Read Text II and answer the four questions that follow it:

Text II

A river in flux

MANAUS, BRAZIL—Jochen Schöngart darts back and forth along an escarpment just above the Amazon River, a short water taxi ride from downtown Manaus, Brazil. It’s still early this October morning in 2023, but it’s already hot and his face is beaded with sweat. “Look, there’s a piece of ceramic!” he says, nodding to a worn shard lodged between boulders, likely a relic of an earlier civilization. It’s not the only one.

Schöngart, a forest scientist at the National Institute of Amazon Research (INPA), stoops and stares at the bedrock at his feet. Well below the river’s normal level for this time of year, the rock bears a gallery of life-size faces, perhaps carved during a megadrought 1000 years ago. Now, they have been exposed again by a new drought, the worst in the region’s modern history.

In the previous 4 months, only a few millimeters of rain have fallen in this city of 2 million at the confluence of the Negro and Amazon rivers. Normally it gets close to a half a meter during the same period. The Amazon sank steadily beginning in June, as it does most years during the dry season. But by mid-October, the port’s river gauge reached the lowest level observed since the record began in 1902. Freighters coming up from the Atlantic Ocean—the city’s primary supply line—were blocked by shoals. Factories furloughed workers.

Making matters worse, the drought coincided with a series of week-long heat waves. In September and October, withering conditions persisted across the Amazon, and temperatures here peaked at 39°C, 6°C above normal. Desiccated jungle set ablaze by farmers enveloped the city in choking smoke. Then, in the season’s most freakish episode, a sandstorm blotted out the Sun.

Drought and heat are only half of the story of the changes unfolding in the heart of the world’s largest rainforest. Schöngart and collaborators’ research on the river here has shown that for decades, while dry-season low water has been plummeting, rainyseason high water has been rising. The city has experienced frequent major flooding in recent years because of heavy rains across much of the Amazon Basin, forcing the officials to erect temporary wooden walkways above streets of the historic waterfront.

Schöngart and other researchers expect such changes to intensify as global climate warms. The current drought provided a grim preview, killing river dolphins and fish, and threatening livelihoods for communities along the river. If the combination of higher highs and lower lows becomes the new norm, the ramifications could extend throughout the Amazon Basin and even beyond, threatening the very existence of the forest—which harbors much of the planet’s biodiversity, has a far-reaching influence over regional and global climate, and sustains millions of people.

“We are undergoing massive changes in the hydrological cycle” of the Amazon Basin, Schöngart says. The question now, he says, is whether its ecosystems and people can adapt.

Adapted from: https://www.science.org/content/article/amazon-river-may-alteredforever-climate-change

Read Text I and answer the six questions that follow it:

Text I

Office Culture

Companies are clawing to bring back pre-pandemic perks and that 'family' feeling – but employees want something more tangible.

Many employers are calling employees back into offices, trying to restore the workplace of pre-pandemic days. Along with filling seats, they're also looking to bring back another relic: office culture.

Pre-2020, office culture was synonymous with the 'cool' office: think places to lounge, stocked pantries and in-office happy hours that went all out; or luxe retreats and team-building exercises meant to foster the feeling of 'family'. In past years, these perks drew many workers to the office – in some cases, entire companies defined themselves by their office cultures.

The world of work looks and feels entirely different than just a few years ago – yet many companies are still intent on recreating the office cultures workers left behind as they abandoned their desks in 2020. While these companies are making some gestures to adapt – for instance, redesigning spaces to accommodate new preferences and hybrid-work habits – many are still set on bringing back what lured in workers before the pandemic.

Yet swaths of employees simply aren't interested in going backward. Instead of trust-falls and cold brew on tap, employees are demanding flexible work, equitable pay and a focus on humanity in the workplace that transcends the perks they sought years earlier.

