Airbus Amber
READING MODEL 3
PART 1
Read the following text, then read the five statements. Some of these statements are true
according to the text, some of them are false. Write T for True or F for False in the box next
to each statement.
The fundamentals of public transport, decries Michael Scherrer, an academic and entrepreneur,
have not changed very much since the times of the stagecoach. The meandering course and
frequent stops of public vehicles make the trip far slower than it would be in a private vehicle and
the odious person sitting opposite makes it even less pleasant. But Dr Scherrer's firm, Innovative
Conveyor Approaches, thinks it knows how to overcome all this—and give public transport its
biggest overhaul in three centuries—using a concept known as rapid transit of personnel, or RTP.
RTP still involves collection points and stations using small, driverless pods, for one to four people,
which would travel along narrow tracks. The stations would not lie on the main line, but on
bypasses, allowing pods to proceed directly to their final destination without any stops. It is fantasy
come to life: carefree passengers rocketing effortlessly around in glitzy capsules, without any
concern for the current work-a-day worries.
Since the 1930s, visionaries have been touting RTP as the most efficient way to move people
around diminutive cities and immense public spaces such as airports and fairgrounds. In 1962,
Gerald Ford insisted that if American ingenuity could transport three men 200,000 miles to the
moon, it could also find a better way to transport 200,000 men three miles to work. The answer, he
believed, was RTP. To prove it, he pushed through the construction of a model system at the
University of Miami. In the end, the work in Miami started to function. The construction cost,
originally estimated at $1m, ballooned to $126m. Escalating costs and waning political support sank
all the other projects.
Dr Scherrer cries that things have changed, part and parcel to strides in engineering and computing.
Almost all the elements needed for a RTP scheme can be store bought, he declares, and all on a
sensible budget, too. He predicts costs for Innovative Conveyor Approaches’ RTP system, cleverly
entitled First Wind, at just $6m-10m per kilometre, which equals the cost of a bus line, because it
will use pre-established infrastructure when possible.
The local politicians who have the final say on most proposals certainly seem to worry that RTP will
not live up to its promise. The European Commission has studied four potential schemes, and
concluded that hesitant local authorities are the only significant obstacle. As Dr Scherrer puts it,
“No one ever got fired for proposing a bus system.”
1. RTP is the only answer to these problems.
2. There are no stops in the RTP system, only the pickup and drop off stations.
Airbus Amber
, Airbus Amber
3. The routes would not have fixed lines, passengers could request any kind of detour.
4. No driver is needed, passengers request a drop off point.
5. RTP was expected to be the least economical means of public transportation.
PART 2
Read the text and fill the gaps with the correct sentences A-H. Write the letter of the
missing sentence in the box in the gap. There are two extra sentences you will not need.
Why has the illegal use of drugs become an epidemic worldwide?
It is unlikely that there is one single cause, and the demand for illegal drugs is paralleled by
their legal prescription as tranquillisers and sedatives, and by the entirely legal use of tobacco
and alcohol. 1. ___________________ The professor of addiction behaviour at the University
of London’s Institute of Psychiatry writes: “Being a drug taker means being someone for the
young person (or old person, one might add) who does not otherwise know who he is, what he
is worth, or where he is going. 2. ___________________ A drug taker becomes a member of a
group. Once a member of the group, outside the normal structure of family and work, he has
nowhere else to go. Even something like glue-sniffing is nearly always a group activity. 3.
___________________ With time, and increasing dependence on the drug, the need becomes
physical as well as psychological. The hunger must be assuaged, no matter how expensively. 4.
___________________ Government agencies have largely ignored the social reasons for
addiction. They have attacked the growers, the smugglers, and the dealers. By and large, their
efforts have not been crowned with much success. For example, in Malaysia, draconian laws
have hanged 30 heroin dealers in the past five years and put another 40 on death row awaiting
the noose. Despite these laws, 3.5 per cent of Malaysia’s population take the drug. 5.
_______________ However, on America’s own doorstep, in the Bahamas, the world’s first
modern drug epidemic has taken place. It is an epidemic that has spread in the past year to the
United States. In the Bahamas more than 10 per cent of the population are addicts. Many are
teenagers, hooked inside 10 minutes of their first introduction to drugs by “free-basing”. Free-
basing is a lethal method of smoking a “rock” of cocaine that is 80 per cent proof, compared
with 30 per cent from sniffing. 6. __________________
A. In such places, the American government uses all possible means of economic persuasion to
put pressure on countries which tolerate the drug trade. In some parts of the world, a
country’s economy may depend on the coca crop.
B. At this point drug-taking becomes not only antisocial but probably criminal, as the addict
steals to support his habit.
C. When the habit spread to New York, the substance became known as “crack”. Crack is
instantly addictive, and the addict, as usual, requires rapidly increasing quantities. Being
addicted to free-basing is just about as deadly as contracting Aids. You don’t have much life
left.
