THE BEST STUDENTS
According to most professors, mature students are ideal students because they are hard-working and become actively involved in all aspects of the learning process. The majority of mature students have a poor educational (26) but they manage to do exceptionally well at tertiary level. (27) many of them have a job and children to raise, they are always present at seminars and lectures and always hand in essays on time. They like studying and writing essays and they enjoy the class discussions (28) take place. Consequently, they achieve excellent results. In fact, as they have experienced many of life's pleasures, they are content with their lives and this has a positive effect on their attitude, making them eager to learn.
On the other hand, despite their enthusiasm and commitment, mature students suffer from anxiety. The fact that they have made (29) sacrifices to get into university puts extra pressure on them to succeed. Nevertheless, completing a degree gives mature students a sense of achievement, (30) their confidence and improves their job prospects.
(Adapted from Use of English for All Exams by E. Moutsou)

Marcel Bich, a French manufacturer of traditional ink pens, was the man who turned the ballpoint pen into an item that today almost anyone can afford. Bich was appalled at the poor quality of the ballpoint pens that were available, and was also shocked at their high cost. However, he recognised that the ballpoint was a firmly established invention, and he decided to design a cheap pen that worked well and would be commercially successful.
Bich went to the Biro brothers and asked them if he could use the design of their original invention in one of his own pens. In return, he offered to pay them every time he sold a pen. Then, for two years, Bich studied the detailed construction of every ballpoint pen that was being sold, often working with a microscope.
By 1950, he was ready to introduce his new wonder: a plastic pen with a clear barrel that wrote smoothly, did not leak and only cost a few cents. He called it the 'Bic Cristal'. The ballpoint pen had finally become a practical writing instrument. The public liked it immediately, and today it is as common as the pencil. In Britain, they are still called Biros, and many Bic models also say 'Biro' on the side of the pen, to remind people of their original inventors.
Bich became extremely wealthy thanks to his invention, which had worldwide appeal. Over the next 60 years his company, Societe Bic, opened factories all over the world and expanded its range of inexpensive products. Today, Bic is as famous for its lighters and razors as it is for its pens, and you can even buy a Bic mobile phone.
(Adapted from Complete IELTS Workbook by Rawdon Wyatt)

A study was set up to examine the old marriage advice about whether it's more important to be happy or to be right. Couples therapists sometimes suggest that in an attempt to avoid constant arguments, spouses weigh up whether pressing the point is worth the misery of marital discord. The researchers from the University of Auckland noticed that many of their patients were adding stress to their lives by insisting on being right, even when it worked against their well-being.
The researchers then found a couple who were willing to record their quality of life on a scale of 1 to
10. They told the man, who wanted to be happy more than right, about the purpose of the study and asked him to agree with every opinion and request his wife had without complaint, even when he profoundly didn't agree. The wife was not informed of the purpose of the study and just asked to record her quality of life.
Things went rapidly downhill for the couple. The man's quality-of-life scores fell, from 7 to 3, over the course of the experiment. The wife's scores rose modestly, from 8 to 8.5, before she became hostile to the idea of recording the scores. Rather than creating harmony, the husband's agreeableness led to the wife becoming increasingly critical of what he did and said in the husband's opinion). After 12 days he broke down, and the study was called off because of "severe adverse outcomes."
The researchers concluded, shockingly, that humans need to be right and acknowledged as right, at least some of the time, to be happy. They also noted this was further proof that if given too much power, humans tend to "assume the alpha position and, as with chimpanzees, they become very aggressive and dangerous." It is often said that there can be no peace without justice, and that's true of domestic sphere. Obviously the results are to be taken with extreme caution, since this was just one couple with who- knows-what underlying issues beforehand. But the study's chief author, Dr. Bruce Arroll, maintains that the question of happiness vs. rightness, theoretically, could be settled by scientific inquiry with a wider sample. “This would include a randomized controlled trial,” he says. "However, we would be reluctant to do the definitive study because of the concern about divorce."