Workers' shifting priorities are a natural consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic, says Georgina Fraser, head of human capital for global commercial real-estate firm CBRE. "The pandemic gave us autonomy in a way that we haven't had previously," she says. "It gave us the opportunity to choose how we structured our working days."

And now that workers have experienced that level of work-life balance, they won't settle for less. Fraser adds: "Post-pandemic, we saw a resurgence of people being very vocal about what they wanted and needed, not just from office culture, but from the wider world."

Now, she says, workers aren't shy about "wanting to be seen as a whole human – and that filters down to their physical location, how [employers] manage them, what support they receive and how [employers] integrate technologies between home and office in order to support them".

One major factor in this changing attitude is that many employees feel office culture simply isn't applicable in a remoteand hybrid-first world, where the physical office can feel superfluous. Now that the workplace doesn't serve as the culture hub it once did, "companies have really struggled to redefine the role of the office", says Lewis Beck, CBRE's head of workplace for Europe. Office culture that was once meant to get employees excited doesn't have the same pull when workplaces are only one-third full.

Adapted from: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20240229-office-culture-isdead

Read Text I and answer the six questions that follow it:

Text I

Office Culture

Companies are clawing to bring back pre-pandemic perks and that 'family' feeling – but employees want something more tangible.

Many employers are calling employees back into offices, trying to restore the workplace of pre-pandemic days. Along with filling seats, they're also looking to bring back another relic: office culture.

Pre-2020, office culture was synonymous with the 'cool' office: think places to lounge, stocked pantries and in-office happy hours that went all out; or luxe retreats and team-building exercises meant to foster the feeling of 'family'. In past years, these perks drew many workers to the office – in some cases, entire companies defined themselves by their office cultures.

The world of work looks and feels entirely different than just a few years ago – yet many companies are still intent on recreating the office cultures workers left behind as they abandoned their desks in 2020. While these companies are making some gestures to adapt – for instance, redesigning spaces to accommodate new preferences and hybrid-work habits – many are still set on bringing back what lured in workers before the pandemic.

Yet swaths of employees simply aren't interested in going backward. Instead of trust-falls and cold brew on tap, employees are demanding flexible work, equitable pay and a focus on humanity in the workplace that transcends the perks they sought years earlier.

Workers' shifting priorities are a natural consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic, says Georgina Fraser, head of human capital for global commercial real-estate firm CBRE. "The pandemic gave us autonomy in a way that we haven't had previously," she says. "It gave us the opportunity to choose how we structured our working days."

And now that workers have experienced that level of work-life balance, they won't settle for less. Fraser adds: "Post-pandemic, we saw a resurgence of people being very vocal about what they wanted and needed, not just from office culture, but from the wider world."

Now, she says, workers aren't shy about "wanting to be seen as a whole human – and that filters down to their physical location, how [employers] manage them, what support they receive and how [employers] integrate technologies between home and office in order to support them".

One major factor in this changing attitude is that many employees feel office culture simply isn't applicable in a remoteand hybrid-first world, where the physical office can feel superfluous. Now that the workplace doesn't serve as the culture hub it once did, "companies have really struggled to redefine the role of the office", says Lewis Beck, CBRE's head of workplace for Europe. Office culture that was once meant to get employees excited doesn't have the same pull when workplaces are only one-third full.

Adapted from: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20240229-office-culture-isdead

Read Text I and answer the six questions that follow it:

Text I

Office Culture

Companies are clawing to bring back pre-pandemic perks and that 'family' feeling – but employees want something more tangible.

Many employers are calling employees back into offices, trying to restore the workplace of pre-pandemic days. Along with filling seats, they're also looking to bring back another relic: office culture.

Pre-2020, office culture was synonymous with the 'cool' office: think places to lounge, stocked pantries and in-office happy hours that went all out; or luxe retreats and team-building exercises meant to foster the feeling of 'family'. In past years, these perks drew many workers to the office – in some cases, entire companies defined themselves by their office cultures.

