Passage A
Paragraph 1
A walk across the abandoned rail yard in Berlin’s Schoneberg district gives new meaning to the words “urban jungle”. Between a noisy commuter train line on one side and apartment blocks on the other, a carpet of rare flowers with names like ladies’ fingers and queen-devil hawkweed covers railroad ties and warehouse ruins. All sorts of endangered butterflies, spiders and bumblebees thrive, as does Europe’s northernmost breeding colony of praying mantises. Goshawks and kestrels spy for prey overhead.
From Paragraph 1
1. “…gives new meaning to the words ‘urban jungle’.”
(a) Name the place which is described as an “urban jungle”? [1 mark]
(b) Why does the writer use the phrase “new meaning” to describe it? [2 marks]
Paragraph 2
Nature has, of course, found its niches in towns and cities ever since humans built them. Pigeons and cockroaches have settled down with mankind. Escaped pets and their offspring, like the famed wild parrots of San Francisco’s Telegraph Hill, have added an exotic touch to the urban fauna. Yet for some reason many of us continue to see cities as barren or worse, spreading biological destruction wherever they sprawl.
From Paragraph 2
2.“Yet for some reason many of us continue to see cities as barren or worse, spreading biological destruction wherever they sprawl.”
What does the writer imply when he uses the words “yet” and “worse” in the sentence? [1 mark]
Paragraph 3
As they take a closer look, however, biologists in the nascent science of “urban ecology” are finding that cities are not just important habitats, but veritable hot spots of animal and plant life. “You can take any big city and find more species, more diverse habitats than in just about any national park or nature reserve,” says Josef Reichholf, professor of ornithology at Munich’s Technical University. Both in animal numbers as well as species diversity, he says, cities beat the countryside hands down.
From Paragraph 3
3(a). Quote a phrase of three consecutive words which the writer uses to inform us that big cities are habitats for nature. [1 mark]
3(b). The writer remarks that, in terms of quantity and variety of flora and fauna, “cities beat the countryside hands down”. Replace the italicized words, with another word or phrase of the same meaning. [2 marks]
Paragraph 4
Berlin, one of the best-studied cases, is home to two thirds of the 280 bird species existing in Germany, including peregrine falcons and ospreys – raptors that have disappeared from much of the country. Biologists say that urban biodiversity seems to be on the rise – as our cities become cleaner, suburbs grow greener, and more and more species learn to adapt. These findings are challenging an old piece of orthodoxy – that urbanization is the planet’s biggest environmental threat. On the contrary, it is in the open country that plants and animals have seen the most rapid decline. Agriculture, now spreading from the developed world to southern countries like Brazil, is the main culprit.
From Paragraph 4:
4.In your own words, explain why the writer says, “These findings are challenging an old piece of orthodoxy”. [2 marks]
Paragraph 5
Vast ‘monocultures” of single-strain crops maintained with powerful herbicides and insecticides, have decimated the older, more varied landscape. Many forests are now uniform tree farms supporting few species. An oversupply of fertilizers and animal waste favour fast-growing greens that crowd out the wildflowers, grasses and weeds that were once a rich habitat for insects and animals. Today biologists estimate that agriculture and forestry cause over 80 percent of explainable species deaths worldwide, versus just 15 percent caused by human settlement, pollution and sprawl.
From Paragraph 5:
5. Pick out a phrase which describes the condition forests are in after agriculture has affected them. [1 mark]
Paragraph 6
Some biologists think flora and fauna are seeking refuge in cities, and the bigger the city the better. For starters, there are fewer guns (in general) and more sources of food in heavily settled areas. More important, megacities create a mosaic of habitats and microclimates, from pond-filled gardens to industrial “brownfield” sites like those dry, hot railyards in Berlin. In London, the extremely rare redstart has seen a resurgence in abandoned factory lots and on those “green roofs” newly popular with environmentally conscious urbanites. For the birds, these spaces resemble the country meadows they can no longer find.
Paragraph 7
Established suburbs, with their old trees, underbrush and open space, attract ten times more species of butterflies than farmland, again because they more closely approximate woodsy meadows. In Britain, the magnificent stag beetle, which likes piles of rotting wood, has all but disappeared from the antiseptic countryside. In the past half-century, dozens of once-shy species of fauna have learned that city dwellers mean them no harm.
From Paragraph 7:
6. Why do you think the writer uses the word “antiseptic” to describe the countryside? [1 mark]
Paragraph 8
Cities are turning into vast laboratories for studying animal behaviour and evolution. New York, Hong Kong and London rate among the world’s richest spots for migratory waterfowl – especially now that cleaner water has brought back the fish and crustaceans on which some of them feed. Urban duck populations are already producing countless new variations in colours and plumage. Butterflies and moths that a century ago adapted to sooty factory districts by developing black pigments have, in recent years, lightened up again.
