DAY 9

https://t.me/ielts_reading_exam_passages

READING PASSAGE 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading
Passage 1
Endangered chocolate
A The cacao tree, once native to the equatorial American forest, has some exotic traits
for a plant. Slender and shrubby, the cacao has adapted to life close to the leaf littered
forest floor. Its large leaves droop down. away from the sun. Cacao doesn't flower, as
most plants do at the tips of its outer and uppermost branches. Instead. its sweet white
buds hang from the trunk and along a few Fat branches which form where leaves drop
off. These tiny Flowers transform into pulp-filled pods almost the size of rugby balls. The
low-hanging pods contain the bitter-tasting magical seeds.

B Somehow, more than 2,000 years ago. ancient humans in Mesoamerica discovered
the secret of these beans. If you scoop them from the pod with their pulp. let them
ferment and dry in the sun, then roast them over a gentle fire, something extraordinary
happens: they become chocolaty. And if you then grind and press the beans, which are
half-cocoa butter or more, you will obtain a rich crumbly. chestnut brown paste -
chocolate at its most pure and simple.

C The Maya and Aztecs revered this chocolate, which they Frothed up with water and
spices to make bracing concoctions. It was an edible treasure, offered up to their gods,
used as money and hoarded like gold. Long after Spanish explorers introduced the
beverage to Europe in the sixteenth century. chocolate retained an aura of aristocratic
luxury. In 1753. the Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus gave the cacao tree genus the
name Theobroma. which means 'food of the gods',

D In the last 200 years, the bean has been thoroughly democratized - transformed from
an elite drink into ubiquitous candy bars, cocoa powders and confections. Today
chocolate is becoming more popular worldwide, with new markets opening up in
Eastern Europe and Asia. This is both good news and bad because. Although farmers
are producing record numbers of the cacao bean, this is not enough, some researchers
worry, to keep pace with global demand. Cacao is also facing some alarming problems.

E Philippe Petithuguenin, head of the cacao program at the Centre For International
Cooperation in Development-Oriented Agricultural Research (CiRAD) in France,
recently addressed a seminar in the Dominican Republic. He displayed a map of the
world revealing a narrow band within 180 north and south of the equator. where cacao
grows. In the four centuries since the Spanish first happened upon cacao, it has been
planted all around this hot humid tropical belt - from South America and the Caribbean
to West Africa, East Asia, and New Guinea and Vanuatu in the Pacific.

F Today 70% of all chocolate beans come from West Africa and Central Africa. In many
parts, growers practice so-called pioneer Farming. They strip patches of forest of all but
the tallest canopy trees and then they put in cacao, using temporary plantings of
banana to shade the cacao while it's young. With luck, groves like this may produce
annual yields of 50 to 60 pods per tree for 25 to 30 years. But eventually, pests,

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pathogens and soil exhaustion take their toll and yields diminish. Then the growers
move on and clear a new forest patch - unless farmers of other crops get there first.
'You cannot keep cutting the tropical forest, because the forest itself is endangered:
said Petithuguenin. 'World demand for chocolate increases by 3% a year on average.
With a lack of land for new plantings in tropical forests, how do you meet that?'

G Many farmers have a more imminent worry: outrunning disease. Cacao, especially
when grown in plantations, is at the mercy of many afflictions, mostly rotting diseases
caused by various species of fungi which cover the pods in fungus or kill the trees.
These fungi and other diseases spoil more than a quarter of the world's yearly harvest
and can devastate entire cacao-growing regions.

H One such disease, witches broom, devastated the cacao plantations in the Bahia
region of Brazil. Brazil was the third largest producer of cacao beans but in the 1980s
the yields fell by 75%. According to Petithuguenin, 'if a truly devastating disease like
witches broom reached West Africa (the world's largest producer), it could be
catastrophic.' If another producer had the misfortune to falter now, the ripples would be
felt the world over. In the United States, for example, imported cacao is the linchpin of
an $8.6 billion domestic chocolate industry that in turn supports the nation's dairy and
nut industries; 20% of all dairy products in the US go into confectionery.

