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READING AND USE OF ENGLISH - Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Part 1
For questions 1 – 8, read the text below and decide which answer (A, B, C or D) best fits each gap.
________________________________________
Studying black bears
After years studying North America’s black bears in the (0) ........ way, wildlife biologist Luke Robertson felt no closer to understanding the creatures. He realised that he had to (1)............their trust. Abandoning scientific detachment, he took the daring step of forming relationships with the animals, bringing them food to gain their acceptance.
The (2) ........ this has given him into their behaviour has allowed him to dispel certain myths about bears. (3) ........ to popular belief, he contends that bears do not (4) ........ as much for fruit as previously supposed. He also (5) ........ claims that they are ferocious. He says that people should not be (6) by behaviour such as swatting paws on the ground, as this is a defensive, rather than an aggressive, act.
However, Robertson is no sentimentalist. After devoting years of his life to the bears, he is under no (7) ........ about their feelings for him. It is clear that their interest in him does not (8) ........... beyond the food he brings.
Part 2
For questions 9 – 16, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap.
The origin of language
The truth (0) ........ nobody really knows how language first began. Did we all start talking at around the same time (9) .......... of the manner in which our brains had begun to develop?
Although there is a lack of clear evidence, people have come up with various theories about the origins of language. One recent theory is that human beings have evolved in (10)...............a way that we are programmed for language from the moment of birth. In (11) ........ words, language came about as a result of an evolutionary change in our brains at some stage.
Language (12) ........ well be programmed into the brain but, (13) ........ this, people still need stimulus from others around them. From studies, we know that (14) ............ children are isolated from human contact and have not learnt to construct sentences before they are ten, it is doubtful they will ever do so. This research shows, if (15) ............else, that language is a social activity, not something invented (16) .......... isolation.
Part 3
For questions 17 – 24, read the text below. Use the word given in capitals at the end of some of the lines to form a word that fits in the gap in the same line.
Training sports champions
What are the abilities that a (0) ........ sports person needs? To guarantee that opponents can be (17) ........ , speed, stamina and agility are essential, not to mention outstanding natural talent. Both a rigorous and comprehensive (18) regime and a highly nutritious diet are vital for top-level performance. It is carbohydrates, rather than proteins and fat, that provide athletes with the (19) they need to compete. This means that pasta is more (20) ........ than eggs or meat. Such a diet enables them to move very energetically when required. Failure to follow a sensible diet can result in the (21) ........ to maintain stamina.
Regular training to increase muscular (22) is also a vital part of a professional’s regime, and this is (23) ........ done by exercising with weights. Sports people are prone to injury but a quality training regime can ensure that the (24) of these can be minimised.
Part 4
For questions 25 – 30, complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence, using the word given. Do not change the word given. You must use between two and five words, including the word given.
25 My brother now earns far less than he did when he was younger.
NEARLY
My brother ................................................ much now as he did when he was younger.
26 They are demolishing the old bus station and replacing it with a new one.
PULLED
The old bus station is.................................................with a new one.
27 The number of students now at university has reached an all-time high, apparently.
THE
The number of students now at university is ................................................ been, apparently.
28 I’m disappointed with the Fishers’ new album when I compare it to their previous one.
COMPARISON
I think the Fishers’ new album is................................................their previous one.
29 Anna got the job even though she didn’t have much experience in public relations.
SPITE
Anna got the job ............................................... of experience in public relations.
30 ‘I must warn you how dangerous it is to cycle at night without any lights,’ said the police officer to Max.
DANGERS
Max received a................................................at night without any lights from the police officer.
Part 5
You are going to read an extract from a novel in which a young woman called Caitlin talks about her life on an island. For questions 31 – 36, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text.
We live on the island of Hale. It's about four kilometres long and two kilometres wide at its broadest point, and it's joined to the mainland by a causeway called the Stand - a narrow road built across the mouth of the river which separates us from the rest of the country. Most of the time you wouldn't know we're on an island because the river mouth between us and the mainland is just a vast stretch of tall grasses and brown mud. But when there's a high tide and the water rises a half a metre or so above the road and nothing can pass until the tide goes out again a few hours later, then you know it's an island.
