READING PASSAGE 1

The risks agriculture faces in developing countries (C12-T2)

Synthesis of an online debate*
A
Two things distinguish food production from all other productive activities: first, every single
person needs food each day and has a right to it; and second, it is hugely dependent on nature.
These two unique aspects, one political, the other natural, make food production highly
vulnerable and different from any other business. At the same time, cultural values are highly
entrenched in food and agricultural systems worldwide.
B
Farmers everywhere face major risks, including extreme weather, long-term climate change,
and price volatility in input and product markets. However, smallholder farmers in developing
countries must in addition deal with adverse environments, both natural, in terms of soil
quality, rainfall, etc., and human, in terms of infrastructure, financial systems, markets,
knowledge and technology. Counter-intuitively, hunger is prevalent among many smallholder
farmers in the developing world.
C
Participants in the online debate argued that our biggest challenge is to address the underlying
causes of the agricultural system’s inability to ensure sufficient food for all, and they
identified as drivers of this problem our dependency on fossil fuels and unsupportive
government policies.
D
On the question of mitigating the risks farmers face, most essayists called for greater state
intervention. In his essay, Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of the International Fund for
Agricultural Development, argued that governments can significantly reduce risks for farmers
by providing basic services like roads to get produce more efficiently to markets, or water and
food storage facilities to reduce losses. Sophia Murphy, senior advisor to the Institute for
Agriculture and Trade Policy, suggested that the procurement and holding of stocks by
governments can also help mitigate wild swings in food prices by alleviating uncertainties
about market supply.
E
Shenggen Fan, Director General of the International Food Policy Research Institute, help up
social safety nets and public welfare programmes in Ethiopia, Brazil and Mexico as valuable
ways to address poverty among farming families and reduce their vulnerability to agriculture
shocks. However, some commentators responded that cash transfers to poor families do not
necessarily translate into increased food security, as these programmes do not always
strengthen food production or raise incomes. Regarding state subsidies for agriculture,
Rokeya Kabir, Executive Director of Bangladesh Nari Progati Sangha, commented in her
essay that these ‘have not compensated for the stranglehold exercised by private traders. In
fact, studies show that sixty percent of beneficiaries of subsidies are not poor, but rich
landowners and non-farmer traders.’
F
Nwanze, Murphy and Fan argued that private risk management tools, like private insurance,
commodity futures markets, and rural finance can help small-scale producers mitigate risk and
allow for investment in improvements. Kabir warned that financial support schemes often
encourage the adoption of high-input agricultural practices, which in the medium term may
raise production costs beyond the value of their harvests. Murphy noted that when futures
markets become excessively financialised they can contribute to short-term price volatility,
which increases farmers’ food insecurity. Many participants and commentators emphasised
that greater transparency in markets is needed to mitigate the impact of volatility, and make
evident whether adequate stocks and supplies are available. Others contended that
agribusiness companies should be held responsible for paying for negative side effects.
G
Many essayists mentioned climate change and its consequences for small-scale agriculture.
Fan explained that ‘in addition to reducing crop yields, climate change increases the
magnitude and frequency of extreme weather events, which increase smallholder
vulnerability.’ The growing unpredictability of weather patterns increases farmers’ difficulty
in managing weather-related risks. According to this author, one solution would be to develop
crop varieties that are more resilient to new climate trends and extreme weather patterns.
Accordingly, Pat Mooney, co-founder and executive director of the ETC Group, suggested
that ‘if we are to survive climate change, we must adopt policies that let peasants diversify the
plant and animal species and varieties/breeds that make up our menus.’
H
Some participating authors and commentators argued in favour of community-based and
autonomous risk management strategies through collective action groups, co-operatives or
producers’ groups. Such groups enhance market opportunities for small-scale producers,
reduce marketing costs and synchronise buying and selling with seasonal price conditions.
According to Murphy, ‘collective action offers an important way for farmers to strengthen
their political and economic bargaining power, and to reduce their business risks.’ One
commentator, Giel Ton, warned that collective action does not come as a free good. It takes
time, effort and money to organise, build trust and to experiment. Others, like Marcel Vernooij
and Marcel Beukeboom, suggested that in order to ‘apply what we already know’, all
stakeholders, including business, government, scientists and civil society, must work together,
starting at the beginning of the value chain.
I
Some participants explained that market price volatility is often worsened by the presence of
intermediary purchasers who, taking advantage of farmers’ vulnerability, dictate prices. One
commentator suggested farmers can gain greater control over prices and minimise price
volatility by selling directly to consumers. Similarly, Sonali Bisht, founder and advisor to the
Institute of Himalayan Environmental Research and Education (INHERE), India, wrote that
community-supported agriculture, where consumers invest in local farmers by subscription
and guarantee producers a fair price, is a risk-sharing model worth more attention. Direct food
distribution systems not only encourage small-scale agriculture but also give consumers more
control over the food they consume, she wrote.
———————
* The personal names in the text refer to the authors of written contributions to the online
debate
Questions 1-3
Reading Passage 1 has nine paragraphs, A-I.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-I, in boxes 1-3 on your answer sheet.
