In many countries, companies hire more men than women for certain positions. Some people believe that employers should be required to recruit equal numbers of men and women in every field. What is your opinion?
Sample Answer
Gender inequality in the workplace remains a controversial issue in many parts of the world. While some people argue that companies should be legally obligated to hire equal numbers of men and women in every profession, I believe that recruitment should primarily be based on merit and qualifications rather than gender. However, equal opportunities should be ensured for both men and women.
Those who support equal recruitment often claim that it promotes gender equality and reduces workplace discrimination. In numerous industries, women have historically faced unfair treatment and limited career opportunities despite possessing the required skills and experience. By enforcing balanced recruitment policies, governments can encourage diversity in the workplace and create a fairer society. Furthermore, a gender-balanced workforce can bring different perspectives, improve teamwork, and enhance creativity within organizations. For example, many multinational companies have reported better decision-making after increasing female representation in leadership positions.
Nevertheless, I believe that mandatory equal hiring in every field may not always be practical or beneficial. Certain jobs require specific physical abilities, technical expertise, or personal interests that may naturally attract one gender more than the other. Employers should therefore focus on selecting the most competent candidate regardless of gender. Forcing companies to meet strict gender quotas could result in inefficient hiring decisions and reduced productivity. Instead of imposing compulsory recruitment targets, governments should ensure equal access to education, training, and employment opportunities so that both genders can compete fairly in the job market.
In conclusion, although recruiting equal numbers of men and women may help reduce discrimination and encourage diversity, I believe that hiring decisions should ultimately depend on an individual’s abilities and qualifications. The most effective solution is to guarantee equal opportunities while allowing employers the freedom to recruit the best candidates for each role.
High-Level Lexical Resources (LR) Used
Vocabulary
Gender inequality – unfair difference between men and women
Legally obligated – required by law
Merit and qualifications – skills and achievements
Workplace discrimination – unfair treatment at work
Gender-balanced workforce – equal participation of both genders
Female representation – involvement of women
Leadership positions – managerial or senior roles
Technical expertise – specialized knowledge
Gender quotas – fixed number requirements based on gender
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Reading Practice
The return of monkey life
Rain forest trees growing anew on Central American farmland are helping
scientists find ways for monkey and agriculture to benefit one another.
A.Hacienda La Pacifica, a remote working
cattle ranch in Guanacaste province of northern Costa Rica, has for decades
been home to a community of mantled howler monkeys. Other native primates-
white-faced capuchin monkeys and spider monkeys were once common in this area,
too, but vanished after the Pan-American Highway was built nearby in the 1950s
and most of the surrounding land was cleared for cattle-raising. At Hacienda La
Pacifica, however, an enlightened ranch owner chose to leave some strips of
native trees growing. He used these as windbreaks to protect both cattle and
their food crops from dry-season winds. In the process, the farmer unwittingly
founded a unique laboratory for the study of monkeys.
B.Ken Glander, a primatologist from Duke
University in the USA, is studying La Pacifica’smonkeys in an effort to
understand the relationship between howlers and regenerating forests at the
edges of grazing lands. Studying such disturbed woodlands is increasingly
important because throughout much of the New World Tropics, these are the only
forests left. In the 18th century, tropical dry forests once covered most of
Central America, but by the 1980s less than two percent remained undisturbed,
and less than one percent was protected.
C.Howlers persists at La Pacifica, Glander
explains, because they are leaf-eaters. Theyeat fruit when it is available but,
unlike capuchin and spider monkeys, do not depend on large areas of fruiting
trees. Glander is particularly interested in howlers’ ability to thrive on
leaves loaded with toxins- poisonous substances designed to protect the plants.
For leafeaters, long-term exposure to a specific plant toxin can increase their
ability to neutralize the poisonous substances and absorb the leaf nutrients.
