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| IELTS Reading Practice Test-9 With Answers |
READING
PASSAGE 1
You
should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which
are based on Reading Passage 1 below.
Rainwater Harvesting
For
two years southern Sri Lanka suffered a prolonged drought, described by locals
as “the worst in 50 years”. Some areas didn’t see a successful crop for four or
five consecutive seasons. Livestock died, water in wells dropped to dangerously
low levels, children were increasingly malnourished and school attendance has
fallen. An estimated 1.6 million people were affected.
A
Muthukandiya
is a village in Moneragala district, one of the drought-stricken areas in the
“dry zone” of southern Sri Lanka, where half the country’s
population of 18 million lives. Rainfall in the area varies greatly from year
to year, often bringing extreme dry spells in between monsoons. But
this drought was much worse than usual. Despite some rain in November, only
half of Moneragala’s 1,400 tube wells were in working order by March. The
drought devastated supplies of rice and freshwater fish, the staple diet of
inland villages. Many local industries closed down and villagers headed for the
towns in search of work.
B
The
villagers of muthukandiya arrived in the 1970s as part of a government
resettlement scheme. Each family was given six acres of land, with no
irrigation system. Because crop production, which relies entirely on rainfall,
is insufficient to support most families, the village economy relies on men and
women working as day-labourers in nearby sugar-cane plantations. Three wells
have been dug to provide domestic water, but these run dry for much of the
year. Women and children may spend several hours each day walking up to three
miles (five kilometres) to fetch water for drinking, washing and cooking.
C
In
1998, communities in the district discussed water problems with Practical
Action South Asia. What followed was a drought mitigation initiative based on a
low-cost “rainwater harvesting” technology already used in Sri Lanka and
elsewhere in the region. It uses tanks to collect and store rain channeled
by gutters and pipes as it runs off the roofs of houses.
D
Despite
an indigenous tradition of rain-water harvesting and irrigation systems going
back to the third century BC, policy-makers in modern times have often
overlooked the value of such technologies, and it is only recently that
officials have taken much interest in household-level structures. Government
and other programmes have, however, been top-down in their conception and
application, installing tanks free of charge without providing training in the
skills needed to build and maintain them properly. Practical Action South
Asia’s project deliberately took a different approach, aiming to build up a
local skills base among builders and users of the tanks, and to create
structures and systems so that communities can manage their own rainwater
harvesting schemes.
E
The
community of Muthukandiya was involved throughout. Two meetings were held where
villagers analysed their water problems, developed a mitigation plan and
selected the rainwater harvesting technology. Two local masons received several
days’ on-the-job training in building the 5,000-litre household storage tanks:
surface tanks out of Ferro-cement and underground tanks out of
brick. Each system, including tank, pipes, gutters and filters, cost US$195 –
equivalent to a month’s income for an average village family. Just over half
the cost was provided by the community, in the form of materials and unskilled
labour. Practical Action South Asia contributed the rest, including cement,
transport and payment for the skilled labour. Households learned how to use and
maintain the tanks, and the whole community was trained to keep domestic water
supplies clean. A village rainwater harvesting society was set up to run the
project. To date, 37 families in and around Muthukandiya have storage tanks.
Evaluations show clearly that households with rainwater storage tanks have
considerably more water for domestic needs than households relying entirely on
wells and ponds. During the driest months, households with tanks may have up to
twice as much water available. Their water is much cleaner, too.
F
Nandawathie,
a widow in the village, has taken full advantage of the opportunities that
rainwater harvesting has brought her family. With a better water supply now
close at hand, she began by growing a few vegetables. The income from selling
these helped her to open a small shop on her doorstep. This increased her
earnings still further, enabling her to apply for a loan to install solar power
in her house. She is now thinking of building another tank in her garden so
that she can grow more vegetables. Nandawathie also feels safer now that she no
longer has to fetch water from the village well in the early morning or late
evening. She says that her children no longer complain so much of diarrhoea.
And her daughter Sandamalee has more time for school work.
G
In
the short term, and on a small scale, the project has clearly been a success.
