Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 28 to 34. FLASH MOBS -A NEW KIND OF EVENT In 2003, an unusually large number of customers arrived without warning in the carpet department of Macy’s Department store in New York. The assistants couldn’t see why all of them were so interested in buying exactly the same carpet. In 2006,4,000 people arrived with MP3 players and headsets at a London railway ...

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 28 to 34.

FLASH MOBS -A NEW KIND OF EVENT

In 2003, an unusually large number of customers arrived without warning in the carpet department of Macy’s Department store in New York. The assistants couldn’t see why all of them were so interested in buying exactly the same carpet. In 2006,4,000 people arrived with MP3 players and headsets at a London railway station and started dancing at a set time. As no music could be heard, this looked veiy strange. Police were even called to make sure that trains continued to run on time, but when they arrived the dancers had gone. In March 2013, more than 2,000 people gathered in Seoul, South Korea, complete with musical instruments, and started to dance. Many were students from Sungsin Girls’ High School - they joined other Earth Hour supporters and collected a staggering 150,000 signatures from local citizens in support of the campaign. In Korea, an estimated 12 million people participated in Earth Hour 2013. These are three samples of ‘flash mob’ events, when a crowd of people suddenly come together in a public place, perform an unusual action, and appear as quickly as they appear. They are organised using electronic media such as mobile phones or the internet.

To their fans, flash mobs are simply a chance to have some lighthearted, if rather silly, fun. However, when just under 2,000 people got together in San Francisco for an enormous pillow fight, it ended up costing thousands of dollars. Unfortunately, a heavy rainstorm meant that the city was left covered with wet feathers, which caused streets, shops, and a restaurant to be flooded, and ruin the local fountain. It took several days to put the damage right. Norman Dito, head of the city’s Recreation and Park Department said, ‘In future, organizers of such events should apply for permission beforehand and pay the standard fee to cover security, insurance, and cleaning up afterwards. Sadly, I think this is unlikely to happen, since nobody knows who the organizers are, or when or where a flash mob will take place next.

Crimes associated with flash mobs are rare, but occasionally make international headlines. Sometimes referred to as ‘flash robs’ by the media, these start with the intent to destroy, or lead to the destruction of private property or violence. Professor of Psychology Mark Leary explains that as social media adds the ability to recruit a large number of people, individuals who would not rob a store on their own feel freer to misbehave without being identified. In Germany, the authorities in some cities have taken things even further by strictly enforcing an already-existing law that says a special Permit must be obtained to use a public space for any event.

The word “staggering” in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to _____________