Final Examination International College at Beijing, CAU December 2011

FINAL EXAMINATION INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE AT BEIJING, CAU DECEMBER 2011

MODULE NAME Reading & Vocabulary III LEVEL 1

Carol Richman, Laurie TOOLS Schiller, Wang Sheng, ALLOWE DURATIO 1 INSTRUCTOR(S) Zhao Xing D none N hour

This examination is worth 20 points (20 per cent) of your total grade.

Write your answers on the answer sheet provided. Turn in both the answer sheet and the exam paper at the conclusion of the exam. The exam begins on page 2.

of 13 READING PASSAGE 1

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

Astronaut ice cream, anyone?

Freeze-drying is a technique that can help to provide food for astronauts. But it also has other applications nearer home.

A Freeze-drying is like suspended animation for food; you can store a freeze-dried meal for years, and then, when you’re finally ready to eat it, you can completely revitalise it with a little hot water. Even after several years, the original foodstuff will be virtually unchanged.

B The technique basically involves completely removing the water from some material, such as food, while leaving the rest of the material virtually intact. The main reason for doing this is either to preserve the food or to reduce its weight. Removing the water from food keeps it from spoiling because the microorganisms such as bacteria that cause spoiling cannot survive without it. Similarly, the enzymes which occur naturally in food cannot cause ripening without water, so removing water from food will also stop the ripening process.

C Freeze-drying significantly reduces the total weight of food because most food is largely made up of water; for example, many fruits are more than 80 to 90 per cent water. Removing this makes the food much lighter and therefore makes transport less difficult. The military and camping-supply companies freeze-dry foods to make them easier for an individual to carry, and NASA has also freeze-dried foods for the cramped quarters on board spacecraft.

D The process is also used to preserve other sorts of material, such as pharmaceuticals. Chemists can greatly extend pharmaceutical shelf life by freeze-drying the material and storing it in a container free of oxygen and water. Similarly, research scientists may use freeze-drying to preserve biological samples for long periods of time. Even valuable manuscripts that have suffered water damage have been saved by using this process.

E Freeze-drying is different from simple drying because it is able to remove almost all the water from materials, whereas simple drying techniques can remove only 90 to 95 per cent. This means that the damage caused by bacteria and enzymes can virtually be stopped, rather than just slowed down. In addition, the composition and structure of the material is not significantly changed, so materials can be revitalised without compromising the quality of the original.

F This is possible because in freeze-drying, solid water – ice – is converted directly into water vapour, missing out the liquid phase entirely. This is called “sublimation”, the shift from a solid directly into a gas. Just like evaporation, sublimation occurs when a molecule gains enough energy to break free from the molecules around it. Water will sublime from a solid (ice) to gas (vapour) when the molecules have enough energy to break free but the conditions aren’t right for a liquid to form. These conditions are determined by heat and atmospheric pressure. When the temperature is above freezing point, so that ice can thaw, but the atmospheric pressure is too low for a liquid to form (below 0.06 atmospheres, or ATM), it becomes gas.

G This is the principle on which a freeze-drying machine is based. The material to be preserved is placed in a freeze-drying chamber which is connected to a freezing coil and refrigerator compressor. When the chamber is sealed the compressor lowers the temperature inside it. The

of 13 material is frozen solid, which separates the water from everything around it on a molecular level, even though the water is still present. Next, a vacuum pump forces air out of the chamber, lowering the atmospheric pressure to below 0.06 ATM. The heating units apply a small amount of heat to the shelves in the chamber, causing the ice to change phase. Since the pressure in the chamber is so low, the ice turns directly into water vapour, which leaves the freeze-drying chamber and flows past the freezing coil. The water vapour condenses onto the freezing coil in the form of solid ice in the same way that water condenses as frost on a cold day.

H The process continues for many hours (even days) while the material gradually dries out. This time is necessary to avoid overheating, which might affect the structure of the material. Once it has dried sufficiently, it is sealed in a moisture-free package. As long as the package is secure, the material can sit on a shelf for years and years without degrading, until it is restored to its original form with a little hot water. If everything works correctly, the material will go through the entire process almost completely unscathed.

