PRACTICE 6

LISTENING :
Part 1 : You will hear three different extracts. For questions 1 - 6, choose the answer (A, B or C),
which fits best according to what you hear. There are two questions for each extract.
Extract One : You hear two friends talking about taking up an art class.
5 What does the woman say about doing art at school?
A She was envious of those who had superior skills.
B She felt the teacher was dismissive of her evident talent.
C She found it difficult to tolerate the length of the lessons.
6 When the man tries to convince her to attend an art class, the woman
A provides further support for her initial argument.
B concedes that he may have a valid point.
C points out flaws in his reasoning.
Extract Two : You hear a man talking to his friend about overcoming a fear of flying.
7 What does the woman say about her fear of flying?
A It stemmed from an unpleasant experience she had had.
B Being armed with facts did little to soothe her concerns.
C She felt that her feelings were justifiable.
8 When talking about tackling her difficulties, the woman
A conveys relief that her persistence has been effective.
B urges others to consider using popular coping strategies.
C expresses regret that it took so long to resolve her issues.
Extract Three : You hear part of an interview with a carpenter who produces furniture from reclaimed wood.
9 During their conversation, the woman
A questions the man’s role.
B clarifies some terminology.
C points out a growing trend.
10 The man is keen to highlight that
A he is reluctant to buy materials from trade suppliers.
B he produces items which do not have a detrimental effect.
C he aims to create highly-detailed items of furniture.

Part 2: You will hear a cultural expert called Wendy Harbrook talking about her experience of eating
at a colleague’s home in Japan. For questions 7 - 15, complete the sentences with a word or short
phrase.
Wendy Harbrook: dinner in Japan
Before visiting her colleague’s home for dinner, Wendy admits to feeling (7) __________________
Wendy’s research style allows her to directly experience what she terms the cultural (8) ____________ of a place.
Wendy selected an odd number of (9) __________________ asa gift for her host.
Wendy’s expectation was that she would have to wear (10) __________________ in her host’s home.
The dish Wendy most enjoyed consisted mainly of (11) __________________
Wendy was corrected for forgetting to put her chopsticks in a (12) __________________ position.
Wendy was not prepared for the feeling of (13) __________________ she felt by the time she had eaten.
Besides talking, Wendy and her host partook in (14) __________________ after dinner.
Wendy’s experiences in Japan will be described in her book, entitled (15) ‘ __________________ ’.

PART 3 You will hear two psychologists, Joseph Bloome and Amanda Owen, talk about the meaning of
success. For questions 16 - 20, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which fits best according to what you
hear.
11 When talking about wealth and success, Joseph
A clarifies the reason for a widely-held belief about them.
B dispels a myth about the correlation between them.
 C confirms how one affects the other.
D points out the pitfalls of believing they are the same.
12 What does Amanda say about gaining material possessions?
A The expense of a purchase does not determine how much pleasure it provides.
B A person’s first major purchase is likely to have the greatest effect on feelings.
C The effect a purchase has on a person is dictated by their general mood.
D The more people acquire, the more they may want to acquire.
13 When discussing alternative meanings of success, Joseph and Amanda agree that
A they prefer a definition which excludes financial wealth.
B two principal definitions appear to contradict each other.
C some people contest the conventional definitions of success.
D many people have a mistaken belief about the definition of success.
14 What does Joseph suggest when asked about control and success?
A The people who feel most in control are those who do not worry about the future.
B People tend to feel better if they have control over their working conditions.
C Some people are particularly skilled at coping with stress in their lives.
D Some people worry excessively about their lack of control in life.
15 What does Amanda say about how she would define success in her own life?
A having greater peace of mind
B feeling better about her personal circumstances
C maintaining an outward appearance of happiness
D recognizing she is no less accomplished than her peers

Part 4 You will hear five short extracts in which people are talking about their careers.
You will hear the recording twice. While you listen, you must complete both tasks.

Part 5 : Listen to a talk about the human nose and complete the following sentences.
Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS taken from the recording for each blank.
Our noses are composed of (1) ____________________________ rather than bone. Similar to our other external
organs, they evolved to contribute to our survival by assisting us in eating. Thanks to their proximity to our mouth
with (2) ____________________________, noses enable us to smell if something has rotted. In addition, noses help
infants by making sure that they don't (3) ____________________________ while being nursed.
Their outer part consists mainly of resilient tissue, which means they are softer and much less likely to (4)
____________________________ though they receive a lot of (5) ____________________________ throughout
our life span.
The position of our jutting noses also helps to prevent a direct intrusion of rainwater or sweat. Many other animals
are not so (6) ____________________________. Take the (7) ____________________________ in Myanmar as an
example, its upward pointing nose makes it sneeze every time it rains, which is not good when the monkey wants to
hide from predators, attempting to live its best (8) ____________________________.
Plastic nose surgery, also known as (9) ____________________________, has been used by surgeons to reconstruct
the normal function and appearance of the noses damaged by syphilis since the 16th century and is now the most
common one.
Odour memory is a human unique ability because the part of our brain dealing with our sense of smell is right next
to the area where memories are formed called the (10) ____________________________.
MULTIPLE CHOICE
A.
1. The manager was known for her ability to run a ______ ship, maintaining strict discipline and efficiency in the
workplace.
A. fit B. wide C. short D. tight

