14 bài tập chuyên đề OVERVIEW QUESTIONS (MATCHING HEADING & MULTIPLE CHOICE) IELTS READING

Trước tiên, thí sinh nên đọc qua cách làm dạng MATCHING HEADING trong IELTS READING của IELTS TUTOR qua đó thí sinh sẽ biết cách làm bài IELTS READING dạng Matching Heading sao cho hiệu quả nhất!

• Sau đây, IELTS TUTOR giới thiệu đến CHUYÊN ĐỀ OVERVIEW QUESTIONS IELTS READING, thực ra đây là cách gọi khác của dạng Matching Headings và Multiple Choice Paragraph headings.
• Sở dĩ, người ta gọi 2 dạng này là Overview Questions bởi vì đối với những dạng câu hỏi này, thí sinh chỉ cần đọc lướt sơ qua đoạn văn là có thể chọn được đáp án đúng.
• Có thể làm trực tiếp trên web hoặc download bản pdf để in ra làm nhé.

Choose the most suitable heading for each section from the list of headings (A-I) below. Write the appropriate letters (A-I) in the space provided after questions 1-6.

N.B. There are more headings than sections, so you will not use all of them.

List of Headings

A. Different signals

B. Gestures in units and order

C. Dubious existence of built-in grammar

D. Different meanings of gestures

E. The creation of a new language

F. The comparison of sign language and normal language

G. The language in relation to thinking

H. Validated language template

I. Conceptualised thinking

1. Section 1

2. Section 2

3. Section 3

Deaf people are making a profound contribution to the study of language.

Section 1
Just as biologists rarely see a new species arise, linguists rarely see a new language being horn. You have to be in the right place at the right time, which usually you are not. But the past few decades have seen an exception. Linguists have been able to follow the formation of a new language in Nicaragua. The catch is that it is not a spoken language, but rather a sign language which arose spontaneously in deaf children. Ann Senghas, of Columbia University, in New York, one of the linguists who has been studying this language, told the AAAS conference in Seattle about her discoveries. And Susan Goldin-Meadow, of the University of Chicago, who studies the spontaneous emergence of signing in deaf children, filled in the background by showing how such children use hand signals in a different way from everybody else.

Section 2
The thing that makes language different from other means of communication is that it is made of units that can be combined in different orders to create different meanings. In a spoken language these units are words. In a sign language these units are gestures. Dr. Senghas has been studying the way those gestures have evolved in Nicaraguan Sign Language (NSL).

The language emerged in the late 1970s, at a new school for deaf children. Initially the children were instructed by teachers who could hear. No one taught them how to sign; they simply worked it out for themselves. By conducting experiments on people who attended the school at various points in its history, Dr. Senghas has shown how NSL has become more sophisticated over time. For example, concepts that an older signer uses a single sign for, such as rolling and falling, have been unpacked into separate signs by youngsters.

Section 3
Early users, too, did not develop a way of distinguishing left from right. Dr. Senghas showed this by asking signers of different ages to converse about a set of photographs that each could see. One signer had to pick a photograph and describe it. The others had to guess which photograph was being described, children are entirely self-invented. If there is a deep structure, they are surely drawing on it directly. The order of their signs may thus be a direct reflection of what that structure is.

For now, Dr. Goldin-Meadow is cautious. But it may turn out that the truth comes not out of the mouths of babes and sucklings, but from their hands. (779 words)

Bài tập thuộc chương trình học của lớp IELTS READING ONLINE 1 KÈM 1 của IELTS TUTOR

Choose the most suitable heading for each paragraph from the list of headings (A-I) below. Write the appropriate letters (A-I) in the space provided after questions 1-5.

N.B. There are more headings than paragraphs, so you will not use all of them.

List of Headings

A. Dilemma due to fiscal policy

B. Wise government policy

C. Stagnant economic situation

D. Power beyond the markets

E. Measures expected of ECB

F. Facts speak the truth

G. Lingering inflation figures

H. Inflation target computed

I. Conceptualised thinking

1. Paragraph 1

2. Paragraph 2

3. Paragraph 3

4. Paragraph 4

5. Paragraph 5

Governments' attempts to boost revenues keep inflation high.

Sticky. Obdurate. Stubborn. Inflation in the euro area has been called all these things. Despite slow growth and low interest rates, it has remained stuck above the European Central Bank's (ECB) target of below 2% for the past six month. Some economists think that January's revised inflation figures will at last show it falling below the magic number. But even if this happens, why has it taken so long?

When economy is slow, firms come under pressure to cut their prices. But governments, facing disappointing tax revenues, come under pressure to hike indirect taxes and charge more for public services, such as rubbish collection or health care. France and Portugal have raised taxes on tobacco recently. Germany has raised the price of health care. All such measures feed into the cost of living. Thus, even as their straitened economies cry out for looser money, European governments are reinforcing inflation, making an interest rate cut by the ECB less likely.

In its latest monthly bulletin, the ECB tries to work out how much indirect taxes and 'administered prices' add to euro-area inflation. It points out that tobacco prices in November last year were 11.6% higher than in the previous November, adding 0.25 percentage points to that month's inflation rate of 2.2%. In short, were it not for the rising cost of smoking. the ECB would have hit its inflation target.

The bank also looks at a range of prices that are often set by administrative fiat rather than market forces. These 'administered prices' cover sewerage and rubbish collection; medical, dental and hospital care; the post; trains; education and social protection. Wise governments administered them upwards at the rate of 3% per year last year, much faster than inflation overall. In some months of 2003, these prices added almost 0.2 percentage points to the headline rate of inflation.

There may be many reasons why tobacco taxes and 'administered prices' have risen so steeply in recent quarters. European governments no doubt care deeply about their citizens' blackened lungs, not just their own red-inked budgets. But if the ECB were to see through these hikes to the rather slower rise in market prices - to pay more attention, in other words, to its own research - it might be tempted to cut rates and stimulate growth. Government revenues would rebound, and taxes and charges might remain on hold. Even Europe's beleaguered smokers could puff away without worrying so much about the cost. (418 words)

You should spend about 20 minutes on questions 1-14, which are based on the reading passage below.

A. The chances are that you have already drunk a cup or glass of tea today. Perhaps, you are sipping one as you read this. Tea, now an everyday beverage in many parts of the world, has over the centuries been an important part of rituals of hospitality both in the home and in wider society.

B. Tea originated in China, and in Eastern Asia, tea making and drinking ceremonies have been popular for centuries. Tea was first shipped to North Western Europe by English and Dutch maritime traders in the sixteenth century. At about the same time, a land route from the Far East, via Moscow, to Europe was opened up. Tea also figured in America's bid for independence from British rule - the Boston Tea Party.

C. As, over the last four hundred years, tea Ieaves became available throughout much of Asia and Europe, the ways in which tea was drunk changed. The Chinese considered the quality of the leaves and the ways in which they were cured all important. People in other cultures added new ingredients besides tea leaves and hot water. They drank tea with milk, sugar, spices like cinnamon and cardamom, and herbs such as mint or sage. The variations are endless. For example, in Western Sudan on the edge of the Sahara Desert, sesame oil is added to milky tea on chilly mornings. In England, tea, unlike coffee, acquired a reputation as a therapeutic drink that promoted health. Indeed, in European and Arab countries as well as in Persia and Russia, tea was praised for its restorative and health giving properties. One Dutch physician, Cornelius Blankart, advised that to maintain health a minimum of eight to ten cups a day should be drunk, and that up to 50 to 100 daily cups could be consumed with safety.

D. While European coffee houses were frequented by men discussing politics and closing business deals, respectable middle-class women stayed at home and held tea parties. When the price of tea fell in the nineteenth century, poor people took up the drink with enthusiasm. Different grades and blends of tea were sold to suit every pocket.

E. Throughout the world today, few religious groups object to tea drinking. In Islamic cultures, where drinking of alcohol is forbidden, tea and coffee consumption is an important part of social life. However, Seventh-Day Adventists, recognising the beverage as a drug containing the stimulant caffeine, frown upon the drinking of tea.

F. Nomadic Bedouin are well known for traditions of hospitality in the desert. According to Middle Eastern tradition, guests are served both tea and coffee from pots kept ready on the fires of guest tents where men of the family and male visitors gather. Cups of 'bitter' cardamom coffee and glasses of sugared tea should be constantly refilled by the host.

