READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.

The Adolescents

A

The American Academy of Pediatrics recognizes three stages of adolescence. These are early, middle and late adolescence, and each has its own developmental tasks. Teenagers move through these tasks at their own speed depending on their physical development and hormone levels. Although these stages are common to all teenagers, each child will go through them in his or her own highly individual ways.

B

During the early years young people make the first attempts to leave the dependent, secure role of a child and to establish themselves as unique individuals, independent of their parents. Early adolescence is marked by rapid physical growth and maturation. The focus of adolescents’ self-concepts is thus often on their physical self and their evaluation of their physical acceptability. Early adolescence is also a period of intense conformity to peers. ‘Getting along,’ not being different, and being accepted seem somehow pressing to the early adolescent. The worst possibility, from the view of the early adolescent, is to be seen by peers as ‘different’.

C

Middle adolescence is marked by the emergence of new thinking skills. The intellectual world of the young person is suddenly greatly expanded. Their concerns about peers are more directed toward their opposite sexed peers. It is also during this period that the move to establish psychological independence from one’s parents accelerates. Delinquency behavior may emerge since parental views are no longer seen as absolutely correct by adolescents. Despite some delinquent behavior, middle adolescence is a period during which young people are oriented toward what is right and proper. They are developing a sense of behavioral maturity and learning to control their impulsiveness.

D

Late adolescence is marked by the final preparations for adult roles. The developmental demands of late adolescence often extend into the period that we think of as young adulthood. Late adolescents attempt to crystallize their vocational goals and to establish a sense of personal identity. Their needs for peer approval are diminished and they are largely psychologically independent from their parents. The shift to adulthood is nearly complete.

E

Some years ago, Professor Robert Havighurst of the University of Chicago proposed that stages in human development can best be thought of in terms of the developmental tasks that are part of the normal transition. He identified eleven developmental tasks associated with the adolescent transition. One developmental task an adolescent needs to achieve is to adjust to a new physical sense of self. At no other time since birth does an individual undergo such rapid and profound physical changes as during early adolescence. Puberty is marked by sudden rapid growth in height and weight. Also, the young person experiences the emergence and accentuation of those physical traits that make him or her a boy or girl. The effect of this rapid change is that young adolescent often becomes focused on his or her body.

F

Before adolescence, children’s thinking is dominated by a need to have a concrete example for any problem that they solve. Their thinking is constrained to what is real and physical. During adolescence, young people begin to recognize and understand abstractions. The adolescent must adjust to increased cognitive demands at school. Adults see high school in part as a place where adolescents prepare for adult roles and responsibilities and in part as preparatory for further education. School curricula are frequently dominated by the inclusion of more abstract, demanding material, regardless of whether the adolescents have achieved formal thought. Since not all adolescents make the intellectual transition at the same rate, demands for abstract thinking prior to achievement of that ability may be frustrating.

G

During adolescence, as teens develop increasingly complex knowledge systems and a sense of self, they also adopt an integrated set of values and morals. During the early stages of moral development, parents provide their child with a structured set of rules of what is right and wrong, what is acceptable and unacceptable. Eventually, the adolescent must assess the parents’ values as they come into conflict with values expressed by peers and other segments of society. To reconcile differences, the adolescent restructures those beliefs into a personal ideology.

H

The adolescent must develop expanded verbal skills. As adolescents mature intellectually, as they face increased school demands, and as they prepare for adult roles, they must develop new verbal skills to accommodate more complex concepts and tasks. Their limited language of childhood is no longer adequate. Adolescents may appear less competent because of their inability to express themselves meaningfully.

I

The adolescent must establish emotional and psychological independence from his or her parents. Childhood is marked by a strong dependence on one’s parents. Adolescents may yearn to keep that safe, secure, supportive, dependent relationship. Yet, to be an adult implies a sense of independence, of autonomy, of being one’s own person. Adolescents may vacillate between their desire for dependence and their need to be independent. In an attempt to assert their need for independence and individuality, adolescents may respond with what appears to be hostility and lack of cooperation.

