Day 2 IELTS Academic Reading Passage
READING PASSAGE 1
You should spend about 20
minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on Reading Passage 1
below.
Rural transport plan of “Practical action”
For more
than 40 years, Practical Action has worked with poor communities to identify
the types of transport that work best, taking into consideration culture, needs
and skills. With our technical and practical support, isolated rural
communities can design, build and maintain their own solutions.
A
Whilst
the focus of National Development Plans in the transport sector lies heavily in
the areas of extending road networks and bridges, there are still major gaps
identified in addressing the needs of poorer communities. There is a need to
develop and promote the sustainable use of alternative transport systems and
intermediate means of transportation (IMTs) that complement the linkages of
poor people with road networks and other socio-economic infrastructures to
improve their livelihoods.
B
On the
other hand, the development of all weathered roads (only 30 percent of the
rural population have access to this so far) and motorable bridges are very
costly for a country with a small and stagnant economy. In addition, these
interventions are not always favourable in all geographical contexts
environmentally, socially and economically. More than 60 percent of the network
is concentrated in the lowland areas of the country. Although there are a
number of alternative ways by which transportation and mobility needs of rural
communities in the hills can be addressed, a lack of clear government focus and
policies, lack of fiscal and economic incentives, lack of adequate technical
knowledge and manufacturing capacities have led to under-development of this
alternative transport sub-sector including the provision of IMTs.
C
One of
the major causes of poverty is isolation. Improving the access and mobility of
the isolated poor paves the way for access to markets, services and opportunities.
By improving transport poorer people are able to access markets where they can
buy or sell goods for income, and make better use of essential services such as
health and education. No proper roads or vehicles mean women and children are
forced to spend many hours each day attending to their most basic needs, such
as collecting water and firewood. This valuable time could be used to tend
crops, care for the family, study or develop small business ideas to generate
much-needed income.
Education
Road
building
D
Without
roads, rural communities are extremely restricted. Collecting water and
firewood, and going to local markets is a huge task, therefore it is
understandable that the construction of roads is a major priority for many
rural communities. Practical Action is helping to improve rural
access/transport infrastructures through the construction and rehabilitation of
short rural roads, small bridges, culverts and other transport-related
functions. The aim is to use methods that encourage community-driven
development. This means villagers can improve their own lives through better
access to markets, health care, education and other economic and social
opportunities, as well as bringing improved services and supplies to the
now-accessible villages.
Driving
forward new ideas
E
Practical
Action and the communities we work with are constantly crafting and honing new
ideas to help poor people. Cycle trailers have practical business use too,
helping people carry their goods, such as vegetables and charcoal, to markets
for sale. Not only that, but those on the poverty-line can earn a decent income
by making, maintaining and operating bicycle taxis. With Practical Action’s
know-how, Sri Lanka communities have been able to start a bus service and
maintain the roads along which it travels. The impact has been remarkable. This
service has put an end to rural people’s social isolation. Quick and
affordable, it gives them a reliable way to travel to the nearest town; and now
their children can get an education, making it far more likely they’ll find a
path out of poverty. Practical Action is also an active member of many national
and regional networks through which exchange of knowledge and advocating based
on action research are carried out and one conspicuous example is the Lanka
Organic Agriculture Movement.
Sky-scraping
transport system
F
For
people who live in remote, mountainous areas, getting food to market in order
to earn enough money to survive is a serious issue. The hills are so steep that
travelling down them is dangerous. A porter can help but they are expensive,
and it would still take hours or even a day. The journey can take so long that
their goods start to perish and become worthless and less. Practical Action has
developed an ingenious solution called an aerial ropeway. It can either operate
by gravitation force or with the use of external power. The ropeway consists of
two trolleys rolling over support tracks connected to a control cable in the
middle which moves in a traditional flywheel system. The trolley at the top is
loaded with goods and can take up to 120kg. This is pulled down to the station
at the bottom, either by the force of gravity or by an external power. The
other trolley at the bottom is, therefore, pulled upwards automatically. The
external power can be produced by a micro-hydro system if access to an
electricity grid is not an option.
