Stanag 3 Reading

STANAG 3- Reading Task 1 (General)
Read the article ‘AZTECS!’ and then choose A, B or C which best answers each of the
questions that follow.
An example (0) has been done for you.
AZTECS!
The finely sculpted granite figure of a man York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the
with a bird's beak in place of a jaw greets British Museum and museums in Paris,
you at the entrance to Aztecs!, a massive Vienna, Berlin and St Petersburg.
new exhibition at the Royal Academy,
London. He is a gentle doorman to the The monumental pieces on show do not
mysterious, magical, beautiful and brutal reveal the subtleties of the Aztec world-
world of this Mesoamerican culture. This view. The recumbent chacmool figures
is a world where the craftsmanship of fine (made by the Maya), which inspired some
gold body ornaments rivals the skills of of Henry Moore's sculpture, are brutal,
anything in ancient Egypt, and where clay monolithic pieces of granite on whose
can as easily be turned into graceful bellies a human heart would have been
funerary urns or fantastical, fearsome offered to the gods. The figurative skill of
animals from the underworld. the Aztec craftsmen is far more clear in
their exquisite masks: highly polished
Until their overthrow by the Spanish faces of stone, alabaster, wood and
conquistadors, the Aztecs were the stucco inlaid with red shells, ivory, or
dominant culture in central Mexico. The glistening black obsidian eyes. A patently
demise of their last emperor, Montezuma, intoxicated youth stares out at you, eyes
and the subsequent destruction of his turned crimson by the powerful cactus
great capital Tenochtitlan opened the way liquor known as maguey. Small details like
for the Spanish conquest of much of the the depiction of age in a male figure, brow
Americas. Montezuma (more properly furrowed, muscles wasted and teeth
Motecuhzuma Xocoyotzin) ruled from protruding, are evidence that the
1502-1520 and many of the treasures on craftsmen had reached the apogee of
display at the Royal Academy's new representational skill. There is a giant flea
exhibition come from this period. Not all in stone showing its mouthparts, and a
are purely Aztec, since they absorbed and massive grasshopper, 15in long and a foot
adapted the treasures and myths of other high, carved from lobster-pink carnelian. A
peoples from the region. coiled serpent as big as an armchair lends
Anyone who has visited the ancient sites movement, power and menace to granite.
of modern-day Mexico will be aware of the If anything, this exhibition is slightly coy
grandeur and massive scale of the Aztec about the violence inherent in Aztec
monuments. Stark square temples and culture. These people were conquerors,
enormous open squares laid out with with highly ritualised methods of fighting
geometrical precision according to the and an elaborate view of the afterlife.
astrological portents make an indelible Their gods are the stuff of nightmares:
impression on the mind. But all too often Tlaloc, the god of rain, with his goggle
the details of the Aztecs' physical culture eyes and a nose formed from two
are missing, spirited away by the world's intertwined serpents; Mictlantecuhtli, ruler
museums. Now, after seven years in the of the underworld, with his rib-cage
planning, the Royal Academy has exposed to show his liver and heart
assembled the world's largest ever display dangling like some grotesque bell.
of artefacts and treasures under one roof, Hannibal Lecter has nothing to teach
drawing from the collections in Mexico these people. Tlazolteotl, the goddess of
City's Museum of Anthropology, New
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childbirth, is carved from green stone, her human skin. Here and there are sacrificial
head thrown back in pain, teeth bared; knives, thick blades hewn from white flint
from between her legs emerges the child, and green obsidian and handles delicately
protruding like a missile. These objects inlaid with turquoise and mother of pearl.
are on show, but their power to shock and
terrify is somehow muted in the minimalist The Royal Academy hopes that this
glow of the Victorian galleries. exhibition will rival the Tutankhamen show
of the 1970s or the Africa exhibition of
When the gruesome reality of what human 1995. Aztec culture has elements in
sacrifice entailed is revealed, these finely common with the most alluring facets of
crafted objects have the power to repulse. both these antecedents: the splendour of
The charm of a pair of clay pipes carved in fine metalwork, elemental sculptural
the shape of macaws jars against a design and the power to evoke the terror
neighbouring cabinet where a fired clay within a cosmic view which gloried in
bowl shows its tight fitting lid, designed to death.
contain the stench of its contents: flayed
Questions
(0) This text is about ...
A Egyptian art
B Mayan culture
C an exhibition
The correct answer is C
1 The first thing you see at AZTECS! is a ...
a statue
b bird’s beak
c gentle doorman
2 The writer thinks that the Aztec ornaments are ...
a as good as any produced by the Egyptians

b superior in quality to Egyptian ones
c not as good as those the Egyptians made
3 According to the text, Tenochtitlan was destroyed...
a during Montezuma’s lifetime

b after Montezuma’s death
c prior to the conquistadors arrival
4 The treasures on show at the Royal Academy are ..
a entirely Aztec
b from various civilisations
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c purely body ornaments
5 Many artefacts from the Aztec civilization ...
a are hidden in museum vaults

b are on view in Mexico’s squares
c feature stars and temple chalices
6 The current Aztec exhibition is the biggest ever assembled ...
a outside Mexico City

b by the Royal Academy
c in the world
7 The writer appreciates the ______ Aztec craftsmen brought to their figurative pieces.
a artistry
b inspiration
c brutality
8 The writer finds the Aztec gods ...
a elaborate
b coy
c scary
9 The fact that sacrificial daggers are so beautifully crafted makes the writer feel ...
a sick
b awed
c gruesome
10 The writer believes that the ...
a Aztec civilisation had much in common with that of the Egyptian and African
b exhibition will be more popular with the public than the Tutankhamen show
c no one will ever discover the reason such powerful civilisations disappeared
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STANAG 3 - Reading Task 2 (General)
Read the article ‘Bollywood’ and then choose one of the answers (A, B or C) which best
answers each of the questions that follow.

BOLLYWOOD
Drive across Bombay (forget the Mumbai rebranding - strictly for the civil servants) and you'll
likely spot a shoot in progress, as the Gothic facade of St Xavier's college is once more pressed
into service as courtroom steps, or the futurist tower blocks of Hiranandani Gardens host another
dance sequence. If you're lucky (and well-off), you might even spot a star in a downtown hotel or
bar up at Juhu Beach, where the décor and designer labels can fool you into thinking you're
supping your overpriced cocktail in Barcelona or Tokyo, rather than a mile or two from some of
the planet's largest and most squalid shantytowns.
Bombay is a city of extremes, where poverty and wealth nestle neck to neck, an urban sprawl
that runs on an intoxicating mixture of dirt and diamonds, hard toil and romantic reverie,
gangland extortion and religious devotion. The same combustible confection, in short, that runs
through its movies, with their masala of drippy love affairs, rococo dance routines, violent action
and wholesome family values. Indian film - or to be precise, Hindi music cinema, Bollywood if
you will - is not so much a style of movie making as a parallel cinematic cosmos with its own
supernovae and its own laws of time and space. These insist, for example, that movies be of
torturous length. Stars must make as many movies as possible and work on several
simultaneously, with all dialogue post-synced in the edit suite rather than recorded live.
Equally important is the law of dynasty, which means that most of India's leading players are
from a handful of families. The Kapoors, for instance, have spent three generations in the filmi
firmament, moving from actor and director Raj through his son Rishi (who, typically, was
launched through one of his father's films), to the current sibling pin-ups Karisma and Kareena
(now spelt Karreina on the advice of her numerologist).
Other laws of Bollywood mean that violence is acceptable but kissing isn't. Sex is taboo, but
suggestive hip rolls and pelvic thrusts in dance routines are fine. Abrupt changes of location
during songs are de rigeur - Scotland, Switzerland and now New Zealand are favourite
backdrops. At the recent neo-Oscar Filmfare Awards, Ursula Andress showed up to present a
gong sponsored by the Swiss government for services rendered to the country's alpine scenery.
Then there is the law that means producers and stars routinely face extortion from the
underworld. Forget waking up, Godfather -style, to find you're sharing your bed with a horse's
head. Two years ago producer Rakesh Roshan, the father of Hrithik, narrowly avoided death
when he was gunned down outside his Bombay office.
Law number one is the simplest and, says Ashutosh Gowariker, the young director of Lagaan, is
taught to all Indians in their infancy. 'Our mothers lean over us in the cot,' he tells me with a
chuckle, 'and whisper in our ears, "All movies shall have songs and dances."'
Scripts, however, are not considered that important by the directors, who have a tradition of, well,
making it up as they go along. At a cocktail party I meet Dimple Kapadia, a noted beauty who
became an overnight teenage star with 1973's Bobby, and who has since racked up 40-odd
films. Our hosts are her friends, Bombay's reigning costumiers Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla,
who number Judi Dench among their Western clients. Radiant amid a froth of gilded sari, Dimple
informs me, she has seen only a couple of pre-shoot scripts, one of them for her part as a
seductive older woman in last year's Dil Chahta Hai. 'If you ask for a script you're told it's "being
cooked". Usually, I've been handed my lines for a scene during make-up. Then, if you forget your
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lines, they say you're a bad actress. Obviously, because you don't know what's going to happen
to your character, you can't properly develop the part.'
It's common to shuttle between several sets in a day - shoots revolve around a star's availability,
rather than the other way round. The system is helped by movies being made not on location but
at one of the sprawling studio lots on the outskirts of town. Here, armies of set-builders construct
palaces in a matter of days in an echo of Hollywood's golden age back in the silent era and the
30s.
Inevitably, Bombay's teeming output will also go down; that the world's most populous nation
currently ranks 50th in Hollywood's export markets tells its own story. Will Hollywood eat
Bollywood, in the same way that it consumed the European film industry?
India's film-makers, at least, think not. They talk of Indian cinema 'coming of age', but also of
India's millennia-old resilience to outside influence. There will always be songs, dances, devotion
and idle filmi mag chatter. As a taxi whisks me to the airport, the gods of Bollywood are still
beaming down from the hoardings.
Questions
A new-style Indian cuisine
B the Indian film industry
C Indian culture in the UK
The correct answer is B
1 According to the writer, Bombay’s name change was a ...
a political, but cosmetic one

b civil servant’s choice
c successful rebranding
2 For the well-off, in Bombay, it’s possible to live ...
a it up in flash hotels and bars
b life to the extremes of poverty
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c a life of religious devotion
3 The writer finds Bollywood dance scenes
a glitzy and complicated
b wholesome
c a waste of time
4 The ‘laws ‘of Bollywood insist on actors ...
a making several films at the same time
b singing their own songs
c participating in editing decisions
5 From what the writer says, it would appear that Karreina ...
a stars in all her father’s films
b is extremely superstitious
c trained as a numerologist
6 The writer feels that many of Bollywood’s laws are ...
a too strict
b made to be broken
c contradictory
7 Bollywood stars often find themselves ...
a preyed upon by criminals
b in actual street shootings
c working for the underworld
8 In Bollywood, scripts are ...
a adhered to rigidly
b anything but sacrosanct
c published when films are released
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9 The ____________ dictate the order in which the film is shot.
a producers
b directors
c actors
10 Indian film-makers think it ___________ that Hollywood will conquer Bollywood.
a likely
b unlikely
c inevitable

Read the article ‘Designer Water’ and then choose one of the answers (A, B or C) which
best answers each of the questions that follow.

