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Describe A Sport That You Only Have Watched Before But Have Not Played Yourself IELTSCUECARDS-VINODSHARMAIELTS

Describe a sport that you only have watched before but have not played yourself. Introduction. Sports is something that everybody enjoys to play and watch. This really disconnects us from the real world and makes us totally engrossed in the game. Playing sports helps to strengthen our physical and mental strength while watching it also can give an adrenaline rush if the game reaches a tough competition. - What it is Here I am going to talk about football and it's my most favorite game all over the world and people are die hard fans of this game. In my country India people are cricket fans they enjoy playing and watching cricket and football is less played compared to cricket. - When you watched it. I am a cricket fan and I have played this game regularly since my childhood. Recently our city council decided to organize all outdoor games in the sports club and the motive was to promote sports so they included football teams from nearby towns. In summer all this games

IELTS READING QUESTION-TYPE PRACTICE-TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN


 TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN

Mini warm-up practice tests – Choose either True or False

Passage: As a roller coaster puts the body

through weightlessness, high gravitational forces

and acceleration, the brain struggles to make

sense of conflicting and changing signals from the

senses.

Question: The brain has difficulty

understanding the messages sent from the

senses during roller coaster rides.

Passage: This product causes the break-down of

excess body fat and will help people shed pounds.

Question: This product helps people lose

weight by eliminating extra fat in the body.

Passage: Symptoms of the flu include fever and

nasal congestion.

Question: Stuffiness and elevated temperature

are signs of the flu.

Passage: The tornado razed the town.

Question: The town was obliterated by the

cyclone.

Passage: The gray clouds were a warning of an

approaching storm.

Question: The coming storm was foretold by

the dark clouds.

Passage: The still waters of the Caribbean were

teal in color.

Question: The turquoise Caribbean waters

were calm.

Passage: It was a spacious room with lit candles

all over.

Question: Candles flickered from many areas

of the large room.

Passage: At one level, it should come as no

surprise that our state of mind can influence our

physiology; anger opens the superficial blood

vessels of the face: sadness pumps the tear glands.

Question: We know that emotions sometimes

have direct physical effects on the body.

Passage: The museum has a huge collection of

African art.

Question: There is a large exhibit of African

art at the museum.

Passage: Habitation in outer space in huge

stations is no longer just a dream, but a reality;

the development of space hotels is not far-off.

Question: The concept of the habitation of

outer space by mankind is unimaginable.

Passage: Australians believe that life should have

a balance between work and leisure time. As a

consequence, some students may be critical of

others who they perceive as doing nothing but

study.

Question: Students who study all the time

may receive positive comments from their

colleagues.

Passage: The free, accessible nature of freerunning

means it has the potential to engage

groups of young people who are typically

unmoved by traditional sports. Basically anyone

can practise, anywhere-all you need is a decent

pair of trainers, so the financial outlay is

negligible. There are no joining fees, no forms to

fill in and no rules and regulations.

Question: Free-running is an expensive

activity for participants.

Passage: In the security industry today, there are

two clear divisions and one of these is decidedly

more glamorous than the other. The glamorous

part deals with digital security, which includes

everything from fighting computer viruses and

tackling malicious computer hackers to

controlling which employees have access

to which systems. All of this has overshadowed

the less glamorous side of the industry, which

deals with physical security - in essence, door

locks, alarms and that sort of thing.

Question: Designing ways to protect

computers from hackers represents the boring

side of the security industry.

Passage: While reading a certain amount of

writing is as crucial as it has ever been in

industrial societies, it is doubtful whether a fully

extended grasp of either is as necessary as it was

30 or 40 years ago.

Question: Our literacy skills need to be as

highly developed as they were in the past.

Passage: The laboratory studies similarly show

less mental stimulation, as measured by brainwave

production, during viewing than during

reading.

Question: People's brains show less activity

while watching television than when reading.

Passage: Australian notions of privacy mean that

areas such as financial matters, appearance and

relationships are only discussed with close

friends. While people may volunteer such

information, they may resent someone actually

asking them unless the friendship is firmly

established. Even then, it is considered very

impolite to ask someone what they earn. With

older people, it is also rude.

Question: It is acceptable to discuss financial

issues with people you do not know well.

Passage: But most modern humour theorists have

settled on some version of Aristotle's belief that

jokes are based on a reaction to or resolution of

incongruity, when the punchline is either a

nonsense or, though appearing silly, has a clever

second meaning.

Question: Current thinking on humour has

largely ignored Aristotle's view on the subject.

Passage: Physical exercise helps control insulin

levels, while ingesting fat combined with sugars

and starches can cause surges in insulin levels.

Question: Insulin levels rise sharply when

foods with high levels of starch, sugar and fat

are eaten.

Passage: But since 1980, the amount of water

consumed per person has actually decreased,

thanks to a range of new technologies that help to

conserve water in homes and industry.

Question: Modern technologies have led to a

reduction in domestic water consumption.

TEST 1 - Andrea Palladio: Italian architect

A new exhibition celebrates Palladio’s architecture 500 years on

A. Vicenza is a pleasant, prosperous city in the Veneto, 60km west of Venice. Its grand families
settled and farmed the area from the 16th century. But its principal claim to fame is Andrea Palladio, who is such an influential architect that a neoclassical style is known as Palladian. The city is a permanent exhibition of some of his finest buildings, and as he was born— in Padua, to be precise—500 years ago, the International Centre for the Study of Palladio's Architecture has an excellent excuse for mounting lagrande mostra, the big show.

B. The exhibition has the special advantage of being held in one of Palladio's buildings, Palazzo
Barbaran da Porto. Its bold facade is a mixture of rustication and decoration set between two rows of elegant columns. On the second floor the pediments are alternately curved or pointed, a Palladian trademark. The harmonious proportions of the atrium at the entrance lead through to a dramatic interior of fine fireplaces and painted ceilings. Palladio's design is simple, clear and not over-crowded. The show has been organised on the same principles, according to Howard Burns, the architectural historian who co-curated it.

C. Palladio's father was a miller who settled in did a humble miller's son become a world renowned
architect? The answer in the exhibition is that, as a young man, Palladio excelled at carving decorative
stonework on columns, doorways and fireplaces. He was plainly intelligent, and lucky enough to come
across a rich patron, Gian Giorgio Trissino, a landowner and scholar, who organised his education, taking him to Rome in the 1540s, where he studied the masterpieces of classical Roman and Greek architecture and the work of other influential architects of the time, such as Donato Bramante and Raphael.

D. Burns argues that social mobility was also important. Entrepreneurs, prosperous from agriculture
in the Veneto, commissioned the promising local architect to design their country villas and their urban
mansions. In Venice the aristocracy were anxious to co-opt talented artists, and Palladio was given the
chance to design the buildings that have made him famous— the churches of San Giorgio Maggiore and the Redentore, both easy to admire because they can be seen from the city's historical centre across a stretch of water.

E. He tried his hand at bridges—his unbuilt version of the Rialto Bridge was decorated with the large
pediment and columns of a temple —and, after a fire at the Ducal Palace, he offered an alternative design which bears an uncanny resemblance to the Banqueting House in Whitehall in London. Since it was designed by Inigo Jones, Palladio's first foreign disciple, this is not as surprising as it sounds.
F. Jones, who visited Italy in 1614, bought a trunk full of the master's architectural drawings; they
passed through the hands of the Dukes of Burlington and Devonshire before settling at the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1894. Many are now on display at Palazzo Barbaran. What they show is how Palladio drew on the buildings of ancient Rome as models. The major theme of both his rural and urban building was temple architecture, with a strong pointed pediment supported by columns and approached by wide steps.