Bringing
people on board
G
Practical
Action developed a two-wheeled iron trailer that can be attached (via a hitch
behind the seat) to a bicycle and be used to carry heavy loads (up to around
200 kgs) of food, water or even passengers. People can now carry three times as
much as before and still pedal the bicycle. The cycle trailers are used for
transporting goods by local producers, as ambulances, as mobile shops, and even
as mobile libraries. They are made in small village workshops from iron tubing,
which is cut, bent, welded and drilled to make the frame and wheels.
Modifications are also carried out to the trailers in these workshops at the
request of the buyers. The two-wheeled ‘ambulance’ is made from moulded metal,
with standard rubber-tyred wheels. The “bed” section can be padded with
cushions to make the patient comfortable, while the “seat” section allows a
family member to attend to the patient during transit. A dedicated bicycle is
needed to pull the ambulance trailer, so that other community members do not
need to go without the bicycles they depend on in their daily lives. A joining
mechanism allows for easy removal and attachment. In response to user comments,
a cover has been designed that can be added to give protection to the patient
and attendant in poor weather. Made of treated cotton, the cover is durable and
waterproof.
Questions 1-4
Do the following statements
agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?
Books & Literature
In boxes 1-4 on your
answer sheet, write
YES if the statement is true
NO if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the
passage
1 A slow-developing economy often can not
afford some road networks, especially for those used regardless of weather
conditions.
2 Rural communities’ officials know how to
improve alternative transport technically.
3 The primary aim for Practical Action to
improve rural transport infrastructures is meant to increase the trade among
villages.
4 Lanka Organic Agriculture Movement
provided service that Practical Action highly involved in.
Questions 5-8
Answer the questions below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE
WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.
5 What is the first duty for many rural
communities to reach unrestricted development?
6 What was one of the new ideas to help poor
people carry their goods, such as vegetables and charcoal, to markets for sale?
7 What service has put an end to rural
people’s social isolation in Sri Lanka?
8 What solution had been applied for people
who live in remote mountainous areas getting food to market?
Questions 9-13
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 9-13
on your answer sheet.
Besides
normal transport task, changes are also implemented to the trailers in these
workshops at the request of the buyers when it was used on a medical emergency
or a moveable 9………………………; ‘Ambulance’ is made from metal, with rubber
wheels and drive-by another bicycle. When put with 10……………………… in the
two-wheeled ‘ambulance’, the patient can stay comfortable and which another 11……………………….
can sit on caring for the patient in transport journey. In order to dismantle
or attach other equipment, and assembling 12………………………… is designed.
Later, as users suggest, 13……………………….. has also been added to give
protection to the patient.
READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20
minutes on Questions 14-27 which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.
Malaria Combat in Italy
A
Mal-aria.
Bad air. Even the world is Italian, and this horrible disease marked the life
of those in the peninsula for thousands of years. Giuseppe Garibaldi’s wife
died of the disease, as did the country’s first prime minister, Cavour, in
1861. Yet by 1962, Italy was officially declared malaria-free, and it has
remained so ever since. Frank Snowden’s study of this success story is a
remarkable piece of historical work. Original, crystal-clear, analytical and
passionate, Snowden (who has previously written about cholera) takes us to
areas historians have rarely visited before.
Books
& Literature
B
Everybody
now knows that malaria is carried by mosquitoes. Malaria has always been the
subject of research for medical practitioners from time immemorial. However, many
ancient texts, especially medical literature, mention of various aspects of
malaria and even of its possible link with mosquitoes and insects. Early man,
confronting the manifestations of malaria, attributed the fevers to
supernatural influences: evil spirits, angered deities, or the black magic of
sorcerers. But in the 19th century, most experts believed that the disease was
not produced by unclean air (“miasma” or “poisoning of the air”). Two
Americans, Josiah Clark Nott and Lewis Daniel Beauperthy, echoed Crawford’s
ideas. Nott in his essay “Yellow Fever Contrasted with Bilious Fever,”
published in 1850, dismissed the miasma theory as worthless, arguing that
microscopic insects somehow transmitted by mosquitoes caused both malaria and
yellow fever. Others made a link between swamps, water and malaria, but did not
make the further leap towards insects. The consequences of these theories were
that little was done to combat the disease before the end of the century.
Things became so bad that 11m Italians (from a total population of 25m) were
“permanently at risk”. In malarial zones, the life expectancy of land workers
was a terrifying 22.5 years. Those who escaped death were weakened or suffered
from splenomegaly – a “painful enlargement of the spleen” and “a lifeless
stare”. The economic impact of the disease was immense. Epidemics were blamed
on southern Italians, given the widespread belief that malaria was hereditary.
