PRACTICE IELTS READING TEST 14 WITH ANSWERS
READING PASSAGE 1
You
should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 ,
which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.
The psychology in Happiness
B After all
people are remarkably adaptable. Following a variable period of
adjustment, we bounce back to our previous level of happiness, no
matter what happens to us. (There are some scientifically proven exceptions,
notably suffering the unexpected loss of a job or the loss of a spouse. Both
events tend to permanently knock people back a step.) Our adaptability works in
two directions. Because we are so adaptable, points out Professor Sonja
Lyubomirsky of the University of California, we quickly get used to many of the
accomplishments we strive for in life, such as landing the big job or getting
married. Soon after we reach a milestone, we start to feel that something is
missing. We begin coveting another worldly possession or eyeing a social advancement.
But such an approach keeps us tethered to a treadmill where happiness
is always just out of reach, one toy or one step away. It’s possible to get off
the treadmill entirely by focusing on activities that
are dynamic surprising, and attention- absorbing, and thus
less likely to bore us than, say, acquiring shiny new toys.
C Moreover,
happiness is not a reward for escaping pain. Russ Harris,
the author of The Happiness Trap, calls popular conceptions of
happiness dangerous because they set people up for a “struggle against
reality”. They don’t acknowledge that real life is full of
disappointments, loss, and inconveniences. “If you’re going to live a rich and
meaningful life,” Harris says, “you’re going to feel a full range of
emotions.” Action toward goals other than happiness makes people happy. It is
not crossing the finish line that is most rewarding, it is anticipating
achieving the goal. University of Wisconsin neuroscientist Richard Davidson has
found that working hard toward a goal, and making progress to the point of
expecting a goal to be realized, not only activates positive feelings
but also suppresses negative emotions such as fear and depression.
D We are
constantly making decisions, ranging from what clothes to put on, to whom we
should marry, not to mention all those flavors of ice cream. We base many of
our decisions on whether we think a particular preference
will increase our well-being. Intuitively, we seem
convinced that the more choices we have, the better off we will ultimately be.
But our world of unlimited opportunity imprisons us more than it makes us
happy. In what Swarthmore psychologist Barry Schwartz calls “the paradox of
choice,” facing many possibilities leaves us stressed out – and less satisfied
with whatever we do decide. Having too many choices keeps us wondering about
all the opportunities missed.
E Besides, not
everyone can put on a happy face. Barbara Held, a professor
of psychology at Bowdoin College, rails against “the tyranny of
the positive attitude”. “Looking on the bright side isn’t
possible for some people and is even counterproductive” she insists. “When you
put pressure on people to cope in a way that doesn’t fit them, it not only
doesn’t work, it makes them feel like a failure on top of already feeling bad.”
The one-size-fits-all approach to managing emotional life is
misguided, agrees Professor Julie Norem, author of
The PositivePower of Negative Thinking. In her research, she has
shown that the defensive pessimism that anxious people feel can be harnessed to
help them get things done, which in turn makes them happier. A naturally
pessimistic architect, for example, can set low expectations for an upcoming
presentation and review all of the bad outcomes that she’s imagining, so that
she can prepare carefully and increase her chances of success.
F By contrast, an individual who
is not living according to their values, will not be happy, no matter how much
they achieve. Some people, however, are not sure what their values
are. In that case Harris has a great question: “Imagine I could wave a magic
wand to ensure that you would have the approval and admiration of
everyone on the planet, forever. What, in that case, would you choose to do
with your life?” Once this has been answered honestly, you can start taking
steps toward your ideal vision of yourself. The actual answer is
unimportant, as long as you’re living consciously. The state of happiness is
not really a state at all. It’s an ongoingpersonal experiment.
Questions 1-6
Reading Passage has six
paragraphs, A–F.
Which paragraph
mentions the following?
Write the correct letter, A–F, in
boxes 1–6 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
1
the need for individuals to understand what really matters to them
2
tension resulting from a wide variety of alternatives
3
the hope of success as a means of overcoming unhappy feelings
4 people
who call themselves specialists
5
human beings’ capacity for coping with change
6
doing things which are interesting in themselves
Questions 7-8
Choose TWO letters, A-E.
