? Too much pressure.

24. A

Not everyone judges a painting in the same way, obviously.

25. C

And what I like about digital reproduction is you could potentially make lots of copies – so a wider audience can see them.

26. C

They knew the National Gallery had a nearly identical sunflower painting by Van Gogh – and so they had to ask the gallery whether the team would be allowed to study and scan it.

27. A

The team had a photo they could use, but the problem was – it was a photo of The Concert after someone had tried to touch it up with fresh paint.

28. D

The Factum Arte team had to search for the pencil sketches the artist had also made of Churchill as part of his preparation.

29. B

The painting wasn’t lost, but the top layer of paint had turned completely black because of smoke from a fire. The team had to work out what the colours beneath that layer had been.

30. F

And most of her other paintings are held in private collections. Because of that, they couldn’t go and see them.

Part 4

31. chest

On Earth, your blood would naturally be pulled towards your feet, but in space, it goes to your head. And we’ll talk a bit more about the consequences of that later. But it also goes to your chest – and that’s why astronauts have to be careful about their blood pressure.

32. calcium

Microgravity also affects the minerals stored inside your body. Over time, for example, the amount of calcium inside your bones begins to decrease, so the bones become weaker.

33. muscle

The astronauts have to maintain a very strict exercise programme – they do 2.5 hours of exercise six days a week. If they don’t, what happens is that their muscle begins to waste.

34. vision

And one final problem that some astronauts experience – they find that when they get back to Earth, they can’t see clearly. Scientists aren’t exactly sure why this happens, but it seems that the astronauts’ vision can be permanently affected.

35. sweat

That means that even the sweat that the astronauts produce is recycled.

36. light

It’s incredibly expensive to transport materials into space, so they need to be as light as possible.

37. paint

These can be made into metal, into brick… and some engineers are also suggesting they could produce paint.

38. windows

Actually, there’s one thing that NASA hasn’t managed yet, and that’s to increase the size of the windows on the ISS. They’re very small – and if people were going to live in buildings on the moon, this is something NASA still has to work on.

39. museum

Imagine you’re living on the moon but you could use virtual reality to walk around a museum and see all the exhibits.

40. qualification

And by using virtual reality, you could continue your education, by say, studying for a qualification that might be useful in your current environment, or once you’re back on Earth.

Practice Test 6

Part 1

1. Marrowfield

It's 52 Marrowfield Street.

2. relative

Well, I was talking to a relative the other day and he suggested it.

3. socialise

Well, I also like to socialise with other photographers.

4. full

I think I'll go for the full membership, then.

5. Domestic Life

Well, the theme was entitled 'Domestic Life'.

6. clouds

The instructions were to capture the clouds as well - it couldn't just be blue sky and a setting sun.

7. timing

The feedback was that I should have waited a bit longer to get the shot.

8. Animal Magic

And then the third competition I entered was called 'Animal Magic'.

9. movement

That's what we had to show - there had to be some movement in the scene.

10. dark

I suspected that it was a bit dark, which is what I was told.

Part 2

11. C

You should never consume mushrooms picked by friends or neighbours.

12. B

The other thing to avoid is mushrooms growing beside busy roads for obvious reasons.

13. B

Finally, just because deer or squirrels eat a particular mushroom doesn’t mean that you can.

14. D

Some edible mushrooms are bright red, for example.

15. C

But you need to be there first thing in the morning, as there's likely be a lot of competition - not just from people but wildlife too.

16. B

If possible, you should go with a group led by an expert - you'll stay safe and learn a lot that way.

17. B

You should never pick all the mushrooms in one area - collect only enough for your own needs.

18. C

The biggest problem is that so many new houses have been built in this area in the last ten years. And more water is being taken from rivers and reservoirs because of this, and mushroom habitats have been destroyed.

19. A

Collect them in a brown paper bag and as soon as you get home, put them in the fridge. They'll be fine for a couple of days.

20. A

Be adventurous! They're great in so many dishes – stir fries, risottos, pasta.

Part 3

21. A

Yes, and ultimately, they didn't achieve anything.

22. E

Yes, that's true - but it probably didn't seem a positive thing at the time. I can see why the Luddites felt so threatened.

23. B

No - that's true. And what about lower unemployment? I'm not so sure about that.

24. D

Bit too optimistic, don't you think? For example, I can't see how people are about to have more leisure time, when all the evidence shows people are spending longer than ever at work.

25. G

You might think all the technological innovations would have put them out of a job, but in fact, there are more of them than ever. They're still really in demand and have become far more efficient.

26. E

I know. I'd never have thought that demand for hairdressing would have gone up so much in the last hundred years.

27. B

Yes. Really boring compared to these days, when they're given much more responsibility and higher status.

28. C

Now it's less than 0.2%.

29. F

But now of course this sector will see huge growth.

30. A

The future looks quite bleak for bank clerks. They've been in decline since ATMs were introduced in the eighties.

Part 4

31. technical

we'd need to have a set of legal measures and we'd also have to develop the technical systems...

32. cheap

satellites are relatively cheap these days, compared with how they were in the past...

33. thousands

people aren't just launching single satellites but whole constellations, consisting of thousands of them...

34. identification

once it's out there, it doesn't have to send back any information to Earth to allow its identification.

35. tracking

when it comes to the safety of satellites, at present we don't have anything like enough proper ways of tracking them.

36. military

a satellite may be designed for military purposes, or it may have been launched for commercial reasons...

37. location

Details are needed about the object itself, as well as about its location at a particular time...

38. prediction

so all that the scientists can do is to put forward a prediction concerning where the satellite is heading next.

39. database

Then, as all this information's collected, it needs to be put together so it can be used, and that will involve creating a single database...

40. trust

but it's also essential that this system is one that establishes trust in the people that use it...

Advanced Listening Lesson 4

Practice Test 7

Part 1

1. 49.99

Daily, it’s $49.99.

2. gloves

Yes of course, all sizes. We can also let you have gloves as well – it’s not a bad idea.

3. Battenburg

That means you can’t ride on Battenburg Road – so you can’t visit the far end of the island.

4. Green Bay

And if you’d like to go for a swim, you can drive right down to Green Bay, which visitors love.

5. air conditioning

Only thing is, it’s pretty hot at this time of year. Does the car have air conditioning?

6. 52.20

Normally they’re $59 per day, but I can offer you a discounted rate at the moment of $52.20.

7. heavy

On some E-Bikes, the battery is really heavy, but on these bikes it’s nice and light.

8. brakes

These are good quality bikes too. Well made with high-quality brakes both front and back.

9. lock

No, but we can provide you with a map.

10. licence

And another big advantage is that you don’t have to have a licence for this type of vehicle.

Part 2

11. B

Then we found some ancient implements, like spades and forks, for digging. They were buried in the earth. Experts say these are at least 1000 years old.

12. B

The great thing, though, is the stream that runs through the valley, so we can irrigate the gardens even through long, dry summers.

13. A

And on that date, the City Infirmary was constructed on this site, so this is where doctors and surgeons worked to take care of the health needs of the growing population.

14. B

Each plot of land is worked by a volunteer member of the garden, and they donate what they grow to families in this neighbourhood who are struggling financially.

15. C

Each week, undergraduates enrolled on the college’s horticulture course have a class here, to learn about their subject first hand.

16. F

Just before the path curves round to the right, there’s a turning on the left. Go down there and the worm farms are inside the first building you come to.

17. C

Follow the path around the edge of the orchard – but don’t go too far. The seed store is actually located inside the orchard.

18. G

From the main entrance, just go into the car park and walk right to the end. You’ll see a little path heading out to the west – it’s down there.

19. E

Go past the first gardens and take the first turning on the left. Go to the end of that path. The compost heaps are built in the shape of a letter ‘U’.

20. A

To see how it’s done, walk up through the gardens till you come to the orchard. Keep heading north and the drying room is right at the very end of that path – as far as you can go.

Part 3

21. A

Dr Franklin illustrated that this has been going on for many years, it’s not a sudden breakthrough.

22. C

People are much more prepared to spend hours on rehabilitation when a game’s involved.

23. B

Jason: But the subjects weren’t all in the same place. They were playing online. Alya: No, they were all together in a room.

24. C

Better for the children, but also better for the parents.

25. A

This study has supplied valid proof as to why games work this way.

26. F

It found that surgeons perform better when they play video games in their free time.

27. B

Apparently, games may actually improve vision... It’s certainly controversial.

28. D

Seems highly unlikely to me. Maybe just a marketing tactic by the company.

29. G

And that’s going to be more and more significant as the population ages.

30. E

And there’s been quite a lot of previous research to back that up, too.

