Cave fauna

reading
READING 

√ The Tintin books.
√ Cave fauna
√ Sadie and her son
√ The Cricket Tour



Part 1 For 1-18, read the texts below and decide which answer (А, В, С or D) best fits each gap. Mark your answers on the separate answer sheet.

 

The Tintin books.

 

What is so special about Georges 'Herge' Remi's tales of the adventures of a boy called Tintin,

created for a newspaper in Belgium in the 1920s, that they should have (1) .... being translated
into more than 50 languages and selling more than 120 million copies? How is it that they have
managed to endure for so long? One reason may be Herge's extraordinary attention to detail. He
constantly revised and improved Tintin's original black-and-white adventures to make them more
(2) .... to new audiences. And he based all his illustrations on an extensive personal library of
photographs which he (3) .... over the years.
In a career of more than 50 years, Herge produced only 24 Tintin books. Had he been less
meticulous, he might well have been a lot more (4) .... , but I doubt he would have been so widely
loved and admired. Picking up a Tintin book the other day for the first time in many years, I found
myself (5) .... between the urge to race through the story and an (6) .... to linger on the visual
detail.

         

1 A turned out

В

finished off

С come to

D ended up

2 A relevant

В

apt

С applicable

D fitting

3 A amassed

В

mustered

С convened

   D swelled

4 A abundant

В

prolific

С fruitful

  D profuse

5 A pulled

в

drawn

С lured

D torn

6 A impetus

в

incentive

С impulse

   D intuition

 

Cave fauna

For the past 35 years a professor of zoology named Valerio Sbordoni has explored the caves and underground chambers of Mexico in search of new forms of life. He has found these in abundance, to say the least. To (7) .... Sbordoni has discovered more than 150 species of (8) .... unknown cave-dwelling creatures. In one chamber (9) .... , he found over forty (10) .... species of butterfly, an incredible variety for such an inhospitable environment.

Many of these species, Sbordoni believes, (11) .... underground millions of years ago to avoid extinction and adapted to life beneath the earths surface. Obviously, conditions for life underground are far from ideal, and Sbordoni believes that only severe climatic changes, probably caused by shifting glaciers, could (12).... such a migration.

 

7

A now

В present

С today

D date

8

A hitherto

В hereby

С henceforth

D herewith

9

A exclusively

В only

С alone

D solely

10

A dissimilar

В distinct

С disparate

D disconnected

11

A retired

В shrank

С retreated

D departed

12

A conjure up

В account for

С bear out

D carry off

Sadie and her son

A combination of boredom and, increasingly, absenteeism, ensured that the standard of Erics work declined alarmingly. Sadie, who had hoped that her son would do well at school, was too (13).... a mother to have remained unaware of the problem for very long, but when the school reports started to (14) .... just how poorly he was faring, she felt shocked and angry.

One report (15) .... curtly that Eric was 45th out of 49 pupils. Sadie, typically, was determined that her son should arrest his dizzying decline as speedily as possible and then - she hoped - start to improve. She visited the school and offered to pay for further tuition but was told, It would be money down the (16) .... This rejection only seemed to (17) .... Sadie on in her search for a sutable e career for Eric. It surprised no one who knew her that she reacted to the undeniably (18) .... disappointment of this setback in such a remarkably spirited and positive manner.

 

13

A

engrossed

В mindful

С riveted

D attentive

14

A

proclaim

В advocate

С denote

  D underline

15

A

professed

В announced

С aired

D uttered

16 

A

pipe

В drain

С sink

D gutter

17

A

spur

В press

С incite

D boost

18

A

vivid

В stark

С bitter

D hard

 

 

Part 2
You are going to read four extracts which are all concerned in some with sport.
For questions choose the answer (А, В, С or D) which you think fits best according to the text.
Mark your answers on the separate answer sheet.

The Cricket Tour

As the plane took off for the England cricket tour to Australia, I was facing a challenge. Less than six weeks earlier I had been a professional cricketer, but since then I had switched camps and joined the press corps. While many other cricketers have retired to write about the game, none had started their new careers at the sharp end in the world of tabloid journalism. I was only too aware of the manner in which the majority of players viewed the press. ‘Vultures,’ was what I had heard one call them a few years before, and I wondered how long it would be before I, too, was dismissed in that derogatory fashion.

To make matters worse, I knew that my presence had provoked a feeling of resentment in more than one of the journalists on that plane. It was not a personal dislike but concern, based on self-preservation, that a cricketer with little or no training could just saunter in and take an experienced reporter’s job. So I was most relieved to find that I was sitting next to Colin Bateman of the Daily Express, whom I had known for some time. We had become friends. Now, however, we would be in direct competition. I asked him if he was planning to write anything that night.

