As well as making money, businesses also have social responsibilities. To what extent do you agree or disagree? | REAL EXAM IELTS WRITING TASK 2 CBT |

As well as making money, businesses also have social responsibilities. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

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💡 Ideas

✅ Agree (Social responsibility is important):

• Environmental protection – Businesses contribute to pollution and should reduce carbon footprints.

• Community development – Supporting local communities through donations, employment, and services.

• Ethical practices – Fair wages, safe working conditions, and no exploitation.

❌ Disagree (Profit should be priority):

• Economic survival – Small businesses may struggle financially and can't afford CSR activities.

• Responsibility of government – Public welfare should be managed by governments, not companies.

• Distraction from main goals – Focusing too much on social goals may reduce profitability.

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📚 Vocabulary & Collocations

Phrase	Use/Explanation
Corporate social responsibility	A company's duty towards society
Ethical business practices	Morally right behavior in business
Profit maximization	Goal of earning the highest possible profit
Environmental sustainability	Business actions that don’t harm the planet
Stakeholder interest	Concerns of anyone affected by the company
Community engagement	Involving local people in business activities
Reinvest in society	Use profits to benefit the community

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✅ Sample Answer 

It is often argued that companies should not only focus on generating profit, but also bear responsibility towards society. I strongly agree with this view, as businesses operate within communities and should contribute to environmental and social well-being alongside their financial goals.

Starting off with the reasons for my agreement, the primary one is that businesses have a direct impact on the environment and society. In other words, most industries contribute to pollution and resource depletion; therefore, it is their moral obligation to adopt sustainable practices such as reducing emissions and recycling waste. For instance, many multinational corporations have started using renewable energy sources to lower their carbon footprints. Besides this, companies can support local communities by providing jobs, funding educational programs, or offering healthcare services. These actions not only uplift the underprivileged but also build a positive brand image for the business.

On the other hand, it can be argued that the main objective of a business is to generate revenue. While this is true to an extent, focusing solely on profit may lead to unethical practices such as underpaying employees or ignoring safety standards. If businesses reinvest part of their earnings into society, they not only gain long-term trust from stakeholders but also build a sustainable customer base. For example, companies like TATA in India are widely respected for balancing profitability with philanthropy and community welfare. Therefore, integrating social responsibility into business operations creates a win-win situation.

To conclude, I firmly believe that while profit is essential for any business, fulfilling social responsibilities is equally important. Ethical and community-focused practices not only benefit society but also lead to long-term success and reputation for companies.

The international community must act immediately to ensure all nations reduce the consumption of fossil fuel (gas and oil). To what extent do you agree or disagree? | REAL EXAM IELTS WRITING TASK 2 CBT HYDRABAD

 Question:

The international community must act immediately to ensure all nations reduce the consumption of fossil fuel (gas and oil).
To what extent do you agree or disagree?

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💡 Ideas (Agree side):

• Climate Change Control: Excessive use of fossil fuels is a major cause of global warming, sea level rise, and extreme weather events.

• Sustainable Alternatives: Encouraging the use of renewable energy (solar, wind) can reduce dependency on gas and oil.

• Global Unity Is Essential: Climate change knows no borders; all nations must contribute equally.

• Example: Countries like Norway have made strong shifts toward green energy and set an example for others.

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📚 Useful Vocabulary & Collocations:

Vocabulary / Phrase	Meaning / Use
Fossil fuel consumption	Use of non-renewable sources like coal, oil, gas
Global warming	Rise in Earth’s average temperature
Carbon emissions	Release of CO₂ into the atmosphere
Sustainable energy	Energy from renewable sources
International cooperation	Collaboration among countries
Environmental degradation	Damage to the natural environment
Urgent action	Immediate steps needed to solve a crisis
Clean energy transition	Shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy

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✅ Sample Answer (Band 8+)

It is increasingly believed that the global community must urgently work together to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels such as gas and oil. I strongly agree with this notion, as the overuse of these non-renewable resources has led to severe environmental consequences and threatens the sustainability of future generations.

