ACADEMIC READING 60 minutes
Questions 1-6
Reading Passage 1 has six paragraphs, A-F
Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below. Write the correct number i - ix in boxes 1 - 6 on your answer sheet.
List of Headings
1 The benefits of simple language
2 A necessary tool
3 A lasting way of concealing disasters
4 The worst offenders
5 A deceptively attractive option
6 Differing interpretations
7 Publicising new words
8 Feeling shut out
9 Playing with words
Paragraph A
Paragraph В
Paragraph С
Paragraph D
Paragraph E
Paragraph F
READING PASSAGE 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1 - 13, which are based on Reading Passage 1.
Jargon
A Jargon is a loaded word. One dictionary defines it, neatly and neutrally, as 'the technical vocabulary or idiom of a special activity or group', but this sense is almost completely overshadowed by another: 'obscure and often pretentious language marked by a roundabout way of expression and use of long words'. For most people, it is this second sense which is at the front of their minds when they think about jargon. Jargon is said to be a bad use of language, something to be avoided at all costs. No one ever describes it in positive terms ('that was a delightful piece of rousing jargon'). Nor does one usually admit to using it oneself: the myth is that jargon is something only other people employ.
В The reality, however, is that everyone uses jargon. It is an essential part of the network of occupations and pursuits that make up society. All jobs present an element of jargon, which workers learn as they develop their expertise. All hobbies require mastery of a jargon. Each society grouping has its jargon. The phenomenon turns out to be universal - and valuable. It is the jargon element which, in a job, can promote economy and precision of expression, and thus help make life easier for the workers. It is also the chief linguistic element which shows professional awareness ('know-how') and social togetherness ('shop-talk').
С When we have learned to command it, jargon is something we readily take pleasure in, whether the subject area is motorcycles, knitting, cricket, baseball or computers. It can add pace, variety and humour to speech - as when, with an important event approaching, we might slip into NASA-speak, and talk about countdown, all systems go, and lift-off. We enjoy the mutual showing-off which stems from a fluent use of terminology, and we enjoy the in-jokes which shared linguistic experience permits. Moreover, we are jealous of this knowledge. We are quick to demean anyone who tries to be part of our group without being prepared to take on its jargon.
D If jargon is so essential a part of our lives, why then has it had such a bad press? The most important reason stems from the way jargon can exclude as well as include. We may not be too concerned if we find ourselves faced with an impenetrable wall of jargon when the subject matter has little perceived relevance to our everyday lives, as in the case of hydrology, say, or linguistics. But when the subject matter is one where we feel implicated, and think we have a right to know, and the speaker uses words which make it hard for us to understand, then we start to complain; and if we suspect that the obfuscation is deliberate policy, we unreservedly condemn, labelling it gobbledegook and calling down public derision upon it.
E No area is exempt, but the fields of advertising, politics and defence have been especially criticised in recent years by the various campaigns for Plain English. In these domains, the extent to which people are prepared to use jargon to hide realities is a ready source of amusement, disbelief and horror. A lie is a lie, which can be only temporarily hidden by calling it an 'inoperative statement' or 'an instance of plausible deniability'. Nor can a nuclear plant explosion be suppressed for long behind such phrases as 'energetic disassembly','abnormal evolution' or 'plant transient'.
F While condemning unnecessary or obscuring jargon in others, we should not forget to look out for it in ourselves. It is so easy to 'slip into' jargon, without realizing that our own listeners/readers do not understand. It is also temptingly easy to slip some jargon into our expression, to ensure that others do not understand. And it is just as easy to begin using jargon which we ourselves do not understand. The motivation to do such apparently perverse things is not difficult to grasp. People like to be 'in', to be part of an intellectual or technical elite; and the use of jargon, whether understood or not, is a badge of membership. Jargon, also, can provide a lazy way into a group or an easy way of hiding uncertainties and inadequacies: when terminology slips plausibly from the tongue, it is not essential for the brain to keep up. Indeed some people have developed this skill to professional levels. And certainly, faced with a telling or awkward question, and the need to say something acceptable in public, slipping into jargon becomes a simple way out, and can soon become a bad habit.
