2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.QUESTION2

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.Question2: Read the following passage and choose the most suitable heading from the list A-I for each part (1-7) of the passage. There is one extra heading which you do not need to use.One example has been done for you. (7pts)A. Indoor climbing is preferred B. Early imperfectionsC. Putting up with natureD. Useful attachmentsE. Something in commonF. The demand for indoor practiceG. The inventor of the wall H. A lighter construction method I. Watching the expertGOING UP THE WALL0 IThe crowd holds its breath. High above them on the climbing wall, hanging upside down by thetips of two fingers, is the French climber Francois Lombard. He is competing in the World CupClimbing Championships at Birmingham’s National Indoor Arena. 1

The National Indoor Arena is more famous for staging the TV show Gladiators, but the

television programme and the World Cup Climbing Championships share at least one

feature - The Wall. And the fact that either event is possible is the result of a new and

rapidly developing technology.

2

Until the mid- 1960s, climbers practiced their skills on cliffs in areas where there was a

plentiful supply of good climbing angles. During the winter they would either tolerate the

cold weather, go walking instead or climb on snow and ice in Scotland.

3

However, as the sport developed it was increasingly important for top climbers to keep fit.

With the cliffs unusable for much of the year, they used brick-edges or stone buildings to

‘work out’ on. This allowed them to keep their fingers strong and beat off the boredom of

not being able to climb. It wasn’t long before many sports centre started building walls

specifically for the task, using bricks with special edges to cling on to.

4

Many of these early walls followed the example set by Don Robison, a teacher of physical

education who, during the mid- 1960s, constructed a climbing wall in corridor of his

department at Leeds University. Robison developed the idea of setting natural rock in a

block of concrete, which could then be included in a wall.

5

Scores of climbing walls of this kind were built in sports halls up and down the country

throughout the 1970s but they had obvious design problems. Walls could only be built in a

vertical plane, whereas cliffs outside have features like overhangs and angled slabs of rock.

There was the added drawback that once the walls were up they couldn’t be altered and

climbers would eventually tire of their repetitive nature, despite thinking of every

combination of holds possible.

6

In 1985, a Frenchman, Francois Savigny, developed a material which he moulded into

shapes like those that climbers would find on the cliffs. These could be fixed onto any

existing wall and then taken off when climbers got bored with a particular combination.

7French manufactures also began to experiment with panels on steel framework. Concrete hadproved too heavy to create overhanging walls without major building work, but steel frames couldbe erected anywhere as free - standing structures. A system of interchangeable fixtures gaveclimbers an endless supply of new holds.Your answers: