The Pioneer Anomaly | ielts reading passage | 05 October ielts exam | 05 October ielts reading passage | 05 October ielts exam prediction | 5 October ielts reading prediction

The Pioneer Anomaly

READING PASSAGE 

You should spend about 20 minutes on Question 14-28 which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.

The Pioneer Anomaly

A

It's been more than four decades of incessant theorising and perplexed head-scratching for scientists, engineers and astronomy fans across the globe, but thanks to a recent study published in the journal Physical Review Letter, we finally have some answers to what has been causing the deceleration of NASA's Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft-otherwise known as the "Pioneer Anomaly".

B

Pioneer 10 and 11 were launched in 1972 and 1973 respectively and were the first spacecraft to travel beyond the solar system's main asteroid belt. Their claim to fame, however, changed the moment they skirted past Jupiter and began their journey towards Saturn, as it was at that point-by then already the early 1980sthat scientists and navigators discovered something had gone terribly awry: the two spacecraft seemed to be slowing down.

C

As Bruce Betts of The Planetary Society explains, the scientists involved in the project had anticipated most of the slowing down due to "the gravitational pull of the Sun and other massive objects in the solar system". In fact, when the deceleration was first observed, it was so small that it was dismissed as an insignificant, temporary phenomenon, and attributed to the effect of dribbles of leftover propellant still in the fuel lines after controllers had cut off the propellant. It would take until 1998 for a group of scientists led by John Anderson of Jet Propulsion Laboratory 0PL) to confirm that, even at 13 kilometres from the sun, the two Pioneer spacecraft were still losing speed at a rate of approximately 300 inches per day squared (0.9 nanometres per second squared). The first theories of what might be the cause followed soon thereafter.

D

The late 1990s were an important time for the field of astrophysics, with the Hubble Space Telescope observations of distant supernovae having only in 1998 confirmed that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate. Anderson et al's confirmation of the Pioneer Anomaly the same year seemed to offer a demonstration of the very same phenomenon of expansion within our own solar system-a theory that plenty of scientists quickly embraced. Others yet ascribed the deceleration to dark matter, while some suggested the spacecraft, as Toth and Turyshev put it, might've "unearthed the first evidence of extra dimensions". The possibility that a new law of physics directly contradicting Einstein's general theory of relativity might be to blame was also considered.

E

In 2004, Turyshev decided to get to the bottom of the Pioneer anomaly. Since the two spacecraft had stopped communicating with earth (Pioneer 11 first in 1995, and Pioneer 10 less than a decade later in 2003), all he could depend on were old communications and data; so, with the monetary aid of the Planetary Society and its eager, dedicated members, he began to gather the data from a number of different sources. There were two types of data that he needed to procure for his research: the "housekeeping data" engineers had used in order to monitor spacecraft operation, and Doppler data.

F

The data came in all sorts of forms: some were in digitised files offered by JPL navigators (a lucky find, as punch cards were still the preferred method of data storage back in the 1970s), while others were in magnetic tapes accidentally discovered under a staircase in JPL. All in all, there were more than 43 gigabytes of data-an admirable result, considering that at the time the two Pioneer spacecraft were launched there had been no formal requirement that NASA archive any of the records collected, and it had only been due to sheer luck and a former Pioneer team member's diligence that any telemetry data had been saved at all.

G

Once all the data had been collected, the formidable task of going through the volumes of information began. It was neither quick nor easy, and it required the assistance of a variety of people, including JPL engineers and retired TRW engineers who had worked on the Pioneer project, who had to consult with each other in order to interpret old blueprints and reconstruct the probes' 3D structure. In the end, however, the team's perseverance paid off, and Turyshev's suspicions-which had initiated the study-were confirmed: it was the electrical subsystems and the decay of plutonium in the Pioneer power sources that were to blame for the spacecraft's bizarre trajectory-more specifically the heat they emitted. This was corroborated by the discovery that other spacecraft with different designs had not been affected in the way Pioneer 10 and 11 had.

As Turyshev said, speaking of the study, "the story is finding its conclusion because it turns out that standard physics prevail. While of course, it would've been exciting to discover a new kind of physics, we did solve a mystery."

Questions 14-20

The reading passage has seven sections, A-G.

Which section contains the following information?

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

14 The contemporary context of John Anderson's study

15 How Turyshev's study was conducted

16 A description of the journey of the Pioneer aircraft

17 How data was normally cached at the time of the Pioneer launch

18 Why Turyshev's study couldn't rely on new information

19 The name of a scientific publication

20 The original theories for the Pioneer anomaly

Questions 21-25

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

Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 21-25 on your answer sheet.

A played a pivotal role in Turyshev's study.

B coincided with another scientific breakthrough in its field.

C leftover propellant had been expected to cause issues.

D contradicted contemporary theories about the Pioneer spacecraft.

E ceased communication later than its predecessor.

F was inspected by former TRW engineers to confirm its authenticity.

G exceeded all expectations in terms of quantity.

H external factors had been taken into account in the planning stage.

21 NASA's Pioneer 10 spacecraft

22 The Planetary Society

23 Some of the spacecraft's deceleration was not a surprise because

24 John Anderson's study

25 The data Turyshev used in his study

Questions 26-28

Choose THREE letters A-H.

Write your answers in boxes 26-28 on your answer sheet.

NB Your answers may be given in any order.

Which THREE of the following statements are true of Turshev's study?

A Former Pioneer team members were recruited to help to understand the data.

B It was an initiative by the Planetary Society that instigated it.

C It provided us with the first proof of extra dimensions.

D It identified calefaction caused by the Pioneer design as the culprit behind the anomaly.

E Parts of the Pioneer spacecraft were recreated to help with the study.

F The analysis stage of the study was particularly time-consuming.

G It proved that spacecraft with a design similar to the Pioneer 10 and 11 faced similar issues.

H Turyshev was unhappy with the result of his investigation.

ANSWER

14. D

15. G

16. B

17. F

18. E

19. A

20. C

21. E

22. A

23. H

24. B

25. G

26. A

27. D

28. F

Company Innovation | ielts reading passage | 05 October ielts exam | 05 October ielts reading passage | 05 October ielts exam prediction | 5 October ielts reading prediction

READING PASSAGE 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on Question 28-40 which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.

Company Innovation

A

In a shabby office in downtown Manhattan, a group of 30 AI (artificial intelligence) programmers from Umagic are attempting to mimic the brains of a famous sexologist, a celebrated dietitian, a popular fitness coach and a bunch of other specialists, Umagic Systems is an up-and-coming firm, which sets up websites that enable their clients to seek advice from the virtual versions of those figures. The users put in all the information regarding themselves and their objectives; then it’s Umagic’s job to give advice, that a star expert would give. Even though the neuroses of American consumers have always been a marketing focus, the future of Umagic is difficult to predict (who knows what it’ll be like in ten years? Asking a computer about your sex life might be either normal or crazy). However, companies such, as Umagic1 are starting .to intimidate major American firms, because these young companies regard the half-crazy ‘creative’ ideas as the portal lo their triumph m the future.

B

Innovation has established itself as the catchword of American business management Enterprises have realised that they are running out of things that can be outsourced or re-engineered (worryingly, by their competitors too) Winners of today’s American business tend to be companies with innovative powers such as Dell, Amazon and Wal-Mart, which have come up with concepts or goods that have reshaped their industries.

