READING PASSAGE 1
Read the text and answer questions 1-13.
A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO PEPPER
Pepper, the spice, comes from the berries of a plant that is a woody climbing vine. In the botanical world, pepper belongs to a genus of plants called Piper. This genus was created in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus, the Swedish botanist whose system for classifying plants is still in use today. He placed seventeen species in the piper genus and probably used the ancient Greek name for black pepper, Peperi, as the basis for the group.
Pepper isn’t a fast-maturing plant. It takes several years for the branching woody vines to mature, and during their growth the vines can reach up to thirty feet. The pepper berries - which grow in clusters and dangle from the vines - are picked by hand when they are ready for harvesting, which usually begins two or three years after the vine is first planted. Black pepper is picked when the berries are still green, while white pepper is picked later, when the berries have turned from green to red. Preparing the berries for sale involves a lengthy process of drying, cleaning and sorting. Once the berries have been dried, they are then referred to as peppercorns, and these are what are used in food preparation around the world.
The pepper plant loves the warm, humid, rainy tropics, in a narrow band around the equator. Pepper also requires well-drained soils, and its preferred habitat is forests. Unshaded plants which are exposed too long to the sun will not yield many berries. The colourful mixes of whole peppercorns seen in many markets today contain green and black peppercorns. Although there are pink peppercorns, the ripest berries, these are more fragile and are therefore more costly than other kinds. This is why there are few of them in a peppercorn mix.
No one knows when the first human bit into a peppercorn and decided it would taste good on a piece of meat or in a vegetable stew, but in the West it was the ancient Romans who apparently first made pepper an essential part of their meals. Food was only part of the reason for pepper’s popularity; health played an equally important role. In the Roman Empire, pepper was employed to relieve the pain that was a common consequence of numerous medical conditions and complaints. If you showed signs of a fever, it was common practice to be given a liquid that had some pepper in it.
The Romans were not the first to embrace pepper as a medicine. Belief in the spice's considerable usefulness is reflected in India’s ancient Ayurvedic system of medicine, which is more than three thousand years old. In Sanskrit (a language of ancient India), black pepper is known as maricha or marica, meaning an ability to get rid of poison, which suggests it was used in patients for this purpose. Pepper was also believed by the Indians to have other qualities as well. For example, physicians would frequently apply pepper-based lotions to reduce the effects of decay in teeth, which made it an extremely popular remedy.
In the Middle Ages (5th-15th centuries) black peppers renown made it a must-have item for the European wealthy, who loved the spice. At that time, pepper was guarded by servants in royal households and kept in the private wardrobes of the rich. It was considered a privilege to cook with pepper and many of the recipes from the period called for substantial quantities of pepper, which might be considered very unappetising today. But for most people, pepper was too expensive. In the year 1439, a pound of pepper was roughly equal to more than two days’ pay in England. Meanwhile, pepper could be exchanged for gold, and also became a form of payment for people’s work. In some of the larger cities, it was even possible to use pepper as rent in some kinds of accommodation. Employees in the pepper industry were not allowed to have pockets in their jackets or trousers so that this valuable commodity would not be stolen.
The huge demand for pepper and the money it could bring encouraged people to risk adventure on foreign oceans and in foreign lands, and it is within this context that the story of pepper really begins.
READING PASSAGE 2
Read the text and answer questions 14-26.
THE HORSESHOE CRAB
A. One of the world’s oldest animal species, the horseshoe crab, is found along the east coast of the United States and Mexico. Fossil records indicate this creature dates back 450 million years, and it has changed very little over time. This is because its anatomy has been so successful. In fact, the horseshoe crab is more closely related to spiders, scorpions and ticks than it is to true crabs and other crustaceans.
