2012 lnat mock test 2

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Mock Examination 2

National Admissions Test for Law (LNAT) The test has 2 separate sections, A and B. Section A: Multiple Choice This section is divided into 12 sub sections; each sub section has between 3 and 4 questions. You should answer all 42 multiple choice questions in Section A, selecting one of the possible answers listed for each question. Time allowed: 95 minutes Section B: Essay This section has 5 essay questions. You should select and answer one question in Section B. Your answer should be no more than 750 words long. Time allowed: 40 minutes


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Section A: Multiple Choice

Answer all of the following questions.

1 Most Trusted Profession

Every year I'm fascinated to see just how stable public trust is in the occupations in the public eye. Yet to see the media and listen to the commentators on radio and television, you'd think that trust in institutions is declining sharply. To listen to them, you'd think that nobody trusts anybody anymore. They are wrong: there has been no general decline in trust over the past two decades, as shown over nearly a quarter of a century, by our surveys, initially done in 1983 for the Sunday Times and this year sponsored by the Royal College of Physicians.

This year there has been but a marginal decline in the public's trust of all the 16 listed professions (53% average this year down from 56% last year), except for judges, who have increased slightly, and government ministers, remaining at the same very low level. Nine in ten people still say they trust doctors to tell the truth. Teachers, professors, judges and clergymen/priests are considered trustworthy by a majority of the public. Just over half say they trust the ordinary man/woman in the street to tell the truth (52%), and just under half say they trust pollsters (45%) and civil servants (44%). Bottom of the ranking are journalists and politicians.

More men are trusting than women. Doctors are considered trustworthy by more men than women (92% vs. 88%). Teachers and judges also, are trusted by 5% more than women. More men say they trust scientists, the ordinary man/woman in the street, pollsters and journalists. In the case of scientists, a higher proportion of women are undecided but no more likely to actively say they distrust them.

Age also has an important impact on levels of trust in most professions. Young people are more likely to trust the following: professors, judges, scientists, police, pollsters, civil servants, trade union officials, and business leaders than older people. In contrast, older people are more likely to be trusting of the ordinary man/woman in the street (perhaps reflecting the warnings about talking to strangers, more in recent years), and for some reason, priests/clergymen.

People in different social classes differ in their trust of some professions. More people categorised as lower middle class, the C1s, regard television newsreaders not trustworthy (34%) than do ABs (25%). Ethnicity is also important in terms of the levels of trust given in most professions. White people are more likely to place trust in the listed professions, compared to ethnic minority communities. The only occupation which people belonging to ethnic minorities are more likely to trust is journalists (29% of BMEs vs. 17% of white respondents). Those who are working tend to have more trust in professions than do those who are not. For example, those working full-time are more likely to trust: teachers, television news readers, professors, scientists and pollsters. Respondents not working are more likely to trust government ministers.

Voting intention also plays a role to some extent in terms of trust in professions — Labour party supporters are more likely to have higher levels of trust in comparison to the national average. Labour party supporters are more likely to trust: doctors, clergymen/priests, police, civil servants and trade union officials compared to supporters of other political parties.

Source: ‘Most Trusted Profession’ Sir Robert Worcester (Ipsos Mori – February 2008)


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1. Which of the following pairings does the writer not use or refer to in setting apart two groups

of people?

a) C1s / ABs

b) young / old

c) men / women

d) journalists / politicians

e) doctors / television news readers

2. Which argument does the writer use to show that there has not been a general decline in public trust in the professions?

a) He states that the media are wrong

b) He shows a marginal decline in public trust in professions last year

c) He shows that men are more trusting than women

d) He points to the results of surveys carried out over nearly 25 years

e) He states that the research is sponsored by the Royal College of Physicians

3. For which of the following statements does the writer offer an attempted explanation?

a) There has been a marginal decrease in public trust for the professions since last year

b) Labour party supporters are more likely to trust trade unionists

c) Young people are less trusting of the man/woman in the street

d) People from ethnic minorities are more likely to trust journalists

e) Journalists and politicians are the least trusted

4. Which of the following cannot be inferred from the article?

a) Trust of professionals decreases as you age

b) Most people trust doctors

c) Whom you trust depends on your personal characteristics

d) Women are more trusting than people from ethnic minorities

e) There is a link between voting preferences and trust


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2 Outdoor Play

It is an image that will stir up nostalgia in most adults; that of a small child clasping their hands over their eyes and muttering “one”, “two”, “three”, as their friends scurry away excitedly.

Yet, when the present generation of children was asked to name their favourite games, only 6 per cent thought of hide and seek, fewer than 1 per cent mentioned hopscotch and none spoke of other traditional favourites such as cowboys and indians, red rover or conkers.

Just days before the government launches a drive to get children playing outside the way their parents and grandparents did, a study by Play England has shown that today's favourite childhood pastime is socialising. The ICM poll found that football and bike-riding were also popular, but classic games barely featured at all.

This week the decline in children's play will be laid bare when ministers admit that one in four 8- to 10-year-olds have never played outside without an adult and one in three parents will not even allow older children, aged 8 to 15, to play outside the house or garden.

A national consultation on how to reverse the decline, to be published on Thursday, will also show that children start playing outside later in life; the average age at which they are allowed out without supervision has risen from seven in the 1970s to over eight today. The crisis is being made worse by increased traffic and parked cars, less tolerance of young people and fear of “stranger danger”.

Despite strong evidence that playing freely strengthens friendships, keeps children healthy and helps them to cope with risky situations, ministers will admit that the opportunities for children to do so have been falling rapidly.

“We know 80 per cent of children prefer to play outside and 86 per cent of parents agreed that on a nice day their children would prefer to go to the park than watch TV,” said Ed Balls, the Children's Secretary. “Yet children spend less time playing outside than they would like and less than their parents did as children.

“In our consultations parents told us this is because there are not enough safe places to go - and there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that parents think their children are safer playing inside on a computer than outside.”

