Premise: The concept of childhood in the western countries The history of childhood has been a topic of interest in social history since the highly influence 1960 book Centuries of Childhood, written by French historian Philippe Aries. He argued that childhood is a concept created by modern society. One of the most hotly debated issues in the history of childhood has been whether childhood is itself a recent invention. The historian Philippe Aries argued that in Western Europe during the Middle Ages (up to about the end of the fifteenth century) children were regarded as miniature adults, with all the intellect and personality that this implies. He scrutinized medieval pictures and diaries, and found no distinction between children and adults as they shared similar leisure activities and often the same type of work. Aries, however, pointed out that this is not to suggest that children were neglected, forsaken or despised. The idea of childhood is not to be confused with affection for children; it corresponds to an awareness of the particular nature of childhood, that particular nature which distinguishes the child from the adult, even the young adult. There is a long tradition of the children of the poor playing a functional role in contributing to the family income by working either inside or outside the home. In this sense children are seen as useful. Back in the Middle Ages, children as young as 5 or 6 did important chores for their parents and, from the sixteenth century, were often encouraged (or forced) to leave the family by the age of 9 or 10 to work as servants for wealthier families or to be apprenticed to a trade. With industrialization in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a new demand for child labor was created, and many children were forced to work for long hours, in mines, workshops and factories. Social reformers began to question whether laboring long hours from an early age would harm childrens growing bodies. They began to recognize the potential of carrying out systematic studies to monitor how far these early deprivations might be affecting childrens development. Gradually, the concerns of the reformers began to impact on the working conditions of children. In Britain, the Factory Act of 1833 signified the beginning of legal protection of children from exploitation and was linked to the rise of schools for factory children. The worst forms of child exploitation were gradually eliminated, partly through factory reform but also through the influence of trade unions and economic changes during the nineteenth century which made some forms of child labor redundant. Childhood was increasingly seen as a time for play and education for all children, not just for a privileged minority. Initiating children into work as useful children became less of a priority. As the age for starting full-time work was delayed, so childhood was increasingly understood as a more extended phase of dependency, development and learning. Even so, work continued to play a significant, if less central role in childrens lives throughout the later nineteenth and twentieth century. And the useful child has become a controversial image during the first decade of the twenty-first century especially in the context of global concern about large numbers of the worlds children engaged in child labor. The Factory Act of 1833 established half-time schools which allowed children to work and attend school. But in the 1840s, a large proportion of children never went to school, and if they did, they left by the age of 10 or 11. The situation was very different by the end of the nineteenth century in Britain. The school became central to linages of a normal childhood. Attending school was no longer a privilege and all children were expected to spend a significant part of their day in a classroom. By going to school, childrens lives were now separated from domestic life at home and from the adult world of work. School became an institution dedicated to shaping the minds, behavior and morals of the young. Education dominated the management of childrens waking hours, not just through the hours spent in classrooms but through home work, the growth of after school activities and the importance attached to parental involvement. Industrialization, urbanization and mass schooling also set new challenges for those responsible for protecting childrens welfare, and promoting their learning. Increasingly, children were being treated as a group with distinctive needs and they were organized into groups according to their age. For example, teachers needed to know what to expect of children in their classrooms, what kinds of instruction were appropriate for different age groups and how best to assess childrens progress. They also wanted tools that could enable them to sort and select children according to their abilities and potential.

Hypothesis: In 20 th century almost all children needed to go to school in full time schedule


Hypothesis: By the aid of half-time schools, most children went to school in the mid of 19 th century.


Hypothesis: the rise of trade union majorly contributed to the protection children from exploitation in 19 th century


Hypothesis: Scientists think that overworked labor damages the health of young children


Hypothesis: Aries pointed out that children did different types of work as adults during the Middle Age.


Hypothesis: During the Middle Age, going to work necessarily means children were unloved indicated by Aries.


Premise: The concept of childhood in the western countries The history of childhood has been a topic of interest in social history since the highly influential 1960 book Centuries of Childhood, written by French historian Philippe Aries. He argued that childhood is a concept created by modern society. One of the most hotly debated issues in the history of childhood has been whether childhood is itself a recent invention. The historian Philippe Aries argued that in Western Europe during the Middle Ages (up to about the end of the fifteenth century) children were regarded as miniature adults, with all the intellect and personality that this implies. He scrutinized medieval pictures and diaries and found no distinction between children and adults as they shared similar leisure activities and often the same type of work. Aries, however, pointed out that this is not to suggest that children were neglected, forsaken or despised. The idea of childhood is not to be confused with affection for children; it corresponds to an awareness of the particular nature of childhood, that particular nature which distinguishes the child from the adult, even the young adult. There is a long tradition of the children of the poor playing a functional role in contributing to the family income by working either inside or outside the home. In this sense, children are seen as useful. Back in the Middle Ages, children as young as 5 or 6 did important chores for their parents and, from the sixteenth century, were often encouraged (or forced) to leave the family by the age of 9 or 10 to work as servants for wealthier families or to be apprenticed to a trade. With industrialization in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a new demand for child labor was created, and many children were forced to work for long hours, in mines, workshops, and factories. Social reformers began to question whether laboring long hours from an early age would harm childrens growing bodies. They began to recognize the potential of carrying out systematic studies to monitor how far these early deprivations might be affecting childrens development. Gradually, the concerns of the reformers began to impact on the working conditions of children. In Britain, the Factory Act of 1833 signified the beginning of legal protection of children from exploitation and was linked to the rise of schools for factory children. The worst forms of child exploitation were gradually eliminated, partly through factory reform but also through the influence of trade unions and economic changes during the nineteenth century which made some forms of child labor redundant. Childhood was increasingly seen as a time for play and education for all children, not just for a privileged minority. Initiating children into work as useful children became less of a priority. As the age for starting full-time work was delayed, so childhood was increasingly understood as a more extended phase of dependency, development, and learning. Even so, work continued to play a significant, if less central role in childrens lives throughout the later nineteenth and twentieth century. And the useful child, has become a controversial image during the first decade of the twenty-first century especially in the context of global concern about large numbers of the worlds children engaged in child labor. The Factory Act of 1833 established half-time schools that allowed children to work and attend school. But in the 1840s, a large proportion of children never went to school, and if they did, they left by the age of 10 or11. The situation was very different by the end of the nineteenth century in Britain. The school became central to images of7a normal childhood. Attending school was no longer a privilege and all children were expected to spend a significant part of their day in a classroom. By going to school, childrens lives were now separated from domestic life at home and from the adult world of work. School became an institution dedicated to shaping the minds, behavior, and morals of the young. Education dominated the management of childrens waking hours, not just through the hours spent in classrooms but through /home/ work, the growth of after school7 activities and the importance attached to parental involvement. Industrialization, urbanization and mass schooling also set new challenges for those responsible for protecting childrens welfare and promoting their learning. Increasingly, children were being treated as a group with distinctive needs and they were organized into groups according to their age. For example, teachers needed to know what to expect of children in their classrooms, what kinds of instruction were appropriate for different age groups and how best to assess childrens progress. They also wanted tools that could enable them to sort and select children according to their abilities and potential.

Hypothesis: By the aid of half-time schools, most children went to school in the mid of 19 century.


Hypothesis: the rise of trade union majorly contributed to the protection of children from exploitation in the 19th century


Hypothesis: Nowadays, childrens needs were much differentiated and categorized based on how old they are


Hypothesis: In 20 century almost all children need to go to school in a full-time schedule.


