IELTS Reading 15-08-2019: Reading Passage 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 17–28, which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.

Do e-cigarettes make it harder to stop smoking?

  (A) People trying to give up smoking often use e-cigarettes to help wean themselves off tobacco. Most experts think they are safer than cigarettes but a surprising paper was published recently - it suggests that people who use e-cigarettes are less successful at giving up smoking than those who don't. "E-cigarettes WON'T help you quit," reported the Daily Mail. "Smokers using vapers are '28% less likely to ditch traditional cigarettes,'" read the paper's headline. The story was reported on many other websites around the world, including CBS: "Study: E-cigarettes don't help smokers quit," it said.
  (B) The study causing the fuss was written by researchers at the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California, and published in one of the Lancet's sister journals, Lancet Respiratory Medicine. It is a meta-analysis, which means the authors reviewed the academic literature already available on the topic. They sifted out the weaker papers - ones that didn't have control groups, for example - and were left with 20.
  (C) The conclusion? Smokers who use e-cigarettes have a 28% lower chance of quitting than smokers who don't use them, according to Prof Stanton Glantz, one of the authors. But while the conclusion is surprising, so is the number of academics who have criticised the paper. One was Ann McNeill, professor of tobacco addiction at Kings College London, whose own research is included in Glantz's analysis. "This review is not scientific," she wrote on the Science Media Centre website. "The information… about two studies that I co-authored is either inaccurate or misleading… I believe the findings should therefore be dismissed.
  (D) "I am concerned at the huge damage this publication may have - many more smokers may continue smoking and die if they take from this piece of work that all evidence suggests e-cigarettes do not help you quit smoking; that is not the case." Prof Peter Hajek, director of the Tobacco Dependence Research Unit at the Wolfson Institute also called the findings "grossly misleading".
  (E) The critics are making three main points. First, the definition of e-cigarettes is a bit loose. There are many different types - some look like cigarettes, others have tanks for the vaping liquid, some are disposable and other are multi-use. They all deliver different doses of nicotine. Many of the papers included in the analysis don't specify which type people are using, according to Linda Bauld, professor of health policy at the University of Stirling. Another point is that the studies vary in the way they measure how often people use e-cigarettes. "Some only assessed whether a person had ever tried an e-cigarette or if they had tried one recently, not whether they were using it regularly or frequently," Bauld says.
  (F) Even the paper's author admits it's possible that in some of the studies e-cigarettes may only have been used once, which he says would not be a good predictor of whether they had affected people's ability to stop smoking. And there is another problem. You might expect, if you were going to draw conclusions about how useful e-cigarettes are in helping people quit, to focus on studies looking at people who are trying to give up. Prof Robert West, who heads a team at University College London researching ways to help people stop smoking, says this analysis mashed together some very different studies - only some of which include people using e-cigarettes to help them quit.
  (G) "To mix them in with studies where you've got people using an e-cigarette and are not particularly trying to stop smoking is mixing apples and oranges," he says. Some of the studies track smokers who use e-cigarettes for other reasons - perhaps because smoking a cigarette in a bar or an office is illegal and they want a nicotine hit. "With the studies where people are using electronic cigarettes specifically in a quit attempt the evidence is consistent," says West, referring to two randomised control trials.
  (H) Both are quite small and one was funded by the e-cigarette industry. They took two groups of smokers, and gave one real e-cigarettes, and the other a placebo. The studies reach a broadly similar conclusion to a large, real-world study called the Smoking Toolkit run by West. West's investigation follows people in their daily lives and assesses how successful various methods of giving up smoking are - this includes nicotine patches, medicines and going cold turkey. These studies suggest that people using e-cigarettes to help them quit are 50% to 100% more successful than those who use no aids at all.
  (I) In his paper, Glantz acknowledges there are limitations to the research that he analysed. He agrees there are problems with the way the use of e-cigarettes is measured and accepts it's not clear which devices people are using. But he is sticking by his analysis because he believes he has taken these factors into account. The editor of Lancet Respiratory Medicine, Emma Grainger, defends the article too. She says she does not see a problem with the paper and that it has been through the normal peer-review process.

Reading Passage 2 has nine paragraphs, A–I.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A–I, in boxes 17–25 on your answer sheet.

