IELTS LECTURE READING TEXTS (6.0)

And also the water they are drinking is clean water, so there is less disease.' The villagers have also stopped using kerosene and can use the money previously spent on fuel to buy othe

IELTS

READING 6.0

Lecture Texts

Teacher Kieran

Does your mother tongue really affect the way you see the world?

Does the language you speak influence the way you think? Does it help define your world view? Anyone who has tried to master a foreign tongue has at least thought aboutthe possibility

At first glance the idea seems perfectly plausible Conveying even simple messages requires that you make completely different observations depending on your language Imagine being asked to count some pens on a table As an English speaker, you only have to count them and give the number But a Russian may need to consider the gender and a Japanese speaker has to take into account their shape (long and

cylindrical) as well, and use the number word designated for items of that shape

On the other hand, surely pens are just pens, no matter what your language compels you to specify about them? Little linguistic peculiarities, though amusing, don’t change the objective world we are describing So how can they alter the way we think?

Scientists and philosophers have been grappling with this thorny question for centuries There have always been those who argue that our picture of the Universe depends on our native tongue Since the 1960s, however, with the ascent of thinkers like Noam Chomsky, and a host of cognitive scientists, the consensus has been that linguistic differences don’t really matter, that language is a universal human trait, and that our ability to talk to one another owes more to our shared genetics than to our varying cultures But now the pendulum is beginning to swing the other way as psychologists re-examine the question

A new generation of scientists is not convinced that language is innate and hard-wired into our brain and they say that small, even apparently insignificant differences between languages do affect the way speakers perceive the world ‘The brain is shaped by experience,’ says Dan Slobin of the University of California at Berkeley ‘Some people argue that language just changes what you attend to,’ says Lera Boroditsky of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ‘But what you attend to changes what you

encode and remember.’ In short, it changes how you think

To start with the simplest and perhaps subtlest example, preparing to say something in

a particular language demands that you pay attention to certain things and ignore

others In Korean, for instance, simply to say ‘hello’ you need to know if you’re older or younger than the person you’re addressing Spanish speakers have to decide whether they are on intimate enough terms to call someone by the informal tu rather than the formal Usted In Japanese, simply deciding which form of the word ‘I’ to use demands complex calculations involving things such as your gender, their gender and your

relative status Slobin argues that this process can have a huge impact on what we deem important and, ultimately, how we think about the world

researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Psycholinguistics in the Netherlands He has compared American English with Yucatec Maya, spoken in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.Among the many differences between the two languages is the way objects are

classified In English, shape is implicit in many nouns We think in terms of discrete objects, and it is only when we want to quantify amorphous things like sugar that we employ units such as ‘cube’ or ‘cup’ But in Yucatec, objects tend to be defined by separate words that describe shape So, for example, ‘long banana’ describes the fruit, while ‘flat banana’ means the ‘banana leaf’ and ‘seated banana’ is the ‘banana tree’

To find out if this classification system has any far-reaching effects on how people think, Lucy asked English- and Yucatec-speaking volunteers to do a likeness task In one experiment, he gave them three combs and asked which two were most alike One was plastic with a handle, another wooden with a handle, the third plastic without a handle English speakers thought the combs with handles were more alike, but Yucatec

speakers felt the two plastic combs were In another test, Lucy used a plastic box, a cardboard box and a piece of cardboard The Americans thought the two boxes

belonged together, whereas the Mayans chose the two cardboard items In other words,Americans focused on form, while the Mayans focused on substance

Despite some criticism of his findings, Lucy points to his studies indicating that, at aboutthe age of eight, differences begin to emerge that reflect language ‘Everyone comes with the same possibilities,’ he says, ‘but there’s a tendency to make the world fi t into our linguistic categories.’ Boroditsky agrees, arguing that even artificial classification systems, such as gender, can be important

