Comprehension Banker

Read the text carefully, then answer the questions. Paragraph numbers are shown in brackets.Text: Night at the fish harbour(1) Most of the city is asleep when the fish harbour wakes up. By two in the morning, the first trawlers are nosing their way past the breakwater, their decks lit by a single bulb and their crews hoarse from a week of shouting over the engines. Within an hour, the concrete quay has become a crowded marketplace where nobody seems to stand still.(2) The catch is unloaded in plastic crates and carried on heads and shoulders to the auction floor. Here the middlemen, known locally as bolidars, call out prices so quickly that a newcomer hears only noise. Buyers signal with a raised finger or a nod; a whole crate of pomfret can change hands in less than ten seconds. Speed matters because fish lose value every minute they sit in the warm air.(3) Ice is the harbour's real currency. Large blocks arrive on lorries from factories on the edge of the city and are crushed in roaring machines before being shovelled over the fish. A boat owner who cannot afford enough ice on the way out to sea may have to sell his whole catch cheaply on his return, because no buyer trusts fish that has been kept warm for days.(4) The harbour also supports hundreds of people who never go near a boat. Women sit in long rows peeling prawns for export, paid by the kilogram. Boys mend torn nets with plastic shuttles, and tea sellers move between the crowds with kettles balanced on charcoal stoves. For many families, the few hours before dawn bring in the only income of the day.(5) By nine o'clock it is over. The auction floor is hosed down, gulls quarrel over the scraps and the crews sleep in the shade of their boats. The trawlers will be refuelled, re-iced and sent out again before the week is out.

1. (a) Using paragraph 2, explain why buyers and sellers at the auction work so quickly. [3]
2. (b) Using paragraph 3, explain why ice is described as the harbour's "real currency". [3]

Read the text carefully, then answer the questions. Paragraph numbers are shown in brackets.Text: Forests that grow in the sea(1) Along the coast near Karachi, where the River Indus finally meets the Arabian Sea, there are forests that spend half of each day partly underwater. These are mangroves: tough, low trees that can survive in salty mud where almost no other tree could live.(2) Mangroves have developed clever ways of coping with their difficult home. Some species push up roots like small pencils through the mud so that they can take in air when the tide is out. Others get rid of excess salt through their leaves, which can taste salty if you touch them to your tongue.(3) For coastal villages, these forests are extremely valuable. The tangled roots form a nursery where young fish, crabs and shrimp can shelter from larger predators, so a healthy mangrove forest means better catches for fishermen further out at sea. The trees also act as a living wall: when storms push huge waves towards the land, mangroves slow the water down and reduce the damage to homes behind them.(4) In the past, large areas of mangrove disappeared. Less fresh water now reaches the sea because so much of the river is taken for farming upstream, and the trees were also cut for firewood and to feed camels. Some patches were cleared to make way for building.(5) Recently there has been better news. Local people, many of them from fishing families, have been employed to plant millions of young mangroves in the mudflats, working from small boats at low tide. Villagers who once saw the trees mainly as fuel now guard them, because they have noticed that the fish and crabs are returning. Experts warn, however, that planting alone is not enough: unless enough river water reaches the delta, the new forests may struggle to survive.

1. (a) Using paragraph 3, explain why mangrove forests are valuable to coastal villages. [3]
2. (b) Using paragraph 4, explain why large areas of mangrove disappeared in the past. [3]

Read the text carefully, then answer the questions. Paragraph numbers are shown in brackets.Text: Champions of remembering(1) In a quiet hall, competitors sit at long tables staring at shuffled packs of playing cards. They have five minutes to memorise the exact order of fifty-two cards, and the best of them will need far less. Welcome to a memory championship, where people who often describe their natural memory as "completely ordinary" perform feats that look almost magical.(2) The secret, the competitors insist, is technique rather than talent. Most use a method that is more than two thousand years old, often called the memory palace. They imagine a familiar building, such as their own home, and place vivid images at points along a route through it. To recall the information, they simply walk through the building in their minds and look at what they have left there.(3) The images work best when they are strange, funny or even disgusting. A plain list of words slips away quickly, but a picture of a camel wearing sunglasses sitting in your bath is hard to forget. Competitors spend months building a personal set of images for every card and every number from 00 to 99.(4) Training is demanding. Top memorisers practise for an hour or more each day, timing themselves and recording their mistakes. Many say the hardest part is not remembering but staying calm, because a moment of panic during a competition can wipe out an entire route.(5) Researchers who have studied these champions found that their brains are not unusually large or differently shaped. What changes is the way different parts of the brain work together after training. Teachers have taken an interest, too: some students now use memory palaces to learn vocabulary or historical dates. Critics point out, however, that memorising facts is not the same as understanding them, and that a card champion may still forget where he left his house keys.

1. (a) Using paragraph 2, explain how the memory palace method works. [3]
2. (b) Using paragraph 3, explain why competitors use strange or funny images. [3]

Read the text carefully, then answer the questions. Paragraph numbers are shown in brackets.Text: Bees on the balcony(1) Beekeeping was once seen as a country pursuit, practised by farmers with hives at the edge of their orchards. Today, some of the most productive hives can be found on the flat roofs of city hotels, offices and apartment buildings.(2) It may seem surprising that bees thrive in cities, but there are good reasons. Urban parks, gardens, street trees and window boxes contain a wide variety of flowers that bloom at different times of year. In many farming areas, by contrast, huge fields are planted with a single crop that flowers for only a few weeks, and the use of chemical sprays can harm insects.(3) Hotels and restaurants have been quick to see the appeal. Honey produced on their own roof gives them a story to tell customers, and guests can sometimes join guided visits to the hives. A jar labelled with the name of a district sells for far more than ordinary honey from a supermarket.(4) Not everyone is delighted. Neighbours sometimes worry about being stung, although honeybees away from their hive are generally not aggressive. A more serious concern is that too many hives in one area may leave too little food for the wild bees and other insects that also pollinate flowers. Some experts argue that planting more flowers would help nature more than adding more hives.(5) Beginners also discover that keeping bees requires real commitment. Hives must be checked regularly for disease and for signs that the colony is preparing to swarm, when thousands of bees leave together in search of a new home. A swarm settling on a busy street corner can cause alarm, and keepers need to be ready to collect it quickly. For those willing to learn, however, the reward is more than honey: many say that caring for bees has made them notice the seasons for the first time.