17. Possible damage 
18. Shocking news 
19. Mix of different studies 
20. Misleading information 
21. Types of e-cigarettes 
22. A place where the controversial research was written 
23. The defence of the article 
24. A research by an e-cigarette industry 
25. The consistent evidence 

Questions 26–28

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write the correct letter in boxes 26–27 on your answer sheet.

26. New controversial research suggests that e-cigarettes:

1.  make it easier to quit smoking
2.  make it harder to quit smoking
3.  don't play a major role in quitting smoking
4.  the research doen't answer this question

27. Ann McNeill critisized the research because:

1.  the majority of other researches disagree with this review
2.  the definition of e-cigarettes is a bit loose
3.  some information is either inaccurate or misleading
4.  the analysis mashed together some very different studies

28. This article aims at:

1.  finding the truth about e-cigarettes, providing facts
2.  showing that the e-cigarettes are worthless
3.  promoting the use of e-cigarettes
4.  analyzing different scientific researches

ANSWERS
Each question correctly answered scores 1 mark. Correct spelling is needed in all answers.
Section 2

17. D
18. A
19. F
20. C
21. E
22. B
23. I
24. H
25. G
26. B
27. C
28. A

IELTS Reading 15-08-2019: Reading Passage 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1–16, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.

Why are Americans so angry?