G. Palladio's work for rich landowners alienates unreconstructed critics on the Italian left, but among
the papers in the show are designs for cheap housing in Venice. In the wider world, Palladio's reputation has been nurtured by a text he wrote and illustrated, "Quattro Libri dell' Architettura". His influence spread to St Petersburg and to Charlottesville in Virginia, where Thomas Jefferson commissioned a Palladian villa he called Monticello.

H. Vicenza's show contains detailed models of the major buildings and is leavened by portraits of
Palladio's teachers and clients by Titian, Veronese and Tintoretto; the paintings of his Venetian buildings are all by Canaletto, no less. This is an uncompromising exhibition; many of the drawings are small and faint, and there are no sideshows for children, but the impact of harmonious lines and satisfying proportions is to impart in a viewer a feeling of benevolent calm. Palladio is history's most therapeutic architect.

I. "Palladio, 500 Anni: La Grande Mostra" is at Palazzo Barbaran da Porto, Vicenza, until January 6th
2009. The exhibition continues at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, from January 31st to April 13th, and travels afterwards to Barcelona and Madrid.

Questions 1-7

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?
True if the statement agrees with the information
False if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN If there is no information on this.

Q1. The building where the exhibition is staged has been newly renovated
Q2. Palazzo Barbaran da Porto typically represents the Palladio’s design
Q3. Palladio’s father worked as an architect.
Q4. Palladio’s family refused to pay for his architectural studies.
Q5. Palladio’s alternative design for the Ducal Palace in Venice was based on an English building.
Q6. Palladio designed both wealthy and poor people
Q7. The exhibition includes paintings of people by famous artists.

TEST 2 - New Agriculture in Oregon, US

A. Onion growers in eastern Oregon are adopting a system that saves water and keeps topsoil in
place, while producing the highest quality "super colossal" onions. Pear growers in southern Oregon have reduced their use of some of the most toxic pesticides by up to two-thirds, and are still producing top-quality pears. Range managers throughout the state have controlled the poisonous weed tansy ragwort with insect predators and saved the Oregon livestock industry up to $4.8 million a year.

B. These are some of the results Oregon growers have achieved in collaboration with Oregon State
University (OSU) researchers as they test new farming methods including integrated pest management
(IPM). Nationwide, however, IFM has not delivered results comparable to those in Oregon. A recent U.S General Accounting Office (GAO) report indicates that while integrated pest management can result in dramatically reduced pesticide use, the federal government has been lacking in effectively promoting that goal and implementing IPM. Farmers also blame the government for not making the new options of pest management attractive. "Wholesale changes in the way that farmers control the pests on their farms is an expensive business." Tony Brown, of the National Farmers Association says. "If the farmers are given tax breaks to offset the expenditure, then they would willingly accept the new practices." The report goes on to note that even though the use of the riskiest pesticides has declined nationwide, they still make up more than 40 percent of all pesticides used today; and national pesticide use has risen by 40 million kilograms since 1992. "Our food supply remains the safest and highest quality on Earth but we continue to overdose our farmland with powerful and toxic pesticides and to under-use the safe and effective alternatives," charged Patrick Leahy, who commissioned the report. Green action groups disagree about the safety issue. "There is no way that habitual consumption of foodstuffs grown using toxic chemicals of the nature found on today's farms can be healthy for consumers," noted Bill Bowler, spokesman for Green Action,
one of many lobbyists interested in this issue.

C. The GAO report singles out Oregon's apple and pear producers who have used the new IPM
techniques with growing success. Although Oregon is clearly ahead of the nation, scientists at OSU are
taking the Government Accounting Office criticisms seriously. "We must continue to develop effective
alternative practices that will reduce environmental hazards and produce high quality products," said Paul Jepson, a professor of entomology at OSU and new director.

D. OSU's Integrated Plant Protection Centre (IPPC). The IPPC brings together scientists from OSU's
Agricultural Experiment Station, OSU Extension service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Oregon farmers to help develop agricultural systems that will save water and soil, and reduce pesticides. In response to the GAO report, the Centre is putting even more emphasis on integrating research and farming practices to improve Oregon agriculture environmentally and economically.

E. "The GAO report criticizes agencies for not clearly communicating the goals of IPM," said Jepson.
"Our challenge is to greatly improve the communication to and from growers, to learn what works and what doesn't. The work coming from OSU researchers must be adopted in the field and not simply languish in scientific journals."

F. In Oregon, growers and scientists are working together to instigate new practices. For example, a
few years ago scientists at OSU's Malheur Experiment Station began testing a new drip irrigation system to replace old ditches that wasted water and washed soil and fertilizer into streams. The new system cut water and fertilizer use by half, kept topsoil in place and protected water quality.

G. In addition, the new system produced crops of very large onions, rated "super colossal" and highly
valued by the restaurant industry and food processors. Art Pimms, one of the researchers at Malheur
comments: "Growers are finding that when they adopt more environmentally benign practices, they can have excellent results. The new practices benefit the environment and give the growers their success."

H. OSU researchers in Malheur next tested straw mulch and found that it successfully held soil in
place and kept the ground moist with less irrigation. In addition, and unexpectedly, the scientists found that the mulched soil created a home for beneficial beetles and spiders that prey on onion trips - a notorious pest in commercial onion fields - a discovery that could reduce the need for pesticides. "I would never have believed that we could replace the artificial pest controls that we had before and still keep our good results," commented Steve Black, a commercial onion farmer in Oregon, "but instead we have actually surpassed expectations."

I. OSU researchers throughout the state have been working to reduce dependence on broad spectrum
chemical sprays that are toxic to many kind of organisms, including humans. "Consumers are rightly putting more and more pressure on the industry to change its reliance on chemical pesticides, but they
still want a picture-perfect product," said Rick Hilton, entomologist at OSU's Southern Oregon Research and Extension Centre, where researchers help pear growers reduce the need for highly toxic pesticides. Picture perfect pears are an important product in Oregon and traditionally they have required lots of chemicals. In recent years, the industry has faced stiff competition from overseas producers, so any new methods that growers adopt must make sense economically as well as environmentally. Hilton is testing a growth regulator that interferes with the molting of codling moth larvae. Another study used pheromone dispensers to disrupt codling moth mating. These and other methods of integrated pest management have allowed pear growers to reduce their use of organophosphates by two-thirds and reduce all other synthetic pesticides by even more and still produce top-quality pears. These and other studies around the state are part of the effort of the IPPC to find alternative farming practices that benefit both the economy and the environment.

Questions 1-5
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?
True if the statement agrees with the information
False if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN If there is no information on this

Q1. Integrated Pest Management has generally been regarded as a success in the across the US.
Q2. Oregon farmers of apples and pears have been promoted as successful examples of Integrated Pest
        Management.
Q3. The IPPC uses scientists from different organisations globally
Q4. Shaw mulch experiments produced unplanned benefits.
Q5. The apple industry is now facing a lot of competition from abroad.

