Reading Practice Test 109

READING PASSAGE 1

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

Radiocarbon dating

A profile of the scientist Nancy Athfield

Nancy Athfield is a scientist specializing in radiocarbon dating. She has just returned from a research expedition deep in the forests of Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains, where she has been working to unravel the secrets of ancient human remains discovered on a number of cliff-side ledges. The unexplained remains, discovered by local people in large ceramic jars and hollowed-out logs, have increasingly drawn Athfield away from her regular employment at G.N.S. Science’s Rafter Laboratory in New Zealand and into the world of research in the field.

She first learned of the Cardamom remains in 2003, when a film-making company requested that she radiocarbon date bone samples for a documentary film being made in Cambodia. The film-makers had set out to investigate the idea that these human remains marked the final resting place of people belonging to the last royal household of Angkor, which once ruled much of the surrounding area. At its height in the thirteenth century, Angkor was home to a population 30 times larger than that of Paris at the time, but in 1431 it was overrun by an invading army, and the city was permanently abandoned. However, many stories were told of surviving members of the royal family fleeing to seek refuge in the Cardamom Mountains.

Athfield dated the original Cardamom bone samples as late as 1620, dashing the possibility of Angkorian royalty. However, over the years since then, other ancient human remains have emerged at different sites around the country, leaving the ultimate fate of the royal household of Angkor still uncertain. Athfield intends to return soon to Cambodia in order to continue her research at a number of these new sites.

Investigating the origins of an unknown people in Asia is a long way from her birthplace in New York, but Athfield’s career path has been far from conventional. She finished her secondary education early, aged just sixteen, and did a variety of badly paid jobs and community courses before a friend suggested she sit the entrance exam for university.

She did, and to her surprise, she was accepted. While completing her undergraduate studies in physical geography, she got a job at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. It was here that she met Wally Brocker, a climate scientist and one of the pioneers of radiocarbon dating. ‘From him I learned that the best place to be is where everything you know is shaken by a new piece of information. In other words, I learned to think like a scientist.’

When Athfield’s then husband was offered a post at G.N.S. Science, she accompanied him to New Zealand and took a job as lab manager at Rafter Laboratory. ‘I realised it was a good time to get a PhD,’ she says. At the time, there was a great deal of controversy over radiocarbon dating, which seemed to suggest that a rat species had arrived in New Zealand as early as 100 AD, nearly 700 years before the first visitors were thought to have reached those untouched islands. Her PhD was based on five years of research exploring this issue because she wanted to look at how scientists ascertain the reliability of radiocarbon dating, and this seemed to be the perfect subject. Athfield concluded that previous radiocarbon tests had been unreliable, and this was connected to the rat’s diet, not due to faulty lab procedures as had once been thought.

She then began embracing broader issues related to her skills, and started working as a fully qualified archaeologist in the UK in order to contribute to a 10-year research project fine-tuning Anglo-Saxon chronology. But it was the call from those filmmakers in 2003 that truly ignited her passion for fieldwork, and the unanswered questions regarding the Cardamom remain.

Athfield was keen to continue her work in Cambodia after the camera crews left, but she and her colleagues were hampered by that universal problem for researchers: a lack of funding. However, after several years of fruitless applications, she made a breakthrough when the Australian Research Council supported her and a team based at the University of Sydney so that she could return to the Cardamoms, as part of a larger project to create a Cambodia-wide radiocarbon database. The project has brought together geologists, biologists, ceramic specialists, ethnographers, and even a dendroclimatologist (who determines past climates from trees), but it has been no easy task because the country doesn’t have an extensive geological map. Nonetheless, with Cambodia’s Ministry of Culture having learned of freshly discovered jar burial sites in the Cardamom Mountains, Athfield is more enthusiastic about the project than ever.

Questions 1–7

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?

In boxes 1-7 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   Nancy Athfield found ancient human remains in Cambodia.

2   The human remains found in the Cardamom Mountains were in good condition.

3   Athfield has taken time off from her usual job to do research in Cambodia.

4   The Cambodian government asked Athfield to radiocarbon date the Cardamom remains.

5   Filmmakers were researching how Angkor was rebuilt after the 1431 invasion.

6   Athfield initially doubted the stories of the royal family hiding in the Cardamom mountains.

7   Athfield’s research disproved the idea that the Cardamom remains were from the royal family.

Questions 8–13

Complete the flow-chart below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 8-13 on your answer sheet.