G. For over a thousand years, Arab traders have been bringing Islamic culture, including tea drinking, to northern and western Africa. Techniques of tea preparation and the ceremonial involved have been adapted. In West African countries, such as Senegal and the Gambia, it is fashionable for young men to gather in small groups to brew Chinese 'gunpowder' tea. The tea is boiled with large amounts of sugar for a long time.

H. Tea drinking in India remains an important part of daily life. There, tea made entirely with milk is popular. 'Chai' is made by boiling milk and adding tea, sugar and some spices. This form of tea making has crossed the Indian Ocean and is also popular in East Africa, where tea is considered best when it is either very milky or made with water only. Curiously, this 'milk or water' formula has been carried over to the preparation of instant coffee, which is served in cafes as either black, or sprinkled on a cup of hot milk.

I. In Britain, coffee drinking, particularly in the informal atmosphere of coffee shops, is currently in vogue. Yet, the convention of afternoon tea lingers. At conferences, it remains common practice to serve coffee in the morning and tea in the afternoon. Contemporary China, too, remains true to its long tradition. Delegates at conferences and seminars are served tea in cups with lids to keep the infusion hot. The cups are topped up throughout the proceedings. There are as yet no signs of coffee at such occasions. (727 words)

Questions 1-8
The reading passage has 9 paragraphs (A-I). Choose the most suitable heading for each paragraph from the list of headings on the next page. Write the appropriate numbers (i-xiii) beside questions 1-8. One of the headings has been done for you as an example.

N.B. There are more headings than paragraphs, so you will not use all of them.

1. Paragraph A
2. Paragraph B
3. Paragraph C
4. Paragraph D 
5. Paragraph E
6. Paragraph G
7. Paragraph H
8. Paragraph I

List of Headings

i. Diverse drinking methods

ii. Limited objections to drinking tea

iii. Today's continuing tradition - in Britain and China

iv. Tea - a beverage of hospitality

v. An important addition - tea with milk

vi. Tea and alcohol

vii. The everyday beverage in all parts of the world

viii. Tea on the move

ix. African tea

x. The fall in the cost of tea

xi. The value of tea

xii. Tea drinking in Africa

xiii. Hospitality among the Bedouin

Questions 9-14

Complete the sentences below. Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage to fill in each blank space.

9. For centuries, both at home and in society, tea has had an important role in...................
10. Falling tea prices in the nineteenth century meant that people could choose the........... of tea they could afford.
11. Because it........................, Seventh-Day Adventists do not approve of the drinking of tea.
12. In the desert, one group that is well known for its traditions of hospitality is the..............
13. In India,..............., as well as tea, are added to boiling milk to make 'chai'.

14. In Britain, while coffee is in fashion, afternoon tea is still a...................

You should spend about 20 minutes on questions 1-13, which are based on the reading passage below.

The Founder of Feminism

A. In 1789 began the celebrated French Revolution, an event which shook the old certainties of European states and European monarchies to the core. It also raised debate on the desired structure of the state throughout the whole populations to an unprecedented degree. In October the following year, Edmund Burke brought out his Reflections on the Revolution in France, which sold 35,000 copies within weeks, then a huge number. It reinforced all the fears and prejudices of the traditional aristocracy. Immediately, more progressive authors began writing their responses, including the celebrated Thomas Paine whose The Rights of Man sold an amazing two million copies.

B. But Paine's was not the first response. Less than a month after Burke's book was published, there appeared the anonymous A Vindication of the Rights of Men. It sold so well that a second edition appeared only three weeks after the first. However, in this edition the author was named as Mary Wollstonecraft. The involvement of women in politics was almost unknown at the time and there was outrage. Horace Walpole called her 'a hyena in petticoats'.

C. If she was intimidated by the outcry, it did not show. Only two years later, at the beginning of 1792, she produced another book with an even more inflammatory title: A Vindication of the Rights of Women. This has been a handbook for feminists ever since. Women tended to like her strong opinions while men were, not surprisingly, infuriated. What is surprising is that so many of the men who attacked this piece are usually thought of as politically advanced. Even William Godwin, for example, supported the idea that men and women were different and complementary and this required a political arrangement where men led and women followed. Wollstonecraft attacked this notion and demanded independence and equality for women.

D. This rebellious streak led her in quite a different direction from most of her con temporaries. As bloodshed in Paris reached its peak during 1792 and 1793, and most British fled from France, Wollstonecraft moved to Paris to live. She stayed while most of her French friends were killed. Quite why is not clear since she clearly preferred the society of the bourgeois intellectuals who were dying to the street revolutionaries who were killing them. Perhaps it was only after this experience that she appreciated some of the practical pitfalls of unchecked liberty.

E. The reality of revolution seemed to change her in a number of other ways. A feature of her Vindication was to urge both men and women to subjugate passion to reason. Before her experience in France she had remained single and, single-mindedly, celibate despite the temptation offered by the painter Fuseli. But whilst in France, she threw herself into a passionate affair with the American adventurer Gilbert Imlay. She even followed Imlay to Scandinavia in search of stolen silver treasure; a triumph of passion over reason if ever there was one! How ironic that she should suffer this fate in the middle of, what she hoped would be, the foundation of a better, more rational, society.

F. She never entirely lost her principles, however, and clung to the belief that a better world based on equality and reason was attainable. Eventually she returned to Britain and, after a failed suicide bid, she married the very William Godwin who had so criticised her before. She died in childbirth not long after and pronounced herself 'content to be wretched' but refused to be a nothing and discounted.

G. Mary Wollstonecraft's life was revolutionary in many ways, even for her time. She may have been inconsistent and contradictory but this cannot diminish the effect she had on the political thoughts of her contemporaries. We cannot ignore, too, the degree to which she has influenced later thought, even down to the present day. Her son-in-law, Percy Shelley, was a fervent admirer who immortalised her in verse in The Revolt of Islam. De Beauvoir's The Second Sex and Greer's The Female Eunuch both owe their origins to Wollstonecraft's pioneering writing. The notions of equality we take for granted today first appeared in her work. (691 words)

Ouestions 1-6
This reading passage has seven paragraphs (A-G). Choose the most suitable headings for paragraphs A-G from the list of headings below. Write the appropriate numbers (i-ix) beside questions 1-6. The first one has been done for you as an example. There are more headings than paragraphs, so you will not use them all.

List of Headings

i. A tragic ending

ii. A revolutionary life

iii. Being different

iv. Contradictory behaviour

v. The work of Thomas Paine

vi. Reactions to revolution

vii. A life in perspective

viii. The first reaction to Burke

ix. Asserting the rights of women

Example: Paragraph A Answer vi

1. Paragraph B

2. Paragraph C

3. Paragraph D

4. Paragraph E

5. Paragraph F

6. Paragraph G

Questions 7 - 13

Choose the appropriate answers A - D and write them in boxes 7 - 13 on your answer sheet.

7. The revolution in France

A. frightened everybody

B. prejudiced the aristocracy

C. concerned everybody

D. challenged the established order

8. Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Men

A. was an immediate best seller

B. sold only slowly at first

C. hardly sold at all

D. was only read by women

9. The response to A Vindication of the Rights of Men

A. intimidated Mary

B. made Mary flee to France

C. attracted William Godwin

D. made Mary write another book

10. Men objected to the book because

A. it was written by a woman

B. it challenged established ideas about men and women

C. she published before them

D. the writer was a female politician

11. Mary's personal life

A. always matched her published beliefs

B. sometimes contradicted her published beliefs

C. never contradicted her published beliefs

D. never matched her published beliefs

12. In refusing to be discounted she meant.....................
A. women should be taught literacy and numeracy

B. the role of women should not be reduced

C. she was not to be overlooked for being a woman

D. she was happy as she was

13. Mary Wollstonecraft's writing...........................

A. was constant and contemporary

B. inspired modern feminist writers

C. took equality for granted

D. was ignored

Bài tập thuộc chương trình học của lớp IELTS READING ONLINE 1 KÈM 1 của IELTS TUTOR

Read the passage quickly for the main idea and then answer the questions that follow.

Capturing the dance of light

Glass, in one form or another, has long been in noble service to humans. As one of the most widely used of manufactured materials, and certainly the most versatile, it can be as imposing as a telescope mirror the width of a tennis court or as small and simple as a marble rolling across dirt. The uses of this adaptable material have been broadened dramatically by new technologies: glass fibre optics — more than eight million miles — carrying telephone and television signals across nations; glass ceramics serving as the nose cones of missiles and as crowns for teeth; tiny glass beads taking radiation doses inside the body to specific organs; even a new type of glass fashioned of nuclear waste in order to dispose of that unwanted material.

