MSS Learning

Tag: History (IELTS)

  • Cambridge IELTS 6 Academic Reading Test 3

    Reading Passage 1

    The power of the big screen

    Part of the image by: pixabay.com
    1. The Lumière Brothers opened their Cinematographe, at 14 Boulevard des Capucines in Paris, to 100 paying customers over 100 years ago, on December 8, 1985. Before the eyes of the stunned, thrilled audience, photographs came to life and moved across a flat screen.
    2. So ordinary and routine has this become to us that it takes a determined leap of imagination to grasp the impact of those first moving images. But it is worth trying, for to understand the initial shock of those images is to understand the extraordinary power and magic of cinema, the unique, hypnotic quality that has made films the most dynamic, effective art form of the 20th century.
    3. One of the Lumière Borthers’ earliest films was a 30-second piece which showed a section of a railway platform flooded with sunshine. A train appears and heads straight for the camera. And that is all that happens. Yet the Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky, one of the greatest of all film artists, described the film as a ‘work of genius’. ‘As the train approached,’ wrote Tarkovsky, ’panic started in the theatre: people jumped and ran away. That was the moment when cinema was born. The frightened audience could not accept that they were watching a mere picture. Pictures were still, only reality moved; this must, therefore, be reality. In their confusion, they feared that a real train was about to crush them.’
    4. Early cinema audiences often experienced the same confusion. In time, the idea of films became familiar, the magic was accepted- but it never stopped being magic. Film has never lost its unique power to embrace its audience and transport them to a different world. For Tarkovsky, the key to that magic dynamic image of the real flow of events, a still picture could only imply the existence of time, while time in a novel passed at the whim of the reader, but in cinema, the real, objective flow of time was captured.
    5. One effect of this realism was to educate the world about itself. For cinema makes the world smaller. Long before people travelled to America or anywhere else, they knew what other places looked like; they knew how other people worked and lived. Overwhelmingly, the lives recorded at least in film fiction- have been American. From the earliest days of the industry, Hollywood has dominated the world film market. American imagery-the cars, the cities, the cowboys became the primary imagery of film. Film carried American life and values around the globe.
    6. And, thanks to film, future generations will know the 20-th century more intimately than any other period. We can only imagine what life was like in the 14th century or in classical Rome. But the life of the modern world has been recorded on film in massive encyclopaedic detail. We shall be known better than any preceding generations.
    7. The ‘star’ was another natural consequence of cinema. The cinema star was effectively born in 1910. Film personalities have such an immediate presence that inevitably, they become super-real. Because we watch them so closely and because everybody in the world seems to know who they are, they appear more real to us than we do ourselves. The star as magnified human self is one of cinema’s most strange and enduring legacies.
    8. Cinema has also given a new lease of life to the idea of the story. When the Lumiere Brothers and other pioneers began showing off this new invention, it was by no means obvious how it would be used. All that mattered at first was the wonder of movement. Indeed, some said that, once this novelty had worn off, cinema would fade away. It was no more than a passing gimmick, a fairground attraction.
    9. Cinema might, for example, have become primarily a documentary form. Or it might have developed like television -as a strange noisy transfer of music, information and narrative. But what happened was that it became, overwhelmingly, a medium for telling stories. Originally these were conceived as short stories- early producers doubted the ability of audiences to concentrate for more than the length of a reel. Then, in 1912, an Italian 2-hour film was hugely successful, and Hollywood settled upon the novel-length narrative that remains the dominant cinematic convention of today.
    10. And it has all happened so quickly. Almost unbelievably, it is a mere 100 years since that train arrived and the audience screamed and fled, convinced by the dangerous reality of what they saw, and, perhaps, suddenly aware that the world could never be the same again -that, maybe, it could be better, brighter, more astonishing, more real than reality.
    Questions 1-5

    Reading Passage 1has ten paragraphs, A-J.

    Which paragraph contains the following information?

    Write the correct letter, A-J. in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.

    1. the location of the first cinema
    2. how cinema came to focus on stories
    3. the speed with which cinema has changed
    4. how cinema teaches us about other cultures
    5. the attraction of actors in films
    Questions 6-9

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

    In boxes 6-9 on your answer sheet, write:

    • YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer
    • NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer
    • NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
    1. It is important to understand how the first audiences reacted to the cinema.
    2. The Lumiere Brothers’ film about the train was one of the greatest films ever made.
    3. Cinema presents a biased view of other countries.
    4. Storylines were important in very early cinema.
    Questions 10-13

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

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

    1. The writer refers to the film of the train in order to demonstrate
      1. the simplicity of early films.
      2. the impact of early films.
      3. how short early films were.
      4. how imaginative early films were.
    2. In Tarkovsky’s opinion, the attraction of the cinema is that it
      1. aims to impress its audience.
      2. tells stories better through books.
      3. illustrates the passing of time.
      4. describes familiar events.
    3. When cinema first began, people thought that
      1. it would always tell stories.
      2. it should be used in fairgrounds.
      3. US audiences were unappreciative.
      4. its future was uncertain.
    4. What is the best title for this passage?
      1. The rise of the cinema star
      2. Cinema and novels compared
      3. The domination of Hollywood
      4. The power of the big screen

    Reading Passage 2

    Motivating Employees under Adverse Condition

    Part of the image by: pixabay.com

    THE CHALLENGE

    It is a great deal easier to motivate employees in a growing organisation than a declining one. When organisations are expanding and adding personnel, promotional opportunities, pay rises, and the excitement of being associated with a dynamic organisation create feelings of optimism. Management is able to use the growth to entice and encourage employees. When an organisation is shrinking, the best and most mobile workers are prone to leave voluntarily. Unfortunately, they are the ones the organisation can least afford to lose- those with the highest skills and experience. The minor employees remain because their job options are limited.

    Morale also suffers during decline. People fear they may be the next to be made redundant. Productivity often suffers, as employees spend their time sharing rumours and providing one another with moral support rather than focusing on their jobs. For those whose jobs are secure, pay increases are rarely possible. Pay cuts, unheard of during times of growth, may even be imposed. The challenge to management is how to motivate employees under such retrenchment conditions. The ways of meeting this challenge can be broadly divided into six Key Points, which are outlined below.

    KEY POINT ONE

    There is an abundance of evidence to support the motivational benefits that result from carefully matching people to jobs. For example, if the job is running a small business or an autonomous unit within a larger business, high achievers should be sought. However, if the job to be filled is a managerial post in a large bureaucratic organisation, a candidate who has a high need for power and a low need for affiliation should be selected. Accordingly, high achievers should not be put into jobs that are inconsistent with their needs. High achievers will do best when the job provides moderately challenging goals and where there is independence and feedback. However, it should be remembered that not everybody is motivated by jobs that are high in independence, variety and responsibility.

    KEY POINT TWO

    The literature on goal-setting theory suggests that managers should ensure that all employees have specific goals and receive comments on how well they are doing in those goals. For those with high achievement needs, typically a minority in any organisation, the existence of external goals is less important because high achievers are already internally motivated. The next factor to be determined is whether the goals should be assigned by a manager or collectively set in conjunction with the employees. The answer to that depends on perceptions the culture, however, goals should be assigned. If participation and the culture are incongruous, employees are likely to perceive the participation process as manipulative and be negatively affected by it.

    KEY POINT THREE
    Regardless of whether goals are achievable or well within management’s perceptions of the employee’s ability, if employees see them as unachievable they will reduce their effort. Managers must be sure, therefore, that employees feel confident that their efforts can lead to performance goals. For managers, this means that employees must have the capability of doing the job and must regard the appraisal process as valid.


    KEY POINT FOUR
    Since employees have different needs, what acts as a reinforcement for one may not for another. Managers could use their knowledge of each employee to personalise the rewards over which they have control. Some of the more obvious rewards that managers allocate include pay, promotions, autonomy, job scope and depth, and the opportunity to participate in goal-setting and decision-making.

    KEY POINT FIVE

    Managers need to make rewards contingent on performance. To reward factors other than performance will only reinforce those other factors. Key rewards such as pay increases and promotions or advancements should be allocated for the attainment of the employee’s specific goals. Consistent with maximising the impact of rewards, managers should look for ways to increase their visibility. Eliminating the secrecy surrounding pay by openly communicating everyone’s remuneration, publicising performance bonuses and allocating annual salary increases in a lump sum rather than spreading them out over an entire year are examples of actions that will make rewards more visible and potentially more motivating.

    KEY POINT SIX

    The way rewards were distributed should be transparent so that employees perceive that rewards or outcomes are equitable and equal to the inputs given. On a simplistic level, experience, abilities, effort and other obvious inputs should explain differences in pay, responsibility and other obvious outcomes. The problem, however, is complicated by the existence of dozens of inputs and outcomes and by the fact that employee groups place different degrees of importance on them. For instance, a study comparing clerical and production workers identified nearly twenty inputs and outcomes. The clerical workers considered factors such as quality of work performed and job knowledge near the top of their list, but these were at the bottom of the production workers’ list. Similarly, production workers thought that the most important inputs were intelligence and personal involvement with task accomplishment, two factors that were quite low in the importance ratings of the clerks. There were also important, though less dramatic, differences on the outcome side. For example, production workers rated advancement very highly, whereas clerical workers rated advancement in the lower third of their list. Such findings suggest that one person’s equity is another’s inequity, so an ideal should probably weigh different inputs and outcomes according to employee group.

    Questions 14-18

    Reading Passage 2 contains six Key Points.

    Choose the correct heading for Key Points TWO to SIX from the list of headings below.

    Write the correct number, i-viii, in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet.

    List of Headings

    1. Ensure the reward system is fair
    2. Match rewards to individuals
    3. Ensure targets are realistic
    4. Link rewards to achievementv Encourage managers to take more responsibility
    5. Recognise changes in employees’ performance over time
    6. Establish targets and give feedback
    7. Ensure employees are suited to their jobs

    Example

    Key Point One (answer) viii
    1. Key Point Two
    2. Key Point Three
    3. Key Point Four
    4. Key Point Five
    5. Key Point Six
    Questions 19-24

    Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 2?

    In boxes 19-24 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. A shrinking organisation lends to lose its less skilled employees rather than its more skilled employees.
    2. It is easier to manage a small business than a large business.
    3. High achievers are well suited to team work.
    4. Some employees can feel manipulated when asked to participate in goal-setting.
    5. The staff appraisal process should be designed by employees.
    6. Employees’ earnings should be disclosed to everyone within the organisation.
    Questions 25-27

    Look at the follow groups of worker (Question25-27) and the list of descriptions below.

    Match each group with the correct description, A-E.

    Write the correct letter, A-E, in boxes 25-27 on your answer sheet.

    1. high achievers
    2. clerical workers
    3. production workers

    List of Descriptions

    1. They judge promotion to be important
    2. They have less need of external goats
    3. They think that the quality of their work is important
    4. They resist goals which are imposed
    5. They have limited job options

    Reading Passage 3

    The Search for the Anti-aging Pill

    Part of the image by: pixabay.com

    In government laboratories and elsewhere, scientists are seeking a drug able to prolong life and youthful vigor. Studies of caloric restriction are showing the way.

    As researchers on aging noted recently, no treatment on the market today has been proved to slow human aging- the build-up of molecular and cellular damage that increases vulnerability to infirmity as we grow older. But one intervention, consumption of a low-calorie* yet nutritionally balanced diet, works incredibly well in a broad range of animals, increasing longevity and prolonging good health. Those findings suggest that caloric restriction could delay aging and increase longevity in humans, too.

    Unfortunately, for maximum benefit, people would probably have to reduce their caloric intake by roughly thirty percent, equivalent to dropping from 2,500 calories a day to 1, 750. Few mortals could stick to that harsh regimen, especially for years on end. But what if someone could create a pill that mimicked the physiological effects of eating less without actually forcing people to eat less? Could such a ‘caloric-restriction mimetic’, as we call it, enable people to stay healthy longer, postponing age-related disorders (such as diabetes, arteriosclerosis, heart disease and cancer) until very late in life? Scientists first posed this question in the mid-1990s, after researchers came upon a chemical agent that in rodents seemed to reproduce many of caloric restriction’s benefits. No compound that would safely achieve the same feat in people has been found yet, but the search has been informative and has fanned the hope that caloric-restriction (CR) mimetics can indeed be developed eventually.

    The benefits of caloric restriction

    The hunt for CR mimetics grew out of a desire to better understand caloric restriction’s many effects on the body. Scientists first recognized the value of the practice more than 60 years ago, when they found that rats fed a low-calorie diet lived longer on average than free-feeding rats and also had a reduced incidence of conditions that become increasingly common in old age. What is more, some of the treated animals survived longer than the oldest-living animals in the control group, which means that the maximum lifespan (the oldest attainable age), not merely the normal lifespan, increased. Various interventions, such as infection-fighting drugs, can increase a population’s average survival time, but only approaches that slow the body’s rate of aging will increase the maximum lifespan.

    The rat findings have been replicated many times and extended to creatures ranging from yeast to fruit flies, worms, fish, spiders, mice and hamsters. Until fairly recently, the studies were limited short-lived creatures genetically distant from humans. But caloric-restriction projects underway in two species more closely related to humans- rhesus and squirrel monkeys- have scientists optimistic that CR mimetics could help people.

    calorie: a measure of the energy value of food.

    The monkey projects demonstrate that compared with control animals that eat normally caloric-restricted monkeys have lower body temperatures and levels of the pancreatic hormone insulin, and they retain more youthful levels of certain hormones that tend to fall with age.

    The caloric-restricted animals also look better on indicators of risk for age-related diseases. For example, they have lower blood pressure and triglyceride levels(signifying a decreased likelihood of heart disease) and they have more normal blood glucose levels( pointing to a reduced risk for diabetes, which is marked by unusually high blood glucose levels). Further, it has recently been shown that rhesus monkeys kept on caloric-restricted diets for an extended time( nearly 15 years) have less chronic disease. They and the other monkeys must be followed still longer, however, to know whether low-calorie intake can increase both average and maximum lifespans in monkeys. Unlike the multitude of elixirs being touted as the latest anti-aging cure, CR mimetics would alter fundamental processes that underlie aging. We aim to develop compounds that fool cells into activating maintenance and repair.

    How a prototype caloric-restriction mimetic works

    The best-studied candidate for a caloric-restriction mimetic, 2DG (2-deoxy-D-glucose), works by interfering with the way cells process glucose, it has proved toxic at some doses in animals and so cannot be used in humans. But it has demonstrated that chemicals can replicate the effects of caloric restriction; the trick is finding the right one.

    Cells use the glucose from food to generate ATP (adenosine triphosphate), the molecule that powers many activities in the body. By limiting food intake, caloric restriction minimizes the amount of glucose entering cells and decreases ATP generation. When 2DG is administered to animals that eat normally, glucose reaches cells in abundance but the drug prevents most of it from being processed and thus reduces ATP synthesis. Researchers have proposed several explanations for why interruption of glucose processing and ATP production might retard aging. One possibility relates to the ATP-making machinery’s emission of free radicals, which are thought to contribute to aging and such age-related diseases as cancer by damaging cells. Reduced operation of the machinery should limit their production and thereby constrain the damage. Another hypothesis suggests that decreased processing of glucose could indicate to cells that food is scarce( even if it isn’t) and induce them to shift into an anti-aging mode that emphasizes preservation of the organism over such ‘luxuries’ as growth and reproduction.

    Questions 28-32

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

    Inboxes 28-32 on your answer sheet, write

    • YES if the statement t 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. Studies show drugs available today can delay the process of growing old.
    2. There is scientific evidence that eating fewer calories may extend human life.
    3. Not many people are likely to find a caloric-restricted diet attractive.
    4. Diet-related diseases are common in older people.
    5. In experiments, rats who ate what they wanted to lead shorter lives than rats on a low-calorie diet.
    Questions 33-37

    Classify the following descriptions as relating to

    1. caloric-restricted mimetic
    2. control monkeys
    3. neither caloric-restricted monkeys nor control monkeys

    Write the correct letter, A, B or C, in boxes 33-37 on your answer sheet.

