Cacti everywhere!

Part 5.- You are going to read an article about cacti. For questions 31-36, choose the answer (A, B, C, or D) which you think fits best according to the text.

Cacti everywhere!

Paula Cocozza investigates the growing popularity of the cactus.

 

In many countries, cacti and images of cacti are becoming the next must-have thing inside people’s houses. Cacti inside houses are one thing, but some people seem intent on remarking all their everyday objects in the image of the cactus: cactus candles, lamps and glasses are particularly popular. The world of fashion has caught on too, and uncactus-like, with everything from cactus bracelets to cactus socks. Recently the UK got its first ‘cactus boutique’ when Gynelle Leon, 31, opened Prick in London.

 

Leon’s shop, with its white walls and minimalist shelving, feels more like a gallery. It’s an hour before opening time and four large cacti in the window – the ones that are most in demand – are waiting for the shutters to rise and grant them sunlight. They are very expensive but each weekend Leon sells at least one. Her theory, as far as Britain is concerned, is that lots of homeowners now in their 40s had a cactus as a child – in the 1970s there was a smaller cactus ‘boom’ when the prickly plant was seen as a classic beginners’ item. ‘They suit people of (my) generation,’ she says. ‘They want to do less and get more. I could put in minimal effort and a plant will thrive.’

 

 

Added to that, they photograph well. ‘We’re in the whole Pinterest era. You have to have nice plants as well as nice art.’ It was her passion for photography that had taken Leon to Yves Saint Laurent’s Jardin Majorella in Morocco where, ‘surrounded by these huge plants’, she first encountered large cacti. She took some shots and, when she got back home realised that there was a business opportunity was waiting to happen. Leon then set off on a world tour of cacti hotspots.

 

One of the stops on Leon’s tour was Hot Cactus, ‘a shoebox’ of a store, according to its co-owner, ‘jam-packed with plants’ in Los Angeles. ‘There’s definitely a cactus revival,’ says Carlos Morera on the phone from California. ‘But I can’t say how superficial it is. I can’t tell whether people are into the iconography of it and maybe just having these plants as a cool sculpture… (or) into all the background information about the plans.’ Morera would like the latter to be true. He says that wih cacti, ‘what you’re looking at in front of you is not just what you’re looking at.

 

Yes, these plants are cool, but all this other information really makes them… Most people are used to seeing the cliched two-armed emoji cactus. What we were really into was everything but that. And more so, just exposing the incredible vast variety of form and shape and atribute that existed beyond the cliché.’

 

 

Judging by the stories he tells, Moreira clearly has a knack for tracking down people who are selling cacti collections without realising how valuable they are – and he needs to be, because growers cannot easily keep a cactus trend going. Fashion is all about speed. A cactus cannot be rushed. Those cute plants in 5.5cm pots that you see in garden centres and florists are already three years old. By their nature, cacti are anti-fashion. This has put a good deal of pressure on commercial growers, who are struggling to keep up with demand. This problem is then passed on to the likes of Leon and Morera.

 

But cacti are also brilliant survivors, adapting to adversity or change. They look as if they have mastered life, and maybe humans feel that’s something they could learn from. ‘I think they are a reaction to how fast everything moves,’ Morera says. ‘You have this plant – like a copiapoa – that will not change from the moment you get it till the moment you die. .. They are a rebellion against modern times, efficiency, production, results. They act as testaments to the opposite.’

31.- In the first paragraph, what does the writer object to most?

A) keeping cacti as house plants

B) having cactus-shaped objects in the house

C) manufacturing clothes with images of cacti on them

D) shops to open up in response to the demand for cacti.

32.- Leon thinks that cacti are popular with middle-aged British homeowners because…

A) they wrongly imagine them to be easy to maintain.

B) they see them as a good financial investment.

C) they already have a connection with them.

D) they like the unusual appearance of them.

 

33.- When Leon visited Morocco, she was…

A) investigating the possibility of setting up her business.

B) on a tour of various places where cacti were popular.

C) doing a work project on behalf of a company.

D) on a trip not connected with cacti.

 

34.- Carlos Morera hopes that people who are buying cacti…

A) are able to see the artistic appeal fo them.

B) are not missed by what they hear in the media.

C) are genuinely interested in learning about them.

D) are not going to ignore the two-armed variety.

 

35.- What point is made about cactus shops in the fifth paragraph?

