READING MOCK TEST 1

READING PASSAGE 1

INSOMNIA – THE ENEMY OF SLEEP

It is not unusual to have sleep troubles from time to time. But, if you feel you do not get
enough sleep, or satisfying sleep, you may have insomnia, a sleep disorder. People with
insomnia have one or more of the following: difficulty in falling asleep, waking up often
during the night and having trouble going back to sleep, waking up too early in the morning,
and unrefreshing sleep. Insomnia is not defined by the number of hours you sleep every night.
The amount of sleep a person needs varies. While most people need between 7 and 8 hours of
sleep a night, some people do well with less, and some need more.

Insomnia occurs most frequently in people over the age of 60, in people with a history of
depression, and in women, especially after the menopause. Severe emotional trauma can also
cause insomnia, with divorced, widowed and separated people being the most likely to suffer
from this sleep disorder. An irregular work schedule, jet lag or brain damage from a stroke or
Alzheimer’s disease can also cause insomnia as can excessive use of alcohol or illicit drugs.
However, stress, anxiety, illness and other disorders such as restless legs syndrome are the
most common causes of insomnia.

The mechanism that induces sleep and the reason why sleep is necessary for good health and
efficient mental functioning is not fully understood. We do know that sleep consists of two
very different states: rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and non-REM sleep. In REM sleep,
dreams occur, the eyes move under the closed lids and there is an increase in oxygen
consumption, blood flow and neural activity. REM sleep occurs four or five times during a
night. Beginning periods last about 10 to 15 minutes but the periods get longer as the night
goes on. These interludes alternate with longer periods of non-REM sleep, when body
functions slow down. Non-REM sleep has four stages. During the deepest stages (3 and 4) it
is hard to rouse a sleeper. As the night goes on, the periods of non-REM sleep become
progressively lighter. Sleep in stages 1 and 2 is felt to be restorative, as during this time the
body repairs itself, utilising a hormone called “somatostatin”.

Researchers and healthcare providers define insomnia in several ways. One way is to
categorise insomnia by how often it occurs. Another way is to identify the insomnia by what
is causing the sleep deprivation. The two main types of insomnia have been described as
“primary insomnia” and “secondary insomnia”. Primary insomnia is a chronic condition with
little apparent association with stress or a medical problem. The most common form of
primary insomnia is psychophysiological insomnia. Secondary insomnia is caused by
symptoms that accompany a medical condition such as anxiety, depression or pain.

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Improving one’s sleep hygiene helps improve insomnia in all patients. Relaxing during the
hour before you go to sleep and creating a comfortable environment suited for sleep can be
helpful. Older people who wake up earlier than normal or have trouble falling asleep may
need less sleep than they used to. Changing one’s sleep pattern, either by going to bed later or
waking up earlier, can be effective in dealing with insomnia in older people. Therapy also
depends on the cause and severity of the insomnia. Transient and intermittent insomnia may
not require any direct action since these conditions last only a few days at a time. However, if
insomnia interferes with a person’s daily activities, something should be done. Usually the
best method of dealing with insomnia is by attacking the underlying cause. For example,
people who are depressed often have insomnia and working on this problem may eliminate
the sleeping difficulties.

Not getting enough sleep can make you less productive, irritable and unable to concentrate.
Lack of sleep can make it seem as if you “got out of the wrong side of bed". Waking up with a
headache or feeling as if you never went to sleep can result in frustration. Stress can cause
insomnia but insomnia also increases stress. Insomnia can make driving unsafe and can cause
you to become less productive at work. It may leave you feeling as if you just can’t get
enough done. Insomnia can also mask serious mental disorders. People with insomnia may
think that not getting enough sleep is their only problem, but the insomnia may actually be
one symptom of a larger disorder, such as depression. Studies show that people with insomnia
are four times more likely to be depressed than people with a healthy sleeping pattern. In
addition, lack of sleep can tax the heart and lead to serious conditions like heart disease

Establishing certain set routines can help insomniacs get better sleep. Examples of these
routines include: going to bed and getting up at the same time every day, avoiding naps,
avoiding caffeine, nicotine, alcohol and eating heavily late in the day, exercising regularly and
making your bedroom comfortable in terms of the bed, noise and temperature. Insomniacs
should also only use their bedroom for sleep so that their bodies associate the room with
sleep. Finally, if you can’t get to sleep, don’t toss and turn all night. Get up and read or do
something that is not overly stimulating until you feel really sleepy again.

Questions 1 - 6
Reading Passage 1, Insomnia - The Enemy of Sleep, has seven paragraphs, A - G.
From the list of headings below, choose the most suitable ones for each paragraph, B - G.
Write the appropriate number (i - xi) in answer boxes 1 - 6.
NB There are more headings than paragraphs, so you will not use them all.

