đề thi học phần môn đọc 163 177

IELTS Academic Reading Sample 163 Obtaining Linguistic Data You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 2740 which are based on Reading Passage 163 below. Obtaining Linguistic Data A. Many procedures are available for obtaining data about a language. They range from a carefully planned, intensive field investigation in a foreign country to a casual introspection about one’s mother tongue carried out in an armchair at home. The Nature and Aims of Archaeology You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 2840. which are based on Reading Passage 164. The Nature and Aims of Archaeology Archaeology is partly the discovery of treasures of the past, partly the work of the scientific analyst, partly the exercise of the creative imagination. It is toiling in the sun on an excavation in the Middle East, it is working with living Inuit in the snows of Alaska, and it is investigating the sewers of Roman Britain. But it is also the painstaking task of interpretation, so that we come to understand what these things mean for the human story. And it is the conservation of the world’s cultural heritage against looting and careless harm. Archaeology, then, is both a physical activity out in the field, and an intellectual pursuit in the study or laboratory. That is part of its great attraction. The rich mixture of danger and detective work has also made it the perfect vehicle for fiction writers and filmmakers, from Agatha Christie with Murder in Mesopotamia to Stephen Spielberg with Indiana Jones. However far from reality such portrayals are, they capture the essential truth that archaeology is an exciting quest – the quest for knowledge about ourselves and our past. But how does archaeology relate to other disciplines such as anthropology and history that are also concerned with the human story? Is archaeology itself a science? And what are the responsibilities of the archaeologist in today’s world? Anthropology, at its broadest, is the study of humanity our physical characteristics as animals and our unique nonbiological characteristics that we call culture. Culture in this sense includes what the anthropologist, Edward Tylor, summarised in 1871 as ‘knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society’. Anthropologists also use the term ‘culture’ in a more restricted sense when they refer to the ‘culture’ of a particular society, meaning the nonbiological characteristics unique to that society, which distinguish it from other societies. Anthropology is thus a broad discipline – so broad that it is generally broken down into three smaller disciplines: physical anthropology, cultural anthropology and archaeology.

IELTS Academic Reading Sample 163 - Obtaining Linguistic Data

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40 which are based on Reading Passage 163below

Obtaining

Linguistic

Data

A Many procedures are available for obtaining data about a language They range from a

carefully planned, intensive field investigation in a foreign country to a casual introspection aboutone’s mother tongue carried out in an armchair at home

B In all cases, someone has to act as a source of

language data — an informant Informants are (ideally) native speakers of a language, who provide utterances for analysis and other kinds of information about the language (e.g

translations, comments about correctness, or judgments on usage) Often, when studying their mother tongue, linguists act as their own informants, judging the ambiguity, acceptability, or other properties of utterances against their own intuitions The convenience of this approach makes it widely used, and it is considered the norm in the generative approach to linguistics But

a linguist’s personal judgments are often uncertain, or disagree with the judgments of other linguists, at which point recourse is needed to more objective methods of enquiry, using non-linguists as informants The latter procedure is unavoidable when working on foreign languages,

or child speech

C Many factors must be considered when selecting informants – whether one is working with

single speakers (a common situation when language has not been described before), two people interacting small groups or large-scale samples Age, sex, social background and other aspects of identity are important, as these factors are known to influence the kind of language used The topic of conversation and the characteristics of the social setting ( e.g the level of formality ) are also highly relevant, as are the personal qualities of the informants (e.g their fluency and

consistency ) For large studies, scrupulous attention has been paid to the sampling theory

employed, and in all cases, decisions have to be made about the best investigative techniques to use

D Today, researchers often tape-record informants This enables the linguist’s claims about the

language to be checked, and provides a way of making those claims more accurate (“difficult” pieces of speech can be listened to repeatedly) But obtaining naturalistic, good-quality data is never easy People talk abnormally when they know they are being recorded, and sound quality can be poor A variety of tape-recording procedures have thus been devised to minimize the

“observer’s paradox” (how to observe the way people behave when they are not being observed) Some recordings are made without the speakers being aware of the fact- a procedure that obtains very natural data, though ethical objections must be anticipated Alternatively, attempts can be made to make the speaker forget about the recording, such as keeping the tape recorder out of sight, or using radio microphones A useful technique is to introduce a topic that quickly involves the speaker, and stimulates a natural language style (e.g asking older informants about how timeshave changed in their locality )

E An audio tape recording does not solve all the linguist’s problems, however Speech is often

unclear and ambiguous Where possible, therefore, the recording has to be supplemented by the observer’s written comments on the non-verbal behavior of the participants, and about the

context in general A facial expression, for example, can dramatically alter the meaning of what issaid Video recordings avoid these problems to a large extent, but even they have limitations (the camera cannot be everywhere), and transcriptions always benefit from any additional

commentary provided by an observer

F Linguists also make great use of structured sessions, in which they systematically ask their

informants for utterances that describe certain actions, objects or behaviour With a bilingual informant, or through use of an interpreter, it is possible to use translation techniques (‘How do you say table in your language?’) A large number of points can be covered in a short time, using interview worksheets and questionnaires Often, the researcher wishes to obtain information about just s single variable, in which case a restricted set of questions may be used a particular feature of pronunciation, for example, can be elicited by asking the informant to say a restricted set of words There are also several direct methods of elicitation, such as asking informants to fill

in the blanks in a substitution frame (e.g I _ see a car), or feeding them the wrong stimulus of correction (‘is it possible to say I no can see?’)