The world of work looks and feels entirely different than just a few years ago – yet many companies are still intent on recreating the office cultures workers left behind as they abandoned their desks in 2020. While these companies are making some gestures to adapt – for instance, redesigning spaces to accommodate new preferences and hybrid-work habits – many are still set on bringing back what lured in workers before the pandemic.

Yet swaths of employees simply aren't interested in going backward. Instead of trust-falls and cold brew on tap, employees are demanding flexible work, equitable pay and a focus on humanity in the workplace that transcends the perks they sought years earlier.

Workers' shifting priorities are a natural consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic, says Georgina Fraser, head of human capital for global commercial real-estate firm CBRE. "The pandemic gave us autonomy in a way that we haven't had previously," she says. "It gave us the opportunity to choose how we structured our working days."

And now that workers have experienced that level of work-life balance, they won't settle for less. Fraser adds: "Post-pandemic, we saw a resurgence of people being very vocal about what they wanted and needed, not just from office culture, but from the wider world."

Now, she says, workers aren't shy about "wanting to be seen as a whole human – and that filters down to their physical location, how [employers] manage them, what support they receive and how [employers] integrate technologies between home and office in order to support them".

One major factor in this changing attitude is that many employees feel office culture simply isn't applicable in a remoteand hybrid-first world, where the physical office can feel superfluous. Now that the workplace doesn't serve as the culture hub it once did, "companies have really struggled to redefine the role of the office", says Lewis Beck, CBRE's head of workplace for Europe. Office culture that was once meant to get employees excited doesn't have the same pull when workplaces are only one-third full.

Adapted from: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20240229-office-culture-isdead

Read Text I and answer the six questions that follow it:

Text I

Office Culture

Companies are clawing to bring back pre-pandemic perks and that 'family' feeling – but employees want something more tangible.

Many employers are calling employees back into offices, trying to restore the workplace of pre-pandemic days. Along with filling seats, they're also looking to bring back another relic: office culture.

Pre-2020, office culture was synonymous with the 'cool' office: think places to lounge, stocked pantries and in-office happy hours that went all out; or luxe retreats and team-building exercises meant to foster the feeling of 'family'. In past years, these perks drew many workers to the office – in some cases, entire companies defined themselves by their office cultures.

The world of work looks and feels entirely different than just a few years ago – yet many companies are still intent on recreating the office cultures workers left behind as they abandoned their desks in 2020. While these companies are making some gestures to adapt – for instance, redesigning spaces to accommodate new preferences and hybrid-work habits – many are still set on bringing back what lured in workers before the pandemic.

Yet swaths of employees simply aren't interested in going backward. Instead of trust-falls and cold brew on tap, employees are demanding flexible work, equitable pay and a focus on humanity in the workplace that transcends the perks they sought years earlier.

Workers' shifting priorities are a natural consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic, says Georgina Fraser, head of human capital for global commercial real-estate firm CBRE. "The pandemic gave us autonomy in a way that we haven't had previously," she says. "It gave us the opportunity to choose how we structured our working days."

And now that workers have experienced that level of work-life balance, they won't settle for less. Fraser adds: "Post-pandemic, we saw a resurgence of people being very vocal about what they wanted and needed, not just from office culture, but from the wider world."

Now, she says, workers aren't shy about "wanting to be seen as a whole human – and that filters down to their physical location, how [employers] manage them, what support they receive and how [employers] integrate technologies between home and office in order to support them".

One major factor in this changing attitude is that many employees feel office culture simply isn't applicable in a remoteand hybrid-first world, where the physical office can feel superfluous. Now that the workplace doesn't serve as the culture hub it once did, "companies have really struggled to redefine the role of the office", says Lewis Beck, CBRE's head of workplace for Europe. Office culture that was once meant to get employees excited doesn't have the same pull when workplaces are only one-third full.

