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PART 2
1

FLUTTERING DOWN TO MEXICO

Sara Evans is enchanted by the millions of butterflies that migrate to the Sierra Madra mountains
for the winter.
As golden light filters through the trees, slumbering butterflies begin to wake. Amber wings
unfold and lift delicate bodies into the warm Mexican air. Gentle as wood smoke rising, butterfly
after butterfly leaves the safety of oaks and fir trees, until the air fills with millions of them.
1: ______________
They are just some of the nearly 250 million or so Monarch butterflies that overwinter here in the
Sierra Madra mountains, in the highlands of central Mexico. Every November, this particular
patch of mountainside forest in Mexico State, 130 miles north of Mexico City, becomes a
temporary retreat for Monarchs escaping the colder faraway climes of Eastern Canada and the US.
Their journey here is nothing short of fabulous.
2: ______________
Our journey here has been less epic. On horseback, it has taken half an hour or so to reach the
butterflies. At 12,000 ft, their roosting site lines a steep, tree-filled gully. We pause by the side of
it to get a closer view. 'There are butterflies everywhere. From trunk bottom to the highest branch,
the trees are coated in them. Boughs bend under their weight and sway softly in the breeze. The
purple petals of wild lupins turn orange as butterflies smother them in search of nectar. Around
pools on the ground, huge clusters of thirsty Monarchs make a fluttering carpet of wings as they
drink.
3: ______________
The Aztecs once believed that Monarchs were the souls of warrior ancestors migrating through
the forests on their way to the land of the dead. For centuries, local people have welcomed the
arrival of the butterflies in early winter, holding special celebrations in their honour.
4: ______________
En route, generations of Monarchs mate, hatch and die. The ones that reach the US and Canada
are fourth generation the great grandchildren of those that left Mexico. These fourth-generation
Monarchs then fly back to Mexico in one go, somehow finding their way here and tripling their
lifespan as they do so. How and why this happens remains a mystery. What is known, though, is
that this unique migration is not invincible. While the Monarch butterfly itself is not endangered
(populations thrive elsewhere around the world), this migration route is.
5: ______________
This is why this pocket of forest was given UNESCO World Heritage Site status in 2008. Logging
is banned here and the butterflies are officially protected. Comprising more than 58,000 hectares,
the Reserve – known as the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve – is divided into five main
areas, four of which are open to the public.
6: ______________
Stretching out their evergreen branches to the millions of butterflies that flutter around them, these
trees are butterfly guardians, keeping the Monarchs warm and safe until they fly north on the start
of one of the Earth's most complex and beautiful migrations a journey that continues to mystify
scientists and bewitch those of us fortunate enough to witness it.
2

A. Much of this is down to deforestation. Quite simply, as trees tumble, so does the number of
Monarchs. Without the warmth and protection of the trees, butterflies that have flown thousands
of miles to avoid the ravages of northern winters find themselves folding cold wings, like icy
shrouds, over their tiny bodies. They freeze to death overnight.
B. It is also possible to walk or hike up to see the butterflies. Paths are well-defined, but the hour-
long journey can be arduous and is at altitude, so a reasonable level of fitness is required. The best
time to visit is in February, when the butterflies are at their most active.
C. Fed and watered, they sky dance. Tangerine bright, they fly through the gully riding the
thermals, flitting between branches and sunbeams. Moving through dappled sunlight in their
millions, the Monarchs cast a nectar- fuelled spell that turns the forest into a bedazzling butterfly
kingdom.
D. Moving closer to the sun, these creatures – a deep orange filigreed with bold black markings –
look like vast stained-glass windows and block out the blue of the sky. As the butterflies dip and
soar, the sound of this mass of insects in motion rumbles like a distant waterfall.
E. I'm in the newest of these, El Capulin, which is the least visited and the least affected by illegal
tree-cutting. The forest here thrives. Fir trees in their thousands stand tall and solid against a
bright sky.
F. But it was only in the 1970s that scientists discovered that it was to this remote mountainside
that the Monarchs leaving North America were headed each autumn. Later research also revealed
that the Monarchs arriving back in North America, in March, are not the ones that overwinter
here.
G. Fluttering, dipping and soaring for over 3,000 miles at around seven and a half miles an hour,
the butterflies span a continent – passing over the Great Lakes, prairies, deserts, mountain ranges,
cities and motorways to get to this place. Surviving storms and burning sunshine, these fragile
creatures are the stars of one of the world's most dazzling migration spectacles.
3

THE 'BRITAIN IN BLOOM' COMPETITION

Every year, more than 1,000 towns and villages across Britain are in fierce competition to reap the
benefit of the Britain in Bloom awards. William Langley reports.
Another town, another riot of begonias, hollyhocks and lupins. Cruising down streets thick with
hanging baskets, planted tubs and flower-filled horse troughs, Jim Buttress, the Head Judge of the
annual Britain in Bloom competition, needs no reminding that his verdict can make or break the
place where you live. A nod from Jim can raise house prices, attract businesses, bring in tourists
and secure council grants. Towns will do a lot to please him.
1: ______________
From barely noticed beginnings nearly half a century ago, Britain in Bloom has become a cultural
phenomenon, stoking passions and rivalries that are changing the way the country looks and, as a
consequence, refashioning our sense of what makes a place appear attractive. More than 1,000
towns, villages and cities now enter and the event has grown into the most fiercely contested of its
kind in the world. Last week, the judging entered its tense final stages and Jim was weighing up
the contenders for the biggest prize of all, the Champion of Champions trophy. In the early days,
according to Jim, winning depended more or less on how many flowers you could plant and how
much colour you could create.
2: ______________
The competition's influence extends far beyond the committees that enter it. Extravagant
manifestations of floweriness have become a part of the country's visual texture. Traffic
roundabouts have been turned into giant bouquets; ornamental gardens are springing up in
industrial wastelands. Hanging baskets were relatively rare in Britain until the competition began.
Now it's hard to find a high street in the country that isn't awash with them.
3: ______________
The competition's defenders consider such criticisms over the top or, at least, out of date. Since
2001, it has been run by the Royal Horticultural Society, with the aim of supporting
'environmentally sustainable, socially responsible, community-based' programmes. The old tricks
of concealing urban grime beneath forests of fuchsias or creating rustic pastiches in built- up
suburbs no longer work.
4: ______________
However badly these developments go down with the traditionalist element, the competition has
become too important for many communities to ignore. A spokesman in Stockton-on-Tees, which
won the Champion City award three years ago, says: 'Say you're a business trying to recruit staff
and your town's won Britain in Bloom. It's very helpful in image terms. It makes people feel
happier about living here.'
5: ______________
With so much at stake, the competitive tempo of Britain in Bloom has risen to a point that has
started to cause alarm. Tales of dirty tricks abound. Recently, the village of Cayton, winner of
several prizes, awoke to find that a mystery attacker had destroyed its prized flower beds. Jealous
local rivals were rumoured to be responsible, though nothing has been proved. Some years earlier,
in one village a water bowser used for irrigation was spiked with toxic chemicals.
6: ______________
Last week found Jim on his final tour before the results are announced in a month's time. 'It's been
great,' he says. "You see a lot of things when you do this job, and what I've seen most of all is
pride.'
4

A. This is because, over the past decade, the judging criteria have been subtly changed. They now
take into account 'conservation and biodiversity', recycling and limiting demand on natural
resources' and 'community awareness and understanding'.
B. It's not always like that, however, says Jim. 'I arrived somewhere on the train once, and there
were flowers planted all around the station. It looked fantastic. When I got in the taxi, the driver
said: "I don't know where all these flowers came from, they weren't here yesterday."'
C. 'Some of this is exaggerated,' says Jim. 'There are rivalries, but there's a good spirit too. The
competition brings out the best in communities. Go to places where there's poverty, vandalism,
drugs, and you will see people working together, trying to make their surroundings look better.'
D. Sometimes too much. One hired a stretch limousine to ferry him around in luxury. 'The thing
had blacked-out windows,' he huffs. I couldn't see a thing.'
E. Not everyone is thrilled, though. In a celebrated attack some years ago, the eminent historian
and gardener Roy String accused Britain in Bloom of burying the country beneath an avalanche of
flowers, which, he claimed, was destroying the character of otherwise perfectly attractive
communities.
F. Aberdeen, long wreathed in a reputation for charmlessness, has invested a great deal of money
in reviving its image through the competition. Four years ago, it was awarded a gold award and a
citation that described it as 'providing an outstanding combination of floral displays, wonderful
trees, and numerous lovely parks'. Once known as the Granite City, the tourist-hungry city now
styles itself the 'City of Roses'.
G. 'But it's much more sophisticated, much more competitive now,' he says. 'People are in this
thing to win it. There's a lot at stake. That sign on the way into town that says "Britain in Bloom
Winner" is a real asset.'
5

PUBLISHING'S NATURAL PHENOMENON

The 'Collins New Naturalist' series is as famous for its covers as its content. Peter Marren looks at
how the unique jackets have taken on a life of their own.
They fill a large bookcase like a paper rainbow. The Collins New Naturalist series (or 'library', as
its editors prefer) has been a publishing phenomenon for many decades. It has rolled on, in fits
and starts, from the late 1940s and is currently enjoying a sprint, with four new titles in the past
12 months. Numbering 111 books in all, and with plenty more in the pipeline, the New Naturalist
is probably the longest running specialist series in the world. What is its secret?
1: ______________
There is nothing quite like them. From the start, they were based not on strictly natural
photography but on lithographic prints. The artists preferred bold, simplified forms that were
symbolic rather than strictly illustrative.
2: ______________
These quirky designs were the work of Clifford and Rosemary Ellis, a husband-and-wife artistic
partnership who normally signed their work with a cipher: 'C&RE'. They generally used a limited
palette of colours broadened by printing one on top of another. Both were well-versed In animal
drawing, in Rosemary's case from sketching livestock on the farm where she lived as a girl, in
Clifford's from studying animals at the London Zoo.
3: ______________
But the technology for producing those in colour was in its infancy in the 1940s and the available
stock was unimpressive. Instead, with the tacit support of William Collins, the Ellises were
commissioned to produce a jacket for the first title, Butterflies. Collins liked it. The books'
scientific editors, led by James Fisher and Julian Huxley, did not. But, since the jacket was part of
the sales process, not the science, Collins had his way. The Ellises then produced a common
design for every book in the series.
4: ______________
They were seen to best advantage when the books were displayed together in the shop, becoming
ever more eye- catching as the series took off during the late 1940s and 1950s. The jackets were
printed by lithography in three or four colours on expensive art paper. Initially, the artist's life-
size sketch was transferred to the printing plate with great skill by artisan printers in London.
5: ______________
The jackets effectively became an extended work of art, until the Ellises had completed 70
designs (plus 22 more for the series of single-species monographs). Their last one was published
the year Clifford Ellis died, in 1985. Fortunately, his shoes were filled by Robert Gillmor, the
highly acclaimed bird artist, who since then has produced dazzling jackets to the same overall
design. Originally printed by lithography, Gillmor's designs are now based on linocuts, and they
evoke the contents of the book as well as ever. To celebrate these unique jackets, Collins
commissioned Gillmor and me to write a book discussing each design, one by one.
6: ______________
Our book, Art of the New Naturalists, has now been published. We hope people agree that it
commemorates something special: commercial art inspired by natural forms, a riotous dance of
biodiversity and imagination.
6

A. Later, an even more demanding production method was devised, which separated out each
colour for combining on the press. Great trouble was taken to get each one exactly right, and
every design was the product of many weeks of sketching and colour trials.
B. For example, the jacket of The Sea Shore shows a broken crab's claw resting on the beach;
nothing more. The fox on the jacket of British Mammals is a green-eyed blur, and the eye of the
rabbit it is stalking is repeated three times on the spine.
C. In the process, some buried treasures came to light. These included the original artwork, long
lost to sight in a warehouse, preparatory sketches and discarded alternate designs. There was even
artwork for books that never were; striking jackets for the unpublished Bogs and Fens, The Fox
and the intriguingly titled Ponds, Pools and Puddles.
D. This had the title printed on a broad band of colour (at first in handcrafted letters) and the
book's number in the series at the top of the spine. A specially designed colophon with two
conjoined 'N's smuggled itself inside an oval at the bottom.
E. Partly it was, and is, its scientific quality. The series is at the high end of popular natural
history, unafraid to tackle difficult cutting-edge science. These books are also collector's items.
And the reason they are collected is their jackets.
F. The proof of this is that the cover illustrations have become iconic. They have given the books
a highly distinctive style that has inspired nature enthusiasts for many decades and they have
helped to make the books become highly collectible.
G. They came to the series largely by chance. The original plan had been to wrap the books in
photographic jackets, in keeping with the publisher's intention to 'foster the natural pride of the
British public in their native fauna and flora'.
7

THE BIRTH OF CORONATION STREET

Scriptwriter Daran Little has dramatised the beginnings of the first British soap. He explains how
sneers came before success.
I was 21 and fresh from university when I started work as an archivist on Coronation Street. My
role was pretty simple: I had to memorise everything that had ever happened in the show and so
help the writers with character histories.
1: ______________
Now my own dramatised version of how it all began, The Road to Coronation Street, is about to
go on air. I moved on to become a writer on the show in the early 2000s. But those early black
and white episodes will always be close to my heart, and so will the genius who created the show.
2: ______________
Last summer, I was sitting and chatting with colleagues about the latest plot twist in Coronation
Street. While I was doing that, I suddenly realised what a compelling piece of television drama
the creation of the programme itself would make.
3: ______________
Tony Warren was a one-time child actor with a passion for writing who turned up at the infant
Granada Television with a vision for a new form of story-telling – a show about ordinary people
and their everyday lives. It had never been done before.
4: ______________
It was that Granada had a condition, as part of its franchise, to create locally sourced programmes,
an obligation it was not meeting at that time. One of the owners, Sidney Bernstein, was a
showman who loved the entertainment business and was keen to develop it. He created Granada
television in 1956 and shortly afterwards employed a Canadian producer, Harry Elton, to help
nurture talent. It was Elton who employed Tony Warren, and it was these two men who would
eventually change the face of British television.
5: ______________
It should have ended there. A script written and discarded by a broadcaster, Warren and Elton
should have drowned their sorrows and moved on to the next project. But they didn't; they fought
to change the bosses' minds. The Road to Coronation Street tells the story of how, against all the
odds, a television phenomenon was born, and how a group of unknown actors became the first
superstars of British television drama. On December 9, 1960, Coronation Street was first
broadcast. With minutes to go before transmission, Warren was feeling sick, one of the lead actors
was missing, and so was the cat for the opening shot.
6: ______________
It's a story I'm proud to have brought to the screen.
8

A. Luckily, I wasn't the only one to be persuaded of this, and within a fortnight I had been
commissioned to write a script. In a world of prolonged commissioning debates, this was highly
unusual – but then the story of Coronation Street is also highly unusual.
B. At that point, its creator Tony Warren had given it the title Florizel Street. The first episode was
broadcast live and it was envisaged that there would be just 13 episodes of the show.
C. Half a century later, that inauspicious beginning is a far cry from the ongoing success of one of
Britain's most-watched soaps. My drama is more than a celebration of that event, it's a story of
taking chances, believing in talent and following a dream.
D. I first met that person, Tony Warren, as a student, after I wrote asking to interview him. We
chatted about the show he had created when he was 23 – a show which broke new ground in
television drama and brought soap opera to British television. I was fascinated by his story, and
have remained so ever since.
E. Tony Warren developed a show set around a Northern back street with a pub on the corner
called the Rovers Return. Its characters were drawn from Warren's past. A script was written and
sent 'upstairs' to management. He was told, in no uncertain terms, that this wasn't television. It had
no drama, the characters were unsympathetic and if it was transmitted, the advertisers would
withdraw their custom.
F. At that stage, Coronation Street had been on air for 28 years and it took me three-and-a-half
years to watch every episode that had been made. That's 14 episodes a day, which means that I
went a bit stir crazy somewhere between 1969 and 1972 and was a gibbering wreck by the time a
lorry crashed in the street in 1979.
G. In fact, no original piece of television featuring regional actors had ever been broadcast.
Television was ruled by Londoners who spoke with rounded vowels. The only Manchester accents
on the screen were employed in a comic context. For broadcasters, the language of the North of
England. didn't translate to television drama. Besides, even if it did, no one in London would be
able to understand it – so what was the point?
9

THE SKY'S THE LIMIT FOR CLOUDWATCHERS

Christopher Middleton learns to distinguish an altostratus from a cirrus at Britain's first Cloud
Bar.
High above the Lincolnshire coastline, a swirl of small white clouds moves slowly across a clear
blue sky. In normal circumstances, you'd describe them as wispy and feathery. But because we're
standing on the roof of Britain's first Cloud Bar, and it's decked out with wall charts, we
assembled skygazers can identify the above-mentioned phenomena as Cirrus fibratus. For the
moment anyway, since clouds only live for ten minutes (it says on the chart).
1: ______________
'It's a fantastic idea, this place,' says off-duty fireman Peter Ward, who's brought his young family
here. 'Really inspiring.'
2: ______________
At the last count, membership of the Cloud Appreciation Society stood at 23,066, covering 82
nations and all kinds of skywatchers from hillwalkers to airline pilots. We think that clouds are
nature's poetry,' says the society's founder Gavin Pretor-Pinney, author of The Cloudspotter's
Guide (sales of 200,000 and still rising). 'Clouds are for dreamers and their contemplation benefits
the soul.'
3: ______________
In fact, you don't really need to travel at all to see interesting clouds. You can just lie in your back
garden and look upwards,' he says. For many cloudwatchers, the most important factor is not so
much geographical location, as your philosophical disposition.
4: ______________
'That said, clouds can be tremendously exciting too," he adds. 'The first cloud I noticed was at the
age of four and a half. I saw this magnificent Cumulonimbus with rays of sunshine sprouting out
from behind. Even now, I love to see those towering great formations. In my mind, clouds are the
last great wilderness available to us.'
5: ______________
Cloudspotters in search of similar experiences flock each autumn to North Queensland in
Australia for the tube-shaped phenomenon known as Morning Glory. 'You go up and surf the
wave of air it creates,' says Gavin Pretor-Pinney, whose follow-up book is The Wavewatcher's
Companion. Even more thrilling is to travel through clouds on a hang-glider. The strange thing is,
you put your hand inside a cloud, but although it's wet and chilly, there's no actual substance to
it.'
6: ______________
There's something about clouds which appeals to the soul, Ian Loxley says. "The line I like best is
the one that goes, "Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments
that take your breath away."'
10

A. Gavin Pretor-Pinney explains why this is: 'Because of the stately way in which clouds move
and the gradual rate at which they develop, contemplating them is akin to meditation,' he says.
'The mere act of sitting, watching and observing slows you down to their pace.'
B. Absolutely. And as well as stimulating the imagination, clouds get you out and about. The
keeper of the Society's photo gallery, Ian Loxley, has been on cloud-seeking expeditions in places
as far afield as Cornwall and Canada, though his favourite location is around his home in the
Lincolnshire Wolds.
C. The Cloud Appreciation Society website is full of reports of such encounters. Some, like that
one, are in mid-air at close quarters, while others are miles below on the ground.
D. Alto clouds are a good example, They are primarily made up of water droplets, making them
appear as grey puffy masses. If you see these on a humid summer morning, watch out for a
potential thunderstorm later.
E. Yes, spend an hour here and you become an instant expert on telling your altos (four to six
miles high) from your cumulos (anything lower). As for these, they don't start until eight miles up,
and they're identifiable because of their long, thin, shape (the name in Latin means a strand of
hair).
F. And, like all such places, humans want to explore them. Glider pilot Mike Rubin not only flies
inside clouds but rides on them. You fly underneath, find the thermal lift that is generating this
cloud, and climb up by circling inside it,' he says. 'Use the thermals, and on a good day, you can
travel hundreds of kilometres.'
G. Other beachgoers aren't as convinced that the country has been crying out for a purpose-built
pavilion like this, equipped with adjustable mirrors so that you don't even have to look up at the
sky. But the world's nephelophile community (that's cloud enthusiasts) would beg to differ,
especially now that more changeable autumn weather offers fewer cloudless blue-sky scenarios,
and lots more action of the scudding and billowing kind.
11

THE FIGHT TO SAVE NEW ZEALAND'S GIANT PARROT

For the past 28 years Don Merton has battled to save the kakapo, New Zealand's extraordinary
green parrot. In 1995, when numbers fell to 50, it looked like the end for this bird. But this year
they staged a comeback. The last survivors of this unique species have produced 26 chicks – more
than in the whole of the past two decades. Instead of having no future at all, the kakapo suddenly
has prospects.
1: ______________
Males gather at an arena to compete for females. After mating, the females raise their young
alone. 'The kakapo is important because it has combinations of features found in no other bird,'
says Merton, the longest serving member of the National Kakapo team. Unfortunately, its
peculiarities have also made it vulnerable. Before man arrived, their only enemies were predatory
birds and the kakapo's green plumage provided perfect camouflage against the vegetation.
2: ______________
Then after years of searching, Merton and a team from the New Zealand Wildlife Service
discovered a single bird in a valley in Fjordland in the far south. It was an old male. Search parties
found 17 more – all old males. Three years later, Merton's team finally uncovered signs of kakapo
in the south of New Zealand's Stewart Island. It turned out to be a colony of 200 birds and some
were breeding. 'We thought the kakapo was safe then,' says Merton. They were wrong. Cats were
killing them at an alarming rate.
3: ______________
Merton knew what he had to do. The birds had to breed before it was too late and nothing could
jeopardize this. From now on, the team would manage almost every aspect of kakapo life. They
laid traps for rats and watched nests 24 hours a day. If anything other than a kakapo entered the
nest, a watcher set off a tiny explosive charge that made a small bang, enough to startle intruders.
By 1999, all the kakapo had been successfully moved to two islands – Maud Island, and Codfish
Island, both free of rats.
4: ______________
'The challenge was to work out a diet and persuade them to eat it,' says Merton. The team
eventually found that kakapo were especially partial to nuts. The birds thrived on the extra food,
but still wouldn't breed. They seemed to be waiting for some special cue. On Maud Island it
wasn't clear what that cue was, but on Codfish island there was no doubt that the birds bred in
response to some signal from the rimu tree that alerts them to a coming mast.
5: ______________
Armed with this new knowledge, the team was ready to swing into action as soon as they spotted
signs of masting on Codfish Island. Last year, it became obvious that the rimu were going to
produce a large crop of seeds the next autumn. Merton moved all the adult females to Codfish
Island. As the breeding season drew nearer, the kakapo rescue team arrived with electronic
monitoring equipment, and spent the next months watching nests throughout the long nights.
6: ______________
The result was a large batch of chicks, a remarkable breakthrough, but there are still only 86
kakapo in the world. Do they really have good prospects? Merton is confident they do. 'As long as
we keep using the same techniques, the population will steadily rise,' he says. 'The kakapo won't
be extinct in our lifetime.'
12

A. What followed was an intensive rescue operation. During the following 15 years all the kakapo
were moved to islands free from cats, stoats or possums. 'We thought we'd put them out of reach
of predators,' says Merton. Again they were mistaken. They hadn't realized how dangerous the
rats were. Not only did they compete with kakapo for food, they also ate eggs and chicks. It
finally came to the point where only 50 kakapo remained.
B. In September the team began to put out extra food. 'We provided enough so the birds could
breed but not so much that they'd get fat,' says Merton. 'We wanted to keep their weight down to
encourage them to produce female chicks.' In December the males began their booming noises,
and the females trekked to the courtship areas to choose a mate, unaware that electronic eyes were
watching them.
C. The kakapo is nocturnal, looks like an owl, smells sweet and makes some very odd noises –
from growls to deep resonant booms. Kakapo can't fly, but they are excellent climbers. They live a
very long time and are the world's biggest parrots. The kakapo also has a unique breeding system.
D. Persuading the birds to breed was the next harder step as this only occurs when certain plants
produce large crops of fruit and seeds, an event known as masting. At other times, the birds
manage on very little. It's enough to support their metabolism, but not enough to raise a family. In
the past, the kakapo from Fjordland and Stewart Island bred in response to masting by a range of
plants including rimu trees. The team hoped with extra food the birds might breed.
E. Merton estimates this could take at least 15 years, less if they can trick the birds into breeding
more often. 'We're looking for whatever it is in rimu that triggers breeding. It's probably
chemical,' says Merton. 'Or it might be nutritional.' The team is currently testing an improved food
pellet to see if that works.
F. There was nothing the team could do but patiently wait for nature to take its course. They
continued with the food programme to ensure the females were in top condition and monitored
the males to keep an eye on their numbers. The population remained stable but the team
recognized the fact that it was only the rimu tree that would turn things around.
G. Once man arrived, bringing with him not only his dogs but rats that could sniff out nests, it
was a different story. The rats went for eggs, chicks and even adults. The decline in numbers
accelerated once European settlers arrived. They cleared large areas of kakapo habitat and brought
more predators – cats, rats, stoats, and possums. By the late 1960s the kakapo was feared extinct.
13

THE STORY OF THE LAMB-PLANT

According to a recent survey, 70 percent of ten-year-olds living in Scotland's big cities think that
cotton comes from sheep. It's easy enough to mistake the soft white stuff sold in fluffy balls in
plastic bags at the local chemist's shop or supermarket with the curly stuff on a sheep's back,
especially when the only sheep you've seen are in books or on the TV.
1: ______________
Rumours had first begun to circulate way back in the Middle Ages. The borametz, also known as
the 'lamb-plant', was said to exist in Tartary, a far-away land stretching across Eastern Europe and
Asia. None of those who told the various tales had actually seen it, but they'd always met men
who had.
2: ______________
The man responsible for spreading the story in Britain was John Mandeville, a knight of England
who left home in 1322, and for the next 34 years travelled about the world to many diverse
countries. His account of what he saw was the medieval equivalent of a bestseller, and was
translated into every European language. He wrote that he too had seen a type of fruit that when
opened, proved to contain a small white creature that looked in every way to be a lamb.
3: ______________
This was apparently proof enough for Mandeville and those who passed on the story. With each
telling, the story gained new details and greater credibility. But in the 16th and 17th centuries,
people learned more about the world and its inhabitants. As doubts crept in, more sceptical
travellers set out in search of the mysterious lamb of Tartary.
4: ______________
And so it went on. As soon as anyone voiced doubts, someone else popped up with new 'evidence'
of the lamb's existence. In 1605, Frenchman Claude Duret devoted a whole chapter of a book on
plants to the borametz. But then, 80 years later, the great traveller Engelbrecht Kaempfer went
east looking for it. He found nothing but ordinary sheep. The number of believers was dwindling,
and in London the renowned scientific academy, the Royal Society, decided it was time to 'kill off'
the borametz for good.
5: ______________
This, the Society reckoned, was what had started the ancient rumours. They proclaimed it to be a
'specimen' of a borametz, in fact. Hans Sloane, founder of the British Museum, described the
specimen in a contemporary publication: it was made from the root of a tree fern, had four legs
and a head and seemed to be shaped by nature to imitate a lamb. The four-footed fake also had
'wool' of a dark golden yellow. Despite this discrepancy in the colour of its fleece, the Royal
Society considered the case closed.
6: ______________
The answer was there all along in the writings of ancient travellers. While researching his book
Sea Monsters Unmasked, the observant Henry Lee kept coming across detailed descriptions of
plants that sounded far more like the prototype borametz. The Royal Society, Lee decided, had
failed to spot the obvious connection and had settled for something so unlikely it had to be wrong.
What so many had imagined to be a mythical animal in fact turned out to be ordinary cotton.
14

A. And so it was, more or less, for 180 years. Then a little known naturalist pointed out that their
so-called 'original' lamb-plant was a false clue. There was, however, a plant that had almost
certainly given rise to the notion of the borametz.
B. There's certainly doubt as to whether this was based on first-hand experience, but the
contemporary guidebooks were certainly available. A few years earlier, a monk who came from a
monastery near Padua, wrote that 'there grow fruits, which when they are ripe and open, display a
little beast much like a young lamb'. He claimed he had heard this from reliable sources.
C. The best way, it felt, was by showing people how the idea had begun. It was then lucky enough
to suddenly receive a curious object from China, a sort of toy animal made from a plant with a
few extra bits stuck on to give it a proper number of limbs.
D. In some versions the 'vegetable lambs' were the fruits of a tree that grew from a round seed.
When the fruits ripened, they burst open to reveal tiny lambs with soft white fleeces that the
natives used to make their cloth. In others, the seed gave rise to a white lamb that grew on a stalk
rooted in the ground, and lived by grazing on any plants it could reach.
E. There's less excuse for the generations of explorers, scholars and philosophers who were
perhaps even more naïve. They were all happy to accept the story that the soft fibres from which
eastern people wove fine white cloth came, in fact, from a creature that was half-plant, half-
animal.
F. Distorted descriptions of the cotton plants seen in India preceded the actual plants by many
years. In the meantime, traders brought samples of cotton 'wool' along trade routes that passed
through Tartar lands. To those who had never seen raw cotton, this fine 'Tartar wool' looked like
something that might come from the fleece of a lamb.
G. Still it eluded them, yet most came home convinced that it existed. One of these was a
powerful baron who represented the Holy Roman Empire at the Russian court. The baron had
dismissed the sheep-on-a-stalk as fable until he heard the creature described by a 'person in high
authority' whose father had once been an envoy to the King of Tartary. The story was enough to
convince the baron.
15

