READING 13

Part 1:
Phillis Wheatley was born in Gambia, Africa, on May 8, 1753, and passed away in Boston on
December 5, 1784. When she was 7 or 8, she was sold as a slave to John and Susanna Wheatley
of Boston. She was named after the ship that brought her to America, The Phillis. The Poetry
Foundation describes her sale: In August 1761, "in want of a domestic," Susanna Wheatley, ...
purchased "a slender, frail female child ... for a trifle" ... The captain of the slave ship believed that
the waif was terminally ill, and he wanted ... at least a small profit before she died. ... The family
surmised the girl—who was "of slender frame and evidently suffering from a change of climate,"
nearly naked, with "no other covering than a quantity of dirty carpet about her"—to be "about
seven years old ... from the circumstances of shedding her front teeth."

Phillis was very intelligent. The Wheatley family taught her to read and write, and encouraged her
to write poetry. Her first poem, "On Messrs. Hussey and Coffin," was published when she was
just twelve years old. In 1770, "An Elegiac Poem, on the Death of that Celebrated Divine, and
Eminent Servant of Jesus Christ, the Reverend and Learned George Whitefield" made her famous.
It was published in Boston, Newport, and Philadelphia.

When she was eighteen, Phillis and Mrs. Wheatley tried to sell a collection containing twenty-
eight of her poems. Colonists did not want to buy poetry written by an African. Mrs. Wheatley
wrote to England to ask Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, for help. The countess was a
wealthy supporter of evangelical and abolitionist (anti-slavery) causes. She had "Poems on
Various Subjects, Religious and Moral" published in England in 1773. This book made Phillis
famous in England and the thirteen colonies. She wrote a poem for George Washington in 1775,
and he praised her work. They met in 1776. Phillis supported independence for the colonies during
the Revolutionary War.

Following the death of her master, Phillis was granted her freedom. She married John Peters, a
free Black man, in 1778. She and her husband lost two children as infants. John would be
imprisoned for debt in 1784. Phillis and her remaining child died in December of 1784 and were
buried in an unmarked grave. Nevertheless, the legacy of Phillis Wheatley lives on. She was the
first African American and the first enslaved person in the United States to publish a book. She
proved that slaves or former slaves had a valuable voice in the Revolutionary era.
READING 14

Part 2:
(A) The conservatism of the early English colonists in North America, particularly
their strong attachment to traditional English methods, played a major role in shaping
the furniture made in New England. The very tools that the first New England
furniture makers used were, after all, not much different from those used for
centuries—even millennia: basic hammers, saws, chisels, planes, augers, compasses,
and measures. These were the tools commonly used by all woodworkers, including
carpenters, barrel makers, and shipwrights. At most, the furniture makers might have
had planes with special edges or more delicate chisels, but there could not have been
much specialization in the early years of the colonies.

(B) The furniture makers in those early decades of the 1600s were known as "joiners,"
for the primary method of constructing furniture, at least among the English of this
time, was that of mortise-and-tenon joinery. The mortise is the hole chiseled and cut
into one piece of wood, while the tenon is the tongue or protruding element shaped
from another piece of wood so that it fits into the mortise; and another small hole is
then drilled (with the auger) through the mortised end and the tenon so that a whittled
peg can secure the joint—thus the term "joiner." Panels were fitted into slots on the
basic frames. This kind of construction was used for making everything from houses
to chests.

(C) Relatively little hardware was used during this period. Some nails—forged by
hand—were used, but no screws or glue. Hinges were often made of leather, but metal
hinges were also used. The cruder varieties were made by blacksmiths in the colonies,
but the finer metal elements were imported. Locks and escutcheon plates—the latter
to shield the wood from the metal key—were often imported. Above all, the early
English colonists imported their knowledge, familiarity, and dedication to the
traditional furniture styles and designs they knew in England.
READING 15
Part 3:
(A) In addition to their military role, the forts of the nineteenth century provided
numerous other benefits for the American West. The establishment of these posts
opened new roads and provided protection for daring adventurers, expeditions, and
established settlers. Forts also served as bases where enterprising entrepreneurs could
bring commerce to the West, providing supplies and refreshments to soldiers as well
as to pioneers. Forts like Fort Laramie provided supplies for wagon trains traveling
along the natural highways to new frontiers. Some forts became stations for the pony
express; still others, such as Fort Davis, were stagecoach stops for weary travelers.
All of these functions, of course, suggest that the contributions of the forts to the
civilization and development of the West extended beyond patrol duty.

(B) Through the establishment of military posts, yet other contributions were made to
the development of western culture. Many forts maintained libraries or READING
rooms, and some - for example, Fort Davis - had schools. Post chapels provided a
setting for religious services and weddings. Throughout the wilderness, post bands
provided entertainment and boosted morale. During the last part of the nineteenth
century, to reduce expenses, gardening was encouraged at the forts, thus making
experimental agriculture another activity of the military. The military stationed at the
various forts also played a role in civilian life by assisting in maintaining order, and
civilian officials often called on the army for protection.

(C) Certainly, among other significant contributions the army made to the
improvement of the conditions of life was the investigation of the relationships among
health, climate, and architecture. From the earliest colonial times throughout the
nineteenth century, disease ranked as the foremost problem in defense. It slowed
construction of forts and inhibited their military functions. Official documents from
various regions contained numerous reports of illnesses that nearly incapacitated
entire garrisons. In response to the problems, detailed observations of architecture and
climate and their relationships to the frequency of the occurrence of various diseases
were recorded at various posts across the nation by military surgeons.
READING 16
Part 4:
(A) Anyone who has handled a fossilized bone knows that it is usually not identical
to its modern counterpart, with the most obvious difference being its greater weight.
Fossils often possess the characteristics of stone rather than organic materials, which
has led to the term "petrifaction" (meaning "to turn into rock"). The implication is that
bone, and other tissues, have somehow been turned into stone, and this is certainly the
explanation given in some texts. But it is a wrong interpretation; fossils are frequently
so dense because the pores and other spaces in the bone have become filled with
minerals taken up from the surrounding sediments. Some fossil bones have all the
interstitial spaces filled with foreign minerals, including the marrow cavity, if there is
one, while others have taken up but little from their surroundings. Most likely, all
minerals deposited within the bone have recrystallized from solution due to water
percolation. The degree of mineralization appears to be determined by the nature of
the environment in which the bone was deposited and not by the antiquity of the bone.
For example, the black fossil bones that are so common in many parts of Florida are
heavily mineralized, but they are only about 20,000 years old, whereas many of the
dinosaur bones from western Canada, which are about 75 million years old, are only
partially filled in. Under optimum conditions, the process of mineralization probably
takes thousands rather than millions of years, perhaps considerably less.

(B) The amount of change that has occurred in fossil bone, even in bone as old as that
of dinosaurs, is often remarkably small. We are therefore usually able to see the
microscopic structures of the bone, including such fine details as the lacunae where
the living bone cells once resided. The natural bone mineral, hydroxyapatite, remains
virtually unaltered—it retains the same crystal structure as modern bone. Although
nothing remains of the original collagen, some of its component amino acids are
usually still detectable, together with amino acids of the noncollagen proteins of bone.
READING 17

Part 1:
(A) In the last third of the nineteenth century, a new housing form was quietly being
developed. In 1869, the Stuyvesant, considered New York's first apartment house, was
built on East Eighteenth Street. The building was financed by developer Rutherfurd
Stuyvesant and designed by Richard Morris Hunt, the first American architect to
graduate from the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Both men had lived in Paris and
understood the economic and social potential of this Parisian housing style. However,
the Stuyvesant was, at best, only a limited success. Despite Hunt's inviting façade, the
living spaces were awkwardly arranged. Those who could afford such housing
preferred to remain in more sumptuous single-family homes, leaving the Stuyvesant
to young married couples and bachelors.

(B) The fundamental problem with the Stuyvesant, as well as other early apartment
buildings that quickly followed in the 1870s and early 1880s, was that they were
confined to the typical New York building lot. This lot was a rectangular area
measuring 25 feet wide by 100 feet deep—a shape ideally suited for a row house.
While the lot could accommodate a rectangular tenement, it could not yield the
spacious, well-lit, and logically arranged rooms that great apartment buildings require.
Despite the awkward interior layouts of these early apartment buildings, the idea
gained popularity. It addressed the needs of a large and growing population that sought
better housing than tenements but either could not afford or did not want row houses.

(C) As the city’s newly emerging social elite commissioned their mansions, apartment
houses and hotels began to emerge on multiple lots, breaking the initial space
constraints. In the final decades of the nineteenth century, large apartment houses
started appearing in the developed areas of New York City. By the early twentieth
century, spacious buildings such as the Dakota and the Ansonia finally overcame the
tight limitations of row house lots. From there, it was only a small step to constructing
luxury apartment houses along the newly created Park Avenue, right next to the
fashionable Fifth Avenue shopping district.
READING 18
Part 2:
(A) A snowfall consists of countless minute ice crystals that descend to the ground as
frozen precipitation. The formation of snow begins with these ice crystals in the
subfreezing strata of the middle and upper atmosphere when an adequate supply of
moisture is present. At the core of every ice crystal is a minuscule nucleus—a solid
particle of matter around which moisture condenses and freezes.

Liquid water droplets floating in the supercooled atmosphere and free ice crystals
cannot coexist within the same cloud, since the vapor pressure of ice is lower than that
of water. This allows the ice crystals to absorb moisture from the liquid droplets and
continue growing. The process can occur rapidly, quickly forming sizable ice crystals,
some of which adhere to each other to create clusters of ice crystals or snowflakes.
Simple flakes exhibit a variety of beautiful forms, typically hexagonal, although the
symmetrical shapes commonly seen in microscope photography of snowflakes are
rarely observed in actual snowfall. Typically, snowflakes in real snowfall consist of
broken fragments and clusters of adhering ice crystals.

