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READING PASSAGE 1

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

 

Sustainable architecture - lessons from the ant

 

Termite mounds were the inspiration for an innovative design in sustainable living

 

Africa owes its termite mounds a lot. Trees and shrubs take root in them. Prospectors mine them, looking for specks of gold carried up by termites from hundreds of metres below. And of course, they are a special treat to aardvarks and other insectivores.

 

Now, Africa is paying an offbeat tribute to these towers of mud. The extraordinary Eastgate Building in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital city, is said to be the only one in the world to use the same cooling and heating principles as the termite mound.

 

Termites in Zimbabwe build gigantic mounds inside which they farm a fungus that is their primary food source. This must be kept at exactly 30.5°C, while the temperatures on the African yeld outside can range from 1.5°C at night only just above freezing to a baking hot 40°C during the day. The termites achieve this remarkable feat by building a system of vents in the mound. Those at the base lead down into chambers cooled by wet mud carried up from water tables far below, and others lead up through a Hue to the peak of the mound. By constantly opening and closing these heating and cooling vents over the course of the day the termites succeed in keeping the temperature constant in spite of the wide fluctuations outside.

 

Architect Mick Pearce used precisely the same strategy when designing the Eastgate Building, which has no air conditioning and virtually no heating. The building the country's largest commercial and shopping complex uses less than I0% of the energy of a conventional building ns size. These efficiencies translated directly to the bottom line: the Eastgate’s owners saved $3.5 million on a $36 million building because an air- conditioning plant didn't have to be imported. These savings were also passed on to tenants: rents are 20% lower than in a new building next door.

 

The complex is actually two buildings linked by bridges across a shady, glass-roofed atrium open to the breezes. Fans suck fresh air in from the atrium, blow it upstairs through hollow spaces under the floors and from there into each office through baseboard vents. As it rises and warms, it is drawn out via ceiling vents and finally exits through forty- eight brick chimneys.

 

To keep the harsh, high yeld sun from heating the interior, no more than 25% of the outside is glass, and all the windows are screened by cement arches that just out more than a metre.

 

During summer’s cool nights, big fans flush air through the building seven times an hour to chill the hollow floors. By day, smaller fans blow two changes of air an hour through the building, to circulate the air which has been in contact with the cool floors. For winter days, there are small heaters in the vents.

 

This is all possible only because Harare is 1600 feet above sea level, has cloudless skies, little humidity and rapid temperature swings days as warm as 3l°C commonly drop to 14°C at night. ‘You couldn’t do this in New York, with its fantastically hot summers and fantastically cold winters,’ Pearce said. But then his eyes lit up at the challenge.' Perhaps you could store the summer's heat in water somehow.

 

The engineering firm of Ove Amp & Partners, which worked with him on the design, monitors daily temperatures outside, under the floors and at knee, desk and ceiling level. Ove Arup's graphs show that the temperature of the building has generally stayed between 23"C and 25°C. with the exception of the annual hot spell just before the summer rains in October, and three days in November, when a janitor accidentally switched off the fans at night. The atrium, which funnels the winds through, can be much cooler. And the air is fresh far more so than in air-conditioned buildings, where up to 30% of the air is recycled.

 

Pearce, disdaining smooth glass skins as ‘igloos in the Sahara’, calls his building, with its exposed girders and pipes, ‘spiky’. The design of the entrances is based on the porcupine-quill headdresses of the local Shona tribe. Elevators are designed to look like the mineshaft cages used in Zimbabwe's diamond mines. The shape of the fan covers, and the stone used in their construction, are echoes of Great Zimbabwe, the ruins that give the country its name.

 

Standing on a roof catwalk, peering down inside at people as small as termites below. Pearce said he hoped plants would grow wild in the atrium and pigeons and bats would move into it. like that termite fungus, further extending the whole 'organic machine’ metaphor. The architecture, he says, is a regionalised style that responds to the biosphere, to the ancient traditional stone architecture of Zimbabwe's past, and to local human resources.