‘Of course,’ he retorted.

‘But all we’ve done is got on a plane.’

With a wry smile he replied: ‘Welcome to journalism.’

19 What made the writer different from other retired cricketers who had become writers?

 

A how recent his experience of being a player was
B the kind of newspaper he had gone to work for
C his acceptance of the fact that players would now dislike him
D the nature of his relationships with other cricketers

 

20 What does the writer imply about some of the other journalists on the plane?

 

A They realised that he would have an advantage over them.
B They instinctively regarded newcomers to their group with suspicion.
C Their attitude resulted from lack of confidence in their own abilities.
D Their disapproval of his presence was understandable.

     

       Industrial relations in football

         

        Industrial relations in football in Britain, it seems, are tied to a form of
        language that makes measured assessment difficult and causes illfeeling by
        its very nature. Just as player-manager relations are conducted in the
        outdated language of the traditional factory floor, so the terminology used
        to describe changing jobs, 'buying' and 'selling' players, distorts the reality.
        Both sides suffer from this: the management accuses some players of greed
        or disloyalty,while the players feel the club treats them cynically,as if they
        were disposable objects.

         

        In the real world, though, people move from one job to another all the line 9
        time. They aren't bought or sold, they resign, sign a new contract with
        another business, have a change. Sometimes, if they have signed a longterm
        contract, their old employers refuse to let them go, or demand to be
        compensated. In fact, life in the corporate world is generally less well paid,
        less secure and more demanding than it is in the world of professional
        football. The resentment that players feel about 'being sold' is probably
        created more by the language used to describe the process than by the
        process itself.This all has a tendency to descend into stereotypes: the
        gentleman chairman who considers himself a model of good business
        behaviour, and the hypersensitive player who thinks he is being treated as
        a disposable commodity.

         

        21 What is the writer's point about employment in 'the real world' (line 9)?

         

        A It involves using terminology that avoids the reality of situations.
        B It has similarities with employment in the world of football.
        C It is something that football players would not be suited to.
        D It operates on a more logical basis than employment in football.

         

        22 What does the writer imply about football players in the extract as a whole?

         

        A They have no genuine cause for complaint about the way they are treated.
        B They have too high an opinion of their own worth.
        C They pretend that they are not primarily motivated by selfish aims.
        D They are the victims of an outdated system.



              Why do we need sport?
              Spectators play vicariously when watching football. After ninety minutes
              of a close match between your team and the local rivals, you can feel
              palpable exhaustion. Just as when you are in a car being driven at speed by
              someone you do not trust, during the match you kick every ball and feel
              the agony of every shot that goes off~target. The tribalism of sport is well
              documented. It is just play - dressing in the team colours, crying when you
              lose in the final - but it enriches lives. The players themselves kiss, stamp,
              shout and perform cartwheels, but they are being paid to play and have to
              perform in front of hundreds or thousands or even millions of critical
              supporters.
              We all need sport to exert our freedom of spirit in this polite and ordered
              world. We need to be able to cavort and weep, to swear and sweat, to want
              to win at all costs when the cost is nothing. In sport we experience pure
              joy, there is no sense of our place in any hierarchy, and we feel warm when
              we remember our most recent triumph.

               

              23 Which of the following does the writer imply with regard to football spectators?

               

              A They lack control over events.
              B They have unrealistic expectations.
              C They are ashamed of their behaviour.
              D They have a sense of superiority.

               

              24 In the second paragraph, the writer says that sport is important because it

               

              A enables people to confront their fears.
              B improves people's self-esteem.
              C brings people together in a common cause.
              D takes people's minds off serious matters.



                  The Tennis Coach
                  The verdict was: 'You can be fixed.' My long-time tennis guru volleyed the ball
                  across the net with a grin which seemed to threaten as much as it promised.
                  My elbow ached and my feet pinched in this season's shoes. But I believed.
                  Therefore Iwas here, on the courts of the Hotel Hermitage -like an old banger
                  rolled into the body shop, ready and willing to be fixed.

                   

                  I was a vintage model- slow to start, running erratically - and my game was
                  riddled with rust spots. It took a master craftsman like Mark Nicklessto pound
                  out the dents in my forehand and put some spring back into my suspension.
                  This latter fix was accomplished in seconds. He showed me how to hit from
                  the legs, instead of windmilling my arms. The ache in my elbow ceased.