On the horizon are optical computers. These could store programs and process information by means of light-pulses from tiny lasers — rather than electrons. And the pulses would travel over glass fibres, not copper wire. These machines could function hundreds of times faster than today's electronic computers and hold vastly more information. Today fibre optics are used to obtain a clearer image of smaller and smaller objects than ever before — even bacterial viruses. A new generation of optical instruments is emerging that can provide detailed imaging of the inner workings of cells. It is the surge in fibre optic use and in liquid crystal displays that has set the US glass industry (a 16 billion dollar business employing some 150,000 workers) to building new plants to meet demand.

But it is not only in technology and commerce that glass has widened its horizons. The use of glass as art, a tradition going back at least to Roman times, is also booming. Nearly everywhere, it seems, men and women are blowing glass and creating works of art. 'I didn't sell a piece of glass until 1975,' Dale Chihuly said, smiling, for in the 18 years since the end of the dry spell, he has become one of the most financially successful artists of the 20^th century. He now has a new commission — a glass sculpture for the headquarters building of a pizza company — for which his fee is half a million dollars.

But not all the glass technology that touches our lives is ultra-modern. Consider the simple light bulb; at the turn of the century most light bulbs were hand blown, and the cost of one was equivalent to half a day's pay for the average worker. In effect, the invention of the ribbon machine by Corning in the 1920s lighted a nation. The price of a bulb plunged. Small wonder is that the machine has been called one of the great mechanical achievements of all time. Yet it is very simple: a narrow ribbon of molten glass travels over a moving belt of steel in which there are holes. The glass sags through the holes and into waiting moulds. Puffs of compressed air then shape the glass. In this way, the envelope of a light bulb is made by a single machine at the rate of 66,000 an hour, as compared with 1,200 a day produced by a team of four glassblowers.

The secret of the versatility of glass lies in its interior structure. Although it is rigid, and thus like a solid, the atoms are arranged in a random disordered fashion, characteristic of a liquid. In the melting process, the atoms in the raw materials are disturbed from their normal position in the molecular structure; before they can find their way back to crystalline arrangements the glass cools. This looseness in molecular structure gives the material what engineers call tremendous 'formability' which allows technicians to tailor glass to whatever they need.

Today, scientists continue to experiment with new glass mixtures and building designers test their imaginations with applications of special types of glass. A London architect, Mike Davies, sees even more dramatic buildings using molecular chemistry. 'Glass is the great building material of the future, the "dynamic skin",' he said. 'Think of glass that has been treated to react to electric currents going through it, glass that will change from clear to opaque at the push of a button, that gives you instant curtains. Think of how the tall buildings in New York could perform a symphony of colours as the glass in them is made to change colours instantly.' Glass as instant curtains is available now, but the cost is exorbitant. As for the glass changing colours instantly, that may come true. Mike Davies's vision may indeed be on the way to fulfilment. (769 words)

1. The first paragraph is mainly about.......................

A. the history of glass

B. the legend of glass

C. the uses of glass

D. the form of glass
 

2. The second paragraph focuses mainly on................

A. exciting innovations in fibre optics

B. the advantage of optical computers

C. a new generation of optical instruments

D. the clearer image of fibre optics

3. The gist of the third paragraph is..............

A. art galleries of glass

B. the artistic aspect of glass

C. glass used in art

D. artists blowing glass

4. The theme of the fourth paragraph is...........

A. historical development of glass

B. technical experiment of glass

C. glass bulbs

D. the team of the glassblowers

5. The fifth paragraph is mainly concerned about...............

A. characteristics of glass

B. raw materials of glass

C. rigidity of glass

D. the adaptability of glass

6. The last paragraph is centred around ...................

A. glass as building material

B. glass as instant curtains

C. the potential of glass

D. the application of glass

Choose the most suitable heading for each section from the list of headings (A-I) below. Write the appropriate letters (A-I) in the space provided after questions 1-6.

N.B. There are more headings than sections, so you will not use all of them.

List of Headings

A. Species protected by tracking

B. Researchers go deeper with innovation

C. Unravel the dwindling of species

D. Mapping ocean highway

E. Functions of satellites in tracking

F. Tagging for tracking

G. New technique facilitating fishery

H. Black box of marine biology

I. Stratified ocean highway

1. Section 1 
2. Section 2 
3. Section 3 
4. Section 4 
5. Section 5 
6. Section 6

Section 1

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has just held its annual meeting. One highlight was a session on new techniques for tracking marine animals.
Making a living as a fisherman has never been easy. With the continual decline in fish stocks currently under way, it is becoming an even harder way to grind out a living. And it is not only fish that are disappearing, but marine fauna generally. In the past 20 years, for example, 90% of leatherback turtles and large predatory fish, such as sharks, have disappeared.

Section 2

Where and how this is happening has been difficult to say, since the ocean is something of a black box. Things go in, and things come out, but what happens in between is hard to unravel. According to researchers presenting their work at the AAAS meeting in Seattle, Washington, this is now changing. Today, when many marine biologists swig their morning coffee and download their messages, they receive special e-mails from their research subjects. These messages, relayed by a satellite, tell them exactly where their animals have been. This has been made possible thanks to advances in underwater electronic tagging, and it is causing a revolution in marine biology.

One of the leading researchers in oceanic tagging is Barbara Block of Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, California. She tags bluefin tuna, which ale commercially valuable animals that can reach 680kg (1,500lb) in weight, and swim at speeds of up to 80kph (50mph). So far, her group has tagged around 700 bluefin. Many of the tags are surgically implanted, a tricky thing to do while on board a moving boat. These tags archive their data in memory chips, and are eventually recovered when a fish is caught and butchered (The tags carry a healthy reward.) Other tags, though, are fastened to the outside of a fish, and pop off at a pre-programmed time and date. They then broadcast their results to a satellite, Dr. Block's work has shown that blue-fin can migrate thousands of kilometres across the Atlantic, ignoring boundaries that have been set to protect stocks in the western Atlantic.

Section 3

Tagging is also helping David Welch, head of the Canadian government's salmon programme, to find out where and why large numbers of the fish are vanishing. He uses small acoustic tags (the size of a large multivitamin capsule) that are sewn into the body cavities of salmon. These tags broadcast their signals to microphones on the seabed.

Dr. Welch can now track where an individual salmon spends its life and watch trends in an entire population. He was surprised to find that most salmon do not die as they leave the river and enter the sea, as previously believed. And he is finding that climatic fluctuations play an important role in determining population.

Dr. Welch and his colleagues are planning to install a system of microphones stretching from the coast of Washington State to southeastern Alaska. This could follow the movements of some 250,000 fish - collecting data on their direction of travel, speed, depth and position. If that works, the plan is to extend the system from Baja California in Mexico to the Bering Sea — a project that would involve about 1000 underwater tracking stations.

Section 4

Meanwhile, Andrew Read, a marine biologist at Duke University in North Carolina, is following 45 tagged loggerhead turtles. These animals must come to the surface to breathe. When they do so, the tags (which are glued to their shells) talk to the nearest convenient satellite.

Dr. Read told the meeting that the tracking data he collects are now available online, to allow fishermen to follow the movements of turtles and, if they wish, to modify the deployment of their nets accordingly. Bill Foster, a fisherman from Hatteras, North Carolina, and Dr. Read, proposed the project because the Pamlico Sound near Hatteras was closed to large-mesh gill nets (which are dragged behind a boat like a curtain) for four months a year because too many turtles were being caught by accident. Now, the fishermen are helping the researchers, and attaching tags to healthy turtles that are accidentally caught in their nets.

Section 5
Together, all this work is beginning to fill in the map of marine 'highways' used by particular species, and their preferred habitats. It is also showing where particular animals prefer to stay close to the surface, and where they prefer deeper waters. As in the case of Dr. Read's turtles, this is helping scientists to devise ways of protecting rare species in an efficient manner, without interfering too much with the exploitation of common ones.