Starting off with the reasons for my agreement, the primary concern is the environmental damage caused by fossil fuel consumption. In other words, burning oil, coal, and gas releases a vast amount of carbon dioxide, which contributes to global warming and extreme weather patterns. If international leaders do not take immediate action, this could result in rising sea levels, food insecurity, and the loss of biodiversity. For example, the melting of polar ice caps in the Arctic is a direct result of increased global temperatures driven by carbon emissions. Hence, by reducing dependence on fossil fuels, nations can collectively slow down climate change and protect the environment.

Besides this, promoting clean energy alternatives such as solar, wind, and hydropower can benefit both the economy and public health. If the global community provides financial and technological support to developing countries, they will be better equipped to adopt sustainable energy. This transition will not only reduce pollution-related diseases but also generate green jobs. For instance, countries like Germany and Sweden have invested heavily in renewable energy and have become global leaders in innovation and sustainability. Therefore, international cooperation is key to ensuring a cleaner, safer, and more equitable future for all.

To conclude, I firmly believe that urgent, coordinated action by the global community is essential to reduce fossil fuel consumption. Such efforts will significantly mitigate the adverse effects of climate change and accelerate the shift towards a more sustainable and healthier planet.

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The Adolescents | REAL EXAM IELTS READING PASSAGE | PAST EXAM IELTS READING PASSAGE WITH ANSWERS | REAL EXAM IELTS READING PASSAGES 2025 |

 Reading Practice

The Adolescents

A

The American Academy of Pediatrics recognizes three stages of adolescence. These are early, middle and late adolescence, and each has its own developmental tasks. Teenagers move through these tasks at their own speed depending on their physical development and hormone levels. Although these stages are common to all teenagers, each child will go through them in his or her own highly individual ways.

B

During the early years young people make the first attempts to leave the dependent, secure role of a child and to establish themselves as unique individuals, independent of their parents. Early adolescence is marked by rapid physical growth and maturation. The focus of adolescents’ self-concepts is thus often on their physical self and their evaluation of their physical acceptability. Early adolescence is also a period of intense conformity to peers. ‘Getting along,’ not being different, and being accepted seem somehow pressing to the early adolescent. The worst possibility, from the view of the early adolescent, is to be seen by peers as ‘different’.

C

Middle adolescence is marked by the emergence of new thinking skills. The intellectual world of the young person is suddenly greatly expanded. Their concerns about peers are more directed toward their opposite sexed peers. It is also during this period that the move to establish psychological independence from one’s parents accelerates. Delinquency behavior may emerge since parental views are no longer seen as absolutely correct by adolescents. Despite some delinquent behavior, middle adolescence is a period during which young people are oriented toward what is right and proper. They are developing a sense of behavioral maturity and learning to control their impulsiveness.

D

Late adolescence is marked by the final preparations for adult roles. The developmental demands of late adolescence often extend into the period that we think of as young adulthood. Late adolescents attempt to crystallize their vocational goals and to establish a sense of personal identity. Their needs for peer approval are diminished and they are largely psychologically independent from their parents. The shift to adulthood is nearly complete.

E

Some years ago, Professor Robert Havighurst of the University of Chicago proposed that stages in human development can best be thought of in terms of the developmental tasks that are part of the normal transition. He identified eleven developmental tasks associated with the adolescent transition. One developmental task an adolescent needs to achieve is to adjust to a new physical sense of self. At no other time since birth does an individual undergo such rapid and profound physical changes as during early adolescence. Puberty is marked by sudden rapid growth in height and weight. Also, the young person experiences the emergence and accentuation of those physical traits that make him or her a boy or girl. The effect of this rapid change is that young adolescent often becomes focused on his or her body.

F

Before adolescence, children’s thinking is dominated by a need to have a concrete example for any problem that they solve. Their thinking is constrained to what is real and physical. During adolescence, young people begin to recognize and understand abstractions. The adolescent must adjust to increased cognitive demands at school. Adults see high school in part as a place where adolescents prepare for adult roles and responsibilities and in part as preparatory for further education. School curricula are frequently dominated by the inclusion of more abstract, demanding material, regardless of whether the adolescents have achieved formal thought. Since not all adolescents make the intellectual transition at the same rate, demands for abstract thinking prior to achievement of that ability may be frustrating.