Designer Water
Some people think that a really good bottled water should taste of nothing. Others think it should
taste of something - but not much. Just as purity is the absence of sin, a good water is often
defined by its absence of taste - by the fact that there's nothing wrong with it. But is there
something wrong with us? In 2003, bottled water is, by far, the fastest-growing drink on the
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market. It's 1,000 times as expensive as tap water. Every day, we spend nearly £2 million on
something that, many of us hope, will taste of nothing.
My quest to understand why we are such heavy drinkers of bottled water begins in Pétrus, an
upscale restaurant in central London. At this point I am a moderate, or even light, drinker of
bottled water. I prefer coffee, or tea, or fruit juice - beverages we are beginning to drink less of as
our water intake grows. I've come to Pétrus to taste some waters with Alan Holmes, the head
sommelier. Holmes is trying to get me to appreciate the glory of water.
We are tasting all kinds of water - among others glacial water from Canada, carbonated water
from France and Italy, rainwater from Fiji, and water which emanates from a spring just outside
Harrogate, in Yorkshire. The market has gone global. All over the world, would-be water barons
have twigged that they can sell more bottled water than ever before in history. This is a market
that has been growing by 10 per cent a year for five years.
Alan Holmes particularly likes the dense flavours of red wines from Bordeaux, but when he talks
about water, he focuses on purity. We taste Ice Age, a water derived from glaciers in British
Columbia. 'Being frozen, it gives me the idea it's purified, more free of bacteria,' says Holmes. 'It
tastes very pure, almost like a dream tap water.
Holmes holds up his glass of Fiji water. 'Less is done to these waters,' he says, 'because they
come from cleaner places.' He takes another sip. 'Hmm,' he says, 'it just seems to catch at the
back of the throat at the finish.' Meanwhile, I'm looking at the waterfall on the bottle. This, I
realise, is good marketing. I love the waterfall. I take another sip. It still tastes of nothing.
In London, I go to see Daphne Barrett, who is in charge of the PR operation for the Nestlé group
of waters, which include Buxton, Perrier, and Vittel. The Perrier company was started by an
English aristocrat, St. John Harmsworth, who had a terrible car accident near Nîmes. During his
hospitalisation, he was given sparkling water from the nearby spring at Vergèze, and exercised
his arms using Indian clubs as weights. His doctor's name was Perrier. Later, he put the
company together - he bottled the water in bottles the shape of Indian clubs, and named the
brand after his doctor.
Barrett tells me that mineral water didn't really take off in this country until the yuppie boom of the
1980s. Hard-working yuppies often didn't want to drink. But neither did they want to go into a bar
and ask for tap water. They were more comfortable with spending money.
The big change in the market came in 1990, when tiny traces of benzene were found in Perrier
water; the company recalled all of its bottles, handing a terrific opportunity to its competitors.
That's when the market began its phase of exponential growth.
But, just why is bottled water so popular? Perhaps it's a change in fashion.You very rarely see an
18-year-old girl in town without a bottle of water.
So why do we drink bottled water? We drink it because of what's not in it. We drink it because it
contains no impurities - and we are getting increasingly anxious about impurities. We drink it to
atone for our sins. We drink it, in a sense, to ward off evil. According to market research
conducted by Mintel, this trend shows no sign of abating. We'll be drinking twice as much in five
years' time. At the end of my visit, I knock on Daphne Barrett's door. She's in a meeting. She
pops out of the boardroom, all smiles. 'I've got the bank manager here,' says Barrett. 'And he's
quite happy, which is good.'
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Questions
A coffee growing
B bottled water
C exotic holiday destinations

1 According to the text, a good water should …
a have a distinct taste

b be tasteless
c have only a slight taste
2 The writer visits an expensive London restaurant to find out …
a which kind of bottled water is the most popular

b why we are drinking so much bottled water
c which bottled water is the most expensive
3 The writer uses the expression ‘water barons’ to be …
a ironic
b sarcastic
c literary
4 Water derived from Canadian glaciers …
a tastes like tap water

b is free from bacteria
c has a pure taste
5 When drinking water from Fiji, the writer realises …
a the importance of good marketing

b that it has a very different taste
c it has come from a waterfall
6 Perrier’s name and distinctive bottle came about as a result of …
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a its success among the English in clubs in India
b a clever marketing campaign in French hospitals
c an Englishman’s gratitude to his doctor
7 Mineral water consumption rose in the 1980s because yuppies …
a were heavy after-work drinkers who hated tap water

b didn’t trust the purity of the tap water in public bars
c would rather pay for their water than ask for tap water
8 The huge growth in mineral water consumption in the 1990s …
a came about at Perrier’s expense

b was due to a Perrier advertising campaign
c forced Perrier to change its name
9 The writer says that we drink mineral water because …
a it’s sinful
b of its purity
c everyone else does
10 The bank manager is happy because …
a Barrett has increased company profits

b we’re drinking twice as much water as before
c sales of mineral water are likely to rise

Read the article ‘London’s Drug Wars’ and then choose one of the answers (A, B or C)
which best answers each of the questions that follow.
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London’s Drug Wars
The head of drugs strategy at the Metropolitan police warned yesterday that the capital was "on
the cusp" of turf wars between gangs from rival communities who are wrestling for control of the
heroin and cocaine trade.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Mike Fuller said there was "every reason to believe" that the big
crime families and syndicates were preparing to square up to each other.
The competition is mainly between groups of Albanians, Turks, Chinese Triads, and Jamaicans,
but London's home-grown crime families are also jostling for power.
At stake is the multi-million pound class A drugs market and control of illegal human trafficking,
gambling rackets and prostitution.
"There is not only the threat from the criminals currently being targeted by Operation Trident (set
up to tackle black gang shootings), we now face new threats from Albanian, Turkish and South
East Asian organised crime groups.
"We are up against highly organised and profitable multi-national businesses which prey on the
weak, destroying individuals and families."
Commander Bob Quick, responsible for policing high volume crime, said some of the recent
drug-related violence in London - such as the gunfight in Harringay 12 days ago that left one
man dead and 25 injured - had been caused by "infighting within ethnic groups".
But he added: "Once these power struggles are won or lost, there is the potential for more inter-
ethnic gang conflict. We are absolutely determined to stamp it out."
Launching a new drugs strategy yesterday, Mr Fuller said the Met hoped to refine its targeting of
Jamaican criminals by having officers from the island based here in the new year.
The Jamaican security minister is due in London today to consider signing a "memorandum of
understanding" that would allow two officers to be stationed at New Scotland Yard.
This should help the Met identify criminals who have fled Jamaica and have set up base here,
said Mr Fuller.
"At the moment, we don't know the faces as well as the Jamaican officers. Jamaica is a very
small island and a lot of the criminals are known to the police officers."
The move is part of the Met's broad strategy to tackle class A drug dealers and drug users over
the next three years.
Mr Fuller said research showed that 67% of people arrested in the capital tested positive for
either heroin or cocaine. He said the Met wanted to make more use of arrest referral schemes
and would be aggressively targeting middle tier drug dealers. But he underlined the huge
problems facing London with figures for the drugs seized between May and October this year.
Officers had recovered 37kg of cocaine, 63kg of heroin, 301kg of cannabis and 500 kg of skunk
with a total street value of £12m. Yet there had been "very little impact on availability", he said.
Concern over feuding drugs groups has led the Met to set up a specialist crime task force to
tackle them head on. The rise of Albanian criminals in the capital's underworld is a major worry.
Two years ago Albanian mafia took control of several Italian cities, including Milan, and their
power has been spreading across Europe.
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The Albanians are thought to be behind the huge rise in the number of kidnappings in London
last year and they are now established in boroughs such as Camden and Tower Hamlets.
Kidnap, extortion and people trafficking are their core businesses, but the drugs trade is an
obvious next step. They have been "learning the market and making contacts", according to the
NCIS.
Rivalry between gangs exploded in Haringey 12 days ago when 40 people armed with guns,
knives and baseball bats attacked each other in Green Lanes. One man died.
Less prominent than some underworld gangs are the Triads whose tentacles spread beyond
Chinatown in London, where they have established extortion, prostitution, drugs and gambling
rackets.
Last month a BBC documentary on corruption in the horse-racing world alleged there were signs
that Triad gangs had infiltrated the sport in the north of England.
Questions
A drug wars in Britain
B drug addicts in Britain
C alleged police brutality
The correct answer is A
1 According to the text, London is ...
a on the brink of a drugs war
b clamping down in immigrant gangs
c developing a new drugs strategy
2 Immigrant criminal gangs ...
a have ousted British groups
b are competing with Albanians, Turks and Chinese gangs
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c are fighting with British gangs
3 All the crime groups are ...
a being targeted by Operation Trident
b facing new threats from unknown rivals
c very well-organised
4 The recent violence was caused when ethnic groups ...
a fought amongst themselves
b lost a power struggle
c injured 25 drug addicts
5 The Met hopes that the Jamaican officers ...
a will be able to pick out Jamaican criminals
b will set up a base in the UK
c will sign a memorandum of understanding
6 The majority of those arrested for crimes in London were ...
a on hard drugs
b occasional drug users
c underworld figures
7 What is worrying the Met is the ...
a recovery of so many different hard drugs
b spread of drugs across Western Europe
c increasing influence of the Albanian Mafia
8 A particular ‘strength’ of Albanian criminal gangs is ...
a drug dealing
b people smuggling
c their underworld network
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9 The violence that erupted in London was caused by ...
a the Triads
b drugs and gambling rackets
c rival gangs
10 A BBC documentary disclosed that the Triads had ...
a taken to horse racing
b been secretly infiltrated
c moved out of London
Read the article ‘Mobile Phone Mania’ and then choose one of the answers (A, B or C)
Mobile Phone Mania
The curious thing about predicting trends in mobile phones is that, in an important sense, the
future is already here but we have not yet come to terms with it. This is not surprising. No other
consumer product in history has changed so rapidly or gained popularity as fast as the mobile
phone. Ten years ago when the phone was an expensive, luggable brick, flaunted by flamboyant
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car owners, no one predicted the explosive growth that took annual sales from £6m in 1991 to
£403m in 2000.
Mobiles, unlike any other device, have been gobbling up other products so fast that we haven't
been able to adjust our lifestyles to them. You can now buy mobiles that include a radio, an MP3
(digital music) player, a diary, a calendar, a camera, an embryonic video camera, a calculator, a
note pad, a word processor, a spreadsheet, a modem, a voice recorder, a web browser, an
emailer, a text messaging device, a games arcade, a thermometer, a contacts book and a
barcode reader, not to mention satellite tracking devices that can calculate where you are to
within a few metres. That amounts to 20 different products you could have bought separately but
which are now packaged together in one device. I am told it can also be used to speak to other
human beings. It will never catch on.
Where is it all going? The mobile is the first interactive device that people carry with them
everywhere. Your phone knows who you are and where you are. Technology, including
miniaturisation, is still progressing at an awesome pace. But the shape of the phone in future will
depend not on technology but on what consumers want.
Mobiles are getting better at linking with the internet after the disaster of the first generation Wap
(wireless application protocol) phones. Soon you will be able to access most web addresses or
web cameras in the world (you can already look at webcams on your phone to check out traffic
jams). You will be able to check your children's nursery through a secure web camera while you
are at work to see if they are all right, take in a live lecture at a remote university, answer the
door or switch off the lights at home from anywhere in the world - as long as the device has a
unique web address. You will, you will.
Remote diagnostics will become much easier - you could point the video camera on the phone
towards that nasty sore throat so your GP can comment without you having to leave your holiday
beach bar.
Phones with optical or barcode readers could enable newspapers and magazines to be
interactive as well (besides providing them with a new revenue stream). A newspaper could
become an extension of the web because a phone with an optical reader could access a website
merely by passing the phone over a web address (URL) while reading an article (for example, to
get a video clip of the goals mentioned in the piece or to see the inside of a house advertised).
As the screens on phones get bigger people might start reading books on them (press a single
button and the next paragraph will arrive) while waiting at the bus stop. You already can with
PDAs (personal digital assistants).
You can already control your phone (through Bluetooth short-distance wireless technology)
without taking it out of your pocket. As wireless technology improves, new things will be possible.
If you were being mugged you could activate your phone (by means of a simple command like
"Oh, no") to take continuous photos of your assailant which would be automatically emailed to a
website or to the police. Locational devices linking to satellites will enable you or your children to
be continuously monitored wherever you go, with all the advantages and disadvantages of that.
Within 10 years your phone may become your main way of paying bills - allowing you to ditch all
those credit cards. The technology is already there - it just needs to be made simple and secure
to use. One day, business will realise the colour screen on the mobile is the most coveted bit of
advertising real estate in the world.
The phone itself will also change - from being in your hand to being in your body. Thanks to short
distance wireless transmission the initial call could come to a small base station attached to a
belt listened to from a tiny device in your ear. You will never know whether the person walking
down the street is talking to himself or to someone in Los Angeles. The phone itself could
migrate to a ring on your finger or to your watch. Eventually it will be so small that it will fit
invisibly inside your ear, picking up what you are saying from the vibrations through your bones.
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It is probable that the biggest change will be something that isn't self-evident (as mobiles were
not 10 years ago) but, with the benefit of hindsight, was blindingly obvious all along. One
candidate is the controversial network of base stations dotted around the country. They may
shrink so much that they can be incorporated into the phone itself unleashing a new wave of
possibilities. The real revolution has not yet begun.
Questions
A phone boxes
B phone cards
C mobile phones
1 The success of the mobile phone ...
a has taken us by surprise
b is thanks to drivers
c is not surprising
2 The writer thinks that mobile phones have tended to ...
a adjust quickly to our lifestyles
b get much cheaper
c assimilate many other products
3 When the writer claims that the mobile will ‘never catch on’ he is being ...
a perceptive
b matter-of-fact
c ironic
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4 The mobile phone of the future will ...
a be up to consumers
b be ultra-small
c change its shape
5 The writer says ‘you will, you will’ because he thinks that readers may think his
predictions ...
a far-fetched
b realistic
c unique
6 The writer claims that the mobile phones of the future may ...
a help doctors diagnose illnesses
b replace visits to a GP
c become much simpler to use
7 The writer says that digitally reading a book on your mobile’s screen ...
a is already a reality
b will soon be possible
c is of little use to us
8 The writer says your phone could soon be used ...
a as a computer monitor projector
b to take family snapshots
c for personal protection
9 The full potential of the mobile ...
a has yet to be realised
b needs more advertising
c lies in credit card use
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10 According to the writer, we have yet to reach the limitations of ...
a mobile miniaturisation
b human communication
c invisible phones

