Mock Paper

January 2010 Unit 1 - General Studies

How does society look upon these issues?

Carrying of firearms? – It’s acceptable for police in most societies however not for normal people in places like the UK. Where as in the USA it’s seen as protection of yourself.

Women wearing what they like in public? – In the UK it’s seen as acceptable as everyone has different tastes, where as in countries like India this is seen as completely disrespectful to those around you.

Freedom of expression in terms of religion? – In countries like Dubai everyone has to follow strict rules e.g. Women have to cover their bodies, fasting at certain times of the year etc. In the UK we have many different religions as we’re a multi-cultural society and so expressing your religious views is acceptable.

Independent Research

'Oldest dinosaur' found in Natural History Museum

Fossil specimen in the museum's collection identified as most likely coming from a dinosaur that lived about 245m years ago

Researchers have found what could be the earliest known dinosaur to walk the Earth lurking in the corridors of London's Natural History Museum.
A mysterious fossil specimen that has been in the museum's collection for decades has now been identified as most likely to have come from a dinosaur that lived about 245m years ago - 10 to 15m years earlier than any previously discovered examples.
The creature was about the size of a labrador dog and has been named Nyasasaurus parringtoni after southern Africa's Lake Nyasa, today called Lake Malawi, and Cambridge University's Francis Rex Parrington, who collected the specimen at a site near the lake in the 1930s.

"It was a case of looking at the material with a fresh pair of eyes," Paul Barrett from the Natural History Museum, who worked on the study, told Reuters. "This closes a gap in the fossil record and pushes back the existence of dinosaurs."

The London fossil was studied by researchers in the 1950s but no conclusion was reached and nothing was published, said Barrett. "It was a mystery what it was … It just became this mythical animal."
Two features of the London fossil, together with a similar sample subsequently spotted at the Iziko South African Museum in Cape Town, are strong evidence that the animal belongs with the dinosaurs, the researchers said.
The bone tissues in the upper arm show marks of rapid growth, common in dinosaurs, and they also have a feature known as an elongated deltopectoral crest that anchored the upper arm muscles, a feature unique to dinosaurs.
"Although we only know Nyasasaurus from fossil fragments, the anatomy of its upper arm bone and hips have features that are unique to dinosaurs, making us confident that we're dealing with an animal very close to dinosaur origin," said Barrett.
The researchers believe Nyasasaurus probably stood upright, was a metre tall at the hip, two to three metres long from head to tail, and weighed 20-60kg.

When it was alive, the world's continents were joined in a vast land mass called Pangaea, and the area of Tanzania where the fossils were found would have been part of the southern Pangaea that included Africa, South America, Antarctica and Australia.

Theorists have long argued there should have been dinosaurs walking the Earth in the Middle Triassic period, which ended about 237m years ago, but until now the evidence has been ambiguous, said Sterling Nesbitt at the University of Washington in Seattle who led the study, published in the journal Biology Letters.

"If the newly named Nyasasaurus parringtoni is not the earliest dinosaur, then it is the closest relative found so far," said Nesbitt.
"What's really neat about this specimen is that it has a lot of history. Found in the '30s, first described in the 1950s … Now 80 years later, we're putting it all together."
The researchers plan further field work in Tanzania to find more fossils and build a better picture of the animal's anatomy.

The Law and Civil Liberties Part II

There are offences of criminal law which can lead to fines or imprisonment and are investigated by the police. Civil law is when an individual takes action through the courts to determine responsibilities or to seek damages. Civil liberties are freedoms which protect individuals from state abuse or government power. Civil liberties set limits for government so that it cannot abuse its power and interfere with the lives of its citizens In this country we enjoy certain rights such as freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, the right to due process, to a fair trial, to own property and to privacy. 

1.Right to Life 
2.Prohibition of torture 
3.Prohibition of slavery and forced labour 
4.Right to liberty and security 
5.Right to a fair trial 
6.No punishment without law 
7.Right to respect for private and family life 
8.Freedom of thought, conscience and religion 
9.Freedom of expression 
10.Freedom of assembly and association 
11.Right to marry 

CCTV cameras - the U.K has more surveillance equipment than the whole of Europe put together. 

ASBOs – Anti Social Behaviour Orders restrict movements and control offenders. 

Mosquito Repellers (low level sonic devices that only affect young people)