READING PASSAGE 1 Questions 1–13

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1–13, which are based on Reading
Passage 1 on the following pages.

Bioluminescence

Bioluminescence is light created by a living organism; it is a chemical reaction that takes

place inside the plant or animal. In order for a plant or animal to be bioluminescent, two
things must be present. Luciferin, the compound that makes the light, is produced inside the
bodies of some animals and plants. Others get this from bacteria which live inside their 1
bodies, and which produce light all the time. It is necessary for the organism to have some
way of hiding this light when it is not wanted or needed, and this may be done by pulling the
light-emitting organs inside the body, or by covering them with pieces of skin. Other
bioluminescent creatures get luciferin from the food that they eat. When activated by an
enzyme called luciferase, the resulting chemical reaction creates light, and this is what
makes the plant or animal glow. 2
The colour of the light emitted by bioluminescent organisms varies greatly, depending on the
3 habitat of the organism producing the light. Researchers have found that bioluminescence in
the ocean is most commonly blue-green, because blue wavelengths from sunlight filtering
down from the surface are the strongest. There are some exceptions; for example, the light
produced by the dragonfish, known as 'dragonlight', is red. One use of this red glow is to
4 create a means of private communication between male and female dragonfish that goes
unnoticed by other fish. Land-based organisms that glow exhibit a greater variety of colours,
and a small number glow in more than one colour. One example of this is the railroad worm,
thus named because of its appearance after dark. It is, in fact, the larva of a beetle, not a
worm, which glows red from its head with green bioluminescent spots down its body. Most
often, however, land-based creatures use blue-green bioluminescence as in the ocean, but
5 in the yellow spectrum. Fireflies are an excellent example of creatures which emit this kind of
colour, with their flashing amber bottoms.

Having the ability to produce light serves multiple purposes. The angler fish is an excellent
example of a deep-sea fish that uses bioluminescence to lure its prey; if smaller creatures
come too close to the glowing fleshy growth which dangles just in front of the sharp-toothed
predator's mouth, they are caught off-guard and eaten. Click beetles crowd on termite
mounds after sunset, and anything that is lured by their glowing light will soon become
6 sustenance. Having an inbuilt flashlight is an advantage when hunting for food in the dark.
Dragonfish, for example, use their red light to see what is in their immediate environment
7 and locate their next meal. Unlike the previous two examples, their red light is like a stealth
light that allows them to act as if under an invisibility cloak; thus they can hunt, producing
light to see by, but they remain undetected by their prey.

Defending yourself against predators can be the difference between life and death in the
natural world. Invisibility is an asset; if an animal is not seen then it stands a better chance of
not being eaten. Camouflage in shallow waters can be a challenge, since the sun's rays
penetrate the water and anything swimming in the shallows creates a dark silhouette. Some
species, such as hatchet fish, have developed bioluminescence to eliminate this tell-tale 8
© British Council. All rights reserved. 2
outline, using a technique known as 'counterillumination'. They project light from the
underside of their form so that they appear to be sunlight travelling through the water,
effectively disappearing from the gaze of predators looking up from below. Some fish can
even adjust the amount of light they emit to perfectly balance with the rays penetrating the
water.

Other defensive techniques are used underwater. For example, when under attack the sea
cucumber attaches a sticky glowing packet of bioluminescence onto a passing fish so that
the predator chases the fish while the sea cucumber gets away. Some bioluminescent squid 9
flash brightly to startle any fish that come too close, buying the necessary time to swim to
safety. The vampire squid lives in the dark depths of the ocean, so squirting black ink as
other squid do would be ineffective. Instead, this particular species squirts out thick, glowing
mucus to startle attackers and slow them down. Some insect larvae, commonly referred to
as glow-worms, light up to tell other animals that they are toxic and to be avoided. 10
Bioluminescence is also a useful way to attract attention from potential mates and to
communicate. Fireflies flash to indicate that they are looking for a mate, while the less subtle 11
male lantern shark entices female sharks by lighting up its reproductive organs. Fungi such
as some toadstools or mushrooms use bioluminescence to disperse their spores, glowing to
attract insects with the ultimate goal of broadcasting their colonies far and wide.12

© British Council. All rights reserved. 3

 BC IELTS Ac eading PT 30

Questions 1–5

Complete the table below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 1–5 on your answer sheet.