Airbus Amber
READING MODEL 3
PART 1
Read the following text, then read the five statements. Some of these statements are true
according to the text, some of them are false. Write T for True or F for False in the box next
to each statement.
The fundamentals of public transport, decries Michael Scherrer, an academic and entrepreneur,
have not changed very much since the times of the stagecoach. The meandering course and
frequent stops of public vehicles make the trip far slower than it would be in a private vehicle and
the odious person sitting opposite makes it even less pleasant. But Dr Scherrer's firm, Innovative
Conveyor Approaches, thinks it knows how to overcome all this—and give public transport its
biggest overhaul in three centuries—using a concept known as rapid transit of personnel, or RTP.
RTP still involves collection points and stations using small, driverless pods, for one to four people,
which would travel along narrow tracks. The stations would not lie on the main line, but on
bypasses, allowing pods to proceed directly to their final destination without any stops. It is fantasy
come to life: carefree passengers rocketing effortlessly around in glitzy capsules, without any
concern for the current work-a-day worries.
Since the 1930s, visionaries have been touting RTP as the most efficient way to move people
around diminutive cities and immense public spaces such as airports and fairgrounds. In 1962,
Gerald Ford insisted that if American ingenuity could transport three men 200,000 miles to the
moon, it could also find a better way to transport 200,000 men three miles to work. The answer, he
believed, was RTP. To prove it, he pushed through the construction of a model system at the
University of Miami. In the end, the work in Miami started to function. The construction cost,
originally estimated at $1m, ballooned to $126m. Escalating costs and waning political support sank
all the other projects.
Dr Scherrer cries that things have changed, part and parcel to strides in engineering and computing.
Almost all the elements needed for a RTP scheme can be store bought, he declares, and all on a
sensible budget, too. He predicts costs for Innovative Conveyor Approaches’ RTP system, cleverly
entitled First Wind, at just $6m-10m per kilometre, which equals the cost of a bus line, because it
will use pre-established infrastructure when possible.
The local politicians who have the final say on most proposals certainly seem to worry that RTP will
not live up to its promise. The European Commission has studied four potential schemes, and
concluded that hesitant local authorities are the only significant obstacle. As Dr Scherrer puts it,
“No one ever got fired for proposing a bus system.”
1. RTP is the only answer to these problems.
2. There are no stops in the RTP system, only the pickup and drop off stations.
Airbus Amber
, Airbus Amber
3. The routes would not have fixed lines, passengers could request any kind of detour.
4. No driver is needed, passengers request a drop off point.
5. RTP was expected to be the least economical means of public transportation.
PART 2
Read the text and fill the gaps with the correct sentences A-H. Write the letter of the
missing sentence in the box in the gap. There are two extra sentences you will not need.
Why has the illegal use of drugs become an epidemic worldwide?
It is unlikely that there is one single cause, and the demand for illegal drugs is paralleled by
their legal prescription as tranquillisers and sedatives, and by the entirely legal use of tobacco
and alcohol. 1. ___________________ The professor of addiction behaviour at the University
of London’s Institute of Psychiatry writes: “Being a drug taker means being someone for the
young person (or old person, one might add) who does not otherwise know who he is, what he
is worth, or where he is going. 2. ___________________ A drug taker becomes a member of a
group. Once a member of the group, outside the normal structure of family and work, he has
nowhere else to go. Even something like glue-sniffing is nearly always a group activity. 3.
___________________ With time, and increasing dependence on the drug, the need becomes
physical as well as psychological. The hunger must be assuaged, no matter how expensively. 4.
___________________ Government agencies have largely ignored the social reasons for
addiction. They have attacked the growers, the smugglers, and the dealers. By and large, their
efforts have not been crowned with much success. For example, in Malaysia, draconian laws
have hanged 30 heroin dealers in the past five years and put another 40 on death row awaiting
the noose. Despite these laws, 3.5 per cent of Malaysia’s population take the drug. 5.
_______________ However, on America’s own doorstep, in the Bahamas, the world’s first
modern drug epidemic has taken place. It is an epidemic that has spread in the past year to the
United States. In the Bahamas more than 10 per cent of the population are addicts. Many are
teenagers, hooked inside 10 minutes of their first introduction to drugs by “free-basing”. Free-
basing is a lethal method of smoking a “rock” of cocaine that is 80 per cent proof, compared
with 30 per cent from sniffing. 6. __________________
A. In such places, the American government uses all possible means of economic persuasion to
put pressure on countries which tolerate the drug trade. In some parts of the world, a
country’s economy may depend on the coca crop.
B. At this point drug-taking becomes not only antisocial but probably criminal, as the addict
steals to support his habit.
C. When the habit spread to New York, the substance became known as “crack”. Crack is
instantly addictive, and the addict, as usual, requires rapidly increasing quantities. Being
addicted to free-basing is just about as deadly as contracting Aids. You don’t have much life
left.
Airbus Amber
