You are advised to spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-14 which refer o Reading Passage 36 below

READING PASSAGE 36

          SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION

Sitting on my desk are two ballpoint pens One seems unremarkable, just another white. Disposable, plastic pen The second is more curious It’s a small rolled tube of brown cardboard which pulls apart into a body and a lid, only the protruding plastic and brass of the writing tip gives its nature away It looks like something you might expect to find in a kit of stylish recycled paper envelopes and stationery But it is planned for more ubiquitous usage to meet the purchasing requirements of many government bodies and companies in Europe, requirements which are increasingly based on environmental criteria This cardboard pen is (supposedly) recyclable, the black plastic, parts of the pen are from already recycled material (from a shampoo bottle, or a disposable razor or possibly en another pen) It is a small example of a new trend to design products that can be disassembled and recycled Pull it apart and (the body and lid can be dropped into the paper recycling bin)

The white pen is a manufacturer’s demonstration, a prototype Produced for a European plastics convention, of an environmentally acceptable product The silky feel and the flexibility of the plastic suggests that this is no ordinary stationer’s item, so does the embossed ‘green’ and ‘biodegradable’ stamp on the barrel It is made from a plastic derived entirely from corn, manufactured in Italy under the trade name Mater-Bi If you are prone to chewing the end of your pen, you would find this one quite edible, perhaps even nutritious Mater-Bi dissolves in water and the manufacturers claim that it leaves only harmless biodegradable organic compounds After removing the cartridge this pen can go back to fertilize the crops whence it came

These are just two examples of the transformation taking place in almost all areas of product design, a tantalizing glimpse of a sustainable future composed of objects which will be familiar, yet radically different, having evolved, like species, to adapt to new environmental conditions Consumer products, small disposable items, cleaning agents. Domestic appliances, white goods, TVs, computers and cars, clothes and packaging, are all being redesigned to reduce their environmental impact There is some superficial greening, just the latest ploy from the advertising and marketing division Many of the more reputable green products, however, represent very large investment in research and design, and in new materials and technology These developments are so potentially significant in the light of global environmental problems that government research and development programs in many countries now have new categories of ‘eco-design’, ‘design for the environment’ and ‘life-cycle analysis’ Recently, Scientific American included ‘environmental design’ in its list of the 12 critical new challenges for research in the coming years

‘Design for the environment seeks to stir engineers to think about the environmental implications of a product and of its manufacture during the earliest phases of design These considerations may embrace a sweeping collection of issues the environmental distress caused by obtaining the raw materials, the toxicity of using and discarding chemicals during production the likelihood that the product itself can be refurbished, reused or recycled once the consumer has decided to abandon it’

Question 1-5

Below are listed some individual characteristics of the white and brown pens together with some characteristics which are common to both Indicate which is which by writing B for ‘brown pen’, VV for ‘white pen’ and C for ‘common to both’ in the spaces numbered 1-5 on the answer sheet.

dissolves in water

 can be easily recycled

3        feels smooth

4        tastes good

5        doesn’t look like a pen

Question 6-11

Complete the following statements using not more than THREE WORDS FROM THE TEXT Write your answers in the spaces numbered 6-11 on the answer sheet.

6.  Many consumer items are being redesigned to minimize their

7.  The advertising industry is taking advantage of the ecological trend, sometimes resorting to

8.  The more reliable products are the result of financial support for

9.  Among the new categories which feature in research and development programs in many countries are

10.  Scientific American behaves that must be a priority for researchers in the near future

11.  Engineers need to consider carefully

Question 12-14

Questions 12-14 describe the phases in the life of a product. Below is a lest of the issues to be considered during each phase. Match an appropriate issue with each phase Write your answer A-E in the spaces numbered 12-14 on the answer sheet.

There are more issues than you will need.

12     obtaining the necessary raw materials

13     manufacturing the product

14    abandoning of product by a consumer

List of issues

A     using dangerous chemicals

B     causing harm to the environment

C     polluting the air

D     possibility of recycling the object

E     making factories safer