TEST 3 - Terminated Dinosaur Era

A. The age of dinosaurs, which ended with the cataclysmic bang of a meteor impact 65 million years
ago, may also have begun with one. Researchers found recently the first direct, though tentative, geological evidence of a meteor impact 200 million years ago, coinciding with a mass extinction that eliminated half of the major groups of life and opened the evolutionary 1 door for what was then a relatively small group of animals: dinosaurs.

B. The cause and timing of the ascent of dinosaurs has have been much debated. It has been
impossible to draw any specific conclusions because the transition between the origin of dinosaurs and their ascent to dominance has not been sampled in detail. "There is a geochemical signature of something important happening, probably an asteroid impact, just before the time in which familiar dinosaur-dominated communities appear," said Dr. Paul E. Olsen, a professor of earth and environmental sciences at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, N.Y.

C. Olsen and his colleagues studied vertebrate fossils from 80 sites in four different ancient rift
basins, part of a chain of rifts that formed as North America began to split apart from the supercontinent that existed 230-190 million years ago. In the layer of rock corresponding to the extinction, the scientists found elevated amounts of the rare element iridium. A precious metal belonging to the platinum group of elements, iridium is more abundant in meteorites than in rocks.

D. On Earth, a similar spike of iridium in 65 million-year-old rocks gave rise in the 1970s to the
theory that a meteor caused the demise of the dinosaurs. That theory remained controversial for years until it was corroborated by other evidence and the impact site was found off the Yucatan Peninsula. Scientists will need to examine the new iridium anomaly similarly. The levels are only about one-tenth as high as those found at the later extinction. That could mean that the meteor was smaller or contained less iridium or that a meteor was not involved—iridium can also come from the Earth's interior, belched out by volcanic eruptions. Dr. Michael J. Benton, a professor of vertebrate paleontology at the University of Bristol in England, described the data as "the first reasonably convincing evidence of an iridium spike".

E. The scientists found more evidence of rapid extinction in a database of 10,000 fossilized footprints
in former lake basins from Virginia to Nova Scotia. Although individual species cannot usually be identified solely from their footprints — the tracks of a house cat, for example, resemble those of a baby tiger —footprints are much more plentiful than fossil bones and can provide a more complete picture of the types of animals walking around. "It makes it very easy for us to tell the very obvious signals of massive fauna change," Dr. Olsen said. Because the sediment piles up quickly in lake basins, the researchers were able to assign a date to each footprint, based on the layer of rock where it was found. They determined that the mix of animals walking across what is now the East Coast of North America changed suddenly about 200 million years ago.

F. The tracks of several major reptile groups continue almost up to the layer of rock marking the end
of the Triassic geologic period 202 million years ago, and then vanish in younger layers from the Jurassic period. "I think the footprint methodology is very novel and very exciting," said Dr. Peter D. Ward, a professor of geology at the University of Washington. He called the data "very required more research. Last year, researchers led by Dr. Ward reported that the types of carbon in rock changed abruptly at this time, indicating a sudden dying off of plants over less than 50,000 years. The footprint research reinforces the hypothesis that the extinction was sudden.

G. Several groups of dinosaurs survived that extinction, and the footprints show that new groups
emerged soon afterward. Before the extinction, about one-fifth of the footprints were left by dinosaurs; after the extinction, more than half were from dinosaurs. The changes, the researchers said, occurred within 30,000 years geological blink of an eye. The scientists postulate that the asteroid or comet impact and the resulting death of Triassic competitors allowed a few groups of carnivorous dinosaurs to evolve in size very quickly and dominate the top of the terrestrial food chain globally.

H. Among the creatures that disappeared in the extinction were the dominant predators at the time:
15-foot long rauisuchians with great knife-like teeth and phytosaurs that resembled large crocodiles.
Dinosaurs first evolved about 230 million years ago, but they were small, competing in a crowded ecological niche. Before the extinction 200 million years ago. the largest of the meat-eating dinosaurs were about the see of large dogs. Not terribly impressive." Dr. Olsen said. The dinosaurs quickly grew. The toe-to-heel length of the foot of a meat eater from the Jurassic period was on average 20 percent longer than its Triassic ancestor. Larger feet can carry bigger bodies; the scientists infer the dinosaurs doubled in weight, eventually evolving into fearsome velociraptors, Tyrannosaurus rex and other large carnivorous dinosaurs.

I. The spurt in evolution is similar to the rise of mammals after the extinction of dinosaurs. Mammals,
no larger than small dogs during the age of dinosaurs, diversified into tigers, elephants, whales and people after the reptilian competition died away. The success of the dinosaurs after the Triassic-Jurassic
extinction may be why they did not survive the second extinction. "Small animals always do better in
catastrophic situations. Dr. Olsen said, because they can survive on smaller amounts of food." He also
pointed out that scientists now believe the small dinosaurs did survive. "We just call them birds," he said.

Questions 1-7
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?
True if the statement agrees with the information
False if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN If there is no information on this

Q1. The rare element, iridium, was presented both on earth and in meteorites.
Q2. The meteor impact theory had been suspected before the discovery of the impact site and other
        supporting evidence.
Q3. Footprints are of little value in providing information, in comparison to fossil bones, because                    individual species cannot be identified with footprints.
Q4. According to scientists, the transition to a dinosaur-dominated era took place very quickly by                   geological time scales.
Q5. The creatures that disappeared in the extinction were the dominantly the 15-foot-long rauisuchians          and large crocodiles.
Q6. Tyrannosaurus rex was larger in body size than other carnivorous dinosaurs.
Q7. Large dinosaurs died out but small ones evolved and competed with birds and mammals.

TEST 4 - The Dinosaurs Footprints and Extinction.


A. EVERYBODY knows that the dinosaurs were killed by an asteroid. Something big hit the earth 65
million years ago and, when the dust had fallen, so had the great reptiles. There is thus a nice, if ironic,
symmetry in the idea that a similar impact brought about the dinosaurs' rise. That is the thesis proposed by Paul Olsen, of Columbia University, and his colleagues in this week's Science.

B. Dinosaurs first appear in the fossil record 230m years ago, dining the Triassic period. But they
were mostly small, and they shared the earth with lots of other sorts of reptile. It was in the subsequent
Jurassic, which began 202 million years ago, that they overran the planet and turned into the monsters
depicted in the book and movie “Jurassic Park”. (Actually, though, the dinosaurs that appeared on screen were from the still more recent Cretaceous period.) Dr Olsen and his colleagues are not the first to suggest that the dinosaurs inherited the earth as the result of an asteroid strike. But they are the first to show that the takeover did, indeed, happen in a geological eyeblink.

C. Dinosaur skeletons are rare. Dinosaur footprints are, however, surprisingly abundant. And the
sizes of the prints are as good an indication of the sizes of the beasts as are the skeletons themselves. Dr
Olsen and his colleagues therefore concentrated on prints, not bones.

D. The prints in question were made in eastern North America, a part of the world then full of rift
valleys similar to those in East Africa today. Like the modem African rift valleys, the Triassic /Jurassic
American ones contained lakes, and these lakes grew and shrank at regular intervals because of climatic
changes caused by periodic shifts in the earth's orbit. (A similar phenomenon is responsible for modem ice ages.) That regularity, combined with reversals in the earth's magnetic field, which are detectable in the tiny fields of certain magnetic minerals, means that rocks from this place and period can be dated to within a few thousand years. As a bonus, squish lake-edge sediments are just the things for recording the tracks of passing animals. By dividing the labour between themselves, the ten authors of the paper were able to study such tracks at 80 sites.

