READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on Reading
Passage 1 below.
Andrea Palladio.
Italian architect
A new exhibition celebrates Palladio’s architecture 500 years on
A
Vicenza is a pleasant, prosperous city in the Veneto, 60km west of Venice. Its grand
families settled and farmed the area from the 16th century. But its principal claim to fame
is Andrea Palladio, who is such an influential architect that a neoclassical style is known
as Palladian. The city is a permanent exhibition of some of his finest buildings, and as he
was born – in Padua, to be precise – 500 years ago, the International Centre for the
Study of Palladio’s Architecture has an excellent excuse for mounting la grande Mostra,
the big show.
B
The exhibition has the special advantage of being held in one of Palladio’s buildings,
Palazzo Barbaran da Porto. Its bold façade is a mixture of rustication and decoration set
between two rows of elegant columns. On the second floor, the pediments are
alternately curved or pointed, a Palladian trademark. The harmonious proportions of the
atrium at the entrance lead through to a dramatic interior of fine fireplaces and painted
ceilings. Palladio’s design is simple, clear, and not over-crowded. The show has been
organised on the same principles, according to Howard Burns, the architectural historian
who co-curated it.
C
Palladio’s father was a miller who settled in Vicenza, where the young Andrea was
apprenticed to a skilled stonemason. How did a humble miller’s son become a world-
renowned architect? The answer in the exhibition is that, as a young man, Palladio
excelled at carving decorative stonework on columns, doorways, and fireplaces. He was
plainly intelligent and lucky enough to come across a rich patron, Gian Giorgio Trissino,
a landowner and scholar, who organised his education, taking him to Rome in the 1540s,
where he studied the masterpieces of classical Roman and Greek architecture and the
work of other influential architects of the time, such as Donato Bramante and Raphael.
D
Burns argues that social mobility was also important. Entrepreneurs, prosperous from
agriculture in the Veneto, commissioned the promising local architect to design their
country villas and their urban mansions. In Venice, the aristocracy was anxious to co-opt
talented artists, and Palladio has given the chance to design the buildings that have
made him famous – the churches of San Giorgio Maggiore and the Redentore, both
easy to admire because they can be seen from the city’s historical centre across a
stretch of water.
E
He tried his hand at bridges – his unbuilt version of the Rialto Bridge was decorated with
the large pediment and columns of a temple – and, after a fire at the Ducal Palace, he
offered an alternative design that bears an uncanny resemblance to the Banqueting
House in Whitehall in London. Since it was designed by Inigo Jones, Palladio’s first
foreign disciple, this is not as surprising as it sounds.
F
Jones, who visited Italy in 1614, bought a trunk full of the master’s architectural
drawings; they passed through the hands of Dukes of Burlington and Devonshire before
settling at the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1894. Many are now on display at
Palazzo Barbaran. What they show is how Palladio drew on the buildings of ancient
Rome as models. The major theme of both his rural and urban buildings was temple
architecture, with a strong pointed pediment supported by columns and approached by
wide steps.
G
Palladio’s work for rich landowners alienates unreconstructed critics on the Italian left,
but among the papers in the show are designed for cheap housing in Venice. In the
wider world, Palladio’s reputation has been nurtured by a text he wrote and illustrated,
“Quattro Libri dell’ Architettura”. His influence spread to St Petersburg and to
Charlottesville in Virginia, where Thomas Jefferson commissioned a Palladian villa, he
called Monticello.
H
Vicenza’s show contains detailed models of the major buildings and is leavened by
portraits of Palladio’s teachers and clients by Titian, Veronese, and Tintoretto; the
paintings of his Venetian buildings are all by Canaletto, no less. This is an
uncompromising exhibition; many of the drawings are small and faint, and there are no
sideshows for children, but the impact of harmonious lines and satisfying proportions is
to impart in a viewer a feeling of benevolent calm. Palladio is history’s most therapeutic
architect.
I
“Palladio, 500 Anni: La Grande Mostra” is at Palazzo Barbaran da Porto, Vicenza, until
January 6th, 2009. The exhibition continues at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, from
January 31st to April 13th, and travels afterward to Barcelona and Madrid.

