PASSWORD AT THE LAST OF THIS PAGE
IELTS GENERAL READING
TEST 1
Section 1
Read the text below and answer questions 1-7.
Roads for people
– Help create a National
Cycle Network
The
figures speak for themselves. Over 20 million cars are registered in Britain
and road traffic is projected to at least double by the year 2025. Twice as
much traffic on your roads… Imagine it! Yet many more people would
choose to make their shorter
journeys by cycle-if
only the road conditions
felt safe. Now, an answer to this problem is being created.
THE
5000-MILE NATIONAL CYCLE NETWORK
For fifteen years, Sustrans-it stands for ‘sustainable
transport’-has been building traffic-free routes for cyclists and walkers,
often through the heart of towns and cities. Several
hundred miles are now completed, using disused railway
lines, canal towpaths, riversides and unused land.
As a civil engineering charity, we work in partnership with local authorities and landowners. We are
now promoting a true national network, composed of traffic-free paths, quiet
country roads, on- road cycle lanes and protected crossings.
Safe cycling
networks already exist in many parts of Europe-including Denmark, Germany,
Switzerland and the Netherlands. Europeans
are often astonished at tire road dangers we put up with here.
A
Danish cyclist is ten times less likely to be killed or seriously injured-per
mile cycled-than a cyclist in Britain. Extensive
national and local cycle routes
there are supported
by slower traffic
systems on surrounding roads.
A national
cycle network for Britain can help transform
local transport for the twenty-first century. With your help, it really is achievable! Make a
donation now!
Questions 1 and 2
Answer the questions by choosing the appropriate letters
A-D and writing them in boxes 1-2 on
your answer sheet.
1. Sustrans is
A a local authority
B a construction company
C a civil engineering charity
D a cycle network
2. How many cars are expected to be on Britain’s roads in 2025?
A one million
B more than 40 million
C exactly 40 million
D twice as much traffic
Questions 3-7
Answer the questions using
NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the text for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 3-7.
3. How many miles of the network
have already been completed?
4. At what are other European cyclists
surprised that British
cyclists accept?
5. In addition
to cycle networks,
what does Denmark
have to protect
cyclists?
6. How can people help create a national cycle
network in Britain?
7. Apart from cyclists, who benefits from the work of Sustrans?
Read the text below and answer
questions 8-14.
Roads – The Facts
In 1994 the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution described ‘the unrelenting growth of transport’
as ‘possibly the greatest environmental threat facing the UK’.
The Department of Transport predicts
a doubling of traffic on 1988 levels by the year 2025. The
Countryside Commission has warned that traffic through country areas may treble
by then.
Vehicle exhaust
is the major cause of urban air pollution. World Health Organization limits are regularly exceeded in most UK cities.
1 in 7 children
suffers from asthma,
thought to be exacerbated by traffic fumes.
Over 1500 wildlife sites including ancient
woodlands and sites of special
scientific interest are still
threatened by road building.
Four times as many junior-age children are driven
to school in Britain as in Germany,
because of road dangers. In
Holland 60 per cent of children cycle to school-compared with only 2 per cent here.
The National Cycle Network will:
• Cater for all users-commuters, school children, shoppers,
family groups.
•
Run
right through the middle of most major towns and cities, enabling
over 20 million
people to ride to their
nearest town centre within 10 minutes!
• Cost the equivalent of just a few weeks
of the current national roads program.
•
Be
professionally designed and engineered, in cooperation with local authorities and landowners, to
create high quality routes.
With your help we can build a network
of commuter and leisure paths for a safer, healthier future.
Questions 8-14
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage? In the boxes
8-14 on your answer sheet
write:
TRUE if the statement
is true
FALSE if the statement
is false
NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage
8. There might be three times as many cars in rural areas in 2025.
9. The levels of air pollution in British cities are often higher than the standards
set by the World Health
Organization.
10.
More
German children go to school
by car than British children.
11. It is believed that pollution from vehicles can make some children’s illnesses worse.
12. Most of the national
cycle network will be in country areas.
13. Most towns and cities
will be only 10 minutes
ride away from the national
cycle network.
14. The national
cycle network will cost the same as the national
roads program.
St. Trinlan’s College
Section 2
Read the text below and answer questions 15-20.
What applicants usually
want to know-the questions we are most commonly asked.
А You can either
phone for an interview or complete the attached form indicating which course you would like to take and return it to us
by post, enclosing the registration fee.
B If you have difficulty in deciding which
program would most effectively meet your needs,
our academic counsellors can help you.
C Our tuition fees are listed on the back of the enrollment form.
D All long courses follow
the academic year, but with short
courses this is not possible. Full details of term
dates will be mailed to you on request.
