EXAM PREPARATION 14
EXAM PREPARATION 14
EXAM PREPARATION 14
II. Fill each blank with ONE suitable word. Write your answers in the numbered
blanks provided below the passage. (15p.)
Among all the abilities with (1) _____ an individual may be endowed, musical talent appears
(2) _____ in life. Very young children can exhibit musical precocity (3) _____ different
reasons. Some develop exceptional (4) _____ as a result of a well-designed instructional
regime, such as the Suzuki method for the violin. Some have the good fortune to be born into
a musical (5) _____ in a household filled with music. In a number of interesting cases,
musical talent is part of an otherwise disabling condition such as autism or mental
retardation. A musically gifted child has an inborn talent; (6) _____, the extent to which the
talent is expressed (7) _____ will depend upon the environment in which the child lives.
Musically gifted children master (8) _____ an early age the principal elements of music,
including pitch and rhythm. Pitch – or melody – is more central in certain cultures, for
example, in Eastern societies that make use of tiny quarter – tone intervals. Rhythm, sounds
produced at certain auditory frequencies and grouped according to a prescribed (9) _____, is
emphasized in sub-Saharan Africa, (10) _____ the rhythmic ratios can be very complex.
III. In this part of the test, you are going to read a short text, then answer the questions
following each text by choosing the best answer to each question A,B,C or D. (15p.)
Those brilliant autumn leaves
As trees across the northern areas of the globe turn gold and crimson, scientists are debating
exactly what these colors are for. The scientists do agree on one thing: the colours are for
something. That represents a major shift in thinking. For decades, textbooks claimed that
autumn colours were just a by-product of dying leaves. ‘I had always assumed that autumn
leaves were waste baskets,’ said Dr. David Wilkinson, an evolutionary ecologist at Liverpool
John Moores University in England. ‘That's what I was told as a student.’
During spring and summer, leaves get their green cast from chlorophyll, the pigment that
plays a major role in capturing sunlight. But the leaves also contain other pigments whose
colours are masked during the growing season. In autumn, trees break down their chlorophyll
and draw some of the components back into their tissues. Conventional wisdom regards
autumn colours as the product of the remaining pigments, which are finally unmasked.
Evolutionary biologists and plant physiologists offer two different explanations for why
natural selection has made autumn colours so widespread. Dr. William Hamilton, an
evolutionary biologist at Oxford University, proposed that bright autumn leaves contain a
message: they warn insects to leave them alone. Dr. Hamilton's 'leaf signal' hypothesis grew
out of earlier work he had done on the extravagant plumage of birds. He proposed it served
as an advertisement from males to females, indicating they had desirable genes. As females
evolved a preference for those displays, males evolved more extravagant feathers as they
competed for mates. In the case of trees, Dr. Hamilton proposed that the visual message was
sent to insects. In the autumn, aphids and other insects choose trees where they will lay their
eggs. When the eggs hatch the next spring, the larvae feed on the tree, often with devastating
results. A tree can ward off these pests with poisons. Dr. Hamilton speculated that trees with
strong defences might be able to protect themselves even further by letting egg-laying insects
know what was in store for their eggs. By producing brilliant autumn colours, the trees
advertised their lethality. As insects evolved to avoid the brightest leaves, natural selection
favoured trees that could become even brighter.
‘It was a beautiful idea,’ said Marco Archetti, a former student of Dr. Hamilton who is now
at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. Dr. Hamilton had Mr. Archetti turn the
hypothesis into a mathematical model. The model showed that warning signals could indeed
drive the evolution of bright leaves - at least in theory. Another student, Sam Brown, tested
the leaf-signal hypothesis against real data about trees and insects. ‘It was a first stab to see
what was out there,’ said Dr. Brown, now an evolutionary biologist at the University of
Texas.
The leaf-signal hypothesis has also drawn criticism, most recently from Dr. Wilkinson and
Dr. H. Martin Schaefer, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Freiburg in Germany.
Dr. Wilkinson and other critics point to a number of details about aphids and trees that do not
fit Dr. Hamilton's hypothesis. Dr. William Hoch, a plant physiologist at the University of
Wisconsin, argues that bright leaves appear on trees that have no insects to warn off. ‘If you
are up here in the north of Wisconsin, by the time the leaves change, all the insects that feed
on foliage are gone,’ Dr. Hoch said. In their article, Dr. Schaefer and Dr. Wilkinson argue
that a much more plausible explanation for autumn colours can be found in the research of
Dr. Hoch and other plant physiologists. Their recent work suggests that autumn colours
serve mainly as a sunscreen.
Dr. Hamilton's former students argue that the leaf-signal hypothesis is still worth
investigating. Dr. Brown believes that leaves might be able to protect themselves both from
sunlight and from insects. Dr. Brown and Dr. Archetti also argue that supporters of the
sunscreen hypothesis have yet to explain why some trees have bright colours and some do
not. 'This is a basic question in evolution that they seem to ignore,’ Dr. Archetti said. ‘I don't
think it's a huge concern,’ Dr. Hoch replied. ‘There's natural variation for every
characteristic.’
