Reading passage 1

A. On January 6 an asteroid-spotting telescope at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico detected a new and unusual object in the night sky. Towing a streaky debris tail, the object was classified as a comet, although its orbit belied a different origin. Visible comets generally have elongated orbits that carry them into Earth's neighbourhood from the colder outer reaches of the solar system, but the newfound body had a neat, nearly circular orbit in the Asteroid Belt [the green ring in the video below], between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. B. Within weeks, a group of astronomers had secured time on the Hubble Space Telescope to get a better look at the curious object, dubbed P/2010 A2, which appeared not to be a comet at all but a previously undiscovered asteroid that had somehow spewed its own debris into a cometmimicking tail. C. Now two groups have used those Hubble photographs, as well as observations from groundbased telescopes and the European Space Agency's comet-chasing Rosetta spacecraft, to confirm that P/2010 A2 is indeed an asteroid that was disrupted, quite possibly by a collision with a smaller asteroid. The disruption appears to have occurred in early 2009, which is remarkably recent in terms of the evolution of the solar system. The two groups reported their findings in the October 14 issue of Nature. (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.) D. "I knew that this was an object the likes of which we hadn't seen before," says David Jewitt, a co-author of one of the new papers and an astronomer at the University of California, Los Angeles. "This is the first time we've seen an asteroid in the act of disrupting." Using Hubble, Jewitt and his colleagues watched the nucleus and tail of P/2010 A2 evolve over several months, from January to May 2010. Tracking the tail's changing position with respect to the nucleus, the researchers estimated that the disruption of the parent asteroid must have happened in February or March 2009. E. Jewitt's group concluded that the impact of a small asteroid, just meters across, into the 120meter nucleus of P/2010 A2 could excavate enough debris from the asteroid to produce the curious tail. But a less violent phenomenon could also be the culprit: The asteroid may have been spun up by the force of the sun, eventually rotating so fast that it began to shed mass. "Like wind blowing onto a propeller, the solar radiation can exert a torque on an asteroid," Jewitt says. He notes that a collision is his "favorite" scenario but that it is not possible to discriminate conclusively between the two causes based on the observations. F. The authors of the other Nature paper on P/2010 A2 also favour the collision scenario. "It's not possible for us to tell whether it was a collision or a spin-upwe simply say collision because a collision is much more likely," says Colin Snodgrass, a postdoctoral astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in KatlenburgLindau, Germany. G. And indeed, the spin-up mechanism is "probably not the most likely scenario," says William Bottke, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., who did not participate in the new research, adding that a spinning asteroid would likely produce a disk around its equator. "This is more consistent with a small body impacting and making a crater, throwing debris off the asteroid."

Source: Scientific American Questions You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1 to 14 which are based on Reading Passage 1 Questions 1 to 7 Reading Passage 1 has seven paragraphs A G. From the list of headings below, choose the most suitable heading for each paragraph. Write the appropriate numbers I ix in boxes 1 7 on your answer sheet.

i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. vii. viii. ix.

A better look at the curious object. The spin-up mechanism. A closer look at the object. A new and unusual object in the night sky. Indeed an asteroid. The impact of a small asteroid. The comparative study. The collision scenario. The analysis of the asteroid.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Paragraph A Paragraph B Paragraph C Paragraph D Paragraph E Paragraph F Paragraph G

Questions 8 10 Choose the correct letters, A, B, C or D Write your answers in boxes 8 10 on your answer sheet. 8 The asteroid may have been spun up by the force of A. B. C. D. 9 A. The sun. The meteors. The planets. The comets. The object was classified as A comet.

B. C. D. 10 A. B. C. D.

A planet. An asteroid. A constellation. Using Hubble, Jewitt and his colleagues watched the Nucleus and tail. Nucleus. Tail. The body.

Questions 11 14 Complete each of the following statements (questions 11 14) with the best endings A G from the box below Write the appropriate letters A G in boxes 11 14 on your answer sheet. 11 The impact of a small asteroid could excavate enough debris 12 William Bottke is a planetary scientist at 13 David Jewitt is an astronomer at the 14 Two groups have used those Hubble photographs, as well as

A B C D E F G

University of California. Observations from ground-based telescopes. From the asteroid to produce the curious tail. The Southwest Research Institute in Boulder. Observations from University of California. The Yale University. To generate another comet of its size.