Premise: The concept of intelligence Looked at in one way, everyone knows what intelligence is; looked at in another way, no one does. In other words, people all have unconscious notions - known as 'implicit theories'- of intelligence, but no one knows for certain what it actually is. This chapter addresses how people conceptualize intelligence, whatever it may actually be. But why should we even care what people think intelligence is, as opposed only to valuing whatever it actually is? There are at least four reasons people's conceptions of intelligence matter. First, implicit theories of intelligence drive the way in which people perceive and evaluate their own intelligence and that of others. To better understand the judgments people make about their own and others' abilities, it is useful to learn about people's implicit theories. For example, parents' implicit theories of their children's language development will determine at what ages they will be willing to make various corrections in their children's speech. More generally, parents' implicit theories of intelligence will determine at what ages they believe their children are ready to perform various cognitive tasks. Job interviewers will make hiring decisions on the basis of their implicit theories of intelligence. People will decide who to be friends with on the basis of such theories. In sum, knowledge about implicit theories of intelligence is important because this knowledge is so often used by people to make judgments in the course of their everyday lives. Second, the implicit theories of scientific investigators ultimately give rise to their explicit theories. Thus it is useful to find out what these implicit theories are. Implicit theories provide a framework that is useful in defining the general scope of a phenomenon - especially a not-well-understood phenomenon. These implicit theories can suggest what aspects of the phenomenon have been more or less attended to in previous investigations. Third, implicit theories can be useful when an investigator suspects that existing explicit theories are wrong or misleading. If an investigation of implicit theories reveals little correspondence between the extant implicit and explicit theories, the implicit theories may be wrong. But the possibility also needs to be taken into account that the explicit theories are wrong and in need of correction or supplementation. For example, some implicit theories of intelligence suggest the need for expansion of some of our explicit theories of the construct. Finally, understanding implicit theories of intelligence can help elucidate developmental and cross-cultural differences. As mentioned earlier, people have expectations for intellectual performances that differ for children of different ages. How these expectations differ is in part a function of culture. For example, expectations for children who participate in Western-style schooling are almost certain to be different from those for children who do not participate in such schooling. I have suggested that there are three major implicit theories of how intelligence relates to society as a whole (Sternberg, 1997). These might be called Hamiltonian, Jeffersonian, and Jacksonian. These views are not based strictly, but rather, loosely, on the philosophies of Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson, three great statesmen in the history of the United States. The Hamiltonian view, which is similar to the Platonic view, is that people are born with different levels of intelligence and that those who are less intelligent need the good offices of the more intelligent to keep them in line, whether they are called government officials or, in Plato's term, philosopher-kings. Herrnstein and Murray (1994) seem to have shared this belief when they wrote about the emergence of a cognitive (high-IQ) elite, which eventually would have to take responsibility for the largely irresponsible masses of non-elite (low-IQ) people who cannot take care of themselves. Left to themselves, the unintelligent would create, as they always have created, a kind of chaos. The Jeffersonian view is that people should have equal opportunities, but they do not necessarily avail themselves equally of these opportunities and are not necessarily equally rewarded for their accomplishments. People are rewarded for what they accomplish, if given equal opportunity. Low achievers are not rewarded to the same extent as high achievers. In the Jeffersonian view, the goal of education is not to favor or foster an elite, as in the Hamiltonian tradition, but rather to allow children the opportunities to make full use of the skills they have. My own views are similar to these (Sternberg, 1997). The Jacksonian view is that all people are equal, not only as human beings but in terms of their competencies - that one person would serve as well as another in government or on a jury or in almost any position of responsibility. In this view of democracy, people are essentially intersubstitutable except for specialized skills, all of which can be learned. In this view, we do not need or want any institutions that might lead to favoring one group over another. Implicit theories of intelligence and of the relationship of intelligence to society perhaps need to be considered more carefully than they have been because they often serve as underlying presuppositions for explicit theories and even experimental designs that are then taken as scientific contributions. Until scholars are able to discuss their implicit theories and thus their assumptions, they are likely to miss the point of what others are saying when discussing their explicit theories and their data.

Hypothesis: Slow language development in children is likely to prove disappointing to their parents.


Hypothesis: People's expectations of what children should gain from education are universal.


Hypothesis: Scholars may discuss theories without fully understanding each other.


Premise: The construction of roads and bridges Roads Although there were highway links in Mesopotamia from as early as 3500 bc, the Romans were probably the first road-builders with fixed engineering standards. At the peak of the Roman Empire in the first century ad, Rome had road connections totalling about 85,000 kilometres. Roman roads were constructed with a deep stone surface for stability and load-bearing. They had straight alignments and therefore were often hilly. The Roman roads remained the main arteries of European transport for many centuries, and even today many roads follow the Roman routes. New roads were generally of inferior quality, and the achievements of Roman builders were largely unsurpassed until the resurgence of road-building in the eighteenth century. With horse-drawn coaches in mind, eighteenth-century engineers preferred to curve their roads to avoid hills. The road surface was regarded as merely a face to absorb wear, the load-bearing strength being obtained from a properly prepared and well-drained foundation. Immediately above this, the Scottish engineer John McAdam (1756-1836) typically laid crushed stone, to which stone dust mixed with water was added, and which was compacted to a thickness of just five centimetres, and then rolled. McAdams surface layer hot tar onto which a layer of stone chips was laid became known as tarmacadam, or tarmac. Roads of this kind were known as flexible pavements. By the early nineteenth century the start of the railway age men such as John McAdam and Thomas Telford had created a British road network totalling some 200,000 km, of which about one sixth was privately owned toll roads called turnpikes. In the first half of the nineteenth century, many roads in the US were built to the new standards, of which the National Pike from West Virginia to Illinois was perhaps the most notable. In the twentieth century, the ever-increasing use of motor vehicles threatened to break up roads built to nineteenth-century standards, so new techniques had to be developed. On routes with heavy traffic, flexible pavements were replaced by rigid pavements, in which the top layer was concrete, 15 to 30 centimetres thick, laid on a prepared bed. Nowadays steel bars are laid within the concrete. This not only restrains shrinkage during setting, but also reduces expansion in warm weather. As a result, it is, possible to lay long slabs without danger of cracking. The demands of heavy traffic led to the concept of high-speed, long-distance roads, with access or slip-lanes spaced widely apart. The US Bronx River Parkway of 1925 was followed by several variants Germanys autobahns and the Pan American Highway. Such roads especially the intercity autobahns with their separate multi-lane carriageways for each direction were the predecessors of todays motorways. Bridges The development by the Romans of the arched bridge marked the beginning of scientific bridge-building; hitherto, bridges had generally been crossings in the form of felled trees or flat stone blocks. Absorbing the load by compression, arched bridges are very strong. Most were built of stone, but brick and timber were also used. A fine early example is at Alcantara in Spain, built of granite by the Romans in AD 105 to span the River Tagus. In modern times, metal and concrete arched bridges have been constructed. The first significant metal bridge, built of cast iron in 1779, still stands at Ironbridge in England. Steel, with its superior strength-to-weight ratio, soon replaced iron in metal bridge-work. In the railway age, the truss (or girder) bridge became popular. Built of wood or metal, the truss beam consists of upper and lower horizontal booms joined by vertical or inclined members. The suspension bridge has a deck supported by suspenders that drop from one or more overhead cables. It requires strong anchorage at each end to resist the inward tension of the cables, and the deck is strengthened to control distortion by moving loads or high winds. Such bridges are nevertheless light, and therefore the most suitable for very long spans. The Clifton Suspension Bridge in the UK, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunei (180659) to span the Avon Gorge in England, is famous both for its beautiful setting and for its elegant design. The 1998 Akashi Kaikyo Bridge in Japan has a span of 1,991 metres, which is the longest to date. Cantilever bridges, such as the 1889 Forth Rail Bridge in Scotland, exploit the potential of steel construction to produce a wide clearwater space. The spans have a central supporting pier and meet midstream. The downward thrust, where the spans meet, is countered by firm anchorage of the spans at their other ends. Although the suspension bridge can span a wider gap, the cantilever is relatively stable, and this was important for nineteenth-century railway builders. The worlds longest cantilever span 549 metres is that of the Quebec rail bridge in Canada, constructed in 1918.

Hypothesis: In Britain, during the nineteenth century, only the very rich could afford to use toll roads.


Hypothesis: Road construction improved continuously between the first and eighteenth centuries.


Hypothesis: Traffic speeds on long-distance highways were unregulated in the early part of the twentieth century.


Hypothesis: Nineteenth-century road surfaces were inadequate for heavy motor traffic.


Premise: The controversial new code on corporate governance has been reassessed and significantly changed in advance of publication. Following intense pressure from company directors many of the original proposals have been scrapped, and many others have been watered down to reduce the pressure of compliance on organizations. Overall, the revisions have resulted in the removal of rules that restrict company behaviors in favor of the introduction of a recommendations-based approach, which does not set specific standards of behavior. The changes have highlighted the divide between company directors, who generally support the changes as vital to keep away from a culture of rule avoidance, and other shareholder groups who believe that a best practice approach lacks teeth and will not result in greater board accountability.

Hypothesis: A culture of rule avoidance leads to less board accountability.


Hypothesis: Company directors and shareholders are in agreement that something has to be done to improve processes of corporate governance.


Hypothesis: Following the revision, the code is now much more prescriptive in its approach to corporate governance.


Premise: The controversial new code on corporate governance has been reassessed and significantly changed in advance of publication. Following intense pressure from company directors many of the original proposals have been scrapped, and many others have been watered down to reduce the pressure of compliance on organizations. Overall, the revisions have resulted in the removal of rules that restrict company behaviors in favor of the introduction of a recommendations; based approach, which does not set specific standards of behavior. The changes have highlighted the divide between company directors, who generally support the changes as vital to keep away from a culture of rule avoidance, and other shareholder groups who believe that a best practice approach lacks teeth and will not result in greater board accountability.


Premise: The corporate mission statement needs detailed consideration by top management to establish the business the company is really in and to relate this consideration to future business intentions. It is a general statement that provides an integrating function for the business, from which a clear sense of business definition and direction can be achieved. By formulating a clear business statement, boundaries for the corporate entity can be conceived in the context of wider environmental trends that influence the business. This stage is often overlooked in marketing planning, and yet without it the marketing plan will lack a sense of contribution to the development of the total business.