Write the correct letters in boxes 7 and 8 on
your answer sheet
Which TWO of the following people argue against aiming for constant
happiness
A A Martin
Seligman
B B Eric
Wilson
C C Sonja
Lyubomirsky
D D Russ Harris
E E Barry
Schwartz
Questions 9-10
Choose TWO letters, A-E.
Write the correct letters in boxes 9 and 10.
Which TWO of the following beliefs are identified as mistaken in the text
A A Inherited
wealth brings less happiness than earned wealth.
B B Social
status affects our perception of how happy we are.
C C An
optimistic outlook ensures success.
D D
Unhappiness can and should be avoided.
E E
Extremes of emotion are normal in the young.
Questions 11-13
Complete the
sentences below.
Choose NO MORE THAN ONE WORD from
the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 11-13 on
your answer sheet.
11 In order to have a complete understanding of how people’s
minds work, Martin Seligman suggested that research should examine our most
positive 11 as closely as it does our
psychological problems.
12 Soon after arriving at a 12 in
their lives, people become accustomed to what they have achieved and have a
sense that they are lacking something.
13 People who are 13 by
nature are more likely to succeed if they make thorough preparation for a
presentation.
READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on
Questions 14-27 , which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.
Bio-mimetic Design
What has fins like a whale, skin like a lizard, and eyes like a
moth? The future of engineering. Andrew Parker, an evolutionary biologist,
knelt in the baking red sand of the Australian outback just south of Alice
Springs and eased the right hind leg of a thorny devil into a dish of water.
A “Its back is completely drenched!” Sure
enough, after 30 seconds, water from the dish had picked up the lizard’s leg
and was glistening all over its prickly hide. In a few seconds more the water
reached its mouth, and the lizard began to smack its jaws with evident satisfaction. It was, in essence, drinking
through its foot. Given more time, the thorny devil can perform this same
conjuring trick on a patch of damp sand – a vital competitive advantage in the desert. Parker had come
here to discover precisely how it does this, not from purely biological
interest, but with a concrete purpose in
mind: to make a thorny-devil-inspired device that
will help people collect lifesaving water in the desert. “The water’s spreading
out incredibly fast!” he said, as drops from
his eyedropper fell onto the lizard’s back and vanished, like magic. “Its skin
is far more hydrophobic than I thought. There may well be hidden capillaries,
channeling the water into the mouth.”
B Parker’s work is only a small part
of an increasingly vigorous, global
biomimetics movement. Engineers in Bath, England, and West Chester,
Pennsylvania, are pondering the bumps on the leading edges of humpback whale
flukes to learn how to make airplane wings for more agile flight. In Berlin,
Germany, the fingerlike primary feathers of
raptors are inspiring engineers to develop wings that change shape aloft to
reduce drag and increase fuel efficiency.
Architects in Zimbabwe are studying how termites regulate temperature, humidity,and airflow in their mounds in order to
build more comfortable buildings, while Japanese medical researchers
are reducing the pain of an injection by using hypodermic needles edged with
tiny serrations, like those on a mosquito’s proboscis, minimizing nerve
stimulation.
C Ronald Fearing, a professor of
electrical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, has taken on
one of the biggest challenges of all: to create a
miniature robotic fly that is swift, small, and maneuverable enough for use in
surveillance or search-and-rescue operations. Fearing made his own, one of
which he held up with tweezers for me to see, a gossamer wand some 11
millimeters long and not much thicker than a cat’s whisker. Fearing has been
forced to manufacture many of the other minute components of his fly in the
same way, using a micromachining laser and a rapid prototyping system that
allows him to designhis minuscule parts in a
computer, automatically cut and cure them overnight, and assemblethem
by hand the next day under a microscope.
