READING AND USE OF ENGLISH

You are going to read four reviews of a production of Shakespeare's play Ham/et. For questions 37-40,
choose from the reviews A-D. The reviews may be chosen more than once.
Mark your answers on the separate answer sheet.

Mark your answers on the separate answer sheet.

Carol Barlow has come up with a great number of ingenious devices to distinguish her production of Hamlet from the
thousands that have gone before. I just wasn't sure how they fitted together to make a coherent whole, and would
have been happier with fewer notions, better thought through. Perhaps Barlow's intention was to hold up a mirrorto
the fragmentary nature of today's world, and if so, she could be said to have succeeded. Paul Mason, playing the role
of Hamlet for the first time, certainly delivers his lines thrillingly, the range and resonance of his voice contributing inno
small measure. Yet it remained a performance: his gestures and mannerisms kept reminding us that we were watching
an actor. As the final curtain fell, I realised I knew the character of Hamlet no better than I did at the beginning.

Hamlet is a complex character, which gives scope for many different interpretations. However, there needs to be internal
consistency: arbitrarily hugging another character one minute and ignoring them the next tells us nothing about Hamlet
himself. Paul Mason seems to want to impress us with all the vocal tricks in his repertoire - and there are many - but
long before the final curtain, I wished the character had been killed off in Act 1. As director, Carol Barlow seems to have
brainstormed ideas for the production, thrown them up in the air, and let them fall at random. The result is a mishmash
that for some unfathomable reason is set in the 1920s. Productions of Hamlet often reflect the spirit of the age, so
a number of modern versions focus on notions of mental disorder, but Barlow's production tells us nothing about
Shakespeare's own time, or about today's world.

Paul Mason isn't an obvious choice to play Hamlet - he's too old, and his acting is idiosyncratic; yet somehow he pulls
it off. His quirks and eccentricities convey the depth of Hamlet's despair, and his need to present a mask to the world.
Initially I found his delivery mannered, but it soon drew me in, and immersed me in the character's predicament and his
fractured personality. By the end, I could have gone on listening to him for hours. However, Mason was the redeeming
feature of the evening. Barlow continually gives the audience new and highly distracting things to think about. For
instance, she sets Hamlet in the 1920s, and the costumes, gorgeous though they are, hardly lend themselves to carrying
a sword, as many of the characters do. It just made the setting neither modern nor of Shakespeare's own time, or even
of the time of the historical Hamlet.

How can an audience be made to see a playas well-known as Hamlet with fresh eyes? Director Carol Barlow has met
the challenge with astonishing bravura. By moving it into the 1920s, she shows the universality of the play's themes,
despite the distraction provided by the stunning costumes. Similarly, Barlow's sheer inventiveness teeters on the brink
of confusing us and overwhelming the play, but just stops short. My jaw dropped as one mind-boggling and exhilarating
idea succeeded another. But Paul Mason's Hamlet! Why on earth did Barlow choose him for the part? As a comic
character, he might get away with his over-the-top facial expressions, but as Hamlet he made it impossible for the
audience to sympathise, let alone identify, with him. His delivery was a parody, with neither intonation nor stress bearing
any relation to the meaning of Shakespeare's lines.

Which reviewer

shares reviewer B's apinian regarding the productian's relevance to the present day?

holds a different opinión fram the ather reviewers as to whether Masan gives insight inta the
character of Hamlet?

has thesame view as reviewer e an the way Masan speaks?

has adifferent view from reviewer A abaut the directar's ideas far the productian?

You are going to read part of a newspaper article about an Australian cycling champion. Six paragraphs
have been removed from the article. Choose from the paragraphs A-G the one which fits each gap (41-46).
There is one extra paragraph which you do not need to use.

Mark your answers on the separate answer sheet.

With his glasses taped to his head and a heavy, bone-
shaking push bike for a ride, the lanky 18-year-old seemed

an unlikely prospect when he turned up for his first club
cycling race one day in 1946. Yet, when he died 12 years
later, there was a feeling that Russell Mockridge had not
yet reached his full potential.

However impressed he
might have been, he could hardly have foreseen that this
was just the start of Mockridge's run of victories.

At the Australian 200km road championship, Mockridge
was the sole member of his team left riding when it carne
down to the last few hundred metres. The pack was well
ahead and beginning their final sprint while Mockridge,
whose appetite was astounding, lagged behind finishing
off a snack from his food bag.

Someone who achieved this degree of success throughout
his cycling career was likely to be self-confident, and might
even be forgiven for arrogance . Yet, with his two feet on the
pavement, Mockridge was a retiring and painfully shy mano
He couldn't handle the 'roughness' of most other cyclists,
who referred to him in his young days as 'The China 0011'.
For his part, Mockridge preferred to spend time with
English literature.

Another of Mockridge's mad final dashes, on the last day
of the 1957 Sun Tour, was one of the most memorable
rides of his career. Neck and neck with George Goodwin,
Mockridge threw himself into the wending steep hillsides.
Goodwin then found himself desperately hanging onto
Mockridge's back wheel as the champion unleashed aride
that simply destroyed 28 of Australia's best riders.

Officials looked at the skinny Mockridge, at his do-it-
yourself bike shoes and at his battered roadster with its

handlebars turned down, and wondered what they were
seeing. The disbelief grew when Mockridge innocently
asked if it would be all right if he stayed out in front all
the way - he was concerned that his poor eyesight might
cause an accident and endanger other cyclists.

Goodwin crossed the finish line in a final sprint just ahead
of Mockridge - a very rare defeat that Mocka suffered in
what can only be considered a brilliant and inspirational
career. He deserves to be remembered as one of the
greatest cycl ists of all time.

