1. AT VOL 6.

7 - PASSAGE 1

TERMINATED DINOSAUR ERA

A The age of dinosaurs, which ended with the cataclysmic bang of a meteor impact 65 million years ago, may
also have begun with one. Researchers found recently the first direct, though tentative, geological evidence of
a meteor impact 200 million years ago, coinciding with a mass extinction that eliminated half of the major
groups of life and opened the evolutionary1 door for what was then a relatively small group of animals:
dinosaurs.

B The cause and timing of the ascent of dinosaurs has have been much debated. It has been impossible to
draw any specific conclusions because the transition between the origin of dinosaurs and their ascent to
dominance has not been sampled in detail. “There is a geochemical signature of something important
happening, probably an asteroid impact, just before the time in which familiar dinosaur-dominated
communities appear,” said Dr. Paul E. Olsen, a professor of earth and environmental sciences at Columbia
University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, N.Y.

C Olsen and his colleagues studied vertebrate fossils from 80 sites in four different ancient rift basins, part of
a chain of rifts that formed as North America began to split apart from the supercontinent that existed 230-190
million years ago. In the layer of rock corresponding to the extinction, the scientists found elevated amounts of
the rare element iridium. A precious metal belonging to the platinum group of elements, iridium is more
abundant in meteorites than in rocks.

D On Earth, A similar spike of iridium in 65 million- year-old rocks gave rise in the 1970s to the theory that a
meteor caused the demise of the dinosaurs. That theory remained controversial for years until it was
corroborated by other evidence and the impact site was found off the Yucatan Peninsula. Scientists will need
to examine the new iridium anomaly similarly. The levels are only about one-tenth as high as those found at
the later extinction. That could mean that the meteor was smaller or contained less iridium or that a meteor
was not involved—iridium can also come from the Earth’s interior, belched out by volcanic eruptions. Dr.
Michael J. Benton, a professor of vertebrate paleontology at the University of Bristol in England, described the
data as “the first reasonably convincing evidence of an iridium spike”.

E The scientists found more evidence of rapid extinction in a database of 10,000 fossilized footprints in
former lake basins from Virginia to Nova Scotia. Although individual species cannot usually be identified solely
from their footprints — the tracks of a house cat, for example, resemble those of a baby tiger — footprints are
much more plentiful than fossil bones and can provide a more complete picture of the types of animals
walking around. “It makes it very easy for us to tell the very obvious signals of massive fauna change,” Dr. Olsen
said. Because the sediment piles up quickly in lake basins, the researchers were able to assign a date to each
footprint, based on the layer of rock where it was found. They determined that the mix of animals walking
across what is now the East Coast of North America changed suddenly about 200 million years ago.

F The tracks of several major reptile groups continue almost up to the layer of rock marking the end of the
Triassic geologic period 202 million years ago, and then vanish in younger layers from the Jurassic period. “I
think the footprint methodology is very novel and very exciting,” said Dr. Peter D. Ward, a professor of geology
at the University of Washington. He called the data “very required more research. Last year, researchers led by
Dr. Ward reported that the types of carbon in rock changed abruptly at this time, indicating a sudden dying off
of plants over less than 50,000 years. The footprint research reinforces the hypothesis that the extinction was
sudden.
G Several groups of dinosaurs survived that extinction, and the footprints show that new groups emerged
soon afterward. Before the extinction, about one-fifth of the footprints were left by dinosaurs; after the
extinction, more than half were from dinosaurs. The changes, the researchers said, occurred within 30,000
years- a geological blink of an eye. The scientists postulate that the asteroid or comet impact and the resulting
death of Triassic competitors allowed a few groups of carnivorous dinosaurs to evolve in size very quickly and
dominate the top of the terrestrial food chain globally.

H Among the creatures that disappeared in the extinction were the dominant predators at the time: 15-foot-
long rauisuchians with great knife-like teeth and phytosaurs that resembled large crocodiles. Dinosaurs first
evolved about 230 million years ago, but they were small, competing in a crowded ecological niche. Before the
extinction 200 million years ago. The largest of the meat-eating dinosaurs were about the see of large dogs.
Not terribly impressive.” Dr. Olsen said. The dinosaurs quickly grew. The toe-to-heel length of the foot of a
meat eater from the Jurassic period was on average 20 percent longer than its Triassic ancestor. Larger feet can
carry bigger bodies; the scientists infer the dinosaurs doubled in weight, eventually evolving into fearsome
velociraptors, Tyrannosaurus rex and other large carnivorous dinosaurs.

I The spurt in evolution is similar to the rise of mammals after the extinction of dinosaurs. Mammals, no
larger than small dogs during the age of dinosaurs, diversified into tigers, elephants, whales and people after
the reptilian competition died away. The success of the dinosaurs after the Triassic-Jurassic extinction may be
why they did not survive the second extinction. “Small animals always do better in catastrophic situations. Dr.
Olsen said, because they can survive on smaller amounts of food.” He also pointed out that scientists now
believe the small dinosaurs did survive. “We just call them birds,” he said.

Question 1-6
Use the information in the passage to match the people (listed A- C) with opinions or deeds (listed 1-6) below.
Write the appropriate letter (A-C) in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.

A. Paul Olsen
B. Michael Benton
C. Peter Ward

1. Large animals are in a disadvantageous position when disasters happen.

2. Radical changes in carbon types are related to massive extinction of vegetation.
3. The changes in earth’s animal species become easier to identify by adding footprint investigation.
4. Geochemical evidence suggests an asteroid impact before dinosaurs appeared.
5. Footprint study is a way of research.
6. Persuasive clues of an iridium spike were discovered for the first time.

Question 7-13
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?
In boxes 7-13 on your answer sheet write

TRUE if the statement is true

FALSE if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage 1

7. The rare element, iridium, was presented both on earth and in meteorites.
8. The meteor impact theory had been suspected before the discovery of the impact site and other supporting
evidence.
9. Footprints are of little value in providing information, in comparison to fossil bones, because individual
species cannot be identified with footprints.
10. According to scientists, the transition to a dinosaur-dominated era took place very quickly by geological
time scales.
11. The creatures that disappeared in the extinction were the dominantly the 15-foot-long rauisuchians and
large crocodiles.
12. Tyrannosaurus rex was larger in body size than other carnivorous dinosaurs.
13. Large dinosaurs died out but small ones evolved and competed with birds and mammals.