Bioluminescence – chemical reaction

Requires: luciferin 2 luciferase

• •

• 1 bacteria

•
Colours produced: 3 habitat
Oceans Land
• •

private communication
•
• 4 …………
5 yellow
………… spectrum

© British Council. All rights reserved. 4

Questions 6–12

Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A–J, below.

Write the correct letter, A–J, in boxes 6–12 on your answer sheet.

NB You will not need to use all the letters.

6 Click beetles can use luminescence to …

H

7 One use of dragonfish luminescence is to …

D

8 Hatchet fish are able to use luminescence to …

C

9 Some squid can blink their luminescent light to …

I

10 Insect larvae can use luminescence to …A

11 Lantern sharks use luminescent body parts to … F

12 Mushrooms can use luminescence to …

G

List of Endings
A … warn predators that they are poisonous.
B … warn others of the same species about predators.
C … escape from potential predators.
D … find prey in a dark environment.
E … transfer light onto another creature.
F … attract potential mates.
G … enable the spread of reproductive cells.
H … attract food to their light.
I … blind other creatures with their light
.J … hide from their enemies.

© British Council. All rights reserved. 5

Question 13

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write the correct letter in box 13 on your answer sheet.

What is the main purpose of this reading passage?

A to describe research studies of how organisms make and use bioluminescence

B to give an overview of the manufacture and uses of bioluminescence in organisms
C to describe the habitat, mating and feeding patterns of some bioluminescent ocean
species
D to discuss and debate research findings about bioluminescence

© British Council. All rights reserved. 6

READING PASSAGE 2 Questions 14–27

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14–27, which are based on Reading
Passage 2 on the following pages.

Ancient Egyptians – Founding Fathers of Pharmacology?

14
'De Materia Medica'

15

16

© British Council. All rights reserved. 7

 17

18

19

20

21

22

© British Council. All rights reserved. 8

 23

24

British Pharmaceutical Codex

25

26

© British Council. All rights reserved. 9

Questions 14–16

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write the correct letter in boxes 14–16 on your answer sheet.

14 What do we learn in the first paragraph of this text?

A The ancient Greeks were the first people to study drugs for medical purposes.
B The ancient Greeks made the earliest written version of a drug dictionary.
C The ancient Egyptians wrote down drug treatments earlier than the Greeks.
D The ancient Egyptians based all their medical practices on a belief in magic.

15 Which of the following is NOT mentioned as evidence of Egyptian medical skills?

A ancient bodies with healed wounds

B medical equipment for operations
C artificial digits such as toes
D jawbones with extracted teeth

16 Why is it difficult to study written Egyptian pharmaceutical records?

A There are no existing translations of the original Egyptian language.

B It is hard to translate words which appear only a few times in short documents.
C The writing on the pharmaceutical records was damaged.
D Egyptians used drugs differently from how modern medicine uses them.

© British Council. All rights reserved. 10

Questions 17–21

Complete the summary below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 17–21 on your answer sheet.

Ancient Egyptian Pharmacology – Research Study

identification
Campbell’s study aimed to make clearer 17 ………… of Egyptian drug ingredients to find out
Egyptian flora
how effective their knowledge had been. She used current knowledge of 18 ………… to
check that the ingredients listed would have been available. She also examined key
precise measurement
documents from the period when 19 ………… was first used. These documents listed
appropriate dosage
ingredients, their preparation and administration, and the 20 ………… . She wanted to
validate or disprove each recipe; a few ingredients, e.g. 21 …………,
aniseed had clearly been
incorrectly translated.

Questions 22–27

Complete the notes below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 22–27 on your answer sheet.

