IELTS Reading Multiple Choice Questions Sets
Set 1
Read the text and answer
the questions below.
Is violence innate?
In 1983, archaeologists in
southern Germany discovered a mass grave containing 34 skeletons. They included
9 adult males, 7 adult females and 16 children.
All of the skeletons showed
signs of fatal trauma, including head wounds. None of them showed any signs of
defensive wounds, suggesting they were killed whilst running away.
The "Talheim Death
Pit" dates from the Stone Age, around 7,000 years ago. It offers some of
the oldest evidence of organised group violence between two communities: that
is, of war.
Clearly, humans have been
fighting wars for thousands of years, and we may not be the only ones. There is
growing evidence that several other species also engage in warfare, including
our closest relatives the chimpanzees.
That suggests we have inherited our predilection for warfare from our ape-like ancestors. But not everyone agrees that warfare is inbuilt.
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
1. What did
archaeologists in southern Germany discover? Show hint
A. Remains
of 34 dead animals
B. Graveyard
containing 34 skeletons
C. Relics
of early civilization
D. 9
adult males, 7 adult females and 16 children
2. Why did
scientists suggested that those people were killed whilst running away? Show
hint
A. Their
skeletons showed signs of fatal trauma
B. There
were 16 children
C. During
that period organised group violence was very frequent
D. Their
skeletons didn't show any signs of defensive wounds
3. Why do
human beings fight, according to the article? Show hint
A. Because
they have been fighting wars for thousands of years
B. Because
chimpanzees, who are humans' closest relatives, engage in warfare
C. Because
humans inherited predilection for warfare from their ape-like ancestors
D. Because
fighting is their inbuilt instinct
4. Which of
the following phrases best describes the main aim of the Reading Passage? Show
hint
A. To
describe fighting among different species
B. To
intoduce principles of contemporary archaeology and its application
C. To
introduce some relics of humans' warfare for further discussion whether
violence is innate or not
D. To
suggest ways of interperting humans' violence
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Read
the text and answer the questions below.
August 1985: The worst month for
air disasters
There are many grim landmarks in
the history of aviation. One in particular stands out. Three decades ago, 720
travellers and crew lost their lives on board commercial aircraft in a single
month - more than in any other before or since.
The deaths occurred in four
separate accidents in August 1985. Each disaster had quite different causes.
The aircraft involved ranged from a 747 with hundreds on board to a tiny twin
engine turboprop carrying just eight people.
There was Japan Air Lines flight
123, the worst single-aircraft accident in history, in which 520 of 524 on
board were killed. A further 137 died when Delta flight 191 flew into heavy
winds as it approached Dallas-Fort Worth International. A fire on board British
Airtours flight 28M at Manchester Airport led to 55 deaths. And all those on
board the smallest aircraft, Bar Harbor Airlines flight 1808, lost their lives
as it flew into a small airport in Maine, USA.
Each, in their own way, had a lasting legacy, whether in the memories of those left bereaved or in changes in technology and procedure introduced as a direct result. The worst death toll was on Japan Air Lines Flight 123, a Boeing 747, which was en route from Tokyo to Osaka on 12 August 1985 when the airtight bulkhead between its cabin and tail tore open. The change in pressure blew off the vertical stabiliser, or tail fin. It also destroyed the hydraulic systems. The plane lurched up and down.
Choose
the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
1.
When did the 720 travellers die? Show hint
A.
Thirteen decades ago.
B.
A few decades ago.
C.
30 years ago.
D.
There is no information about it.
2.
Twin engine turboprop could carry: Show hint
A.
Eight people.
B.
Four people.
C.
Two people.
D.
Only a pilot.
3.
The worst accident in history, according to the paragraph, was:
Show hint
A.
Flight 123.
B.
Delta flight 191.
C.
British Airtours flight 28M.
D.
Bar Harbor Airlines flight 1808.
4.
Why did the Japan Air Lines Flight 123 crashed? Show hint
A.
The change in pressure blew off the
vertical stabiliser.
B.
Destruction of the hydraulic
systems.
C.
The airtight bulkhead between its
cabin and tail tore open.
D. It is unknown.
Exercise 3
Read
the text and answer the questions below.
Why does coffee shoot out of the
lid of your cup?
You're running late for work and
you've purchased your coffee in a hurry. Just as you arrive at the office, a
jet of hot liquid escapes from the tiny hole in the lid, leaving you with hot
beverage residue on your clothes before the day has really started.
TThis is exactly what happened to
Rob Kaczmarek after buying a cup of his favourite caffeinated drink. The
marketing director at Convergent Science was intrigued by why the coffee shoots
out so far and therefore set about modelling this, initially as a joke for
those who enjoy a bit of computational fluid dynamics. It's the design of the
lid that's the problem, he explains.
"It happens because of the
sloshing of the coffee against the lid, which is kind of unique. At the end of
the lid, the hole is right up above that. As the coffee sloshes against the end
of the lid, that velocity is amplified and it splashes up through the actual
hole."
Not all coffee cups are designed
with a hole, of course. Some have lids with a tiny hole and others peel back to
reveal a much larger gap, which offsets the shooting jets of hot liquid.
Choose
the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
1.
What accident might occur at work in the morning, after you bought
coffee? Show hint
A.
You spill it all over the place
accidently.
B.
You get burns from the hot coffee.
C.
You contaminate your clothes with
it.
D.
Nothing out of ordinary.
2.
Rob Kaczmarek explains to us that: Show hint
A.
The coffee shoots out very far.
B.
He sat his experiment as a joke.
C.
He was really intrigued by spilling
the coffee.
D.
Coffee spils because of the design
of the lid.
3.
The main reason coffee spils is: Show hint
A.
Velocity.
B.
Sloshing.
C.
Design of the cup.
D.
It is not stated.
4.
This text might be classified as: Show hint
A.
Scientific.
B.
Humorous.
C.
Fictional.
D. Romantic.
READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14–26, which
are based on Reading Passage 2 below.
Life lessons from
villains, crooks and gangsters
(A) A notorious Mexican drug
baron’s audacious escape from prison in July doesn’t, at first, appear to have
much to teach corporate boards. But some in the business world suggest
otherwise. Beyond the morally reprehensible side of criminals' work, some business
gurus say organised crime syndicates, computer hackers, pirates and others
operating outside the law could teach legitimate corporations a thing or two
about how to hustle and respond to rapid change.
(B) Far from encouraging illegality, these gurus argue that – in the
same way big corporations sometimes emulate start-ups – business leaders could
learn from the underworld about flexibility, innovation and the ability to
pivot quickly. “There is a nimbleness to criminal organisations that legacy
corporations [with large, complex layers of management] don’t have,” said Marc
Goodman, head of the Future Crimes Institute and global cyber-crime advisor.
While traditional businesses focus on rules they have to follow, criminals look
to circumvent them. “For criminals, the sky is the limit and that creates the
opportunity to think much, much bigger.”
(C) Joaquin Guzman, the head of the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel, for
instance, slipped out of his prison cell through a tiny hole in his shower that
led to a mile-long tunnel fitted with lights and ventilation. Making a break
for it required creative thinking, long-term planning and perseverance –
essential skills similar to those needed to achieve success in big business.
(D) While Devin Liddell, who heads brand strategy for Seattle-based
design consultancy, Teague, condemns the violence and other illegal activities
he became curious as to how criminal groups endure. Some cartels stay in
business despite multiple efforts by law enforcement on both sides of the US
border and millions of dollars from international agencies to shut them down.
Liddell genuinely believes there’s a lesson in longevity here. One strategy he
underlined was how the bad guys respond to change. In order to bypass the
border between Mexico and the US, for example, the Sinaloa cartel went to great
lengths. It built a vast underground tunnel, hired family members as border
agents and even used a catapult to circumvent a high-tech fence.
