IELTS Academic Module – Reading Comprehension

Passage I

Space travel may still have a long day to go, but the notion of archaeological research and heritage management
in space is already concerning scientists and environmentalists.

In 1993, University of Hawaii’s anthropologist Ben Finney, who for much of his career has studied the technology
once used by Polynesians to colonize islands in the Pacific, suggested that it would not be premature to begin
thinking about the archaeology of Russian and American aerospace sites on the Moon and Mars. Finney pointed
out that just as todays scholars use archaeological records to investigate how Polynesians diverged culturally as
they explored the Pacific, archaeologists will someday study off-Earth sites to trace the development of humans
in space. He realized that it was unlikely anyone would be able to conduct fieldwork in the near future, but he
was convinced that one day such work would be done.

There is a growing awareness, however, that it won’t be long before both corporate adventurers and space
tourists reach the Moon and Mars. There is a wealth of important archaeological sites from the history of space
exploration on the Moon and Mars and measures need to be taken to protect these sites. In addition to the
threat from profit- seeking corporations, scholars cite other potentially destructive forces such as souvenir
hunting and unmonitored scientific sampling, as has already occurred in explorations of remote polar regions.
Already in 1999 one company was proposing a robotic lunar rover mission beginning at the site of Tranquility
Base and rumbling across the Moon from one archaeological site to another, from the wreck of the Ranger S
probe to Apollo 17 s landing site. The mission, which would leave vehicle tyre- marks all over some of the most
famous sites on the Moon, was promoted as a form of theme-park entertainment.

According to the vaguely worded United Motions Outer Space Treaty of 1967. what it terms ‘space junk’ remains
the property of the country that sent the craft or probe into space. But the treaty doesn’t explicitly address
protection of sites like Tranquility Base, and equating the remains of human exploration of the heavens with
‘space junk’ leaves them vulnerable to scavengers. Another problem arises through other international treaties
proclaiming that land in space cannot be owned by any country or individual. This presents some interesting
dilemmas for the aspiring manager of extraterrestrial cultural resources. Does the US own Neil Armstrong's
famous first footprints on the Moon but not the lunar dust in which they were recorded? Surely those footprints
are as important in the story of human development as those left by hominids at Laetoli, Tanzania. But unlike
the Laetoli prints, which have survived for 3.5 million years encased in cement-like ash. those at Tranquility Base
could be swept away with a casual brush of a space tourist’s hand. To deal with problems like these, it may be
time to look to innovative international administrative structures for the preservation of historic remains on the
new frontier.

The Moon, with its wealth of sites, will surely be the first destination of archaeologists trained to work in space.
But any young scholars hoping to claim the mantle of history’s first lunar archaeologist will be disappointed.
That distinction is already taken.

On November 19. 1969. astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean made a difficult manual landing of the Apollo
12 lunar module in the Moon’s Ocean of Storms, just a few hundred feet from an unmanned probe. Surveyor J.
that had landed in a crater on April 19. 1967. Unrecognized at the time, this was an important moment in the
history of science. Bean and Conrad were about to conduct the first archaeological studies on the Moon.

After the obligatory planting of the American flag and some geological sampling, Conrad and Bean made their
way to Surveyor 3. They observed that the probe had bounced after touchdown and carefully photographed the
impressions made by its footpads. The whole spacecraft was covered in dust, perhaps kicked up by the landing.
The astronaut-archaeologists carefully removed the probes television camera, remote sampling arm. and pieces
of tubing. They bagged and labelled these artefacts, and stowed them on board their lunar module. On their
return to Earth, they passed them on to the Daveson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and the Hughes Air and
Space Corporation in bl Segundo, California. There, scientists analyzed the changes in these aerospace artefacts.

One result of the analysis astonished them. A fragment of the television camera revealed evidence of the
bacteria Streptococcus mitis. I or a moment it was thought Conrad and Bean had discovered evidence for life on
the Moon, but after further research the real explanation became apparent. While the camera was being
installed in the probe prior to the launch, someone sneezed on it. The resulting bacteria had travelled to the
Moon, remained in an alternating freezing.' boiling vacuum for more than two years, and returned promptly to
life upon reaching the safety of a laboratory back on Earth.