Larry Crowder, also at Duke University, has overlaid maps of marine highways for loggerhead and leatherback turtles in the Pacific onto those of 'longline' fisheries, in which people catch prey on fishing lines that are several kilometres long. Turtles often take the bait on the hooks that these lines carry. Dr. Crowder wants to identify the places of greatest danger to these turtles, in the hope that such places will be considered for protection. This need not, he says, mean a ban on fishing, but rather the use of different hooks, and other sorts of gear that are less damaging to turtles. It also turns out that turtles spend 90% of their time within 40 metres of the surface, so setting hooks deeper than this would reduce the chance of catching them accidentally.

Section 6
Conservationists are now pushing the notion of 'ocean zoning'. Like the land, parts of the sea — such as turtle highways — would be defined as sensitive, and subject to restrictions on how extractive industries operate. If this idea is ever to work, tagging data will be crucial. And because tagging data come in continually, this could mean that sensitive areas in the ocean could be flexible, changing in both time and space. Enforcing such zones might be difficult. But it would help fish, and other marine fauna, breathe a bit easier. And careful management might leave the fishermen on top as well (1,003 words)

Bài tập thuộc chương trình học của lớp IELTS READING ONLINE 1 KÈM 1 của IELTS TUTOR

Choose the most suitable heading for each section from the list of headings (A-L) below. Write the appropriate letters (A-L) in the space provided after questions 1-6 in your booklet.

N.B. There are more headings than sections, so you will not use all of them.

List of Headings

A. Hands off the obesity

B. Fat issues due to the changing diet

C. Corporate affairs of healthy food

D. Taxation plus ad prohibition

E. More active people

F. Reduced consumption

G. Supply and demand of fresh produce

H. Less rich following suit

I. Social awareness declining government intervention

J. Shoppers oppose fat food

K. Government worry about obesity

L. Class distinctions as to fatty food

1. Section 1
2. Section 2
3. Section 3
4. Section 4
5. Section 6 
6. Section 7

Example: Section 5 E

Section 1
The government worries that it should do something to change the way people eat. But diets are already changing. Given mankind's need to fret, it is not surprising that the diseases of prosperity — stress, depression and, increasingly, obesity — get a lot of play in Britain these days. On March 3^rd, John Reid, the health secretary, announced a three-month public consultation about the nation's health: in the current mood, that is likely to focus on obesity, Last week, a report on public health commissioned by the government cited obesity among its main worries; last month, Tony Blair's strategy unit floated the idea of a 'fat tax' on foods that fuel obesity; and last year, the Food Standards Agency, the industry regulator, advocated a ban on advertising junk food to children.

Section 2

Yet the government swiftly swatted away the idea of a fat tax, and Tessa Jowell, the culture secretary, has said that she is sceptical about an advertising ban. Mr. Reid says the government wants to be neither a 'nanny state' nor a 'Pontius Pilate state which washes its hands of its citizens' health'.

Why this ambivalence? Not because of doubts that obesity is a serious problem. It increases the risk of diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Rather, because it is not clear that the government can do much about it. There's no evidence that making fatty foods more expensive would put people off them; and in Sweden, where advertising to minors is already banned, children are as porky as they are in any comparable country.

Section 3
What's more, it is not obvious that the problem will worsen. Shoppers' behaviour suggests the opposite. It is not just the flight from carbohydrates prompted by the Atkins diet; there is a broader shift going on. Britain, the world's biggest chocolate-eater, seems to be going off the stuff. In the four years to 2002, sales of chocolate in Britain fell every year: 2% by volume and 7% by value over the period. Last month, the new boss of Nestle Rowntree, Chris White, described it as 'a business in crisis'. (The company says his remarks were 'taken out of context' and denies there is a crisis, but admits that sales of KitKat, its biggest brand, fell by 2% in 2003.)

Companies are edging away from fattening foods. Todd Stitzer, chief executive of Cadbury Schweppes, Britain's biggest producer of fattening stuff, says that five years ago, chocolate made up 80% of sales. That's down to a half. Five years ago 85% of drinks sales were sweet, fizzy stuff. That's down to 56%. The rest is mostly juice. Diet drinks — which make up a third of the sales of fizzy drinks — are growing at 5% a year, while sales of the fattening stuff are static.

Section 4

Supermarkets say that people are buying healthier food. According to Lucy Neville-Rolfe, Tesco's director of corporate affairs, its Healthy Living (lower calorie) range grew by 12% in 2003, twice the growth in overall sales. Sales of fruit and vegetables are growing faster than overall sales, too. That may be partly because fresh produce is getting more various, more is available all year round and better supply boosts demand. Five years ago Tesco stocked six or seven varieties of tomato. Now it stocks 15.

The spread of big supermarkets, which offer better produce than the mouldy stuff at the corner shop, may improve diets. A study carried out by the University of Southampton on a big new supermarket in a poor part of Leeds concluded that after it opened, two thirds of those with the worst diets ate more fruit and vegetables.

Cafes and restaurants report an increase in healthy eating, too. Pret A Manger, a sandwich chain, says that sales of salads grew by 63% last year, compared with 6% overall sales growth. McDonald's, which introduced fruit salad a year ago, has sold 10m portions since.

Section 5
But it isn't just eating too much fatty stuff that makes people fat. It's indolence, too. That may be changing. Gym membership figures suggest that more Britons at least intend to get off their sofas. According to Mintel, a market research company, there were 3.8m members of private gyms last year, up from 2.2m in 1998.

So why isn't all this virtue showing up in the figures? Maybe it is starting to. The average man got thinner in 2002, the most recent available year, for the first time since body-mass-index records began; women's BMI was static. One year, of course, does not make a trend, but a fall in Americans' weight last year, also for the first time, supports the idea that something is changing in the rich world's fattest countries.

Section 6
So does the fact that fat is a class issue. Where the rich lead, the poor tend to follow — partly because the poor get richer over time, and partly because health messages tend to reach the better educated first and the worse educated later. That's what has been happening with smoking, a habit the rich gave up years ago and the poor are now stubbing out too.

Section 7

Campaigners for the fat tax point out that, without hefty government intervention, through taxes and public information campaigns, it is unlikely that smoking would have gone into such a decline. But that may not be the case with food. Consumers are assailed every day by messages from companies telling them to get thin. Peer pressure is likely to have more impact on teenagers than any amount of finger-wagging from ministers. Maybe the government's interest itself suggests that a corner has been turned. As Ms Neville-Rolfe, a former civil servant, says, 'The government often gets on to issues at the point at which they're being solved'. (949 words)

Choose the most suitable heading for each section from the list of headings (A-L) below. Write the appropriate letters (A-L) in the space provided after questions 1-6 in your booklet.

N.B. There are more heading than sections, so you will not use all of them.

List of Headings

A. Significant efforts

B. Top expertise for top questions

C. Priorities in comparison

D. Result expected of the panel

E. Panel composition and panel issues

F. Budget versus priority

G. Assembly of the experts

H. Impossible mission for leading thinkers

I. Sceptical pitfalls

J. Impossible to reach consensus

K. Undaunted policymakers

L. Doubtful effect on society

1. Section 1
2. Section 2
3. Section 3
4. Section 5
5. Section 6
6. Section 7

Governments have limited resources for addressing the world's economic challenges. What should come first?

Section 1
This week, Denmark's Environmental Assessment Institute, together with The Economist, announced plans to ask some of the world's leading economic thinkers a very awkward question. Policymakers face enormous demands on their aid budgets — and on their intellectual and political capital as well — when they try to confront the many daunting challenges of economic development and underdevelopment. Climate change, war, disease, financial instability and more all clamour for attention, and for remedies or palliatives that cost money. Given that resources are limited, the question is this: What should come first? Where, among all the projects that governments might undertake to make the world a better place, are the net returns to their efforts likely to be greatest?

Section 2

It is easy to see why this question has rarely, if ever, been confronted head-on. Calculating the costs and benefits of acting on any one of the very many proposals for international action that are mooted from time to time is difficult enough. Attempting to impose a common cost-benefit framework on many such possibilities so that they can be meaningfully compared one with another is an ambitious exercise, to put it midly. But that is what the institute, headed by Bjorn Lomborg (familiar to readers of this page as the author of 'The Sceptical Environmentalist'), and abetted by this newspaper, has resolved to attempt — in a project dubbed, in an access of optimism, the Copenhagen Consensus.

