IELTS Reading Easy Test 51-60

IELTS Reading Practice 51: The growth of bike-
sharing schemes around the world

A – The original idea for an urban bike-sharing scheme dates back to a summer’s day in Amsterdam in
1965. Provo, the organisation that came up with the idea, was a group of Dutch activists who wanted to
change society. They believed the scheme, which was known as the Witte Fietsenplan, was an answer to the
perceived threats of air pollution and consumerism. In the centre of Amsterdam, they painted a small
number of used bikes white. They also distributed leaflets describing the dangers of cars and inviting people
to use the white bikes. The bikes were then left unlocked at various locations around the city, to be used by
anyone in need of transport.
B – Luud Schimmelpennink, a Dutch industrial engineer who still lives and cycles in Amsterdam, was
heavily involved in the original scheme. He recalls how the scheme succeeded in attracting a great deal of
attention — particularly when it came to publicising Provo’s aims — but struggled to get off the ground.
The police were opposed to Provo’s initiatives and almost as soon as the white bikes were distributed around
the city, they removed them. However, for Schimmelpennink and for bike-sharing schemes in general, this
was just the beginning. ‘The first Witte Fietsenplan was just a symbolic thing,’ he says. ‘We painted a few
bikes white, that was all. Things got more serious when | became a member of the Amsterdam city council
two years later.’
C – Schimmelpennink seized this opportunity to present a more elaborate Witte Fietsenplan to the city
council. ‘My idea was that the municipality of Amsterdam would distribute 10,000 white bikes over the city,
for everyone to use,’ he explains. ‘| made serious calculations. It turned out that a white bicycle — per
person, per kilometre — would cost the municipality only 10% of what it contributed to public transport per
person per kilometre.’ Nevertheless, the council unanimously rejected the plan. ‘They said that the bicycle
belongs to the past. They saw a glorious future for the car,’ says Schimmelpennink. But he was not in the
least discouraged.
D – Schimmelpennink never stopped believing in bike-sharing, and in the mid-90s, two Danes asked for
his help to set up a system in Copenhagen. The result was the world’s first large-scale bike-share
programme. It worked on a deposit: ‘You dropped a coin in the bike and when you returned it, you got your
money back.’ After setting up the Danish system, Schimmelpennink decided to try his luck again in the
Netherlands — and this time he succeeded in arousing the interest of the Dutch Ministry of Transport.
‘Times had changed,’ he recalls. ‘People had become more environmentally conscious, and the Danish
experiment had proved that bike-sharing was a real possibility.’ A new Witte Fietsenplan was launched in
1999 in Amsterdam. However, riding a white bike was no longer free; it cost one guilder per trip and
payment was made with a chip card developed by the Dutch bank Postbank. Schimmelpennink designed
conspicuous, sturdy white bikes locked in special racks which could be opened with the chip card — the
plan started with 250 bikes, distributed over five stations.
E – Theo Molenaar, who was a system designer for the project, worked alongside Schimmelpennink. ‘|
remember when we were testing the bike racks, he announced that he had already designed better ones. But
of course, we had to go through with the ones we had.’ The system, however, was prone to vandalism and
theft. ‘After every weekend there would always be a couple of bikes missing,’ Molenaar says.‘| really have
no idea what people did with them, because they could instantly be recognised as white bikes.’ But the
biggest blow came when Postbank decided to abolish the chip card, because it wasn’t profitable. ‘That chip
card was pivotal to the system,’ Molenaar says. ‘To continue the project we would have needed to set up
another system, but the business partner had lost interest.’
F – Schimmelpennink was disappointed, but — characteristically — not for long. In 2002 he got a call
from the French advertising corporation JC Decaux, who wanted to set up his bike-sharing scheme in
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Vienna. ‘That went really well. After Vienna, they set up a system in Lyon. Then in 2007, Paris followed.
That was a decisive moment in the history of bike-sharing.’ The huge and unexpected success of the Parisian
bike-sharing programme, which now boasts more than 20,000 bicycles, inspired cities all over the world to
set up their own schemes, all modelled on Schimmelpennink’s. ‘It’s wonderful that this happened,’ he says.
‘But financially | didn’t really benefit from it, because | never filed for a patent.’
G – In Amsterdam today, 38% of all trips are made by bike and, along with Copenhagen, it is regarded as
one of the two most cycle-friendly capitals in the world — but the city never got another Witte Fietsenplan.
Molenaar believes this may be because everybody in Amsterdam already has a bike. Schimmelpennink,
however, cannot see that this changes Amsterdam’s need for a bike-sharing scheme. ‘People who travel on
the underground don’t carry their bikes around. But often they need additional transport to reach their final
destination.’ Although he thinks it is strange that a city like Amsterdam does not have a successful bike-
sharing scheme, he is optimistic about the future. ‘In the 60s we didn’t stand a chance because people were
prepared to give their lives to keep cars in the city. But that mentality has totally changed.
Questions 14 – 18
The Reading Passage has seven paragraphs, A-G. Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
14. a description of how people misused a bike-sharing scheme

15. an explanation of why a proposed bike-sharing scheme was turned down
16. a reference to a person being unable to profit from their work
17. an explanation of the potential savings a bike-sharing scheme would bring
18. a reference to the problems a bike-sharing scheme was intended to solve
Questions 19 and 20
Choose TWO letters, A-E.
Write the correct letters in boxes 19 and 20 on your answer sheet.
Which TWO of the following statements are made in the text about the Amsterdam bike-sharing scheme of
1999?
A. It was initially opposed by a government department.

B. It failed when a partner in the scheme withdrew support.
C. It aimed to be more successful than the Copenhagen scheme.
D. It was made possible by a change in people’s attitudes.
E. It attracted interest from a range of bike designers.
Questions 21 and 22
Choose TWO letters, A-E.

Write the correct letters in boxes 21 and 22 on your answer sheet.
Which TWO of the following statements are made in the text about Amsterdam today?
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A. The majority of residents would like to prevent all cars from entering the city.
B. There is little likelihood of the city having another bike-sharing scheme.
C. More trips in the city are made by bike than by any other form of transport.
D. A bike-sharing scheme would benefit residents who use public transport.
E. The city has a reputation as a place that welcomes cyclists.
Questions 23 – 26
Complete the summary below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 23-26 on your answer sheet.
The first urban bike-sharing scheme
The first bike-sharing scheme was the idea of the Dutch group Provo. The people who belonged to this
group were (23)…….…………. They were concerned about damage to the environment and about (24)
…….……………, and believed that the bike-sharing scheme would draw attention to these issues. As well
as painting some bikes white, they handed out (25)………….………. that condemned the use of cars.
However, the scheme was not a great success: almost as quickly as Provo left the bikes around the city,
the (26)………..……….. took them away. According to Schimmelpennink, the scheme was intended to be
symbolic. The idea was to get people thinking about the issues.
Answer: 19 & 20. B & D
21 & 22. D & E
14. E
23. activists
15. C
24. consumerism
16. F
25. leaflets
17. C
26. police
18. A
IELTS Reading Practice 52: The importance of

