Premise: The significant role of mother tongue language in education One consequence of population mobility is an increasing diversity within schools. To illustrate, in the city of Toronto in Canada, 58% of kindergarten pupils come from homes where English is not language of communication. Schools in Europe and North America have experienced this diversity for years, but educational policies and practices vary widely between countries and even within countries. Some political parties and groups search for ways to solve the problem of diverse communities and their integration in schools and society. They see few positive consequences for the host society and worry that diversity threaten the identity of the host society . Consequently, they promote unfortunate educational policies that will make the problem disappear. If students retain their culture and language, they are viewed as less capable of identifying with the mainstream culture and learning the mainstream language of the society. The challenge for educators and policy-makers is to shape the evolution of national identity in such a way that the rights of all citizens (including school children) are respected, and the cultural, linguistic, and economic resources of the nation are maximized. To waste the resources of the nation by discouraging children from developing their mother tongues is quite simply unintelligent from the point of view of national self-interest. A first step in Providing an appropriate education for culturally and linguistically diverse children is to examine what the existing research says about the role of childrens mother tongues in their educational development. In fact, the research is very clear. When children continue to develop their abilities in two or more languages throughout their primary school, they gain a deeper understanding of language and how to use it effectively. They have more practice in processing language, especially when they develop literacy in both. More than 150 research studies conducted during the past 35 years strongly support what Goethe, the famous eighteenth-century German philosopher, once said: that the person who knows only one language does not truly know that language. Research suggests that bilingual children may also develop more flexibility in their thinking as a result of processing information through two different languages. The level of development of childrens mother tongue is a strong predictor of their second language development. Children who come to school with a solid foundation in their mother tongue develop stronger literacy abilities in the school language. When parents and other caregivers (e. g. grandparents) are able to spend time with their children and tell stories or discuss issues with them in a way that develops their mother tongue, children come to school well-prepared to learn the school language and succeed educationally. Childrens knowledge and skills transfer across languages from the mother tongue to the school language. Transfer across languages can be two-way: both languages nurture each other when the educational environment permits children access to both languages. Some educators and parents are suspicious of mother tongue-based teaching programs because they worry that they take time away from the majority language. For example, in a bilingual program where 50% of the time is spent teaching through childrens home language and 50% through the majority language, surely childrens wont progress as far in the letter? One of the most strongly established findings of educational research, however, is that well-implemented bilingual programs can promote literacy and subject- matter knowledge in a minority language without any negative effects on childrens development in the majority language. Within Europe, the Foyer program in Belgium, which develops childrens speaking and literacy abilities in three languages (their mother tongue, Dutch and French), most clearly illustrates the benefits of bilingual and trilingual education (see Cummins, 2000). It is easy to understand how this happens. When children are learning through a minority language, they are learning concepts and intellectual skills too. Pupils who know how to tell the time in their mother tongue understand the concept of telling time. In order to tell time in the majority language they do not need to re-learn the concept. Similarly, at more advanced stages, there is transfer across languages in other skills such as knowing how to distinguish the main idea from the supporting details of a written passage or story, and distinguishing fact from opinion, Studies of secondary school pupils are providing interesting findings in this area, and it would be worth extending this research. Many people marvel at how quickly bilingual children seem to pick up conversational skills in the majority language at school (although it takes much longer for them to catch up to native speakers in academic language skills). However, educators are often much less aware of how quickly children can lose their ability to use their mother tongue, even in the home context. The extent and rapidity of language loss will vary according to the concentration of families from a particular linguistic group in the neighborhood. Where the mother tongue is used extensively in the community, then language loss among young children will be less. However, where language communities are not concentrated in particular neighborhoods, children can lose their ability to communicate in their mother tongue within 2-3 years of starting school. They may retain receptive skills in the language but they will use the majority language in speaking with their peers and siblings and in responding to their parents. By the time children become adolescents, the linguistic division between parents and children has become an emotional chasm. Pupils frequently become alienated from the cultures of both home and school with predictable results.

Hypothesis: the foyer Program is to be accepted by the French education system.


Hypothesis: Research proves that learning the host country language at school can have an adverse effect on a childs mother tongue.


Hypothesis: Less than half the children who attend kindergarten in Toronto have English as their Mother tongue.


Hypothesis: Bilingual children are taught to tell the time earlier than monolingual children.


Hypothesis: Bilingual children can eventually apply reading comprehension strategies acquired in one language when reading in the other.


Premise: The slow development of the innovative universal home remote control system is rather surprising following high expectations this system has raised a decade ago when it was first presented. Whilst having a prototype ready that impressively controlled most of the home electrical appliances using a single, simple and user friendly device, when manufactured in a production line many faults have occurred that were not discovered by the manufacturer quality control systems. The result was devastating. Thousands of these systems were returned by furious clients who paid substantial sums only to find that this luxurious device fails to reliably operate designated appliances and some also activated the wrong electrical device resulting in serious damages. The disastrous launch of the product into the market was largely the fault of line managers who did not commit themselves to ensure the excellence and quality of their work as well as senior managers who have failed to closely monitor the production activities and have focused merely on marketing and P. R.

Hypothesis: After the disastrous start, the universal home remote control system is now gaining momentum.


Hypothesis: Failure of the universal home remote control system was a direct result of a fault causing activation of wrong electrical devices.


Hypothesis: The initial product to reach the market was a reliable, simple and user-friendly device.


Premise: The social determinants of health are factors in which people are born, grow, live, work and age. These factors depend on the social distribution of resources and can affect the life expectancy and quality of life that people have. These factors refer to the social context that people live in and include characteristics such as level of education, culture, stress and socioeconomic conditions as well as many others. It can be difficult to see how some of these factors may affect somebodys health but it is likely to involve a combination of multiple factors. A number of mechanisms acting together have been described to explain why someone with a poor diet would have a lower life expectancy. One such mechanism is as follows: This individual would be more likely to be malnourished which would weaken their immune system. This would ultimately increase their likelihood of suffering from infections. Recurrent infections would place strain on the body, which could eventually result in organ failure. On average, the life expectancy in the most deprived areas can be up to 10 years lower than in the least deprived areas. Many of these health inequalities are avoidable. Understanding how these social determinants affect the health of a population will allow us to improve its care. Knowledge of how social policies impact health can better allow us to monitor changes in health care, and is allowing us to reduce the gaps between those with a more disadvantaged social background from those with a privileged background.

Hypothesis: The effects of the social determinants of health are principally measured by life expectancy.


Hypothesis: The health impact of poor diet can be avoided completely by using multivitamins that supplement the immune system.


Hypothesis: Nothing can be done to improve the health care of the poor in comparison to the rich.


Hypothesis: Alan lives in a less deprived area than Henry so Alan will live longer thanHenry.


Hypothesis: Dropping out of school can have an effect on an individuals health.


Premise: The software tools of research are typically more abundant than hardware tools in the social sciences. Software is usually thought of as meaning computer programs that tell the hardware what to do, but any tool not related to a physical device can be considered software. Included in this category are published tests and questionnaires. Often researchers want to gather information related to a general area such as personality or intelligence. For these instances, the use of a standardized test may be the best choice. With already published tests you can be sure of both validity and reliability and can save a lot of time that might otherwise be spent on test construction. Standardized tests can be classified into five main categories: achievement, aptitude, interest, personality, and intelligence. Achievement tests are designed specifically to measure an individuals previously learned knowledge or ability. They are available for many topic areas related to psychology, education, business, and other fields. Achievement tests require that prior learning take place and that this learning be demonstrated in order to pass. Aptitude tests attempt to predict an individuals performance in some activity at some point in the future. They do not require any specific prior learning although basic knowledge related to reading and writing is usually required and some preparation, such as studying up on math formulas or sentence structure, can be helpful. A well-known example of this type is the Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT), designed to predict future college performance. Interest inventories also require only general knowledge but no preparation is needed. These tests look at an individuals subjective interests in order to make predictions about some future behavior or activity. Perhaps the most used interest inventory is the Strong Interest Inventory, which compares interests related to specific careers in order to help guide an individuals career path. Endorsed interests are compared with the interests of successful individuals in various fields and predictions are made regarding the test-takers fit with the various career fields. Typically designed to assess and diagnose personality and mental health related disorders, personality tests are used extensively by psychologists in clinical, educational, and business related settings. By far the most widely used test of this type is the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, Second Edition (MMPI-2), which compares an individuals responses on a series of true-false items to those suffering from various mental disorders such as depression, schizophrenia, and anxiety. The theory behind the test argues that if you endorse items similar to the items endorsed by those with depression, for example, then the chances that you are also depressed increases. Intelligence tests could be classified as aptitude tests since they are sometimes used to predict future performance. They could also be classified as personality tests since they can be used to diagnose disorders such as learning disabilities and mental retardation. However, because of their limited scope, we will place them in their own category. The purpose of an intelligence test is to attain a summary score or intelligence quotient (IQ) of an individuals intellectual ability. Scores are compared to each other and can be broken down into different subcategories depending on the intelligence test used. The most commonly used tests of this type are the Wechsler Scales, including the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC), and the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI). Self-response questionnaires are a great way to gather large amounts of information in a relatively short amount of time. A questionnaire, similar to a survey you might see on a web page, allows subjects to respond to questions, rate responses, or offer opinions. Their responses can then be used to place them in specific categories or groups or can be compared to other subjects for data analysis. A concern with self-report, however, is the accuracy of the responses. Unlike direct observation, there is no way of knowing if the subject has told the truth or whether or not the question was understood as intended. There are several different methods for gathering information on a questionnaire or survey, including a Likert scale, the Thurstone technique, and the semantic differential. The Likert scale is a popular method used in surveys because it allows the researcher to quantify opinion based items. Questions are typically grouped together and rated or responded to based on a five-point scale. This scale typically ranges in order from one extreme to the other, such as (1) very interested; (2) somewhat interested; (3) unsure; (4) not very interested; and (5) not interested at all. Items that might be rated with this scale representing the subjects level of interest could include a list of careers or academic majors, for example.