Questions 1-7
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?
In boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

1. The building where the exhibition is staged has been newly renovated
2. Palazzo Barbaran da Porto typically represents the Palladio’s design
3. Palladio’s father worked as an architect.
4. Palladio’s family refused to pay for his architectural studies
5. Palladio’s alternative design for the Ducal Palace in Venice was based on an English
building.
6. Palladio designed both wealthy and poor people.
7. The exhibition includes paintings of people by famous artists

Questions 8-13
Answer the questions below
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 8-13 on your answer sheet

8. What job was Palladio training for before he became an architect?

9. Who arranged Palladio’s architectural studies?
10. Who was the first non-Italian architect influenced by Palladio?
11. What type of Ancient Roman buildings most heavily influenced Palladio’s work?
12. What did Palladio write that strengthened his reputation?
13. In the writer’s opinion, what feeling will visitors to the exhibition experience?

READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26 which are based on Reading
Passage 2 below.

The future never dies?

The prospects for humanity and the world as a whole are somewhere between glorious
and dire. It is hard to be much more precise.

A
By ‘glorious’, I mean that our descendants – all who are born on this Earth – could live
very comfortably and securely and could continue to do so for as long as the Earth can
support life, which should be for a very long time indeed. We should at least be thinking
in terms of the next million years. Furthermore, our descendants could continue to enjoy
the company of other species – establishing a much better relationship with them than
we have now. Other animals need not live in constant fear of us. Many of those fellow
species now seem bound to become extinct, but a significant proportion could and
should continue to live alongside us. Such a future may seem ideal, and so it is. Yet I do
not believe it is fanciful. There is nothing in the physical fabric of the Earth or in our own
biology to suggest that this is not possible.
B
‘Dire’ means that we human beings could be in deep trouble within the next few
centuries, living but also dying in large numbers in political terror and from starvation,
while huge numbers of our fellow creatures would simply disappear, leaving only the
ones that we find convenient – chickens, cattle – or that we can’t shake off, like flies and
mice. I’m taking it to be self-evident that glory is preferable.
C
Our future is not entirely in our own hands because the Earth has its own rules, is part of
the solar system, and is neither stable nor innately safe. Other planets in the solar
system are quite beyond habitation, because their temperature is far too high or too low
to be endured, and ours, too, in principle could tip either way. Even relatively
unspectacular changes in the atmosphere could do the trick. The core of the Earth is hot,
which in many ways is good for living creatures, but now and again, the molten rock
bursts through volcanoes on the surface. Among the biggest volcanic eruptions in recent
memory was Mount St Helens, in the USA, which threw out a cubic kilometre of ash –
fortunately, in an area where very few people live. In 1815, Tambora (in present-day
Indonesia) expelled so much ash into the upper atmosphere that climatic effects
seriously harmed food production around the world for the season after season. Entire
civilisations have been destroyed by volcanoes.
D
Yet nothing we have so far experienced shows what volcanoes can really
do. Yellowstone National Park in the USA occupies the caldera (the crater formed when
a volcano collapses) of an exceedingly ancient volcano of extraordinary magnitude.
Modem surveys show that its centre is now rising. Sometime in the next 200 million
years, Yellowstone could erupt again, and when it does, the whole world will be
transformed. Yellowstone could erupt tomorrow. But there’s a very good chance that it
will give us another million years, and that surely is enough to be going on with. It seems
sensible to assume that this will be the case.
E
The universe at large is dangerous, too: in particular, we share the sky with vast
numbers of asteroids, and now and again, they come into our planet’s atmosphere. An
asteroid the size of a small island, hitting the Earth at 15,000 kilometres an hour (a
relatively modest speed by the standards of heavenly bodies), would strike the ocean
bed like a rock in a puddle, sending a tidal wave around the world as high as a small
mountain and as fast as a jumbo jet, and propel us into an ice age that could last for
centuries. There are plans to head off such disasters (including rockets to push
approaching asteroids into new trajectories), but in truth, it’s down to luck.
F
On the other hand, the archaeological and fossil evidence shows that no truly
devastating asteroid has struck since the one that seems to have accounted for the
extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. So again, there seems no immediate
reason for despair. The Earth is indeed an uncertain place, in an uncertain universe, but
with average luck, it should do us well enough. If the world does become inhospitable in
the next few thousand or million years, then it will probably be our own fault. In short,
despite the underlying uncertainty, our own future and that of our fellow creatures are
very much in our own hands.
G
Given average luck on the geological and the cosmic scale, the difference between glory
and disaster will be made and is being made, by politics. Certain kinds of political
systems and strategies would predispose us to long-term survival (and indeed to the
comfort and security and pleasure of being alive), while others would take us more and
more frenetically towards collapse. The broad point is, though, that we need to look at
ourselves – humanity – and at the world in general in a quite new light. Our material
problems are fundamentally those of biology. We need to think, and we need our
politicians to think, biologically. Do that, and take the ideas seriously, and we are in with
a chance. Ignore biology and we and our fellow creatures haven’t a hope.

