TEST 13

READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.

Mental Gymnastics

A         In the headquarters of Barclays Bank in London, the work has just begun. A young psychologist, Sebastian Bailey, entered the room to start the morning framing session while 17 employees had breakfast from the buffet available. Sebastian was not there to polish their management or financial skills but to exercise their brains.

B         The workout for that day, titled “having a presence,” was arranged by a London-based organisation - Mind Gym. It was a highly thorough session of 90 minutes, having a rather unique concept, gradually broken down into a set of behaviours, feelings and mental tricks. At one stage during the procedure, the staff members were asked to close their eyes and imagine themselves filling up the room as well as the building thereafter. To conclude the session for the day, they were asked to walk around the room while acting out the various levels of presence. Some showcased understated acts, while some showed excessive performances.

C         Making a joke about exercise is very easy. However, around the world, in various seminar rooms of corporate companies, identical mind exercises are happening. Approximately 70 workouts, abstract in nature, comprise sessions on mental stamina, zoom learning as well as creativity for logical thinkers. Other establishments focus more on the analogies of the exercises, offering “neurobics'' workouts titled “brain sets” and “cerebral fitness”. There are books available, such as Pumping Ions, which contains various brain teasers that claim to enable flexing of the mind, also software applications which offer games for boosting one’s memory and spatial awareness.

D         No matter what the organisation's style and methods are, all companies have the same marketing propaganda, that is, exercising your brain by following their routines just like we follow sessions to shape and sculpt our bodies. It also declared almost all of them that their sessions are created after critical scientific research and thought processes on how the brain works.

E         One such institute, Brainergy of Cambridge, Massachusetts, has a motto stating, “Because your grey matter matters.” They explain further that it is proven by studies that mental exercises can help in changing the analogies and chemistry of the brain, which encourages an increase in mental efficiency and clarity. Neuroscience is at the forefront and developing constantly. On the official webpage of Mind Gym, it states the quote of a famous neuroscientist from Britain, Susan Greenfield: “It’s a bit like going to the gym, if you exercise your brain it will grow.”

F          Mind Gym initially planned to organise their routine workouts in local health clubs, till the founders recognised the potential heights they could achieve in their business. Modern companies require and demand flexible and fast thinkers and they will grab any opportunity that aids them, especially if it is a quick remedy supported by the findings of science. Though the question is if these routines are really backed by scientific research? Or if we, humans, actually require them?

G         The recommendations of Lawrence Katz, co-author of Keep Your Brain Alive, were not extraordinary or technologically advanced. Lawrence Katz, a neurobiologist at Duke University Medical School, located in North Carolina, quoted that just as many citizens in the country do not have the availability to do physical exercises, they also lack enough mentally stimulating exercises that help to keep the brain sharp. People are busy juggling between their families, profession and household chores, creating a monotonous and repetitive routine. And any leisure time available is spent idling in front of the television.

H         Try to read a book using a different method, such as upside-down, or attempt to write or brush your teeth with the other hand. Try to find your way around the room with your eyes closed and feeling around. Try sniffing vanilla essence while listening to orchestral music. Katz suggests that anything that interrupts the everyday routine will help stimulate and rejuvenate the mind. It then encourages the cells to make new connections and release enzymes that feed and sustain the brain circuits.

I           Up to a point, it does work. Katz adds, “What I am talking about is brain maintenance rather than bulking up your IQ.” When we talk about neurobics, it refers to letting the brain fulfill its potential, although it can not create super-brains. Could it achieve that though? Indeed, the brain is a promising organ that adapts to all situations and demands we put on it. For instance, tests on animal tissues have shown repetitively that stimulating the synapses that connect the nerve cells(which are vital for learning and reasoning) electrically can make them sharper and more responsive. Brain scans also specify how we tend to use up our brain while doing an unusual, unique or intriguing task as compared to when we do while undertaking regular tasks. Rats bred in cages with bright interiors and suitable toys had more neural connections as compared to ones bred in bare cages, indicating how variety and novelty encourage better development of the brain. Neurologists have demonstrated time and again how people who suddenly lose brain cells during a stroke make up for the loss by creating new connections, especially if they are going through extensive amounts of therapy for overcoming any type of paralysis.