E. The researchers looked at 18 so-called ichnotaxa. These are recognizable types of footprint that
cannot be matched precisely with the species of animal that left them. But they can be matched with a
general sort of animal, and thus act as an indicator of the fate of that group, even when there are no bones to tell the story. Five of the ichnotaxa disappear before the end of the Triassic, and four march confidently across the boundary into the Jurassic. Six, however, vanish at the boundary, or only just splutter across it; and three appear from nowhere, almost as soon as the Jurassic begins.

F. That boundary itself is suggestive. The first geological indication of the impact that killed the
dinosaurs was an unusually high level of iridium in rocks at the end of the Cretaceous, when the beasts
disappear from the fossil record. Iridium is normally rare at the earth's surface, but it is more abundant in meteorites. When people began to believe the impact theory, they started looking for other Cretaceous-end anomalies. One that turned up was a surprising abundance of fern spores in rocks just above the boundary layer—a phenomenon known as a “fern spike”

G. That matched the theory nicely. Many modem ferns are opportunists. They cannot compete
against plants with leaves, but if a piece of land is cleared by, say, a volcanic emption, they are often the first things to set up shop there. An asteroid strike would have scoured much of the earth of its vegetable cover, and provided a paradise for ferns. A fem spike in the rocks is thus a good indication that southing terrible has happened.

H. Both an iridium anomaly and a fem spike appear in rocks at the end of the Triassic, too. That
accounts for the disappearing ichnotaxa: the creatures that made them did not survive the holocaust. The
surprise is how rapidly the new ichnotaxa appear.

I. Dr Olsen and his colleagues suggest that the explanation for this rapid increase in size may be a
phenomenon called ecological release. This is seen today when reptiles (which, in modem times, tend to be small creatures) reach islands where they face no competitors. The most spectacular example is on the Indonesian island of Komodo, where local lizards have grown so large that they are often referred to as dragons. The dinosaurs, in other words, could flourish only when the competition had been knocked out.

J. That leaves the question of where the impact happened. No large hole in the earth's crust seems to
be 202m years old. It may, of course, have been overlooked. Old craters are eroded and buried, and not
always easy to find. Alternatively, it may have vanished. Although continental crust is more or less
permanent, the ocean floor is constantly recycled by the tectonic processes that bring about continental drift. There is no ocean floor left that is more than 200m years old, so a crater that formed in the ocean would have been swallowed up by now.

K. There is a third possibility, however. This is that the crater is known, but has been misdated. The
Manicouagan “structure”, a crater in Quebec, is thought to be 214m years old. It is huge—some 100 km
across—and seems to be the largest of between three and five craters that formed within a few hours of each other as the lumps of a disintegrated comet hit the earth one by one.

Questions 1-6
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?
True if the statement agrees with the information
False if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN If there is no information on this.

Q1. Dr Paul Olsen and his colleagues believe that asteroid knock may also lead to dinosaurs’ boom.
Q2. Books and movie like Jurassic Park often exaggerate the size of the dinosaurs.
Q3. Dinosaur footprints are more adequate than dinosaur skeletons.
Q4. The prints were chosen by Dr Olsen to study because they are more detectable than earth magnetic         field to track a date of geological precise within thousands years.
Q5. Ichnotaxa showed that footprints of dinosaurs offer exact information of the trace left by an                     individual species.
Q6. We can find more Iridium in the earth’s surface than in meteorites.

TEST 5 - Finches on Islands

A. Today, the quest continues. On Daphne Major —one of the most desolate of the Galápagos
Islands, an uninhabited volcanic cone where cacti and shrubs seldom grow higher than a researcher's knee Peter and Rosemary Grant have spent more than three decades watching Darwin's finches respond to the challenges of storms, drought and competition for food. Biologists at Princeton University, the Grants know and recognize many of the individual birds on the island and can trace the birds’ lineages back through time. They have witnessed Darwin's principle in action again and again, over many generations of finches.

B. The Grants' most dramatic insights have come from watching the evolving bill of the medium
ground finch. The plumage of this sparrow-sized bird ranges from dull brown to jet black. At first glance, it may not seem particularly striking, but among scientists who study evolutionary biology, the medium ground finch is a superstar. Its bill is a middling example in the array of shapes and sizes found among Galapagos finches: heftier than that of the small ground finch, which specializes in eating small, soft seeds, but petite compared to that of the large ground finch, an expert at cracking and devouring big, hard seeds.

C. When the Grants began their study in the 1970s, only two species of finch lived on Daphne Major,
the medium ground finch and the cactus finch. The island is so small that the researchers were able to count and catalogue every bird. When a severe drought hit in 1977, the birds soon devoured the last of the small, easily eaten seeds. Smaller members of the medium ground finch population, lacking the bill strength to crack large seeds, died out.

D. Bill and body size are inherited traits, and the next generation had a high proportion of big-billed
Individuals. The Grants had documented natural selection at work the same process that over many
millennia, directed the evolution of the Galápagos' 14 unique finch species, all descended from a common ancestor that readied the islands a few million years ago.

E. Eight years later, heavy rains brought by an El Nino transformed the normally meager vegetation
on Daphne Ma ị or. vines and other plants that in most years struggle for survival suddenly flourished,
choking out the plants that provide large seeds to the finches. Small seeds came to dominate the food supply, and big birds with big bills died out at a higher rate than smaller ones. 'Natural selection is observable/ Rosemary Grant says. 'It happen when the environment changes. When local conditions reverse themselves, so does the direction of adaptation.'

F. Recently, die Grants witnessed another form of natural selection acting on the medium ground
finch: competition from bigger, stronger cousins. In 1982, a third finch, the large ground finch, came to live on Daphne Major. The stout bills of these birds resemble the business end of a crescent wrench. Their arrival was the first such colonization recorded on the Galapagos in nearly a century of scientific observation. 'We realized,' Peter Grant says, 'we had a very unusual and potentially important event to follow. For 20 years, the large ground finch coexisted with the medium ground finch, which shared five supply of large seeds with its bigger-billed relative. Then, in 2002 and 2003, another drought struck. None of the birds nested that year, and many died out. Medium ground finches with large bills, crowded out of feeding areas by the more powerful large ground finches, were hit particularly hard.

G. When wetter weather returned in 2004, and the finches nested again, the new generation of the
medium ground finch was dominated by smaller birds with smaller bills, able to survive on smaller seeds. This situation, says Peter Grant, marked the first time that biologists have been able to follow the complete process of an evolutionary change due to competition between, species and the strongest response to natural selection that he had seen in 33 years of tracking Galapagos finches.

H. On the inhabited island of Santa Cruz, just south of Daphne Major, Andrew Hendry of McGill
University and Jeffrey Podos of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst have discovered a new, manmade twist in finch evolution. Their study focused on birds living near the Academy Bay research
station, on the fringe of the town of Puerto Ayora. The human population of the area has been growing
fast—from 900 people in 1974 to 9,582 In 2001. Today Puerto Ayorn is full of hotels and mai tai bars,'
Hendry says. 'People have taken tills extremely arid place and tried to turn it into a Caribbean resort.

