Passage 1

Being plugged into an iPod is a hallmark of adolescence, but a new study suggests that
teens who spend too much time listening to music may be at higher risk of depression.
The study, led by Dr. Brian Primack, an assistant professor of medicine and paediatrics
at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, found that teens who reported
listening to music more often — rather than using other types of media like TV and
books — were at higher risk of having major depressive disorder (MDD), compared with
teens who listened to music less frequently. With each level increase in music use,
teens had an 80 percent higher risk of depression, the study found
The study did not measure total listening times, but based on previous data, the study
authors estimated that teens in the highest-use group were likely listening to music for
at least four or five hours a day. "At this point, it is not clear whether depressed people
begin to listen to more music to escape, or whether listening to large amounts of music
can lead to depression or both," said Primack in a statement.
By contrast, researchers found that reading books had the opposite association: With
each level increase in time spent reading, teens' risk of depression dropped 50 percent.
"This is worth emphasizing because overall in the US, reading books is decreasing,
while nearly all other forms of media use are increasing," Primack said.
Of all the media reported, only music showed significant associations with increased
depression risk, after researchers controlled for factors like age, sex, and ethnicity. But
that does not necessarily mean that music causes depression — for some depressed
teens, music may even help. The authors explain that sadness is a common theme in
popular music, and it may be that individuals with depression turn to these messages to
make themselves feel less alone in their sadness. Conversely, it may also be that
individuals with MDD turn to happy music to "tune out" their negative moods or to
elevate their moods. Other researchers have suggested that heavy exposure to the
sometimes dark themes of popular music may contribute to the development of
conditions such as MDD.
Past research has also found links between depression and other forms of media like
TV and video games. A seven-year study published in 2009, also led by Primack,
showed that teens who watched more TV were more likely to become depressed in
adulthood, compared with teens who watched less. So the researchers were surprised
to find no such association in the current study, but suggest that further research is
necessary to clarify potential links.
Previous longitudinal research has also found that reading may have a mentally
protective effect: Teens who read more are less likely to become depressed as adults.
The current study suggests that being depressed may also preclude time spent reading.
"We sort of thought to ourselves that when you have depression, your brain is not
working properly. So it's much harder to sit down to a book and have to use a lot of the
frontal lobe of your brain to create the story and the characters in your head, whereas, it
should be quite easy to flop down in front of a TV and turn on whatever's there,"
Primack said.
Although the connections between depression and various forms of media are
significant, more research is needed to understand them better, especially considering
the conflicting information.
But for now, Primack said the findings may be a way for parents to spot a potentially
troubled teen. "It may be valuable for people to help pick up cues for common behaviors
like listening to music," he said.
1 The word hallmark (line 1) means
A. a common habit
B. an unusual behaviour
C. the most typical feature

2 The findings regarding reading will be useful in

A. stopping the decline in reading
B. preventing depression among teenagers
C. discouraging teenagers from listening to music

3 Primark's comment This is worth emphasizing (line 19) suggests that

A. teenagers should read more
B.depression among teenagers will increase
C. teenagers should not be exposed to many forms of media

4 Which of the following is true of paragraph 5?

A. People who listen to popular music are usually happy.
B. When people are depressed, they listen to music.
C. Music may or may not cause depression.

5 What can be concluded from the 2009 and the current study?
A. The findings are contradictory.
B.The findings discourage listening to music.
C. The findings identify watching television as a cause of depression.

6 preclude time spent reading (line 41) means the depressed

A. find reading difficult
B. are discouraged from reading
C. claim that reading worsens their

7 The passage ends with

A. an advice for parents of teenagers
B. a caution on the use of the findings
C. a possible application of the findings

8 From the passage, we can conclude that

A. reading is the recommended action for depressed teenagers
B. it is true that different media will affect teenagers differently
C. further research on the link between depression and various media forms is needed
 Passage 2

More than most countries, Japan thinks of itself as uniquely homogeneous and,
in terms of language, culture and origin, Ethnographers broadly agree. But the fair-
skinned Ainu — supremely hairy of body, with luxuriant beards on the men and tattooed
lips on the women — are the notable exception.

Or were. The Ainu's traditional heartland is Hokkaido, the northernmost of

Japan's four main islands. Not long ago, they were also found in Sakhalin and the Kurile
islands. Although there had been a Japanese presence in south-west Hokkaido since
the Middle Ages, it was only in the 19th century that it was annexed to become what the
West was for America: A new frontier to be opened by persecuting the hunter-gatherers
already there. While the Ainu called their place Ainu Mosir, "the land of human beings".
Hokkaido means -"the road to the northern sea", and the Japanese settling of their new
frontier was every bit as brutal as America's.

