Photographs accompanying this text were taken from www.globespots.com/places.php?country=Sri%20Lanka - Kataragama Festival in Sri Lanka.
PASSAGE A
Paragraph 1
From a satellite perspective, the threat of Borneo's imminent deforestation might seem overstated. The island, slightly larger than Texas, is still half covered with trees, and in the interior highlands stand hundreds of square miles of virgin forests where amost nobody goes, save indigenous hunters, wildlife poachers, adn gaharu gatherers. Reaching some areas requires a boat trip of several days or strenuous hikes through pathless wilderness.
Paragraph 2
However, it is an entirely different story, and an increasingly desperate one, for lowland forests, the prime habitat for most of Borneo's wealth of biodiversity, including orangutans and elephants. During the past two decades, an estimated two million acres were cleared annually, an area more than half the size of Connecticut. A paper in Science magazine in 2001 - ominously titled "The End for Indonesia's Lowland Forests?" - warned of the "dire consequences of the current state of resource anarchy" and cited a study predicting that lowland forests in Indonesian Borneo could be totally destroyed by 2010. While government crackdowns have slowed illegal logging and exports, the result has simply been to delay the forecast doomsday.
From Passage A:
From Paragraphs 1 and 2:
1. Write down the single wrod that conveys the idea of having a panoramic view of a vast forest. [1m]
2. Explain fully why, the writer says the story of Borneo's lowland forests "is an entirely different story, and an increasingly desperate one". [2m]
Paragraph 3
Other factors could speed it up again. In the past twenty years, vast, single-crop plantations of oil palm have spread across Borneo to meet the demand for the versatile and highly profitable oil derived from the fruit. Palm oil is used for cooking, and in cosmetics, soap, desserts, and a seemingly endless list of other products, including biofuel. Indonesia and Malaysia provide 86 precent of the world's supply; growing conditions are perfect on Borneo for this green gold. Even as conservationists spread the news about palm oil's contribution to global deforestation - some calling for boycotting of palm oil products - Indonesia has become the world's number one producing country, with 15 million acres under cultivation, a figure that may double by 2020.
From Paragraph 3:
3. In your own words, account for the extensiveness of single oil palm plantations across Borneo [2m]
Paragraph 4
As if oil palm monoculture were not enough, Borneo possesses another resource that combines economic blessing and environmental danger: the 300-million-year-old plant material that once grew on what is now Borneo lies underground, transformed into coal. Surface mines - for gold as well as coal - spread across southern and eastern Borneo like pockmarks, displacing forest and polluting rivers with waste.
From Paragraph 4:
4. Explain in your own words what is ironic about coal. [2m]
Paragraph 5
In a world newly awakened to the dangers of climate change, Borneo has gained global attention for yet another reason: a specialised ecosystem called peat swamp forest covers around eleven percent of the island. Here, trees grow on highly organic soil built of centuries' accumulation of waterlogged plant material. Sometimes reaching a depth of sixty feet, peat soil represents a massive store of the world's carbon. Stripped of its trees and drained, tropical peat decays and releases its carbon into the atmosphere, and as it dries it becomes extremely susceptible to burning, intentional or accidental. Massive annual fires set deliberately to clear previously forested land for new oil palm plantations - and exacerbated by frequent drought - have burned out of control and filled Borneo's skies with smoke, closing airports and causing respiratory problems for millions of people, as far away as mainland Asia. Carbon released by decaying peat soil, fires, and deforestation has pushed Indonesia into third place among nations as a source of greenhouse gases, behind only heavily industrialised China and the United States.
From Paragraph 5:
5. Give two reasons why it is not surprising to have uncontrollable fires originating in Borneo's rainforests. [2m]
Paragraph 6
Time is running out for Borneo's rain forests. Conventional models offer little hope. Setting aside large areas as parks or reserves, standard practice in the U.S. and other countries, has been largely ineffective. At least on the Indonesian part of Borneo, it is undermined by inadequate funding, lack of support from local residents, and government corruption. However, many conservationists says that logging, often practised sustainably, in fact help to protect a significant portion of the island's biodiversity.