Adapted from: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20240229-office-culture-isdead

Read Text I and answer the six questions that follow it:

Text I

Office Culture

Companies are clawing to bring back pre-pandemic perks and that 'family' feeling – but employees want something more tangible.

Many employers are calling employees back into offices, trying to restore the workplace of pre-pandemic days. Along with filling seats, they're also looking to bring back another relic: office culture.

Pre-2020, office culture was synonymous with the 'cool' office: think places to lounge, stocked pantries and in-office happy hours that went all out; or luxe retreats and team-building exercises meant to foster the feeling of 'family'. In past years, these perks drew many workers to the office – in some cases, entire companies defined themselves by their office cultures.

The world of work looks and feels entirely different than just a few years ago – yet many companies are still intent on recreating the office cultures workers left behind as they abandoned their desks in 2020. While these companies are making some gestures to adapt – for instance, redesigning spaces to accommodate new preferences and hybrid-work habits – many are still set on bringing back what lured in workers before the pandemic.

Yet swaths of employees simply aren't interested in going backward. Instead of trust-falls and cold brew on tap, employees are demanding flexible work, equitable pay and a focus on humanity in the workplace that transcends the perks they sought years earlier.

Workers' shifting priorities are a natural consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic, says Georgina Fraser, head of human capital for global commercial real-estate firm CBRE. "The pandemic gave us autonomy in a way that we haven't had previously," she says. "It gave us the opportunity to choose how we structured our working days."

And now that workers have experienced that level of work-life balance, they won't settle for less. Fraser adds: "Post-pandemic, we saw a resurgence of people being very vocal about what they wanted and needed, not just from office culture, but from the wider world."

Now, she says, workers aren't shy about "wanting to be seen as a whole human – and that filters down to their physical location, how [employers] manage them, what support they receive and how [employers] integrate technologies between home and office in order to support them".

One major factor in this changing attitude is that many employees feel office culture simply isn't applicable in a remoteand hybrid-first world, where the physical office can feel superfluous. Now that the workplace doesn't serve as the culture hub it once did, "companies have really struggled to redefine the role of the office", says Lewis Beck, CBRE's head of workplace for Europe. Office culture that was once meant to get employees excited doesn't have the same pull when workplaces are only one-third full.

Adapted from: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20240229-office-culture-isdead

Read Text I and answer the six questions that follow it:

Text I

Office Culture

Companies are clawing to bring back pre-pandemic perks and that 'family' feeling – but employees want something more tangible.

Many employers are calling employees back into offices, trying to restore the workplace of pre-pandemic days. Along with filling seats, they're also looking to bring back another relic: office culture.

Pre-2020, office culture was synonymous with the 'cool' office: think places to lounge, stocked pantries and in-office happy hours that went all out; or luxe retreats and team-building exercises meant to foster the feeling of 'family'. In past years, these perks drew many workers to the office – in some cases, entire companies defined themselves by their office cultures.

The world of work looks and feels entirely different than just a few years ago – yet many companies are still intent on recreating the office cultures workers left behind as they abandoned their desks in 2020. While these companies are making some gestures to adapt – for instance, redesigning spaces to accommodate new preferences and hybrid-work habits – many are still set on bringing back what lured in workers before the pandemic.

Yet swaths of employees simply aren't interested in going backward. Instead of trust-falls and cold brew on tap, employees are demanding flexible work, equitable pay and a focus on humanity in the workplace that transcends the perks they sought years earlier.

Workers' shifting priorities are a natural consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic, says Georgina Fraser, head of human capital for global commercial real-estate firm CBRE. "The pandemic gave us autonomy in a way that we haven't had previously," she says. "It gave us the opportunity to choose how we structured our working days."

And now that workers have experienced that level of work-life balance, they won't settle for less. Fraser adds: "Post-pandemic, we saw a resurgence of people being very vocal about what they wanted and needed, not just from office culture, but from the wider world."

