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SECTION TEST - GENERAL TRAINING READING
(Time: 60 minutes)

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Passage 1

Passage 2

Recycling at work - handy hints to employers

It is estimated that avoidable waste costs UK businesses up to 4.5% of their annual revenue. Reducing waste in the workplace is about being efficient. By becoming more efficient, businesses not only increase profits but they also save natural resources.

On the island of Jersey, for example, the amount of waste produced each year has doubled since 1980. In 2004 it topped 100,000 tonnes - and 60% is generated by local businesses. A lot of waste for a small island!

Setting up a company scheme

Waste audit

Before starting a recycling scheme, perform an audit. This will make you aware of how much waste you are producing in the company.

Company policy

Consider switching your office waste contractor to one that provides a recycling service.

Buy recycled paper. Although this is sometimes more expensive, costs can be reduced by lowering consumption and using duplex printers.

Get everyone involved

• Raise awareness internally within the company, perhaps by putting up educational posters.

• Allocate a person to be the point of contact for anyone with queries.

There are also a couple of ways to increase motivation:

• Hold internal competitions between different departments. For example, see which can reduce their waste the most within a specific time period.

• Send out regular newsletters reporting on all waste improvements. Staff will then see the impact their actions are having.

What to recycle and how

Paper

According to a recent survey, 65% of waste produced is paper waste. Waste paper will inevitably be produced in the workplace, but it is not necessary to discard it. It can serve a variety of purposes before it is recycled, such as writing notes. Envelopes too can be re-used for internal mail.

Plastic cups

Rather than supplying disposable plastic cups in your workplace, get ceramic mugs that can be re-used. Not only do they make your tea taste better, but they can reduce your office waste by up to 1%!

Electrical equipment

Rather than giving up on any old electrical equipment and just throwing it away, why not try upgrading it? This reduces waste, as well as avoiding the need to manufacture a new machine - a process which creates a large amount of waste. You could also consider donating your old computers to charities when it comes to replacing them.

Answer the questions below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the text for each answer.

charities/ to charities audit/ an audit/ waste audit notes/ writing notes printers/ duplex printers newsletters/ regular newsletters mugs/ ceramic mugs posters/ educational posters

What does the writer think should be carried out in a company before it starts recycling?

What machines can help to cut the stationery budget?

What can be displayed in the workplace to publicise the recycling scheme?

What can be distributed to motivate staff to recycle more?

What can unwanted paper be used for in the office?

What can be bought to cut down on the waste produced by staff refreshments?
Where can unwanted PCs be sent?

How to answer any interview question

To start, take a tip from consultants who coach executives on how to handle media interviews. They say you can deliver the message you want to an employer, regardless of the question you're asked.

’Unlike some politicians, who take no notice of press questions and immediately introduce a different topic in response, job candidates must answer employers' queries,' says John Barford of the interview training firm Genesis. 'However, you can quickly make the transition from your answer to the important points you want to convey about your qualifications,' he says.

He advises candidates at job interviews to apply the formula Q = A + 1: Q is the question; A is the answer; + is the bridge to the message you want to deliver; and 1 is the point you want to make.

Diligent preparation is also necessary to effectively answer any interview question, say senior executives. They give a number of useful tips:

• Learn as much as you can beforehand. Ask company employees questions prior to job interviews to gain as much insight as you can. If the company is publicly owned, find out how viable it is by reading shareholder reports. You can then tailor what you say to the company's issues.

• Be prepared for questions that require you to show how you handled difficult challenges. These questions require stories in response, but as it's unlikely that you'll have one that fits every situation, try to recall some from your past experience that show how you coped with a range of issues.

• Count on being asked about a past mistake or blemish on your career record, and don't try to dodge the issue. Ms Murphy, president of the Murphy Group, a media interview training firm, says that it's important to steer clear of lies at all costs. Just answer the question and move on.

• When discussing a mistake, focus on the positive outcomes. 7ou learn as much by dropping the ball as you do by catching it,' says senior executive Mr Friedmann. When he was being interviewed for his current job, he mentioned he had been involved in many successful turnarounds and one that failed. ’And I said how I'd benefited in many ways from going through that experience,' he says.

Complete the sentences below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the text for each answer.

formula employees/ company employees shareholder reports benefited/ benefitted politicians/ some politicians lies

The writer warns candidates not to imitate the way that ignore questions in interviews.

Interviewees are recommended to follow a certain to allow them to communicate their main points.

Senior executives advise candidates to request information from before an interview.

A candidate can also learn about a business by studying its .