2. AT VOL 7.4 - Passage 1

American Black Bear

A Not all black bears are black – their fur can range in color from pure white to a cinnamon color to very
dark brown or black. Most populations have a mixture of these colors, including the pure white form which is
found in some individuals in the island archipelago in southern British Columbia (Kermodi Island). This white-
black bear, which is called spirit bears, revered by Native Americans, is caused by inheriting a recessive gene
for coat color from both the mother and the father who could, themselves, both be black. A genetic reason
results in the light grey coat color called the “blue” or glacier bear in southeastern Alaska. Regardless of these
genetic variants, most of the bears in any region are black in color. Some bears have a white patch on their
chests. They have a short, inconspicuous tail, longish ears, a relatively straight profile from nose to forehead,
and small, dark eyes.

B Black bears have relatively short claws which enable them to climb trees. Unlike cats, the claws are non-
retractable. Other than color, how do black bears differ from grizzly bears? Black bears have longer and less
rounded ears and a more straight profile from forehead to nose compared to grizzly bears. Grizzlies have larger
shoulder humps and a more dished-in facial profile and much longer front claws that are evident in the tracks.
Black bears and grizzly bears can both have a wide variety of colors and sizes, but most commonly in areas
where both species occur, black bears are smaller and darker than grizzly bears. Size: Black bears in some areas
where food is scarce are much smaller than in other areas where food is abundant. Typically, adults are
approximately 3 feet tall at the shoulder, and their length from nose to tail is about 75 inches. All bears,
including black bears, are sexually dimorphic — meaning adult males are much larger than adult females. A
large male black bear can exceed 600 lbs in weight while females seldom exceed 200 lbs.

C American black bears are omnivorous, meaning they will eat a variety of things, including both plants and
meat. Their diet includes roots, berries, meat, fish, insects, larvae, grass and other succulent plants. They are
able to kill adult deer and other hoofed wildlife but most commonly are only able to kill deer, elk, moose and
other hoofed animals when these are very young. They are able to kill livestock, especially sheep. Bears are
very attracted to human garbage, livestock food or pet food, or other human-associated foods including fruit
trees. Bears using these human-associated foods can quickly become habituated to them and this commonly
results in the bears being killed as nuisances. This is true for bee hives as well as bears are very attracted to
honey.
D Black bears can live up to 30 years in the wild but most die before they are in their early 20s. Because of
their versatile diet, black bears can live in a variety of habitat types. They inhabit both coniferous and
deciduous forests as well as open alpine habitats. They typically do not occur on the Great Plains or other
wide-open areas except along river courses where there is riparian vegetation and trees. They can live just
about anywhere they can find food, but largely occur where there are trees. The American black bear’s range
covers most of the North American continent. They are found in Alaska, much of Canada and the United
States, and extend as far south as northern Mexico.

E Black bears are typically solitary creatures except for family (a female with cubs) groups and during mating
season, which peaks in May and June. Following fertilization, the embryo doesn’t implant in the uterus until
fall at the time of den entrance. This process of delayed implantation occurs in all bear species and allows the
female bear’s body to physiologically “assess” her condition before implantation occurs and the period of
gestation leading to the birth of cubs really begins. Delayed implantation allows the female to not waste fat
reserves and energy in sustaining a pregnancy that would have little chance of success because her condition is
too poor. Females give birth to cubs every other year if food sources are sufficiently plentiful. In years when
food supplies are scarce a female may skip an additional year or two between litters. The cubs are born in the
mother’s winter den, and will den with her again the following winter. The following spring when the cubs are
1.5 years old, the cubs and female will separate and the female will breed again. A black bear litter can be 1-5
cubs but most commonly litters are 2 cubs.

F Conservation efforts for black bears have been effective and in most areas, black bears are increasing and
can sustain managed sport hunting. In areas with human populations, this can cause conflicts because bears
are very attracted to human foods and refuse as well as to livestock and livestock foods. Since bears are large
and strong animals, many people fear them and resent the damage they can cause. The key to successful
coexistence between humans and bears is to recognize that it is no longer possible for either species to occupy
all habitats but that where co-occupancy is possible and desirable, humans must be responsible for the welfare
of the bear population. Wild areas with little human footprint will remain the most important habitat for bears
but peaceful co-existence can occur in the urban-wildland interface as long as humans take the necessary
steps to assure that the relationship remains a positive one.

G The American black bear is not currently a species of conservation concern and even the formerly listed
black bear of Florida and Louisiana is now increasing. Habitats in western Texas from which black bears were
extirpated are now being re-colonized.

Questions 1-7
The reading Passage has seven paragraphs A-G.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter A-G, in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.

1 Variety of eating habit

2 Confliction between bear and human
3 Size of black bears
4 Different territorial range
5 Compare two kinds of bear
6 Explanation of fur color variation
7 Typical reproduction and breed habit

Questions 8-13
Filling the blanks below
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.

8 American indigenous people name white fur bear as .

9 Male bears are larger than females, which is called .
10 Bear often died accidentally as human to humans because they relied on
11 Black bear’s maximum age in the wild is .
12 allows female bears to judge whether everything is ready for breeding.
13 A significant way for humans to co-exist with bears is that we need instead of occupying all habitats.

3. AT VOL 7.3 - READING PASSAGE 1

Making Copier

At first, nobody bought Chester Carlson’s strange idea. But trillions of documents later, his invention is the
biggest thing in printing since Gutenberg

A Copying is the engine of civilization: culture is behavior duplicated. The oldest copier invented by people is
language, by which an idea of yours becomes an idea of mine. The second great copying machine was writing.
When the Sumerians transposed spoken words into stylus marks on clay tablets more than 5,000 years ago,
the hugely extended the human network that language had created. Writing freed copying from the chain of
living contact. It made ideas permanent, portable and endlessly reproducible.

B Until Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press in the mid-1400s, producing a book in an edition of
more than one generally meant writing it out again. Printing with moveable type was not copying, however.
Gutenberg couldn’t take a document that already existed, feed it into his printing press and run off facsimiles.
The first true mechanical copier was manufactured in 1780, when James Watt, who is better known as the
inventor of the modern steam engine, created the copying press. Few people today know what a copying press
was, but you may have seen one in an antique store, where it was perhaps called a book press. A user took a
document freshly written in special ink, placed a moistened sheet of translucent paper against the inked
surface and squeezed the two sheets together in the press, causing some of the ink from the original to
penetrate the second sheet, which could then be read by turning it over and looking through its back. The high
cost prohibits the widespread use of this copier.

C Among the first modem copying machines, introduced in 1950 by 3M, was the Thermo-Fax, and it made a
copy by shining infrared light through an original document and a sheet of paper that had been coated with
heat-sensitive chemicals. Competing manufacturers soon introduced other copying technologies and marketed
machines called Dupliton, Dial-A-Matic Autostat, Verifax, Copease and Copymation. These machines and their
successors were welcomed by secretaries, who had no other means of reproducing documents in hand, but
each had serious drawbacks. All required expensive chemically treated papers. And all made copies that
smelled bad, were hard to read, didn’t last long and tended to curl up into tubes. The machines were
displaced, beginning in the late 1800s, by a combination of two 19th century inventions: the typewriter and
carbon paper. For those reasons, copying presses were standard equipment in offices for nearly a century and
a half.