Example Answer

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 Paragraph A iv

1 Paragraph B

2 Paragraph C

3 Paragraph D

4 Paragraph E

5 Paragraph F

6 Paragraph G

i Normal Sleep Patterns

ii What Medication is Available?

iii Habits to Promote a Good Night’s Sleep

iv What is Insomnia?

v Complications for Insomniacs

vi Government Action

vii When Should Insomnia be Treated?

viii The Roots of Insomnia

ix Classes of Insomnia

Questions 7 - 14
Do the statements below (questions 7 - 14) agree with the claims of the writer of Reading
Passage 1, Insomnia - The Enemy of Sleep?
In answer boxes 7 - 14, write:
YES if the statement agrees with the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the writer
NOT if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
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GIVEN
7 Someone who only gets four hours of sleep a night must be suffering from

insomnia.

8 Flying over long distances can cause insomnia.

9 REM sleep is thought to be the most important for the body’s rest.

10 Secondary insomnia is far more common than primary insomnia.

11 Some sufferers of chronic insomnia may find changing the hours they sleep

helpful.

12 Many people who suffer from insomnia don’t realise that they suffer from it.

13 There is no correlation linking insomnia and depression.

14 Sleeping during the day can make insomnia worse.

READING PASSAGE 2
Pollution in the Oceans

Everybody uses the sea directly or indirectly as a rubbish bin. Most of the substances thrown
into the sea cannot be reused or broken down by nature and they cause soiling, destruction
and death to the sea’s inhabitants. The marine protection organisation, Oceana, estimates that
worldwide about 680 tonnes of waste are thrown directly into the oceans every hour, and
more than half of this waste is made of plastic.

Between Hawaii and California, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an accumulation of small
floating plastic pieces derived from bottle caps, carrier bags, fishing nets and so on, covers an
area of the ocean’s surface as big as Western Europe. Due to its constant growth, the exact
size of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is unknown. The garbage patch developed in this area
because of the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, one of many oceanic gyres created by a
convergence of ocean currents and wind. As the currents meet, the earth’s coriolis effect
causes the water to slowly rotate, acting like a funnel that pulls together any rubbish that is
floating in the water. The existence of a garbage patch was predicted in 1988 by the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), but it was not officially discovered until
1997, because of its remote location and harsh conditions for navigation. The North Pacific

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gyre is one of five major ocean gyres, and it is likely that this trash vortex problem is present
in other oceans as well.

Plastics can soak up and concentrate damaging pollutants, known as persistent organic
pollutants (POPs), chemicals that can cause different cancers, increased infertility and brain
and nervous system abnormalities. Any organism eating pieces of plastic debris will also take
in these highly toxic pollutants. This leads to biomagnification, whereby the concentration of
POPs increases greatly at every step in the food chain, and top predators end up with
extremely high levels. Killer whales, for example, acquire the lifetime accumulation of POPs
of the animals they eat. These toxins are also passed from female to calf during gestation and
nursing.

In addition to these hazards, the floating plastics can also affect marine ecosystems by
providing a ready surface for organisms to live on. These plants and animals can then be
transported on the plastic far outside their normal environments, populating new ones and
becoming possible nuisance species by interfering with the food chains or breeding pools in
these new ecosystems.

Not all plastic floats; approximately 70 per cent of discarded plastic sinks to the bottom. In the
North Sea, Dutch scientists have counted around 110 pieces of litter for every square
kilometre of the seabed, which represents a staggering 600,000 tonnes in the North Sea alone.
These plastics can smother the sea bottom and kill the marine life that is found there. A lot of
this underwater rubbish comes from rivers, which also carry the rubbish underwater and is
therefore unseen. The UK’s River Thames, for example, has recently undergone an
experiment. Scientists used crab nets to catch underwater rubbish and retrieved more than
8,000 pieces of plastic over 3 months. All this rubbish would have ended up in the North Sea.

The idea of sea water rubbish processors being placed in the ocean to gather trash is currently
under development. The processors would float on the surface of oceans and use long arms,
known as "booms", to divert rubbish into the main body of the processor where small pieces
of plastic debris would be filtered out of the water. The use of booms rather than net meshes
would mean that even the smallest particles would be diverted and extracted, but virtually no
by-catch would occur. The platforms would be completely self-supporting, receiving their
energy from the sun, currents and waves. According to the inventor, reprocessing and selling
the plastic retrieved by rubbish processors from the world’s gyres could potentially even be
profitable.

