Text 1
On a mission to clean up Hong Kong’s polluted waters
 [1] After seeing how the city’s waters endangered the lives of fish and bir
ds, a former marine police officer was moved to spend his retirement helping
to solve the problem. He now mans a solar-powered, zero-emissions boat pic
king up trash in Victoria Harbour as part of the HSBC Clean Waterways Pro
gramme. What impact has the initiative made so far? We find out.
 [2] Panoramic views of Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour are stunningly icon
ic, even serving as the backdrop for many Hollywood movies. Zoom in close
r, however, and things aren’t quite as idyllic, especially when it comes to the
water quality.
 [3] Former marine police officer Tony Fan saw this issue first-hand over h
is career of more than 30 years, much of which was spent on the city’s wate
rways. He vividly remembers the scene that often greeted him at the Causew
ay Bay Typhoon Shelter. “It is extremely polluted with litter; the water appea
1 rs black sometimes,” he says.
 [4] Fan, 59, became even more disheartened when he witnessed the impact
of water pollution. “I saw a lot of sick fish floating and struggling, and a lo
t of dead fish floating on the surface as well. I’ve also seen sick birds,” he s
ays. “There is a vast quantity of plastic filaments and particles in the water –
thousands of microplastics. Some can even be seen by the naked eye, which
is mind-boggling.”
 [5] After he retired last year, Fan wanted to lend a hand to resolving the i
ssue. So when he heard from a friend that the Clean Waterways Initiative (C
WI), a local NGO, had teamed up with HSBC to address marine pollution, F
an immediately jumped on board as captain of one of its boats specially desi
gned to pick up trash from Hong Kong’s harbours. There are currently four o
f these solar-powered, zero-emissions vessels operating in the city as part of t
his joint effort, called the HSBC Clean Waterways Programme.
Problem reaches a crisis point
 [6] Marine pollution is plaguing the world. About 80 per cent of trash – m
ostly plastic items – that ends up in the ocean comes from land-based source
s such as residential waste disposal, beach litter, sewage outflows, stormwater
runoff and industrial activity. Scientists have estimated that by 2050, the oce
ans could contain more plastic than fish.
 [7] As a densely populated city with more than 7 million people, Hong Ko
ng is certainly not immune to this problem. The city’s beaches are awash wit
h litter, showing microplastic levels as high as 5,600 pieces per square metre
– 40 per cent higher than the global average.
 [8] CWI’s founders, the husband-and-wife team of Angus Harris and Ellen Ogren,
felt called to help. “We live in Shek O, down by the beach, and are confronted by the
litter-strewn water on a daily basis – plastics, bottles, cans, face masks,” Ogren says.
 [9] In addition, Harris’ professional background – as a boat captain, marine
electrical technician, and later as manager of a yacht management company where he
also worked in boat maintenance – meant he was spending many hours on the
water.“Marine pollution is prevalent and obvious to everyone, really, but when you
see it as much as I do, the problem comes to the forefront,” he says.
 [10] Driven to leave a better world for the next generation, the couple, who are
also parents of two children aged one and three, started brainstorming ways to clean
up Hong Kong’s waterways more efficiently, and CWI was born. The NGO was
formally established in 2019 with a mission to collect waste from Hong Kong’s
heavily polluted waterways and fight plastic pollution. The trash is collected using a
fleet of solar-powered, zero-emissions boats designed by Harris.
Everyone needs to play a part
 [11] Much more work remains to be done, so Ogren and Harris are hoping to
expand CWI’s operations. “We want to try to put more boats out, so that we can make
a greater impact and pick up more trash,” Ogren says. But perhaps more importantly,
they want to raise public awareness of plastic pollution and educate more people on
the issue.
 [12] Together with HSBC and local environmental charity Plastic Free Seas, the
CWI team runs educational workshops for schools, during which students are taken
on board a larger boat to see one of the Explorers in action while also learning about
recycling and the need to reduce single-use plastics. The most important part of what
we do is not just picking up rubbish that’s already in the water, because at the end of
the day, we need to stop the plastics from going into the water in the first place,”
Ogren explains.