MOUNTAIN CHALLENGE
When the Army asked him to go on a climbing mission, Alex Wade said 'Yes, sir!'
I was managing the mountain climb fairly well until we got to the crevasse – a two-metre wide
crack in the ice. 'What do I do with my ice axe?' I yelled. 'Don't worry about it,' the leader of the
expedition, Mark Smyth, shouted back at me. 'Just jump.' I obeyed but with the knowledge that a
tumble on the other, lower, side would result in an express ride to the perilous glacier below. I just
about made it. For an average climber like myself, this seemed more like a military operation!
1: ______________
I had met Mark a year previously on a climb in Russia. He had dropped me a line: 'I'm climbing
Mont Blanc in June. Interested?' I'd had a rough time there on a previous attempt, failing to reach
the summit because of altitude sickness. Here was a chance to try again with a serious
mountaineer. But still, this was a full military expedition, so, technically, I wouldn't be his
responsibility. If I climbed with them, would I be OK? 'Put it this way, I'm not going to let you fall
off,' he said.
2: ______________
As Mark put it, 'Climbing Mont Blanc from this approach is not technically difficult but is never
to be underestimated. The weather can change in minutes, and freezing temperatures and 120kph
winds are common. At over 5000 metres, these extreme conditions test the endurance limit of all
but the hardiest of mountaineers.'
3: ______________
Looks can be deceptive. After a few days' walking to acclimatize to the altitude I was exhausted.
Come the climb itself, we camped on the Col du Midi (3542 metres), having hiked down the
exposed ridge from the cable car station. Everyone was coping fine with the altitude, and the
warm sunlight made Mont Blanc seem harmless. Around 3am the next morning we began the long
slog up Tacul. From the shoulder of Tacul we had a perfect view of the route across the Col du
Mont Maudit. It was on the Col that I had turned back two years ago.
4: ______________
Even digging snow pits for the tents was a real struggle. Teams of two or three dug holes, got their
tents up and got warm. On my own, I was the first to start digging and the last to finish. No one
said much, too exhausted to waste energy on speech.
5: ______________
I couldn't have been more wrong. The descent made everything that had gone before seem easy.
After eventually negotiating the crevasses, we staggered down to just above the glacier – all that
lay between us and safety. The ice on the glacier would be unstable, but there was a chance we
would make it. Then a lump of ice the size of a house crashed to pieces right on our prospective
path.
6: ______________
Sure enough, as I forced my legs to go down the agonizingly steep slope, I slipped. Though I
managed to slam my axe into the ice, I committed the worst crime of failing to secure my feet
before I stood up. I slid further down, ice axe stuck in the snow above me, into the next man on
the rope. Fortunately neither of us slid any further. It was several more hours before we made it
back down but as Mark said 'The aim of the expedition was achieved. Now you know what it's
like to be on a mountain.'
16

A. This time it seemed I was having better luck and the climb went well save for the near- vertical
ice wall which stood before our next brief stop on the Col de la Brenva. We laboured up the wall
and I could scarcely stand by the time we came to camp. By this stage, though, everyone was
suffering and slowing down.
B. It looked like the decision had been made for us. There was no choice but to trudge back up the
mountain and spend the night at the Grands Mulets refuge. Next morning we headed off to re-
attempt our glacier crossing. But it only takes a moment to make a mistake, and they usually
happen when you're tired.
C. I wasn't the only one! Our destination seemed no nearer although we'd been on the move for
hours, and so far, we'd all managed to maintain a reasonable pace. But at this point, we could
hardly turn around and head back. And more than this, I didn't want to let Mark down.
D. Despite that welcome reassurance, I wondered whether I could keep up with the other, very fit
expedition members. I didn't feel too optimistic when I learned of the route – 'The Grand Traverse'
– which takes in two other mountains, Mont Blanc du Tacul and Mont Maudit, and is often done
in a day starting from the Aiguille de Midi cable car station. We would be carrying full rucksacks
with food and equipment for three days.
E. After another early start in temperatures of around -20, we finally made it to the summit. The
wind was now roaring and I could barely see the peaks of the mountains around us. It was a long
way to come for such a poor view but at least the worst was over.
F. To add to my apprehension, it was this same route that had beaten me the last time around. But
after two months of frantic aerobic training since Mark's invitation, there I was, with the army in
Chamonix. They seemed a decent bunch, and didn't appear too fit.
G. But that, however, was exactly what it was. I was the 13th man on an army expedition to climb
Mont Blanc. As Mark said, 'The aim is to put the soldiers into a challenging environment in order
to develop the qualities of team spirit and self-confidence.' A good aim, yes, but the difference
between them and me is that I was the sole civilian.
17

BABY TALK
As much as you may want to believe it, there is no basis to the feeling that your infant is smiling
at you, and smiling because he knows you're his mother. He might look as wise as the ages when
he gazes into your eyes – but face up to the facts. There's nothing in there, unless we count the
blank slate. And don't read too much into his babbling either. He's just learning how to use his
face muscles. That's what my doctor told me when I took my baby for his check-ups. I doubted
this, but I knew science was on her side so I kept my opinion to myself.
1: ______________
This is not just hopeful theorizing. Thanks to new technology that allows scientists to study living
brains, the bank of evidence is growing fast. Another great advance was made last week with the
publication of research by neuroscientist Laura Ann Petitto of Dartmouth College. The aim of the
study was to challenge the traditional understanding of early language development, which holds
that babies must develop motor skills before they can begin to connect sounds to meanings.
2: ______________
They looked at the way babies moved their mouths when babbling (making sounds with a
consonant-vowel repetition) and contrasted this with the movements when they smiled or made
non-babbling noises. They studied five English infants, five French infants and five Spanish to be
sure they weren't studying mouth movements specific to one language.
3: ______________
'The mouth is being carved out depending on the function of what's coming out,' Petitto explains.
'And this function could only occur if different parts of the brain are participating in the control of
different functions.' Her researchers deduced that 'the right side of the face – used for smiling – is
controlled by the left hemisphere of the brain, where the emotional control centres are located.'
But babbling 'is a left-side mouth function and controlled by the right side of the brain-the centre
for speech.'
4: ______________
And that is not all it can do. According to other researchers in the field, babies can 'distinguish
human faces and voices from other sights and sounds and prefer them'. Although they are born
short-sighted, they can see people and items clearly at a distance of about 30 cms. Their
preference for stripes and other patterns shows they are imposing order on their perceptions in
early infancy. Long before they can crawl, they can tell the difference between happy features and
sad features.
5: ______________
They can grasp simple arithmetic by using the same capacity, according to Petitto. 'It is well
established that infants look longer at things that are unexpected or surprising to them. In a recent
study, the researchers built up the expectation that a puppet would jump, say two times.' When the
infants lost interest, they continued to show one group of infants what they had already been
watching. Another group was shown a puppet that jumped three times. Petitto explains, 'The
infants looked longer at the puppet when it jumped three times, showing they had detected the
change in number.
6: ______________
But this is not the end of the story, as the nature side of the nature/nurture divide has claimed for
so long. Despite this standard capacity, babies depend on their vast reserves of innate knowledge
in the way you and I depend on the programs we put into our computers. What matters most is
what we do with these programs, and it's the same with babies. They're born with powerful
18

learning tools that allow them to explore and learn about the world around them. And what they
learn goes on to determine the way their brains are wired, and how they think.

A. 'What this tells us', says Petitto, 'is that language processing starts far earlier than we ever
thought and without much language experience. As young as five months, the brain is already
discriminating between a purely physical response and an oral one.'
B. But they depend on more than innate knowledge and learning abilities. People instinctively
want to help babies learn. A lot of this tuition is, they claim, unconscious and unwilled. The
typical example would be the stern businessman who, if left holding the baby, lapses into baby
talk.
C. The results showed uniformity in all cases. When the babies smiled, they opened the left sides
of their mouths, using more muscles on the left side of the face. When they were making 'non-
babbling' noises they used the middle of the mouth, and when they babbled they pulled down on
the right side of the mouth, using more right-side muscles.
D. Now at last it is science that is having second thoughts. It turns out that babies know a lot more
than our best minds previously suspected. If they smile, it may well be because they recognize
your voice. When they babble, they are probably not speaking nonsense but practising speech.
E. This is borne out by the fact that they can imitate these same expressions, and by the time
they're old enough to pick up a phone they can mimic what they've seen others doing with it. This
means they can learn how to use things just by watching people.
F. So much for the blank slate then. Much of this research would seem to disprove many of our
oldest and fondest assumptions, not just about speech but about how people are like us and how
we are like other people. It appears that our brains all start out with the same approach to learning
and development.
G. Petitto and her team take a different view. 'When a child babbles, it's not just trying to get
control over its facial muscles,' she says. Babies are 'literally trying to say the sounds' they hear,
and trying to make sense of 'the patterns of sounds in the world around them.'
19

TREES AND THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT

Who doesn't like trees? Nobody. Everybody likes trees. But some people really, really like trees.
The staff of an organisation in the UK called The Woodland Trust, for example.
1: ______________
How can this possibly be? Well, unexpected heatwaves can cause serious health problems, the
argument goes, and cities get hotter than rural areas, because buildings retain warmth. But trees
have the opposite effect: while shade from their branches cools people under them, evaporation
from their leaves cools the air around them. Researchers at the UK's Manchester University
estimate that increasing the city's green spaces by ten per cent could bring the city's temperature
down by several degrees. Which might not have the residents of Manchester cheering now, but
once global warming kicks in, they might be a bit more grateful.
2: ______________
For example, The Woodland Trust goes on to argue, albeit in a tone more hopeful than forceful,
'there is strong evidence' that green spaces 'promote inward investment by creating a more
attractive environment for businesses and their staff'. True or not, greenery is certainly good for
city birds and animals.
3: ______________
Given such striking benefits, the trust's report concludes that 'it is vital that the government sets
targets for new woodland'. Really, though? It seems unlikely to become a government priority in
these straitened times, whatever the long-term financial benefits.
4: ______________
All the same, just reading about sitting in the cool shade under a leafy tree seems to be having a
positive effect on my mental health. Stature and beauty alone can be enough to do it.

A. Before that happens, however, they might be pleased to know that the city's rainfall is being
quietly managed by its plant life, which reduces water run-off: research indicates that tree cover in
cities reduces the cost of drainage and other water management issues. And there are other
economic advantages, too.
B. Besides, some of the report's claims are a bit shaky. All but 284 of those who died in the most
recent heatwave were over 75; trees would not have saved most of them for long. And, with press
accounts of aggressive foxes venturing into cities, maybe being kind to urban wildlife isn't as
valued as it might be.
C. Business covered, the report turns back to health issues. Poor air quality shortens 24,000 lives
a year; trees absorb the filth. Without green spaces to walk in, city people get fat, lazy and
stressed; trees help with that, too. There are reports that link greenery with reducing blood
pressure, raising self-esteem and even controlling behavioural problems in children.
D. 'We need more native trees and woods in urban areas,' insists the Trust's report Greening the
Concrete Jungle. Stature and beauty aside, trees have a positive effect on physical and mental
health, they bring financial benefits to the cities where they grow and they are good for urban
wildlife. They can even save lives, possibly.
20

BEAUTIFUL MUSIC MAKES BETTER MATERIALS

The hidden structures of music are universal patterns of nature – and they can help us create new
materials like artificial silk.
Our world consists of only about 100 different chemical elements. It is the arrangement of these
elements, or building blocks, into molecules that gives rise to the rich set of materials around us –
from the sugar molecules in the food we eat to the oxides in the Earth's crust.
1: ______________
The properties of a piece of matter, however, are defined not by these basic building blocks
themselves but by the way they are arranged. For instance, spider silk is one of the most
remarkable examples of nature's materials, created from a simple protein but spun into fibres
stronger than steel.
2: ______________
A composer uses a limited set of tones as the starting point for melodies, which in turn are
arranged into complex structures to create symphonies. Think of an orchestra, where each
instrument plays a relatively simple series of tones. Only when combined do these tones become
the complex sound we call classical music.
3: ______________
Composers have made use of the idea of interconnecting patterns for thousands of years, but only
recently have these systems been understood mathematically. This maths shows that the principles
of musical composition are shared by many seemingly quite different systems in the natural
world.
4: ______________
The problem lies in our ignorance of the ways in which these are arranged. But in fact it is not the
building block itself that is limiting our ability to create better materials, but rather our ignorance
of the way in which these building blocks are arranged. To try to understand this better, scientists
are copying the structure of silk fibres and turning it into musical compositions. This will help
them create artificial materials for medical and engineering applications.
5: ______________
Listening to the music that was produced in this way improved their understanding of the
mechanism by which the patterns of amino acids work together during the silk-spinning process.
The patterns of amino acids that formed silk fibres of poor quality, for example, translated into
music that was aggressive and harsh, while the ones that formed better fibres sounded softer and
more fluid. In future work it is hoped that the design of the silk can be improved by enhancing
those musical qualities that reflect better properties.
6: ______________
Using music as a tool to create better materials and to improve urban living may seem like an
unusual proposal, but when we appreciate that the underlying mathematics of the structure of
music are shared across many fields of study, it begins to make sense. Nature does not distinguish
between what is art and what is material, as all are merely patterns of structure in space and time.
21

A. In essence, a musician's piece is just one example of a system where smaller patterns are found
inside larger ones – similar to the way characters form words, which form sentences, then
chapters and eventually a novel.
B. Using this theory, we can discover universal patterns that form the blueprints of our world. We
may be able to make everything we know – molecules, living tissues, music, the universe – by
applying universal patterns in different physical contexts. For example, a pattern of building
blocks might be represented as music, to create a certain melody, or might be represented as DNA
to create a certain protein.
C. This approach has implications far beyond the design of new materials. In future, it might be
possible to translate melodies to design better sequences of DNA, or even to reinvent
transportation systems for cities.
D. Similarly, in the living world, a limited set of building blocks of DNA and amino acids creates
some of the most remarkable materials we know of, the stuff that builds our bones and skin, and
complex organs such as the brain.
E. In this translation from silk to music, they replaced the protein's building blocks with
corresponding musical building blocks (tones and melody). As the music was played, they could
'hear' the different series of organic compounds they had used, and could then work out how
certain qualities of the material, such as its mechanical strength, appear in musical terms.
F. As we begin to appreciate the importance of such patterns, engineers are applying this
knowledge to the design of synthetic materials. Doing so, they can gain inspiration from a
surprising source: music.
G. Even though nature uses this approach, people have failed to exploit the concept themselves
when it comes to developing new materials. We have created thousands of different materials,
originating from very different sources, such as plastics, metals or ceramics. But it seems we
could benefit considerably from learning more about how nature uses its building blocks.
22

YUKON: CANADA'S WILD WEST

A modern-day minerals rush threatens one of North America's last great wildernesses
Shawn Ryan recalls the hungry years, before his first big strike. The prospector and his family
were living in the Yukon, in a metal shack on the outskirts of Dawson, the Klondike boomtown
that had declined to a ghostly remnant of its glory days. They had less than $300 and no running
water or electricity. One night, as wind sneaked through gaps in the walls, Ryan's wife, Cathy
Wood, worried aloud that they and their two children might even freeze to death.
1: ______________
The minerals rush has reanimated Dawson's bars and hostels, whose facades glow in pastel hues
during midsummer's late-night sunset. The scene could be from more than a century ago, with
bearded men bustling along wooden sidewalks and muddy streets, stopping to chat and trade
rumors of the latest strikes and price spikes.
2: ______________
It's well worth that investment in technology and people. The claim-staking boom may have
cooled since the price of gold has stabilized, but an ongoing high demand for minerals and the
Yukon's industry-friendly regulations continue to attract mining companies from as far away as
China. Shawn Ryan's business is as successful as any of them.
3: ______________
In his small office, radios and bear-spray canisters surround a trio of computer screens atop a
plywood table. A self-taught geologist, Ryan uses the left-hand screen to display the colored maps
he generates from his ever-growing database of soil samples, looking for anomalies that might
betray a hidden body of precious ore. On the center screen, a blue grid overlays a map of the
Yukon, showing the claims he currently owns; since 1996, he and his crews have staked more
than 55,000 claims, enough to cover a landmass larger than Jamaica. Ryan uses the right-side
screen to track his gold-related holdings, which notch up in value whenever an economic jolt
sends investors fleeing to precious metals.
4: ______________
Trish Hume, for example, has expressed concern. Though she is involved in mapping work that's
mining related, she worries that the Yukon is reaching a tipping point where the environmental
and cultural costs of mining outweigh the benefits. "The people coming up and taking out
minerals aren't asking what happens to the animals we hunt, the fish we eat, the topsoil that holds
it all together. And when the boom is over, how does our tiny population afford to clean up the
toxic mess?" The population is small, but the area of the Yukon is enormous.
5: ______________
Walled off by some of the country's highest peaks and largest glaciers, the territory is almost
completely unsettled, its sparse population scattered over a few small communities and the
capital, Whitehorse. It is also rich in wildlife, an Arctic safari park whose extreme seasonal shifts
beckon vast herds of caribou and other animals into motion.
6: ______________
It is crucial that such a remarkable environment, as this clearly is, is not lost forever, destroyed by
the businesses anxious to exploit its mineral wealth for their own ends.
23

A. It is even larger than the state of California, but with only 37,000 inhabitants, it drives an
immense wedge between Alaska and the bulk of Canada. From its north coast, the Yukon stretches
to the south and south-east, taking in tremendous expanses of lake-dotted tundra, forests,
mountains, wetlands, and river systems.
B. At his expanding compound at the edge of town, helicopters thump overhead, fetching GPS-
equipped prospectors to and from remote mountain ridges. Ryan is 50 years old, but he radiates
the eagerness and intensity of a much younger man. "This is the biggest geochemical exploration
project on the planet right now," he says, his grin revealing a couple of missing upper teeth, "and
maybe in history."
C. Today, the couple could buy – and heat – just about any house on Earth. Ryan's discovery of
what would eventually amount to billions of dollars' worth of buried treasure has helped reinfect
the Yukon with gold fever, and fortune seekers have stormed the Canadian territory in numbers
not seen since the 1890s.
D. In contrast, the Yukon's early inhabitants hunted bison, elk, caribou, woolly mammoths,
waterfowl, and fish, and they competed for resources with carnivores such as wolves and
Beringian lions. Due to climate warming and other factors, some of these animals died off. But
others, such as the barren-ground caribou, thrived in such numbers that native peoples adapted
their own movements and lifestyles to the animals' migrations.
E. Such creatures are especially to be found in the Peel watershed, an immense wilderness which
drains an area larger than Scotland. "The Peel watershed is one of the few places left where you
still have large, intact predator-prey ecosystems," says a representative of the Yukon Conservation
Society. "From wolves and grizzlies and eagles on down, it's a wildlife habitat of global
importance."
F. As the material needs of the world's seven billion people continue to grow, the rush to exploit
the Yukon's exceptionally rich resources – gold, zinc, copper, and more – has brought prosperity
to a once forsaken corner of the continent. But the boom has brought to the fore a growing tension
between those who would keep one of North America's last great wildernesses unbroken and
those whose success depends on digging it up.
G. But in other ways, things are different now. During the first Klondike stampede, prospectors
plied nearby creeks with picks and pans and shovels, and a bartender could sweep up a small
fortune in spilled gold dust at the end of a big night. Nowadays, mining's heavy lifting is done by
a mechanized army of bulldozers, drilling rigs, and flown-in workers.
24

IS WORK CHANGING?
Cromford Mill, in the north of England, is now a museum, but when it was constructed in 1771, it
was the site of one of the most influential workplace experiments ever seen. This was where
textile entrepreneur Richard Arkwright set up shop. Cotton-spinning had been a cottage industry,
but at Cromford Mill, spinners from all around came together to use machines provided by
Arkwright. It was the world's first factory, and it was soon followed by many more.
1: ______________
There are good reasons why the model has flourished. Centralising production allowed for
dramatically greater efficiency. And bosses – then as now suspicious that workers were not always
working hard – could keep an eye on them.
2: ______________
Two of the biggest forces changing work and the nature of the company are technology and
demographic shifts. Unskilled work still exists, as does highly skilled work, but the jobs in the
middle have to a large extent been automated or outsourced away. Furthermore, technology has
made the move to an economy based on knowledge, not skills, possible.
3: ______________
As a result of such changes, many of the old certainties are breaking down. You often hear it said
that people used to work for money – very much a hangover from the Industrial Revolution, when
work was viewed as a straight trade of time for money – but now it's claimed that we are more
interested in having rewarding work.
4: ______________
In other words, what we mean by the workplace is changing – it's no longer always a grand (or
otherwise) building with the company's name on top. Increasingly, we can work anywhere – in a
coffee shop or at the kitchen table. The demand that employees work in more flexible ways is
encouraging this trend, with workers (especially younger generations) no longer expecting to be
chained to a desk from nine to five every day.
5: ______________
In a world of decentralised, non-hierarchical organisations, permanent full-time employment
could become the exception. So will the firm of the future be made up of loose groupings of self-
employed people, forming and re-forming on a project-by-project basis? Will workers effectively
be their own chief executives, using technology to sell their skills to the highest bidder and with
little attachment to a place of work, each other or the firms that employ them? It's tempting to
think so, but reality is starting to interfere with this picture.
6: ______________
There is one particular reason why tomorrow might turn out to be not so different from today:
human nature. We are social creatures and tend to be at our best in groups rather than operating
alone. Work is where we bond, gossip, fight, love and hate – in short, it's where we live.
So the prospects for at least some of the familiar aspects of the old Arkwrightian corporate model
may not be quite so bleak as painted. Yes, things are changing, but the advocates of the brave new,
networked world should remember that work is not the only – or, arguably, even the most
important – thing we do when we are at work.
25

A. In addition, we are all living longer and working for longer. In fact, in some countries there are
now reckoned to be four or even five distinct generations making up the workforce.
B. For firms, this can seem a no-brainer – they save money on expensive office space while
giving their employees a valuable and appreciated perk. It can be tough to implement, though
video conferencing and private networks have improved things greatly.
C. But times are changing, and the pace and uncertainty of the modern world demand more
flexibility and responsiveness than hierarchies like this can provide. Organisational structures
need to be based on serving the customer rather than preserving the rank and status of managers.
D. This is true up to a point, but perhaps more significant is the erosion of the boundary between
work and other parts of life – education, leisure, play; between me-in-work and me-in-my-own-
time.
E. Above all, this format is popular because it works. Or rather, it worked, as, after over 200
years, some observers reckon that the end of employment as we have known it may be near. Are
they right?
F. Of course, we are living in a time of disruption, change and novelty, but the fact is that there are
also strong continuities with the past. As a result, that unstructured form of work may remain a
dream.
G. This groundbreaking idea has become the norm for millions of us to this day, whether we are
architects or economists, agronomists or oculists, because modern offices are based on exactly the
same principles. They are places where you go in order to work for specific hours, using facilities
and equipment provided by your employer to do a job, for a wage.
26

EXPLORING THE GORNER GLACIER

Towering above the Alpine villages of Switzerland, Italy and France, the imposing peaks of the
Matterhorn and its neighbours have long been a desirable destination for mountaineers and
explorers alike. Today, while cable cars and a mountain railway transport hordes of tourists to the
more accessible areas, pioneering exploration continues, not on the surface, but far out of sight in
the icy depths of the second-largest glacier system in the Alps, on the eastern side of the tourist
town of Zermatt.
1: ______________
At the end of October last year, I joined a seven-person British team that was returning to the
Gorner Glacier for its second expedition exploring, mapping and photographing the sub-glacial
world of moulins – well-like shafts through which meltwater drains from the surface of the glacier
– and the ice caves that they help to create.
2: ______________
The weather seemed calm and benign, but overnight, considerably more snow fell than had been
forecast and the next day, the Gornergrat mountain railway – the first stage in our journey up to
the glacier – was closed. The advance party, they later told us, was completely snowed in.
3: ______________
Thankfully, the weather eventually cleared, and the following day we began digging out a path
from our camp towards the glacier. Meanwhile, the advance team was heading back towards us.
Eventually both teams met up, shared a few jokes and plodded back up to our temporary camp for
a meal and a good night's sleep before we started the work we had come to do.
4: ______________
I flitted between both parties, desperately trying to capture as many images of this wonderful
environment as possible. The dramatically sculpted ice walls reminded me of shapes I'd seen
before in cylindrical caves formed in limestone. Looking up, I noticed rocks and pebbles of
varying sizes emerging from the roof of the ice caves.
5: ______________
Typically moving at about 15 metres a year, the Gorner Glacier picks up speed due to meltwater
falling through these moulins and acting as a lubricant along its base. Although the glacier has a
total area of more than 50 square kilometres, making it the second largest glacial system in the
Alps, it has receded every year since 1892 – since then it has shrunk by almost 2.5 kilometres,
including a staggering 290 metres over the summer of 2007.
6: ______________
Seeing how vast and extensive the glacier's moulins and ice-cave systems can be gives an
indication of just how much water flows through them during the summer. Sadly, this is also an
indicator of the rate at which the Alps' majestic rivers of ice are shrinking. One member of the
team, Sam Doyle, a glaciologist from the University of Aberystwyth, spends most of his time in
Greenland, studying the rate at which the ice sheet is moving. He was concerned to see many
similarities between the moulins on the Gorner Glacier and the movement of the ice sheet.
27

A. So, a day later than planned, we travelled up the mountain to the station, the starting point for
our hike to the glacier. When we alighted, however, we discovered an expanse of knee-deep snow.
It was too late to cover the three kilometres we still needed to travel, so we set up camp close to
the station.
B. We arrived in Zermatt late in the evening, heavily laden with equipment and enough food for a
week. By now, the three members of the group who had already left to set up camp on the edge of
the glacier were probably tucked up in their sleeping bags, awaiting our arrival the next morning.
C. All these fascinating sights kept me engrossed in my photography. Meanwhile, members of the
two teams set about surveying the caves, while others rigged ropes around large areas of
meltwater and moulins that led to other levels of the system.
D. Here, two big glaciers fall into the deep on either side of Monte Rosa, the highest mountain in
Switzerland. To the left is the Findelen Glacier and to the right is the 14-kilometre-long Gorner
Glacier.
E. We set off to follow the advance party as best we could, given the difficult weather conditions,
while they waited in the shelter of their tents. There was great relief all round when we finally
reached them.
F. We had two great days exploring the spectacular world beneath the glacier's surface. More
moulins had opened up since last year's expedition, and the team split into two and began
abseiling down into those that looked the most encouraging.
G. This was one reason why it was so important to identify what exactly was happening. We
discovered, surveyed and photographed three enormous ice caves. Descending through one
moulin, we followed an eight-metre-deep trench where the water had carved its way through the
ice.
28

THE FORGOTTEN STORY OF

A PHENOMENAL AUSTRALIAN CYCLIST
With his glasses taped to his head and a heavy, bone-shaking push bike for a ride, the lanky 18-
year-old seemed an unlikely prospect when he turned up for his first club cycling race one day in
1946. Yet, when he died 12 years later, there was a feeling that Russell Mockridge had not yet
reached his full potential.
1: ______________
Someone who achieved this degree of success throughout his cycling career was likely to be self-
confident, and might even be forgiven for arrogance. Yet, with his two feet on the pavement,
Mockridge was a retiring and painfully shy man. He couldn't handle the 'roughness' of most other
cyclists, who referred to him in his young days as 'The China Doll'. For his part, Mockridge
preferred to spend time with English literature.
2: ______________
Officials looked at the skinny Mockridge, at his do-it-yourself bike shoes and at his battered
roadster with its handlebars turned down, and wondered what they were seeing. The disbelief
grew when Mockridge innocently asked if it would be all right if he stayed out in front all the way
– he was concerned that his poor eyesight might cause an accident and endanger other cyclists.
3: ______________
The official was amazed. 'Well, you certainly won the race and probably have the fastest time, but
we don't actually know what your time for the distance is, so we can't give you that one,' he told
Mockridge. However impressed he might have been, he could hardly have foreseen that this was
just the start of Mockridge's run of victories.
4: ______________
At the Australian 200km road championship, Mockridge was the sole member of his team left
riding when it came down to the last few hundred metres. The pack was well ahead and beginning
their final sprint while Mockridge, whose appetite was astounding, lagged behind finishing off a
snack from his food bag.
5: ______________
Another of Mockridge's mad final dashes, on the last day of the 1957 Sun Tour, was one of the
most memorable rides of his career. Neck and neck with George Goodwin, Mockridge threw
himself into the wending steep hillsides. Goodwin then found himself desperately hanging onto
Mockridge's back wheel as the champion unleashed a ride that simply destroyed 28 of Australia's
best riders.
6: ______________
Goodwin crossed the finish line in a final sprint just ahead of Mockridge – a very rare defeat that
Mocka suffered in what can only be considered a brilliant and inspirational career. He deserves to
be remembered as one of the greatest cyclists of all time.
29

