IELTS reading sample 1 6

IELTS reading sample 1 – 6IELTS reading sample 1 Air Rage A The first recorded case of an airline passenger turning seriously violent during a flight, a phenomenon now widely known as “a

IELTS reading sample 1 – 6

IELTS reading sample 1

Air Rage

(A) The first recorded case of an airline passenger turning seriously violent

during a flight, a phenomenon now widely known as “air rage”, happened in

1947 on a flight from Havana to Miami A drunk man assaulted anotherpassenger and bit a flight attendant However, the man escapedpunishment because it was not then clear under whose legal control acrime committed on plane was, the country where the plane was registered

or the country where the crime was committed In 1963, at the Tokyoconvention, it was decided that the laws of the country where the plane isregistered take precedence

(B) The frequency of air rage has expanded out of proportion to the growth

of air travel Until recently few statistics were gathered about air rage, butthose that have been indicate that passengers are increasingly likely tocause trouble or engage in violent acts For example, in 1998 there were

266 air rage incidents out of approximately four million passengers, a 400%increase from 1995 In the same period American Airlines showed a 200%rise Air travel is predicted to rise by 5% internationally by 2010 leading toincreased airport congestion This, coupled with the flying public’sincreased aggression, means that air rage may become a major issue incoming years

(C) Aside from discomfort and disruption, air rage poses some very real

dangers to flying The most extreme of these is when out of controlpassengers enter the cockpit This has actually happened on a number ofoccasions, the worst of which have resulted in the death and injury of pilots

or the intruder taking control of the plane, almost resulting in crashes Inaddition, berserk passengers sometimes attempt to open the emergencydoors while in flight, putting the whole aircraft in danger These are extremeexamples and cases of air rage more commonly result in physical assaults

on fellow passengers and crew such as throwing objects, punching,stabbing or scalding with hot coffee

(D) The causes of air rage are not known for certain, but it is generally thought that factors include:

passenger behavior and personality, the physical environment and changes in society A recent study has identified the issues that start the incidents to be as follows.

(E) One of the major causes seems to be the passenger’s behavior or their

personality Fear of flying and the feeling of powerlessness associated withflying can lead to irritable or aggressive passengers Also, alcoholconsumed on a plane pressurized to 8000ft affects the drinker more quicklyand the effects are stronger Many people do not take account of this anddrinking may increase any negative reaction to the flying environment theyhave, which, combined with the lowering of their inhibitions, may cause airrage Smoking withdrawal, which some liken in severity to opiatewithdrawal, is another major cause of air rage incidents Passengers caughtsmoking in the toilets occasionally assault flight attendants and have beenknown to start fires When conflicts occur in these conditions, they canescalate into major incidents if the passenger has a violent personality or afear of flying and because of the enclosed nature of a plane offers no option

of retreat as would be natural in a “fight or flight” reaction

(F) Some people feel that the physical environment of a plane can lead to

air rage Seats on most airlines have become smaller in recent years asairlines try to increase profits This leads to uncomfortable and irritatedpassengers Also, space for carry on luggage is often very small Because

up to 8% of checked in luggage is lost, misdirected or stolen, passengershave been trying to fit larger carry on items into these small storage areasand this can lead to disputes that can escalate into air rage Airlines couldalso be to blame by raising passengers’ expectations too high with theirmarketing and advertising Many air rage incidents start when disappointedpassengers demand to be reseated Finally, there is some evidence toshow that low oxygen levels can raise aggression level and make peoplefeel more desperate Airlines have lowered oxygen levels to save money

Now the level of oxygen in the air that the pilots breathe is ten times higherthan in cabin class.

(G) Another reason that has been suggested is that society is getting ruder

and less patient The increased congestion at airports, longer queues andincreased delays have only added to this In addition, some air rageincidents have been linked to the demanding nature of high achievingbusiness people, who do not like people telling them what to do and resentthe power that the cabin staff have over them For them, a flight attendant is

a waiter or waitress who should do what the passenger wants

(H) The strongest calls for action to control air rage have come from pilots

and aircrew The International Transport Workers’ Federation argues thatthere are too many loopholes that let people escape punishment and thatthe penalties are too light They want to notify all passengers of thepenalties for air rage before taking off, rather than after the passengerbegins to cause serious problems, when it may be too late The CivilAviation Organisation has been organizing international cooperation andpenalties have increased in recent years The most severe punishment sofar has been a 51 month jail sentence, a fine to pay for the jet fuel used and

200 hours community service for a man who attempted to enter the cockpitand to open the emergency door of a domestic US flight

(I) Various other measures are being used to control air rage Air crew are

getting training on how to calm passengers and how to predict whereincidents might result in air rage and take action to prevent this Othermeasures include, strengthening doors to stop people entering the cockpit,training crew in the use of plastic restraints to tie down unruly passengersand having pilots divert their planes if passengers cause problems Banningpassengers who are guilty of air rage from flying has also been tried to alesser extent

IELTS Reading Sample: Questions 1 – 8

The IELTS reading sample passage has nine paragraphs A – I.