A) They take a very long time to sell certain cacti.

B) They have problems with the supply of their products.

C) They have some customers who are very hard to please.

D) They tend to sell larger cacti than those in garden centres.

 

36.- Morera suggests that cacti appeal to people nowadays because they are seen as being…

A) something permanent.

B) very different form other plants.

C) healthy for mind and body.

C) beautiful underneath.

The aurora borealis

 Part 6.- You are going to read an article about a natural phenomenon in the night sky. Six sentences have been removed from the article. Choose from the sentences A-G the one which fits each gap (37-42). There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use.

 

The aurora borealis

A new book explores the many myths and legends attached to the magical displays in the skies we know as the aurora borealis. Adrian Bridge reports.

 

To the ancient Greeks, the magical dancing lights that occasionally appeared in the night sky were known as Aurora, the goddes of the dawn. When the lights filled the skies with their dramatic displays of colour, it was said that Aurora was riding her chariot across the heavens to announce the arrival of Helios the sun, and another new day. The twisting dancing forms the displays took were the result  of the efforts of Boreas, one of the four winds.

There are, of course, many myths that over the millenia have been passed down to explain the extraordinary spectacle of the aurora borealis – more commonly termed the Northern Lights. 37.-____ And in a recently published book Life Beneath the Northern Lights, a research team lead by Lizzy Pattison is well aware of this.

 

In the book, Pattison and her team have sought to throw light on some of the more colourful stories that have grown up around the phenomenon. 38.-_____ This strategy is cleverly handle so that the reader’s imagination is engaged.

Much of the book focuses on the legends and lifestyles of the Sami people, indigenous to Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. Some Sami still have the traditional belief that the lights emanate from their ancestors and must be treated with immense respect. 39.-______ In one account, a sacred bear rescues someone taken in that way.

Elsewhere in the norther hemisphere, there have been many other interpretaions. The Chinese saw in the lights fire-breathing dragons; the Fox Indians of North America believed that they were ghosts of enemies who brought ill fortune. More cheerily, the Scots believed they were merry dancers. 40.-____ The Canadian Indians saw the lights as spirits engaged in a ball game!

Of course we know better now and have scientific explanations for the Northern Lights – displays occur when solar particles enter the Earth’s atmosphere and emit burning gases that produce different coloured lights. We know that the aurora borealis occurs in an oval doughnut-shaped area located above the magnetic pole that the best sightings are within the ‘doughtnut’ and away from artificial light and moonlight.

 

The opening chapter of the book is devoted to a comprehensive review of the scientific explanation for the aurora borealis, with a further chapter offering practical adviice on how best to capture the lights on film. 41.-______

‘Knowing the background to the myths and stories that have grown up aroudn the lights can only improve the experience of seeing them,’ said Jonny Cooper, the founder of Off the Map Travel, a soft adventure specialist. He helped with the book by flying the research learn to northern Sweden. 42.-___ ‘You can stand under the night skies and watch in awe, just as our forfathers did,’ Cooper says. The experience can… be so powerful that unless we knew better we would find ourselves asking if there were not some other force at work.’

A.- Traditionally, they remained inside during a display; even today, if caught outside, few dare to whistle in case the lights carry them away.

B.- More scientific explanations are available now, of course, but the legends are what fascinate people.

 

C.- In other words, even with a scientific understanding of the phenomenon, the tales lose none of their magic.

D.- That way they could explore the phenomenon first-hand.

E.- We are transported back to the times when those who witnessed the spectacle could only attribute it to the supernatural.

 

F.- This theme, with variations, is relatively common in the mithology.

G.- Undoubtedly these are both invaluable, but there is something in the naivety and the drama of those early explanations that can still fire the imagination.

What makes you feel close to nature?

Part 7.- You are going to read an article in which the four presenters of a TV nature programme show an object say why it makes them feel close to nature. For questions 43-52, choose from the paragraphs (A-D). The paragraphs may be chosen more than once.

 

Which presenter says their chosen object or combination of objects…

43.- Makes them feel very privileged?

44.- might enable them to help researchers?

45.- makes them realise that what a person really enjoys can change?

46.- is relatively easy to come across?

47.- is selected from a number of possibilities?

48.- connects them with looking after an animal in an advisable way?

49.- shows evidence of having been used?

50.- makes them realise how incredibly clever nature is?

51.- was not in fact their original choice?