1. (a) Using paragraph 2, explain why bees can do well in cities. [3]
2. (b) Using paragraph 4, explain why some people are concerned about city beekeeping. [3]

Read the text carefully, then answer the questions. Paragraph numbers are shown in brackets.Text: Farms above the traffic(1) Look up in some of Asia's most crowded cities and you may see something unexpected: rows of lettuces, chillies and spinach growing on the roofs of car parks, shopping centres and apartment blocks. Rooftop farming, once a hobby for a few enthusiasts, has become a serious business.(2) The attraction is obvious once you think about distance. Most vegetables sold in big cities travel hundreds of kilometres by lorry before they reach a shop. During the journey they lose freshness, and some are thrown away before anyone buys them. A farm on the roof of a supermarket can deliver its produce by lift in a few minutes.(3) Roof gardens also change the buildings beneath them. A layer of soil and plants absorbs heat that would otherwise pass straight through the concrete, so the floors below stay cooler and need less air-conditioning. In heavy storms, the plants and soil hold back rainwater, which reduces the sudden rush into drains that causes flooding in the streets.(4) Not every roof is suitable, however. Wet soil is extremely heavy, and many older buildings were never designed to carry the weight. Engineers often have to check a structure before a single seed is planted. To reduce the load, some farms use no soil at all: the plants grow in shallow trays while water containing dissolved nutrients is pumped past their roots.(5) The farmers themselves are often young people with little background in agriculture. Many learned from online videos and from their own mistakes. One grower in a busy commercial district admits that her first crop of tomatoes was destroyed in a single afternoon by pigeons. "Nobody tells you that birds are the biggest problem on a roof," she says. She now covers every bed with fine netting and sells salad leaves to six restaurants within walking distance.

1. (a) Using paragraph 2, explain why rooftop farms can supply better vegetables than farms in the countryside. [3]
2. (b) Using paragraph 3, explain how a roof garden helps the building and the street below. [3]

Read the text carefully, then answer the questions. Paragraph numbers are shown in brackets.Text: Why teenagers cannot get up(1) Every school morning, in homes across the world, the same battle takes place. A parent calls, then calls again; the teenager groans, pulls the blanket higher and insists that five more minutes will make all the difference. It is easy to put this down to laziness, but sleep scientists now argue that biology is largely to blame.(2) During adolescence, the body's internal clock shifts. The hormone that makes us feel sleepy is released later in the evening than it was in childhood, so many teenagers simply do not feel tired until well after eleven o'clock. If they still have to wake at six for school, they lose several hours of the sleep their growing bodies need.(3) The effects of this shortfall go beyond yawning in class. Researchers have linked regular lack of sleep in young people with poorer memory, slower reactions and greater difficulty controlling emotions. Information learned during the day is sorted and stored while we sleep, which means that a student who stays up revising until two in the morning may remember less than one who goes to bed early.(4) Screens make matters worse. Phones and tablets give off bright light that tells the brain it is still daytime, and the messages and videos on them keep the mind alert. Many teenagers also feel that switching off means missing out on conversations with friends.(5) Some schools have experimented with starting the day later, and several report better attendance and fewer students falling asleep at their desks. Others cannot change their timetables because of bus routes or parents' working hours. For individual families, experts suggest simpler steps: a fixed bedtime, phones charged outside the bedroom, and weekend lie-ins of no more than an hour or two, so that the body clock is not thrown into confusion every Monday.

1. (a) Using paragraph 2, explain why many teenagers do not get enough sleep on school nights. [3]
2. (b) Using paragraph 3, explain why staying up late to revise may be counter-productive. [3]

Read the text carefully, then answer the questions. Paragraph numbers are shown in brackets.Text: Moving art galleries(1) On the highways of Pakistan, some of the country's most colourful art travels at sixty kilometres an hour. Lorries and buses are covered from bumper to roof in painted flowers, birds, mountain scenes, film stars and lines of poetry, and the decoration is often worth more to the owner than the paint on his house.(2) Decorating a lorry is a slow and expensive process. A newly bought vehicle may spend several weeks in a workshop where teams of craftsmen work on different parts: carpenters build the elaborate wooden crown above the cab, metalworkers cut shining steel sheets into patterns, and painters fill every panel with images. The owner usually chooses the main themes, but the artists add their own touches.(3) For drivers, the decoration is much more than show. Many spend weeks away from their families, sleeping in the cab on long journeys between the port and the north of the country. A beautifully painted lorry becomes a kind of home, and the verses and prayers painted on it are believed to bring protection on dangerous mountain roads. A well-decorated vehicle also attracts business, because it suggests that the owner is successful and takes care of his property.(4) In recent years the style has moved off the roads. Painters have been invited to decorate walls in foreign cities, and the same bright patterns now appear on kettles, chairs, phone covers and even fashion items sold to tourists.(5) Some older artists feel uneasy about this. They learned their skills as boys, sweeping workshop floors for years before they were allowed to hold a brush, and they worry that cheap printed copies will replace hand-painted work. Yet the fashion has also brought new respect, and a few young people, including women, are now training in a craft that was once passed only from father to son.

1. (a) Using paragraph 3, explain why decoration is important to lorry drivers. [3]
2. (b) Using paragraph 5, explain why some older artists "feel uneasy" about the new popularity of the style. [3]

Read the text carefully, then answer the questions. Paragraph numbers are shown in brackets.Text: Watching the ice(1) High in the mountains of northern Pakistan, thousands of glaciers feed the rivers on which millions of people depend. As temperatures rise, many of these glaciers are melting faster, and the water collects in lakes held back by loose walls of rock and ice. If one of these natural dams gives way, a wall of water, mud and boulders can rush down the valley within minutes.(2) Villages beneath such lakes cannot simply move away; their fields, orchards and houses have been there for generations. Instead, some communities have been trained to keep a close eye on the danger themselves. Volunteers take turns to check water levels and look for cracks or unusual sounds from the ice, reporting anything worrying by radio or mobile phone.(3) The volunteer system works because the volunteers know the land. An outside expert might visit a lake once a year, but a shepherd who grazes his animals nearby every summer notices small changes immediately: a stream that is suddenly muddy, or a rumble at night that was not there before. Local knowledge, combined with simple equipment, has given some valleys precious extra minutes of warning.(4) Warnings are useless unless people know what to do. Villages have marked safe routes to higher ground with painted stones, and schools hold practice drills so that children can lead elderly relatives uphill without panic. Some families keep a small bag packed with documents, medicines and dried food beside the door.(5) The volunteers are realistic about their limits. They cannot stop a glacier from melting, and a sudden collapse may still destroy bridges and crops. But in a valley where a flood once took everyone by surprise, an old farmer says the difference is clear. "Before, we were waiting for the mountain to decide," he says. "Now at least we are watching it together."

