Internal and External Marketing

A. Employees need to hear the same messages that you send out to the marketplace. At most companies, however, internal and external communications are often mismatched. This can be very confusing, and it threatens employees' perceptions of the company's integrity: They are told one thing by management but observe that a different message is being sent to the public. One health insurance company, for instance, advertised that the welfare of patients was the company's number one priority, while employees were told that theft main goal was to increase the value of theft stock options through cost reductions. And one major financial services institution told customers that it was making a major shift in focus from being a financial retailer to a financial adviser, but, a year later, research showed that the customer experience with the company had not changed. It turned out that company leaders had not made an effort to sell the change internally, so employees were still churning out transactions and hadn't changed theft behavior to match theft new adviser role.

B. Enabling employees to deliver on customer expectations is important, of course, but it's not the only reason a company needs to match internal and external messages. Another reason is to help push the company to achieve goals that might otherwise be out of reach. In 1997, when IBM launched its e-business campaign (which is widely credited for turning around the company's image), it chose to ignore research that suggested consumers were unprepared to embrace IBM as a leader in e-business. Although to the outside world this looked like an external marketing effort, IBM was also using the campaign to align employees around the idea of the Internet as the future of technology. The internal campaign changed the way employees thought about everything they did, from how they named products to how they organized staff to how they approached selling. The campaign was successful largely because it gave employees a sense of direction and purpose, which in turn restored theft confidence in IBM's ability to predict the future and lead the technology industry. Today, research shows that people are four times more likely to associate the term "e-business" with IBM than with its nearest competitor, Microsoft.

C. The type of "two-way branding" that IBM did so successfully strengthens both sides of the equation. Internal marketing becomes stronger because it can draw on the same "big idea" as advertising. Consumer marketing becomes stronger because the messages are developed based on employees' behavior and attitudes, as well as on the company's strengths and capabilities—indeed, the themes are drawn from the company's very soul. This process can result in a more distinct advertising idea because marketers are more likely to create a message that7 s unique to the company.

D. Perhaps even more important, by taking employees into account, a company can avoid creating a message that doesn't resonate with staff or, worse, one that builds resentment. In 1996, United Airlines shelved its "Come Fly the Friendly Skies" slogan when presented with a survey that revealed the depth of customer resentment toward the airline industry. In an effort to own up to the industry's shortcomings. United launched a new campaign, "Rising," in which it sought to differentiate itself by acknowledging poor service and promising incremental improvements such as better meals. While this was a logical premise for the campaign given the tenor of the times, a campaign focusing on customers' distaste for flying was deeply discouraging to the staff. Employee resentment ultimately made it impossible for United to deliver the improvements it was promising, which in turn undermined the "Rising" pledge. Three years later. United decided employee opposition was undermining its success and pulled the campaign. It has since moved to a more inclusive brand message with the line "United," which both audiences can embrace. Here, a fundamental principle of advertising—find and address a customer concern—failed United because it did not consider the internal market.

E. When it comes to execution, the most common and effective way to link internal and external marketing campaigns is to create external advertising that targets both audiences. IBM used this tactic very effectively when it launched its e-business campaign. It took out an eight-page ad in the Wall Street Journal declaring its new vision, a message directed at both customers and internal stakeholders. This is an expensive way to capture attention, but if used sparingly, it is the most powerful form of communication; in fact, you need do it only once for everyone in the company to read it. There's a symbolic advantage as well. Such a tactic signals that the company is taking its pledge very seriously; it also signals transparency—the same message going out to both audiences.

F. Advertising isn't the only way to link internal and external marketing. At Nike, a number of senior executives now hold the additional title of "Corporate Storyteller." They deliberately avoid stories of financial successes and concentrate on parables of "just doing it," reflecting and reinforcing the company's ad campaigns. One tale, for example, recalls how legendary coach and Nike cofounder Bill Bowerman, in an effort to build a better shoe for his team, poured rubber into the family waffle iron, giving birth to the prototype of Nike's famous Waffle Sole. By talking about such inventive moves, the company hopes to keep the spirit of innovation that characterizes its ad campaigns alive and well within the company.