D None of those machines is still manufactured today. They were all made obsolete by a radically different
machine, which had been developed by an obscure photographic-supply company. That company had been
founded in 1906 as the Haloid Company and is known today as the Xerox Corporation. In 1959, it introduced
an office copier called the Haloid Xerox 914, a machine that, unlike its numerous competitors, made sharp,
permanent copies on ordinary paper-a huge breakthrough. The process, which Haloid called xerography (based
on Greek words meaning “dry” and “writing”), was so unusual and nonnutritive that physicists who visited the
drafty warehouses where the first machines were built sometimes expressed doubt that it was even
theoretically feasible.

E Remarkably, xerography was conceived by one person- Chester Carlson, a shy, soft-spoken patent attorney,
who grew up in almost unspeakable poverty and worked his way through junior college and the California
Institute of Technology. Chester Carlson was born in Seattle in 1906. His parents-Olof Adolph Carlson and Ellen
Josephine Hawkins—had grown up on neighboring farms in Grove City, Minnesota, a tiny Swedish farming
community about 75 miles west of Minneapolis. Compare with competitors, Carlson was not a normal inventor
in 20-century. He made his discovery in solitude in 1937 and offered it to more than 20 major corporations,
among them IBM, General Electric, Eastman Kodak and RCA. All of them turned him down, expressing what he
later called “an enthusiastic lack of interest” and thereby passing up the opportunity to manufacture what
Fortune magazine would describe as “the most successful product ever marketed in America.”

F. Carlson’s invention was indeed a commercial triumph. Essentially overnight, people began making copies
at a rate that was orders of magnitude higher than anyone had believed possible. And the rate is still growing.
In fact, most documents handled by a typical American office worker today are produced xerographically,
either on copiers manufactured by Xerox and its competitors or on laser printers, which employ the same
process (and were invented, in the 1970s, by a Xerox researcher). This year, the world will produce more than
three trillion xerographic copies and laser-printed pages—about 500 for every human on earth.

G Xerography eventually made Carlson a very wealthy man. (His royalties amounted to something like a 16th
of a cent for every Xerox copy made, worldwide, through 1965.) Nevertheless, he lived simply. He never owned
a second home or a second car, and his wife had to urge him not to buy third-class train tickets when he
traveled in Europe. People who knew him casually seldom suspected that he was rich or even well-to-do; when
Carlson told an acquaintance he worked at Xerox, the man assumed he was a factory worker and asked if he
belonged to a union. “His possessions seemed to be composed of the number of things he could easily do
without,” his second wife said. He spent the last years of his life quietly giving most of his fortune to charities.
When he died in 1968, among the eulogizers was the secretary-general of the United Nations.

Questions 1- 6
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?
In boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

1 The earliest languages were recorded on papyrus.

2 When applying Johann Gutenberg’s printing machine, it requires lots of training.
3 James Watt invented a modem steam engine before he made his first mechanical copier.
4 Using the Dupliton copiers and follower versions are very costly.
5 The typewriters with carbon papers were taken place of very soon because they were not sold well.
6 The Haloid Xerox 914 model also required specially treated paper for making copies.

Questions 7-13
Complete the notes below using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the Reading Passage.
Write your answers in boxes 7-13 on your answer sheet.

Calson, unlike a 20-century 7_______________ , like to work on his own. In 1937, he unsuccessfully invited 20
major 8 _______________ to make his discovery. However, this action was not welcome among shareholders
at the beginning, all of them 9 _______________ . Eventually, Calson’s creation was undeniably a 10
_______________ . Thanks for the discovery of Xerography, Calson became a very 11 _______________
person. Even so, his life remains as simple as before. It looks as if he can live without his 12
_______________ .At the same time, he gave lots of his money to 13 _______________ .

4. AT VOL 6.3 PASSAGE 1

Timekeeper: Invention of Marine Chronometer
A Up to the middle of the 18th century, the navigators were still unable to exactly identify the position at sea,
so they might face a great number of risks such as the shipwreck or running out of supplies before arriving at
the destination. Knowing one’s position on the earth requires two simple but essential coordinates, one of
which is the longitude.

B The longitude is a term that can be used to measure the distance that one has covered from one’s home to
another place around the world without the limitations of naturally occurring baseline like the equator. To
determine longitude, navigators had no choice but to measure the angle with the naval sextant between Moon
centre and a specific star— lunar distance—along with the height of both heavenly bodies. Together with the
nautical almanac, Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) was determined, which could be adopted to calculate
longitude because one hour in GMT means 15-degree longitude. Unfortunately, this approach laid great
reliance on the weather conditions, which brought great inconvenience to the crew members. Therefore,
another method was proposed, that is, the time difference between the home time and the local time served
for the measurement. Theoretically, knowing the longitude position was quite simple, even for the people in
the middle of the sea with no land in sight. The key element for calculating the distance travelled was to know,
at the very moment, the accurate home time. But the greatest problem is: how can a sailor know the home
time at sea?

C The simple and again obvious answer is that one takes an accurate clock with him, which he sets to the
home time before leaving. A comparison with the local time (easily identified by checking the position of the
Sun) would indicate the time difference between the home time and the local time, and thus the distance from
home was obtained. The truth was that nobody in the 18th century had ever managed to create a clock that
could endure the violent shaking of a ship and the fluctuating temperature while still maintaining the accuracy
of time for navigation.

D After 1714, as an attempt to find a solution to the problem, the British government offered a tremendous
amount of £20,000, which were to be managed by the magnificently named ‘Board of Longitude’. If
timekeeper was the answer (and there could be other proposed solutions, since the money wasn’t only offered
for timekeeper), then the error of the required timekeeping for achieving this goal needed to be within 2.8
seconds a day, which was considered impossible for any clock or watch at sea, even when they were in their
finest conditions.

E This award, worth about £2 million today, inspired the self-taught Yorkshire carpenter John Harrison to
attempt a design for a practical marine clock. In the later stage of his early career, he worked alongside his
younger brother James. The first big project of theirs was to build a turret clock for the stables at Brockelsby
Park, which was revolutionary because it required no lubrication. Harrison designed a marine clock in 1730,
and he travelled to London in seek of financial aid. He explained his ideas to Edmond Halley, the Astronomer
Royal, who then introduced him to George Graham, Britain’s first-class clockmaker. Graham provided him with
financial aid for his early-stage work on sea clocks. It took Harrison five years to build Harrison Number One or
HI. Later, he sought the improvement from alternate design and produced H4 with the giant clock appearance.
Remarkable as it was, the Board of Longitude wouldn’t grant him the prize for some time until it was
adequately satisfied.