G

During adolescence, as teens develop increasingly complex knowledge systems and a sense of self, they also adopt an integrated set of values and morals. During the early stages of moral development, parents provide their child with a structured set of rules of what is right and wrong, what is acceptable and unacceptable. Eventually, the adolescent must assess the parents’ values as they come into conflict with values expressed by peers and other segments of society. To reconcile differences, the adolescent restructures those beliefs into a personal ideology.

H

The adolescent must develop expanded verbal skills. As adolescents mature intellectually, as they face increased school demands, and as they prepare for adult roles, they must develop new verbal skills to accommodate more complex concepts and tasks. Their limited language of childhood is no longer adequate. Adolescents may appear less competent because of their inability to express themselves meaningfully.

I

The adolescent must establish emotional and psychological independence from his or her parents. Childhood is marked by a strong dependence on one’s parents. Adolescents may yearn to keep that safe, secure, supportive, dependent relationship. Yet, to be an adult implies a sense of independence, of autonomy, of being one’s own person. Adolescents may vacillate between their desire for dependence and their need to be independent. In an attempt to assert their need for independence and individuality, adolescents may respond with what appears to be hostility and lack of cooperation.

J

Adolescents do not progress through these multiple developmental tasks separately. At any given time, adolescents may be dealing with several. Further, the centrality of specific developmental tasks varies with early, middle, and late periods of the transition.

Questions 1-6

Match the following characteristics with the correct stages of the adolescent.

Write the correct letter, A, B or C, in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.

A early adolescence

B middle adolescence

C later adolescence

1..................... interested in the opposite sex

2..................... exposure to danger

3..................... the same as others

4..................... beginning to form individual thinking without family context

5..................... less need the approval of friends

6..................... intellectual booming

Questions 7-10

Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-F, below.

Write the correct letters, A-F, in boxes 7-10 on your answer sheet.

7..................... One of Havighurst’s research

8..................... High School Courses

9..................... Adolescence is a time when young people

10..................... The developmental speed of thinking patterns

List of the statements

A form personal identity with a set of morals and values

B develops a table and productive peer relationships

C are designed to be more challenging than some can accept

D varies from people to people

E focuses on creating a self-image

F become an extension of their parents

Questions 11-13

Access http://mini-ielts.com for more practices 3

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?

In boxes 11-13 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

11..................... The adolescent lacks the ability to think abstractly.

12..................... Adolescents may have a deficit in their language ability.

13..................... The adolescent experiences a transition from reliance on his parents to

independence.

Solution:

1. B 8. C

2. A 9. A

3. A 10. D

4. A 11. FALSE

5. C 12. TRUE

6. B 13. TRUE

7. E

PASSWORD; 17MAY2025

Voynich Manuscript reading answers | REAL EXAM IELTS READING PASSAGE | PAST EXAM IELTS READING PASSAGE WITH ANSWERS | REAL EXAM IELTS READING PASSAGES 2025 |

 

Passage

Check out the given passage for a Voynich Manuscript reading answers with location, it helps you to get some important keywords to answer the questions. 