Hypothesis: The Likert Scale ensures greater accuracy than other techniques.


Hypothesis: The Wechsler Scales are the only type of intelligence test now used.


Hypothesis: Where large quantities of data need to be collected fairly quickly self-response questionnaires work well.


Premise: The space race was a competition between the Soviet Union and the United States to show off their technological superiority and economic power. It took place during the Cold War when there was a tense relationship between these nations. As the technology used in space exploration could also have military applications, both nations had many scientists and technicians involved. In 1957, the USSR launched the first artificial satellite into the Earths orbit, named Sputnik. The launch of this satellite was one of the first steps towards space exploration. The Americans were worried that the Soviets could use similar technology to launch nuclear warheads. This prompted urgency within the Americans, leading President Eisenhower to found NASA, and so began the space race. The Soviets took another step forward in April 1961 when they sent the first person into space, a cosmonaut named Yuri Gagarin. This prompted President John F. Kennedy to make the unexpected claim that the US would beat the Soviets to land a man on the moon and that they would do so before the end of the decade. This led to the foundation of Project Apollo, a programme designed to do this. In 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set off for the moon on the Apollo 11 space mission and became the first astronauts to walk on the moon. Neil Armstrong famously said one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. This lunar landing led the US to win the space race that started with Sputniks launch in 1957.

Hypothesis: The United States began their attempts at space exploration when the Soviets launched Sputnik.


Hypothesis: Yuri Gagarin did not become the first man on the moon because the Soviet technology could not handle the conditions on the moon.


Hypothesis: Project Apollo was founded in order for the United States to defeat the Soviet Union in the Cold War.


Hypothesis: The Soviet Union were mainly concerned with launching satellites into space for a military advantage over the United States.


Hypothesis: The United States were losing the space race when John F. Kennedy said they would land a man on the moon.


Premise: The state government has decided to appoint four thousand primary school teachers during the next financial year.

Hypothesis: The eligible candidates may not be interested to apply as the Government may not finally appoint such a largest number of primary school teachers.


Hypothesis: There are enough school in the state to accommodate four thousand primary school teachers.


Premise: The story of Romeo and Juliet, the 'star-cross'd lovers', is one of the most popular of all time, and has been told in several different versions. Best known is the play Romeo and Juliet, which nearly everyone reads in school and which introduced such famous lines as 'What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. ' Written and first performed in the 1590s, this highly poetical work of English theatre is set in Italy, where the legend of Romeo and Juliet and their warring families originates. In the 18th century, the actor and producer David Garrick adapted the original play to remove material considered indecent. Among other changes, he changed references to Rosaline, Romeo's girlfriend at the start of the play, to references to Juliet, so that Romeo already knows and loves Juliet at the start of the play, and the theme is faithfulness rather than love at first sight. The original text was restored in the 19th century, with a sensational production at Sadler'S Wells Theatre, London, starring the American sisters Charlotte and Susan Cushman as Romeo and Juliet. 'Gender-bending' is part of the play's tradition: in its early days, men played all the roles. By all accounts Charlotte Cushman was entirely convincing as Romeo. After seeing the Cushmans at Sadler's Wells, Queen Victoria noted in her journal that 'no-one would ever have imagined she was a woman. ' In the 20th century, Romeo and Juliet took to the screen in a series of films, including Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 Technicolor epic, which was the first to cast unknown teenagers as the leads and to feature a controversial nude wedding scene, and Baz Luhrmann's 1996 version for the MTV generation, with a soundtrack of pop hits and gun battles instead of sword fights. The most popular film version of Romeo and Juliet is West Side Story, in which the Jets and the Sharks, rival gangs in New York City, replace the feuding Montages and Capulets, and Romeo and Juliet become Tony and Maria. West Side Story also changes the ending so that one of the central couple survives; this version won 10 Academy Awards in 1961, making it the most acclaimed film adaptation of Romeo and Juliet to date. Who knows what twist on Romeo and Juliet we'll see next?

Hypothesis: Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet


Hypothesis: Susan Cushman played Juliet.


Hypothesis: Zeffirellimade the only film that cast unknown teenagers as Romeo and Juliet


Hypothesis: Queen Victoria never went to the theatre.


Premise: The style that individual managers choose to adopt depends in no small part on how they regard their subordinates. At one extreme, some will assume that the average employee has an inherent dislike of work and will avoid it if they can. They believe employees need to be controlled, directed, offered rewards or threatened with punishments to get them to make adequate efforts towards the achievement of organisational goals. On the other hand, some will take the view that, according to the conditions, work can be a source of satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Employees are not seen as naturally passive, or resistant to organisational objectives, but have been made so by experience. The most significant reward that can be offered employees is the satisfaction of their need for personal growth and self-development.

Hypothesis: Using rewards and punishments is a necessary part of organisational life.


Premise: The style that individual managers choose to adopt depends in no small part on how they regard their subordinates. At one extreme, some will assume that the average employee has an inherent dislike of work and will avoid it if they can. They believe employees need to be controlled, directed, offered rewards or threatened with punishments to get them to make adequate efforts towards the achievement of organizational goals. On the other hand, some will take the view that, according to the conditions, work can be a source of satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Employees are not seen as naturally passive, or resistant to organizational objectives, but have been made so by experience. The most significant reward that can be offered employees is the satisfaction of their need for personal growth and self-development.

Hypothesis: Using rewards and punishments is a necessary part of organizational life.


Premise: The temperature on Monday was lower than on Tuesday. The temperature on Wednesday was lower than on Tuesday.

Hypothesis: The temperature on Monday was higher than on Wednesday.


Premise: The terrestrial coconut crab is the world largest living land arthropod. The coconut crab is a true crab, weighing up to 4kg, with a leg span of more than 3 feet. The coconut crab is a typical example of island gigantism, increasing in size due to the lack of predators on islands home to coconut crabs.

Hypothesis: The coconut crab may weigh over 3.5kg.


Hypothesis: Attacks from predators have led to the increased size of the coconut crab.


Hypothesis: The coconut crab is the worlds largest species of crab.


Premise: The theory goes that everything around us is built up of tiny particles called atoms. Some materials are made up of only one type of atom; these are called elements. An example is hydrogen. Others are made up of different sorts of atom bonded together into molecules. These are called compounds. Water, for example, is a compound made up of molecules that contain two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. The force which holds atoms together is called bonds. Atoms are made up of even smaller particles such as neutrons, electrons and protons. Neutrons and protons are made up of even smaller particles. These have been called quarks and gluons. The search is on for the particles that make up quarks.

Hypothesis: The atom is the smallest particle of matter.


Hypothesis: All substances are made up of elements.


Hypothesis: A molecule is a cluster of atoms held together by bonds.


Hypothesis: Neutrons are made up of quarks and gluons.


Hypothesis: It can be inferred from the passage that molecules are made up of neutrons, electrons and protons.


Premise: The town of Newport is further west than the town of Flatpeak, although not so far west as the town of Daybridge.

Hypothesis: Daybridge is the furthest east town.


Premise: The traditional view, that gaining a degree will provide long-term employment security, has been questioned. The traditional story goes that to get ahead in society, one must spend three to four years and, in most cases, accumulate debt along the way. To leave school with no further education is to gain an unsatisfying career with little potential. However, it can be questioned whether this pattern provides a valid representation of contemporary society. With the rise of tuition fees, the average student debt is at an all time high. In addition, there is even greater competition for graduate jobs. The Chronicle of Higher Education notes that between 2007 and 2009 the number of students going to university increased by 20% in the USA, 60% in Europe and almost 200% in Asia. With these increases in competition, it is little wonder that the traditional path is being questioned.

Hypothesis: There has been a decrease in the number of people going to university


Hypothesis: The average student debt is at an all-time high.


