DAILY NEW READING

PASSAGE -1 Mangroves forests of the tides

At the intersection of land and sea, mangrove forests support a wealth of life, from starfish to people, and may be more important to the health of the planet than we ever realized.

A. Mangroves live life on the edge. With one foot on land and one in the sea, these botanical amphibians occupy a zone of desiccating heat, choking mud, and salt levels that would kill an ordinary plant within hours. Yet the forests mangroves form are among the most productive and biologically complex ecosystems on Earth. Birds roost in the canopy, shellfish attach themselves to the roots, and snakes and crocodiles come to hunt. Mangroves provide nursery grounds for fish; a food source for monkeys, deer, tree-climbing crabs, even kangaroos; and a nectar source for bats and honeybees.

B. As a group, mangroves can’t be defined too closely. There are some 70 species from two dozen families—among them palm, hibiscus, holly, plumbago, acanthus, legumes, and myrtle. They range from prostrate shrubs to 200-feet high (60 meters) timber trees. Though most prolific in Southeast Asia, where they are thought to have originated, mangroves circle the globe. Most live within 30 degrees of the Equator, but a few hardy types have adapted to temperate climates, and one lives as far from the tropical sun as New Zealand. Wherever they live, they share one thing in common: They’re brilliant adapters. Each mangrove has an ultrafiltration system to keep much of the salt out and a complex root system that allows it to survive in the intertidal zone. Some have snorkel-like roots called pneumatophores that stick out of the mud to help them take in air; others use prop roots or buttresses to keep their trunks upright in the soft sediments at tide’s edge.

C. These plants are also landbuilders par excellence. Some Aborigines in northern Australia believe one mangrove species resembles their primal ancestor, Giyapara, who walked across the mudflats and brought the tree into existence. The plants’ interlocking roots stop river-borne sediments from coursing out to sea, and their trunks and branches serve as a palisade that diminishes the erosive power of waves.

D. Despite their strategic importance, mangroves are under threat worldwide. They are sacrificed for salt pans, aquaculture ponds, housing developments, roads, port facilities, hotels, golf courses, and farms. And they die from a thousand indirect cuts: oil spills, chemical pollution, sediment overload, and disruption of their sensitive water and salinity balance. Calls for mangrove conservation gained a brief but significant hearing following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Where mangrove forests were intact, they served as natural breakwaters, dissipating the energy of the waves, mitigating property damage, perhaps saving lives. Posttsunami, the logic of allowing a country’s mangrove “bioshields” to be bulldozed looked not just flawed but reprehensible. Bangladesh has not lost sight of that logic, putting a great premium on the ability of mangroves to stabilize shores and trap sediments. The vast tidal woodland they form is known as the Sundarbans——literally “beautiful forest.” Today, it’s the largest surviving single tract of mangroves in the world.

E. Throughout the tropical world it’s the same: Mangrove forests are the supermarkets, lumberyards, fuel depots, and pharmacies of the coastal poor. Yet these forests are being destroyed daily. One of the greatest threats to mangrove survival comes from shrimp farming. At first glance, shrimp might seem the perfect export for a poor country in a hot climate. Rich countries have an insatiable appetite for it (shrimp has overtaken tuna to become America’s favorite seafood), and the developing world has the available land and right climate to farm it.

F. A prime location for shrimp ponds, though, happens to be the shore zone occupied by mangroves, an unhappy conflict of interests that has a predictable outcome: The irresistible force of commerce trumps the all-too-removable mangrove. To compound matters, shrimp farmers typically abandon their ponds after a few crop cycles (to avoid disease outbreaks and declining productivity) and move to new sites, destroying more mangroves as they go.

G. As serious as the threat from shrimp farming is to the world’s remaining mangroves, there looms a potentially more disastrous problem: rising sea levels. Standing as they do at the land’s frontiers, mangroves will be the first terrestrial forests to face the encroaching tides.

H. Loss of mangrove forests could prove catastrophic in ways only now becoming apparent. For more than 25 years Jin Eong Ong, a retired professor of marine and coastal studies in Penang, Malaysia, has been exploring a less obvious mangrove contribution: What role might these forests play in climate change? Ong and his colleagues have been studying the carbon budget of mangroves— the balance sheet that compares all the carbon inputs and outputs of the mangrove ecosystem—and they’ve found that these forests are highly effective carbon sinks. They absorb carbon dioxide, taking carbon out of circulation and reducing the amount of greenhouse gas. Mangroves may have the highest net productivity of carbon of any natural ecosystem, and as much as a third of this may be exported in the form of organic compounds to mudflats. Mangroves, it seems, are carbon factories, and their demolition robs the marine environment of a vital element.