Americans are generally known for having a positive outlook on life, but with the countdown for November's presidential election now well under way, polls show voters are angry. This may explain the success of non-mainstream candidates such as Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Bernie Sanders. But what is fuelling the frustration?
A CNN/ORC poll carried out in December 2015 suggests 69% of Americans are either "very angry" or "somewhat angry" about "the way things are going" in the US. And the same proportion - 69% - are angry because the political system "seems to only be working for the insiders with money and power, like those on Wall Street or in Washington," according to a NBC/Wall Street Journal poll from November. Many people are not only angry, they are angrier than they were a year ago, according to an NBC/Esquire survey last month - particularly Republicans (61%), somewhat white people (54%), but also 42% of Democrats, 43% of Latinos and 33% of African Americans.
Candidates have sensed the mood and are adopting the rhetoric. Donald Trump, who has arguably tapped into voters' frustration better than any other candidate, says he is "very, very angry" and will "gladly accept the mantle of anger" while rival Republican Ben Carson says he has encountered "many Americans who are discouraged and angry as they watch the American dream slipping away". Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders says: "I am angry and millions of Americans are angry," while Hillary Clinton says she "understands why people get angry". Here are five reasons why some voters feel the American dream is in tatters.
1. Economy
"The failure of the economy to deliver real progress to middle-class and working-class Americans over the past 15 years is the most fundamental source of public anger and disaffection in the US," says William Galston, an expert in governance studies at the Brookings Institution think tank. Although the country may have recovered from the recession - economic output has rebounded and unemployment rates have fallen from 10% in 2009 to 5% in 2015 - Americans are still feeling the pinch in their wallets. Household incomes have, generally speaking, been stagnant for 15 years. In 2014, the median household income was $53,657, according to the US Census Bureau - compared with $57,357 in 2007 and $57,843 in 1999 (adjusted for inflation). There is also a sense that many jobs are of lower quality and opportunity is dwindling, says Galston. "The search for explanations can very quickly degenerate into the identification of villains in American politics. On the left it is the billionaires, the banks, and Wall Street. On the right it is immigrants, other countries taking advantage of us and the international economy - they are two sides of the same political coin."
2. Immigration
America's demographics are changing - nearly 59 million immigrants have arrived in the US since 1965, not all of whom entered the country legally. Forty years ago, 84% of the American population was made up of non-Hispanic white people - by last year the figure was 62%, according to Pew Research. It projects this trend will continue, and by 2055 non-Hispanic white people will make up less than half the population. Pew expects them to account for only 46% of the population by 2065. By 2055, more Asians than any other ethnic group are expected to move to US.
"It's been an era of huge demographic, racial, cultural, religious and generational change," says Paul Taylor, author of The Next America. "While some celebrate these changes, others deplore them. Some older, whiter voters do not recognise the country they grew up in. There is a sense of alien tribes," he says.
The US currently has 11.3 million illegal immigrants. Migrants often become a target of anger, says Roberto Suro, an immigration expert at the University of Southern California. "There is a displacement of anxiety and they become the face of larger sources of tensions, such as terrorism, jobs and dissatisfaction. We saw that very clearly when Donald Trump switched from [complaining about] Mexicans to Muslims without skipping a beat after San Bernardino," he says, referring to the shooting in California in December that left 14 people dead.
3. Washington
"When asked if they trust the government, 89% of Republicans and 72% of Democrats say "only sometimes" or "never", according to Pew Research. Six out of 10 Americans think the government has too much power, a survey by Gallup suggests, while the government has been named as the top problem in the US for two years in a row - above issues such as the economy, jobs and immigration, according to the organisation.
The gridlock on Capitol Hill and the perceived impotence of elected officials has led to resentment among 20 to 30% of voters, says polling expert Karlyn Bowman, from the American Enterprise Institute. "People see politicians fighting and things not getting done - plus the responsibilities of Congress have grown significantly since the 1970s and there is simply more to criticise. People feel more distant from their government and sour on it," she says.
William Galston thinks part of the appeal of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders is down to frustration with what some see as a failing system. "So on the right you have someone who is running as a 'strong man', a Berlusconi and Putin, who will get things done, and on the left you have someone who is rejecting incrementalism and calling for a political revolution," he says.
Ted Cruz, who won the Republican caucuses in Iowa, is also running as an anti-establishment candidate. "Tonight is a victory for every American who's watched in dismay as career politicians in Washington in both parties refuse to listen and too often fail to keep their commitments to the people," he said on Monday night.
4. America's place in the world
America is used to being seen as a superpower but the number of Americans that think the US "stands above all other countries in the world" went from 38% in 2012 to 28% in 2014, Pew Research suggests. Seventy percent of Americans also think the US is losing respect internationally, according to a 2013 poll by the centre.
"For a country that is used to being on top of the world, the last 15 years haven't been great in terms of foreign policy. There's a feeling of having been at war since 9/11 that's never really gone away, a sense America doesn't know what it wants and that things aren't going our way," says Roberto Suro. The rise of China, the failure to defeat the Taliban and the slow progress in the fight against the so-called Islamic State group has contributed to the anxiety.
Americans are also more afraid of the prospect of terrorist attacks than at any time since 9/11, according to a New York Times/CBS poll. The American reaction to the San Bernardino shooting was different to the French reaction to the Paris attacks, says Galston. "Whereas the French rallied around the government, Americans rallied against it. There is an impression that the US government is failing in its most basic obligation to keep country and people safe."
5. Divided nation
Democrats and Republicans have become more ideologically polarised than ever. The typical (median), Republican is now more conservative in his or her core social, economic and political views than 94% of Democrats, compared with 70% in 1994, according to Pew Research. The median Democrat, meanwhile, is more liberal than 92% of Republicans, up from 64%.
The study also found that the share of Americans with a highly negative view of the opposing party has doubled, and that the animosity is so deep, many would be unhappy if a close relative married someone of a different political persuasion.
This polarisation makes reaching common ground on big issues such as immigration, healthcare and gun control more complicated. The deadlock is, in turn, angering another part of the electorate. "Despite this rise in polarisation in America, a large mass in the middle are pragmatic. They aren't totally disengaged, they don't want to see Washington gridlocked, but they roll their eyes at the nature of this discourse," says Paul Taylor. This group includes a lot of young people and tends to eschew party labels. "If they voted," he says, "they could play an important part of the election."

Questions 1-8
Complete the sentences below using ONLY ONE WORD for each answer.
1. Conducted poll in December says that most Americans are  with the way that hing are going.
2. Many people are angrier than a year ago, particulary .
3.The economical rates are decreasing, even though the country has recovered from the .
4. Billionaires and immigrants are the two sides of one political .
5. It is expected that the  will be the biggest ethnic group to move in the USA by the year 2055.
6. It has been an era of demographic, racial, cultural, religious and  change.
7. Roberto Suro says that migrants might become a  of anger.
8. Six to ten Americans believe that government has too much .


