READING

READING PASSAGE 1

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

Stonehenge
For centuries, historians and archaeologists have puzzled over the many mysteries of
Stonehenge, a prehistoric monument that took an estimated 1,500 years to erect.
Located Salisbury Plain in southern England, it is comprised of roughly 100 massive
upright stones placed in a circular layout.
believe England's most iconic prehistoric ruin was built in several stages with the
earliest constructed 5,000 or more years ago. First, Neolithic Britons used primitive
tools, which may have been fashioned out of deer antlers, to dig a massive circular
ditch and bank, or henge. Deep pits dating back to that era and located within the
circle may have once held a ring of timber posts, according to some scholars.
Several hundred years later, it is thought, Stonehenge's builders hoisted and estimated
80 bluestones, 43 of which remain today, into standing positions and placed them in
either a horseshoe or circular formation. These stones have been traced all the way to
the Preseli Hills in Wales, some 300 kilometers from Stonehenge. How, then, did
prehistoric builders without sophisticated tools or engineering haul these boulders,
which weigh up to four tons, over such a great distance?
According to one long-standing theory among archaeologists, Stonehenge's builders
fashioned sledges and rollers out of tree trunks to lug the bluestones from the Preseli
Hills. They then transferred the boulders onto rafts and floated them first along the
Welsh coast and then up the River Avon toward Salisbury Plain; alternatively, they
may have towed each stone with a fleet of vessels. More recent archaeological
hypotheses have them transporting the bluestones with supersized wicker baskets on
a combination of ball bearings and long grooved planks, hauled by oxen,
As early as the 1970s, geologists have been adding their voices to the debate over how
Stonehenge came into being. Challenging the classic image of industrious builders
pushing, carting, rolling or hauling giant stones from faraway Wales, some have
suggested that it was glaciers, not humans, that carried the bluestones to Salisbury
Plain. Most archaeologists have remained skeptical about this theory , however,
wondering how the forces of nature could possibly have delivered the exact complete
the circle.
The third phase of construction took place took place around 2000 BCE. At this point,
sandstone slabs - known as 'sarsens' – were arranged into an outer crescent or ring;
some were assembled into the iconic three-pieced structures called trilithons that stand
tall in the centre of Stonehenge. Some of 50 stones are now visible on the site, which
may once have contained many more. Radiocarbon dating has revealed that work
continued at Stonehenge until roughly 1600 BCE, with the bluestones in particular
being repositioned multiple times.

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But who were the builders of Stonehenge? In the 17th century, archaeologist John
Aubrey made the claim that Stonchenge was the work of druids, who had important
religious, judicial and political roles in Celtic society. This theory was widely popularized
by the antiquarian William Stukeley, who had unearthed primitive graves at the site.
Even today, people who identify as modern druids continue to gather at Stonehenge for
the summer solstice. However, in the mid-twentieth century, radiocarbon dating
demonstrated that Stonehenge stood more than 1,000 years before the Celts inhabited
the region.
Many modem historians and archaeologists now agree that several distinct tribes of
people contributed to Stonehenge, each undertaking a different phase of its
construction. Bones, tools and other artefacts found on the site seem to support this
hypothesis. The first stage was achieved by Neolithic agrarians who were likely to have
been indigenous to the British Isles. Later, it is believed, groups with advanced tools
and a more communal way of life left their mark on the site. Some believe that they
were immigrants from the European continent, while others maintain that they were
probably native Britons, descended from the original builders.
If the facts surrounding the architects and construction of Stonehenge remain
shadowy at best, the purpose of the striking monument is even more of a mystery.
While there is consensus among the majority of modern scholars that Stonehenge
once served the function of burial ground, they have yet to determine what other
purposes it had.
In the 1960s, the astronomer Gerald Hawkins suggested that the cluster of megalithic
stones operated as a form of calendar, with different points corresponding to
astrological phenomena such as solstices, equinoxes and eclipses occurring at different
times of the year. While his theory has received a considerable amount of attention over
the decades, critics maintain that Stonehenge's builders probably lacked the knowledge
necessary to predict such events or that England's dense cloud cover would have
obscured their view of the skies
More recently, signs of illness and injury in the human remains unearthed at
Stonehenge led a group of British archaeologists to speculate that it was considered a
place of healing, perhaps because bluestones were thought to have curative powers.

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 Questions 1-7

Complete the notes below.

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

Write your answers in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet.

