Category: IELTS Reading

  • IELTS Reading Practice Test – Exercise 44

    Trans Fatty Acids

    A recent editorial in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), written by researchers from the University of Oxford, has called for food labels to list trans fats as well as cholesterol and saturated fat.

    Trans fats (or trans fatty acids) are a type of unsaturated fatty acid. They occur naturally in small amounts in foods produced from ruminant animals e.g. milk, beef and lamb. However, most of the trans fatty acids in the diet are produced during the process of partial hydrogenation (hardening) of vegetable oils into semi-solid fats. They are therefore found in hard margarines, partially hydrogenated cooking oils, and in some bakery products, fried foods, and other processed foods that are made using these.

    Trans fatty acids have an adverse effect on certain chemicals, known as lipids, which are found in the blood and have been shown to increase the risk of heart disease. They also increase LDL-cholesterol (the ‘bad cholesterol’) and decrease HDL-cholesterol (the ‘good cholesterol’). They may also have adverse effects on cardiovascular disease risk that are independent of an effect on blood lipids (Mozaffarian et al. 2006).

    In a recent review of prospective studies investigating the effects of trans fatty acids, a 2% increase in energy intake from trans fatty acids was associated with a 23% increase in the incidence of heart disease. The authors also reported that the adverse effects of trans fatty acids were observed even at very low intakes (3% of total daily energy intake, or about 2-7g per day) (Mozaffarian et al. 2006).

    However, in this recent review it is only trans fatty acids produced during the hardening of vegetable oils that are found to be harmful to health. The public health implications of consuming trans fatty acids from ruminant products are considered to be relatively limited.

    Over the last decade, population intakes of trans fatty acids in the UK fell and are now, on average, well below the recommended 2% of total energy set by the Department of Health in 1991, at 1.2% of energy (Henderson et al. 2003). This is not to say that intakes of trans fatty acids are not still a problem, and dietary advice states that those individuals who are in the top end of the distribution of intake should still make efforts to reduce their intakes.

    Currently, trans fatty acids in foods are labelled in the USA, but not in the UK and Europe. The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) is in favour of the revision of the European directive that governs the content and format of food labels so that trans fatty acids are labelled. This should enable consumers to make better food choices with regard to heart health (Clarke & Lewington 2006).

    Recognising the adverse health effects of trans fatty acids, many food manufacturers and retailers have been systematically removing them from their products in recent years. For example, they have been absent for some time from major brands of margarine and other fat spreads, which are now manufactured using a different technique. Also, many companies now have guidelines in place that are resulting in reformulation and reduction or elimination of trans fatty acids in products where they have in the past been found, such as snack products, fried products and baked goods. Consequently, the vast majority of savoury biscuits and crisps produced in the UK do not contain partially hydrogenated oils. Similarly, changes are being made to the way bakery products are manufactured. For example, a leading European manufacturer of major brands of biscuits, cakes and snacks has recently announced that these are now made without partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, a transition that began in 2004. Alongside these changes, the manufacturer has also reported a cut in the amount of saturates. It is clear that a major technical challenge in achieving such changes is to avoid simply exchanging trans fatty acids for saturated fatty acids, which also have damaging health effects.

    Foods that are labelled as containing partially-hydrogenated oils or fats are a source of trans fatty acids (sometimes ‘partially-hydrogenated’ fats are just labelled as ‘hydrogenated’ fats). These foods include hard margarines, some fried products and some manufactured bakery products e.g. biscuits, pastries and cakes.

    It is important to note that intake may have changed in the light of reformulation of foods that has taken place over the past six years in the UK, as referred to earlier. Furthermore, the average intake of trans fatty acids is lower in the UK than in the USA (where legislation has now been introduced). However, this does not mean there is room for complacency, as the intake in some sectors of the population is known to be higher than recommended.

    Questions 1-7
    Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage? In boxes 1-7 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 Trans fatty acids are found in all types of meat.
    2 Health problems can be caused by the consumption of small amounts of trans fatty acids.
    3 Experts consider that the trans fatty acids contained in animal products are unlikely to be a serious health risk.
    4 In Britain, the intake of trans fatty acids is continuing to decline.
    5 The amount of saturated fats in processed meats is being reduced by some major producers.
    6 It is proving difficult to find a safe substitute for trans fatty acids.
    7 Some people are still consuming larger quantities of trans fatty acids than the experts consider safe.

    Questions 8-13
    Complete the sentences below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage.

    8 Scientists at Oxford University propose that information about trans fatty acids should be included on………………
    9 In food manufacture, the majority of trans fatty acids are created when……………………….are solidified.
    10 The likelihood of a person developing……………………………is increased by trans fatty acid consumption.
    11 In the UK, the……………………………established a limit for the safe daily consumption of trans fatty acids.
    12 Partially hydrogenated oils are no longer found in most UK manufactured salty………………………….
    13 Consumption of trans fatty acids in…………………………….is now higher than in the UK.

    Biofuels

    A Soon, we’re told, corn crops will be as valuable as oil. This is because corn and a few other crops are being promoted as the ‘biofuels’ of the future. Biofuel is an umbrella term used to describe all fuels derived from organic matter. The two most common biofuels are bioethanol, which is a substitute for gasoline, and biodiesel. Not only have soaring oil prices made biofuels economically viable for the first time in years, but they could also help countries reduce their dependency on fossil fuel imports. However, the real plus point in the minds of many is their eco-friendly image.

    B Supporters claim they will cut our net greenhouse gas inputs dramatically, because the crops soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they grow. Given this fact, it’s no surprise that politicians and environmentalists the world over are backing the idea, hoping we will soon be using this green alternative to power our cars, buses and trains. Other scientists, however, have begun to question the environmental and social arguments for biofuels. Far from solving our problems they believe biofuels will destroy rainforests, suck water reserves dry, kill off species and raise food prices. Worst of all, they claim that many biofuels will barely slow global warming at all if the technology behind them does not improve. Biofuel supporters counter that it’s still early days, and we should give this technology the time and investment to deliver on its promise. So who’s right?

    C The controversy may be brand new, but the biofuels themselves are an old idea. The Model T Ford, first produced in 1908, was designed to run on ethanol, and Rudolf Diesel, who invented the diesel engine in 1892, ran his demonstration model on peanut oil. Biofuels fell out of favour as petroleum-based fuels appeared and became cheaper to produce, but, after the oil crisis of the early 1970s, some countries returned to biofuels. For example, Brazil has been producing large quantities of ethanol from sugar cane for over 30 years. Brazilian law now requires that 20 per cent of fuel be blended with bioethanol, which all gasoline-powered cars can tolerate. Over 15 per cent of Brazil’s cars can even run on pure bioethanol.

    D According to a recent study by the Worldwatch Institute, for Brazil to produce ten per cent of its entire fuel consumption requires just three per cent of its agricultural land, so it’s not surprising that other places want to emulate Brazil’s approach. The problem is that in most other countries, the numbers don’t add up. The same study estimated that to meet that ten per cent target, the US would require 30 per cent of its agricultural land, and Europe a staggering 72 per cent. It’s no secret why things stack up so differently. Not only do Brazilians drive far less than Europeans and Americans, their fertile land and favourable climate mean their crop yields are higher, and their population density is lower.

    E Several research groups have tried to compare fossil fuel emissions with those of corn bioethanol at every stage of production from seed sowing to fuel production. The studies have been beset by scientific uncertainties, such as how much of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide is produced by the nitrogen fertiliser used in growing corn. Opinions are divided as to what should and should not be included in the calculations, which means the results vary widely, but a study by David Pimentel at Cornell University in New York concluded that corn ethanol creates more greenhouse gases than burning fossil fuels.

    F Another reason a growing number of people oppose biofuels is that growing corn for ethanol uses up land that is currently supplying food to the world. According to Lester Brown, veteran commentator and activist on food politics, the corn required to fill a 4×4 tank with bioethanol just once could feed one person for a year. He predicts that a boom in bioethanol would lead to a competition between the 800 million people in the world who own automobiles and the three billion people who live on less than $2 a day, many of whom are already spending over half their income on food.

    G So are we utterly mistaken to think that bioethanol could usher in an era of greener energy? The way things are developing, it certainly looks that way, but it needn’t be so. Scientists want to perfect a way to make biofuels from non-food crops and waste biomass, saving the corn and other food crops for food use, and to do it without wrecking natural ecosystems. Already researchers are discovering ways to convert cellulose-rich organic matter into ethanol. Cellulose is the main structural component of all green plants. Its molecules comprise chains of sugars strong enough to make plant cell walls. If you could break down those molecules to release the sugars they contain, you could ferment them until ethanol is created. Developing such a process could open the door to many non-food materials such as switchgrass – a wild grass that thrives in the eastern states and Midwest of the US – straw, crop residues like stalks and hardwood chips. Its supporters say these cellulose materials could deliver twice as much ethanol per hectare as corn, and do it using land that is today neither economically productive nor environmentally precious. Some even think municipal waste such as paper, cardboard and waste food could also be used. If the numbers add up this could be the development that may yet deliver us from our dependence on oil, without costing us the Earth in the process.

    Questions 14-19
    Reading Passage 2 has seven paragraphs, A-G. Which paragraph contains the following information?

    14 reasons for the success of bioethanol production in one region
    15 an individual’s prediction of the consequences of increasing production of corn ethanol
    16 a reference to why biofuels might help to slow down global warming
    17 a definition of biofuel
    18 a reference to research that found one type of bioethanol to be less ecofriendly than oil
    19 examples of how ethanol was used as a fuel before petroleum

    Questions 20-25
    Complete the summary below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage.

    Using Non-Food Crops to Make Biofuels
    A major constituent of green plants is cellulose. The (20)…………………………..of cellulose are made up of sugars. These form the (21)……………………of plants. Ethanol could be produced by extracting the sugars and allowing them to (22)……………………. One common North American plant that could be used in this method is (23)………………………….. Some scientists believe that this would be a more productive source of ethanol than (24)………………………………. Additionally, the source plant materials could be grown in ground which is not currently being used for agriculture and is not (25)…………………….valuable.

    Questions 26
    Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

    What conclusion does the writer of the text come to?
    A Bioethanol made from sugar cane will be the cheapest fuel worldwide.
    B The US could become self-sufficient in biofuel made from corn.
    C A biofuel may be made in time which does not damage the environment.
    D Scientists agree that some form of bioethanol is the future for fuel.

    A Comparative Study of Innovative Practices in Business

    Results of interviews with corporate executives and senior innovation officers in four of the largest publicly-traded companies and one government agency in the Chicago-area, provide some insights into how businesses approach innovation.

    The dictionary defines innovation as ‘the introduction of something new’. Regardless of the type of innovation – whether it be product, process, or service – it results in significant change. This change could be as simple as ‘changing the way we do something routine,’ a breakthrough which provides a substantial benefit to the customer, or one that dramatically increases the revenue or profitability of the company.

    Participants interested in breakthrough innovation believe ‘if innovation doesn’t deliver bottom-line results, it is just creativity’. Indeed, the very definition of innovation for Afuah (2003) is ‘invention plus commercialization.’ The relationship of innovation to financial performance was well demonstrated by Kirn and Mauborgne (1997). In manufacturing environments, they found that while 86% of product launches involved some small improvements to existing models – that is, incremental changes – they accounted for only 62% of total revenues and 39% of total profits. The remaining 14% of launches – the real breakthrough innovations – generated 38% of total revenues and a huge 61% of total profits.

    Innovation may offer one significant way that companies can gain advantage. Utterback’s (1994) concept of ‘dominant design’ provides insight into how an innovation can create a temporary monopoly situation that will weaken competitive forces; however, when an innovative product or service is launched, rivals typically begin to copy it (once patents run out). Hence, it is necessary for the company to continuously seek further ways to innovate.

    Every innovation process has its strengths and weaknesses, but it seems that when a company sets up a systematized innovation process it communicates the importance of innovation to the entire organization. In these companies, more resources are devoted to development. The best companies have learned to systematize the process (Hargadorn & Sutton, 2000).

    The primary disadvantage to having a structured innovation process is speed to market – the more structure, the longer the lead time is from idea to product. The only company that described its process as ‘quick’ did not have such a process. Employees were empowered to solve problems and create new products for the customer by responding to demand. While this benefits customers, the company stated it lacks systems to share learning with other segments of the organization. A potential disadvantage of this approach, according to Utterback, is that evolutionary change can be missed when companies are too focused on pleasing customers.

    The most challenging aspect of any innovation is determining marketability. No company said it lacked creative ideas or creative people, but many ideas require significant resources to test, develop, and launch. Millions of dollars are at stake, so an element of risk-taking is required.

    Taking risks is generally defined as being able to drive new ideas forward in the face of adversity. Publicly-traded companies have a major dilemma. To guarantee a leadership position, they have to stay on the leading-edge of innovation. This requires a long-term approach and a high tolerance for risk. Investors, especially in a down economy, want short-term results. As investors’ tolerance for risk decreases, so does the company’s ability to take the significant financial risk necessary to create breakthrough change; however, most recognize that investing in innovation is the ‘right thing to do’.

    One company actively pursues a rather unusual strategy of ‘acquiring’ innovation by purchasing other smaller companies or partnering with specialized companies. This enables the acquiring company to bring a product to market more quickly and gives the smaller company access to funds it might not otherwise have.

    How can a company involve all its employees in the innovation process? It may be as simple as requesting new ideas. A brainstorming session during a staff meeting need only take 30 minutes. Another system is to use existing ‘suggestion box’ processes. Involving employees in idea-generation can reap some large benefits at a very low cost. Only modest monetary rewards are necessary for successful innovation ideas, especially since many companies have found that employees place high value on recognition.

    In most organizations, teams are extensively used to evaluate ideas, but rarely to generate them. Companies need to learn how to construct teams for the purpose of innovation. A team member should be selected based on their tendency to be more creative or more risk-taking. This could markedly increase innovation output. According to Hargadorn and Sutton, using teams to capture and share ideas is one method of keeping ideas alive – a key step in the innovation process. Good ideas need to be nurtured by teams and incorporated into the information and communication systems of the company.

    In conclusion, innovation can be difficult to structure. It is the authors’ perception that even the most innovative companies in the sample underinvest in market research during the concept refining phase.

    Risk could be reduced considerably by adoption of this strategy, but, of course, it could not be eliminated.

    Most of the ‘problems’ cited by participants were due to a low tolerance for risk – by employees (what they would or would not say), and by committees (being afraid to invest money without knowing the return on investment). Raising the risk tolerance would reduce the amount of analysis required to bring a new idea to market, thus shortening the cycle time of new product/service development. According to psychologists Kahn and Hirshorn, people come alive when they feel safe. It is threat and anxiety that inhibit them. It would follow that in order for people in organizations to take risks, lack of success must be tolerated. The organizations that manage risk most effectively transform those risks into challenges and opportunities.

    Questions 27-33
    Look at the following theories (Questions 27 – 33) and the list of experts below. Match each theory with the correct expert A – E. Write the correct letter A – E in boxes 27 — 33 on your answer sheet.
    NB You may use any letter more than once.

    27 A business cannot rely on the success of one good innovation.
    28 A group approach is an effective way of generating innovation.
    29 Employees are more creative in a culture that accepts failure.
    30 Radical innovations will provide greater income than minor changes.
    31 Businesses with a structured approach to innovation are more likely to succeed.
    32 Innovation consists of a new idea combined with business potential.
    33 A business that concentrates on responding to clients’ needs may overlook the need for wider development.

    List of Experts
    A Afuah
    B Kirn and Mauborgne
    C Utterback
    D Hargardorn and Sutton
    E Kahn and Hirshorn

    Questions 34-40
    Complete each sentence with the correct ending A-I below.

    34 Unfortunately the development of an organised innovation process……………
    35 One of the most difficult issues in innovation…………
    36 A company wanting to maintain a leading position in business…………
    37 A different approach to achieving innovation…………..
    38 Getting staff to come up with new ideas…………….
    39 A recommendation for companies already committed to innovation…………….
    40 Problems experienced by companies participating in the study……………..

    A can be to develop a sympathetic manufacturing environment.
    B must put time and money into innovation.
    C can be a very cost-effective way of achieving innovation.
    D may require a more sophisticated communication system.
    E may give rise to a lengthy period between initial concept and launch.
    F could be attributed to an unwillingness to accept risk.
    G can be to work out the saleability of a future product.
    H would be to put more money into the analysis of customer demand.
    I might involve collaboration with another company with particular expertise.

  • IELTS Reading Practice Test – Exercise 43

    One Hundred Days of Reform

    Since the early 1800s, the term one hundred days has represented a political phrase, referring to a short period of concentrated political reform. In most cases, this period comes immediately after a new leader takes over a nation. The original Hundred Days took place between March and June of 1815, when Napoleon escaped from Elba, and King Louis XVIII reclaimed his throne. This was one of the results of the Battle of Waterloo. The Hundred Days of Reform in China (also known as the Wuxu Reform) was inspired by a similar event. After losing the Sino-Japanese war, the Emperor Guwangxu found his country to be in a major crisis. Desperate for change, the emperor hired the help of a young political activist named K’ang Yu-wei. At the age of only 27, K’ang had graduated with the highest degree (chin-shih), written two books on reform, and initiated several of his own political reform movements. K’ang impressed the court and convinced the emperor that China, like Japan, should form a constitutional government and do away with its monarchy.

    On June 11, 1898, Emperor Guwangxu entrusted the reform movement to K’ang and put the progressive scholar-reformer in control of the government. Immediately, K’ang, with the help of a few other reformers, began work on changing China into a more modern society. Within days, the imperial court issued a number of statutes related to the social and political structure of the nation. First, K’ang planned to reform China’s education system. The edicts called for a universal school system with an emphasis on practical and Western studies rather than Neo-Confucian orthodoxy.

    The new government also wanted to modernize the country’s examination systems and send more students abroad to gain firsthand knowledge of how technology was developing in other countries. K’ang also called for the establishment of a national parliamentary government, including popularly elected members and ministries. Military reform and the establishment of a new defense system as well as the modernization of agriculture and medicine were also on the agenda.

    These edicts were threatening to Chinese ideologies and institutions, especially the army, which at the time was controlled by a few governor-generals. There was intense opposition to the reform at all levels of society, and only one in fifteen provinces made attempts to implement the edicts. The Manchus, who considered the reform a radical and unrealistic idea, suggested that more gradual changes needed to be made. Just three months after the reform had begun, a coup d’etat was organized by Yuan Shikai and Empress Dowager Cbd to force Guangxu and the young reformers out of power and into seclusion. A few of the reformer’s chief advocates who refused to leave were executed. After September 21st, the new edicts were abolished, and the conservatives regained their power.

