Section A
Directions: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.

A number of studies have looked at how family life can affect productivity and satisfaction in the workplace. However, there has been    26    little research on the influence of leisure activities. So Ciara Kelly and colleagues recruited 129 hobbyists to look at how the time spent on their hobbies    27    their work life.

The researchers found that when participants spent longer than    28    on their leisure activity, their belief in their ability to perform their job was strengthened. But this was only the    29    when they had a serious hobby that was dissimilar to their job, or when their hobby was similar to their work but they only did it    30    . When their hobby was both serious and similar to their job, then spending more time on it actually decreased their work    31    .

Why might that be? To maintain a serious hobby, people need to invest significant psychological resources, say the authors — so if the activity has the same kinds of demands as their work, they may be left    32    and unable to perform well at their job. But if their hobby is quite different from their career, it may not    33    in the same way but instead help them develop other knowledge and skills that can    34    their confidence at work. “Consider a scientist who is a keen rock climber,” says Kelly. “Since climbing is so far    35    from their day-to-day work activities, they can still recover from the demands of their job with plenty of resources.”

A) boost   B) case   C) casually   D) efficiency   E) estate   F) exhausted   G) faculty   H) interfere   I) normal   J) prevalent   K) relative   L) removed   M) scratch   N) shaped   O) surprisingly