I. Academy Bay records dating back to the early 1960s show that medium ground finches captured
there had either small or large bills. Very few of the birds had mid-size bills. The finches appeared to be in the early stages of a new adaptive radiation: If the trend continued, the medium ground finch on Santa Cruz could split into two distinct subspecies, specializing in different types of seeds. But in the late 1960s and early 70s, medium ground finches with medium-sized bills began to thrive at Academy Bay along with small and large billed birds. The booming human population had introduced new food sources, including exotic plants and bird feeding stations stocked with rice. Billsize, once critical to the fishes' survival, no longer made any difference. 'Now an intermediate bill can do fine’ Hendry says.

J. At a control site distant from Puerto Ayora, and relatively untouched by humane, the medium
ground finch population remains split between large- and small-billed birds. On undisturbed parts of Santa Cruz, there Is no ecological niche for a middling medium ground finch, and the birds continue to diversify. In town, though there are still many finches, once-distinct populations are merging.

K. The finches of Santa Cruz demonstrate a subtle process in which human meddling can stop
evolution In Its tracks, outing the formation of new species. In a time when global biodiversity continues Its downhill slide, Darwin's finches have yet another unexpected lesson to teach. 'If we hope to regain some of the diversity that's already been lost/ Hendry says, 'we need to protect not just existing creatures, but also the processes that drive the origin of new species.

Questions 1-5
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?
True if the statement agrees with the information
False if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN If there is no information on this.

Q1. Grants’ discovery has questioned Darwin’s theory.
Q2. The cactus finches are less affected by food than the medium ground finch.
Q3. In 2002 and 2003, all the birds were affected by the drought.
Q4. The discovery of Andrew Hendry and Jeffrey Podos was the same as that of the previous studies.
Q5. It is shown that the revolution in finches on Santa Cruz is likely a response to human intervention.

TEST 6 - Koalas

A. Koalas are just too nice for their own good. And except for the occasional baby taken by birds of
prey, koalas have no natural enemies. In an ideal world, the life of an arboreal couch potato would be
perfectly safe and acceptable.

B. Just two hundred years ago, koalas flourished across Australia. Now they seem to be in decline,
but exact numbers are not available as the species would not seem to be 'under threat'. Their problem,
however, has been man, more specifically, the white man. Koala and aborigine had co-existed peacefully for centuries.

C. Today koalas are found only in scattered pockets of southeast Australia, where they seem to be at
risk on several fronts. The koala's only food source, the eucalyptus tree has declined. In the past 200 years, a third of Australia's eucalyptus forests have disappeared. Koalas have been killed by parasites, chlamydia epidemics and a tumour-causing retro-virus. And every year 11000 are killed by cars, ironically most of them in wildlife sanctuaries, and thousands are killed by poachers. Some are also taken illegally as pets. The animals usually soon die, but they are easily replaced.

D. Bush fires pose another threat. The horrific ones that raged in New South Wales recently killed
between 100 and 1000 koalas. Many that were taken into sanctuaries and shelters were found to have burnt their paws on the glowing embers. But zoologists say that the species should recover. The koalas will be aided by the eucalyptus, which grows quickly and is already burgeoning forth after the fires. So the main problem to their survival is their slow reproductive rate - they produce only one baby a year over a reproductive lifespan of about nine years.

E. The latest problem for the species is perhaps more insidious. With plush, grey fur, dark amber eyes
and button nose, koalas are cuddliness incarnate. Australian zoos and wildlife parks have taken advantage of their uncomplaining attitudes, and charge visitors to be photographed hugging the furry bundles. But people may not realise how cruel this is, but because of the koala's delicate disposition, constant handling can push an already precariously balanced physiology over the edge.

F. Koalas only eat the foliage of certain species of eucalyptus trees, between 600 and 1250 grams a
day. The tough leaves are packed with cellulose, tannins, aromatic oils and precursors of toxic cyanides. To handle this cocktail, koalas have a specialised digestive system. Cellulose Digesting bacteria in the break down fibre, while a specially adapted gut and liver process the toxins. To digest their food properly, koalas must sit still for 21 hours every day.

G. Koalas are the epitome of innocence and inoffensiveness. Although they are capable of ripping
open a man's arm with their needle-sharp claws, or giving a nasty nip, they simply wouldn't. If you upset a koala, it may blink or swallow, or hiccup. But attack? No way! Koalas are just not aggressive. They use their claws to grip the hard smooth bark of eucalyptus trees.

H. They are also very sensitive, and the slightest upset can prevent them from breeding, cause them to
go off their food, and succumb to gut infections. Koalas are stoic creatures and put on a brave face until they are at death's door. One day they may appear healthy, the next they could be dead. Captive koalas have to be weighed daily to check that they are feeding properly. A sudden loss of weight is usually the only warning keepers have that their charge is ill. Only two keepers plus a vet were allowed to handle London Zoo's koalas, as these creatures are only comfortable with people they know. A request for the koala to be taken tomeet the Queen was refused because of the distress this would have caused the marsupial. Sadly, London’s Zoo no longer has a koala. Two years ago the female koala died of a cancer caused by a retrovirus. When they come into heat, female koalas become more active, and start losing weight, but after about sixteen days, heat ends and the weight piles back on. London's koala did not. Surgery revealed hundreds of pea-sized tumours. Almost every zoo in Australia has koalas - the marsupial has become the Animal Ambassador of the nation, but nowhere outside Australia would handling by the public be allowed. Koala cuddling screams in the face of every rule of good care. First, some zoos allow koalas to be passed from stranger to stranger, many children who love to squeeze. Secondly, most people have no idea of how to handle the animals; they like to cling on to their handler, all in their own good time and use his or her arm as a tree. For such reasons, the Association of Fauna and Marine parks, an Australian conservation society is campaigning to ban koala cuddling. Policy on koala handling is determined by state government authorities. "And the largest of the numbers in the Australian Nature Conservation Agency, with the aim of instituting national guidelines.
Following a wave of publicity, some zoos and wildlife parks have stopped turning their koalas into photo.

Questions 1-7
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?
True if the statement agrees with the information
False if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN If there is no information on this

Q1. new coming human settlers caused danger to koalas.
Q2. Koalas can still be seen in most of the places in Australia.
Q3. it takes decade for the eucalyptus trees to recover after the fire.
Q4. Koalas will fight each other when food becomes scarce.
Q5. It is not easy to notice that koalas are ill.
Q6. Koalas are easily infected with human contagious disease via cuddling
Q7. Koalas like to hold a person's arm when they are embraced.

TEST 7 - THE ORIGIN OF WRITING

Writing was first invented by the Sumerians in ancient Mesopotamia before 3,000 BC. It was also
independently invented in Meso-America before 600 BC and probably independently invented in China
before 1,300 BC. It may have been independently invented in Egypt around 3,000 BC although given the geographical proximity between Egypt and Mesopotamia the Egyptians may have learnt writing from the Sumerians.