children’s play
Brick by brick, six-year-old Alice is building a magical kingdom. Imagining fairy-tale turrets and fire-
breathing dragons, wicked witches and gallant heroes, she’s creating an enchanting world. Although she
isn’t aware of it, this fantasy is helping her take her first steps towards her capacity for creativity and so it
will have important repercussions in her adult life.
Minutes later, Alice has abandoned the kingdom in favour of playing schools with her younger brother.
When she bosses him around as his ‘teacher’, she’s practising how to regulate her emotions through
pretence. Later on, when they tire of this and settle down with a board game, she’s learning about the need
to follow rules and take turns with a partner.
‘Play in all its rich variety is one of the highest achievements of the human species,’ says Dr David
Whitebread from the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge, UK. ‘It underpins how we
develop as intellectual, problem-solving adults and is crucial to our success as a highly adaptable species.’
Recognising the importance of play is not new: over two millennia ago, the Greek philosopher Plato extolled
its virtues as a means of developing skills for adult life, and ideas about play-based learning have been
developing since the 19th century.
But we live in changing times, and Whitebread is mindful of a worldwide decline in play, pointing out that
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over half the people in the world now live in cities. ‘The opportunities for free play, which I experienced
almost every day of my childhood, are becoming increasingly scarce,’ he says. Outdoor play is curtailed by
perceptions of risk to do with traffic, as well as parents’ increased wish to protect their children from being
the victims of crime, and by the emphasis on ‘earlier is better’ which is leading to greater competition in
academic learning and schools.
International bodies like the United Nations and the European Union have begun to develop policies
concerned with children’s right to play, and to consider implications for leisure facilities and educational
programmes. But what they often lack is the evidence to base policies on.
‘The type of play we are interested in is child-initiated, spontaneous and unpredictable – but, as soon as you
ask a five-year-old “to play”, then you as the researcher have intervened,’ explains Dr Sara Baker. ‘And we
want to know what the long-term impact of play is. It’s a real challenge.’
Dr Jenny Gibson agrees, pointing out that although some of the steps in the puzzle of how and why play is
important have been looked at, there is very little data on the impact it has on the child’s later life.
Now, thanks to the university’s new Centre for Research on Play in Education, Development and Learning
(PEDAL), Whitebread, Baker, Gibson and a team of researchers hope to provide evidence on the role played
by play in how a child develops.
‘A strong possibility is that play supports the early development of children’s self control,’ explains Baker.
‘This is our ability to develop awareness of our own thinking processes – it influences how effectively we go
about undertaking challenging activities.’
In a study carried out by Baker with toddlers and young pre-schoolers, she found that children with greater
self-control solved problems more quickly when exploring an unfamiliar set-up requiring scientific
reasoning. ‘This sort of evidence makes us think that giving children the chance to play will make them
more successful problemsolvers in the long run.’
If playful experiences do facilitate this aspect of development, say the researchers, it could be extremely
significant for educational practices, because the ability to self regulate has been shown to be a key predictor
of academic performance.
Gibson adds: ‘Playful behaviour is also an important indicator of healthy social and emotional development.
In my previous research, I investigated how observing children at play can give us important clues about
their well-being and can even be useful in the diagnosis of neurodevelopmental disorders like autism.’
Whitebread’s recent research has involved developing a play-based approach to supporting children’s
writing. ‘Many primary school children find writing difficult, but we showed in a previous study that a
playful stimulus was far more effective than an instructional one.’ Children wrote longer and better-
structured stories when they first played with dolls representing characters in the story. In the latest study,
children first created their story with Lego *, with similar results. ‘Many teachers commented that they had
always previously had children saying they didn’t know what to write about. With the Lego building,
however, not a single child said this through the whole year of the project.’
Whitebread, who directs PEDAL, trained as a primary school teacher in the early 1970s, when, as he
describes, ‘the teaching of young children was largely a quiet backwater, untroubled by any serious
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intellectual debate or controversy.’ Now, the landscape is very different, with hotly debated topics such as
school starting age.
‘Somehow the importance of play has been lost in recent decades. It’s regarded as something trivial, or even
as something negative that contrasts with “work”. Let’s not lose sight of its benefits, and the fundamental
contributions it makes to human achievements in the arts, sciences and technology. Let’s make sure children
have a rich diet of play experiences.’
__________________________________
* Lego: coloured plastic building blocks and other pieces that can be joined together
Questions 1-8:
Complete the notes below
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer:
Children’s play:
Uses of children’s play
· building a ‘magical kingdom’ may help develop 1 ………………..

· board games involve 2 ……………….. and turn-taking
Recent changes affecting children’s play
· populations of 3 ……………….. have grown

· opportunities for free play are limited due to:
– fear of 4 ………………..

– fear of 5 ………………..
– increased 6 ……………….. in schools
International policies on children’s play:
· it is difficult to find 7 ……………….. to support new policies

· research needs to study the impact of play on the rest of the child’s 8 ………………..

Questions 9-13:
Do the following statements agree with the information given on the reading passage?
In boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet, 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
9. Children with good self-control are known to be likely to do well at school later on.
10. The way a child plays may provide information about possible medical problems.
11. Playing with dolls was found to benefit girls’ writing more than boys’ writing.
12. Children had problems thinking up ideas when they first created the story with Lego.
13. People nowadays regard children’s play as less significant than they did in the past.
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Answer: 7. evidence
8. life
1. creativity
9. TRUE
2. rules
10. TRUE
3. cities
11. NOT GIVEN
4 & 5. traffic, crime [In either order]
12. FALSE
6. competition
13. TRUE
IELTS Reading Practice 53: Bright Children

A. By the time Laszlo Polgar’s first baby was born in 1969 he already had firm views on child-rearing. An
eccentric citizen of communist Hungary, he had written a book called “Bring up Genius!” and one of his
favourite sayings was “Geniuses are made, not born”. An expert on the theory of chess, he proceeded to
teach little Zsuzsa at home, spending up to ten hours a day on the game. Two more daughters were similarly
hot-housed. All three obliged their father by becoming world-class players. The youngest, Judit, is currently
ranked 13th in the world, and is by far the best female chess player of all time. Would the experiment have
succeeded with a different trio of children? If any child can be turned into a star, then a lot of time and
money are being wasted worldwide on trying to pick winners.
B. America has long held “talent searches”, using test results and teacher recommendations to select
children for advanced school courses, summer schools and other extra tuition. This provision is set to grow.
In his state-of-the-union address in 2006, President George Bush announced the “American Competitiveness
Initiative”, which, among much else, would train 70,000 high-school teachers to lead advanced courses for
selected pupils in mathematics and science. Just as the superpowers’ space race made Congress put money
into science education, the thought of China and India turning out hundreds of thousands of engineers and
scientists is scaring America into prodding its brightest to do their best.
C. The philosophy behind this talent search is that ability is innate; that it can be diagnosed with
considerable accuracy; and that it is worth cultivating. In America, bright children are ranked as
“moderately”, “highly”, “exceptionally” and “profoundly” gifted. The only chance to influence innate ability
is thought to be in the womb or the first couple of years of life. Hence the fad for “teaching aids” such as
videos and flashcards for newborns, and “whale sounds” on tape which a pregnant mother can strap to her
belly.
D. In Britain, there is a broadly similar belief in the existence of innate talent, but also an egalitarian
sentiment which makes people queasy about the idea of investing resources in grooming intelligence.
Teachers are often opposed to separate provision for the best-performing children, saying any extra help
should go to stragglers. In 2002, in a bid to help the able while leaving intact the ban on most selection by
ability in state schools, the government set up the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth. This
outfit runs summer schools and master classes for children nominated by their schools. To date, though, only
seven in ten secondary schools have nominated even a single child. Last year all schools were told they must
supply the names of their top 10%.
E. Picking winners is also the order of the day in ex-communist states, a hangover from the times when
talented individuals were plucked from their homes and ruthlessly trained for the glory of the nation. But in
many other countries, opposition to the idea of singling out talent and grooming it runs deep. In Scandinavia,
a belief in virtues like modesty and social solidarity makes people flinch from the idea of treating brainy
children differently.
F. And in Japan, there is a widespread belief that all children are born with the same innate abilities – and
should, therefore, be treated alike. All are taught together, covering the same syllabus at the same rate until
they finish compulsory schooling. Those who learn quickest are expected then to teach their classmates. In
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China, extra teaching is provided, but to a self-selected bunch. “Children’s palaces” in big cities offer a huge
range of after-school classes. Anyone can sign up; all that is asked is excellent attendance.
G. Statistics give little clue as to which system is best. The performance of the most able is heavily affected
by factors other than state provision. Most state education in Britain is nominally non-selective, but middle-
class parents try to live near the best schools. Ambitious Japanese parents have made private, out-of-school
tuition a thriving business. And Scandinavia’s egalitarianism might work less well in places with more
diverse populations and less competent teachers. For what it’s worth, the data suggest that some countries –
like Japan and Finland, see table – can eschew selection and still thrive. But that does not mean that any
country can ditch selection and do as well.
H. Mr Polgar thought any child could be a prodigy given the right teaching, an early start and enough
practice. At one point he planned to prove it by adopting three baby boys from a poor country and trying his
methods on them. (His wife vetoed the scheme.) Some say the key to success is simply hard graft. Judit, the
youngest of the Polgar sisters, was the most driven, and the most successful; Zsofia, the middle one, was
regarded as the most talented, but she was the only one who did not achieve the status of grandmaster.
“Everything came easiest to her,” said her older sister. “But she was lazy.”
Questions 29-34
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?
YES if the statement agrees with the view of the writer.
NO if the statement contradicts the view of the writer.
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this.
29. America has a long history of selecting talented students into different categories.
30. Teachers and schools in Britain held welcome attitude towards the government’s selection of gifted
students.
31. Some parents agree to move near reputable schools in Britain.
32. Middle-class parents participate in their children’s education.
33. Japan and Finland comply with selected student’s policy.
34. Avoiding-selection-policy only works in a specific environment.
Questions 35-36
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
35. What’s Laszlo Polgar’s point of view towards geniuses of children
A) Chess is the best way to train geniuses.
B) Genius tends to happen on first child.
C) Geniuses can be educated later on.
D) Geniuses are born naturally.
36. What is the purpose of citing Zsofia’s example in the last paragraph
A) Practice makes genius.
B) Girls are not good at chess.
C) She was an adopted child.
D) Middle child is always the most talented.
Questions 37-41
Use the information in the passage to match the countries (listed A-E) with correct connection below.
Write the appropriate letters, A-E, in boxes 37-41 on your answer sheet.
37. Less gifted children get help from other classmates
38. Attending extra teaching is open to anyone
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39. People are reluctant to favor gifted children due to social characteristics
40. Both views of innate and egalitarian co-existed
41. Craze of audio and video teaching for pregnant women.
A. Scandinavia
B. Japan
C. Britain
D. China
E. America
Answer: 35. C
36. A
29. YES
37. B
30. NO
38. D
31. YES
39. A
32. NOT GIVEN
40. C
33. NO
41. E
34. YES
IELTS Reading Practice 54: The Ingenuity Gap