G. But while their messages must be aligned, companies must also keep external promises a little ahead of internal realities. Such promises provide incentives for employees and give them something to live up to. In the 1980s, Ford turned "Quality is Job " from an internal rallying cry into a consumer slogan in response to the threat from cheaper, more reliable Japanese cars. It did so before the claim was fully justified, but by placing it in the public arena, it gave employees an incentive to match the Japanese. If the promise is pushed too far ahead, however, it loses credibility. When a beleaguered British Rail launched a campaign announcing service improvement under the banner "We're Getting There," it did so prematurely. By drawing attention to the gap between the promise and the reality, it prompted destructive press coverage. This, in turn, demoralized staff, who had been legitimately proud of the service advances they had made.

Questions 28-34

Use the information in the passage to match the company (listed A-F) with correct category or deeds below. Write the appropriate letters A-F in boxes 28-33 on your answer sheet.

NB: you may use any letter more than once

A. legendary anecdote inspire employee successfully

B. advertisement campaign inspire employees and ensure leading role in business

C. improper ads campaign brings negative effect 

D. internal and external announcement are different

E. campaign brings positive and realistic expectation internally

F. a bad slogan that failed both to win support internally and raise standard to its poor service

Questions 35-38

 

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 3? In boxes 35-38 on your answer sheet, write

 

TRUE	if the statement is true
FALSE	if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN	if the information is not given in the passage

35. Employers in almost all companies successfully make their employees fully understand the outside campaign.

36. Currently IBM is more prominent in the area of E-business

37. United Airline finally gave up an ads slogan due to a survey in 1996.

38. Nike had improved company performance through telling employees legendary corporation stories.

Questions 39-40

Choose Two correct letters below

Write your answers in boxes 39-40 on your answer sheet.

Please choose TWO approaches in the passage mentioned that were employed as company strategy:

A. promoting the visual effect of their products’ advertisement 

B. launching inspiring campaigns internally

C. introducing inner competition

D. learning how to tell stories among senior executives

E. applying an appropriate slogan

Reading Test 6

Section 1

OTTER

A. Otters have long, thin bodies and short legs - ideal for pushing through dense undergrowth or hunting in tunnels. An adult male may be up to 4 feet long and 301bs. Females are smaller typically. The Eurasian otter's nose is about the smallest among the otter species and has a characteristic shape described as a shallow 'W. An otter's tail (or rudder, or stem) is stout at the base and tapers towards the tip where it flattens. This forms part of the propulsion unit when swimming fast under water. Otter fur consists of two types of hair: stout guard hairs which form a waterproof outer covering, and under-fur which is dense and fine, equivalent to an otter's thermal underwear. The fur must be kept in good condition by grooming. Sea water reduces the waterproofing and insulating qualities of otter fur when salt water in the fin. This is why freshwater pools are important to otters living on the coast. After swimming, they wash the salts off in the pools and then squirm on the ground to rub dry against vegetation.

B. Scent is used for hunting on land, for communication and for detecting danger, otterine sense of smell is likely to be similar in sensitivity to dogs. Otters have small eyes and are probably short-sighted on land. But they do have the ability to modify the shape of the lens in the eye to make it more spherical, and hence overcome the refraction of water. In clear water and good light, otters can hunt fish by sight. The otter's eyes and nostrils are placed high on its head so that it can see and breathe even when the rest of the body is submerged. Underwater, the otter holds its legs against the body, except for steering, and the hind end of the body is flexed in a series of vertical undulations. River otters have webbing which extends for much of the length of each digit, though not to the very end. Giant otters and sea otters have even more prominent webs, while the Asian short-clawed otter has no webbing - they hunt for shrimps in ditches and paddy fields so they don't need the swimming speed. Otter ears are tiny for streamlining, but they still have very sensitive hearing and are protected by valves which close them against water pressure.

