TEST 3 61

Reading (3)
Reading Passage 7
Recalling it

A Memory and recollection vary from person to person. Take three average citizens
with a similar degree of honesty and integrity and ask them to make a statement
concerning a bank raid that they all witnessed. Whilst the three statements will
contain a fair degree of concurrence, there will also be areas of dissimilarity. When
a person observes an event, not only are cognitive (or thinking) powers involved
but also emotions are involved, especially when the incident observed is of an
unpleasant nature.

B In our primitive ancestors, emotional stress had a survival value. It prepared us to

face or flee a danger (‘flight or fight’ syndrome). Today’s stressors are more likely
to be perceived threats to an individual’s well-being and self-esteem rather than
actual threats to survival. However, any stressful situation, real or apparent, can
trigger many of the same effects, for example, increased blood pressure, heart rate
and anxiety.

C ‘Pre-exam nerves’ is an anxiety state experienced by candidates prior to an

examination. It is perfectly natural to feel apprehensive about an important test.
Negative thoughts disappear quickly when the candidate makes a promising start.
On the other hand, a poor start increases the stress felt by the individual who can
then experience a ‘retrieval failure’. In this circumstance the information is held in
the memory but cannot be accessed. The knowledge has been forgotten temporarily
to remain on the ‘tip-of the-tongue’. In intensely stressful situations, panic sets in and
the relevant knowledge becomes blocked out completely by thoughts of failure.

D The ability to cope with stress is influenced by personality (way of thinking and
behaving) and social circumstances, so what one person finds stressful another
may find stimulating. Managing your own stress depends in part upon becoming
aware of what your own particular stressors are. You can then confront each situation
and try to change it and/or change your thoughts and emotional reactions to the
stressor, so as to lessen its impact. Emotional support from family, friends and
work colleagues leads to an improvement in coping with long-term stress. When
confronted with a potentially stressful examination, one solution is to sit back, take a
few deep breaths and relax to steady the nerves. Relaxation techniques will improve
62 How to Master the IELTS

the memory but they cannot help a candidate to retrieve knowledge that they
have yet to acquire. In this respect, short-term memory improves if you repeat new
information to yourself several times, learning by rote.

E Clear and precise information is required when giving instructions. How often, in an
unfamiliar district, has the reader stopped a passing stranger for simple and clear
directions? How often also have the replies been unclear, rambling accompanied by
wild gesticulations? The route may be clear in the eye of the director but the message
is lost if salient points are either omitted or out of sequence. Accurate recall of past
events is facilitated by note-taking and in particular by placing information under the
headings: who, what, where, when and how. When information is classified under
these headings it acts as a cue that enables the reader to construct partial images of
previous events or to recall details that might otherwise be overlooked. It is important
not to confuse facts with opinions and to clearly preface opinions with ‘I believe’,
‘I think’, ‘In my view’ or similar words. Memories can be triggered from several
sources and it is useful to include both visual and verbal aids when revising for an
examination. Revision tools include spider diagrams that expand on a central idea,
coloured highlighting of related topics, flash cards with questions and answers, as
well as mnemonic devices (small rhymes), such as ‘I before e except after c’, that
aid spelling, for example.

F Nerves play a big part in public speaking. Despite this, an impromptu speech can
be delivered effectively if the speaker is knowledgeable in the subject matter and
sounds enthusiastic. Slide presentations are a popular means of delivering a speech.
Typically, a 15-minute talk can be linked to a sequence of 30 slides, lasting 30
seconds on average. Each slide contains a few key elements that serve to cue the
memory towards the necessary detail. It is essential to make a solid start, in which
case it is advisable to memorize the opening lines of the speech by practising it out
loud several times. The slides should link naturally so that the talk never sounds
stilted. It is not necessary to memorize the speech word for word. All that is necessary
is for the speaker to be familiar with the content of the slide and to develop the
speech from the key words. It is advisable to record the speech on a dictaphone and
then to play it back to check the continuity and duration.
 TEST 3 63

Questions 201 to 205

Reading Passage 7 has six paragraphs, A to F.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

201 How early man benefited from stress.

202 How a person can reduce the effects of stress.

203 How candidates fear examinations.

204 How a speaker can make a confident start.

205 How communication fails if important facts are out of order.

Questions 206 to 210

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 7?

