READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on
Reading Passage 1 below.

Why good ideas fail

As part of a marketing course, two marketing experts comment on a hypothetical
case study involving TF, a fictional retail giant specializing home furnishing. The
experts give concrete solutions and advice to assist students.

Hypothetical case study:

TF became a retail success in the 1970s when it succeeded in spotting
homeware trends and meeting the needs of its then trendy young
customers. However, by 2004, the TF stores were failing and a rethink was
clearly necessary. Tibal Fisher, TF’s founder and CEO, decided to change
its focus under the new brand name of TF’s NextStage. His aim was to
recapture the now ageing customers that had given him his early success
and target consumers aged 60+ with devices and gadgets specifically
designed to assist them with the problems associated with ageing: mobile
phones with screens that were easy to read; kitchen gadgets with
comfortable grips; electronic devices that were easy to set and adjust. TF’s
market research proved to be very positive, showing strong consumer
support for the products.

In 2007, the stores were remodelled at a cost of US$40 million and the new
brand was launched. Each store was made more comfortable and featured
a coffee shop to help increase traffic – Tibal had predicted that if they could
get customers into the stores then the products would sell themselves.
However, by 2009 it was clear that the idea was a failure and the stores
consistently remained empty. Customers complained that the new stores
felt like a senior center and reminded them that they were growing old.

Feedback from experts:

Expert 1：Donna Sturgess, global head of innovation,
GlaxoSmithKline
The TF team's customer research efforts are a classic case of missing the
subconscious associations at work in consumers’ minds. Tibal and his executives
looked only at surface attitudes. Since those attitudes make up a relatively small
part of the total consumer response, the executives are clueless about the reason
for the poor sales. It’s critical for companies to understand that every customer
relates to a brand emotionally, and it's those emotions that trigger - or block –
purchases.

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That's why we've focused on using emotional strategies behind branding for a
number of years now. A great example is Alli (pronounced ‘ally’), a drug to aid
weight loss. The product deals with a highly emotional issue, so in marketing it, we
faced the same challenge that the new TF stores are facing: the very thought of
buying the product reminds customers that they have problems they feel negatively
about. In the case of TF’s NextStage, the problems are age and infirmity. In the
case of Alli, the problems are excessive weight and all its consequences. There's
always a risk that consumers’ negative feelings will discourage them from starting
or staying on a diet. So, after extensive market research, we took a number of steps
to inject positive emotions into the whole process of using the product.

First, we came up with a name that sounds like a helpful partner. We also aimed to
make the container both beautiful and functional - something that didn’t just hold
pills but could later be used to store diet guides and recipes. Traditional market
research is unlikely to uncover ideas like this, so we use a wide variety of
techniques. Even simple techniques such as one-on-one interviews, or
ethnographical observation that involves going into people's houses to examine
their behavior, can provide valuable data.

Expert 2: Alex Lee, president of OXO International, maker

of OXO Good Grips household products
This retailer can get back on track by remembering a principle that applies to
consumers or general and those aged 60+ in particular: they’re attracted by
brands they associate with the type of people they’d like to be - not the type they
really are. That’s why marketing campaigns for surf gear feature surfers, not the
city dwellers who will wear the products while doing their shopping.

I was reminded of this principle a few years ago when we wanted to find out how
far we could apply our design philosophy making things easier to use in order to
move from our core business, kitchen tools, into other products. We conducted
what are known as focus groups, where participants were asked to look at photos
of people and pick those they perceived to be users and nonusers of our products.
Consistently they picked people who looked fit as the sort who would use our
products, and people who looked old and boring as the sort who wouldn’t. Yet the
participants, all owners of our products, looked a lot more like the latter than the
former.

Although the needs of elderly users and those with deteriorating vision or
dexterity are very much taken into consideration when we develop new designs,
we try to offer products that appeal to 20- and 30-year-olds. We believe that

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referring to these products as helping tools would serve only to harm the brand in
our customers’ eyes. That's why our philosophy of universal design, which
Involves creating products that are comfortably useable by the largest possible
range of people, is never explicitly stated as part of our marketing position.