(B) For a snowfall to continue once it starts, there must be a constant inflow of
moisture to supply the nuclei. This moisture is provided by an airstream passing over
a water surface and subsequently rising to higher regions of the atmosphere. The
Pacific Ocean is the primary source of moisture for most snowfalls west of the Rocky
Mountains, while the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean supply water vapor to
the air currents over the central and eastern sections of the United States.

Other geographical features can also contribute moisture to certain snowstorms. For
example, areas adjacent to the Great Lakes experience unique lake-effect storms,
driven by a localized variation of this process. Additionally, mountainous regions or
rising terrain can initiate snowfalls through the geographical lifting of moist
airstreams.
READING 19
Part 3:
(A) Social parasitism involves one species relying on another to raise its young.
Among vertebrates, the best-known social parasites are birds such as cuckoos and
cowbirds. The female lays an egg in a nest belonging to another species and leaves it
for the host to rear.
The dulotic species of ants, however, are the supreme social parasites. Consider, for
example, the unusual behavior of ants belonging to the genus Polyergus. All species
of this ant have lost their ability to care for themselves. The workers do not forage
for food, feed their brood or queen, or even clean their own nest. To compensate for
these deficits, Polyergus ants have become highly specialized in obtaining workers
from the related genus Formica to perform these essential tasks.

(B) During a raid, several thousand Polyergus workers will travel up to 500 feet in
search of a Formica nest. They invade the nest, drive away the queen and her workers,
capture the pupal brood, and carry it back to their own colony. The captured brood is
then nurtured by the resident Formica workers until the pupae develop and emerge,
increasing the Formica population and sustaining the mixed-species nest. The
Formica workers forage for food and share it with colony members of both species.
They also remove waste and excavate new chambers as the population grows.

(C) The full extent of the Polyergus ants' dependence on Formica workers becomes
evident when the colony outgrows its current nest. Formica scouts locate a new
nesting site, return to the mixed-species colony, and recruit additional Formica
nestmates. Over a period of up to seven days, the Formica workers transport all the
Polyergus eggs, larvae, pupae, every Polyergus adult, and even the Polyergus queen
to the new nest.
Of the approximately 8,000 species of ants in the world, all five species of Polyergus
and about 200 species in other genera have evolved some degree of parasitic
relationship with other ants.
READING 20

Part 4:
(A) The Winterthur Museum is both a collection and a house. There are many
museums devoted to the decorative arts and many house museums, but it is rare in the
United States to find a great collection displayed in a grand country house. Passed
down through successive generations of a single family, Winterthur has been a private
estate for more than a century. Even after extensive renovations between 1929 and
1931, the house remained a family residence.

This fact is significant to the museum’s atmosphere and impact. The impression of a
lived-in house is apparent to the visitor; the rooms appear as if they were vacated only
a short while ago. Whether by the original owners of the furniture or the most recent
residents of the house is a matter of personal interpretation. Winterthur remains, then,
a house in which a collection of furniture and architectural elements has been
assembled. Like an English country house, it is an organic structure; the house itself,
as well as the collection and the manner in which it is displayed to visitors, has evolved
over the years.

These changes have coincided with developing concepts of American art, increased
knowledge among collectors and scholars, and a growing effort to achieve historical
authenticity in period-room displays. The rooms at Winterthur have followed this
trend while still maintaining the character of a private home.

(B) The concept of a period room as a display technique has gradually developed over
the years in an effort to present works of art in a setting that enhances their visual
impact and provides deeper meaning for viewers. Comparable to the habitat group in
a natural history museum, the period room brings the decorative arts to life in an
engaging and dynamic way, allowing for the arrangement of objects related by style,
date, or place of manufacture.
READING 21
Part 1:
TV REVIEW

Lucy Chang tells you what's new (and not so new!) on your screens this summer.

(A) I always look forward to this time of year, and I'm always disappointed! It’s the time of year when the TV
channels announce their summer schedules, and every year I tell myself that this time might be different. It never
is. Take SuperTV, for example. This channel, on our screens for five years now, broadcasts a depressing mix of
game shows and music videos. So what do we find in the new schedule? I'm The One, a game show offering
holiday prizes, and VJ-TV, yet another music video programme with brainless presenters. They're also planning
to repeat the dreadful chat show Star Quality, which is about as entertaining as watching grass grow. Why can’t
they come up with new ideas?

(B) Channel 9 does a little better. Now that Train Driver has finished, they’ve decided to replace it with Staff
Room, a reality show that follows teachers around all day. It should be the hit of the summer, giving us insight
into what really goes on when the lessons are over. Who doesn’t want to see and hear what teachers say about their
students at the end of the school day? Great stuff! Together with Life in Aylesford Street, the soap opera that
everyone’s talking about, it looks like Channel 9 could be the channel to watch this summer.

(C) Over on BTV1, Max Read is back with Joke-a-Cola, the comedy show. The first series was slightly amusing,
the second hilarious. Let’s wait and see what the third series is like. Comedy is difficult to get right, but it ought
to be great. I wish I could say the same about the sitcom Oh! Those Kids! Just look at the expressions on the faces
of the cast! It’s obvious they know it’s rubbish, and the script is just so badly written! Oh! Those writers!

(D) The programme makers must think we’ll watch anything. That’s just not true. People might have hundreds of
channels on their TV or live near a cinema with a dozen screens. There is so much choice of entertainment these
days—TV, the cinema, the theatre, even the internet—that they have to work hard to keep their audience. What
they should be doing is making new, exciting programmes. Where are the shows that make people feel they must
stay in to watch them?

(E) We have to ask ourselves what entertainment really is. We have to think about what people do with their leisure
time. Television has been popular for about 50–60 years, but it might not be popular forever. More people are
going to the cinema and theatre than ever before. More people are surfing the internet or playing computer games
than ever before. If Oh! Those Kids! is all that TV has to offer, why should we watch it? With one or two
exceptions, this summer’s programmes will make more people turn off than turn on.
READING 22
Part 2:
The Reluctant Hero

(A) The most endearing thing about Aaron Green—and there are many—is his refusal to accept how famous he's
about to become. "I can walk down the street and not be hassled, which is really nice. I kind of hope that continues,
and I'm sure it will," he says earnestly. He seems genuinely to believe that the job won't change his life. "There's
nothing fascinating about my life, and there's absolutely no reason why that should start happening." You can only
wish him well.

How lovely it would be if this turned out to be true, but the chances are it won't, and he must know this. Aaron has
been cast as the hero in the latest fantasy blockbuster that will hit our screens next year. The first photo of him in
his costume was released last week, sparking a frenzy on the Internet.

(B) After an award nomination for his last film, Aaron is having the biggest year of his life, but it hasn't gone to
his head. "It's nice if your work is praised, but this is all very new to me," he says. "I really like working in this
profession and exploring its possibilities. Who knows what the future holds? We could dream about what might
happen next, but there's not much point. I'm just enjoying my job and want to do well in it, but that's kind of it,
really. No big hassles."

Of all the characters in his last film, which is based on a true story about a group of university students who start
an influential blog, Aaron's character is the one who emerges as the most likeable. But he insists that the plot is
not as straightforward as it might appear. "What's wonderful about this film is that everyone feels they are the good
guy. I don't think anyone in the cast felt they were playing the villain. It was just a group of human beings who
had different opinions."

(C) It's a typically thoughtful answer from the 27-year-old, who seems to be a bit of a worrier and prefers to avoid
watching himself on screen. Doubtless, he doesn't care much for interviews either, but he is so open and engaging
that you wouldn’t know it. He felt "a heightened sense of responsibility" playing a real-life person in his last film
but had no direct contact with the person concerned. "These people are living and breathing somewhere—of
course, that has a great effect on the care with which you approach your work. I kept wondering if he'd come and
see the film, if he'd recognize himself in my performance or be angered by it."

(D) His performance has a vulnerability that is almost painful to watch. Does he seek out those parts, or do directors
see that quality in him? "I don’t know, I think it’s probably a bit of both. I certainly have that unwillingness to lose
naivety—to lose that childlike way of looking at the world. I find it a very real and profound theme in my life and,
talking to other people my age, I think it’s universal."
READING 23
Part 3:
ADVERTISING - ART OR POLLUTION?
(A) How many adverts do you think you'll see today? 10? 30? According to the market research firm Yankelovich,
some of us see as many as 2,000–5,000 adverts a day! There are adverts all around us. Most of the time, we're not
even consciously aware of them. But think about your town or city. How many billboards, shop signs, and posters
does it have?

(B) Tokyo, in Japan, takes urban advertising to the extreme. Although the city's temples may still lay claim to
being more impressive, the explosion of sound and colour in the commercial centre can take your breath away.
Whether you find the overall effect stunning or nightmarish is a question of personal taste. However, it would be
hard not to admire the advertisers' ingenuity. Recent innovations include interactive games projected onto walls
for people to play. "Smellvertising" is also catching on—that’s the idea of using pleasant smells like chocolate to
attract consumers' attention!

(C) Innovations in Tokyo are of huge significance in the world of advertising because where Tokyo leads, other
cities soon follow. Big cities from New York to London already have outdoor television screens. Although Tokyo
is far from being universally admired, many urban authorities find its approach to advertising exciting and
dynamic. So what's the problem?