In the 1880s, such theories began to collapse as the dreaded mosquito was
identified as the real culprit.
History
C
Italian
scientists, drawing on the pioneering work of French doctor Alphonse Laveran,
were able to predict the cycles of fever but it was in Rome that further key
discoveries were made. Giovanni Battista Grassi, a naturalist, found that a
particular type of mosquito was the carrier of malaria. By experimenting on
healthy volunteers (mosquitoes were released into rooms where they drank the
blood of the human guinea pigs), Grassi was able to make the direct link
between the insects (all females of a certain kind) and the disease. Soon,
doctors and scientists made another startling discovery: the mosquitoes
themselves were also infected and not mere carriers. Every year, during the
mosquito season, malarial blood was moved around the population by the insects.
Definitive proof of these new theories was obtained after an extraordinary
series of experiments in Italy, where healthy people were introduced into
malarial zones but kept free of mosquito bites – and remained well. The new Italian
state had the necessary information to tackle the disease.
D
A
complicated approach was adopted, which made use of quinine – a drug obtained
from tree bark which had long been used to combat fever but was now seen as a
crucial part of the war on malaria. Italy introduced a quinine law and a
quinine tax in 1904, and the drug was administered to large numbers of rural
workers. Despite its often terrible side-effects (the headaches produced were
known as the “quinine-buzz”), the drug was successful in limiting the spread of
the disease, and in breaking cycles of infection. In addition, Italy set up
rural health centres and invested heavily in education programmes. Malaria, as
Snowden shows, was not just a medical problem, but a social and regional issue,
and could only be defeated through multi-layered strategies. Politics was
itself transformed by the anti-malarial campaigns.
Education
E
It was
originally decided to give quinine to all those in certain regions – even
healthy people; peasants were often suspicious of the medicine being forced
upon them. Doctors were sometimes met with hostility and refusal, and many were
dubbed “poisoners”. Despite these problems, the strategy was hugely successful.
Deaths from malaria fell by some 80% in the first decade of the 20th century
and some areas escaped altogether from the scourge of the disease.
F
Shamefully,
the Italian malaria expert Alberto Missiroli had a role to play in the
disaster: he did not distribute quinine, despite being well aware of the
epidemic to come. Snowden claims that Missiroli was already preparing a new
strategy – with the support of the US Rockefeller Foundation – using a new
pesticide, DDT. Missiroli allowed the epidemic to spread, in order to create
the ideal conditions for a massive, and lucrative, human experiment. Fifty-five
thousand cases of malaria were recorded in the province of Littoria alone in
1944. It is estimated that more than a bird of those in the affected area
contracted the disease. Thousands, nobody knows how many, died.
G
With the
war over, the US government and the Rockefeller Foundation were free to
experiment. DDT was sprayed from the air and 3m Italians had their bodies
covered with the chemical. The effects were dramatic, and nobody really cared
about the toxic effects of the chemical. By 1962, malaria was more or less gone
from the whole peninsula. The last cases were noted in a poor region of Sicily.
One of the final victims to die of the disease in Italy was the popular
cyclist, Fausto Coppi. He had contracted malaria in Africa in 1960, and the
failure of doctors in the north of Italy to spot the disease was a sign of the
times. A few decades earlier, they would have immediately noticed the tell-tale
signs; it was later claimed that a small dose of quinine would have saved his
life.
H
As there
are still more than 1m deaths every year from malaria worldwide, Snowden’s book
also has contemporary relevance. This is a disease that affects every level of
the societies where it is rampant. As Snowden writes: “In Italy, malaria
undermined agricultural productivity, decimated the army, destroyed communities
and left families impoverished.” The economic miracle of the 50s and 60s which
made Italy into a modern industrial nation would not have been possible without
the eradication of malaria. Moreover, this book convincingly argues that the
disease was “an integral part of the big picture of modern Italian history”.
This magnificent study, beautifully written and impeccably documented, deserves
an audience beyond specialists in history, or in Italy. It also provides us
with “a message of hope for a world struggling with the great present-day
medical emergency”.
Questions 14-17
Complete the following summary
of the paragraphs of Reading Passage 2
Using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS
from the Reading Passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 14-17
on your answer sheet.