D With the micro laser he cuts the
fly’s wings out of a two-micron polyester sheet so delicate that it crumples if
you breathe on it and must be reinforced with carbon-fiber spars. The wings on
his current model flap at 275 times per second – faster than the insect’s own
wings – and make the blowfly’s signature buzz. “Carbon fiber outperforms fly
chitin,” he said, with a trace of
self-satisfaction. He pointed out a protective plastic box on the lab bench,
which contained the fly-bot itself, a delicate, origami-like framework of black carbon-fiber struts and hairlike
wires that, not surprisingly, looks nothing like a real fly. A month later it
achieved liftoff in a controlled flight on a boom.Fearing expects the fly-bot
to hover in two or three years, and eventually to
bank and dive with flylike virtuosity.
E Stanford University roboticist Mark
Cutkosky designed a gecko-insured climber that he christened Stickybot. In
reality, gecko feet aren’t sticky – they’re dry and smooth to the touch – and
owe their remarkable adhesion to some two
billion spatula-tipped filaments per square centimeter on their toe pads, each
filament only a hundred nanometers thick. These filaments are so small, in
fact, that they interact at the molecular
level with the surface on which the gecko walks, tapping into the low-level van
der Waals forces generated by molecules’ fleeting positive and
negative charges, which pull any two adjacent objects
together. To make the toe pads for Stickybot, Cutkosky and doctoral student
Sangbae Kim, the robot’s lead designer, produced a urethane fabric with tiny
bristles that end in 30-micrometer points. Though not as flexible or
adherent as the gecko itself, they hold the 500-gram robot on a vertical
surface.
F Cutkosky endowed his robot with
seven-segmented toes that drag and release just
like the lizard’s, and a gecko-like stride that snugs it to the wall. He also
crafted Stickybot’s legs and feet with a process he
calls shape deposition manufacturing (SDM), which combines a rangeof metals, polymers, and fabrics to create the same smooth gradation from stiff to flexible that is present in the lizard’s limbs and
absent in most man-made materials. SDM also allows him to embed actuators,
sensors, and other specialized structures that make Stickybot climb better.
Then he noticed in a paper on gecko anatomy that the lizard had branching
tendons to distribute its weight evenly
across the entire surface of its toes. Eureka.”When I saw that, I thought, wow,
that’s great!” He subsequently embedded a branching polyester cloth “tendon” in
his robot’s limbs to distribute its load in
the same way.
G Stickybot now walks up vertical surfaces
of glass, plastic, and glazed ceramic tile, though it will be some time before
it can keep up with a gecko. For the moment it can walk only on smooth
surfaces, at a mere four centimeters per second, a fraction of the speed of its
biological role model. The dry adhesive on
Stickybot ‘ s toes isn’t self-cleaning like the lizard’s
either, so it rapidly clogs with dirt. “There are a lot of things about the
gecko that we simply had to ignore,” Cutkosky says. Still, a number of
real-world applications are in the offing. The Department of Defense’s Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA),
which funds the project, has it in mind for surveillance:
an automaton that could slink up a building and perch there for hours or days,
monitoring the terrain below. Cutkosky hypothesizes a range of
civilian uses. “I’m trying to get robots to go places where they’ve never gone
before,” he told me. “I would like to see Stickybot have a real-world function, whether it’s a toy or another application.
Sure, it would be great if it eventually has
a lifesaving or humanitarian role…”
H For all the power of the
biomimetics paradigm, and the brilliant
people who practice it, bio-inspiration has led to surprisingly few
mass-produced products and arguably only one household word
– Velcro, which was invented in 1948 by Swiss chemist George de Mestral, by
copying the way cockleburs clung to his dog’s coat. In addition to
Cutkosky ‘ s lab, five other high-powered research teams are currently trying to mimic gecko
adhesion, and so far none has come close to matching the lizard’s strong,
directional, self-cleaning grip. Likewise,scientists
have yet to meaningfully re-create the abalone nanostructure that accounts for
the strength of its shell, and several well-funded biotech companies have gone
bankrupt trying to make artificial spider silk.
Questions 14-20
Do the following
statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?
