Academic Reading Passages
READING PASSAGE 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13
which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.
The Impact of the Potato
Jeff
Chapman relates the story of history the most important vegetable
A
The potato was first cultivated in
South America between three and seven thousand years ago, though scientists
believe they may have grown wild in the region as long as 13,000 years ago. The
genetic patterns of potato distribution indicate that the potato probably
originated in the mountainous west-central region of the continent.
B
Early Spanish chroniclers who misused
the Indian word batata (sweet potato) as the name for the potato noted the
importance of the tuber to the Incan Empire. The Incas has learned to preserve
the potato for storage by dehydrating and mashing potatoes into a substance
called Chuchu could be stored in a room for up to 10 years, providing excellent
insurance against possible crop failures. As well as using the food as a staple
crop, the Incas thought potatoes made childbirth easier and used it to treat
injuries.
Fruits & Vegetables
C
The Spanish conquistadors first
encountered the potato when they arrived in Peru in 1532 in search of gold and
noted Inca miners eating chuchu. At the time the Spaniards failed to realize
that the potato represented a far more important treasure than either silver or
gold, but they did gradually begin to use potatoes as basic rations aboard
their ships. After the arrival of the potato in Spain in 1570, a few Spanish
farmers began to cultivate them on a small scale, mostly as food for livestock.
D
Throughout Europe, potatoes were
regarded with suspicion, distaste and fear. Generally considered to be unfit
for human consumption, they were used only as animal fodder and sustenance for
the starving. In northern Europe, potatoes were primarily grown in botanical
gardens as an exotic novelty. Even peasants refused to eat from a plant that
produced ugly, misshapen tubers and that had come from a heathen civilization.
Some felt that the potato plant’s resemblance to plants in the nightshade
family hinted that it was the creation of witches or devils.
Food
E
In meat-loving England, farmers and
urban workers regarded potatoes with extreme distaste. In 1662, the Royal Society
recommended the cultivation of the tuber to the English government and the
nation, but this recommendation had little impact. Potatoes did not become a
staple until during the food shortages associated with the cultivation. In
1795, the Board of Agriculture issued a pamphlet entitled “Hints Respecting the
Culture and Use of Potatoes”; this was followed shortly by pro-potato
editorials and potato recipes in The Times. Gradually, the lower classes began
to follow the lead of the upper classes.
F
A similar pattern emerged across the
English Channel in the Netherlands, Belgium and France. While the potato slowly
gained ground in eastern France (where it was often the only crop remaining
after marauding soldiers plundered wheat fields and vineyards), it did not
achieve widespread acceptance until the late 1700s. The peasants remained
suspicious, in spite of a 1771 paper from the Facult de Paris testifying that
the potato was not harmful but beneficial. The people began to overcome their
distaste when the plant received the royal seal of approval: Louis XVI began to
sport a potato flower in his buttonhole, and Marie-Antoinette wore the purple
potato blossom in her hair.
G
Frederick the Great of Prussia saw the
potato’s potential to help feed his nation and lower the price of bread but
faced the challenge of overcoming the people’s prejudice against the plant.
When he issued a 1774 order for his subjects to grow potatoes as protection
against famine, the town of Kolberg replied: “The things have neither smell nor
taste, not even the dogs will eat them, so what use are they to us?” Trying a
less direct approach to encourage his subjects to begin planting potatoes,
Frederick used a bit of reverse psychology: he planted a royal field of potato
plants and stationed a heavy guard to protect this field from thieves. Nearby
peasants naturally assumed that anything worth guarding was worth stealing, and
so snuck into the field and snatched the plants for their home gardens. Of
course, this was entirely in line with Frederick’s wishes.
Flora & Fauna
H
Historians debate whether the potato
was primarily a cause or an effect of the huge population boom in
industrial-era England and Wales. Prior to 1800, the English diet had consisted
primarily of meat, supplemented by bread, butter and cheese. Few vegetables
were consumed, most vegetables being regarded as nutritionally worthless and
potentially harmful. This view began to change gradually in the late 1700s. The
Industrial Revolution was drawing an ever-increasing percentage of the populace
into crowded cities, where only the richest could afford homes with ovens or
coal storage rooms, and people were working 12-16 hour days which left them
with little time or energy to prepare food. High yielding, easily prepared
potato crops were the obvious solution to England’s food problems.