1. (a) Using paragraph 3, explain why local volunteers are better at spotting danger than outside experts. [3]
2. (b) Using paragraph 4, explain how villages make sure that warnings save lives. [3]

Read the text carefully, then answer the questions. Paragraph numbers are shown in brackets.Text: A winter without sunrise(1) For several weeks each year, the scientists who stay through the winter at research stations deep in Antarctica do not see the sun at all. The last aircraft leaves before the cold becomes too severe for flying, and from then on the small team is completely cut off until spring. If someone falls ill, the station doctor must manage alone.(2) People are chosen for these postings with great care. Technical skill is not enough: applicants are interviewed and tested to see how well they cope with boredom, close company and long periods of stress. A single person who loses their temper easily can make life miserable for everyone in a building where there is nowhere to escape.(3) Daily life follows a strict routine. Each member of the team has scientific duties, such as recording the weather or maintaining instruments that measure the atmosphere, but there are also shared chores, from cooking to clearing snow from doorways. Keeping busy, according to former winterers, is the best protection against low moods.(4) The darkness has surprising effects on the body. Without daylight to set it, the internal clock begins to drift, and many people find themselves sleeping badly or feeling tired at odd times. Stations use bright lamps and fixed meal times to keep everyone on a regular pattern. Some winterers also report that their memory and concentration seem to weaken during the darkest weeks.(5) Despite the hardships, many return for a second or third winter. They speak of the extraordinary silence outside, the green and purple curtains of the southern lights rippling across the sky, and the deep friendships formed with people they might never have met at home. The return of the first thin line of sunlight on the horizon is, they say, a moment nobody forgets.

1. (a) Using paragraph 2, explain why applicants are tested for more than technical skill. [3]
2. (b) Using paragraph 5, explain why many winterers return for a second or third winter despite the hardships. [3]

Read the text carefully, then answer the questions. Paragraph numbers are shown in brackets.Text: The café where nothing is thrown away(1) Once a month, a community hall in a small European town fills with broken things. People arrive carrying toasters that no longer toast, lamps that will not light, torn jackets and wobbly chairs. They are visiting a repair café, an event where volunteers fix household items for free while the owners drink tea and watch.(2) The idea began with a simple frustration. Its founder had noticed that people threw away objects with only small faults simply because repairing them seemed too difficult or too expensive. Shops would often say that buying a new item was cheaper than mending the old one. She wondered what would happen if skilled neighbours offered their time instead.(3) The answer surprised her. The first events were crowded, and within a few years similar cafés had opened in many other countries. Volunteers include retired engineers, tailors, bicycle mechanics and teenagers who are good with phones. Nobody is paid, but helpers say they enjoy solving puzzles and feeling useful.(4) Visitors are not allowed simply to hand over their item and leave. They are expected to sit beside the volunteer and help, so that they learn how the object works and might be able to fix it themselves next time. Organisers believe this changes attitudes: people who have seen inside a kettle are less likely to throw the next one away at the first problem.(5) Not every repair succeeds. Some modern devices are glued shut or need special tools, and spare parts can be hard to find. Supporters of the cafés argue that manufacturers should design products that can be opened and mended, and in some places laws are beginning to move in that direction. For now, the volunteers continue with screwdrivers and patience, and the rubbish bins by the door stay remarkably empty.

1. (a) Using paragraph 2, explain what problem the founder of repair cafés wanted to solve. [3]
2. (b) Using paragraph 4, explain why visitors must stay and help with the repair. [3]

Read the text carefully, then answer the questions. Paragraph numbers are shown in brackets.Text: Running across the sand(1) Each year a small group of runners gathers at the edge of a desert to begin a race that most people would consider madness. Over six or seven days they will cover around two hundred and fifty kilometres of sand dunes, dry riverbeds and stony plains, carrying on their backs everything they need except water and a tent.(2) The heat is only the most obvious difficulty. Daytime temperatures may climb above forty degrees, but nights can be bitterly cold, so runners must carry warm clothing that adds to the weight of their packs. Soft sand makes every step harder than on a road, and many competitors end each day with feet covered in painful blisters.(3) Organisers take safety very seriously. There are checkpoints every ten kilometres or so where runners collect a measured amount of water and have their condition assessed by medical staff. Anyone who appears confused or unable to drink is removed from the race, however strongly they protest. Every competitor must also carry a whistle, a mirror for signalling and a small amount of emergency food.(4) Preparation starts months earlier. Many runners train by running with a loaded backpack, and some sit in hot rooms or saunas to help their bodies cope with high temperatures. Equally important is learning to eat while exhausted: the body burns huge amounts of energy, yet hard effort and heat often destroy the appetite.(5) Why do people do it? Few are professional athletes; the field includes teachers, nurses and retired soldiers. Some are raising money for charity, but most talk about the experience itself: the silence of the desert at dawn, the friendships formed around campfires and the discovery that they are capable of far more than they believed. As one first-time finisher put it, "The desert does not care who you are. That is exactly why it is so honest."

