Placement Test_Reading

Reading Placement Test

Read the text and answer questions.

READING PLACEMENT TEST

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

Answers Underground

Burying greenhouse gases to slow global warming

A.	One way to slow global warming is to take the greenhouse gases that cause it and bury them. That is the idea behind projects now under way to capture emissions from power plants and factories and force them underground or deep into the ocean. There, proponents argue, they could be trapped for thousands of years.
B.	This concept, known as carbon sequestration, is already being used by oil companies to improve the efficiency of oil wells, and now engineers have begun exploring ways to capture carbon dioxide emissions from power plants to reduce their impact on the environment. At a recent conference, delegates from fourteen industrialised and developing countries agreed to engage in cooperative research into capturing and storing carbon dioxide.
C.	The goal is to stabilise emissions of greenhouse gases that trap heat in the atmosphere. Over the past century, airborne carbon dioxide concentrations have risen by nearly a third, according to Scott Klara, sequestration manager at the US National Energy Technology Laboratory. Unless emissions are slashed by two thirds worldwide, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that concentrations will rise to double the levels of the early 1700s, before the Industrial Revolution. These increased levels of carbon-based compounds in the atmosphere are believed to be the cause of rising temperatures and sea levels around the world. Ignoring the problem is therefore not an option.
D.	Limiting emissions, however, is not an easy undertaking since increased energy consumption is a key to economic growth. Two thirds of the world's power-generating capacity, expected to come into use by 2030, has not been constructed yet, according to the International Energy Agency. The developing world will be particularly important. China and India alone are expected to account for two thirds of the global increase in coal usage over the next fifteen years.
E.	Solutions are being sought. Work is being undertaken with alternatives to fossil fuels such as wind and solar energy, but it will be a long time before these alternative sources play a major role in fulfilling the world's energy needs. Geophysicist Klaus Lackner points out that around 85% of the world's energy is derived from fossil fuels, the cheapest and most plentiful energy source available, and the developing world in particular is unlikely to give them up. That is why many scientists support sequestration.
F.	However, several problems must be resolved before sequestration plays a key role in a low-carbon future. One is the cost of capturing carbon dioxide. A second is storing the gas safely once it's been captured. Today, it costs about $US50 to extract and store a tonne of carbon dioxide from a power plant, which raises the cost of producing electricity by 30-80%. Lackner argues that it is too expensive to adapt existing plants to capture carbon dioxide. Instead, he recommends that carbon- capturing capacity be built into future plants. Economic incentives are needed to encourage companies to identify low-cost carbon-sequestration solutions. A government-supported program in the US has enabled some factories to partially capture carbon emissions, which they then sell for various uses, including carbonating soft drinks. However, there are no power plants ready for full carbon capture
G.	Once the carbon has been captured it must be stored. Natural carbon sinks, such as forests and wetlands, can remove some carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but not nearly enough. Carbon dioxide could be pumped to the bottom of the ocean, where the pressure would keep it pinned to the seabed in liquid form for decades, but that has serious long-term environmental risks. David Hawkins, from the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, warns that the carbon dioxide could radically alter the chemical balance in the ocean, with potentially harmful consequences for marine life. Others worry that the carbon dioxide could escape back into the atmosphere.
H.	A few promising attempts at underground carbon sequestration are currently under way. In western Canada, an oil company is pumping liquefied carbon dioxide into oil wells to force more oil to the surface and boost recovery by 10-15%. The company gets the carbon dioxide via a pipeline from North Dakota in the US, where the gas is captured from a synthetic-fuel plant. In another instance in the North Sea, a Norwegian energy firm is injecting carbon dioxide waste from its natural-gas operations into a saline aquifer 1,000 metres beneath the ocean floor.
I.	Clearly, storing large amounts of gas underground raises environmental fears. Environmentalists argue that more research is needed on potential storage sites, such as oil and gas reservoirs and coal seams unsuitable for mining, to ensure that they offer long-term solutions. The World Wide Fund for Nature Australia has argued that the primary risk of underground storage is that dangerously large volumes of carbon dioxide might escape and people become asphyxiated.
J.	Little progress in slashing global greenhouse gases can be achieved without involving developing countries, but for now carbon sequestration is not their priority because of the increased costs this would add to energy production. Hawkins argues that, to encourage developing nations to use sequestration, developed nations will have to provide assistance. He suggests a multilateral initiative in which developed nations, perhaps by purchasing carbon credits from poorer countries, finance the difference between the cost of a regular coal-fired power plant and one that captures carbon emissions. That is, the rich - who will remain the world's biggest polluters for years to come - would buy the right to emit carbon from the poor, who would use the proceeds to build better plants.

READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26 which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.

Science and the Stradivarius:

Uncovering the secret of quality

A. Violins made by long-dead Italian craftsmen from the Cremona region are beautiful works of art, coveted by collectors as well as players. Particularly outstanding violins have reputedly changed hands for over a million pounds. In contrast, fine modern instruments can be bought for under £100. Do such figures really reflect such large differences in quality? After more than a hundred years of vigorous debate, this question remains highly contentious, provoking strongly held but divergent views among musicians, violin makers and scientists alike.

B. Every violin, whether a Stradivarius or the cheapest factory-made copy, has a distinctive “voice” of its. Just as any musician can immediately recognise the difference between Domingo and Pavarotti singing the same operatic aria, so a skilled violinist can distinguish between different qualities in the sound produced by individual Stradivari or Guarneri violins. Individual notes on a single instrument sound different each time they are played, which suggests that the perceived tone of a violin must be related to the overall design of the instrument, rather than the frequencies of particular resonances on it. But although various attempts have been made to analyse such global properties, it is extremely difficult to distinguish between. a fine Stradivarius instrument and an indifferent modern copy on the basis of the measured response alone. The ear is a supreme detection device, and a system has yet to be developed which can match the brain's sophisticated ability to assess complex sounds.

C. So how do skilled violin makers optimise the tone of an instrument during the construction process? They begin by selecting a wood of the highest possible quality for the front and back plates (or parts of the violin), which they test by tapping with a hammer and judging how well it “rings”. The next important step is to skillfully carve the plates out of the solid wood, taking great care to get the right degree of arching and variations in thickness. Traditional makers optimise the thickness by testing the feel of the plates when they are flexed, and by the sounds produced when they are tapped at different positions with the knuckles.

D. However, in the last 50 years or so a group of violin makers has emerged who have tried to take a more overtly scientific approach to violin making. One common practice they have adopted is to replace the traditional flexing and tapping of plates by controlled measurements. During the carving process, the thinned plates are sprinkled with flakes of glitter and suspended horizontally above a loudspeaker. The glitter forms a pattern each time the loudspeaker excites a resonance. The aim is to interactively “tune” these first few free plate resonances to specified patterns. Unfortunately, there are very few examples of such measurements for really fine Italian instruments because their owners are naturally reluctant to allow their violins to be taken apart for the sake of science. The few tests that have been performed suggest that the first italian makers may have tuned the resonant modes of the individual plates - which they could identify as they tapped them to exact musical intervals. This would be consistent with the prevailing Renaissance view of “perfection”, which was measured in terms of numbers and exact ratios. However, there is no historical data to support this case.

E. Unfortunately, there are very few examples of such measurements for really fine Italian instruments because their owners are naturally reluctant to allow their violins to be taken apart for the sake of science. The few tests that have been performed suggest that the first Italian makers may have tuned the resonant modes of the individual plates - which they could identify as they tapped them - to exact musical intervals. This would be consistent with the prevailing Renaissance view of ’perfection1, which was measured in terms of numbers and exact ratios. However, there is no historical data to support this case.

F. Another factor that affects sound quality is the presence of moisture. To achieve the quality of "vibrancy" in a violin requires high-quality wood with low internal damping. By measuring the pattern of growth-rings in the wood of a Stradivarius, we know that the Italian violin makers sometimes used planks of wood that had only been seasoned for five years. However, such wood is now 300 years old, and the intrinsic internal damping will almost certainly have decreased with time. The age of the wood may therefore automatically contribute to the improved quality of older instruments. This may also explain why the quality of a modern instrument appears to improve in its first few years.

G. Another factor thought to account for sound quality is the nature of the varnish used to protect the instrument. One of the most popular theories for well over a century to account for the Stradivarius secret has been that the varnish had some sort of 'magic' composition. However, historical research has shown that it was very similar to the varnish used today. So apart from the possibility that the Italian varnish was contaminated with the wings of passing insects and debris from the workshop floor, there is no convincing evidence to support the idea of a secret formula.

H. Other researchers, meanwhile, have claimed that Stradivarius's secret was to soak the timber in water, to leach out supposedly harmful chemicals, before it was seasoned. Although this would be consistent with the idea that the masts and cars of recently sunken Venetian war galleys might have been used to make violins, other scientific and historical evidence to support this view is unconvincing.