Nevertheless, the general consensus is that while the experiments done by Lucy,

Boroditsky and others may be intriguing, they are not compelling enough to shift the orthodox view that language does not have a strong bearing on thought or perception The classic example used by Chomskians to back this up is colour Over the years many researchers have tried to discover whether linguistic differences in categorising colours lead to differences in perceiving them Colours, after all, fall on a continuous spectrum, so we shouldn’t be surprised if one person’s ‘red’ is another person’s

‘orange’ Yet most studies suggest that people agree on where the boundaries are, regardless of the colour terms used in their own language

1 Learning a foreign language makes people consider the relationship between

language and thought

2 In the last century cognitive scientists believed that linguistic differences had a critical

effect on communication

3 Dan Slobin agrees with Chomsky on how we perceive the world.

4 Boroditsky has conducted gender experiments on a range of speakers.

5 The way we perceive colour is a well-established test of the effect of language on

thought

Look at the following features (Questions 6-10) and the list of languages below Match each feature with the correct language, A–E.

A Russian

B Japanese

C Korean

D Spanish

E Yucatec Maya

6 the importance of the relative age of speakers .

7 the use of adjectives to distinguish the names of objects or things .

8 a need to use some numbers with the correct gender .

9 a relationship between form and number .

10 the need to know how friendly your relationship is with the person you are addressing

Questions 11-14

Complete the summary below using ONE WORD ONLY from the box for each answer.

Lucy’s Experiments

In the likeness task, Lucy gave his subjects three combs Two of these were made of

the same 11.… and two were alike in that they had the same 12 In another

experiment, plastic and 13… items were used.

The 14… that English and Yucatec speakers used to group these objects helped him

show that speakers of different languages think about things differently

THE BOY WHO HARNESSED THE WIND

In 2002, William Kamkwamba had to drop out of school, as his father, a maize and tobacco farmer, could no longer afford his school fees But despite this setback, William was determined

to get his education He began visiting a local library that had just opened in his old primary school, where he discovered a tattered science book With only a rudimentary grasp of English,

he taught himself basic physics - mainly by studying photos and diagrams Another book he found there featured windmills on the cover and inspired him to try and build his own.

He started by constructing a small model Then, with the help of a cousin and friend, he spent many weeks searching scrap yards and found old tractor fans, shock absorbers, plastic pipe and bicycle parts, which he used to build the real thing.

For windmill blades, William cut some bath pipe in two lengthwise, then heated the pieces over hot coals to press the curled edges flat To bore holes into the blades, he stuck a nail through half a corncob, heated the metal red and twisted it through the blades It took three hours to repeatedly heat the nail and bore the holes He attached the blades to a tractor fan using proper nuts and bolts and then to the back axle of a bicycle Electricity was generated through the bicycle dynamo When the wind blew the blades, the bike chain spun the bike wheel, which charged the dynamo and sent a current through wire to his house.

What he had built was a crude machine that produced 12 volts and powered four lights When it was all done, the windmill's wingspan measured more than eight feet and sat on top of a rickety tower 15 feet tall that swayed violently in strong gales He eventually replaced the tower with a sturdier one that stands 39 feet, and built a second machine that watered a family garden The windmill brought William Kamkwamba instant local fame, but despite his accomplishment,

he was still unable to return to school However, news of his magetsi a mphepo - electric wind - spread beyond Malawi, and eventually things began to change An education official, who had heard news of the windmill, came to visit his village and was amazed to learn that William had been out of school for five years He arranged for him to attend secondary school at the

government's expense and brought journalists to the farm to see the windmill Then a story published in the Malawi Daily Mail caught the attention of bloggers, which in turn caught the attention of organisers for the Technology Entertainment and Design conference.

In 2007, William spoke at the TED Global conference in Tanzania and got a standing ovation Businessmen stepped forward with offers to fund his education and projects, and with money donated by them, he was able to put his cousin and several friends back into school and pay for some medical needs of his family With the donation, he also drilled a borehole for a well and water pump in his village and installed drip irrigation in his father's fields.