 [13] Fan agrees, adding that the public must do its part and be more proactive in
helping to keep Hong Kong’s waterways litter-free. The team hopes to see the boats
collecting significantly less trash over time. “The ultimate goal is for what we do and
our boats to become redundant eventually,” Ogren says.
 [14] Harris adds: “That would be amazing, but it’s a long way to go until that
happens.”
Sources of materials used in this paper will be acknowledged in the Practice Papers
published at a later stage.
Text 2
Hong Kong hamster cull
 1 The Hong Kong government’s decision to cull 2,000 hamsters to contain a
possible hamster-to-human transmission of the coronavirus has sparked outrage
among pet owners and animal rights groups, who question whether the measure is too
drastic or necessary.
 2 Officials asked pet owners and shops to hand over 2,000 hamsters that had been
imported in two batches since December 22 for tests and euthanisation on Tuesday,
after 11 samples taken from hamsters in a Causeway Bay pet store came back
positive. The shop’s employee, a customer and her husband were confirmed to be
infected.
 3 Dr Thomas Sit Hon-chung, assistant director of the Agriculture, Fisheries and
Conservation Department (AFCD), said authorities had “no choice” but to make a
“firm decision” to protect public and animal health.
 4 In a statement issued on Wednesday, leading microbiologist Yuen Kwok-yung
further explained the justifications for the cull:
 5 1. The Covid-19 vaccines, including Sinovac, are effective against the Delta
variant but not effective against Omicron. Thus if everyone, especially the elderly, is
vaccinated, there is no need to cull all hamsters related to this outbreak.
 6 2. AFCD veterinarians are professional experts who can make such a decision.
They have dealt with the H5N1 and H7N9 bird flu virus in 1997, 2002, 2004 and
2013. Other experts in microbiology and virology, public health and pulmonary
medicine can only give their opinion from their perspective. More importantly, the
AFCD does not have sufficient animal quarantine facilities, staff and testing
capabilities.
 7 3. When 33 per cent of our population and over half of our elderly residents are
not inoculated, a large number of these unvaccinated elderly (possibly over 1,000
deaths by extrapolation) will die if the Delta variant leaks into our community.
 8 4. Moreover, there is a mutation in the virus spike protein’s receptor binding
domain linked to a human cell receptor that caused the infection. This is likely to have
happened when the virus was transmitted from humans to hamsters and vice versa, or
between the rodents. We do not know the transmissibility or virulence of this
mutation. If this mutated virus is not stopped, it may spread across Hong Kong, to
mainland China and overseas, leading to another disaster.
 9 5. We do not have enough time to get all the genomic information, so the
decision has to be made [quickly] as every hour matters while the transmission is
taking place in the [pet shop’s] Tai Po warehouse and many other stores. The
government officials had a HARD time making such a decision. More than 10 per
cent of the pet shop’s hamsters were found to have the virus in the first round of
screening. It is possible that someone in the Netherlands or Hong Kong gave the virus
to the hamsters at the Tai Po warehouse. The virus, which was also detected at the
warehouse, was then transmitted to the staff and customers.
 10 6. We realise that this is a complicated issue which is not easy to understand
when emotions are high. Science and medicine cannot solve the issue of love. I deeply
sympathise with hamster lovers who need a time of bereavement and counselling.
 11 7. Denmark has culled 17 million mink, [a decision] which may or may not
have legal basis. But ministers often have to resign for political accountability.
Political or legal incorrectness has nothing to do with a correct public health decision.
Sources of materials used in this paper will be acknowledged in the Practice Papers
published at a later stage.
QUESTION – ANSWER BOOKLET
SECTION A READING COMPREHENSION (50% of the whole paper)
Read text 1 in the examination booklet provided and answer the following questions.
