General Training Reading Sample 6

STUDENT CLUBS AND SOCIETIES

 

Desperate to find friends with common interests?

Urgently in need of student contacts around college?

Looking for different cultural and religious experiences?

Wanting some good discussion?

Don’t look any further!

JOIN A CLUB OR SOCIETY AND HAVE FUN!

 

A..................................................................................
This club was first started by a group of friends who enjoyed going to the cinema. When our trips became more frequent we realised that there must be others who also shared our love of movies. This club is for those people. Membership gives wide access to other activities like basketball and football as well as barbecues and other social functions. We don’t just enjoy movies.

 

B.................................................................................
The association has many opportunities to debate and we are a non-political unbiased international organisation which aims to promote international awareness on campus. We establish links and access to the organisation’s agencies and other internationalist organisations and their resources. Our plans this year include discussion groups, guest speakers and to build a model of the UN General Assembly.

 

C................................................................................
Whether for fun or debating experience, we discuss everything from personal experience, future society or feminism. This year we plan an internal competition, weekly debates and beginners’ lessons as well as chances to compete nationally. Whether it be to improve your verbal or social skills the society provides both!

 

D....................................................................................
Want to be a movie star? Then go somewhere else! On the other hand, want to work really hard for great rewards? Then come and join the club where interesting theatre is created. We usually put on three productions each year. So if you like to write, paint, act, direct or do anything in the theatre, come and put your name down with us.

 

If you are interested in joining any of these clubs, you can leave a message for the

President at the CAS Office in the Student Union Building.

And don’t forget the CAS Ball is an annual event!

This year it’s being held on 22 December!

 

Questions 14-17
Read the notice on the following page about Student Clubs and Societies. The notice has four main paragraphs A-D. Choose the most suitable heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.
Write the appropriate numbers i-x in boxes 14-17 on your answer sheet.

 

List of Headings i English Society ii Education Club iii Film Appreciation Society iv Drama Society v Music Club vi Games Society vii Women’s Club viii Debating Club ix United Nations Student Club x Technical Students’ Club

14 Paragraph  A
15 Paragraph  B
16 Paragraph  C
17 Paragraph  D

 

Questions 18 and 19
Using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS, answer the following questions.

Write your answers in boxes 18 and 19 on your answer sheet.

 

18 How do you let the CAS President know you are interested in joining a club?
19 How often is the CAS Ball held?

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IELTS Academic Reading Sample 6

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on Reading Passage 6 below.

 A Remarkable Beetle

Some of the most remarkable beetles are the dung beetles, which spend almost their whole lives eating and breeding in dung’.

More than 4,000 species of these remarkable creatures have evolved and adapted to the world’s different climates and the dung of its many animals. Australia’s native dung beetles are scrub and woodland dwellers, specialising in coarse marsupial droppings and avoiding the soft cattle dung in which bush flies and buffalo flies breed.

In the early 1960s George Bornemissza, then a scientist at the Australian Government’s premier research organisation, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), suggested that dung beetles should be introduced to Australia to control dung-breeding flies. Between 1968 and 1982, the CSIRO imported insects from about 50 different species of dung beetle, from Asia, Europe and Africa, aiming to match them to different climatic zones in Australia. Of the 26 species that are known to have become successfully integrated into the local environment, only one, an African species released in northern Australia, has reached its natural boundary.

Introducing dung beetles into a pasture is a simple process: approximately 1,500 beetles are released; a handful at a time, into fresh cow pats 2 in the cow pasture. The beetles immediately disappear beneath the pats digging and tunneling and, if they successfully adapt to their new environment, soon become a permanent, self-sustaining part of the local ecology. In time they multiply and within three or four years the benefits to the pasture are obvious.

Dung beetles work from the inside of the pat so they are sheltered from predators such as birds and foxes. Most species burrow into the soil and bury dung in tunnels directly underneath the pats, which are hollowed out from within. Some large species originating from France excavate tunnels to a depth of approximately 30 cm below the dung pat. These beetles make sausage-shaped brood chambers along the tunnels. The shallowest tunnels belong to a much smaller Spanish species that buries dung in chambers that hang like fruit from the branches of a pear tree. South African beetles dig narrow tunnels of approximately 20 cm below the surface of the pat. Some surface-dwelling beetles, including a South African species, cut perfectly-shaped balls from the pat, which are rolled away and attached to the bases of plants.

For maximum dung burial in spring, summer and autumn, farmers require a variety of species with overlapping periods of activity. In the cooler environments of the state of Victoria, the large French species (2.5 cms long) is matched with smaller (half this size), temperate-climate Spanish species. The former are slow to recover from the winter cold and produce only one or two generations of offspring from late spring until autumn. The latter, which multiply rapidly in early spring, produce two to five generations annually. The South African ball-rolling species, being a subtropical beetle, prefers the climate of northern and coastal New South Wales where it commonly works with the South African tunneling species. In warmer climates, many species are active for longer periods of the year.