Watching generations of howlers at La Pacifica has shown Glander that the
monkeys keep their systems primed by sampling a variety of plants and then
focusing on a small number of the most nutritious food items. The leaves that
grow in regenerating forests, like those at La Pacifica, are actually more
howler-friendly than those produced by the centuries-old trees that survive
farther south. In younger forests, trees put most of their limited energy into
growing wood, leaves, and fruit, so they produce much lower levels of toxin than
do well-established, old-growth trees.
D.The value of maturing forests to primates is
also a subject of study at Santa Rosa National Park, about 35 miles northwest
of La Pacifica. Large areas of Santa Rosa’s forests had at one time been burnt
to make space for cattle ranching and coffee farming, thereby devastating local
monkey habitat. But in 1971 the government protected the area by designating it
a National Park, and species of Indigenous Lees which had been absent for
decades began to invade the abandoned pastures. Capuchins were the first to
begin using the reborn forests, followed by howlers. Eventually, even spider
monkeys, fruit-eaters that need large areas of continuous forest, returned. In
the first 28 years following protection of the area, the capuchin population
doubled, while the number of howlers increased sevenfold.
E.Some of the same traits that allow howlers
to survive at La Pacifica also explain their population boom in Santa Rosa,
Howler reproduction is faster than that of other native monkey species. They
give birth for the first time at about 3.5 years of age, compared with seven
years for capuchins, and eight or more for spider monkeys. Also, while a female
spider monkey will have a baby about once every four years, well-fed howlers can
produce an infant every two years. Another factor is diet. Howlers are very
adaptable feeders, and only need a comparatively small home range. Spider
monkeys, on the other hand, need to occupy a huge home range. Also crucial is
fact that the leaves howlers eat hold plenty of water, so the monkeys can
survive away from open streams and water holes. This ability gives them a real
advantage over capuchin and spider monkeys, which have suffered during the
long, ongoing drought in the area.
F.Alejandro Estrada, an ecologist at Estacion
de Biologia Los Tuxtlas in Veracruz, Mexico, has been studying the ecology of a
group of howler monkeys that thrive in a habitat totally altered by humans: a
cacao plantation in Tabasco state, Mexico. Cacao plants need shade to grow, so
40 years ago the owners of Cholula Cacao Farm planted figs, monkeypod and other
tall trees to form a protective canopy over their crop. The howlers moved in
about 25 years ago after nearby forests were cut. This strange habitat seems to
support about as many monkeys as would a same-sized patch of wild forest. The
howlers eat the leaves and fruit of the shade trees, leaving the valuable cacao
pods alone.
G.Estrada believes the monkeys bring
underappreciated benefits to such plantations, dispersing the seeds of fruits
such as fig and other shade trees, and fertilizing the soil. Spider monkeys
also forage for fruit here, though they need nearby areas of forest to survive
in the long term. He hopes that farmers will begin to see the advantages of
associating with wild monkeys, which could include potential ecotourism
projects, ‘Conservation is usually viewed as a conflict between farming
practices and the need to preserve nature,’ Estrada says. ‘We’re moving away
from that vision and beginning to consider ways in which commercial activities
may become a tool for the conservation of primates in human-modified
landscapes.’
QUESTIONS 1-4
Reading Passage has seven paragraphs, A-G.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter A-G,
in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.
NBYou may use any letter more than once
1.....................
a reason why newer forests provide howlers with better feeding opportunities
than older forests
2.....................
a reference to a change in farmers’ attitudes towards wildlife
3.....................
a description of the means by which howlers select the best available diet for
themselves
4.....................
figures relating to the reduction of natural wildlife habitat over a period of time
QUESTIONS 5-8
Complete the summary below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from
the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 5-8 on your answer sheet.
Why do howlers have an advantage over otherCentral American monkeys?
-Howler monkeys have a more rapid rate
of 5..................... than
either capuchin of spider monkeys.