Construction of Stonehenge
Stage 1:
• The ditch and henge were dug, possibly using tools made from 1………….
• 2………………may have been arranged in deep pits inside the circle

Stage 2:
• Bluestones from the Preseli Hills were placed in standing

position
• Theories about the transportation of the bluestones:

- archaeological
● Builders used 3…………. to make sledges and rollers
● 4………………pulled them on giant baskets

Stage 3:
• sandstone slabs were arranged into an outer crescent or ring

Builders
• Theory arose in the 17th century that its builders were Celtic 5…………

Purpose
• Many experts agree it has been used as a 6…………. site

• In the 1960s, it was suggested that it worked as a kind of 7…………

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Questions 8-13
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?
In boxes 8-13 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

8.The ditch and bank at Stonehenge were already in place when the bluestones arrived.
9.During the third phase of construction, sandstone slabs were placed in both the outer areas
and the middle of the Stonehenge site.
10.There is scientific proof that the bluestones stood in the same spot until approximately
1600 BCE.
11.John Aubrey's claim about Stonehenge was supported by twentieth-century findings.
12.Objects discovered at Stonehenge seem to indicate that it was constructed by a
number of different groups of people.
13.It is accepted that the builders who used advanced tools to work on Stonehenge came
from the British Isles.

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 READING PASSAGE 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14–26, which are based on Reading Passage
2 below.

The return of monkey life

Rain forest trees growing anew on Central American farmland are helping scientists
find ways for monkey and agriculture to benefit one another.

A. Hacienda La Pacifica, a remote working cattle ranch in Guanacaste province of northern

Costa Rica, has for decades been home to a community of mantled howler monkeys. Other native
primates- white-faced capuchin monkeys and spider monkeys were once common in this area,
too, but vanished after the Pan-American Highway was built nearby in the 1950s and most of the
surrounding land was cleared for cattle-raising. At Hacienda La Pacifica, however, an enlightened
ranch owner chose to leave some strips of native trees growing. He used these as windbreaks to
protect both cattle and their food crops from dry-season winds. In the process, the farmer
unwittingly founded a unique laboratory for the study of monkeys.

B. Ken Glander, a primatologist from Duke University in the USA, is studying La Pacifica’s
monkeys in an effort to understand the relationship between howlers and regenerating forests at
the edges of grazing lands. Studying such disturbed woodlands is increasingly important because
throughout much of the New World Tropics, these are the only forests left. In the 18 th century,
tropical dry forests once covered most of Central America, but by the 1980s less than two percent
remained undisturbed, and less than one percent was protected.

C. Howlers persists at La Pacifica, Glander explains, because they are leaf-eaters. They eat fruit
when it is available but, unlike capuchin and spider monkeys, do not depend on large areas of
fruiting trees. Glander is particularly interested in howlers’ ability to thrive on leaves loaded with
toxins - poisonous substances designed to protect the plants. For leaf-eaters, long-term exposure
to a specific plant toxin can increase their ability to neutralize the poisonous substances and
absorb the leaf nutrients. Watching generations of howlers at La Pacifica has shown Glander that
the monkeys keep their systems primed by sampling a variety of plants and then focusing on a
small number of the most nutritious food items. The leaves that grow in regenerating forests, like
those at La Pacifica, are actually more howler-friendly than those produced by the centuries-old
trees that survive farther south. In younger forests, trees put most of their limited energy into
growing wood, leaves, and fruit, so they produce much lower levels of toxin than do well-
established, old- growth trees.

D. The value of maturing forests to primates is also a subject of study at Santa Rosa National
Park, about 35 miles northwest of La Pacifica. Large areas of Santa Rosa’s forests had at one
time been burnt to make space for cattle ranching and coffee farming, thereby devastating local
monkey habitat. But in 1971 the government protected the area by designating it a National Park,
and species of Indigenous Lees which had been absent for decades began to invade the
abandoned pastures. Capuchins were the first to begin using the reborn forests, followed by
howlers. Eventually, even spider monkeys, fruit-eaters that need large areas of continuous forest,
returned. In the first 28 years following protection of the area, the capuchin population doubled,
while the number of howlers increased sevenfold.

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 E. Some of the same traits that allow howlers to survive at La Pacifica also explain their
population boom in Santa Rosa, Howler reproduction is faster than that of other native monkey
species. They give birth for the first time at about 3.5 years of age, compared with seven years
for capuchins, and eight or more for spider monkeys. Also, while a female spider monkey will
have a baby about once every four years, well-fed howlers can produce an infant every two
years. Another factor is diet. Howlers are very adaptable feeders, and only need a comparatively
small home range. Spider monkeys, on the other hand, need to occupy a huge home range. Also
crucial is fact that the leaves howlers eat hold plenty of water, so the monkeys can survive away
from open streams and water holes. This ability gives them a real advantage over capuchin and
spider monkeys, which have suffered during the long, ongoing drought in the area.

