Questions 1-7

There are seven questions in this part.

For each question there are three option, choose the correct one.

Example: How did the woman get to work?

1. By car with a neighbour
2. Walking
3. On her bike

You will hear an interview with a 15-year-old girl called Andrea, who plays ice hockey for her national Under 16-s team. 

For each question, choose the correct answer.

For each question, choose the correct answer. 

You will listen to each recording twice. 

You are going to read an article about using energy from the sun. Six sentences have been removed from the article. Choose from the sentences A–G the one which fits each gap (37–42). There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use.

Solar energy – the sun’s gift to humanity

by Andy Groves

The sun is a huge ball of atomic activity, which emits solar energy in the form of light and heat. This energy travels through space to the planets, providing us with daylight and warmth. It is an incredible free gift. Many thousands of years ago, humans were already using solar energy in a variety of ways. Early civilisations learned, for instance, how to use the sun’s heat for drying meat, fruit or fish to keep them for later eating; the sun baked clay into bricks for building; animal skins were dried for clothing.

Later, when people started living in purpose-built houses, the value of solar energy for heat was understood and eventually became incorporated into the design. In many medieval castles there was at least one room called the ‘solar’ which faced south and had as big a window as could practically be made in those days. (37)……………  

In more recent times, the term ‘solar energy’ has taken on a somewhat different significance. Modern man uses energy in many forms and ever- increasing quantities. Generally, this energy has been obtained from fossil fuels, such as coal, oil or gas, extracted from under the ground or beneath the sea. (38)……………  Burning them is also having a terrible effect on the environment of our planet.

Because we in industrialised societies have become used to such a high level of energy usage in our everyday lives, the thought of doing without is no longer considered a realistic option. (39)……………  Fortunately, the good old sun can provide one, and solar energy is becoming crucial to our future requirements.

Solar energy is renewable, non-polluting, available everywhere, is not (yet) owned by anyone or any country and is free. It can be used directly to heat air and so provide heat for buildings in a way that is similar to how greenhouses work. Alternatively, the heat can be collected by solar panels and passed on to heat water for washing or central heating. Light-sensitive devices can convert the light from the sun into electricity. (40)……………  Initially, it was mainly used for pocket calculators, but now it powers radios, pumps, lights, and even cars.

Electricity generated from solar energy can bring power to remote areas and, together with some form of storage, such as a battery, can provide lighting for individual houses or run machinery on farms. (41)……………  To cover more extensive areas, some companies and local authorities are now using large numbers of cells to collect and convert solar energy. Some installations are large enough to provide power for a whole town.

The sun sends its solar energy to Earth at a huge rate, every day of the year. Much of this is absorbed by our dense atmosphere, the oceans and the land, or reflected back into space by the polar ice caps. (42)……………  So much, in fact, that it is estimated the sun provides as much energy in one hour as the world’s population uses in a year. This is one great gift and we should make sure we use it well.

You are going to read an article about newspapers and the Internet. Six sentences have been removed from the article. Choose from the sentences A–G the one which fits each gap (37–42). There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use.

 

Do newspapers have a future?

by Stephen Glover

 

Experts have been predicting the death of newspapers for over 50 years. Television was supposed to kill them off, and it did have some small effect. The sales of some papers began to decline from the middle 1950s, when commercial television started, and a few went out of business. But other papers prospered and new ones were launched, some thriving so much that they sold several million copies a day.

So, those who thought television would finish off the press were wrong. (37)……………  Almost every daily and Sunday national newspaper in this country is selling fewer copies than it was five years ago. In some cases, the decline has been dramatic.

The Internet, of course, is not the only factor. The natural markets for some papers, those aimed at industrial workers for instance, was already shrinking in the late 20th century. (38)……………  The consequence has been a general attempt to make big savings by cutting costs wherever possible.

A disaster, then? Some people argue that the decline in readership of newspapers does not matter because many of us, and perhaps a majority of those under 30, are reading them online. (39)……………  So if one adds all the readers of newspapers on the Internet to those who prefer a newsprint version, there may be as many, if not more, people looking at the national press as there were ten or 15 years ago.