        There are three basic types of writing systems. The written signs used by the writing system could
represent either a whole word, a syllable or an individual sound. Where the written sign represents a word the system is known as logographic as it uses logograms which are written signs that represent a word. The earliest writing systems such as the Sumerian cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphics and Mayan glyphs are predominantly logo graphics as are modem Chinese and Japanese writing systems. Where the written sign represents a syllable the writing system is known as syllabic. Syllabic writing systems were more common in the ancient world than they are today. The Linear A and B writing systems of Minoan Crete and Mycenaean Greece are syllabic. The most common writing systems today are alphabetical. These involve the written sign (a letter) representing a single sound (known as a phoneme). The earliest known alphabetical systems were developed by speakers of semitic languages around 1700 BC in the area of modem day Israel and Palestine. All written languages will predominately use one or other of the above systems. They may however partly use the other systems. No written language is purely alphabetic, syllabic or logographic but may use elements from any or all systems.

    Such fully developed writing only emerged after development from simpler systems. Talley sticks
with notches on them to represent a number of sheep or to record a debt have been used in the past. Knotted strings have been used as a form of record keeping particularly in the area around the Pacific rim. They reached their greatest development with the Inca quipus where they were used to record payment of tribute and to record commercial transactions. A specially trained group of quipu makers and readers managed the whole system. The use of pictures for the purpose of communication was used by native Americans and by the Ashanti and Ewe people in Africa. Pictures can show qualities and characteristics which can not be shown by tally sticks and knot records. They do not however amount to writing as they do not bear a conventional relationship to language.

     An alternative idea was that a system by which tokens, which represented objects like sheep, were
placed in containers and the containers were marked on the outside indicating the number and type of tokens within the container gave rise to writing in Mesopotamia. The marks on the outside of the container were a direct symbolic representation of the tokens inside the container and an indirect symbolic representation of the object the token represented. The marks on the outside of the containers were graphically identical to some of the earliest pictograms used in Sumerian cuneiform, the world’s first written language. However, cuneiform has approximately 1,500 signs and the marks on the outside of the containers can only explain the origins of a few of those signs.

        The first written language was the Sumerian cuneiform. Writing mainly consisted of records of
numbers of sheep, goats and cattle and quantites of grain. Eventually clay tablets were used as a writing
surface and were marked with a reed stylus to produce the writing. Thousands of such clay tablets have been found in the Sumerian city of Uruk. The earliest Sumerian writing consists of pictures of the objects mentioned such as sheep or cattle. Eventually the pictures became more abstract and were to consist of straight lines that looked like wedges.

     The earliest cuneiform was an accounting system consisting of pictograms representing commodities
such as sheep and a number. The clay tablets found might for example simply state “ten sheep”. Such
writing obviously has its limitations and would not be regarded as a complete writing system. A complete writing system only developed with the process of phonctization. This occurs when the symbol ceases to represent an object and begins to represent a spoken sound, which in early cuneiform would be a word. This process was assisted when the symbols which initally looked very like the object they represented gradually became more abstract and less clearly related to an object. However, while the symbol became more closely connected to words, it was words dealing with objects, such as sheep, bird or pot. It was still not possible to write more abstract ideas such as father, running, speech or foreigner.
    
    The solution to this problem was known as the rebus principle. Words with the same or similar
pronunciation to an abstract word could be used to represent the abstract word. The sign for eye could be used to represent the word “I”. The sign for deer could represent the word “dear”. Which word is referred to by the picture is decided by an additional sign. Pictographs which originally represented a word began to represent the sound of the word.
    
    The rebus principle is used to represent abstract words in all word writing systems in Sumer, Egypt,
China and in the Aztec and Mayan writing in central America. The Rebus principle lead to cuneiform
becoming a form of logo-syllabic writing consisting of both logograms and syllabic writing. The effect of the change from logographic to logo-syllabic writing was substantial. Logographic writing cannot produce normal prose and is resticted to nouns, numbers, names and adjectives. The vast majority of early Sumerian writing consisted of bureaucratic records of products received or products distributed. Only when syllabic writing was introduced into cuneiform did it become possible to write prose such as myths and royal propaganda.

    The next major development in writing in the old world was the development of the alphabet. The
alphabet was developed out of Egyptian hieroglyphs which contained 24 signs for 24 Egyptian consonants. About 1700 BC Semites who knew Egyptian hieroglyphs began making certain changes in their writing system. They put the letters in a particular sequence and gave them simple names to assist learning and ease of memory. They also dropped the logograms and other signs used in hieroglyphs and just kept the Egyptian consonants and restricted the signs to those for individual consonants. Finally, they introduced vowels into their alphabet. Alphabets were soon to spread over most of the world as they provide both flexibility and simplicity for a writing system.

Questions 1-7
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?
True if the statement agrees with the information
False if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN If there is no information on this.

Q1. There is no language that adopts elements from only one writing system.
Q2. Inca quipus used talley sticks to track payments and commercial transactions.
Q3. The marks on the outside of the containers originated from pictograms used in Sumerian cuneiform.
Q4. The first written language was created to document the quantities and types of livestock and food.
Q5. Cuneiform could not express abstract concepts at all.
Q6. Affected by the rebus principle, cuneiform combined the elements of both logograms and syllabic
        writing.
Q7. Most countries adopt alphabetical writing systems due to their flexibility and simplicity.

TEST 8 - Bondi Beach

A. Bondi Beach, Australia’s most famous beach, is located in the suburb of Bondi, in the Local
Government Area of Waverley, seven kilometers from the centre of Sydney. "Bondi" or "Boondi" is an
Aboriginal word meaning water breaking over rocks or the sound of breaking waves. The Australian
Museum records that Bondi means place where a flight of nullas took place. There are Aboriginal Rock
carvings on the northern end of the beach at Ben Buckler and south of Bondi Beach near McKenzies Beach on die coastal walk.

B. The indigenous people of the area at the time of European settlement have generally been
welcomed to as the Sydney people or the Eora (Eora means "the people"). One theory describes the Eora as a sub-group of the Darug language group which occupied the Cumberland Plain west to the Blue Mountains. However, another theory suggests that they were a distinct language group of then own. There is no clear evidence for the name or names of the particular band(s) of the Eora that roamed what is now the Waverley area, A number of place names within Waverley, most famously Bondi, have been based on words derived from Aboriginal languages of the Sydney region.

C. From the mid-1800s Bondi Beach was a favourite location for family outings and picnics. The
beginnings of the suburb go back to 1809, when the early road builder, William Roberts, received from
Governor Bligh a grant of 81 hectares of what is now most of the business and residential area of Bondi
Beach. In 1851, Edward Smith Hall and Francis O'Brien purchased 200 acres of the Bondi area that
embraced almost the whole frontage of Bondi Beach, and it was named the "The Bondi Estate." Between 1855 and 1877 O'Brien purchased Hall's share of the land, renamed the land the "O'Brien Estate," and made the beach and the surrounding land available to the public as a picnic ground and amusement resort. As the beach became increasingly popular, O'Brien threatened to stop public beach access. However, die Municipal Council believed that the Government needed to intervene to make the beach a public reserve.

D. During the 1900s beach became associated with health, leisure and democracy - a playground
everyone could enjoy equally. Bondi Beach was a working class suburb throughout most of the twentieth century with migrant people from New Zealand comprising the majority of the local population. The first tramway reached the beach in 1884. Following this, tram became the first public transportation in Bondi- As an alternative, this action changed die rule that only rich people can enjoy the beach- By the 1930s Bondi was drawing not only local visitors but also people from elsewhere in Australia and overseas. Advertising at the time referred to Bondi Beach as the "Playground of the Pacific".

