K.T.I.

Project Ba Ria - IELTS Reading

Set S4

BAMBOO, A WONDER PLANT

The wonder plant with an uncertain future: more than a billion people rely on bamboo for either their shelter or income,
while many endangered species depend on it for their survival. Despite its apparent abundance, a new report says that
species of bamboo may be under serious threat.

A Every year, during the rainy season, the mountain gorillas of Central Africa migrate to the foothills and lower slopes of
the Virunga Mountains to graze on bamboo. For the 650 0r so that remain in the wild, it’s a vital food source. Although
there are at almost 150 types of plant, as well as various insects and other invertebrates, bamboo accounts for up t0 90
percent of their diet at this time of year. Without it, says Ian Redmond, chairman of the Ape Alliance, their chances of
survival would be reduced significantly. Gorillas aren’t the only locals keen on bamboo. For the people who live close to
the Virungas, it’s a valuable and versatile raw material used for building houses and making household items such as mats
and baskets. But in the past 100 years or so, resources have come under increasing pressure as populations have exploded
and large areas of bamboo forest have been cleared to make way for farms and commercial plantations.

B Sadly, this isn’t an isolated story. All over the world, the ranges of many bamboo species appear to be shrinking,
endangering the people and animals that depend upon them. But despite bamboo’s importance, we know surprisingly
little about it. A recent report published by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Network for
Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR) has revealed just how profound is our ignorance of global bamboo resources, particularly in
relation to conservation. There are almost 1,600 recognized species of bamboo, but the report concentrated on the 1,200
or so woody varieties distinguished by the strong stems, or culms, that most people associate with this versatile plant. Of
these, only 38 ‘priority species’ identified for their commercial value have been the subject of any real scientific research,
and this has focused mostly on matters relating to their viability as a commodity. This problem isn’t confined to bamboo.
Compared to the work carried out on animals, the science of assessing the conservation status of plants is still in its infancy.
“People have only started looking hard at this during the past 10-15 years, and only now are they getting a handle on how
to go about it systematically,” says Dr. Valerie Kapos, one of the report’s authors and a senior adviser in forest ecology and
conservation to the UNEP.

C Bamboo is a type of grass. It comes in a wide variety of forms, ranging in height from 30 centimeters to more than 40
meters. It is also the world’s fastest-growing woody plant; some species can grow more than a meter in a day. Bamboo’s
ecological role extends beyond providing food and habitat for animals. Bamboo tends to grow in stands made up of groups
of individual plants that grow from root systems known as rhizomes. Its extensive rhizome systems, which tie in the top
layers of the soil, are crucial in preventing soil erosion. And there is growing evidence that bamboo plays an important part
in determining forest structure and dynamics. “Bamboo’s pattern of mass flowering and mass death leaves behind large
areas of dry biomass that attract wildfire,” says Kapos. “When these burn, they create patches of open ground within the
forest far bigger than would be left by a fallen tree.” Patchiness helps to preserve diversity because certain plant species
do better during the early stages of regeneration when there are gaps in the canopy.

D However, bamboo’s most immediate significance lies in its economic value. Modern processing techniques mean that it
can be used in a variety of ways, for example, as flooring and laminates. One of the fastest growing bamboo products is
paper-25 percent of paper produced in India is made from bamboo fiber, and in Brazil, 100,000 hectares of bamboo are
grown for its production. Of course, bamboo’s main function has always been in domestic applications, and as a locally
traded commodity it’s worth about $4.5billion annually. Because of its versatility, flexibility and strength (its tensile
strength compares to that of some steel), it has traditionally been used in construction. Today, more than one billion
people worldwide live in bamboo houses. Bamboo is often the only readily available raw material for people in many
developing countries, says Chris Stapleton, a research associate at the Royal Botanic Gardens. “Bamboo can be harvested
from forest areas or grown quickly elsewhere, and then converted simply without expensive machinery or facilities,” he
says. “In this way, it contributes substantially to poverty alleviation and wealth creation.”

E Given bamboo’s value in economic and ecological terms, the picture painted by the UNEP report is all the more worrying.
But keen horticulturists will spot an apparent contradiction here. Those who’ve followed the recent vogue for cultivating
exotic species in their gardens will point out that if it isn’t kept in check, bamboo can cause real problems. “In a lot of
places, the people who live with bamboo don’t perceive it as being endangered in any way,” says Kapos. “In fact, a lot of
bamboo species are actually very invasive if they’ve been introduced.” So why are so many species endangered? There are
two separate issues here, says Ray Townsend, vice president of the British Bamboo Society and arboretum manager at the
Royal Botanic Gardens. “Some plants are threatened because they can’t survive in the habitat-they aren’t strong enough
or there aren’t enough of them, perhaps. But bamboo can take care of itself-it is strong enough to survive if left alone.
What is under threat is its habitat.” It is the physical disturbance that is the threat to bamboo, says Kapos. “When forest
goes, it is converted into something else: there isn’t anywhere for forest plants such as bamboo to grow if you create a
cattle pasture.”

