Question 14-19

Reading passage 2 has six paragraphs A-F

Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below. Write
the correct number , i-ix, in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet.
List of Headings
i. Experimenting with an old idea ii. Life cycle of
Madagascar spiders iii. Advances in the textile
industry iv. Resources needed to meet the project’s
demands v. The physical properties of spider silk vi.
A scientific analysis of spider silk vii. A unique work
of art viii. Importance of the silk textile market ix.
Difficulties of raising spiders in captivity
14. Paragraph A
15. Paragraph B
16. Paragraph C
17. Paragraph D
18. Paragraph E
19. Paragraph F

A unique golden textile

A two-man project to use spider silk is achieved after 4 years

A. A rare textile made from the silk of more than a million wild spiders has been on
display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. To produce this
golden cloth, 70 people spent four years collecting golden orb spiders from telephone
poles in Madagascar, while another dozen workers carefully extracted about 80 feet of
silk filament from each of the arachnids. The resulting 11-foot by 4-foot textile is the only
large piece of cloth made from natural spider silk existing in the world today.
B. Spider silk is very elastic and strong compared with steel or Kevlar, said textile
expert Silom Peers, who co-led the project. Kevlar is a lightweight synthetic fabric which
is chemically related to nylon. It is very tough and durable and used in bullet-proof vest.
Kevlar is also resistant to wear, tear, and heat and has absolutely no melting point. But
the tensile strength of spider silk is even greater than Kevlar's amid filaments, and
greater than that of high-grade steel. Most importantly, spider silk is extremely
lightweight: a strand of spider silk long enough to circle the Earth would weigh less than
500 grams (18 oz). Spider silk is also especially ductile, able to stretch up to 140 per
cent of its length without breaking. It can hold its strength below-40c. This gives it a very
high toughness, which equals that of commercial fibers.
C. Researchers have long been intrigued by the unique properties of spider silk.
Unfortunately, spider silk is extremely hard to mass produce. Unlike silk worms, which
are easy to raise in captivity, spiders have a habit of chopping off each other's heads
when housed together. According to Peers, there's scientific research going on all over
the world right now trying to replicate the tensile properties of spider silk a apply it to all
sorts of areas in medicine and industry, but no one up until now has succeeded in
replicating 100 per cent of the properties of natural spider silk.
D. Peers came up with the idea of weaving spider silk after learning about the
French missionary Jacob Paul Camboue, who worked with spiders in Madagascar
during the 1880s and 1890s. Camboue built a small, hand-driven machine to extract silk
from up to 24 spiders at once, without harming them. The spiders were temporarily
restrain their silk extracted, and then let go, Peers managed to build a replica of this
24spider silking machine that was used at the turn of the century, said Nicholas Godley,
who co-led the project with Peers. As an experiment, the pair collected an initial batch of
about 20 spiders. When we stuck them in the machine and started turning it, lo and
behold, this beautiful gold-colored silk started coming out’, Godley said.
E. But to make a textile of any significant size, the silk experts had to drastically scale up
their plan. Fourteen thousand spiders yield about an ounce of silk, Godley said, and the
textile weighs about 2.6 pounds. The numbers are overwhelming. To get as much silk as
they needed, Godley and Peers began hiring dozens of spider handlers to collect wild
arachnids and carefully harvest them to the silk-extraction machine. We had to find people
who were willing to work with spiders, Godley said, because they bite ' By the end of the
project, Godley and Peers extracted silk from more than 1 million female golden orb
spiders, which are abundant throughout Madagascar and known for the rich golden color
of their silk, Because the spiders only produce silk during the rainy season, workers
collected all the spiders between October and June. Then an additional 12 people used
hand-powered machines to extract the silk and where it into 96-filament thread. Once the
spiders had been silked, they were released back into the wild, where Godley said it takes
them about a week to regenerate their skill. We can go back and resilk the same spiders,
he said. It’s like the gift that never stops giving.
F. Of course, spending four years to produce a single textile of spider silk isn’t very
practical for scientists trying to study the properties of spider silk, or companies that want
to manufacture the fabric for the use as a biomedical product, or an alternative to Kevlar
armor. Several groups have tried inserting spider genes into bacteria or even cows and
goats to produce silk, but so far, the attempts have been only moderately successful. Part
of the reason it’s so hard to generate spider silk in the lab is that it starts out as a liquid
protein that’s produced by a special gland in the spider’s abdomen. Using their spinneret,
spiders apply force to rearrange the protein’s molecular structure and transform it into
solid silk. When we talk about a spider spinning silk, we’re talking about how the spider
applies forces to produce a transformation from liquid to solid, said spider silk expert Todd
Blackledge of the University of Akron, Ohio, US, who was not involved in creating the
textile. Scientists simply can’t replicate the efficiency with which a spider produces silk.
Every year we’re getting closer and closer to being able to massproduce it, but we’re not
there yet. For now, it seems we’ll have to be content with one incredibly beautiful cloth,
graciously provided by more than a million spiders.

Questions 20-23
Look at the following statements (Questions 20-23) and the list of researchers below
Match each statement with the correct researcher, A ,B or C
Write the correct letter A, B or C in boxes 20-23 on your answer sheet NB You may use
any letter more than once

20 It takes a tremendous number of spiders to make a small amount of silk

21 Scientists want to use the qualities of spider silk for medical purposes
22 Scientists are making some progress in their efforts to manufacture spider silk
23 Spider silk compares favourably to materials known for their strength

List of Researchers
A Simon Peers B Nicholas Godley C Todd Blackledge
Questions 24-26
Complete the summary below
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer Write your answers
in boxes 24-26 on your answer sheet
Producing spider silk in the lab
Both scientists and manufacturers are interested in producing silk for many different
purposes. Some researchers have tried to grow silk by introducing genetic material into
24.........................and some animals. But these experiments have been somewhat
disappointing.
It is difficult to make spider silk in a lab setting because the silk comes from a liquid
protein made in a 25.........................inside the spider's body. When a spider spins
silk, it
causes a 26.........................that turns this liquid into solid silk. Scientists cannot
replicate
this yet