Dr. Hamilton's students and their critics agree that the debate has been useful, because it has
given them a deeper reverence for this time of year. 'People sometimes say that science
makes the world less interesting and awesome by just explaining things away,' Dr.
Wilkinson said. 'But with autumn leaves, the more you know about them, the more amazed
you are.'
1. What is stated about the colours of autumn leaves in the first two paragraphs?
A. There has previously been no disagreement about what causes them.
B. The process that results in them has never been fully understood.
C. Different colours from those that were previously the norm have started to appear.
D. Debate about the purpose of them has gone on for a long time.
2. The writer says that Dr Hamilton's work has focused on
A. the different purposes of different colours.
B. the use of colour for opposite purposes.
C. the possibility that birds and insects have influenced each other's behaviour.
D. the increased survival rates of certain kinds of tree.
3. Dr Hamilton has suggested that there is a connection between
A. the colours of autumn leaves and the behaviour of insects.
B. the development of brighter leaves and the reduced numbers of certain types of insect.
C. the survival of trees and the proximity of insects to them.
D. the brightness of leaves and the development of other defence mechanisms in trees.
4. The phrase ‘ward off’ in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to
A. comply B. occupy C. avoid D. illuminate
5. What is said about the work done by former students of Dr Hamilton?
A. Neither of them was able to achieve what they set out to do.
B. Mr Archetti felt some regret about the outcome of the work he did.
C. Both of them initiated the idea of doing the work.
D. Dr Brown did not expect to draw any firm conclusions from his work.
6. Critics of Dr Hamilton's theory have expressed the view that
A. it is impossible to generalize about the purpose of the colours of autumn leaves.
B. his theory is based on a misunderstanding about insect behaviour.
C. the colours of autumn leaves have a different protective function.
D. his theory can only be applied to certain kinds of insect.
7. The word ‘serve’ in paragraph 5 is closest in meaning to
A. investigate B. ignore C. refrain D. perform
8. In the debate between the two groups of people investigating the subject, it has been
suggested that
A. something regarded as a key point by one side is in fact not important.
B. further research will prove that Dr Hamilton's theory is the correct one.
C. both sides may in fact be completely wrong.
D. the two sides should collaborate.
9. The word ‘awesome’ in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to
A. trivial B. average C. wondrous D. autumnal
10. All the people involved in research on the subject of autumn leaves feel that
A. it highlights the mystery of the natural world.
B. it is one of the most complex areas they have ever investigated.
C. it concerns a phenomenon that ordinary people would like an explanation for.
D. it shows how interesting an area previously thought to be dull can be.
IV. The following text has seven sections, A-G. Choose the correct heading for each
section from the list of headings below. Write the correct number, i-x, in blanks 1-7.
(10.5p.)
List of Headings
i The instructions for old dances survive
ii Inspired by foreign examples
iii Found in a number of countries and districts
iv An enthusiastic response from certain people
v Spectators join in the dancing
vi How the street event came about
vii From the height of popularity to a fall from fashion
viii A surprise public entertainment
ix Young people invent their own clog dances
x Clog dancing isn't so easy
1. Section A ............................................
2. Section B ............................................
3. Section C ............................................
4. Section D ............................................
5. Section E ............................................
6. Section F ............................................
7. Section G ............................................
Clog dancing’s big street revival
A The streets of Newcastle, in the north-east of England, have begun to echo with a sound
that has not been heard for about a century. A sharp, rhythmic knocking can be heard
among the Saturday crowds in one of the city's busiest intersections. It sounds a little
like dozens of horses galloping along the street, but there are none in sight. In fact, it's
the noise of a hundred people dancing in wooden shoes, or clogs.
The shoppers are about to be ambushed by the UK's biggest clog dance event. The
hundred volunteers have been coached to perform a mass routine. For ten minutes, the
dancers bring the city centre to a standstill. There are people clogging on oil drums and
between the tables of pavement cafés. A screaming, five-man team cuts through the
onlookers and begins leaping over swords that look highly dangerous. Then, as swiftly
as they appeared, the cloggers melt back into the crowd, leaving the slightly stunned
spectators to go about their business.
B This strange manifestation is the brainchild of conductor Charles Hazlewood, whose
conversion to clog dancing came through an encounter with a folk band, The Unthanks.
‘Rachel and Becky Unthank came to develop some ideas in my studio,’ Hazlewood
says. ‘Suddenly, they got up and began to mark out the rhythm with their feet - it was an
extraordinary blur of shuffles, clicks and clacks that was an entirely new music for me. I
thought, “Whatever this is, I want more of it”.’
Hazlewood was inspired to travel to Newcastle to make a television programme, Come
Clog Dancing, in which he and a hundred other people learn to clog in a fortnight. Yet
when he first went out recruiting, local people seemed unaware of their heritage. ‘We
went out on to the streets, looking for volunteers, but nobody seemed to know anything
about clog dancing; or if they did, they thought it originated in the Netherlands.’
