For Monday

William Kamkwamba

In 2002, William Kamkwamba had to drop out of school, as his father, a maize and tobacco
farmer, could no longer afford his school fees. But despite this setback, William was
determined to get his education. He began visiting a local library that had just opened in his
old primary school, where he discovered a tattered science book. With only a rudimentary
grasp of English, he taught himself basic physics - mainly by studying photos and diagrams.
Another book he found there featured windmills on the cover and inspired him to try and
build his own.

He started by constructing a small model. Then, with the help of a cousin and friend, he spent
many weeks searching scrap yards and found old tractor fans, shock absorbers, plastic pipe
and bicycle parts, which he used to build the real thing.

For windmill blades, William cut some bath pipe in two lengthwise, then heated the pieces
over hot coals to press the curled edges flat. To bore holes into the blades, he stuck a nail
through half a corncob, heated the metal red and twisted it through the blades. It took three
hours to repeatedly heat the nail and bore the holes. He attached the blades to a tractor fan
using proper nuts and bolts and then to the back axle of a bicycle. Electricity was generated
through the bicycle dynamo. When the wind blew the blades, the bike chain spun the bike
wheel, which charged the dynamo and sent a current through wire to his house.

What he had built was a crude machine that produced 12 volts and powered four lights. When
it was all done, the windmill's wingspan measured more than eight feet and sat on top of a
rickety tower 15 feet tall that swayed violently in strong gales. He eventually replaced the
tower with a sturdier one that stands 39 feet, and built a second machine that watered a family
garden.

The windmill brought William Kamkwamba instant local fame, but despite his
accomplishment, he was still unable to return to school. However, news of his magetsi a
mphepo - electric wind - spread beyond Malawi, and eventually things began to change. An
education official, who had heard news of the windmill, came to visit his village and was
amazed to learn that William had been out of school for five years. He arranged for him to
attend secondary school at the government's expense and brought journalists to the farm to
see the windmill. Then a story published in the Malawi Daily Mail caught the attention of
bloggers, which in turn caught the attention of organisers for the Technology Entertainment
and Design conference.

In 2007, William spoke at the TED Global conference in Tanzania and got a standing
ovation. Businessmen stepped forward with offers to fund his education and projects, and
with money donated by them, he was able to put his cousin and several friends back into
school and pay for some medical needs of his family. With the donation, he also drilled a
borehole for a well and water pump in his village and installed drip irrigation in his father's
fields.
The water pump has allowed his family to expand its crops. They have abandoned tobacco
and now grow maize, beans, soybeans, potatoes and peanuts. The windmills have also
brought big lifestyle and health changes to the other villagers. 'The village has changed a lot,'
William says. 'Now, the time that they would have spent going to fetch water, they are using
for doing other things. And also the water they are drinking is clean water, so there is less
disease.' The villagers have also stopped using kerosene and can use the money previously
spent on fuel to buy other things.

William Kamkwamba's example has inspired other children in the village to pursue science.
William says they now see that if they put their mind to something, they can achieve it. 'It has
changed the way people think,' he says.
Questions 1-5

Complete the flow chart below.

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

Building the Windmill

William learned some (1) BASIC PHYSICS from a library book.

First, he built a (2) CONSTRUCTION of the windmill.

Then he collected materials from (3) OLD TRACTOR with a relative.

He made the windmill blades from pieces of (4) BATH PIPES

He fixed the blades to a (5) TRACTOR FAN and then to part of a bicycle.

He raised the blades on a tower.

Questions 6-10

Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage.

In boxes 6-10 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement is true according to the passage

FALSE if the statement is false according to the passage

NOT
if the information is not given in the passage
GIVEN

6) William used the electricity he created for village transport. NOT GIVEN

7) At first, William's achievement was ignored by local people. NO

8) Journalists from other countries visited William's farm. NO

9) William used money he received to improve water supplies in his village. YES

10) The health of the villagers has improved since the windmill was built. YES

Questions 11-13

Answer the questions below.

Use NO MORE THAN ONE WORD and/or a NUMBER from the passage for each
answer.

11) How tall was the final tower that William built? 39 FEET

12) What did the villagers use for fuel before the windmill was built? KEROSENE

13) What school subject has become more popular in William's village? SCIENCE
 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. (9) 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, (11) 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
(12) 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. (8) 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.

(7) 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. (10) 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.

The study of (1) CHILD LANGUAGE in very young children has changed considerably in
the last 50 years. It has been established that children can speak independently at age (2) 3
OR 4 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) REPETITION

Babies actually benefit from “baby talk”, in which adults (4) EXXAGERATE both sounds
and facial expressions. Babies' ability to (5) DIFFERENTIATE sound patterns rather than
words comes earlier than was previously thought. It is very important that babies are included
in (6) CONVERSATION
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. NO

8) From the time of their birth, humans seem to have an ability to learn language. YES

9) According to experts in the 1950s and ‘60s, language learning is very similar to the
training of animals. YES

10) Repetition in language learning is important, according to Dr Eliot. NO

11) Dr Golinkoff is concerned that “baby talk” is spoken too much by some parents. NO

12) The first word a child learns to recognise is usually “Mummy” or “Daddy”.NO
For Tuesday

Black rats rainforest invasion 'speeded by deforestation'

(A) Cutting down trees in rainforests facilitates the spread of invasive black rats, a study
suggests. The rodents normally avoid mature forests with large trees as they provide little in
the way of cover. But researchers, writing in Biotropica, say that logging makes rainforests
more attractive for rats as fallen wood contains more insects which they eat.