2. Jenny only attends lectures _______ , after choosing to prioritize other commitments or activities over consistent
class attendance.
A. atypically B. sporadically C. inordinately D. meagerly

3. In the desultory conversation, their exchange of ideas remained ______ , lacking clarity and coherence as they
drifted aimlessly between vague topics without a defined direction or purpose.
A. sagacious B. pernicious C. desultory D. nebulous

4. _______ , climate change is _____ pose a significant threat to coastal regions.

A. Though not inherently disastrous – so severe as to
B. Despite being not inherently disastrous – sufficiently severe to
C. While not inherently disastrous – severe enough to
D. Not being inherently disastrous – enough severity to

5. The sudden drop in the stock market was a ______ of an economic recession.
A. foresight B. harbinger C. sign D. token

6. She _______ illness so that she could have a day off work.
A. pretended B. ruptured C. feigned D. professed

7. She’s always _______ the worst jobs off on her assistant. This reflects a leadership approach that may hinder the
growth and motivation of the entire team!
A. palming B. heading C. brushing D. topping

8. We can only ______ about what was in the killer’s mind, and all we can do is engage in speculation to grasp the
motives and thoughts that drive their actions.
A. obfuscate B. conjecture C. foment D. inculcate

9. With her eloquent speeches and genuine warmth, the political leader effortlessly connects with people from all
walks of life, demonstrating _____ that resonates with the diverse population.
A. a common touch B. a cushy number C. a flash in the pan D. a baptism of fire

10. Linguistic scientists contend that ______ from the primitive sounds like grunts and barks produced by early
human ancestors.
A. verbal language, which was very slow to develop. B. verbal language, very slowly developing
C. the very slow development of language D. verbal language developed very slowly

B.
GUIDED CLOZE

WORD FORM
1. The program was not ___________________ with other software. (OPERATE)
2. We cycled the longer of two off-road ___________________ routes, which measured ten miles. (MARK)
3. When choosing a mobile phone contract, seven in 10 users choose ___________________ . (GO)
4. With his imagination stirred, Man could consciously _______________ other planets to bring about similar Earth-
like conditions. (FORM)
5. The company specialises in creating productions that are hard hitting and ___________________ . (CREDIT)
6. People who use wheelchairs sometimes live in ________________ houses. (BUILD)
7. One of the greatest buildings of all time is the monastery of Sainte-Marie de la Tourette near Lyon, (SACRED)
________________ in 1960 and built cheaply from that most ________________ (PRETEND) of building materials,
concrete.
8. These provisions prevent the importation or sale of food or sale of feeding stuffs which are unsound or
________________ or otherwise unfit for consumption. (WHOLE)
9. Rosalind conducted the meeting with characteristic ________________ . (PLUMMET)
10. Another problem requiring urgent attention is traffic congestion in large ________________ and the concentration
of exhaust fumes in cities and intercity transport corridors. (URBAN)

PROPRIETY HOLD PATH SPIN LET PATRON

MISSION INTEGRATE REPORT FORTUNE NOMINATE
Until the end of the eighteenth century, most artists worked on the basis of carrying out specific (1)
____________________ for churches, royal courts or wealthy private collectors, and thus enjoyed a measure of
financial security. This form of (2) ____________________ declined in the following century, however, and painters
and sculptors were increasingly (3) ____________________ for trying to sell their works on the open market, with
their main (4) ____________________ being large official exhibitions in which their work was displayed along with
that of their competitors. This made life hard for many artists, especially for (5) ____________________ whose style
did not coincide with public taste.
Since the second half of the nineteenth century the rise of small commercial galleries under private (6)
____________________ has given artists better opportunities to display their work, but nevertheless many artists still
go through periods of considerable financial (7) ____________________.
Recently company sponsorship, especially in the form of prizes, has begun to partially fill the gap left by the (8)
____________________ of private patrons. For example, the high-street bank NatWest offers an annual art prize
worth a total of $ 36,000 - including 11 awards of $1,000 to all finalists.
However, unlike (9) ____________________ for literature prizes such as the Booker, who usually enjoy increased
sales as a(n) (10) ____________________ from appearing on the shortlist, artists do not necessarily benefit from the
media (11) ____________________ generated by winning a prize. One recent winner of the controversial Turner
Prize found that galleries did not offer her subsequent exhibitions, as she had hoped, because they felt she was 'too
obvious a candidate for invitation'.