Read the article ‘Thor Heyerdahl’ and then choose one of the answers (A, B or C) which
Thor Heyerdahl
As a boy he lay in bed and looked through the windows of the family's wooden cabin at the blue
sky and, far below, the still blue waters of the Norwegian fjord. He dreamt of distant seas and
distant peoples.
It is 66 years since Heyerdahl, then 22, and his 20-year-old first wife tried to escape from
civilisation by moving to the South Pacific island of Fatu-Hiva in the Marquesas.
Fatu-Hiva, so remote that the its inhabitants were unaware of the First World War until long after
it had finished, was, the couple hoped, a tropical paradise where they would be cut off from the
modern world and its technology and could return to nature.
To finance this utopian adventure, they gained the support of their wealthy parents, a rich wine
merchant and the University of Oslo, though their projects were remarkably fuzzy.
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Predictably, they found that the Marquesas were not a paradise, and their own existence there
was anything but utopian. The people were riddled with tuberculosis, venereal disease and
elephantiasis. Isolating themselves from the locals as far as possible, the Heyerdahls built a
bamboo cabin to live in, but soon became depressed with their dreary vegetarian diet and began
to sprout alarming boils and sores. To reach the nearest doctor, they had to cross the notoriously
stormy stretch between two islands in a patched-up lifeboat and nearly died in high seas.
When they returned to Fatu-Hiva after a month's absence, they found that the jungle had
destroyed their bamboo cabin so they moved to a cave by the sea.
Heyerdahl admitted that the project of returning to nature was a fiasco. 'There is nothing for
modern man to return to,' he gloomily commented. His one solid achievement was to interview
the last Marquesan cannibal, who told him that of all the portions of 'long pig' he had eaten the
tastiest was the forearm of a white woman.
Challenged by a contemptuous academic to prove that mankind could have populated the
Polynesian Islands from the east, rather than from Malaysia, Heyerdahl built a balsawood raft
and, with six Norwegian crewmen, sailed 4,300 miles across the Pacific from Peru. The trip
turned him into a star.
It coincided with the development of media technology that allowed the expedition to film
themselves. The book of the hazardous 101-day journey was a bestseller. Translated into 67
languages, it sold 20 million copies and the film, in a bleak post-war world starved of
entertainment, was a massive hit.
Fame made Heyerdahl a fortune and many enemies. Established anthropologists attacked his
theories and methodology. But critics have never bothered Heyerdahl. After the Kon-Tiki he
turned his attention to the Galapagos and the mystery of the stone statues on Easter Island,
where he used legends and oral tradition in an attempt to discover why a former civilisation on
the remote Pacific island came to a sudden end. The resulting book - Aku-Aku: The Secret of
Easter Island - was another bestseller, much to his detractors' chagrin.
In 1969 the Ra expeditions returned to the theme of sea-crossing, this time using reed boats
modelled on Ancient Egyptian patterns and launched from Morocco to sail to the Caribbean. 'We
tested the papyrus reeds in our bathtub,' Heyerdahl recalled at the Foyle's lunch held in his
honour two years ago.
Heyerdahl, who has had five children, spent his final years with Jacqueline in Tenerife,
developing theories about possible parallels between step pyramids in Peru, Mexico and
Tenerife itself. One idea was that a cataclysmic event - perhaps a great flood that occurred about
5,000 years ago - acted as a catalyst for the development of civilisations all over the globe.
Heyerdahl had been deeply affected by the rise of totalitarianism and violence in the Europe of
his youth. In 1974 Heyerdahl described his feelings on leaving Fatu-Hiva in 1938: 'We hated
going back to civilisation,' he wrote. 'But we had to do it. We were sure then, and I still am, that
the only place where it is possible to find nature is within yourself. There it is, unchanged, now as
always.
19
Questions
(0) This text is about Thor Heyerdahl’s ...
A children
B adventures
C marriage
1 For Thor Heyerdahl escaping from civilisation had always been ...
a a boyhood dream
b at the back of his mind
c a move to the South Pacific
2 The Fatu-Hiva adventure ...
a had been minutely planned
b was better than ever imagined
c was very well-funded
3 For the Heyerdahls, life in the Marquesas was ...
a as idyllic as they had thought
b not what they had expected
c more than they could have wanted
4 In the Marquesas the Heyerdahls ...
a integrated with the local inhabitants
20
b distanced themselves form the natives
c adopted a much healthier lifestyle
5 The Heyerdahls’ vegetarian diet ...
a caused them heath problems
b was a welcome change for them
c was mostly bamboo and sprouts
6 Heyerdahl felt his Fatu-Hiva adventure had been ...
a a success
b a mess
c his gloomiest
7 Heyerdahl’s raft adventure was the result of ...
a a TV offer
b media technology
c a challenge
8 The success of Heyerdahl’s book ‘Aku-Aku’ ___________ his detractors.
a delighted
b annoyed
c relieved
9 Heyerdahl theorised that the step pyramids of Mexico, Peru and Spain all resulted from ...
a a massive water-globe
b a sudden volcanic eruption
c a global disaster
10 For Heyerdahl, nature can be found only ...
a in Fatu-Hiva
b in humans
c in the fijords of Norway
21
Read the article ‘Mad about Madrid’ and then choose one of the answers (A, B or C) which