52.- is now incomplete?

What makes you feel close to nature?

 

A.- Chris Packham  - a deer’s antler

I live in woodland and in early summer when I’m out walking, if I’m lucky, I will stumble upon the discarded antlers of fallow bucks, who shed them in April or early May. … I’m as excited as I would have been if I’d found them when I was eight years old. … it’s like natural treasure you’re honoured to possess, an immediate connection with a shy and elusive animal you’ve usually only seen at a distance. … Given thee size and shape of this one, it has come from mature animal of around ten years old. It has a story to tell, too a piece at one end has been chewed off…, probably by a squirrel or another deer looking for calcium. These are scratches, too, on the polished surface where the antler has scraped the ground and trees. … So it’s marked with a pattern of use, and I love that…

 

B.- Gillian Burke – a ‘mermaid’s purse’

I have a nature table at home, an eclectic assortment of feathers, shells and crystals collected over decades. There are things collected as a child on my filming trips, and now my kids find heaps of things for it too. So my instinct was to take something from that taole, as it represents my family’s link to nature. In the end, after endless prevarication, I chose a single shark egg case, what people often call a mermaid’s purse. … What I like about these egg cases is that, while on one level collecting them can be simply an enjoyable pastime, they can also feed into some real citizen science. The Shark Trust runs a campaign… which encourages people to go online and send in phots and details of any egg cases they’ve found fhat can help provide the trust with information about which species are using ther waters as their nursery grounds…

 

C.- Michaela Strachan – my old nature books

Given that my eyes aren’t as sharp as they once were, I was initially tempted to bring my binoculars: if I’m anywhere near wildlife I get so frustrated without them. … But then I remembered my old nature books, British Wild Animals and What to Look for in Spring, which I fell in love with as a child of around seven. What tickles me now is… the advice they give. In one passage we’re told that if we find a newt… we’re to put in a home aquarium, which we absolutely wouldn’t do now, of course. … The real point, though, is that while I loved wildlife, back then I was far more interested in ballet and gymnastics – it was only later in life that may passion for nature developed. It’s a reminder to us all, but particularly to parents, that passions can change. Love of nature is something that can develop at any time.

D.- Martin Hughes-Games – the skulls of a horse and a weasel

II found this horse’s skull in a ditch while out walking and the weasel skull… was uncovered at the bottom of my garden. The disparity in size iws what strikes you first, but what I like about them is what they tell us, both about what makes a mammal and about nature’s infinite inventiveness. What makes a mammal skull boils down to two bones, the articular and the quadrate. … In other animal groups they are  part of the jaw, but in us mammals they’ve turned into the incus and malleus, the tiny little bones in your ear. … It’s a reminder that, once nature comes up with a successful design, it’s incredibly plastic…

Florence Nightingale

Part 3.- For questions 17-24, read the text below. Use the word given in capitals at the end of the gaps to form a word that fits in it. There is an example at the beginning (0).

Florence Nightingale

 

Florence Nightingale is considered to be the (0) FOUNDER (FOUND) of modern nursing. Before her (7)_________(INVOLVE) in the mid 19^th century, nurses were relatively (18)_______(TRAIN) and lacked basic skills and knowledge, but Florence was an influential figure who (19)________(REVOLUTION) the profession. Born into a rich English family which did not consider nursing to be a (28)_________(SUIT) profession for her, she surprised her parent when she announced her (21)________(INTEND) to become a nurse. But she rose rapidly whitin the profession and was soon in change of nursing at a London hospital. She was (22)_______(CHOICE) to go and lead a team to nurse British soldiers wounded in the Crimean War.

She arrived to find a serious (23)_________(SHORT) of nurses, badly informed about basic hygiene and nutrition, and she word tirelessly to improve the situation. The soldiers adored her for her caring attitude. On her return the grateful British public thanked her for what she had done in many (24)_________(EMOTION) letters, articles and poems.

Meteorite hunter

Part 2.- For questions 9-16, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap. There is an example at the beginning.

 

Meteorite hunter

Jonh Birkenshaw’s hobby is searching (0) FOR  meteorites – pieces of rock resulting (9)________ a meteor falling through the earth’s atmosphere. He has a personal collection of several hundred, all of (10)________ he has found himself in several countries. His most successful visit was to the Sahara Desert, as he explains: ‘Deserts preserve meteorites well (11)______ of the sand and dry conditions. But they can find them just about anywhere if you know (12)______ you’re looking for.’