Voynich Manuscript reading answers

1. The Starkly modern Beinecke Library at Yale University is home to some of the most valuable books in the world first folios of Shakespeare, Gutenberg Bibles and manuscripts from the early Middle Ages, Yet the library’s most controversial possession is an unprepossessing vellum manuscript about the size of hardback book, containing 240-odd pages of drawings and text of unknown age and authorship. Catalogued as MS408, the manuscript would attract little attention were it not for the fact that the drawings hint at esoteric knowledge, while the text seems to be some sort of code- one that no-one has been able to break. It’s known to scholars as the voynich manuscript, after the American book dealer Wilfrid Voynich, who bought the manuscript from a Jesuit college in Italy in 1912. 
2. Over the years, the manuscript has attracted the attention of everyone from amateur dabblers to top codebreakers, all determined to succeed where countless others have failed. Academic research papers, books and websites are devoted to making sense of the contents of the manuscript. Which are freely available to all ‘Most other mysteries involve secondhand reports.’ says Dr Gordon Rugg of Keele University, a leading Voynich expert. But this is one that you can see for yourself. 
3. It is certainly strange: page after page of drawings of weird plants, astrological symbolism and human figures, accompanied by a script that looks like some form of shorthand. What does it say and what are the drawings about? Voynich himself believed that the manuscript was the work of the 13th century English monk Roger Bacon, famed for his knowledge of alchemy, philosophy and science. In 1921 Voynich’s view that Bacon was the writer appeared to win support from the work of william Newbold, professor of philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, who claimed to have found the key to the cipher system used by Bacon. According to Newbold, the manuscript proved that Bacon had access to microscopes centuries before they were supposedly first invented. They claim that this mediaeval monk had observed living cells created a sensation. It soon became clear. However, that Newbold had fallen victim to wishful thinking. Other scholars showed that his ‘decoding’ methods produced a host of possible interpretations. The Voynich manuscript has continued to defy the efforts of world-class experts. In 1944, a team was assembled to tackle the mystery, led by William Friedman, the renowned American codebreaker. They began with the most basic code breaking task: analysing the relative frequencies of the characters making up the test, looking for signs of an underlying structure. Yet Friedman’s team soon found themselves in deep water. The precise size of the ‘alphabet’ of the Voynich manuscript was unclear: it’s possible to make out more than 70 distinct symbols among the 170,000-character text. Furthermore, Friedman discovered that some words and phrases appeared more often than expected in a standard language, casting doubt on claims that the manuscript concealed a real language, as encryption typically reduces word frequencies. 
4. Friedman concluded that the most plausible resolution of this paradox was that “Voynichese is some sort of specially created artificial language, whose words are devised from concepts, rather than linguistics. So, could the Voynich manuscript be the earliest known example of an artificial language? Friedman’s hypothesis commands respect because of the lifetime of crypt analytical expertise he brought to bear,’ says Rob Churchill, co- author of the Voynich Manuscript, that still leaves a host of questions unanswered, however, such as the identity of the author and the meaning of the bizarre drawings. ‘It does little to advance our understanding of the manuscript as a whole,’ says Churchill. Even though Friedman was working more than 60 years ago, he suspected that major insights would come reality that the device that had already transformed codebreaking: the computer. In this he was right-it is now the key tool for uncovering clues about the pleasure from manuscript’s language. 
5. The insights so far have been perplexing. For example, in 2001 another leading Voynich scholar, Dr Gabriel Landin of Birmingham University in the UK, published the results of his study of the manuscript using a pattern-detecting method called spectral analysis. This revealed evidence that the manuscript contains genuine words, rather than random nonsense, consistent with the existence of some underlying natural language. Yrt the following year, Voynich expert Ren Zandbergen of the European SPace Agency in Darmstadt, Germany showed that the entropy of the text (a measure of the rate of transfer of information was consistent with Friedman’s suspicions that an artificial language had been used. 
6. Many are convinced that the Voynich manuscript isn’t a hoax. For how could a medieval hoaxer create so many telltale signs of a message from random nonsense? Yet even this has been challenged in new research by Rugg. 
7. Using a system, first published by the Italian mathematician Girolama Cardano in 1150 in which a specially constructed grille issued to pick out symbols from a table, Rugg found he could readily generate text with many of the basic traits of the Voynich manuscript Publishing his results in 2004 Rugg stresses that he hadn’t set out to prove the manuscript. Publishing his results in that it’s feasible to hoax something this complex in a few months, he says. Inevitably, others beg to differ. Some scholars, such as Zandbergen, still suspect the text has genuine meaning, though believe it may never be decipherable. Others, such as Churchill, have suggested that the sheer weirdness of the illustrations and text hint at an author who had lost touch with reality. What is clear is that the book-sized manuscript kept under lock and key at Yale University has none of its fascination. “Many derive great intellectual pleasure from solving puzzles,’ says Rugg. The Voynich manuscript is as challenging a puzzle as anyone could ask for.