F Harrison had a principal contestant for the tempting prize at that time, an English mathematician called
John Hadley, who developed the sextant. The sextant is the tool that people adopt to measure angles, such as
the one between the Sun and the horizon, for a calculation of the location of ships or planes. In addition, his
invention is significant since it can help determine longitude.

G Most chronometer forerunners of that particular generation were English, but that doesn’t mean every
achievement was made by them. One wonderful figure in the history is the Lancastrian Thomas Earnshaw, who
created the ultimate form of chronometer escapement—the spring detent escapement—and made the final
decision on format and productions system for the marine chronometer, which turns it into a genuine modem
commercial product, as well as a safe and pragmatic way of navigation at sea over the next century and half.

Questions 1-5. Reading Passage 1 has seven paragraphs, A-G.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.

1 a description of Harrison’s background

2 problems caused by poor ocean navigation
3 the person who gave financial support to Harrison
4 an analysis of the long-term importance of sea clock invention
5 the practical usage of longitude

Questions 6-8
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1 ?
In boxes 6-8 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN If there is no information on this

6 In theory, sailors can easily calculate their longitude position at sea.

7 To determine longitude, the measurement of the distance from the Moon to a given star is essential.
8 Greenwich Mean Time was set up by the English navigators.

Questions 9-14
Complete the sentences below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 9-14 on your answer sheet.

Sailors were able to use the position of the Sun to calculate 9 ______________ .
An invention that could win the competition would lose no more than 10 ______________ every day.
John and James Harrison’s clock worked accurately without 11 ______________ .
Harrison’s main competitor’s invention was known as 12 ______________ .
Hadley’s instrument can use 13 ______________to make a calculation of location of ships or planes.
The modem version of Harrison’s invention is called the 14______________ .

5. AT Vol 7 .8. 1
Mental Gymnastics

A. THE working day has just started at the head office of Barclays Bank in London. Seventeen staff are helping
themselves to a buffet breakfast as young psychologist Sebastian Bailey enters the room to begin the
morning’s framing session. But this is no ordinary training session. He’s not here to sharpen their finance or
management skills. He’s here to exercise their brains.

B. Today’s workout, organised by a company called the Mind Gym in London, is entitled “having presence”.
What follows is an intense 90-minute session in which this rather abstract concept is gradually broken down
into a concrete set of feelings, mental tricks and behaviours. At one point the bankers are instructed to shut
then eyes and visualise themselves filling the room and then the building. They finish up by walking around the
room acting out various levels of presence, from low-key to over the top.

C. It’s easy to poke fun. Yet similar mental workouts are happening in corporate seminar rooms around the
globe. The Mind Gym alone offers some 70 different sessions, including ones on mental stamina, creativity for
logical thinkers and “zoom learning”. Other outfits draw more directly on the exercise analogy, offering
“neurobics” courses with names like “brain sets” and “cerebral fitness”. Then there are books with titles like
Pumping Ions, full of brainteasers that claim to “flex your mind”, and software packages offering memory and
spatial- awareness games.

D. But whatever the style, the companies’ sales pitch is invariably the same— follow our routines to shape
and sculpt your brain or mind, just as you might tone and train your body. And, of course, they nearly all claim
that their mental workouts draw on serious scientific research and thinking into how the brain works.

E. One outfit, Brainergy of Cambridge, Massachusetts (motto: “Because your grey matter matters”) puts it
like this: “Studies have shown that mental exercise can cause changes in brain anatomy and brain chemistry
which promote increased mental efficiency and clarity. The neuroscience is cutting-edge.” And on its website,
Mind Gym trades on a quote from Susan Greenfield, one of Britain’s best known neuroscientists: “It’s a bit like
going to the gym, if you exercise your brain it will grow.”

F. Indeed, die Mind Gym originally planned to hold its sessions in a local health club, until its founders
realised where the real money was to be made. Modem companies need flexible, bright thinkers and will seize
on anything that claims to create them, especially if it looks like a quick fix backed by science. But are neurobic
workouts really backed by science? And do we need them?

G. Nor is there anything remotely high-tech about what Lawrence Katz, co- author of Keep Your Brain Alive,
recommends. Katz, a neurobiologist at Duke University Medical School in North Carolina, argues that just as
many of US fail to get enough physical exercise, so we also lack sufficient mental stimulation to keep our brain
in trim. Sine we are busy with jobs, family and housework. But most of this activity is repetitive routine. And
any leisure time is spent slumped in front of the TV.

H. So, read a book upside down. Write or brush your teeth with your wrong hand. Feel your way around the
room with your eyes shut. Sniff vanilla essence while listening intently to orchestral music. Anything, says Katz,
to break your normal mental routine. It will help invigorate your brain, encouraging its cells to make new
connections and pump out neuroteophins, substances that feed and sustain brain circuits.

I. Well, up to a point it will. “What I’m really talking about is brain maintenance rather than bulking up your
IQ,” Katz adds. Neurobics, in other words, is about letting your brain fulfill its potential. It cannot create super-
brains. Can it achieve even that much, though? Certainly the brain is an organ that can adapt to the demands
placed on it. Tests on animal brain tissue, for example, have repeatedly shown that electrically stimulating the
synapses that connect nerve cells thought to be crucial to learning and reasoning, makes them stronger and
more responsive. Brain scans suggest we use a lot more of our grey matter when carrying out new or strange
tasks than when we’re doing well-rehearsed ones. Rats raised in bright cages with toys sprout more neural
connections than rats raised in bare cages— suggesting perhaps that novelty and variety could be crucial to a
developing brain. Katz, And neurologists have proved time and again that people who lose brain cells suddenly
during a stroke often sprout new connections to compensate for the loss—especially if they undergo extensive
therapy to overcome any paralysis.

J. Guy Claxton, an educational psychologist at the University of Bristol, dismisses most of the neurological
approaches as “neuro-babble”. Nevertheless, there are specific mental skills we can learn, he contends.
Desirable attributes such as creativity, mental flexibility, and even motivation, are not the fixed faculties that
most of US think. They are thought habits that can be learned. The problem, says Claxton, is that most of US
never get proper training in these skills. We develop our own private set of mental strategies for tackling tasks
and never learn anything explicitly. Worse still, because any learned skill— even driving a car or brushing our
teeth-quickly sinks out of consciousness, we can no longer see the very thought habits we’re relying upon. Our
mental tools become invisible to US.