Hypothesis: Different functions within a business are likely to interpret the mission statement in different ways.


Hypothesis: The boundaries of a corporate entity can only be assessed in the context of wider environment trends.


Hypothesis: Marketing planning does not often take account of the corporate mission statement.


Hypothesis: A corporate mission statement enables top management to define the future direction of a business.


Premise: The cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation is the afterglow from the Big Bang, and weak as it may be today, these primeval microwaves hold valuable information about fundamental properties of the early universe. Slight differences, or anisotropies, in the brightness and polarization of the CMB reveal clues about the nature of the primeval plasma: that the discrepancies exist at all shows that the plasma was not perfectly uniform. The variations in the brightness seen in the CMB reflect differences in the density of the primordial plasma, whereas the anisotropic polarization reveals information about the dynamics of the early universe, such as the movement of material and the number of gravitational waves. The CMB, however, is not the only source of polarized microwaves and the cosmological polarization must thus be measured at different wavelengths so as to isolate them from foreground signals.

Hypothesis: Through studying the cosmological microwaves, one may learn about the forces of gravity in the early universe.


Hypothesis: The wave lengths of the foreground signals are disregarded once they have been distinguished from the CMB.


Hypothesis: The anisotropies of the CMB show solely that the primordial plasma was not uniform.


Hypothesis: The polarization of cosmic microwaves is measured at different wavelength so as to separate the foreground from the background signals.


Premise: The cost of stamp duty for the average house purchase has more than doubled since 1997. In some towns the bills have risen by more than 10,000. Four successive rises in the tax on house purchases and the introduction of incremental bands, with the highest a 4% band for homes valued over 500,000, have sharply increased the amount raised by the Treasury. A spokesperson for the Treasury said that stamp duty remains a very small proportion of overall housing costs and property transaction costs are far lower in the UK than the rest of the EU and United States.

Hypothesis: In some towns the cost of stamp duty on a house purchased in 1997 was less than 5,000.


Hypothesis: A house sold for half a million pounds incurs a 20,000 stamp duty bill.


Hypothesis: Taxation on property transactions in the UK has been increased four times.


Premise: The cost of using electrical items, such as tumble dryers, can be one of the greatest household expenses. For this reason, companies offering to reduce the amount of money spent yearly on such items are of increasing popularity. An example of this is provided by the website sus-it. net, which promises to save consumers up to 690 a year by following its simple tips. These tips range from changing your appliances to energy-saving options, to insulating and building advice. Such sites often provide a comparison of the usual running cost or products, allowing consumers to compare models and assess their expected savings. For example, according to the information provided by sus-it. net, a Panasonic NA washing machine can save an average of 32.80 a year compared to other models.

Hypothesis: It is impossible to save money by changing the model of appliance.


Hypothesis: Old-fashioned methods like washing lines and brooms save money


Hypothesis: A way to save money is to avoid using energy saving appliances.


Hypothesis: Brands claiming to amount spent on electric items are increasingly popular.


Premise: The costs of roaming - the service which allows UK customers to use their mobile phone abroad - are much higher than those in France, Germany, Sweden and Italy. Many people get caught out because they are unaware of the high prices, and that they get charged for simply receiving calls while abroad. Less than a quarter of consumers had any knowledge of the price of using a mobile phone abroad when they bought their phone. Better consumer information is vital if prices for pre-pay international roaming in the UK are to come down.

Hypothesis: Pay-as-you-go roaming rates are lower than they are for contract customers.


Hypothesis: Customers can be charged for calls which they do not make themselves.


Hypothesis: It is more expensive for German customers to use a roaming service than it is for UK customers.


Premise: The costs of roaming - the service which allows UK customers to use their mobile phone abroad - are much higher than those in France, Germany, Sweden and Italy. Many people get caught out because they are unaware of the high prices, and that they get charged for simply receiving calls whilst abroad. Less than a quarter of consumers had any knowledge of the price of using a mobile phone aboard when they bought their phone. Better consumer information is vital if prices for pre-pay international roaming in the UK are to come down.


Premise: The creation of lasting memories Many studies of the brain processes underlying the creation of memory consolidation (lasting memories) have involved giving various human and animal subjects treatment, while training them to perform a task. These have contributed greatly to our understanding. In pioneering studies using goldfish, Bernard Agranoff found that protein synthesis inhibitors injected after training caused the goldfish to forget what they had learned. In other experiments, he administered protein synthesis inhibitors immediately before the fish were trained. The remarkable finding was that the fish learned the task completely normally, but forgot it within a few hours that is, the protein synthesis inhibitors blocked memory consolidation, but did not influence short-term memory. There is now extensive evidence that short-term memory is spared by many kinds of treatments, including electro-convulsive therapy (ECT), that block memory consolidation. On the other hand, and equally importantly, neuroscientist Ivan Izquierdo found that many drug treatments can block short-term memory without blocking memory consolidation. Contrary to the hypothesis put forward by Canadian psychologist Donald Hebb, in 1949, long-term memory does not require short-term memory, and vice versa. Such findings suggest that our experiences create parallel, and possibly independent stages of memory, each with a different life span. All of this evidence from clinical and experimental studies strongly indicates that the brain handles recent and remote memory in different ways; but why does it do that? We obviously need to have memory that is created rapidly: reacting to an ever and rapidly changing environment requires that. For example, most current building codes require that the heights of all steps in a staircase be equal. After taking a couple of steps, up or down, we implicitly remember the heights of the steps and assume that the others will be the same. If they are not the same, we are very likely to trip and fall. Lack of this kind of rapidly created implicit memory would be bad for us and for insurance companies, but perhaps good for lawyers. It would be of little value to us if we remembered the heights of the steps only after a delay of many hours, when the memory becomes consolidated. The hypothesis that lasting memory consolidates slowly over time is supported primarily by clinical and experimental evidence that the formation of long-term memory is influenced by treatments and disorders affecting brain functioning. There are also other kinds of evidence indicating more directly that the memories consolidate over time after learning. Avi Kami and Dov Sagi reported that the performance of human subjects trained in a visual skill did not improve until eight hours after the training was completed, and that improvement was even greater the following day. Furthermore, the skill was retained for several years. Studies using human brain imaging to study changes in neural activity induced by learning have also reported that the changes continue to develop for hours after learning. In an innovative study using functional imaging of the brain, Reza Shadmehr and Henry Holcomb examined brain activity in several brain regions shortly after human subjects were trained in a motor learning task requiring arm and hand movements. They found that while the performance of the subjects remained stable for several hours after completion of the training, their brain activity did not; different regions of the brain were predominantly active at different times over a period of several hours after the training. The activity shifted from the prefrontal cortex to two areas known to be involved in controlling movements, the motor cortex and cerebellar cortex. Consolidation of the motor skill appeared to involve activation of different neural systems that increased the stability of the brain processes underlying the skill. There is also evidence that learning-induced changes in the activity of neurons in the cerebral cortex continue to increase for many days after the training. In an extensive series of studies using rats with electrodes implanted in the auditory cortex, Norman Weinberger reported that, after a tone of specific frequency was paired a few times with footshock, neurons in the rats auditory cortex responded more to that specific tone and less to other tones of other frequencies. Even more interestingly, the selectivity of the neurons response to the specific tone used in training continued to increase for several days after the training was terminated. It is not intuitively obvious why our lasting memories consolidate slowly. Certainly, one can wonder why we have a form of memory that we have to rely on for many hours, days or a lifetime, that is so susceptible to disruption shortly after it is initiated. Perhaps the brain system that consolidates long-term memory over time was a late development in vertebrate evolution. Moreover, maybe we consolidate memories slowly because our mammalian brains are large and enormously complex. We can readily reject these ideas. All species of animals studied to date have both short and long-term memory; and all are susceptible to retrograde amnesia. Like humans, birds, bees, and molluscs, as well as fish and rats, make long-term memory slowly. Consolidation of memory clearly emerged early in evolution, and was conserved. Although there seems to be no compelling reason to conclude that a biological system such as a brain could not quickly make a lasting memory, the fact is that animal brains do not. Thus, memory consolidation must serve some very important adaptive function or functions. There is considerable evidence suggesting that the slow consolidation is adaptive because it enables neurobiological processes occurring shortly after learning to influence the strength of memory for experiences. The extensive evidence that memory can be enhanced, as well as impaired, by treatments administered shortly after training, provides intriguing support for this hypothesis.

Hypothesis: Long-term memories in humans are more stable than in many other species.


Hypothesis: The rats in Weinbergers studies learned to associate a certain sound with a specific experience.


Hypothesis: The training which Kami and Sagis subjects were given was repeated over several days.


Hypothesis: The results of Weinbergers studies indicated that the strength of the rats learned associations increases with time.


Hypothesis: It is easy to see the evolutionary advantage of the way lasting memories in humans are created.


