IELTS ACADEMIC READING
You should spend about 20 minutes on
Questions 1-13,which are based on Reading Passage 1 on the following pages.
The Context, Meaning and Scope of Tourism
A Travel has existed since the beginning of
time, when primitive man set out, often traversing great distances in search of
game, which provided the food and clothing necessary for his survival.
Throughout the course of history, people have travelled for purposes of trade,
religious conviction, economic gain, war, migration and other equally
compelling motivations. In the Roman era, wealthy aristocrats and high
government officials also travelled for pleasure. Seaside resorts located at
Pompeii and Herculaneum afforded citizens the opportunity to escape to their
vacation villas in order to avoid the summer heat of Rome. Travel, except
during the Dark Ages, has continued to grow and, throughout recorded history,
has played a vital role in the development of civilisations and their
economies.
B Tourism in the mass form as we know it
today is a distinctly twentieth-century phenomenon. Historians suggest that the
advent of mass tourism began in England during the industrial revolution with
the rise of the middle class and the availability of relatively inexpensive
transportation. The creation of the commercial airline industry following the
Second World War and the subsequent development of the jet aircraft in the
1950s signalled the rapid growth and expansion of international travel. This
growth led to the development of a major new industry: tourism. In turn,
international tourism became the concern of a number of world governments since
it not only provided new employment opportunities but also produced a means of
earning foreign exchange.
C Tourism today has grown significantly in both
economic and social importance. In most industrialised countries over the past
few years the fastest growth has been seen in the area of services. One of the
largest segments of the service industry, although largely unrecognised as an
entity in some of these countries, is travel and tourism. According to the
World Travel and Tourism Council (1992),Travel and tourism is the largest
industry in the world on virtually any economic measure including value-added
capital investment, employment and tax contributions,. In 1992’ the industry’s
gross output was estimated to be $3.5 trillion, over 12 per cent of all
consumer spending. The travel and tourism industry is the world’s largest
employer the almost 130 million jobs, or almost 7 per cent of all employees.
This industry is the world’s leading industrial contributor, producing over 6
per cent of the world’s national product and accounting for capital investment
in excess of $422 billion m direct indirect and personal taxes each year. Thus,
tourism has a profound impact both on the world economy and, because of the
educative effect of travel and the effects on employment, on society itself.
D However, the major problems of the travel and
tourism industry that have hidden, or obscured, its economic impact are the
diversity and fragmentation of the industry itself. The travel industry
includes: hotels, motels and other types of accommodation; restaurants and
other food services; transportation services and facilities; amusements,
attractions and other leisure facilities; gift shops and a large number of
other enterprises. Since many of these businesses also serve local residents,
the impact of spending by visitors can easily be overlooked or underestimated.
In addition, Meis (1992) points out that the tourism industry involves concepts
that have remained amorphous to both analysts and decision makers. Moreover, in
all nations this problem has made it difficult for the industry to develop any
type of reliable or credible tourism information base in order to estimate the
contribution it makes to regional, national and global economies. However, the
nature of this very diversity makes travel and tourism ideal vehicles for
economic development in a wide variety of countries, regions or communities.
E Once the exclusive province of the wealthy,
travel and tourism have become an institutionalised way of life for most of the
population. In fact, McIntosh and Goeldner (1990) suggest that tourism has
become the largest commodity in international trade for many nations and, for a
significant number of other countries, it ranks second or third. For example,
tourism is the major source of income in Bermuda, Greece, Italy, Spain,
Switzerland and most Caribbean countries. In addition, Hawkins and Ritchie,
quoting from data published by the American Express Company, suggest that the
travel and tourism industry is the number one ranked employer in the Bahamas,
Brazil, Canada, France, (the former) West Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Jamaica,
Japan, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States. However, because of
problems of definition, which directly affect statistical measurement, it is
not possible with any degree of certainty to provide precise, valid or reliable
data about the extent of world-wide tourism participation or its economic
impact. In many cases, similar difficulties arise when attempts are made to
measure domestic tourism.