I
Whereas most of their neighbors
regarded the potato with suspicion and had to be persuaded to use it by the
upper classes, the Irish peasantry embraced the tuber more passionately than
anyone since the Incas. The potato was well suited to the Irish the soil and
climate, and its high yield suited the most important concern of most Irish
farmers: to feed their families.
J
The most dramatic example of the
potato’s potential to alter population patterns occurred in Ireland, where the
potato had become a staple by 1800. The Irish population doubled to eight
million between 1780 and 1841, this without any significant expansion of
industry or reform of agricultural techniques beyond the widespread cultivation
of the potato. Though Irish landholding practices were primitive in comparison
with those of England, the potato’s high yields allowed even the poorest
farmers to produce more healthy food than they needed with scarcely any
investment or hard labor. Even children could easily plant, harvest and cook
potatoes, which of course required no threshing, curing or grinding. The
abundance provided by potatoes greatly decreased infant mortality and
encouraged early marriage.
Questions 1-5
Do the following statements agree with the
views of the writer in Reading Passage 1?
In boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet,
write
TRUE if the statement is true
FALSE if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the
passage
1 The
early Spanish called potato as the Incan name ‘Chuchu’.
2
The purposes of Spanish coming to Peru were to find out potatoes.
Food
3
The Spanish believed that the potato has the same nutrients as other
vegetables.
4
Peasants at the time did not like to eat potatoes because they were
ugly.
5
The popularity of potatoes in the UK was due to food shortages during
the war.
Questions 6-13
Complete the sentences below with NO MORE
THAN ONE WORD from passage 1 for each answer.
Flora & Fauna
Write your answers in boxes 6-13 on
your answer sheet.
6
In France, people started to overcome their disgusting about potatoes
because the King put a potato …………………….. in his button hole.
7
Frederick realized the potential of potato but he had to handle the
…………………… against potatoes from ordinary people.
8
The King of Prussia adopted some ………………………. Psychology to make people
accept potatoes.
9
Before 1800, the English people preferred eating ………………………… with bread,
butter and cheese.
10
The obvious way to deal with England food problems were high yielding
potato……………………
11
The Irish …………………….. and climate suited potatoes well.
12
Between 1780 and 1841, based on the …………………….. of the potatoes, the
Irish population doubled to eight million.
Books & Literature
13 The
potato’s high yields help the poorest farmers to produce more healthy food
almost without…………………….
READING PASSAGE 2
You
should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-27 which are based on
Reading Passage 2 below.
Saving the British Bitterns
A
Breeding
bitterns became extinct in the UK by 1886 but, following re-colonisation early
last century, numbers rose to a peak of about 70 booming (singing) males in the
1950s, falling to fewer than 20 by the 1990s. In the late 1980s, it was clear
that the bittern was in trouble, but there was little information on which to
base recovery actions.
Fruits
& Vegetables
B
Bitterns
have cryptic plumage and shy nature, usually remaining hidden within the cover
of reedbed vegetation. Our first challenge was to develop standard methods to
monitor their numbers. The boom of the male bittern is its most distinctive
feature during the breeding season, and we developed a method to count them
using the sound patterns unique to each individual. This not only allows us to
be much more certain of the number of booming males in the UK but also enables
us to estimate the local survival of males from one year to the next.
C
Our
first direct understanding of the habitat needs of breeding bitterns came from
comparisons of reedbed sites that had lost their booming birds with those that
retained them. This research showed that bitterns had been retained in reedbeds
where the natural process of succession, or drying out, had been slowed through
management. Based on this work, broad recommendations on how to manage and
rehabilitate reedbeds for bitterns were made, and funding was provided through
the EU LIFE Fund to manage 13 sites within the core breeding range. This
project, though led by the RSPB, involved many other organisations.