F Around the world, bamboo species are routinely protected as part of forest eco-systems in national parks and reserves,
but there is next to nothing that protects bamboo in the wild for its own sake. However, some small steps are being taken
to address this situation. The UNEP- INBAR report will help conservationists to establish effective measures aimed at
protecting valuable wild bamboo species. Townsend, too, sees the UNEP report as an important step forward in promoting
the cause of bamboo conservation. “Until now, bamboo has been perceived as a second-class plant. When you talk about
places such as the Amazon, everyone always thinks about the hardwoods. Of course these are significant, but there is a
tendency to overlook the plants they are associated with, which are often bamboo species. In many ways, it is the most
important plant known to man. I can’t think of another plant that is used so much and is so commercially important in so
many countries.” He believes that the most important first step is to get scientists into the field. “We need to go out there,
look at these plants and see how they survive and then use that information to conserve them for the future.”

Questions 1-7
Which section contains the following information?
NB You may use any letter more than once.

1 Comparison of bamboo with other plant species

2 Commercial products of bamboo
3 Limited extent of existing research
4 A human development that destroyed large areas of bamboo
5 How bamboos are put to a variety of uses
6 An explanation of how bamboo can help the survival of a range of plants
7 The methods used to study bamboo

Questions 8-11
Use the information in the passage to match the people (listed A-D) with opinions or deeds below.
NB you may use any letter more than once

A Ian Redmond 8 Destroying bamboo jeopardizes to wildlife.

B Valerie Kapos 9 People have very confined knowledge of bamboo.
C Ray Townsend 10 Some people do not think that bamboo is endangered.
D Chris Stapleton 11 Bamboo has loads of commercial potentials.
Questions 12-13
Answer the questions below using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

12. What environmental problem does the unique root system of bamboo prevent?
13. Which bamboo product is experiencing market expansion?

RENEWABLE ENERGY
An insight into the progress in renewable energy research

A The race is on for the ultimate goal of renewable energy: electricity production at prices that are competitive
with coal-fired power stations, but without coal’s pollution. Some new technologies are aiming to be the first to
push coal from its position as Australia’s chief source of electricity.

B At the moment the front-runner in renewable energy is wind technology. According to Peter Bergin of Australian
Hydro, one of Australia’s leading wind energy companies, there have been no dramatic changes in windmill design
for many years, but the cumulative effects of numerous small improvements have had a major impact on cost.
‘We’re reaping the benefits of 30 years of research in Europe, without have to make the same mistakes that they
did,’ Mr. Bergin says.

C Electricity can be produced from coal at around 4 cents per kilowatt-hour, but only if the environmental costs
are ignored. ‘Australia has the second cheapest electricity in the world, and this makes it difficult for renewable
to compete,’ says Richard Hunter of the Australian Ecogeneration Association (AEA). Nevertheless, the AEA
reports: ‘The production cost of a kilowatt-hour of wind power is one-fifth of what it was 20 years ago,’ or around
7 cents per kilowatt-hour.

D Australian Hydro has dozens of wind monitoring stations across Australia as part of its aim to become Australia’s
pre-eminent renewable energy company. Despite all these developments, wind power remains one of the few
forms of alternative energy where Australia is nowhere near the global cutting edge, mostly just replicating
European designs.

E While wind may currently lead the way, some consider a number of technologies under development have more
potential. In several cases, Australia is at the forefront of global research in the area. Some of them are very site-
specific, ensuring that they may never become dominant market players. On the other hand, these newer
developments are capable of providing more reliable power, avoiding the major criticism of windmills – the need
for back-up on a calm day.