The official was amazed. 'Well, you certainly won the race
and probably have the fastest time , but we don't actually
know what your time for the distance is, so we can't give you that one,' he told Mockridge.

A

E

How fast were the pair pedalling? About 100km/h or
more. In fact, they were travelling so quickly that the
two police motorcycle escorts had sparks shooting
up from their footrests hitting the bitumen as they
negotiated the treacherous curves.

Any laughter died when Mockridge settled down to his
machine-like rhythm and burned off other competitors.
Alex McPherson , who was timing the cyclists for the
club, waved them past the halfway mark, and hopped
into his car to greet the finishers. When he arrived, he
found Mockridge waiting and puzzled.

B

F

This impression of weakness that Mockridge gave
was reinforced by his weak vision - he couldn't see
the other side of the road without glasses. It was a
defect that barred him from most sports, particularly
his beloved Australian Rules Football. He was 18 when
he entered the weekly Geelong Amateur Cycling Club
40km road race because he was suffering from lack of
exercise.

His coaches and teammates had given up on him,
as Mockridge still trailed well in the rear, but once
he was ready to get back to the matter in hand, he
settled into some serious pedalling. Ken Graves was
being acclaimed the winner by announcers just as
Mockridge burst through the pack and cut him down ,
snatching victory out of almost certain defeat.

C

G

The next week, and the next, Mockridge again won,
and a cycling legend was born. In the following few
months, he won eight of his 11 starts. Mockridge was
hailed as an emerging champion and his rise from club
rider to Olympic champion was meteoric.

By then 'Mocka', a freakish and courageous talent,
had won two Olympic and two Empire gold medals
and countless world records. In his day, his feats were
as acclaimed as those of other Australian sporting
icons , such as cricketer Don Bradman.

D

Despite his disappointment, it was during this tour
that Mockridge set his sights on making the Australian
team for the next Olympic Games. In the lead-up to
selection, he won all ten Olympic qualifying races in
Australia, then left for Europe.

You are going to read four descriptions of research being carried out by staff of a music college. For
questions 47-56, choose from the extracts (A-O). The extracts may be chosen more than once.

Mark your answers on the separate answer sheet.

Which section mentions the following?

some unexpected information concern ing a particular musician

a description of the methodology used to generate data

the researcher's hope that future research will be carried out into the same materials

how some of the material in a planned book will be structured

a wish to assist performers

the use of source material not previously known

exploration of the business context in which performances were given in a particular period

the influence that artists had on one another

how discoveries in the field of music relate to ones in an academic discipl ine other than music

the use of materials that have previously been studied from a different perspective

Bernice Mitchell is engaged in researching law-court
records from London in the first half of the 18th century,
lar the light they throw on the city 's professional music
world of the time. While the materials are familiar to legal
researchers, this is thought to be the first time that their
relevance to the history of music has been recognised.
One objective of the research is to provide guidance on
access to the materials and on their interpretation, in the
expectation that more scholars will be encouraged to
investigate this fascinating resource. To date, Mitchell 's
research has concentrated on the opera houses, and the
documents have yielded considerable new insights into
numerous issues, including their management, contracts
with singers, musicians and composers, their working
conditions, and performance fees. Mitchell is about to
broaden her research, to include a detailed comparison
between the 18th- and 21st-century conditions in which
opera houses flourished - or not, as the case may bE!.

The topic that Colin Saunderson has chosen for his
current research is the creative milieu of Paris in the
early 20th century, when musicians , painters , sculptors,
intellectuals and many others contributed to a ferment
of creativity that left its mark on all concerned. Although
the topic has already been well researched, a recently
discovered archive of unpublished letters is proving a
mine of information on the response of the common man
and woman - the concert audiences - to the immense
creativity they observed. It is also adding some surprising
detail on the mannerisms of several famous musicians.
The research takes into account amateur music-making
at that time , and the use of music in plays. Saunderson
hopes the volume he is engaged in writing will provide a
more nuanced view of that world than many of the existing
studies. One section will quote extensively from the letters,
with the extracts presented on a month-by-month basis.
The intention is that this will give the reader a sense of
history unfo/ding in front of their eyes.

James Rowe's project is being carried out in collaboration
with London's Science Museum. Visitors are asked to
participate in a series of experiments designed to yield
information about the effect of music on the perception
of time passing, and so far, more than 800 people have
taken parto Participants listen to a piece of music , and are
then asked about its duration and their responses to it,
including enjoyment and familiarity. They are also asked
about personal details, includingtheirmusical preferences
and level of musical training, if any. Preliminary findings
indicate that people who enjoy the music think it lasted
longerthan those who dislike it. In a follow-up experiment,
visitors are asked to memorise a list of random words while
listening: this appears to have the effect of shortening the
perceived duration of the music. Some of the findings
are in line with current theories in psychology about the
perception of time , while others appear to contradict
them. The results of the research will be published next
year.

Ray Hutchinson has published numerous books and
articles on the physical and psychological demands of
music-making, and in his latest research, he is focusing
on how musicians manage the daily challenge of making
ends meet, and the influence of career insecurity on their
way of life. Many of those who are not on the payroll of

a permanent orchestra or music college Iive a hand-to-
mouth existence, aU too often torced to supplement their

meagre and sporadic income by working in ways that will
allow them to take time off when the musical engagements
come in; for example , Hutchinson interviewed a
professional flautist whose bread-and-butter job , rather
incongruously, is as a butler who can be hired by the
day! Hutchinson's aim is not only to discover the survival
strategies that musicians employ, but also to share tips
and resources, in order to help them to maximise their
professional opportunities.