1 a reference to characteristics that only apply to food production
2 a reference to challenges faced only by farmers in certain parts of the world
3 a reference to difficulties in bringing about co-operation between farmers
Questions 4-9
Look at the following statements (Question 4-9) and the list of people below.
Match each statement with the correct person, A-G.
Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 4-9 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
4 Financial assistance from the government does not always go to the farmers who most
need it.
5 Farmers can benefit from collaborating as a group.
6 Financial assistance from the government can improve the standard of living of farmers.
7 Farmers may be helped if there is financial input by the same individuals who buy from
them.
8 Governments can help to reduce variation in prices.
9 Improvements to infrastructure can have a major impact on risk for farmers.
List of People
A Kanayo F. Nwanze
B Sophia Murphy
C Shenggen Fan
D Rokeya Kabir
E Pat Mooney
F Giel Ton
G Sonali Bisht
READING PASSAGE 2
Driverless cars (C15-T1)
A
The automotive sector is well used to adapting to automation in manufacturing. The
implementation of robotic car manufacture from the 1970s onwards led to significant cost
savings and improvements in the reliability and flexibility of vehicle mass production. A new
challenge to vehicle production is now on the horizon and, again, it comes from automation.
However, this time it is not to do with the manufacturing process, but with the vehicles
themselves.
Research projects on vehicle automation are not new. Vehicles with limited self-driving
capabilities have been around for more than 50 years, resulting in significant contributions
towards driver assistance systems. But since Google announced in 2010 that it had been
trialling self-driving cars on the streets of California, progress in this field has quickly
gathered pace.
B
There are many reasons why technology is advancing so fast. One frequently cited motive is
safety; indeed, research at the UK’s Transport Research Laboratory has demonstrated that
more than 90 percent of road collisions involve human error as a contributory factor, and it is
the primary cause in the vast majority. Automation may help to reduce the incidence of this.
Another aim is to free the time people spend driving for other purposes. If the vehicle can do
some or all of the driving, it may be possible to be productive, to socialise or simply to relax
while automation systems have responsibility for safe control of the vehicle. If the vehicle can
do the driving, those who are challenged by existing mobility models – such as older or
disabled travellers – may be able to enjoy significantly greater travel autonomy.
C
Beyond these direct benefits, we can consider the wider implications for transport and society,
and how manufacturing processes might need to respond as a result. At present, the average
car spends more than 90 percent of its life parked. Automation means that initiatives for car-
sharing become much more viable, particularly in urban areas with significant travel demand.
If a significant proportion of the population choose to use shared automated vehicles, mobility
demand can be met by far fewer vehicles.
D
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology investigated automated mobility in Singapore,
finding that fewer than 30 percent of the vehicles currently used would be required if fully
automated car sharing could be implemented. If this is the case, it might mean that we need to
manufacture far fewer vehicles to meet demand. However, the number of trips being taken
would probably increase, partly because empty vehicles would have to be moved from one
customer to the next.
Modelling work by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute suggests
automated vehicles might reduce vehicle ownership by 43 percent, but that vehicles’ average
annual mileage double as a result. As a consequence, each vehicle would be used more
intensively, and might need replacing sooner. This faster rate of turnover may mean that
vehicle production will not necessarily decrease
E
Automation may prompt other changes in vehicle manufacture. If we move to a model where
consumers are tending not to own a single vehicle but to purchase access to a range of vehicle
through a mobility provider, drivers will have the freedom to select one that best suits their
needs for a particular journey, rather than making a compromise across all their requirements.
Since, for most of the time, most of the seats in most cars are unoccupied, this may boost
production of a smaller, more efficient range of vehicles that suit the needs of individuals.
Specialised vehicles may then be available for exceptional journeys, such as going on a family
camping trip or helping a son or daughter move to university.
F
There are a number of hurdles to overcome in delivering automated vehicles to our roads.
These include the technical difficulties in ensuring that the vehicle works reliably in the
infinite range of traffic, weather and road situations it might encounter; the regulatory
challenges in understanding how liability and enforcement might change when drivers are no
longer essential for vehicle operation; and the societal changes that may be required for
communities to trust and accept automated vehicles as being a valuable part of the mobility
landscape.
G
It’s clear that there are many challenges that need to be addressed but, through robust and
targeted research, these can most probably be conquered within the next 10 years. Mobility
will change in such potentially significant ways and in association with so many other
technological developments, such as telepresence and virtual reality, that it is hard to make
concrete predictions about the future. However, one thing is certain: change is coming, and
the need to be flexible in response to this will be vital for those involved in manufacturing the
vehicles that will deliver future mobility.
Questions 14-18
Reading Passage 2 has seven paragraphs, A-G.
Which section contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet.
14 reference to the amount of time when a car is not in use
15 mention of several advantages of driverless vehicles for individual road-users
16 reference to the opportunity of choosing the most appropriate vehicle for each trip
17 an estimate of how long it will take to overcome a number of problems -> số
18 a suggestion that the use of driverless cars may have no effect on the number of vehicles
manufactured

