Reading passage 1

A. AMERICAS mortgage lenders are again at the centre of a scandal. This time the cause is not the recklessness of their lending, but the sloppiness with which they are dealing with the resulting defaults. Recent revelations suggest that many lenders rode roughshod over legal niceties to push delinquent borrowers out of their homes. Although banks claim the irregularities are minor, Foreclosuregate risks becoming a quagmire. Prosecutors across the country have launched investigations. Many politicians (though to his credit not Barack Obama) have called for a moratorium on repossessions. B. None of this will help Americas moribund housing market. Tying the process of repossession in yet more knots will make it harder for the market to clear and for house prices to find a floor. Ideally, politicians ought to speed up foreclosure, which in some states can take up to two years. Moving somebody out of his home quickly may sound heartless; but stretching the process out is a bad idea. Would you bother to look after a property you were due to be expelled from? C. Unfortunately, few politicians are likely to champion faster repossessions. And even if they were to, the scale of Americas mortgage mess would still be daunting. Around 2.5m homes are in the process of repossession, and 11m (or nearly 25% of all homes with mortgages) are underwater: borrowers owe more on their mortgage than their houses are worth. Since it is hard for such people to move home, this not only causes misery, but also clogs up Americas labour market. D. Both lenders and the overall economy would be better off if more delinquent mortgages were restructured rather than foreclosed. The Obama administration, like George Bushs team before it, has tried schemes to encourage lenders to keep people in their homes by reducing their monthly mortgage payments. But these have not worked well, mainly because reducing payments does little to prevent default when houses are worth a lot less than the outstanding debt. E. A better route would be to reduce the mortgage principal, giving borrowers a bigger incentive to pay their debt. Even though they know this would probably mean they would one day get more money back, banks dislike this. If you let one person off paying what he owes, then surely his neighbour will want the same? Also, many homes have several claims or liens on them, which complicate any debt reduction. And lenders fear lawsuits from mortgage bondholders if they start writing down loan values. These are reasonable worries. How might government encourage a better outcome? F. One extreme is to bribe banks into action with big subsidies: but that would require a lot more public money which voters are not inclined to provide. The other is to force the banks hand, for instance, by changing

the bankruptcy code to allow judges to restructure mortgages in the same way as other loans. It might indeed make sense to change the law for future mortgages, but rewriting loan terms retrospectively tramples on existing contracts and property rights, and should not be done lightly. G. So the best bet is a series of more moderate options to nudge lenders in the right direction. Regulators should force banks to write down the value of second liens, which are often held at vastly inflated values on their balance-sheets. Existing subsidies for preventing foreclosure should be redirected towards reducing principal. Congress could shield banks from lawsuits that arise from a mortgage reduction, and offer favourable tax treatment to shared appreciation mortgages, where lenders share in the gains if houses subsequently rise in value. Even these changes would be politically difficult. But, paradoxically, Foreclosuregate may actually help. By shining a spotlight on the scale of the mortgage mess, it also opens an opportunity for a fresh start. Source: The New York Times Questions You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1 to 14 which are based on Reading Passage 1 Questions 1 to 7 Reading Passage 1 has seven paragraphs A G. From the list of headings below, choose the most suitable heading for each paragraph. Write the appropriate numbers I ix in boxes 1 7 on your answer sheet.

i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. vii. viii. ix.

Americas moribund housing market. A bigger incentive. Mortgage lenders scandal. Americas mortgage mess. The strategy and its effect. More delinquent mortgages. The difference in enthusiasm. 1 Paragraph Obamas effort. 2 Paragraph 3 Paragraph One extreme. 4 Paragraph 5 Paragraph 6 Paragraph

A B C D E F

Paragraph G

Questions 8 10 Choose the correct letters, A, B, C or D Write your answers in boxes 8 10 on your answer sheet. 8 Few politicians are likely to champion faster A. B. C. D. 9 A. B. C. D. 10 Disposal. Repossessions. Settlement. Sanction. A better route would be to reduce the Mortgage principal. Principal. Whole amount. Incentive. Both lenders and the overall economy would be better off if more delinquent mortgages Were Were Were Were restructured. foreclosed. not restructured. not foreclosed.

A. B. C. D.

Questions 11 14 Complete each of the following statements (questions 11 14) with the best endings A G from the box below Write the appropriate letters A G in boxes 11 14 on your answer sheet. 11 Many homes have several claims or 12 Shining a spotlight on the scale of the mortgage mess, it also opens 13 Around 2.5m homes are in 14 One extreme is to bribe banks into action

A An opportunity for a fresh start. B With big subsidies. C The process of repossession. D Liens on them. E Is not going to win the game for them. F Will help in the repossessions.