 

Questions 1-5

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

Write your answers in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.

 

1 Why do termite mounds have a system of vents?

A to allow the termites to escape from predators

B to enable the termites to produce food

C to allow the termites to work efficiently

D to enable the termites to survive at night

 

2 Why was Eastgate cheaper to build than a conventional building?

A Very few materials were imported.

B Its energy consumption was so low.

C Its tenants contributed to the costs.

D No air conditioners were needed.

 

3 Why would a building like Eastgate not work efficiently in New York?

A Temperature change occurs seasonally rather than daily.

B Pollution affects the storage of heat in the atmosphere.

C Summer and winter temperatures are too extreme.

D Levels of humidity affect cloud coverage.

 

4 What does Ove Arup’s data suggest about Eastgate’s temperature control system?

A It allows a relatively wide range of temperatures.

B The only problems are due to human error.

C It functions well for most of the year.

D The temperature in the atrium may fall too low.

 

5 Pearce believes that his building would be improved by

A becoming more of a habitat for wildlife.

B even closer links with the history of Zimbabwe.

C giving people more space to interact with nature.

D better protection from harmful organisms.

 

Questions 6-10

Complete the sentences below with words taken from Reading Passage 1.

Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 6-10 on your answer sheet.

 

6 Warm air leaves the offices through…………

7 The warm air leaves the building through ………….

8 Heat from the sun is prevented from reaching the windows by …………

9 When the outside temperature drops ………….bring air in from outside.

10 On cold days ………… raise the temperature in the offices.

 

Questions 11-13

Answer the question below, using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet.

 

Which three parts of the Eastgate Building reflect important features of Zimbabwe’s history and culture?

A entrances

B quill

C cages

D elevators

E fan covers

F stone

 

 

 

READING PASSAGE 2

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

 

Secrets of the Forest

 

A

In 1942 Allan R Holmberg, a doctoral student in anthropology from Yale University, USA, ventured deep into the jungle of Bolivian Amazonia and searched out an isolated band of Siriono Indians. The Siriono, Holmberg later wrote, led a "strikingly backward” existence. Their villages were little more than clusters of thatched huts. Life itself was a perpetual and punishing search for food: some families grew manioc and other starchy crops in small garden plots cleared from the forest, while other members of the tribe scoured the country for small game and promising fish holes. When local resources became depleted, the tribe moved on.

 

As for technology, Holmberg noted, the Siriono "may be classified among the most handicapped peoples of the world". Other than bows, arrows and crude digging sticks, the only tools the Siriono seemed to possess were "two machetes worn to the size of pocket- knives".

 

B

Although the lives of the Siriono have changed in the intervening decades, the image of them as Stone Age relics has endured. Indeed, in many respects the Siriono epitomize the popular conception of life in Amazonia. To casual observers, as well as to influential natural scientists and regional planners, the luxuriant forests of Amazonia seem ageless, unconquerable, a habitat totally hostile to human civilization. The apparent simplicity of Indian ways of life has been judged an evolutionary adaptation to forest ecology, living proof that Amazonia could not - and cannot - sustain a more complex society. Archaeological traces of far more elaborate cultures have been dismissed as the ruins of invaders from outside the region, abandoned to decay in the uncompromising tropical environment.

 

C

The popular conception of Amazonia and its native residents would be enormously consequential if it were true. But the human history of Amazonia in the past 11,000 years betrays that view as myth. Evidence gathered in recent years from anthropology and archaeology indicates that the region has supported a series of indigenous cultures for eleven thousand years; an extensive network of complex societies - some with populations perhaps as large as 100,000 - thrived there for more than 1,000 years before the arrival of Europeans. (Indeed, some contemporary tribes, including the Siriono, still live among the earthworks of earlier cultures.) Far from being evolutionarily retarded, prehistoric Amazonian people developed technologies and cultures that were advanced for their time. If the lives of Indians today seem "primitive", the appearance is not the result of some environmental adaptation or ecological barrier; rather it is a comparatively recent adaptation to centuries of economic and political pressure. Investigators who argue otherwise have unwittingly projected the present onto the past.