READING PASSAGE 3
Mental Gymnastics
A. THE working day has just started at the head office of Barclays Bank in London.
Seventeen staff are helping themselves to a buffet breakfast as young psychologist Sebastian
Bailey enters the room to begin the morning’s framing session. But this is no ordinary training
session. He’s not here to sharpen their finance or management skills. He’s here to exercise
their brains.
B. Today’s workout, organised by a company called the Mind Gym in London, is entitled
“having presence”. What follows is an intense 90-minute session in which this rather abstract
concept is gradually broken down into a concrete set of feelings, mental tricks and
behaviours. At one point the bankers are instructed to shut then eyes and visualise themselves
filling the room and then the building. They finish up by walking around the room acting out
various levels of presence, from low-key to over the top.

C. It’s easy to poke fun. Yet similar mental workouts are happening in corporate seminar
rooms around the globe. The Mind Gym alone offers some 70 different sessions, including
ones on mental stamina, creativity for logical thinkers and “zoom learning”. Other outfits
draw more directly on the exercise analogy, offering “neurobics” courses with names like
“brain sets” and “cerebral fitness”. Then there are books with titles like Pumping Ions, full of
brainteasers that claim to “flex your mind”, and software packages offering memory and
spatial- awareness games.
D. But whatever the style, the companies’ sales pitch is invariably the same— follow our
routines to shape and sculpt your brain or mind, just as you might tone and train your body.
And, of course, they nearly all claim that their mental workouts draw on serious scientific
research and thinking into how the brain works.

