Reading Passage 1

Read the given passage and answer questions 1-13.

Working in the film

A. When people ask French translator Virginie Verdier what she does for a living, it must be tempting to say
enigmatically: ‘Oh me? I’m in the movies’. It’s strictly true, but her starring role is behind the scenes. As translating
goes, it doesn’t get more entertaining or glamorous than subtitling films. If you’re very lucky, you get to work on the
new blockbuster films before they’re in the cinema, and if you’re just plain lucky, you get to work on the blockbuster
movies that are going to video or DVD.

B. The process starts when you get the original script and a tape. ‘We would start by translating and adapting the
film script. The next step is what we call ‘timing’, which means synchronizing the subtitles to the dialogue and
pictures.’ This task requires discipline. You play the film, listen to the voice and the subtitles are up on your screen
ready to be timed. You insert your subtitle when you hear the corresponding dialogue and delete it when the
dialogue finishes. The videotape carries a time code that runs in hours, minutes, seconds and frames. Think of it as a
clock. The subtitling unit has an insert key to capture the time code where you want the subtitle to appear. When
you press the delete key, it captures the time code where you want the subtitle to disappear. So each subtitle would
be an exacting part of the translation profession. Melanie Leyshon talks to Virginie Verdier of London translation
company VSI about the glamor and the grind. Virginie is quick to point out that this is as exacting as any translating
job. You work hard. It’s not all entertainment as you are doing the translating. You need all the skills of a good
translator and those of a top-notch editor. You have to be precise and, of course, much more concise than in
traditional translation work.

C. You have an ‘in’ point and an ‘out’ point which represents the exact time when the subtitle comes in and goes
out. This process is then followed by a manual review, subtitle by the subtitle, and time- codes are adjusted to
improve synchronization and respect shot changes. This process involves playing the film frame by frame as it is
essential the subtitles respect the visual rhythm of the film.’ Different subtitlers use different techniques. ‘I would
go through the film and do the whole translation and then go right back from the beginning and start the timing
process. But you could do it in different stages, translate let’s say 20 minutes of the film, then time this section and
translate the next 20 minutes, and so on. It’s just a different method.’ For multi-lingual projects, the timing is done
first to create what is called a ‘spotting list’, a subtitle template, which is in effect a list of English subtitles pre-timed
and edited for translation purposes. This is then translated and the timing is adapted to the target language with
the help of the translator for quality control.

D. ‘Like any translation work, you can’t hurry to do the subtitling,’ says Virginie. ‘If subtitles are translated and timed
in a rush, the quality will be affected and it will show.’ Mistakes usually occur when the translator does not master
the source language and misunderstands the original dialogue. ‘Our work also involves checking and reworking
subtitles when the translation is not up to standard. However, the reason for redoing subtitles is not just because of
poor quality translation. We may need to adapt subtitles to a new version of the film: the time code may be
different. The film may have been edited or the subtitles may have been created for the cinema rather than video.
If subtitles were done for cinema on 35mm, we would need to reformat the timing for video, as subtitles could be
out of sync or too fast. If the translation is good, we would obviously respect the work of the original translator.’

E. On a more practical level, there are general subtitling rules to follow, says Virginie. ‘Subtitles should appear at the
bottom of the screen and usually in the centre.’ She says that different countries use different standards and rules.
In Scandinavian countries and Holland, for example, subtitles are traditionally left-justified. Characters usually
appear in white with a thin black border for easy reading against a white or light background. We can also use
different colors for each speaker when subtitling for the hearing impaired. Subtitles should have a maximum of two
lines and the maximum number of characters on each line should be between 32 and 39. Our company standard is
37 (different companies and countries have different standards).’

F. Translators often have a favorite genre, whether it’s war films, musicals, comedies (one of the most difficult
because of the subtleties and nuances of comedy in different countries), drama or corporate programs. Each
requires a certain tone and style. ‘VSI employs American subtitlers, which is incredibly useful as many of the films
we subtitle are American,’ says Virginie. ‘For an English person, it would not be so easy to understand the meaning
behind typically American expressions, and vice-versa.’