The challenge lies in making such initiatives sustainable and expanding their
coverage. At a purely technical level, rainwater harvesting is evidently
sustainable. In Muthukandiya, the skills required to build and maintain storage
tanks were taught fairly easily and can be shared by the two trained masons,
who are now finding work with other development agencies in the district.
H
The
non-structural elements of the work, especially it’s financial and
organizational, present a bigger challenge. A revolving fund was set up, with
households that had already benefited agreeing to contribute a small monthly
amount to pay for maintenance, repairs and new tanks. However, it appears that
the revolving fund concept was not fully understood and it has proved difficult
to get households to contribute. Recovering costs from interventions that do
not generate income directly will always be a difficult proposition, although
this can be overcome if the process is explained more fully at the outset.
I
The
Muthkandiya initiative was planned as a demonstration project, to show that
community-based drought mitigation through rainwater harvesting was feasible.
Several other organizations have begun their own projects using the same
approach. The feasibility of introducing larger tanks is being investigated.
J
However,
a lot of effort and patience are needed to generate the interest, develop the
skills and organize the management structures needed to implement sustainable
community-based projects. It will probably be some time before rainwater harvesting
technologies can spread rapidly and spontaneously across the district’s
villages, without external support.
Questions
1-6
Answer the questions below
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the
passage for each answer.
1 What is the major way for local people make
barely support of living in Muthukandiya village?
2 Where can adult workers make extra money from
in daytime?
3 What has been dug to supply water for daily
household life?
4 In which year did the plan of a new project
to lessen the effect of drought begins?
5 Where do the gutters and pipes collect
rainwater from?
6 What helps the family obtain more water for
domestic needs than those relying on only wells and ponds?
Questions
7-13
Do
the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?
In boxes 7-13 on your answer sheet, write
YES
if the statement is true
NO
if the statement is false
NOT
GIVEN if the information is not
given in the passage
7 Most of the government’s actions and other
programmes have somewhat failed.
8 Masons were trained for the constructing
parts of the rainwater harvesting system.
9 The cost of rainwater harvesting systems was
shared by local villagers and the local government.
10 Tanks increase both the amount and quality of
the water for domestic use.
11 To send her daughter to school, a widow had
to work for a job in a rainwater harvesting scheme.
12 Households benefited began to pay part of the
maintenance or repairs.
13 Training two masons at the same time is much
more preferable to training a single one.
READING
PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26 which
are based on Reading Passage 2 below.
Mammoth kill 2
Mammoth
is any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus, proboscideans commonly equipped
with long, curved tusks and, in northern species, a covering of long hair. They
lived from the Pliocene epoch from around 5 million years ago, into the
Holocene at about 4,500 years ago and were members of the family Elephantidae,
which contains, along with mammoths, the two genera of modern elephants and
their ancestors.
A
Like
their modern relatives, mammoths were quite large. The largest known species
reached heights in the region of 4 m at the shoulder and weighs up to 8 tonnes,
while exceptionally large males may have exceeded 12 tonnes. However, most
species of mammoth were only about as large as a modern Asian elephant. Both
sexes bore tusks. A first, small set appeared at about the age of six months
and these were replaced at about 18 months by the permanent set. Growth of the
permanent set was at a rate of about 1 to 6 inches per year. Based on studies
of their close relatives, the modern elephants, mammoths probably had a
gestation period of 22 months, resulting in a single calf being born. Their
social structure was probably the same as that of African and Asian elephants,
with females living in herds headed by a matriarch, whilst bulls lived solitary
lives or formed loose groups after sexual maturity.
B
MEXICO
CITY – Although it’s hard to imagine in this age of urban sprawl and
automobiles, North America once belonged to mammoths, camels, ground sloths as
large as cows, bear-sized beavers and other formidable beasts. Some 11,000
years ago, however, these large-bodied mammals and others – about 70 species in
all – disappeared. Their demise coincided roughly with the arrival of humans in
the New World and dramatic climatic change – factors that have inspired several
theories about the die-off. Yet despite decades of scientific investigation,
the exact cause remains a mystery. Now new findings offer support to one of
these controversial hypotheses: that human hunting drove this megafaunal
menagerie to extinction. The overkill model emerged in the 1960s when it was
put forth by Paul S. Martin of the University of Arizona. Since then, critics
have charged that no evidence exists to support the idea that the first
Americans hunted to the extent necessary to cause these extinctions. But at the
annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in Mexico City last
October, paleoecologist John Alroy of the University of California at Santa
Barbara argued that, in fact, hunting-driven extinction is not only plausible,
but it was only unavoidable. He has determined, using a computer simulation,
that even a very modest amount of hunting would have wiped these animals out.