C

According to a new book by two consultants from Arthur D. Little, during the last 15 years, the top 20% of firms in Fortune magazine’s annual innovation survey have attained twice as much the shareholder returns as their peers. The desperate search for new ideas is the hormone for a large part of today’s merger boom. The same goes for the money spent on licensing and purchasing others’ intellectual property. Based on the statistics from Pasadena-based Patent & Licence Exchange, trade volume in intangible assets in America has gone up from $15 billion in 1990 to $100 billion in 1998, with small firms and individuals taking up an increasing share of the rewards.

D

And that terrifies big companies: it appears that innovation works incompatible with them. Some major famous companies that are always known for ‘innovative ideas’, such as 3M, Procter & Gamble, and Rubbermaid, have recently had dry spells. Peter Chernin, who runs the Fox TV and film empire for News Corporation, points out that ‘In the management of creativity, size is your enemy.’ It’s impossible for someone who’s managing 20 movies to be as involved as someone doing 5. Therefore, he has tried to divide the studio into smaller parts, disregarding the risk of higher expenses.

E

Nowadays, ideas are more likely to prosper outside big companies. In the old days, when a brilliant scientist came up with an idea and wanted to make money out of it, he would take it to a big company first. But now, with all these cheap venture capital around, he would probably want to commercialise it by himself. So far, Umagic has already raised $5m and is on its way to another $25m. Even in the case of capital-intensive businesses like pharmaceuticals, entrepreneurs have the option to conduct early-stage research and sell out to the big firms when they’re faced with costly, risky clinical trials. Approximately 1/3 of drug firms’ total revenue is now from licensed-in technology.

F

Some of the major enterprises such as General Electric and Cisco have been impressively triumphant when it comes to snatching and incorporating small companies’ scores. However, other grants are concerned about the money they have to spend and the way to keep those geniuses who generated the idea. It is the dream of everyone to develop more ideas within their organisations Procter & Gamble is currently switching their entire business focus from countries to products; one of the goals is to get the whole company to accept the innovations. In other places, the craving for innovation has caused a frenzy lor intrapreneurship’ transferring power and establishing internal idea-workshops and tracking inventory so that the talents will stay.

G

Some people don't believe that this kind of restructuring is sufficient. Clayton Christensen argues in new book that big firms’ many advantages, such as taking care of their existing customers, can get in the way of innovative behaviour that is necessary for handling disruptive technologies That’s why there’s been the trend of cannibalisation, which brings about businesses that will confront and jeopardise the existing ones. For example, Bank One has set up Wingspan, which is an online bank that in fact compete, with its actual branches.

H

There’s no denying that innovation is a big deal. However, do major firms have to be this pessimistic? According to a recent survey of the to 50 innovations in America by Industry Week, ide as are equally likely to come from both big and small companies. Big companies can adopt new ideas when they are mature enough and the risks and rewards have become more quantifiable.

Questions 28-33

Reading Passage 3 has nine paragraphs, A-I.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A-I, in boxes 28-33 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

28 an approach to retain the best employees

29 safeguarding expenses on innovative ideas

30 a certain counter-effect produced by integrating outside firms

31 an example of three famous American companies’ innovation

32 an example of one company changing its focus

33 an example of a company resolving financial difficulties itself

Questions 34-37

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

In boxes 34-37 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement is true

FALSE if the statement is false

NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage

34 Umagic is the most successful innovative company in this new field.

35 Amazon and Wal-Mart exchanged their innovation experience.

36 New ideas’ holders had already been known to take it to small companies in the past.

37 IBM failed to understand Umagic’s proposal of a new idea.

Questions 38-40

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

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

38 What is the author’s opinion on innovation in paragraph C?

A It only works for big companies.

B Fortune magazine has a globally huge influence.

C It is becoming increasingly important.

D Its effects on American companies are more evident.

39 What is Peter Chernin’s point of view on innovation?

A Small companies are more innovative than big ones.

B Film industry needs more innovation than other industries.

C We need to cut the cost when risks occur.

D New ideas are more likely going to big companies.

40 What is the author’s opinion on innovation at the end of this passage?

A Umagic success lies on the accidental ‘virtual expert’.

B Innovation is easy and straightforward.

C IBM sets a good example on innovation.

D The author’s attitude is uncertain on innovation.

ANSWER

28. F

29. C

30. G

31. B

32. F

33. E

34. FALSE

35. NOT GIVEN

36. FALSE

37. TRUE

38. C

39. A

40. D

European Heat Wave | ielts reading passage | 05 October ielts exam | 05 October ielts reading passage | 05 October ielts exam prediction | 5 October ielts reading prediction

 European Heat Wave

A

IT WAS the summer, scientists now realise, when felt. We knew that summer 2003 was remarkable; global warming at last made itself unmistakably Britain experienced its record high temperature and continental Europe saw forest fires raging out of control, great rivers drying of a trickle and thousands of heat-related deaths. But just how remarkable is only now becoming clean.

B

The three months of June, July and August were the warmest ever recorded in western and central Europe, with record national highs in Portugal, Germany and Switzerland as well as Britain. And they were the warmest by a very long way Over a great rectangular block of the earth stretching from west of Paris to northern Italy, taking in Switzerland and southern Germany, the average temperature for the summer months was 3.78°C above the long-term norm, said the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia in Norwich, which is one of the world’s lending institutions for the monitoring and analysis of temperature records.

C

That excess might not seem a lot until you are aware of the context – but then you realise it is enormous. There is nothing like this in previous data, anywhere. It is considered so exceptional that Professor Phil Jones, the CRU’s director, is prepared to say openly – in a way few scientists have done before – that the 2003 extreme may be directly attributed, not to natural climate variability, but to global warming caused by human actions.

D

Meteorologists have hitherto contented themselves with the formula that recent high temperatures are consistent with predictions of climate. For the great block of the map – that stretching between 35-50N and 0-20E – the CRU has reliable temperature records dating back to 1781. Using as a baseline the average summer temperature recorded between 1961 and 1990, departures from the temperature norm, or ‘anomalies’: over the area as a whole can easily be plotted. As the graph shows, such as the variability of our climate that over the past 200 years, there have been at least half a dozen anomalies, in terms of excess temperature – the peaks on the graph denoting very hot years – approaching, or even exceeding, 20°C. But there has been nothing remotely like 2003, when the anomaly is nearly four degrees.

E

“This is quite remarkable,” Professor Jones told The Independent. “It’s very unusual in a statistical sense. If this series had a normal statistical distribution, you wouldn’t get this number. There turn period “how often it could be expected to recur” would be something like one in a thou-sand years. If we look at an excess above the average of nearly four degrees, then perhaps nearly three degrees of that is natural variability, because we’ve seen that in past summers. But the final degree of it is likely to be due to global warming, caused by human actions.

F

The summer of 2003 has, in a sense, been one that climate scientists have long been expecting. Until now, the warming has been manifesting itself mainly in winters that have been less cold than in summers that have been much hotter. Last week, the United Nations predicted that winters were warming so quickly that winter sports would die out in Europe’s lower-level ski resorts. But sooner or later the unprecedented hot summer was bound to come, and this year it did.

