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IELTS Reading Test 4

Section 1

Instructions to follow
 You should spend 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on Reading Passage 1

Bondi Beach

A. Bondi Beach, Australia’s most famous beach, is located in the suburb of Bondi, in the
Local Government Area of Waverley, seven kilometers from the centre of Sydney.
“Bondi” or “Boondi” is an Aboriginal word meaning water breaking over rocks or the
sound of breaking waves. The Australian Museum records that Bondi means a place
where a flight of nullas took place. There are Aboriginal Rock carvings on the northern
end of the beach at Ben Buckler and south of Bondi Beach near McKenzies Beach on the
coastal walk.

B. The indigenous people of the area at the time of European settlement have generally
been welcomed as the Sydney people or the Eora (Eora means “the people”). One
theory describes the Eora as a sub-group of the Darug language group which occupied
the Cumberland Plain west to the Blue Mountains. However, another theory suggests
that they were a distinct language group of their own. There is no clear evidence for the
name or names of the particular band(s) of the Eora that roamed what is now the
Waverley area. A number of place names within Waverley, most famously Bondi, have
been based on words derived from Aboriginal languages of the Sydney region.

C. From the mid-1800s Bondi Beach was a favourite location for family outings and picnics.

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The beginnings of the suburb go back to 1809, when the early road builder, William
Roberts, received from Governor Bligh a grant of 81 hectares of what is now most of the
business and residential area of Bondi Beach. In 1851, Edward Smith Hall and Francis
O’Brien purchased 200 acres of the Bondi area that embraced almost the whole
frontage of Bondi Beach, and it was named the “The Bondi Estate.” Between 1855 and
1877 O’Brien purchased Hall’s share of the land, renamed the land the “O’Brien Estate,”
and made the beach and the surrounding land available to the public as a picnic ground
and amusement resort. As the beach became increasingly popular, O’Brien threatened
to stop public beach access. However, the Municipal Council believed that the
Government needed to intervene to make the beach a public reserve.

D. During the 1900s beach became associated with health, leisure and democracy – a
playground everyone could enjoy equally. Bondi Beach was a working-class suburb
throughout most of the twentieth century with migrant people from New Zealand
comprising the majority of the local population. The first tramway reached the beach in
1884. Following this, the tram became the first public transportation in Bondi. As an
alternative, this action changed the rule that only rich people can enjoy the beach. By
the 1930s Bondi was drawing not only local visitors but also people from elsewhere in
Australia and overseas. Advertising at the time referred to Bondi Beach as the
“Playground of the Pacific”.

E. There is a growing trend that people prefer having to relax near the seaside instead of
living unhealthily in cities. The increasing popularity of sea bathing during the late 1800s
and early 1900s raised concerns about public safety and how to prevent people from
drowning. In response, the world’s first formally documented surf lifesaving club, the
Bondi Surf Bathers’ Life Saving Club, was formed in 1907. This was powerfully reinforced
by the dramatic events of “Black Sunday” at Bondi in 1938. Some 35,000 people were on

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the beach and a large group of lifesavers were about to start a surf race when three
freak waves hit the beach, sweeping hundreds of people out to sea. Lifesavers rescued
300 people. The largest mass rescue in the history of surf bathing, it confirmed the place
of the lifesaver in the national imagination.

F. Bondi Beach is the endpoint of the City to Surf Fun Run which is held each year in
August. Australian surf carnivals further instilled this image. A Royal Surf Carnival was
held at Bondi Beach for Queen Elizabeth II during her first visit to Australia in 1954. Since
1867, there have been over fifty visits by a member of the British Royal Family to
Australia. In addition to many activities, the Bondi Beach Markets are open every
Sunday. Many wealthy people spend Christmas Day at the beach. However, the
shortage of houses occurs when lots of people are crushed to the seaside. Manly is the
seashore town which solved this problem. However, people still choose Bondi as the
satisfied destination rather than Manly.

G. Bondi Beach has a commercial area along Campbell Parade and adjacent side streets,
featuring many popular cafes, restaurants, and hotels, with views of the contemporary
beach. It is depicted as wholly modern and European. In the last decade, Bondi Beaches’
unique position has seen a dramatic rise in svelte houses and apartments to take
advantage of the views and scent of the sea. The valley running down to the beach is
famous world-over for its view of distinctive red-tiled roofs. Those architectures are
deeply influenced by British coastal town.

H. Bondi Beach hosted the beach volleyball competition at the 2000 Summer Olympics. A
temporary 10,000-seat stadium, a much smaller stadium, 2 warm-up courts, and 3
training courts were set up to host the tournament. The Bondi Beach Volleyball Stadium
was constructed for it and stood for just six weeks. Campaigners oppose both the social

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and environmental consequences of the development. The stadium will divide the beach
in two and seriously restrict public access for swimming, walking, and other forms of
outdoor recreation. People protest for their human rights of having a pure seaside and
argue for healthy life in Bondi.