Hypothesis: There has been an increase in the number of people going to university


Hypothesis: The traditional university educational path is being questioned


Premise: The training budget is currently administered centrally. As part of a cost-cutting exercise the Board of Directors have voted unanimously in favour of the proposal that individual departments will have control of this process. This means that from the next financial year, all managers will have control of, and responsibility for, their department training budget. As a safeguard against possible falls in quality, the following rules must be observed. Firstly, all contracts for provision of training must go out to competitive tender. A minimum of three quotes must be obtained for each individual contract. These quotes must be documented and retained at the respective departments for the duration of the contract. Secondly, the award of contracts will normally be made solely on price. Procurement will consider written justifications where managers wish to award the contract to a higher quote. Finally, all suppliers must hold quality awards that are appropriate to the relevant industry.

Hypothesis: Obtaining two quotes for a contract will not be acceptable


Hypothesis: Managers are likely to be against the proposal


Hypothesis: The lowest quote should normally be awarded the contract


Hypothesis: Some of the Board of Directors were against the proposal.


Premise: The trove of fossils at Zhucheng, China, is probably the largest single deposit of dinosaur bones in the world. While the massive quarry has given rise to nine new species of dinosaurs, the event that killed the species is still a mystery. One researcher thinks a landslide ripped the dinosaurs apart and mixed up their bones; another suspects the animals were dead and decomposing when their skeletons were swept to this spot by a massive flood or mud flow. Discoveries in Liaoning and Xinjiang are also helping scientists unravel the evolution of modern-day birds, a lineage that one Chinese palaeontologist believes begins with dinosaurs. One of his most recent discoveries, the chicken-size Xiaotingia zhengi, is giving scientists cause to rethink the classification of the Archaeopteryx, long considered the oldest-known bird. The Xiaotingia zhengi, they argue, provides evidence that both species were, in fact, feathered dinosaurs, not full-fledged birds.

Hypothesis: The trove of fossils found in Liaoning and Xinjiang is of less importance than that found in Zhucheng.


Hypothesis: Documented knowledge of the lineage of birds should now be adjusted, to include Xiaotingia zhengi as the oldest-known bird.


Hypothesis: The two researchers agree that a natural catastrophe was involved in the appearance of dinosaur bones at Zhucheng.


Premise: The typical share-save scheme is a regular savings plan that gives employees the opportunity to purchase shares in 3.5 or 7 years time, should they choose to exercise the purchase option, at a discounted price fixed before the saving period starts. In addition to potential financial gains, the employee also has the opportunity to participate in future company development through the acquisition of shares. The employee does not have to pay income tax on any gains made on the exercise of the option to buy shares, though there may be a liability to capital gains tax if the shares are sold and the resulting gains cause that particular employees level of capital gains liability to exceed the annual exempt amount.

Hypothesis: Employees do not automatically have to pay Capital Gains Tax as a consequence of participating in share-save scheme.


Hypothesis: Employees usually exercise the option to sell their shares at the end of the saving period.


Hypothesis: Individuals who sell shares generate no potential tax liability.


Hypothesis: Employees do not automatically have to pay Capital Gains Tax as a consequence of participating in share; save scheme.


Premise: The vast majority of citizens believe that the official statistics produced by governments are subject to political interference. They accuse opposition parties and pressure groups of the same interference and all three of using figures in wildly misleading ways to support their particular take on policy. The only difference is that governments are accused of using the figures to make the best possible case, opposition parties of taking the least favourable interpretation and pressure groups of selecting only the figures that prove their case. The media are considered just as guilty. Bad news is much more newsworthy than good news and people complain that we hear little other than a stream of stories suggesting that life is awful and getting worse. No wonder public trust in official data is at an all time low.

Hypothesis: In the passage, governments in particular are subjected to criticism.


Hypothesis: It can be inferred from the passage that good news is not news worthy.


Hypothesis: You cannot tell from the passage if the author agrees with the vast majority of citizens.


Hypothesis: Public trust in governments, opposition parties, pressure groups and the media is at an all time low.


Hypothesis: The term all time low means that public trust in official data has never been lower but may have been as low before.


Premise: The way in which information is taught can vary greatly across cultures and time periods. Entering a British primary school classroom from the early 1900s, for example, one gains a sense of austerity, discipline, and a rigid way of teaching. Desks are typically seated apart from one another, with straight-backed wooden chairs that face directly to the teacher and the chalkboard. In the present day, British classrooms look very different. Desks are often grouped together so that students face each other rather than the teacher, and a large floor area is typically set aside for the class to come together for group discussion and learning. Traditionally, it was felt that teachers should be in firm control of the learning process, and that the teachers task was to prepare and present material for students to understand. Within this approach, the relationship students have with their teachers is not considered important, nor is the relationship students have with each other in the classroom. A students participation in class is likely to be minimal, aside from asking questions directed at the teacher, or responding to questions that the teacher has directed at the student. This style encourages students to develop respect for positions of power as a source of control and discipline. It is frequently described as the formal authority model of teaching. A less rigid form of teacher-centred education is the demonstrator model. This maintains the formal authority models notion of the teacher as a flashlight who illuminates the material for his or her class to learn, but emphasises a more individualized approach to form. The demonstrator acts as both a role model and a guide, demonstrating skills and processes and then helping students develop and apply these independently. Instructors who are drawn to the demonstrator style are generally confident that their own way of performing a task represents a good base model, but they are sensitive to differing learning styles and expect to provide students with help on an individual basis. Many education researchers argue for student-centred learning instead, and suggest that the learning process is more successful when students are in control. Within the student-centred paradigm, the delegator style is popular. The delegator teacher maintains general authority, but they delegate much of the responsibility for learning to the class as a way for students to become independent thinkers who take pride in their own work. Students are often encouraged to work on their own or in groups, and if the delegator style is implemented successfully, they will build not only a working knowledge of course specific topics, but also self-discipline and the ability to co-ordinate group work and interpersonal roles. Another style that emphasises student-centred education is the facilitator mode of learning. Here, while a set of specific curriculum demands is already in place, students are encouraged to take the initiative for creating ways to meet these learning requirements together. The teacher typically designs activities that encourage active learning, group collaboration, and problem solving, and students are encouraged to process and apply the course content in creative and original ways. Whereas the delegator style emphasises content and the responsibility students can have for generating and directing their own knowledge base, the facilitator style emphasises form and the fluid and diverse possibilities that are available in the process of learning. Until the 1960s, formal authority was common in almost all Western schools and universities. As a professor would enter a university lecture theatre, a student would be expected to rush up, take his bag to the desk, and pull out the chair for the professor to sit down on. This style has become outmoded over time. Now at university, students and professors typically have more relaxed, collegiate relationships, address each other on a first name basis, and acknowledge that students have much to contribute in class. Teacher-centred education has a lingering appeal in the form of the demonstrator style, however, which remains useful in subjects where skills must be demonstrated to an external standard and the learning process remains fixed in the earlier years of education. A student of mathematics, sewing or metalwork will likely be familiar with the demonstrator style. At the highest levels of education, however, the demonstrator approach must be abandoned in all fields as students are required to produce innovative work that makes unique contributions to knowledge. Thesis and doctoral students lead their own research in facilitation with supervisors. The delegator style is valuable when the course is likely to lead students to careers that require group projects. Often, someone who has a high level of expertise in a particular field does not make for the best employee because they have not learnt to apply their abilities in a co-ordinated manner. The delegator style confronts this problem by recognizing that interpersonal communication is not just a means to learning but an important skill set in itself. The facilitator model is probably the most creative model, and is, therefore, not suited to subjects where the practical component necessitates a careful and highly disciplined manner, such as training to be a medical practitioner. It may, however, suit more experimental and theoretical fields ranging from English, music, and the social sciences to science and medical research that takes place in research labs. In these areas, mistakes in form are important and valuable aspects of the learning and development process. Overall, a clear evolution has taken place in the West from a rigid, dogmatic, and teacher- dominated way of learning to a flexible, creative, and student-centred approach. Nevertheless, different subjects, ages, and skill levels suit different styles of teaching, and it is unlikely that there will ever be one recommended approach for everyone.

Hypothesis: The formal authority model remains popular in educational institutions of the West


Hypothesis: The demonstrator model is never used at tertiary level.


Hypothesis: Graduates of delegator style teaching are good communicators.


Hypothesis: The facilitator style is not appropriate in the field of medicine.


Premise: The way we use the words 'procedure' and 'process' tells us something about how theydiffer. We tend to start and stop processes. We implement procedures and commenceand complete them. We process information. We do not procedure information, but weemploy a procedure to process information. We have operational processes and theremay be operational procedures. In this context, the operational process comprises theresources, people, plant and machinery, and the operational procedure contains theinstructions on how to operate. We have process interrupts but not procedure interrupts, because processes are perceived as continuous and run until physical intervention. Inour bodies we have processes, not procedures. The reproductive process, the digestiveprocess and the respiratory process are certainly continuous and stop only when anintervention takes place. They may require human intervention in which a surgeon mayemploy procedures to effect a repair.

Hypothesis: The procedures in our bodies are continuous.


Hypothesis: Although the two words sound similar, 'procedure' and 'process' cannot both be used in the same situations.


Hypothesis: Procedure and process are both required elements in the way we analyze information.