G A representative sample of language, compiled for the purpose of linguistic analysis, is

known as a corpus A corpus enables the linguist to make unbiased statements about frequency of usage, and it provides accessible data for the use of different researchers Its range and size are

variable Some corpora attempt to cover the language as a whole, taking extracts from many

kinds of text, others are extremely selective, providing a collection of material that deals only

with a particular linguistic feature The size of the corpus depends on practical factors, such as the

time available to collect, process and store the data it can take up to several hours to provide an

accurate transcription of a few minutes of speech Sometimes a small sample of data will be

enough to decide a linguistic hypothesis; by contrast, corpora in major research projects can total

millions of words An important principle is that all corpora, whatever their size, are inevitably

limited in their coverage, and always need to be supplemented by data derived from the intuitions

of native speakers of the language, through either introspection or experimentation

Questions 27-31

Reading Passage 163 has seven paragraphs labeled A-G

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter A-G in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

27 the effect of recording on the way people talk

28 the importance of taking notes on body language

29 the fact that language is influenced by social situation

30 how informants can be helped to be less self-conscious

31 various methods that can be used to generate specific data

Questions 32-36

Complete the table below

Choose NO MORE THAT THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer

Write your answers in boxes 32-36 on your answer sheet.

Complete the summary of paragraph G below.

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet.

A linguist can use a corpus to comment objectively on 37…… Some corpora include a

wide range of language while others are used to focus on a 38… … The length of time the

process takes will affect the 39 … … of the corpus No corpus can ever cover the whole

language and so linguists often find themselves relying on the additional information that can be

gained from the 40… …of those who speak the language concerned.

Click the button to Show/ Hide Answers

34 quality / the quality/ the poor quality

35 non-verbal behavior / non-verbal behaviour/ facial expression / facial expressions

36 camera/ video camera / recording / video recording

37 frequency of usages / usage frequency

38 particular linguistic feature

39 size

40 intuitions

IELTS Academic Reading Sample 164 - The Nature and Aims of Archaeology

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 28-40 which are based on Reading Passage

164

The Nature and Aims of Archaeology

Archaeology is partly the discovery of treasures of the past, partly the work of the scientific

analyst, partly the exercise of the creative imagination It is toiling in the sun on an excavation in

the Middle East, it is working with living Inuit in the snows of Alaska, and it is investigating the sewers of Roman Britain But it is also the painstaking task of interpretation, so that we come to understand what these things mean for the human story And it is the conservation of the world’s cultural heritage against looting and careless harm.

Archaeology, then, is both a physical activity out in the field, and an intellectual pursuit in the study or laboratory That is part of its great attraction The rich mixture of danger and detective work has also made it the perfect vehicle for fiction writers and film-makers, from Agatha Christie with Murder in Mesopotamia to Stephen Spielberg with Indiana Jones However far from reality such portrayals are, they capture the essential truth that archaeology is an exciting quest – the quest for knowledge about ourselves and our past

But how does archaeology relate to other disciplines such as anthropology and history that are also concerned with the human story? Is archaeology itself a science? And what are the

responsibilities of the archaeologist in today’s world?

Anthropology, at its broadest, is the study of humanity- our physical characteristics as animals and our unique non-biological characteristics that we call culture Culture in this sense includes what the anthropologist, Edward Tylor, summarised in 1871 as ‘knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society’

Anthropologists also use the term ‘culture’ in a more restricted sense when they refer to the

‘culture’ of a particular society, meaning the non-biological characteristics unique to that society, which distinguish it from other societies Anthropology is thus a broad discipline – so broad that

it is generally broken down into three smaller disciplines: physical anthropology, cultural

anthropology and archaeology

Physical anthropology, or biological anthropology as it is called, concerns the study of human biological or physical characteristics and how they evolved Cultural anthropology – or social anthropology – analyses human culture and society Two of its branches are ethnography (the study at first hand of individual living cultures) and ethnology (which sets out to compare

cultures using ethnographic evidence to derive general principles about human society)

Nevertheless, one of the most important tasks for the archaeologist today is to know how to interpret material culture in human terms How were those pots used? Why are some dwellings round and others square Here the methods of archaeology and ethnography overlap

Archaeologists in recent decades have developed ‘ethnoarchaeology’ where, like ethnographers, they live among contemporary communities, but with the specific purpose of learning how such

societies use material culture – how they make their tools and weapons, why they build their settlements where they do, and so on Moreover, archaeology has a role to play in the field of conservation Heritage studies constitute a developing field, where it is realised that the world’s cultural heritage is a diminishing resource which holds different meanings for different people.

If, then, archaeology deals with the past, in what way does it differ from history? In the broadest sense, just as archaeology is an aspect of anthropology, so too is it a part of history – where we mean the whole history of humankind from its beginnings over three million years ago Indeed, for more than ninety-nine percent of that huge span of time, archaeology – the study of past material culture – is the only significant source of information Conventional historical sources begin only with the introduction of written records around 3,000 BC in western Asia, and much later in most other parts in the world

A commonly drawn distinction is between pre-history, i.e the period before written records - and history in the narrow sense, meaning the study of the past using written evidence To archaeology,which studies all cultures and periods, whether with or without writing, the distinction between history and pre-history is a convenient dividing line that recognises the importance of the written word, but in no way lessens the importance of the useful information contained in oral histories

Since the aim of archaeology is the understanding of humankind, it is a humanistic study, and since it deals with the human past, it is a historical discipline But is differs from the study of written history in a fundamental way The material the archaeologist finds does not tell us directlywhat to think Historical records make statements, offer opinions and pass judgements The objects the archaeologists discover, on the other hand, tell us nothing directly in themselves In this respect, the practice of the archaeologist is rather like that of the scientist, who collects data, conducts experiments, formulates a hypothesis tests the hypothesis against more data, and then,

in conclusion, devises a model that seems best to summarise the pattern observed in the data Thearchaeologist has to develop a picture of the past, just as the scientist has to develop a coherent view of the natural world

Questions 14-19

Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 164?

In boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet write:

YES if the statement agrees with the cliams of the writer

NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer

NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

14 Archaeology involves creativity as well as investigative work.

15 Archaeologist must be able to translate texts from ancient languages

16 Movies give a realistic picture of the work of archaeologists

17 Anthropologists define culture in more than one way

18 Archaeology is a more demanding field of study than anthropology

19 The history of Europe has been documented since 3,000 BC

Questions 20 and 21

Choose TWO letters A – E

Write your answer in boxes 20 and 21 on your answer sheet

The list below gives some statements about anthropology

Which TWO statements are mentioned by the writer of the text?