 

D

The evidence for a revised view of Amazonia will take many people by surprise. Ecologists have assumed that tropical ecosystems were shaped entirely by natural forces and they have focused their research on habitats they believe have escaped human influence. But as the University of Florida ecologist, Peter Feinsinger, has noted, an approach that leaves people out of the equation is no longer tenable. The archaeological evidence shows that the natural history of Amazonia is to a surprising extent tied to the activities of its prehistoric inhabitants.

 

E

The realization comes none too soon. In June 1992 political and environmental leaders from across the world met in Rio de Janeiro to discuss how developing countries can advance their economies without destroying their natural resources. The challenge is especially difficult in Amazonia. Because the tropical forest has been depicted as ecologically unfit for large-scale human occupation, some environmentalists have opposed development of any kind.

 

Ironically, one major casualty of that extreme position has been the environment itself. While policy makers struggle to define and implement appropriate legislation, development of the most destructive kind has continued apace over vast areas.

 

F

The other major casualty of the "naturalism" of environmental scientists has been the indigenous Amazonians, whose habits of hunting, fishing, and slash-and-burn cultivation often have been represented as harmful to the habitat. In the clash between environmentalists and developers, the Indians, whose presence is in fact crucial to the survival of the forest, have suffered the most. The new understanding of the pre-history of Amazonia, however, points toward a middle ground. Archaeology makes clear that with judicious management selected parts of the region could support more people than anyone thought before. The long- buried past, it seems, offers hope for the future.

 

Questions 14-16

Reading Passage 2 has six sections A-F.

Choose the most suitable headings for sections A, B and D from the list of headings below.

Write the appropriate numbers i-vii in boxes 1-3 on your answer sheet.

 

List of Headings

i Amazonia as unable to sustain complex societies

ii The role of recent technology in ecological research in Amazonia

iii The hostility of the indigenous population to North American influences

iv Recent evidence

v Early research among the Indian Amazons

vi The influence of prehistoric inhabitants on Amazonian natural history

vii The great difficulty of changing local attitudes and practices

 

14 Section A

15 Section B

16 Section D

 

 

Questions 17-22

Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 2?

In boxes 4-9 on your answer sheet write

YES         if the statement agrees with the views of the writer

NO         if the statement contradicts the views of the writer

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

 

17 The reason for the simplicity of the Indian way of life is that Amazonia has always been unable to support a more complex society.

18 There is a crucial popular misconception about the human history of Amazonia.

19 There are lessons to be learned from similar ecosystems in other parts of the world.

20 Most ecologists were aware that the areas of Amazonia they were working in had been shaped by human settlement.

21 The indigenous Amazonian Indians are necessary to the well-being of the forest.

22 It would be possible for certain parts of Amazonia to support a higher population.

 

Questions 23-26

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

Write the correct letter in boxes 25-26 on your answer sheet.

 

23 In 1942 the US anthropology student concluded that the Siriono

A were unusually aggressive and cruel.

B had had their way of life destroyed by invaders.

C were an extremely primitive society.

D had only recently made permanent settlements.

 

24 The author believes recent discoveries of the remains of complex societies in Amazonia

A are evidence of early indigenous communities.

B are the remains of settlements by invaders.

C are the ruins of communities established since the European invasions.

D show the region has only relatively recently been covered by forest.

 

25 The assumption that the tropical ecosystem of Amazonia has been created solely by natural forces

A has often been questioned by ecologists in the past.

B has been shown to be incorrect by recent research.

C was made by Peter Feinsinger and other ecologists.

D has led to some fruitful discoveries.

 

26 The application of our new insights into the Amazonian past would

A warn us against allowing any development at all.

B cause further suffering to the Indian communities.

C change present policies on development in the region.

D reduce the amount of hunting, fishing, and ‘slash-and-burn’.