Questions 1-5
Complete the flowchart below.
Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

The Subtitling Process

Stage 1: Translate and adapt the script

↓
Stage 2: 1 …….….. -matching the subtitles to what said.
Involves recording time codes by using the 2. ……..…. and delete keys.
↓
Stage 3: 3. …….…… – in order to make the 4…..…… better
↓
Multilingual project
Stage 4: Produce something known as a 5. ….. and translate that

Questions 6-9
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

6. For translators, all subtitling work on films is desirable.

7. Subtitling work involves a requirement that does not apply to other translation work.
8. Some subtitling techniques work better than others.
9. Few people are completely successful at subtitling comedies.

Questions 10-13
Complete the sentences below.
Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.

Poor subtitling can be a result of the subtitler not being excellent at 10. ……….….
To create subtitles for a video version of a film, it may be necessary to 11. ………....
Subtitles usually have a 12. ………... around them.
Speakers can be distinguished from each other for the benefit of 13. ……..……

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Reading Passage 2
You should spend 20 minutes on this.

Alternative and Complementary medicine

WHAT DO SCIENTISTS IN BRITAIN THINK ABOUT ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES? ORLA KENNEDY READS A SURPRISING
SURVEY

A. Is complementary medicine hocus-pocus or does it warrant large-scale scientific investigation? Should science
range beyond conventional medicine and conduct research on alternative medicine and the supposed growing links
between mind and body? This will be hotly debated at the British Association for the Advancement of Science. One
Briton in five uses complementary medicine, and according to the most recent Mintel survey, one in ten uses
herbalism or homeopathy. Around £130 million is spent on oils, potions, and pills every year in Britain, and the
complementary and alternative medicine industry is estimated to be worth £1.6 billion. With the help of Professor
Edzard Ernst, Laing chair of complementary medicine at The Peninsula Medical School, Universities of Exeter and
Plymouth, we asked scientists their views on complementary and alternative medicine. Seventy-five scientists, in
fields ranging from molecular biology to neuroscience, replied.

B. Surprisingly, our sample of scientists was twice as likely as the public to use some form of complementary
medicine, at around four in 10 compared with two in 10 of the general population. Three-quarters of scientific users
believed they were effective. Acupuncture, chiropractic, and osteopathy were the most commonly used
complementary treatments among scientists and more than 55 per cent believed these were more effective than a
placebo and should be available to all on the National Health Service.

C. Scientists appear to place more trust in the more established areas of complementary and alternative medicine,
such as acupuncture, chiropractic, and osteopathy, for which there are professional bodies and recognized training
than therapies such as aromatherapy and spiritual healing. ‘Osteopathy is now a registered profession requiring a
certified four-year degree before you can advertise and practice,’ said one neuroscientist who used the therapy.
Nearly two-thirds of the scientists who replied to our survey believed that aromatherapy and homeopathy were no
better than placebos, with almost a half thinking the same of herbalism and spiritual thinking. Some of the
comments we received were scathing, even though one in ten of our respondents had used homeopathy.
‘Aromatherapy and homeopathy are scientifically nonsensical,’ said one molecular biologist from the University of
Bristol. Dr.Romke Bron, a molecular biologist at the Medical Research Council Center at King’s College London,
added: ‘Homeopathy is a big scam and I am convinced that if someone sneaked into a homeopathic pharmacy and
swapped labels, nobody would notice anything.’

D. Two centuries after homeopathy was introduced, it still lacks a watertight demonstration that it works. Scientists
are happy that the resulting solutions and sugar are baffled by how they can do anything. Both complementary and
conventional medicine should be used in routine health care, according to followers of the ‘integrated health
approach’, who want to treat an individual ‘as a whole’. But the scientists who responded to our surveys expressed
serious concerns about this approach, with more than half believing that integrated medicine was an attempt to
bypass rigorous scientific testing. Dr. Bron said: ‘There is an awful lot of bad science going on in alternative medicine
and the general public has a hard time distinguishing between scientific myth and fact. It is absolutely paramount to
maintain rigorous quality control in health care. Although the majority of alternative health workers mean well,
there are just too many frauds out there preying on vulnerable people.’

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E. One molecular biologist from the University of Warwick admitted that ‘by doing this poll I have realized how
shamefully little I understand about alternative therapy. Not enough scientific research has been performed. There
is enough anecdotal evidence to suggest that at least some of the alternative therapies are effective for some
people, suggesting this is an area ripe for research.’