G

One of the most dramatic features of the summer was the hot nights, especially in the first half of August. In Paris, the temperature never dropped below 230°C (73.40°F) at all between 7 and 14 August, and the city recorded its warmest-ever night on 11-12 August, when the mercury did not drop below 25.50°C (77.90°F). Germany recorded its warmest-ever night at Weinbiet in the Rhine valley with a lowest figure of 27.60°C (80.60°F) on 13 August, and similar record-breaking night-time temperatures were recorded in Switzerland and Italy.

H

The 15,000 excess deaths in France during August, compared with previous years, have been related to the high night-time temperatures. The number gradually increased during the first 12 days of the month, peaking at about 2,000 per day on the night of 12-13 August, the fell off dramatically after 14 August when the minimum temperatures fell by about 50C. The elderly were most affected, with a 70 per cent increase in mortality rate in those aged 75-94.

I

For Britain, the year as a whole is likely to be the warmest ever recorded, but despite the high temperature record on 10 August, the summer itself – defined as the June, July and August period – still comes behind 1976 and 1955, when there were longer periods of intense heat. At the moment, the year is on course to be the third-hottest ever in the global temperature record, which goes back to 1856, behind 1988 and 2002 but when all the records for October, November and December are collated, it might move into second place, Professor Jones said. The 10 hottest years in the record have all now occurred since 1990. Professor Jones is in no doubt about the astonishing nature of European summer of 2003. “The temperatures recorded were out of all proportion to the previous record,” he said. “It was the warmest summer in the past 500 years and probably way beyond that it was enormously exceptional.”

J

His colleagues at the University of East Anglia’s Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research are now planning a special study of it. “It was a summer that has not: been experienced before, either in terms of the temperature extremes that were reached, or the range and diversity of the impacts of the extreme heat,” said the centre’s executive director, Professor Mike Hulme. “It will certainly have left its mark on a number of countries, as to how they think and plan for climate change in the future, much as the 2000 floods have revolutionised the way the Government is thinking about flooding in the UK. “The 2003 heat wave will have similar repercussions across Europe.”

Questions 14-19

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

In boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement is true

FALSE if the statement is false

NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage

14 The average summer temperature in 2003 is approximately four degrees higher than that of the past.

15 Jones believes the temperature statistic is within the normal range.

16 Human factor is one of the reasons that caused hot summer.

17 In large city, people usually measure temperature twice a day.

18 Global warming has obvious effect of warmer winter instead of hotter summer before 2003.

19 New ski resorts are to be built on a high-altitude spot.

Questions 20-21

Answer the questions below using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR NUMBERS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 20-21 on your answer sheet.

20 What are the two hottest years in Britain besides 2003?

21 What will affect UK government policies besides climate change according to Hulme?

Questions 22-26

Complete the summary below using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage.

Write your answers in boxes 22-26 on your answer sheet

In the summer of 2003, thousands of extra death occurred in the country of 22…………………….. Moreover, world-widely, the third record of hottest summer date from 23…………………………., after the year of 24 ………………………….. According to Jones, all the 10 hottest years happened from 25 ……………………….. However, summer of 2003 was at the peak of previous 26………………………… years, perhaps even more.

Question 27

Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D

Write your answer in box 27 on your answer sheet.

Which one can be best served as the title of this passage in the following options?

A Global Warming effect

B Global Warming in Europe

C The Effects of hot temperature

D Hottest summer in Europe

ANSWER

14. TRUE

15. FALSE

16. TRUE

17. NOT GIVEN

18. TRUE

19. NOT GIVEN

20. 1976 and 1995

21. 2000 floods

22. France

23. 1856

24. 1998 and 2002

25. 1990

26. 500

27. D

otter | ielts reading passage | 28 September ielts exam | 28 September ielts reading passage | 28 September ielts exam prediction | 28 September ielts reading prediction

SECTION 1

READING PASSAGE 1

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

otter

A

Otters have long, thin bodies and short legs – ideal for pushing through dense undergrowth or hunting in tunnels. An adult male may be up to 4 feet long and 30lbs. Females are smaller typically. The Eurasian otter’s nose is about the smallest among the otter species and has a characteristic shape described as a shallow ‘W’. An otter’s tail (or rudder, or stern) is stout at the base and tapers towards the tip where it flattens. This forms part of the propulsion unit when swimming fast under water. Otter fur consists of two types of hair: stout guard hairs which form a waterproof outer covering, and under-fur which is dense and fine, equivalent to an otter’s thermal underwear. The fur must be kept in good condition by grooming. Sea water reduces the waterproofing and insulating qualities of otter fur when salt water in the fur. This is why freshwater pools are important to otters living on the coast. After swimming, they wash the salts off in pools and the squirm on the ground to rub dry against vegetation.

B

Scent is used for hunting on land, for communication and for detecting danger. Otterine sense of smell is likely to be similar in sensitivity to dogs. Otters have small eyes and are probably short-sighted on land. But they do have the ability to modify the shape of the lens in the eye to make it more spherical, and hence overcome the refraction of water. In clear water and good light, otters can hunt fish by sight. The otter’s eyes and nostrils are placed high on its head so that it can see and breathe even when the rest of the body is submerged. Underwater, the cotter holds its legs against the body, except for steering, and the hind end of the body is flexed in a series of vertical undulations. River otters have webbing which extends for much of the length of each digit, though not to the very end. Giant otters and sea otters have even more prominent webs, while the Asian short-clawed otter has no webbing – they hunt for shrimps in ditches and paddy fields so they don’t need the swimming speed. Otter ears are tiny for streamlining, but

they still have very sensitive hearing and are protected by valves which close them against water pressure.

C

A number of constraints and preferences limit suitable habitats of otters. Water is a must and the rivers must be large enough to support a healthy population of fish. Being such shy and wary creatures, they will prefer territories where man’s activities do not impinge greatly. Of course, there must also be no other otter already in residence – this has only become significant again recently as populations start to recover. Coastal otters have a much more abundant food supply and ranges for males and females may be just a few kilometres of coastline. Because male range overlaps with two or three females – not bad! Otters will eat anything that they can get hold of – there are records of sparrows and snakes and slugs being gobbled. Apart from fish the most common prey are crayfish, crabs and water birds. Small mammals are occasionally taken, most commonly rabbits but sometimes even moles.

D

Eurasian otters will breed any time where food is readily available. In places where condition is more severe, Sweden for example where the lakes are frozen for much of winter, cubs are born in spring. This ensures that they are well grown before severe weather returns. In the Shetlands, cubs are born in summer when fish is more abundant. Though otters can breed every year, some do not. Again, this depends on food availability. Other factors such as food range and quality of the female may have an effect. Gestation for Eurasian otter is 63 days, with the exception of Lutra canadensis whose embryos may undergo delayed implantation. Otters normally give birth in more secure dens to avoid disturbances. Nests are lined with bedding to keep the cubs warm mummy is away feeding.

E

Otters normally give birth in more secure dens to avoid disturbances. Nests are lined with bedding (reeds, waterside plants, grass) to keep the cubs warm while is away feeding. Litter Size varies between 1 and 5. For some unknown reason, coastal otters tend to produce smaller litters. At five weeks they open their eyes – a tiny cub of 700g. At seven weeks they’re weaned onto solid food. At ten weeks they leave the nest, blinking into daylight for the first time. After three months they finally meet the water and learn to swim. After eight months they are hunting, though the mother still provides a lot of food herself. Finally, after nine months she can chase them all away with a clear conscience, and relax – until the next fella shows up.