Now, she says, workers aren't shy about "wanting to be seen as a whole human – and that filters down to their physical location, how [employers] manage them, what support they receive and how [employers] integrate technologies between home and office in order to support them".

One major factor in this changing attitude is that many employees feel office culture simply isn't applicable in a remoteand hybrid-first world, where the physical office can feel superfluous. Now that the workplace doesn't serve as the culture hub it once did, "companies have really struggled to redefine the role of the office", says Lewis Beck, CBRE's head of workplace for Europe. Office culture that was once meant to get employees excited doesn't have the same pull when workplaces are only one-third full.

Adapted from: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20240229-office-culture-isdead

Read Text I and answer the five questions that follow it:

Text II

Examining the fluff that frustrates northern China

Like most blizzards, it begins with just a few white wisps swirling about. Gradually the volume increases and the stuff starts to accumulate on the ground. During the heaviest downfalls the air is so thick with it as to impair visibility. But this is no winter scene. It is what happens every April across much of northern China, when poplar trees start giving off their cotton-like seed-pods.

The phenomenon has already begun in Beijing. On April 8th an eddy of fluff balls wafted around the American treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, as she held a press conference in an embassy garden.

To call this a nuisance is an understatement. In many people the fluff triggers allergies, asthma and other respiratory problems. Experts say the white balls—produced by the trees’ catkins—are not themselves allergenic, but that they distribute irritating pollen.

They also clog rain gutters, drain pipes and car radiators. Worse, they pose a fire hazard. Officials have warned that the fuzz balls have a low ignition point and called for extreme caution on the part of smokers, welders or anyone inclined to burn them “out of curiosity”.

China’s catkin problem is the unintended consequence of an old effort to improve the environment. Intensive tree planting began in the 1950s with the aim of ending the scourge of sandstorms caused by winds sweeping out of barren areas. The trees were also meant to firm up the soil and slow desertification. Poplar trees, along with willows, were selected because they are cheap, fast-growing and drought-resistant.

In some ways the plan worked. Today sandstorms are less severe and the threat of desertification has faded. But the annual onslaught from catkins is another legacy. Female trees are the cotton-ball culprits. There are millions of them (poplar and willow) in Beijing alone.

Authorities have sought to mitigate the mess. The simplest way is to spray water on the trees, turning the fluffy flyers into damp squibs. More advanced solutions involve “birth control”, or injecting female trees with chemicals that suppress catkin production. Another option is “gender-reassignment surgery”, in which branches on female trees are cut and replaced with male grafts.

But experts say that these efforts will take time. The good news is that the flurries of poplar fluff will only last for a few more weeks. The bad news is that wafts of willow fluff will then begin.

From: https://www.economist.com/china/2024/04/18/examining-thefluff-that-frustrates-northern-china

Read Text I and answer the five questions that follow it:

Text I

Energy Transition in a Transnational World

Within the sphere of environmental law, the climate crisis is increasingly understood to be an intersectional challenge that implicates and exacerbates existing systemic challenges and prevailing pathways of inequality. From this vantage point climate change also creates opportunities for rethinking the role of law in limiting the destructive impacts of climate change and moving towards a more sustainable and equitable world in the process. This view is advanced by the climate justice movement, which is swelling in influence worldwide. Drawing from the environmental justice movement, the climate justice movement exposes not only how social and economic inequality has led to and perpetuates patterns of climate change, but also how climate change deepens inequality by disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable members of society. Climate justice seeks greater emphasis on this issue and advocates on the part of those most affected by climate change. The movement envisions a world which simultaneously curtails the negative effects of climate change and reshapes existing social, political, and economic relationships along the way.

Amidst the overlapping crises of modern times, the modern climate justice movement is reviving dialogue at the intersection of feminism, environmentalism, social and economic justice, and other progressive law reform movements, as well as creating the space and momentum for intersectional ideas to flourish. For lawyers and legal scholars, the opportunity is to see climate change and environmental degradation within its broader social context and to seize upon the rule of law as a powerful tool for change.