Nancy Athfield’s career

In her mid-teens Athfield did not expect to attend 8……….

Wally Brocker taught Athfield how to develop the mind of a scientist. Athfield’s PhD investigated when a type of 9………. arrived in New Zealand.

Her PhD research found that the subject’s diet accounted for previous inaccurate results. She worked as a professional 10………. before going to Cambodia in 2003.

Inadequate 11………. prevented further research in Cambodia. Later, she helped to compile a 12………. dating across Cambodia of radiocarbon.

The lack of a detailed 13………. of Cambodia’s geology has made her team’s research harder.

READING PASSAGE 2

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

How sleep helps us learn

Researchers are uncovering the link between sleep and learning and how it changes throughout our lives

A

Most research into the relationship between memory and sleep has traditionally been conducted using young adults or animals. By the early 2000s, scientists had found that sleep helps young adults consolidate memory by reinforcing and filing away daytime experiences. But the older adults that Rebecca Spencer was studying at the US University of Massachusetts Amherst didn’t seem to experience the same benefit. Spencer wondered if age altered the relationship between sleep and memory, and chose nearby preschool children as subjects. She found that the children who regularly had short sleeps during the day benefited the most from daytime rest, largely because their memories decayed the most without these naps. By staying awake, they have more interference from daytime experiences, Spencer explains.

B

The studies on young adults carried out in the early 2000 suggested that the reduced sensory inputs during sleep allow the brain to replay daytime experiences during a period relatively free of distracting information. This may help to solidify connections and transfer daytime memories from the part of the brain known as the hippocampus into long-term storage in the brain region called the cortex. But how sleep and memory interact at different periods of our lives remained an open question.

C

In children younger than 18 months, learning is thought to occur in the cortex because the hippocampus isn’t yet fully developed. As a result, researchers hypothesize that infants don’t replay memories during sleep, the way adults do. Instead, sleep merely seems to prevent infants from forgetting as much as they would if they were awake. The net effect is that sleep permits infants to retain more of the redundant details of a learning experience, says experimental psychologist Rebecca Gómez of the University of Arizona. By the time they are two years old, ‘we think that children have the brain development that supports an active process of consolidation’, she adds.

D

From the age of two, adequate sleep during the hours of darkness becomes critical for learning. Toddlers who sleep less than 10 hours display lasting cognitive deficits, even if they catch up on sleep later in their development. The effects are particularly strong in children with developmental disorders, who often suffer from disturbed sleep. Jamie Edgin of the University of Arizona studied children with the genetic disorder Down’s syndrome, comparing those who were sleep-impaired with those who slept normally. She found that there were large differences in language knowledge and observed that the non-sleep-impaired children knew up to 190 more words, even after controlling for behavioural differences.

E

Understanding the impact of sleep on memory could also help another at-risk group of learners at the other end of the age spectrum. Previous research has suggested that older adults don’t remember recently acquired motor skills as well as young adults do. But neuroscientist Maria Korman and her colleagues at the University of Haifa in Israel recently demonstrated that taking a nap soon after learning can allow the elderly to retain procedural memories just as well as younger people. Korman hypotheses that by shortening the interval between learning and consolidation, the nap prevents intervening experiences from weakening the memory before it solidifies. Overnight sleep might be even better, if the motor skills – in this case a complex sequence of finger and thumb movements on the non-dominant hand – are taught late enough in the day.

F

Optimising the timing of sleep and training in the elderly exploits something Korman sees as a positive side of growing old. ‘As we age, our neural system becomes more aware of the relevance of the task,’ Korman says. Unlike young adults, who solidify all the information they acquire throughout the day, older people consolidate those experiences that were tagged by the brain as very important.

G

Tests on older adults’ memories are generating new findings about the relationship between sleep and memory at other ages as well. After learning at a conference about a memory test for cognitive impairment and dementia in older adults, neuroscientist Jeanne Duffy of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston wondered if sleep could help strengthen the connection between names and faces. She and her colleagues found that young adults who slept overnight after learning a list of 20 names and faces showed a 12 percent increase in retention when tested 12 hours later, compared with subjects who didn’t sleep between training and testing. The findings have ‘an immediate real-world application’, Duffy says, as they address a common memory concern among people of all ages.