Food
D
To
refine these recommendations and provide fine-scale, quantitative habitat
prescriptions on the bitterns’ preferred feeding habitat, we radio-tracked male
bitterns on the RSPB’s Minsmere and Leighton Moss reserves. This showed clear
preferences for feeding in the wetter reedbed margins, particularly within the
reedbed next to larger open pools. The average home range sizes of the male
bitterns we followed (about 20 hectares) provided a good indication of the area
of reedbed needed when managing or creating habitat for this species. Female
bitterns undertake all the incubation and care of the young, so it was
important to understand their needs as well. Over the course of our research,
we located 87 bittern nests and found that female bitterns preferred to nest in
areas of continuous vegetation, well into the reedbed, but where water was
still present during the driest part of the breeding season.
E
The
success of the habitat prescriptions developed from this research has been
spectacular. For instance, at Minsmere, booming bittern numbers gradually
increased from one to 10 following reedbed lowering, a management technique
designed to halt the drying out process. After a low point of 11 booming males
in 1997, bittern numbers in Britain responded to all the habitat management
work and started to increase for the first time since the 1950s.
Books
& Literature
F
The
final phase of the research involved understanding the diet, survival and
dispersal of bittern chicks. To do this we fitted small radio tags to young bittern
chicks in the nest, to determine their fate through to fledge and beyond. Many
chicks did not survive to fledging and starvation was found to be the most
likely reason for their demise. The fish prey fed to chicks was dominated by
those species penetrating into the reed edge. So, an important element of
recent studies (including a PhD with the University of Hull) has been the
development of recommendations on habitat and water conditions to promote
healthy native fish populations.
G
Once
independent, radio-tagged young bitterns were found to seek out new sites
during their first winter; a proportion of these would remain on new sites to
breed if the conditions were suitable. A second EU LIFE funded project aims to
provide these suitable sites in new areas. A network of 19 sites developed
through this partnership project will secure a more sustainable UK bittern
population with successful breeding outside of the core area, less vulnerable
to chance events and sea-level rise.
H
By
2004, the number of booming male bitterns in the UK had increased to 55, with
almost all of the increase being on those sites undertaking management based on
advice derived from our research. Although science has been at the core of the
bittern story, success has only been achieved through the trust, hard work and
dedication of all the managers, owners and wardens of sites that have
implemented, in some cases very drastic, management to secure the future of
this wetland species in the UK. The constructed bunds and five major sluices
now control the water level over 82 ha, with a further 50 ha coming under
control in the winter of 2005/06. Reed establishment has principally used
natural regeneration or planted seedlings to provide small core areas that will
in time expand to create a bigger reed area. To date, nearly 275,000 seedlings
have been planted and reed cover is extensive. Over 3 km of new ditches have
been formed, 3.7 km of the existing ditch have been re-profiled and 2.2 km of
old meander (former estuarine features) have been cleaned out.
Science
I
Bitterns
now regularly winter on the site with some indication that they are staying
longer into the spring. No breeding has yet occurred but a booming male was
present in the spring of 2004. A range of wildfowl breed, as well as a good
number of reedbed passerines including reed bunting, reed, sedge and
grasshopper warblers. Numbers of wintering shoveler have increased so that the
site now holds a UK important wintering population. Malltraeth Reserve now
forms part of the UK network of key sites for water vole (a UK priority
species) and 12 monitoring transects have been established. Otter and
brown-hare occur on the sites as does the rare plant, pillwort.
Questions 14-20
The
Reading Passage has eight paragraphs A-H
Choose
the correct heading for paragraphs A-H from the list below.
Write
the correct number, i-viii, in boxes 14-20 on your answer sheet.
Flora
& Fauna
List
of Headings
i research findings into habitats and
decisions made
ii fluctuation in bittern number
iii protect the young bittern
iv international cooperation works
v Began in calculation of the number
vi importance of food
vii Research has been successful
viii research into the reedbed
ix reserve established holding bittern in
winter
14 Paragraph A
15 Paragraph B
16 Paragraph C
17 Paragraph D
Example
Paragraph
A vii
Books
& Literature
18 Paragraph F
19 Paragraph G
20 Paragraph H
Questions 21-26
Answer
the questions below.