Questions 9-16
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?
In boxes 9-16 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

9. The Congress has more responsibilities now than in 1970s.            TRUE           FALSE           NOT GIVEN         
10. William Galston believes that the appeal of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders is growing bigger each day.           TRUE           FALSE           NOT GIVEN         
11. Ted Cruz is running as an anti-establishment candidate.            TRUE           FALSE           NOT GIVEN         
12. The number of Americans who think that the US "stands above all other countries in the world" increased by 10% in 2014 compared to 2012.            TRUE           FALSE           NOT GIVEN         
13. Since 9/11 there's been a feeling of war in America and it's still here.            TRUE           FALSE           NOT GIVEN         
14. The Americans had the same reaction to the San Bernardino shooting as French to the Paris attacks.            TRUE           FALSE           NOT GIVEN         
15. The ideological diversity between the Democrats and the Republicans is stronger than ever now.            TRUE           FALSE           NOT GIVEN         
16. The pragmatic mass consists of a lot of young people.            TRUE           FALSE           NOT GIVEN         

ANSWERS
Each question correctly answered scores 1 mark. Correct spelling is needed in all answers.
Section 1

1. Angry
2. Republicans
3. Recession
4. Coin
5. Asians
6. Generational
7. Target
8. Power
9. True
10. Not Given
11. True
12. False
13. True
14. False
15. True
16. True

IELTS Reading 14-08-2019: Reading Passage 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 29-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.

Penguins' anti-ice trick revealed

Scientists studying penguins’ feathers have revealed how the birds stay ice free when hopping in and out of below zero waters in the Antarctic. A combination of nano-sized pores and an extra water repelling preening oil the birds secrete is thought to give Antarctic penguins’ feathers superhydrophobic properties. Researchers in the US made the discovery using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) to study penguin feathers in extreme detail. Antarctic penguins live in one of Earth’s most extreme environments, facing temperatures that drop to -40C, winds with speeds of 40 metres per second and water that stays around -2.2C. But even in these sub-zero conditions, the birds manage to prevent ice from coating their feathers.
“They are an amazing species, living in extreme conditions, and great swimmers. Basically they are living engineering marvels,” says research team member Dr Pirouz Kavehpour, professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Birds’ feathers are known to have hydrophobic, or non-wetting, properties. But scientists from UCLA, University of Massachusetts Amherst and SeaWorld, wanted to know what makes Antarctic penguins’ feathers extra ice repelling.
“What we learn here is how penguins combine oil and nano-structures on the feathers to produce this effect to perfection,” explains Kavehpour. By analysing feathers from different penguin species, the researchers discovered Antarctic species the gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua) was more superhydrophobic compared with a species found in warmer climes – the Magellanic penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus) – whose breeding sites include Argentinian desert.
Gentoo penguins’ feathers contained tiny pores which trapped air, making the surface hydrophobic. And they were smothered with a special preening oil, produced by a gland near the base of the tail, with which the birds cover themselves. Together, these properties mean that in the wild, droplets of water on Antarctic penguins’ superhydrophobic feathers bead up on the surface like spheres – formations that, according to the team, could provide geometry that delays ice formation, since heat cannot easily flow out of the water if the droplet only has minimal contact with the surface of the feather.
“The shape of the droplet on the surface dictates the delay in freezing,” explains Kavehpour. The water droplets roll off the penguin's feathers before they have time to freeze, the researchers propose. Penguins living in the Antarctic are highly evolved to cope with harsh conditions: their short outer feathers overlap to make a thick protective layer over fluffier feathers which keep them warm. Under their skin, a thick layer of fat keeps them insulated. The flightless birds spend a lot of time in the sea and are extremely agile and graceful swimmers, appearing much more awkward on land.
Kavehpour was inspired to study Antarctic penguins’ feathers after watching the birds in a nature documentary: “I saw these birds moving in and out of water, splashing everywhere. Yet there is no single drop of frozen ice sticking to them,” he tells BBC Earth. His team now hopes its work could aid design of better man-made surfaces which minimise frost formation.
“I would love to see biomimicking of these surfaces for important applications, for example, de-icing of aircrafts,” says Kavehpour. Currently, airlines spend a lot of time and money using chemical de-icers on aeroplanes, as ice can alter the vehicles’ aerodynamic properties and can even cause them to crash.