H

Developing a fuller picture of what happens to memories during sleep – and how best to modify sleep habits to aid the recall process – could benefit some of society’s most sleep-deprived members of every age. ‘We need to understand this role of sleep in memory because there is such potential for intervention, Spencer says. ‘Now that we have a well-founded concept of what sleep can do for memory, it’s time to put it to the test.’

Questions 14–19

Reading Passage 2 has eight paragraphs, A-H.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet.

14   a difference between babies and adults with regard to a function of sleep

15   a reference to a developmental stage at which it is essential to have sufficient night-time sleep

16   the idea that the comparatively low levels of stimuli during sleep help us consolidate memories

17   the mention of the need to find out whether current theories are correct

18   research data that can be of direct help to people who are worried about memory loss

19   a reference to a strategy which could enable older people to remember certain things as well as younger people do

Questions 20–23

Complete the summary below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 20-23 on your answer sheet.

Sleep and memory

In the past, most studies looking into how sleep helps us consolidate memories have used either animals or young adults as their subjects. But Rebecca Spencer noticed that her own research subjects did not appear to get as much 20…………… from sleep as the subjects in other studies did. She wanted to know if a person’s 21…………… made any difference to the process of memory consolidation, so she conducted an experiment on children at the 22…………… stage. She found that children who did not have a daytime sleep suffered a higher level of 23…………… from the day’s events, and were less able to remember things later.

Questions 24–26

Look at the following research areas (Questions 24-26) and the list of researchers below.

Match each Statement with the correct researcher, A-E.

Write the correct letter, A-E, in boxes 24-26 on your answer sheet.

24   the connection between lack of sleep and vocabulary acquisition

25   the impact of sleep on how well people learn to perform physical actions

26   how the structure of very young brains may influence memory processes 

List of Researcher

A   Rebecca Spencer

B   Rebecca Gomez

C   Jamie Edgin

D   Maria Korman

E   Jeanne Duffy

READING PASSAGE 3

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

Petrol power: an eco-revolution?

Laura Ingalls Wilder’s semi-autobiographical novel The Long Winter describes how the inhabitants of a small town called De Smet in the American Midwest narrowly avoided starvation during the severe winter of 1880 – 1881. Over three metres of snow fell on the northern plains, immobilising the railways and cutting off the settlers from the rest of the world. Laura and her neighbours were only saved when her fiancé and his friend trudged 30 kilometres through the snow to fetch food, risking their lives in the process. The story is a reminder of how lethal geographical isolation and crop failures could be before the advent of modern farming and transportation technologies. Not long ago, subsistence farmers in many countries had to cope with the ‘lean season’ – the period of greatest scarcity before new crops became available. In England, late spring was once referred to as the ‘hungry gap’. The situation was made worse by the cost of moving heavy things over muddy dirt roads; three centuries ago, moving goods 50 kilometres on land between, say, Liverpool and Manchester was as expensive as shipping them across the north Atlantic.

The development of coal-powered railways and steamships in the 19th century revolutionized the lives of farmers. Instead of having to grow everything they needed, they could now specialise in what they did best and rely on other producers for their remaining needs. The result was not only food and ever-cheaper prices, but the end of widespread famine and starvation, as the surplus from regions with good harvests could now be transported to those that had experienced mediocre ones. Since then, petroleum-derived fuels have largely displaced coal because of their higher energy density, cleaner combustion, and greater ease of extraction, further improving road and rail transportation systems.

While the convenience of modern methods of transportation is obvious, few people grasp their historical significance in terms of their beneficial impact on large cities and the health of residents. In 1898, delegates gathered in New York City for the world’s first international urban-planning conference. The topic that dominated discussions was not infrastructure or housing, but horse manure. The problem was that as the populations of cities like New York and London grew, the number of horses there also grew, and in New York, these produced nearly two million kilograms of manure each day. If this problem continued, it was estimated that by 1950 every street in London would be buried three metres deep in horse manure. Unable to think of any solution, the delegates concluded that urban living was inherently unsustainable. Paradoxically, much of the urban manure problem was related to the growth of the railways. The ability to deliver perishable goods, such as meat and dairy products, from locations that benefited from better soil and climate, put many farms located near cities out of business. As these had relied on manure from city workhorses for fertiliser, the demand for this was greatly reduced.