K. Claxton is the academic adviser to the Mind Gym. So not surprisingly, the company espouses his solution-
that we must return our thought patterns to a conscious level, becoming aware of the details of how we
usually think. Only then can we start to practise better thought patterns, until eventually these become our
new habits. Switching metaphors, picture not gym classes, but tennis or football coaching.

L. In practice, the training can seem quite mundane. For example, in one of the eight different creativity
workouts offered by the Mind Gym—entitled “creativity for logical thinkers” one of the mental strategies
taught is to make a sensible suggestion, then immediately pose its opposite. So, asked to spend five minutes
inventing a new pizza, a group soon comes up with no topping, sweet topping, cold topping, price based on
time of day, flat-rate prices and so on.

M. Bailey agrees that the trick is simple. But it is surprising how few such tricks people have to call upon
when they are suddenly asked to be creative: “They tend to just label themselves as uncreative, not realising
that there are techniques that every creative person employs.” Bailey says the aim is to introduce people to
half a dozen or so such strategies in a session so that what at first seems like a dauntingly abstract mental task
becomes a set of concrete, learnable behaviours. He admits this is not a short cut to genius. Neurologically,
some people do start with quicker circuits or greater handling capacity. However, with the right kind of training
he thinks we can dramatically increase how efficiently we use it.

N. It is hard to prove that the training itself is effective. How do you measure a change in an employee’s
creativity levels, or memory skills? But staff certainly report feeling that such classes have opened their eyes.
So, neurological boosting or psychological training? At the moment you can pay your money and take your
choice. Claxton for one believes there is no reason why schools and universities shouldn’t spend more time
teaching basic thinking skills, rather than trying to stuff heads with facts and hoping that effective thought
habits are somehow absorbed by osmosis.

Questions 1-5
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1 In boxes 1-5 on your
answer sheet, write
YES if the statement is true
NO if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage

1 Mind Gym coach instructed employees to imagine that they are the building
2 Mind Gym uses the similar marketing theory that is used all round
3 Susan Greenfield is the founder of Mind Gym
4 All business and industries are using Mind Gym’s session globally
5 According to Mind Gym, extensive scientific background supports their mental training sessions

Questions 6-13
Use the information in the passage to match the people (listed A-D) with opinions or deeds below.
Write the appropriate letters A-D in boxes 6-13 on your answer sheet.
NB: You may use any letter more than once

A. Guy Claxton
B. Sebastian Bailey
C. Susan Greenfield
D. Lawrence Katz

6 We do not have enough inspiration to keep our brain fit.

7 The more you exercise your brain like exercise in the gym, the more brain will grow
8 Exercise can keep your brain health instead of improving someone’s IQ
9 It is valuable for schools to teach students about creative skills besides basic known knowledge
10 We can develop new neuron connections when we lose old connections via certain treatment
11 People usually mark themselves as not creative before figuring out there are approaches for each person
12 An instructor in Mind Gym who guided the employees to exercise
13 Majority of people don’t have appropriate skills-training for brain
6. AT VOL 7 .9 - READING PASSAGE 1
Magnetic Therapy

A Magnetic therapy, which is a $5-billion market worldwide, is a form of alternative medicine which claims
that magnetic fields have healing powers. Magnetic devices that are claimed to be therapeutic include
magnetic bracelets, insoles, wrist and knee bands, back and neck braces, and even pillows and mattresses.
Their annual sales are estimated at $300 million in the United States and more than a billion dollars globally.
They have been advertised to cure a vast array of ills, particularly pain.

B The therapy works on the principle of balancing electrical energy in the body by pulsating magnetic waves
through different parts of the body. The electrical currents generated by magnets increase the blood flow and
oxygen which helps to heal many of the ailments. The natural effects of the Earth’s magnetic field are
considered to play an essential role in the health of humans and animals. It is generally accepted that our body
draws some benefit from the Earth’s magnetic field. To restore the balance within our body allows us to
function at our optimum level. For example, when the first astronauts returned to earth sick, NASA concluded
that their illness resulted from the lack of a planetary magnetic field in outer space. To resolve the problem,
NASA placed magnets in the astronauts’ space suits and space travel vehicles, and astronauts have returned to
Earth healthy ever since.

C Historically it is reported that magnets have been around for an extremely long time. The therapeutic power
of magnets was known to physicians in ancient Greece, Egypt and China over 4000 years ago, who used
naturally magnetic rock – lodestone – to treat a variety of physical and psychological ailments. Cleopatra the
beautiful Egyptian queen was probably the first celebrity to use magnets. It is documented that in order to
prevent from aging, she slept on a Lodestone to keep her skin youthful. Ancient Romans also used magnet
therapy to treat eye disease.

D The popularity of magnet therapy in the United States began to rise during the 1800s and soared in the
post – Civil War era. Sears-Roebuck advertised magnetic jewelry in its catalog for the healing of virtually any
ailment. An Austrian psychoanalyst by the name of Wilhelm Reich immigrated to the United States in 1939 and
researched the effects of electromagnetism on humans. Today, Germany, Japan, Israel, Russia and at least 45
other countries consider magnetic therapy to be an official medical procedure for the treatment of numerous
ailments, including various inflammatory and neurological problems.

E For those who practice magnetic therapy, strongly believe that certain ailments can be treated if the
patient is exposed to magnetic fields while at the same time there is a strong resentment from the medical
establishment and critics claim that most magnets don’t have the strength to affect the various organs and
tissues within the body and it is a product of Pseudoscience and is not based on proper research and analysis.
There are few reported complications of magnetic therapy and the World Health Organization says a low level
of magnetic energy is not harmful. Documented side effects are not life-threatening and include pain, nausea
and dizziness that disappeared when the magnets were removed. If considering magnet therapy, as with any
medical treatment, it is always advisable to consult one’s regular physician first. Magnet therapy is gaining
popularity; however, scientific evidence to support the success of this therapy is lacking. More scientifically
sound studies are needed in order to fully understand the effects that magnets can have on the body and the
possible benefits or dangers that could result from their use.
F Researchers at Baylor University Medical Center recently conducted a double-blind study on the use of
concentric-circle magnets to relieve chronic pain in 50 post-polio patients. A static magnetic device or a
placebo device was applied to the patient’s skin for 45 minutes. The patients were asked to rate how much
pain they experienced when a “trigger point was touched.” The researchers reported that the 29 patients
exposed to the magnetic device achieved lower pain scores than did the 21 who were exposed to the placebo
device. However, this study had significant flaws in their design. Although the groups were said to be selected
randomly, the ratio of women to men in the experimental group was twice that of the control group; the age
of the placebo group was four years higher than that of the control group; there were just one brief exposure
and no systematic follow-up of patients.