A It is important for government planners

B It is a continually growing field of study

C It often involves long periods of fieldwork

D It is subdivided for study purposes

E It studies human evolutionary patterns

Questions 22and 23

Choose TWO letters A – E

Write your answer in boxes 22 and 23 on your answer sheet

The list below gives some of the tasks of an archaeologist

Which TWO of these tasks are mentioned by the writer of the text?

A examining ancient waste sites to investigate diet

B studying cave art to determine its significance

C deducing reasons for the shape of domestic buildings

D investigating the way different cultures make and use objects

E examining evidence for past climate changes

Questions 24-27

Complete the summary of the last two paragraphs of Reading Passage 164

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

Write your answer in boxes 24-27 on your answer sheet.

Much of the work of archaeologists can be done using written records, but they

find 24 equally valuable The writer describes archaeology as both

a 25 and a 26 However, as archaeologists do not try to influence human behaviour, the writer compares their style of working to that of a 27 Click the button to Show/ Hide Answers

Answer:

14 YES

15 NOT GIVEN

16 NO

17 YES

18 NOT GIVEN

19 NO

20 & 21 D, E (In either order)

22 & 23 C, D (In either order)

24 oral histories

24 & 26 humanistic study, historical discipline (In In either order)

27 scientist

IELTS Academic Reading Sample 165 - The Problem of Scarce Resources

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 28-40 which are based on Reading Passage 165

Questions 28-31

Reading Passage 165 has five sections A-E

Choose the correct heading for section A and C-E from the list of headings below.

Write the correct number i-viii in boxes 28-31 on your answer sheet.

List of Headings

i The connection between health-care and other human rights

ii The development of market-based health systems

iii The role of the state in health-care

iv A problem shared by every economically developed country

v The impact of recent change

vi The views of the medical establishment

vii The end of an illusion

viii Sustainable economic development

Section A

The problem of how health-care resources should be allocated or apportioned so that they are distributed in both the "most just" and "most efficient" way, is not a new one Every health system in an economically developed society is faced with the need to decide (either formally or informally) what proportion of the community’s total resources should be spent on health-care; how resources are to be apportioned; what diseases and disabilities and which forms of treatment are to be given priority; which members of the community are to be given special consideration

in respect of their health needs; and which forms of treatment are the most cost-effective

Section B

What is new is that, from the 1950s onwards, there have been certain general changes in outlook about the finitude of resources as a whole and of health-care resources in particular, as well as more specific changes regarding the clientele of health-care resources and the cost to the

community of those resources Thus, in the 1950s and 1960s, there emerged an awareness in Western societies that resources for the provision of fossil fuel energy were finite and exhaustible and that the capacity of nature or the environment to sustain economic development and

population was also finite In other words, we became aware of the obvious fact that there were

‘limits to growth’ The new consciousness that there were also severe limits to health-care

resources was part of this general revelation of the obvious Looking back, it now seems quite incredible that in the national health systems that emerged in many countries in the years

immediately after the 1939-45 World War, it was assumed without question that all the basic health needs of any community could be satisfied, at least in principle; the ‘invisible hand’ of economic progress would provide

Section C

However, at exactly the same time as this new realization of the finite character of health-care resources was sinking in, an awareness of a contrary kind was developing in Western societies: that people have a basic right to health-care as a necessary condition of a proper human life Like education, political and legal processes and institutions, public order, communication, transport

and money supply, health-care came to be seen as one of the fundamental social facilities

necessary for people to exercise their other rights as autonomous human beings People are not in

a position to exercise personal liberty and to be self-determining if they are poverty-stricken, or deprived of basic education, or do not live within a context of law and order In the same way, basic health-care is a condition of the exercise of autonomy

Section D

Although the language of ‘rights’ sometimes leads to confusion, by the late 1970s it was

recognized in most societies that people have a right to health-care (though there has been

considerable resistance in the United Sates to the idea that there is a formal right to health-care)

It is also accepted that this right generates an obligation or duty for the state to ensure that

adequate health-care resources are provided out of the public purse The state has no obligation toprovide a health-care system itself, but to ensure that such a system is provided Put another way, basic health-care is now recognized as a ‘public good’, rather than a ‘private good’ that one is expected to buy for oneself As the 1976 declaration of the World Health Organisation put it: ‘Theenjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition’

As has just been remarked, in a liberal society basic health is seen as one of the indispensable conditions for the exercise of personal autonomy

Section E

Just at the time when it became obvious that health-care resources could not possibly meet the demands being made upon them, people were demanding that their fundamental right to health-care be satisfied by the state The second set of more specific changes that have led to the present concern about the distribution of health-care resources stems from the dramatic rise in health costs in most OECD countries, accompanied by large-scale demographic and social changes which have meant, to take one example, that elderly people are now major (and relatively very expensive) consumers of health-care resources Thus in OECD countries as a whole, health costs increased from 3.8% of GDP in 1960 to 7% of GDP in 1980, and it has been predicted that the proportion of health costs to GDP will continue to increase (In the US the current figure is about 12% of GDP, and in Australia about 7.8% of GDP.)

As a consequence, during the 1980s a kind of doomsday scenario (analogous to similar doomsdayextrapolations about energy needs and fossil fuels or about population increases) was projected

by health administrators, economists and politicians In this scenario, ever-rising health costs were matched against static or declining resources

OECD: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development

GDP: Gross Domestic Products

Write the correct letter A, B or C in boxes 32-35 on your answer sheet.

32 the realisation that the resources of the national health system were limited

33 a sharp rise in the cost of health-care

34 a belief that all the health-care resources the community needed would be produced by economic growth

35 an acceptance of the role of the state in guaranteeing the provision of health-care

Questions 36-40

Do the following statements agree with the view of the writer in Reading Passage 165?

