Tổng hợp topic Health & Medicine IELTS READING (PDF)(Phần 2)

EFFECTS of Noise

In general, it is plausible to suppose that we should prefer peace and quiet to noise. And yet most of us have had the experience of having to adjust to sleeping in the mountains or the countryside because it was initially too quiet. Van experience that suggests that humans are capable of adapting to a wide range of noise levels. Research supports this view. For example, Glass and Singer (1972) exposed people to short bursts of very loud noise and then measured their ability to work out problems and their physiological reactions to the noise. The noise was quite disruptive at first, but after about four minutes the subjects were doing just as well on their tasks as control subjects who were not exposed to noise. Their physiological arousal also declined quickly to the same levels as those of the control subjects.

But there are limits to adaptation and loud noise becomes more troublesome if the person is required to concentrate on more than one task. For example, high noise levels interfered with the performance of subjects who were required to monitor three dials at a time, a task not unlike that of an aeroplane pilot or an air-traffic controller (Broadbent, 1957). Similarly, noise did not affect a subject's ability to track a moving line with a steering wheel, but it did interfere with the subject's ability to repeat numbers while tracking (Finke man and Glass 1970).

Probably the most significant finding from research on noise is that its predictability is more important than how loud it is. We are much more able to 'tune out' chronic, background noise, even if it is quite loud than to work under circumstances with unexpected intrusions of noise. In the Glass and Singer study, in which subjects were exposed to bursts of noise as they worked on a task, some subjects heard loud bursts and others heard soft bursts. For some subjects, the bursts were spaced exactly one minute apart (predictable noise); others heard the same amount of noise overall, but the bursts occurred at random intervals (unpredictable noise).

Subjects reported finding the predictable and unpredictable noise equally annoying, and all subjects performed at about the same level during the noise portion of the experiment- But the different noise conditions had quite different after-effects when the subjects were required to proofread written material under conditions of no noise. As shown in Table 1 the unpredictable noise produced more errors in the later proofreading task than predictable noise; and soft, unpredictable noise actually produced slightly more errors on this task than the loud, predictable noise.

Apparently, unpredictable noise produces more fatigue than predictable noise, but it takes a while for this fatigue to take its toll on performance.

Predictability is not the only variable that reduces or eliminates the negative effects of noise. Another is "control". If the individual knows that he or she can control the noise, this seems to eliminate both its negative effects at the time and its after-effects. This is true even if the individual never actually exercises his or her option to turn the noise off (Glass and- Singer, 1972). Just the knowledge that one has control is sufficient.
The studies discussed so far exposed people to noise for only short periods and only transient effects were studied. But the major worry about noisy environments is that living day after day with chronic noise may produce serious, lasting effects. One study, suggesting that this worry is a realistic one, compared elementary school pupils who attended schools - near Los Angeles's busiest airport with students who attended schools in quiet neighborhoods (Cohen et al., 1980). It was found that children from the noisy schools -had higher blood pressure and were more easily distracted than those who attended the quiet schools. Moreover, there was no evidence of adaptability to the noise. In fact, the longer the children had attended the noisy schools, the more distractible they became. The effects also seem to be long-lasting. A follow-up study showed that children who were moved to less noisy classrooms still showed greater distractibility one year later than students who had always been in the quiet schools (Cohen et al, 1981). It should be noted that the two groups of children had been carefully matched by the investigators so that they were comparable in age, ethnicity, race, and social class.

Questions 27-29
Choose the correct letter, A, B. C or D. Write the correct letter in boxes 27-29 on your answer sheet.

27. The writer suggests that people may have difficulty sleeping in the mountains because

      A.    humans do not prefer peace and quiet to noise.
      B.    they may be exposed to short bursts of very strange sounds.
      C.    humans prefer to hear a certain amount of noise while they sleep.
      D.    they may have adapted to a higher noise level in the city.

28.    In noise experiments, Glass and Singer found that
      A.    problem-solving is much easier under quiet conditions.
      B.    physiological arousal prevents the ability to work.
      C.    bursts of noise do not seriously disrupt problem-solving in the long term.

      D.    the physiological arousal of control subjects declined quickly.

29.    Researchers discovered that high noise levels are not likely to interfere with the
      A.    successful performance of a single task.
      B.    tasks of pilots or air traffic controllers.
      C.    ability to repeal numbers while tracking moving lines.
      D.    ability to monitor three dials at once.
Questions 30-34
Complete the summary using the list of words and phrases, A-J below. Write the correct letter  A-J in boxes 30-34 on your answer sheet.

NB  You may use any letter more than once.

Glass and Singer (1972) showed that situations in which there is intense noise have less effect on performance than circumstances in which 30 ............................. noise occurs. Subjects were divided into groups to perform a task. Some heard loud bursts of noise, others sort. For some subjects, the noise was predictable, while for others its occurrence was random. All groups were exposed to 31 ......................... noise. The predictable noise group 32 ......................... the unpredictable noise group on this task. In the second part of the experiment, the four groups were given a proofreading task to complete under conditions of no noise. They were required to check written material for errors. The group which had been exposed to unpredictable noise 33 .................. the group which had been exposed to predictable noise. The group which had been exposed to loud predictable noise performed better than those who" had heard soft, unpredictable bursts. The results suggest that 34 .............................. noise produces fatigue but that this manifests itself later.

A.  no control over
B.  unexpected
C.  intense
D.  the same amount of
E.  performed better than
F.  performed at about the same level as
G.  no
H.  showed more irritation than
I.  made more mistakes than
J.  different types of
Questions 35-40
Look at the following statements (Questions 35-40) and the lust of researchers below. Match each statement with the correct researcher(s), A-E. Write the correct letter A-E, in boxes 35-40 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

35. Subjects exposed to noise find it difficult at first to concentrate on problem-solving tasks.
36. Long-term exposure to noise can produce changes in behavior which can still be observed a year later.
37. The problems associated with exposure to noise do not arise if the subject knows they can make it stop.
38. Exposure to high-pitched noise results in more errors than exposure to low-pitched noise
39. Subjects find it difficult to perform three tasks at the same time when exposed to noise
40. Noise affects a subject's capacity to repeat numbers while carrying out another task.
List of Researchers

A. Glass and Singer
B. Broadbent
C. Finke man and Glass
D. Cohen et al.
E. None of the above

Telepathy

Can human beings communicate by thought alone? For more than a century the issue of telepathy has divided the scientific community, and even today it still sparks bitter controversy among top academics.

Since the 1970s, parapsychologists at leading universities and research institutes around the world have risked the derision of sceptical colleagues by putting the various claims for telepathy to the test in dozens of rigorous scientific studies. The results and their implications are dividing even the researchers who uncovered them.

Some researchers say the results constitute compelling evidence that telepathy is genuine. Other parapsychologists believe the field is on the brink of collapse, having tried to produce definitive scientific proof and failed. Sceptics and advocates alike do concur on one issue, however, that the most impressive evidence so far has come from the so-called 'ganzfeld' experiments, a German term that means 'whole field'. Reports of telepathic experiences had by people during meditation led parapsychologists to suspect that telepathy might involve 'signals' passing between people that were so faint that they were usually swamped by normal brain activity. In this case, such signals might be more easily detected by those experiencing meditation-like tranquillity in a relaxing 'whole field' of light, sound and warmth.

The ganzfeld experiment tries to recreate these conditions with participants sitting in soft reclining chairs in a sealed room, listening to relaxing sounds while their eyes are covered with special filters letting in only soft pink light. In early ganzfeld experiments, the telepathy test involved identification of a picture chosen from a random selection of four taken from a large image bank. The idea was that a person acting as a 'sender' would attempt to beam the image over to the 'receiver' relaxing in the sealed room. Once the session was over, this person was asked to identify which of the four images had been used. Random guessing would give a hit-rate of 25 per cent; if telepathy is real, however, the hit-rate would be higher. In 1982, the results from the first ganzfeld studies were analysed by one of its pioneers, the American parapsychologist Charles Honorton. They pointed to typical hit-rates of better than 30 per cent — a small effect, but one which statistical tests suggested could not be put down to chance.

The implication was that the ganzfeld method had revealed real evidence for telepathy. But there was a crucial flaw in this argument — one routinely overlooked in more conventional areas of science. Just because chance had been ruled out as an explanation did not prove telepathy must exist; there were many other ways of getting positive results. These ranged from 'sensory leakage' — where clues about the pictures accidentally reach the receiver — to outright fraud. In response, the researchers issued a review of all the ganzfeld studies done up to 1985 to show that 80 per cent had found statistically significant evidence. However, they also agreed that there were still too many problems in the experiments which could lead to positive results, and they drew up a list demanding new standards for future research.

After this, many researchers switched to autoganzfeld tests — an automated variant of the technique which used computers to perform many of the key tasks such as the random selection of images. By minimising human involvement, the idea was to minimise the risk of flawed results. In 1987, results from hundreds of autoganzfeld tests were studied by Honorton in a 'meta-analysis', a statistical technique for finding the overall results from a set of studies. Though less compelling than before, the outcome was still impressive.