Ingenuity, as I define it here, consists not only of ideas for new technologies like computers or drought-
resistant crops but, more fundamentally, of ideas for better institutions and social arrangements, like
efficient markets and competent governments.
How much and what kinds of ingenuity a society requires depends on a range of factors, including the
society’s goals and the circumstances within which it must achieve those goals—whether it has a young
population or an ageing one, an abundance of natural resources or a scarcity of them, an easy climate or a
punishing one, whatever the case may be.
How much and what kinds of ingenuity a society supplies also depends on many factors, such as the nature
of human inventiveness and understanding, the rewards an economy gives to the producers of useful
knowledge, and the strength of political opposition to social and institutional reforms.
A good supply of the right kind of ingenuity is essential, but it isn’t, of course, enough by itself. We know
that the creation of wealth, for example, depends not only on an adequate supply of useful ideas but also on
the availability of other, more conventional factors of production, like capital and labor. Similarly,
prosperity, stability and justice usually depend on the resolution, or at least the containment, of major
political struggles over wealth and power. Yet within our economies ingenuity often supplants labor, and
growth in the stock of physical plant is usually accompanied by growth in the stock of ingenuity. And in our
political systems, we need great ingenuity to set up institutions that successfully manage struggles over
wealth and power. Clearly, our economic and political processes are intimately entangled with the
production and use of ingenuity.
The past century’s countless incremental changes in our societies around the planet, in our technologies and
our interactions with our surrounding natural environments, have accumulated to create a qualitatively new
world. Because these changes have accumulated slowly, it’s often hard for us to recognize how profound
and sweeping they’ve been. They include far larger and denser populations; much higher per capita
consumption of natural resources; and far better and more widely available technologies for the movement
of people, materials, and especially information.
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In combination, these changes have sharply increased the density, intensity, and pace of our interactions
with each other; they have greatly increased the burden we place on our natural environment; and they have
helped shift power from national and international institutions to individuals in subgroups, such as political
special interests and ethnic factions.
As a result, people in all walks of life—from our political and business leaders to all of us in our day-to-day
—must cope with much more complex, urgent, and often unpredictable circumstances. The management of
our relationship with this new world requires immense and ever-increasing amounts of social and technical
ingenuity. As we strive to maintain or increase our prosperity and improve the quality of our lives, we must
make far more sophisticated decisions, and in less time, than ever before.
When we enhance the performance of any system, from our cars to the planet’s network of financial
institutions, we tend to make it more complex. Many of the natural systems critical to our well-being, like
the global climate and the oceans, are extraordinarily complex, to begin with. We often can’t predict or
manage the behavior of complex systems with much precision, because they are often very sensitive to the
smallest of changes and perturbations, and their behavior can flip from one mode to another suddenly and
dramatically. In general, as the human-made and natural systems, we depend upon becoming more complex,
and as our demands on them increase, the institutions and technologies we use to manage them must become
more complex too, which further boosts our need for ingenuity.
The good news, though, is that the last century’s stunning changes in our societies and technologies have not
just increased our need for ingenuity; they have also produced a huge increase in its supply. The growth and
urbanization of human populations have combined with astonishing new communication and transportation
technologies to expand interactions among people and produce larger, more integrated, and more efficient
markets. These changes have, in turn, vastly accelerated the generation and delivery of useful ideas.
But—and this is the critical “but”—we should not jump to the conclusion that the supply of ingenuity
always increases in lockstep with our ingenuity requirement: while it’s true that necessity is often the mother
of invention, we can’t always rely on the right kind of ingenuity appearing when and where we need it. In
many cases, the complexity and speed of operation of today’s vital economic, social, and ecological systems
exceed the human brain’s grasp. Very few of us have more than a rudimentary understanding of how these
systems work. They remain fraught with countless “unknown unknowns,” which makes it hard to supply the
ingenuity we need to solve problems associated with these systems.
In this book, I explore a wide range of other factors that will limit our ability to supply the ingenuity
required in the coming century. For example, many people believe that new communication technologies
strengthen democracy and will make it easier to find solutions to our societies’ collective problems, but the
story is less clear than it seems. The crush of information in our everyday lives is shortening our attention
span, limiting the time we have to reflect on critical matters of public policy, and making policy arguments
more superficial.
Modern markets and science are an important part of the story of how we supply ingenuity. Markets are
critically important because they give entrepreneurs an incentive to produce knowledge. As for science,
although it seems to face no theoretical limits, at least in the foreseeable future, practical constraints often
slow its progress. The cost of scientific research tends to increase as it delves deeper into nature. And
science’s rate of advance depends on the characteristic of the natural phenomena it investigates, simply
because some phenomena are intrinsically harder to understand than others, so the production of useful new
knowledge in these areas can be very slow. Consequently, there is often a critical time lag between the
recognition between a problem and the delivery of sufficient ingenuity, in the form of technologies, to solve
that problem. Progress in the social sciences is especially slow, for reasons we don’t yet understand; but we
desperately need better social scientific knowledge to build the sophisticated institutions today’s world
demands.
Questions 15-18
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Complete each sentence with the appropriate answer, A, B, C, or D.
Write the correct answer in boxes 15-18 on your answer sheet
15. The definition of ingenuity
16. The requirement for ingenuity
17. The creation of social wealth
18. The stability of society
A. depends on many factors including climate.
B. depends on the management and solution of disputes.
C. is not only of technological advance but more of institutional renovation.
D. also depends on the availability of some traditional resources.
Questions 19-21
Write your answers in boxes 19-21 on your answer sheet
19. What does the author say about the incremental change of the last 100 years?
A. It has become a hot scholastic discussion among environmentalists.
B. Its significance is often not noticed.=
C. It has reshaped the natural environments we live in.
D. It benefited a much larger population than ever.
20. The combination of changes has made life:
A. easier
B. faster
C. slower
D. less sophisticated
21. What does the author say about the natural systems?
A. New technologies are being developed to predict change with precision.
B. Natural systems are often more sophisticated than other systems.
C. Minor alterations may cause natural systems to change dramatically.
D. Technological developments have rendered human being more independent of natural systems.
Questions 22-28
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage?
22. The demand for ingenuity has been growing during the past 100 years.
23. The ingenuity we have may be inappropriate for solving problems at hand.
24. There are very few who can understand the complex systems of the present world.
25. More information will help us to make better decisions.
26. The next generation will blame the current government for their conduct.
27. Science tends to develop faster in certain areas than others.
28. Social science develops especially slowly because it is not as important as natural science.
Answer: 20. B
21. C
15. C
22. TRUE
16. A
23. TRUE
17. D
24. TRUE
18. B
25. FALSE
19. B
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26. NOT GIVEN 27. TRUE
28. FALSE
IELTS Reading Practice 55: Tickling and