Paragraph 7
The message is complex but ulitmately clear. To protect Borneo's forests and wildlife will require rethinking old ideas, accepting new truths, and adopting new models of conservation. In the end, the fate of Borneo may be decided far from the forests, in government offices and corporate boardrooms from New York to Geneva. Because of the vast amounts of carbon tied up inthe plants and soils, the last best hope for Borneo's future may rest not on the emotional appeal of an orangutan's face, but onthe hard facts of climate change -and our own determination and ability to protect ourselves from disaster.
From Paragraph 7:
6. What is the last best hope for Borneo's forests? [1m]
PASSAGE B
Paragraph 1
Every summer, thousands of pilgrims stream into the temple complex at Kataragama, in the southeast corner of Sri Lanka, joining a fortnight-long annual festival where Buddhists (most of the majority Sinhalese), Hindus (most Tamils), Muslims and other groups celebrate and worship together - an example of how harmoniously the Sri Lankan people can co-exist.
Paragraph 2
This image is at odds with the twenty-year record of bloody conflict between the Tamil Tigers and the predominantly Sinhalese government. Promisingly, the two groups are slowly working through a peace process, began with a ceasefire agreement in February 2002. Now of course, Sri Lanka is occupied with the even greater task of healing broken hearts and communities after the recent tsunami disaster. Hopefully, the two groups will work together in a spirit of co-operation, perhaps further lessening old antagonisms.
From Paragraphs 1 and 2:
7a. Say what you understand by "This image is at odds with..." and explain why the writer finds it so. [2m]
7b. Quote an expression that suggests that the peace process would be difficult to sustain? [1m]
Paragraph 3
However, there is still an important group of people whose human rights have yet to be fully recognised - Sri Lanka's indigenous Wanniya-laeto (People of the Forest), also known as teh Veddha. I first saw the Wanniya-Iaeto at the Kataragama Festival, in August 2003.
Kataragama Festival
The People of the Forest - The Wanniya Iaeto of Sri Lanka
Here, their precedence and importance in Sri Lankan history and culture is acknowledged and they have an honoured role in the ceremonies. Dresses in red sarongs, each with an axe hooked over his shoulder, long bearded and wild haired, they are the epitome of proud, fierce warriors. However, when I was introduced to Unapana Kallua, he cheerfully invited me to stay with them at Dambana near Maduru Oya National Park. I was only able to spend two days with them, yet their warmth and the pleasure they showed in simply sitting around talking and laughing impressed me deeply, particularly given the difficulties facing their society.
From Paragraph 3:
8. What was it about the Wanniya-laeto that particularly impressed the writer during the two days that he spent with them? [1m]
Dambana near Maduru Oya National Park
Paragraph 4
Archaeological evidence suggests their Neolithic ancestors inhabited this island 1o,ooo years ago or more. By contrast, the first Sinhalese came over from India aroudn the sixth century BC and the first Tamils about the third century BC. During the Twentieth Century, in a tragic echo of native peoples in other parts of the world, the Wanniya-laeto were persuaded to give up their hunting and gathering lifestyle and integrate with the largely unsuitable mainstream agricultural economy. They were given litttle choice anyway. Huge expanses of the land they had been natural caretakers o ffor thousands of years were turned into national parks and reserves, most of which they are now forbidden to enter.
From Paragraph 4:
9a. Which two consecutive words indicate that the Wanniya-laeto would have problems adapting to the new way of life? [1m]
9b. Explain fully what the writer means by "...a tragic echo of native peoples in other parts of the world". [2m]
Paragraph 5
Some still follow the traditional way of life - and many more want to- but they have used only campaigns, not violence, to appeal for justice. Others are willingly or reluctantly adopting the mainstream Sinhalese culture adn way of life- along with problems such as alcoholism, a common side effect of such unsuccessful social assimilation.