 

 

 

 

READING PASSAGE 3

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

 

Global Warming in New Zealand

 

For many environmentalists, the world seems to be getting warmer. As the nearest country of South Polar Region, New Zealand has maintained an upward trend in its average temperature in the past few years. However, the temperature in New Zealand will go up 4oC in the next century while the polar region will go up more than 6oC. The different pictures of temperature stem from its surrounding ocean which acts like the air conditioner. Thus New Zealand is comparatively fortunate.

 

Scientifically speaking, this temperature phenomenon in New Zealand originated from what researchers call “SAM” (Southern Annular Mode), which refers to the wind belt that circles the Southern Oceans including New Zealand and Antarctica. Yet recent work has revealed that changes in SAM in New Zealand have resulted in a weakening of moisture during the summer, and more rainfall in other seasons. A bigger problem may turn out to be heavier droughts for agricultural activities because of more water loss from soil, resulting in poorer harvest before winter when the rainfall arrive too late to rescue.

 

Among all the calamities posed be drought, moisture deficit ranks the first. Moisture deficit is the gap between the water plants need during the growing season and the water the earth can offer. Measures of moisture deficit were at their highest since the 1970s in New Zealand. Meanwhile, ecological analyses clearly show moisture deficit is imposed at different growth stage of crops. If moisture deficit occurs around a crucial growth stage, it will cause about 22% reduction in grain yield as opposed to moisture deficit at vegetative phase.

 

Global warming is not only affecting agriculture production. When scientists say the country’s snow pack and glaciers are melting at an alarming rate due to global warming, the climate is putting another strain on the local places. For example, when the development of global warming is accompanied by the falling snow line, the local skiing industry comes into a crisis. The snow line may move up as the temperature goes up, and then the snow at the bottom will melt earlier. Fortunately, it is going to be favorable for the local skiing industry to tide over tough periods since the quantities of snowfall in some areas are more likely to increase.

 

What is the reaction of glacier region? The climate change can be reflected in the glacier region in southern New Zealand or land covered by ice and snow. The reaction of a glacier to a climatic change involves a complex chain of processes. Over time periods of years to several decades, cumulative changes in mass balance cause volume and thickness changes, which will affect the flow of ice via altered internal deformation and basal sliding. This dynamic reaction finally leads to glacier length changes, the advance or retreat of glacier tongues. Undoubtedly, glacier mass balance is a more direct signal of annual atmospheric conditions.

 

The latest research result of National Institute of Water and Atmospheric (NIWA) Research shows that glaciers line keeps moving up because of the impacts of global warming. Further losses of ice can be reflected in Mt. Cook Region. By 1996, a 14 km long sector of the glacier had melted down forming a melt lake (Hooker Lake) with a volume. Melting of the glacier front at a rate of 40 m/yr will cause the glacier to retreat at a rather uniform rate. Therefore, the lake will continue to grow until it reaches the glacier bed.

 

A direct result of the melting glaciers is the change of high tides the serves the main factor for sea level rise. The trend of sea level rise will bring a threat to the groundwater system for its hyper-saline groundwater and then pose a possibility to decrease the agricultural production. Many experts believe that the best way to counter this trend is to give a longer-term view of sea level change in New Zealand. Indeed, the coastal boundaries need to be upgraded and redefined.

 

There is no doubt that global warming has affected New Zealand in many aspects. The emphasis on the global warming should be based on the joints efforts of local people and experts who conquer the tough period. For instance, farmers are taking a long term, multi-generational approach to adjust the breeds and species according to the temperature. Agriculturists also find ways to tackle the problems that may bring to the soil. In broad terms, going forward, the systemic resilience that’s been going on a long time in the ecosystem will continue.

 

How about animals’ reaction? Experts have surprisingly realized that animals have unconventional adaptation to global warming. A study has looked at sea turtles on a few northern beaches in New Zealand and it is very interesting to find that sea turtles can become male or female according to the temperature. Further researches will try to find out how rising temperatures would affect the ratio of sex reversal in their growth. Clearly, the temperature of the nest plays a vital role in the sexes of the baby turtles.

