Cambridge 15 | Test 3 | Passage 3

Why fairy tales are really scary tales

People of every culture tell each other fairy tales but the same story often takes a variety of forms in different parts of the world. In the story of Little Red Riding Hood that European children are familiar with, a young girl on the way to see her grandmother meets a wolf and tells him where she is going. The wolf runs on ahead and disposes of the grandmother, then gets into bed dressed in the grandmother’s clothes to wait for Little Red Riding Hood. You may think you know the story—but which version? In some versions, the wolf swallows up the grandmother, while in others it locks her in a cupboard. In some stories Red Riding Hood gets the better of the wolf on her own, while in others a hunter or a woodcutter hears her cries and comes to her rescue.

dispose of someone/something (phrasal verb)

/dɪˈspoʊz/

to get rid of someone or something or deal with something so that the

e.g., He never uses that bike any more, but he's very reluctant to dispose of it.

swallow up something/someone (phrasal verb)

to take someone or something in so that it is destroyed or no longer independent

e.g., I watched her walk down the road until she was swallowed by the darkness.

get the better of someone (idiom)

to defeat someone

e.g., It would be hard to get the better of someone as experienced as she is.

e.g., She knew she shouldn't open the package, but her curiosity finally got the better of her and she opened it.

Cambridge 15 | Test 2 | Passage 3

Having a laugh

Humans start developing a sense of humor as early as six weeks old, when babies begin to laugh and smile in response to stimuli. Laughter is universal across all human cultures and even exists in some form in rats, chimps, and bonobos. Like other human emotions and expressions, laughter and humor provide psychological scientists with rich resources for studying human psychology, ranging from the development of language to the neuroscience of social perception.

sense of humor (noun phrase)

a personality that gives someone the ability to say funny things and see the funny side of things

e.g., Having a similar sense of humor is one of the pillars of friendship.

universal (adjective)

/ˌjuːnɪˈvɜːrsl/

involving everyone in the world or in a particular group

e.g., These stories have universal appeal.

perception (noun) [uncountable]

/pərˈsepʃn/

the way you notice things, especially with the senses

e.g., Everyone's perception of reality is slightly different.

Cambridge 15 | Test 1 | Passage 2

Driverless Cars

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.

adapt (verb) [intransitive]

/əˈdæpt/

e.g., to change your ideas or behavior to make them suitable for a new situation

on the horizon (idiom)

likely to happen or exist soon

e.g., There is no new drug on the horizon that will make this disease easier to treat.

be/have something to do with something (idiom) [informal]

to be related to something or a cause of something but not in a way that you know about or understand exactly

e.g., I'm not sure what he does exactly - it's something to do with finance. 

Cambridge 15 | Test 1 | Passage 1

Nutmeg – a valuable spice

The nutmeg tree is a large evergreen tree native to Southeast Asia. Until the late 18th century, it only grew in one place in the world: a small group of islands in the Banda Sea. The tree is thickly branched with dense foliage of tough, dark green oval leaves, and produces small, yellow, bell-shaped flowers and pale yellow pear-shaped fruits. The fruit is encased in a fleshy husk. When the fruit is ripe, this husk splits into two halves along a ridge running the length of the fruit. Inside is a purple-brown shiny seed, 2-4 cm long by about 2 cm across, surrounded by a lacy red or crimson covering called an “aril.” These are the sources of the two spices nutmeg and mace, the former being produced from the dried seed and the latter from the aril.

ripe (adjective)

/raɪp/

(of fruit or crops) completely developed and ready to be collected or eaten

e.g., Those bananas aren't ripe yet - they're still green.

former (noun) [S]

/ˈfɔːrmər/

the first of two things or people mentioned

e.g., He had to choose between giving up his job and giving up his principles. He chose the former.

latter (noun) [S]

/ˈlætər/

the second of two things or people mentioned

She offered me more money or a car and I chose the latter.