B. The soft body of the horseshoe crab is protected by a large oval shell with jagged, point spines. The two-part body consists of a head and an abdominal region. The head region contains a brain, heart, mouth, four eyes and six pairs of legs. What is significant is that horseshoe crabs possess the rare ability to regrow lost limbs. They also use crawling as their primary means of movement, and commonly bury themselves under the surface of the sand. However, in the water, they will occasionally turn onto their backs and swim upside-down. The mouth of the horseshoe carb is located between the twelve legs. They can only eat when crawling, as the motion allows them to open and close their mouths. Their diet consists mainly of worms and clams.
The abdominal region contains mules far movement and Is for breathing. A long spine forming a tail, called a telson, is located behind the abdominal region. Although this part of the body looks intimidating, it is not dangerous, poisonous or used to sting. Horseshoe crabs use it to flip over if they happen to be pushed on their backs, but this is only possible under the sea. Every year, about 10 percent of the horseshoe crab breeding population dies while on the beach, when rough surf flips the creatures onto their backs, a position from which they often cannot right themselves.
C. Another distinctive feature of horseshoe crabs is that they do not have hemoglobin (a protein that contains the mineral iron), which gives blood its red color. Hemoglobin is the basis of oxygen transport in the blood of mammals, reptiles and birds. Rather, the blood of horseshoe crabs has a copper-containing protein called hemocyanin. Hemocyanin is dark blue when it is transporting oxygen and colorless when it is not. The oxygen is also transported in a fluid on the exterior of the cell, in contrast to most animals, where oxygen molecules are transported inside red blood bacteria and fungi. In fact, there enzymes are used by astronauts in the International Space Station to test surfaces for unwanted bacteria and fungi. Another application is a protein from horseshoe crab blood that is under investigation as an antibiotic.
D. The horseshoe crab faces the greatest dangers in early life. Between April and June, adult horseshoe crabs travel from deep ocean waters to converge on beaches. Crawling out of the sea and onto the beach is especially common at high tides during full and new moons. The males arrive first and await the females for breeding. Female horseshoe crabs communicate by releasing a scent to signal to the males.
Then female horseshoe crabs crate nests by digging holes in the sand and laying between 60,000 and 120,000 eggs at a time before covering them with sand for Protection. Most eggs do not survive the hatching period before being eaten, as the eggs are a food source for numerous birds, reptiles and fish.
E. If the egg does survive, the young horseshoe crab will hatch after five weeks. Referred to as larvae, they look like miniature versions of adult horseshoe crabs. When first entering the sea, they exhibit a ‘swimming frenzy’ similar to that of newborn sea turtles, swimming vigorously and continuously for hours. During the larval stage, which can last a year or more, newly hatched horseshoe crabs travel into the ocean water and settle on the sandy bottom in shallow waters. As they develop, they move into deeper waters.
After the larval stage, horseshoe crabs move into the juvenile period. The juvenile horseshoe crabs will slowly grow over a period of about ten years. The growing process requires shedding small exterior shells, known as exoskeletons, in exchange for larger shells. Horseshoe crabs can shed up to 17 exoskeletons during development and their entire life span can be over twenty years. Mature females can reach 45-50 centimeters from head to tail, while the males grow to approximately 35-40 centimeters.
F. Despite their long history, horseshoe crabs face increased threats in modern times. For this reason, scientists have been studying the populations of horseshoe crabs, but more investigation is needed, particularly on the coast of Florida. A widespread decline in their abundance in the last 20 years may be especially severe in the Indian River Lagoon system in Florida, While the horseshoe crab is not currently listed as threatened, there is rising concern about the fact that it is increasingly absent from the Indian River Lagoon system, where it has historically been common. Loss of the horseshoe crab would negatively impact species that feed on the animal and its eggs and would decrease the biodiversity of the lagoon. Moreover, this development might indicate serious ecological disturbance in the region. In the northeast, the use of horseshoe crabs as bait to catch fish over the past ten years is, in part, responsible for a rapidly declining population of this unique species, and it is suspected that this is also a problem in Florida. However, the extent of this has not been well documented.
