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Academic Reading Workbook

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

Questions 1-5
The passage has eight paragraphs A-H.
Choose the correct heading for paragraphs C-H from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number i-x in boxes 1-5 on your Answer Sheet.

Final Practice Reading test

i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.
vii.
viii.
ix.
x.

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A healthier option
Asian countries know best
Fast food companies go healthy
A growing business
Importance of good eating habits
Mixed messages
A return to dairy products
Healthy becomes unhealthy
Allergies to dairy
Concern over negative reaction to mixed messages

1 Paragraph C

..............

2 Paragraph D

..............

3 Paragraph E

..............

4 Paragraph G

..............

5 Paragraph H

..............

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Good for you or not good for you? That is the question.
A At no time in history has the worlds population ever been so well-informed about nutrition and health.
Consumers in the developed world are constantly bombarded with advertising messages which promote the
health benets of a wide range of food products. However, they are also exposed to the constant promotion
of junk food as well. Fast food companies have become sensitive to the criticisms they face over the potential
damage their food causes and have begun to vigorously defend the nutritional value of the meals they serve.
With this constant ow of messages often contradictory how are todays consumers supposed to determine
precisely what is healthy to eat?
B According to nutritionist Susan McCaskill, many people today intend to eat healthily, but have become
confused about how to do so. It is not just that the traditional denitions of a healthy diet have changed,
though this is certainly signicant. Many grew up being told that the more milk you drank, the healthier you
would be. Then dairy foods became bad in the eyes of many health professionals and many people sought
alternatives to it. Now these alternatives are coming under the same sort of criticism.
C The alternative McCaskill is referring to is soya milk. A generation of consumers who were labeled allergic to
cows milk products embraced soya substitutes enthusiastically. In fact, the soya bean itself was promoted as a
kind of miracle food overall. Claims were made it had the potential to not only provide all the protein required
for a healthy diet, but that it could prevent heart disease and cancer. Slogans such as Its Soy Good for you...
began to appear in nutritional advice columns.
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D Now suddenly you can nd messages on health-related websites claiming Its not soy good and even Its SOY
bad for you. A generation of health-conscious eaters who previously abandoned milk products for soy are now
worried and confused. The same chemicals (known as isoavones) in soya beans which were claimed to ght
cancer and other diseases are now listed as the cause of some cancers, and are also implicated in hormonal
problems and thyroid gland disorders. Dr David Steinman of the Eastern Sydney University Medical School
considers the praise of soya products in many alternative health circles to be without scientic foundation.
Soya proponents suggest we look to the health statistics of Asian countries as proof of the benets of soy.
When we look closely at the countries where soya products are consumed regularly, it is clear that though they
are widely used, they are also eaten in very moderate quantities. Many people seeking a healthy diet today are
eating ten times that much soy, particularly through drinking vast amounts of soya milk and eating other nontraditional foods such as soya-based ice-cream.
E Susan McCaskill considers the latest negative publicity about soy to be exaggerated, but she admits that it
does raise some very relevant questions. It still appears to me that soya beans have many notable nutritional
benets to oer, but the key thing here is moderation. What frequently happens now is that people go from
eating much too much of one thing to eating too much of something else.
F Both McCaskill and Steinman concede that the recent soya controversy is just one example of how food
fashions are confusing the health-conscious today. Red meat has often been blamed for high rates of heart
disease and other health problems, then has been praised for its high iron content. Carbohydrate rich foods
such as pasta, rice and potatoes have been promoted since the seventies as healthy staples of our diet, and then
recently have received the blame for the growing numbers of people who are seriously overweight.
G Dr Steinman echoes the words of McCaskill on one key point - moderation is the most signicant factor in
any healthy diet. However, he fears that modern obsessions with perfect food habits can simply leave people
so discouraged that they give up completely. If you rush to a new diet because youve been told your old one
was bad, then nd the new one has its own critics, what do you do next? I worry that many will simply stop
thinking about healthy eating habits and head to the nearest fast food outlet.
H It is certainly undeniable that the fast food industry is booming. Whether this is because of confused and
discouraged eaters of health food is dicult to determine. What is clear, however, is that advertisers are
working harder and harder to inuence the worlds eating habits, and that the needs of both health enthusiasts
and fast food customers are now coming together: the fastest growing customer base in many major fast food
chains is now people attracted by their new healthy choices. The question remains: who will decide in the
end precisely what a healthy choice is?
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Questions 6-10
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?
In boxes 6-10 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