    1. Monkeys were less likely to become diabetic.
    2. Monkeys experienced more chronic disease.
    3. Monkeys have been shown to experience a longer than average life span.
    4. Monkeys enjoyed a reduced chance of heart disease.
    5. Monkeys produced greater quantities of insulin.
    Questions 38-40

    Complete the flowchart below.

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

    Write your answers in boxes 38-40 on your answer sheet.

    How a caloric-restriction mimetic works
    How a caloric-restriction mimetic works. Contains questions 38-40 in The search for the Anti-again Pill reading passage. IELTS 6 Academic Reading Practice Test 3
    Reading Passage 1 The Lumiere Brothers opened their Cinematographe Answers
    1. A
    2. I
    3. J
    4. E
    5. G
    6. yes
    7. not given
    8. not given
    9. no
    10. B
    11. C
    12. D
    13. D
    Reading Passage 2 Motivating Employees under Adverse Condition Answers
    1. VII
    2. III
    3. II
    4. IV
    5. I
    6. no
    7. not given
    8. no
    9. yes
    10. not given
    11. yes
    12. B
    13. C
    14. A
    Reading Passage 3 The Search for the Anti-aging Pill Answers
    1. no
    2. yes
    3. yes
    4. not given
    5. yes
    6. A
    7. B
    8. C
    9. A
    10. B
    11. glucose
    12. free radicals
    13. preservation
  • Cambridge IELTS 9 Academic Reading Test 4

    Cambridge IELTS 9 Academic Reading Test 4

    Reading Passage 1

    The Life and Work of Marie Curie

    The Life and Work of Marie Curie IELTS Academic Reading Passage 1 with answers and explanations.
    Part of the image by pixabay.com

    Marie Curie is probably the most famous woman scientist who has ever lived. Born Maria Sklodowska in Poland in 1867, she is famous for her work on radioactivity, and was twice a winner of the Nobel Prize. With her husband, Pierre Curie and Henri Raeqiierel, she was awarded the 1903 Nobel Prize for Physics, and was then sole winner of the 1911 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize.

    From childhood, Marie was remarkable for her prodigious memory, and at the age of 16 won a gold medal on completion of her secondary education. Because her father lost his savings through bad investment, she then had to take work as a teacher. From her earnings, she was able to finance her sister Bronia’s medical studies in Paris, on the understanding that Bronia would, in turn, later help her to get an education.

    ln 1891 this promise was fulfilled and Marie went to Paris and began to study at the Sorbonne (the University of Paris). She often worked far into the night and lived on little more than bread and butter and tea. She came first in the examination in the physical sciences in 1893, and in 1894 was placed second in the examination in mathematical sciences .It was not until the spring of that year that she was introduced to Pierre Curie.

    Their marriage in 1895 marked the start of a partnership that was soon to achieve results of world significance. Following Henri BecquereI‘s discovery in 1896 of a new phenomenon, which Marie later called ‘radioactivity’, Marie Curie decided to find out if the radioactivity discovered in uranium was to be found in other elements. She discovered that this was true for thorium.

    Turning her attention to minerals, she found her interest drawn to pitchblende, a mineral whose radioactivity, superior to that of pure uranium, could be explained only by the presence in thorium of small quantities of an unknown substance of very high activity. Pierre Curie joined her in the work that she had undertaken to resolve this problem and that led to the discovery of the new elements, polonium and radium. While Pierre Curie devoted himself chiefly to the physical study of the new radiations, Marie Curie struggled to obtain pure radium in the metallic state. This was achieved with the help of the chemist André-Louis Debierne, one of Pierre Curie’s pupils. Based on the results of this research, Marie Curie received her Doctorate of Science, and in 1903 Marie and Pierre shared with Becquerel the Nobel Prize for Physics for the discovery of radioactivity.

    The births of Marie’s two daughters, Irene and Eve, in 1897 and 1904 failed to internrupt her scientific work. She was appointed lecturer in physics at the Ecole Nor-male Supérieure for girls in Sevres, France (1900), and introduced a method of teaching based on experimental demonstrations. In December 1904 she was appointed chief assistant in the laboratory directed by Pierre Curie.

    The sudden death of her husband in 1906 was a bitter blow to Marie Curie but was also a turning point in her career: henceforth she was to devote all her energy to completing alone the scientific work that they had undertaken. On May 19, 1906, she was appointed to the professorship that had been left vacant on her husband’s death, becoming the first woman to teach at the Sorbonne. In 1911 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for the isolation of a pure form of radium.

    During World War I, Marie Curie, with the help of her daughter Irene, devoted herself to the development of the use of X—radiography, including the mobile units which came to be known as ‘little Curies’, used for the treatment of wounded soldiers. ln 1918 the Radium Institute, whose staff Irene had joined, began to operate in earnest, and became a centre for nuclear physics and chemistry. Marie Curie, now at the highest point of her fame and, from 1922, a member of the Academy of Medicine, researched the chemistry of radioactive substances and their medical applications.

    ln 1921, accompanied by her two daughters, Marie Curie made a triumphant journey to the United States to raise funds for research on radium. Women there presented her with a gram of radium for her campaign. Marie also gave lectures in Belgium, Brazil, Spain and Czechoslovakia and, in addition, had the satisfaction of seeing the development of the Curie Foundation in Paris, and the inauguration in 1932 in Warsaw of the Radium Institute, where her sister Bronia became the director.

    One of Marie Curie’s outstanding achievements was to have understood the need to accumulate intense radioactive sources not only to treat illness but also to maintain an abundant supply for research. The existence in Paris at the Radium Institute of stock of grams of radium made a decisive contribution to the success of the experiments undertaken in the years around 1930. This work prepared the way for the discovery of the neutron by Sir James Chadwick and, above all, for the discovery in 1934 by Irene and Frédéric Joliot- Curie of artificial radioactivity. A few months after this discovery, Marie Curie died as a result of leukaemia caused by exposure to radiation. She had often carried test tubes containing radioactive isotopes in her pocket, remarking on the pretty blue-green light they gave off.

    Her contribution to physics had been immense, not only in her own work, the importance of which had been demonstrated by her two Nobel Prizes, but because of her influence on subsequent generations of nuclear physicists and chemists.

    Questions 1-6

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

    In boxes 1-6 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. Marie Curie’s husband was a joint winner of both Marla‘s Nobel Prizes.
    2. Marie became interested in science when she was a child.
    3. Marie was able to attend the Sorbonne because of her sister’s financial contribution.
    4. Marie stopped doing research for several years when her children were born.
    5. Marie took over the teaching position her husband had held.
    6. Marie‘s sister Bronia studied the medical uses of radioactivity.
    Question 7-13

    Complete the notes below.

    Choose ONE WORD from the passage for each answer.

    Write your answers in boxes 7-13 on your answer sheet.

    Marie Curie’s research on radioactivity

    • When uranium was discovered to be radioactive. Marie Curie found that the element called (7) …………………… had the same property.
    • Marie and Pierre Curie‘s research into the radioactivity of the mineral known as (8) …………………… led to the discovery of two new elements.
    • In 1911, Marie Curie received recognition for her work on the element (9) ……………………Marie and Irene Curie developed X-radiography which was used as a medical technique for (10) ……………………
    • Marie Curie saw the importance of collecting radioactive material both for research and for cases of (11) ……………………
    • The radioactive material stocked in Paris contributed to the discoveries in the 1930s of the (12) …………………… and of what was known as artificial radioactivity.
    • During her research. Marie Curio was exposed to radiation and as a result, she suffered from (13) ……………………

    Reading Passage 2

    Young Children’s Sense of Identity

    Young Children’s Sense of Identity IELTS Acade,oc Reading Passage 2 with answers and explanations.
    Part of the image by pexels.com
    1. A sense of ‘self’ develops in young children by degrees. The process can usefully be thought of in terms of the gradual emergence of two somewhat separate features: the self as a subject, and the self as an object. William James introduced the distinction in 1892, and contemporaries of his, such as Charles Cooley, added to the developing debate. Ever since then psychologists have continued building on the theory.
    2. According to James, a child’s first step on the road to self-understanding can be seen as the recognition that he or she exists. This is an aspect of the self that he labeled ‘self-as-subject’, and he gave it various elements. These included an awareness of one’s own agency (i.e. one’s power to act) and an awareness of one’s distinctiveness from other people. These features gradually emerge as infants explore their world and interact with caregivers. Cooley (1902) suggested that a lot of the self-as-subject was primarily concerned with being able to exercise power. He proposed that the earliest examples of this are an infant’s attempts to control physical objects, such as toys or his or her own limbs. This is followed by attempts to affect the behavior of other people. For example, infants learn that when they cry or smile someone responds to them.
    3. Another powerful source of information for infants about the effects they can have on the world around them is provided when others mimic them. Many parents spend a lot of time, particularly in the early months, copying their infant’s vocalizations and expressions in addition, young children enjoy looking in mirrors, where the movements they can see are dependent upon their own movements. This is not to say that infants recognize the reflection as their own image (a later development). However, Lewis and Brooks-Gunn (1979) suggest that infants’ developing understanding that the movements they see in the mirror are contingent ­on their own, leads to a growing awareness that they are distinct from other people. This is because they, and only they can change the reflection in the mirror.
    4. This understanding that children gain of themselves as active agents continue to develop in their attempts to co-operate with others in play. Drum (1988) points out that it is in such day-to-day relationships and interactions that the child’s understanding of his or herself emerges. Empirical investigations of the self-as-subject in young children are, however, rather scarce because of difficulties of communication: even if young infants can reflect on their experience, they certainly cannot express this aspect of the self directly.
    5. Once Children have acquired a certain level of self-awareness, they begin to place themselves in a whole series of categories, which together play such an important part in defining them uniquely as ‘themselves’. This second step in the development of a full sense of self is what James called the ‘self-as-object’. This has been seen by many to be the aspect of the self which is most influenced by social elements, since it is made up of social roles (such as student, brother; colleague) and characteristics which derive their meaning from comparison or interaction with other people (such as trustworthiness, shyness, sporting ability).
    6. Cooley and other researchers suggested a close connection between a person’s own understanding of their identity and other people’s understanding of it. Cooley believed that people build up their sense of identity from the reactions of others to them, and from the view, they believe others have of them. He called the self- as-object the ’looking-glass self’, since people come to see themselves as they are reflected in others. Mead (1934) went even further, and saw the self and the social world as inextricably bound together. The self is essentially a social structure, and ­it arises in social experience. It is impossible to conceive of a self-arising outside of social experience.’
    7. Lewis and Brooks-Gunn argued that an important developmental milestone is reached when children become able to recognize themselves visually without the support of seeing contingent movement. This recognition occurs around their second birthday. In one experiment, Lewis and Brooks-Gunn (1979) dabbed some red powder on the noses of children who were playing in front of a mirror, and then observed how often they touched their noses. The psychologists reasoned that if the children knew what they usually looked like, they would be surprised by the unusual red mark and would start touching it. On the other hand, they found that children of 15 to 18 months are generally not able to recognize themselves unless other cues such as movement are present.
    8. Finally perhaps the most graphic expressions of self-awareness, in general, can be seen in the displays of rage which are most common from 18 months to 3 years of age. In a longitudinal study of groups of three or four children, Bronson (1975) found that the intensity of the frustration and anger in their disagreements increased sharply between the ages of 1 and 2 years. Often, the children’s disagreements involved a struggle over a toy that none of them had played with before or after the tug-of-war: the children seemed to be disputing ownership rather than wanting to play with it. Although it may be less marked in other societies, the link between the sense of ’self’ and of ‘ownership’ is a notable feature of childhood in Western societies.
    Questions 14-19

    Reading Passage 2 has eight paragraphs, A-H.

    Which paragraph contains the following information?

    Write the correct letter A-H, in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet.

    NB You may use any letter more than once.

    1. An account of the method used by researchers in a particular study
    2. The role of imitation in developing a sense of identity
    3. The age at which children can usually identity a static image of themselves
    4. A reason for the limitations of scientific research into ‘self- as-subject’.
    5. Reference to a possible link between culture and a particular form of behavior
    6. Examples of the wide range of features that contribute to the sense of ‘self-as-object’.
    Questions 14-19

    Look at the following findings (Questions 20-23) and the list oi researchers below.

    Match each finding with the correct researcher or researchers, A-E.

    Write the correct letter A-E, in boxes 20-23 on your answer sheet.

    1. A sense of identity can never be formed without relationships with other people.
    2. A child’s awareness of self is related to a sense of mastery over things and people.
    3. At a certain age, children’s sense of identity leads to aggressive behavior.
    4. Observing their own reflection contributes to children‘s self-awareness.

    List of Researchers

    1. James
    2. Cooley
    3. Lewis and Brooks-Gunn
    4. Mead
    5. Bronson
    Questions 24-26

    Complete the summary below

    Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer

    Write your answers in boxes 24-26 on your answer sheet

    How children acquire a sense of identity

    First, children come to realize that they can have an effect on the world around them, for example by handling objects. or causing the image to move when they face a (24)……………………….. This aspect of self-awareness is difficult to research directly, because of (25)………………………. problems. Secondly. children start to become aware of how they are viewed by others. One important stage in this process is the visual recognition of themselves which usually occurs when they reach the age of two. In Western societies at least, the development of self awareness is often linked to a sense of (26)…………………………… , and can lead to disputes.

    Reading Passage 3

    The Development of Museums

    The Development of Museums IELTS 9 Test 4 Reading Passage 3 with answers & explanation.
    Part of the image by pexels.com
    1. The conviction that historical relics provide infallible testimony about the past is rooted in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when science was regarded as objective and value-free. As one writer observes: ‘Although it is now evident that artifacts are as easily altered as chronicles, public faith in their veracity endures: a tangible relic seems ipso facto real! Such conviction was, until recently, reflected in museum displays. Museums used to look — and some still do — much like storage rooms of objects packed together in showcases: good for scholars who wanted to study the subtle differences in design, but not for the ordinary visitor to whom it all looked alike. Similarly, the information accompanying the objects often made little sense to the lay visitor. The content and format of explanations dated back to a time when the museum was the exclusive domain of the scientific researcher.
    2. Recently, however, attitudes towards history and the way it should be presented have altered. The key word in heritage display is now ‘experience’ the more exciting the better and, if possible, involving all the senses. Good examples of this approach in the UK are the Jorvik Centre in York; the National Museum of Photography, Elm ­­and Television in Bradford; and the Imperial War Museum in London. In the US the trend emerged much earlier. Williamsburg has been a prototype for many heritage developments in other parts of the world. No one can predict where the process will end. On so-called heritage sites, the re-enactment of historical events is increasingly popular, and computers will soon provide virtual reality experiences, which will present visitors with a vivid image of the period of their choice, in which they themselves can act as if part of the historical environment. Such developments have been criticised as an intolerable vulgarisation, but the success of many historical theme parks and similar locations suggests that the majority of the public does not share this opinion.
    3. In a related development, the sharp distinction between museum and heritage sites on the one hand, and theme parks on the other is gradually evaporating. They already borrow ideas and concepts from one another. For example, museums have adopted storylines for exhibitions, sites have accepted ‘theming’ as a relevant tool, and theme parks are moving towards more authenticity and research-based presentations, in zoos, animals are no longer kept in cages, but in great spaces, either in the open air or in enormous greenhouses, such as the jungle and desert environments. In Burgers’ Zoo In Holland, this particular trend is regarded as one of the major developments in the presentation of natural history in the twentieth century.
    4. Theme parks are undergoing other changes, too, as they try to present more serious social and cultural issues, and move away from fantasy. This development is a response to market forces and, although museums and heritage sites have a special rather distinct role to fulfill, they are also operating in a very competitive environment, where visitors make choices on how and where to spend their free time. Heritage and museum experts do not have to invent stories and recreate historical environments to attract their visitors: their assets are already in place. However, exhibits must be both based on artefacts and facts as we know them, and attractively presented. Those who are professionally engaged in the art of interpreting history are thus in a difficult position, as they must steer a narrow course between the demands of ’evidence’ and ‘attractiveness especially given the increasing need in the heritage industry for income-generating activities.
    5. It could be claimed that in order to make everything in heritage more `real`, historical accuracy must be increasingly altered. For example, Pithecanthropus erectus is depicted in an Indonesian museum with Malay facial features, because this corresponds to public perceptions. Similarly, in the Museum of Natural History in Washington, Neanderthal man is shown making a dominant gesture to his wife. Such presentations tell us more about contemporary perceptions of the world than about our ancestors. There is one compensation, however, for the professionals who make these interpretations: If they did not provide the interpretation, visitors would do it for themselves based on their own ideas misconceptions and prejudices. And no matter how exciting the result, it would contain a lot more bias than the presentations provided by experts
    6. Human bias is inevitable, but another source of bias in the representation of history has to do with the transitory nature of the materials themselves. The simple fact is that not everything from history survives the historical process. Castles, palaces and cathedrals have a longer lifespan than the dwellings of ordinary people. The same applies to the furnishings and other contents of the premises. In a town like Leyden in Holland, which in the seventeenth century was occupied by approximately the same number of inhabitants as today, people lived within the walled town, an area more than five times smaller than modern Leyden. In most of the houses, several families lived together in circumstances beyond our imagination. Yet in museums, line period rooms give only an image of the lifestyle of the upper class of that era. No wonder that people who stroll around exhibitions are filled with nostalgia; the evidence in museums indicates that life was so much better in the past. This notion is induced by the bias in its representation in museums and heritage centers.
    Questions 27-30

    Reading Passage has six paragraphs, A-F.

