HERE IS THE PASSAGE
Crop-growing skyscrapers
By the year 2050, nearly 80% of the Earth's population will live in urban centres. Applying the most conservative estimates to current demographic trends, the human population will increase by about three billion people by then. An estimated 10 hectares of new land (about 20% larger than Brazil) will be needed to grow enough food to feed them, if traditional farming methods continue as they are practised today. At present, throughout the world, over 80% of the land that is suitable for raising crops is in use. Historically, some 15% of that has been laid waste by poor management practices. What can be done to ensure enough food for the world's population to live on?
The concept of indoor farming is not new, since hothouse production of tomatoes and other produce has been in vogue for some time. What is new is the urgent need to scale up this technology to accommodate another three billion people. Many believe an entirely new approach to indoor farming is required, employing cutting-edge technologies. One such proposal is for the 'Vertical Farm'. The concept is of multi-storey buildings in which food crops are grown in environmentally controlled conditions. Situated in the heart of urban centres, they would drastically reduce the amount of transportation required to bring food to consumers. Vertical farms would need to be efficient, cheap to construct and safe to operate. If successfully implemented, proponents claim, vertical farms offer the promise of urban renewal, sustainable production of a safe and varied food supply (through year-round production of all crops), and the eventual repair of ecosystems that have been sacrificed for horizontal farming.
It took humans 10,000 years to learn how to grow most of the crops we now take for granted. Along the way, we despoiled most of the land we worked, often turning verdant, natural ecozones into semi-arid deserts. Within that same time frame, we evolved into an urban species, in which 60% of the human population now lives vertically in cities. This means that, for the majority, we humans have shelter from the elements, yet we subject our food-bearing plants to the rigours of the great outdoors and can do no more than hope for a good weather year. However, more often than not now, due to a rapidly changing climate, that is not what happens. Massive floods, long droughts, hurricanes and severe monsoons take their toll each year, destroying millions of tons of valuable crops.
The supporters of vertical farming claim many potential advantages for the system. For instance, crops would be produced all year round, as they would be kept in artificially controlled, optimum growing conditions. There would be no weather-related crop failures due to droughts, floods or pests. All the food could be grown organically, eliminating the need for herbicides, pesticides and fertilisers. The system would greatly reduce the incidence of many infectious diseases that are acquired at the agricultural interface. Although the system would consume energy, it would return energy to the grid via methane generation from composting non-edible parts of plants. It would also dramatically reduce fossil fuel use, by cutting out the need for tractors, ploughs and shipping.
A major drawback of vertical farming, however, is that the plants would require artificial light. Without it, those plants nearest the windows would be exposed to more sunlight and grow more quickly, reducing the efficiency of the system. Single-storey greenhouses have the benefit of natural overhead light: even so, many still need artificial lighting. A multi-storey facility with no natural overhead light would require far more. Generating enough light could be prohibitively expensive, unless cheap, renewable energy is available, and this appears to be rather a future aspiration than a likelihood for the near future.
One variation on vertical farming that has been developed is to grow plants in stacked trays that move on rails. Moving the trays allows the plants to get enough sunlight. This system is already in operation, and works well within a single-storey greenhouse with light reaching it from above: it is not certain, however, that it can be made to work without that overhead natural light.
Vertical farming is an attempt to address the undoubted problems that we face in producing enough food for a growing population. At the moment, though, more needs to be done to reduce the detrimental impact it would have on the environment, particularly as regards the use of energy. While it is possible that much of our food will be grown in skyscrapers in future, most experts currently believe it is far more likely that we will simply use the space available on urban rooftops.
Questions 1-7
Complete the sentences below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet.
Indoor farming
1) Some food plants, including ............., are already grown indoors.
2) Vertical farms would be located in ............., meaning that there would be less need to take them long distances to customers.
3) Vertical farms could use methane from plants and animals to produce ..............
4) The consumption of ............. would be cut because agricultural vehicles would be unnecessary.
5) The fact that vertical farms would need ............. light is a disadvantage.
6) One form of vertical farming involves planting in ............. which are not fixed.
7) The most probable development is that food will be grown on ............. in towns and cities.
Questions 8-13
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in the Reading Passage? Write:
| TRUE | if the statement agrees with the views of the writer. |
| FALSE | if the statement contradicts what the writer thinks. |
| NOT GIVEN | if it is impossible to know what the writer's point of view is. |
8) Methods for predicting the Earth's population have recently changed.
9) Human beings are responsible for some of the destruction to food-producing land.
10) The crops produced in vertical farms will depend on the season.
11) Some damage to food crops is caused by climate change.
12) Fertilisers will be needed for certain crops in vertical farms.
13) Vertical farming will make plants less likely to be affected by infectious diseases.
9) Human beings are responsible for some of the destruction to food-producing land.
10) The crops produced in vertical farms will depend on the season.
