IELTS Academic · Reading
OxidIELTS Reading Practice 1
9 questions · 60 minutes · True / False / Not given, Gap fill, Matching, Multiple choice
On the computer-delivered layout, timed like test day, and marked the moment you finish.
Passage 1: The longest migration
Read the text and answer questions 1-6.
A
The Arctic tern makes the longest annual migration of any animal.
Each year it travels from its breeding grounds near the Arctic Circle to the pack
ice of the Antarctic, and back again. Tracking studies published in the last two
decades put the round trip at roughly seventy thousand kilometres, far exceeding
earlier estimates based on ringing recoveries alone.
Each year it travels from its breeding grounds near the Arctic Circle to the pack
ice of the Antarctic, and back again. Tracking studies published in the last two
decades put the round trip at roughly seventy thousand kilometres, far exceeding
earlier estimates based on ringing recoveries alone.
B
The bird does not fly in a straight line. Instead it follows a looping route that
takes advantage of prevailing winds, adding distance to the journey but reducing
the energy each kilometre costs. Researchers describe the pattern as a compromise
between the shortest path and the cheapest one. Because the tern spends the
northern summer in the Arctic and the southern summer in the Antarctic, it sees
more daylight in a year than any other creature.
takes advantage of prevailing winds, adding distance to the journey but reducing
the energy each kilometre costs. Researchers describe the pattern as a compromise
between the shortest path and the cheapest one. Because the tern spends the
northern summer in the Arctic and the southern summer in the Antarctic, it sees
more daylight in a year than any other creature.
C
What remains uncertain is how the young navigate. A tern born in Greenland will
make its first southward journey without an experienced adult alongside it, and
will arrive at feeding grounds it has never seen. Some researchers argue for an
inherited magnetic map; others suspect the birds read the angle of polarised
light at dusk. The two explanations are not mutually exclusive.
make its first southward journey without an experienced adult alongside it, and
will arrive at feeding grounds it has never seen. Some researchers argue for an
inherited magnetic map; others suspect the birds read the angle of polarised
light at dusk. The two explanations are not mutually exclusive.
Questions 1–3
Choose TRUE if the statement agrees with the information given in the text, FALSE if it contradicts it, or NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this.
- 1 The Arctic tern's round trip is about seventy thousand kilometres.
- 2 The tern flies the shortest possible route between the poles.
- 3 Young terns are guided south by experienced adults.
Question 4
Complete the sentence below.
- 4 The tern's looping route reduces the ______ cost of each kilometre.
Questions 5–6
Choose the correct heading for each paragraph.
- i How the route is chosen
- ii An unexplained ability
- iii The scale of the journey
- 5 Paragraph A
- 6 Paragraph C
Passage 2: Flat glass
Read the text and answer questions 7-9.
For most of its history glass was a luxury. The Romans blew it
into vessels, and medieval workshops fused it into windows for cathedrals, but the
material stayed expensive because it stayed difficult. Every sheet had to be spun
or blown by hand, then ground flat, and the grinding wasted much of what had been
made.
into vessels, and medieval workshops fused it into windows for cathedrals, but the
material stayed expensive because it stayed difficult. Every sheet had to be spun
or blown by hand, then ground flat, and the grinding wasted much of what had been
made.
The change came in 1959, when a British engineer named Alastair Pilkington
patented a process that floated molten glass on a bath of molten tin. Because tin
is denser than glass and melts at a lower temperature, the glass spread across it
in a layer of even thickness, and cooled with both surfaces already flat. No
grinding was required. Within a decade the float process had displaced almost
every competing method.
patented a process that floated molten glass on a bath of molten tin. Because tin
is denser than glass and melts at a lower temperature, the glass spread across it
in a layer of even thickness, and cooled with both surfaces already flat. No
grinding was required. Within a decade the float process had displaced almost
every competing method.
The economic consequence was larger than the technical one. Flat glass became
cheap enough to use structurally rather than decoratively, and the glass curtain
wall — a facade that carries no load — became the ordinary language of the
twentieth-century office block.
cheap enough to use structurally rather than decoratively, and the glass curtain
wall — a facade that carries no load — became the ordinary language of the
twentieth-century office block.
Question 7
Complete the sentence below.
- 7 The float process floats molten glass on a bath of molten ______.
Question 8
Choose TRUE, FALSE or NOT GIVEN.
- 8 The float process removed the need for grinding.
Question 9
Choose the correct letter.
- 9 According to the passage, the float process mattered most because it
- A made glass cheap enough to use structurally
- B allowed glass to be coloured more easily
- C was invented in Britain