The water pump has allowed his family to expand its crops They have abandoned tobacco and now grow maize, beans, soybeans, potatoes and peanuts The windmills have also brought big lifestyle and health changes to the other villagers 'The village has changed a lot,' William says 'Now, the time that they would have spent going to fetch water, they are using for doing other things And also the water they are drinking is clean water, so there is less disease.' The

villagers have also stopped using kerosene and can use the money previously spent on fuel to buy other things.

William Kamkwamba's example has inspired other children in the village to pursue science William says they now see that if they put their mind to something, they can achieve it 'It has changed the way people think,' he says.

Questions 1-5

Complete the flow chart below.

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

Building the Windmill

William learned some (1)… from a library book.

First, he built a (2)… of the windmill.

Then he collected materials from (3)… with a relative.

He made the windmill blades from pieces of (4)…

He fixed the blades to a (5)… and then to part of a bicycle. He raised the blades on a tower. Questions 6-10 Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage? In boxes 6-10 on your answer sheet write: TRUE, FALSE or NOT GIVEN 6 William used the electricity he created for village transport .

7 At first, William's achievement was ignored by local people .

8 Journalists from other countries visited William's farm .

9 William used money he received to improve water supplies in his village .

10 The health of the villagers has improved since the windmill was built .

Questions 11-13

Use NO MORE THAN ONE WORD and/or a NUMBER from the passage for each answer.

11 How tall was the final tower that William built?

12 What did the villagers use for fuel before the windmill was built?

13 What school subject has become more popular in William's village?

THE US CITY AND THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT A) While cities and their metropolitan areas have always interacted with and shaped the

natural environment, it is only recently that historians have begun to consider this

relationship During our own time, the tension between natural and urbanized areas hasincreased, as the spread of metropolitan populations and urban land uses has reshapedand destroyed natural landscapes and environments

B) The relationship between the city and the natural environment has actually been

circular, with cities having massive effects on the natural environment, while the natural environment, in turn, has profoundly shaped urban configurations Urban history is filled with stories about how city dwellers contended with the forces of nature that threatened their lives Nature not only caused many of the annoyances of daily urban life, such as bad weather and pests, but it also gave rise to natural disasters and catastrophes such

as floods, fires, and earthquakes In order to protect themselves and their settlements against the forces of nature, cities built many defences including flood walls and dams, earthquake-resistant buildings, and storage places for food and water At times, such protective steps sheltered urbanites against the worst natural furies, but often their own actions – such as building under the shadow of volcanoes, or in earthquake-prone zones – exposed them to danger from natural hazards

C) City populations require food, water, fuel, and construction materials, while urban

industries need natural materials for production purposes In order to fulfill these needs, urbanites increasingly had to reach far beyond their boundaries In the nineteenth

century, for instance, the demands of city dwellers for food produced rings of garden farms around cities In the twentieth century, as urban populations increased, the

demand for food drove the rise of large factory farms Cities also require fresh water supplies in order to exist – engineers built waterworks, dug wells deeper and deeper into the earth looking for groundwater, and dammed and diverted rivers to obtain water supplies for domestic and industrial uses In the process of obtaining water from distant locales, cities often transformed them, making deserts where there had been fertile agricultural areas

D) Urbanites had to seek locations to dispose of the wastes they produced Initially, they

placed wastes on sites within the city, polluting the air, land, and water with industrial and domestic effluents As cities grew larger, they disposed of their wastes by

transporting them to more distant locations Thus, cities constructed sewerage systems for domestic wastes They usually discharged the sewage into neighbouring waterways,often polluting the water supply of downstream cities

The air and the land also became dumps for waste disposal In the late nineteenth century, coal became the preferred fuel for industrial, transportation, and domestic use But while providing an inexpensive and plentiful energy supply, coal was also very dirty The cities that used it suffered from air contamination and reduced sunlight, while the cleaning tasks of householders were greatly increased