I Today research is being carried out to try to address this problem by establishing
disease-resistant plants. However. even the best plants are useless if there isn't
anywhere to grow them. Typically, farmers who grow cacao get a pittance for their
beans compared with the profits reaped by the rest of the chocolate business. Most are
at the mercy of local middlemen who buy the beans then sell them for a much higher
price to the chocolate manufacturers. If the situation is to improve for farmers, these
people need to be removed from the process. But the economics of cacao is rapidly
changing because of the diminishing supply of beans. Some companies have realized
that they need to work more closely with the farmers to ensure that sustainable farming
practices are used. They need to replant areas and create a buffer for the forest, to
have ground cover, shrubs and small trees as well as the canopy trees. Then the 'soil
will be more robust and more productive. They also need to empower the farmers by
guaranteeing them a higher price for their beans so that they will be encouraged to grow
cacao and can maintain their way of life.

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Questions 1-3
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write your answers on your answer sheet from 1-3

1 The flowers of the cacao plant appear

A at the end of its top branches.
B along all of its branches.
C mainly on its trunk
D close to its leaves.

2 In Africa, banana trees are planted with the cacao plants in order to
A replace the largest trees.
B protect the new plants.
C provide an extra crop.
D help improve soil quality.

3 In paragraph H, what is the writer referring to when he says 'the ripples would be felt
the world over'?
A the impact a collapse in chocolate production could have on other industries
B the possibility of disease spreading to other crops
C the effects of the economy on world chocolate growers
D the link between Brazilian growers and African growers

Questions 4-9
The Reading Passage has nine paragraphs labelled A-I.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter A-I in your answer sheet from 4-9.

4 a list of the cacao growing areas

5 an example of how disease has affected one cacao growing region
6 details of an ancient chocolate drink
7 a brief summary of how the chocolate industry has changed in modern times
8 the typical lifespan and crop size of a cacao plantation
9 a reference to the scientific identification of the cacao plant

Questions 10-13
Complete the notes below.
Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers on your answer sheet from 10-13.
Ways of dealing with the plant's problems
 Need to find plants which are not affected by 10 __________.
 Chocolate producers need to work directly with farmers instead of 11
__________.
 Need to encourage farmers to use 12 __________. methods to grow cacao
plants
 Make sure farmers receive some of the 13 __________. made by the chocolate
industry
READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading
Passage 2.
What is personality?
A We are all familiar with the idea that different people have different personalities,
but what does this actually mean? It implies that different people behave in different
ways, but it must be more than that. After all, different people find themselves in
different circumstances, and much of their behaviour follows from this fact. However,
our common experience reveals that different people respond in quite remarkably
different ways even when faced with roughly the same circumstances. Alan might be
happy to live alone in a quiet and orderly cottage, go out once a week, and stay in the
same job for thirty years. whilst Beth likes nothing better than exotic travel and being
surrounded by vivacious friends and loud music.
B In cases like these, we feel that it cannot be just the situation which is producing
the differences in behaviour. Something about the way the person is 'wired up' seems to
be at work. determining how they react to situations. and, more than that, the kind of
situations they get themselves into in the first place. This is why personality seems to
become stronger as we get older: when we are young, our situation reflects external
factors such as the social and family environment we were born into. As we grow older,
we are more and more affected by the consequences of our own choices (doing jobs
that we were drawn to, surrounded by people like us whom we have sought out). Thus,
personality differences that might have been very slight at birth become dramatic in later
adulthood.
C Personality, then, seems to be the set of enduring and stable dispositions that
characterise a person. These dispositions come partly from the expression of inherent
features of the nervous system, and partly from learning. Researchers sometimes
distinguish between temperament, which refers exclusively to characteristics that are
inborn or directly caused by biological factors, and personality, which also includes
social and cultural learning. Nervousness, for example, might be a factor of
temperament, but religious piety is an aspect of personality.
D The discovery that temperamental differences are real is one of the major
findings of contemporary psychology. It could easily have been the case that there were
no intrinsic differences between people in temperament, so that given the same learning
history. the same dilemmas, they would all respond in much the same way. Yet we now
know that this is not the case.

