The following is a complete IELTS Academic Mock Test.
The passages have been taken from authentic IELTS test.
Remember to time Yourself. The answers are given at the end of the test. A score above 30 is considered good score.
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READING PASSAGE 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on
Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.
Johnson's
Dictionary
For the
century before Johnson's Dictionary was published in 1775, there had
been concern about the state of the English language. There was no standard way
of speaking or writing and no agreement as to the best way of bringing some
order to the chaos of English spelling. Dr Johnson provided the solution.
There had,
of course, been dictionaries in the past, the first of these being a little
book of some 120 pages, compiled by a certain Robert Cawdray, published in 1604
under the title A Table Alphabeticall 'of hard usuall English wordes'.
Like the various dictionaries that came after it during the seventeenth century.
Cawdray's tended to concentrate on 'scholarly' words; one function of the
dictionary was to enable its student to convey an impression of fine learning.
Beyond the
practical need to make order out of chaos, the rise of dictionaries is
associated with the rise of the English middle' class, who were anxious to
define and circumscribe the various worlds to conquer - lexical as well as
social and commercial. It is highly appropriate that Dr Samuel Johnson, the
very model of an eighteenth-century literary man, as famous in his own time as
in ours, should have published his Dictionary at the very beginning of
the heyday of the middle class.
Johnson was
a poet and critic who raised common sense to the heights of genius. His
approach to the problems that had worried writers throughout the late
seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries was intensely practical. Up until
his time. the task of producing a dictionary on such a large scale had seemed
impossible without the establishment of an academy to make decisions about
right and wrong usage. Johnson decided he did not need an academy to settle
arguments about language; he would write a dictionary himself; and he would do
it single-handed. Johnson signed the contract for the Dictionary with
the bookseller Robert Dosley at a breakfast held at the Golden Anchor Inn near
Holborn Bar on 18 June 1.764. He was to be paid £:1,575 in instalments, and
from this he took money to rent 17 Gough Square, in which he set up his
'dictionary workshop'.
James
Boswell, his biographer; described the garret where Johnson worked as 'fitted
up like a counting house' with a long desk running down the middle at which the
copying clerks would work standing up.
Johnson
himself was stationed on a rickety chair at an 'old crazy deal table'
surrounded by a chaos of borrowed books. He was also helped by six assistants,
two of whom died whilst the Dictionary was still in preparation.
The work
was immense; filling about eighty large notebooks (and without a library to
hand), Johnson wrote the definitions of over 40,000 words, and illustrated
their many meanings with some I 14,000 quotations drawn from English writing on
every subject, from the Elizabethans to his own time. He did not expect to
achieve complete originality. Working to a deadline, he had to draw on the best
of all previous dictionaries, and to make his work one of heroic synthesis. In
fact, it was very much more. Unlike his predecessors, Johnson treated English
very practically. as a living language, with many different shades of meaning.
He adopted his definitions on the principle of English common lawaccording to
precedent After its publication, his Dictionary was not seriously
rivalled for over a century.
After many
vicissitudes the Dictionary was finally published on 15 April 1775. It
was instantly recognised as a landmark throughout Europe. 'This very noble
work,' wrote the leading Italian lexicographer; 'will be a perpetual monument
of Fame to the Author; an Honour to his own Country in particular; and a
general Benefit to the republic of Letters throughout Europe: The fact that
Johnson had taken on the Academies of Europe and matched them (everyone knew
that forty French academics had taken forty years to produce the first French
national dictionary) was cause for much English celebration.
Johnson had
worked for nine years, 'with little assistance of the learned, and without any
patronage of the great; not in the soft obscurities of retirement, or under the
shelter of academic bowers, but amidst inconvenience and distraction, in
sickness and in sorrow'. For all its faults and eccentricities his two-volume
work is a masterpiece and a landmark, in his own words, 'setting the
orthography displaying the analogy regulating the structures, and ascertaining
the significations of English words'. It is the cornerstone of Standard
English, an achievement which, in James Boswell's words, 'conferred stability
on the language of his country'.
The Dictionary,
together with his other writing, made Johnson famous and so well esteemed
that his friends were able to prevail upon King George III to offer him a
pension. From then on, he was to become the Johnson of folklore.
Questions 1-3
Choose THREE letters A-H.
Write your answers in boxes 1-3 on
your answer sheet.
NB Your answers may be given in any
order.
Which THREE of the following
statements are true of Johnson's Dictionary?
A It
avoided all scholarly words.
B It was the only English dictionary in
general use for 200 years.
C It was famous because of the large number of
people involved.
D It focused mainly on language from
contemporary texts.
E There was a time limit for its completion.
F It ignored work done by previous dictionary
writers.
G It took into account subtleties of meaning.