Premise: The debate over the British Museums Parthenon sculptures, also called the Elgin Marbles, has run for nearly two centuries. Marble statues were removed with official permission from the ruins of the Parthenon in 1801 by Lord Elgin, the British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. He sold these ancient Greek treasures to the British Museum in 1816, where they have been housed ever since. Today, five million visitors from around the world visit the sculptures, free of charge, at the British Museum. Since gaining independence in 1830, however, the Greek government has argued for their return to Athens. Historically, the Hellenic position centred on ownership, claiming that Lord Elgin bribed authorities to acquire the marbles illegally. The counterargument is that Lord Elgin saved these classical treasures from neglect. Greece no longer disputes the British Museums ownership, but states that the sculptures should be loaned to the New Acropolis Museum in Athens, where they would be reunited with other surviving sculptures and displayed in their proper geographic and cultural context. Despite public sympathy for the return of the Elgin marbles, the British Museum believes that the Parthenon marbles are part of shared world heritage and thus should be widely accessible. Furthermore, returning the Parthenon statues would set a precedent for returning other artefacts to their land of origin.

Hypothesis: The British Museum takes the view that the Parthenon sculptures transcend national boundaries.


Hypothesis: The British public cannot understand why the Greek government want the Parthenon marbles returned.


Hypothesis: Greeks believe that the Elgin Marbles technically do not belong to the British Museum.


Hypothesis: The only surviving marble statues from the Parthenon are divided between the British Museum and the New Acropolis Museum.


Hypothesis: Prior to 1830, Greece was part of the Ottoman Empire.


Premise: The decline in chinas housing and construction market has had a profound knock on effect on chinas steel industry. Due to decreased demand for steel from construction, as huge construction projects around china are reduced to ghost towns by decreased investment, Chinese state owned steel companies have seen their profits drop by almost 96%. The drop in steel prices may be an indicator of things to come; lower steel prices suggest lower predicted g economic growth, and may spell disaster for chinas hopes of continued rapid growth.

Hypothesis: Decreased steel demand is an effect of chinas construction market decline


Hypothesis: Decreased steel company profits is an effect of chinas construction market decline.


Hypothesis: Decreased steel exports is an effect of chinas construction market decline.


Hypothesis: Decreased steel prices is an effect of chinas construction market decline.


Premise: The democracy index, devised by the Economist intelligence unit measures the state of democracy in 167 countries around the world, 166 of which are sovereign states and 165 are members of the United Nations. In this index there are 4 different groupings which denote a countries level of democracy, at the top is a full democracy, of which many North American and western European countries belong. Next is a flawed democracy, of which many South American and Latin American countries belong. Next are hybrid regimes, of which many Asian and eastern European countries belong. Last, and therefore the least democratic counties are authoritarian regimes, which many north African and middle eastern countries belong.

Hypothesis: tend to contain hybrid regimes Asian and eastern European countries


Premise: The democratic peace theory holds that liberal democracies never, or rarely, go to war against each other. The first to espouse this idea was the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, who posited that constitutional republics engender peace, because the majority of people will not vote to go to war unless in self-defence. More recently, the democratic peace theory was put forth in 1964 by Dean Babst. Babst carried out the first statistical research to scientifically prove that democracies never or rarely fight each other. Despite an undeniable statistical correlation between democracy and peace, the democratic peace theory is highly debated amongst political scientists. The definitions of democracy and war are one contentious issue. Some opponents of the democratic peace theory point to exceptions, such as the Spanish-American War. However, the main criticism of the theory is that it is based on flawed logic that peace between democracies is not caused by the democratic nature of those states. Furthermore, opponents argue that democracies frequently attack non-democracies, dispelling the notion that democracies are inherently pacifistic. There are several derivatives of the democratic peace theory, including the economic peace theory, which states that increased economic exchange between states helps to avoid conflict.

Hypothesis: The economic peace theory says that countries are less likely to engage in war if their trade is independent of each other.


Hypothesis: The definition of peace is divisive amongst political scientists.


Hypothesis: Dean Babst found statistical evidence showing democracies do not fight in wars.


Hypothesis: Immanuel Kants theory about democratic peace was the first to statistically research whether democracies rarely or never fight each other.


Hypothesis: The premise for the democratic peace theory is the accountability of a democratically elected government to its electorate.


Premise: The dominant mobile network in the UK is Orange. Statistics suggest that, since purchasing T-Mobile, the Orange group provides a service to over 30% of mobile users in the United Kingdom. The second most popular network is O2. This company provides network coverage for an estimated 20% of all mobile users in the UK. O2 has proved to be the fastest growing network. This trend mirrors the range of prices offered by the network, the deals available and the amount of revenue spent on advertising. The smallest network providers in the UK are those which offer mobile services as a side-line to their main business, for example supermarket networks. Such providers are responsible for a marginal section of the total mobile service provided in the UK.

Hypothesis: Supermarket providers provide 1% of network coverage in the UK.


Hypothesis: O2 offers the cheapest prices.


Hypothesis: O2 is the fastest growing network.


Hypothesis: Since Orange bought T Mobile, its user coverage has almost doubled.


Premise: The dramatic decline of the bee population in the UK has been attributed to a number of causes such as the loss of wild flowers in the countryside. Bees require these wildflowers for food and it has been estimated that 97% of the flower-rich grassland has been lost since the 1930s. Other causes include climate change and pesticides that are toxic to bees. This is particularly problematic in the UK, which has had a 50% reduction in the honey bee population between 1985 and 2005 whilst the rest of Europe has only averaged a 20% reduction during the same time period. This loss of flowers from the British countryside has been caused by agricultural pressures. In order to increase food production, traditional farming methods have been abandoned in favour of techniques that increase productivity. These techniques, however, involve the reduction of wild flowers. Bumblebees are required to pollinate wildflowers and commercial crops. A reduction of wildflower pollination will result in their decline, which will ultimately affect other wildlife as they can be involved in a complex food chain. The commercial crops will need to be pollinated artificially using expensive methods that will ultimately drive up the price of fruits and vegetables. The global economic value of pollination from bees has been estimated at 265 billion annually.

Hypothesis: Increasing pesticide-free fruit and vegetable growth will slow the decline in bee population


Hypothesis: Artificial pollination will be capable of replacing bees if it becomes cheap enough


Hypothesis: Reverting back to traditional farming methods will decrease the overall production of food


Hypothesis: The UK is the country with the largest decline in bee population


Hypothesis: The bee population in the UK has decreased by 97% since the 1930s.


Premise: The early manned missions visited lowlands and plains while the later missions explored highlands. Selecting a suitable site was never going to be easy as even the apparently flattest of locations were found to be on closer inspection potholed from meteorite strikes and plastered with small boulders. The moon is rugged and very mountainous and in the 1960s a number of lunar probes had photographed the moons surface during close orbit passes and even performed soft landings in the search for suitable sites for the manned missions that were to follow. In 1969 Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin in Apollo 11 made the first ever manned lunar landing. The last manned landing was made in 1972 with Apollo 17.

Hypothesis: When referring to a suitable site in the second sentence it means suitable sites for the landing of manned missions.


Hypothesis: Apollo 17 visited a mountainous region of the moon.


Hypothesis: The first lunar landing was made in the 1960s.


Premise: The ecological footprint is a simple way to look at how sustainable people are being. It is based on the idea that all the resources taken from the Earth are finite. It is defined by how much land and water would be required to produce the resources that the population consumes within a year. It has been calculated that there are currently 11.2 billion bio-productive hectares available on the Earth. A study in 2004 has suggested that our ecological footprint is 13.5 billion hectares, meaning that we are using the Earths resources 20% faster than they are being renewed. This will ultimately result in the loss of all the Earths resources. Individual countries can look at their own ecological footprint and compare it to the size of their bio-productive capacity. Some countries are in an ecological deficit - they require more land than their bio-productive capacity to sustain them. Other countries have an ecological reserve, meaning that their bio-productive capacity is greater than their footprint. It can be difficult for individual countries to reduce their ecological footprint. This can either be performed by reducing that countries reliance on unsustainable resources or by increasing the amount of bio-productive land available. It is important, however, that a global effort is made to increase our sustainability.

Hypothesis: The ecological footprint of a country directly depends on its population.


Hypothesis: The combined area of the Earths land and water mass is 11.2 billion hectares


Hypothesis: The ecological footprint can be reduced by using sustainable resources.


Hypothesis: Only the countries with an ecological deficit are able to tackle the global problem of sustainability.


Hypothesis: The bio-productive capacity of the Earth is fixed.