I. Ong’s team has also shown that a significant portion of the carbon ends up in forest sediments, remaining sequestered there for thousands of years. Conversion of a mangrove forest to a shrimp pond changes a carbon sink into a carbon source, liberating the accumulated carbon back into the atmosphere— but 50 times faster than it was sequestered. If mangroves were to become recognized as carbon-storage assets, that could radically alter the way these forests are valued, says Ong. If carbon trading becomes a reality—that is, if forest-rich, carbon-absorbing countries are able to sell so-called emissions credits to more industrialized, carbon-emitting countries—it could, at the least, provide a stay of execution for mangroves.

Questions 1 - 5

Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage, using no more than Three words from the Reading Passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.

Summary

Mangroves are outstanding 1 …………… who are able to live life in a hard environment. There are two systems—2 …………… and 3 …………… enabling them to survive at the intersection of land and sea. Meanwhile, Mangroves have strategic importance. 4 …………… can be held by the roots, and the erosive power of waves can be reduced by their 5 …………… .

Questions 6 - 11

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1? In boxes 6-11 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
6 Mangroves are various and similar.
7 We can find mangroves in Singapore.
8 Mangroves had played an important role in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and saved lives.
9 Bangladesh is mentioned to have spent a huge sum of money on the mangroves.
10 In order to avoid loss, shrimp farmers will cut down the amount of ponds regularly.
11 Shrimp farming will greatly influence the function of mangroves that hold the carbon.

Questions 12 - 13

Choose the correct letter, A-F. Write your answers in boxes 12-13 on your answer sheet.

Which TWO of the following are NOT mentioned to have put mangrove survival in danger?

A increasing greenhouse gas
B too much sediment
C cut by human
D shrimp export
E rising sea levels
F shrimp farming

PASSAGE -2 Water treatment-2 reed bed

A

Nowadays subsurface flow wetlands are a common alternative in Europe for the treatment of wastewater in rural areas. mainly in the last 10 to 12 years, there has been significant growth in the number and size of the systems in use. Compared to common treatment facilities, wetlands lower in cost investment, lesser to maintain, and are ideal for densely populated rural or suburban areas rather than urban areas.

B

The Common Read has the ability to transfer oxygen from its leaves, down through its stem and rhizomes and out via its root system. As a result of this action, a very high population of micro-organisms occurs in the root system, with zones of aerobic, anoxic, and anaerobic conditions. Therefore with the waste water moving very slowly and carefully through the mass of Reed roots, this liquid can be successfully treated.

C

A straightforward definition of a reed bed is if you have dirty water in your pool or water, which is heavily polluted, Read Beds will be planted to make the water clean again. This is good for ecology and living organisms and fish in the water. Reed Beds have a wide range of qualities and are acceptable for cleaning everything from secondary to tertiary treatment of mild domestic effluent, to rural waste and even heavy industrial contaminants. The reason why they’re so effective is often that within the bed’s root sector, natural biological, physical and chemical processes interact with one another to degrade or remove a good range of pollutants. Reed beds can be built in a number of variants, but mainly they are of the horizontal flow or vertical (down) flow configuration where water flows through the beds horizontally or vertically.

HORIZONTAL FLOW REED BED SYSTEMS

D

Horizontal-flow wetlands may be of two types: free-water surface-flow (FWF) or subsurface water-flow (SSF). In the former, the effluent flows freely above the sand/gravel bed in which the reeds etc. are planted; in the latter effluent passes through the sand/ gravel bed. In FWF-type wetlands, the effluent is treated by plant stems, leaves and rhizomes. Such FWF wetlands are densely planted and typically have water-depths of less than 0.4m. However, dense planting can limit oxygen diffusion into the water. These systems work particularly well for low strength effluents or effluents that have undergone some form of pretreatment and play an invaluable role in tertiary treatment and the polishing of effluents. The horizontal reed flow system uses a long reed bed, Where the liquid slowly flows horizontally through. The length of the reed bed is about 100 meters. The downside of the horizontal reed beds is that they use up lots of land space and they do take quite a long time to produce clean water.

VERTICAL FLOW REED BED SYSTEMS

E

A vertical flow reed bed is a sealed, gravel-filled trench with reeds growing in it (see the picture below). The common reed oxygenates the water, which helps to create the right environment for colonies of bacteria to break down unwanted organic matter and pollutants. The reeds also make the bed attractive to wildlife.

How does a vertical flow reed bed work?