G Magnet therapy is gaining popularity; however, scientific evidence to support the success of this therapy is
lacking. More scientifically sound studies are needed in order to fully understand the effects that magnets can
have on the body and the possible benefits or dangers that could result from their use.

Questions 1-6
Choose the correct heading for paragraphs A-G from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number, i-x, in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.

List of headings

i Earth itself as the biggest magnet 1. Paragraph A

ii The commercial magnetic products 2. Paragraph B
iii Utilize the power from the natural magnetic field
iv Early application of the magnet 3. Paragraph C
v Brief introduction of ho the magnetic therapy works 4. Paragraph D
vi Pain-reducing effect
vii Arguments for and against the therapy 5. Paragraph E
viii An experiment on post-polio patients 6. Paragraph F
ix Conditions of magnet use today

Questions 7-8
Choose TWO letters, A-E.
Write the correct letters in boxes 7-8 on your answer sheet.

Which TWO of the lodestone benefits in ancient times are mentioned by the writer in the text?
A. make a facial mask
B. diminish the energy
C. improve eyesight
D. keep a younger appearance
E. remove dizziness

Questions 9-10
Choose TWO letters, A-E.
Write the correct letters in boxes 9-10 on your answer sheet.

Which TWO weaknesses of the Baylor research does the writer present?
A The number of subjects involved was not enough.
B There was so further evidence to support.
C The patients were at the same age.
D The device used in the experiment did not work properly.
E The gender ratio was not in proportion
Questions 11-13
Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-F, below.
Write the correct letters, A-F, in boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet.

11 The first NASA astronauts’ sickness

12 According to the WHO, under the physician’s instruction, a small amount of magnetic energy
13 The author holds that in order to fully understand the magnetic effects, we

A has no negative side effect.

B. resulted from physical ailment.
C. should have more sophisticated studies
D is exposed to the placebo device.
E must select the subjects randomly.
F came from the absence of a magnetic field.

7. AT VOL 10.4 - READING PASSAGE 1

The Innovation of Grocery Stores

A At the very beginning of the 20th century, the American grocery stores offered comprehensive services:
the customers would ask help from the people behind the counters (called clerks) for the items they liked, and
then the clerks would wrap the items up. For the purpose of saving time, customers had to ask delivery boys or
go in person to send the lists of what they intended to buy to the stores in advance and then went to pay for
the goods later. Generally speaking, these grocery stores sold only one brand for each item. Such early chain
stores as A&P stores, although containing full services, were very time-consuming and inefficient for the
purchase.

B Bom in Virginia, Clarence Saunders left school at the age of 14 in 1895 to work first as a clerk in a grocery
store. During his working in the store, he found that it was very inefficient for people to buy things there.
Without the assistance of computers at that time, shopping was performed in a quite backward way. Having
noticed that this inconvenient shopping mode could lead to tremendous consumption of time and money,
Saunders, with great enthusiasm and innovation, proposed an unprecedented solution—let the consumers do
self-service in the process of shopping—which might bring a thorough revolution to the whole industry.

C In 1902, Saunders moved to Memphis to put his perspective into practice, that is, to establish a grocery
wholesale cooperative. In his newly designed grocery store, he divided the store into three different areas: ‘A
front lobby’ served as an entrance, an exit, as well as the checkouts at the front. ‘A sales department’ was
deliberately designed to allow customers to wander around the aisle and select their needed groceries. In this
way, the clerks would not do the unnecessary work but arrange more delicate aisle and shelves to display the
goods and enable the customers to browse through all the items. In the gallery above the sales department,
supervisors can monitor the customers without disturbing them. ‘Stockroom’, where large fridges were placed
to maintain fresh products, is another section of his grocery store only for the staff to enter. Also, this new
shopping design and layout could accommodate more customers to go shopping simultaneously and even lead
to some unimaginable phenomena: impulse buying and later supermarket.

D On September 6, 1916, Saunders performed the self-service revolution in the USA by opening the first
Piggly Wiggly featured by the turnstile at the entrance store at 79 Jefferson Street in Memphis, Tennessee.
Quite distinct from those in other grocery stores, customers in Piggly Wiggly chose the goods on the shelves
and paid the items all by themselves. Inside the Piggly Wiggly, shoppers were not at the mercy of staff. They
were free to roam the store, check out the products and get what they needed by their own hands. There, the
items were clearly priced, and no one forced customers to buy the things they did not need. As a matter of
fact, the biggest benefit that the Piggly Wiggly brought to customers was the money-saving effect. Self-service
was optimistic for the improvement. ‘It is good for both the consumer and retailer because it cuts costs,’ noted
George T. Haley, a professor at the University of New Haven and director of the Centre for International
Industry Competitiveness, ‘if you look at the way in which grocery stores (previous to Piggly Wiggly and Alpha
Beta) were operated, what you can find is that there are a great number of workers involved, and labour is a
major expense.’ Fortunately, the chain stores such as Piggly Wiggly cut the fat.

E Piggly Wiggly and this kind of self-service stores soared at that time. In the first year, Saunders opened
nine branches in Memphis. Meanwhile, Saunders immediately applied a patent for the self-service concept
and began franchising Piggly Wiggly stores. Thanks to the employment of self-service and franchising, the
number of Piggly Wiggly had increased to nearly 1,300 by 1923. Piggly Wiggly sold $100 million (worth $1.3
billion today) in groceries, which made it the third-biggest grocery retailer in the nation. After that, this chain
store experienced company listing on the New York Stock Exchange, with the stocks doubling from late 1922 to
March 1923. Saunders contributed significantly to the perfect design and layout of grocery stores. In order to
keep the flow rate smooth, Saunders even invented the turnstile to replace the common entrance mode.

F Clarence Saunders died in 1953, leaving abundant legacies mainly symbolised by Piggly Wiggly, the
pattern of which spread extensively and lasted permanently.

Questions 1-5
Reading Passage 1 has six paragraphs, A-F.
Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.

1 layout of Clarence Saunders’ store

2 a reference to a reduction by chain stores in labour costs
3 how Clarence Saunders’ idea had been carried out
4 how people used to shop before Clarence Saunders’ stores opened
5 a description of economic success brought by Clarence Saunders’s stores

Questions 6-10
Complete the sentences below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 6-10 on your answer sheet.

Clarence Saunders’ first job was as 6 _____________ in a grocery store.

In Clarence Saunders’ store, people should pay for goods at a 7 _______________
Customers would be under surveillance at the 8 _______________
Another area in his store was called '9 _______________ ’, which was only accessible to the internal staff.
In Clarence Saunders’ shopping design, much work was done by 10 ______________.
Questions 11-13
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D,
Write the correct letter in boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet.