F. Alejandro Estrada, an ecologist at Estacion de Biologia Los Tuxtlas in Veracruz, Mexico, has
been studying the ecology of a group of howler monkeys that thrive in a habitat totally altered by
humans: a cacao plantation in Tabasco state, Mexico. Cacao plants need shade to grow, so 40
years ago the owners of Cholula Cacao Farm planted figs, monkey pod and other tall trees to form
a protective canopy over their crop. The howlers moved in about 25 years ago after nearby forests
were cut. This strange habitat seems to support about as many monkeys as would a same-sized
patch of wild forest. The howlers eat the leaves and fruit of the shade trees, leaving the valuable
cacao pods alone.

G. Estrada believes the monkeys bring underappreciated benefits to such plantations, dispersing
the seeds of fruits such as fig and other shade trees, and fertilizing the soil. Spider monkeys also
forage for fruit here, though they need nearby areas of forest to survive in the long term. He hopes
that farmers will begin to see the advantages of associating with wild monkeys, which could include
potential ecotourism projects, ‘Conservation is usually viewed as a conflict between farming
practices and the need to preserve nature,’ Estrada says. ‘We’re moving away from that vision and
beginning to consider ways in which commercial activities may become a tool for the conservation
of primates in human-modified landscapes.’

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QUESTIONS 14-17
Reading Passage 2 has seven paragraphs. A-G

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter A-G. in boxes 14-17 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

14. a reason why newer forests provide howlers with better feeding opportunities than older
forests

15. a reference to a change in farmers’ attitudes towards wildlife

16. a description of the means by which howlers select the best available diet for themselves
17. figures relating to the reduction of natural wildlife habitat over a period of time

QUESTIONS 18-21
Complete the summary below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 18-21 on your answer sheet.

Why do howlers have an advantage over other Central

American monkeys?
Howler monkeys have a more rapid rate of 18 than either capuchin of spicier monkeys.
Unlike the other local monkey species, howlers can survive without eating 19…………….and
so can live inside a relatively small habitat area. Their diet is more flexible, and they are able to
tolerate leaves with high levels of 20 ………… .. Howlers can also survive periods of
21………………..better than the other monkey species can.

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 QUESTIONS 22 - 26
Look at the following features and the list of locations below.

Match each feature with the correct location, A ,B or C

Write the correct letter, A. B or C, in boxes 22-26 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

22. It has seen the return of native tree species.

23. It supports only one species of native monkey.
24. Its monkey population helps the agriculture of the area.
25. It is home to populations of all three local monkey species.
26. Its landscape was altered by the construction of a transport link.

List of locations

A Hacienda La Pacifica
B Santa Rosa National Park
C Cholula Cacao Farm

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READING PASSAGE 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27–40, which are based on Reading Passage
3 below.
Quebec, 13th March 1989: At 2.45 a.m. the province's entire power grid crashed. The
blackout affected six million people in north-eastern Canada for up to nine hours,
shutting schools and businesses, and closing down the Montreal Metro and Dorval
Airport. Meanwhile, a red glow appeared in the night sky over most of the world, and
as far south as Texas and Cuba people were able to see multi-coloured shifting lights
in the sky. At the same time, in space, some satellites spun out of control for several
hours. The blackout in Quebec was caused when the safety systems in the electricity
network sensed a power surge caused by electric energy flowing through the ground.
In fact, most of North America was experiencing increased electrical activity and
around 200 power grid problems were reported within minutes of each other.
All the events had one source: days earlier a massive wave of energy had erupted
from the sun and crashed into earth's magnetic field. These events are called coronal
mass ejections (CMEs). CMEs are similar to solar flares in so far as they both produce
high energy particles that are dangerous to living organisms. They are both explosions
on the surface of the sun that continue for minutes and even hours, and they can
release enough energy to power the USA for a million years. They happen when areas
of intense solar activity called sunspots appear and magnetic fields associated with
sunspots connect, sending huge amounts of energy away from the sun. The most
dangerous emissions from these ejections are protons (subatomic particles with a
positive electrical charge) and X-rays.
The sun has an eleven-year cycle of activity in which the intensity of activity on its
surface changes, the most intense period (called a solar maximum) being
characterised by the appearance of sun spots and solar flares. Like solar flares, CMEs
are more likely to be produced during the period of maximum solar activity. However,
unlike solar flares, which produce high-energy particles near the surface of the sun,
CMEs carry a large volume of material much further into interplanetary space.
Fortunately, the iron core spinning at the centre of the Earth generates a magnetic
force field around the planet called the magnetosphere. This magnetic field reaches
out thousands of miles into space and protects us from all but the most violent CMEs.
When the solar material collides with the earth's magnetosphere, it triggers
geomagnetic storms of the kind that affected Quebec so dramatically.