    Choose the correct heading for paragraphs B-E from the list of headings below.

    Write the correct number, i-vii, in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.

    Example Answer

    Paragraph A answer V
    1. Paragraph B
    2. Paragraph C
    3. Paragraph D
    4. Paragraph E

    List of Headings

    1. Commercial pressures on people in charge
    2. Mixed views on current changes to museums
    3. Interpreting the facts to meet visitor expectations
    4. The international dimensionv Collections of factual evidence
    5. Fewer differences between public attractions
    6. Current reviews and suggestions
    Questions 31-36

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

    Write the correct letter in boxes 31-36 on your answer sheet.

    1. Compared with today’s museums those of the past
      1. did not present history in a detailed way.
      2. were not primarily intended for the public.
      3. were more clearly organized.
      4. preserved items with greater care.
    2. According to the writer, current trends in the heritage industry
      1. emphasize personal involvement.
      2. have their origins in York and London,
      3. rely on computer images.
      4. reflect minority tastes.
    3. The writer says that museums, heritage sites and theme parks
      1. often work in close partnership.
      2. try to preserve separate identities.
      3. have similar exhibits.
      4. are less easy to distinguish than before.
    4. The writer says that in preparing exhibits for museums, experts
      1. should pursue a single objective.
      2. have to do a certain amount of language translation.
      3. should be free from commercial constraints.
      4. have to balance conflicting priorities.
    5. In paragraph E. the writer suggests that some museum exhibits
      1. fail to match visitor expectations.
      2. are based on the false assumptions of professionals.
      3. reveal more about present beliefs than about the past.
      4. allow visitors to make more use of their imagination.
    6. The passage ends by noting that our view of history is biased because
      1. we fail to use our imagination.
      2. only very durable objects remain from the past.
      3. we tend to ignore things that displease us.
      4. museum exhibits focus too much on the local area.
    Questions 37-40

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

    In boxes 37-40 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. Consumers prefer theme parks which avoid serious issues.
    2. More people visit museums than theme parks.
    3. The boundaries of Leyden have changed little since the seventeenth century.
    4. Museums can give a false impression of how life used to be.
    Reading Passage 1 The Life & Work of Marie Curie Answers
    1. false
    2. not given
    3. true
    4. false
    5. true
    6. not given
    7. thorium
    8. pitchblende
    9. radium
    10. soldiers
    11. illness
    12. neutron
    13. leukemia
    Reading Passage 2 Young Children’s Sense of Identity Answers
    1. G
    2. C
    3. G
    4. D
    5. H
    6. E
    7. D
    8. B
    9. E
    10. C
    11. mirror
    12. communication
    13. ownership
    Reading Passage 3 The Development of Museums Answers
    1. ii
    2. vi
    3. i
    4. iii
    5. B
    6. A
    7. D
    8. D
    9. C
    10. B
    11. false
    12. not given
    13. false
    14. true
  • Cambridge IELTS 9 Academic Reading Test 2

    Cambridge IELTS 9 Academic Reading Test 2

    Reading Passage 1

    Children With Auditory Problems

    1. Hearing impairment or other auditory function deficit in young children can have a major impact on their development of speech and communication, resulting in a detrimental effect on their ability to learn at school. This is likely to have major consequences for the individual and the population as a whole. The New Zealand Ministry of Health has found from research carried out over two decades that 6-10% of children in that country are affected by hearing loss.
    2. A preliminary study in New Zealand has shown that classroom noise presents a major concern for teachers and pupils. Modern teaching practices, the organization of desks in the classroom, poor classroom acoustics, and mechanical means of ventilation such as air-conditioning units all contribute to the number of children unable to comprehend the teachers voice. Education researchers Nelson and Soli have also suggested that recent trends in learning often involve collaborative interactions of multiple minds and tools as much as individual possession of information. This all amounts to heightened activity and noise levels, which have the potential to be particularly serious for children experiencing auditory function deficit. Noise in classrooms can only exacerbate their difficulty in comprehending and processing verbal communication with other children and instructions from the teacher.
    3. Children with auditory function deficit are potentially failing to learn to their maximum potential because of noise levels generated in classrooms. The effects of noise on the ability of children to team effectively in typical classroom environments are now the subject of increasing concern. The International Institute of Noise Control Engineering(I-INCE), on the advice of the World Health Organization, has established an international working party, which includes New Zealand, to evaluate noise and reverberation control for school rooms.
    4. While the detrimental effects of noise in classroom situations are not limited to children experiencing disability, those with a disability that affects their processing of speech and verbal communication could be extremely vulnerable. The auditory function deficits in question include hearing impairment, autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) and attention deficit disorders MDD/ADHD).
    5. Autism is considered a neurological and genetic life-long disorder that causes discrepancies in the way information is processed. This disorder is characterized by interlinking problems with social imaginations, social communication and social interaction. According to Jenzen, this affects the ability to understand and relate in typical ways to people, understand events and objects in the environment, and understand or respond to sensory stimuli. Autism does not allow learning or thinking in the same ways as in children who are developing normally. Autistic spectrum disorders often result in major difficulties in comprehending verbal information and speech processing. Those experiencing these disorders often find sounds such as crowd noise and the noise generated by machinery painful and distressing. This is difficult to scientifically quantify as such extra-sensory stimuli vary greatly from one autistic individual to another. But a child who finds any type of noise in their classroom or learning space intrusive is likely to be adversely affected in their ability to process information.
    6. The attention deficit disorders are indicative of neurological and genetic disorders and are characterized by difficulties with sustaining attention, effort and persistence, organization skills and disinhibition. Children experiencing these disorders find it difficult to screen out unimportant information, and focus on everything in the environment rather than attending to a single activity. Background noise in the classroom becomes a major distraction, which can affect their ability to concentrate.
    7. Children experiencing an auditory function deficit can often find speech and communication very difficult to isolate and process when set against high levels of background noise. These levels come from outside activities that penetrate the classroom structure, from teaching activities, and other noise generated inside, which can be exacerbated by room reverberation. Strategies are needed to obtain the optimum classroom construction and perhaps a change in classroom culture and methods of teaching. ln particular, the effects of noisy classrooms and activities on those experiencing disabilities in the form of auditory function deficit need thorough investigation. It is probable that many undiagnosed children exist in the education system with ‘invisible’ disabilities. Their needs are less likely to be met than those of children with known disabilities.
    8. The New Zealand Government has developed a New Zealand Disability Strategy and has embarked on a wide-ranging consultation process. The strategy recognizes that people experiencing disability face significant barriers in achieving a full quality of life in areas such as attitude, education, employment and access to services. Objective 3 of the New Zealand Disability Strategy is to ’Provide the Best Education for Disabled People’ by improving education so that all children, youth learners and adult learners will have equal opportunities to learn and develop within their already existing local school. For a successful education, the learning environment is vitally significant, so any effort to improve this is likely to be of great benefit to all children, but especially to those with auditory function disabilities.
    9. A number of countries are already in the process of formulating their own standards for the control and reduction of classroom noise. New Zealand will probably follow their example. The literature to date on noise in school rooms appears to focus on the effects on schoolchildren in general, their teachers and the hearing impaired. Only limited attention appears to have been given to those students experiencing the other disabilities involving auditory function deficit. It is imperative that the needs of these children are taken into account in the setting of appropriate international standards to be promulgated in future.
    Questions 1-6

    Reading Passage 1 has nine sections, A-I.

    Which section contains the following information?

    Write the correct letter A-l, in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.

    1. an account of a national policy initiative
    2. a description of a global team effort
    3. a hypothesis as to one reason behind the growth in classroom noise
    4. a demand for suitable worldwide regulations
    5. a list of medical conditions which place some children more at risk from noise than others
    6. the estimated proportion of children in New Zealand with auditory problems.
    Questions 7-10

    Answer the questions below.

    Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.

    Write your answers in boxes 7-10 on your answer sheet.

    1. For what period of time has hearing loss in schoolchildren been studied in New Zealand?
    2. In addition to machinery noise, what other type of noise can upset children with autism?
    3. What term is used to describe the hearing problems of schoolchildren which have not been diagnosed?
    4. What part of the New Zealand Disability Strategy aims to give schoolchildren equal opportunity?
    Questions 11-12

    Choose TWO letters, A-E

    Write the correct letters in boxes 11 and 12 on your answer sheet.

    The list below includes factors contributing to classroom noise.

    Which TWO are mentioned by the writer of the passage?

    1. current teaching methods
    2. echoing corridors
    3. cooling systems
    4. large class sizes
    5. loud-voiced teachers
    6. playground games
    Questions 13

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

    Write the correct letter in box 13 on your answer sheet. 

    1. What is the writer‘s overall purpose in writing this article?
      1. to compare different methods oi dealing with auditory problems
      2. to provide solutions for overly noisy learning environments
      3. to increase awareness of the situation oi children with auditory problems
      4. to promote New Zealand as a model for other countries to follow

    In boxes 1-7 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
    Question 8-13

    Answer the Questions below:

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

    Write your answers in boxes 8-13 on your answer sheet.

    1. Before Perkin’s discovery, with what group in society was the colour purple associated?
    2. What potential did Perkin immediately understand that his new dye had?
    3. What was the name finally used to refer to the first color Perkin invented?
    4. What was the name of the person Perkin consulted before setting up his own dye works?
    5. In what country did Perkins newly invented colour first become fashionable?
    6. According to the passage, which disease is now being targeted by researchers using synthetic dyes?

    Reading Passage 2

    Venus in Transit

    June 2004 saw the first passage., known as a ‘transit` of the planet Venus across the face of the Sun in 122 years. Transits have helped shape our view of the whole Universe, as Heather Cooper and Nigel Henbest explain.

    1. On 8 June 2004, more than half the population of the world were treated to a rare astronomical event. For over six hours, the planet Venus steadily inched its way over the surface of the Sun. This “transit` of Venus was the first since 6 December 1882. On that occasion, the American astronomer Professor Simon Newcomb led a party to South Africa to observe the event. They were based at a girls’ school, where – if is alleged – the combined forces of three schoolmistresses outperformed the professionals with the accuracy of their observations.
    2. For centuries, transits of Venus have drawn explorers and astronomers alike to the four corners of the globe. And you can put it all down to the extraordinary polymath Edmond Halley. In November 1677, Halley observed a transit of the innermost planet Mercury, from the desolate island of St Helena in the South Pacific. He realized that from different latitudes, the passage of the planet across the Sun’s disc would appear to differ. By timing the transit from two widely-separated locations, teams of astronomers could calculate the parallax angle – the apparent difference in position of an astronomical body due to a difference in the observer’s position. Calculating this angle would allow astronomers to measure what was then the ultimate goal; the distance of the Earth from the Sun. This distance is known as the ‘astronomical unit` or AU.
    3. Halley was aware that the AU was one of the most fundamental of all astronomical measurements. Johannes Kepler, in the early 17th century, had shown that the distances of the planets from the Sun governed their orbital speeds, which were easily measurable. But no-one had found a way to calculate accurate distances to the planets from the Earth. The goal was to measure the AU; then, knowing the orbital speeds of all the other planets round the Sun, the scale of the Solar System would fall into place. However, Halley realized that Mercury was so far away that its parallax angle would be very difficult to determine. As Venus was closer to the Earth, its parallax angle would be larger and Halley worked out that by using Venus it would be possible to measure the Sun`s distance to 1 part in 500. But there was a problem: transits of Venus, unlike those of Mercury; are rare, occurring in pairs roughly eight years apart every hundred or so years. Nevertheless, he accurately predicted that Venus would cross the face of the Sun in both 1761 and 1769 – though he didn`t survive to see either.
    4. Inspired by Halley’s suggestion of a way to pin down the scale of the Solar System, teams of British and French astronomers set out on expeditions to places as diverse as India and Siberia. But things weren’t helped by Britain and France being at war. The person who deserves most sympathy is the French astronomer Guillaume Le Gentil. He was thwarted by the fact that the British were besieging his observation site at Pondicherry in India. Fleeing on a French warship crossing the Indian Ocean, Le Gentil saw a wonderful transit – but the ship`s pitching and rolling ruled out any attempt at making accurate observations. Undaunted, he remained south of the equator, keeping himself busy by studying the islands of Mauritius and Madagascar before setting off to observe the next transit in the Philippines. Ironically after travelling nearly 50,000 kilometres, his view was clouded out at the last moment, a very dispiriting experience.
    5. While the early transit timings were as precise as instruments would allow the measurements were dogged by the ‘black drop’ effect. When Venus begins to cross the Sun’s disc, it looks smeared not circular – which makes it difficult to establish timings. This is due to diffraction of light. The second problem is that Venus exhibits a halo of light when it is seen just outside the Sun’s disc. While this showed astronomers that Venus was surrounded by a thick layer of gases refracting sunlight around it, both effects made it impossible to obtain accurate timings.
    6. But astronomers labored hard to analyze the results of these expeditions to observe Venus transits. Jonathan Franz Encke, Director of the Belin Observatory, finally determined a value for the AU based on all these parallax measurements: 153340,000 km. Reasonably accurate for the time, that is quite close to today’s value of 149,597,870 km, determined by radar, which has now superseded transits and all other methods in accuracy. The AU is a cosmic measuring rod, and the basis of how we scale the Universe today. The parallax principle can be extended to measure the distances to the stars. If we look at a star in January – when Earth is at one point in its orbit – it will seem to be in a different position from where it appears six months later. Knowing the width of Earth`s orbit, the parallax shift lets astronomers calculate the distance.
    7. June 2004’s transit of Venus was thus more of an astronomical spectacle than a scientifically important event. But such transits have paved the way for what might prove to be one of the most vital breakthroughs in the cosmos – detecting Earth-sized planets orbiting other stars.
    Questions 14-17

    Reading Passage 2 has seven paragraphs, A-G.

    Which paragraph contains the following information?