F. When asked if complementary and alternative medicine should get more research funding, scientists believed the
top three (acupuncture, chiropractic and osteopathy) should get money, as should herbalism. It seems that
therapies based on physical manipulation or a known action – like the active ingredients in a herb on a receptor in
the body – are the ones that the scientific community has faith in. Less than a quarter thought that therapies such
as aromatherapy, homeopathy and spiritual healing should get any funding. Scientists believed that the ‘feelgood’
counseling effect of complementary medicine and the time taken to listen to patients’ problems was what worked,
rather than any medicinal effect. In contrast, the average visit to the doctor lasts only eight minutes, says the British
Medical Association. Dr. Stephen Nurrish, a molecular biologist at University College London, said: ‘Much of the
benefits people get from complementary medicine is the time to talk to someone and be listened to
sympathetically, something that is now lacking from medicine in general.’

G. But an anonymous neuroscientist at King’s College London had a more withering view of this benefit: ‘On the
validity of complementary and alternative medicines, no one would dispute that ‘feeling good’ is good for your
health, but why discriminate between museum-trip therapy, patting-a-dog therapy, and aromatherapy? Is it
because only the latter has a cadre of professional ‘practitioners’?’ Other hardline scientists argue that there should
be no such thing as complementary and alternative medicine. As Professor David Moore, director of the Medical
Research Council’s Institute for Hearing Research, said: ‘Either a treatment works or it doesn’t. The only way to
determine if it works is to test it against appropriate controls (that is, scientifically).’

Questions 14-19
Look at the following views and the list of people below them.
Match each view with the correct person, A - E.
NB : You may use any letter more than once.

14. Complementary medicine provides something that conventional medicine no longer does.
15. It is hard for people to know whether they are being told the truth or not.
16. Certain kinds of complementary and alternative medicine are taken seriously because of the number of people
making money from them.
17. Nothing can be considered a form of medicine unless it has been proved effective.
18. It seems likely that some forms of alternative medicine do work.
19. One particular kind of alternative medicine is a deliberate attempt to cheat the public.

List of People
A. Dr. Romke Bron
B. a molecular biologist from the University of Warwick
C. Dr. Stephen Norrish
D. a neuroscientist at King’s College London
E. Professor David Moore

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Questions 20-22
Complete each sentence with the correct ending A-F from the box below.

20. The British Association for the Advancement of Science will be discussing the issue of
21. A recent survey conducted by a certain organization addressed the issue of
22. The survey in which the writer of the article was involved gave information on

A. what makes people use complementary rather than conventional medicine.

B. how many scientists themselves use complementary and alternative medicine.
C. whether alternative medicine should be investigated scientifically.
D. research into the use of complementary and conventional medicine together.
E. how many people use various kinds of complementary medicine.
F. the extent to which attitudes to alternative medicine are changing

Questions 23-26
Match each statement with the correct letter, A-D.
NB : You may use any letter more than once.

A. acupuncture
B. aromatherapy
C. herbalism
D. homeopathy

23. Scientists believe that it is ineffective but harmless.

24. Scientists felt that it could be added to the group of therapies that deserved to be provided with resources for
further investigation.
25. Scientists felt that it deserved to be taken seriously because of the organized way in which it has developed.
26. A number of scientists had used it, but harsh criticism was expressed about it.

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Reading passage 3
You should spend 20 minutes on this.