(D) "If every city copied Tokyo, it would be absolutely terrible!" exclaims Roberta Calvino of the advertising
watchdog group, Ad Alert. "At the moment, Tokyo's futuristic style sets it apart. It invites our attention because
there's simply nothing like it. But we don't need 100 poor imitations. In many cities, advertising is as bad as litter
or vandalism—it spoils our environment. Go beyond the city outskirts, and you'll find that advertising is taking
over the countryside, too. The world's biggest advert was actually in a field in Austria, below the flight path to
Vienna airport. It was the size of 50 football pitches!"

(E) According to Roberta, advertising can also influence the way we think and feel. "Advertisers want to convince
us that their products will make us happy or successful. Unfortunately, that's all an illusion—you can't simply 'buy'
a celebrity lifestyle at the shops!" Nevertheless, advertisers work hard to get us to swallow this message. For
instance, fashion brands prefer to advertise using images of glamorously made-up supermodels because they want
"ordinary" girls to feel inadequate in comparison. The more dissatisfied we feel with our lives, the more we'll
spend to cheer ourselves up! Although outdoor advertising may seem to make less of an immediate impression
than TV commercials, its message can have a greater impact.

(F) In 2007, one Brazilian city made a radical protest. Gilberto Kassab, the mayor of São Paulo, ordered the
removal of more than 15,000 adverts! In justification, he condemned urban advertising in very strong terms as
"visual pollution." Unsurprisingly, this made many local businesses unhappy. One marketing executive argued
that adverts "are more like works of art, hiding grey office blocks and industrial estates." However, a more typical
response can be summed up in this statement from Isuara dos Santos: "If we'd known what a difference it would
make, we'd have got rid of the adverts years ago. Now we can see the real São Paulo, and it's wonderful!"
READING 24
Part 4:
(A) Until fairly recently, explaining the presence of human beings in Australia was not considered a major problem.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, it was believed that Aborigines had been on the continent for no more
than 400 years. As recently as the 1960s, the estimated timeframe was perhaps 8,000 years. Then, in 1969, a
geologist from the Australian National University in Canberra was exploring the shores of a long-dried lake bed
called Mungo, in a remote and arid corner of New South Wales, when something caught his eye. It was the skeleton
of a woman, protruding slightly from a sandbank. The bones were collected and sent for carbon dating. The results
showed that the woman had died 23,000 years ago. Since then, other discoveries have pushed the date back even
further. Today, evidence suggests an arrival date of at least 45,000 years ago, but more likely around 60,000 years.

(B) The first occupants of Australia could not have walked there, as Australia has always been an island throughout
human history. Nor could they have evolved independently, as the continent had no apelike creatures from which
humans could have descended. The first arrivals could only have come by sea, presumably from Timor or the
Indonesian archipelago, and here is where the challenges arise.

(C) To place Homo sapiens in Australia, we must assume that at a time so remote that it predates the known rise
of behaviorally modern humans, there existed in southern Asia a people so advanced that they were fishing inshore
waters using some form of watercraft. This is despite the fact that the archaeological record shows no other
evidence of such seafaring activity anywhere else on Earth for another 30,000 years.

(D) Next, we must consider what motivated these people to cross at least sixty miles of open sea to reach a land
they could hardly have known existed. The most widely accepted scenario is that a simple fishing craft—probably
little more than a floating platform—was accidentally carried out to sea, likely due to one of the sudden storms
characteristic of this region. This craft then drifted helplessly for several days before washing up on a beach in
northern Australia. So far, so good.

(E) The next logical question—one that is seldom asked—is how a new population could have arisen from this. If
a lone fisherman was carried off to Australia, he would have needed to find his way back home to report his
discovery and persuade enough people to accompany him to establish a colony. This, of course, implies the
possession of significant sailing skills.

(F) By any measure, this is a staggeringly momentous achievement. Yet, how much attention has it received? Ask
yourself—when was the last time you read anything about it? When was the last time, in any discussion of human
migration and the rise of civilizations, that you saw even a passing mention of the role of Aborigines? They are
the planet’s invisible people. A major part of the issue is that, for most of us, it is nearly impossible to comprehend
the vast span of time under consideration here. Suppose, for the sake of argument, that Aborigines arrived in
Australia 60,000 years ago (the figure used by Roger Lewin of Harvard in Principles of Evolution, a widely
recognized text). In that case, the entire period of European occupation of Australia represents a mere 0.3 per cent
of the total.
READING 25
Part 1:
Take Me Out to the Ballpark
Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie... you just can't get more American than that! Frank Bell gives us a look at baseball,
no longer just America's favorite sport!

(A) Baseball is sometimes called a national pastime in America because it is a much-loved national sport. Of
course, baseball is not limited to the USA. It has been played for many years in South American countries and is
very popular in Japan. Europe, however, is another matter—not many baseball teams exist there today. That,
however, is slowly changing. Since baseball is an Olympic sport, more and more countries are forming teams and
joining the game!

(B) Going to baseball games is a way of life for many fans. They sit in the stands on hot and sunny spring and
summer days, eat hot dogs or popcorn, sip cola or lemonade, and enjoy the game. Adults and children alike attend
games, and it's a sport that everyone seems to love. Baseball is such a part of American life that nearly everyone's
favorite childhood memory includes a day at the ballpark.

(C) When and where did the game of baseball start? Well, people have been playing games with a stick and a ball
for hundreds of years! Modern baseball, however, began about 150 years ago in New York, USA, and has been a
popular sport ever since. It has changed a little over the years, but the basic game remains the same. Baseball is
played with a bat, which is a stick about 100 cm long, made of metal or wood, and a small hard ball. Each player
also wears a heavy leather glove to catch the ball. Baseball gear usually consists of a lightweight shirt and trousers
that extend just past the knees.

(D) Baseball is played on a special outdoor field that has two parts: the infield and the outfield. The infield is an
area shaped like a diamond that marks the boundaries of the playing area. On the diamond, there are also three
bases that the players must run over to score. The outfield is an open grassy area where players wait to catch balls
that are hit by other players.

(E) The game of baseball is divided into nine parts, called innings. During an inning, each of the two teams takes
its turn to bat, meaning they try to hit the ball that is thrown to them by the pitcher of the opposing team. After
hitting the ball, the player tries to run and touch three different bases before reaching home base. The team not
batting tries to catch the balls that are hit and stop the runners before they score. The team that scores the most
runs by the end of the ninth inning wins. It's a game that can move very slowly at times and then suddenly burst
into fast and exciting action!

(F) Fans love baseball games! The stands are usually packed for the games. People enjoy a day at the ballpark,
cheering on their favorite team and relaxing in the summer sun. So what are you waiting for? Put on your baseball
cap and give it a try!
READING 26
Part 2:
Ten Events, One Champion: THE DECATHLON

Fay Webster takes a look at the world of athletics and finds out what it takes to be a true champion.
(A) The Olympic Games have changed a lot since their origins in Ancient Greece. Today, athletes from countries
all over the world take part, and the Olympics have become a global event, watched by millions on television.
Some things, though, have stayed the same. The athletes in ancient times could make a lot of money from winning,
just like today's competitors. In the ancient Games, a great champion might have received as much as a year's pay
for winning a race.

(B) Another thing that hasn't changed is the search for an all-round champion—somebody who can defeat their
opponents in a number of different sporting events. In the ancient Olympics, athletes competed in the pentathlon.
This consisted of the long jump, the discus, the javelin, a running race, and wrestling. The first winner, in 708 BC,
was Lampis of Sparta, who must have been a great athlete to beat so many others from across the Hellenic world.
The pentathlon remained an important part of the Olympics until Emperor Theodosius of Rome banned the Games
in 393 AD.
(C) The Stockholm Olympics of 1912 revived this tradition of the search for all-round greatness. The modern
pentathlon was introduced (shooting, swimming, fencing, riding, and running), along with the modern decathlon
(ten events). Later, the heptathlon (seven events) for women was also added. But what drives someone to take on
this challenge of running, throwing, and jumping, pushing their body to its limits? I met American decathlete Bruce
Thorpe in New York and told him he must have been crazy to take up the decathlon. He laughed. "Yes, I think I
probably was. I could have done lots of different sports, but I chose the decathlon. It's very tough, and it demands
a lot of different skills. You have to train just as hard as other athletes—only you have to do it in ten different
events! I think we're probably all a little crazy, but it's very satisfying in the end," he said. I asked him to explain
what happens in the decathlon.
(D) "The way it works is that you complete each event and earn points based on your performance. At the end of
two days, the person with the most points is crowned the champion and wins the gold medal, while the second and
third-place athletes receive silver and bronze medals, respectively. We start with the 100 metres, the long jump,
the shot put, the high jump, and the 400 metres. On the second day, it's the 110-metre hurdles, the discus, the
javelin, the pole vault, and the one that we all dread—the 1500 metres." I asked him why the 1500 metres was
such a challenge. "All the other events demand speed or strength, but with the long race, it's all about stamina.
Really, decathletes aren't built for that event," he admitted.

(E) So what tips does Bruce have for those of you thinking of taking up the decathlon? "Start as early as you can
and join a good club," he said. "It takes a long time to master ten different events—or seven for the heptathlon—
and you need expert help. And don't expect to have much free time!"
(F) Ten events, one champion. Think you might be the one? If you're interested in finding out more about the
decathlon, contact your local athletics club.
READING 27
Part 3:
COAST TO COAST

(A) A 27-year-old graphic designer from Oxfordshire, England, completed a record-breaking journey across
Australia yesterday. It was a 5,800-kilometre odyssey, and he travelled the entire distance on a skateboard. David
Cornthwaite, who started skateboarding less than two years ago, decided on his epic journey after waking up one
morning and realizing he hated his job. "I thought, the only thing keeping me going is the skate to and from work.
I was a bit disillusioned, and I was looking for something new," he said. "I saw a Lonely Planet guide to Australia.
There was a map on the back. Perth was on one side and Brisbane on the other, and I thought, 'that'll do'."

