Academic Reading 60 minutes

READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1 – 13, which are

based on Reading Passage 1 below

Bovids

The family of mammals called bovids belongs to the Artiodactyl class,

which also includes giraffes. Bovids are highly diverse group consisting of
137 species, some of which are man’s most important domestic animals.

Bovids are well represented in most parts of Eurasia and Southeast Asian
islands, but they are by far the most numerous and diverse in the latter.
Some species of bovid are solitary, but others live in large groups with
complex social structures. Although bovids have adapted to a wide range of
habitats, from arctic tundra to deep tropical forest, the majority of species
favour open grassland, scrub or desert. This diversity of habitat is also
matched by great diversity in size and form: at one extreme is the royal
antelope of West Africa, which stands a mere 25 cm at the shoulder; at the
other, the massively built bisons of North America and Europe, growing to
a shoulder height of 2.2m.

Despite differences in size and appearance, bovids are united by the

possession of certain common features. All species are ruminants, which
means that they retain undigested food in their stomachs, and regurgitate it
as necessary.

Bovids are almost exclusively herbivorous: plant-eating. Typically their

teeth are highly modified for browsing and grazing: grass or foliage is
cropped with the upper lip and lower incisors** (the upper incisors are
usually absent), and then ground down by the cheek teeth. As well as
having cloven, or split, hooves, the males of ail bovid species and the
females of most carry horns. Bovid horns have bony cores covered in a
sheath of horny material that is constantly renewed from within; they are
unbranched and never shed. They vary in shape and size: the relatively
simple horns of a large Indian buffalo may measure around 4 m from tip to
tip along the outer curve, while the various gazelles have horns with a
**incisors: front teeth herbivorous

variety of elegant curves.

Five groups, or sub-families, may be distinguished: Bovinae, Antelope,

Caprinae, Cephalophinae and Antilocapridae. The sub-family Bovinae
comprises most of the larger bovids, including the African bongo, and
nilgae, eland, bison and cattle. Unlike most other bovids they are all non-
territorial. The ancestors of the various species of domestic cattle banteng,
gaur, yak and water buffalo are generally rare and endangered in the wild,
while the auroch (the ancestor of the domestic cattle of Europe) is extin

The term ‘antelope 1 is not a very precise zoological name - it is used to

loosely describe a number of bovids that have followed different lines of
development. Antelopes are typically long-legged, fast-running species,
often with long horns that may be laid along the back when the animal is in
full flight. There are two main sub-groups antelope: Hippotraginae, which
includes the oryx and the addax, and Antilopinae, which generally contains
slighter and more graceful animals such as gazelle and the springbok.
Antelopes are mainly grassland species, but many have adapted to flooded
grasslands: pukus, waterbucks and lechwes are all good at swimming,
usually feeding in deep water, while the sitatunga has long, splayed hooves
that enable it to walk freely on swampy ground.

The sub-family Caprinae includes the sheep and the goat, together with
various relatives such as the goral and the tahr. Most are woolly or have
long hair. Several species, such as wild goats, chamois and ibex, are agile
cliff 一 and mountain-dwellers. Tolerance of extreme conditions is most
marked in this group: Barbary and bighorn sheep have adapted to arid
deserts, while Rocky Mountain sheep survive high up in mountains and
musk oxen in arctic tundra.

The duiker of Africa belongs to the Cephalophinae sub-family. It is

generally small and solitary, often living in thick forest. Although mainly
feeding on grass and leaves, some duikers – unlike most other bovids -are
believed to eat insects and feed on dead animal carcasses, and even to kill
small animals.

The pronghorn is the sole survivor of a New World sub-family of

herbivorous ruminants, the Antilocapridae in North America. It is similar
in appearance and habits to the Old World antelope. Although greatly
reduced in numbers since the arrival of Europeans, and the subsequent
enclosure of grasslands, the pronghorn is still found in considerable
numbers throughout North America, from Washington State to Mexico.
When alarmed by the approach of wolves or other predators, hairs on the
pronghorn’s rump stand erect, so showing and emphasising the white patch
there. At this signal, the whole herd gallops off at speed of over 60 km per
hour.