In boxes 136-40 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 Personal liberty and independence have never been regarded as directly linked to health-care

37 Health-care came to be seen as a right at about the same time that the limits of health-care resources became evident

38 IN OECD countries population changes have had an impact on health-care costs in recent years

39 OECD governments have consistently underestimated the level of health-care provision needed

40 In most economically developed countries the elderly will to make special provision for their health-care in the future

Click the button to Show/ Hide Answers

Answer:

IELTS Academic Reading Sample 166 - Jumping spiders

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on the Reading Passage below

Jumping spiders

Peter Aldhons examines how Portia spiders catch their prey

A For a stalking predator, the element of surprise is crucial And for jumping spiders that sneak

onto other spiders' webs to prey on their owners, it can be the difference between having lunch and becoming it Now zoologists have discovered the secret of these spiders' tactics: creeping forward when their prey's web is vibrating

B The fifteen known species of Portia jumping spiders are relatively small, with adults being

about two centimeters long (that's smaller than the cap on most pens) They habitually stay in the webs of other spiders, and in an area of these webs that is as out-of-the-way as possible Portia spiders live mostly in tropical forests, where the climate is hot and humid They hunt a range of other spiders, some of which could easily turn the tables on them 'They will attack something about twice their own size if they are really hungry,' says Stimson Wilcox of Binghamton

University in New York State Wilcox and his colleague, Kristen Gentile of the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, wanted to find out how Portia spiders keep the upper hand

C All jumping spiders have large eyes that look like binocular lenses, and they function pretty

much the same way Most jumping spiders locate their prey visually, and then jump and capture from one centimeter to over ten centimeters away Only a few species of jumping spiders invade the webs of other spiders, and the Portia spider is among them Jumping spiders, including Portia spiders, prey on insects and other arthropods by stalking Sometimes the spiders lure their victims

by vibrating the web to mimic the struggles of a trapped insect But many web-weaving spiders appear to be wise to these tricks, so stalking is often a better strategy Sometimes, the researchers found, Portia spiders take advantage of the vibrations created in the web by a gentle breeze But ifnecessary, they will make their own vibrations

D The researchers allowed various prey spiders to spin webs in the laboratory and then

introduced Portia spiders To simulate the shaking effect of a breeze the zoologists used either a

model aircraft propeller or attached a tiny magnet to the centre of the web which could be

vibrated by applying a varying electrical field The researchers noticed that the stalking Portia spiders moved more when the webs were shaking than when they were stilt and they were more likely to capture their prey during tests in which the webs were penorncally shaken than in those where the webs were undisturbed If the spiders were placed onto unoccupied webs, they would make no attempt to change their movements

E It is the Portia spider's tactic of making its victims' webs shake that has most intrigued the

researchers, They noticed that the spiders would sometimes shake their quarry's web violently, then creep forwards up to five millimeters before the vibrations died down 'They'd make a big pluck with one of their hind legs,' says Wilcox These twangs were much more powerful than the gentler vibrations Portia spiders use to mimic a trapped insect, and the researchers were initially surprised that the prey spiders did not respond to them in any way But they have since

discovered that the violent twanging produces a pattern of vibrations that match those caused by atwig falling onto the web

F Other predators make use of natural 'smokescreens' or disguise to hide from their prey: lions

hunting at night, for example, move in on their prey when clouds obscure the moon 'But this is the first example of an animal making its own smokescreen that we know of,' says Wilcox 'Portiaspiders are clearly intelligent and they often learn from their prey as they are trying to capture it They do this by making different signals on the web of their prey until the prey spider makes a movement In general, Portia spiders adjust their stalking strategy according to their prey and what the prey is doing Thus, Portia spiders use trial-and-error learning in stalking Sometimes they will even take an indirect route to reach a prey spider they can see from a distance This can sometimes take one to two hours following a predetermined route When it does this, the Portia spider is actually solving problems and thinking ahead about its actions.'

Questions 1-9

The Reading Passage has six paragraphs labelled A-F

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter A-F in your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

1 the reaction of the Portia spider's prey to strong web vibrations

2 a description of how the researchers set up their experiment

3 a comparison between Portia spiders and another animal species

4 an explanation of how the researchers mimicked natural conditions

5 a comparison between Portia spiders and their prey

6 the reason why concealment is important to Portia spiders

7 a description of the Portia spider's habitat

8 the number of species of Portia spiders

9 an example of the Portia spider's cleverness

Questions 10-13

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D and write in your answer sheet

10) In their laboratory experiments, the researchers found that the Portia spiders moved most when the web was

A vibrating

B motionless

C undisturbed

D unoccupied

11) What discovery did the researchers make about Portia spiders?

A They make very strong vibrations with one leg

B They move 5 mm at a time on a still web

C They move slowly when vibrations stop

D They use energetic vibrations to mimic a trapped insect

12) Portia spiders are the only known animal to

A use the weather to disguise themselves

B mimic other prey-eating animals

C create their own smokescreen

D stalk using 'trial and error'

13) The Portia spider demonstrates 'thinking ahead' when it

A chooses prey that is a short distance away

B takes a longer route to reach its prey

C reaches its prey in a short time

D solves the problem of locating its prey

Click the button to Show/ Hide Answers

Answer:

1 E 2 D 3 F 4 D 5 B 6 A 7 B 8 B 9 F 10 A 11 A 12 C 13 D

IELTS Academic Reading Sample 167 - How consumers decide

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on the Reading Passage below

How consumers decide

Professor John Maule from the University of Leeds describes new research into the way that consumers choose a product.