E. There is a growing trend that people prefer having relax near seaside instead of living unhealthily
in cities. The increasing popularity of sea bathing during the late 1800s and early 1900s raised concerns
about public safety and how to prevent people from drowning. In response, the world's first formally
documented surf lifesaving club, the Bondi Surf Bathers' life Saving Club, was formed in 1907. This was powerfully reinforced by the dramatic events of "Black Sunday" at Bondi in 1938. Some 35,000 people were on the beach and a large group of life savers were about to start a surf race when three freak waves hit the beach, sweeping hundreds of people out to sea. Lifesavers rescued 300 people. The largest mass rescue in the history of surf bathing, it confirmed the place of the life saver ỉ n the national imagination.

F. Bondi Beach Is the end point of the City to Surf Fun Run which is held each year in August
Australian surf carnivals further instilled this image. A Royal Surf Carnival was held at Bondi Beach for the Queen Elizabeth n during her first visited in Australia, in 1954. Since 1867, there have been over fifty visits by a member of the British Royal Family to Australia. In addition to many activities, the Bondi Beach Markets is open every Sunday. Many wealthy people spend Christmas Day at the beach. However, the shortage of houses occurs when lots of people crushed to seaside. Manly is the seashore town which solved this problem. However, people still choose Bondi as the satisfied destination rather than Manly.

G. Bondi Beach has a commercial area along Campbell Parade and adjacent side streets, featuring
many popular cafes, restaurants, and hotels, with views of the contemporary beach. It is depicted as wholly modem and European. In the last decade, Bondi Beaches' unique position has Been a dramatic rise in svelte houses and apartments to take advantage of the views and scent of the sea. The valley naming down to the beach is famous world over for its view of distinctive red tiled roofs. Those architectures are deeply influenced by British coastal town.

H. Bondi Beach hosted the beach volleyball competition at the 2000 Summer Olympics. A temporary
10,000-seat stadium, a much smaller stadium, 2 warmup courts, and 3 training courts were set up to host the tournament. The Bondi Beach Volleyball Stadium was constructed for it and stood for just six weeks. Campaigners oppose both the social and environmental consequences of the development. The stadium will divide the beach in two and seriously restrict public access for swimming, walking, and other forms of outdoor recreation. People protest for their human rights of having a pure seaside and argue for health life in Bondi.

I. "They're prepared to risk lives and risk the Bondi beach environment for the sake of eight days of
volleyball", said Stephen Uniacke, a construction lawyer involved in the campaign. Other environmental concerns include the possibility that soil dredged up from below the sand will acidify when brought to the surface.

Questions 1-5
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?
True if the statement agrees with the information
False if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN If there is no information on this.

Q1. The name of the Bondi beach is first called by the British settlers.
Q2. The aboriginal culture in Australia is different when compared with European culture.
Q3. Bondi beach area holds many contemporary hotels
Q4. The seaside town in Bondi is affected by British culture for its characteristic red color.
Q5. Living near Bondi seashore is not beneficial for health.

TEST 9 - Tea and Industrial Revolution

A. Alan Macfarlane thinks he could rewrite history. The professor of anthropological science at
King's College, Cambridge has, like other historians, spent decades trying to understand the enigma of the Industrial Revolution. Why did this particular important event - the worldchanging birth of industry - happen in Britain? And why did it happen at the end of the 18th century?

B. Macfarlane compares the question to a puzzle. He claims that there were about 20 different factors
and all of them needed to be present before the revolution could happen. The chief conditions are to be
found in history textbooks. For industry to 'take off', there needed to be the technology and power to drive factories, large urban populations to provide cheap labour easy transport to move goods around, an affluent middle-class willing to buy mass-produced objects, a market-driven economy, and a political system that allowed this to happen. While this was the case for England, other nations, such as Japan, Holland and France also met some of these criteria. All these factors must have been necessary but not sufficient to cause the revolution. Holland had everything except coal, while China also had many of these factors.

C. Most historians, however, are convinced that one or two missing factors are needed to solve the
puzzle. The missing factors, he proposes, are to be found in every kitchen cupboard. Tea and beer, two of the nation's favorite drinks, drove the revolution. Tannin, the active ingredient in tea, and hops, used in making beer, both contain antiseptic properties. This -plus the fact that both are made with boiled water helped prevent epidemics of waterborne diseases, such as dysentery, in densely populated urban areas. The theory initially sounds eccentric but his explanation of the detective work that went into his deduction and the fact his case has been strengthened by a favorable appraisal of his research by Roy Porter (distinguished medical historian) the skepticism gives way to wary admiration.
D. Historians had noticed one interesting factor around the mid-18th century that required
explanation. Between about 165D and 1740, the population was static. But then there was a burst in
population. The infant mortality rate halved in the space of 20 years, and this happened in both rural areas and cities, and across all classes. Four possible causes have been suggested. There could have been a sudden change in the viruses and bacteria present at that time, but this is unlikely. Was there a revolution in medical science? But this was a century before Lister introduced antiseptic surgery. Was there a change in environmental conditions? There were improvements in agriculture that wiped out malaria, but these were small gains. Sanitation did not become widespread until the 19th century. The only option left was food. But the height and weight statistics show a decline. So the food got worse. Efforts to explain this sudden reduction in child deaths appeared to draw a blank.

E. This population burst seemed to happen at just the right time to provide labor for the Industrial
Revolution. But why? When the Industrial Revolution started, it was economically efficient to have people crowded together forming towns and cities. But with crowded living conditions comes disease, particularly from human waste. Some research in the historical records revealed that there was a change in the incidence of waterborne disease at that time, the English were protected by the strong antibacterial agent in hops, which were added to make beer last. But in the late 17th century a tax was introduced on malt. The poor turned to water and gin, and in the 1720s the mortality rate began to rise again.

F. Macfarlane looked to Japan, which was also developing large cities about the same time, and also
had no sanitation. Waterborne diseases in the Japanese population were far fewer than those in Britain.
Could it be the prevalence of tea in their culture? That was when Macfarlane thought about the role of tea in Britain. The history of tea in Britain provided an extraordinary coincidence of dates. Tea was relatively expensive until Britain started direct hade with China in the early 18th century. By the 1740s, about the time that infant mortality was falling, the drink was common. Macfarlane guesses that the fact that water had to be boiled, together with the stomach-purifying properties of tea so eloquently described in Buddhist texts, meant that the breast milk provided by mothers was healthier than it had ever been. No other European nation drank tea so often as the British, which, by Macfarlane's logic, pushed the other nations out of the race for the Industrial Revolution.

G. But, if tea is a factor in the puzzle, why didn't this cause an industrial revolution in Japan?
Macfarlane notes that in the 17th century, Japan had large cities, high literacy rates and even a futures
market. However, Japan decided against a work-based revolution, by giving up labor-saving devices even animals, to avoid putting people out of work. Astonishingly, the nation that we now think of as one of the most technologically advanced, entered the 19th century having almost abandoned the wheel. While Britain was undergoing the Industrial Revolution, Macfarlane notes wryly, Japan was undergoing an industrious one.

Questions 1-6
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?
True if the statement agrees with the information
False if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN If there is no information on this.