(E) By contrast, many legitimate businesses fail because they hesitate
to adapt quickly to changing market winds. One high-profile example is movie
and game rental company Blockbuster, which didn’t keep up with the market and
lost business to mail order video rentals and streaming technologies. The brand
has all but faded from view. Liddell argues the difference between the two
groups is that criminal organisations often have improvisation encoded into
their daily behaviour, while larger companies think of innovation as a set process.
“This is a leadership challenge,” said Liddell. “How well companies innovate
and organise is a reflection of leadership.”
Left-field thinking
(F) Cash-strapped start-ups also use unorthodox strategies to problem
solve and build their businesses up from scratch. This creativity and
innovation is often borne out of necessity, such as tight budgets. Both
criminals and start-up founders “question authority, act outside the system and
see new and clever ways of doing things,” said Goodman. “Either they become
Elon Musk or El Chapo.” And, some entrepreneurs aren’t even afraid to operate
in legal grey areas in their effort to disrupt the marketplace. The co-founders
of music streaming service Napster, for example, knowingly broke music
copyright rules with their first online file sharing service, but their
technology paved the way for legal innovation as regulators caught up.
(G) Goodman and others believe thinking hard about problem solving
before worrying about restrictions could prevent established companies falling
victim to rivals less constrained by tradition. In their book The Misfit
Economy, Alexa Clay and Kyra Maya Phillips examine how individuals can apply
that mindset to become more innovative and entrepreneurial within corporate
structures. They studied not just violent criminals like Somali pirates, but
others who break the rules in order to find creative solutions to their
business problems, such as people living in the slums of Mumbai or computer
hackers. They picked out five common traits among this group: the ability to
hustle, pivot, provoke, hack and copycat.
(H) Clay gives a Saudi entrepreneur named Walid Abdul-Wahab as a prime
example. Abdul-Wahab worked with Amish farmers to bring camel milk to American
consumers even before US regulators approved it. Through perseverance, he
eventually found a network of Amish camel milk farmers and started selling the
product via social media. Now his company, Desert Farms, sells to giant
mainstream retailers like Whole Foods Market. Those on the fringe don’t always
have the option of traditional, corporate jobs and that forces them to think
more creatively about how to make a living, Clay said. They must develop grit
and resilience in order to last outside the cushy confines of cubicle life. “In
many cases scarcity is the mother of invention,” Clay said.
Questions 14-21
Reading
Passage 2 has eight paragraphs A-H. Match the headings below with the paragraphs.
Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 14-21 on your answer
sheet.
14. Jailbreak with creative thinking
15. Five common traits among rule-breakers
16. Comparison between criminals and traditional businessmen
17. Can drug baron's espace teach legitimate corporations?
18. Great entrepreneur
19. How criminal groups deceive the law
20. The difference between legal and illegal organisations
21. Similarity between criminals and start-up founders
Questions 22–25
Complete
the sentences below.
Write
ONLY ONE WORD from the passage for each answer.
Write
your answers in boxes 22–25 on your answer sheet.
22. To escape from a prison, Joaquin Guzman had to use such traits as
creative thinking, long-term planning and…………
23. The Sinaloa cartel built a grand underground tunnel and even used
a……………..to avoid the fence.
24. The main difference between two groups is that criminals, unlike
large corporations, often have……………..encoded into their daily life.
25. Due to being persuasive, Walid Abdul-Wahab found a………….of Amish camel milk farmers.
Question 26
Choose
the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
26. The main goal of this article is to:
A Show
different ways of illegal activity
B Give
an overview of various criminals and their gangs
C Draw
a comparison between legal and illegal business, providing examples
D Justify
criminals with creative thinking
READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 17–27, which
are based on Reading Passage 2 below.
The atom bomb was one of
the defining inventions of the 20th Century. So how did science fiction writer
HG Wells predict its invention three decades before the first detonations?