Questions 29-33
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes 29-33 on your answer sheet.

29. Penguins stay ice free due to:

1.  A combination of nano-sized pores
2.  An extra water repelling preening oil
3.  A combination of nano-sized pores and an extra water repelling preening oil
4.  A combination of various factors

30. Antarctic penguins experience extreme weather conditions, including:

1.  Low temperature, that can drop to -40
2.  Severe wind, up to 40 metres per second
3.  Below zero water temperature
4.  All of the above

31. In line 5 words engineering marvels mean:

1.  That penguins are very intelligent
2.  That penguins are good swimmers
3.  That penguis are well prepared to living in severe conditions
4.  Both B and C

32. Penguis feather has everything, EXCEPT:

1.  Hydrophobic properties
2.  Extra ice repelling
3.  Soft structures
4.  Oil structures

33. The gentoo penguin:

1.  Is less superhydrophobic compared to the Magellanic penguin
2.  Has feathers that contain tiny pores
3.  Can't swim
4.  Lives in Argentinian desert

Questions 34-40
Complete the sentences below.
Write ONLY ONE WORD from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 34-40 on your answer sheet.

34. Formations like  could provide geometry that delays ice formation.
35. The delay in freezing is dictated by the  of the droplet.
36. Penguins in Antarctic are highly evolved to be able to cope with  conditions.
37. Penguins are insulated by a  layer of fat.
38. On the land, penguins appear much more  than in the sea.
39. The inspiration came to Kavehpour after watching a  about penguins.
40. Kavehpour would like to see  surfaces which minimise frost formation.

ANSWERS
Each question correctly answered scores 1 mark. Correct spelling is needed in all answers.
Section 3

29. C
30. D
31. D
32. C
33. B
34. Spheres
35. Shape
36. Harsh
37. Thick
38. Awkward
39. Documentary
40. Biomimicking

IELTS Reading 14-08-2019: Reading Passage 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 13-28, which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.