1. (a) Using paragraph 2, explain why the desert race is physically so demanding. [3]
2. (b) Using paragraph 4, explain why eating is a particular challenge for desert runners and why it matters. [3]

Read the text carefully, then answer the questions. Paragraph numbers are shown in brackets.Text: The last keepers of the light(1) For centuries, lighthouses stood on dangerous coasts to guide ships away from rocks, and inside each one lived a keeper whose job was to keep the lamp burning through every night of the year. Today almost all lighthouses run automatically, and the keepers' way of life has nearly vanished.(2) The work was harder than it looked. Before electricity, keepers had to carry fuel up winding staircases, trim wicks, polish brass and clean the great glass lenses until they shone. In fog, they sounded warning signals for hours at a time. A keeper who fell asleep or let the light fail could lose his job, and ships could be lost.(3) Life could also be lonely. Some lighthouses stood on tiny islands or rocks far out at sea, where supply boats could not land for weeks during storms. Keepers worked in small teams and had to get along in cramped rooms. They filled the long hours with reading, model-making and careful record-keeping, noting the weather and every passing ship in their logbooks.(4) Automation arrived gradually during the twentieth century. Electric lamps that switched on by themselves, followed by remote monitoring, meant that a technician could visit occasionally instead of a family living on site. Satellite navigation has since given ships other ways of finding their position, although sailors still value a lighthouse as a reliable check when electronic systems fail.(5) Many former lighthouses have found new lives as museums, holiday homes or bird observatories. Some former keepers now lead tours, describing the storms they saw and the silence of nights when nothing moved but the beam turning across the water. Asked whether he misses the job, one retired keeper said that he does not miss the cold, but he does miss the feeling that someone out there in the dark was depending on him.

1. (a) Using paragraph 2, explain why the keepers' work was "harder than it looked". [3]
2. (b) Using paragraphs 4 and 5, explain why the keepers' traditional way of life has almost disappeared but lighthouses themselves have not. [3]

Read the text carefully, then answer the questions. Paragraph numbers are shown in brackets.Text: Night at the fish harbour(1) Most of the city is asleep when the fish harbour wakes up. By two in the morning, the first trawlers are nosing their way past the breakwater, their decks lit by a single bulb and their crews hoarse from a week of shouting over the engines. Within an hour, the concrete quay has become a crowded marketplace where nobody seems to stand still.(2) The catch is unloaded in plastic crates and carried on heads and shoulders to the auction floor. Here the middlemen, known locally as bolidars, call out prices so quickly that a newcomer hears only noise. Buyers signal with a raised finger or a nod; a whole crate of pomfret can change hands in less than ten seconds. Speed matters because fish lose value every minute they sit in the warm air.(3) Ice is the harbour's real currency. Large blocks arrive on lorries from factories on the edge of the city and are crushed in roaring machines before being shovelled over the fish. A boat owner who cannot afford enough ice on the way out to sea may have to sell his whole catch cheaply on his return, because no buyer trusts fish that has been kept warm for days.(4) The harbour also supports hundreds of people who never go near a boat. Women sit in long rows peeling prawns for export, paid by the kilogram. Boys mend torn nets with plastic shuttles, and tea sellers move between the crowds with kettles balanced on charcoal stoves. For many families, the few hours before dawn bring in the only income of the day.(5) By nine o'clock it is over. The auction floor is hosed down, gulls quarrel over the scraps and the crews sleep in the shade of their boats. The trawlers will be refuelled, re-iced and sent out again before the week is out.

1. (a) At what time do the first trawlers arrive (paragraph 1)? [1]
2. (b) Give two ways in which buyers signal that they want to buy fish (paragraph 2). [2]
3. (c) Identify two jobs at the harbour, other than fishing, mentioned in paragraph 4. [2]

Read the text carefully, then answer the questions. Paragraph numbers are shown in brackets.Text: Why teenagers cannot get up(1) Every school morning, in homes across the world, the same battle takes place. A parent calls, then calls again; the teenager groans, pulls the blanket higher and insists that five more minutes will make all the difference. It is easy to put this down to laziness, but sleep scientists now argue that biology is largely to blame.(2) During adolescence, the body's internal clock shifts. The hormone that makes us feel sleepy is released later in the evening than it was in childhood, so many teenagers simply do not feel tired until well after eleven o'clock. If they still have to wake at six for school, they lose several hours of the sleep their growing bodies need.(3) The effects of this shortfall go beyond yawning in class. Researchers have linked regular lack of sleep in young people with poorer memory, slower reactions and greater difficulty controlling emotions. Information learned during the day is sorted and stored while we sleep, which means that a student who stays up revising until two in the morning may remember less than one who goes to bed early.(4) Screens make matters worse. Phones and tablets give off bright light that tells the brain it is still daytime, and the messages and videos on them keep the mind alert. Many teenagers also feel that switching off means missing out on conversations with friends.(5) Some schools have experimented with starting the day later, and several report better attendance and fewer students falling asleep at their desks. Others cannot change their timetables because of bus routes or parents' working hours. For individual families, experts suggest simpler steps: a fixed bedtime, phones charged outside the bedroom, and weekend lie-ins of no more than an hour or two, so that the body clock is not thrown into confusion every Monday.

1. (a) According to paragraph 1, what do teenagers say will "make all the difference"? [1]
2. (b) Give two reasons why phones and tablets make sleep problems worse (paragraph 4). [2]
3. (c) Identify two simple steps that experts suggest for families (paragraph 5). [2]

Read the text carefully, then answer the questions. Paragraph numbers are shown in brackets.Text: The café where nothing is thrown away(1) Once a month, a community hall in a small European town fills with broken things. People arrive carrying toasters that no longer toast, lamps that will not light, torn jackets and wobbly chairs. They are visiting a repair café, an event where volunteers fix household items for free while the owners drink tea and watch.(2) The idea began with a simple frustration. Its founder had noticed that people threw away objects with only small faults simply because repairing them seemed too difficult or too expensive. Shops would often say that buying a new item was cheaper than mending the old one. She wondered what would happen if skilled neighbours offered their time instead.(3) The answer surprised her. The first events were crowded, and within a few years similar cafés had opened in many other countries. Volunteers include retired engineers, tailors, bicycle mechanics and teenagers who are good with phones. Nobody is paid, but helpers say they enjoy solving puzzles and feeling useful.(4) Visitors are not allowed simply to hand over their item and leave. They are expected to sit beside the volunteer and help, so that they learn how the object works and might be able to fix it themselves next time. Organisers believe this changes attitudes: people who have seen inside a kettle are less likely to throw the next one away at the first problem.(5) Not every repair succeeds. Some modern devices are glued shut or need special tools, and spare parts can be hard to find. Supporters of the cafés argue that manufacturers should design products that can be opened and mended, and in some places laws are beginning to move in that direction. For now, the volunteers continue with screwdrivers and patience, and the rubbish bins by the door stay remarkably empty.