Today only 24,000 call themselves Ainu, most of them of mixed blood. Only ten
native Ainu speakers remain, while a solitary century-old woman is thought to have a
tattooed lip. The Ainu's origins are vague. Certainly, they are related to ethnic groups in
Russia's Far East. But one genetic marker is shared only by people in Tibet and the
Andaman Islands. Jared Diamond, a biogeographer. says their mystery makes the Ainu
the world's most studied indigenous group. One thing is increasingly clear: They are
more obviously the descendants of Japan's original inhabitants, the Jomon, inventors of
the world's earliest pottery, than are modern Japanese, who are descended from later
settlers from Korea. This infuriates Japan's racial chauvinists.

So only now, has Japan's parliament passed a resolution recognising the Ainu as
a people in their own right. The first law about the Ainu that was passed, in 1899,
defined them as aborigines in need of assimilation. But until the law's repeal in 1997,
Japan officially denied having any indigenous minorities.
 The recognition, says Tadashi Kato, head of the Ainu Association of Hokkaido,
comes dangerously late. But it may encourage more Ainu to admit to their identity,
having concealed it because of discrimination at school and work, and in the marriage
market. Mr. Kato thinks that maybe ten times more than the official number think of
themselves as Ainu, even if many are of mixed blood. He argues that the parliamentary
resolution is just a first step. It offers no legal protection, and carries no obligations for
the state. There is little talk yet of an apology for Japan's past treatment of the Ainu, let
alone a restitution of lands or hunting rights.

Today, the Ainu's dances, handicrafts and animist beliefs are on display mainly
for touristic consumption. Their traditional respect for nature is much in vogue with
urban Japanese in search of a more innocent Japan. But it is unclear how these purists
would take to a revival of what once was the Ainu's central ritual, called iyomante. This
involved the public sticking of a giant bear, considered a god whose spirit could return to
heaven only through prolonged taunting and death.

1 In paragraph 1, the writer is making the point that

A. Japan is not really homogeneous
B. the Ainu look different Irom the Japanese
C. the Japanese language and culture are unique
D. the ethnographers are wrong in their perception about the Japanese

2 This sentence Or were. (line 5) means

A. the Ainu were hunter gatherers
B. the Ainu's territory had been taken over
C. Ainu women no longer tattooed their lips
D. the Ainu nowadays do not look that different from the Japanese
3 What is true about the Ainu?
A. They were persecuted by the Japanese.
B. They reared animals and planted crops for food.
C. They were forced to intermarry with the Japanese.
D. They moved from Sakhalin and Kurile to Hokkaido.

4 Paragraph 3 is mainly about

A. why the Ainu were most researched
B. the origin of the Ainu, an indigenous group in Japan
C. the racial differences between the Ainu and the Japanese
D. the assimilation of the Ainu into the Japanese culture

5 Why are Japan's racial chauvinists (line 23) infuriated?

A. They are not direct Japanese descendants.
B. They do not want to be identified as Koreans.
C. They were not given as much attention as the Ainu.
D. They were not associated with the invention of the world's earliest pottery.

6 Until lately, many Ainu do not admit that they are Ainu for the following reasons except
A they are of mixed blood
B they have no legal protection from the government
C they want to avoid being discriminated against at work
D they do not want to spoil their chances of finding a spouse

7 The writer uses the phrase let alone (line 35) for
A. demonstration
B. comparison
C. illustration
D emphasis
8 The writer ends the passage by describing iyomante (line 41) to make the point that
A. the Ainu are highly superstitious
B. the Japanese will reject the Ainu culture
C. the traditional Ainu ritual should be preserved
D. there is a doubt about the full revival of Ainu culture
 Passage 3
INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE

This is an excerpt from a story about Japanese immigrant families in the United States.
The two families in the story are that of Mr Oka’s and the writer’s. Kiyoko was Mr Oka’s
daughter who arrived in the United States at the age of 14 and the writer was 9 when
she first met her.

            Kiyoko-san came in September. I was surprised to see saw very nearly a
woman; short, robust, buxom; the female counterpart of her father. Mr Oka brought her
proudly to us.

            “Little Masako here,” for the first time to my recollection, he touched me; he put
his rough, fat hand on the top of my head, “is very smart in school. She will help you
with your school work, Kiyoko,” he said.

            I had so looked forward to Kiyoko-san’s arrival. She would be my soul mate; in
my mind I had conjured a girl of my on proportions: thin and tall, but with the refinement
and beauty I didn’t yet possess that would surely someday come to the fore. My
disappointment was keen and apparent. Kiyoko-san stepped forward shyly, then
retweeted with a short bow and small giggle, her fingers pressed to her mouth.