Premise: The economic importance of coral reefs A lot of people around the world are dependent, or partly dependent, on coral reefs for their livelihoods. They often live adjacent to the reef, and their livelihood revolves around the direct extraction, processing and sale of reef resources such as shell fish and seaweeds. In addition, their homes are sheltered by the reef from wave action. Reef flats and shallow reef lagoons are accessible on foot, without the need for a boat, and so allow women, children and the elderly to engage directly in manual harvesting, or reef-gleaning. This is a significant factor distinguishing reef-based fisheries from near-shore sea fisheries. Near-shore fisheries are typically the domain of adult males, in particular where they involve the use of boats, with women and children restricted mainly to shore-based activities. However, in a coral-reef fishery the physical accessibility of the reef opens up opportunities for direct participation by women, and consequently increases their independence and the importance of their role in the community. It also provides a place for children to play, and to acquire important skills and knowledge for later in life. For example, in the South West Island of Tobi, in the Pacific Ocean, young boys use simple hand lines with a loop and bait at the end to develop the art of fishing on the reef. Similarly, in the Surin Islands of Thailand, young Moken boys spend much of their time playing, swimming and diving in shallow reef lagoons, and in doing so build crucial skills for their future daily subsistence. Secondary occupations, such as fish processing and marketing activities, are often dominated by women, and offer an important survival strategy for households with access to few other physical assets (such as boats and gear), for elderly women, widows, or the wives of infirm men. On Ulithi Atoll in the western Pacific, women have a distinct role and rights in the distribution of fish catches. This is because the canoes, made from mahogany logs from nearby Yap Island, are obtained through the exchange of cloth made by the women of Ulithi. Small-scale reef fisheries support the involvement of local women traders and their involvement can give them greater control over the household income, and in negotiating for loans or credit. Thus their role is not only important in providing income for their families, it also underpins the economy of the local village. Poor people with little access to land, labour and financial resources are particularly reliant on exploiting natural resources, and consequently they are vulnerable to seasonal changes in availability of those resources. The diversity of coral reef fisheries, combined with their physical accessibility and the protection they provide against bad weather, make them relatively stable compared with other fisheries, or land-based agricultural production. In many places, the reef may even act as a resource bank, used as a means of saving food for future times of need. In Manus, Papua New Guinea, giant clams are collected and held in walled enclosures on the reef, until they are needed during periods of rough weather. In Palau, sea cucumbers are seldom eaten during good weather in an effort to conserve their populations for months during which rough weather prohibits good fishing. Coral reef resources also act as a buffer against seasonal lows in other sectors, particularly agriculture. For example, in coastal communities in northern Mozambique, reef harvests provide key sources of food and cash when agricultural production is low, with the peak in fisheries production coinciding with the period of lowest agricultural stocks. In Papua New Guinea, while agriculture is the primary means of food production, a large proportion of the coastal population engage in sporadic subsistence fishing. In many coral-reef areas, tourism is one of the main industries bringing employment, and in many cases is promoted to provide alternatives to fisheries-based livelihoods, and to ensure that local reef resources are conserved. In the Caribbean alone, tours based on scuba-diving have attracted 20 million people in one year. The upgrading of roads and communications associated with the expansion of tourism may also bring benefits to local communities. However, plans for development must be considered carefully. The ability of the poorer members of the community to access the benefits of tourism is far from guaranteed, and requires development guided by social, cultural and environmental principles. There is growing recognition that sustainability is a key requirement, as encompassed in small-scale eco-tourism activities, for instance. Where tourism development has not been carefully planned, and the needs and priorities of the local community have not been properly recognised, conflict has sometimes arisen between tourism and local, small-scale fishers.

Hypothesis: In coral reef fisheries, only male traders can apply for finance.


Hypothesis: Involvement in coral-reef-based occupations raises the status of women.


Hypothesis: In most places, coral-reef gleaning is normally carried out by men.


Hypothesis: Boats for use by the inhabitants of Ulithi are constructed on Yap Island.


Hypothesis: The women of Ulithi Atoll have some control over how fish catches are shared out.


Hypothesis: Coral reefs provide a less constant source of income than near-shore seas.


Hypothesis: Coral reefs provide valuable learning opportunities for young children.


Premise: The effects of light on plant and animal species Light is important to organisms for two different reasons. Firstly it is used as a cue for the timing, of daily and seasonal rhythms in both plants and animals, and secondly it is used to assist growth in plants. Breeding in most organisms occurs during a part of the year only, and so a reliable cue is needed to trigger breeding behaviour. Day length is an excellent cue, because it provides a perfectly predictable pattern of change within the year. In the temperate zone in spring, temperatures fluctuate greatly from day to day, but day length increases steadily by a predictable amount. The seasonal impact of day length on physiological responses is called photoperiodism, and the amount of experimental evidence for this phenomenon is considerable. For example, some species of birds' breeding can be induced even in midwinter simply by increasing day length artificially (Wolfson 1964). Other examples of photoperiodism occur in plants. A short-day plant flowers when the day is less than a certain critical length. A long-day plant flowers after a certain critical day length is exceeded. In both cases the critical day length differs from species to species. Plants which flower after a period of vegetative growth, regardless of photoperiod, are known as day-neutral plants. Breeding seasons in animals such as birds have evolved to occupy the part of the year in which offspring have the greatest chances of survival. Before the breeding season begins, food reserves must be built up to support the energy cost of reproduction, and to provide for young birds both when they are in the nest and after fledging. Thus many temperate-zone birds use the increasing day lengths in spring as a cue to begin the nesting cycle, because this is a point when adequate food resources will be assured. The adaptive significance at photoperiodism in plants is also clear. Short-day plants that flower in spring in the temperate zone are adapted to maximizing seedling growth during the growing season. Long-day plants are adapted for situations that require fertilization by insects, or a long period of seed ripening. Short-day plants that flower in the autumn in the temperate zone are able to build up food reserves over the growing season and over winter as seeds. Day-neutral plants have an evolutionary advantage when the connection between the favourable period for reproduction and day length is much less certain. For example, desert annuals germinate, flower and seed whenever suitable rainfall occurs, regardless of the day length. The breeding season of some plants can be delayed to extraordinary lengths. Bamboos are perennial grasses that remain in a vegetative state for many years and then suddenly flower, fruit and die (Evans 1976). Every bamboo of the species Chusquea abietifolio on the island of Jamaica flowered, set seed and died during 1884. The next generation of bamboo flowered and died between 1916 and 1918, which suggests a vegetative cycle of about 31 years. The climatic trigger for this flowering cycle is not yet known, but the adaptive significance is clear. The simultaneous production of masses of bamboo seeds (in some cases lying 12 to 15 centimetres deep on the ground) is more than all the seed-eating animals can cope with at the time, so that some seeds escape being eaten and grow up to form the next generation (Evans 1976). The second reason light is important to organisms is that it is essential for photosynthesis. This is the process by which plants use energy from the sun to convert carbon from soil or water into organic material for growth. The rate of photosynthesis in a plant can be measured by calculating the rate of its uptake of carbon. There is a wide range of photosynthetic responses of plants to variations in light intensity. Some plants reach maximal photosynthesis at one-quarter full sunlight, and others, like sugarcane, never reach a maximum, but continue to increase photosynthesis rate as light intensity rises. Plants in general can be divided into two groups: shade-tolerant species and shade-intolerant species. This classification is commonly used in forestry and horticulture. Shade-tolerant plants have lower photosynthetic rates and hence have lower growth rates than those of shade-intolerant species. Plant species become adapted to living in a certain kind of habitat, and in the process evolve a series of characteristics that prevent them from occupying other habitats. Grime (1966) suggests that light may be one of the major components directing these adaptations. For example, eastern hemlock seedlings are shade-tolerant. They can survive in the forest understory under very low light levels because they have a low photosynthetic rate.

Hypothesis: Photoperiodism is restricted to certain geographic areas.


Hypothesis: Some types of bird can be encouraged to breed out of season.


Hypothesis: Scientists have yet to determine the cue for Chusquea abitifolia's seasonal rhythm.


Hypothesis: Desert annuals are examples of long-day plants.


Hypothesis: Eastern hemlock is a fast-growing plant.


Hypothesis: There is plenty of scientific evidence to support photoperiodism.


Hypothesis: Bamboos flower several times during their life cycle.


Premise: The effects of smoking have been known for a very long time. The harmful and poisonous chemicals inside tobacco all have negative effects. If an individual smokes long-term they are more likely to suffer from the following: cancer, heart disease, blockage of vessels and so on. Since the 1st of July 2007, the UK government brought out new legislation which prohibited individuals from smoking in public places such as clubs, bars, pubs and restaurants. Many organisations have now incorporated a no smoking policy within staff and customer areas. In order to advertise this policy, posters and pamphlets have been specifically put in staff canteens and customer waiting rooms. Many individuals have put forward their support, either by not smoking in these buildings, or by quitting smoking all together. However, a minority feel that this is an erosion of their freedom of choice.

Hypothesis: Due to the legislation enforced by the government many organisations now have a 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: All individuals seem to be supporting the no smoking policy


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


Premise: The effects of spaceflight on astronauts have been an important area of study since the start of manned spaceflight. The effects of weightlessness on the body are believed to be the key problem astronauts face in medium to long term space missions. Short term weightlessness can lead to motion sickness, lethargy and nausea. Long term weightlessness may lead to the loss of bone and muscle mass, disrupted vision and weakened immune system. More research is necessary to limit the effects of weightlessness on astronauts if manned space flight is to continue.