F

The plight of the British otter was recognised in the early 60s, but it wasn’t until the late 70s that the chief cause was discovered. Pesticides, such as dieldrin and aldrin, were first used in1955 in agriculture and other industries – these chemicals are very persistent and had already been recognised as the cause of huge declines in the population of peregrine falcons, sparrow hawks and other predators. The pesticides entered the river systems and the food chain – micro-organisms, fish and finally otters, with every step increasing the concentration of the chemicals. From 1962 the chemicals were phased out, but while some species recovered quickly, otter numbers did not – and continued to fall into the 80s. This was probably due mainly to habitat destruction and road deaths. Acting on populations fragmented by the sudden decimation in the 50s and 60s, the loss of just a handful of otters in one area can make an entire population unviable and spell the end.

G

Otter numbers are recovering all around Britain – populations are growing again in the few areas where they had remained and have expanded from those areas into the rest of the country. This is almost entirely due to legislation, conservation efforts, slowing down and reversing the destruction of suitable otter habitat and reintroductions from captive breeding programs. Releasing captive-bred otters is seen by many as a last resort. The argument runs that where there is no suitable habitat for them they will not survive after release and where there is suitable habitat, natural populations should be able to expand into the area. However, reintroducing animals into a fragmented and fragile population may add just enough impetus for it to stabalise and expand, rather than die out. This is what the Otter Trust accomplished in Norfolk, where the otter population may have been as low as twenty animals at the beginning of the 1980s. The Otter Trust has now finished its captive breeding program entirely, great news because it means it is no longer needed.

Questions 1-9

The reading Passage has seven paragraphs A-G

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter A-G, in boxes 1-9 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

1 A description of how otters regulate vision underwater

2 The fit-for-purpose characteristics of otter’s body shape

3 A reference to an underdeveloped sense

4 An explanation of why agriculture failed in otter conservation efforts

5 A description of some of the otter’s social characteristics

6 A description of how baby otters grow

7 The conflicted opinions on how to preserve

8 A reference to legislative act

9 An explanation of how otters compensate for heat loss

Questions 10-13

Answer the questions below.

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

10 What affects the outer fur of otters?

11 What skill is not necessary for Asian short-clawed otters?

12 Which type of otters has the shortest range?

13 Which type of animals do otters hunt occasionally?

ANSWER

1. B

2. A

3. B

4. F

5. C

6. E

7. G

8. G

9. A

10. Sea water/Salt water/Salt

11. swimming speed

12. Coastal otters

13. Small mammals

The Lost City |ielts reading passage | 28 September ielts exam | 28 September ielts reading passage | 28 September ielts exam prediction | 28 September ielts reading prediction

The Lost City

Thanks to modern remote-sensing techniques, a ruined city in Turkey is slowly revealing itself as one of the greatest and most mysterious cities of the ancient world. Sally Palmer uncovers more.

A

The low granite mountain, known as Kerkenes Dag, juts from the northern edge of the Cappadocian plain in Turkey. Sprawled over the mountainside are the ruins of an enormous city, contained by crumbling defensive walls seven kilometers long. Many respected archaeologists believe these are the remains of the fabled city of Pteria, the sixth-century BC stronghold of the Medes that the Greek historian Herodotus described in his famous work The Histories. The short-lived city came under Median control and only fifty years later was sacked, burned and its strong stone walls destroyed.

B

British archeologist Dr Geoffrey Summers has spent ten years studying the site. Excavating the ruins is a challenge because of the vast area they cover. The 7 km perimeter walls run around a site covering 271 hectares. Dr Summers quickly realised it would take far too long to excavate the site using traditional techniques alone. So he decided to use modern technology as well to map the entire site, both above and beneath the surface, to locate the most interesting areas and priorities to start digging.

C

In 1993, Dr Summers hired a special hand-held balloon with a remote-controlled camera attached. He walked over the entire site holding the balloon and taking photos. The one afternoon, he rented a hot-air balloon and floated over the site, taking yet more pictures. By the end of the 1994 season, Dr Summers and his team had a jigsaw of aerial photographs of the whole site. The next stage was to use remote sensing, which would let them work out what lay below the intriguing outlines and ruined walls. “Archaeology is a discipline that lends itself very well to remote sensing because it revolves around space,” says Scott Branting, an associated director of the project. He started working with Dr Summers in 1995.

D

The project used two main remote-sensing techniques. The first is magnetometry, which works on the principle that magnetic fields at the surface of the Earth are influenced by what is buried beneath. It measures localised variations in the direction and intensity of this magnetic field. “The Earth’s magnetic field can vary from place to place, depending on what happened there in the past,” says Branting. “if something containing iron oxide was heavily burnt, by natural or human actions, the iron particles in it can be permanently reoriented, like a compass needle, to align with the Earth’s magnetic field present at that point in time and space.’ The magnetometer detects differences in the orientations and intensities of these iron particles from the present-day magnetic field and uses them to produce an image of what lies below ground.

E

Kerkenes Dag lends itself particularly well to magnetometry because it was all burnt at once in a savage fire. In places the heat was sufficient to turn sandstone to glass and to melt granite. The fire was so hot that there were strong magnetic signatures set to the Earth’s magnetic field from the time – around 547 BC – resulting in extremely clear pictures. Furthermore, the city was never rebuilt. “if you have multiple layers confusing picture, because you have different walls from different periods giving signatures that all go in different directions,” says Branting. “We only have one going down about 1.5 meters, so we can get a good picture of this fairly short-lived city.”

F

The other main sub-surface mapping technique, which is still being used at the site, is resistivity. This technique measures the way electrical pulses are conducted through sub-surface oil. It’s done by shooting pulses into the ground through a thin metal probe. Different materials have different electrical conductivity. For example, stone and mudbrick are poor conductors, but looser, damp soil conducts very well. By walking around the site and taking about four readings per metre, it is possible to get a detailed idea of what is where beneath the surface. The teams then build up pictures of walls, hearths and other remains. “It helps a lot if it has rained, because the electrical pulse can get through more easily,” says Branting. “Then if something is more resistant, it really shows up.” This is one of the reasons that the project has a spring season, when most of the resistivity work is done. Unfortunately, testing resistivity is a lot slower than magnetometry. “If we did resistivity over the whole site it would take about 100 years,” says Branting. Consequently, the team is concentrating on areas where they want to clarify pictures from the magnetometry.

G

Remote sensing does not reveal everything about Kerkenes Dag, but it shows the most interesting sub-surface areas of the site. The archaeologists can then excavate these using traditional techniques. One surprise came when they dug out one of the fates in the defensive walls. “Our observations in early seasons led us to assume that wall, such as would be found at most other cities in the Ancient Near East,” says Dr Summers. “When we started to excavate we were staggered to discover that the walls were made entirely from stone and that the gate would have stood at least ten metres high. After ten years of study, Pteria is gradually giving up its secrets.”

Questions 14-17

The Reading Passage has seven paragraphs A-G

Which paragraph contains the following information?

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

14 The reason why various investigative methods are introduced.

15 An example of an unexpected discovery.

16 The methods to surveyed the surface of the site from above.

17 The reason why experts want to study the site.

Questions 18-25

Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage

Using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 18-25 on your answer sheet.