Laughter
A. The fingers of an outstretched aim are nearing your body; you bend away folding your torso, bending
your head to your shoulder in hopes that you don’t get tickled; but the inevitable occurs: yon arc tickled and
in hysterics you chuckle, titter, and burst into uncontrollable laughter. Why do we laugh when we are
tickled?
B. Tickling is caused by a light sensation across our skin. At times the light sensation can cause itching;
however, most of the time it causes giggling. If a feather is gently moved across the surface of the skin, it
can also cause tickling and giggling. Heavy laughter is caused by someone or something placing repeated
pressure on a person and tickling a particular area. The spots tickled often are feet, toes, sides, underarms,
and neck which cause a great deal of laughter. Yngve Zotterman from Karolinska Institute has found that
tickling sensations involve signals from nerve fibers. These nerve fibers are associated with pain and touch.
Also, Zotterman has discovered tickling sensations to be associated not only with nerve fibers but also with
sense of touch because people who have lost pain sensations still laugh when tickled. But really, why do we
laugh? Why are we not able to tickle ourselves? What part of the brain is responsible for laughter and
humor? Why do we say some people have no sense of humor?
C. Research has shown that laughter is more than just a person’s voice and movement and that it requires
the coordination of many muscles throughout the body. Laughter also increases blood pressure and heart
rate, changes breathing, reduces levels of certain neurochemicals (catecholamines, hormones) and provides a
boost to dying immune system. Can laughter improve health? It may be a good way for people to relax
because muscle tension is reduced after laughing. Human tests have found some evidence that humorous
videos and tapes can reduce feelings of pain, prevent negative stress reactions and boost the brain’s
biological battle against infection.
D. Researchers believe we process humor and laughter through a complex pathway of brain activity that
encompasses three main brain components. In one new study, researchers used imaging equipment to
photograph die brain activity of healthy volunteers while they underwent a sidesplitting assignment of
reading written jokes, viewing cartoons from The New Yorker magazine as well as “The Far Side” and
listening to digital recordings of laughter. Preliminary results indicate that the humor-processing pathway
includes parts of the frontal lobe brain area, important for cognitive processing the supplementary motor
area, important for movement; and the nucleus accumbens, associated with pleasure. Investigations support
the notion that parts of the frontal lobe are involved in humor. Subjects’ brains were imaged while they were
listening to jokes. An area of the frontal lobe was activated only when they thought a joke was funny. In a
study that compared healthy individuals with people who had damage to their frontal lobes, the subjects with
damaged frontal lobes were more likely to choose wrong punch lines to written jokes and didn’t laugh or
smile as much at funny cartoons or jokes.
E. Even though we may know more about what parts of the brain are responsible for humor, it is still hard
to explain why we don’t laugh or giggle when we tickle ourselves. Darwin theorized within “The
Expressions of the Emotions in Man and Animals” that there was a link between tickling and laughter
because of the anticipation of pleasure. Because we cannot tickle ourselves and have caused laughter,
Darwin speculated surprise from another person touching a sensitive spot must have caused laughter. Some
scientists believe that laughing caused by tickling is a built-in reflex even babies have. If we tickle ourselves
Page 11 of 26
in the same spot as our friend tickled us, we do not laugh as we did previously. The information sent to our
spinal cord and brain should be exactly the same. Apparently, for tickling to work, the brain needs tension
and surprise. When we tickle ourselves, we know exactly what will happen…there is no tension or surprise.
How the brain uses this information about tension and surprise is still a mystery, but there is some evidence
that the cerebellum may be involved. Because one part of the brain tells another: “It’s just you. Don’t get
excited”. Investigations suggest that during self-tickling, the cerebellum tells an area called the
somatosensory cortex what sensation to expect, and that dampens the tickling sensation. It looks as if the
killjoy is found in the cerebellum. Further explorations to understand tickling and laughter were conducted
by Christenfeld and Harris. Within ‘The Mystery of Ticklish Laughter and “Can a Machine Tickleyn they
explained that people laughed equally whether tickled by a machine or by a person. The participants were
not aware that who or what was tickling them. However, the laughter was equally resounded. It is suggested
that tickling response is a reflex, which, like Darwin suggested earlier, is dependent on the element of
surprise.
F. Damage to any one part of the brain may affect one’s overall ability to process humor. Peter Derks, a
professor of psychology, conducted his research with a group of scientists at NASA-Langley in Hampton.
Using a sophisticated electroencephalogram (EEG), they measured the brain activity of 10 people exposed
to humorous stimuli. How quickly our brain recognizes the incongruity that deals with most humor and
attaches an abstract meaning to it determines whether we laugh. However, different people find different
jokes funny. That can be due to a number of factors, including differences in personality, intelligence,
mental state and probably mood. But according to Derks, the majority of people recognize when a situation
is meant to be humorous. In a series of experiments, he noticed that several patients recovering from brain
injuries could not distinguish between something funny and something not.
G. Dr. Shibata of the University of Rochester School of Medicine said our neurons get tickled when we
hear a joke. The brain’s ‘Tunny bone” is located at the right frontal lobe just above the right eye and appears
critical to our ability to recognize a joke. Dr. Shibata gave his patients MRI scans to measure brain activity,
trying to find out what part of the brain is particularly active while telling the punch line of a joke as
opposed to the rest of the joke and funny cartoons in comparison to parts of the cartoons that are not funny.
The jokes “tickled” the frontal lobes. The scans also showed activity in the nucleus accumbens, which is
likely related to our feeling of mirth after hearing a good joke and our “addiction” to humor. While his
research was about humor, the results could help lead to answers and solutions to depression. Parts of the
brain that are active during humor are actually abnormal in patients with depression. Eventually, brain scans
might be used to assess patients with depression and other mood disorders. The research may also explain
why some stroke victims lose their sense of humor or suffer from other personality changes. The same part
of the brain is also associated with social and emotional judgment and planning.
Questions 1-7
The Reading Passage has 7 paragraphs, A-G.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the appropriate letter, A-G, in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet.
NB you may use any letter more than once.
1. Location of a brain section essential to the recognition of jokes
2. Laughter enhances immunity
3. Individual differences and the appreciation of humour
4. Parts of the brain responsible for tickling reflex
5. Neuropsychological mechanisms by which humor and laughter work
6. The connection between tickling and nerve fibers
7. Patients with emotional disorders
Questions 8-11
Look at the following researchers (listed 8-11) and findings (listed A-F).
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Match each researcher with the correct finding(s).
NB There are more findings than researchers.
You may choose more than one finding for any of the researchers.
A. The surprise factor, combined with the anticipation of pleasure, cause laughter when tickled.
B. Laughing caused by tickling is a built-in reflex even babies have.
C. People also laugh when tickled by a machine if they are not aware of it.
D. People have different tastes for jokes and humour.
E. Jokes and funny cartoons activates the frontal lobes.
F. Tickling sensations involve more than nerve fibers.
8. Darwin
9. Christenfeld and Harris
10. Yngve Zotterman
11. Peter Derks
Questions 12-14
Complete the summary below using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each blank.
Researchers believe three brain components to be involved in the processing of humor and laughter Results
from one study using brain 12 ……………… indicate that parts of the brain responsible
for 13 ……………… movement and pleasure are involved through a sophisticated pathway. Test subjects
who suffered from frontal lobes damages had greater chances of picking 14 ……………… of jokes or did
not respond to funny cartoons or jokes.
Answer: 7. G
8. A
1. G
9. C
2. C
10. F
3. F
11. D
4. E
12. imaging equipment
5. D
13. cognitive processing
6. B
14. wrong punch lines
IELTS Reading Practice 56: Is Photography Art?