We've found that market research doesn’t need to be very sophisticated. For
instance, we have conducted simple surveys in the lobby of our building offering
free products. In exchange for people's opinions. Some may call this unsclentific
but we have uncovered great insights this way. Sometimes the most important
signals come from an executive's own instincts. In Tibal Fisher's case, this could
have told him what his surveys and focus groups didn't: 60-plus-year-olds won't
support a business that expects them to act their age.

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

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 TF NextStage stores planned to sell products to make life easier for
older people.

2 TF’s market research indicated that people liked the products.

3 It cost more than expected to remodel the TF stores.

4 The TF NextStage coffee shops sold their own brand of food and drink.

5 TF NextStage customers liked the atmosphere in the new stores.

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Questions 6-13

Complete the notes below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write

your answers in boxes 6-13 on your answer sheet.

Feedback from experts

Donna Sturgess
Problems with customer research
● TF team limited their research to attitudes that occur at a 6 level in
customers’
minds
● TF didn’t consider customers’ emotions
How many company dealt with a similar problem:
● Product: Alli
● Use: help people achieve 7 ………………….
● Marketing aim: help customers see the product in a positive way by:
- giving the product a 8…………………. that seems helpful and
supportive
- giving the product a reusable 9 …………………….
Market research:
● does not need to be complex
● good information can come from interviews or studying the
10…………………. of consumers in the home

Alex Lee
Problem:
● customers are attracted to the ideal not the reality, e.g ads for surf gear
How my company dealt with a similar problem:
● we organized 11…………………. to find out what images customers
associate with our products
● we do not call our products helping tools in our marking campaigns
Market research:
● can be basic, e.g. by doing 12 ………………….
● company executives should follow their 13 …………………

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 READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which are based on
Reading Passage 2 below.

The return of monkey life

Rain forest trees growing anew on Central American farmland are helping scientists
find ways for monkey and agriculture to benefit one another.

A. Hacienda La Pacifica, a remote working cattle ranch in Guanacaste province of

northern Costa Rica, has for decades been home to a community of mantled
howler monkeys. Other native primates- white-faced capuchin monkeys and spider
monkeys were once common in this area, too, but vanished after the
Pan-American Highway was built nearby in the 1950s and most of the surrounding
land was cleared for cattle-raising. At Hacienda La Pacifica, however, an
enlightened ranch owner chose to leave some strips of native trees growing. He
used these as windbreaks to protect both cattle and their food crops from
dry-season winds. In the process, the farmer unwittingly founded a unique
laboratory for the study of monkeys.

B. Ken Glander, a primatologist from Duke University in the USA, is studying La

Pacifica’s monkeys in an effort to understand the relationship between howlers and
regenerating forests at the edges of grazing lands. Studying such disturbed
woodlands is increasingly important because throughout much of the New World
Tropics, these are the only forests left. In the 18th century, tropical dry forests once
covered most of Central America, but by the 1980s less than two percent remained
undisturbed, and less than one percent was protected.

C. Howlers persists at La Pacifica, Glander explains, because they are leaf-eaters.

They eat fruit when it is available but, unlike capuchin and spider monkeys, do not
depend on large areas of fruiting trees. Glander is particularly interested in howlers’
ability to thrive on leaves loaded with toxins- poisonous substances designed to
protect the plants. For leaf-eaters, long-term exposure to a specific plant toxin can
increase their ability to neutralize the poisonous substances and absorb the leaf
nutrients. Watching generations of howlers at La Pacifica has shown Glander that
the monkeys keep their systems primed by sampling a variety of plants and then
focusing on a small number of the most nutritious food items. The leaves that grow
in regenerating forests, like those at La Pacifica, are actually more howler-friendly
than those produced by the centuries-old trees that survive farther south. In
younger forests, trees put most of their limited energy into growing wood, leaves,
and fruit, so they produce much lower levels of toxin than do well-established,
old-growth trees.