F

In vertical flow (Downflow) reed beds, the wastewater is applied on top of the reed bed, flows down through a rhizome zone with sludge as substrate, then the root zone with sand as substrate and followed by a layer of gravel for drainage, and is collected in an under drainage system of large stones. The effluent flows on to the surface of the bed and percolates slowly through the different layers into an outlet pipe, which leads to a horizontal flow bed and is cleaned by millions of bacteria, algae, fungi, and microorganisms that digest the waste, including sewage. There is no standing water so there should be no unpleasant smells.

G

Vertical flow reed bed systems are much more effective than horizontal flow reed-beds not only in reducing biochemical oxygen demanded (BOD) and suspended solids (SS) levels but also in reducing ammonia levels and eliminating smells. Usually considerably smaller than horizontal flow beds, but they are capable of handling much stronger effluents which contain heavily polluted matters and have longer lifetime value. A vertical reed bed system works more efficiently than a horizontal reed bed system, but it requires more management, and its reed beds are often operated for a few days then rested, so several beds and a distribution system are needed.

H

There are several advantages of Reed Bed systems over traditional forms of water treatment: first, they have low construction and running costs; second, they are easy management; third they have an excellent reduction of biochemical oxygen demand and suspended solids; last, they have a potential for efficient removal of a wide range of pollutants.

I

Reed beds are natural habitats found in floodplains waterlogged depressions and estuaries. The natural bed systems are a biologically proved, and an environmentally friendly and visually unobtrusive way of treating wastewater and have the extra virtue of frequently been better than mechanical wastewater treatment systems. In the medium to long term reed bed systems are, in most cases, more cost-effective in installment than any other wastewater treatment. They are robust and require little maintenance. They are naturally environmentally sound protecting groundwater, dams, creeks, rivers, and estuaries.

Questions 14-16

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2?

In boxes 14-16 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement is true.

FALSE if the statement is false

NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage.

14 The Reed bed system is a conventional method for water treatment in the urban area.

15 In the reed roots, there’s a series of process that helps breakdown the pollutants.

16 Escherichia coli is the most difficult bacteria to be dismissed.

Questions 17-19

Complete the diagram below.

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer:-

Questions 20-24

Use the information in the passage to match the advantages and disadvantages of the two systems: horizontal flow system and downflow system (listed A-H) below.

Write the appropriate letters A-H in boxes 20-24 on your answer sheet.

20……….…………, which is the advantage of the down-flow system.

However, 21…………..………. and 22………..……… are the disadvantages of down-flow system

23………………and 24……….………… are the two benefits of the horizontal flow system. However, it’s less effective and efficient.

A It can deal with a more seriously polluted effluent.

B It requires more beds than one compared to the other.

C It needs less control and doesn’t need to be taken care of all the time.

D It requires a lot of guidance.

E It can’t work all the time because the pool needs time to rest and recover after a certain period.

F It’s a lot more complicated to build the system.

G The system is easy to be built which does not need an auxiliary system.

H It consumes less water.

Questions 25-26

Choose two correct letters from the following A, B, C, D, or E.

Write your answers in boxes 25-26 on your answer sheet.

What are the TWO benefits of natural bed systems when compared to conventional systems?

A Operation does not require electricity or fuel supply.

B They’re visually good and environmentally friendly.

C No mechanical systems are involved.

D They’re to be set up and used in less cost.

E They do not break down.

PASSAGE -3 Last Hours of the Iceman

A It was late spring or early summer. The man hurried through a forest he knew well, wincing from the pain in his injured right hand and pausing occasionally to listen for sounds that he was being pursued. As he fled up the slope, the yellow pollen of the hornbeam blossoms fell like an invisible rain, salting the water and food he consumed when he stopped to rest. Five thousand years later, the Neolithic hunter we call the Iceman would still bear traces of this ancient dusting inside his body a microscopic record of the time of year it was when he passed through this forest and into the nearby mountains, where fate would finally catch up with him.

B Since hikers discovered his mummified corpse in 1991 in a rocky hollow high in the Otztal Alps on Italy’s border with Austria, scientists have used ever more sophisticated tools and intellectual cunning to reconstruct the life and times of the Iceman, the oldest intact member of the human family. We know that he was a small, sinewy, and, for his times, rather elderly man in his mid-40s. Judging from the precious, copper-bladed ax found with him, we suspect that he was a person of considerable social significance. He set off on his journey wearing three layers of garments and sturdy shoes with bearskin soles. He was well equipped with a flint-tipped dagger, a little fire-starting kit, and a birchbark container holding embers wrapped in maple leaves. Yet he also headed into a harsh wilderness curiously under-armed: The arrows in his deerskin quiver were only half finished, as if he had recently fired all his munitions and was in the process of hastily replenishing them. And he was traveling with a long, roughly shaped stalk of yew—an unfinished longbow, yet to be notched and strung. Why?