We were on our way back from the mainland. My older brother, Dominic, had just finished his first year at university in a town 150 km away. Dominic's train was due in at five and he'd asked for a lift back from the station. Now, Dad normally hates being disturbed when he's writing (which is just about all the time), and he also hates having to go anywhere, but despite the typical sighs and moans – why can't he get a taxi? what's wrong with the bus? – I could tell by the sparkle in his eyes that he was really looking forward to seeing Dominic.
So, anyway, Dad and I had driven to the mainland and picked up Dominic from the station. He had been talking non-stop from the moment he'd slung his rucksack in the boot and got in the car. University this, university that, writers, books, parties, people, money, gigs. .... And when I say talking, I don't mean talking as in having a conversation, I mean talking as in jabbering like a mad thing. I didn't like it .....the way he spoke and waved his hands around as if he was some kind of intellectual or something. It was embarrassing. It made me feel uncomfortable – that kind of discomfort you feel when someone you like, someone close to you, suddenly starts acting like a complete idiot. And I didn't like the way he was ignoring me, either. For all the attention I was getting I might as well not have been there. I felt a stranger in my own car.
As we approached the island on that Friday afternoon, the tide was low and the Stand welcomed us home, stretched out before us, clear and dry, beautifully hazy in the heat – a raised strip of grey concrete bound by white railings and a low footpath on either side, with rough cobbled banks leading down to the water. Beyond the railings, the water was glinting with that wonderful silver light we sometimes get here in the late afternoon which lazes through to the early evening.
We were about halfway across when I saw the boy. My first thought was how odd it was to see someone walking on the Stand. You don't often see people walking around here. Between Hale and Moulton (the nearest town about thirty kilometres away on the mainland), there's nothing but small <line 31>cottages, farmland, heathland and a couple of hills. So islanders don't walk because of that. If they're <line 31> going to Moulton they tend to take the bus. So the only pedestrians you're likely to see around here are walkers or bird-watchers. But even from a distance I could tell that the figure ahead didn't fit into either of these categories. I wasn't sure how I knew, I just did.
As we drew closer, he became clearer. He was actually a young man rather than a boy. Although he was on the small side, he wasn't as slight as I'd first thought. He wasn't exactly muscular, but he wasn't weedy-looking either. It's hard to explain. There was a sense of strength about him, a graceful strength that showed in his balance, the way he held himself, the way he walked....
Part 6
You are going to read a newspaper article in which a former ballet dancer talks about the physical demands of the job. Six sentences have been removed from the article. Choose from the sentences A – G the one which fits each gap (37 – 42). There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use.
What we ballet dancers do is instinctive, but instinct learnt through a decade of training. A dancer’s life is hard to understand, and easy to misinterpret. Many a poet and novelist has tried to do so, but even they have chosen to interpret all the hard work and physical discipline as obsessive. And so the idea persists that dancers spend every waking hour in pain, bodies at breaking point, their smiles a pretence.
As a former dancer in the Royal Ballet Company here in Britain, I would beg to question this. 37 ____ With expert teaching and daily practice, its various demands are easily within the capacity of the healthy human body. Contrary to popular belief, there is no need to break bones or tear muscles to achieve ballet positions. It is simply a question of sufficient conditioning of the muscular system.
Over the course of my dancing life I worked my way through at least 10,000 ballet classes. I took my first at a school of dance at the age of seven and my last 36 years later at the Royal Opera House in London. In the years between, ballet class was the first thing I did every day. It starts at an early age, this daily ritual, because it has to. 38 ____ But for a ballet dancer in particular, this lengthy period has to come before the effects of adolescence set in, while maximum flexibility can still be achieved.
Those first classes I took were remarkably similar to the last. In fact, taking into account the occasional new idea, ballet classes have changed little since 1820, when the details of ballet technique were first written down, and are easily recognised in any country. Starting with the left hand on the barre, the routine unrolls over some 75 minutes. 39 ____ Even the leading dancers have to do it.