The finding that not even the vastness of space can stop humans from spreading a sore throat was an
unexpected spin-off. Rut the artefacts brought back by Rean and Conrad have a broader significance. Simple as
they may seem, they provide the first example of extraterrestrial archaeology and perhaps more significant for
the history of the discipline formational archaeology, the study of environmental and cultural forces upon the
life history of human artefacts in space.

Questions 1-6
Complete each sentence with the correct ending A-H from the box below.
Write the correct letter A-H in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.
1 Ben Finney's main academic work investigates the way that
2 Ben Finney thought that in the long term
3 Commercial pressures mean that in the immediate future
4 Academics are concerned by the fact that in isolated regions on Earth.
5 One problem with the 1967 UN treaty is that
6 The wording of legal agreements over ownership of land in space means that

A activities of tourists and scientists have harmed the environment.

B some sites in space could be important in the history of space exploration.
C vehicles used for tourism have polluted the environment.
D it may be unclear who has responsibility for historic human footprints.
E past explorers used technology in order to find new places to live.
F man-made objects left in space are regarded as rubbish.
G astronauts may need to work more closely with archaeologists.
H important sites on the Moon may be under threat.

Questions 7-11
Complete the flow chart below.
Choose NO MORE THAN ONE WORD from the passage for each answer.

During the assembly of the Surveyor 3 probe, someone 7______ on a TV camera.

|
The TV Camera was carried to the Moon on Surveyor 3

|
The TV Camera remained on the Moon for over 8______ years
 |
Apollo 12 astronauts 9_____ the TV camera

|
The TV camera was returned to Earth for 10 _______

|
The Streptococcus mitis bacteria were found.

|
The theory that this suggested there was 11______ on the Moon was rejected.

|
Scientists concluded that the bacteria can survive lunar conditions.

Questions 12-13
Choose TWO letters A-E
The TWO main purposes of the writer of this text are to explain
A the reasons why space archaeology is not possible.
B the dangers that could follow from contamination of objects from space.
C the need to set up careful controls over space tourism.
D the need to preserve historic sites and objects in space.
E the possible cultural effects of space travel.

Passage II

Some Facts and Theories about Flu

The flu, more properly known as influenza, takes its name from the fact that it is so easily transmitted from
person to person (influenza is the Italian word for ’influence’). Usually, contamination occurs through direct
contact with secretions from an infected person. Its spread is also possible from contaminated airborne
particles, such as those that occur when someone coughs or sneezes. However, it should be made clear that the
risk is not great from simply being in the same room as an infected person, since the flu virus, unlike other
respiratory viruses, does not dissolve in the air. Within 4-6 hours of someone catching the flu, the virus multiplies
in infected cells and the cells burst, spreading the virus to other cells nearby.

The spread continues for up to 72 hours, the exact length of time depending on the body’s immune system
response and the strength of the particular strain of flu. The range of human responses to the flu virus has been
of interest to scientists for many years. This is because the effect can vary from no infection to a rapid and deadly
spread of the virus to many people. One area of study that has received particular attention is the immune
system response of the individual. Where a person’s immune system is healthy, the virus is attacked as it enters
the body, usually in the respiratory tract. This lessens the severity of the illness. In contrast, people with
compromised immune systems (typical in the young, where it is not fully developed, or in the old and the sick,
where it is not working efficiently), often suffer the worst effects.
One of the body’s responses to flu is the creation of antibodies which recognise and destroy that particular strain
of flu virus. What fascinates most researchers in the field is that the human body seems capable of storing these
antibodies over a whole lifetime in case of future attack from the same or similar strains of flu. It was while
researching these antibodies that scientists turned their attention back to what was possibly the worst ever flu
pandemic in the world. The actual number of deaths is disputed, but the outbreak in 1918 killed between 20
and 50 million people. It is also estimated that one fifth of the population of the world may have been infected.