Exploring the Ancient City of Pteria

The relevant work was done ten years ago. To begin with, experts took photos of the site from the ground and then from a distance in a 18…………………………… To find out what lay below the surface, they used two leading techniques. One was magnetometer, which identifies changes in the magnetic field. These changes occur when the 19…………………………… in buried structures have changed direction as a result of great heat. They match with the magnetic field, which is similar to a 20…………………………. The other one was resistivity, which uses a 21…………………………….. to fire electrical pulses into the earth. The principle is that building materials like 22………………………… and stone do not conduct electricity well, while 23……………………………. does this much better. Archaeologists preferred to use this technique during the 24……………………………………, when conditions are more favourable. Resistivity is mainly being used to 25……………………………….. some images generated by the magnetometer.

Question 26

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

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

How do modern remote-sensing techniques help at the site?

A They avoid the need for experts to dig any part of the site.

B They bring parts of the site into light so that key areas can be researched further.

C They show minute buried objects for the archaeologists to dig up.

D They make the investigation more flexible as they can be used at any time of year.

ANSWER

14. B

15. G

16. C

17. A

18. hot-air balloon

19. iron particles

20. compass/compass needle

21. thin metal probe

22. mudbrick

23. looser damp soil

24. spring season

25. clarify

26. B

BRAND LOYALTY RUNS DEEP | ielts reading passage | 28 September ielts exam | 28 September ielts reading passage | 28 September ielts exam prediction | 28 September ielts reading prediction

 BRAND LOYALTY RUNS DEEP

At almost any supermarket in Sydney, Australia, food from all over the world fills the shelves. Perhaps you fancy some Tick Tock Rooibos tea made in South Africa, or some Maharaja’s Choice Rogan Josh sauce from India. Alongside local Foster’s beer, Chinese Tsingtao and Indonesian Bintang are both to be found. For homesick Britons, the confectionary aisle is stocked with Mars Bars and Bountys, while for pining Poles sweets manufactured by firms like Wawel or Solidarposc are available. Restaurants in Sydney range from Afghan to Zambian, catering for different ethnic groups as well as the rest of the curious general public.

All of this variety is a result of population movement and changes in global trade, and, to a lesser extent, reduced production and transportation costs. While Australia can claim around 40% of its population as the first generation, other countries, like Switzerland, may have fewer international migrants, but still, have people who move from city to city in search of work. Even since the 1990s, taxes or tariffs on imported goods have decreased dramatically. The World Trade Organisation, for example, has promulgated the idea of zero tariffs, which has been adopted into legislation by many member states. It is estimated that within a century, agriculture worldwide has increased its efficiency five-fold. Faster and better-integrated road and rail services, containerisation, and the ubiquitous aeroplane have sped up transport immeasurably.

Even with this rise in the availability of non-local products, recent studies suggest that supermarkets should do more to increase their number to match more closely the proportion of shoppers from those countries or regions. Thus, if 10% of a supermarket’s customers originate in Vietnam, there ought to be 10% Vietnamese products in store. If Americans from southern states dominate in one northern neighbourhood, southern brands should also be conspicuous. Admittedly, there are already specialist shops that cater to minority groups, but minorities do frequent supermarkets.

Two separate studies by Americans Bart Bronnenberg and David Atkin have found that brand loyalty (choosing Maharaja’s Choice over Patak’s, or Cadbury’s over Nestlé) is not only determined by advertising, but also by a consumer’s past. If a product featured in a person’s early life in one place, then, as a migrant, he or she is likely to buy that same one.

In the US context, between 2006 and 2008, Bronnenberg analysed data from 38,000 families who had bought 238 different kinds of packaged goods. Although the same brands could be found across America, there were clear differences in what people purchased. In general, there were two leading brands in each kind of packaged good, but there were smaller brands that assumed a greater proportion of consumers’ purchases than was statistically likely. One explanation for this is that 16% of people surveyed came from interstate, and these people preferred products from their home states. Over time, they did buy more products from their adopted state, but, surprisingly, it took two decades for their brand loyalty to halve. Even people who had moved interstate 50 years previously maintained a preference for home-state brands. It seems the habits of food buying change more slowly than we think.

Bronnenberg’s findings were confirmed by Atkin’s in India although there was something more unexpected that Atkin discovered. Firstly, during the period of his survey, the cost of all consumables rose considerably in India. As a result, families reduced their spending on food, and their calorific intake fell accordingly. It is also worth noting that although India is one country, states impose tariffs or taxes on products from other Indian states, ensuring that locally-produced goods remain cheaper. As in the US, internal migrants bought food from their native place even when it was considerably more expensive than local alternatives, and at a time when you might expect families to be economising. This element made the brand-loyalty theory even more convincing.

There is one downside to these findings. In relatively closed economies, such as India’s, people develop tastes that they take with them wherever they go; in a more globalised economy, such as America’s, what people eat may be more varied, but still dependent on early exposure to brands. Therefore, according to both researchers, more advertising may now be directed at minors since brand loyalty is established in childhood and lasts a lifetime. In a media-driven world where children are already bombarded with information, their parents may not consider appropriate yet more advertising is hardly welcome.

For supermarkets, this means that wherever there are large communities of expatriates or immigrants, it is essential to calculate the demographics carefully in order to supply those shoppers with their favourite brands as in light of Atkin and Bronnenberg’s research, advertising and price are not the sole motivating factors for purchase as was previously thought.

Questions 14-18

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

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

14 In this article, the writer refers to food products that are sold

A at markets.

B wholesale.

C online.

D retail.

15 In Sydney, shoppers can buy beer from

A China and Indonesia.

B India and South Africa.

C Poland.

D Vietnam.

16 The greater variety of goods and brands now available is mainly due to:

A cheaper production and more migration.

B changes in migration and international trade.

C cheaper production and transport.

D changes in migration and transport.

17 The writer thinks supermarkets ............ should change their products slightly.

A in Australia

B in India and the US

C in Switzerland

D worldwide

18 The writer suggests that:

A the quality of products at specialist shops will always be better than at supermarkets.

B specialist shops will close down because supermarkets will be cheaper.

C specialist shops already supply minority groups, so supermarkets shouldn’t bother.

D specialist shops already supply minority groups, yet supermarkets should compete with them.

Question 19

Which chart below – A, B, or C – best describes the relationship between shoppers at one Sydney supermarket, and what research suggests that same supermarket should sell?

Write your answer in box 19 on your answer sheet.

Questions 20-26

Which study/studies do the following statements relate to?
In boxes 20-26 on your answer sheet, write:

A if the information relates only to Atkin’s study

B if the information relates only to Bronnenberg’s study

C if the information relates to both Atkin’s and Bronnenberg’s studies

20 There was a correlation between brands a shopper used in childhood, and his or her

preferences as an adult.

21 One reason for the popularity of smaller brands was that many people surveyed came

from another state where those brands were bigger.

22 Even living in a new state for a very long time did not mean that shoppers chose new

brands.

23 In general, food became more expensive during the time of the study. Despite this,

families bought favourite brands and ate less.

24 Taxes on products from other states also increased the cost of food. This did not stop

migrants from buying what they were used to.

25 Children may be the target of more food advertising now.

26 Advertising and price were once thought to be the main reasons for buying products. This theory has been modified now.