C
Assuming
an initial human population of 100 people that grew no more than 2 percent
annually, Alroy determined that if each band of, say, 50 people killed 15 to 20
large mammals a year, humans could have eliminated the animal populations
within 1,000 years. Large mammals, in particular, would have been vulnerable to
the pressure because they have longer gestation periods than smaller mammals
and they’re young require extended care.
D
Not
everyone agrees with Alroy’s assessment. For one, the results depend in part on
population-size estimates for the extinct animals – figures that are not
necessarily reliable. But a more specific criticism comes from mammalogist Ross
D. E. MacPhee of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, who
points out that the relevant archaeological record contains barely a dozen
examples of stone points embedded in mammoth bones (and none, it should be
noted, are known from other megafaunal remains) – hardly what one might expect
if hunting drove these animals to extinction. Furthermore, some of these
species had huge ranges – the giant Jefferson’s ground sloth, for example,
lived as far north as the Yukon and as far south as Mexico – which would have
made slaughtering them in numbers sufficient to cause their extinction rather
implausible, he says.
E
Macphee
agrees that humans most likely brought about these extinctions (as well as
others around the world that coincided with human arrival), but not directly.
Rather he suggests that people may have introduced hyper lethal disease,
perhaps through their dogs or hitchhiking vermin, which then spread wildly
among the immunologically naive species of the New World. As in the overkill
model, populations of large mammals would have a harder time recovering.
Repeated outbreaks of a hyper disease could thus quickly drive them to the
point of no return. So far MacPhee does not have empirical evidence for the
hyper disease hypotheses, and it won’t be easy to come by hyper lethal disease
would kill far too quickly to leave its signature on the bones themselves. But
he hopes that analyses of tissue and DNA from the last mammoths to perish will
eventually reveal murderous microbes.
F
The
third explanation for what brought on this North American extinction does not
involve human beings. Instead, its proponents blame the loss on the water. The
Pleistocene epoch witnessed considerable climatic instability, explains
palaeontologist Russell W. Graham of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
As a result, certain habitats disappeared, and species that had once formed
communities split apart. For some animals, this change brought opportunity. For
much of the megafauna, however, the increasingly homogeneous environment left
them with shrinking geographical ranges – a death sentence for large animals,
which need large ranges. Although these creatures managed to maintain viable
populations through most of the Pleistocene, the final major fluctuation – the
so-called Younger Dryas event – pushed them over the edge, Graham says. For his
part, Alroy is convinced that human hunters demolished the titans of the Ice
Age. The overkill model explains everything the disease and climate scenarios
explain, he asserts, and makes accurate predictions about which species would
eventually go extinct. “Personally, I’m a vegetarian,” he remarks, “and I find
all of this kind of gross – but believable.”
Questions
14-20
Summary
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 14-20 on your answer sheet.
The
reason why dad big size mammals become extinct 11,000 years ago is under hot
debate. The first explanation is that 14……………………….. of human-made
it happen. This so-called 15………………………. began from the 1960s
suggested by an expert, who however received criticism of lack of further
information. Another assumption promoted by MacPhee is that deadly 16……………………..
from human causes their demises. However, his hypothesis required more 17……………………..
to testify its validity. Graham proposed a third hypothesis that 18……………………..
in Pleistocene epoch drove some species disappear, reduced 19………………………
posed a dangerous signal to these giants, and 20………………………. finally
wiped them out.
Question
21-26
Use
the information in the passage to match the people (listed A-C)
with opinions or deeds below.
Write
the appropriate letters A-C in boxes 21-26 on
your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once
A John Alroy
B Ross D. E. MacPhee
C Russell W. Graham
21 Human hunting well explained which species
would finally disappear.
22 Further grounded proof needed to explain
human’s indirect impact on mammals.