    Many Chinese civilians felt that the aftermath of the One Hundred Days of Reform was more detrimental to China than the short-lived failed attempt at reform. Immediately following the conservative takeover, anti-foreign and anti-Christian secret societies tore through northern China, targeting foreign concessions and missionary facilities. The violence of these “Boxer bands” provoked retaliation from the offended nations, and the government was forced to declare war on the invaders. By August, an Allied force made up of armies from nine European nations as well as the United States and Japan entered Peking. With little effort, north China was occupied, and foreign troops had stationed themselves inside the border. The court was ordered to either execute or punish many of its high officials under the Protocol of 1901. Rather than dividing up the occupied territory among the powers, the Allies settled on an “open door” trade policy. Within a decade, the court ordered many of the original reform measures, including the modernization of the education and military systems.

    The traditional view of the One Hundred Days of Reform depicted Emperor Guwangxu and K’ang Yu-wei as heroes and Empress Dowager Cixi as the villain who refused to reform even though the change was inevitable. However, since the One Hundred Days has turned into a cliche related to political failures, historians in the 20th century often portray the Wuxu Reform as an irrational dream. The fact that the reforms were implemented in a matter of decades, rather than months, suggests that the conservative elites may have been more opposed to the immediacy of the proposed edicts rather than the changes themselves.

    Questions 1-4
    What were some of the reforms planned during the One Hundred Days of Reform in China?
    Choose four answers from the list below, and write the correct letters, A-G, in boxes 1-4 on your Answer Sheet.

    A Modernization of the school system
    B Establishment of a parliament
    C Focus on the study of Confucianism
    D Reorganization of the military
    E Abolition of elections
    F Improvement of farming
    G Initiation of foreign trade

    Questions 5-13

    Complete the sentences below about the reading passage. Choose your answers from the option given below.

    5. China……………..with Japan.

    6. Emperor Guwangxu put K’ang Yu-wei………………

    7. After June 11, 1898 the reforms……………

    8. People throughout China…………….

    9. Yuan Shikai and Empress Dowager Cixi……………

    10. The reforms…………..after September 21st.

    11. Secret societies attacked…………

    12. European, the US and Japanese troops……………

    13. Eventually the reforms……………..

    A overthrew the government after reforms were introduced               B in charge of the reform movement

    C were voted in                      D in prison                     E were abolished                  F lost a war

    G began trade                        H foreigners in China     I were executed                    J reform supporters

    K occupied China                    L were initiated              M opposed the reforms       N were established

    Sleep Apnea

    Sleep apnea is a common sleeping disorder. It affects a number of adults comparable to the percentage of the population that suffers from diabetes. The term apnea is of Greek origin and means “without breath.” Sufferers of sleep apnea stop breathing repeatedly while they sleep. This can happen hundreds of times during the night, each gasp lasting from 10 to 30 seconds. In extreme cases, people stop breathing for more than a minute at a time.

    There are three different types of sleep apnea, with obstructive sleep apnea being the most common. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), which affects 90 percent of sleep apnea sufferers, occurs because of an upper airway obstruction. A person’s breathing stops when air is somehow prevented from entering the trachea. The most common sites for air to get trapped include the nasal passage, the tongue, the tonsils, and the uvula. Fatty tissue or tightened muscles at the back of a throat can also cause the obstruction. Central sleep apnea has a different root cause, though the consequences are the same. In central sleep apnea, the brain forgets to send the signal that tells the muscles that it’s time to breathe. The term central is used because this type of apnea is related to the central nervous system rather than the blocked airflow. The third type of sleep apnea, known as mixed apnea, is a combination of the two and is the most rare form. Fortunately, in all types of apnea, the brain eventually signals for a person to wake up so that breathing can resume. However, this continuous pattern of interrupted sleep is hard on the body and results in very little rest.

    Sleep apnea is associated with a number of risk factors, including being overweight, male, and over the age of forty. However, like many disorders, sleep apnea can affect children and in many cases is found to be the result of a person’s genetic makeup. Despite being so widespread, this disorder often goes undiagnosed. Many people experience symptoms for their whole lives without realizing they have a serious sleep disorder. Oftentimes, it is not the person suffering from sleep apnea who notices the repetitive episodes of sleep interruption, but a partner or family member sleeping nearby. The air cessation is generally accompanied by heavy snoring, loud enough to rouse others from sleep. Those who live alone are less likely to receive early diagnosis, though other symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, irritability, and exhaustion may cause a person to seek medical advice. If left untreated, sleep apnea, which is a progressive disorder, can cause cardiovascular problems, increasing the risk of heart disease and stroke. Sleep apnea is also blamed for many cases of impaired driving and poor job performance.

    In order to diagnose sleep apnea, patients are generally sent to a sleep center for a polysomnography test. This test monitors brain waves, muscle tension, breathing, eye movement, and oxygen in the blood. Audio monitoring for snoring, gasping, and episodic waking is also done during a polysomnogram. Nonintrusive solutions for treating sleep apnea involve simple lifestyle changes. In many cases, symptoms of sleep apnea can be eliminated when patients try losing weight or abstaining from alcohol. People who sleep on their backs or stomachs often find that their symptoms disappear if they try sleeping on their sides. Sleep specialists also claim that sleeping pills interfere with the natural performance of the throat and mouth muscles and suggest patients do away with all sleep medication for a trial period. When these treatments prove unsuccessful, sleep apnea sufferers can be fitted with a CPAP mask, which is worn at night over the mouth and nose, similar to an oxygen mask. CPAP stands for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure.

    In extreme cases, especially when facial deformities are the cause of the sleep apnea, surgery is needed to make a clear passage for the air. Many different types of surgeries are available. The most common form of surgery used to combat sleep apnea is uvulo-palato-pharyngoplasty (UPPP). This procedure involves removing the uvula and the excess tissue around it. UPPP helps about 50 percent of patients who undergo the procedure, while the other half continue to rely on the CPAP machine even after the surgery. Another type of surgery called mandibular myotomy involves removing a piece of the jaw, and adjusting the tongue. By reattaching1 the tongue to a position about ten millimeters forward, air is able to flow more freely during sleep. This delicate procedure is performed only by surgeons with expertise in facial surgery and is almost always successful in eliminating the air obstruction. The latest surgical procedures use radio frequencies to shrink the tissue around the tongue, throat, and soft palate.

    Questions 14-18
    The passage describes three different types of sleep apnea. Which of the characteristics below belongs to which type of sleep apnea? In boxes 14-18 on your Answer Sheet, write

    A if it is a characteristic of obstructive sleep apnea.
    B if it is a characteristic of central sleep apnea.
    C if it is a characteristic of mixed apnea.

    14 Its root cause is a blockage at the trachea.
    15 It is connected exclusively with the nervous system.
    16 It involves blocked airflow and a brain malfunction.
    17 It is the most unusual type of sleep apnea.
    18 It is the most common form of sleep apnea.

    Questions 19-23
    Do the following statements agree with the information in Reading Passage 2? Inboxes 19-23 on your Answer Sheet, write

    TRUE                        if the statement is true according to the passage.
    FALSE                      if the statement contradicts the passage.
    NOT GIVEN          if there is no information about this in the passage.

    19 Sleep apnea only affects men over 40.
    20 Most people with sleep apnea have the problem diagnosed.
    21 Often a relative of the sleep apnea sufferer is the first to notice the problem.
    22 Sleep apnea is more common in Greece than in other countries.
    23 Sleep apnea can cause problems at work.

    Questions 24-27
    Which treatments for sleep apnea are mentioned in the passage?
    Choose four answers from the list below, and write the correct letters, A-G, in boxes 1-4 on your Answer Sheet.

    A getting surgery
    B wearing a mask
    C taking sleeping pills
    D reducing one’s weight
    E massaging the throat muscles
    F sleeping on one’s side
    G drinking moderate amounts of alcohol

    Adult Intelligence

    Over 90 years ago, Binet and Simon delineated two different methods of assessing intelligence. These were the psychological method (which concentrates mostly on intellectual processes, such as memory and abstract reasoning) and the pedagogical method (which concentrates on assessing what an individual knows). The main concern of Binet and Simon was to predict elementary school performance independently from the social and economic background of the individual student. As a result, they settled on the psychological method, and they spawned an intelligence assessment paradigm, which has been substantially unchanged from their original tests.

    With few exceptions, the development of adult intelligence assessment instruments proceeded along the same lines of the Binet-Simon tests. Nevertheless, the difficulty of items was increased for older examinees. Thus, extant adult intelligence tests were created as little more than upward extensions of the original Binet-Simon scales. The Binet-Simon tests are quite effective in predicting school success in both primary and secondary educational environments. However, they have been found to be much less predictive of success in post-secondary academic and occupational domains. Such a discrepancy provokes fundamental questions about intelligence. One highly debated question asks whether college success is actually dependent on currently used forms of measured intelligence, or if present measures of intelligence are inadequately sampling the wider domain of adult intellect. One possible answer to this question lies in questioning the preference of the psychological method over the pedagogical method for assessing adult intellect. Recent research across the fields of education, cognitive science, and adult development suggests that much of adult intellect is indeed not adequately sampled by extant intelligence measures and might be better assessed through the pedagogical method (Ackerman, 1996; Gregory, 1994).

    Several lines of research have also converged on a redefinition of adult intellect that places a greater emphasis on content (knowledge) over process. Substantial strides have been made in delineating knowledge aspects of intellectual performance which are divergent from traditional measures of intelligence (e.g., Wagner, 1987) and in demonstrating that adult performance is greatly influenced by prior topic and domain knowledge (e.g., Alexander et al., 1994). Even some older testing literature seems to indicate that the knowledge measured by the Graduate Records Examination (GRE) is a comparable or better indicator of future graduate school success and post-graduate performance than traditional aptitude measures (Willingham, 1974).

    Knowledge and Intelligence
    When an adult is presented with a completely novel problem (e.g., memorizing a random set of numbers or letters), the basic intellectual processes are typically implicated in predicting which individuals will be successful in solving problems. The dilemma for adult intellectual assessment is that the adult is rarely presented with a completely novel problem in the real world of academic or occupational endeavors. Rather, the problems that an adult is asked to solve almost inevitably draw greatly on his/her accumulated knowledge and skills—one does not build a house by only memorizing physics formulae. For an adult, intellect is better conceptualized by the tasks that the person can accomplish and the skills that he/she has developed rather than the number of digits that can be stored in working memory or the number of syllogistic reasoning items that can be correctly evaluated. Thus, the content of the intellect is at least as important as the processes of intellect in determining an adult’s real-world problem-solving efficacy.

    From the artificial intelligence field, researchers have discarded the idea of a useful general problem solver in favor of knowledge-based expert systems. This is because no amount of processing power can achieve real-world problem-solving proficiency without an extensive set of domain-relevant knowledge structures. Gregory (1994) describes the difference between such concepts as “potential intelligence” (knowledge) and “kinetic intelligence” (process). Similarly, Schank and Birnbaum (1994) say that “what makes someone intelligent is what he [/she] knows.”

    One line of relevant educational research is from the examination of expert- novice differences which indicates that the typical expert is found to mainly differ from the novice in terms of experience and the knowledge structures that are developed through that experience rather than in terms of intellectual processes (e.g., Glaser, 1991). Additional research from developmental and gerontological perspectives has also shown that various aspects of adult intellectual functioning are greatly determined by knowledge structures and less influenced by the kinds of process measures, which have been shown to decline with age over adult development (e.g., Schooler, 1987; Willis & Tosti-Vasey, 1990).

    Shifting Paradigms
    By bringing together a variety of sources of research evidence, it is clear that our current methods of assessing adult intellect are insufficient. When we are confronted with situations in which the intellectual performance of adults must be predicted (e.g., continuing education or adult learning programs), we must begin to take account of what they know in addition to the traditional assessment of intellectual processes. Because adults are quite diverse in their knowledge structures (e.g., a physicist may know many different things than a carpenter), the challenge for educational assessment researchers in the future will be to develop batteries of tests that can be used to assess different sources of intellectual knowledge for different individuals. When adult knowledge structures are broadly examined with tests such as the Advanced Placement [AP] -and College Level Exam Program [CLEP], it may be possible to improve such things as the prediction of adult performance in specific educational endeavors, the placement of individuals, and adult educational counseling.

    Questions 28-34
    Complete the sentences below about the reading passage. Choose your answers from the options given below, and write them in boxes 28-34 on your Answer Sheet. There are more choices than sentences so you will not use them all.

    A tests                                                              B psychological issues                     C new

    D potential for achievement in school             E knowledge-based                         F knowledge

    G Binet and Simon                                            H thought processes                      I Ackerman and Gregory  social class                                                      K recent research                            L future job performance

    M problem solving

    The psychological method of intelligence assessment measures (28)………………………..
    Binet and Simon wanted to develop an assessment method that was not influenced by the child’s (29)……………………
    The Binet-Simon tests have been successfully used to predict (30)………………….
    The Binet-Simon tests are not good predictors of (31)…………………….
    According to (32)………………………, the pedagogical method is the best way to assess adult intelligence.
    The pedagogical method is a better measure of adult intelligence because most problems that adults encounter in real life are not completely (33)…………………………..
    In the area of artificial intelligence, (34)…………………….. systems are preferred.

    Questions 35-39
    Do the following statements agree with the information in Reading Passage 3? In boxes 35-39 on your Answer Sheet, write

    TRUE                       if the statement is true according to the passage.
    FALSE                     if the statement contradicts the passage.
    NOT GIVEN         if there is no information about this in the passage.

    35 The Binet-Simon tests have not changed significantly over the years.
    36 Success in elementary school is a predictor of success in college.
    37 Research suggests that experts generally have more developed intellectual processes than novices.
    38 Knowledge structures in adults decrease with age.
    39 Better methods of measuring adult intelligence need to be developed.

    Question 40
    Choose the correct letter, A-C, and write it in box 40 on your Answer Sheet.

    40 The Advanced Placement and College Level Exam Program tests measure
    A thought processes
    B job skills
    C knowledge

  • IELTS Reading Practice Test – Exercise 42

    Allergy Testing

    Allergic reactions are triggered by the contact, inhalation, or ingestion of a number of different allergens. Some of the most common allergens are made up of proteins found in plants, mold, food, venom, animal skin, and medication. Symptoms of allergic reactions range from mild irritation such as itching, wheezing, and coughing to life-threatening conditions related to the respiratory and gastrointestinal organs. Serious allergic reactions are more likely to result from food, drugs, and stinging insects. A person does not become allergic to a particular substance until after the first exposure. However, in some cases, even trace amounts of a substance, such as peanuts or seafood in a mother’s breast milk, can cause an allergic reaction in a subsequent exposure.

    A variety of allergy tests are available for determining specific substances that trigger allergic reactions in individuals. Allergists, also known as immunologists, are trained in selecting the types of tests that are both safe and appropriate, depending on the suspected allergies. By using allergen extracts, tiny amounts of commonly bothersome allergens (usually in the form of purified liquid drops), immunologists are often able to isolate which substances cause reactions in allergy sufferers.

    One of the most common types of environmental allergy tests is the skin- prick test. This technique involves placing small drops of potential allergen onto the skin of the forearm about one to two inches apart. After the drops are placed on the arm, a needle is used to puncture the skin at the site of each drop. (Though the procedure is virtually painless, this test is often done on the upper back of children to prevent them from seeing the needle.) If an allergy is present, an allergic antibody called immunoglobulin E (IgE) will activate a special cell called a mast cell. Mast cells release chemicals (also known as mediators) that cause itching and swelling. The most common mediator is histamine. Histamine is what causes the controlled hive known as a wheal and flare. The white wheal is the small raised surface, while the flare is the redness that spreads out from it. In an uncontrolled allergic reaction, wheals and flares can get much bigger and spread all over a person’s body. Results from a skin test can usually be obtained within 20 to 30 minutes, while the reaction usually fades within a few hours.

    Another test that is very similar to the skin-prick test is the intradermal allergy test. This involves placing the allergen sample under the skin with a syringe. The intradermal test involves more risk and is usually saved for use if the allergy persists even after a skin-prick test comes back negative. People who have experienced serious allergic reactions called anaphylactic reactions are not advised to have these types of tests. These allergy sufferers may be hypersensitive to even trace amounts of the allergens when they are introduced into the blood. Anaphylaxis is an allergic reaction that affects the whole body and is potentially life-threatening. Hives on the lips and throat can become severe enough to block air passage. Anaphylactic shock occurs when enough histamine is released to cause the blood vessels to dilate and release fluid into the tissues. This lowers blood volume and can result in heart failure.

    A blood test can be performed to safely isolate over 400 different allergies, including dangerous food and environmental allergens. The Radio Allergo Sorbant Test (RAST) measures specific IgE antibodies using a blood sample. IgE is normally found in very small amounts in the blood; it is created as a defense mechanism when it senses an intruder. Separate tests are done for each potential allergen, and IgE results are graded from 0 to 6. For example, canine serum IgE will be high if a person has an allergy to dogs. The RAST is used if patients have pre-existing skin conditions or if patients cannot stop taking certain medications such as antidepressants or antihistamines for even a short period of time. (People must stop taking antihistamines several days prior to taking a skin allergy test because the medication can interfere with the results.) The RAST is a more expensive test that does not provide immediate results.

    A number of other allergy tests are available, though many are considered unreliable according to The Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology. Applied kinesiology is a test that analyzes the loss of muscle strength in the presence of potential allergens. Provocation and neutralization testing involves injecting food allergens into the skin in different quantities, with the goal of determining the smallest dose needed to neutralize the symptoms. Sublingual provocation and neutralization is a similar test, except that the allergens are injected underneath the tongue. Cytotoxity testing involves watching for the reaction of blood cells after placing allergens on a slide next to a person’s blood samples.

    After using a reliable testing method, the cause of an allergic reaction is often identified, and a physician is able to help a patient develop a treatment plan with the goal of controlling or eliminating the allergic symptoms. Those who are allergic to furry pets, pollen, and plants are prescribed mild medication or taught how to control their reactions with simple lifestyle changes, while those with food allergies learn to safely remove certain foods from their diets. Allergy sufferers who are prone to anaphylactic reactions are educated about life-saving techniques such as carrying the drug epinephrine and wearing medical alert bracelets. As soon as people understand their allergies, they can begin to experience an improved quality of life.

    Questions 1-7
    The passage describes three different types of allergy tests. Which of the characteristics below belongs to which type of test? In boxes 1-7 on your Answer Sheet, write

    A if it is a characteristic of the skin-prick test.
    B if it is a characteristic of the intradermal test.
    C if it is a characteristic of the blood test.

    1 A substance is inserted beneath the skin with a needle.
    2 It is often done on a patient’s back.
    3 It is advisable for patients who have skin problems.
    4 It is not advisable for patients who have had serious allergic reactions in the past.
    5 It shows results within half an hour.
    6 It can cause red and white bumps on the patient’s skin.
    7 It has a higher cost than other tests.