There will, they say, still be lots of publications offering a wide variety of views and articles, as well as plenty of opportunities for writers. Indeed, one of the world’s most successful media bosses recently predicted that newspapers would reach new heights in the 21st century. (40)……………

This sounds sensible, and I hope it is right, but
I find it difficult to be quite so optimistic. The problem is that no one has yet figured out a way to make much money out of the Internet. A regular reader of an online version of a newspaper is worth 10p a month to the publisher. (41)…………… Also, the hard copy that he or she reads attracts much more advertising than the Internet version.

Most newspapers obtain over half their income from copies sold. In other words, online papers are living off their newsprint parents. Newsprint is where the money is. It follows that, as increasing numbers of readers swap their daily paper for a few minutes online, the breadth and quality of what they read will gradually go down. (42)……………  When I buy a newspaper I support expensive and ambitious journalism; if I read it online I do not.

How the recycling symbol was created

Gary Anderson designed a symbol which we see everywhere nowadays.

 

I studied engineering at the University of Southern California at a time when there was a lot of emphasis in the United States on training young people to be engineers. That said, I eventually switched to architecture. I just couldn’t get a grasp on electronics and architecture seemed more concrete to me.

It was around that time that I saw a poster advertising a design competition being run by the Container Corporation of America. The idea was to create a symbol to represent recycled paper. One of my college requirements had been a graphic design course so I thought I’d give it a go. It didn’t take me long to come up with my design: only a day or two. (37)……………  But I already had arrows and angles in my mind because on my course I’d done a presentation on recycling waste water. I’d come up with a graphic that described this process very simply.

The problem with the design I’d done earlier was that it seemed flat, two-dimensional. So when I sat down to enter the competition, I thought back to a field trip in elementary school to a newspaper office where we’d been shown how paper was fed over rollers as it was printed. (38)…………… The three arrows in it look like strips of folded-over paper. I drew them in pencil, and then traced over everything in black ink. These days, with computer graphics packages, it’s rare that designs are quite so plain.

I think I found out I’d won the competition in a letter. Was I excited? Well, yes of course – but not that excited. (39)…………… So it just seemed like, of course I would win! There was a monetary prize, though for the life of me I can’t remember how much it was… about $2,000?

When I finished my studies, I decided to go into urban planning and I moved to Los Angeles. It seems funny, but I really played down the fact that I’d won this competition. I was afraid it would make me look as though I was interested in graphics, rather than urban planning. (40)…………… I remember seeing it once on a leaflet which had been produced on recycled paper, but then it disappeared.

A while after graduating, I flew to Amsterdam for a holiday. I’ll never forget: when I walked off the plane, I saw my symbol. It was on a big recycling bin. And it was bigger than a beach ball! (41)…………… I was really taken aback. That was quite a long time ago though. Since then, I’ve got more qualifications and worked for quite a few different firms, some more environmentally aware than others.

I feel much prouder of the recycling symbol now than I used to, probably because it’s so widely seen. Maybe this design has been more important to me than I’d thought. (42)……………  There’s more to me than the recycling symbol.

You are going to read an article in which a former ballet dancer talks about the physical demands of the job. Six sentences have been removed from the article. Choose from the sentences A–G the one which fits each gap (37–42). There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use.

Good preparation leads to success in ballet dancing

A former classical ballet dancer explains what ballet training actually involves.

 

What we ballet dancers do is instinctive, but instinct learnt through a decade of training. A dancer’s life is hard to understand, and easy to misinterpret. Many a poet and novelist has tried to do so, but even they have chosen to interpret all the hard work and physical discipline as obsessive. And so the idea persists that dancers spend every waking hour in pain, bodies at breaking point, their smiles a pretence.

 

As a former dancer in the Royal Ballet Company here in Britain, I would beg to question this. (37)…………… With expert teaching and daily practice, its various demands are easily within the capacity of the healthy human body. Contrary to popular belief, there is no need to break bones or tear muscles to achieve ballet positions. It is simply a question of sufficient conditioning of the muscular system.