 

Tackling the problems of global warming is never easy in New Zealand, because records show the slow process of global warming may have a different impact on various regions. For New Zealand, the emission of carbon dioxide only accounts for 0.5% of the world’s total, which has met the governmental standard.

 

However, New Zealand’s effort counts only a tip of the iceberg. So far, global warming has been a world issue that still hangs in an ambiguous future.

 

 

Questions 27-32

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

Write the correct letter in boxes 27-32 on your answer sheet.

 

27. What is the main idea of the first paragraph?

A The temperature in the polar region will increase less than that in New Zealand in the next century.

B The weather and climate of New Zealand is very important to its people because of its close location to the polar region.

C The air condition in New Zealand will maintain a high quality because of the ocean.

D The temperature of New Zealand will increase less than that of other region in the next 100 years because it is surrounded by sea.

 

28. What is one effect of the wind belt that circles the Southern Oceans?

A New Zealand will have more moisture in winds in summer.

B New Zealand needs to face droughts more often in hotter months in a year.

C Soil water will increase as a result of weakening moisture in the winds

D Agricultural production will be reduced as a result of more rainfall in other seasons.

 

29. What does “moisture deficit” mean to the grain and crops?

A The growing condition will be very tough for crops.

B The growing season of some plants can hardly be determined.

C There will be a huge gap between the water plants needed and the water the earth can offer.

D The soil of the grain and crops in New Zealand reached its lowest production since 1970s.

 

30. What changes will happen to skiing industry due to the global warming phenomenon?

A The skiing station may lower the altitude of skiing

B Part of the skiing station needs to move to the north.

C The snowfall may increase in part of skiing station.

D The local skiing station may likely to make a profit because of the snowfall increase.

 

31. Cumulative changes over a long period of time in mass balance will lead to

A Alterations is the volume and thickness of glaciers.

B Faster changes in internal deformation and basal sliding.

C Larger length of glaciers.

D Retreat of glacier tongues as a result of change in annual atmospheric conditions.

 

32. Why does the writer mention NIWA in the sixth paragraph?

A To use a particular example to explain the effects brought by glacier melting.

B To emphasize the severance of the further loss of ice in Mt. Cook Region.

C To alarm the reader of melting speed of glaciers at a uniform rate.

D To note the lake in the region will be disappear when it reach the glacier bed.

 

Questions 33-35

Complete the summary below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answer in boxes 33-35 on your answer sheet.

 

Research date shows that sea level has a closely relation with the change of climate. The major reason for the increase in sea level is connected with 33………….. The increase in sea level is also said to have a threat to the underground water system, the destruction of which caused by rise of sea level will lead to a high probability of reduction in 34………… In the long run, New Zealand may have to improve the 35…………if they want to diminish the effect change in sea levels.

 

Question 36-40

 

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

In boxes 36-40 on your answer sheet write

YES if the statement agree with the claims of the writer

NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer

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

 

36. Farmers are less responsive to climate change than agriculturists.

37. Agriculture sector is too conservative and resistant to deal with climate change.

38. Turtle is vulnerable to climate change.

39. The global warming is going slowly, and it may have different effects on different areas in New Zealand.

40. New Zealand must cut carbon dioxide emission if they want to solve the problem of global warming.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keys

Passage 1

1. B     

2. D     

3. A     

4. C     

5. A     

6. ceiling vents        

7. (the) (brick) chimneys

8. cement arches

9. (the) big fans

10. (the) (small) heaters

11. A OR D OR E IN EITHER ORDER

12. A OR D OR E IN EITHER ORDER

13. A OR D OR E IN EITHER ORDER

 

 

Passage 2

14. v

15. i

16. vi

17. NO

18. YES

19. NOT GIVEN        

20. NO :

21. YES :

22. YES

23. C

24. A

25. B

26. C

 

Passage 3

27. D

29. B

30. A

31. C

32. A

33. A

34. high tides          

35. agricultural production     

l boundaries

36.NOT GIVEN

37.NOT GIVEN

38.NO

39.YES

40.NO