Reading passage 1

A. Despite doom-saying about Democrats chances in the midterms, the latest NEWSWEEK Poll (full results) shows that they remain in a close race with Republicans 12 days before Election Day, while the presidents approval ratings have climbed sharply. The poll finds that 48 percent of registered voters would be more likely to vote for Democrats, compared with 42 percent who lean Republican (those numbers are similar to those in the last NEWSWEEK Poll, which found Democrats favored 48 percent to 43 percent). B. President Obamas approval ratings have jumped substantially, crossing the magic halfway threshold to 54 percent, up from 48 percent in late September, while the portion of respondents who disapprove of the president dropped to 40 percent, the lowest disapproval rating in a NEWSWEEK Poll since February 2010. C. However, his approval rating, which is notably higher than many recent polls of the presidents popularity, may be evidence of a closing enthusiasm gap more than a sea change in voter attitudes, and may not substantially affect Democrats fortunes come Election Day. In 1994, NEWSWEEK Polls showed a similar steep climb in President Clintons approval between late September and late October, but Democrats still suffered a rout in the midterms. D. While two thirds (69 percent) of self-identified Republican voters say theyve given a lot or some thought to the election, 62 percent of Democrats say they have. This result indicates that the difference in enthusiasm between Democratic and Republican voters may be less stark than some otherpolls have suggested. A small plurality of registered voters48 to 43 percentwould prefer that Democrats keep control of Congress. (The polls margin of error is 4.3 percent.) E. The new survey also offers a morsel of evidence that Democrats strategy of gaining an edge among early voters might be succeeding. They hold a 10-point lead among those who have already voted, 52 points to 42, but because the sample only represents 92 voters out of the 1,005 polled, Hugick says more polling is necessary for a conclusive picture. Early votingwhich has steadily gained popularity in recent yearsis expected to have an impact on the election, with three in 10 voters expected to cast ballots before Nov. 2. F. Pollster Larry Hugick says that while Republicans are still likely to come out on top on Nov. 2, the results of the new poll show it might not be the runaway domination some commenters have suggested. The idea that the Democrats are just going to sit this one out doesnt seem very likely, he says. While theres no question that Republicans are going to pick up seats, the question is how many. G. One factor feeding excitement for the GOP: the Tea Party. A quarter of likely voters, 24 percent, say they support the movement, with 27 percent of likely voters opposing it. Among Tea Party supporters, two thirds identify as Republicans, but nine in 10 intend to vote for Republican candidates for Congress. Eighty-one percent of Tea Party backers oppose the bank bailouts, 90 percent oppose health-care reform, and 85 percent think the economic stimulus was bad for the country. Among the entire sample of voters, two thirds look unfavorably on the bailouts, but support and opposition for the stimulus and health-care reform are roughly equal and within the margin of error.

Source: Newsweek Questions You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1 to 14 which are based on Reading Passage 1 Questions 1 to 7 Reading Passage 1 has seven paragraphs A G. From the list of headings below, choose the most suitable heading for each paragraph. Write the appropriate numbers I ix in boxes 1 7 on your answer sheet.

i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. vii. viii. ix.

The pollster. The latest Newsweek poll. The Tea Party supporters. The Republicans success. The strategy and its effect. The necessity of polling. The difference in enthusiasm. Enthusiasm gap. President Obamas approval ratings.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Paragraph A Paragraph B Paragraph C Paragraph D Paragraph E Paragraph F Paragraph G

Questions 8 10 Choose the correct letters, A, B, C or D Write your answers in boxes 8 10 on your answer sheet. 8 Some commenters have suggested that A. B. C. D. It will be a solid domination for the Republicans. It will be a defeat for the Republicans. It will be a clear domination for the Democrats. It will be a tight fight between the two.

9 A. B. C. D. 10 A. B. C. D.

President Obamas approval ratings Went down very sharply. Went up very sharply. Showed no change. Had a great impact on the poll. One factor feeding excitement for the GOP is The Republicans. The Democrats. The Tea Party. The Voters.

Questions 11 14 Complete each of the following statements (questions 11 14) with the best endings A G from the box below Write the appropriate letters A G in boxes 11 14 on your answer sheet. 11 Democrats strategy of gaining an edge 12 President Obamas approval ratings have jumped substantially 13 Eighty-one percent of Tea Party backers oppose 14 While two thirds of self-identified Republican voters say

A B C D E F G

Crossing the magic halfway. Among early voters might be succeeding. Theyve given a lot or some thought to the election. The bank bailouts. Is not going to win the game for them. Will help change the game in Washington. Health-care reform.

Reading passage 2 A. Even before the British Defense Ministry this week elected to scrap the Royal Navy's only fixedwing aircraft carrier, nobody imagined that Britannia still ruled the waves or had any of the power that characterized its empire before the two world wars of the last century. Still, as recently as a decade ago, Britain could take solace in its "special relationship" with the sole

B.