Through tests done on some of the survivors of the 1918 outbreak, it was discovered that, 90 years later, they
still possessed the antibodies to that strain of flu, and some of them were actually still producing the antibodies.
Work is now focused on why these people survived in the first place, with one theory being that they had actually
been exposed to an earlier, similar strain, therefore developing immunity to the 1918 strain. It is hoped that, in
the near future, we might be able to isolate the antibodies and use them to vaccinate people against further
outbreaks.

Yet vaccination against the flu is an imprecise measure. At best, the vaccine protects us from the variations of
flu that doctors expect that year. If their predictions are wrong in any particular year, being vaccinated will not
prevent us from becoming infected. This is further complicated by the fact that there are two main types of flu,
known as influenza A and influenza B. Influenza B causes less concern as its effects are usually less serious.
Influenza A, however, has the power to change its genetic make-up. Although these genetic changes are rare,
they create entirely new strains of flu against which we have no protection. It has been suggested that this is
what had happened immediately prior to the 1918 outbreak, with research indicating that a genetic shift had
taken place in China.

In 2005, another genetic shift in an influenza A virus was recorded, giving rise to the H5N1 strain, otherwise
known as avian flu, or bird flu. Typical of such new strains, we have no way of fighting it and many people who
are infected with it die. Perhaps more worrying is that it is a strain only previously found in birds but which
changed its genetic make-up in a way that allowed it to be transmitted to humans. Most of the fear surrounding
this virus is that it will change again, developing the ability to pass from human to human. If that change does
happen, scientists and doctors can reasonably expect a death rate comparable to that which occurred in 1918
and, given that we can now travel more quickly and more easily between countries, infecting many more people
than was previously possible, it could be several times worse.

Questions 1-7
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2?
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 only way to catch flu is if someone coughs or sneezes near you.
2 You become aware of the symptoms of flu within 4-6 hours of infection.
3 The effect of a flu infection can depend on how strong the strain is.
4 Those who are more likely to suffer badly with the flu include very young or very old people
5 Although antibodies last a lifetime, scientists have found they get weaker with age.
6 Vaccination is largely ineffective against flu.
7 Another change in the genetic make-up of the H5N1 strain could kill more people than the 1918 epidemic.
Questions 8-11
Classify the following statements as characterising
A - something known by scientists to be true
B - something believed by scientists to be true
C - something known by scientists to be false.
Write the correct letter, A, B or C.
8 Sharing a room with a flu sufferer presents a very high risk to your health.
9 One fifth of the people in the world caught the flu in 1918.
10 Influenza A viruses do not change their genetic make-up frequently.
11 The H5N1 strain evolved in or before 2005.

Questions 12-13
Answer the questions below. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.
12 In which part of the body do antibodies normally attack the flu virus?
13 What kind of transmission of the H5N1 strain are people afraid might become reality?

Passage III
Inside the mind of the consumer: Could brain-scanning technology provide an accurate way to assess the appeal
of new products and the effectiveness of advertising?

MARKETING people are no longer prepared to take your word for it that you favour one product over another.
They want to scan your brain to see which one you really prefer. Using the tools of neuroscientists, such as
electroencephalogram (EEG) mapping and functional magnetic-resonance imaging (fMRI), they are trying to
learn more about the mental processes behind purchasing decisions. The resulting fusion of neuroscience and
marketing is inevitably, being called 'neuromarketing’.
B

The first person to apply brain-imaging technology in this way was Gerry Zaltman of Harvard University, in the
late 1990s. The idea remained in obscurity until 2001, when BrightHouse, a marketing consultancy based in
Atlanta, Georgia, set up a dedicated neuromarketing arm, BrightHouse Neurostrategies Group. (BrightHouse
lists Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines and Home Depot among its clients.) But the company's name may itself simply be
an example of clever marketing. BrightHouse does not scan people while showing them specific products or
campaign ideas, but bases its work on the results of more general fMRI-based research into consumer
preferences and decision-making carried out at Emory University in Atlanta.