    Questions 8-14
    Complete the summary of the reading passage below. Choose your answers from the box below, and write them in boxes 8-14 on your Answer Sheet. There are more words than spaces so you will not use them all.

    moldsmellingidentifyallegens
    avoidingmedicineseatingtreat
    antihistamineanaphylaxiscausessigns

    Allergic reactions result from touching, breathing, or (8)……………………..certain substances called (9) ………………… Coughing or itching are two possible (10)………………….of an allergic reaction. More serious allergic reactions may result from certain insect bites, foods, or (11)………………………..A severe allergic reaction is known as (12)……………………….It can result in loss of blood volume and heart failure. Doctors can use a variety of tests to (13)……………………the source of an allergy. Treatment may include taking medication or (14)…………………………the substances that cause the allergic reaction.

    The Sacred Pipe

    The sacred pipe was one of the most important artifacts of the indigenous people of North America. In almost every culture, the sacred pipe was considered a gift from The Great Spirit. The Cree believed that the pipe, the tobacco, and the fire were given as parting gifts from the Creator, while the Iowa Black Bear clan believed that the pipe bowl and later the pipe stem emerged from the earth as gifts to the earth’s first bears. In most cases, the sacred pipe was considered a medium through which humans could pray to The Great Spirit, asking for guidance, health, and the necessities of life. In order for the prayers to reach the Great Spirit, they had to travel in the plumes of smoke from the sacred pipe. Because of its connection to the spiritual world, the pipe was treated with more respect than any human being, especially when the pipe bowl was joined to the stem.

    Unlike the common pipe, which was used by average tribesmen for casual smoking purposes, the sacred pipe was built with precise craftsmanship. Before a pipe was carved, the catlinite (pipestone) was blessed and prayed over. The bowl of the traditional sacred pipe was made of red pipestone to represent the Earth. The wooden stem represented ail that grew upon the Earth. In the Lakota Society, as in many Native American tribes, the people believed that the pipe bowl also represented a woman while the pipe stem represented a man. Joined together, the pipe symbolized the circle of love between a man and woman. The sacred pipe was the only object that was built by both genders; men carved the bowl and stem while women decorated the pipe with porcupine quills. In many tribes the man and woman held onto the sacred pipe during the marriage ceremony.

    Cultivating the tobacco was the responsibility of certain members of the tribe. Generally, tobacco was mixed with herbs, bark, and roots, such as bay- berry, mugwort, and wild cherry bark. These mixtures varied depending on the plants that were indigenous to the tribal area. Ceremonial tobacco was much stronger than the type that was used for everyday smoking. Rather than being inhaled, the smoke from the sacred pipe was puffed out the mouth in four directions.

    In a typical pipe ceremony, the pipe holder stood up and held the pipe bowl in his left hand, with the stem held toward the East in his right hand. Before adding the first pinch of tobacco to the pipe bowl, he sprinkled some on the ground as an offering to both Mother Earth and the East. The East was acknowledged as the place where the morning star rose. Tribes believed that peace would evolve from wisdom if they prayed to the morning star.

    Before offering a prayer to the South, the pipe holder again offered Mother Earth a sprinkling of tobacco and added another pinch into the bowl. The South was believed to bring strength, growth, and healing. While facing west the pipe holder acknowledged Mother Earth and prepared to thank the area where the sun sets. West was where the tribe believed the Spirit Helpers lived. At this time, they prayed for guidance from the spiritual world. The ceremony then proceeded to the North, which was thanked for blanketing Mother Earth with white snow, and for providing health and endurance.

    After these four prayers, the pipe holder held the stem to the ground again and the tribe promised to respect and protect Mother Earth. Next, the stem was held up at an angle so that Father Sky could be thanked for the energy and heat he gave to the human body. Finally, the stem was held straight up and the tribe acknowledged The Great Spirit, thanking him for being the creator of Mother Earth, Father Sky, and the four directions.

    After the pipe holder had worked his way around the four directions, he lit the pipe and passed it around the sacred circle in the same direction as the ceremonial prayers, starting from the East. Each member took a puff of smoke and offered another prayer. When the pipe had made a full circle, it was capped with bark, and the stem was removed. It was important for the stem and bowl to be stored in separate pockets in a pipe pouch. These pieces were not allowed to touch each other, except during a sacred pipe ceremony.

    Pipestone, Minnesota, is considered hallowed ground for North American tribes. Regardless of their conflicts, tribes put their weapons down and gathered in peace in these quarries. According to the Dakota tribe, The Great Spirit once called all Indian nations to this location. Here the Spirit stood on the red pipestone and broke a piece away from the rock to make a giant pipe. He told his people that the red stone was their flesh and that it should be used to make a sacred pipe. He also said that the pipestone belonged to all native tribesmen and that the quarries must be considered a sacred place. Thus, people who had sacred pipes in their possession were considered caretakers, not owners.

    Questions 15-19
    Choose the correct letters, A-C, and write them in boxes 15-19 on your Answer Sheet

    15 The sacred pipe was important in native American cultures because
    A it was part of their spiritual practice
    B it was used in gift exchanges between tribes
    C it represented traditional handicrafts

    16 The pipe was made of
    A stone and wood
    B bark and roots
    C red clay from the Earth

    17 The pipe was sometimes used at
    A funerals
    B births
    C weddings

    18 During the pipe ceremony, tribe members smoked
    A plain tobacco
    B a combination of plants
    C only bark

    19 Pipestone, Minnesota, is an important place because it is
    A the site of a major battle
    B the origin of the Dakota tribe
    C source of stone for pipes

    Questions 20-27
    Complete the flowchart about the pipe ceremony. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.

    The pipe holder takes the (20)………………..in his left hand and the (21)…………….in his other hand
    The pipe holder offers tobacco to Mother Earth and (22)…………………the place where the morning star rises and then puts some in the pipe
    The pipe holder prays to (23)………………..to bring strength, growth and healing and then prays to the remaining directions
    The pipe holder points the pipe stem down and then up and prays to The Great Spirit, in appreciation for (24)……………., Father Sky and (25)……………..
    The pipe holder passes the pipe around the sacred circle, and all members of the circle (26)………………..and pray
    The bowl and stem are (27)………………..because they can only touch each other during the ceremony
    Bathymetry

    The ocean floor is often considered the last frontier on earth, as it is a domain that remains greatly unexplored. Bathymetry, also known as sea-floor topography, involves measuring and mapping the depths of the underwater world. Today much of the ocean floor still remains unmapped because collecting bathymetry data in waters of great depth is a time consuming and complex endeavor.

    Two hundred years ago most people assumed that the ocean floor was similar to the beaches and coastlines. During the nineteenth century, attempts to produce maps of the seafloor involved lowering weighted lines from a boat and waiting for the tension of the line to change. When the handline hit the ocean floor, the depth of the water was determined by measuring the amount of slack. Each of these measurements was called a sounding, and thousands of soundings had to be done just to get a rough measurement of a small portion of the ocean floor. Besides estimating the depth, these surveys helped in identifying large shipping hazards, especially near the shoreline. A naval officer published the first evidence of underwater mountains in a bathymetric chart in 1855.

    During World War I, scientists developed the technology for measuring sound waves in the ocean. Anti-Submarine Detection Investigation Committee (ASDICs) was the original name for these underwater sound projectors, but by World War II the term sonar was adopted in the United States and many other nations. Sonar, which stands for Sound, Navigation, and Ranging, was first used to detect submarines and icebergs. By calculating the amount of time it took for a sound signal to reflect back to its original source, sonar could measure the depth of the ocean as well as the depth of any objects found within it. The first sonar devices were passive systems that could only receive sound waves. By the 1930s, single-beam sonar was being used to transmit sound waves in a vertical line from a ship to the seafloor. The sound waves were recorded as they returned from the surface to the ship. However, this type of sonar was more useful in detecting submerged objects than mapping the seafloor. Throughout World War II, technology improved, and active sonar systems that both received and produced sound waves were being used. It was the invention of the acoustic transducer and the acoustic projector that made way for this modem sonar. The newer systems made it possible to identify certain material, such as rock or mud. Since mud absorbed a good portion of a sound signal, it provided a much weaker echo than rocks, which reflected much of the sound wave.

    The multi-beam sonar, which could be attached to a ship’s hull, was developed in the 1960s. With this type of sonar, multiple beams could be adjusted to a number of different positions, and a larger area of the ocean could be surveyed. Maps created with the aid of multi-beam sonar helped to explain the formation of ridges and trenches, including the Ring of Fire and the Mid-Ocean Ridge. The Ring of Fire is a zone that circles the Pacific Ocean and is famous for its seismic activity. This area, which extends from the coast of New Zealand to the coast of North and South America, also accounts for more than 75 percent of the world’s active and dormant volcanoes. The Mid-Ocean Ridge is a section of undersea mountains that extends over 12,000 feet high and 1,200 miles wide. These mountains, which zigzag around the continents, are generally considered the most outstanding topographical features on earth.

    The invention of the side-scan sonar was another modem breakthrough for the field of bathymetry. This type of sonar is towed on cables, making it possible to send and receive sound waves over a broad section of the seafloor at much lower angles than the multi-beam sonar. The benefit of the side-scan sonar system is that it can detect very specific features over a large area. The most modem form of bathymetry, which is also the least accurate, is done with data collected by satellite altimetry. This method began to be used in the 1970s. This type of mapping relies on radar altimeters that receive echoes from the sea surface. These signals measure the distance between the satellite and the ocean floor. Unfortunately, due to water vapor1 and ionization, electromagnetic waves are often decelerated as they move through the atmosphere; therefore, the satellite receives inaccurate measurements. The benefit of using satellites to map the ocean is that it can take pictures of the entire globe, including areas that have not yet been measured by sonar. At this time, satellite altimetry is mainly used to locate areas where detailed sonar measurements need to be conducted.

    Due to a constant flux of plate activity, the topography of the seafloor is ever-changing. Scientists expect bathymetry to become one of the most important sciences as humans search for new energy sources and seek alternate routes for telecommunication. Preserving the ocean’s biosphere for the future will also rely on an accurate mapping of the seafloor.

    Questions 28-33
    Complete the table below. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS.

    MAPPING THE OCEAN FLOOR
    MethodFirst UsedUsed ForHow it Works
    Weighted line(28)………………..determining (29)………………..drop a line until it hits the bottom
    (30)………………..1930sdetecting objects underwatersend (31)………………to ocean floor
    Multi-beam solar(32)……………mapping larger areas of the different directionssend multiple sound waves in
    Satellite altimetry1970staking pictures of (33)……………………send signals from satellite

    Questions 34-37
    Match each description below with the ocean region that it describes. In boxes 34-37 on your Answer Sheet, write

    A if it describes the Ring of Fire
    B if it describes the Mid-Ocean Ridge

    34 It is known for the earthquakes that occur there.
    35 It is over one thousand miles wide.
    36 It is a mountain range.
    37 It contains the majority of the earth’s volcanoes.

    Questions 38-40
    The list below gives some possible reasons for mapping the ocean floor.

    Which THREE of these reasons are mentioned in the reading passage?

    Write the appropriate Roman numerals i-vi in boxes 38-40 on your Answer Sheet.

    i Predicting earthquakes
    ii Finding new fuel resources
    iii Protecting ocean life
    iv Understanding weather patterns
    v Improving communications systems
    vi Improving the fishing industry

  • IELTS Reading Practice Test – Exercise 41

    Glaciers

    A Besides the earth’s oceans, glacier ice is the largest source of water on earth. A glacier is a massive stream or sheet of ice that moves underneath itself under the influence of gravity. Some glaciers travel down mountains or valleys, while others spread across a large expanse of land. Heavily glaciated regions such as Greenland and Antarctica are called continental glaciers. These two ice sheets encompass more than 95 percent of the earth’s glacial ice. The Greenland ice sheet is almost 10,000 feet thick in some areas, and the weight of this glacier is so heavy that much of the region has been depressed below sea level. Smaller glaciers that occur at higher elevations are called alpine or valley glaciers. Another way of classifying glaciers is in terms of their internal temperature. In temperate glaciers, the ice within the glacier is near its melting point. Polar glaciers, in contrast, always maintain temperatures far below melting.

    B The majority of the earth’s glaciers are located near the poles, though glaciers exist on all continents, including Africa and Oceania. The reason glaciers are generally formed in high alpine regions is that they require cold temperatures throughout the year. In these areas where there is little opportunity for summer ablation (loss of mass), snow changes to compacted fin and then crystallized ice. During periods in which melting and evaporation exceed the amount of snowfall, glaciers will retreat rather than progress. While glaciers rely heavily on snowfall, other climactic conditions including freezing rain, avalanches, and wind, contribute to their growth. One year of below average precipitation can stunt the growth of a glacier tremendously. With the rare exception of surging glaciers, a common glacier flows about 10 inches per day in the summer and 5 inches per day in the winter. The fastest glacial surge on record occurred in 1953, when the Kutiah Glacier in Pakistan grew more than 12 kilometers in three months.

    C The weight and pressure of ice accumulation causes glacier movement. Glaciers move out from under themselves, via plastic deformation and basal slippage. First, the internal flow of ice crystals begins to spread outward and downward from the thickened snow pack also known as the zone of accumulation. Next, the ice along the ground surface begins to slip in the same direction. Seasonal thawing at the base of the glacier helps to facilitate this slippage. The middle of a glacier moves faster than the sides and bottom because there is no rock to cause friction. The upper part of a glacier rides on the ice below. As a glacier moves it carves out a U-shaped valley similar to a riverbed, but with much steeper walls and a flatter bottom.

    D Besides the extraordinary rivers of ice, glacial erosion creates other unique physical features in the landscape such as horns, fjords, hanging valleys, and cirques. Most of these landforms do not become visible until after a glacier has receded. Many are created by moraines, which occur at the sides and front of a glacier. Moraines are formed when material is picked up along the way and deposited in a new location. When many alpine glaciers occur on the same mountain, these moraines can create a horn. The Matterhorn, in the Swiss Alps, is one of the most famous horns. Fjords, which are very common in Norway, are coastal valleys that fill with ocean water during a glacial retreat. Hanging valleys occur when two or more glacial valleys intersect at varying elevations. It is common for waterfalls to connect the higher and lower hanging valleys, such as in Yosemite National Park. A cirque is a large bowl-shaped valley that forms at the front of a glacier. Cirques often have a lip on their down slope that is deep enough to hold small lakes when the ice melts away.

    E Glacier movement and shape shifting typically occur over hundreds of years. While presently about 10 percent of the earth’s land is covered with glaciers, it is believed that during the last Ice Age glaciers covered approximately 32 percent of the earth’s surface. In the past century, most glaciers have been retreating rather than flowing forward. It is unknown whether this glacial activity is due to human impact or natural causes, but by studying glacier movement, and comparing climate and agricultural profiles over hundreds of years, glaciologists can begin to understand environmental issues such as global warming.

    Questions 1-5
    Reading Passage 1 has five paragraphs, A-E. Choose the most suitable heading for each para-graph from the list of headings below. Write the appropriate numbers (i-viii) on your Answer Sheet. There are more headings than paragraphs, so you will not use them all.

    List of Headings
    i Glacial Continents
    ii Formation and Growth of Glaciers
    iii Glacial Movement
    iv Glaciers in the Last Ice Age
    v Glaciers Through the Years
    vi Types of Glaciers
    vii Glacial Effects on Landscape
    viii Glaciers in National Parks

    1 Paragraph A
    2 Paragraph B
    3 Paragraph C
    4 Paragraph D
    5 Paragraph E

    Questions 6-10
    Do the following statements agree with the information in the passage? In boxes 6-10 on your Answer Sheet, write

    TRUE                      if the statement is true according to the passage.
    FALSE                    if the statement contradicts the passage.
    NOT GIVEN         if there is no information about this in the passage.

    6 Glaciers exist only near the north and south poles.
    7 Glaciers are formed by a combination of snow and other weather conditions.
    8 Glaciers normally move at a rate of about 5 to 10 inches a day.
    9 All parts of the glacier move at the same speed.
    10 During the last Ice Age, average temperatures were much lower than they were during previous Ice Ages.

    Questions 11-15
    Match each definition below with the term it defines. Write the letter of the term, A-H, on your Answer Sheet. There are more terms than definitions, so you will not use them all.

    11 a glacier formed on a mountain
    12 a glacier with temperatures well below freezing
    13 a glacier that moves very quickly
    14 a glacial valley formed near the ocean
    15 a glacial valley that looks like a bowl

    Terms
    A fjord
    B alpine glacier
    C horn
    D polar glacier
    E temperate glacier
    F hanging valley
    G cirque
    H surging glacier

    Irish Potato Famine

    A In the ten years following the Irish potato famine of 1845, over 750,000 Irish people died, including many of those who attempted to immigrate to countries such as the United States and Canada. Prior to the potato blight, one of the main concerns in Ireland was overpopulation. In the early 1500s, the country’s population was estimated at less than three million, but by 1840 this number had nearly tripled. The bountiful potato crop, which contains almost all of the nutrients that a person needs for survival, was largely to blame for the population growth. However, within five years of the failed crop of 1845, the population of Ireland was reduced by a quarter. A number of factors contributed to the plummet of the Irish population, namely the Irish dependency on the potato crop, the British tenure system, and the inadequate relief efforts of the English.

    B It is not known exactly how or when the potato was first introduced to Europe; however, the general assumption is that it arrived on a Spanish ship sometime in the 1600s. For more than one hundred years, Europeans believed that potatoes belonged to a botanical family of a poisonous breed. It was not until Marie Antoinette wore potato blossoms in her hair in the mid-eighteenth century that potatoes became a novelty. By the late 1700s, the dietary value of the potato had been discovered, and the monarchs of Europe ordered the vegetable to be widely planted.

    C By 1800, the vast majority of the Irish population had become dependent on the potato as its primary staple. It wasn’t uncommon for an Irish potato farmer to consume more than six pounds of potatoes a day. Families stored potatoes for the winter and even fed potatoes to their livestock. Because of this dependency, the unexpected potato blight of 1845 devastated the Irish. Investigators at first suggested that the blight was caused by static energy, smoke from railroad trains, or vapors from underground volcanoes; however, the root cause was later discovered as an airborne fungus that traveled from Mexico. Not only did the disease destroy the potato crops, it also infected all of the potatoes in storage at the time. Their families were dying from famine, but weakened farmers had retained little of their agricultural skills to harvest other crops. Those who did manage to grow things such as oats, wheat, and barley relied on earnings from these exported crops to keep their rented homes.

    D While the potato blight generated mass starvation among the Irish, the people were held captive to their poverty by the British tenure system. Following the Napoleonic Wars of 1815, the English had turned their focus to their colonial land holdings. British landowners realized that the best way to profit from these holdings was to extract the resources and exports and charge expensive rents and taxes for people to live on the land. Under the tenure system, Protestant landlords owned 95 percent of the Irish land, which was divided up into five-acre plots for the people to live and farm on. As the population of Ireland grew, however, the plots were continuously subdivided into smaller parcels. Living conditions declined dramatically, and families were forced to move to less fertile land where almost nothing but the potato would grow.