A. How fast were the pair pedalling? About 100km/h or more. In fact, they were travelling so
quickly that the two police motorcycle escorts had sparks shooting up from their footrests hitting
the bitumen as they negotiated the treacherous curves.
B. This impression of weakness that Mockridge gave was reinforced by his weak vision – he
couldn't see the other side of the road without glasses. It was a defect that barred him from most
sports, particularly his beloved Australian Rules Football. He was 18 when he entered the weekly
Geelong Amateur Cycling Club 40km road race because he was suffering from lack of exercise.
C. The next week, and the next, Mockridge again won, and a cycling legend was born. In the
following few months, he won eight of his 11 starts. Mockridge was hailed as an emerging
champion and his rise from club rider to Olympic champion was meteoric.
D. Despite his disappointment, it was during this tour that Mockridge set his sights on making the
Australian team for the next Olympic Games. In the lead-up to selection, he won all ten Olympic
qualifying races in Australia, then left for Europe.
E. Any laughter died when Mockridge settled down to his machine-like rhythm and burned off
other competitors. Alex McPherson, who was timing the cyclists for the club, waved them past the
halfway mark, and hopped into his car to greet the finishers. When he arrived, he found
Mockridge waiting and puzzled.
F. His coaches and teammates had given up on him, as Mockridge still trailed well in the rear, but
once he was ready to get back to the matter in hand, he settled into some serious pedalling. Ken
Graves was being acclaimed the winner by announcers just as Mockridge burst through the pack
and cut him down, snatching victory out of almost certain defeat.
G. By then 'Mocka', a freakish and courageous talent, had won two Olympic and two Empire gold
medals and countless world records. In his day, his feats were as acclaimed as those of other
Australian sporting icons, such as cricketer Don Bradman.
30

HOW THE CONCEPT OF SOFTWARE WAS INVENTED

In 1842, more than a century before the start of the information age, in a brilliant flash of
penetrating insight, Ada Lovelace had a glimpse of the future. She saw that with suitable
modifications, Charles Babbage's proposed Analytical Engine would be capable of much more
than its intended purpose of simple mathematical calculation.
Ada Lovelace was born in London in 1815, the daughter of the poet Byron. She never met her
father: her parents separated a month after her birth, he left England four months later and
eventually died abroad. Her upbringing was unusual for the period, in that her mother was
determined she should have a thorough grounding in logic, mathematics and the sciences. To that
end, Ada was provided with a succession of tutors.
1: ______________
Among their number was the mathematician, philosopher, inventor and Professor of Mathematics
at the University of Cambridge, Charles Babbage, one of several people credited with being 'the
father of the computer'. His importance lies in the fact that he invented several devices which
paved the way for modern computers. Lovelace was introduced to him while still in her late teens,
and soon afterwards visited his workshop to see his 'Difference Engine'.
2: ______________
The device was incomplete, weighed over a ton and was not yet working. Despite these
limitations, Lovelace grasped its true significance; whereas Babbage saw it purely being used to
increase the accuracy of mathematical processes, it was Lovelace who saw its far greater
potential.
3: ______________
At this event, Babbage described his proposal for a more advanced computing machine, his
Analytical Engine. A mathematician who was present subsequently wrote up the ideas in a
memoir in French, and Babbage asked Lovelace to translate it. Because she understood the
machine so well, at his request she added a comprehensive set of notes to her translation, much
longer than the memoir itself. It was these notes that have established her importance in the
development of computers.
4: ______________
In this insight, she anticipated the development of both modern computing and artificial
intelligence by more than a hundred years. Again, she saw that the Analytical Engine could be
used to do much more than even Babbage perceived.
5: ______________
The memoir, and Lovelace's notes, attracted little attention at the time, but that does not detract
from her achievement, the essence of which is that she grasped how to create physical instances of
wholly abstract concepts. In any computer, it is the software which gives the hardware the ability
to perform its wonders, a totally new, and very strange, idea for the time.
6: ______________
Although her insight is astonishing, that is not all that Lovelace should be remembered for. She
also demonstrated beyond any possibility of doubt that women could attain the highest levels of
scientific understanding and achievement – something that seemed remarkable in her lifetime. She
helped to blaze a trail for later generations of women to become scientists.
31

A. Neither this prototype nor his later devices were completed in his lifetime, although working
versions have since been built. However, his efforts to construct them aroused widespread
interest, particularly when he attended a scientific conference in Italy and presented his work.
B. Of course, the same could be said of many scientists: Leonardo da Vinci, for instance, designed
flying machines several centuries before they became a reality, but at least he had the advantage
of having seen birds flying.
C. Unlike him, Lovelace realised that it could be set to execute any logically coherent sequence of
instructions. This in effect made her the world's first computer programmer, as she demonstrated
in the document.
D. In them, as well as describing the revolutionary implications of Babbage's ideas, Lovelace
wrote out the first computer program and made the sensational suggestion that such a device
should be able to compose music if a suitable set of rules could be devised.
E. One of these was Augustus de Morgan, a leading mathematician of the time. De Morgan soon
confirmed Ada's outstanding mathematical ability and, importantly, communicated his admiration
to his scientific friends. As a result, long before women were eligible to study for degrees, Ada
came to more than hold her own with the leading scientists of the day.
F. This realisation, that the right instructions could enormously increase the capabilities of the
device, is extraordinary for such an early stage in the history of the computer. Lovelace could see
beyond the relatively rudimentary nature of Babbage's machines to the immense possibilities
opened up by programmable computers.
G. This mechanical calculator was Babbage's first invention. He, like others before him, had
realised that logarithmic tables – at that time produced by human 'calculators', and notoriously full
of errors – could be generated by machinery.
32

IMPROVING THE SOUND OF CITIES

An expert in sound engineering argues for a better approach to issues relating to noise in our
cities.
I went on a "sound walk" in London in spring last year. Thirty people meandered down
backstreets, and along major roads. For two hours, we tuned into the city's soundscape. I had not
expected to hear birdsong on a backstreet close to a noisy main road. and I was surprised to find I
enjoyed the sound of a lock banging against a bike frame as a cyclist rode by.
1: ______________
But will we like what we are then able to hear? All those annoying sounds currently masked by
traffic noise, such as humming ventilation systems and music escaping from pubs and restaurants
will become more audible. It's time to work out how we want cities of the future to sound. So how
easy is it actually to do this?
2: ______________
However, human response to sound is complicated and relying on traditional measurements of
volume is not that helpful. Noise maps also show the problem with the traditional approach.
Worldwide, engineers have used expensive computers to generate maps of the sound
environment. These look so much like pretty, coloured road maps that some researchers joke it
would be cheaper and quicker to colour in a map, using red crayons for busy roads and blue for
quiet backstreets.
3: _____________
More importantly perhaps, this map. ignores significant issues such as the noise my neighbours
make. This cannot be included because there are no databases showing where inconsiderate
people, such as players of loud music, live. Moreover, it is impossible for such a map to take a
listener's perception into account: it is, for example, possible that my line of work has made me
overly sensitive to noise.
4: _____________
Yet noise is still not high on the political agenda, in spite of reliable estimates that 54 percent of
the UK's population live in conditions exceeding daytime sound levels prescribed by the World
Health Organisation – 55 decibels for steady, continuous noise.
5: _____________
Some researchers aim to do this by setting up focus groups, going on sound walks, trying to
capture the emotional response to sound. Others persist with computer algorithms to model
people's reactions, gathering extra data, such as the listener's age and gender, to use in the
algorithm to redress the inadequacies of the decibel.
6: _____________
Once we have lessened the noise, though, what do we want to hear? The Positive Soundscape
Project has given us pointers. This unusual interdisciplinary research came out in favour of what
seems contradictory: a "vibrant, calm" soundscape. In fact, this makes good sense. A city thrives
on vibrancy, so an urban square needs to have a sense of activity: the barista making coffee, the
clack of high heels on the pavement, or snatches of conversations from passers-by.
33

A. In the past, we used to research urban soundscapes in a straightforward way. We'd calculate
street noise in decibels, then canvass public opinion and combine the two. I might play a couple
of city noises I had recorded and ask subjects to say which sound was more annoying. Since all
that researchers wanted to know was the relationship between noise levels and people's reactions,
we tended to treat our subjects rather like lab animals.
B. Fortunately, this may not be quite as awful as it seems because another problem with decibel
measurement is that it does not differentiate between "negative" and "positive" sounds. Take the
sounds made by a fountain in a town square or happy children in a playground – either of which
might exceed permitted sound levels. Increasingly, scientists have been pressing for these positive
sounds to be considered within urban design alongside more traditional noise-control approaches.
C. If we acknowledge that urban sound has an aesthetic, which I believe it does, we urgently need
to know what governs it and then how designers can work with it. Similar to that of the visual
world, it will be built on a complex understanding of cultural theory, sonic art, cognitive and
social psychology, engineering, physics and the relationship between them.
D. Despite these problems, the crude noise maps we make drive policy. Advocates argue that they
have been vital in making politicians take noise slightly more seriously. This must be a good
thing: noise has many negative effects, ranging from sleep disturbance to increased levels of stress
hormones and reduced performance in schoolchildren.
E. As an acoustic engineer, I found this walk a real ear-opener. Urban design is only really
concerned with abating noise made by public transport or industry: the subtle and interesting
sounds that can enhance cities are overlooked. With the internal combustion engine on its way
out, though, the acoustic fog created by cars, buses and trucks will finally lift and other sounds of
the city will emerge.
F. As the complexity of these models grow, so does my feeling that there must be a better way.
Consider a small, relatively quiet, urban square – an acoustic oasis. To design such spaces,
traditional engineers quieten intrusions from traffic. Buildings and walls, for example, can be used
to block out the sources of noise.
G. Take my house. It appears on a sound map with a decibel value of between 60 and 64.9
decibels. Even with a PhD in acoustics I struggle to interpret this. How can the complex way
sound varies during the day and between the seasons be meaningfully summed up by a single
number?
34

LEARNING ABOUT BLACK BEARS

Most of us are afraid of meeting a bear in the wild. Lynn Rogers certainly isn't. Find out more
about this unusual man below.
OK, I'll admit it – I'm scared. I've been walking for two hours through a spooky forest in northern
Minnesota with bear biologist Dr Lynn Rogers, following the beeping radio signal of a female
black bear and her three cubs. It's a hot July morning and the bugs are beginning to hit us hard.
1: _____________
Lynn has been interested in bears since childhood. He grew up in what Midwesterners call the
'Northwoods' – a huge band of mixed forest that sweeps across the northern states of the USA. As
a child he also heard many scary stories about bears, but as he spent more time outside he began
to question these tales.
2: _____________
After leaving college over 40 years ago, Lynn began studying bears for the US Forest Service. At
that time little was known about their biology. Unlike their polar and grizzly cousins, black bears
prefer dense forest and so are hard to observe in the wild.
3: _____________
For an incredible two decades, he persisted with these standard methods, until one day, he'd had
enough and made a momentous decision. He decided to move away from convention and he made
it his aim to try to work directly with the bears.
4: _____________
One of the assumptions that has long been made by wildlife managers is that feeding bears makes
them aggressive towards humans. So a lot of time and effort is spent trying to keep bears out of
campsites, and if they won't stay away then they often end up shot.
5: _____________
Bear experts warned him that it was both wrong and dangerous to do this. But, over time, some
bears learned to associate Lynn's voice with food and allowed him to approach
to within a few metres of them. After more than a year of fighting convention in this way, he
finally gained the trust of a few bears. They even allowed him to feed them by hand and stroke
their fur. Then once they'd had a few handfuls of nuts from him, they'd ignore him and behave
naturally.
6: _____________
As a result, he has begun to paint the first accurate and intimate portrait of the life history of these
animals. For the first time, a scientist has been able to directly observe bear habitat use, language,
social relationships and individual personalities.
35

A. It takes only a few hours in Lynn's charismatic, bear-like company to understand why he
found this goal easier to achieve than most other people would. He puts it down to the fact that he
was aided by the remoteness of his study site and the fact that his nearest boss was more than 350
km away. So he was able to break with conventional approaches without interference.
B. Getting bears used to his touch eventually allowed Lynn to fit radio-collars on them without
using tranquilisers. Working against the advice of most bear experts, he had achieved what no
other human had dreamed possible. He had earned the trust of wild bears and so won the first
ringside seat from which to observe their natural behaviour.
C. As we go deeper into bear territory, I realise that Lynn resembles the bears he studies. His huge
frame moves silently through the forest, aided by hands as large as paws. As he listens to the
bear's signal with an antenna, he grunts and murmurs in a deep, gravelly voice.
D. Yet this wild bear, One-eyed Jack, who had no reason to be friendly to humans, silently
allowed Lynn to stroke his fur and touch his claws while investigating his wounds. That moment
spoke volumes about both Lynn and the true nature of black bears.
E. When he started in that job, Lynn did what all other bear scientists did: he tranquilised the
animals at their dens or in traps and fitted them with radio-collars. Once a bear was collared, the
only data that he could collect, via an aircraft or vehicle, was its position. The bears would not
allow anyone to approach them in the forest. As Lynn says, "After many years of research, all we
had were dots on maps."
F. Lynn decided to test this 'golden rule' and began taking food into the forest when looking for
his collared bears – the ultimate no-no. He'd follow their signs, get as close as he dared and then
leave a pile of nuts for them.
G. He found that animals that had a reputation for being dangerous ran away from him, while
gentler ones could be tempted to take treats from his hand. These early experiences made a lasting
impression and he decided to become a bear biologist.
36

GETTING A HEAD START

Journalist and keen amateur runner Adharanand Finn travels to Kenya to join some of the world's
best runners as they train.
There's a quiet knock on my door. I roll over and look at the time on my phone. 4:40 am. I swing
my legs out of the bed. I haven't slept that well. The bed was comfortable enough, but I was
missing my pillow. I ended up wrapping my towel in a sheet, but it wasn't quite the same.
1: _____________
I'm spending two days in an elite training camp here in Kenya. The best of the country's athletes
usually live and train in camps like this one. We leave through the gate just before 5 am and walk
under the stars to the main road. Athletes stand around in the shadows not speaking while we wait
for a bus to come for us.
2: _____________
Just before 6 am the bus stops on a lonely dirt road in the middle of nowhere. We stand around
like early morning workers about to start a shift. A thin, sickle moon hangs in the sky as an orange
glow starts to seep in from the east. It's a beautiful, still morning.
3: _____________
That is just what I need too. The coaches agree and I run over to join them. A few seconds later
we're running, gently at first. Kenyans are brilliant at slowly cranking up the pace on long runs so
you almost don't notice you're getting faster. We keep going, without speaking, our feet pat
patting, the miles passing as the day rises into the sky.
4: _____________
Behind me I hear the motor of the bus. As it passes me the side door slides open. The coach grins
at me. "You want a ride?" he asks. It's a beautiful idea. I leap in through the door and sit down on
a long empty seat. "You know," he says, "It is very high up here." He's giving me an excuse,
which is generous of him.
5: _____________
Once we're all back at the camp, the athletes are in chirpy spirits. The day's work is done. All that
is left now is to rest. Tea is served by the cook, but hardly anybody eats anything. For those who
are hungry, like me, there are slices of dry, white bread.
6: _____________
Yet some of these athletes are wealthy men. A row of large, shiny 4x4 cars are parked just inside
the gate like a dealer's showroom. They all own houses and farms elsewhere, often more than one.
But they choose to live an almost monastic life here, with running their daily practice. There is a
belief that those who choose to train at home and live a more normal life, will lose their edge. And
with so much competition in this one tiny corner of the world, edge is something that once lost, is
hard to get back.
37

A. Eventually it pulls up and the door opens. Sleepy faces peer back at us. It is already full and
there are about ten of us waiting outside. Somehow we all squeeze in, with people sitting on each
others' laps, or standing bent over, heads squashed against the ceiling. I manage to get a window
seat and peer out at the passing verge as the driver cranks up the skipping Kalenjin music.
Nobody speaks.
B. However, the offer of a lift was for his benefit too and was more of a command than a question.
The support bus has to keep moving from the back of the group to the front, handing out drinks,
giving out times and offering encouragement. The further behind I get, the harder that is to do.
But it's OK, I've done enough. In fact, I'm exhausted.
C. A young man of barely 20 with a big smile asks me how far I will run. Most of the runners are
planning to run 38km, which is almost a marathon. The bus will follow us handing out water and
giving us our time splits every 5km.
D. It's still dark outside, so I switch on the harsh strip light. A small, bare room. My clothes piled
on a white plastic chair. My trainers on the floor. I sit on the edge of the bed for a moment, trying
to wake up, but it's cold so I start to get dressed. In ten minutes we have to leave.
E. At about 17km the men come past us. First the sound of rushing feet, like something sprinting
up from behind. Then they go by, their stride strong, their shoulders leaning forward, little puffs of
dust kicked up by their feet. The women are getting away from me now too.
F. The camp is a strange mix of frugality and wealth. As well as washing their own clothes and
shoes in buckets of water, the athletes sleep in small rooms and sit on the floor or on plastic
garden chairs. After the run I ask where the showers are. I'm pointed to a cold tap and a pile of
buckets.
G. We seem to be waiting for something, I realise. "What's going on?" I ask one of the other
runners. "We're waiting for the ladies," he says, nodding over to the road where three women are
standing holding their watches, getting some last-minute instructions from the two coaches. "They
get a 10 minute head start."
38

TWO JOURNALISTS AND THE BUTTERFLIES OF BRITAIN

Independent journalist Michael McCarthy reports on a new book about butterflies which has
made a remarkable impression on him.
It's not often that you're brought up with a start, right at the beginning of a book, but here's an
insight from the first page of a new volume on butterflies which did that for me. "For most of us,"
writes the author, "butterflies are bound up with childhood."
1: _____________
That was certainly the case with me, in a hot August long ago, when I was seven and my brother
was nine, and we had been sent to live with an aunt and uncle as my mother was ill and my father
was abroad.
2: _____________
Every morning when I was let out to play I would run up to it and gaze up at these dazzling
creatures and long for them, and perhaps because of the time in my life when they appeared,
something in me has longed for them ever since.
3: _____________
Early last year, Patrick, now a feature writer on a well- known daily paper, decided to bring his
own enthusiasm to a climax by seeing every species of British butterfly in a single summer, and
his book, The Butterfly Isles, is the narrative of this undertaking.
4: _____________
We were aware of each other's activities, but we never actually met, although we saw several
species in exactly the same place. Reading his book I realised how close our paths came to
crossing: I saw the large blue, for example, at Green Down in Somerset on 15 June, and he saw it
at Green Down on 16 June; and I saw the Lulworth skipper at Lulworth Cove in Dorset on 23 July
and, once again, he saw it in the same place the following day.
5: _____________
His account of all these is beautifully written and enormously entertaining, full of curious pieces
of butterfly lore; I for one certainly did not know that you can tell the sex of a small tortoiseshell
by tossing a stick gently in its general direction – if it's a male, it will rise up to attack the stick.
(Patrick calls it "the playful dog of the butterfly world.")
6: _____________
For this, the influence of his father, an ecologist, is responsible: the enthusiasm he inspired in his
son proves stronger than mere fashion or peer-group pressure. But it becomes clear as the story
unfolds that he gave Patrick much more than just his passion for butterflies; ultimately, the book is
about that: it is a splendid and accomplished account of all of Britain's butterflies, but it touches
something deeper as it is a tribute from a son to his father, thanking him from the heart for a very
special childhood.
39

A. And here's an extraordinary thing. At the same time as Patrick was doing it, so was I. The
chances of two journalists deciding, simultaneously but entirely independently, to pursue every
British butterfly in a single summer must be infinitesimally small, but that's what happened: I
wrote a series for this newspaper about my own search, and we invited readers to join in what we
called 'The Great British Butterfly Hunt'.
B. In the front garden two doors away was a buddleia bush, and that August it was crawling with
the bright quartet of late summer British butterflies – the red admiral, the small tortoiseshell, the
peacock and the painted lady; glittering in their colours.
C. I have known since I was a small child, in a way you can think just plain silly, that butterflies
will always have significance in my life.
D. But it is more personal aspects of his search which give depth to the book, such as his personal
struggle between wanting to be Cool and wanting to pursue butterflies, which he worries is
extremely Uncool, certainly for someone of his generation. Eventually the butterfly-desire wins
out, even to the extent of bringing himself to use binoculars and risk the ultimate horror of
Looking Like A Nerd.
E. The new book's author, Patrick Barkham, encountered his butterflies at a similar time in his life
but his attraction to them was founded not in the absence of parents but in their presence: he
inherited his father's love for them. Maybe "inherited" is the wrong word, as it was not something
passed on in the genes, but rather by his father's enthusiasm, companionship and friendship for his
small son, who accompanied him on butterflying expeditions.
F. I felt the shock of recognition in reading that, and even more in the sentence that followed:
"Many of our earliest and most vivid memories of a garden, a park or flower will feature a
butterfly, and perhaps, our little hand trying to close around it."
G. We eventually met not long ago and laughed about it ("it feels like we spent last summer in a
parallel world," he said) and as you might imagine, I was fascinated by his account in The
Butterfly Isles. He did better than I did, for although we both managed to see in one summer all
58 species which breed regularly in Great Britain, he went over to Ulster to see the one which
makes the total 59 for the United Kingdom as a whole.
40

ECOLOGY IN A VOLCANIC LAKE

McKenzie Funk investigates how the area round Mount St Helens has changed thirty years after
its eruption.
Discarded cans once lay at the bottom of Spirit Lake at the foot of the Mount St Helens volcano.
Mark Smith remembers them perfectly: shiny gold lettering somehow preserved by the clear, cold
water. He remembers ten-inch rainbow trout. He remembers a sunken rowboat, resting on a
submerged tree stump. A teenager when he began scuba diving in the shadow of Mount St.
Helens. he remembers the lake as it was before the May 1980 eruption, before the top 1,300 feet
of the volcano – more than three billion cubic yards of mud, ash, and melting snow – avalanched
into it.
1: _____________
What Smith remembers best from his teenage dives is what he called the "petrified" forest: a
ghostly group of sunken, branchless firs, buried upright dozens of yards below the surface. The
underwater forest was a mystery to him until the mountain exploded. Then it made perfect sense.
The trees were evidence of a past eruption – a sign Spirit Lake has always been in the line of fire.
2: _____________
Biologist Bob Lucas of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife believes someone
illegally planted them. In the late 1990s, an anonymous call to his home seemed to confirm it:
"I'm the one who stocked the fish."
3: _____________
"There are as many stories as there are fish tales," he says, "and all of them start, 'I know
somebody who put those fish in there." To him the important question is not how they arrived but
how they grew so big.
4: _____________
This is because the 2,700-acre lake now sits at the center of a restricted research area, which
Congress set aside in 1982 "to protect the geologic, ecologic, and cultural resources... in as natural
a state as possible." Mostly closed to the public, this part of the blast zone has become one of our
planet's grandest experiments.
5: _____________
Almost daily, callers inquire about the lessons of St. Helens. One woman is interested in
salamanders, another in toads. Officials in Alaska and Chile want to know what to expect after
eruptions of their own.
6: _____________
Starting with a single plant Crisafulli discovered in 1981 on the barren, 3,750-acre area covered
by the eruption, purple prairie lupines became the first color in a world of sterile gray. In life they
were nutrient factories, food for insects, habitat for mice and voles; in death they, and the
organisms they attracted, enriched the ash, allowing other species to colonise. Gradually the blast
zone began to bloom.
41

A. Indeed, as a natural lab to study the rebirth of ecosystems, the area has no equal. "It's the most
thoroughly studied large-forest disturbance in the world," says Crisafulli. It's been examined from
nearly every angle, at nearly every scale, from molecules to ecosystems, bacteria to mammals,
steaming geothermal vents to waterlogged meadows.
B. Three decades later, Spirit Lake holds a new mystery: How did fish, now twice the length of
those pre-eruption rainbows, reappear? Everyone has a theory. Smith, who runs Eco Park Resort
at the edge of the volcanic monument, thinks the trout slid down from the smaller, higher St.
Helens Lake during a flood year. But that lake has only mackinaw – and the Spirit Lake fish are
rainbows.
C. A key realisation is the importance of "biological legacies" – fallen trees, buried roots, seeds,
amphibians – that survived the eruption, thanks to snow cover, topography, or luck. Ecologists
had assumed rebirth would happen from the outside in, as species from border areas encroached
on the blast zone. But recovery has also come from within.
D. Mark Smith grew up at the lake and, as a boy, he fished there. Today he'd have to break the law
if he wanted to catch any of those temptingly large fish.
E. I remember from my swim in Spirit Lake is not a sunken forest but an underwater jungle. Last
August I drove behind Crisafulli on a sinuous two-lane road along Windy Ridge, through a
damaged gate secured by a makeshift chain – "You'd think there'd be enough money to buy a new
gate," Crisafulli said – and down a scary, slopeside jeep trail into the restricted area.
F. So it was before the lake became twice as big but half as deep. Before virtually all evidence of
life, animal and human – the cabins and roads and camps and cans – were obliterated. Before the
lake became a stinky soup, devoid of oxygen and covered with a floating mat of tree trunks ripped
from the landscape.
G. Preliminary genetic testing by Forest Service ecologist Charlie Crisafulli also suggests the
trout did not descend from the pre-eruption population, but he's given up on figuring out their
origin.
42

CONSERVING JAGUARS
An interesting plan to help jaguars survive is being developed in Latin America. Mel White
reports for National Geographic.
At dusk one evening, deep in a Costa Rican forest, a young male jaguar rises from his sleep,
stretches, and silently but determinedly leaves forever the place where he was born.
1: _____________
But the wanderer chooses the wrong direction. In just a few miles he reaches the edge of the
forest; beyond lies a coffee plantation. Pushed by instinct and necessity, he keeps moving, staying
in the trees along fences and streams. Soon, though, shelter consists only of scattered patches of
shrubs and a few trees, where he can find nothing to eat. He's now in a land of cattle ranches, and
one night his hunger and the smell of a newborn calf overcome his reluctance to cross open areas.
Creeping close before a final rush, he kills the calf.
2: _____________
This story has been played out thousands of times throughout the jaguar's homeland, stretching
from Mexico (and formerly the United States) to Argentina. In recent decades it's happened with
even greater frequency, as ranching, farming, and development have eaten up half the big cat's
prime habitat, and as humans have destroyed its natural prey in many areas of remaining forest.
3: _____________
Rabinowitz is the world's leading jaguar expert, and he has begun to realise his dream of creating
a vast network of interconnected corridors and refuges extending from the U.S.--Mexico border
into South America. It is known as Paseo del Jaguar – Path of the Jaguar.
4: _____________
Rabinowitz hopes to convince national governments throughout the jaguar's range to support this
conservation program through enlightened land-use planning, such as choosing non-critical areas
for major developments and road construction.
5: _____________
Talking to governments and bringing Paseo del Jaguar into existence will take many years.
Rabinowitz is currently focusing on Mexico and Central America, where officials in all eight
countries have approved the project. Costa Rica has already incorporated protection of the
corridor into laws regulating development.
6: _____________
Today even mobile-phone-carrying government ministers sitting in urban offices feel what
Rabinowitz calls "a powerful cultural thread binding them to their ancestors. Nobody can say that
the jaguar is not part of their own heritage. What better unifying symbol can there be than the
jaguar?"
43

