Exam practice

a. altitude b. molecule c. equilibrium d. condense e. factoid f. vacuum g. plunger
(Plunger is also the name of the rubber cup on a stick used to clear a blocked drain, which works by pushing and pulling water in the pipe.)

a. pressure b. decreases (falls) c. thermal motion d. jiggling (pushing, also in the text, fits too) e. induce

With the height of a group of adults: there is an average, but individuals differ; a few are much faster (taller) than the rest, just as only a small fraction of people are very tall.

As the water gets hotter, its molecules move faster. At the boiling point some have enough energy to push other molecules aside and form a pocket of water vapor. The bubble survives when the vapor pressure inside it equals the pressure of the water outside; then it grows, rises and bursts at the surface.

1. The water itself: its depth, its density and the pull of gravity (deeper water is under more pressure).
2. The atmosphere: the air pressing down on the water’s surface.

The atmosphere presses down on the surface of the water, and that pressure is passed on through the liquid, so it adds to the pressure everywhere in the water. It is by far the largest part of the pressure in a glass or a pan.

The pressure in the water would fall. If it fell to the water’s vapor pressure, bubbles of vapor could form and the water would boil at a lower temperature, even at room temperature, without being heated.

Pulling the plunger out lowers the pressure on the water inside the sealed syringe. When the pressure falls to the vapor pressure of the warm water, the water boils: so the experimenter shows that water can boil without being heated to 100 °C.

• a.A: Why shouldn’t I eat so much junk food? B: Because if you eat too much, you will gain weight. C: And if you gain weight, you will get lazy.
• b.A: What will you do this evening? B: If it rains this evening, I will stay at home. C: And if you stay at home, you can keep in touch with your parents.
• c.A: What happens if I keep heating this pan? B: If you keep on heating it, the water will change into vapor. C: And if all the water changes into vapor, the pan will dry up.
• d.A: My uncle says smoking is harmless. B: If he doesn’t stop smoking, he may get cancer. C: And if he gets cancer, he may die early.

• a.If I could, I would abolish the law that lets plastic bags be sold, because they block our rivers and drains.
• b.If I were given the chance, I would go to Mars, because it is the planet most like the Earth and I would like to look for signs of ancient water.
• c.I wouldn’t open the windows if the air outside were full of dust and smoke, because it would make us cough.
• d.I would water the plants because, if they didn’t get water, they would dry up and die.
• e.I would study law because, if I were a lawyer, I would help poor people who can’t pay for justice.

a – iii, b – i, c – ii, d – vi, e – iv, f – v, g – viii, h – vii
How to tell: g has a past verb (discussed), so it takes the might of an imagined result (viii); h has a present verb (communicate), so it takes won’t (vii). e is a question about a fact: What happens if you heat water? (zero conditional).

• a.wear (a habit, zero conditional; will wear is also correct, for one cold day ahead)
• b.will have (has is possible too, as a general truth)
• c.would make
• d.went
• e.were
• f.drove
• g.see (an imperative in the main clause with a present if-clause)
• h.consent
• i.will take (an old proverb: look after small amounts of money and the large amounts will look after themselves)

How to draw a cartoon jellyfish
You need a pencil, an eraser and a sheet of paper.

1. First, draw two small circles side by side in the middle of the page. These are the eyes.
2. Next, draw a dot inside each circle for the pupils, and a short curved line below the eyes for a smiling mouth.
3. Then, draw a large dome, like half of an egg, above and around the eyes. This is the jellyfish’s bell.
4. After that, join the two ends of the dome with a wavy line below the mouth, to make the frilly lower edge of the bell.
5. Now, draw three long, semi-straight lines hanging down from the wavy edge. These are the tentacles.
6. Finally, add two short creaky (bent) tentacles at the sides, and a tiny circle on the end of each tentacle. Your jellyfish is ready: color it if you like.

a – vii, b – v, c – ii, d – i, e – vi, f – iii, g – iv

a. drought b. impalpable c. beautify d. globe e. latent f. recks
(f is old-fashioned English: What recks it? means What does it matter?)

1. ascends 2. originality 3. mysterious 4. atomies 5. quenches 6. showers 7. heal 8. condensation 9. rhythm

The voice of the poet, who asks the shower who it is, and the voice of the rain, which answers that it is the Poem of the Earth and tells its own story.

The rain describes its own cycle: it rises unseen as vapor from the land and the sea, takes vague shape as clouds in the sky, changed but still the same water, descends to wash and water the dry Earth and wake its seeds, and so gives back life to its own origin, the Earth it came from, before rising again, by day and night, forever. The last lines compare this circle to a song that goes out and returns.