    E During this same period of colonization, the Penal Laws were also instituted as a means of weakening the Irish spirit. Under the Penal Laws, Irish peasants were denied basic human rights, such as the right to speak their own native language, seek certain kinds of employment, practice their faith, receive education, and own land. Despite the famine that was devastating Ireland, the landlords had little compassion or sympathy for tenants unable to pay their rent. Approximately 500,000 Irish tenants were evicted by their landlords between 1845 and 1847. Many of these people also had their homes burned down and were put in jail for overdue rent.

    F The majority of the British officials in the 1840s adopted the laissez-faire philosophy, which supported a policy of nonintervention in the Irish plight. Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel was an exception. He showed compassion toward the Irish by making a move to repeal the Corn Laws, which had been put in place to protect British grain producers from the competition of foreign markets. For this hasty decision, Peel quickly lost the support of the British people and was forced to resign. The new Prime Minister, Lord John Russell, allowed assistant Charles Trevelyan to take complete control over all of the relief efforts in Ireland. Trevelyan believed that the Irish situation should be left to Providence. Claiming that it would be dangerous to let the Irish become dependent on other countries, he even took steps to close food depots that were selling corn and to redirect shipments of com that were already on their way to Ireland. A few relief programs were eventually implemented, such as soup kitchens and workhouses; however, these were poorly run institutions that facilitated the spread of disease, tore apart families, and offered inadequate food supplies considering the extent of Ireland’s shortages.

    G Many of the effects of the Irish potato famine are still evident today. Descendants of those who fled Ireland during the 1840s are dispersed all over the world. Some of the homes that were evacuated by absentee land-lords still sit abandoned in the Irish hills. A number of Irish descendants still carry animosity toward the British for not putting people before politics. The potato blight itself still plagues the Irish people during certain growing seasons when weather conditions are favorable for the fungus to thrive.

    Questions 16-20
    The passage has seven paragraphs, A-G. Which paragraphs contain the following information?

    16 the position of the British government toward the potato famine
    17 a description of the system of land ownership in Ireland
    18 early European attitudes toward the potato
    19 explanation of the lack of legal protection for Irish peasants
    20 the importance of the potato in Irish society

    Questions 21-28
    Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-L, from the box below. Write the correct letter in boxes 21-28 on your Answer Sheet. There are more endings than sentences, so you won’t use them all.

    Sentence Endings
    A because they couldn’t pay the rent on their farms.
    B because railroad trains caused air pollution.
    C because potatoes were their main source of food.
    D because Charles Trevelyan took over relief efforts.
    E because they needed the profits to pay the rent.
    F because they weren’t well-managed.
    G because there wasn’t enough land for the increasing population.
    H because his efforts to help the Irish were unpopular among the British.
    I because they believed that potatoes were poisonous.
    J because the British instituted penal laws.
    K because it was discovered that potatoes are full of nutrients.
    L because Marie Antoinette used potato blossoms as decoration.

    21 At first Europeans didn’t eat potatoes
    22 European monarchs encouraged potato growing
    23 The potato blight was devastating to the Irish
    24 Farmers who grew oats, wheat, and barley didn’t eat these crops
    25 Many Irish farmers lived on infertile plots
    26 Many Irish farmers were arrested
    27 Sir Robert Peel lost his position as prime minister
    28 Soup kitchens and workhouses didn’t relieve the suffering

    Anesthesiology

    Since the beginning of time, man has sought natural remedies for pain. Between 40 and 60 A.D., Greek physician, Dioscorides traveled with the Roman armies, studying the medicinal properties of plants and minerals. His book, De materia medico, written in five volumes and translated into at least seven languages, was the primary reference source for physicians for over sixteen centuries. The field of anesthesiology which was once nothing more than a list of medicinal plants and makeshift remedies, has grown into one of the most important fields in medicine.

    Many of the early pain relievers were based on myth and did little to relieve the suffering of an ill or injured person. The mandragora (now known as the mandrake plant) was one of the first plants to be used as an anesthetic. Due to the apparent screaming that the plant made as it was pulled from the ground, people in the Middle Ages believed that the person who removed the mandrake from the earth would either die or go insane. This superstition may have resulted because the split root of the mandrake resembled the human form. In order to pull the root from the ground, the plant collector would loosen it and tie the stem to an animal. It was believed that the safest time to uproot a mandrake was in the moonlight, and the best animal to use was a black dog. In his manual, Dioscorides suggested boiling the root with wine and having a man drink the potion to remove sensation before cutting his flesh or burning his skin. Opium and Indian hemp were later used to induce sleep before a painful procedure or to relieve the pain of an illness. Other remedies such as cocaine did more harm to the patient than good as people died from their addictions. President Ulysses S. Grant became addicted to cocaine before he died of throat cancer in 1885.

    The modern field of anesthetics dates to the incident when nitrous oxide (more commonly known as laughing gas) was accidentally discovered. Humphrey Davy, the inventor of the miner’s lamp, discovered that inhaling the toxic compound caused a strange euphoria, followed by fits of laughter, tears, and sometimes unconsciousness. U.S. dentist, Horace Wells, was the first on record to experiment with laughing gas, which he used in 1844 to relieve pain during a tooth extraction. Two years later, Dr. William Morton created the first anesthetic machine. This apparatus was a simple glass globe containing an ether-soaked sponge. Morton considered ether a good alternative to nitrous oxide because the numbing effect lasted considerably longer. His apparatus allowed the patient to inhale vapors whenever the pain became unbearable. In 1846, during a trial experiment in Boston, a tumor was successfully removed from a man’s jaw area while he was anesthetized with Morton’s machine.

    The first use of anesthesia in the obstetric field occurred in Scotland by Dr. James Simpson. Instead of ether, which he considered irritating to the eyes, Simpson administered chloroform to reduce the pain of childbirth. Simpson sprinkled chloroform on a handkerchief and allowed laboring women to inhale the fumes at their own discretion. In 1853, Queen Victoria agreed to use chloroform during the birth of her eighth child. Soon the use of chloroform during childbirth was both acceptable and fashionable. However, as chloroform became a more popular anesthetic, knowledge of its toxicity surfaced, and it was soon obsolete.

    After World War II, numerous developments were made in the field of anesthetics. Surgical procedures that had been unthinkable were being per-formed with little or no pain felt by the patient. Rather than physicians or nurses who administered pain relief as part of their profession, anesthesiologists became specialists in suppressing consciousness and alleviating pain. Anesthesiologists today are classified as perioperative physicians, meaning they take care of a patient before, during, and after surgical procedures. It takes over eight years of schooling and four years of residency until an anesthesiologist is prepared to practice in the United States. These experts are trained to administer three different types of anesthetics: general, local, and regional. General anesthetic is used to put a patient into a temporary state of unconsciousness. Local anesthetic is used only at the affected site and causes a loss of sensation. Regional anesthetic is used to block the sensation and possibly the movement of a larger portion of the body. As well as controlling the levels of pain for the patient before and throughout an operation, anesthesiologists are responsible for monitoring and controlling the patient’s vital functions during the procedure and assessing the medical needs in the post-operative room.

    The number of anesthesiologists in the United States has more than doubled since the 1970s, as has the improvement and success of operative care. In addition, complications from anesthesiology have declined dramatically. Over 40 million anesthetics are administered in the United States each year, with only 1 in 250,000 causing death.

    Questions 29-34
    Do the following statements agree with the information in Passage 3? In boxes 29-34 on your Answer Sheet, write

    TRUE                        if the statement is true according to the passage.
    FALSE                      if the statement contradicts the passage.
    NOT GIVEN           if there is no information about this in the passage.

    29 Dioscorides’ book, De materia medica, fell out of use after 60 A.D.
    30 Mandragora was used as an anesthetic during the Middle Ages.
    31 Nitrous oxide can cause the user to both laugh and cry.
    32 During the second half of the 19th century, most dentists used anesthesia.
    33 Anesthesiologists in the United States are required to have 12 years of education and training.
    34 There are fewer anesthesiologists in the United States now than there were 40 years ago.

    Questions 35-40
    Match each fact about anesthesia with the type of anesthetic that it refers to. There are more types of anesthetics listed than facts, so you won’t use them all. Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 35-40 on your Answer Sheet.

    Types of Anesthetic
    A general anesthetic
    B local anesthetic
    C regional anesthetic
    D chloroform
    E ether
    F nitrous oxide
    G opium H mandrake

    35 used by sprinkling on a handkerchief
    36 used on only one specific part of the body
    37 used by boiling with wine
    38 used first during a dental procedure
    39 used to stop feeling over a larger area of the body
    40 used in the first anesthetic machine

  • IELTS Reading Practice Test – Exercise 40

    Alternative Transportation

    Transportation is a major issue in urban areas around the world. Rising fuel costs, environmental problems, and traffic-clogged roads are some of the concerns that have led people to consider alternative forms of transportation.

    Fuel-efficient cars and cars that run on alternative sources of energy are receiving increasing interest as people become more concerned about the costs of using gasoline. These costs include not only the ever increasing price of filling up a car’s fuel tank but also the environmental costs of emitting huge amounts of car exhaust into the atmosphere. Climate change is an issue of global concern. Closer to home, cities have to consider the effects on the health of their citizens. Car emissions have been linked to a range of health problems, particularly respiratory problems. For example, studies have linked childhood asthma and stunted lung growth to exposure to car exhaust in the air. Research has also made connections between car emissions and heart disease, certain cancers, and immune system problems.

    The popularity of smaller, more fuel efficient cars is on the rise. Hybrid vehicles are also becoming more common. These cars have two engines— one that is battery powered and one that is gasoline powered. The battery- powered engine gets the car moving from a standstill. Once the car reaches a certain speed, the gasoline engine, which is more efficient at higher speeds, takes over to keep the car moving. There is also a growing interest in cars that are completely battery powered. These are cars that would be plugged into an electric outlet to recharge when not in use. Many consider such vehicles to be the car of the future. However, as long as the electricity is generated by coal-burning plants, as is often the case, these cars cannot be considered as using clean energy. Solar cars and hydrogen cars are other “clean” technologies that are receiving attention and hopes for the future.

    Car emissions are the most serious source of concern, but the sheer number of vehicles on the road—over 250 million in the United States alone and over one billion worldwide—has other repercussions, as well. The roads and highways that are built to accommodate the growing number of cars in use are a source of pollution themselves. Ground that is covered with pavement cannot absorb rainwater, thus motor oil and other pollutants are washed off the roads and into lakes, rivers, and the ocean. Chemicals, herbicides, concrete, asphalt, paint, and other materials that are used during road construction also contribute to environmental pollution.

    Personal convenience and health are also affected. While private cars are seen as a convenient way to get from place to place, crowded roads mean traffic moves much more slowly, making it difficult to travel, especially during “rush hour” periods. And people who spend hours each day sitting in cars stuck in traffic are not standing up, moving around, or getting any sort of exercise, a situation that can lead to a variety of health problems.

    Thus, in addition to developing passenger cars that run on alternative sources of fuel, we also need to look at alternative forms of transportation. These would include walking, bicycle riding, carpooling, and various types of public transportation. The benefits of walking and cycling are obvious. They cause no pollution and improve physical health. Car pools—several people sharing a ride in a private car—mean fewer cars on the road and allow the riders to share the expenses involved. Public transportation— buses, subways, commuter trains—has many benefits, as well. For one, it may provide users with opportunities for physical exercise as people have to get from their homes to the bus stops and train stations, and this is often done on foot. There are also mental health benefits, as relaxing on a train or bus while reading the newspaper or listening to music is a good deal less stressful than driving one’s own car through rush hour traffic. All of these forms of transportation decrease the number of cars on the roads and greatly reduce emissions. Looking toward the future, cities need to pay as much attention, or more, to public transportation and to accommodating walkers and cyclists as they do to building roads and accommodating drivers of passenger cars.

    Questions 1-5
    The list below shows some problems that are associated with the use of private cars. Which FIVE of these problems are mentioned in the article?

    A Social isolation
    B High maintenance costs
    C Air pollution
    D Noise pollution
    E Traffic congestion
    F Stress
    G Lack of parking space
    H Rising price of gasoline
    I Reduced opportunities for physical exercise

    Questions 6-13
    Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in the passage? In boxes 6-13 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

    6 Car emissions can contribute to illnesses of the respiratory system.
    7 Cars are the largest source of environmental pollution in the modern world.
    8 People are becoming more interested in hybrid cars.
    9 Electric cars don’t pollute the environment.
    10 Solar-powered cars are currently too expensive for the average person to own.
    11 Roads and highways contribute to water pollution.
    12 Bicycle riding has health benefits.
    13 Car pools can reduce individuals’ transportation costs.

    Less Television, Less Violence And Aggression

    Cutting back on television, videos, and video games reduces acts of aggression among schoolchildren, according to a study by Dr. Thomas Robinson and others from the Stanford University School of Medicine.

    The study, published in the January 2001 issue of the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, found that third- and fourth-grade students who took part in a curriculum to reduce their TV video, and video game use engaged in fewer acts of verbal and physical aggression than their peers. The study took place in two similar San Jose, California, elementary schools. Students in one school underwent an 18-lesson, 6-month program designed to limit their media usage, while the others did not. Both groups of students had similar reports of aggressive behavior at the beginning of the study. After the six-month program, however, the two groups had very real differences.

    The students who cut back on their TV time engaged in six fewer acts of verbal aggression per hour and rated 2.4 percent fewer of their classmates as aggressive after the program. Physical acts of violence, parental reports of aggressive behavior, and perceptions of a mean and scary world also decreased, but the authors suggest further study to solidify these results. Although many studies have shown that children who watch a lot of TV are more likely to act violently, this report further verifies that television, videos, and video games actually cause the violent behavior, and it is among the first to evaluate a solution to the problem.

    Teachers at the intervention school included the program in their existing curriculum. Early lessons encouraged students to keep track of and report on the time they spent watching TV or videos, or playing video games, to motivate them to limit those activities on their own. The initial lessons were followed by TV-Turn off, an organization that encourages less TV viewing. For ten days, students were challenged to go without television, videos, or video games. After that, teachers encouraged the students to stay within a media allowance of seven hours per week. Almost all students participated in the Turnoff, and most stayed under their budget for the following weeks.

    Additional lessons encouraged children to use their time more selectively, and many of the final lessons had students themselves advocate reducing screen activities. This study is by no means the first to find a link between television and violence. Virtually all of 3,500 research studies on the subject in the past 40 years have shown the same relationship, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

    Among the most noteworthy studies is Dr. Leonard D. Eron’s, which found that exposure to television violence in childhood is the strongest predictor of aggressive behavior later in life—stronger even than violent behavior as children.

    The more violent television the subjects watched at age eight, the more serious was their aggressive behavior even 22 years later. Another study by Dr. Brandon S. Centerwall found that murder rates climb after the introduction of television. In the United States and Canada, murder rates doubled 10 to 15 years after the introduction of television, after the first TV generation grew up. Centerwall tested this pattern in South Africa, where television broadcasts were banned until 1975.

    Murder rates in South Africa remained relatively steady from the mid-1940s through the mid-1970s. By 1987, however, the murder rate had increased 130 percent from its 1974 level. The murder rates in the United States and Canada had leveled1 off in the meantime. Centerwall’s study implies that the medium of television, not just the con-tent, promotes violence, and the current study by Dr Robinson supports that conclusion.

    The Turnoff did not specifically target violent television, nor did the following allowance period. Reducing television in general reduces aggressive behavior. Even television that is not “violent” is more violent than real life and may lead viewers to believe that violence is funny, inconsequential, and a viable solution to problems. Also, watching television of any content robs us of the time to interact with real people. Watching too much TV may inhibit the skills and patience we need to get along with others without resorting to aggression. TV, as a medium, pro-motes aggression and violence. The best solution is to turn it off.

    Questions 14-20
    Complete the summary using words from the box below.

    A study that was published in January 2001 found that when children (14)………………………….less, they behaved less (15)……………………..Students in a California elementary school participated in the study, which lasted (16)……………………….By the end of the study, title children’s behavior had changed. For example, the children’s (17)…………………………reported that the children were acting less violently than before. During the study, the children kept a record of the (18)…………………….they watched TV. Then, for ten days, they (19)……………………….Near the end of the study, the students began to suggest watching (20)………………

    parentsscaredtime of dayteachersless TV
    number of hourssix monthseighteen daysavoided TVviolently
    classmatesfavorite programmeswatched TVnonviolent programmes

    Questions 21-24
    Do the following statements agree with the information in Reading Passage 2? In boxes 21-24 write

    TRUE                     if the statement is true according to the passage.
    FALSE                   if the statement contradicts the passage.
    NOT GIVEN        if there is no information about this in the passage.

    21 Only one study has found a connection between TV and violent behavior.
    22 There were more murders in Canada after people began watching TV.
    23 The United States has more violence on TV than other countries.
    24 TV was introduced in South Africa in the 1940s.

    Questions 25 and 26
    For each question, choose the correct letter A-D and write it in boxes 25 and 26 on your Answer Sheet.

    25 According to the passage,
    A only children are affected by violence on TV
    B only violent TV programs cause violent behavior
    C children who watch too much TV get poor grades in school
    D watching a lot of TV may keep us from learning important social skills

    26 The authors of this passage believe that
    A some violent TV programs are funny
    B the best plan is to stop watching TV completely
    C it’s better to watch TV with other people than on your own
    D seven hours a week of TV watching is acceptable

    Issues Affecting The Southern Resident Orcas

    A Orcas, also known as killer whales, are opportunistic feeders, which means they will take a variety of different prey species. J, K, and L pods (specific groups of orcas found in the region) are almost exclusively fish eaters. Some studies show that up to 90 percent of their diet is salmon, with Chinook salmon being far and away their favorite. During the last 50 years, hundreds of wild runs of salmon have become extinct due to habitat loss and overfishing of wild stocks. Many of the extinct salmon stocks are the winter runs of Chinook and coho. Although the surviving stocks have probably been sufficient to sustain the resident pods, many of the runs that have been lost were undoubtedly traditional resources favored by the resident orcas. This may be affecting the whales’ nutrition in the winter and may require them to change their patterns of movement in order to search for food.

    Other studies with tagged whales have shown that they regularly dive up to 800 feet in this area. Researchers tend to think that during these deep dives the whales may be feeding on bottomfish. Bottomfish species in this area would include halibut, rockfish, lingcod, and greenling. Scientists estimate that today’s lingcod population in northern Puget Sound and the Strait of Georgia is only 2 percent of what it was in 1950. The average size of rockfish in the recreational catch has also declined by several inches since the 1970s, which is indicative of overfishing. In some locations, certain rockfish species have disappeared entirely. So even if bottomfish are not a major food resource for the whales, the present low numbers of available fish increases the pressure on orcas and all marine animals to find food. (For more information on bottomfish see the San Juan County Bottomfish Recovery Program.)