                   

                  My mechanic was a Californian whom I have followed around the world as
                  he perfected his idiosyncratic teaching technique in a dozen resorts. 'Location,
                  location, location,' he intoned, drawing lines in the clay to show that for each
                  shot I delivered across the net there was only one perfect position. Being in
                  the right place not only reduces the wear and tear of racing mindlessly around
                  the court, it allowed me to focus on the way the point was likely to develop.
                  'Anticipation,' Nickless said, 'wins more points than perspiration.'

                   

                  Not that there was not a lot of sweat and swearing in the lessonsahead. But
                  here were sublime moments, too - and breakthroughs in stroke mechanics
                  which I prayed would stay with me, at least through the summer.

                     

                    25   Which of the following does the writer emphasise during the extract?

                                A   how strange he found the coach’s methods

                      В   how hard it was for him to improve as a player

                        С   how much he trusted the coach

                                   D    how nervous he was during lessons


                              26 The writer implies that during the lessons

                                       

                                        A he played shots that he will not always be able to play.

                                  В  he began to overestimate his abilities as a player.

                                    С   he made a special effort to remain calm.

                                               D    he could not always put in the effort required of him.

                                      You are going to read an extract from a novel. Seven paragraphs have been removed from the extract. Choose from the paragraphs A-H the one which fits each gap (27-33). There is one extra paragraph which you do not need to use.

                                       

                                      Mark your answers on the separate answer sheet.

                                      The Play

                                       

                                       

                                       Briony Tallis was one of those children possessed by a desire to have the world just so. Whereas her big sister’s room was a stew of unclosed books, unfolded clothes and unmade bed, Briony's was a shrine to her controlling demon: the model farm spread across a deep window ledge consisted of the usual animals, but all facing one way - towards their owner - as if about to break into song, and even the farmyard hens were neatly corralled. In fact, Briony’s was the only tidy upstairs room in the house.

                                       

                                      27-

                                      Another was a passion for secrets: in a prized varnished cabinet, a secret drawer was opened by pushing against the grain of a cleverly turned dovetail joint, and here she kept a locked diary, and a notebook written in a code of her own invention. An old tin box hidden under a removable floorboard beneath her bed contained treasures that dated back four years to her ninth birthday. But all this could not conceal from Briony the simple truth: she had no secrets.

                                      28-

                                      The unfortunate truth was that nothing in her life was sufficiently interesting or shameful to merit hiding. None of this was particularly an affliction; or rather, it appeared so only in retrospect, once a solution had been found. At the age of eleven she wrote her first story - a foolish affair, imitative of half a dozen folk tales and lacking, she realised later, that vital knowingness about the ways of the world that compels a reader's respect.

                                      29-

                                      Even writing out the she saids, the and thens, made her wince, and she felt foolish, appearing to know about the emotions of an imaginary being. Self­exposure was inevitable the moment she described a characters weakness; the reader was bound to speculate that she was describing herself.

                                      30-

                                      Her efforts received encouragement. In fact, the Tallises soon realised that the baby of the family possessed a strange mind and a facility with words. The long afternoons she spent browsing through dictionary and thesaurus made for constructions that were inept, but hauntingly so. Briony was encouraged to read her stories aloud in the library and it surprised her parents and older sister to hear their quiet girl perform so boldly, unapologetically demanding her familys total attention as she cast her narrative spell. Even without their praise and obvious pleasure, Briony could not have been held back from her writing.

                                      31-

                                      If this was supposed to be a joke, Briony ignored it. She was on course now, and had found satisfaction on other levels; writing stories not only involved secrecy, it also gave her all the pleasures of miniaturisation.

                                      32-

                                      Her passion for tidiness was also satisfied, for the unruly aspects of our existence could be made just so. A crisis in a heroines life could be made to coincide with hailstones and thunder, whereas nuptials were generally blessed with good light and soft breezes. A love of order also shaped the principles of justice, with death and marriage the main engines of house­keeping, the former being set aside exclusively for the morally dubious, the latter a reward withheld until the final page.

                                      The Trials of Arabella, the play Briony wrote for her brothers homecoming, was her first excursion into drama. She had found the transition quite effortless. It was a relief not to be writing out the she saids, or describing the weather or the onset of spring or her heroines face - beauty, she had discovered, occupied a narrow band.

                                       

                                      33-

                                       

                                      The play may have been a melodrama, but its author had yet to hear the term. The innocent intensity with which Briony set about the project made her particularly vulnerable to failure. She could easily have welcomed her brother with another of her stories, but it was the news that her cousins were coming to stay that had prompted this leap into a new form.