Reading passage 2 A. A battleship is a large armoured warship with a main battery consisting of heavy calibre guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armoured than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a nation's naval power from the 19th century up until World War II. With the rise of air power and guided missiles, large guns were no longer deemed necessary to establish naval superiority, and as a result there are no battleships in active service today. B. Battleship design evolved to incorporate and adapt technological advances to maintain an edge. The word battleship was coined around 1794 and is a contraction of the phrase line-of-battle

C.

D.

E.

F.

G.

ship, the dominant wooden warship during the Age of Sail. The term came into formal use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ironclad warship, now referred to as pre-dreadnought battleships. In 1906, the commissioning of HMS Dreadnought heralded a revolution in battleship design. Following battleship designs that were influenced by HMS Dreadnought were referred to as "dreadnoughts". Battleships were a symbol of naval dominance and national might, and for decades the battleship was a major factor in both diplomacy and military strategy. The global arms race in battleship construction beginning in the late 19th century and exacerbated by Dreadnought was one of the causes of World War I, which saw a clash of large battle fleets at the Battle of Jutland. The Naval Treaties of the 1920s and 1930s limited the number of battleships but did not end the evolution of design. Both the Allies and the Axis Powers deployed battleships of old construction and new during World War II. The value of the battleship has been questioned, even during the period of their prominence. The Battle of Tsushima (1905) was the only decisive clash between steel battleship fleets, and apart from the indecisive Battle of Jutland (1916), there were few great battleship clashes. Despite their great firepower and protection, battleships were increasingly vulnerable to much smaller, cheaper ordnance and craft: initially the torpedo and the naval mine, and later aircraft and the guided missile. The growing range of naval engagements led to the aircraft carrier replacing the battleship as the leading capital ship during World War II, with the last battleship to be launched being HMS Vanguard in 1944. Battleships were retained by the United States Navy into the Cold War only for fire support purposes. The last battleships were removed from the U.S. Naval Vessel Register in March 2006. Battleships were the largest and most complex, and hence the most expensive warships of their time; as a result, the value of investment in battleships has always been contested. As the French politician Etienne Lamy wrote in 1879, "The construction of battleships is so costly, their effectiveness so uncertain and of such short duration, that the enterprise of creating an armoured fleet seems to leave fruitless the perseverance of a people". The Jeune cole school of thought of the 1870s and 1880s sought alternatives to the crippling expense and debatable utility of a conventional battle fleet. It proposed what would nowadays be termed a sea denial strategy, based on fast, long-ranged cruisers for commerce raiding and torpedo boat flotillas to attack enemy ships attempting to blockade French ports. The ideas of the JeuneEcole were ahead of their time; it was not until the 20th century that efficient mines, torpedoes, submarines, and aircraft were available that allowed similar ideas to be effectively implemented. The determination of powers such as the German Empire to build battle fleets with which to confront much stronger rivals has been criticised by historians, who emphasize the futility of investment in a battle fleet which has no chance of matching its opponent in an actual battle. According to this view, attempts by a weaker navy to compete head-to-head with a stronger one in battleship construction simply wasted resources which could have been better invested in attacking the enemy's points of weakness. In Germany's case, the British dependence on massive imports of food and raw materials proved to be a near-fatal weakness, once Germany had accepted the political risk of unrestricted

submarine warfare against commercial shipping. Although the U-boat offensive in 191718 was ultimately defeated, it was successful in causing huge material loss and forcing the Allies to divert vast resources into anti-submarine warfare. This success, though not ultimately decisive, was nevertheless in sharp contrast to the inability of the German battlefleet to challenge the supremacy of Britain's far stronger fleet. Source: Wikipedia.com Questions You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 15 27 which are based on Reading Passage 2 Questions 15 19 Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2? In boxes 15 -19 in your answer sheet write TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. if the statement agrees with the information if the statement contradicts the information if there is no information on this

A battleship is a large armoured warship used in modern day warfare. Battleships are cost effective and practical. The value of a battleship is never very much welcomed by people across the globe. The growing range of naval engagements led to the aircraft carrier replacing the battleship. Battleships were a symbol of naval dominance and national might for India.

Question 20 23 Look at the following topics (questions 20 23) and the list of statements below. Match each topic to the correct statement. Write the correct letter A G in boxes 1 4 on your answer sheet. 20. The German Empire 21. Battleships 22. The British 23. Etienne Lamy A B C D E F G Joined hands with the government. Was very much reliant on battleships. Is a matter of pride. Is a consulting firm. Massive import of food. A French politician. Made many battleships to defeat the enemies.