Reading passage 2 A. HUMANS are a gregarious lot. We appreciate company. And we appreciate our company appreciating us. One way to preserve this mutual appreciation is to emulate others. This gives rise to trends or, in a less charitable turn of phrase, herd mentality. We appear to be wired to find all manner of fads psychologically irresistible. Advertisers have long understood this. So have retailersin increasingly tech-savvy ways. Some have been developing smart trolleys, which relay information on their contents to digital displays on shelves. These, in turn, would inform passing shoppers how many other customers are about to plump for the same item. And no self-respecting online venture would be complete without a constantly updated "most recommended" box (just look at this screen, to the right of this blog post). B. It's likely that such ruses work because it made evolutionary sense to copy neighbours, to avoid danger or find food and shelter. Sometimes, this atavistic tendency ends in tears, when it prompts us to act contrary to what is, on reflection, our self-interest. (Witness stock-market crashes, stampedes and tamagotchi.) What made sense to a relatively homogeneous gaggle of several dozen nomads needn't hold for millions of strangers. C. As modern Homo sapiens migrates to the online savannah, trends have been spreading to ever greater numbers. So the wise men and women of our now-massive tribe have been tracking web versions of these ancient behaviours. However, most of the research (both on- and offline) to date has focused on either a small subset of users or the most successful herddriven behaviours. Now Felix Reed-Tsochas of Oxford University's Sad Business School and Jukka-Pekka Onnela from Harvard University have broached the subject with an admirably broad brush. D. As the pair report in the latest Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they pored over (anonymous) data of the entire Facebook population in July and August 2007 (around 50m at the time), and at all but a few of the 2720 apps available for download in the same period (the 15 that didn't make the cut were partly corrupted). This amounted to a total of some 104m app installations. At that time, a Facebook user's apps were all visible to friends, who were also notified when any new app was downloaded (a practice Facebook has since abandoned). This, along with a display of the total number of installations of each app, were the only ways apps were plugged, permitting the researchers to control for the effects of external advertising. Any effects observed would thus be wholly attributable to social influence, not canny ad men.

E. Dr Reed-Tsochas and Dr Onnela duly discovered that the social networkers' herd mentality was intact, with popular apps doing best, and the trendiest reaching stratospheric levels. A typical app was installed around 1,000 times, but the highest-ranked notched up an astonishing 12m users. What did come as something of a surprise, though, was that our inner lemming only kicked in once the app had breached a clear threshold rate of about 55 installations a day. Any fewer than that and users seemed oblivious to their friends' preferences. Interestingly, after some serious number crunching, the researchers found that this cannot be put down purely to the network effect, ie, the idea that adopting a certain innovation only makes sense if enough other people have done so. Indeed, this effect appeared less pronounced than might have been expected. F. Moreover, the data suggest that the sudden spike in installations doesn't come about simply because a discovered threshold has been passed. This means the observed threshold rate is unlike an infectious disease's basic reproduction number. (This is what epidemiologists call the average number of secondary cases caused by a typical infected individual in a population lacking immunity, with no efforts to control the outbreak.) G. In other words, it would be inaccurate to speak of an epidemic of popularity. Rather, Dr Reed-Tsochas and Dr Onnela suggest that two discrete behavioural patterns emerged. Users appeared to treat any app with more than 55 daily installations differently to those with fewer downloads. Under 55 daily installations, friend behaviour was an instrumental part of the decision to install. Over 55 daily installations, and friend behaviour didn't matter one jot. Virtual lemmings are, it seems, discriminating in ways we still don't quite comprehend. As is, no doubt, the offline troop. Source: Wikipedia.com Questions You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 15 27 which are based on Reading Passage 2 Questions 15 19 Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2? In boxes 15 -19 in your answer sheet write TRUE if the statement agrees with the information FALSE if the statement contradicts the information NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this 15. 16. 17. The humans love to have social gatherings. Social networking is the new age addiction. A Facebook user's apps were all visible to friends.

18. There are many social networking sites to make friends around the globe. 19. One way to preserve this mutual appreciation is to emulate others.

Question 20 23 Look at the following persons (questions 20 23) and the list of statements below. Match each person to the correct statement. Write the correct letter A G in boxes 1 4 on your answer sheet. 20. Dr Reed-Tsochas 21. Dr Onnela 22. Facebook population 23. The researchers A Oxford University's Sad Business School. B Is apprehensive about the new concept. C Harvard University. D This cannot be put down purely to the network effect. E Works on only outer space research.

Questions 24 27 Complete the following statements with the correct alternative from the box. Write the correct letter A F in boxes 24 27 on your answer sheet. 24. A Facebook user's apps were 25. The sudden spike in installations doesn't come about simply because 26. It would be inaccurate to speak of 27. As modern Homo sapiens migrates to the online savannah,

A Preparing their own society. B All visible to friends. C Trends have been spreading to ever greater numbers. D A discovered threshold has been passed. E Bringing the friends back again.