OPEN CLOZE 1:
SO WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE?
Anyone who wants to learn or use what used to be called ‘plain English’ is likely to be (1) ______________ by what
has been happening in recent years. In the first place, there has been the proliferation of (2) ________________ -
terminology devised by the experts to ensure that only they will grasp what is being said. Its use is of great value to
academics, lawyers and economists since the ordinary citizen is obliged to (3) _____________ them, usually for a
substantial fee, to find out what they mean.
Far more sinister (4) ____________ the perversion of everyday terms to mean something quite different. This is
favoured by those who regard themselves as ‘politically correct’ - a term that, by implying that only they know what
is right, is itself a perversion of language. No doubt it (5) ________________ off with good intentions. It was only
natural (6) ______________ the original inhabitants of North America should object to what they were called, since
they are neither ‘red’ nor ‘Indian’, but it is doubtful whether they appreciated being renamed as the (7)
________________ of an obscure Italian navigator*. But in their (8) ________________ not to offend anyone, these
‘idealists’ are making nonsense of the language. Those who are (9) ______________ of stature may feel happier to
be described as ‘vertically challenged’ but what (10) ________________ does it offer the very tall, like myself, who
feel ‘vertically challenged’ every time we bang our heads?

OPEN CLOZE 2
WHERE PANTOMIME IS STILL THE SAME
The Players’ Theatre, near Charing Cross Station in London, is the only one (1) ____________ in the country where
pantomime is still performed in the traditional manner at Christmas. The theatre is an odd institution, a club whose
members are (2) _____________ to keeping alive the spirit of the Victorian music hall. When the MC (or Master of
Ceremonies), as he is traditionally called, says the century is coming to an end, he means the 19th; when he proposes
the health of the (3) _____________, he means Victoria, not Elizabeth. For the MC, modern pantomime is a disgusting
spectacle, a (4) _____________ of a great tradition. The comedians make jokes about (5) ___________ events to
amuse the adults, while the children, who go wanting to follow a story, are bored and don’t understand.
The old forms are not quite dead, however; (6) _______________ were Victorian pantomimes so far removed from
the present day. A well-known comedian who has written four shows for different theatres (7) ______________ out
that pantomime was in decline until popular music-hall stars began to take part. In his opinion, since television is the
modern (8) _______________ of music hall, it is only natural that jokes should refer to soap opera. There must still
be a connection with the original stories; if they are abandoned, how can the name of pantomime be (9)
____________? But like all art forms, it must move with the (10) _______________; a strict attention to the original
forms would mean empty seats and limit its appeal to a few enthusiasts.
OPEN CLOZE 3

To 1._______________, mankind has achieved interplanetary travel (we've successfully landed spacecrafts
2.______________planets within our solar system) but what are the possibilities for interstellar travel and intergalactic
travel? First, let's consider the 3. _______________ . Intergalactic travel is space travel between galaxies and it
unquestionably 4. _______________ in the realm of pure fantasy. It would take over 2,5 million years travelling at
the speed of light (i.e. 669,600,000 miles per hour) to reach 5._______________our closest galactic neighbour, the
Andromeda Galaxy. The vast distances and the time needed to cover 6.__________________make intergalactic travel
impossible. What, then, about interstellar travel? Well, that 7._______________is currently just pure science fiction.
The distances between our solar system and our nearest star neighbours may not be on the scale of intergalactic
distances, but they are still colossal. Take Proxima Centauri, our nearest neighbouring star, it is 4.2 light years away.
To 8. _______________ a sense of what this means, consider that the Sun is about 8 light minutes from Earth. The
fastest spacecrafts mankind currently have travel at 1/18,000th the speed of light (i.e. 38,030 miles per hour). At this
speed, it would still take 72,000 years to reach Proxima Centauri. But do not despair. Many scientists believe mankind
will possess the technology to make unmanned, at 9._________________interstellar travel practically feasible in the
next 200 to 500years. The journeys will still take many decades, 10.______________not centuries, but space probes
will probably have visited other solar systems by the year 3000AD.

ERROR RECOGNITION & CORRECTION (5 mistakes)

Under normal circumstances, fear triggers a natural fight-or-flight response that allows animals to react quickly to

threats in their environment. Irrational and excessive fear, however, is typically a maladapted response. In humans,

an unwarranted, persistent fear of a certain situation or object, known as specific phobia, can cause overwhelming

distress and interfere with daily life.

For fear to escalate to irrational levels, a combination of genetic and environmental factors is very likely at play.

Estimates of genetic contributions to specific phobia range from roughly 25 to 65 percent, hence we do not know

which genes have a leading part. No specific phobia gene has been identified, and it is highly unlikely that a single

gene is responsible. Rather variants in several genes may predispose an individual by developing a number of

psychological symptoms and disorders, including specific phobia.