That is despite the fact that Tanya Byron, a television psychologist who has carried out a review for the government on the risks of computer games and the internet, found that allowing children to surf websites freely was the equivalent of letting them outside without supervision. Yet parental fears, Byron concluded, had “driven a generation of children indoors”.

This week's strategy hopes to address that with a long list of promises - some being restated - to create thousands of safe spaces for children. The government will promise £225m in extra funding for local authorities, 3,500 more play areas, 30 supervised adventure playgrounds and spaces for older teenagers to spend time. Children's play, local authorities will be warned, must be central to housing, transport and planning decisions.

Sir Alan Steer, an influential headteacher who has advised the government on the Children's Plan, which was published in December, said he welcomed the plans with “unbridled enthusiasm”.


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“We argued very strongly that children need safe places to play,” he said. “There is evidence that parents are less willing to let their children play out and that can turn into a vicious cycle, because if play areas are not used by families then we concede them to less desirable groups.”

But critics said the promises were too little, too late and accused the government of hypocrisy because of new figures showing that 19 playing fields were sold off last year in England, despite Labour's promise in 1997 to halt such sales because they were stripping away safe places for children to play sports and keep fit.

Source: Anushka Asthana and Jo Revill, The Observer © The Observer, 30 March 2008


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5. The writer uses statistics to illustrate all of the following except:

a) Children prefer to play outdoors

b) Few children named hopscotch or hide and seek as their favourite game

c) The vast majority of children would rather go to the park than watch television on a sunny day

d) Parents think playing on computers is safer than outdoor play

e) A significant number of parents do not allow older children to play outside

6. The phrase “vicious cycle” is stated to argue which of the following:

a) The less that children play outside, the less dangerous outdoor playing becomes

b) The less that parents are willing to let their children play out, the more dangerous outdoor play areas become

c) The more that parents are willing to let their children play out, the more play areas will exist in future

d) The more play areas that are provided, the more that parents will be willing to let their children play out

e) The less that parents are willing to let their children play out, the more play areas that will exist in future

7. Which of the following statements best represents the writer’s main argument?

a) Children should go back to playing old fashioned games

b) Safe places should be provided to encourage outdoor play

c) Websites are as dangerous as outdoors play

d) Playing improves child health

e) The government are hypocrites


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3 Organic Food

Parents who want their children to eat healthily should focus more on serving them extra fruit and vegetables and less on giving them expensive organic produce, according to one of the country's leading nutrition experts. Lord Krebs, former head of the Food Standards Agency, said families were becoming “deeply confused” by conflicting messages about healthy eating.

The market for organic food reached more than £2bn last year, with most consumers from households with children under the age of 15. An average of £37m is spent each week on organic produce, mostly in south-east England.

The agency is reviewing all the evidence on nutritional differences between organic and non-organic food to see if it needs to alter its recommendations to consumers; at present, these are that there is no safety or health reason for switching to organic. Two recent studies suggesting that there may be benefits to eating organic tomatoes and drinking organic milk have prompted a fresh look at the evidence.

However, according to Krebs, an eminent scientist and principal of Jesus College, Oxford, there is still no reliable, peer-reviewed evidence to show that there is any clear health benefit to eating this “green” produce. “The organic message can sometimes be a distortion from the more important messages,” said Krebs. “If a parent is asking," how can I improve the health of my children?" they may think, "Oh, I can give them organic food". But that is far less important than the decision to feed them more fruit and vegetables, or the decision to give them less salt.' His concerns about the claims made for organic produce were that 'they add to the mix of confusion in people's minds about what it means to eat healthily'.

When Krebs chaired the agency, he came under pressure to validate claims that organic food was better for people - but refused to endorse the produce.

However, the Soil Association still maintains that organic food is better for health. A spokeswoman said: “There is now a rapidly growing body of evidence which shows significant differences between the nutritional composition of organic and non-organic food. Studies have shown that on average organic food has higher levels of iron, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and vitamin C.”

A European Union-funded project, involving 33 academic centres across Europe and led by Newcastle University, is now investigating the nature of produce from organic and non-organic farming techniques.

According to the Soil Association, one conclusion is clear: “Organically produced crops and dairy milk usually contain more beneficial compounds such as vitamins and antioxidants,” said the spokeswoman. “The research has shown up to 40 per cent more beneficial compounds in vegetable crops and up to 90 per cent more in milk.” But Krebs said: “I think protecting consumers is about telling them the honest truth so that they can make up their own mind, informed by impartial evidence.”

A spokesperson for the agency said: “The weight of current scientific evidence does not support claims that organic food is more nutritious or safer than conventionally produced food. However, a number of new studies have recently emerged focusing on nutritional differences between organic and non-organic food.”

Source: Jo Revill, The Observer © The Observer, 30 March 2008


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8. What is denoted specifically by the use of the phrase “green” produce?

a) Organic food

b) Organic tomatoes and organic milk

c) Fruit and vegetables

d) Organic tomatoes

e) Organic milk

9. What is the Soil Association’s main argument in the penultimate paragraph?

a) Vegetables are more beneficial than milk

b) Vitamins and anti-oxidants are beneficial compounds

c) Organic produce is healthier because it contains more beneficial compounds

d) It is important that consumers make up their own mind

e) Organic crops contain 40% more beneficial compounds

10. Which of the following arguments is not made by Krebs?

a) Non-organic food is better than organic food

b) Conflicting messages about healthy eating were confusing

c) The evidence of the benefits of “green” produce is unreliable

d) The organic message distorts other messages

e) It is more important to feed children more fruit and vegetables rather than feeding them organic produce


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4 Online Privacy

It will come as no surprise to anyone who has used the internet that online search engines retain a history of our previous searches and the identity of our computer. Indeed, it often makes our life easier to find that a page we have previously visited remembers us. But how long would most of us estimate that websites hold this information for? A day, perhaps? A week?

The answer is that Google, the world's top search engine, retains this data for up to 18 months; and other popular search sites do so for a similar period. That is long enough to make even the most net-savvy pause for thought. A report by EU data protection commissioners last week argued that it sees no need for search engines to keep such data beyond six months; and that Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and so-called "cookie" monitoring constitute personal information, which search engines ought to do more to protect.

Google was defiant yesterday, arguing that data retention is essential to its search engine software and quibbling with the commissioners' finding that IP addresses should be subject to the full weight of the data protection laws. But the public mood seems to be moving against the web titans. When it emerged last year that Facebook was sending adverts to users after tracking their web-surfing trail, an uproar from the networking site's users forced it to change to an "opt-in", rather than an "opt-out", system. If Google insists on taking the lead in resisting the EU commissioners on data retention, the company might easily find itself on the wrong end of a similar user revolt.

This is essentially a question of privacy. An individual's search history, if collated over a long enough period, paints a pretty comprehensive picture of a person's interests, relations and intentions. Such information is valuable, perhaps even dangerous, in the wrong hands. The individual user should have access and control of this – not a corporation, or an advertiser.

It is not all one way, of course. We all need to be much more careful about what we post on the internet, particularly on social networking sites (which retain information not just for 18 months, but indefinitely). There have been a number of cases of employers checking up on prospective employees online. And many people are naively putting their personal addresses on the web, behaviour which can easily be exploited by identity thieves.

But the EU commissioners are right to argue that the inclination of the search engines to store as much information on individual users as possible needs to be reined in. Such sites should be allowed to keep hold of enough information to deliver a good service for trawling the web – and not a byte more.

Source: The Independent Editorial © The Independent 9th April 2008


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11. The writer uses the “uproar” over Facebook’s advertising to argue which of the following?

a) Facebook should not have sent adverts to users

b) Facebook and Google are “web titans”

c) The revolt against Facebook means that Google will face a similar customer revolt

d) The changing public mood might lead to a similar customer revolt against Google

e) “Opt-in” systems are better than “opt-out” systems

12. What is meant by the sentence “[i]t is not all one way, of course”?

a) That individual computer users also retain personal information about other users

b) That individual users can find out information about corporations from their search histories

c) That individual users can cause harm to advertisers by getting hold of personal information

d) That both individual users and corporations and advertisers should have access and control over personal information

e) That individual users should play a role in limiting the availability of personal information on the internet

13. Which of the following is implied but not stated?

a) It is possible to develop an understanding of a person’s interests, relations and intentions by

collating their search history over a period of time.

b) More care needs to be taken about what we choose to post on the internet.

c) Those who post personal information on the internet leave themselves open to somebody

stealing their identity.

d) An individual user is more likely to be responsible and careful with their personal information than

a corporation or an advertiser.

e) Google is the world’s top search engine.


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5 Democracy

Democracy is a frequently used word but its meaning is rarely fully understood. A democratic political system is one in which the ultimate political authority is vested in the people. The word democracy comes from the Greek words "demos" which means the people and "kratos" which means authority.

Democracy may be direct, or indirect and representative. In the modern pluralistic democratic state, power typically is exercised in groups or institutions in a complex system of interactions that involves compromises and bargaining in the decision process. The democratic creed includes the following four concepts:

Individualism, which holds that the primary task of government is to enable each individual to

achieve the highest potential of development.

Liberty, which allows each individual the greatest amount of freedom consistent with order.

Equality, which maintains that all persons are created equal and have equal rights and

opportunities.

Fraternity, which postulates that individuals will not misuse their freedom but will co-operate

in creating a wholesome society.

As a political system, democracy starts with the assumption of popular sovereignty, vesting ultimate power in the people. It presupposes that people can control their destiny and that they can make moral judgements and practical decisions in their daily lives. It implies a continuing search for truth in the sense of humanity’s pursuit of improved ways of building social institutions and ordering human relations. Democracy requires a decision-making system based on majority rule, with minority rights protected.

Effective guarantees of freedom of speech, press, religion, assembly, petition and of equality before the law are indispensable to a democratic system of government. Politics, parties and politicians are the catalytic agents that make democracy workable.

For a number of centuries democracy was regarded as a dangerous and unworkable doctrine. It took a hold in the western world during the C19 and C20 and was attacked by both extreme left and right wing political groups. There are those who condemn it as mob rule that vulgarises society and as a belief that tolerates mediocrity and incompetence. It has also been criticised as a sham - a belief that can’t work as it goes against human nature. i.e. a government will claim to be democratic in name but in practice it will decide what it will do for the people as an election victory has given it the public mandate to do this but it will rarely - if at all - use referendums to fully find out what the public think about potential legislation during the life time of that government.

Plano and Greenberg believe that for democracy to work in its purest form it needs to have certain pre-requisites. Society has to be educated and responsible. The state must have a degree of economic stability. Social cohesion and social consensus must exist. Above all, it requires the acceptance of the democratic "rules of the game":

There should be frequent and fair elections.

The losers must accept the verdict of the public and allow the majority to govern.

The majority will respect the right of the minority to provide the government with opposition.


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If the minority wins a future election, it will be permitted to take over the reins of

government.

Can democracy ever be created in its most perfect form? It is argued that if governments try to move in the direction of democracy then they have the right to be labelled democratic. Democracy found in Western Europe was given a huge boost in the 1980s and 1990s when many communist governments gave way to what were termed democratic ones. The same thing is occurring in the Third World which is further undermining the hold of authoritarian regimes and giving a further boost to western style democracy.