Reading Passage 3 A. In an unruly, unpredictable and chaotic election year, no group has asserted its presence and demanded to be heard more forcefully than the tea party. The grass-roots movement that was spawned with a rant has gone on to upend the existing political order, reshaping the debate in Washington, defeating a number of prominent lawmakers and elevating a fresh cast of conservative stars. But a new Washington Post canvass of hundreds of local tea party groups reveals a different sort of organization, one that is not so much a movement as a disparate band of vaguely connected gatherings that do surprisingly little to engage in the political process. B. The results come from a months-long effort by The Post to contact every tea party group in the nation, an unprecedented attempt to understand the network of individuals and organizations at the heart of the nascent movement. Seventy percent of the grass-roots groups said they have not participated in any political campaigning this year. As a whole, they have no official candidate slates, have not rallied behind any particular national leader, have little money on hand, and remain ambivalent about their goals and the political process in general. C. "We're not wanting to be a third party," said Matt Ney, 55, the owner of a Pilates studio and a founder of the Pearland Tea Party Patriots in Pearland, Tex. "We're not wanting to endorse individual candidates ever. What we're trying to do is be activists by pushing a conservative idea." The group, with 25 active members, meets to discuss policies and listen to speakers, Ney said. "We provide opportunities for like-minded people to get together," he said. D. The local groups stand in contrast to - and, in their minds, apart from - a handful of large national groups that claim the tea party label. Most of those outfits, including FreedomWorks and Tea Party Express, are headed by longtime political players who have used their resources and know-how to help elect a number of candidates. The findings suggest that the breadth of the tea party may be inflated. The Atlanta-based Tea Party Patriots, for example, says it has a listing of more than 2,300 local groups, but The Post was unable to identify anywhere near that many, despite help from the organization and independent research. E. In all, The Post identified more than 1,400 possible groups and was able to verify and reach 647 of them. Each answered a lengthy questionnaire about their beliefs, members and goals. The Post tried calling the others as many as six times. It is unclear whether they are just hard to reach or don't exist. Mark Meckler, a founding member of the Tea Party Patriots, said: "When a group lists themselves on our Web site, that's a group. That group could be one person, it could be 10 people, it could come in and out of existence - we don't know. We have groups that I know are 15,000 people, and I have groups that I know are five people."

F. There is little agreement among the leaders of various groups about what issue the tea party should be most concerned about. In fact, few saw themselves as part of a coordinated effort. The most common responses were concerns about spending and limiting the size of government, but together those were named by less than half the groups. Social issues, such as same-sex marriage and abortion rights, did not register as concerns. G. If anything tied the groups together, it was what motivated their members to participate. Virtually all said that economic concerns were a factor, and nearly as many cited a general mistrust of government. Opposition to President Obama and Democratic policies was a big factor, but only slightly more so than dissatisfaction with mainstream Republican leaders. Eleven percent said that Obama's race, religion or ethnic background was either a "very important" or "somewhat important" factor in the support their group has received. While the tea party groups may lack a unifying direction or vision at the moment, the results show that they are ripe for action. A remarkable 86 percent of local leaders said most of their members are new to political activity, suggesting that they could be turned into a potent grass-roots force heading into the 2012 elections. Of course, their general lack of interest in politics also suggests that they could just as easily recede, particularly if the economy improves. Source: The Washington Post Questions You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 28 40 which are based on Reading Passage 3. Questions 28 32 The passage has seven paragraphs labelled AG. Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter A-G in boxes 28-32 on your answer sheet. NB: You may use any letter more than once. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. The grass-roots movement that was spawned with a rant has gone on to upend the existing political order. The Post tried calling the others as many as sixty times. The Atlanta-based Tea Party Patriots has a listing of more than 2,300 local groups. Economic concerns were a factor. Everyone is apprehensive about the election result.

Questions 33 36 Complete the sentences below with words taken from Reading Passage 3. Use NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 33-36 on your answer sheet.

33. 34. 35. 36.

The local groups stand in contrast to a handful of large . The Post identified more than 1,400 possible groups and was able to verify and reach . Opposition to President Obama and Democratic policies was . A remarkable 86 percent of local leaders said most of their members are new .

Questions 37 40 Complete the summary of the paragraphs A C below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet. A new Washington Post canvass of hundreds of local tea party groups reveals a 37 .. The results come from a months-long effort by The Post to contact every 38 .. As a whole, they have no official candidate slates, have not rallied behind 39 .. The Tea Party provide opportunities for like-minded people 40 ..