    B Toxic substances accumulate in higher concentrations as they move up the food chain. Because orcas are the top predator in the ocean and are at the top of several different food chains in the environment, they tend to be more affected by pollutants than other sea creatures. Examinations of stranded killer whales have shown some extremely high levels of lead, mercury, and polychlorinated hydrocarbons. Abandoned marine toxic waste dumps and present levels of industrial and human refuse pollution of the inland waters probably presents the most serious threat to the continued existence of this orca population. Unfortunately, the total remedy to this huge problem would be broad societal changes on many fronts. But because of the fact that orcas are so popular, they may be the best species to use as a focal point in bringing about the many changes that need to be made in order to protect the marine environment as a whole from further toxic poisoning.

    C The waters around the San Juan Islands are extremely busy due to international commercial shipping, fishing, whale watching, and pleasure boating. On a busy weekend day in the summer, it is not uncommon to see numerous boats in the vicinity of the whales as they travel through the area. The potential impacts from all this vessel traffic with regard to the whales and other marine animals in the area could be tremendous.

    The surfacing and breathing space of marine birds and mammals is a critical aspect of their habitat, which the animals must consciously deal with on a moment-to-moment basis throughout their lifetimes. With all the boating activity in the vicinity, there are three ways in which surface impacts are most likely to affect marine animals: (a) collision, (b) collision avoidance, and (c) exhaust emissions in breathing pockets.

    The first two impacts are very obvious and don’t just apply to vessels with motors. Kayakers even present a problem here because they’re so quiet. Marine animals, busy hunting and feeding under the surface of the water, may not be aware that there is a kayak above them and actually hit the bot-tom of it as they surface to breathe. The third impact is one most people don’t even think of. When there are numerous boats in the area, especially idling boats, there are a lot of exhaust fumes being spewed out on the surface of the water. When the whale comes up to take a nice big breath of “fresh” air, it instead gets a nice big breath of exhaust fumes. It’s hard to say how greatly this affects the animals, but think how breathing polluted air affects us (i.e., smog in large cities like Los Angeles, breathing the foul air while sitting in traffic jams, etc.).

    D Similar to surface impacts, a primary source of acoustic pollution for this population of orcas would also be derived from the cumulative underwater noise of vessel traffic. For cetaceans, the underwater sound environment is perhaps the most critical component of their sensory and behavioral lives. Orcas communicate with each other over short and long distances with a variety of clicks, chirps, squeaks, and whistles, along with using echolocation to locate prey and to navigate. They may also rely on passive listening as a primary sensory source. The long-term impacts from noise pollution would not likely show up as noticeable behavioral changes in habitat use, but rather as sensory damage or gradual reduction in population health. A new study at The Whale Museum called the SeaSound Remote Sensing Network has begun studying underwater acoustics and its relationship to orca communication.

    Questions 27-30
    Reading Passage 3 has four sections (A-D). Choose the most suitable heading for each section from the list of headings below. Write the appropriate numbers (i-vii) in boxes 27-30 on your Answer Sheet. There are more headings than sections, so you will not use all of them.

    List of headings
    i Top Ocean Predators
    ii Toxic Exposure
    iii Declining Fish Populations
    iv Pleasure Boating in the San Juan Islands
    v Underwater Noise
    vi Smog in Large Cities
    vii Impact of Boat Traffic

    27 Section A
    28 Section B
    29 Section C
    30 Section D

    Questions 31-32
    For each question, choose the appropriate letter A-D and write it in boxes 31 and 32 on your Answer Sheet.

    31 Killer whales (orcas) in the J, K, and L pods prefer to eat
    A halibut
    B a type of salmon
    C a variety of animals
    D fish living at the bottom of the sea

    32 Some groups of salmon have become extinct because
    A they have lost places to live
    B whales have eaten them
    C they don’t get good nutrition
    D the winters in the area are too cold

    Questions 33-40
    Complete the chart below. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS.

    CauseEffect
    Scientists believe some whales feed (33)…………….these whales dive very deep
    Scientists believe that the area is being over fishedrockfish caught today is (34)………………..than rockfish caught in the past
    Orcas are at the top of the ocean food chain(35)…………………affects orcas more than it does other sea animals
    Orcas are a (36)……………….specieswe can use orcas to make society aware of the problem in marine pollution
    People enjoy boating, fishing and whale watching in the San Juan Islandson weekends there are (37)………………near the whales
    Kayaks are (38)………………..marine animals hit them when they come up the air
    A lot of boats keep their motors runningwhales breathe (39)……………….
    Boats are noisywhales have difficulty hearing and (40)…………………..
  • IELTS Reading Practice Test – Exercise 39

    The Megafires of California

    Wildfires are becoming an increasing menace in the western United States, with Southern California being the hardest hit area. There’s a reason fire squads battling more frequent blazes in Southern California are having such difficulty containing the flames, despite better preparedness than ever and decades of experience fighting fires fanned by the ‘Santa Ana Winds’. The wildfires themselves, experts say, are generally hotter, faster, and spread more erratically than in the past.

    Megafires, also called ‘siege fires’, are the increasingly frequent blazes that burn 500,000 acres or more – 10 times the size of the average forest fire of 20 years ago. Some recent wildfires are among the biggest ever in California in terms of acreage burned, according to state figures and news reports.

    One explanation for the trend to more superhot fires is that the region, which usually has dry summers, has had significantly below normal precipitation in many recent years. Another reason, experts say, is related to the century- long policy of the US Forest Service to stop wildfires as quickly as possible. The unintentional consequence has been to halt the natural eradication of underbrush, now the primary fuel for megafires.

    Three other factors contribute to the trend, they add. First is climate change, marked by a 1-degree Fahrenheit rise in average yearly temperature across the western states. Second is fire seasons that on average are 78 days longer than they were 20 years ago. Third is increased construction of homes in wooded areas.

    ‘We are increasingly building our homes in fire-prone ecosystems,’ says Dominik Kulakowski, adjunct professor of biology at Clark University Graduate School of Geography in Worcester, Massachusetts. ‘Doing that in many of the forests of the western US is like building homes on the side of an active volcano.’

    In California, where population growth has averaged more than 600,000 a year for at least a decade, more residential housing is being built. ‘What once was open space is now residential homes providing fuel to make fires burn with greater intensity,’ says Terry McHale of the California Department of Forestry firefighters’ union. ‘With so much dryness, so many communities to catch fire, so many fronts to fight, it becomes an almost incredible job.’

    That said, many experts give California high marks for making progress on preparedness in recent years, after some of the largest fires in state history scorched thousands of acres, burned thousands of homes, and killed numerous people. Stung in the past by criticism of bungling that allowed fires to spread when they might have been contained, personnel are meeting the peculiar challenges of neighborhood – and canyon- hopping fires better than previously, observers say.

    State promises to provide more up-to-date engines, planes, and helicopters to fight fires have been fulfilled. Firefighters’ unions that in the past complained of dilapidated equipment, old fire engines, and insufficient blueprints for fire safety are now praising the state’s commitment, noting that funding for firefighting has increased, despite huge cuts in many other programs. ‘We are pleased that the current state administration has been very proactive in its support of us, and [has] come through with budgetary support of the infrastructure needs we have long sought,’ says Mr. McHale of the firefighters’ union.

    Besides providing money to upgrade the fire engines that must traverse the mammoth state and wind along serpentine canyon roads, the state has invested in better command-and-control facilities as well as in the strategies to run them. ‘In the fire sieges of earlier years, we found that other jurisdictions and states were willing to offer mutual-aid help, but we were not able to communicate adequately with them,’ says Kim Zagaris, chief of the state’s Office of Emergency Services Fire and Rescue Branch.

    After a commission examined and revamped communications procedures, the statewide response ‘has become far more professional and responsive,’ he says. There is a sense among both government officials and residents that the speed, dedication, and coordination of firefighters from several states and jurisdictions are resulting in greater efficiency than in past ‘siege fire’ situations.

    In recent years, the Southern California region has improved building codes, evacuation procedures, and procurement of new technology. ‘I am extraordinarily impressed by the improvements we have witnessed,’ says Randy Jacobs, a Southern California- based lawyer who has had to evacuate both his home and business to escape wildfires. ‘Notwithstanding all the damage that will continue to be caused by wildfires, we will no longer suffer the loss of life endured in the past because of the fire prevention and firefighting measures that have been put in place,’ he says.

    Questions 1-6
    Complete the notes below. Choose ONE WORD OR A NUMBER from the passage.

    Wildfires
    Characteristics of wildfires and wildfire conditions today compared to the past:
    • Occurrence: more frequent
    • Temperature: hotter
    • Speed: faster
    • Movement: (1)……………………more unpredictably
    • Size of fires: (2)……………………….greater on average than two decades ago
    Reasons wildfires cause more damage today compared to the past:
    • Rainfall: (3)…………………..average
    • More brush to act as (4)…………………..
    • Increase in yearly temperature
    • Extended fire (5)…………………..
    • More building of (6)……………………….in vulnerable places

    Questions 7-13
    Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?
    In boxes 7-13 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

    7 The amount of open space in California has diminished over the last ten years.
    8 Many experts believe California has made little progress in readying itself to fight fires.
    9 Personnel in the past have been criticised for mishandling fire containment.
    10 California has replaced a range of firefighting tools.
    11 More firefighters have been hired to improve fire-fighting capacity.
    12 Citizens and government groups disapprove of the efforts of different states and agencies working together.
    13 Randy Jacobs believes that loss of life from fires will continue at the same levels, despite changes made.

    Second Nature

    A Psychologists have long held that a person’s character cannot undergo a transformation in any meaningful way and that the key traits of personality are determined at a very young age. However, researchers have begun looking more closely at ways we can change. Positive psychologists have identified 24 qualities we admire, such as loyalty and kindness, and are studying them to find out why they come so naturally to some people. What they’re discovering is that many of these qualities amount to habitual behaviour that determines the way we respond to the world. The good news is that all this can be learned.

    Some qualities are less challenging to develop than others, optimism being one of them. However, developing qualities requires mastering a range of skills which are diverse and sometimes surprising. For example, to bring more joy and passion into your life, you must be open to experiencing negative emotions. Cultivating such qualities will help you realise your full potential.

    B ‘The evidence is good that most personality traits can be altered,’ says Christopher Peterson, professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, who cites himself as an example. Inherently introverted, he realised early on that as an academic, his reticence would prove disastrous in the lecture hall. So he learned to be more outgoing and to entertain his classes. ‘Now my extroverted behaviour is spontaneous,’ he says.

    C David Fajgenbaum had to make a similar transition. He was preparing for university, when he had an accident that put an end to his sports career. On campus, he quickly found that beyond ordinary counselling, the university had no services for students who were undergoing physical rehabilitation and suffering from depression like him. He therefore launched a support group to help others in similar situations. He took action despite his own pain – a typical response of an optimist.

    D Suzanne Segerstrom, professor of psychology at the University of Kentucky, believes that the key to increasing optimism is through cultivating optimistic behaviour, rather than positive thinking. She recommends you train yourself to pay attention to good fortune by writing down three positive things that come about each day. This will help you convince yourself that favourable outcomes actually happen all the time, making it easier to begin taking action.

    E You can recognise a person who is passionate about a pursuit by the way they are so strongly involved in it. Tanya Streeter’s passion is freediving – the sport of plunging deep into the water without tanks or other breathing equipment. Beginning in 1998, she set nine world records and can hold her breath for six minutes. The physical stamina required for this sport is intense but the psychological demands are even more overwhelming. Streeter learned to untangle her fears from her judgment of what her body and mind could do. ‘In my career as a competitive freediver, there was a limit to what I could do – but it wasn’t anywhere near what I thought it was,’ she says.

    F Finding a pursuit that excites you can improve anyone’s life. The secret about consuming passions, though, according to psychologist Paul Silvia of the University of North Carolina, is that ‘they require discipline, hard work and ability, which is why they are so rewarding.’ Psychologist Todd Kashdan has this advice for those people taking up a new passion: ‘As a newcomer, you also have to tolerate and laugh at your own ignorance. You must be willing to accept the negative feelings that come your way,’ he says.

    G In 2004, physician-scientist Mauro Zappaterra began his PhD research at Harvard Medical School. Unfortunately, he was miserable as his research wasn’t compatible with his curiosity about healing. He finally took a break and during eight months in Santa Fe, Zappaterra learned about alternative healing techniques not taught at Harvard. When he got back, he switched labs to study how cerebrospinal fluid nourishes the developing nervous system. He also vowed to look for the joy in everything, including failure, as this could help him learn about his research and himself.

    One thing that can hold joy back is a person’s concentration on avoiding failure rather than their looking forward to doing something well. ‘Focusing on being safe might get in the way of your reaching your goals,’ explains Kashdan. For example, are you hoping to get through a business lunch without embarrassing yourself, or are you thinking about how fascinating the conversation might be?

    H Usually, we think of courage in physical terms but ordinary life demands something else. For marketing executive Kenneth Pedeleose, it meant speaking out against something he thought was ethically wrong. The new manager was intimidating staff so Pedeleose carefully recorded each instance of bullying and eventually took the evidence to a senior director, knowing his own job security would be threatened. Eventually the manager was the one to go. According to Cynthia Pury, a psychologist at Clemson University, Pedeleose’s story proves the point that courage is not motivated by fearlessness, but by moral obligation. Pury also believes that people can acquire courage. Many of her students said that faced with a risky situation, they first tried to calm themselves down, then looked for a way to mitigate the danger, just as Pedeleose did by documenting his allegations. Over the long term, picking up a new character trait may help you move toward being the person you want to be. And in the short term, the effort itself could be surprisingly rewarding, a kind of internal adventure.

    Questions 14-18
    Complete the summary below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage.

    Psychologists have traditionally believed that a personality (14)………………………. was impossible and that by a (15)………………………., a person’s character tends to be fixed. This is not true according to positive psychologists, who say that our personal qualities can be seen as habitual behaviour. One of the easiest qualities to acquire is (16)…………………… However, regardless of the quality, it is necessary to learn a wide variety of different (17)…………………… in order for a new quality to develop; for example, a person must understand and feel some (18)…………………………… in order to increase their happiness.

    Questions 19-22
    Look at the following statements (Questions 19-22) and the list of people below.
    Match each statement with the correct person, A-G.

    19 People must accept that they do not know much when first trying something new.
    20 It is important for people to actively notice when good things happen.
    21 Courage can be learned once its origins in a sense of responsibility are understood.
    22 It is possible to overcome shyness when faced with the need to speak in public.

    List of People
    A Christopher Peterson
    B David Fajgenbaum
    C Suzanne Segerstrom
    D Tanya Streeter
    E Todd Kashdan
    F Kenneth Pedeleose
    G Cynthia Pury

    Questions 23-26
    Reading Passage 2 has eight sections, A-H.

    Which section contains the following information?

    23 a mention of how rational thinking enabled someone to achieve physical goals
    24 an account of how someone overcame a sad experience
    25 a description of how someone decided to rethink their academic career path
    26 an example of how someone risked his career out of a sense of duty

    When Evolution Runs Backwards

    The description of any animal as an ‘evolutionary throwback’ is controversial. For the better part of a century, most biologists have been reluctant to use those words, mindful of a principle of evolution that says ‘evolution cannot run backwards’. But as more and more examples come to light and modern genetics enters the scene, that principle is having to be rewritten. Not only are evolutionary throwbacks possible, they sometimes play an important role in the forward march of evolution.

    The technical term for an evolutionary throwback is an ‘atavism’, from the Latin atavus, meaning forefather. The word has ugly connotations thanks largely to Cesare Lombroso, a 19th-century Italian medic who argued that criminals were born not made and could be identified by certain physical features that were throwbacks to a primitive, sub-human state.

    While Lombroso was measuring criminals, a Belgian palaeontologist called Louis Dollo was studying fossil records and coming to the opposite conclusion. In 1890 he proposed that evolution was irreversible: that ‘an organism is unable to return, even partially, to a previous stage already realised in the ranks of its ancestors’. Early 20th-century biologists came to similar conclusion, though they qualified it in terms of probability, stating that there is no reason why evolution cannot run backwards – it is just very unlikely. And so the idea of irreversibility in evolution stuck and came to be known as ‘Dollo’s law’.

    If Dollo’s law is right, atavisms should occur only very rarely, if at all. Yet almost since the idea took root, exceptions have been cropping up. In 1919, for example, a humpback whale with a pair of leg-like appendages over a metre long, complete with a full set of limb bones, was caught off Vancouver Island in Canada. Explorer Roy Chapman Andrews argued at the time that the whale must be a throwback to a land-living ancestor. ‘I can see no other explanation,’ he wrote in 1921.

    Since then, so many other examples have been discovered that it no longer makes sense to say that evolution is as good as irreversible. And this poses a puzzle: how can characteristics that disappeared millions of years ago suddenly reappear? In 1994, Rudolf Raff and colleagues at Indiana University in the USA decided to use genetics to put a number on the probability of evolution going into reverse. They reasoned that while some evolutionary changes involve the loss of genes and are therefore irreversible, others may be the result of genes being switched off. If these silent genes are somehow switched back on, they argued, long-lost traits could reappear.

    Raff’s team went on to calculate the likelihood of it happening. Silent genes accumulate random mutations, they reasoned, eventually rendering them useless. So how long can a gene survive in a species if it is no longer used? The team calculated that there is a good chance of silent genes surviving for up to 6 million years in at least a few individuals in a population, and that some might survive as long as 10 million years. In other words, throwbacks are possible, but only to the relatively recent evolutionary past.

    As a possible example, the team pointed to the mole salamanders of Mexico and California. Like most amphibians these begin life in a juvenile ‘tadpole’ state, then metamorphose into the adult form – except for one species, the axolotl, which famously lives its entire life as a juvenile. The simplest explanation for this is that the axolotl lineage alone lost the ability to metamorphose, while others retained it. From a detailed analysis of the salamanders’ family tree, however, it is clear that the other lineages evolved from an ancestor that itself had lost the ability to metamorphose. In other words, metamorphosis in mole salamanders is an atavism. The salamander example fits with Raff’s 10-million-year time frame.

    More recently, however, examples have been reported that break the time limit, suggesting that silent genes may not be the whole story. In a paper published last year, biologist Gunter Wagner of Yale University reported some work on the evolutionary history of a group of South American lizards called Bachia. Many of these have minuscule limbs; some look more like snakes than lizards and a few have completely lost the toes on their hind limbs. Other species, however, sport up to four toes on their hind legs. The simplest explanation is that the toed lineages never lost their toes, but Wagner begs to differ. According to his analysis of the Bachia family tree, the toed species re-evolved toes from toeless ancestors and, what is more, digit loss and gain has occurred on more than one occasion over tens of millions of years.