Hypothesis: Procedures, as opposed to processes, are perceived as continuous, which is why we have process interrupts but not procedure interrupts.


Premise: The words efficiency and effectiveness are often considered synonymous, along with terms like competency, productivity and proficiency erroneously so. In order to distinguish between effectiveness and efficiency, we must first define these terms. Effectiveness is doing the right thing, i. e. conducting the right activities and applying the best strategies needed for competitive advantage. From a process viewpoint, it is producing the required outputs and outcomes; in other words - meeting objectives. Efficiency is doing the thing right it defines whether processes are completed while using the least amount of resources in the shortest time possible. These simple definitions point to a clear distinction that has substantial implications for businesses large and small that arise from the inherent difficulty in balancing both efficiency and effectiveness.

Hypothesis: Businesses face challenges attaining both effectiveness and efficiency.


Hypothesis: If you meet objectives using excessive resources then you are 'doing the thing right but not 'doing the right thing.


Hypothesis: A manager who aspires to be efficient must make sure processes are completed within minimal time and resources.


Premise: The world is our oyster Independent travel is on the increase and while package holidays which offer an all inclusive price for transport, accommodation and often even food are financially attractive to many, according to tourism analyst Thomas Cooper, an increasing number of people now prefer a less-tailored holiday and the freedom to make spur of the moment decisions and changes to their intended plan. Internet based information sites about backpacking destinations are prolific and publications aimed at independent travellers on a budget exist for almost every destination imaginable. Some people, particularly first-time backpackers, may elect to travel with a friend or acquaintance; however, a large percentage of backpackers travel alone, assured by the knowledge that they are likely to meet, with ease, a number of like-minded individuals throughout their journey and staying in their backpacker accommodation. Alan Park, who has travelled extensively through Europe, Australasia and several other parts of the globe, says most accommodation establishments aimed at the backpacker market are designed with communal kitchens, dormitories and entertainment areas which lend themselves to allowing residents to socialize with ease and quickly breakdown barriers with strangers that may usually exist in day to day life. Many backpackers of European origin are attracted to the Southern Hemisphere, Australia being a major destination of choice. Cooper attributes this high level of interest to the possibilities of legal working holiday visas for many nationalities and consequent short-term work opportunities making extended travel financially feasible, in addition to the attractive climate and outback appeal. Australia also has the reputation of being a relatively safe destination, with a warm and jovial population and its size and contrast between locations is alluring to many. University student Rebecca Thompson, who has just returned from a twelve month overseas trip, says that the cosmopolitan and modern nature of Australian cities such as Sydney and Melbourne contrasted with the rugged outback appeal of Western Australia and the Northern Territory, or the marine paradise of the Great Barrier Reef offer sufficient variation to attract a wide base of visitors. Sydney based travel consultant Brad Connor advises that it is also possible to obtain bargain deals on internal flights within this massive island when purchasing an international ticket, highly recommended, he says, for those who do not have the luxury of a long length of time, in order to ensure that key spots can be visited. Equal in popularity to Australia, for the backpacking market is South East Asia and Rebecca Thompson says that, in her experience, the majority of travellers on extended trips to Australasia also include a visit to one or more South East Asia destinations in their itinerary. Thailand, in particular, has a long tourism history and well-established service industry. It is often considered one of the more accessible Asian destinations for the novice European backpacker due to its reasonable prices, large volume of Western visitors and well established backpacker trails. Brian Johnson, who is currently employed by the British Consulate in Bangkok, believes that the welcoming nature and level of English spoken by Thais involved in the tourism industry has also impacted positively on the destinations overseas image. Thai food is delicious and now fairly familiar to those outside the country and while precautions such as drinking bottled water and washing of fruit and vegetables should be practiced, generally standards of accommodation and restaurants are high. Thomas Cooper says Thailands attractions are wide ranging, encompassing idyllic beaches, an insight into Buddhist culture and impressive ancient temples, mountain trekking, a vibrant nightlife and for bargain hunters bustling night markets and bazaars. South East Asia neighbour, Vietnam, alongside its rapidly developing economy has also over recent years established a solid tourism industry, the majority of visitors entering and exiting by plane via its urban centres Ho Chi Minh (formerly Saigon) in the south and Hanoi in the north. Vietnam offers incredible vistas and contrasts of rugged mountain areas, lush green rice paddies, crystal clear waters and dense forest areas. Alan Park, who spent a month travelling independently around the country, says bus and rail networks allow visitors to travel from centre to centre relatively inexpensively, though he does not recommend these forms of transport to visitors on a short time-frame as the pace is unhurried. The list of potentially safe and enjoyable backpacking destinations is endless. Technology and transport developments over recent time have resulted in more areas of the world becoming increasingly accessible, it is now possible to keep in regular contact with friends and family back home via email or even mobile phone, providing added reassurance to those concerned about travelling and their worried parents. Brian Johnson says friends, family and acquaintances who have previously travelled to the destination of choice are a useful source of first-hand advice and information and Simon Hartwell of the Backpackers Association adds travellers are advised to ensure that they are aware of visa requirements for their destination and are urged to seek medical advice regarding any necessary vaccinations or medical precautions. It is always wise to be as well informed as possible prior to embarking on a trip. The youth of today are undoubtedly becoming more adventurous, which Hartwell ascribes to higher disposable income in the developed world than were available to previous generations and also the fact that we can more easily familiarise ourselves with the unknown via the internet and other communication methods. Many travellers, particularly experienced backpackers, are keen to experience more obscure destinations well off the well-trodden backpacker trail.

Hypothesis: Train travel in Vietnam can be too time-consuming for short visits.


Hypothesis: Travelling by plane to other domestic destinations in Australia is cheaper than other forms of transport.


Hypothesis: Interaction with others is generally more difficult when travelling alone than in normal life situations.


Hypothesis: Experienced backpackers rarely travel to destinations such as Australia.


Premise: The world trade organisation (WTO) is an organisation headquartered in Switzerland, tasked with supervising and liberalising international trade between nations. The WTO is comprised entirely of 159 member states, and 25 observer states, with 14 states being neither members nor observers. Accession to membership involves an application, which involves becoming an observer state prior to accession. Iran is currently the largest non-member economy and Tajikistan being the organisations newest member.

Hypothesis: There are more member nations of the world trade organisation than there are non-member nations.


Hypothesis: Tajikistan was an observer state before becoming a member.


Hypothesis: Switzerland is a member of the world trade organisation.


Hypothesis: Iran is unaffiliated with the world trade organisation.


Premise: The worlds major religions are Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism and Sikhism. The oldest is Hinduism which is believed to have been worshipped for at least 5,000 years. Religion provides a sense of community, a shared set of values that shape daily life, a definition of the meaning of life and a set of beliefs as to how the world began and what happens after death. Except for Buddhism the major religions all identify a supreme god and define the way in which followers commune with that god. Religions have sacred texts, for example in Sikhism the text is called the Adi Granth, and religions have revered places for communal worship. In Judaism the synagogue is the place for communal prayer and religious learning. All religion involves ceremony and festivals and observances at points in a religious calendar and at significant stages in the life of its prophet or prophets and the lives of its followers. For example, followers of the Christian faith celebrate baptism, the rite of a persons entry into the faith, and Muslims celebrate important events in the life of the Prophet, including his birthday.

Hypothesis: Providing an explanation of what happens after death is attributed to all major religions except for Buddhism.


Hypothesis: The passage is illustrated with specific details from five of the six major religions of the world.


Hypothesis: The main theme of the passage is an examination of the ceremonies, festivals and observances of the worlds major religions and the lives of the prophet or prophets and the followers.


Premise: The worlds population is determined by the balance between the birth rate and the death rate. The population of a particular area can also increase or decrease due to migration. It will increase when the number of immigrants exceeds the number of emigrants and decrease when the number of emigrants exceeds the number of immigrants. The make-up of a population by its age and sex and its life-expectancy will also have implications for the population size and its expected future growth or decline.

Hypothesis: The population of a particular area will decrease if the number of immigrants is higher than the number of emigrants.


Hypothesis: The worlds population overall will not be affected by immigration or emigration.


Hypothesis: A higher birth rate will mean a growing world population.


Hypothesis: The worlds population will continue to grow.


Premise: The worlds population is expected to increase to more than 10 billion by 2050. Having a child in the developed world has a greater environmental impact than having a child in the developing world. Likewise having a large family in the developed world has a far greater environmental impact than having a large family in the developing world. This is because a child born into the developed world is much more likely to go on to have a high carbon dioxide emission lifestyle given that they are more likely to take regular flights, drive cars, live in a large energy-hungry home and so on. This has led some campaigners to argue that families in the developed world should think far more seriously about the environmental consequences of having children and should elect or be encouraged to have fewer.

Hypothesis: If it were the case that all of the worlds future population growth was projected to occur in the developing world and that the population of most developed countries would have fallen if it wasn't for immigration, then the case made for smaller families in the developed world would be weakened.