(B) Scientists are concerned that the invading black rats will be bad news for native
mammals. Sometimes called the ship rat, these rodents have spread around the world over the
past 400 years, often causing the extinctions of native species and spreading disease.

(C) Much of their notoriety rests on the idea that black rats were the origin of bubonic plague,
although recent research casts doubt on that notion. Black rats have usually avoided older
forests as they contain large trees which do not provide much in the way of ground level
protection. They also tend to have leafy forest floors which are noisy for rats to run through,
as they attract predators.

(D) This new study examined the idea that logging of trees in rainforests might facilitate the
spread of the rodents. The researchers looked at the island of Borneo where large tracts of the
natural forest have been degraded.

(E) It had been believed that black rats were confined to urban areas in Borneo. To test the
idea that they might spread into deforested regions, the scientists trapped rats from four
different species - they then attached small spools of cotton thread to their backs and and
tracked their movements.

(F) Across the animals in the study, the researchers found that the black rats had the strongest
preference for the type of disturbed habitat associated with logging. The increased amount of
fallen wood boosted the amount of insects which the rats eat. The logged forests also have
more undergrowth which provides better cover. The researchers believe that black rats favour
these small changes far more than related species.

(G) "Logging creates micro-environments that black rats love, helping them move in," said
study co-author Dr Rob Ewers from Imperial College London. "This could be bad news for
native mammals who might not be able to compete with black rats for food and resources. It's
also bad for the forest, as many small mammals are important seed dispersers, helping
rainforest plants to grow, and they are also prey for larger animals."

(H) The researchers say that the widespread destruction of forests throughout the tropics may
well be multiplying the threat from invasive species like black rats. They believe the presence
of these rats could pose a significant threat to nesting birds and other small mammals. The
scientists say that the way that logging is done can have a big impact on the suitability of the
land for the black rats. The more dead wood that is left behind the better the black rats like it.
If felled trees were more accurately cleared as well as the vines that connect the trees, the rat's
progress might be curbed.

Questions 1-8

The text has eight paragraphs A-H. Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 1-8 on your answer sheet.

1. A valid concern B

2. The experiment E

3. More food for rats A

4. Possible threats C

5. Bad news

6. A place of the research D

7. The difference between species F

8. The reason for bad reputation G

 The Earth

(A) The Earth is the third planet from the Sun and it is the only planet known to have life on
it. The Earth formed around 4.5 billion years ago. It is one of four rocky planets on the inside
of the Solar System. The other three are Mercury, Venus, and Mars.

(B) The large mass of the Sun makes the Earth move around it, just as the mass of the Earth
makes the Moon move around it. The Earth also turns round in space, so different parts face
the Sun at different times. The Earth goes around the Sun once (one "year") for every 365¼
times it turns all the way around (one "day").

(C) The Moon goes around the Earth about every 27⅓ days, and reflects light from the Sun.
As the Earth goes round the Sun at the same time, the changing light of the Moon takes about
29½ days to go from dark to bright to dark again. That is where the idea of "month" came
from. However, now most months have 30 or 31 days so they fit into one year.

(D) The Earth is the only planet in our Solar System that has a large amount of liquid water.
About 71% of the surface of the Earth is covered by oceans. Because of this, it is sometimes
called the "Blue Planet".

(E) Because of its water, the Earth is home to millions of species of plants and animals. The
things that live on Earth have changed its surface greatly. For example, early cyanobacteria
changed the air and gave it oxygen. The living part of the Earth's surface is called the
"biosphere".

(F) The Earth is part of the eight planets and many thousands of small bodies that move
around the Sun as its Solar System. The Solar System is moving through the Orion Arm of
the Milky Way Galaxy now, and will be for about the next 10,000 years.

(G) The Earth is generally 150,000,000 kilometers or 93,000,000 miles away from the Sun
(this distance is named an "Astronomical Unit"). The Earth moves along its way at an
average speed of about 30 km or 19 mi a second. The Earth turns all the way around about
365¼ times in the time it takes for the Earth to go all the way around the Sun. To make up
this extra bit of a day every year, an additional day is used every four years. This is named a
"leap year".

(H) The Moon goes around the Earth at an average distance of 400,000 kilometers (250,000
mi). It is locked to Earth, so that it always has the same half facing the Earth; the other half is
called the "dark side of the Moon". It takes about 27⅓ days for the Moon to go all the way
around the Earth but, because the Earth is moving around the Sun at the same time, it takes
about 29½ days for the Moon to go from dark to bright to dark again. This is where the word
"month" came from, even though most months now have 30 or 31 days.
Questions 1–8

Reading Passage 1 has eight paragraphs A-H. Which paragraph contains the following
information? Write the correct letter, A–H, in boxes 1–8 on your answer sheet.

1. Earth’s natural satellite C

2. Distance between Earth and Sun G

3. General information about Earth A

4. The Solar System F

5. Length of most moths H

6. Another name for Earth D

7. The living part of the Earth's surface E

8. The movements of Earth around the Sun B

Questions 9-13

Complete the sentences below.

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the text for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet.

9. Apart from Earth, other rocky planets in our Solar Systems are Venus, Mars and
MERCURY.

10. Moon REFLECTS LIGHT from the Sun on Earth.

11. There are millions of SPECIES of plants and animals that inhabit Earth.

12. Now the Solar System is travelling through THE ORION ARM.

13. The dark side of the Moon is the side, which HALF faces Earth.