From the list below choose the most suitable headings for B – I.

Write the appropriate number (i – xiv) beside in boxes 1 – 8 on your answer

sheet

NB There are more headings than paragraphs, so you do not have to use them all.

List of headings

i A decline in the tolerance of passengers

ii Disproportionate growth

iii Pilots and aircrew cooperate

iv Additional action

v Smaller seats are the norm

vi Laying the blame with the airlines

vii Origins

viii A major threat to travel

ix Demands for change

x Business people fly more

xi New research pinpoints the causes

xii The pace of life

xiii Passenger at the root of the problems

xiv Personal experience

IELTS Reading Sample: Questions 9 – 14

Do the following statements agree with the information in the IELTS readingsample text? Mark them as follows

TRUE - if the statement agrees with the information in the text

FALSE - if the statement does not agree with the information in the text.

NOT GIVEN - if there is no information on this in the text.

9 In the first case of air rage, one of the reasons the man was notpunished was because the plane was not registered

10 The statistics on air rage were collected by private monitoring groups

11 The second most common catalyst for incidents is problems withseating

12 The environment in a plane makes disagreements more likely tobecome serious problems

13 Airlines have been encouraging passengers to bring more itemsonboard as carry-on luggage

14 There have been no attempts to ban passengers with a history of airrage

IELTS Reading Sample Answers:

9 In the first case of air rage, one of the reasons the man was not

punished was because the plane was not registered F (Para A: The

plane was registered, but it was not clear where is was registered)

10 The statistics on air rage were collected by private monitoring

groups NG (Para B: It doesn't say who collected them)

11 The second most common catalyst for incidents is problems with

seating T (Para D: This is given in the table)

12 The environment in a plane makes disagreements more likely to

become serious problems.T (Para F: The 'physical environment' makes

things worse)

13 Airlines have been encouraging passengers to bring more items

onboard as carry-on luggage NG (It doesn't mention this)

14 There have been no attempts to ban passengers with a history of air

rage F (Para I: They have tried to ban passengers who have been

involved in air rage before)

IELTS reading sample 2:

Wind Power

The power of the wind has been used for centuries to directly drive variousmachines to perform such tasks as grinding wheat or pumping water.Recently, however, the wind has joined other natural forces such as waterand steam as a viable method of generating electricity

Traditional means of electricity generation using coal or oil-fueled plantshave two major drawbacks; they pollute the environment and the fuels theyuse are inefficient and non-renewable In response to growingenvironmental awareness there have been calls for a greener alternative

Nuclear power, while more efficient and less polluting, is seen by manypeople as unacceptable, because of the danger of accidents such as thosethat happened at Chernobyl or Three Mile Island Wind power, however, isclean, renewable and, with modern advances, surprisingly efficient.

In the 1970s Britain was in the forefront of research into wind power Theinterest in wind diminished in the 1980s due to cheap North Sea oil, astrong pro-nuclear lobby and pricing structures that made it uneconomical

to set up wind farms Britain, the windiest country in Europe, had to waituntil 1991 for its first wind farm Located at Delabole in Cornwall, the farmwas originally the idea of locals who opposed the construction of a nuclearpower plant nearby and decided to set up a private company to generatepower for the area using the wind They had to fight opposition from localgovernment and other local residents, who thought the turbines would benoisy and might interfere with television signals, but eventually, aftershowing local officials working wind farms in Denmark, they won and nowthere are 10 huge white wind turbines on the Delabole hills

It is in Germany and Denmark that the greatest advances in wind powerhave come Germany alone produces half of the wind generated electricity

in Europe Every year Germany adds 400 Megawatts (Mw) of capacity In

2000 alone capacity expanded by 1669 Mw Denmark now produces 30%

of its electricity from wind power and this is predicted to rise to 50% by

2010 Both countries have encouraged this growth by “fixed feed tariffs”which guarantee a good price for private wind power operators

Britain is catching up and the government has set a target 10% of allelectricity to come from renewable sources by 2010, half of this to be fromwind power The 900 wind turbines in operation generate 400Mw ofelectricity and to meet the target roughly 400Mw will need to be added eachyear With the advances in technology this is technically possible Eachturbine can now produce 400 Kilowatts (KW) compared to only 70 KW atthe start of the 1980s It will, however, need help from the government This

is being done by offering financial support and giving private powercompanies targets to meet