All questions worth one mark unless otherwise stated. (25 marks)
 1. Find words from paragraph 1-2 which could be replaced by the following: (3
marks)
 (a) wide
 (b) scheme
 (c) recognizable
 2. Why did the writer say that views of Victoria Harbour aren’t quite “idyllic” (line
8) ?
 3. With references to Paragraph 3 and 4, fill in the blanks with one suitable word.
The word may or may not appear in the text. Mind your grammar. (4 marks)
With over ___________-year experiences spending on Hong Kong’s waterways,
former marine police officer Tony Fan witnessed the ____________ of water po
-llution. He even described the scene of dead fish floating on
the surfaces of ___________.
. Until now, he still remembers the scene at the Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter.
4. What does the word “its” in line 20 refers to?
_________________________________________________________________
5. What does the HSBC Clean Waterways Programme do?
_________________________________________________________________
 6. What does the marine pollution caused by? Give two examples.
 (a)_______________________________________________________________
 (b)_______________________________________________________________
The writer mentions the levels of microplastic to show that
___________________________________________________________________
8. What does “the NGO” (line 42) refer to?
___________________________________________________________________
9. Determine whether the statements were True (T), False (F) or Not Given
(NG) based on the information given in paragraph 8-10. (3 marks)
T F NG
Angus and Ellen were the only staff members of the CWI’s.
Harris has been working as a boat captain.
The pollutants were collected by a boat, which was designed and built
by Harris.
10. Choose the best answer and fill it in the box, then complete the sentence
below. Ogren and Harris, founder of CWI, (2 marks)
(a) make efforts to protect the prepossessing environment
(b) actively promotes the reduce of emissions
(c) who care about themselves and the next generation
(d) aimed to give a clear focus to the debate on environment issues
11. “The most important part of what we do is not just picking up rubbish that’
s already in the water, because at the end of the day, we need to stop the plasti
cs from going into the water in the first place” shows that solving a problem ha
s to first deal with the _______________________________________________
.
12. What does the word “that” in line 61 refers to? (2 marks)
___________________________________________________________________
Do you think we should protect the environment? If yes, what could
we do to help? Find two points from the article to help you. Write a short p
aragraph, with maximum 80 words.
(3 marks, in which 1 mark is awarded for language and organization.)
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
END OF TEXT 1
Read text 2 in the examination booklet provided and answer the following questions.
All questions worth one mark unless otherwise stated. (25 marks)
 1. Find words from paragraph 1-2 which could be replaced by the following:
(4 marks)
 2. Why did the government ask pet owners and shops to hand over hamsters? (2
marks)
____________________________________________________________________
 3. Based on the information given in paragraph 5-6, state TWO reasons explaining
why government decided to cull hamsters. (2 marks)
(a)__________________________________________________________________
(b)__________________________________________________________________
 4. Based on the information given in paragraph 4-8, fill in summary below. Fill in
one word only.
The word may or may not appear in the text. Mind your forms of verb. (7 marks)
A __________ in the virus’ receptor linked to the one in human body, which
__________ caused infection. The __________ in human and hamsters may led to the
____________ of another diseases across the world. The ___________ of this predisease is still unknown, according to ____________ Yuen Kwok-yung. Currently, a
large number of residents, with mostly ____________ remains unvaccinated. This
may lead to a huge amount of cases.
 5. According the paragraph 9, “the government officials had a HARD time making
such a decision”, What may be the HARD? (2 marks)
1 __________________________________________________________________
2 __________________________________________________________________
3 __________________________________________________________________
4 __________________________________________________________________
5 __________________________________________________________________
6. Do you think culling hamsters are reasonable? Provide cites from the passa
ge to support your answers.
(2 marks)
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
7. According to the last paragraph, “Political or legal incorrectness has nothing t
o do with a correct public health decision.” What may be the “incorrectness” an
d “health decision”?
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
8. Which of the following may the text appear in? (2 marks)
Blog
Magazine
Newspaper
Journal
END OF TEXT 2