1. (a) How often are repair cafés held in the town described in paragraph 1? [1]
2. (b) Give two kinds of volunteer mentioned in paragraph 3. [2]
3. (c) Identify two reasons why some repairs fail (paragraph 5). [2]

Read the text carefully, then answer the questions. Paragraph numbers are shown in brackets.Text: Pedalling through Lahore(1) At six on a Sunday morning, before the traffic has properly started, about forty women gather outside a park gate in Lahore with their bicycles. Some are students, some are office workers and one is a grandmother who learned to ride only last year. Together they set off on a twenty-kilometre ride through the waking city.(2) The group began three years ago when two friends, tired of being stuck in traffic in rickshaws, decided to cycle to work. They were stared at, they say, and occasionally shouted at. Rather than give up, they posted an invitation online for other women to join them on weekend rides, hoping that a larger group would feel safer and attract less unwanted attention.(3) The response was far bigger than expected. Within months the club had more than three hundred members, and volunteers began running free lessons for women who had never ridden before. Many had been told as girls that cycling was not suitable for them; now they wobble around an empty car park, holding on to a helper's shoulder, before taking their first proper ride.(4) Members describe a wide range of benefits. Several say they have become fitter and sleep better, while others value the independence of travelling without depending on a brother or a driver. A university student explains that cycling saves her almost a third of her monthly travel costs. Above all, many speak of confidence: the feeling of moving freely through streets they once only watched from car windows.(5) Challenges remain. Roads have few cycle lanes, and drivers are not used to sharing space with bicycles. The club now teaches road safety, insists that every rider wears a helmet and has asked the city authorities to create protected lanes on major routes. Their dream, the founders say, is that one day a woman on a bicycle in Lahore will not be news at all.

1. (a) How long is the Sunday ride (paragraph 1)? [1]
2. (b) Give two ways in which the founders were treated when they first cycled to work (paragraph 2). [2]
3. (c) Identify two benefits of cycling described by members in paragraph 4. [2]

Read the text carefully, then answer the questions. Paragraph numbers are shown in brackets.Text: Farms above the traffic(1) Look up in some of Asia's most crowded cities and you may see something unexpected: rows of lettuces, chillies and spinach growing on the roofs of car parks, shopping centres and apartment blocks. Rooftop farming, once a hobby for a few enthusiasts, has become a serious business.(2) The attraction is obvious once you think about distance. Most vegetables sold in big cities travel hundreds of kilometres by lorry before they reach a shop. During the journey they lose freshness, and some are thrown away before anyone buys them. A farm on the roof of a supermarket can deliver its produce by lift in a few minutes.(3) Roof gardens also change the buildings beneath them. A layer of soil and plants absorbs heat that would otherwise pass straight through the concrete, so the floors below stay cooler and need less air-conditioning. In heavy storms, the plants and soil hold back rainwater, which reduces the sudden rush into drains that causes flooding in the streets.(4) Not every roof is suitable, however. Wet soil is extremely heavy, and many older buildings were never designed to carry the weight. Engineers often have to check a structure before a single seed is planted. To reduce the load, some farms use no soil at all: the plants grow in shallow trays while water containing dissolved nutrients is pumped past their roots.(5) The farmers themselves are often young people with little background in agriculture. Many learned from online videos and from their own mistakes. One grower in a busy commercial district admits that her first crop of tomatoes was destroyed in a single afternoon by pigeons. "Nobody tells you that birds are the biggest problem on a roof," she says. She now covers every bed with fine netting and sells salad leaves to six restaurants within walking distance.

1. (a) Name two buildings, mentioned in paragraph 1, on which rooftop farms can be found. [2]
2. (b) What may engineers have to do before planting begins (paragraph 4)? [1]
3. (c) Give two ways in which the grower in paragraph 5 learned to farm. [2]

Read the text carefully, then answer the questions. Paragraph numbers are shown in brackets.Text: Moving art galleries(1) On the highways of Pakistan, some of the country's most colourful art travels at sixty kilometres an hour. Lorries and buses are covered from bumper to roof in painted flowers, birds, mountain scenes, film stars and lines of poetry, and the decoration is often worth more to the owner than the paint on his house.(2) Decorating a lorry is a slow and expensive process. A newly bought vehicle may spend several weeks in a workshop where teams of craftsmen work on different parts: carpenters build the elaborate wooden crown above the cab, metalworkers cut shining steel sheets into patterns, and painters fill every panel with images. The owner usually chooses the main themes, but the artists add their own touches.(3) For drivers, the decoration is much more than show. Many spend weeks away from their families, sleeping in the cab on long journeys between the port and the north of the country. A beautifully painted lorry becomes a kind of home, and the verses and prayers painted on it are believed to bring protection on dangerous mountain roads. A well-decorated vehicle also attracts business, because it suggests that the owner is successful and takes care of his property.(4) In recent years the style has moved off the roads. Painters have been invited to decorate walls in foreign cities, and the same bright patterns now appear on kettles, chairs, phone covers and even fashion items sold to tourists.(5) Some older artists feel uneasy about this. They learned their skills as boys, sweeping workshop floors for years before they were allowed to hold a brush, and they worry that cheap printed copies will replace hand-painted work. Yet the fashion has also brought new respect, and a few young people, including women, are now training in a craft that was once passed only from father to son.

1. (a) Identify three kinds of image painted on lorries (paragraph 1). [2]
2. (b) Which craftsmen build the wooden crown above the cab (paragraph 2)? [1]
3. (c) Give two objects, other than vehicles and walls, that now carry the same patterns (paragraph 4). [2]

Read the text carefully, then answer the questions. Paragraph numbers are shown in brackets.Text: Forests that grow in the sea(1) Along the coast near Karachi, where the River Indus finally meets the Arabian Sea, there are forests that spend half of each day partly underwater. These are mangroves: tough, low trees that can survive in salty mud where almost no other tree could live.(2) Mangroves have developed clever ways of coping with their difficult home. Some species push up roots like small pencils through the mud so that they can take in air when the tide is out. Others get rid of excess salt through their leaves, which can taste salty if you touch them to your tongue.(3) For coastal villages, these forests are extremely valuable. The tangled roots form a nursery where young fish, crabs and shrimp can shelter from larger predators, so a healthy mangrove forest means better catches for fishermen further out at sea. The trees also act as a living wall: when storms push huge waves towards the land, mangroves slow the water down and reduce the damage to homes behind them.(4) In the past, large areas of mangrove disappeared. Less fresh water now reaches the sea because so much of the river is taken for farming upstream, and the trees were also cut for firewood and to feed camels. Some patches were cleared to make way for building.(5) Recently there has been better news. Local people, many of them from fishing families, have been employed to plant millions of young mangroves in the mudflats, working from small boats at low tide. Villagers who once saw the trees mainly as fuel now guard them, because they have noticed that the fish and crabs are returning. Experts warn, however, that planting alone is not enough: unless enough river water reaches the delta, the new forests may struggle to survive.