Questions 1-4
Reading Passage 1 has five paragraphs, A-E.
Choose the correct heading for paragraphs B-E from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number, i-vii,in boxes 1-4 on
your answer sheet
List of Headings
i. Economic
and social significance of tourism
ii. The
development of mass tourism
iii. Travel
for the wealthy
iv. Earning
foreign exchange through tourism
v. Difficulty in
recognising the economic effects of tourism
vi. The
contribution of air travel to tourism
vii. The world
impact of tourism
viii. The
history of travel
Example Answer
Paragraph A viii
1. Paragraph B
2.Paragraph C
3. Paragraph D
4. Paragraph E
Questions 5-10
Do the following statements agree with the information
given in Reading Passage 1?
In boxes 5-10
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
5. The largest
employment figures in the world are found in the travel and tourism industry.
6. Tourism
contributes over six per cent of the Australian gross national product.
7. Tourism has
a social impact because it promotes recreation.
8. Two main
features of the travel and tourism industry make its economic significance
difficult to
ascertain.
9. Visitor
spending is always greater than the spending of residents in tourist areas.
10. It is easy
to show statistically how tourism affects individual economies.
Questions 11-13
Complete the sentences below.
Choose NO MORE
THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet.
11. In Greece,
tourism the most important……………………..
12. The travel
and tourism industry in Jamaica is the major…………
13. The
problems associated with measuring international tourism are often reflected in
the measurement of……………………… .
You should spend about 20 minutes on
Questions 14-26, which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.
Autumn leaves
Canadian writer Jay Ingram investigates the
mystery of why leaves turn red in the fall
A One of the most captivating natural
events of the year in many areas throughout North America is the turning of the
leaves in the fall. The colours are magnificent, but the question of exactly
why some trees turn yellow or orange, and others red or purple, is something
which has long puzzled scientists.
B Summer
leaves are green because they are full of chlorophyll, the molecule that
captures sunlight converts that energy into new building materials for the
tree. As fall approaches in the northern hemisphere, the amount of solar energy
available declines considerably. For many trees – evergreen conifers being an
exception – the best strategy is to abandon photosynthesis* until the spring.
So rather than maintaining the now redundant leaves throughout the winter, the
tree saves its precious resources and discards them. But before letting its
leaves go, the tree dismantles their chlorophyll molecules and ships their
valuable nitrogen back into the twigs. As chlorophyll is depleted, other
colours that have been dominated by it throughout the summer begin to be
revealed. This unmasking explains the autumn colours of yellow and orange, but
not the brilliant reds and purples of trees such
as the maple or sumac.
C The source
of the red is widely known: it is created by anthocyanins, water-soluble plant
pigments reflecting the red to blue range of the visible spectrum. They belong
to a class of sugar-based chemical compounds also known as flavonoids. What’s
puzzling is that anthocyanins are actually newly minted, made in the leaves at
the same time as the tree is preparing to drop them. But it is hard to make
sense of the manufacture of anthocyanins – why should a tree bother making new
chemicals in its leaves when it’s already scrambling to withdraw and preserve
the ones already there?
D Some
theories about anthocyanins have argued that they might act as a chemical
defence against attacks by insects or fungi, or that they might attract
fruit-eating birds or increase a leafs tolerance to freezing. However there are
problems with each of these theories, including the fact that leaves are red
for such a relatively short period that the expense of energy needed to
manufacture the anthocyanins would outweigh any anti-fungal or anti-herbivore
activity achieved.* photosynthesis: the production of new material from
sunlight, water and carbon dioxide
E It has also
been proposed that trees may produce vivid red colours to convince herbivorous
insects that they are healthy and robust and would be easily able to mount
chemical defences against infestation. If insects paid attention to such
advertisements, they might be prompted to lay their eggs on a duller, and
presumably less resistant host. The flaw in this theory lies in the lack of
proof to support it. No one has as yet ascertained whether more robust trees
sport the brightest leaves, or whether insects make choices according to colour
intensity.
