Electric vehicles are more efficient—and thus generally less polluting—than internal-combustion vehicles for a variety of reasons. First, because the electric motor is directly connected to the wheels, it consumes no energy while the car is at rest or coasting, increasing the effective efficiency by roughly one fifth. Regenerative braking schemes—which employ the motor as a generator when the car is slowing down—can return as much as half an electric vehicle's kinetic energy to the storage cells, giving it a major advantage in stop-and-go urban traffic.
Every major automaker in the world is now investing in electric vehicle development as well as improvements in less critical technologies such as those underlying car heaters and tires. The resulting advanced components will be the building blocks for very clean and efficient vehicles of the future, but in the meantime many of them are finding their way into internal-combustion vehicles.
Although automakers worldwide have spent perhaps $1 billion on electric vehicles during the 1990s, in the context of the industry as a whole this investment is relatively small. The auto industry spends more than $5 billion a year in the U.S. alone on advertising and more than that on research and development. And oil companies are spending about $10 billion in the U.S. this decade just to upgrade refineries to produce reformulated low-emission gasoline.
One crucial factor in determining the success of electric vehicles is their price—a figure that is still highly uncertain. General Motors's newly introduced EV1 is nominally priced at $33,000; Solectria sells its low-volume-production electric vehicles for between $30,000 and $75,000, depending on the battery configuration. (Nickel-metal hydride batteries capable of carrying the car more than 320 kilometers add nearly $40,000 to the price of a lead-battery vehicle.) The adversarial nature of the regulatory process has encouraged opponents and proponents to make unrealistically high or low estimates, so it will be impossible to tell just how much the vehicles will cost until they are in mass production.
The cost of batteries (and fuel cells) will probably always render electric vehicles more expensive to purchase than comparable gasoline vehicles. On a per-kilometer basis, however, the cost of an electric and internal-combustion vehicle should eventually be about the same. Fuel for electric vehicles is inexpensive, maintenance is minimal, and it appears that electric motors last significantly longer than gasoline engines. Taking into account the cost of air pollution, greenhouse gases and other market externalities (that is, factors that society at large must now pay for) would tip the scale in favor of electric vehicles in many circumstances.
In California, where powerful air-quality regulators have led the way toward electric vehicles, progress has been slowed by opposition from both auto manufacturers and oil companies. On a national level, early hopes for the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles, a scheme promoted by the US government, have foundered on inadequate funding, political infighting and excessive caution. As a result of this internal conflict, vehicles to be built in 2004 will ostensibly have their designs set in 1997, making it likely that the partnership will embrace only the smallest of incremental improvements rather than spearheading the introduction of fuel cells and other radically new technologies. Nevertheless, it seems certain that electric-drive technology will eventually supplant internal-combustion engines—perhaps not quickly, uniformly nor entirely—but inevitably. The question is when, in what form and how to manage the transition. Perhaps the most important lesson learned from the current state of affairs is that government should do what it does best: provide broad market incentives that bring external costs such as pollution back into the economic calculations of consumers and corporations, and target money at innovative, leading-edge technologies rather than fund work that private companies would be doing in any case.
The emergence of electric vehicles has important economic implications. Whoever pioneers the commercialization of cost-competitive electric vehicle technologies will find inviting export markets around the world. Electric vehicles will be attractive where pollution is severe and intractable, peak vehicle performance is less highly valued than reliability and low maintenance, cheap electricity is available off-peak, and investments in oil distribution are small. Indeed, if the U.S. and other major industrial nations do not act, it is quite possible that the next generation of automotive giants may arise in developing countries, where cars are relatively scarce today.