Source: historylearningsite.co.uk


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14. Which of the following statements is consistent with the description of democracy in the

extract?

a) “In a democratic political system the ultimate power is vested in the head of state”

b) “Democracy is concerned solely with the views, rights and opinions of the majority”

c) “Protections of freedom of speech, religion, press and equality before the law are necessary

but not sufficient to create a democratic system”

d) “Democracy is a western concept and therefore does not work in the Third World”

e) “Democracy implies an acceptance that humanity has reached the pinnacle of building social

institutions and ordering human relations”

15. Which of the following is not shown in the extract?

a) The etymology of the word democracy lies in the language of Ancient Greece.

b) Democracy opposes an elite group holding power indefinitely.

c) Democratic political systems became popular in the western world in the 1800s and 1900s.

d) The concept of liberty postulates that individuals should be afforded as much freedom as

possible without compromising order.

e) The concept of individualism postulates that individuals should be able to make

autonomous decisions without the interference of government.

16. Which of the following are given in the extract as examples of criticisms of democracy?

a) Democracy invariably leads to corruption.

b) Democracy is a system supported by extreme right and extreme left wing political groups.

c) Democratic governments cannot use referendums to find out what the electorate really

think.

d) Democracy is at odds with human nature and is therefore unworkable.

e) Democracy assumes that people can control their destiny and make moral decisions in daily

life.

17. What is the author’s main point in the final paragraph?

a) Countries which move towards the adoption of democratic principles, such as former

communist states in the 1980s and 1990s, can be labelled democratic.

b) Democracy in its most perfect form is entirely unobtainable.

c) The Third World should have adopted democratic principles in the 1980s and 1990s.

d) Governments should not be labelled democratic unless they adopt full democratic principles

e) A democratic government is one which accepts the democratic “rules of the game”.


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6 Mars

The planet Mars, I scarcely need remind the reader, revolves about the sun at a mean distance of 140,000,000 miles, and the light and heat it receives from the sun is barely half of that received by this world. It must be, if the nebular hypothesis has any truth, older than our world; and long before this earth ceased to be molten, life upon its surface must have begun its course. The fact that it is scarcely one seventh of the volume of the earth must have accelerated its cooling to the temperature at which life could begin. It has air and water and all that is necessary for the support of animated existence.

Yet so vain is man, and so blinded by his vanity, that no writer, up to the very end of the nineteenth century, expressed any idea that intelligent life might have developed there far, or indeed at all, beyond its earthly level. Nor was it generally understood that since Mars is older than our earth, with scarcely a quarter of the superficial area and remoter from the sun, it necessarily follows that it is not only more distant from time's beginning but nearer its end.

The secular cooling that must someday overtake our planet has already gone far indeed with our neighbour. Its physical condition is still largely a mystery, but we know now that even in its equatorial region the midday temperature barely approaches that of our coldest winter. Its air is much more attenuated than ours, its oceans have shrunk until they cover but a third of its surface, and as its slow seasons change huge snowcaps gather and melt about either pole and periodically inundate its temperate zones. That last stage of exhaustion, which to us is still incredibly remote, has become a present-day problem for the inhabitants of Mars. The immediate pressure of necessity has brightened their intellects, enlarged their powers, and hardened their hearts. And looking across space with instruments, and intelligences such as we have scarcely dreamed of, they see, at its nearest distance only 35,000,000 of miles sunward of them, a morning star of hope, our own warmer planet, green with vegetation and grey with water, with a cloudy atmosphere eloquent of fertility, with glimpses through its drifting cloud wisps of broad stretches of populous country and narrow, navy-crowded seas.

And we men, the creatures who inhabit this earth, must be to them at least as alien and lowly as are the monkeys and lemurs to us. The intellectual side of man already admits that life is an incessant struggle for existence, and it would seem that this too is the belief of the minds upon Mars. Their world is far gone in its cooling and this world is still crowded with life, but crowded only with what they regard as inferior animals. To carry warfare sunward is, indeed, their only escape from the destruction that, generation after generation, creeps upon them.

Source: H.G. Wells: ‘War of the Worlds’ 1898 © The Literary Executors of the Estate of HG Wells


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18. What unstated assumption is not made in the first paragraph?

a) Less heat and light is received by planets further from the sun

b) Mars is further from the sun than Earth

c) If a planet is older, life must have begun there longer ago

d) Smaller planets cool quicker than larger planets

e) There could still now be life on Mars

19. The writer uses “man’s vanity” to argue which of the following about writers up to the end of the nineteenth century?

a) That they believed that there was no life on Mars

b) That they had not contemplated the possibility of life on Mars

c) That they did not believe that life on Mars had advanced further than the level of life on Earth

d) That they believed that there was life on Mars below the level of life on Earth

e) That they did not believe life on Mars to be a threat to Earth

20. Which of the following is not given as a reason, whether implicity or explicity, directly or indirectly, for the inhabitants of Mars’ attraction to Earth.

a) “The immediate pressure of necessity”

b) “Its physical condition is still largely a mystery”

c) Earth’s “cloudy atmosphere eloquent of fertility”

d) That Earth is crowded only with what they regard as “inferior animals”

e) “Its air is much more attenuated than ours”


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21. Which of the following scenarios would most closely correspond with the decision by the inhabitants of Mars to travel here?

a) Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany.

b) Christopher Columbus’ discovery of the ‘New World’.

c) Neil Armstrong’s journey to the Moon.

d) ‘Climate change refugees’ leaving Sudan in search of water and fertile soil.

e) The Hajj, the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca.


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7 Stop and Search

Thankfully, we left many things behind in the 1970s - tank tops, ghastly Blue Nun wine and hairy-chested medallion men. None of these things should be allowed to see the light of day again. They were the trivial things. There was also the serious stuff. That decade was stained by the grossly prejudicial behaviour by police officers directed mostly at young Asian and black men. It was what we used to call "sus" – stopping people because you suspected their motives. Today’s report by Sir Ronnie Flanagan has re-opened the debate about stop and search. We at the Equality and Human Rights Commission will want to be sure that his recommendations don't reopen the door to the bad old days.

