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Byv - Road To Ielts 1
Byv - Road To Ielts 1
READING PASSAGE 1
MAKING TIME FOR SCIENCE
This can take many forms. Marine life, for example, is influenced Tidal /ˈtaɪ.dəl/
relating to the tide
by tidal patterns. Animals tend to be active or inactive depending
diurnal /ˌdaɪˈɝː.nəl/
on the position of the sun or moon. Numerous creatures, humans being active or happening during the day rather
than at night
included, are largely diurnal – that is, they like to come out
Nocturnal /nɑːkˈtɝː.nəl/
during the hours of sunlight. Nocturnal animals, such as bats and being active or happening at night rather than
during the day
possums, prefer to forage by night. A third group are known as possums
crepuscular: they thrive in the low-light of dawn and dusk and
remain inactive at other hours.
bodies are naturally geared to undergo within the passage of a crepuscular /krɪˈpʌs.kjə.lɚ/
(of animals) active or appearing at the time of
twenty-four hour day. Aside from sleeping at night and waking day just before the sun goes down, or just after
the sun rises, when the light is not bright
during the day, each cycle involves many other factors such as
circadian /sɝːˈkeɪ.di.ən/
changes in blood pressure and body temperature. Not everyone used to describe the processes in animals and
plants that happen naturally during a 24-hour
has an identical circadian rhythm. ‘Night people’, for example, period
often describe how they find it very hard to operate during the
morning, but become alert and focused by evening. This is a
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The average urban resident, for example, rouses at the eye- eye-blearing
When the eyes become red/ blurred due to lack of
blearing time of 6.04 a.m., which researchers believe to be far sleep or exhaustion
too early. One study found that even rising at 7.00 a.m. has deleterious /ˌdel.ɪˈtɪr.i.əs/
harmful
deleterious effects on health unless exercise is performed for 30
whittle sth down /ˈwɪt̬ .əl/
minutes afterward. The optimum moment has been whittled to gradually reduce the size of something or the
number of people in a group
down to 7.22 a.m.; muscle aches, headaches and moodiness were
reported to be lowest by participants in the study who awoke then.
Once you’re up and ready to go, what then? If you’re trying to adamant /ˈæd.ə.mənt/
impossible to persuade, or unwilling to change an
shed some extra pounds, dieticians are adamant: never skip opinion or decision
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READING PASSAGE 2
THE TRIUNE BRAIN
The first of our three brains to evolve is what scientists call the evolve /ɪˈvɑːlv/
to develop gradually, or to cause something or
reptilian cortex. This brain sustains the elementary activities of someone to develop gradually
animal survival such as respiration, adequate rest and a beating reptilian /repˈtɪl.i.ən/
belonging to or like a reptile
heart. We are not required to consciously “think” about these cortex /ˈkɔːr.teks/
the outer layer, especially of the brain and other
activities. The reptilian cortex also houses the “startle centre”, a organs
mechanism that facilitates swift reactions to unexpected respiration /ˌres.pəˈreɪ.ʃən/
breathing
occurrences in our surroundings. That panicked lurch you
facilitate /fəˈsɪl.ə.teɪt/
experience when a door slams shut somewhere in the house, or to make something possible or easier
the heightened awareness you feel when a twig cracks in a nearby lurch /lɝːtʃ/
to act or continue in a way that is uncontrolled
bush while out on an evening stroll are both examples of the and not regular, often with sudden changes
reptilian cortex at work. When it comes to our interaction with twig /twɪɡ/
a small, thin branch of a tree or bush, especially
others, the reptilian brain offers up only the most basic impulses: one removed from the tree or bush and without
any leaves
aggression, mating, and territorial defence. There is no great
difference, in this sense, between a crocodile defending its spot
turf war /ˈtɝːf ˌwɔːr/
along the river and a turf war between two urban gangs. a fight or an argument to decide who controls an
area or an activity
exert /ɪɡˈzɝːt/
Although the lizard /ˈlɪz.ɚd/ may stake a claim to its habitat, it to use something such as authority, power,
influence, etc. in order to make something
exerts total indifference toward the well-being of its young. happen
Listen to the anguished squeal of a dolphin separated from its anguished /ˈæŋ·ɡwɪʃt/
having or showing extreme pain or suffering
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Only human capabilities extend far beyond the scope of these two
cortexes. Humans eat, sleep and play, but we also speak, plot,
rationalise and debate finer points of morality. Our unique
abilities are the result of an expansive third brain – the neocortex
– which engages with logic, reason and ideas. The power of the
neocortex comes from its ability to think beyond the present,
concrete moment. While other mammals are mainly restricted to
impulsive actions (although some, such as apes, can learn and
remember simple lessons), humans can think about the “big
picture”. We can string together simple lessons (for example, an
apple drops downwards from a tree; hurting others causes
unhappiness) to develop complex theories of physical or social
phenomena (such as the laws of gravity and a concern for human
rights).