Yet some parapsychologists remain disturbed by the lack of consistency between individual ganzfeld studies. Defenders of telepathy point out that demanding impressive evidence from every study ignores one basic statistical fact: it takes large samples to detect small effects. If, as current results suggest, telepathy produces hit-rates only marginally above the 25 per cent expected by chance, it's unlikely to be detected by a typical ganzfeld study involving around 40 people: the group is just not big enough. Only when many studies are combined in a meta-analysis will the faint signal of telepathy really become apparent. And that is what researchers do seem to be finding.

What they are certainly not finding, however, is any change in attitude of mainstream scientists: most still totally reject the very idea of telepathy. The problem stems at least in part from the lack of any plausible mechanism for telepathy.

Various theories have been put forward, many focusing on esoteric ideas from theoretical physics. They include 'quantum entanglement', in which events affecting one group of atoms instantly affect another group, no matter how far apart they may be. While physicists have demonstrated entanglement with specially prepared atoms, no-one knows if it also exists between atoms making up human minds. Answering such questions would transform parapsychology. This has prompted some researchers to argue that the future lies not in collecting more evidence for telepathy, but in probing possible mechanisms. Some work has begun already, with researchers trying to identify people who are particularly successful in autoganzfeld trials. Early results show that creative and artistic people do much better than average: in one study at the University of Edinburgh, musicians achieved a hit-rate of 56 per cent. Perhaps more tests like these will eventually give the researchers the evidence they are seeking and strengthen the case for the existence of telepathy.

Questions 27-30
Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A —G, below. Write the correct letter, A—G, in boxes 27-30 on your answer sheet.
27. Researchers with differing attitudes towards telepathy agree on
28. Reports of experiences during meditation indicated
29. Attitudes to parapsychology would alter drastically with
30. Recent autoganzfeld trials suggest that success rates will improve with

A. the discovery of a mechanism for telepathy.
B. the need to create a suitable environment for telepathy.
C. their claims of a high success rate.
D. a solution to the problem posed by random guessing.
E. the significance of the ganzfeld experiments.
F. a more careful selection of subjects.
G. a need to keep altering conditions.

Questions 31-40
Complete the table below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 31-40 on your answer sheet.

Questions 27-32
Reading Passage 3 has six paragraphs, A—F. Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below. Write the correct number, i—viii, in boxes 27-32 on your answer sheet.

List of Headings

i. The difficulties of talking about smells
ii. The role of smell in personal relationships
iii. Future studies into smell
iv. The relationship between the brain and the nose
v. The interpretation of smells as a factor in defining groups
vi. Why our sense of smell is not appreciated
vii. Smell is our superior sense
viii. The relationship between smell and feelings
27. Paragraph A
28. Paragraph B
29. Paragraph C
30. Paragraph D
31. Paragraph E
32. Paragraph F

The meaning and power of smell

The sense of smell, or olfaction, is powerful. Odours affect us on a physical, psychological and social level. For the most part, however, we breathe in the aromas which surround us without being consciously aware of their importance to us. It is only when the faculty of smell is impaired for some reason that we begin to realise the essential role the sense of smell plays in our sense of well-being.

A. A survey conducted by Anthony Synott at Montreal's Concordia University asked participants to comment on how important smell was to them in their lives. It became apparent that smell can evoke strong emotional responses. A scent associated with a good experience can bring a rush of joy, while a foul odour or one associated with a bad memory may make us grimace with disgust. Respondents to the survey noted that many of their olfactory likes and dislikes were based on emotional associations. Such associations can be powerful enough so that odours that we would generally label unpleasant become agreeable, and those that we would generally consider fragrant become disagreeable for particular individuals. The perception of smell, therefore, consists not only of the sensation of the odours themselves, but of the experiences and emotions associated with them.

B. Odours are also essential cues in social bonding. One respondent to the survey believed that there is no true emotional bonding without touching and smelling a loved one. In fact, infants recognise the odours of their mothers soon after birth and adults can often identify their children or spouses by scent. In one well-known test, women and men were able to distinguish by smell alone clothing worn by their marriage partners from similar clothing worn by other people. Most of the subjects would probably never have given much thought to odour as a cue for identifying family members before being involved in the test, but as the experiment revealed, even when not consciously considered, smells register.

C. In spite of its importance to our emotional and sensory lives, smell is probably the most undervalued sense in many cultures. The reason often given for the low regard in which smell is held is that, in comparison with its importance among animals, the human sense of smell is feeble and undeveloped. While it is true that the olfactory powers of humans are nothing like as fine as those possessed by certain animals, they are still remarkably acute. Our noses are able to recognise thousands of smells, and to perceive odours which are present only in extremely small quantities.

D. Smell, however, is a highly elusive phenomenon. Odours, unlike colours, for instance, cannot be named in many languages because the specific vocabulary simply doesn't exist. 'It smells like ... ,' we have to say when describing an odour, struggling to express our olfactory experience. Nor can odours be recorded: there is no effective way to either capture or store them over time In the realm of olfaction, we must make do with descriptions and recollections. This has implications for olfactory research.

E. Most of the research on smell undertaken to date has been of a physical scientific nature. Significant advances have been made in the understanding of the biological and chemical nature of olfaction, but many fundamental questions have yet to be answered. Researchers have still to decide whether smell is one sense or two - one responding to odours proper and the other registering odourless chemicals in the air. Other unanswered questions are whether the nose is the only part of the body affected by odours, and how smells can be measured objectively given the nonphysical components. Questions like these mean that interest in the psychology of smell is inevitably set to play an increasingly important role for researchers.

F. However, smell is not simply a biological and psychological phenomenon. Smell is cultural, hence it is a social and historical phenomenon. Odours are invested with cultural values: smells that are considered to be offensive in some cultures may be perfectly acceptable in others. Therefore, our sense of smell is a means of, and model for, interacting with the world. Different smells can provide us with intimate and emotionally charged experiences and the value that we attach to these experiences is interiorised by the members of society in a deeply personal way. Importantly, our commonly held feelings about smells can help distinguish us from other cultures. The study of the cultural history of smell is, therefore, in a very real sense, an investigation into the essence of human culture.

Questions 33-36
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D. Write the correct letter in boxes 33-36 on your answer sheet.

33. According to the introduction, we become aware of the importance of smell when
A. we discover a new smell.
B. we experience a powerful smell.
C. our ability to smell is damaged.
D. we are surrounded by odours.

34. The experiment described in paragraph B
A. shows how we make use of smell without realising it.
B. demonstrates that family members have a similar smell.
C. proves that a sense of smell is learnt.
D. compares the sense of smell in males and females.

35. What is the writer doing in paragraph C?
A. supporting other research
B. making a proposal
C. rejecting a common belief
D. describing limitations

36. What does the writer suggest about the study of smell in the atmosphere in paragraph E?
A. The measurement of smell is becoming more accurate.
B. Researchers believe smell is a purely physical reaction.
C. Most smells are inoffensive.
D. Smell is yet to be defined.

Questions 37-40
Complete the sentences below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet.

37. Tests have shown that odours can help people recognise the .......... belonging to their husbands and wives.
38. Certain linguistic groups may have difficulty describing smell because they lack the appropriate ............
39. The sense of smell may involve response to ........... which do not smell, in addition to obvious odours.
40. Odours regarded as unpleasant in certain ............. are not regarded as unpleasant in others.

Questions 28-33
The text on following pages has eight sections, A-H. Choose the correct heading for sections C-H from the list of headings below. Section A and Section B have been done for you. Write the correct number, i-xi, in boxes 28-33 on your answer sheet.

List of Headings
i. Where to buy the best Echinacea
ii. What 'snake oil' contained
iii. Growing Echinacea
iv. How to use the Echinacea plant
v. Earlier applications of Echinacea
vi. The origins of the term 'snake oil'
vii. Early research into the effectiveness of Echinacea
viii. How 'snake oil' was first invented
ix. The use of Echinacea in new locations
x. Modern evidence of the effectiveness of Echinacea
xi. Early kinds of 'snake oil'

Examples

Section A vi
Section B xi

28. Section C
29. Section D
30. Section E
31. Section F
32. Section G
33. Section H

Snake Oil

A. Back in the days of America's Wild West, when cowboys roamed the range and people were getting themselves caught up in gunfights, a new phrase - 'snake oil' – entered the language. It was a dismissive term for the patent medicines, often useless, sold by travelling traders who always claimed miraculous cures for everything from baldness to snakebite.

Selling 'snake oil' was almost as risky a business as cattle stealing; you might be run out of town if your particular medicine, as you realised it would, failed to live up to its claims. Consequently, the smarter - 'snake oil' sellers left town before their customers had much chance to evaluate the 'cure' they had just bought.

B. The remarkable thing about many of the medicines dismissed then as 'snake oil' is not so much that they failed to live up to the outrageous claims made for them - those that weren't harmless coloured water could be positively dangerous. What's remarkable is that so many of the claims made for some of these remedies, or at least their ingredients, most of them, plant based, have since been found to have at least some basis in fact.