Results of the Study

Identification of ingredients
• All or most of the ingredients for the majority of remedies have now been verified
• More than half the remedies would have had some 22 therapeutic
………… value
• Some of the ingredients are still a mystery and may remain so
Comparison with current pharmaceuticals
• Many Egyptian ingredients are still used, though some are now in 23 …………
synthetic form

• Extraction methods included the use of a suitable medium according to the

24 solubility
………… of the drug
• Every treatment obeyed the current rules for use, with the exception of
25 sterility
………… protocols

Establishing the 26 …………

efficacy of Egyptian drugs

• The Egyptians did not understand the causes of most diseases

• Yet, over half of their remedies would have worked as well as 27 …………
current prescriptions

© British Council. All rights reserved. 11

READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on Reading
Passage 3 on pages 10 and 11.

Decisions, decisions!
Research explores when we can make a vital decision quickly and when we need to proceed
more deliberately
A widely recognized legend tells us that in Gordium (in what is now Turkey) in the fourth
century BC an oxcart was roped to a pole with a complex knot. It was said that the first
person to untie it would become the king of Asia. Unfortunately, the knot proved impossible
to untie. The story continues that when confronted with this problem, rather than
deliberating on how to untie the Gordian knot, Alexander, the famous ruler of the Greeks in
the ancient world, simply took out his sword and cut it in two — then went on to conquer
Asia. Ever since, the notion of a 'Gordian solution' has referred to the attractiveness of a
simple answer to an otherwise intractable problem. 27
Among researchers in the psychology of decision making, however, such solutions have
traditionally held little appeal. In particular, the 'conflict model' of decision making
proposed by psychologists Irving Janis and Leon Mann in their 1977 book, Decision Making,
argued that a complex decision-making process is essential for guarding individuals and
groups from the peril of 'group-think'. Decisions made without thoroughly canvassing,
surveying, weighing, examining and reexamining relevant information and options would 28
be suboptimal and often disastrous. One foreign affairs decision made by a well-known US
political leader in the 1960s is typically held up as an example of the perils of inadequate
thought, whereas his successful handling of a later crisis is cited as an example of the
advantages of careful deliberation. However, examination of these historical events by Peter
Suedfeld, a psychologist at University of British Colombia and Roderick Kramer, a
psychologist at the Standford Graduate School of Business, found little difference in the two
decision-making processes; both crises required and received complex consideration by the
political administration, but later only the second one was deemed to be effective.
In general, however, organizational and political science offer little evidence that complex
decisions fare better than simpler ones. In fact, a growing body of work suggests that in
many situations simple 'snap' decisions will be routinely superior to more complex ones —
29
an idea that gained widespread public appeal with Malcolm Gladwell's best-selling book
Blink (2005).
An article by Ap Dijksterhuis of the University of Amsterdam and his colleagues, 'On Making
the Right Choice: the Deliberation-without-attention Effect', runs very much in the spirit of
Gladwell's influential text. Its core argument is that to be effective, conscious (deliberative)
decision making requires cognitive resources. Because increasingly complex decisions
place increasing strain on those resources, the quality of our decisions declines as their 30
 complexity increases. In short, complex decisions overrun our cognitive powers. On the
other hand, unconscious decision making (what the authors refer to as 'deliberation
without attention') requires no cognitive resources, no task complexity does not degrade
effectiveness. The seemingly counterintuitive conclusion is that although conscious thought
enhances simple decisions, the opposite holds true for more complex decisions.
Dijksterhuis reports four simple but elegant studies supporting this argument. In one,
participants assessed the quality of four hypothetical cars by considering either four
attributes (a simple task) or 12 attributes (a complex task). Among participants who 31
considered four attributes, those who were allowed to engage in undistracted deliberative
thought did better at discriminating between the best and worst cars. Those who were
distracted and thus unable to deliberate had to rely on their unconscious thinking and did
less well. The opposite pattern emerged when people considered 12 criteria. In this case,
conscious deliberation led to inferior discrimination and poor decisions.
In another study, Dijksterhuis surveyed people shopping for clothes ('simple' products) and
furniture ('complex' products). Compared with those who said they had deliberated long
and hard, shoppers who bought with little conscious deliberation felt less happy with their 32,33