There's been a lot of political noise in the past week about the fact that young black people are more exposed to serious violence of various kinds than others. This is said to justify changing the level of accountability we should demand from the police. I entirely agree that, in the end, there can be no liberty without security, and that minority communities are desperate for an end to the crime which – at its worse - is killing our children. But the answers have to be effective; as David Cameron argued last week we shouldn't apply 1980s thinking to 21st century problems. Sadly, he is in danger of calling for the effective return of “sus” and the offences widely known to minority communities as "driving while black” or “walking at night while Asian".

I genuinely hope that Flanagan doesn't fall into the same trap. Having touched down, just a few hours ago, from a trip to New York, I wonder if anyone here is actually paying attention to what really works. In America, the idea that you cut crime or fear of crime by giving police more powers is guaranteed to provoke a hollow round of laughter among both young people and law enforcement staff.

On Tuesday, I spent the afternoon talking to teenagers and younger children about education and crime in one of the city's most murderous districts, Brownsville in Brooklyn. I remember during a visit to the same district as a teenager being told to make sure I got out of the area before dark. On this occasion I was with one of my nephews who leads a project for the Police Athletic League. This is an organisation run by the city’s own police staff, dedicated to out of school activities for some of the most deprived children in New York. He was assigned a year ago to run the Brownsville programme after it had been lethally undermined by drugs, prostitution and corruption. Within months of his arrival, two of his small team of staff had been shot dead. If ever there were a case for rough, tough, no-compromise policing, this was it.

Yet in New York's black districts, "freeing the police" failed when the former mayor, Rudy Giuliani, tried it. In spite of his tough guy image on the international stage the spectacular collapse of his presidential campaign owed something to the fact that he is disliked by many white New Yorkers and virtually all African-Americans in the city.

His police department was encouraged to seek out and to confront street criminals using waves of stop and search, based on little but a hunch. Mysteriously the hunches always seemed to be prompted by the sight of a black man; and the so called "tough" strategy, already discredited by a series of convictions for police brutality, was effectively abandoned after police shot an innocent, unarmed African refugee 47 times. Once introduced, the habits die hard. Last year a young black man with no hint of involvement in crime was gunned down by police outside a restaurant where he was celebrating with friends the night before his wedding.

Source: Trevor Philips ‘Stop and Search’ © Equality and Human Rights Commission 2008


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22. The writer uses the example of his visit to America for all of the following purposes except which?

a) To show a situation where “tough” policing might be called for

b) To show that Flanagan is wrong

c) To show that stop and search has been discredited

d) To show that stop and search can be unpopular

e) To show that Guliani’s approach failed

23. Which of the following is a statement of opinion?

a) “His police department was encouraged to seek out and to confront street criminals”

b) “In New York's black districts, "freeing the police" failed”

c) “Young black people are more exposed to serious violence”

d) “None of these things should be allowed to see the light of day again”

e) “Flanagan has re-opened the debate about stop and search”

24. For what reason does the writer use quotation marks in the first two paragraphs of the passage?

a) To identify criminal offences

b) To signify colloquially used terms

c) To denote irony

d) To quote somebody who said these words

e) To single out concepts invented by David Cameron

25. All of the following words/ phrases advance the argument in the extract except:

a) “I entirely agree that...”

b) “But...”

c) “Yet...”

d) “I genuinely hope that”

e) “This is an organisation”


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8 Reintroducing Wildlife

“When you have radical ideas like this, people think you're a crackpot," says Paul Lister. The Scottish landowner is a man on a mission. He plans to wind back the clock at his estate in the Highlands by repopulating the land with a raft of animals that have not been seen in Britain for hundreds of years - including brown bears, lynx and wolves. “What I'm aiming is to create a wilderness and wildlife reserve similar to those that exist in Southern Africa; something that is controlled, managed and fenced," he told BBC News. “It is nothing like Britain or Europe has ever seen before."

The idea for the proposed project came to Mr Lister years ago. He explained: “The main problem we have in Scotland is a complete overpopulation of red deer. We probably have triple or quadruple the number of red deer than we can sustain”. “When I was 20, I was out shooting deer and I started thinking about why we were having to cull so many of them. And the reason was that we got rid of all the predators years ago”. “By bringing large predators back - wolves, lynxes and bears - then we would end up with a more healthy and balanced population of ungulates.”

He is keen to point out that he is not trying to reintroduce animals back into the wild, rather he is aiming for a "controlled release" into a 50,000 acre (20,000 hectare) fenced enclosure.

A BBC Natural World team has been following Mr Lister set up his multi-million pound scheme. And it has all started with animals that have not been seen in the wild in Britain for many centuries - a pair of moose (Alces alces, also referred to as elk in Europe). They have recently arrived from Sweden and have been settling into a 450 acre (180 hectare) enclosure within Mr Lister's Alladale Estate. They join some newly introduced wild boar and also 80,000 Caledonian pine, juniper, hazel and birch trees, which have recently been planted to bring back the land that he bought four years ago from its "desert state".

But while a couple of moose and some new flora are unlikely to attract too much debate, the proposed plan to introduce larger predators to his fenced reserve has provoked more controversy. Local farmers are worried about the impact on local livestock should any large predators escape from the Alladale Estate.

On the other hand, the proposed fence to keep animals in is worrying local ramblers who want to safeguard their right to roam. And while some ecologists are onboard with Mr Lister's idea, others have concerns. Timothy Coulson, professor of population biology at Imperial College London, says: “In many ways, I think this is a nice idea and I applaud him for investing the time and money to see if this will work. However, the proposed area for the reserve is too small to viably support, in the long run, an ecosystem containing large predators. A single pack of wolves will cover a huge territory, so in 50,000 acres you could probably just have one pack, and for long term survival, the animal population would have to be actively managed.”

Mr Lister points out that there is still much to do before larger predators can be brought in. For a start, he says, he needs to increase the size of his estate from 23,000 acres to 50,000 acres and there is also the need to bring his neighbours on board, as well as to navigate through the reams of red tape the project would involve. However, he is optimistic, and believes the reserve could be up and running in two to five years.