1. (a) Where do the mangrove forests described in paragraph 1 grow? [1]
2. (b) Give two ways in which mangroves cope with their salty, muddy home (paragraph 2). [2]
3. (c) Identify two details about how the new mangroves are being planted (paragraph 5). [2]

Read the text carefully, then answer the questions. Paragraph numbers are shown in brackets.Text: Libraries in a box(1) On a street corner in a quiet neighbourhood, a wooden box about the size of a microwave oven stands on a post. It has a glass door and a small roof, and inside it are about thirty books. A hand-painted sign reads simply: "Take a book, leave a book."(2) Small book-sharing boxes like this have spread to many countries in recent years. Anyone can build one, and most are made by families, schools or shopkeepers who want to encourage reading. There is no library card, no due date and no fine; the whole system depends on trust between neighbours.(3) Supporters say the boxes do more than pass books around. In areas without a public library nearby, they give children access to stories they might otherwise never see. They also bring people together: neighbours who have lived on the same road for years without speaking start conversations while browsing the shelves, and some boxes include a notebook where readers recommend titles to one another.(4) Running a box is not always easy. Rain can soak the books if the door does not close properly, and some boxes are emptied by people who take every book to sell. Others fill up with unwanted material such as old telephone directories or out-of-date textbooks. Most keepers check their box every few days, removing anything unsuitable and adding a few fresh titles of their own.(5) Critics argue that a box on a post is no replacement for a properly funded public library, with trained staff, computers and quiet places to study. Most box owners agree. They see their little libraries not as a solution but as a small, friendly reminder that books belong to everyone, and that a street can share more than a postman.

1. (a) What does the sign on the box say (paragraph 1)? [1]
2. (b) Give two features of ordinary libraries that the book boxes do not have (paragraph 2). [2]
3. (c) Identify two kinds of unwanted material that sometimes fill the boxes (paragraph 4). [2]

Read the text carefully, then answer the questions. Paragraph numbers are shown in brackets.Text: A winter without sunrise(1) For several weeks each year, the scientists who stay through the winter at research stations deep in Antarctica do not see the sun at all. The last aircraft leaves before the cold becomes too severe for flying, and from then on the small team is completely cut off until spring. If someone falls ill, the station doctor must manage alone.(2) People are chosen for these postings with great care. Technical skill is not enough: applicants are interviewed and tested to see how well they cope with boredom, close company and long periods of stress. A single person who loses their temper easily can make life miserable for everyone in a building where there is nowhere to escape.(3) Daily life follows a strict routine. Each member of the team has scientific duties, such as recording the weather or maintaining instruments that measure the atmosphere, but there are also shared chores, from cooking to clearing snow from doorways. Keeping busy, according to former winterers, is the best protection against low moods.(4) The darkness has surprising effects on the body. Without daylight to set it, the internal clock begins to drift, and many people find themselves sleeping badly or feeling tired at odd times. Stations use bright lamps and fixed meal times to keep everyone on a regular pattern. Some winterers also report that their memory and concentration seem to weaken during the darkest weeks.(5) Despite the hardships, many return for a second or third winter. They speak of the extraordinary silence outside, the green and purple curtains of the southern lights rippling across the sky, and the deep friendships formed with people they might never have met at home. The return of the first thin line of sunlight on the horizon is, they say, a moment nobody forgets.

1. (a) What happens before the winter cold becomes too severe (paragraph 1)? [1]
2. (b) Give two examples of scientific duties carried out at the station (paragraph 3). [2]
3. (c) Identify two methods stations use to keep people on a regular pattern (paragraph 4). [2]

Read the text carefully, then answer the questions. Paragraph numbers are shown in brackets.Text: Learning to swim at forty(1) In a public pool on a weekday evening, a group of adults stand nervously in the shallow end, gripping the side as if it might float away. None of them can swim. Their teacher, a former competitive swimmer, begins by asking them to do nothing more than put their faces in the water and blow bubbles.(2) Adults who cannot swim are more common than many people realise. Some grew up far from pools or the sea; others had a frightening experience as children and avoided water ever after. Many feel embarrassed, and admit that they have made excuses for years to avoid beach holidays or swimming parties.(3) Teaching adults is very different from teaching children, the instructor explains. Children are often fearless and copy movements easily, whereas adults think too much. They want to understand exactly why they float or sink, and their fear makes their muscles tense, which actually makes floating harder. Much of the first few lessons is spent on breathing and relaxation rather than on strokes.(4) Progress can be slow but deeply rewarding. One learner, a bank manager of forty-three, describes the evening she first swam a whole width without help as "better than any promotion". Another took lessons so that he could join his children in the sea; he says the hardest moment was not the water but walking out of the changing room in front of strangers.(5) Swimming organisations argue that learning is important for safety as well as fitness, because people who cannot swim are at greater risk near rivers, canals and flood water. They encourage pools to offer adults-only sessions at quiet times, so that beginners do not feel watched. The instructor puts it more simply: "It is never too late to stop being afraid."