Because many people feel wind farms spoil the view and, also, because thewind is stronger at sea, many wind farms are now being built offshore Theyare usually built a few kilometres off the coast in shallow water Theconstruction and maintenance costs are higher, but electricity output ishigher The first in Britain was built in 2000 at Blyth, north of Newcastle, and

was the largest in the world until May 2001, when a 20 turbine farm wasopened at Middelgruden off Copenhagen There are plans to construct up

to 18 more in the UK by 2010 Together they will produce 800 Mw ofelectricity annually

The use of wind power is far less advanced in the USA Only 5% ofAmerica’s power comes from the wind, although it is estimated that thiscould be increased to as high as 12% with no changes to the power grid.However, there is an increased interest in wind power There are plans tobuild a huge offshore wind farm off the coast of Cape Cod on the NorthEast seaboard The farm will take up over 25 square miles, have 170turbines and produce 420Mw at a cost of $600m If constructed, it will bethe world’s second biggest wind farm, after the 520Mw farm planned inIreland

IELTS Sample Reading: Questions 1 – 2

Choose the best answer to the questions below.

1 People do not like coal and oil powered power production because …

A it damages the environment.

B it is wasteful

C eventually it will run out.

D all of the above.

2 Wind power …

A has only been used recently.

B promotes environmental awareness.

C cleans the environment.

D is not wasteful.

IELTS Sample Reading: Questions 3 – 7

Complete the following summary of the third paragraph from the IELTS

sample reading using ONE OR TWO WORDS from the reading texts.

British Wind Power

While there was a great deal of interest in wind power in the 1970s,

it (3) _ in the 1980s This was mainly due to intense support for (4) _ power and little help in making wind

power affordable So, even though Britain has some of the best winds inEurope, the first wind farm was only built in 1991 The farm at Delabole

came out of opposition by (5) _ to a nuclear power plant.

Initially, they were opposed by local officials due to fears about noise and

possible obstruction to (6) This opposition was

eventually overcome only after they were shown successful examples

from (7) _.

IELTS Sample Reading: Questions 8 – 13

Match the country below or mark none to the statements taken from the

IELTS sample reading.

Note: Some countries may not be used and countries can be used more than once.

N None of the countries

8 Plans to produce 5% of its power using wind power

9 Produces 50% of its power from wind

10 Produces very little of its power using wind

11 Will have the world’s largest wind farm

12 Used to have the world's biggest off-shore wind farm

13 Is the biggest producer of wind power in Europe

IELTS Sample Reading Answers:

IELTS Reading Example 3

The Container Trade

The shipping container is one of the mainstays of international trade Theglobalised modern economy depends on the rapid and efficient movement

of goods that containerisation allows In many ways it was the advent of thecontainer that allowed this globalised economy to develop

Invented during World War two as an efficient method of moving equipment

to the front lines, there are now at any one time up to 15 million containersbeing used to transport goods on land and sea or waiting to be filled atfactories and ports They are vital in the supply chain and have allowed theadded efficiency of "just in time" inventory management, where companies

no longer keep large warehouses of stock or parts, but rely on the ability toquickly order what they want from their suppliers It is estimated that sincethe 1980s the ratio of inventory to GDP in American business' has fallenfrom 25% to 15% Altogether total business inventory in the US is estimated

at $1.5 trillion, without "just in time" management methods this might be asmuch as $2.5 trillion

This means that companies rely more and more on the prompt delivery ofparts from their suppliers to fulfill orders This is particularly true ofindustries such as computer manufacture, which no longer make all theparts of the products that bear their names, but instead out source, often tosuppliers half way around the world American computer manufacturers are,for example, increasingly dependent on Asian microchip manufacturers incountries such as Taiwan and Thailand An example of the kind of problemsany disruption to the supply chain causes came after the September 11attacks in the US when the Canadian border was shut for just two dayscausing chaos in the Detroit car industry, which relies on a regular flow ofparts from Canada

There are three main flows of sea borne cargo: trans-Pacific, trans-Atlanticand Europe-Far East The trans-Pacific route is by far the largest flow At 11million TEU ("twenty foot equivalent units") a year, it is almost twice thevolume of Europe-Far East trade and three times the size of trans-Atlantictraffic During the 1990s, during America's boom years, the trade of all theroutes grew enormously and this led to more and larger ships being built.The container fleet grew by 12% in 2001 Until then, a container shipcommonly carried 600 TEU, during the 1990s ships were being build that

could carry up to 8000 TEU However after the 1990s there was a dramaticfall off in trade Trans-Pacific trade, for example, fell to 50% of its 1990shigh.