23 Overhunting situation has caused die-out of
large mammals.
24 Illness rather than hunting caused extensive
extinction.
25 Doubt raised through the study of several
fossil records.
26 Climate shift is the main reason for
extinction.
READING
PASSAGE 3
You
should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40 which are
based on Reading Passage 3 below.
Language Strategy in Multinational Company
A
The
importance of language management in multinational companies has never been
greater than today. Multinationals are becoming ever more conscious of the
importance of global coordination as a source of competitive advantage and
language remains the ultimate barrier to aspirations of international
harmonization. Before attempting to consider language management strategies,
companies will have to evaluate the magnitude of the language barrier
confronting them and in doing so they will need to examine it in three
dimensions: the Language Diversity, the Language Penetration and the Language
Sophistication. Companies next need to turn their attention to how they should
best manage language. There is a range of options from which MNCs can formulate
their language strategy.
B
Lingua
Franca: The simplest
answer, though realistic only for English speaking companies, is to rely on
one’s native tongue. As recently as 1991 a survey of British exporting
companies found that over a third used English exclusively in dealings with
foreign customers. This attitude that “one language fits all” has also been
carried through into the Internet age. A survey of the web sites of top
American companies confirmed that over half made no provision for
foreign language access, and another found that less than 10% of leading
companies were able to respond adequately to emails other than in the company’s
language. Widespread though it is, however, reliance on a single language is a
strategy that is fatally flawed. It makes no allowance for the growing trend in
Linguistic Nationalism whereby buyers in Asia, South America and the Middle
East, in particular, are asserting their right to “work in the language of the
customer”. It also fails to recognize the increasing vitality of languages such
as Spanish, Arabic and Chinese that over time are likely to challenge the
dominance of English as a lingua franca. In the IT arena, it ignores the rapid
globalization of the Internet where the number of English-language e-commerce
transactions, emails and web sites, is rapidly diminishing as a percentage of
the total. Finally, the total reliance on a single language puts the English
speaker at risk in negotiations. Contracts, rules and legislation are
invariably written in the local language, and a company unable to operate in
that language is vulnerable.
C
Functional
Multilingualism: Another
improvised approach to Language is to rely on what has been termed “Functional
Multilingualism”. Essentially what this means is to muddle through, relying on
a mix of languages, pidgins and gestures to communicate by whatever means the
parties have at their disposal. In a social context, such a shared effort to
make one another understand might be considered an aid to the bonding process
with the frustration of communication being regularly punctuated by moments of
absurdity and humor. However, as the basis for business negotiations, it
appears very hit-and-nuts. And yet Hagen’s recent study suggests that 16% of an
international business transaction; is conducted in a “cocktail of languages.”
Functional Multilingualism shares the same defects as reliance on a lingua
franca and increases the probability of cognitive divergence between the
parties engaged in the communication.
D
External
Language Resources: A
more rational and obvious response to the language barrier is to employ
external resources such as translators and interpreters, and certainly there
are many excellent companies specialized in these fields. However, such a
response is by no means an end to the language barrier. For a start these services
can be very expensive with a top Simultaneous Interpreter, commanding daily
rates as high as a partner in an international consulting company. Secondly,
any good translator or interpreter will insist that to be fully effective they
must understand the context of the subject matter. This is not always possible.
In some cases, it is prohibited by the complexity or specialization of the
topic. Sometimes by lack of preparation time but most often the obstacle is the
reluctance of the parties to explain the wider context to an ‘outsider’.
Another problem is that unless there has been considerable pre-explaining
between the interpreter and his clients it is likely that there will be
ambiguity and cultural overtones in the source messages the interpreter has to
work with. They will, of course, endeavor to provide a hi-fidelity translation
but in this circumstance, the interpreter has to use initiative and guesswork.
This clearly injects a potential source of misunderstanding into the
proceedings. Finally, while a good interpreter will attempt to convey not only
the meaning but also the spirit of any communication, there can be no doubt
that there is a loss of rhetorical power when communications
go through a third party. So in situations requiring negotiation, persuasion,
humor etc. the use of an interpreter is a poor substitute for direct
communication.