From Paragraph 8:
7. The writer describes cities as “vast laboratories”. In your own words, briefly describe two examples of animal behaviour and evolution which he has cited. [2 marks]
**********************JUNE HOLIDAY HOMEWORK ***********************
Passage B
Paragraph 1
International donors at a conference in Beijing last month pledged $1.9 billion for global efforts to control bird flu. The latest news on the spread of the disease suggest this would be money well spent. H5N1 avian flu has breached the heart of Europe, cropping up in Germany, Italy, Austria and France, among other countries. India confirmed its first outbreak of H5N1 in poultry, and began culling 500,000 birds in the western state of Maharashtra. Yet in a world where millions die every year because of diseases that could be prevented with a bit more funding, $1.9 billion is a lot of money for a virus that has so far killed fewer than 100 people. A real risk exists that a single-minded battle against a pandemic that may or may not occur soon could drain needed health resources from clear and present dangers.
From Paragraph 1:
8. “$1.9 billion is a lot of money for a virus that has so far killed fewer than 100 people.” What does the writer suggest international donors should have done instead? [1 mark]
Paragraph 2
Nowhere is that choice more stark than in Africa. Earlier this month, authorities uncovered a large bird-flu outbreak on several poultry farms in northern Nigeria, the first time H5N1 has been found on the continent; more than 140,000 chickens have so far died from the virus or been culled. Though no human cases have been discovered yet, the news that the outbreak had gone undetected for up to a month raises concerns that the virus may already be spreading under the radar to other parts of the continent. Africa has an estimated poultry population of 1.1 billion birds, many of them sharing living space with people – the same problem that enabled bird flu to cause so much damage in much of Southeast Asia. Avian-flu experts see impoverished Africa, with its inefficient governments and millions of immuno-compromised HIV infectees, as a perfect breeding ground for a pandemic.
Paragraph 2
9(a) Why is there a possibility of humans contracting the virus in Africa and Southeast Asia? [1 mark]
9(b) Give two reasons why Africa is “a perfect ground for a pandemic”. [2 marks]
Paragraph 3
Yet the sheer number of severity of Africa’s ills puts bird flu in perspective. Medical resources in Africa are cruelly finite because in Africa, an estimated of 6,600 Africans die of AIDS every day, 3,000 die of malaria and 24,000 die of hunger and poverty. As long as bird flu primarily remains a threat to birds, it just does not compare with these everyday scourges. Even South Africa, the nation best equipped to respond to bird flu, faces “a lot of other health issues” competing for resources, says Dr. Lucille Blumber, head of the epidemiology and outbreak unit at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases. International donors need to be very sure that they are not robbing from other health programmes to pay for bird-flu measures.
Paragraph 4
This does not mean the world should neglect to take prudent steps to fight bird flu – a pandemic could become the greatest health catastrophe the modern world has ever faced. Avian flu is already beginning to cause real economic pain. When infected wild birds were detected in European countries, poultry sales across the continent plummeted. The Lowy Institute of Australia estimated that a worst-case global pandemic, one even deadlier than the 1918 Spanish Flu, could kill up to 142 million people and cost the global economy $4.4 trillion.
Paragraph 5
Those are scary numbers, but they are hardly the only frightening pandemic predictions circulating these days. Two doctors in Minnesota who published a modest paper in the journal “Academic Emergency Medicine” pointed out that even in a weak pandemic, there would be far fewer mechanical ventilators than the number of desperately ill flu patients who would need them to survive. That means that the very sick or the very old would probably be denied ventilator support – even removed from the machines – in favour of those more likely to survive. The assumption that most people in the developed world have about medical care – that everything possible will be done to help the sick – would be shattered. Doctors would be left to allocate scarce resources, deciding who should live and who should die. If that happens, Africa will no longer seem so far away.
From Paragraph 5:
10. “The assumption that most people in the developed world have about medical care – that everything possible will be done to help the sick – would be shattered.”
(a) Why is there a possibility of this assumption being shattered? [2 marks]
(b) Where is it most likely to happen? [1 mark]
11. For each of the following words, give one word or phrase (of not more than seven words) which has the same meaning that the word has in the passage.
From Passage A
a. resurgence
b. approximate
From Passage B
c. breached
d. measures
e. global
12. Summary - Passaage A
Using your own words as far as possible, summarise the reasons why there are now more animals and plants in cities than in the country. [25]
USE THE MATERIAL IN PASSAGE A FROM PARAGRAPHS 4 TO 8.
Your summary, which should be in continuous writing (not note form), must not be more than 150 words, (not counting the words given to help you begin).
Begin your summary as follows:
Plants and animals find the conditions in cities suitable for…
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