Premise: The name is a reference to the colour scheme that the Womens Social and Political Union (WSPU) created to give the movement a uniform, nationwide image. By doing so, it became one of the first groups to project a corporate identity, and it is this advanced marketing strategy, along with the other organisational and commercial achievements of the WSPU, to which the exhibition is devoted. The suffragette movement, which campaigned for votes for women in the early twentieth century, is most commonly associated with the Pankhurst family and militant acts of varying degrees of violence. The Museum of London has drawn on its archive collection to convey a fresh picture with its exhibition The Purple, White and Green: Suffragettes in London 1906- Formed in 1903 by the political campaigner Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia, the WSPU began an educated campaign to put womens suffrage on the political agenda. New Zealand, Australia and parts of the United States had already enfranchised women, and growing numbers of their British counterparts wanted the same opportunity. With their slogan Deeds not words, and the introduction of the colour scheme, the WSPU soon brought the movement the cohesion and focus it had previously lacked. Membership grew rapidly as women deserted the many other, less directed, groups and joined it. By 1906 the WSPU headquarters, called the Womens Press Shop, had been established in Charing Cross Road and in spite of limited communications (no radio or television, and minimal use of the telephone) the message had spread around the country, with members and branch officers stretching to as far away as Scotland. The newspapers produced by the WSPU, first Votes for Women and later The Suffragette, played a vital role in this communication. Both were sold throughout the country and proved an invaluable way of informing members of meetings, marches, fund-raising events and the latest news and views on the movement. Equally importantly for a rising political group, the newspaper returned a profit. This was partly becauseReading advertising space was bought in the paper by large department stores such as Selfridges, and jewellers such as Mappin & Webb. These two, together with other like- minded commercial enterprises sympathetic to the cause, had quickly identified a direct way to reach a huge market of women, many with money to spend. The creation of the colour scheme provided another money-making opportunity which the WSPU was quick to exploit. The group began to sell playing cards, board games, Christmas and greeting cards, and countless other goods, all in the purple, white and green colours. In 1906 such merchandising of a corporate identity was a new marketing concept. But the paper and merchandising activities alone did not provide sufficient funds for the WSPU to meet organisational costs, so numerous other fund-raising activities combined to fill the coffers of the war chest. The most notable of these was the Womans Exhibition, which took place in 1909 in a Knightsbridge ice-skating rink, and in 10 days raised the equivalent of 250,000 today. The Museum of Londons exhibition is largely visual, with a huge number of items on show. Against a quiet background hum of street sounds, copies of The Suffragette, campaign banners and photographs are all on display, together with one of Mrs Pankhursts shoes and a number of purple, white and green trinkets. Photographs depict vivid scenes of a suffragettes life: WSPU members on a self- proclaimed monster march, wearing their official uniforms of a white frock decorated with purple, white and green accessories; women selling The Suffragette at street corners, or chalking up pavements with details of a forthcoming meeting. Windows display postcards and greeting cards designed by women artists for the movement, and the quality of the artwork indicates the wealth of resources the WSPU could call on from its talented members. Visitors can watch a short film made up of old newsreels and cinema material which clearly reveals the political mood of the day towards the suffragettes. The programme begins with a short film devised by the antis - those opposed to women having the vote -depicting a suffragette as a fierce harridan bullying her poor, abused husband. Original newsreel footage shows the suffragette Emily Wilding Davison throwing herself under King George Vs horse at a famous race- Although the exhibition officially charts the years 1906 to 1914, graphic display boards outlining the bills of enfranchisement of 1918 and 1928, which gave the adult female populace of Britain the vote, show what was achieved. It demonstrates how advanced the suffragettes were in their thinking, in the marketing of their campaign, and in their work as shrewd and skilful image-builders. It also conveys a sense of the energy and ability the suffragettes brought to their fight for freedom and equality. And it illustrates the intelligence employed by women who were at that time deemed by several politicians to have brains too small to know how to vote.

Hypothesis: The Museum of London exhibition includes some of the goods sold by the movement.


Hypothesis: The opponents of the suffragettes made films opposing the movement.


Hypothesis: The WSPUs newspapers were mainly devoted to society news and gossip.


Hypothesis: The Womans Exhibition in 1909 met with great opposition from Parliament.


Hypothesis: In 1903 women in Australia were still not allowed to vote.


Hypothesis: The main organs of communication for the WSPU were its two newspapers.


Hypothesis: The work of the WSPU was mainly confined to London and the south.


Premise: The nature of modern humans Recent work in the field of evolutionary anthropology has made it possible to compare modern humans with other related species. Genetic analysis resulted in several new findings. First, despite the length of time for which Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis had developed separately, (24).......................... did take place. Secondly, genes which evolved after modern humans split from Neanderthals are connected with cognitive ability and skeletal (25)......................... The potential for this line of research to shed light on the nature of modern humans was further strengthened when analysis of a (26)...................... led to the discovery of a new human species. The Future of fish The face of the ocean has changed completely since the first commercial fishers cast their nets and hooks over a thousand years ago. Fisheries intensified over the centuries, but even by the nineteenth century it was still felt, justifiably, that the plentiful resources of the sea were for the most part beyond the reach of fishing, and so there was little need to restrict fishing or create protected areas. The twentieth century heralded an escalation in fishing intensity that is unprecedented in the history of the oceans, and modern fishing technologies leave fish no place to hide. Today, the only refuges from fishing are those we deliberately create. Unhappily, the sea trails far behind the land in terms of the area and the quality of protection given. For centuries, as fishing and commerce have expanded, we have held onto the notion that the sea is different from the land. We still view it as a place where people and nations should be free to come and go at will, as well as somewhere that should be free for us to exploit. Perhaps this is why we have been so reluctant to protect the sea. On land, protected areas have proliferated as human populations have grown. Here, compared to the sea, we have made greater headway in our struggle to maintain the richness and variety of wildlife and landscape. Twelve percent of the worlds land is now contained in protected areas, whereas the corresponding figure for the sea is but three-fifths of one percent. Worse still, most marine protected areas allow some fishing to continue. Areas off-limits to all exploitation cover something like one five-thousandth of the total area of the worlds seas. Today, we are belatedly coming to realise that natural refuges from fishing have played a critical role in sustaining fisheries, and maintaining healthy and diverse marine ecosystems. This does not mean that marine reserves can rebuild fisheries on their own other management measures are also required for that. However, places that are off-limits to fishing constitute the last and most important part of our package of reform for fisheries management. They underpin and enhance all our other efforts. There are limits to protection though. Reserves cannot bring back what has died out. We can never resurrect globally extinct species, and restoring locally extinct animals may require reintroductions from elsewhere, if natural dispersal from remaining populations is insufficient. We are also seeing, in cases such as northern cod in Canada, that fishing can shift marine ecosystems into different states, where different mixes of species prevail. In many cases, these species are less desirable, since the prime fishing targets have gone or are much reduced in numbers, and changes may be difficult to reverse, even with a complete moratorium on fishing. The Mediterranean sailed by Ulysses, the legendary king of ancient Greece, supported abundant monk seals, loggerhead turtles and porpoises. Their disappearance through hunting and overfishing has totally restructured food webs, and recovery is likely to be much harder to achieve than their destruction was. This means that the sooner we act to protect marine life, the more certain will be our success. To some people, creating marine reserves is an admission of failure. According to their logic, reserves should not be necessary if we have done our work properly in managing the uses we make of the sea. Many fisheries managers are still wedded to the idea that one day their models will work, and politicians will listen to their advice. Just give the approach time, and success will be theirs. How much time have we got? This approach has been tried and refined for the last 50 years. There have been few successes which to feather the managers caps, but a growing litany of failure. The Common Fisheries Policy, the European Unions instrument for the management of fisheries and aquaculture, exemplifies the worst pitfalls: flawed models, flawed advice, watered-down recommendations from government bureaucrats and then the disregard of much of this advice by politicians. When it all went wrong, as it inevitably had to, Europe sent its boats to other countries in order to obtain fish for far less than they were actually worth. We are squandering the wealth of oceans. If we dont break out of this cycle of failure, humanity will lose a key source of protein, and much more besides. Disrupting natural ecosystem processes, such as water purification, nutrient cycling, and carbon storage, could have ramifications for human life itself. We can go a long way to avoiding this catastrophic mistake with simple common sense management. Marine reserves lie at the heart of the reform. But they will not be sufficient if they are implemented only here and there to shore up the crumbling edifice of the rational fisheries management envisioned by scientists in the 1940s and 1950s. They have to be placed centre stage as a fundamental underpinning for everything we do in the oceans. Reserves are a first resort, not a final resort when all else fails.

Hypothesis: The re-introduction of certain mammals to the Mediterranean is a straightforward task.


Hypothesis: People should be encouraged to reduce the amount of fish they eat.


Hypothesis: Sea fishing is now completely banned in the majority of protected areas.


Hypothesis: In general, open access to the oceans is still regarded as desirable.


Hypothesis: It is more than a thousand years since people started to catch fish for commercial use.


