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CAMBRIDGELEARNING CENTERTABLE OF CONTENTSPASSAGE ONE . 1PASSAGE TWO .3PASSAGE THREE .5PASSAGE FOUR 7PASSAGE FIVE . 9ANSWER KEY . 11TABLE OF CONTENTS

CAMBRIDGEPASSAGE 1Another shiver of fear swept across Britainwhen Jack Cunningham, the minister ofagriculture, announced plans for a ban on the saleof beef bones because of the possibility that they5 could pass mad-cow disease (BSE) to humans.Within hours of the news, supermarkets aroundthe country had begun to take oxtail, T-bone steakand beef ribs off their shelves.The announcement added to the woes of10 Britain’s already mutinous beef-farmers. Evenbefore Mr. Cunningham made his unexpectedannouncement, Welsh farmers, hit by falling beefprices and the continuing European Union ban onBritish beef exports, had been blockading ports15 and hurling imports of Irish beef into the sea. Butfor the most British people, the future of beefprices is the least of their worries. Thegovernment announcement has raised newquestions about the safety of beef, and raised20 again the nightmare scenario of a wide-scaleepidemic of new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease(NVCJD), the human equivalent of BSE. Obviousquestions are again being asked. Is any beef safeto eat? Is milk safe to drink? And how much do25 we now know about the chances of an epidemic ofNVCJD?The difficulties in answering thesequestions are threefold. Prion diseases —comprising BSE, all forms of CJD, scrapie (the30 sheep equivalent) and some others — are amongthe most mysterious diseases known to science. Itis not even clear what causes them, let aloneanything else. As there is still no test to tellwhether animals are infected, experiments to find35 out whether or not beef is safe takes ages. Thebest experimental model is the mouse, but infectedmice may take two years to show signs andsymptoms of prion diseases. NVCJD is so newthat it is impossible to make any reliable40 predications about the potential for an epidemic.Crucial variables ford such forecasts, like theaverage time from infection to disease in people,or the variation around that average, simplycannot be determined yet.PASSAGE 1LEARNING CENTERJohn Major’s government first announcedthe possible connection between BSE and NVCJDin March last year. In Britain 22 people are nowknown to have died from the new disease, andanother handful are sick. Meanwhile, a steady drip50 of experimental results has diminished theuncertainty over whether or not the two diseasesare the same. Most recently, experiments on micethat compared different kinds of prion diseasesshowed not only that NVCJD and BSE had the55 same incubation time but the same pathology inthe brain — and that this was different from eitherscrapie or other forms of CJD.45But unfortunately, hardly anything isknown about how BSE might be transmitted to60 people. The government’s ban on bones is aresponse to experiments that suggest that bonemarrow and some types of nerve tissue besides thebrain and spinal cord can cause disease in mice.But since the dose required to cause disease in65 people is unknown, it is impossible to know howlarge any risk might be.Nonetheless, at the same time that heannounced the ban, Mr. Cunningham insisted thatother cuts of British beer are still safe to eat. In his70 favor, the latest estimates suggest that theepidemic of BSE in cattle is dying out, and thatBritish herds may be free of the disease by early inthe next century. Thus, in a painful irony, whatrisk there is from beef products may be lower now75 than it has been at any point in the past ten years.But this will do nothing to reassure frightenedconsumers, nor the European countries keen tomaintain their ban on exports.1

