EXTRA Reading Material

Hi everyone,

Here's the copy of the additional reading practice for IELTS.

I will post the answers by the end of this week.

READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 15 minutes on Questions 1-10, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below. Please choose the right answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text.

The news

The two American astronauts, Bob Gary and John Gordon, have safely returned to the Earth. They were picked up this morning by a US naval ship shortly after their capsule landed in the Pacific some 250 miles from the spot originally planned for the landing. The American authorities have given no reason for the new landing site, but the two men are reported to be in good health, although extremely tired. They have been in space for 41 days. An official report from Washington today states that there have been a number of problems on this flight, but that will not affect the next flight due to take off in a month's time.

In Germany, the trial begins today of the five terrorists who hijacked a German passenger liner last July and held the liner and its 450 passengers hostage for a week. At the time, the hijackers were demanding the release of a number of political prisoners in various countries around the world. The shipping company that owns the liner says that the incident has cost them hundreds of dollars. A spokesman for the company has said that they are confident the five men will receive the maximum sentence that a German court can impose.

Two teenagers had to be rescued from a steep mountainside in Scotland earlier today. The two boys, both from Birmingham, had been on a two-day climb with a group of ten others. The boys had become separated from the others and it wasn't until late yesterday afternoon that the alarm was raised and a search party of climbers was organised. Climbers quickly discovered that one of the boys had a broken leg and he was taken off the mountain by helicopter and flown to the nearest hospital. It is believed that the two went off exploring on their own and then got stuck on the cliff.

After the long Bank Holiday weekend, traffic is still reported to be very heavy on roads leading to London and Bristol from the south coast. The police have advised drivers to be extremely careful, not only because of the amount of traffic on the roads but also because of the heavy rain storms. A spokesman said: 'The heavy falls that we have had in the past hours have made many roads dangerous.'

And finally, the weather. The first period of rain will be followed by warm, sunny patches. The night will be dry in most parts.

1. Two American astronauts landed

A. Where planned.

B. On a US naval ship.

C. Far from the scheduled place.

D. 150 miles from the Pacific.

2. The flight next month

A. Will take off from a naval ship in the Pacific.

B. Has been put off for technical reasons.

C. Will go ahead as planned.

D. Will last as long as the last one.

3. Why did the terrorists hijack the liner?

A. They wanted to frighten the passengers.

B. They had all worked for the shipping company at one time.

C. They wanted thousands of dollars.

D. They wanted political prisoners to be freed.

4. The terrorists will definitely

A. Pay back hundreds of dollars.

B. Get the highest possible sentence.

C. Receive maximum number of sentences.

D. Impose the maximum sentence.

5. The passengers of the liner were ______ the hijackers.

A. Hosts of.

B. Detained by.

C. Kidnapped by.

D. Killed by

6. The two boys had problems

A. When they saw a helicopter.

B. While they were climbing on their own.

C. While they were visiting Birmingham.

D. When it became foggy.

7. The climbers started looking for the boys

A. Not later than yesterday.

B. Earlier today.

C. Before dark yesterday.

D. Until yesterday.

8. Who found them?

A. Their guide.

B. The helicopter pilot.

C. A rescue mission.

D. A Scottish camper.

9. What has the weather been like in the past hours?

A. Hot and sunny.

B. Very cold.

C. Very wet.

D. Foggy.

10. Met. Office reports ______ weather tomorrow.

A. Fairly good.

B. Fairly bad.

C. Very good.

D. Awful.

READING PASSAGE 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 11-20, which are based on the Reading Passage 2 below.

Dolphin Pools as Zoos?

The public are always numerous and enthusiastic. Children can't wait to get near the dolphins, to touch, stroke and feed them.

It's the same each day all over the world. And the dolphins love it; they stick their heads out of water, rubbing themselves against the side of the pool, making their typical clicking noises.

They are extremely sociable creatures, with an enormous curiosity towards human beings and it is this particular aspect which singles them out from other mammals.

During these meetings at "close-quarters" a deep friendship develops between man and animal. People crowd to watch as the dolphins perform their wonderful acrobatic water games, but they also want to know more about them. For example that they are mammals and not fish, that they breathe air, that they pick out their prey and other objects using their hearing, that they live in groups with very strict rules. Sometimes dolphin pools are used as hospitals for sick cetaceans. It is not a rare thing to find specimen washed up a beach because of environmental pollution and saved with the help of dolphins from those pools. Ecological campaigns aimed at protecting the species can always count on the help of those people who have learnt to love these animals by having actually seen them.

