Part 5

Multiple-choice reading

You are going to read an article about a scientist who studies sleep. For questions 31–36, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text.

The science of sleep

Researcher Tom Adesanya wants to change the way we think about rest

Tom Adesanya’s office at the university sleep research centre contains an unusual feature: a narrow bed, neatly made, pushed against the far wall. He is not embarrassed about this. ‘I nap here twice a week,’ he says, settling into his chair. ‘It would be professionally inconsistent not to.’ Tom has spent fifteen years studying the science of sleep, and he has arrived at some conclusions that challenge the assumptions of both the medical establishment and the general public.

His first, and most frequently repeated, argument is that Western societies have developed a fundamentally mistaken attitude towards sleeplessness. ‘We have turned the ability to function on little sleep into a badge of honour,’ he says. ‘Executives boast about it. Athletes report it as evidence of dedication. This is, quite simply, dangerous.’ His research has consistently shown that adults who sleep fewer than six hours a night display measurable cognitive decline within ten days — decline that the individuals themselves typically fail to notice. line 18‘That’s the insidious part,’ he explains. ‘You become less capable, but you lose the capacity to accurately assess your own capabilities.’

Tom is equally critical of what he calls ‘the sleep industry’ — the market for supplements, apps, and high-tech mattresses that has grown enormously in recent years. ‘The irony is that many of these products make people more anxious about sleep, not less,’ he argues. ‘You go to bed with a device monitoring your sleep stages, you wake up to a report that says your deep sleep was below average, and suddenly you are worried about something that was perfectly fine the night before.’ He has coined the term ‘orthosomnia’ — anxiety created by excessive focus on sleep data — to describe this phenomenon.

His own research takes a different approach. Rather than measuring sleep in isolation, Tom studies it in the context of the complete daily cycle — what he calls the ‘circadian architecture’ of a person’s day. line 33Meal timing, light exposure, exercise, and social interaction all play roles that are, in his view, inseparable from sleep quality. ‘You cannot fix sleep at night if you ignore everything that happens during the day,’ he says.

The practical applications of this research are beginning to reach the public domain. Tom has advised several large employers on shift-work scheduling, and a number of schools in the region have adjusted their start times based on his recommendations. He is philosophical about the pace of change: ‘People resist adjusting routines that feel normal, even when the evidence is strong. I accepted that a long time ago.’

When asked whether he ever struggles to sleep himself, Tom smiles. ‘Of course. I’m human. But I think I understand the experience better than most people, which means I worry about it less — and worrying less is, it turns out, rather good for sleep.’

Question 31Why does Tom have a bed in his office?

Question 32What does Tom find most concerning about the effects of sleep deprivation, according to line 18?

Question 33Tom’s term ‘orthosomnia’ refers to

Question 34What does Tom mean by ‘circadian architecture’ in line 33?

Question 35How does Tom feel about the slow adoption of his recommendations?

Question 36In the final paragraph, Tom suggests that his expertise helps him because

Answer key — Part 5

31B‘It would be professionally inconsistent not to’ — he considers napping essential given what he researches, making it hypocritical not to do it.

32B‘You become less capable, but you lose the capacity to accurately assess your own capabilities’ — people cannot recognise their own decline.

33C‘Anxiety created by excessive focus on sleep data’ — worrying about sleep caused by tracking it obsessively with apps and devices.

34C‘Meal timing, light exposure, exercise, and social interaction all play roles… inseparable from sleep quality’ — it is the whole pattern of the day, not sleep in isolation.

35B‘I accepted that a long time ago’ — he is philosophical and has made peace with the slow pace of change.

36B‘I worry about it less — and worrying less is… rather good for sleep.’ Understanding removes the anxiety that would otherwise make sleep worse.

Part 6

Gapped text

You are going to read an article about a company developing sustainable packaging from natural materials. Six sentences have been removed. Choose from sentences A–G the one which fits each gap (37–42). There is one extra sentence you do not need to use.