A. Alan Rabinowitz wants this situation to stop and is doing something about it. He imagines that
the young jaguar, when he leaves his birthplace, will pass unseen by humans through a near-
continuous corridor of sheltering vegetation. Within a couple of days he'll find a small tract of
forest harboring enough prey for him to stop and rest a day or two before resuming his trek.
Eventually he'll reach a national park or wildlife preserve where he'll find a home, room to roam,
plenty of prey, females looking for a mate.
B. Later he'll tackle South America, where landscapes are more diverse and challenging.
Rabinowitz is encouraged, though, by his audiences' emotional response when he talks about
jaguars – a response based on the animal's enduring aura of beauty, strength, and mystery.
Indigenous peoples around Mexico's central plateau, and the Maya, farther south, incorporated the
jaguar into their art and mythology.
C. Environmentalists consider such a scheme the best hope for keeping this great New World cat
from joining lions and tigers on the endangered species list.
D. The jaguar is the only large, wide-ranging carnivore in the world with no subspecies. Simply
put, this means that for millennia jaguars have been mingling their genes throughout their entire
range, so that individuals in northern Mexico are identical to those in southern Brazil.
E. There's shelter here, and plenty of food. He has sensed, too, the presence of females with which
he might mate. But there's also a mature male jaguar that claims the forest – and the females. The
older cat will tolerate no rivals. The breeze-blown scent of the young male's mother, so
comforting to him when he was a cub, no longer binds him to his home.
F. "We're not going to ask them to throw people off their land or to make new national parks," he
said. The habitat matrix could encompass woodlands used for a variety of human activities from
timber harvest to citrus plantations. Studies have shown that areas smaller than one and a half
square miles can serve as temporary, one- or two-day homes – stepping-stones – for wandering
jaguars.
G. The next day the rancher finds the remains and the telltale tracks of a jaguar. He calls some of
his neighbors and gathers a pack of dogs. The hunters find the young male and take their revenge.
44

WILD SKATING IN SWEDEN

The setting sun was reflected on the frozen lake as we skated under the watchful gaze of our
guides, Björn and Jan. The profound silence was only interrupted by the noise of our skates
gliding and scratching across Östjuten Lake. Even animal sightings were rare in this isolated
landscape, though we passed tree trunks gnawed by beavers.
1: _____________
Over four days and 125 km of 'wild' skating in south-east Sweden, I learned that skating on
natural ice is full of contradictions of this kind. I learned to be attentive, not so much to the setting
– the forested shores of the lakes didn't vary much – but to noises coming from the ice, and its
colour and texture. One day it was covered in a layer of water; the next it had a light dusting of
snow.
2: _____________
On the first day, my group were briefed on safety precautions like this, and then skated 10 km for
practice. On the subsequent days, we covered up to 40 km, in two-hour spurts, before stopping to
refuel with bread, cheese and salami. As dusk fell, we returned to our two minibuses, parked by
what in summer are wild swimming areas. The region has hundreds of lakes and every day we
drove out from our base in search of the best ice.
3: _____________
Not that skating is an inherently unsociable activity. Our guides were very friendly, as were the
other people in my group. These included Singaporean ice-hockey enthusiasts, a Spanish fan of
figure skating, seasoned German and English skiers and a French roller-blader. There was also an
Australian who'd only been skating on a public ice rink.
4: _____________
This is difficult to imagine nowadays. Warmer temperatures mean that rivers in Britain, France
and Germany rarely freeze solidly enough for wild skating to be feasible on them, and it's only in
the Scandinavian countries that it's possible to skate regularly on natural ice.
5: _____________
In Sweden, these are a legal requirement: if you fall through into the water, you drive them into
the ice and haul yourself out. Fortunately, no one in my group ever had to do that. In fact,
probably the trickiest part of being on the ice was bending down to clip the blades on to the boots
without falling over. I must admit I needed help with this at first.
6: _____________
The trip ended with me having one more lesson on what you can do on ice. As the sun went down,
our guides built and lit a fire and started roasting marshmallows. The heat from the fire rises, so it
doesn't burn a hole in the ice. As I sat on the frozen lake with my muscles aching, I felt oddly cosy
and relaxed; yet another intriguing contradiction in that icy setting.
45

A. Skating has evolved in other ways as well. While skaters were once advised to carry a
fireman's ladder and a rope in case of emergency, we were kitted out with a rope in a bag, a
rucksack that doubled as a floatation device, and two safety 'ice nails'
B. I'd expected to come across other skaters who would tell us where to find it. However, it was
only on the third day, a Saturday, when we finally saw any other skaters out on the lakes. They
were weekend day-trippers and we just glided past crying 'Hej hej!'.
C. All that physical exercise also gave us an appetite. Although the cost of food was included in
the trip, we decided to visit a nearby supermarket to gather cuts of reindeer meat, fish fillets and
other ingredients. We cooked together, and packed our daily lunches.
D. That was the extent of my experience too. The idea for the trip had come when I was doing
some research on the late 18th century. I'd read how the industrial revolution led to the
development of steel skates, and how wild skating had been popular all over northern Europe.
E. This strange peace was suddenly broken by what sounded like thunder beneath our feet. I
tensed, and the skaters behind me shrieked. But, as we'd been told, a loud 'boom' isn't necessarily
bad: it can tell you the ice is thick. It's the beautiful-sounding 'singing' ice that's the thin, scary
stuff.
F. By the fourth day, however, I had the hang of it, along with basic wild skating techniques. The
skates are longer than those for figure skating or hockey, extending beyond the front and back of
the foot. Also, you push sideways more, and with fewer movements, than in other skating.
G. Such changes affect your speed and route. We snaked across large lakes, looking out for
cracks, small ridges and water holes. Our guides stabbed their sticks into the ice, testing its depth.
We stuck to ice that was between 10 cm and 15 cm thick, though 5cm would still be adequate.
46

THE COUNTRY THAT LOVES BEES

The door opens and we emerge onto the flat roof. It is a sparse, unfurnished space. To the north-
west are mountains, still slightly frosted in the late spring sunshine. Below, bathed in the same
glow, is Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, with the River Ljubljanica running through its centre.
And there, in a corner, is the hotel's current use for its upper level.
1: _____________
Going under the title 'President of the Urban Beekeeping Association', Gorazd Trusnovec is
particularly proud of these twin outposts of his empire – which stretches to 24 hives, rented to
keen beekeepers across the city. He installed them here last year, despite certain doubts he had
about the idea.
2: _____________
In fact, they've been the basis of a sweet deal. The hotel gets to serve its own honey while
Trusnovec has an experimental location for his business. It's not hugely profitable, but he says that
'Working with bees brings me peace of mind. My grandmother had a hive. The smell of honey
extraction was incredible. I forgot it for 30 years – then it came back to me, this aroma from my
childhood. I started to look at raising bees in the city. And now I couldn't imagine doing anything
else.'
3: _____________
This national affection flickers at the pretty heart of Ljubljana. It is visible on Medarska Ulica –
'Honeysellers Street'. Admittedly, this thin lane is no longer devoted to the honey business, but the
adjacent square of Pogacarjev Trg has stalls selling jars and bottles of gold-amber. The honey
theme can be seen in other parts of the capital too: on the early 20th century Mestna Hranilnica
bank building, there is a wrought-iron canopy featuring a bee, and at the National Museum, a bee
motif floats over the entrance.
4: _____________
Less global in ambition, but another great champion of bees, is Blaz Ambrozic. He has turned his
farm into a temple to bees, giving tours and advice to would-be beekeepers, as well as to visitors
who want to buy his honey. He throws me a net-veil protective hat as soon as I arrive, so that I can
stand closer to his main hive – and even encourages me to place tentative fingers inside.
5: _____________
The rather pessimistic mood lifts as he starts to tell me about his venture into 'apitherapy'. Across
Slovenia, beekeepers have recently been modifying their hives to make them more interactive. In
Ambrozic's case, he has expanded his largest hive into an L-shape, with a padded bed in the added
corner.
6: _____________
Some have taken this concept of the bee as a purveyor of relaxation even further. I later stay in the
picture-book town of Mozirje, where a quartet of holiday chalets can be rented. Looking out
through the window of one, I see wildflowers swaying in the breeze. It is difficult to say whether
bees or tourists will appreciate this panorama more – but both can surely draw inspiration from it.
47

A. 20 kilometres north-east of the capital, in the village of Lukovica, the focus on bees is more
scientific than decorative. This is where the headquarters of the Slovenian Beekeepers'
Association has its laboratory for testing the quality of independent producers' honey. The
association is also an impressive advocate for bees, as an official explains when I visit: in 2017, it
managed to persuade the United Nations to launch World Bee Day as a way of raising awareness
internationally of the importance of bees for ecosystems.
B. Lie down on it, and you can peer through glass and watch the bees as they buzz in and out. Ten
minutes gazing at these tireless creatures as they flit in and out of their base has an almost
hypnotically calming effect.
C. 'I was sceptical about whether you could put hives at this height,' he muses. 'But it didn't take
long before it became my best site, in terms of honey. The bees don't actually seem to struggle to
reach this elevation.'
D. Slovenian beehives look different from the hives I'm familiar with, however. They are smaller,
bees enter via narrow grooves at the front, and the frames are removed horizontally and from
behind. This, apparently, is less stressful for bees and less likely to result in stings for keepers.
E. Its busy residents are unmoved as I do so. 'Every bee has a specific role,' their keeper tells me.
'Some are collectors, others are guard dogs or kindergarten nurses.' Their importance, he stresses,
cannot be underestimated. 'Bees are under threat. If bees are not here, then there is less
pollination, and less food... and then starvation. It's that simple.'
F. It takes the form of a pair of short beehives. A cloud of bees shakes and shimmers in front of
the access slits into the hives. This causes the stocky man next to me to smile.
G. Such feelings are not unusual in Slovenia, where there are around 90,000 beekeepers in a
population of just two million. Much of the country is forested, and bees thrive there. It even has a
distinct strain of the insect – Carniolan bees, which are valued for their non-aggressive nature and
team ethic.
48

HELPING OUT WITH ORANGUTANS

– A HOLIDAY WITH A DIFFERENCE
I've got a hammer in my hand when the cry goes up: 'Orangutan in the camp.' Nine people down
tools and grab their cameras. This is a chance to snap one of the critically endangered primates
that we are here to help at the Pondok Ambung research post run by the Orangutan Foundation in
Indonesian Borneo.
1: _____________
It's not the first time it's happened since our arrival at the research centre, which is surrounded by
towering ironwood trees forming a canopy 50 metres above our heads, blocking out sunshine, but
trapping moisture and heat. We had reached it after a long drive and a four-hour boat ride along
the Buluh Kecil river in central Borneo.
2: _____________
That said, we know we are privileged to be here. The volunteer programme runs every summer,
attracting adventurers to spend three weeks sleeping in basic accommodation and building
infrastructure for the full-time Indonesian research staff. Over the past 15 years, volunteers have
built facilities in Tanjung Puting National Park, further south in Borneo, and the Lamandau
Wildlife Reserve to the east.
3: _____________
Others have previously given time elsewhere in animal welfare and environmental programmes.
We are a part of volunteer tourism, a global business estimated to be worth up to $2bn a year. It's
also highly controversial: many volunteer placements are not much more than 'expensive
holidays', providing healthy returns to travel companies while doing little for the causes they are
meant to benefit.
4: _____________
The rebuilding of the main building housing the laboratory and offices is an example of this. Our
work enables researchers to study the wildlife of this protected area and to educate people about
the risk of extinction faced by the apes and other animals. It's a delicate mission: the palm oil
industry is destroying animal habitats; on the other hand, it has dramatically raised the standard of
living in the region.
5: _____________
It may not be too long before they start coming to the site we are working on. It's certainly
popular with orangutans. In the three weeks I am there, we get several visits from the fascinating
animals as they forage for food and good nesting sites. Proboscis monkeys and macaques also
regularly hang around in the trees opposite our jetty.
6: _____________
What we don't get used to is the mosquitoes, the one thing I am glad to escape when my stay ends.
On the final day, the centre director tells us we have surpassed his expectations for this year's
programme. We know we haven't solved the socio-economic problems that are driving orangutans
to extinction, but we have made a difference to people who are working to save them.
49

A. Given that most of the work is done by people like me who know little about construction,
these are impressive achievements. The main motivation is to do something positive for the
beleaguered orangutans, although, naturally, we all want to actually see some. Two people in my
group are so committed that they have come back for a second year.
B. The centre staff make sure we are aware of the difficult issue. They also take us on trips upriver
to a long-established primatology site. Daily feeding time there draws a crowd of orangutans. It
also attracts day-tripping eco-tourists on boats from the regional capital Pangkalan Bun.
C. A fellow participant has personal experience of such dubious schemes elsewhere. He says it's
hard to find programmes with the high standards of the Orangutan Foundation: 'Finding eco-trips
where you can make a real difference isn't simple. But with this one, you've got a clear, physical
outcome at the end of it.'
D. Apparently, every volunteer group is different. Ours ranges from 18 to 60 years old, with eight
women and four men when we begin. Despite the supportive atmosphere, the basic conditions are
hard to cope with: one volunteer takes a boat back to civilisation within a day of arrival, and two
more return home after a week.
E. And that's just in the daytime. At night we go on walks to spot tarantulas, civets and tiny huge-
eyed tarsier primates, and we take boat rides at dusk to look for saltwater crocodiles. We become
accustomed to the low-riding, wobbly motorised canoes that ferry everything along the rivers.
F. It's Rimba, a 17-year-old male, and he doesn't disappoint. He circles the camp, going from tree
to tree just a few metres above our heads for almost 30 minutes. The spectacle is a well-earned
reward after a week of hard physical work in the 32°C heat and extreme humidity of the jungle.
G. So remote is it that there's no mobile signal. Our luxuries are rationed biscuits, sliced
watermelon and oranges, and the conditions are so draining that by the end of the first week we
feel as though we've sweated out more toxins than in a year of hot yoga.
50

RAFTING THROUGH THE GRAND CANYON AND BEYOND

The fierce sun had little effect on the freezing-cold water of the Colorado river as it splashed over
the sides of our raft. Ahead lay a rapid called Bedrock. The four of us on our inflatable raft had
already conquered numerous cascades in the Grand Canyon, but I was very nervous about this
one. 'Go right,' we shouted at Rick, our pilot for the day, who was desperately trying to steer
against the powerful current.
1: _____________
'Go for the channel!' I yelled, pointing towards a narrow opening. Our guides had said this way
was 'un-runnable' and we were about to find out. I felt the boat twisting into a whirlpool and knew
we were about to flip.
2: _____________
Bearing in mind our inexperience, I'm not sure how we did. As we had prepared to leave from
Lees Ferry on the banks of the Colorado in Arizona, our lead guide had asked: 'How many of you
have done anything like this before?' Two of the group raised their hands. Our guide explained
that ahead of us lay 450km of white water through one of the most formidable environments on
earth - and no phone signal for 17 days.
3: _____________
For the next two and a half weeks, we'd see few other humans; the Canyon may be one of the
world's biggest attractions, but it's also one of the most inaccessible places in the US and is
usually only seen from above. We negotiated nearly 90 major rapids in all, and only flipped once,
although several of us ended up in the water on different occasions.
4: _____________
Humans hadn't been there as long, of course, but well before tourists came, it was the land of the
Navajo and Hualapai American Indians. Their ancestors left buildings carved into the cliff faces,
and prehistoric stone engravings in the warren of caves and gorges accessible only from the river.
Some of these were filled with luscious palms and others were so narrow you could touch both
sides.
5: _____________
As a result, we had no idea what was going on in the rest of the world, not that we cared. There,
on the river, we were completely focused on the here and now and extra vigilant every time we
encountered a significant rapid. Even the guides were nervous as we approached the infamous
Lava Falls, which has a terrifying 9/10 difficulty rating. Before attempting Lava, we stopped and
scrambled up a nearby cliff. From the top, we looked down anxiously at the crashing roar of white
water and tried to work out our route.
6: _____________
Then, as soon as it had begun, it was over. There were whoops of joy and relieved high fives. We
were soaked – but we'd all got through it safely. There were still a couple more days to go, but
after Lava nothing could defeat us. We were a team, united by a river and a great sense of
accomplishment.
51

A. We'd been made aware of this when we booked the trip. But 16 of us had eagerly signed up for
the adventure of a lifetime, renting four rafts, with all the necessary provisions included.
B. Fierce winds threatening to blow our rafts backwards and vicious sandstorms driving grit into
our eyes, nostrils and cameras were two of the worst. Our hands, feet and lips were soon cracked
from the constant exposure to water and the dry desert air.
C. It was no use. We were quickly drawn towards a rock the size of a bus. Then the raft was
sucked around the wrong side of the boulder and into an eddy. Our paddles were now being
bashed against the rock.
D. Eventually, we just had to go for it. Nervously, we let the waters pull us towards the boiling
foam, and one by one the four rafts entered the fray. Our raft rocked and creaked and smashed
through waves the size of a car; at one point it was almost vertical. There were 20 seconds of
sheer terror.
E. In the quieter stretches of this magical setting, we'd fish off the rafts, and at night on the river
bank, there were jokes and storytelling before we fell asleep under the stars. The internet became
a distant memory as the Canyon closed in and the signal disappeared. It was a digital detox to the
extreme.
F. I wondered if I could hold my breath long enough to survive underwater, and then saw my
friend John being hurled off the raft and into the crashing waves. Suddenly, I too was flung
headfirst into the freezing water. Bad thoughts filled my mind. But somehow we all survived.
G. As we progressed, the Canyon grew grander in scale, cutting a deep gorge, over a kilometre
deep in places. It's a geologist's dream, with layers of rock dating back almost two billion years
and ancient lava fields that are some of the oldest exposed rock on earth.
52

VICTOR GRUEN AND THE SOUTHDALE SHOPPING MALL

According to its critics, the shopping mall is central to the mindless, car-bound consumerism of
suburban USA. Yet Southdale Center, the first fully enclosed, climate-controlled mall from which
so many other malls descend, came from the mind of an anti-car European idealist. In 1938,
Victor Gruen arrived in America from Vienna in Austria with high architectural aims. He soon
launched a career designing storefronts in New York City, but in 1952 he was commissioned to
design something else entirely: a shopping centre 15 kilometres outside the city of Minneapolis.
1: _____________
A somewhat extreme view, perhaps, but it's important to understand the historical background.
When Gruen first came up with the concept of the shopping mall, it seemed very radical. He first
publicly submitted such a design in 1943 to a competition run by an architectural magazine,
which had called upon architects to imagine the city of the future.
2: _____________
The next decade saw a shift in thinking. The 1952 commission that brought the Southdale Center
into the world came from the Dayton family, a name synonymous with department stores in 1950s
Minneapolis. They wanted a shopping centre to house a new store planned for the growing suburb
of Edina. When it opened in 1956, Southdale contained that new branch of Dayton's, another large
department store, and space for more than 70 smaller shops in between.
3: _____________
But where the open-air design of those projects left them exposed to the elements, Southdale
sealed off the outside environment in order to better create its own world within. Southdale's vast,
blank walls turned their backs to the street, enclosing stores, cafés, pedestrian boulevards and a
courtyard, through whose skylight the sun shone on a fishpond, foliage and a centrepiece cage
filled with songbirds.
4: _____________
But the utter controllability of the enclosed shopping mall had to do with much more than the
climate. It both appealed to Gruen's design philosophy and played straight into the fears of many
Americans. They didn't just want protection from the heat, rain, snow and traffic encountered
downtown; they also wanted protection from the people encountered there.
5: _____________
To this end, he designed Southdale as one element of a masterplan, including hundreds of hectares
of residential, commercial, medical, office and mixed-use projects around a lake and public park.
The developers, however, ignored most of this wider vision and, instead, set the precedent for all
the huge, unimaginative-looking malls surrounded by enormous car parks – 1,500 of which
appeared across America in the half-century after Southdale's unveiling.
6: _____________
Hence the nostalgia that often accompanies the 21st century's desertions, or even demolitions, of
some of the United States' enclosed malls. But suburban Americans now have a host of revitalised
genuine downtowns to choose from, as well as a new wave of high-design, urban-flavoured,
outward-looking shopping malls. Time has moved on for the mall.
53

A. By then, the concept had some precedents around America. These included the Northgate Mall
in Seattle, which opened in 1950, Valley Fair Mall in Appleton, Wisconsin, which opened in 1954,
and Gruen's own Northland Mall outside Detroit.
B. Despite this, when the renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright visited Southdale, he was
sceptical. He believed that Gruen's notion of moving 'downtown' to the suburbs was unrealistic.
Victor Gruen's real aim, however, was to build a new kind of city, not just a shopping centre, and
he later claimed that his conception of the shopping mall never came into being.
C. Those social concerns were somewhat at odds with Gruen's own. He was interested in creating
not just a 'gigantic shopping machine', but a community centre where, free from 'the terror of the
automobile', people could stroll, congregate, debate and enjoy the human experience.
D. Unfortunately, Gruen's entry, with its full enclosure and lack of a central square, struck even
the most forward-thinking judges as a bit much. So Gruen went back to the drawing board.
E. Gruen would eventually criticise, even disown, this form that the US shopping mall took.
Local residents, however, loved Southdale, and across the country, subsequent generations
growing up far from a genuine city centre turned to places like Southdale for the closest thing to
an urban experience they could find.
F. The writer James Lileks says of that early Southdale aesthetic: 'You have no idea what an
innovation it was in the 1950s; there wasn't any place where you could sit "outside" in your shirt-
sleeves in the middle of winter' – least of all in a place where it gets as cold as it does in
Minneapolis.
G. This was Gruen's opportunity to realise his long-imagined vision of an indoor city centre that
would import the urbanity of his native Vienna into his fast-growing adopted homeland.
Southdale itself was constructed. Nothing else went as he'd envisaged, however, and by the 1970s,
Gruen had returned to Austria, having concluded that he'd created a monster.
54

WHAT DOES A SMILE MEAN?

'The curve that sets everything straight' was how the comedian Phyllis Diller once described the
smile. And it's true that there's something charming, trustworthy and disarming about a smile –
but this can be misleading. Dig a little deeper and you will find a less wholesome side, because
the smile is actually one of the biggest fakes going.
1: _____________
Psychologists, in fact, have given it a name: the Duchenne smile, in honour of the French
neurologist Guillaume-Benjamin-Amand Duchenne. This smile utilises the muscles around the
eyes to lift the cheeks, producing wrinkles around the eyes, and has long been held as an
inimitable sign of true human emotion. Or at least it was until 2013, when psychologists from
Boston, USA, destroyed that myth.
2: _____________
These findings indicate that even the supposedly genuine Duchenne smile can be convincingly
simulated. So much for smiling being an inimitable sign of true human emotion. But why are
some people so good at this kind of simulation? The answer isn't necessarily sinister. In fact, some
research has demonstrated that you can actually smile yourself into a better mood.
3: _____________
This indicates that smiling can actually improve your mood; as opposed to the usual idea of it
being an outward sign of what you are already feeling. Taking this one step further, researchers
from University of Kansas asked volunteers to bite on a pair of chopsticks: either biting one end,
with the lips closed to produce no smile; or the same but with lips apart in a standard smile; or
biting along the length of the chopstick, to produce a Duchenne smile. The volunteers were then
made to feel stressed by having them submerge one hand in ice-water for one minute.
4: _____________
But though there may be times when it is advantageous for us to smile when we don't feel
particularly cheerful, there is a flipside. Researchers in California wondered whether professional
fighters' smiles during the face-off before a bout might predict who the victor would be. They
obtained face-off photographs of 152 Ultimate Fighting Championships competitors and rated
them for smile intensity. Interestingly, winning fighters displayed less intensive smiles in pre-fight
face-offs than losers did, and fighters winning by a knock-out displayed the least intensive smiles
of all.
5: _____________
What seems to have happened, is that the fighters who smiled were unintentionally leaking
information about their own sense of weakness, so passing a psychological advantage to their
opponent. The message from this is that taking control of your emotional state, avoiding smiling,
and showing that you have the upper hand, even where that is not felt, is a good strategy in
competitive environments.
6: _____________
But, as the saying goes, if you can't beat them, join them. Next time you're having your
photograph taken, don't say 'cheese'; say 'cheeks'. Saying 'cheeks' will not only shape your mouth
nicely, but will also remind you to squeeze your cheeks upwards into a visually satisfying,
genuine-looking Duchenne smile.
55

A. The main point of interest was how smiling would affect their ability to cope with the
discomfort. The full, Duchenne smile was shown to be superior to the other facial expressions in
this respect. So, fake or not, putting on a Duchenne smile may be just the tonic to combat physical
and psychological difficulties.
B. In a straightforward study, one group of volunteers was asked to reproduce smiles shown in
photographs, and another group to evaluate whether the first group's smiles were authentic. Some
of the photographs depicted mouth-only smiles, but others showed smiles using both mouth and
eye muscles. Two-thirds of individuals turned out to be able to fake a supposedly authentic smile,
and they were also able to do this well in their everyday lives.
C. Culturally, smiling resonates across human history, from the grinning Greek kouros sculptures
of 2,500 years ago to modern-day emojis. The most popular emoji of all is the face with tears of
joy. Just as this emoji expresses more than mere happiness – tears adding an ironic twist – smiles
themselves convey so much more.
D. The smile, then, can be a false friend. People smile – or not for all kinds of reasons beyond
simply how happy they are feeling.
E. I know what you're thinking: we all put on a smile now and again to placate our fellow humans
and avoid unnecessary conflict. We all suppose, however, that a genuine smile of true enjoyment
is something very different.
F. What does this tell us? It suggests that in a context where physical dominance is important,
smiling can be a sign of appeasement – possibly some kind of peace offering – and subordinate
status.
G. Participants were asked to hold a pen in the mouth by its tip. Some held it with the teeth,
creating a smile without the person concerned realising it, while others held the pen with the lips
producing a pout rather than a smile. Pens in mouths, the participants then rated the humour in
some cartoons. Intriguingly, the cartoons were rated as funnier when the pen was held with the
teeth than when held with the lips.
56

BEAVERS
Beavers play an important role in keeping Rhode Island's waters clean
There are an estimated 30 million beavers across North America. As a keystone species, beavers
enrich ecosystems around them. By building dams, they control water moving through their
habitat, retaining the flow during times of drought and slowing it down during heavy rain and
floods. This also creates beaver ponds-areas several meters deep they use for sleeping and eating.
However, a study by the American Society of Agronomy says beavers are doing something more:
they are now helping to remove nitrogen that has moved its way through soil into ground water
and lakes and streams.
1: _____________
In time these plants die and decompose, consuming the oxygen from the waters, creating low
oxygen levels that kill fish. While these dead zones are common in the Gulf of Mexico, they are
also becoming a problem along northeastern U.S. coastlines. However, according to the study
findings of Professor Arthur Gold and colleagues of the University of Rhode Island, this problem
is less common where there are beavers.
2: _____________
Thanks to a naturally occurring bacterium present in the soil of beaver ponds, 5% to 45% of
nitrogen in the water can be removed, depending on the pond and the amount of nitrogen present,
the study found. This bacterium is able to transform nitrogen in the water into nitrogen gas.
3: _____________
This transformative power was tested by taking samples from the beds of beaver ponds, and
adding nitrogen to them. These samples were large enough to incorporate the factors that generate
the chemical and biological processes that take place in the pond.
4: _____________
The experiments also found that 12% of the nitrogen gases created in the samples were nitrous
oxide, a very potent greenhouse gas and air pollutant. To put this into perspective, considered over
a 100-year period, nitrous oxide is calculated to have between 265 and 310 times more impact
than carbon dioxide does. However, the scientists pointed out that the high amount was likely to
be a result of some unique laboratory conditions and that it is unlikely these ponds would release
that much of the gas in nature.
5: _____________
Most of these semi-aquatic animals are in areas with small streams, rather than big rivers, and the
beaver dams in these smaller streams are usually the first to be removed. They are considered a
nuisance because they block the waterways. This causes a decrease in beaver populations. It is
therefore important that these areas remain untouched so they can positively affect nitrogen levels
downstream. Professor Gold now hopes to study the ponds over a longer period and to investigate
abandoned ponds to see if the nitrogen-retaining qualities remain after the beavers have gone.
6: _____________
In addition, these areas of water also attract other wildlife such as insects and birds which are vital
to the ecosystem. Studies like the one carried out by Professor Gold may well give people a new-
found appreciation for the beaver.
57