Evolution of Novel Minds

A. When did we begin to use symbols to communicate? Roger Highfield reports on a challenge to prevailing ideas.
Anyone who doubts the importance of art need do no more than refer to the current account of human evolution,
where the emergence of modern people is not so much marked by Stone Age technology as a creative explosion
that rocked Europe 40,000 years ago. Our ancestors began to adorn their bodies with beads and pendants, even
tattoos; they painted representations of animals, people and magical hybrids on cave walls in Lascaux, France and
Altamira in Spain. They sculpted voluptuous stone figures, such as the Venus of Willendorf. This cultural Big Bang,
which coincided with the period when modern humans reached Europe after they set out, via the Near East, from
Africa, marked a decisive point in our story when a man took a critical step beyond the limitations of his hairy
ancestors and began to use symbols. The modern mind was born.
B. Or was it? Britain’s leading archaeologist questions the dogma that the modern human mind originated in
Europe and, instead, argues that its birth was much more recent, around 10,000 years ago, and took place in the
Middle East. Lord Renfrew, professor of archaeology at Cambridge University, is troubled by what he calls the
‘sapient behavior paradox’: genetic findings, based on the diversity of modern humans, suggest that our big brains
emerged 130,000 years ago when Homo sapiens evolved from Homo Erectus and were fully developed about
60,000 years ago. But this hardware, though necessary, was not sufficient for modern behavior, software (culture) is
also required to run a mind and for this to be honed took tens of millennia. There is something unsatisfactory about
the genetic argument that rests on the ‘potential’ for change emerging, he argues. Ultimately, little happened — or
at least not for another 30,000 years.
C. Although there is no doubt that genes shaped the hardware of the modern brain, genetics does not tell the
whole story. ‘It is doubtful whether molecular sequences will give us any clear insights,’ said Lord Renfrew, adding
that the current account of our origins has also become sidetracked by placing too much emphasis on one cultural
event. Either side of the boundary between the Middle and Upper Paleolithic, 40,000 years ago, people lived much
the same way. To the casual observer, the archaeological record for Homo sapiens does not look much different
from Homo Erectus’s or even our beetle-browed European cousins, the Neanderthals. ‘There are detailed changes
in tools and so on but the only one that really strikes you is cave art.’
D. And this artistic revolution was patchy: the best examples are in Spain and France, in Britain, the oldest known
cave art consists of 12.000 year-old engravings in Creswell Crags. Indeed, was there an artistic revolution 40,000
years ago at all? Two pieces of ochre engraved with geometrical patterns 70,000 years ago were recently found at
Blombos Cave, 180 miles east of Cape Town, South Africa. This means people were able to think abstractly and
behave as modern humans much earlier than previously thought. Lord Renfrew argues that art, like genetics, does
not tell the whole story of our origins. For him, the real revolution occurred 10,000 years ago with the first
permanent lieges. That is when the effects of new software kicked in, allowing our ancestors to work together in a
more settled way. That is when plants and animals were domesticated and agriculture born.
E. First, there were nests of skulls and unusual burial practices, cult centres and shrines. Then you have the first
villages, the first towns, like Jericho in Jordan around 8000 BC) and Catalhoyuk in Turkey (est 6500 BC), then the

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spread of farming to Europe. Before long, you are accelerating towards the first cities in Mesopotamia, and then
other civilisations in Mexico, China and beyond.’
F. Living in timber and mud-brick houses led to a very different engagement between our ancestors and the
material world.’ I don't think it was until settled village communities developed that you had the concept of
property, or that “I own these things that have been handed down to me”.’ This, in turn, could have introduced the
need for mathematics, to keep a tally of possessions, and written language to describe them. In the Near East,
primitive counters date back to the early farming period and this could have marked the first stages of writing, said
Lord Renfrew. ‘We have not solved anything about the origins of modern humans until we understand what
happened 10,000 years ago,’ he said. He is excited by excavations now underway in Anatolia, a potential birthplace
of the modern mind, in Catalhôyük. one of the earliest places where close-knit communities were born, and Gobekli
Tepe, a shrine that predates village life. These spiritual sites may have seeded the first human settled communities
by encouraging the domestication of plants and animals.

Questions 27-32
Answer the questions below.
Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.

27. According to the current view, what does NOT indicate the first appearance of the modern human.
28. What type of evidence does Lord Renfrew question in general?
29. What, apart from art, were the developments in the creation of 40,000 years ago?
30. What kind of cave art in Britain is referred to?
31. What TWO things does Lord Renfrew believe to have been established 10,000 years ago?
32. What TWO things did the notion of personal possessions lead to?

Questions 33-40
Classify the following statements as referring to the period.
Write the correct letter A, B, C, or D.

A. 10,000 years ago

B. 40,000 years ago
C. 60,000 years ago
D. 70,000 years ago

33. The brain was completely formed physically but was not capable of all the functions of the modern mind.
34. There was a major change in the attitude of humans to each other.
35. A huge amount of art in different forms began to appear.
36. Development of the human mind occurred at the same time as a migration.
37. Art from the period casts doubt on the conventional view of the development of the human mind.
38. Tire modern mind developed in a different location from the one normally assumed.
39. The only significant change in the development of man is shown in the art produced.
40. Further research into the period is essential for accurate conclusions to be drawn on human development.