Questions

Questions 27-30

• Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading passage 3?
• In boxes 27-30 on your answer sheet, write

27. It is uncertain when the Voynich manuscript was written.
28. Wilfrid Voynich donated the manuscript to the Beinecke LIbrary.
29. Interest in the Voynich manuscript extends beyond that of academics and professional codebreakers. 
30. The text of the Voynich manuscript contains just under 70 symbols.

Questions 31-34

• Look at the following statements (questions 31-34) and the list of people below.
• Match each statement with the correct person A-H
• Write the correct letter A-H in boxes 31-34 on your answers sheet.

31. The number of times that some words occur make it unlikely that the manuscript is based on an authentic language.
32. Unlike some other similar objects of fascination, people can gain direct access to the Voynich manuscript. 
33. The person who wrote the manuscript may not have been entirely sane.
34. It is likely that the author of the manuscript is the same person as suggested by Wilfrid Voynuch. 

List of people

1. Gordon Rugg
2. Roger Bacon
3. William Newbold
4. William Friedman
5. Rob Churchill
6. Gabriel Landini
7. Ren Zandbergen
8. Girolamo Cardano

Questions 35-39

• Choose no more than two words from the passage for each answer.
• Write your answers in boxes 35-39 on your answer sheet

Voynich Researchers

William Newbold believed that the author of the Voynich manuscript had been able to look at cells through a 35_______. Other researchers later demonstrated that there were flaws in his argument. William Friedman concluded that the manuscript was written in an artificial language that was based on 36_______. He couldn’t find out the meaning of this language but he believed that the 37_________ would continue to bring advances in code breaking.
Dr Gabriel Landini used a system known as 38__________ in his research, and claims to have demonstrated the presence of genuine words. 
Dr Gordon Rugg’s system involved a grille that made it possible to quickly select symbols that appeared in a 39_________. Rugg’s conclusion was that the manuscript lacked genuine meaning. 

Question 40

• Choose the correct letter A,B, C or D
• Write the correct letter in box 40 on your answer sheet.

40. The writer’s main aim in this passage is to

1. Explain the meaning of the manuscript
2. Determine the true identity of the manuscript’s author
3. Describe the numerous attempts to decode the manuscript
4. Identify which research into the manuscript has had the most media coverage.
   

27. True
28. Not given
29. True
30. False
31. D
32. A
33. E
34. C
35. Microscope
36. Concepts
37. Computer
38. Spectral analysis
39. Table
40. C




Password: PASSAGE3

Bodie: America's most famous ghost town | REAL EXAM IELTS READING PASSAGE | PAST EXAM IELTS READING PASSAGE WITH ANSWERS | REAL EXAM IELTS READING PASSAGES 2025 |

 Reading Practice

Bodie: America's most famous ghost town

If you peek inside on of the broken- down buildings in Bodie, California, you might see dust- covered furniture an old muffin pan, rusty tins, and broken kerosene lamps or a fully stocked general store with original wooden boxes and shelves with tin cans Situated in a sagebrush- covered valley in the eastern foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range the old goldmining town, once busy with life began in the 1870s, when prospective miners arrived in the town in hopes of finding gold and becoming wealthy. By the 1940s, the golds was gone and the last mine closed. Today not many structures remain in Bodie, there is about 20 percent of the number that stood in the 1870a, when the town had up to 8.000 inhabitants.

In the 1870s, thirty mines were built and began producing large pieces of gold in large quantities. The standard Company was one of the first factories in American to extract the remaining traces of gold using electricity. Chemical processing was done in two stages. In the first stage, workers washed ground up ore over copper sheets covered with goldgrabbing mercury, then they heated in to release and condense the mercury, and turned the melted mixture into the shape of golf bars. In a second stage devised to obtain any remaining gold and silver particles, the one, now the consistency of sand was soaked in watered- down potassium cyanide. This drew the metals out into a form that could be trapped by trays containing small pieces of zine. This process went on for about 70 years, until the gold mines dried up.