E Our overseas student
office will assist
with immigration procedures and can also give advice
on accommodation and other matters. We do everything we can to help overseas
students settle in.
F Most of our
courses include curriculum vitae writing and interview skills. Through our extensive contacts in the local business community
we are often in a position to help graduates
find suitable employment.
G The college
is a friendly place and has a
pleasant, relaxed atmosphere. The few regulations that arc enforced are mainly a matter of common sense,
concerned with respecting the rights of fellow
students and staff. For students studying practical, job training courses, it
is compulsory to wear clothing which is appropriate to their workplace.
Questions 15-20
The text about St. Trinlan’s
College gives the answers to questions commonly
asked by the college’s
applicants. There are seven sections A-G.
Choose the most suitable
question-heading for each section from the list below. Write the
appropriate numbers (i-x) in the correct boxes on your answer sheet.
Note: There are more question-headings than sections so you will not use all of them.
Example Answer: Section A vi
15.
Section B
16. Section C
17. Section D
18. Section E
19. Section F
20. Section G
List of headings
i. Which course
should I apply
for?
ii. Are the courses full-time
or part-time?
iii. Are there
a lot of rules?
iv. How much does it
cost?
v. What level of education
do I need to enter
the college?
vi. How can I
apply?
vii. Can the college help me to get a job?
viii. When do courses start?
ix. What assistance is given to foreign students?
Read the text below and answer questions 21-27.
Terms and conditions of enrollments
Full-fee paying international students are required
to:
• study on a full-time
basis
•
comply with the visa regulation that
at least 90 per cent attendance must be maintained. The college is required to notify the immigration authorities of unsatisfactory attendance which may result in
the termination of the visa
•
have
adequate English language
proficiency for the selected mainstream course or undertake to do an ELICOS course first
• have adequate
financial means to do the course participate in orientation activities.
Note: You are advised
to read and understand the conditions set out in the government acceptance advice form when you sign the declaration because you
are required to comply with those conditions as an international student in
Australia.
FEES
Application fees
The non-refundable application fee is $100.
Course fees
1. The course fees set for 1997/1998
are:
Certificate
Courses AS 10 200 per year
Advanced Certificate Courses
A$ 10 200 per year Associated Diploma Courses AS 10 200
per year ELICOS A$ 5 950 20 weeks
VCE A$ 5 600 20 weeks
2. The annual
course fee includes
die full cost of tuition
and educational services
provided by the college. Textbooks, equipment, tools, stationery and any other
individual requirements that you may need in your studies are your
responsibility.
3. Fee payment
instructions are notified
in the letter of provisional acceptance and fees must be paid by the date specified in the
letter
4. All tuition
fees must be paid by bankdraft and made payable
to King George’s College of
TAPE.
REFUND POLICY
Application fees
a) The application fee will not be refunded
if the application is withdrawn after an offer
of place has been made. b) Application fees will
be refunded if the application is rejected or the course is cancelled by the
college.
Course fees
If a student
withdraws after payment
of fees, the following will apply:
a) If notice
of withdrawal is received by the college
less than two (2) weeks before the course
commences, no refund is given.
b) If written
notice of withdrawal is given to the college
less than four (4) weeks but more than two
(2) weeks before the commencement of the course,
50 per cent of the course fee will be refunded.
c) If written
notice of withdrawal is received by the college
at least (4) weeks before
the course commences. 80 per
cent of the tuition fee will be refunded.
All notices of
withdrawal must be in writing and addressed to the Manager, International
Student Programs. The notice
of withdrawal should
state name, course,
date of commencement and reason for withdrawal.
TRANSFER TO ANOTHER INSTITUTION
Applications
for transfer must be made in writing to International Student Programs stating
reasons, and a copy of the acceptance letter from the receiving institution must be attached.
Fees to be transferred will be subject to the refund policy,
Note: The college will not be responsible for any monies made payable
to any agent.
Questions 21-27
The
following form gives information on the terms and conditions of enrollment of a
college. Answer these questions
in NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS. Write your answers in boxes 21 –
27.
21. Who does the college
inform if a student docs not attend
classes?
22. If a student cannot
speak English well, what does he or she have to agree to do first?
23. Who provides
pens, pencils, books and other equipment?
24. Course fees cannot be paid in cash. How do course fees have to be paid?
25. What happens
to an application fee if the course
is cancelled?
26. To obtain
the maximum refund,
what is the shortest notice
of withdrawal a student can give?
27.
If
a student wants to change
courses and go to a different college,
to whom must Ire or she
apply?
Section 3
The Panda’s
Last Chance
Chinese authorities have devised an ambitious plan to save the giant panda from the ravages
of deforestation. Martin Williams assesses the creature’s chances of
avoiding extinction.
