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Reading Practice Test 1
Reading Practice Test 1
READING PASSAGE 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on Reading Passage 1.
Questions 1-5
Choose the correct heading for paragraphs C-H from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number i-x in boxes 1-5 on your Answer Sheet.
i. A healthier option
ii. Asian countries know best
iii. Fast food companies go healthy
iv. A growing business
v. Importance of good eating habits
Final Practice Reading test
1 Paragraph C ..............
2 Paragraph D ..............
3 Paragraph E ..............
4 Paragraph G ..............
5 Paragraph H ..............
Good for you or not good for you? That is the question.
A At no time in history has the world’s population ever been so well-informed about nutrition and health.
Consumers in the developed world are constantly bombarded with advertising messages which promote the
health benefits of a wide range of food products. However, they are also exposed to the constant promotion
of junk food as well. Fast food companies have become sensitive to the criticisms they face over the potential
damage their food causes and have begun to vigorously defend the nutritional value of the meals they serve.
With this constant flow of messages – often contradictory – how are today’s consumers supposed to determine
precisely what is healthy to eat?
B According to nutritionist Susan McCaskill, many people today intend to eat healthily, but have become
confused about how to do so. “It is not just that the traditional definitions of a healthy diet have changed,
though this is certainly significant. Many grew up being told that the more milk you drank, the healthier you
would be. Then dairy foods became ‘bad’ in the eyes of many health professionals and many people sought
alternatives to it. Now these alternatives are coming under the same sort of criticism.”
C The alternative McCaskill is referring to is soya milk. A generation of consumers who were labeled allergic to
cow’s milk products embraced soya substitutes enthusiastically. In fact, the soya bean itself was promoted as a
kind of miracle food overall. Claims were made it had the potential to not only provide all the protein required
for a healthy diet, but that it could prevent heart disease and cancer. Slogans such as “It’s Soy Good for you...”
began to appear in nutritional advice columns.
E Susan McCaskill considers the latest negative publicity about soy to be exaggerated, but she admits that it
does raise some very relevant questions. “It still appears to me that soya beans have many notable nutritional
benefits to offer, but the key thing here is moderation. What frequently happens now is that people go from
eating much too much of one thing to eating too much of something else.”
F Both McCaskill and Steinman concede that the recent soya controversy is just one example of how food
fashions are confusing the health-conscious today. Red meat has often been blamed for high rates of heart
disease and other health problems, then has been praised for its high iron content. Carbohydrate rich foods
such as pasta, rice and potatoes have been promoted since the seventies as healthy staples of our diet, and then
recently have received the blame for the growing numbers of people who are seriously overweight.
G Dr Steinman echoes the words of McCaskill on one key point - moderation is the most significant factor in
any healthy diet. However, he fears that modern obsessions with perfect food habits can simply leave people
so discouraged that they give up completely. “If you rush to a new diet because you’ve been told your old one
was bad, then find the new one has its own critics, what do you do next? I worry that many will simply stop
thinking about healthy eating habits and head to the nearest fast food outlet.”
H It is certainly undeniable that the fast food industry is booming. Whether this is because of confused and
discouraged eaters of health food is difficult to determine. What is clear, however, is that advertisers are
working harder and harder to influence the world’s eating habits, and that the needs of both health enthusiasts
and fast food customers are now coming together: the fastest growing customer base in many major fast food
chains is now people attracted by their new “healthy choices.” The question remains: who will decide in the
end precisely what a healthy choice is?
Questions 6-10
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?
6 Fast food companies admit that the food they serve is unhealthy.
9 One health expert worries that frustration might stop people maintaining a good diet.
10 Fast food advertising will increasingly influence what people think is healthy.
Final Practice Reading test
Questions 11-13
READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-27 which are based on Reading Passage 2.
Sensory Overload
A Are you suffering from a feeling of annoyance? Does life seem to get more and more irritating all the time?
Do you struggle day to day just to stay calm and clear-headed in the face of more and more frustrating
experiences? If your answer to these questions is “YES,” you are not alone. In fact, you are part of a growing
trend that demonstrates the significance of the small events which annoy us on a day to day basis.