Mad about Madrid
It was 9am on a cold, October morning at Charmartin train station in Madrid. After travelling on
the overnight train from Paris, I was looking forward to picking up the hire car and heading south
towards the sun and sea for the children's half-term break.
Charmartin station is a charmless place and the Hertz car rental office is a tiny pre-fabricated
hut, tucked under a flyover on the edge of a busy main road. The office was packed and I
volunteered to stay outside with the luggage and children while my partner organised the car.
Not being at my best in the morning, I was half asleep when a well-dressed young man tapped
me on the shoulder and pointed at my eldest child. I saw a whitish liquid splashed over the back
of her jacket. From his gestures, I gathered I also had something on the back of my coat and,
bless him, he handed me a paper tissue to mop up the mess. I took off my coat - placing my
handbag on the floor beside me - and five seconds later realised the man had disappeared. So
had my bag. I was horrified.
The first day of the holiday and I had no money, credit cards, driver's licence or mobile phone.
When my partner realised what had happened he set off in hot pursuit, but returned empty-
handed. I suspect my handbag and its contents had already travelled a long way from the scene
of the crime.
The police later told us these sorts of crimes are carried out by organised gangs and it's best to
leave them well alone. Hertz staff informed me that, yes, indeed, this was a popular spot for
these crimes and I could report the theft at the police station, next to platform one. The police
could not have been more helpful and 10 minutes later I had completed the paperwork and
22
cancelled my cards. But, as we once again crossed in front of the car-rental office, another well-
dressed man had already taken up position just waiting for the next unsuspecting person to pass.
A complaint to Hertz, pointing out that staff in the office at Charmartin station are well-aware of
the dangers for customers at this particular office, elicited a lukewarm response. A
spokeswoman said the company was reviewing security around the office. This might include a
notice warning clients to be vigilant in the case of thieves operating in the area.
Questions
(0) This story takes place in ...
A Madrid
B Paris
C Budapest
1 The writer arrived in Spain ...
a in the evening
b at night
c in the morning
2 The writer’s children were ...
a on holiday from school
b already living in Spain
c waiting in the hire car
3 The writer was _________ Charmartin Station.
a charmed by
b glad to leave
c taken with
4 a The writer’s partner asked her to wait with the children
b The writer chose to wait outside with the children
23
c The writer’s partner was afraid their luggage might be stolen
5 When the writer met the young man she was ...
a beside herself
b under the weather
c not quite together
6 The young man was a ...
a station employee
b thief
c little drunk
7 The writer’s partner ...
a ran after the man
b called the police
c was visibly upset
8 The police advised the writer to ...
a put what had happened behind her
b fill in a long incident report form
c leave the station immediately
9 As she was about to leave the station, the writer realised that ...
a she had not cancelled all her credit cards
b another innocent victim was about to be targeted
c the man had returned to the station
10 The author was __________ the response she received from ‘Herz’.
a delighted by
b stoical about
c relieved by
24
Read the article ‘The New McDonald’s’ and then choose one of the answers (A, B or C)
The New McDonald’s
Drive towards Ramlüng along the perimeter fence of Zurich airport and the first thing you notice
is the bright yellow neon M burning through the grey mist. Chicago, Paris, Delhi, Streatham High
Road - the logo is instantly recognisable throughout the world. But as you get nearer, it becomes
apparent that the iconography is not all it seems. Along with several more giant Ms and a general
smearing of yellow and red, there are a number of truncated Ms that turn out to be rather more
tastefully sized Hs. Also in yellow.
The Golden Arch is the world's first McDonald's hotel. Profits have been flat in the fast-food
burger business, so brand diversification is hardly unexpected. What is surprising is the way it
came about. Zurich was not chosen as the result of a massive global focus group or boardroom
horse-trading, but on one man's whim. Urs Hammer, McDonald's 52-year-old multi-millionaire
chairman and CEO in Switzerland, is a hotelier and architect manqué, and the Golden Arch is his
brainchild. When he first suggested the idea three years ago to Jim Skinner, McDonald's
European supremo, he was told to "stick to hamburgers".
But he didn't. In two weeks' time, Hammer opens his second hotel in Lully, and has plans for a
third in Geneva. Meanwhile, the rest of the corporation holds its breath to see whether the
McHotel will bankroll the business for the next few decades or turn out be an expensive midlife
crisis.
25
The McDonald's yellows and reds dominate the lobby and bar area, and much of the furniture
has been designed to reflect the company logo. But where the burger bars are all plastic, the
hotel is maple and leather, with feng shui waterfalls and scattered rose petals. And that's not the
only difference. When I go to check in, the woman behind the counter asks, "Can I help?" in a
voice that sounds uncannily as if she means it.
Not that you need to check in, mind. Along with its determinedly modernist design, the hotel is
equipped with all the latest hi-tech gadgets, which allow you to check in and out with the swipe of
a credit card, and surf the net and pick up email from the TV. At least you can if you are able to
operate the controls. The same goes for the light switches, which work with a smart card. Or idiot
card, perhaps as it takes several minutes of scrabbling around in the dark to locate the holder.
Even the beds, which cost £3,500 apiece, are interactive. They are fashionably low-slung, and
can be moved around so that you can lie down with your feet or head in the air. Or both.
The sleeping area has a hardwood floor, while the washing area contains the nearest you get to
traditional McDonald's values with a not-unattractive green Styrofoam floor covering. Or rather, I
assumed it was Styrofoam, but was later politely informed that it was state-of-the-art anti-
bacterial non-slip tiling. By the way, the words sleeping and washing areas are used advisedly as
there are no separate rooms; the circular power shower - the hot water is generated by heat
given off from the restaurant chip pans - is discreetly boxed into one corner of the bedroom. Or
possibly it's the other way round.
To complete the image overhaul, there is no sign over the hot tap warning you that hot water
might come out of it and nor are the walls coated in migraine-inducing primary colours. It's all
surprisingly tasteful and unpretentious.
Inevitably, there is a downside, and at the Golden Arch it comes when you want to eat. Room
service is off the menu, so your options are the Aroma coffee shop and - you've guessed it - a
McDonald's.
As McDonald's go, the one at the Golden Arch is better than most. Although there's the airport
on one side, there are open fields on another where the cows keep an understandably nervous
eye on proceedings, but, whichever way you cut it, it's still a McDonald's. So why does a man
who has just spent more than £12m building this slick hotel go out of his way to remind his
punters at every turn of its downmarket associations?
"We argued at length about how closely the two operations should be combined," Hammer
admits. "Some felt we should have a more upmarket restaurant but I felt very strongly that we
should make use of the branding that wins us 45m customers a day worldwide."
Hammer goes on to say that bookings for the 211-room hotel are on target, and that 15% of
guests will be flying in specially from Asia to stay there. The hotel's main target market, though,
is business - hence the nine conference rooms in the basement; but whether business men and
women reckon that staying in a hotel whose primary symbol is an annoying oversized clown will
send the right messages to their clients, must be open to question.
Questions
26
A a new McDonald’s hotel
B Macdonald’s new outlets
C Feng shui and McDonald’s
1 For the writer, the logo was ...
a completely unfamiliar
b a welcome sign of home
c not all it seemed
2 The location of the hotel was the result of ...
a an in-depth marketing campaign
b many years of careful planning
c a purely personal decision
3 The McDonald’s corporation ...
a supports the hotel initiative
b has no idea hoe the hotel will do
c expects the hotels to generate huge profits
4 The writer’s initial experience of the hotel is ...
a just as he expected
b pleasantly surprising
c rather overwhelming
5 For the writer, the hotel’s hi-tech gadgetry ...
a is very welcome
b is hard to operate
c is impressive
6 Hot water in the guest rooms is generated by
a a McDonald’s Restaurant french fry oil
27
b a circular power shower
c anti-bacterial non-slip tiling
7 For the writer, the hotel’s main weakness is its ...
a lack of dedicated guest bathrooms
b quality of food
c coffee shop
8 The hotel is as it is because of decisions made by...
a the company’s chairman
b downmarket associations
c the local airport authority
9 The CEO expects the hotel to ...
a break even (eventually)
b make a loss in the first year
c meet targeted occupancy rates
10 The writer feels that potential business customers might be discouraged from staying
in a hotel whose ...
a main symbol is a big clown
b conference rooms are in the basement
c conference facilities are limited
28
Read the article ‘Why we need Opera’ and then choose one of the answers (A, B or C)
Why we need Opera

It's hardly surprising, then, that opera makes people cross. It is regarded as a lavish
entertainment for nobs, whisking public money away from the many to pander to the tastes of the
few. Some opera houses live up to the image, too, with their dickie-bowed waiters and expensive
champagne at the bar. When Covent Garden threatened to collapse in the late 1990s, it seemed
to confirm the suspicion that opera was run by a collection of dangerously disorganised
decadents. We feel opera is unnaturally expensive to mount, and unnaturally expensive to go to.
Are ticket prices really astronomical? Well, not always. As long as you can bear the possibility of
restricted views, or at worst standing, you can usually see opera for less than it would cost you to
go to the movies. You can go to the Royal Opera House for as little as £3, though top-price seats
will set you back £155.
But the simple fact remains: opera is inevitably an expensive art form. For a start, there are the
sheer numbers involved. There will always be, in addition to the singers, an orchestra -
numbering perhaps 80 players - and a conductor. And the most popular repertoire - Verdi and
Puccini, say - tends to be scored for big choruses.
And then there are artists' fees. Some of the glitziest and most expensive stars to grace the
British stage are booked by Elaine Padmore, head of opera at Covent Garden. "There are certain
artists we want a piece of," says Padmore. "If you know that you can get Roberto Alagna or
Angela Gheorghiu or Bryn Terfel or Colin Davis, you find out when you can have their time and
that goes into the diary, up to five years in advance.
One observer's educated guess is that the biggest stars, such as Pavarotti, Bartoli and Alagna,
command between £12,000 and £15,000 per performance. But however expensive singers may
be, they will not form the main cost of mounting an opera. Production costs - set, props and
costumes - will always be the chief expense. "We have capped the expenditure on a new
production at £300,000," says Padmore. "But you don't get a great deal in a house of this size for
much less than £180,000 or £200,000." At ENO the average cost of a new production is
£150,000.
29
But aren't there ways of reducing the costs of opera? Why do opera productions always have
such short runs - allowing little opportunity for return on that big original investment? ENO, for
instance, averages 10 performances of each show, though the touring companies will generally
do more.
For a start, there is a service element: the houses are repertory theatres, aiming to serve up a
coherent, varied diet of work. Second, the number of performances is based on predicted
demand. You simply run an opera for as long as you think you'll fill the house, says Payne. It's
worth bearing in mind that the big London companies have their homes in enormous theatres.
The London Coliseum, home of ENO, seats 2,358. It doesn't take a genius to work out how many
punters it can pack in over 10 performances. Meanwhile, the Olivier - the largest auditorium at
the National Theatre - seats less than half that number.
Even if you wanted to do 40 performances of an opera on the trot, you couldn't. Opera singers
can't sing every night: their voices need to be paced and conserved. It's an un-negotiable of the
art form.
There are two main ways for opera houses to offset the huge investments in new productions.
One is to share costs with other establishments. ENO's current War and Peace, for instance, is a
co-production with two transatlantic opera houses. This vast undertaking has cost £1,045,800 to
stage, including rehearsal and performance fees for singers, musicians and actors (£581,300),
plus the costs of the directors, sets, props and costumes. The other houses contributed
£315,000 to production costs. The projected gross box office takings for ENO are £690,900.
The second way is to mount revivals. Opera productions have a long life - some have been
popping up for 20 years or more. Since the sets, props and costumes are stored away in
warehouses, revivals are a comparative bargain. Last season's Queen of Spades at the Royal
Opera House, for example, had production costs of £300,000 and took £656,300 net at the box
office. (That it took less than its potential of £708,000 is put down to complimentary tickets for
artists and press.) When the production comes back this season, it will cost just £5,000, with
maximum box office takings of £838,000.
Not every production, of course, will end up being revived. Payne admits: "There are some
shows where you say before the last performance, 'Don't worry about taking the set to the
warehouse - take it straight to the incinerator.' "
Despite its small audience, despite our suspicion over its expense, opera is generally regarded
as something worth having as part of the culture of this country. And surely that's right. Opera is
not an atrophied, moribund art form; its audiences are growing, according to a recent report for
the Opera and Music Theatre Forum.
Why's that? Because at its best opera is inspiring, provoking, moving, even life-changing. All this
is because of its voluptuous complexity; because of its rich layers of music, drama and
spectacle.
Questions
A Opera
B Painting
C Christmas
30
1 When Covent Garden Opera House was about to collapse, it seemed that its
management ...
a received exorbitant salaries