1. (a) What is the first thing the teacher asks the learners to do (paragraph 1)? [1]
2. (b) Give two reasons why some adults never learned to swim (paragraph 2). [2]
3. (c) Identify two differences between child and adult learners given in paragraph 3. [2]

Read the text carefully, then answer the questions. Paragraph numbers are shown in brackets.Text: Watching the ice(1) High in the mountains of northern Pakistan, thousands of glaciers feed the rivers on which millions of people depend. As temperatures rise, many of these glaciers are melting faster, and the water collects in lakes held back by loose walls of rock and ice. If one of these natural dams gives way, a wall of water, mud and boulders can rush down the valley within minutes.(2) Villages beneath such lakes cannot simply move away; their fields, orchards and houses have been there for generations. Instead, some communities have been trained to keep a close eye on the danger themselves. Volunteers take turns to check water levels and look for cracks or unusual sounds from the ice, reporting anything worrying by radio or mobile phone.(3) The volunteer system works because the volunteers know the land. An outside expert might visit a lake once a year, but a shepherd who grazes his animals nearby every summer notices small changes immediately: a stream that is suddenly muddy, or a rumble at night that was not there before. Local knowledge, combined with simple equipment, has given some valleys precious extra minutes of warning.(4) Warnings are useless unless people know what to do. Villages have marked safe routes to higher ground with painted stones, and schools hold practice drills so that children can lead elderly relatives uphill without panic. Some families keep a small bag packed with documents, medicines and dried food beside the door.(5) The volunteers are realistic about their limits. They cannot stop a glacier from melting, and a sudden collapse may still destroy bridges and crops. But in a valley where a flood once took everyone by surprise, an old farmer says the difference is clear. "Before, we were waiting for the mountain to decide," he says. "Now at least we are watching it together."

1. (a) Using your own words, explain what the text means by: "loose walls" (paragraph 1). [2]
2. (b) Using your own words, explain what the text means by: "precious extra minutes" (paragraph 3). [2]

Read the text carefully, then answer the questions. Paragraph numbers are shown in brackets.Text: The last keepers of the light(1) For centuries, lighthouses stood on dangerous coasts to guide ships away from rocks, and inside each one lived a keeper whose job was to keep the lamp burning through every night of the year. Today almost all lighthouses run automatically, and the keepers' way of life has nearly vanished.(2) The work was harder than it looked. Before electricity, keepers had to carry fuel up winding staircases, trim wicks, polish brass and clean the great glass lenses until they shone. In fog, they sounded warning signals for hours at a time. A keeper who fell asleep or let the light fail could lose his job, and ships could be lost.(3) Life could also be lonely. Some lighthouses stood on tiny islands or rocks far out at sea, where supply boats could not land for weeks during storms. Keepers worked in small teams and had to get along in cramped rooms. They filled the long hours with reading, model-making and careful record-keeping, noting the weather and every passing ship in their logbooks.(4) Automation arrived gradually during the twentieth century. Electric lamps that switched on by themselves, followed by remote monitoring, meant that a technician could visit occasionally instead of a family living on site. Satellite navigation has since given ships other ways of finding their position, although sailors still value a lighthouse as a reliable check when electronic systems fail.(5) Many former lighthouses have found new lives as museums, holiday homes or bird observatories. Some former keepers now lead tours, describing the storms they saw and the silence of nights when nothing moved but the beam turning across the water. Asked whether he misses the job, one retired keeper said that he does not miss the cold, but he does miss the feeling that someone out there in the dark was depending on him.

1. (a) Using your own words, explain what the text means by: "nearly vanished" (paragraph 1). [2]
2. (b) Using your own words, explain what the text means by: "cramped rooms" (paragraph 3). [2]

Read the text carefully, then answer the questions. Paragraph numbers are shown in brackets.Text: Champions of remembering(1) In a quiet hall, competitors sit at long tables staring at shuffled packs of playing cards. They have five minutes to memorise the exact order of fifty-two cards, and the best of them will need far less. Welcome to a memory championship, where people who often describe their natural memory as "completely ordinary" perform feats that look almost magical.(2) The secret, the competitors insist, is technique rather than talent. Most use a method that is more than two thousand years old, often called the memory palace. They imagine a familiar building, such as their own home, and place vivid images at points along a route through it. To recall the information, they simply walk through the building in their minds and look at what they have left there.(3) The images work best when they are strange, funny or even disgusting. A plain list of words slips away quickly, but a picture of a camel wearing sunglasses sitting in your bath is hard to forget. Competitors spend months building a personal set of images for every card and every number from 00 to 99.(4) Training is demanding. Top memorisers practise for an hour or more each day, timing themselves and recording their mistakes. Many say the hardest part is not remembering but staying calm, because a moment of panic during a competition can wipe out an entire route.(5) Researchers who have studied these champions found that their brains are not unusually large or differently shaped. What changes is the way different parts of the brain work together after training. Teachers have taken an interest, too: some students now use memory palaces to learn vocabulary or historical dates. Critics point out, however, that memorising facts is not the same as understanding them, and that a card champion may still forget where he left his house keys.

1. (a) Using your own words, explain what the text means by: "completely ordinary" (paragraph 1). [2]
2. (b) Using your own words, explain what the text means by: "wipe out" (paragraph 4). [2]

Read the text carefully, then answer the questions. Paragraph numbers are shown in brackets.Text: Running across the sand(1) Each year a small group of runners gathers at the edge of a desert to begin a race that most people would consider madness. Over six or seven days they will cover around two hundred and fifty kilometres of sand dunes, dry riverbeds and stony plains, carrying on their backs everything they need except water and a tent.(2) The heat is only the most obvious difficulty. Daytime temperatures may climb above forty degrees, but nights can be bitterly cold, so runners must carry warm clothing that adds to the weight of their packs. Soft sand makes every step harder than on a road, and many competitors end each day with feet covered in painful blisters.(3) Organisers take safety very seriously. There are checkpoints every ten kilometres or so where runners collect a measured amount of water and have their condition assessed by medical staff. Anyone who appears confused or unable to drink is removed from the race, however strongly they protest. Every competitor must also carry a whistle, a mirror for signalling and a small amount of emergency food.(4) Preparation starts months earlier. Many runners train by running with a loaded backpack, and some sit in hot rooms or saunas to help their bodies cope with high temperatures. Equally important is learning to eat while exhausted: the body burns huge amounts of energy, yet hard effort and heat often destroy the appetite.(5) Why do people do it? Few are professional athletes; the field includes teachers, nurses and retired soldiers. Some are raising money for charity, but most talk about the experience itself: the silence of the desert at dawn, the friendships formed around campfires and the discovery that they are capable of far more than they believed. As one first-time finisher put it, "The desert does not care who you are. That is exactly why it is so honest."