The head of an interview training firm advises people to avoid telling .

In his job interview, one executive explained how he had considerably from a previous failure.

Passage 3

Canoes Around the World

Many cultures throughout the world have developed some form of canoe—a long, slender, open boat powered by handheld paddles. In each case, the technologies and materials used to construct the canoe reflect the resources available to that particular culture. There are three basic types of canoe: the frame-and bark canoe, the dugout, and the plank canoe. Developed by cultures on every continent since prehistoric times, canoes continue to be used today both for survival and for recreation.

The birch-bark canoe, an example of the frame-and-bark type of construction, was developed in the region that is now the northeastern United States and eastern Canada. Native Americans constructed birch-bark canoes by building a frame from spruce wood and then using roots to stitch pieces of birch bark over the frame. In areas where birch was not available, bark from elm or spruce trees was used instead. After the bark was sewn to the frame, the canoes were then sealed with a mixture of spruce gum and bear grease. These substances worked very well to make the boat watertight. Birch-bark canoes were lightweight and thus easily portaged around waterfalls or from lake to lake. Most were designed to hold no more than two or three people and were used for lake and river travel. When Europeans opened up the fur trade in North America in the seventeenth century, the French traders used larger versions (30 to 40 feet in length) to transport furs in large quantities across the Great Lakes for shipment back to Europe.

The dugout—a canoe created from a single tree trunk—has been used in many areas throughout the world. Simple versions of hollowed-out logs were used by native peoples throughout much of North America. Coastal groups such as the Haida and Tlinglit in the Pacific Northwest developed large dugout crafts 60 feet or longer that could carry large numbers of people on the ocean for trade, warfare, fishing, whaling, and travel to ceremonial gatherings. First, the outer and inner bark around the entire circumference of a tall, straight tree, often a cedar or redwood, was removed. This process, called girdling, cuts off the flow of sap, thus killing the tree and making it easier to chop down. Then the tree was felled and cut to the appropriate length. The opening of the dugout was created by repeatedly burning the wood, then carving it out with tools. In early times, stone tools were used, but later metal tools came into use. Once the canoe was carved out, the boat builders filled it with water and brought the water to a boil using stones heated on a fire. This softened the wood and the weight of the water caused the walls of the canoe to bow outward, giving it more width than the original girth of the tree.

The ocean-going Chumash people of what is now southern California developed the tomoL, or plank canoe. They created their canoes by cutting planks from redwood trees, carving and shaping them into a canoe without any frame. They lashed the planks together by drilling holes and tying them with cords. Pitch from pine trees and tar, also found locally, were used between the planks and over the entire hull for waterproofing.

The canoe played a major role in the spread of all the Pacific Island cultures. These cultures developed outrigger and double-hulled dugout canoes. Outriggers have one or more parallel floats attached to a dugout canoe with poles for increased stability in ocean waves. Double hulled canoes have a platform between two parallel dugouts. These highly stable designs, combined with sails, enabled the Polynesians to go on epic ocean journeys and to inhabit far flung islands. Several families (or as many as 200 people in the largest vessels), could sail in each of these double-hulled canoes with food, water, and domesticated plants and animals across huge expanses of ocean, and in this way the Polynesian people spread throughout the Pacific, establishing new communities on previously uninhabited islands.

In areas of dense rain forest throughout the world, including the Amazon basin, and parts of Africa and Asia, river travel with dugouts was, and in many cases still is, the primary means of transportation. In West Africa, large war canoes capable of transporting many fighters were carved from single trees.

Descendants of the ancient canoes are still widely used today. Traditional cultures around the world still use dugout canoes for fishing and transportation. Today’s modern recreational canoes, while now often constructed with aluminum¹, fiberglass², wood, and canvas, plastic, and other synthetic materials, still retain the shape and basic design of the birch-bark canoes developed in the distant past. The catamaran sailboat, widely used in racing, is a direct descendant of the double-hulled sailing canoe used thousands of years ago by the Polynesian cultures.

(1) British: aluminium

(2) British: fiberglass

Complete the summary below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the text for each answer.

huge expanses parallel floats birch-bark modern recreational/ recreational many fighters a platform

Polynesians turned dugout canoes into outrigger canoes by attaching to them. Double-hulled canoes were made by connecting two outrigger canoes with . Because they could travel over of ocean in these canoes, Polynesians were able to inhabit islands all across the Pacific Ocean. In West Africa, large war canoes were used to carry . Today, canoes are made of modern materials such as aluminum, fiberglass, and plastic. These modern canoes are similar in form to canoes.

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