C The roots of clog dancing go back several hundred years, and lie in traditional dances of
the Dutch, Native Americans and African-Americans, in which the dancer strikes the
ground with their heel or toes, to produce a rhythm that's audible to everyone around. In
England, clogging is believed to have first developed in the mid-19th century in the
cotton mills of Lancashire, in the north-west, where workers created a dance that
imitated the sound of the machinery. The style quickly spread and developed a number
of regional variations. In Northumberland, it became a recreation for miners, who
danced solo or to the accompaniment of a fiddle.
‘The Northumberland style is very distinct from Lancashire clogging,’ says Laura
Connolly, a virtuoso dancer who worked with Hazlewood on the programme.
‘Northumbrian dancing is quite neat and precise with almost no upper-body movement,
whereas the Lancastrian style is more flamboyant.’
D Whatever the region, clogging remains very much a minority pursuit. Yet at the turn of
the 20th century, clogging was a fully-fledged youth craze. Two famous comic film
actors, Stan Laurel and Charlie Chaplin, both began their careers as cloggers. But the
dance almost completely died out with the passing of the industrial age. ‘People danced
in clogs because they were cheap, hardwearing and easily repaired,’ Connolly says. ‘Yet
eventually clogs became associated with poverty and people were almost ashamed to
wear them.’
E Fortunately, the key steps of the dances were preserved and handed down in a series of
little blue books, often named after their inventors. ‘It means that we still know what
Mrs Willis's Rag or Ivy Sands's Hornpipe were like,’ Connolly says. ‘It's my dream that
one day there'll be a little blue book called Laura Connolly's Jig.’
F Her biggest challenge to date was to teach Hazlewood and 100 other beginners a routine
sufficiently accomplished to perform on television, from scratch, in less than two weeks.
‘I started people off with something simple,’ she says. ‘It's a basic shuffle that most
people can pick up.’ Once Hazlewood had absorbed the basics, Connolly encouraged
him to develop a short solo featuring more complex steps - though he nearly came to
grief attempting a tricky manoeuvre known as Charlie Chaplin Clicks, so named as it
was the signature move of Chaplin's film character the Little Tramp.
‘To be honest, I never quite got those right,’ Hazlewood says with a laugh. ‘We came up
with a slightly easier version, which Laura thought we should call Charlie Hazlewood
Clicks. The thing about clogs is that they're all surface: there's no grip and they're
slightly curved so you stand in a slightly peculiar way. The potential to fall over is
enormous.’
On the day, Hazlewood managed to pull off a decent solo, clicks and all. ‘I wasn't
convinced, until the moment I did it, that I was going to get it right,’ he admits. ‘But in
the end, clog dancing is not so very different from conducting. Both require you to
communicate a beat - only I had to learn how to express it with my feet, rather than my
hands. But it's a good feeling.’
G ‘People forget that clogging was originally a street dance,’ Connolly says. ‘It was
competitive, it was popular, and now young people are beginning to rediscover it for
themselves. As soon as we finished in Newcastle, I had kids coming up to me saying,
“Clog dancing's cool - I want to do that!”’
Complete the summary below
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the text for each answer. Write your
answers in blanks 8-10. (4.5p.)
A clog dancing event in Newcastle
First the city's shoppers hear a sound that seems to be created by a large number of (8)
________, and then over a hundred people wearing clogs appear and dance. Most dance on
the pavement, some on oil drums. One group uses (9) ________ as part of its dance. The
event was organised by Charles Hazlewood, a (10) ________. He was introduced to clog
dancing by a folk band working with him in his studio.
PART IV: WRITING (40p.)
I. Finish each of the following sentences in such a way that it means the same as the
sentence printed before it. (7.5p.)
1. Trudy was quite relieved when she found out the truth.
It was something .............................................................................................................
2. I know this reporter’s background well and he’s 100% honest.
This reporter, ..................................................................................................................
3. I’m afraid that I think he shouldn’t marry her.
I can’t ..............................................................................................................................
4. Although the papers claim that they are going to get divorced, they are not.
Contrary .........................................................................................................................
5. I have been told that you have been late for work every day this week.
It has been brought .........................................................................................................
II. Rewrite the sentences below in such a way that their meanings stay the same. You
must use the words in capital without changing their forms. (7.5 pts)
1. What the lecturer said was not very clear at times. (LACK)
There .................................................................................... in what the lecturer said at
times.
2. The careful preparation for the event ensured it was a memorable day for everyone who
attended. (WHICH)
The care .................................................... event ensured it was a memorable day for
everyone.
3. His fake arrogance only hid his genuine insecurity. (LAY)
Behind ............................................................................................................... insecurity.
4. The sales director told his staff nothing about the new marketing post. (DARK)
The sales director .................................................................... about the new marketing
post.
5. Is it possible to walk from the hotel to the city center? (WITHIN)
Is the city center ............................................................................................................ ?
- The end -