Hypothesis: If families living in the developing world were to have fewer children then they too would make a major cut in their families future carbon dioxide output.


Premise: The worlds population is growing by about 70 million people a year but the increase is uneven, with some nations populations growing rapidly and others decreasing. Among the industrialized nations, only the United States will experience significant growth by 2050, while Europe is expected to have 60 million fewer people than today. Britain is predicted to grow faster than any other European industrialized country, reaching a population of 65 million in the next 25 years. By then it will have overtaken France to become Europes second most populous country.

Hypothesis: Britain is currently the third most populous European country.


Hypothesis: In all but one case the nations due to experience significant growth in their populations are not industrial.


Hypothesis: Britain is not expected to experience significant population growth by 2050.


Premise: The year 2003 marked a substantial shift in the working conditions of international long-distance call centre staff. This resulted from newly developed telecommunication technology as well as the change in working hours which put higher strain on employees. The typical working hours have changed dramatically to suit trans-Atlantic time zones. Throughout a shift, staff need to function dynamically and answer calls enthusiastically during unconventional hours. The late working hours has likewise caused some loss to the human interaction in the workplace in the call centre

Hypothesis: Social interaction amongst call centre staff is higher when working regular hours.


Hypothesis: Call centre employees have to answer incoming calls much more enthusiastically than in the past.


Hypothesis: Call centre staff now have a more strenuous workload.


Hypothesis: International long-distance call centre employees have had to change their working hours.


Premise: Theft by Check occurs when a person issues or passes a check with the intent of depriving the owner of property or service available in exchange for the check (1) knowing he or she does not have an account at the financial institution printed on the check or (2) knowing there is an open account at this institution but there isn't enough money to make payment on the check.

Hypothesis: Leo closed out his account at Junction Bank three months ago. He still has checks left from that account, so he uses one to pay for his new stereo. This situation is the best example of Theft by Check.


Hypothesis: Jacob closed his account today but has left enough money forthe rent check he wrote two days ago in that account to clear the bank. This situation is the best example of Theft by Check.


Hypothesis: Perla writes a check at the Gypsy Diner. The Diner calls her two days later and tells her that her bank returned it for insufficient funds. She drives to the diner and gives them cash to cover the check. This situation is the best example of Theft by Check.


Hypothesis: Xena writes a check to the Posey Patrol for flowers for her mother's birthday. The check bounces. The bank notifies her that it covered the check anyway but that her account will be charged $15 for this service. This situation is the best example of Theft by Check.


Premise: Theory or Practice? What is the point of research carried out by biz schools? Students go to universities and other academic institutions to prepare for their future. We pay tuition and struggle through classes in the hopes that we can find a fulfilling and exciting career. But the choice of your university has a large influence on your future. How can you know which university will prepare you the best for your future? Like other academic institutions, business schools are judged by the quality of the research carried out by their faculties. Professors must both teach students and also produce original research in their own field. The quality of this research is assessed by academic publications. At the same time, universities have another responsibility to equip their students for the real world, however that is defined. Most students learning from professors will not go into academics themselvesso how do academics best prepare them for their future careers, whatever that may be? Whether academic research actually produces anything that is useful to the practice of business, or even whether it is its job to do so, are questions that can provoke vigorous arguments on campus. The debate, which first flared during the 1950s, was reignited in August, when AACSB International. the most widely recognised global accrediting agency for business schools, announced it would consider changing the way it evaluates research. The news followed rather damning criticism in 2002 from Jeffrey Pfefler. a Stanford professor, and Christina Fong of Washington University, which questioned whether business education in its current guise was sustainable. The study found that traditional modes of academia were not adequately preparing students for the kind of careers they faced in current times. The most controversial recommendation in AACSBs draft report (which was sent round to administrators for their comment) is that the schools should be required to demonstrate the value of their faculties research not simply by listing its citations in journals, but by demonstrating the impact it has in the professional world. New qualifiers, such as average incomes, student placement in top firms and business collaborations would now be considered just as important as academic publications. AACSB justifies its stance by saying that it wants schools and faculty to play to their strengths, whether they be in pedagogy, in the research of practical applications, or in scholarly endeavor. Traditionally, universities operate in a pyramid structure. Everyone enters and stays in an attempt to be successful in their academic field. A psychology professor must publish competitive research in the top neuroscience journals. A Cultural Studies professor must send graduate students on new field research expeditions to be taken seriously. This research is the core of a universitys output. And research of any kind is expensiveAACSB points out that business schools in America alone spend more than $320m a year on it. So it seems legitimate to ask for, what purpose it is undertaken? If a school chose to specialise in professional outputs rather than academic outputs, it could use such a large sum of money and redirect it into more fruitful programs. For example, if a business school wanted a larger presence of employees at top financial firms, this money may be better spent on a career center which focuses on building the skills of students, rather than paying for more high-level research to be done through the effort of faculty. A change in evaluation could also open the door to inviting more professionals from different fields to teach as adjuncts. Students could take accredited courses from people who are currently working in their dream field. The AACSB insists that universities answer the question as to why research is the most critical component of traditional education. On one level, the question is simple to answer. Research in business schools, as anywhere else, is about expanding the boundaries of knowledge; it thrives on answering unasked questions. Surely this pursuit of knowledge is still important to the university system. Our society progresses because we learn how to do things in new ways, a process which depends heavily on research and academics. But one cannot ignore the other obvious practical uses of research publications. Research is also about cementing schools and professors reputations. Schools gain kudos from their faculties record of publication: which journals publish them, and how often. In some cases, such as with government-funded schools in Britain, it can affect how much money they receive. For professors, the mantra is often publish or perish. Their careers depend on being seen in the right journals. But at a certain point, one has to wonder whether this research is being done for the benefit of the university or for the students the university aims to teach. Greater publications will attract greater funding, which will in turn be spent on better publications. Students seeking to enter professions out of academia find this cycle frustrating, and often see their professors as being part of the Ivory Tower of academia, operating in a self-contained community that has little influence on the outside world. The research is almost universally unread by real-world managers. Part of the trouble is that the journals labour under a similar ethos. They publish more than 20,000 articles each year. Most of the research is highly quantitative, hypothesis-driven and esoteric. As a result, it is almost universally unread by real-world managers. Much of the research criticises other published research. A paper in a 2006 issue of Strategy & Leadership commented that research is not designed with managers needs in mind, nor is it communicated in the journals they read. For the most part, it has become a self-referential closed system irrelevant to corporate performance. The AACSB demands that this segregation must change for the future of higher education. If students must invest thousands of dollars for an education as part of their career path, the academics which serve the students should be more fully incorporated into the professional world. This means that universities must focus on other strengths outside of research, such as professional networks, technology skills, and connections with top business firms around the world. Though many universities resisted the report, todays world continues to change. The universities which prepare students for our changing future have little choice but to change with new trends and new standards.

Hypothesis: The debate about the usefulness of academic research for business practices is a recent one.


Hypothesis: AACSBs draft report was not reviewed externally.


Hypothesis: Greater publications benefit professors and students as well.


Hypothesis: Business schools in the US spend more than 320 million dollars yearly on research.


Hypothesis: Many universities pursue professional outputs.


Premise: There are 150,000 criminals who have been convicted, have served a period in prison and been released early to be supervised in the community by the governments probation service. A small proportion while on probation commit further offences, including very serious crimes. Offenders on probation have been convicted of over 100 murders and a further 37 have been convicted of attempted murder. Critics point to the current auto- matic early release scheme that allows offenders to walk free after completing only a small fraction of their full sentence, as the cause of the current situation. The probation service responds by pointing out that any offending by people under their supervision is of great concern, but that the incidence of offenders who commit serious offences while on probation is low, with only 0.2 per cent of offenders being convicted of very serious crimes while on probation.

Hypothesis: In the context of the passage, the term very serious crime can be taken to mean murder or attempted murder.


Hypothesis: Whatever the probation service might say, 100 murders would not have occurred if it were not for the early release scheme.


Hypothesis: A premise of the passage is that the probation service is failing to properly supervise dangerous criminals.


Premise: There are 562 federally recognized American Indian tribes, with a total of 1.7 million members. Additionally, there are hundreds of groups seeking federal recognition - or sovereignty - though less than ten percent will successfully achieve this status. Federally recognized tribes have the right to self-government, and are also eligible for federal assistance programmes. Exempt from state and local jurisdiction, tribes may enforce their own laws, request tax breaks and control regulatory activities. There are however limitations to their sovereignty including, amongst others, the ability to make war and create currency. Historically, tribes were granted federal recognition through treaties or by executive order. Since 1978 however, this has been replaced by a lengthy and stringent regulatory process which requires tribes applying for federal recognition to fulfill seven criteria, such as anthropological and historical evidence. One of the complications regarding federal recognition is the legal definition of "Indian". Previously, racial criteria, tribal records and personal affidavits were used to classify American Indians. Since the 1970s, however, there has been a shift to the use of a political definition - requiring membership in a federally recognized tribe in order to qualify for benefits, such as loans and educational grants. This definition, however, excludes many individuals of Native American heritage who are not tribal members.