            My mother took her away. They talked for a long time-about japan, about
enrolment in an American school, the cloth Kiyoko-san would need, and where to look
for the best values. As I watched them it occurred to me that I had been deceived: this
was not a child, this was a woman. The smile pressed behind her fingers, the way of her
nod, so brief, like my  mother when father scolded her. The face was inscrutable, but
something-maybe her spirit-shrank visibly, like a piece of silk in water. I was
disappointed. Kiyoko-san’s soul was barricaded in her unenchanting appearance and
the smile she fenced behind her fingers.

            She started school from third grade, one below me, and as it turned out, she
quickly passed me by. There wasn’t much I could help her with except to drill her on
pronunciation- the “L” and “R” sounds. Every morning walking to our rural school: land,
leg, library, loan, lot; every afternoon returning home: ran, rabbit, rinse, roll. That was
the extent of our communication; friendly but uninteresting.

            One particularly cold November night-the wind outside was Icy; I was sitting on
my bed, my brother’s and mine, oiling the cracks on my chapped hands by lamplight-
someone rapped urgently at our door. It was Kiyoko-san; she was hysterial, she wore
no wrap, her teeth were chattering, and except for the thin straw zori, her feet were
bare. My mother led her to the kitchen, started a pot of tea, and gestured to my brother
and me to retire. I lay very still but, because of my brother’s restless tossing and my
father’s snoring, was unable to hear much. I was aware, though, that drunken and
savage brawling had brought Kiyoko-san to us. Presently they came to the bedroom. I
feigned sleep. My mother spoke firmly: “Tomorrow you will return to them: you must not
leave them again. They are your people.” I could almost feel Kiyoko-san’s short nod.

            All night long I lay cramped and still, afraid to intrude into her hulking back. Two
or three times her icy feet jabbed into mine and quickly retreated. In the morning I found
my mother’s gown neatly folded on the spare pillow. Kiyoko-san’s place in bed was
cold.

            She never came to weep at our house again, but I know she cried. Her eyes
were often swollen and red. She stopped much of her giggling and routinely pressed her
fingers to her mouth. Our daily pronunciation drill petered off from lack of interest. She
walked silently with her shoulders hunched, grasping her books with both arms, and
when I spoke to her in my halting Japanese, she absently corrected my prepositions.

Spring comes early in the valley; in February the skies are clear though the air is
still cold. By March, winds are vigorous and warm and wild flowers dot the desert floor,
cockleburs are green and not yet tenacious, the sand is crusty underfoot, everywhere
there is a smell of things growing and the first tomatoes area showing green and bald.

            As the weather changed, Kiyoko-san became noticeably more cheerful. Mr Oka,
who hated so to drive, could often be seen steering his dusty old Ford over the road that
passes our house, and Kiyoko-san, sitting in front, would sometimes wave gaily to us.
Mrs Oka was never with them. I thought of these trips as the westernizing of Kiyoko-
san; with a permanent wave, her straight black hair became tangles of tiny frantic curls,
between her textbooks she carried copies of Modern Screen and Photoplay, her clothes
were gay with print and piping, and she bought a pair of brown suede shoes with
alligator trim.

(Adapted from Judith A. Standford 1996. Responding to Lliterature.

Mountain View California: Mayfield Publishing Company.)

1.The writer was disappointed with Kiyoko because she

A. looked like her father
B. behaved like her mother
C. was not too communicative
D. was more mature than she expected

2. Kiyoko-san’s soul was barricaded in her unenchanting appearance and the smile she
fenced behind her fingers. Which of the following words fits Kiyoko’s description?
A. unrevealing
B. unattractive
C. resourceful
D. spirited
3. She was hysterical because of
A. her inability to adjust to life in the US
B. the quarrel in her family
C. her lack of money
D. the cold winter

4. In Paragraph 2, Mr Oka said that Masako (the writer) was very smart. In which
paragraph did the writer say that Kiyoko was in fact smarter ?
A. paragraph 4
B. paragraph 5
C. paragraph 6
D. paragraph 7

5. The function of paragraph 10 is to

A. describe the passing of time
B. emphasis how hard life was in winter
C. signal a change to Kiyoko’s behavior
D. show that life was becoming better for the farmers

6. The description of Kiyoko in paragraph 11 implies that she

A. was traditional
B. had conformed
C. became inhibited
D. became defensive

7. With reference to Kiyoko, which of the following is not a characteristic of being

westernized?
A. reading modern screen and photoplay
B. wearing brown suede shoes
C. dressing in bright clothes
D. having straight black hair

8. The writer’s intention may be described as

A. narrating changes in the rural life of migrant families
B. contrasting traditional values among migrant Japanese families
C. tracing the adjustments made by Japanese families in the United States
D. highlighting the difference between her life and other Japanese immigrants
 Passage 5

There are bones hidden away in almost every cupboard in many of the rooms of New
York  University’s primatology department, and James Higham is keen to explain
explain to me what they can tell us about an important part of our evolution: Why we
have such big, heavy brains. He shows me hordes of lemur skulls, as well as casts of
our extinct relatives. Of particular interest to him are the sizes of their braincases. After
studying this feature in primates including monkeys, lemurs and humans, he and his
colleagues have presented an intriguing new idea as to why our brains are so large.