READING PASSAGE 3
Read the text and answer questions 27-40.
The Analysis of Fear
Researchers are investigating the processes in the brain that give rise to fear in animals. The results may lead to new ways to treat human anxiety. Over the years, the majority of people acquire a range of skills for coping with frightening situations. They will attempt to placate a vexed teacher or boss and will shout and run when chased by a hostile stranger. But some individuals become overwhelmed in circumstances others would consider only minimally stressful: fear of ridicule might cause them to shake uncontrollably when called on to speak in a group, or terror of strangers might lead them to hide at home, unable to work or shop for groceries. Why do certain people fall prey to excessive fear?
Ned H. Kalin and Steven E. Shelton at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are addressing this problem by identifying specific brain processes that regulate fear and its associated behaviors. Despite the availability of non-invasive computer imaging techniques, such information is still extremely difficult to obtain in humans. Hence, they have turned their attention to another primate, the rhesus monkey. These animals undergo many of the same physiological and psychological developmental stages that humans do, but in a more compressed time span. As we gain more insight into the nature and operation of neural circuits that modulate fear in monkeys, it should be possible to pinpoint the brain processes that cause inordinate anxiety in people, and to devise new therapies to counteract it. Effective interventions would be particularly valuable if they were applied at an early age, as growing evidence suggests overly fearful youngsters are at high risk of later emotional distress.
When they began their studies two decades ago, Kalin and Shelton knew that they would first have to find cues that elicit fear and identify behaviors that reflect different types of anxiety. With such information in hand, they could then proceed to determine the age at which monkeys begin to match defensive behaviors selectively to specific cues. Finally, by determining the parts of the brain that reach maturity during the same time span, they could gain clues to the regions that underlie the regulation of fear and fear-related behavior.
The experiments were carried out at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Kalin and Shelton discerned varied behaviors by exposing monkeys between six and 12 months old to three related situations. In the alone condition, an animal was separated from its mother and left by itself in a cage for ten minutes. In the no-eye-contact condition, a person stood motionless outside the cage and avoided looking at the solitary infant. In the stare condition, a person was again present and motionless but, assuming a neutral expression, peered directly at the animal. These positions are no more frightening than those that primates encounter frequently in the wild, or those that human infants encounter every time they are left at a day-care center.
In the alone condition, most monkeys became very active and emitted frequent gentle 'coo' calls made with pursed lips. More than 40 years ago it was deduced that when an infant monkey is separated from its mother, it yearns to regain the closeness and security provided by nearness to the parent. These responses help to draw the mother's attention. In contrast, in the more frightening no-eye-contact situation, the monkeys reduced their activity greatly and sometimes froze for extended periods of time. When an infant spots a potential predator, its goal shifts from attracting the mother to becoming inconspicuous. Inhibiting motion and freezing are common attempts to achieve this in many species. If the infant perceives that it has been detected, its aim shifts to warding off an attack. So the stare condition evoked a third set of responses. The monkeys made several hostile gestures: barking (forcing air from the abdomen through the vocal cords to emit a harsh, growl-like sound) and staring back. Sometimes the animals mixed the threatening displays with submissive ones, such as fear grimaces, which look something like wary grins, or grinding of teeth.
Having identified three categories of defensive behaviors, Kalin and Shelton set about determining when infant monkeys first begin to apply them effectively. Several lines of work had led them to surmise that the ability to make such choices emerges when an infant is around two months old. To establish the critical period of development, they examined four groups of infant monkeys ranging in age up to 12 weeks old. The babies were separated from their mothers, left to acclimatize to a cage, and then exposed to the alone, no-eye-contact and stare conditions. All sessions were videotaped for analysis. They found that the infants in the youngest group (no more than two weeks old) engaged in defensive behaviors. But they lacked some motor control and seemed to act randomly, as if they had not noticed the human beings that were present. Babies in the two intermediate-age groups had good motor control, but their actions seemed unrelated to the test condition. Only animals in the oldest group (9-to-12-week-olds) conducted themselves differently in each situation, and their reactions were both appropriate and identical to those of mature monkeys. This finding meant motor control was not the prime determinant of selective responding and that nine to 12 weeks is the critical age for the appearance of a monkeys ability to adaptively modulate its defensive activity to meet changing demands.