Understanding consumers

Consumers are creatures of habit: they buy the same products time and time again, and such is their familiarity with big brands and the colours and logos that represent them, that they can register a brand they like with barely any conscious thought process The packaging of consumer products is, therefore, a crucial vehicle for delivering the brand and the product into our shoppingbaskets

Having said this, understanding how consumers make decisions, and the crucial role of packaging

in this process has been a neglected area of research so far This is surprising given that

organisations invest huge amounts of money in developing packaging that they believe is

effective - especially at the retail level Our Centre for Decision Research at Leeds University's Business School, in collaboration with Faraday Packaging, is now undertaking work in this area

It has already led to some important findings that challenge the ways in which organisations thinkabout consumer choice

The research has focused on two fundamental types of thinking On the one hand, there's

'heuristic processing', which involves very shallow thought and is based on very simple rules: 1) buy what you recognize, 2) choose what you did last time, or 3) choose what a trusted source suggests This requires comparatively little effort, and involves looking at - and thinking about - only a small amount of the product information and packaging One can do this with little or no conscious thought

On the other hand, 'systematic processing' involves much deeper levels of thought When people choose goods in this way, they engage in quite detailed analytical thinking - taking account of theproduct information, including its price, its perceived quality and so on This form of thinking, which is both analytical and conscious, involves much more mental effort

The role of packaging is likely to be very different for each of these types of decision making Under heuristic processing, for example, consumers may simply need to be able to distinguish thepack from those of competitors since they are choosing on the basis of what they usually do Under these circumstances, the simple perceptual features of the pack may be critical - so that wecan quickly discriminate what we choose from the other products on offer Under systematic processing, however, product-related information may be more important, so the pack has to provide this in an easily identifiable form

Comparing competition

Consumers will want to be able to compare the product with its competitors, so that they can determine which option is better for them A crucial role of packaging in this situation is to communicate the characteristics of the product, highlighting its advantages over possible

competitors

So, when are people likely to use a particular type of thinking? First, we know that people are cognitive misers; in other words, they are economical with their thinking because it requires someeffort from them Essentially, people only engage in effort-demanding systematic processing when the situation justifies it, for example when they are not tired or distracted and when the purchase is important to them

Second, people have an upper limit to the amount of information they can absorb If we present too much, therefore, they will become confused This, in turn, is likely to lead them to disengage and choose something else

Third, people often lack the knowledge or experience needed, so will not be able to deal with things they do not already understand, such as the ingredients of food products, for example

And fourth, people vary in the extent to which they enjoy thinking Our research has

differentiated between people with a high need for thinking - who routinely engage in analytical thinking - and those low in the need for cognition, who prefer to use very simple forms of

thinking

Effectiveness varies

This work has an important impact on packaging in that what makes packaging effective is likely

to vary according to the type of processing strategy that consumers use when choosing between products You need to understand how consumers are selecting your products if you are to

develop packaging that is relevant Furthermore, testing the effectiveness of your packaging can

be ineffective if the methods you are employing concern one form of thinking (e.g a focus group involving analytical thinking) but your consumers are purchasing in the other mode (i.e the heuristic, shallow form of thinking)

For the packaging industry, it is important that retailers identify their key goals Sustaining a consumer's commitment to a product may involve packaging that is distinctive at the heuristic level (if the consumers can recognize the product they will buy it) but without encouraging consumers to engage in systematic processing (prompting deeper level thinking that would include making comparisons with other products)

Conversely, getting consumers to change brands may involve developing packaging that includes information that does stimulate systematic processing and thus encourages consumers to

challenge their usual choice of product Our work is investigating these issues, and the

implications they have for developing effective packaging

Questions 1-6

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

Write answers in 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

1 Little research has been done on the link between packaging and consumers choosing a

product

2 A person who buys what another person recommends is using heuristic thinking

3 Heuristic processing requires more energy than systematic processing

4 The concept of heuristic processing was thought up by Dr Maule's team

5 A consumer who considers how mucha product costs, is using systematic processing

6 For heuristic processing, packaging must be similar to other products

Questions 7-8

Choose the correct answer A, B, C or D and write the answers in your answer sheet

7 When trying to determine how effective packaging is, testing can be made 'ineffective' if

A you rely upon a very narrow focus group

B your consumers use only heuristic thinking

C the chosen consumers use only shallow thinking

D your tests do not match the consumers' thinking type

8 If a retailer wants consumers to change brands their packaging needs to be

Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet

Comparing competition

For consumers who want to compare products, it is important that your packaging stresses the 9 of your product We know that people only use systematic processing if the 10 makes it necessary or desirable We also know that too much 11 could make consumers choose another product Furthermore, consumers may not fully understand details such as the 12 of a product While some people like using systematic

processing, others like to think in a 13 way

Click the button to Show/ Hide Answers

Answer:

1 TRUE 2 TRUE 3 FALSE 4 NOT GIVEN 5 TRUE 6 FALSE 7 D 8 A 9 advantages / characteristics 10 situation 11 information 12 Ingredients 13 Simple

IELTS Academic Reading Sample 168 - Robotic approach to crop breeding

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

Robotic approach to crop breeding

Jennifer Manyweathers takes a look at a robot that is being used to identify drought-tolerant crop varieties

A The Australian sunflower industry is the major source of polyunsaturated fatty acids found in

margarines and spreads Recognised as the type of fatty acid most able to protect against heart disease, it is in everybody's best interest that Australia has a competitive and healthy sunflower industry, but in Australia, there is a constant struggle with the harsh climate However, thanks to one special robot, farmers may be able to win the battle against drought

B Dr Chris Lambrides, a research fellow at the University of Queensland, is nearing the end of a

project that aims to develop more drought tolerant sunflowers by selecting flowers that use water more efficiently He's done this with the help of a robot developed by the Australian National University's Research School of Biological Sciences

C Plants undergo photosynthesis to produce energy in the form of sugar This involves allowing

carbon dioxide to enter the leaves through pores called stomata Transpiration is the mechanism

by which plants lose water through their leaves This system is thought to facilitate the passage ofminerals through the plant and is vital for healthy plants

D However, in conditions of drought, the plants that can use the available water efficiently and

lose less to the environment will be more likely to thrive and, in a commercial sense become more profitable These plants are classified as having a high transpiration efficiency When plantstranspire, the leaves become cooler due to evaporation Therefore, by measuring the temperature

of the leaves, scientists can determine how much water is being lost through transpiration