Premise: The need for a satisfactory education is more important than ever before. Nowadays, without a qualification from a reputable school or university, the odds of landing that plum job advertised in the paper are considerably shortened. Moreover, one's present level of education could fall well short of future career requirements. It is no secret that competition is the driving force behind the need to obtain increasingly higher qualifications. In the majority of cases, the urge to upgrade is no longer the result of an insatiable thirst for knowledge. The pressure is coming from within the workplace to compete with ever more qualified job applicants, and in many occupations one must now battle with colleagues in the reshuffle for the position one already holds. Striving to become better educated is hardly a new concept. Wealthy parents have always been willing to spend the vast amounts of extra money necessary to send their children to schools with a perceived educational edge. Working adults have long attended night schools and refresher courses. Competition for employment has been around since the curse of working for a living began. Is the present situation so very different to that of the past? The difference now is that the push is universal and from without as well as within. A student at secondary school receiving low grades is no longer as easily accepted by his or her peers as was once the case. Similarly, in the workplace, unless employees are engaged in part-time study, they may be frowned upon by their employers and peers and have difficulty even standing still. In fact, in these cases, the expectation is for careers to go backwards and earning capacity to take an appreciable nosedive. At first glance, the situation would seem to be laudable; a positive response to the exhortation by a former Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, for australia to become the `clever country'. Yet there are serious ramifications according to at least one educational psychologist. Dr Brendan Gatsby has caused some controversy in academic circles by suggesting that a bias towards what he terms `paper' excellence might cause more problems than it is supposed to solve. Gatsby raises a number of issues that affect the individual as well as society in general. Firstly, he believes the extra workload involved is resulting in abnormally high stress levels in both students at secondary school and adults studying after working hours. Secondly, skills which might be more relevant to the undertaking of a sought_after job are being overlooked by employers interviewing candidates without qualifications on paper. These two areas of concern for the individual are causing physical and emotional stress respectively. Gatsby also argues that there are attitudinal changes within society to the exalted role education now plays in determining how the spoils of working life are distributed. Individuals of all ages are being driven by social pressures to achieve academic success solely for monetary considerations instead of for the joy of enlightenment. There is the danger that some universities are becoming degree factories with an attendant drop in standards. Furthermore, our education system may be rewarding doggedness above creativity; the very thing Australians have been encouraged to avoid. But the most undesirable effect of this academic paper chase, Gatsby says, is the disadvantage that `user pays' higher education confers on the poor, who invariably lose out to the more financially favoured. Naturally, although there is agreement that learning can cause stress, Gatsby's comments regarding university standards have been roundly criticised as alarmist by most educationists who point out that, by any standard of measurement, Australia's education system overall, at both secondary and tertiary levels, is equal to that of any in the world.

Hypothesis: Some parents spend extra on their children's education because of the prestige attached to certain schools


Hypothesis: Employees who do not undertake extra study may find their salary decreased by employers.


Hypothesis: According to the text, students who performed bally at school used to be accepted by their classmates.


Hypothesis: Australians appear to have responded to the call by a former Prime Minister to become better qualified.


Hypothesis: In some jobs, the position you hold must be reapplied for.


Hypothesis: Most people who upgrade their qualifications do so for the joy of learning.


Hypothesis: It is impossible these days to get a good job without a qualification from a respected institution.


Hypothesis: Australia's education system is equal to any in the world in the opinion of most educationists.


Premise: The new health and safety regulations state that helmets should be worn and fastened and the head torch operating at all times whilst working within the mine. The use of other safety devices would be prioritised according to the previous depth regulations and in accordance to the mine's security engineer daily instructions. On dates of detonations maximal safety wear should be implemented inside as well as within a 500 meters external diameter outside the mine with no exception.

Hypothesis: The new health and safety regulations are more demanding than the previous ones.


Hypothesis: The mine's security engineer is the only source of authority to decide which safety gear is worn by miners.


Hypothesis: Miners working on the upper surface of the mine, near the mine's entrance, are not ever expected to wear safety devices other than a helmet and a head torch.


Premise: The new sports club at Dolchem was vandalized on Friday evening after the boy scouts had finished their weekly meeting in the new hall. Damages are expected to be over 4,000. It is also known that: The Parish Council was in debt after the construction of the new sports club. Local teenagers opposed the proposal to charge people to use the clubs facilities. The boy scouts have abandoned the old village hall where they used to have their meetings. There is a high level of youth unemployment in Dolchem. Witnesses saw a group of five youths running away from the club at 21.30 on Friday. Spray cans were used on the club walls, liquid paint and faeces were deposited on the floor and windows were smashed.

Hypothesis: Five young men were seen running away from the club at 21.30 on Friday.


Hypothesis: The boy scouts are willing to pay to use the new club.


Hypothesis: The youth of Dolchem had a motive to vandalize the new sports club.


Hypothesis: The Parish Council had profited from the construction of the new sports club.


Hypothesis: The idea of charging people to use the new sports facilities had caused some opposition amongst the younger members of the community.


Premise: The newly deployed ground-based mid-course missile defence system comprises 10 interceptor missiles, each of which is intended to collide in outer space with an incoming hostile missile. So far in field trials the system has successfully intercepted target missiles in five out of eight flight tests. Critics say that these trials prove very little. Live tests are very expensive, take a great deal of organization and are usually limited by concerns over safety (you really do not want one of these missiles going astray and crashing into a city centre, for example). For these reasons, a lot of the development programme has relied on models and simulations rather than real flight tests. Both critics and supporters of the programme accept that these models do a far better job of predicting the performance of system components than of predicting the performance of the system overall.

Hypothesis: Simulation and theoretical models cannot capture all the variables that can occur in a real missile engagement.


Hypothesis: So far only eight tests have been conducted.


Hypothesis: The primary verification tool for the efficiency of the missile defence system has been virtual.


Premise: The number of very young children with diabetes has risen dramatically in the past 20 years. The number of children under 5 who have the type 1 form of the condition has increased fivefold. This dramatic increase is either the symptom of a marked improvement in diagnosis, or because more genetically suscep- tible children are surviving birth and infancy, or it suggests that the environment in which we raise our children has become more dangerous for their future health. The exact cause is unknown, but it is believed to be at least in part inherited. The chances of a child developing type 1 diabetes remains low, but the recent increase is too great to be explained by genetic factors alone. It may be that we are exposing our children to something new and that is the cause, or that we have reduced exposure to something that was preventing it previously.

Hypothesis: A plausible explanation of the increase could be that the principal age at which the condition is diagnosed has become lower.


Hypothesis: It is reasonable to conclude from the passage that five times as many young children develop diabetes now than did 20 years ago.


Hypothesis: If the cause is environmental, then the author would agree that we must be exposing our children to something new and dangerous to their health.


Premise: The outlook for Irelands economy looked bleak at the end of 2011, as the Central Statistics Office (CSO) announced that the nations economy had shrunk by three percent. Economists suggest that this is the result of the Irish governments austerity measures, which have knocked consumer confidence and reduced spending. Not all parts of the Irish economy have suffered, however, as agricultural exports are up by ten percent. The worst affected industry is that of construction, which recorded a record drop of twenty-five percent.

Hypothesis: The construction industry of the Irish economy has been worst hit


Premise: The outsourcing of jobs to India from Europe and America has evolved from giving them relatively low-skilled work to passing on highly skilled roles. Multinationals have decreased the number of employees in Europe and America that undertake engineering design, science and software writing and instead now employ tens of thousands of skilled Indian workers in these challenging roles. Some are establishing second headquarters in the country because they have so many senior executives working on key projects there. The shift is in part due to it being easier in India to fill highly skilled, English-speaking positions and because, for the time being anyway, the wages for these roles are notably lower than wages in Europe and America. But it is also because companies want to position their businesses where they believe the future lies. India is one of the worlds three biggest pools of highly skilled English-speaking labour and some commentators believe that as many as 30 million European and American skilled jobs are at risk of being moved.

Hypothesis: The case that many more skilled jobs will be moved to India would be strengthened if even more than 30 million European and American jobs were at risk of moving.


Hypothesis: The claim that American and European jobs are being lost to India because Indian workers are prepared to work harder than their American and European counter- parts can be rebutted.


Hypothesis: Three rationales for the outsourcing to India are portrayed.


Premise: The passage denies that 20,000,000 homes at the point of writing wasted at least a slice of bread a day.

Hypothesis: Responsibility lies with the person who keeps the house.


Hypothesis: The government has taken responsibility for public waste.


Hypothesis: The government should do more to inform the public about waste.


Hypothesis: The writer has received much criticism for his views.


Hypothesis: According to the above passage, a slice of bread is an unimportant thing.


Premise: The passage details circumstances where a clients confidentiality might be broken by all the mentioned professions.

Hypothesis: All professions have a confidentiality code but some are stricter than others.


Hypothesis: The passage states that a doctor can be prosecuted if he or she does not report a patient who has suffered gunshot wounds.


