Vietnam-Australia International English School

Reading Practice Test 33

READING PASSAGE 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on Reading
Passage 1.

Groucho Marx
Arthur Sheekman
In a show-business career that spanned
over seventy years, Groucho Marx
successfully conquered every
entertainment medium, becoming a star of
the vaudeville stage, Broadway, motion
pictures, radio and television. But, as the
author of seven books, a play, two film
screenplays and over one hundred
magazine articles and essays, Groucho
quietly conquered another medium, one in
which he was as proud to work as any of
the others. His writing is often overlooked
in studies of his career, perhaps due to the
quantity and variety of his other work.
Throughout his literary career, Groucho
was dogged by the incorrect and unfair
assumption by many critics and even by
his biographer that he used a ghost writer.
Most Hollywood celebrities who wrote
books had professional writers do the
actual work. The fact that Groucho
publicly stated on many occasions that he
abhorred ghost writers is clouded by his
relationship with Arthur Sheekman.
Friends for many years, Groucho and
Sheekman had an unusual literary
relationship. They worked in collaboration
and each offered the other editorial help.
For a brief time in the early 1940s,
Groucho fronted for Sheekman, who was
having trouble selling his work. By thus
lending his name to another writer's work,
Groucho subjected all of his literary
endeavors to suspicion from critics who
simply refused to believe that an
entertainer could write.
That some of Sheekman's magazine
pieces got into print under Groucho's
byline becomes apparent from reading the
unedited correspondence between the two
of them. The letters indicate that
Groucho's essays from this period fall into
three categories: first, pieces written by
Groucho with no input from Sheekman at
all. In a July 1, 1940, letter to Sheekman,
Groucho asked, 'Did you see that little
piece I wrote for Reader's Digest?' On
March 17, 1941, he wrote, 'My drool is
coming out in next week's issue of This
Week so cancel your subscription now.'
Clearly Sheekman could not have had
anything to do with a piece that he was
told to look for.
The second and probably largest
category of Groucho's essays of this
period consists of those written by
Groucho and sent to Sheekman for
editorial assistance. On July 20, 1940,
Groucho wrote: Im enclosing a copy of
the piece I wrote. Probably another page
or so is needed to complete it, but our
starting date [for filming Go West] came
and I just haven't had time to finish it. Let
me know what you think of it and be
honest because any other kind of opinion
would be of no value to me. I won't
attempt to influence you by telling you the
reactions I've already had, so for the love
of God tell me the truth.' Shortly
thereafter, on October 10, Groucho wrote:
'I received your suggestions on my piece -
I'm glad you liked it, if you did - you're
probably right about the beginning. I'll do
it over again.' By the time Groucho wrote
to Sheekman on July 25, 1942, it appears
that some sort of financial arrangement
had been made regarding Sheekman's
suggestions. On that date Groucho also
wrote: 'I'm writing an unfunny piece on
insomnia and I'll send it in a week or so, I
hope, for you to read - I'd like your
opinion, proofread - correcting all the
glaring illiteracies and, otherwise, do a
fine polishing job.'
The remainder of Groucho's essays
from this period comprise the third
category, Sheekman compositions with
varying degrees of input from Groucho.
The level of Groucho's contributions to
the articles in the third category ranges
from actually suggesting the topic and
drawing up an outline to simply rewriting
a few paragraphs for the purpose of
injecting his own style into the piece. In a
July 10, 1940, letter Groucho wrote: 'I
think you ought to try another political
piece - a campaign thing - for This Week
or some other magazine. This will be an
extremely hot topic for the next few
months and I think you should take
advantage of it. If you'll write to me, I'll
try to jot down a few items that you could
complain about.' Presumably, the chain of
events would continue with Sheekman
sending an essay to Groucho for his
approval and whatever rewrites were
needed. On May 29, 1940, Groucho
wrote, Received your piece and looked it
over.' In these letters to Sheekman,
Groucho always referred to a piece as
either 'my piece' or 'your piece. The letter
continued,'! thought the piece was good ...
and I'll send it to Bye and see if he can sell
it... I'll just rewrite a couple of paragraphs
in your piece - not that I can improve
them, but perhaps they'll sound a little
more like me.' Groucho was concerned
enough about this arrangement to take the
care to at least make the piece somewhat
his own.
Groucho really had no need for this
entire enterprise. He gave the money to
Sheekman and had no trouble getting his
own work published. The principal reason
for him submitting Sheekman's work to
magazines as his own was that it made
Sheekman's material easily marketable
based on Groucho's celebrity. Sheekman
couldn't have been altogether happy with
the arrangement, but the reality was that
he was periodically unemployed and the
use of Groucho's name brought in
occasional paychecks. So it is not quite
fair to call Sheekman Groucho's ghost
writer. A more apt description of their
literary relationship at this time is that
Groucho occasionally fronted for
Sheekman and offered him the services of
his literary agent, while each offered the
other editorial advice. The reasons for
some of their collaborative efforts not
being credited as such remain
unexplained, but Groucho was never shy
about crediting his collaborators, and in
every other case he did so.