One, Echinacea, eventually turned out to be far more potent than even its original promoter claimed. Echinacea first appeared in 'Meyer's Blood Purifier', promoted as a cure-all by a Dr H.C.F. Meyer - a lay doctor with no medical qualifications. 'Meyer's Blood Purifier' claimed not only to cure snakebite, but also to eliminate a host of other ailments.

C. Native to North America, the roots of Echinacea, or purple coneflower, had been used by the Plains Indians for all kinds of ailments long before Meyer came along. They applied poultices of it to wounds and stings, used it for teeth and gum disease and made a tea from it to treat everything from colds and measles to arthritis. They even used it for snakebite.

D. Settlers quickly picked up on the plant's usefulness but until Meyer sent samples of his 'blood purifier' to John Lloyd, a pharmacist, it remained a folk remedy. Initially dismissing Meyer's claims as nonsense, Lloyd was eventually converted after a colleague, John King, tested the herb and successfully used it to treat bee stings and nasal congestion.

In fact, he went much further in his claims than Meyer ever did and by the 1890s a bottle of tincture¹ of Echinacea could be found in almost every American home, incidentally making a fortune for Lloyd's company, Lloyd Brothers Pharmacy.

E. As modern antibiotics became available, the use of Echinacea products declined and from the 1940s to the 1970s it was pretty much forgotten in the USA. It was a different story in Europe, where both French and German herbalists and homeopaths continued to make extensive use of it.

It had been introduced there by Gerhard Madaus, who travelled from Germany to America in 1937, returning with seed to establish commercial plots of Echinacea. His firm conducted extensive research on echinacin, a concentrate they made from the juice of flowering tops of the plants he had brought back. It was put into ointments, liquids for internal and external use, and into products for injections.

F. There is no evidence that Echinacea is effective against snakebite, but Dr Meyer – who genuinely believed in Echinacea - would probably be quite amused if he could come back and see the uses to which modern science has put 'his' herb. He might not be surprised that science has confirmed Echinacea's role as a treatment for wounds, or that it has been found to be helpful in relieving arthritis, both claims Meyer made for the herb.

He might though be surprised to learn how Echinacea is proving to be an effective weapon against all sorts of disease, particularly infections. German researchers had used it successfully to treat a range of infections and found it to be effective against bacteria and protozoa².

There are many other intriguing medical possibilities for extracts from the herb, but its apparent ability to help with our more common ailments has seen thousands of people become enthusiastic converts. Dozens of packaged products containing extracts of Echinacea can now be found amongst the many herbal remedies and supplements on the shelves of health stores and pharmacies. Many of those might be the modern equivalents of 'snake oil', but Echinacea at least does seem to have some practical value.

G. Echinacea is a dry prairie plant, drought-resistant and pretty tolerant of most soils, although it does best in good soil with plenty of sun. Plants are usually grown from seed but they are sometimes available from nurseries. Echinacea is a distinctive perennial with erect, hairy, spotted stems up to a meter tall. Flower heads look like daisies, with purple rayed florets and a dark brown central cone. The leaves are hairy; the lower leaves are oval to lance-shaped and coarsely and irregularly toothed.

H. There are nine species of Echinacea in all but only three are generally grown for medicinal use. All have similar medicinal properties. Most European studies have used liquid concentrates extracted from the tops of plants, whereas extraction in the USA has usually been from the roots. Today most manufacturers blend both, sometimes adding flowers and seeds to improve the quality.

For the home grower, the roots of all species seem equally effective. Dig them up in autumn after the tops have died back after the first frost. Wash and dry them carefully and store them in glass containers. You can harvest the tops throughout the summer and even eat small amounts of leaf straight from the plant.

Even if you don't make your fortune from this herb, there are few sights more attractive than a field of purple coneflowers in all their glory. And with a few Echinacea plants nearby, you'll never go short of a cure.
(1) a liquid containing a special ingredient
(2) a type of micro-organism

Questions 34–40
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the text? In boxes 34-40 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

34. 'Snake oil' sellers believed their product was effective.
35. Most people in the Wild West mistrusted 'snake oil'.
36. Some 'snake oils' were mostly water.
37. All 'snake oils' contained Echinacea.
38. Echinacea has been proven to kill microbes.
39. The highest quality Echinacea is grown in America.
40. More than one part of the Echinacea plant has a medicinal use.

A. Hearing impairment or other auditory function deficit in young children can have a major impact on their development of speech and communication, resulting in a detrimental effect on their ability to learn at school. This is likely to have major consequences for the individual and the population as a whole. The New Zealand Ministry of Health has found from research carried out over two decades that 6-10% of children in that country are affected by hearing loss.

B. A preliminary study in New Zealand has shown that classroom noise presents a major concern for teachers and pupils. Modern teaching practices, the organisation of desks in the classroom, poor classroom acoustics, and mechanical means of ventilation such as air-conditioning units all contribute to the number of children unable to comprehend the teacher's voice. Education researchers Nelson and Soli have also suggested that recent trends in learning often involve collaborative interaction of multiple minds and tools as much as individual possession of information. This all amounts to heightened activity and noise levels, which have the potential to be particularly serious for children experiencing auditory function deficit. Noise in classrooms can only exacerbate their difficulty in comprehending and processing verbal communication with other children and instructions from the teacher.

C. Children with auditory function deficit are potentially failing to learn to their maximum potential because of noise levels generated in classrooms. The effects of noise on the ability of children to learn effectively in typical classroom environments are now the subject of increasing concern. The International Institute of Noise Control Engineering (I-INCE), on the advice of the World Health Organization, has established an international working party, which includes New Zealand, to evaluate noise and reverberation control for school rooms.

D. While the detrimental effects of noise in classroom situations are not limited to children experiencing disability, those with a disability that affects their processing of speech and verbal communication could be extremely vulnerable. The auditory function deficits in question include hearing impairment, autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) and attention deficit disorders (ADD/ADHD).

E. Autism is considered a neurological and genetic life-long disorder that causes discrepancies in the way information is processed. This disorder is characterised by interlinking problems with social imagination, social communication and social interaction. According to Janzen, this affects the ability to understand and relate in typical ways to people, understand events and objects in the environment, and understand or respond to sensory stimuli. Autism does not allow learning or thinking in the same ways as in children who are developing normally.

Autistic spectrum disorders often result in major difficulties in comprehending verbal information and speech processing. Those experiencing these disorders often find sounds such as crowd noise and the noise generated by machinery painful and distressing. This is difficult to scientifically quantify as such extra-sensory stimuli vary greatly from one autistic individual to another. But a child who finds any type of noise in their classroom or learning space intrusive is likely to be adversely affected in their ability to process information.

F. The attention deficit disorders are indicative of neurological and genetic disorders and are characterised by difficulties with sustaining attention, effort and persistence, organisation skills and disinhibition. Children experiencing these disorders find it difficult to screen out unimportant information, and focus on everything in the environment rather than attending to a single activity. Background noise in the classroom becomes a major distraction, which can affect their ability to concentrate.

G. Children experiencing an auditory function deficit can often find speech and communication very difficult to isolate and process when set against high levels of background noise.

These levels come from outside activities that penetrate the classroom structure, from teaching activities, and other noise generated inside, which can be exacerbated by room reverberation. Strategies are needed to obtain the optimum classroom construction and perhaps a change in classroom culture and methods of teaching. In particular, the effects of noisy classrooms and activities on those experiencing disabilities in the form of auditory function deficit need thorough investigation. It is probable that many undiagnosed children exist in the education system with 'invisible' disabilities. Their needs are less likely to be met than those of children with known disabilities.

H. The New Zealand Government has developed a New Zealand Disability Strategy and has embarked on a wide-ranging consultation process. The strategy recognises that people experiencing disability face significant barriers in achieving a full quality of life in areas such as attitude, education, employment and access to services. Objective 3 of the New Zealand Disability Strategy is to 'Provide the Best Education for Disabled People' by improving education so that all children, youth learners and adult learners will have equal opportunities to learn and develop within their already existing local school. For a successful education, the learning environment is vitally significant, so any effort to improve this is likely to be of great benefit to all children, but especially to those with auditory function disabilities.

I. A number of countries are already in the process of formulating their own standards for the control and reduction of classroom noise. New Zealand will probably follow their example. The literature to date on noise in school rooms appears to focus on the effects on schoolchildren in general, their teachers and the hearing impaired. Only limited attention appears to have been given to those students experiencing the other disabilities involving auditory function deficit. It is imperative that the needs of these children are taken into account in the setting of appropriate international standards to be promulgated in future.

Questions 1-6
Reading Passage 1 has nine sections, A-I.

Which section contains the following information?

Write the correct letter A-l, in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.

1. an account of a national policy initiative
2. a description of a global team effort
3. a hypothesis as to one reason behind the growth in classroom noise
4. a demand for suitable worldwide regulations
5. a list of medical conditions which place some children more at risk from noise than others
6. the estimated proportion of children in New Zealand with auditory problems.

Questions 7-10
Answer the questions below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 7-10 on your answer sheet.