Questions 24 27 Complete the following statements with the correct alternative from the box. Write the correct letter A F in boxes 24 27 on your answer sheet. 24. 25. 26. 27. Efficient mines, torpedoes, submarines, and aircraft were available that Battleships were the The determination of powers such as the German Empire to build battle fleets The value of the battleship has been questioned,

A Replaced battleships. B Even during the period of their prominence. C Largest and most complex. D Pushed their investment-banking units into the red. E Has been criticised by historians. F Even though they were of great fame.

Reading Passage 3 A. Later this month, heads of state and diplomats from 11 countries will meet in St. Petersburg, Russia for a "tiger summit" to discuss how to stop tigers from going extinct. It's the first time heads of state have gathered for a meeting about a single species. But to many conservationists, the meeting shouldn't have been needed at all. A decade ago, tigers seemed to have bounced back from the brink of extinction. But thanks to continuing illegal poaching, there are now just 3,200 tigers left in the wild; that's down from over 100,000 a century ago. B. As part of the run-up to the summit, wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC released a report today detailing how more than 1,000 parts of tigers killed by poachers across Asia have been seized over the past decade. The tiger parts including skins, bones, skulls and penises were seized in India, China and Nepal and were destined for use in traditional Chinese medicines, decorations and even good luck charms, the report says. C. The trade of wild tiger parts is illegal under the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. Earlier this year, the World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies explicitly stated that tiger parts were not necessary for traditional medicine. Tiger farms have sprung up to meet some of the demand. But a black market continues to thrive thanks to the widespread belief that medicines from wild tigers are more potent than those from farmed animals. Conservationists were optimistic about tigers a decade ago for two reasons. The species are hardy--if allowed to breed, they do so quite successfully. What's more, the main tiger countries all laid out refuges for the animals in their borders.

D. But tigers are restless, wandering beasts; the refuges were necessarily large, and policing them has proved very difficult. According to the TRAFFIC report, many seizures take place within 30 miles of protected tiger areas like the Western Ghats in India, the Sundarbans of Bangladesh and Nepal's terai region. E. "Clearly enforcement efforts to date are either ineffective or an insufficient deterrent," the report quoted Mike Baltzer, a tiger expert with The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), as saying. The report recommends both tightening enforcement and curbing demand for tiger parts. But others have more revolutionary ideas. A recent study in the journal PLoS Biology suggested that protection be concentrated to the 42 "source" sites in India, Sumatra and Russia that contain 70% of the world's remaining wild tigers. These sites are relatively small--roughly 6% of the tiger's distributionand therefore policing could be much more tightly enforced. F. But the summit, which is hosted by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and which hopes to lay out a plan to double the number of tigers in the wild by 2022, will likely settle on a more diverse and diffuse approach. It will likely look at poverty alleviation and education as part of a holistic effort. G. To many conservationists, the tiger is a symbol of wild, untameable natureallowing the beasts to go extinct would mark the crossing of a line for humanity's acceptance of environmental degradation. As Alan Rabinowitz, CEO of Panthera, recently told the Guardian: "[A tiger] is the epitome of the wild and wildness. It's kind of a clich, but we need wild in our lives. The tiger is a piece of that wild. We lose that and it's the cork out of the bottle--everything else spills out. If we can't pull together enough to save what is the most iconic living species, then what are going to do for lesser species?" Source: Time Questions You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 28 40 which are based on Reading Passage 3. Questions 28 32 The passage has seven paragraphs labelled AG. Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter A-G in boxes 28-32 on your answer sheet. NB: You may use any letter more than once. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. A tiger is the epitome of the wild and wildness. The trade of wild tiger parts is illegal under the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. Tigers are restless, wandering beasts. The tiger is a symbol of wild, untameable nature. The summit is hosted by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Questions 33 36 Complete the sentences below with words taken from Reading Passage 3. Use NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 33-36 on your answer sheet.

33. 34. 35. 36.

Many seizures take place within 30 miles of protected tiger areas like the . The summit hopes to lay out a plan to double the number of tigers in . Tiger parts were not necessary for traditional medicine . Protection is concentrated to the 42 "source" sites in India .

Questions 37 40 Complete the summary of the paragraphs A C below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet. Heads of state and diplomats from 11 countries will meet in St. Petersburg, Russia for 37 . Thanks to continuing illegal poaching, there are now just 3,200 tigers 38 . The trade of wild tiger parts is illegal under the UN Convention on International 39 . The main tiger countries all laid out refuges for the 40