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

    1. examples of different ways in which the parallax principle has been applied
    2. a description of an event which prevented a transit observation
    3. a statement about potential future discoveries leading on from transit observations
    4. a description of physical states connected with Venus which early astronomical instruments failed to overcome
    Questions 18-21

    Look at the following statements (Questions 18-21) and the list of people below.

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

    Write the correct letter A, B, C or D. in boxes 18-21 on your answer sheet.

    1. He calculated the distance of the Sun from the Earth based on observations of Venus with a fair degree of accuracy.
    2. He understood that the distance of the Sun from the Earth could be worked out by comparing observations of a transit.
    3. He realized that the time taken by a planet to go round the Sun depends on its distance from the Sun.
    4. He witnessed a Venus transit but was unable to make any calculations.

    List of People

    1. Edmond Halley
    2. Johannes Kepler
    3. Guillaume Le Gentil
    4. Johann Franz Encke
    Questions 22-26

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

    Write answers in boxes 22-26 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. Halley observed one transit of the planet Venus.
    2. Le Gentil managed to observe a second Venus transit.
    3. The shape of Venus appears distorted when it starts to pass in front of the Sun.
    4. Early astronomers suspected that the atmosphere on Venus was toxic.
    5. The parallax principle allows astronomers to work out how far away distant stars are from the Earth.

    Reading Passage 3

    A Neuroscientist Reveals How to Think Differently

    In the last decade, a revolution has occurred in the way that scientists think about the brain. We now know that the decisions humans make can be traced to the firing patterns of neurons in specific parts of the brain. These discoveries have led to the field known as neuroeconomics, which studies the brain’s secrets to success in an economic environment that demands innovation and being able to do things differently from competitors. A brain that can do this is an iconoclastic one. Briefly, an iconociost is a person who does something that others say can’t be done.

    This definition implies that iconoclasts are different from other people, but more precisely, it is their brains that are different in three distinct ways: perception, fear response, and social intelligence. Each of these three functions utilizes a different circuit in the brain. Naysayers might suggest that the brain is irrelevant, that thinking in an original, even revolutionary way is more a matter of personality than brain function. But the field of neuroeconomics was born out of the realization that the physical workings of the brain place limitations on the way we make decisions. By understanding these constraints, we begin to understand why some people march to a different drumbeat.

    The first thing to realize is that the brain suffers from limited resources. It has a fixed energy budget, about the same as a 40 watt light bulb, so it has evolved to work as efficiently as possible. This is where most people are impeded from being an iconoclast. For example, when confronted with information streaming from the eyes, the brain will interpret this information in the quickest way possible. Thus it will draw on both past experience and any other source of information, such as what other people say, to make sense of what it is seeing. This happens all the time. The brain takes shortcuts that work so well we are hardly ever aware of them. We think our perceptions of the world are real, but they are only biological and electrical rumblings. Perception is not simply a product of what your eyes or ears transmit to your brain. More than the physical reality of photons or sound waves, perception is a product of the brain.

    Perception is central to iconoclasm. Iconoclasts see things differently to other people. Their brains do not fall into efficiency pitfalls as much as the average person’s brain. Iconoclasts, either because they were born that way or through learning, have found ways to work around the perceptual shortcuts that plague most people. Perception is not something that is hardwired into the brain. It is a learned process, which is both a curse and an opportunity for change. The brain faces the fundamental problem of interpreting physical stimuli from the senses.

    Everything the brain sees, hears, or touches has multiple interpretations. The one that is ultimately chosen is simply the brain’s best theory. ln technical terms, these conjectures have their basis in the statistical likelihood of one interpretation over another and are heavily influenced by past experience and, importantly for potential iconoclasts what other people say.

    The best way to see things differently to other people is to bombard the brain with things it has never encountered before. Novelty releases the perceptual process from the chains of past experience and forces the brain to make new judgments. Successful iconoclasts have an extraordinary willingness to be exposed to what is fresh and different. Observation of iconoclasts shows that they embrace novelty while most people avoid things that are different.

    The problem with novelty, however, is that it tends to trigger the brain’s fear system. Fear is a major impediment to thinking like an iconoclast and stops the average person in his tracks. There are many types of fear, but the two that inhibit iconoclastic thinking and people generally find difficult to deal with are fear of uncertainty and fear of public ridicule. These may seem like trivial phobias. But fear of public speaking, which everyone must do from time to time, afflicts one-third of the population. This makes it too common to be considered a mental disorder. It is simply a common variant of human nature, one which iconoclasts do not let inhibit their reactions.

    Finally, to be successful iconoclasts, individuals must sell their ideas to other people. This is where social intelligence comes in. Social intelligence is the ability to understand and manage people in a business setting. ln the last decade, there has been an explosion of knowledge about the social brain and how the brain works when groups coordinate decision making. Neuroscience has revealed which brain circuits are responsible for functions like understanding what other people think, empathy, fairness, and social identity. These brain regions play key roles in whether people convince others of their ideas. Perception is important in social cognition too. The perception of someone’s enthusiasm, or reputation, can make or break a deal. Understanding how perception becomes intertwined with social decision making shows why successful iconoclasts are so rare.

    Iconoclasts create new opportunities in every area from artistic expression to technology to business They supply creativity and innovation not easily accomplished by committees. Rules aren’t important to them. Iconoclasts face alienation and failure, but can also be a major asset to any organization. It is crucial for success in any field to understand how the iconoclastic mind works.

    Questions 27-31

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

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

    1. Neuroeconomics is a field of study which seeks to
      1. cause a change in how scientists understand brain chemistry.
      2. understand how good decisions are made in the brain.
      3. understand how the brain is linked to achievement in competitive fields.
      4. trace the specific firing patterns of neurones in different areas of the brain.
    2. According to the writer, iconoclasts are distinctive because
      1. they create unusual brain circuits.
      2. their brains function differently.
      3. their personalities are distinctive.
      4. they make decisions easily.
    3. According to the writer, the brain works efficiently because
      1. it uses the eyes quickly.
      2. it interprets data logically.
      3. it generates its own energy.
      4. it relies on previous events.
    4. The writer says that perception is
      1. combination of photons and sound waves.
      2. reliable product of what your senses transmit.
      3. result of brain processes.
      4. process we are usually conscious of.
    5. According to the writer an iconoclastic thinker
      1. centralizes perceptual thinking in one part of the brain.
      2. avoids cognitive traps.
      3. has a brain that is hardwired for learning.
      4. has more opportunities than the average person.
    Questions 32-37

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

    In boxes 32-37 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 is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
    1. Exposure to different events forces the brain to think differently.
    2. iconoclasts are unusually receptive to new experiences.
    3. Most people are too shy to try different things.
    4. If you think in an iconoclastic way, you can easily overcome fear.
    5. When concern about embarrassment matters less, other fears become irrelevant.
    6. Fear of public speaking is a psychological illness.
    Questions 38-40

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

    Write the correct letter A-E, in boxes 38-40 on your answer sheet.

    1. Thinking like a successful iconoclast is demanding because it.
    2. The concept of the social brain is useful to iconoclasts because it.
    3. Iconoclasts are generally an asset because their way of thinking.
      1. requires both perceptual and social intelligence skills.
      2. focuses on how groups decide on an action.
      3. works in many fields, both artistic and scientific.
      4. eaves one open to criticism and rejection.
      5. involves understanding how organizations manage people.
    Reading Passage 1 Children With Auditory Problems Answers
    1. H
    2. C
    3. B
    4. I
    5. D
    6. A
    7. two decades
    8. crowd (noise)
    9. invisible (disabilities)
    10. objective 3
    11. A
    12. C
    13. C
    Reading Passage 2 Venus in Transit Answers
    1. F
    2. D
    3. G
    4. E
    5. D
    6. A
    7. B
    8. C
    9. false
    10. false
    11. true
    12. not given
    13. true
    Reading Passage 3 A Neuroscientist Reveals How to Think Differently Answers
    1. C
    2. B
    3. D
    4. C
    5. B
    6. yes
    7. yes
    8. not given
    9. no
    10. not given
    11. no
    12. A
    13. B
    14. C

  • Cambridge IELTS 9 Academic Reading Test 1

    Reading Passage 1

    William Henry Perkin

    The man who invented synthetic dyes

    William Henry Perkin was born on March 12, 1838, in London, England. As a boy, Perkin’s curiosity prompted early interests in the arts, sciences, photography, and engineering. But it was a chance stumbling upon a run-down, yet functional, laboratory in his late grandfather’s home that solidified the young man`s enthusiasm for chemistry. 

    As a student at the City of London School, Perkin became immersed in the study of chemistry. His talent and devotion to the subject were perceived by his teacher, Thomas Hall, who encouraged him to attend a series of lectures given by the eminent scientist Michael Faraday at the Royal Institution. Those speeches tired the young chemist`s enthusiasm further, and he later went on to attend the Royal College of Chemistry, which he succeeded in entering in 1853, at the age of 15. 

    At the time of Perkin’s enrollment, the Royal College of Chemistry was headed by the noted German chemist August Wilhelm Hofmann. Perkin’s scientific gifts soon caught Hofmann’s attention and within two years, he became Hofmann’s youngest assistant. Not long after that, Perkin made the scientific breakthrough that would bring him both fame and fortune.

    At the time, quinine was the only viable medical treatment for malaria. The drug is derived from the bark of the cinchona tree, native to South America and by 1856 demand for the drug was surpassing the available supply. Thus, when Hofmann made some passing comments about the desirability of a synthetic substitute for quinine, it was unsurprising that his star pupil was moved to take up the challenge. 

    During his vacation in 1856, Perkin spent his time in the laboratory on the top floor of his family’s house. He was attempting to manufacture quinine from aniline, an inexpensive and readily available coal tar waste product. Despite his best efforts, however, he did not end up with quinine. Instead, he produced a mysterious dark sludge. Luckily, Perkins’s scientific training and nature prompted him to investigate the substance further. Incorporating potassium dichromate and alcohol into the aniline at various stages of the experimental process, he finally produced a deep purple solution. And, proving the truth of the famous scientist Louis Pasteur’s words ‘chance favors only the prepared mind’. Perkin saw the potential of his unexpected find.

    Historically, textile dyes were made from such natural sources as plants and animal excretions. Some of these, such as the glandular mucus of snails, were difficult to obtain and outrageously expensive. Indeed, the purple colour extracted from a snail was once so costly that in society at the time only the rich could afford it. Further, natural dyes tended to be muddy in hue and fade quickly. It was against this backdrop that Perkin‘s discovery was made.

    Perkin quickly grasped that his purple solution could be used to colour fabric, thus making it the world’s first synthetic dye. Realising the importance of this breakthrough, he lost no time in patenting it. But perhaps the most fascinating of all Perkin`s reactions to his find was his nearly instant recognition that the new dye had commercial possibilities.

    Perkin originally named his dye Tyrian Purple, but it later became commonly known as mauve (from the French for the plant used to make the colour violet). He asked advice of Scottish dye works owner Robert Pullar, who assured him that manufacturing the dye would be well worth it if the colour remained fast (i.e. would not fade) and the cost was relatively low. So, over the fierce objections of his mentor Hofmann, he left college to give birth to the modern chemical industry.

    With the help of his father and brother, Perkin set up a factory not far from London. Utilizing the cheap and plentiful coal tar that was an almost unlimited byproduct of London’s gas street lighting, the dye works began producing the world’s first synthetically dyed material in 1857. The company received a commercial boost from the Empress Eugenio of France, when she decided the new color flattered her. Very soon, mauve was the necessary shade for all the fashionable ladies in that country. Not to be outdone, England`s Queen Victoria also appeared in public wearing a mauve gown, thus making it all the rage in England as well. The dye was bold and fast, and the public clamoured for more. Perkin went back to the drawing board.

    Although Perkins fame was achieved and fortune assured by his first discovery, the chemist continued his research. Among other dyes he developed and introduced were aniline red (1859) and aniline black (1863) and in the late 1860s, Perkin’s green. It is important to note that Perkin’s synthetic dye discoveries had outcomes far beyond the merely decorative. The dyes also became vital to medical research in many ways. For instance, they were used to stain previously invisible microbes and bacteria,  allowing researchers to identify such bacilli as tuberculosis, cholera, and anthrax. Artificial dyes continue to play a crucial role today. And, in what would have been particularly pleasing to Perkin, their current use is in the search for a vaccine against malaria.

    Question 1-7

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

    In boxes 1-7 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. Michael Faraday was the first person to recognize Perkin’s ability as a student of chemistry.
    2. Michael Faraday suggested Perkin should enroll in the Royal College of Chemistry.
    3. Perkin employed August Wilhelm Hofmann as his assistant.
    4. Perkin was still young when he made the discovery that made him rich and famous.
    5. The trees from which quinine is derived grow only in South America.
    6. Perkin hoped to manufacture a drug from a coal tar waste product.
    7. Perkin was inspired by the discoveries of the famous scientist Louis Pasteur.
    Question 8-13

    Answer the Questions below:

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

    Write your answers in boxes 8-13 on your answer sheet.

    1. Before Perkin’s discovery, with what group in society was the colour purple associated?
    2. What potential did Perkin immediately understand that his new dye had?
    3. What was the name finally used to refer to the first color Perkin invented?
    4. What was the name of the person Perkin consulted before setting up his own dye works?
    5. In what country did Perkins newly invented colour first become fashionable?
    6. According to the passage, which disease is now being targeted by researchers using synthetic dyes?

    Reading Passage 2

    Is there anybody out there?

    The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence

    The question of whether we are alone in the Universe has haunted humanity for centuries, but we may now stand poised on the brink of the answer to that question, as we search for radio signals from other intelligent civilizations. This search is often known by the acronym SETI [search for extraterrestrial intelligence], is a difficult one. Although groups around the world have been searching intermittently for three decades, it is only now that we have reached the level of technology where we can make a determined attempt to search all nearby stars for any sign of life.

    A The primary reason for the search is basic curiosity – the same curiosity about the natural world that drives all pure science. We want to know whether we are alone in the Universe. We want to know whether life evolves naturally if given the right conditions, or whether there is something very special about the Earth to have fostered the variety of life forms that we see around us on the planet. The simple detection of a radio signal will be sufficient to answer this most basic of all questions. In this sense, SETI is another cog in the machinery of pure science which is continually pushing out the horizon of our knowledge. However, there are other reasons for being interested in whether life exists elsewhere. For example, we have had civilization on Earth for perhaps only a few thousand years, and the threats of nuclear war and pollution over the last few decades have told us that our survival may be tenuous. Will we last another two thousand years or will we wipe ourselves out? Since the lifetime of a planet like ours is several billion years, we can expect that if other civilizations do survive in our galaxy, their ages will range from zero to several billion years. Thus any other civilization that we hear from is likely to be far older on average than ourselves. The mere existence of such a civilization will tell of that long-term survival is possible, and gives us some cause for optimism. It is even possible that the older civilization may pass on the benefits of their experience in dealing with threats to survival such as nuclear war and global pollution, and other threats that we haven’t yet discovered.

    B In discussing whether we are alone, most SETI scientists adopt two ground rules. First. UFOs [Unidentified Flying objects] are generally ignored since most scientists don`t consider the evidence for them to be strong enough to bear serious consideration (although it is also important to keep an open mind in case any really convincing evidence emerges in the future). Second, we make a very conservative assumption that we are looking for a life form that is pretty well like us, since if it differs radically from us we may well not recognize it as a life form, quite apart from whatever  we are able to communicate with it. In other words, the life form we are looking for may well have two green heads and seven fingers, but it will nevertheless resemble us in that it should communicate with its fellows. Be interested in the Universe, Live on a planet orbiting a star like our Sun, and perhaps most restrictively have chemistry, like us, based on carbon and water.