When the California state Parks Department took over Bodie in 1962, it began a program of “arrested decay,’ maintaining the run- down structures just as they appeared at the time the department acquired the town.

According to Charley Spiller, a Bodie maintenance mechanic, the greatest enemies of preservation are wind, which can gust up to 100 miles an hour on nearby mountains, and snow, which average 13 feet a year. When snow gets into a building and sits and.... Into the floors, the condition of the floors gets worse, and they often rot. Currently, a team of three or four workers spends six months of each year. Strengthening walls, repairing roofs, and replacing smashed windows. Spiller and his team rebuild walls using pine similar to the native Jeffrey pine that was originally used without constant attention, most houses would fall apart. Nearby towns similar to Bodie have already disappeared because, for one reason or another, they weren’t maintained.

While the staff work to preserve the site’s empty look, a variety of natural life lives on in the remains of the town. California ground squirrels tunnel into the shrub- covered earth, feeding on meadow grass and bitterbrush. Coyotes- and from time to time a mountain lion, bobcat, or bear- amble through the town. As people left their homes in Bodies and no one else moved in, the houses became popular havens for species that thrive in the empty places, such as deer, mice, snakes, and lizards. Trillions of microbes, life forms invisible to the human eye, also live in the soil, some of which can consume the toxic mercury and cyanide by- products of mining. One microbial ecologist found that deserts, like the one in Bodie, contain up to twice as many bacterial species, roughly 10,000 per 10 square meters, as do acidic rainforest soils. The deserts of the American West, where thousands of ghost towns stand, are therefore surprisingly full of life.

It is the life that left Bodies, however, that most interests the tourists who visit.’ Ghost towns like Bodie, 1 cultural geographer Dydia DeLyser explains,1 are a powerful draw because they are perceived as authentic- actual abandoned towns presented more or less as they were left, and therefore as they once were Delyser says that visitors examine their originality, asking questions like’ was all this stuff really just left here? Or “was it all set up to make it look like a ghost town? If would be a mistake, Delyser says, for anyone to think that the plates on the table or other items at Bodie were left behind in a rush to escape.

Questions 1-7

Complete the notes below.

Choose ONE WORD AND/ OR A NUMBER from the Passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet.

Bodie’s past

About Bodie

-Located in a 1..................... in the Sierra Nevada.

-In the 1870s attracted people who wanted to be 2..................... in order to get rich.

-Saw the end of gold production in the 1940s.

-Now has about 3..................... Of the original buildings.

Gold mining and milling

-Large- scale production of gold

-Extraction of smaller amounts of gold required 4.....................

-Extraction by chemical processing involved:

-First stage:

-Ore was rinsed over mercury- covered sheets of 5.....................

-Melted mixture was formed into bars

-Second stage (to filter any leftover gold or silver particles):

-Ore with texture like 6..................... was immersed in potassium cyanide.

-Mentals were taken out and caught in containers filled with 7.....................

Question 8-13

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?

In boxed 8-13 on your answer sheet, wrire

TRUE if the statement agree with the information

FALE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this.

8..................... Wind and snow are the most difficult factors Bodie preservationists have to

deal with

9..................... The maintenance team in Bodie was unable to locate the Jeffrey pine the

settlers

10..................... Lack of funding has caused other towns like Bodie to disappear.

11..................... Many people left Bodie when wild animals started living in their homes.

12..................... Acidic rainforest soils tend to contain move microbes than the soil found in

places like.

13..................... Some tourists doubt that items in Bodie were really used by people who

lived there.

Solution:

1. valley 8. TRUE

2. miners 9. NOT GIVEN

3. 20 percent 10. NOT GIVEN

4. electricity 11. FALSE

5. copper 12. FALSE

6. sand 13. TRUE

7. zinc

PASSWORD: 24MAY2025