E) In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, reformers began demanding

urban environmental cleanups and public health improvements Women's groups often took the lead in agitating for clean air and clean water, showing a greater concern than men in regard to quality of life and health-related issues The replacement of the horse, first by electric trolleys and then by the car, brought about substantial improvements in street and air sanitation The movements demanding clean air, however, and reduction

of waterway pollution were largely unsuccessful On balance, urban sanitary conditions were probably somewhat better in the 1920s than in the late nineteenth century, but the cost of improvement often was the exploitation of urban hinterlands for water supplies, increased downstream water pollution, and growing automobile congestion and

pollution

F) In the decades after the 1940s, city environments suffered from heavy pollution as

they sought to cope with increased automobile usage, pollution from industrial

production, new varieties of chemical pesticides and the wastes of an increasingly consumer-oriented economy Cleaner fuels and smoke control laws largely freed cities during the 1940s and 1950s of the dense smoke that they had previously suffered from Improved urban air quality resulted largely from the substitution of natural gas and oil forcoal and the replacement of the steam locomotive by the diesel-electric However, greatincreases in automobile usage in some larger cities produced the new phenomenon of smog, and air pollution replaced smoke as a major concern

G) During these decades, the suburban out-migration, which had begun in the

nineteenth century with commuter trains and streetcars and accelerated because of the availability and convenience of the automobile, now increased to a torrent, putting majorstrains on the formerly rural and undeveloped metropolitan fringes To a great extent, suburban layouts ignored environmental considerations, making little provision for open space, producing endless rows of resource-consuming and fertilizer-dependent lawns, contaminating groundwater through leaking septic tanks, and absorbing excessive amounts of fresh water and energy The growth of the outer city since the 1970s

reflected a continued preference on the part of many people in the western world for space-intensive single-family houses surrounded by lawns, for private automobiles over public transit, and for the development of previously untouched areas Without better planning for land use and environmental protection, urban life will, as it has in the past, continue to damage and stress the natural environment

Choose the correct heading for each section (A-G) from the list below.

Write the correct number, i-x

List of Phrases:

i) Legislation brings temporary improvements

ii) The increasing speed of suburban development

iii) A new area of academic interest

iv) The impact of environmental extremes on city planning

v) The first campaigns for environmental change

vi) Building cities in earthquake zones

vii) The effect of global warming on cities

viii) Adapting areas surrounding cities to provide resources

ix) Removing the unwanted by-products of city life

x) Providing health information for city dwellers

1 Paragraph A

2 Paragraph B

3 Paragraph C

4 Paragraph D

5 Paragraph E

6 Paragraph F

7 Paragraph G

Do the following statements agree with the information given in the text? Write: TRUE, FALSE or NOT GIVEN 8 In the nineteenth century, water was brought into the desert to create productive farming land

9 Women were often the strongest campaigners for environmental reform

10 Reducing urban air and water pollution in the early twentieth century was extremely expensive

11 The introduction of the car led to increased suburban development

12 Suburban lifestyles in many western nations fail to take account of environmental protection

13 Many governments in the developed world are trying to halt the spread of the suburbs

SENDING MONEY HOME

A Every year millions of migrants travel vast distances using borrowed money for

their airfares and taking little or no cash with them They seek a decent job to support themselves with money left over that they can send home to their families in developing countries These remittances exceeded $400 billion last year It is true that the actual rate per person is only about $200 per month but it all adds up to about triple the

amount officially spent on development aid

B In some of the poorer, unstable or conflict-torn countries, these sums of money are

a lifeline – the only salvation for those left behind The decision to send money home is often inspired by altruism – an unselfish desire to help others Then again, the cash might simply be an exchange for earlier services rendered by the recipients or it could

be intended for investment by the recipients Often it will be repayment of a loan used tofinance the migrant’s travel and resettlement