I. “They’re prepared to risk lives and risk the Bondi beach environment for the sake of
eight days of volleyball”, said Stephen Uniacke, a construction lawyer involved in the
campaign. Other environmental concerns include the possibility that soil dredged up
from below the sand will acidify when brought to the surface.

Questions 1-5

Instructions to follow
 Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage? In boxes 1-5 on
your answer sheet, write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information FALSE
if the statement contradicts with the information NOT
GIVEN if there is no information on this

The name of the Bondi beach is first called by the British settlers.
The aboriginal culture in Australia is different when compared with European culture.

Bondi beach area holds many contemporary hotels

The seaside town in Bondi is affected by British culture for its characteristic red color
Living near Bondi seashore is not beneficial for health.

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Questions 6-9

Instructions to follow
 Answer the question below using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR NUMBERS from the
passage for each answer.
 Write your answers in boxes 6-9 on your answer sheet.

At the end of the 19th century, which public transport did people use to go to Bondi?
When did the British Royalty first visit Bondi?
Which Olympic event did Bondi hold in the 2000 Sydney Olympic games?
What would be damaged if the stadium was built for that Olympic event?

Questions 10-13

Instructions to follow
 Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage, using NO MORE THAN
TWO WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer.
 Write your answers in boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet.

Summary:

Bondi beach holds the feature sports activities every year, which attracts lots of
……………………. Choosing to live at this place during the holidays. But local
accommodation cannot meet with the expanding population, a nearby town of
…………………. is the first suburb site to support the solution, yet people prefer
…………………… as their best choice. Its seaside buildings are well-known in the world for the
special scenic colored..................................on buildings and the joyful smell from the sea.

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Section 2

Instructions to follow
 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26 which are based on Reading Passage 2.

Back To The Future Of Skyscraper Design

Answers to the problem of excessive electricity use by skyscrapers and large public buildings can
be found in ingenious but forgotten architectural designs of the 19th and early-20th centuries

A. The Recovery of Natural Environments in Architecture by Professor Alan Short is the

culmination of 30 years of research and award-winning green building design by Short
and colleagues in Architecture, Engineering, Applied Maths and Earth Sciences at the
University of Cambridge.

‘The crisis in building design is already here,’ said Short. ‘Policy makers think you can
solve energy and building problems with gadgets. You can’t. As global temperatures
continue to rise, we are going to continue to squander more and more energy on
keeping our buildings mechanically cool until we have run out of capacity.’

B. Short is calling for a sweeping reinvention of how skyscrapers and major public buildings
are designed – to end the reliance on sealed buildings which exist solely via the ‘life
support’ system of vast air conditioning units.

Instead, he shows it is entirely possible to accommodate natural ventilation and cooling

in large buildings by looking into the past, before the widespread introduction of air

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conditioning systems, which were ‘relentlessly and aggressively marketed’ by their

inventors.

C. Short points out that to make most contemporary buildings habitable, they have to be
sealed and air conditioned. The energy use and carbon emissions this generates is
spectacular and largely unnecessary. Buildings in the West account for 40-50% of
electricity usage, generating substantial carbon emissions, and the rest of the world is
catching up at a frightening rate. Short regards glass, steel and air-conditioned
skyscrapers as symbols of status, rather than practical ways of meeting our
requirements.

D. Short’s book highlights a developing and sophisticated art and science of ventilating
buildings through the 19th and earlier-20th centuries, including the design of
ingeniously ventilated hospitals. Of particular interest were those built to the designs of
John Shaw Billings, including the first Johns Hopkins Hospital in the US city of Baltimore
(1873-1889).

‘We spent three years digitally modelling Billings’ final designs,’ says Short. ‘We put
pathogens* in the airstreams, modelled for someone with tuberculosis (TB) coughing in
the wards and we found the ventilation systems in the room would have kept other
patients safe from harm.
—————-
* Pathogens: microorganisms that can cause disease

E. ‘We discovered that 19th-century hospital wards could generate up to 24 air changes an
hour – that’s similar to the performance of a modern-day, computer-controlled
operating theatre. We believe you could build wards based on these principles now.

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Single rooms are not appropriate for all patients. Communal wards appropriate for
certain patients – older people with dementia, for example – would work just as well in
today’s

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hospitals, at a fraction of the energy cost.’ Professor Short contends the mindset and
skill- sets behind these designs have been completely lost, lamenting the disappearance
of expertly designed theatres, opera houses, and other buildings where up to half the
volume of the building was given over to ensuring everyone got fresh air.