    C Even when we make these assumptions. our understanding of other life forms is still severely limited. We do not even know. for example, how many stars have planets, and we certainly do not know how likely it is that life will arise naturally,  given the right conditions. However, when we look at the 100 billion stars in our galaxy [the Milky Way], and 100 billion galaxies. In the observable Universe, It seems inconceivable that at least one of these planets does not have a life form on it; in fact, the best educated guess we can make using the little that we do know about the conditions for carbon-based life, leads us to estimate that perhaps one in 100,000 stars might have a life-bearing planet orbiting it. That means that our nearest neighbors are perhaps 1000 light years away. which is almost next door in astronomical terms.

    D An alien civilization could choose many different ways of sending information across the galaxy, but many of these either require too much energy. or else are severely attenuated while traversing the vast distances across the galaxy. It bums out that. for a given amount of transmitted power: radio waves in the frequency range 1000 to 3000 MHz travel the greatest distance. and so all searches to date have concentrated on looking for radio waves in this frequency range. So far there have been a number of searches by various groups around the world, including Australian searches using the radio telescope at Parkes, New South Wales. Until now there have not been any detections from the few hundred stars which have been searched. The scale of the searches has been increased dramatically since 1992, when the US Congress voted NASA $10 million per year for ten years to conduct a thorough search for extra-terrestrial life. Much of the money in this project is being spent on developing the special hardware needed to search many frequencies at once. The project has two parts. One part is a targeted search using the world’s largest radio telescopes. The American-operated telescope in Arecibo. Puerto Rico and the French telescope in Nancy in France. This part of the project is searching the nearest 1000 likely stars with a high sensibility for signals in the frequency range 1000 to 3000 MHz. The other parts of the project is an undirected search which is monitoring all of the space with a lower using the smaller antennas of NASA`s Deep Space Network.


    E There is considerable debate over how we should react if we detect a signal from an alien civilization. Everybody agrees that we should not reply immediately. Quite apart from the impracticality of sending e reply over such large distances at short notice, it raises a host of ethical questions that would have to be addressed by the global community before any reply could be sent. Would the human race face the culture shock if faced with a superior and much older civilization? Luckily, there is no urgency about this. The stars being searched are hundreds of light years away. so it takes hundreds of years for their signal to reach us, and a further few hundred years for our reply to reach them. It is not important, then, if there`s a delay of a few years, or decades, while the human race debates the question of whether to reply and perhaps carefully drafts a reply.

    Questions 14—17

    Reading Passage 2 has five paragraphs, A-E.

    Choose the correct heading for paragraphs B-E from the headings below.

    Write the correct number, i-vii, in boxes 14-17 on your answer sheet.

    List of Headings

    1. Seeking the transmission of radio signals from planets
    2. Appropriate responses to signals from other civilizations
    3. Vast distances to Earth’s closest neighbors
    4. Assumptions underlying the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence
    5. Reasons for the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence
    6. Knowledge of extra-terrestrial life forms
    7. Likelihood of life on other planets

    Example Answer

    Paragraph A answer V
    1. Paragraph B
    2. Paragraph C
    3. Paragraph D
    4. Paragraph E
    Question 18-20

    Answer the Questions Below.

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

    Write your answers in boxes 18-20 on your answer sheet.

    1. What is the life expectancy of Earth?
    2. What kind of signals from other intelligent civilizations are SETI scientists searching for?
    3. How many stars are the world’s most powerful radio telescopes searching?
    Questions 22-26
    • 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. Alien civilizations may be able to help the human race to overcome serious problems
    2. SETI scientists are trying to find a life form that resembles humans in many ways.
    3. The Americans and Australians have co-operated on joint research projects.
    4. So far SETI scientists have picked up radio signals from several stars.
    5. The NASA project attracted criticism from some members of Congress.
    6. If a signal from outer space is received, it will be important to respond promptly.

    Reading Passage 3

    The History of The Tortoise

    If you go back far enough, everything lived in the sea. At various points in evolutionary history, enterprising individuals within many different animal groups moved out onto the land, sometimes even to the most parched deserts, taking their own private seawater with them in blood and cellular fluids. In addition to the reptiles, birds, mammals and insects which we see all around us, other groups that have succeeded out of water include scorpions, snails, crustaceans such as woodlice and land crabs, millipedes and centipedes, spiders and various worms. And we mustn’t forget the plants, without whose prior invasion of the land none of the other migrations could have happened.

    Moving from water to land involved a major redesign of every aspect of life, including breathing and reproduction. Nevertheless, a good number of thoroughgoing land animals later turned around, abandoned their hard-earned terrestrial re-tooling, and returned to the water again. Seals have only gone part way back. They show us what the intermediates might have been like, on the way to extreme cases such as whales and dugongs. Whales (including the small whales we call dolphins) and dugongs, with their close cousins the manatees, ceased to be land creatures altogether and reverted to the full marine habits of their remote ancestors. They don’t even come ashore to breed. They do, however, still breathe air, having never developed anything equivalent to the gills of their earlier marine incarnation. Turtles went back to the sea a very long time ago and, like all vertebrate returnees to the water, they breathe air. However, they are, in one respect, less fully given back to the water than whales or dugongs, for turtles still lay their eggs on beaches. 

    There is evidence that all modem turtles are descended from a terrestrial ancestor which lived before most of the dinosaurs. There are two key fossils called Progaochelys quenstedtiand Palaeochersis talampayensis dating from early dinosaur times, which appear to be close to the ancestry of all modem turtles and tortoises. You might wonder how we can tell whether fossil animals lived on land or in water, especially if only fragments are found. Sometimes it`s obvious. Ichthyosarus were reptilian contemporaries of the dinosaurs, with fins and streamlined bodies. The fossils look like dolphins and they surely lived like dolphins, in the water. With turtles it is a little less obvious. One way to tell is by measuring the bones of their forelimbs.

    Walter Joyce and Jacques Gauthier, at Yale University, obtained three measurements in these particular bones of 71 species of living turtles and tortoises. They used a kind of triangular graph paper to plot the three measurements against one another. All the land tortoise species formed a tight cluster of points in the upper part of the triangle; all the water turtles cluster in the lower part of the triangular graph. There was no overlap, except when they added some species that spend time both in water and on land. Sure enough, these amphibious species show up on the triangular graph approximately half way between the ‘wet cluster’ of sea turtles and the ‘dry cluster’ of land tortoises. ‘The next step was to determine where the fossil fell. The bones of P quenstedti and P. talampayensis leave us in no doubt. Their points on the graph are right in the thick of the dry cluster. Both these fossils were dry-land tortoises. They come from the era before our turtles returned to the water.

    You might think, therefore, that modem land tortoises have probably stayed on land ever since those early terrestrial times, as most mammals did after a few of them went back to the sea. But apparently not. If you draw out the family tree of all modern turtles and tortoises, nearly all the branches are aquatic. Today’s land tortoises constitute a single branch, deeply nested among branches consisting of aquatic turtles. This suggests that modern land tortoises have not stayed on land continuously since the time of P. quenstedti and P. talampayensis. Rather, their ancestors were among those who went back to the water, and they then re-emerged back onto the land in (relatively) more recent times.

    Tortoises therefore represent a remarkable double return. In common with all mammals, reptiles and birds, their remote ancestors were marine fish and before that various more or less worm-like creatures stretching back, still in the sea, to the primeval bacteria. Later ancestors lived on land and stayed there for a very large number of generations. Later ancestors still evolved back into the water and became sea turtles. And finally, they returned yet again to the land as tortoises, some of which now live in the driest of deserts.

    Questions 27-30

    Answer the questions below.

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

    Write your answers in boxes 27-30 on your answer sheet.

    1. What had to transfer from sea to land before any animals could migrate?
    2. Which TWO processes are mentioned as those in which animals had to make big changes as they moved onto land?
    3. Which physical feature possessed by their ancestors, do whales lack?
    4. Which animals might ichthyosaurs have resembled?
    Questions 31-33

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

    In boxes 31-33 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. Turtles were among the first group of animals to migrate back to the sea.
    2. It is always difficult to determine where an animal lived when its fossilized remains are incomplete.
    3. The habitat of ichthyosaurs can be determined by the appearance of their fossilized remains.
    Questions 34-39

    Complete the flow-chart  below

    Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.

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

    Method of determining where the ancestors of turtles and tortoises come from

    Step 1: 7 species of living turtles and tortoises were examined and a total of (34)…………….were taken from the bones of their forelimbs.

    Arrow Down

    Step 2: The data was recorded on a (35)………………. (necessary for comparing the information). Outcome: Land tortoises were represented by a dense (36)……………… of points towards the top. Sea turtles were grouped together in the bottom part.

    Arrow Down

    Step 3: The same data was collected from some living (37)……………… species and added to the other results. Outcome: The points for these species turned out to be positioned about (38)……………… up the triangle between the land tortoises and the sea turtles.

    Arrow Down

    Step 4: Bones of R quenstedti and P talampayensis were examined in a similar way and the results added.Outcome: The position of the points indicated that both these ancient creatures were (39)………………….

    Questions 40

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

    Write the correct letter in box 40 on your answer sheet.

    According to the writer, the most significant thing about tortoises is that

    1. they are able to adapt to life in extremely dry environments.
    2. their original life form was a kind of primeval bacteria,
    3. they have so much in common with sea turtles.
    4. they have made the transition from sea to land more than once.
    Reading Passage 1 William Henry Perkin Answers
    1. false
    2. not given
    3. false
    4. true
    5. not given
    6. true
    7. not given
    8. rich
    9. commercial
    10. mauve
    11. Robert Pullar
    12. France
    13. malaria
    Reading Passage 2 Is there anybody out there? Answers
    1. iv
    2. vii
    3. i
    4. ii
    5. several billion years
    6. radio (waves)
    7. 1000 (stars)
    8. true
    9. true
    10. not given
    11. false
    12. not given
    13. false
    Reading Passage 3 The History of The Tortoise Answers
    1. plants
    2. breathing and reproduction
    3. gills
    4. dolphins
    5. not given
    6. false
    7. true
    8. 3 measurements
    9. (triangular) graph
    10. cluster
    11. amphibious
    12. half way
    13. dry land tortoises
    14. D

  • Cambridge IELTS 8 Academic Reading Test 4

    Reading Passage 1

    Land of the rising sum

    A Japan has a significantly better record in terms of average mathematical attainment than England and Wales. Large sample international comparisons of pupils’ attainments since the 1960s have established that not only did Japanese pupils at age 13 have better scores of average attainment, but there was also a larger proportion of ‘low’ attainers in England, where, incidentally, the variation in attainment scores was much greater. The percentage of Gross National Product spent on education is reasonably similar in the two countries, so how is this higher and more consistent attainment in maths achieved?

    B Lower secondary schools in Japan cover three school years, from the seventh grade (age 13) to the ninth grade (age 15). Virtually all pupils at this stage attend state schools: only 3 per cent are in the private sector. Schools are usually modern in design, set well back from the road and spacious inside. Classrooms are large and pupils sit at single desks in rows. Lessons last for a standardised 50 minutes and are always followed by a 10-minute break, which gives the pupils a chance to let off steam. Teachers begin with a formal address and mutual bowing, and then concentrate on whole-class teaching.

    Classes are large — usually, about 40 — and are unstreamed. Pupils stay in the same class for all lessons throughout the school and develop considerable class identity and loyalty. Pupils attend the school in their own neighbourhood, which in theory removes ranking by school. In practice in Tokyo, because of the concentration of schools, there is some competition to get into the ‘better’ school in a particular area.

    C Traditional ways of teaching form the basis of the lesson and the remarkably quiet classes take their own notes of the points made and the examples demonstrated. Everyone has their own copy of the textbook supplied by the central education authority, Monbusho, as part of the concept of free compulsory education up to the age of 15. 

    These textbooks are, on the whole, small, presumably inexpensive to produce, but well set out and logically developed. (One teacher was particularly keen to introduce colour and pictures into maths textbooks: he felt this would make them more accessible to pupils brought up in a cartoon culture). Besides approving textbooks, Monbusho also decides the highly centralised national curriculum and how it is to be delivered.

    D Lessons all follow the same pattern. At the beginning, the pupils put solutions to the homework on the board, then the teachers comment, correct or elaborate as necessary. Pupils mark their own homework: this is an important principle in Japanese schooling as it enables pupils to see where and why they made a mistake, so that these can be avoided in future. No one minds mistakes or ignorance as long as you are prepared to learn from them. After the homework has been discussed, the teacher explains the topic of the lesson, slowly and with a lot of repetition and elaboration. Examples are demonstrated on the board; questions from the textbook are worked through first with the class, and then the class is set questions from the textbook to do individually. Only rarely are supplementary worksheets distributed in a maths class. The impression is that the logical nature of the textbooks and their comprehensive coverage of different types of examples, combined with the relative homogeneity of the class, renders worksheets unnecessary. At this point, the teacher would circulate and make sure that all the pupils were coping well.

    E It is remarkable that large, mixed-ability classes could be kept together for maths throughout all their compulsory schooling from 6 to 15. Teachers say that they give individual help at the end of a lesson or after school, setting extra work if necessary. In observed lessons, any strugglers would be assisted by the teacher or quietly seek help from their neighbour. Carefully fostered class identity makes pupils keen to help each other — anyway, it is in their interests since the class progresses together.

    This scarcely seems adequate help to enable slow learners to keep up. However, the Japanese attitude towards education runs along the lines of ‘if you work hard enough, you can do almost anything’. Parents are kept closely informed of their children’s progress and will play a part in helping their children to keep up with dass, sending them to ‘Juku’ (private evening tuition) if extra help is needed and encouraging them to work harder. It seems to work, at least for 95 per cent of the school population.

    F So what are the major contributing factors in the success of maths teaching? Clearly, attitudes are important. Education is valued greatly in Japanese culture; maths is recognised as an important compulsory subject throughout schooling; and the emphasis is on hard work coupled with a focus on accuracy.

    Other relevant points relate to the supportive attitude of a class towards slower pupils, the lack of competition within a class, and the positive emphasis on learning for oneself and improving one’s own standard. And the view of repetitively boring lessons and learning the facts by heart, which is sometimes quoted in relation to Japanese classes, may be unfair and unjustified. No poor maths lessons were observed. They were mainly good and one or two were inspirational.

    Questions 1-5

    Reading Passage 1 has six sections, A-F.

    Choose the correct heading for sections B-F from the list of headings below.

    Write the correct number, i-ix, in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.

    List of Headings

    1. The influence of Monbusho
    2. Helping less successful students
    3. The success of compulsory education
    4. Research findings concerning achievements in maths
    5. The typical format of a maths lesson
    6. Comparative expenditure on maths education
    7. Background to middle-years education in Japanv
    8. The key to Japanese successes in maths educationix The role of homework correction

    Example Answer

    Section A (answer) iv
    1. Section B
    2. Section C
    3. Section D
    4. Section E
    5. Section F
    Questions 6-9

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

    In boxes 6-9 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. There is a wider range of achievement amongst English pupils studying maths than amongst their Japanese counterparts.
    2. The percentage of Gross National Product spent on education generally reflects the level of attainment in mathematics.
    3. Private schools in Japan are more modern and spacious than state-run lower secondary schools.
    4. Teachers mark homework in Japanese schools.
    Questions 10-13

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

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

    1. Maths textbooks in Japanese schools are
      1. cheap for pupils to buy.
      2. well organised and adapted to the needs of the pupils.
      3. written to be used in conjunction with TV programmes.
      4. not very popular with many Japanese teachers.
    2. When a new maths topic is introduced,
      1. students answer questions on the board.
      2. students rely entirely on the textbook.
      3. it is carefully and patiently explained to the students.
      4. it is usual for students to use extra worksheets.
    3. How do schools deal with students who experience difficulties?
      1. They are given appropriate supplementary tuition.
      2. They are encouraged to copy from other pupils.
      3. They are forced to explain their slow progress.
      4. They are placed in a mixed-ability class.
    4. Why do Japanese students tend to achieve relatively high rates of success in maths?
      1. It is a compulsory subject in Japan.
      2. They are used to working without help from others.
      3. Much effort is made and correct answers are emphasised.
      4. There is a strong emphasis on repetitive learning

    Reading Passage 2

    Biological Control of Pests

    The continuous and reckless use of synthetic chemicals for the control of pests which pose a threat to agricultural crops and human health is proving to be counter-productive. Apart from engendering widespread ecological disorders, pesticides have contributed to the emergence of a new breed of chemical-resistant, highly lethal superbugs.