Premise: The people of ancient Egypt emerged as one of the first Western civilisations. Sustained by the River Nile and protected by vast deserts, the Egyptians lived in comparative security, prosperity and peace for thousands of years. When such conditions exist, the civilisation and its arts usually flourish. To this day, many of the Egyptian artistic creations display the wealth, splendour and talent of this great civilisation. Ancient Egypt has been called a land of temples and tombs. For centuries people have been filled with wonder at the ingenuity of the Egyptians, whose impressive works have withstood the ravages of time so well. Had it not been for the long-lasting nature of their monuments and carved inscriptions in the form of hieroglyphics, much evidence of their activities would have vanished from all historical records. In about 3000 BC, Upper and Lower Egypt were united under the first pharaoh, and generally from that time until the invasion by Alexander the Great in 332 BC, Egypt prospered as a nation of skilful craftsmen and artists. The Egyptians were an industrious, highly civilised and deeply religious people, who obediently accepted the supreme authority of their pharaohs. The people were content to serve and work for the state in return for a secure livelihood. They considered this earthly life to be a segment in a great cycle, at the end of which everything would be returned to its original form. The richer and more important the person, the more careful and elaborate would be his or her burial, and the stronger and safer the tomb in which they would be buried. The burial of the dead in the ground was not considered sufficiently safe for kings, queens and court officials, so sunken, sealed tombs were ingeniously constructed to protect personal treasures, food and instructions for the safe conduct of the soul after death. The design of these tombs developed into the stepped pyramid, and finally into the square pyramid that we know today. There are about 80 ancient pyramids in Egypt. The Great Pyramid at Giza, which King Cheops built as his tomb 5000 years ago, holds most interest. It stands with two other pyramids on a slight rise overlooking the River Nile. At the centre of the pyramid is the Kings Chamber and leading down from there is a long narrow area known as the Grand Gallery. The pyramid covers 13 acres and contains 2,300,000 blocks of limestone, each weighing an average of 1.5 tons. Its pyramidal form has a perfectly square base with sides of 756 feet and a height of 481 feet. Situated directly below the Kings Chamber is the Queens Chamber and there are two air channels leading upwards from the centre of the pyramid to the outside. Originally the exterior was covered in highly polished limestone slabs, all of which have been stolen over the years. It is estimated that a total of 100,000 men laboured for 20 years to build this gigantic structure, and although architecturally unimportant in design, it has aroused the curiosity of millions of people because of the uncanny accuracy of its measurements and proportions. It reveals the remarkable ingenuity and the great organising ability of the ancient Egyptians. Near these pyramids stands the Great Sphinx, the origin and purpose of which constitutes one of the worlds most famous puzzles. Shaped from an outcrop of stone in the form of a humanheaded lion, the face is possibly a portrait of King Khafra, the son of Cheops, who was buried in the second largest pyramid. The Sphinx is one of the biggest statues ever made. The Egyptian people showed reverence towards natural objects such as the lotus flower, the scarab beetle, the falcon, the lion, the sun and the River Nile. All these subjects and many more were used symbolically and conventionally as motifs in low-relief carving and painting. It was the custom of the Egyptians to depict the various parts of the human figure, usually in the most characteristic positions. The head was shown in profile except for the eye, which was represented from the front, the shoulders and a portion of the arms were portrayed from the front, while the hips and legs were side views. Wall decoration showed little or no attempt to indicate depth or perspective, except by placing distant objects above near things. It was essentially two-dimensional, and relative size indicated the status of the person, so the pharaoh was the largest figure in the composition. Egyptian art is characterised by a passion for permanence, a desire to impress by size, and a determination to make each item serve its function without much regard for the whole. It is obvious that art among these people reached a very high level and the strong influence of Egyptian art can be seen in the work of nearby civilisations. The fortunate discovery and subsequent deciphering in 1822 of the Rosetta Stone, which showed the same laws inscribed both in Egyptian hieroglyphics and the Egyptian demotic, or popular version of their language, as well as the Greek language, eventually gave the key to the meaning of Egyptian inscriptions, and therefore the significance of much Egyptian art.

Hypothesis: Egyptian carvings were often based on things found in nature.


Hypothesis: Important characters in Egyptian carvings were bigger than less important characters.


Hypothesis: Egyptian art was greatly influenced by the art of neighbouring cultures.


Hypothesis: The surface of the Great Pyramid is covered in polished limestone slabs.


Hypothesis: King Khafra died before King Cheops.


Premise: The peoples republic of china has enjoyed a rapidly growing economy for decades, with chinas export market the key factor in its economic success. However recently economic growth, import and export growth have been declining and are at their lowest rates since the late 2000 economic crisis. These may be indications of a slowing economy, which could spell disaster for the Peoples Republic, which have set their sights at competing with America for economic superpower status. It is possible that the increase in living standards and wages throughout china has increased the prices of its exports, making them less financially desirable. Only time will tell if the worlds second largest economy still has the steam to maintain high rates of growth.

Hypothesis: Increase in wages is the suggested reason for chinas slowed growth


Premise: The phenomenon of bottled water has given rise to the creation of a billion pound industry. The cost of bottled water can be up to 10,000 times higher than that of tap water. However, a reported 53 billion gallons of bottled water are consumed each year. This is a shocking figure, when considering the fact that much bottled water is actually from municipal water sources; in other words, taps. In addition, the process of bottling and transporting the water can have detrimental effects on the environment. Last year over 16 million barrels of oil were used in the production of bottled water. This is enough oil to fuel over half a million cars for an entire year. Finally, statistics suggest that only one in six plastic water bottles are recycled. In this way, the bottled water industry can be seen as not only overly expensive for consumers, but also as damaging for the environment.

Hypothesis: Bottled water can be up to 10,000 times higher than the cost of tap water.


Hypothesis: Bottled water is 10,000 times higher than the cost of tap water.


Hypothesis: The bottled water industry may have a negative effect on the environment.


Hypothesis: The oil from last years production of bottled water could fuel 500,000 cars


Premise: The polar bear is the worlds largest land carnivore and also the largest species of bear, along with the Kodiak bear. The polar bear is on average twice as large as the Siberian tiger and adult males weigh between 350-700kg in the wild. Adult females are roughly half the size, weighing between 150-250kg. Polar bears are insulated with up to 10 cm of blubber, which causes them to overheat at temperatures above 10 C. Unlike brown bears, polar bears are unlikely to become obese in captivity, likely due to warm conditions in most zoos. Polar bears are excellent swimmers and individuals have been seen on open arctic waters as far as 300 km from land.

Hypothesis: The polar bears blubber is an adaption to their cold arctic climate.


Hypothesis: On average, the Kodiak bear is twice the size of the Siberian tiger.


Hypothesis: The Polar bear spends more time in water than on land.


Hypothesis: The Kodiak bear is the worlds largest carnivore.


Hypothesis: Polar bears in captivity are much larger than those in the wild.


Premise: The police are looking for a man aged about 30 who is suspected of committing an assault on a pair of senior citizens outside their home in Chapel Street, Northwell. The alleged assault occurred shortly after 23.00 hours on Thursday 8 July when the couple, Monica and Albert Smart, were returning home from a social evening at their local Community Centre. The following facts are also known: Monica and Albert Smith are both aged over 65 and have recently retired. An unknown assailant snatched and ran off with Monicas handbag, but Albert refused to hand over his wallet despite being threatened by the thief. After the attack, Albert was taken to the A&E Department of City Hospital suffering from severe shock, but was later allowed to return home. Bill James aged 32, an unemployed neighbour of the Smarts, was visited by debt collectors on the day of the assault.

Hypothesis: The police are looking for Bill James who is under suspicion for committing the assault on Albert and Monica Smart.


Hypothesis: Bill James, a neighbour of Mr and Mrs Smart, is currently experiencing financial difficulties.


Hypothesis: Mr and Mrs Smart are long-term residents of Chapel Street, Northwell.


Hypothesis: Albert Smart resisted the thiefs attempts to steal his wallet, and was taken to the hospital afterwards to have his injuries treated.


Hypothesis: Theft was the prime motive for the attack on Monica and Albert Smart, a pair of recently retired senior citizens.


Premise: The police report that they have obtained CCTV images of a robbery that took place at a mini-supermarket in a suburb of Littleton. The recordings show that three masked men entered the store in North Road as the duty manager Debra Mooney and her assistants were preparing to close down at about 23.50 BST on Friday 20 April. The following facts are also known: Two of the men jumped over the counter and grabbed a quantity of cash from the tills. The other man threatened the staff with what appeared to be a kitchen knife. None of the staff was injured in the incident but they were badly shaken by the experience. Bret Desmond, the brother of one of the assistants, was recently released from prison after serving a sentence for robbery. The owner of a nearby hardware store had reported to the police that a set of kitchen knives had been stolen from his shop on the afternoon of Friday 20 April.

Hypothesis: The knife used in the robbery at the mini-supermarket had been stolen from a local hardware shop earlier that day.


Hypothesis: The raid on the mini-supermarket took place shortly before midnight on the last Friday in April.


Hypothesis: The duty manager Debra Mooney and her assistants were subjected to physical violence during the course of the incident.


Hypothesis: The CCTV images will enable the police to identify the three men who committed the robbery at the store.


Hypothesis: Bret Desmond, the brother of one of the assistants at the store, has a criminal record.


