UNIT 7: TOURISMBottom of Form
Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.
Travel at the North and South Poles has become an expensive leisure activity, suitable for tourists of all ages. The poles may be inhospitable places, but they are seeing increasing numbers of visitors. Annual figures for the Arctic, where tourism has existed since the 19th century, have increased from about a million in the early 1990s to more than 1.5 million today. This is partly because of the lengthening summer season brought about by climate change.
The global economic downturn may have affected the annual 20.6 percent rate of increase in visitors to the Antarctic - last season saw a drop of 17 percent to 38,200 - but there has been a 760 percent rise in land-based tourism there since 1997. More people than ever are landing at fragile sites, with light aircraft, helicopters and all-terrain vehicles increasingly used for greater access.
Although polar tourism is widely accepted, there have been few regulations up until recently. At the meeting of the Antarctic Treaty in Baltimore, the 28 member nations adopted proposals for limits to tourist numbers. These included safety codes for tourist vessels in Antarctic waters, and improved environmental protection for the continent. They agreed to prevent ships with more than 500 passengers from landing in Antarctica, as well as limit the number of passengers going ashore to a maximum of 100 at any one time, with a minimum of one guide for every 20 tourists.
These days, rarely a week passes without a negative headline in the newspapers. The suffering polar bear has become a symbol of a warming world, its plight a warning that the clock is ticking. It would seem that this ticking clock is a small but growing factor for some tourists. ‘There’s an element of “do it now”,’ acknowledges Prisca Campbell, Marketing director of Quark Expeditions, which takes 7,000 people to the poles annually. Leaving the trip until later, it seems, may mean leaving it too late.
(Adapted from Complete IELTS by Guy Brook-Hart and Vanessa Jakeman)
1. Which could be the best title for the passage?
A. Poles apart – How the world is different today.
B. Tourism is changing as we know it.
C. Here today, gone tomorrow.
D. Do it now - before it’s too late.
2. The word ‘inhospitable’ in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to _______.
A. inhabitable B. unwelcoming C. generous D. negative
3. The word ‘they’ in paragraph 3 refers to _______.
A. member nations B. tourist vessels C. proposals D. passengers
4. According to the passage, what does Prisca Campbell say about the trend of Arctic tourism?
A. Tourists are excited about the prospect of Arctic tourism more than they were in the past.
B. Tourists have very little concern about the endangered polar bears suffering potential extinction.
C. Tourists believe that opportunities to visit the Arctic may soon become scarce.
D. Tourists believe that they are living in a great era for Arctic exploration.
5. Which of the following is true, according to the passage?
A. The number of tourists to the Arctic circle has more than doubled since the 1990’s.
B. Climate change has played no part in accelerating the growth of tourism in Antarctica.
C. Various restrictions have been introduced recently to limit the growing polar tourist numbers.
D. The polar bears which are still alive today face an enormous amount of suffering at the hands of tourists.
UNIT 8: SCIENCE
Read the following text and answer the questions:
The Gadget Generation
Kids love gadgets, don't they? Or perhaps it's just that they have never lived without them? Children today would find it hard to imagine life without mobile phones, iPods, computer games and the Internet, and there are very few who aren't technically literate and skilled at using them. Technology has advanced rapidly, particularly over the last decade, and gadgets and gismos will have an ever-increasing influence on children's lives. A survey of young people between the ages of eight and 18 in America showed that the average time children spend using electronic gadgets has risen dramatically, to around seven hours and 38 minutes a day. And some are consuming up to 10 hours' electronic content a day, because they use more than one gadget at the same time.
Technology has without question improved the quality of children's lives. Children 's television can be informative as well as entertaining, and in schools, computers are increasingly used as an aid to learning. Educational software frequently offers children the chance to work together, take turns, discuss and solve problems, and all computer games help to improve motor skills and hand-eye co-ordination. Computers and the Internet offer children a sense of empowerment, and provide them with the tools and information needed to solve problems or find things out. Texting, emailing and blogging all drive children to be more experimental with the written word. A recent British survey showed that children who use technology are much more confident about their writing skills. Technology also has a social role. Over 25% of British eight to 11-year-olds who have a computer are members of an online social network like Facebook or Bebo. They make new friends and chat online, and consider this important, although it can also have downsides. Furthermore, good computer skills are essential in today's job market, so the more confident children are with computers, the greater the advantage they will have when looking for a job.
Despite these considerable advantages, the press contains almost daily reports of the negative effects that technology has on children. There is a widely held opinion that technology makes children lazy. While this isn't technically true, it can reduce or replace the opportunity for physical activity for some children. But is there an even darker side? Dr Susan Greenfield believes so. She thinks that spending too long in cyberspace can actually alter the chemistry of the brain. As some children spend between six to nine hours daily staring at a screen, she thinks that their minds are developing differently. The more we play games, the more we are focused on the process and the thrill of attaining the goal. When we win at something, a chemical called dopamine is released in the brain, which makes you feel happy and so becomes addictive. What does not count here is the meaning and content - what does the game mean? Who are the characters in the game and why are they there? This is another level of understanding and reasoning that the brain needs and which is