Part 1
Read the text and answer questions 1–14.

Read the text below and answer Questions 1—7.

Interesting Day Courses in your Area

A Photographing Wildlife

This workshop includes an introduction in the classroom, two photography sessions with specially arranged access to the zoo enclosures so that you can take natural-looking close-ups of the most exotic species, and the opportunity to review and discuss your images as a group.

B Drawing For Fun

You will learn some basic techniques using soft pencils and charcoal. These and different types of paper are provided. Just bring yourself and a willingness to ‘have a go’. This is a start-up day so people who have already attended courses should not apply.

C Find Your Voice

You may feel you can’t sing or you may be an established singer who wants to improve or gain confidence. You will be shown how to sing in tune, how to breathe correctly and how to project your voice. You may attend this course more than once and each time have a wonderful experience. Everyone can sing and it’s great fun.

D Focus On Landscapes

This course is designed for students who are familiar with painting in water colours, but are having difficulty with some techniques. We will discuss choice of materials, colour mixing and any other areas that may be raised.

The day will start with a demonstration, followed by an opportunity to sketch outdoors. After a light lunch cooked in the studio, there will be a further practical session.

E Taking Happy Pictures

The main objective is to introduce you to the skills required to take good photographs of people at special events, such as parties or weddings.

We will discuss camera settings, dealing with varied light or bad weather, and how to get a good atmosphere. Lunch is provided at a nearby hotel, followed by a practical session inside the studio.

F The Music Takeaway

Get some friends, family or colleagues together for your own music course in a venue of your choice, which could be your front room, basement or workplace. We send two guitar tutors to lead a one-day session for you in the style of music you prefer, such as rock, country, funk or blues.

Read the text below and answer Questions 8—14.

Learn to Skydive

Accelerated Freefall (AFF) is an intensive skydiving course and you can experience freefall on your very first jump. We offer the AFF Level 1 course as a unique introduction to the world of parachuting and skydiving. It’s great as a one- off freefall experience. However, the full eight-level Accelerated Freefall course is the best way to learn to skydive and attain your licence as a qualified parachutist, which allows you to jump at skydiving centres across the world.

The AFF Level 1 course begins with an intensive day of ground training. During the day, you will learn how your parachute equipment works and how to check and fit it, how to exit the aircraft, how to maintain the correct body position in the air, monitor your altitude and deploy your parachute and how to deal with emergencies. The day will finish with a written test. The training can be both mentally and physically tiring so you should stay overnight if you wish to do your first jump the next day. For safety reasons we require you to return and jump in less than a month after your training in order to complete the Level 1 course.

When you come to do your jump you will receive refresher training before you board the aircraft. You will exit the aircraft with two AFF Level 1 instructors. They will provide in-air coaching as they fall alongside you, holding onto your harness. You will experience about one minute of freefall and deploy your own parachute, then fly and navigate for around five minutes before landing on the drop zone. Following this, you will meet your instructors to debrief the jump and collect your certificate. Shortly after you arrive home, you will receive an email link to the instructors’ footage of your skydive to post online. There are some restrictions for solo skydiving. The maximum acceptable weight is 95 kg fully clothed and a reasonable level of fitness is required. As far as age is concerned, the minimum is 16 and a parental signature of consent is required for students of 16—17 on three forms. Adults over 45 wishing to skydive must bring a completed Declaration of Fitness form signed and stamped by their doctor. Acceptance rests with the head instructor.

Part 2
Read the text and answer questions 15–27.

Read the text below and answer Questions 15—20.

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)

We are an international aid agency specialising in giving medical support of many kinds across the world where emergency needs are urgent.

WHO WE NEED—THE TEAM

(MSF) Médecins Sans Frontière’s medical teams consist of people with different backgrounds:

• General and Specialised Doctors
• General and Specialised Nurses
• Surgeons
• Anaesthetists
• Midwives
• Medical Scientists
• Psychologists

Each year we have very few positions for physiotherapists and pharmacists. We do not have positions for occupational therapists or speech therapists.

(MSF) Médecins Sans Frontières does not only recruit medical staff as it relies heavily on the professionalism of many non-medical staff:

• Logisticians (including Mechanics and Builders)
• Financial Controllers/Administrators
• Water and Sanitation Specialists

ESSENTIAL CRITERIA

For all positions

• Commitment to the aims and values of Médecins Sans Frontières
• Experience in supervising, training and managing others
• Ability to cope with stress
• Ability to work well as a part of a multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary team
• Ability to organise and prioritise workload and use initiative
• Willingness to work in unstable environments
• Good command of English
• Available to work for a minimum of 9 months (except for Surgeons and Anaesthetists, and for Finance/Administration staff—see specific mission length on the page of the specific profession)

For medical positions

• Current and valid registration
• Minimum of two years’ experience post-qualification

For nursing positions

• Course in Tropical Nursing or relevant work experience in developing countries and/or indigenous  communities. To view the specific recruitment criteria of your profession, please click below. Support our work by making a donation today.

Read the text below and answer Questions 21-27.

