Candidate Number

Candidate Name

INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH LANGUAGE TESTING SYSTE M

Academic Reading

PRACTICE TEST 1 hour

Time 1 hour

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES
Do not open this question paper until you are told to do so.
Write your name and candidate number in the spaces at the top of this page.
Read the instructions for each part of the paper
carefully. Answer all the questions.
Write your answers on the answer sheet. Use a
pencil. You must complete the answer sheet within
the time limit.
At the end of the test, hand in both this question paper and your answer sheet.

INFORMATION FOR CANDIDATES

There are 40 questions on this question
paper. Each question carries one mark.

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reserved.
READING PASSAGE 1 Questions 1–13

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1–13, which are based on Reading
Passage 1 on the following pages.

Bioluminescence

Bioluminescence is light created by a living organism; it is a chemical reaction

that takes place inside the plant or animal. In order for a plant or animal to be
bioluminescent, two things must be present. Luciferin, the compound that
makes the light, is produced inside the bodies of some animals and plants.
Others get this from bacteria which live inside their bodies, and which produce
light all the time. It is necessary for the organism to have some way of hiding
this light when it is not wanted or needed, and this may be done by pulling the
light-emitting organs inside the body, or by covering them with pieces of skin.
Other bioluminescent creatures get luciferin from the food that they eat. When
activated by an enzyme called luciferase, the resulting chemical reaction
creates light, and this is what makes the plant or animal glow.

The colour of the light emitted by bioluminescent organisms varies greatly,

depending on the habitat of the organism producing the light. Researchers have
found that bioluminescence in the ocean is most commonly blue-green, because
blue wavelengths from sunlight filtering down from the surface are the strongest.
There are some exceptions; for example, the light produced by the dragonfish,
known as 'dragonlight', is red. One use of this red glow is to create a means of
private communication between male and female dragonfish that goes
unnoticed by other fish. Land-based organisms that glow exhibit a greater
variety of colours, and a small number glow in more than one colour. One
example of this is the railroad worm, thus named because of its appearance
after dark. It is, in fact, the larva of a beetle, not a worm, which glows red from
its head with green bioluminescent spots down its body. Most often, however,
land-based creatures use blue-green bioluminescence as in the ocean, but in the
yellow spectrum. Fireflies are an excellent example of creatures which emit this
kind of colour, with their flashing amber bottoms.

Having the ability to produce light serves multiple purposes. The angler fish is
an excellent example of a deep-sea fish that uses bioluminescence to lure its
prey; if smaller creatures come too close to the glowing fleshy growth which
dangles just in front of the sharp-toothed predator's mouth, they are caught off-
guard and eaten. Click beetles crowd on termite mounds after sunset, and
anything that is lured by their glowing light will soon become sustenance.
Having an inbuilt flashlight is an advantage when hunting for food in the dark.
Dragonfish, for example, use their red light to see what is in their immediate
environment and locate their next meal. Unlike the previous two examples,
their red light is like a stealth light that allows them to act as if under an
invisibility cloak; thus they can hunt, producing light to see by, but they remain
undetected by their prey.

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reserved.
Defending yourself against predators can be the difference between life and
death in the natural world. Invisibility is an asset; if an animal is not seen then it
stands a better chance of not being eaten. Camouflage in shallow waters can be
a challenge, since the sun's rays penetrate the water and anything swimming in
the shallows creates a dark silhouette. Some species, such as hatchet fish, have
developed bioluminescence to eliminate this tell-tale

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reserved.
outline, using a technique known as 'counterillumination'. They project light
from the underside of their form so that they appear to be sunlight travelling
through the water, effectively disappearing from the gaze of predators looking
up from below. Some fish can even adjust the amount of light they emit to
perfectly balance with the rays penetrating the water.

