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Category: Academic Reading Tests

  • Cambridge IELTS 13 Academic Reading Test 4

    Reading Passage 1

    Cutty Sark: the fastest sailing ship of all time

    The nineteenth century was a period of great technological development in Britain, and for shipping the major changes were from wind to steam power, and from wood to iron and steel.

    The fastest commercial sailing vessels of all time were clippers, three-masted ships built to transport goods around the world, although some also took passengers. From the l 840s until 1869, when the Suez Canal opened and steam propulsion was replacing sail, clippers dominated world trade. Although many were built, only one has survived more or less intact: Cutty Sark, now on display in Greenwich, southeast London.

    Cutty Sark’s unusual name comes from the poem Tam O’Shanter by the Scottish poet Robert Bums. Tam, a farmer, is chased by a witch called Nannie, who is wearing a ‘cutty sark’ – an old Scottish name for a short nightdress. The witch is depicted in Cutty Sark’s figurehead – the carving of a woman typically at the front of old sailing ships. In legend, and in Burn’s poem, witches cannot cross water, so this was a rather strange choice of name for a ship.

    Cutty Sark was built in Dumbarton. Scotland, in 1869, for a shipping company owned by John Willis. To carry out construction. Willis chose a new shipbuilding firm. Scott & Linton, and ensured that the contract with them put him in a very strong position. In the end, the firm was forced out of business, and the ship was finished by a competitor.

    Willis’s company was active in the lea trade between China and Britain, where speed could bring shipowners both profits and prestige, so Cutty Sark was designed to make the journey more quickly than any other ship. On her maiden voyage, in 1870, she set sail from London, carrying large amounts of goods to China. She returned laden with tea, making the journey back to London in four months. However, Cutty Sark never lived up to the high expectations of her owner, as a result of bad winds and various misfortunes. On one occasion, in 1872, the ship and a rival clipper. Thermopylae, left port in China on the same day. Crossing the Indian Ocean, Cutty Sark gained a lead of over 400 miles, hut then her rudder was severely damaged in stormy seas, making her impossible to steer. The ship’s crew had the daunting task of repairing the rudder at sea, and only succeeded at the second attempt. Cutty Sark reached London a w eek after Thermopylae.

    Steam ships posed a growing threat to clippers, as their speed and cargo capacity increased. In addition, the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, the same year that Cutty Sark was launched, had a serious impact. While steam ships could make use of the quick, direct route between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, the canal was of no use to sailing ships, which needed the much stronger winds of the oceans, and so had to sail a far greater distance. Steam ships reduced the journey time between Britain and China by approximately two months.

    By 1878, tea traders weren’t interested in Cutty Sark, and instead, she look on the much less prestigious work of carrying any cargo between any two ports in the world. In 1880, violence aboard the ship led ultimately to the replacement of the captain with an incompetent drunkard who stole the crew’s wages. He was suspended from service, and a new captain appointed. This marked a turnaround and the beginning of the most successful period in Cult} Sark’s working life, transporting wool from Australia to Britain. One such journey took just under 12 weeks, beating every other ship sailing that year by around a month.

    The ship’s next captain, Richard Woodget. was an excellent navigator, who got the best out of both his ship and his crew. As a sailing ship. Cutty Sark depended on the strong trade winds of the southern hemisphere, and Woodget look her further south than any previous captain, bringing her dangerously close to icebergs off the southern tip of South America. I lis gamble paid off, though, and the ship was the fastest vessel in the wool trade for ten years.

    As competition from steam ships increased in the 1890s, and Cutty Sark approached the end of her life expectancy, she became less profitable. She was sold to a Portuguese firm, which renamed her Ferreira. For the next 25 years, she again carried miscellaneous cargoes around the world.

    Badly damaged in a gale in 1922, she was put into Falmouth harbour in southwest England, for repairs. Wilfred Dowman, a retired sea captain who owned a training vessel, recognised her and tried to buy her, but without success. She returned to Portugal and was sold to another Portuguese company. Dowman was determined, however, and offered a high price: this was accepted, and the ship returned to Falmouth the following year and had her original name restored.

    Dowman used Cutty Sark as a training ship, and she continued in this role after his death. When she was no longer required, in 1954, she was transferred to dry dock at Greenw ich to go on public display. The ship suffered from fire in 2007, and again, less seriously, in 2014, but now Cutty Sark attracts a quarter of a million visitors a year.

    Questions 1-8

    Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?

    In your answer sheet, Write

    • TRUE                        if the statement agrees with the information
    • FALSE                      if the statement contradicts the information
    • NOT GIVEN           if there is no information on this
    1. Clippers were originally intended to be used as passenger ships.
    2. Cutty Sark was given the name of a character in a poem.
    3. The contract between John Willis and Scott & Linton favoured Willis.
    4. John Willis wanted Cutty Sark to be the fastest tea clipper travelling between the UK and China.
    5. Despite storm damage, Cutty Sark beat Thermopylae back to London.
    6. The opening of the Suez Canal meant that steam ships could travel between Britain and China faster than clippers
    7. Steam ships sometimes used the ocean route to travel between London and China.
    8. Captain Woodget put Cutty Sark at risk of hitting an iceberg
    Question 9-13

    Complete the sentences below.

    Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

    1. After 1880, Cutty Sark carried……………………………..as its main cargo during its most successful time
    2. As a captain and……………………….Woodget was very skilled.
    3. Ferreira went to Falmouth to repair damage that a………………………….had caused.
    4. Between 1923 and 1954, Cutty Sark was used for…………………….
    5. Cutty Sark has twice been damaged by………………………….in the 21st century.

    Reading passage 2

    Saving the soil

    A More than a third of the world’s soil is endangered, according to a recent UN report. If we don’t slow the decline, all farmable soil could be gone in 60 years. Since soil grows 95% of our food, and sustains human life in other more surprising ways, that is a huge problem.

    B Peter Groffman, from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in New York, points out that soil scientists have been warning about the degradation of the world’s soil for decades. At the same time, our understanding of its importance to humans has grown. A single gram of healthy soil might contain 100 million bacteria, as well as other microorganisms such as viruses and fungi, living amid decomposing plants and various minerals.

    That means soils do not just grow our food, but are the source of nearly all our existing antibiotics, and could be our best hope in the fight against antibiotic- resistant bacteria. Soil is also an ally against climate change: as microorganisms within soil digest dead animals and plants, they lock in their carbon content, holding three times the amount of carbon as does the entire atmosphere. Soils also store water, preventing flood damage: in the UK, damage to buildings, roads and bridges from floods caused by soil degradation costs £233 million every year.

    C If the soil loses its ability to perform these functions, the human race could be in big trouble. The danger is not that the soil will disappear completely, but that the microorganisms that give it its special properties will be lost. And once this has happened, it may take the soil thousands of years to recover.

    Agriculture is by far the biggest problem. In the wild, when plants grow they remove nutrients from the soil, but then when the plants die and decay these nutrients are returned directly to the soil, Humans tend not to return unused parts of harvested crops directly to the soil to enrich it, meaning that the soil gradually becomes less fertile. In the past we developed strategies to get around the problem, such as regularly varying the types of crops grown, or leaving fields uncultivated for a season.

    D But these practices became inconvenient as populations grew and agriculture had to be run on more commercial lines. A solution came in the early 20th century with the Haber-Bosch process for manufacturing ammonium nitrate. Farmers have been putting this synthetic fertiliser on their fields ever since.

    But over the past few decades, it has become clear this was not such a bright idea. Chemical fertilisers can release polluting nitrous oxide into the atmosphere and excess is often washed away with the rain, releasing nitrogen into rivers. More recently, we have found that indiscriminate use of fertilisers hurts the soil itself, turning it acidic and salty, and degrading the soil they are supposed to nourish.

    E One of the people looking for a solution to this problem is Pius Floris, who started out running a tree-care business in the Netherlands and now advises some of the world’s top soil scientists. He came to realise that the best way to ensure his trees flourished was to take care of the soil, and has developed a cocktail of beneficial bacteria, fungi and humus to do this. Researchers at the University of Valladolid in Spain recently used this cocktail on soils destroyed by years of fertiliser overuse. When they applied Floris’s mix to the desert-like test plots, a good crop of plants emerged that were not just healthy at the surface, but had roots strong enough to pierce dirt as hard as rock. The few plants that grew in the control plots, fed with traditional fertilisers, were small and weak.

    F However, measures like this are not enough to solve the global soil degradation problem. To assess our options on a global scale we first need an accurate picture of what types of soil are out there, and the problems they face. That’s not easy. For one thing, there is no agreed international system for classifying soil. In an attempt to unify the different approaches, the UN has created the Global Soil Map project. Researchers from nine countries are working together to create a map linked to a database that can be fed measurements from field surveys, drone surveys, satellite imagery, lab analyses and so on to provide real-time data on the state of the soil. Within the next four years, they aim to have mapped soils worldwide to a depth of 100 metres, with the results freely accessible to all.

    G But this is only a first step. We need ways of presenting the problem that bring it home to governments and the wider public, says Pamela Chasek at the International Institute for Sustainable Development, in Winnipeg, Canada. ‘Most scientists don’t speak language that policy-makers can understand and vice versa.’ Chasek and her colleagues have proposed a goal of ‘zero net land degradation’. Like the idea of carbon neutrality it is an easily understood target that can help shape expectations and encourage action.

    For soils on the brink, that may be too late. Several researchers are agitating for the immediate creation of protected zones for endangered soils. One difficulty here is defining what these areas should conserve: areas where the greatest soil diversity is present? Or areas of unspoilt soils that could act as a future benchmark of quality?

    Whatever, we do, if we want our soils to survive, we need to take action now.

    Questions 14-17

    Complete the summary below.

    Write ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

    Why soil degradation could be a disaster for humans

    Healthy soil contains a large variety of bacteria and other microorganisms, as well as plant remains and (14)………………….., It provides us with food and also with antibiotics, and its function in storing (15)…………………………..has a significant effect on the climate. In addition, it prevents damage to property and infrastructure because it holds (16)…………………………..

    If these microorganisms are lost, soil may lose its special properties. The main factor contributing to soil degradation is the (17)…………………………carried out by humans.

    Questions 18-21

    Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-F below. Write the correct letter. A-F. in boxes 18-21 on your answer sheet.

    1. Nutrients contained in the unused parts of harvested crops
    2. Synthetic fertilisers produced with the Haber-Bosch process
    3. Addition of a mixture developed by Pius Floris to the soil
    4. The idea of zero net soil degradation
    1. may improve the number and quality of plants growing there.
    2. may contain data from up to nine countries.
    3. may not be put back into the soil.
    4. may help governments to be more aware of soil-related issues.
    5. may cause damage to different aspects of the environment.
    6. may be better for use at a global level.
    Questions 22-26

    Reading Passage 2 has seven paragraphs, A-G.

    Which section contains the following information?

    NB You may use any letter more than once.

    1. a reference to one person’s motivation for a soil-improvement project
    2. an explanation of how soil stayed healthy before the development of farming
    3. examples of different ways of collecting information on soil degradation
    4. a suggestion for a way of keeping some types of soil safe in the near future
    5. a reason why it is difficult to provide an overview of soil degradation

    Reading passage 3

    Book review

    ‘Happiness is the ultimate goal because it is self-evidently good. If we are asked why happiness matters we can give no further external reason. It just obviously does matter.’ This pronouncement by Richard Layard, an economist and advocate of ‘positive psychology’, summarises the beliefs of many people today. For Layard and others like him, it is obvious that the purpose of government is to promote a state of collective well-being. The only question is how to achieve it, and here positive psychology – a supposed science that not only identifies what makes people happy but also allows their happiness to be measured – can show the way. Equipped with this science, they say, governments can secure happiness in society in a way they never could in the past.

    It is an astonishingly crude and simple-minded way of thinking, and for that very reason increasingly popular. Those who think in this way are oblivious to the vast philosophical literature in which the meaning and value of happiness have been explored and questioned, and write as if nothing of any importance had been thought on the subject until it came to their attention. It was the philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) who was more than anyone else responsible for the development of this way of thinking. For Bentham it was obvious that the human good consists of pleasure and the absence of pain. The Greek philosopher Aristotle may have identified happiness with self-realisation in the 4th century BC, and thinkers throughout the ages may have struggled to reconcile the pursuit of happiness with other human values, but for Bentham all this was mere metaphysics or fiction. Without knowing anything much of him or the school of moral theory he established – since they are by education and intellectual conviction illiterate in the history of ideas – our advocates of positive psychology follow in his tracks in rejecting as outmoded and irrelevant pretty much the entirety of ethical reflection on human happiness to date.

    But as William Davies notes in his recent book The Happiness Industry, the view that happiness is the only self-evident good is actually a way of limiting moral inquiry. One of the virtues of this rich, lucid and arresting book is that it places the current cult of happiness in a well-defined historical framework. Rightly, Davies begins his story with Bentham, noting that he was far more than a philosopher. Davies writes, ‘Bentham’s activities were those which we might now associate with a public sector management consultant’. In the 1790s, he wrote to the Home Office suggesting that the departments of government be linked together through a set of ‘conversation tubes’, and to the Bank of England with a design for a printing device that could produce unforgeable bank notes. He drew up plans for a ‘frigidarium’ to keep provisions such as meat, fish, fruit and vegetables fresh. His celebrated design for a prison to be known as ‘Panopticon’ in which prisoners would be kept in solitary confinement while being visible at all times to the guards, was very nearly adopted. (Surprisingly Davies does not discuss the fact that Bentham meant his Panopticon not just as a model prison but also as an instrument of control that could be applied to schools and factories).

    Bentham was also a pioneer of the ‘science of happiness’. If happiness is to be regarded as a science, it has to be measured and Bentham suggested two ways in which this might be done. Viewing happiness as a complex of pleasurable sensations he suggest that it might be quantified by measuring the human pulse rate. Alternatively, money could be used as the standard for quantification: if two different goods have the same price, it can be claimed that they produce the same quantity of pleasure in the consumer, Bentham was more attracted by the latter measure. By associating money so closely to inner experience Davies writes, Bentham ‘set the stage for the entangling of psychological research and capitalism that would shape the business practices of the 20th century.

    The Happiness Industry describes how the project of a science of happiness has become integral to capitalism. We learn much that is interesting about how economic problems are being redefined and treated as psychological maladies. In addition, Davies shows how the belief that inner states of pleasure and displeasure can be objectively measured has informed management studies and advertising. The tendency of thinkers such as J B Watson, the founder of behaviourism, was that human beings could be shaped, or manipulated, by policymakers and managers. Watson had no factual basis for his view of human action. When he became president of the American Psychological Association in 1915, he ’had never even studied a single human being’: his research had been confined to experiments on white rats. Yet Watson’s reductive model is now widely applied, with ‘behaviour change’ becoming the goal of governments: in Britain, a ‘Behaviour Insights Team’ has been established by the government to study how people can be encouraged, at minimum cost to the public purse, to live in what are considered to be socially desirable ways.

    Modern industrial societies appear to need the possibility of ever-increasing happiness to motivate them in their labours. But whatever its intellectual pedigree, the idea that governments should be responsible for promoting happiness is always a threat to human freedom.

    Questions 27-29
    Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D

    1. What is the reviewer’s attitude to advocates of positive psychology?
      1. They are wrong to reject the ideas of Bentham.
      2. They are over-influenced by their study of Bentham’s theories.
      3. They have a fresh new approach to ideas on human happiness.
      4. They are ignorant about the ideas they should be considering.
    2. The reviewer refers to the Greek philosopher Aristotle in order to suggest that happiness
      1. may not be just pleasure and the absence of pain.
      2. should not be the main goal of humans.
      3. is not something that should be fought for.
      4. is not just an abstract concept.
    3. 29 According to Davies, Bentham’s suggestion for linking the price of goods to happiness was significant because
      1. it was the first successful way of assessing happiness.
      2. it established a connection between work and psychology
      3. it was the first successful example of psychological research.
      4. it involved consideration of the rights of consumers.
    Questions 30-34

    Complete the summary using the list of words A-G below.

    Jeremy Bentham

    Jeremy Bentham was active in other areas besides philosophy. In the 1790s he suggested a type of technology to improve (30)…………………………… for different Government departments. He developed a new way of printing banknotes to increase (31)……………………………….and also designed a method for the (32)…………………………….of food. He also drew up plans for a prison which allowed the (33)…………………………………of prisoners at all times, and believed the same design could be used for other institutions as well. When researching happiness, he investigated possibilities for its (34)……………………………. and suggested some methods of doing this.

    1. measurement
    2. security
    3. implementation
    4. observation
    5. communication
    6. preservation
    Questions 35-40

    Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3?