B According to psychologist Maurice Penman, inhabitants of today’s modern cities face a far more aggressive
range of sensory experiences than ever before. “It is not simply that the pace of life is faster in today’s world,
or that people are under more pressure at work. Of course, both those things are true. But today people are
exposed to a greater number of both visual and auditory stimuli. Basically, this means we are being asked to
both look at and listen to far more than we ever have been before.”
C However, Penman is quick to point out that many of the things which are contributing to these problems are
also the same things many of us value. A greater sense of irritation is the price we pay for the convenience of
the Internet and mobile phones. “Mobile phones are a very significant example to consider. There is no doubt
that they are useful in a multitude of ways, and most people do not want to go back to the days before them.
D The increase in sensory demands is not just due to the use of mobile phones. Advertisers are reaching out
to potential consumers more aggressively than ever. News services are now broadcast on buses and at train
platforms. Family meals are frequently interrupted by telephone canvassers and email users are often forced
to deal with an avalanche of unsolicited promotional messages, or “SPAM”. One could easily imagine that our
children and their children may have to guard their homes from an overwhelming amount of annoyance
E While it is difficult to deny the growth in these increasingly annoying events in our day, is there actually any
real significance to these facts? Penman argues: “There is no doubt that on the surface, this increase of stimuli
in our day simply appears to be a matter of minor annoyance. But when we look closely, we can see that this
has the potential to significantly affect our psychological health.” He goes on to explain that if exposure to
these irritations is frequent and prolonged, very subtly our stress levels begin to rise. As they do, we find
there is a compound effect. Stress from the minor episodes in the day starts to increase our feeling of pressure
when faced with major challenges at work. We are increasingly carrying a greater and greater stress load, with
opportunities to relax and unwind more and more restricted. Penman points out that even though we all
sometimes crave stimulation, we have become so obsessed with it in the twenty-first century that it has now
become almost impossible to avoid. Shops increasingly feel the need to play loud, thumping rock or techno
music. Advertising becomes more and more energetically aggressive all the time. This, Penman maintains,
prevents us from dealing with our daily stress and eliminating it from our systems. He adds: “You really do
need to get right out of the city and into a quiet space now, though most of us are too busy to do that very
often.”
F It might be easy for critics to dismiss the annoying experience of too many mobile phones on the bus, or any of
the other stimuli Maurice Penman cites. However, it is the failure to eliminate stress which leads to potentially
fatal consequences. If these daily distractions are contributing seriously to our stress levels, then Penman has
identified a significant danger. We now know that stress truly is a killer, and has been implicated in the rise of
depression, heart disease and even weight problems, as it increases hormones in the body which stimulate the
appetite for fattening carbohydrate-rich foods.
G There is no denying that Maurice Penn’s main arguments are compelling. It seems that stress has become so
prevalent that people are getting stressed about their levels of stress. But what are we supposed to do? He
suggests we do everything we can to go within ourselves and try to maintain a sense of personal peace and
space. He recommends the use of meditation and relaxation tapes, exercise at the end of the day whenever
possible and greater emphasis on fun. Unfortunately, Maurice Penman had no suggestions for those of us
who find meditation frustrating, or who get annoyed at relaxation tapes. He had no recommendations for
days when you can’t find any equipment you need in the gym, or find yourself irritated at those around you
who keep saying you need to have more fun.
Final Practice Reading test
Questions 14-20
The reading passage has eight paragraphs A-H.
Write the correct letter A-H in boxes 14-20 on your Answer Sheet.
Questions 21-24
Complete the summary below using words from the passage. Write NO MORE THAN FOUR
WORDS for each answer.
People in today’s world are faced with much more 21............................................ stimulation than
they used to be. On a daily basis, our modern conveniences represent small but significant
22............................................... , which contribute to increasing levels of stress. Psychologist
Maurice Penman suggests that because people 23.................................................. from time to
time, we are now in a world where we can’t escape it. However, we must escape it and relax or
there could possibly be 24........................................................
Questions 25-27
Answer the questions below using words from the passage. Write NO MORE THAN THREE
WORDS for each answer.
27 What does Penman believe people should place more importance on in order to relieve stress?
READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 28-40 which are based on Reading Passage 3.