C. A number of constraints and preferences limit suitable habitats for otters. Water is a must and the rivers must be large enough to support a healthy population of fish. Being such shy and wary creatures, they will prefer territories where man's activities do not impinge greatly. Of course, there must also be no other otter already in residence - this has only become significant again recently as populations start to recover. Coastal otters have a much more abundant food supply and ranges for males and females may be just a few kilometres of coastline. Because male ranges are usually larger a male otter may find his range overlaps with two or three females - not bad! Otters will eat anything that they can get hold of - there are records of sparrows and snakes and slugs being gobbled. Apart from fish the most common prey are crayfish, crabs and water birds. Small mammals are occasionally taken, most commonly rabbits but sometimes even moles.

D. Eurasian otters will breed any time where food is readily available. In places where condition is more severe, Sweden for example where the lakes are frozen for much of winter, cubs are born in spring. This ensures that they are well grown before severe weather returns. In the Shetlands, cubs are born in summer when fish is more abundant. Though otters can breed every year, some do not. Again, this depends on food availability. Other factors such as food range and quality of the female may have an effect. Gestation for Eurasian otter is 63 days, with the exception of Lutra canadensis whose embryos may undergo delayed implantation. Otters normally give birth in more secure dens to avoid disturbances. Nests are lined with bedding to keep the cubs warm while mummy is away feeding.

E. Otters normally give birth in more secure dens to avoid disturbances. Nests are lined with bedding (reeds, waterside plants, grass) to keep the cubs warm while is away feeding. Litter Size varies between 1 and 5. For some unknown reason, coastal otters tend to produce smaller litters. At five weeks they open their eyes - a tiny cub of 700g. At seven weeks they're weaned onto solid food. At ten weeks they leave the nest, blinking into daylight for the first time. After three months they finally meet the water and learn to swim. After eight months they are hunting, though the mother still provides a lot of food herself. Finally, after nine months she can chase them all away with a clear conscience, and relax - until the next fella shows up.

F. The plight of the British otter was recognised in the early 60s, but it wasn't until the late 70s that the chief cause was discovered. Pesticides, such as dieldrin and aldrin, were first used in 1955 in agriculture and other industries - these chemicals are very persistent and had already been recognised as the cause of huge declines in the population of peregrine falcons, sparrow hawks and other predators. The pesticides entered the river systems and the food chain - micro-organisms, fish and finally otters, with every step increasing the concentration of the chemicals. From 1962 the chemicals were phased out, but while some species recovered quickly, otter numbers did not - and continued to fall into the 80s. This was probably due mainly to habitat destruction and road deaths. Acting on populations fragmented by the sudden decimation in the 50s and 60s, the loss of just a handful of otters in one area can make an entire population unviable and spell the end.

G. Otter numbers are recovering all around Britain - populations are growing again in the few areas where they had remained and have expanded from those areas into the rest of the country. This is almost entirely due to legislation, conservation efforts, slowing down and reversing the destruction of suitable otter habitat and reintroductions from captive breeding programs. Releasing captive-bred otters is seen by many as a last resort. The argument runs that where there is no suitable habitat for them they will not survive after release and where there is suitable habitat, natural populations should be able to expand into the area. However, reintroducing animals into a fragmented and fragile population may add just enough impetus for it to stabalise and expand, rather than die out. This is what the Otter Trust accomplished in Norfolk, where the otter population may have been as low as twenty animals at the beginning of the 1980s. The Otter Trust has now finished its captive breeding program entirely, great news because it means it is no longer needed.

Questions 1-9

The reading Passage has seven paragraphs A-G.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter A-G, in boxes 1-9 on your answer sheet.

NB: You may use any letter more than once.  

1 A description of how otters regulate vision underwater

2 The fit-for-purpose characteristics of otter’s body shape

3 A reference to an underdeveloped sense

4 An explanation of why agriculture failed in otter conservation efforts

5 A description of some of the otter’s social characteristics

6 A description of how baby otters grow

7 The conflicted opinions on how to preserve

8 A reference to legislative act

9 An explanation of how otters compensate for heat loss

Questions 10-13

Answer the questions below.