    • YES                         if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
    • NO                           if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
    • NOT GIVEN        if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
    1. One strength of The Happiness Industry is its discussion of the relationship between psychology and economics.
    2. It is more difficult to measure some emotions than others.
    3. Watson’s ideas on behaviourism were supported by research on humans he carried out before 1915.
    4. Watson’s ideas have been most influential on governments outside America.
    5. The need for happiness is linked to industrialisation.
    6. A main aim of government should be to increase the happiness of the population.
    Cambridge IELTS 13 Academic Reading Test 4 Cutty Sark: the fastest sailing ship of all time Answers
    1. false
    2. false
    3. true
    4. true
    5. false
    6. true
    7. not given
    8. true
    9. wool
    10. navigator
    11. gale
    12. training
    13. fire
    Cambridge IELTS 13 Academic Reading Test 4 Why soil degradation could be a disaster for humans Answers
    1. minerals
    2. carbon
    3. water
    4. agriculture
    5. C
    6. E
    7. A
    8. D
    9. E
    10. C
    11. F
    12. G
    13. F
    Cambridge IELTS 13 Academic Reading Test 4 Book review Answers
    1. D
    2. A
    3. B
    4. F
    5. B
    6. G
    7. E
    8. A
    9. yes
    10. not given
    11. no
    12. not given
    13. yes
    14. no



  • Cambridge IELTS 12 Academic Reading Test 3

    Reading passage 1

    Flying tortoises

    A Forests of spiny cacti cover much of the uneven lava plains that separate the interior of the Galapagos island of Isabela from the Pacific Ocean. With its five distinct volcanoes, the island resembles a lunar landscape. Only the thick vegetation at the skirt of the often cloud-covered peak of Sierra Negra offers respite from the barren terrain below. This inhospitable environment is home to the giant Galapagos tortoise. Some time after the Galapagos’s birth, around five million years ago, the islands were colonised by one or more tortoises from mainland South America. As these ancestral tortoises settled on the individual islands, the different populations adapted to their unique environments, giving rise to at least 14 different subspecies. Island life agreed with them. In the absence of significant predators, they grew to become the largest and longest-living tortoises on the planet, weighing more than 400 kilograms, occasionally exceeding 1,8 metres in length and living for more than a century.

    B Before human arrival, the archipelago’s tortoises numbered in the hundreds of thousands. From the 17th century onwards, pirates took a few on board for food, but the arrival of whaling ships in the 1790s saw this exploitation grow exponentially. Relatively immobile and capable of surviving for months without food or water, the tortoises were taken on board these ships to act as food supplies during long ocean passages. Sometimes, their bodies were processed into high- grade oil. In total, an estimated 200,000 animals were taken from the archipelago before the 20th century. This historical exploitation was then exacerbated when settlers came to the islands. They hunted the tortoises and destroyed their habitat to clear land for agriculture. They also introduced alien species – ranging from cattle, pigs, goats, rats and dogs to plants and ants – that either prey on the eggs and young tortoises or damage or destroy their habitat.

    C Today, only 11 of the original subspecies survive and of these, several are highly endangered. In 1989, work began on a tortoise-breeding centre just outside the town of Puerto Villamil on Isabela, dedicated to protecting the island’s tortoise populations. The centre’s captive-breeding programme proved to be extremely successful, and it eventually had to deal with an overpopulation problem.

    D The problem was also a pressing one. Captive-bred tortoises can’t be reintroduced into the wild until they’re at least five years old and weigh at least 4,5 kilograms, at which point their size and weight – and their hardened shells – are sufficient to protect them from predators. But if people wait too long after that point, the tortoises eventually become too large to transport.

    E For years, repatriation efforts were carried out in small numbers, with the tortoises carried on the backs of men over weeks of long, treacherous hikes along narrow trails. But in November 2010, the environmentalist and Galapagos National Park liaison officer Godfrey Merlin, a visiting private motor yacht captain and a helicopter pilot gathered around a table in a small cafe in Puerto Ayora on the island of Santa Cruz to work out more ambitious reintroduction. The aim was to use a helicopter to move 300 of the breeding centre’s tortoises to various locations close to Sierra Negra.

    F This unprecedented effort was made possible by the owners of the 67-metre yacht White Cloud, who provided the Galapagos National Park with free use of their helicopter and its experienced pilot, as well as the logistical support of the yacht, its captain and crew. Originally an air ambulance, the yacht’s helicopter has a rear double door and a large internal space that’s well suited for cargo, so a custom crate was designed to hold up to 33 tortoises with a total weight of about 150 kilograms. This weight, together with that of the fuel, pilot and four crew, approached the helicopter’s maximum payload, and there were times when it was clearly right on the edge of the helicopter’s capabilities. During a period of three days, a group of volunteers from the breeding centre worked around the clock to prepare the young tortoises for transport. Meanwhile, park wardens, dropped off ahead of time in remote locations, cleared landing sites within the thick brush, cacti and lava rocks.

    G Upon their release, the juvenile tortoises quickly spread out over their ancestral territory, investigating their new surroundings and feeding on the vegetation. Eventually, one tiny tortoise came across a fully grown giant who had been lumbering around the island for around a hundred years. The two stood side by side, a powerful symbol of the regeneration of an ancient species.

    Questions 1-7

    Reading passage 1 has seven paragraphs A-G.

    Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.

    List of headings

    1. The importance of getting the timing right
    2. Young meets old
    3. Developments to the disadvantage of tortoise populations
    4. Planning a bigger idea
    5. Tortoises populate the islands
    6. Carrying out a carefully prepared operation
    7. Looking for a home for the islands’ tortoises
    8. The start of the conservation project
    1. Paragraph A
    2. Paragraph B
    3. Paragraph C
    4. Paragraph D
    5. Paragraph E
    6. Paragraph F
    7. Paragraph G
    Questions 8-13

    Complete the notes below.

    Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

    The decline of the Galapagos tortoise

    • Originally from mainland South America
    • Numbers on Galapagos islands increased due to lack of predators
    • 17th century: small numbers taken onto ships used by (8)………………………..
    • 1790s: very large numbers taken onto whaling ships kept for (9)………………………and also used to produce (10)………………………….
    • Hunted by (11)………………………..on the islands
    • Habitat destruction: for the establishment of agriculture and by various (12)…………………………not native to the islands which also fed on baby tortoises and tortoises’ (13)……………………….

    The Intersection of Health Sciences and Geography

    A While many diseases that affect humans have been eradicated due to improvements in vaccinations and the availability of healthcare, there are still areas around the world where certain health issues are more prevalent. In a world that is far more globalised than ever before, people come into contact with one another through travel and living closer and closer to each other. As a result, super-viruses and other infections resistant to antibiotics are becoming more and more common.

    B Geography can often play a very large role in the health concerns of certain populations. For instance, depending on where you live, you will not have the same health concerns as someone who lives in a different geographical region. Perhaps one of the most obvious examples of this idea is malaria-prone areas, which are usually tropical regions that foster a warm and damp environment in which the mosquitos that can give people this disease can grew. Malaria is much less of a problem in high-altitude deserts, for instance.

    C In some countries, geographical factors influence the health and well-being of the population in very obvious ways. In many large cities, the wind is not strong enough to clear the air of the massive amounts of smog and pollution that cause asthma, lung problems, eyesight issues and more in the people who live there. Part of the problem is, of course, the massive number of cars being driven, in addition to factories that run on coal power. The rapid industrialisation of some countries in recent years has also led to the cutting down of forests to allow for the expansion of big cities, which makes it even harder to fight the pollution with the fresh air that is produced by plants.

    D It is in situations like these that the field of health geography comes into its own. It is an increasingly important area of study in a world where diseases like polio are re-emerging, respiratory diseases continue to spread, and malaria-prone areas are still fighting to find a better cure. Health geography is the combination of, on the one hand, knowledge regarding geography and methods used to analyse and interpret geographical information, and on the other, the study of health, diseases and healthcare practices around the world. The aim of this hybrid science is to create solutions for common geography-based health problems. While people will always be prone to illness, the study of how geography affects our health could lead to the eradication of certain illnesses, and the prevention of others in the future. By understanding why and how we get sick, we can change the way we treat illness and disease specific to certain geographical locations.

    E The geography of disease and ill health analyses the frequency with which certain diseases appear in different parts of the world, and overlays the data with the geography of the region, to see if there could be a correlation between the two. Health geographers also study factors that could make certain individuals or a population more likely to be taken ill with a specific health concern or disease, as compared with the population of another area. Health geographers in this field are usually trained as healthcare workers, and have an understanding of basic epidemiology as it relates to the spread of diseases among the population.

    F Researchers study the interactions between humans and their environment that could lead to illness (such as asthma in places with high levels of pollution) and work to create a clear way of categorising illnesses, diseases and epidemics into local and global scales. Health geographers can map the spread of illnesses and attempt to identify the reasons behind an increase or decrease in illnesses, as they work to find a way to halt the further spread or re-emergence of diseases in vulnerable populations.

    G The second subcategory of health geography is the geography of healthcare provision. This group studies the availability (of lack thereof) of healthcare resources to individuals and populations around the world. In both developed and developing nations there is often a very large discrepancy between the options available to people in different social classes, income brackets, and levels of education. Individuals working in the area of the geography of healthcare provision attempt to assess the levels of healthcare in the area (for instance, it may be very difficult for people to get medical attention because there is a mountain between their village and the nearest hospital). These researchers are on the frontline of making recommendations regarding policy to international organisations, local government bodies and others.

    H The field of health geography is often overlooked, but it constitutes a huge area of need in the fields of geography and healthcare. If we can understand how geography affects our health no matter where in the world we are located, we can better treat disease, prevent illness, and keep people safe and well.

    Questions 14-19

    Reading passage 2 has eight sections A-H.

    Which paragraph contains the following information?

    NB You may use any letter more than once.

    1. an acceptance that not all diseases can be totally eliminated
    2. examples of physical conditions caused by human behavior
    3. a reference to classifying diseases on the basis of how far they extend gepgraphically
    4. reasons why the level of access to healthcare can vary within a country
    5. a description of healthy geography as a mixture of different academic fields
    6. a description of the type of area where a particular illness is rare
    Questions 20-26

    Complete the sentences below.

    Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

    1. Certain diseases have disappeared thanks to better…………………………….and healthcare.
    2. Because there is more contact between people………………………….are losing their usefulness.
    3. Disease causing……………………….are most likely to be found in hot, damp regions.
    4. One cause of pollution is………………………….that burn a particular fuel.
    5. The growth of cities often has an impact on nearby.
    6. …………………………………is one disease that is growing after having been eradicated.
    7. A physical barrier such as a……………………………can prevent people from reaching a hospital.

    Reading passage 3

    Music and the emotions

    Why does music make us feel? On the one hand, music is a purely abstract art form, devoid of language or explicit ideas. And yet, even though music says little, it still manages to touch us deeply. When listening to our favourite songs, our body betrays all the symptoms of emotional arousal. The pupils in our eyes dilate, our pulse and blood pressure rise, the electrical conductance of our skin is lowered, and the cerebellum, a brain region associated with bodily movement, becomes strangely active. Blood is even re-directed to the muscles in our legs. In other words, sound stirs us at our biological roots.

    A recent paper in Neuroscience by a research team in Montreal, Canada, marks an important step in repealing the precise underpinnings of ‘the potent pleasurable stimulus’ that is music. Although the study involves plenty of fancy technology, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and ligand-based positron emission tomography (PET) scanning, the experiment itself was rather straightforward. After screening 217 individuals who responded to advertisements requesting people who experience ‘chills’ to instrumental music, the scientists narrowed down the subject pool to ten. They then asked the subjects to bring in their playlist of favourite songs – virtually every genre was represented, from techno to tango – and played them the music while their brain activity was monitored. Because the scientists were combining methodologies (PET and fMRI), they were able to obtain an impressively exact and detailed portrait of music in the brain. The first thing they discovered is that music triggers the production of dopamine – a chemical with a key role in setting people’s moods – by the neurons (nerve cells) in both the dorsal and ventral regions of the brain. As these two regions have long been linked with the experience of pleasure, this finding isn’t particularly surprising.

    What is rather more significant is the finding that the dopamine neurons in the caudate – a region of the brain involved in learning stimulus-response associations, and in anticipating food and other ‘reward’ stimuli – were at their most active around 15 seconds before the participants’ favourite moments in the music. The researchers call this the ‘anticipatory phase’ and argue that the purpose of this activity is to help us predict the arrival of our favourite part. The question, of course, is what all these dopamine neurons are up to. Why are they so active in the period preceding the acoustic climax? After all, we typically associate surges of dopamine with pleasure, with the processing of actual rewards. And yet, this cluster of cells is most active when the ‘chills’ have yet to arrive, when the melodic pattern is still unresolved.

    One way to answer the question is to look at the music and not the neurons. While music can often seem (at least to the outsider) like a labyrinth of intricate patterns, it turns out that the most important part of every song or symphony is when the patterns break down, when the sound becomes unpredictable. If the music is too obvious, it is annoyingly boring, like an alarm clock. Numerous studies, after all, have demonstrated that dopamine neurons quickly adapt to predictable rewards. If we know what’s going to happen next, then we don’t get excited. This is why composers often introduce a key note in the beginning of a song, spend most of the rest of the piece in the studious avoidance of the pattern, and then finally repeat it only at the end. The longer we are denied the pattern we expect, the greater the emotional release when the pattern returns, safe and sound.

    To demonstrate this psychological principle, the musicologist Leonard Meyer, in his classic book Emotion and Meaning in Music (1956), analysed the 5th movement of Beethoven’s String Quartet in C-sharp minor, Op. 131. Meyer wanted to show how music is defined by its flirtation with – but not submission to – our expectations of order. Meyer dissected 50 measures (bars) of the masterpiece, showing how Beethoven begins with the clear statement of a rhythmic and harmonic pattern and then, in an ingenious tonal dance, carefully holds off repeating it. What Beethoven does instead is suggest variations of the pattern. Me wants to preserve an element of uncertainty in his music, making our brains beg for the one chord he refuses to give us. Beethoven saves that chord for the end.

    According to Meyer, it is the suspenseful tension of music, arising out of our unfulfilled expectations, that is the source of the music’s feeling. While earlier theories of music focused on the way a sound can refer to the real world of images and experiences – its ‘connotative’ meaning – Meyer argued that the emotions we find in music come from the unfolding events of the music itself. This ‘embodied meaning’ arises from the patterns the symphony invokes and then ignores. It is this uncertainty that triggers the surge of dopamine in the caudate, as we struggle to figure out what will happen next. We can predict some of the notes, but we can’t predict them all, and that is what keeps us listening, waiting expectantly for our reward, for the pattern to be completed.

    Questions 27-31

    Complete the summary below.

    Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

    The Montreal Study

    Participants who were recruited for the study through advertisements had their brain activity monitored while listening to their favourite music. It was noted that the music stimulated the brain’s neurons to release a substance called (27)……………………….in two of the parts of the brain which are associated with feeling (28)………………………….. Researchers also observed that the neurons in the area of the brain called the (29)……………………..were particularly active just before the participants’ favourite moments in the music – the period known as the (30)……………………………….Activity in this part of the brain is associated with the expectation of reward stimuli such as (31)………………………….

    Questions 32-36

    Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D.

    1. What point does the writer emphasise in the first paragraph?
      1. how dramatically our reactions to music can vary
      2. how intense our physical responses to music can be
      3. how little we know about the way that music affects us
      4. how much music can tell us about how our brains operate
    2. 33. What view of the Montreal study does the writer express in the second paragraph?
      1. its aims were innovative
      2. the approach was too simplistic
      3. it produces some remarkably precise data
      4. the technology used was unnecessarily complex
    3. What does the writer find interesting about the results of the Montreal study?
      1. the timing of participants’ neural responses to the music
      2. the impact of the music on participants’ emotional state
      3. the section of participants’ brains which was activated by the music
      4. the type of music which has the strongest effect on the participants’ brains
    4. Why does the writer refer to Meyer’s work on music and emotion?
      1. to propose an original theory about the subject
      2. to offer support for the findings of the Montreal study
      3. to recommend the need for further research into the subject
      4. to present a view which opposes that of the Montreal researchers
    5. According to Leonard Meyer, what causes the listener’s emotional response to music?
      1. the way the music evokes poignant memories in the listener
      2. the association of certain musical chords with certain feelings
      3. the listener’s sympathy with the composer’s intentions
      4. the internal structure of the musical composition
    Questions 37-40

    Complete each sentence with the correct ending A-F below.

    1. The Montreal researchers discovered that
    2. Many studies have demonstrated that
    3. Meyer’s analysis of Beethoven’s music shows that
    4. Earlier theories of music suggested that
    1. Our response to music depends on our initial emotional state.
    2. neuron activity decreases if outcomes become predictable.
    3. emotive music can bring to mind actual pictures and events.
    4. experiences in our past can influence our emotional reaction to music.
    5. emotive music delays giving listeners what they expect to hear.
    6. neuron activity increases prior to key points in a musical piece.
    Cambridge IELTS 12 Academic Reading Test 3 Flying tortoises Answers
    1. v
    2. iii
    3. viii
    4. i
    5. iv
    6. vi
    7. ii
    8. pirates
    9. food
    10. oil
    11. settlers
    12. species
    13. eggs
    Cambridge IELTS 12 Academic Reading Test 3 The Intersection of Health Sciences and Geography Answers
    1. D
    2. C
    3. F
    4. G
    5. D
    6. B
    7. vaccinations
    8. antibiotics
    9. mosquitoes
    10. factories
    11. forests
    12. polio
    13. mountain
    Cambridge IELTS 12 Academic Reading Test 3 Music and the emotions Answers
    1. dopamine
    2. pleasure
    3. caudate
    4. anticipatory phase
    5. food
    6. B
    7. C
    8. A
    9. B
    10. D
    11. F
    12. B
    13. E
    14. C



  • Cambridge IELTS 14 Academic Reading Test 4

    Reading Passage 1

    The secret of staying young

    Pheidole dentata, a native ant of the south-eastern U.S., isn’t immortal. But scientists have found that it doesn’t seem to show any signs of aging. Old worker ants can do everything just as well as the youngsters, and their brains appear just as sharp. ‘We get a picture that these ants really don’t decline,’ says Ysabel Giraldo, who studied the ants for her doctoral thesis at Boston University.

    Such age-defying feats are rare in the animal kingdom. Naked mole rats can live for almost 30 years and stay fit for nearly their entire lives. They can still reproduce even when old, and they never get cancer. But the vast majority of animals deteriorate with age just like people do. Like the naked mole rat, ants are social creatures that usually live in highly organised colonies. ‘It’s this social complexity that makes P. dentata useful for studying aging in people,’ says Giraldo, now at the California Institute of Technology. Humans are also highly social, a trait that has been connected to healthier aging. By contrast, most animal studies of aging use mice, worms or fruit flies, which all lead much more isolated lives.