Questions 7-12
Complete the summary using the list of words A — L below.
Write the correct letter A-L in boxes 7 - 12 on your answer sheet.
The Up Side of Jargon
Jargon plays a useful part in many aspects of life including leisure. For example, when people take up pastimes they need to develop a good 7 of the relevant jargon. During discussion of these or other areas of interest, conversation can become more exciting and an element of 8 can be introduced by the use of shared jargon.
Jargon is particularly helpful in the workplace. It leads to more 9 in the way colleagues communicate during work hours. Taking part in 10 during moments of relaxation can also help them to bond better.
It is interesting that members of a group, whether social or professional, often demonstrate a certain 11 towards the particular linguistic characteristics of their subject area and tend to regard new people who do not wish to learn the jargon with 12 .
A judgement В jokes С shop-talk
D efficiency E know-how F command
G contempt H feeling I possessiveness
J pleasure К fear L humour
Question 13
Choose the correct letter, А, В, С or D.
Write the correct letter in box 13 on your answer sheet.
13 Which of the following statements would the writer agree with?
A Jargon thoroughly deserves the bad reputation it has gained.
В Jargon should not be encouraged except in the workplace.
С Jargon should not be used if the intention is to exclude others.
D Everyday life would be very much better without jargon.
READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14 - 26, which are based on Reading Passage 2.
Healthy Intentions
Most of us have healthy intentions when it comes to the food we eat. But it can be tough. Especially when you consider that our bodies have not properly adapted to our highly processed fast food diets.
A One hundred years ago, the leading causes of death in the industrial world were infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, influenza and pneumonia. Since then, the emergence of antibiotics, vaccines and public health controls has reduced the impact of infectious disease. Today, the top killers are non-infectious illnesses related essentially to lifestyle (diet, smoking and lack of exercise). The main causes of death in the United States in 1997 were heart disease, cancer and stroke. Chronic health problems, such as obesity, noninsulin-dependent diabetes and osteoporosis, which are not necessarily lethal but nonetheless debilitating, are steadily increasing. It is clear that economic and technical progress is no assurance of good health.
В Humans are qualitatively different from other animals because we manipulate the flow of energy and resources through the ecosystem to our advantage, and consequently to the detriment of other organisms. That is why we compete so successfully with other species. But with this success come some inherent failings, particularly in terms of our health.
С According to physician Boyd Eaton and his anthropologist colleagues, despite all our technological wizardry and intellectual advances, modern humans are seriously malnourished. The human body evolved to eat a very different diet from that which most of us consume today. Before the advent of agriculture, about ten thousand years ago, people were hunter-gatherers, the food varying with the seasons and climate and all obtained from local sources. Our ancestors rarely, if ever, ate grains or drank the milk of other animals.
D Although ten thousand years seems a long time ago, 99.99 percent of our genetic material was already formed. Thus we are not well adapted to an agriculturally based diet of cereals and dairy products. At least 100,000 generations of people were hunter-gatherers, only 500 generations have depended on agriculture, only ten generations have lived since the onset of the industrial age and only two generations have grown up with highly processed fast foods. Physicians Randolph Nesse and George Williams write: 'Our bodies were designed over the course of millions of years for lives spent in small groups hunting and gathering on the plains of Africa. Natural selection has not had time to revise our bodies for coping with fatty diets, automobiles, drugs, artificial lights and central heating. From this mismatch between our design and our environment arises much, perhaps most, preventable modern disease.'
E Do we really want to eat like prehistoric humans? Surely 'cavemen' were not healthy? Surely their life was hard and short? Apparently not. Archaeological evidence indicates that these hunter-gatherer ancestors were robust, strong and lean with no sign of osteoporosis or arthritis -even at more advanced ages. Paleolithic humans ate a diet similar to that of wild chimpanzees and gorillas today: raw fruit, nuts, seeds, vegetation, fresh untreated water, insects