E
Training: The immediate and understandable reaction to any
skills-shortage in business is to consider personnel development and certainly
the language training industry is well developed. Offering programs at almost
every level and in numerous languages. However, without doubt, the value of
language training no company should be deluded into believing this to be
assured of success. Training in most companies is geared to the economic cycle.
When times are good, money is invested in training. When belts get tightened
training is one of the first “luxuries” to be pared down. In a study conducted
across four European countries, nearly twice as many companies said they needed
language training in coming years as had conducted training in past years. This
disparity between “good intentions” and “actual delivery”, underlines the
problems of relying upon training for language skills. Unless the company is
totally committed to sustaining the strategy even though bad times, it will
fail.
F
One
notable and committed leader in the field of language training has been the
Volkswagen Group. They have developed a language strategy over many years and
in many respects can be regarded as a model of how to manage language
professionally. However, the Volkswagen approach underlines that language
training has to be considered a strategic rather than a tactical solution. In
their system to progress from “basics” to “communications competence” in a
language requires the completion of 6 languages stages each one demanding
approximately 90 hours of a refresher course, supported by many more hours of
self-study, spread over a 6-9 months period. The completion of each stage is
marked by a post-stage achievement test, which is a pre-requisite for continued
training. So even this professionally managed program expects a minimum of
three years of fairly intensive study to produce an accountant. Engineer, buyer
or salesperson capable of working effectively in a foreign language. Clearly,
companies intending to pursue this route need to do so with realistic
expectations and with the intention of sustaining the program over many years.
Except in terms of “brush-up” courses for people who were previously fluent in
a foreign language, training cannot be considered a quick fix.
Questions
27-32
Summary
Complete the following summary of the Whole Paragraphs of Reading
Passage, choosing A-L words from the following options.
Write
your answers in boxes 27-32 on your answer sheet.
MNCs
often encounter a language barrier in their daily, strategy, then they seek
several approaches to solve such problems. First, native language gives them a
realistic base in a different language speaking country, but the problem turned
up when they deal with oversea 27……………………….. For example, operation
on the translation of some key 28 …………………………, it is inevitable
to generate differences by rules from different countries. Another way is to
rely on a combination of spoken language and 29 ………………………, yet
a report written that over one-tenth business 30……………………….
Processed in a party language setting. Third way: hire translators. However,
firstly it is 31 …………………………, besides if they are not
well-prepared, they have to resort to his/her own 32 ………………………..
work.
A gestures B clients C transaction
D understanding and
assumption E accurate
F documents G managers H body
language
I long-term J effective
K rivals
L costly
Questions
33-39
Answer the questions below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS
AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.
33 What understandable reactions does Training pay
attention to according to the author?
34 In what term does the writer describe
training during the economic depression?
35 What contribution does the Volkswagen Group
set up for multinational companies?
36 What does Volkswagen Group consider language
training as in their company?
37
How many stages are needed from a basic
course to advanced in training?
38 How long does a refresher course
(single-stage) need normally?
39 At least how long is needed for a specific
professional to acquire a foreign language?
Question
40
Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D.
Write your answers in boxes 40 on
your answer sheet.
40 What is the main function of this passage?
A to reveal all kinds of language
problems that companies may encounter
B to exhibits some well-known companies
successfully dealing with language difficulties
C to evaluate various approaches for
language barrier in multinational companies
D to testify that training is an only
feasible approach to solve the language problem
IELTS Reading Practice Test-10 With Answers
ANSWERS
1. Crop production
2. sugar-cane plantations
3. three wells
4. 1998
5. roofs of houses
6. rainwater storage tanks
7. NOT GIVEN
8. YES
9. NO
10. YES
11. NO
12. YES
13. NOT GIVEN
14. hunting
15. overkill model
16. disease/hyperdisease
17. empirical evidence
18. climatic instability
19. geographical ranges
20. Younger Dryas event
21. A
22. B
23. A
24. B
25. B
26. C
27. B
28. F
29. A
30. C
31. L
32. D
33. personnel development
34. (the first) luxury
35. developed/set
36. strategic solution
37. 6 stages
38. 90 hours (for one single stage)
39. three years
40. C
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