Section 3
First, the institute assembled a panel of nine of the world's most distinguished economists. Four of them are Nobel laureates: Robert Fogel and James Heckman, both of the University of Chicago; Douglas North of Washington University, St. Louis., and Vernon Smith of George Mason University. The other five can expect to pick up a few more Nobels between them in due course: Jagdish Bhagwati of Columbia University; Bruno Frey of the University of Zurich; Justin Yifu Lin of Beijing University; Thomas Schelling of the University of Maryland; and Nancy Stokey of the University of Chicago. This panel will meet in Copenhagen in May to establish priorities for action on ten issues.

The panel chose these issues from a much longer list drafted by the institute, drawn in turn from aims identified in various contexts by the United Nations and other international bodies. Then a series of distinguished experts in each field was commissioned to write a review paper on each issue and on actions that might feasibly be taken in response, with due emphasis on costs and benefits.

Section 4
The topics and principal authors are:

Climate Change, by William Cline of the Centre for Global Development.

Communicable Diseases, by Anne Mills of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

Armed Conflicts, by Paul Collier of Oxford University.

Education, by Lant Pritchett of the Kennedy School.

Financial Instability, by Barry Eichengreen of the University of California, Berkeley.

Governance and Corruption, by Susan Rose-Ackerman of Yale University.

Malnutrition and Hunger, by Jere Behrman of the University of Pennsylvania.

Population and Migration, by Philip Martin of the University of California, Davis.

Sanitation and Water, by Michael Hanemann of the University of California, Berkeley.

Subsidies and Trade Barriers, by Kym Anderson of the University of Adelaide.

Section 5
Each paper will next be subject to critique by two further experts. In May, the papers and commentaries will be submitted to the nine, who will argue about it all for five days and then pronounce. As the meeting draws nearer, and the papers are published, we will run articles about them (some in this space; others on our website). And in due course we will, of course, report on the outcome of the top panel's deliberations.

Section 6
Can such an exercise ever hope to yield useful results — let alone the hope-for 'consensus'? It is entirely reasonable to be sceptical, such are the pitfalls of cost-benefit analysis. Aside from the technical difficulties entailed in valuing extremely distant and uncertain benefits (as in the case of action to mitigate climate change, for instance), not to mention the problems surrounding the choice of discount rate (so that costs and benefits extending over time can be expressed on a consistent present-value basis), there are also ethical puzzles involving the valuation of years of extra life or better health. It is little wonder that governments prefer to let such provoking questions lie quiet and unnoticed. And if the Copenhagen panel of experts does manage, despite these difficulties, to reach some kind of substantive agreement, there is little reason to suppose that politicians or the wider public will go along with a consensus reached among a group of economists, a tribe renowned in the wider world for its desiccated view of human welfare.

Section 7
Yet the fact remains that governments already have very large aid budgets, which they apportion somehow among competing demands — doubtless paying more attention to the fluctuating pressures of press and television than any consistent or coherent method of analysis. Implicitly, their decisions already reflect underlying estimates of costs and benefits, but the process is arbitrary and closed to inspection. Even if the Copenhagen Consensus project does no more than force that fact to be acknowledged, it will have been worth the trouble. (870 words)

You should spend about 20 minutes on questions 1-12, which are based on the reading passage below.

A. A raft of forecasts has been made in recent decades, predicting the decline in the number of working hours coupled with a consequent increase in leisure time. It was estimated that the leisure revolution would take place by the turn of the last century, with hours devoted to work falling to 25-30 per week. This reduction has failed to materialise, but the revolution has, nonetheless, arrived.

B. Over the past 30 to 40 years, spending on leisure has witnessed a strong increase. According to the annual family expenditure survey published in 1999 by the Office for National Statistics, the average household in the United Kingdom spent more on leisure than food, housing and transport for the very first time. And the trend is also set to continue upwards well into the present century.

C. The survey, based on a sample of 6,500 households, showed that the days are long gone when the average family struggled to buy basic foods. As recently as 1960, family spending on food was approximately one third compared to 17% now. Twelve years later, there was a noticeable shift towards leisure with the percentage of household spending on leisure increasing to 9%, and that on food declining to 26%.

D. The average household income in the UK in 1999 was £460 per week before tax and average spending was £352.20. Of the latter sum, £59.70 was spent on leisure and £58.90 on food. On holidays alone, family expenditure was 6%, while in 1969 the proportion spent on holidays was just 2%. And whereas the richest 10% lashed out 20% of their income in 1999 on leisure, the poorest spent 12%.

E. Among the professional and managerial classes, working hours have increased and, overall in the economy, record numbers of people are in employment. As people work more, the appetite for leisure activities has grown to compensate for the greater stress in life. The past 5 years alone have seen the leisure business expand by 25% with a change in emphasis to short domestic weekend breaks, and long-haul short breaks to exotic destinations in place of long holidays. In the future, it is expected that people will jump from one leisure activity to another in complexes catering for everyone's needs with gyms, cinemas, cafes, restaurants, bars and Internet facilities all under one roof. The leisure complexes of today will expand to house all the leisure facilities required for the leisure age.

F. Other factors fuelling demand for leisure activities are rising prosperity, increasing longevity and a more active elderly population. Hence, at the forefront of leisure spending are not just the young or the professional classes. The 1999 family expenditure survey showed that the 64 to 75-year-old group spend a higher proportion of their income on leisure than any other age group. The strength of the "grey pound" now means that elderly people are able to command more respect and, thus, attention in the leisure market.

G. And the future? It is anticipated that, in the years to come, leisure spending will account for between a third to a half of all household spending. Whilst it is difficult to give exact figures, the leisure industry will certainly experience a long period of sustained growth. Working hours are not expected to decrease, partly because the 24-hour society will need to be serviced, and secondly, because more people will be needed to keep the service / leisure industries running.

H. In the coming decades, the pace of change will accelerate, generating greater wealth at a faster rate than even before. Surveys show that this is already happening in many parts of Europe. The southeast of England, for example, is now supposedly the richest area in the EEC. The "leisure pound" is one of the driving forces behind this surge. But, sadly, it does not look as if we will have the long leisure hours that we had all been promised. (654 words)

Questions 1-7
This reading passage has 8 paragraphs (A-H). Choose the most suitable heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below. Write the appropriate numbers (i-xiv) beside questions 1-7. One of the headings has been done for you as an example. You may use any heading more than once.

N.B. There are more headings than paragraphs, so you will not use all of them.

1. Paragraph A 
2. Paragraph B 
3. Paragraph C
4. Paragraph E 
5. Paragraph F 
6. Paragraph G 
7. Paragraph H

Example: Paragraph D x

List of Headings

i. Leisure spending goes up strongly

ii. Decreasing unemployment

iii. False forecasts

iv. Spending trends - leisure vs food

v. More affordable food

vi. Leisure as an answer to stress

vii. Looking forward

viii. The leisure revolution - working hours reduced to 25

ix. The "grey pound" soars

x. Rising expenditure

xi. The elderly leisure market

xii. National Statisticians

xiii. Work, stress, and leisure all on the up

xiv. Money yes, leisure time no

Questions 8-12

Do the statements below agree with the information in the reading passage? Beside questions 8-12, write:

YES if the statement agrees with the information in the passage;

NO if the statement contradicts the information in the passage;

NOT GIVEN if these is no information about the statement in the passage.

Example:

In recent decades, an increase in working hours was predicted.

Answer: NO

8. At the turn of the last century, weekly working hours dropped to 25.

9. Spending on leisure has gone up over the past three decades.

10. Long holidays have taken the place of long-haul short breaks.

11. In future, people will pay less for the leisure facilities they use than they do today.

12. The 24-hour society will have a negative effect on people's attitudes to work.

Bài tập thuộc chương trình học của lớp IELTS READING ONLINE 1 KÈM 1 của IELTS TUTOR

You should spend about 20 minutes on questions 1-15, which are based on the reading passage below.

1. The earliest stage of writing is called pre-writing or proto-literacy, and depends on direct representation of objects, rather than representing them with letters or other symbols. Evidence for this stage, in the form of rock and cave paintings, dates back to about 15,000 years ago, although the exact dates are debatable. This kind of proto-literate cave painting has been found in Europe, with the best known examples in Southwestern France, but also in Africa and on parts of the American continent. These petrographs (pictures on rock) show typical scenes of the period, and include representations of people, animals and activities. Most are astonishingly beautiful, with a vibrancy and immediacy that we still recognise today. They are painted with pigments made from natural materials including crushed stones and minerals, animal products such as blood, ashes, plant materials of all kinds, and they produce a wide range of colours and hues.

