READING PASSAGE 2

PRACTICE TEST
 The Physics of Traffic Behaviour
1. iii (How a concept from one field of study was applied in another )
A 
Some years ago, when several theoretical physicists, principally Dirk Helbing and
Boris Kerner of Stuttgart, Germany, began publishing papers on traffic flow in
publications normally read by traffic engineers, they were clearly working outside their
usual sphere of investigation. They had noticed that if they simulated the movement of
vehicles on a highway, using the equations that describe how the molecules of a gas
move, some very strange results emerged. Of course, vehicles do not behave exactly
like gas molecules: for example, drivers try to avoid collisions by slowing down when
they get too near another vehicle, whereas gas molecules have no such concern.
However, the physicists modified the equations to take the differences into account and
the overall description of traffic as a flowing gas has proved to be a very good one; the
moving-gas model of traffic reproduces many phenomena seen in real-world traffic. 
 2. viii (A proposal to take control away from the driver)
C
 The physicists have challenged proposals to set a maximum capacity for vehicles on
highways. They argue that it may not be enough simply to limit the rate at which
vehicles are allowed to enter a highway, rather, it may be necessary to time each
vehicle’s entry onto a highway precisely to coincide with a temporary drop in the
density of vehicles along the road. The aim of doing this would be to smooth out any
possible fluctuations in the road conditions that can trigger a change in traffic
behavior and result in congestion. They further suggest that preventing breakdowns
in the flow of traffic could ultimately require implementing the radical idea that has
been suggested from time to time: directly regulating the speed and spacing of
individual cars along a highway with central computers and sensors that
communicate with each car’s engine and brake controls.
 3. v (areas of doubt and disagreement between experts)

D
However, research into traffic control is generally centered in civil engineering departments and
here the theories of the physicists have been greeted with some skepticism. Civil engineers favor a
practical approach to problems and believe traffic congestion is the result of poor road construction
(two lanes becoming one lane or dangerous curves), which constricts the flow of traffic. Engineers
questioned how well the physicists’ theoretical results relate to traffic in the real world. Indeed, some
engineering researchers questioned whether elaborate chaos-theory interpretations are needed at
all, since at least some of the traffic phenomena the physicists’ theories predicted seemed to be
similar to observations that had been appearing in traffic engineering literature under other names
for years; observations which had straightforward cause-and-effect explanations.
4. vii (The impact of driver behaviour on traffic speed)

E 
James Banks, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at San Diego State University in
the US, suggested that a sudden slowdown in traffic may have less to do with chaos theory than
with driver psychology. As traffic gets heavier and the passing lane gets more crowded, aggressive
drivers move to other lanes to try to pass, which also tends to even out the speed between lanes. He
also felt that another levelling force is that when a driver in a fast lane brakes a little to maintain a
safe distance between vehicles, the shock wave travels back much more rapidly than it would in the
other slower lanes, because each following driver has to react more quickly. Consequently, as a
road becomes congested, the faster moving traffic is the first to slow down.
 Government policies in environmental
management
1. v (governments and management of the environment)

Section A
The role of governments in environmental management is difficult but inescapable.
Sometimes, the state tries to manage the resources it owns, and does so badly. Often,
however, governments act in an even more harmful way. They actually subsidise the
exploitation and consumption of natural resources. A whole range of policies, from
farm-price support to protection for coal-mining, do environmental damage and
(often) make no economic sense. Scrapping them offers a two-fold bonus: a cleaner
environment and a more efficient economy. Growth and environmentalism can
actually go hand in hand, if politicians have the courage to confront the vested
interest that subsidies create.
 2. vii (Farming and food output)

Section B 
No activity affects more of the earth's surface than farming. It shapes a third of the
planet's land area, not counting Antarctica, and the proportion is rising. World
food output per head has risen by 4 per cent between the 1970s and 1980s mainly as
a result of increases in yields from land already in cultivation, but also because
more land has been brought under the plough. Higher yields have been achieved by
increased irrigation, better crop breeding, and a doubling in the use of pesticides
and chemical fertilisers in the 1970s and 1980s.
 3. ii (The environmental impact of modern farming)

Section C 
All these activities may have damaging environmental impacts. For example, land clearing for
agriculture is the largest single cause of deforestation; chemical fertilisers and pesticides may
contaminate water supplies; more intensive farming and the abandonment of fallow periods tend to
exacerbate soil erosion; and the spread of monoculture and use of high-yielding varieties of crops
have been accompanied by the disappearance of old varieties of food plants which might have
provided some insurance against pests or diseases in future. Soil erosion threatens the productivity
of land in both rich and poor countries. The United States, where the most careful measurements
have been done, discovered in 1982 that about one-fifth of its farmland was losing topsoil at a rate
likely to diminish the soil's productivity. The country subsequently embarked upon a program to
convert 11 per cent of its cropped land to meadow or forest. Topsoil in India and China is vanishing
much faster than in America.
4. iv (The effects of government policy in rich countries)

Section D 
Government policies have frequently compounded the environmental damage that farming
can cause. In the rich countries, subsidies for growing crops and price supports for farm
output drive up the price of land. The annual value of these subsidies is immense: about $250
billion, or more than all World Bank lending in the 1980s. To increase the output of crops per
acre, a farmer's easiest option is to use more of the most readily available inputs: fertilisers
and pesticides. Fertiliser use doubled in Denmark in the period 1960-1985 and increased in
The Netherlands by 150 per cent. The quantity of pesticides applied has risen too: by 69 per
cent in 1975-1984 in Denmark, for example, with a rise of 115 per cent in the frequency of
application in the three years from 1981.
 5. i (The probable effects of the new international trade agreement)

Section F 
A result of the Uruguay Round of world trade negotiations is likely to be a reduction of 36 per cent
in the average levels of farm subsidies paid by the rich countries in 1986-1990. Some of the world's
food production will move from Western Europe to regions where subsidies are lower or non-
existent, such as the former communist countries and parts of the developing world. Some
environmentalists worry about this outcome. It will undoubtedly mean more pressure to convert
natural habitat into farmland. But it will also have many desirable environmental effects. The
intensity of farming in the rich world should decline, and the use of chemical inputs will diminish.
Crops are more likely to be grown in the environments to which they are naturally suited. And
more farmers in poor countries will have the money and the incentive to manage their land in ways
that are sustainable in the long run. That is important. To feed an increasingly hungry world,
farmers need every incentive to use their soil and water effectively and efficiently.
 Choose Two Letters Task

1-2  B ■ They can predict areas that may cause trouble in the future 
G ■ They are more skilled in personal relationships

Clearly, when older people do heavy physical work, their age may affect
their productivity. But other skills may increase with age, including many
that are crucial for good management, such as an ability to handle people
diplomatically, to run a meeting or to spot a problem before it blows up.
Peter Hicks, who co-ordinates OECD work on the policy implications of
ageing, says that plenty of research suggests older people are paid more
because they are worth more
 3-4 C ■ They do not stay with the same company for very long 
E ■ They are not as well educated as older workers

And the virtues of the young may be exaggerated. ‘The few companies that have kept
on older workers find they have good judgement and their productivity is good,’ says
Peter Peterson, author of a recent book on the impact of ageing. ‘Besides, their
education standards are much better than those of today’s young high-school
graduates.’ Companies may say that older workers are not worth training because they
are reaching the end of their working lives; in fact, young people tend to switch jobs so
frequently that they offer the worst returns on training. The median age for employer-
driven training is the late 40s and early 50s, and this training goes mainly to managers.