C At the first sign of trouble, political or financial upheaval, these personal sources of

support do not suddenly dry up like official investment monies Actually, they increase in order to ease the hardship and suffering of the migrants’ families and, unlike

development aid, which is channeled through government or other official agencies, remittances go straight to those in need Thus, they serve an insurance role, responding

in a countercyclical way to political and economic crises

D This flow of migrant money has a huge economic and social impact on the

receiving countries It provides cash for food, housing and necessities It funds

education and healthcare and contributes towards the upkeep of the elderly Extra money is sent for special events such as weddings, funerals or urgent medical

procedures and other emergencies Occasionally it becomes the capital for starting up asmall enterprise

E Unfortunately, recipients hardly ever receive the full value of the money sent back

home because of exorbitant transfer fees Many money transfer companies and banks operate on a fixed fee, which is unduly harsh for those sending small sums at a time Others charge a percentage, which varies from around 8% to 20% or more dependent

on the recipient country There are some countries where there is a low fixed charge pertransaction; however, these cheaper fees are not applied internationally because of widespread concern over money laundering Whether this is a genuine fear or just an excuse is hard to say If the recipients live in a small village somewhere, usually the onlyoption is to obtain their money through the local post office Regrettably, many

governments allow post offices to have an exclusive affiliation with one particular moneytransfer operator so there is no alternative but to pay the extortionate charge

F The sums of money being discussed here might seem negligible on an individual

basis but they are substantial in totality If the transfer cost could be reduced to no more than one per cent, that would release another $30 billion dollars annually –

approximately the total aid budget of the USA, the largest donor worldwide – directly into the hands of the world’s poorest If this is not practicable, governments could at least acknowledge that small remittances do not come from organised crime networks, and ease regulations accordingly They should put an end to restrictive alliances

between post offices and money transfer operators or at least open up the system to competition Alternately, a non-government humanitarian organisation, which would have the expertise to navigate the elaborate red tape, could set up a non-profit

remittance platform for migrants to send money home for little or no cost

G Whilst contemplating the best system for transmission of migrant earnings to the

home country, one should consider the fact that migrants often manage to save

reasonable amounts of money in their adopted country More often than not, that money

is in the form of bank deposits earning a tiny percentage of interest, none at all or even

a negative rate of interest

H If a developing country or a large charitable society could sell bonds with a

guaranteed return of three or four per cent on the premise that the invested money would be used to build infrastructure in that country, there would be a twofold benefit Migrants would make a financial gain and see their savings put to work in the

development of their country of origin The ideal point of sale for these bonds would be the channel used for money transfers so that, when migrants show up to make their monthly remittance, they could buy bonds as well Advancing the idea one step further, why not make this transmission hub the conduit for affluent migrants to donate to worthycauses in their homeland so they may share their prosperity with their compatriots on a larger scale?

Reading Passage 1 has seven paragraphs, A–G.

Choose the correct heading for paragraphs from the list of headings below.

List of Headings

i Stability of remittances in difficult times

ii Effect of cutback in transaction fees

iii Targeted investments and contributions

iv Remittances for business investment

v How to lower transmission fees

vi Motivations behind remittances

vii Losses incurred during transmission

viii Remittances worth more than official aid

ix How recipients utilise remittances

x Frequency and size of remittances

xi Poor returns on migrant savings

Complete the summary below.

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

Countries are unwilling to enforce lower transaction fees as they are worried

about 8 ……… , and villagers lose out when post offices have a special

relationship with one particular money transfer agency

Each remittance might be small but the total cost of remittance fees is huge

Governments should 9 ……… on small amounts and end the current post office

system or make it more competitive Another idea would be for a large non-profit

association, capable of handling complicated 10 ……… to take charge of

migrant remittances

Migrants who send money home are able to save money, too, but it receives little or no

interest from 11 ……… If a country or organisation sold bonds that earned a

reasonable rate of interest for the investor, that money could fund the development of

homeland 12 ……… The bonds could be sold at the remittance centre, which could also take donations from 13 ……… to fund charitable projects in their

home country