Write:

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this.

206 Our primitive ancestors experienced higher levels of stress.

207 A ‘retrieval failure’ is a permanent loss of knowledge.

208 Learning by rote is memorizing by repetition.

209 Relaxation techniques can help a candidate to gain new knowledge.

210 Headings enable a complete image of an event to be recalled.

64 How to Master the IELTS

Questions 211 to 214

Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D for the questions based on Reading Passage 7.

211 To recall past events from notes it is helpful

A to place important points in sequence.
B to group information under headings.
C to construct partial images.
D to include a range of revision tools.

212 When revising for an examination it is helpful

A to use a range of memory aids.
B not to confuse facts with opinions.
C to include a slide presentation.
D to employ relaxation techniques.

213 A mnemonic is
A a verbal revision aid.
B an aural revision aid.
C a visual revision aid.
D a spelling revision aid.

214 A slide can help a speaker

A to make a confident start.
B to memorize a talk word for word.
C to recall essential information.
D to check the length of the speech.
 Exam Practice Test 6 Reading Passage 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.

Biofuels: are they the fuels of the future?

Many plants can be turned into biofuels - but which ones should we use and what
methods are best?

A microscopic algae grown in ponds or tanks has

largely been forgotten. Professor Rachel Burton
On paper, biofuels seem the ideal replacement
leader of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Plant
for oil, coal and gas, the fossil fuels we depend
Cell Walls at the University of Adelaide, thinks that
upon, and which drive global warming and disrupt
there is a smarter way forward for biofuels and
weather patterns by releasing carbon dioxide into
it starts with selecting the right crop for land not
the atmosphere. But the past decade has seen
usually used for agriculture. Burton and others
the biofuel industry face tough questions over
are looking to tough plants that grow on land
whether it can truly claim to be 'green' . One of
too dry or salty for conventional crops. Australia,
the biggest criticisms of biofuel crops - at least
for example, could turn to crops such as agave,
those that produce the fuel ethanol - has been
hemp or the native saltbush and wild-growing
their impact on food markets and on traditional
sorghum for the biofuels of the future, she says.
land use. Direct impacts - for example, cutting
down forests to make way for a biofuel crop - are D
usually obvious, says Professor Bill Laurance
Researchers must also consider economic
director of the Centre for Tropical Environme�tal
factors, however. While plant oils can be
and Sustainability Science at James Cook
extracted and turned into biodiesel for vehicles
University. But, in his experience, indirect impacts
and machinery, currently the process is very
can be no less devastating for the environment
expensive - much more so than the process for
and are far more of a challenge to anticipate.
fossil fuels. Dr Allan Green is innovation leader
B for bio-based products at CSIRO Agriculture
and Food. His solution is to make plants oilier by
Let's take Brazil, for example. When farmers in the
genetically altering them so that they produce
US opted out of soy in favour of corn as a biofuel
oil in their leaves, not just in their fruit or seeds.
crop, soy prices soared, suddenly making it an
With more oil being produced on a particular
attractive crop for Brazilian farmers. In turn, this
section of land by the same number of plants, it
�ncreased demand for freshly deforested cropland would become cheaper to harvest and extract
1n Brazil. Similar situations are occurring all over
the oil. The technology, which has so far only
the world. But while deforestation can certainly
been tested in tobacco, shows that oil production
l�ad to e�onomic benefits for farmers, it also puts
_ _ can be boosted to a third or more of a tobacco
b1od1vers1ty at nsk. Then, once a biofuel crop has
leaf's weight. If used in a different crop - one that
been planted on deforested land, farmers need to
already produces oil in its seeds or fruit - the
ensure that it grows as well as it can. That means
hope is that oil output could be doubled, though
applying large quantities of fertiliser, and while
that idea is yet to be put to the test.
this helps the plants to shoot up, there is also
the possibility it will lead to the contamination of E
local rivers.
A technology which is becoming increasingly
C popular in the biofuel industry is hydrothermal
liquefaction. This is a process which uses heat
Not all biofuels have been grown on land, but
and pressure to break apart molecules in whole
the once-popular idea of generating them from