7. For what period of time has hearing loss in schoolchildren been studied in New Zealand?

8. In addition to machinery noise, what other type of noise can upset children with autism?
9. What term is used to describe the hearing problems of schoolchildren which have not been diagnosed?
10. What part of the New Zealand Disability Strategy aims to give schoolchildren equal opportunity?

Questions 11-12
Choose TWO letters, A-E. Write the correct letters in boxes 11 and 12 on your answer sheet.

The list below includes factors contributing to classroom noise.

Which TWO are mentioned by the writer of the passage?

A. current teaching methods

B. echoing corridors

C. cooling systems

D. large class sizes

E. loud-voiced teachers

F. playground games

Questions 13
Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D. Write the correct letter in box 13 on your answer sheet.

What is the writer‘s overall purpose in writing this article?

A. to compare different methods oi dealing with auditory problems

B. to provide solutions for overly noisy learning environments

C. to increase awareness of the situation oi children with auditory problems
D. to promote New Zealand as a model for other countries to follow

A Neuroscientist Reveals How to Think Differently

In the last decade a revolution has occurred In the way that scientists think about the brain.

We now know that the decisions humans make can be traced to the firing patterns of neurons in specific parts of the brain. These discoveries have led to the field known as neuroeconomics, which studies the brain's secrets to success in an economic environment that demands innovation and being able to do things differently from competitors. A brain that can do this is an iconoclastic one. Briefly, an iconoclast is a person who does something that others say can't be done.

This definition implies that iconoclasts are different from other people, but more precisely, it is their brains that are different in three distinct ways: perception, fear response, and social intelligence. Each of these three functions utilizes a different circuit in the brain. Naysayers might suggest that the brain is irrelevant, that thinking in an original, even revolutionary, way is more a matter of personality than brain function. But the field of neuroeconomics was born out of the realization that the physical workings of the brain place limitations on the way we make decisions. By understanding these constraints, we begin to understand why some people march to a different drumbeat.

The first thing to realize is that the brain suffers from limited resources. It has a fixed energy budget, about the same as a 40 watt light bulb, so it has evolved to work as efficiently as possible. This is where most people are impeded from being an iconoclast. For example, when confronted with information streaming from the eyes, the brain will interpret this information in the quickest way possible. Thus it will draw on both past experience and any other source of information, such as what other people say, to make sense of what it is seeing. This happens all the time. The brain takes shortcuts that work so well we are hardly ever aware of them.

We think our perceptions of the world are real, but they are only biological and electrical rumblings. Perception is not simply a product of what your eyes or ears transmit to your brain. More than the physical reality of photons or sound waves, perception is a product of the brain.

Perception is central to iconoclasm. Iconoclasts see things differently to other people. Their brains do not fall into efficiency pitfalls as much as the average person's brain. Iconoclasts, either because they were born that way or through learning, have found ways to work around the perceptual shortcuts that plague most people. Perception is not something that is hardwired into the brain. It is a learned process, which is both a curse and an opportunity for change. The brain faces the fundamental problem of interpreting physical stimuli from the senses. Everything the brain sees, hears, or touches has multiple interpretations. The one that is ultimately chosen is simply the brain's best theory. In technical terms, these conjectures have their basis in the statistical likelihood of one interpretation over another and are heavily influenced by past experience and, importantly for potential iconoclasts, what other people say.

The best way to see things differently to other people is to bombard the brain with things it has never encountered before. Novelty releases the perceptual process from the chains of past experience and forces the brain to make new judgments. Successful iconoclasts have an extraordinary willingness to be exposed to what is fresh and different. Observation of iconoclasts shows that they embrace novelty while most people avoid things that are different.

The problem with novelty, however, is that it tends to trigger the brain's fear system. Fear is a major impediment to thinking like an iconoclast and stops the average person in his tracks. There are many types of fear, but the two that inhibit iconoclastic thinking and people generally find difficult to deal with are fear of uncertainty and fear of public ridicule. These may seem like trivial phobias. But fear of public speaking, which everyone must do from time to time, afflicts one-third of the population. This makes it too common to be considered a mental disorder. It is simply a common variant of human nature, one which iconoclasts do not let inhibit their reactions.

Finally, to be successful iconoclasts, individuals must sell their ideas to other people. This is where social intelligence comes in. Social intelligence is the ability to understand and manage people in a business setting. In the last decade there has been an explosion of knowledge about the social brain and how the brain works when groups coordinate decision making. Neuroscience has revealed which brain circuits are responsible for functions like understanding what other people think, empathy, fairness, and social identity. These brain regions play key roles in whether people convince others of their ideas. Perception is important in social cognition too. The perception of someone's enthusiasm, or reputation, can make or break a deal. Understanding how perception becomes intertwined with social decision making shows why successful iconoclasts are so rare.

Iconoclasts create new opportunities in every area from artistic expression to technology to business. They supply creativity and innovation not easily accomplished by committees. Rules aren't important to them. Iconoclasts face alienation and failure, but can also be a major asset to any organization. It is crucial for success in any field to understand how the iconoclastic mind works.

Questions 27-31
Choose the correct letter A. B. C or D. Write the correct letter in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet.

27. Neuroeconomics is a field of study which seeks to
A. cause a change in how scientists understand brain chemistry.
B. understand how good decisions are made in the brain.
C .understand how the brain is linked to achievement in competitive fields.
D. trace the specific firing patterns of neurones in different areas of the brain.
28. According to the writer, iconoclasts are distinctive because
A. they create unusual brain circuits.
B. their brains function differently.
C. their personalities are distinctive.
D. they make decisions easily.

29. According to the writer, the brain works efficiently because
A. it uses the eyes quickly.
B. it interprets data logically.
C. it generates its own energy.
D. it relies on previous events.

30. The writer says that perception is
A. a combination of photons and sound waves.
B. a reliable product of what your senses transmit.
C. a result of brain processes.
D. a process we are usually conscious of.

31. According to the writer an iconoclastic thinker
A. centralizes perceptual thinking in one part of the brain.
B. avoids cognitive traps.
C. has a brain that is hardwired for learning.
D. has more opportunities than the average person.

Questions 32-37
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3? In boxes 32-37 on your answer sheet, write:

YES it the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
NO it the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

32. Exposure to different events forces the brain to think differently.
33. iconoclasts are unusually receptive to new experiences.
34. Most people are too shy to try different things.
35. If you think in an iconoclastic way, you can easily overcome fear.
36. When concern about embarrassment matters less, other fears become irrelevant.
37. Fear of public speaking is a psychological illness.

Questions 38-40
Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-E, below. Write the correct letter A-E, in boxes 38-40 on your answer sheet.

38. Thinking like a successful iconoclast is demanding because it.
39. The concept of the social brain is useful to iconoclasts because it.
40. Iconoclasts are generally an asset because their way of thinking.

A. requires both perceptual and social intelligence skills.
B. focuses on how groups decide on an action.
C. works in many fields, both artistic and scientific.
D. leaves one open to criticism and rejection.
E. involves understanding how organizations manage people.

Young Children's Sense of Identity

A. A sense of 'self' develops in young children by degrees. The process can usefully be thought of in terms of the gradual emergence of two somewhat separate features: the self as a subject, and the self as an object. William James introduced the distinction in 1892, and contemporaries of his, such as Charles Cooley, added to the developing debate. Ever since then psychologists have continued building on the theory.

B. According to James, a child's first step on the road to self-understanding can be seen as the recognition that he or she exists. This is an aspect of the self that he labeled 'self-as-subject', and he gave it various elements. These included an awareness of one’s own agency (i.e. one’s power to act) and an awareness of one’s distinctiveness from other people. These features gradually emerge as infants explore their world and interact with caregivers. Cooley (1902) suggested that a lot of the self-as-subject was primarily concerned with being able to exercise power. He proposed that the earliest examples of this are an infants attempts to control physical objects, such as toys or his or her own limbs. This is followed by attempts to affect the behavior of other people. For example, infants learn that when they cry or smile someone responds to them.

C. Another powerful source of information for infants about the effects they can have on the world around them is provided when others mimic them. Many parents spend a lot of time, particularly in the early months, copying their infant's vocalizations and expressions in addition, young children enjoy looking in mirrors, where the movements they can see are dependent upon their own movements.This is not to say that infants recognize the reflection as their own image (a later development). However, Lewis and Brooks-Gunn (1979) suggest that infants' developing understanding that the movements they see in the mirror are contingent ­on their own, leads to a growing awareness that they are distinct from other people. This is because they, and only they can change the reflection in the mirror.

D. This understanding that children gain of themselves as active agents continue to develop in their attempts to co-operate with others in play. Drum (1988) points out that it is in such day-to-day relationships and interactions that the child's understanding of his· or herself emerges. Empirical investigations of the self-as- subject in young children are, however, rather scarce because of difficulties of communication: even if young infants can reflect on their experience, they certainly cannot express this aspect of the self directly.

E. Once Children have acquired a certain level of self-awareness, they begin to place themselves in a whole series of categories, which together play such an important part in defining them uniquely as 'themselves'. This second step in the development of a full sense of self is what lames called the 'self-as-object'. This has been seen by many to be the aspect of the self which is most influenced by social elements, since it is made up of social roles (such as student, brother; colleague) and characteristics which derive their meaning from comparison or interaction with other people (such as trustworthiness, shyness, sporting ability).