These classes serve two distinct purposes: they are the way we warm our bodies and the mechanism by which we improve basic technique. In class after class, we prove the old saying that ‘practice makes perfect’. 40 ____ And it is also this daily repetition which enables us to strengthen the muscles required in jumping, spinning or lifting our legs to angles impossible to the average person.
The human body is designed to adapt to the demands we make of it, provided we make them carefully and over time.41 ____ In the same way, all those years of classes add up to a fit-for- purpose dancing machine. This level of physicalfluency doesn’t hurt; it feels good.
42 ____ But they should not be misled: there is a difference between hard work and hardship. Dancers have an everyday familiarity with the first. Hardship it isn’t.
A Through endless tries at the usual exercises and frequent failures, ballet dancers develop the neural pathways in the brain necessary to control accurate, fast and smooth movement.
B The ballet shoe offers some support, but the real strength is in the muscles, built up through training.
C As technology takes away activity from the lives of many, perhaps the ballet dancer’s physicality is ever more difficult for most people to imagine.
D Ballet technique is certainly extreme but it is not, in itself, dangerous.
E The principle is identical in the gym – pushing yourself to the limit, but not beyond, will eventually bring the desired result.
F No one avoids this: it is ballet’s great democratiser, the well established members of the company working alongside the newest recruits.
G It takes at least a decade of high-quality, regular practice to become an expert in any physical discipline.
Part 7
You are going to read a newspaper article about a young professional footballer. For questions 43 – 52, choose from the sections (A – D). The sections may be chosen more than once.
Which paragraph
Rising Star
Margaret Garelly goes to meet Duncan Williams, who plays for Chelsea Football Club.
A It’s my first time driving to Chelsea’s training C ground and I turn off slightly too early at the London University playing fields. Had he accepted football’s rejections in his early teenage years, it is exactly the sort of ground Duncan Williams would have found himself running around on at weekends. At his current age of 18, he would have been a bright first-year undergraduate mixing his academic studies with a bit of football, rugby and cricket, given his early talent in all these sports. However, Duncan undoubtedly took the right path. Instead of studying, he is sitting with his father Gavin in one of the interview rooms at Chelsea’s training base reflecting on Saturday’s match against Manchester City. Such has been his rise to fame that it is with some disbelief that you listen to him describing how his career was nearly all over before it began.
B Gavin, himself a fine footballer – a member of D the national team in his time – and now a professional coach, sent Duncan to three professional clubs as a 14 year-old, but all three turned him down. ‘I worked with him a lot when he was around 12, and it was clear he had fantastic technique and skill. But then the other boys shot up in height and he didn’t. But I was still upset and surprised that no team seemed to want him, that they couldn’t see what he might develop into in time. When Chelsea accepted him as a junior, it was made clear to him that this was more of a last chance than a new beginning. They told him he had a lot of hard work to do and wasn’t part of their plans. Fortunately, that summer he just grew and grew, and got much stronger as well.’
C Duncan takes up the story: ‘The first half of that season I played in the youth team. I got lucky – the first-team manager came to watch us play QPR, and though we lost 3-1, I had a really good game. I moved up to the first team after that performance.’ Gavin points out that it can be beneficial to be smaller and weaker when you are developing – it forces you to learn how to keep the ball better, how to use ‘quick feet’ to get out of tight spaces. ‘A couple of years ago,Duncan would run past an opponent as if he wasn’t there but then the other guy would close in on him. I used to say to him, “Look, if you can do that now, imagine what you’ll be like when you’re 17, 18 and you’re big and quick and they won’t be able to get near you.” If you’re a smaller player, you have to use your brain a lot more.’
D Not every kid gets advice from an ex-England player over dinner, nor their own private training sessions. Now Duncan is following in Gavin’s footsteps. He has joined a national scheme where people like him give advice to ambitious young teenagers who are hoping to become professionals. He is an old head on young shoulders. Yet he’s also like a young kid in his enthusiasm. And fame has clearly not gone to his head; it would be hard to meet a more likeable, humble young man. So will he get to play for the national team? ‘One day I’d love to, but when that is, is for somebody else to decide.’ The way he is playing, that won’t be long.