Questions 1-3

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

Write the correct letter in boxes 1 -3 on your answer sheet.

1. In which region is the biggest range of bovids to be found?

A Africa

B Eurasia

C North America

D South-east Asia

2. Most bovids have a preference for living in

A isolation

B small groups

C tropical forest

D wide open spaces

3. Which of the following features do all bovids have in common?

A Their horns are shot

B They have upper incisors

C They store food in the body

D Their hooves are undivided

Questions 4-8

Look at the following characteristics (Question 4-8) and the list of sub-
families below. Match each characteristic with the correct sub-family, A, B,
C or D.

Write the correct letter, A, B, C or D, in boxes 4-8 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once

4. can endure very harsh environments

5. includes the ox and the cow

6. may supplement its diet with meat

7. can usually move at speed

8. does not defend a particular area of land

List of sub-families

A Antelope
B Bovinae
C Caprinae
D Cephalophinae

Question 9-13

Answer the questions below.

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each
answer. Write your answers in boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet

9. What is the smallest species of Bovid called?

10. Which species of Boviae has now died out?

11. What facilitates the movement of the sitatunga over wetland?

12. What sort of terrain do barbary sheep live in?

13. What is the only living member of the Antilocapridae sub-family?

READING PASSAGE 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14 – 26, which are

based on Reading Passage 2 below

Twin study:

Two of a kind

A THE scientific study of twins goes back to the late 19th century, when
Francis Galton, an early geneticist, realized that they came in two varieties:
identical twins born from one egg and non-identical twins that had come
from two. That insight turned out to be key, although it was not until 1924
that it was used to formulate what is known as the twin rule of pathology,
and twin studies really got going.

B The twin rule of pathology states that any heritable disease will be more
concordant (that is, more likely to be jointly present or absent) in identical
twins than in non-identical twins—and, in turn, will be more concordant in
non-identical twins than in non-siblings. Early work, for example, showed
that the statistical correlation of skin-mole counts between identical twins
was 0.4, while non-identical twins had a correlation of only 0.2. (A score of
1.0 implies perfect correlation, while a score of zero implies no correlation.)
This result suggests that moles are heritable, but it also implies that there is
an environmental component to the development of moles, otherwise the
correlation in identical twins would be close to 1.0.

C Twin research has shown that whether or not someone takes up smoking
is determined mainly by environmental factors, but once he does so, how
much he smokes is largely down to his genes. And while a person’s religion
is clearly a cultural attribute, there is a strong genetic component to
religious fundamentalism. Twin studies are also unraveling the heritability
of various aspects of human personality. Traits from neuroticism and
anxiety to thrill- and novelty-seeking all have large genetic components.
Parenting matters, but it does not determine personality in the way that
some had thought.

D More importantly, perhaps, twin studies are helping the understanding

of diseases such as cancer, asthma, osteoporosis, arthritis and immune
disorders. And twins can be used, within ethical limits, for medical
experiments. A study that administered vitamin C to one twin and a
placebo to the other found that it had no effect on the common cold. The
lesson from all today’s twin studies is that most human traits are at least
partially influenced by genes. However, for the most part, the age-old
dichotomy between nature and nurture is not very useful. Many genetic
programs are open to input from the environment, and genes are frequently
switched on or off by environmental signals. It is also possible that genes
themselves influence their environment. Some humans have an innate
preference for participation in sports. Others are drawn to novelty. Might
people also be drawn to certain kinds of friends and types of experience? In
this way, a person’s genes might shape the environment they act in as much
as the environment shapes the actions of the genes.

E In the past, such research has been controversial. Josef Mengele, a Nazi
doctor working at the Auschwitz extermination camp during the Second
World War, was fascinated by twins. He sought them out among arrivals at
the camp and preserved them from the gas-chambers for a series of brutal
experiments. After the war, Cyril Burt, a British psychologist who worked
on the heredity of intelligence, tainted twin research with results that
appear, in retrospect, to have been rather too good. Some of his data on
identical twins who had been reared apart were probably faked. In any case,
the prevailing ideology in the social sciences after the war was Marxist, and
disliked suggestions that differences in human potential might have
underlying genetic causes. Twin studies were thus viewed with suspicion.