Questions 1-4
Do the following statements reflect the claims of the writer of Reading Passage 11
In boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet write

YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT QIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

1. Groucho's work as a writer was sometimes better than his work in other media.
2. Groucho's relationship with Sheekman cast doubt on his own abilities as a writer.
3. Money was occasionally a source of disagreement between Groucho and Sheekman.
4. Groucho occasionally regretted his involvement with Sheekman.

Vietnam-Australia International English School
Questions 5-8
Complete the notes below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write "your answers in boxes 58 on your answer sheet.

Groucho's essays in the early 1940s
Category 1 Category 2 Category 3
Sheekman had
5 ...........................
Sheekman provided
6 ...........................

mostly
7 ...........................
Groucho added
8 ...........................

Questions 913
Look at the following statements (Questions 9-13) and the list of dates of letters sent by
Groucho to Sheekman below.
Match each statement with the letter it relates to.
Write the correct letter A-G in boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet.
9. Groucho referred to his own inadequacy with regard to use of language.
10. Groucho explained his reason for amending an essay.
11. Groucho agreed that part of an essay needed revising.
12. Groucho drew Sheekman's attention to an essay soon to be published.
13. Groucho suggested that an essay should adopt a negative point of view.


List of Letters Sent by Groucho to Sheekman
A July 1,1940
B March 17, 1941
C July 20,1940
D October 10, 1940
E July 25, 1942
F July 10, 1940
G May 29, 1940













READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26 which are based on Reading
Passage 2.

An earth-shaking discovery
he discovery of sea floor
spreading is earth-shaking, yet
those responsible are forgotten, says
Anna Grayson
In 1963, a paper appeared in the journal
Nature that radically changed the way we
view this planet and its resources. Its
authors, Fred Vine and Drummond
Matthews, did for the Earth sciences what
Crick and Watson did for biology and
Einstein did for physics, and new areas of
scientific development are still emerging
as a result.
Yet both men are largely forgotten and
unrecognised. What Vine and Matthews
did was to provide proof that continents
really do drift across the surface of the
globe. This understanding profoundly
affects the way we use the planet today - it
directs the way we prospect for resources
such as oil and minerals; it has enabled us
to predict most volcanic eruptions and to
understand patterns of earthquakes.
Incredibly, perhaps, an understanding of
the mobile dynamic nature of the Earth is
helping an understanding of long-term
global climate changes. Despite the
significance of their work, neither man
received great honour or fame.
The idea of continental drift was first
proposed in a serious way by the German
meteorologist Alfred Wegener in 1915.
People had noticed the neat jigsaw-like fit
between South America and Africa, but
Wegener found actual fossil evidence that
the two continents were once joined. No
one took him seriously; in fact he was
ridiculed by most of the geological
community This was partly because, not
being a geologist, he was perceived as an
outsider. But the main reason for the
hostility, according to Vine, was that
Wegener was unable to come up with an
explanation as to how whole continents
could possibly move even an inch, let
alone dance to the music of time around
the globe.
In the 1920s, the Scottish geologist
Arthur Holmes hypothesised that
convection currents within the Earth
'could become sufficiently vigorous to
drag the two halves of the original
continent apart; In the late 1950s, an
American, Harry Hess, came up with the
hypothesis that new sea floor is constantly
being generated at the mid-ocean ridges
by hot material rising in a convection
current. But neither man could find
evidence to prove it. It was no more than
just a hunch that it had to be right, and a
hunch is not enough for science.
Vine had been fascinated by the
apparent fit of the continents since the age
of 14, and as a graduate student at
Cambridge was assigned a project
analysing one of the new magnetic
surveys of the ocean floor. He found what
he describes as 'parallel zebra stripes of
normal and reversed magnetism' around
the mid-ocean ridge. Most significantly,
these stripes were symmetrical either side
of the ridge crests. There had to be a
reason for this. The young Vine and his
supervisor Matthews proposed that the
magnetic stripes were caused by new
ocean floor being formed as molten rock
rose at the mid-ocean ridges and spread
each side of the ridge.
As the molten rock solidified, it became
weakly magnetised parallel to the Earth's
magnetic field. It was just becoming
recognised in the early 1960s that the
Earth's magnetic field flips every so often,
so magnetic north becomes a magnetic
south pole and visa versa. These flips in
magnetic field were being recorded in the
new sea floor. It was like a giant tape
recording of the ocean floor's history As
T
Vietnam-Australia International English School
new sea floor was made, it pushed the last
lot aside, widening the ocean and in turn
pushing the continents either side further
apart. In other words, they had discovered
the mechanism driving drifting continents
that was missing from Wegener's work.
The science of the Earth was never the
same again.
By the end of the 1960s, confirmation
of global sea floor spreading led to plate
tectonics - the view of the outside of the
Earth comprising just a few rigid plates
which are shunted about by growing sea
floor. There was a realisation that
mountains are formed when two plates
collide, and that most volcanoes and
earthquakes occur on the edges of these
plates. All this was accepted as fact by all
but a few diehard dinosaurs in the
geological world.
It is now in the impact of shifting
continents on the global environment that
Vine feels the most exciting and
significant research lies: 'The distribution
of continents and the opening and closing
of ocean gates between continents has had
a profound effect on climates and has
caused flips from Ice-house Earth to
Green-house Earth.' The recognition that
the Earth's hydrosphere, atmosphere and
biosphere are all intimately linked with
the drifting continents and the goings-on
deep within the Earth has spawned the
term 'Earth Systems Science'. It is a great
oak tree of science that has grown from
the acorn of truth supplied by Vine and
Matthews. The holistic approach of earth
systems science is very much welcomed
by Vine: 'I'm rather pleased that this has
come together.' He feels that the future for
understanding the planet lies in an
integrated approach to the sciences, rather
than the isolated stance the geologists took
throughout the 20th century: 'There was
an incredible polarisation of science and I
was caught between the boundaries. It
was anathema to me - the whole of
environmental science should be
integrated.'