 

Over the course of my dancing life I worked my way through at least 10,000 ballet classes. I took my first at a school of dance at the age of seven and my last 36 years later at the Royal Opera House in London. In the years between, ballet class was the first thing I did every day. It starts at an early age, this daily ritual, because it has to. (38)…………… But for a ballet dancer in particular, this lengthy period has to come before the effects of adolescence set in, while maximum flexibility can still be achieved.

 

Those first classes I took were remarkably similar to the last. In fact, taking into account the occasional new idea, ballet classes have changed little since 1820, when the details of the ballet technique were first written down, and are easily recognized in any country. Starting with the left hand on the barre, the routine unrolls over some 75 minutes. (39)…………… Even the leading dancers have to do it.

 

These classes serve two distinct purposes: they are the way we warm our bodies and the mechanism by which we improve basic technique. In class after class, we prove the old saying that ‘practice makes perfect’. (40)…………… And it is also this daily repetition which enables us to strengthen the muscles required in jumping, spinning or lifting our legs to angles impossible to the average person.

 

The human body is designed to adapt to the demands we make of it, provided we make them carefully and over time. (41)……………In the same way, all those years of classes add up to a fit-for-purpose dancing machine. This level of physical fluency doesn’t hurt; it feels good.

 

(42)……………But they should not be missed: there is a difference between hard work and hardship. Dancers have an everyday familiarity with the first. Hardship it isn’t.

You are going to read an article about experience of running while listening to music. Six sentences have been removed from the article. Choose from the sentences A–G the one which fits each gap (37–42). There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use.

Does music make you run faster?

Runner Adharanand Finn took part in an unusual race in

order to test the theory that music can make you run faster.

 

An expert on the effects of music on exercise, Dr Costas Karageorghis, claims that listening to music while running can boost performance by up to 15%. To put this theory to the rest, I took part in a special Rock ‘n’ Roll half marathon, which had groups of musicians playing at various points along the route.

 

As I lined up at the start with almost 4,000 other runners, a singer sang an inspiring song for us. It may explain why I got off to a good start. I only came eight in the end, though, even though I’d just spent six months training hard. (37)……………… However, it turns out that all the training may have affected my response to the music; according to the research, the benefits of listening to music decrease with the level of intensity of the running.

 

‘Elite athletes’, says Karageorghis, ‘tend to focus inwardly when they are running.’ According to him, most other runners look for stimulus and distraction from what is going on around them. ‘Judging by your time,’ he says, ‘you are one of the former.’ It is true. Apart from the song at the start, when I was standing still, I can barely remember the music played along the course. The first act I passed, a folk group, made me smile, and at one point I found myself running in time to the beat of some hard rock. (38)……………… I can’t say they helped my performance very much. But what did other runners make of the music?

 

Adam Bull usually runs marathons with no music and little crowd support. ‘(39)……………… With the upbeat bands, you find yourself running to the beat, which helps. It also brings out people to cheer you on.’ Rosie Bradford was also a convert. ‘As we ran past one band and they started playing These Boots Were Made for Walking. Everybody suddenly went faster.’

 

The only person I found who was less than happy with the music was Lois Lloyd. ‘There wasn’t enough of it, and I found it wasn’t loud enough, so I ran with an MP3 player.’ she said. ‘(40)……………… ’ Karageorghis is not surprised when I tell him. ‘There are many advantages to using your own player, rather than relying on the music on the course,’ he says. ‘It gives you a constant stimulus, rather than just an occasional one, and you can tailor the playlist to your taste.’

 

One runner told me there was a direct correlation between the quality of the music on the course and how much it helped. But quality, of course, is subjective, I remember feeling annoyed as I ran past one band playing Keep On Running. (41)………………

 

Of course, the music was not only there to help runners break their personal bests (although sadly it was unable to help me beat mine), but to provide a sense of occasion, draw out the crowds and create a carnival atmosphere. (42)………………  As I left, people were beginning to relax after the run, listening to an excellent rock band. It was a fitting way to end the day.