Can brain scanning really be applied to marketing? The basic principle is not that different from focus groups
and other traditional forms of market research. A volunteer lies in an fMRI machine and is shown images or
video clips. In place of an interview or questionnaire, the subject's response is evaluated by monitoring brain
activity. fMRIprovides real-time images of brain activity, in which different areas “light up” depending on the
level of blood flow. This provides clues to the subject's subconscious thought patterns. Neuroscientists know,
for example, that the sense of self is associated with an area of the brain known as the medial prefrontal cortex.
A flow of blood to that area while the subject is looking at a particular logo suggests that he or she identifies
with that brand.

At first, it seemed that only companies in Europe were prepared to admit that they used neuromarketing. Two
carmakers, DaimlerChrysler in Germany and Ford's European arm, ran pilot studies in 2003. But more recently,
American companies have become more open about their use of neuromarketing. Lieberman Research
Worldwide, a marketing firm based in Los Angeles, is collaborating with the California Institute of Technology
(Caltech) to enable movie studios to market-test film trailers. More controversially, the New York Times recently
reported that a political consultancy, FKF Research, has been studying the effectiveness of campaign
commercials using neuromarketing techniques.

Whether all this is any more than a modern-day version of phrenology, the Victorian obsession with linking
lumps and bumps in the skull to personality traits, is unclear. There have been no large-scale studies, so scans
of a handful of subjects may not be a reliable guide to consumer behaviour in general. Of course, focus groups
and surveys are flawed too: strong personalities can steer the outcomes of focus groups, and people do not
always tell opinion pollsters the truth. And even honest people cannot always explain their preferences.

That is perhaps where neuromarketing has the most potential. When asked about cola drinks, most people claim
to have a favourite brand, but cannot say why they prefer that brand’s taste. An unpublished study of attitudes
towards two well- known cola drinks. Brand A and Brand 13. carried out last year in a college of medicine in the
US found that most subjects preferred Brand B in a blind tasting fMRI scanning showed that drinking Brand B lit
up a region called the ventral putamen, which is one of the brain s ‘reward centres’, far more brightly than Brand
A. But when told which drink was which, most subjects said they preferred Brand A, which suggests that its
stronger brand outweighs the more pleasant taste of the other drink.

“People form many unconscious attitudes that are obviously beyond traditional methods that utilise
introspection,” says Steven Quartz, a neuroscientist at Caltech who is collaborating with Lieberman Research.
With over $100 billion spent each year on marketing in America alone, any firm that can more accurately analyse
how customers respond to products, brands and advertising could make a fortune.

Consumer advocates are wary. Gary Ruskin of Commercial Alert, a lobby group, thinks existing marketing
techniques are powerful enough. “Already, marketing is deeply implicated in many serious pathologies,” he says.
“That is especially true of children, who are suffering from an epidemic of marketing- related diseases, including
obesity and type-2 diabetes. Neuromarketing is a tool to amplify these trends.”

Dr Quartz counters that neuromarketing techniques could equally be used for benign purposes. “There are ways
to utilise these technologies to create more responsible advertising,” he says. Brain-scanning could, for example,
be used to determine when people are capable of making free choices, to ensure that advertising falls within
those bounds.

Another worry is that brain-scanning is an invasion of privacy and that information on the preferences of specific
individuals will be misused. But neuromarketing studies rely on small numbers of volunteer subjects, so that
seems implausible. Critics also object to the use of medical equipment for frivolous rather than medical
purposes. But as Tim Ambler, a neuromarketing researcher at the London Business School, says: ‘A tool is a tool,
and if the owner of the tool gets a decent rent for hiring it out, then that subsidises the cost of the equipment,
and everybody wins.’ Perhaps more brain-scanning will some day explain why some people like the idea of
neuromarketing, but others do not.

Questions 1-6
Reading Passage III has ten paragraphs A-J
Choose the correct heading for Paragraphs B-G from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number (i-x) in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.
List of headings
i A description of the procedure
ii An international research project
iii An experiment to investigate consumer responses
iv Marketing an alternative name
v A misleading name
vi A potentially profitable line of research
vii Medical dangers of the technique
viii Drawbacks to marketing tools
ix Broadening applications
x What is neuromarketing?