But for the environmental component, a person may develop a phobia after a particularly frightening event, especially

if he or she feels out of control. Even witnessing or hearing about a traumatic occurrence can contribute to its

development. For instance, watching a devastating airplane crash on the news may trigger a fear of flight. That said,

discerning the origin of the disorder can be difficult because people tend to do a poor job of identifying the source of

their fears.
READING 1
My children don’t speak my mother tongue – as a second-generation migrant, it fills me with sadness
As a second-generation British Pakistani growing up in Bradford, I was surrounded by Urdu and smatterings of Punjabi. English
came later, and I can remember not being able to understand my teacher on the first day of nursery.
1
There have been countless debates over the years about which language immigrant parents should speak to their children,
and the impact of that on their studies. I’ve never been convinced of the benefit of dropping one language in favour of the
other. Because of my parents’ decision, I’m able to speak both languages fluently.
2
Whether it’s ordering cuts of meat in the butcher’s, placing an order in a restaurant or discussing designs in a clothing shop, it
adds joy to my life, allows me to weave in and out of communities, and frees me from the constraints of any one group. And
yet, despite my love for my mother tongue, my children don’t yet speak Urdu. It wasn’t intentional – 13 years ago, when I got
married and moved to London, it just took a back seat.
3
The nine-year-old recently announced that he’d like to learn, so that he can converse with his Nani and Nana Abu (my
parents). They live 200 miles away in Yorkshire, and on a phone screen is where he sees them most. While they do speak
English, age-related hearing loss means it’s tricky for them to maintain the patience it takes to have a meaningful conversation
with my high-energy sons in a language that they learnt as adults.
4
In these moments, I mourn the loss of my mother tongue for my children. I wonder how they will connect with their heritage,
and what it will mean to them as adults. They have the features and skin tone of Pakistanis but their sensibilities, their tongue
and their body language are of English children.
5
‘Do you understand that?’ my son asks, as he catches me on my phone watching the trailer for a new Bollywood epic. He
stares at me in wonder, as if I have magical powers. My husband and I have taken to speaking in Urdu to hide our
conversations from the boys, using ‘chota vala,’ ‘beech vala’ and ‘bara vala’ – which roughly translate as ‘little one,’ ‘the
middle one’ and ‘the older one’ – instead of their names.
6
They may still pick it up yet. Even if they don’t, my sister reminds us that our nani used to say that despite being of Kashmiri
heritage, none of us spoke the language, and that this was a natural part of the passing of time.
7
On hearing of the passing of a cousin last year, I took myself off for a long walk and ended up in a curry house. Sitting on the
brown leather seats, waiting for my order, hearing the waiters speak the language of my parents soothed me. I wanted to curl
up on the sofa the way I used to at family dinner parties, falling asleep and being carried to my room, the sound of laughter
still ringing in my ears.