I In fact, freeze-drying as a general concept is not new but has been around for centuries. The ancient Incas of Peru used mountain peaks along the Andes as natural food preservers. The extremely cold temperatures and low pressure at those high altitudes prevented food from spoiling in the same basic way as a modern freeze-drying machine and a freezer.

Questions 1–5

Complete the notes below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

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

Uses of freeze-drying: • food preservation • easy 1 ...... of food items • long-term storage of 2 ...... and biological samples • preservation of precious 3 ...... Based on the process of 4 ...... Removes more water than 5 ...... drying

of 13 9 ...... 6 ......

Questions 6–9

Label the diagram below.

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

Write your answers in boxes 6–9 on your answer sheet. vacuum pump 7 ...... with heating units A simplified freeze-drying machine

8 ......

Questions 10–13

Complete the summary below.

Freeze-drying prevents food from going bad by stopping the activity of microorganisms and 10 ...... Its advantages are that the food tastes and feels the same as the original because the food’s 11 ...... and ...... are both preserved. The process is carried out slowly in order to ensure that 12 ...... does not take place. The people of one ancient mountain civilisation were able to use this method of food preservation because the conditions needed were present at 13 ......

of 13 READING PASSAGE 2 McCarter & Ash 6-2

Who pulled the plug on the Mediterranean?

Cannes. Monte Carlo. St Tropez. Magic names all. And much of the enchantment comes from the deep blue water that laps their shores. But what if somebody pulled the plug? Suppose the Mediterranean Sea were to vanish, leaving behind an expanse of salt desert the size of India. Hard to imagine? It happened. “It would have looked like Death Valley,” says Bill Ryan, from the Lamont- Doherty Earth Observatory in New York, one of the leaders of the team that discovered the Mediterranean had once dried up, then refilled in a deluge of Biblical proportions. Between 5 and 6 million years ago, the great desiccation touched off what scientists call the Messinian Salinity Crisis – a global chemical imbalance that triggered a wrenching series of extinctions and plunged the Earth into an ice age. The first indications of some extraordinary past events came in the 1960s, when geologists discovered that major rivers flowing into the Mediterranean had eroded deep canyons in the rock at the bottom of the sea. River erosion of bedrock cannot occur below sea level, yet somehow the River Rhone in the South of France had managed to create a channel 1,000 metres deep in the sea floor, while the Nile had cut nearly 1,500 metres into the rock off the North African coast. There was more: despite the fact that the formation of caves can only take place above water, scientists discovered a whole network beneath the island of Malta that reached an astonishing depth of 2,000 metres below sea level. Further evidence came to light in 1970, when an international team chugged across the Mediterranean in a drilling ship to study the sea floor near the Spanish island of Majorca. Strange things started turning up in core samples: layers of microscopic plants and soil sandwiched between beds of salt more than two kilometres below today’s sea level. The plants had grown in sunlight. Also discovered inside the rock were fossilised shallow-water shellfish, together with salt and silt: particles of sand and mud that had once been carried by river water. Could the sea floor once have been near a shoreline? That question led Ryan and his fellow team leader Kenneth Hsü to piece together a staggering chain of events. About 5.8 million years ago, they concluded, the Mediterranean was gradually cut off from the Atlantic Ocean when continental drift pinned Morocco against Spain. As the opening became both narrower and shallower, the deep outward flow from sea to ocean was progressively cut off, leaving only the shallow inward flow of ocean water into the Mediterranean. As this water evaporated, the sea became more saline and creatures that couldn’t handle the rising salt content perished. “The sea’s interior was dead as a door nail, except for bacteria,” says Ryan. When the shallow opening at Gibraltar finally closed completely, the Mediterranean, with only rivers to feed it, dried up and died. Meanwhile, the evaporated water was falling back to Earth as rain. When the fresh water reached the oceans, it made them less saline. With less salt in it to act as an antifreeze, parts of the