Choose
NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each
answer.
21 When did the bird of bitten reach its peak
of number?
22 What does the author describe the bittern’s
character?
23 What is the main cause for the chick
bittern’s death?
24 What is the main food for chick bittern?
Food
25 What system does it secure the stability for
bittern’s population?
26 Besides bittern and rare vegetation, what
mammal does the protection plan benefit?
Question 27
Choose
the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write
your answers in box 27 on your answer sheet.
27 What is the main purpose of this passage?
A Main characteristic of a bird called
bittern.
B Cooperation can protect an endangered
species.
C The difficulty of access information of
bittern’s habitat and diet.
D To
save wetland and reedbed in the UK.
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions
28-40 which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.
Extinct: the Giant Deer
Toothed
cats, mastodons, giant sloths, woolly rhinos, and many other big, shaggy
mammals are widely thought to have died out around the end of the last ice age,
some 10,500 years ago.
A
The
Irish elk is also known as the giant deer (Megaloceros giganteus). Analysis of
ancient bones and teeth by scientists based in Britain and Russia show the huge
herbivore survived until about 5,000 B.C. – more than three millennia later
than previously believed. The research team says this suggests additional
factors, besides climate change, probably hastened the giant deer’s eventual
extinction. The factors could include hunting or habitat destruction by humans.
B
The
Irish elk, so-called because its well-preserved remains are often found in lake
sediments under peat bogs in Ireland, first appeared about 400,000 years ago in
Europe and Central Asia. Through a combination of radiocarbon dating of
skeletal remains and the mapping of locations where the remains were unearthed,
the team shows the Irish elk was widespread across Europe before the last “big
freeze.” The deer’s range later contracted to the Ural Mountains, in modern-day
Russia, which separate Europe from Asia.
C
The
giant deer made its last stand in western Siberia, some 3,000 years after the
ice sheets receded, said the study’s co-author, Adrian Lister, professor of
palaeobiology at University College London, England. “The eastern foothills of
the Urals became very densely forested about 8,000 years ago, which could have
pushed them on to the plain,” he said. He added that pollen analysis indicates
the region then became very dry in response to further climatic change, leading
to the loss of important food plants. “In combination with human pressures,
this could have finally snuffed them out,” Lister said.
Food
D
Hunting
by humans has often been put forward as a contributory cause of extinction of
the Pleistocene megafauna. The team, though, said their new date for the Irish
elk’s extinction hints at an additional human-made problem – habitat
destruction. Lister said, “We haven’t got just hunting 7,000 years ago – this
was also about the time the first Neolithic people settled in the region. They
were farmers who would have cleared the land.” The presence of humans may help
explain why the Irish elk was unable to tough out the latest of many climatic
fluctuations – periods it had survived in the past.
E
Meanwhile,
Lister cast doubt on another possible explanation for the deer’s demise – the
male’s huge antlers. Some scientists have suggested this exaggerated feature –
the result of females preferring stags with the largest antlers, possibly
because they advertised a male’s fitness – contributed to the mammal’s
downfall. They say such antlers would have been a serious inconvenience in the
dense forests that spread northward after the last ice age. But, Lister said,
“That’s a hard argument to make because the deer previously survived perfectly
well through wooded interglacials [warmer periods between ice ages].” Some
research has suggested that a lack of sufficient high-quality forage caused the
extinction of the elk. High amounts of calcium and phosphate compounds are
required to form antlers, and therefore large quantities of these minerals are
required for the massive structures of the Irish Elk. The males (and male deer
in general) met this requirement partly from their bones, replenishing them
from food plants after the antlers were grown or reclaiming the nutrients from
discarded antlers (as has been observed in extant deer). Thus, in the antler
growth phase, Giant Deer was suffering from a condition similar to
osteoporosis. When the climate changed at the end of the last glacial period,
the vegetation in the animal’s habitat also changed towards species that
presumably could not deliver sufficient amounts of the required minerals, at
least in the western part of its range.