                                       


                                       A An entire world could be created in five pages, and one that was more pleasing than a model farm. The childhood of a spoiled prince could be framed within half a page, a moonlit dash through sleepy villages was one rhythmically emphatic sentence, falling in love could be achieved in a single word - a glance. The pages of a recently finished story seemed to vibrate in her hand with all the life they contained.

                                       

                                      В A room near Brionys had been dusted down, new curtains had been hung and furniture carried in from other rooms. Normally, she would have been involved in these preparations, but they coincided with her two-day writing bout.

                                      С Only when a story was finished, all fates resolved and the whole matter sealed off at both ends so it resembled, at least in this one respect, every other finished story in the world, could she feel immune, and ready to bind the chapters with string, paint or draw the cover, and take the finished work to show to her mother or her father.

                                      D In any case, she was discovering, as had many writers before her, that not all recognition is helpful. Cecilias enthusiasm, for example, seemed a little overstated, tainted with condescension perhaps, and intrusive too; her big sister wanted each bound story catalogued and placed on the library shelves, between Rabindranath Tagore and Quintus Tertullian.

                                      E What was unpleasant and distasteful, on the other hand, had infinite variation. A universe reduced to what was said in it was tidiness indeed, almost to the point of nullity, and to compensate, every utterance was delivered at the extremity of some feeling or other, in the service of which the exclamation mark was indispensable.

                                      F But this early attempt showed her that the imagination itself was a source of secrets: while she was writing a story, no one could be told. Pretending in words was too tentative, too vulnerable, too embarrassing to let anyone know.

                                      G Her straight-backed dolls in their many-roomed mansion appeared to be under strict instructions not to touch the walls; the various thumb-sized figures to be found standing about her dressing table suggested by their even ranks and spacing a citizens army awaiting orders. This taste for the miniature was just one aspect of an orderly spirit.

                                      H Her wish for a harmonious, organised world denied her the reckless possibilities of wrongdoing. Mayhem and destruction were too chaotic for her tastes, and she did not have it in her to be cruel. Her effective status as an only child, as well as the relative isolation of the Tallis house, kept her, at least during the long summer holidays, from girlish intrigues with friends.

                                       


                                      Part 4

                                      You are going to read an extract from a book about music. For questions 34-40, choose the answer (А, В, С or D) which you think fits best according to the text.

                                      Mark your answers on the separate answer sheet.

                                       

                                      Folk Music & Blues Music

                                       

                                      The most crucial, as well as the most frequently over­looked, point about 'folk music' is that the constituency whom it most truly represents doesn't consider it to be 'folk music', but simply their music. 'Folk music' is, invariably, a term applied from outside the cultures and communities to which it refers. In terms of theory, 'folk music' - the traditional set of forms, styles and songs indigenous to a people, a culture or a locale - is radically distinguishable from 'art' music, of both the classical and avant-garde varieties, and from 'popular' music, mass- produced for and mass-marketed to a mass audience. In practice, it's getting harder and harder to tell them apart.

                                      Before the advent of recording, distinctions between categories of music were not so much based on the music itself as on who it was by and for. Such distinctions were a reflection of the class system, which is not sur­prising since these are essentially European definitions, and reflect prevailing European social structures. European classical music operates according to a strict hierarchical structure, with the composer (the monarch, so to speak) at the top. The composer's wishes are inter­preted and enforced by the conductor (the general) and carried out by the orchestra (the troops). During their life­times, the great composers often also functioned as the featured soloists, but after their deaths their music became fixed and formalised; those who succeeded them rarely inherited their licence to improvise.

                                      The classic model of 'folk' is the similarly formal tradi­tion of the Anglo-American ballads, with their fixed musical structures and set narrative lines. To perform one of these ballads, a singer is by definition required to pre­serve intact both its storyline and its musical setting. The Anglo-American use of the term 'folk' music implies that such music exists, simply and solely, to fulfil the needs of a particular community. They develop it by and for them­selves over a period of centuries as part of a single collective process, only slightly more personal to any given individual than the shaping of a rock by water. Through oral transmission, it filters down through the generations, serving both as a touchstone of the com­munity's history and values, and as an index of how its communal life has changed. It is this latter attribute which many traditionalists find alarming or repugnant. Forthem, the key element is the preservation of a piece's pure and unsullied essence, and the imposition of an alien style onto a traditional piece is deemed an act of presumption verging on outright heresy; at the very least, it effectively amputates the piece from its native roots.