Theories
for malaria origin have always been the issue of research for medical
practitioners from ancient time. Although the link between malaria and mosquito
was established lately, it has been recorded in words that 14……………………..,
including mosquito, may play the major culprits. In the 19th century, most
experts rejected the idea of the miasma theory which related malaria to 15……………………..
Even another widespread theory arose that southern Italians were blamed, to
whom malaria was 16………………………. In southern Italy, the situation became so
severe that near half the Italians population was thought to be “permanently at
risk”. In malarial areas the 17……………………. Of rural workers was
surprisingly shorter. In the 1880s, such theories began to withdraw as the
mosquito was identified as the true cause.
History
Questions 18-21
Do the following statements
agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 2?
In boxes 18-21 on your
answer sheet write
YES if the statement agrees with
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
18 The volunteers in Grassi experiments were
from all parts over Italy.
19 Healthy people could remain safe in malaria
– infectious zone if they did not have mosquito bites.
20 Quinine is an effective drug which had long
been used to combat malaria.
21 Eradicating malaria was a goal combined both
medical and political significance.
Questions 22-27
Reading Passage 2 has 8
paragraphs, A-H.
Which paragraph contains the
following information?
Write the correct letter A-H
in boxes 22-27 on your answer sheet.
22 A breakthrough was found that mosquito was
the carrier of malaria
23 A scientist intentionally failed to restrict
the epidemic area.
24 This successful story still holds true for
today’s readers worldwide.
25 One of the final cases reported dying of
malaria in Italy
26 the negative symptoms of the highly
effective drug
27 A list of the speculative hypothesis was
cited.
You should spend about 20
minutes on Questions 28-40 which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.
Video
Games’
Unexpected Benefits to Human Brain
A
James
Paul Gee, professor of education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, played
his first video game years ago when his six-year-old son Sam was playing Pajama
Sam: No Need to Hide When It’s Dark Outside. He wanted to play the game so he
could support Sam’s problem-solving. Though Pajama Sam is not an “educational
game”, it is replete with the types of problems psychologists study when they
study thinking and learning. When he saw how well the game held Sam’s attention,
he wondered what sort of beast a more mature video game might be.
B
Video
and computer games, like many other popular, entertaining and addicting kid’s
activities, are looked down upon by many parents as time-wasters, and worse,
parents think that these games rot the brain. Violent video games are readily
blamed by the media and some experts as the reason why some youth become
violent or commit extreme anti-social behavior. Recent content analyses of
video games show that as many as 89% of games contain some violent content, but
there is no form of aggressive content for 70% of popular games. Many
scientists and psychologists, like James Paul Gee, find that video games
actually have many benefits – the main one being making kids smart. Video games
may actually teach kids high-level thinking skills that they will need in the
future.
Computer
& Video Games
C
“Video
games change your brain,” according to University of Wisconsin psychologist
Shawn Green. Video games change the brain’s physical structure the same way as
do learning to read, playing the piano, or navigating using a map. Much like
exercise can build muscle, the powerful combination of concentration and
rewarding surges of neurotransmitters like dopamine, which strengthens neural
circuits, can build the player’s brain.
D
Video
games give your child’s brain a real workout. In many video games, the skills
required to win involve abstract and high-level thinking. These skills are not
even taught at school. Some of the mental skills trained by video games
include: following instructions, problem-solving, logic, hand-eye coordination,
fine motor and spatial skills. Research also suggests that people can learn
iconic, spatial, and visual attention skills from video games. There have been
even studies with adults showing that experience with video games is related to
better surgical skills. Jacob Benjamin, a doctor from Beth Israel Medical
Center NY, found a direct link between skill at video gaming and skill at
keyhole or laparoscopic surgery. Also, a reason given by experts as to why
fighter pilots of today are more skillful is that this generation’s pilots are
being weaned on video games.
Games
E
The
players learn to manage resources that are limited and decide the best use of
resources, the same way as in real life. In strategy games, for instance, while
developing a city, an unexpected surprise like an enemy might emerge. This
forces the player to be flexible and quickly change tactics. Sometimes the
player does this almost every second of the game giving the brain a real
workout. According to researchers at the University of Rochester, led by Daphne
Bavelier, a cognitive scientist, games simulating stressful events such as
those found in battle or action games could be a training tool for real-world situations.