Hypothesis: Motion sickness is a long term effect of weightlessnes


Hypothesis: Nausea is a long term effect of weightlessnes


Hypothesis: Disrupted vision is a long term effect of weightlessnes


Premise: The era of mass media is giving way to one of personal and participatory media. Technology has freed people from having to passively consume mass media content. They are beginning to value their own opinions and offer them online alongside those of the supposed experts. They post online ratings for their favourite restaurant, and they contribute entries to collaborative sites offering advice and answers to questions posed on every imagi- nable subject. They are quickly realizing that all too often the views of a rank amateur are as or even more interesting than those of the experts. It is only the beginning of a revolution that will encircle the globe and affect most people as access to the internet becomes even more widespread.

Hypothesis: The passage presents what can be described as a counter argument or at least an alternative perspective.


Hypothesis: The subject of how the large traditional media corporations will respond to the challenge of the internet is touched upon in the passage.


Hypothesis: Not everything posted on the internet is correct and sometimes peoples contributions are misleading.


Hypothesis: The penultimate sentence of the passage illustrates the sort of things that people post online.


Hypothesis: When the passage was written there was no universal access to the internet.


Premise: The estimated cost to widen both sides of 240 miles of the worlds busiest motorway has been priced at a figure higher than the annual gross domestic product (GDP) of one quarter of the worlds nations. It is a major construction project but with the same sum of money many of the worlds nations fund their entire annual government expenditure, including road building. The rate of inflation for raw materials and therefore for construction is running many times higher than general inflation and given this and the fact that such projects have a record of overrunning their estimates there must exist a real possibility that the scheme will cost even more than the estimate. Construction work has not yet started but the pre-construction phase has begun even if the decision to proceed with the project has still to be made.

Hypothesis: The sum of one quarter of the worlds nations GDP is less than the estimated cost to widen both sides of a length of the worlds busiest motorway.


Hypothesis: An estimate is not a commitment to spend.


Hypothesis: The project involves 480 miles of road building.


Premise: The fashion industry is one of the most profitable sectors of the economy. An example of this can be seen in the reported annual profit of the Arcadia Group. The Group, which owns several high-street chains such as Topshop and Miss Selfridge, reported an annual profit of one hundred and eight million pounds last year. Similar figures have also been reported by leading fashion labels Zara and Urban Outfitters. In this way, the fashion industry continues to grow despite the current economic climate. A key aspect of this is that the reported figures are from high-street companies, which promise up-to-date fashion at prices much more widely available than those of designers.

Hypothesis: Fashion industry is the most profitable sector of the economy.


Hypothesis: High-street fashion provides a higher standard of products.


Hypothesis: High-street fashion is more financially accessible than designer


Hypothesis: Cheaper fashion labels provide a lower standard of products.


Premise: The first ever low-cost tablet with a three-hour battery which works only with Wi-Fi for accessing the Internet will be a game changer for Indias rural population who have been on the wrong side of the digital divide in the country. Stated Company X, the manufacturers of the tabled on their role in providing access to Internet throughout India.

Hypothesis: The tablet would not benefit urban population in India as much as the rural population.


Hypothesis: A mere three-hour battery would be grossly insufficient to maximize its benefits.


Hypothesis: Improvement in accessibility to Internet would help education sector the most.


Hypothesis: Wi-Fi connections are already available in rural parts of India.


Hypothesis: Other tablets did not have the features such as Wi-Fi connectivity.


Premise: The first problem with financial statements is that they are in the past; however detailed, they just provide a snap shot of the business at one moment in time. There is also a lack of detail in financial statements, giving little use for the running of a business. Financial statements are provided for legal reasons to meet with accounting regulations and are used largely by city analysts who compute share prices and give advice to shareholders. Accounts often have hidden information and may also be inconsistent it is difficult to compare different companies accounts, despite there being standards, as there is much leeway in these standards.

Hypothesis: Companies create financial statements as part of their legal obligations.


Hypothesis: If account-recording standards were changed, it would be easier to compare the performance of different companies.


Hypothesis: Financial statements tell analysts what is going to happen to a business in the future.


Premise: The first problem with financial statements is that they are in the past; however detailed, they provide just a snap-shot of the business at one moment in time. There is also a lack of detail in financial statements, giving little use in the running of a business. Financial statements are provided for legal reasons to meet with accounting regulations and are used mainly by City analysts who compute share prices and give guidance to shareholders. Accounts often have hidden information and may also be inconsistent; it is difficult to compare different companies accounts, despite there being standards, as there is much leeway in the standards.

Hypothesis: If account reporting standards were tightened, it would be easier to compare the performance of different companies.


Hypothesis: Companies create financial statements in order to comply with their legal obligations.


Hypothesis: Financial statements are useful for businesses to understand their financial activities.


Premise: The first salmon farms were in the Atlantic islands but the industry fell into dramatic decline with the value of the farmed fish when the farming method became discredited because of the use of chemicals and concerns over the feed used. Now they are farming cod in the Atlantic isles, only this time they have set rules for fish welfare and are feeding the cod on fish meal produced only from the by-products of fish already caught for human consumption. The enclosure nets in which the fish are grown are cleaned mechanically rather than treated with chemicals to stop them becoming fouled with weed. Cod, unlike salmon, are a gregarious species that naturally shoal and, unlike salmon, they do not need to be treated with insecticide to control fish lice.

Hypothesis: The cod farmers are taking measures to avoid the mistakes of the salmon farmers.


Hypothesis: A gregarious species of fish will be happier to swim around a net enclosure with a lot of other fish.


Hypothesis: Measures are being taken to raise the cod humanely.


Premise: The first time a single German nation existed was in 1871 when Wilhelm the 1st became Emperor and Bismarck Chancellor. The unified Germany became a great economic and military power, and empire, but defeat in the two World Wars led to its break-up in 1945 into East and West Germany. At that time the Berlin Wall was built and served to separate East from West. In 1990 the wall was demolished and Germany was unified once again.

Hypothesis: The passage suggests two reasons for the break-up of Germany in 1945.


Hypothesis: You can correctly infer from the passage that the Berlin Wall stood for 45 years.


Hypothesis: The author may well agree with the statement that a reunified Germany will once again become a great economic and military power.


Hypothesis: The Berlin Wall is mentioned in the passage in relation to the countries reunification in 1990.


Hypothesis: Germany has been unified as anationon three occasions.


Premise: The first tranche of sovereign gold bonds that closed on November 20 received an encouraging response despite falling gold prices, suggesting that the scheme may be successful in reducing imports of the metal.

Hypothesis: The scheme will encourage bulk depositors such as Hindu undivided families and institutions to participate.


Hypothesis: The positive response to the gold scheme has elicited response from across the country.


Hypothesis: Investment in gold is considered safe by the people.


Hypothesis: Country imports of gold will fall.


Hypothesis: Investment in gold is considered to give good returns.


Premise: The following extract is taken from Freuds book Dream Psychology: Psychoanalysis for Beginners In what we may term pre-scientific days, people were in no uncertainty about the interpretation of dreams. When they were recalled after awakening they were regarded as either the friendly or hostile manifestation of some higher powers, demoniacal and divine. With the rise of scientific thought the whole of this expressive mythology was transferred to psychology; today there is but a small minority among educated persons who doubt that the dream is the dreamers own psychical act. But since the downfall of the mythological hypothesis an interpretation of the dream has been wanting. The conditions of its origin; its relationship to our psychical life when we are awake; its independence of disturbances which, during the state of sleep, seem to compel notice; its many peculiarities repugnant to our waking thought; the incongruence between its images and the feelings they engender; then the dreams evanescence, the way in which, on awakening, our thoughts thrust it aside as something bizarre, and our reminiscences mutilating or rejecting itall these and many other problems have for many hundred years demanded answers which up till now could never have been satisfactory. Before all there is the question as to the meaning of the dream, a question that is in itself double-sided. There is, firstly, the psychical significance of the dream, its position with regard to the psychical processes, as to a possible biological function; secondly, has the dream a meaningcan sense be made of each single dream as of other mental syntheses?

Hypothesis: Human society has never had a hypothesis to explain dreams that has satisfied them.


Hypothesis: The origin of the dream has been scientifically sourced.


Hypothesis: A memory of a dream may be untrustworthy.


Hypothesis: The passage wonders about the significance of individual dreams.


Hypothesis: There is a definite link between the waking and dreaming self.


Hypothesis: Dreams used to be regarded as having a potentially religious quality.