Other defensive techniques are used underwater. For example, when under
attack the sea cucumber attaches a sticky glowing packet of bioluminescence
onto a passing fish so that the predator chases the fish while the sea cucumber
gets away. Some bioluminescent squid flash brightly to startle any fish that
come too close, buying the necessary time to swim to safety. The vampire squid
lives in the dark depths of the ocean, so squirting black ink as other squid do
would be ineffective. Instead, this particular species squirts out thick, glowing
mucus to startle attackers and slow them down. Some insect larvae, commonly
referred to as glow-worms, light up to tell other animals that they are toxic and
to be avoided.

Bioluminescence is also a useful way to attract attention from potential mates

and to communicate. Fireflies flash to indicate that they are looking for a mate,
while the less subtle male lantern shark entices female sharks by lighting up its
reproductive organs. Fungi such as some toadstools or mushrooms use
bioluminescence to disperse their spores, glowing to attract insects with the
ultimate goal of broadcasting their colonies far and wide.

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reserved.
 BC IELTS Ac eading PT 30

Questions 1–5

Complete the table below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 1–5 on your answer sheet.

Bioluminescence – chemical reaction

Requires: luciferin 2 …………

 made by the organism  works with luciferin to make

OR the organism light up

 can come from 1 …………

inside the organism
OR
 from the diet
Colours produced: relate to 3 …………
Oceans Land
 blue-green because of  many colours
sunlight
 similarities to ocean-based
 red for 4...........between species, but tending towards
pairs of dragonfish the 5 …………

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Questions 6–12

Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A–J, below.

Write the correct letter, A–J, in boxes 6–12 on your answer sheet.

NB You will not need to use all the letters.

6 Click beetles can use luminescence to …

7 One use of dragonfish luminescence is to …
8 Hatchet fish are able to use luminescence
to …
9 Some squid can blink their luminescent
light to …
10 Insect larvae can use luminescence to …
11 Lantern sharks use luminescent body parts
to …
12 Mushrooms can use luminescence to …

List of Endings
A … warn predators that they are poisonous.
B … warn others of the same species about
predators.
C … escape from potential predators.
D … find prey in a dark environment.
E … transfer light onto another creature.
F … attract potential mates.
G … enable the spread of reproductive cells.
H … attract food to their light.
I … blind other creatures with their light
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Question 13

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write the correct letter in box 13 on your answer sheet.

What is the main purpose of this reading passage?

A to describe research studies of how organisms make and use

bioluminescence
B to give an overview of the manufacture and uses of bioluminescence in
organisms
C to describe the habitat, mating and feeding patterns of some
bioluminescent ocean species
D to discuss and debate research findings about bioluminescence
© British Council. All rights reserved. 6
READING PASSAGE 2 Questions 14–27

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14–27, which are based on Reading
Passage 2 on the following pages.

Ancient Egyptians – Founding Fathers of Pharmacology?

The Greeks have been credited with being the earliest practitioners of modern Western
medicine. Recent evidence has emerged, however, that suggests that ancient Egyptian
studies of science-based medicine and pharmacology preceded the Greeks and, in
particular, the Greek 'De Materia Medica', a written list of 600 drugs and their uses which
has been dated to 50 CE, and which has historically been regarded as the first
pharmacopoeia. The ancient Egyptians may have blamed disease on supernatural forces
such as demonic attacks, gods or ghosts, and recited spells as cures, but their medical
system also used scientific rigour in the development of drug-based remedies, and they
recorded their pharmaceuticals at the time.

A plethora of Egyptian artefacts, including surgical instruments such as scalpels and pliers,
prosthetic great toes on at least two mummies, and mummified remains revealing the
successful treatment of serious injuries, all point to the substantial medical knowledge of
these ancient people. Debate continues over the existence of a dental profession, as no
evidence for this has yet been collected from mummified remains.

Twelve medical documents written on papyrus (ancient Egyptian paper made from the
papyrus plant) have provided strong evidence that, as well as surgical knowledge, the
Egyptians had a systematic approach to diagnosis and treatment.