    In the lab, P. dentata worker ants typically live for around 140 days. Giraldo focused on ants at four age ranges: 20 to 22 days, 45 to 47 days, 95 to 97 days and 120 to 122 days. Unlike all previous studies, which only estimated how old the ants were, her work tracked the ants from the time the pupae became adults, so she knew their exact ages. Then she put them through a range of tests.

    Giraldo watched how well the ants took care of the young of the colony, recording how often each ant attended to, carried and fed them. She compared how well 20-day-old and 95-day-old ants followed the telltale scent that the insects usually leave to mark a trail to food. She tested how ants responded to light and also measured how active they were by counting how often ants in a small dish walked across a line. And she experimented with how ants react to live prey: a tethered fruit fly. Giraldo expected the older ants to perform poorly in all these tasks. But the elderly insects were all good caretakers and trail-followers—the 95-day-old ants could track the scent even longer than their younger counterparts. They all responded to light well, and the older ants were more active. And when it came to reacting to prey, the older ants attacked the poor fruit fly just as aggressively as the young ones did, flaring their mandibles or pulling at the fly’s legs.

    Then Giraldo compared the brains of 20-day-old and 95-day-old ants, identifying any cells that were close to death. She saw no major differences with age, nor was there any difference in the location of the dying cells, showing that age didn’t seem to affect specific brain functions. Ants and other insects have structures in their brains called mushroom bodies, which are important for processing information, learning and memory. She also wanted to see if aging affects the density of synaptic complexes within these structures—regions where neurons come together. Again, the answer was no. What was more, the old ants didn’t experience any drop in the levels of either serotonin or dopamine—brain chemicals whose decline often coincides with aging. In humans, for example, a decrease in serotonin has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease.

    ‘This is the first time anyone has looked at both behavioral and neural changes in these ants so thoroughly,’ says Giraldo, who recently published the findings in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Scientists have looked at some similar aspects in bees, but the results of recent bee studies were mixed—some studies showed age-related declines, which biologists call senescence, and others didn’t. ‘For now, the study raises more questions than it answers,’ Giraldo says, ‘including how P. dentata stays in such good shape.’

    Also, if the ants don’t deteriorate with age, why do they die at all? Out in the wild, the ants probably don’t live for a full 140 days thanks to predators, disease and just being in an environment that’s much harsher than the comforts of the lab. ‘The lucky ants that do live into old age may suffer a steep decline just before dying,’ Giraldo says, but she can’t say for sure because her study wasn’t designed to follow an ant’s final moments.

    ‘It will be important to extend these findings to other species of social insects,’ says Gene E. Robinson, an entomologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This ant might be unique, or it might represent a broader pattern among other social bugs with possible clues to the science of aging in larger animals. Either way, it seems that for these ants, age really doesn’t matter.

    Questions 1–8

    Complete the notes below.

    Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

    Write your answer in boxes 1-8 on your answer sheet.

    Ysabel Giraldo’s research

    Focused on a total of (1)………………different age groups of ants, analysing

    Behaviour:
    • how well ants looked after their (2)………………
    • their ability to locate (3)……………..using a scent trail
    • the effect that (4)………….had on them
    • how (5)………………they attacked prey

    Brains:
    • comparison between age and the (6)……………….of dying cells in the brains of ants
    • condition of synaptic complexes (areas in which (7)……………….meet) in the brain’s ‘mushroom bodies’
    • level of two (8)…………….in the brain associated with ageing

    Questions 9–13

    Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?

    In boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet, write:

    • TRUE                        if the statement agrees with the information
    • FALSE                      if the statement contradicts the information
    • NOT GIVEN           if there is no information on this
    1. Pheidole dentata ants are the only known animals which remain active for almost their whole lives.
    2. Ysabel Giraldo was the first person to study Pheidole dentata ants using precise data about the insects’ ages.
    3. The ants in Giraldo’s experiments behaved as she had predicted that they would.
    4. The recent studies of bees used different methods of measuring age- related decline.
    5. Pheidole dentata ants kept in laboratory conditions tend to live longer lives.

    Reading Passage 2

    Why zoos are good

    A In my view, it is perfectly possible for many species of animals living in zoos or wildlife parks to have a quality of life as high as, or higher than, in the wild. Animals in good zoos get a varied and high-quality diet with all the supplements required, and any illnesses they might have will be treated. Their movement might be somewhat restricted, but they have a safe environment in which to live, and they are spared bullying and social ostracism by others of their kind. They do not suffer from the threat or stress of predators, or the irritation and pain of parasites or injuries. The average captive animal will have a greater life expectancy compared with its wild counterpart, and will not die of drought, of starvation or in the jaws of a predator. A lot of very nasty things happen to truly ‘wild’ animals that simply don’t happen in good zoos, and to view a life that is ‘free’ as one that is automatically ‘good’ is, I think, an error. Furthermore, zoos serve several key purposes.

    B Firstly, zoos aid conservation. Colossal numbers of species are becoming extinct across the world, and many more are increasingly threatened and therefore risk extinction. Moreover, some of these collapses have been sudden, dramatic and unexpected, or were simply discovered very late in the day. A species protected in captivity can be bred up to provide a reservoir population against a population crash or extinction in the wild. A good number of species only exist in captivity, with many of these living in zoos. Still more only exist in the wild because they have been reintroduced from zoos, or have wild populations that have been boosted by captive bred animals. Without these efforts there would be fewer species alive today. Although reintroduction successes are few and far between, the numbers are increasing, and the very fact that species have been saved or reintroduced as a result of captive breeding proves the value of such initiatives.

    C Zoos also provide education. Many children and adults, especially those in cities, will never see a wild animal beyond a fox or pigeon. While it is true that television documentaries are becoming ever more detailed and impressive, and many natural history specimens are on display in museums, there really is nothing to compare with seeing a living creature in the flesh, hearing it, smelling it, watching what it does and having the time to absorb details. That alone will bring a greater understanding and perspective to many, and hopefully give them a greater appreciation for wildlife, conservation efforts and how they can contribute.

    D In addition to this, there is also the education that can take place in zoos through signs, talks and presentations which directly communicate information to visitors about the animals they are seeing and their place in the world. This was an area where zoos used to be lacking, but they are now increasingly sophisticated in their communication and outreach work. Many zoos also work directly to educate conservation workers in other countries, or send their animal keepers abroad to contribute their knowledge and skills to those working in zoos and reserves, thereby helping to improve conditions and reintroductions all over the world.

    E Zoos also play a key role in research. If we are to save wild species and restore and repair ecosystems we need to know about how key species live, act and react. Being able to undertake research on animals in zoos where there is less risk and fewer variables means real changes can be effected on wild populations. Finding out about, for example, the oestrus cycle of an animal or its breeding rate helps us manage wild populations. Procedures such as capturing and moving at-risk or dangerous individuals are bolstered by knowledge gained in zoos about doses for anaesthetics, and by experience in handling and transporting animals. This can make a real difference to conservation efforts and to the reduction of human-animal conflicts, and can provide a knowledge base for helping with the increasing threats of habitat destruction and other problems.

    F In conclusion, considering the many ongoing global threats to the environment, it is hard for me to see zoos as anything other than essential to the long-term survival of numerous species. They are vital not just in terms of protecting animals, but as a means of learning about them to aid those still in the wild, as well as educating and informing the general population about these animals and their world so that they can assist or at least accept the need to be more environmentally conscious. Without them, the world would be, and would increasingly become, a much poorer place.

    Questions 14 – 17

    Reading Passage 2 has six paragraphs, A-F.

    Which paragraph contains the following information?

    Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 14-17 on your answer sheet.

    1. a reference to how quickly animal species can die out
    2. reasons why it is preferable to study animals in captivity rather than in the wild
    3. mention of two ways of learning about animals other than visiting them in zoos
    4. reasons why animals in zoos may be healthier than those in the wild
    Questions 18 – 22

    Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2?

    In boxes 18-22 on your answer sheet, write:

    • TRUE                           if the statement agrees with the information
    • FALSE                         if the statement contradicts the information
    • NOT GIVEN              if there is no information on this
    1. An animal is likely to live longer in a zoo than in the wild.
    2. There are some species in zoos which can no longer be found in the wild.
    3. Improvements in the quality of TV wildlife documentaries have resulted in increased numbers of zoo visitors.
    4. Zoos have always excelled at transmitting information about animals to the public.
    5. Studying animals in zoos is less stressful for the animals than studying them in the wild.
    Questions 23 and 24

    Choose TWO letters, A-E.

    Write the correct letters in boxes 23 and 24 on your answer sheet.

    Which TWO of the following are stated about zoo staff in the text?

    1. Some take part in television documentaries about animals.
    2. Some travel to overseas locations to join teams in zoos.
    3. Some get experience with species in the wild before taking up zoo jobs.
    4. Some teach people who are involved with conservation projects.
    5. Some specialise in caring for species which are under threat.
    Questions 25 and 26

    Choose TWO letters, A-E.

    Write the correct letters in boxes 25 and 26 on your answer sheet.

    Which TWO of these beliefs about zoos does the writer mention in the text?

    1. They can help children overcome their fears of wild animals.
    2. They can increase public awareness of environmental issues.
    3. They can provide employment for a range of professional people.
    4. They can generate income to support wildlife conservation projects.
    5. They can raise animals which can later be released into the wild.

    READING PASSAGE 3

    Chelsea Rochman, an ecologist at the University of California, Davis, has been trying to answer a dismal question: Is everything terrible, or are things just very, very bad?

    Rochman is a member of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis’s marine-debris working group, a collection of scientists who study, among other things, the growing problem of marine debris, also known as ocean trash. Plenty of studies have sounded alarm bells about the state of marine debris; in a recent paper published in the journal Ecology, Rochman and her colleagues set out to determine how many of those perceived risks are real.

    Often, Rochman says, scientists will end a paper by speculating about the broader impacts of what they’ve found. For example, a study could show that certain seabirds eat plastic bags, and go on to warn that whole bird populations are at risk of dying out. ‘But the truth was that nobody had yet tested those perceived threats,’ Rochman says. ‘There wasn’t a lot of information.’

    Rochman and her colleagues examined more than a hundred papers on the impacts of marine debris that were published through 2013. Within each paper, they asked what threats scientists had studied – 366 perceived threats in all – and what they’d actually found.

    In 83 percent of cases, the perceived dangers of ocean trash were proven true. In the remaining cases, the working group found the studies had weaknesses in design and content which affected the validity of their conclusions – they lacked a control group, for example, or used faulty statistics.

    Strikingly, Rochman says, only one well-designed study failed to find the effect it was looking for, an investigation of mussels ingesting microscopic plastic bits. The plastic moved from the mussels’ stomachs to their bloodstreams, scientists found, and stayed there for weeks – but didn’t seem to stress out the shellfish.

    While mussels may be fine eating trash, though, the analysis also gave a clearer picture of the many ways that ocean debris is bothersome.

    Within the studies they looked at, most of the proven threats came from plastic debris, rather than other materials like metal or wood. Most of the dangers also involved large pieces of debris – animals getting entangled in trash, for example, or eating it and severely injuring themselves.

    But a lot of ocean debris is ‘microplastic’, or pieces smaller than five millimeters. These may be ingredients used in cosmetics and toiletries, fibers shed by synthetic clothing in the wash, or eroded remnants of larger debris. Compared to the number of studies investigating large-scale debris, Rochman’s group found little research on the effects of these tiny bits. ‘There are a lot of open questions still for microplastic,’ Rochman says, though she notes that more papers on the subject have been published since 2013, the cutoff point for the group’s analysis.

    There are also, she adds, a lot of open questions about the ways that ocean debris can lead to sea-creature death. Many studies have looked at how plastic affects an individual animal, or that animal’s tissues or cells, rather than whole populations. And in the lab, scientists often use higher concentrations of plastic than what’s really in the ocean. None of that tells us how many birds or fish or sea turtles could die from plastic pollution – or how deaths in one species could affect that animal’s predators, or the rest of the ecosystem.

    ‘We need to be asking more ecologically relevant questions,’ Rochman says. Usually, scientists don’t know exactly how disasters such as a tanker accidentally spilling its whole cargo of oil and polluting huge areas of the ocean will affect the environment until after they’ve happened. ‘We don’t ask the right questions early enough,’ she says. But if ecologists can understand how the slow-moving effect of ocean trash is damaging ecosystems, they might be able to prevent things from getting worse.

    Asking the right questions can help policy makers, and the public, figure out where to focus their attention. The problems that look or sound most dramatic may not be the best places to start. For example, the name of the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ – a collection of marine debris in the northern Pacific Ocean – might conjure up a vast, floating trash island. In reality though, much of the debris is tiny or below the surface; a person could sail through the area without seeing any trash at all. A Dutch group called ‘The Ocean Cleanup’ is currently working on plans to put mechanical devices in the Pacific Garbage Patch and similar areas to suck up plastic. But a recent paper used simulations to show that strategically positioning the cleanup devices closer to shore would more effectively reduce pollution over the long term.

    ‘I think clearing up some of these misperceptions is really important,’ Rochman says. Among scientists as well as in the media, she says, ‘A lot of the images about strandings and entanglement and all of that cause the perception that plastic debris is killing everything in the ocean.’ Interrogating the existing scientific literature can help ecologists figure out which problems really need addressing, and which ones they’d be better off- like the mussels – absorbing and ignoring.

    Questions 27–33

    Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 3?

    In boxes 27-33 on your answer sheet, write:

    • TRUE                       if the statement agrees with the information
    • FALSE                     if the statement contradicts the information
    • NOT GIVEN          if there is no information on this
    1. Rochman and her colleagues were the first people to research the problem of marine debris.
    2. The creatures most in danger from ocean trash are certain seabirds.
    3. The studies Rochman has reviewed have already proved that populations of some birds will soon become extinct.
    4. Rochman analysed papers on the different kinds of danger caused by ocean trash.
    5. Most of the research analysed by Rochman and her colleagues was badly designed.
    6. One study examined by Rochman was expecting to find that mussels were harmed by eating plastic.
    7. Some mussels choose to eat plastic in preference to their natural diet.
    Questions 34–39

    Complete the notes below.

    Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

    Write your answers in boxes 34-39 on your answer sheet.

    Findings related to marine debris

    Studies of marine debris found the biggest threats were
    • plastic (not metal or wood)
    • bits of debris that were (34)……………..(harmful to animals)

    There was little research into (35)……………….e.g. from synthetic fibres.

    Drawbacks of the studies examined
    • most of them focused on individual animals, not entire (36) ………………….
    • the (37)…………………….of plastic used in the lab did not always reflect those in the ocean
    • there was insufficient information on
    – numbers of animals which could be affected
    – the impact of a reduction in numbers on the (38)……….………….of that species
    – the impact on the ecosystem

    Rochman says more information is needed on the possible impact of future (39)……………….(e.g. involving oil).

    Question 40

    Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

    1. What would be the best title for this passage?
      1. Assessing the threat of marine debris
      2. Marine debris: who is to blame?
      3. A new solution to the problem of marine debris
      4. Marine Debis: the need for international action
    Cambridge IELTS 14 Academic Reading Test 4 Passage 1 The secret of staying young Answers
    1. 4
    2. young
    3. food
    4. light
    5. aggressively
    6. location
    7. neurons
    8. chemicals
    9. False
    10. True
    11. False
    12. Not given
    13. True
    Cambridge IELTS 14 Academic Reading Test 4 Passage 2 Why zoos are good Answers
    1. B
    2. E
    3. C
    4. A
    5. True
    6. True
    7. Not given
    8. False
    9. Not given
    10. B
    11. D
    12. B
    13. E
    Cambridge IELTS 14 Academic Reading Test 4 Passage 3 Chelsea Rochman Answers
    1. False
    2. Not given
    3. False
    4. True
    5. False
    6. True
    7. Not given
    8. large
    9. microplastic
    10. populations
    11. concentrations
    12. predators
    13. disasters
    14. A

  • Cambridge IELTS 14 Academic Reading Test 2

    Reading Passage 1

    Alexander Henderson

    Alexander Henderson was born in Scotland in 1831 and was the son of a successful merchant. His grandfather, also called Alexander, had founded the family business, and later became the first chairman of the National Bank of Scotland. The family had extensive landholdings in Scotland. Besides its residence in Edinburgh, it owned Press Estate, 650 acres of farmland about 35 miles southeast of the city. The family often stayed at Press Castle, the large mansion on the northern edge of the property, and Alexander spent much of his childhood in the area, playing on the beach near Eyemouth or fishing in the streams nearby.

    Even after he went to school at Murcheston Academy on the outskirts of Edinburgh, Henderson returned to Press at weekends. In 1849 he began a three-year apprenticeship to become an accountant. Although he never liked the prospect of a business career, he stayed with it to please his family. In October 1855, however, he emigrated to Canada with his wife Agnes Elder Robertson and they settled in Montreal.

    Henderson learned photography in Montreal around the year 1857 and quickly took it up as a serious amateur. He became a personal friend and colleague of the Scottish-Canadian photographer William Notman. The two men made a photographic excursion to Niagara Falls in 1860 and they cooperated on experiments with magnesium flares as a source of artificial light in 1865. They belonged to the same societies and were among the founding members of the Art Association of Montreal. Henderson acted as chairman of the association’s first meeting, which was held in Notman’s studio on 11 January 1860.

    In spite of their friendship, their styles of photography were quite different. While Notman’s landscapes were noted for their bold realism, Henderson for the first 20 years of his career produced romantic images, showing the strong influence of the British landscape tradition. His artistic and technical progress was rapid and in 1865 he published his first major collection of landscape photographs. The publication had limited circulation (only seven copies have ever been found), and was called Canadian Views and Studies. The contents of each copy vary significantly and have proved a useful source for evaluating Henderson’s early work.