    According to a recent study by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), more than 300 species of agricultural pests have developed resistance to a wide range of potent chemicals. Not to be left behind are the disease-spreading pests, about 100 species of which have become immune to a variety of insecticides now in use.

    One glaring disadvantage of pesticides’ application is that, while destroying harmful pests, they also wipe out many useful non-targeted organisms, which keep the growth of the pest population in check. This results in what agro-ecologists call the ‘treadmill syndrome’. Because of their tremendous breeding potential and genetic diversity, many pests are known to withstand synthetic chemicals and bear offspring with a built-in resistance to pesticides. 

    The havoc that the `treadmill syndrome’ can bring about is well illustrated by what happened to cotton farmers in Central America. In the early 1940s, basking in the glory of chemical-based intensive agriculture, the farmers avidly took to pesticides as a sure measure to boost crop yield. The insecticide was applied eight times a year in the mid-1940s, rising to 28 in a season in the mid-1950s, following the sudden proliferation of three new varieties of chemical-resistant pests. 

    By the mid-1960s, the situation took an alarming turn with the outbreak of four more new pests, necessitating pesticide spraying to such an extent that 50% of the financial outlay on cotton production was accounted for by pesticides. In the early 1970s, the spraying frequently reached 70 times a season as the farmers were pushed to the wall by the invasion of genetically stronger insect species.

    Most of the pesticides in the market today remain inadequately tested for properties that cause cancer and mutations as well as for other adverse effects on health, says a study by United States environmental agencies. The United States National Resource Defense Council has found that DDT was the most popular of a long list of dangerous chemicals in use.

    In the face of the escalating perils from indiscriminate applications of pesticides, a more effective and ecologically sound strategy of biological control, involving the selective use of natural enemies of the pest population, is fast gaining popularity — though, as yet, it is a new field with limited potential. The advantage of biological control in contrast to other methods is that it provides a relatively low-cost, perpetual control system with a minimum of detrimental side-effects. When handled by experts, bio-control is safe, non-polluting and self-dispersing. 

    The Commonwealth Institute of Biological Control (CIBC) in Bangalore, with its global network of research laboratories and field stations, is one of the most active, non-commercial research agencies engaged in pest control by setting natural predators against parasites. CIBC also serves as a clearing-house for the export and import of biological agents for pest control worldwide.

    CIBC successfully used a seed-feeding weevil, native to Mexico, to control the obnoxious parthenium weed, known to exert devious influence on agriculture and human health in both India and Australia. Similarly, the Hyderabad-based Regional Research Laboratory (RRL), supported by CIBC, is now trying out an Argentinian weevil for the eradication of water hyacinth, another dangerous weed, which has become a nuisance in many parts of the world. According to Mrs Kaiser Jamil of RRL, `The Argentinian weevil does not attack any other plant and a pair of adult bugs could destroy the weed in 4-5 days.’ CIBC is also perfecting the technique for breeding parasites that prey on ‘disapene scale’ insects — notorious defoliants of fruit trees in the US and India.

    How effectively biological control can be pressed into service is proved by the following examples. In the late 1960s, when Sri Lanka’s flourishing coconut groves were plagued by leaf-mining hispides, a larval parasite imported from Singapore brought the pest under control. A natural predator indigenous to India, Neodumetia sangawani, was found useful in controlling the Rhodes grass-scale insect that was devouring forage grass in many parts of the US. By using Neochetina bruci, a beetle native to Brazil, scientists at Kerala Agricultural University freed a 12-kilometre long canal from the clutches of the weed Salvinia molesta, popularly called `African Payal’ in Kerala. About 30,000 hectares of rice fields in Kerala are infested by this weed.

    Questions 14-17

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

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

    1. The use of pesticides has contributed to
      1. a change in the way ecologies are classified by agroecologists.
      2. an imbalance in many ecologies around the world.
      3. the prevention of ecological disasters in some parts of the world.
      4. an increase in the range of ecologies which can be usefully farmed.
    2. The Food and Agriculture Organisation has counted more than 300 agricultural pests which
      1. are no longer responding to most pesticides in use
      2. can be easily controlled through the use of pesticides.
      3. continue to spread disease in a wide range of crops.
      4. may be used as part of bio-control’s replacement of pesticides.
    3. Cotton farmers in Central America began to use pesticides
      1. because of an intensive government advertising campaign.
      2. in response to the appearance of new varieties of pest.
      3. as a result of changes in the seasons and the climate.
      4. to ensure more cotton was harvested from each crop.
    4. By the mid-1960s, cotton farmers in Central America found that pesticides
      1. were wiping out 50% of the pests plaguing the crops.
      2. were destroying 50% of the crops they were meant to protect.
      3. were causing a 50% increase in the number of new pests reported.
      4. were costing 50% of the total amount they spent on their crops.
    Questions 18-21

    Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 2?

    In boxes 18-21 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. Disease-spreading pests respond more quickly to pesticides than agricultural pests do.
    2. A number of pests are now born with an innate immunity to some pesticides.
    3. Biological control entails using synthetic chemicals to try and change thff genetic make-up of the pests’ offspring.
    4. Bio-control is free from danger under certain circumstances.
    Questions 22-26

    Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A—I, below.

    Write the correct letter, A—I, in boxes 22-26 on your answer sheet.

    1. Disapene scale insects feed on
    2. Neodumetia sangawani ate
    3. Leaf-mining hispides blighted
    4. An Argentinian weevil may be successful in wiping out
    5. Salvinia molesta plagues
    1. forage grass.
    2. rice fields.
    3. coconut trees.
    4. fruit trees.
    5. water hyacinth.
    6. parthenium weed.
    7. Brazilian beetles.
    8. grass-scale insects.
    9. larval parasites.

    Reading Passage 3

    Collecting Ant Specimens

    Collecting ants can be as simple as picking up stray ones and placing them in a glass jar, or as complicated as completing an exhaustive survey of all species present in an area and estimating their relative abundances. The exact method used will depend on the final purpose of the collections. For taxonomy or classification, long series, from a single nest, which contain all castes (workers, including majors and minors, and, if present, queens and males) are desirable, to allow the determination of variation within species. For ecological studies, the most important factor is collecting identifiable samples of as many of the different species present as possible. Unfortunately, these methods are not always compatible. The taxonomist sometimes overlooks whole species in favour of those groups currently under study, while the ecologist often collects only a limited number of specimens of each species, thus reducing their value for taxonomic investigations. 

    To collect as wide a range of species as possible, several methods must be used. These include hand collecting, using baits to attract the ants, ground litter sampling, and the use of pitfall traps. Hand collecting consists of searching for ants everywhere they are likely to occur. This includes on the ground, under rocks, logs or other objects on the ground, in rotten wood on the ground or on trees, in vegetation, on tree trunks and under bark. When possible, collections should be made from nests or foraging columns, and at least 20 to 25 individuals collected. This will ensure that all individuals are of the same species, and so increase their value for detailed studies. Since some species are largely nocturnal, collecting should not be confined to daytime. Specimens are collected using an aspirator (often called a pooter), forceps, a fine, moistened paint brush, or fingers, if the ants are known not to sting. Individual insects are placed in plastic or glass tubes (1.5-3.0 ml capacity for small ants, 5-8 ml for larger ants) containing 75% to 95% ethanol. Plastic tubes with secure tops are better than glass because they are lighter, and do not break as easily if mishandled.

    Baits can be used to attract and concentrate foragers. This often increases the number of individuals collected and attracts species that are otherwise elusive. Sugars and meats or oils will attract different species and a range should be utilised. These baits can be placed either on the ground or on the trunks of trees or large shrubs. When placed on the ground, baits should be situated on small paper cards or other flat, light-coloured surfaces, or in test-tubes or vials. This makes it easier to spot ants and to capture them before they can escape into the surrounding leaf litter.

    Many ants are small and forage primarily in the layer of leaves and other debris on the ground. Collecting these species by hand can be difficult. One of the most successful ways to collect them is to gather the leaf litter in which they are foraging and extract the ants from it. This is most commonly done by placing leaf litter on a screen over a large funnel, often under some heat. As the leaf litter dries from above, ants (and other animals) move downward and eventually fall out the bottom and are collected in alcohol placed below the funnel. This method works especially well in rainforests and marshy areas. A method of improving the catch when using a funnel is to sift the leaf litter through a coarse screen before placing it above the funnel. This will concentrate the litter and remove larger leaves and twigs. It will also allow more litter to be sampled when using a limited number of funnels.

    The pitfall trap is another commonly used tool for collecting ants. A pitfall trap can be any small container placed on the ground with the top level with the surrounding surface and filled with a preservative. Ants are collected when they fall into the trap while foraging. The diameter of the traps can vary from about 18 mm to 10 cm and the number used can vary from a few to several hundred. The size of the traps used is influenced largely by personal preference (although larger sizes are generally better), while the number will be determined by the study being undertaken. The preservative used is usually ethylene glycol or propylene glycol, as alcohol will evaporate quickly and the traps will dry out. One advantage of pitfall traps is that they can be used to collect over a period of time with minimal maintenance and intervention. One disadvantage is that some species are not collected as they either avoid the traps or do not commonly encounter them while foraging. 

    Questions 27-30

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

    In boxes 27-30 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. Taxonomic research involves comparing members of one group of ants.
    2. New species of ant are frequently identified by taxonomists.
    3. Range is the key criterion for ecological collections.
    4. A single collection of ants can generally be used for both taxonomic and ecological purposes.
    Questions 31-36

    Classify the following statements as referring to

    1. hand collecting
    2. using bait
    3. sampling ground litter
    4. using a pitfall trap

    Write the correct letter, A, B, C or D, in boxes 31-36 on your answer sheet.

    1. It is preferable to take specimens from groups of ants.
    2. It is particularly effective for wet habitats.
    3. It is a good method for species which are hard to find.
    4. Little time and effort is required.
    5. Separate containers are used for individual specimens.
    6. Non-alcoholic preservative should be used.
    Questions 37-40

    Label the diagram below.

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

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

    Collecting Ant Specimens Question 37-40. A figure for one method of collecting ants.
    Reading Passage 1 Land of the rising sum Answers
    1. vii
    2. i
    3. v
    4. iii
    5. viii
    6. YES
    7. NO
    8. NOT GIVEN
    9. NO
    10. B
    11. C
    12. A
    13. C
    Reading Passage 2 Biological Control of Pests Answers
    1. B
    2. A
    3. D
    4. D
    5. NOT GIVEN
    6. YES
    7. NO
    8. YES
    9. D
    10. H
    11. C
    12. E
    13. B
    Reading Passage 3 Collecting Ant Specimens Answers
    1. TRUE
    2. NOT GIVEN
    3. TRUE
    4. FALSE
    5. A
    6. C
    7. B
    8. D
    9. A
    10. D
    11. heat
    12. leaf litter
    13. screen
    14. alcohol

  • Cambridge IELTS 8 Academic Reading Test 3

    Cambridge IELTS 8 Academic Reading Test 3

    Reading Passage 1

    Striking Back at Lightning With Lasers

    Part of the Image by pexels.com

    Seldom is the weather more dramatic than when thunderstorms strike. Their electrical fury inflicts death or serious injury on around 500 people each year in the United States alone. As the clouds roll in, a leisurely round of golf can become a terrifying dice with death – out in the open, a lone golfer maybe a lightning bolt’s most inviting target. And there is damage to property too. Lightning damage costs American power companies more than $100 million a year.

    But researchers in the United States and Japan are planning to hit back. Already in laboratory trials they have tested strategies for neutralising the power of thunderstorms, and this winter they will brave real storms, equipped with an armoury of lasers that they will be pointing towards the heavens to discharge thunderclouds before lightning can strike.

    The idea of forcing storm clouds to discharge their lightning on command is not new. In the early 1960s, researchers tried firing rockets trailing wires into thunderclouds to set up an easy discharge path for the huge electric charges that these clouds generate. The technique survives to this day at a test site in Florida run by the University of Florida, with support from the Electrical Power Research Institute (EPRI), based in California. EPRI, which is funded by power companies, is looking at ways to protect the United States’ power grid from lightning strikes. ‘We can cause the lightning to strike where we want it by using rockets’: says Ralph Bernstein, manager of lightning projects at EPRI. The rocket site is providing precise measurements of lightning voltages and allowing engineers to check how electrical equipment bears up. 

    Bad behaviour

    But while rockets are fine for research, they cannot provide the protection from lightning strikes that everyone is looking for. The rockets cost around $1,200 each, can only be fired at a limited frequency and their failure rate is about 40 per cent. And even when they do trigger lightning, things still do not always go according to plan. ‘Lightning is not perfectly well behaved: says Bernstein. ‘Occasionally, it will take a branch and go someplace it wasn’t supposed to go.’

    And anyway, who would want to fire streams of rockets in a populated area? ‘What goes up must come down,’ points out Jean-Claude Diels of the University of New Mexico. Diels is leading a project, which is backed by EPRI, to try to use lasers to discharge lightning safely — and safety is a basic requirement since no one wants to put themselves or their expensive equipment at risk. With around $500,000 invested so far, a promising system is just emerging from the laboratory. 

    The idea began some 20 years ago, when high-powered lasers were revealing their ability to extract electrons out of atoms and create ions. If a laser could generate a line of ionisation in the air all the way up to a storm cloud, this conducting path could be used to guide lightning to Earth, before the electric field becomes strong enough to break down the air in an uncontrollable surge. To stop the laser itself from being struck, it would not be pointed straight at the clouds. Instead, it would be directed at a mirror, and from there into the sky. The mirror would be protected by placing lightning conductors dose by. Ideally, the cloud-zapper (gun) would be cheap enough to be installed around all key power installations, and portable enough to be taken to international sporting events to beam up at brewing storm clouds. 

    A stumbling blockHowever, there is still a big stumbling block. The laser is no nifty portable: it’s a monster that takes up a whole room. Diels is trying to cut down the size and says that a laser around the size of a small table is in the offing. He plans to test this more manageable system on live thunderclouds next summer.

    Bernstein says that Diels’s system is attracting lots of interest from the power companies. But they have not yet come up with the $5 million that EPRI says will be needed to develop a commercial system, by making the lasers yet smaller and cheaper. `I cannot say I have money yet, but I’m working on it,’ says Bernstein. He reckons that the forthcoming field tests will be the turning point — and he’s hoping for good news. Bernstein predicts ‘an avalanche of interest and support’ if all goes well. He expects to see cloud-zappers eventually costing $50,000 to $100,000 each.

    Other scientists could also benefit. With a lightning `switch’ at their fingertips, materials scientists could find out what happens when mighty currents meet matter. Diels also hopes to see the birth of ‘interactive meteorology’ — not just forecasting the weather but controlling it. `If we could discharge clouds, we might affect the weather,’ he says.

    And perhaps, says Diels, we’ll be able to confront some other meteorological menaces. `We think we could prevent hail by inducing lightning,’ he says. Thunder, the shock wave that comes from a lightning flash, is thought to be the trigger for the torrential rain that is typical of storms. A laser thunder factory could shake the moisture out of clouds, perhaps preventing the formation of the giant hailstones that threaten crops. With luck, as the storm clouds gather this winter, laser-toting researchers could, for the first time, strike back.