E When the project first began, the researchers used hand-held infrared thermometers to measure

the temperature difference between leaves of different varieties of sunflowers in an experimental plot Wind can affect leaf temperature, and the research team discovered that its initial approach did not cater for changes in wind speed, which could not be controlled as an experimental

variable The team, therefore, needed a technique to measure temperature continuously that would allow it to examine the effects of other variables such as humidity They needed a robot

F They designed a robot with two infrared thermometers set at 1800 to each other The robot runs

on an oblong track around the experimental plot and the thermometers operate on each side of thetrack In order to minimize any variables from the two thermometers, they are rotated 1800 at the beginning of each run and the results are averaged The infrared thermometers can be rotated on

an angle to examine different parts of the foliage

G The robot is also able to detect light intensity It has a garage on the track, where it waits until

the light intensity is high enough to give useful results If the skies darken due to rain, heavy cloud cover or sunset, the robot makes its way back to the garage to wait

H The main difficulty faced by the research group was to find an agronomist who could grow the

perfect crop of sunflowers The sunflower canopy had to be complete, with no visible soil, 50 thatthe thermometers would only measure the temperature of the plants and not the surrounding environment Eight varieties of sunflower were examined The data collected by the robot has been used by the research team to determine which variety has the highest transpiration

efficiency

I This is not the first time such methods have been used to determine drought-resistance in plants.

The team and their robot have already made a major breakthrough in the Australian wheat

industry with Drysdale Wheat, which signalled the arrival of a new technique for selecting drought-resistant species

Questions 1-4

Complete the sentences with words taken from the passage

Use NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet

1 In terms of our health, sunflowers are important in defending humans

The reading passage has nine paragraphs labelled A-I.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter A-I in boxes 5-12 on your answer sheet.

5 the precise growing conditions required to allow the experiment to work

6 a description of the how the robot operates

7 an explanation of two important processes used by plants

8 a reference to a previous study using a different crop

9 details of what the robot does when conditions are poor

10 the name of the group responsible for making the robot

11 the number of different types of sunflower tested

12 the purpose of taking the temperature of the plants

Click the button to Show/ Hide Answers

Answer:

1 heart disease 2 drought 3 transpiration 4 wind 5 H 6 F 7 C 8 I 9 G 10 B 11

H 12 D

IELTS Academic Reading Sample 169 - Experience versus speed

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

Experience versus speed

Certain mental functions slow down with age, but the brain compensates in ways that can keep

seniors as sharp as youngsters.

Jake, aged 16, has a terrific relationship with his grandmother Rita, who is 70 They live close by,and they even take a Spanish class together twice a week at a local college After class, they sometimes stop at a cafe for a snack On one occasion, Rita tells Jake, 'I think it's great how fast you pick up new grammar It takes me a lot longer.' Jake replies, 'Yeah, but you don't seem to make as many silly mistakes on the quizzes as I do How do you do that?'

In that moment, Rita and Jake stumbled across an interesting set of differences between older andyounger minds Popular psychology says that as people age their brains 'slow down' The

implication, of course, is that elderly men and women are not as mentally agile as middle-aged adults or even teenagers However, although certain brain functions such as perception and reaction time do indeed take longer, that slowing down does not necessarily undermine mental sharpness Indeed, evidence shows that older people are just as mentally fit as younger people because their brains compensate for some kinds of declines in creative ways that young minds do not exploit

Just as people's bodies age at different rates, so do their minds As adults advance in age, the perception of sights, sounds and smells takes a bit longer, and laying down new information into memory becomes more difficult The ability to retrieve memories also quickly slides and it is sometimes harder to concentrate and maintain attention

On the other hand, the ageing brain can create significant benefits by tapping into its extensive hoard of accumulated knowledge and experience The biggest trick that older brains employ is to use both hemispheres simultaneously to handle tasks for which younger brains rely

predominantly on one side Electronic images taken by cognitive scientists at the University of Michigan, for example, have demonstrated that even when doing basic recognition or

memorization exercises, seniors exploit the left and right side of the brain more extensively than men and women who are decades younger Drawing on both sides of the brain gives them a tactical edge, even if the speed of each hemisphere's process is slower

In another experiment, Michael Falkenstein of the University of Dortmund in Germany found that when elders were presented with new computer exercises they paused longer before reacting and took longer to complete the tasks, yet they made 50% fewer errors, probably because of their more deliberate pace

One analogy for these results might be the question of who can type a paragraph 'better': a year-old who glides along at 60 words per minute but has to double back to correct a number of mistakes or a 70-year-old who strikes keys at only 40 words per minute but spends less time fixing errors? In the end, if 'better' is defined as completing a clean paragraph both people may

16-end up taking the same amount of time.

Computerized tests support the notion that accuracy can offset speed In one so-called distraction exercise, subjects were told to look at a screen, wait for an arrow that pointed in a certain

direction to appear, and then use a mouse to click on the arrow as soon as it appeared on the screen Just before the correct symbol appeared, however, the computer displayed numerous other arrows aimed in various other directions Although younger subjects cut through the

confusion faster when the correct arrow suddenly popped up, they more frequently clicked on incorrect arrows in their haste

Older test takers are equally capable of other tasks that do not depend on speed, such as language comprehension and processing In these cases, however the elders utilize the brain's available resources in a different way Neurologists at Northwest University came to this conclusion after analyzing 50 people ranging from age 23 to 78 The subjects had to lie down in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine and concentrate on two different lists of printed words posted side by side in front of them By looking at the lists, they were to find pairs of words that were similar in either meaning or spelling

The eldest participants did just as well on the tests as the youngest did, and yet the MRI scans indicated that in the elders' brains, the areas which are responsible for language recognition and interpretation were much less active The researchers did find that the older people had more activity in brain regions responsible for attentiveness Darren Gleitman, who headed the study, concluded that older brains solved the problems just as effectively but by different means

Questions 1-3

Choose the correct answer A, B, C or D and write them on your answer sheet from 1-3