Example:
Paragraph A x

1 Paragraph B
2 Paragraph C
3 Paragraph D
4 Paragraph E
5 Paragraph F
6 Paragraph G

Questions 7-9
Look at the following people (Questions 20-22) and the list of opinions below.
Match each person with the opinion credited to him.
Write the correct letter A-F in boxes 7-9 on your answer sheet.
7 Steven Quartz
8 Gary Ruskin
9 Tim Ambler
List of opinions
A Neuromarketing could be used to contribute towards the cost of medical technology.
B Neuromarketing could use introspection as a tool in marketing research.
C Neuromarketing could be a means of treating medical problems.
D Neuromarketing could make an existing problem worse.
E Neuromarketing could lead to the misuse of medical equipment.
F Neuromarketing could be used to prevent the exploitation of consumers.

Questions 10-13
Complete the summary below using words from the passage.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet.
Neuromarketing can provide valuable information on attitudes to particular 10 _____. It may be more reliable
than surveys, where people can be 11________ or focus groups, where they may be influenced by others. It
also allows researchers to identify the subject’s 12________ thought patterns. However, some people are
concerned that it could lead to problems such as an increase in disease among 13__________ .

Passage IV
Making a change How easy is it for us to change our lives - and why?

In 1990, a young American named Christopher McCandless gave up his career plans, left behind everyone he
knew, including his family, and went off on an adventure. He was 22 at the time. In an act of kindness, he
donated all his savings to the famous charity, Oxfam International, and hitchhiked his way through America to
Alaska. His decisions were so unusual for his age that Jon Krakauer wrote a book about them called Into the
Wild, and Sean Penn directed a film that had the same title.

Of course, this is an unusual story. Most college graduates would not do quite the same thing. However,
studies do show that in teenage years, people are more likely to try out new experiences. Instead of following
the family career path, for example, and working his way up the same organisation like his grandfather did, a
15-year-old may dream about becoming a traveller - only to find in his early 20s that this fascination with new
places is declining and change is less attractive. This age-related trend can be observed in all cultures.

The reason why people all over the world become less keen to change as they get older may be because
people’s lives generally follow similar patterns and involve similar demands. Most people, wherever they are,
aim to find a job and a partner. As they get older, they may have young children to look after and possibly
elderly family members. These responsibilities cannot be achieved without some degree of consistency, which
means that new experiences and ideas may not have a place in the person’s life. New experiences may bring
excitement but also insecurity, and so most people prefer to stay with the familiar.

However, not every individual is the same. One toddler may want to play a different game every day and get
fed up if nothing changes at the nursery. Another may seek out and play with the same children and toys on
every visit. Young children who avoid new experiences will grow up to be more conventional than others.
Psychologists argue that those who have more open personalities as children are more open than others might
be when they are older. They also suggest that young men have a greater interest in novelty than women,
although, as they age, this desire for new experiences fades more quickly than it does in women.
The truth is that, as we get older, we prefer the things we know. We tend to order the same meals in
restaurants, sit on the same side of the train when we commute to work, go on holiday to the same places and
construct our day in the same way. If you are older than 20, remember that your openness to new experiences
is slowly declining.

So you are better off making a new start today than postponing it until later.
Questions 1-6
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in the reading passage?
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
1 Teenagers are more ready to have new experiences than young adults.
2 Grandparents usually encourage their grandchildren to get a well-paid job.
3 Life demands are different depending on which country you live in.
4 Some toddlers find repetitive activities boring.
5 Children who dislike new experiences become more adventurous than others as adults.
6 If you want to change something in your life, you should avoid delay.

Passage V

The New Way to be a Fifth-Grader

I peer over his shoulder at his laptop screen to see the math problem the fifth-grader is pondering. It's a
trigonometry problem. Carpenter, a serious-faced ten-year-old, pauses for a second, fidgets, then clicks on ”0
degrees." The computer tells him that he's correct. "It took a while for me to work it out," he admits
sheepishly. The software then generates another problem, followed by another, until eventually he's done ten
in a row.