Part 4

31. Asia

Today, anthropologists recognise that the Polynesians began their journeys in Asia and from there migrated eastwards to the Pacific islands.

32. faster

European ships were much stronger, but the indigenous vessels were considerably faster when under sail.

33. steering

The canoes had two hulls... They were equipped with large paddles, but these were not a form of propulsion. Instead, the paddles were positioned at the back of the canoe to make steering the vessel possible.

34. bark

However, the paper mulberry tree grows on most Pacific islands and its bark was remarkably flexible and was used in the manufacture of clothing.

35. songs

The navigators had created long and complicated songs to help them recall all the information they needed.

36. waves

They still knew which way to sail the canoe by studying the waves, which usually came from predictable directions in the Pacific at different times of the year.

37. birds

The navigators were experts at recognising those particular birds whose habitat was the open ocean, and those that lived close to islands.

38. colour

The temperature of the water is constant in that part of the Pacific, but its colour could vary in the proximity of land, and that was something else that they were able to detect.

39. instruments

This canoe was sailed from Hawai’i to Tahiti, a distance of more than 4000 kilometres across open ocean. And all the navigation was done using the techniques I’ve outlined today – the crew did not use modern instruments on the voyage.

40. languages

Another aspect of this has been the teaching of Polynesian languages, some of which were in danger of dying out.

Practice Test 8

Part 1

1. receptionist

So this is a position for a receptionist – I believe you’ve done that sort of work before?

2. medical

Well, this job’s in Fordham, so not too far away for you, and it’s at the medical centre there.

3. Chastons

It’s quite near the station, on Chastons Road.

4. appointments

Yes, and you’d also be involved in making appointments, whether face to face or on the phone. And rescheduling them if necessary.

5. database

And another of your duties would be keeping the centre’s database up-to-date.

6. experience

One thing they do require is someone with experience.

7. confident

They want someone who can cope with that and stay calm, and at the same time be confident when interacting with the public.

8. temporary

This isn’t a permanent job, it’s temporary.

9. 1.15

What time would I finish? One fifteen.

10. parking

Is there parking available for staff at the centre? Yes, there is.

Part 2

11. B

It was later sold and became a hall of residence for students in 1911, and a museum in 1951.

12. A

The museum's owned by the university, and apart from two rooms that are our offices, the university uses the main part of the building. You may see students going into the building for lessons.

13. A

Luckily, we've managed to keep entry to the museum free. This includes access to all the galleries, outdoor areas and the rooms for special exhibitions.

14. C

We do have a cloakroom, if you'd like to leave your coats and bags somewhere. Unlike other museums, photography is allowed here, so you might like to keep your cameras with you.

15. F

It was designed especially for the museum by a group of young people on a film studies course.

16. G

And this morning, a specialist cheesemaker will be giving demonstrations of how it's produced.

17. E

If you're feeling competitive, you can take our memory test in which you answer questions about things you've seen in the museum.

18. A

The carts are old and fragile, so we ask you to keep your children close to you and ensure they don't climb on the carts.

19. C

But we're redeveloping this area so you can't visit that at the moment.

20. B

There are baby ducks that are only a few days old, as well as tiny frogs.

Part 3

21. 22. B, D

On the video you could see them really listening hard to make sure they did all the steps in the right order to make the bird. One thing that really stood out for me was that the children were all having fun while being taught something new.

23. D

He really benefited from having to use his hands – it helped him to settle down and start concentrating.

24. A

I noticed he seemed to want to work things out for himself.

25. C

She decided she wanted her mouse to be the best and that motivated her to try harder.

26. G

Anya was such a star. She listened so carefully and then produced the perfect bird with very little effort.

27. F

She seemed unsure about what she was supposed to do, but in the end, hers didn’t turn out too badly.

287. A

Prepare examples, showing each of the steps involved in making the bird. But that was a really good idea.

29. B

I bet it’s because so many teachers are clumsy like me.

30. C

I think we should try it out in our maths teaching practice with Year 3. I can see using origami as a really engaging way of reinforcing children’s knowledge of geometric shapes.

Part 4

31. plot

Some of us, I'm sure, have a pretty general idea of the plot, but we know much less about the author.

32. poverty

He also gave many speeches about issues like the level of poverty in his society.

33. Europe

Victor Hugo was forced to reside in other parts of Europe.

34. poetry

He bought [the house] using the money he’d made in France from the publication of a collection of his poetry.