D. The value of maturing forests to primates is also a subject of study at Santa Rosa
National Park, about 35 miles northwest of La Pacifica. Large areas of Santa
Rosa’s forests had at one time been burnt to make space for cattle ranching and
coffee farming, thereby devastating local monkey habitat. But in 1971 the
government protected the area by designating it a National Park, and species of

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 Indigenous Lees which had been absent for decades began to invade the
abandoned pastures. Capuchins were the first to begin using the reborn forests,
followed by howlers. Eventually, even spider monkeys, fruit-eaters that need large
areas of continuous forest, returned. In the first 28 years following protection of the
area, the capuchin population doubled, while the number of howlers increased
sevenfold.

E. Some of the same traits that allow howlers to survive at La Pacifica also explain
their population boom in Santa Rosa, Howler reproduction is faster than that of
other native monkey species. They give birth for the first time at about 3.5 years of
age, compared with seven years for capuchins, and eight or more for spider
monkeys. Also, while a female spider monkey will have a baby about once every
four years, well-fed howlers can produce an infant every two years. Another factor
is diet. Howlers are very adaptable feeders, and only need a comparatively small
home range. Spider monkeys, on the other hand, need to occupy a huge home
range. Also crucial is fact that the leaves howlers eat hold plenty of water, so the
monkeys can survive away from open streams and water holes. This ability gives
them a real advantage over capuchin and spider monkeys, which have suffered
during the long, ongoing drought in the area.

F. Alejandro Estrada, an ecologist at Estacion de Biologia Los Tuxtlas in Veracruz,

Mexico, has been studying the ecology of a group of howler monkeys that thrive in
a habitat totally altered by humans: a cacao plantation in Tabasco state, Mexico.
Cacao plants need shade to grow, so 40 years ago the owners of Cholula Cacao
Farm planted figs, monkeypod and other tall trees to form a protective canopy over
their crop. The howlers moved in about 25 years ago after nearby forests were cut.
This strange habitat seems to support about as many monkeys as would a
same-sized patch of wild forest. The howlers eat the leaves and fruit of the shade
trees, leaving the valuable cacao pods alone.

G. Estrada believes the monkeys bring underappreciated benefits to such plantations,

dispersing the seeds of fruits such as fig and other shade trees, and fertilizing the
soil. Spider monkeys also forage for fruit here, though they need nearby areas of
forest to survive in the long term. He hopes that farmers will begin to see the
advantages of associating with wild monkeys, which could include potential
ecotourism projects, ‘Conservation is usually viewed as a conflict between farming
practices and the need to preserve nature,’ Estrada says. ‘We’re moving away from
that vision and beginning to consider ways in which commercial activities may
become a tool for the conservation of primates in human-modified landscapes.’

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Questions 14-17
Reading Passage has seven paragraphs, A-G.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter A-G, in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once

14. a reason why newer forests provide howlers with better feeding opportunities
than older forests
15. a reference to a change in farmers’ attitudes towards wildlife
16. a description of the means by which howlers select the best available diet for
themselves
17. figures relating to the reduction of natural wildlife habitat over a period of time

Questions 18-21
Complete the summary below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 5-8 on your answer sheet.

Why do howlers have an advantage over other Central American

monkeys?

● Howler monkeys have a more rapid rate of 18 …………………. than either

capuchin or spider monkeys.
● Unlike the other local monkey species, howlers can survive without eating
19 …………………., and so can live inside a relatively small habitat area.
Their diet is more flexible, and they are able to tolerate leaves with high
levels of 20 ………………….
● Howlers can also survive periods of 21 …………………. better than the other
monkey species can.

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Questions 22-26
Look at the following features (Questions 9-13) and the list of locations below.

Match each feature with the correct location, A, B or C.