A Since its earliest days, television (TV) has been the perfect example of passive entertainment. Now some are
trying to change that. Media and entertainment companies plan new interactive services designed to make
television a centre of games, information and family activity. Many of these services are enhancements of
regular programming – like displaying several football games at once. Some are new ways of doing old things,
like video on demand (VOD), which allows viewers to choose from a selection of movies available through
their TV at any time. Perhaps one of the most intriguing is personal video recording, which lets them pause
and fast-forward TV programs.
B This is not the first time that the television industry has attempted to persuade viewers to become more
active. In the 1970s, a project to provide movies to order was shelved because of the high cost of bringing
two-way networks into people’s homes. In 1990 some providers offered text enhancement, giving viewers
the option of seeing news, weather and stock prices run across their screen on top of regular programs. This
project was also dropped. But circumstances may be more favourable today. The television industry has
some advantages which did not exist when previous experiments were undertaken. First, cable and satellite
television now reach a large number of homes. Second, the Internet has made most people in the developed
world familiar with the process of pointing and clicking. In a sense, interactive television is a way of bringing
television a little closer to the Internet.
Final Practice Reading test
C The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC – a public television channel) has probably been the most
experimental network in this field. Its first really successful attempt was made during the Wimbledon tennis
tournament in June 2001. Rather than deciding which tennis match to televise at any one time, the BBC
allowed viewers to watch up to five at once on a split screen or they could choose to watch one or more of the
matches at the same time. This attracted more than five million viewers. Since then, the BBC has produced a
steady stream of new interactive programming.
D ‘We’re taking factual drama and creating a quiz show around the main programming,’ says Ashley Highfield,
‘That’s totally new and exciting for us. ...... I would love to get involved in interactive dramas, maybe allowing
the viewer to switch from one character’s point of view’ (to that of another). But sport continues to be the
BBC’s biggest drawcard. ‘What we’re working on for the future is to have football matches with the option of
hearing the partisan commentary from local radio stations,’ says Highfield. Commercial television companies,
which have to keep an eye on profit, have been less daring. However, according to Josh Bernoff, an analyst
at Forrester Research, a lack of copyright may delay growth over the next five years. That is why the first
companies to offer VOD have been cable channels that own their own content.
E The biggest barrier to VOD and other interactive services is technophobia – fear of technology. In test
markets, viewers often don’t know they have the service, or are reluctant to use it. One solution is to give
the TV screen the look of a Web page, with toolbars and display menus. Since younger consumers tend to
be early adopters of new technology, videogames may take off quickly. In recent months, the three biggest
manufacturers of TV games have introduced online components. In two years, experts say, most gamers may
go online via TV.
F Television’s best minds are convinced that interactive TV will eventually succeed. But if this happens, what
will be the effect on the status quo? Will greater viewer control overthrow the whole business model of TV,
which is based on selling advertising to a largely captive audience. Network executives face a dilemma. The
more control they give viewers, the more they threaten the practice of selling prime-time advertising.
G Rick Mandler, a Disney vice-president of enhanced TV feels that interactive TV companies will press for a
redesign of personal recording services so that they are ‘advertising friendly’. Tracey Swedlow, editor of the
newsletter Interactive TV Today, believes that ‘advertising is going to have to adapt.’ How much will the rest
of us have to adapt? ‘It’s going to be a gradual process, not a revolution,’ says Maggie Wilderotter, an interactive TV
executive in California. ‘People watch TV to be entertained. It’s not work.’ She feels that viewers do not want to
do too much themselves. Swedlow, on the other hand, thinks the changes will be more fundamental. ‘TV will feel
more like a tool you can use.... It’ll be something you can manage rather than just take in.’
adapted with permission from Gutrel, Fred, ‘The Future of TV’, Newsweek ‘Issues 2003’ Special Edition, Dec 2002 – Feb 2003.
Questions 28-32
Look at the following opinions (Questions 28-32) and the list of people below.
Write the correct letter A-E in boxes 28-32 on your Answer Sheet.
A Ashley Highfield
B Josh Bernoff
C Rick Mandler
D Maggie Wildrotter
E Tracey Swedlow
Questions 33-39
Write the correct letter A-G in boxes 33-39 on your Answer Sheet.
39 reasons why interactive TV may be more successful now than in the past
Questions 40
40 Which of the following is the most suitable title for Reading Passage 3?
A Video on Demand
B Persuading Viewers to be More Interactive
C Is TV Ready for a New Era?