Passage One

The over-60 population is growing faster than any other age group. Between 1950 and 2050 it is expected to increase from 200 million to 2 billion. As the number of older persons increases, so will the need to ensure their [social inclusion], based on an income from decent work or retirement and a chance to participate in community life through employment, volunteer work or other activities. According to the International Labour Organization, “decent work” is work that meets people’s basic aspirations, not only for income, but also for security for themselves and their families, in a working environment that is safe. Decent work treats men and women equally, without discrimination or harassment. Finally, decent work provides social security and is carried out in conditions of freedom and human dignity.

But there are over 1.2 billion people in the world who live on an income of less than $1 a day, and another billion who live on less than $2 a day. They live hand to mouth, day to day, and do not have enough income to support their daily existence — much less put something aside for retirement. In most developing countries retirement is a luxury few older people can afford. Even in developed countries some hard working people will not have enough to live on retirement. Many women — paid less than men, working more at home than men, and working more informally than men — may not be ready or able to rest at 65.

By tradition, at least in developed countries, there is a change in roles as one moves from active middle years into “gentle” and “enjoyable” retirement. This change in roles has been viewed by the public, by government and by business, as a transition from a productive time of life to one that is unproductive and dependent. [But today more than ever, this is not true.] Most older people do not withdraw from society. Instead, they continue to contribute to their households, to their descendants and to their communities, although their contribution may not be paid employment.

Instead of producing goods or services — the traditional economic model “products”-older persons may contribute a “product” that has value to society, such as caring for children, caring for other older persons, caring for the oldest old, providing community leadership, mentoring or being an effective role model. But in spite of their significant human and economic benefits, such contributions have not been figured into an economy’s gross national product. And they have not been appropriately valued.

Over the past several decades, most industrialized countries have experienced a substantial drop in the average age at which individuals retire from the labour market. Longer life expectancy and better health have not been accompanied by longer working lives. As a consequence, these countries are facing serious concerns about the viability of social security systems. A key challenge for these countries is to mitigate the effects of a drop in the working age population by increasing and prolonging the participation of older people in the labour market.

Questions 1-5 are based on Passage One.

The term “social inclusion” (in Para . 1) here means ______.

It was a great shock to me to discover that I had motor neuron disease. (46. I had never been very well co-coordinated physically as a child. I was not good at ball games, and my handwriting was the despair of my teachers.) But things seemed to change when I went to Oxford, at the age of 17. (47.I took up coxing and rowing. I was not boat race standard, but I got by at the level of inter-college competition.)

In my third year at Oxford, however, I noticed that I seemed to be getting clumsier, and I fell over once or twice for no apparent reason. But it was not until I was at Cambridge, in the following year, that my father noticed, and took me to the family doctor. He referred me to a specialist, and shortly after my 21st birthday, I went into hospital for tests.

The realization that I had an incurable disease, that was likely to kill me in a few years, was a bit of a shock. (48. How could something like that happen to me? Why should I be cut off like this? Not knowing what was going to happen to me, or how rapidly the disease would progress, I was at a loose end.) The doctors told me to go back to Cambridge and carry on with the research I had just started in general relativity and cosmology.But I was not making much progress, because I didn’t have much mathematical background. And, anyway, I might not live long enough to finish my Phd. I felt somewhat of a tragic character.

But shortly after I came out of hospital, I dreamt that I was going to be executed. (49. I suddenly realized that there were a lot of worthwhile things I could do if I were reprieved. In fact, although there was a cloud hanging over my future, I found, to my surprise, that I was enjoying life in the present more than before.) I began to make progress with my research, and I got engaged to a girl called Jane Wilde, whom I had met just about the time my condition was diagnosed. That engagement changed my life. It gave me something to live for. But it also meant that I had to get a job if we were to get married. I therefore applied for a research fellowship at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. To my great surprise, I got a fellowship, and we got married a few months later.

The fellowship at Caius took care of my immediate employment problem. (50. I was lucky to have chosen to work in theoretical physics, because that was one of the few areas in which my condition would not be a serious handicap.) And I was fortunate that my scientific reputation increased, at the same time that my disability got worse. This meant that people were prepared to offer me a sequence of positions in which I only had to do research without having to lecture.

Passage Nine

The reigning queen of all media in the US is talk-show host Oprah Winfrey. Her influence goes beyond her daily one-hour show into everything from the publishing business to the agricultural markets. Do you need proof? When Winfrey discusses an unknown author on her show, his book goes to the top of the best-seller charts.

Queen of t______.

Passage Ten

London’s underground railway will replace commuters’ sweaty odors with the gentle waft of perfume when it introduces a new air freshener into the world’s oldest subway. London has imported a powerful perfume, called Madeleine, from the Paris Metro. Madeleine will be used to mask the pungent smells of London’s underground.

Perfume masks c______ odors.

Passage Six

Several governments in Europe have decided that radical action is required to increase the number of women in the executive suite. Norway passed a law in 2003 that obliged all publicly listed firms to reserve 40% of the seats on their boards for women by 2008. Spain passed a similar law in 2007; France earlier this year.

The Netherlands is working on one.More women in b______ top.

Passage Seven

The business travel and meetings organization in America attributes the recent increase to rising airfares, fuelled by energy prices, constrained capacity and relatively strong demand, higher lodging rates, and growing corporate demansd. For example, it expects corporate spending on overseas trips to rise to $31.8 billion in 2011, a 9.1% increase on last year.

The price of t______ continues rising in America in 2011.

Passage Eight

The row over phone-hacking by journalists has led to the closure of the News of the World newspaper, and wider questions about press regulation, media ownership, the police, and relationships between politicians and journalists. It admitted intercepting voicemails in April after years of rumor that the practice was widespread.

Ethics in j______.

Paragraph Four

Scientists have found that life can survive in boiling pools of toxic water at Yellowstone National Park, something they did not think was possible. The fact that life can thrive in a boiling pool brings up all sorts of ideas about the origins of life. It may be that the first life on Earth was in the places humans might consider hospitable.

Finding life in unusual p______.

Paragraph Three

The IAEA, the UN nuclear watchdog, warned that the nuclear crisis triggered by Japan’s earthquake and tsunami is far from over. The lesson Germany learns from the Japanese nuclear disaster is that the earlier the exit, the better. Germany would turn to green and clean technologies and become a nuclear-free country.

Germany’s reflection on nuclear e ______.

Paragraph Five

“This type of meal, this fast food made with ground beef with a certain tomato sauce, fries does not strike me as a universal dream!” said Jean Glavany, France’s agriculture minister. “I want to spare Europeans this,” he said. “My struggle is cultural—what I have opposed and still oppose is the imperialism of a food model that wants to be the only model.”

The b______ over fast food.

Paragraph One

A 39-year-old woman, a patient in a psychiatric clinic had locked herself in a toilet with a knife. Police brought the dog Purzel when they learned the woman was a dog lover. As soon as the woman spotted Purzel sniffing through a crack in the door she dropped the knife and picked him up.

Hero dog p ______ a suicide.