Dung beetles were initially introduced in the late 1960s with a view to controlling buffalo flies by removing the dung within a day or two and so preventing flies from breeding. However, other benefits have become evident. Once the beetle larvae have finished pupation, the residue is a first-rate source of fertiliser. The tunnels abandoned by the beetles provide excellent aeration and water channels for root systems. In addition, when the new generation of beetles has left the nest the abandoned burrows are an attractive habitat for soil-enriching earthworms. The digested dung in these burrows is an excellent food supply for the earthworms, which decompose it further to provide essential soil nutrients. If it were not for the dung beetle, chemical fertiliser and dung would be washed by rain into streams and rivers before it could be absorbed into the hard earth, polluting water courses and causing blooms of blue-green algae. Without the beetles to dispose of the dung, cow pats would litter pastures making grass inedible to cattle and depriving the soil of sunlight. Australia’s 30 million cattle each produce 10-12 cow pats a day. This amounts to 1.7 billion tones a year, enough to smother about 110,000 sq km of pasture, half the area of Victoria.

Dung beetles have become an integral part of the successful management of dairy farms in Australia over the past few decades. A number of species are available from the CSIRO or through a small number of private breeders, most of whom were entomologists with the CSIRO’s dung beetle unit who have taken their specialised knowledge of the insect and opened small businesses in direct competition with their former employer.

Glossary
  1.  dung:- the droppings or excreta of animals
  2.  cow pats:- droppings of cows

Questions 1-5
Do the following statements reflect the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 6? In boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet write:
         YES              if the statement reflects the claims of the writer
         NO                if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
         NOT GIVEN   if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

1       Bush flies are easier to control than buffalo flies.
2       Four thousand species of dung beetle were initially brought to Australia by the CSIRO.
3       Dung beetles were brought to Australia by the CSIRO over a fourteen-year period.
4       At least twenty-six of the introduced species have become established in Australia.
5       The dung beetles cause an immediate improvement to the quality of a cow pasture.

Questions 6-8
Label the tunnels on the diagram below. Choose your labels from the box below the diagram. Write your answers in boxes 6-8 on your answer sheet.
Write your answers in boxes 6-8 on your answer sheet.

Dung Beetle Types French                      Spanish Mediterranean           South African Australian native        South African ball roller.

Question 9-13
Complete the table below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS OR A NUMBER from Reading Passage 6 for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 9—13 on your answer sheet.

Species	Size	Preferred Climate	Complementary species	Start of active period	Number of generations per  year
French	2.5 cm	Cool	Spanish	Late spring	1-2
Spanish	1.25 cm	9		10	1
South African ball roller		12	13

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General Training Reading Sample 5

Questions 10-13

Look at the extract from a brochure on the following page.

From the list of headings below, choose the most suitable headings for Sections C-F.

Write the appropriate numbers i-viii in boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet.

Example                                                                      Answer Section A                                                                         vii

10 Section  C

11 Section  D

12 Section  E

13 Section  F

List of Headings i Payment options ii Save money by not paying interest iii Choosing your style of furniture iv Free advice on furnishing your home V Location of stores vi Applying for a card vii Ordering furniture from home viii A wide range of furniture

                                                    

Fabulous Furniture

Section A

Have you ever wanted to buy a small bedside table? Or a dinner table for 20 people? If you want it, we’ve got it! Fabulous Furniture has Australia’s widest choice of furniture.

Section B

If you visit a Fabulous Furniture store, you can have your furniture - right now - using our Fabulous Furniture Credit Card. When you see something you really want, you can have it straight away, and pay later.

Section C

Unlike most cards, the Fabulous Furniture Credit Card offers a full 60-day interest-free period on every Fabulous purchase - no matter when you make your purchase. This leaves you with more money to spend on other things.

Section D

• You may choose to pay the full amount within 60 days. In this case, you pay no interest.

• You may spread your payments over a longer period. In this case, interest will be charged after the initial 60-day interest-free period.

Section E

Application is absolutely free! Nor are there any annual fees or administration fees. Just fill in the application form and bring it to your nearest Fabulous Furniture store. Your application will be processed promptly and you can begin making purchases immediately after your application is approved.

Section F

We have stores in every major city, so you’re never far away from a Fabulous Furniture store. For our addresses, just check in your local telephone directory.

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IELTS Academic Reading Sample 5

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 15-28 which are based on Reading Passage 5 below.

The Risks of Cigarette Smoke

Discovered in the early 1800s and named nicotianine, the oily essence now called nicotine is the main active ingredient of tobacco. Nicotine, however, is only a small component of cigarette smoke, which contains more than 4,700 chemical compounds, including 43 cancer-causing substances. In recent times, scientific research has been providing evidence that, years of cigarette smoking vastly increases the risk of developing fatal medical conditions.

In addition to being responsible for more than 85 per cent of lung cancers, smoking is associated with cancers of, amongst others, the mouth, stomach and kidneys, and is thought to cause about 14 per cent of leukemia and cervical cancers. In 1990, smoking caused more than 84,000 deaths, mainly resulting from such problems as pneumonia, bronchitis and influenza. Smoking, it is believed, is responsible for 30 per cent of all deaths from cancer and clearly represents the most important preventable cause of cancer in countries like the United States today.