Write the correct letter, A, B or C, in boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

List of Locations

A Hacienda La Pacific

B Santa Rosa National Park

C Cholula Cacao Farm

22. It has seen the return of native tree species.

23. It supports only one species of native monkey.

24. Its monkey population helps the agriculture of the area.

25. It is home to populations of all three local monkey species.

26. Its landscape was altered by the construction of a transport link.

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READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on
Reading Passage 3 below.

The value of research into mite harvestmen

Few people have heard of the mite harvestman, and fewer still would recognize it
at close range. The insect is a relative of the far more familiar daddy longlegs. But
its legs are stubby rather than long, and its body is only as big as a sesame seed.
To find mite harvestmen, scientists go to dark, humid forests and sift through the
leaf litter. The animals respond by turning motionless, making them impossible
for even a trained eye to pick out.' They look like grains of dirt.' said Gonzalo
Giribet, an invertebrate biologist at Harvard University
Dr Giribet and his colleagues have spent six years searching for mite harvestmen
on five continents. The animals have an extraordinary story to tell they carry a
record of hundreds of millions of years of geological history, chronicling the
journeys that continents have made around the Earth. The Earth's landmasses
have slowly collided and broken apart again several times, carrying animals and
plants with them. These species have provided clues to the continents' paths.
The notion of continental drift originally came from such clues. In 1911, the
German scientist Alfred Wegener was struck by the fact that fossils of similar
animals and plants could be found on either side of the Atlantic. The ocean was
too big for the species to have traveled across it on their own. Wegener
speculated correctly, as it turned out that the surrounding continents had
originally been welded together in a single landmass, which he called Pangea.
Continental drift, or plate tectonics as it is scientifically known, helped move
species around the world. Armadillos and their relatives are found in South
America and Africa today because their ancestors evolved when the continents
were joined. When South America and North America connected a few million
years ago, armadillos spread north, too. Biogeographers can learn clues about
continental drift by comparing related species. However, they must also
recognize cases where species have spread for other reasons, such as by
crossing great stretches of water. The island of Hawaii, for example, was
home to a giant flightless goose that has become extinct.
Studies on DNA extracted from its bones show that it evolved from the Canada
goose. Having colonized Hawaii, it branched off from that species, losing its
ability to fly. This evolution occurred half a million years ago, when geologists
estimate that Hawaii emerged from the Pacific
When species jump around the planet, their histories blur. It is difficult to say much
about where cockroaches evolved, for example, because they can move quickly
from continent to continent.
This process, known as dispersal, limits many studies. 'Most of them tend to
concentrate on particular parts of the world.' Dr Giribet said. I wanted to find a new
system for studying biogeography on a global scale.
Dr Giribet realized that mite harvestmen might be that system. The 5,000 or so
mite harvestmen species can be found on every continent except Antarctica.
Unlike creatures found around the world like cockroaches, mite harvestmen cannot

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disperse well. The typical harvestman species has a range of fewer than 50 miles.
Harvestmen are not found on young islands like Hawaii, as these types of
islands emerged long after the break-up of Pangea.
According to Assistant Professor Sarah Boyer, a former student of Dr Giribet. 'It's
really hard to find a group of species that is distributed all over the world but that
also doesn't disperse very far.'
What mite harvestmen lack in mobility, they make up in age. Their ancestors were
among the first land animals, and fossils of daddy longlegs have been found in 400
million-year-ago rocks.
Mite harvestmen evolved long before Pangea broke up and have been carried
along by continental drift ever since they've managed to get themselves around
the world only because they've been around for hundreds of millions of years, Dr
Boyer said. Dr Boyer, Dr Giribet and their colleagues have gathered thousands of
mite harvestmen from around the world, from which they extracted DNA. Variations
in the genes helped the scientists build an evolutionary tree. By calculating how
quickly the DNA mutated, the scientists could estimate when lineages branched
off. They then compared the harvestmen's evolution to the movements of the
continents. The patterns are remarkably clear.' Dr Boyer said.
The scientists found that they could trace mite harvestmen from their ancestors on
Pangea. One lineage includes species in Chile South Africa, Sri Lanka and other
places separated by thousands of miles of ocean. But 150 million years ago, all
those sites were in Gondwana which was a region of Pangea.
The harvestmen preserve smaller patterns of continental drift, as well as bigger
ones. After analyzing the DNA of a Florida harvestman, Metasiro americanus, the
scientists were surprised to find that it was not related to other North American
species. Its closet relatives live in West Africa. Dr Boyer then began investigating
the geological history of Florida and found recent research to explain the mystery.
Florida started out welded to West Africa near Senegal. North America than
collied into them Pangea was forming. About 170 million years ago, North
America ripped away from West Africa, taking Florida with it. The African
ancestors of Florida's harvestmen came along the ride.
Dr Giribet now hopes to study dozens or even hundreds of species, to find clues
about plate tectonics that a single animal could not show.