Questions 26-32
Do the following statements reflect the opinions of the writer of Reading Passage 3? In boxes 26-32 write:
YES if the statement reflects the writer's opinion
NO if the statement contradicts the writer
NOT GIVEN if there is no information about this in the passage
26. Developing countries may surpass the US as car producers.
27. Powering vehicles by electricity is a high-technology concept.
28. In this environmentally-aware age, people are keen to stop driving cars.
29. Nobody knows exactly how much an electric car will cost.
30. Electric vehicles will be less noisy than gasoline-powered vehicles.
31. The big vehicle manufacturers see no future for electric cars.
32. The US government is backing the development of alternative-fuel vehicles.
Questions 33-34
Choose the appropriate letters (A-D) and write them in boxes 33-34 on your answer sheet.
33. Electric vehicles
A. use a series of gears and clutches to turn the wheels.
B. will never be able to reach high speeds.
C. only consume energy while the wheels are turning.
D. could solve the problem of global warming.
34. The Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles
A. drew up a blueprint for the era of the electric car.
B. failed to make progress toward its goals.
C. only got support from small auto makers.
D. recommended banning gasoline-fuelled vehicles.
Question 35
Name three advantages mentioned by the author that electric vehicles have over conventional vehicles.
Questions 36-38
Complete the partial summary below. Choose ONE or TWO words from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 36-38 on your answer sheet.
As the evidence grows that gasoline-fuelled vehicles are a major contributor to global pollution, pressure is mounting on government and industry to find an environmentally-friendly substitute. There are four possible alternatives, but electric vehicles are the only 36 Such cars may be powered by batteries charged from the household current or generate and store electricity themselves. Whichever method they use, their 37 is an electric motor which operates in exactly the same way. Developing countries enjoy several advantages for popularizing electric vehicles, and it is possible that future 38 may spring up there.
Academic Reading Test 5
INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH LANGUAGE
TESTING SYSTEM
ACADEMIC READING
TEST 5
TIME ALLOWED:
NUMBER OF QUESTIONS:
1 hour40
Instructions
WRITE ALL YOUR ANSWERS ON THE ANSWER SHEET
The test is in 3 sections:
Reading Passage 1 Questions 1-14
Reading Passage 2 Questions 15-28
Reading Passage 3 Questions 29-40
Remember to answer all the questions. If you are having trouble with a question, skip it and return to it later.
READING PASSAGE 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-14 which are based on Reading Passage 1.
Sleepless in America
A. America's adults are increasingly living unhealthy and sometimes antisocial lifestyles. Instead of working to live, they are living to work. They report spending more time working and less time sleeping and engaged in social and leisure activities than they did just five years ago. Most say they suffer from sleep problems and when they go to sleep, many sleep alone even if they are married.
B. These are some of the findings of the 2001 Sleep in America poll, which looks at the relationship between Americans' lifestyles, sleep habits and sleep problems. Sleep deprivation continues to be widespread in America. According to the poll, a majority of American adults (63%) does not get the recommended eight hours of sleep needed for good health. In fact, nearly one-third (31%) report sleeping less than seven hours each week night. The poll also shows that more than one-third of Americans say they get less sleep now than five years ago. Seven in 10 (69%) say they experience frequent sleep problems and most say they would sleep more if they believed it would benefit their overall health and well-being.
C. One positive finding was that many people don't want to give up any more sleep in spite of their busy lives. On the downside, however, far too many adults still sacrifice sleep, which is unhealthy and counter productive to their lives. One reason for this is the increasingly fast-paced and competitive world in which live is placing growing pressure on people to perform in their jobs and relationships. Poll coordinators say the greatest difficulty lies in educating Americans that a good night's sleep every night, and not just on weekends or holidays, is essential.
D. Today Americans' lifestyles are considerably different compared to just five years ago. Now almost as many adults say they spend more time at work as say they spend less time sleeping (40% vs. 38%). More than one-third (38%) say they are working fifty hours or more a week. These people experience more insomnia than those who spend fewer hours working. Research has shown a direct relationship between hours worked and the negative impact it has on sleep, particularly those who work more than 40 hours a week. A secondary effect of working long hours is the sleepiness people feel during the hours they are awake. Many adults say they spend less time involved in leisure and social activities and sleeping compared to five years ago. One-quarter of people polled (25%) say that if they needed to find more time in their lives they would probably give up leisure activities first. Others say they would give up time with family/friends (19%) while seventeen percent say they would give up sleep.