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer

10. What affects the outer fur of otters?

11. What skill is not necessary for Asian short-clawed otters?

12. Which type of otters has the shortest range?

13. Which type of animals do otters hunt occasionally?

 

Section 2

BIRD MIGRATION 2

A. Birds have many unique design features that enable them to perform such amazing feats of endurance. They are equipped with lightweight, hollow bones, intricately designed feathers providing both lift and thrust for rapid flight, navigation systems superior to any that man has developed, and an ingenious heat conserving design that, among other things, concentrates all blood circulation beneath layers of warm, waterproof plumage, leaving them fit to face life in the harshest of climates. Theft respiratory systems have to perform efficiently during sustained flights at altitude, so they have a system of extracting oxygen from their lungs that for exceeds that of any other animal. During the later stages of the summer breeding season, when food is plentiful, their bodies are able to accumulate considerable layers of fat, in order to provide sufficient energy for theft long migratory flights.

B. The fundamental reason that birds migrate is to find adequate food during the winter months when it is in short supply. This particularly applies to birds that breed in the temperate and Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere, where food is abundant during the short growing season. Many species can tolerate cold temperatures if food is plentiful, but when food is not available they must migrate. However, intriguing questions remain.

C. One puzzling fact is that many birds journey much further than would be necessary just to find food and good weather. Nobody knows, for instance, why British swallows, which could presumably survive equally well if they spent the winter in equatorial Africa, instead fly several thousands of miles further to theft preferred winter home in South Africa Cape Province. Another mystery involves the huge migrations performed by arctic terns and mudflat-feeding shorebirds that breed close to Polar Regions. In general, the further north a migrant species breeds, the further south it spends the winter. For arctic terns this necessitates an annual round trip of 25,000 miles. Yet, en route to then final destination in far-flung southern latitudes, all these individuals overfly other areas of seemingly suitable habitat spanning two hemispheres. While we may not fully understand bird’s reasons for going to particular places, we can marvel at then feats.

D. One of the greatest mysteries is how young birds know how to find the traditional wintering areas without parental guidance. Very few adults migrate with juveniles in tow, and youngsters may even have little or no inkling of then parents’ appearance. A familiar example Is that of the cuckoo, which lays its eggs in another species' nest and never encounters its young again. It is mind boggling to consider that, once raised by its host species, the young cuckoo makes it own way to ancestral wintering grounds in the tropics before returning single-handedly to northern Europe the next season to seek out a mate among its own kind. The obvious implication is that it inherits from its parents an inbuilt route mạp and direction-finding capability, as well as a mental image of what another cuckoo looks like. Yet nobody has the slightest idea as to how this is possible.

E. Mounting evidence has confirmed that birds use the positions of the sun and stars to obtain compass directions. They seem also to be able to detect the earth’s magnetic field, probably due to having minute crystals of magnetite in the region of then brains. However, true navigation also requires an awareness of position and time, especially when lost. Experiments have shown that after being taken thousands of miles over an unfamiliar land-mass, birds are still capable of returning rapidly to nest sites. Such phenomenal powers are the product of computing a number of sophisticated cues, including an inborn map of the night sky and the pull of the earth’s magnetic field. How the buds use then ‘instruments’ remains unknown, but one thing is clear: they see the world with a superior sensory perception to ours. Most small birds migrate at night and take then direction from the position of the setting sun. However, as well as seeing the sun go down, they also seem to see the plane of polarized light caused by it, which calibrates then compass. Traveling at night provides other benefits. Daytime predators are avoided and the danger of dehydration due to flying for long periods in warm, sunlit skies is reduced. Furthermore, at night the air is generally cool and less turbulent and so conducive to sustained, stable flight.

