IELTS Reading Practice Test 2

IELTS Reading (Academic)
Time: 60 minutes
Sample Test 1

READING PASSAGE 1

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

Poverty around the World

In August 2008, the World Bank presented a major overhaul to their estimates of global poverty, incorporating what they described as better and new data.

The World Bank’s long-held estimate of the number of people living on the equivalent of $1 a day has now been changed to $1.25 a day.

The World Bank also adds that the previous $1 a day estimate for the international poverty line would have been $1.45 a day at 2005 prices if only inflation was accounted for.

The revised estimates include a lot more recalculations and the $1 a-day measure used in some of the charts below is therefore not to be confused with the old $1 a-day measure, and where available, a $1.45 measure is also provided as well as a more current $1 a day measure. (Because some developing countries also have poverty lines at $2 and $2.50 a day, those are also shown, where available.)

At a poverty line of $1.25 a day, the revised estimates find

• 1.4 billion people live at this poverty line or below
• This is more than the previous estimate of 984 million with the older measure of $1 a day in 2004
• In 1981, the estimated number of poor was also revised upward, from 1.5 billion to 1.9 billion

The World Bank notes that the incidence of poverty in the world is higher than past estimates have suggested. The main reason is that [previous data] had implicitly underestimated the cost of living in most developing countries.

The data also do not reflect the recent global food crisis and the rising cost of energy, which is feared will bring another 100 million into poverty.

Accounting for the increased population between 1981 and 2005, the poverty rate has, however, fallen by about 25%.

While this at least sounds encouraging, it masks regional variations and perhaps most glaringly the impact of China:

• China’s poverty rate fell from 85% to 15.9%, or over 600 million people
• China accounts for nearly all the world’s reduction in poverty
• Excluding China, poverty fell only by around 10%

As a result, the World Bank feels that while China is on target to reach the Millennium Development Goals to reduce poverty and tackle various other issues, most other countries are not.

Questions 1–7

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

In boxes 1–7 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.    The revised estimates by the World Bank hold more recalculations.

2.    Different countries have different poverty lines.

3.    In the previous estimates the cost of living was taken meticulously.

4.    Poverty is on the rise in India

5.    The cost of energy is rising, henceforth, poverty will reduce

6.    The poverty rate has fallen over the period of 1981 to 2005.

7.    China will be able to reduce poverty faster than India.

Questions 8–13

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

Write the correct letter in boxes 8–13 on your answer sheet.

8.    As per the revised estimates the new poverty line is?

         A.  $1

         B.  $1.25

         C.  $1.45

         D.  $2.50

9.   Number of people living below the poverty line as per the previous estimates of $1?

         A.  1.4 billion

         B.  1.5 billion

         C.  984 billion

         D.  948 billion

10.  The poverty in the world is higher than the estimates suggested in the past because:

         A.  Earlier the global crisis was not considered.

         B.  The cost of energy is increasing

         C.  The cost of living was underestimated in the developing countries

         D.  An increasing population is an indication of increasing poverty

11.  Due to the increased population between 1981 and 2005, the poverty rate has fallen by how much percentage?

         A.  21%

         B.  23%

         C.  24%

         D.  25%

12.  Which country is targeting to reach the Millennium Development Goals to reduce poverty?

         A.  US

         B.  UK

         C.  China

         D.  India

13.  A suitable title for the above passage.

         A.  Increasing poverty in the world

         B.  World bank’s poverty estimates revised

         C.  China - A leader in reducing poverty

         D.  Increasing population with decreasing poverty

READING PASSAGE 2

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

Anatomy of the brain

The cerebrum is the largest part of the brain, accounting for 85 percent of the organ's weight. The distinctive, deeply wrinkled outer surface is the cerebral cortex. It's the cerebrum that makes the human brain—and therefore humans—so formidable. Animals such as elephants, dolphins, and whales actually have larger brains, but humans have the most developed cerebrum. It's packed to capacity inside our skulls, with deep folds that cleverly maximize the total surface area of the cortex.

The cerebrum has two halves, or hemispheres, that are further divided into four regions, or lobes. The frontal lobes, located behind the forehead, are involved with speech, thought, learning, emotion, and movement. Behind them are the parietal lobes, which process sensory information such as touch, temperature, and pain. At the rear of the brain are the occipital lobes, dealing with vision. Lastly, there are the temporal lobes, near the temples, which are involved with hearing and memory.