MISSING PARAGRAPHS
A
She was right, of course, but still I teach my sons the things I can. I fill them with a love of their heritage, a respect for the
future and a hope they will find a way to learn the things they will need to sustain them in their lives. Urdu will always be the
sound of my childhood. It is songs playing on Sunrise Radio on a summer’s day. It’s gossip at weddings, stories over dinner,
theological tales on Eid.
B
Every conversation is the same: ‘Salaam. How are you, beta?’ ‘Salaam, I’m good.’ Then they look at each longingly through the
screen of my phone, nodding and smiling, desperate to connect to their grandchildren somehow. Until finally, my mum says: ‘I
love you, baita.’ My son nods.
C
This wasn’t an easy decision. Indeed, we did attempt to teach the boys the basics of Urdu when they were little. But it was
clear at the time that their hearts weren’t in it – and, if we were brutally honest with ourselves, neither were ours. Gradually,
the Urdu lessons became less frequent as we followed the line of least resistance and stuck increasingly to English.
D
This was all part of my parents’ plan: to speak in Urdu to my siblings and me because they knew we would learn English at
school. They were right.
E
They may never understand Urdu poetry – the words of Faiz, Ghalib and Mir are lost to them, at least in their original texts.
They don’t have a secret language to use with each other the way my siblings and I do, and they’ll have to watch Indian
cinema with subtitles.
F
My husband, like me, was born in England, and although we came from similar households, he wasn’t as fluent as I was in our
shared mother tongue. Urdu has brought me so much, but I worry that it is closed off to my three children.
G
They think it’s hilarious and have cottoned on to which one is which, the middle one having renamed himself as the ‘beach
bum vala’, which feels apt.
H
I write for a living and worked as a journalist for the BBC, and this multilingualism has only enhanced my life. It gives me access
to other worlds, stories, film and poetry.
READING 2: You are going to read a newspaper article about life at sea. For questions 1–6, choose the
answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text.
WHAT FOUR YEARS AT SEA TAUGHT ME ABOUT OUR RELATIONSHIP TO THE OCEAN
It was on day 11, I think, that I stopped getting out of bed at all. I had already let my hygiene standards slip to the
point that a large knot was starting to form in my hair. Later my mother would have to cut it out with scissors. She
didn’t mind. We were all in the same boat.
I was nine years old, and nearly two weeks into sailing across the Atlantic with my family. Including my little sister,
there were four of us aboard a 52 ft yacht – our home for four years, in which time we got from Dorset to New
Zealand.
The longest period we spent entirely at sea was 21 days, and we did so twice: from the Canary Islands to Barbados,
and then from the Galápagos Islands to French Polynesia. The first trip I remember spending mostly in bed, below
deck in the dark, forging a new relationship to time.
I grew used to observing the ebb and flow of my thoughts with a languor that today would probably be praised as
meditative. The days slid by, mostly unbroken except for meals and milestones: quarter-way, halfway, crossing the
equator, which we marked with little parties. Not long after the sun had gone down, you’d go to sleep – partly
because artificial light drained the boat’s battery, and partly because the sooner you went to sleep, the sooner
another day would pass, and the sooner you would arrive. When we finally reached Barbados, and set foot on land
for the first time in three weeks, my knees wobbled, bracing for the next wave that didn’t come.
Most people have no more personal connection to the sea than the odd trip to the seaside. A more intimate
relationship can be incompatible with conventional ways of life and maybe – the knot in my hair might attest – its
quality. At the same time, it changes you in a very profound way. It was only relatively recently, I’m embarrassed to
say, that I realised that my experience was not universally shared – that not everyone has known the open ocean,
with no land in sight in any direction for many miles. Just endless seas, sometimes even indistinguishable from sky;
an expanse of grey or blue, entirely uninterrupted, except by you.
It is hard to convey what that feels like, the effect that it can have. You feel dwarfed and insignificant, of course –
but the mind cannot hold on to reverence for long. I remember it more often playing tricks on me, registering
patterns and shapes in the movements of the wave – my brain determinedly generating interest, overlaying
meaning, as though it could not make sense of there being only water everywhere.
Yet, in imagining a life at sea, most people seem less inclined to think of tedium than terror. Many have told me that
the thought of being stranded in the open ocean is one of their greatest fears; I’m not sure that they would single
out being lost in a forest, for example, or on a snowy mountain in the same way, though all three landscapes are
alien and potentially dangerous.
In fact, the first question I am most often asked about my childhood is, ‘Were there any storms?’ or, more to the
point, ‘Were you scared?’ The answers are yes, only one, a freak occurrence overnight; and no – I slept right
through it. My parents were highly risk-averse, setting out for sea only when the weather forecast was favourable
and they had supplies – food, medical, electrical – in order to be ready for every eventuality.
There could be a genetic predisposition towards how we feel about travelling the seas: DRD 4-7R, the so-called
‘wanderlust’ gene, is thought to be present in about 20% of the population. Even if my parents have wanderlust in
their DNA, I’m not sure it was handed down to me. Though I spent the first half of my life sailing, I acquired none
of the skills – I couldn’t even manage a bowline knot. I have blamed it on my being a child, but the truth is I have
never had any interest in boats beyond as a means of accessing the open ocean.
I still feel a strong connection to the sea. When I am struggling to get to sleep, I play ocean sounds through my
phone: a crude attempt to simulate the limitlessness, even transcendence, I remember feeling out in open water.
You can be claimed by the sea without drowning. I feel its absence on a bodily level like a mineral deficiency.
1. Why does the writer give the example of a knot in her hair?
A. to lament the lack of facilities on board
B. to illustrate her lethargy during a tedious journey
C. to highlight her parents’ unconventional approach to child-rearing
D. to refute a misunderstanding about the glamour of seafaring
2. During her first three-week voyage, the writer suggests she felt
A. liberated by having so much time to think.
B. frustrated with the monotony of the journey.
C. impatient to reach her destination.
D. weakened by the sea’s constant motion.
3. Which aspect of the open ocean does she suggest had the most profound impact on her?
A. Her inability to fit in with the norms and standards of the rest of society.
B. The awareness that few others had experienced such isolation.
C. Her awe at the vastness of the ocean in contrast to her own irrelevance.
D. Her experience of seeking significance in seemingly meaningless emptiness.
4. What point does she make about the dangers of life at sea?
A. Most people are irrationally obsessed with the exaggerated risks.
B. The sea is safer than some places that provoke less terror.
C. Her parents’ recklessness put the whole family in great danger.
D. Sea travel can be relatively safe with meticulous preparation.
5. The writer attributes her own fascination with the sea to
A. her need to spend time far from land.
B. the insufficient maritime skills she acquired as a child.
C. her deep-seated desire to explore remote destinations.
D. her likely possession of the DRD 4-7R gene.
6. What seems to be the writer’s current attitude to her childhood experiences?
A. She longs to return to her former nomadic lifestyle.
B. She regrets her lack of enthusiasm during her family’s voyages.
C. She accepts that the monotony shaped her character.
D. She feels bitter about the psychological dependence they created.