Despite the fact that translators have been working on ancient Egyptian written records
since the early nineteenth century, some meanings are still not exact, and pharmacological
records are a particular challenge. Rosalie David, director of the KNH Centre for Biomedical
Egyptology, explains that translators need to be able to cross-reference the meaning of a
particular word in different contexts in order to exactly clarify its meaning. Some of the
words in the medical papyrus texts appear only in lists and not in complete sentences, and
often in one document only. Over the past 200 years, translators have been forced to

© British Council. All rights reserved. 7

make educated linguistic guesses at many words, followed by consultation of a current
pharmacopeia to identify which commonly used pharmaceuticals of their own time had
the same medicinal use as those stated in the papyrus. Until recently, however, about a
third of the references to pharmaceutical constituents remained unclear.

Dr Jackie Campbell at the University of Manchester in Great Britain set out to conduct a
meticulous five-year study of the papyrus texts to establish firmer identification of the
constituent elements of Egyptian pharmacology, in order to determine the depth and
efficacy of Egyptian pharmaceutical knowledge. Not being a linguist, Campbell employed
scientific methods to validate the papyrus prescriptions.

As with artefacts and ruins, Egyptian flora is well-documented and verified and can be
reconstructed in detail. Campbell began by cross-checking that the plants in the
prescriptions actually grew or were traded in Egypt when the parchments were written;
any that couldn't be verified at that time were ruled out. She then set out to study four
vital parchments covering prescriptions dating from circa 1850 BCE to 1200 BCE, when
precise measurement was introduced. These medical records all contained instructions
which followed a systematic recording of the list of constituents and the means by which
these were assembled and mixed for use, how they were dispensed, and the appropriate
dosage. Comparing each prescription with current standards and scientific protocols,
Campbell was able to verify or, in some cases, invalidate the medical efficacy of the
remedy. Some constituents, such as aniseed, were included in the translations but would
not have worked as prescribed, nor were they found in the region at that time.

Scientists are now able to clearly identify the constituents of over half of the original one
thousand prescriptions and specify if each one would indeed have worked for its intended
purpose. For a further 156 prescriptions, there were only minor constituents which could
not be identified. Over sixty per cent of the prescriptions would have been of therapeutic
value, at least to some extent, including those where not every constituent was verifiable.
There are still over two hundred unaccounted for items; Campbell says it may never be
possible to identify some of them.

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 After consulting a 1977 pharmacopoeia, Campbell found that sixty-two per cent of the
verified constituents were still in use in the 70s; in fact, many are common today, albeit in
synthetic form. The preparation of the ancient remedies also had parallels with techniques
used by pharmacists today: boiling to concentrate a chemical, diluting when necessary, or
grinding to release the active constituent from its surrounding plant matter. Seemingly
without any knowledge of modern chemistry, Egyptians were able to use appropriate
extraction techniques, such as soaking plants in either water or mild alcohol, depending on
the solubility of the active compound. Some remedies required a two-phase extraction.
Campbell found that over sixty per cent of the ancient remedies complied with the 1973
British Pharmaceutical Codex in all but one area; Egyptians did not know of the need for
sterility protocols, although they did value cleanliness in their medical professionals.

The final test of Egyptian pharmacology was to discover the efficacy of the remedies for the
problems they were prescribed for. Once again, Campbell was surprised by her findings.
Despite the fact that Egyptians were primarily treating symptoms, lacking precise knowledge
of the root cause of most medical ailments, she found that even down to the exact dosage,
sixty-four per cent of those prescriptions had curative value comparable to contemporary
prescriptions.

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Questions 14–16

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write the correct letter in boxes 14–16 on your answer sheet.

14 What do we learn in the first paragraph of this text?

A The ancient Greeks were the first people to study drugs for medical
purposes.
B The ancient Greeks made the earliest written version of a drug dictionary.
C The ancient Egyptians wrote down drug treatments earlier than the
Greeks.
D The ancient Egyptians based all their medical practices on a belief in
magic.

