EDI test reading example

INSTRUCTIONS

• Read each question carefully

• Select the correct answer and then mark your selection on your answer sheet

• Only mark one answer for each question

Page 2 of 14

Part One

Read the article below. Then look at the questions on the following page and select the best heading (A B C or D) for each of the numbered paragraphs.

Mark your answers on your answer sheet.

AGEING

1.______________________

The maximum human lifespan has not increased significantly since the Stone Age. Although average

life spans have increased dramatically in the last few hundred years, the maximum age we can expect

to reach is around one hundred. Humans have a long life compared to most other animals. In

general, the bigger an animal the longer it lives, but there are exceptions – the tarantula can reach 28

years and some deep-sea clams have a recorded lifespan of 100 years.

2.______________________

Since the dawn of time, man has agonised over the meaning of life and death, but it is a biological fact

that the evolution of species depends on the death of individual creatures. If a new generation,

incorporating improvement, is to flourish, the previous generation must get out of the way. In other

words, a species benefits if its members are ‘programmed’ to die. Many plants, for example, die

immediately after they have scattered their seeds and animals that reproduce only once in their lives,

for example most insects, generally die immediately afterwards.

3.______________________

Animals that breed repeatedly during their lives, larger mammals for instance, do not have such a

sharply defined time of death, but they do deteriorate as they age. It is wrong to think of ageing as an

illness. Ageing is a process that goes on over the entire passage of an adult lifespan and is as much

a part of living as infancy, childhood and adolescence. The effects which are popularly associated

with ageing, such as physical weakness or loss of mental ability, are in fact the effects of disease and

not ageing itself.

4.______________________

The ageing process starts on a cellular level and it is to the cells that scientists investigating ageing first turn their attention. Cells are like chemical factories, manufacturing substances essential for themselves and the body. One theory of ageing, the mutation theory, is that chance errors build up over time. If the cell is one of those types that reproduces itself, these errors will be passed on to the new cells and some errors will arise in the copying process. These errors build up until the cells cannot work properly.

5.________________________

Doctors specialising in gerontology (the study of ageing) have discovered that the biological make-up

of a fit 60 year old is hardly different from that of a fit 30 year old. Correct diet, moderate exercise and

not smoking will help to avoid diseases of the heart and lungs. Similarly, the decline in mental powers

among many old people is often made worse by lack of stimulation. In many cases this can follow

from loneliness, poverty and not having enough to do. Many people who ‘age successfully’ make

conscious efforts to maintain mental alertness by continuing to learn and continuing to meet and talk with other people.

Part One (continued)

1. A Life is Short

B The Meaning of Life

C Life Expectancy

D How to Live Longer

2. A Why Plants Die

B Making Way for the Next Generation

C Individual Creatures

D The Natural World

3. A Ageing is Natural

B Coping with Ageing

C Age Before Beauty

D Ageing and Disease

4. A Looking After Your Body

B Building Cells

C Reproduction

D How Ageing Occurs

5. A Diet in Old Age

B Slowing the Ageing Process

C Stay Fit at Thirty

D Growing

Question Key

1 C

2 B

3 A

4 D

5 B