Part 1
Questions 1-6
Choose TRUE if the statement agrees with the information given in the text, choose FALSE if the statement contradicts the information, or choose NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this.
1. Carl Linnaeus method for categorising plants has been replaced by a better one. 1
2. The ancient Greeks originally took the word for pepper from another language. 2
3. Machines are used to harvest pepper berries. 3
4. White pepper berries are riper than black pepper berries when they are picked. 4
5. Pepper vines need a lot of sunlight to produce a large harvest of berries. 5
6. Pink peppercorns are more expensive to buy than other varieties. 6
Questions 7-13
Complete the notes below.
Write ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
THE MANY USES OF PEPPER
Ancient Rome
- The Romans used pepper to reduce 7 caused by many health issues.
- 8 containing pepper was used as medicine to bring down high temperatures.
India
- Pepper has been used in Ayurvedic medicine for thousands of years.
- Pepper was thought to be able to extract 9 from people, as indicated by its name in Sanskrit.
- Pepper was used to treat problems with peoples 10 .
Uses in Europe in the Middle Ages
- In wealthy households, pepper was stored in 11 .
- 12 written at that time required large amounts of pepper.
- Rent could be paid in the form of pepper in city areas.
- People who worked with pepper had to wear clothes without 13 to discourage theft.
Part 2
Questions 14-18
Reading Passage 2 has six sections, A-F. Which section contains the following information?
Choose the correct letter, A-F in boxes 14-18.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
14. a mention of the horseshoe crab’s potential value in medical science | 14 |
15. an explanation of the function of the horseshoe crab’s tail | 15 |
16. a reference to the horseshoe crab's feeding habits | 16 |
17. a description of horseshoe crab reproduction | 17 |
18. an account of the horseshoe crab's development to adulthood | 18 |
Questions 19-20
Choose TWO correct answers.
19-20. According to the writer, which TWO of the following are true about the characteristics of horseshoe crabs?
Questions 21-22
Choose TWO correct answers.
21-22. According to the writer, in which TWO ways is horseshoe crab blood different from that of most other animals?
Questions 23-26
Complete the summary below.
Write ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
The horseshoe crab in Florida
A study of the Indian River Lagoon system in Florida has shown a 23 in the horseshoe crab’s population. This means that animals that eat both horseshoe crabs and their 24 could also be impacted. The result would affect the Indian River Lagoon system’s 25 . Local fishermen taking horseshoe crabs for 26 could be one cause of the reduction in numbers.
Part 3
Questions 27-30
Choose the correct answer.
Questions 31-35
Look at the following responses of monkeys (Questions 31-35) and the list of conditions below.
Choose each response with the correct condition, A, B or C.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
List of Conditions
A the alone condition
B the no-eye-contact condition
C the stare condition
31. aggressive facial expressions | 31 |
32. prolonged stillness | 32 |
33. a combination of contradictory signals | 33 |
34. appeals for maternal protection | 34 |
35. the production of soft sounds | 35 |
Questions 36-40
Complete the summary below.
Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.
Once they had identified three types of defensive behaviour, Kalin and Shelton grouped the monkeys according to their 36 , in order to discover precisely when they were able to respond appropriately to different fear-related cues. They videotaped their results and found that monkeys as young as 37 reacted to the cues but in a haphazard fashion. The researchers noted that they seemed to be unaware of the 38 who were around them. Despite demonstrating 39 , the monkeys in the middle groups failed to react in ways corresponding to the experimental situation. The oldest group, however, reacted in the same way as 40 and the researchers concluded that monkeys are capable of selective responding between nine and 12 weeks old.