This may seem a pointless question today. Surrounded as we are by thousands of photographs, most of us
take for granted that, in addition to supplying information and seducing customers, camera images also serve
as decoration, afford spiritual enrichment, and provide significant insights into the passing scene. But in the
decades following the discovery of photography, this question reflected the search for ways to fit the
mechanical medium into the traditional schemes of artistic expression.
The much-publicized pronouncement by painter Paul Delaroche that the daguerreotype* signalled the end of
painting is perplexing because this clever artist also forecast the usefulness of the medium for graphic artists
in a letter written in 1839. Nevertheless, it is symptomatic of the swing between the outright rejection and
qualified acceptance of the medium that was fairly typical of the artistic establishment. Discussion of the
role of photography in art was especially spirited in France, where the internal policies of the time had
created a large pool of artists, but it was also taken up by important voices in England. In both countries,
public interest in this topic was a reflection of the belief that national stature and achievement in the arts
were related.
From the maze of conflicting statements and heated articles on the subject, three main positions about the
potential of camera art emerged. The simplest, entertained by many painters and a section of the public, was
that photographs should not be considered ‘art’ because they were made with a mechanical device and by
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physical and chemical phenomena instead of by human hand and spirit; to some, camera images seemed to
have more in common with fabric produced by machinery in a mill than with handmade creations fired by
inspiration. The second widely held view, shared by painters, some photographers, and some critics, was
that photographs would be useful to art but should not be considered equal in creativeness to drawing and
painting. Lastly, by assuming that the process was comparable to other techniques such as etching and
lithography, a fair number of individuals realized that camera images were or could be as significant as
handmade works of art and that they might have a positive influence on the arts and on culture in general.
Artists reacted to photography in various ways. Many portrait painters – miniaturists in particular – who
realized that photography represented the ‘handwriting on the wall’ became involved with daguerreotyping
or paper photography in an effort to save their careers; some incorporated it with painting, while others
renounced painting altogether. Still other painters, the most prominent among them the French painter, Jean-
Auguste-Dominique Ingres, began almost immediately to use photography to make a record of their own
output and also to provide themselves with source material for poses and backgrounds, vigorously denying
at the same time its influence on their vision or its claims as art.
The view that photographs might be worthwhile to artists was enunciated in considerable detail by Lacan
and Francis Wey. The latter, an art and literary critic, who eventually recognised that camera images could
be inspired as well as informative, suggested that they would lead to greater naturalness in the graphic
depiction of anatomy, clothing, likeness, expression, and landscape. By studying photographs, true artists, he
claimed, would be relieved of menial tasks and become free to devote themselves to the more important
spiritual aspects of their work.
Wey left unstated what the incompetent artist might do as an alternative, but according to the influential
French critic and poet Charles Baudelaire, writing in response to an exhibition of photography in 1859, lazy
and untalented painters would become photographers. Fired by a belief in art as an imaginative embodiment
of cultivated ideas and dreams, Baudelaire regarded photography as ‘a very humble servant of art and
science’; a medium largely unable to transcend ‘external reality’. For this critic, photography was linked
with ‘the great industrial madness’ of the time, which in his eyes exercised disastrous consequences on the
spiritual qualities of life and art.
Eugene Delacroix was the most prominent of the French artists who welcomed photography as help-mate
but recognized its limitations. Regretting that ‘such a wonderful invention’ had arrived so late in his lifetime,
he still took lessons in daguerreotyping, and both commissioned and collected photographs. Delacroix’s
enthusiasm for the medium can be sensed in a journal entry noting that if photographs were used as they
should be, an artist might ‘raise himself to heights that we do not yet know’.
The question of whether the photograph was document or art aroused interest in England also. The most
important statement on this matter was an unsigned article that concluded that while photography had a role
to play, it should not be ‘constrained’ into ‘competition’ with art; a more stringent viewpoint led critic Philip
Gilbert Hamerton to dismiss camera images as ‘narrow in range, emphatic in assertion, telling one truth for
ten falsehoods’.
These writers reflected the opposition of a section of the cultural elite in England and France to the
‘cheapening of art’ which the growing acceptance and purchase of camera pictures by the middle class
represented. Technology made photographic images a common sight in the shop windows of Regent Street
and Piccadilly in London and the commercial boulevards of Paris. In London, for example, there were at the
time some 130 commercial establishments where portraits, landscapes, and photographic reproductions of
works of art could be bought. This appeal to the middle class convinced the elite that photographs would
foster a desire for realism instead of idealism, even though some critics recognized that the work of
individual photographers might display an uplifting style and substance that was consistent with the defining
characteristics of art.
These writers reflected the opposition of a section of the cultural elite in England and France to the
‘cheapening of art’ which the growing acceptance and purchase of camera pictures by the middle class
Page 14 of 26
represented. Technology made photographic images a common sight in the shop windows of Regent Street
and Piccadilly in London and the commercial boulevards of Paris. In London, for example, there were at the
time some 130 commercial establishments where portraits, landscapes, and photographic reproductions of
works of art could be bought. This appeal to the middle class convinced the elite that photographs would
foster a desire for realism instead of idealism, even though some critics recognized that the work of
individual photographers might display an uplifting style and substance that was consistent with the defining
characteristics of art.
* the name given to the first commercially successful photographic images.

Questions 27-30
27. What is the writer’s main point in the first paragraph?
A. photography is used for many different purposes.

B. photographers and artists have the same principal aims.
C. Photography has not always been a readily accepted art form.
D. photographers today are more creative than those of the past.
28. What public view about artists was shared by the French and the English?
A. that only artists could reflect a culture’s true values

B. that only artists were qualified to judge photography
C. that artists could lose work as a result of photography
D. that artist success raised a country’s international profile
29. What does the writer mean by “the handwriting on the wall” in the second line of paragraph 4?
A. an example of poor talent

B. a message that cannot be trusted
C. an advertisement for something new
D. a signal that something bad will happen
30. What was the result of the widespread availability of photographs to the middle classes?
A. The most educated worried about its impact on public taste.

B. It helped artists appreciate the merits of photography.
C. Improvements were made in photographic methods.
D. It led to a reduction in the price of photographs.

Questions 31-34
Complete the summary of Paragraph 3 using the list of words, A-G, below.

A) inventive C) beneficial E) mixed G) inferior
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B) similar D) next F) justified

Camera art
In the early days of photography, opinions on its future were 31 ………………………., but three clear
views emerged. A large number of artists and ordinary people saw photographs as 32
………………………. to paintings because of the way they were produced. Another popular view was that
photographs could have a role to play in the art world, despite the photographer being
less 33…………………………. Finally, a smaller number of people suspected that the impact of
photography on art and society could be 34………………………
Questions 35-40
Look at the following statements and the list of people, A-E, below.
Match each statement with the correct person.

Write the correct letter, A-E, in boxes 35-40 on your answer sheet.
35. He claimed that photography would make paintings more realistic.
36. He highlighted the limitations and deceptions of the camera.
37. He documented his production of artwork by photographing his works.
38. He noted the potential for photography to enrich artistic talent.
39. He based some of the scenes in his paintings on photographs.
40. He felt photography was part of the trend towards greater mechanisation.
A. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

B. Francis Wey
C. Charles Baudelaire
D. Eugene Delacroix
E. Philip Gilbert Hamerton
Answer: 33. A
34. C
27. C
35. B
28. D
36. E
29. D
37. A
30. A
38. D
31. E
39. A
32. G
40. C
IELTS Reading Practice 57: The changing role of