Last November, his teacher, Kami Thordarson, began using Khan Academy in her class. It is an educational
website on which students can watch some 2,400 videos. The videos are anything but sophisticated. At seven
to 14 minutes long, they consist of a voiceover by the site's founder, Salman Khan, chattily describing a
mathematical concept or explaining how to solve a problem, while his hand-scribbled formulas and diagrams
appear on-screen. As a student, you can review a video as many times as you want, scrolling back several
times over puzzling parts and fast-forwarding through the boring bits you already know. Once you've mastered
a video, you can move on to the next one.

Initially, Thordarson thought Khan Academy would merely be a helpful supplement to her normal instruction.
But it quickly became far more than that. She is now on her way to "flipping" the way her class works. This
involves replacing some of her lectures with Khan's videos, which students can watch at home. Then in class,
they focus on working on the problem areas together. The idea is to invert the normal rhythms of school, so
that lectures are viewed in the children's own time and homework is done at school. It sounds weird,
Thordarson admits, but this reversal makes sense when you think about it. It is when they are doing
homework that students are really grappling with a subject and are most likely to want someone to talk to.
And Khan Academy provides teachers with a dashboard application that lets them see the instant a student
gets stuck.
For years, teachers like Thordarson have complained about the frustrations of teaching to the "middle" of the
class. They stand at the whiteboard trying to get 25 or more students to learn at the same pace. Advanced
students get bored and tune out, lagging ones get lost and tune out, and pretty soon half the class is not
paying attention. Since the rise of personal computers in the 1980s, educators have hoped that technology
could save the day by offering lessons tailored to each child. Schools have spent millions of dollars on
sophisticated classroom technology, but the effort has been in vain. The one-to-one instruction it requires is,
after all, prohibitively expensive. What country can afford such a luxury?

Khan never intended to overhaul the school curricula and he doesn't have a consistent, comprehensive plan
for doing so. Nevertheless, some of his fans believe that he has stumbled onto the solution to education's
middle-of-the-class mediocrity. Most notable among them is Bill Gates, whose foundation has invested $1.5
million in Khan's site. Students have pointed out that Khan is particularly good at explaining all the hidden,
small steps in math problems—steps that teachers often gloss over. He has an uncanny ability to inhabit the
mind of someone who doesn't already understand something.

However, not all educators are enamoured with Khan and his site. Gary Stager, a longtime educational
consultant and advocate of laptops in classrooms,, thinks Khan Academy is not innovative at all. The videos
and software modules, he contends, are just a high-tech version of the outdated teaching techniques—
lecturing and drilling. Schools have become "joyless test-prep factories," he says, and Khan Academy caters to
this dismal trend.

As Sylvia Martinez, president of an organization focusing on technology in the classroom, puts it, "The things
they're doing are really just rote." Flipping the classroom isn't an entirely new idea, Martinez says, and she
doubts that it would work for the majority of pupils: "I'm sorry, but if they can't understand the lecture in a
classroom, they're not going to grasp it better when it's done through a video at home."

Another limitation of Khan's site is that the drilling software can only handle questions where the answers are
unambiguously right or wrong, like math or chemistry; Khan has relatively few videos on messier, grey-area
subjects like history. Khan and Gates admit there is no easy way to automate the teaching of writing—even
though it is just as critical as math.

Even if Khan is truly liberating students to advance at their own pace, it is not clear that schools will be able to
cope. The very concept of grade levels implies groups of students moving along together at an even pace. So
what happens when, using Khan Academy, you wind up with a ten-year- old who has already mastered high-
school physics? Khan's programmer, Ben Kamens, has heard from teachers who have seen Khan Academy
presentations and loved the idea but wondered whether they could modify it "to stop students from becoming
this advanced."