C.

D.

E.

F.

G.

surviving superpower, earning pride of place among U.S. allies with its readiness to commit substantial numbers of troops to Washington's expeditionary military ventures. Sure, the 46,000 troops the British sent to Iraq for the U.S.-led invasion equalled around one-third of the American force, but the U.S. military was almost 10 times larger than Britain's. In Afghanistan, also, the U.K. committed a force equivalent to one third of the U.S. deployment. Still, in both cases, Britain's contribution dwarfed that of other NATO allies. But the defense spending cuts announced this week as part of the British government's massive deficit-cutting austerity program mean that the next time America goes to war in some distant land, it is unlikely to be joined by significant numbers of British squaddies. Besides scrapping (for at least a decade) its naval capacity to project air power overseas, the U.K. will cut its defense budget by 8%, losing 17,000 personnel and cutting back its armory of tanks and artillery. The maximum number of troops that the reconfigured British military will be able to deploy in any new sustained expeditionary operation will be 6,500. While its leaders gamely insist that Britain will continue to "punch above its weight" as a military power, the message for the U.S. in Britain's contraction may be a lot more sobering than simply the retrenchment of military capability by its most trusted ally. Britain's case may have illustrated the iron law that fiscal deficits inevitably corrode a nation's ability to project power beyond its shores. Americans may not consider the U.S. an empire, but there's no question that its military is equipped and deployed on an imperial scale. Consider the map of the area of responsibilities of its six Unified Combatant Commands they literally cover the world, like the board-game Risk. U.S. Central Command refers not to the Midwest, but to the territory that runs from Egypt eastwards to the Chinese and Indian borders, and north to the Russian frontier. The Pentagon maintains more than 800 bases beyond the 50 states, and stations close to 300,000 troops abroad. The 2009 U.S. defense budget of $660 billion was more than the combined defense expenditures of the next 17 countries on the spending table. And that budget continues to rise steadily, growing at 4.8% for 2010, a year in which the U.S. economy's GDP growth is likely to be less than 2%. Militarily, the U.S. is the British Empire of the 21st Century and then some. But it is policing the world on the back of a colossal $1.5 trillion budget deficit and a staggering $13.5 trillion national debt. Its economy is in the grip of a deep, and possibly long-term crisis that shows little sign of reducing an unemployment rate close to 10%, let alone being in a position to make the desperately needed investments in everything from education to infrastructure necessary to restore long-term competitiveness. The Congressional Research Service calculated last September that the U.S. has spent $1.2 trillion on military operations since the 9/11 attacks, and the ongoing commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan are costing the U.S. more than $3 billion a week. American politicians may sound the alarm on the need to slash spending to rein in deficits but those warnings ritually add the rider "except for the military." Still, a Federal government currently borrowing 40 cents of every dollar it spends is likely to struggle to sustain imperial levels of military commitment. Don't expect to see a major retrenchment of U.S. military capability any time soon Britain's decline happened slowly, over a century. But the economic laws of gravity suggest that what we saw in Britain this week is a fate that eventually awaits the U.S. military, too. After all, if the massive expansion of the U.S. economy over the past six decades appears to be coming to a close, it's hard to see how the epic expansion of the U.S. military budget over the same period can be sustained.

Source: Time

Questions You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 15 27 which are based on Reading Passage 2 Questions 15 19 Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2? In boxes 15 -19 in your answer sheet write TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. if the statement agrees with the information if the statement contradicts the information if there is no information on this

Nobody imagined that Britannia still ruled the waves. The U.S. is the British Empire of the 21st Century as far as the colonialism is concerned. The US spends extravagantly on its military affairs. The British rules the world even now by its colonial structures. The reconfigured British military will be able to deploy 6500 troops.

Question 20 23 Look at the following topics (questions 20 23) and the list of statements below. Match each topic to the correct statement. Write the correct letter A G in boxes 1 4 on your answer sheet. 20. British military 21. U.S. Central Command 22. The Congressional Research Service 23. Unified Combatant Commands A B C D Controls the world policies indirectly. Is very supportive to the US. Will have a reconfiguration. The U.S. has spent $1.2 trillion on military operations since the 9/11 attacks. E Works on only politically. F They literally cover the world, like the board-game Risk. G They are to decide about the military advances.

Questions 24 27 Complete the following statements with the correct alternative from the box. Write the correct letter A F in boxes 24 27 on your answer sheet. 24. Britain could take solace in its "special relationship" with

25. American politicians may sound the alarm 26. Fiscal deficits inevitably corrode a nation's ability 27. The U.S. military was almost

A On the need to slash spending to rein in deficits. B To project power beyond its shores. C Would probably ensure that wed want to ally. D Electric propulsion systems. E 10 times larger than Britain's. F The sole surviving superpower.