b were in complete disarray
c had been under investigation
2 You can get cheap seats at the Royal opera House, but these ...
a are restricted in size

b are far from the best
c are only if you stand
3 What makes opera so expensive is that the most popular operas require huge ...
a casts and sets

b resources
c orchestras
4 Padmore says she will hire a top opera singer ...
a irrespective of the cost

b whenever she can
c if she has the right opera for them
5 The main expense in mounting an opera comes from ...
a huge fees paid to opera stars

b production costs
c large casts and the orchestra
6 Opera productions normally have short runs because ...
a singers need to conserve their voices

b the public wants a wide choice of repertoire
c there is no demand for long runs
7 For an opera house to offset huge production costs, it can ...
a apply for increased government funding

b share productions with other opera houses
c charge premium prices for seats
8 The production of the ‘Queen of Spades’ didn’t make as much as expected

because ...
a of the number of free tickets given out

b of the costs of hiring a star singer
c it used existing costumes and sets
9 The comment ‘Take (the set) to the incinerator’ implies ...
a the opera will be revived

b the opera was a flop
31
c the sets have to be stored
10 The popularity of opera as an art form is ...
a dwindling
b a complex one
c increasing
Read the article ‘A Bit about the Beckhams’ which was written before David Beckham
moved to Madrid. Choose one of the answers (A, B or C) which best answers each of the
questions that follow.
A Bit about the Beckhams
As footballing misdemeanours go, David Beckham's was nothing if not original. Endearing even.
Not for him missing training because of a poisonous hangover, a spell in the cells at Her
Majesty's pleasure or an overnight at the Priory. No, Beckham apparently missed a session at
Manchester United's swanky new Carrington training complex because he was attending to his
baby's nappy.
Who didn't sympathise when, reappearing on Saturday, he was castigated for his absence in
front of other team members and ultimately kept out of the line-up for Sunday's crunch match
against Leeds? This wasn't a petulant star throwing a tantrum. This was a father, being
responsible, loving his sick son.
What isn't in dispute is the broader irritation that Manchester United Manager, Sir Alex Ferguson
has for Beckham's lifestyle. Unfortunately for the footballer, his admirable attempts at behaving
like a new dad brought him foursquare into conflict with his manager, a man who can be
described by many adjectives, new not among them. Committed would be a more appropriate
description for the knight of the realm.
Over the past few months, Ferguson, a man who finds the increasing Hollywoodisation of football
as perplexing as it is distasteful, has become more and more worried about Beckham's
commitment. He believes that the boy's lifestyle is incompatible with the needs of a Manchester
United footballer.
32
To be fair to Beckham, there is no sign whatsoever that he is going off the rails in the traditional
footballing manner involving drink, women and industrial quantities of white powder. On the pitch
he looks fit and alert, his abilities apparently at their peak. To the outside eye he appears
dedicated. But Ferguson demands that his players, particularly at this crowded point of the
season, concentrate all their focus on football. When not training and playing, they should be
resting.
"Energy is so vital," is one of his favourite phrases. "It needs to be nurtured and preserved." It
should certainly not, he believes, be wasted on a daily 350-mile round trip between the Beckham
household in Hertfordshire and the Manchester training ground; or, indeed, attending such
fripperies as film premieres, fashion shows and photo opportunities. Ferguson is worried that he
is losing his protégé to an orbit he cannot and does not want to understand: the world of stellar
celebrity.
Recall if you can that heady week last December when Beckham was in Minshull Street crown
court, Manchester, defending himself on speeding charges. A week after receiving an eight-
month driving ban for pushing his silver Ferrari 26mph above the limit, Judge Barry Woodward
upheld Beckham's appeal and handed back his licence, citing "special circumstances". This
meant Beckham's fame - and the footballer used his time in the witness box to reveal how he
and Victoria had fended off a potential kidnapper who had tried to grab Brooklyn several days
earlier. Headlines such as "Anger as Beckham escapes speeding by blaming snappers" melted
into "How Posh stopped baby-snatcher." Beckham and Victoria were transformed from spoilt
celebrities into heroic parents.
In football, a strong wife has traditionally been regarded as the first indication of serial deviance.
Football wives should quietly provide a stable home life and nothing more. Well, apart from Cup
Final day when they should look decorative in the pre-match television feature filmed at the
hairdressers.
Victoria Beckham, however, is a new variant on the footballer's wife: a woman whose level of
celebrity is even more elevated than that of her husband. Moreover, she appears to have an
almost pathological need for publicity, she breathes the oxygen of headlines to reinforce her self -
esteem, to reassure herself that she still matters. And there is no better way for her to accrue
those headlines than with her husband by her side. Besides, they want to be together, they
clearly dote on one another.
Thus Beckham finds himself pulled between two forces which represent the old and the new
faces of football. On the one hand is the autocratic, old style football manager who gave him the
opportunity he most wanted in his life - to play for Manchester United, the club he loved from
boyhood - but who continues to demand that all peripheries should be sacrificed to the cause.
On the other is the wife he adores, who doesn't quite understand why everyone gets so worked
up about a silly game and believes since he is good enough to play for whoever he wishes, now
might be the time to pursue his profession somewhere drier, somewhere closer to the centre of
the world, frankly somewhere more convenient than Manchester - like Milan, say.
Oddly, in the end, the two forces might not be mutually exclusive: both might get their way. If, as
is widely rumoured, Beckham moves on this summer, Posh will have her husband where she
wants him and Ferguson will have re-established his authority. Plus he will have several tens of
millions in his transfer account to pick up a player less distracted by incidentals. And Beckham?
Well, at least he will get more time to spend with the family.
Questions
33
A Italian football
B football hooligans
C David Beckham
1 David Beckham missed football training because ...
a he had a hangover
b he had been arrested for speeding

c his son was sick
2 When he returned to training, Beckham was ...
a included in the team against Leeds

b castigated openly
c accused of throwing a tantrum
3 Sir Alex Ferguson is ..

a a traditionalist at heart
b happy with Beckham’s lifestyle
c similar to Beckham in many ways
4 Sir Alex Ferguson ...
a enjoys the Hollywood lifestyle of today’s football stars

b cannot understand the Hollywoodisation of football
c claims that Beckham worked hard to be where he is
5 What is worrying for Sir Alex Ferguson is that Beckham ...
a is not playing his best football
b has been rumoured to be taking cocaine
34
c isn’t behaving as he thinks he should
6 Ferguson is afraid he may lose Beckham to ...
a another club
b the celebrity circuit
c the film world
7 When Beckham was charged with speeding ...
a he hired the country’s best lawyers
b he chose to represent his wife

c the ban was instantly upheld
8 According to the text, what’s ‘wrong’ with Victoria Beckham as a football wife is ...
a she’s very famous

b she has too strong a character
c her disagreements with sir Alex Ferguson
9 The main problem seems to be that Beckham ...
a is caught between to worlds
b is under his wife’s thumb
c wants to leave Manchester United
10 In the battle of wills, the loser is most likely to be ...
a Victoria Beckham
b Sir Alex Ferguson
c neither of the above
35
Read the article ‘A Bitter Pill to Swallow’ and then choose one of the answers (A, B or C)
A Bitter Pill to Swallow
But how, mon dieu 1, will they survive? From next year the French, Europe's champion pill-
poppers and a nation of unrepentant hypochondriacs, will have to start doing without nearly a
quarter of the medicines they so adore.
Faced with a record budget over-run of € 6.1bn, the Health Minister, Jean-Francois Mattei, last
week announced that some 900 of the 4,300 drugs French doctors routinely prescribe will no
longer be reimbursed by the health service for the simple reason that they have 'little or no
recognised medical effect'.
The products include whole classes of such popular - and uniquely French - medicines as veino-
tonics, which supposedly improve the circulation, 'phytotherapeutics', bronchial lubricants,
'choleretics', 'hepatitic protectors' (for the liver), and the intriguingly-named 'replacement
intestinal flora'.
It is no surprise that the French, who consume three times as many prescription medicines as
the Germans and British, have been swallowing quantities of expensive pills and potions that do
no measurable good.
France has invented entire illnesses that do not exist elsewhere. The symptoms of that very
Gallic contribution to the world of imaginary afflictions, la crise de foie 2, are diagnosed outside
France as migraine, constipation or over-indulgence at the dinner table. Yet every French
pharmacy stocks a variety of exotically named remedies promising to calm the overworked
French liver.
Similarly, every French infant suffers in winter from la bronchiolite , a kind of baby-bronchitis with
allegedly dire consequences that in Britain would be called a chest infection. An entire
profession, the kinesitherapist, has developed to treat this phenomenon.
The French also believe wholeheartedly in the medical benefits of thalassotherapy, to the extent
that until recently anyone who went to an Atlantic health spa on a doctor's recommendation could
reclaim 30 per cent of the cost of a week's treatment from the state. Nothing proves it works, but
French doctors prescribe thalassotherapy for arthritis, asthma, acne and even infertility.
Bowing to the all-consuming national urge to be diagnosed (and treated) as sick when you are
not, French doctors, according to Edouard Zarifian, a professor of medical psychology, 'have
36
turned into merchants of false happiness' and now prescribe mood-altering drugs, for example,
to 13 per cent of the adult population.
This is mainly due, he argues, to inadequate training of GPs; to the outrageously unchecked
influence of the major drugs companies in France; and to the fact that, unlike any other
European country, the French agency that approves prescription medicines is run on a semi-
voluntary basis by part-time experts, many of whom also act as consultants to big commercial
laboratories.
That may explain the extraordinary failure of generic medicines - containing the same molecules,
but without the pharmaceutical company brand name and often at half the price - in France. Last
year, generics accounted for six per cent of all medicine sales in France, compared to 40 per
cent in Britain and 60 per cent in Denmark.
'It's as if they fear that without the name the medicine won't work,' said Chantal Benichou, a Paris
GP.
Doctors are, however, going to have to say 'non' soon, because part of Mattei's proposed
reforms, which come into effect next year, will be to allow the health service to reimburse only
the price of generic medicines if an alternative exists.
The Minister hopes his package of measures will cut the health service's budget over-run by
nearly € 2bn over five years. The savings, he hopes, will be ploughed into medical research. But
few in France are holding their breath.
1 My God
2 Bilious attack
Questions
(0) This text is about medicine in ...
a Germany
b Hungary
c France
1 According to the writer, the French ...
37
a are unashamedly addicted to medicines
b do not enjoy being prescribed medicine
c are embarrassed at their addiction to medicines
2 Currently some 900 prescription drugs are ...
a harmful
b as good as placebos
c overpriced
3 Many of the prescription drugs are for illnesses that ...
a are specific to the French