 

ANSWER

14. D

15. A

16. B

17. D

18. D

19. B

20. C

21. C

22. B

23. A

24. A

25. C

26. C

The Future of Food | ielts reading passage | 28 September ielts exam | 28 September ielts reading passage | 28 September ielts exam prediction | 28 September ielts reading prediction

 

The Future of Food

When we think of the future, most of us imagine hoverboards and flying cars, exciting new technological advancements and developments, perhaps even scientific achievements and breakthroughs. What we spend little time contemplating, however, is what we will be eating. Nevertheless, food futurologists and organisations around the world have examined the prospects, and they might, at first glance at least, appear less than thrilling.

One thing that’s for certain, according to food futurologist Morgaine Gaye, is that meat will once again become a luxury. “In the West,” she proclaims, “many of us have grown up with cheap, abundant meat.” Unfortunately though, rising prices are spelling the doom of this long-lasting trend. “As a result, we are looking for new ways to fill the meat gap.” Professor Sheenan Harpaz of the Volgani Centre in Beit Dagan, Israel, agrees: “As the price of raising livestock goes up, we’ll eat less beef.” So, what will we eat?

According to Harpaz as well as Yoram Kapulnik, the director of the Volcani Centre, the answer to that question lies with our reliance on genetic engineering. As overpopulation and resource depletion will inevitably lead to a struggle to feed the masses, they predict, the food industry will experience a shift in focus from “form” to “function’’. “Functional foods” will be genetically modified to provide additional value, and they will be targeted at each group of the population-with foods customised to meet the needs of men, women, the elderly, etc. “Once we have a complete picture of the human genome,” explains Kapulnik, “we’ll know how to create food that better meets our needs.”

But food still has to come from somewhere and leading food futurologists and other scientists are firm on their belief that the foods of the future will come from insects. “They are nutritionally excellent,” says Arnold van Huis, lead author of Edible Insects, a 2013 report by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation. Not only that but, according to researchers at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, they are also full of protein, and on par with ordinary meat in terms of nutritional value. Insects are already a part of people’s diets in various cultures in Asia and Africa; however, one major hurdle that will need to be overcome with regards to Western countries is the presentation. As Gaye suggests, “things like crickets and grasshoppers will [have to] be ground down and used as an ingredient in things like burgers”. There is already such an initiative in Kenya and Cambodia (the quite successful WinFood project), and the Netherlands is already investing into research on insect-based diets and the development of insect farm legislation.

Another source of future food, according to Dr Craig Rose of the Seaweed Health Foundation, could be algae. Algae, like insects, are extremely nutritious and already popular in Asia, and could be the perfect solution for three very important reasons: first of all, they can grow both in fresh and salt water-a notable advantage, considering the shortage of land we are bound to experience in the future; secondly, they grow at an astounding pace the likes of which no other plant has ever been found to achieve before; and finally, with 10,000 different types of seaweed around the world, they can open up an exciting world of new flavours for us to discover. But that’s not all: several scientists believe that the biofuel we would extract from algae could lead to a diminished need for fossil fuels, thereby improving our carbon footprint. Algae would, much like insects, need to be refashioned to appeal to Westerners, but research such as the one conducted by scientists at Sheffield Hallam University, who replaced salt in bread and processed foods with seaweed granules with efficacious results, suggests that this is unlikely to pose a problem.

The final option brought forth by scientists is lab-grown, artificial meat. In early 2012, a group of Dutch scientists managed to produce synthetic meat using stem cells originating from cows, and there are already a few companies, such as the San Francisco start-up Impossible Foods and the Manhattan Beach-based Beyond Meat, which are dedicated to manufacturing plant-made meat. The benefits of a worldwide move towards in-vitro meat would be tremendous for the environment, which would see a reduction in energy and water waste and greenhouse gas emissions, and would significantly reduce animal suffering. There is one hindrance to such plans at the moment, sadly, and that’s the price: the first artificial burger, grown at Maastricht University in 2013, cost a whopping €250,000 (£190,545) to make.

Questions 29-33

Complete the summary.

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

Write your answers in boxes 29-33 on your answer sheet.

There are several not particularly 29 ....................... theories as to what food might look like

in the future, according to several organisations and food futurologists around the

world. Morgaine Gaye, a prominent food futurologist, believes that meat is set to all but

disappear from our daily diets again due to 30 ........................ Professor Harpaz offers the same

opinion, contending that 31 ........................ will continue to become costlier and costlier. To

fill the gap left by meat, he says, we will have no choice but to turn to 32 ........................., with

"functional foods" that will be aimed at each demographic. The only step we'll need to

take to get there is to manage to decode the 33 ..........................

Questions 34-40

Complete the table.

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

Write your answers in boxes 34-40 on your answer sheet.

Future Food

Insects

. 34 .............. and full of protein

. Similar to meat in terms of nutritional value

. Regularly consumed in 35 ..............

. 36 .............. will need to be adjusted for unaccustomed cultures

Algae

. Easy and quick to 37 ..............

. Up to 10,000 different flavours

. Might positively influence (38) .............. by providing us with alternative fuels

Lab-grown meat

. Made with bovine 39 .............. and/or plants

. Would lead to a drop in energy and water waste, as well as greenhouse gas emissions

. Would also alleviate 40 ..............

Too expensive at the moment

ANSWER

29. thrilling

30. rising prices

31. raising livestock

32. genetic engineering

33. human genome

34. nutritionally excellent

35. Asia and Africa

36. presentation

37. grow

38. carbon footprint

39. stem cells

40. animal suffering

Facial expression 1| ielts reading passage | 28 September ielts exam | 28 September ielts reading passage | 28 September ielts exam prediction | 28 September ielts reading prediction

 READING PASSAGE 3

Facial expression 1

A

A facial expression is one or more motions or positions of the muscles in the skin. These movements convey the emotional state of the individual to observers. Facial expressions are a form of nonverbal communication. They are a primary means of conveying social information among aliens, but also occur in most other mammals and some other animal species. Facial expressions and their significance in the perceiver can, to some extent, vary between cultures with evidence from descriptions in the works of Charles Darwin.

B

Humans can adopt a facial expression to read as a voluntary action. However, because expressions are closely tied to emotion, they are more often involuntary. It can be nearly impossible to avoid expressions for certain emotions, even when it would be strongly desirable to do so; a person who is trying to avoid insulting an individual he or she finds highly unattractive might, nevertheless, show a brief expression of disgust before being able to reassume a neutral expression. Microexpressions are one example of this phenomenon. The close link between emotion and expression can also work in the order direction; it has been observed that voluntarily assuming an expression can actually cause the associated emotion.

C

Some expressions can be accurately interpreted even between members of different species – anger and extreme contentment being the primary examples. Others, however, are difficult to interpret even in familiar individuals. For instance, disgust and fear can be tough to tell apart. Because faces have only a limited range of movement, expressions rely upon fairly minuscule differences in the proportion and relative position of facial features, and reading them requires considerable sensitivity to same. Some faces are often falsely read as expressing some emotion, even when they are neutral, because their proportions naturally resemble those another face would temporarily assume when emoting.

D

Also, a person’s eyes reveal much about how they are feeling, or what they are thinking. Blink rate can reveal how nervous or at ease a person may be. Research by Boston College professor Joe Tecce suggests that stress levels are revealed by blink rates. He supports his data with statistics on the relation between the blink rates of presidential candidates and their success in their races. Tecce claims that the faster blinker in the presidential debates has lost every election since 1980. Though Tecce’s data is interesting, it is important to recognize that non-verbal communication is multi-channeled, and focusing on only one aspect is reckless. Nervousness can also be measured by examining each candidates’ perspiration, eye contact and stiffness.