1 The conversation between Jake and Rita is used to give an example of

A the way we learn languages

B the changes that occur in our brains over time

C the fact that it is easier to learn a language at a young age

D the importance of young and old people doing things together

2 In paragraph six, what point is the analogy used to illustrate?

A Working faster is better than working slower

B Accuracy is less important than speed

C Accuracy can improve over time

D Working faster does not always save time

3 In the computerized distraction exercises, the subjects had to

A react to a particular symbol on the screen

B type a text as quickly as possible

C move an arrow in different directions around the screen

D click on every arrow that appeared on the screen

Questions 4-7

Complete each sentence with the correct ending A-F

Write the correct letter A-F in boxes 4-7 on your answer sheet

4 According to popular psychology

5 Researchers at the University of Michigan showed that

6 Michael Falkenstein discovered that

7 Scientists at Northwest University concluded that

A the older we get the harder it is to concentrate for any length of time

B seniors take longer to complete tasks but with greater accuracy

C old people use both parts of their brain more than young people

D older people use their brains differently but achieve the same result

E the speed of our brain decreases with age

F older people do not cope well with new technology

Questions 8-12

Complete the summary below

Choose NO MORE THAN ONE WORD from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in spaces 8-12 of your answer sheet.

People's bodies and 8 grow older at varying stages As we age our senses take longer to process information and our aptitude for recalling 9 also decreases However, older people's brains do have several advantages Firstly, they can call upon both the

10 and 11 which is already stored in their brain Secondly, although the 12 of each side of their brain is reduced, they are able to use both sides at once

Click the button to Show/ Hide Answers

Answer:

1 B 2 D 3 A 4 E 5 C 6 B 7 D 8 minds 9 memories 10 & 11 knowledge, experience (in either order) 12 speed

IELTS Academic Reading Sample 170 - Urban planning in Singapore

Urban planning in SingaporeBritish merchants established a trading post in Singapore in the early nineteenth century, and for more than a century trading interests dominated However, in 1965 the newly independent island state was cut off from its hinterland, and so it set about pursuing a survival strategy The good international communications it already enjoyed provided a useful base, but it was decided that if

Singapore was to secure its economic future, it must develop its industry To this end, new

institutional structures were needed to facilitate, develop, and control foreign investment One of the most important of these was the Economic Development Board (EDB), an arm of governmentthat developed strategies for attracting investment Thus from the outset, the Singaporean

government was involved in city promotion

Towards the end of the twentieth century, the government realised that, due to limits on both the size of the country’s workforce and its land area, its labour-intensive industries were becoming increasingly uncompetitive So an economic committee was established which concluded that Singapore should focus on developing as a service centre, and seek to attract company

headquarters to serve South East Asia, and develop tourism, banking, and offshore activities The land required for this service-sector orientation had been acquired in the early 1970s, when the government realised that it lacked the banking infrastructure for a modern economy So a new banking and corporate district, known as the ‘Golden Shoe’, was planned, incorporating the historic commercial area This district now houses all the major companies and various

government financial agencies

Singapore’s current economic strategy is closely linked to land use and development planning Although it is already a major city, the current development plan seeks to ensure Singapore’s continued economic growth through restructuring, to ensure that the facilities needed by future business are planned now These include transport and telecommunication infrastructure, land, and environmental quality A major concern is to avoid congestion in the central area, and so the latest plan deviates from previous plans by having a strong decentralisation policy The plan makes provision for four major regional centres, each serving 800,000 people, but this does not mean that the existing central business district will not also grow A major extension planned around Marina Bay draws on examples of other ‘world cities’, especially those with waterside central areas such as Sydney and San Francisco The project involves major land reclamation of

667 hectares in total Part of this has already been developed as a conference and exhibition zone,and the rest will be used for other facilities However the need for vitality has been recognised and a mixed zoning approach has been adopted, to include housing and entertainment

One of the new features of the current plan is a broader conception of what contributes to

economic success It encompasses high-quality residential provision, a good environment, leisurefacilities and exciting city life Thus there is more provision for low-density housing, often in waterfront communities linked to beaches and recreational facilities However, the lower housing densities will put considerable pressure on the very limited land available for development, and this creates problems for another of the plan’s aims, which is to stress environmental quality

More and more of the remaining open area will be developed, and the only natural landscape surviving will be a small zone in the centre of the island which serves as a water catchment area Environmental policy is therefore very much concerned with making the built environment more green by introducing more plants – what is referred to as the ‘beautification’ of Singapore The plan focuses on green zones defining the boundaries of settlements, and running along transport corridors The incidental green provision within housing areas is also given considerable

attention

Much of the environmental provision, for example, golf courses, recreation areas, and beaches, is linked to the prime objective of attracting business The plan places much emphasis on good leisure provision and the need to exploit Singapore’s island setting One way of doing this is through further land reclamation, to create a whole new island devoted to leisure and luxury housing which will stretch from the central area to the airport A current concern also appears to

be how to use the planning system to create opportunities for greater spontaneity: planners have recently given much attention to the concept of the 24-hour city and the cafe society For

example, a promotion has taken place along the Singapore river to create a cafe zone This has included the realisation, rather late in the day, of the value of retaining older buildings, and the creation of a continuous riverside promenade Since the relaxation in 1996 of strict guidelines on outdoor eating areas, this has become an extremely popular area in the evenings Also, in 1998 the Urban Redevelopment Authority created a new entertainment area in the centre of the city which they are promoting as ‘the city’s one-stop, dynamic entertainment scene’

In conclusion, the economic development of Singapore has been very consciously centrally planned, and the latest strategy is very clearly oriented to establishing Singapore as a leading

‘world city’ It is well placed to succeed, for a variety of reasons It can draw upon its historic roots as a world trading centre; it has invested heavily in telecommunications and air transport infrastructure; it is well located in relation to other Asian economies; it has developed a safe and clean environment, and it has utilised the international language of English

Question 14-19

Complete the summary below using words from the box

Singapore

When Singapore became an independent, self-sufficient state it decided to build up its

14 , and government organisations were created to support this policy However, this initial plan met with limited success due to a shortage of 15 and land It was

therefore decided to develop the 16 sector of the economy instead

Singapore is now a leading city, but planners are working to ensure that its economy continues to grow In contrast to previous policies, there is an emphasis on 17 In addition, the land will be recovered to extend the financial district, and provide 18 as well as housing The government also plans to improve the quality of Singapore’s environment, but due

to the shortage of natural landscapes it will concentrate instead on what it calls 19

Question 20-26

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 62? 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.