F The ideological pendulum has swung back; however, as the human

genome project and its aftermath have turned genes from abstract concepts
to real pieces of DNA. The role of genes in sensitive areas such as
intelligence is acknowledged by all but a few die-hards. The interesting
questions now concern how nature and nurture interact to produce
particular bits of biology, rather than which of the two is more important.
Twin studies, which are a good way to ask these questions, are back in
fashion, and many twins are enthusiastic participants in this research.

G Research at the Twinsburg festival began in a small way, with a single

stand in 1979. Gradually, news spread, and more scientists began turning
up. This year, half a dozen groups of researchers were lodged in a specially
pitched research tent. In one comer of this tent, Paul Breslin, who works at
the Monell Institute in Philadelphia, watched over several tables where
twins sat sipping clear liquids from cups and making notes. It was the
team’s third year at Twinsburg. Dr Breslin and his colleagues want to find
out how genes influence human perception, particularly the senses of smell
and taste and those (warmth, cold, pain, tingle, itch and so on) that result
from stimulation of the skin. Perception is an example of something that is
probably influenced by both genes and experience. Even before birth,
people are exposed to flavours such as chocolate, garlic, mint and vanilla
that pass intact into the bloodstream, and thus to the fetus. Though it is not
yet clear whether such pre-natal exposure shapes taste-perception, there is
evidence that it shapes preferences for foods encountered later in life.

H However, there are clearly genetic influences at work, as well-for

example in the ability to taste quinine. Some people experience this as
intensely bitter, even when it is present at very low levels. Others, whose
genetic endowment is different, are less bothered by it. Twin studies make
this extremely clear. Within a pair of identical twins, either both, or neither,
will find quinine hard to swallow. Non-identical twins will agree less
frequently.

I On the other side of the tent Dennis Drayna, from the National Institute
on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, in Maryland, was
studying hearing. He wants to know what happens to sounds after they
reach the ear. It is not clear, he says, whether sound is processed into
sensation mostly in the ear or in the brain. Dr Drayna has already been
involved in a twin study which revealed that the perception of musical pitch
is highly heritable. At Twinsburg, he is playing different words, or parts of
words, into the left and right ears of his twinned volunteers. The composite
of the two sounds that an individual reports hearing depends on how he
processes this diverse information and that, Dr Drayna believes, may well
be influenced by genetics.
J Elsewhere in the marquee, Peter Miraldi, of Kent State University in
Ohio, was trying to find out whether genes affect an individual’s motivation
to communicate with others. A number of twin studies have shown that
personality and sociability are heritable, so he thinks this is fertile ground.
And next to Mr. Miraldi was a team of dermatologists from Case Western
Reserve University in Cleveland. They are looking at the development of
skin diseases and male-pattern baldness. The goal of the latter piece of
research is to find the genes responsible for making men’s hair fall out.

K The busiest part of the tent, however, was the queue for forensic-science
research into fingerprints. The origins of this study are shrouded in
mystery. For many months, the festival/’s organisers have been convinced
that the Secret Service – the American government agency responsible for,
among other things, the safety of the president – is behind it. When The
Economist contacted the Secret Service for more information, we were
referred to Steve Nash, who is chairman of the International Association for
Identification (IAI), and is also a detective in the scientific investigations
section of the Marin County Sheriff’s Office in California. The IAI, based in
Minnesota, is an organisation of forensic scientists from around the world.
Among other things, it publishes the Journal of Forensic Identification.

Questions 14-18

The reading Passage has seven paragraphs A-K.

Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct

letter A-K, in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

14. Mentioned research conducted in Ohio

15. Medical contribution to the researches for twins.

16. Research situation under life threatening conditions

17. Data of similarities of identical twins

18. Reasons that make one study unconvincing

Questions 19-20

Summary

Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage 2 ,

using no more than two words from the Reading Passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 19-20 on your answer sheet.