(B) He decided to prepare by skateboarding from John O'Groats to Land's End, the two points furthest apart on the
British mainland. That 1,442-kilometre trek, which he finished in June, took just over a month, during which an
infected blister swelled to the size of a tennis ball.

(C) Crossing Australia on a skateboard brought unique challenges. The wind caused by huge road trains—the
articulated lorries that thunder across the Outback—was so powerful that he was sometimes blown off his board.
Multiple blisters and aching ankles, toes, and feet kept him in almost constant pain for the last six weeks. "I feel
like an old man. I'm not sure that anyone has ever had this many blisters," he said. Temperatures of 40°C and
above meant that he used more than a dozen tubes of factor-30 sunscreen.

(D) "There have been moments where I thought, 'this is ridiculous, I have to rest,' but I never contemplated giving
up." He has worn through 13 pairs of shoes and has an over-developed right calf muscle, which he compares to a
giant chicken fillet.

(E) Skating an average of 50 kilometres a day and reaching speeds of up to 50 kph on downhill runs, he left Perth,
Western Australia, and skated across the fearsome Nullarbor Plain into South Australia. After reaching Adelaide,
he made his way to Melbourne and from there to Sydney. A support team of seven people trailed him all the way
in a four-wheel-drive vehicle, which carried camping equipment for night stops. The journey shattered the previous
record for a long-distance skateboard, set by an American, Jack Smith, who covered 4,800 kilometres across the
US in 2003.

(F) David Cornthwaite was less than three kilometres from the end of his epic journey when he hit a hole and was
thrown off his skateboard, suffering cuts and bruises to his shoulders, knees, hips, and elbows. "I was only going
at 40 kph at the time, so although it wasn't pretty, it could have been a lot worse," he said. In the short term, he
hopes to spend the next few days surfing on the Gold Coast, south of Brisbane, to build up some much-needed
upper body strength. "I've got huge legs but a skinny body—it's a bit ridiculous. I need to give my body a chance
to warm down, and surfing sounds ideal. For the time being, I'm hanging up my skateboard." In the longer term,
he plans to give motivational speeches and write a book. Another long-distance journey is also on the cards. "I'm
certainly not going back to the day job," he said.
READING 28

Part 4:
On Tour with the London Symphony Orchestra

(A) "Footballers and musicians are in the same business. They both do stressful jobs in front of
critical audiences. The only difference is that football crowds are noisier," says Rod Franks. And
he should know. Franks started his working life with Leeds United Football Club, then neatly
changed direction, started playing the trumpet instead of football, and is now principal trumpeter
with the LSO (London Symphony Orchestra). Franks might have made a further observation about
the similarities between orchestras and football clubs: it is playing away that presents the real
challenges.

London's oldest orchestra has been playing away since it was formed almost a century ago.
Nowadays, the orchestra's trips abroad are limited to tours of a maximum of two and a half weeks.
But since touring is clearly expensive and presents major organizational and technical problems,
why bother to tour at all? Clive Gillinson, the managing director, says: "A great international
orchestra needs to work with the greatest conductors and soloists. No recording company will
record a conductor or soloist if he or she is only known in one territory—they need an international
reputation. So for the recording side to work, you have to visit the key markets; you need to tour."

(B) By touring with projects or festivals, Gillinson is able to create an event, not just provide a
series of concerts. It is more expensive to do, but when you leave town, you are not so easily
forgotten.

(C) For Sue Mallet, the orchestra's administrator, the difficulties of her job lie in getting a
symphony orchestra and its instruments on stage, on time, and in one piece. However well she
plans each tour—and she does her planning with scientific accuracy—events sometimes take an
unexpected turn. On one occasion, a concert had been advertised for the wrong night, and on
another, the lorry carrying the instruments from the airport to the concert hall broke down and got
stuck in snow.

(D) It is a tiring and stressful business flying around the world, and yet, on balance, it is one of the
rewards of the job. Certain moments are unforgettable. At the end of a concert in Moscow, an
enthusiastic audience had brought the orchestra to its feet. As one of the musicians was about to
sit down, an elderly lady in the front row pressed a piece of paper into his hand. It said, in simple
English, what lovely music the orchestra had made.
READING 29
Part 1:
The hugs that keep on giving

(A) Every weekend over the past 10 months, Nguyen Bao Ngoc has been walking around Sword
Lake in Hanoi, dressed as Doraemon, a popular Japanese comic book character that is half cat,
half robot. Stretching his arms out, he tries to hug as many strangers as possible. Some stop to hug
him back before putting money into one of the boxes that his friends are holding. Others walk
faster and avoid eye contact with him. Ngoc, 23, says he started the "Hug Me" (Ôm tôi đi)
campaign in February, inspired by the Free Hugs social movement in Australia. The difference is
that his hugs are not free because he wants to raise money to help children in poor and remote
areas across the country.

(B) The senior college student, who is studying to become a TV reporter, has been doing charity
work for three years. In one of his most successful efforts, he worked as a xe ôm (motorbike taxi)
driver in his free time and donated all the money he earned to poor families in his hometown in
Quang Binh Province. But "Hug Me," Ngoc says, is his favorite because, with it, he can capture
the attention of his peers. "Young people my age have been more into social media than real life.
We may cry over a sad story on Facebook, but when we witness the same story in real life, we can
be indifferent."

As hugging in public is not very common in Vietnam, Ngoc wears a costume so that strangers will
not feel uncomfortable. Doraemon the cat is, in fact, famous for its friendliness and kindness.
Sometimes, for a change, he also dresses as a bee or a puppy.

(C) Many students who gave him a hug donated more than VND 5,000, which is what he hopes
to receive, allowing the campaign to earn between $50 and $200 each week. Some also brought
old clothes and books. Ngoc has organized two trips to bring gifts and food to children in Quang
Binh and the northern mountainous province of Yen Bai this year. The third has been planned for
December.
Ngoc has been diagnosed with first-stage bone marrow cancer, but he says his condition is
"stable." He does not want to be defined by his illness. Having cancer is not the motivation for
him to help others. "I'd do it anyway. I want people to see me as a student doing charity work, not
a cancer patient doing charity work."
READING 30
Part 2:
MY FIRST BIKE

(A) My biking beginnings can be summed up in two words: teenage love. My first girlfriend was small with short
blonde hair, and I was mad about her. Our romance came to an abrupt end, however, when she started going out
with another guy in my hometown, Crieff. He rode a 50 cc road motorbike first and then a 125. While I had always
walked my girlfriend home, suddenly she was riding back with this guy.

(B) I was nearly sixteen by then and already heartbroken. Then one day, on the way back from a shopping trip to
Perth with my mum, we passed Buchan's, the local bike shop. There was a light blue 50 cc bike on display right at
the front of the shop. I didn't know what make it was or if it was any good. Such trivialities were irrelevant to me.
All I knew was that I could get it in three months' time when I turned sixteen and was allowed to ride it. Maybe I
could even win my girlfriend back.

I'd ridden my first bike when I was about six. My father arranged for a tiny red Honda 50 cc, and we headed off to
a field that belonged to a family friend. I clambered on and shot off. I thought it was just the best thing. There was
one large heap of straw. I thought I would have a go. I came racing towards the adults, shot right through the gap
in the straw. I was thrilled to hear the adults scream and elated that I had frightened them. It was my first time on
a motorbike. It was exciting, and I wanted more.

So when I looked through Buchan's window in Perth that day, it suddenly all made sense to me. I can't remember
whether it was to win back my ex-girlfriend's heart or not, but more than anything else, it meant that instead of
having to walk everywhere, I could ride my motorbike to school, to the games fields at the bottom of Crieff, and
when I went out at weekends.

(C) I started to fantasize about it. I spent all my waking hours thinking about getting on and starting up the bike,
putting on the helmet, and riding around Crieff. I couldn't sleep. Driven to desperation by my desire for a bike, I
made a series of promises to my mum: I won't leave town. I'll be very safe. I won't take any risks. I won't do
anything stupid. But in fact, I was making the promises up—I never thought about keeping them.

(D) Crieff is a small town, and my whole childhood was spent walking around it. It was great, but I was reaching
that age when children become aware of the possibilities of venturing further afield. Unless, like us, you went
everywhere by bicycle. With so many beautiful places nearby, the idea of getting a motorbike was too much to
resist.
READING 31
Part 3:
THE BEATLES

The Beatles became the most popular group in rock music history. This quartet of extraordinarily talented
musicians generated a phenomenal number of pieces that won gold records. They inspired a frenzy that transcended
countries and economic strata. While all of them sang, John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote the majority of
their songs. Originally, Lennon and five others formed a group called the Quarrymen in 1956, with McCartney
joining them later that year. George Harrison, John Lennon, and Paul McCartney, together with Stuart Sutcliffe,
who played the bass guitar, and Pete Best on the drums, performed together in several bands for a few years until
they finally settled on the Silver Beatles in 1960.

American rock musicians, such as Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley, influenced Lennon’s and McCartney’s music,
whose first hits consisted of simple tunes and lyrics about young love, including "Love Me Do" and "Please, Please
Me." The Beatles' U.S. tour propelled them to stardom and led to two movies, A Hard Day’s Night and Help!,
filmed in 1964 and 1965. The so-called British invasion of the United States was in full swing when they took the
top five spots on the singles charts, followed by the release of their first film.

(A) During the 1960s, their music matured and acquired a greater sense of melody. The lyrics of their songs became
deeper and gained in both imagination and meaning. Their popularity continued to grow as the Beatles turned their
attention to social problems and political issues in "Nowhere Man" and "Eleanor Rigby." Loneliness and nostalgia
come through in their ballads "Michelle" and "Yesterday," which fully displayed the group’s professional
development and sophistication.