H Its definitions were famous for their
originality.
Questions 4-7
Complete the summary.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from
the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 4-7 on your answer
sheet.
In 1764 Dr Johnson accepted the
contract to produce a dictionary. Having rented a garret, he took on a number
of 4 …………., who stood at a long
central desk. Johnson did not have a 5 …………., available to him, but
eventually produced definitions of in excess of 40,000 words written down in 80
large notebooks. On publication, the Dictionary was immediately hailed
in many European countries as a landmark. According to his biographer, James Boswell,
Johnson's principal achievement was to bring 6 …………., to the English
language. As a reward for his hard work, he was granted a 7 …………., by
the king.
Questions 8-13
Do the following statements agree
with the information given in Reading Passage I?
In boxes 8-13 on your answer
sheet, write
TRUE if
the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if
the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
8 The
growing importance of the middle classes led to an increased demand for dictionaries.
9 Johnson
has become more well known since his death.
10 Johnson
had been planning to write a dictionary for several years.
11 Johnson
set up an academy to help with the writing of his Dictionary.
12 Johnson
only received payment for his Dictionary on its completion.
13 Not
all of the assistants survived to see the publication of the Dictionary.
READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on
Questions 14-26. which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.
Nature or Nurture?
A A few years ago, in one of the most
fascinating and disturbing experiments in behavioral psychology, Stanley
Milgram of Yale University tested 40 subjects from all walks of life for their
willingness to obey instructions given by a 'leader' in a situation in which
the subjects might feel a personal distaste for the actions they were called
upon to perform. Specifically, Milgram told each volunteer 'teacher-subject'
that the experiment was in the noble cause of education, and was designed to
test whether or not punishing pupils for their mistakes would have a positive
effect on the pupils' ability to learn.
B Milgram's experimental set-up involved
placing the teacher-subject before a panel of thirty switches with labels
ranging from '15 volts of electricity (slight shock)' to '450 volts (danger -
severe shock)' in steps of 15 volts each. The teacher-subject was told that
whenever the pupil gave the wrong answer to a question, a shock was to be
administered, beginning at the lowest level and increasing in severity with
each successive wrong answer. The supposed 'pupil' was in reality an actor
hired by Milgram to simulate receiving the shocks by emitting a spectrum of
groans, screams and writhings together with an assortment of statements and
expletives denouncing both the experiment and the experimenter. Milgram told
the teacher-subject to ignore the reactions of the pupil, and to administer
whatever level of shock was called for, as per the rule governing the
experimental situation of the moment.
C As the experiment unfolded, the pupil would
deliberately give the wrong answers to questions posed by the teacher, thereby
bringing on various electrical punishments, even up to the danger level of 300
volts and beyond. Many of the teacher-subjects balked at administering the
higher levels of punishment, and turned to Milgram with questioning looks
and/or complaints about continuing the experiment. In these situations, Milgram
calmly explained that the teacher-subject was to ignore the pupil's cries for
mercy and carryon with the experiment. If the subject was still reluctant to
proceed, Milgram said that it was important for the sake of the experiment that
the procedure be followed through to the end. His final argument was, 'You have
no other choice. You must go on.' What Milgram was trying to discover was the
number of teacher-subjects who would be willing to administer the highest
levels of shock, even in the face of strong personal and moral revulsion
against the rules and conditions of the experiment.
D Prior to carrying out the experiment, Milgram
explained his idea to a group of 39 psychiatrists and asked them to predict the
average percentage of people in an ordinary population who 'would be willing to
administer the highest shock level of 450 volts. The overwhelming consensus was
that virtually all the teacher-subjects would refuse to obey the experimenter.
The psychiatrists felt that 'most subjects would not go beyond 150 volts' and
they further anticipated that only four per cent would go up to 300 volts.
Furthermore,
they thought that only a lunatic fringe of about one in 1,000 would give the
highest shock of 450 volts.
E What were the actual results? Well, over 60
per cent of the teacher-subjects continued to obey Milgram up to the 450-volt
limit! In repetitions of the experiment in other countries, the percentage of
obedient teacher-subjects was even higher, reaching 85 per cent in one country.
How can we possibly account for this vast discrepancy between what calm, rational,
knowledgeable people predict in the comfort of their study and what pressured,
flustered, but cooperative 'teachers' actually do in the laboratory of real
life?
F One's first inclination might be to argue
that there must be some sort of built-in animal aggression instinct that was
activated by the experiment, and that Milgram's teacher subjects were just
following a genetic need to discharge this pent-up primal urge onto the pupil
by administering the electrical shock. A modern hard-core sociobiologist might
even go so far as to claim that this aggressive instinct evolved as an
advantageous trait, having been of survival value to our ancestors in their
struggle against the hardships of life on the plains and in the caves,
ultimately finding its way into our genetic make-up as a remnant of our ancient
animal ways.