E

As Charles Darwin noted in his book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals: the young and the old of widely different races, both with man and animals, express the same state of mind by the same movements. Still, up to the mid-20th century most anthropologists believed that facial expressions were entirely learned and could therefore differ among cultures. Studies conducted in the 1960s by Paul Ekman eventually supported Darwin’s belief to a large degree.

F

Ekman’s work on facial expressions had its starting point in the work of psychologist Silvan Tomkins. Ekman showed that contrary to the belief of some anthropologists including Margaret Mead, facial expressions of emotion are not culturally determined, but universal across human cultures. The South Fore people of New Guinea were chosen as subjects for one such survey. The study consisted of 189 adults and 130 children from among a very isolated population, as well as twenty three members of the culture who lived a less isolated lifestyle as a control group. Participants were told a story that described one particular emotion; they were then shown three pictures (two for children) of facial expressions and asked to match the picture which expressed the story’s emotion.

G

While the isolated South Fore people could identify emotions with the same accuracy as the non-isolated control group, problems associated with the study include the fact that both fear and surprise were constantly misidentified. The study concluded that certain facial expressions correspond to particular emotions and can not be covered, regardless of cultural background, and regardless of whether or not the culture has been isolated or exposed to the mainstream.

H

Expressions Ekman found to be universal included those indicating anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, and surprise (not that none of these emotions has a definitive social component, such as shame, pride, or schadenfreude). Findings on contempt (which is social) are less clear, though there is at least some preliminary evidence that this emotion and its expression are universally recognized. This may suggest that the facial expressions are largely related to the mind and each parts on the face can express specific emotion.

Questions 28-32

Complete the Summary paragraph below.

In boxes 28-32 on your answer sheet, write the correct answer with NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

The result of Ekman’s study demonstrates that fear and surprise are persistently 28…………………… and made a conclusion that some facial expressions have something to do with certain 29…………………. Which is impossible covered, despite of 30………………….. and whether the culture has been 31…………………… or 32………………………. To the mainstream.

Questions 33-38

The reading Passage has seven paragraphs A-H

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter A-H, in boxes 33-38 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

33 the difficulty identifying the actual meaning of facial expressions

34 the importance of culture on facial expressions is initially described

35 collected data for the research on the relation between blink and the success in elections

36 the features on sociality of several facial expressions

37 an indicator to reflect one’s extent of nervousness

38 the relation between emotion and facial expressions

Questions 39-40

Choose two letters from the A-E

Write your answers in boxes 39-40 on your answer sheet

Which Two of the following statements are true according to Ekman’s theory?

A No evidence shows animals have their own facial expressions.

B The potential relationship between facial expression and state of mind exists

C Facial expressions are concerning different cultures.

D Different areas on face convey certain state of mind.

E Mind controls men’s facial expressions more obvious than women’s

ANSWER

28. misidentified

29. emotions

30. cultural background

31. isolated

32. exposed

33. C

34. A

35. D

36. H

37. D

38. B

39. B

40. D

Antarctica – in from the cold? | ielts reading passage | 28 September ielts exam | 28 September ielts reading passage | 28 September ielts exam prediction | 28 September ielts reading prediction |

Antarctica – in from the cold?

 A

A little over a century ago, men of the ilk of Scott, Shackleton and Mawson battled against Antarctica’s blizzards, cold and deprivation. In the name of Empire and in an age of heroic deeds they created an image of Antarctica that was to last well into the 20th century – an image of remoteness, hardship, bleakness and isolation that was the province of only the most courageous of men. The image was one of a place removed from everyday reality, of a place with no apparent value to anyone.

B

As we enter the 21st century, our perception of Antarctica has changed. Although physically Antarctica is no closer and probably no warmer, and to spend time there still demands a dedication not seen in ordinary life, the continent and its surrounding ocean are increasingly seen to an integral part of Planet Earth, and a key component in the Earth System. Is this because the world seems a little smaller these days, shrunk by TV and tourism, or is it because Antarctica really does occupy a central spot on Earth’s mantle? Scientific research during the past half century has revealed – and continues to reveal – that Antarctica’s great mass and low temperature exert a major influence on climate and ocean circulation, factors which influence the lives of millions of people all over the globe.

C

Antarctica was not always cold. The slow break-up of the super-continent Gondwana with the northward movements of Africa, South America, India and Australia eventually created enough space around Antarctica for the development of an Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), that flowed from west to east under the influence of the prevailing westerly winds. Antarctica cooled, its vegetation perished, glaciation began and the continent took on its present-day appearance. Today the ice that overlies the bedrock is up to 4km thick, and surface temperatures as low as – 89.2deg C have been recorded. The icy blast that howls over the ice cap and out to sea – the so-called katabatic wind – can reach 300 km/hr, creating fearsome wind-chill effects.

D

Out of this extreme environment come some powerful forces that reverberate around the world. The Earth’s rotation, coupled to the generation of cells of low pressure off the Antarctic coast, would allow Astronauts a view of Antarctica that is as beautiful as it is awesome. Spinning away to the northeast, the cells grow and deepen, whipping up the Southern Ocean into the mountainous seas so respected by mariners. Recent work is showing that the temperature of the ocean may be a better predictor of rainfall in Australia than is the pressure difference between Darwin and Tahiti – the Southern Oscillation Index. By receiving more accurate predictions, graziers in northern Queensland are able to avoid overstocking in years when rainfall will be poor. Not only does this limit their losses but it prevents serious pasture degradation that may take decades to repair. CSIRO is developing this as a prototype forecasting system, but we can confidently predict that as we know more about the Antarctic and Southern Ocean we will be able to enhance and extend our predictive ability.

E

The ocean’s surface temperature results from the interplay between deep-water temperature, air temperature and ice. Each winter between 4 and 19 million square km of sea ice form, locking up huge quantities of heat close to the continent. Only now can we start to unravel the influence of sea ice on the weather that is experienced in southern Australia. But in another way the extent of sea ice extends its influence far beyond Antarctica. Antarctic krill – the small shrimp-like crustaceans that are the staple diet for baleen whales, penguins, some seals, flighted sea birds and many fish – breed well in years when sea ice is extensive and poorly when it is not. Many species of baleen whales and flighted sea birds migrate between the hemispheres and when the krill are less abundant they do not thrive.

F

The circulatory system of the world’s oceans is like a huge conveyor belt, moving water and dissolved minerals and nutrients from one hemisphere to the other, and from the ocean’s abyssal depths to the surface. The ACC is the longest current in the world, and has the largest flow. Through it, the deep flows of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans are joined to form part of a single global thermohaline circulation. During winter, the howling katabatics sometimes scour the ice off patches of the sea’s surface leaving large ice-locked lagoons, or ‘polynyas’. Recent research has shown that as fresh sea ice forms, it is continuously stripped away by the wind and may be blown up to 90km in a single day. Since only fresh water freezes into ice, the water that remains becomes increasingly salty and dense, sinking until it spills over the continental shelf. Cold water carries more oxygen than warm water, so when it rises, well into the northern hemisphere, it reoxygenates and revitalises the ocean. The state of the northern oceans, and their biological productivity, owe much to what happens in the Antarctic.