We know the city where HIV first emerged

It is easy to see why AIDS seemed so mysterious and frightening when US medics first encountered it 35 years ago. The condition robbed young, healthy people of their strong immune system, leaving them weak and vulnerable. And it seemed to come out of nowhere.
Today we know much more how and why HIV – the virus that leads to AIDS – has become a global pandemic. Unsurprisingly, sex workers unwittingly played a part. But no less important were the roles of trade, the collapse of colonialism, and 20th Century sociopolitical reform.
HIV did not really appear out of nowhere, of course. It probably began as a virus affecting monkeys and apes in west central Africa.
From there it jumped species into humans on several occasions, perhaps because people ate infected bushmeat. Some people carry a version of HIV closely related to that seen in sooty mangabey monkeys, for instance. But HIV that came from monkeys has not become a global problem.
We are more closely related to apes, like gorillas and chimpanzees, than we are to monkeys. But even when HIV has passed into human populations from these apes, it has not necessarily turned into a widespread health issue.
HIV originating from apes typically belongs to a type of virus called HIV-1. One is called HIV-1 group O, and human cases are largely confined to west Africa.
In fact, only one form of HIV has spread far and wide after jumping to humans. This version, which probably originated from chimpanzees, is called HIV-1 group M (for "major"). More than 90% of HIV infections belong in group M. Which raises an obvious question: what's so special about HIV-1 group M?
A study published in 2014 suggests a surprising answer: there might be nothing particularly special about group M.
It is not especially infectious, as you might expect. Instead, it seems that this form of HIV simply took advantage of events. "Ecological rather than evolutionary factors drove its rapid spread," says Nuno Faria at the University of Oxford in the UK.
Faria and his colleagues built a family tree of HIV, by looking at a diverse array of HIV genomes collected from about 800 infected people from central Africa.
Genomes pick up new mutations at a fairly steady rate, so by comparing two genome sequences and counting the differences they could work out when the two last shared a common ancestor. This technique is widely used, for example to establish that our common ancestor with chimpanzees lived at least 7 million years ago.
"RNA viruses such as HIV evolve approximately 1 million times faster than human DNA," says Faria. This means the HIV "molecular clock" ticks very fast indeed.
It ticks so fast, Faria and his colleagues found that the HIV genomes all shared a common ancestor that existed no more than 100 years ago. The HIV-1 group M pandemic probably first began in the 1920s.
Then the team went further. Because they knew where each of the HIV samples had been collected, they could place the origin of the pandemic in a specific city: Kinshasa, now the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
At this point, the researchers changed tack. They turned to historical records to work out why HIV infections in an African city in the 1920s could ultimately spark a pandemic.
A likely sequence of events quickly became obvious. In the 1920s, DR Congo was a Belgian colony and Kinshasa – then known as Leopoldville – had just been made the capital. The city became a very attractive destination for young working men seeking their fortunes, and for sex workers only too willing to help them spend their earnings. The virus spread quickly through the population.
It did not remain confined to the city. The researchers discovered that the capital of the Belgian Congo was, in the 1920s, one of the best connected cities in Africa. Taking full advantage of an extensive rail network used by hundreds of thousands of people each year, the virus spread to cities 900 miles (1500km) away in just 20 years.
Everything was in place for an explosion in infection rates in the 1960s.The beginning of that decade brought another change.
Belgian Congo gained its independence, and became an attractive source of employment to French speakers elsewhere in the world, including Haiti. When these young Haitians returned home a few years later they took a particular form of HIV-1 group M, called "subtype B", to the western side of the Atlantic.
It arrived in the US in the 1970s, just as sexual liberation and homophobic attitudes were leading to concentrations of gay men in cosmopolitan cities like New York and San Francisco. Once more, HIV took advantage of the sociopolitical situation to spread quickly through the US and Europe.
"There is no reason to believe that other subtypes would not have spread as quickly as subtype B, given similar ecological circumstances," says Faria.
The story of the spread of HIV is not over yet.
For instance, in 2015 there was an outbreak in the US state of Indiana, associated with drug injecting.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been analyzing the HIV genome sequences and data about location and time of infection, says Yonatan Grad at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts. "These data help to understand the extent of the outbreak, and will further help to understand when public health interventions have worked."
This approach can work for other pathogens. In 2014, Grad and his colleague Marc Lipsitch published an investigation into the spread of drug-resistant gonorrhoea across the US.
"Because we had representative sequences from individuals in different cities at different times and with different sexual orientations, we could show the spread was from the west of the country to the east," says Lipsitch.
What's more, they could confirm that the drug-resistant form of gonorrhoea appeared to have circulated predominantly in men who have sex with men. That could prompt increased screening in these at-risk populations, in an effort to reduce further spread.
In other words, there is real power to studying pathogens like HIV and gonorrhoea through the prism of human society.

Questions 13-20

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

In boxes 13-20 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

13. AIDS were first encountered 35 years ago.                TRUE               FALSE               NOT GIVEN          

14. The most important role in developing AIDS as a pandemia was played by sex workers.                TRUE               FALSE               NOT GIVEN          

15. It is believed that HIV appeared out of nowhere.                TRUE               FALSE               NOT GIVEN          

16. Humans are not closely related to monkey.                TRUE               FALSE               NOT GIVEN          

17. HIV-1 group O originated in 1920s.                TRUE               FALSE               NOT GIVEN          

18. HIV-1 group M has something special.                TRUE               FALSE               NOT GIVEN          

19. Human DNA evolves approximately 1 million times slower than HIV.                TRUE               FALSE               NOT GIVEN          

20. Scientists believe that HIV already existed in 1920s.                TRUE               FALSE               NOT GIVEN          

Questions 21-28

Complete the sentences below.

Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 21-28 on your answer sheet.

21. Scientists can place the origin of  in a specific city.

22. Kinshasa was a very  for young working men and many others willing to spend their money.

23. In just 20 years virus managed to  to cities 900 miles away.

24. Belgian Congo became an attractive source of employment to French speakers when it gained .

25. HIV has spread quickly through the US and Europe because of the  .

26. It is said that outbreak in Indiana was associated with  .

27. The same approach as for HIV can work for  .

28. The form of gonorrhoea that is drug-resistant appeared to have  in men who have sex with men.

ANSWERS
Each question correctly answered scores 1 mark. Correct spelling is needed in all answers.
Section 2

13. True
14. False
15. False
16. True
17. Not given
18. False
19. True
20. True
21. The pandemic
22. Attractive destination
23. Spread
24. Its independence
25. Sociopolitical situation
26. Drug injecting
27. Other pathogens
28. Circulated predominantly

IELTS Reading 14-08-2019: Reading Passage 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-12, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.