Questions 14-19
Do the following statements reflect the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 2?
In boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet write
YES if the statement is true
NO if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage

14. It seems predictable that some species will disappear.

15. The nature of the Earth and human biology make it impossible for human beings to
survive another million years.
16. An eruption by Yellowstone is likely to be more destructive than previous volcanic
eruptions.
17. There is a greater chance of the Earth being hit by small asteroids than large ones.
18. If the world becomes uninhabitable, it is most likely to be as a result of a natural
disaster.
19. Politicians currently in power seem unlikely to change their way of thinking.

Question 20-25
Complete the summary below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 20-25 on your answer sheet.
The Earth could become uninhabitable, like other planets, through a major change in
the 20………………….. Volcanic eruptions of 21……………………. can lead to
shortages of 22……………………. in a wide area. An asteroid hitting the Earth could
create a 23…………………… that would result in a new 24……………………. Plans are
being made to use 25…………………….. to deflect asteroids heading for the Earth.

Question 26
Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D.
Write your answer in box 26 on your answer sheet.

26. What is the writer’s purpose in Reading Passage 2?

A. to propose a new theory about the causes of natural disasters
B. to prove that generally held beliefs about the future are all mistaken
C. to present a range of opinions currently held by scientists
D. to argue the need for a general change in behavior

READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40 which are based on Reading
Passage 3 below.

Pottery production in ancient Akrotiri

A
Excavations at the site of prehistoric Akrotiri, on the coast of the Aegean Sea, have
revealed much about the technical aspects of pottery manufacture, indisputably one of
the basic industries of this Greek city. However, considerably less is known about the
socio-economic context and the way production was organised.
B
The bulk of pottery found at Akrotiri is locally made and dates from the late fifteenth
century BC. It clearly fulfilled a vast range of the settlement’s requirements: more than
fifty different types of pots can be distinguished. The pottery found includes a wide
variety of functional types like storage jars, smaller containers, pouring vessels, cooking
pots, drinking vessels and so on, which all relate to specific activities, and which would
have been made and distributed with those activities in mind. Given the large number of
shapes produced and the relatively high degree of standardization, it has generally been
assumed that most, if not all, of Akrotiri pottery, was produced by specialized craftsmen
in a non-domestic context. Unfortunately, neither the potters’ workshops nor kilns have
been found within the excavated area. The reason may be that the ceramic workshops
were located on the periphery of the site, which has not yet been excavated. In any
event, the ubiquity of the pottery, and the consistent repetition of the same types in
different sizes suggest production on an industrial scale.
C
The Akrotirian potters seem to have responded to pressures beyond their households,
namely to the increasing complexity of regional distribution and exchange systems. We
can imagine them as full-time craftsmen working permanently in a high production-rate
craft such as pottery manufacture and supporting themselves entirely from the proceeds
of their craft. Given the above, one can begin to speak in terms of mass-produced
pottery and the existence of organized workshops of craftsmen during the period 1550-
1500 BC. Yet, how pottery production was organized at Akrotiri remains an open
question, as there is no real documentary evidence. Our entire knowledge comes from
the ceramic material itself, and the tentative conclusions which can be drawn from it.
D
The invention of units of quantity and a numerical system to count them was of capital
importance of an exchange-geared society such as that of Akrotiri. Despite the absence
of any written records, the archaeological evidence reveals that concepts of
measurements, both weight and number, had been formulated. Standard measures may
already have been in operation, such as those evidenced by a graduated series of lead
weights – made in disc form – found at the site. The existence of units of capacity in Late
Bronze Age times is also evidenced, by the notation of units of a liquid measure for wine
on excavated containers.