    So what’s going on? One possibility is that these traits are lost and then simply reappear, in much the same way that similar structures can independently arise in unrelated species, such as the dorsal fins of sharks and killer whales. Another more intriguing possibility is that the genetic information needed to make toes somehow survived for tens or perhaps hundreds of millions of years in the lizards and was reactivated. These atavistic traits provided an advantage and spread through the population, effectively reversing evolution.

    But if silent genes degrade within 6 to 10 million years, how can long-lost traits be reactivated over longer timescales? The answer may lie in the womb. Early embryos of many species develop ancestral features. Snake embryos, for example, sprout hind limb buds. Later in development these features disappear thanks to developmental programs that say ‘lose the leg’. If for any reason this does not happen, the ancestral feature may not disappear, leading to an atavism.

    Questions 27-31
    Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

    27 When discussing the theory developed by Louis Dollo, the writer says that
    A it was immediately referred to as Dollo’s law
    B it supported the possibility of evolutionary throwbacks
    C it was modified by biologists in the early twentieth century
    D it was based on many years of research

    28 The humpback whale caught off Vancouver Island is mentioned because of
    A the exceptional size of its body
    B the way it exemplifies Dollo’s law
    C the amount of local controversy it caused
    D the reason given for its unusual features

    29 What is said about ‘silent genes’?
    A Their numbers vary according to species
    B Raff disagreed with the use of the term
    C They could lead to the re-emergence of certain characteristics
    D They can have an unlimited life span

    30 The writer mentions the mole salamander because
    A it exemplifies what happens in the development of most amphibians
    B it suggests that Raff’s theory is correct
    C it has lost and regained more than one ability
    D its ancestors have become the subject of extensive research

    31 Which of the following does Wagner claim?
    A Members of the Bachia lizard family have lost and regained certain features several times
    B Evidence shows that the evolution of the Bachia lizard is due to the environment
    C His research into South American lizards supports Raff’s assertions
    D His findings will apply to other species of South American lizards

    Questions 32-36
    Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-G, below.

    32 For a long time biologists rejected
    33 Opposing views on evolutionary throwbacks are represented by
    34 Examples of evolutionary throwbacks have led to
    35 The shark and killer whale are mentioned to exemplify
    36 One explanation for the findings of Wagner’s research is

    A the question of how certain long-lost traits could reappear.
    B the occurrence of a particular feature in different species.
    C parallels drawn between behaviour and appearance.
    D the continued existence of certain genetic information.
    E the doubts felt about evolutionary throwbacks.
    F the possibility of evolution being reversible.
    G Dollo’s findings and the convictions held by Lombroso.

    Questions 37-40
    Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3?

    YES                          if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
    NO                            if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
    NOT GIVEN         if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

    37 Wagner was the first person to do research on South American lizards.
    38 Wagner believes that Bachia lizards with toes had toeless ancestors.
    39 The temporary occurrence of long-lost traits in embryos is rare.
    40 Evolutionary throwbacks might be caused by developmental problems in the womb.

  • IELTS Reading Practice Test – Exercise 38

    The context, meaning and scope of tourism

    A Travel has existed since the beginning of time, when primitive man set out, often traversing great distances in search of game, which provided the food and clothing necessary for his survival. Throughout the course of history, people have travelled for purposes of trade, religious conviction, economic gain, war, migration and other equally compelling motivations. In the Roman era, wealthy aristocrats and high government officials also travelled for pleasure. Seaside resorts located at Pompeii and Herculaneum afforded citizens the opportunity to escape to their vacation villas in order to avoid the summer heat of Rome. Travel, except during the Dark Ages, has continued to grow and, throughout recorded history, has played a vital role in the development of civilisations and their economies.

    B Tourism in the mass form as we know it today is a distinctly twentieth-century phenomenon. Historians suggest that the advent of mass tourism began in England during the industrial revolution with the rise of the middle class and the availability of relatively inexpensive transportation. The creation of the commercial airline industry following the Second World War and the subsequent development of the jet aircraft in the 1950s signalled the rapid growth and expansion of international travel. This growth led to the development of a major new industry: tourism. In turn, international tourism became the concern of a number of world governments since it not only provided new employment opportunities but also produced a means of earning foreign exchange.

    C Tourism today has grown significantly in both economic and social importance. In most industrialised countries over the past few years the fastest growth has been seen in the area of services. One of the largest segments of the service industry, although largely unrecognised as an entity in some of these countries, is travel and tourism. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (1992), ‘Travel and tourism is the largest industry in the world on virtually any economic measure including value-added capital investment, employment and tax contributions’. In 1992, the industry’s gross output was estimated to be $3.5 trillion, over 12 per cent of all consumer spending. The travel and tourism industry is the world’s largest employer with almost 130 million jobs, or almost 7 per cent of all employees. This industry is the world’s leading industrial contributor, producing over 6 per cent of the world’s gross national product and accounting for capital investment in excess of $422 billion in direct, indirect and personal taxes each year. Thus, tourism has a profound impact both on the world economy and, because of the educative effect of travel and the effects on employment, on society itself.

    D However, the major problems of the travel and tourism industry that have hidden, or obscured, its economic impact are the diversity and fragmentation of the industry itself. The travel industry includes: hotels, motels and other types of accommodation; restaurants and other food services; transportation services and facilities; amusements, attractions and other leisure facilities; gift shops and a large number of other enterprises. Since many of these businesses also serve local residents, the impact of spending by visitors can easily be overlooked or underestimated. In addition, Meis (1992) points out that the tourism industry involves concepts that have remained amorphous to both analysts and decision makers. Moreover, in all nations this problem has made it difficult for the industry to develop any type of reliable or credible tourism information base in order to estimate the contribution it makes to regional, national and global economies. However, the nature of this very diversity makes travel and tourism ideal vehicles for economic development in a wide variety of countries, regions or communities.

    E Once the exclusive province of the wealthy, travel and tourism have become an institutionalised way of life for most of the population. In fact, McIntosh and Goeldner (1990) suggest that tourism has become the largest commodity in international trade for many nations and, for a significant number of other countries, it ranks second or third. For example, tourism is the major source of income in Bermuda, Greece, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and most Caribbean countries. In addition, Hawkins and Ritchie, quoting from data published by the American Express Company, suggest that the travel and tourism industry is the number one ranked employer in the Bahamas, Brazil, Canada, France, (the former) West Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States. However, because of problems of definition, which directly affect statistical measurement, it is not possible with any degree of certainty to provide precise, valid or reliable data about the extent of world-wide tourism participation or its economic impact. In many cases, similar difficulties arise when attempts are made to measure domestic tourism.

    Questions 1-4
    Reading passage 1 has five paragraphs A-E. Choose the correct heading for paragraphs B-E from the list of heading below.

    List of headings
    i Economic and social significance of tourism
    ii The development of mass tourism
    iii Travel for the wealthy
    iv Earning foreign exchange through tourism
    v Difficulty in recognising the economic effects of tourism
    vi The contribution of air travel to tourism
    vii The world impact of tourism
    viii The history of travel

    Example Paragraph A            viii

    1 Paragraph B
    2 Paragraph C
    3 Paragraph D
    4 Paragraph E

    Questions 5-10
    Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?
    In boxes 5-10 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

    5 The largest employment figures in the world are found in the travel and tourism industry.
    6 Tourism contributes over six per cent of the Australian gross national product.
    7 Tourism has a social impact because it promotes recreation.
    8 Two main features of the travel and tourism industry make its economic significance difficult to ascertain.
    9 Visitor spending is always greater than the spending of residents in tourist areas.
    10 It is easy to show statistically how tourism affects individual economies.

    Questions 11-13
    Complete the sentences below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage.

    11 In Greece, tourism is the most important…….
    12 The travel and tourism industry in Jamaica is the major……….
    13 The problems associated with measuring international tourism are often reflected in the measurement of………

    Autumn Leaves

    A One of the most captivating natural events of the year in many areas throughout North America is the turning of the leaves in the fall. The colours are magnificent, but the question of exactly why some trees turn yellow or orange, and others red or purple, is something which has long puzzled scientists.

    B Summer leaves are green because they are full of chlorophyll, the molecule that captures sunlight and converts that energy into new building materials for the tree. As fall approaches in the northern hemisphere, the amount of solar energy available declines considerably. For many trees – evergreen conifers being an exception – the best strategy is to abandon photosynthesis until the spring. So rather than maintaining the now redundant leaves throughout the winter, the tree saves its precious resources and discards them. But before letting its leaves go, the tree dismantles their chlorophyll molecules and ships their valuable nitrogen back into the twigs. As chlorophyll is depleted, other colours that have been dominated by it throughout the summer begin to be revealed. This unmasking explains the autumn colours of yellow and orange, but not the brilliant reds and purples of trees such as the maple or sumac.

    C The source of the red is widely known: it is created by anthocyanins, water-soluble plant pigments reflecting the red to blue range of the visible spectrum. They belong to a class of sugar-based chemical compounds also known as flavonoids. What’s puzzling is that anthocyanins are actually newly minted, made in the leaves at the same time as the tree is preparing to drop them. But it is hard to make sense of the manufacture of anthocyanins – why should a tree bother making new chemicals in its leaves when it’s already scrambling to withdraw and preserve the ones already there?

    D Some theories about anthocyanins have argued that they might act as a chemical defence against attacks by insects or fungi, or that they might attract fruit-eating birds or increase a leaf’s tolerance to freezing. However there are problems with each of these theories, including the fact that leaves are red for such a relatively short period that the expense of energy needed to manufacture the anthocyanins would outweigh any anti-fungal or anti-herbivore activity achieved.

    E It has also been proposed that trees may produce vivid red colours to convince herbivorous insects that they are healthy and robust and would be easily able to mount chemical defences against infestation. If insects paid attention to such advertisements, they might be prompted to lay their eggs on a duller, and presumably less resistant host. The flaw in this theory lies in the lack of proof to support it. No one has as yet ascertained whether more robust trees sport the brightest leaves, or whether insects make choices according to colour intensity.

    F Perhaps the most plausible suggestion as to why leaves would go to the trouble of making anthocyanins when they’re busy packing up for the winter is the theory known as the ‘light screen’ hypothesis. It sounds paradoxical, because the idea behind this hypothesis is that the red pigment is made in autumn leaves to protect chlorophyll, the light-absorbing chemical, from too much light. Why does chlorophyll need protection when it is the natural world’s supreme light absorber? Why protect chlorophyll at a time when the tree is breaking it down to salvage as much of it as possible?

    G Chlorophyll, although exquisitely evolved to capture the energy of sunlight, can sometimes be overwhelmed by it, especially in situations of drought, low temperatures, or nutrient deficiency. Moreover, the problem of oversensitivity to light is even more acute in the fall, when the leaf is busy preparing for winter by dismantling its internal machinery. The energy absorbed by the chlorophyll molecules of the unstable autumn leaf is not immediately channelled into useful products and processes, as it would be in an intact summer leaf. The weakened fall leaf then becomes vulnerable to the highly destructive effects of the oxygen created by the excited chlorophyll molecules.

    H Even if you had never suspected that this is what was going on when leaves turn red, there are clues out there. One is straightforward: on many trees, the leaves that are the reddest are those on the side of the tree which gets most sun. Not only that, but the red is brighter on the upper side of the leaf. It has also been recognised for decades that the best conditions for intense red colours are dry, sunny days and cool nights, conditions that nicely match those that make leaves susceptible to excess light. And finally, trees such as maples usually get much redder the more north you travel in the northern hemisphere. It’s colder there, they’re more stressed, their chlorophyll is more sensitive and it needs more sunblock.

    I What is still not fully understood, however, is why some trees resort to producing red pigments while others don’t bother, and simply reveal their orange or yellow hues. Do these trees have other means at their disposal to prevent overexposure to light in autumn? Their story, though not as spectacular to the eye, will surely turn out to be as subtle and as complex.

    Questions 14-18
    Reading Passage 2 has nine paragraphs, A-l. Which paragraph contains the following information?
    Write the correct letter, A-l, in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet. NB You may use any letter more than once.

    14 a description of the substance responsible for the red colouration of leaves
    15 the reason why trees drop their leaves in autumn
    16 some evidence to confirm a theory about the purpose of the red leaves
    17 an explanation of the function of chlorophyll
    18 a suggestion that the red colouration in leaves could serve as a warning signal

    Questions 19-22
    Complete the notes below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage.

    Why believe the ‘light screen’ hypothesis?
    • The most vividly coloured red leaves are found on the side of the tree facing the (19)…………..
    • The (20)…………………..surfaces of leaves contain the most red pigment.
    • Red leaves are most abundant when daytime weather conditions are (21)………………and sunny.
    • The intensity of the red colour of leaves increases as you go further (22)………………

    Questions 23-25
    Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage? In boxes 23-25 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

    23 It is likely that the red pigments help to protect the leaf from freezing temperatures.
    24 The ‘light screen’ hypothesis would initially seem to contradict what is known about chlorophyll.
    25 Leaves which turn colours other than red are more likely to be damaged by sunlight.

    Question 26
    Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D.

    For which of the following questions does the writer offer an explanation?
    A why conifers remain green in winter
    B how leaves turn orange and yellow in autumn
    C how herbivorous insects choose which trees to lay their eggs in
    D why anthocyanins are restricted to certain trees

    Beyond the blue horizon

    An important archaeological discovery on the island of Efate in the Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu has revealed traces of an ancient seafaring people, the distant ancestors of today’s Polynesians. The site came to light only by chance. An agricultural worker, digging in the grounds of a derelict plantation, scraped open a grave — the first of dozens in a burial ground some 3,000 years old. It is the oldest cemetery ever found in the Pacific islands, and it harbors the remains of an ancient people archaeologists call the Lapita.

    They were daring blue-water adventurers who used basic canoes to rove across the ocean. But they were not just explorers. They were also pioneers who carried with them everything they would need to build new lives – their livestock, taro seedlings and stone tools. Within the span of several centuries, the Lapita stretched the boundaries of their world from the jungle-clad volcanoes of Papua New Guinea to the loneliest coral outliers of Tonga.

    The Lapita left precious few clues about themselves, but Efate expands the volume of data available to researchers dramatically. The remains of 62 individuals have been uncovered so far, and archaeologists were also thrilled to find six complete Lapita pots. Other items included a Lapita burial urn with modeled birds arranged on the rim as though peering down at the human remains sealed inside. ‘It’s an important discovery,’ says Matthew Spriggs, professor of archaeology at the Australian National University and head of the international team digging up the site, for it conclusively identifies the remains at Lapita.

    DNA teased from these human remains may help answer one of the most puzzling questions in Pacific anthropology: did all Pacific islanders spring from one source or many? Was there only one outward migration from a single point in Asia, or several from different points? ‘This represents the best opportunity we’ve had yet,’ says Spriggs, ‘to find out who the Lapita actually were, where they came from, and who their closest descendants are today.’

    There is one stubborn question for which archaeology has yet to provide any answers: how did the Lapita accomplish the ancient equivalent of a moon landing, many times over? No-one has found one of their canoes or any rigging, which could reveal how the canoes were sailed. Nor do the oral histories and traditions of later Polynesians offer any insights, for they turn into myths long before they reach as far back in time as the Lapita.

    All we can say for certain is that the Lapita had canoes that were capable of ocean voyages, and they had the ability to sail them,’ says Geoff Irwin a professor of archaeology at the University of Auckland. Those sailing skills, he says, were developed and passed down over thousands of years by earlier mariners who worked their way through the archipelagoes of the western Pacific, making short crossings to nearby islands. The real adventure didn’t begin, however, until their Lapita descendants sailed out of sight of land, with empty horizons on every side. This must have been as difficult for them as landing on the moon is for us today. Certainly it distinguished them from their ancestors, but what gave them the courage to launch out on such risky voyages?

    The Lapita’s thrust into the Pacific was eastward, against the prevailing trade winds, Irwin notes. Those nagging headwinds, he argues, may have been the key to their success. ‘They could sail out for days into the unknown and assess the area, secure in the knowledge that if they didn’t find anything, they could turn about and catch a swift ride back on the trade winds. This is what would have made the whole thing work.’ Once out there, skilled seafarers would have detected abundant leads to follow to land: seabirds, coconuts and twigs carried out to sea by the tides, and the afternoon pile-up of clouds on the horizon which often indicates an island in the distance.

    For returning explorers, successful or not, the geography of their own archipelagoes would have provided a safety net. Without this to go by, overshooting their home ports, getting lost and sailing off into eternity would have been all too easy. Vanuaru, for example, stretches more than 500 miles in a northwest-southeast trend, its scores of intervisible islands forming a backstop for mariners riding the trade winds home.

    All this presupposes one essential detail, says Atholl Anderson, professor of prehistory at the Australian National University: the Lapita had mastered the advanced art of sailing against the wind. ‘And there’s no proof they could do any such thing,’ Anderson says, ‘There has been this assumption they did, and people have built canoes to re-create those early voyages based on that assumption. But nobody has any idea what their canoes looked like or how they were rigged.’

    Rather than give all the credit to human skill, Anderson invokes the winds of chance. El Nino, the same climate disruption that affects the Pacific today, may have helped scatter the Lapita, Anderson suggests. He points out that climate data obtained from slow-growing corals around the Pacific indicated a series of unusually frequent El Ninos around the time of the Lapita expansion. By reversing the regular east-to-west flow of the trade winds for weeks at a time, these ‘super El Ninos’ might have taken the Lapita on long unplanned voyages.

    However they did it, the Lapita spread themselves a third of the way across the Pacific, then called it quits for reasons known only to them. Ahead lay the vast emptiness of the central Pacific and perhaps they were too thinly stretched to venture farther. ‘They probably never numbered more than a few thousand in total, and in their rapid migration eastward they encountered hundreds of islands – more than 300 in Fiji alone.

    Questions 27-31

    Complete the summary using the list of words and phrases, A-J, below.

    The Éfaté burial site

    A 3,000-year-old burial ground of a seafaring people called the Lapita has been found on an abandoned (27)……………….on the Pacific island of Éfaté. The cemetery, which is a significant (28)……………….., was uncovered accidentally by an agricultural worker.

    The Lapita explored and colonized many Pacific islands over several centuries. They took many things with them on their voyages including (29)……………..and tools.

    The burial ground increases the amount of information about the Lapita available to scientists. A team of researchers, led by Matthew Spriggs from the Australian National University, are helping with the excavation of the site. Spriggs believes the (30)……………….which was found at the site is very important since it confirms that the (31)……………. found inside are Lapita.

    A proof
    B plantation
    C harbor
    D bones

    E data
    F archaeological discovery
    G burial urn
    H source
    I animals
    J maps

    Questions 32-35
    Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

    32 According to the writer, there are difficulties explaining how the Lapita accomplished their journeys because
    A the canoes that have been discovered offer relatively few clues.
    B archeologists have shown limited interest in this area of research.
    C little information relating to this period can be relied upon for accuracy.
    D technological advances have altered the way such achievements are viewed.