Many campaigners against marine debris are sceptical about this suggestion, however. They
point out that the size of the world’s oceans is so vast and the scope of the plastic trash
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problem so great that, even if they worked efficiently, processors of this type would have a
negligible effect on the amount of trash in the oceans. What’s more, the sceptics say that
recycled ocean plastic waste has very little commercial value, as it requires cleaning to
remove sea life and toxins before it can be used. They also assert that it is extremely brittle,
making it unsuitable for many of the purposes for which plastic is normally used.

Environmentalists like these believe that ocean clean-up solutions are pointless and futile and
that the answer to the problem lies in prevention rather than cure. At a personal level,
everyone can contribute by avoiding plastics in the things they buy and by disposing of their
plastic waste responsibly. Publicity campaigns can make ship owners and operators, offshore
platforms and fishing boat operators more aware of the consequences of the irresponsible
disposal of plastic items at sea. Furthermore, by signing petitions, contributing to
environmental organisations, taking part in beach clean-ups and exerting pressure on locally
elected officials, members of the public can make their concerns known and contribute to the
goal of preventing plastic waste ever reaching the sea.

Questions 15 - 21
Reading Passage 2, Pollution in the Oceans, has eight paragraphs (A - H).
Which paragraph contains the information below?
Write the correct letter, A - H, in answer boxes 15 - 21.
NB You can use any letter more than once.

15 Food poisoning in marine animals

16 Renewable energy powering marine rubbish collectors.

17 The public's role in marine pollution solutions.

18 The ineffectiveness of marine rubbish collectors.

19 Problematic travel area for ships.

20 Negative effect on breeding in marine organisms.

21 The spreading of species to new areas of the ocean.

Questions 22 - 24
Complete each sentence with the correct ending.
Choose from the list, A - D, below.
Write the appropriate letters, A - D, in answer boxes 22 - 24.
22 Oceana has claimed that more than 50 per cent of all marine rubbish …

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 A ... originates in the United States.

B ... is plastic.

C ... ends up in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

D ... comes from ships.

23 People do not know how big the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is because …

A ... the research to determine this would be too expensive.

B ... its exact location is not known.

C ... it is continually expanding.

D ... the earth’s coriolis effect makes the water move.

24 Scientists have recently discovered that rubbish in the River Thames …

A ... travels downstream below the surface of the river.

B ... has damaged the river’s crab stocks.

C ... is now always caught by nets before it reaches the open sea.

D ... is responsible for the majority of marine pollution in the North Sea.

Questions 25 - 27
Do the statements below (questions 25 - 27) agree with the information given in Reading
Passage 2, Pollution in the Oceans?
In answer boxes 25 - 27, write:
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

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FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT
if there is no information on this in the reading passage
GIVEN
25 The person who came up with the idea for the sea water rubbish processors believes that

sales of his machine could be profitable.

26 Critics of marine clean-up operations claim that plastic recovered from the oceans is not

appropriate for recycling.

27 Many campaigners believe that the most effective solution to marine pollution is to deal

with plastic waste on land.

READING PASSAGE 3

Alternative Farming Methods in Oregon

Onion growers in eastern Oregon are adopting a system that saves water and keeps topsoil in
place, while producing the highest quality “super colossal” onions. Pear growers in southern
Oregon have reduced their use of some of the most toxic pesticides by up to two-thirds, and
are still producing top-quality pears. Range managers throughout the state have controlled the
poisonous weed, tansy ragwort, with insect predators and saved the Oregon livestock industry
up to $4.8 million a year.

These are some of the results Oregon growers have achieved in collaboration with Oregon
State University (OSU) researchers as they test new farming methods including Integrated
Pest Management (IPM). Nationwide, however, IPM has not delivered results comparable to
those in Oregon. A recent US General Accounting Office (GAO) report indicates that while
Integrated Pest Management can result in dramatically reduced pesticide use, the federal
government has been lacking in effectively promoting that goal and implementing IPM.
Farmers also blame the government for not making the new options of pest management
attractive. “Wholesale changes in the way that farmers control the pests on their farms is an
expensive business,” Tony Brown, of the National Farmers Association says. “If the farmers
are given tax breaks to offset the expenditure, then they would willingly accept the new
practices.” The report goes on to note that even though the use of the riskiest pesticides has
declined nationwide, they still make up more than 40 per cent of all pesticides used today; and
national pesticide use has risen by 40 million kilograms since 1992. “Our food supply remains
the safest and highest quality on Earth but we continue to overdose our farmland with
powerful and toxic pesticides and to underuse the safe and effective alternatives,” charges
Patrick Leahy, who commissioned the report. Green action groups disagree about the safety
issue. “There is no way that habitual consumption of foodstuffs grown using toxic chemicals
of the nature found on today’s farms can be healthy for consumers,” notes Bill Bowler,
spokesman for Green Action, one of many lobbyists interested in this issue.