simple clothing purchases but happier with the complex furniture purchases. Deliberation
without attention actually produced better results as the decisions became more complex.
From there, however, the researchers take a big leap. They write:
There is no reason to assume that the deliberation-without-attention effect does not
generalize to other types of choices — political, managerial or otherwise. In such cases, it
should benefit the individual to think consciously about simple matters and to delegate
thinking about more complicated matters to the unconscious. 34
This radical inference contradicts standard political and managerial theory but doubtless
35,36 comforts those in politics and management who always find the simple solution to the
complex problem an attractive proposition. Indeed, one suspects many of our political
leaders already embrace this wisdom.
Still it is here, in the realms of society and its governance, that the more problematic
implications of deliberation without attention begin to surface. Variables that can be neatly
circumscribed in decisions about shopping lose clarity in a world of group dynamics, social
interaction, history and politics. Two pertinent questions arise. First, what counts as a
complex decision? And second, what counts as a good outcome?
As social psychologist Kurt Lewin (1890— 1947) noted, a 'good' decision that nobody
respects is actually bad. His classic studies of decision making showed that participating in
deliberative processes makes people more likely to abide by the results. The issue here is
that when political decision makers make mistakes, it is their politics, or the relation
between their politics and our own, rather than psychology which is at fault. 39
Gladwell's book and Dijksterhuis's paper are invaluable in pointing out the limitations of
the conventional wisdom that decision quality rises with decision-making complexity. But
this work still tempts us to believe that decision making is simply a matter of psychology,
rather than also a question of politics, ideology and group membership. Avoiding social 40
considerations in a search for general appeal can take us away from enlightenment rather
than toward it.
Questions 27— 31
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D
Write the correct letter in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet.
27 The legend of the Gordian knot is used to illustrate the idea that
A anyone can solve a difficult problem.
B difficult problems can have easy solutions.
C the solution to any problem requires a lot of thought.
D people who can solve complex problems make good leaders.
28 The 'conflict model' of decision making proposed by Janis and Mann requires that
A opposing political parties be involved
B all important facts be considered.
C people be encouraged to have different ideas.
D previous similar situations be thoroughly examined.
29 According to recent thinking reinforced by Malcolm Gladwell, the best decisions
A involve consultation.
B involve complex thought.
C are made very quickly.
D are the most attractive option.
30 Dijksterhuis and his colleagues claim in their article that
A our cognitive resources improve as tasks become more complex.
B conscious decision making is negatively affected by task complexity.
C unconscious decision making is a popular approach.
D deliberation without attention defines the way we make decisions.
31 Dijksterhuis's car study found that, in simple tasks, participants
A were involved in lengthy discussions.
B found it impossible to make decisions quickly.
C were unable to differentiate between the options.
D could make a better choice when allowed to concentrate.
Questions 32— 35
Complete the summary using the list of words, A-l, below. Write the correct letter, A-I, in boxes
32-35 on your answer sheet
Dijksterhuis's shopping study and its conclusions
Using clothing and furniture as examples of different types of purchases, Dijksterhuis
questioned shoppers on their satisfaction with what they had bought. People who spent
A
32 ........... time buying simple clothing items were more satisfied than those who had not.
However, when buying furniture, shoppers made 33 ...........
D purchasing decisions if they didn't
think too hard. From this, the researchers concluded that in other choices, perhaps more
G
important than shopping, 34 ........... decisions are best made by the unconscious. The writer
B
comments that Dijksterhuis's finding is apparently 35 ........... but nonetheless true.

A more B counterintuitive C simple

D better E conscious F obvious
G complex H less I worse

Questions 36 — 40
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 3? In boxes
36-40 on your answer sheet, write
YES if the statement agrees with the views of the enter
NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
36 Dijksterhuis's findings agree with existing political and management theories. N
37 Some political leaders often use deliberation without attention when making complex
decisions. NG
38 All political decisions are complex ones. NG

39 We judge political errors according to our own political beliefs. Y

40 Social considerations must bebe

should taken into
taken account
into forwhen
account any examination of decision
it comes to shedding making
light on
to prove
the useful.
process of decision-making. Y