  

Most meteorites contain metal, so you can use either a magnet or a metal detector to find them. They are heavier than other rocks and black (13)_______ appearance. ‘Obviously (14)_________ you’ve found one meteorite, there’s a strong chance that (15)_______ will be others nearby.’ John says. ‘You can search for meteorites on most public land and keep those you find, but it’s different matter if you’re on private land, so you always need to seek permission in (16)______ situation.’

Urban heat islands

 Part 1.- For questions 1-8, read the text below and decide which answer (A, B, C, or D) best fits each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0).

Urban heat islands

 

Scientists now fear that global warming may be (0)   B    by what they call the ‘urban heat island effect’. This refers to considerable rises in temperature in big cities, when (1)______ to surrounding rural areas, that affect local climate patterns in (2)_______ of rainfall and win. Basically when plants and trees are out down and concrete is put in their (3)______, the natural state is already altered. Then the way the concrete itself absorbs, (4)_______ and releases heat further alters the natural balance. The water heat from traffic and buildings together with ozone pollution, (5)_______ still further to the problem.

Scientists claim it is important to (8)______ action to counter this effect in cities – by planting as much vegetation as possible. In addition, they are (7)______ city developers to use a more expensive concrete for pavements that absorbs rainwater; thus cooling them down. They also advise that rooftops and pavements should be made of light coloured materials, as dark objects (8)_____ energy into heat whereas white objects reflect light.

0

A)risen

B) increased

C) lifted

D) enlarged

 

1

A) balanced

B) connected

C) measured

D) compared

 

2

A)regard

B) terms

C) concern

D) relation

 

3

A)position

B) rooms

C) place

D) situation

 

4

A)stores

B) maintains

C) stays

D) possesses

 

5

A)supplies

B) contributes

C) gives

D) provides

 

6

A)take

B) make

C) be

D) do

 

7

A)pointing

B) urging

C) proposing

D) suggesting

 

8

A)translate

B) exchange

C) adapt

D) convert

Do Green Products Make us Better People?

Part 3.- For questions 17-24, read the text below. Use the word given in capitals at the end of gaps to form a word that fits in it. There is an example at the beginning (0).

Do Green Products Make us Better People?

A recent report in the journal Psychological Science was (0) ENTITLED (TITLE) Do Green Products Make us Better People? After conducting a series of experiments, psychologists reached the connclusion that those who buy (13)_______(SUPPOSE) ethical products were just as likely to be chats and (19)________(CRIME) as those who did not. In other words, there was no direct about one a correlation between a social or ethical conscience about aspect of life, and (19)__________(BEHAVE) in another.

Despite being an occasional buyer of organic vegetables, I myself take great (20)__________(SATISFY) from the study because it fits in with a  long-held hypothesis of my own. It is what I call  call the theory of finite niceness. We use the word ‘nice’ to describe those people we encounter who seem (21)________(CHARM) and kind. Yet, it is not a word we use to often to describe those to whom we are closest, because we know that there is a (22)_________(COMPLEX) in their characters. We understand them and realise that they are people who (23)_________(DOUBT) have both faults and virtues, and that these do (24)__________(VARIABLE) come out in different ways.

The birth of Coronation Street

Part 7.- You are going to read an article about a British TV soap opera called Coronation Street. 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.

 

The birth of Coronation Street

Scripwriter Daran Little has dramatised the beginning of the first British soap.

He explains how sneers came before success.

 

I was 21 and fresh from university when I started work as an archivist on Coronation Street. My role was pretty simple: I had to memorise everything that had ever happened in the show and so help the writers with character stories.

 

41.- ______

The Road to Coronation Street, is about to go on air. I moved on to become a writer on the show in the early 2000s. But those early black and white episodes will always be close to my heart, and so will the genius who created the show.

 

42.- _____

 

Last summer, I was sitting and chatting with colleagues about the latest plot twist in Coronation Street. While I was doing that, I suddenly realised what a compelling piece of television drama the creation of the programme itself would make.

 

43.- _____

 

Tony Warren was a one-time child actor with a passion for writing who turned up at the infant Granada Television with a vision for a new form of story-telling – a show about ordinary people and their everyday lives. It had never been done before.