F. Much of the ingenuity present in 19th-century hospital and building design was driven
by a panicked public clamouring for buildings that could protect against what was
thought to be the lethal threat of miasmas – toxic air that spread disease. Miasmas were
feared as the principal agents of disease and epidemics for centuries, and were used to
explain the spread of infection from the Middle Ages right through to the cholera
outbreaks in London and Paris during the 1850s. Foul air, rather than germs, was
believed to be the main driver of ‘hospital fever’, leading to disease and frequent death.
The prosperous steered clear of hospitals.

While miasma theory has been long since disproved, Short has for the last 30 years
advocated a return to some of the building design principles produced in its wake.

G. Today, huge amounts of a building’s space and construction cost are given over to air
conditioning. ‘But I have designed and built a series of buildings over the past three
decades which have tried to reinvent some of these ideas and then measure what
happens.

‘To go forward into our new low-energy, low-carbon future, we would be well advised to
look back at design before our high-energy, high-carbon present appeared. What is
surprising is what a rich legacy we have abandoned.’

H. Successful examples of Short’s approach include the Queen’s Building at De Montfort

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University in Leicester. Containing as many as 2,000 staff and students, the entire
building is naturally ventilated, passively cooled and naturally lit, including the two
largest auditoriums, each seating more than 150 people. The award-winning building
uses a fraction of the electricity of comparable buildings in the UK.

Short contends that glass skyscrapers in London and around the world will become a
liability over the next 20 or 30 years if climate modelling predictions and energy price
rises come to pass as expected.

I. He is convinced that sufficiently cooled skyscrapers using the natural environment can
be produced in almost any climate. He and his team have worked on hybrid buildings in
the harsh climates of Beijing and Chicago – built with natural ventilation assisted by
back-up air conditioning – which, surprisingly perhaps, can be switched off more than
half the time on milder days and during the spring and autumn.

Short looks at how we might reimagine the cities, offices and homes of the future. Maybe
it’s time we changed our outlook.

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Questions 14-19

Instructions to follow
 Reading Passage 2 has nine section, A-I. Which section contains the following
information?
 Write the correct letter, A-I, in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet.

why some people avoided hospitals in the 19th century

a suggestion that the popularity of tall buildings is linked to prestige

a comparison between the circulation of air in a 19th-century building and modern

standards

how Short tested the circulation of air in a 19th-century building

an implication that advertising led to the large increase in the use of air conditioning

the building design crisis has already arrived.

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Questions 20-27

Instructions to follow
 Complete the summary below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
 Write your answers in boxes 20-27 on your answer sheet.

Ventilation in 19th-century hospital wards

Professor Alan Short examined the work of John Shaw Billings, who influenced the
architectural
. ……………………… of hospitals to ensure they had good ventilation. He calculated
that.............................in the air coming from patients suffering from
……………………… would not have harmed other patients. He also found that the air in
…………………………. in hospitals could change as often as in a modern operating theatre. He
suggests that energy use could be reduced by locating more patients in
.………………………. areas.

A major reason for improving ventilation in 19th-century hospitals was the demand from the
………………………….. for protection against bad air, known as.........................................These were
blamed for the spread of disease for hundreds of years, including epidemics of
…………………………… in London and Paris in the middle of the 19th century.

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Section 3

Instructions to follow
 You should spend 20 minutes on Questions 28-40 which are based on Reading Passage 3

Much Ado About Almost Nothing

A. “The time for discussion of the rights and wrongs of GM crops has passed. Intense and
consistent economic sabotage and intimidation are what will make the
commercialisation of GM crops an unattractive option.”

B. Words like these, from an article in the current edition of Earth First!, a radical
environmental journal, send shivers down the spines of those involved in
commercialising biotechnology. The strength of public disapproval of genetically
modified organisms (GMOs) was a shock and a surprise to most of those involved. Now,
some people are wondering whether nanotechnology – a term that covers the
manipulation of matter at scales of a millionth of a millimetre – could be in for similar
treatment and, if so, whether there are lessons that its protagonists can learn from the
public backlash against biotechnology.

C. Profit of doom
In a neglected corner, amid thousands of participants at a Nanotech conference held in
Boston last week, Jeffrey Matsuura, a law professor at the University of Dayton, in
Ohio, stood next to his unprepossessing poster of his work. His warning, however, was
pertinent to everyone there – especially the investors who were scouring the
conference for opportunities. And this is that several of the factors that created a
public backlash against

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biotechnology are already at work within nanotechnology. Dr. Matsuura says that
biotechnologists assumed that the public would quickly recognise and appreciate
biotech’s potential for improving the quality of life. Instead, the risks captured the
attention of the media and much of the general public. Well-fed European consumers
met the suggestion of cheaper food, in particular, with scepticism. Many felt that the
gains would accrue to the companies which had developed GMOs, while the risks of
growing and consuming the crops would be taken on by the public.