Q1. The industrialization did not happen in China because of its inefficient railway transportation.
Q2. Tea and beer contributed to protect people from waterborne disease.
Q3. Roy Porter disagreed with the proposed theory about the missing factors
Q4. The reason of lower child deaths is fully explained by food.
Q5. The British made beer by themselves.
Q6. Tax on malt indirectly affected the increase of population in late 17th century.

TEST 10 - Dyslexia

People who left school unable to read were often dismissed as being lazy. Some probably were but
many were simply unable to learn because they were dyslexic. Four key findings now suggest that dyslexia is an organic problem and not a motivational one. Firstly, the brain anatomy of dyslexics differs slightly from those of non-dyslexics. Secondly their brain functions as measured by electrical activity are dissimilar. Thirdly they have behavioral differences apart from an inability to read. Finally, there is more and more evidence to suggest that their condition is linked to particular genes.

        The anatomical differences between the brains of dyslexics and non- dyslexics were first noticed in
1979 by Albert Galaburda of Harvard Medical School. He found two sorts of microscopic flaws in the
language centres of dyslexic’s brains. These are called ectoplasts and microgyria.

        The language centres form part of the cerebral cortex and are situated on the left side of the brain. The cortex consists of six layers of cells. An ectopia is a collection of nerve cells that push up from the lower layers of the cortex into the outer ones, where they are not normally found. A microgyrus is a small fold in the cortex which results in a reduction in the normal number of layers from six to four.

        The formation of microgyria causes confusion in the neutral connections between the language
centres and other parts of the brain. Microgyria have been induced in rat embryos and as adults these rats are found to have a reduced ability in distinguishing between two sounds played in quick succession. This inability to distinguish between two sounds in quick succession is also a symptom of dyslexia in people. 
        Dyslexia not only affects language centres but also causes brain abnormalities in visual pathways as well. One such abnormality is the reduction in the cell size in the layers of the lateral geniculate nucleus. This is where the nerve tracts which transmit information from the eyes to the visual cortex at the back of the brain are found. This is significant as dyslexia is essentially an inability to deal with linguistic information in visual form. 

     This parallel failure of visual and auditory systems is seen elsewhere in the brain. Guinevere Eden and Thomas Zeffiro, who work at Georgetown University in Washington D. C. have found an example of it using a brain scanning technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging.(MRI)

       A fundamental characteristic of dyslexia is difficulty in processing written phenomes. Phenomes are
the units of sound which make up a language. By giving dyslexic people tasks such as removing phenomes from the beginning of words, while at the same time monitoring brain activity with their scanner, Dr Eden and Dr Zeffiro were able to stimulate both the visual and auditory pathways simultaneously. Their findings demonstrated that dyslexics showed low activity in a part of the brain called Brodmann’s area 37, another part of the brain where visual and auditory information are handled in close proximity. 
        Dr Eden and Dr Zeffiro have also compared the brain activity of dyslexic and non-dyslexic readers who were given a task not related to reading. Another symptom of dyslexia is difficulty in detecting visual motion. On this basis Dr Eden and Dr Zeffiro devised a task whereby people were asked to look at dots on a screen and identify which of them was moving and in which direction. While monitoring brain activity with the scanner, it was found that dyslexics performing this task showed significantly less brain activity in Brodmann’s area 37 than non dyslexics. As this task did not require reading skills it could be used to test children for incipient dyslexia before they reach the reading age; then they could be given special tuition. 
        To broaden their investigation, Dr Eden and Dr Zeffiro teamed up with Frank Wood and his colleagues at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina, an institution specializing in dyslexia. Dr Eden and Dr Zeffiro borrowed some of its patients and monitored them in the fMRI machine at Georgetown University. This was done both before and after the individuals had participated in an intensive programme designed to improve their reading. Non- dyslexics were also scanned and used as controls in the investigation.

        The results were significant. After the programme, the participants showed enhanced brain activity
while reading. However this activity was not on the left side of the brain but in areas on the right side,corresponding exactly to language centres in the opposite hemisphere. The reading programme had
stimulated the brains of the participants to recruit batches of nerve cells in a place not normally associated with language processing.

        The primary cause for these problems is another of Dr Wood’s interests. The abnormal brain tissue in dyslexia is developed by the fifth month of gestation, which indicates that the cause of the disorder must act before that time. This suggests that it may be genetic. Many people argue about the relative contributions of genes and the environment to human behaviour and human disease. Dyslexia is both behavioural and, to a certain degree, it is a disease. It appears to have a biological origin and genetic roots. Yet looking at it from a different angle its cause is almost purely environmental. People living in illiterate societies are hardly troubled by its other symptoms. It was the invention of writing that brought the difficulty to light, not the mutation of genes. Nature or environment? You will have to decide between the two.

Questions 1-6
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?
True if the statement agrees with the information
False if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN If there is no information on this.

Q1. Dyslexia is probably caused by motivational problems.
Q2. Dyslexia affects language as well as visual and audio processes.
Q3. In modern society dyslexia is essentially the inability to distinguish between visual forms.
Q4. It has been demonstrated that special reading programmes can teach dyslexic people to read as               well  as non- dyslexic ones.
Q5. The cause of dyslexia is partly genetic and partly environmental.
Q6. The writer of the article believes that dyslexia can most effectively be cured in illiterate societies.

ANSWER KEYS – TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN

TEST 1 - Andrea Palladio: Italian architect
Q1. NOT GIVEN
Q2. TRUE
Q3. FALSE
Q4. NOT GIVEN
Q5. FALSE
Q6. TRUE
Q7.TRUE

TEST 2 - New Agriculture in Oregon, US
Q1. FALSE
Q2. TRUE
Q3. FALSE
Q4. TRUE
Q5. NOT GIVEN

TEST 3 – Terminated Dinosaur Era
Q1. TRUE
Q2. TRUE
Q3. FALSE
Q4. TRUE
Q5. FALSE
Q6. NOT GIVEN
Q7. NOT GIVEN

TEST 4 – The Dinosaurs Footprints and
Extinction
Q1. TRUE
Q2. NOT GIVEN
Q3. TRUE
Q4. NOT GIVEN
Q5. FALSE
Q6. FALSE

TEST 5 – Finches on Islands
Q1. FALSE
Q2. NOT GIVEN
Q3. TRUE
Q4. FALSE
Q5. TRUE

TEST 6 – Koalas
Q1. TRUE
Q2. FALSE
Q3. FALSE
Q4. NOT GIVEN
Q5. TRUE
Q6. NOT GIVEN
Q7. TRUE

TEST 7 – The Origin of Writing
Q1. TRUE
Q2. FALSE
Q3. NOT GIVEN
Q4. TRUE
Q5. FALSE
Q6. TRUE
Q7. NOT GIVEN

TEST 8 – Bondi Beach
Q1. FALSE
Q2. NOT GIVEN
Q3. NOT GIVEN
Q4. TRUE
Q5. FALSE

TEST 9 – Tea and Industrial Revolution
Q1. NOT GIVEN
Q2. TRUE
Q3. FALSE
Q4. FALSE
Q5. NOT GIVEN
Q6. TRUE

TEST 10 – Dyslexia
Q1. FALSE
Q2. TRUE
Q3. FALSE
Q4. NOT GIVEN
Q5. TRUE
Q6. FALSE.

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