6 Fast food companies admit that the food they serve is unhealthy.
7 Soy products have been proven to stop certain illnesses.
8 Some health-conscious people are overconsuming certain foods.
9 One health expert worries that frustration might stop people maintaining a good diet.

Final Practice Reading test

10 Fast food advertising will increasingly influence what people think is healthy.

Questions 11-13
Choose the correct letters A, B or C.
Write the correct letter in boxes 11-13 on your Answer Sheet.
11 People are unsure about what is considered healthy because
A
B
C

dairy foods are now considered unhealthy

the healthier replacements to unhealthy foods are being criticised
junk food is promoted as being healthy.

12 According to the article, soya can be considered healthy because

A
B
C

it has been found to be a miracle food

it doesnt promote allergies as dairy products do
healthy people in Asia eat it in average amounts.

13 The main reason for the increase in fast food customers is

A
B
C

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the option of healthier food

effective advertising
confusion about healthy food choices.

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Academic Reading Workbook

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

Sensory Overload
Are you suering from a feeling of annoyance? Does life seem to get more and more irritating all the time?
Do you struggle day to day just to stay calm and clear-headed in the face of more and more frustrating
experiences? If your answer to these questions is YES, you are not alone. In fact, you are part of a growing
trend that demonstrates the signicance of the small events which annoy us on a day to day basis.

According to psychologist Maurice Penman, inhabitants of todays modern cities face a far more aggressive
range of sensory experiences than ever before. It is not simply that the pace of life is faster in todays world,
or that people are under more pressure at work. Of course, both those things are true. But today people are
exposed to a greater number of both visual and auditory stimuli. Basically, this means we are being asked to
both look at and listen to far more than we ever have been before.

However, Penman is quick to point out that many of the things which are contributing to these problems are
also the same things many of us value. A greater sense of irritation is the price we pay for the convenience of
the Internet and mobile phones. Mobile phones are a very signicant example to consider. There is no doubt
that they are useful in a multitude of ways, and most people do not want to go back to the days before them.
But at the same time, mobile phones have almost completely destroyed a sense of quiet public space. There
was a time when you could rely on public transport being relatively quiet, a place to think about the events of
the day on the way home. Now a bus or a train carriage can feel like being locked in a busy oce.

The increase in sensory demands is not just due to the use of mobile phones. Advertisers are reaching out
to potential consumers more aggressively than ever. News services are now broadcast on buses and at train
platforms. Family meals are frequently interrupted by telephone canvassers and email users are often forced
to deal with an avalanche of unsolicited promotional messages, or SPAM. One could easily imagine that our
children and their children may have to guard their homes from an overwhelming amount of annoyance

While it is dicult to deny the growth in these increasingly annoying events in our day, is there actually any
real signicance to these facts? Penman argues: There is no doubt that on the surface, this increase of stimuli
in our day simply appears to be a matter of minor annoyance. But when we look closely, we can see that this
has the potential to signicantly aect our psychological health. He goes on to explain that if exposure to
these irritations is frequent and prolonged, very subtly our stress levels begin to rise. As they do, we nd
there is a compound eect. Stress from the minor episodes in the day starts to increase our feeling of pressure
when faced with major challenges at work. We are increasingly carrying a greater and greater stress load, with
opportunities to relax and unwind more and more restricted. Penman points out that even though we all
sometimes crave stimulation, we have become so obsessed with it in the twenty-rst century that it has now
become almost impossible to avoid. Shops increasingly feel the need to play loud, thumping rock or techno
music. Advertising becomes more and more energetically aggressive all the time. This, Penman maintains,
prevents us from dealing with our daily stress and eliminating it from our systems. He adds: You really do
need to get right out of the city and into a quiet space now, though most of us are too busy to do that very
often.