    In 1866, he gave up his business to open a photographic studio, advertising himself as a portrait and landscape photographer. From about 1870 he dropped portraiture to specialize in landscape photography and other views. His numerous photographs of city life revealed in street scenes, houses, and markets are alive with human activity, and although his favourite subject was landscape he usually composed his scenes around such human pursuits as farming the land, cutting ice on a river, or sailing down a woodland stream. There was sufficient demand for these types of scenes and others he took depicting the lumber trade, steamboats and waterfalls to enable him to make a living. There was little competing hobby or amateur photography before the late 1880s because of the time-consuming techniques involved and the weight of the equipment. People wanted to buy photographs as souvenirs of a trip or as gifts, and catering to this market, Henderson had stock photographs on display at his studio for mounting, framing, or inclusion in albums.

    Henderson frequently exhibited his photographs in Montreal and abroad, in London, Edinburgh, Dublin, Paris, New York, and Philadelphia. He met with greater success in 1877 and 1878 in New York when he won first prizes in the exhibition held by E and H T Anthony and Company for landscapes using the Lambertype process. In 1878 his work won second prize at the world exhibition in Paris.

    In the 1870s and 1880s Henderson travelled widely throughout Quebec and Ontario, in Canada, documenting the major cities of the two provinces and many of the villages in Quebec. He was especially fond of the wilderness and often travelled by canoe on the Blanche, du Lievre, and other noted eastern rivers. He went on several occasions to the Maritimes and in 1872 he sailed by yacht along the lower north shore of the St Lawrence River. That same year, while in the lower St Lawrence River region, he took some photographs of the construction of the Intercolonial Railway. This undertaking led in 1875 to a commission from the railway to record the principal structures along the almost-completed line connecting Montreal to Halifax. Commissions from other railways followed. In 1876 he photographed bridges on the Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway between Montreal and Ottawa. In 1885 he went west along the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) as far as Rogers Pass in British Columbia, where he took photographs of the mountains and the progress of construction.

    In 1892 Henderson accepted a full-time position with the CPR as manager of a photographic department which he was to set up and administer. His duties included spending four months in the field each year. That summer he made his second trip west, photographing extensively along the railway line as far as Victoria. He continued in this post until 1897, when he retired completely from photography.

    When Henderson died in 1913, his huge collection of glass negatives was stored in the basement of his house. Today collections of his work are held at the National Archives of Canada, Ottawa, and the McCord Museum of Canadian History, Montreal.

    Questions 1 – 8

    Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?

    In boxes 1-8 on your answer sheet, write

    • TRUE                      if the statement agrees with the information
    • FALSE                    if the statement contradicts the information
    • NOT GIVEN         if there is no information on this
    1. Henderson rarely visited the area around Press estate when he was younger.
    2. Henderson pursued a business career because it was what his family wanted.
    3. Henderson and Notman were surprised by the results of their 1865 experiment.
    4. There were many similarities between Henderson’s early landscapes and those of Notman.
    5. The studio that Henderson opened in 1866 was close to his home.
    6. Henderson gave up portraiture so that he could focus on taking photographs of scenery.
    7. When Henderson began work for the Intercolonial Railway, the Montreal to Halifax line had been finished.
    8. Henderson’s last work as a photographer was with the Canadian Pacific Railway.
    Questions 9 – 13

    Complete the notes below.

    Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

    Write your answers in boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet.

    Alexander Henderson

    Early life
    • was born in Scotland in 1831 – father was a (9)…………….
    • trained as an accountant, emigrated to Canada in 1855

    Start of a photographic career
    • opened up a photographic studio in 1866
    • took photos of city life, but preferred landscape photography
    • people bought Henderson’s photos because photography took up considerable time and the (10)…………… was heavy
    • the photographs Hederson sold were (11)……………….or souvenirs

    Travelling as a professional photographer
    • travelled widely in Quebec and Ontario in 1870s and 1880s
    • took many trips along eastern rivers in a (12)……………..
    • worked for Canadian railways between 1875 and 1897
    • worked for CPR in 1885 and photographed the (13)…………….and the railway at Rogers Pass

    Reading Passage 2

    Back to the future of skyscraper design

    A The Recovery of Natural Environments in Architecture by Professor Alan Short is the culmination of 30 years of research and award-winning green building design by Short and colleagues in Architecture, Engineering, Applied Maths and Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge. The crisis in building design is already here,’ said Short. ‘Policy makers think you can solve energy and building problems with gadgets. You can’t. As global temperatures continue to rise, we are going to continue to squander more and more energy on keeping our buildings mechanically cool until we have run out of capacity.’

    B Short is calling for a sweeping reinvention of how skyscrapers and major public buildings are designed – to end the reliance on sealed buildings which exist solely via the ‘life support’ system of vast air conditioning units. Instead, he shows it is entirely possible to accommodate natural ventilation and cooling in large buildings by looking into the past, before the widespread introduction of air conditioning systems, which were ‘relentlessly and aggressively marketed’ by their inventors.

    C Short points out that to make most contemporary buildings habitable, they have to be sealed and air conditioned. The energy use and carbon emissions this generates is spectacular and largely unnecessary. Buildings in the West account for 40-50% of electricity usage, generating substantial carbon emissions, and the rest of the world is catching up at a frightening rate. Short regards glass, steel and air-conditioned skyscrapers as symbols of status, rather than practical ways of meeting our requirements.

    D Short’s book highlights a developing and sophisticated art and science of ventilating buildings through the 19th and earlier-20th centuries, including the design of ingeniously ventilated hospitals. Of particular interest were those built to the designs of John Shaw Billings, including the first Johns Hopkins Hospital in the US city of Baltimore (1873-1889). ‘We spent three years digitally modelling Billings’ final designs,’ says Short. ‘We put pathogens in the airstreams, modelled for someone with tuberculosis (TB) coughing in the wards and we found the ventilation systems in the room would have kept other patients safe from harm.

    E ‘We discovered that 19th-century hospital wards could generate up to 24 air changes an hour – that’s similar to the performance of a modern-day, computer-controlled operating theatre. We believe you could build wards based on these principles now. Single rooms are not appropriate for all patients. Communal wards appropriate for certain patients – older people with dementia, for example – would work just as well in today’s hospitals, at a fraction of the energy cost.’ Professor Short contends the mindset and skill-sets behind these designs have been completely lost, lamenting the disappearance of expertly designed theatres, opera houses, and other buildings where up to half the volume of the building was given over to ensuring everyone got fresh air.

    F Much of the ingenuity present in 19th-century hospital and building design was driven by a panicked public clamouring for buildings that could protect against what was thought to be the lethal threat of miasmas – toxic air that spread disease. Miasmas were feared as the principal agents of disease and epidemics for centuries, and were used to explain the spread of infection from the Middle Ages right through to the cholera outbreaks in London and Paris during the 1850s. Foul air, rather than germs, was believed to be the main driver of ‘hospital fever’, leading to disease and frequent death. The prosperous steered clear of hospitals. While miasma theory has been long since disproved, Short has for the last 30 years advocated a return to some of the building design principles produced in its wake.

    G Today, huge amounts of a building’s space and construction cost are given over to air conditioning. ‘But I have designed and built a series of buildings over the past three decades which have tried to reinvent some of these ideas and then measure what happens. To go forward into our new low-energy, low-carbon future, we would be well advised to look back at design before our high-energy, high-carbon present appeared. What is surprising is what a rich legacy we have abandoned.’

    H Successful examples of Short’s approach include the Queen’s Building at De Montfort University in Leicester. Containing as many as 2,000 staff and students, the entire building is naturally ventilated, passively cooled and naturally lit, including the two largest auditoria, each seating more than 150 people. The award-winning building uses a fraction of the electricity of comparable buildings in the UK. Short contends that glass skyscrapers in London and around the world will become a liability over the next 20 or 30 years if climate modelling predictions and energy price rises come to pass as expected.

    I He is convinced that sufficiently cooled skyscrapers using the natural environment can be produced in almost any climate. He and his team have worked on hybrid buildings in the harsh climates of Beijing and Chicago – built with natural ventilation assisted by back-up air conditioning – which, surprisingly perhaps, can be switched off more than half the time on milder days and during the spring and autumn. Short looks at how we might reimagine the cities, offices and homes of the future. Maybe it’s time we changed our outlook.

    Questions 14 – 18
    Reading Passage 2 has nine sections, A-l.

    Which section contains the following information?

    Write the correct letter, A-l, in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet.

    1. why some people avoided hospitals in the 19th century
    2. a suggestion that the popularity of tall buildings is linked to prestige
    3. a comparison between the circulation of air in a 19th-century building and modern standards
    4. how Short tested the circulation of air in a 19th-century building
    5. an implication that advertising led to the large increase in the use of air conditioning
    Questions 19 – 26

    Complete the summary below.

    Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

    Write your answers in boxes 19-26 on your answer sheet.

    Ventilation in 19th-century hospital wards

    Professor Alan Short examined the work of John Shaw Billings, who influenced the architectural (19)…………….. of hospitals to ensure they had good ventilation. He calculated that (20)……………in the air coming from patients suffering from (21)……………..would not have harmed other patients. He also found that the air in (22)…………………in hospitals could change as often as in a modern operating theatre. He suggests that energy use could be reduced by locating more patients in (23)……………..areas. A major reason for improving ventilation in 19th-century hospitals was the demand from the (24)……………for protection against bad air, known as (25)………………..These were blamed for the spread of disease for hundreds of years, including epidemics of (26)……………..in London and Paris in the middle of the 19th century.

    Reading Passage 3

    Why companies should welcome disorder

    A Organisation is big business. Whether it is of our lives – all those inboxes and calendars – or how companies are structured, a multi-billion dollar industry helps to meet this need. We have more strategies for time management, project management and self-organisation than at any other time in human history. We are told that we ought to organise our company, our home life, our week, our day and even our sleep, all as a means to becoming more productive. Every week, countless seminars and workshops take place around the world to tell a paying public that they ought to structure their lives in order to achieve this. This rhetoric has also crept into the thinking of business leaders and entrepreneurs, much to the delight of self-proclaimed perfectionists with the need to get everything right. The number of business schools and graduates has massively increased over the past 50 years, essentially teaching people how to organise well.

    B Ironically, however, the number of businesses that fail has also steadily increased. Work-related stress has increased. A large proportion of workers from all demographics claim to be dissatisfied with the way their work is structured and the way they are managed. This begs the question: what has gone wrong? Why is it that on paper the drive for organisation seems a sure shot for increasing productivity, but in reality falls well short of what is expected?

    C This has been a problem for a while now. Frederick Taylor was one of the forefathers of scientific management. Writing in the first half of the 20th century, he designed a number of principles to improve the efficiency of the work process, which have since become widespread in modern companies. So the approach has been around for a while.

    D New research suggests that this obsession with efficiency is misguided. The problem is not necessarily the management theories or strategies we use to organise our work; it’s the basic assumptions we hold in approaching how we work. Here it’s the assumption that order is a necessary condition for productivity. This assumption has also fostered the idea that disorder must be detrimental to organisational productivity. The result is that businesses and people spend time and money organising themselves for the sake of organising, rather than actually looking at the end goal and usefulness of such an effort.

    E What’s more, recent studies show that order actually has diminishing returns. Order does increase productivity to a certain extent, but eventually the usefulness of the process of organisation, and the benefit it yields, reduce until the point where any further increase in order reduces productivity. Some argue that in a business, if the cost of formally structuring something outweighs the benefit of doing it, then that thing ought not to be formally structured. Instead, the resources involved can be better used elsewhere.

    F In fact, research shows that, when innovating, the best approach is to create an environment devoid of structure and hierarchy and enable everyone involved to engage as one organic group. These environments can lead to new solutions that, under conventionally structured environments (filled with bottlenecks in terms of information flow, power structures, rules, and routines) would never be reached.

    G In recent times companies have slowly started to embrace this disorganisation. Many of them embrace it in terms of perception (embracing the idea of disorder, as opposed to fearing it) and in terms of process (putting mechanisms in place to reduce structure). For example, Oticon, a large Danish manufacturer of hearing aids, used what it called a ‘spaghetti’ structure in order to reduce the organisation’s rigid hierarchies. This involved scrapping formal job titles and giving staff huge amounts of ownership over their own time and projects. This approach proved to be highly successful initially, with clear improvements in worker productivity in all facets of the business. In similar fashion, the former chairman of General Electric embraced disorganisation, putting forward the idea of the ‘boundaryless’ organisation. Again, it involves breaking down the barriers between different parts of a company and encouraging virtual collaboration and flexible working. Google and a number of other tech companies have embraced (at least in part) these kinds of flexible structures, facilitated by technology and strong company values which glue people together.

    H A word of warning to others thinking of jumping on this bandwagon: the evidence so far suggests disorder, much like order, also seems to have diminishing utility, and can also have detrimental effects on performance if overused. Like order, disorder should be embraced only so far as it is useful. But we should not fear it – nor venerate one over the other. This research also shows that we should continually question whether or not our existing assumptions work.

    Questions 27 – 34

    Reading Passage 3 has eight sections, A-H.

    Choose the correct heading for each section from the list of headings below.

    Write the correct number, i-ix, in boxes 27-34 on your answer sheet.

    List of Headings

    1. Complaints about the impact of a certain approach
    2. Fundamental beliefs that are in fact incorrect
    3. Early recommendations concerning business activities
    4. Organisations that put a new approach into practice
    5. Companies that have suffered from changing their approach
    6. What people are increasingly expected to do
    7. How to achieve outcomes that are currently impossible
    8. Neither approach guarantees continuous improvement
    9. Evidence that a certain approach can have more disadvantages than advantages
    1. Section A
    2. Section B
    3. Section C
    4. Section D
    5. Section E
    6. Section F
    7. Section G
    8. Section H
    Questions 35 – 37

    Complete the sentences below.

    Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
    Write your answers in boxes 35-37 on your answer sheet.

    1. Numerous training sessions are aimed at people who feel they are not…………….enough.
    2. Being organised appeals to people who regard themselves as………………
    3. Many people feel…………….with aspects of their work.
    Questions 38 – 40

    Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 3?

    In boxes 38-40 on your answer sheet, write:

    • TRUE                       if the statement agrees with the information
    • FALSE                     if the statement contradicts the information
    • NOT GIVEN          if there is no information on this
    1. Both businesses and people aim at order without really considering its value.
    2. Innovation is most successful if the people involved have distinct roles.
    3. Google was inspired to adopt flexibility by the success of General Electric.
    Cambridge IELTS 14 Academic Reading Test 2 Reading Passage 1 Alexander Henderson Answers
    1. False
    2. True
    3. Not Given
    4. False
    5. Not Given
    6. True
    7. False
    8. True
    9. merchant
    10. equipment
    11. gifts
    12. canoe
    13. mountains
    Cambridge IELTS 14 Academic Reading Test 2 Reading Passage 2 Back to the future of skyscraper design Answers
    1. F
    2. C
    3. E
    4. D
    5. B
    6. designs
    7. pathogens
    8. tuberculosis
    9. wards
    10. communal
    11. public
    12. miasmas
    13. cholera
    Cambridge IELTS 14 Academic Reading Test 2 Reading Passage 3 Why companies should welcome disorder Answers
    1. vi
    2. i
    3. iii
    4. ii
    5. ix
    6. vii
    7. iv
    8. viii
    9. productive
    10. perfectionists
    11. dissatisfied
    12. True
    13. False
    14. Not given



  • Cambridge IELTS 14 Academic Reading Test 3

    Reading passage 1

    The concept of intelligence

    A Looked at in one way, everyone knows what intelligence is; looked at in another way, no one does. In other words, people all have unconscious notions – known as ‘implicit theories’ – of intelligence, but no one knows for certain what it actually is. This chapter addresses how people conceptualize intelligence, whatever it may actually be. But why should we even care what people think intelligence is, as opposed only to valuing whatever it actually is? There are at least four reasons people’s conceptions of intelligence matter.

    B First, implicit theories of intelligence drive the way in which people perceive and evaluate their own intelligence and that of others. To better understand the judgments people make about their own and others’ abilities, it is useful to learn about people’s implicit theories. For example, parents’ implicit theories of their children’s language development will determine at what ages they will be willing to make various corrections in their children’s speech. More generally, parents’ implicit theories of intelligence will determine at what ages they believe their children are ready to perform various cognitive tasks. Job interviewers will make hiring decisions on the basis of their implicit theories of intelligence. People will decide who to be friends with on the basis of such theories. In sum, knowledge about implicit theories of intelligence is important because this knowledge is so often used by people to make judgments in the course of their everyday lives.

    C Second, the implicit theories of scientific investigators ultimately give rise to their explicit theories. Thus it is useful to find out what these implicit theories are. Implicit theories provide a framework that is useful in defining the general scope of a phenomenon – especially a not-well-understood phenomenon. These implicit theories can suggest what aspects of the phenomenon have been more or less attended to in previous investigations.

    D Third, implicit theories can be useful when an investigator suspects that existing explicit theories are wrong or misleading. If an investigation of implicit theories reveals little correspondence between the extant implicit and explicit theories, the implicit theories may be wrong. But the possibility also needs to be taken into account that the explicit theories are wrong and in need of correction or supplementation. For example, some implicit theories of intelligence suggest the need for expansion of some of our explicit theories of the construct.

    E Finally, understanding implicit theories of intelligence can help elucidate developmental and cross-cultural differences. As mentioned earlier, people have expectations for intellectual performances that differ for children of different ages. How these expectations differ is in part a function of culture. For example, expectations for children who participate in Western-style schooling are almost certain to be different from those for children who do not participate in such schooling.