A. These results have interesting implications. According to Julia Lazar, who was involved in
conducting some of the work as part of her doctoral dissertation and is now working as an
environmental consultant, it might change our attitude to beavers and their ponds.
B. At the same time, the specimens were also sufficiently small to be easily replicated, managed
and measured for numerous changes. The scientists then added a special type of nitrogen to the
soil that allowed them to tell if the nitrogen levels were altered and how.
C. Streamside wetlands are one example of such elements, said Professor Gold, who studies these
types of features in his research. But nobody had ever documented the role beaver ponds might
play.
D. Found in agricultural fertilizers, nitrogen is often introduced to such areas by runoff, eventually
travelling to estuaries where rivers meet the sea. Once in the water system, it has been known to
cause what is known as eutrophication. This is where a sudden increase in nutrients can cause
blooms of algae to grow.
E. This process is known as de-nitrification and means the nitrogen is no longer stored within the
stream or pond, and thus can no longer degrade water quality further downstream. However, some
of the nitrogen is not changed to gas, but instead is stored in organic soils.
F. They are a species whose numbers crashed after widespread hunting 150 years ago, but with
their return they are helping solve one of the major problems of the 21st century and that should
not be underestimated. It is important to remember that those ponds would not be there without
the beavers.
G. When the team set out to conduct their research, they quickly realized the water retention time
and organic matter build-up within beavers' ponds lead to the creation of ideal conditions for
eliminating nitrogen. They then wanted to see how effectively this was done.
58

COSTA RICAN HOLIDAY

Not again. It's the third morning in succession we've been woken by howler monkeys. The noise
invades your consciousness like some distant wind and builds into a sustained roar until you fling
off the sheets and sit up, cursing. Awake, you can hear the throaty rasp. The volume is
astonishing: this is reputedly the loudest voice on the planet yet it comes from an animal no larger
than a cat.
1: _____________
Later on that morning, strapped into harness and helmet and slightly regretting my immense
breakfast, I find myself standing on a narrow platform overlooking the forested gorge. A steel
cable arcs down through the trees to some invisible point on the other side. This seems the last
chance to voice my fears, were it not for the fact that my nine-year-old daughter is already clipped
on ahead of me. The last thing I see as she launches into the void is her grin.
2: _____________
As I zigzag down from platform to platform I can relax enough to appreciate the gurgle of the
river and the chorus of birdsong. There is even time to spot a troop of howler monkeys in the
crown of a fig tree. By the time we swing off the final platform, fun has definitely conquered fear.
3: _____________
'They control our climate,' our guide Daniel Monge had told us on day one. He had showed us on
our map how Costa Rica's peaks line up to form a barrier down the spine of the country. The
eastern slopes, which fall away to the Caribbean, get most of the rainfall and are carpeted in lush
tropical rainforest. The western Pacific slopes lie in the rain shadow, so their forests are more arid.
4: _____________
By afternoon, the skies had cleared, giving us picture-book views of Turrialba, the next volcano
on our route. An ominous plume of smoke rose from the summit, and the Lodge, our stop for the
night, was directly below. 'Don't worry,' said Daniel, 'it's been doing that for three years.'
5: _____________
From that experience to watching how sugar was made seemed a natural leap. We joined a group
to watch as the estate's two oxen turned a huge mill wheel that crushed fresh cane to a sticky pulp.
The children's eyes widened as the first fresh juice was boiled up into a slow-bubbling gloop of
golden molasses, then the raw sugar was spread, chopped and sifted.
6: _____________
For our last two days, we descended from Rincón de la Vieja to our hotel in Playa Panama. It
turns out to be perfect: the lush grounds, the huge pool, the lavish breakfast and the warm ocean
just beyond. How better to wind down before the flight home? There's only one problem, and it
comes at 5.03 am on our final morning: a thunderous wake-up call courtesy of the planet's noisiest
primates. I pull my pillow over my ears.
59

A. Our next stop was on neither of these, however, but in the misty highlands that divide them.
We drove up a hairpin ascent to Costa Rica's highest active volcano. On a good day, you can see
both coasts from here. We had no such luck, but the swirling mist allowed glimpses into the
flooded crater.
B. Still, an early start is no bad thing. So far, we've needed every minute of daylight to get through
our breathless itinerary, and our time at this guest house promises to be the most action-packed
yet.
C. That evening, inspired by what we'd seen, we cooked our own Costa Rican meal. Our hosts
provided ingredients and instructions, and then kept a discreet distance as we sliced, mashed,
drizzled and seasoned to produce our best shot at a traditional supper.
D. But you don't need a guide to find Costa Rica's wildlife. In fact, you don't even need to go
looking for it. So exuberant is nature in this part of the world that wild creatures form an
unavoidable backdrop to whatever else you might get up to.
E. The next morning, with these anxieties having proved unfounded, we wound further down
through the coffee plantations in the sunshine to the estate of Tayutic. Here, my daughter helped
to sort good macadamia nuts from bad as they rattled down the chute, then attempted to crush
dried coffee beans in a stone mill.
F. Admittedly, this would feel even more daunting if we hadn't done this already a few days ago,
on the slopes of Arenal Volcano. Then, I found it terrifying, hurtling at unnatural speeds high
above the canopy. Now I'm a little more confident.
G. But before I can glory in my success, we're making our way to a hot springs resort, the
penultimate stop on our two-week Costa Rican adventure tour. Like the other volcanoes we've
seen in the country, the one near here belches sulphurous smoke.
60

THE UNBEARABLE HYPOCRISY OF BEING AN ENVIRONMENTALIST

Canadian environmentalist Rosa Sharp explores the contradictions inherent in the lives of those
who choose to live a greener life
I consider myself an environmentalist, yet last weekend I spent five hours in a car dealership
going through the rigmarole of getting a new car – arguably one of the most polluting devices in
modern-day life.
1: _____________
In a similar vein, an environmental lawyer I know, who came to his profession amid a deep
affinity for and desire to protect the environment, now works seventy hours a week in a city
centre office, staring at his computer screen. The work in which he makes great strides to protect
the natural world also prevents him from enjoying it, leaving him torn between the change he
wants to create, and his ability to enjoy the countryside for more than the odd weekend between
cases.
2: _____________
This unbearable hypocrisy is a struggle for the individual and a delight for the critic, yet it seems
both necessary and inescapable. All of us exist within the very system we hope to change. I use a
laptop, a smartphone, internet, electricity. Most of the publications I write anti-consumerism
articles for are paid for by advertisements for consumer products. This delicate balancing act
epitomises the seemingly inescapable reality of the modern world which we've built and which
now runs our lives.
3: _____________
However, an escape of this kind also means losing priceless human connection and culture, as
well as the chance to educate or inspire change in others. The fear of navigating this intellectual
conflict, as well as the fear of armchair critics declaring that you've failed is, I believe, at the heart
of many people's reluctance to adopt more green practices.
4: _____________
Apparently, a decision to live in a way which limits the damage you're causing to the environment
means instantly opening yourself up to harsh criticism. You never committed to changing
everything in your life, and yet, having made one or two changes, you're suddenly expected to be
able to justify just about any aspect of your life that your attacker chooses.
5: _____________
My own reluctant decision to continue running a car came about as a result of several carefully
considered factors including the limited public transportation options in my city and six months of
harsh Canadian winter. Yes it makes me feel bad, but choosing to try to be green means putting up
with the fact that you'll fail, at least some of the time.
6: _____________
I think environmentalist George Monbiot sums it up best: 'Hypocrisy is the gap between your
aspirations and your actions. Environmentalists have high aspirations– they want to live more
ethically – and they will always fall short. But the alternative to hypocrisy isn't moral purity (no
one manages that), but cynicism. Give me hypocrisy any day?
61

A. After all, most of us would be put off to discover that, by deciding to start cycling to work or
buying only locally produced food, we have tacitly branded ourselves and joined the often-
mocked world of righteously indignant environmentalists who protest against energy companies
while still availing themselves of heated homes and gas-powered transportation.
B. It seems cruel that trying to safeguard what you love should mean you are unable to experience
it first-hand. But such contrasts exist in the lives of most environmentalists. Some of us own cars;
some still eat meat. The more famous regularly fly great distances to speak about the horrific
impact of carbon emissions such as that released by the airplanes they arrived on.
C. And after all, why should anyone have to do this? There's an assumption that you'll have all the
answers. Why bother recycling when you still drive? Aren't those annual flights erasing the impact
of anything else you do?" Well, of course in an ideal world, we environmentalists would live
completely ethically, but this isn't an ideal world.
D. Although I advocate buying second-hand, I chose to lease new. I encourage walking, cycling
and public transportation, and I do take advantage of these options regularly, yet here I was,
accepting the keys and setting off with a shiny new ride and a sinking sense of discomfort.
E. They provide a perfect illustration of how being an environmentalist has always been about the
need to make compromises. For most of us, leaving modern life behind just isn't an option.
However, the fact that living a greener existence is challenging doesn't mean we shouldn't do what
we can.
F. In order to avoid it, one would need to go off the grid; abandon modern living for a hut in the
woods. It's a move which, if you're brave enough to make it, enables you to subtract most of your
environmental impact, and I think everyone, myself included, fantasises about it from time to
time.
G. And I've come to realise that it's a compromise I can live with. We can either accept the status
quo, or work towards something better. Doing so often looks less like an off-grid hut in the woods
and more like finding a way to exist in an uncomfortably unsustainable society whilst also trying
to change it.
62

THE ART OF SOUND IN MOVIES

The monstrous complexity of sound editing work – the quest to make films sound the way the
world sounds – may not be immediately apparent. After a movie has been filmed, it enters the
labyrinthine world of post-production, in which the best takes are selected and spliced together
into roughly 20-minute segments of film. These are worked on and then stitched together at the
end of post-production.
1: _____________
The distinction between these processes is subtle: the first two have more to do with the creation
and selection of the sounds that make up each scene, and the development of a cohesive aural
aesthetic for a movie. The third involves taking sounds created by the designers and editors and
integrating them in each scene so that everything comes across as 'natural'.
2: _____________
First, editors remove the audio recordings taken during filming and break down each scene into
distinct sonic elements, namely dialogue, effects, music and Foley. 'Foley' is the term used for
everyday sounds such as squeaky shoes or cutlery jangling in a drawer.
3: _____________
Consider a classic movie scene in which something important has just happened, for example a
villain has just pulled up in his car. There are a few moments of what might be mistaken for
stillness. Nothing moves – but the soundscape is deceptively layered There might be a mostly
unnoticeable rustle of leaves in the trees periodically, so faint that almost no one would register it
consciously. Or the sound of a vehicle rolling through an intersection a block or two over, off
camera, a dog barks somewhere far away.
4: _____________
All this requires a very particular and somewhat strange set of talents and fascinations. You need
the ability not only to hear with an almost superhuman ear, but also the technical proficiency and
saint-like patience to spend hours getting the sound of a kettle's hiss exactly the right length as
well as the right pitch and not only the right pitch but the right pitch considering that the camera
moves across the scene during the shot.
5: _____________
This is why there is something very slightly unnerving about spending time around people whose
powers of perception suggest the existence of an entirely different layer of reality that you are
missing. The way they work requires an entirely different – and, in some senses, unnatural – way
of experiencing sound. The process reflects the fact that each sound is important enough to
deserve its own consideration, so each gets edited separately before being put all together and
checked for coherence.
6: _____________
Consequently, the vast majority of people walk around not hearing most of what there is to hear.
Not so, for most sound editors. It can be mildly excruciating to listen this hard, to hear so much,
which is why some of the team wear earplugs when they walk around the city.
63

A. Each of these components needs to be built and then edited separately for every scene before
being assigned its own dedicated editor. Then, the top guys take the team's work and layer it to
make scenes that sound like the real world sounds.
B. The gesture had the studious flourish which a minor orchestral instrumentalist – say, the
triangle – player might devote to his one entrance. But instead of being the work of the actor,
likely as not, that was a mustachioed man standing in his socks in a warehouse somewhere.
C. This is radically unlike the way the human brain is designed to hear. We are predisposed to
heed the rhythms and pitch of people talking and noises that might indicate threat. Other sounds –
like 'white noise' – are depressed so that the brain fires fewer responses and we automatically
'tune out'. This is how the brain converts sound into information.
D. The viewer's ear will subconsciously anticipate hearing a maddeningly subtle, but critical,
Doppler effect, which means that the tone it makes as it boils needs to shift downward at precisely
the interval that a real one would if you happened to walk by at that speed.
E. Each part goes through picture editing (for such things as visual continuity or colour) before
being handed over to the sound supervisor, who oversees all the various elements of sound design,
sound editing, and mixing.
F. When the thud of his boot heel finally connects with the asphalt, his breathing is laboured, even
the pads of his fingers creak as they make contact with the collar of his leather jacket as he
straightens. None of these are there because some microphone picked them up. They're there
because someone chose them and put them there, like every other sound in the film.
G. In other words, it is important to make sure the sound of a butterfly landing on the hood of a
car isn't louder than a car backfiring. Only a few people have an ear for these types of work.
64

COOKING WITH A SOLAR OVEN

A solar oven is any kind of device that uses the sun to cook food. Its function is very simple – to
harness or focus the energy from the sun. Here is an outline of the pros and cons of these devices,
together with some information that will provide a better understanding of this method of
cooking.
1: _____________
Looking at the bigger picture, think about our planet for a moment. As we all know, the
production of electricity by traditional means causes horrifying air pollution as well as depleting
natural resources of fossil fuels. Cooking directly with gas, oil or coal is hardly any better. Solar
cooking bypasses all of these damaging consequences, which is a definite plus.
2: _____________
The science behind solar cooking is not at all difficult to understand. As anyone who has ever
experienced sunburn can tell you, the sun is hot but it usually just burns the surface of the skin.
When it comes to cooking things like meat, burning the outside while not fully cooking below the
surface is a recipe for disaster. So how do we use and control this powerful source of energy in
cooking? There are two main ideas to think about.
3: _____________
The other essential is trapping that heat energy so that the energy isn't lost to the air or cooled by
the wind. Unlike a conventional oven, the enclosure needs to allow light in, so the best material to
use is glass or some form of clear plastic. This creates its own kind of greenhouse effect, allowing
the sun's rays to enter, and a more stable cooking temperature can be maintained.
4: _____________
With so many models on the market and so many things to recommend them, why aren't we all
using solar ovens? Well, firstly, you can't use them at night, obviously. They're not much use if it's
cloudy either. What you do need is lots of sun – preferably completely uninterrupted by cloud.
And patience – you need lots of patience.
5: _____________
This brings us to another limitation – the food you can prepare in a solar oven. Baking and
roasting are OK, while frying and grilling need a different type of cooker. Also, as we've said, the
food is best cut up and this lends itself to soups and stews rather than steaks or more elaborate
dishes. Recipes exist for solar-cooked versions of many dishes but you may have to compromise a
little on taste, texture or appearance.
6: _____________
Despite these disadvantages, there's a lot to be said for solar cooking, particularly in countries
where fuel costs test the means of many poor families. It's a very satisfying moment when you
produce a beautifully-cooked meal that has cost nothing to cook and has caused absolutely no
damage to the environment.
65

A. The first requirement is that we have to somehow concentrate the sunlight. This is a trick done
with mirrors or, at least, with a reflective surface. You harness the sunlight hitting as large a
reflective area as possible and then focus it on a smaller area. Many ovens use curved or parabolic
mirrors so that the reflected heat is brought together into a more concentrated beam.
B. There's just one final drawback to consider. Unlike any other heat source, the sun is constantly
moving throughout the day. Ideally, you should move the oven to face the sun every hour or so.
This is inconvenient if you plan to be out all day, although there is a workaround. You can
position the oven so that it is pointing to the place where the sun will be in the middle of the day
and that will maximise the heat you will harness. The food will still cook but cooking times will
be even longer.
C. The first advantage is that there are none of the running costs associated with conventional
types of cooking. There's no expensive gas, coal, wood or electricity to pay for. Once you've made
the initial outlay for the device, maintenance costs are minimal. There are so few moving parts
that wear and tear is practically non-existent. A solar oven should be for life.
D. Beyond these two basics, there's a world of refinements and variables. The oven walls should
be insulated to stop the heat from escaping. Some devices have a valve to allow steam and excess
heat to escape. The designs vary but they all do the job, and your food is cooked without cost to
yourself or the environment.
E. In comparison tests, we found very little differences between the types of oven. The cheaper
versions struggled to hold the heat in quite as well as the more expensive ones. This naturally
meant the food took longer to cook but it was just as tasty. Otherwise, the differences were largely
cosmetic, although one of our reviewers liked the model with the turntable base as it enables you
to turn the oven towards the sun without spilling the contents.
F. This is because solar cooking is very slow and to a large extent unpredictable. Nowadays, we're
spoiled by reliable cooking times. If you want to bake a potato in a microwave oven, you can do it
in ten minutes and you know it will take exactly that. With a solar oven it could take all day and
even then it might not be cooked properly. You'd have a better chance if the potato was cut up into
smaller pieces, but then again, it would no longer be a baked potato.
G. The advantages for the environment don't stop there either. Even if you have a plentiful, free
supply of firewood, the smoke from burning wood is known to be a particularly noxious blend.
Cutting down trees will lead to deforestation, soil being washed away, and eventually
desertification. Solar cooking avoids all of that too, and here's how.
66

BEARDS
Beards, like most things relating to personal appearance, are subject to fashion; though in some
cultures there is more to it than that. To look into the history of beards can involve dipping into a
wide range of fields of study: culture and society, politics, psychology, evolution and, believe it or
not, taxation – to name a few.
1: _____________
Still in ancient times, in India beards were grown long and were a symbol of dignity and wisdom.
In fact, in the East generally, beards were highly regarded, and if the wearer fell foul of the
powers that be, could be cut off as a punishment.
2: _____________
We can see from these few examples how attitudes towards beards in the past have varied
depending on cultural assumptions and traditions and the period's fashion trends. In some
cultures, it seems to be de rigueur to have a beard, while it predominates in others because beards
are seen to exemplify masculinity, wisdom, strength and social status.
3: _____________
Returning to the historical perspective, beards were again 'in' during the Middle Ages and most
noblemen and knights wore them. The Renaissance, in England at any rate, was less beardy,
helped by a tax on beards imposed by Henry VIII – who had a beard himself – which was retained
by Elizabeth I, mainly because she didn't like them. The 18th century was for the most part clean-
shaven, while the 19th was very hairy indeed.
4: _____________
The personal foibles of kings and queens have no sway in the modern world, so whether or not
beards are in or out of fashion must come from the streets – or the Sunday supplements and
fashion magazines. In fact, recently beards have made a bit of a comeback; though how long this
will last it is difficult to say. Men have long experimented with their facial hair; sometimes with
beards, sometimes moustaches, and sometimes, though less often with sideburns and whiskers.
5: _____________
What, in fact, is the point of a beard? Do they serve an evolutionary purpose? After all, not having
one hasn't done women, children and many men any harm in evolutionary terms. If it is a kind of
male plumage designed to attract more mates, is there any evidence to show that the hirsute have
more partners and children than the smooth?
6: _____________
Whatever the answer, the lack of solid evidence means that we can't conclude that beards evolved
because women were genuinely attracted to them. This, too, may depend on culture and tradition,
or current trends in styles of men's grooming. It's probably a combination of seeking to be both
attractive and seeing off the competition. Or vanity.
67

A. One difference between then and now is that in the past these trends would last for years, even
decades, while nowadays they are more short-lived. This suggests that they are driven by the
dictates of fashion rather than any more deep-seated social or cultural undercurrents. Indeed, are
there ever more serious, even biological, reasons for cultivating facial hair than mere fashion?
B. Another monarch who disapproved of beards was Peter the Great of Russia. He had travelled
in Europe and wanted to make Russia more European, so as well as modernising the military and
improving the infrastructure of his country, he imposed a tax on beards. Anyone failing to pay the
tax was humiliated in public by having it roughly cut off.
C. Attitudes towards beards have varied greatly over time, both in terms of their appearance and
in what they said about the wearer. For example, in ancient Egypt, the rich and powerful wore
beards which were dyed and sometimes plaited with interwoven gold thread.
D. Research on beards has shown that if this is a kind of turkey-cocking, then its purpose is more
to impress other men than to attract the opposite sex, to show who is the more masculine. Yet
when you think about it, beards are a disadvantage in a fight. And opinion is divided as to whether
women are in fact more attracted to bearded men; some surveys say they are, some say they
aren't.
E. At first, it seems, the Romans were as a rule a hairy bunch, being rough and manly world
conquerors. Later they took to shaving, while their servants remained bearded; then, when an
emperor grew a beard to hide the scars on his face, beards came back into fashion among the
affluent classes.
F. The beard had a brief resurgence in the 1960s when a few pop and rock musicians started to
sport them; and we shouldn't underestimate the influence such people have on the youth of the
age. Hippies wore them too, but there were far fewer hippies about than people now suppose,
despite Woodstock.
G. Biology and evolutionary psychology would seem to back some of this up. Beards are a sign
of maturity and they also increase the perceived size of the jaw which, apparently, makes men
more attractive to the opposite sex. As one psychologist says, beards communicate an heroic
image of independence, dependability, resourcefulness and an ability to do manly things.
68

LEARNING TO COOK
Writer and historian Angie Cullen looks at the history of cooking and finds that we're not as
sophisticated as we'd like to think.
In prehistory, home was often either a cave or a roughly constructed shelter. People lived on fruit,
berries, roots, nuts and seeds. But they also learned to cook, having mastered hunting and how to
control fire. Cooking was mostly done outside. Think cooking over a campfire, and you won't be
far out. The social aspect of eating a meal has its origins right here.
1: _____________
To start with, this meant feeding the immediate family, but if there was still more food, other
members of the community would be invited. The host would be celebrated if this happened
regularly, and would gain a higher position in society. Cooking was a simple affair, with roasting
meat on a spit being the obvious choice.
2: _____________
Another method made use of those heated stones to raise the temperature of a pit filled with water
so that the meat could be boiled. For those living near the river or the coast, fish could also be
boiled of course. We know that fish was also coated in wet clay and placed in a fire. This ensured
it was cooked through without charring the outside.
3: _____________
The development of farming meant that people could settle more permanently. It also led to a
surplus of food, so that it was no longer necessary for everyone to be involved in hunting,
gathering, building fires or cooking. In other words, people had time to devote to new skills,
among them pottery and later metalwork.
4: _____________
The discovery and use of these new materials helped create cookware which has remained
incredibly similar ever since. Naturally, refinements have been made, but a large pan in today's
kitchen doesn't differ all that much from an Iron Age version.
5: _____________
There's one major problem with this arrangement, however, and that's smoke. Yes, an indoor fire
solves problems caused by the wind and the rain, but living and sleeping in a smoke-filled room
brings problems of its own. It took a surprisingly long time to solve this, but eventually it was
done with the invention of the chimney, and ultimately a separate room – the kitchen.
6: _____________
The popularity of large, open plan kitchens where family and guests can sit and chat with the cook
is a very recent development. After generations of kitchens and their occupants being hidden
away, they now take centre stage in our homes. Think about it for a moment; family and friends
gather around the stove to eat and socialise. Remind you of anything? For all the mod cons in
today's kitchen, the way we use it goes right back to our prehistoric roots.
69

A. A level of sophistication was needed in order to combat the effects of the wind and rain. One
method was to light a fire in a hole dug in the ground and heat large stones on it. The meat was
then placed on the hot stones, covered with earth (protected by wet leaves) and left to cook
through slowly.
B. It's most likely that the earliest uses of pottery were in cooking and food preparation. You can
certainly see the appeal of being able to keep food free from dirt, as well as being able to transport
water more easily and avoid burns. As for metal implements, after improved tools and weapons
for hunting, food preparation would have been next to benefit.
C. That's because a successful hunter would bring home more food than was needed for one
person. With no means of preserving or keeping food fresh, the food had to be eaten before it
went off, so the logical thing to do was to all eat together.
D. Things developed more rapidly once homes had a dedicated space for cooking. Stoves and
ovens became more sophisticated, cleaner and more easily regulated. Electricity, of course,
brought a whole range of extra luxuries, and fridges, freezers and dishwashers all helped to ease
the cook's burden. However, kitchens in homes were still small and functional, and were often
sited at the back of the house, as if we were just a little bit ashamed of them.
E. The rise of television and, in particular, cooking programmes, has helped with this. Thanks to
the popularity of celebrity chefs, the average household has been motivated to try dishes that were
unheard of before. People stopped complaining that their food was boring, and more and more
people were tempted to try out their culinary skills.
F. Where there has been a major change, ofcourse, is in the relocation of the cooking area from
the open air, via an outside courtyard, to an indoor space. At first, the house would be a single
room, with all the action – sleeping, playing, cooking and eating – taking place around a central
fire.
G. All this inventiveness came about in the absence of cooking utensils. People moved around a
lot, and carrying things like pots and pans would have been an issue, even if they had them.
Despite people moving to semi-permanent settlements, perhaps for a season at a time,
archaeological finds still only reveal evidence of some kind of fire pit and very little else.
70

FRACKING
'Europe would do well to emulate the shale boom in the United States,' says one expert. 'For a
start, it would bring down energy prices. And it would lessen dependence on other countries for
energy.'
1: _____________
Across Europe, companies have tried and failed to emulate the success of fracking in the US. This
has more than a little to do with public and political opposition. It is feared that fracking will
destroy the landscape, contaminate drinking water and clog country lanes with heavy duty
vehicles.
2: _____________
So what is fracking, and why does it provoke so much opposition? As you would expect, those in
the energy business claim that it is a safe and efficient way of extracting gas and oil from the
ground, while environmentalists and community groups say it is a destructive and dangerous
technology whose economic benefits are not worth the damage done to the environment.
3: _____________
It's the next part of the process that gives rise to a lot of the controversy. As shale gas is trapped in
dense layers of rock and cannot flow freely by drilling alone, hydraulic fracturing is used to ease
the flow. This involves pumping millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals at high pressure
to open fractures in the rock.
4: _____________
Although the natural gas extracted by these methods burns cleaner, emitting less carbon dioxide,
doing so can have a negative impact on the environment. Both water supplies and water pollution
are concerns. Because millions of gallons are used in the fracking process, some of it has to be
diverted from other uses; and the possibly dangerous chemicals used can be released through
spills, leaks or badly constructed wells. For example, after a site is fractured, the waste water must
be treated and then disposed of or reused, but the practice of storing waste water in open pits
gives rise to concerns about the contamination of freshwater aquifers. One study found raised
levels of radium, bromide and other contaminants in wastewater released into local streams.
5: _____________
In one or two areas in the US, people claim that they can set fire to their tap water as a result of
fracking, and this got a lot of media attention. However, it is now known that the water was
flammable before fracking. Another area of concern is climate change. Again, this is a hotly
debated topic, mostly about the amount of methane, a major greenhouse gas, released by fracking.
In 2013, one study showed that up to that point the volume of methane gas released by fracking
was lower than anyone had thought. But more recently, other research, using satellite imagery, has
found that levels may be higher than was previously thought.
6: _____________
So, given these potential problems, should Europe jump on the fracking bandwagon, as our expert
advised? We need the energy it provides, and the economic benefits and independence that come
with it. But how sure are we that these benefits outweigh the possible damage to our health and
the environment?
71

A. While these techniques have allowed energy producers to tap into large shale oil and gas
deposits in the US, some sites span several states, so a huge area is involved – there has to be
some effect on the environment. And those who oppose fracking have made some hair-raising
claims about the dangers – to both people and the environment – some of which may be true.
B. But this shale boom relies on hydraulic fracturing, or 'fracking' as it's colloquially known, and
is a contentious issue. Surveys suggest that Europe has more recoverable shale gas than the US,
yet so far little exploration has been done. Several European countries, including Germany and
France, have to all intents and purposes banned fracking, and the only country advocating it with
any vigour is the UK.
C. But there is a final concern which also gets media attention, and that is earthquakes. There is
some evidence that in areas where fracking has taken place there is increased seismic activity.
D. However, the scientific findings on the impact of fracking are mixed. One report – a synthesis
of several other reports – said that there were serious concerns about drinking water, respiratory
health, seismic activity, soil contamination and the impact of new roads and infrastructure on local
communities. Another report decided that these dangers,while of genuine concern, were
manageable. Yet another, from the Environmental Protection Agency, said there was no
widespread impact on drinking water.
E. As conventional natural gas supplies dwindle, energy companies seek out more unconventional
sources, which include such new technologies as hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling to
get the gas out of shale rock. Many countries have been targeted for this treatment and energy
companies are buying up land where there is potential for shale gas.
F. Back in 2011, earth tremors caused by drilling in the north-west of England led to a one-year
moratorium on fracking in the country, and in 2013 a company had to stop drilling when hundreds
of protesters camped out where they were working. In other countries, too, locals and
environmental campaigners have blocked or stopped companies from fracking in their area.
G. Basically, hydraulic fracturing is a means of extracting natural gas trapped in shale formations
by drilling down – sometimes as far as ten thousand feet – to the sedimentary rocks, and then
drilling sideways for a mile or more. This sideways drilling has been widely used for about forty
years to extract conventional oil and gas.
72

A PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP
Robin Moore joined a photography workshop in order to improve his skills, and learned a lot
more besides.
The rain is lashing down and I have long since stopped caring about getting any wetter. My feet
are now soaked as if I'm not wearing any shoes or socks. I'm cold too. So cold that I have an
ongoing dilemma: do I stuff my hands deep into my clothing in search of the last bit of warmth, or
keep them in front of me for protection when I fall?
1: _____________
Not that going out in the pouring rain was my choice, exactly, but I am committed to being a good
student. Yesterday's mission was to photograph a beach, which we did in glorious sunshine.
Brendan Callaghan, the organiser, was forced to improvise today's lesson. As day struggled to
break on our last morning, he announced with a smile that it would be called, 'How to make the
best of unfavourable conditions'.
2: _____________
As we set up tripods in the relative shelter of some overhanging rocks, the view of the stream and
the stone bridge didn't strike me as worth photographing at all. Brendan was right about one thing
though – unless there is total darkness, there's always a photograph to be had. In my case, that
photograph has since been printed, framed, and hung on my living room wall. It was one of my
proudest moments.
3: _____________
Part of this renewed optimism came from the camaraderie that I experienced among my fellow
workshop participants. Although they might not have been individuals I would pick as close
friends, a bond soon developed between us. I found people extremely pleasant and helpful, and I
loved being in their company. I began to notice that I too was making that little bit more effort. I
think it has permanently changed the way I interact with strangers.
4: _____________
The workshop changed that forever. Not only did it put my picture-taking on another level, but it
reminded me why I used to love taking them. I learned and relearned techniques that are essential,
but really don't take much effort, such as the importance of effective composition, changing your
position slightly to get a better shot, and adjusting your settings to exploit the available light. I
learned about the manual settings on my camera and why they are worth using (whereas I was just
a 'point-and-shoot' type who left everything on automatic before). Brendan was a brilliant person
to have by my side for five days – better than all the manuals and tutorials in the world.
5: _____________
We had a short session on printing, mounting and framing those masterpieces too. Again, there are
some rules, but those rules are so simple to learn, and they make all the difference. Here as with
all the other elements of the workshop, Brendan encouraged the group to give their input. This
provided the steepest learning curve, as we're all at different stages in our photography and we've
all arrived through different routes. Sharing my opinions and hearing other people's views focused
my mind on the things that matter the most.
6: _____________
I think the most valuable lesson of all, though, was about life itself. The workshop instilled in me
a renewed faith in humanity. This business of looking at things differently is more than just
another photography skill to have under your belt. We could all do with a change of viewpoint
from time to time. Yes, my photography improved – greatly – but so did my outlook.
73

A. Brendan, along with everyone in the west of Ireland, knows that these can prevail at any time.
This seems to be the perfect place to describe the weather as 'changeable', and rain is just a part of
life. 'The sun could come out in an hour anyway,' Brendan added cheerfully. It didn't, and the rain
didn't let up all day, but that fact couldn't stop it from being a hugely successful day.
B. All that, however, has less to do with cameras than with being with people who share a
common purpose, but on the photography side of things there's no shortage of benefits to report
either. Always a hobby of mine, my photography had slowly declined into an afterthought. I'd got
into a rut with my picture taking. I knew what an excellent landscape photograph looked like, but
the chances of one coming out of my camera were very remote indeed.
C. Bokeh is the term used to describe the effect sometimes seen in the part of a picture that is not
in focus. This can detract from an image, but photographers often like to exploit it. It is best seen
when the subject has small bright objects in the background. When they are out of focus, they can
appear as enlarged and blurred round or heptagonal shapes, which can be very attractive.
D. The last time I experienced anything similar to this was after my car broke down in the middle
of a storm and I'd left my mobile phone at home. This time, however, I've chosen to do it. I've
finally decided to take my landscape photography up a notch, and joined a workshop.
E. Having mastered the art of getting considerably better images out of my camera, I also learned
about post-production. This was a brave new world for me, and frankly one that I was too timid to
enter on my own. Here again, Brendan showed great dedication and patience. Photographs that
were marred by some imperfection or other became great under his expert tutelage. He showed
me how to straighten crooked horizons, crop effectively, remove unwanted objects, and make a
hundred other adjustments that helped create works of art out of images I would have just deleted.
F. So what are the lessons I took away with me? Primarily that photographic vision is paramount.
To be able to take a great shot time and again, you need to see it before you press the button. You
might need to change the way you look at things, but if you can master that, everything else will
fall into place. Oh, and don't get hung up on equipment. You can learn to create excellent images
using the cheapest of cameras.
G. That final day represented more than just a great photography lesson with something concrete
to show for it. Somehow, the idea of making the most of a bad situation resonated with me on
other levels too. When I think back on being soaked to the skin, I remember it with huge
fondness. 'There is no such thing as bad weather – it's just weather,' says the new me.
74

TIMING A TALK
When people groan that they have been to a dreadful talk, the most common reason they give for
their misery is 'he went on and on and on'. A poorly presented subject can suffer, for the sake of
the topic itself, if it keeps to time. But a talk which is both boring and drones on for endless
minutes after the clock shows that the finishing time is passed, is a torture. Even an interesting,
well presented talk which goes on for too long is remembered with little pleasure. The timing of a
talk is, then, extremely important.
1: _____________
Why does it matter so much? It is a question which I have thought about a great deal. It is quite
obvious that speakers don't think it matters greatly. It is equally obvious, both from listening to
others, and from observing one's own reactions when trapped in the audience for a talk which
goes on far too long, that to the audience timing is vital.
2: _____________
The first is the different adrenalin levels in speakers and listeners. Put quite simply, they perceive
time differently. The excitement and fear produced by speaking causes adrenalin to flush into the
veins in large quantities. The result is that speakers have stamina, a resistance to tiring, and
endurance, which is superhuman. They can go on all day.
3: _____________
Speakers, then, are in an abnormal state. They are indifferent to time and tiredness and while they
are speaking they feel as if they could go on all day. But the audience is in quite the opposite state.
Sitting down and having nothing to do but listen actually reduces adrenalin below its normal
level.
4: _____________
The second reason is that audience and speaker probably have different emotional concerns about
the subject. The speaker has been working on the topic for some time, preparing the talk. It is
quite common for the effort of preparing a talk about a subject to produce a quite profound
interest in the topic.
5: _____________
The audience, as usual, feels quite differently. Their interest in the subject of the talk is unlikely to
be so great. They may have no more than a polite interest in it. They may have no interest at all in
it and may have come to listen in the hope that the speaker will arouse an interest.
6: _____________
The third reason for the different attitudes between speaker and audience is contractual. The
timing of your talk is in effect a contract with the audience. You were invited to talk for a specific
time and you have agreed to talk for this time. The power of this contract is extraordinary. If you
have been invited to give a ten-minute presentation, the audience will become disastrously restless
after thirty minutes. They will feel that the talk was disgraceful and that the speaker is guilty of
some great social crime.
7: _____________
Of these two mistakes there is no doubt that to over-run the agreed time is more disastrous then to
under-run it. The explanation seems to be that the audience is quietly looking forward to the end
of the talk. If that time comes and passes and the speaker is still industriously talking away, the
listeners have lost their security.
75

A. It is physically inactive; even the mental activity of talking to others is stopped. The audience,
then, is at the other end of the scale from the speaker. This goes a long way to explain why they
have such different views on the passage of time.
B. On the other hand, if you end early, the audience will feel cheated. What you say may be no
different on both occasions, the organization and effectiveness of what you say may not have
changed, but that commitment that you made has not been honoured.
C. Why is there this difference? I have evolved three explanations for it which can be briefly
summarized. Let me outline them.
D. However, this kind of behaviour occurs because the average person's span of attention is
limited. The simple fact is that about five to ten minutes is as long as most people can listen
without a short day-dream. After a brief holiday to catch up with all the other thoughts floating
around their head, people come back to talk.
E. Worst of all, they may be there because they have to be, because they want to be seen there or
because someone else (such as a boss) demands they should be. Even if they are keen, they are
unlikely to feel as strongly as the speaker. They may enjoy listening for a reasonable length of
time, but then will want to do something else, like have a break or simply stretch and relax. They
will certainly not have the overbearing enthusiasm speakers often feel.
F. No other aspect of the presentation can do as much damage to the way the audience thinks of
the talk. No other aspect is so easy to control, since it is a simple mechanical matter of looking at
a clock face. And no other aspect is so easy to get wrong. Many people seem to have a casual
attitude to the timing of a talk and this can be fatal.
G. I have seen this new-found concern develop in novice speakers who had difficulty choosing
what to talk about for a practice presentation but who suddenly became passionate advocates for
what they finally settled on and started button-holing people at coffee breaks and meal times to
talk more about it. Speakers become deeply involved in what they are talking about.
H. It is this effect, too, which produces the strange pattern of elation and tiredness when you give
a talk. Typically, you feel keyed-up and ready to go before the talk and are totally unaware of
growing tiredness during it. The body's responses are artificially heightened. You draw on a
physical overdraft of energy. After the talk, this must be paid back and you suddenly feel worn
out.
76

THE ANIMAL DENTIST

Nero, the handsome seven-year-old African lion, can obviously sense, early though it still is, that
this is not going to be just another day.
1: _____________
The courtyard outside is bustling with people carrying bottles, syringes, drugs, drips and bandages
and in half an hour a mini operating theatre is set up right on Nero's doorstep.
2: _____________
This broken canine (one of his four front teeth) was spotted by a keeper a few weeks before. "The
nerve in the tooth is now totally dead," explains veterinary dentist Peter Kertesz, who has worked
on animals' teeth for 14 years.
3: _____________
Peter and his assistant Samantha divide their time between working with humans (Mondays to
Thursdays) and treating animals (Fridays). Under the name Zoodent International, Peter, 47,
performs more dental work on animals than any other practice in the world.
4: _____________
"Working with animals is much more difficult than with humans," he says, as Samantha lays out
the rows of dental instruments. "You get feedback from people and can develop a relationship
with them. With an animal, I have to make an on-the-spot diagnosis and work very quickly."
5: _____________
Peter now moves close to the bars of Nero's cage and expertly directs a tiny, plastic blowpipe dart,
containing a high dose of anaesthetic, into the lion's thigh.
6: _____________
It takes six men to heave the 180 kilogram animal 2 metres from his cage door to the hay mattress
that will serve as an operating table. With his huge head lolling helplessly and his tongue hanging
from his mouth, Nero looks sadly undignified. But this is an ideal opportunity for Peter to inspect
him for any other dental problems.
7: _____________
Peter discovers a tooth that needs filling and he sets about doing that first. "This is the same stuff
as we use for human teeth," he says, packing the amalgam into the cavity. "There's just more of
it."
The dental work now over, Peter removes the tube from the lion's mouth. Without the supply of
gas, Nero will start coming round fairly quickly, so the keepers move fast to drag him back to his
cage. As Peter packs up, the lion stirs. The great yellow eyes are beginning to lose their drugged
look. "Don't be fooled," says Peter. "He might appear sleepy but he could react very quickly now
if he wanted to..."
77

A. Nero lets out a loud growl before slumping to the floor of his cage. Peter waits for a few
minutes before giving the all-clear to unlock the heavy barred door.
B. "I often say I've worked on the A to Z of animals, but I actually haven't done a zebra yet," he
says, laughing and strapping on rubber knee pads that will allow him to kneel comfortably on
Nero's jaws throughout the operation.
C. "It could become infected and result in an abscess. An infected tooth may eventually kill an
animal once the bacteria enter the bloodstream. A dental problem may also prevent an animal
from hunting successfully, so it may not be able to feed itself."
D. Samantha checks that everything is in place and that they've got enough room to move among
all the pipes and tubes surrounding them. Once everything's ready, she signals to Peter that they
are all set for the patient.
E. He has spent the night in his cage, as usual, but now, when he should be prowling through the
Safari Park, he's still here. He paws irritably at the bars of his cage.
F. As he roars his disapproval, he reveals the badly chipped front tooth that is the reason for all
this fuss. Today, the dentist is visiting the king of the jungle.
G. "Most pets are fed a balanced diet with the right
nutrients and vitamins, but they are not fed a natural diet," says Peter. "The tinned food we feed
them doesn't contain the fibre, which is a self- cleaning agent, that a wild animal would eat.
Instead, it leaves a sticky deposit that is bad for the teeth."
H. A lion-sized prop is inserted into Nero's mouth to keep his jaws apart, followed by a tube from
a gas canister to keep him unconscious during the operation. Peter sets to work immediately,
examining the great mouth with the help of an endoscope – a long metal tube with a light at its
tip.
78

BEETHOVEN’S PIANO
In 1817 the English piano maker Thomas Broadwood met Beethoven in Vienna and promised him
the gift of a piano.
1: _____________
Beethoven kept it until his death in 1827, reputedly using it to write, among other things, the
Hammerklavier sonata. Then it passed to Liszt, who left it to the Hungarian National Museum in
Budapest. There it remained, a national treasure, seen but barely heard, until it began a journey
almost as momentous as the one all those years ago, back through Europe to Britain.
2: _____________
Why is this piano so important? Well, it is an icon. It featured prominently in Beethoven's later
years and the very abuse to which he subjected it, hammering at the notes to try to hear them,
records the terrible pathos of Beethoven's deafness.
3: _____________
But bringing this Broadwood back to life is also a landmark in the modern history of
performance, recognising that old instruments offer unique insights into old music – and none
more than pianos in the time of Beethoven, when their technology was young and fast-developing
and composers responded immediately to the latest thing on the market. The novelty of the
Broadwood was a heavier action, which meant that whatever his hearing impairment, Beethoven
could feel he was making more sound than a Viennese piano could deliver.
4: _____________
For a player like Melvyn Tan, those limitations are critical because they demonstrate how
Beethoven's writing pushed the piano to its physical extremities. It's important not to lose the
limitations when a piano is restored.
5: _____________
David Winston, the restorer, has some sympathy with this view: "It's true that every time you
restore you lose original information. So I have to ask myself: will this work increase the piano's
lifespan, and is it reversible? And I document everything so it's clear to someone 50 years from
now exactly what I've done."
6: _____________
Winston's work has left the Viennese input alone but removed the rest. He has replaced the
strings, which weren't original, the dampers and the hammer coverings. Otherwise, he says, the
piano was in decent structural condition. "It was chosen in the first place to be robust, and it is."
However, the present tour has raised a musicological question for Tan.
7: _____________
So either he didn't write Hammerklavier on the Broadwood after all or he wrote it idealistically,
beyond the character and limitations of the instrument at hand.
79

A. The Broadwood had in fact been regularly tampered with – from when it first arrived in Vienna
to more recent times when it was patched up by Hungarians without access to the right materials.
B. He could afford it – his was the most successful piano company in the world – and a model
was dispatched from London on 27 December, by sea through the Straits of Gibraltar to Trieste
and then by cart to Vienna, arriving the following June.
C. This treatment did a lot of damage. By 1824 a friend observed that "there was no sound left in
the treble and broken strings were mixed up like thorns in a gale".
D. This is one of the reasons why the ethics of making such improvements to an old instrument
are contentious. Not everyone agreed that Beethoven's Broadwood should be returned to playing
condition, still less taken on tour.
E. He has found it difficult to programme the tour because – and this is slightly embarrassing –
few of the scores Beethoven supposedly wrote on the Broadwood are playable on it. The
keyboard is too short.
F. George Bernard Shaw said that the most entirely creditable incident in English history was the
sending of £100 to Beethoven on his death-bed by the London Philharmonic Society. But there
was another.
G. This time, though, the piano is working its passage, on a concert tour sponsored by
Broadwood's (the firm still exists). Like all great stars (and this one is insured for £5m) it travels
with an entourage. There is the pianist Melvyn Tan who plays it, the piano doctor David Winston
who restored it, four mile attendants who transport it between venues by unpublishable routes,
and two security men who sleep with it.
H. Although it was also harder work, it gave a better sense of control, and a more consistent, more
modern sound across its range. But, of course, it's not a modern sound. It still has the limitations
of its time, including a slight twang, a noisy action and ineffectual dampers.
80

SCREEN DEBUT FOR A HIGH FLYER

Gareth Huw Davies describes how one of the world's largest and rarest eagles was trained for TV.
Stephen Ford had spent six weeks training Kali, a Philippine eagle, for a starring role in a
television wildlife film and the moment had come to release her for her first free flight into the
tropical rainforest. But there was one nagging doubt in his mind. Would she ever come back?
1: _____________
However, there was the small risk she might prefer the forest's ready supply of small monkeys,
her natural food in the wild, and never return. The reason for Mr Ford's
nerves about this was that Kali is one of the world's rarest birds of prey. There are just 19 in
captivity and perhaps a few hundred left in the wild.
2: _____________
Because of these pressures he decided to make the inaugural flight – until then Kali had been
tethered by a 50-metre line – in secret. 'The locals were so terrified I would lose Kali that I took
the precaution of hiding a small radio transmitter under her tail so we could have found her again
in the forest. In the event, it wasn't needed. She came back to me.'
3: _____________
'It doesn't happen,' he says. 'There is always foliage two metres in front of you. All you can do is
sit at the side of a valley and hope one comes flying by.'
4: _____________
At first he did nothing but observe the two possible candidates in their cages. Eventually he
rejected one as too aggressive and territorial and chose Kali, trapping her in a large butterfly net.
His initial target was to induce her to stand on his fist. 'These birds would rather hang upside
down and bite large chunks out of you,' he says.
5: _____________
For this reason it was two weeks before he began to bring her under control. When she finally
landed on him, her talons felt like nails. Although they did not pierce the covering, they left his
hand severely bruised.
6: _____________
Shortly afterwards, as soon as Kali could fly free, and unencumbered with anything of that kind to
remind television viewers she was not totally wild, filming began. Over six days, Michael
Richards obtained his entire checklist of sequences, including unique shots of this species on the
wing in the forest and terrifying approaches to the camera as if coming in for the kill.
7: _____________
However, the tragedy is that so much of the forest habitat in which her reintroduced offspring
would have been able to hunt has been destroyed.
81

A. Kali flying free through the forest provides the opening sequence of Wildlife Special: Eagle.
Cameraman Michael Richards knows he would never have been able to obtain such shots with a
genuinely wild bird.
B. Kali is now back in her cage. She is calmer and will be easier to handle in a captive breeding
programme designed to restore this severely depleted bird to the wild. At seven years old she may
have 50 years of life ahead of her, with considerable breeding potential.
C. Mr Ford has been training birds of prey since he was 12. He developed a passion for them
when his parents took him to a pageant. He left school for the unlikely dual calling of head
falconer at a local birds of prey centre and professional stuntman.
D. All his long experience in training birds of prey suggested that she would. He felt certain that
she would be drawn to the certain supply of food she associated with her handler.
E. A bird of prey is controlled through its stomach. At six and a half kilos Kali was contentedly,
and lazily, overweight. Ford had to trim two kilos off her before she was in hunting shape, and
hungry enough to need to take to the air. When she reached her optimum weight he let her fly on a
long lead over a football field.
F. Mr Ford's commission to train a Philippine eagle was one of his biggest challenges yet. When
he arrived at the Centre for Philippine Birds of Prey at Los Banios, south of Manila, even he was
astonished by the bird's size. It stands I metre tall, weighs 6.5 kilos and at over 2 metres has the
largest wings of any eagle.
G. So he had a sleeve made of thick, reinforced leather from his wrist to his shoulder. But, high in
the mountains in 94 percent humidity, he found he could work for only 20 minutes at a time.
H. As the property of the Philippines government, she was an important state asset. Her loss
would have threatened the jobs of the government employees who had helped him, embarrassed
the TV company and compromised Mr Ford's reputation as a bird trainer of international standing.
82

BIG BILL BROONZY

In the vast field of American folk-blues music there have been few figures who have exerted the
powerful shaping influences that emanated from Big Bill Broonzy during his lifetime.
1: _____________
He was additionally an unbelievably talented composer, and his organising influence and genius
in recording sessions will undoubtedly bear closer examination and analysis in years to come.
Highly regarded by all his associates, in fact by all individuals having even a cursory interest in
his art form, his performances were always of the highest musical and creative standards. On top
of this, his attitude toward his contemporary artists of equal or lesser stature is well known.
2: _____________
Big Bill was born William Lee Conley Broonzy in Scott, Mississippi. At any rate, he was one of a
vast brood of seventeen children born of parents who first saw the light of day in slavery. He
appears to have acquired a great deal of his musical skill, and numerous songs, from one of his
uncles. His formative years were spent in Arkansas. A fiddle of the home-made, cigar-box variety
was his first instrument and he also played mandolin in his early years. At the tender age of
fourteen he was regularly playing and performing at picnics. As a young man he served in the
Army during the First World War, and shortly after his return he left Arkansas for Chicago, where
he fell heavily into the blues scene of that city. It was quite a scene too.
3: _____________
It was a usual occurrence to have Bill, along with such people as Tampa Red, Sonny Boy
Williamson and Washboard Sam and numerous others playing at such a gathering, and during this
time, Bill's influence was felt by virtually all who came into contact with him. He was the main
participant in hundreds of recording sessions and at other times he was the organising force
behind the sessions of other artists and took part as an assisting artist.
4: _____________
In 1939, he took part in the now legendary "Spirituals to Swing" concert at Carnegie Hall. He was
a tremendous hit, termed by some "unforgettable", and it appears that the potentially awesome
nature of the famous auditorium inspired him to perform as strongly as he would have had the
event been much smaller.
5: _____________
In the 1940s, he was continually active in and around his adopted hometown of Chicago, with
records and personal appearances. In the 1950s, he made two trips to Europe for concerts, where
he encountered a tremendous reception.
6: _____________
During his lifetime Big Bill, despite his indisputable musical abilities, was unable to depend
totally upon his music to sustain himself. As was and still is the case with all too many musical
talents, the return for his efforts was by no means commensurate with his artistry.
7: _____________
His death came on August 14, 1958 and his obituary and tributes appeared in a wide variety of
newspapers and publications throughout the world. All of this served to emphasise the greatness
of this near-legendary musical figure.
83

A. Critical reception of this performance was uniformly excellent and his exceptional talent was
observed and realised by many listeners for the first time. It was a memorable occasion in
Broonzy's life, as it must have been to those in attendance.
B. It was one that meant that Broonzy was always the first to offer them aid or assistance in any
way he could, whether it was to compose a song for an individual, to give him or her musical
instruction, to afford his services as accompanying musician or perhaps to merely bolster the
confidence of an aspiring, struggling artist.
C. To achieve that, he continued playing guitar for as long as he was physically able, his health
rapidly deteriorating during this period of time. Fate, playing its cruel hand, had decreed that Bill
should no longer be capable of singing, depriving him of what had been his life's blood.
D. Whatever his status was at each of these, his overwhelming influence was always felt, his
individual stamp and qualities being obvious on recordings much too numerous to mention.
Greater fame awaited him though.
E. He had this impact on its development because he was possessed of a great many varied
talents: he was a magnificent guitarist, both as soloist and accompanist; a singer of all types of
song falling within the black experience-spirituals, blues, work songs, folk material; and a superb
storyteller.
F. This undeserved plight required him, at various times, to become a porter, gang labourer, cook,
caretaker, floor mopper and foundry worker, a not-unusual history for individuals performing in
Bill's particular field. By some standards, Bill may have been considered a rather fortunate artist
because he was such a frequent visitor to recording studios but, despite this fact, it is all too
obvious that his wonderful talent and abilities were not enough to enable him to be a full-time
music maker.
G. This appreciation indicated that the people overseas were far more familiar with, and
appreciative of, Bill's several and varied musical talents. In addition, his human warmth, charisma
and general gregariousness made a distinct and lasting impression upon all who came into contact
with him.
H. That was mainly because of the popularity of house-rent parties, which were at their height
there at this time. The purpose of such undertakings being the raising of rent for a particular
individual, accompanied by a cacophony of music and good times.
84

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE ANCIENT MAYA CIVILISATION

No civilisation has fallen quite like the Maya, seemingly swallowed by the jungle after centuries
of urban, cultural and agricultural evolution. What went wrong? Recent discoveries point not to a
cataclysmic eruption, earthquake or plague but rather to climate change. But first came the boom
years, roughly AD300 to 660. At the beginning of the so-called Classic Maya period, some 60
Maya cities sprang up across much of modern-day Guatemala, Belize and Mexico's Yucatán
Peninsula.
1: _____________
But then came the bust, a decline that lasted at least two centuries. By 1100, the residents of once
thriving Maya cities seem to have just disappeared. In the nineteenth century, when explorers
began discovering the overgrown ruins of 'lost cities', theorists imagined an immense volcanic
eruption or earthquake – or maybe an empire-wide pandemic.
2: _____________
One study of stalagmites in a cavern in Belize links swings in weather patterns to both the rise and
fall of the empire. Formed by water and minerals dripping from above, stalagmites grow more
quickly in rainier years, giving scientists a reliable record of historical rainfall trends. 'The early
Classic Maya period was unusually wet,' according to lead researcher Douglas Kennett. And
during this time, he says, 'the population proliferated, aided by a surge in agriculture.'
3: _____________
But the long wet spell turned out to be an anomaly. When the climate pendulum swung back, hard
times followed. 'Mayan systems were founded on those high rainfall patterns,' Kennett said. 'They
could not support themselves when patterns changed.'
The following centuries were characterised by repeated and, at times extreme, drought.
Agriculture declined and, not coincidentally, social conflict rose.
4: _____________
But times would get even harder. The stalagmite record suggests that between 1020 and 1100 the
region suffered its longest dry spell of the last 2,000 years. With it, the study suggests, came crop
failure, famine, mass migration and death. By the time Spanish conquistadors arrived in the
sixteenth century, inland Maya populations had decreased by 90 per cent, and urban centres and
farms had been abandoned and reclaimed by forest.
5: _____________
According to climate scientist, Benjamin Cook, this widespread deforestation reduced the flow of
moisture from the ground to the atmosphere, interrupting the natural rain cycle and in turn
reducing rainfall. Computer simulations that Cook ran for one study show that localised drying
decreased atmospheric moisture by five to 15 per cent annually. 'Even a ten per cent decrease is
considered an environmental catastrophe,' he says.
6: _____________
But, according to Professor of Environment and Society B.L. Turner, 'that's the kind of
oversimplification we're trying to get away from. The Mayan situation is not applicable today –
our society is just so radically different.' In his own study, Turner concludes that the natural
environment recovered rather quickly after the dry centuries. What happened to the Maya, he
suggests, is that in order to escape starvation and wars inland, many moved to coastal areas where
life was comparatively easier. And once there, they may simply have forgotten their great cities.
85

A. To some extent, however, the Maya may have shaped their own decline. At the height of the
civilisation, the area had a population of tens of millions, and vast numbers of trees would have
been cut down to make space for cities and farms, and to provide fuel.
B. Indeed, it was during the rainiest decades of this era, from AD440 to 660, that the cities
sprouted. In fact, all the hallmarks of Maya civilisation – sophisticated political systems,
monumental architecture, complex religion – came into full flower during this era.
C. One common misconception is that the Maya completely vanished after the arrival of the
Spanish in the sixteenth century. There are, in fact, Mayan people still in the area today, with their
own culture and traditions. The mystery, historically, is why their cities were abandoned and never
reclaimed.
D. With their pyramids, squares, ball courts and government buildings, they were where the urban
Maya discussed philosophy, developed an accurate solar-year calendar and relished the world's
first hot chocolate. Farmers, too, were riding high, turning hillsides into terraced fields to feed the
fast-growing population.
E. Add this to the broader trend and the situation becomes dire – a cautionary tale for the modern
world, some warn. The fear is that, as more and more forestland is turned into farms and cities,
and as global temperatures continue to rise, we may risk the same fate that befell the Maya.
F. The Maya religious and political system was based on the belief that rulers were in direct
communication with the gods. When these divine connections failed to produce rainfall and good
harvests, tensions probably developed. In only 25 years between 750 and 775, for example, 39
rulers commissioned the same number of stone monuments – evidence of 'rivalry, war, and
strategic alliances,' according to Kennett's study.
G. Today, however, scientists generally agree that the Maya collapse has many roots, all
intertwined – overpopulation, warfare, famine, drought. And one of the hottest fields of inquiry in
recent years has centred on climate change, perhaps of the Maya's own doing.
86

CARE FARMS
Before breakfast, two young people head down to the woods, struggling a little with the heavy
bag of food for the pigs. 'Scatter them in different piles,' says the farm staff member. 'If you put
them in one place, the smaller pigs won't be able to get anything.' The pigs, which are enormous,
surge towards us, and their new feeders step backwards. 'I'm not doing that,' says 15-year-old
Daniel firmly.
1: _____________
The teenagers are part of a group from a London secondary school who are staying at Jamie
Fielden's farm, one of a number of 'care farms' providing a type of eco-therapy. The pupils
brought here have been chosen by their teachers: 14 year-old Sofia, for example, has a difficult
home life, Georgia, 14, is extremely quiet, and Sam, 13, has challenging behaviour.
2: _____________
Besides farmwork, the young people have group sessions with the farm psychotherapist who
teaches them techniques for calming down, or for dealing with difficult situations. They can do
'horse-whispering' with her, one-to-one therapy making use of one of the farm horses. Phones and
sweets are banned, as part of the focus on creating a calm, supportive atmosphere and reducing
overstimulation.
3: _____________
And the young people seem to be thriving. Aaron, a 12-year-old with serious attendance issues, is
clearly taken with the horse whispering: 'I feel as though the horse is calm and I'm calm. I had to
work out how to speak calmly to make her do what I wanted.'
4: _____________
And this is what Fielden aims to provide. Trained as a teacher, he wants to 'give young people a
chance to have the experiences that I had as a kid growing up on a farm'. He set up the farm with
a couple of other teachers and his mother, a psychotherapist, a few years ago. The farm's main
source of income is the fees schools pay to send pupils there, and since opening, more than 700
children have attended.
5: _____________
Care farms first appeared over a decade ago in the UK. Now, there are more than 80, and they
have their own association called Care Farm UK. Founder member lan Egginton-Metters says:
'There is evidence that 'green care' works. Charities give funding for our eco-therapy projects,
which are focused around taking people out of institutions and putting them in the natural
environment.'
6: _____________
Whatever the reasons, however, there is clearly an impact. A week after the pupils arrive back at
school in west London from Jamie's Farm, teachers report on a difference in behaviour. Georgia
gave a talk to her class about her experiences, Sofia's participation in class is better than it has
ever been, and Sam says he wants to go back to the farm next year. There is no doubt amongst the
teachers that they will continue to send troubled pupils to the farm in years to come.
87

A. A classmate, Hasan, describes a similar sense of tranquillity. 'I expected to be really annoyed
and bored here, but as soon as we arrived it was fantastic. There's so much space. You don't get
stressed out. There's time to think.' Like his peers, he has a complicated home life and needs
support.
B. Along with this, the teachers accompanying them are encouraged to form closer bonds with
their charges and to observe the way that farm staff interact with the young people, and the
methods they use to get the behaviour they want.
C. This expansion of the sector is evident, but there are differing explanations as to why care
farming makes a difference, ranging from those pointing to the therapeutic aspect of the physical
labour and the contact with plants and animals, to others claiming it is all to do with taking people
away from their problems at home.
D. Before coming here he was sceptical, but no longer. 'There's something about coming here,
from very chaotic environments, as most of these young people do, that does them good. You
have to work hard, take responsibility, and you're a valued member of the community.'
E. Sofia, however, who is a good head shorter than her fellow pupil, moves forward, methodically
pouring out a dozen small heaps under the trees. 'She's a natural,' says her supervisor admiringly.
Sofia does not look up, but a little smile flickers across her young face.
F. An impressive figure, but isn't it an expensive option for schools? Fielden believes the results
justify the cost. Eight out of ten children who stay at the farm show a persistent improvement in
behaviour. 'Head teachers tell me they're rebooking because they're no longer seeing those
children in trouble. That's what we want.'
G. Most of them, they soon tell me, have never been to the countryside before. For five days, they
get up early, eat wholesome food and do various chores dependent on the season. It is summer and
they are pulling up coriander from the vegetable beds, feeding animals and helping with the
harvest.
88

HAVE YOU GOT WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A TOP ATHLETE?