11) Some damage to food crops is caused by climate change.
12) Fertilisers will be needed for certain crops in vertical farms.
13) Vertical farming will make plants less likely to be affected by infectious diseases.
History of the Steam Engine
The first steam-powered machine was built in 1698 by the English military engineer Thomas Savery (c. 1650-1715). His invention, designed to pump water out of coal mines, was known as the Miner's Friend. The machine, which had no moving parts, consisted of a simple boiler - a steam chamber whose valves were located on the surface - and a pipe leading to the water in the mine below. Water was heated in the boiler chamber until its steam filled the chamber, forcing out any remaining water or air. The valves were then closed and cold water was sprayed over the chamber. This chilled and condensed the steam inside to form a vacuum. When the valves were reopened, the vacuum sucked up the water from the mine, and the process could then be repeated.
A few years later, an English engineer named Thomas Newcomen (1663-1729) improved the steam pump. He increased efficiency by setting a moving piston inside a cylinder, a technique still in use today. A cylinder - a long, thin, closed chamber separate from the boiler - replaced the large, open boiler chamber. A piston - a sliding piece that fits in the cylinder - was used to create motion instead of a vacuum. Steam filled the cylinder from an open valve. When filled, the cylinder was sprayed with water, causing the steam inside to condense into water and create a partial vacuum. The pressure of the outside air then forced the piston down, producing a power stroke. The piston was connected to a beam, which was connected to a water pump at the bottom of the mine by a pump-rod. Through these connections, the movement of the piston caused the water pump to suck up the water.
The most important improvement in steam engine design was brought about by the Scottish engineer James Watt (1736-1819). He set out to improve the performance of Newcomen's engine and by 1769 had arrived at the conclusion: if the steam were condensed separately from the cylinder, the cylinder could always be kept hot. That year he introduced the design of a steam engine that had a separate condenser and sealed cylinders. Since this kept the heating and cooling processes separate, his machine could work constantly, without any long pause at each cycle to reheat the cylinder. Watt's refined steam engine design
used one-third less fuel than a comparable Newcomen engine.
Over the next 15 years, Watt continued to improve his engine and made three significant additions. He introduced the centrifugal governor, a device that could control steam output and engine speed. He made the engine double-acting by allowing steam to enter alternately on either side of the piston. This allowed the engine to work rapidly and deliver power on the downward and upward piston stroke. Most important, he attached a flywheel to the engine.
Flywheels allow the engine to run more smoothly by creating a more constant load, and they convert the conventional back-and-forth power stroke into a circular (rotary) motion that can be adapted more readily to power machinery. By 1790, Watt's improved steam engine offered a powerful, reliable power source that could be located almost anywhere. It was used to pump bellows for blast furnaces, to power huge hammers for shaping and strengthening forged metals, and to turn machinery at textile mills. More than anything, it was Watt's steam engine that speeded up the Industrial Revolution both in England and the rest of the world.
Steam was successfully adapted to powerboats in 1802 and railways in 1829. Later, some of the first automobiles were powered by steam. In the 1880s, the English engineer Charles A. Parsons (1854-1931) produced the first steam turbine, a new steam technology that was more efficient and which enabled the steam engine to evolve into a highly sophisticated and powerful engine that propelled huge ships and ran turbogenerators that supplied electricity.
Once the dominant power source, steam engines eventually declined in popularity as other power sources became available. Although there were more than 60,000 steam cars made in the United States between 1897 and 1927, the steam engine eventually gave way to the internal combustion engine as a power source for vehicles.
Questions 1-7
Match each statement with the correct person A-D.
Write the correct letter A, B, C or D in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet.
1) His invention was the first to use moving parts.
2) His invention allowed steam power to be converted into electric power.
3) His invention was the single biggest step in development.
4) His invention was a simple solution to an industrial problem.
5) His invention was the first continuous power source.
6) His invention first used a method people still use now.
7) His invention allowed a much greater degree of control.
Questions 8-12
Complete the flow chart below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
| The Miner's Friend used condensed steam to (8) ...................., which sucked water from mines. |
 |
| Design improved: Newcomen (9) .................... using a piston and cylinder instead of an open boiler. |
|
| 1769: separating heating and cooling processes meant no (10) .................... between power strokes. |
|
| Further development: became easier to (11) .................... through the use of the flywheel. |
|
| Nineteenth century: steam power (12) .................... for use in various means of transport. |
How Babies Learn Language
During the first year of a child’s life, parents and carers are concerned with its physical development; during the second year, they watch the baby’s language development very carefully. It is interesting just how easily children learn language. Children who are just three or four years old, who cannot yet tie their shoelaces, are able to speak in full sentences without any specific language training.
The current view of child language development is that it is an instinct - something as natural as eating or sleeping. According to experts in this area, this language instinct is innate - something each of us is born with. But this prevailing view has not always enjoyed widespread acceptance.