Lennon's sardonic music, with lyrics written in the first person, and McCartney's songs, which created scenarios
with offbeat individuals, contributed to the character of the music produced by the group. In addition to their music,
the Beatles set a social trend that popularized long hair, Indian music, and mod dress.

(B) For a variety of reasons, the musicians began to drift apart, and their last concert took place in San Francisco
in 1966. The newspapers and tabloids publicized their quarrels and lawsuits, and the much-idolized group finally
disbanded in 1970. However, their albums had outsold those of any other band in history. Although all of the
Beatles continued to perform solo or form new rock groups, none could achieve the recognition and success that
they had been able to win together.
READING 32
Part 4:
THE UNITED NATIONS

(A) When the United Nations was first formed in 1945, only 51 countries were members. Now, however, the
United Nations is truly a world organization. In fact, today almost every nation in the world is a member of the
UN. The main goal of the United Nations is to bring different nations together to promote peace and justice in the
world. The UN also works to make the world a safe and secure place.

(B) It is important to remember that the UN is not a "world government." This means that the UN does not make
laws for different countries to follow. It also does not enforce laws made by governments. However, the UN does
hold regular votes on global policies and issues. Also, like a government, the UN is divided into different branches,
or sections. Considering that the UN is such a large organization, it makes sense that it needs to be separated into
different pieces to be effective. There are six branches in the United Nations. Below, the first three branches of the
UN are discussed. In a later chapter, the other three divisions will be explained.

(C) The main branch is called the "General Assembly." In this branch, all members of the United Nations are
represented. Each member country has one vote. These votes are counted when the UN has meetings about world
issues. For example, if there is a problem in a certain area of the world or in a particular country, the UN will vote
on how to best solve the problem. At least two-thirds of all member countries, that is 67 percent, must agree on
how to resolve the problem in order for the UN to take action. If less than two-thirds of the voting countries agree,
no immediate action is taken.

(D) Another branch of the UN is the Security Council. The main purpose of this department is to maintain
international peace and keep the world secure. In this branch, there are only fifteen members. Five of these
members are permanent. The permanent members are China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom (Britain), and
the United States. The other ten members are elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms.

The third important branch of the UN is the Economic and Social Council. This branch works to help monitor the
world economy. It also works to resolve social issues around the world. For example, issues of concern for the
Economic and Social Council are violations of human rights, the fight against international crime such as selling
illegal drugs, and destruction of the environment. There are 54 government representatives serving on this council.
These members are elected by the General Assembly to serve for three-year terms. Council members are elected
to represent certain areas of the world, so the council has fourteen members from Africa, eleven from Asia, ten
from South America, and nineteen from Europe and North America.
READING 33
Part 1:
STREET VENDORS STRUGGLE AMIDST GLOBAL INTEGRATION

HA NOI - As the country integrates deeper into the world market, a number of street vendors who come to pursue
their dreams in cities might lose their jobs, experts have warned. With the ASEAN Economic Community formed
at the end of this year and the conclusion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, goods from other countries
will flood Viet Nam's market, creating a wide range of products for supermarkets and store chains. As a result,
street vendors in urban areas will have fewer customers and may eventually disappear, said Nguyen Thi Lan
Huong, director of the Institute of Labour Science and Social Affairs.

(A) Nguyen Thi Lan, a street vendor from Thai Binh province, said that her business has encountered many
difficulties due to the increased number of stores and supermarkets. "We used to make between VND 6 million
(nearly US $270) and VND 7 million (nearly $315) monthly, but now our income has been unstable as we have
fewer customers."

(B) Nguyen Anh Tuan, 30, who lives in the Old Quarter, said that he usually buys fruits and small items like
scissors and cotton swabs from street vendors. "It is really convenient and quick. I can just stand at my front door
and call for the food, whereas going to stores or especially to the supermarket takes me a lot of time. Moreover, I
can bargain with the street vendors - something you cannot do in supermarkets."

(C) Nguyen Thi Thanh Na, 28, a migrant worker in Ha Noi, prefers to buy fruits and other items from street vendors
for another reason. "I come from a rural area, so I sympathize with people who have to leave their hometowns and
make ends meet in the city. They have to walk around the streets all day to find customers, and sometimes, they
are chased away and their goods are confiscated by local police."

(D) Lessons from developed countries show that informal workers like street vendors will be negatively affected
or even disappear in the integration process; therefore, authorities need to provide them with vocational training
to help them adapt to the new situation, said Vu Huu Kien, a senior lecturer at the International Labour
Organization.

Sharing his opinion, Nguyen Thi Lan Huong, director of the Institute of Labour Science and Social Affairs, said
that street vendors should be trained to find jobs in industrial parks and in financial and personal service sectors.
READING 34
Part 2:
MY FIRST LOVE

(A) During the baking hot months of the summer holidays, my mother and I used to escape to one of the scattered
lakes north of Prince Albert. In its magic surroundings, we used to spend the long summer days in the open air,
swimming and canoeing or just lying dreaming in the sun. In the evening, the lake was always a bright, luminous
grey after the unbelievable sunset colours had faded.

The last summer before we returned to England was particularly enchanted. For one thing, I was in love for the
first time. No one can ever convince me that a fifteen-year-old cannot experience true love. I loved then as never
since, with all my heart and without doubts or reservations or pretence.

My boyfriend Don worked in Saskatoon, but the lake was "his place" - the strange and beautiful wilderness drew
him with an obsessive urgency, so I suspected it was not to see me that he got on his motorcycle as many Fridays
as he possibly could, and drove three hundred-odd miles along the pitted prairie roads to spend the weekends at
our place.

Sometimes he couldn't come, and the joy would go out of everything until Monday, when I could start looking
forward to Friday again. He could never let us know in advance, as we were too far from civilization to have a
phone or even a telegraph service. Besides, Don was hard up, and sometimes worked overtime at weekends.

(B) One Friday night a storm broke out. I lay in bed and listened to the thunder and the rain beating on the roof. I
tried not to expect Don that night, hoping he would have enough sense to wait until the storm ended. Yet in my
fearful imagination, I couldn't help but picture Don battling the storm. His motorbike seemed, in my thoughts, frail
enough to be blown onto its side by the first gust that struck it. I thought of Don pinned under it, skidding, his face
pressed into the mud.

I crawled back into bed, trying to close my throat against the tears. But when my mother, prompted by the deep
sympathy and understanding between us, came in to me, she kissed my cheek and found it wet. "Don't get upset,
Jane," she said softly. "He may still come."

When she had tucked me in and gone, I lay thinking about Don, about the danger of the roads - you couldn't ride
or walk along them safely after heavy rain; your feet would slip from under you. The roads in Northern Canada
are not like the friendly, well-populated English ones, where there are always farmhouses within walking distance
and cars driving along them day and night.
(C) It was hours later that I suddenly realized the sound of the roaring engine was real. The storm was dying. I lay
absolutely still, relief and pain fighting for ascendancy within me, each in itself overwhelming enough to freeze
the breath in my lungs as I heard Don's heavy tired footsteps on the wooden stairs.
READING 35
Part 3:
KETCHUP

(A) The sauce that is today called ketchup (or catsup) in Western cultures is a tomato-based sauce that is quite
distinct from Eastern ancestors of this product. A sauce called ke-tjap was in use in China at least as early as the
17th century, but the Chinese version of the sauce was made of pickled fish, shellfish, and spices. The popularity
of this Chinese sauce spread to Singapore and Malaysia, where it was called kechap. The Indonesian ketjab derives
its name from the same source as the Malaysian sauce but is made from very different ingredients. The Indonesian
ketjab is made by cooking black soybeans, fermenting them, placing them in a salt brine for at least a week, cooking
the resulting solution further, and sweetening it heavily. This process results in a dark, thick, and sweet variation
of soy sauce.

(B) Early in the 18th century, sailors from the British navy came across this exotic sauce on voyages to Malaysia
and Singapore and brought samples of it back to England on return voyages. English chefs tried to recreate the
sauce but were unable to do so exactly because key ingredients were unknown or unavailable in England; chefs
ended up substituting ingredients such as mushrooms and walnuts in an attempt to recreate the special taste of the
original Asian sauce. Variations of this sauce became quite the rage in 18th-century England, appearing in a
number of recipe books and featured as an exotic addition to menus from the period.

(C) The English version of ketchup did not contain tomatoes, and it was not until the end of the 18th century that
tomatoes became a main ingredient in the ketchup of the United States. It is quite notable that tomatoes were added
to the sauce, considering that tomatoes had previously been considered quite dangerous to health. The tomato had
been cultivated by the Aztecs, who had called it "tomatl"; however, early botanists had recognized that the tomato
was a member of the Solanaceae family, which includes a number of poisonous plants. The leaves of the tomato
plant are poisonous, though of course, the fruit is not.

Thomas Jefferson, who cultivated tomatoes in his gardens at Monticello and served dishes containing them at
lavish feasts, is often credited with changing the reputation of the tomato.

Soon after Jefferson had introduced the tomato to American society, recipes combining the new fashionable tomato
with the equally fashionable and exotic sauce known as ketchup began to appear.

(D) By the middle of the 19th century, both tomato and tomato ketchup were staples of the American kitchen.