    Questions 1-3

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

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

    1. The main topic discussed in the text is
      1. the damage caused to US golf courses and golf players by lightning strikes.
      2. the effect of lightning on power supplies in the US and in Japan.
      3. a variety of methods used in trying to control lightning strikes.
      4. a laser technique used in trying to control lightning strikes.
    2. According to the text, every year lightning
      1. does considerable damage to buildings during thunderstorms.
      2. kills or injures mainly golfers in the United States.
      3. kills or injures around 500 people throughout the world.
      4. damages more than 100 American power companies.
    3. Researchers at the University of Florida and at the University of New Mexico
      1. receive funds from the same source.
      2. are using the same techniques.
      3. are employed by commercial companies.
      4. are in opposition to each other.
    Questions 4-6

    Complete the sentences below.

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

    Write your answers in boxes 4-6 on your answer sheet.

    1. EPRI receives financial support from ………………………….
    2. The advantage of the technique being developed by Diets is that it can be used ………………………..
    3. The main difficulty associated with using the laser equipment is related to its ……………………………
    Questions 7-10

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

    Write the correct letter, A-I, in boxes 7-10 on your answer sheet.

    In this method, a laser is used to create a line of ionisation by removing electrons from (7) ………………. This laser is then directed at (8) ………………….. in order to control electrical charges, a method which is less dangerous than using (9) ………………….. As a protection for the lasers, the beams are aimed firstly at (10) …………………..

    A cloud-zappersB atomsC storm clouds
    D mirrors E technique F ions
    G rocketsH conductors I thunder
    Questions 11-13

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

    In boxes 11-13 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. Power companies have given Diels enough money to develop his laser.
    2. Obtaining money to improve the lasers will depend on tests in real storms.
    3. Weather forecasters are intensely interested in Diels’s system.

    Reading Passage 2

    The Nature of Genius

    There has always been an interest in geniuses and prodigies. The word ‘genius’, from the Latin gens (= family) and the term ‘genius’, meaning ‘begetter’, comes from the early Roman cult of a divinity as the head of the family. In its earliest form, genius was concerned with the ability of the head of the family, the paterfamilias, to perpetuate himself. Gradually, genius came to represent a person’s characteristics and thence an individual’s highest attributes derived from his ‘genius’ or guiding spirit. Today, people still look to stars or genes, astrology or genetics, in the hope of finding the source of exceptional abilities or personal characteristics. 

    The concept of genius and of gifts has become part of our folk culture, and attitudes are ambivalent towards them. We envy the gifted and mistrust them. In the mythology of giftedness, it is popularly believed that if people are talented in one area, they must be defective in another, that intellectuals are impractical, that prodigies burn too brightly too soon and burn out, that gifted people are eccentric, that they are physical weaklings, that there’s a thin line between genius and madness, that genius runs in families, that the gifted are so clever they don’t need special help, that giftedness is the same as having a high IQ, that some races are more intelligent or musical or mathematical than others, that genius goes unrecognised and unrewarded, that adversity makes men wise or that people with gifts have a responsibility to use them. Language has been enriched with such terms as ‘highbrow’, ‘egghead’, ‘blue-stocking’, ‘wiseacre’, ‘know-all’, ‘boffin’ and, for many, ‘intellectual’ is a term of denigration. 

    The nineteenth-century saw considerable interest in the nature of genius, and produced not a few studies of famous prodigies. Perhaps for us today, two of the most significant aspects of most of these studies of genius are the frequency with which early encouragement and teaching by parents and tutors had beneficial effects on the intellectual, artistic or musical development of the children but caused great difficulties of adjustment later in their lives, and the frequency with which abilities went unrecognised by teachers and schools. However, the difficulty with the evidence produced by these studies, fascinating as they are in collecting together anecdotes and apparent similarities and exceptions, is that they are not what we would today call norm-referenced. In other words, when, for instance, information is collated about early illnesses, methods of upbringing, schooling, etc., we must also take into account information from other historical sources about how common or exceptional these were at the time. For instance, infant mortality was high and life expectancy much shorter than today, home tutoring was common in the families of the nobility and wealthy, bullying and corporal punishment were common at the best independent schools and, for the most part, the cases studied were members of the privileged classes. It was only with the growth of paediatrics and psychology in the twentieth century that studies could be carried out on a more objective, if still not always very scientific, basis.

    Geniuses, however, they are defined, are but the peaks which stand out through the mist of history and are visible to the particular observer from his or her particular vantage point. Change the observers and the vantage points, clear away some of the mist, and a different lot of peaks appear. Genius is a term we apply to those whom we recognise for their outstanding achievements and who stand near the end of the continuum of human abilities which reaches back through the mundane and mediocre to the incapable. There is still much truth in Dr Samuel Johnson’s observation. The true genius is a mind of large general powers, accidentally determined to some particular direction’. We may disagree with the ‘general’, for we doubt if all musicians of genius could have become scientists of genius or vice versa, but there is no doubting the accidental determination which nurtured or triggered their gifts into those channels into which they have poured their powers so successfully. Along the continuum of abilities are hundreds of thousands of gifted men and women, boys and girls.

    What we appreciate, enjoy or marvel at in the works of genius or the achievements of prodigies are the manifestations of skills or abilities which are similar to, but so much superior to, our own. But that their minds are not different from our own is demonstrated by the fact that the hard-won discoveries of scientists like Kepler or Einstein become the commonplace knowledge of schoolchildren and the once outrageous shapes and colours of an artist like Paul Klee so soon appear on the fabrics we wear. This does not minimise the supremacy of their achievements, which outstrip our own as the sub-four-minute milers outstrip our jogging. 

    To think of geniuses and the gifted as having uniquely different brains is only reasonable if we accept that each human brain is uniquely different. The purpose of instruction is to make us even more different from one another, and in the process of being educated, we can learn from the achievements of those more gifted than ourselves. But before we try to emulate geniuses or encourage our children to do so we should note that some of the things we learn from them may prove unpalatable. We may envy their achievements and fame, but we should also recognise the price they may have paid in terms of perseverance, single-mindedness, dedication, restrictions on their personal lives, the demands upon their energies and time, and how often they had to display great courage to preserve their integrity or to make their way to the top.

    Genius and giftedness are relative descriptive terms of no real substance. We may, at best, give them some precision by defining them and placing them in a context but, whatever we do, we should never delude ourselves into believing that gifted children or geniuses are different from the rest of humanity, save in the degree to which they have developed the performance of their abilities.

    Questions 14-18

    Choose FIVE letters, A—K.

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

    NB. Your answers maybe given in any order.

    Below are listed some popular beliefs about genius and giftedness.

    Which FIVE of these beliefs are reported by the writer of the text?

    1. Truly gifted people are talented in all areas.
    2. The talents of geniuses are soon exhausted.
    3. Gifted people should use their gifts.
    4. A genius appears once in every generation.
    5. Genius can be easily destroyed by discouragement.
    6. Genius is inherited.
    7. Gifted people are very hard to live with.
    8. People never appreciate true genius.I. Geniuses are natural leaders.
    9. Gifted people develop their greatness through difficulties.
    10. Genius will always reveal itself.

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

    In boxes 19-26 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. Nineteenth-century studies of the nature of genius failed to take into account the uniqueness of the person’s upbringing.
    2. Nineteenth-century studies of genius lacked both objectivity and a proper scientific approach.
    3. A true genius has general powers capable of excellence in any area
    4. The skills of ordinary individuals are in essence the same as the skills of prodigies.
    5. The ease with which truly great ideas are accepted and taken for granted fails to lessen their significance.
    6. Giftedness and genius deserve proper scientific research into their true nature so that all talent may be retained for the human race.
    7. Geniuses often pay a high price to achieve greatness.
    8. To be a genius is worth the high personal cost.


    Reading Passage 3

    How Does The Biological Clock Tick?

    A Our life span is restricted. Everyone accepts this as ‘biologically’ obvious. ‘Nothing lives forever!’ However, in this statement, we think of artificially produced, technical objects, products which are subjected to natural wear and tear during use. This leads to the result that at some time or other, the object stops working and is unusable (‘death’ in the biological sense). But are the wear and tear and loss of function of technical objects and the death of living organisms really similar or comparable.

    B Our ‘dead’ products are ‘static’, closed systems. It is always the basic material which constitutes the object and which, in the natural course of things, is worn down and becomes ‘older’. Age, in this case, must occur according to the laws of physical chemistry and of thermodynamics. Although the same law holds for a living organism, the result of this law is not inexorable in the same way. At least as long as a biological system has the ability to renew itself it could actually become older without ageing; an organism is an open, dynamic system through which new material continuously flows. Destruction of old material and formation of new material are thus in permanent dynamic equilibrium. The material of which the organism is formed changes continuously. Thus our bodies continuously exchange old substance for new, just like a spring which more or less maintains its form and movement, but in which the water molecules are always different.

    C Thus ageing and death should not be seen as inevitable, particularly as the organism possesses many mechanisms for repair. It is not, in principle, necessary for a biological system to age and die. Nevertheless, a restricted life span, ageing, and then death are basic characteristics of life. The reason for this is easy to recognise: in nature, the existent organisms either adapt or are regularly replaced by new types. Because of changes in the genetic material (mutations), these have new characteristics and in the course of their individual lives, they are tested for optimal or better adaptation to the environmental conditions. Immortality would disturb this system — it needs room for new and better life. This is the basic problem of evolution.

    D Every organism has a life span which is highly characteristic. There are striking differences in life span between different species, but within one species the parameter is relatively constant. For example, the average duration of human life has hardly changed in thousands of years. Although more and more people attain an advanced age as a result of developments in medical care and better nutrition, the characteristic upper limit for most remains 80 years. A further argument against the simple wear and tear theory is the observation that the time within which organisms age lies between a few days (even a few hours for unicellular organisms) and several thousand years, as with mammoth trees.

    E If a life span is a genetically determined biological characteristic, it is logically necessary to propose the existence of an internal clock, which in some way measures and controls the ageing process and which finally determines death as the last step in a fixed programme. Like the life span, the metabolic rate has for different organisms a fixed mathematical relationship to the body mass. In comparison to the life span this relationship is ‘inverted’: the larger the organism the lower its metabolic rate. Again this relationship is valid not only for birds, but also, similarly on average within the systematic unit, for all other organisms (plants, animals, unicellular organisms).

    F Animals which behave ‘frugally’ with energy become particularly old, for example, crocodiles and tortoises. Parrots and birds of prey are often held chained up. Thus they are not able to ‘experience life’ and so they attain a high life pan in captivity. Animals which save energy by hibernation or lethargy (e.g. bats or hedgehogs) live much longer than those which are always active. The metabolic rate of mice can be reduced by a very low consumption of food (hunger diet). They then may live twice as long as their well-fed comrades. Women become distinctly (about 10 per cent) older than men. If you examine the metabolic rates of the two sexes you establish that the higher male metabolic rate roughly accounts for the lower male life span. That means that they live life ‘energetically’ — more intensively, but not for as long.

    G It follows from the above that sparing use of energy reserves should tend to extend life. Extreme high-performance sports may lead to optimal cardiovascular performance, but they quite certainly do not prolong life. Relaxation lowers metabolic rate, as does adequate sleep and in general an equable and balanced personality. Each of us can develop his or her own ‘energy saving programme’ with a little self-observation, critical self-control and, above all, logical consistency. Experience will show that to live in this way not only increases the lifespan but is also very healthy. This final aspect should not be forgotten.

    Questions 27-32

    Reading Passage 3 has seven paragraphs, A—G.

    Choose the correct heading for paragraphs B—G from the list of headings below.

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

    List of Headings

    1. The biological clock
    2. Why dying is beneficial
    3. The ageing process of men and women
    4. Prolonging your life
    5. Limitations of life span
    6. Modes of development of different species
    7. A stable lifespan despite improvements
    8. Energy consumption
    9. Fundamental differences in ageing of objects and organisms
    10. Repair of genetic material

    Example Answer

    Paragraph A v

    1. Paragraph B
    2. Paragraph C
    3. Paragraph D
    4. Paragraph E
    5. Paragraph F
    6. Paragraph G
    Questions 33-36

    Complete the notes below.

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

    Write your answers in boxes 33-36 on your answer sheet.

    • Objects age in accordance with principles of (33) ………………….. and of (34) ……………………………..
    • Through mutations, organisms can (35) …………………. better to the environment
    • (36) ………………… would pose a serious problem for the theory of evolution
    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 views of the writer
    • NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer
    • NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
    1. The wear and tear theory applies to both artificial objects and biological systems.
    2. In principle, it is possible for a biological system to become older without ageing.
    3. Within seven years, about 90 per cent of a human body is replaced as new.
    4. Conserving energy may help to extend a human’s life.
    Reading Passage 1 Striking Back at Lightning With Lasers Answers
    1. D
    2. A
    3. A
    4. power companies
    5. safely
    6. size
    7. B
    8. C
    9. G
    10. D
    11. no
    12. yes
    13. not given
    Reading Passage 2 The Nature of Genius Answers
    1. B
    2. C
    3. F
    4. H
    5. J
    6. true
    7. true
    8. false
    9. true
    10. true
    11. not given
    12. true
    13. not given
    Reading Passage 3 How Does The Biological Clock Tick? Answers
    1. ix
    2. ii
    3. vii
    4. i
    5. viii
    6. iv
    7. physical chemistry
    8. thermodynamics
    9. adapt
    10. immortality
    11. no
    12. yes
    13. not given
    14. yes
  • Cambridge IELTS 8 Academic Reading Test 2

    Cambridge IELTS 8 Academic Reading Test 2

    Reading Passage 1

    Sheet glass manufacture: the float process

    Sheet glass manufacture: the float process Cambridge IELTS book 8 Reading passage 1 Test 2 with answers, pdf download and online practice.
    Part of the Image by pexels.com

    Glass, which has been made since the time of the Mesopotamians and Egyptians, is little more than a mixture of sand, soda ash and lime. When heated to about 1500 degrees Celsius (°C) this becomes a molten mass that hardens when slowly cooled. The first successful method for making clear and flat glass involved spinning. This method was very effective as the glass had not touched any surfaces between being soft and becoming hard, so it stayed perfectly unblemished, with a ‘fire finish’. However, the process took a long time and was labour intensive.

    Nevertheless, demand for flat glass was very high and glassmakers across the world were looking for a method of making it continuously. The first continuous ribbon process involved squeezing molten glass through two hot rollers, similar to an old mangle. This allowed glass of virtually any thickness to be made non-stop, but the rollers would leave both sides of the glass marked, and these would then need to be ground and polished. This part of the process rubbed away around 20 per cent of the glass, and the machines were very expensive. 

    The float process for making flat glass was invented by Alistair Pilkington. This process allows the manufacture of clear, tinted and coated glass for buildings, and clear and tinted glass for vehicles. Pilkington had been experimenting with improving the melting process, and in 1952 he had the idea of using a bed of molten metal to form the flat glass, eliminating altogether the need for rollers within the float bath. The metal had to melt at a temperature less than the hardening point of glass (about 600°C), but could not boil at a temperature below the temperature of the molten glass (about 1500°C). The best metal for the job was tin. 

    The rest of the concept relied on gravity, which guaranteed that the surface of the molten metal was perfectly flat and horizontal. Consequently, when pouring molten glass onto the molten tin, the underside of the glass would also be perfectly flat. If the glass were kept hot enough, it would flow over the molten tin until the top surface was also flat, horizontal and perfectly parallel to the bottom surface. Once the glass cooled to 604°C or less it was too hard to mark and could be transported out of the cooling zone by rollers. The glass settled to a thickness of six millimetres because of surface tension interactions between the glass and the tin. By fortunate coincidence, 60 percent of the flat glass market at that time was for six millimetre glass.