The reason why some primates have bigger brains that others is often said to be their
social behaviour. That is, primates that move around in bigger and more complex social
groups require bigger brains in order to efficiently manage all of those social relations.

The new analysis found that diet – not social group size – was the key factor linked to
brain size. This theory has been around for over two decades, and is called “the social
brain hypothesis”. Following a large-scale analysis of primates, Higham and his
colleague Alex DeCasien are confident that the social brain theory does not tell the
whole story.

Rather, brain size is more accuratly predicted by primates’ diet, accoring to their new
study published in the journal Nature, Ecology and Evolution. To come to his
conclusion, the team , led by DeCasien, put together a dataset of 140 primate species,
including animals like the aye-aye and several other species of gibbon. This allowed
them to compare the size of primate brains and several social behavioural factors, such
as group size and social structure.

They tell me that this is the first time such a large dataset has been used to explore the
idea. When the social brain hyptthesis was formulated, it did not consider primates like
orang-utans, which have large brains despite often living solitary lives. The new analysis
found that diet – not social group size – was the key factor linked to brain size.

That is not to say that social group size plays no role in the evolution of large brains. It
has been long known that fruit-eating primates (frugivores) tend to have bigger brains
than leaf-eating primated (folivores), says Higham. This might be because there are
benefits to eating fruit. It has a higher nutritional value and is far easier to digest than
leaves.

However, it is also a more demanding diet in some ways. For instance, fruit is more
patchily distributed in both space and time, which makes the tasks of finding food more
complex, says Higham. That is not ot say that the social group size plays no role in
evolution of large brains, says the authors. Because fruit can be less abundant than
 leaves, frugivores often travel across larger ranges. They tend to form larger social
groups for those long journeys.

“If there’s another group in that fruit tree, what determines which group ends up holding
the fruit is usually just about group size,” says Higham.

DeCasien and Higham are aware that their findings will have their critics. I put their
conclusions to the research behind the social brain hypothesis, Robin Dunbar of the
University of Oxford in the UK. He contests the findings.

First, Dunbar says that t is not overall brain size that is the important factor. Instead, it is
the size of a particular part of the brain called the neocortex, which plays an important
role in cognition, spatial reasoning and language.

“There is an important distinction between neocortex volume and brain volume,” says
Dunbar. “The original social brain analyses showed that social group size does not
correlate especially well (if at all) with total brain size, but only with neocortex size. That
would be difficult to reconcile with their claim.”

Second, Dunbar points out that social group size and diet need not be two alternative
explanations of brain evolution. “Both are necessarily true,” he says. In line with
DeCasien and Higham, Dunbar thinks these features must be connectedat a deep level.
“You cannot evolve a large brain to handle anything, social or otherwise, unless you
change your diet allow greater nutrient acquisition, so as to grow a larger brain,” he
says.

However, Dunbar still maintains that social group size, not diet, is the key driving force.

1 What is the best substitute for an intriguing new idea (paragraph 1)?

A. A captivating new idea

B. A mysterious new idea
C. A refreshing new idea
D. A peculiar new idea

2 A criticism of the ‘social brain hypothesis’ by DeCasien and associates is that

A. there is no comparison between brain size and nutrition

B. too much emphasis was given to fruit eating primates
C. there was insufficient sampling of primates
D. social behaviour is difficult to study

3 Fruit is more patchily distributed (paragraph 7) means 

A. in greater variety
B. in demand
C. seasonal
D. scarce

4 Which of the following conclusions from paragraph 6 and 7 is made by the

researchers in New York University?

A. Fruit eating primates develop heavier brains.

B. Social group size does play a role in brain size.
C. Getting enough food is a challenge for primates.
D. Traveling long distances for food is common among folivores.

5 In paragraph 8, Higham’s statement can be paraphrased as

A. fruit eating primates compete for food which is scarce

B. primates in the competing larger group will get the food
C. group size is of utmost importance in determining food ownership 
D. strong competition exists between primate groups in the search for food

6 DeCasien and Higham’s findings were conveyed to Dunbar because he

A. was a critic of both theories

B. developed the social brain theory
C. worked at a prestigious university
D. was not satisfied with their findings

7 What is Dunbar’s stand on DeCasien and Higham’s finding?

A. He partially agrees with them

B. He disagrees with them
C. He concurs with them
D. He remains neutral

8 What is the purpose of the passage?

A. To explain the debate of the theory of evolution

B. To present findings on the effects of group size
C. To report on alternative theories on brain size
D. To discuss differences in diets of primates