    33 According to the sixth paragraph, what was extraordinary about the Lapita?
    A They sailed beyond the point where land was visible.
    B They cultural heritage discouraged the expression of fear.
    C They were able to build canoes that withstood ocean voyages.
    D Their navigational skills were passed on from one generation to the next.

    34 What does ‘This’ refer to in the seventh paragraph?
    A the Lapita’s seafaring talent
    B the Lapita’s ability to detect signs of land
    C the Lapita’s extensive knowledge of the region
    D the Lapita’s belief they would be able to return home

    35 According to the eighth paragraph, how was the geography of the region significant?
    A It played an important role in Lapita culture
    B It meant there were relatively few storms at sea
    C It provided a navigational aid for the Lapita
    D It made a large number of islands habitable

    Questions 36-40
    Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 3? In boxes 36-40 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

    36 It is now clear that the Lapita could sail into a prevailing wind.
    37 Extreme climate conditions may have played a role in Lapita migration.
    38 The Lapita learnt to predict the duration of El Ninos.
    39 It remains unclear why the Lapita halted their expansion across the Pacific.
    40 It is likely that the majority of Lapita settled on Fiji.

  • IELTS Reading Practice Test – Exercise 37

    Tea and the Industrial Revolution

    A Alan Macfarlane, professor of anthropological science at King’s College, Cambridge, has, like other historians, spent decades wrestling with the enigma of the Industrial Revolution. Why did this particular Big Bang – the world-changing birth of industry – happen in Britain? And why did it strike at the end of the 18th century?

    B Macfarlane compares the puzzle to a combination lock. ‘There are about 20 different factors and all of them need to be present before the revolution can happen,’ he says. For industry to take off, there needs to be the technology and power to drive factories, large urban populations to provide cheap labour, easy transport to move goods around, an affluent middle-class willing to buy mass-produced objects, a market-driven economy and a political system that allows this to happen. While this was the case for England, other ‘ nations, such as Japan, the Netherlands and France also met some of these criteria but were not industrialising. All these factors must have been necessary but not sufficient to cause the revolution,’ says Macfarlane. After all, Holland had everything except coal, while China also had many of these factors. Most historians are convinced there are one or two missing factors that you need to open the lock.’

    C The missing factors, he proposes, are to be found in almost every kitchen cupboard. Tea and beer, two of the nation’s favourite drinks, fuelled the revolution. The antiseptic properties of tannin, the active ingredient in tea, and of hops in beer – plus the fact that both are made with boiled water – allowed urban communities to flourish at close quarters without succumbing to water-borne diseases such as dysentery. The theory sounds eccentric but once he starts to explain the detective work that went into his deduction, the scepticism gives way to wary admiration. Macfarlane’s case has been strengthened by support from notable quarters — Roy Porter, the distinguished medical historian, recently wrote a favourable appraisal of his research.

    D Macfarlane had wondered for a long time how the Industrial Revolution came about. Historians had alighted on one interesting factor around the mid-18th century that required explanation. Between about 1650 and 1740, the population in Britain was static. But then there was a burst in population growth. Macfarlane says: ‘The infant mortality rate halved in the space of 20 years, and this happened in both rural areas and cities, and across all classes. People suggested four possible causes. Was there a sudden change in the viruses and bacteria around? Unlikely. Was there a revolution in medical science? But this was a century before Lister’s revolution . Was there a change in environmental conditions? There were improvements in agriculture that wiped out malaria, but these were small gains. Sanitation did not become widespread until the 19th century. The only option left is food. But the height and weight statistics show a decline. So the food must have got worse. Efforts to explain this sudden reduction in child deaths appeared to draw a blank.’

    E This population burst seemed to happen at just the right time to provide labour for the Industrial Revolution. ‘When you start moving towards an industrial revolution, it is economically efficient to have people living close together/ says Macfarlane. ‘But then you get disease, particularly from human waste.’ Some digging around in historical records revealed that there was a change in the incidence of water-borne disease at that time, especially dysentery. Macfarlane deduced that whatever the British were drinking must have been important in regulating disease. He says, ‘We drank beer. For a long time, the English were protected by the strong antibacterial agent in hops, which were added to help preserve the beer. But in the late 17th century a tax was introduced on malt, the basic ingredient of beer. The poor turned to water and gin and in the 1720s the mortality rate began to rise again. 7ben it suddenly dropped again. What caused this?’

    F Macfarlane looked to Japan, which was also developing large cities about the same time, and also had no sanitation. Water-borne diseases had a much looser grip on the Japanese population than those in Britain. Could it be the prevalence of tea in their culture? Macfarlane then noted that the history of tea in Britain provided an extraordinary coincidence of dates. Tea was relatively expensive until Britain started a direct clipper trade with China in the early 18th century. By the 1740s, about the time that infant mortality was dipping, the drink was common. Macfarlane guessed that the fact that water had to be boiled, together with the stomach-purifying properties of tea meant that the breast milk provided by mothers was healthier than it had ever been. No other European nation sipped tea like the British, which, by Macfarlane’s logic, pushed these other countries out of contention for the revolution.

    G But, if tea is a factor in the combination lock, why didn’t Japan forge ahead in a tea-soaked industrial revolution of its own? Macfarlane notes that even though 17th-century Japan had large cities, high literacy rates, even a futures market, it had turned its back on the essence of any work-based revolution by giving up labour-saving devices such as animals, afraid that they would put people out of work. So, the nation that we now think of as one of the most technologically advanced entered the 19th century having ‘abandoned the wheel’.

    Questions 1-7
    Reading passage 1 has 7 paragraphs A-G. Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.

    List of headings

    i The search for the reasons for an increase in population
    ii Industrialisation and the fear of unemployment
    iii The development of cities in Japan
    iv The time and place of the Industrial Revolution
    v The cases of Holland, France and China
    vi Changes in drinking habits in Britain
    vii Two keys to Britain’s industrial revolution
    viii Conditions required for industrialization
    ix Comparisons with Japan lead to the answer

    1 Paragraph A
    2 Paragraph B
    3 Paragraph C
    4 Paragraph D
    5 Paragraph E
    6 Paragraph F
    7 Paragraph G

    Questions 8-13
    Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?
    In boxes 8-13 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

    8 China’s transport system was not suitable for industry in the 18th century.
    9 Tea and beer both helped to prevent dysentery in Britain.
    10 Roy Porter disagrees with Professor Macfarlane’s findings.
    11 After 1740, there was a reduction in population in Britain.
    12 People in Britain used to make beer at home.
    13 The tax on malt indirectly caused a rise in the death rate.

    Gifted Children and Learning

    A Internationally, ‘giftedness’ is most frequently determined by a score on a general intelligence test, known as an IQ test, which is above a chosen cutoff point, usually at around the top 2-5%. Children’s educational environment contributes to the IQ score and the way intelligence is used. For example, a very close positive relationship was found when children’s IQ scores were compared with their home educational provision (Freeman, 2010). The higher the children’s IQ scores, especially over IQ 130, the better the quality of their educational backup, measured in terms of reported verbal interactions with parents, number of books and activities in their home etc. Because IQ tests are decidedly influenced by what the child has learned, they are to some extent measures of current achievement based on age-norms; that is, how well the children have learned to manipulate their knowledge and know-how within the terms of the test. The vocabulary aspect, for example, is dependent on having heard those words. But IQ tests can neither identify the processes of learning and thinking nor predict creativity.

    B Excellence does not emerge without appropriate help. To reach an exceptionally high standard in any area very able children need the means to learn, which includes material to work with and focused challenging tuition – and the encouragement to follow their dream. There appears to be a qualitative difference in the way the intellectually highly able think, compared with more average-ability or older pupils, for whom external regulation by the teacher often compensates for lack of internal regulation. To be at their most effective in their self-regulation, all children can be helped to identify their own ways of learning – metacognition – which will include strategies of planning, monitoring, evaluation, and choice of what to learn. Emotional awareness is also part of metacognition, so children should be helped to be aware of their feelings around the area to be learned, feelings of curiosity or confidence, for example.

    C High achievers have been found to use self-regulatory learning strategies more often and more effectively than lower achievers, and are better able to transfer these strategies to deal with unfamiliar tasks. This happens to such a high degree in some children that they appear to be demonstrating talent in particular areas. Overviewing research on the thinking process of highly able children, (Shore and Kanevsky, 1993) put the instructor’s problem succinctly:
    ‘If they [the gifted] merely think more quickly, then we need only teach more quickly. If they merely make fewer errors, then we can shorten the practice’. But of course, this is not entirely the case; adjustments have to be made in methods of learning and teaching, to take account of the many ways individuals think.

    D Yet in order to learn by themselves, the gifted do need some support from their teachers. Conversely, teachers who have a tendency to ‘overdirect’ can diminish their gifted pupils’ learning autonomy. Although ‘spoon-feeding’ can produce extremely high examination results, these are not always followed by equally impressive life successes. Too much dependence on the teacher risks loss of autonomy and motivation to discover. However, when teachers help pupils to reflect on their own learning and thinking activities, they increase their pupils’ self-regulation. For a young child, it may be just the simple question ‘What have you learned today?’ which helps them to recognise what they are doing. Given that a fundamental goal of education is to transfer the control of learning from teachers to pupils, improving pupils’ learning to learn techniques should be a major outcome of the school experience, especially for the highly competent. There are quite a number of new methods which can help, such as child- initiated learning, ability-peer tutoring, etc. Such practices have been found to be particularly useful for bright children from deprived areas.

    E But scientific progress is not all theoretical, knowledge is also vital to outstanding performance: individuals who know a great deal about a specific domain will achieve at a higher level than those who do not (Elshout, 1995). Research with creative scientists by Simonton (1988) brought him to the conclusion that above a certain high level, characteristics such as independence seemed to contribute more to reaching the highest levels of expertise than intellectual skills, due to the great demands of effort and time needed for learning and practice. Creativity in all forms can be seen as expertise mixed with a high level of motivation (Weisberg, 1993).

    F To sum up, learning is affected by emotions of both the individual and significant others. Positive emotions facilitate the creative aspects of learning and negative emotions inhibit it. Fear, for example, can limit the development of curiosity, which is a strong force in scientific advance, because it motivates problem-solving behaviour. In Boekaerts’ (1991) review of emotion in the learning of very high IQ and highly achieving children, she found emotional forces in harness. They were not only curious, but often had a strong desire to control their environment, improve their learning efficiency, and increase their own learning resources.

    Questions 14-17
    Reading Passage 2 has six paragraphs, A-F.
    Which paragraph contains the following information? NB You may use any letter more than once.

    14 a reference to the influence of the domestic background on the gifted child
    15 reference to what can be lost if learners are given too much guidance
    16 a reference to the damaging effects of anxiety
    17 examples of classroom techniques which favour socially-disadvantaged children

    Questions 18-22
    Look at the following statements (Questions 18-22) and the list of people below.
    Match each statement with the correct person or people, A-E.

    18 Less time can be spent on exercises with gifted pupils who produce accurate work.
    19 Self-reliance is a valuable tool that helps gifted students reach their goals.
    20 Gifted children know how to channel their feelings to assist their learning.
    21 The very gifted child benefits from appropriate support from close relatives.
    22 Really successful students have learnt a considerable amount about their subject.

    List of people
    A Freeman
    B Shore and Kanevsky
    C Elshout
    D Simonton
    E Boekaerts

    Questions 23-26
    Complete the sentences below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

    23. One study found a strong connection between children’s IQ and the availability of………………………….. and……………………..………at home.
    24. Children of average ability seem to need more direction from teachers because they do not have………………..
    25. Metacognition involves children understanding their own learning strategies, as well as developing………………
    26. Teachers who rely on what is known as…………………..often produce sets of impressive grades in class tests

    Museum of Fine Art and their Public

    One of the most famous works of art in the world is Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. Nearly everyone who goes to see the original will already be familiar with it from reproductions, but they accept that fine art is more rewardingly viewed in its original form.

    However, if Mona Lisa was a famous novel, few people would bother to go to a museum to read the writer’s actual manuscript rather than a printed reproduction. This might be explained by the fact that the novel has evolved precisely because of technological developments that made it possible to print out huge numbers of texts, whereas oil paintings have always been produced as unique objects. In addition, it could be argued that the practice of interpreting or ‘reading’ each medium follows different conventions. With novels, the reader attends mainly to the meaning of words rather than the way they are printed on the page, whereas the ‘reader’ of a painting must attend just as closely to the material form of marks and shapes in the picture as to any ideas they may signify.

    Yet it has always been possible to make very accurate facsimiles of pretty well any fine art work. The seven surviving versions of Mona Lisa bear witness to the fact that in the 16th century, artists seemed content to assign the reproduction of their creations to their workshop apprentices as regular ‘bread and butter’ work. And today the task of reproducing pictures is incomparably more simple and reliable, with reprographic techniques that allow the production of high-quality prints made exactly to the original scale, with faithful colour values, and even with duplication of the surface relief of the painting.

    But despite an implicit recognition that the spread of good reproductions can be culturally valuable, museums continue to promote the special status of original work.

    Unfortunately, this seems to place severe limitations on the kind of experience offered to visitors.

    One limitation is related to the way the museum presents its exhibits. As repositories of unique historical objects, art museums are often called ‘treasure houses’. We are reminded of this even before we view a collection by the presence of security guards, attendants, ropes and display cases to keep us away from the exhibits. In many cases, the architectural style of the building further reinforces that notion. In addition, a major collection like that of London’s National Gallery is housed in numerous rooms, each with dozens of works, any one of which is likely to be worth more than all the average visitor possesses. In a society that judges the personal status of the individual so much by their material worth, it is therefore difficult not to be impressed by one’s own relative ‘worthlessness’ in such an environment.

    Furthermore, consideration of the ‘value’ of the original work in its treasure house setting impresses upon the viewer that, since these works were originally produced, they have been assigned a huge monetary value by some person or institution more powerful than themselves. Evidently, nothing the viewer thinks about the work is going to alter that value, and so today’s viewer is deterred from trying to extend that spontaneous, immediate, self-reliant kind of reading which would originally have met the work.

    The visitor may then be struck by the strangeness of seeing such diverse paintings, drawings and sculptures brought together in an environment for which they were not originally created. This ‘displacement effect’ is further heightened by the sheer volume of exhibits. In the case of a major collection, there are probably more works on display than we could realistically view in weeks or even months.

    This is particularly distressing because time seems to be a vital factor in the appreciation of all art forms. A fundamental difference between paintings and other art forms is that there is no prescribed time over which a painting is viewed. By contrast, the audience encounters an opera or a play over a specific time, which is the duration of the performance. Similarly, novels and poems are read in a prescribed temporal sequence, whereas a picture has no clear place at which to start viewing, or at which to finish. Thus art works themselves encourage us to view them superficially, without appreciating the richness of detail and labour that is involved.

    Consequently, the dominant critical approach becomes that of the art historian, a specialised academic approach devoted to ‘discovering the meaning’ of art within the cultural context of its time. This is in perfect harmony with the museum’s function, since the approach is dedicated to seeking out and conserving ‘authentic’, ‘original’ readings of the exhibits. Again, this seems to put paid to that spontaneous, participatory criticism which can be found in abundance in criticism of classic works of literature, but is absent from most art history.

    The displays of art museums serve as a warning of what critical practices can emerge when spontaneous criticism is suppressed. The museum public, like any other audience, experience art more rewardingly when given the confidence to express their views. If appropriate works of fine art could be rendered permanently accessible to the public by means of high-fidelity reproductions, as literature and music already are, the public may feel somewhat less in awe of them. Unfortunately, that may be too much to ask from those who seek to maintain and control the art establishment.

    Questions 27-31
    Complete the summary using the list of words, A-L, below.

    The value attached to original works of art
    People go to art museums because they accept the value of seeing an original work of art. But they do not go to museums to read original manuscripts of novels, perhaps because the availability of novels has depended on (27)……………………….for so long, and also because with novels, the (28)…………………….are the most important thing. However, in historical times artists such as Leonardo were happy to instruct (29)………………….to produce copies of their work and these days new methods of reproduction allow excellent replication of surface relief features as well as colour and (30)…………………………. It is regrettable that museums still promote the superiority of original works of art, since this may not be in the interests of the (31)………………….

    A institution
    B mass production
    C mechanical processes
    D public
    E paints
    F artist
    G size
    H underlying ideas
    I basic technology
    J readers
    K picture frames
    L assistants

    Questions 32-35
    Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

    32 The writer mentions London’s National Gallery to illustrate
    A the undesirable cost to a nation of maintaining a huge collection of art
    B the conflict that may arise in society between financial and artistic values
    C the negative effect a museum can have on visitors’ opinions of themselves
    D the need to put individual well-being above large-scale artistic schemes.

    33 The writer says that today, viewers may be unwilling to criticise a work because
    A they lack the knowledge needed to support an opinion
    B they fear it may have financial implications
    C they have no real concept of the work’s value
    D they feel their personal reaction is of no significance

    34 According to the writer, the ‘displacement effect’ on the visitor is caused by
    A the variety of works on display and the way they are arranged
    B the impossibility of viewing particular works of art over a long period
    C the similar nature of the paintings and the lack of great works
    D the inappropriate nature of the individual works selected for exhibition

    35 The writer says that unlike other forms of art, a painting does not
    A involve direct contact with an audience
    B require a specific location for a performance
    C need the involvement of other professionals
    D have a specific beginning or end

    Questions 36-40
    Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 3? In boxes 36-40 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

    36. Art history should focus on discovering the meaning of art using a range of media.
    37. The approach of art historians conflicts with that of art museums.
    38. People should be encouraged to give their opinions openly on works of art.
    39. Reproductions of fine art should only be sold to the public if they are of high quality.
    40. In the future, those with power are likely to encourage more people to enjoy art.

  • IELTS Reading Practice Test – Exercise 36

    Stepwells

    During the sixth and seventh centuries, the inhabitants of the modern-day states of Gujarat and Rajasthan in north-western India developed a method of gaining access to clean, fresh groundwater during the dry season for drinking, bathing, watering animals and irrigation. However, the significance of this invention – the stepwell – goes beyond its utilitarian application.

    Unique to this region, stepwells are often architecturally complex and vary widely in size and shape. During their heyday, they were places of gathering, of leisure and relaxation and of worship for villagers of all but the lowest classes. Most stepwells are found dotted round the desert areas of Gujarat (where they are called vav) and Rajasthan (where they are called baori), while a few also survive in Delhi. Some were located in or near villages as public spaces for the community; others were positioned beside roads as resting places for travellers.

    As their name suggests, stepwells comprise a series of stone steps descending from ground level to the water source (normally an underground aquifer) as it recedes following the rains. When the water level was high, the user needed only to descend a few steps to reach it; when it was low, several levels would have to be negotiated.

    Some wells are vast, open craters with hundreds of steps paving each sloping side, often in tiers. Others are more elaborate, with long stepped passages leading to the water via several storeys. Built from stone and supported by pillars, they also included pavilions that sheltered visitors from the relentless heat. But perhaps the most impressive features are the intricate decorative sculptures that embellish many stepwells, showing activities from fighting and dancing to everyday acts such as women combing their hair or churning butter.