F One such development uses hot, dry rocks. Deep beneath South Australia, radiation from elements contained
in granite heats the rocks. Layers of insulating sedimentation raise the temperatures in some location to 250°
centigrade. An Australian firm, Geoenergy, is proposing to pump water 3.5 kilometres into the earth, where it will
travel through tiny fissures in the granite, heating up as it goes until it escapes as steam through another drilled
hole.
G No greenhouse gases are produced, but the system needs some additional features if it is to be environmentally
friendly. Dr. Prue Chopra, a geophysicist at the Australian National University and one of the founders of
Geoenergy, note that the steam will bring with it radon gas, along through a heat exchanger and then sent back
underground for another cycle. Technically speaking, hot dry rocks are not a renewable source of energy.
However, the Australian source is so large it could supply the entire country’s needs for thousands of years at
current rates of consumption.

H Two other proposals for very different ways to harness sun and wind energy have surfaced recently. Progress
continues with Australian company EnviroPower’s plans for Australia’s first solar chimney near Mildura, in
Victoria. Under this scheme, a tall tower will draw hot air from a greenhouse built to cover the surrounding 5 km².
As the air rises, it will drive a turbine* to produce electricity. The solar tower combines three very old technologies
– the chimney, the turbine and the greenhouse – to produce something quite new. It is this reliance on proven
engineering principles that led Enviropower’s CEO, Richard Davies, to state: There is no doubt this technology will
work, none at all.’

I This year, Enviropower recognized that the quality of sunlight in the Mildura district will require a substantially
larger collecting area than was previously thought. However, spokesperson kay Firth says that a new location
closer to Mildura will enable Enviropower to balance the increased costs with extra revenue. Besides saving in
transmission costs, the new site ‘will mean increased revenue from tourism and use of power for
telecommunications. We’ll also be able to use the outer 500 metres for agribusiness.’ Wind speeds closer to the
tower will be too high for farming.

J Another Australian company, Wavetech, is achieving success with ways of harvesting the energy in waves.
Wavetech’s invention uses a curved surface to push waves into a chamber, where the flowing water column
pushes air back and forth through a turbine. Wavetech was created when Dr. Tim Devine offered the idea to the
world leader in wave generator manufacturers, who rather surprisingly rejected it. Dr. Devine responded by
establishing Wavetech and making a number of other improvements to generator design. Wavetech claims that,
at appropriate sites, ‘the cost of electricity produced with our technology should be below 4 cents per kilowatt-
hour.

K The diversity of forms of greenhouse – friendly energy under development in Australia is remarkable. However,
support on a national level is disappointing. According to Richard Hunter of the AEA, ‘Australia has huge potential
for wind, sun and wave technology. We should really be at the forefront, but the reality is we are a long way
behind.’

Questions 14-20
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage? 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

14. In Australia, alternative energies are less expensive than conventional electricity.
15. Geoenergy needs to adapt its system to make it less harmful to the environment.
16. Dr. Prue Chopra has studied the effects of radon gas on the environment.
17. Hot, dry rocks could provide enough power for the whole of Australia.
18. The new Enviropower facility will keep tourists away.
 19. Wavetech was established when its founders were turned down by another company.
20. According to AEA, Australia is a world leader in developing renewable energy.

Questions 21-26
Match each statement with the correct company, A-D.
NB You may use any letter more than once.

21. During the process, harmful substances are prevented from escaping.
22. Water is used to force air through a special device.
23. Techniques used by other countries are being copied.
24. The system can provide services other than energy production.
25. It is planned to force water deep under the ground.
26. Original estimates for part of the project have been revised.

List of Companies
A Australian Hydro
B Geoenergy
C Enviropower
D Wavetech
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

INSIDE THE MIND OF A FAN: HOW WATCHING SPORT AFFECTS THE BRAIN

A At about the same time that the poet Homer invented the epic here, the ancient Greeks started a festival in
which men competed in a single race, about 200 metres long. The winner received a branch of wild olives. The
Greeks called this celebration the Olympics. Through the ancient sprint remains, today the Olympics are far more
than that. Indeed, the Games seem to celebrate the dream of progress as embodied in the human form. That the
Games are intoxicating to watch is beyond question. During the Athens Olympics in 2004, 3.4 billion people, half
the world, watched them on television. Certainly, being a spectator is a thrilling experience: but why?