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E Personality measures turn out to be good predictors of your health, how happy
you typically are - even your taste in paintings. Personality is a much better predictor of
these things than social class or age. The origin of these differences is in part innate.
That is to say, when people are adopted at birth and brought up by new families, their
personalities are more similar to those of their blood relatives than to the ones they
grew up with.
F Personality differences tend to manifest themselves through the quick, gut-
feeling, intuitive and emotional systems of the human mind. The slower, rational,
deliberate systems show less variation in output from person to person. Deliberate
rational strategies can be used to override intuitive patterns of response, and this is how
people wishing to change their personalities or feelings have to go about it. As human
beings, we have the unique ability to look in at our personality from the outside and
decide what we want to do with it.
G So what are the major ways personalities can differ? The dominant approach is
to think of the space of possible personalities as being defined by a number of
dimensions. Each person can be given a location in the space by their scores on all the
different dimensions. Virtually all theories agree on two of the main dimensions.
neuroticism (or negative emotionality) and extroversion (or positive emotionality).
However, they differ on how many additional ones they recognise. Among the most
influential proposals are openness. conscientiousness and agreeableness. In the next
section I shall examine these five dimensions.

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Questions 1-6
The reading passage has seven paragraphs A-G.
Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list below.
List of Headings
i A degree of control
ii Where research has been carried out into the effects of family on personality
iii Categorising personality features according to their origin
iv A variety of reactions in similar situations
v A link between personality and aspects of our lives that aren’t chosen
vi A possible theory that cannot be true
vii Measuring personality
viii Potentially harmful effects of emotions
ix How our lives can reinforce our personalities
x Differences between men’s and women’s personalities.
Example:
0 Paragraph A iv .
1 Paragraph B …….
2 Paragraph C …….
3 Paragraph D …….
4 Paragraph E …….
5 Paragraph F …….
6 Paragraph G …….