Premise: The politics of pessimism Newspaper headlines and TV or radio news bulletins would have us believe erroneously that a new age has come upon us, the Age of Cassandra. People are being assailed not just with contemporary doom, or past gloom, but with prophecies of disasters about to befall. The dawn of the new millennium has now passed; the earth is still intact, and the fin de siecle Jeremiahs have now gone off to configure a new date for the apocalypse. It can, I believe, be said with some certainty that the doom-mongers will never run out of business. Human nature has an inclination for pessimism and anxiety, with each age having its demagogues, foretelling doom or dragging it in their wake. But what makes the modern age so different is that the catastrophes are more in your face, Their assault on our senses is relentless. Whether it be sub-conscious or not, this is a situation not lost on politicians. They play upon peoples propensity for unease, turning it into a very effective political tool. Deluding the general public All too often, when politicians want to change the status quo, they take advantage of peoples fears of the unknown and their uncertainties about the future. For example, details about a new policy may be leaked to the press. Of course, the worst case scenario is presented in all its depressing detail. When the general public reacts in horror, the government appears to cave in. And then accepting some of the suggestions from their critics, ministers water down their proposals. This allows the government to get what It wants, while at the same time fooling the public into believing that they have got one over on the government. Or even that they have some say in the making of policy. There are several principles at play here. And both are rather simple: unsettle people and then play on their fears; and second, people must be given an opportunity to make a contribution, however insignificant, in a given situation; otherwise, they become dissatisfied, not fearful or anxious. A similar ruse, at a local level, will further illustrate how easily peoples base fears are exploited. A common practice is to give people a number of options, say in a housing development, ranging from no change to radical transformation of an area. The aim is to persuade people to agree significant modifications, which may involve disruption to their lives, and possibly extra expenditure. The individuals, fearful of the worst possible outcome, plump for the middle course. And this, incidentally, is invariably the option favoured by the authorities. Everything is achieved under the guise of market research, but it is obviously a blatant exercise in the manipulation of peoples fears. Fear and survival Fear and anxieties about the future affect us still. People are wracked with self-doubt and low self-esteem. In the struggle to exist and advance in life, a seemingly endless string, of obstacles is encountered, so many, in fact, that any accomplishment seems surprising. liven when people do succeed they are still nagged by uncertainty. Not surprisingly, feelings like doubt, fear, anxiety and pessimism are usually associated with failure. Yet, if properly harnessed, they are the driving force behind success, the very engines of genius. if things turn out well for a long time, there is a further anxiety: that of constantly waiting for something to go wrong. People then find themselves propitiating the gods: not walking on lines on the pavements, performing rituals before public performances, wearing particular clothes and colours so that they can blame the ritual not themselves when things go wrong, But surely the real terror cornea when success continues uninterrupted for such a long period of time that we forget what failure is like! We crave for and are fed a daily diet of anxiety, Horror films and disaster movies have an increasing appeal. Nostradamus pops his head up now and again. And other would-be prophets make a brief appearance, predicting the demise of human kind. Perhaps, this is all just a vestige of the hardships of early man our attempt to recreate the struggles of a past age, as its becomes more and more comfortable. Mankind cannot live by contentment alone. And so, a world awash with anxieties and pessimism has been created. Being optimistic is you struggle. Hut survival dictates that mankind remain ever sanguine.

Hypothesis: People perform certain rituals to try to avoid failure.


Hypothesis: The complex relationship between failure and success needs to be addressed carefully.


Hypothesis: The writer believes that Nostradamus and certain other prophets are right about their predictions for the end of the human race.


Hypothesis: Anxiety in daily life is what we want.


Premise: The population of the United Kingdom is ageing. It has increased from 55.9 million in 1971 to 60.2 million in 2005. That is almost an eight percent increase. However, this change is not spread out evenly across all age groups. In the last thirty or so years, the population aged 65 or over has increased from 13 percent to 16 percent. Within this age group the proportion of the population aged 65 and over and 85 and over increased from 7 percent in the 1970s to 12 percent in 2005. However, the percentage of the population living under the age of 16 has declined from 25 percent in 1971 to 19 percent in 2005. Over the last thirty years, the mean age of the UK population increased from 34.1 years in 1971 to 38.8 in 2005. This ageing is principally due to fertility, although in recent times there has been a decrease in mortality rates, with particular emphasis on older ages.

Hypothesis: There were more older people than younger people living in 2005


Hypothesis: There has been a population increase of 4.3 million from the 1970s to 2005


Hypothesis: Due to the enforcement of the no smoking legislation, it will be up to the organisations to comply by the rules


Hypothesis: All individuals seem to be supporting the no smoking policy


Hypothesis: If an individual was to smoke for at least 10 years, they are more likely to suffer from cancer, heart disease, blockage of vessels and so on


Hypothesis: Due to the legislation enforced by the government many organisations now have a no smoking policy


Hypothesis: Younger people are living much longer as they now have healthy lifestyles


Hypothesis: Over the last three decades there has been a decrease in the population aged 65 and over


Premise: The power of play Virtually every child, the world over, plays. The drive to play is so intense that children will do so in any circumstances, for instance when they have no real toys, or when parents do not actively encourage the behavior. In the eyes of a young child, running, pretending, and building are fun. Researchers and educators know that these playful activities benefit the development of the whole child across social, cognitive, physical, and emotional domains. Indeed, play is such an instrumental component to healthy child development that the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights (1989) recognized play as a fundamental right of every child. Yet, while experts continue to expound a powerful argument for the importance of play in children's lives, the actual time children spend playing continues to decrease. Today, children play eight hours less each week than their counterparts did two decades ago (Elkind 2008). Under pressure of rising academic standards, play is being replaced by test preparation in kindergartens and grade schools, and parents who aim to give their preschoolers a leg up are led to believe that flashcards and educational 'toys' are the path to success. Our society has created a false dichotomy between play and learning. Through play, children learn to regulate their behavior, lay the foundations for later learning in science and mathematics, figure out the complex negotiations of social relationships, build a repertoire of creative problem-solving skills, and so much more. There is also an important role for adults in guiding children through playful learning opportunities. Full consensus on a formal definition of play continues to elude the researchers and theorists who study it. Definitions range from discrete descriptions of various types of play such as physical, construction, language, or symbolic play (Miller & Almon 2009), to lists of broad criteria, based on observations and attitudes, that are meant to capture the essence of all play behaviors (e. g. Rubin et al. 1983). A majority of the contemporary definitions of play focus on several key criteria. The founder of the National Institute for Play, Stuart Brown, has described play as 'anything that spontaneously is done for its own sake'. More specifically, he says it 'appears purposeless, produces pleasure and joy, and leads one to the next stage of mastery' (as quoted in Tippett 2008). Similarly, Miller and Almon (2009) say that play includes 'activities that are freely chosen and directed by children and arise from intrinsic motivation'. Often, play is defined along a continuum as more or less playful using the following set of behavioral and dispositional criteria (e. g. Rubin et al. 1983): Play is pleasurable: Children must enjoy the activity or it is not play. It is intrinsically motivated: Children engage in play simply for the satisfaction the behavior itself brings. It has no extrinsically motivated function or goal. Play is process oriented: When children play, the means are more important than the ends. It is freely chosen, spontaneous and voluntary. If a child is pressured, they will likely not think of the activity as play. Play is actively engaged: Players must be physically and/or mentally involved in the activity. Play is non-literal. It involves make-believe. According to this view, children's playful behaviors can range in degree from 0% to 100% playful. Rubin and colleagues did not assign greater weight to any one dimension in determining playfulness; however, other researchers have suggested that process orientation and a lack of obvious functional purpose may be the most important aspects of play (e. g. Pellegrini 2009). From the perspective of a continuum, play can thus blend with other motives and attitudes that are less playful, such as work. Unlike play, work is typically not viewed as enjoyable and it is extrinsically motivated (i. e. it is goal oriented). Researcher Joan Goodman (1994) suggested that hybrid forms of work and play are not a detriment to learning; rather, they can provide optimal contexts for learning. For example, a child may be engaged in a difficult, goal-directed activity set up by their teacher, but they may still be actively engaged and intrinsically motivated. At this mid-point between play and work, the child's motivation, coupled with guidance from an adult, can create robust opportunities for playful learning. Critically, recent research supports the idea that adults can facilitate children's learning while maintaining a playful approach in interactions known as 'guided play' (Fisher et al. 2011). The adult's role in play varies as a function of their educational goals and the child's developmental level (Hirsch-Pasek et al. 2009). Guided play takes two forms. At a very basic level, adults can enrich the child's environment by providing objects or experiences that promote aspects of a curriculum. In the more direct form of guided play, parents or other adults can support children's play by joining in the fun as a co-player, raising thoughtful questions, commenting on children's discoveries, or encouraging further exploration or new facets to the child's activity. Although playful learning can be somewhat structured, it must also be child-centered (Nicolopolou et al. 2006). Play should stem from the child's own desire. Both free and guided play are essential elements in a child-centered approach to playful learning. Intrinsically motivated free play provides the child with true autonomy, while guided play is an avenue through which parents and educators can provide more targeted learning experiences. In either case, play should be actively engaged, it should be predominantly child-directed, and it must be fun.

Hypothesis: Work and play differ in terms of whether or not they have a target.


Hypothesis: Researchers have agreed on a definition of play.


Hypothesis: Play helps children to develop their artistic talents.


Hypothesis: It is a mistake to treat play and learning as separate types of activities.


Hypothesis: Children need toys in order to play.


Premise: The price of gold has increased by almost thirty-five percent across the globe over the last year. As a result, previously abandoned gold mines, which were once seen as financially unviable, have been re-opened. An example of this can be seen at the southern Indian state of Karnataka, where companies are re-opening gold mines as even low grade ore becomes valuable. India is currently the largest consumer of gold globally; however, the majority of this demand is currently met by import. Commentators question whether this trend will continue as more and more abandoned mines are re-opened.