on the following morning’s exam, a student can ignore the limbic the limbic system /ˈlɪm.bɪk/
a system of nerves and other structures in the
urge to socialise and go to sleep early instead. Over three years, brain that controls many of our emotions
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Understanding the triune brain can help us appreciate the Triune = three-in-one
railway worker named Phineas Gage survived an incident during propensity /prəˈpen.sə.t̬ i/
the fact that someone is likely to behave in a
which a metal rod skewered his skull, taking a considerable particular way, especially a bad way
garrulous /ˈɡer.əl.əs/
amount of his neocortex with it. Though Gage continued to live having the habit of talking a lot, especially about
things that are not important
and work as before, his fellow employees observed a shift in the
obscene /əbˈsiːn/
equilibrium of his personality. Gage’s animal propensities were offensive, rude, or shocking, usually because of
being too obviously related to sex or showing sex
now sharply pronounced while his intellectual abilities suffered;
wit /wɪt/
garrulous or obscene jokes replaced his once quick wit. New the ability to use words in a clever and humorous
way
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READING PASSAGE 3
HELIUM’S FUTURE UP IN THE AIR
A In recent years we have all been exposed to dire media reports dire /daɪr/
very serious or extreme
concerning the impending demise of global coal and oil reserves,
impending /ɪmˈpen.dɪŋ/
but the depletion of another key non-renewable resource used to refer to an event, usually something
unpleasant or unwanted, that is going to happen
soon
continues without receiving much press at all. Helium – an inert,
demise /dɪˈmaɪz/
odourless, monatomic /ˌmɑː.nəˈtɑː.mɪk/ element known to lay people the end of something that was previously
considered to be powerful, such as a business,
as the substance that makes balloons float and voices squeak industry, or system
when inhaled – could be gone from this planet within a odourless /ˈoʊ.dɚ.ləs/
without a smell
generation.
distillation /ˌdɪs.təˈleɪ.ʃən/
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C The loss of helium on Earth would affect society greatly. the process of making a liquid stronger or purer
by heating it until it changes to a gas and then
Defying the perception of it as a novelty substance for parties and cooling it so that it changes back into a liquid, or
a liquid made by this process
gimmicks, the element actually has many vital applications in
society. Probably the most well known commercial usage is in
airships and blimps /blɪmp/ (non-flammable helium replaced hydrogen
as the lifting gas du jour after the Hindenburg catastrophe in 1932,
during which an airship burst into flames and crashed to the ground
killing some passengers and crew). But helium is also instrumental
in deep-sea diving, where it is blended with nitrogen to mitigate mitigate /ˈmɪt̬ .ə.ɡeɪt/
to make something less harmful, unpleasant, or
the dangers of inhaling ordinary air under high pressure; as a bad
cleaning agent for rocket engines; and, in its most prevalent use,
as a coolant for superconducting magnets in hospital MRI
(magnetic resonance imaging) scanners.
unique boiling point, which is lower than that for any other
element. The worsening global shortage could render millions of
dollars of high-value, life-saving equipment totally useless. The
dwindling supplies have already resulted in the postponement of
dwindling /ˈdwɪn.dəl.ɪŋ/
research and development projects in physics laboratories and gradually becoming smaller in size or amount, or
fewer in number
manufacturing plants around the world. There is an enormous
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forces are not sufficient to compel prudent practice”. For Nobel- repeal /rɪˈpiːl/
If a government repeals a law, it causes that law
prize laureate Robert Richardson, the U.S. government must be no longer to have any legal force
prevailed upon to repeal its privatisation policy as the country Privatisation /ˌpraɪ.və.t̬ əˈzeɪ.ʃən/
the transfer of a business, industry, or service
supplies over 80 per cent of global helium, mostly from the from public to private ownership and control.
predicament /prəˈdɪk.ə.mənt/
F A number of steps need to be taken in order to avert a costly an unpleasant situation that is difficult to get out
of
predicament in the coming decades. Firstly, all existing supplies
of helium ought to be conserved and released only by permit, with
medical uses receiving precedence over other commercial or
recreational demands. Secondly, conservation should be squander /ˈskwɑːn.dɚ/
to waste money or supplies, or to waste
obligatory and enforced by a regulatory agency. At the moment opportunities by not using them to your
advantage
some users, such as hospitals, tend to recycle diligently while
diligently /ˈdɪl.ə.dʒənt.li/
others, such as NASA, squander massive amounts of helium. in a way that is careful and uses a lot of effort
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