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CMEs and flares are classified as B, C, Mor X according to how strong they are. Each
letter of the scale is ten times more powerful than the previous one; so an X flare is ten
times more powerful than an M and a hundred times more powerful than a C flare.
Within each letter scale there is a finer gradation from 1 to 9. In reality, C class flares
are too weak to affect the Earth; M class flares can cause radio blackouts in areas
near the poles and cause weak radiation storms that can be dangerous for astronauts.
However, the X class flares can cause considerable damage at ground level. Although
the flare that affected Quebec was strong,; the most powerful flare ever recorded was
in 2003 - a flare so powerful that it overloaded satellite sensors.
It will typically take a CME three to five days to affect the Earth after leaving the sun.
Observing the ejection of CMEs from the sun provides early warning of geomagnetic
storms. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, a European-built spacecraft that
orbits the Earth, continuously observes the CMEs to determine if they are travelling in
the direction of the Earth as damage to satellites and communications can be very
serious. Communications satellites are generally the most exposed to damage from
CMEs -these satellites are often in high orbits. When the solar material hits a satellite,
it becomes charged with electricity and a component can become damaged by the
current or by high-energy particles penetrating the satellite. As we have become more
and more dependent upon high technology and other systems that can be affected by
electrical currents and energy particles, the danger from flares and CMEs has
intensified. But could a solar flare or CME be large enough to cause a global disaster?
It is impossible to give an answer

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Questions 27-30
Choose the correct letter, A B,C or D.
27 What did the CME of 13th March 1989 NOT do?

A disrupt daily life for some Canadians

B cause an unusual phenomenon in Texas
C stop all flights across Canada
D increase ground electricity in North America

28 What produces the magnetosphere?

A high-energy particles
B geomagnetic storms
C metal at the centre of the Earth
D sunspots

29 What does the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory do?

A It tells scientists when a CME is approaching the Earth.
B It communicates with other satellites orbiting the Earth.
C It tells scientists if a CME will cause a global disaster.
D It circles the sun in a high orbit.

30 How can CM Es damage satellites?

A by sending them out of high orbit
B by bombarding them with high-energy particles
C by stopping communication between them and the sun
D by melting components inside them

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Questions 31-35
Which characterises the following?
Write the correct letter, A, B or C, next to Questions 31-35.
A Solar flare
B CME
C both

31 It is produced during the solar maximum.

32 It carries material far into interplanetary space.
33 It produces high-energy particles.
34 It may affect the Earth.
35 It happens near the sun's surface.
Questions 36-40
Which flares are mentioned in the text as having the effects below?
Write the correct letter, A, B, or C, next to Questions 36-40.
A C flares
B M flares
C X flares

36 There would be damage to electrical equipment on the Earth's surface.

37 You couldn't listen to the radio in certain places.
38 You wouldn't notice the effect.
39 You would be harmed if you were working in space.
40 It would seriously damage satellite equipment.

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 TEST 7

READING
Reading Passage 1,
Questions 1–13
1 Deer antlers 2 Drought
1
2 Timber posts 2 B
2
3 Tree trunks 2 C
3
4 Oxen 2 C
4
5 Druids 2 B
5
6 Burial 2 A
6
7 Calendar
Reading Passage 3,
8 True
Questions 27–40
9 True
1 False 2 C
0 7
1 False 2 C
1 8
1 True 2 A
2 9
1 Not given 3 B
3 0
Reading Passage 2, 3 C
1
Questions 14–26
3 B
2
3 C
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 3
1 C 3 C
4 4
1 G 3 A
5 5
1 C 3 C
6 6
1 B 3 B
7 7
1 Reproduction 3 A
8 8
1 Fruit 3 B
9 9
2 Toxins 4 C
0 0

If you score …
1–17 18–26 27–40

you are highly unlikely to get an you may get an acceptable score you are likely to get an acceptable
acceptable score under under examination conditions but score under examination
examination conditions and we we recommend that you think conditions but remember that
recommend that you spend a lot about having more practice or different institutions will find
of time improving your English lessons before you take IELTS different scores acceptable
before you take IELTS

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Everest Mock Exams

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 Reading

Answers

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Everest Mock Exams

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