This down turn is being handled by the shipping alliances which managethe global trade These large organizations are responsible for maintainingthe fleets and seeing that the flow of goods is uninterrupted This is a jobthat governments feel that the regular and reliable flow of trade is soimportant that in many cases the shipping alliances are exempt from anti-trust and monopoly laws Their response has been to cut services, restsome of the older ships and share the burden amongst themselves

At first, containers reduced theft as it was more difficult for casual thieves toget into the containers However, criminal gangs soon saw the potential fortaking whole containers This became a profitable crime as the averagevalue of a container grew to $500,000 by the 1980s Criminals alsobenefited from the convenience of containers when using them to transportdrugs, illegal immigrants or other illegal goods Measures to combat this,including stronger locks and preference schemes for shippers who haveanti-theft programmes, have had some success, but crime is a constantmenace to the container trade

Increasingly, the huge number of containers and their self-contained andenclosed nature has been raising worries about their possible use byterrorists In fact, possible terrorists have already been found hiding incontainers This is particularly worrying considering that only 2% ofcontainers are inspected Containers are also extremely difficult to trackand monitor This is because they pass through so many countries andjurisdictions and because they can travel on both land and sea Eachtransaction involving a container can involve as many as 25 different partiesand generate between 30 and 40 documents For a ship carrying 600 TEUthis would result in approximately 4000 documents The sheer scale of theinformation involved makes tracking containers a daunting task Screeningthem to determine the contents is another solution that would take a greatdeal of effort because of the large numbers of containers Additionally, itmight cause delays in delivery that would disrupt international trade andindustry out of proportion to the good the searches do

For the foreseeable future, there would seem to be no alternative tocontainers and their use is bound to grow They are one of the cornerstones

of global trade, but many yet cause problems their inventors neverenvisaged.

840 words

IELTS Reading Example: Questions 1 – 6

Choose the best TWO alternatives to complete the sentences.

Questions 1 and 2

Circle TWO letters A – E.

The invention of containers…

A resulted from the efficient movement of goods.

B led to more global trade.

C was initially for military purposes.

D came just in time for many managers.

E relied on the ability to receive orders quickly.

Questions 3 and 4

Circle TWO letters A – E.

Containers are important because they…

A prevent the need for companies to hold large amounts of stock.

B increase the amount of business inventory.

C make trade between countries on different sides of the world easier.

D regularly supply manufactures in Canada.

E reduce the amount of out sourcing needed by companies.

Questions 5 and 6

Circle TWO letters A – E.

The Trans-Pacific trade route…

A has nearly double the amount of trade as that of the Europe-Far East

trade route.

B had its container fleet increase by 12%.

C sparked the boom years of the 1990s.

D usually carried around 600 TEU.

E has witnessed a substantial decrease in container trade.

IELTS Reading Example: Questions 7 – 10

Complete the table below.

Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the reading passage for each

answer.

Write your answers in boxes 7-10 on your answer sheet.

a sharp fall in container trade shipping alliances…(7) …old ships

originally difficult to get into containers A drop in… (8) …

vast numbers of containers, which are

relatively secure

Concerns over… (9) …

Containers must pass through many

countries and involve a vast amount of

Containers are… (10) …

IELTS Reading Example: Questions 11 – 12

Complete the sentences below using words taken from the reading passage.

Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS fore each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 11 – 12 on your answer sheet.

11 It is not economically viable to conduct searches on a large amount of

containers as it would………

12 The inventors must never have imagined that containers would

………

IELTS Reading Example - ANSWERS

1 B - led to more global trade.

The globalised modern economy depends on the rapid and efficient

movement of goods that containerisation allows In many ways it was the advent of the container that allowed this globalised economy to develop.

2 C - was initially for military purposes.

Invented during World War two as an efficient method of moving equipment to the front lines

"front lines" = a military line formed by the most advanced tactical combat units

3 A - prevent the need for companies to hold large amounts of stock.

companies no longer keep large warehouses of stock or parts

4 C - make trade between countries on different sides of the world easier.

This means that companies rely more and more on the prompt delivery of parts from their suppliers to fulfill orders This is particularly true of

industries such as computer manufacture, which no longer make all the parts of the products that bear their names, but instead out source, often to suppliers half way around the world.

5 A - has nearly double the amount of trade as that of the Europe-Far East

trade route

At 11 million TEU a year, it is almost twice the volume of Europe-Far East trade and three times the size of trans-Atlantic traffic

6 E - has witnessed a substantial decrease in container trade.

However after the 1990s there was a dramatic fall off in trade Pacific trade, for example, fell to 50% of its 1990s high.

Trans-(It's not B, C or D, as they refer to all the routes, not just the Trans-Pacific)

7 rest some

Their response has been to cut services, rest some of the older ships and share the burden amongst themselves.

8 theft

At first, containers reduced theft as it was more difficult for casual

thieves to get into the containers.

9 use by terrorists

Increasingly, the huge number of containers and their self-contained and

enclosed nature has been raising worries about their possible use by terrorists.

10 difficult to track

Containers are also extremely difficult to track and monitor This is

because they pass through so many countries and jurisdictions and because they can travel on both land and sea.

11 disrupt international trade

Additionally, it might cause delays in delivery that would disrupt international trade and industry out of proportion to the good the

searches do.