The GAO report singles out Oregon’s apple and pear producers who have used the new IPM
techniques with growing success. Although Oregon is clearly ahead of the nation, scientists at
OSU are taking the Government Accounting Office criticisms seriously. “We must continue
to develop effective alternative practices that will reduce environmental hazards and produce
high-quality products,” says Paul Jepson, a professor of entomology at OSU and new director
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of OSU’s Integrated Plant Protection Center (IPPC). The IPPC brings together scientists from
OSU’s Agricultural Experiment Station, OSU Extension service, the US Department of
Agriculture and Oregon farmers to help develop agricultural systems that will save water and
soil, and reduce pesticides. In response to the GAO report, the Center is putting even more
emphasis on integrating research and farming practices to improve Oregon agriculture
environmentally and economically.

“The GAO report criticises agencies for not clearly communicating the goals of IPM,” says
Jepson. “Our challenge is to greatly improve the communication to and from growers, to learn
what works and what doesn’t. The work coming from OSU researchers must be adopted in
the field and not simply languish in scientific journals.”

In Oregon, growers and scientists are working together to instigate new practices. For
example, a few years ago scientists at OSU’s Malheur Experiment Station began testing a new
drip irrigation system to replace old ditches that wasted water and washed soil and fertiliser
into streams. The new system cut water and fertiliser use by half, kept topsoil in place and
protected water quality. In addition, the new system produced crops of very large onions,
rated “super colossal” and highly valued by the restaurant industry and food processors. Art
Pimms, one of the researchers at Malheur comments: “Growers are finding that when they
adopt more environmentally benign practices, they can have excellent results. The new
practices benefit the environment and give the growers their success.”

OSU researchers in Malheur next tested straw mulch and found that it successfully held soil in
place and kept the ground moist with less irrigation. In addition, and unexpectedly, the
scientists found that the mulched soil created a home for beneficial beetles and spiders that
prey on onion thrips – a notorious pest in commercial onion fields – a discovery that could
reduce the need for pesticides. “I would never have believed that we could replace the
artificial pest controls that we had before and still keep our good results,” comments Steve
Black, a commercial onion farmer in Oregon, “but instead we have actually surpassed
expectations.”

OSU researchers throughout the state have been working to reduce dependence on broad-
spectrum chemical sprays that are toxic to many kinds of organisms, including humans.
“Consumers are rightly putting more and more pressure on the industry to change its reliance
on chemical pesticides, but they still want a picture-perfect product,” says Rick Hilton,
entomologist at OSU’s Southern Oregon Research and Extension Center, where researchers
help pear growers reduce the need for highly toxic pesticides. Picture-perfect pears are an
important product in Oregon, and traditionally they have required lots of chemicals. In recent
years, the industry has faced stiff competition from overseas producers, so any new methods
that growers adopt must make sense economically as well as environmentally. Hilton is
testing a growth regulator that interferes with the molting of codling moth larvae. Another
study used pheromone dispensers to disrupt codling moth mating. These and other methods of
Integrated Pest Management have allowed pear growers to reduce their use of
organophosphates by two-thirds and reduce all other synthetic pesticides by even more and
still produce top-quality pears. These and other studies around the state are part of the effort
of the IPPC to find alternative farming practices that benefit both the economy and the
environment.

Questions 28 - 35

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Look at statements 28 - 35 and the list of people below. Match each statement with the correct
person. Write the appropriate initials of the people in answer boxes 28 - 35.

28 There is a double advantage to the new techniques.

29 Expectations of end-users of agricultural goods affect the products.

30 The work on developing these alternative techniques is not finished.

31 Eating food that has had chemicals used in its production is dangerous to our

health.

32 Changing current farming methods is not a cheap process.

33 Results have exceeded anticipations.

34 The research done should be translated into practical projects.

35 The US produces the best food in the world.

TB Tony Brown

PL Patrick Leahy

BB Bill Bowler

PJ Paul Jepson

AP Art Pimms

SB Steve Black

RH Rick Hilton

Questions 36 - 40
Do the statements below (questions 36 - 40) agree with the information given in Reading
Passage 3, Alternative Farming Methods in Oregon?
In answer boxes 36 - 40, write:
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT
if there is no information on this in the reading passage
GIVEN

36 Integrated Pest Management has generally been regarded as a success in the US.

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37 Oregon farmers of apples and pears have been promoted as successful examples of

Integrated Pest Management.

38 The IPPC uses scientists from different organisations.

39 Straw mulch experiments produced unplanned benefits.

40 The apple industry is now facing a lot of competition from abroad.

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