Cambridge 12 | Test 7 | Passage 3

Music and the Emotions

Why does music make us feel? On the one hand, music is a purely abstract art form devoid of language or explicit ideas. And yet, even though music says little, it still manages to touch us deeply. When listening to our favorite songs, our body betrays all the symptoms of emotional arousal. The pupils in our eyes dilate, our pulse and blood pressure rise, the electrical conductance of our skin is lowered, and the cerebellum, a brain region associated with bodily movement, becomes strangely active. Blood is even re-directed to the muscles in our legs. In other words, sound stirs us at our biological roots.

abstract (adjective)

existing as an idea, feeling, or quality, not as a material object

touch (verb) [T]

to influence someone or something emotionally

stir (verb) [T]

If something stirs you, it makes you feel a strong emotion

Cambridge 12 | Test 6 | Passage 3

The Benefits of Being Bilingual

Research indicates that bilingual experience

bilingual (adjective)

monolingual (adjective)

recruit (verb)

Cambridge 12 | Test 5 | Passage 2

Collecting as a Hobby

There are people who collect because they want to make money—this could be called an instrumental reason for collecting; that is, collecting as a means to an end. They’ll look for, say, antiques that they can buy cheaply and expect to be able to sell at a profit. But there may well be a psychological element, too—buying cheap and selling dear can give the collector a sense of triumph. And as selling online is so easy, more and more people are joining in.

as a means to an end

sell at a profit

triumph (noun) [uncountable]

the feeling of great satisfaction or joy that you get from a great success or victory

Cambridge 10 | Test 4 | Passage 2

Film Sound

Film sound comprises conventions and innovations. We have come to expect an acceleration of music during car chases and creaky doors in horror films. Yet, it is important to note as well that sound is often brilliantly conceived. The effects of sound are often largely subtle and often are noted by only our subconscious minds. We need to foster an awareness of film sound as well as film space so as to truly appreciate an art form that sprang to life during the twentieth century—the modern film.

creaky (adjective)

subtle (adjective)

small but important

foster (verb) [T]

to encourage the development or growth of ideas or feelings

Cambridge 10 | Test 2 | Passage 3

Museums of Fine Art

If Mona Lisa was a famous novel, few people would bother to go to a museum to read the writer’s actual manuscript rather than a printed reproduction. This might be explained by the fact that the novel has evolved precisely because of technological developments that made it possible to print out huge numbers of texts, whereas oil paintings have always been produced as unique objects. In addition, it could be argued that the practice of interpreting or “reading” each medium follows different conventions. With novels, the reader attends mainly to the meaning of words rather than the way they are printed on the page, whereas the “reader” of a painting must attend just as closely to the material form of marks and shapes in the picture as to any ideas they may signify.

manuscript (noun) [C]

the original copy of a book or article before it is printed

medium (noun) [C]

a method or way of expressing something

convention (noun) [C, UNC]

the way in which something is done that most people in a society expect and consider to be polite or the right way to do it

Cambridge 6 | Test 3 | Passage 3

The Anti-aging Pill

To delay aging, people would have to reduce their caloric intake by roughly thirty per cent. Few mortals could stick to that harsh regimen, especially for years on end. But what if someone could create a pill that mimicked the physiological effects of eating less without actually forcing people to eat

regimen noun [C]

any set of rules about food and exercise that someone follows,

mimic verb [T]

to look or behave like something else

postpone verb [T]

to delay an event and plan or decide that it should happen at a later

Cambridge 7 | Test 2 | Passage 2

The True Cost of Food

For more than forty years the cost of food has been rising. It has now reached a point where a growing number of people believe that it is far too high, and that bringing it down will be one of the great challenges of the twenty first century. That cost, however, is not in immediate cash. In the West at least, most food is now far cheaper to buy in relative terms than it was in 1960. The cost is in the collateral damage of the very methods of food production that have made the food cheaper: in the pollution of water, the enervation of soil, the destruction of wildlife, the harm to animal welfare and the threat to human health caused by modern industrial agriculture.

collateral damage (noun) [uncountable]

during a war, the unintentional deaths and injuries of people who are not soldiers, and damage that is caused to their homes, hospitals, schools, etc.

enervation (noun) [uncountable] (formal)

​the feeling of being weak and tired

welfare (noun) [uncountable]

physical and mental health and happiness, especially of a person

Cambridge 8 | Test 3 | Passage 2

The Nature of Genius

To think of geniuses and the gifted as having uniquely different brains is only reasonable if we accept that each human brain is uniquely different. The purpose of instruction is to make us even more different from one another, and in the process of being educated we can learn from the achievements of those more gifted than ourselves. But before we try to emulate geniuses or encourage our children to do so, we should note that some of the things we learn from them may prove unpalatable. We may envy their achievements and fame, but we should also recognize the price they may have paid in terms of perseverance, single-mindedness, dedication, restrictions on their personal lives, the demands upon their energies and time, and how often they had to display great courage to preserve their integrity or to make their way to the top.

emulate (verb) [transitive]

to copy something achieved by someone else and try to do it as well as they have

unpalatable (adjective) [formal]

unpleasant and not easy to accept

single-mindedness (noun) [uncountable]

the quality of being very determined and thinking only about achieving a particular thing

Cambridge 8 | Test 2 | Passage 3

The meaning and power of smell

Odors are essential cues in social bonding. One respondent to a survey believed that there is no true emotional bonding without

bonding (noun) [uncountable]

/ˈbɑːn.dɪŋ/

the process by which a close emotional

odor (noun) [countable, uncountable]

/ˈoʊdər/

a smell, especially one that is unpleasant

scent (noun) [uncountable, countable]

/sent/

the pleasant smell that something has

Cambridge 9 | Test 2 | Passage 3

A Neuroscientist Reveals How to Think Differently

The best way to see things differently to other people is to bombard the brain with things it has never encountered before. Novelty releases the perceptual process from the chains of past experience and forces the brain to make new judgments. Successful iconoclasts have an extraordinary willingness to be exposed to what is fresh and different. Observation of iconoclasts shows that they embrace novelty while most people avoid things that are different.

bombard (verb) [transitive]

 /bɑːmˈbɑːrd/

to do something too often or too much, for example criticizing or questioning someone, or giving too much information

novelty (noun) [uncountable]

/ˈnɑːvlti/

the quality of being new, different and interesting

iconoclast (noun) [countable]

/aɪˈkɑː.nə.klæst/