 

 

You are going to read a newspaper article about a blind runner. Six sentences have been removed from the article. Choose from the sentences A–G the one which fits each gap (37–42). There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use.

Blind Runner

Paul Hardy reports on a blind runner called Simon Wheatcroft who enjoys taking part in marathon and ultra-marathon races, running distances between 42 km and 160 km.

 

Running marathons, a race of 42 km, has become increasingly popular. This distance poses extreme physical and mental challenges for anyone, but for Simon Wheatcroft there is another hurdle; he has been blind since he was 18 years old.

 

For the past two years Simon, now 29, has been overcoming his disability to compete in marathons and ultra-marathons by training with runners who act as his guides, and also, rather uniquely, by teaching himself to run solo, out on the streets. ‘I got bored exercising indoors, so thought, “I’ll have a go at running outside”,’ he explains. (37)………………  Then he got bored again and wanted to try running on the roads.

 

Weeks of gradual exploration followed, walking a route alone. (38)………………   It took him along little-used pavements alongside a busy main road. He also recruited technology to help him form his mental map of the area using a smartphone app, to provide feedback through headphones about his pace and distance. This information could then be cross-referenced with his knowledge of the route and any obstacles.

 

Now, having covered hundreds of km alone on the route, Simon has been able, gradually, to phase out the app. ‘When I first started I had to really concentrate to an unbelievable level to know where my feet were falling. Now it has become quite automated.’ (39)………………   ‘I did make a few mistakes early on – like running into posts. But you only run into a post once before you think “Right. I’m going to remember where that is next time”,’ he laughs.

 

Joining Simon for a training session, it’s striking how natural and fluid his movement is; he takes shorter, shallower, more gentle steps than most runners, using his feet to feel his way. His landmarks are minute changes in gradient and slight variations in the running surface. (40)………………   ‘I have to believe this route is going to stay consistent, and there won’t be things like roadwork signs or big rocks,’ he says.

 

(41)………………  ‘I try to concentrate on the millions of footsteps that go right and think positively,’ he explains. When it comes to racing in ultra-distance events, Simon has to use guides to run sections of the course with him; after all, it would be almost impossible to memorise a 150 km stretch of countryside by heart. However, the physical and practical advantages of training in the fresh air, on his own terms, are vast and have boosted his confidence in his running ability as well as providing inspiration to others.

 

But for Simon the real thrill and motivation for training come from simply being able to compete on equal terms. (42)………………   ‘I can’t hide the fact I’m blind,’ he says, ‘but at the same time I would rather compete with everybody else and not be put into a special group. Being visually impaired doesn’t mean you can’t run.’

Five sentences have been removed from the text below.
For each question, choose the correct answer.
There are three extra sentences which you do not need to use.

Planting trees

by Mark Rotheram, aged 13

 

This spring, our teacher suggested we should get involved in a green project and plant some trees around the school. Everyone thought it was a great idea, so we started looking online for the best trees to buy. (1)………………  If we wanted them to grow properly, they had to be the right type – but there were so many different ones available! So our teacher suggested that we should look for trees that grew naturally in our part of the world. (2)………………  They’d also be more suitable for the wildlife here.

Then we had to think about the best place for planting the trees. We learnt that trees are happiest where they have room to grow, with plenty of space for their branches. The trees might get damaged close to the school playgrounds, for example. (3)………………  Finally, we found a quiet corner close to the school garden – perfect!

Once we’d planted the trees, we knew we had to look after them carefully. We all took turns to check the leaves regularly and make sure they had no strange spots or marks on them. (4)………………  And we decided to check the following spring in case the leaves turned yellow too soon, as that could also mean the tree was sick.

We all knew that we wouldn’t be at the school anymore by the time the trees grew tall, and that was a bit sad. But we’d planted the trees to benefit not only the environment, but also future students at the school. (5)………………  And that thought really cheered us up!