 

44.- _____

 

It was that Granada had a condition, as part of its franchise, to create locally sourced programmes, an obligation it was not meeting at that time. One of the owners. Sidney Bernstein, was a showman who loved the entertainment business and was keen to develop it. He created Granada television in 1956 and shortly afterwards employed a Canadian producer. Harry Elton, to help nurture talent. It was Elton who employed Tony Warren, and it was these two men who would eventually change the face of British television.

 

45.- 

It should have ended there. A script written and discarded by a broadcaster, Warren and Elton should have drowned their sorrows and moved on to the next project. But they didn’t; they fought to change the bosses’ minds. The Road to Coronation Street tells the story of how, against all the odds, a television phenomenon was born, and how a group of unknown actors become the first superstars of British television drama. On December 9, 1960, Coronation Street was first broadcast. With minutes to go before transmission, Warren was feeling sick, one of the lead actors was missing, and so was the cat for the opening shot.

 

46.- _____

 

It’s a story I’m proud to have brought to the screen.

 

   A

  Luckily, I wasn’t the only one to be persuaded of this, and within a fortnight I had been commissioned to write a script. In a world of prolonged commissioning debates, this was highly unusual – but then the story of Coronation Street is also highly unusual.

 

B

At that point, its creater Tony Warren had given it the title Florizel Street. The first episode was broadcast live and it was envisaged that there would be just 13 episodes of the show.

 

C

Half a century later, that inauspicious beginning is a far cry from the ongoing success of one of Britain’s most-watched soaps. My drama is more than a celebration of that event, it’s a story of taking chances, believing in talaent and following a dream.

 

D

I first met that person, Tony Warren as a student, after I wrote asking to interview him. We chatted about the show he had created when he was 13 – a show which broke new ground in television drama and brought soap opera to British television. I was fascinated by his story, and have remained so ever since.

 

E

Tony Warren developed a show set around a Northern back street with a pub on the corner called the Rovers Return. Its characters were drawn from Warren’s past. A script was written and sent ‘upstairs’ to management. He was old, in no uncertain terms, that this wasn’t television. It had no drama, the characters were unsympathetic and if it was transmitted, the advertisers would withdraw their custom.

 

F

At that stage, Coronation Street had been on air for 28 years and it took me three-and-a-half years to watch every episode that had been made. That’s 14 episodes a day, which means that I went a bit stir crazy somewhere between 1969 and 1972 and was a gibbering wreck by the time a lorry crashed in the street in 1979.

 

G

In fact, no original piece of television featuring regional actors had ever been broadcast. Television was ruled by Londoners who spoke with rounded vowels. The only Manchester accents on thee screen were employed in a comic context. For broadcasters, the language of the North of England didn’t translate to television drama. Besides, even if it did, no one in London would be able to understand it – so what was the point?

Mr Expresso

Part 1.- For questions 1-8, read the text below and decide which answer (A, B, C, or D) best fits each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0)

 

 

Example:

0.-

A) capable

B) skilled

C) qualified

D) competent

 

Mr Expresso

 

The idea that only an Italian is (0) A) capable  of making a truly great cup of coffee is actually a fairly recent phenomenon. Emlio Lavazza (1932-2010), can (1)________ much of the credit. He taught the world not only how to make coffee, but also how to drink it.

 

Lavazza was a leading (2)_______ in the generation of Italian businessmen who (3)_______ their family firms in the 1950s. These began to expand rapidly, first around the country and then abroad as Italy (4)______ its long post-war economic expansion.

 

This was the generation that (5)________ the seeds for what has (6)_______ to be known as ‘Made in Italy’, the (7)________ of companies and brands that make high-quality household and consumer products, from fashion to food to furniture. These products are identified with a (8)_______ of craftsmanship on the one hand, and the elegant Italian lifestyle on the other. Emilio Lavazza ensured that coffee became an inextricable part of that heritage.

1.-

A) insist

B) claim

C) demand

D) uphold

 

2.-

A) figure

B) symbol

C) role

D) creature

 

3.-

A) enlisted

B) joined

C) enrolled

D) participated

 

4.-

A) entertained

B) appreciated

C) benefited

D) enjoyed

  

5.-

A) set

B) sowed

C) laid

D) buried

 

6.-

A) ended

B) come

C) finished

D) gone

7.-

A) cluster

B) pile

C) bundle

D) heap

 

8.-

A) range

B) connection

C) variety

D) combination

The Unstoppable Spirit of Inquiry

 Part 8.- You are going to read an article about the Royal Society, a British scientific institution. For questions 47-56, choose from the sections of the article (A-E). The sections may be chose more than once.