-Unlike the other local monkey species, howlers can survive
without eating
6.....................,
-and so can live inside a relatively
small habitat area. Their diet is more flexible,and they are able to tolerate leaves with
high levels of 7......................
-Howlers can also survive periods of 8..................... better than the
other monkey species can.
QUESTIONS 9-13
Look at the following features (Questions 9-13) and the list of
locations below.
Match each feature with the correct location, A, B or C.
Write the correct letter, A,
B or C, in boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet.
NBYou may use any letter more than once.
List of Locations
AHacienda La Pacifica
BSanta Rosa National Park
CCholula Cacao Farm
9.....................
It has seen the return of native tree species.
10.....................
It supports only one species of native monkey.
11.....................
Its monkey population helps the agriculture of the area.
12.....................
It is home to populations of all three local monkey species.
13.....................
Its landscape was altered by the construction of a transport link.
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Reading Practice
Pacific
navigation and voyaging
How
people migrated to the Pacific islands
The many tiny islands of the Pacific Ocean had no human
population until ancestors of today’s islanders sailed from Southeast Asia in
ocean-going canoes approximately 2,000 years ago. At the present time, the
debate continues about exactly how they migrated such vast distances across the
ocean, without any of the modern technologies we take for granted.
Although the romantic vision of some early
twentieth-century writers of fleets of heroic navigators simultaneously setting
sail had come to be considered by later investigators to be exaggerated, no
considered assessment of Pacific voyaging was forthcoming until 1956 when the
American historian Andrew Sharp published his research. Sharp challenged the
‘heroic vision’ by asserting that the expertise of the navigators was limited,
and that the settlement of the islands was not systematic, being more dependent
on good fortune by drifting canoes. Sharp’s theory was widely challenged, and
deservedly so. If nothing else, however, it did spark renewed interest in the
topic and precipitated valuable new research.
Since the 1960s a wealth of investigations has been
conducted, and most of them, thankfully, have been of the ‘non-armchair’
variety. While it would be wrong to denigrate all ‘armchair’ research - that
based on an examination of available published materials - it has turned out
that so little progress had been made in the area of Pacific voyaging because
most writers relied on the same old sources - travelers’ journals or missionary
narratives compiled by unskilled observers. After Sharp, this began to change,
and researchers conducted most of their investigations not in libraries, but in
the field.
In 1965, David Lewis, a physician and experienced
yachtsman, set to work using his own unique philosophy: he took the yacht he
had owned for many years and navigated through the islands in order to contact
those men who still find their way at sea using traditional methods. He then
accompanied these men, in their traditional canoes, on test voyages from which
all modern instruments were banished from sight, though Lewis secretly used
them to confirm the navigator’s calculations. His most famous such voyage was a
return trip of around 1,000 nautical miles between two islands in midocean. Far
from drifting, as proposed by Sharp, Lewis found that ancient navigators would
have known which course to steer by memorizing which stars rose and set in
certain positions along the horizon and this gave them fixed directions by
which to steer their boats.
The geographer Edwin Doran followed a quite different
approach. He was interested in obtaining exact data on canoe sailing
performance, and to that end employed the latest electronic instrumentation.
Doran traveled on board traditional sailing canoes in some of the most remote
parts of the Pacific, all the while using his instruments to record canoe
speeds in different wind strengths - from gales to calms - the angle canoes
could sail relative to the wind. In the process, he provided the first really
precise attributes of traditional sailing canoes.
A further contribution was made by Steven Horvath. As a
physiologist, Horvath’s interest was not in navigation techniques or in canoes,
but in the physical capabilities of the men themselves. By adapting standard
physiological techniques, Horvath was able to calculate the energy expenditure
required to paddle canoes of this sort at times when there was no wind to fill
the sails, or when the wind was contrary. He concluded that paddles, or perhaps
long oars, could indeed have propelled for long distances what were primarily
sailing vessels.