From Paragraph 5:
10. How do we know that the attempts to integrate the Wanniya-laeto into the mainstream Sinhalese way of life have met with resistance? [1m]
Paragraph 6
Two members of the Wanniya-laeto visited the United Nations in Geneva in 1996. Uru Warige Wanniya, now the leader of the Wanniya-laeto, addressed the Working Group on Indigenous People (UNWPIP), which in turn sent a strong appeal to the Sri Lankan government to honour the rights of hte Wanniya-laeto. There have been some words of promise and minor concessions, but effectively little has changed. In 1998, the government officially allowed the Wanniya-laeto the right to hunt in certain areas, but they still risk being shot by wardens if they enter the reserves - let alone hunt. Meanwhile, illegal poaching and logging continues, often condoned by corrupt officials.
From Paragraph 6:
11. Explain how the Sri Lankan government has failed to honour the rights of the Wanniya-laeto. [1m]
Paragraph 7
The basic right of self-determination should be reason enough to give them justice. However , as with many other such groups around the world, they have valuable knowledge to offer modern society; clues to the development of ancient cultures, indigenous philosophy, knowledged of the local ecology, and more. Sustainable eco-tourism is the buzzword in Sri Lanka now, but the unjust treatment of the Wanniya-laeto blocks progress towards an enlightened environmental and human rights accord.
From Paragraph 7:
12. What valuable knowledge do the Wanniya-laeto have to "offer the modern society"?[1m]
Paragraph 8
"Butakanda, ne," Kallua lamented. ( "No elephants"). The Wanniya-laeto had hoped to show me elephants in the wild, which would have been a more appropriate setting than the tourist safari i had been on a few days earlier. Yet it had been inspiring simply to roam this remarkable landscape with the Wanniya-laeto, truly the People of the Forest.
From Passage A and Passage B:
13. For each of the following words, give one word or short phrase (of not more then seven words) which has the same meaning that the word has in the passage.
From Passage A:
[a] imminent
[b] crackdowns
From Passage B:
[c] precedence
[d] epitome
[e] condoned
From Passage A:
14. Using your own words as far as possible, summarise the factors that speed up the process of massive deforestation in Borneo and the dire consequences that arise from it.
USE ONLY THE MATERIAL IN PASSAGE A FROM PARAGRAPHS 2 TO 7.
Your summary, which must be in continuous writing (not note form), must not be longer than 150 words (not counting the words given to help you begin).
Begin your summary as follows: One of the factors that contributes to deforestation in Borneo...[25 m]
PASSAGE A
Paragraph 1
From a satellite perspective, the threat of Borneo's imminent deforestation might seem overstated. The island, slightly larger than Texas, is still half covered with trees, and in the interior highlands stand hundreds of square miles of virgin forests where amost nobody goes, save indigenous hunters, wildlife poachers, adn gaharu gatherers. Reaching some areas requires a boat trip of several days or strenuous hikes through pathless wilderness.
Paragraph 2
However, it is an entirely different story, and an increasingly desperate one, for lowland forests, the prime habitat for most of Borneo's wealth of biodiversity, including orangutans and elephants. During the past two decades, an estimated two million acres were cleared annually, an area more than half the size of Connecticut. A paper in Science magazine in 2001 - ominously titled "The End for Indonesia's Lowland Forests?" - warned of the "dire consequences of the current state of resource anarchy" and cited a study predicting that lowland forests in Indonesian Borneo could be totally destroyed by 2010. While government crackdowns have slowed illegal logging and exports, the result has simply been to delay the forecast doomsday.
From Passage A:
From Paragraphs 1 and 2:
1. Write down the single wrod that conveys the idea of having a panoramic view of a vast forest. [1m]
2. Explain fully why, the writer says the story of Borneo's lowland forests "is an entirely different story, and an increasingly desperate one". [2m]
Paragraph 3
Other factors could speed it up again. In the past twenty years, vast, single-crop plantations of oil palm have spread across Borneo to meet the demand for the versatile and highly profitable oil derived from the fruit. Palm oil is used for cooking, and in cosmetics, soap, desserts, and a seemingly endless list of other products, including biofuel. Indonesia and Malaysia provide 86 precent of the world's supply; growing conditions are perfect on Borneo for this green gold. Even as conservationists spread the news about palm oil's contribution to global deforestation - some calling for boycotting of palm oil products - Indonesia has become the world's number one producing country, with 15 million acres under cultivation, a figure that may double by 2020.