J          An educational psychologist from the University of Bristol, Guy Claxton, brushes off these views as “neuro-babble.” Nevertheless, in his opinion, there are skills that human beings can learn. Some desired characteristics like flexibility, creativity, and motivation are not implanted as people think. They are subconscious thought habits that can be learned over time. According to Claxton, the problem lies in the lack of adequate training for building these habits. People usually tend to create their mental patterns for handling the daily work and do not take initiative to learn any other thing. Even skills like driving a car or brushing start to come out of our conscious mind, as we cannot view the thought habits after a point. Hence, we can not view our mental resources.

K         Mind Gym’s academic advisor is Claxton. Not so surprisingly, it backs his approach, i.e., human beings should get their thought process to a higher level of consciousness to enable their awareness of the intricate aspects of how we usually think. It is a solution to practise superior thinking processes till they convert into our new habits. If we use different metaphors, it is similar to imagining them as tennis or football coaching sessions instead of gym classes or sessions.

L         In actual practice, this exercise can be monotonous. For example, Mind Gym offers eight different creativity workouts, one of which is titled “creativity for logical thinkers,” one of the strategies taught to create a pragmatic and sensible proposal and then immediately come up with its opposite. Hence, a group was given five minutes to invent a new pizza. They came up with different types of toppings, sauces, prices as per the day, initial rate and so on.

M        According to Bailey’s opinion, though, the method is very simple. But it is astonishing how little of these tricks we showcase we asked out of the blue. He states, “ They tend to label themselves as uncreative, without realising there are techniques a creative person employs.” He further adds that the objective is to introduce people to half a dozen or so strategies in a session so that the intimidating task becomes a collection of firm and learnable patterns. He agrees that it is not a shortcut to becoming a genius. Although, neurologically, some people have better and quicker circuits or greater capability of handling things, with the correct type of training we can enhance how we use our brain and more efficiently at that.

N         It is difficult to prove that the training methods are achieving success. How feasible is it to measure an employee's memory or creativity level? However, the staff has reverted that these classes have been beneficial for them. So, psychological or neurological training makes a convincing case for itself. People are willing to spend money and learn these tricks. Claxton also believes that educational institutions like universities and schools should focus on teaching these basic thinking habits, instead of having young minds cram figures and excessive information, with the hope that effective and adequate thought habits will form over time or under absorption by osmosis.

READING PASSAGE 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-27 which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.

Finding Our Way

A.The car's computer voice tells the driver to drive 200 yards and make a right. You drive slowly, pay attention to the traffic signals, and reach your destination without any problems. It is convenient to have the Global Positioning System (GPS) direct you within a few yards of your goal. However, you run the danger of becoming lost if the satellite service's digital maps lapse even a little. The ability of people to navigate in three dimensions must therefore be relied upon. Your biological finder, however, has a crucial advantage over GPS: because it works in various ways, it is unaffected if only one element of the guidance system breaks down. On the sidewalk, people are approachable. Take a different route if one seems familiar. Use a navigational rule instead: "If I keep the East River to my left, I will eventually cross 34th Street." The human positioning system is flexible and capable of absorbing new data. Anyone who can find their way between points A and B and between points A and C should be able to do the same between points B and C.