Hypothesis: The majority of Indias demand for gold is met by import


Hypothesis: Indias demand for imported old is increasing


Hypothesis: Indias demand for gold is increasing


Premise: The prime minister described climate change as the greatest long- term challenge facing the human race. In 1997 he committed Britain to cutting emissions of carbon dioxide by 20 per cent, with 2010 set as the date by which this reduction was to be achieved. This target was beyond the Kyoto target to reduce emis- sions and was self-imposed. Unfortunately, after initial success, progress towards the target slowed then stopped, and since 2002 carbon dioxide emissions have risen slightly. In 2005 the government admitted the obvious by conceding that the 20 per cent by 2010 target would not be realized. Some of the reasons are beyond the governments control. Very high prices for natural gas have in recent years meant that energy companies are switching to burning more and dirtier coal. Economic growth has exceeded expectations and resulted in higher than forecast levels of emissions. The government must also take a share of the blame. There has been a whole raft of reports, recommendations and policies directed at countering the causes of climate change. However, few of these initiatives are aimed at cutting emissions or providing incentives to change polluting behaviour. Instead, they largely fall into the category of raising awareness.

Hypothesis: The passage states that emissions would be lower than the current level if the British government had adopted more radical policies to counter carbon emissions.


Hypothesis: The passage follows events chronologically.


Hypothesis: Britain will fail to realize its self-imposed target of a 20 per cent reduction by 2010 but will achieve the lower Kyoto target.


Premise: The prime minister recently announced a new plan to kick-start social recovery and troubleshoot dysfunctional families. Under this scheme, the government plans to invest 450 million into families; providing more case workers, probation officers and social workers. While forty percent of the total bill is expected to be provided by central government, the remaining sixty percent is to be provided by local councils. Those in opposition appear sceptical as to the worth of the scheme, highlighting that the funding must be gained by cuts to other key areas. In this way, the prime minister has been accused of taking with one hand while giving with the other.

Hypothesis: The author means the scheme will be detrimental to families when he refers to the proposed scheme as taking with one hand while giving with the other


Hypothesis: The author means funding for the scheme may come from other areas when he refers to the proposed scheme as taking with one hand while giving with the other


Hypothesis: The author means that only local government will be giving funds, when he refers to the proposed scheme as taking with one hand while giving with the other


Hypothesis: The author means that funds will come from companies when he refers to the proposed scheme as taking with one hand while giving with the other


Premise: The principal instructed all the teachers to be careful in class because some students may disturb other students.

Hypothesis: The students will welcome the decision of Principal.


Hypothesis: The teachers will handle the situation properly and they will point out the naughty students


Premise: The problem is not so great with hydroelectric schemes in temperate regions. But, before more hydropower schemes are built in tropical zones, the United Nations wants experts to examine the emissions produced by existing schemes and to recommend ways in which they can be made more environmentally friendly. A lot of the tropical hydropower plants were created by flooding forests, and as drowned plants and trees rot millions of tons of greenhouse gases are released. Despite burning no fossil fuels, the greenhouse emissions from these hydropower plants are higher than comparable fossil fuel-burning power plants. The most polluting hydropower installations are those that were created by the flooding of vast areas of carbon-rich land. These are usually shallow reservoirs, and over the first 10 years of their life it is estimated that they generate four times more greenhouse gases than equivalent modern coal-burning power stations to produce the same power output.

Hypothesis: You can infer that the United Nations does not think that using the movement of flowing water to drive turbines to generate electricity is necessarily a green source, even though it does not burn fossil fuels.


Hypothesis: The greenhouse gas that is largely responsible for the problem is methane, produced as the lush vegetation flooded by tropical reservoirs rots.


Hypothesis: The problem is not so great from hydroelectric schemes in temperate regions because the cooler temperatures mean that much less greenhouse gases are produced.


Premise: The problem with the notion of technology is that there are various meanings of the term. It no longer has a precise and limited meaning, but rather a vague and expansive one. The term is used to describe not only instruments and machines but also skills, methods and procedures, among other things. Some commentators have argued that technology is a factor that determines key facets of organisations. However, others have argued that there is no cause and effect relationship between adoption of the technologies and the structural and performance outcomes that may be associated with them.

Hypothesis: When people talk about technology they are always referring to machines, such as computers.


Hypothesis: Everyone agrees with the single definition of technology.


Hypothesis: Some people have argued that technology is a determining factor in a number of key areas of an organisation.


Premise: The product X that you have asked for is not with us but can be made available against firm order form you

Hypothesis: The product X is not in great demand


Hypothesis: The product X is out of stock as new model is coming up.


Premise: The production of organic food products supplied in food stores continues to increase considerably with demand particularly high in Europe and North America. Health awareness and higher standards of living are both enhancing consumption and the market is likely to triple over the next decade. The organic food industry is facing the challenge of how it will cope with the forecasted future demand.

Hypothesis: Food stores in Europe and North America have increased their production of organic food products, due to an increased demand.


Hypothesis: Organic food production is the fastest growing field in the food industry.


Hypothesis: The main cause of enhanced organic food consumption is the higher general standard of living.


Premise: The project of the road construction (work) has crossed its first deadline as far as pre-monsoon road work are concerned. In the major city the road works are given great emphasis and these are the places where road work has been completed.

Hypothesis: It takes several hours travelling via these roads.


Hypothesis: The work of the road is going on


Hypothesis: They will start the road works well in advance


Hypothesis: To start the work of the road one has to go through a lot of tiresome paperwork before starting the repair work which delays the whole work of the road.


Premise: The project was ambitious in its size, complexity, triparty nature, and in its pioneering of the Private Finance Initiative. This difficulty was unavoidable and contributed to the projects failure. However, a more prudent estimation of the unknown difficulties and timescales would have enabled the Department to better prepare for the project, and increase its chance of success. In December 1997 XSoft indicated they needed more time to complete the project, which should have been inevitable. If the Department knew from the start how long the project would take, it is questionable whether they would have considered inception; especially considering the implications of delay on overall profitability for the venture.

Hypothesis: XSoft witheld information from the Department regarding how long the project would take.


Hypothesis: If more care had been put into estimating the difficulties, it is less likely the project would have failed.


Hypothesis: The Departments profits were dependent upon how long the project took.


Premise: The project was ambitious in its size, complexity, triparty nature, and in its pioneering of the Private Finance Initiative. This difficulty was unavoidable and contributed to the projects failure. However, a more thorough estimate of the unknown difficulties and timescales would have enabled the Department to better prepare for the project, and increase its chance of success. In December 1997 XSoft indicated they needed time to complete the project, which should have been inevitable. If the Department knew from the start how long the project would take, it is questionable whether they would have considered inception, especially considering the implications of delay on the overall profitability for the venture.


Hypothesis: XSoft withheld information from the Department regarding how long the project would take.


Premise: The prospect of accepting negative feedback about ourselves elicits conflict, as we need to assess the immediate emotional costs of negative information about ourselves against the long-term benefits of gaining useful feedback. Studies have confirmed what most managers seem to have known already, that the mood we in whilst receiving feedback often influences the relative weight people assign to emotional costs versus the informational benefits of receiving negative feedback. The studies that have been carried out have demonstrated that positive moods can function as a buffer and therefore enable people affected in this way to both accept, as well as better handle, the emotional costs of negative self-related information.

Hypothesis: Accepting negative feedback involves a trade; off between short; term and long; term costs and benefits.


Hypothesis: An individuals mood will have no effect on how negative feedback is received.


Hypothesis: A positive mood enhances the perception of there being long-term benefits associated with receiving negative feedback.


Hypothesis: Accepting negative feedback involves a trade-off between short-term and long-term costs and benefits.


Hypothesis: Managers are increasingly taking employees moods into consideration when providing them with negative feedback regarding their performance.


Premise: The prudence rule, which is sometimes known as conservatism, arises out of the need to make a number of estimates in preparing periodic accounts. Managers and owners are often naturally over-optimistic about future events. As a result, there is a tendency to be too confident about the future, and not to be altogether realistic about the organisation s prospects. There may, for example, be undue optimism over the credit-worthiness of new customers. Insufficient allowance may therefore be made for the possibility of bad debt. In turn, this might have the effect of overstating profit.

Hypothesis: Accountants should avoid making estimates when preparing periodic accounts.


Hypothesis: Most new customers are credit-worthy.


Hypothesis: Managers or owners are not often good judges of their customers willingness or ability to pay.


Hypothesis: The prudence rule prevents bad debt from arising.


Premise: The prudence rule, which is sometimes known as conservatism, arises out of the need to make a number of estimates in preparing periodic accounts. Managers and owners are often naturally over-optimistic about future events. As a result, there is a tendency to be too confident about the future, and not to be altogether realistic about the organizations prospects. There may, for example, be undue optimism over the credit-worthiness of new customers. Insufficient allowance may therefore be made for the possibility of bad debt. In turn, this might have the effect of overstating profit.

Hypothesis: Most new customers are credit-worthy.


Hypothesis: managers or owners are not often good judges of their customers willingness or ability to pay.


Hypothesis: Accountants should avoid making estimates when preparing periodic account.