The study suggests that playing action video games primes the brain to make
quick decisions. Video games can be used to train soldiers and surgeons,
according to the study Steven Johnson, author of Everything Bad is Good For
You: How Today’s Popular Culture, says gamers must deal with immediate problems
while keeping their long-term goals on their horizon. Young gamers force
themselves to read to get instructions, follow storylines of games, and get
information from the game texts.
F
James
Paul Gee, professor of education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says
that playing a video game is similar to working through a science problem. Like
students in a laboratory, gamers must come up with a hypothesis. For example,
players in some games constantly try out combinations of weapons and powers to
use to defeat an enemy. If one does not work, they change the hypothesis and
try the next one. Video games are goal-driven experiences, says Gee, which is
fundamental to learning. Also, using math skills is important to win in many
games that involve quantitative analysis like managing resources. In higher
levels of a game, players usually fail the first time around, but they keep on
trying until they succeed and move on to the next level.
Education
G
Many
games are played online and involve cooperation with other online players in
order to win. Video and computer games also help children gain self-confidence
and many games are based on history, city building, and governance and so on.
Such games indirectly teach children about aspects of life on earth.
H
In an
upcoming study in the journal Current Biology, authors Daphne Bavelier,
Alexandre Pouget, and C. Shawn Green report that video games could provide a
potent training regimen for speeding up reactions in many types of real-life
situations. The researchers tested dozens of 18 to 25-year-olds who were not
ordinarily video game players. They split the subjects into two groups. One
group played 50 hours of the fast-paced action video games “Call of Duty 2” and
“Unreal Tournament,” and the other group played 50 hours of the slow-moving
strategy game “The Sims 2.” After this training period, all of the subjects
were asked to make quick decisions in several tasks designed by the
researchers. The action game players were up to 25 percent faster at coming to
a conclusion and answered just as many questions correctly as their strategy
game playing peers.
Questions 28-31
Choose the correct letter, A,
B, C or D.
Write your answers in boxes 28-31
on your answer sheet.
Computer & Video Games
28 What is the main purpose of paragraph ONE?
A Introduction of professor James Paul Gee.
B Introduction of the video game: Pajamas Sam.
C Introduction of types of video games.
D Introduction of the background of this
passage.
29 What does the author want to express in the second
paragraph?
A Video games are widely considered harmful
for children’s brain.
B Most violent video games are a direct reason
for juvenile delinquency.
C Even there is a certain proportion of
violence in most video games; scientists and psychologists see its benefits of
children’s intellectual abilities.
D Many parents regard video games as
time-wasters, which rot children’s brain.
30 What is correctly mentioned in paragraph four?
A Some schools use video games to teach
students abstract and high-level thinking.
Science
B Video games improve brain ability in various
aspects.
C some surgeons have better skills because
they play more video games.
D Skillful fighter pilots in this generation
love to play video games.
31 What is the expectation of the experiment
the three researchers did?
A Gamers have to make the best use of the
limited resource.
B Gamers with better math skills will win in
the end.
C Strategy game players have a better ability
to make quick decisions.
D Video games help increase the speed of the
players’ reaction effectively.
Questions 32-35
Do the following statements
agree with the information given in Reading Passage 3?
In boxes 32-35 on your
answer sheet, write
History
TRUE if the statement is true
FALSE if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the
passage
32 Most video games are popular
because of their violent content.
33 The action game players minimized the
percentage of making mistakes in the experiment.
34 It would be a good idea for schools to apply
video games in their classrooms.
35 Those people who are addicted to video games
have lots of dopamine in their brains.
Questions 36-40
Use the information in the
passage to match the people (listed A-F) with opinions or deeds below.
Write the appropriate letters A-F
in boxes 36-40 on your answer sheet.
Books & Literature
A The writer’s opinion
B James Paul Gee
C Shawn
Green
D Daphne Bavelier
E Steven Johnson
F Jacob Benjamin
36 Video games as other daily life skills alter
the brain’s physical structure.
37 The brain is ready to make decisions without
hesitation when players are immersed in playing stressful games.
38 The purpose-motivated experience that video
games offer plays an essential role in studying.
39 Players are good at tackling prompt issues
with future intentions.
40 It helps children broaden their horizon in
many aspects and gain self-confidence.
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