B.So how does this cognitively demanding system function? Researchers are looking into three approaches for spatial awareness: guidelines, route assimilation, and route following. Humans used all 3 or some of them. According to experts, as we gain knowledge about these navigation systems' abilities, they may support our cognition and rational thinking abilities. Grand Central Terminal, Presume you've merely arrived in New York City, a town you've never visited before. You disembark at Manhattan's Grand Central Terminal. You have a few hours before you have to return to catch your ride home. You travel uptown to see well-known landmarks such as Rockefeller Center, Central Park, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. You stop at various stores along the way. Returning to the station is now necessary. But how precisely
 
C.If users ask passers-by for assistance, they will most likely receive information in a variety of formats. "Look down there," someone says, pointing to a prominent landmark. Have you noticed the MetLife Building, which is both tall and wide? "The station is right beneath it," so go there. This navigational approach is referred to by neurologists as "guidance," which implies that a faraway landmark serves as an indicator of one's location.

D.Another city dweller could inquire, "What regions do you recollect traveling through?" Okay. Take a trip down to St. Patrick's Cathedral from the far end of Central Park. Grand Central will be on your left in a few blocks." In this situation, you are led to the most recent location that you can recall. Then you retrace your steps to the next significant location, and so on. Your brain is assembling the pieces of your journey into a comprehensive progress report. This tactic is known as "path integration" by researchers. Few animals, such as insects, spiders, crabs, and rodents, primarily use their paths to navigate. Cataglyphis desert ants employ this technique to return from foraging up to 100 yards distant. They use the refraction of sunlight to navigate even in overcast skies by noting the general direction they came from and retracing their steps. They adhere to this internal homing vector as they return. Even when a scientist lifts an ant and places it in a whole other position, the ant will persistently continue in the direction it was first pointed at until it has "gone back" the entire distance it traveled from its nest. The ant begins to make larger loops to get home once it recognizes that it has failed.

E.Whether an animal is seeking to get to the anthill or the train station, it must keep track of its movements to know, on the way back, which portions it has already finished. To determine the direction your body has moved, your brain gathers information about your environment as you move, including sounds, images, smells, lights, muscle contractions, and a sense of time passing. Images of key points in your travel include the train station, the open courtyard, the sizzling sausages on that street vendor's grill, and the cathedral spire.

F.We employ a third navigational strategy in addition to guidance and path integration. A Manhattan office worker on a corner would respond, When asked for instructions, I replied, "Walk straight down Fifth, turn left on 47th, turn right on Park, go via the walkway of the Helmsley Building, then cross the street to the MetLife Building into Grand Central. Route following is a method of navigation that makes use of landmarks like buildings and street names as well as directions like "straight," "turn," and "go through."
 
G.Even if route following is more precise than guidance or path integration, if you forget the specifics and wind up somewhere unexpected, there is no way to get back on track because you don't know the general direction or have a landmark to utilize as a point of reference for your goal. The route-following navigation technique is intellectually challenging. We must remember all the landmarks and alternate routes. Despite being the most thorough and therefore most reliable method, it is prone to typical memory mistakes. Path integration puts less strain on our cognitive memory because it just needs to retain the homing vector and a small number of general instructions. Path integration works because we constantly have access to these inputs, which are essentially dependent on our awareness of the general direction of our body's motion. Nevertheless, route-following instructions are routinely given, in part because directing someone to go in a specific direction is not always effective in a complicated, man-made environment.
 
H.Maybe it's a metaphor. When you return to Manhattan, you'll utilize your memories to get around. You'll likely combine route following, path integration, and guidance. But how exactly do these structures offer detailed instructions? Do people have a mental map of the real world that includes thick lines for major roads and thin lines for side streets, along with icons for cities, train stations, and churches? A "cognitive map" is the term used by cognitive psychologists and neurobiologists to describe the area of human memory that manages navigation. The map metaphor makes sense given that maps are the easiest way to present geographic information for simple visual interpretation. Before writing became widely employed in many countries, maps were used in practically every society today. It's even conceivable that the universal organization of our spatial memory systems served as the foundation for the creation of maps.
 