 

In which section of the article are the following mentionad?

 

47.- a belief that a certain development has been of particular use to scientists.

48.- the variety of ways in which the Royal Society encourages people who are not scientists to consider scientific uses

49.- a rapid reaction to research being made public.

50.- a particular development that requires urgent action to improve it

51.- a resource for information on past scientific discoveries

52.- a lack of understanding of scientific matters among people in general

53.- a system that the Royal Society introduced

54.- the fact that scientists do not always reach firm conclusions

55.- a problem that is not limited to the word of science

56.- the belief that certain things that are possible are not desirable

 

The unstoppable spirit of inquiry

The president of the Royal Society, Martin Rees, celebrate the long history of one of Britain’s greatest institutions.

 

A

The Royal Society began in 1660. From the beginning, the wide dissemination of scientific ideas was deemed important. The Society started to publish Philosophical Transaction, the first scientific journal, which conitnues to this day. The Society’s journals pioneered what is still the accpeted procedure whereby scientific ideas are subject to peer review – criticised, refined and codified into ‘public knowledge’. Over the centuries, they published Isaac Newton’s researches on light, Benjamin Franklin’s experiments on lightning, Volta’s first battery and many of the triumphs of twentieth-century science. Those who want to celebrate this glorious history should visit the Royal Society’s archives via our Trailblazing website.

 

 

B

The founders of the Society enjoyed speculation, but they were also intensely engaged with the problems of their era, such as improvements to timekeeping and navigation. After 350 years, our horizons have expanded, but the same engagement is imperative in the 21^st century Knowledge has advanced hugely, but it must be deployed for the benefit of the over-growing population of our planet, all empowered by ever more powerful technology. The silicon chip was perhaps the most transformative single invention of the past century; it has allowed miniaturization and spawned the worldwide reach of mobile phones and the internet. It was physicists who developed the World Wide Web and, though it impacts us all, scientists have benefited especially.

 

C

Traditional journals survive as guarantors of quality. The latter cries out for an informal system of quality control. The internet leves the playing fields between researchers in major centres and those in relative isolation. It has transformed the way science is communicated and debated. In 2002, three young Indian mathematicians invented a faster scheme for factoring large numbers – something that would be crucial for code-breaking. They posted their results on the web. Within a day, 20,000 people had downloaded the work, which was the topic of hastily convened discussions in many centres of mathematical research around the world. The internet also allows new styles of research. For example, in the old days, astronomical research was stored to delicate photographic plates; these were not easily accessible and tiresome to analyse. Now such data (and large datasets in genetic and particle physics) can be accessed and downloaded everywhere. Experiments and natural events can be followed in real time.

  

D

We recently asked our members what they saw as the most important questions facing us in the years ahead and are holding discussion meetings on the ‘Top Ten’. Whatever breakthroughs are in store, we can be sure of one thing the widening gulf between what science enables us to do and what it’s prudent or ethical actually to do. In respect ofcertain development, regulation will be called for, on ethical as well as prudential grounds. ‘The way science is applied is a matter not just for scientists. All citizens need to address these questios. Public decisions should be made, after the widest possible discussion, in the light of the best scientific evidence available. This is one of the key roles of the Society. Whether it is the work of our Science Policy Centre, our journals, our disussion meetings, our work in education or our public events, we must be at the heart of helping policy makers and citizenes make informed decisions.

E 

But science isn’t dogma. Its assertions are sometimes tentative, sometimes compelling; noisy controversy doesn’t always connote balanced arguments; risks are never absolutely zero, even if they are hugely outweighed by potential benefits. In promoting an informed debate, the media are crucial. When reporting a scientific controversy, the aim should be neither to exaggerate risks and uncertainties, not to gloss over them. This is indeed a challenge, particularly when institutional, political or commercial pressures distort the debate. Scientists often bemoan the public’s weak grasp of science – without some ‘feel’ for the issues, public debate can’t get beyond sloganising. But they protest too much: there are other issues where public debate is, to an equally disquieting degree, inhibited by ignorance. The Royal Society aims to sustain Britain’s traditional strength in science, but also to ensure that wherever science impacts on people’s lives, it is openly debated.