The impact of urban workhorses was felt both in the cities and in the countryside. In cities, apart from their overpowering stench, the manure piles were prime breeding grounds for house flies, perhaps three billion of which hatched each day in US cities in the early 20th century. With flies came outbreaks of typhoid, cholera and diphtheria. Workhorses sometimes panicked in heavy traffic and kicked or bit bystanders. The clatter of wagon wheels on cobblestone pavement could be deafening, and since a horse and wagon occupied more street space than a modern truck, they also created significant traffic congestion, while a horse that collapsed on the road created an obstruction that was difficult to remove. The countryside also suffered. To supply the workhorses with oats and hay, additional land had to be cleared of its natural animal life and vegetation, and sometimes water had to be diverted to irrigate it, with considerable negative effects on the whole area.

So, while the trains, cars, and trucks of the early 20th century were noisy and polluting by today’s standards, they were regarded as a significant improvement on what had gone before. Before they were available, poor soils often meant that a large amount of land was required to sustain a household, and much environmental damage, primarily in the form of soil erosion, was caused by trying to farm these soils. It could be argued that modern transportation allowed the development of remote regions like the Canadian prairies and allowed more suitable crops to be grown in the poorer soils in Europe before being sold elsewhere.

Over time, the concentration of food production in the world’s best locations allowed some agricultural land to revert to a wild state. For instance, France benefited from an expansion of its forest area by one-third between 1830 and 1960. This so-called ‘forest transition’ occurred in the context of a doubling of the French population and a dramatic increase in standards of living.

Improvements in logistics also allowed the production and export of food from locations where water was abundant to regions where it was scarce, thus preventing the depletion of water resources there. It also made possible a drastic increase in the size of our cities. Contrary to what most people believe, the growth in cities is a positive development. In the words of economist Ed Glaser: ‘Residing in a forest might seem to be a good way of showing one’s love of nature, but living in a concrete jungle is actually far more ecologically friendly… If you love nature, stay away from it. It could be argued that modern transportation technologies have been a major contributor to a wealthier, cleaner, and more sustainable world.

Questions 27–30

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write the correct letter in boxes 27-30 on your answer sheet.

27   Why were the inhabitants of De Smet in danger of starvation?

A   The trains were unable to operate normally.

B   The harvest had been completely destroyed.

C   The roads to the town had not yet been built.

D   The farmers were reluctant to sell their produce.

28   What problem did subsistence farmers have in the past?

A   They had no effective means of storing food.

B   Food was expensive because of high shipping costs.

C   Their access to food was limited at certain times.

D   Food could not be transported for long distances by road.

29   The writer says that the use of coal to power railways and steamships

A   led to a greater range of fresh vegetables being available in urban areas.

B   was less efficient than the use of petroleum-derived products.

C   allowed farmers to be more self-sufficient than they were previously.

D   was better for the environment than using petroleum-derived products.

30   The writer refers to an urban planning conference held in 1898 in order to

A   illustrate a problem that was later solved by modern technology.

B   give an example of poor decisions made about urban planning.

C   show that urban issues were misunderstood in the past.

D   indicate the disregard at the time for public health concerns.

Questions 31–35

Complete the summary using the list of words, A-J, below.

Write the correct letter, A-J, in boxes 31-35 on your answer sheet.

Problems caused by urban workhorses

In cities, the large amounts of horse manure led to 31………….. in the streets and was also linked to the spread of 32………….. In certain situations, the horses might even cause 33………….. to passers-by. There were also the problems of noise and congestion caused by horse-drawn vehicles.

In the countryside, there were problems too. The 34………….. was damaged because of the need to provide 35………….. for urban workhorses

Questions 36–40

Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 3?

In boxes 36-40 on your answer sheet, write

YES                  if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer

NO                  if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer

NOT GIVEN   if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

36   Farmers whose land was poor failed to benefit from modern forms of transport.

37   Between 1830 and 1960, there were positive effects associated with changing patterns of agriculture in France.

38   A fairer distribution of the world’s water resources is needed.

39   Living in the countryside does less harm to the environment than living in a city.

40   It is possible that modern developments in transportation have had an effect which is both beneficial and detrimental to the environment.

Answer Reading Test 109