The second-largest part of the brain is the cerebellum, which sits beneath the back of the cerebrum. It plays an important role in coordinating movement, posture, and balance.

The third-largest part is the diencephalon, located in the core of the brain. A complex of structures roughly the size of an apricot, its two major sections are the thalamus and hypothalamus. The thalamus acts as a relay station for incoming nerve impulses from around the body that are then forwarded to the appropriate brain region for processing. The hypothalamus controls hormone secretions from the nearby pituitary gland. These hormones govern growth and instinctual behaviours, such as when a new mother starts to lactate. The hypothalamus is also important for keeping bodily processes like temperature, hunger, and thirst balanced.

Seated at the organ's base, the brain stem controls reflexes and basic life functions such as heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure. It also regulates when you feel sleepy or awake and connects the cerebrum and cerebellum to the spinal cord.

The brain is extremely sensitive and delicate, and so it requires maximum protection, which is provided by the hard bone of the skull and three tough membranes called meninges. The spaces between these membranes are filled with fluid that cushions the brain and keeps it from being damaged by contact with the inside of the skull.

Want more proof that the brain is extraordinary? Look no further than the blood-brain barrier. The discovery of this unique feature dates to the 19th century, when various experiments revealed that dye, when injected into the bloodstream, coloured all of the body’s organs except the brain and spinal cord. The same dye, when injected into the spinal fluid, tinted only the brain and spinal cord.

This led scientists to learn that the brain has an ingenious, protective layer. Called the blood-brain barrier, it’s made up of special, tightly bound cells that together function as a kind of semi-permeable gate throughout most of the organ. It keeps the brain environment safe and stable by preventing some toxins, pathogens, and other harmful substances from entering the brain through the bloodstream, while simultaneously allowing oxygen and vital nutrients to pass through.

Of course, when a machine as finely calibrated and complex as the brain gets injured or malfunctions, problems arise. One in five Americans suffers from some form of neurological damage, a wide-ranging list that includes stroke, epilepsy, and cerebral palsy, as well as dementia.

Alzheimer’s disease, which is characterized in part by a gradual progression of short-term memory loss, disorientation, and mood swings, is the most common cause of dementia. It is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States, and the number of people diagnosed with it is growing. Worldwide, some 50 million people suffer from Alzheimer’s or some form of dementia. While there are a handful of drugs available to mitigate Alzheimer’s symptoms, there is no cure. Researchers across the globe continue to develop treatments that one day might put an end to the disease’s devastating effects.

Far more common than neurological disorders, however, are conditions that fall under a broad category called mental illness. Unfortunately, negative attitudes toward people who suffer from mental illness are widespread. The stigma attached to mental illness can create feelings of shame, embarrassment, and rejection, causing many people to suffer in silence. In the United States, where anxiety disorders are the most common forms of mental illness, only about 40 percent of sufferers receive treatment. Anxiety disorders often stem from abnormalities in the brain’s hippocampus and prefrontal cortex.

Questions 14–22

Classify the following as typical:

       A.   Cerebrum

       B.   Cerebellum

       C.   Diencephalon

Write the correct letter, A, B or C, in boxes 14–22 on your answer sheet.

14.    Has a section called the thalamus, which acts as a relay station ______

15.    Frontal lobe and temporal lobe _______

16.    Associated with speech, thought, learning, emotion, and movements  _______

17.    Coordinates movement, posture, and balance _______

18.    Hormone secretion from pituitary gland ________

19.    Lactation in new mothers _______

20.    Processes Sensory Information ___________

21.    Roughly the size of an apricot ________

22.    Cerebral Cortex __________

Questions 23–26

Complete the sentences below.

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

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

23.   Three tough membranes that provide protection to the brain__________.

24.   The most common cause of dementia is ______________.

25.   Worldwide, __________ people suffer from Alzheimer’s or some form of dementia.

26.    _______ often stems from abnormalities in the brain’s hippocampus and prefrontal cortex.

READING PASSAGE 3

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

Chlorofluorocarbons and Ozone Depletion

The language is dry and academic, as is appropriate for the abstract of a scientific paper in the prestigious journal Nature. The research described in the short paper, however, fell like a scientific bombshell, one whose repercussions would be felt around the world. It set off fierce debates, led to a global environmental treaty restricting the use of a broad class of chemicals, and changed the way humans viewed their impact on Earth’s environment. It also led to F. Sherwood Rowland (1927-2012) and Mario J. Molina (*1943) sharing the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Paul J. Crutzen of the Max Plank Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, another pioneer in stratospheric ozone research.