Finally, a team led by p Wall Garrard conducted important
research, in this case by making investigations while remaining safely in the
laboratory. Wall Garrard’s unusual method was to use the findings of linguists
who had studied the languages of the Pacific islands, many of which are
remarkably similar although the islands where they are spoken are sometimes
thousands of kilometres apart. Clever adaptation of computer simulation
techniques pioneered in other disciplines allowed him to produce convincing
models suggesting the migrations were indeed systematic, but not simultaneous.
Wall Garrard proposed the migrations should be seen not as a single journey
made by a massed fleet of canoes, but as a series of ever more ambitious
voyages, each pushing further into the unknown ocean.
What do we learn about Pacific navigation and voyaging from
this research? Quite correctly, none of the researchers tried to use their
findings to prove one theory or another; experiments such as these cannot
categorically confirm or negate a hypothesis. The strength of this research lay
in the range of methodologies employed. When we splice together these findings
we can propose that traditional navigators used a variety of canoe types,
sources of water and navigation techniques, and it was this adaptability which
was their greatest accomplishment. These navigators observed the conditions
prevailing at sea at the time a voyage was made and altered their techniques
accordingly. Furthermore, the canoes of the navigators were not drifting
helplessly at sea but were most likely part of a systematic migration; as such,
the Pacific peoples were able to view the ocean as an avenue, not a barrier, to
communication before any other race on Earth. Finally, one unexpected but most
welcome consequence of this research has been a renaissance in the practice of
traditional voyaging. In some groups of islands in the Pacific today young
people are resurrecting the skills of their ancestors, when a few decades ago
it seemed they would be lost forever.
Question 1-5
Do
the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading
Passage?
In
boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet, write
YESif the statement agrees with the claims of
the writer
NOif the statement contradicts the claims of
the writer
NOT GIVEN if is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
1.....................The Pacific islands were uninhabited when
migrants arrived by sea from Southeast Asia
2.....................Andrew Sharp was the first person to write
about the migrants to islanders
3.....................Andrew Sharp believed migratory voyages
were based on more on luck than skill
4.....................Despite being controversial, Andrew
Sharp’s research had positive results
5.....................Edwin Doran disagreed with the findings of
Lewis’s research
Questions 6-10
Choose
the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write
the correct letter in boxes 6-10 on your answer sheet.
6. David Lewis’s research was different
because A he observed traditional navigators at work
Bhe
conducted test voyages using his own yacht
Che
carried no modern instruments on test voyages
Dhe
spoke the same language as the islanders he sailed with
7. What did
David Lewis’s research discover about traditional navigators?
AThey
used the sun and moon to find their position
BThey
could not sail further than about 1,000 nautical miles
CThey knew which direction they were sailing in
D They were able to drift for long distances
8. What are we
told about Edwin Doran’s research?
AData
were collected after the canoes had returned to land
BCanoe
characteristics were recorded using modern instruments
CResearch
was conducted in the most densely populated regions
DNavigators
were not allowed to see the instruments Doran used
9. Which of the
following did Steven Horvath discover during his research?
ACanoe
design was less important than human strength
BNew
research methods had to be developed for use in canoes
CNavigators became very tired on the longest
voyages
DHuman energy may have been used to assist
sailing canoes
10. What is the
writer’s opinion of p Wall Garrard’s research?
AHe
is disappointed it was conducted in the laboratory
BHe
is impressed by the originality of the techniques used
CHe
is surprised it was used to help linguists with their research
DHe
is concerned that the islands studied are long distances apart
Questions 11-14
Complete
each sentence with the correct ending, A-F, below.
Write
the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 11-14 on your answer sheet.