2. Why did ancient people put such effort into making them? Various theories have been put forward, but the most compelling include the idea that the pictures were records of heroic deeds or important events, that they were part of magical ceremonies, or that they were a form of primitive calendar, recording the changes in the seasons as they happened. These, then, are all explanations as to why man started to write.

3. A related theory suggests that the need for writing arose thereafter from the transactions and bartering that went on. In parts of what is now Iraq and Iran, small pieces of fired earth-pottery have been found which appear to have been used as tokens to represent bartered objects, much as we use tokens in a casino, or money, today. Eventually, when the tokens themselves became too numerous to handle easily, representations of the tokens were inscribed on clay tablets.

4. An early form of writing is the use of pictograms, which are pictures used to communicate. Pictograms have been found from almost every part of the world and every era of development, and are still in use in primitive communities nowadays. They represent objects, ideas or concepts more or less directly. They tend to be simple in the sense that they are not a complex or full picture, although they are impressively difficult to interpret to an outsider unfamiliar with their iconography, which tends to be localised and to differ widely from society to society. They were never intended to be a detailed testimony which could be interpreted by outsiders, but to serve instead as aide-memoires to the author, rather as we might keep a diary in a personal shorthand. However, some modern pictograms are more or less universally recognised, such as the signs which indicate men's and women's toilets, or road signs, which tend to be very similar throughout the world.

5. The first pictograms that we know of are Sumerian in origin, and date to about 8000 BC. They show how images used to represent concrete objects could be expanded to include abstractions by adding symbols together, or using associated symbols. One Sumerian pictogram, for example, indicates 'death' by combining the symbols for 'man' and 'winter'; another shows 'power' with the symbol for a man with the hands enlarged.

6. By about 5,000 years ago, Sumerian pictograms had spread to other areas, and the Sumerians had made a major advance towards modern writing with the development of the rebus principle, which meant that symbols could be used to indicate sounds. This was done by using a particular symbol not only for the thing it originally represented, but also for any thing which was pronounced in a similar way. So the pictogram for na (meaning 'animal') could also be used to mean 'old' (which was also pronounced na). The specific meaning of the pictogram (whether na meant 'old' or 'animal') could only be decided through its context.

7. It is a short stop from this to the development of syllabic writing using pictograms, and this next development took about another half a century. Now, the Sumerians would add pictograms to each other so that each, representing an individual sound or syllable, formed part of a larger word. Thus pictograms representing the syllables he, na and mi ('mother', 'old', 'my') could be put together to form henami or 'grandmother'. (716 words)

Questions 1-7
The reading passage has seven paragraphs (1-7). Choose the most suitable headings for paragraphs 1-7 from the list of headings below. Write the appropriate letters (A-H) beside questions 1-7.
N.B. There are more headings than paragraphs, so you will not use them all.

List of Headings

A. Magic and heroes

B. Doing business

C. Early developments

D. Sounds and symbols

E. Images on stone

F. Stories and seasons

G. From visual to sound

H. A personal record

1. Paragraph 1
2. Paragraph 2 
3. Paragraph 3 
4. Paragraph 4
5. Paragraph 5 
6. Paragraph 6 
7. Paragraph 7

Question 8-12

Complete the following notes by using ONE or TWO WORDS from the reading passage for each answer.

Notes on the Development of Writing

First stage of writing —pre-writing or proto-literacy — very old — 15,000 years. Evidence: cave and rock paintings. Famous example — (8)............. Reasons for development of writing: primitive ceremonies, recording events, seasons, used on pottery to represent (9)................Next stages: simple pictograms - pictures used to represent articles and (10).............., very simple drawings (but very difficult to understand). Then - 8000 BC - combined (11)............. to create new concepts (e.g. man + winter = death). After this - started using same pictogram for different words with same (12)...................., very important step.

Questions 13-15
Choose the appropriate letters (A-D) and write them in questions 13-15.

13. The earliest stages of writing..................

A. were discovered 15.000 years ago and are found all over the world

B. are pictures which show the natural life of the time

C. are called petrography and were painted with natural materials

D. could not describe concepts

14. The earliest pictograms .....................

A. represent complex objects and are difficult to understand

B. represent comparatively simple objects and are easy to understand

C. are a record of events for outsiders

D. are fairly simple but may not be easy to interpret

15. About 5,000 years ago, ...................

A. Sumerians were developing sounds

B. Sumerians were writing in a modern style

C. pictograms were used over a wide area

D. pictogram symbols could only have one meaning

The passage has seven sections. You are supposed to read each section as quickly as you can and then use NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS in the section to sum up its main focus.

Section A
If someone asked you to find out if the earth's climate had changed over the past century, your first instinct would be to reach for the meteorological records, just as climate change researchers have done for decades. But boreholes drilled in the ground in search of resources such as oil and water might give you a better answer.

Already, analyses of temperature readings from boreholes are producing provocative findings. They suggest that at least part of the global warming (also known as the 'greenhouse effect') seen in the meteorological records of the past century can be explained by natural fluctuations in the earth's underground temperature.
Main focus:............................................................................

Section B
Geophysicists have known for a long time that the crust becomes progressively warmer as you drill into it, edging closer to the earth's hot interior. Mostly, this temperature gradient is smooth, increasing by between 10 ⁰ C and 50 ⁰ C with every kilometre from the surface. The exact amount depends on how effectively the rock carries heat through the crust towards the surface. But within 200 to 300 meters or so of the surface, things become less predictable.
Previously geophysicists were interested only in measuring heat flow from the earth's center, so they threw away these unreliable top sections of their borehole temperature data.As climatologists now realize, however, this temperature variation is a powerful source of information about past climactic fluctuations. In particular, it can tell you about daily and seasonal variations in surface temperature.

Main focus: ..........................................................

Section C
The temperature a meter down from the ground surface is an accurate average of the ground temperature the previous day. Similarly, the temperature at 20 metres is an accurate measure of the average ground temperature over the previous annual cycle. But the real value of the thermal waves is not in revealing yesterday's so slowly, the first 500 metres of crust offers a record of the earth's ground temperature for the whole of the past millennium. For most rocks, a measurable change in surface temperature takes a year to travel 16 metres, 100 years to travel 160 metres and 1,000 years to travel 500 metres.
Main focus:....................................................................................................

Section D
Many climatologists now believe that underground temperature data will provide a valuable check on recently developed models of climate change, such as the complex computer models used to predict how climate might change as a result of the green-house effect. These computer models, called general circulation models, or GCMs, are complicated simulations of the earth's response to changes caused by human activities such as burning fossil fuels. They are built up from known patterns of climate change over the past century or so, based on the meteorological records. According to these records, the average air temperature at the earth's surface has increased by about 0.5 ° C in the past 100 years. This warming is uneven: Arctic regions show most warming, regions close to the equator show little or none,
Main focus: .........................................................................

Section E
However, predictions based on GCMs differ widely. It is difficult to establish a clear picture of historical climate trends because there is little reliable meteorological data extending beyond the past century, while widespread records exist only for the past half century. In addition, the longest records are usually from urban areas and these cannot be accepted without question because they take into account heat from human activities. Many of the early weather stations were abandoned or moved elsewhere when people moved, with any corresponding adjustment of the records. Measurement methods have also varied from place to place. It is hoped that borehole data might fill some of the gaps in current knowledge.
Main focus: ............................................... ............................

Section F
Hence the excitement about boreholes. Edward Bullard of University of Cambridge made the first borehole measurements in 1939 in South Africa. But he was interested in heat flow in the earth, not climate. Research aimed at investigating climate change only took off in earnest in 1986, after researchers published the first detailed analyses of temperatures from boreholes in Alaska and eastern Canada. To date, geophysicists have measured heat flow at 10,000 boreholes on continents worldwide. New measurements are being added at about 200 sites per year. A global network of these 'historical thermometers' is fast developing.
Main focus:............................................................................

Section G
Not all the data will be suitable for studying climate change. Boreholes less than 150 metres deep are too shallow to extend the climate record back beyond what is known from meteorological data. At some of the older boreholes, researchers chose not to measure temperatures in the first 100 metres below the surface because they thought the data would be unreliable. But an estimated one in ten boreholes are considered to be suitable for climate studies. Analysing data from these sites should take between three and five years. (777 words)
Main focus:....................................................................