Rowland, a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Irvine, and Molina, a postdoctoral fellow in Rowland’s laboratory, had shown that chlorofluorocarbons—CFCs—could destroy ozone, a molecule made up of three oxygen atoms, O3, in Earth’s stratosphere. That stratospheric ozone absorbs ultraviolet radiation that otherwise would reach the surface of Earth. At the time, CFCs were in wide use in refrigeration, air conditioning and aerosol spray cans. The compounds are inert and essentially nontoxic, characteristics that made them well-suited for these applications. These same characteristics, however, also made them a danger to life on Earth.

In the 1920s, refrigeration and air conditioning systems used compounds such as ammonia, chloromethane, propane and sulphur dioxide as refrigerants. Though effective, the compounds were toxic and flammable, and exposure to them could result in serious injury or death. A team of chemists at Frigidaire led by Thomas Midgely Jr. (1889-1944) worked to develop nontoxic, non-flammable alternatives to the refrigerants.

The team focused their effort on compounds containing carbon and halogens such as fluorine and chlorine. Such compounds were known to be volatile and chemically inert, both important properties for the team studying their use in refrigeration. The first compound they developed was dichlorodifluoromethane, CCl2F2, which they dubbed “Freon.” Midgely would receive the Society of Chemical Industry’s Perkin Medal for this research in 1937; in 1941, he was awarded the Priestley Medal, the American Chemical Society’s highest award, for his contributions to chemistry.

By the early 1970s, CFCs were in widespread use, and worldwide production of the compounds had reached nearly one million tons per year, representing roughly a $500 million slice of the chemical industry. 

From an environmental standpoint, ozone is a confusing molecule. In the troposphere, the region of the atmosphere from Earth’s surface up to about 6 miles, ozone is a pollutant that is a component of photochemical smog. But in the stratosphere, the region of the atmosphere from 6 to 31 miles, ozone absorbs potentially damaging ultraviolet (UV) radiation.

As the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences put it in its announcement of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry: “Even though ozone occurs in such small quantities, it plays an exceptionally fundamental part in life on earth. This is because ozone, together with ordinary molecular oxygen (O2), is able to absorb the major part of the sun’s ultraviolet radiation and therefore prevent this dangerous radiation from reaching the surface. Without a protective ozone layer in the atmosphere, animals and plants could not exist, at least not upon land.”

Questions 27–31

Reading Passage 3 has seven paragraphs, A–G.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

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

27.   Ozone could be destroyed by CFC’s. _____

28.   Fluorine and chlorine are volatile and chemically inert. _____

29.   Ozone along with O2 plays an important part in life on earth as it absorbs sun’s ultraviolet radiations._______

30.   A team of chemists developed nontoxic, non-flammable alternatives to the refrigerants._______

31.   CFCs were  largely used in refrigeration, air conditioning and aerosol spray cans._________

Questions 32–35

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

In boxes 32–35 on your answer sheet, write

YES                   if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer

NO                     if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer

NOT GIVEN      if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

32.    Rowland, Molina and Crutzen shared the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physics. ______

33.    Rowland was a postdoctoral fellow in Molina’s laboratory. _________

34.    CFC’s could destroy the troposphere along with the Stratosphere. _______

35.    CCl2F2  is known as dichlorodifluoromethane. ________

Questions 36–40

Complete the summary below.

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

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

36.  _______________________ was accorded with the Priestley Medal award. Ozone acts as a pollutant being a component of 37.   ______________ in 38.  _______________ whereas it absorbs harmful ultraviolet radiation in the stratosphere and hence seems to be 39.   _________ molecules. 

Ozone is a 40.   ___________________ layer in the atmosphere without which animals and plants cannot exist at least on land.

Answers:

1.       True
2.       True
3.       False
4.       Not Given
5.       False
6.       True
7.       Not Given
8.       B
9.       C
10.       C
11.       D
12.       C
13.       B
14.       C
15.       A
16.       A
17.       B
18.       C
19.       C
20.       A
21.       C
22.       A
23.      Meninges
24.      Alzheimer
25.      50 million
26.      Anxiety Disorders
27.      B
28.      D
29.      G
30.      C
31.      B
32.      No
33.      No
34.      Not Given
35.      Yes
36.      Thomas Midgely
37.      Photochemical smog
38.      Troposphere
39.      Confusing
40.      Protective