    Pilkington built a pilot plant in 1953 and by 1955 he had convinced his company to build a full-scale plant. However, it took 14 months of non-stop production, costing the company £100,000 a month, before the plant produced any usable glass. Furthermore, once they succeeded in making marketable flat glass, the machine was turned off for a service to prepare it for years of continuous production. When it started up again it took another four months to get the process right again. They finally succeeded in 1959 and there are now float plants all over the world, with each able to produce around 1000 tons of glass every day, non-stop for around 15 years.

    Float plants today make glass of near optical quality. Several processes — melting, refining, homogenising — take place simultaneously in the 2000 tonnes of molten glass in the furnace. They occur in separate zones in a complex glass flow driven by high temperatures. It adds up to a continuous melting process, lasting as long as 50 hours, that delivers glass smoothly and continuously to the float bath, and from there to a coating zone and finally a heat treatment zone, where stresses formed during cooling are relieved. 

    The principle of float glass is unchanged since the 1950s. However, the product has changed dramatically, from a single thickness of 6.8 mm to a range from sub-millimetre to 25 mm, from a ribbon frequently marred by inclusions and bubbles to almost optical perfection. To ensure the highest quality, inspection takes place at every stage. Occasionally, a bubble is not removed during refining, a sand grain refuses to melt, a tremor in the tin puts ripples into the glass ribbon. Automated on-line inspection does two things. Firstly, it reveals process faults upstream that can be corrected. Inspection-technology allows more than 100 million measurements a second to be made across the ribbon, locating flaws the unaided eye would be unable to see. Secondly, it enables computers downstream to steer cutters around flaws

    Float glass is sold by the square metre, and at the final stage computers translate customer requirements into patterns of cuts designed to minimise waste.

    Questions 1-8

    Complete the table and diagram below.

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

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

    MethodAdvantagesDisadvantages
    (1)…………………Glass remained
      (2)………………………    		Slow
    • (3)……………………
    Ribbon• Could produce glass sheets of varying
    (4)………………………… • Non-stop process    		• Glass was (5)……………………….
    • 20% of glass rubbed away • Machines were expensive
    Pikington's float Process Questions 6 - 8 Sheet glass manufacture: the float process IELTS Reading Passage
    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 this
    1. The metal used in the float process had to have specific properties.
    2. Pilkington invested some of his own money in his float plant.
    3. Pilkington’s first full-scale plant was an instant commercial success.
    4. The process invented by Pilkington has now been improved.
    5. Computers are better than humans at detecting faults in glass.

    Reading Passage 2

    The Little Ice Age

    The Little Ice Age Cambridge IELTS book 8 Reading passage 2 Test 2 with answers, pdf download and online practice.
    Part of the Image by pexels.com

    A This book will provide a detailed examination of the Little Ice Age and other climatic shifts, but, before I embark on that, let me provide a historical context. We tend to think of climate – as opposed to weather – as something unchanging, yet humanity has been at the mercy of climate change for its entire existence, with at least eight glacial episodes in the past 730,000 years. Our ancestors adapted to the universal but irregular global warming since the end of the last great Ice Age, around 10,000 years ago, with dazzling opportunism. They developed strategies for surviving harsh drought cycles, decades of heavy rainfall or unaccustomed cold; adopted agriculture and stock-raising, which revolutionised human life; and founded the world’s first pre-industrial civilisations in Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Americas. But the price of sudden climate change, in famine, disease and suffering, was often high.

    B The Little Ice Age lasted from roughly 1300 until the middle of the nineteenth century. Only two centuries ago, Europe experienced a cycle of bitterly cold winters; mountain glaciers in the Swiss Alps were the lowest in recorded memory, and pack ice surrounded Iceland for much of the year. The climatic events of the Little Ice Age did more than help shape the modern world. They are the deeply important context for the current unprecedented global warming. The Little Ice Age was far from a deep freeze, however; rather an irregular seesaw of rapid climatic shifts, few lasting more than a quarter-century, driven by complex and still little-understood interactions between the atmosphere and the ocean. The seesaw brought cycles of intensely cold winters and easterly winds, then switched abruptly to years of heavy spring and early summer rains, mild winters, and frequent Atlantic storms, or to periods of droughts, light northeasterly winds, and summer heat waves.

    C Reconstructing the climate changes of the past is extremely difficult, because systematic weather observations began only a few centuries ago, in Europe and North America. Records from India and tropical Africa are even more recent. For the time before records began, we have only ‘proxy records’ reconstructed largely from tree rings and ice cores, supplemented by a few incomplete written accounts. We now have hundreds of tree-ring records from throughout the northern hemisphere, and many from south of the equator, too, amplified with a growing body of temperature data from ice cores drilled in Antarctica, Greenland, the Peruvian Andes, and other locations. We are close to a knowledge of annual summer and winter temperature variations over much of the northern hemisphere going back 600 years.

    D This book is a narrative history of climatic shifts during the past ten centuries, and some of the ways in which people in Europe adapted to them. Part One describes the Medieval Warm Period, roughly 900 to 1200. During these three centuries, Norse voyagers from Northern Europe explored northern seas, settled Greenland, and visited North America. It was not a time of uniform warmth, for then, as always since the Great Ice Age, there were constant shifts in rainfall and temperature. Mean European temperatures were about the same as today, perhaps slightly cooler.

    E It is known that the Little Ice Age cooling began in Greenland and the Arctic in about 1200. As the Arctic ice pack spread southward, Norse voyages to the west were rerouted into the open Atlantic, then ended altogether. Storminess increased in the North Atlantic and the North Sea. Colder, much wetter weather descended on Europe between 1315 and 1319, when thousands perished in a continent-wide famine. By 1400, the weather had become decidedly more unpredictable and stormier, with sudden shifts and lower temperatures that culminated in the cold decades of the late sixteenth century. Fish were a vital commodity in growing towns and cities, where food supplies were a constant concern. Dried cod and herring were already the staples of the European fish trade, but changes in water temperatures forced fishing fleets to work further offshore. The Basques, Dutch, and English developed the first offshore fishing boats adapted to a colder and stormier Atlantic. A gradual agricultural revolution in northern Europe stemmed from concerns over food supplies at a time of rising populations. The revolution involved intensive commercial farming and the growing of animal fodder on land not previously used for crops. The increased productivity from farmland made some countries self-sufficient in grain and livestock and offered effective protection against famine.

    F Global temperatures began to rise slowly after 1850, with the beginning of the Modern Warm Period. There was a vast migration from Europe by land-hungry farmers and others, to which the famine caused by the Irish potato blight contributed, to North America, Australia, New Zealand, and southern Africa. Millions of hectares of forest and woodland fell before the newcomers’ axes between 1850 and 1890, as intensive European farming methods expanded across the world. The unprecedented land clearance released vast quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, triggering for the first time humanly caused global warming. Temperatures climbed more rapidly in the twentieth century as the use of fossil fuels proliferated and greenhouse gas levels continued to soar. The rise has been even steeper since the early 1980s. The Little Ice Age has given way to a new climatic regime, marked by prolonged and steady warming. At the same time, extreme weather events like Category 5 hurricanes are becoming more frequent.

    Questions 14-17

    Reading Passage 2 has six paragraphs, A-F.

    Choose the correct heading for paragraphs B and D-F from the list of headings below.

    Write the correct number, i-ix, in boxes 14-17 on your answer sheet.

    A aphidsB agriculturalC celluloseD exchanging
    E energyF fertilizersG foodH Fungi
    I growingJ interbreedingK naturalL other species
    M secretionsN sustainableO environment

    Write the correct number, i-x, in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet.

    List of Headings

    1. The results of the research into blood-variants
    2. Dental Evidence
    3. Greenberg’s analysis of the dental and linguistic evidence
    4. Developments in the methods used to study early population movements
    5. Indian migration from Canada to the U.S.A.
    6. Further genetic evidence relating to the three-wave theory
    7. Long-standing questions about prehistoric migration to America
    8. Conflicting views of the three-wave theory, based on non-genetic evidence
    9. Questions about the causes of prehistoric migration to America
    10. How analysis of blood-variants measures the closeness of the relationship between different populations
      1. Paragraph A
      2. Paragraph B
      3. Paragraph C
      4. Paragraph D
      5. Paragraph E
      6. Paragraph F

    Example Answer

    Section G Viii

    Questions 20 and 21

    The discussion of Williams’s research indicates the periods at which early people are thought to have migrated along certain routes.

    RoutePeriod (Number of years)
    20………………………..15,000 or more
    21………………………..600 to 700  
                          Early Population Movement to the Americas

    Questions 22-25

    Reading Passage 2 refers to the three-wave theory of early migration to the Americas.

    It also suggests in which of these three waves the ancestors of various groups of modern native Americans first reached the continent.

    Classify the groups named in the table below as originating from

    1. the first wave
    2. the second wave
    3. the third wave

    Write the correct letter. A, B or C. in boxes 22-25 on your answer sheet.

    Name of groupWave number
    Inuit22……………………………..
    Apache23……………………………..
    Prima-Papago24……………………………..
    Ticuna25……………………………..

    Questions 26

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

    Write the correct letter in box 26 on your answer sheet.

    1. Christy Turner’s research involved the examination of ….
      1. teeth from both prehistoric and modern Americans and Asians
      2. thousands of people who live in either the New or the Old World
      3. dental specimens from the majority of prehistoric Americans
      4. the eating habits of American and Asian populations

    Reading Passage 3

    The meaning and power of smell

    The meaning and power of smell Cambridge IELTS book 8 Reading passage 3 Test 2 with answers, pdf download and online practice.
    Part of the Image by pexels.com

    The sense of smell, or olfaction, is powerful. Odours affect us on a physical, psychological and social level. For the most part, however, we breathe in the aromas which surround us without being consciously aware of their importance to us. It is only when the faculty of smell is impaired for some reason that we begin to realise the essential role the sense of smell plays in our sense of well-being.

    A  A survey conducted by Anthony Synott at Montreal’s Concordia University asked participants to comment on how important smell was to them in their lives. It became apparent that smell can evoke strong emotional responses. A scent associated with a good experience can bring a rush of joy, while a foul odour or one associated with a bad memory may make us grimace with disgust. Respondents to the survey noted that many of their olfactory likes and dislikes were based on emotional associations. Such associations can be powerful enough so that odours that we would generally label unpleasant become agreeable, and those that we would generally consider fragrant become disagreeable for particular individuals. The perception of smell, therefore, consists not only of the sensation of the odours themselves, but of the experiences and emotions associated with them.

    B  Odours are also essential cues in social bonding. One respondent to the survey believed that there is no true emotional bonding without touching and smelling a loved one. In fact, infants recognise the odours of their mothers soon after birth and adults can often identify their children or spouses by scent. In one well-known test, women and men were able to distinguish by smell alone clothing worn by their marriage partners from similar clothing worn by other people. Most of the subjects would probably never have given much thought to odour as a cue for identifying family members before being involved in the test, but as the experiment revealed, even when not consciously considered, smells register.

    C  In spite of its importance to our emotional and sensory lives, smell is probably the most undervalued sense in many cultures. The reason often given for the low regard in which smell is held is that, in comparison with its importance among animals, the human sense of smell is feeble and undeveloped. While it is true that the olfactory powers of humans are nothing like as fine as those possessed by certain animals, they are still remarkably acute. Our noses are able to recognise thousands of smells, and to perceive odours which are present only in extremely small quantities.

    D  Smell, however, is a highly elusive phenomenon. Odours, unlike colours, for instance, cannot be named in many languages because the specific vocabulary simply doesn’t exist. ‘It smells like … ,’ we have to say when describing an odour, struggling to express our olfactory experience. Nor can odours be recorded: there is no effective way to either capture or store them over time. In the realm of olfaction, we must make do with descriptions and recollections. This has implications for olfactory research.

    E  Most of the research on smell undertaken to date has been of a physical scientific nature. Significant advances have been made in the understanding of the biological and chemical nature of olfaction, but many fundamental questions have yet to be answered. Researchers have still to decide whether smell is one sense or two – one responding to odours properly and the other registering odourless chemicals in the air. Other unanswered questions are whether the nose is the only part of the body affected by odours, and how smells can be measured objectively given the nonphysical components. Questions like these mean that interest in the psychology of smell is inevitably set to play an increasingly important role for researchers.

    F  However, smell is not simply a biological and psychological phenomenon. Smell is cultural, hence it is a social and historical phenomenon. Odours are invested with cultural values: smells that are considered to be offensive in some cultures may be perfectly acceptable in others. Therefore, our sense of smell is a means of, and model for, interacting with the world. Different smells can provide us with intimate and emotionally charged experiences and the value that we attach to these experiences is interiorised by the members of society in a deeply personal way. Importantly, our commonly held feelings about smells can help distinguish us from other cultures. The study of the cultural history of smell is, therefore, in a very real sense, an investigation into the essence of human culture.

    Unpredictable NoisePredictable NoiseAverage
    Loud Noise40.131.835.9
    Soft Noise36.727.432.1
    Average38.429.6
    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:

    • 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. Forest problems of Mediterranean countries are to be discussed at the next meeting of experts.
    2. Problems in Nordic countries were excluded because they are outside the European – Economic Community.
    3. Forests are a renewable source of raw material.
    4. The biological functions of forests were recognised only in the twentieth century.
    5. Natural forests still exist in parts of Europe.
    6. Forest policy should be limited by national boundaries.
    7. The Strasbourg conference decided that a forest policy must allow for the possibility of change.
    Questions 34-39

    Look at the following statements issued by the conference.

    Which six of the following statements. A-J, refer to the resolutions that were issued?

    Match the statements with the appropriate resolutions (Questions 34-39).

    Write the correct letter. A-J. in boxes 34-39 on your answer sheet.

    1. All kinds of species of trees should be preserved.
    2. Fragile mountain forests should be given priority in research programs.
    3. The surviving natural forests of Europe do not need priority treatment.
    4. Research is to be better co-ordinate throughout Europe:
    5. Information on forest fires should be collected and shared.
    6. Loss Of leaves from trees should be more extensively and carefully monitored
    7. Resources should be allocated to research into tree diseases.
    8. Skiing should be encouraged in thinly populated areas.
    9. Soil imbalances such as acidification should be treated with compounds of nitrogen and sulphur.
    10. Information is to be systematically gathered on any decline in the condition of forests.
    1. Resolution 1
    2. Resolution 2
    3. Resolution 3
    4. Resolution 4
    5. Resolution 5
    6. Resolution 6
    Questions 37-40

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

    Write the correct letter A-K in boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet.

    Sugestopedia uses a less direct method of suggestion than other techniques such as hypnosis. However, Lozanov admits that a certain amount of (37)……………… is necessary in order to convince students, even if this is just a (38)……………………. Furthermore, if the method is to succeed, teachers must follow a set procedure. Although Lozanov’s method has become quite (39)………………., the result of most other teachers using this method have been (40)……………………

    A spectacular unpopularB teachingC lesson
    D authoritarianE unpopularF ritual
    G unspectacularH placebo I Involved
    J appropriateK well known
    Reading Passage 1 Sheet glass manufacture: the float process Answers
    1. spinning
    2. (perfectly) unblemished
    3. labour/labor-intensive
    4. thickness
    5. marked
    6. (molten) glass
    7. (molten) tin/metal
    8. rollers
    9. TRUE
    10. NOT GIVEN
    11. FALSE
    12. TRUE
    13. TRUE
    Reading Passage 2 The Little Ice Age Answers
    1. ii
    2. vii
    3. ix
    4. iv
    5. C
    6. B
    7. A
    8. H
    9. G
    10. C
    11. C
    12. A
    13. B
    Reading Passage 3 The meaning and power of smell Answers
    1. viii
    2. ii
    3. vi
    4. i
    5. iii
    6. v
    7. C
    8. A
    9. C
    10. D
    11. clothing
    12. vocabulary
    13. chemicals
    14. cultures