F. Nevertheless, all journeys involve considerable risk, and part of the skill in arriving safely is setting off at the right time. This means accurate weather forecasting, and utilizing favorable winds. Birds are adept at both, and, in laboratory tests, some have been shown to detect the minute difference in barometric pressure between the floor and ceiling of a room. Often birds react to weather changes before there is any visible sign of them. Lapwings, which feed on grassland, flee west from the Netherlands to the British Isles, France and Spain at the onset of a cold snap. When the ground surface freezes the birds could starve. Yet they return to Holland ahead of a thaw, their arrival linked to a pressure change presaging an improvement in the weather.

G. In one instance a Welsh Manx shearwater carried to America and released was back in its burrow on Skokholm Island, off the Pembrokeshire coast, one day before a letter announcing its release! Conversely, each autumn a small number of North American birds are blown across the Atlantic by fast-moving westerly tail winds. Not only do they arrive safely in Europe, but, based on ringing evidence, some make it back to North America the following spring, after probably spending the winter with European migrants in sunny African climes.

Questions 14-20

Reading passage 2 has seven paragraphs, A-G

Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below. Write the correct number, i-x, in boxes 14-20 on your answer sheet.

List of headings

i The best moment to migrate

ii The unexplained rejection of closer feeding ground

iii The influence of weather on the migration route

iv Physical characteristics that allow birds to migrate V The main reason why birds migrate

vi The best wintering grounds for birds

vii Research findings on how birds migrate

viii Successful migration despite trouble of wind

ix Contrast between long-distance migration and short-distance migration

x Mysterious migration despite lack of teaching

------------------------
14 Paragraph A

15 Paragraph B

16 Paragraph c

17 Paragraph D

18 Paragraph E

 

19 Paragraph F

 

20 Paragraph G

Questions 21-22

Choose TWO letters, A-E.

Write the correct letters in boxes 21 and 22 on your answer sheet. Which TWO of the following statements are true of bird migration?

A. Birds often fly further than they need to.

B. Birds traveling in family groups are safe, c Birds flying at night need less water.

D. Birds have much sharper eye-sight than humans,

E. Only share birds are resistant to strong winds.

Question 23-26

Complete the sentences below using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage. Write your answers in boxes 25-26 on your answer sheet

23 It is a great mystery that young birds like cuckoos can find their wintering grounds without……………

24 Evidence shows birds can tell directions nice a………… by observing the sun and theaters.

25 One advantage for birds flying at night is that they can avoid contact with………….

26 Laboratory tests show that birds can detect weather without…………..signs.

Section 3

Talc Powder

A. Peter Brigg discovers how talc from Luzenac’s Trimouns in France find its way into food and agricultural products -from chewing gum to olive oil. High in the French Pyrenees, some 1,700m above see level, lies Trimouns, a huge deposit of hydrated magnesium silicate - talc to you and me. Talc from Trimouns, and from ten other Luzenac mines across the globe, is used in the manufacture of a vast array of everyday products extending from paper, paint and plaster to cosmetics, plastics and car tyres. And of course there is always talc’s best known end use: talcum powder for babies’ bottoms. But the true versatility of this remarkable mineral is nowhere better displayed than in its sometimes surprising use in certain niche markets in the food and agriculture industries.

B. Take, for example, the chewing gum business. Every year. Talc de Luzenac France - which owns and operates the Trimouns mine and is a member of the international Luzenac Group (art of Rio Tinto minerals) - supplies about 6,000 tones of talc to chewing gum manufacturers in Europe. “We’ve been selling to this sector of the market since the 1960s,” says Laurent Fournier, sales manager in Luzenac’s Specialties business unit in Toulouse. “Admittedly, in terms of our total annual sales of talc, the amount we supply to chewing gum manufacturers is relatively small, but we see it as a valuable niche market: one where customers place a premium on securing supplies from a reliable, high quality source. Because of this, long term allegiance to a proven suppler is very much a feature of this sector of the talc market.” Switching sources - in the way that you might choose to buy, say, paperclips from Supplier A rather than from Supplier B - is not a easy option for chewing gum manufacturers,” Fournier says. “The cost of reformulating is high, so when customers are using a talc grade that works, even if it’s expensive, they are understandably reluctant to switch.”