I.However, a rising body of research contends that the cognitive map is essentially a metaphor, casting doubt on the notion that we have a true mental map. It might be more like a set of hierarchical relationships. To get back to Grand Central, you must first think broadly, or imagine the general structure of the station. Then you picture the route via that system to the last place you can remember being. Then you scan your immediate surroundings for a recognizable storefront or street sign that will direct you there. In this hierarchical, or nested, structure, positions, and distances are relative, as opposed to a road map where the same information is displayed on a geometrically precise scale.

READING PASSAGE 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 28-40 which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.

The secret of the Yawn

A

When a scientist began to study yawning in the 1980s, it was difficult to convince some of his research students of the merits of “yawning science.” Although it may appear quirky, his decision to study yawning was a logical extension to human beings of my research in developmental neuroscience, reported in such papers as “Wing-flapping during Development and Evolution.” As a neurobehavioral problem, there is not much difference between the wing-flapping of birds and the face – and body-flapping of human yawners.

B

Yawning is an ancient, primitive act. Humans do it even before they are born, opening wide in the womb. Some snakes unhinge their jaws to do it. One species of penguin yawns as part of mating. Only now are researchers beginning to understand why we yawn, when we yawn and why we yawn back. A professor of cognitive neuroscience at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Steven Platek, studies the act of contagious yawning, something done only by people and other primates.

C

In his first experiment, he used a psychological test to rank people on their empathic feelings. He found that participants who did not score high on compassion did not yawn back. “We literally had people saying, ‘Why am I looking at people yawning?’” Professor Platek said. “It just had no effect.”

D

For his second experiment, he put 10 students in a magnetic resonance imaging machine as they watched video tapes of people yawning. When the students watched the videos, the part of the brain which reacted was the part scientists believe controls empathy – the posterior cingulate, in the brain’s middle rear.” I don’t know if it’s necessarily that nice people yawn more, but I think it’s a good indicator of a state of mind,” said Professor Platek. “It’s also a good indicator if you’re empathizing with me and paying attention.”

E

His third experiment is studying yawning in those with brain disorders, such as autism and schizophrenia, in which victims have difficulty connecting emotionally with others. A psychology professor at the University of Maryland, Robert Provine, is one of the few other researchers into yawning. He found the basic yawn lasts about six seconds and they come in bouts with an interval of about 68 seconds. Men and women yawn or half-yawn equally often, but men are significantly less likely to cover their mouths which may indicate complex distinction in genders.” "A watched yawner never yawns,” Professor Provine said. However, the physical root of yawning remains a mystery. Some researchers say it’s coordinated within the hypothalamus of the brain, the area that also controls breathing.

F

Yawning and stretching also share properties and may be performed together as parts of a global motor complex. But they do not always co-occur – people usually yawn when we stretch, but we don’t always stretch when we yawn, especially before bedtime. Studies by J.I.P, G.H.A. Visser and H.F. Prechtl in the early 1980s, charting movement in the developing fetus using ultrasound, observed not just yawning but a link between yawning and stretching as early as the end of the first prenatal trimester.

G

The most extraordinary demonstration of the yawn-stretch linkage occurs in many people paralyzed on one side of their body because of brain damage caused by a stroke. The prominent British neurologist Sir Francis Walshe noted in 1923 that when these hemiplegics yawn, they are startled and mystified to observe that their otherwise paralyzed arm rises and flexes automatically in what neurologists term an “associated response.” Yawning apparently activates undamaged, unconsciously controlled connections between the brain and the cord motor system innervating the paralyzed limb. It is not known whether the associated response is a positive prognosis for recovery, nor whether yawning is therapeutic for reinnervation or prevention of muscular atrophy.

H

Clinical neurology offers other surprises. Some patients with “locked-in” syndrome, who are almost totally deprived of the ability to move voluntarily, can yawn normally. The neural circuits for spontaneous yawning must exist in the brain stem near other respiratory and vasomotor centers, because yawning is performed by anencephalic who possess only the medulla oblongata. The multiplicity of stimuli of contagious yawning, by contrast, implicates many higher brain regions.