Packaging from the forest floor

A small start-up believes mushrooms could replace plastic in the packaging industry

In a converted warehouse on the edge of a small town in Vermont, workers are growing packaging material. Not assembling it, or manufacturing it from chemicals — growing it, from agricultural waste and the underground root network of fungi called mycelium. The company, founded six years ago by two materials scientists, now supplies packaging to several large American corporations. 37

The process works by mixing agricultural by-products — corn husks, hemp fibres, straw — with mycelium spores. The mixture is placed into a mould and left for around five days. During this time, the mycelium grows through the organic material, binding it into a rigid, lightweight structure that exactly matches the mould’s shape. 38 No chemicals, no heat, no energy-intensive manufacturing.

The founders, Sasha Brennan and James Kowalski, were not packaging specialists when they started. Sasha had a background in materials science, James in mycology. ‘We came at it from different directions,’ says Sasha. ‘James understood the biology. I understood the materials requirements. For a long time we weren’t sure those two things could meet in the middle.’ 39

The product has clear environmental advantages over conventional plastic packaging. It is fully compostable — a consumer can simply bury it in the garden, and within weeks it will have decomposed. 40 ‘We’ve had some fairly frank conversations with clients about that,’ says Sasha. ‘Our product costs more at the point of purchase. The argument we make is that it costs less at every other point in the product’s life.’

Scaling up has brought its own challenges. Mycelium-based production requires precise humidity and temperature control, and the quality of agricultural feedstocks varies considerably. 41 The company is currently working with two university research departments to develop a more standardised feedstock supply.

Sasha is cautious about predictions. ‘We are not going to replace plastic packaging. That’s not a realistic claim.’ 42 ‘If mycelium-based materials can capture five percent of the packaging market in the next decade, that represents an enormous reduction in plastic waste. Five percent of an enormous number is still a very large number.’

Sentences A – G (one is not used)

AInconsistencies in the raw material can lead to variations in product density that make quality control difficult.

BThe result is a structure that, to look at, is almost indistinguishable from moulded polystyrene.

CBut the price per unit remains higher than comparable plastic alternatives, which has slowed wider adoption.

DThe breakthrough came when they tested a corn-husk mixture that produced a rigidity neither had anticipated.

EThe hope is that a more reliable supply chain will eventually bring production costs down to competitive levels.

FShe is, however, equally clear that even a modest market share would represent a meaningful impact.

GWhat began as a research project at a Vermont college has since attracted significant investment from the packaging sector.

37Paragraph 1 — The company now supplies major corporations. Choose the sentence that gives background on how it got there.

38Paragraph 2 — Mycelium grows through the material to create a shape. Choose the sentence that describes what the result looks like.

39Paragraph 3 — For a long time they weren’t sure biology and materials science could meet. Choose the sentence that resolves this uncertainty.

40Paragraph 4 — The product is compostable, but there is a commercial drawback. Choose the sentence that introduces this problem.

41Paragraph 5 — Feedstock quality varies and causes problems. Choose the sentence that describes the specific difficulty this creates.

42Paragraph 6 — Sasha says replacing plastic entirely is not realistic. Choose the sentence that develops her position.

Answer key — Part 6

37G‘What began as a research project at a Vermont college has since attracted significant investment’ — this provides the backstory of how a small start-up reached the stage of supplying major corporations.

38B‘A structure that, to look at, is almost indistinguishable from moulded polystyrene’ — this describes the appearance of the finished product after the mycelium has grown.

39D‘The breakthrough came when they tested a corn-husk mixture’ — this is the moment when the two fields of expertise came together successfully.

40C‘The price per unit remains higher than comparable plastic alternatives, which has slowed wider adoption’ — this is the commercial disadvantage that Sasha then addresses in her quote.

41A‘Inconsistencies in the raw material can lead to variations in product density that make quality control difficult’ — this is the specific problem caused by varying feedstock quality.

42F‘She is… equally clear that even a modest market share would represent a meaningful impact’ — this develops her realistic but still positive position. Sentence E is the extra sentence.

Part 7

Multiple matching

You are going to read an article in which four scientists describe a moment when things went unexpectedly wrong in their research. For questions 43–52, choose from the scientists (A–D). The scientists may be chosen more than once.

A · Dr Fiona Walsh

Astrophysicist — telescope calibration error

We had been preparing the observation run for eight months. The telescope time is allocated through a competitive process, and getting three consecutive nights was genuinely hard to obtain. On the first night, about two hours in, it became clear that a calibration error — a small one, introduced during routine maintenance — was corrupting all of our data. We couldn’t fix it mid-session. My first reaction was anger, which I had to work hard to conceal from the rest of the team. Then something shifted. I made myself sit down and think through what, if anything, we could salvage. It turned out that one subset of the data, collected at a different wavelength, was unaffected. We spent the remaining two nights focused entirely on that subset, and it produced a finding we had not been looking for but which turned out to be rather significant. I now make a point of telling students: the mistake is rarely the end of the story.