Tomato ketchup, popular though it was, was quite time-consuming to prepare. In 1876, the first mass-produced
tomato ketchup, a product of German-American Henry Heinz, went on sale and achieved immediate success. From
tomato ketchup, Heinz branched out into a number of other products, including various sauces, pickles, and
relishes.
READING 36

Part 4:
FOOD CHAINS

(A) Originally, the idea of a "food chain" was developed by a scientist named Charles Elton in 1927. Elton
described a general food chain in terms of where plants and animals get their energy. He started with plants, which
get energy from sunlight. Next, plant-eating animals get their energy from eating plants. At the next level of the
chain, meat-eating animals get their energy from eating other animals. Elton's idea of a "chain" related to the
concept that all these animals are linked together by what they eat. Anything that affects one part of the chain
affects all the other parts in the chain. The first part of the chain, plants, is called the producer. All parts of the
chain above the producer are called consumers.

(B) Here is a simple example of a food chain. Grass uses sunlight to produce sugars and proteins so that it can
grow. Rabbits eat the grass and get energy from it. Foxes eat rabbits and get energy from them. Foxes are at the
"top" of this food chain because nothing eats them. Now imagine that a farmer plows up the field of grass where
the rabbits usually eat. Some of the rabbits might die. Others will probably move to another location to find food.
In either case, there will be fewer rabbits. This means less food for the foxes. Thus, the foxes depend on the grass
in a way, even though they don't eat the grass directly.

(C) In the natural world, of course, there are no simple food chains like this. Rabbits eat lots of plants besides
grass. Foxes eat many things besides rabbits. Additionally, there are many other creatures in nature that eat grass
and rabbits!

(D) However, that does not mean the idea of a simple food chain is not important. Food chains are still a useful
concept to consider, even if they are an oversimplification of reality. Take, for example, the case of DDT's effect
on animals. In the 1960s, DDT, a common pesticide at that time, was widely used by farmers. Farmers only used
a small amount at a time, so large animals were not harmed. However, once DDT was introduced into a field, it
did not disappear. Instead, it remained in the environment. Eventually, rain washed it into rivers and lakes.
Plankton, a tiny water organism, absorbed the DDT. Then, fish ate the plankton. There was not much DDT in a
single bit of plankton, but small fish consumed many bits of plankton. Then, larger fish ate lots of smaller fish,
causing the concentration of DDT in the larger fish to increase significantly. Finally, birds such as the osprey ate
large quantities of the larger fish.

(E) In the end, compared to the concentration of DDT in plankton, the concentration of DDT in osprey was 10
million times greater! The DDT did not kill the osprey, though. Instead, it caused female ospreys to lay eggs with
very thin shells. The shells were so fragile that when the mother sat on the eggs, they broke. As a result, the osprey
population was greatly reduced before rebounding to today's levels.
READING 37
Part 1:
Social Networks

Do the names MySpace, Facebook, and Orkut ring a bell? They probably do because they are some of the most
popular sites on the internet today. These sites are all called "social networking" sites because they help people
meet and discuss things online.

(A) Each of these social networking sites has its own strengths: MySpace is especially popular among teenagers,
Facebook is popular among college-age people, Orkut is especially loved in Brazil, and CyWorld is the site to visit
in South Korea. The common thread between all of these social networks is that they provide a place for people to
interact, rather than a place to go to read or listen to content.

Web 2.0
Social networks are considered to be web 2.0. What does this mean? To understand this, it's important to
understand what the original web did (often called web 1.0). Back in the 1990s, the internet—or web—was
primarily a place to read articles, listen to music, and get information.

(B) Most people didn't contribute to the sites. They just "browsed" the sites and took advantage of the information
or resources provided. Of course, some people did create their own sites. However, creating a site was difficult.
You needed to know basic HTML coding (the original language the internet uses to "code" pages). It certainly
wasn't something most people wanted to do, as even a basic page could take hours to get just right.

Things began to get easier when blogs (short for "web logs") were introduced. With blogs, many more people
began writing "posts," as well as commenting on other people's blogs.

MySpace Surprises Everybody

(C) In 2003, a site named MySpace took the internet by storm. It was trying to mimic the most popular features of
Friendster, the first social networking site. It quickly became popular among young users, and the rest was history.
Soon, everyone was trying to develop a social networking site. The sites didn't provide content for people to enjoy;
they helped people create, communicate, and share what they loved, including music, images, and videos.

Key to Success
Relying on users to create content is the key to the success of web 2.0 companies. Besides the social networking
sites discussed here, other huge success stories include: Wikipedia, Digg.com, and the latest success—Twitter. All
of these companies rely on the desire of users to communicate with each other, thereby creating the content that
others want to consume.
READING 38

Part 2:
(A) Floods are second only to fire as the most common of all natural disasters. They occur almost
everywhere in the world, resulting in widespread damage and even death. Consequently, scientists
have long tried to perfect their ability to predict floods. So far, the best that scientists can do is to
recognize the potential for flooding in certain conditions. There are several conditions, from deep
snow on the ground to human error, that can cause flooding.

(B) The first cause of flooding is deep snow on the ground. When deep snow melts, it creates a
large amount of water. Although deep snow alone rarely causes floods, when it occurs together
with heavy rain and sudden warmer weather, it can lead to serious flooding. If there is a fast snow
melt on top of frozen or very wet ground, flooding is more likely to occur than when the ground
is not frozen. Frozen ground or ground that is very wet and already saturated with water cannot
absorb the additional water created by the melting snow. Melting snow also contributes to high
water levels in rivers and streams. Whenever rivers are already at their full capacity of water,
heavy rains will result in the rivers overflowing and flooding the surrounding land.

(C) Secondly, rivers that are covered in ice can also lead to flooding. When ice begins to melt, the
surface of the ice cracks and breaks into large pieces. These pieces of ice move and float down the
river. They can form a dam in the river, causing the water behind the dam to rise and flood the
land upstream. If the dam breaks suddenly, then the large amount of water held behind the dam
can flood the areas downstream too.

(D) Broken ice dams are not the only dam problems that can cause flooding. Those carelessly
constructed by humans can also result in floods. When a large human-made dam breaks or fails to
hold the water collected behind it, the results can be devastating. Dams hold such massive amounts
of water that when they suddenly break, the destructive force is similar to that of a great tidal
wave. Unleashed dam waters can travel tens of kilometres, cover the ground in metres of mud and
debris, and drown and crush everything and every creature in their path.

(E) Although scientists cannot always predict exactly when floods will occur, they have a good
understanding of the conditions that make flooding likely. Deep snow, ice-covered rivers, and
weak dams are all strong conditions for potential flooding. Hopefully, this knowledge of why
floods happen can help us reduce the damage they cause.
READING 39
Part 3:
Musical Talents

(A) Among all the abilities with which an individual may be endowed, musical talent appears earliest in life. Very
young children can exhibit musical precocity for different reasons. Some develop exceptional skill as a result of a
well-designed instructional regime, such as the Suzuki method for the violin. Some have the good fortune to be
born into a musical family in a household filled with music. In a number of interesting cases, musical talent is part
of an otherwise disabling condition such as autism or mental retardation. A musically gifted child has an inborn
talent; however, the extent to which the talent is expressed publicly will depend upon the environment in which
the child lives.

(B) Musically gifted children master at an early age the principal elements of music, including pitch and rhythm.
Pitch—or melody—is more central in certain cultures, for example, in Eastern societies that make use of tiny
quarter-tone intervals. Rhythm, sounds produced at certain auditory frequencies and grouped according to a
prescribed system, is emphasized in sub-Saharan Africa, where the rhythm ratios can be very complex.

(C) All children have some aptitude for making music. During infancy, normal children sing as well as babble,
and they can produce individual sounds and sound patterns. However, individual differences begin to emerge in
young children as they learn to sing. Some children can match large segments of a song by the age of two or three.
Many others can only approximate pitch at this age and may still have difficulty in producing accurate melodies
by the age of five or six. However, by the time they reach school age, most develop a reasonably accurate imitation
of the songs commonly heard in their environment.

(D) The early appearance of superior musical ability in some children provides evidence that musical talent may
be a separate and unique form of intelligence. There are numerous tales of young artists who have a remarkable
ear or extraordinary memory for music and a natural understanding of musical structure. In many of these cases,
the child is average in every other way but displays an exceptional ability in music. Even the most gifted child,
however, takes about ten years to achieve the levels of performance or composition that would constitute mastery
of the musical sphere.

(E) Every generation in music history has had its famous prodigies—individuals with exceptional musical powers
that emerge at a young age. In the eighteenth century, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart began composing and
performing at the age of six. As a child, Mozart could play the piano like an adult. He had perfect pitch, and at age
nine he was also a master of the art of modulation—transitions from one key to another—which became one of
the hallmarks of his style. By the age of eleven, he had composed three symphonies and 30 other major works.
Mozart's well-developed talent was preserved into adulthood.
READING 40
Part 4:
The UH-1 Helicopter: Icon of the Vietnam War

(A) Every modern war has its icon, the technological development essential to the conflict, the one that changes
the course of battle and becomes, ever after, symbolic of the time. The Civil War's cannon, World War I's machine
gun, World War II's tank—each left its mark on the landscape and the soldier. Vietnam's icon was the helicopter,
specifically the UH-1 utility helicopter soldiers referred to as the Huey.

(B) The geographic and political realities of Vietnam called for a new kind of warfare, one the U.S. Army termed
Airmobile. Remote battle zones, mountains topped in old-growth hardwood jungles, and poorly developed roads
eliminated motor vehicles as a means of quickly moving masses of troops and supplies. Helicopters took over. In
Airmobile warfare, flocks of helicopters transported troops and supplies to strategic locations, monitored
operations from the air, engaged in battle, and evacuated forces. The famed U.S. Army 1st Cavalry joined aviation
units already in Vietnam to pioneer Airmobile operations, trading its horses for helicopters and creating an
archetype followed by the 101st Airborne, the 1st Aviation Brigade, and several other aviation units and smaller
detachments.