airports
Airports continue to diversify their role in an effort to generate income. Are business meeting facilities the
next step? Nigel Halpern, Anne Graham and Rob Davidson investigate.
A
In recent times developing commercial revenues has become more challenging for airports due to a
combination of factors, such as increased competition from Internet shopping, restrictions on certain sales,
such as tobacco, and new security procedures that have had an impact on the dwell time of passengers.
Page 16 of 26
Moreover, the global economic downturn has caused a reduction in passenger numbers while those that are
travelling generally have less money to spend. This has meant that the share subsequently declined slightly.
Meanwhile, the pressures to control the level of aeronautical revenues are as strong as ever due to the poor
financial health of many airlines and the rapid rise of the low-cost carrier sector.
B
Some of the more obvious solutions to growing commercial revenues, such as extending the merchandising
space or expanding the variety of shopping opportunities, have already been tried to their limit at many
airports. A more radical solution is to find new sources of commercial revenue within the terminal, and this
has been explored by many airports over the last decade or so. As a result, many terminals are now much
more than just shopping malls and offer an array of entertainment, leisure, and beauty and wellness
facilities. At this stage of facilities provision, the airport also has the possibility of talking on the role of the
final destination rather than merely a facilitator of access.
C
At the same time, airports have been developing and expanding the range of services that they provide
specifically for the business traveller in the terminal. This includes offering business centres that supply
support services, meeting or conference rooms and other space for special events. Within this context, Jarach
(2001) discusses how dedicated meetings facilities located within the terminal and managed directly by the
airport operator may be regarded as an expansion of the concept of airline lounges or as a way to reconvert
abandoned or underused areas of terminal and managed directly by the airport hotels and other facilities
offered in the surrounding area of the airport that had the potential to take on this role and become active as
a business space (McNeill, 2009).
D
When an airport location can be promoted as a business venue, this may increase the overall appeal of the
airport and help it become more competitive in both attracting and retaining airlines and their passengers. In
particular, the presence of meeting facilities could become one of the determining factors taken into
consideration when business people are choosing airlines and where they change their planes. This enhanced
attractiveness itself may help to improve the airport operator’s financial position and future prospects, but
clearly, this will be dependent on the competitive advantage that the airport is able to achieve in comparison
with other venues.
E
In 2011, an online airport survey was conducted and some of the areas investigated included the provision
and use of meeting facilities at airports and the perceived role and importance of these facilities in
generating income and raising passenger numbers. In total, there were responses from staff at 154 airports
and 68% of these answered “yes” to the question: Does your airport own and have meetings facilities
available for hire? The existence of meeting facilities, therefore, seems high at airports. In addition, 28% of
respondents that did not have meeting facilities stared that they were likely to invest in them during the next
five years. The survey also asked to what extent respondents agreed or disagreed with a number of
statements about asked the meeting facilities at their airport. 49% of respondents agreed that they would
invest more in the immediate future. These are fairly high proportions considering the recent economic
climate.
F
The survey also asked airport with meeting facilities to estimate what proportion of users are from the local
area. i.e. within a 90-minute drive from the airport, or from abroad. Their findings show that meeting
facilities provided by the majority of respondents tend to serve local versus non-local or foreign needs. 63%
of respondents estimated that over 60% of users are from the local area. Only 3% estimated that over 80% of
users are from abroad. It is therefore not surprising that the facilities are of limited importance when it
comes to increasing use of fights at the airports: 16% of respondents estimated that none of the users of
Page 17 of 26
their meeting facilities uses fights when travelling to or from them, while 56% estimated that 20% or fewer
of the users of their facilities use fights.
G
The survey asked respondents with meeting facilities to estimate how much revenue their airport earned
from its meeting facilities during the last financial year. Average revenue per airport was just $12,959.
Meeting facilities are effectively a non-aeronautical source of airport revenue. Only 1% of respondents
generated more than 20% non-aeronautical revenue from their meetings facilities; none generated more than
40%. Given the focus on local demand, it is not surprising that less than a third of respondents agreed that
their meeting facilities support business and tourism development in their home region or country.
H
The findings of this study suggest that few airports provide meetings facilities as a serious commercial
venture. It may be that, as owners of large property, space is available for meeting facilities at airports and
could play an important role in serving the needs of the airport, its partners, and stakeholders such as
government and the local community. Thus, while the local orientation means that competition with other
airports is likely to be minimal, competition with local providers of meetings facilities is likely to be much
greater.

Questions 14-18
The text has eight paragraphs, A-H.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet.
N.B. You may use any letter more than once.
14. evidence that a significant number of airports provide meeting facilities.

15. a statement regarding the fact that no further developments are possible in some areas of airport trade.
16. reference to the low level of income that meeting facilities produce for airports.
17. mention of the impact of budget airlines on airport income.
18. examples of airport premises that might be used for business purposes.

Questions 19-22
Complete the sentences below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the text for each answer.
19. The length of time passengers spend shopping at airports has been affected by updated ………………
20. Airports with a wide range of recreational facilities can become a ……………… for people rather than
a means to travel.
21. Both passengers and ……………… may feel encouraged to use and develop a sense of loyalty towards
airports that market their business services.
22. Airports that supply meeting facilities may need to develop a ……………… over other venues.
Questions 23-26
Complete the summary below.
Page 18 of 26
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the text for each answer.
Survey Findings
Despite financial constraints due to the 23 ………………, a significant percentage of airport provide and
wish to further support business meeting facilities. Also, just under 30% of the airports surveyed plan to
provide these facilities within 24 ……………… however, the main users of the facilities are 25
……………… and as many as 16% of respondents to the survey stated that their users did not take any 26
……………… at the airport..
Answer: 20. final destination
21. airlines
14. E
22. competitive advantage
15. B
23. economic downturn/climate
16. G
24. five years
17. A
25. local (people)
18. C
26. flights
19. security procedure
IELTS Reading Practice 58: The Dover Bronze-

Age Boat
A beautifully preserved boat, made around 3,000 years ago and discovered by chance in a muddy hole, has
had a profound impact on archaeological research.
It was 1992. In England, workmen were building a new road through the heart of Dover, to connect the
ancient port and the Channel Tunnel, which, when it opened just two years later, was to be the first land link
between Britain and Europe for over 10,000 years. A small team from the Canterbury Archaeological Trust
(CAT) worked alongside the workmen, recording new discoveries bought to light by the machines.
At the base of the deep shaft six meters below the modern streets, a wooden structure was revealed.
Cleaning away the waterlogged site overlying the timbers, archaeologists realized its true nature. They had
found a prehistoric boat, preserved by the type of sediment in which it was buried. It was then named by
Dover Bronze- Age Boat.
About nine meters of the boat’s length was recovered; one end lay beyond the excavation and had to be left.
What survived consisted essentially of four intricately carved oak planks: two on the bottom, joined along a
central seam by a complicated system of wedges and stitched to the others. The seams had been made
watertight by pads of moss, fixed by wedges and yew stitches.
The timbers that closed the recovered end of the boat had been removed in antiquity when it was abandoned,
but much about its original shape could be deduced. There was also evidence for missing upper side planks.
The boat was not a wreck, but had been deliberately discarded, dismantled and broken. Perhaps it had been
“ritually killed” at the end of its life, like other Bronze-Age objects.
With hindsight, it was significant that the boat was found and studied by mainstream archaeologists who
naturally focused on its cultural context. At the time, ancient boats were often considered only from a
narrower technological perspective, but news about the Dover boat reached a broad audience. In 2002, on
the tenth anniversary of the discovery, the Dover Bronze-Age Boat Trust hosted a conference, where this
meeting of different traditions became apparent. Alongside technical papers about the boat, other speakers
explored its social and economic contexts, and the religious perceptions of boats in Bronze- Age societies.
Many speakers came from overseas, and debate about cultural connections was renewed.
Page 19 of 26
Within seven years of excavation, the Dover boat had been conserved and displayed, but it was apparent that
there were issues that could not be resolved simply by studying the old wood. Experimental archaeology
seemed to be the solution: a boat reconstruction, half-scale or full-sized, would permit assessment of the
different hypotheses regarding its build and the missing end. The possibility of returning to Dover to search
for a boat’s unexcavated northern end was explored, but practical and financial difficulties were
insurmountable- and there was no guarantee that the timbers had survived the previous decade in the
changed environment.
Detailed proposals to reconstruct the boat were drawn up in 2004. Archaeological evidence was beginning to
suggest a Bronze- Age community straddling the Channel, brought together by the sea, rather than separated
by it. In a region today divided by languages and borders, archaeologists had a duty to inform the general
public about their common cultural heritage.
The boat project began in England but it was conceived from the start as a European collaboration.
Reconstruction was only part of a scheme that would include a major exhibition and an extensive
educational and outreach programme. Discussions began early in 2005 with archaeological bodies,
universities and heritage organizations either side of the Channel. There was much enthusiasm and support,
and an official launch of the project was held at an international seminar in France in 2007. Financial
support was confirmed in 2008 and the project then named BOAT 1550BC got under way in June 2011.
A small team began to make the boat at the start of 2012 on the Roman Lawn outside Dover museum. A
full- scale reconstruction of a mid-section had been made in 1996, primarily to see how Bronze- Age replica
tools performed. In 2012, however, the hull shape was at the centre of the work, so modern power tools were
used to carve the oak planks, before turning to prehistoric tools for finishing. It was decided to make the
replica haft-scale for reasons of cost and time, any synthetic materials were used for the stitching, owing to
doubts about the scaling and tight timetable.
Meanwhile, the exhibition was being prepared ready for opening in July 2012 at the Castle Museum in
Boulogne-sur-Mer. Entitled ‘Beyond the Horizon: Societies of the Channel & North Sea 3,500 years ago’ it
brought together for the first time a remarkable collection of Bronze- Age objects, including many new
discoveries for commercial archaeology and some of the great treasure of the past. The reconstructed boat,
as a symbol of the maritime connections that bound together the communities either side of the Channel,
was the centrepiece.

Questions 1-5 Complete the chart below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the text for each answer.


Key events
1992- the boat was discovered during the construction of a 1……………
2002-an international 2…………… was held to gather information
2004- 3……………. for the reconstruction were produced
2007- the 4…………… Of BOAT 1550BC took place
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2012- the Bronze-Age 5…………… featured the boat and other objects
Questions 6-9
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the text?