READING 3
You are going to read an article about inventors who didn’t get rich from their inventions. For
questions 1–10, choose from the people (A–D). The people may be chosen more than once.
Which inventor
1. failed to strike a deal with an eventual beneficiary?
2. spurned a lucrative opportunity based on a belief in egalitarianism?
3. designed something to help people who couldn’t afford the alternative?
4. took inspiration from an inability to support somebody in need?
5. regretted not having been able to do more to fight disease?
6. suffered exploitation at the hands of a former partner?
7. had another person claim credit for the invention owing to a lack of any legal protection?
 8. intended their invention to raise awareness of an unfair process?
9. seems to have been averse to being the centre of attention?
10. struggled financially despite their creation having reaped substantial commercial rewards?

FOUR INVENTORS WHO DIDN’T GET RICH FROM THEIR CREATIONS

A. Trevor Baylis
Trevor Baylis was inspired to create the wind-up radio after watching a television programme in 1991 about the
inexorable spread of diseases. The programme said that a good way to tackle it was through educational radio
programmes, but a lot of places lacked access to electricity, and batteries were prohibitively expensive. “I had a
prototype for the wind-up radio within half an hour,” he said. But his one-of-a-kind invention, which sold in the
millions, wasn’t lucrative for Baylis, who admitted to being “totally broke” in 2013. Speaking of his London home, he
said: “I’m going to have to sell it or remortgage it. I’m living in poverty here.” Despite the success of his wind-up
radio and several follow-up products employing similar technology, including a torch, a mobile phone charger and
an MP3 player, he claimed to have received almost none of the profits. Due to the quirks of patent law, the
company he went into business with to manufacture his radios was able to tweak his original design, which caused
him to lose control over the product.
B. Elizabeth Magie
In 1904, Lizzie Magie obtained a patent for a board game she had invented, The Landlord’s Game. The game was
novel in that players followed a circular path, with no clear finish point. Another innovation was that players could
‘own’ places on the board – and make other players pay a penalty for landing on them. As a passionate advocate of
social justice, Magie sought to highlight the system whereby property owners grew richer by accumulating
monopolies to extract higher rents from poor tenants. The game was available in two versions: Monopoly, where
players succeeded by selfishly destroying the wealth of other players, and Prosperity, where they worked together
for their mutual benefit. As the game grew in popularity, another inventor, Charles Darrow, became aware of it and
claimed it as his own invention. He took out his own patent in 1933, and even published it with Parker Brothers
(who had rejected Magie’s original several times on the grounds of it being too political). Monopoly went on to
become one of the greatest boardgames of all time, but while Darrow and Parker Brothers reaped the benefits,
Magie received a mere $500 in exchange for her patent.
C. Daisuke Inoue
Daisuke Inoue, a Japanese businessman and occasional band drummer and keyboardist, invented the karaoke
machine after being asked by a client to accompany him on a work trip where Inoue would play the keyboard
alongside his vocals. Inoue couldn’t attend, however, and instead gave the client a recording of instrumental
backing music for him. This sparked an idea to build a machine equipped with a microphone and amplifier that
played music recorded on tapes. The machines were well-received at bars and clubs, but Inoue, who had not
patented his invention, failed to make any money from it. Years later, a Filipino entrepreneur called Roberto del
Rosario took Inoue’s idea and made his own karaoke machine system – which was patented.
D. Sir Tim Berners-Lee
English engineer and computer scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the World Wide Web in 1990, could
potentially have become as rich and powerful as Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Instead, he determined that his
creation should be free for everyone to use and opted against patenting it. In a 2008 interview, he said he tends not
to dwell on what he might have done with the billions of pounds he could have earned if people had been prepared
to hand over royalties. He said, “It would be nice to be in Bill Gates’s position, where you could donate huge sums
to tackling world health problems. We all ask ourselves what we would do if we had loads and loads of money. I
would buy huge tracts of coastline in the UK and donate it to the National Trust. I’d also buy ugly buildings and
knock them down.” A reserved and modest man, Berners-Lee has long shunned the limelight, preferring instead to
closet himself in academia – lecturing and working with research students.
READING 4:
WHAT MOZART HAD AND TRACY HASN’T
A liturgy of opposites has developed in the theory of education; creativity versus routine, spontaneity versus rote learning,
innovation versus conformity. In the face of all the evidence to the contrary, educationalists go on telling us that children learn
not by conforming to some external standard, but by ‘releasing their inner potential’ and expressing their creative skills.
Hence, rote learning, facts and traditional routines are dismissed as irrelevant.
23
Imagine an educational guru who told us that nothing mattered in mathematics so much as creativity. The great
mathematicians of the past were distinguished, the guru tells us, by their imaginative powers. They were able to break
through the hide-bound rules of their predecessors, to cast aside the ordinary routines of proof, and to take an imaginative
leap to their conclusions. We should therefore be teaching our children to release their mathematical creativity and to value