    F I have suggested that there are three major implicit theories of how intelligence relates to society as a whole (Sternberg, 1997). These might be called Hamiltonian, Jeffersonian, and Jacksonian. These views are not based strictly, but rather, loosely, on the philosophies of Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson, three great statesmen in the history of the United States.

    G The Hamiltonian view, which is similar to the Platonic view, is that people are born with different levels of intelligence and that those who are less intelligent need the good offices of the more intelligent to keep them in line, whether they are called government officials or, in Plato’s term, philosopher-kings. Herrnstein and Murray (1994) seem to have shared this belief when they wrote about the emergence of a cognitive (high-IQ) elite, which eventually would have to take responsibility for the largely irresponsible masses of non-elite (low-IQ) people who cannot take care of themselves. Left to themselves, the unintelligent would create, as they always have created, a kind of chaos.

    H The Jeffersonian view is that people should have equal opportunities, but they do not necessarily avail themselves equally of these opportunities and are not necessarily equally rewarded for their accomplishments. People are rewarded for what they accomplish, if given equal opportunity. Low achievers are not rewarded to the same extent as high achievers. In the Jeffersonian view, the goal of education is not to favor or foster an elite, as in the Hamiltonian tradition, but rather to allow children the opportunities to make full use of the skills they have. My own views are similar to these (Sternberg, 1997).

    I The Jacksonian view is that all people are equal, not only as human beings but in terms of their competencies – that one person would serve as well as another in government or on a jury or in almost any position of responsibility. In this view of democracy, people are essentially intersubstitutable except for specialized skills, all of which can be learned. In this view, we do not need or want any institutions that might lead to favoring one group over another.

    J Implicit theories of intelligence and of the relationship of intelligence to society perhaps need to be considered more carefully than they have been because they often serve as underlying presuppositions for explicit theories and even experimental designs that are then taken as scientific contributions. Until scholars are able to discuss their implicit theories and thus their assumptions, they are likely to miss the point of what others are saying when discussing their explicit theories and their data.

    Questions 1–3

    Reading Passage 1 has ten sections, A-J.

    Which section contains the following information?

    Write the correct letter, A-J, in boxes 1-3 on your answer sheet.

    1. information about how non-scientists’ assumptions about intelligence influence their behaviour towards others
    2. a reference to lack of clarity over the definition of intelligence
    3. the point that a researcher’s implicit and explicit theories may be very different
    Questions 4 – 6

    Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 1?

    In boxes 4-6 on your answer sheet, write

    • YES                          if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
    • NO                            if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
    • NOT GIVEN         if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
    1. Slow language development in children is likely to prove disappointing to their parents.
    2. People’s expectations of what children should gain from education are universal.
    3. Scholars may discuss theories without fully understanding each other.
    Questions 7 – 13

    Look at the following statements (Questions 7-13) and the list of theories below.

    Match each statement with the correct theory, A, B, or C.

    Write the correct letter, A, B, or C, in boxes 7-13 on your answer sheet.

    NB You may use any letter more than once.

    1. It is desirable for the same possibilities to be open to everyone.
    2. No section of society should have preferential treatment at the expense of another.
    3. People should only gain benefits on the basis of what they actually achieve.
    4. Variation in intelligence begins at birth.
    5. The more intelligent people should be in positions of power.
    6. Everyone can develop the same abilities.
    7. People of low intelligence are likely to lead uncontrolled lives.

    List of Theories

    1. Hamiltonian
    2. Jeffersonian
    3. Jacksonian

    Reading Passage 2

    Saving bugs to find new drugs

    A More drugs than you might think are derived from, or inspired by, compounds found in living things. Looking to nature for the soothing and curing of our ailments is nothing new – we have been doing it for tens of thousands of years. You only have to look at other primates – such as the capuchin monkeys who rub themselves with toxin-oozing millipedes to deter mosquitoes, or the chimpanzees who use noxious forest plants to rid themselves of intestinal parasites – to realise that our ancient ancestors too probably had a basic grasp of medicine.

    B Pharmaceutical science and chemistry built on these ancient foundations and perfected the extraction, characterisation, modification and testing of these natural products. Then, for a while, modern pharmaceutical science moved its focus away from nature and into the laboratory, designing chemical compounds from scratch. The main cause of this shift is that although there are plenty of promising chemical compounds in nature, finding them is far from easy. Securing sufficient numbers of the organism in question, isolating and characterising the compounds of interest, and producing large quantities of these compounds are all significant hurdles.

    C Laboratory-based drug discovery has achieved varying levels of success, something which has now prompted the development of new approaches focusing once again on natural products. With the ability to mine genomes for useful compounds, it is now evident that we have barely scratched the surface of nature’s molecular diversity. This realisation, together with several looming health crises, such as antibiotic resistance, has put bioprospecting – the search for useful compounds in nature – firmly back on the map.

    D Insects are the undisputed masters of the terrestrial domain, where they occupy every possible niche. Consequently, they have a bewildering array of interactions with other organisms, something which has driven the evolution of an enormous range of very interesting compounds for defensive and offensive purposes. Their remarkable diversity exceeds that of every other group of animals on the planet combined. Yet even though insects are far and away the most diverse animals in existence, their potential as sources of therapeutic compounds is yet to be realised.

    E From the tiny proportion of insects that have been investigated, several promising compounds have been identified. For example, alloferon, an antimicrobial compound produced by blow fly larvae, is used as an antiviral and antitumor agent in South Korea and Russia. The larvae of a few other insect species are being investigated for the potent antimicrobial compounds they produce. Meanwhile, a compound from the venom of the wasp Polybia paulista has potential in cancer treatment.

    F Why is it that insects have received relatively little attention in bioprospecting? Firstly, there are so many insects that, without some manner of targeted approach, investigating this huge variety of species is a daunting task. Secondly, insects are generally very small, and the glands inside them that secrete potentially useful compounds are smaller still. This can make it difficult to obtain sufficient quantities of the compound for subsequent testing. Thirdly, although we consider insects to be everywhere, the reality of this ubiquity is vast numbers of a few extremely common species. Many insect species are infrequently encountered and very difficult to rear in captivity, which, again, can leave us with insufficient material to work with.

    G My colleagues and I at Aberystwyth University in the UK have developed an approach in which we use our knowledge of ecology as a guide to target our efforts. The creatures that particularly interest us are the many insects that secrete powerful poison for subduing prey and keeping it fresh for future consumption. There are even more insects that are masters of exploiting filthy habitats, such as faeces and carcasses, where they are regularly challenged by thousands of micro¬organisms. These insects have many antimicrobial compounds for dealing with pathogenic bacteria and fungi, suggesting that there is certainly potential to find many compounds that can serve as or inspire new antibiotics.

    H Although natural history knowledge points us in the right direction, it doesn’t solve the problems associated with obtaining useful compounds from insects. Fortunately, it is now possible to snip out the stretches of the insect’s DNAthat carry the codes for the interesting compounds and insert them into cell lines that allow larger quantities to be produced. And although the road from isolating and characterising compounds with desirable qualities to developing a commercial product is very long and full of pitfalls, the variety of successful animal-derived pharmaceuticals on the market demonstrates there is a precedent here that is worth exploring.

    I With every bit of wilderness that disappears, we deprive ourselves of potential medicines. As much as I’d love to help develop a groundbreaking insect-derived medicine, my main motivation for looking at insects in this way is conservation. I sincerely believe that all species, however small and seemingly insignificant, have a right to exist for their own sake. If we can shine a light on the darker recesses of nature’s medicine cabinet, exploring the useful chemistry of the most diverse animals on the planet, I believe we can make people think differently about the value of nature.

    Questions 14 – 20

    Reading Passage 2 has nine paragraphs, A-l.

    Which paragraph contains the following information?

    Write the correct letter, A-l, in boxes 14-20 on your answer sheet.

    1. mention of factors driving a renewed interest in natural medicinal compounds
    2. how recent technological advances have made insect research easier
    3. examples of animals which use medicinal substances from nature
    4. reasons why it is challenging to use insects in drug research
    5. reference to how interest in drug research may benefit wildlife
    6. a reason why nature-based medicines fell out of favour for a period
    7. an example of an insect-derived medicine in use at the moment
    Questions 21 and 22

    Choose TWO letters, A-E.

    Write the correct letters in boxes 21 and 22 on your answer sheet.

    Which TWO of the following make insects interesting for drug research?

    1. the huge number of individual insects in the world
    2. the variety of substances insects have developed to protect themselves
    3. the potential to extract and make use of insects’ genetic codes
    4. the similarities between different species of insect
    5. the manageable size of most insects
    Questions 23 – 26

    Complete the summary below.

    Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

    Write your answers in boxes 23-26 on your answer sheet.

    Research at Aberystwyth University

    Ross Piper and fellow zoologists at Aberystwyth University are using their expertise in (23)……………..when undertaking bioprospecting with insects. They are especially interested in the compounds that insects produce to overpower and preserve their (24)…………………They are also interested in compounds which insects use to protect themselves from pathogenic bacteria and fungi found in their (25)………………Piper hopes that these substances will be useful in the development of drugs such as (26)………………

    Reading Passage 3

    The power of play

    Virtually every child, the world over, plays. The drive to play is so intense that children will do so in any circumstances, for instance when they have no real toys, or when parents do not actively encourage the behavior. In the eyes of a young child, running, pretending, and building are fun. Researchers and educators know that these playful activities benefit the development of the whole child across social, cognitive, physical, and emotional domains. Indeed, play is such an instrumental component to healthy child development that the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights (1989) recognized play as a fundamental right of every child.

    Yet, while experts continue to expound a powerful argument for the importance of play in children’s lives, the actual time children spend playing continues to decrease. Today, children play eight hours less each week than their counterparts did two decades ago (Elkind 2008). Under pressure of rising academic standards, play is being replaced by test preparation in kindergartens and grade schools, and parents who aim to give their preschoolers a leg up are led to believe that flashcards and educational ‘toys’ are the path to success. Our society has created a false dichotomy between play and learning.

    Through play, children learn to regulate their behavior, lay the foundations for later learning in science and mathematics, figure out the complex negotiations of social relationships, build a repertoire of creative problem-solving skills, and so much more. There is also an important role for adults in guiding children through playful learning opportunities.

    Full consensus on a formal definition of play continues to elude the researchers and theorists who study it. Definitions range from discrete descriptions of various types of play such as physical, construction, language, or symbolic play (Miller & Almon 2009), to lists of broad criteria, based on observations and attitudes, that are meant to capture the essence of all play behaviors (e.g. Rubin et al. 1983).

    A majority of the contemporary definitions of play focus on several key criteria. The founder of the National Institute for Play, Stuart Brown, has described play as ‘anything that spontaneously is done for its own sake’. More specifically, he says it ‘appears purposeless, produces pleasure and joy, [and] leads one to the next stage of mastery’ (as quoted in Tippett 2008). Similarly, Miller and Almon (2009) say that play includes ‘activities that are freely chosen and directed by children and arise from intrinsic motivation’. Often, play is defined along a continuum as more or less playful using the following set of behavioral and dispositional criteria (e.g. Rubin et al. 1983):

    Play is pleasurable: Children must enjoy the activity or it is not play. It is intrinsically motivated: Children engage in play simply for the satisfaction the behavior itself brings. It has no extrinsically motivated function or goal. Play is process oriented: When children play, the means are more important than the ends. It is freely chosen, spontaneous and voluntary. If a child is pressured, they will likely not think of the activity as play. Play is actively engaged: Players must be physically and/or mentally involved in the activity. Play is non-literal. It involves make-believe.

    According to this view, children’s playful behaviors can range in degree from 0% to 100% playful. Rubin and colleagues did not assign greater weight to any one dimension in determining playfulness; however, other researchers have suggested that process orientation and a lack of obvious functional purpose may be the most important aspects of play (e.g. Pellegrini 2009).

    From the perspective of a continuum, play can thus blend with other motives and attitudes that are less playful, such as work. Unlike play, work is typically not viewed as enjoyable and it is extrinsically motivated (i.e. it is goal oriented). Researcher Joan Goodman (1994) suggested that hybrid forms of work and play are not a detriment to learning; rather, they can provide optimal contexts for learning. For example, a child may be engaged in a difficult, goal-directed activity set up by their teacher, but they may still be actively engaged and intrinsically motivated. At this mid-point between play and work, the child’s motivation, coupled with guidance from an adult, can create robust opportunities for playful learning.

    Critically, recent research supports the idea that adults can facilitate children’s learning while maintaining a playful approach in interactions known as ‘guided play’ (Fisher et al. 2011). The adult’s role in play varies as a function of their educational goals and the child’s developmental level (Hirsch-Pasek et al. 2009).

    Guided play takes two forms. At a very basic level, adults can enrich the child’s environment by providing objects or experiences that promote aspects of a curriculum. In the more direct form of guided play, parents or other adults can support children’s play by joining in the fun as a co-player, raising thoughtful questions, commenting on children’s discoveries, or encouraging further exploration or new facets to the child’s activity. Although playful learning can be somewhat structured, it must also be child-centered (Nicolopolou et al. 2006). Play should stem from the child’s own desire.

    Both free and guided play are essential elements in a child-centered approach to playful learning. Intrinsically motivated free play provides the child with true autonomy, while guided play is an avenue through which parents and educators can provide more targeted learning experiences. In either case, play should be actively engaged, it should be predominantly child-directed, and it must be fun.

    Questions 27 – 31

    Look at the following statements (Questions 27-31) and the list of researchers below.

    Match each statement with the correct researcher, A-G.

    Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet.

    1. Play can be divided into a number of separate categories.
    2. Adults’ intended goals affect how they play with children.
    3. Combining work with play may be the best way for children to learn.
    4. Certain elements of play are more significant than others.
    5. Activities can be classified on a scale of playfulness.

    List of Researchers

    1. Elkind
    2. Miller &Almon
    3. Rubin et al.
    4. Stuart Brown
    5. Pellegrini
    6. Joan Goodman
    7. Hirsch-Pasek et al.
    Questions 32 – 36

    Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3?

    In boxes 32-36 on your answer sheet, write

    • YES                       if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
    • NO                         if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
    • NOT GIVEN      if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
    1. Children need toys in order to play.
    2. It is a mistake to treat play and learning as separate types of activities.
    3. Play helps children to develop their artistic talents.
    4. Researchers have agreed on a definition of play.
    5. Work and play differ in terms of whether or not they have a target.
    Questions 37 – 40

    Complete the summary below.

    Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

    Write your answers in boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet.

    Guided play

    In the simplest form of guided play, an adult contributes to the environment in which the child is playing. Alternatively, an adult can play with a child and develop the play, for instance by (37)…………….the child to investigate different aspects of their game. Adults can help children to learn through play, and may make the activity rather structured, but it should still be based on the child’s (38)………………..to play. Play without the intervention of adults gives children real (39)…………………..; with adults, play can be (40)…………………at particular goals. However, all forms of play should be an opportunity for children to have fun.

    Cambridge IELTS 14 Academic Reading Test 3 Reading Passage 1 The concept of intelligence Answers
    1. B
    2. A
    3. D
    4. Not given
    5. No
    6. Yes
    7. B
    8. C
    9. B
    10. A
    11. A
    12. C
    13. A
    Cambridge IELTS 14 Academic Reading Test 3 Reading Passage 2 Saving bugs to find new drugs Answers
    1. C
    2. H
    3. A
    4. F
    5. I
    6. B
    7. E
    8. B
    9. C
    10. ecology
    11. prey
    12. habitats
    13. antibiotics
    Cambridge IELTS 14 Academic Reading Test 3 Reading Passage 3 The power of play Answers
    1. B
    2. G
    3. F
    4. E
    5. C
    6. No
    7. Yes
    8. Not given
    9. No
    10. Yes
    11. encouraging
    12. desire
    13. autonomy
    14. targeted


  • Cambridge IELTS 14 Academic Reading Test 1

    Reading Passage 1

    You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.

    THE IMPORTANCE OF CHILDREN’S PLAY

    Brick by brick, six-year-old Alice is building a magical kingdom. Imagining fairy-tale turrets and fire-breathing dragons, wicked witches and gallant heroes, she’s creating an enchanting world. Although she isn’t aware of it, this fantasy is helping her take her first steps towards her capacity for creativity and so it will have important repercussions in her adult life.

    Minutes later, Alice has abandoned the kingdom in favour of playing schools with her younger brother. When she bosses him around as his ‘teacher’, she’s practising how to regulate her emotions through pretence. Later on, when they tire of this and settle down with a board game, she’s learning about the need to follow rules and take turns with a partner.

    ‘Play in all its rich variety is one of the highest achievements of the human species,’ says Dr David Whitebread from the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge, UK. ‘It underpins how we develop as intellectual, problem-solving adults and is crucial to our success as a highly adaptable species.’

    Recognising the importance of play is not new: over two millennia ago, the Greek philosopher Plato extolled its virtues as a means of developing skills for adult life, and ideas about play-based learning have been developing since the 19th century.

    But we live in changing times, and Whitebread is mindful of a worldwide decline in play, pointing out that over half the people in the world now live in cities. ‘The opportunities for free play, which I experienced almost every day of my childhood, are becoming increasingly scarce,’ he says. Outdoor play is curtailed by perceptions of risk to do with traffic, as well as parents’ increased wish to protect their children from being the victims of crime, and by the emphasis on ‘earlier is better’ which is leading to greater competition in academic learning and schools.

    International bodies like the United Nations and the European Union have begun to develop policies concerned with children’s right to play, and to consider implications for leisure facilities and educational programmes. But what they often lack is the evidence to base policies on.