Sadly though, admiration has recently been mixed with pity. Conservationists have complained about the negative aspects of the aquariums, comparing them to zoos. Life in cement pools confines the dolphins to a very limited space, isolates them from their shoal and prevents them from having social relationships and protection of their group.

Also the hygienic conditions in many pools are not up to standard. Dolphins have very delicate skin: too much chlorine or salt in the water can cause sores and ulcerations on their bodies. Another problem is that animals are made to perform all sorts of unnatural and ridiculous exercises which make them a toy for man to play with. Of course, not all dolphin pools are prisons. In the U.S.A., for example, natural lagoons which have been fenced off from the sea, are now being used. Though the dolphins have limited freedom in them, they do have wide areas to swim in with real sea water and sea life, while people still look at them and study them. Let's hope all dolphin pools will follow this example!

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2?

TRUE If statement agrees with the information

FALSE If the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN If there is no information provided on this

11. People don't find dolphins interesting.
12. Children like to touch, stroke and feed dolphins.
13. Dolphins are not very fond of people.
14. Dolphins use clicking noises in echolocation.
15. People come to see dolphins because they want to watch them perform and to learn more about them.
16. Dolphins use their hearing to find their food.
17. Dolphins prefer to live alone rather than in groups.
18. Aquariums are compared to zoos.
19. Dolphins in aquariums do not have enough space and have no contact with the rest of the group.
20. Dolphins can have problems with their skin if there is too much salt or chlorine in the water.

READING PASSAGE 3

You should spend about 15 minutes on Questions 21-25, which are based on Reading Passage below.

A The Lumière Brothers opened their Cinematographe, at 14 Boulevard des Capucines in Paris, to 100 paying customers over 100 years ago, on December 8, 1985. Before the eyes of the stunned, thrilled audience, photographs came to life and moved across a flat screen.

B So ordinary and routine has this become to us that it takes a determined leap of imagination to grasp the impact of those first moving images. But it is worth trying, for to understand the initial shock of those images is to understand the extraordinary power and magic of cinema, the unique, hypnotic quality that has made film the most dynamic, effective art form of the 20^th century.

C One of the Lumière Borthers’ earliest films was a 30-second piece which showed a section of a railway platform flooded with sunshine. A train appears and heads straight for the camera. And that is all that happens. Yet the Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky, one of the greatest of all film artists, described the film as a ‘work of genius’. ‘As the train approached,’ wrote Tarkovsky, ’panic started in the theatre: people jumped and ran away. That was the moment when cinema was born. The frightened audience could not accept that they were watching a mere picture. Pictures were still, only reality moved; this must, therefore, be reality. In their confusion, they feared that a real train was about to crush them.’

D Early cinema audiences often experienced the same confusion. In time, the idea of film became familiar, the magic was accepted- but it never stopped being magic. Film has never lost its unique power to embrace its audience and transport them to a different world. For Tarkovsky, the key to that magic dynamic image of the real flow of events. A still picture could only imply the existence of time, while time in a novel passed at the whim of the reader. But in cinema, the real, objective flow of time was captured.

E One effect of this realism was to educate the world about itself. For cinema makes the world smaller. Long before people travelled to America or anywhere else, they knew what other places looked like; they knew how other people worked and lived. Overwhelmingly, the lives recorded-at least in film fiction- have been American. From the earliest days of the industry, Hollywood has dominated the world film market. American imagery-the cars, the cities, the cowboys- became the primary imagery of film. Film carried American life and values around the globe.

F And, thanks to film, future generations will know the 20-th century more intimately than any other period. We can only imagine what life was like in the 14^th century or in classical Rome. But the life of the modern world has been recorded on film in massive encyclopaedic detail. We shall be known better than any preceding generations.

G And it has all happened so quickly. Almost unbelievably, it is a mere 100 years since that train arrived and the audience screamed of what they saw, and, perhaps, suddenly aware that the world could never be the same again-that, maybe, it could be better, brighter, more astonishing, more real than reality.

Reading Passage 3 has seven paragraphs labelled A-G.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

21. Primary imagery of the film.

22. The speed with which the cinema has changed.

23. When the first cinema opened.

24. Lumière Borthers’ first film.

25. Statement that the first audiences were confused about the film.