6. Archaeologists realized that the boat had been damaged on purpose.
7. Initially, only the technological aspects of the boat were examined.
8. Archaeologists went back to the site to try and find the missing northern.
9. Evidence found in 2004 suggested that the Bronze-Age Boat had been used for trade.
Questions 10-13
Answer the questions below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the text for each answer.
10. How far under the ground was the boat found?
11. What natural material had been secured to the boat to prevent water entering?
12. What aspect of the boat was the focus of the 2012 reconstruction?
13. Which two factors influenced the decision not to make a full-scale reconstruction of the boat?
Answer: 7. FALSE
8. FALSE
1. road
9. NOT GIVEN
2. conference
10. 6/six meters/meters/m
3. proposals
11. (pads of) moss
4. launch
12. (the) hull (shape)
5. exhibition
13. cost and time
6. TRUE
IELTS Reading Practice 59: Sugar and other

sweeteners
The sweetness of a substance results from physical contact between that substance and the many thousand
taste buds of the tongue. The taste buds are clustered around several hundred small, fleshy protrusions
called taste papilla which provide a large surface area for the taste buds and ensure maximum contact with a
substance.
Although there are many millions of olfactory cells in the nose, taste is a more intense experience than
smell; food technologists believe this is because of the strong pleasure relationship between the brain and
food. And it is universally acknowledged that sweetness is the ultimate pleasurable taste sensation. For
example, the French writer Marcel Proust is famous for using this idea in his work: eating a particular cake
by chance one day brings back extremely vivid memories of childhood for the narrator of his epic In Search
of Past Time. The words ‘sugar’, ‘honey’ and ‘sweetie’ are used by lovers as terms of endearment.
Pregnant women can often ward off morning sickness by eating something sweet. In Tudor times*, to have
Page 21 of 26
teeth blackened by decay from eating too much sugar was seen as a desirable characteristic open only to the
rich and aristocratic upper class. Even recently, with the harm sugar can do much more widely known,
advertisers have managed to create demand for sweet-tasting cakes with the catch-phrase ‘naughty but nice’.
Despite the attraction of all things sugary, however, no-one is sure what exactly makes a substance sweet.
Nature is abundant with sweet foodstuffs, the most common naturally occurring substance being fructose,
which is found in almost all fruits and berries and is the main component of honey. Of course, once eaten,
all foods provide one or more of the three basic food components – protein, fat and carbohydrate – which
eventually break down (if and when required) to supply the body with the essential sugar glucose. Nature
also supplies us with sucrose, a naturally occurring sugar within the sugar cane plant, which was discovered
and exploited many centuries BC. Sucrose breaks down into glucose within the body. Nowadays, this white
sugar is the food industry standard taste for sugar – the benchmark against which all other sweet tastes are
measured. In the U.S.A. a number of foods, and especially soft drinks, are commonly sweetened with High
Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), derived from corn starch by a process developed in the late 1960s. And man
has further added to nature’s repertoire by developing a dozen or so artificial sweetening agents that are
considered harmless, non-active chemicals with the additional property of sweetness (see Figure 1), to cater
for his sweet tooth.
There is, indeed, an innate desire in humans (and some animals) to seek out and enjoy sweet-tasting foods.
Since sweet substances provide energy and sustain life, they have always been highly prized. All food
manufacturers capitalise on this craving for sweetness by flavouring most processed foods with carefully
measured amounts of sugar in one form or another. The maximum level of sweetness that can be attained
before the intrinsic taste of the original foodstuff is lost or unacceptably diminished is, in each case,
determined by trial and error.
Furthermore, the most acceptable level of sweetness for every product -that which produces the optimum
amount of pleasure for most people – is surprisingly constant, even across completely different cultures.
This probably goes a long way towards explaining the almost universal appeal of Coca-Cola. (Although the
type of sugar used in soft drinks differs from group to group, the intensity and, therefore, pleasure invoked
by such drinks remains fixed within a fairly narrow range of agreement.)
Artificial sweeteners cannot match the luxurious smoothness and mouth-feel of white sugar. Even corn
syrup has a slightly lingering after-taste. The reason why food technologists have not yet been able to create
a perfect alternative to sucrose (presumably a non-kilojoule-producing substitute) is simple. There is no
molecular structure yet known that predisposes towards sweetness. In fact, there is no way to know for
certain if a substance will taste sweet or even taste of anything at all. Our currently available artificial
sweeteners were all discovered to be sweet purely by accident.
* The Tudor time is the period between 1485 and 1603 in England and Wales and includes the Elizabethan
period during the reign of Elizabeth I until 1603.
Page 22 of 26
Figure 1. Commercial Sweeteners. Relative to sucrose – base 1.0.

Questions 1-5
Refer to Reading Passage 334 “Sugar and Other Sweeteners“, and look at Questions 1 – 5 below.
Write your answers in boxes 1-5 on your Answer Sheet.
The first one has been done for you as an example.

Example: What do the letters HFCS stand for?
Answer: ……High Fructose Corn Syrup……
1 & 2. There are TWO naturally occurring sugar substances mentioned in the article other than sucrose.
What are they?
3. What does the food industry consider to be the perfect sweetener?
4. & 5. Name the TWO most recent artificial sweeteners listed in Figure 1.
Questions 6-15
The following paragraphs summarise the reading passage. Choose the ONE most appropriate word from the
box below the paragraphs to complete each blank space.
Write your answers in boxes 6- 15 on your answer sheet.

The first one has been done for you as an example.
NB. NO WORD CAN BE USED MORE THAN ONCE.

Sugar tastes sweet because of thousands of receptors on the tongue which connect the substance with the
brain. The taste of sweetness is universally ……(Ex:) accepted…… as the most pleasurable known,
although it is a ……(6)…… why a substance tastes sweet. ……(7)….. is the most naturally occurring sugar,
sources of which include ……(8)…… and honey. Sucrose, which supplies ……(9)…… to the body, is
extracted from the sugar-cane plant, and white sugar (pure sucrose) is used by food ……(10)…… to
measure sweetness in other ……(11)…… . Approximately a dozen artificial sweeteners have been ……(12)
……; one of the earliest was Sorbitol from France.
Manufacturers often add large amounts of sugar to foodstuffs but never more than the ……(13)……
required to produce the optimum pleasurable taste. Surprisingly, this amount is ……(14)…… for different
people and in different cultures. No-one has yet discovered a way to predict whether a substance will taste
sweet, and it was by chance alone that all the man-made ……(15)…… sweeteners were found to be sweet.
glucose sweetened different technology fructose
mystery artificially technologists maximum commonly
chemical best substances discovered accepted
fruit chemist similar
Page 23 of 26
Answer: 9. glucose
10. technologists
1. & 2. fructose, glucose [ in either order]
11. substances
3. white sugar/ sucrose.
12. discovered
4. & 5. Aspartame (NutraSweet), Cyclamate.
13. maximum
6. mystery
14. similar
7. fructose
15. chemical
8. fruit
IELTS Reading Practice 60: Age-proofing our