I. In conclusion, science has not provided any convincing evidence to set Cremonese instruments apart from the finest violins made by skilled craftsmen today. Indeed, some leading soloists do occasionally play on modern instruments. However, the foremost soloists-and, not surprisingly, violin dealers, who have a vested interest in maintaining the Cremonese legend of intrinsic superiority- remain utterly unconvinced.

READING PASSAGE 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40 which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.

BUSINESS INNOVATION

As new ‘wonder products’ are getting harder and harder to find, what should companies do to survive in today's ever more competitive markets?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines innovation as 'making changes to something established. Invention, by contrast, is the act of coming upon or finding; discovery. Revolutionary 'inventions' of 20th-century US firms include, for example, the safety razor, the hydraulic brake, and DNA finger- printing. However, as Adrian Slywotsky of Mercer Management Consulting says, 'In most industries, truly differentiating new-product breakthroughs are becoming increasingly rare. And as blockbuster novel products become steadily more elusive, big companies would do well to focus instead on making lots of small things better.

Unfortunately, big companies often have big problems with innovation. 'Innovators try to change the status quo,' says Bhaskar Chakravorti of the Monitor Group, 'which is why markets tend to resist them. Innovations frequently disrupt the way companies do things (and may have been doing them for years). And it is not just markets that are nervous of innovation. Michael Hammer, co-author of 'Re- engineering the Corporation, cites the case of a PC-maker that set out to imitate Dell's famous 'Build to Order' system of computer assembly. The company found its attempts were frustrated by both its head of manufacturing, who feared for his job. and its head of marketing, who did not want to upset his existing retail outlets. So the proposal got nowhere, and Dell continued to dominate the business.

Clayton Christensen, a Harvard Business School Professor, describes how disruptive innovations - simpler, cheaper and more convenient products that seriously upset the status quo- often herald the rapid downfall of thriving. long-standing businesses. This, it is widely recognised, is because most such organisations are designed to grow through a series of sustaining innovations-the sort which simply improve on existing products for existing markets.

William Baumol, professor at New York University, argues that large companies have been learning important lessons from the history of innovation. Most have both cut back and re-directed their Research and Development spending in recent years. Innovation by big companies is now based less on the discoveries of white-coated scientists, and more on incremental improvements in the processes that constitute daily operations.
According to marketing specialist Vijay Vishwanath, companies also need to adjust to the ongoing fragmentation of markets. Once uniform mass markets are breaking up into countless 'niches', in which everything has to be customised for a small group of consumers. Looking for blockbusters in such a world is a daunting task. Another problem, according to Chakravorti, lies in the marketing of innovations. Too many executives are still stuck with the strategies used to sell Kodak's first camera 120 years ago, when the product was so revolutionary that the company could forget about competition for at least a decade. Today, rival products can be rushed onto the market at speeds which would have been unimaginable in those days.

Companies that fail to come up with headline-hitting new products should not despair. "There are plenty of other, albeit less glamorous, areas where innovation can take place,' says Erik Brynjolfsson of the MIT Sloan School of Management. He claims that the roots of the USA's productivity surge originate in 'a genuine revolution in how American companies are using information technology to reinvent their business processes from top to bottom'.

Hammer highlights several instances where firms have added considerably to their shareholder value through what he calls operational innovations- creativity in their business processes. Notable among these is the American retail giant Wal-Mart. While superficially mundane, their pioneering idea of 'cross-docking-shifting merchandise off trucks from suppliers and straight onto trucks heading for stores-has been fundamental to the company's ability to offer low prices, the platform for its outstanding success.

Companies are also being encouraged to embrace strategic innovations, following the example of such firms as Southwest Airlines, a low-cost American regional carrier, whose creative strategies and shrewd timing won it a victory over its ailing competitor US Airways. The Swedish packaging company Tetra Pak also used this style of innovation, by moving away from delivering ready-made containers for customers into providing machinery and supplying dedicated materials for them to make their own packaging. This strips out many costs from the process, and also makes it very difficult for the customer to switch suppliers. Like Southwest Airlines, they achieved success through strategic innovations alone, with little innovation in either the underlying technology or the product sold.

In his book 'How to Grow When Markets Don't, Slywotsky and his co-author Richard Wise recommend what they call demand innovations. A few far-sighted organisations such as the French industrial gas company Air Liquide have found success not as in the case of strategic innovations by meeting existing demand in a new way, but by discovering new forms of demand and adapting to supply the products or services required. Air Liquide had been a leading supplier of industrial gases until the early 1990s, when gas became a commodity and their operational income plunged. Realising the value of the skills they had gained over the decades, the company became a supplier not only of gas, but also of the management services to accompany it. Within a short time their profits rose again.