of 13 ocean that would not normally freeze began to turn to ice. “The ice reflects sunlight into space,” says Ryan. “The planet cools. You drive yourself into an ice age.” Eventually, a small breach in the Gibraltar dam sent the process into reverse. Ocean water cut a tiny channel to the Mediterranean to create the beginning of a waterfall. As the gap enlarged, the water flowed faster and faster, until the torrent ripped through the emerging Straits of Gibraltar at more than 100 knots. “The Gibraltar Falls were 100 times bigger than Victoria Falls and a thousand times grander than Niagara,” Hsü wrote in his book The Mediterranean was a Desert. In the end the rising waters of the vast inland sea drowned the falls and warm water began to escape to the Atlantic, reheating the oceans and the planet. The salinity crisis ended about 5.4 million years ago. It had lasted roughly 400,000 years. Subsequent drilling expeditions have added a few wrinkles to Ryan and Hsü’s scenario. For example, researchers have found salt deposits more than two kilometres thick – so thick, some believe, that the Mediterranean must have dried up and refilled many times. But those are just geological details. For tourists the crucial question is, could it happen again? Should Malaga start stockpiling dynamite? “Not yet,” says Ryan. If continental drift does reseal the Mediterranean, it won’t be for several million years. “Some future creatures may face the issue of how to respond to nature’s closure. It’s not something our species has to worry about.”

Questions 14–19

Complete the summary below.

The 1960s discovery of deep 14 ...... in the bedrock of the Mediterranean, as well as a large system of 15 ...... beneath Malta, suggested something strange had happened in the region, as these features can only form 16 ...... sea level. Subsequent examination of the sea floor off Majorca provided more proof: 17 ...... samples from 2000 metres down contained both vegetation and 18 ...... that could not have lived in deep water, as well as silt originally transported by river, indicating that the sea floor was at one time in close proximity to the 19 ......

of 13 Questions 20–24

Answer the questions below.

Write your answers in boxes 20–24 on your answer sheet.

20 Approximately how many years ago did movement of the continents close the Straits of Gibraltar?

21 What increased in the Mediterranean as a result of evaporation?

22 What were the last creatures to live in the Mediterranean before it had completely disappeared?

23 What global event did the decreased salinity of the oceans lead to?

24 What natural phenomenon was created as a result of the return of Atlantic water to the Mediterranean?

Questions 25–27

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

Write the correct letter, A–G, in boxes 25–27 on your answer sheet.

25 The extra ice did not absorb the heat from the sun, so

26 The speed of the water from the Atlantic increased as

27 The Earth and its oceans became warmer when

A Africa and Europe crashed into each other. B water started flowing from the Mediterranean. C the sea was cut off from the ocean. D all the fish and plant life in the Mediterranean E died. F the Earth started to become colder. G the channel grew bigger. all the ice on earth melted.

of 13 READING PASSAGE 3

Space: the final archaeological frontier

Space travel may still have a long way to go, but the notion of archaeological research and heritage management in space is already concerning scientists and environmentalists.

A In 1993 University of Hawaii’s anthropologist Ben Finney, who for much of his career has studied the technology once used by Polynesians to colonise islands in the Pacific, suggested that it would not be premature to begin thinking about the archaeology of Russian and American aerospace sites on the moon and Mars. Finney pointed out that just as today’s scholars use archaeological records to investigate how Polynesians diverged culturally as they explored the Pacific, archaeologists will someday study off-Earth sites to trace the development of humans in space. He realised that it was unlikely anyone would be able to conduct fieldwork in the near future, but he was convinced that one day such work would be done.

B There is a growing awareness, however, that it won’t be long before both corporate adventurers and space tourists reach the moon and Mars. There is a wealth of important archaeological sites from the history of space exploration on the moon and Mars, and measures need to be taken to protect these sites. In addition to the threat from profit-seeking corporations, scholars cite other potentially destructive forces such as souvenir hunting and unmonitored scientific sampling, as has already occurred in explorations of remote polar regions. Already in 1999 one company was proposing a robotic lunar rover mission beginning at the site of Tranquility Base and rumbling across the moon from one archaeological site to another, from the wreck of the Ranger 8 probe to Apollo 17’s landing site. The mission, which would leave vehicle tyre-marks over some of the most famous sites on the moon, was promoted as a form of theme-park entertainment.