35. drawings

Portraits of its members still hang in rooms on the ground floor, along with drawings that he did during his travels.

36. furniture

The walls are covered in dark wood panelling that Victor Hugo created himself using wooden furniture that he bought in the market.

37. lamps

There’s a strong Chinese influence in these areas in things like the wallpaper pattern and the lamps.

38. harbour

There’s a room called the Lookout – called that because it looks out over the harbour.

39. children

He also invited a large group of local children from the deprived areas of the island to dinner once a week.

40. relatives

The house was owned by his relatives, and they decided to donate it to the city of Paris.

Advanced Listening Lesson 5

Practice Test 9

Part 1

1. 05443CHI771

It’s 0-5 4-4-3 C-H-I 7-7-1.

2. Market

According to our records, you live at 102 Market Street, in Northbridge.

3. 018669925

Let me give you my mobile phone number. It’s 018 669 925.

4. storm

There was a big storm and I guess it blew down one of the trees at the back of our garden.

5. glasses

She’d left her glasses on it, and they got really badly scratched. She’ll need a new pair.

6. carpet

Just last month - we’d gone shopping and bought a carpet. We’d only had it for a couple of weeks, and it got soaked.

7. curtain

When the tree came through the window, it tore a hole through the curtain that was hanging there.

8. garage

We’ve had some repairs done already. For a door we can’t open... It’s for the garage.

9. Honeywell

OK, it’s Steven Honeywell. H-O-N-E-Y-W-E-L-L.

10. fence

He’ll be putting up a fence for us – between our house and the neighbour’s - because the one we’ve got now was smashed by the tree.

Part 2

11. B (Developing supportive relationships)

It can be a tough few days, but this part of the programme really gives your group an occasion to work as a team. Some kind words and encouragement can go a long way - whether it’s convincing someone they can walk the last five miles, or helping them fit everything back inside their backpack. No one’s in charge – it’s all about co-operation.

12. A (Improving negotiation skills)

There are going to be moments when there’s disagreement about which way to go or where to camp for the night – but here’s the chance to listen properly to the opinions of others, and reach a decision that’s best for everyone.

13. B (Operating cooking equipment)

Now everything you eat and drink you’ll have to take with you. You’ll also have to use a portable stove and the fuel it requires. We’ll make sure you know how to use that safely during the training session.

14. C (Knowing how to follow a route)

Training will also include learning how to read a map and use a compass, so you can head in the right direction.

15. C

We’ve just heard that some maintenance work is taking place, unfortunately, and so people aren’t allowed to use it at the moment.

16. B

It’s easy to slip on the rocks when you’re crossing the river, and you do have to cross it several times.

17. D

You follow the track for about a day and a half, and then it comes to an end at a town called Richmond. It starts up again on the other side of town.

18. A

The only thing I’d say though, is that it’s very popular, and you’ll probably come across a number of other groups out walking on the way.

19. B

There are some very steep sections and at some points, you’d be walking right next to the cliff edge on a very narrow path.

20. A

It has some terrific camping spots, but that also means it’s a bit of a tourist attraction, and you could well be sharing the track with many other visitors.

Part 3

21. B

Every single article said we can forget the way things used to happen – like you started out as an apprentice, and then you stayed in the same company for years. That’s over.

22. A

It looks like we’re moving away from the term ‘job title’…instead, businesses are hiring people to work on a project done or lead a team.

23. B

If you have a good salary, you probably have enough to enjoy life, but if you’re only earning the minimum wage – how do you get by? That’s my biggest worry.

24. C

I wonder what the survey actually asked…Did they actually ask the people who took part, ‘Do you enjoy spending more time at work than home?’

25. A

And think about it, if you were smart, you’d study things that would help you if you had to change companies.

26. B

The media often focuses on the negatives, but as far as I’m concerned, having a tablet I can carry with me means I can manage my studies and my family commitments more easily.

27. B

As soon as one architect starts to use AI, all the rival architects in the same area will have to use AI too. That’s the only way they’ll manage to keep their clients.

28. F

A hospital specialist could use AI and virtual reality to guide a doctor through a complex procedure.

29. C

The lawyers I know are always anxious about the amount of work they have to get through. But AI could help them with a whole lot of routine tasks, and that should make some of that anxiety go away.

30. D

I can imagine that, one day, AI might do away with the need for human referees.