spontaneity against rule-following. We all know what such a philosophy would entail in practice – namely, ignorance.
24
Why do we think that things are so different in the case of language, literature, history and the arts? The answer is to be found
in the long tradition of woolly thinking that began with Rousseau. On the one hand, educationists believe, there is the
objective world of facts, and this we must explore through disciplined learning and the building of theories. On the other hand,
there is the subjective world of opinions, feelings and artistic urges, to be explored through self-expression.
25
Such thinking is contradicted by the obvious fact that self-expression is not innate but acquired: the self, too, is a social
product. We do children a great wrong by withholding the discipline, the knowledge and the store of examples that confer the
art of self-expression, since, by doing so, we damage the self. The anger of many young people leaving school is the anger of
the inarticulate. The emphasis on the creative act produces teenagers specialising in acts of destruction.
26
Of course Mozarts are few and far between, but it is all the more reason to be as disciplined as Mozart. With the discipline,
there is the chance of being creative; without it, there is no chance at all. Visit a British art school today and you are almost
certain to find an array of objects, maybe just an old coat with the artist’s name tag pinned to it – all praised and rewarded for
their ‘creativity’ and all as dull and empty as the work of caged chimpanzees.
27
Of course, artistic ability is not like scientific knowledge: you cannot acquire it merely by diligent study. There comes a point
where a leap of imagination is required. If in music, art or poetry you say something that has already been said, then you say
nothing. In Ezra Pound’s famous dictum, you have to ‘make it new’, and that means imprinting your words, your notes or your
forms with a distinct personality and an inimitable life. But what is so striking about the art works produced on a diet of
unadulterated creativity is not that they are new and surprising, but drawn from a repertoire of clichés already done to death
by modernists, and now reduced to a routine.
28
Real originality does not defy convention but depends on it. You can only ‘make it new’ when the newness is perceivable,
which means departing from conventions while at the same time affirming them. Hence originality requires tradition if it is to
make artistic sense.
29
People who have learnt poetry by rote and know how to compose the occasional sonnet may not revolutionise the
consciousness of mankind as Shakespeare did. But they are more likely to understand what great writers are saying, are likely
to live on a more exalted plane as a result of doing so, and are also able, through their life and example, to make a positive
contribution in the great war against Dullness.
MISSING PARAGRAPHS
A. Hardly an art school in our country now insists on figurative drawing, clay modelling, casting, or the mastery of pigments –
still less a knowledge of art history, or an ability to discern just why the planes of a Matisse interior intersect at an acute angle,
or the shadows of a Constable are done in yellows and browns.
B. Any other approach is considered ‘authoritarian’. Grammar, style, art, even history, are all alleged to be matters of opinion.
Hence the purpose of education is to give children the confidence to express their subjective attitudes to these things –
subjective attitudes being all that we have.
C. Children write poetry before they have memorised a single line of it, dance before they have learnt a single step, paint and
daub without the faintest knowledge of figurative drawing. Grammar, spelling and punctuation are degraded in the interests
of creative self-expression.
D. But what about the rest of us? Why should we, who are not geniuses, acquire the knowledge needed by those who are?
This is a difficult question, but I like to believe that people who acquire artistic, musical or literary skills, but who lack the
divine spark, are nevertheless an addition to the common good.
E. The shibboleth of creativity has been especially counter-productive in the arts. Consider Mozart, whose ever-fresh, ever-
lucid melodies are among the most original creations of mankind. Mozart did not become a creative genius merely by letting it
all hang out, even though he had more to hang out than anyone. He was rigorously and relentlessly schooled by his father,
subjected to the ordeal of public performances, trained in the art of memory and the grammar of the classical style.
F. But will we never learn that what really separates the great artists of the past from those who claim to be ‘creative’ today is
rigorous education? The exhibits of such ‘creative artists’ as Damien Hurst and Tracey Emin lack the skills required for real art
and are shockingly banal. Shocking is apparently both the be-all and end-all of the intention but in the long run the result is not
so much shocking as dull.
G. You can be a creative genius in mathematics only if you have acquired the discipline of mathematical proof. In teaching
science, even educationists seem prepared to admit that discipline comes first, creativity last. They recognise that chemistry
taught with a regime of pure self-expression would soon degenerate into alchemy, just as ‘creative physics’ would be hard to
distinguish from witchcraft.
H. The myth that we are all instinctively creative goes hand in hand with the belief in originality as the sole criterion of artistic
merit. And when rules and disciplines are rejected, the only proof of originality becomes the ability to shock or surprise.
Nothing that Mozart did was intended to shock his audience, or to surprise them with some outrageous gesture. The
originality of his music is inseparable from its rule-guided objectivity.
READING 5:
A CIRCLE OF SISTERS: Alice Kipling, Georgiana Burne-Jones, Agnes Poynter and Louisa Baldwin
by Judith Flanders