A The giant panda,
the creature that has become a symbol of conservation, is facing extinction. The major reason is loss of habitat, which has continued despite
the establishment, since 1963, of 14 panda reserves. Deforestation, mainly earned out by farmers
clearing land to make way for fields
as they move higher into the mountains, has drastically contracted the
mammal’s range. The panda has disappeared from much of central and eastern China, and is now restricted to the
eastern flank of the Himalayas in Sichuan and Gansu provinces, and the Qinling
Mountains in Shanxi province.
Fewer than 1400 of the animals are believed to remain in the wild.
B Satellite imagery has shown the seriousness of the
situation; almost half of the panda’s habitat has been cut or degraded since
1975. Worse, the surviving panda population has also become fragmented; a combination of satellite imagery
and ground surveys reveals panda Islands in patches
of forest separated by cleared land.
The population of these
islands, ranging from fewer than ten to
more than 50 pandas, has become isolated because the animals are bath to cross
open areas. Just putting a road through panda habitat may be enough to split a
population in two
C
The minuscule size of
the panda populations worries conservationists. The smallest groups have too few animals to be viable,
and will inevitably die out. The larger populations may be viable
in the short term, but will be
susceptible to genetic defects as a result of inbreeding,
D In these
circumstances, a more traditional threat to pandas-the cycle of flowering and
subsequent withering of the bamboo that is their staple food-can become
literally species- threatening. The flowerings prompt pandas to move from one
area to another, thus preventing inbreeding in otherwise sedentary populations. In panda Islands,
however, bamboo flowering could prove catastrophic because the pandas are unable to
emigrate.
E The latest conservation management plan for the panda,
prepared by China’s
Ministry of Forestry and the World Wide Fund for
Nature, aims primarily to maintain panda habitats and to ensure that
populations are linked wherever possible. The plan will change some existing
reserve boundaries, establish 14 new reserves and protect or replant corridors
of forest between panda islands. Other measures include better control of poaching, which remains
a problem despite strict laws, as panda
skins fetch high prices; reducing the degradation of habitats outside reserves,
and reforestation.
F The plan is ambitious. Implementation will be expensive-Yuan 56.6 million (US$ 12.5 million)
will be needed for the development of the panda reserves- and will require
participation by individuals ranging from villagers to
government officials.
Questions 28-31
The passage The Panda’s Last Chance’ has 6 paragraphs labelled A-F. Which paragraphs contain
the following information? Write the appropriate letters A-F in boxes
28-31. You only need ONE letter for each answer. Note: You may use each letter
more than once.
Example Answer:
Where panda habitats
are located A
28. The separation of panda groups.
29. The panda’s
diet.
30. The illegal
killing of pandas.
31. Why pandas’
living areas have been reduced
Questions 32-33
There
are several problems affecting the panda. From the list below, choose 2 more
problems which are mentioned
in the reading passage. Write the appropriate numbers (vi) in boxes 32 and
33.
i pandas prefer to inbreed
ii panda
groups are getting too small Example: iii. panda habitats have shrunk
iv. pandas move to other
countries
v. more bamboo
is withering
vi. panda groups
are isolated
Questions 34-40
Below is a summary of the
reading passage ‘The Panda’s
Last Chance’. Complete the summary by choosing words from the list following
the summary. Write your answers in boxes 34-40. Note: There are more words than spaces so you will not use them all. You may
use any word more than once.
The survival of the giant
panda is being seriously threatened. Panda numbers have already seriously
(34)................. This is largely
because the overall
size of their
habitat has been reduced and
habitable areas arc now (35)................... from each other.
Two results are that pandas
are more
prone to genetic (36) …….. and are unable to
move around freely to follow the (37) ………………….. cycles of the bamboo that they cal. A new plan is aiming
to protect the existing panda
habitats and to (38) many of them. This plan also includes
reforestation and the creation of new
(39)...................... To succeed, everyone, including both the government and individuals, will have
to (40) …….
List of words
Survival Disconnected Dominated Decreased
Problems
Join Increased Growth Reserves Food Cooperate Disconnect
ANSWERS:
1. C
2. B
3. several hundred miles
4. (the) road dangers
5. slower traffic systems
6. by donating money/ make a decision
7. walkers
8. true
9. true
10. false
11. true
12. not given
13. false
14. false
15. i
16. iv
17. viii
18. ix
19. vii
20. iii
21. immigration authorities
22. on ELICOS course
23. the students
24. by bankdraft
25. it is refunded
26. over 4 weeks
27. international student programs
28. b
29. d
30. e
31. a
32. ii
33. vi
34. decreased
35. disconnected
36. problems
37. growth
38. join
39. reserves
40. cooperate
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