Nowhere are these intersecting challenges as acute as in the context of energy. One of the principal aims of the climate justice movement is to achieve a just and equitable transition from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy. This requires transitioning from fossil fuel-dependent to low and zero-carbon economies. However, the pathways for overhauling energy systems worldwide remain indeterminate. Energy systems are evolving in response to a combination of law and policy changes, developments in energy technologies, and market forces. Moreover, given both the entrenched nature of fossil fuel economies and the varied social, political, economic, and environmental factors that shape energy transition, pathways to decarbonization are bound to be beset with complex trade-offs, such as those between energy security and environmental objectives, or between energy choice and economies of scale. The precise contours of these systemic changes vary from country to country, and remain under-explored both within their national contexts and from a broader transnational perspective. This knowledge gap is critical. Understanding how, why, and to what end states are restructuring their energy economies is essential for transitioning to more environmentally sustainable and just societies worldwide. In short, this is an area in need of experimentation and iterative learning. It is a subject ripe for greater scholarly focus, particularly at the transnational level, where improved learning and sharing is indispensable for achieving the global-level shifts needed to address climate change.

Adapted from: Etty, Thijs et al. “Energy Transition in a Transnational World.” Transnational Environmental Law 10.2 (2021): 197–204. Available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/transnational-environmental-law/article/energy-transition-in-a-transnational-world/9F9D4229588B39C0E5916DFBE82EA046

Read Text I and answer the eight questions that follow it:

Text I

Shock of the old: Believe it or not, battery-powered vehicles

have been around since Victorian times.

The history of the electric car is surprisingly enraging. If you imagine early electric vehicles at all (full disclosure: I didn’t until recently), it will probably be as the quixotic and possibly dangerous dream of a few eccentrics, maybe in the 1920s or 1930s, when domestic electrification became widespread. It’s easy to imagine some stiff-collared proto-Musk getting bored of hunting and affairs, eyeing his newly installed electric lights speculatively, then wreaking untold havoc and mass electrocutions. The reality is entirely different.

By 1900, a third of all cars on the road in the US were electric; we’re looking at the history of a cruelly missed opportunity, and it started astonishingly early. The Scottish engineer Robert Anderson had a go at an electric car of sorts way back in the 1830s, though his invention was somewhat stymied by the fact rechargeable batteries were not invented until 1859, making his crude carriage something of a one-trick pony (and far less useful than an actual pony).

It’s debatable whether or not Scotland was ready for this brave new world anyway: in 1842, Robert Davidson (another Scot, who had, a few years earlier, also tried his hand at an electric vehicle) saw his electric locomotive Galvani “broken by some malicious hands almost beyond repair” in Perth. The contemporary consensus was that it was attacked by railway workers fearful for their jobs.

Despite this unpromising start, electric vehicles had entered widespread commercial circulation by the start of the 20th century, particularly in the US. Electric cabs crisscrossed Manhattan, 1897’s bestselling US car was electric and, when he was shot in 1901, President McKinley was taken to hospital in an electric ambulance. London had Walter Bersey’s electric taxis, and Berlin’s fire engines went electric in 1908; the future looked bright, clean and silent.

By the 1930s, however, the tide had definitively turned against electric, cursed by range limitations and impractical charging times while petrol gained the upper hand thanks partly – and ironically – to the electric starter motor. The Horseless Age magazine, which vehemently backed the petrol non-horse, would have been delighted. There was a brief resurgence of interest in the late 1960s, when the US Congress passed a bill promoting electrical vehicle development, but nothing much actually happened until the Nissan Leaf sparked interest in 2009. Electric still isn’t quite there yet, battling infrastructure and battery problems that might have been familiar to Anderson and friends.

Adapted from The Guardian, Tuesday 24 October 2023, p. 6 https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/series/shock-of-the-old/2023/oct/24/all