Questions 14-17
Complete each sentence with the correct ending A-G from the box below.
Write the correct letter A-G in boxes 14-17 on your answer sheet.
14. The work done by Vine and Matthews has had implications concerning
15. Wegener attempted to provide an explanation of
16. Wegener's conclusions were greeted as
17. The theories presented by both Holmes and Hess concerned


A matters that had not received much attention for some time.
B something which could not possibly be true.
C something misunderstood at first but later seen as a breakthrough.
D matters beyond simply the movement of continents.
E something that had already been observed.
F something arrived at by intuition that could not be demonstrated.
G matters requiring different research techniques



Questions 18-22
Label the diagram below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 18-22 on your answer sheet.

THE DISCOVERIES OF VINE AND MATTHEWS
The Ocean Floor
































Questions 23-26
Answer the questions below using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 23-26 on your answer sheet.
23. What is the name of the theory concerning the structure of the Earth that developed
from the demonstration of sea floor spreading?
24. According to Vine, what has the movement of continents had a big influence on?
25. What branch of science has emerged as a result of the work done by Vine and
Matthews?
26. Which word does Vine use to describe the way in which he believes study of the
Earth should be conducted?
Vietnam-Australia International English School
READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 28-40 which are based on Reading
Passage 3.

Think
happy
It's no joke: even scientists at the Royal
Society are now taking the search for the
source of happiness very seriously