CAMBRIDGEPASSAGE 1 - QUESTIONS1) Which of the following, if true, would most weakenthe “best experimental model” (line 36) presented inthe passage?A. some mice showed signs and symptoms of priondiseases within several months of exposureB.C.D.mice who have not yet shown symptoms of priondiseases still offer a plethora of vital informationregarding the incubation periods of these diseasesmice and humans differ greatly in theirsymptomatic reactions to the forms of CJDstudied thus farcurrent prediction regarding the potential dangersof prion diseases are tenuous and unreliable2) Which of the following pieces of information wouldmost likely aid researches in predicting a potentialNVCJD epidemic?A. how scrapie is transmitted from one species toanotherB.C.D.the variations in average incubation time in thebrainhow effective the human immune system is infighting some prion diseasesthe average time from infections to disease3) According to the passage why does Jack Cunningham'sannouncement present a “painful irony” (line 73)?A. although certain cuts of beef have been banned,recent estimates suggest that the risk of diseaseridden beef may be lower now than it has in thelast ten yearsB. regardless of current estimates of the risk ofdisease infested beef, consumer skepticism of thesafety of beef will most likely persistC. Cunningham is needlessly frightening the publicand is carelessly damaging the beef industryD. the ban of only certain cuts of beef is based on thetenuous findings of the transmission of BSEthrough bone marrowPASSAGE 1 - QUESTIONSLEARNING CENTER4) The passage implies that Welsh farmers “had beenblockading ports and hurling imports of Irish beef intothe sea” (lines 14-15) asA. a reaction to the government’s recentannouncement regarding the ban of certain cuts ofbeefB. a means of intercepting possibly infected beefbefore reaching the consumerC. an effort to underscore the impacts of the ban onthe Irish beef-farmersD. a rebellious reaction to falling prices and bans onBritish beef5) The main point of the passage is toA. a richness discuss some of the ramifications ofprion diseases on the British beef industryB. present some recent developments surroundingNVCJDC. demonstrate the effectiveness of bans that limitthe impetus of a potential epidemicD. outline the difficulties in studying BSE6) According to the passage, how have researchersdifferentiated BSE from scrapie?A. by examining nerve tissue other than the brainand spinal cordB. by studying incubation time and pathology in thebrainC.D.by comparing the average time from infection todiseaseby developing new tests to determine how thesediseases are transmitted7) The author mentions “a steady drip of experimentalresults” (lines 49-50) to indicate theta these resultsyieldA. definitive answers to the once mystery connectionbetween BSE and NVCJDB. persistent theoretical incongruities between thevarious prion diseasesC. small bits of information on a consistent basisD. inconclusive evidence in most cases2

CAMBRIDGEPASSAGE 2Few men exhibit greater diversity, or, if wemay so express it, greater antithesis of character,than the native warrior of North America. In war,he is daring, boastful, cunning, ruthless, self5 denying, and self-devoted; in peace, just,generous, hospitable, revengeful, superstitious,modest, and commonly chaste. These arequalities, it is true, which do not distinguish allalike; but they are so far the predominating traits10 of these remarkable people as to be characteristic.1520253035It is generally believed that the Aboriginesof the American continent have an Asiatic origin.There are many physical as well as moral factswhich corroborate this opinion, and some few thatwould seem to weigh against it. The color of theIndian, the writer believes, is peculiar to himself,and while his cheek-bones have a very strikingindication of a Tartar origin, his eyes have not.Climate may have had great influence on theformer, but it is difficult to see hot it can haveproduced the substantial difference which exists inthe latter. The imagery of the Indian, both in hispoetry and in his oratory, is oriental; chastened,and perhaps improved, by the limited range of hispractical knowledge. He draws his metaphorsfrom the clouds, the seasons, the birds, the bests,and the vegetable world. In this, perhaps he doesno more than any other energetic and imaginativerace would do, being compelled to set bounds tofancy by experience; but the North AmericanIndian clothes his ideas in a dress which isdifferent from that of the African, and is orientalin itself. His language has the richness andsententious fullness of the Chinese. He willexpress a phrase in a word, and he will qualify themeaning of an entire sentence by a syllable; hewill even convey different significations by thesimplest inflections of the voice.LEARNING CENTER45 and dialects. The writer remembers to have been50556065present at an interview between two chiefs of theGreat Prairies west of the Mississippi, and whenan interpreter was in attendance who spoke boththeir languages. The warriors appeared to be onthe most friendly terms, and seemingly conversedmuch together; yet, according to the account ofthe interpreter, each was absolutely ignorant ofwhat the other said. They were of hostile tribes,brought together by the influence of the Americangovernment; and it is worthy of remark, that acommon policy led them both to adopt the samesubject. They mutually exhorted each other to beof us in the event of the chances of war throwingeither of the parties into the hands of his enemies.Whatever may be the truth, as respects the rootand the genius of the Indian tongues, it is quitecertain they are now so distance in their words asto possess most of the disadvantages of strangelanguages; hence much of the embarrassment thathas arisen in learning their histories, and most ofthe uncertainty which exists in their traditions.Philologists have said that there are but40 two or there languages, properly speaking, amongall the numerous tribes which formerly occupiedthe country that now composes in the UnitedStates. They ascribe the known difficulty onepeople have to understand another to corruptionsPASSAGE TWO3