b are easily cured
c require specialist treatment
4 The writer claims that French pharmacies ...
a pander to a nation of hypochondriacs

b are indignant that the drugs will soon be reclassified
c are only too ready to misdiagnose patients
5 According to the writer, the existence of the kinesitherapist ...
a is an example of French hypochondria gone too far

b has only made things worse for mothers
c has led to the development of specialist treatments for bronchitis
6 The French government ...
a is to restrict the number of illnesses treated at spas

b only allowed health spa visits for the seriously ill
c has already stopped reimbursing health spa visits
7 Edouard Zarifian claims that French doctors have ...
a been over-prescribing a number of mood-altering drugs

b preferred to please patients by prescribing needless treatments
c been found treating patients who are not really sick
8 Zarifian believes that the reason French GPs over-prescribe drugs is that ...
a some have a commercial interest in prescribing as much as they can

b the French agency that approved drugs has been closed down
c junior doctors do receive out-of-date training on prescribing drugs
9 According to the writer, the French ...
a happily pay more for ‘designer’ drugs from famous laboratories

b would prefer to have more generic drugs available
c are, on average, more healthy than the British or the Danes
10 The national preference for ‘designer’ drugs ...
38
a is not likely to change overnight
b has caused the health service to go seriously over budget
c is not only peculiar to the French
Read the article ‘Gated Communities’ and then choose one of the answers (A, B or C)
Gated Communities
Felicia lives in a 120-home complex with a private golf course, swimming pool and clubhouse in
San Antonio, Texas. This vast suburban luxury is protected by a six-foot-high wall and protected
by an electronic gate, video camera and a guard with an intercom. Inside, she tells Setha Low in
her book, The Edge and the Center, she feels safe. Outside there is nothing but fear. "When I
leave the area entirely and go downtown I feel quite threatened, just being out in normal urban
areas, unrestricted urban areas."
"All-pervasive fear of life outside the gates is a frequent result of this type of attachment,"
concludes Anna Minto, in Building Balanced Communities, a report published by the Royal
Institute of Chartered Surveyors last week. "Those behind the gates become detached not only
physically but politically."
This perceptive document, which compares the development of gated communities in Britain and
the US, links the psychological motivations of middle-class flight to the political consequences of
what happens when they take their resources with them. Their desire to find a small area in
which they feel secure only expands the vast areas where they feel insecure. "People feel safer
behind gates although at the same time their fear of the outside world increases," writes Minto.
"This voluntary exclusion is mirrored by the involuntary isolation from society of those trapped in
the ghettos of the socially excluded."
An entire infrastructure is erected to keep the undesirables out. In America private security firms
outspend government law enforcement by 73%, and have three times as many employees. The
39
result? "Ironically," concludes Minto, "according to American research, crime in gated
communities has been shown not to decline. What changes is perception."
Its publication was timely not only because it highlights a national trend, but also because it
serves as a metaphor for the global order that is simultaneously being constructed and
collapsing around us. Through inequities in trade abroad and iniquities of social policy at home
we are creating a local and international underclass with little stake in our immediate society.
Through our immigration legislation and enhanced security networks we seek to contain them.
Through our criminal justice system and foreign policies we seek to police them. From gated
communities we move inexorably to gated countries and continents. Our prisons are full, our
borders fortified, our embassies armed and global summits take place behind cordons of riot
police - the private affluence and public squalor of the Thatcher years gone global.
"The socially excluded are exiles from the industrial age," says Geoff Mulgan, head of the
government's performance and innovation unit. "People who can't swim with the tide of
globalisation."
A more accurate description would be not that they cannot swim with it but that they are being
drowned by it. And as the tides rise they will grab on to anything available to keep themselves
afloat.
Take the Caribbean. US administrations, Democrat and Republican alike, all funded by American
banana-growing interests, have lobbied to remove the preferential treatment given to banana
growers. Meanwhile US aid there has slumped by around a quarter. In small islands dependent
on single crops, this has had a huge impact. Dominica earned £16m from bananas in 1993 and
only £6m in 2000. With that kind of decline replicated in the region, people look for alternative
sources of income. They have found it in the lucrative and pernicious trade of drug trafficking.
The UN drug control programme estimates the net regional earnings of the drug industry in the
area at £2.2bn.
So our cheap bananas come at a price. First, most of these drugs come to the west to feed more
crime, create more fear and build even bigger gates. The second is that with drug trade of that
intensity comes a culture of violent crime. Before you know it people coming to the Caribbean to
"get away from it" are having gated holidays - cooped up behind huge walls in all-inclusive
hotels, for fear that global inequalities interrupt their rest and relaxation.
So long as we continue to threaten others with war, poverty and exclusion, we can only expect
that we will continue to feel threatened also. It is not gates we need to build, but bridges.
Questions
40
a Isolated monasteries
b Gated Communities
c Open Prisons
1 Felicia feels scared whenever she ...
a is at home in Texas
b is in the residential complex
c goes to the city centre
2 The danger of living in a gated community is that ...
a the community becomes your world
b you become more politically active
c it’s almost impossible to get out
3 Living in secure areas makes residents feel ...
a more afraid of the world beyond the gates
b as though they are middle class
c that their lives are always being monitored
4 Although some people choose to live in isolated communities, others ...
a feel they can’t escape the communities they live in
b find that involuntary isolation is now a thing of the past
c are afraid of living in middle-class gated communities
5 The level of crime in gated communities is ...
a lower than that of the outside world
b not surprisingly showing a decline
c believed to be lower than elsewhere
41
6 It’s publication was timely not only because it highlights...
To what does the word ‘its’ at the start of the above paragraph refer?
a national crime statistics
b Minto’s recent report
c Felicia’s book ‘The Edge and the Center’
7 The national trend for the wealthy to isolate themselves ...
a is applauded by immigration and security authorities
b means that they are easily targeted by criminal gangs
c is now applying to countries and continents
8 The writer feels that globalisation is creating more ...
a opportunities for every nation
b social inequality
c industrial age innovators
9 ‘Our cheap bananas come at a price’ means that although we pay less for
bananas...
a we are, in fact, still paying more than they are worth
b banana growers in small communities end up paying more
c we may be forcing former banana farmers into the drug trade
10 The comment that ‘people coming to the Caribbean to “get away from it”
are having gated holidays’ is intended to be ...
a lethargic
b amusing
c ironic
42
STANAG 3 - Reading Task 13 (Military)
Read the article ‘Diamonds that Spell Death’ and then choose one of the answers (A, B or
C) which best answers each of the questions that follow.

Diamonds that Spell Death
Early next week a French-led contingent of multinational troops will pull out of the Congo town of
Bunia after barely three months of peacekeeping. Thankfully, some high-level diplomacy at the
United Nations by the secretary general, Kofi Annan, has secured a replacement force to serve a
further year in an attempt to end the regional conflict which since 1998 has claimed more than
3.3 million lives.
But while efforts are rightly focused on seeking a truce between the Hema and Lendu militia
groups, and urging an end to Ugandan and Rwandan interference, western diplomats might also
think about getting their own houses in order. In an uncanny repetition of western intervention in
the region that dates back to the 19th century, complicit multinational corporations and
unknowing - or unthinking - western consumers have contributed to the regional conflagration.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is an area cursed by an abundance of natural wealth from
gold through diamonds and timber to oil and even the mobile-phone mineral coltan. Foreign
companies, happy to cut deals with military commanders, have sustained the conflict by
exploiting natural resources with near-total disregard for human rights or long-term development.
In turn, when we use our phone, give a PlayStation to a teenager, or buy a diamond for a loved
one, we too risk being an unwitting accomplice.
Since King Leopold II of Belgium first decided on Congo as a suitable site for his imperial
ambitions in the 1870s, the west's role in the region's history has constituted an almost
apocalyptic rape of resources and people.
It was under the guise of the International African Association and with the assistance of that
criminally overrated explorer, Henry Morton Stanley, that Leopold II carved out his territory. Local
chiefs were forced to hand over vast tracts of land in exchange for cloth, beads and a couple of
bottles of gin. But unlike France or Britain, Leopold was never interested in the geopolitics of
Africa - he wanted the riches.
By the time world opinion finally woke up to Leopold's atrocities, the Congo Free State had been
stripped of its wealth, some 10 million people slaughtered in one of the worst genocides in
history, and an entire cultural tradition extinguished. The west, of course, hadn't finished with
43
Congo, deciding later in the 20th century to support the brutal kleptocracy of General Mobutu for
some 30 ruinous years.
Today a familiar pattern continues. A UN panel of experts recently concluded that foreign
interests sustain the current war by illegally subsidising militias, in return for gold, diamonds,
cobalt, coltan and other loot. Vast quantities of the country's natural wealth are shipped out
illegally, leaving behind an impoverished population that is often pressganged into labour or,
literally, pillaged and raped. The conflict has witnessed some of the worst sexual violence in
history, and is dubbed Africa's first world war: millions of casualties, and 18 million people with no
access to services of any kind - no clean water, health, education, transport, or housing.
A wave of bloodletting earlier this year sparked fears of a Rwandan-style genocide. Renewed
attempts to broker peace have now, thankfully, led to a transitional government headed by the
young Joseph Kabila - son of Laurent - and the promise of an enhanced UN peacekeeping force.
But history runs rings round Congo. Back in 1960 it had the dubious distinction of being the first
country in the world to host a UN peacekeeping force. So what's new?
Well, for a start, the UN might finally have some power. Next month, the UN mission, Monuc, will
increase from just over 2,000 to approximately 8,000 by the end of September. Of course, it
needs more. If it had the same troops-to-land ratio as in Kosovo, Congo would have 10 million
peacekeepers. But Monuc's new power - a mandate authorising active intervention to protect
civilians, rather than its former observer status - does mark significant progress. It is a departure
from the UN's dark days in 1994, when it walked away from the Rwandan genocide only to return
some months later to hang curtains around 800,000 corpses and accidentally provide sanctuary
for the murderers regrouping in Congo, thus preparing the ground for today's conflict.
Since the arrival of the French-led international force, including a British contingent, Bunia, the
town where daylight robbery and murdering militias went hand in hand, has been demilitarised.
But a large number of the population are displaced in the surrounding countryside, too terrified to
return. The British government has so far increased humanitarian assistance this year to £16m.
But Congo also needs protection from exploitative western interests. It needs an extension of
controls on diamonds and other minerals; the enforcement of OECD guidelines for multinational
businesses; an effective small-arms embargo; and stricter conditionality on assistance to other
regional governments linked to Congolese resource exploitation.
As Congo knows from its past, UN peacekeepers are not enough. Only good governance and
economic transparency will drain the illegal swamp of economic and military networks that have,
throughout its history, conspired in crimes against humanity.
Questions
(0) This text is chiefly about ...
a King Leopold II
b Slavery
c Congo
1 The new peacekeeping contingent is to remain in Congo for _______.
44
a 3 months
b 1 year
c under 3 months
2 In the phrase ’getting their own houses in order,’ the author is critical of___
a the Hema and Lemdu militia groups