Reading Passage 3 A. My lovely wife Cassandra Made me strip naked as soon as I walked in the door upon returning from my last business trip, and it was not to have sex. It was to wash my clothes to rid them of any possible bedbugs. This, I thought, was proof that the bedbugs had won. And that I needed to start working out more. B. We were once a nation deathly afraid of statistically improbable but powerful things: witches, communism, Mexicans taking our jobs. Now we are freaked out about bedbugs, 4-mm-long insects that previous generations made up cute rhymes about. In August, 20% of Americans said they changed their plans to go to a public place for fear of bedbug infestations, even though only 9% knew someonethemselves includedwho had been infested. And though there are no statistics on this yet, from what I gather on the Internet, it sure seems more Americans are having hotel sex standing up. C. Cassandra has no reason to think we are in danger of harbouring bedbugs. But in addition to the forced showers after travelling, she once made us switch hotel rooms after finding a mosquito bite on her leg one morning. We have little plastic plates of talcum powder under the feet of our bed, and we put every vaguely bug-shaped piece of lint we find into a plastic container that we will show to the first unlucky person we meet at a party who makes the mistake of telling us he's an entomologist. We've moved the bed away from the wall in a manner that makes reading significantly more dangerous than getting bitten by a bedbug. And Cassandra has been trying to find a way to trick my father and his wifewho are not only travelling from New York City, the international capital of bedbugs, but also staying at two hotels before visiting usinto being hosed down with boiling water before entering our home. When I got a disturbing rash recently, she said, "I hope to God you have shingles." D. The worst thing about bedbug hysteria is that it spreads as quickly as bedbugs themselves. The night after we switched hotel rooms, I barely slept, scratching phantom itches every few minutes. When Cassandra explained the seriousness of the bedbug problem to my mom, who does not worry about muchlike whether there is a three-hour time difference before she calls

me at 6 a.m. on the West Coastthe conversation ended with my mother saying, "What is the government doing about this?" This column is taking me two times longer to write than usual because I cannot stop scratching. E. Bedbugs aren't harmful. Unlike mosquitoes, rodents and, as we've learned, 1-year-olds, they don't carry disease. When I mentioned this to Cassandra, she looked at me with what I imagine is the cold, hard stare of a bedbug about to reproduce through traumatic insemination. "They're like pure evil," she said. "They're impossible to kill. I used to worry, living in Southern California, that there would be a tarantula or a rattlesnake in our house. Now I'm like, big dealyou catch it and you throw it outside." I started to try to talk sense into her, but Cassandra said, "Speaking of bedbugs, maybe we should check the traps in the guest room." F. Bedbugs scare us so much because, unlike mosquitoes, chiggers, fleas, lice, ticksI'll stop now they hide in your house. And we believe our homes are fortresses, even though anyone who has ever patched their floors with 2-by-4s knows that the difference between inside and outside is largely semantic. Despite all our technology, we are still at the whim of nature. We still get bedbugs, only now we can tweet about them. G. It's a special weakness of our rich country to believe that we can barricade ourselves into safetythat if we just increase airport security, extremists can't attack us; that gated communities keep predators away from our kids; that with constant vigilance, we can keep bedbugs out. When I was 9, I saw a segment of That's Incredible! About how mites live in our eyebrows and how hot showers only cause them to reproduce more. And while I've spent 30 years thinking about eyebrow mites whenever I turn up the heat in the shower, what I should really be upset about is that my parents let me watch crap like That's Incredible! But that episode did teach me that hypervigilance is weakness. That the greatest control comes from deciding not to control. And that even Fran Tarkenton had really lame career options after retiring from professional sports. So we can live in fear of bedbugs and not travel, go to our friends' parties or have visitors stay over. All the things that Cassandra hates to do anyway. I think I may have married a genius. Source: Time Questions You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 28 40 which are based on Reading Passage 3. Questions 28 32 The passage has seven paragraphs labelled AG. Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter A-G in boxes 28-32 on your answer sheet. NB: You may use any letter more than once. 28. Cassandra was afraid of the bedbug infestation.

29. 30. 31. 32.

Bedbugs are not harmful. People are sceptical about visiting the public places. There are other insects which are more fearful than the bedbugs. There would be a tarantula or a rattlesnake in our house.

Questions 33 36 Complete the sentences below with words taken from Reading Passage 3. Use NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 33-36 on your answer sheet.

33. 34. 35. 36.

Unlike mosquitoes, rodents and, as we've learned, bedbugs . Bedbugs scare us so much because, unlike mosquitoes, chiggers, fleas, lice, ticks, they hide . We believe our homes are fortresses, even though anyone who has ever patched their floors . The greatest control comes from deciding .

Questions 37 40 Complete the summary of the paragraphs A C below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet. Cassandra was desperate to find out if there was any 37 . We are freaked out about bedbugs 38 Though there are no statistics on this yet it sure seems more Americans are having 39 . my father and his wifewho are not only travelling from New York City, the international capital of bedbugs, but also staying at two hotels before visiting usinto being hosed down with boiling water before 40