Part 4

31. mud

It probably looked easy enough at the beginning of the trail, but rocks made it difficult to make progress. On top of this, the men and their horses got stuck in the thick mud that covered long sections of the trail.

32. steep

Now, although this trail was only about thirty-five miles long, it took about three months for the gold-seekers to cover this distance. This is because the trail was incredibly steep, and people had to make the same trip multiple times in order to transport their equipment.

33. failure

Often they were suffering from starvation or disease. They also came to the terrible realization that their journey was likely to end in failure, and so they turned around.

34. tent

Because the lake was frozen over, many people had to wait until spring before they could continue their journey. In the meantime, a tent was the only protection they had from the cold.

35. sailor

Once they reached a point of the river called Miles Canyon, things became very dangerous indeed. Many boats were destroyed in the rapids. In order to proceed down the Yukon River, the gold-seekers needed to employ a real sailor, someone who could steer their boats and get through the canyon safely.

36. police

It was actually the police who gave gold-seekers the list – since they knew how unprepared many people were for the journey.

37. flour

Perhaps items like tea weren’t too hard to carry, but 400lbs of flour would have been very heavy indeed.

38. buckets

The gold-seekers had to take a lot of tools, as well – everything they needed for digging, for building and so on. Things like rope were essential and could be packed away without too much difficulty. But imagine having to carry two or three buckets with you.

39. adventure

Through his vivid description, his readers could share the feeling of adventure, even from the comfort of their armchair.

40. newspapers

In the US and in other parts of Canada, ordinary citizens were keen to read about life in the Klondike. Working for different newspapers, Hall and Kelly often described their first-hand experience of danger and hardship.

Practice Test 10

Part 1

1. Finance

Well, now I work in the customer services department but I did my initial training in Finance.

2. Maths / Math / Mathematics

I didn’t do well in my exams at school and I was really worried because I failed Maths.

3. business

I took the one on IT skills but I wish I’d done that one instead.

4. 17 / seventeen

There were about 20 of us who started at the same time and we were all around the same age – I was 18 and there was only one person younger than me, who was 17.

5. holiday(s) / vacation(s)

You get the same number of days’ holiday as everyone else.

6. college

Yes, one day each month. So you get lots of support from both your tutor and your manager.

7. location

Yes, it’s very close to the train station so the location’s a real advantage.

8. jeans

Nothing too casual – like jeans, for example.

9. late

I know it’s really obvious but arrive in plenty of time. They hate people who are late.

10. smile

And one other useful piece of advice my manager told me before I had the interview for this job – is to smile.

Part 2

11. A

When skiing cross-country, it’s best to get away from the regular trails to have a more authentic experience.

12. B

Those who want to can take part in a race.

13. A

All participants receive a medal for completing the course.

14. C

Visitors will climb to the top of a mountain.

15. A

The cost includes a supply of drinking water for visitors.

16. B

If there is a storm while in the hut, visitors should wait until the weather improves.

17. B

This trail’s been designed to give first-timers an experience they’ll enjoy regardless of their age or skill.

18. D

Leave this one to the experts! If you’ve fully mastered the techniques needed for hills, it’s great fun.

19. A

There’s a shelter half-way where you can sit and take a break and enjoy the afternoon sunshine.

20. E

Check with us before you set out to make sure the trail’s open that day.

Part 3

21. A

I’ve never really been concerned enough to check how healthy a product is.

22. A

I tended to believe claims on packaging like ‘low in fat’.

23. C

Unless you read the label really carefully, you wouldn’t know that the nutritional values given are for half a pizza.

24. C

I like to know all the ingredients in a product – not just how much fat, salt and sugar they contain.

25. B

I don’t understand how they can get away with calling them chicken flavour when they only contain artificial additives.

26. A

Those findings weren’t that conclusive and it was quite a small-scale study.

27. B

But it’s not been adopted universally.

28. C

And what I couldn’t get over is the fact that it was brought in without enough consultation.

29. D

Yeah. But it’s good to get feedback from all socio-economic groups.

30. E

No. But if they hadn’t interviewed participants face-to-face, they could have used a much bigger sample size.

Part 4

31. destruction

In 1623, the ruler of Constantinople demanded the destruction of all the coffee houses in the city.

32. universities

Some people said that these places performed a similar function to universities.

33. political

Many social movements and political developments had their origins in coffee house discussions.

34. port

It’s interesting that the names given to these different types, like Mocha or Java coffee, were often taken from the port they were shipped to Europe from.