F. Cooley and other researchers suggested a close connection between a person’s own understanding of their identity and other people's understanding of it. Cooley believed that people build up their sense of identity from the reactions of others to them, and from the view, they believe others have of them He called the self- as-object the ’looking-glass self', since people come to see themselves as they are reflected in others. Mead (1934) went even further, and saw the self and the social world as inextricably bound together. The self is essentially a social structure, and ­it arises in social experience. It is impossible to conceive of a self-arising outside of social experience.'

G. Lewis and Brooks-Gunn argued that an important developmental milestone is reached when children become able to recognize themselves visually without the support of seeing contingent movement. This recognition occurs around their second birthday. In one experiment, Lewis and Brooks-Gunn (1979) dabbed some red powder on the noses of children who were playing in front of a mirror, and then observed how often they touched their noses. The psychologists reasoned that if the children knew what they usually looked like, they would be surprised by the unusual red mark and would start touching it. On the other hand, they found that children of 15 to 18 months are generally not able to recognize themselves unless other cues such as movement are present.

H. Finally perhaps the most graphic expressions of self-awareness, in general, can be seen in the displays of rage which are most common from 18 months to 3 years of age. In a longitudinal study of groups of three or four children, Bronson (1975) found that the intensity of the frustration and anger in their disagreements increased sharply between the ages of 1 and 2 years. Often, the children's disagreements involved a struggle over a toy that none of them had played with before or after the tug-of-war: the children seemed to be disputing ownership rather than wanting to play with it. Although it may be less marked in other societies, the link between the sense of ’self' and of 'ownership’ is a notable feature of childhood in Western societies.

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.
NB You may use any letter more than once.

14. An account of the method used by researchers in a particular study
15. The role of imitation in developing a sense of identity
16. The age at which children can usually Identity a static image of themselves
17. A reason for the limitations of scientific research into ‘self- as-subject'.
18. Reference to a possible link between culture and a particular form of behavior
19. Examples of the wide range of features that contribute to the sense of ‘self-as-object'.

Questions 20-23
Look at the following findings (Questions 20-23) and the list of researchers below. Match each finding with the correct researcher or researchers, A-E. Write the correct letter A-E, in boxes 20-23 on your answer sheet.

20. A sense of identity can never be formed without relationships with other people.
21. A child’s awareness of self is related to a sense of mastery over things and people.
22. At a certain age, children’s sense of identity leads to aggressive behavior.
23. Observing their own reflection contributes to children‘s self-awareness.

List of Researchers
A. James
B. Cooley
C. Lewis and Brooks-Gunn
D. Mead
E. Bronson

Questions 24-26
Complete the summary below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 24-26 on your answer sheet.

How children acquire a sense of identity

First, children come to realize that they can have an effect on the world around them, for example by handling objects. or causing the image to move when they lace a 24 ................... This aspect of self-awareness is difficult to research directly, because of 25.......……... problems.

Secondly. children start to become aware of how they are viewed by others. One important stage in this process is the visual recognition of themselves which usually occurs when they reach the age oi two. In Western societies at least, the development of self-awareness is often linked to a sense of 26 ....................... , and can lead to disputes.

Second nature

Your personality isn't necessarily set in stone. With a little experimentation, people can reshape their temperaments and inject passion, optimism, joy and courage into their lives.

A. Psychologists have long held that a person's character cannot undergo a transformation in any meaningful way and that the key traits of personality are determined at a very young age. However, researchers have begun looking more closely at ways we can change. Positive psychologists have identified 24 qualities we admire, such as loyalty and kindness, and are studying them to find out why they come so naturally to some people. What they're discovering is that many of these qualities amount to habitual behaviour that determines the way we respond to the world. The good news is that all this can be learned.

Some qualities are less challenging to develop than others, optimism being one of them. However, developing qualities requires mastering a range of skills which are diverse and sometimes surprising. For example, to bring more joy and passion into your life, you must be open to experiencing negative emotions. Cultivating such qualities will help you realise your full potential.

B. 'The evidence is good that most personality traits can be altered,' says Christopher Peterson, professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, who cites himself as an example. Inherently introverted, he realised early on that as an academic, his reticence would prove disastrous in the lecture hall. So he learned to be more outgoing and to entertain his classes. 'Now my extroverted behaviour is spontaneous, ' he says.

C. David Fajgenbaum had to make a similar transition. He was preparing for university, when he had an accident that put an end to his sports career. On campus, he quickly found that beyond ordinary counselling, the university had no services for students who were undergoing physical rehabilitation and suffering from depression like him. He, therefore, launched a support group to help others in similar situations. He took action despite his own pain - a typical response of an optimist.

D. Suzanne Segerstrom, professor of psychology at the University of Kentucky, believes that the key to increasing optimism is through cultivating optimistic behaviour, rather than positive thinking. She recommends you train yourself to pay attention to good fortune by writing down three positive things that come about each day. This will help you convince yourself that favourable outcomes actually happen all the time, making it easier to begin taking action.

E. You can recognise a person who is passionate about a pursuit by the way they are so strongly involved in it. Tanya Streeter's passion is freediving - the sport of plunging deep into the water without tanks or other breathing equipment. Beginning in 1998, she set nine world records and can hold her breath for six minutes. The physical stamina required for this sport is intense but the psychological demands are even more overwhelming. Streeter learned to untangle her fears from her judgment of what her body and mind could do. 'In my career as a competitive freediver, there was a limit to what I could do - but it wasn't anywhere near what I thought it was/ she says.
F. Finding a pursuit that excites you can improve anyone's life. The secret about consuming passions, though, according to psychologist Paul Silvia of the University of North Carolina, is that 'they require discipline, hard work and ability, which is why they are so rewarding.' Psychologist Todd Kashdan has this advice for those people taking up a new passion: ' As a newcomer, you also have to tolerate and laugh at your own ignorance. You must be willing to accept the negative feelings that come your way,' he says.

G. In 2004, physician-scientist Mauro Zappaterra began his PhD research at Harvard Medical School. Unfortunately, he was miserable as his research wasn't compatible with his curiosity about healing. He finally took a break and during eight months in Santa Fe, Zappaterra learned about alternative healing techniques not taught at Harvard. When he got back, he switched labs to study how cerebrospinal fluid nourishes the developing nervous system. He also vowed to look for the joy in everything, including failure, as this could help him learn about his research and himself.

One thing that can hold joy back is a person's concentration on avoiding failure rather than their looking forward to doing something well. 'Focusing on being safe might get in the way of your reaching your goals,' explains Kashdan. For example, are you hoping to get through a business lunch without embarrassing yourself, or are you thinking about how fascinating the conversation might be?

H. Usually, we think of courage in physical terms but ordinary life demands something else. For marketing executive Kenneth Pedeleose, it meant speaking out against something he thought was ethically wrong. The new manager was intimidating staff so Pedeleose carefully recorded each instance of bullying and eventually took the evidence to a senior director, knowing his own job security would be threatened. Eventually, the manager was the one to go. According to Cynthia Pury, a psychologist at Clemson University, Pedeleose's story proves the point that courage is not motivated by fearlessness, but by moral obligation. Pury also believes that people can acquire courage. Many of her students said that faced with a risky situation, they first tried to calm themselves down, then looked for a way to mitigate the danger, just as Pedeleose did by documenting his allegations.

Over the long term, picking up a new character trait may help you move toward being the person you want to be. And in the short term, the effort itself could be surprisingly rewarding, a kind of internal adventure.

Questions 14-18

Complete the summary below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet.

Psychologists have traditionally believed that a personality 14......................... was impossible and that by a 15.............. , a person’s character tends to be fixed. This is not true according to positive psychologists, who say that our personal qualities can be seen as habitual behaviour. One of the easiest qualities to acquire is 16......................... . However, regardless of the quality, it is necessary to learn a wide variety of different 17......................... in order for a new quality to develop; for example, a person must understand and feel some 18......................... in order to increase their happiness.

Questions 19-22

Look at the following statements (Questions 19 - 22) and the list of people below. Match each statement with the correct person, A-G. Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 19-22 on your answer sheet.

19. People must accept that they do not know much when first trying something new.

20. It is important for people to actively notice when good things happen.

21. Courage can be learned once its origins in a sense of responsibility are understood.

22. It is possible to overcome shyness when faced with the need to speak in public.
List of People

A. Christopher Peterson

B. David Fajgenbaum

C. Suzanne Segerstrom

D. Tanya Streeter

E. Todd Kashdan

F. Kenneth Pedeleose

G. Cynthia Pury

Questions 23-26

Reading Passage 210 has eight sections, A-H.

Which section contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 23-26 on your answer sheet.

23. a mention of how rational thinking enabled someone to achieve physical goals

24. an account of how someone overcame a sad experience

25. a description of how someone decided to rethink their academic career path

26. an example of how someone risked his career out of a sense of duty

Research using twins

To biomedical researchers all over the world, twins offer a precious opportunity to untangle the influence of genes and the environment - of nature and nurture. Because identical twins come from a single fertilized egg that splits into two, they share virtually the same genetic code. Any differences between them - one twin having younger looking skin, for example - must be due to environmental factors such as less time spent in the sun.