The first one that conducted research on twins is called ………………..

19………………… He separated twins into two categories: non identical and
identical twins. The twin research was used in medical application in as
early as the year of………………………………… 20………………

Questions 21-23

Choose the correct letters in following options:

Write your answers in boxes 21-23 on your answer sheet.

Please choose THREE research fields that had been carried out in Ohio,
Maryland and Twinsburgh?

A Sense

B Cancer

C Be allergic to Vitamin D

D Mole heredity

E Sound

F Boldness of men

Questions 24-26

Choose the correct letters in following options:

Write your answers in boxes 24-26 on your answer sheet.

Please choose THREE results that had been verified in this passage.

A Non identical twins come from different eggs.

B Genetic relation between identical twins is closer than non-identical ones.

C Vitamin C has evident effect on a cold.

D Genetic influence to smoking is superior to environment’s.

E If a pregnant woman eats too much sweet would lead to skin disease.

F Hair loss has been found to be connected with skin problem.

READING PASSAGE 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are

based on Reading Passage 3 below

The significant role of mother tongue language in education

One consequence of population mobility is an increasing diversity within

schools. To illustrate, in the city of Toronto in Canada, 58% of kindergarten
pupils come from homes where English is not language of communication.
Schools in Europe and North America have experienced this diversity for
years, but educational policies and practices vary widely between countries
and even within countries. Some political parties and groups search for
ways to solve the problem of diverse communities and their integration in
schools and society. They see few positive consequences for the host society
and worry that diversity threaten the identity of the host society.
Consequently, they promote unfortunate educational policies that will
make the “problem” disappear. If students retain their culture and
language, they are viewed as less capable of identifying with the
mainstream culture and learning the mainstream language of the society.
The challenge for educators and policy-makers is to shape the evolution of
national identity in such a way that the rights of all citizens (including
school children) are respected, and the cultural, linguistic, and economic
resources of the nation are maximized. To waste the resources of the nation
by discouraging children from developing their mother tongues is quite
simply unintelligent from the point of view of national self-interest. A first
step in providing an appropriate education for culturally and linguistically
diverse children is to examine what the existing research says about the role
of children’s mother tongues in their educational development.

In fact, the research is very clear. When children continue to develop their
abilities in two or more languages throughout their primary school, they
gain a deeper understanding of language and how to use it effectively. They
have more practice in processing language, especially when they develop
literacy in both. More than 150 research studies conducted during the past
35 years strongly support what Goethe, the famous eighteenth-century
German philosopher, once said ： that the person who knows only one
language does not truly know that language. Research suggests that
bilingual children may also develop more flexibility in their thinking as a
result of processing information through two different languages.

The level of development of children’s mother tongue is a strong predictor

of their second language development. Children who come to school with a
solid foundation in their mother tongue develop stronger literacy abilities
in the school language. When parents and other caregivers (e.g.
grandparents) are able to spend time with their children and tell stories or
discuss issues with them in a way that develops their mother tongue,
children come to school well-prepared to learn the school language and
succeed educationally. Children’s knowledge and skills transfer across
languages from the mother tongue to the school language. Transfer across
languages can be two-way: both languages nurture each other when the
educational environment permits children access to both languages.

Some educators and parents are suspicious of mother tongue-based

teaching programs because they worry that they take time away from the
majority language. For example, in a bilingual program where 50% of the
time is spent teaching through children’s home language and 50% through
the majority language, surely children’s won’t progress as far in the letter?
One of the most strongly established findings of educational research,
however, is that well-implemented bilingual programs can promote literacy
and subject- matter knowledge in a minority language without any negative
effects on children’s development in the majority language. Within Europe,
the Foyer program in Belgium, which develops children’s speaking and
literacy abilities in three languages (their mother tongue, Dutch and
French), most clearly illustrates the benefits of bilingual and trilingual
education (see Cummins, 2000).