Premise: The psychology of innovation Why are so few companies truly innovative? Innovation is key to business survival, and companies put substantial resources into inspiring employees to develop new ideas. There are, nevertheless, people working in luxurious, state-of-the-art centres designed to stimulate innovation who find that their environment doesnt make them feel at all creative. And there are those who dont have a budget, or much space, but who innovate successfully. For Robert B. Cialdini, Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University, one reason that companies dont succeed as often as they should is that innovation starts with recruitment. Research shows that the fit between an employees values and a companys values makes a difference to what contribution they make and whether, two years after they join, theyre still at the company. Studies at Harvard Business School show that, although some individuals may be more creative than others, almost every individual can be creative in the right circumstances. One of the most famous photographs in the story of rocknroll emphasises Ciaidinis views. The 1956 picture of singers Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis jamming at a piano in Sun Studios in Memphis tells a hidden story. Suns million-dollar quartet could have been a quintet. Missing from the picture is Roy Orbison a greater natural singer than Lewis, Perkins or Cash. Sam Phillips, who owned Sun, wanted to revolutionise popular music with songs that fused black and white music, and country and blues. Presley, Cash, Perkins and Lewis instinctively understood Phillipss ambition and believed in it. Orbison wasnt inspired by the goal, and only ever achieved one hit with the Sun label. The value fit matters, says Cialdini, because innovation is, in part, a process of change, and under that pressure we, as a species, behave differently, When things change, we are hard-wired to play it safe. Managers should therefore adopt an approach that appears counterintuitive -they should explain what stands to be lost if the company fails to seize a particular opportunity. Studies show that we invariably take more gambles when threatened with a loss than when offered a reward. Managing innovation is a delicate art. Its easy for a company to be pulled in conflicting directions as the marketing, product development, and finance departments each get different feedback from different sets of people. And without a system which ensures collaborative exchanges within the company, its also easy for small pockets of innovation to disappear. Innovation is a contact sport. You cant brief people just by saying, Were going in this direction and Im going to take you with me. Cialdini believes that this follow-the-leader syndrome, is dangerous, not least because it encourages bosses to go it alone. Its been scientifically proven that three people will be better than one at solving problems, even if that one person is the smartest person in the field. To prove his point, Cialdini cites an interview with molecular biologist James Watson. Watson, together with Francis Crick, discovered the structure of DNA, the genetic information carrier of all living organisms. When asked how they had cracked the code ahead of an array of highly accomplished rival investigators, he said something that stunned me. He said he and Crick had succeeded because they were aware that they werent the most intelligent of the scientists pursuing the answer. The smartest scientist was called Rosalind Franklin who, Watson said, was so intelligent she rarely sought advice. Teamwork taps into one of the basic drivers of human behaviour. The principle of social proof is so pervasive that we dont even recognise it, says Cialdini. If your project is being resisted, for example, by a group of veteran employees, ask another old-timer to speak up for it. Cialdini is not alone in advocating this strategy. Research shows that peer power, used horizontally not vertically, is much more powerful than any bosss speech. 76Writing, visualising and prototyping can stimulate the flow of new ideas. Cialdini cites scores of research papers and historical events that prove that even something as simple as writing deepens every individuals engagement in the project. It is, he says, the reason why all those competitions on breakfast cereal packets encouraged us to write in saying, in no more than 10 words: I like Kelloggs Com Flakes because... . The very act of writing makes us more likely to believe it. Authority doesnt have to inhibit innovation but it often does. The wrong kind of leadership will lead to what Cialdini calls captainitis, the regrettable tendency of team members to opt out of team responsibilities that are properly their. He calls it captainitis because, he says, crew members of multipilot aircraft exhibit a sometimes deadly passivity when the flight captain makes a clearly wrong-headed decision. This behaviour is not, he says, unique to air travel, but can happen in any workplace where the leader is overbearing. At the other end of the scale is the 1980s Memphis design collective, a group of young designers for whom the only rule was that there were no rule. This environment encouraged a free interchange of ideas, which led to more creativity with form, function, colour and materials that revolutionised attitudes to furniture design. Many theorists believe the ideal boss should lead from behind, taking pride in collective accomplishment and giving credit where it is due. Cialdini says: Leaders should encourage everyone to contribute and simultaneously assure all concerned that every recommendation is important to making the right decision and will be given full attention The frustrating thing about innovation is that there are many approaches, but no magic formula. However, a manager who wants to create a truly innovative culture can make their job a lot easier by recognising these psychological realities.

Hypothesis: A managers approval of an idea is more persuasive than that of a colleague.


Hypothesis: The physical surroundings in which a person works play a key role in determining their creativity.


Hypothesis: It is easier for smaller companies to be innovative.


Hypothesis: Most people have the potential to be creative.


Hypothesis: Teams work best when their members are of equally matched intelligence.


Premise: The psychology of innovation Why are so few companies truly innovative? Innovation is key to business survival, and companies put substantial resources into inspiring employees to develop new ideas. There are, nevertheless, people working in luxurious, state-of-the-art centres designed to stimulate innovation who find that their environment doesnt make them feel at all creative. And there are those who dont have a budget, or much space, but who innovate successfully. For Robert B. Cialdini, Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University, one reason that companies dont succeed as often as they should is that innovation starts with recruitment. Research shows that the fit between an employees values and a companys values makes a difference to what contribution they make and whether, two years after they join, theyre still at the company. Studies at Harvard Business School show that, although some individuals may be more creative than others, almost every individual can be creative in the right circumstances. One of the most famous photographs in the story of rocknroll emphasises Ciaidinis views. The 1956 picture of singers Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis jamming at a piano in Sun Studios in Memphis tells a hidden story. Suns million-dollar quartet could have been a quintet. Missing from the picture is Roy Orbison, a greater natural singer than Lewis, Perkins or Cash. Sam Phillips, who owned Sun, wanted to revolutionise popular music with songs that fused black and white music, and country and blues. Presley, Cash, Perkins and Lewis instinctively understood Phillipss ambition and believed in it. Orbison wasnt inspired by the goal, and only ever achieved one hit with the Sun label. The value fit matters, says Cialdini, because innovation is, in part, a process of change, and under that pressure we, as a species, behave differently, When things change, we are hard-wired to play it safe. Managers should therefore adopt an approach that appears counter? intuitive they should explain what stands to be lost if the company fails to seize a particular opportunity. Studies show that we invariably take more gambles when threatened with a loss than when offered a reward. Managing innovation is a delicate art. Its easy for a company to be pulled in conflicting directions as the marketing, product development, and finance departments each get different feedback from different sets of people. And without a system which ensures collaborative exchanges within the company, it's also easy for small pockets of innovation to disappear. Innovation is a contact sport. You cant brief people just by saying, Were going in this direction and Im going to take you with me. Cialdini believes that this follow-the-leader syndrome is dangerous, not least because it encourages bosses to go it alone. It's been scientifically proven that three people will be better than one at solving problems, even if that one person is the smartest person in the field. To prove his point, Cialdini cites an interview with molecular biologist James Watson. Watson, together with Francis Crick, discovered the structure of DNA, the genetic information carrier of all living organisms. When asked how they had cracked the code ahead of an array of highly accomplished rival investigators, he said something that stunned me. He said he and Crick had succeeded because they were aware that they werent the most intelligent of the scientists pursuing the answer. The smartest scientist was called Rosalind Franklin who, Watson said, was so intelligent she rarely sought advice. Teamwork taps into one of the basic drivers of human behaviour. The principle of social proof is so pervasive that we don't even recognise it, says Cialdini. If your project is being resisted, for example, by a group of veteran employees, ask another old-timer to speak up for it. Cialdini is not alone in advocating this strategy. Research shows that peer power, used horizontally not vertically, is much more powerful than any boss's speech. Writing, visualising and prototyping can stimulate the flow of new ideas. Cialdini cites scores of research papers and historical events that prove that even something as simple as writing deepens every individuals engagement in the project. It is, he says, the reason why all those competitions on breakfast cereal packets encouraged us to write in saying, in no more than 10 words: I like Kelloggs Com Flakes because... . The very act of writing makes us more likely to believe it. Authority doesnt have to inhibit innovation but it often does. The wrong kind of leadership will lead to what Cialdini calls captainitis, the regrettable tendency of team members to opt out of team responsibilities that are properly theirs. He calls it captainitis because, he says, crew members of multipilot aircraft exhibit a sometimes deadly passivity when the flight captain makes a clearly wrong-headed decision. This behaviour is not, he says, unique to air travel, but can happen in any workplace where the leader is overbearing. At the other end of the scale is the 1980s Memphis design collective, a group of young designers for whom the only rule was that there were no rules. This environment encouraged a free interchange of ideas, which led to more creativity with form, function, colour and materials that revolutionised attitudes to furniture design. Many theorists believe the ideal boss should lead from behind, taking pride in collective accomplishment and giving credit where it is due. Cialdini says: Leaders should encourage everyone to contribute and simultaneously assure all concerned that every recommendation is important to making the right decision and will be given full attention. The frustrating thing about innovation is that there are many approaches, but no magic formula. However, a manager who wants to create a truly innovative culture can make their job a lot easier by recognising these psychological realities.


Premise: The radio audience measurement society is considering whether its quarterly figures for audience numbers should be released earlier to all radio companies but it is concerned to avoid share-price-sensitive information being leaked to the markets. The current situation involves the commercial stations receiving the results 12 hours later than the public channels. A number of commercial stations have questioned this practice, arguing that they too would like to receive the information earlier so that they could prepare press releases before the markets open. The issue has become significant because the commercial stations share prices tend to move sharply in the hours before the figures are released.

Hypothesis: The passage author fails to present a case for the status quo.