G An alternative to this notion of genetic
programming is to see the teacher-subjects' actions as a result of the social
environment under which the experiment was carried out. As Milgram himself
pointed out, 'Most subjects in the experiment see their behavior in a larger
context that is benevolent and useful to society - the pursuit of scientific
truth. The psychological laboratory has a strong claim to legitimacy and evokes
trust and confidence in those who perform there. An action such as shocking a
victim, which in isolation appears evil, acquires a completely different
meaning when placed in this setting.
H Thus, in this explanation the subject merges
his unique personality and personal and moral code with that of larger
institutional structures, surrendering individual properties like loyalty,
self-sacrifice and discipline to the service of malevolent systems of
authority.
I Here we have two radically different
explanations for why so many teacher-subjects were willing to forgo their sense
of personal responsibility for the sake of an institutional authority figure.
The problem for biologists, psychologists and anthropologists is to sort out
which of these two polar explanations is more plausible. This, in essence, is
the problem of modern sociobiology - to discover the degree to which hard-wired
genetic programming dictates, or at least strongly biases, the interaction of
animals and humans with their environment, that is, their behaviour. Put
another way, sociobiology is concerned with elucidating the biological basis of
all behaviour.
Questions 14-19
Reading Passage 2 has nine paragraphs, A-I.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter A-I in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet.
14 a biological explanation of the
teacher-subjects' behaviour
15 the explanation Milgram gave the
teacher-subjects for the experiment
16 the identity of the pupils
17 the expected statistical outcome
18 the general aim of sociobiological study
19 the way Milgram persuaded the teacher-subjects
to continue
Questions 20-22
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write your answers in boxes 20-22 on your answer
sheet.
20 The teacher-subjects were told that they were
testing whether
A a 450-volt shock was dangerous.
B punishment helps learning.
C the pupils were honest.
D they were suited to teaching.
21 The teacher-subjects were instructed to
A stop when a pupil asked them to.
B denounce pupils who made mistakes.
C reduce the shock level after a correct
answer.
D give punishment according to a rule.
22 Before the experiment took place the
psychiatrists
A believed that a shock of 150 volts was too
dangerous.
B failed to agree on how the teacher-subjects
would respond to instructions.
C underestimated the teacher-subjects'
willingness to comply with experimental procedure.
D thought that many of the teacher-subjects
would administer a shock of 450 volts.
Questions 23-26
Do the following statements agree with the information
given in Reading Passage 2?
In boxes 23-26 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE if
the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if
the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there
is no information on this
23 Several of the subjects were psychology
students at Yale University.
24 Some people may believe that the
teacher-subjects' behavior could be explained as a positive survival mechanism.
25 In a sociological explanation, personal values
are more powerful than authority.
26 Milgram's experiment solves an important
question in sociobiology.
READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40,
which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.
The Truth About The Environment
For many
environmentalists, the world seems to be getting worse. They have developed a
hit-list of our main fears: that natural resources are running out; that the
population is ever growing, leaving less and less to eat; that species are
becoming extinct in vast numbers, and that the planet's air and water are
becoming ever more polluted.
But
a quick look at the facts shows a different picture. First, energy and other
natural resources have become more abundant, not less so, since the book 'The
Limits to Growth' was published in 1972 by a group of scientists. Second, more
food is now produced per head of the world's population than at any time in
history. Fewer people are starving. Third, although species are indeed becoming
extinct, only about 0.7% of them are expected to disappear in the next 50
years, not 25-50%, as has so often been predicted. And finally, most forms of
environmental pollution either appear to have been exaggerated, or are
transient - associated with the early phases of industrialization and therefore
best cured not by restricting economic growth, but by accelerating it. One form
of pollution - the release of greenhouse gases that causes global warming -
does appear to be a phenomenon that is going to extend well into our future,
but its total impact is unlikely to pose a devastating problem. A bigger
problem may well turn out to be an inappropriate response to it.
Yet
opinion polls suggest that many people nurture the belief that environmental
standards are declining and four factors seem to cause this disjunction between
perception and reality.
One
is the lopsidedness built into scientific research. Scientific funding goes
mainly to areas with many problems. That may be wise policy, but it will also
create an impression that many more potential problems exist than is the case.
Secondly,
environmental groups need to be noticed by the mass media. They also need to
keep the money rolling in. Understandably, perhaps, they sometimes overstate
their arguments. In 1997, for example, the World Wide Fund for Nature issued a
press release entitled: 'Two thirds of the world's forests lost forever'. The
truth turns out to be nearer 20%.