Read the passage quickly for the gist and then answer the questions that follow.

Section A

There are still significant gaps between women and men in terms of their involvement in family life, the tasks they perform and the responsibilities they take. Yet at least in developed Western countries, both women and men express a desire for greater equality in family life. It is evident that in terms of attitudes and beliefs, the problem cannot simply be thought of in terms of women wanting men to share more equally and men being reluctant to do so. The challenge now is to develop policies and practices based on a presumption of shared responsibility, if there is greater gender equality in the responsibilities and pleasures of family life. These are becoming key concerns of researchers, policymakers, community workers and, more importantly, family members themselves.

Section B
Despite the significant increase in the number of women with dependent children who are in the paid workforce, Australian research studies over the last 15 years are consistent in showing that divisions of family work are very rigid indeed (Watson 1991). In terms of time, women perform approximately 90 per cent of childcare tasks and 70 per cent of all family work, and only 14 per cent of fathers are highly participant in terms of time spent on family work (Russell 1983). Demo and Acock (1993), in a recent US study, also found that women continue to perform a constant and major proportion of household labor (68 per cent to 95 per cent) across all family types (first marriage, divorced, stepfamily or never married), regardless of whether they are employed or non-employed in paid work.

Section C
Divisions of labour for family work are particularly problematic in families in which both parents are employed outside the home (dual-worker families). Employed mothers adjust their jobs and personal lives to accommodate family commitments more than employed fathers do. Mothers are less likely to work overtime and are more likely to take time off work to attend to children's needs (VandenHeuvel 1993). Mothers spend less time on personal leisure activities than their partners, a factor that often leads to resentment (Demo and Acock 1993).

Section D
The parental role is central to the stress-related anxiety reported by employed mothers, and a major contributor to such stress is their taking a greater role in child-care (VandenHeuvel 1993). Edgar and Glezer (1992) found that close to 90 per cent of both husbands and wives agreed that man should share equally in childcare, yet 55 per cent of husbands and wives claimed that the men actually did this. These claims are valid despite the findings mentioned earlier that point to a partner to do more homework and childcare as a better predictor of poor family daily adjustment than is actual time spent by fathers in these tasks (Demo and Acock 1993). It is this desire, together with its lack of fulfilment in most families, that brings about stress in the female parent.

Section E

Family therapists and social work researchers are increasingly defining family problems in terms of a lack of involvement and support from fathers and are concerned with difficulties involved in having fathers take responsibility for the solution of family and child behaviour problems (Edgar and Glezer 1986). Yet, a father accepting responsibility for behaviour problems is linked with positive outcomes.

Section F

Research studies lend strong support to the argument that shared responsibilities are benefits for families considering a change to a fair or more equitable division of the pleasures and pains of family life. Greater equality in the performance of family work is associated with lower levels of family stress and higher self-esteem, better health, and higher marital satisfaction for mothers. There is also higher marital satisfaction for fathers, especially when they take more responsibility for the needs of their children - fathers are happier when they are more involved (Russell 1984). (630 words)

Questions 1-6

The passage has six sections. Point out which section deals with one of the following topics.

1. The impact of dual employment.

Answer:.............................................................
2. Mother's portion in the childcare.

Answer:.............................................................
3. Need for more equitable parenting policies.

Answer:.............................................................
4. The benefits of balanced responsibility.
Answer:.............................................................
5. The experts' view of the male parent's role.
Answer:.............................................................
6. The effect of stress on the female parent.

Answer:.............................................................

Questions 7-15

Below is a list of research findings mentioned in the reading passage. Indicate which researcher(s) is(are) responsible for each research finding.

• DA Demo and Acock
• EG Edgar and Glezer
• R Russell
• VH VandenHeuvel
• W Watson

Write the appropriate letters (DA, EG, R, VH or W) in boxes 7-15 on your answer sheet.

Research Findings

Example:

Fathers spend more time than mothers on personal leisure activities. DA

7. The number of hours a father spends doing childcare is not the best indicator of how well the family is adjusted.

8. The vast majority of fathers do not take part to any great extent in family work.

9. Women do most of the housework whether they are married or not.

10. With regard to the issue of equal responsibility for childcare, there is a discrepancy between the wishes and the claims of parent couples.

11. Both mothers and fathers are happier where father assumes some responsibility for issues relating to the behaviour of the children.

12. Researchers now link family problems to the father's lack of involvement in rearing children.
13. In terms of dealing with family issues, employed fathers make fewer sacrifices in their jobs than working women do.

14. Anxiety results from the mother being the primary caregiver.

15. There has been little change in the housework and childcare roles of the mothers and fathers.

You should spend about 20 minutes on questions 1-14, which are based on the reading passage on the next page.

Questions 1-7

The reading passage has 8 paragraphs (A-H). Choose the most suitable heading for each paragraph from the list of headings on the next page. Write the appropriate numbers (i-xiii) beside questions 1-7. One of the headings has been done for you as an example.

N.B. There are more headings than paragraphs, so you will not use all of them.

1. Paragraph A
2. Paragraph B 
3. Paragraph C 
4. Paragraph D 
5. Paragraph E 
6. Paragraph F 
7. Paragraph G

Example: Paragraph H x

List of headings

i. 165 million years

ii. The body plan of archosaurs

iii. Dinosaurs - terrible lizards

iv. Classification according to pelvic anatomy

v. The suborders of Saurischia

vi. Lizards and dinosaurs - two distinct superorders

vii. Unique body plan helps identify dinosaurs from other animals

viii. Herbivore dinosaurs

ix. Lepidosaurs

x. Frills and shelves

xi. The origins of dinosaurs and lizards

xii. Bird-hipped dinosaurs

xiii. Skull bones distinguish dinosaurs from other archosaurs

A. Although the name dinosaur is derived from the Greek for "terrible lizard", dinosaurs were not, in fact, lizards at all. Like lizards, dinosaurs are included in the class Reptilia, or reptiles, one of the five main classes of Vertebrata, animals with backbones. However, at the next level of classification, within reptiles, significant differences in the skeletal anatomy of lizards and dinosaurs have led scientists to place these groups of animals into two different superorders: Lepidosauria or lepidosaurs, and Archosauria or archosaurs.

B. Classified as lepidosaurs are lizards and snakes and their prehistoric ancestors. Included among the archosaurs, or "ruling reptiles", are prehistoric and modern crocodiles, and the now extinct thecodonts, pterosaurs and dinosaurs. Palaeontologists believe that both dinosaurs and crocodiles evolved, in the later years of the Triassic Period (c.248-208 million years ago), from creatures called pseudosuchian thecodonts. Lizards, snakes and different types of thecodont are believed to have evolved earlier in the Triassic Period from reptiles known as eosuchians.

C. The most important skeletal differences between dinosaurs and other archosaurs are in the bones of the skull, pelvis and limbs. Dinosaur skulls are found in a great range of shapes and sizes, reflecting the different eating habits and lifestyles of a large and varied group of animals that dominated life on Earth for an extraordinary 165 million years. However, unlike the skulls of any other known animals, the skulls of dinosaurs had two long bones known as vomers. These bones extended on either side of the head, from the front of the snout to the level of the holes on the skull known as the antorbital fenestra, situated in front of the dinosaur's orbits or eyesockets.

D. All dinosaurs, whether large or small, quadrupedal or bidepal, fleet-footed or slow-moving, shared a common body plan. Identification of this plan makes it possible to differentiate dinosaurs from any other types of animal, even other archosaurs. Most significantly, in dinosaurs, the pelvis and femur had evolved so that the hind limbs were held vertically beneath the body, rather than sprawling out to the sides like the limbs of a lizard. The femur of a dinosaur had a sharply in-turned neck and a ball-shaped head, which slotted into a fully open acetabulum or hip socket. A supra-acetabular crest helped prevent dislocation of the femur. The position of the knee joint, aligned below the acetabulum, made it possible for the whole hind limb to swing backwards and forwards. This unique combination of features gave dinosaurs what is known as a "fully improved gait". Evolution of this highly efficient method of walking also developed in mammals, but among reptiles it occurred only in dinosaurs.