    ‘The type of play we are interested in is child-initiated, spontaneous and unpredictable – but, as soon as you ask a five-year-old “to play”, then you as the researcher have intervened,’ explains Dr Sara Baker. ‘And we want to know what the long-term impact of play is. It’s a real challenge.’

    Dr Jenny Gibson agrees, pointing out that although some of the steps in the puzzle of how and why play is important have been looked at, there is very little data on the impact it has on the child’s later life.

    Now, thanks to the university’s new Centre for Research on Play in Education, Development and Learning (PEDAL), Whitebread, Baker, Gibson and a team of researchers hope to provide evidence on the role played by play in how a child develops.

    ‘A strong possibility is that play supports the early development of children’s self-control,’ explains Baker. ‘This is our ability to develop awareness of our own thinking processes – it influences how effectively we go about undertaking challenging activities.’

    In a study carried out by Baker with toddlers and young pre-schoolers, she found that children with greater self-control solved problems more quickly when exploring an unfamiliar set-up requiring scientific reasoning. ‘This sort of evidence makes us think that giving children the chance to play will make them more successful problem-solvers in the long run.’

    If playful experiences do facilitate this aspect of development, say the researchers, it could be extremely significant for educational practices, because the ability to self-regulate has been shown to be a key predictor of academic performance.

    Gibson adds: ‘Playful behaviour is also an important indicator of healthy social and emotional development. In my previous research, I investigated how observing children at play can give us important clues about their well-being and can even be useful in the diagnosis of neurodevelopmental disorders like autism.’

    Whitebread’s recent research has involved developing a play-based approach to supporting children’s writing. ‘Many primary school children find writing difficult, but we showed in a previous study that a playful stimulus was far more effective than an instructional one.’ Children wrote longer and better-structured stories when they first played with dolls representing characters in the story. In the latest study, children first created their story with Lego , with similar results. ‘Many teachers commented that they had always previously had children saying they didn’t know what to write about. With the Lego building, however, not a single child said this through the whole year of the project.’

    Whitebread, who directs PEDAL, trained as a primary school teacher in the early 1970s, when, as he describes, ‘the teaching of young children was largely a quiet backwater, untroubled by any serious intellectual debate or controversy.’ Now, the landscape is very different, with hotly debated topics such as school starting age.

    ‘Somehow the importance of play has been lost in recent decades. It’s regarded as something trivial, or even as something negative that contrasts with “work”. Let’s not lose sight of its benefits, and the fundamental contributions it makes to human achievements in the arts, sciences and technology. Let’s make sure children have a rich diet of play experiences.’

    Questions 1 – 8

    Complete the notes below.

    Choose ONLY ONE WORD from the passage for each answer.

    Children’s Play

    Uses of children’s play
    – building a magical kingdom may help develop (1)………………..
    – board games involve (2)…………….and turn-taking

    Recent changes affecting children’s play
    – populations of (3)…………….have grown
    – opportunities for free play are limited due to
    – fear of (4)……………
    – fear of (5)……………
    – increased (6)………………in schools

    International policies on children’s play
    – it is difficult to find (7)…………….to support new policies
    – research needs to study the impact of play on the rest of the child’s (8)……………..

    Questions 9 – 13

    Do the following statements agree with the following information given in the Reading Passage?

    In the boxes 9-13 write

    • TRUE                        if the statement agrees with the information
    • FALSE                      if the statement contradicts the information
    • NOT GIVEN           if there is no information on this
    1. Children with good self-control are known to be likely to do well at school later on.
    2. The way a child plays may provide information about possible medical problems.
    3. Playing with dolls was found to benefit girls’ writing more than boys’ writing.
    4. Children had problems thinking up ideas when they first created the story with Lego.
    5. People nowadays regard children’s play as less significant than they did in the past.

    Reading Passage 2

    You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.

    The growth of bike-sharing schemes around the world

    A The original idea for an urban bike-sharing scheme dates back to a summer’s day in Amsterdam in 1965. Provo, the organisation that came up with the idea, was a group of Dutch activists who wanted to change society. They believed the scheme, which was known as the Witte Fietsenplan, was an answer to the perceived threats of air pollution and consumerism. In the centre of Amsterdam, they painted a small number of used bikes white. They also distributed leaflets describing the dangers of cars and inviting people to use the white bikes. The bikes were then left unlocked at various locations around the city, to be used by anyone in need of transport.

    B Luud Schimmelpennink, a Dutch industrial engineer who still lives and cycles in Amsterdam, was heavily involved in the original scheme. He recalls how the scheme succeeded in attracting a great deal of attention – particularly when it came to publicising Provo’s aims – but struggled to get off the ground. The police were opposed to Provo’s initiatives and almost as soon as the white bikes were distributed around the city, they removed them. However, for Schimmelpennink and for bike-sharing schemes in general, this was just the beginning. The first Witte Fietsenplan was just a symbolic thing,’ he says. ‘We painted a few bikes white, that was all. Things got more serious when I became a member of the Amsterdam city council two years later.’

    C Schimmelpennink seized this opportunity to present a more elaborate Witte Fietsenplan to the city council. ‘My idea was that the municipality of Amsterdam would distribute 10,000 white bikes over the city, for everyone to use,’ he explains. ‘I made serious calculations. It turned out that a white bicycle – per person, per kilometre – would cost the municipality only 10% of what it contributed to public transport per person per kilometre.’ Nevertheless, the council unanimously rejected the plan. They said that the bicycle belongs to the past. They saw a glorious future for the car,’ says Schimmelpennink. But he was not in the least discouraged.

    D Schimmelpennink never stopped believing in bike-sharing, and in the mid-90s, two Danes asked for his help to set up a system in Copenhagen. The result was the world’s first large-scale bike-share programme. It worked on a deposit: ‘You dropped a coin in the bike and when you returned it, you got your money back.’ After setting up the Danish system, Schimmelpennink decided to try his luck again in the Netherlands – and this time he succeeded in arousing the interest of the Dutch Ministry of Transport. Times had changed,’ he recalls. ‘People had become more environmentally conscious, and the Danish experiment had proved that bike-sharing was a real possibility.’A new Witte Fietsenplan was launched in 1999 in Amsterdam. However, riding a white bike was no longer free; it cost one guilder per trip and payment was made with a chip card developed by the Dutch bank Postbank. Schimmelpennink designed conspicuous, sturdy white bikes locked in special racks which could be opened with the chip card – the plan started with 250 bikes, distributed over five stations.

    E Theo Molenaar, who was a system designer for the project, worked alongside Schimmelpennink. ‘I remember when we were testing the bike racks, he announced that he had already designed better ones. But of course, we had to go through with the ones we had.’ The system, however, was prone to vandalism and theft. ‘After every weekend there would always be a couple of bikes missing,’ Molenaar says. ‘I really have no idea what people did with them, because they could instantly be recognised as white bikes.’ But the biggest blow came when Postbank decided to abolish the chip card, because it wasn’t profitable. That chip card was pivotal to the system,’ Molenaar says. To continue the project we would have needed to set up another system, but the business partner had lost interest.’

    F Schimmelpennink was disappointed, but – characteristically – not for long. In 2002 he got a call from the French advertising corporation JC Decaux, who wanted to set up his bike-sharing scheme in Vienna. That went really well. After Vienna, they set up a system in Lyon. Then in 2007, Paris followed. That was a decisive moment in the history of bike-sharing.’ The huge and unexpected success of the Parisian bike-sharing programme, which now boasts more than 20,000 bicycles, inspired cities all over the world to set up their own schemes, all modelled on Schimmelpennink’s. ‘It’s wonderful that this happened,’ he says. ‘But financially I didn’t really benefit from it, because I never filed for a patent.’

    G In Amsterdam today, 38% of all trips are made by bike and, along with Copenhagen, it is regarded as one of the two most cycle-friendly capitals in the world – but the city never got another Witte Fietsenplan. Molenaar believes this may be because everybody in Amsterdam already has a bike. Schimmelpennink, however, cannot see that this changes Amsterdam’s need for a bike-sharing scheme. ‘People who travel on the underground don’t carry their bikes around. But often they need additional transport to reach their final destination.’Although he thinks it is strange that a city like Amsterdam does not have a successful bike¬sharing scheme, he is optimistic about the future. ‘In the ’60s we didn’t stand a chance because people were prepared to give their lives to keep cars in the city. But that mentality has totally changed. Today everybody longs for cities that are not dominated by cars.’

    Questions 14 – 18

    Reading Passage 2 has seven paragraphs, A-G.

    Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet.

    Which paragraph contains the following information?.

    NB You may use any letter more than once.

    1. a description of how people misused a bike-sharing scheme
    2. an explanation of why a proposed bike-sharing scheme was turned down
    3. a reference to a person being unable to profit from their work
    4. an explanation of the potential savings a bike-sharing scheme would bring
    5. a reference to the problems a bike-sharing scheme was intended to solve
    Questions 19 and 20

    Write the correct letters in boxes 19 and 20 on your answer sheet.

    Choose TWO letters, A-E.

    Which TWO of the following statements are made in the text about the Amsterdam bike-sharing scheme of 1999?

    1. It was initially opposed by a government department.
    2. It failed when a partner in the scheme withdrew support.
    3. It aimed to be more successful than the Copenhagen scheme.
    4. It was made possible by a change in people’s attitudes.
    5. It attracted interest from a range of bike designers.
    Questions 21 and 22

    Write the correct letters in boxes 21 and 22 on your answer sheet.

    Choose TWO letters, A-E.

    Which TWO of the following statements are made in the text about Amsterdam today?

    1. The majority of residents would like to prevent all cars from entering the city.
    2. There is little likelihood of the city having another bike-sharing scheme.
    3. More trips in the city are made by bike than by any other form of transport.
    4. A bike-sharing scheme would benefit residents who use public transport.
    5. The city has a reputation as a place that welcomes cyclists.
    Questions 23 – 26

    Write your answers in boxes 23-26 on your answer sheet.

    Complete the summary below.

    Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

    The first urban bike-sharing scheme

    The first bike-sharing scheme was the idea of the Dutch group Provo. The people who belonged to this group were (23)……………….They were concerned about damage to the environment and about (24)…………………, and believed that the bike-sharing scheme would draw attention to these issues. As well as painting some bikes white, they handed out (25)………………….that condemned the use of cars. However, the scheme was not a great success: almost as quickly as Provo left the bikes around the city, the (26)………………..took them away. According to Schimmelpennink, the scheme was intended to be symbolic. The idea was to get people thinking about the issues.

    Reading Passage 3

    You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.

    Motivational factors and the hospitality industry

    A critical ingredient in the success of hotels is developing and maintaining superior performance from their employees. How is that accomplished? What Human Resource Management (HRM) practices should organizations invest in to acquire and retain great employees?

    Some hotels aim to provide superior working conditions for their employees. The idea originated from workplaces – usually in the non-service sector – that emphasized fun and enjoyment as part of work-life balance. By contrast, the service sector, and more specifically hotels, has traditionally not extended these practices to address basic employee needs, such as good working conditions.

    Pfeffer (1994) emphasizes that in order to succeed in a global business environment, organizations must make investment in Human Resource Management (HRM) to allow them to acquire employees who possess better skills and capabilities than their competitors. This investment will be to their competitive advantage. Despite this recognition of the importance of employee development, the hospitality industry has historically been dominated by underdeveloped HR practices (Lucas, 2002).

    Lucas also points out that ‘the substance of HRM practices does not appear to be designed to foster constructive relations with employees or to represent a managerial approach that enables developing and drawing out the full potential of people, even though employees may be broadly satisfied with many aspects of their work’ (Lucas, 2002). In addition, or maybe as a result, high employee turnover has been a recurring problem throughout the hospitality industry. Among the many cited reasons are low compensation, inadequate benefits, poor working conditions and compromised employee morale and attitudes (Maroudas et al., 2008).

    Ng and Sorensen (2008) demonstrated that when managers provide recognition to employees, motivate employees to work together, and remove obstacles preventing effective performance, employees feel more obligated to stay with the company. This was succinctly summarized by Michel et al. (2013): ‘[Providing support to employees gives them the confidence to perform their jobs better and the motivation to stay with the organization.’ Hospitality organizations can therefore enhance employee motivation and retention through the development and improvement of their working conditions. These conditions are inherently linked to the working environment.

    While it seems likely that employees’ reactions to their job characteristics could be affected by a predisposition to view their work environment negatively, no evidence exists to support this hypothesis (Spector et al., 2000). However, given the opportunity, many people will find something to complain about in relation to their workplace (Poulston, 2009). There is a strong link between the perceptions of employees and particular factors of their work environment that are separate from the work itself, including company policies, salary and vacations.

    Such conditions are particularly troubling for the luxury hotel market, where high-quality service, requiring a sophisticated approach to HRM, is recognized as a critical source of competitive advantage (Maroudas et al., 2008). In a real sense, the services of hotel employees represent their industry (Schneider and Bowen, 1993). This representation has commonly been limited to guest experiences. This suggests that there has been a dichotomy between the guest environment provided in luxury hotels and the working conditions of their employees.

    It is therefore essential for hotel management to develop HRM practices that enable them to inspire and retain competent employees. This requires an understanding of what motivates employees at different levels of management and different stages of their careers (Enz and Siguaw, 2000). This implies that it is beneficial for hotel managers to understand what practices are most favorable to increase employee satisfaction and retention.

    Herzberg (1966) proposes that people have two major types of needs, the first being extrinsic motivation factors relating to the context in which work is performed, rather than the work itself. These include working conditions and job security. When these factors are unfavorable, job dissatisfaction may result. Significantly, though, just fulfilling these needs does not result in satisfaction, but only in the reduction of dissatisfaction (Maroudas et al., 2008).

    Employees also have intrinsic motivation needs or motivators, which include such factors as achievement and recognition. Unlike extrinsic factors, motivator factors may ideally result in job satisfaction (Maroudas et al., 2008). Herzberg’s (1966) theory discusses the need for a ‘balance’ of these two types of needs.

    The impact of fun as a motivating factor at work has also been explored. For example, Tews, Michel and Stafford (2013) conducted a study focusing on staff from a chain of themed restaurants in the United States. It was found that fun activities had a favorable impact on performance and manager support for fun had a favorable impact in reducing turnover. Their findings support the view that fun may indeed have a beneficial effect, but the framing of that fun must be carefully aligned with both organizational goals and employee characteristics. ‘Managers must learn how to achieve the delicate balance of allowing employees the freedom to enjoy themselves at work while simultaneously maintaining high levels of performance’ (Tews et al., 2013).

    Deery (2008) has recommended several actions that can be adopted at the organizational level to retain good staff as well as assist in balancing work and family life. Those particularly appropriate to the hospitality industry include allowing adequate breaks during the working day, staff functions that involve families, and providing health and well-being opportunities.

    Questions 27 – 31

    Look at the following statements (Questions 27-31) and the list of researchers below.

    Match each statement with the correct researcher, A-F.

    Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet.

    NB You may use any letter more than once.

    1. Hotel managers need to know what would encourage good staff to remain.
    2. The actions of managers may make staff feel they shouldn’t move to a different employer.
    3. Little is done in the hospitality industry to help workers improve their skills.
    4. Staff are less likely to change jobs if cooperation is encouraged.
    5. Dissatisfaction with pay is not the only reason why hospitality workers change jobs.

    List of Researchers

    1. Pfeffer
    2. Lucas
    3. Maroudas et al.
    4. Ng and Sorensen
    5. Enz and Siguaw
    6. Deery
    Questions 32 – 35

    Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3?

    In boxes 32-35 on your answer sheet, write

    • YES                           if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
    • NO                             if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
    • NOT GIVEN          if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
    1. One reason for high staff turnover in the hospitality industry is poor morale.
    2. Research has shown that staff have a tendency to dislike their workplace.
    3. An improvement in working conditions and job security makes staff satisfied with their jobs.
    4. Staff should be allowed to choose when they take breaks during the working day.
    Questions 36 – 40

    Complete the summary below.

    Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

    Write your answers in boxes 36-40 on your answer sheet.

    Fun at work

    Tews, Michel and Stafford carried out research on staff in an American chain of (36)……………….They discovered that activities designed for staff to have fun improved their (37)………………., and that management involvement led to lower staff (38)……………….They also found that the activities needed to fit with both the company’s (39)……………….and the (40)………………..of the staff. A balance was required between a degree of freedom and maintaining work standards.

    Cambridge IELTS 14 Academic Reading Test 1 Reading Passage 1 THE IMPORTANCE OF CHILDREN’S PLAY Answers
    1. creativity
    2. rules
    3. cities
    4. traffic OR crime (IN EITHER ORDER)
    5. traffic OR crime (IN EITHER ORDER)
    6. competition
    7. evidence
    8. life
    9. True
    10. True
    11. Not given
    12. False
    13. True
    Cambridge IELTS 14 Academic Reading Test 1 Reading Passage 2 The growth of bike-sharing schemes around the world Answers
    1. E
    2. C
    3. F
    4. C
    5. A
    6. B OR D (IN EITHER ORDER)
    7. B OR D (IN EITHER ORDER)
    8. D OR E (IN EITHER ORDER)
    9. D OR E (IN EITHER ORDER)
    10. activists
    11. consumerism
    12. leaflets
    13. police
    Cambridge IELTS 14 Academic Reading Test 1 Reading Passage 3 Motivational factors and the hospitality industry Answers
    1. E
    2. D
    3. B
    4. D
    5. C
    6. Yes
    7. No
    8. No
    9. Not given
    10. restaurants
    11. performance
    12. turnover
    13. goals
    14. characteristics



  • Cambridge IELTS 11 Academic Reading Test 4

    Reading Passage 1

    You should spend 20 minutes on questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 on the following pages.