The Macdonald sisters were not a particularly promising crew. Pretty, but not beautiful, bright but not educated, as the
daughters of a Methodist minister they could hardly be counted as the last word in glamour. Yet the four girls who were born
between 1837 and 1845 (the family numbered eight in all) ended up far away from the dusty life of the provincial chapel into
which they had been born.
This being mid-Victorian Britain, the Macdonalds’ social transformation came about through their relationships with important
or interesting men. Alice Macdonald married an art teacher, followed him to India, and gave birth to Rudyard Kipling.
Georgiana married the painter Edward Burne-Jones and ended up with a title, although as a lifelong radical, she felt awkward
about it.
Agnes married Edward Poynter, who managed to get most of the British art establishment under his control. At one point he
was running the Royal Academy and the National Gallery as well as the Tate. And Louisa Macdonald married the wealthy
Midlands industrialist Alfred Baldwin and produced the good, kind boy who would eventually become the Conservative Prime
Minister, Stanley Baldwin.
Although their story sounds superficially like a female version of one of those rags-to-riches tales so beloved of early-Victorian
moralists, the Macdonald sisters did not live happily ever after. From the moment they left home, they seem to have found
their husbands difficult and their children disappointing.
Ned Burne-Jones may have been a fine painter and a charming man, but he led Georgie a horrible dance with his long,
anguished love affairs with other women. Their son Phil was a weak, lonely snob, while his sister Margaret was just plain odd.
She made her husband turn down the mastership of Balliol College, Oxford because she did not want to move away from her
father in Fulham.
The other sisters fared little better. Alice Kipling may have been hugely proud of her son’s success as a writer, but she had to
cope with a daughter-in-law who saw it as her job to keep ‘Ruddy’ as far away from his mother as possible. Louisa Baldwin
took to her bed for months at a time, perhaps because her husband, though well-behaved, was rather dull. At one stage she
was dosing herself with a bottle of champagne a day.
Agnes may have become Lady Poynter, but she had to endure her husband’s deep depressions, not to mention her sons’
disappointing careers; they were always leaning on assorted Kiplings and Baldwins for the next job.
Judith Flanders is very good at understanding how families work. With an acute eye, she charts the constant shifts of
allegiance and distance that marked the Macdonald siblings’ relationships with one another. They were not, on the whole,
very good at talking to each other. Instead, their most pressing needs and wounding hurts were expressed through small,
unspoken acts. In 1866, Alice, for instance, took well over two months before she got round to writing to her sisters to
congratulate them on their marriages.
Where Flanders is less good, however, is in her understanding of the historical background to the Macdonalds’ story, at times
resorting to generalisations about ‘Victorian women’ that are becoming old-hat. This is odd because she is interested in the
bigger picture, shoe-horning a great deal of extraneous detail into her narrative. She insists on telling us, for example, how
much money a household could make from its waste paper, and just how long mourning should last.
Unfortunately, though, Flanders misunderstands the nature of many of her sources, reading prescriptive literature as if it were
a description of how people actually lived. Recent work by professional historians has revealed that the slew of housekeeping
‘how-to’ books which came onto the market in mid-Victorian Britain tell us more about the fantasies and aspirations of the
middle classes than about their everyday reality. The effect of taking these sources as gospel is much the same as if a writer
100 years from now assuming that a large number of British women in the early 21st century were busy being domestic
goddesses.
These difficulties aside, A Circle of Sisters is a good debut effort. Flanders shows herself equal to the tricky business of keeping
all the threads of her story going, made doubly confusing by the Victorians’ habit of giving everyone in a family the same
name. Where her book lacks in historical understanding it makes up for in its sharp awareness of family dynamics and the
realisation that some things, at least, never change.
Review by Kathryn Hughes, © Telegraph Group Limited

34. How did the Macdonald sisters achieve their position in society?
A. by their physical attraction B. by their intelligence
C. by their family background D. by marriage
35. How did their lives differ from the typical popular story of the time?
A. They were quite well off in childhood. B. They did not behave as well as the typical heroine.
C. They did not find attractive men to marry. D. Their story did not have a happy ending.
36. What impression are we given of Louisa?
A. She was bored. B. She was lazy.
C. She was upset by her husband’s treatment of her. D. She was disappointed by her children.
37. Which of the following best describes the relationship between the sisters?
A. dislike B. resentment C. indifference D. contempt
38. What does the reviewer regard as the best feature of the book?
A. the overall presentation of the historical period B. the wealth of detail
C. historical accuracy D. its comprehension of family relationships
39. What does she regard as its main weakness?
A. statements that are not supported by the evidence B. irrelevant information distracting the reader
C. acceptance of contemporary accounts as the whole truth D. inability to relate the period to the modern situation
40. What was the most difficult problem the biographer had to overcome?
A. lack of experience in writing biography B. organisation of the different strands of narrative
C. confusion between the characters D. showing the differences between society then and now