35. slaves

In Brazil and the various Caribbean colonies, coffee was grown in huge plantations and the workers there were almost all slaves.

36. taxation

In Java, which had been colonised by the Dutch, the peasants grew coffee and passed a proportion of this on to the Dutch, so it was used as a means of taxation.

37. sugar

Coffee was grown in ever-increasing quantities to satisfy the growing demand from Europe, and it became nearly as important as sugar production.

38. tea

However, a new drink was introduced from China, and started to become popular, gradually taking over from coffee. This was tea.

39. transportation

This was partly because new types of transportation had been developed which were cheaper and more efficient.

40. night

Sometimes this meant their work didn’t stop when it got dark: they might have to continue throughout the night.

Advanced Listening Lesson 6

Practice Test 11

Part 1

1. train

DAVID: Well, the first thing is travelling to the other side of the lake.

WOMAN: You mean by boat?

DAVID: No, it's the little train that runs along the shore of the lake. It's very popular.

2. 5 / five

DAVID: Oh, just one thing. How old are your children?

WOMAN: Er, 7 and 10. Why?

DAVID: No, that's OK. It's just that children must be 5 or older to go in the caves. Otherwise they might get scared in the dark. But yours will be fine.

3. coach

WOMAN: And how do we travel down to the fjord – fly?

DAVID: That's a lot more expensive I'm afraid. On this tour you go in a coach. It's about a 2-hour drive, through fantastic scenery.

4. walk

WOMAN: That's to take a walk, is it?

DAVID: Yes, there's a nice path by the river. You stop in Easten for half an hour, so there's plenty of time.

5. waterfall

DAVID: So, then you get down to Silver Fjord. And you really spend most of the day going for a cruise on the fjord. It's spectacular mountain scenery. And you also cruise past a huge waterfall, which is another highlight of the day.

6. whales

WOMAN: And what about marine life?

DAVID: Yes, you'll definitely see seals.

WOMAN: Dolphins?

DAVID: No, not in that part of the country. But if you're lucky there will be whales as well.

7. garden

DAVID: Yes, that's right. And they serve you lunch.

WOMAN: Is that actually inside the house?

DAVID: No, at this time of year it'll be the garden, which is really pretty.

8. farm

WOMAN: And what about in the afternoon?

DAVID: You go up and have a look around the farm – it's just close to the house. So if you're from the city, it's a chance to really see what life is like here. The High Country tour gets excellent reviews from visitors.

9. forest

WOMAN: My friend said that below you, you've got this amazing, ancient forest.

DAVID: That's right. And it's really special to see it from above. Not something we do very often, if you think about it.

10. 43

WOMAN: That doesn't mean much to me. What's that in miles?

DAVID: Er, oh yes, it's here, in miles per hour it's about 43.

Part 2

11. B

Well, if we go back to the early 1800s, Willford was very different to what you see today. At that time, the forests had already been cut down. But there were no large urban settlements here, just a few small villages, and this whole area was a place where local people kept animals or grew crops – those were the only economic activities.

12. C

But then in 1830, something happened in Willford that transformed the area. The discovery of rich deposits of coal and other minerals opened up many commercial possibilities. Mines were built, so these deposits could be brought to the surface. Then a canal was constructed, so that canal boats could transport the minerals to other regions.

13. A

By the 1870s, Willford had become an important manufacturing centre. A few factories successfully produced fabrics from cotton and wool. However, what Willford was best known for, was manufacturing all sorts of tools, machinery and other items out of iron and steel. The attempt to set up a pottery industry here, however, making items for the home out of clay, was never really a success.

14. C

When the museum first opened in 1976, 2000 visitors came on the first weekend alone. Since then, visitor numbers have just grown and grown. They now stand at 300,000 per year and we anticipate further growth in the years to come. In fact, just recently we welcomed our 9 millionth visitor, which was an exciting day for us.

15. A

As well as our regular visitors, the museum has a number of other uses. We work closely with universities, whose staff consult the range of documents and artefacts we hold here. As well as that, those making movies and television shows often come to the museum because it makes a great set for historical scenes. There's even a possibility in future we may open up the museum for weddings and other private events.

16. C

So, one place I'd recommend is the old bakery. This is a typical bakery from this area, from about 100 years ago. To get there from the ticket office, walk up Stafford Street. And then turn into Rigby Road. Walk down Rigby Road, there are a few interesting places along the way, and the old bakery is right next to the canal.

