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Read the following passage and answer the FIVE questions that follow.
Comprehension:
To those who do listen, the desert speaks of things with an emphasis quite different from that of the shore, the mountain, the valley or the plains. Whereas these invite action and suggest limitless opportunity and exhaust less resources, the implications and the mood of the desert are something different. For one thing, the desert is conservative and not radical. It is more likely to provide awe than to invite conquest. The heroism which it encourages is the heroism of endurance, not that of conquest. It brings man up against this limitation, turns him upon himself and suggests values which more indulgent regions suppress. Sometimes it includes contemplation in men who have never contemplated before. And of all the answers to the question- what is a desert good for - 'contemplation' is perhaps the best.
The writer calls the desert āconservative rather than radicalā because it provides an environment that _______.
Read the following passage and answer the FIVE questions that follow.
Comprehension:
Before the grass has thickened on the roadside verges and leaves have started growing on the trees is a perfect time to look around and see just how dirty Britain has become. The pavements are stained with chewing gum that has been spat out and the gutters are full of discarded fast food cartons. Years ago I remember travelling abroad and being saddened by the plastic bags, discarded bottles and soiled nappies at the edge of every road. Nowadays, Britain seems to look at least as bad. What has gone wrong?
The problem is that the rubbish created by our increasingly mobile lives lasts a lot longer than before. If it is not cleared up and properly thrown away, it stays in the undergrowth for years; a semi-permanent reminder of what a tatty little country we have now.
Firstly, it is estimated that 10 billion plastic bags have been given to shoppers. These will take anything from 100 to 1,000 years to rot. However, it is not as if there is no solution to this. A few years ago, the Irish government introduced a tax on non-recyclable carrier bags and in three months reduced their use by 90%. When he was a minister, Michael Meacher attempted to introduce a similar arrangement in Britain. The plastics industry protested, of course. However, they need not have bothered; the idea was killed before it could draw breath, leaving supermarkets free to give away plastic bags.
What is clearly necessary right now is some sort of combined initiative, both individual and collective, before it is too late. The alternative is
to continue sliding downhill until we have a country that looks like a vast municipal rubbish tip. We may well be at the tipping point. Yet we know that people respond to their environment. If things around them are clean and tidy, people behave cleanly and tidily. If they are surrounded by squalor, they behave squalidly. Now, much of Britain looks pretty squalid. What will it look like in five years?