A What would Sir Isaac Newton have
made of it? There he was, painted in
oils, gazing down at one of the
strangest meetings that the Royal
Society, Britain's most august
scientific body, has ever held. If
Newton had flashed a huge grin, it
would have been completely
appropriate, for beneath him last week
a two-day conference was unfolding
on a booming new field of science:
investigating what makes people
happy. Distinguished professors
strode up to the podium, including one
eminent neurologist armed with
videos of women giggling at comedy
films; another was a social scientist
brandishing statistics on national
cheerfulness. Hundreds of other
researchers sat scribbling notes on
how to produce more smiles.
B The decision by the Royal Society to
pick 'the science of wellbeing' from
hundreds of applications for
conferences on other topics is no
laughing matter. It means that the
investigation of what makes people
happy is being taken very seriously
indeed. 'Many philosophies and
religions have studied this subject, but
scientifically it has been ignored,' said
Dr Nick Baylis, a Cambridge
University psychologist and one of the
conference organisers. 'For the Royal
Society to give us its countenance is
vital, because that states that what we
are doing deserves to be
acknowledged and investigated by the
best scientific minds.'
C At first sight, the mission of Baylis -
and the growing number of other
scientists working on happiness
research - appears fanciful. They want
to deploy scientifically rigorous
methods to determine why some
people are lastingly happy while
others tend to misery. Then they
envisage spreading the secret of
happiness across the globe and, in
short, increasing the sum of human
happiness. 'If someone is happy, they
are more popular and also healthier,
they live longer and are more
productive at work. So it is very much
worth having,' he says.
D Baylis, the only 'positive psychology'
lecturer in Britain, knows that the
aims of happiness research might
sound woolly, so he is at pains to
distance himself from the brigades of
non-academic self-help gurus. He
refers to 'life satisfaction' and
'wellbeing' and emphasises that his
work, and that of others at the
conference, is grounded in solid
research. So what have the scientists
discovered - has a theory of happiness
been defined yet?
E According to Professor Martin
Seligman, probably the world's
leading figure in this field, happiness
could be but a train ride - and a couple
of questionnaires - away. It was
Seligman, a psychologist from
Pennsylvania University, who kick-
started the happiness science
movement with a speech he made as
President of the American
Psychological Association (APA).
Why, asked Seligman, shocking
delegates at an APA conference, does
science only investigate suffering?
Why not look into what steps increase
happiness, even for those who are not
depressed, rather than simply seek to
assuage pain? For a less well-known
scientist, the speech could have spelt
the end of a career, but instead
Seligman landed funding of almost
18m to follow his hunch. He has
been in regular contact with hundreds
of other researchers and practising
psychologists around the world, all
the while conducting polls and
devising strategies for increasing
happiness.
F His findings have led him to believe
that there are three main types of
happiness. First, there is 'the pleasant
life' - the kind of happiness we usually
gain from sensual pleasures such as
eating and drinking or watching a
good film. Seligman blames
Hollywood and the advertising
industry for encouraging the rest of
us, wrongly as he sees it, to believe
that lasting happiness is to be found
that way. Second, there is 'the good
life', which comes from enjoying
something we are good or talented at.
The key to this, Seligman believes,
lies in identifying our strengths and
then taking part in an activity that uses
them. Third, there is 'the meaningful
life'. The most lasting happiness,
Seligman says, comes from finding
something you believe in and then
putting your strengths at its service.
People who are good at
communicating with others might thus
find long-lasting happiness through
becoming involved in politics or
voluntary work, while a rock star
wanting to save the world might find
it in organising a charity concert.
G Achieving 'the good life' and 'the
meaningful life' is the secret of lasting
happiness, Seligman says. For
anybody unsure of how to proceed, he
has an intriguing idea. To embark on
the road to happiness, he suggests that
you need a pen, some paper and,
depending on your location, a railway
ticket. First, identify a person to
whom you feel a deep debt of
gratitude but have never thanked
properly. Next, write a 300-word
essay outlining how important the
help was and how much you
appreciate it. Then tell them you need
to visit, without saying what for, turn
up at their house and read them the
essay. The result: tears, hugs and
deeper, longer-lasting happiness,
apparently, than would come from
any amount of champagne.
H Sceptics may insist that science will
always remain a clumsy way of
investigating and propagating
happiness and say that such things are
better handled by artists, writers and
musicians - if they can be handled at
all. And not everybody at the
conference was positive about the
emerging science. Lewis Wolpert,
professor of biology as applied to
medicine at University College
London, who has written a bestseller
about his battle with depression, said:
'If you were really totally happy, I'd
be very suspicious. I think you
wouldn't do anything, you'd just sort
of sit there in a treacle of happiness.
There's a whole world out there, and
unless you have a bit of discomfort,
you'll never actually do anything.'









Vietnam-Australia International English School
Questions 27-30
Complete the sentences below with words taken from Reading Passage 3.
Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 27-30 on your answer sheet.
27. At the conference, research into happiness was referred to as the .............................. .
28. Baylis and others intend to use ........................ to find out what makes people happy
or unhappy.
29. Baylis gives classes on the subject of ............................... .
30. Baylis says he should not be categorised among the ........................... who do not
have academic credentials.

Questions 31-36
Complete the summary below using words from the box.
Write your answers in boxes 31-36 on your answer sheet.

Seligman's categories of happiness
Seligman's first type of happiness involves the enjoyment of pleasures such as 31 ........ .
He believes that people should not be under the 32 ........ that such things lead to happiness
that is not just temporary. His second type is related to 33 ........ . Identification of this
should lead to 34 ........ and the result is 'the good life'. His third type involves having a
strong 35 ........ and doing something about it for the benefit of others. This, according to
Seligman, leads to happiness that has some 36 ........ .

confidence entertainment incentive leadership
thrill perseverance illusion effort
ability theory celebration participation
ego permanence leadership encouragement
exaggeration concept conviction support


Questions 3740
Reading Passage 3 has eight paragraphs labelled A-H.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter A-H in boxes 3740 on your answer sheet.
37. a view that complete happiness may not be a desirable goal
38. a reference to the potential wider outcomes of conducting research into happiness
39. an implication of the fact that the conference was held at all
40. a statement concerning the possible outcome of expressing a certain view in public