(A) Imagine you're the greatest
fantasy writer of your age. One day you dream up the idea of a bomb of infinite
power. You call it the "atomic bomb". HG Wells first imagined a
uranium-based hand grenade that "would continue to explode
indefinitely" in his 1914 novel The World Set Free. He even thought it would
be dropped from planes. What he couldn't predict was how a strange conjunction
of his friends and acquaintances - notably Winston Churchill, who'd read all
Wells's novels twice, and the physicist Leo Szilard - would turn the idea from
fantasy to reality, leaving them deeply tormented by the scale of destructive
power that it unleashed.
(B) The story of the atom
bomb starts in the Edwardian age, when scientists such as Ernest Rutherford
were grappling with a new way of conceiving the physical world. The idea was
that solid elements might be made up of tiny particles in atoms. "When it
became apparent that the Rutherford atom had a dense nucleus, there was a sense
that it was like a coiled spring," says Andrew Nahum, curator of the
Science Museum's Churchill's Scientists exhibition. Wells was fascinated with
the new discoveries. He had a track record of predicting technological
innovations. Winston Churchill credited Wells for coming up with the idea of
using aeroplanes and tanks in combat ahead of World War One.
(C) The two men met and
discussed ideas over the decades, especially as Churchill, a highly popular
writer himself, spent the interwar years out of political power, contemplating
the rising instability of Europe. Churchill grasped the danger of technology
running ahead of human maturity, penning a 1924 article in the Pall Mall
Gazette called "Shall we all commit suicide?". In the article,
Churchill wrote: "Might a bomb no bigger than an orange be found to
possess a secret power to destroy a whole block of buildings - nay to
concentrate the force of a thousand tons of cordite and blast a township at a
stroke?" This idea of the orange-sized bomb is credited by Graham Farmelo,
author of Churchill's Bomb, directly to the imagery of The World Set Free.
(D) By 1932 British
scientists had succeeded in splitting the atom for the first time by artificial
means, although some believed it couldn't produce huge amounts of energy. But
the same year the Hungarian emigre physicist Leo Szilard read The World Set
Free. Szilard believed that the splitting of the atom could produce vast
energy. He later wrote that Wells showed him "what the liberation of
atomic energy on a large scale would mean". Szilard suddenly came up with
the answer in September 1933 - the chain reaction - while watching the traffic
lights turn green in Russell Square in London. He wrote: "It suddenly
occurred to me that if we could find an element which is split by neutrons and
which would emit two neutrons when it absorbed one neutron, such an element, if
assembled in sufficiently large mass, could sustain a nuclear chain reaction."
(E) In that eureka moment,
Szilard also felt great fear - of how a bustling city like London and all its
inhabitants could be destroyed in an instant as he reflected in his memoir
published in 1968:
"Knowing what it would mean - and I knew because I had read HG Wells - I
did not want this patent to become public." The Nazis were on the rise and
Szilard was deeply anxious about who else might be working on the chain
reaction theory and an atomic Bomb. Wells's novel Things To Come, turned into a
1936 film, The Shape of Things to Come, accurately predicted aerial bombardment
and an imminent devastating world war. In 1939 Szilard drafted the letter
Albert Einstein sent to President Roosevelt warning America that Germany was
stockpiling uranium. The Manhattan Project was born.
(F) Szilard and several
British scientists worked on it with the US military's massive financial
backing. Britons and Americans worked alongside each other in "silos"
- each team unaware of how their work fitted together. They ended up moving on
from the original enriched uranium "gun" method, which had been
conceived in Britain, to create a plutonium implosion weapon instead. Szilard
campaigned for a demonstration bomb test in front of the Japanese ambassador to
give them a chance to surrender. He was horrified that it was instead dropped
on a city. In 1945 Churchill was beaten in the general election and in another
shock, the US government passed the 1946 McMahon Act, shutting Britain out of
access to the atomic technology it had helped create. William Penney, one of
the returning Los Alamos physicists, led the team charged by Prime Minister
Clement Atlee with somehow putting together their individual pieces of the
puzzle to create a British bomb on a fraction of the American budget.