E
It must be recognized that the function of pottery vessels plays a very important role in
determining their characteristics. The intended function affects the choice of clay, the
production technique, and the shape and size of the pots. For example, large storage
jars would be needed to store commodities, whereas smaller containers would be used
for transport. The length of a man’s arm limits the size of a smaller pot to a capacity of
about twenty liters; that is also the maximum a man can comfortably carry.
F
The various sizes of containers would thus represent standard quantities of a
commodity, which is a fundamental element in the function of exchange. Akrotirian
merchants handling a commodity such as wine would have been able to determine
easily the amount of wine, they were transporting from the number of containers they
carried in their ships since the capacity of each container was known to be 14-18 liters.
(We could draw a parallel here with the current practice in Greece of selling oil in 17-
kilogram tins.)
G
We may, therefore, assume that the shape, capacity, and sometimes decoration of
vessels are indicative of the commodity contained by them. Since individual transactions
would normally involve different quantities of a given commodity, a range of
‘standardized’ types of vessels would be needed to meet traders’ requirements.
H
In trying to reconstruct systems of capacity by measuring the volume of excavated
pottery, a rather generous range of tolerances must be allowed. It seems possible that
the potters of that time had specific sizes of the vessels in mind and tried to reproduce
them using a specific type and amount of clay. However, it would be quite difficult for
them to achieve the exact size required every time, without any mechanical means of
regulating symmetry and wall thickness, and some potters would be more skilled than
others. In addition, variations in the repetition of types and sizes may also occur because
of unforeseen circumstances during the throwing process. For instance, instead of
destroying the entire pot if the clay in the rim contained a piece of grit, a potter might
produce a smaller pot by simply cutting off the rim. Even where there is no noticeable
external difference between pots meant to contain the same quantity of a commodity,
differences in their capacity can reach one or two liters. In one case the deviation from
the required size appears to be as much as 10-20 percent.
I
The establishment of regular trade routes within the Aegean led to increased movement
of goods; consequently, a regular exchange of local, luxury, and surplus goods, including
metals, would have become feasible as a result of the advances in transport technology.
The increased demand for standardized exchanges, inextricably linked to commercial
transactions, might have been one of the main factors that led to the standardization of
pottery production. Thus, the whole network of ceramic production and exchange would
have depended on specific regional economic conditions and would reflect the socio-
economic structure of prehistoric Akrotiri.

Questions 27-28
Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D.

27. What does the writer say about of pottery excavated at Akrotiri?

A. There was very little duplication.

B. They would have met a big variety of needs.
C. Most of them had been imported from other places.
D. The intended purpose of each piece was unclear.

28. The assumption that pottery from Akrotiri was produced by specialists is partly
based on

A. The discovery of kilns.

B. The central location of workshops.
C. The sophistication of decorative patterns.
D. The wide range of shapes represented.

Questions 29-32
Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-F, below.
Write the correct letter, A-F.

29. The assumption that standard units of weight were in use could be based on
30. Evidence of the use of standard units of the volume is provided by
31. The size of certain types of containers would have been restricted by
32. Attempts to identify the intended capacity of containers are complicated by

A. The discovery of a collection of metal discs.

B. The size and type of sailing ships in use.
C. Variations in the exact shape and thickness of similar containers.
D. The physical characteristics of workmen.
E. Marks found on wine containers.
 F. The variety of commodities for which they would have been used.

Questions 33-38
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage
3? Write
YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
33. There are plans to excavate new areas of the archaeological site in the near future.
34. Some of the evidence concerning pottery production in ancient Akrotiri comes from
written records
35. Pots for transporting liquids would have held no more than about 20 liters.
36. It would have been hard for merchants to calculate how much wine was on their
ships.
37. The capacity of containers intended to hold the same amounts differed by up to 20
percent.
38. Regular trading of goods around the Aegean would have led to the general
standardization of quantities.

Questions 39-40
Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D.

39. What does the writer say about the standardization of container sizes?

A. Containers that looked the same from the outside often varied incapacity.
B. The instruments used to control container size were unreliable.
C. The unsystematic use of different types of clay resulted in size variations.
D. Potters usually discarded containers that were of a non-standard size.

40. What is probably the main purpose of Reading Passage 3?

A. To evaluate the quality of pottery containers found in prehistoric Akrotiri.
B. To suggest how features of pottery production at Akrotiri reflected other
developments in the region.
C. To outline the development of pottery-making skills in ancient Greece.
D. To describe methods for storing and transporting household goods in prehistoric
societies.