Cambridge 14 | Test 4 | Passage 2

Why zoos are good

In my view, It is perfectly possible for many species of animals living in zoos or wildlife parks to have a quality of life as high as, or higher than, in the wild. Animals in good zoos get a varied and high-quality diet with all the supplements required, and any illnesses they might have will be treated. Their

ostracism (noun) [uncountable]

/ˈɑː.strə.sɪ.zəm/

the action of intentionally not including someone in a social group or activity

bullying (noun) [uncountable]

the behaviour of a person who hurts or frightens someone smaller or less powerful, often forcing that person to do something they do not want to do

life expectancy noun [ C usually singular or U ]

/ˈlaɪf ɪkˌspek.tən.si/

the length of time that a living thing, especially a human being, is likely to live

Cambridge 14 | Test 2 | Passage 3

Why companies should welcome disorder

New research suggests that our obsession with efficiency is misguided. The problem is not necessarily the management theories or strategies we use to organize our work; it’s the basic assumption we hold in approaching how we work. Here it’s the assumption that order is a necessary condition for productivity. This assumption has also fostered the idea that disorder must be detrimental to organizational productivity. The result is that businesses and people spend time and money organizing themselves for the sake of organizing, rather than actually looking at the end goal and usefulness of such an effort.

obsession (noun) [C or U]

something or someone that you think about all the time   

misguided (adjective)

/ˌmɪsˈɡaɪ.dɪd/

wrong because you have understood or judged a situation badly

for the sake of

because of, or for the purpose of something

Cambridge 14 | Test 1 | Passage 1

The Importance of Children’s Play

Whitebeard’s recent research has involved developing a play-based approach to supporting children’s writing. “Many primary school children find writing difficult, but we showed in a previous study that a playful stimulus was far more effective than an instructional one.” Children wrote longer and better-structured stories when they first played with dolls representing characters in the story. In the latest study, children first created their story with Lego, with similar results. “Many teachers commented that they had always previously had children saying they didn’t know what to write about. With the Lego building, however, not a single child said this through the whole year of the project.”

stimulus (noun) [countable]

/ˈstɪm.jə.ləs/

something that causes growth or activity

represent (verb) [t]

/ˌreprɪˈzent/

to be a sign or symbol of something

latest (adjective)

/ˈleɪtɪst/

newest or most recent or modern

Cambridge 13 | Test 2 | Passage 3

Making the Most of Trends

Many ignore trends in their innovation strategies or adopt a

cede (verb) [ T ] formal

/siːd/

to give somebody control of something or give them power, a right, etc., especially unwillingly

spur (verb) [ T ]

/spər/

to encourage an activity or development or make it happen faster

engender (verb) formal

/ɪnˈdʒendər/

to make people have a particular feeling or make a situation start to exist

Cambridge 13 | Test 2 | Passage 2

Oxytocin

In almost half of the existing research results, oxytocin influenced only certain individuals or in certain circumstances. Where once researchers took no notice of such findings, now a more nuanced understanding of oxytocin’s effects is propelling investigations down new lines. The key to understanding what the hormone does lies in pinpointing its core function rather than in cataloguing its seemingly endless effects. There are

nuanced (adjective)

made slightly different in appearance, meaning, sound, etc.

pinpoint (verb)

to discover or describe the exact facts about something

mutually exclusive (adjective)

If two things are mutually exclusive, they cannot exist or happen together at the same time

Cambridge 13 | Test 1 | Passage 2

Why Being Bored is Useful

 Psychologist Sandi Mann at the University of Central Lancashire, UK, believes that “all emotions are there for a reason, including boredom.” Mann has found that being bored makes us more creative. “We’re all afraid of being bored but in actual fact it can lead to all kinds of amazing things.” In experiments published last year, Mann found that people who had been made to feel bored by copying numbers out of the phone book for 15 minutes came up with more creative ideas about how to use a polystyrene cup than a control group. Mann concluded that a passive, boring activity is best for creativity because it allows the mind to wander. In fact, she goes so far as to suggest that we should seek out more boredom in our lives.

boredom (noun) [ U ]

the state of being bored

wander (verb)

If your mind or your thoughts wander, you stop thinking about the subject that you should be giving your attention to and start thinking about other matters

seek out (verb)

to search for and find (someone or something)