b Uganda and Rwanda
c Western governments
3 The author feels that Westerners may be ’unwitting accomplices’ to ______
a those who are prifiting from the regional conflict

b human rights organisations based in Congo
c long-term development agencies in the region
3 The author feels that Westerners may be ’unwitting accomplices’ to ______
a those who are prifiting from the regional conflict

b human rights organisations based in Congo
c long-term development agencies in the region
4 The author feels that the International African Association ____________
a has saved the region from certain chaos

b was an excuse to drain Congo of its resources
c should have played a greater role in the geopolitics of Africa
5 The author believes that Congo ________________
a thrived under King Leopold’s rule

b owes its current wealth to King Leopold
c was exploited by King Leopold
6 The author feels that Congo’s rich, natural resources are _______
a benefitting its people

b being illegally sold off
c being protected by militias
7 The author is _________ about Congo’s transitional government
a ambivalent
b positive
c doubtful
8 The author is ___________ the UN’s role in Congo in 1994
45
a critical of
b thankful for
c uncertain about
9 According to the author, financial humanitarian assistance to Congo ____
a is not enough
b is being wasted
c should be monitored
10 The author feels that peacekeeping assistance _________
a should be complemented by reform in other areas

b will help to reduce the number of militias in Congo
c is exactly what Congo needs to stabilise the country
Read the article ‘Training Peacekeepers’ and then choose one of the answers (A, B or C)
Training Peacekeepers
As the US military grapples with the most ambitious peacekeeping and nation-building operation
in 50 years, you might think that planners in the Pentagon are looking at ways to increase
resources that support peacekeeping and peace enforcement. Well, you would be mistaken. The
Department of Defense has just decided to eliminate its only institute devoted to such operations:
the Peacekeeping Institute at the US Army War College in Pennsylvania. The Institute will close
in October.
With only 49 peacekeeping centres in the world, some military and some civilian, Canada will
have the sole remaining centre in North America.
The Peacekeeping Institute was created in July 1993 to guide the Army's strategic thinking on
how to conduct peacekeeping and to document lessons-learned. It has operated with a staff of
ten and a yearly budget of about $200,000 (out of an $81 billion annual Army budget).
Just three months after the institute opened, a peacekeeping effort in Somalia turned bloody on
the streets of Mogadishu. Two Army Black Hawk helicopters were shot down and 18 US soldiers
were killed. Since then the US military has taken on other, more successful missions to keep the
peace in Bosnia and Kosovo. In Afghanistan, however, the decision was taken to limit the force
to 5,000 British-led peacekeepers, largely as a result of the Bush administration's general
reluctance to engage in nation-building programmes. In contrast, NATO deployed 60,000
46
peacekeeping troops in Bosnia, including 20,000 Americans. This was in a nation less than 10%
the size of Afghanistan.
Now we have come full circle, with US forces having to make the transition from war fighters to
peacekeepers in Iraq in a matter of days. The looting and lawlessness in Iraq's major cities
suggests that the US military is ill-prepared to perform as peacekeepers. So, at a time when US
soldiers are doing civilian reconstruction in Afghanistan and are the stewards of post-conflict
Iraq, how could it happen that the Peacekeeping Institute will shut its doors?
The Pentagon's rationale is simple: the Peacekeeping Institute is a casualty of "force

realignment". All bodies are needed at the front to fight the Global War on Terror. The institute's
former director, Colonel George Oliver, has himself been deployed overseas to work with the
Pentagon-led reconstruction effort in Iraq.
The absence of political champions for the only federal organisation dedicated to thinking
strategically about the US military in peace operations points to an increasingly obvious
disconnect in Washington: the Institute has no strong political constituency. It is a post-Cold War
policy orphan, regarded with suspicion from the Left for being a child of the military and scorned
by the Right for having the word "peace" in its name.
During the 1990s Congress and the American public were not particularly interested in foreign
policy. After the end of the Soviet Union, the US had no simple framework for international
engagement. Conservatives trumpeted a 'spend them into submission' recipe for victory in all
matters international, convinced that the militarised pattern of the Cold War would keep the
country secure. Liberals clung to arms control advocacy, often to the exclusion of other issues.
As a consequence, during much of the decade there was no compelling international vision on
the left or the right - just an echo chamber of the leftovers and the righteous.
The fact that the US military has become the most active US foreign policy agency is a cause for
dismay by many foreign policy observers. But with a vast reservoir of efficient manpower, the US
military is often called upon not because it is willing, but because it is able. For American
taxpayers fund the military at 16 times the rate of all other US international initiatives, a ratio that
is set to increase over the next decade.
Any sort of progressive and problem-solving dialogue about the future of US international
engagement must include military voices. Many Americans don't yet realize that advocating
cooperation is what the US Army's Peacekeeping Institute, the Organisation for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have been doing
for the past decade. Yet Britain's recent history shows that a workable platform for civil-military
dialogue can be developed, and that capable civilian partners can be created to supplement the
activities of military forces in post-conflict stabilisation. Clearly, American policy instruments are
sorely in need of such balance.
Peacekeeping is critical for giving war-torn societies a chance to exit cycles of violence. It could
also be an issue that helps to mend recent US and transatlantic divisions
European officials and military personnel should now raise the issue in bilateral meetings with
their US counterparts. When pressed by US officials on questions of increasing defence
spending and interoperability with US forces, they should ask for clarification on US
interoperability and doctrinal fluency with EU peace and nation-building operations
Questions
(0) This text is about...
a training peacekeepers
47
b global warming
c military hardware
1 The sentence ’Well you would be mistaken,’ refers to the fact that the US
is ______________________ its support to peacekeeping.
a increasing
b reducing
c freezing
2 The writer feels that the Peacekeeping institute’s annual budget was ____
a excessive
b inadequate
c tiny
3 According to the writer, the US’ least successful peacekeeping mission

has been in ___________
a Somalia
b Kosovo
c Afghanistan
4 The writer feels that the US _____________ the Peacekeeping Institute
a needs
b appreciates
c supports
5 The writer thinks that the Peacekeeping Institute __________ political

support
a did not get sufficient

b got the wrong kind of
c could still be saved by
6 The writer feels that during the 1990s the US suffered from _______
a the aftermath of the Cold War

b too much international engagement
c political infighting at home
48
7 Over the coming 10 years, US defence spending will ________
a increase
b decrease
c plateau
8 The writer feels that US civil-military relations ____________
a are a model of their kind

b have greatly improved
c need to be examined
9 In matters of foreign policy, the US military is often called upon, mainly

because of its ________________
a resources
b activities
c willingness
10 The author suggests that the issue of peacekeeping could ________
a cause defence spending to increase