Though
these groups are run overwhelmingly by selfless folk, they nevertheless share
many of the characteristics of other lobby groups. That would matter less if
people applied the same degree of scepticism to environmental lobbying as they
do to lobby groups in other fields. A trade organization arguing for, say,
weaker pollution controls is instantly seen as self-interested. Yet a green
organization opposing such a weakening is seen as altruistic, even if an
impartial view of the controls in question might suggest they are doing more
harm than good.
A
third source of confusion is the attitude of the media. People are clearly more
curious about bad news than good. Newspapers and broadcasters are there to
provide what the public wants. That, however, can lead to significant
distortions of perception. An example was America's encounter with EI Nino in
1997 and 1998. This climatic phenomenon was accused of wrecking tourism,
causing allergies, melting the ski-slopes and causing 22 deaths. However,
according to an article in the Bulletin of the American
Meteorological Society, the damage it did was estimated at US$4 billion but
the benefits amounted to some US$19 billion. These came from higher winter
temperatures (which saved an estimated 850 lives, reduced heating costs and
diminished spring floods caused by meltwaters).
The
fourth factor is poor individual perception. People worry that the endless rise
in the amount of stuff everyone throws away will cause the world to run out of
places to dispose of waste. Yet, even if America's trash output continues to
rise as it has done in the past, and even if the American population doubles by
2100, all the rubbish America produces through the entire 21st century will
still take up only one-12,000th of the area of the entire United States.
So
what of global warming? As we know, carbon dioxide emissions are causing the
planet to warm. The best estimates are that the temperatures will rise by 2-3°C
in this century, causing considerable problems, at a total cost of US$5,000
billion.
Despite
the intuition that something drastic needs to be done about such a costly
problem, economic analyses clearly show it will be far more expensive to cut
carbon dioxide emissions radically than to pay the costs of adaptation to the
increased temperatures. A model by one of the main authors of the United Nations
Climate Change Panel shows how an expected temperature increase of 2.1 degrees
in 2100 would only be diminished to an increase of 1.9 degrees. Or to put it
another way, the temperature increase that the planet would have experienced in
2094 would be postponed to 2100.
So
this does not prevent global warming, but merely buys the world six years. Yet
the cost of reducing carbon dioxide emissions, for the United States alone,
will be higher than the cost of solving the world's single, most pressing health
problem: providing universal access to clean drinking water and sanitat10n.
Such measures would avoid 2 million deaths every year, and prevent half a
billion people from becoming seriously ill.
It
is crucial that we look at the facts if we want to make the best possible
decisions for the future. It may be costly to be overly optimistic - but more
costly still to be too pessimistic.
Questions 27-32
Do the following statements agree
with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3?
In boxes 27-32 on your answer
sheet, write
YES if
the statement agrees with the writer's claims
NO if
the statement contradicts the writer's claims
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks
about this
27 Environmentalists
take a pessimistic view of the world for a number of reasons.
28 Data
on the Earth's natural resources has only been collected since 1972.
29 The
number of starving people in the world has increased in recent years.
30 Extinct
species are being replaced by new species.
31 Some
pollution problems have been correctly linked to industrialization.
32 It
would be best to attempt to slow down economic growth.
Questions 33-37
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or
D.
Write your answers in boxes 33-37 on your answer
sheet.
33 What
aspect of scientific research does the writer express concern about in
paragraph 4?
A the need to produce results
B the lack of financial support
C the selection of areas to research
D the desire to solve every research problem
34 The
writer quotes from the Worldwide Fund for Nature to illustrate how
A influential the mass media can be.
B effective environmental groups can be.
C the mass media can help groups raise funds.
D environmental groups can exaggerate their
claims.
35 What
is the writer's main point about lobby groups in paragraph 6?
A Some are more active than others.
B Some are better organized than others.
C Some receive more criticism than others.
D Some support more important issues than
others.
36 The
writer suggests that newspapers print items that are intended to
A educate readers.
B meets their readers' expectations.
C encourages feedback from readers.
D misleads readers.
37 What
does the writer say about America's waste problem?
A It will increase in line with population growth.
B It is not as important as we have been led
to believe.
C It has been reduced through public awareness
of the issues.
D It is only significant in certain areas of
the country.
Questions 38-40
Complete the summary with the list of
words A-I below.
Write the correct letter A-I in boxes
38-40 on your answer sheet.
GLOBAL WARMING
The writer admits that global warming
is a 38 ……………. challenge, but says that it will not have a catastrophic impact
on our future, if we deal with it in the 39 ……………. way. If we try to
reduce the levels of greenhouse gases, he believes that it would only have a
minimal impact on rising temperatures. He feels it would be better to spend
money on the more 40 ……………. health problem of providing the world's
population with clean drinking water.
A unrealistic B agreed C expensive D right
E long-term F usual G surprising H personal
I urgent
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