F Perhaps the
most plausible suggestion as to why leaves would go to the trouble of making
anthocyanins when they’re busy packing up for the winter
is the theory known as the ‘light screen’ hypothesis. It sounds paradoxical,
because the idea behind this hypothesis is that the red pigment is made in
autumn leaves to protect chlorophyll, the light-absorbing chemical, from too
much light. Why does chlorophyll need protection when it is the natural world’s
supreme light absorber? Why protect chlorophyll at a time when the tree is
breaking it down to salvage as much of it as possible?
G Chlorophyll,
although exquisitely evolved to capture the energy of sunlight, can sometimes
be overwhelmed by it, especially in situations of drought, low temperatures, or
nutrient deficiency. Moreover, the problem of oversensitivity to light is even
more acute in the fall, when the leaf is busy preparing for winter by
dismantling its internal machinery. The energy absorbed by the chlorophyll
molecules of the unstable autumn leaf is not immediately channelled into useful
products and processes, as it would be in an intact summer leaf. The weakened
fall leaf then becomes vulnerable to the highly destructive effects of the
oxygen created by the excited chlorophyll molecules.
H Even if you
had never suspected that this is what was going on when leaves turn red, there
are clues out there. One is straightforward: on many trees, the leaves that are
the reddest are those on the side of the tree which gets most sun. Not only that,
but the red is brighter on the upper side of the leaf. It has also been
recognised for decades that the best conditions for intense red colours are
dry, sunny days and coo nights, conditions that nicely match those that make
leaves susceptible to excess light. And finally, trees such as maples usually
get much redder the more north you travel in the northern hemisphere. It’s
colder there, they’re more stressed, their chlorophyll is more sensitive and it
needs more sunblock.
I What is
still not fully understood, however, is why some trees resort to producing red
pigments while others don’t bother, and simply reveal their orange or yellow
hues. Do these trees have other means at their disposal to prevent overexposure
to light in autumn? Their story, though not as spectacular to the eye, will
surely turn out to be as subtle and as complex.
Questions 14-18
Reading Passage 2 has nine paragraphs, A-l.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-l, in boxes 14-18 on
your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
14 a
description of the substance responsible for the red colouration of leaves
15 the reason
why trees drop their leaves in autumn
16 some
evidence to confirm a theory about the purpose of the red leaves
17 an
explanation of the function of chlorophyll
18 a
suggestion that the red colouration in leaves could serve as a warning signal
Questions 19-22
Complete the notes below.
Choose ONE WORD
ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 19-22 on your answer sheet.
Why believe the ‘light screen’ hypothesis?
·
The most vividly coloured red leaves are found
on the side of the tree facing the 19…….
·
The 20……..
surfaces of leaves contain the most red pigment.
·
Red leaves are most abundant when daytime
weather conditions are 21……. and
sunny.
·
The intensity of the red colour of leaves
increases as you go further 22……….
Questions 23-25
Do the following statements agree with the information
given in Reading Passage 2?
In boxes 23-25
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 It is
likely that the red pigments help to protect the leaf from freezing
temperatures.
24 The ‘light
screen’ hypothesis would initially seem to contradict what is known about
chlorophyll.
25 Leaves
which turn colours other than red are more likely to be damaged by sunlight.
Question 26
Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in box 26 on your answer sheet.
For which of the
following questions does the writer offer an explanation?
A why conifers
remain green in winter
B how leaves
turn orange and yellow in autumn
C how
herbivorous insects choose which trees to lay their eggs in
D why
anthocyanins are restricted to certain trees
You should spend about 20 minutes on
Questions 27-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.
Beyond the blue horizon
Ancient voyagers who settled the far-flung
islands of the Pacific Ocean
(1) An important archaeological discovery on the island
of Efate in the Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu
has revealed traces of an ancient seafaring people, the distant
ancestors of todays, Polynesians. The site came to light only by chance. An
agricultural worker, digging in the grounds of a derelict plantation, scraped
open a grave – the first of dozens in a burial ground some 3,000 years old. It
is the oldest cemetery ever found in the Pacific islands, and it harbors the
remains of an ancient people archaeologists call the Lapita.