E. One outfit, Brainergy of Cambridge, Massachusetts (motto: “Because your grey matter
matters”) puts it like this: “Studies have shown that mental exercise can cause changes in
brain anatomy and brain chemistry which promote increased mental efficiency and clarity.
The neuroscience is cutting-edge.” And on its website, Mind Gym trades on a quote from
Susan Greenfield, one of Britain’s best known neuroscientists: “It’s a bit like going to the
gym, if you exercise your brain it will grow.”
F. Indeed, die Mind Gym originally planned to hold its sessions in a local health club, until its
founders realised where the real money was to be made. Modem companies need flexible,
bright thinkers and will seize on anything that claims to create them, especially if it looks like
a quick fix backed by science. But are neurobic workouts really backed by science? And do
we need them?

G. Nor is there anything remotely high-tech about what Lawrence Katz, co- author of Keep
Your Brain Alive, recommends. Katz, a neurobiologist at Duke University Medical School in
North Carolina, argues that just as many of US fail to get enough physical exercise, so we also
lack sufficient mental stimulation to keep our brain in trim. Sine we are busy with jobs, family
and housework. But most of this activity is repetitive routine. And any leisure time is spent
slumped in front of the TV.
H. So, read a book upside down. Write or brush your teeth with your wrong hand. Feel your
way around the room with your eyes shut. Sniff vanilla essence while listening intently to
orchestral music. Anything, says Katz, to break your normal mental routine. It will help
invigorate your brain, encouraging its cells to make new connections and pump out
neuroteophins, substances that feed and sustain brain circuits.
I. Well, up to a point it will. “What I’m really talking about is brain maintenance rather than
bulking up your IQ,” Katz adds. Neurobics, in other words, is about letting your brain fulfill
its potential. It cannot create super-brains. Can it achieve even that much, though? Certainly
the brain is an organ that can adapt to the demands placed on it. Tests on animal brain tissue,
for example, have repeatedly shown that electrically stimulating the synapses that connect
nerve cells thought to be crucial to learning and reasoning, makes them stronger and more
responsive. Brain scans suggest we use a lot more of our grey matter when carrying out new
or strange tasks than when we’re doing well-rehearsed ones. Rats raised in bright cages with
toys sprout more neural connections than rats raised in bare cages— suggesting perhaps that
novelty and variety could be crucial to a developing brain. Katz, And neurologists have
proved time and again that people who lose brain cells suddenly during a stroke often sprout
new connections to compensate for the loss—especially if they undergo extensive therapy to
overcome any paralysis.
J. Guy Claxton, an educational psychologist at the University of Bristol, dismisses most of
the neurological approaches as “neuro-babble”. Nevertheless, there are specific mental skills
we can learn, he contends. Desirable attributes such as creativity, mental flexibility, and even
motivation, are not the fixed faculties that most of US think. They are thought habits that can
be learned. The problem, says Claxton, is that most of US never get proper training in these
skills. We develop our own private set of mental strategies for tackling tasks and never learn
anything explicitly. Worse still, because any learned skill— even driving a car or brushing our
teeth-quickly sinks out of consciousness, we can no longer see the very thought habits we’re
relying upon. Our mental tools become invisible to US.
K. Claxton is the academic adviser to the Mind Gym. So not surprisingly, the company
espouses his solution-that we must return our thought patterns to a conscious level, becoming
aware of the details of how we usually think. Only then can we start to practise better thought
patterns, until eventually these become our new habits. Switching metaphors, picture not gym
classes, but tennis or football coaching.