In the middle of last century, experts of the time, including a renowned professor at Harvard University in the United States, regarded child language development as the process of learning through mere repetition. Language “habits” developed as young children were rewarded for repeating language correctly and ignored or punished when they used incorrect forms of language. Over time, a child, according to this theory, would learn language much like a dog might learn to behave properly through training.
Yet even though the modern view holds that language is instinctive, experts like Assistant Professor Lise Eliot are convinced that the interaction a child has with its parents and caregivers is crucial to its developments. The language of the parents and caregivers act as models for the developing child. In fact, a baby’s day-to-day experience is so important that the child will learn to speak in a manner very similar to the model speakers it hears.
Given that the models parents provide are so important, it is interesting to consider the role of "baby talk" in the child’s language development. Baby talk is the language produced by an adult speaker who is trying to exaggerate certain aspects of the language to capture the attention of a young baby.
Dr Roberta Golinkoff believes that babies benefit from baby talk. Experiments show that immediately after birth babies respond more to infant-directed talk than they do to adult-directed talk. When using baby talk, people exaggerate their facial expressions, which helps the baby to begin to understand what is being communicated. She also notes that the exaggerated nature and repetition of baby talk helps infants to learn the difference between sounds. Since babies have a great deal of information to process, baby talk helps. Although there is concern that baby talk may persist too long, Dr Golinkoff says that it stops being used as the child gets older, that is, when the child is better able to communicate with the parents.
Professor Jusczyk has made a particular study of babies’ ability to recognise sounds, and says they recognise the sound of their own names as early as four and a half months. Babies know the meaning of Mummy and Daddy by about six months, which is earlier than was previously believed. By about nine months, babies begin recognizing frequent patterns in language. A baby will listen longer to the sounds that occur frequently, so it is good to frequently call the infant by its name.
An experiment at Johns Hopkins University in USA, in which researchers went to the homes of 16 nine-month-olds, confirms this view. The researchers arranged their visits for ten days out of a two week period. During each visit the researcher played an audio tape that included the same three stories. The stories included odd words such as “python” or “hornbill”, words that were unlikely to be encountered in the babies’ everyday experience. After a couple of weeks during which nothing was done, the babies were brought to the research lab, where they listened to two recorded lists of words. The first list included words heard in the story. The second included similar words, but not the exact ones that were used in the stories.
Jusczyk found the babies listened longer to the words that had appeared in the stories, which indicated that the babies had extracted individual words from the story. When a control group of 16 nine-month-olds, who had not heard the stories, listened to the two groups of words, they showed no preference for either list.
This does not mean that the babies actually understand the meanings of the words, just the sound patterns. It supports the idea that people are born to speak, and have the capacity to learn language from the day they are born. This ability is enhanced if they are involved in conversation. And, significantly, Dr Eliot reminds parents that babies and toddlers need to feel they are communicating. Clearly, sitting in front of the television is not enough; the baby must be having an interaction with another speaker.
Questions 1-6
Complete the summary below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR NUMBERS for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR NUMBERS for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.
The study of (1) ............. in very young children has changed considerably in the last 50 years. It has been established that children can speak independently at age (2) ............., and that this ability is innate. The child will, in fact, follow the speech patterns and linguistic behaviour of its carers and parents who act as (3) ..............
Babies actually benefit from “baby talk”, in which adults (4) ............. both sounds and facial expressions. Babies' ability to (5) ............. sound patterns rather than words comes earlier than was previously thought. It is very important that babies are included in (6) ..............
Babies actually benefit from “baby talk”, in which adults (4) ............. both sounds and facial expressions. Babies' ability to (5) ............. sound patterns rather than words comes earlier than was previously thought. It is very important that babies are included in (6) ..............
Questions 7-12
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in the Reading Passage? Write:
| YES | if the statement agrees with the views of the writer. |
| NO | if the statement contradicts what the writer thinks. |
| NOT GIVEN | if it is impossible to know what the writer's point of view is. |
7) Children can learn their first language without being taught.
8) From the time of their birth, humans seem to have an ability to learn language.
9) According to experts in the 1950s and ‘60s, language learning is very similar to the training of animals.
10) Repetition in language learning is important, according to Dr Eliot.
11) Dr Golinkoff is concerned that “baby talk” is spoken too much by some parents.
12) The first word a child learns to recognise is usually “Mummy” or “Daddy”.
8) From the time of their birth, humans seem to have an ability to learn language.
9) According to experts in the 1950s and ‘60s, language learning is very similar to the training of animals.
10) Repetition in language learning is important, according to Dr Eliot.
11) Dr Golinkoff is concerned that “baby talk” is spoken too much by some parents.
12) The first word a child learns to recognise is usually “Mummy” or “Daddy”.
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