Source: Rebecca Morelle: ‘Moose back on the loose’ © British Broadcasting Corporation 2008


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26. Which of the following arguments in favour of Mr Lister’s scheme is not advanced by Mr Lister himself?

a) The population of red deer in Scotland is unsustainable

b) The introduction of herbivores and plants is uncontroversial

c) People with adventurous ideas are stigmatised

d) The introduction of natural predators into Scotland would restore the natural balance

e) Managed animal reserves have been shown to work in Southern Africa

27. What specific criticism is made of Mr Lister’s idea for a “controlled release”?

a) Wild animals might attack livestock

b) The controlled area is too small

c) The environmental benefits of such a release are unclear

d) Neighbours are not yet “on board”

e) People are uneasy about the introduction of larger predators

28. If true, which of the following facts would most strengthen Mr Lister’s argument for his proposed project?

a) An increase in environmental rules and regulations

b) The expansion of Mr Lister’s estate

c) Funding from the BBC Natural World team

d) An increase in deer hunters in Scotland

e) A decrease in local ramblers in the region


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9 NHS Reforms

Prof Steve Field, the chair of the listening exercise, published his report into the government’s

proposed NHS reforms today. He recommends that competition should be toned down, with

Monitor no longer having a duty to encourage it. Nurses and hospital doctors should be

accommodated to sit alongside GPs on the commissioning consortia, and there should be more

public and patient accountability in the system. Furthermore, the plans should only go ahead

when commissioning consortia are ready and are not tied to the 2013 deadline.

All this is certainly different from the original bill. But, will it be enough to save the NHS? The NHS

structures were already collapsing before the legislation had even been passed. The government

still wants to waste £2bn promised for patient care on the coalition attempts at a reorganisation

of the NHS, which could force many hospitals to make sweeping cost cutbacks that do little to

improve efficiency.

The fragmentation of the NHS will continue with healthcare opened up for private companies to

profit from. The bill will still break David Cameron's pre-election promises to "protect the NHS",

guarantee a "real rise in funding" and "stop top-down NHS reorganisations".

It is a triumph of politics over policies, putting the future of a fragile coalition ahead of the NHS.

The health and social care bill breaks up the NHS at both national and local level, it takes public

accountability away, and it unleashes the genie of competition. In my view David Cameron needs

to scrap the bill, and stop trying to win this battle.

Cameron has described himself as "passionate about the NHS", and has stated that the NHS is

Britain's most precious national asset that he has no intention of putting at risk. But this bill will

be to the detriment of every aspect of the health service.

Few would disagree when Cameron says he wants to improve cancer and respiratory disease

survival rates so that Britain is closer to its European neighbours. But this bill does nothing to

achieve these goals. Few would contradict Cameron when he says the NHS needs to become

more efficient, more integrated, more flexible, less top-down, more local.

Politicians from every party and everyone working in the health service can see that. But this bill

seriously risks making worse all that is wrong with the NHS rather than resolving the problems.

The prime minister's speech outlining five "personal guarantees" and tweaking the bill has been

welcomed by the BMA as a "step in the right direction". I sincerely hope when BMA analyse the

speech they will find there is nothing different in it to seriously address the concerns its

membership raised about this bill. Cameron and Andrew Lansley portray the reforms as an

evolution of what was already happening. This is of course misleading. The plan is to actually

change the fundamental system of the NHS, in a way that is irreversible. That is why the

legislation is sought.

The majority of independent commentators on health policy agree that Cameron's stated aims

could be achieved more cheaply without legislation.


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Lansley's aims of putting patients at the heart of care, involving clinicians in decisions about the

provision of services and reducing managerial costs, could be achieved without the massive

structural upheavals of abolishing PCTs and SHAs. Even at this late stage, the new formed PCT

cluster boards could be restructured, to give much better representation of clinicians, members of

the public and accountable members of local government.

The present costly healthcare "market" could be abolished, saving billions in transaction costs and

going some way to achieving the £20bn "efficiency savings" demanded by Sir David Nicholson.

It appears that Prof Field has helped Cameron to keep the overall package on track – despite huge professional and public opposition. The bill – with its 281 clauses and 22 schedules – will still create a regulated, centrally driven market, whether we like it or not.

Source: Will the NHS reforms work? A GP's view, by Dr. Kailash Chand, The Guardian, June 2011


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29. Who, according to the extract, believes that there should be more public and patient

accountability in the NHS system?

a) David Cameron.

b) The BMA.

c) The author of the extract.

d) Sir David Nicholson.

e) Professor Steve Field.

30. What does the author mean when he says that the proposed NHS reform “unleashes the genie

of competition”?

a) That the reform removes public accountability from the NHS.

b) That the health and social care bill breaks up the NHS at both national and local level.

c) That if competition in the public health sector is permitted now, the government will find it

very difficult to stop it in the future.

d) That the proposed reforms are the stuff of fairytales.

e) That the government is putting the future of the coalition government ahead of the

wellbeing of the NHS.

31. Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the author’s argument?

a) Spending £2bn on reorganisation of the NHS will improve care for a considerable number of

patients.

b) Sweeping hospital cutbacks will increase the quality of treatment given to seriously ill

patients.

c) The legislation will cause waiting times in Accident & Emergency Departments to increase

significantly.

d) Reform within the NHS can be achieved without any additional costs.

e) The quality of national healthcare will decline generally because of the legislation.


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32. Which of the following is a statement of fact?

a) “Cameron has described himself as "passionate about the NHS"”

b) “The bill will still break Cameron’s pre-election promises”

c) “This bill does nothing to achieve these goals”

d) “It is a triumph of politics over policy”

e) “The NHS is Britain’s most precious national asset”


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10 Lights Out

When it comes to all things "green", common sense seems to have been abandoned. Our failure to think clearly about such matters would be amusing if the potential consequences were not so serious.