Journalist Kate Carter tries out some advanced tests for sports people at Loughborough
University's Sports Science Institute.
Not so long ago, identifying a potential sports star was a matter of seeing how well they could
sprint around a track, or kick a football. Now, sports scientists use advanced tests to determine
fitness, agility, body composition, reaction times and much more. But how does an average
recreational athlete compare? A recent convert to running, I'm at the Sports Science Institute lab at
Loughborough University, which gathers statistics on athletes from a range of sports, to find out
my potential. Dr James Carter, head of the institute, starts by getting my standard physical
measurements.
1: _____________
I am made to sit in a device called a BodPod, and given a scan to examine bone density and create
a picture of my internal body fat. After that, it's on to the treadmill for the VO2 max test, which
measures fitness. This consists of running at increasing speed on an ever steeper incline while
puffing into a large mask, a disconcerting experience as it reduces your vision to virtually nothing.
2: _____________
An average woman has a VO2 max of around 35 ml/kg/ min, while an elite athlete might be as
high as 70 ml/kg/min (for men the range is around 40-85). Mine is 54, which is respectable for a
recreational runner. I also turn out to be a carb burner rather than a fat burner, which I'm taking as
licence to eat more. Next up are a couple of cognitive tests to assess my reactions.
3: _____________
I don't do so well at the whole-body agility test – a frame with 12 lights at varying heights you
have to leap or duck to extinguish – but Dr Carter reassures me that this matters less for
endurance than for other sports.
4: _____________
You just pedal on a stationary bike, then accelerate madly for ten seconds, before trying to sustain
that power for 30 seconds. Just? Add in increasing resistance and it feels as if you are cycling
through treacle on a bike with two flat tyres into a headwind. And it hurts.
5: _____________
As I start to recover from this final challenge, it occurs to me that it's easy to imagine a future in
which babies are screened at birth to join a super breed – or at least an elite training programme.
Dr Carter mentions the film Rocky IV which has something similar in it. He is joking – but in
truth, it's not so implausible.
6: _____________
There are, of course, things the tests can't show yet: the psychology of the athlete, tactics,
nutrition. But the scientific data that can be recorded is very useful, and not just for professional
athletes. I personally have learned a huge amount about what I could feasibly achieve in my next
race, as well as specific steps to move up to my goal of a full marathon. And next time I come
back, I'm determined to conquer that bike.
89

A. The first of these uses a large board full of bulbs, which light up in a random sequence. You hit
them to turn them off, while simultaneously shouting out the numbers that appear on a small
screen. I do better than the average, which I put down to being used to dealing with two small
children.
B. For all the cutting edge equipment and carefully designed assessments, what Dr Carter is
unable to evaluate, as he readily admits, are such crucial factors as 'pain tolerance, doing the
training day in, day out and self-belief."
C. Looking at someone's genome to determine whether they're suited to team sports or
individual endurance may be 'accessible in the next decade,' Dr Carter says. 'Say we've got a
group of 15-year-olds who are genetically suited to certain sports, are we going to put them
through special regimes for the next decade? That's where some of the research is going.'
D. After measuring my handgrip strength (I'm delighted to be 'average', given my arms are like
spaghetti), it's time for the final hurdle: the Wingate test. Or as I shall always think of it, the
longest half minute of my life. It sounds relatively easy.
E. Disappointingly, it turns out I've been kidding myself about my height for years. Weight,
though, is less important than body composition and it's the latter that the first of a series of hi-
tech tests will assess.
F. So much so that hours later I can still feel the lactic acid, brought on by the extreme pedalling,
burning in my legs. 'Sprinters, cyclists – this is their test,' explains Dr Carter. Top athletes 'need to
be performing well on this or there's something wrong.'
G. While I am doing this, Dr Carter records my data. One of the key indicators, he explains, is 'the
respiratory exchange ratio, which is the combination or the ratio of oxygen consumed and carbon
dioxide produced. When that ratio goes over one, that's when we know to increase the gradient.'
90

KENYA'S GREAT WILDLIFE

– EXPLORING TWO NATURE RESERVES IN EAST AFRICA
'Is that a black or white rhino?' Our guide Joseph tested how much attention we had been paying.
We had seen a white rhino first, extremely close up, casually grazing while we took pictures.
That's the first clue. Black rhino are much more nervous and aggressive, and you shouldn't get
close. Second clue, the shape of its back. Finally, look at the mouth. It turns out 'white' was coined
by happy accident many years ago, when the Afrikaans word for 'wide' was mistaken and the
name stuck; in contrast, the black rhino has a thinner, beak-like lip.
1: _____________
Our trip was organised by an organisation called Farside Africa, whose passionate support for
conservation efforts enabled us to get right to the heart of projects in Kenya. First stop was Lewa
House, part of Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, a private reserve north of Nairobi, with a small
airstrip a short drive away.
2: _____________
At the forefront of rhino conservation in Kenya, Lewa currently has 71 black and 56 white rhino,
more than ten percent of Kenya's total rhino population – counted daily by a team of rangers.
Huge resources have been channelled into their protection, but unfortunately the illegal hunters
still sometimes win the day, their reward guaranteed by a buoyant black market in which the price
of black rhino horn exceeds that of gold.
3: _____________
Lewa House itself is perched on a hill, secluded cottages with dramatic vistas across the rolling
landscape: mighty elephants trundling along the horizon, a zebra wandering through your garden.
Guests gather for lunch by the pool or dinner in the house, where Calum and Sophie welcome
them like extended family.
4: _____________
The second half of our trip was a couple of hours' drive away, in Laikipia, at Ol Pejeta
Conservancy, another reserve dedicated to the protection of rhino and the development of local
communities. While Lewa relies heavily on donors, Ol Pejeta is striving to create a sustainable
project and, together with revenue from tourism, uses innovative ventures in combining livestock
and arable farming with wildlife.
5: _____________
In Ol Pejeta Conservancy, we were hosted at Kicheche Camp by Andy and Sonja. By 'camp' you
may read 'canvas', but the comparison with traditional camping ends there; they have designed a
cosy retreat with all creature comforts and personal touches. The only reminder we were in a tent
came from our obvious proximity to a variety of animal calls that pierced the night.
6: _____________
Oh, and we ticked the big cat box too. Both by day and by night, we encountered lions, witnessing
what incredible beasts they are as they sauntered majestically through their kingdom. Somewhat
lazily, they gave chase to some baby warthog and resting ostriches, and came away without a
catch, but our immediate proximity to each event was exhilarating.
91

A. They have steadily built a fine base for exploring, and we saw more than we could have hoped:
graceful giraffe, endangered Grevy's zebra, large families of elephant, no less than four species of
eagle and, of course, the rhino. Alas, we were not to see a big cat as the grass was high after the
rains, and they proved elusive.
B. As the sun dipped behind the hills at the end of each fantastic day, however, we were able to
enjoy the serenity of the wilderness, along with enthralling conversation about Kenyan wildlife
and culture.
C. It's so disturbing it hardly bears thinking about, but when we were offered the chance to talk to
the security team about their work, we took it. They treated us to a demonstration: from the scent
of a single footprint, a specially trained dog expertly tracked a 'poacher' through the scrub, an
exercise that has helped the team make hundreds of arrests.
D. We steadily approached, and as the animal treated our arrival calmly, we could work out which
it was. Sadly, the few of these remarkable creatures we were lucky enough to see are part of a
declining population – though, fortunately, there are many people battling to save them.
E. Perhaps because the landscape was drier and flatter, we saw even more wildlife here than in the
previous reserve, more than making up for the interrupted sleep. Swathes of warthog were an
obvious addition, along with many jackal and a solitary hyena.
F. Joseph came to collect us there, and needlessly explained that we would see much more than
rhino; either side of the runway gathered zebra, a couple of giraffe and an ostrich before our very
eyes.
G. Besides this income diversification, there is a successful campaign to demonstrate that grazing
cattle can regenerate grasslands and give back to the wildlife. Among the animals here are four of
only seven remaining northern white rhino worldwide. They are in an enclosed reserve with added
security, their horns trimmed to be less enticing to poachers.
92

STUDYING ART HISTORY

In many countries, doing a degree in the history of art is considered something of a minority
choice. While no one would deny that art is a fascinating subject with a longer and more diverse
history than, say, literature, history of art tends to exist on the margins at most universities, the
preserve of a few dedicated students.
1: _____________
As Janice Burton, a former student at the Courtauld Institute, a specialist university in the UK that
focuses entirely on the subject, explains: 'History of art is more than simply the study of creativity
and aesthetics. It incorporates all aspects of history, as well as philosophy, anthropology, politics
and religion. Art represents an insight into the spirit of a particular period, as well as supplying
some of history's most fascinating protagonists.'
2: _____________
So it's clearly a very interesting subject to study, covering a huge slice of the human experience,
but what can you do with it? History of art lecturer Natalia Mellor believes her subject is crucial
for the development of public culture. 'Our degree courses produce the museum directors of the
future,' she says.
3: _____________
Not everyone who attains a degree in history of art is forced into the art world, however. Jerome
Hasler, for instance, now works for a crisis management consultancy. 'It's not a directly vocational
position,' he admits, but history of art has still been very beneficial. 'It taught me to be creative, to
research thoroughly and to appreciate that many factors can contribute to a final product, things I
use and value every day in my job.'
4: _____________
There is a perception, perhaps, that history of art is an elitist subject. Professor Joanna Woodall,
who teaches at the Courtauld, is at pains to disagree. 'People often think of art history as elitist,
but it's a subject in which everyone has something to contribute. People notice different things and
ask different questions,' she says. When considering applications from potential students wanting
to take her courses, she is interested in people who clearly have a passion for art and art history,
rather than those who have traditional qualifications.
5: _____________
And what, in practical terms, does studying history of art entail? How is the programme
organised, particularly for newcomers to the subject as an academic discipline? Rebecca Murphy,
who graduated from the Courtauld last year, enjoyed every minute of it.
6: _____________
'As you progress,' she says, 'you cover all the different aspects of theory, and every term you get
to learn about a different period. In the first couple of years you get to build up this knowledge
and then in the third you get the opportunity to tackle more specialist topics of your choice.' Like
many of her peers, she is convinced it was worth it. 'The degree enabled me to acquire a lot of
knowledge about important subjects, some good transferrable skills and a great bunch of friends
too.'
93

A. Burton concurs: 'Had I wanted to work in an auction house, curate or write for an art magazine,
then I would have been very well placed, especially if I'd continued on with a master's degree, and
there were some tempting options at the Courtauld, such as art restoration. But history of art led
me into writing, specifically journalism, and achieving a good degree from a prestigious
university did my job prospects no harm at all.'
B. However absorbing or enriching history of art may be, this view of it as being accessible to and
useful for only a small and probably privileged group of people can deter many with a genuine
interest in it.
C. Although it has a limited following, it is anything but insignificant in scope or academic rigour,
however. It's about art, of course, but it's by no means confined to staring at paintings and stroking
one's chin.
D. 'If you've never formally studied the subject before, you start with a leveller course,' she says.
This introduction provides an overall perspective on the degree. 'You then move on to a more in-
depth look, and the chance to learn about things you're personally interested in.'
E. In fact, anyone who wants to be seriously involved in museum and gallery curation needs to
ensure they have a solid academic grounding in the subject. You don't get to run a major gallery
without a deep knowledge of the art world as a whole - one you can't just get from avidly
attending exhibitions.
F. Another recent history of art graduate agrees: 'It gave me the opportunity to explore the stories
within works of art, addressing social, political or personal reasons behind their particular
appearance or fame.'
G. 'We try to look for someone who shows a demonstrable interest in the subject – but that doesn't
mean they have to know reams about art history. Those coming to history of art from other
disciplines bring something different and enliven the discipline for everyone.'
94

A GIANT TREE
Sequoia National Park in southern California in the USA is the home of some of the largest trees
in the world.
On a gentle slope in Sequoia National Park, over 2,000 metres above sea level, looms a very big
tree. Its trunk is rusty red, thickened with deep layers of bark, and 8.25 metres in diameter at the
base. It has a name, The President, bestowed about 90 years ago by admirers. This giant sequoia is
one of several surviving species of redwoods. Recent research by scientist Steve Sillett of
Humboldt State University and his colleagues has confirmed that The President ranks as the
second largest among all big trees that have ever been measured.
1: _____________
Trees grow tall and wide-topped as a means of competing with other trees, racing upward,
reaching outward for sunlight and water. And a tree doesn't stop getting larger – as a land mammal
does, or a bird, their size constrained by gravity – once it's mature. A tree too is constrained by
gravity, but not in the same way as a giraffe or a condor.
2: _____________
They achieve this longevity because they have survived all the threats that could have killed them.
They're too strong to be knocked over by wind. Their heartwood and bark are infused with acids
and other chemicals that protect against fungal rot. Wood-boring insects hardly bother them. Their
thick bark is flame resistant.
3: _____________
Another factor that can end the lives of big trees, of course, is logging. Many giant sequoias fell to
the axe during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. But the wood of the old giants
was so brittle that trunks often shattered when they hit the ground, and what remained had little
value as timber for construction work. It went into fence posts, stakes to support plants, and other
scrappy products.
4: _____________
Among the striking discoveries made by Sillett's team is that even the rate of growth of a big tree,
not just its height or total volume, can increase during old age. An elderly monster like The
President actually lays down more new wood per year than a robust young tree. It puts that wood
around the trunk, which grows wider, and into the limbs and the branches, which grow thicker.
5: _____________
They were given National Park Service permission to do this as part of a larger, long-term
monitoring project on giant sequoias and coast redwoods called the Redwoods and Climate
Change Initiative. Sillett's group put a line over The President's crown, rigged climbing ropes into
position, donned harnesses and helmets, and started to climb.
6: _____________
That's how they came to know that The President contains at least 124,000 cubic metres of wood
and bark. And that's how they detected that the old beast, at about the age of 3,200, is still
growing quickly. It's still inhaling great breaths of carbon dioxide and converting the carbon in a
growing season interrupted by six months of cold and snow. Not bad for an oldster.
95

A. As they did so, they measured the trunk at different heights, limbs and branches; they counted
cones; they took core samples. Then they fed the numbers through mathematical models informed
by additional data from other giant sequoias.
B. Ground fires, in fact, are good for sequoia populations, burning away competitors, opening
sequoia cones and allowing seedlings to get started. Lightning hurts the big adults but usually
doesn't kill them. So they grow older and bigger across the millennia.
C. That's the remarkable thing, Sillett told me. 'Half the year, they're not growing. They're in the
snow.' They grow bigger than their biggest cousins, the coast redwoods, even with a shorter
growing season.
D. It doesn't need to move around, unlike them, and fortifies itself by continually adding more
wood. Given the constant imperative of seeking resources from the sky and the soil, and with
sufficient time, a tree can become huge and keep growing. Giant sequoias are gigantic because
they are extremely old.
E. This finding contradicts a long-held premise in forest ecology – that wood production declines
in the latter years of a tree's life. That premise may hold true for some trees, but not for sequoias.
Sillett and his team have disproved it by doing something earlier forest ecologists didn't: climbing
all over the trees and measuring every centimetre of them.
F. Given the difficulties of dealing with six-metre-thick logs, broken or unbroken, the trees were
hardly worth cutting. Sequoia National Park was established in 1890, and automobile tourism
soon showed that giant sequoias were worth more alive.
G. Sillett's team has surveyed quite a few. It isn't as tall as the tallest of coast redwoods or certain
species of eucalyptus in Australia, but height isn't everything; it has greater mass than any coast
redwood or eucalyptus. Its dead spire, blasted by lightning, rises to 75 metres. Its four great limbs,
each as big as a sizeable tree, elbow outward from the trunk around halfway up, billowing into a
thick crown. The President holds nearly two billion leaves.
96

OBSERVING HOW WILD CHIMPANZEES BEHAVE

Joshu Foer visits a project in Congo in Africa where scientists can observe the behaviour of
chimpanzees and other great apes which have had little or no contact with humans.
Dave Morgan and Crickette Sanz run an ape research site in the Goualougo Triangle, a remote
jungle region of Congo, virtually untouched by humanity. On a sticky September morning,
Morgan, Sanz, and I leave the Goualougo base with our tracker Bosco Mangoussou and head into
the forest in search of chimpanzees. Our route regularly slaloms around heaps of rotting fruit,
whose pungent aromas permeate the humid air.
1: _____________
Eventually, we spot a half dozen chimps lounging in a tree about 40 metres up. This community is
well-known to Morgan and Sanz, who have even named each animal. We watch through
binoculars as a young female, Dinah, plays with Owen, a juvenile. Finn, the group's most
powerful male, looks on. Then something remarkable happens.
2: _____________
The thumping echoes off the surrounding trees. Then she rips a small twig off a nearby branch,
dips it into the hive, and swirls it around. She pulls it out, realizes there's no honey on it, throws it
away, and starts pounding some more. After repeating the process several times, she finally
plunges her finger into a crack and yanks out a bit of honey, which goes straight into her mouth.
3: _____________
The fact that this behavior hasn't been observed at other sites outside central Africa suggests that it
is not innate to the species, but rather is a learned skill that has been culturally transmitted. Part of
what makes Dinah's behavior so intriguing is that she used a big club and a thin twig in sequence
to accomplish her goal.
4: _____________
This is what happens: an older female arrives at the rock-hard structure. She rams a thick twig
into a small hole and widens it by jiggling the stick vigorously. Then she grabs a thin, flexible
stem, drags the end of it through her teeth to make it wet and frayed, like a paintbrush, and then
pulls it through her closed fist to straighten out the bristles. She then threads it into the same hole,
pulls it out, and nibbles off a couple of bugs that cling to the frayed edges.
5: _____________
'The Goualougo is probably the only place on earth where humans will ever have the chance to
see what chimpanzee culture is really about,' conservationist Michael Fay tells me later. 'Ninety-
five per cent of chimps on earth don't live like this because of humans.' Chimp study sites
elsewhere are surrounded by people and often affected by logging and hunting.
6: _____________
It is known that even selective logging and casual hunting can throw chimp society into disarray if
it pushes groups into conflict or decreases the number of termite mounds where they can fish.
Morgan and Sanz have suggested that with fewer mounds and, therefore, fewer opportunities for
young chimps to learn tool techniques from their elders, chimp culture may slowly decline, and
complex learned behaviors may disappear.
97

A. This is a powerful and troubling notion: what if everywhere scientists have thought they were
observing chimps in their natural state, they've actually been studying behavior distorted by the
presence of humans?
B. This the signal for Finn to make a move, seemingly outraged that a young upstart is enjoying a
sugary delicacy in his presence. He lunges at Dinah, who drops her club and flees to another limb.
C. When wild chimps encounter humans, they typically flee in panic – understandable given that
the relationship between our two species has often been one of prey and predator. This reticence is
part of what makes wild chimp research so difficult. These ones, however, seem unperturbed by
our presence.
D. It is the immense variety of these more than two dozen edible species, ranging from pumpkin-
size Treculia africana to rubbery, soft ball-size Chrysophyllum lacourtiana, that makes the
Goualougo such an attractive habitat for chimps.
E. What's so remarkable about this is not just that some clever chimp figured out it could break a
plant and use it to fish for food; it's that some other chimp figured out a way to do it even better.
Morgan and Sanz have themselves tried the process with both modified and unmodified sticks and
found that they collected ten times more termites with the modified tool.
F. Noticing a cloud of bees emerging from a hole near the main trunk of the tree, Dinah leaps to
her feet and breaks off a branch about the size of a human arm. With the blunt end she begins
whacking the bark. She knows that somewhere inside is a hive with honey.
G. This isn't the only form of serial tool use common in the Goualougo. As we witness the
beehive attack, a camera set up near a termite mound a kilometre mile away records another
chimp engaging in what may be the most sophisticated form of serial tool use by any non-human
animal.
98

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE: THINKING AND FEELING AT WORK

Psychologists say 'emotional intelligence' can help manage our thinking and improve our
behaviour at work and in our personal lives. Jill Insley reports.
If you work in an economy which is going through difficulties, the chances are you're calling on
your emotional intelligence (El) less than you might like, according to research which shows that
the art of identifying, understanding and managing your emotions to improve your performance
appears to decline in tough economic times. A team of Occupational psychologists led by John
Cooper studied 12,400 workers, mainly from the UK managerial population between 2001 and
2010, and found that use of emotional intelligence increased steadily during the economically
strong years of 2001 to 2007, but dropped sharply between 2008 and 2010 during a banking crisis
and recession.
1: _____________
The term 'emotional intelligence' was first used in psychology in 1966, and although several
different interpretations have developed since then it is still a relatively new field. Cooper's report
describes it as an 'innate human attribute' which, if understood and used well, can help us manage
our thinking and feeling to improve our behaviour and relationships.
2: _____________
Emotional intelligence is divided into two main areas: personal intelligence and interpersonal
intelligence. These, in turn, are split into 16 measurable scales including self-regard and regard for
others, self- awareness and awareness of others, emotional resilience, flexibility, trust and
emotional expression.
3: _____________
Measuring emotional intelligence can also identify areas of development for employees in
specific positions. An awareness of where you sit on each scale can help determine whether you
need extra training, or will excel in a particular industry or sector. Self-employed people score
higher than any other occupational group, possibly because there is a greater need to be
emotionally intelligent if you are mostly dependent upon yourself for your success.
4: _____________
The study found that senior managers and directors tend to score highly in all aspects, but
especially in self-belief, emotional resilience, positive outlook, going after goals, conflict
handling and independence. Low scores on some of these scales, however, can have a negative
impact on others, especially if the low scorer holds a senior position.
5: _____________
Another executive, by contrast, approached a colleague about the performance of a manager he
was responsible for with the words, 'I think I've put him into the wrong position because he is
very good, but he's not thriving. What's your opinion?' This showed humility and openness,
features of good emotional intelligence.
6: _____________
The consequence of this appears to be that employees feel liked, competent and significant, and
the business has become more productive and profitable. The implication to be drawn from this
would seem to be that unlike personality traits and IQ, emotional intelligence can be changed and
developed, which, in turn, can have a positive impact on work and economic activity.
99

A. Having observed both approaches, one senior manager decided his own firm would benefit
from the incorporation of emotional intelligence into management methods. Training to this end
was accordingly organised.
B. Results for other work sectors also proved interesting. People with jobs in health, for example,
scored significantly lower in self- regard, which may result in them putting the needs of others
first, while those in the sales sector scored strongly on self-assuredness, not being easily put off
and being able to connect with people without being overly caring.
C. 'If we liken the mind to a high-performance engine,' it goes on to say, then this 'would be the
oil that enables us to maintain and manage ourselves to perform to our full potential.'
D. Despite this, those who feel their effectiveness generally – but especially at work – isn't up to
scratch, need not despair. Emotional intelligence is not fixed and can be enhanced. In order to do
this, however, you need to know what your El rating is.
E. Using these categories, the study came up with results which seem to confirm some commonly
held presumptions. For instance, while there is no significant difference between men and women
in overall scores, men have a more critical mindset with higher self-esteem and lower estimation
of others. Women, by contrast, tend to have lower self-esteem and higher valuation of others.
Also, emotional intelligence improves with age, as we develop a more balanced outlook and
become less dependent on, but more trusting of, others.
F. In an example of this, six managers were asked by a company director to present their views of
why a particular problem had emerged in the business. After the first person had outlined what he
thought the problem was, the director shouted, 'So you've been lying to me for a year.' Who
around that table would now say what they thought the problem was?
G. The likelihood is that when facing uncertainty people may feel threatened and switch into
'survival mode' to try to protect what they have. Moreover, 'this can make things worse as workers
become less adaptive and responsive to change, and may miss business or personal opportunities.'
100

ROLLS-ROYCE
British company Rolls-Royce is one of the most recognisable names in the luxury automobile and
engine-manufacturing industries, with a reputation for producing some of the finest and most
reliable products in the world.
1: _____________
Henry Royce was an engineer who had a passion for creating the perfect car, while Charles Rolls
was a businessman with a keen eye for marketing. Soon after the two entrepreneurs met, they
decided to create a new car company together. Their first car, the Rolls-Royce 10 HP, was
produced in 1904 and was an instant success. The car was powered by a two-cylinder engine and
was known for its smooth and quiet ride. Rolls-Royce quickly gained a reputation for producing
cars that were among the best in the world due to their exceptional quality and craftsmanship. In
1906, Rolls-Royce introduced the Silver Ghost, a car that would become one of the most famous
models in automotive history.
2: _____________
During World War I, Rolls-Royce shifted its focus to producing aircraft engines for the British
military. In the 1930s, the company introduced a new line of luxury cars, including the Phantom
II, which was known for its modern design and powerful engine. During this time, Rolls-Royce
also began to cater to the individual tastes and preferences of its wealthy customers.
3: _____________
During that time, it also developed a new jet engine, the Nene, which was used in the world's first
jet-powered aeroplane, the Gloster Meteor.
Rolls-Royce's success in the aerospace industry continued in the post-war period, with the
company producing engines for commercial aircraft. In 1952, Rolls-Royce produced the first
turbojet engine, which revolutionised the aviation industry.
The company's subsequent engines were used in a wide range of planes. In the 1960s, Rolls-
Royce developed a new engine, the RB211, which was used in the Boeing 747, one of the most
successful commercial aeroplanes of all time. The company was then reorganised and split into
two parts: Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, which continued to produce luxury automobiles, and Rolls-
Royce Limited, which focused on aircraft engines and other industrial products. The company's
sales subsequently declined, and it struggled to survive. In 1971, the company was bought by the
British government after it ran into financial difficulties.
4: _____________
In the 1980s, Rolls-Royce faced a major challenge when it was forced to take back a large number
of cars due to a mechanical problem. This was costly and damaged the company's reputation.
5: _____________
One of the company's most significant successes in recent years has been the introduction of the
Phantom model in 2003. This ultra-luxury sedan was designed to compete with other high-end
models from companies like Bentley and Maybach, and it quickly became one of the most sought-
after automobiles in the world. In the 21st century, Rolls-Royce has continued to innovate and
expand its business interests. The company has invested heavily in new technologies, and it has
explored new business models, such as car-sharing and subscription services.
6: _____________
For example, the company has been involved in the production of power systems, including gas
turbines and nuclear reactors.
101

With a commitment to quality, innovation, and customer satisfaction, Rolls Royce is well-
positioned to continue its success well into the future.