Questions 27-32
Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D
27. Why is it difficult to find mite harvestmen?
A. They are too small to see with naked eye
B. They can easily be confused with daddy longlegs
C. They are hard to distinguish from their surroundings
D. They do not exist in large numbers in any one place

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28. Why are mile harvestmen of interest to Dr Giribet and his colleagues?
A. They have been studied far less than most other species
B. They show the effects of climate on the evolution of animals
C. They have an unusual relationship with plants and other animals
D. They provide evidence relating to a field of study other than insects

29. What factor contributed to Wegener's idea that present-day continents

used to form a single landmass?
A. changes in the level of the ocean
B. the distance that species could travel
C. the lack of certain fossils on one side of the Atlantic
D. similarities in living conditions on both sides of the Atlantic

30. What point is made by the reference to armadillos?

A. regions have both separated and become connected
B. certain animals could travel longer distances than others.
C. the oldest species of animals are likely to be found in Africa.
D. there is a tendency for animals to spread in a particular direction

31. Which of the following is stated in the fifth paragraph?

A. Hawaii is a habitat that cannot support large birds.
B. Hawaii is an attractive habitat for certain species of birds.
C. flightless birds are more likely to become extinct than others.
D. the Hawaiian goose became flightless after it had reached Hawaii.

32. Why is evidence from cockroaches of limited value?

A. they spread too fast
B. they multiply too quickly.
C. they are found in too few places.
D. they have divided into too many species.

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Questions 33-36
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage
3?

In boxes 33-36 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

33. The colonization of Hawaii by geese provides evidence of continental drift NO

34. The reason why mite harvestmen don’t exist on Hawaii can be explained YES

35. The DNA of certain species has evolved more quickly than that of others NOT
GIVEN

36. Dr Boyer’s theory concerning the origins of Florida is widely accepted NOT
GIVEN

Question 37-40
Complete the summary using the list of words A-1 below.
Write the correct letter A-l in boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet.

List of words
A branches
B fossils
C drift
D DNA
E evolution
F Pangea
G dispersal
H ancestors
I continents

The age and evolution of mite harvestmen

Some of the first creatures to live on land were the (37)…….. of mite harvestmen.
Boyer, Giribet and others study differences in the (38)……. of these insects, and
trace the development of a number of (39)…….. of the species.
Their evolution appears to reflect changes in the location of (40)……… . For

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example, the same type of mite harvestman is found in places that are now far apart
but used to form Gondwana, part of a huge landmass.

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 Answer Table
READING PASSAGE 1

1. TRUE 8. name
2. TRUE 9. container

3. NOT GIVEN 10. behavior

4. NOT GIVEN 11. focus groups
5. FALSE 12. (simople) surveys
6. surface 13. instincts
7. weight loss

READING PASSAGE 2

14. C 21. drought

15. G 22. B
16. E 23. C
17. B 24. C
18. reproduction 25. A
19. fruits 26. A
20. toxins

READING PASSAGE 3

27. C 34. YES

28. D 35. NOT GIVEN
29. B 36. NOT GIVEN
30. A 37. H
31. D 38. D
32. A 39. A
33. NO 40. I

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