Dressed to Dazzle As high-tech materials invade high-street fashion, prepare for clothes that are cooler than silk and warmer than wool, keep insects at arm’s length, and emit many pinpricks of colored light. The convergence of fashion and high technology is leading to new kinds of fibers, fabrics and coatings that are imbuing clothing with … more →

Questions 27-32 The passage has six paragraphs, A—F. Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below. Write the correct number, i—viii, in boxes 27-32 on your answer sheet. List of Headings i The difficulties of talking about smells ii The role of smell in personal relationships iii Future studies into … more →

Questions 14-17 Reading passage has six paragraphs, A—F. Choose the correct heading for paragraphs B and D—F from the list of headings below. Write the correct number, i—ix, in boxes 14-17 on your answer sheet. List of Headings i  Predicting climatic changes ii The relevance of the Little Ice Age today iii How cities contribute … more →

Telepathy Can human beings communicate by thought alone? For more than a century the issue of telepathy has divided the scientific community, and even today it still sparks bitter controversy among top academics Since the 1970s, parapsychologists at leading universities and research institutes around the world have risked the derision of sceptical colleagues by putting … more →

Unmasking Skin  A If you took off your skin and laid it flat, it would cover an area of about twenty-one square feet, making it by far the body’s largest organ. Draped in place over our bodies, skin forms the barrier between what’s inside us and what’s outside. It protects us from a multitude of … more →

Antarctic Penguins Though penguins are assumed to be native to the South Pole, only four of the seventeen species have evolved the survival adaptations necessary to live and breed in the Antarctic year round. The physical features of the Adelie, Chinstrap, Gentoo, and Emperor penguins equip them to withstand the harshest living conditions in the … more →

Wind Power The power of the wind has been used for centuries to directly drive various machines to perform such tasks as grinding wheat or pumping water. Recently, however, the wind has joined other natural forces such as water and steam as a viable method of generating electricity. Traditional means of electricity generation using coal … more →

Air Rage (A) The first recorded case of an airline passenger turning seriously violent during a flight, a phenomenon now widely known as “air rage”, happened in 1947 on a flight from Havana to Miami. A drunk man assaulted another passenger and bit a flight attendant. However, the man escaped punishment because it was not … more →

You are advised to spend about 15 minutes on Questions 1 – 14 which refer to reading passage below: Finding The Lost Freedom 1. The private car is assumed to have widened our horizons and increased our mobility. When we consider our children’s mobility, they can be driven to more places (and more distant places) … more →

Investigating Children’s Language A For over 200 years, there has been an interest in the way children learn to speak and understand their first language. Scholars carried out several small-scale studies, especially towards the end of the 19th century, using data they recorded in parental diaries. But detailed, systematic investigation did not begin until the … more →