Scientists Are Mapping the World's Largest Volcano

(A) After 36 days of battling sharks that kept biting their equipment, scientists have returned from the remote Pacific Ocean with a new way of looking at the world’s largest - and possibly most mysterious - volcano, Tamu Massif.
(B) The team has begun making 3-D maps that offer the clearest look yet at the underwater mountain, which covers an area the size of New Mexico. In the coming months, the maps will be refined and the data analyzed, with the ultimate goal of figuring out how the mountain was formed.
(C) It's possible that the western edge of Tamu Massif is actually a separate mountain that formed at a different time, says William Sager, a geologist at the University of Houston who led the expedition. That would explain some differences between the western part of the mountain and the main body. 
(D) The team also found that the massif (as such a massive mountain is known) is highly pockmarked with craters and cliffs. Magnetic analysis provides some insight into the mountain’s genesis, suggesting that part of it formed through steady releases of lava along the intersection of three mid-ocean ridges, while part of it is harder to explain. A working theory is that a large plume of hot mantle rock may have contributed additional heat and material, a fairly novel idea.
(E) Tamu Massif lies about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) east of Japan. It is a rounded dome, or shield volcano, measuring 280 by 400 miles (450 by 650 kilometers). Its top lies more than a mile (about 2,000 meters) below the ocean surface and is 50 times larger than the biggest active volcano on Earth, Hawaii’s Mauna Loa. Sager published a paper in 2013 that said the main rise of Tamu Massif is most likely a single volcano, instead of a complex of multiple volcanoes that smashed together. But he couldn’t explain how something so big formed.
(F) The team used sonar and magnetometers (which measure magnetic fields) to map more than a million square kilometers of the ocean floor in great detail. Sager and students teamed up with Masao Nakanishi of Japan’s Chiba University, with Sager receiving funding support from the National Geographic Society and the Schmidt Ocean Institute.
(G) Since sharks are attracted to magnetic fields, the toothy fish “were all over our magnetometer, and it got pretty chomped up,” says Sager. When the team replaced the device with a spare, that unit was nearly ripped off by more sharks. The magnetic field research suggests the mountain formed relatively quickly, sometime around 145 million years ago. Part of the volcano sports magnetic "stripes," or bands with different magnetic properties, suggesting that lava flowed out evenly from the mid-ocean ridges over time and changed in polarity each time Earth's magnetic field reversed direction. The central part of the peak is more jumbled, so it may have formed more quickly or through a different process.
(H) Sager isn’t sure what caused the magnetic anomalies yet, but suspects more complex forces were at work than simply eruptions from the ridges. It’s possible a deep plume of hot rock from the mantle also contributed to the volcano’s formation, he says. Sager hopes the analysis will also help explain about a dozen other similar features on the ocean floor, as well as add to the overall understanding of plate tectonics.

Questions 1-8
Reading Passage 1 has eight paragraphs, A-H.
What paragraph has the following information? Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 1-8 on your answer sheet.

1. Possible explanation of the differences between parts of the mountain 
2. Size data 
3. A new way of looking 
4. Problem with sharks 
5. Uncertainty of the anomalies 
6. Equipment which measures magnetic fields 
7. The start of making maps 
8. A working theory 


Questions 9-12
Complete the sentences using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage.
Write your answers in boxes 9–12 on your answer sheet.

9. A large plume of  rock may have contributed additional heat and material.
10.Tamu Massif is a  , or shield volcano.
11. Replacing the device with a  didn't help, as that unit was nearly ripped off by more sharks.
12. Sager believes that the magnetic anomalies were caused by something more than  from the ridges.

ANSWERS
Each question correctly answered scores 1 mark. Correct spelling is needed in all answers.
Section 1

1. C
2. E
3. A
4. G
5. H
6. F
7. B
8. D
9. Hot mantle
10. Rounded dome
11. Spare
12. Simply eruptions

Cambridge 14 Reading Test 3 with Answers