Passive smoking, the breathing in of the side-stream smoke from the burning of tobacco between puffs or of the smoke exhaled by a smoker, also causes a serious health risk. A report published in 1992 by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) emphasized the health dangers, especially from side-stream smoke. This type of smoke contains more, smaller particles and is therefore more likely to be deposited deep in the lungs. On the basis of this report, the EPA has classified environmental tobacco smoke in the highest risk category for causing cancer.

As an illustration of the health risks, in the case of a married couple where one partner is a smoker and one a non-smoker, the latter is believed to have a 30 per cent higher risk of death from heart disease because of passive smoking. The risk of lung cancer also increases over the years of exposure and the figure jumps to 80 per cent if the spouse has been smoking four packs a day for 20 years. It has been calculated that 17 per cent of cases of lung cancer can be attributed to high levels of exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke during childhood and adolescence.

A more recent study by researchers at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) has shown that second-hand cigarette smoke does more harm to non-smokers than to smokers. Leaving aside the philosophical question of whether anyone should have to breathe someone else’s cigarette smoke, the report suggests that the smoke experienced by many people in their daily lives is enough to produce substantial adverse effects on a person’s heart and lungs.

The report, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (AMA), was based on the researchers’ own earlier research but also includes a review of studies over the past few years. The American Medical Association represents about half of all US doctors and is a strong opponent of smoking. The study suggests that people who smoke cigarettes are continually damaging their cardiovascular system, which adapts in order to compensate for the effects of smoking. It further states that people who do not smoke do not have the benefit of their system adapting to the smoke inhalation. Consequently, the effects of passive smoking are far greater on non-smokers than on smokers.

This report emphasizes that cancer is not caused by a single element in cigarette smoke; harmful effects to health are caused by many components. Carbon monoxide, for example, competes with oxygen in red blood cells and interferes with the blood’s ability to deliver life-giving oxygen to the heart. Nicotine and other toxins in cigarette smoke activate small blood cells called platelets, which increases the likelihood of blood clots, thereby affecting blood circulation throughout the body.

The researchers criticize the practice of some scientific consultants who work with the tobacco industry for assuming that cigarette smoke has the same impact on smokers as it does on non-smokers. They argue that those scientists are underestimating the damage done by passive smoking and, in support of their recent findings, cite some previous research which points to passive smoking as the cause for between 30,000 and 60,000 deaths from heart attacks each year in the United States. This means that passive smoking is the third most preventable cause of death after active smoking and alcohol-related diseases.

The study argues that the type of action needed against passive smoking should be similar to that being taken against illegal drugs and AIDS (SIDA). The UCSF researchers maintain that the simplest and most cost-effective action is to establish smoke-free work places, schools and public places.

Questions 15-17

Choose the appropriate letters A - D and write them in boxes 15 -17 on your answer sheet.

15 According to information in the text, leukaemia and pneumonia

A are responsible for 84,000 deaths each year.

B are strongly linked to cigarette smoking.

C are strongly linked to lung cancer.

D result in 30 per cent of deaths per year.

16 According to information in the text, intake of carbon monoxide

A inhibits the flow of oxygen to the heart.

B increases absorption of other smoke particles.

C inhibits red blood cell formation.

D promotes nicotine absorption.

17 According to information in the text, intake of nicotine encourages

A blood circulation through the body.

B activity of other toxins in the blood.

C formation of blood clots.

D an increase of platelets in the blood.

Questions 18-21

Do the following statements reflect the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 5? In boxes 18-21 on your answer sheet write: 

YES if the statement reflects the claims of the writer

NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer

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

18 Thirty per cent of deaths in the United States are caused by smoking-related diseases.

19 If one partner in a marriage smokes, the other is likely to take up smoking.

20 Teenagers whose parents smoke are at risk of getting lung cancer at some time during their lives.

21 Opponents of smoking financed the UCSF study.

Questions 22-24

Choose ONE phrase from the list of phrases A - J below to complete each of the following sentences (Questions 22-24).

Write the appropriate letters in boxes 22 - 24 on your answer sheet.

22 Passive smoking ...................

23 Compared with a non-smoker, a smoker ...................

24 The American Medical Association ...................

A   includes reviews of studies in its reports.

B   argues for stronger action against smoking in public places.

C   is one of the two most preventable causes of death.

D   is more likely to be at risk from passive smoking diseases.

E    is more harmful to non-smokers than to smokers.

F    is less likely to be at risk of contracting lung cancer.

G   is more likely to be at risk of contracting various cancers.

H   opposes smoking and publishes research on the subject.

I     is just as harmful to smokers as it is to non-smokers.

J    reduces the quantity of blood flowing around the body.

Questions 25-28

Classify the following statements as being

A a finding of the UCSF study

B an opinion of the UCSF study

C a finding of the EPA report

D an assumption of consultants to the tobacco industry

Write the appropriate letters A—D in boxes 25—28 on your answer sheet.  NB You may use any letter more than once.

25 Smokers’ cardiovascular systems adapt to the intake of environmental smoke.

26 There is a philosophical question as to whether people should have to inhale others’ smoke.

27 Smoke-free public places offer the best solution.

28 The intake of side-stream smoke is more harmful than smoke exhaled by a smoker.

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