(C) Many helicopters were used in Vietnam, but none was as widely employed as the Huey. The UH-1 Iroquois—
popularly dubbed the Huey—is known as the workhorse of the Vietnam War, used by all military forces for troop
transport, medical evacuation, and combat assault. Hueys transported soldiers and supplies to the lines as the horses
for a modern cavalry. The U.S. Army and Marine Corps made them into gunships, modifying them with machine
guns and air-to-ground rocket pods and putting them to work in frontal assaults. Hueys carried officers to develop
battle plans, soldiers to battle, nurses to orphanages, and Donut Dollies to entertain troops. Outfitted with
broadcasting systems, they ferried Psychological Operations (PSYOPS) messengers.

(D) And, perhaps most significantly, Hueys were the technology behind Dustoffs—evacuations of the wounded—
so named by a pilot who gave his life doing it. The ability to swoop into the battle, load the Huey with wounded,
and fly to evacuation hospitals, started in Korea and refined in Vietnam, has been called one of the major medical
innovations of the Vietnam War. This quick transport meant that more than 90 percent of wounded soldiers who
reached a medical facility survived. The medical evacuation technology gained in the Huey experience of Vietnam
came home to become the air rescue operations we today take for granted.

(E) The Huey is an enormously versatile helicopter, easily modified for various missions. The interchangeable
interiors of the Huey allowed for easy conversion from troop carrier to ambulance. It was also an amazing machine,
capable of flying under extreme stress and relatively easy to get in and out of quickly—a feature crucial in troop
extraction and rescue missions. Those who flew and maintained them—the pilots and crew chiefs—are fiercely
loyal to the Huey, even though many have flown other aircraft.
(F) More than 7,000 Huey helicopters served in Vietnam, and nearly half were lost. A total of 2,177 Huey crew
members were killed in action. Because the Huey was always there for them, for soldiers on the ground, the
distinctive WHOP WHOP of the Huey's 48-foot rotor blades slapping the air was the sound of their lifeline.
READING 41
Part 1:
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)

(A) The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is the main political and economic organization for
that area. The leaders' summit is their last meeting before the launch of the ASEAN Economic Community, or
AEC, on December 31.

(B) The AEC will be equivalent to the world's seventh-largest economy. It was set up to create a highly
competitive single market and production area. Organizers hope it will ease the movement of capital, goods,
investment, services, and skilled labor across ASEAN countries. The goal is to make the whole area more
competitive and economically successful.

(C) But some business leaders have low expectations for the ASEAN summit. Anthony Nelson is a director at the
US-ASEAN Business Council in Washington. He believes that security will be an important issue at the meetings,
especially after the terrorist attacks in Paris last week. "The November summit includes the East Asia Summit,
which primarily focuses on political and security issues. So that's going to be a big part of what is actually going
on around the summit. A lot of the work that business gets really involved in tends to happen around the ASEAN
economic ministers' meeting in August." But the AEC may have only limited influence on business activity when
it comes into being next year. Experts expect little to change at first because there is still much to be done.

(D) "The ASEAN Single Window, which is a customs project, is still very much a work in progress. But beginning
next year, they will start limited trials with five of the ten ASEAN countries. And there have been past mutual
recognition agreements for credentials of skilled professionals. But there's still a lot of work to be done in terms
of actually implementing those agreements."

(E) Some critics say the AEC will mainly help businesses, not the majority of people in Southeast Asia. Earlier
this year, the ASEAN Civil Society Conference and ASEAN Peoples' Forum expressed concern about regional
economic integration. In a statement, the group said such a move would mean unequal and unsustainable
economic growth. This, it said, would result "in worsening poverty and inequalities of wealth."

(F) Jerald Joseph is co-chair of the ASEAN People's Forum. He says people crossing borders to find employment
need more protection. He said: "Cross-border migrant workers don't have the same level of protection or interest
in the whole negotiation. So that's a little bit of a pity, a wasted chance, if it's not reflected in the coming
document." The 27th ASEAN Summit includes the organization's partners. Nations including China, India, Japan,
and the United States are to attend.
READING 42
Part 2:
(A) In 1969, a key milestone in space travel was reached when Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. In 2001,
another landmark event took place when the first civilian traveled into space as a paying tourist.

(B) As a teenager, Dennis Tito dreamed of visiting outer space. As a young man, he aspired to become an astronaut
and earned a bachelor's and a master's degree in aerospace engineering. However, Tito did not have all the qualities
necessary to become a professional astronaut, so instead, he went to work as a space engineer in one of NASA's
laboratories for five years. Later, Tito set up his own financial investment company and, eventually, he became a
multi-millionaire. Later in life, the ex-rocket engineer, still passionate about space travel, began looking into ways
to make a trip into space.

(C) In the early 1990s, the Soviet Space Agency was offering tickets for a visit to the Mir space station to anyone
who could afford it. Tito jumped at the chance for this once-in-a-lifetime experience. Due to political and economic
changes in the former Soviet Union, however, Tito's trip was postponed, and later, Mir was decommissioned. In
2001, Tito's dream finally came true when he paid a rumored $20 million and took off aboard a Soyuz rocket to
deliver supplies to the International Space Station, a joint venture between the space agencies of Japan, Canada,
Europe, Russia, and the U.S.

(D) In preparation for the trip, Tito trained at the Gagarin Cosmonauts Training Center at Star City in Russia.
There, he underwent eight months of physical fitness training, weightless simulations, and a variety of other
exercises to prepare him for space travel. Although the Russians believed that Tito was adequately prepared for
the trip, NASA thought otherwise. Dennis Tito had to sign an agreement with international space officials taking
financial responsibility for any equipment he damaged or broke on his trip. He was also barred from entering any
part of the space station owned by the U.S. unless escorted.

(E) Although Tito made history and paved the way for the future of space tourism, factors such as cost and the
amount of training required stand in the way of space vacations becoming an option for most people in the near
future. In spite of this, Japanese and North American market data show that there is definite public interest in space
travel. In a 1993 survey of 3,030 Japanese, 80 percent of those under the age of forty said they would like to visit
space at least once. Seventy percent of this group would pay up to three months' salary for the trip. In 1995, 1,020
households in North America were surveyed, and of those, 60 percent who were interested were under forty years
of age. Just over 45 percent said they would pay three months' salary, around 18 percent said they would pay six
months' salary, and nearly 11 percent would pay a year's salary. Two-thirds of those who want to visit space would
like to do so several times. Since the nature of this type of travel makes it hazardous to humans, it would have to
be restricted to those who are physically fit and able to take responsibility for the risks involved.
READING 43

Part 3:
(A) During the heyday of the railroads, when America's rail system provided the bulk of the
country's passenger and freight transportation, various types of railroad cars were in service to
accomplish the varied tasks handled by the railroads. One type of car that was not available for
public use prior to the Civil War, however, was a sleeping car; ideas for sleeping cars abounded
at the time, but these ideas were unworkable. It unfortunately took the death of a president to
make the sleeping car a viable reality.

(B) Cabinetmaker George M. Pullman had recognized the demand for sleeping cars and had
worked on developing experimental models of sleeping cars in the decade leading up to the Civil
War. However, despite the fact that he had made successful test runs on the Chicago and Alton
Railroads with his models, he was unable to sell his idea because his models were too wide and
too high for existing train stations and bridges. In 1863, after spending time working as a
storekeeper in a Colorado mining town, he invested his savings of twenty thousand dollars—a
huge fortune at that time and all the money that he had in the world—in a luxurious sleeping car
that he named the Pioneer. Pullman and his friend Ben Field built the Pioneer on the site of the
present-day Chicago Union Station. For two years, however, the Pioneer sat on a railroad siding,
useless because it could not fit through train stations and over bridges.

(C) Following President Lincoln's assassination in 1865, the state of Illinois, Lincoln's birthplace,
wanted to transport the presidential casket in the finest fashion possible. The Pullman Pioneer
was the most elegant car available; in order to make the Pullman part of the presidential funeral
train in its run from Springfield to Chicago, the state cut down station platforms and raised bridges
to accommodate the luxurious railway car. The Pullman car greatly impressed the funeral party,
which included Lincoln's successor as president, General Ulysses S. Grant. Grant later requested
the Pioneer for a trip from Detroit to Chicago. To satisfy Grant's request for the Pioneer, the
Michigan Central Railroad made improvements on its line to accommodate the wide car, and
soon other railroads followed. George Pullman founded the Pullman Palace Car Company in
partnership with financier Andrew Carnegie and eventually became a millionaire.

(D) Pullman cars were normally a dark "Pullman green," although some were painted in the host
railroad's colors. The cars carried individual names but usually did not have visible numbers. In
the 1920s, the Pullman Company went through a series of restructuring steps, which in the end
resulted in a parent company, Pullman Incorporated, controlling the Pullman Company (which
owned and operated sleeping cars) and the Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Company.
READING 44
Part 4:
(A) Garbage cans are not magical portals. Trash does not disappear when you toss it in a can. Yet, the average
American throws away an estimated 1,600 pounds of waste each year. If there are no magic garbage fairies, where
does all that trash go? There are four methods to managing waste: recycling, landfilling, composting, and
incinerating. Each method has its strengths and weaknesses. Let's take a quick look at each.

(B) Recycling is the process of turning waste into new materials. For example, used paper can be turned into
paperboard, which can be used to make book covers. Recycling can reduce pollution, save materials, and lower
energy use. Yet, some argue that recycling wastes energy. They believe that collecting, processing, and converting
waste uses more energy than it saves. Still, most people agree that recycling is better for the planet than landfilling.