b improve US/European relations
c be problematic for successful US/EU interoperability
Read the article ‘A New Perspective on Peacekeeping’ and then choose one of the
answers (A, B or C) which best answers each of the questions that follow.
A New Perspective on Peacekeeping
In the spring of 1948 a collection of French, American, Belgian and Swedish colonels and majors
assembled in Cairo. This first UN force had a typically rocky start, as the truce between Arabs
and Jews they were supposed to oversee collapsed almost immediately. But by July a new one
was in place, and the colonels were soon out there, with clipboards and binoculars, keeping the
peace from sandy outposts in Palestine and neighbouring countries.
The hopes engendered by these early missions were largely unfulfilled. The Middle Eastern
forces were removed or ignored when the parties wanted to go back to war, the Kashmir
missions achieved little, the Congo was a terrible debacle and the Cyprus force ended the
shooting but effectively sustained partition.
Half a century later we do not know what is to become of peacekeeping, peace enforcement and
peacemaking after their late blooming in the second half of the 1980s and the early 1990s. This
is partly because of disillusion with the results of some UN operations, strongest in the US but by
no means confined to America. It is also because September 11 has brought in a whole new set
49
of criteria, overlapping and conflicting with the largely humanitarian considerations which shaped
most recent interventions.
The impulse for such intervention was to help citizens of countries affected by wars and internal
breakdown. It has been justified most recently, and elegantly, by the report of the International
Commission on the Responsibility to Protect, which states that governments have a duty of care
toward their citizens and that if they seriously fail in this the international community has the right
to take over. But a new interventionism governed by the drive against terrorism is not primarily
about rescuing "them" but about rescuing "us".
The problem is one of concentration of aim, with the Americans wishing to devote most
resources to targeting the enemy, the Europeans attached to the idea of rescuing others and
attending to the conflicts which breed resentment of the west, and most other countries uneasy
about both philosophies, which they fear conceal ulterior motives. Underlying that is another level
of difference, with the Americans, unusually, taking the view that there are some things that can't
be fixed, some conflicts that are not ready for resolution and some state breakdowns that cannot
be reversed.
The argument here is that the international community could all too easily find itself sustaining,
with aid and troops, an increasing number of dysfunctional societies which they have stabilised
without curing, an old problem in UN peacekeeping. To which the response comes back, as with
Afghanistan, that this is precisely why more resources should be devoted to such cases. These
are not easy issues.
But large UN operations need American technical, logistical and intelligence assistance as well
as American support in the broad political sense. If the US should reach the point where it does
not see the UN as a natural field for the pursuit of policy and as offering instruments of unique
value in that pursuit then both are in trouble. But the sheer usefulness of the UN to a super-
power makes that unlikely.
As the Cold War wound down there was a flowering of UN activity in many territories, frequently
going beyond peacekeeping toward peace enforcement and what later came to be called nation
building. By 1994 there were 75,000 UN soldiers and police operating in more than a dozen
countries at a cost of $3bn a year.
Then came disasters in Angola, Bosnia, Rwanda and Somalia, and disappointment, above all in
Washington, even though in all of these cases the US bore much responsibility for what went
wrong. America had been a prime mover in early UN operations, and it was ready and willing to
seek its ends through UN institutions in the late 1980s and early 1990s. But Somalia and later
Bosnia changed that.
It became politically difficult for the US to take a large direct role in UN peacekeeping. Even the
British, in Sierra Leone, preferred to stay out of the UN structure. European military men,
meanwhile, agreed with their American counterparts that serious enforcement operations can
only succeed if they are led by serious military powers, another lesson of the 1990s. The
Europeans put their own drag on the prospects for future intervention by moving very slowly with
the creation of the Rapid Reaction Force.
But a certain clarity about humanitarian intervention, its justifications, techniques and limitations,
and the various ways the UN could be involved, was in the process of being laboriously achieved
both inside and outside the UN, as various level-headed studies and reports attest. The
consensus was that intervention was here to stay but could and should be better done.
That has now been thrown into disarray by the emergence of rival objectives in the campaign
against terror. How to reconcile the two, if it can be done, is the critical question
50
Questions
a NATO expansion
b peacekeeping issues
c chemical warfare
1 The writer’s tone in the first paragraph is ...
a sarcastic
b tongue-in-cheek
c matter-of-fact
2 The results of the first peacekeeping missions were ...
a oustanding
b unsatisfactory
c long-lasting
3 We don’t know what is to become of peacekeeping, peace enforcement

and peacemaking because of the disillusion with the results of some UN
operations, as well as...
a ongoing international humanitarian issues

b increasing conflict between governments
c consideration of different new criteria
4 The phrase ’new interventionism’ in paragraph 4 means that ...
a the international community may intervene where nations

suffer internal breakdown or surprise attacks
b governments have a duty to protect their citizens from terrorism
c the reasons for intervention have changed
5 The phrase ’ulterior motives’ in paragraph 5 means that ...
a the Europeans are not supporting the US as much as they should

b some countries are suspicious of the US’ and Europe ’s reasons for
assistance
c non-US and European countries distrust Western philosophy
51
6 The ’old problem’ mentioned in paragraph 6 refers to peacekeeping’s ...
a ability to stabilise, but not to cure, dysfunctional societies

b inability to allocate the right resources to the right mission
c inability to maintain troops in the more dysfunctional nations
7 The writer feels that the US ...
a doesn’t really need the UN

b and the UN need each other
c and the UN are in trouble
8 The word ’that’ at the end of paragraph 9 refers to the...
a role the US played in peacekeeping in Somalia and Bosnia

b gradual change of political climate within the UN
c major role the US had played in UN peacekeeping
9 The writer appears ________ the speed with which the international
community approached the issue of humanitarian intervention with the UN
a critical of
b supportive of
c impressed by
10 What is ’the critical question’ to which the author refers in the last line of the text?
a How can intervention be improved if differing views on why are

taken into consideration?
b How could intervention be improved and when?
c Why is the UN experiencing ongoing problems in the war against
terror?
Read the article ‘Peacekeeping Problems for the UN’ and then choose one of the answers
(A, B or C) which best answers each of the questions that follow.
Peackeeping Problems for the UN
The United Nations security council last night agreed to overhaul its much-maligned
peacekeeping operations, with special focus on conflicts in Africa.
The council rushed through a six-step programme after suffering the embarrassment of seeing
500 of its peacekeeping force taken hostage by ramshackle rebel forces in Sierra Leone this
year.
52
The speed of the UN response is a sign of the extent to which the organisation's image has been
battered by a decade of disastrous operations.
At a 90-minute meeting, the 15-member security council backed the plan. Attending were
representatives of the five permanent members: the US president, Bill Clinton, the British prime
minister, Tony Blair, the Chinese president, Jiang Zemin, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin,
and the French president, Jacques Chirac.
In a lengthy declaration published at the end of the meeting, the council pledged "to enhance the
effectiveness of the United Nations in addressing conflict at all stages, from prevention to
settlement to post-conflict peace-building".
In an early test of its new resolve, it also issued a separate statement condemning the African
countries involved in the fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The UN has begun organising a peacekeeping force for Congo but last night the security council
reiterated that the troops will not be committed until the countries involved in the conflict abide by
the ceasefire agreed in Lusaka last year.
The reform of the peacekeeping operations was recommended in a report by a UN panel of

experts a fortnight ago after investigations into why the UN had performed so badly in Rwanda
and the Balkans. The security council has since acted with unprecedented haste.
The declaration will be the one concrete success to emerge from the biggest-ever gathering of
world leaders in New York. For the first time, Africa was singled out. The declaration said the
security council will give equal priority to maintaining peace throughout the world but "in view of
the particular needs of Africa, to give special attention to the promotion of durable peace and
sustainable development in Africa, and to the specific characteristics of African conflicts".
As a first step in reform, the security council will adopt "clearly defined, credible, achievable and
appropriate mandates". In the past, mandates have been so vague they have often added to
problems. The weakness of the UN mandate in the Balkans was repeatedly exploited by the
Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic.
With one eye on the hostage-taking in Sierra Leone, the security council said the new mandates
will include "effective measures for the security and safety to United Nations personnel and,
wherever possible, for the protection of the civilian population".
Other steps include helping the UN to obtain trained and properly equipped personnel for
peacekeeping operations. Many of the UN troops sent to Sierra Leone from developing countries
were short of basic equipment, in particular proper communications. The security council
promised greater consultation with contributing countries.
One of the biggest and most expensive changes will be the creation of a permanent UN high
command responsible for the planning, deployment and conduct of peacekeeping operations in
an effort to reduce the chaos that often surrounds its interventions.
The final step agreed was for "a more up-to-date and sounder foundation for financing
peacekeeping operations".
53
Questions
(0) This text is about peacekeeping problems for...
a NATO
b the UN
c Europe
1 The Sierra Leone rebels who held 500 UN peacekeepers hostage were ...
a disciplined
b disorganised
c distressed
2 The fact that the UN peacekeeping programme had been rushed through was ...
a surprising
b disappointing
c suffering
3 The UN’s commitment to peacekeeping support to Congo was ...
a conditioned
b conditional
c unconditional
4 The UN Security Council’s actions regarding peacekeeping reform were ...
a normal
b unusual
c condemned
5 The UN declaration on peacekeeping was unique since it ...
a gave equal priority to operations in all nations

b highilghted the specific needs of Africa
c was the first Security Council declaration in this area
54
6 In the past, weak UN mandates were open to ...
a reform
b revision
c exploitation
7 New UN peacekeeping mandates included provisions for the safety and

security of ...
a the Sierra Leone rebels

b UN personnel
c hostages in armed conflicts
8 The reason behind the UN Security Council’s promise for greater

consultation with countries contributing peacekeeping personnel was
because of...
a lessons learned from Sierra Leone

b pressure from the US
c the need for further training
9 To reduce further chaos in its peacekeeping interventions, the UN has

...
a called on the US military for advice

b agreed on greater consultation with participating countries
c created a permanent high command
10 The text suggests that UN financial reform was necessary for its
peacekeeping operations because ...
a of a need to up-date
b costs had risen significantly
c complaints had increased
55

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STANAG 3- Reading Task 1 (General)

An example (0) has been done for you.

(0) This text is about ...

The correct answer is C

1 The first thing you see at AZTECS! is a ...

2 The writer thinks that the Aztec ornaments are ...

a as good as any produced by the Egyptians

3 According to the text, Tenochtitlan was destroyed...

a during Montezuma’s lifetime

4 The treasures on show at the Royal Academy are ..

5 Many artefacts from the Aztec civilization ...

a are hidden in museum vaults

6 The current Aztec exhibition is the biggest ever assembled ...

a outside Mexico City

8 The writer finds the Aztec gods ...

10 The writer believes that the ...

An example (0) has been done for you.

(0) This text is about ...

A new-style Indian cuisine

B the Indian film industry

C Indian culture in the UK

The correct answer is B

1 According to the writer, Bombay’s name change was a ...

a political, but cosmetic one

2 For the well-off, in Bombay, it’s possible to live ...

a it up in flash hotels and bars

b life to the extremes of poverty

3 The writer finds Bollywood dance scenes

a glitzy and complicated

4 The ‘laws ‘of Bollywood insist on actors ...

a making several films at the same time

b singing their own songs

c participating in editing decisions

a stars in all her father’s films

6 The writer feels that many of Bollywood’s laws are ...

7 Bollywood stars often find themselves ...

a preyed upon by criminals

b in actual street shootings

c working for the underworld

8 In Bollywood, scripts are ...

b anything but sacrosanct

c published when films are released

10 Indian film-makers think it ___________ that Hollywood will conquer Bollywood.

STANAG 3 - Reading Task 3 (General)

An example (0) has been done for you.

(0) This text is about ...

C exotic holiday destinations

The correct answer is B

a have a distinct taste

2 The writer visits an expensive London restaurant to find out …

a which kind of bottled water is the most popular

3 The writer uses the expression ‘water barons’ to be …

4 Water derived from Canadian glaciers …

a tastes like tap water

5 When drinking water from Fiji, the writer realises …

a the importance of good marketing

6 Perrier’s name and distinctive bottle came about as a result of …

7 Mineral water consumption rose in the 1980s because yuppies …

a were heavy after-work drinkers who hated tap water

8 The huge growth in mineral water consumption in the 1990s …

a came about at Perrier’s expense

9 The writer says that we drink mineral water because …

10 The bank manager is happy because …

a Barrett has increased company profits