From Paragraph 3:
3. In your own words, account for the extensiveness of single oil palm plantations across Borneo [2m]
Paragraph 4
As if oil palm monoculture were not enough, Borneo possesses another resource that combines economic blessing and environmental danger: the 300-million-year-old plant material that once grew on what is now Borneo lies underground, transformed into coal. Surface mines - for gold as well as coal - spread across southern and eastern Borneo like pockmarks, displacing forest and polluting rivers with waste.
From Paragraph 4:
4. Explain in your own words what is ironic about coal. [2m]
Paragraph 5
In a world newly awakened to the dangers of climate change, Borneo has gained global attention for yet another reason: a specialised ecosystem called peat swamp forest covers around eleven percent of the island. Here, trees grow on highly organic soil built of centuries' accumulation of waterlogged plant material. Sometimes reaching a depth of sixty feet, peat soil represents a massive store of the world's carbon. Stripped of its trees and drained, tropical peat decays and releases its carbon into the atmosphere, and as it dries it becomes extremely susceptible to burning, intentional or accidental. Massive annual fires set deliberately to clear previously forested land for new oil palm plantations - and exacerbated by frequent drought - have burned out of control and filled Borneo's skies with smoke, closing airports and causing respiratory problems for millions of people, as far away as mainland Asia. Carbon released by decaying peat soil, fires, and deforestation has pushed Indonesia into third place among nations as a source of greenhouse gases, behind only heavily industrialised China and the United States.
From Paragraph 5:
5. Give two reasons why it is not surprising to have uncontrollable fires originating in Borneo's rainforests. [2m]
Paragraph 6
Time is running out for Borneo's rain forests. Conventional models offer little hope. Setting aside large areas as parks or reserves, standard practice in the U.S. and other countries, has been largely ineffective. At least on the Indonesian part of Borneo, it is undermined by inadequate funding, lack of support from local residents, and government corruption. However, many conservationists says that logging, often practised sustainably, in fact help to protect a significant portion of the island's biodiversity.
Paragraph 7
The message is complex but ulitmately clear. To protect Borneo's forests and wildlife will require rethinking old ideas, accepting new truths, and adopting new models of conservation. In the end, the fate of Borneo may be decided far from the forests, in government offices and corporate boardrooms from New York to Geneva. Because of the vast amounts of carbon tied up inthe plants and soils, the last best hope for Borneo's future may rest not on the emotional appeal of an orangutan's face, but onthe hard facts of climate change -and our own determination and ability to protect ourselves from disaster.
From Paragraph 7:
6. What is the last best hope for Borneo's forests? [1m]
PASSAGE B
Paragraph 1
Every summer, thousands of pilgrims stream into the temple complex at Kataragama, in the southeast corner of Sri Lanka, joining a fortnight-long annual festival where Buddhists (most of the majority Sinhalese), Hindus (most Tamils), Muslims and other groups celebrate and worship together - an example of how harmoniously the Sri Lankan people can co-exist.
Paragraph 2
This image is at odds with the twenty-year record of bloody conflict between the Tamil Tigers and the predominantly Sinhalese government. Promisingly, the two groups are slowly working through a peace process, began with a ceasefire agreement in February 2002. Now of course, Sri Lanka is occupied with the even greater task of healing broken hearts and communities after the recent tsunami disaster. Hopefully, the two groups will work together in a spirit of co-operation, perhaps further lessening old antagonisms.
From Paragraphs 1 and 2:
7a. Say what you understand by "This image is at odds with..." and explain why the writer finds it so. [2m]
7b. Quote an expression that suggests that the peace process would be difficult to sustain? [1m]
Paragraph 3
However, there is still an important group of people whose human rights have yet to be fully recognised - Sri Lanka's indigenous Wanniya-laeto (People of the Forest), also known as teh Veddha. I first saw the Wanniya-Iaeto at the Kataragama Festival, in August 2003.