L. In practice, the training can seem quite mundane. For example, in one of the eight different
creativity workouts offered by the Mind Gym—entitled “creativity for logical thinkers” one
of the mental strategies taught is to make a sensible suggestion, then immediately pose its
opposite. So, asked to spend five minutes inventing a new pizza, a group soon comes up with
no topping, sweet topping, cold topping, price based on time of day, flat-rate prices and so on.
M. Bailey agrees that the trick is simple. But it is surprising how few such tricks people have
to call upon when they are suddenly asked to be creative: “They tend to just label themselves
as uncreative, not realising that there are techniques that every creative person employs.”
Bailey says the aim is to introduce people to half a dozen or so such strategies in a session so
that what at first seems like a dauntingly abstract mental task becomes a set of concrete,
learnable behaviours. He admits this is not a short cut to genius. Neurologically, some people
do start with quicker circuits or greater handling capacity. However, with the right kind of
training he thinks we can dramatically increase how efficiently we use it.
N. It is hard to prove that the training itself is effective. How do you measure a change in an
employee’s creativity levels, or memory skills? But staff certainly report feeling that such
classes have opened their eyes. So, neurological boosting or psychological training? At the
moment you can pay your money and take your choice. Claxton for one believes there is no
reason why schools and universities shouldn’t spend more time teaching basic thinking skills,
rather than trying to stuff heads with facts and hoping that effective thought habits are
somehow absorbed by osmosis.

Write the appropriate letters A-D in boxes 6-13 on your answer sheet.

A Guy Claxton

B Sebastian Bailey

C Susan Greenfield

D Lawrence Katz

NB: You may use any letter more than once

6 We do not have enough inspiration to keep our brain fit.
7 The more you exercise your brain like exercise in the gym, the more brain will grow
8 Exercise can keep your brain health instead of improving someone’s IQ
9 It is valuable for schools to teach students about creative skills besides basic known
knowledge
10 We can develop new neuron connections when we lose old connections via certain
treatment
11 People usually mark themselves as not creative before figuring out there are approaches
for each person
12 An instructor in Mind Gym who guided the employees to exercise
13 Majority of people don’t have appropriate skills-training for brain

READING PASSAGE 4
Saving bugs to find new drugs
Zoologist Ross Piper looks at the potential of insects in pharmaceutical research
A
More drugs than you might think are derived from, or inspired by, compounds found in living
things. Looking to nature for the soothing and curing of our ailments is nothing new – we
have been doing it for tens of thousands of years. You only have to look at other primates –
such as the capuchin monkeys who rub themselves with toxin-oozing millipedes to deter
mosquitoes, or the chimpanzees who use noxious forest plants to rid themselves of intestinal
parasites – to realise that our ancient ancestors too probably had a basic grasp of medicine.
B
Pharmaceutical science and chemistry built on these ancient foundations and perfected the
extraction, characterization, modification and testing of these natural products. Then, for a
while, modern pharmaceutical science moved its focus away from nature and into the
laboratory, designing chemical compounds from scratch. The main cause of this shift is that
although there are plenty of promising chemical compounds in nature, finding them is far
from easy. Securing sufficient numbers of the organism in question, isolating and
characterizing the compounds of interest, and producing large quantities of these compounds
are all significant hurdles.
C
Laboratory-based drug discovery has achieved varying levels of success, something which
has now prompted the development of new approaches focusing once again on natural