It might be easy for critics to dismiss the annoying experience of too many mobile phones on the bus, or any of
the other stimuli Maurice Penman cites. However, it is the failure to eliminate stress which leads to potentially
fatal consequences. If these daily distractions are contributing seriously to our stress levels, then Penman has
identied a signicant danger. We now know that stress truly is a killer, and has been implicated in the rise of
depression, heart disease and even weight problems, as it increases hormones in the body which stimulate the
appetite for fattening carbohydrate-rich foods.

There is no denying that Maurice Penns main arguments are compelling. It seems that stress has become so
prevalent that people are getting stressed about their levels of stress. But what are we supposed to do? He
suggests we do everything we can to go within ourselves and try to maintain a sense of personal peace and
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Academic Reading Workbook

Final Practice Reading test

space. He recommends the use of meditation and relaxation tapes, exercise at the end of the day whenever
possible and greater emphasis on fun. Unfortunately, Maurice Penman had no suggestions for those of us
who nd meditation frustrating, or who get annoyed at relaxation tapes. He had no recommendations for
days when you cant nd any equipment you need in the gym, or nd yourself irritated at those around you
who keep saying you need to have more fun.

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Academic Reading Workbook

Questions 14-20
The reading passage has eight paragraphs A-H.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter A-H in boxes 14-20 on your Answer Sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
14 an example of how a place has changed due to modern conveniences
15 physical effects of stress
16 a recommendation of how to deal with modern-day pressures and over-stimulation
17 an explanation of sensory overload and todays irritations that cause stress
18 an assertion about peoples level of stress
19 a reason why small amounts of stress can feel greater
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20 a prediction about growing irritations and interruptions to our personal space

Questions 21-24
Complete the summary below using words from the passage. Write NO MORE THAN FOUR
WORDS for each answer.
Write the correct answers in boxes 21-24 on your Answer Sheet.
People in todays world are faced with much more 21............................................ stimulation than
they used to be. On a daily basis, our modern conveniences represent small but significant
22............................................... , which contribute to increasing levels of stress. Psychologist
Maurice Penman suggests that because people 23.................................................. from time to
time, we are now in a world where we cant escape it. However, we must escape it and relax or
there could possibly be 24........................................................

Questions 25-27
Answer the questions below using words from the passage. Write NO MORE THAN THREE
WORDS for each answer.
Write the correct answers in boxes 25-27 on your Answer Sheet.
25 What word is used to describe how advertising has become?
26 What does stress make you want to eat?
27 What does Penman believe people should place more importance on in order to relieve stress?

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READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 28-40 which are based on Reading Passage 3.
A Since its earliest days, television (TV) has been the perfect example of passive entertainment. Now some are
trying to change that. Media and entertainment companies plan new interactive services designed to make
television a centre of games, information and family activity. Many of these services are enhancements of
regular programming like displaying several football games at once. Some are new ways of doing old things,
like video on demand (VOD), which allows viewers to choose from a selection of movies available through
their TV at any time. Perhaps one of the most intriguing is personal video recording, which lets them pause
and fast-forward TV programs.