Questions 7-13
Do the following statements reflect the claims of the writer?
Write
YES if the statement reflects the claims of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
7 Alan and Beth illustrate contrasting behaviour in similar situations.
8 As we grow older, we become more able to analyse our personalities.
9 Nervousness is an example of a learned characteristic.
10 The discovery of differences in temperament has changed the course of
psychological research.
11 Adopted children provide evidence that we inherit more of our personality than we
acquire.
12 The rational behaviour of different people shows greater similarity than their
emotional behaviour.
13 Most psychologists agree on the five major dimensions of personality.
READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading
Passage 3.
PLAYING PSYCHOLOGICAL GAMES
A ‘Psychological games’ is an approach to relationships that developed around the
1960s. It is a way of looking at the interaction between people – identifying what seem
to be fixed scripts in a seemingly spontaneous conservation. One person says
something which seems to elicit a certain type of response from the other person, and
the response seems to demand yet another particular response from the first person.
And on it goes, as if the two people were following a script that someone had written.
B Games fall into a number of categories, ranging from the harmless to the destructive.
Some harmless games are even essential to social interaction – such as the ‘Greeting
Game’ (*Hello, how are you?* *I’m fine, how are you?) and the ‘Thanks Game’ (*Thank
you for inviting me. I had a great time.*). Game playing is expected in some situations.
Everyone involved knows that it is a game, and what is expected. A sales person plays
a game of pleasing the prospective customer. Children play games with parents. In
cases like these, the game player creates an impression, saying things which are not
sincere but are ways and means of getting what they want. Other games, however,
keep a relationship from developing to a more real and important level. Still others can
actually be destructive, as they are played by people with deeper psychological needs
and motivations for power, control or manipulation.
C Some people set out to manipulate others for their own reasons. But others may not
realize that they are being manipulative. They are acting rather from an emotional script.
Like a child that wants something, and does all sorts of things to get it, some game
players act from their own internal desires, not realizing the effect their words and
actions have on others.
D A number of potentially damaging games have been identified. In the ‘Corner Game’,
the manipulator backs the other person into a corner – places them in a situation where
anything they do is wrong. A parent complains that their son or daughter’s room is never
clean. Yet when the child tidies the room, the parent says, *Why did it take you so
long?* or *You haven’t tidied up inside the cupboard.* The ‘It’s Your Decision Game’ is
played by people who want to escape the responsibility of making a decision: *I don’t
mind. You decide.* Although actually very much concerned about the outcome of the
decision, by insisting they are not the game player forces the other person to take all
responsibility for the consequences of the decision.
E Games may indicate a lack of confidence in the other person, an unwillingness to
communicate with them directly. In the most innocent cases, they are played in an
attempt at politeness, or genuine concern for the other’s feelings (trying not to hurt
them). However, even these well-intentioned games don’t always have a good end.
They can make it impossible for an atmosphere of trust to be created.
F At their worst, games are a way for an individual to retain power in a relationship,
because their own personal feelings are not revealed. The person who uses games to
their own advantage needs to win a game in order to have a sense of self-esteem – by
harming someone else’s self-confidence. Manipulators range from Dictator (who always
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has to be in charge) to Nice Guy (who exaggerates care and love for others, in order to
get what he or she wants), to Protector (who is over-supportive or over-protective).
G Some game players have so many psychological needs that fulfilling their desires
overshadows everything else in a relationship. For example, a person who needs to be
the centre of attention may play games in which they consistently take the role of
someone who needs help, someone who is dependent. Sometimes people fall into
games in a relationship because of the roles that they think they should be playing. A
young couple that accepts that the husband needs to defend his wife against criticism
by his family, or that he will automatically make the decisions about minor repairs on her
car, even though in both cases the wife is perfectly capable of looking after herself.
Their exchange will fall into a kind of game, because they have restricted themselves by
their concept of the roles that they should play.

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Questions 1-7
The reading passage has seven paragraphs A-G.
Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.
List of Headings
i Towards a classification of games
ii How the theory of games was developed
iii Feeling good by making others have doubts about themselves
iv Being cautious towards other people
v Games that create permanent relationships between people
vi Game-playing – conscious or unconscious
vii How a relationship can be dominated by games
viii The type of people that game players look for
ix Some examples of harmful games
x A tool for understanding communication
1 Paragraph A …… 5 Paragraph E ……
2 Paragraph B …… 6 Paragraph F ……
3 Paragraph C …… 7 Paragraph G ……
4 Paragraph D ……
Questions 8-11
Do the following statements reflect the claims fo the writer in the reading passage?
Write
YES if the statement reflects the claims of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
8 When people want a certain decision they will always make it themselves.
9 Games that show regard for other people can prevent trust from developing in the
relationship.
10 Giving another person too much help may be a form of manipulation.
11 Avoiding social pressure to behave in certain ways is difficult for a young married
couple.
Questions 12 and 13
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
12 What point does the writer make about the ‘Corner Game’?
A It is most commonly played in the parent-child relationship.
B In it, one person will be blamed whatever they do.
C The manipulator is normally aware of what he or she is doing
D Both participants are responsible for playing the game.
13 Which statement best sums up the writer’s opinion of the theory of psychological
games?
A Identifying games gives useful insight into interaction between people.
B Relationships in which games are played are likely to end unhappily.
C Games are played to some extent in all relationships.
D It is difficult to help some people to stop playing games.

Answers: https://t.me/ielts_reading_exam_passages/123