1. (a) Using your own words, explain what the text means by: "bitterly cold" (paragraph 2). [2]
2. (b) Using your own words, explain what the text means by: "however strongly they protest" (paragraph 3). [2]

Read the text carefully, then answer the questions. Paragraph numbers are shown in brackets.Text: Pedalling through Lahore(1) At six on a Sunday morning, before the traffic has properly started, about forty women gather outside a park gate in Lahore with their bicycles. Some are students, some are office workers and one is a grandmother who learned to ride only last year. Together they set off on a twenty-kilometre ride through the waking city.(2) The group began three years ago when two friends, tired of being stuck in traffic in rickshaws, decided to cycle to work. They were stared at, they say, and occasionally shouted at. Rather than give up, they posted an invitation online for other women to join them on weekend rides, hoping that a larger group would feel safer and attract less unwanted attention.(3) The response was far bigger than expected. Within months the club had more than three hundred members, and volunteers began running free lessons for women who had never ridden before. Many had been told as girls that cycling was not suitable for them; now they wobble around an empty car park, holding on to a helper's shoulder, before taking their first proper ride.(4) Members describe a wide range of benefits. Several say they have become fitter and sleep better, while others value the independence of travelling without depending on a brother or a driver. A university student explains that cycling saves her almost a third of her monthly travel costs. Above all, many speak of confidence: the feeling of moving freely through streets they once only watched from car windows.(5) Challenges remain. Roads have few cycle lanes, and drivers are not used to sharing space with bicycles. The club now teaches road safety, insists that every rider wears a helmet and has asked the city authorities to create protected lanes on major routes. Their dream, the founders say, is that one day a woman on a bicycle in Lahore will not be news at all.

1. (a) Using your own words, explain what the text means by: "unwanted attention" (paragraph 2). [2]
2. (b) Using your own words, explain what the text means by: "moving freely" (paragraph 4). [2]

Read the text carefully, then answer the questions. Paragraph numbers are shown in brackets.Text: Learning to swim at forty(1) In a public pool on a weekday evening, a group of adults stand nervously in the shallow end, gripping the side as if it might float away. None of them can swim. Their teacher, a former competitive swimmer, begins by asking them to do nothing more than put their faces in the water and blow bubbles.(2) Adults who cannot swim are more common than many people realise. Some grew up far from pools or the sea; others had a frightening experience as children and avoided water ever after. Many feel embarrassed, and admit that they have made excuses for years to avoid beach holidays or swimming parties.(3) Teaching adults is very different from teaching children, the instructor explains. Children are often fearless and copy movements easily, whereas adults think too much. They want to understand exactly why they float or sink, and their fear makes their muscles tense, which actually makes floating harder. Much of the first few lessons is spent on breathing and relaxation rather than on strokes.(4) Progress can be slow but deeply rewarding. One learner, a bank manager of forty-three, describes the evening she first swam a whole width without help as "better than any promotion". Another took lessons so that he could join his children in the sea; he says the hardest moment was not the water but walking out of the changing room in front of strangers.(5) Swimming organisations argue that learning is important for safety as well as fitness, because people who cannot swim are at greater risk near rivers, canals and flood water. They encourage pools to offer adults-only sessions at quiet times, so that beginners do not feel watched. The instructor puts it more simply: "It is never too late to stop being afraid."

1. (a) Using your own words, explain what the text means by: "deeply rewarding" (paragraph 4). [2]
2. (b) Using your own words, explain what the text means by: "greater risk" (paragraph 5). [2]

Read the text carefully, then answer the questions. Paragraph numbers are shown in brackets.Text: Bees on the balcony(1) Beekeeping was once seen as a country pursuit, practised by farmers with hives at the edge of their orchards. Today, some of the most productive hives can be found on the flat roofs of city hotels, offices and apartment buildings.(2) It may seem surprising that bees thrive in cities, but there are good reasons. Urban parks, gardens, street trees and window boxes contain a wide variety of flowers that bloom at different times of year. In many farming areas, by contrast, huge fields are planted with a single crop that flowers for only a few weeks, and the use of chemical sprays can harm insects.(3) Hotels and restaurants have been quick to see the appeal. Honey produced on their own roof gives them a story to tell customers, and guests can sometimes join guided visits to the hives. A jar labelled with the name of a district sells for far more than ordinary honey from a supermarket.(4) Not everyone is delighted. Neighbours sometimes worry about being stung, although honeybees away from their hive are generally not aggressive. A more serious concern is that too many hives in one area may leave too little food for the wild bees and other insects that also pollinate flowers. Some experts argue that planting more flowers would help nature more than adding more hives.(5) Beginners also discover that keeping bees requires real commitment. Hives must be checked regularly for disease and for signs that the colony is preparing to swarm, when thousands of bees leave together in search of a new home. A swarm settling on a busy street corner can cause alarm, and keepers need to be ready to collect it quickly. For those willing to learn, however, the reward is more than honey: many say that caring for bees has made them notice the seasons for the first time.

1. (a) Using your own words, explain what the text means by: "quick to see the appeal" (paragraph 3). [2]
2. (b) Using your own words, explain what the text means by: "real commitment" (paragraph 5). [2]

Read the text carefully, then answer the questions. Paragraph numbers are shown in brackets.Text: Libraries in a box(1) On a street corner in a quiet neighbourhood, a wooden box about the size of a microwave oven stands on a post. It has a glass door and a small roof, and inside it are about thirty books. A hand-painted sign reads simply: "Take a book, leave a book."(2) Small book-sharing boxes like this have spread to many countries in recent years. Anyone can build one, and most are made by families, schools or shopkeepers who want to encourage reading. There is no library card, no due date and no fine; the whole system depends on trust between neighbours.(3) Supporters say the boxes do more than pass books around. In areas without a public library nearby, they give children access to stories they might otherwise never see. They also bring people together: neighbours who have lived on the same road for years without speaking start conversations while browsing the shelves, and some boxes include a notebook where readers recommend titles to one another.(4) Running a box is not always easy. Rain can soak the books if the door does not close properly, and some boxes are emptied by people who take every book to sell. Others fill up with unwanted material such as old telephone directories or out-of-date textbooks. Most keepers check their box every few days, removing anything unsuitable and adding a few fresh titles of their own.(5) Critics argue that a box on a post is no replacement for a properly funded public library, with trained staff, computers and quiet places to study. Most box owners agree. They see their little libraries not as a solution but as a small, friendly reminder that books belong to everyone, and that a street can share more than a postman.

1. (a) Using your own words, explain what the text means by: "depends on trust" (paragraph 2). [2]
2. (b) Using your own words, explain what the text means by: "properly funded" (paragraph 5). [2]