20 After 1965, the Singaporean government switched the focus of the island’s economy

IELTS Academic Reading Sample 171 - Diabetes

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1 – 14 which are based on Reading Passage

171 below

DIABETESHere are some facts that you probably didn’t know about diabetes It is the world’s fastest

growing disease It is Australia’s 6th leading cause of death Over 1 million Australians have it though 50% of those are as yet unaware Every 10 minutes someone is diagnosed with diabetes

So much for the facts but what exactly is diabetes?

Diabetes is the name given to a group of different conditions in which there is too much glucose

in the blood Here’s what happens: the body needs glucose as its main source of fuel or energy The body makes glucose from foods containing carbohydrate such as vegetables containing carbohydrate (like potatoes or corn) and cereal foods (like bread, pasta and rice) as well as fruit and milk Glucose is carried around the body in the blood and the glucose level is called

glycaemia Glycaemia (blood sugar levels) in humans and animals must be neither too high nor too low, but just right The glucose running around in the blood stream now has to get out of the blood and into the body tissues This is where insulin enters the story Insulin is a hormone made

by the pancreas, a gland sitting just below the stomach Insulin opens the doors that let glucose gofrom the blood to the body cells where energy is made This process is called glucose

metabolism In diabetes, the pancreas either cannot make insulin or the insulin it does make is notenough and cannot work properly Without insulin doing its job, the glucose channels are shut Glucose builds up in the blood leading to high blood glucose levels, which causes the health problems linked to diabetes

People refer to the disease as diabetes but there are actually two distinctive types of the disease Type 1 diabetes is a condition characterized by high blood glucose levels caused by a total lack ofinsulin It occurs when the body’s immune system attacks the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas and destroys them The pancreas then produces little or no insulin Type 1 diabetes develops most often in young people but can appear in adults Type 2 diabetes is the most

common form of diabetes In type 2 diabetes, either the body does not produce enough insulin or

the cells ignore the insulin Insulin is necessary for the body to be able to use sugar Sugar is the basic fuel for the cells in the body, and insulin takes the sugar from the blood into the cells.

The diagnosis of diabetes often depends on what type the patient is suffering from In Type 1 diabetes, symptoms are usually sudden and sometimes even life threatening - hyperglycaemia (high blood sugar levels) can lead to comas – and therefore it is mostly diagnosed quite quickly

In Type 2 diabetes, many people have no symptoms at all, while other signs can go unnoticed, being seen as part of ‘getting older’ Therefore, by the time symptoms are noticed, the blood glucose level for many people can be very high Common symptoms include: being more thirsty than usual, passing more urine, feeling lethargic, always feeling hungry, having cuts that heal slowly, itching, skin infections, bad breath, blurred vision, unexplained weight change, mood swings, headaches, feeling dizzy and leg cramps

At present, there is no cure for diabetes, but there is a huge amount of research looking for a cure and to provide superior management techniques and products until a cure is found Whether it’s Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, the aim of any diabetes treatment is to get your blood glucose levels asclose to the non-diabetic range as often as possible For people with Type 1 diabetes, this will mean insulin injections every day plus leading a healthy lifestyle For people with Type 2

diabetes, healthy eating and regular physical activity may be all that is required at first:

sometimes tablets and/or insulin may be needed later on Ideally, blood glucose levels are kept as close to the non-diabetic range as possible so frequent self-testing is a good idea This will help prevent the short-term effects of very low or very high blood glucose levels as well as the

possible long-term problems If someone is dependent on insulin, it has to be injected into the body Insulin cannot be taken as a pill The insulin would be broken down during digestion just like the protein in food Insulin must be injected into the fat under your skin for it to get into yourblood Diabetes can cause serious complications for patients When glucose builds up in the blood instead of going into cells, it can cause problems Short term problems are similar to the symptoms but long term high blood sugar levels can lead to heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, amputations and blindness Having your blood pressure and cholesterol outside recommended ranges can also lead to problems like heart attack and stroke and in fact 2 out of 3 people with diabetes eventually die of these complications Young adults age 18 - 44 who get type 2 diabetes are 14 times more likely to suffer a heart attack, and are up to 30 times more likely to have a stroke than their peers without diabetes Young women account for almost all the increase in heartattack risk, while young men are twice as likely to suffer a stroke as young women This means that huge numbers of people are going to get heart disease, heart attacks and strokes years, sometimes even decades, before they should

Questions 1 - 7

Do the following statements reflect the views of the writer in Reading Passage 171?

In boxes 1 - 7 on your answer sheet write:

YES if the statement agrees with the information

NO if the statement contradicts the statement

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this in the passage

1 Carbohydrate foods are the body’s source of glucose.

2 Diabetics cannot produce insulin.

3 Some patients develop diabetes due to faults in their own immune systems

4 Hyperglycaemia leads to type 1 diabetes being diagnosed quite quickly.

5 Artificial insulin is the most effective treatment for those patients requiring insulin.

6 Frequent checkups at the doctor can drastically reduce the chances of suffering from problems

related to diabetes

7 The majority of diabetics develop heart problems or suffer strokes.

Questions 8 - 11

Complete the following statements with the best ending from the box below

Write the appropriate letters A - H in boxes 8 - 11 on your answer sheet.

8 Bizarre as it may seem, many people with diabetes…

9 Insulin is a hormone that allows glucose to be absorbed by…

10 Non-severe type 2 diabetes can be solely treated by…

11 Increases in diabetes-related heart problems are mainly seen in…

According to the text which of the following are symptoms of diabetes?

Choose THREE letters (A – G) and write them in boxes 12 – 14 on your answer sheet.

A hot flushes

B muscle pains