Hypothesis: The commercial stations share price will go down if the figures show a fall in audience numbers.


Hypothesis: An alternative proposal would involve neither type of organization receiving the information early.


Premise: The reason that is most commonly quoted for nationalisation of foreign companies is a change in governance. Nationalisation tends to cover a wide range of industries and is not selective to the country of ownership of the foreign company.

Hypothesis: Sharing ownership with local nationals will forestall takeovers by foreign governments.


Hypothesis: Some critical industries are more likely to be nationalised than others which might not be so critical.


Hypothesis: The process of nationalisation is not limited to any particular industry or country.


Hypothesis: Nationalisation of businesses is so widespread as to cause concern at the international level.


Premise: The refectory opens at 6:30 a. m. to serve breakfast which must be ordered by 9:30 a. m. Lunch is served between 11:45 a. m. and 2:30 p. m. Dinner is served between 6:00 p. m. and 8:30 p. m. Guests can be accommodated at lunchtimes and dinnertimes provided that 24 hours notice has been given. Vegetarian options are always available but vegans should notify the catering coordinator at the beginning of each term as should anyone with special dietary requirements. This includes nut, gluten and soybean allergies etc.

Hypothesis: You can order lunch at 9:45 a. m. if you wish.


Hypothesis: Someone allergic to eggs should notify the catering coordinator.


Hypothesis: Vegetarians should notify the catering coordinator.


Hypothesis: Dinner can be ordered before 6:00 p. m.


Hypothesis: Guests cannot be accommodated at breakfast time.


Premise: The right of those working in the public sector to strike is controversial. Many private sector workers are of the opinion that the cost to tax payers and delays or closures in services outweighs any benefit that may be achieved through industrial action. In addition to this, employers have been criticised for their inability to prevent their workers from striking; it is the responsibility of employers to provide for the continual smooth running of public services, many of which provide a vital aspect of day to day life. An example of this can be seen in the transport industry, where severe delays can have a knock-on effect on the functioning of other industries. Unions should be encouraged to find a less disruptive way of settling disputes.

Hypothesis: Delays or closures in services, such as public transport is a problem caused by industrial action


Premise: The right of those working in the public sector to strike splits opinion. Many private sector workers are of the opinion that the cost to tax payers and the consequences of delays or closures in services outweighs any benefit that may be achieved through industrial action. In addition to this, public sector employers have been criticised for their inability to prevent their workers from striking since it is the responsibility of government to provide for the continual smooth running of public services, many of which provide a vital aspect of day to day life. An example of this can be seen in the transport industry, where severe delays can have a knock-on effect on the functioning of other industries, both public and private. Unions should be encouraged to find a less disruptive way of settling disputes, and it is said by some that unions in the public sector shouldnt exist at all. But then how does the voice of the employee get heard if there is no union, or at least none which gets taken seriously?

Hypothesis: Some strikes are not disruptive to the economy.


Hypothesis: Government has a responsibility to deliver uninterrupted public services.


Hypothesis: There is general consensus that all employees should have the right to strike.


Premise: The rise and fall in the annual gross income of Britains biggest supermarkets is well documented. For this reason it came as no surprise to many when Tescos annual figures represented a loss this quarter. Official figures suggest that a price-cutting campaign by Britains biggest retailer failed to plug the losses, as Tesco made its fourth quarterly loss in a row. Commentators suggest that the fall in sales is a result of the current economic climate, with shoppers not only spending less on clothing and electronic items, but also on their weekly food shops. However, this view is controversial as smaller competitors, such as Sainsburys and Morrisons, continue to make a profit.

Hypothesis: Competitors, such as Sainsburys and Morrisons continue to make a profit on clothing and electrical items.


Hypothesis: Competitors, such as Sainsburys and Morrisons continually made a loss in the last four quarters.


Hypothesis: Competitors, such as Sainsburys and Morrisons continually pose a threat to Tesco.


Hypothesis: Competitors, such as Sainsburys and Morrisons continue to make a profit, despite the economic downturn.


Premise: The rise of agribots The next time you stand at the supermarket checkout, spare a thought for the farmers who helped fill your shopping basket as life is hard for them right now. This, in turn, inevitably means bigger grocery bills for consumers, and greater hardship for the millions in countries where food shortages are a matter of life and death. Worse, studies suggest that the world will need twice as much food by 2050. Yet while farmers must squeeze more out of the land, they must also address the necessity of reducing their impact on the soil, waterways and atmosphere. All this means rethinking how agriculture is practiced, and taking automation to a whole new level. On the new model farms of the future, precision will be key. Why dose a whole field with chemicals if you can spray only where they are needed? Each plant could get exactly the right amount of everything, no more or less, an approach that could slash chemical use and improve yields in one move. But this is easier said than done; the largest farms in Europe and the U. S. can cover thousands of acres. Thats why automation is key to precision farming. Specifically, say agricultural engineers, precision farming needs robot farmers. One day, we might see fields with agribots (agricultural robots) that can identify individual seedlings and encourage them along with drops of fertilizer. Other machines would distinguish problem weeds from crops and eliminate them with shots from high-power lasers or a microdot of pesticide. These machines will also be able to identify and harvest all kinds of vegetables. More than a century of mechanization has already turned farming into an industrial-scale activity in much of the world, with farms that grow cereals being the most heavily automated. But a variety of other crops, including oranges and tomatoes destined to become processed foods, are also picked mechanically, albeit to a slightly lesser extent. Yet the next wave of autonomous farm machinery is already at work. You probably havent even noticed, for these robots are disguised as tractors. Many are self-steering, use GPS to cross a field, and can even talk to their implements a plough or sprayer, for example. And the implements can talk back, telling the tractor that its going too fast or needs to move to the left. This kind of communication is also being developed in other farm vehicles. A new system allows a combine harvester, say, to send a call over to a tractor- trailer so the driver can unload the grain as and when necessary. However, when fully autonomous systems take to the field, theyll look nothing like tractors. With their enormous size and weight, todays farm machines have significant downsides: they compact the soil, reducing porosity and killing beneficial life, meaning crops dont grow so well. Simon Blackmore, who researches agricultural technology at Harper Adams University College in England believes that fleets of lightweight autonomous robots have the potential to solve this problem and that replacing brute force with precision is key. A seed only needs one cubic centimeter of soil to grow. If we cultivate just that we only put tiny amounts of energy in and the plants still grow nicely. There is another reason why automation may be the way forward according to Eldert van Henten, a robotics researcher at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. While the population is growing and needs to be fed, a rapidly shrinking number of people are willing to work in agriculture, he points out. Other researchers such as Linda Calvin, an economist at the U. S. Department of Agriculture, and Philip Martin at the University of California, Davis, have studied trends in mechanization to predict how US farms might fare. Calvin and Martin have observed how rising employment costs have led to the adoption of labour-saving farm technology in the past, citing the raisin industry as an example. In 2000, a bumper harvest crashed prices and, with profits squeezed, farmers looked for a solution. With labour one of their biggest costs 42 percent of production expenses on U. S. farms, on average they started using a mechanical harvester adapted from a machine used by wine makers. By 2007, almost half of Californias raisins were mechanically harvested and a labour force once numbering 50,000 had shrunk to 30,000. As well as having an impact on the job market, the widespread adoption of agribots might bring changes at the supermarket. Lewis Holloway, who studies agriculture at the University of Hull, UK, says that robotic milking is likely to influence the genetics of dairy herds as farmers opt for robot-friendly cows, with udder shape, and even attitudes, suited to automated milking. Similarly, he says, its conceivable that agribots could influence what fruit or vegetable varieties get to the shops, since farmers may prefer to grow those with, say, leaf shapes that are easier for their robots to discriminate from weeds. Almost inevitably, these machines will eventually alter the landscape, too. The real tipping point for robot agriculture will come when farms are being designed with agribots in mind, says Salah Sukkarieh, a robotics researcher at the Australian Center for Field Robotics, Sydney. This could mean a return to smaller fields, with crops planted in grids rather than rows and fruit trees pruned into two-dimensional shapes to make harvesting easier. This alien terrain tended by robots is still a while away, he says but it will happen.

Hypothesis: Governments should do more to ensure that food is generally affordable.


Hypothesis: Farmers need to reduce the harm they do to the environment.


Hypothesis: In the future, farmers are likely to increase their dependency on chemicals.


Hypothesis: Farms in Europe and the US may find it hard to adapt to precision farming.


Premise: The school authorities have decided to increase the number of students in each classroom to seventy from the next academic session to bridge the gap between the income and the expenditure to a large extent.

Hypothesis: The income generated by way of fees of the additional students will be sufficient enough to bridge the gap


Hypothesis: The school will get all the additional students in each class from the next academic session.


Premise: The school authority has decided to increase the number of students in each classroom to seventy from the next academic session to bridge the gap between income and expenditure to a largest extent.

Hypothesis: The income generated by way of fees of the additional students will be sufficient enough to bridge the gap.


Hypothesis: The school will get all the additional students in each class from the next academic session. Canara Bank


Premise: The science of laterality the study of mental functions and the side of the brain from which they originate was advanced recently by research that found that around 30 per cent of dogs were either left- or right-pawed and the remainder were ambidex- trous. The research became of commercial interest when it was realized that the dogs that showed no preference for left or right were more likely to react badly to loud noises such as fireworks or thunderstorms. Such behaviour makes a dog unsuitable for a career sniffing out drugs or guiding the blind. As things stand, one in every two dogs fails the training programmes for these roles because of an intolerance of loud noise.