There are certain things that managers can do to make innovations like these happen within their organisations. For example, projects with potential should be rapidly hived off into independent business units, away from the smothering influence of the status quo. The ultimate outcome of any one innovation may still be unpredictable, the process from which it emerges is not.

Questions 1-6

Look at the following issues (Questions 1-6) and the list of people and organisations below.

Match each issue with the correct person or organisation, A-F.

Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.

NB	You may use any letter more than once.
1	the cost implications of fitting plants with the necessary equipment
2	the effects sequestration could have on sea creatures
3	the reasons why products such as oil and gas continue to be popular energy sources
4	the need for industrialised countries to give aid to less wealthy countries
5	the significant increase in carbon dioxide concentrations in the air over the last 100 years
6	the potential for sequestration to harm human life

List of People and Organisations

A Scott Klara

B Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

C International Energy Agency

D Klaus Lackner

E David Hawkins

F World Wide Fund for Nature Australia

Questions 7-9

Reading Passage 1 has ten paragraphs, A-J.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A-J, in boxes 7-9 on your answer sheet.

7	examples of sequestration already in use in several parts of the world
8	an example of putting carbon dioxide emissions to use in the food and beverage industry
9	current examples of the environmental harm attributed to carbon dioxide in the air

Questions 10-13

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?

In boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

10	Both developing and developed nations have decided to investigate carbon dioxide sequestration.

11	A growing economy will use more power.

12	Capturing carbon dioxide has become financially attractive.

13	More forests need to be planted to improve the atmosphere.

Questions 14-21

Reading Passage 2 has nine paragraphs, A-I

Choose the correct heading for paragraphs A and C-I from the list of headings below.

Write the correct number, i-xi, in boxes 14-21 on your answer sheet.

List of Headings

i. An analysis of protective coatings

ii. Applying technology to violin production

iii. Location - a key factor

iv. A controversial range of prices

v. Techniques of mass production

vi. The advantages of older wood

vii. A re-evaluation of documentary evidence

viii. The mathematical basis of earlier design

ix. Manual woodworking techniques

x. Preferences of top musicians

xi. The use of saturated wood

xii. The challenge for scientists

Example Paragraph B xii

14. Paragraph A
15. Paragraph C
16. Paragraph D
17. Paragraph E
18. Paragraph F
19. Paragraph G
20. Paragraph H
21. Paragraph I

Questions 22-26

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2?

In boxes 22-26 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

22. The quality of any particular note played on the same violin varies.

23. Scientific instruments analyse complex sound more accurately than humans. %BLANK%

24. The quality of handmade violins varies according to the musical ability of the craftsman.

25. Modern violins seem to improve in their early years.

26. Modern violins are gaining in popularity amongst the top violinists

Questions 27-31

Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 37

In boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet, write

YES if the statement agrees with the claim of the writer

NO if the statement contradicts with the claim of the writer

NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

27	In order to stay in the market, companies today need to concentrate their efforts on finding genuinely original products.

28	Disruptive innovations often pose serious threats to even successful, well-established companies.

29	A key stage in the development of sustaining innovations involves research into the strengths and weaknesses of competitors' products.

30	Manufacturers today are able to compete with innovations over shorter time periods than in the past.

31	It is hard to tell what the long-term result of any innovation might be.

Questions 32-35

Look at the following points mentioned in the passage (Questions 32-35) and the list of people below.

Match each point with the correct person, A-E

Write the correct letter, A-E, in boxes 32-35 on your answer sheet.

32	the need for companies to cater for ever more specialised sets of customers
33	an explanation for the recent upward trend in the US economy
34	an example of company personnel who resisted innovation
35	a shift in the way many companies are organising their budgets

List of People

A Bhaskar Chakravorti

B Michael Hammer

C William Baumol

D Vijay Vishwanath

E Erik Brynjolfsson

Questions 36-40

Complete the table below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 36-40 on your answer sheet

Type of innovations	Definition	Example	Company
Operational innovations	Being innovative in the way existing business 36 are carried out	Moving goods by system known as 37	Wal-Mart
38 innovations	Developing new approaches to meeting needs of existing markets	Giving customers means to manufacture products themselves	Tetra Pak
39 innovations	Identifying and meeting new types of customer needs	Offering customers 40 to go with the main product	Air Liquide

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