15 Which of the following is NOT mentioned as evidence of Egyptian medical

skills?

A ancient bodies with healed

wounds B medical equipment
for operations C artificial digits
such as toes
D jawbones with extracted teeth

16 Why is it difficult to study written Egyptian pharmaceutical records?

A There are no existing translations of the original Egyptian language.

B It is hard to translate words which appear only a few times in short
documents.
C The writing on the pharmaceutical records was damaged.
D Egyptians used drugs differently from how modern medicine uses them.

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Questions 17–21

Complete the summary below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 17–21 on your answer sheet.

Ancient Egyptian Pharmacology – Research Study

Campbell’s study aimed to make clearer 17.......of Egyptian drug ingredients to find
out
how effective their knowledge had been. She used current knowledge of 18 to
check that the ingredients listed would have been available. She also
examined key documents from the period when 19 was first used.
These documents listed
ingredients, their preparation and administration, and the 20....She wanted to
validate or disprove each recipe; a few ingredients, e.g. 21. ., had clearly been
incorrectly translated.

Questions 22–27

Complete the notes below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 22–27 on your answer sheet.

Results of the Study

Identification of ingredients
 All or most of the ingredients for the majority of remedies have now been
verified
 More than half the remedies would have had some 22 …………
 Some of the ingredients are still a mystery and may remain so
Comparison with current pharmaceuticals
 Many Egyptian ingredients are still used, though some are now in 23
…………
 Extraction methods included the use of a suitable medium according to
the
24..................of the drug
 Every treatment obeyed the current rules for use, with the exception of
25 …………

Establishing the 26..................of Egyptian drugs

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  The Egyptians did not understand the causes of most diseases
 Yet, over half of their remedies would have worked as well as 27 …………

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READING PASSAGE 3 Questions 28–40

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 28–40, which are based on Reading
Passage 3 on the following pages.

Questions 28–32

Reading Passage 3 has five sections, A–E.

Choose the correct heading for each section from the list of headings below.

Write the correct number, i–viii, in boxes 28–32 on your answer sheet.

NB You will not need to use all the headings.

List of
28 Section A Headings
29 Section B
i deepening our understanding through research
30 Section C
ii more complex challenges in understanding
31 Section D
happiness iii happiness as part of the human
32 Section E
survival mechanism iv the effects of addiction
on the happiness response
v deficiencies in neural mechanisms for happiness
vi the pros and cons of our awareness of happiness

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 Happiness – It's All in Your Head

Section A

The need to survive and procreate is at the root of adaptive behaviours for all life
forms. However, humans may be distinct in their ability to respond consciously to
a pleasurable stimulus, to recall this afterwards, and thus to anticipate another
period of happiness and actively plan actions that may bring this about. This
facility of abstract consciousness confers an evolutionary advantage on
humankind, but at the price of an appreciation of our own potential unhappiness
and inevitable mortality. Nonetheless, most humans are engaged in a constant
struggle to achieve, and the urge to maximise and prolong happiness is one of
our primary motivations for doing so.

Section B

To search for the specific areas of the brain responsible for happiness, more
than a hundred students from the University of Wisconsin were recruited for an
experiment. Each was sent 25 text messages a day, asking them to rank their
positive and negative emotions throughout the day, both during ordinary
activities and when playing a game which offered
$15 rewards. In another part of the experiment, the research team used
Magnetic Resonance Imaging scans to search for those parts of the brain that
lit up in response to feelings of happiness. The team are wondering whether
the information they collected will allow us to train our brains to extend and
even multiply our happy moments.

The experiment found that one small area of the brain appears to be the source
of the prolongation of positive feelings. Repeated neuron firings in this area are
associated with an extended duration of happy feelings. A team psychologist,
Aaron Heller, believes that it is important to recognise that the duration of
enjoyable emotions is as valuable as their strength. He is keen to learn more
about the difference between someone who can richly enjoy a sunset and
another who responds little to this event, and for whom happy emotions quickly
diminish.