11 Why did Clarence Saunders want to propel the improvement of grocery stores at his age?
A. He wanted to transfer business to retailing.
B. He thought it was profitable.
C. He thought this could enable customers’ life to be more convenient.
D. He wanted to create a new shop by himself.

12 The Piggly Wiggly store was

A. located in Memphis Tennessee.
B. mainly featured in self-service.
C. initially very unpopular with customers.
D. developed with a pessimistic future.

13 Today, the main thing associated with Clarence Saunders is that

A. a fully automatic store system opened soon near his first store.
B. his Piggly Wiggly store was very popular at that time.
C. his name was usually connected with Piggly Wiggly stores.
D. his name was printed together with that of his famous store.

8. AT VOL 6.2 - READING PASSAGE 1

The Research for Intelligence
A In Robert Plomin’s line of work, patience is essential. Plomin, a behavioral geneticist at the Institute of
Psychiatry in London, wants to understand the nature of intelligence. As part of his research, he has been
watching thousands of children grow up. Plomin asks the children questions such as “What do water and milk
have in common?” and “In what direction does the sun set?” At first he and his colleagues quizzed the children
in person or over the telephone. Today many of those children are in their early teens, and they take their tests
on the Internet. In one sense, the research has been a rousing success. The children who take the tests are all
twins, and throughout the study identical twins have tended to get scores closer to each other than those of
non-identical twins, who in turn have closer scores than unrelated children. These results— along with similar
ones from other studies— make clear to the scientists that genes have an important influence on how children
score on intelligence tests.

B But Plomin wants to know more. He wants to find the specific genes that are doing the influencing. And
now he has a tool for pinpointing genes that he could not have even dreamed of when he began quizzing
children. Plomin and his colleagues have been scanning the genes of his subjects with a device called a micro
array, a small chip that can recognize half a million distinctive snippets of DNA. The combination of this
powerful tool with a huge number of children to study meant that he could detect genes that had only a tiny
effect on the variation in scores.
C Still, when Plomin and his co-workers unveiled the results of their micro-array study—the biggest dragnet
for intelligence-linked genes ever undertaken—they were underwhelming. The researchers found only six
genetic markers that showed any sign of having an influence on the test scores. When they ran stringent
statistical tests to see if the results were flukes, only one gene passed. It accounted for 0.4 percent of variation
in the scores. And to cap it all off, no one knows what the gene does in the body.” It’s a real drag in some
ways,” Plomin says.

D Plomin’s experience is a typical one for scientists who study intelligence. Along with using micro-arrays,
they are employing brain scans and other sophisticated technologies to document some of the intricate dance
steps that genes and environment take together in the development of intelligence. They are beginning to see
how differences in intelligence are reflected in the structure and function of the brain. Some scientists have
even begun to build a new vision of intelligence as a reflection of the ways in which information flows through
the brain. But for all these advances, intelligence remains a profound mystery. “It’s amazing the extent to
which we know very little,” says Wendy Johnson, a psychologist at the University of Minnesota.

E In some ways, intelligence is very simple. “It’s something that everybody observes in others,” says Eric
Turkheimer of the University of Virginia. Everybody knows that some people are smarter than others,
whatever it means technically. It’s something you sense in people when you talk to them. “Yet that kind of gut
instinct does not translate easily into a scientific definition. In 1996 the American Psychological Association
issued a report on intelligence, which stated only that “individuals differ from one another in their ability to
understand complex ideas, to adapt effectively to the environment, to learn from experience, to engage in
various forms of reasoning, to overcome obstacles by taking thought.”

F To measure these differences, psychologists in the early 1900s invented tests of various kinds of thought,
such as math, spatial reasoning and verbal skills. To compare scores on one type of test to those on another,
some psychologists developed standard scales of intelligence. The most familiar of them is the intelligence
quotient, which is produced by setting the average score at 100. IQ scores are not arbitrary numbers, however.
Psychologists can use them to make strong predictions about other features of people’s lives. It is possible to
make reasonably good predictions, based on IQ scores in childhood, about how well people will fare in school
and in the workplace. People with high IQs even tend to live longer than average.” If you have an IQ score,
does that tell you everything about a person’s cognitive strengths and weaknesses? No,” says Richard J. Haier
of the University of California, Irvine. But even a simple number has the potential to say a lot about a person.
“When you go see your doctor, what’s the first thing that happens? Somebody takes your blood pressure and
temperature. So you get two numbers. No one would say blood pressure and temperature summarize
everything about your health, but they are key numbers.”

G Then what underlies an intelligence score?” It’s certainly tapping something,” says Philip Shaw, a
psychiatrist at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The most influential theory of what the score
reflects is more than a century old. In 1904 psychologist Charles Spearman observed that people who did well
on one kind of test tended to do well on others. The link from one score to another was not very tight, but
Spearman saw enough of a connection to declare that it was the result of something he called a g factor, short
for general intelligence factor. How general intelligence arose from the brain, Spearman could not say. In
recent decades, scientists have searched for an answer by finding patterns in the test scores of large groups of
people. Roughly speaking, there are two possible sources for these variations. Environmental influences—
anything from the way children are raised by their parents to the diseases they may suffer as they develop 一
are one source. Genes are another. Genes may shape the brain in ways that make individuals better or worse
at answering questions on intelligence tests.

Questions 1-6
The reading passage has seven paragraphs, A-G.
Choose the correct heading for paragraphs B-G from the list below.

Write the correct number, i-x, in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet
List of Headings Example Answer
i Low probability triggers unpersuasive findings Paragraph A ix
ii Understanding of intelligence remains limited
iii Difficulty in accurately defining intelligence 1 Paragraph B
iv People with high IQ seldom fall sick 2 Paragraph C
v An innovative appliance to improve the probe 3 Paragraph D
vi The financial cost of a new research 4 Paragraph E
vii Why an indicator is imperfect but referable 5 Paragraph F
viii Genes mean extra when compared with environment 6 Paragraph G
ix A vital indicator for kids’ intelligence performance
x Multiple factors involved in intelligence

Questions 7-10
Use the information in the passage to match the people (listed A-G) with opinions or deeds below.

Write the appropriate letters A-G in boxes 7-10 on your answer sheet.

A Plomin
B Philip Shawn 7. A full conclusion can be hardly reached just by the one example in IQ test.
C Eric Turkheimer 8. It is not easy to exclude the occasionality existed in the research.
D Charles Spearman 9. Humans still have more to explore in terms of the real nature of intelligence.
E Richard J. Haier 10. It is quite difficult to find the real origins where the general intelligence comes.
F Wendy Johnson

Questions 11-13

Summary
Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage, using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS
from the Reading Passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet.