17. F

Another interesting place is the doctor's surgery. This was moved here, brick by brick, and rebuilt on the museum site. Walk up Stafford Street, until you reach the dock. You see the café. Walk past that, and the doctor's surgery is just there.

18. A

Cooper's Cottage is also fascinating – a worker's cottage from the 19th century. Walk up Stafford Street and take the first turning on the left. The road curves round to the west, then south, as it climbs Jack's Hill. You'll pass a few little houses on the way up, and Cooper's Cottage is right on the summit of Jack's hill.

19. H

The stables are also great. This is where they kept all the horses. Again, walk up Stafford Street to the dock, and turn right. Walk round the dock till you get to the canal. Then cross the bridge over the canal to reach the stables.

20. E

Also, be sure to visit the old school. So, walk north-east up through the museum. And it's not too far. The old school is right on the corner of Stafford Street and Rigby Road.

Part 3

21. 22. B, D

NATHAN: I agree. To me, it's about unpredictability. Markets can change unexpectedly. But if you've done research, you can minimise the chance that something will go wrong in your own business.

STELLA: That's a really significant point. You may also learn the most effective means of promoting your business.

NATHAN: But that depends on the business. It's not a general advantage.

STELLA: No, you're right. But I do think, the sums you invest in market research, you'll see a return on that eventually.

23. 24. D, E

STELLA: OK, so there are benefits. But there are criticisms of market research, as well. We should acknowledge that in the assignment.

NATHAN: But some criticisms are more valid than others.

STELLA: OK, fair enough. But I read an interesting study out of the USA showing that the results of a lot of market research are just unreliable. The supposed developments identified by the research never occur.

STELLA: But that's a criticism of how businesses are structured, not research itself.

NATHAN: Yeah OK. Though you've got to admit, market researchers love jargon. These are examples from one report I read – 'psychographics', 'coolhunting' and 'asynchronous research'. Some people are bound to be put off by these terms.

STELLA: Yes, that's a reasonable complaint.

25. 26. A, C

NATHAN: So, what about sources of information for market research? Which sources of information work best?

STELLA: Yes, that's well documented. But I read that managers can learn a lot about social trends just by doing really obvious things, like keeping up with the news on TV, radio and digital networking sites. I hadn't thought it could be that simple.

NATHAN: No, me neither. Then there's a lot of data put out by bodies like the national census and the civil service. That can be helpful.

STELLA: Maybe, but it depends on the business. What I hadn't expected, though, was the evidence showing that talking to consumers directly about their preferences really works.

NATHAN: Yeah, I was a bit taken aback when I read that. But apparently, it's more effective than internet questionnaires and polls.

STELLA: I think people are less likely to be honest in questionnaires.

27. C

STELLA: You mean in their interactions with customers?

NATHAN: Yes. What, precisely, should they ask customers in order to get valuable information? Show staff the sorts of things they can ask on a daily basis.

28. A

STELLA: OK. and next, I was reading an article by the BQR Group. Apparently, staff need to keep an account of what the customers are saying.

NATHAN: You mean on computer, or by hand?

STELLA: The format doesn't matter. But, say, every Friday, they should add to the document. So they build up a picture of customer opinions, and the insights aren't lost.

29. F

NATHAN: Well, in fact, Business Guide's approach is to get your staff together round a table as frequently as possible to discuss their findings.

STELLA: That sounds like a good approach.

30. D

STELLA: Oh, this is the idea of delegating, so that each staff member is accountable for market research in one area of the business.

Part 4

31. elderly

The only group for whom the rule is useful seems to be the elderly, because they don't always feel thirsty, even when their bodies are actually short of water.

32. meals

...there is some evidence from studies to show that subjects who drank a lot of water, and then had their meals, lost more weight.

33. digestion

In particular, it seems to increase the rate at which digestion takes place, which overall has a number of health benefits.

34. temperature

...their body's ability to regulate its own temperature was compromised, compared to a properly hydrated subject.

35. skin

...I could find no evidence at all to support the idea that hydration improves or enhances the skin in any specific way.

36. headaches

...the less hydrated group were affected more frequently by headaches compared to those who drank more water.

37. anxiety

...the subjects in this group reported increased feelings of anxiety when dehydrated.

38. swallowing

...they actually found swallowing problematic – their bodies just wouldn't allow it so easily.

39. athletes

...there are recorded instances of illness among athletes who have been encouraged to drink a lot.