brains
A. While it may not be possible to completely age-proof our brains, a brave new world of anti-aging
research shows that our gray matter may be far more flexible than we thought. So no one, no matter how
old, has to lose their mind. The brain has often been called the three-pound universe. It’s our most powerful
and mysterious organ, the seat of the self, laced with as many billions of neurons as the galaxy has stars. No
wonder the mere notion of an aging, failing brain—and the prospect of memory loss, confusion, and the
unraveling of our personality—is so terrifying. As Mark Williams, M.D., author of The American Geriatrics
Society’s Complete Guide to Aging and Health, says, “The fear of dementia is stronger than the fear of
death itself.” Yet the degeneration of the brain is far from inevitable. ” Its design features are such that it
should continue to function for a lifetime,” says Zaven Khachaturian, Ph.D., director of the Alzheimer1s
Association1s Ronald and Nancy Reagan Research Institute. “There’s no reason to expect it to deteriorate
with age, even though many of us are living longer lives.” In fact, scientists ‘ view of the brain1s potential is
rapidly changing, according to Stanford University neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky, Ph.D.
“Thirty-five years ago we thought Alzheimer1 s disease was a dramatic version of normal aging. Now we
realize it1s a disease with a distinct pathology. In fact, some people simply don’t experience any mental
decline, so we’ve begun to study them.” Antonio Damasio, M.D., Ph.D., head of the Department of
Neurology at the University of Iowa and author of Descartes’ Error, concurs. “Older people can continue to
have extremely rich and healthy mental lives.’
B. The seniors were tested in 1988 and again in 1991. Four factors were found to be related to their mental
fitness: levels of education and physical activity, lung function, and feelings of self-efficacy “Each of these
elements alters the way our brain functions,“ says Marilyn Albert, Ph.D. , of Harvard Medical School, and
colleagues from Yale, Duke, and Brandeis Universities and the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, who
hypothesizes that regular exercise may actually stimulate blood flow to the brain and nerve growth, both of
which create more densely branched neurons, rendering the neurons stronger and better able to resist
disease. Moderate aerobic exercise, including long brisk walks and frequently climbing stairs, will
accomplish this.
C. Education also seems to enhance brain function. People who have challenged themselves with at least a
college education may actually stimulate the neurons in their brains. Moreover, native intelligence may
protect our brains. It’s possible that smart people begin life with a greater number of neurons, and therefore
have a greater reserve to fall back on if some begin to fail. “If you have a lot of neurons and keep them busy,
you may be able to tolerate more damage to your brain before it shows,” says Peter Davies, M.D., of the
Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York. Early linguistic ability also seems to help our
brains later in life. A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine looked at 93 elderly nuns and
examined the autobiographies they had written 60 years earlier, just as they were joining a convent. The
Page 24 of 26
nuns whose essays were complex and dense with ideas remained sharp into their eighties and nineties.
D. Finally, personality seems to play an important role in protecting our mental prowess. A sense of self-
efficacy may protect our brain, buffeting it from the harmful effects of stress. According to Albert, there’ s
evidence that elevated levels of stress hormones may harm brain cells and cause the hippocampus—a small
seahorse-shaped organ that1s a crucial moderator of memory—to atrophy. A sense that we can effectively
chart our own course in the world may retard the release of stress hormones and protect us as we age. “It’ s
not a matter of whether you experience stress or not, ” Albert concludes, “it’s your attitude toward it. ”
Reducing stress by meditating on a regular basis may buffer the brain as well. It also increases the activity of
the brain’ s pineal gland, the source of the antioxidant hormone melatonin, which regulates sleep and may
retard the aging process. Studies at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center and the University of
Western Ontario found that people who meditated regularly had higher levels of melatonin than those who
took 5-milligram supplements Another study, conducted jointly by Maharishi International University,
Harvard University, and the University of Maryland, found that seniors who meditated for three months
experienced dramatic improvements in their psychological well-being, compared to their non-meditative
peers.
E. Animal studies confirm that both mental and physical activity boost brain fitness. At the Beckman
Institute for Advanced Science and Technology in Urbana, Illinois， psychologist William Greenough, Ph.
D., let some rats play with a profusion of toys. These rodents developed about 25 percent more connections
between their neurons than did rats that didn’t get any mentally stimulating recreation. In addition, rats that
exercised on a treadmill developed more capillaries in specific parts of their brains than did their sedentary
counterparts. This increased the blood flow to their brains. “Clearly the message is to do as many different
flyings as possible,” Greenough says.
F. It’s not just scientists who are catching the anti-aging fever. Walk into any health food store, and you111
find nutritional formulas —with names like Brainstorm and Smart ALEC—that claim to sharpen mental
ability. The book Smart Drugs & Nutrients, by Ward Dean, M.D., and John Morgenthaler, was self-
published in 1990 and has sold over 120,000 copies worldwide. It has also spawned an underground network
of people tweaking their own brain chemistry with nutrients and drugs—the latter sometimes obtained from
Europe and Mexico. Sales of ginkgo —an extract from the leaves of the 200-million-year-old ginkgo tree,
which has been shown in published studies to increase oxygen in the brain and ameliorate symptoms of
Alzheimer‘ s disease—are up by 22 percent in the last six months alone, according to Paddy Spence,
president of SPINS, a San Francisco-based market research firm. Indeed, products that increase and preserve
mental performance are a small but emerging segment of the supplements industry, says Linda Gilbert,
president of Health Focus, a company that researches consumer health trends. While neuroscientists like
Khachaturian liken the use of these products to the superstition of tossing salt over your shoulder, the public
is nevertheless gobbling up nutrients that promise cognitive enhancement.

Questions 28-31 Choose the Four correct letters among A-G.
Which of the FOUR situations or conditions assisting the Brains’ function?
A. Preventive treatment against Alzheimer’s disease

B. Doing active aerobic exercise and frequently climbing stairs
C. High levels of education
D. Early verbal or language competence training
Page 25 of 26
E. Having more supplements such as ginkgo tree
F. Participate in more physical activity involving in stimulating tasks
G. Personality and feelings of self-fulfillment

Questions 32-39
A. Zaven Khachaturian
B. William Greenough
Use the information in the passage to match the people
C. Marilyn Albert
(listed A-G) with opinions or deeds below.
D. Robert Sapolsky
Write the appropriate letters A-G in boxes 32-39 on your
E. Linda Gilbert
answer sheet.
F. Peter Davies
NB you may use any latter more than once
G. Paddy Spence
32. Alzheimer’s was probably a kind of disease rather than a normal aging process.
33. Keeping neurons busy, people may be able to endure more harm to your brain
34. Regular exercises boost blood flow to the brain and increase anti-disease disability.
35. Significant increase of Sales of ginkgo has been shown.
36. More links between their neurons are found among stimulated animals.
37. Effectiveness of the use of brains supplements products can be of little scientific proof.
38. Heightened levels of stress may damage brain cells and cause part of brain to deteriorate.
39. Products that upgrade and preserve mental competence are still a newly developing industry.
Questions 40 Choose the correct letters among A-D. Write your answers in box 40 on your answer sheet.
According to the passage, what is the most appropriate title for this passage?
A. Making our minds last a lifetime

B. amazing pills of the ginkgo
C. how to stay healthy in your old hood
D. more able a brain and neurons
Answer: 34. C
35. G
28. C
36. B
29. D
37. A
30. F
38. C
31. G
39. E
32. D
40. A
33. F
Page 26 of 26

IELTS Reading Easy Test 51-60

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IELTS Reading Practice 51: The growth of bike-

sharing schemes around the world

Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

14. a description of how people misused a bike-sharing scheme

Write the correct letters in boxes 19 and 20 on your answer sheet.

A. It was initially opposed by a government department.

The first urban bike-sharing scheme

IELTS Reading Practice 52: The importance of

· building a ‘magical kingdom’ may help develop 1 ………………..

Recent changes affecting children’s play

· populations of 3 ……………….. have grown

– fear of 4 ………………..

International policies on children’s play:

· it is difficult to find 7 ……………….. to support new policies

In boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

IELTS Reading Practice 53: Bright Children

IELTS Reading Practice 54: The Ingenuity Gap

IELTS Reading Practice 55: Tickling and

IELTS Reading Practice 56: Is Photography Art?

* the name given to the first commercially successful photographic images.

27. What is the writer’s main point in the first paragraph?

A. photography is used for many different purposes.

A. that only artists could reflect a culture’s true values

A. an example of poor talent

A. The most educated worried about its impact on public taste.

Complete the summary of Paragraph 3 using the list of words, A-G, below.

A) inventive C) beneficial E) mixed G) inferior

Look at the following statements and the list of people, A-E, below.

Match each statement with the correct person.

A. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

IELTS Reading Practice 57: The changing role of

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet.

N.B. You may use any letter more than once.

14. evidence that a significant number of airports provide meeting facilities.

Write your answers in boxes 19-22 on your answer sheet.

IELTS Reading Practice 58: The Dover Bronze-

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the text for each answer.

2002-an international 2…………… was held to gather information

2004- 3……………. for the reconstruction were produced

2007- the 4…………… Of BOAT 1550BC took place

In boxes 6-9 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

IELTS Reading Practice 59: Sugar and other

Write your answers in boxes 1-5 on your Answer Sheet.

The first one has been done for you as an example.

Write your answers in boxes 6- 15 on your answer sheet.

NB. NO WORD CAN BE USED MORE THAN ONCE.

IELTS Reading Practice 60: Age-proofing our

Which of the FOUR situations or conditions assisting the Brains’ function?

A. Preventive treatment against Alzheimer’s disease

A. Making our minds last a lifetime

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