products. With the ability to mine genomes for useful compounds, it is now evident that we
have barely scratched the surface of nature’s molecular diversity. This realization, together
with several looming health crises, such as antibiotic resistance, has put bioprospecting – the
search for useful compounds in nature – firmly back on the map.
D
Insects are the undisputed masters of the terrestrial domain, where the occupy every possible
niche. Consequently, they have a bewildering array of interactions with other organisms,
something which has driven the evolution of an enormous range of very interesting
compounds for defensive and offensive purposes. Their remarkable diversity exceeds that of
every other group of animals on the planet combined. Yet even though insects are far and
away the most diverse animals in existence, their potential as sources of therapeutic
compounds is yet to be realised.
E
From the tiny proportion of insects that have been investigated, several promising compounds
have been identified. For example, alloferon, an antimicrobial compound produced by blow
fly larvae, is used as an antiviral and antitumor agent in South Korea and Russia. The larvae
of a few other insect species are being investigated for the potent antimicrobial compounds
they produce. Meanwhile, a compound from the venom of the wasp Polybia paulista has
potential in cancer treatment.
F
Why is it that insects have received relatively little attention in bioprospecting? Firstly, there
are so many insects that, without some manner of targeted approach, investigating this huge
variety of species is a daunting task. Secondly, insects are generally very small, and the glands
inside them that secrete potentially useful compounds are smaller still. This can make it
difficult to obtain sufficient quantities of the compound for subsequent testing. Thirdly,
although we consider insects to be everywhere, the reality of this ubiquity is vast numbers of a
few extremely common species. Many insect species are infrequently encountered and very
difficult to rear in captivity, which, again, can leave us with insufficient material to work with.
G
My colleagues and I at Aberystwyth University in the UK have developed an approach in
which we use our knowledge of ecology as a guide to target our efforts. The creatures that
particularly interest us are the many insects that secrete powerful poison for subduing prey
and keeping it fresh for future consumption. There are even more insects that are masters of
exploiting filthy habitats, such as faeces and carcasses, where they are regularly challenged by
thousands of micro-organisms. These insects have many antimicrobial compounds for dealing
with pathogenic bacteria and fungi, suggesting that there is certainly potential to find many
compounds that can serve as or inspire new antibiotics.
H
Although natural history knowledge points us in the right direction, it doesn’t solve the
problems associated with obtaining useful compounds from insects. Fortunately, it is now
possible to snip out the stretches of the insect’s DNA that carry the codes for the interesting
compounds and insert them into cell lines that allow larger quantities to be produced. And
although the road from isolating and characterizing compounds with desirable qualities to
developing a commercial product is very long and full of pitfalls, the variety of successful
animal-derived pharmaceuticals on the market demonstrates there is a precedent here that is
worth exploring.
I
With every bit of wilderness that disappears, we deprive ourselves of potential medicines. As
much as I’d love to help develop a groundbreaking insect-derived medicine, my main
motivation for looking at insects in this way is conservation. I sincerely believe that all
species, however small and seemingly insignificant, have a right to exist for their own sake. If
we can shine a light on the darker recesses of nature’s medicine cabinet, exploring the useful
chemistry of the most diverse animals on the planet, I believe we can make people think
differently about the value of nature.