C When it comes to the Iceman, there has never been a shortage of questions, or theories to answer them. During the 16 years that scientists have poked, prodded, incised, and x-rayed his body, they have dressed him up in speculations that have not worn nearly as well as his rustic garments. At one time or another, he has been mistakenly described as a lost shepherd, a shaman, a victim of ritual sacrifice, and even a vegan. But all these theories fade in the face of the most startling new fact scientists have learned about the Iceman. Although we still don’t know exactly what happened up there on that alpine ridge, we now know that he was murdered, and died very quickly, in the rocky hollow where his body was found.

D “Even five years ago, the story was that he fled up there and walked around in the snow and probably died of exposure,” said Klaus Oeggl, an archaeobotanist at the University of Innsbruck. “Now it’s all changed. It’s more like a paleo crime scene.”

E The object of all this intense scientific attention is a freeze-dried slab of human jerky, which since 1998 has resided in a refrigerated, high-tech chamber in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy. The temptation to conduct fresh experiments on the body rises with every new twist of technology, each revealing uncannily precise details about his life. Using a sophisticated analysis of isotopes in one of the Iceman’s teeth, for example, scientists led by Wolfgang Muller (now at the Royal Holloway, University of London) have shown that he probably grew up in the Valle Isarco, an extensive north-south valley that includes the modern-day town of Bressanone. Isotope levels in his bones, meanwhile, match those in the soil and water of two alpine valleys farther west, the Val Senales and the Val Venosta. Muller’s team has also analyzed microscopic chips of mica recovered from the Iceman’s intestines, which were probably ingested accidentally in food made from stone-ground grain; geologic ages of the mica best match a small area limited to the lower Val Venosta. The Iceman probably set off on his final journey from this very area, near where the modern-day Adige and Senales Rivers meet.

F We also know that he was not in good health when he eaded up into the mountains. The one surviving fingernail recovered from his remains suggests that he suffered three episodes of significant disease during the last six months of life, the last bout only two months prior to his death. Doctors inspecting the contents of his intestines have found eggs of the whipworm parasite, so he may well have suffered from stomach distress. But he was not too sick to eat. In 2002, Franco Rollo and colleagues at the University of Camerino in Italy analyzed tiny amounts of food residue from the mummy’s intestines. A day or two before his death, the Iceman had eaten a piece of wild goat and some plant food.

G Archaeobotanists have used equally clever analyses of pollen and plant fragments to plot the Iceman’s last movements. James Dickson of the University of Glasgow has identified no less than 80 distinct species of mosses and liverworts in, on, or near the Iceman’s body. The most prominent moss, Neckera complanata, still grows at several sites in the valleys to the south, in some cases quite near known prehistoric sites. According to Dickson, a clot of stems found in the Iceman’s possession suggests he was probably using the moss to wrap food, although other ancient peoples used similar mosses as toilet paper.

H Taken together, the evidence strongly indicates that the Iceman’s last journey began in the low-altitude deciduous forests to the south, in the springtime when the hop hornbeams were in bloom. But it may not have been a straight hike into the mountains. Oeggl has also found traces of pine pollen in the Iceman’s digestive tract, both above and below the hornbeam pollen. This suggests that he may have climbed to a higher altitude where pine trees grow in mixed coniferous forests, then descended to the lower altitude of the hop hornbeams, and finally ascended again into the pine forests in his last day or two. Why? No one knows. But perhaps he wanted to avoid the steep, thickly wooded gorge of the lower Val Senales—especially if he was in a hurry.

Questions 27-31

The reading Passage has eight paragraphs A-H. Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter A-H, in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet.

NB you may use any letter more than once

27 the last area in which the iceman might live and stay.

28 a mass of special plant was discovered and used to analyze the iceman’s movements.

29 a scientist analyzes the iceman’s last hike depending on pollen.

30 the time and area the iceman was found.

31 the iceman’s body had been out of condition for months before his death.

Questions 32-35

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?

In boxes 32-35 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

32 According to the author, there must be another complete human corpse older than the iceman.

33 The iceman might be the leader of his society, and he was very rich.

34 Scientists guessed the iceman’s information perfectly, and finally got the real cause of his death.

35 By testing the iceman’s body, we know where he came from

Questions 36- 39

Complete the sentences below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in bones36-39 on your answer sheet.

36 The iceman has been placed in a …………………… room since 1998.

37 The iceman might get …………………… , for eggs of the whipworm parasite were found in his gut.

38 There are a variety of mosses and liverworts found around the iceman such as ……………………

39 The route of the iceman’s last movement might not be ……………………