C. But how is talc actually used in the manufacture of chewing gum? Patrick Delord, an engineer with a degree in agronomics, who has been with Luzenac for 22 years and is now senior market development manager. Agriculture and Food, in Europe, explains that chewing gums has four main components. “The most important of them is the gum base,” he says. “It’s the gum base that puts the chew into chewing gum. It binds all the ingredients together, creating a soft, smooth texture. To this the manufacturer then adds sweeteners, softeners and flavourings. Our talc is used as a filler in the gum base. The amount varies between, say, ten and 35 per cent, depending on the type of gum. Fruit flavoured chewing gum, for example, is slightly acidic and would react with the calcium carbonate that the manufacturer might otherwise use as a filler. Talc, on the other hand, makes an ideal filler because it’s non-reactive chemically. In the factory, talc is also used to dust the gum base pellets and to stop the chewing gum sticking during the lamination and packing process,” Delord adds.

D. The chewing gum business is, however, just one example of talc’s use in the food sector. For the past 20 years or so, olive oil processors in Spain have been taking advantage of talc’s unique characteristics to help them boost the amount of oil they extract from crushed olives. According to Patrick Delord, talc is especially useful for treating what he calls “difficult” olives. After the olives are harvested -preferably early in the morning because their taste is better if they are gathered in the cool of the day - they are taken to the processing plant. There they are crushed and then stirred for 30-45 minutes. In the old days, the resulting paste was passed through an olive press but nowadays it’s more common to add water and the mixture to separate the water and oil from the solid matter. The oil and water are then allowed to settle so that the olive oil layer can be decanted off (and bottled. “Difficult” olives are those that are more reluctant than the norm to yield up their full oil content. This may be attributable to the particular species of olive, or to its water content and the time of year the olives are collected - at the beginning and the end of the season their water content is often either too high or too low. These olives are easy to recognize because they produce a lot of extra foam during the stirring process, a consequence of an excess of a fine solid that acts as a natural emulsifier. The oil in this emulsion is lost when the water is disposed of. Not only that, if the waste water is disposed of directly into local fields - often the case in many smaller processing operations - the emulsified oil may take some time to biodegrade and so be harmful to the environment.

I. “If you add between a half and two per cent of talc by weight during the stirring process, it absorbs the natural emulsifier in the olives and so boosts the amount of oil you can extract,” says Delord. “In addition, talc’s flat, ‘platey’ structure helps increase the size of the oil droplets liberated during stirring, which again improves the yield. However, because talc is chemically inert, it doesn’t affect the colour, taste, appearance or composition of the resulting olive oil.”

F. If the use of talc in olive oil processing and in chewing gum is long established, new applications in the food and agriculture industries are also constantly being sought by Luzenac. One such promising new market is fruit crop protection, being pioneered in the US. Just like people, fruit can get sunburned. In fact, in very sunny regions up to 45 per cent of a typical crop can be affected by heat stress and sunburn. However, in the case of fruit, it’s not so much the ultra violet rays which harm the crop as the high surface temperature that the sun’s rays create.

G. To combat this, farmers normally use either chemicals or spray a continuous fine canopy of mist above the fruit trees or bushes. The trouble is, this uses a lot of water - normally a precious commodity in hot, sunny areas - and it is therefore expensive. What’s more, the ground can quickly become waterlogged. “So our idea was to coat the fruit with talc to protect it from the sun,” says Greg Hunter, a marketing specialist who has been with Luzenac for ten years. “But to do this, several technical challenges had first to be overcome. Talc is very hydrophobic: it doesn’t like water. So in order to have a viable product we needed a wettable powder - something that would go readily into suspension so that it could be sprayed onto the fruit. It also had to break the surface tension of the cutin (the natural waxy, waterproof layer on the fruit) and of course it had to wash off easily when the fruit was harvested. No-one’s going to want an apple that’s covered in talc.”