The Work (your professional tasks in the field)

Nurses

As a nurse working for Médecins Sans Frontières your training and supervising skills will be utilised to the full. The contexts in which you work may vary from: taking part in a mass vaccination for measles; responding to a cholera outbreak in a refugee camp; to triaging an influx of displaced people fleeing conflict.

Your expertise will be called upon to support local staff in the upgrading of their skills. On the other hand local nurses will be sold hands’ at managing tropical dieases you may never have confronted.

Finance / Administration

As a Financial Controller/Administrator working for Médecins Sans Frontiéres required to undertake one of the most important and challenging roies in of both national and international human resources.

Your skills in cross cultural human resource management and communication that the teams and the programs run efficiently. Financial controllers and administrators are also responsible for program bookkeeping, budget control and financial reporting.

Positions for Financial Controllers/Administrators tend to be based in the capital city of the country where programs are operating, although they go regularly to the program sites to ensure all is running well.

Doctors

As a doctor working for Médecins Sans Frontières your clinical skills will be tested on a daily basis. The contexts in which you work may vary from: responding to a measles epidemic; to assessing medical needs after a natural disaster; to participating in a malaria treatment program that is also researching the level of drug resistance.

While you may be challenged by the lack of diagnostic tools available to you, Médecins Sans Frontières will provide expert technical back up including extensive guidelines and protocols to ensure quality health care delivery.

You will be treating diseases such as malaria, meningitis, typhoid and pneumonia. You may be required to perform minor surgical procedures. Your managerial and administration skills will be called upon as you supervise large teams of local staff. Your resourcefulness will be tested—often you will be the most senior doctor within the team.

Part 3
Read the text and answer questions 28–40.

SEADRAGON SEARCH

In appearance, they are unmistakably dragons, but in other ways these delicate captures of the sea bear little resemblance to their fierce, mythical namesake. They are only 45 cm long, fragile, harmless and vulnerable, Belonging to the same family as seahorses, seadragons come in two different species: ‘weedy’ (resembling blades of brown seaweed) and the more showy and more endangered ‘leafy’ (looking like aquatic ‘leaves’). They are found only in coastal southern Australian waters and because they resemble swaying seaweed, can be difficult to find in their natural habitat.

Though well camouflaged, their brilliant colours are visible in sun-dappled species inhabit rocky reefs, seaweed beds and sea grass meadows colonised by seaweeds. They are most often seen in shallow coastal waters. Camouflage is their only protection. Otherwise sea-dragons are poorly equipped for fleeing from pursuers. The outer skin is composed of solid bony plates, which limit mobility. The only way they can propel themselves along is through rapidly oscillating their ventral and dorsal fins. Like sea horses they possess an internal air bladder, used for vertical motion. With little effort, they can rise or settle to another depth simply by changing the air volume within the bladder. Because they blend easily with the background, sea dragons are agile enough to hunt down tiny shrimps, their main quarry.

Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about sea-dragons is that it is actually, the male of the species which carries the young. During mating, the female lays 100 – 250 eggs onto the underside of the male’s tail, where they are attached and fertilised. After a period of about four to six weeks from conception, the male ‘gives birth’ to miniature juvenile versions of itself, As soon as a baby sea dragon leaves the safety of its father’s tail, it is independent and receives no further help from its parents.

There is increasing concern about the future of these vulnerable and fragile creatures. Both seadragons and their close relatives, seahorses, are threatened globally by habitat destruction. The inshore areas of seagrass they inhabit are threatened by pollution and excessive fertiliser run off. Each year, an estimated 20 million seahorses (but not seadragons) are taken for traditional Asian medicines. The international trade in seahorses involves more than 30 countries and is growing. Fortunately, seadragons currently are not used for the medicine trade: however they have been targeted by the aquarium fish trade. Unscrupulous ‘collectors’ have denuded the more accessible seagrass areas of this amazing creature.

Keeping live seadragons is extremely difficult and collectors often target males with eggs, hatching out and selling the young. Removing breeding animals from the wild populations may have an impact on local populations of seadragons. To date, no successful, closed cycle, captive breeding program has occurred. There has not yet been a generation of captive seadragons which has bred. Economically and environmentally it makes sense to limit collection and export of this species until more is known about them. Because seadragons require live food and an exact water temperature, most die quickly in captivity. It is illegal to take or export them without a permit. Concerned by the rapidly decreasing numbers of the leafy sea-dragon, the Department of Fisheries declared it a totally protected species in 1991.

It is for these reasons that Dragon Search has been initiated. This community-based monitoring program involves nearly 20 organisations around Australia. The project encourages members of the community to provide information on seadragon sightings. Recreational divers and snorkellers are invited to record sightings of seadragons in their dive logs and to transfer relevant information to Dragon Search sighting sheets. Likewise, anyone who visits the beach and spots either live seadragons in the water or their remains washed up on shore may also participate. The information submitted is entered into a confidential database and is used to encourage the protection of these wonderful creatures and to promote the establishment of marine reserves. It is hoped that increased awareness and involvement of local communities will help prevent poaching of seadragons and encourage the protection of both species and their habitat.