Alternatively, by comparing the experiences of identical twins with those of fraternal twins, who come from separate eggs and share on average half their DNA, researchers can quantify the extent to which our genes affect our lives. If identical twins are more similar to each other with respect to an ailment than fraternal twins are, then vulnerability to the disease must be rooted at least in part in heredity.

These two lines of research - studying the differences between identical twins to pinpoint the influence of environment, and comparing identical twins with fraternal ones to measure the role of inheritance - have been crucial to understanding the interplay of nature and nurture in determining our personalities, behavior, and vulnerability to disease.

The idea of using twins to measure the influence of heredity dates back to 1875, when the English scientist Francis Galton first suggested the approach (and coined the phrase 'nature and nurture'). But twin studies took a surprising twist in the 1980s, with the arrival of studies into identical twins who had been separated at birth and reunited as adults. Over two decades 137 sets of twins eventually visited Thomas Bouchard's lab in what became known as the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart. Numerous tests were carried out on the twins, and they were each asked more than 15,000 questions.

Bouchard and his colleagues used this mountain of data to identify how far twins were affected by their genetic makeup. The key to their approach was a statistical concept called heritability. in broad terms, the heritability of a trait measures the extent to which differences among members of a population can be explained by differences in their genetics. And wherever Bouchard and other scientists looked, it seemed, they found the invisible hand of genetic influence helping to shape our lives.

Lately, however, twin studies have helped lead scientists to a radical new conclusion: that nature and nurture are not the only elemental forces at work. According to a recent field called epigenetics, there is a third factor also in play, one that in some cases serves as a bridge between the environment and our genes, and in others operates on its own to shape who we are.

Epigenetic processes are chemical reactions tied to neither nature nor nurture but representing what researchers have called a 'third component'. These reactions influence how our genetic code is expressed: how each gene is strengthened or weakened, even turned on or off, to build our bones, brains and all the other parts of our bodies.

If you think of our DNA as an immense piano keyboard and our genes as the keys - each key symbolizing a segment of DNA responsible for a particular note, or trait, and all the keys combining to make us who we are - then epigenetic processes determine when and how each key can be struck, changing the tune being played.

One way the study of epigenetics is revolutionizing our understanding of biology is by revealing a mechanism by which the environment directly impacts on genes. Studies of animals, for example, have shown that when a rat experiences stress during pregnancy, it can cause epigenetic changes in a fetus that lead to behavioral problems as the rodent grows up. Other epigenetic processes appear to occur randomly, while others are normal, such as those that guide embryonic cells as they become heart, brain, or liver cells, for example.

Geneticist Danielle Reed has worked with many twins over the years and thought deeply about what twin studies have taught us. 'It's very clear when you look at twins that much of what they share is hardwired,' she says. 'Many things about them are absolutely the same and unalterable. But it's also clear, when you get to know them, that other things about them are different. Epigenetics is the origin of a lot of those differences, in my view.'

Reed credits Thomas Bouchard's work for today's surge in twin studies. 'He was the trailblazer,' she says. 'We forget that 50 years ago things like heart disease were thought to be caused entirely by lifestyle. Schizophrenia was thought to be due to poor mothering. Twin studies have allowed us to be more reflective about what people are actually born with and what's caused by experience.'

Having said that, Reed adds, the latest work in epigenetics promises to take our understanding even further. 'What I like to say is that nature writes some things in pencil and some things in pen,' she says. 'Things written in pen you can't change. That's DNA. But things written in pencil you can. That's epigenetics. Now that we're actually able to look at the DNA and see where the pencil writings are, it's sort of a whole new world.'

Questions 1-4
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage? In boxes 1-4 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. There may be genetic causes for the differences in how young the skin of identical twins looks.
2. Twins are at greater risk of developing certain illnesses than non-twins.
3. Bouchard advertised in newspapers for twins who had been separated at birth.
4. Epigenetic processes are different from both genetic and environmental processes.
Questions 5-9
Look at the following statements (Questions 5-9) and the list of researchers below. Match each statement with the correct researcher, A, B or C. Write the correct letter, A, B or C, in boxes 5-9 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.

List of Researchers
A. Francis Galton
B. Thomas Bouchard
C. Danielie Reed

5. invented a term used to distinguish two factors affecting human characteristics
6. expressed the view that the study of epigenetics will increase our knowledge
7. developed a mathematical method of measuring genetic influences
8. pioneered research into genetics using twins
9. carried out research into twins who had lived apart

Questions 10-13
Complete the summary using the list of words, A-F, below. Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet.

Epigenetic processes

In epigenetic processes, 10 .......... influence the activity of our genes, for example in creating our internal 11 ................. . The study of epigenetic processes is uncovering a way in which our genes can be affected by our 12 .................... . One example is that if a pregnant rat suffers stress, the new-born rat may later show problems in its 13 .................... .

A. nurture
B. organs
C. code
D. chemicals
E. environment
F. behaviour

The Intersection of Health Sciences and Geography

A. While many diseases that affect humans have been eradicated due to improvements in vaccinations and the availability of healthcare, there are still areas around the world where certain health issues are more prevalent. In a world that is far more globalised than ever before, people come into contact with one another through travel and living closer and closer to each other. As a result, super-viruses and other infections resistant to antibiotics are becoming more and more common.

B. Geography can often play a very large role in the health concerns of certain populations. For instance, depending on where you live, you will not have the same health concerns as someone who lives in a different geographical region. Perhaps one of the most obvious examples of this idea is malaria-prone areas, which are usually tropical regions that foster a warm and damp environment in which the mosquitos that can give people this disease can grow. Malaria is much less of a problem in high-altitude deserts, for instance.

C. In some countries, geographical factors influence the health and well-being of the population in very obvious ways. In many large cities, the wind is not strong enough to clear the air of the massive amounts of smog and pollution that cause asthma, lung problems, eyesight issues and more in the people who live there. Part of the problem is, of course, the massive number of cars being driven, in addition to factories that run on coal power. The rapid industrialisation of some countries in recent years has also led to the cutting down of forests to allow for the expansion of big cities, which makes it even harder to fight the pollution with the fresh air that is produced by plants.

D. It is in situations like these that the field of health geography comes into its own. It is an increasingly important area of study in a world where diseases like polio are re-emerging, respiratory diseases continue to spread, and malaria-prone areas are still fighting to find a better cure. Health geography is the combination of, on the one hand, knowledge regarding geography and methods used to analyse and interpret geographical information, and on the other, the study of health, diseases and healthcare practices around the world. The aim of this hybrid science is to create solutions for common geography-based health problems. While people will always be prone to illness, the study of how geography affects our health could lead to the eradication of certain illnesses, and the prevention of others in the future. By understanding why and how we get sick, we can change the way we treat illness and disease specific to certain geographical locations.

E. The geography of disease and ill health analyses the frequency with which certain diseases appear in different parts of the world, and overlays the data with the geography of the region, to see if there could be a correlation between the two. Health geographers also study factors that could make certain individuals or a population more likely to be taken ill with a specific health concern or disease, as compared with the population of another area. Health geographers in this field are usually trained as healthcare workers, and have an understanding of basic epidemiology as it relates to the spread of diseases among the population.

F. Researchers study the interactions between humans and their environment that could lead to illness (such as asthma in places with high levels of pollution) and work to create a clear way of categorising illnesses, diseases and epidemics into local and global scales. Health geographers can map the spread of illnesses and attempt to identify the reasons behind an increase or decrease in illnesses, as they work to find a way to halt the further spread or re-emergence of diseases in vulnerable populations.

G. The second subcategory of health geography is the geography of healthcare provision. This group studies the availability (of lack thereof) of healthcare resources to individuals and populations around the world. In both developed and developing nations, there is often a very large discrepancy between the options available to people in different social classes, income brackets, and levels of education. Individuals working in the area of the geography of healthcare provision attempt to assess the levels of healthcare in the area (for instance, it may be very difficult for people to get medical attention because there is a mountain between their village and the nearest hospital). These researchers are on the frontline of making recommendations regarding the policy to international organisations, local government bodies and others.

H. The field of health geography is often overlooked, but it constitutes a huge area of need in the fields of geography and healthcare. If we can understand how geography affects our health no matter where in the world we are located, we can better treat disease, prevent illness, and keep people safe and well.

Questions 14-19

Reading Passage 2 has eight sections, A-H.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

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

NB You may use any letter more than once.

14. an acceptance that not all diseases can be totally eliminated
15. examples of physical conditions caused by human behaviour
16. a reference to classifying diseases on the basis of how far they extend geographically
17. reasons why the level of access to healthcare can vary within a country
18. a description of health geography as a mixture of different academic fields
19. a description of the type of area where a particular illness is rare

Questions 20-26

Complete the sentences below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

20. Certain diseases have disappeared, thanks to better and ................... healthcare.
21. Because there is more contact between people, ................... are losing their usefulness.
22. Disease-causing ................... are most likely to be found in hot, damp regions.
23. One cause of pollution is ................... that burn a particular fuel.
24. The growth of cities often has an impact on nearby ...................
25. ................... is one disease that is growing after having been eradicated.
26. A physical barrier such as a ................... can prevent people from reaching a hospital.

Music and the emotions

Neuroscientist Jonah Lehrer considers the emotional power of music

Why does music make us feel? On the one hand, music is a purely abstract art form, devoid of language or explicit ideas. And yet, even though music says little, it still manages to touch us deeply. When listening to our favourite songs, our body betrays all the symptoms of emotional arousal. The pupils in our eyes dilate, our pulse and blood pressure rise, the electrical conductance of our skin is lowered, and the cerebellum, a brain region associated with bodily movement, becomes strangely active. Blood is even re-directed to the muscles in our legs. In other words, sound stirs us at our biological roots.

A recent paper in Neuroscience by a research team in Montreal, Canada, marks an important step in repealing the precise underpinnings of ‘the potent pleasurable stimulus’ that is music. Although the study involves plenty of fancy technology, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and ligand-based positron emission tomography (PET) scanning, the experiment itself was rather straightforward. After screening 217 individuals who responded to advertisements requesting people who experience ‘chills’ to instrumental music, the scientists narrowed down the subject pool to ten. They then asked the subjects to bring in their playlist of favourite songs - virtually every genre was represented, from techno to tango - and played them the music while their brain activity was monitored. Because the scientists were combining methodologies (PET and fMRI), they were able to obtain an impressively exact and detailed portrait of music in the brain. The first thing they discovered is that music triggers the production of dopamine - a chemical with a key role in setting people’s moods - by the neurons (nerve cells) in both the dorsal and ventral regions of the brain. As these two regions have long been linked with the experience of pleasure, this finding isn’t particularly surprising.

What is rather more significant is the finding that the dopamine neurons in the caudate - a region of the brain involved in learning stimulus-response associations, and in anticipating food and other ‘reward’ stimuli - were at their most active around 15 seconds before the participants’ favourite moments in the music. The researchers call this the ‘anticipatory phase’ and argue that the purpose of this activity is to help us predict the arrival of our favourite part. The question, of course, is what all these dopamine neurons are up to. Why are they so active in the period preceding the acoustic climax? After all, we typically associate surges of dopamine with pleasure, with the processing of actual rewards. And yet, this cluster of cells is most active when the ‘chills’ have yet to arrive, when the melodic pattern is still unresolved.

One way to answer the question is to look at the music and not the neurons. While music can often seem (at least to the outsider) like a labyrinth of intricate patterns, it turns out that the most important part of every song or symphony is when the patterns break down, when the sound becomes unpredictable. If the music is too obvious, it is annoyingly boring, like an alarm clock. Numerous studies, after all, have demonstrated that dopamine neurons quickly adapt to predictable rewards. If we know what’s going to happen next, then we don’t get excited. This is why composers often introduce a key note in the beginning of a song, spend most of the rest of the piece in the studious avoidance of the pattern, and then finally repeat it only at the end. The longer we are denied the pattern we expect, the greater the emotional release when the pattern returns, safe and sound.

To demonstrate this psychological principle, the musicologist Leonard Meyer, in his classic book Emotion and Meaning in Music (1956), analysed the 5th movement of Beethoven’s String Quartet in C-sharp minor, Op. 131. Meyer wanted to show how music is defined by its flirtation with - but not submission to - our expectations of order. Meyer dissected 50 measures (bars) of the masterpiece, showing how Beethoven begins with the clear statement of a rhythmic and harmonic pattern and then, in an ingenious tonal dance, carefully holds off repeating it. What Beethoven does instead suggest variations of the pattern. I want to preserve an element of uncertainty in his music, making our brains beg for the one chord he refuses to give us. Beethoven saves that chord for the end.

According to Meyer, it is the suspenseful tension of music, arising out of our unfulfilled expectations, that is the source of the music’s feeling. While earlier theories of music focused on the way a sound can refer to the real world of images and experiences - its ‘connotative’ meaning - Meyer argued that the emotions we find in music come from the unfolding events of the music itself. This ‘embodied meaning’ arises from the patterns the symphony invokes and then ignores. It is this uncertainty that triggers the surge of dopamine in the caudate, as we struggle to figure out what will happen next. We can predict some of the notes, but we can’t predict them all, and that is what keeps us listening, waiting expectantly for our reward, for the pattern to be completed.

Questions 27-31

Complete the summary below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet.

The Montreal Study

Participants, who were recruited for the study through advertisements, had their brain activity monitored while listening to their favourite music. It was noted that the music stimulated the brain’s neurons to release a substance called 27 in two of the parts of the brain which are associated with feeling (28) ........................... .

Researchers also observed that the neurons in the area of the brain called the (29) ........................... were particularly active just before the participants’ favourite moments in the music - the period known as the (30)............................ Activity in this part of the brain is associated with the expectation of ‘reward’ stimuli such as (31) ........................... .

Questions 32-36

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D. Write the correct letter in boxes 32-36 on your answer sheet.

32. What point does the writer emphasise in the first paragraph?

A. how dramatically our reactions to music can vary
B. how intense our physical responses to music can be
C. how little we know about the way that music affects us=
D. how much music can tell us about how our brains operate

33. What view of the Montreal study does the writer express in the second paragraph?

A. Its aims were innovative.
B. The approach was too simplistic.
C. It produced some remarkably precise data.
D. The technology used was unnecessarily complex.

34. What does the writer find interesting about the results of the Montreal study?

A. the timing of participants’ neural responses to the music

B. the impact of the music on participants’ emotional state
C. the section of participants’ brains which was activated by the music
D. the type of music which had the strongest effect on participants’ brains

35. Why does the writer refer to Meyer’s work on music and emotion?

A. to propose an original theory about the subject
B. to offer support for the findings of the Montreal study
C. to recommend the need for further research into the subject
D. to present a view which opposes that of the Montreal researchers

36. According to Leonard Meyer, what causes the listener’s emotional response to music?

A. the way that the music evokes poignant memories in the listener
B. the association of certain musical chords with certain feelings
C. the listener’s sympathy with the composer’s intentions
D. the internal structure of the musical composition

Questions 37-40

Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-F, below. Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet.

37. The Montreal researchers discovered that
38. Many studies have demonstrated that
39. Meyer’s analysis of Beethoven’s music shows that
40. Earlier theories of music suggested that

A. our response to music depends on our initial emotional state.
B. neuron activity decreases if outcomes become predictable.
C. emotive music can bring to mind actual pictures and events.
D. experiences on our past can influence our emotional reaction to music.
E. emotive music delays giving listeners what they expect to hear.
F. neuron activity increases prior to key points in a musical piece.

Questions 14-19

Reading Passage 2 has six paragraphs, A-F. Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below. Write the correct number, i-viii, in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet.

List of Headings

i. The productive outcomes that may result from boredom

ii. What teachers can do to prevent boredom

iii. A new explanation and a new cure for boredom

iv. Problems with a scientific approach to boredom

v. A potential danger arising from boredom

vi. Creating a system of classification for feelings of boredom

vii. Age groups most affected by boredom

viii. Identifying those most affected by boredom

14. Paragraph A

15. Paragraph B

16. Paragraph C

17. Paragraph D

18. Paragraph E

19. Paragraph F

Why being bored is stimulating – and useful, too

This most common of emotions is turning out to be more interesting than we thought

A. We all know how it feels – it’s impossible to keep your mind on anything, time stretches out, and all the things you could do seem equally unlikely to make you feel better. But defining boredom so that it can be studied in the lab has proved difficult. For a start, it can include a lot of other mental states, such as frustration, apathy, depression and indifference. There isn’t even agreement over whether boredom is always a low-energy, flat kind of emotion or whether feeling agitated and restless counts as boredom, too. In his book, Boredom: A Lively History, Peter Toohey at the University of Calgary, Canada, compares it to disgust – an emotion that motivates us to stay away from certain situations. ‘If disgust protects humans from infection, boredom may protect them from “infectious” social situations,’ he suggests.

B. By asking people about their experiences of boredom, Thomas Goetz and his team at the University of Konstanz in Germany have recently identified five distinct types: indifferent, calibrating, searching, reactant and apathetic. These can be plotted on two axes – one running left to right, which measures low to high arousal, and the other from top to bottom, which measures how positive or negative the feeling is. Intriguingly, Goetz has found that while people experience all kinds of boredom, they tend to specialise in one. Of the five types, the most damaging is ‘reactant’ boredom with its explosive combination of high arousal and negative emotion. The most useful is what Goetz calls ‘indifferent’ boredom: someone isn’t engaged in anything satisfying but still feels relaxed and calm. However, it remains to be seen whether there are any character traits that predict the kind of boredom each of us might be prone to.