J

Adolescents do not progress through these multiple developmental tasks separately. At any given time, adolescents may be dealing with several. Further, the centrality of specific developmental tasks varies with early, middle, and late periods of the transition.

Questions 1-6

Match the following characteristics with the correct stages of the adolescent.

Write the correct letter, A, B or C, in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.

A     early adolescence

B     middle adolescence

C     later adolescence

1   interested in the opposite sex

2   exposure to danger

3   the same as others

4   beginning to form individual thinking without family context

5   less need the approval of friends

6   intellectual booming

Questions 7-10

Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-F, below.

Write the correct letters, A-F, in boxes 7-10 on your answer sheet.

7   One of Havighurst’s research

8   High School Courses

9   Adolescence is a time when young people

10   The developmental speed of thinking patterns

List of the statements

A   form personal identity with a set of morals and values

B   develops a table and productive peer relationships

C   are designed to be more challenging than some can accept

D   varies from people to people

E   focuses on creating a self-image

F   become an extension of their parents

Questions 11-13

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?

In boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE               if the statement is true

FALSE              if the statement is false

NOT GIVEN    if the information is not given in the passage

11   The adolescent lacks the ability to think abstractly.

12   Adolescents may have a deficit in their language ability.

13   The adolescent experiences a transition from reliance on his parents to independence.

READING PASSAGE 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-27 which are based on Reading Passage 2 below. 

Optimism and Health 2

Mindset is all. How you start the year will set the template for 2009, and two scientifically-backed character traits hold the key: optimism and resilience (if the prospect leaves you feeling pessimistically spineless, the good news is that you can significantly boost both of these qualities).

A

Faced with 12 months of plummeting economics and rising human distress, staunchly maintaining a rosy view might seem deludedly Pollyannaish. But here we encounter the optimism paradox. As Brice Pitt, an emeritus professor of the psychiatry of old age at Imperial College, London, told me: optimists are unrealistic. Depressive people see things as they really are, but that is a disadvantage from an evolutionary point of view. Optimism is a piece of evolutionary equipment that carried us through millennia of setbacks.

B

It has been known that optimistic has something to do with the long life, and optimists have plenty to be happy about. In other words, if you can convince yourself that things will get better, the odds of it happening will improve – because you keep on playing the game. In this light, optimism “is a habitual way of explaining your setbacks to yourself”, reports Martin Seligman, the psychology professor and author of Learned Optimism. The research shows that when times get tough, optimists do better than pessimists – they succeed better at work, respond better to stress, suffer fewer depressive episodes, and achieve more personal goals.

C

Studies also show that belief can help with the financial pinch. Chad Wallens, a social forecaster at the Henley Centre who surveyed middle-class Britons’ beliefs about income, has found that “the people who feel wealthiest, and those who feel poorest, actually have almost the same amount of money at their disposal. Their attitudes and behaviour patterns, however, are different from one another.”

D

Optimists have something else to be cheerful about – in general, they are more robust. For example, a study of 660 volunteers by the Yale University psychologist Dr Becca Levy, found that thinking positively adds an average of 7 years to your life. Other American research claims to have identified a physical mechanism behind this. A Harvard Medical School study of 670 men found that the optimists have significantly better lung function. The lead author, Dr Rosalind Wright, believes that attitude somehow strengthens the immune system. “Preliminary studies on heart patients suggest that, by changing a per­son’s outlook, you can improve their mortality risk,” she says.

E

Few studies have tried to ascertain the proportion of optimists in the world. But a 1995 nationwide survey conducted by the American magazine Adweek found that about half the population counted themselves as optimists, with women slightly more apt than men (53 per cent versus 48 per cent) to see the sunny side.