Final Practice Reading test

B This is not the rst time that the television industry has attempted to persuade viewers to become more
active. In the 1970s, a project to provide movies to order was shelved because of the high cost of bringing
two-way networks into peoples homes. In 1990 some providers oered text enhancement, giving viewers
the option of seeing news, weather and stock prices run across their screen on top of regular programs. This
project was also dropped. But circumstances may be more favourable today. The television industry has
some advantages which did not exist when previous experiments were undertaken. First, cable and satellite
television now reach a large number of homes. Second, the Internet has made most people in the developed
world familiar with the process of pointing and clicking. In a sense, interactive television is a way of bringing
television a little closer to the Internet.
C The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC a public television channel) has probably been the most
experimental network in this eld. Its rst really successful attempt was made during the Wimbledon tennis
tournament in June 2001. Rather than deciding which tennis match to televise at any one time, the BBC
allowed viewers to watch up to ve at once on a split screen or they could choose to watch one or more of the
matches at the same time. This attracted more than ve million viewers. Since then, the BBC has produced a
steady stream of new interactive programming.
D Were taking factual drama and creating a quiz show around the main programming, says Ashley Higheld,
Thats totally new and exciting for us. ...... I would love to get involved in interactive dramas, maybe allowing
the viewer to switch from one characters point of view (to that of another). But sport continues to be the
BBCs biggest drawcard. What were working on for the future is to have football matches with the option of
hearing the partisan commentary from local radio stations, says Higheld. Commercial television companies,
which have to keep an eye on prot, have been less daring. However, according to Josh Berno, an analyst
at Forrester Research, a lack of copyright may delay growth over the next ve years. That is why the rst
companies to oer VOD have been cable channels that own their own content.
E The biggest barrier to VOD and other interactive services is technophobia fear of technology. In test
markets, viewers often dont know they have the service, or are reluctant to use it. One solution is to give
the TV screen the look of a Web page, with toolbars and display menus. Since younger consumers tend to
be early adopters of new technology, videogames may take o quickly. In recent months, the three biggest
manufacturers of TV games have introduced online components. In two years, experts say, most gamers may
go online via TV.
F Televisions best minds are convinced that interactive TV will eventually succeed. But if this happens, what
will be the eect on the status quo? Will greater viewer control overthrow the whole business model of TV,
which is based on selling advertising to a largely captive audience. Network executives face a dilemma. The
more control they give viewers, the more they threaten the practice of selling prime-time advertising.
G Rick Mandler, a Disney vice-president of enhanced TV feels that interactive TV companies will press for a
redesign of personal recording services so that they are advertising friendly. Tracey Swedlow, editor of the
newsletter Interactive TV Today, believes that advertising is going to have to adapt. How much will the rest

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of us have to adapt? Its going to be a gradual process, not a revolution, says Maggie Wilderotter, an interactive TV
executive in California. People watch TV to be entertained. Its not work. She feels that viewers do not want to
do too much themselves. Swedlow, on the other hand, thinks the changes will be more fundamental. TV will feel
more like a tool you can use.... Itll be something you can manage rather than just take in.
adapted with permission from Gutrel, Fred, The Future of TV, Newsweek Issues 2003 Special Edition, Dec 2002 Feb 2003.

Questions 28-32
Look at the following opinions (Questions 28-32) and the list of people below.
Match each opinion with the person credited with it.
Write the correct letter A-E in boxes 28-32 on your Answer Sheet.
28 TV viewers may be unwilling to exert themselves.
29 TV companies will urge the adaptation of programming to suit advertisers.
Final Practice Reading test

30 Legal complications may slow TV innovation.

31 Advertisers, rather than viewers or broadcasters, will need to change.
32 New elements may be added to existing program types.

Ashley Highfield

Josh Bernoff

Rick Mandler

Maggie Wildrotter

Tracey Swedlow

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Questions 33-39
Reading Passage 1 has seven paragraphs labeled A-G.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter A-G in boxes 33-39 on your Answer Sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
33 examples of unsuccessful experiments in interactive TV
34 a description of how interactive TV may threaten its revenue base
35 a prediction of who will most readily adopt interactive TV
36 an explanation of why interactive TV is easier for cable channels to offer
37 a prediction of the speed at which interactive TV will grow

Final Practice Reading test

38 a description of the first successful interactive TV services

39 reasons why interactive TV may be more successful now than in the past

Questions 40
Choose the correct letter A, B or C.
Write your answer in box 40 on your Answer Sheet.
40 Which of the following is the most suitable title for Reading Passage 3?
A
B
C

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Video on Demand
Persuading Viewers to be More Interactive
Is TV Ready for a New Era?

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