Hypothesis: There are only two exemptions to a federally recognized tribes powers of self-government.


Hypothesis: A large number of people who identify themselves as American Indians do not fulfil the legal definition.


Hypothesis: Demand for federal recognition is high because it is a prerequisite for benefit programmes.


Hypothesis: Federally recognized tribes are not subject to state laws and do not pay taxes.


Hypothesis: Since 1978 it has become harder for a tribe to achieve federally recognized status.


Premise: There are a number of ways in which economic recession can impact a business, beside the most obvious factor of reduced consumer spending and a resultant decrease in sales. Recession also leads to a rise in inflation, which increases a business's expenditure. These factors in turn act both to reduce competition, through less stable businesses closing down, and simultaneously also to increase it, as remaining ones compete more aggressively to stay afloat. The combined effect of these factors can lead both to fluctuating sales, and an unstable working environment tensions within the business may rise as employees are denied expected pay increases, or have to be let go to compensate for falling profits. Employers and employees alike must be flexible, and make every effort to adapt to new and less predictable economic conditions, to have the best chance of survival.

Hypothesis: Flexible businesses which adapt to new economic conditions will survive a recession.


Hypothesis: Reduced consumer spending leads to a rise in inflation.


Hypothesis: Recession, via decreased sales and increased operating costs, can both reduce and increase competition in business.


Premise: There are many comic tropes a comedian or group of comedians may want to employ in their set or act, but for the purpose of this extract we shall focus on the device of the call-back. A call-back is a reference made to a previous joke, in a different context: for example, a comedian may make the joke why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side early on in his or her set, and then later on may reference this again by telling an anecdote and saying so then I crossed the road - oh, look, theres a chicken! Strange, I could have sworn he was over there a moment ago. Though the call-back may appear to simply rely on the idea that repetition is inherently funny, it actually has several desirable effects. Firstly, it means that one joke can provide more than one laugh, as the memory of the previous joke encourages renewed chuckling, and so the original quips comic potential is increased. It also builds up a relationship between comedian and audience, as it builds up a sense of familiarity with the speaker and his or her subject matter, and this bond also may encourage more laughter - the second joke creates the same feeling as an in-joke. If used at the end of a set - as a call-back often is - it gives a sense of completion, and also may lead to the ending of the act culminating in the largest laugh. In TV, a call-back often refers to a joke made in a previous episode.

Hypothesis: Repetition is inherently funny.


Hypothesis: A call-back is an especially important trope to consider.


Hypothesis: A call-back creates unity through disparate TV episodes.


Hypothesis: A call-back can be a useful addition to an individual comedians set.


Hypothesis: For a call-back to work, the original joke has to be significantly funny.


Hypothesis: A call-back is used to create a sense of the circle having fully come to pass.


Hypothesis: A call-back cannot be used in an un-comic setting.


Premise: There are now several million cars in the UK using satellite navigation (satnav) systems. These mcreasingly popular satnav systems mean that motorists no longer have to read maps while they are driving. There are two other major advantages: reduced journey time and reduced mileage (and thus fucl consumption) on unfamihar routes. System improvements have made these devices much more features. Although some safety surveys highlight the dangers of operating dashboard devices while driving, research conducted by one satnav manufacturer showed that nearly 70 per cent of drivers felt calmer and more focused on the road when using a satnav system.

Hypothesis: Early satnav systems were less accurate than modern ones.


Hypothesis: The passage suggests that a satnav system can make navigation more efficient.


Hypothesis: Satellite navigation systems are useful for those people who cant read maps.


Hypothesis: Controversy remains about the effects that satnav systems have on driver concentration.


Hypothesis: Most drivers feel calmer when using a satnav system.


Premise: There are seven species of deer living wild in Britain. The Red Deer and the Roe Deer are native species. Fallow Deer were introduced by the Romans and, since the seventeenth century, have been joined by three other non-native species: Sika, Muntjac and Chinese Water Deer the ancestors of which have escaped from parks. In addition, a herd of Reindeer was established in Scotland in 1952. Most of the Red Deer in Britain are found in Scotland, but there are significant wild populations in south-west and north-west England, East Anglia and the north Midlands. Red deer can interbreed with the introduced Japanese Sika deer and in some areas, hybrids are common.

Hypothesis: Red Deer can interbreed with Fallow Deer.


Hypothesis: The Fallow Deer is not native to Britain.


Hypothesis: There are no Reindeer in England.


Hypothesis: All of the Red Deer in Britain are found in Scotland.


Hypothesis: All of the Muntjac in England have escaped from parks.


Premise: There are several forms of public transport in the UK. Statistics suggest that forms of public transport are becoming increasingly popular, due to relatively cheap cost when compared to private transport. In addition to this, public transport is often quicker and more reliable, especially when travelling in busy cities, such as London. One reason why public transport is increasingly popular in London is the ease in which people can travel around the city centre. Services such as the Underground provide the opportunity to beat traffic congestion and negate the need for often costly parking. In addition, the regularity of such services is popular. However, public transport is often less popular in less densely populated areas. A possible reason for this is that services tend to be less regular, making public transport a less practical option.

Hypothesis: Public transport can be cheaper and more practical in busy cities.


Hypothesis: Public transport is often safer than parking in busy cities.


Hypothesis: Public transport offers less regular services and can be unpractical.


Hypothesis: Public transport is more entertaining than private transport.


Premise: There are several possible reasons behind the participation in professional trade fairs - it can be an excellent sales platform providing an exposure to relevant customers and distributors as it is one of those rare occasions where customers actively seek specific products; it can be an image building expenditure aiming at strengthening a company's profile within a sector by showing novel products and a lucrative stall design; and it can be a good way to gauge your competition by accessing vital information about other products and to generally assess the direction the sector is heading. Trade fairs are extremely expensive especially as there are a number of important ones to attend every year globally and this often creates a financial burden on the minor "players". In many occasions the direct business impact does not seem to justify the enormous costs but as one senior manufacturer recently said "if you're not there you don't exist".

Hypothesis: Professional trade fairs do not boost sales or strengthen a company's profile.


Hypothesis: Minor players may benefit from attending professional trade fairs.


Hypothesis: The financial payback of participating in trade fairs justifies the cost.


Premise: There are several thousand patients waiting for organ transplants in the UK. This urgent need has led to a government review of how best to increase organ donation rates. The introduction of presumed consent as found in other European countries has now been put forward as a possible solution. Such a drastic and controversial change, whereby donating organs would become the default option, would require a new legal framework. Among many other proposals, the governments review recommended establishing the following: locally adapted national policies for organ donation; a best practice framework; and a national organisation to coordinate transplants.

Hypothesis: Implementing presumed consent would necessitate new legislation.


Hypothesis: Presumed consent means that donating your bodily organs 1s the standard option.


Hypothesis: One recommendation was to introduce a standard national policy for all hospitals.


Hypothesis: Presumed consent was not proposed in the governments recommendations because it lacks popular support.


Hypothesis: The number of patients waiting for transplants led to the governments review of the current situation.


Premise: There are statistics which suggest that in some of the most underdeveloped countries almost one half of the population is aged between 10 and 19. These countries have experienced a much smaller decrease in birth rates than has been seen in more developed countries. Charities and other agencies are calling for additional funds to be made available to provide improved education for these young people as well as easier access to contraception. Aside from this is also a global increase in the number of people aged 65 or older. In the next 50 years, 95% of this increase will happen in developing countries like India, while in countries such as Japan, Germany and Italy the percentage of the population aged 65 or more is set to rise to 40%. Increases in the numbers of the very young and the very old place stress on societies, and governments may find it difficult to cope with the demands of an increasing number of dependent elderly citizens in addition to providing healthcare and education for the young.

Hypothesis: The world as a whole is seeing more people over the age of 65.


Hypothesis: The percent of the population under the age of 19 is higher in developing countries than it is in developed countries.


Hypothesis: Declines in birth rates are not limited to developed countries.


Premise: There has been a remarkable increase in the air traffic in India during the past few years.

Hypothesis: Large number of people are able to afford air travel now.


Hypothesis: Travelling by air has become a status symbol now


Premise: There has been a sudden increase in the occurrence of attempts by confidence tricksters to extract money from elderly people under false pretences. This has caused the police to issue warnings to senior citizens not to let strangers into their homes. So far the police have estab- lished the following facts: Mr Froode gave 75 to a dark-haired young man posing as a representative of an insurance company. Mr Grace paid 80 to a smartly dressed 30-year-old woman who claimed that she was a financial adviser. A man who tried to trick 27-year-old Ms Dodds into paying a deposit of 100 towards the cost of a new front door was the driver of a silver grey BMW. Over a two-day period a confidence trickster has contacted more than 400 households. All of the names and addresses given by the confidence tricksters have been found to be false.

Hypothesis: The potential victims all lived in a closely-knit neighbourhood.


Hypothesis: The confidence trickster was a transvestite.


Hypothesis: Several confidence tricksters, both male and female, were working together.