In boxes 14-20 on your answer sheet,
write
TURE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOTGIVEN if there is no information on this
14 Andrew
Parker failed to make effective water device which can be used in desert.
15 Skin
of lizard is easy to get wet when it contacts water.
16 Scientists
apply inspiration from nature into many artificial engineering.
17 Tiny
and thin hair under gecko’s feet allows it to stick to the surface of object.
18 When
gecko climbs downward, its feet release a certain kind of chemical to make them
adhesive.
19 Famous
cases stimulate a large number of successful products of biomimetics in real
life.
20 Velcro
is well-known for its bionics design.
Questions 21-23
Filling the blanks below.
Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each question of robot below.
Ronald Fearing was required to fabricate
tiny components for his robotic fly 21 by
specialized techniques.
The robotic fly’s main structure outside
is made of 22 and long and thin wires
which make it unlike fly at all.
Cutkosky applied an artificial material
in Stickybot’s 23 as a tendon to
split pressure like lizard’s does.
Questions 24-26
Fill the blanks below.
Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answerabout facts of stickybot.
24 Stickybot’s feet doesn’t have function
which makes it only be able to walk on smooth surface.
25 DARPA are planning to use stickybot for .
26 Cutkosky assume that stickybot finally has potential in or
other human-related activities.
READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 28-40 , which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.
Bright children
A BY the time Laszlo Polgar’s first baby
was born in 1969 he already had firm views on child-rearing. An eccentric
citizen of communist Hungary, he had written a book called “Bring up Genius!”
and one of his favourite sayings was “Geniuses are made, not born”. An expert on the theory of
chess, he proceeded to teach little Zsuzsa at home, spending up to ten hours a
day on the game. Two more daughters were similarly hot-housed. All three
obliged their father by becoming world-class players. The youngest, Judit, is
currently ranked 13th in the world, and is by far the best female chess player
of all time. Would the experiment have succeeded with a different trio of
children? If any child can be turned into a star, then a lot of time and money
are being wasted worldwide on trying to pick winners.
B America has long held “talent searches”,
using test results and teacher recommendations to select children
for advanced school courses, summer schools and other extra tuition. This
provision is set to grow. In his state-of-the-union address in 2006, President
George Bush announced the “American Competitiveness Initiative”, which, among
much else, would train 70,000 high-school teachers to lead advanced courses for
selected pupils in mathematics and science. Just as the superpowers’ space race
made Congress put money into science education, the thought of China and India
turning out hundreds of thousands of engineers and scientists is scaring
America into prodding its brightest to do their best.
C The philosophy behind
this talent search is that ability is innate; that it can be diagnosed
with considerable accuracy; and that it is
worth cultivating. In America, bright children are ranked as “moderately”,
“highly”, “exceptionally” and “profoundly” gifted. The only chance to influence
innate ability is thought to be in the womb or the first couple of
years of life. Hencethe fad for “teaching aids”
such as videos and flashcards for newborns, and “whale sounds” on tape which a pregnant mother can strap to her belly.
D In Britain, there is a broadly similar belief in the existence of
innate talent, but also an egalitarian sentiment which makes people queasy about the idea of
investing resources in grooming intelligence. Teachers are often opposed to
separate provision for the best-performing children, saying any extra help
should go to stragglers. In 2002, in a bid to help the able while leaving
intact the ban on most selection by ability in state schools, the government
set up the National Academy for Gifted and
Talented Youth. This outfit runs summer schools and master classes for children
nominated by their schools. To date, though, only seven in ten secondary
schools have nominated even a single child. Last year all schools were told
they must supply the names of their top 10%.
E Picking winners is also the order of the
day in ex-communist states, a hangover from the times when talented individuals
were plucked from their homes and ruthlessly trained for the glory of the
nation. But in many other countries, opposition to the idea of singling out
talent and grooming it runs deep. In Scandinavia, a belief in virtues like
modesty and social solidarity makes people flinch from the idea of treating
brainy children differently.