    Research using twins

    To biomedical researchers all over the world, twins offer a precious opportunity to untangle the influence of genes and the environment – of nature and nurture. Because identical twins come from a single fertilized egg that splits into two, they share virtually the same genetic code. Any differences between them – one twin having younger looking skin, for example – must be due to environmental factors such as less time spent in the sun.

    Alternatively, by comparing the experiences of identical twins with those of fraternal twins, who come from separate eggs and share on average half their DNA, researchers can quantify the extent to which our genes affect our lives. If identical twins are more similar to each other with respect to an ailment than fraternal twins are, then vulnerability to the disease must be rooted at least in part in heredity.

    These two lines of research – studying the differences between identical twins to pinpoint the influence of environment, and comparing identical twins with fraternal ones to measure the role of inheritance – have been crucial to understanding the interplay of nature and nurture in determining our personalities, behavior, and vulnerability to disease.

    The idea of using twins to measure the influence of heredity dates back to 1875, when the English scientist Francis Galton first suggested the approach (and coined the phrase ‘nature and nurture’). But twin studies took a surprising twist in the 1980s, with the arrival of studies into identical twins who had been separated at birth and reunited as adults. Over two decades 137 sets of twins eventually visited Thomas Bouchard’s lab in what became known as the Minnesota Study of -‘Twins Reared Apart. Numerous tests were carried out on the twins, and they were each asked more than 15,000 questions.

    Bouchard and his colleagues used this mountain of data to identify how far twins were affected by their genetic makeup. The key to their approach was a statistical concept called heritability. In broad terms, the heritability of a trait measures the extent to which differences among members of a population can be explained by differences in their genetics. And wherever Bouchard and other scientists looked, it seemed, they found the invisible hand of genetic influence helping to shape our lives.

    Lately, however, twin studies have helped lead scientists to a radical new conclusion: that nature and nurture are not the only elemental forces at work. According to a recent field called epigenetics, there is a third factor also in play, one that in some cases serves as a bridge between the environment and our genes, and in others operates on its own to shape who we are.

    Epigenetic processes are chemical reactions tied to neither nature nor nurture but representing what researchers have called a ‘third component’. These reactions influence how our genetic code is expressed: how each gene is strengthened or weakened, even turned on or off, to build our bones, brains and all the other parts of our bodies.
    If you think of our DNA as an immense piano keyboard and our genes as the keys – each key symbolizing a segment of DNA responsible for a particular note, or trait, and all the keys combining to make us who we are – then epigenetic processes determine when and how each key can be struck, changing the tune being played.

    One way the study of epigenetics is revolutionizing our understanding of biology is by revealing a mechanism by which the environment directly impacts on genes. Studies of animals, for example, have shown that when a rat experiences stress during pregnancy, it can cause epigenetic changes in a fetus that lead to behavioral problems as the rodent grows up. Other epigenetic processes appear to occur randomly, while others are normal, such as those that guide embryonic cells as they become heart, brain, or liver cells, for example.

    Geneticist Danielle Reed has worked with many twins over the years and thought deeply about what twin studies have taught us. ‘It’s very clear when you look at twins that much of what they share is hardwired,’ she says. ‘Many things about them are absolutely the same and unalterable. But it’s also clear, when you get to know them, that other things about them are different. Epigenetics is the origin of a lot of those differences, in my view.’

    Reed credits Thomas Bouchard’s work for today’s surge in twin studies. ‘He was the trailblazer,’ she says. ‘We forget that 50 years ago things like heart disease were thought to be caused entirely by lifestyle. Schizophrenia was thought to be due to poor mothering. Twin studies have allowed us to be more reflective about what people are actually born with and what’s caused by experience.’

    Having said that, Reed adds, the latest work in epigenetics promises to take our understanding even further. ‘What I like to say is that nature writes some things in pencil and some things in pen,’ she says. Things written in pen you can’t change. That’s DNA. But things written in pencil you can. That’s epigenetics. Now that we’re actually able to look at the DNA and see where the pencil writings are, it’s sort of a whole new world.’

    Questions 1-4

    Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?

    In boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet, write

    • TRUE                        if the statement agrees with the information
    • FALSE                      if the statement contradicts the information
    • NOT GIVEN           if there is no information on this
    1. There may be genetic causes for the differences in how young the skin of identical twins looks.
    2. Twins are at greater risk of developing certain illnesses than non-twins.
    3. Bouchard advertised in newspapers for twins who had been separated at birth.
    4. Epigenetic processes are different from both genetic and environmental processes.
    Questions 5-9

    Look at the following statements (Questions 5-9) and the list of researchers below.

    Match each statement with the correct researcher, A, B or C.

    Write the correct letter, A, B or C, in boxes 5-9 on your answer sheet.

    NB You may use any letter more than once.

    List of Researchers

    1. Francis Galton
    2. Thomas Bouchard
    3. Danielle Reed
      1. invented a term used to distinguish two factors affecting human characteristics
      2. expressed the view that the study of epigenetics will increase our knowledge
      3. developed a mathematical method of measuring genetic influences
      4. pioneered research into genetics using twins
      5. carried out research into twins who had lived apart
    Questions 10-13

    Complete the summary using the list of words, A-F, below.

    Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet.

    Epigenetic processes

    In epigenetic processes, (10)…………………………..influence the activity of our genes, for example in creating our internal (11)………………………….The study of epigenetic processes is uncovering a way in which our genes can be affected by our (12)………………………………One example is that if a pregnant rat suffers stress, the new-born rat may later show problems in its (13)………………………….

    A. NurtureB. OrgansC. Code
    D. ChemicalsE. EnvironmentF. behaviour

    Reading Passage 2

    You should spend 20 minutes on questions 14-26, which are based on Reading Passage 2 on the following pages.

    An introduction to film sound

    Though we might think of film as an essentially visual experience, we really cannot afford to underestimate the importance of film sound. A meaningful sound track is often as complicated as the image on the screen, and is ultimately just as much the responsibility of the director. The entire sound track consists of three essential ingredients: the human voice, sound effects and music. These three tracks must be mixed and balanced so as to produce the necessary emphases which in turn create desired effects. Topics which essentially refer to the three previously mentioned tracks are discussed below. They include dialogue, synchronous and asynchronous sound effects, and music.

    Let us start with dialogue. As is the case with stage drama, dialogue serves to tell the story and expresses feelings and motivations of characters as well. Often with film characterization the audience perceives little or no difference between the character and the actor. Thus, for example, the actor Humphrey Bogart is the character Sam Spade; film personality and life personality seem to merge. Perhaps this is because the very texture of a performer’s voice supplies an element of character.

    When voice textures fit the performer’s physiognomy and gestures, a whole and very realistic persona emerges. The viewer sees not an actor working at his craft, but another human being struggling with life. It is interesting to note that how dialogue is used and the very amount of dialogue used varies widely among films. For example, in the highly successful science-fiction film 2001, little dialogue was evident, and most of it was banal and of little intrinsic interest. In this way the film-maker was able to portray what Thomas Sobochack and Vivian Sobochack call, in An Introduction to Film, the ‘inadequacy of human responses when compared with the magnificent technology created by man and the visual beauties of the universe’.

    The comedy Bringing Up Baby, on the other hand, presents practically non-stop dialogue delivered at breakneck speed. This use of dialogue underscores not only the dizzy quality of the character played by Katherine Hepburn, but also the absurdity of the film itself and thus its humor. The audience is bounced from gag to gag and conversation to conversation; there is no time for audience reflection. The audience is caught up in a whirlwind of activity in simply managing to follow the plot. This film presents pure escapism – largely due to its frenetic dialogue.

    Synchronous sound effects are those sounds which are synchronized or matched with what is viewed. For example, if the film portrays a character playing the piano, the sounds of the piano are projected. Synchronous sounds contribute to the realism of film and also help to create a particular atmosphere. For example, the ‘click’ of a door being opened may simply serve to convince the audience that the image portrayed is real, and the audience may only subconsciously note the expected sound. However, if the ‘click’ of an opening door is part of an ominous action such as a burglary, the sound mixer may call attention to the ‘click’ with an increase in volume; this helps to engage the audience in a moment of suspense.

    Asynchronous sound effects, on the other hand, are not matched with a visible source of the sound on screen. Such sounds are included so as to provide an appropriate emotional nuance, and they may also add to the realism of the film. For example, a film-maker might opt to include the background sound of an ambulance’s siren while the foreground sound and image portrays an arguing couple. The asynchronous ambulance siren underscores the psychic injury incurred in the argument; at the same time the noise of the siren adds to the realism of the film by acknowledging the film’s city setting.

    We are probably all familiar with background music in films, which has become so ubiquitous as to be noticeable in its absence. We are aware that it is used to add emotion and rhythm. Usually not meant to be noticeable, it often provides a tone or an emotional attitude toward the story and/or the characters depicted. In addition, background music often foreshadows a change in mood. For example, dissonant music may be used in film to indicate an approaching (but not yet visible) menace or disaster.

    Background music may aid viewer understanding by linking scenes. For example, a particular musical theme associated with an individual character or situation may be repeated at various points in a film in order to remind the audience of salient motives or ideas.

    Film sound comprises conventions and innovations. We have come to expect an acceleration of music during car chases and creaky doors in horror films. Yet, it is important to note as well that sound is often brilliantly conceived. The effects of sound are often largely subtle and often are noted by only our subconscious minds. We need to foster an awareness of film sound as well as film space so as to truly appreciate an art form that sprang to life during the twentieth century – the modern film.

    Questions 14-18

    Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

    Write the correct letter in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet.

    1. In the first paragraph, the writer makes a point that
      1. the director should plan the sound track at an early stage in filming.
      2. it would be wrong to overlook the contribution of sound to the artistry of films.
      3. the music industry can have a beneficial influence on sound in film.
      4. it is important for those working on the sound in a film to have sole responsibility for it.
    2. One reason that the writer refers to Humphrey Bogart is to exemplify
      1. the importance of the actor and the character appearing to have similar personalities.
      2. the audience’s wish that actors are visually appropriate for their roles.
      3. the value of the actor having had similar feelings to the character.
      4. the audience’s preference for dialogue to be as authentic as possible.
    3. In the third paragraph, the writer suggests that
      1. audiences are likely to be critical of film dialogue that does not reflect their own experience.
      2. film dialogue that appears to be dull may have a specific purpose.
      3. filmmakers vary considerably in the skill with which they handle dialogue.
      4. the most successful films are those with dialogue of a high quality.
    4. What does the writer suggest about Bringing Up Baby
      1. The plot suffers from the filmmaker’s wish to focus on humorous dialogue.
      2. The dialogue helps to make it one of the best comedy films ever produced.
      3. There is a mismatch between the speed of the dialogue and the speed of actions.
      4. The nature of the dialogue emphasises key elements of the film.
    5. The writer refers to the ‘click’ of a door to make the point that realistic sounds
      1. are often used to give the audience a false impression of events in the film.
      2. may be interpreted in different ways by different members of the audience.
      3. may be modified in order to manipulate the audience’s response to the film.
      4. tend to be more significant in films presenting realistic situations.
    Questions 19-23

    Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2?

    In boxes 19-23 on your answer sheet, write

    • TRUE                        if the statement agrees with the information
    • FALSE                      if the statement contradicts the information
    • NOT GIVEN           if there is no information on this
    1. Audiences are likely to be surprised if a film lacks background music.
    2. Background music may anticipate a development in a film.
    3. Background music has more effect on some people than on others.
    4. Background music may help the audience to make certain connections within the film.
    5. Audiences tend to be aware of how the background music is affecting them.
    Questions 24-26

    Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-E, below.

    Write the correct letter, A-E, in boxes 24-26 on your answer sheet.

    1. The audience’s response to different parts of a film can be controlled
    2. The feelings and motivations of characters become clear
    3. A character seems to be a real person rather than an actor
      1. when the audience listens to the dialogue
      2. if the film reflects the audience’s own concerns
      3. if voice, sound and music are combined appropriately
      4. when the director is aware of how the audience will respond
      5. when the actor’s appearance, voice and moves are consistent with each other

    Reading Passage 3

    You should spend 20 minutes on questions 27-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 on the following pages.

    This Marvelous Invention

    1. Of all mankind’s manifold creations, language must take pride of place. Other inventions – the wheel, agriculture, sliced bread – may have transformed our material existence, but the advent of language is what made us human. Compared to language, all other inventions pale in significance, since everything we have ever achieved depends on language and originates from it. Without language, we could never have embarked on our ascent to unparalleled power over all other animals, and even over nature itself.
    2. But language is foremost not just because it came first. In its own right it is a tool of extraordinary sophistication, yet based on an idea of ingenious simplicity: ‘this marvellous invention of composing out of twenty-five or thirty sounds that infinite variety of expressions which, whilst having in themselves no likeness to what is in our mind, allow us to disclose to others its whole secret, and to make known to those who cannot penetrate it all that we imagine, and all the various stirrings of our soul’. This was how, in 1660, the renowned French grammarians of the Port-Royal abbey near Versailles distilled the essence of language, and no one since has celebrated more eloquently the magnitude of its achievement. Even so, there is just one flaw in all these hymns of praise, for the homage to languages unique accomplishment conceals a simple yet critical incongruity. Language is mankinds greatest invention – except, of course, that it was never invented. This apparent paradox is at the core of our fascination with language, and it holds many of its secrets.
    3. Language often seems so skillfully drafted that one can hardly imagine it as anything other than the perfected handiwork of a master craftsman. How else could this instrument make so much out of barely three dozen measly morsels of sound? In themselves, these configurations of mouth – p,f,b,v,t,d,k,g,s,h,a,e and so on – amount to nothing more than a few haphazard spits and splutters, random noises with no meaning, no ability to express, no power to explain. But run them through the cogs and wheels of the language machine, let it arrange them in some very special orders, and there is nothing that these meaningless streams of air cannot do: from sighing the interminable boredom of existence to unravelling the fundamental order of the universe.
    4. The most extraordinary thing about language, however, is that one doesn’t have to be a genius to set its wheels in motion. The language machine allows just about everybody – from pre-modern foragers in the subtropical savannah, to post-modern philosophers in the suburban sprawl – to tie these meaningless sounds together into an infinite variety of subtle senses, and all apparently without the slightest exertion. Yet it is precisely this deceptive ease which makes language a victim of its own success, since in everyday life its triumphs are usually taken for granted. The wheels of language run so smoothly that one rarely bothers to stop and think about all the resourcefulness and expertise that must have gone into making it tick. Language conceals art.
    5. Often, it is only the estrangement of foreign tongues, with their many exotic and outlandish features, that brings home the wonder of languages design. One of the showiest stunts that some languages can pull off is an ability to build up words of breath-breaking length, and thus express in one word what English takes a whole sentence to say. The Turkish word fehirliliftiremediklerimizdensiniz, to take one example, means nothing less than ‘you are one of those whom we can’t turn into a town-dweller’. (In case you were wondering, this monstrosity really is one word, not merely many different words squashed together – most of its components cannot even stand up on their own.)
    6. And if that sounds like some one-off freak, then consider Sumerian, the language spoken on the banks of the Euphrates some 5,000 years ago by the people who invented writing and thus enabled the documentation of history. A Sumerian word like munintuma’a (‘when he had made it suitable for her’) might seem rather trim compared to the Turkish colossus above. What is so impressive about it, however, is not its lengthiness but rather the reverse – the thrifty compactness of its construction. The word is made up of different slots, each corresponding to a particular portion of meaning. This sleek design allows single sounds to convey useful information, and in fact even the absence of a sound has been enlisted to express something specific. If you were to ask which bit in the Sumerian word corresponds to the pronoun ‘it’ in the English translation ‘when he had made it suitable for her’, then the answer would have to be nothing. Mind you, a very particular kind of nothing: the nothing that stands in the empty slot in the middle. The technology is so fine-tuned then that even a non-sound, when carefully placed in a particular position, has been invested with a specific function. Who could possibly have come up with such a nifty contraption?
    Questions 27-32

    Reading Passage 3 has six paragraphs, A-F.

    Choose the correct heading for paragraphs A-F from the list of headings below.

    Write the correct number, i-vii, in boxes 27-32 on your answer sheet.

    • List of Headings
      1. Differences between languages highlight their impressiveness
      2. The way in which a few sounds are organised to convey a huge range of meaning
      3. Why the sounds used in different languages are not identical
      4. Apparently incompatible characteristics of language
      5. Even silence can be meaningful
      6. Why language is the most important invention of all
      7. The universal ability to use language
        1. Paragraph A
        2. Paragraph B
        3. Paragraph C
        4. Paragraph D
        5. Paragraph E
        6. Paragraph F




    Questions 33-36

    Complete the summary using the list of words, A-G, below.

    Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 33-36 on your answer sheet.

    The importance of language

    The wheel is one invention that has had a major impact on (33)…………………………….aspects of life, but no impact has been as (34)……………………………………as that of language. Language is very (35)…………………………………., yet composed of just a small number of sounds. Language appears to be (36)……………………………….to use. However its sophistication is often overlooked.

    A. DifficultB. ComplexC. Original
    C. OriginalE. MaterialF. Easy
    G. Fundamental
    Questions 37-40

    Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 3?