H. Initial trials in the state of Washington in 2003 showed that when the product was sprayed onto Granny Smith apples, it reduced their surface temperature and lowered the incidence of sunburn by up to 60 per cent. Today the new product, known as Invelop Maximum SPF, is in its second commercial year on the US market. Apple growers are the primary target although Hunter believes grape growers represent another sector with long term potential. He is also hopeful of extending sales to overseas markets such as Australia, South America and southern Europe.

Questions 27-32

 

Use the information in the passage to match each use of talc power with correct application from A, B or c. Write the appropriate letters A-C in boxes 27-32 on your answer sheet.

NB you may use any letter more than once

A. Fruit protection

B. Chewing gum business

C. Olive oil extraction

-------------------------

27 Talc is used to increase the size of drops.

28 Talc is applied to reduce foaming.

29 Talc is employed as a filler of base.

30 Talc is modified and prevented sunburn.

31 Talc is added to stop stickiness.

32 Talc is used to increase production.

Questions 33-38

Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage, using no more than two words from the Reading Passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 33-38 on your answer sheet.

Spanish olive oil industry has been using talc in oil extraction process for about____33____years. It is useful in dealing with difficult olives which often produce high amount of______34______because of the high content of solid materials. When smaller factories release ______35_____, it could be_____36_____ to the environment because it is hard to _____37_____ and usually takes time as it contains emulsified oil. However, talc power added in the process is able to absorb the emulsifier oil. It improves the oil extraction production, because with aid of talc powder, size of oil _____38_______ increased.

 

Question 39-40

 

Answer the questions below using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.  

Write your answers in boxes 39-40 on your answer sheet.

39 In which process is talc used to clear the stickiness of chewing gum?

40 Which group of farmers does Invelop intend to target in a long view?

 

Reading Test 7

Section 1

The Dinosaurs Footprints and Extinction

A. EVERYBODY knows that the dinosaurs were killed by an asteroid. Something big hit the earth 65 million years ago and, when the dust had fallen, so had the great reptiles. There is thus a nice, if ironic, symmetry in the idea that a similar impact brought about the dinosaurs' rise. That is the thesis proposed by Paul Olsen, of Columbia University, and his colleagues in this week's Science.

B. Dinosaurs first appear in the fossil record 230m years ago, dining the Triassic period. But they were mostly small, and they shared the earth with lots of other sorts of reptile. It was in the subsequent Jurassic, which began 202million years ago, that they overran the planet and turned into the monsters depicted in the book and movie “Jurassic Park”. (Actually, though, the dinosaurs that appeared on screen were from the still more recent Cretaceous period.) Dr Olsen and his colleagues are not the first to suggest that the dinosaurs inherited the earth as the result of an asteroid strike. But they are the first to show that the takeover did, indeed, happen in a geological eyeblink.

C. Dinosaur skeletons are rare. Dinosaur footprints are, however, surprisingly abundant. And the sizes of the prints are as good an indication of the sizes of the beasts as are the skeletons themselves. Dr Olsen and his colleagues therefore concentrated on prints, not bones.

D. The prints in question were made in eastern North America, a part of the world then full of rift valleys similar to those in East Africa today. Like the modem African rift valleys, the Triassic /Jurassic American ones contained lakes, and these lakes grew and shrank at regular intervals because of climatic changes caused by periodic shifts in the earth's orbit. (A similar phenomenon is responsible for modem ice ages.) That regularity, combined with reversals in the earth's magnetic field, which are detectable in the tiny fields of certain magnetic minerals, means that rocks from this place and period can be dated to within a few thousand years. As a bonus, squish lake-edge sediments are just the things for recording the tracks of passing animals. By dividing the labour between themselves, the ten authors of the paper were able to study such tracks at 80 sites.