F And in Japan there is a widespread belief that all children are born with the
same innate abilities – and should therefore be
treated alike. All are taught together, covering the same syllabus at the same
rate until they finish compulsory schooling. Those who learn quickest are
expected then to teach their classmates. In China, extra teaching is provided,
but to a self-selected bunch. “Children’s palaces” in big cities offer a
huge range of after-school classes. Anyone can
sign up; all that is asked is excellent attendance.
G Statistics give little clue as to which
system is best. The performance of the most able is heavily affected by factors
other than state provision. Most state education in Britain is nominally non-selective,
but middle-class parents try to live near the best schools. AmbitiousJapanese parents have made private,
out-of-school tuition a thriving business. And Scandinavia’s egalitarianism
might work less well in places with more diverse populations
and less competent teachers. For what it’s worth, the data suggest that some
countries – like Japan and Finland, see table – can eschew selection and still thrive. But
that does not mean that any country can ditch selection and do as well.
H Mr Polgar thought any child could be a
prodigy given the right teaching, an early start and enough practice. At one
point he planned to prove it by adopting three baby boys from a poor country
and trying his methods on them. (His wife vetoed the scheme.) Some
say the key to success is simply hard graft. Judit, the youngest of the Polgar
sisters, was the most driven, and the most successful; Zsofia, the middle one,
was regarded as the most talented, but she was the only one who did not achieve the status of grand master. “Everything came
easiest to her,” said her older sister. “But she was lazy.”
Questions 27-32
Do the following
statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?
In boxes 22-32 on your answer
sheet, write
|
YES
|
if the statement agrees with the view of the writer
|
|
NO
|
if the statement contradicts the view of the writer
|
|
NOT GIVEN
|
if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks
about this
|
27
America has a long history of selecting talented students into different
categories.
28
Teachers and schools in Britain held welcome attitude towards government’s
selection of gifted students.
29
Some parents agree to move near reputable schools in Britain.
30
Middle-class parents participate in their children’s education.
31
Japan and Finland comply with selected student’s policy.
32
Avoiding-selection-policy only works in a specific environment.
Questions 33-34
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write your answers in boxes 33-34 on
your answer sheet.
33 What’s Laszlo Polgar’s point of view towards geniuses of
children
A Chess is
the best way to train geniuses.
B Genius
tend to happen on first child.
C
Geniuses can be educated later on.
D
Geniuses are born naturally.
34 What is the purpose of citing Zsofia’s example in the last
paragraph
A Practice
makes genius.
B Girls
are not good at chess.
C She
was an adopted child.
D Middle
child is always the most talented.
Questions 35-39
Use the information in the passage to match the
countries (listed A-E) with correct connection below.
Write the appropriate letters, A-E, in
boxes 35-39 on your answer sheet.
|
A
B
C
|
Scandinavia
Japan
Britain
|
D
E
|
China
America
|
35 Less
gifted children get help from other classmates
36 Attending
extra teaching is open to anyone
37 People
are reluctant to favor gifted children due to social characteristics
38 Both
view of innate and egalitarian co-existed
39 Craze
of audio and video teaching for pregnant women.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
ANSWERS
|
1. F
|
21. the same way
|
|
2. D
|
22. carbon-fiber
|
|
3. C
|
23. limbs/legs and feet
|
|
4. A
|
24. self-cleaning
|
|
5. B
|
25. surveillance
|
|
6. B
|
26. lifesaving
|
|
7. B, D IN ANY ORDER
|
27. YES
|
|
8. B, D IN ANY ORDER
|
28. NO
|
|
9. C,D IN ANY ORDER
|
29. YES
|
|
10. C,D IN ANY ORDER
|
30. NOT GIVEN
|
|
11. moods
|
31. NO
|
|
12. milestone
|
32. YES
|
|
13. pessimistic
|
33. C
|
|
14. NOT GIVEN
|
34. A
|
|
15. FALSE
|
35. B
|
|
16. TRUE
|
36. D
|
|
17. FALSE
|
37. A
|
|
18. NOT GIVEN
|
38. C
|
|
19. FALSE
|
39. E
|
|
20. TRUE
|
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