Khan's success has injected him into the heated wars over school reform. Reformers today, by and large,
believe student success should be carefully tested, with teachers and principals receiving better pay if their
students advance more quickly. In essence, Khan doesn't want to change the way institutions teach; he wants
to change how people learn, whether they're in a private school or a public school—or for that matter,
whether they're a student or an adult trying to self-educate in Ohio, Brazil, Russia, or India. One member of
Khan's staff is spearheading a drive to translate the videos into ten major languages. It's classic start-up logic:
do something novel, do it with speed, and the people who love it will find you.

Questions 1-5
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
1 What do you learn about the student in the first paragraph?
A He has not used the maths software before.
B He did not expect his answer to the problem to be correct.
C He was not initially doing the right maths problem.
D He did not immediately know how to solve the maths problem.

2 What does the writer say about the content of the Khan Academy videos?
A They have been produced in a professional manner.
B They include a mix of verbal and visual features.
C Some of the maths problems are too easy.
D Some of the explanations are too brief.

3 What does this reversal refer to?

A going back to spending fewer hours in school
B students being asked to explain answers to teachers
C swapping the activities done in the class and at home
D the sudden improvement in students’ maths performance

4 What does the writer say about teaching to the ‘middle’ of the class?
A Teachers become too concerned about weaker students.
B Technology has not until now provided a solution to the problem.
C Educators have been unwilling to deal with the issues.
D Students in this category quickly become bored.

5 Students praise Khan’s videos because they

A show the extent of his mathematical knowledge.
B deal with a huge range of maths problems.
C provide teaching at different ability levels.
D cover details that are often omitted in class.

Questions 6-10
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in the reading passage?
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
6 Thordarson's first impressions of how she would use Khan Academy turned out to be wrong.
7 Khan wished to completely change the way courses are taught in schools.
8 School grade levels are based on the idea of students progressing at different rates.
9 Some principals have invited Khan into their schools to address students.
10 Khan has given advice to other people involved in start-up projects.

Questions 11-14
Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-G, below.
11 Bill Gates thinks Khan Academy
12 According to Gary Stager. Khan Academy
13 Sylvia Martinez regrets that Khan Academy
14 Ben Kamens has been told that Khan Academy

A is only suited to subjects where questions have exact answers.

B can teach both the strongest and the weakest pupils in a class.
C means the teaching of other school subjects will have to be changed.
D only prepares students to pass exams.
E could cause student achievement to improve too quickly.
F requires all students to own the necessary technology.
G is unlikely to have a successful outcome for most students.

Passage VI

The History of Early Cinema

The history of the cinema in its first thirty years is one of major and, to this day, unparalleled expansion and
growth. Beginning as something unusual in a handful of big cities - New York, London, Paris and Berlin - the
new medium quickly found its way across the world, attracting larger and larger audiences wherever it was
shown and replacing other forms of entertainment as it did so. As audiences grew, so did the places where
films were shown, finishing up with the ‘great picture palaces’ of the 1920s, which rivalled, and occasionally
superseded, theatres and opera-houses in terms of opulence and splendour. Meanwhile, films themselves
developed from being short ‘attractions’ only a couple of minutes long, to the full-length feature that has
dominated the world's screens up to the present day.

Although French, German, American and British pioneers have all been credited with the invention of cinema,
the British and the Germans played a relatively small role in its worldwide exploitation, It was above all the
French, followed closely by the Americans, who were the most passionate exporters of the new invention,
helping to start cinema in China, Japan, Latin America and Russia. In terms of artistic development it was again
the French and the Americans who took the lead, though in the years before the First World War, Italy,
Denmark and Russia also played a part.

In the end, it was the United States that was to become, and remain, the largest single market for films. By
protecting their own market and pursuing a vigorous export policy, the Americans achieved a dominant
position on the world market by the start of the First World War. The centre of film-making had moved
westwards, to Hollywood, and it was films from these new Hollywood studios that flooded onto the world's
film markets in the years after the First World War, and have done so ever since. Faced with total Hollywood
domination, few film industries proved competitive. The Italian industry, which had pioneered the feature film
with spectacular films likeQuo vadis? (1913) and Cabiria (1914), almost collapsed. In Scandinavia, the Swedish
cinema had a brief period of glory, notably with powerful epic films and comedies. Even the French cinema
found itself in a difficult position. In Europe, only Germany proved industrially capable, while in the new Soviet
Union and in Japan the development of the cinema took place in conditions of commercial isolation.