Premise: The following is taken from a book about Norway published in 1909: In a country like Norway, with its vast forests and waste moorlands, it is only natural to find a considerable variety of animals and birds. Some of these are peculiar to Scandinavia. Some, though only occasionally found in the British Isles, are not rare in Norway; whilst others (more especially among the birds) are equally common in both countries. There was a time when the people of England lived in a state of fear and dread of the ravages of wolves and bears, and the Norwegians of the country districts even now have to guard their flocks and herds from these destroyers. Except in the forest tracts of the Far North, however, bears are not numerous, but in some parts, even in the South, they are sufficiently so to be a nuisance, and are ruthlessly hunted down by the farmers. As far as wolves are concerned civilisation is, fortunately, driving them farther afield each year, and only in themost out-of-the-way parts are they ever encountered nowadays. Stories of packs of hungry wolves following in the wake of a sleigh are still told to the children in Norway, but they relate to bygone timeshalf a century or more ago, and such wild excitements no longer enter into the Norsemens lives.

Hypothesis: The variety of birds and animals to be found in Norway is unique to that country.


Hypothesis: England and Norway have similar geographical features.


Hypothesis: By having forests, a country is more likely to have a variety of birds and animals.


Hypothesis: The variety of birds and animals to be found in Norway is common to all European countries.


Premise: The following passage is found in a book on nature published in 1899: Five women out of every ten who walk the streets of Chicago and other Illinois cities, says a prominent journal, by wearing dead birds upon their hats proclaim themselves as lawbreakers. For the first time in the history of Illinois laws it has been made an offence punishable by fine and imprisonment, or both, to have in possession any dead, harmless bird except game birds, which may be possessed in their proper season. The wearing of a tern, or a gull, a woodpecker, or a jay is an offence against the laws majesty, and any policeman with a mind rigidly bent upon enforcing the law could round up, without a written warrant, a wagon load of the offenders any hour in the day, and carry them off to the lockup. What moral suasion cannot do, a crusade of this sort undoubtedly would. Thanks to the personal influence of the Princess of Wales, the osprey plume, so long a feature of the uniforms of a number of the cavalry regiments of the British army, has been abolished. After Dec. 31, 1899, the osprey plume, by order of Field Marshal Lord Wolseley, is to be replaced by one of ostrich feathers. It was the wearing of these plumes by the officers of all the hussar and rifle regiments, as well as of the Royal Horse Artillery, which so sadly interfered with the crusade inaugurated by the Princess against the use of osprey plumes. The fact that these plumes, to be of any marketable value, have to be torn from the living bird during the nesting season induced the Queen, the Princess of Wales, and other ladies of the royal family to set their faces against the use of both the osprey plume and the aigrette as articles of fashionable wear.

Hypothesis: Games birds could be possessed by citizens of Illinois all year round.


Premise: The following passage provides information regarding the most popular type of foods in the United Kingdom. Such information has been compiled by the UK Foods Standards Agency since 1990 as part of an on-going project to encourage consumers to purchase healthier products, such as fruit and vegetables, whole grain foods and foods low in saturated fat. Currently, the most popular types of food in the UK are those which are easy to prepare. Items requiring time consuming preparation continue to suffer comparatively lower sales rates. In this way, the Foods Standards Agency has found that pack items, those containing ready-measured baking ingredients, are more popular than buying fresh ingredients in bulk. Similarly, ready baked items, such as bread and biscuits, continue to sell well.

Hypothesis: Since 1990, the UK Foods Standards Agency has discouraged the purchase of pack-items


Hypothesis: Since 1990, the UK Foods Standards Agency has encouraged consumers to purchase items with no fat.


Hypothesis: Since 1990, the UK Foods Standards Agency has encouraged consumers to purchase items that are easy to prepare.


Hypothesis: Since 1990, the UK Foods Standards Agency has encouraged consumers to purchase items such as fruit.


Premise: The frequency of MRSA bemg given as the cause of death on death certificates has been increasng significantly for several years. MRSA 1s an infection-causing bacterium that has developed a resistance to penicillin and many other antibiotics. MRSA infections represent a particular danger for hospital patients with weakened immune systems or open wounds. Scientific trials are testing whether MRSA develops resistance after exposure to new drugs. A research breakthrough would herald a cure for the MRSA threat.

Hypothesis: MRSA can prove fatal.


Hypothesis: Further research is bemg conducted to study MRSA.


Hypothesis: MRSA-related deaths are now more common.


Hypothesis: MRSA 5s resistant to all antibiotics.


Hypothesis: Penicillin is an effective treatment for MRSA.


Premise: The future never dies? The prospects for humanity and for the world as a whole are somewhere between glorious and dire. It is hard to be much more precise. By glorious I mean that our descendants - all who are born on to this Earth - could live very comfortably and securely, and could continue to do so for as long as the Earth can support life, which should be for a very long time indeed. We should at least be thinking in terms of the next million years. Furthermore, our descendants could continue to enjoy the company of other species - establishing a much better relationship with them than we have now. Other animals need not live in constant fear of us. Many of those fellow species now seem bound to become extinct, but a significant proportion could and should continue to live alongside US. Such a future may seem ideal, and so it is. Yet I do not believe it is fanciful. There is nothing in the physical fabric of the Earth or in our own biology to suggest that this is not possible. Dire means that we human beings could be in deep trouble within the next few centuries, living but also dying in large numbers in political terror and from starvation, while huge numbers of our fellow creatures would simply disappear, leaving only the ones that we find convenient - chickens, cattle - or that we can'tshake off, like flies and mice. I'm taking it to be self-evident that glory is preferable. Our future is not entirely in our own hands because the Earth has its own rules, is part of the solar system and is neither stable nor innately safe. Other planets in the solar system are quite beyond habitation, because their temperature is far too high or too low to be endured, and ours, too, in principle could tip either way. Even relatively unspectacular changes in the atmosphere could do the trick. The core of the Earth is hot, which in many ways is good for living creatures, but every now and again, the molten rock bursts through volcanoes on the surface. Among the biggest volcanic eruptions in recent memory was Mount St Helens, in the USA, which threw out a cubic kilometre of ash - fortunately in an area where very few people live. In 1815, Tambora (in present-day Indonesia) expelled so much ash into the upper atmosphere that climatic effects seriously harmed food production around the world for season after season. Entire civilisations have been destroyed by volcanoes. Yet nothing we have so far experienced shows what volcanoes can really do. Yellowstone National Park in the USA occupies the caldera (the crater formed when a volcano collapses) of an exceedingly ancient volcano of extraordinary magnitude. Modem surveys show that its centre is now rising. Sometime in the next 200 million years, Yellowstone could erupt again, and when it does, the whole world will be transformed. Yellowstone could erupt tomorrow. But there's a very good chance that it will give US another million years, and that surely is enough to be going on with. It seems sensible to assume that this will be the case. The universe at large is dangerous, too: in particular, we share the sky with vast numbers of asteroids, and every now and again, they come into our planet's atmosphere. An asteroid the size of a small island, hitting the Earth at 15,000 kilometres an hour (a relatively modest speed by the standards of heavenly bodies), would strike the ocean bed like a rock in a puddle, send a tidal wave around the world as high as a small mountain and as fast as a jumbo jet, and propel us into an ice age that could last for centuries. There are plans to head off such disasters (including rockets to push approaching asteroids into new trajectories), but in truth it's down to luck. On the other hand, the archaeological and the fossil evidence shows that no truly devastating asteroid has struck since the one that seems to have accounted for the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. So again, there seems no immediate reason for despair. The Earth is indeed an uncertain place, in an uncertain universe, but with average luck, it should do us well enough. If the world does become inhospitable in the next few thousand or million years, then it will probably be our own fault. In short, despite the underlying uncertainty, our own future and that of our fellow creatures is very much in our own hands. Given average luck on the geological and the cosmic scale, the difference between glory and disaster will be made, and is being made, by politics. Certain kinds of political systems and strategies would predispose US to long-term survival (and indeed to comfort and security and the pleasure of being alive), while others would take us more and more frenetically towards collapse. The broad point is, though, that we need to look at ourselves - humanity - and at the world in general in a quite new light. Our material problems are fundamentally those of biology. We need to think, and we need our politicians to think, biologically. Do that, and take the ideas seriously, and we are in with a chance. Ignore biology and we and our fellow creatures haven't a hope.

Hypothesis: If the world becomes uninhabitable, It is most likely to be as a result of a natural disaster.


Hypothesis: It seems predictable that some species will disappear.


Hypothesis: The nature of the Earth and human biology make it impossible for human beings to survive another million years,


Hypothesis: Politicians currently in power seem unlikely to change their way of thinking.


Hypothesis: There 18 a greater chance of the Earth being hit by small asteroids than by large ones.


Hypothesis: An eruption by Yellowstone is likely to be more destructive than previous volcanic eruptions.