Hypothesis: The confidence tricksters only approached old-age pensioners.


Hypothesis: The confidence tricksters may have contacted people first by telephone.


Premise: There is a great concern in Europe and North America about declining standards of literacy in schools. In Britain, the fact that 30 per cent of 16 year olds have a reading age of 14 or less has helped to prompt massive educational changes. The development of literacy has far-reaching effects on general intellectual development and thus anything which impedes the development of literacy is a serious matter for us all. So the hunt is on for the cause of the decline in literacy. The search so far has focused on socio-economic factors, or the effectiveness of 'traditional' versus 'modern' teaching techniques. The fruitless search for the cause of the increase in illiteracy is a tragic example of the saying They can't see the wood for the trees. When teachers use picture books, they are simply continuing a long-established tradition that is accepted without question. And for the past two decades, illustrations in reading primers have become impoverished - sometimes to the point of extinction. Amazingly, there is virtually no empirical evidence to support the use of illustrations in teaching reading. On the contrary, a great deal of empirical evidence shows that pictures interfere in a damaging way with all aspect of learning to read. Despite this, from North America to the Antipodes, the first books that many school children receive are totally without text. A teacher's main concern is to help young beginner readers to develop not only the ability to recognise words, but the skills necessary to understand what these words mean. Even if a child is able to read aloud fluently, he or she may not be able to understand much of it; this is called barking at text. The teacher's task of improving comprehension is made harder by influences outside the classroom. But the adverse effects of such things as television, video games, or limited language experiences at home, can be offset by experiencing rich language at school. Instead, it is unusual for a book of 30 or more pages to have only one sentence full of repetitive phrases. The artwork is often marvellous, but the pictures make the language redundant, and the children have no need to imagine anything when they read such books. Looking at a picture actively prevents children younger than nine from creating a mental image, and can make it difficult for older children. In order to learn how to comprehend, they need to practise making their own meaning in response to text. They need to have their innate powers of imagination trained. As they grow older, many children turn aside from books without pictures, and it is a situation made more serious as our culture becomes more visual. It is hard to wean children off picture books when pictures have played a major part throughout their formative reading experiences, and when there is competition for their attention from so many other sources of entertainment. The least intelligent are most vulnerable, but tests show that even intelligent children are being affected. The response of educators has been to extend the use of pictures in books and to simplify the language, even at senior levels. The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge recently held joint conferences to disease the noticeably rapid decline in literacy among their undergraduates. Pictures are also used to help motivate children to read because they are beautiful and eye-catching. But motivation to read should be provided by listening to stories well read, where children imagine in response to the story. Then, as they start to read, they have this experience to help them understand the language. If we present pictures to save children the trouble of developing these creative skills, then I think we are making a great mistake. Academic journals ranging from educational research, psychology, language learning, psycholinguistics, and so on cite experiments which demonstrate how detrimental pictures are for beginner readers. Here is a brief selection: The research results of the Canadian educationalist Dale Willows were clear and consistent: pictures affected speed and accuracy and the closer the pictures were to the words, the slower and more inaccurate the child's reading became. She claims that when children come to a word they already know, then the pictures are unnecessary and distracting. If they do not know a word and look to the picture for a clue to its meaning, they may well be misled by aspects of the pictures which are not closely related to the meaning of the word they are trying to understand. Jay Samuels, an American psychologist, found that poor readers given no pictures learnt significantly more words than those learning to read with books with pictures. He examined the work of other researchers who had reported problems with the use of pictures and who found that a word without a picture was superior to a word plus a picture. When children were given words and pictures, those who seemed to ignore the pictures and pointed at the words learnt more words than the children who pointed at the pictures, but they still learnt fewer words than the children who had no illustrated stimuli at all.

Hypothesis: Teachers aim to teach both word recognition and word meaning.


Hypothesis: It is traditionally accepted that children's books should contain few pictures.


Hypothesis: Older readers are having difficulty in adjusting to texts without pictures.


Hypothesis: Literacy has improved as a result of recent academic conferences.


Premise: There is a marked discrepancy between what managers see as the causes of absence from work, and the reasons given by employees. Many organisations are now suffering from being too streamlined. By reducing staff levels to such an extent, even minimal levels of absenteeism put remaining employees under intolerable pressure. In due course this may spread stress-related absence or other problems across the organisation.

Hypothesis: Managers and staff disagree about the reasons for absenteeism from work


Premise: There is no doubt that vegetarian food can be healthier than a traditional diet indeed, research has demonstrated that vegetarians are less likely to suffer from heart disease and obesity than those who eat meat. One long-standing concern about a vegetarian lifestyle is the risk of failing to take in enough protein. However, historical calculations as to the amount of protein needed for a healthy lifestyle have recently been shown to overestimate the quantities needed, and if vegetarian select their food carefully they should be able to meet their protein needs.

Hypothesis: A balanced diet is more likely to promote health than any particular food or food group in isolation.


Hypothesis: Too much protein in the diet can lead to heart disease.


Hypothesis: Over time the recommendations as to what constitutes a healthy balanced diet have changed.


Premise: There is no single pivotal moment that could be separated out from any other as the conception of the suburban lifestyle; from the early 1800s, various types of suburban development have sprung up and evolved in their own localised ways, from the streetcar suburbs of New York to the dormitory towns outside of London. It is William Levitt, however, who is generally regarded as the father of modem suburbia. During World War II, Levitt served in the United States Navy where he developed expertise in the mass construction of military housing, a process that he streamlined using uniform and interchangeable parts. In 1947, the budding developer used this utilitarian knowledge to begin work with his father and architect brother constructing a planned community on Long Island, New York. With an emphasis on speed, efficiency, and cost-effective production, the Levitts were soon able to produce over 30 units a day. William Levitt correctly predicted the demand for affordable, private, quiet, and comfortable homes from returning GIs after World War II and with the baby boom starting to kick in. All the original lots sold out in a matter of days, and by 1951, nearly 18,000 homes in the area had been constructed by the Levitt fit Sons Company. Levittown quickly became the prototype of mass- produced housing, spurring the construction of similar projects in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and even Puerto Rico, followed by a new industry, and soon a new way of life and a new ideal for the American family. One of the major criticisms of suburbia is that it can lead to isolation and social dislocation. With properties spread out over great swathes of land, sealed off from one another by bushes, fences and trees, the emphasis of suburban life is placed squarely on privacy rather than community. In the densely populated urban settlements that predated suburbs (and that are still the predominant way of life for some people), activities such as childcare and household chores as well as sources of emotional and moral support were widely socialised. This insured that any one family would be able to draw on a pool of social resources from their neighbours, building cohabitants and family on nearby streets. Suburbia breaks these networks down into individual and nuclear family units resulting in an increase in anti-social behaviour even amongst the wealthy. Teens from wealthy suburban families, for example, are more likely to smoke, drink alcohol, and use drugs than their poorer urban peers, and are also more likely to experience depression and anxiety. Another major problem with the suburban lifestyle is its damaging ecological impact. The comparison of leafy, quiet, and low-density suburbs with life in the concrete towers of sooty, congested urban conurbations is actually quite misleading; as it turns out, if you want to be kind to the natural environment, the key is to stay away from it. Suburbia fails the environmental friendliness test on a number of counts. Firstly, due to their low population density, suburbs consume natural land at a much higher rate than high-density row housing or apartment buildings. Secondly, they encourage the use of personal motor vehicles, often at a rate of one per family member, at the expense of public transport. It is also much less efficient to provide electricity and water to individual suburban houses instead of individual units in an apartment building. In his comparison of urban and suburban pollution, Edward L. Glaeser concluded that we need to build more sky towers especially in California. Virtually everywhere, he found cities to be cleaner than suburbs. And the difference in carbon dioxide emissions between high-density cities and their suburbs (for example, in New York) was the highest. Urban residents of New York can claim on average to produce nearly 15,000 pounds of carbon dioxide less than their suburban peers. Another negative aspect of suburban life is its stifling conformity and monotony of social experience. It was not just the nuts and bolts and the concrete foundations of suburban houses that got replicated street upon street, block upon block, and suburb upon suburb; it was everything from the shops and cultural life to peoples hopes, dreams, and aspirations. Suburbia gave birth to the strip mall, a retail establishment that is typically composed of a collection of national or global chain stores, all stocked with a centrally dictated, homogenous array of products. The isolation and lack of interaction in suburbs has also encouraged the popularity of television, a passively receptive medium for the viewer that, in the early days at least, offered an extremely limited scope of cultural exposure compared with the wealth of experiences available in the inner city. Meanwhile, much of the inner-city public sphere has been lost with suburban flight. The public sphere is the area of social life in which people come together to freely discuss and identify social problems. In the city, this has traditionally occurred around newsstands, in coffee houses, salons, theatres, meeting halls, and so on. Suburbia has not found a way to replace this special type of social experience, however. Social meeting points in the suburbs tend to be based exclusively around specific interests such as sports or cultural clubs, with no broad forms of daily social interaction. These points do not suggest the idea of suburbia itself is flawed, but that it has not been executed in a way that takes into account the full spectrum of human needs and desires. This likely reflects the hasty, thrown-together nature of early suburban development. With the baby boom rippling across Western countries and demand for family-friendly housing skyrocketing, developers and city planners were unable to develop sophisticated models. Now, however, we should take time to consider what has gone wrong and how we can reconfigure the suburb. How can we imbue suburban life with the lost sphere of public discussion and debate? How can people maintain their sought after privacy without sacrificing a sense of community? How can we use new technologies to make suburbs environmentally friendly? These are questions for which the developers of tomorrow will have to find answers, lest the dream of suburbia become the nightmare of disturbia.