Many researchers including Plomin have faced with the typical challenge when 11 ______________ are
implemented. They try to use all possible methods to record certain 12 _____________ performed both by
genes and environment which contributes to the progress of intelligence. The relationship between
intelligence and brain become their targeted area. What’s more, according to some researchers, intelligence is
regarded to be 13 _____________ of how messages transmit in the brain.
 9. AT VOL 6.10 - READING PASSAGE 1
BOVIDS
A bovid is any member of almost 140 species of ungulates belonging to the family Bovidae. The bovids are the
largest family of hoofed mammals and are native to Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America. Members include
antelope, bison, buffalo, cattle, sheep and goats. Bovids have mutually beneficial symbiotic relationships with
bacteria and other microorganisms that allow the digestion of cellulose, the most abundant form of living
terrestrial biomass, but one that is indigestible for many animals, including humans.

Bovids are not so common in endemic insular faunas and are mainly recorded in Southeast Asia, Japan and
some Mediterranean islands. Ely the late Miocene, the bovids rapidly diversified, leading to the creation of 70
new genera. This late Miocene radiation was partly because most bovids became adapted to more open,
grassland habitats. Some species of bovid are solitary, but others live in large groups with complex social
structures.

All bovids have the similar basic form—a snout with a blunt end, one or more pairs of horns immediately after
the oval or pointed ears, a distinct neck and a tail varying in length and bushiness among the species. However,
the bovids show great variation in size: the gaur can weigh as much as 1,000kg and stands 2-3m high at the
shoulder. The royal antelope, at the opposite extreme, is only 25cm tall and weighs at most 3kg.

Despite differences in size and appearance, bovids are united by the possession of certain common features.
Being ruminants, the stomach is composed of four chambers: the rumen (80%), the omasum, the reticulum,
and the abomasum. Bovids retain undigested food in their stomachs to be regurgitated and chewed again as
necessary Bovids are almost exclusively herbivorous. Most bovids bear 30 to 32 teeth. While the upper incisors
are absent, the upper canines are either reduced or absent. Instead of the upper incisors, bovids have a thick
and tough layer of tissue, called the dental pad, which provides a surface to grip grasses and foliage. All bovids
have four toes on each foot—they walk on the central two (the hooves), while the outer two (the dewclaws)
are much smaller and rarely touch the ground. Bovid horns vary in shape and size: the relatively simple horns
of a large Indian buffalo may measure around 4m from tip to tip along the outer curve, while the various
gazelles have horns with a variety of elegant curves.

Bovids are the largest of 10 extant families within Artiodactyla, consisting of more than 140 extant and 300
extinct species. Fossil evidence suggests five distinct subfamilies: Bovinae (bison, buffalos, cattle, and relatives).
Antelope (addax, oryxes, roan antelopes and relatives), Caprinae (chamois, goats, sheep, and relatives),
Cephalophinae (duikers), and Antilocapridae (pronghorn). Unlike most other bovids, Bovinae species are ail
non-territorial. As the ancestors of the various species of domestic cattle, banteng, gaur, yak and water buffalo
are generally rare and endangered in the wild, while another ancestor, auroch, has been extinct in the wild for
nearly 300 years.

Antelope is not a cladistic or taxonomically defined group. The term is used to describe all members of the
family Bovidae that do not fall under the category of, cattle, or goats. Not surprisingly for animals with long,
slender yet powerful legs, many antelopes have long strides and can run fast. There are two main sub-groups
of antelope: Hippotraginae, which includes the oryx and the addax, and Antilopinae, which generally contains
slighter and more graceful animals such as gazelle and the springbok. The antelope is found in a wide range of
habitats, typically woodland, forest, savannah, grassland plains, and marshes. Several species of antelope have
adapted to living in the mountains and rocky outcrops and a couple of species of antelope are even semi-
aquatic and these antelope live in swamps, for instance, the sitatunga has long, splayed hooves that enable it
to walk freely and rapidly on swampy ground.
Subfamily Caprinae consists of mostly medium-sized bovids. Its members are commonly referred to as the
sheep and the goat, together with various relatives such as the goral and the tahr. The group did not reach its
greatest diversity until the recent ice ages, when many of its members became specialised for marginal, often
extreme, environments: mountains, deserts, and the subarctic region. Barbary and bighorn sheep have been
found in arid deserts, while Rocky Mountain sheep survive high up in mountains and musk oxen in arctic
tundra.

The duiker, belonging to Cephalophinae sub-family is a small to medium-sized species, brown in colour, and
native to sub-Saharan Africa. Duikers are primarily browsers rather than grazers, eating leaves, shoots, seeds,
fruit buds and bark. Some duikers consume insects and carrion (dead animal carcasses) from time to time and
even manage to capture rodents or small birds.

The pronghorn is the only living member of the sub-family Antilocapridae in North America. Each “horn” of the
pronghorn is composed of a slender, laterally flattened blade of bone that grows from the frontal bones of the
skull, forming a permanent core. Unlike the horns of the family Bovidae, the horn sheaths of the pronghorn are
branched, each sheath possessing a forward-pointing tine (hence the name pronghorn). The pronghorn is the
fastest land mammal in the Western Hemisphere, being built for maximum predator evasion through running.
Additionally, pronghorn hooves have two long, cushioned, pointed toes which help absorb shock when running
at high speeds.

Questions 1 -3
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write your answers in boxes 1-3 on your answer sheet.

1 Bovids mostly inhabit

A. Africa.
B. Eurasia.
C. Southeast Asia.
D. South America.

2 What are the most favorable locations for the existence of bovids?
A. tropical forests
B. wetlands
C. mountains
D. open grassy areas

3 What is the common feature of idle bovid species?

A. Their horns are short.
B. They store food in the body.
C. They have upper incisors.
D. Their hooves are undivided.

Questions 4 - 8
Look at the following characteristics (Questions 4-8) and the list of sub-families below.
Match each characteristics with the correct sub-family, A,B,C or D.

Write the correct letter, A-D, in boxes 4-8 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.

4 can survive in harsh habitats. List of sub-families

5 move at a high speed. A. Bovinae
6 origins of modern ox and cow. B. Antelope
7 does not defend a particular area of land. C. Caprinae
8 sometimes take small animals as their food supply. D. Cephalophinae

Questions 9-13
Answer the questions below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet.

9 What is the smallest species of Bovids?

10 Which member of Bovinae has died out?
11 What helps sitatunga move quickly on swampy lands?
12 Where can Barbary sheep survive?
13 What is the only survivor of Antilocapridae?