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PASSAGE 1
Hidden history: the beetle's secret cycle of life
The deathwatch beetle is thought of as the devil's pest in churches
and old houses, but in natural habitats it infests a wide range of
decaying hardwoods. It has been found in hornbeam, sweet chestnut,
hawthorn, beech, ash, blackpoplar, elm,larch, spruce and yew; but
the two most commonly infested species in Britain are oak and
willow. In buildings, oak timbers are usually the focus of attack by
the beetle, but alder, walnut, elm, larch and Scots pine can be
affected too. Deathwatch beetles attack wood that has been decayed
by fungi, so it is the damp_prone of timbers, at the ends and near
leaking gutters and enclosed spaces, that are normally attacked
first.;
Adult beetles emerge from holes in the timber in spring, or
occasionally in autumn. They
breed once and a week or two later the females lay eggs, usually
about fifty, in small cracks on the
surface of the wood. Adults depend on stored reserves; they do not
feed, so the adult lifespan is
largely determined by body size and metabolic demands. Emergent
females rarely live for more
than ten weeks, and males eight or nine weeks, at a temperature of
about 20℃.
The eggs hatch after two to five weeks and the larvae then wander
across the wood to find
suitable entry points through which to bore into the timber. Then
they take between two and ten
years to complete their development. The larvae pupate in late
summer to early autumn, each
individual having constructed a pupal cell just below the surface of
the wood. After two or three
weeks, the immature beetle emerges from the pupal skin, but then
remains torpid inside the
chamber until the following spring or early summer. The mature
beetle then cuts a perfectly round
hole, three to five millimetres in diameter, and emerges covered in
a fine layer of wood powder.
Questions 1-4
1.What is the subject of the passage as a whole?
2.Which paragraph contains information about the larvae?
3 Which paragraph contains information about the adult beetles?
4.Which paragraph contains information about where the beetles live?
Summary
The deathwatch beetle is found most often in...5...and ...6...They
infest damp-prone timber which
has been affected...7...Adults do not feed, so they survive
on...8...and live for only two or three
months. The larvae, on the other hand, live for up to...9...feeding
on the timbers during that time.
They pupate in...10...but the adult does not emerge until the
following spring.
KEY:
1. We know it is about a beetle; its life cycle; 'hidden' implies
that the life cycle occurs inside
something; 'history' may refer to the life cycle or to the
development of the species over time.
2. paragraph 3
3. paragraph 2
4. paragraph 1
PASSAGE 2
How the brain reorganizes itself
Paragraph 1
The work that Tim Pons and his colleagues published last week is
basic research
into the portion of the brain, the cortex, that one scientists says
is 'respons
ible for all the interesting things we do.' The cortex is a layer
between two a
nd five millimetres thick that covers the brain and each area of the
cortex has
a different function. The area Pons and his colleagues are
interested in receive
s 'somatic' sensation, in other words, information about touch,
position, heat
, cold and pain. The somatic sensory cortex can be represented as a
topographic
map, sub_divided into specific regions that receive nerve signals
from specific
areas of the body.
Paragraph 2
About twelve years before Pons and his colleagues carried out their
experiments,
the Macaque monkeys being studies had the nerves cut which carried
signals from
the fingers, palm, upper limb, neck and the back of the head. The
regions borde
ring this part of the somatic sensory cortex receive signals from
the face and t
runk.1
Paragraph 3
Under anaesthetic, Pons and his colleagues inserted electrodes into
the region o
f the cortex where the nerves had been cut and recorded the neuronal
2 response
. They found to their surprise that the whole region, covering an
area of betwee
n tend and fourteen square millimetres, now responded to stimulation
of the lowe
r face. Previously, scientists had thought that the cortex of adult
animals coul
d not reorganize itself over an area greater than one or two
millimetres.
1 trunk-the main part of the body
2 neuronal-areas of news
List of headings
A Macaque monkeys B Method of research
C Electrical stimulation D The effects of heat
E Cortex reorganization F The area of research
Questions 11-13
The diagram above represents the reading passage How the brain
reorganizes itself. Match one of the headings below to the subject
of each of the paragraphs in the reading passage. Write the
corresponding letter in the appropriate space on your answer sheet.
Note there are more headings than paragraphs so you will not use all
of them.
KEY:
11.F
12.B
13.E
PASSAGE 3
Social and cultural impacts of tourism in Cyprus
In Cyprus, hospitality forms an integral part of the culture,
and the people have a welcoming
attitude towards foreigners. Furthermore, the society's culture
emphasizes ideologies and value
systems which attach great importance to individual achievement. As
the tourist policy followed
by the Cyprus Government and the tourists come mainly from Europe,
tourism has not had as
marked an adverse effect on the values and attitudes of Cypriot
society as may otherwise have
been the case. In certain areas, such as Ayia Napa, however, the
influx of large numbers of tourists
has influenced social behaviour and social values, and caused a
certain amount of antagonism.
Bryden suggests that:
there may be a relationship between tourism density, expressed
in the annua
l numbers of tourists as a proportion of the population...and the
growth of rese
ntment towards tourists....The inference here is that tourism
density is an indi
cator of the degree of confrontation between tourists and indigenes
and that thi
s confrontation gives rise to the resentment of tourists.
Table 1 Contact ratio values, 1985
The concept of 'tourism density' is thus used as a measure
of 'social carry
ing capacity' which Mathieson and Wall define as 'host peoples'
levels of tol
erance for the presence and behaviour of tourists. An alternative
measure used by
Andronikou is the 'contact ratio', which is the inverse of tourism
density,
that is the ratio of the local population to tourist population.
Now, whereas An
dronikou suggests that the minimum value that the contact ratio can
fall to befo
re the social impact resulting from tourist development becomes
detrimental is a
bout eight, most authors now do not believe that a single specific
value can be
given for social carrying capacity. Mathieson and Wall point out
that:
Carrying capacity remains an elusive concept, but the time
when researchers
and managers sought one mythical magic number, which could be
approached with
safety but exceeded at peril, has passed.
Nevertheless, inspection of table 1 does suggest that it is
highly likely that
the social carrying Capacity in Ayia Napa has been overreached. The
extreme conce
ntration of tourists here has resulted in a modification of social
attitudes amon
g young people, especially towards sexual behaviour. This is part of
the 'demon
stration effect' which introduces foreign ideologies and ways of
life into soci
eties that have not been exposed to tourist lifestyles. The close
and continued
contact of Cypriot youth with young foreign tourists has resulted
in them adopting different sets of
values on morality, style of dressing, and so on, in comparison with
prevailing traditional attitudes,
and as a result the bonds of closely knit families are in some cases
being loosened.
Questions 16-18
Reading the following statements and say how they reflect the
information in thereading passage,
by writing.
T if it is true according to the passage.
F if it is false according to the passage, and NCG if the
information is not clearly given in the passage.
Write your answers in boxes 16-18 on your answer sheet.
Example Answer
Cypriots are welcoming T
16 Individual achievement is more important than hospitality.
17.Tourits come mainly from the UK.
18.Cypriot society has not been adversely affected by tourism.
KEY:
16.NCG
17.NCG
18.F
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