Hypothesis: The case made in the passage would be strengthened if an intolerance to loud noise were manifest in dogs before they began training for careers as guides for the blind or to sniff out drugs.


Hypothesis: The commercial interest mentioned in the passage can be taken to relate to a hope that a test of paw preference will improve the selection process by which dogs are chosen for these careers.


Hypothesis: In relation to dogs, the term ambidextrous can be taken to mean that they showed no preference as to which paw they use.


Premise: The secret of staying young Pheidole dentata, a native ant of the south-eastern U. S. , isn't immortal. But scientists have found that it doesn't seem to show any signs of aging. Old worker ants can do everything just as well as the youngsters, and their brains appear just as sharp. 'We get a picture that these ants really don't decline, ' says Ysabel Giraldo, who studied the ants for her doctoral thesis at Boston University. Such age-defying feats are rare in the animal kingdom. Naked mole rats can live for almost 30 years and stay fit for nearly their entire lives. They can still reproduce even when old, and they never get cancer. But the vast majority of animals deteriorate with age just like people do. Like the naked mole rat, ants are social creatures that usually live in highly organised colonies. 'It's this social complexity that makes P. dentata useful for studying aging in people, ' says Giraldo, now at the California Institute of Technology. Humans are also highly social, a trait that has been connected to healthier aging. By contrast, most animal studies of aging use mice, worms or fruit flies, which all lead much more isolated lives. In the lab, P. dentata worker ants typically live for around 140 days. Giraldo focused on ants at four age ranges: 20 to 22 days, 45 to 47 days, 95 to 97 days and 120 to 122 days. Unlike all previous studies, which only estimated how old the ants were, her work tracked the ants from the time the pupae became adults, so she knew their exact ages. Then she put them through a range of tests. Giraldo watched how well the ants took care of the young of the colony, recording how often each ant attended to, carried and fed them. She compared how well 20-day-old and 95-day-old ants followed the telltale scent that the insects usually leave to mark a trail to food. She tested how ants responded to light and also measured how active they were by counting how often ants in a small dish walked across a line. And she experimented with how ants react to live prey: a tethered fruit fly. Giraldo expected the older ants to perform poorly in all these tasks. But the elderly insects were all good caretakers and trail-followersthe 95-day-old ants could track the scent even longer than their younger counterparts. They all responded to light well, and the older ants were more active. And when it came to reacting to prey, the older ants attacked the poor fruit fly just as aggressively as the young ones did, flaring their mandibles or pulling at the fly's legs. Then Giraldo compared the brains of 20-day-old and 95-day-old ants, identifying any cells that were close to death. She saw no major differences with age, nor was there any difference in the location of the dying cells, showing that age didn't seem to affect specific brain functions. Ants and other insects have structures in their brains called mushroom bodies, which are important for processing information, learning and memory. She also wanted to see if aging affects the density of synaptic complexes within these structuresregions where neurons come together. Again, the answer was no. What was more, the old ants didn't experience any drop in the levels of either serotonin or dopaminebrain chemicals whose decline often coincides with aging. In humans, for example, a decrease in serotonin has been linked to Alzheimer's disease. 'This is the first time anyone has looked at both behavioral and neural changes in these ants so thoroughly, ' says Giraldo, who recently published the findings in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Scientists have looked at some similar aspects in bees, but the results of recent bee studies were mixedsome studies showed age-related declines, which biologists call senescence, and others didn't. 'For now, the study raises more questions than it answers, ' Giraldo says, 'including how P. dentata stays in such good shape. ' Also, if the ants don't deteriorate with age, why do they die at all? Out in the wild, the ants probably don't live for a full 140 days thanks to predators, disease and just being in an environment that's much harsher than the comforts of the lab. 'The lucky ants that do live into old age may suffer a steep decline just before dying, ' Giraldo says, but she can't say for sure because her study wasn't designed to follow an ant's final moments. 'It will be important to extend these findings to other species of social insects, ' says Gene E. Robinson, an entomologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This ant might be unique, or it might represent a broader pattern among other social bugs with possible clues to the science of aging in larger animals. Either way, it seems that for these ants, age really doesn't matter.

Hypothesis: The ants in Giraldo's experiments behaved as she had predicted that they would.


Hypothesis: Ysabel Giraldo was the first person to study Pheidole dentata ants using precise data about the insects' ages.


Hypothesis: Pheidole dentata ants are the only known animals which remain active for almost their whole lives.


Hypothesis: The recent studies of bees used different methods of measuring age-related decline.


Hypothesis: Pheidole dentata ants kept in laboratory conditions tend to live longer lives.


Premise: The secret of the Yawn A. When a scientist began to study yawning in the 1980s, it was difficult to convince some of his research students of the merits of "yawning science. " Although it may appear quirky, his decision to study yawning was a logical extension to human beings of my research in developmental neuroscience, reported in such papers as "Wing-flapping during Development and Evolution. " As a neurobehavioral problem, there is not much difference between the wing- flapping of birds and the face-and body-flapping of human yawners. B. Yawning is an ancient, primitive act. Humans do it even before they are born, opening wide in the womb. Some snakes unhinge then jaws to do it. One species of penguins yawns as part of mating. Only now are researchers beginning to understand why we yawn, when we yawn and why we yawn back. A professor of cognitive neuroscience at Drexel Universityin Philadelphia, Steven Platek, studies the act of contagious yawning, something done only by people and other primates. C. In his first experiment, he used a psychological test to rank people on then empathic feelings. He found that participants who did not score high on compassion did not yawn back. "We literally had people saying, 'Why am I looking at people yawning? " 1 Professor Platek said. "It just had no effect. " D. For his second experiment, he put 10 students in an magnetic resonance imaging machine as they watched video tapes of people yawning. When the students watched the videos, the part of the brain which reacted was the part scientists believe controls empathy - the posterior cingulate, in the brain's middle rear. " I don't know if it's necessarily that nice people yawn more, but I think it's a good indicator of a state of mind, " said Professor Platek. "It's also a good indicator if you're empathizing with me and paying attention. " E. His third experiment is studying yawning in those with brain disorders, such as autism and schizophrenia, in which victims have difficulty connecting emotionally with others. A psychology professor at the University of Maryland, Robert Provine, is one of the few other researchers into yawning. He found the basic yawn lasts about six seconds and they come in bouts with an interval of about 68 seconds. Men and women yawn or half- yawn equally often, but men are significantly less likely to cover then mouths which may indicate complex distinction in genders. " A watched yawner never yawns, " Professor Provine said. However, the physical root of yawning remains a mystery. Some researchers say it's coordinated within the lypothal of the brain, the area that also controls breathing. F. Yawning and stretching also share properties and may be performed together as parts of a global motor complex. But they do notalways co-occur people usually yawn when we stretch, but we don't always stretch when we yawn, especially before bedtime. Studies by J. I. P, G. H. A. Visser and H. F. Prechtl in the early 1980s, charting movement in the developing fetus using ultrasound, observed not just yawning but a link between yawning and stretching as early as the end of the first prenatal trimester G. The most extraordinary demonstration of the yawn-stretch linkage occurs in many people paralyzed on one side of their body because of brain damage caused by a stroke. The prominent British neurologist Sir Francis Walshe noted in 1923 that when these hemiplegics yawn, they are startled and mystified to observe that then otherwise paralyzed arm rises and flexes automatically in what neurologists term an "associated response. " Yawning apparently activates undamaged, unconsciously controlled connections between the brain and the cord motor system innervating the paralyzed limb. It is not known whether the associated response is a positive prognosis for recovery, nor whether yawning is therapeutic for reinnervation or prevention of muscular atrophy. H. Clinical neurology offers other surprises. Some patients with "locked-in" syndrome, who are almost totally deprived of the ability to move voluntarily, can yawn normally. The neural circuits for spontaneous yawning must exist in the brain stem near other respiratory and vasomotor centers, because yawning is performed by anencephalic who possess only the medulla oblongata. The multiplicity of stimuli of contagious yawning, by contrast, implicates many higher brain regions.

Hypothesis: Yawning can show an affirmative impact on the recovery from brain damage brought by a stroke.


Hypothesis: Some results from certain experiment indicate the link between yawning and compassion.


Hypothesis: Several students in Plateks experiment did not comprehend why then tutor ask them to yawn back.


Premise: The secret to success in business is entrepreneurial spirit at all levels of the company. Employees who are identified as entrepreneurs in their own right are more motivated their own financial success becomes integrated with the company's. Those who are oriented towards personal entrepreneurship will work long hours to develop their own tried-and-tested business practices and strategies, contributing as willing partners to the achievements of the company as a whole. Orientation and value-formation training can induce this kind of thinking in new staff recruits, inculcating the notion of how quickly it is possible to achieve financial security through hard work and innovative business approaches, combined with the impression that to miss out on opportunities for such rapid economic and social advancement would be at best unwise and at worst catastrophic.

Hypothesis: New staff members can be indoctrinated with the virtues of entrepreneurship.


Hypothesis: Employees encouraged to think of themselves as entrepreneurs work fewer hours than other staff members.


Hypothesis: Employees instilled with the idea of personal entrepreneurship will be less willing to contribute to the success of the company as a whole.