Flora
& Fauna
F
The
extinction of megafauna around the world was almost completed by the end of the
last ice age. It is believed that megafauna initially came into existence in
response to glacial conditions and became extinct with the onset of warmer
climates. Tropical and subtropical areas have experienced less radical climatic
change. The most dramatic of these changes was the transformation of a vast
area of North Africa into the world’s largest desert. Significantly, Africa
escaped major faunal extinction as did tropical and sub-tropical Asia. The
human exodus from Africa and our entrance into the Americas and Australia were
also accompanied by climate change. Australia’s climate changed from cold-dry
to warm-dry. As a result, surface water became scarce. Most inland lakes became
completely dry or dry in the warmer seasons. Most large, predominantly browsing
animals lost their habitat and retreated to a narrow band in eastern Australia,
where there were permanent water and better vegetation. Some animals may have
survived until about 7000 years ago. If people have been in Australia for up to
60 000 years, then megafauna must have co-existed with humans for at least 30
000 years. Regularly hunted modern kangaroos survived not only 10 000 years of
Aboriginal hunting, but also an onslaught of commercial shooters.
G
The
group of scientists led by A.J. Stuart focused on northern Eurasia, which he
was taking as Europe, plus Siberia, essentially, where they’ve got the best
data that animals became extinct in Europe during the Late Pleistocene. Some
cold-adapted animals, go through into the last part of the cold stage and then
become extinct up there. So you’ve actually got two phases of extinction. Now,
neither of these coincide – these are Neanderthals here being replaced by
modern humans. There’s no obvious coincidence between the arrival of humans or
climatic change alone and these extinctions. There’s a climatic change here, so
there’s a double effect here. Again, as animals come through to the last part
of the cold stage, here there’s a fundamental change in the climate,
reorganization of vegetation, and the combination of the climatic change and
the presence of humans – of advanced Paleolithic humans – causes this wave of
extinction. There’s a profound difference between the North American data and
that of Europe, which summarize that the extinctions in northern Eurasia, in
Europe, are moderate and staggered, and in North America severe and sudden. And
these things relate to the differences in the timing of human arrival. The
extinction follows from human predation, but only at times of fundamental
changes in the environment.
Questions 28-32
Complete the following summary of the
paragraphs of Reading Passage.
Books & Literature
Using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS
from the Reading Passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 28-32
on your answer sheet.
Having
been preserved well in Europe and Central Asia, the remains of the Irish elk
was initially found approximately 28………………………. Around 29…………………………,
they were driven to live in the plain after being restricted to the Ural
Mountains. Hunting was considered as one of the important factors of Irish
elk’s extinction, people have not started hunting until 30……………………..
when Irish elk used to get through under a variety of climatic fluctuations.
The
huge antlers may possibly contribute to the reason why Irish elk extinct, which
was highly controversial as they live pleasantly over the span of 31……………………….
Generally, it is well-known that, at the last maximum ice age, mammals become
extinct about 32…………………….
Questions 33-35
Answer the questions below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS
AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.
33 What kind of physical characteristics
eventually contributed to the extinction of Irish elk?
34 What kind of nutrient substance needed in
maintaining the huge size of Irish elk?
35 What geographical evidence suggested the
advent of human resulted in the extinction of Irish elk?
Questions 36-39
Choose the letter A-D and write
your answers in boxes 36-39 on your answer sheet.
A Eurasia
B Australia
C Asia
D Africa
36 the continents where humans imposed a little
impact on large mammals extinction
37 the continents where the climatic change was
mild and fauna remains
38 the continents where both humans and
climatic change are the causes
39 the continents where the climatic change
along caused a massive extinction
Question 40
Which statement is true according to
the Stuart team’s finding?
A Neanderthals rather than modern humans
caused the extinction in Europe
B Paleolithic humans in Europe along kill the
big animals such as Giant deer
C climatic change was not solely responsible
for the megafauna extinction in Europe
D
moderate and staggered extinction was mainly the result of fundamental
climatic change
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