Consider the recent "lights out" campaign that supposedly should energise the world about the problems of climate change by urging citizens in 27 big cities to turn out their lights for an hour. With scores of companies and municipalities signing up, and even the monarchies of Denmark and Sweden turning off the lights in their many palaces, the World Wildlife Fund quickly called it an amazing success. Newspapers around the world dutifully wrote feel-good stories about how engaged environmentalists celebrated as the lights went out around the world. Nobody, it seemed, wanted to spoil the party by pointing that the event was immensely futile, that it highlighted a horrible metaphor, or that it caused much higher overall pollution.

Danish newspapers - coincidentally in the native country of the story of the Emperor's New Clothes - happily quoted the WWF regarding the event's overwhelming success. But the entire savings (assuming people didn't use more energy later in the night to make up for lost time) amounted to just ten tons of CO2 - equivalent to just one Dane's annual emissions for a full year. Measuring the avoided climate impact for the indefinite future, the entire combined efforts of the queen, many companies, and the city halls of Copenhagen and other cities yielded $20 worth of good.

Are pointless gestures really the way to secure a greener future? And what sort of message does turning out the lights send?

As some conservative commentators like to point out, the environmental movement has indeed become a dark force, not metaphorically, but literally. Indeed, urging us to sit in darkness will probably only make us realise how unlikely it is that we will ever be persuaded to give up the advantages of fossil fuels. Curiously, nobody suggested that the "lights out" campaign should also mean no air conditioning, telephones, Internet, movies, hot food, warm coffee, or cold drinks - not to mention the loss of security when street lights and traffic signals don't work. Perhaps recruiting support would have been much harder had the Danes also had to turn off their heat.

Ironically, the lights-out campaign also implies much greater energy inefficiency and dramatically higher levels of air pollution. When asked to extinguish electric lights, most people around the world would turn to candlelight instead. Candles are cozy and seem oh-so-natural. Yet, when measured by the light they generate, candles are almost 100 times less efficient than incandescent light bulbs, and more than 300 times less efficient than fluorescent lights.

Moreover, candles create massive amounts of highly damaging indoor particulate air pollution, which in the United States is estimated to kill more than a 100,000 people each year. Candles can easily create indoor air pollution that is 10-100 times the level of outdoor air pollution caused by cars, industry, and electricity production. Measured against the relative decrease in air pollution from the reduced fossil fuel energy production, candles increase health-damaging air pollution 1,000-10,000-fold.

Unfortunately, the “lights-out” campaign exemplifies the state of much of our environmental debate. We are spoon fed stories that fit preconceived frameworks. For example, the recent breakup of a massive glacier in the Antarctic supposedly proves the mounting effects of global warming. But we don't hear that the area was ice-free, possibly just some 400 years ago,


26

without the help of global warming. We don't hear that the Wilkins glacier makes up less than 0.01% of Antarctica. Nor do we hear that the Antarctic is experiencing record sea ice coverage since satellite measurements began.

Source: Björn Lomborg: ‘Lights Out?’© The Guardian 2008


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33. What does the writer mean when he describes the “lights out” campaign as a “horrible metaphor”?

a) The “lights out” campaign actually made the world darker

b) The “lights out” campaign contributed to global warming

c) Denmark and Sweden turned out lights in bright palaces

d) Nobody wanted to ruin the party

e) The “lights out” campaign represents dim thinking

34. Which of the following statements does the author consider inaccurate?

a) “Candles can easily create indoor air pollution that is 10-100 times the level of outdoor air pollution”

b) “The recent breakup of a massive glacier in the Antarctic… proves the mounting effects of global warming”

c) “The entire savings… amounted to just ten tons of CO2”

d) “The Wilkins glacier makes up less than 0.01% of Antarctica”

e) “Candles are almost 100 times less efficient than incandescent light bulbs”

35. How does the writer say that the environmental movement has literally “become a dark force”?

a) Because they urge us to sit in the dark

b) Because their motives are dark

c) Because candles are darker than lightbulbs

d) Because their campaign will urge us to use more fossil fuels

e) Because their campaign is entitled “lights out”


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11 Ticket Prices

Fancy going to see a band or a show? What about a footie match? Where are you going to get your tickets? You could always go to the box office or ring them up and get them sent to your house. But, hey, everything gets done online these days. And you're buying the tickets so early, you must be getting a good price, right? Why not use one of these agencies' websites? They look cool.

But hold on, that might not be such a good idea if you end up paying over the odds for your tickets. There'll be added costs for postage, then there's a booking fee and what about VAT on top of the price? You could pay over £30 for a £20 ticket eventually. How are ticket prices worked out for arts entertainment? How clear is the ticket price information? What rules govern ticket agency services? Is everyone happy with using ticket agents? Is anyone investigating them?

Some of the most interesting work on ticket sales for entertainment events was carried out in 1996 by Philip Leslie at Stanford Graduate School of Business, USA. What Leslie did was to analyse data for all 199 performances of the play, “Seven Guitars”, which played on Broadway in 1996. He found that there was a great deal of price discrimination at work. This is an entirely legal practice: price discrimination is when the same product or service is sold in different markets for different prices.

Also known as multiple pricing, price discrimination means that in any one audience there could be many people who have paid different prices for what is essentially the same service. In the case of “Seven Guitars”, Leslie found that the show's producers had been especially busy with their use of multiple pricing. He found a total of 17 different price categories, depending on factors such as seat quality, payment method, buying channel used and special discounts offered.

Leslie compared the practice of price discrimination to a uniform pricing policy, where one price is charged to all members of the audience. He found that consumers are largely unaffected by price discrimination, whereas producers benefit to the tune of around 5% increase in profits. In this case, Leslie found that price discrimination is a good thing, helping firms make higher profits without it harming consumers' welfare.

But Leslie also investigated the use of ticket booths, which sold tickets to the show in question at a 50% discount. These provided a significant source of revenue for the show's producers. But he found that it would have benefited the producers more if the booths only offered a 30% discount on the ticket price. This is because at a 30% discount, more consumers would choose to buy the more expensive tickets over the phone, rather than going through the inconvenience of queuing up for the cheaper ones. But even at a greater discount, more tickets were sold, so Leslie concluded that a 50% discount was better than no discount at all.