B · Dr Marcus Hendry

Biochemist — contaminated cell culture

I had been running the same cell culture experiment for eleven weeks. The results were extremely promising — unexpectedly so, which I now realise should have alerted me. In week twelve, a colleague pointed out a pattern in the data that suggested contamination. I ran the checks and confirmed it. Everything from week three onwards was unusable. I sat in the lab for about an hour before I could bring myself to tell my supervisor. She was far calmer than I expected, which itself taught me something about how experienced researchers approach setbacks. What I struggled with most, afterwards, was not the lost time but the question of whether I had been seeing what I wanted to see rather than what was actually there. That question has made me a more careful scientist, even if it was an uncomfortable lesson to learn.

C · Dr Yuki Tanaka

Geologist — fieldwork data loss

We were three weeks into a six-week fieldwork expedition in northern Iceland when the hard drive containing all of our rock sample data failed. I had a backup system, but it had not been running correctly for several days, meaning we had effectively lost about ten days of work. The practical consequences were serious — we would need to re-sample a significant number of sites. But the psychological effect on the team was worse. Two of my research assistants were in their first year of postgraduate study, and I could see that the incident had shaken their confidence badly. I spent more time in the following week managing their morale than managing the scientific problem, which was the right priority. We recovered almost everything by extending the expedition by four days. The backup system has been replaced, and checked, and checked again.

D · Dr Priscilla Okafor

Neuroscientist — miscalculated sample size

The error was mine, and it was a simple one: I had miscalculated the statistical power required for the study, which meant the sample size was insufficient to support the conclusions I had drawn. A reviewer caught it before publication, which was embarrassing but, as I later understood, fortunate. Having to retract a published paper would have been far worse. I went back to the data and redesigned the study with a larger sample. The second version produced different results — less dramatic, but more robust. I have since become something of an advocate for pre-registration of research designs, precisely because it forces researchers to commit to their methodology before seeing the data, which reduces the temptation to adjust the analysis to fit the results. The lesson, for me, was about honesty — with reviewers, with colleagues, and with myself.

43Which scientist found an unexpected positive result despite the original problem?

44Which scientist says the experience prompted them to become more rigorous in their methods?

45Which scientist mentions that a supervisor’s reaction was unexpectedly composed?

46Which scientist found that managing people was more important than solving the technical problem?

47Which scientist had to redesign a study because the original version was statistically flawed?

48Which scientist mentions that promising results should have raised suspicion earlier?

49Which scientist now uses the experience as a lesson when teaching others?

50Which scientist describes taking deliberate steps to prevent a similar problem recurring?

51Which scientist says that their initial emotional response had to be hidden from colleagues?

52Which scientist found that the error raised doubts about their own objectivity as a researcher?

Answer key — Part 7

43ADr Walsh: ‘it produced a finding we had not been looking for but which turned out to be rather significant.’

44DDr Okafor became an advocate for pre-registration: ‘it forces researchers to commit to their methodology before seeing the data’ — a direct response to becoming more rigorous after her error.

45BDr Hendry: ‘She was far calmer than I expected, which itself taught me something about how experienced researchers approach setbacks.’

46CDr Tanaka: ‘I spent more time in the following week managing their morale than managing the scientific problem, which was the right priority.’

47DDr Okafor: ‘I had miscalculated the statistical power… I went back to the data and redesigned the study with a larger sample.’

48BDr Hendry: ‘The results were extremely promising — unexpectedly so, which I now realise should have alerted me.’

49ADr Walsh: ‘I now make a point of telling students: the mistake is rarely the end of the story.’

50CDr Tanaka: ‘The backup system has been replaced, and checked, and checked again.’

51ADr Walsh: ‘My first reaction was anger, which I had to work hard to conceal from the rest of the team.’

52BDr Hendry: ‘the question of whether I had been seeing what I wanted to see rather than what was actually there’ — he doubted his own objectivity as a researcher.