Hypothesis: Television has not tended to offer the same diversity as urban cultural outlets.


Hypothesis: There is not much variety amongst the goods at a strip mall.


Hypothesis: People cannot relate to each other in suburbs because their lives are too different.


Hypothesis: Suburban development fosters the use of both public and private forms of transport


Hypothesis: A good principle for ecological preservation is to avoid human interference.


Hypothesis: In some countries, suburbs are more environmentally friendly than in the USA.


Hypothesis: There are numerous of ways of communication and interaction between people living in the suburbs.


Premise: There is no task more difficult than that of ensuring the education of children in modern . Not only school, but also teachers and their roles have changed out of all recognition in the past few decades, thanks to the impact on teaching institutions by indoctrinating, and indoctrinated, reformist intellectuals bearing revolutionary ideas. To the perpetual indiscipline of youth has now been added the indiscipline of parents, many of whom interpret any reports of wrongdoing in school on the part of their offspring as a personal affront, or as the manifestation of the malice of teachers. As for the teachers themselves, whilst many are respectable and learned men and women, who view it as their vocation to induct their charges into a civilization and a way of behaving, others attempt to influence youth merely to further their political or ideological ends.

Hypothesis: Some teachers who report children of wrongdoing do so because of malice, rather than nay legitimate reason.


Hypothesis: Teacher with revolutionary ideas will attempt to influence their pupils for their own political ends.


Hypothesis: Some of those working in education have their own hidden agendas.


Premise: There is no task more difficult than that of ensuring the education of children in modern society. Not only school, but also teachers and their roles have changed out of all recognition in the past few decades, thanks to the impact on teaching institutions by indoctrinating, and indoctrinated, reformist intellectuals bearing revolutionary ideas. To the perpetual indiscipline of youth has now been added the indiscipline of parents, many of whom interpret any reports of wrongdoing in school on the part of their offspring as a personal affront, or as the manifestation of the malice of teachers. As for the teachers themselves, whilst many are respectable and learned men and women, who view it as their vocation to induct their charges into a civilization and a way of behaving, others attempt to influence youth merely to further their political or ideological ends.


Premise: There is no unifying theory to explain the experience of dreaming. Dreaming involves an altered state of consciousness that occurs during periods of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. One of the most unusual features of this state is that most of the body's muscles are paralysed. The most common sleeping pattern is for a period of REM sleep to be preceded by four stages of non-REM sleep, and for this to repeat itself up to five times a night. Most adults and children, if woken during REM sleep, will report that they were dreaming. Whilst the physiological stages of sleeping may be similar across adults and young children, the potential complexity of a childs dreams develops as they age alongside their imagination. Its difficult to prove that a dream is taking place only after the fact can you know that you were dreaming. There are a small number of people, however, who do know when they are experiencing what is called a lucid dream. The scanning hypothesis posits that eyes move during REM sleep in accordance with the direction of gaze of ones dream. Research, for example with lucid dreamers, has shown that eyes do point towards the action that a dreamer, having a goal- orientated dream, describes.

Hypothesis: Eye muscles are the only muscles that are not paralysed during REM sleep.


Hypothesis: REM sleep tends to be preceded by non-REM sleep.


Hypothesis: A child's dreams become more sophisticated as their imagination develops.


Hypothesis: The scanning hypothesis states that the direction of a lucid dreamers eye movements reveals what the dream is about.


Hypothesis: REM sleep periods always occur after four non-REM sleep periods.


Premise: There is nothing in England today with which we can compare the life of a fully enfranchised borough of the fifteenth century. The town of those earlier days, in fact, governed itself after the fashion of a little principality. Within the bounds which the mayor and citizens defined with perpetual insistence in their formal perambulation year after year, it carried on its isolated self-dependent life. The inhabitants defended their own territory, built and maintained their walls and towers, armed their own soldiers, trained them for service and held reviews of their forces at appointed times. They elected their own rulers and officials in whatever way they chose to adopt, and distributed among officers and councillors just such powers of legislation and administration as seemed good in their eyes. They drew up formal constitutions for the government of the community, and as time brought new problems and responsibilities, more were made, re-made and revised again; their ordinances with restless and fertile ingenuity, till they had made of their constitution a various medley of fundamental doctrines and general precepts and particular rules, somewhat after the fashion of an American state of modern times. In all concerns of trade, they exercised the widest powers, and bargained and negotiated and made laws as nations do on a grander scale today. They could covenant and confederate, buy and sell, deal and traffic after their own will; they could draw up formal treaties with other boroughs, and could admit them to or shut them out from all the privileges of their commerce; they might pass laws of protection or try experiments in free trade. Often, their authority stretched out over a wide district, and surrounding villages gathered to their markets and obeyed their laws; it might even happen in the case of a staple town that their officers controlled the main foreign trade of whole provinces.

Hypothesis: In the 15 th century, towns drew up treaties to defend each other in times of attack.


Hypothesis: Town life in the 15 th century is more comparable to the American state of modern times than England in modern times.


Premise: There is often considerable scientific disagreement both about available reserves of natural resources and about the extent of environmental damage caused by particular pollutants. Even where the scientific evidence is incontrovertible. There may be political conflict, based on different vested interests, over the degree to which particular environmental controls should be accepted. Governments may, for example, refrain from introducing effective control if they fear these will adversely affect company profitability or jobs, even where the environmental cost of not introducing controls are considerable.

Hypothesis: There is always scientific debate around the facts regarding the reserves of natural resources.


Hypothesis: Parties with a vested interest are more influenced by politics than science when deciding whether to implement environmental controls.


Hypothesis: Very rarely is there conflict over the degree to which particular environmental controls should be accepted.


Premise: There was considerable concern expressed by biochemists in 2002 when news emerged that traces of Acrylamide were found in a great many food stuffs, including daily basics such as bread, breakfast cereals and potato and cheese products. Acrylamide is widely found in many processed foods but it is also created during home cooking, in fact whenever sugar, found in so many foods, is heated and browns. Blood tests showed that it was present in high concentrations in the vast majority of people in the Western world. The few animal studies that had taken place suggested that Acrylamide is a carcinogen, but little was known about the toxicological consequences of ingesting the chemical daily and at the levels found in the general population. An urgent search began to establish what risk it posed to public health and how it might be removed from or reduced in food.

Hypothesis: It can be inferred from the passage that even at trace levels if digested Acrylamide is toxic.


Hypothesis: The likelihood of a potential health risk from the ingestion of Acrylamide would increase if it were found that, unlike in previous food scares, the option of removing from the shelves all foodstuffs in which it was present was not available because it is so widespread that there would be hardly anything left.


Hypothesis: The author of the passage would most likely disagree that many of the questions posed in the passage are now close to being answered.


Premise: There were six passengers in a railway carriage, all travelling to Paul and Mary's wedding. The wedding was to be held at a Registry Office at 2pm. The passengers were all married couples. The following facts are known: The groom was the twin brother of one of the passengers. The bride was the sister of Susan, another of the passengers. Peter's only brother was marrying Mary.

Hypothesis: The groom's twin brother was Peter.


Hypothesis: The wedding was in the morning.


Hypothesis: Susan was married to Peter.


Hypothesis: Both the bride and groom had relatives on the train.


Premise: They are unable to fly in the true sense but the many species of penguin are all very adept swimmers. They literally fly underwater using their wings as flippers and their feet and tails to steer as they hunt fish and squid, which form the bulk of their diet. This extraordinary family of birds feed in the cold waters of the southern oceans (they are only found in the wild in the southern hemisphere). Their bodies are highly adapted both for their aquatic life and for the cold. Their feathers are short and dense to provide insulation and a highly waterproof layer. Their bones are not hollow like most birds but solid, making them stronger and less buoyant, helping them dive deep down to their prey. Like all birds they lay eggs and most species build nests, but some that live on sheet ice in the Antarctic, where there is no nest-building material, incubate their single egg on the top of their feet.

Hypothesis: The sentiment of the passage can be captured by the statement that penguins are an extraordinary family of birds.


Hypothesis: In the passage, solid bones are described as an adaptation for the cold southern climate.


Hypothesis: The passage states that penguins lay a single egg.


Hypothesis: Penguins are not unique in being flightless birds.


Hypothesis: It can be inferred from the passage that you have to go to the southern hemisphere if you wish to see penguins in the wild.