Questions 14-18

The reading Passage has seven paragraphs A-F

Which paragraph contains the following information?

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

14 The example of research on weather prediction on agriculture

15 Antarctic sea ice brings life back to the world oceans’ vitality.

16 A food chain that influence the animals living pattern based on Antarctic fresh sea ice

17 The explanation of how atmosphere pressure above Antarctica can impose effect on global climate change

18 Antarctica was once thought to be a forgotten and insignificant continent

Questions 19-21

Please match the natural phenomenon with correct determined factor

Choose the correct answer from the box;

Write the correct letter A-F, in boxes 19-21 on your answer sheet.

19 Globally, mass Antarctica’s size and …………………… influence the climate change

20 …………………… contributory to western wind

21 Southern Oscillation Index based on air pressure can predict ………………….. in Australia

A Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC)

B katabatic winds

C rainfall

D temperature

E glaciers

F pressure

Questions 22-26

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

Write your answer in boxes 22-26 on your answer sheet.

22 In the paragraph B, the author want to tell which of the following truth about Antarctic?

A To show Antarctica has been a central topic of global warming in Mass media

B To illustrate its huge see ice brings food to million lives to places in the world

C To show it is the heart and its significance to the global climate and current

D To illustrate it locates in the central spot on Earth geographically

23 Why do Australian farmers keep an eye on the Antarctic ocean temperature?

A Help farmers reduce their economic or ecological losses

B Retrieve grassland decreased in the overgrazing process

C Prevent animal from dying

D A cell provides fertilizer for the grassland

24 What is the final effect of katabatic winds?

A Increase the moving speed of ocean current

B Increase salt level near ocean surface

C Bring fresh ice into southern oceans

D Pile up the mountainous ice cap respected by mariners

25 The break of the continental shelf is due to the

A Salt and density increase

B Salt and density decrease

C global warming resulting a rising temperature

D fresh ice melting into ocean water

26 The decrease in number of Whales and seabirds is due to

A killers whales are more active around

B Sea birds are affected by high sea level salty

C less sea ice reduces productivity of food source

D seals fail to reproduce babies

ANSWER

14. D

15. F

16. E

17. C

18. A

19. D

20. A

21. C

22. C

23. A

24. C

25. C

26. C

The History of pencil | ielts reading passage | 19 September ielts exam | 19 September ielts reading passage |

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

The History of pencil

A

The beginning of the story of pencils started with a lightning. Graphite, the main material for producing pencil, was discovered in 1564 in Borrowdale in England when a lightning struck a local tree during a thunder. Local people found out that the black substance spotted at the root of the unlucky tree was different from burning ash of wood. It was soft, thus left marks everywhere. Chemistry was barely out of its infancy at the time, so people mistook it for lead, equally black but much heavier. It was soon put to use by locals in marking their sheep for signs of ownership and calculation.

B

Britain turns out to be the major country where mines of graphite can be detected and developed. Even so, the first pencil was invented elsewhere. As graphite is soft, it requires some form of encasement. In Italy, graphite sticks were initially wrapped in string or sheepskin for stability, becoming perhaps the very first pencil in the world. Then around 1560, an Italian couple made what are likely the first blueprints for the modern, wood-encased carpentry pencil their version was a flat, oval, more compact type of pencil. Their concept involved the hollowing out of a stick of juniper wood. Shortly thereafter in 1662, a superior technique was discovered by German people: two wooden halves were carved, a graphite stick inserted, and the halves then glued together – essentially the same method in use to this day. The news of usefulness of these early pencils spread far and wide, attracting the attention of artists all over the known world.

C

Although graphite core in pencils is still referred to as lead, modern pencils do not contain lead as the “lead” of the pencil is actually a mix of finely ground graphite and clay powders. This mixture is important because the amount of clay content added to the graphite depends on intended pencil hardness, and the amount of time spent on grinding the mixture determines the quality of the lead. The more clay you put in, the higher hardness the core has. Many pencils across the world, and almost all in Europe, are graded on the European system. This system of naming used B for black and H for hard; a pencil’s grade was described by a sequence or successive Hs or Bs such as BB and BBB for successively softer leads, and HH and HHH for successively harder ones. Then the standard writing pencil is graded HB.

D

In England, pencils continued to be made from whole sawn graphite. But with the mass production of pencils, they are getting drastically more popular in many countries with each passing decade. As demands rise, appetite for graphite soars. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), world production of natural graphite in 2012 was 1,100,000 tonnes, of which the following major exporters are: China, India, Brazil, North Korea and Canada. When the value of graphite was realised, the mines were taken over by the government and guarded. One of its chief uses during the reign of Elizabeth I in the second half of the 16th century was as moulds for the manufacture of cannon balls. Graphite was transported from Keswick to London in armed stagecoaches. In 1751 an Act of Parliament was passed making it an offence to steal or receive “wad”. This crime was punishable by hard labour or transportation.

E

That the United States did not use pencils in the outer space till they spent $1000 to make a pencil to use in zero gravity conditions is in fact a fiction. It is widely known that astronauts in Russia used grease pencils, which don’t have breakage problems. But it is also a fact that their counterparts in the United States used pencils in the outer space before real zero gravity pencil was invented. They preferred mechanical pencils, which produced fine lines, much clearer than the smudgy lines left by the grease pencils the Russians favoured. But the lead tips of these mechanical pencils broke often. That bit of graphite floating around the space capsule could get into someone’s eye, or even find its way into machinery or electronics, causing an electrical short or other problems. But despite the fact that the Americans did invent zero gravity pencils later, they stuck to mechanical pencils for many years.

F

Against the backcloth of a digitalized world, the prospect of pencils seems bleak. In reality, it does not. The application of pencils has by now become so widespread that they can be seen everywhere, such as classrooms, meeting rooms and art rooms, etc. A spectrum of users are likely to continue to use it into the future: students to do math works, artists to draw on sketch pads, waiters or waitresses to mark on order boards make-up professional to apply to faces, and architects to produce blue prints. The possibilities seem limitless.

Questions 14-19

Complete the sentences below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer

Write your answers in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet.

Graphite was found under a 14……………………….. in Borrowdale.

Ancient people used graphite to sign possession and number of 15…………………………

The first pencil was graphite wrapped in 16………………………… or animal skin.

In the eighteenth century, the 17………………………… protect the mines when the value of graphite was realized.

During the reign of Elizabeth I, people was condemnable if they 18………………………... or receive the “was”.

Russian astronauts preferred 19…………………….. pencils to write in the outer space.

Questions 20-26

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

In boxes 20-26 on your answer sheet write

YES if the statement agrees with the information

NO if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

20 Italy is probably the first country of the whole world to make pencils.

21 Germany used various kinds of wood to make pencils.

22 Graphite makes a pencil harder and sharper.

23 Pencils are not produced any more since the reign of Elizabeth I.

24 Pencil was used during the first American space expedition.

25 American astronauts did not replace mechanical pencils immediately after the zero gravity pencils were invented.

26 Pencils are unlikely to be used in the future.

ANSWER

14. tree

15. sheep

16. strings

17. government

18. steal

19. grease

20. TRUE

21. NOT GIVEN

22. FALSE

23. TRUE

24. NOT GIVEN

25. TRUE

26. FALSE