C. Psychologist Sandi Mann at the University of Central Lancashire, UK, goes further. ‘All emotions are there for a reason, including boredom,’ she says. Mann has found that being bored makes us more creative. ‘We’re all afraid of being bored but in actual fact it can lead to all kinds of amazing things,’ she says. In experiments published last year, Mann found that people who had been made to feel bored by copying numbers out of the phone book for 15 minutes came up with more creative ideas about how to use a polystyrene cup than a control group. Mann concluded that a passive, boring activity is best for creativity because it allows the mind to wander. In fact, she goes so far as to suggest that we should seek out more boredom in our lives.

D. Psychologist John Eastwood at York University in Toronto, Canada, isn’t convinced. ‘If you are in a state of mind-wandering you are not bored,’ he says. ‘In my view, by definition boredom is an undesirable state.’ That doesn’t necessarily mean that it isn’t adaptive, he adds. ‘Pain is adaptive – if we didn’t have physical pain, bad things would happen to us. Does that mean that we should actively cause pain? No. But even if boredom has evolved to help us survive, it can still be toxic if allowed to fester.’ For Eastwood, the central feature of boredom is a failure to put our ‘attention system’ into gear. This causes an inability to focus on anything, which makes time seem to go painfully slowly. What’s more, your efforts to improve the situation can end up making you feel worse. ‘People try to connect with the world and if they are not successful there’s that frustration and irritability,’ he says. Perhaps most worryingly, says Eastwood, repeatedly failing to engage attention can lead to state where we don’t know what to do any more, and no longer care.

E. Eastwood’s team is now trying to explore why the attention system fails. It’s early days but they think that at least some of it comes down to personality. Boredom proneness has been linked with a variety of traits. People who are motivated by pleasure seem to suffer particularly badly. Other personality traits, such as curiosity, are associated with a high boredom threshold. More evidence that boredom has detrimental effects comes from studies of people who are more or less prone to boredom. It seems those who bore easily face poorer prospects in education, their career and even life in general. But of course, boredom itself cannot kill – it’s the things we do to deal with it that may put us in danger. What can we do to alleviate it before it comes to that? Goetz’s group has one suggestion. Working with teenagers, they found that those who ‘approach’ a boring situation – in other words, see that it’s boring and get stuck in anyway – report less boredom than those who try to avoid it by using snacks, TV or social media for distraction.

F. Psychologist Francoise Wemelsfelder speculates that our over-connected lifestyles might even be a new source of boredom. ‘In modern human society there is a lot of overstimulation but still a lot of problems finding meaning,’ she says. So instead of seeking yet more mental stimulation, perhaps we should leave our phones alone, and use boredom to motivate us to engage with the world in a more meaningful way.

Questions 20-23

Look at the following people (Questions 20-23) and the list of ideas below. Match each person with the correct idea, A-E. Write the correct letter, A-E, in boxes 20-23 on your answer sheet.

20. Peter Toohey

21. Thomas Goetz

22. John Eastwood

23. Francoise Wemelsfelder

List of Ideas

A. The way we live today may encourage boredom.

B. One sort of boredom is worse than all the others.

C. Levels of boredom may fall in the future.

D. Trying to cope with boredom can increase its negative effects.

E. Boredom may encourage us to avoid an unpleasant experience.

Questions 24-26

Complete the summary below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 24-26 on your answer sheet.

Responses to boredom

For John Eastwood, the central feature of boredom is that people cannot 24……………………………, due to a failure in what he calls the ‘attention system’, and as a result they become frustrated and irritable. His team suggests that those for whom 25……………………….. is an important aim in life may have problems in coping with boredom, whereas those who have the characteristic of 26……………………….. can generally cope with it.

Oxytocin

The positive and negative effects of the chemical known as the ‘love hormone’

A. Oxytocin is a chemical, a hormone produced in the pituitary gland in the brain. It was through various studies focusing on animals that scientists first became aware of the influence of oxytocin. They discovered that it helps reinforce the bonds between prairie voles, which mate for life, and triggers the motherly behaviour that sheep show towards their newborn lambs. It is also released by women in childbirth, strengthening the attachment between mother and baby. Few chemicals have as positive a reputation as oxytocin, which is sometimes referred to as the ‘love hormone’. One sniff of it can, it is claimed, make a person more trusting, empathetic, generous and cooperative. It is time, however, to revise this wholly optimistic view. A new wave of studies has shown that its effects vary greatly depending on the person and the circumstances, and it can impact on our social interactions for worse as well as for better.

B. Oxytocin’s role in human behaviour first emerged in 2005. In a groundbreaking experiments, Markus Heinrichs and his colleagues at the University of Freiburg, Germany, asked volunteers to do an activity in which they could invest money with an anonymous person who was not guaranteed to be honest. The team found the participants who had sniffed oxytocin via a nasal spray beforehand invested more money than those who received a placebo instead. The study was the start of research into the effects of oxytocin on human interactions. ‘For eight years, it was quite a lonesome field,’ Heinrichs recalls. ‘Now, everyone is interested.’ These follow-up studies have shown that after a sniff of the hormone, people become more charitable, better at reading emotions on others’ faces and at communicating constructively in arguments. Together, the results fuelled the view that oxytocin universally enhanced the positive aspects of our social nature.

C. Then, after a few years, contrasting findings began to emerge. Simone Shamay-Tsoory at the at the University of Haifa, Israel, found that when volunteers played a competitive game, those who inhaled the hormone showed more pleasure when they beat other players, and felt more envy when others won. What’s more, administering oxytocin also has sharply contrasting outcomes depending on a person’s disposition. Jennifer Bartz from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, found that it improves people’s ability to read emotions, but only if they are not very socially adept to begin with. Her research also shows that oxytocin in fact reduces cooperation in subjects who are particularly anxious or sensitive to rejection.

D. Another discovery is that oxytocin’s effects vary depending on who we are interacting with. Studies conducted by Carolyn DeClerck of the University of Antwerp, Belgium, revealed that people who had received a dose of oxytocin actually became less cooperative when dealing with complete strangers. Meanwhile, Carsten De Dreu at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands discovered that volunteers given oxytocin showed favouritism: Dutch men became quicker to associate positive words with Dutch names than with foreign ones, for example. According to De Dreu, oxytocin drives people to care for those in their social circles and defend them from outside dangers. So, it appears that oxytocin strengthens biases, rather than promoting general goodwill, as was previously thought.

E. There were signs of these subtleties from the start. Bartz has recently shown that in almost half of the existing research results, oxytocin influenced only certain individuals or in certain circumstances. Where once researchers took no notice of such findings, now a more nuanced understanding of oxytocin’s effects is propelling investigations down new lines. To Bartz, the key to understanding what the hormone does lies in pinpointing its core function rather than in cataloguing its seemingly endless effects. There are several hypotheses which are not mutually exclusive. Oxytocin could help to reduce anxiety and fear. Or it could simply motivate people to seek out social connections. She believes that oxytocin acts as a chemical spotlight that shines on social clues – a shift in posture, a flicker of the eyes, a dip in the voice – making people more attuned to their social environment. This would explain why it makes us more likely to look others in the eye and improves our ability to identify emotions. But it could also make things worse for people who are overly sensitive or prone to interpreting social cues in the worst light.

F. Perhaps we should not be surprised that the oxytocin story has become more perplexing. The hormone is found in everything from octopuses to sheep, and its evolutionary roots stretch back half a billion years. ‘It’s a very simple and ancient molecule that has been co-opted for many different functions,’ says Sue Carter at the University of Illinois, Chicago, USA. ‘It affects primitive parts of the brain like the amygdala, so it’s going to have many effects on just about everything.’ Bartz agrees. ‘Oxytocin probably does some very basic things, but once you add our higher-order thinking and social situations, these basic processes could manifest in different ways depending on individual differences and context.’

Questions 14-17
Reading Passage 2 has six section, A-F.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 14-17 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

14. reference to research showing the beneficial effects of oxytocin on people

15. reasons why the effects of oxytocin are complex

16. mention of a period in which oxytocin attracted little scientific attention

17. reference to people ignoring certain aspects of their research data

Questions 18-20
Look at the following research findings (Questions 18-20) and the list of researchers below. Match each research finding with the correct researcher, A-F. Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 18-20 on your answer sheet.
18. People are more trusting when affected by oxytocin.

19. Oxytocin increases people’s feelings of jealousy.

20. The effect of oxytocin varies from one type of person to another.

List of Researchers

A. Markus Heinrichs
B. Simone Shamay-Tsoory
C. Jennifer Bartz
D. Carolyn DeClerck
E. Carsten De Dreu
F. Sue Carter

Questions 21-26
Complete the summary below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 21-26 on your answer sheet.

Oxytocin research

The earliest findings about oxytocin and bonding came from research involving 21……………………….. It was also discovered that humans produce oxytocin during 22………………………… An experiment in 2005, in which participants were given either oxytocin or a 23…………………………, reinforced the belief that the hormone had a positive effect.

However, later research suggests that this is not always the case. A study at the University of Haifa where participants took part in a 24……………………….. revealed the negative emotions which oxytocin can trigger. A study at the University of Antwerp showed people’s lack of willingness to help 25………………………. while under the influence of oxytocin. Meanwhile, research at the University of Amsterdam revealed that people who have been given oxytocin consider 26……………………….. that are familiar to them in their own country to have more positive associations than those from other cultures.