    Down the centuries, thousands of wells were constructed throughout northwestern India, but the majority have now fallen into disuse; many are derelict and dry, as groundwater has been diverted for industrial use and the wells no longer reach the water table. Their condition hasn’t been helped by recent dry spells: southern Rajasthan suffered an eight-year drought between 1996 and 2004.

    However, some important sites in Gujarat have recently undergone major restoration, and the state government announced in June last year that it plans to restore the stepwells throughout the state.

    In Patan, the state’s ancient capital, the stepwell of Rani Ki Vav (Queen’s Stepwell) is perhaps the finest current example. It was built by Queen Udayamati during the late 11th century, but became silted up following a flood during the 13th century. But the Archaeological Survey of India began restoring it in the 1960s, and today it is in pristine condition. At 65 metres long, 20 metres wide and 27 metres deep, Rani Ki Vav features 500 sculptures carved into niches throughout the monument. Incredibly, in January 2001, this ancient structure survived an earthquake that measured 7.6 on the Richter scale.

    Another example is the Surya Kund in Modhera, northern Gujarat, next to the Sun Temple, built by King Bhima I in 1026 to honour the sun god Surya. It actually resembles a tank (kund means reservoir or pond) rather than a well, but displays the hallmarks of stepwell architecture, including four sides of steps that descend to the bottom in a stunning geometrical formation. The terraces house 108 small, intricately carved shrines between the sets of steps.

    Rajasthan also has a wealth of wells. The ancient city of Bundi, 200 kilometres south of Jaipur, is renowned for its architecture, including its stepwells. One of the larger examples is Raniji Ki Baori, which was built by the queen of the region, Nathavatji, in 1699. At 46 metres deep, 20 metres wide and 40 metres long, the intricately carved monument is one of 21 baoris commissioned in the Bundi area by Nathavatji.

    In the old ruined town of Abhaneri, about 95 kilometres east of Jaipur, is Chand Baori, one of India’s oldest and deepest wells; aesthetically it’s perhaps one of the most dramatic. Built in around 850 AD next to the temple of Harshat Mata, the baori comprises hundreds of zigzagging steps that run along three of its sides, steeply descending 11 storeys, resulting in a striking pattern when seen from afar. On the fourth side, verandas which are supported by ornate pillars to overlook the steps.

    Still in public use is Neemrana Ki Baori, located just off the Jaipur-Delhi highway. Constructed in around 1700, it is nine storeys deep, with the last two being underwater. At ground level, there are 86 colonnaded openings from where the visitor descends 170 steps to the deepest water source.

    Today, following years of neglect, many of these monuments to medieval engineering have been saved by the Archaeological Survey of India, which has recognised the importance of preserving them as part of the country’s rich history. Tourists flock to wells in far-flung corners of northwestern India to gaze in wonder at these architectural marvels from hundreds of years ago, which serve as a reminder of both the ingenuity and artistry of ancient civilisations and of the value of water to human existence.

    Questions 1-5
    Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1? In boxes 1-5 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 Examples of ancient stepwells can be found all over the world.
    2 Stepwells had a range of functions, in addition to those related to water collection.
    3 The few existing stepwells in Delhi are more attractive than those found elsewhere.
    4 It took workers many years to build the stone steps characteristic of stepwells.
    5 The number of steps above the water level in a stepwell altered during the course of a year.

    Questions 6-8
    Answer the questions below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage.

    6 Which part of some stepwells provided shade for people?
    7 What type of serious climatic event, which took part in southern Rajasthan is mentioned in the article?
    8 Who are frequent visitors to stepwells nowadays?

    Questions 9-13
    Complete the table below. Choose ONE WORD OR A NUMBER from the passage.

    StepwellDateFeaturesOther notes
    Rani ki vavlate 11th centuryas many as 500 sculpture decorate the monumentrestored in the 1960s, excellent condition despite the (9)………………….of 2001
    Surya kund1026steps on the (10)…………….produce a geometrical patternlooks more like a (11)………………….than a well
    Rani ki baori1699intricately carved monumentone of 21 baoris in the area commissioned by Queen Nathavatji
    Chand baori850 ADsteps taken you down 11 storeys to the bottomold deep and very dramatic, has (12)……………which provide a view of the steps
    Neemrana ki baori1700has two (13)……………..levelsused by public today
    European Transport Systems 1990-2010

    A It is difficult to conceive of vigorous economic growth without an efficient transport system. Although modern information technologies can reduce the demand for physical transport by facilitating teleworking and teleservices, the requirement for transport continues to increase. There are two key factors behind this trend. For passenger transport, the determining factor is the spectacular growth in car use. The number of cars on European Union (EU] roads saw an increase of three million cars each year from 1990 to 2010, and in the next decade the EU will see a further substantial increase in its fleet.

    B As far as goods transport is concerned, growth is due to a large extent to changes in the European economy and its system of production. In the last 20 years, as internal frontiers have been abolished, the EU has moved from a ‘stock’ economy to a ‘flow’ economy. This phenomenon has been emphasised by the relocation of some industries, particularly those which are labour intensive, to reduce production costs, even though the production site is hundreds or even thousands of kilometres away from the final assembly plant or away from users.

    C The strong economic growth expected in countries which are candidates for entry to the EU will also increase transport flows, in particular road haulage traffic. In 1998, some of these countries already exported more than twice their 1990 volumes and imported more than five times their 1990 volumes. And although many candidate countries inherited a transport system which encourages rail, the distribution between modes has tipped sharply in favour of road transport since the 1990s. Between 1990 and 1998, road haulage increased by 19.4%, while during the same period rail haulage decreased by 43.5%, although – and this could benefit the enlarged EU – it is still on average at a much higher level than in existing member states.

    D However, a new imperative – sustainable development – offers an opportunity for adapting the EU’s common transport policy. This objective, agreed by the Gothenburg European Council, has to be achieved by integrating environmental considerations into Community policies, and shifting the balance between modes of transport lies at the heart of its strategy. The ambitious objective can only be fully achieved by 2020, but proposed measures are nonetheless a first essential step towards a sustainable transport system which will ideally be in place in 30 years’ time, that is by 2040.

    E In 1998, energy consumption in the transport sector was to blame for 28% of emissions of C02, the leading greenhouse gas. According to the latest estimates, if nothing is done to reverse the traffic growth trend, CO2 emissions from transport can be expected to increase by around 50% to 1,113 billion tonnes by 2020, compared with the 739 billion tonnes recorded in 1990. Once again, road transport is the main culprit since it alone accounts for 84% of the CO2 emissions attributable to transport. Using alternative fuels and improving energy efficiency is thus both an ecological necessity and a technological challenge.

    F At the same time greater efforts must be made to achieve a modal shift. Such a change cannot be achieved overnight, all the less so after over half a century of constant deterioration in favour of road. This has reached such a pitch that today rail freight services are facing marginalisation, with just 8% of market share, and with international goods trains struggling along at an average speed of 18km/h. Three possible options have emerged.

    G The first approach would consist of focusing on road transport solely through pricing. This option would not be accompanied by complementary measures in the other modes of transport. In the short term it might curb the growth in road transport through the better loading ratio of goods vehicles and occupancy rates of passenger vehicles expected as a result of the increase in the price of transport. However, the lack of measures available to revitalise other modes of transport would make it impossible for more sustainable modes of transport to take up the baton.

    H The second approach also concentrates on road transport pricing but is accompanied by measures to increase the efficiency of the other modes [better quality of services, logistics, technology). However, this approach does not include investment in new infrastructure, nor does it guarantee better regional cohesion, It could help to achieve greater uncoupling than the first approach, but road transport would keep the lion’s share of the market and continue to concentrate on saturated arteries, despite being the most polluting of the modes. It is therefore not enough to guarantee the necessary shift of the balance.

    I The third approach, which is not new, comprises a series of measures ranging from pricing to revitalising alternative modes of transport and targeting investment in the trans-European network. This integrated approach would allow the market shares of the other modes to return to their 1998 levels and thus make a shift of balance. It is far more ambitious than it looks, bearing in mind the historical imbalance in favour of roads for the last fifty years, but would achieve a marked break in the link between road transport growth and economic growth, without placing restrictions on the mobility of people and goods.

    Questions 14-21
    Reading Passage 2 has nine paragraphs A-I. Choose the correct heading for paragraphs A-E and G-I from the list of headings below.

    List of headings

    i A fresh and important long-term goal
    ii Charging for roads and improving other transport methods
    iii Changes affecting the distances goods may be transported
    iv Taking all the steps necessary to change transport patterns
    v The environmental costs of road transport
    vi The escalating cost of rail transport
    vii The need to achieve transport rebalance
    viii The rapid growth of private transport
    ix Plans to develop major road networks
    x Restricting road use through charging policies alone
    xi Transport trends in countries awaiting EU admission

    Example: Paragraph F            vii

    14 Paragraph A
    15 Paragraph B
    16 Paragraph C
    17 Paragraph D
    18 Paragraph E
    19 Paragraph G
    20 Paragraph H
    21 Paragraph I

    Questions 22-26
    Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2?
    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

    22 The need for transport is growing, despite technological developments.
    23 To reduce production costs, some industries have been moved closer to their relevant consumers.
    24 Cars are prohibitively expensive in some EU candidate countries.
    25 The Gothenburg European Council was set up 30 years ago.
    26 By the end of this decade, CO2 emissions from transport are predicted to reach 739 billion tonnes.

    The Psychology Of Innovation

    Innovation is key to business survival, and companies put substantial resources into inspiring employees to develop new ideas. There are, nevertheless, people working in luxurious, state-of-the-art centres designed to stimulate innovation who find that their environment doesn’t make them feel at all creative. And there are those who don’t have a budget, or much space, but who innovate successfully.

    For Robert B. Cialdini, Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University, one reason that companies don’t succeed as often as they should is that innovation starts with recruitment. Research shows that the fit between an employee’s values and a company’s values makes a difference to what contribution they make and whether, two years after they join, they’re still at the company. Studies at Harvard Business School show that, although some individuals may be more creative than others, almost every individual can be creative in the right circumstances.

    One of the most famous photographs in the story of rock’n’roll emphasises Cialdini’s views. The 1956 picture of singers Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis jamming at a piano in Sun Studios in Memphis tells a hidden story. Sun’s ‘million-dollar quartet’ could have been a quintet. Missing from the picture is Roy Orbison, a greater natural singer than Lewis, Perkins or Cash. Sam Phillips, who owned Sun, wanted to revolutionise popular music with songs that fused black and white music, and country and blues. Presley, Cash, Perkins and Lewis instinctively understood Phillips’s ambition and believed in it. Orbison wasn’t inspired by the goal, and only ever achieved one hit with the Sun label.

    The value fit matters, says Cialdini, because innovation is, in part, a process of change, and under that pressure we, as a species, behave differently, ‘When things change, we are hard-wired to play it safe.’ Managers should therefore adopt an approach that appears counterintuitive – they should explain what stands to be lost if the company fails to seize a particular opportunity. Studies show that we invariably take more gambles when threatened with a loss than when offered a reward.

    Managing innovation is a delicate art. It’s easy for a company to be pulled in conflicting directions as the marketing, product development, and finance departments each get different feedback from different sets of people. And without a system which ensures collaborative exchanges within the company, it’s also easy for small ‘pockets of innovation’ to disappear. Innovation is a contact sport. You can’t brief people just by saying, ‘We’re going in this direction and I’m going to take you with me.’

    Cialdini believes that this ‘follow-the- leader syndrome’ is dangerous, not least because it encourages bosses to go it alone. ‘It’s been scientifically proven that three people will be better than one at solving problems, even if that one person is the smartest person in the field.’ To prove his point, Cialdini cites an interview with molecular biologist James Watson. Watson, together with Francis Crick, discovered the structure of DNA, the genetic information carrier of all living organisms. ‘When asked how they had cracked the code ahead of an array of highly accomplished rival investigators, he said something that stunned me. He said he and Crick had succeeded because they were aware that they weren’t the most intelligent of the scientists pursuing the answer. The smartest scientist was called Rosalind Franklin who, Watson said, “was so intelligent she rarely sought advice”.’

    Teamwork taps into one of the basic drivers of human behaviour. ‘The principle of social proof is so pervasive that we don’t even recognise it,’ says Cialdini. ‘If your project is being resisted, for example, by a group of veteran employees, ask another old-timer to speak up for it.’ Cialdini is not alone in advocating this strategy. Research shows that peer power, used horizontally not vertically, is much more powerful than any boss’s speech.

    Writing, visualising and prototyping can stimulate the flow of new ideas. Cialdini cites scores of research papers and historical events that prove that even something as simple as writing deepens every individual’s engagement in the project. It is, he says, the reason why all those competitions on breakfast cereal packets encouraged us to write in saying, in no more than 10 words: ‘I like Kellogg’s Corn Flakes because….’ The very act of writing makes us more likely to believe it.

    Authority doesn’t have to inhibit innovation but it often does. The wrong kind of leadership will lead to what Cialdini calls ‘captainitis, the regrettable tendency of team members to opt out of team responsibilities that are properly theirs’. He calls it captainitis because, he says, ‘crew members of multipilot aircraft exhibit a sometimes deadly passivity when the flight captain makes a clearly wrong-headed decision’. This behaviour is not, he says, unique to air travel, but can happen in any workplace where the leader is overbearing.

    At the other end of the scale is the 1980s Memphis design collective, a group of young designers for whom ‘the only rule was that there were no rules’. This environment encouraged a free interchange of ideas, which led to more creativity with form, function, colour and materials that revolutionised attitudes to furniture design.

    Many theorists believe the ideal boss should lead from behind, taking pride in collective accomplishment and giving credit where it is due. Cialdini says:
    ‘Leaders should encourage everyone to contribute and simultaneously assure all concerned that every recommendation is important to making the right decision and will be given full attention.’ The frustrating thing about innovation is that there are many approaches, but no magic formula. However, a manager who wants to create a truly innovative culture can make their job a lot easier by recognising these psychological realities.

    Questions 27-30
    Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

    27 The example of the ‘million-dollar quartet’ underlines the writer’s point about
    A recognising talent
    B working as a team
    C having a shared objective
    D being an effective leader

    28 James Watson suggests that he and Francis Crick won the race to discover the DNA code because they
    A were conscious of their own limitations
    B brought complementary skills to their partnership
    C were determined to outperform their brighter rivals
    D encouraged each other to realise their joint ambition

    29 The writer mentions competitions on breakfast cereal packets as an example of how to
    A inspire creative thinking
    B generate concise writing
    C promote loyalty to a group
    D strengthen commitment to an idea

    30 In the last paragraph, the writer suggests that it is important for employees to
    A be aware of their company’s goals
    B feel that their contributions are valued
    C have respect for their co-workers’ achievements
    D understand why certain management decisions are made

    Questions 31-35
    Complete each sentence with the correct ending A-G below.

    31 Employees whose values match those of their employers are more likely to
    32 At times of change, people tend to
    33 If people are aware of what they might lose, they will often
    34 People working under a dominant boss are liable to
    35 Employees working in organisations with few rules are more likely to

    A take chances
    B share their ideas
    C become competitive
    D get promotion
    E avoid risk
    F ignore their duties
    G remain in their jobs

    Questions 36-40
    Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3?
    In boxes 36-40 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

    36 The physical surroundings in which a person works play a key role in determining their creativity.
    37 Most people have the potential to be creative.
    38 Teams work best when their members are of equally matched intelligence.
    39 It is easier for smaller companies to be innovative.
    40 A manager’s approval of an idea is more persuasive than that of a colleague.

  • IELTS Reading Practice Test – Exercise 35

    The Life and Work of Marie Curie

    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 Becquerel, 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.

    In 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 Becquerel’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 the ore 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, Irène and Eve, in 1897 and 1904 failed to interrupt her scientific work. She was appointed lecturer in physics at the École Normale Supérieure for girls in Sèvres, 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 13, 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 Irène, 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. In 1918 the Radium Institute, whose staff Irène 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.

    In 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 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 a stock of 1.5 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 Irène 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.

    Questions 7-13
    Complete the notes below. Choose ONE WORD from the passage for each answer.

    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)…………………

    Young Children’s Sense of Identity

    A 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.

    B 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 labelled ‘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 sense 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 behaviour of other people. For example, infants learn that when they cry or smile someone responds to them.

    C 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.

    D This understanding that children gain of themselves as active agents continues to develop in their attempts to co-operate with others in play. Dunn (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.

    E 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).

    F 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.’

    G 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.

    H 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.

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

    Questions 20-23
    Look at the following findings (Questions 20-23) and the list of researchers below.
    Match each finding with the correct researcher or researchers, A-E.

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

    List of Researchers
    A James
    B Cooley
    C Lewis and Brooks-Gunn
    D Mead
    E Bronson

    Questions 24-26
    Complete the summary below Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

    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.

    The Development of Museums

    A 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 artefacts 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.

    B 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, Film 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.

    C 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 story lines 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.

    D 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 fulfil, 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.

    E 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.

    F 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, fine 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 centres.

    Questions 27-30
    Reading passage 3 has six paragraphs A-F. Choose the correct heading for paragraph B-E from the list of headings below.

    List of Headings
    i Commercial pressures on people in charge
    ii Mixed views on current changes to museums
    iii Interpreting the facts to meet visitor expectations
    iv The international dimension
    v Collections of factual evidence
    vi Fewer differences between public attractions
    vii Current reviews and suggestions

    Example: Paragraph A             v
    27. Paragraph B
    28. Paragraph C
    29. Paragraph D
    30. Paragraph E

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

    31. Compared with today’s museums those of the past
    A did not present history in a detailed way
    B were not primarily intended for the public
    C were more clearly organized
    D preserved items with greater care

    32. According to the writer, current trends in the heritage industry
    A emphasize personal involvement
    B have their origins in York and London
    C rely on computer images
    D reflect minority tastes

    33. The writer says that museums heritage sites and theme parks
    A often work in close partnership
    B try to preserve separate identities
    C have similar exhibits
    D are less easy to distinguish than before

    34. The writer says that in preparing exhibits for museums, experts
    A should pursue a single objective
    B have to do a certain amount of language translation
    C should be free from commercial constraints
    D have to balance conflicting priorities

    35. In paragraph E, the writer suggests that some museum exhibits
    A fail to match visitor expectations
    B are based on the false assumptions of professionals
    C reveal more about present beliefs than about the past
    D allow visitors to make more use of their imagination

    36. The passage ends by noting that our view of history is biased because
    A we fail to use our imagination
    B only very durable objects remain from the past
    C we tend to ignore things that displease us
    D 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

    37. Consumers prefer theme parks which avoid serious issues.
    38. More people visit museums than theme parks.
    39. The boundaries of Leyden have changed little since the seventeenth century.
    40. Museums can give a false impression of how life used to be.