                                      In the blues world, the picture is far more complex. Blues obeys a different set of imperatives and simul­taneously holds the following truths to be self-evident: yes, there is a strong and very clearly defined tradition, and, yes, its practitioners are expected to improvise freely within it, recreating it anew to meet the immediate needs of both performer and audience. There are set themes, and there are specified functions: dance songs, work songs, celebrations, laments, love songs, hate songs, and so forth. The tradition is unfixed; indeed, it demands to be freshly reinvented with each perfor­mance, recreated anew to reflect the changing needs and circumstances of its time and place. Blues artists both ancient and modern have worked from a 'common stock of folk materials: instrumental motifs and vocal tics, melodies, lyrical tags, chord progressions and even com­plete songs are derived directly from the tradition, and some of them long predate the era of recording, let alone the conventional mechanics of publishing and copyright laws. What counts above all in the blues is individuality: the development ofa unique and unmistakable voice, the ability to place an ineradicable personal stamp on those 'common stock' materials freely available to all. While instrumental dexterity, vocal facility and stylistic versatil­ity are heartily respected within the blues community, what distinguishes the truly great from the merely pro­fessional is the fully realized man (orwoman)'s communi­cated essence of self; the ability to serve as a conduit for the full gamut of human emotion, to feel those emotions with sufficient depth andintensity to reach out and touch listeners in places that those listeners might not even have known thatthey had. Without exception, every blues singer who has managed to pull ahead of the pack or haul himself (or herself) from the hordes of hopefuls chasing the blues-lovers' dollar has this quality. Any competent blues artist should have the ability to entertain - those who don't should simply find another line of work before they starve to death - but the measure of true mastery, from the 1920s pioneers to the contemporary brand leaders, is the scale on which performers are capable of being themselves in public. And, by extension, the depth and complexity of that self. To serve as a neutral trans­mitter simply doesn't cut it here.

                                       

                                       

                                       


                                      34     What point does the writer make about the term folk music in the first paragraph?

                                      A It is no longer possible to be clear about what it covers.

                                      В It has become totally outdated.

                                      С It is resented by certain people.

                                      D It is sometimes wrongly applied to certain types of music.

                                      35     Which of the following does the writer say about European classical music?

                                      A   Criticism of its rigid structure is commonplace.

                                      В   Too much respect is paid to composers while they are alive.

                                      С   It could not function without the obedience of those involved.

                                      D   The system by which it operates affects its quality.

                                      36     The writer uses the image of a rock to illustrate

                                        A the role that 'folk' music plays in people's lives.

                                          В   the strength of the tradition of folk music.

                                            С   the process by which folk music is created.

                                                     D   the unchanging nature of folk music.


                                                    37     The writer says that certain people disapprove of some kinds of folk music on the grounds that

                                                      A   it fails to exploit the musics true spirit.

                                                        В   it misrepresents the way their community lives.

                                                          С   it combines styles which do not sound good together.

                                                            D   it shows disrespect for the traditions of the music.

                                                              38     The writer repeats the word yes near the beginning of the fourth paragraph to

                                                                A underline that he really means what he is saying.

                                                                  В   emphasise that contrasting beliefs co-exist within blues music.

                                                                    С   anticipate the readers questions about blues music.

                                                                             D   convey his personal enthusiasm for blues music.


                                                                            39     What does the writer imply about the common stock of materials in blues music?

                                                                              A Some artists are less keen to make use of it than others.

                                                                                В Certain themes within it vary in popularity from time to time.

                                                                                  С It is difficult to prove who wrote songs contained in it.

                                                                                    D It is unlikely to maintain its popularity.

                                                                                      40     What does the writer imply about individuality in blues music?

                                                                                        A It is more highly regarded than great musical ability.

                                                                                          В It involves drawing on experiences unique to the particular performer.

                                                                                            С It includes the expression of a surprising combination of emotions.

                                                                                              D It is more likely to be conveyed vocally than by the playing of an instrument.

                                                                                                 

                                                                                                   

                                                                                                  Key
                                                                                                  Reading
                                                                                                  Part 1
                                                                                                  1D 2А ЗА 4В 5D 6C 7D 8A 9С 10В 11С 12В 13D 14D 15В 16В 17A 18 С
                                                                                                  Part 2
                                                                                                  19В 20D 21В 22A 23A 24D 25С 26A
                                                                                                  Part 3
                                                                                                  27G 28H 29F 30С 31D 32A33E
                                                                                                  Part 4
                                                                                                  34A 35С 36С 37D 38В 39С 40 A

                                                                                                     

                                                                                                     

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