Section C

Following on from these initial findings, it appears that there are many parts of
the brain that offer reward systems that respond to pleasurable stimuli, or that
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give us pleasure: three can be found deep within the brain and four others in the
cerebral cortex (the outer layer of brain tissue). However, there are very few
mechanisms that cause pleasure reactions in the form of a response we usually
label as 'liking' – that is, a promotion and continuation of the

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pleasurable feeling. Of these, there are two or three tiny hotspots in the sub-
cortex and some in the brainstem region. In experiments, these hotspots can
be stimulated with tiny injections of drugs to produce a doubling or tripling of
the sensation of liking.

A further discovery is the motivational process we might describe as 'wanting',

which responds to an attractive stimulus and desires the reward of repeated
exposure to it. Drawing from these conclusions, we can perceive different areas
of brain activity which correspond to 'pleasure', as a short-lived impact on the
individual, to 'liking', as a more long- term response to that pleasure that can
lead to improved mood, and to 'wanting', that operates as a motivational force
to repeat pleasurable experiences.

Section D

The fact that these responses are different and occur in different parts of the
brain may help to explain why addicts of all kinds may crave a reward without
necessarily liking that reward. In extreme circumstances, an addict may want
something that is fully recognised consciously as being undesirable – the
dissociation occurs because of the lack of integration of the mental faculties and
may be expected to lead to unhappiness.

Similarly, the situation is bleak for someone whose pleasure regions of the
brain do not function normally. The lack of a sensation of pleasure is an
important symptom of mental illnesses, including depression. Damage to one
area has proved to be a direct cause of 'anhedonia', or lack of pleasure. In
animals with such damage, even the delight in sugary tastes can be lost so
that they react as if the substance is bitter or otherwise foul-tasting.

In humans, anecdotal evidence tells us that Parkinson's Disease patients who

have been treated with tiny electrical probes to destroy a small group of cells
in the brain may show a reduction in emotional expression, while stimulation
of this area appears to help with depression. Changes in the structure of the
brain here, caused by injury or disease, have been found to produce a
complete absence of pleasurable sensations.

This is not the full story about depression; however, in some cases there may be
a kind of automatic appreciation of fundamental pleasures, but the more

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developed thought processes that normally arise, such as reflection on the
enjoyment or anticipation of renewed pleasure, may no longer be available to
some people.

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Section E

This identification of brain regions related to enjoyment brings some confidence

in understanding the mind's reception of sensory pleasures, but there are still
significant gaps in our appreciation of the processes behind more sophisticated
levels of enjoyment which might come from the arts, or from joyful play. Further,
there are the broader pleasures that come from social interactions which are
essential to humans: they run from the heightened sensory responses to touch
from loved ones to the more abstract appreciation of reciprocity, social rewards
and valued relationships.

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Questions 33 and 34

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write the correct letter in boxes 33 and 34 on your answer sheet.

33 According to Section A, what is one reason why people set goals?

A They need to prosper, to eat and to

reproduce. B They have a highly developed
consciousness. C They are trying to avoid
depression and misery. D They are seeking
pleasurable sensations.

34 What do we learn about happiness in Section B?

A Most people's state of happiness varies throughout the day.

B Computer game playing is an addictive form of happiness.
C At least one part of the brain makes us feel happy for longer.
D A strong response to pleasurable events is very important.
© British Council. All rights reserved. 16
Questions 35–40

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 3?

In boxes 35–40 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

35 There are fewer 'pleasure' sites in the brain than 'liking' ones.
36 'Liking' is usually a weaker response than 'pleasure'.
37 Some people suffer from a disconnect between the different brain
responses to pleasurable stimuli.
38 People with depression can suffer from disturbances to their sense of taste.
39 Depression may be correlated with an inability to remember, or look
forward to, pleasure.
40 We now understand the brain chemistry that controls complex forms of
pleasure.

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© The British Council 2012. All rights reserved. 15