11.....................One limitation in the information produced
by all of this research is that it
12.....................The best thing about this type of research
13.....................The most important achievement of
traditional navigators
14.....................The migration of people from Asia to the
Pacific
A was the variety of experimental
techniques used
B was not of interest to young
islanders today
c was not conclusive evidence in
support of a single theory
Dwas being able to change their practices
when necessary
Ewas the first time humans intentionally
crossed an ocean
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Question
Individuals can do nothing to improve the environment; only governments and large companies can make a difference. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Sample Answer
Environmental degradation has become a pressing global issue, and many people argue that only governments and multinational corporations possess the power to tackle this problem effectively. Although I acknowledge that authorities and large businesses play a crucial role in environmental protection, I strongly disagree with the idea that individuals are powerless. In my opinion, collective individual efforts can significantly contribute to improving the environment.
On the one hand, governments and major corporations undeniably have the resources and authority to bring about large-scale environmental changes. Governments can introduce strict environmental regulations, invest in renewable energy projects, and impose heavy penalties on industries that pollute the environment. Likewise, multinational companies can reduce carbon emissions by adopting sustainable manufacturing methods and eco-friendly technologies. For instance, many global firms are now switching to biodegradable packaging and clean energy sources in order to minimize their environmental footprint. Such measures can create a substantial impact because these organizations operate on a massive scale.
On the other hand, individuals also have an essential role to play in protecting the environment. Small actions taken by millions of people can collectively produce remarkable results. For example, people can reduce plastic consumption, recycle household waste, conserve electricity, and use public transport instead of private vehicles. Moreover, individuals can influence others through social awareness and responsible consumer behavior. If consumers prefer environmentally friendly products, companies will automatically be encouraged to adopt sustainable practices to meet public demand. Therefore, it is evident that ordinary citizens are not helpless and can actively contribute to environmental preservation.
In conclusion, while governments and large corporations are capable of implementing wide-ranging environmental policies, individuals are equally important in addressing environmental problems. I firmly believe that environmental protection requires a combined effort from authorities, businesses, and ordinary people alike.
High-Level Lexical Resources (LR) Used
Vocabulary
Environmental degradation – damage to the environment
Pressing global issue – urgent worldwide problem
Multinational corporations – large international companies
Collective efforts – combined actions of many people
Renewable energy – energy from sustainable sources
Carbon emissions – gases released into the atmosphere
Sustainable manufacturing – environmentally friendly production
Environmental footprint – impact on the environment
Biodegradable packaging – packaging that decomposes naturally
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READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions
27-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3.
We Have Star Performers
Most
organisations are looking for talent. But what if they’ve got it wrong, asks
Jeffrey Pfeffer
A. One widely held assumption about talent is that it is a
reasonably fixed characteristic and it is therefore the job of organisations to
identify, recruit and retain star performers. This belief affects the way
people are managed in the workplace. Most recruitment decisions are influenced
by the skills and abilities of an individual rather than their aptitude and
attitude. In terms of career development, organisations invest in staff who
have been selected to reach higher-level positions, while ignoring front-line
employees and people with less perceived potential. This idea, that talent is a
fixed, identifiable characteristic – and that those firms with the best people
do the best – is both flawed and harmful to people and organisations. There is
a lot of evidence on this point, and it is useful to highlight some of the most
pertinent arguments.
B. First, are there stars? There is no question that in
every field, from sports to computer programming to music, there are people who
are better than the rest. As psychologist Dean Keith Simonton, who has spent
his career studying greatness, has said, 'Wherever you look, the same story can
be told. Identify the ten per cent who have achieved the most in a certain
endeavour. Count the accomplishments they have to their credit. Now tally the
accomplishments of the remaining 90 per cent. The first tally will equal or
surpass the second.' For instance, in music, 16 individuals have produced about
50 per cent of the Western classical music that is performed and recorded
today, while another 235 composers have produced the remaining half. The more
interesting questions concern not the existence of stars, but whether these
stars can be reliably identified and, even more importantly, whether their
talent is a fixed aspect or can be altered.