It is easy to understand how this happens. When children are learning

through a minority language, they are learning concepts and intellectual
skills too. Pupils who know how to tell the time in their mother tongue
understand the concept of telling time. In order to tell time in the majority
language they do not need to re-learn the concept. Similarly, at more
advanced stages, there is transfer across languages in other skills such as
knowing how to distinguish the main idea from the supporting details of a
written passage or story, and distinguishing fact from opinion, Studies of
secondary school pupils are providing interesting findings in this area, and
it would be worth extending this research.

Many people marvel at how quickly bilingual children seem to “pick up”
conversational skills in the majority language at school (although it takes
much longer for them to catch up to native speakers in academic language
skills). However, educators are often much less aware of how quickly
children can lose their ability to use their mother tongue, even in the home
context. The extent and rapidity of language loss will vary according to the
concentration of families from a particular linguistic group in the
neighborhood. Where the mother tongue is used extensively in the
community, then language loss among young children will be less.
However, where language communities are not concentrated in particular
neighborhoods, children can lose their ability to communicate in their
mother tongue within 2-3 years of starting school. They may retain
receptive skills in the language but they will use the majority language in
speaking with their peers and siblings and in responding to their parents.
By the time children become adolescents, the linguistic division between
parents and children has become an emotional chasm. Pupils frequently
become alienated from the cultures of both home and school with
predictable results.

Questions 27-30

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

Write the correct letter in boxes 27-30 on your answer sheet.

27. What point the writer making in the second paragraph?

A Some present studies on children’s mother tongues are misleading

B A culturally rich education programme benefits some children more than

others.

C Bilingual children can make a valuable contribution to the wealth of a

country

D The law on mother tongue use at school should be strengthened.

28. Why does the writer refer to something that Goethe said?

A to lend weight his argument

B to contradict some research

C to introduce a new concept

D to update current thinking

29. The writer believes that when young children have a firm grasp of their
mother tongue

A they can teach older family members what they learn at school

B they go on to do much better throughout their time at school

C they can read stories about their cultural background

D they develop stronger relationships with their family than with their
peers.

30. Why are some people suspicious about mother tongue-based teaching
programmes?

A They worry that children will be slow to learn to read in either language

B They think that children will confuse words in the two languages.
C They believe that the programmes will make children less interested in
their lessons

D They fear that the programmes will use up valuable time in the school
day.

Questions 31-35

Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage

using no more than Two words from the Reading Passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 31-35 on your answer sheet.

Bilingual children

It was often recorded that Bilingual Children acquire the 31

………………………………………. to converse in the majority language
remarkable quickly. The fact that the mother tongue can disappear at a
similar 32……………………………………. is less well understood. This
phenomenon depends to a certain extent, on the proposition of people with
the same linguistic background that have settled in a particular 33
………………………………..; If this is limited, children are likely to lose the
active use of their mother tongue. And thus no longer employ it even with
34………………………………. although they may still understand it. It follows
that teenager children in these circumstances experience a sense of
35……………………………………………. in relation to all aspects of their lives.

A Teachers B school C dislocation

D Rate E time F family
G communication H type I ability
J Area

Questions 36-40

Do the following statement agree with the views of the writer in Reading
passage 3? In boxes 36-40 on your answer sheet, write

YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer

NO if the statement contradicts with the views of the
writer

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

about this

36. Less than half the children who attend kindergarten in Toronto have
English as their Mother tongue.

37. Research proves that learning the host country language at school can
have an adverse effect on a child’s mother tongue.

38. The foyer Program is to be accepted by the French education system.

39. Bilingual children are taught to tell the time earlier than monolingual
children.

40. Bilingual children can eventually apply reading comprehension

strategies acquired in one language when reading in the other.
BOVIDS

1 D 2 D 3 C
4 C 5 B 6 D
7 A 8 B 9 Royal antelope
Long, splayed
10 The auroch 11 12 Arid deserts
hooves
13 Pronghorn
14 J 15 D 16 E
17 B 18 E 19 Francis Galton
20 1924 21 A 22 E
23 F 24 A 25 B
26 D
27 C 28 A 29 B
30 D 31 I 32 D
33 J 34 F 35 C
36 YES 37 NOT GIVEN 38 NO
39 NOT GIVEN 40 YES