Solution for: CBT GT Reading Test 38: Camberwell College Swimming Pools

This class is suitable for parents with children aged up to the age of 1.5 years. This class allows very young children to gain confidence in the water, by way of songs and music.

This series of classes is suitable for children aged 1.5 upwards. There are six levels in the series. The first level is suitable for non-swimmers and teaches basic techniques and safety, using aids and floats. By the time students reach the sixth level, they will be able to swim independently and will be eligible to join the Swim Star classes.

An opportunity for able swimmers to earn the Bronze, Silver and Gold swimming awards. These classes teach children the ability to swim for prolonged periods of time, and teach skills such as diving, turning and different strokes. Children who successfully complete the Swim Star programme will be invited to join the Youth Squad and learn competitive swimming techniques.

The swim school offers classes for adults. There are three levels, beginner, intermediate and advanced. The beginner’s class is suitable for people who are new to swimming; the intermediate level is designed for swimmers who want to brush up on their swimming style, and the advanced level offers in-depth advice on stamina, breathing and technique.

We offer a range of levels of fitness classes for able swimmers who wish to keep fit, socialise and have fun to music. Aqua-Light offers gentle exercise and is suitable for the elderly. Aqua-Pump is a high energy class which builds your strength and tones your body.

Particularly useful for science students, but of interest to all, this course is an introduction to statistics. It shows how numbers can be manipulated to suggest different results, and how public opinion can be altered by clever statistical methods. It will provide an introduction into useful statistical methods, but is unsuitable for students who requiring advanced statistical skills for a thesis or dissertation.

This course teaches advanced mathematical and statistical skills, and is suitable for students working on projects which involve a great deal of quantitative data. The course outlines how to gather data, how to draw conclusions from it, and how best to present it diagrammatically.

This course concentrates on the skills needed to write academic essays. Students will learn how to develop essay titles, structure essays correctly, avoid plagiarism and reference their work. There will also be the opportunity to work on other elements of writing, including grammar and punctuation. The course is most suitable for non-native speaker and native speakers at undergraduate level.

A course especially designed for PhD students working on a long term project. As well as looking at conventions of PhD theses and improving research and study skills, the course also serves as a social group where PhD students, who often work alone, can share their experiences and offer each other encouragement and advice.

A course to iron out those typical mistakes in English essay writing. Common grammar mistakes, spelling errors and that dreaded apostrophe will be covered in detail. The course is designed for native speakers who lack confidence in writing, particularly those who have been away from academic environments for some time.

This course is suitable for non-native students at undergraduate or post-graduate level who wish to focus on grammar and language. Students will look at which tenses are used in which situations, look at passive structures and relative clauses. Suitable ‘chunks’ of language for academic situations will also be presented. Students will also have the chance to focus on individual grammar needs. Unsuitable for native speakers of English.

Throughout history, there have been instances in which people have been unwilling to accept new theories, despite startling evidence. This was certainly the case when Copernicus published his theory - that the earth was not the centre of the universe.

Until the early 16th century, western thinkers believed the theory put forward by Ptolemy, an Egyptian living in Alexandria in about 150 A.D. His theory, which was formulated by gathering and organizing the thoughts of the earlier thinkers, proposed that the universe was a closed space bounded by a spherical envelope beyond which there was nothing. The earth, according to Ptolemy, was a fixed and immobile mass, located at the centre of the universe. The sun and the stars, revolved around it.

The theory appealed to human nature. Someone making casual observations as they looked into the sky might come to a similar conclusion. It also fed the human ego. Humans could believe that they were at the centre of God's universe, and the sun and stars were created for their benefit.

Ptolemy's theory, was of course, incorrect, but at the time nobody contested it. European astronomers were more inclined to save face. Instead of proposing new ideas, they attempted to patch up and refine Ptolemy's flawed model. Students were taught using a book called The Sphere which had been written two hundred years previously. In short, astronomy failed to advance.

In 1530, however, Mikolaj Kopernik, more commonly known as Copernicus, made an assertion which shook the world. He proposed that the earth turned on its axis once per day, and travelled around the sun once per year. Even when he made his discovery, he was reluctant to make it public, knowing how much his shocking revelations would disturb the church. However, George Rheticus, a German mathematics professor who had become Copernicus's student, convinced Copernicus to publish his ideas, even though Copernicus, a perfectionist, was never satisfied that his observations were complete.

Copernicus's ideas went against all the political and religious beliefs of the time. Humans, it was believed, were made in God's image, and were superior to all creatures. The natural world had been created for humans to exploit. Copernicus's theories contradicted the ideas of all the powerful churchmen of the time. Even the famous playwright William Shakespeare feared the new theory, pronouncing that it would destroy social order and bring chaos to the world. However, Copernicus never had to suffer at the hands of those who disagreed with his theories. He died just after the work was published in 1543.

However, the scientists who followed in Copernicus's footsteps bore the brunt of the church's anger. Two other Italian scientists of the time, Galileo and Bruno, agreed wholeheartedly with the Copernican theory. Bruno even dared to say that space was endless and contained many other suns, each with its own planets. For this, Bruno was sentenced to death by burning in 1600. Galileo, famous for his construction of the telescope, was forced to deny his belief in the Copernican theories. He escaped capital punishment, but was imprisoned for the rest of his life.

In time however, Copernicus's work became more accepted. Subsequent scientists and mathematicians such as Brahe, Kepler and Newton took Copernicus's work as a starting point and used it to glean further truths about the laws of celestial mechanics.

The most important aspect of Copernicus' work is that it forever changed the place of man in the cosmos. With Copernicus' work, man could no longer take that premier position which the theologians had immodestly assigned him. This was the first, but certainly not the last time in which man would have to accept his position as a mere part of the universe, not at the centre of it.