(G) "It was a huge
intellectual feat," Andrew Nahum observes. "Essentially they reworked
the calculations that they'd been doing in Los Alamos. They had the services of
Klaus Fuchs, who [later] turned out to be an atom spy passing information to
the Soviet Union, but he also had a phenomenal memory." Another British
physicist, Patrick Blackett, who discussed the Bomb after the war with a German
scientist in captivity, observed that there were no real secrets. According to
Nahum he said: "It's a bit like making an omelette. Not everyone can make
a good one."When Churchill was re-elected in 1951 he "found an almost
complete weapon ready to test and was puzzled and fascinated by how Atlee had
buried the costs in the budget", says Nahum. "He was very conflicted
about whether to go ahead with the test and wrote about whether we should have
'the art and not the article'. Meaning should it be enough to have the
capability… [rather] than to have a dangerous weapon in the armoury."
(H) Churchill was convinced
to go ahead with the test, but the much more powerful hydrogen bomb developed
three years later worried him greatly.HG Wells died in 1946. He had been
working on a film sequel to The Shape of Things To Come that was to include his
concerns about the now-realised atomic bomb he'd first imagined. But it was
never made. Towards the end of his life, says Nahum, Wells's friendship with
Churchill "cooled a little". "Wells considered Churchill as an
enlightened but tarnished member of the ruling classes." And Churchill had
little time for Wells's increasingly fanciful socialist utopian ideas.
(I) Wells believed
technocrats and scientists would ultimately run a peaceful new world order like
in The Shape of Things To Come, even if global war destroyed the world as we
knew it first. Churchill, a former soldier, believed in the lessons of history
and saw diplomacy as the only way to keep mankind from self-destruction in the
atomic age. Wells's scientist acquaintance Leo Szilard stayed in America and
campaigned for civilian control of atomic energy, equally pessimistic about
Wells's idea of a bold new scientist-led world order. If anything Szilard was
tormented by the power he had helped unleash. In 1950, he predicted a cobalt
bomb that would destroy all life on the planet. In Britain, the legacy of the
Bomb was a remarkable period of elite scientific innovation as the many
scientists who had worked on weaponry or radar returned to their civilian labs.
They gave us the first commercial jet airliner, the Comet, near-supersonic
aircraft and rockets, highly engineered computers, and the Jodrell Bank giant
moveable radio telescope.
(J) The latter had nearly ended the career of its champion, physicist Bernard Lovell, with its huge costs, until the 1957 launch of Sputnik, when it emerged that Jodrell Bank had the only device in the West that could track it. Nahum says Lovell reflected that "during the war the question was never what will something cost. The question was only can you do it and how soon can we have it? And that was the spirit he took into his peacetime science." Austerity and the tiny size of the British market, compared with America, were to scupper those dreams. But though the Bomb created a new terror, for a few years at least, Britain saw a vision of a benign atomic future, too and believed it could be the shape of things to come.
Questions 17–25
Reading Passage 2 has ten paragraphs, A–J.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A–J, in boxes 17–25 on your answer sheet. Note that one paragraph is not used.
17. Scientific success
18. Worsening relations
19. The dawn of the new
project
20. Churchill's confusion
21. Different perspectives
22. Horrifying prediction
23. Leaving Britain behind the
project
24. Long-term discussion
25. New idea
Questions 26–27
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes 26–27 on your answer sheet.
26. How can you describe the
relations between Churchill and Wells throughout the years?
A.
passionate → friendly → adverse
B.
curious → friendly
C.
respectful → friendly →
inhospitable
D.
friendly → respectful → hostile
27. What is the type of this
text?
A.
science-fiction story
B.
article from the magazine
C.
historical text
D.
Wells autobiography