C. Identifying the best people is tricky. Quality of
performance changes over time and this is true whether we are talking about
professors or footballers. If performance naturally varies, any measurement
taken at a single point in time, such as when someone is being hired, will have
error and imprecision. Therefore, single assessments of talent are likely to
contain mistakes in their categorisation of people. Also, judgements about
performance and ability depend on the standards used to judge what is good and
bad. It should surprise no-one that for Bach to be considered a great musician,
standards of music needed to change to embrace the qualities that his
compositions possessed. Similarly, artists and art come in and out of fashion,
which means that what is genius depends not only on a person's ability, but on
the prevailing standards used to evaluate output.
D. Finally, it is difficult to evaluate people and their
abilities with precision. In the domain of work, research shows that the best
predictors of job performance tend to be measures of intelligence. But even
these measures correlate only loosely with performance, which means that more
than 80 per cent of the variation in performance is unexplained by even the
best predictors. Even in the sports arena, where one would think natural
ability would be readily assessed because sports teams spend lots of resources
on identifying talent, mistakes get made. Basketball star Michael Jordan was
dropped by his high school basketball coach and a number of top American
football quarterbacks were available early in their careers because they were
not considered good enough by various teams.
E. This leads on to the next question: is talent born or
made? Should organisations assume that almost anyone can become a star
performer, which implies that there ought to be a greater emphasis on
motivation and development, or do they just figure out who is good and who
isn't? Here the evidence is clear: talent is at least as much 'created' as
inherent and, more importantly, the customary way companies think about
identifying talent almost certainly works to destroy a lot of untapped
potential. Decades of research by K Anders Ericsson, professor of psychology at
Florida State University, show that exceptional performance doesn't happen
without around ten years of nearly daily, deliberate practice for about four
hours a day, by people who with the assistance of their coaches have access to
the best techniques. Once achieved, exceptional performance can't be maintained
without relentless effort. So performance may be as much a consequence of
training as it is of innate ability, which suggests that performance can be
altered by how people are managed.
F. Further research by Stanford psychology professor Carol
Dweck shows that the tendency of organisations to see performance results as an
opportunity for an 'assessment' of ability, results in lower performance and
poor motivation. Dweck identified two sets of goals that people bring to a
performance context: 'performance goals, where the purpose is to validate one's
ability or avoid demonstrating a lack of ability, and learning goals, where the
aim is to acquire new knowledge and skills'. People with performance goals have
been shown to be more prone to helpless behaviour and debilitation after a
setback, while people with learning goals strive for higher performance. The
implications for managing people and talent are clear. Seeing talent as fixed
and job performance as a way of classifying people creates a self-fulfilling
prophecy in which ability and intelligence do become fixed. By contrast, seeing
ability as malleable leads to a different sort of self-fulfilling prophecy, in
which individuals and their employers may invest in ways to enhance
performance.
Questions 27 – 32
Reading Passage 3 has six paragraphs, A-F.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 27-32 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
27 disagreement with the view that
employing talented people enables companies to achieve top performance
28 a description of what individuals have to do on a
regular basis to improve their performance
29 the evidence that exceptional talent exists in all areas
of life
30 how different ways of evaluating achievement at work can
cause different reactions in employees
31 the belief that the time when an assessment is carried out
affects its accuracy
32 the extent to which different talented individuals have
contributed to their particular area of achievement
Questions 33 – 35
Answer the questions below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER
from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 33-35 on your answer sheet.
33 How many Western classical composers are identified as
exceptionally talented?
34 Which composer initially received little recognition for
his work?
35 Who can help improve the performance of people
practising daily?
Questions
36 – 40
Do
the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 3?
In boxes 36-40 on your answer sheet, write
·TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
·FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
·NOT
GIVEN if there is no information on this
36 Companies usually hire people on the basis of their
character.
37 There are some areas of sport that have a greater
proportion of talent than others.
38 Measures of intelligence accurately predict performance
at work.
39 There are cases in which talented sportspeople have been
overlooked.
40 Newly formed organisations have the most highly
motivated staff.