    In boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet, write

    • YES                        if the statement agrees with the information
    • NO                      if the statement contradicts the information
    • NOT GIVEN           if there is no information on this
    1. Human beings might have achieved their present position without language.
    2. The Port-Royal grammarians did justice to the nature of language.
    3. A complex idea can be explained more clearly in a sentence than in a single word.
    4. The Sumerians were responsible for starting the recording of events.
    Research using twins Reading Passage 1 answers
    1. FALSE
    2. NOT GIVEN
    3. NOT GIVEN
    4. TRUE
    5. A
    6. C
    7. B
    8. A
    9. B
    10. D
    11. B
    12. E
    13. F
    An introduction to film sound Reading Passage 2 answers
    1. B
    2. A
    3. B
    4. D
    5. C
    6. NOT GIVEN
    7. TRUE
    8. NOT GIVEN
    9. TRUE
    10. FALSE
    11. D
    12. A
    13. E
    This Marvelous Invention Reading Passage 3 answers
    1. vi
    2. iv
    3. ii
    4. vii
    5. i
    6. v
    7. E
    8. G
    9. B
    10. F
    11. NO
    12. YES
    13. NOT GIVEN
    14. YES

  • Cambridge IELTS 11 Academic Reading Test 3

    Reading Passage 1

    You should spend 20 minutes on questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 on the following pages.

    The Story of Silk

    Silk is a fine, smooth material produced from the cocoons – soft protective shells – that are made by mulberry silkworms (insect larvae). Legend has it that it was Lei Tzu, wife of the Yellow Emperor, ruler of China in about 3000 BC, who discovered silkworms. One account of the story goes that as she was taking a walk in her husband’s gardens, she discovered that silkworms were responsible for the destruction of several mulberry trees. She collected a number of cocoons and sat down to have a rest. It just so happened that while she was sipping some tea, one of the cocoons that she had collected landed in the hot tea and started to unravel into a fine thread. Lei Tzu found that she could wind this thread around her fingers. Subsequently, she persuaded her husband to allow her to rear silkworms on a grove of mulberry trees. She also devised a special reel to draw the fibres from the cocoon into a single thread so that they would be strong enough to be woven into fabric. While it is unknown just how much of this is true, it is certainly known that silk cultivation has existed in China for several millennia.

    Originally, silkworm farming was solely restricted to women, and it was they who were responsible for the growing, harvesting and weaving. Silk quickly grew into a symbol of status, and originally, only royalty were entitled to have clothes made of silk. The rules were gradually relaxed over the years until finally during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911 AD), even peasants, the lowest caste, were also entitled to wear silk. Sometime during the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD), silk was so prized that it was also used as a unit of currency. Government officials were paid their salary in silk, and fanners paid their taxes in grain and silk. Silk was also used as diplomatic gifts by the emperor. Fishing lines, bowstrings, musical instruments and paper were all made using silk. The earliest indication of silk paper being used was discovered in the tomb of a noble who is estimated to have died around 168 AD.

    Demand for this exotic fabric eventually created the lucrative trade route now known as the Silk Road, taking silk westward and bringing gold, silver and wool to the East. It was named the Silk Road after its most precious commodity, which was considered to be worth more than gold. The Silk Road stretched over 6,000 kilomet res from Eastern China to the Mediterranean Sea, following the Great Wall of China, climbing the Pamir mountain range, crossing modern-day Afghanistan and going on to the Middle East, with a major trading market in Damascus. From there, the merchandise was shipped across the Mediterranean Sea. Few merchants travelled the entire route; goods were handled mostly by a series of middlemen.

    With the mulberry silkworm being native to China, the country was the world’s sole producer of silk for many hundreds of years. The secret of silk-making eventually reached the rest of the world via the Byzantine Empire, which ruled over the Mediterranean region of southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East during the period 330-1453 AD. According to another legend, monks working for the Byzantine emperor Justinian smuggled silkworm eggs to Constantinople (Istanbul in modern-day Turkey) in 550 AD, concealed inside hollow bamboo walking canes. The Byzantines were as secretive as the Chinese, however, and for many centuries the weaving and trading of silk fabric was a strict imperial monopoly. Then in the seventh century, the Arabs conquered Persia, capturing their magnificent silks in the process. Silk production thus spread through Africa, Sicily and Spain as the Arabs swept through these lands. Andalusia in southern Spain was Europe’s main silk- producing centre in the tenth century. By the thirteenth century, however, Italy had become Europe’s leader in silk production and export. Venetian merchants traded extensively in silk and encouraged silk growers to settle in Italy. Even now, silk processed in the province of Como in northern Italy enjoys an esteemed reputation.

    The nineteenth century and industrialisation saw the downfall of the European silk industry. Cheaper Japanese silk, trade in which was greatly facilitated by the opening of the Suez Canal, was one of the many factors driving the trend. Then in the twentieth century, new manmade fibres, such as nylon, started to be used in what had traditionally been silk products, such as stockings and parachutes. The two world wars, which interrupted the supply of raw material from Japan, also stifled the European silk industry. After the Second World War, Japan’s silk production was restored, with improved production and quality of raw silk. Japan was to remain the world’s biggest producer of raw silk, and practically the only major exporter of raw silk, until the 1970s. However, in more recent decades, China has gradually recaptured its position as the world’s biggest producer and exporter of raw silk and silk yarn. Today, around 125,000 metric tons of silk are produced in the world, and almost two thirds of that production takes place in China.

    Questions 1-9

    Complete the notes below.

    Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

    Write your answers in boxes 1-9 on your answer sheet.

    THE STORY OF SILK

    Early silk production in China
    • Around 3000 BC, according to legend:
    • silkworm cocoon fell into emperor’s wife’s (1)……………………..
    • emperor’s wife invented a (2)…………………………to pull out silk fibres
    • Only (3)……………………………..were allowed to produce silk
    • Only (4)……………………………..were allowed to wear silk
    • Silk used as a form of (5)…………………………….
    • e.g. farmers’ taxes consisted partly of silk
    • Silk used for many purposes
    • e.g. evidence found of (6)………………………………made from silk around 168 AD

    Silk reaches rest of world
    • Merchants use Silk Road to take silk westward and bring back (7)…………………………………and precious metals
    • 550 AD: (8)……………………………………hide silkworm eggs in canes and take them to Constantinople
    • Silk production spreads across Middle East and Europe
    • 20th century: (9)……………………………..and other manmade fibres cause decline in silk production

    Questions 10-13

    Do the following statements agree with the information in Reading Passage 1?

    In boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet, write

    • TRUE                        if the statement agrees with the information
    • FALSE                      if the statement contradicts the information
    • NOT GIVEN           if there is no information on this
    1. Gold was the most valuable material transported along the Silk Road.
    2. Most tradesmen only went along certain sections of the Silk Road.
    3. The Byzantines spread the practice of silk production across the West.
    4. Silk yarn makes up the majority of silk currently exported from China.

    Reading Passage 2

    You should spend 20 minutes on questions 14-26, which are based on Reading Passage 2 on the following pages.

    Great Migrations

    Animal migration, however it is defined, is far more than just the movement of animals. It can loosely be described as travel that takes place at regular intervals – often in an annual cycle – that may involve many members of a species, and is rewarded only after a long journey. It suggests inherited instinct. The biologist Hugh Dingle has identified five characteristics that apply, in varying degrees and combinations, to all migrations. They are prolonged movements that carry animals outside familiar habitats; they tend to be linear, not zigzaggy; they involve special behaviours concerning preparation (such as overfeeding) and arrival; they demand special allocations of energy. And one more: migrating animals maintain an intense attentiveness to the greater mission, which keeps them undistracted by temptations and undeterred by challenges that would turn other animals aside.

    An arctic tern, on its 20,000 km flight from the extreme south of South America to the Arctic circle, will take no notice of a nice smelly herring offered from a bird-watcher’s boat along the way. While local gulls will dive voraciously for such handouts, the tern flies on. Why? The arctic tern resists distraction because it is driven at that moment by an instinctive sense of something we humans find admirable: larger purpose. In other words, it is determined to reach its destination. The bird senses that it can eat, rest and mate later. Right now it is totally focused on the journey; its undivided intent is arrival.

    Reaching some gravelly coastline in the Arctic, upon which other arctic terns have converged, will serve its larger purpose as shaped by evolution: finding a place, a time, and a set of circumstances in which it can successfully hatch and rear offspring.

    But migration is a complex issue, and biologists define it differently, depending in part on what sorts of animals they study. Joe! Berger, of the University of Montana, who works on the American pronghorn and other large terrestrial mammals, prefers what he calls a simple, practical definition suited to his beasts: ‘movements from a seasonal home area away to another home area and back again’. Generally the reason for such seasonal back-and-forth movement is to seek resources that aren’t available within a single area year-round.

    But daily vertical movements by zooplankton in the ocean – upward by night to seek food, downward by day to escape predators – can also be considered migration. So can the movement of aphids when, having depleted the young leaves on one food plant, their offspring then fly onward to a different host plant, with no one aphid ever returning to where it started.

    Dingle is an evolutionary biologist who studies insects. His definition is more intricate than Berger’s, citing those five features that distinguish migration from other forms of movement. They allow for the fact that, for example, aphids will become sensitive to blue light (from the sky) when it’s time for takeoff on their big journey, and sensitive to yellow light (reflected from tender young leaves) when it’s appropriate to land. Birds will fatten themselves with heavy feeding in advance of a long migrational flight. The value of his definition, Dingle argues, is that it focuses attention on what the phenomenon of wildebeest migration shares with the phenomenon of the aphids, and therefore helps guide researchers towards understanding how evolution has produced them all.

    Human behaviour, however, is having a detrimental impact on animal migration. The pronghorn, which resembles an antelope, though they are unrelated, is the fastest land mammal of the New World. One population, which spends the summer in the mountainous Grand Teton National Park of the western USA, follows a narrow route from its summer range in the mountains, across a river, and down onto the plains. Here they wait out the frozen months, feeding mainly on sagebrush blown clear of snow. These pronghorn are notable for the invariance of their migration route and the severity of its constriction at three bottlenecks. If they can’t pass through each of the three during their spring migration, they can’t reach their bounty of summer grazing; if they can’t pass through again in autumn, escaping south onto those windblown plains, they are likely to die trying to overwinter in the deep snow. Pronghorn, dependent on distance vision and speed to keep safe from predators, traverse high, open shoulders of land, where they can see and run. At one of the bottlenecks, forested hills rise to form a V, leaving a corridor of open ground only about 150 metres wide, filled with private homes. Increasing development is leading toward a crisis for the pronghorn, threatening to choke off their passageway.

    Conservation scientists, along with some biologists and land managers within the USA’s National Park Service and other agencies, are now working to preserve migrational behaviours, not just species and habitats. A National Forest has recognised the path of the pronghorn, much of which passes across its land, as a protected migration corridor. But neither the Forest Service nor the Park Service can control what happens on private land at a bottleneck. And with certain other migrating species, the challenge is complicated further – by vastly greater distances traversed, more jurisdictions, more borders, more dangers along the way. We will require wisdom and resoluteness to ensure that migrating species can continue their journeying a while longer.

    Questions 14-18

    Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2?

    In boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet, write

    • TRUE                        if the statement agrees with the information
    • FALSE                      if the statement contradicts the information
    • NOT GIVEN           if there is no information on this
    1. Local gulls and migrating arctic terns behave in the same way when offered food.
    2. Experts’ definitions of migration tend to vary according to their area of study.
    3. Very few experts agree that the movement of aphids can be considered migration.
    4. Aphids’ journeys are affected by changes in the light that they perceive.
    5. Dingle’s aim is to distinguish between the migratory behaviours of different species
    Questions 19-22

    Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-G, below.

    Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 19-22 on your answer sheet.

    1. According to Dingle, migratory routes are likely to
    2. To prepare for migration, animals are likely to
    3. During migration, animals are unlikely to
    4. Arctic terns illustrate migrating animals’ ability to
      1. be discouraged by difficulties
      2. travel on open land where they can look out for predators
      3. eat more than they need for immediate purposes
      4. be repeated daily
      5. ignore distractions
      6. be governed by the availability of water
      7. follow a straight line
    Questions 23-26

    Complete the summary below.

    Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

    Write your answers in boxes 23-26 on your answer sheet.

    The migration of pronghorns

    Pronghorns rely on their eyesight and (23)………………………………….to avoid predators. One particular population’s summer habitat is a national park, and their winter home is on the (24)………………………………., where they go to avoid the danger presented by the snow at that time of year. However, their route between these two areas contains three (25)………………………………..One problem is the construction of new homes in a narrow (26)…………………………..of land on the pronghorns’ route.

    Reading Passage 3

    You should spend 20 minutes on questions 27-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 on the following pages.

    Preface to ‘How the other half thinks: Adventures in mathematical reasoning’

    A Occasionally, in some difficult musical compositions, there are beautiful, but easy parts – parts so simple a beginner could play them. So it is with mathematics as well. There are some discoveries in advanced mathematics that do not depend on specialized knowledge, not even on algebra, geometry, or trigonometry. Instead they may involve, at most, a little arithmetic, such as ‘the sum of two odd numbers is even’, and common sense. Each of the eight chapters in this book illustrates this phenomenon. Anyone can understand every step in the reasoning.

    The thinking in each chapter uses at most only elementary arithmetic, and sometimes not even that. Thus all readers will have the chance to participate in a mathematical experience, to appreciate the beauty of mathematics, and to become familiar with its logical, yet intuitive, style of thinking.

    B One of my purposes in writing this book is to give readers who haven’t had the opportunity to see and enjoy real mathematics the chance to appreciate the mathematical way of thinking. I want to reveal not only some of the fascinating discoveries, but, more importantly, the reasoning behind them.

    In that respect, this book differs from most books on mathematics written for the general public. Some present the lives of colorful mathematicians. Others describe important applications of mathematics. Yet others go into mathematical procedures, but assume that the reader is adept in using algebra.

    C I hope this book will help bridge that notorious gap that separates the two cultures: the humanities and the sciences, or should I say the right brain (intuitive) and the left brain (analytical, numerical). As the chapters will illustrate, mathematics is not restricted to the analytical and numerical; intuition plays a significant role. The alleged gap can be narrowed or completely overcome by anyone, in part because each of us is far from using the full capacity of either side of the brain. To illustrate our human potential, I cite a structural engineer who is an artist, an electrical engineer who is an opera singer, an opera singer who published mathematical research, and a mathematician who publishes short stories.

    D Other scientists have written books to explain their fields to non-scientists, but have necessarily had to omit the mathematics, although it provides the foundation of their theories. The reader must remain a tantalized spectator rather than an involved participant, since the appropriate language for describing the details in much of science is mathematics, whether the subject is expanding universe, subatomic particles, or chromosomes. Though the broad outline of a scientific theory can be sketched intuitively, when a part of the physical universe is finally understood, its description often looks like a page in a mathematics text.

    E Still, the non-mathematical reader can go far in understanding mathematical reasoning. This book presents the details that illustrate the mathematical style of thinking, which involves sustained, step-by-step analysis, experiments, and insights. You will turn these pages much more slowly than when reading a novel or a newspaper. It may help to have a pencil and paper ready to check claims and carry out experiments.

    F As I wrote, I kept in mind two types of readers: those who enjoyed mathematics until they were turned off by an unpleasant episode, usually around fifth grade, and mathematics aficionados, who will find much that is new throughout the book.

    This book also serves readers who simply want to sharpen their analytical skills. Many careers, such as law and medicine, require extended, precise analysis. Each chapter offers practice in following a sustained and closely argued line of thought. That mathematics can develop this skill is shown by these two testimonials:

    G A physician wrote, The discipline of analytical thought processes [in mathematics] prepared me extremely well for medical school. In medicine one is faced with a problem which must be thoroughly analyzed before a solution can be found. The process is similar to doing mathematics.’

    A lawyer made the same point, ‘Although I had no background in law – not even one political science course – I did well at one of the best law schools. I attribute much of my success there to having learned, through the study of mathematics, and, in particular, theorems, how to analyze complicated principles. Lawyers who have studied mathematics can master the legal principles in a way that most others cannot.’

    I hope you will share my delight in watching as simple, even naive, questions lead to remarkable solutions and purely theoretical discoveries find unanticipated applications.

    Questions 27-34

    Reading Passage 3 has seven sections, A-G.

    Which section contains the following information?

    Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 27-34 on your answer sheet.

    NB You may use any letter more than once.

    1. a reference to books that assume a lack of mathematical knowledge
    2. the way in which this is not a typical book about mathematics
    3. personal examples of being helped by mathematics
    4. examples of people who each had abilities that seemed incompatible
    5. mention of different focuses of books about mathematics
    6. a contrast between reading this book and reading other kinds of publication
    7. a claim that the whole of the book is accessible to everybody
    8. a reference to different categories of intended readers of this book
    Questions 35-40

    Complete the sentences below.

    Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

    Write your answers in boxes 35-40 on your answer sheet.

    1. Some areas of both music and mathematics are suitable for someone who is a………………………………
    2. It is sometimes possible to understand advanced mathematics using no more than a limited knowledge of………………………
    3. The writer intends to show that mathematics requires……………………………..thinking, as well as analytical skills.
    4. Some books written by…………………………have had to leave out the mathematics that is central to their theories.
    5. The writer advises non-mathematical readers to perform……………………………….while reading the book.
    6. A lawyer found that studying……………………………..helped even more than other areas of mathematics in the study of law.
    The Story of Silk Reading Passage 1 answers
    1. tea
    2. reel
    3. women
    4. royalty
    5. currency
    6. paper
    7. wool
    8. monks
    9. nylon
    10. FALSE
    11. TRUE
    12. FALSE
    13. FALSE
    Great Migrations Reading Passage 2 answers
    1. FALSE
    2. TRUE
    3. NOT GIVEN
    4. TRUE
    5. FALSE
    6. G
    7. C
    8. A
    9. E
    10. speed
    11. plains
    12. bottlenecks
    13. corridor / passageway
    Preface to ‘How the other half thinks’ Reading Passage 3 answers
    1. D
    2. B
    3. G
    4. C
    5. B
    6. E
    7. A
    8. F
    9. beginner
    10. arithmetic
    11. intuitive
    12. scientists
    13. experiments
    14. theorems