Hollywood took the lead artistically as well as industrially. Hollywood films appealed because they had better-
constructed narratives, their special effects were more impressive, and the star system added a new
dimension to screen acting. If Hollywood did not have enough of its own resources, it had a great deal of
money to buy up artists and technical innovations from Europe to ensure its continued dominance over
present or future competition.

The zest of the world survived partly by learning from Hollywood and partly because audiences continued to
exist for a product which corresponded to needs which Hollywood could not supply. As well as popular
audiences, there were also increasing audiences for films which were artistically more adventurous or which
dealt with the issues in the outer world.

None of this would have happened without technology, and cinema is in fact unique as an art form. In the
early years, this art farm was quite primitive, similar to the original French idea of using a lantern and slides
back in the seventeenth century. Early cinema programmes were a mixture of items, combining comic
sketches, free-standing narratives, serial episodes and the occasional trick or animated film. With the arrival of
the feature length narrative as the main attraction, other types of films became less important. The making of
cartoons became a separate branch of film-making, generally practised outside the major studios, and the
same was true of serials. Together with newsreels, they tended to be shown as short items in a programme
which led to the feature.

From early cinema, it was only Americana slapstick comedy that successfully developed in both short and
feature format. However, during this 'Silent Film' era, animation, comedy, serials and dramatic features
continued to thrive, along with factual films or documentaries, which acquired an increasing distinctiveness as
the period progressed. It was also at this time that the avant-garde film first achieved commercial success, this
time thanks almost exclusively to the French and the occasional German film.

Of the countries which developed and maintained distinctive national cinemas in the silent period, the most
important were France, Germany and the Soviet Union. Of these, the French displayed the most continuity, in
spite of the war and post-war economic uncertainties. The German cinema, relatively insignificant in the pre-
war years, exploded on to the world scene after 1919. Yet even they were both overshadowed by the Soviets
after the 1917 Revolution. They turned their back on the past, leaving the style of the pre-war Russian cinema
to the emigres who fled westwards to escape the Revolution.

The other countries whose cinemas changed dramatically are: Britain, which had an interesting but
undistinguished history in the silent period; Italy, which had a brief moment of international fame just before
the war; the Scandinavian countries, particularly Denmark, which played a role in the development of silent
cinema quite out of proportion to their small population; and Japan, where a cinema developed based
primarily on traditional theatrical and, to a lesser extent, other art forms and only gradually adapted to
western influence.

Questions 1-3
Which THREE possible reasons for American dominance of the film industry are given in the text?
A plenty of capital to purchase what it didn't have
B making films dealing with serious issues
C being first to produce a feature film
D well-written narratives
E the effect of the First World War
F excellent special effects.
Questions 4-6
Answer the questions below using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 4-6 on your answer sheet.

4 Which TWO types of film were not generally made in major studios?
5 Which type of film did America develop in both short and feature films?
6 Which type of film started to become profitable in the 'silent' period?

Questions 7-13
Look at the following statements (Questions 7-13) and the list of countries below.

Match each statement with the correct country.

Write the correct letter A-J in boxes 7-13 an your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

7 It helped other countries develop their own film industry.

8 It was the biggest producer of films.

9 It was first to develop the 'feature' film.

10 It was responsible for creating stars.

11 It made the most money from 'avant-garde' films.

12 It made movies based more on its own culture than outside influences.

13 It had a great influence on silent movies, despite its size.

List of Countries

A France F Japan

B Germany G Soviet Union

C USA H Italy

D Denmark I Britain

E Sweden J China
ANSWER SHEET
Passage I Passage II
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7
8 8
9 9
10 10
11 11
12 12
13 13

Passage III Passage IV

1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7
8 Passage V
9 1
10 2
11 3
12 4
13 5
6
Passage VI 7
1 8
2 9
3 10
4 11
5 12
6 13
7 14
8
9
10
11
12
13