(C) Landfilling is the oldest method of managing waste. In its simplest form, landfilling is when people bury
garbage in a hole. Over time, the practice of landfilling has advanced. Garbage is compacted before it is thrown
into the hole. In this way, more garbage can fit in each landfill. Large liners are placed at the bottom of landfills
so that toxic garbage juice doesn't get into the groundwater. Sadly, these liners don't always work. Landfills may
pollute the local water supply. Not to mention that all of that garbage stinks. Nobody wants to live next to a landfill.
This makes it hard to find new locations for landfills.

(D) As landfill space decreases, interest in composting grows. Composting is when people pile up organic matter,
such as food waste, and allow it to decompose. The product of this decomposition is compost. Compost can be
added to the soil to make it richer and better for growing crops. While composting is easy to do on-site somewhere
like home or school, it's hard to do after the garbage gets mixed up. This is because plastic and other inorganic
materials must be removed from the compost pile, or they will pollute the soil. There's a lot of plastic in garbage,
which makes it hard to compost on a large scale.

(E) One thing that is easier to do is burning garbage. There are two main ways to incinerate waste. The first is to
create or harvest a fuel from the waste, such as methane gas, and burn the fuel. The second is to burn the waste
directly. The heat from the incineration process can boil water, which can power steam generators. Unfortunately,
burning garbage pollutes the air. Also, some critics worry that incinerators destroy valuable resources that could
be recycled.

(F) Usually, the community where you live manages waste. Once you put your garbage in that can, what happens
to it is beyond your control. But you can make choices while it is still in your possession. You can choose to
recycle, you can choose to compost, or you can choose to let someone else deal with it. The choice is yours.
READING 45

Part 1:
(A) A number of factors related to the voice reveal the personality of the speaker. The first is the
broad area of communication, which includes imparting information by use of
language, communicating with a group or an individual, and specialized
communication through performance. A person conveys thoughts and ideas through
the choice of words, by a tone of voice that is pleasant or unpleasant, gentle or harsh,
by the rhythm that is inherent within the language itself, and by speech rhythms that
are flowing and regular or uneven and hesitant, and finally, by the pitch and melody
of the utterance. When speaking before a group, a person's tone may indicate
unsureness or fright, confidence or calm. At interpersonal levels, the tone may reflect
ideas and feelings over and above the words chosen, or may belie them. Here, the
conversant's tone can consciously or unconsciously reflect intuitive sympathy or
antipathy, lack of concern or interest, fatigue, anxiety, enthusiasm, or excitement, all
of which are usually discernible by the acute listener. Public performance is a manner
of communication that is highly specialized with its own techniques for obtaining
effects by voice and/or gesture. The motivation derived from the text, and in the case
of singing, the music, in combination with the performer's skills, personality, and
ability to create empathy, will determine the success of artistic, political, or pedagogic
communication.

(B) Second, the voice gives psychological clues to a person's self-image, perception
of others, and emotional health. Self-image can be indicated by a tone of voice that is
confident, pretentious, shy, aggressive, outgoing, or exuberant, to name only a few
personality traits. Also, the sound may give a clue to the facade or mask of that person,
for example, a shy person hiding behind an overconfident front. How a speaker
perceives the listener's receptiveness, interest, or sympathy in any given conversation
can drastically alter the tone of presentation, by encouraging or discouraging the
speaker. Emotional health is evidenced in the voice by free and melodic sounds of the
happy, by the constricted and harsh sound of the angry, and by the dull and lethargic
qualities of the depressed.
READING 46
Part 2:
(A) During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, almost nothing was written about the
contributions of women during the colonial period and the early history of the newly formed
United States. Lacking the right to vote and absent from the seats of power, women were not
considered an important force in history. Anne Bradstreet wrote some significant poetry in the
seventeenth century, Mercy Otis Warren produced the best contemporary history of the American
Revolution, and Abigail Adams penned important letters showing she exercised great political
influence over her husband, John, the second President of the United States. But little or no notice
was taken of these contributions. During these centuries, women remained invisible in history
books.

(B) Throughout the nineteenth century, this lack of visibility continued, despite the efforts of
female authors writing about women. These writers, like most of their male counterparts, were
amateur historians. Their writings were celebratory in nature, and they were uncritical in their
selection and use of sources.

(C) During the nineteenth century, however, certain feminists showed a keen sense of history by
keeping records of activities in which women were engaged. National, regional, and local women's
organizations compiled accounts of their doings. Personal correspondence, newspaper clippings,
and souvenirs were saved and stored. These sources formed the core of the two greatest collections
of women's history in the United States—one at the Elizabeth and Arthur Schlesinger Library at
Radcliffe College, and the other at the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College. Such sources
have provided valuable materials for later generations of historians.

(D) Despite the gathering of more information about ordinary women during the nineteenth
century, most of the writing about women conformed to the "great women" theory of history, just
as much of mainstream American history concentrated on "great men." To demonstrate that
women were making significant contributions to American life, female authors singled out women
leaders and wrote biographies, or else important women produced their autobiographies. Most of
these leaders were involved in public life as reformers or activists working for women's right to
vote, or as authors, and were not representative at all of the great number of ordinary women. The
lives of ordinary people continued, generally, to be untold in the American histories being
published.
READING 47
Part 3:
(A) For hundreds of years, people around the world have linked turmeric to healing properties and
cosmetic benefits. The bright, yellow-orange spice is related to ginger. It's available as a ground
spice or in supplements and other beauty and dermatology products. Turmeric gets its health
benefits primarily because of curcumin, a bioactive component. Curcumin has anti-inflammatory
and antioxidant properties. Modern scientific research is just beginning to study the positive
impact of turmeric, but many believe it has several beneficial uses for the skin. Here are some
ways turmeric may benefit your skin.

(B) Turmeric contains antioxidants and anti-inflammatory components. These characteristics may
provide glow and luster to the skin. Turmeric may also revive your skin by bringing out its natural
glow. You may want to try a turmeric face mask at home to see if the spice has any positive effects
on your skin. You can mix small amounts of Greek yogurt, honey, and turmeric together and apply
it to your face. Keep the mask on for 15 minutes and then wash it off with water.

(C) The curcumin found in turmeric can help wounds heal by decreasing inflammation and
oxidation. It also lowers the response of your body to cutaneous wounds. This results in your
wounds healing more quickly. Studies have found that turmeric can positively affect tissue and
collagen as well. The journal Life Sciences recommends applying curcumin as an optimized
formula to best work on skin wounds.

(D) The antioxidant and anti-inflammatory qualities of turmeric may help your psoriasis by
controlling flares and other symptoms. You may want to try a turmeric face mask to help reduce
acne and any resulting scars. The anti-inflammatory qualities can target your pores and calm the
skin. Turmeric is also known to reduce scarring. This combination of uses may help your face
clear up from acne breakouts.

(E) There are risks of using turmeric. When using turmeric, you need to be careful about the
dosage, the type of product you use, and how it might react to other medications you take.
Turmeric has a low bioavailability. This means that your metabolism burns it off quickly, and your
body doesn't absorb much. Avoid taking too much turmeric at one time and wait to see how your
body reacts before taking more. If you take other medications, discuss the use of turmeric with
your doctor. When applied to the skin, turmeric can temporarily stain the skin or leave a yellow
residue. This is normal. But if you're allergic, direct skin contact can cause irritation, redness, and
swelling.
READING 48

Part 4:
(A) It is hard to think of an area of science more controversial than the genetics of intelligence.
Now it is about to get exponentially more contentious. For a long time, DNA testing couldn't tell
us anything useful about someone's IQ or any other traits affected by multiple genes, such as
diabetes or cancer risk. But new "polygenic" techniques for analyzing many genetic regions at
once have begun to make this possible. This week, we report on the first company offering fertility
clinics a test for screening IVF embryos for disease risk and low intelligence.

(B) With this news, it is unlikely to be long before some clinic, somewhere, starts using a similar
approach to offer prospective parents the ability to pick out embryos that look most genetically
promising for a high IQ. As if this isn't controversial enough, it may only be the beginning. As our
understanding of traits governed by multiple genes grows, it may also become possible to screen
for embryos that are more or less likely to have a range of other features, be it sexuality, autism,
or susceptibility to depression. We already live in a world where wealthy individuals are willing
to cross borders to pay for procedures at the sharpest edge of fertility research. The first baby
created using a particular three-parent technique was born two years ago to Jordanian parents
helped by US scientists working in Mexico, for example.

(C) While many prospective parents won't want to genetically fine-tune their children this way,
the idea of a near-designer baby will undoubtedly appeal to some. The desire to maximize a future
child's intelligence, mental health, or physical attractiveness could be enough to prompt couples
with no fertility problems to seek IVF, just to have this opportunity. It might sound unlikely, but
reproductive technologies designed to avoid medical conditions are already being used to find out
more about our future children. A different kind of test, used to detect Down's syndrome during
pregnancy, is being used in private clinics to discern the sex of a baby very early in pregnancy.
Concerns have been raised that this practice gives people more of a chance to opt for abortions on
the basis of gender, although we don't yet know to what extent the test is being used in this way,
if at all.
(D) All this means that politicians, regulators, and the public need to begin debating the far-
reaching implications of polygenic IVF screening. For so long, the mantra has been that DNA tests
for individuals can't tell us anything about complex traits, so we haven't yet decided what we
should do when they can. There is much for this debate to consider. Is it ethical to screen for
disease risk, but not for predicted personality? What about mental health problems or a
predisposition to autism? Should prospective parents be allowed to decide for themselves, or
should societies as a whole determine what is most ethical? It is a difficult conversation to have,
but whether we like it or not, these technologies aren't far from becoming a reality.