Reading Passage 2 Exam Practice Test 6 liJII

Telegram: @ieltstarget7
plants and remove oxygen, so that the raw
material is turned into 'bio-crude oil'. Then, just as
we need to refine the crude oil made from fossil
fuels, the plant-based oil is also refined. After this,
it can then be turned into different kinds of fuel.
One advantage of the hydrothermal liquefaction
process is that many kinds of plant can be used.
And if this process could run on energy from solar
panels or wind farms, it would be much more
environmentally sustainable.
F
New processing technologies are giving biofuel
producers hope that, in future, they won't be
limited to plants designed to be biofuel-only crops.
Perhaps they will be able to choose species that
deliver added benefits or sources of income.
Hemp crops, for instance, could be used for their
oil, but also for their fibre. Some car manufacturers
- Exam Practice Test 6
Telegram: @ieltstarget7
have already used it as a soundproofing material
in their vehicles, and others may do the same. And
according to Kirsten Heimann, associate professor
at the College of Science and Engineering at
James Cook University, it might be possible,
say, for algae not just to act as a biofuel, but to
decontaminate water. Burton believes this kind
of multi-purpose use for biofuel crops is the way
forward. 'It's much more sophisticated thinking,'
she says. 'Biofuels maybe don't need to be as
cheap as we think they do, because you can
make money out of the other things.' Eventually,
the biofuel industry could well develop into a
very diverse one, with no one crop or process
dominating the market, according to Green.
'The amount of fuel we need to move away from
petroleum is massive, so there's plenty of space
for all technologies,' he says.
Reading Passage 2
Questions 14-19
Reading Passage 2 has six paragraphs, A-F.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
14 a theory about oil production which must still be proved
15 an overview of the stages in a particular biofuel manufacturing method
16 examples of the uses that biofuel crops might have apart from providing energy
17 an explanation of the way that fossil fuel use harms the environment
18 reference to a particular biofuel production method being abandoned
19 a comparison between the production costs for biofuels and for other kinds of fuel

Reading Passage 2 Exam Practice Test 6

Telegram: @ieltstarget7
 Questions 20-23
Look at the following statements (Questions 20-23} and the list of researchers below.
Match each statement with the correct researcher, A, B or C.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
20 It would be more cost-effective if a biofuel was used for a range of products.
21 It is not always easy to predict what effects the use of biofuels crops may have.
22 A variety of biofuel crops and manufacturing processes will be required
in future.
23 It would be best to use biofuel crops that can survive in difficult
environmental conditions.

List of researchers
A Professor Bill Laurance
B Professor Rachel Burton
C Dr Allan Green

Questions 24-26
Complete the sentences below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
24 The decision by US farmers to grow ........................................... had an effect on land
in Brazil.
25 ........................................... is threatened when trees are cut down so crops can
be planted.
26 Rivers may be polluted by the ........................................... that farmers use on
biofuel crops.

- Exam Practice Test 6 Reading Passage 2

Telegram: @ieltstarget7
книга выложена группой vk.com/englishlibrary
книга выложена группой vk.com/englishlibrary
книга выложена группой vk.com/englishlibrary
книга выложена группой vk.com/englishlibrary
книга выложена группой vk.com/englishlibrary
книга выложена группой vk.com/englishlibrary
книга выложена группой vk.com/englishlibrary
книга выложена группой vk.com/englishlibrary