40. salt

...the make-up of their blood has changed and it now contains such a high proportion of salt…

Practice Test 12

Part 1

1. races

That costs 260 dollars and that covers you not just for ordinary cycling but also for races both here in the city and also in other parts of Australia.

2. insurance

Now both types of membership include the club fee of 20 dollars. They also provide insurance in case you have an accident, though we hope you won't need that, of course.

3. Jerriz

No, it's made to order by a company in Brisbane. You can find them online: they're called Jerriz.

4. 25

If you can do about 25 kilometres an hour, you'd probably be level B.

5. stadium

There's one on Tuesdays, and for that one you meet at 5.30 am, and the meeting point's the stadium.

6. park

That's on Thursdays. It starts at the same time, but they meet at the main gate to the park.

7. coffee

And the members often go somewhere for coffee afterwards, so it's quite a social event.

8. leader

Sometimes, but not always. But you don't really need one; the group members on the ride support one another, anyway.

9. route

If you check the club website, you'll see that the route for each ride is clearly marked. So you can just print that out and take it along with you.

10. lights

And in winter, it's well before sunrise when we set out, so you need to make sure your bike's got lights.

Part 2

11. C

The company will pay for eight hours of your time. That can be used over one or two days all at once, or spread over several months throughout the year.

12. B

Because they felt they were doing something really useful, nearly everyone agreed that volunteering made them feel more motivated at work.

13. C

Our staff were able to help them improve their telephone skills, such as writing down messages and speaking with confidence to potential customers, which they had found quite difficult.

14. B

But we've also agreed to help out on a conservation project in Redfern Park.

15. B

And this year, instead of hosting the event in our own training facility, we're using the ICT suite at Hill College.

16. A

If you're interested in taking part, please go to the volunteering section of our website and complete the relevant form.

17. 18. C, E

Quite a few owned both a computer and a mobile phone, but these tended to be outdated models... A few were keen to learn but most were quite dismissive at first - they couldn't see the point of updating their skills.

19. 20. B, D

The really encouraging thing was that participants all said they felt much more confident about using social media to keep in touch with their grandchildren... A lot of them also said playing online games would help them make new friends and keep their brains active.

Part 3

21. B

Should I assume the other students don't know much, and give them a kind of general introduction, or should I try and make them share my fascination with a particular aspect?

22. A

Or another way would be to focus on its impact in one particular area, say medicine, or space exploration.

23. C

While it can be good to include slides, you could end up spending too long looking for suitable ones. You might find it better to leave them out.

24. C

So, maybe I should mention a particular way that nanotechnology is used, to focus people's attention.

25. A

Initially I think you should ignore all the notes you've made, take a small piece of paper, and write a single short sentence that ties together the whole presentation: it can be something as simple as 'Nanotechnology is already improving our lives'. Then start planning the content around that.

26. A

With regard to the structure, I felt that you ended rather abruptly, without rounding it off.

27. C

And you made very little eye contact with the audience, because you were looking down at your notes most of the time.

28. D

Your body language was a little odd. Every time you showed a slide, you turned your back on the audience so you could look at it - you should have been looking at your laptop.

29. G

Yes, that came across. You used a few words that are specific to the field, but you always explained what they meant.

30. B

I must say the handouts you prepared were well thought out. They were a good summary of your presentation, which people would be able to refer to later on.

Part 4

31. location

Episodic memories include various details about these events, for example, when an event happened and other information such as the location.

32. world

Episodic memory is distinct from another type of memory called semantic memory. This is the type of factual memory that we have in common with everyone else - that is your general knowledge of the world.

33. personal

Unlike episodic memory, semantic memory isn't dependent on recalling personal experiences.

34. attention

The degree to which you can successfully encode information depends on the level of attention you give to an event while it's actually happening.

35. name

For example, if you were introduced to someone called Charlie, you might make the connection that your uncle has the same name.

36. network

Consolidation is most effective when the information being stored can be linked to an existing network of information.

37. frequency

Forming strong memories depends on the frequency with which you try to retrieve them.

38. colour/color

For example, when recalling where you parked your car you may use the colour of a sign close to where you parked.

39. brain

Recent studies have shown that computer-assisted games designed to keep the brain active can help improve their episodic memory.

40. self

This may be caused by an absence of a sense of self. This is essential for the storage of episodic memory, and has been found to be impaired in children with autism.