E. The researchers looked at 18 so-called ichnotaxa. These are recognisable types of footprint that cannot be matched precisely with the species of animal that left them. But they can be matched with a general sort of animal, and thus act as an indicator of the fate of that group, even when there are no bones to tell the story. Five of the ichnotaxa disappear before the end of the Triassic, and four march confidently across the boundary into the Jurassic. Six, however, vanish at the boundary, or only just splutter across it; and three appear from nowhere, almost as soon as the Jurassic begins.

F. That boundary itself is suggestive. The first geological indication of the impact that killed the dinosaurs was an unusually high level of iridium in rocks at the end of the Cretaceous, when the beasts disappear from the fossil record. Iridium is normally rare at the earth's surface, but it is more abundant in meteorites. When people began to believe the impact theory, they started looking for other Cretaceous-end anomalies. One that turned up was a surprising abundance of fern spores in rocks just above the boundary layer—a phenomenon known as a “fern spike”

G. That matched the theory nicely. Many modem ferns are opportunists. They cannot compete against plants with leaves, but if a piece of land is cleared by, say, a volcanic emption, they are often the first things to set up shop there. An asteroid strike would have scoured much of the earth of its vegetable cover, and provided a paradise for ferns. A fem spike in the rocks is thus a good indication that southing terrible has happened.

H. Both an iridium anomaly and a fem spike appear in rocks at the end of the Triassic, too. That accounts for the disappearing ichnotaxa: the creatures that made them did not survive the holocaust. The surprise is how rapidly the new ichnotaxa appear.

I. Dr Olsen and his colleagues suggest that the explanation for this rapid increase in size may be a phenomenon called ecological release. This is seen today when reptiles (which, in modem times, tend to be small creatures) reach islands where they face no competitors. The most spectacular example is on the Indonesian island of Komodo, where local lizards have grown so large that they are often referred to as dragons. The dinosaurs, in other words, could flourish only when the competition had been knocked out.

J. That leaves the question of where the impact happened. No large hole in the earth's crust seems to be 202m years old. It may, of course, have been overlooked. Old craters are eroded and buried, and not always easy to find. Alternatively, it may have vanished. Although continental crust is more or less permanent, the ocean floor is constantly recycled by the tectonic processes that bring about continental drift. There is no ocean floor left that is more than 200m years old, so a crater that formed in the ocean would have been swallowed up by now.

K. There is a third possibility, however. This is that the crater is known, but has been misdated. The Manicouagan “structure”, a crater in Quebec, is thought to be 214m years old. It is huge—some 100km across—and seems to be the largest of between three and five craters that formed within a few hours of each other as the lumps of a disintegrated comet hit the earth one by one.

Questions 1-6

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1? In boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet, write

 

YES	if the statement agrees with the information
NO	if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN	if there is no information on this

1 Dr Paul Olsen and his colleagues believe that asteroid knock may also lead to dinosaurs’ boom.

2 Books and movie like Jurassic Park often exaggerate the size of the dinosaurs.

3 Dinosaur footprints are more adequate than dinosaur skeletons.

4 The prints were chosen by Dr Olsen to study because they are more detectable than earth magnetic field to track a date of geological precise within thousands years.

5 Ichnotaxa showed that footprints of dinosaurs offer exact information of the trace left by an individual species.

6 We can find more Iridium in the earth’s surface than in meteorites.

Questions 7-13

 

Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage, using no more than two words from the Reading Passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 7-13 on your answer sheet.

Dr Olsen and his colleagues applied a phenomenon named......7........to explain the large size of the Eubrontes, which is a similar case to that nowadays reptiles invade a place where there are no......8......; for example, on an island called Komodo, indigenous huge lizards grow so big that people even regarding them as......9....... However, there were no old impact trace being found? The answer may be that we have......10...... the evidence. Old craters are difficult to spot or it probably......11.......due to the effect of the earth moving. Even a crater formed in Ocean had been......12...... under the impact of crust movement. Beside the third hypothesis is that the potential evidences — some craters may be......13.......

Section 2