Source: Bized: ‘Just the Ticket: Ticket Pricing in the UK’ © Bized (www.bized.co.uk) 2005


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36. Leslie argues all of the following in relation to “price discrimination” except which?

a) Producers benefit from price discrimination

b) Price discrimination is more profitable than uniform pricing

c) Consumers benefit from price discrimination

d) A lot of price discrimination occurs

e) Price discrimination does not affect consumer welfare

37. Which of the following is not argued, whether explicitly or implicitly, in the final paragraph?

a) A bigger discount is not necessarily more profitable

b) A 50% discount at the ticket booths is better than no discount at all

c) Consumers always prefer to queue if they will get a discount on tickets

d) Overall, a 50% discount at the ticket booths is less profitable than a 30% discount

e) Cheaper tickets can help to increase overall profits

38. Leslie uses the example of the “Seven Guitars” production for all of the following purposes except which?

a) To analyse the effectiveness of different pricing strategies

b) To provide evidence of producers’ attitudes to price discrimination

c) To provide statistical support for his analysis

d) To compare the effect on producers and consumers

e) To compare ticket booth and telephone bookings


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12. Facebook Use

The number of people using Facebook during May fell in the US, UK, Canada, Norway and Russia, according to new data. That means the site's growth has slowed for the second month in a row, even as it approaches 700 million users worldwide.

In the US the site lost about 6 million users, from 155.2 million at the start of May to 149.4 million at its end, according to data gathered from Facebook's advertising tool by the site Inside Facebook. Canada fell by 1.52 million to 16.6 million and the UK, Norway and Russia all saw falls of more than 100,000 users, the site said.

The slowing growth in user numbers may indicate that Facebook has hit the limits of expansion in the countries where it was first successful – and perhaps even that some early adopters from those countries have stopped using it.

According to the data gathered via the Facebook advertising tool, the world's largest social media site added another 11.8 million users in May, though even that was a slowing compared with April, when it added 13.9 million. Both those numbers were slower, though, compared with the 20 million who have typically been added each month over the past year to take the site to 687 million "monthly active" users – who log in at least once per month.

The drops in the US, Canada, UK and elsewhere held its growth back from the typical growth figure. Without new sources of growth, that could limit the site's total audience.

Eric Eldon of Inside Facebook noted that "by the time Facebook reaches around 50% of the total population in a given country (plus or minus, depending on internet access rates in that country), growth generally slows to a halt ... So far, Facebook has been able to make up stalls and losses with big gains in heavily populated developing countries like Mexico, Brazil, India and Indonesia."

He notes that if it is allowed into China, that growth could take off again towards 1 billion users – although he adds that getting inside the country "could both give it access to hundreds of millions of users and compromise its reputation in the US and many other countries around the world".

China's repressive approach to internet use and communication, whereby users inside the country are banned from accessing a wide range of information hosted outside the country with which the Chinese regime disagrees, has led to sites such as Facebook and Twitter being banned from direct access to Chinese net users, who outnumber the total US connected population.

Despite the month-on-month fall, the US still saw a 23% overall growth in users between May 2010 and May 2011 to 155.2 million users, while the UK grew by 10% to 29.9 million in the same period. The US is the largest country in terms of users overall, with Indonesia second with 36.4m, followed by the UK and Turkey.

The fastest-growing countries among the top 25 largest users areas during the year were Brazil and Russia, each up almost fourfold to 17.1 million and 4.6 million users respectively. A number of other countries nearly doubled their users: India (up 160% to 24.9 million), Thailand (up 143% to 9.1 million users), Egypt (up 108% to 7.1 million), Poland (up 130% to 6.1 million) and Peru (up 126% to 5.5 million).

Source: ‘Facebook growth slows for second month in a row’, Charles Arthur, guardian.co.uk June 2011

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/social-media

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/internet


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39. Which of the following is not stated in the extract?

a) The US version of Facebook lost 5.8m users in May 2011.

b) A ‘monthly active user’ uses the site at least once per month.

c) Generally speaking, in the past year Facebook has added 20 million users each month.

d) Facebook will grow to more than 1 billion users when it is given access to the Chinese

market.

e) India has more users than Brazil and Russia combined.

40. What does the author suggest as a possible cause for the slow in growth of Facebook users?

a) Early users of Facebook, in the countries where it was originally successful, ceasing to

use the website.

b) China’s repressive approach to internet use and communication.

c) Big gains in users from heavily populated developing countries.

d) The current economic situation.

e) None of the above.

41. Which of the following can logically be inferred from Eric Eldon’s comments about China in

the 7th paragraph?

a) Western governments would resist Facebook being made available to Chinese users.

b) Any potential gain in Chinese users could be offset by the loss of dissatisfied users in the

US and many other countries around the world.

c) Facebook does not want to compromise its reputation in the US.

d) The Chinese government will take a more progressive approach to internet use and

communication in the future.

e) Facebook is solely concerned with increasing user numbers and making profits.

42. According to the author, with what does the Chinese regime disagree?

a) Facebook and Twitter.

b) Internet use.

c) Chinese citizens using products and services created in America.

d) Certain information which is hosted outside of China.

e) The description of their policy on internet use and communication as “repressive”.

END OF SECTION


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Section B: Essay

Answer ONE of the following questions. Your answer should be a reasoned and substantiated argument, which justifies your response to the question. Your essay must be no longer than 750 words. 1. Can we still enjoy cheap air travel whilst combating global warming? 2. Is nuclear power the only practical solution to our future energy needs?

3. “The declining popularity of marriage is responsible for many of society’s ills.”

4. “Positive discrimination can never be justified to achieve equality.” Do you agree?

5. Does alcohol do as much harm as illegal drugs?

END OF PAPER

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