D. Dr. Matsuura believes that public perception of nanotechnology is developing along a

similar track. Like those of biotechnology, the first applications of nanotechnology will
bring little obvious benefit to consumers. Better, cheaper materials, and hidden
manufacturing efficiencies that benefit producers first, are redolent of the ‘advantages’
of biotech – namely reduced applications of agricultural chemicals, which help to keep
the cost down while raising yields. Obvious consumer benefits, such as improvements in
medicine, are further away.

E. This should not matter – consumers do benefit eventually, even from cost savings. And
yet, in alliance with a feeling that there are hazards involved, an absence of immediate
benefits could turn public opinion against nanotech quite rapidly. And potential hazards
there are. Concerns over out-of-control, self- replicating ‘nanobots’ that would
eventually consume and transform the entire planet into a ‘grey goo’ are absurd. And
yet, it is true that novel ‘nanoparticles’ might have real toxicological risks.

F. Nanoparticles are so small that, if inhaled, they could become lodged in the lungs. In
theory, they are small enough to enter living cells and accumulate there. And in January
Ken Donaldson, a professor of respiratory toxicology at the University of Edinburgh, told

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a Royal Institution seminar in London that, once inhaled, ultrafine carbon particles
can move to the brain and blood.

G. There are already several products that use nanoparticles already on the market, such as
sunscreen and car parts. Though all this may sound alarming, people are already
exposed to nanoparticles of many different kinds, and have been throughout history.
Soot, for example, is composed of carbon nanoparticles. Nevertheless, nanoparticles
from sources such as diesel soot, welding fumes and photocopier toner are already
associated with ill- health. The prospect of more such particles is likely to worry many.
No wonder that several people at the conference in Boston mentioned the need to
address public fears over nanotechnology “aggressively”

H. One of these was Clayton Teague, the director of America’s National Nanotechnology
Co- ordination Office. He says the American government is as sensitive to any indication
of true health risk as any member of the public. Several large and well-funded studies on
the environmental and health risks of nanotechnology are now under way.

I. Dr. Teague adds that any decisions about nanotechnology will be made carefully and
based on solid scientific data. But even if science gives the go-ahead, another one of Dr.
Matsuura’s lessons is that this might not necessarily win the day, and that fear over
potential abuses and accidents may dominate the debate.

J. One piece of advice Dr. Matsuura gives is that everyone involved should have a
consistent message. If investors are told a technology will change the world, someone
who is concerned about the risks cannot then be told that the same technology is no big

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deal. It

strikes a false note to say that something can be both revolutionary and nothing to
worry about, he says. Such inconsistencies will breed public mistrust and fear.

K. Product placement
Donald Reed is a senior consultant with Ecos, a business-advisory firm based in Sydney,
Australia, that acts as an intermediary between corporations and activists. Mr. Reed
goes as far as to recommend that companies think about the early products they
choose to pursue – in particular, whether they can demonstrate the “societal value” of
these products. For example, it might be worth emphasising that one of the early
products of nanotechnology could be cheap and efficient photovoltaic materials,
which are used to generate electricity from sunlight.

Questions 28-31

Instructions to follow
 Look at the following people and the list of statements below. Match each person with the
correct statement.

Clayton Teague

Ken Donaldson

Donald Reed

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Jeffrey Matsuura

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List of Statements

Nanotechnology is being affected by factors that created opposition to biotechnology.

Europeans have the most to gain from nanotechnology development.

Sound scientific data will be the basis of any decisions about nanotechnology.

Governments cannot shape the development of nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology is not a cause for concern.

Carbon nanoparticles can be breathed in and then move to the brain and blood.

Companies should show how their early nanotechnology products can benefit society.

Questions 32-35

Instructions to follow
 Complete the sentences. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Strong public disapproval of.................................came as a shock to those working in the

area.
Europeans reacted to the suggestion of cheaper food with…………………………
Anxiety about ‘nanobots’ that would in time change the planet is……………………….
Nanoparticles from photocopier toner are already linked to………………………..

Questions 36-40

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Instructions to follow
 Complete the summary using the list of words A-L below. Write your answers in boxes 36-40 on your
answer sheet.

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Some people believe that nanotechnology could face a.....................................fate to

biotechnology. Rather than welcoming the ……………………………., the media and much of the
general public focused their attention on the...........................................of biotechnology. So it is
important to emphasize the immediate.........................................of nanotechnology;

otherwise, the public could adopt a negative ………………………………………towards

nanotech. It is therefore important for everyone involved to be consistent.

A. worse

B. greater

C. devices
D. particles
E. costs
F. latter
G. dangers
H. thoughts
I. advantages
J. former
K. attitude
L. comparable

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