Showers wash the dust from the land, end droughts, and give water to the seeds lying in the soil, which would otherwise never sprout. They give life to plants, animals and people, and make the Earth clean and beautiful.

Both go out from their source and return to it: a song goes out from the poet’s heart, wanders the world, and comes back with love, whether people notice it or not; the rain rises from the Earth and returns to it. And both give life and joy: music refreshes the mind as rain refreshes the land.

The Sun’s heat turns water from seas, rivers, lakes, soil and plants into invisible water vapor, which rises with warm air. Higher up, the air is colder, so the vapor condenses on tiny specks of dust into very small droplets of water (or ice crystals). Billions of these droplets together make a cloud.

rise – descend; day – night; changed – the same; heaven (up) – earth (down); reck’d – unreck’d; (and the idea of seeds only, unborn against life).

• a.About density: a simple experiment you can try at home.
• b.Water (with food coloring), syrup (or treacle) and oil.
• c.Syrup at the bottom, water in the middle, oil on top.
• d.It sinks slowly through the oil and sits on the water.
• e.Because they have different densities (and, as the talk says, they don’t mix).

a. top (on the oil) b. highest (the syrup, with the highest density, sits at the bottom, and the very dense metal nut sinks right through to it) c. 15 d. water

a. would play b. would have called c. hadn’t come (had not come) d. would have seen e. reduced (reduce is also accepted: could can speak of a real possibility) f. would know g. would be h. asked i. would you have done j. had

• a.If you don’t leave soon, you will miss the last bus.
• b.If it rains in winter, it gets very cold (or it will snow on the hills).
• c.I will forgive you as long as you tell the truth.
• d.A country cannot develop unless its leaders are honest and its people are educated.
• e.What will you do if they insult you?

Any clause with the right tense is correct: a, b and c take a first (or zero) conditional result; e is a question.

Ward No. 7, Suryabinayak
Bhaktapur
15 Mangsir 2082

The Ward Chairperson
Ward Office No. 7
Suryabinayak Municipality, Bhaktapur

Subject: Complaint about unmanaged garbage in our locality

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am a resident of Ward No. 7, and I am writing to draw your attention to the piles of garbage that have built up along the road near the bus stop and the bank of the stream behind our school.

The garbage truck has not come regularly for the last two months, so people have started throwing their waste on the roadside. The heaps are full of plastic, rotten food and broken glass. They smell terrible, and dogs, rats and flies feed on them. Flies carry germs to our food and spread diarrhea and typhoid, and stagnant water among the waste breeds the mosquitoes that spread dengue. When the garbage is burned, the smoke harms our lungs, and in the monsoon the waste washes into the stream and blocks the drains.

I would therefore like to suggest the following measures. The garbage truck should come on fixed days every week, and those days should be announced. Residents should be asked to separate kitchen waste from plastic and glass; kitchen waste can be made into compost at home. Bins should be placed at the bus stop and near the school, and people who dump waste on the road or burn it should be fined. The ward could also organize a cleaning campaign with the school’s eco club and local youth clubs.

I hope that you will take quick action, so that our locality becomes clean and healthy again.

Yours faithfully,
Sujan Thapa

• a.At 97 °C.
• b.Because the water was boiling: the heat was being used to turn water into vapor, not to make it hotter.
• c.Biratnagar is near sea level, so there is more air above it and more air pressure on the water; water must be hotter before its vapor pressure equals the outside pressure.
• d.The lid traps the steam, so the pressure inside rises and the water boils at a higher temperature (about 120 °C), which cooks food faster.
• e.For example: If you heat water in Pokhara, it boils at about 97 °C. / If Sushma had used an open pan, the dal would have taken twice as long.

a. go b. boils c. tried d. carried e. would have eaten f. unless

• a.Had I known about the test, I would have studied.
• b.Were she here, she would help us.
• c.Should you need any help, please call me.
• d.Unless you water the plants, they will die.
• e.If he had not come late, he would not have missed the bus.

a. accept b. stationary c. lose d. principal e. effect

Addresses, date: your address and date; The Editor, The Kathmandu Post (or any daily), Kathmandu. Dear Sir/Madam,
Paragraph 1: the problem: taps run for only an hour every three days; people queue at the tanker with jars.
Paragraph 2: causes and effects: old leaking pipes, more people, dried-up springs; children miss school to fetch water, families pay for tanker water, waterborne disease.
Paragraph 3: suggestions: repair leaks, harvest rainwater from roofs, protect the springs and forests above the town, reuse water for gardens and toilets, a campaign to save water.
Closing: a hope that the authorities and readers will act; Yours faithfully, your name.