Questions 14-20
Reading Passage 2 has nine paragraphs, A-I
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-I, in boxes 14-20 on your answer sheet.
14 mention of factors driving a renewed interest in natural medicinal compounds.
15 how recent technological advances have made insect research easier
16 examples of animals which use medicinal substances from nature
17 reasons why it is challenging to use insects in drug research
18 reference to how interest in drug research may benefit wildlife
19 a reason why nature-based medicines fell out of favour for a period
20 an example of an insect-derived medicine in use at the moment

READING PASSAGE 5

Back to the future of skyscraper design

Answers to the problem of excessive electricity use by skyscrapers and large public buildings
can be found in ingenious but forgotten architectural designs of the 19th and early-20th
centuries
A
The Recovery of Natural Environments in Architecture by Professor Alan Short is the
culmination of 30 years of research and award-winning green building design by Short and
colleagues in Architecture, Engineering, Applied Maths and Earth Sciences at the University
of Cambridge.
‘The crisis in building design is already here,’ said Short. ‘Policy makers think you can solve
energy and building problems with gadgets. You can’t. As global temperatures continue to
rise, we are going to continue to squander more and more energy on keeping our buildings
mechanically cool until we have run out of capacity.’
B
Short is calling for a sweeping reinvention of how skyscrapers and major public buildings are
designed – to end the reliance on sealed buildings which exist solely via the ‘life support’
system of vast air conditioning units.
Instead, he shows it is entirely possible to accommodate natural ventilation and cooling in
large buildings by looking into the past, before the widespread introduction of air
conditioning systems, which were ‘relentlessly and aggressively marketed’ by their inventors.
C
Short points out that to make most contemporary buildings habitable, they have to be sealed
and air conditioned. The energy use and carbon emissions this generates is spectacular and
largely unnecessary. Buildings in the West account for 40-50% of electricity usage, generating
substantial carbon emissions, and the rest of the world is catching up at a frightening rate.
Short regards glass, steel and air-conditioned skyscrapers as symbols of status, rather than
practical ways of meeting our requirements.
D
Short’s book highlights a developing and sophisticated art and science of ventilating buildings
through the 19th and earlier-20th centuries, including the design of ingeniously ventilated
hospitals. Of particular interest were those built to the designs of John Shaw Billings,
including the first Johns Hopkins Hospital in the US city of Baltimore (1873-1889).
‘We spent three years digitally modelling Billings’ final designs,’ says Short. ‘We put
pathogens* in the airstreams, modelled for someone with tuberculosis (TB) coughing in the
wards and we found the ventilation systems in the room would have kept other patients safe
from harm.
—————-
* pathogens: microorganisms that can cause disease
E
‘We discovered that 19th-century hospital wards could generate up to 24 air changes an hour
– that’s similar to the performance of a modern-day, computer-controlled operating theatre.
We believe you could build wards based on these principles now.
Single rooms are not appropriate for all patients. Communal wards appropriate for certain
patients – older people with dementia, for example – would work just as well in today’s
hospitals, at a fraction of the energy cost.’
Professor Short contends the mindset and skill-sets behind these designs have been
completely lost, lamenting the disappearance of expertly designed theatres, opera houses, and
other buildings where up to half the volume of the building was given over to ensuring
everyone got fresh air.
F
Much of the ingenuity present in 19th-century hospital and building design was driven by a
panicked public clamouring for buildings that could protect against what was thought to be
the lethal threat of miasmas – toxic air that spread disease. Miasmas were feared as the
principal agents of disease and epidemics for centuries, and were used to explain the spread of
infection from the Middle Ages right through to the cholera outbreaks in London and Paris
during the 1850s. Foul air, rather than germs, was believed to be the main driver of ‘hospital
fever’, leading to disease and frequent death. The prosperous steered clear of hospitals.
While miasma theory has been long since disproved, Short has for the last 30 years advocated
a return to some of the building design principles produced in its wake.
G
Today, huge amounts of a building’s space and construction cost are given over to air
conditioning. ‘But I have designed and built a series of buildings over the past three decades
which have tried to reinvent some of these ideas and then measure what happens.
‘To go forward into our new low-energy, low-carbon future, we would be well advised to look
back at design before our high-energy, high-carbon present appeared. What is surprising is
what a rich legacy we have abandoned.’
H
Successful examples of Short’s approach include the Queen’s Building at De Montfort
University in Leicester. Containing as many as 2,000 staff and students, the entire building is
naturally ventilated, passively cooled and naturally lit, including the two largest auditoria,
each seating more than 150 people. The award-winning building uses a fraction of the
electricity of comparable buildings in the UK.
Short contends that glass skyscrapers in London and around the world will become a liability
over the next 20 or 30 years if climate modelling predictions and energy price rises come to
pass as expected.
I
He is convinced that sufficiently cooled skyscrapers using the natural environment can be
produced in almost any climate. He and his team have worked on hybrid buildings in the
harsh climates of Beijing and Chicago – built with natural ventilation assisted by back-up air
conditioning – which, surprisingly perhaps, can be switched off more than half the time on
milder days and during the spring and autumn.
Short looks at how we might reimagine the cities, offices and homes of the future. Maybe it’s
time we changed our outlook.
Questions 14-18
Reading Passage 2 has nine section, A-I
Which section contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-I, in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet.
14 why some people avoided hospitals in the 19th century
15 a suggestion that the popularity of tall buildings is linked to prestige
16 a comparison between the circulation of air in a 19th-century building and modern
standards
17 how Short tested the circulation of air in a 19th-century building
18 an implication that advertising led to the large increase in the use of air conditioning