Here, their precedence and importance in Sri Lankan history and culture is acknowledged and they have an honoured role in the ceremonies. Dresses in red sarongs, each with an axe hooked over his shoulder, long bearded and wild haired, they are the epitome of proud, fierce warriors. However, when I was introduced to Unapana Kallua, he cheerfully invited me to stay with them at Dambana near Maduru Oya National Park. I was only able to spend two days with them, yet their warmth and the pleasure they showed in simply sitting around talking and laughing impressed me deeply, particularly given the difficulties facing their society.
From Paragraph 3:
8. What was it about the Wanniya-laeto that particularly impressed the writer during the two days that he spent with them? [1m]
Paragraph 4
Archaeological evidence suggests their Neolithic ancestors inhabited this island 1o,ooo years ago or more. By contrast, the first Sinhalese came over from India aroudn the sixth century BC and the first Tamils about the third century BC. During the Twentieth Century, in a tragic echo of native peoples in other parts of the world, the Wanniya-laeto were persuaded to give up their hunting and gathering lifestyle and integrate with the largely unsuitable mainstream agricultural economy. They were given litttle choice anyway. Huge expanses of the land they had been natural caretakers o ffor thousands of years were turned into national parks and reserves, most of which they are now forbidden to enter.
From Paragraph 4:
9a. Which two consecutive words indicate that the Wanniya-laeto would have problems adapting to the new way of life? [1m]
9b. Explain fully what the writer means by "...a tragic echo of native peoples in other parts of the world". [2m]
Paragraph 5
Some still follow the traditional way of life - and many more want to- but they have used only campaigns, not violence, to appeal for justice. Others are willingly or reluctantly adopting the mainstream Sinhalese culture adn way of life- along with problems such as alcoholism, a common side effect of such unsuccessful social assimilation.
From Paragraph 5:
10. How do we know that the attempts to integrate the Wanniya-laeto into the mainstream Sinhalese way of life have met with resistance? [1m]
Paragraph 6
Two members of the Wanniya-laeto visited the United Nations in Geneva in 1996. Uru Warige Wanniya, now the leader of the Wanniya-laeto, addressed the Working Group on Indigenous People (UNWPIP), which in turn sent a strong appeal to the Sri Lankan government to honour the rights of hte Wanniya-laeto. There have been some words of promise and minor concessions, but effectively little has changed. In 1998, the government officially allowed the Wanniya-laeto the right to hunt in certain areas, but they still risk being shot by wardens if they enter the reserves - let alone hunt. Meanwhile, illegal poaching and logging continues, often condoned by corrupt officials.
From Paragraph 6:
11. Explain how the Sri Lankan government has failed to honour the rights of the Wanniya-laeto. [1m]
Paragraph 7
The basic right of self-determination should be reason enough to give them justice. However , as with many other such groups around the world, they have valuable knowledge to offer modern society; clues to the development of ancient cultures, indigenous philosophy, knowledged of the local ecology, and more. Sustainable eco-tourism is the buzzword in Sri Lanka now, but the unjust treatment of the Wanniya-laeto blocks progress towards an enlightened environmental and human rights accord.
From Paragraph 7:
12. What valuable knowledge do the Wanniya-laeto have to "offer the modern society"?[1m]
Paragraph 8
"Butakanda, ne," Kallua lamented. ( "No elephants"). The Wanniya-laeto had hoped to show me elephants in the wild, which would have been a more appropriate setting than the tourist safari i had been on a few days earlier. Yet it had been inspiring simply to roam this remarkable landscape with the Wanniya-laeto, truly the People of the Forest.
From Passage A and Passage B:
13. For each of the following words, give one word or short phrase (of not more then seven words) which has the same meaning that the word has in the passage.
From Passage A:
[a] imminent
[b] crackdowns
From Passage B:
[c] precedence
[d] epitome
[e] condoned
From Passage A:
14. Using your own words as far as possible, summarise the factors that speed up the process of massive deforestation in Borneo and the dire consequences that arise from it.
USE ONLY THE MATERIAL IN PASSAGE A FROM PARAGRAPHS 2 TO 7.
Your summary, which must be in continuous writing (not note form), must not be longer than 150 words (not counting the words given to help you begin).
Begin your summary as follows: One of the factors that contributes to deforestation in Borneo...[25 m]
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