F

Although some optimists may be accurate in their positive beliefs about the future, others may be unrealistic-their optimism is misplaced, according to the American Psychological Association. Research shows that some smokers exhibit unrealistic optimism by underestimating their relative chances of experiencing disease. An important question is whether such unrealistic optimism is associated with risk-related attitudes and behavior. We addressed this question by investigating if one’s perceived the risk of developing lung cancer, over and above one’s objective risk, predicted acceptance of myths and other beliefs about smoking. Hierarchical regressions showed that those individuals who were unrealistically optimistic were more likely to endorse beliefs that there is no risk of lung cancer if one only smokes for a few years and that getting lung cancer depends on one’s genes.

G

Of course, there is no guarantee that optimism will insulate you from the crunch’s worst effects, but the best strategy is still to keep smiling and thank your lucky stars. Because (as every good sports coach knows) adversity is character-forming – so long as you practise the skills of resilience. Research among tycoons and business leaders shows that the path to success is often littered with failure: a record of sackings, bankruptcies and blistering castigation. But instead of curling into a foetal ball beneath the coffee table, they resiliently pick themselves up, learn from their pratfalls and march boldly towards the next opportunity.

H

The American Psychological Association defines resilience as the ability to adapt in the face of adversity, trauma or tragedy. A resilient person may go through difficulty and uncertainty, but he or she will doggedly bounce back.

I

Optimism is one of the central traits required in building resilience, say Yale University investigators in the. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology. They add that resilient people learn to hold on to their sense of humour and this can help them to keep a flexible attitude when big changes of plan are warranted. The ability to accept your lot with equanimity also plays an important role, the study adds.

J

One of the best ways to acquire resilience is through experiencing a difficult childhood, the sociologist Steven Stack reports in the Journal of Social Psych­ology. For example, short men are less likely to commit suicide than tall guys, he says, because shorties develop psychological defence skills to handle the bullies and mickey-taking that their lack of stature attracts. By contrast, those who enjoyed adversity-free youths can get derailed by setbacks later on because they’ve never been inoculated against agro.

K

Learning to overcome your fears. If you are handicapped by having had a happy childhood, then practising proactive optimism can help you to become more resilient. Studies of resilient people show that they take more risks; they court failure and learn not to fear it. And despite being thick-skinned, resilient types are also more open than aver­age to other people. Bouncing through knock-backs is all part of the process. It’s about optimistic risk-taking – being confident that people will like you. Simply smiling and being warm to people can help. It’s an altruistic path to self-interest – and if it achieves nothing else, it will reinforce an age-old adage: hard times can bring out the best in you.

Questions 14-18

Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage.

Using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet.

Optimists generally are more robust. Yale University psychologist Dr Becca Levy found that an extension of around 14………………………. to your life will be achieved by a positive attitude toward life. A Harvard Medical School conduct a research which study of 15……………………….. male volunteers found that the optimists have remarkably better 16……………………. And Dr Rosalind Wright believes optimistic life may enhance the 17………………………. some initiative studies on 18……………………….. indicate that people can improve their mortality risk by changing into a positive outlook.

Questions 19-23

Use the information in the passage to match the people or organization (listed A-E) with opinions or deeds below.

Write the appropriate letters A-E in boxes 19-23 on your answer sheet.

A     Brice Pitt

B     American Psychological Association

C     Martin Seligman

D     Chad Wallens of Henley Centre

E     Annual Review of Clinical Psychology

F     Steven Stack

G     American magazine Adweek

19   Different optimism result found according to gender.

20   There is no necessary relationship between happiness and money.

21   Excessive optimism may be incorrect in everyday life.

22   Optimists are advantageous for human evolution.

23   Occurrence of emergency assists resilient people in a positive way.

Questions 24-27

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2?

In boxes 24-27 on your answer sheet, write

YES                  if the statement is true

NO                   if the statement is false

NOT GIVEN    if the information is not given in the passage

24   The link between longevity and optimism has been known.

25   Optimists have a better personal relationship than those pessimists.

26   People who had a happy childhood do not need to practise optimism.

27   Experience of difficulties will eventually help people accumulate a fortune.