(2) They were daring blue-water adventurers who used
basic canoes to rove across the ocean. But they were not just explorers. They
were also pioneers who carried with them everything they would need to build
new lives – their livestock, taro seedlings and stone tools. Within the span of
several centuries, the Lapita stretched the boundaries of their world from the
jungle-clad volcanoes of Papua New Guinea to the loneliest coral outliers of
Tonga.
(3) The Lapita left precious few clues about themselves,
but Efate expands the volume of data available
to researchers dramatically. The remains of 62 individuals have been
uncovered so far, and archaeologists
were also thrilled to find six complete Lapita pots. Other items included a
Lapita burial urn with modeled birds arranged on the rim as though peering down
at the human remains sealed inside. ‘It’s an important discovery,’ says Matthew
Spriggs, professor of archaeology at the Australian National University and
head of the international team digging up the site, ‘for it conclusively
identifies the remains as Lapita.’
(4) DNA teased from these human remains may help answer
one of the most puzzling questions in Pacific anthropology: did all Pacific
islanders spring from one source or many? Was there only one outward migration
from a single point in Asia, or several from different points? ‘This represents
the best opportunity we’ve had yet,’ says Spriggs, ‘to find out who the Lapita
actually were, where they came from, and who their closest descendants are
today.’
(5) There is one stubborn question for which archaeology
has yet to provide any answers: how did the Lapita accomplish the ancient
equivalent of a moon landing, many times over? No-one has found one of their
canoes or any rigging, which could reveal how the canoes were sailed. Nor do
the oral histories and traditions of later Polynesians offer any insights, for
they turn into myths long before they reach as far back in time as the Lapita.
(6) ‘All we can say for certain is that the Lapita had
canoes that were capable of ocean voyages, and they had the ability to sail
them,’ says Geoff Irwin, a professor of archaeology at the University of
Auckland. Those sailing skills, he says, were developed and passed down over
thousands of years by earlier mariners who worked their way through the
archipelagoes of the western Pacific, making short crossings to nearby islands.
The real adventure didn’t begin, however, until their Lapita descendants sailed
out of sight of land, with empty horizons on every side. This must have been as
difficult for them as landing on the moon is for us today. Certainly it
distinguished them from their ancestors, but what gave them the courage to
launch out on such risky voyages?
(7) The Lap it as thrust into the Pacific was eastward,
against the prevailing trade winds, Irwin notes. Those nagging headwinds, he
argues, may have been the key to their success. ‘They could sail out for days
into the unknown and assess the area, secure in the knowledge that if they
didn’t find anything, they could turn about and catch a swift ride back on the
trade winds. This is what would have made the whole thing work.’ Once out
there, skilled seafarers would have detected abundant leads to follow to land:
seabirds, coconuts and twigs carried out to sea by the tides, and the afternoon
pile-up of clouds on the horizon which often indicates an island in the
distance.
(8) For returning explorers, successful or not, the
geography of their own archipelagoes would have provided a safety net. Without
this to go by, overshooting their home ports, getting lost and sailing off into
eternity would have been all too easy. Vanuatu, for example, stretches more
than 500 miles in a northwest-southeast trend, its scores of inrervisible islands
forming a backstop for mariners riding the trade winds home.
(9) All this presupposes one essential detail, says
Atholl Anderson, professor of prehistory at the Australian National University:
the Lapita had mastered the advanced art of sailing against the wind. ‘And
there’s no proof they could do any such thing,’ Anderson says. ‘There has been
this assumption they did, and people have built canoes to re-create those early
voyages based on that assumption. But nobody has any idea what their canoes looked
like or how they were rigged.’
(10) Rather than give all the credit to human skill,
Anderson invokes the winds of chance. El Nino, the same climate disruption that
affects the Pacific today, may have helped scatter the Lapita, Anderson
suggests. He points out that climate data obtained from slow-growing corals
around the Pacific indicate a series of unusually frequent El Ninos around the
time of the Lapita expansion. By reversing the regular east-to-west flow of the
trade winds for weeks at a time, these super El Ninos might have taken the
Lapita on long unplanned voyages.