E. Children can be a detriment to a good night's sleep and be a catalyst for sleep-related problems. The poll shows that sleep problems occur more in households with children 18 years of age and younger. Married people with children average less sleep during the week than those without children(6.7 vs. 7.2 hours/night), and single people without children (7.1 hrs.). Adults with children are more likely to report symptoms of insomnia than those without children (58% vs. 46%). They also experience more daytime sleepiness that interferes with daily activities a few days a month or more (50% vs. 32%). More than one in ten married adults (12%) with children reports often sleeping with a child and the majority of these adults (81%) reports a sleep problem.
F. Although seven in 10 adults (69%) say they experience frequent sleep problems, they are most common among adults with children (76%), those who sleep with a child (81%), those with marital problems (77%), caregivers (76%), and people with certain medical conditions. Health problems play a significant role in the quantity and quality of adults' sleep. Those who report chronic medical conditions including diabetes, cancer, hypertension, heart disease and/or arthritis are most likely to experience sleep problems such as insomnia (trouble falling asleep), and sleep disorders such as sleep apnea, (pauses in breathing during sleep), and restless legs syndrome, (frequent limb movements during sleep).
Questions 1-5
Classify the following statements as applying to:
A. Adults married with children
B. Adults married without children
C. Both
Write the appropriate letters A-C in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.
Example Answer
46% suffer from insomnia B
1. average 7.2 hours sleep /night during the week
2. experience frequent sleep problems
3. experience more daytime sleepiness
4. have trouble falling asleep
5. average less sleep during the week
Questions 6-9
Complete the summary below. Choose your answers from the list below the summary and write them in boxes 6-9 on your answer sheet.
NB There are more words than spaces, so you will not use them all.
Example: Not getting the recommended 8 hours sleep each night leads to sleep.
Answer: Deprivation
Working over 40 hours a week has a 6 on sleep and leads to 7 during waking hours. Children can cause 8 problems and be a 9 to good sleep. Word List unhealthy, detriment, satisfaction, sleepiness, negative impact, leisure activities, benefit, sleep-related.
Questions 10-14
Reading Passage 1 has 6 paragraphs, A-F. Choose the most suitable headings for paragraphs B-F from the list of headings below. Write the appropriate numbers (i-ix) in boxes 10-14 on your answer sheet.
NB: There are more headings than paragraphs so you will not use them all.
List of Headings
i. Families and Sleep
ii. International Sleep Awareness Week
iii. Education the Key
iv. Sleep, Sleep Problems and Health
v. Less Fun, Less Sleep, More Work: An American Portrait
vi. Poor Sleep Leads to Chronic Disease
vii. Putting the Life in Lifestyles of Workaholic Americans
viii. Marriage and Sleep
ix. Americans Sleep Starved
Example Answer
Paragraph A v
10. Paragraph B
11. Paragraph C
12. Paragraph D
13. Paragraph E
14. Paragraph F
READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 15-28 which are based on Reading Passage 2 on the following pages.
Global Water Crisis
According to a report released by the World Water Organization (WWO), two-thirds of the world's population will be facing water shortages by 2025. The report states that the world's water supply is not keeping pace with demands being made upon it—consumption rose six-fold between 1900 and 1995, more than twice the rate of population growth. The report also says that while most wealthy countries will cope with falling water supplies due to efficient water management, poorer countries will suffer on a huge scale, making it even harder for them to escape poverty.
The WWO says the scale of the crisis is such that the world will increasingly witness a new phenomenon, "water refugees"—millions of people being forced to leave their homes in search of clean water. Chronic water shortages are already being experienced around the world. Lake Chad in Africa, which provides water to 20 million people in six countries, has shrunk by 95% in the past 38 years. Two-thirds of China's cities are facing severe water shortages and Delhi in India is predicted to run out of groundwater by 2015 at current usage rates.