C According to the vaguely worded United Nations Outer Space Treaty of 1967, what it terms “space junk” remains the property of the country that sent the craft or probe into space. But the treaty doesn’t explicitly address protection of sites like Tranquility Base, and equating the remains of human exploration of the heavens with “space junk” leaves them vulnerable to scavengers. Another problem arises through other international treaties proclaiming that land in space cannot be owned by any country or individual. This presents some interesting dilemmas for the aspiring manager of extraterrestrial cultural resources. Does the US own Neil Armstrong’s famous first footprints on the moon but not the lunar dust in which they were recorded? Surely those footprints are as important in the story of human development as those left by hominids at Laetoli, Tanzania. But unlike the Laetoli prints, which have survived for 3.5 million years encased in cement-like ash, those at Tranquility Base could be swept away with a casual brush of a space tourist’s hand. To deal with problems like these, it may be time to look to innovative international administrative structures for the preservation of historic remains on the new frontier.

D The moon, with its wealth of sites, will surely be the first destination of archaeologists trained to work in space. But any young scholars hoping to claim the mantle of history’s first lunar

of 13 archaeologist will be disappointed. That distinction is already taken. On November 19, 1969, astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean made a difficult manual landing of the Apollo 12 lunar module in the moon’s Ocean of Storms, just a few hundred feet from an unpiloted probe, Surveyor 3, that had landed in a crater on April 19, 1967. Unrecognised at the time, this was an important moment in the history of science. Bean and Conrad were about to conduct the first archaeological studies on the moon.

E After the obligatory planting of the American flag and some geological sampling, Conrad and Bean made their way to Surveyor 3. They observed that the probe had bounced after touchdown and carefully photographed the impressions made by its footpads. The whole spacecraft was covered in dust, perhaps kicked up by the landing.

F The astronaut-archaeologists carefully removed the probe’s television camera, remote sampling arm, and pieces of tubing. They bagged these artefacts and stowed them on board their lunar module. On their return to Earth, they passed them on to the Daveson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and the Hughes Air and Space Corporation in El Segundo, California. There, scientists analysed the changes in these aerospace artefacts.

G One result of the analysis astonished them. A fragment of the television camera revealed evidence of the bacteria Streptococcus mitis. For a moment it was thought Conrad and Bean had discovered evidence for life on the Moon, but after further research the real explanation became apparent. While the camera was being installed in the probe prior to the launch, someone sneezed on it. The resulting bacteria had travelled to the moon, remained in an alternating freezing/boiling vacuum for more than two years, and returned promptly to life upon reaching the safety of a laboratory on Earth.

H The finding that not even the vastness of space can stop humans from spreading a sore throat was an unexpected spin-off. But the artefacts brought back by Bean and Conrad have a broader significance. Simple as they may seem, they provide the first example of extraterrestrial archaeology and—perhaps more significant for the history of the discipline—formational archaeology, the study of environmental and cultural forces upon the life history of human artefacts in space.

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

Write the correct letter, A–H, in boxes 28–33 on your answer sheet.

28 Ben Finney’s main academic work investigates the way that

29 Ben Finney thought that in the long term

30 Commercial pressures mean that in the immediate future

31 Academics are concerned by the fact that in isolated regions on Earth,

32 One problem with the 1967 UN treaty is that

33 The wording of legal agreements over ownership of land in space means that

A activities of tourists and scientists have harmed the environment. B some sites in space could be important in the history of space exploration. C vehicles used for tourism have polluted the environment. D it may be unclear who has responsibility for historic human footprints. E past explorers used technology in order to find new places to live. F manufactured objects left in space are regarded as rubbish. G astronauts may need to work more closely with archaeologists. H important sites on the moon may be under threat.

Complete the flow-chart below.

Write your answers in boxes 34–38 on your answer sheet.

During the assembly of the Surveyor 3 probe, someone 34 ...... on a TV camera.

The TV camera was carried to the Moon on Surveyor 3.

The TV camera remained on the moon for over 35 ...... years.

Apollo 12 astronauts 36 ...... the TV camera.

The TV camera was returned to Earth for 37 ......

Streptococcus mitis 38 ...... were found on the object.

Scientists concluded that the bacteria can survive lunar conditions.

of 13 Questions 39 and 40

Choose TWO letters, A–E.

Write the correct letters in boxes 39 and 49 on your answer sheet.

What are the TWO main purposes of this passage?

A to discuss the reasons why space archaeology is not possible B to examine the dangers that could follow from contaminating objects from space C to illustrate the need to set up careful controls over space tourism D to emphasise the need to preserve historic sites and objects in space E to explain the possible cultural effects of space travel

of 13 This is the end of the exam.