(11) However they did it, the Lapita spread themselves a
third of the way across the Pacific, then called it quits for reasons known
only to them. Ahead lay the vast emptiness of the central Pacific and perhaps
they were too thinly stretched to venture farther. They probably never numbered
more than a few thousand in total, and in their rapid migration eastward they
encountered hundreds of islands – more than 300 in Fiji alone.
Questions 27-31
Completing Summary
Complete the summary using the list of words and phrases,
A-J, below.
Write the correct letter, A-J, in boxes 27-31 on
your sheet.
The Efate burial
site
A 3,000-year-old burial ground of a seafaring people
called the Lapita has been found on an abandoned 27__________ on the Pacific
island of Efate.
The cemetery, which is a significant 28__________, was uncovered accidentally by an agricultural worker.
The Lapita explored and colonised many Pacific islands
over several centuries. They took many things with them on their voyages
including 29__________and tools.
The burial ground increases the amount of information
about the Lapita available to scientists. A team of researchers, led by Matthew
Spriggs from the Australian National University, are helping with the
excavation of the site. Spriggs believes the 30__________which was found at the site is very important since it
confirms that the 31__________ found
inside are Lapita.
A proof
B plantation
C harbour
D bones
E data
F
archaeological discovery
G burial urn
H source
I animals
J maps
Questions 32-35
Multiple Choice Question
Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes 32-35 on your answer sheet.
32 According to
the writer, there are difficulties explaining how the Lapita accomplished their
journeys because
A the canoes that have been discovered
offer relatively few clues.
B archaeologists have shown limited interest in
this area of research.
C little information relating to this period can
be relied upon for accuracy.
D technological advances have altered the way
such achievements are viewed.
33 According to
the sixth paragraph, what was extraordinary about the Lapita?
A They sailed beyond the point where land
was visible.
B Their cultural heritage discouraged the
expression of fear.
C They were able to build canoes that withstood
ocean voyages.
D Their navigational skills were passed on from
one generation to the next.
34 What does
‘This’ refer to in the seventh paragraph?
A the Lapita’s seafaring talent
B the Lapita s ability to detect signs of land
C the Lapita’s extensive knowledge of the
region
D the Lapita’s belief they would be able to
return home
35 According to
the eighth paragraph, how was the geography of the region significant?
A It played an important role in Lapita
culture.
B It meant there were relatively few storms at
sea.
C It provided a navigational aid for the
Lapita.
D It made a large number of islands habitable.
Questions 36-40
Do the following statements agree with the views of the
writer in Reading Passage 3?
In boxes 36-40
on your answer sheet, write
YES if the
statement agrees with the views of the writer
NO if the
statement contradicts the views of the writer
NOT GIVEN if
it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
36 It is now clear that the Lapita could sail
into a prevailing wind.
37 Extreme climate conditions may have played a
role in Lapita migration.
38 The Lapita learnt to predict the duration of
El Ninos.
39 It remains unclear why the Lapita halted their
expansion across the Pacific.
40 It is likely that the majority of Lapita
settled on Fiji.
ANSWERS
1. ii:
2. i:
3. v:
4. vii:
5. TRUE:
6. NOT GIVEN:
7. NOT GIVEN:
8. TRUE:
9. NOT GIVEN:
10. FALSE:
11. source of income / industry:
12. employer:
13. domestic tourism:
14. C:
15. B:
16. H:
17. B:
18. E:
19. sun(light):
20. upper:
21. dry:
22. north:
23. FALSE:
24. TRUE:
25. NOT GIVEN:
26. B:
27. B:
28. F:
29. I:
30. G:
31. D:
32. C:
33. A:
34. D:
35. C:
36. NO:
37. YES:
38. NOT GIVEN:
39. YES:
40. NOT GIVEN:
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