MOCK TEST 3

I - Reading Passage 1

The importance of law

A The law influences all of us virtually all the time, it governs almost all aspects of
our behavior, and even what happens to us when we are no longer alive. It affects us
from the embryo onwards. It governs the air we breathe, the food and drink we
consume, our travel, family relationships, and our property. It applies at the bottom of
the ocean and in space.
Each time we examine a label on a food product, engage in work as an employee or
employer, travel on the roads, go to school to learn or to teach, stay in a hotel, borrow
a library book, create or dissolve a commercial company, play sports, or engage the
services of someone for anything from plumbing a sink to planning a city, we are in
the world of law.
B Law has also become much more widely recognised as the standard by which
behavior needs to be judged. A very telling development in recent history is the way
in which the idea of law has permeated all parts of social life. The universal standard
of whether something is socially tolerated is progressively becoming whether it is
legal, rather than something that has always been considered acceptable. In earlier
times, most people were illiterate.
Today, by contrast, a vast number of people can read, and it is becoming easier for
people to take an interest in law, and for the general population to help actually shape
the law in many countries. However, law is a versatile instrument that can be used
equally well for the improvement or the degradation of humanity.
C This, of course, puts law in a very significant position. In our rapidly developing
world, all sorts of skills and knowledge are valuable. Those people, for example, with
knowledge of computers, the internet, and communications technology are relied
upon by the rest of us.
There is now someone with IT skills or an IT help desk in every UK school, every
company, every hospital, every local and central government office. Without their
knowledge, many parts of commercial and social life today would seize up in
minutes. But legal understanding is just as vital and as universally needed. The
American comedian Jerry Seinfeld put it like this, 'We are all throwing the dice,
playing the game, moving our pieces around the board, but if there is a problem, the
lawyer is the only person who has read the inside of the top of the box.' In other
words, the lawyer is the only person who has read and made sense of the rules.
D The number of laws has never been greater. In the UK alone, about 35 new Acts of
Parliament are produced every year, thereby delivering thousands of new rules. The
legislative output of the British Parliament has more than doubled in recent times
from 1,100 pages a year in the early 1970s,to over 2,500 pages a year today. Between
1997 and
2006,the legislature passed 365 Acts of Parliament and more than 32,000 legally
binding statutory instruments. In a system with so much law, lawyers do a great deal
not just to vindicate the rights of citizens and organizations but also to help develop
the law through legal arguments, some of which are adapted by judges to become
laws. Law courts can and do produce new law and revise old law, but they do so
having heard the arguments of lawyers.
E However, despite their important role in developing the rules, lawyers are not
universally admired. Anti-lawyer jokes have a long history going back to the ancient
Greeks.
More recently the son of a famous Hollywood actor was asked at his junior school
what his father did for a living, to which he replied,'My daddy is a movie actor, and
sometimes he plays the good guy, and sometimes he plays the lawyer. For balance,
though, it Is worth remembering that there are and have been many heroic and revered
lawyers such as the Roman philosopher and politician Cicero and Mahatma Gandi,
the Indian campaigner for independence.
F People sometimes make comments that characterise lawyers as professionals whose
concerns put personal reward above truth, or who gain financially from misfortune.
There are undoubtedly lawyers that would fit that bill, Just as there are some
scientists, Journalists and others In that category, But, In general, it is no more Just to
say that lawyers are bad because they make a living from people's problems than it is
to make the same accusation In respect of nurses or IT consultants, A great many
lawyers are involved in public law work, such as that Involving civil liberties, housing
and other Issues. Such work Is not lavishly remunerated and the quality of the service
provided by these lawyers relies on considerable professional dedication, Moreover,
much legal work has nothing to do with conflict or misfortune, but is primarily
concerned with drafting documents, Another source of social disaffection for lawyers,
and disaffection for the law, is a limited public understanding of how law works and
how It could be changed. Greater clarity about these issues, maybe as a result of better
public relations, would reduce many aspects of public dissatisfaction with the law.

Questions 1-6
The reading Passage has six paragraphs A-F
Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number, i-viii, in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.
List of Headings
i Different areas of professional expertise
i Reasons why it is unfair to criticise lawyers
iii The disadvantages of the legal system
iv The law applies throughout our lives
v The law has affected historical events
vi A negative regard for lawyers
vii public's increasing ability to influence the law
viii growth in laws

1 Paragraph A
2 Paragraph B
3 Paragraph C
4 Paragraph D
5 Paragraph E
6 Paragraph F

Questions 7-8
Choose TWO letters, A-E.
Write the correct letters in boxes 7-8 on your answer sheet.
Which TWO of the following statements does the writer make about legal skills in today's world?
7 A There should be a person with legal training in every hospital.
7 B Lawyers with experience in commercial law are the most in demand.
7 C Knowledge of the law is as important as having computer skills.
7 D Society could not function effectively without legal experts.
7 E Schools should teach students about the law.

Questions 9-13
Complete the summary below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet.
Lawyers as professionals People sometimes say that 9 is of little interest to lawyers, who are more concerned
with making money. This may well be the case with some individuals, in the same way that some 10 . or
scientific experts may also be driven purely by financial greed. However, criticising lawyers because their work is
concerned with people's problems would be similar to attacking IT staff or 11 for the same reason. In fact, many
lawyers focus on questions relating, for example, to housing or civil liberties, which requires them to have 12 to
their work. What's more, a lot of lawyers' time is spent writing 13 rather than dealing with people's misfortunes.