Premise: The future of the Worlds Language Of the worlds 6,500 living languages, around half are expected to the out by the end of this century, according to UNESCO. Just 11 are spoken by more than half of the earths population, so it is little wonder that those used by only a few are being left behind as we become a more homogenous, global society. In short, 95 percent of the worlds languages are spoken by only five percent of its populationa remarkable level of linguistic diversity stored in tiny pockets of speakers around the world. Mark Turin, a university professor, has launched WOLP (World Oral Language Project) to prevent the language from the brink of extinction. He is trying to encourage indigenous communities to collaborate with anthropologists around the world to record what he calls oral literature through video cameras, voice recorders and other multimedia tools by awarding grants from a 30,000 pot that the project has secured this year. The idea is to collate this literature in a digital archive that can be accessed on demand and will make the nuts and bolts of lost cultures readily available. For many of these communities, the oral tradition is at the heart of their culture. The stories they tell are creative as well as communicative. Unlike the languages with celebrated written traditions, such as Sanskrit, Hebrew and Ancient Greek, few indigenous communities have recorded their own languages or ever had them recorded until now. The project suggested itself when Turin was teaching in Nepal. He wanted to study for a PhD in endangered languages and, while discussing it with his professor at Leiden University in the Netherlands, was drawn to a map on his tutors wall. The map was full of pins of a variety of colours which represented all the worlds languages that were completely undocumented. At random, Turin chose a pin to document. It happened to belong to the Thangmi tribe, an indigenous community in the hills east of Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. Many of the choices anthropologists and linguists who work on these traditional field-work projects are quite random, he admits. Continuing his work with the Thangmi community in the 1990s, Turin began to record the language he was hearing, realising that not only was this language and its culture entirely undocumented, it was known to few outside the tiny community. He set about trying to record their language and myth of origins. I wrote 1,000 pages of grammar in English that nobody could usebut I realised that wasnt enough. It wasnt enough for me, it wasnt enough for them. It simply wasnt going to work as something for the community. So then I produced this trilingual word list in Thangmi, Nepali and English. In short, it was the first ever publication of that language. That small dictionary is still sold in local schools for a modest 20 rupees, and used as part of a wider cultural regeneration process to educate children about their heritage and language. The task is no small undertaking: Nepal itself is a country of massive ethnic and linguistic diversity, home to 100 languages from four different language families. Whats more, even fewer ethnic Thangmi speak the Thangmi language. Many of the community members have taken to speaking Nepali, the national language taught in schools and spread through the media, and community elders are dying without passing on their knowledge. Despite Turins enthusiasm for his subject, he is baffled by many linguists refusal to engage in the issue he is working on. Of the 6,500 languages spoken on Earth, many do not have written traditions and many of these spoken forms are endangered, he says. There are more linguists in universities around the world than there are spoken languagesbut most of them arent working on this issue. To me its amazing that in this day and age, we still have an entirely incomplete image of the worlds linguistic diversity. People do PhDs on the apostrophe in French, yet we still dont know how many languages are spoken. When a language becomes endangered, so too does a cultural world view. We want to engage with indigenous people to document their myths and folklore, which can be harder to find funding for if you are based outside Western universities. Yet, despite the struggles facing initiatives such as the World Oral Literature Project, there are historical examples that point to the possibility that language restoration is no mere academic pipe dream. The revival of a modern form of Hebrew in the 19th century is often cited as one of the best proofs that languages long dead, belonging to small communities, can be resurrected and embraced by a large number of people. By the 20th century, Hebrew was well on its way to becoming the main language of the Jewish population of both Ottoman and British Palestine. It is now spoken by more than seven million people in Israel. Yet, despite the difficulties these communities face in saving their languages, Dr Turin believes that the fate of the worlds endangered languages is not sealed, and globalisation is not necessarily the nefarious perpetrator of evil it is often presented to be. I call it the globalisation paradox: on the one hand globalisation and rapid socio-economic change are the things that are eroding and challenging diversity But on the other, globalisation is providing us with new and very exciting tools and facilities to get to places to document those things that globalisation is eroding. Also, the communities at the coal-face of change are excited by what globalisation has to offer. In the meantime, the race is on to collect and protect as many of the languages as possible, so that the Rai Shaman in eastern Nepal and those in the generations that follow him can continue their traditions and have a sense of identity. And it certainly is a race: Turin knows his projects limits and believes it inevitable that a large number of those languages will disappear. We have to be wholly realistic. A project like ours is in no position, and was not designed, to keep languages alive. The only people who can help languages survive are the people in those communities themselves. They need to be reminded that its good to speak their own language and I think we can help them do thatbecoming modem doesnt mean you have to lose your language.

Hypothesis: Some Nepalese schools lack resources to devote to language teaching.


Hypothesis: Turin concluded that the Thangmi language had few similarities with other languages.


Hypothesis: Turin argued that anthropologists and linguists usually think carefully before selecting an area to research.


Hypothesis: Turin has written that 1000-page document was inappropriate for Thangmi community;


Premise: The genus of plants called Narcissus, many of the species of which are highly esteemed by the floriculturist and lover of cultivated plants, belongs to the Amaryllis family (Amaryllidace. ) This family includes about seventy genera and over eight hundred species that are mostly native in tropical or semi-tropical countries, though a few are found in temperate climates. Many of the species are sought for ornamental purposes and, on account of their beauty and remarkable odour, they are more prized by many than are the species of the Lily family. In this group is classed the American Aloe (Agave Americana) valued not only for cultivation, but also by the Mexicans on account of the sweet fluid which is yielded by its central bud. This liquid, after fermentation, forms an intoxicating liquor known as pulque. By distillation, this yields a liquid, very similar to rum, called by the Mexicans mescal. The leaves furnish a strong fibre, known as vegetable silk, from which, since remote times, paper has been manufactured. The popular opinion is that this plant flowers but once in a century; hence the name Century Plant is often applied to it, though under proper culture it will blossom more frequently.

Hypothesis: A genus belongs to a family.25. Members of the Narcissus genus are used for their soothing properties.


Hypothesis: The members of the Narcissus genus have a distinctive smell.


Hypothesis: Members of the Narcissus genus can be found in all climates.


Hypothesis: The Amaryllis family contains more than six hundred species of Narcissus.


Hypothesis: Members of the Narcissus genus are a welcome addition to any household.


Hypothesis: A number are people prefer members of the Narcissus genus over Lilies.


Hypothesis: Lilies are famously not as attractive as members of the Narcissus genus.


Hypothesis: Lilies are generally valued less than members of the Narcissus genus.


Hypothesis: American Aloe can be used to make rum.


Hypothesis: Agave syrup can be collected by American Aloe.


Hypothesis: The Narcissus genus is named after the mythical character, famed for his beauty.


Premise: The giant wind turbines on the nearby hill supply the community with 8 million kilowatt hours of electricity each year. Several hundred homeowners have erected solar panels on their roofs to provide most of their summer-time hot water needs. Bio-waste is collected for fermentation to produce methane gas which drives a local generator to augment the towns electricity needs when there is insufficient wind to fully power the turbines. Better insulation has cut the fuel requirements of many homes. Local generation in this isolated, rural community has led to saving on the investment cost of additional transmission lines in the national network. Further efficiencies are gained because the local production of power avoids losses to electrical resistance in the long-distance transmission of power.

Hypothesis: The motives for this community's investment in the local generation of its energy needs are rising fuel costs and climate worries.


Hypothesis: When the wind is blowing and the sun is shining, locally generated power accounts for most of this community's energy needs.


Hypothesis: This isolated rural community is located in a part of the world where the national power network is practically non-existent.


Premise: The government has decided to disinvest large chunk of its equity in select public sector undertakings for a better fiscal management.

Hypothesis: The amount generated out of the disinvestment process may reduce substantially the mounting fiscal deficits.


Hypothesis: There will be enough demand in the market for the shares of these undertakings.


Premise: The government has decided to pay compensation to the tune of Rs. 1 lakh to the family members of those who are killed in railway accidents.

Hypothesis: There may be reduction in incidents of railway accidents in near future.


Hypothesis: The government has enough funds to meet the expenses due to compensation


Premise: The government has decided to run all commercial vehicles on bio-fuels in order to save the depleting fossil fuel reserves.

Hypothesis: Sufficient amount of bio-fuels can be produced in the country to run all commercial vehicles. Syndicate Bank (PO)


Hypothesis: It is possible to switch over from fossil fuels to bio-fuels for vehicles


Premise: The government wants 50 per cent of people aged 18 to 30 to go to university, and many of these new students are expected to study for shorter foundation degrees. These last two years and combine study with hands-on experience while in paid relevant work. Already more than 20,000 people are taking foundation degrees in 1,000 different courses. Self-discipline and strong motivation are critical if the student is to succeed because most foundation degrees are by distance learning and are part-time. While foundation degrees are not for the faint-hearted, they may appeal to many students who currently follow conventional university courses and who leave university with average debts of 30,000 and then have to compete for a graduate-level job against other foundation degree graduates with work-related experience.

Hypothesis: It can be inferred from the passage that part-time study by distant learning demands a higher level of self-discipline than shown by students on conventional degree courses.


Hypothesis: To undertake a foundation degree does not require one to go to university.


Hypothesis: The case made for doing a foundation degree rather than a conventional degree is purely economic.