B In 1996, three Italian neuroscientists, Giacomo Rizzolatti, Leonardo Forgassi, and Vittorio Gallese, examined the
premotor cortex of monkeys. The discovered that inside these primate brains there were groups of cells that
‘store vocabularies of motor actions’. Just as there are grammars of movement. These networks of cells are the
bodily ‘sentences’ we use every da y, the ones our brain has chosen to retain and refine. Think, for example, about
a golf swing. To those who have only watched the Master’s Tournament on TV, golfing seems easy. To the novice,
however, the skill of casting a smooth arc with a lop-side metal stick is virtually impossible. This is because most
novices swing with their consciousness, using an area of brain next to the premotor cortex. To the expert, on the
other hand, a perfectly balanced stroke is second nature. For him, the motor action has become memorized, and
the movements are embedded in the neurons of his premotor cortex. He hits the ball with the tranquility of his
perfected autopilot.
C These neurons in the premotor cortex, besides explaining why certain athletes seem to possess almost
unbelievable levels of skill, have an even more amazing characteristic, one that caused Rizzolatti, Fogassi,and
Gallese to give them the lofty title ‘mirror neurons’. They note, the main functional characteristic of mirror
neurons is that they become active both when the monkey performs a particular action (for example, grasping an
object or holding it) and, astonishingly, when it sees another individual performing a similar action.’ Humans have
an even more elaborate mirror neuron system. These peculiar cells mirror, inside the brain, the outside world:
they enable us to internalize the actions of another. In order to be activated, though, these cells require what the
scientists call ‘goal-orientated movements’. If we are staring at a photograph, a fixed image of a runner mid-stride,
our mirror neurons are totally silent. They only fire when the runner is active: running, moving or sprinting.

D What these electrophysiological studies indicate is that when we watch a golfer or a runner in action, the mirror
neurons in our own premotor cortex light up as if we were the ones competing. This phenomenon of neural mirror
was first discovered in 1954, when two French physiologists, Gastaut and Berf, found that the brains of humans
vibrate with two distinct wavelengt hs, alpha and mu. The mu system is involved in neural mirroring. It is active
when your bodies are still, and disappears whenever we do something active, like playing a sport or changing the
TV channel. The surprising fact is that the mu signal is also quiet when we watch someone else being active, as on
TV, these results are the effect of mirror neurons.

E Rizzolatti, Fogassi, and Gallese call the idea for mirror neurons the ‘direct matching hypothesis’. They believe
that we only understand the movement of sports stars when we ‘map the visual representation of the observed
action onto our motor representation of the same action’. According to this theory, watching an Olympic athlete
‘causes the motor system of the observer to resonate. The “motor knowledge” of the observer is used to
understand the observed action.’ But mirror neurons are more than just the neural basis for our attitude to sport.
It turns out that watching a great golfer makes us better golfers, and watching a great sprinter actually makes us
run faster. This ability to learn by watching is a crucial skill. From the acquisition of language as infants to learning
facial expressions, mimesis (copying) is an essential part of being conscious. The best athletes are those with a
premotor cortex capable of imagining the movements of victory, together with the physical properties to make
those movements real.

F But how many of us regularly watch sports in order to be a better athlete? Rather, we watch sport for the feeling,
the human drama. This feeling also derives from mirror neurons. By letting spectators share in the motions of
victory, they also allow us to share in its feelings. This is because they are directly connected to the amygdale, one
of the main brain regions involved in emotion. During the Olympics, the mirror neurons of whole nations will be
electrically identical, their athletes causing spectators to feel, just for a second or two, the same thing. Watching
sports brings people together. Most of us will never run a mile in under four minutes, or hit a home run. Our
consolation comes in watching, when we gather around the TV, we all feel, just for a moment, what it is to do
something perfectly.
Questions 27-32
Which paragraph contains the following information?
NB You may use any letter more than once.

27. an explanation of why watching sport may be emotionally satisfying

28. an explanation of why beginners find sporting tasks difficult
29. a factor that needs to combine with mirroring to attain sporting excellence
30. a comparison of human and animal mirror neurons
31. the first discovery of brain activity related to mirror neurons
32. a claim linking observation to improvement in performance

Questions 33-35
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

33. The writer uses the term ‘grammar of movement’ to mean

A a level of sporting skill.
B a system of words about movement.
C a pattern of connected cells.
D a type of golf swing.

34. The writer states that expert players perform their actions
A without conscious thought.
B by planning each phase of movement.
C without regular practice.
D by thinking about the actions of others.

35. The writer states that the most common motive for watching sport is to
A improve personal performance.
B feel linked with people of different nationalities.
C experience strong positive emotions.
D realize what skill consists of.

Questions 36-40
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in the Reading Passage? write
YES if the statement is true
NO if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage

36. Inexpert sports players are too aware of what they are doing.
37. Monkeys have a more complex mirror neuron system than humans.
38. Looking at a photograph can activate mirror neurons.
39. Gastaut and Bert were both researchers and sports players.
40. The mu system is at rest when we are engaged in an activity.