E. For the purpose of further classification, dinosaurs are divided into two orders: Saurischia, or saurischian dinosaurs, and Ornithischia, or ornithischian dinosaurs. This division is made on the basis of their pelvic anatomy. All dinosaurs had a pelvic girdle with each side comprised of three bones: the pubis, ilium and ischium. However, the orientation of these bones follows one of two patterns. In saurischian dinosaurs, also known as lizard-hipped dinosaurs, the pubis points forwards, as is usual in most types of reptile. By contrast, in ornithischian, or bird-hipped, dinosaurs, the pubis points backwards towards the rear of the animal, which is also true of birds.

F. Of the two orders of dinosaurs, the Saurischia was the larger and the first to evolve. It is divided into two suborders: Therapoda or therapods, and Sauropodomorpha or sauropodomorphs. The therapods or "beast feet" were bipedal, predatory carnivores. They ranged in size from the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex, 12m long, 5.6m tall and weighing an estimated 6.4 tonnes, to the smallest known dinosaur, Compsognathus, merely 1.4m long and estimated 3kg in weight when fully grown. The sauropodomorphs, or "lizard feet forms", included both bipedal and quadrupedal dinosaurs. Some sauropodomorphs were carnivorous or omnivorous, but later species were typically herbivorous. They included some of the largest and best known of all dinosaurs, such as Diplodocus, a huge quadruped with an elephant-like body, a long, thin tail and neck that gave it a total length of 27m, and a tiny head.

G. Ornithischian dinosaurs were bipedal or quadrupedal herbivores. They are now usually divided into three suborders: Ornithipoda, Thyreophora and Marginocephalia. The ornithopods, or "bird feet", both large and small, could walk or run on their long hind legs, balancing their body by holding their tails stiffly off the ground behind them. An example is Iguanodon, up to 9m long, 5m tall and weighing 4.5 tonnes. The thyreophorans, or "shield bearers", also known as armoured dinosaurs, were quadrupeds with rows of protective bony spikes, studs, or plates along their backs and tails. They included Stegosaurus, 9m long and weighing 2 tonnes.

H. The marginocephalians, or "margined heads" were bipedal or quadrupedal ornithischians with a deep bony frill or narrow shelf at the back of the skull. An example is Triceratops, a rhinoceros-like dinosaur, 9m long, weighing 5.4 tonnes and bearing a prominent neck frill and three large horns. (836 words)

Questions 8-10

Complete the sentences below. Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each blank space.

8. Lizards and dinosaurs are classified into two different superorders because of the difference in their ......................
9. In the Triassic Period, ...................... evolved into thecodonts, for example, lizards and snakes.
10. Dinosaur skulls differed from those of any other known animals because of the presence of vomers: ......................

Questions 11-14
Choose one phrase (A-H) from the List of features to match with the Dinosaurs listed below. Write the appropriate letters (A-H) beside questions 11-14.
The information in the completed sentences should be an accurate summary of the points made by the writer.
NB. There are more phrases than sentences, so you will not need to use them all. You may use each phrase once only.

Dinosaurs

11. Dinosaurs differed from lizards, because ...................... 
12 Saurischian and ornithischian dinosaurs ......................
13. Unlike therapods, sauropodomorphs ......................  
14. Some dinosaurs used their tails to balance, others ......................

List of Features
A. are both divided into two orders.
B. the former had a "fully improved gait".
C. were not usually very heavy.
D. could walk or run on their back legs.
E. their hind limbs sprawled out to the sides.
F. walked or ran on four legs rather than two.
G. both had a pelvic girdle comprising six bones.
H. did not always eat meat.

Bài tập thuộc chương trình học của lớp IELTS READING ONLINE 1 KÈM 1 của IELTS TUTOR

Choose the most suitable heading for each paragraph from the list of headings (A-L) below. Write the appropriate letters (A-L) in the space provided after questions 1-8 in your booklet.

N.B. There are more headings than paragraphs, so you will not use all of them.

List of Headings

A. Invalid indicators

B. Reconciliation of the inconsistency

C. Radiation absorbing information

D. Alternative density application

E. Puzzles left by radiation

F. Two pitfalls

G. Void centre of the black hole

H. Value of the theory

I. A trouble-shooting theory

J. Non-existence of the universe

K. Information paradox resolved

L. Cosmic uniformity owing to cosmic inflation

1. Paragraph 1

2. Paragraph 2

3. Paragraph 3

4. Paragraph 4
Example: Paragraph 5 I

5. Paragraph 6

6. Paragraph 7

7. Paragraph 8

8. Paragraph 9

Just what is inside a black hole?

1. Ever since John Wheeler coined the phrase 'black hole', these complex astro-nomical phenomena have held a peculiar fascination for physicists and laymen alike. Physicists are interested because of the extreme conditions inside and at the edge of a black hole — a region where gravity is so strong that nothing was thought to be able to escape. These conditions test the intersection between the two theories that lie at the heart of modem physics: quantum mechanics and Einsteinian gravity (the latter known, rather confusingly, as the general theory of relativity). Both theories agree perfectly with each other, putting out of reach one grand, unified theory. Many physicists would like to overcome this obstacle.

2. Laymen are probably more captivated by Dr. Wheeler's nomenclature than by the details of the physics. But black holes are not really black. In the paper that catapulted him to fame in 1974, Stephen Hawking predicted that some black holes should emit radiation (although in a manner that is still not fully understood). And now, it seems that another famous coinage by Dr. Wheeler - that 'black holes have no hair' - is also false.

3. What Dr. Wheeler meant by the hairlessness of black holes was that they could be characterised by just three numbers: mass, angular momentum (roughly speaking, how fast a hole spins) and electric charge. To describe a star, one would have, by contrast, to say what each of the zillions of atoms inside it was doing. Once Dr. Hawking discovered that a black hole radiates, however, the lack of hair led to a paradox. Drop something - an encyclopedia, say - into a black hole, and it would be destroyed and eventually re-emitted as Hawking radiation in a random way. The information in the encyclopedia would be lost. But quantum mechanics dictates, perhaps surprisingly, that information cannot be destroyed. If the encyclopedia were to fall into a star, it would be possible (though admittedly very hard) to reconstruct it by reversing the paths of all the atoms of which it had been composed.

4. Before Dr. Hawking's paper, that point was finessed because no one could prove that the information was not somehow preserved within the black hole. But the Hawking radiation, which is predicted by an AD HOC combination of relativity and quantum mechanics, trumps that finesse and leaves an apparent paradox.

5. In a paper just published in NUCLEAR PHYSICS, Samir Mathur and his colleagues at Ohio State University seem to have solved the paradox using string theory, which is the best available attempt to reconcile relativity and quantum mechanics. This theory, which postulates that everything in the universe is a consequence of tiny strings oscillating in ten dimensions, was thought to have observable consequences only at very small scales — as much smaller than atoms as atoms are smaller than the solar system. Dr. Mathur showed, however, that at high densities of matter, such as those within a black hole, the effects attributable to strings can grow to large sizes.

6. According to Dr. Mathur, the interior of a black hole can be thought of as a ball of strings. This ball modulates the Hawking radiation in a way that reflects the arrangement of the strings inside the hole. So, in effect, it acts as a repository of the information carried by things that have fallen into the hole. Thus, as quantum mechanics requires, no information is destroyed.

7. Besides resolving the information paradox, this theory has the added benefit — at least in the special cases that Dr. Mathur has been able to work out exactly — of getting rid of the 'singularity' that had been thought to lie at the centre of every black hole. A 'singularity' is a mathematical anomaly where physical theories such as general relativity break down because quantities that should be finite diverge to infinity. This means that physicists are unable, even in principle, to explain what is actually happening there. It would therefore be quite a boon if Dr. Mathur is correct, and singularities do not actually exist.

8. His result also has a bearing on wider cosmological issues. The early universe would have had a density similar to a black hole, and so the 'string-ball' theory would have applied there, too. Though Dr. Mathur is cautious on the matter, his theory might supply an alternative explanation about why — when viewed on the grandest scales — the universe appears remarkably uniform. At the moment, this uniformity is put down to a phenomenon known as cosmic inflation, in which the universe is supposed to have expanded rapidly when it was very young. That expansion would have 'locked in' the universe's initial uniform state by stopping local concentrations of matter from forming. Tying the early universe together with strings might provide an alternative explanation for cosmic uniformity.

9. String theory is often criticised because it is abstract and thus hard to compare with reality. But although no one can yet see a black hole close up, and thus test Dr. Mathur's ideas for real, the fact that string theory seems able, in this case, to resolve long-standing inconsistencies between general relativity and quantum mechanics is a big point in its favour. (885 words)

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