A. While Rolls-Royce cars and Rolls-Royce aeroplanes have separate owners, they still share the
same name. The cars might be the most famous, but Rolls-Royce aeroplanes recently revealed a
battery- powered aircraft that can reach a top speed of 387 mph.
B. Back then, it was renowned for its superior handling, smooth ride and outstanding
performance, and it quickly became a favourite among the wealthy and influential.
C. In addition to its work in the automotive and aerospace industries, Rolls-Royce has invested in
other business opportunities.
D. However, Rolls-Royce shifted its focus once again to the aerospace industry, producing
engines for military planes. This move proved to be a wise decision, as it allowed the company to
diversify its business interests and establish itself as a leader in the aerospace industry.
E. Founded in 1904 by Charles Rolls and Henry Royce, the company began producing cars that
were known for their exceptional quality and engineering.
F. Luckily, Rolls-Royce was fine by the following decade following the introduction of a number
of successful models such as the Silver Seraph and the Corniche.
G. Rolls-Royce faced a number of challenges as the automotive industry underwent significant
changes. For instance, many consumers began to prefer more practical and affordable cars, and
Rolls-Royce was slow to adapt to these changing trends.
102

MONTESSORI
Maria Montessori was a renowned Italian physician, educator and innovator who developed the
Montessori educational model. This innovative approach to education focuses on creating a child-
centered environment that encourages independent learning, creativity and critical thinking.
1: _____________
Maria Montessori was born in 1870 in Chiaravalle, Italy. She was an excellent student, especially
in mathematics and science. She was also interested in biology, which she later studied at the
University of Rome where she became the first woman in Italy to earn a medical degree.
2: _____________
In 1907, she opened her first school in Rome, known as the Casa dei Bambini (Children's House).
The school was a success, and the Montessori method began to gain popularity. Montessori's
motivation was to create an environment that would help children develop into independent, self-
motivated learners. She believed that children learn best when they are allowed to explore and
discover things for themselves. Initially, her method focused on providing a prepared
environment, which included materials that would help children learn through exploration and
discovery. The teacher's role in this approach was to act as a guide, rather than a traditional
teacher, allowing children to learn at their own pace.
Today, the Montessori educational model is based on several key characteristics.
3: _____________
The materials are also designed to be self- correcting, allowing children to learn from their
mistakes without the need for help from the teacher. Another characteristic of the method is the
use of mixed-age groups.
4: _____________
The Montessori method also emphasises the importance of practical life skills. Children are
encouraged to learn skills such as pouring, tying shoelaces and buttoning. These skills ultimately
help children to develop independence. The materials used in Montessori classrooms are designed
to allow children to learn through touch and movement. There is also emphasis on the importance
of freedom within limits. The Montessori method approach also promotes creativity and a love of
learning.
5: _____________
Assessment in Montessori schools is unique in that it focuses on the individual child's progress
rather than comparing them to their peers. Its approach emphasises that each child has their own
unique pace of development and that they should be assessed based on their own progress.
Teachers observe children as they work with materials and engage in various activities. These
observations are recorded and used to track each child's progress over time. The observations also
provide valuable insights into a child's interests and strengths, allowing teachers to meet each
child's individual needs.
Many notable individuals have attended Montessori schools, including the founders of Google,
Larry Page and Sergey Brin. They have each credited the Montessori method for their success,
saying that it developed their creativity and problem-solving skills.
6: _____________
It was said that the Montessori method helped them to develop confidence and independence as a
child. Jennifer Aniston, the famous actress, attended a Montessori school in New York City as a
child. She has credited the Montessori method with helping her develop a love of learning and a
curiosity about the world.
103

A. Children are put together, allowing them to learn from each other rather than how old they are.
This approach also helps form a sense of community and encourages children to help each other.
B. One of these is the prepared environment, which is carefully designed to facilitate learning.
The environment includes
materials that are organised and accessible to the children.
C. As a result, the method has gained popularity worldwide and is now implemented in many
schools, preschools and childcare centres.
D. Maria wrote many books during her life, mostly in Italian. However, some were in English.
You can find many of the Montessori books through the Montessori-Pierson Publishing Company.
E. In contrast, standardised education tends to prioritise teacher-led instruction, testing and a 'one-
size-fits-all' approach.
F. Another notable Montessori graduate is the Prince of Wales, who attended the Wetherby
School, a Montessori school in London, England.
G. Maria's interest in education began when she worked as a doctor in a psychiatric hospital with
children with disabilities. She observed that children with disabilities could learn if given the
proper environment and tools.
104

THE BLUE WHALE

Marine biologist Martin Brightman tells us about his biggest ever research project.
During most of my career I have been fascinated by the blue whale, the largest mammal on the
planet. It has been a fascinating subject for research.
For more than 30 years now I have been part of a team that explores the movements of the blue
whale, including its behaviour during its lifelong journey. However, the blue whale's movement
pattern is still not fully understood, so remote and extreme are the limits of its activities.
1: _____________
The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is the largest mammal on the planet and has a distinctive
blue-grey skin, with lighter spots. They can grow up to 100 feet in length and weigh up to 200
tons. Despite their enormous size, these creatures feed on tiny fish.
2: _____________
Blue whales are known to move between summer feeding grounds in high latitudes and their
winter breeding grounds in tropical or subtropical waters. The timing and routes of their
movement vary depending on the population and the location. For example, the eastern North
Pacific blue whale population, which inhabits the waters off California, Oregon and Washington,
is known to travel south to breed off the coast of Mexico in the winter. The eastern North Atlantic
blue whale population, which inhabits the waters off Iceland and Norway, migrates to the Azores
in the winter to breed and then returns in the summer to feed.
3: _____________
As a result, understanding their habits are essential to conservation efforts.
Recent technological advancements have allowed researchers to gain a better understanding of the
habits of the blue whale.
4: _____________
Satellite has allowed researchers to track the movements of whales across vast distances. For
example, a study conducted by the Cascadia Research Collective found that the eastern North
Pacific blue whales travel over 10,000 kilometres from their summer feeding grounds to their
winter breeding grounds.
Other technological advancements, such as monitoring and DNA analysis, have also helped
researchers to gain a better understanding of the habits of blue whales. Simply put, blue whales
travel to warmer waters in the winter to breed, and then return in the summer to feed. This allows
them to maximise their chances of survival. They are a protected species under international law,
and thankfully its population has slowly increased since the end of commercial hunting.
5: _____________
There is certainly more awareness now than when I started my career.
6: _____________
Its enormous size, complex social behaviour and beautiful voice make it a truly amazing animal.
105

A. The movement of blue whales is a dangerous journey with numerous hazards, as blue whales
are exposed to ship strikes, fishing gear and habitat destruction.
B. In spite of this, they are considered to be an endangered species, with only an estimated 10,000
blue whales remaining worldwide.
C. The blue whale is the largest animal in the world. They are so big that their tongues can weigh
as much as an elephant. This is probably one of my favourite facts.
D. But through technological advancements we can understand its behaviour, including routes,
timings and potential reasons for its movements.
E. They also require a lot of food and must travel great distances to find enough food to survive.
It is in these journeys that we find the best opportunity to monitor these kings of the sea.
F. One such advancement is a technology that involves attaching a small device to the whale,
which can then be tracked.
G. Even after many years in the field, I am still thrilled to witness a blue whale come out of the
ocean for some air before diving to the depths again.
106

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS

'Around the World in 80 Days' is a BBC TV travel series that came out in 1989.
The show followed the adventures of Michael Palin as he attempted to travel around the world in
80 days with no aeroplanes.
1: _____________
The show was produced in a cultural and technological context that was very different from that
of today. In the late 1980s, the world was still divided by the Cold War, and the internet was still
very new. The programme was produced on film, which meant that the crew had to carry heavy
cameras and equipment with them as they went.
2: _____________
Palin reflected on the experience of making the show, saying: "I can honestly say that it was one
of the best experiences of my life. It was tough at times, but the challenge of travelling around the
world without using aeroplanes was incredibly rewarding."
One of the things that made the show so successful was Palin's enthusiasm for travel. He was
always eager to try new things, new food and meet new people. Throughout the show, Palin
visited a variety of different countries and experienced a wide range of different cultures and
cuisine.
3: _____________
It was very important to him to experience different cultures first-hand: "I think it's so important
to try to understand different cultures and ways of life. It's easy to judge people from a distance,
but once you actually spend time with them and see things from their perspective, you realise that
we're all just human beings trying to get by in the world."
Despite the fact that the show was made over 30 years ago, it still connects with audiences today.
The show is a reminder that there is so much to see and learn in the world, and that travel can be a
wonderful experience.
4: _____________
Another thing that made 'Around the World in 80 Days' stand out was its focus on local cuisine.
Palin was always eager to try new foods and flavours, and the show featured many scenes of him
sampling local items.
5: _____________
Throughout the show, Palin encountered many challenges and obstacles, from tackling mountain
roads in Peru to dealing with corrupt officials in China.
6: _____________
The show is a reminder of the power of travel to broaden our horizons and enrich our lives, and it
continues to inspire new generations to get out there and explore the world for themselves.
107

A. Despite these challenges, the show was a massive success, and Michael Palin quickly became
very well-known.
B. It quickly became a cultural phenomenon and is still regarded as one of the best travel shows
of all time.
C. "It is such an important part of any culture. I always make a point of trying local dishes when I
travel, even if they're something I wouldn't normally eat."
D. "I think the best thing to do is to stay calm and flexible. You have to be willing to adapt to
changing circumstances and be open to new experiences. Sometimes things don't go according to
plan, but that's part of the adventure."
E. As well as travelling, Michael Palin is famous for being part of the British comedy group
Monty Python. He was also honoured by the Queen for services to travel and culture in 2019.
F. Reflecting on the show, Palin has said: "I think people still enjoy watching it because it's a
reminder that there's a big wide world out there waiting to be explored. I hope the show inspires
people to get out there and explore the world for themselves."
G. From the deserts of North Africa to the jungles of South America, Palin was always eager to
experience the local way of life.
108

VANUATU
Vanuatu is a small island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean, east of Australia, north of
New Zealand and west of Fiji. It is an archipelago consisting of 83 islands, with a total land area
of approximately 12,190 square kilometres. That makes it about 20 times smaller than the UK.
1: _____________
The low-lying Pacific Island nation is a fascinating study in international conservation action. One
of the most notable contributions that Vanuatu has made to conservation is its role in promoting
the concept of 'cultural conservation'. This idea recognises that native cultures and their traditional
knowledge are often intimately connected to the natural world, and that preserving these cultures
is essential for effective conservation. Vanuatu's efforts in this area have been widely recognised,
and the country has been celebrated as a model for other nations to follow.
2: _____________
The country has established a number of protected areas, including the world's first shelter for
sharks. These efforts have helped to protect the marine life that surrounds Vanuatu's islands,
which are home to a diverse range of species including sea turtles, dugongs and various species of
sharks and rays. Vanuatu has also been a supporter of stronger international action on climate
change. The country is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of global warming, including rising
sea levels and increasingly frequent and severe storms.
3: _____________
In March 2023 a United Nations decision was adopted to make it easier to hold polluting
countries legally responsible for failing to tackle the climate emergency, in a vote that has been
called a historic victory for climate justice. Ishmael Kalsakau, prime minister of Vanuatu, said in a
statement: "Today we have witnessed a win for climate change. Today's historic decision is the
beginning of a new era in climate cooperation, one that is more fully focused on following the
rule of international law, and an era that places human rights at the front of climate decision-
making."
Looking back on Vanuatu's history, there have been several significant events that have impacted
the country's conservation efforts. One of the most notable was the devastating Cyclone Pam,
which hit Vanuatu in 2015. The cyclone caused widespread damage to the country's infrastructure,
including its conservation areas and cultural sites.
4: _____________
Looking challenges are likely to only get worse in the coming years. Climate change is expected
to continue to have a major impact on the country's natural and cultural assets, while
unsustainable development and other human activities pose several threats. However, through
partnerships with organisations such as the United Nations Development Programme, the World
Bank and the Global Environment Facility, Vanuatu has been able to access additional resources
and expertise to support its conservation efforts. Rather than relying solely on traditional mass-
market tourism, the government has been working to develop more sustainable forms of tourism
to make money.
5: _____________
The success of Vanuatu's conservation efforts will depend on the continued commitment and
support of its people and leaders, as well as the broader global community.
6: _____________
Through its cultural conservation efforts, marine conservation initiatives on climate change,
Vanuatu has demonstrated that even small island nations can have a big impact on the global
conservation agenda.
109

A. As the world faces increasingly urgent environmental challenges, it is essential that nations like
Vanuatu continue to play a leadership role in promoting conservation and sustainable
development.
B. Despite its small size and relative isolation, Vanuatu has had a significant impact on global
efforts to protect and preserve the natural world.
C. However, the country's commitment to conservation was on full display after this, as Vanuatu
worked to rebuild and restore its natural and cultural assets.
D. As a result, Vanuatu has been a leading voice in global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions and promote adaptation measures to help communities cope with the impacts of climate
change.
E. Plant life thrives in Vanuatu due to lots of rain, the right soil and twelve months of humidity.
F. In addition to its cultural conservation efforts, Vanuatu has also been at the front of marine
conservation.
G. This includes initiatives such as ecotourism, cultural tourism and community-based tourism,
which can help to generate income for local communities while also promoting conservation and
cultural preservation.
110

LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
T.E. Lawrence, also known as Lawrence of Arabia, was a British officer, diplomat and writer who
played a significant role in the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire during World War I.
Lawrence was born on August 16, 1888, in Tremadog, Wales, and grew up in Oxford, England.
1: _____________
After graduation, Lawrence worked as an archaeologist in the Middle East, which is where he
developed an interest in Arab culture and politics.
In 1914, Lawrence was recruited as a spy by the British Army's Intelligence Department to serve
in the Middle East. He was told to get information on the Ottoman Empire, which was an ally of
Germany during World War I. Lawrence quickly proved himself to be very skilled, using his
knowledge of Arabic and his understanding of Arab culture to gather valuable information.
2: _____________
He quickly became a close ally of the Arab leader, Prince Faisal, and played a key role in
organising and leading his army.
Lawrence was known for surprising the enemy, which caused significant damage to Ottoman
infrastructure. His most famous attack was on the Ottoman-held city of Aqaba, which was
considered impossible to take over due to its location and defences. The capture of Aqaba was a
significant turning point in the Arab Revolt, and Lawrence became a hero in both Arab and British
circles. His efforts were crucial in getting the support of the Arab tribes and appearing united
against the Ottomans.
Despite his successes, Lawrence was not without his criticisms.
3: _____________
Lawrence was also accused of exaggerating his achievements.
After the end of World War I, Lawrence became a supporter of Arab independence and worked
very hard to promote the Arab cause. He was heavily involved in negotiating the Arab-British
Treaty of 1922, which recognised the independence of several Arab states and established British
influence in the region.
4: _____________
In 1926, Lawrence retired from the military and began a new career as a writer. He wrote several
books, including Seven Pillars of Wisdom, which told of his experiences during the Arab Revolt.
5: _____________
Lawrence remained a controversial figure throughout his life. He was admired by some as a hero
who fought for Arab independence, while others saw him as an adventurer who didn't always tell
the truth. Despite the controversies, Lawrence is often thought of as a charming and brave leader
who fought for a just cause. Lawrence's story extends far beyond the Arab Revolt, however. His
ideas and actions continue to influence the region and the world to this day. His support for Arab
independence and his understanding of the importance of cultural sensitivity in diplomacy and
military operations are still relevant in today's complex political landscape. Lawrence died on
May 19, 1935, at the age of 46, in a motorcycle accident.
6: _____________
However, the man's influence lives on, and his story continues to inspire generations of people
around the world.
111

A. However, Lawrence's true usefulness became clear when he was sent to Arabia to work with
the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire.
B. Some British officers saw him as someone who operated alone and did not follow traditional
military tactics.
C. However, he was disappointed with the final outcome of the agreement, feeling that the Arab
people had not been given the independence they deserved.
D. Although his life was represented in the historical film Lawrence of Arabia, directed by David
Lean and starring Peter O'Toole as Lawrence himself.
E. It became a bestseller and is still considered one of the greatest personal books of the 20th
century
F. Lawrence was an exceptional student and received a scholarship to study at Jesus College in
the UK, where he did very well in medieval history and archaeology.
G. It was a shock to his family, friends and admirers all over the world.
112

PUBLIC HEALTHCARE
Public healthcare systems are the foundation of modern societies. They ensure that every citizen,
regardless of their income or social status, has access to healthcare services when they need them.
1: _____________
One of the main arguments for public healthcare systems is the principle of equality. A public
system ensures that everyone has access to the same standard of care, regardless of their financial
situation. This means that poor and working-class citizens are not left behind, and that they can
receive adequate medical attention just as the wealthy do.
2: _____________
While the government provides healthcare coverage for certain groups, such as the elderly and
those on low incomes, the majority of Americans are covered by private insurance plans or pay
for healthcare themselves.
3: _____________
Despite these efforts, however, the United States has yet to implement a public healthcare system
at the national level.
The Covid-19 pandemic provides a perfect example of why a public healthcare system is
essential. In countries such as the United Kingdom, where the National Health Service (NHS) is
the public healthcare system, medical staff worked very hard to save the lives of those affected by
the virus. The NHS was able to provide free testing, hospitalisation and treatment for all Covid-19
patients, regardless of their financial situation.
4: _____________
Another crucial argument for public healthcare systems is how they are able to prevent many
diseases before they occur.
This is achieved through measures such as vaccinations and health education programs.
A public system has the capacity to identify and manage potential health risks, which ultimately
reduces the burden on the healthcare system as a whole. One example of a public healthcare
campaign aimed at reducing alcohol consumption comes from Scotland's national health service.
The campaign, called 'Count 14', wants to reduce the number of alcohol units consumed by adults
to 14 or fewer per week.
5: _____________
The campaign also includes a digital unit calculator that allows people to easily calculate how
many units of alcohol they are consuming. Additionally, the campaign works with local
communities to create alcohol-free events and activities, as well as provide support for those
struggling with alcohol addiction. The Count 14 campaign has been successful in raising
awareness of the risks associated with excessive alcohol consumption and has led to a reduction
in the number of units of alcohol consumed by adults in Scotland.
The campaign's success was due to its comprehensive approach, which includes education,
support and community involvement. By providing information and resources to help people
make informed decisions about their alcohol consumption, the campaign has helped individuals to
take control of their health and well-being. In conclusion, public healthcare systems are vital to
ensure that all citizens have access to the best healthcare possible, regardless of their financial
status.
6: _____________
The provision of healthcare is a basic right that should be accessible to everyone.
113

A. Despite this, public healthcare systems have been under attack in recent years, with some
countries opting for privatised healthcare. This is a dangerous trend that threatens the well-being
of millions of people, and it must be stopped.
B. To ensure that everyone receives the healthcare they need, the current attacks on public
healthcare must be stopped. The Covid-19 pandemic has shown that public healthcare systems are
the most effective in times of crisis, and they are also the most effective at helping to prevent
certain illnesses and diseases.
C. Contrast this with the US, where people had to pay for Covid-19 testing and treatment. This
meant that many people who could not afford it were left untreated, putting themselves and others
at risk.
D. In contrast, a private system would result in only those who can afford it receiving the best
care, while the rest of the population is left to suffer. The United States mostly has a private
healthcare system, with a mix of private and public insurance programmes.
E. Groups here have been active in supporting public healthcare, including labour unions,
consumer groups and progressive political organisations. In recent years, the issue has gained
more attention as the cost of healthcare in the United States continues to rise and the number of
uninsured Americans remains high.
F. It uses a variety of media, including television, radio and social media, to encourage people to
drink more responsibly. The campaign's slogan also emphasises the health benefits of reducing
alcohol consumption.
G. The United Kingdom's healthcare service, which was created under Clement Atlee's Labour
government in 1948, aimed to provide free healthcare to those who needed it. The costs would be
covered by the taxes people pay, which are based on people's annual income.
114

ARE SOCIAL NETWORKS REALLY THAT SOCIAL?

In recent years, social media and the internet have altered the way in which we communicate and
interact with others. While the internet and social media platforms have made it easier for us to
connect with people all over the world, it has been argued that it has led to a decline in our face-
to-face interactions, making us less social beings.
1: _____________
Prior to social media and the internet, people primarily communicated with one another through
face-to-face conversations, letters or phone calls. These forms of communication required
individuals to invest more time and effort in their interactions, which made them more meaningful
and personal.
2: _____________
We can now easily share updates, photos and messages with our friends and family at the touch of
a button, and connect with people instantly and easily, regardless of where they are located in the
world. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have produced a new way
of communicating with large groups of friends. We may have known some of those people for
many years. They may be family, or friends from school or our neighbourhood. They might be
what we would consider 'close friends'. They may, however, be people we have met once at a
social event and with whom we then decided to swap contact details, therefore 'keeping in contact'
in a way that would have been impossible 20 years ago.
Social media and the 'friendships' made through it have created a new way of making friends that
must be separated from the traditional idea of being social and having friendships.
3: _____________
Those who don't achieve these elements of friendship, are considered a failure by others, but more
by themselves.
Despite the many advantages that social media and the internet have brought, there is growing
concern that our obsession with these technologies is leading to a decline in our social skills and
abilities.
4: _____________
One reason for this is that social media and the internet have made it easier for us to hide behind a
screen and avoid in-person interactions. We can now connect with people without having to leave
our homes or make any effort to socialise in person. This has led to a decrease in our ability to
read and interpret social signals and body language, which are important skills for developing and
maintaining relationships.
5: _____________
However, it is important to note that social media and the internet can also have positive effects.
For example, social media can provide a way for individuals to connect with others who share
similar interests and experiences, which can help to reduce feelings of loneliness. Furthermore,
social media can be a powerful tool for raising awareness about important social and political
issues, and for promoting positive social change.
6: _____________
The impact of social media and the internet on our social lives is complex. It's wonderful to
embrace the new tools available to us, but it is also very important to maintain and invest in face-
to-face in-person contact.
115

A. Research has also shown that people who spend more time on social media are more likely to
experience feelings of anxiety, depression and low self-esteem. This can be due to a lack of strong
support networks from those we really care about. Furthermore, being outside and getting regular
exercise, particularly as part of a group in a team sport, can build a sense of belonging and well-
being.
B. Studies have shown that people who spend more time online and on social media platforms are
more likely to experience feelings of loneliness than those who engage in face-to-face
interactions.
C. So, what are the effects that social media and the internet have on our social lives, especially
with regard to our mental health and well-being?
D. Some of the most popular social media platforms in the world will probably change within the
next few years due to how fast the digital world is changing.
E. Through social media, individuals can connect with others who share their beliefs and work
together to create positive change in their communities and in society as a whole. Many people
have built groups and movements to organise a range of different events, such as cultural, political
and environmental ones.
F. This is because they are different, each with their advantages and disadvantages. One downside
of online social networks is that they have created a pressure for users to appear popular, which is
determined by the number of photos. comments and 'likes' they receive.
G. However, with social media and the internet, communication has become much more
convenient and accessible. We can use our computers, laptops and phones to contact almost
anyone in the world who has access to the internet.
116

ANSWER KEY
FLUTTERING DOWN TO MEXICO: D – G – C – F – A – E
THE 'BRITAIN IN BLOOM' COMPETITION: D – G – E – A – F – C
PUBLISHING'S NATURAL PHENOMENON: E – B – G – D – A – C
THE BIRTH OF CORONATION STREET: F – D – A – G – E – C
THE SKY'S THE LIMIT FOR CLOUDWATCHERS: E – G – B – A – F – C
THE FIGHT TO SAVE NEW ZEALAND'S GIANT PARROT: C – G – A – D – F – B
THE STORY OF THE LAMB-PLANT: E – D – B – G – C – A
MOUNTAIN CHALLENGE: G – D – F – A – E – B
BABY TALK: D – G – C – A – E – F
TREES AND THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT: D – A – C – B
BEAUTIFUL MUSIC MAKES BETTER MATERIALS: D – F – A – G – E – C
YUKON: CANADA'S WILD WEST: C – G – B – F – A – E
IS WORK CHANGING?: G – E – A – D – B – F
EXPLORING THE GORNER GLACIER: D – B – A – F – C – G
THE FORGOTTEN STORY OF…: G – B – E – C – F – A
HOW THE CONCEPT OF SOFTWARE WAS INVENTED: E – G – A – D – C – F
IMPROVING THE SOUND OF CITIES: E – A – G – D – B – F
LEARNING ABOUT BLACK BEARS: C – G – E – A – F – B
GETTING A HEAD START: D – A – G – E – B – F
TWO JOURNALISTS AND THE BUTTERFLIES OF BRITAIN: F – B – E – A – G – D
ECOLOGY IN A VOLCANIC LAKE: F – B – G – D – A – C
CONSERVING JAGUARS: E – G – A – C – F – B
WILD SKATING IN SWEDEN: E – G – B – D – A – F
THE COUNTRY THAT LOVES BEES: F – C – G – A – E – B
HELPING OUT WITH ORANGUTANS…: F – G – A – C – B – E
RAFTING THROUGH THE GRAND CANYON AND BEYOND: C – F – A – G – E – D
VICTOR GRUEN AND THE SOUTHDALE SHOPPING MALL: G – D – A – F – C – E
WHAT DOES A SMILE MEAN?: E – B – G – A – F – D
BEAVERS: D – G – E – B – A – F
COSTA RICAN HOLIDAY: B – F – G – A – E – C
THE UNBEARABLE HYPOCRISY OF…: D – B – F – A – C – G
117

THE ART OF SOUND IN MOVIES: E – G – A – F – D – C

COOKING WITH A SOLAR OVEN: C – G – A – D – F – B
BEARDS: C – E – G – B – A – D
LEARNING TO COOK: C – A – G – B – F – D
FRACKING: B – F – G – A – D – C
A PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP: D – A – G – B – E – F
TIMING A TALK: F – C – H – A – G – E – B
THE ANIMAL DENTIST: E – F – C – B – D – A – H
BEETHOVEN’S PIANO: B – G – C – H – D – A – E
SCREEN DEBUT FOR A HIGH FLYER: D – H – A – F – G – E – B
BIG BILL BROONZY: E – B – H – D – A – G – F
THE RISE AND FALL OF THE ANCIENT MAYA CIVILISATION: D – G – B – F – A – E
CARE FARMS: E – G – B – A – F – C
HAVE YOU GOT WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A TOP ATHLETE?: E – G – A – D – F – C
KENYA'S GREAT WILDLIFE…: D – F – C – A – G – E
STUDYING ART HISTORY: C – F – E – A – G – D
A GIANT TREE: G – D – B – F – E – A
OBSERVING HOW WILD CHIMPANZEES BEHAVE: D – F – B – G – E – A
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE…: G – C – E – B – F – A
ROLLS-ROYCE: E – B – D – G – F – C
MONTESSORI: C – G – B – A – E – F
THE BLUE WHALE: D – E – A – F – B – G
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS: B – A – G – F – C – D
VANUATU: B – F – D – C – G – A
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA: F – A – B – C – E – G
PUBLIC HEALTHCARE: A – D – E – C – F – B
ARE SOCIAL NETWORKS REALLY THAT SOCIAL?: C – G – F – B – A – E