Martin Luther King A. Martin Luther King was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. He was the son of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr. and Alberta Williams King. He had an older sister, Willie Christine King, and a younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams King. Growing up in Atlanta, King attended Booker T. Washington High School. He skipped ninth and twelfth grade, and entered Morehouse College at age fifteen without formally graduating from high school. From the time that Martin was born, he knew that black people and white people had different rights in certain parts of America. If a black family wanted to eat at a restaurant, they had to sit in a separate section of the restaurant. They had to sit at the back of the cinema, and even use separate toilets. Worse, and perhaps even more humiliating still, in many southern states, if a black man was on a bus and all the seats were taken, he would have to endure the indignity of relinquishing his own seat to a white man. King could never understand the terrible injustice of this. In 1948, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology. Later, King began doctoral studies in systematic theology at Boston University and received his Doctor of Philosophy on June 5, 1955. King married Coretta Scott, on June 18, 1953, and they had four children. B. Returning to the South to become pastor of a Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, King first achieved national renown when he helped mobilise the black boycott of the Montgomery bus system in 1955. This was organised after Rosa Parks, a black woman, refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man – in the segregated south, black people could only sit at the back of the bus. The 382day boycott led the bus company to change its regulations, and the Supreme Court declared such segrega¬tion unconstitutional.
IELTS Academic Reading Sample 178 - Martin Luther King Last Updated: Sunday, 02 February 2020 00:13 Written by IELTS Mentor Hits: 25985 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27 - 40 which are based on Reading Passage 178 below Martin Luther King Martin Luther King was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia He was the son of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr and Alberta Williams King He had an older sister, Willie Christine King, and a younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams King Growing up in Atlanta, King attended Booker T Washington High School He skipped ninth and twelfth grade, and entered Morehouse College at age fifteen without formally graduating from high school From the time that Martin was born, he knew that black people and white people had different rights in certain parts of America If a black family wanted to eat at a restaurant, they had to sit in a separate section of the restaurant They had to sit at the back of the cinema, and even use separate toilets Worse, and perhaps even more humiliating still, in many southern states, if a black man was on a bus and all the seats were taken, he would have to endure the indignity of relinquishing his own seat to a white man King could never understand the terrible injustice of this A In 1948, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology Later, King began doctoral studies in systematic theology at Boston University and received his Doctor of Philosophy on June 5, 1955 King married Coretta Scott, on June 18, 1953, and they had four children B Returning to the South to become pastor of a Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, King first achieved national renown when he helped mobilise the black boycott of the Montgomery bus system in 1955 This was organised after Rosa Parks, a black woman, refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man – in the segregated south, black people could only sit at the back of the bus The 382day boycott led the bus company to change its regulations, and the Supreme Court declared such segregation unconstitutional In 1957 King was active in the organisation of the Southern Leadership Christian Conference (SCLC), formed to co-ordinate protests against discrimination He advocated non-violent direct action based on the methods of Gandhi, who led protests against British rule in India culminating in India’s independence in 1947 In 1963, King led mass protests against discriminatory practices in Birmingham, Alabama, where the white population were violently resisting desegregation The city was dubbed ‘Bombingham’ as attacks against civil rights protesters increased, and King was arrested and jailed for his part in the protests C D After his release, King participated in the enormous civil rights march, in Washington, in August 1963, and delivered his famous ‘I have a dream’ speech, predicting a day when the promise of freedom and equality for all would become a reality in America In 1964 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize In 1965, he led a campaign to register blacks to vote The same year the US Congress passed the Voting Rights Act outlawing the discriminatory practices that had barred blacks from voting in the south E As the civil rights movement became increasingly radicalised, King found that his message of peaceful protest was not shared by many in the younger generation King began to protest against the Vietnam War and poverty levels in the US On March 29, 1968, King went to Memphis, Tennessee, in support of the black sanitary public works employees who had been on strike since March 12 for higher wages and better treatment In one incident, black street repairmen had received pay for two hours when they were sent home because of bad weather, but white employees had been paid for the full day King could not bear to stand by and let such patent acts of racism go unnoticed He moved to unite his people, and all the peoples of America on the receiving end of discriminatory practices, to protest for their rights, peacefully but steadfastly F On his trip to Memphis, King was booked into room 306 at the Lorraine Motel, owned by Walter Bailey King was shot at 6:01 p.m April 4, 1968 while he was standing on the motel’s second-floor balcony King was rushed to St Joseph’s Hospital, where doctors opened his chest and performed manual heart massage He was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m King’s autopsy revealed that although he was only 39 years old, he had the heart of a 60-year-old man Questions 27 – 31: Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D 27 From a young age Martin Luther King A wanted to protest for the rights of black people B could not understand why black people were treated differently C was not allowed to go to the cinema or to restaurants D was aware that black people were being humiliated in many northern states 28 What initially made Martin Luther King famous? A B C D man the black boycott of the Montgomery bus system becoming a pastor at a Baptist Church when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus when he persuaded Rosa Parks not to give up her bus seat to a white 29 What influenced Martin Luther King regarding non-violence? A B C D India’s independence in 1947 Christianity the Southern Leadership Christian Conference the methods of Gandhi 30 What did Martin Luther King fight for in 1965? A B C D the right of black people to vote the actions of the US Congress the right to win the Nobel Peace Prize the right of black people to travel abroad 31 How did Martin Luther King feel about the civil rights movement? A It was helping the war in Vietnam B It brought the younger generation together C It had been exploited by politicians who wanted to get more votes D The protesters sometimes behaved too violently Questions 32 – 34: Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 3? In spaces 32 – 34 below, write YES NO NOT GIVEN if the statements agrees with the information if the statements contradicts the information if there is no information on this 32 The black boycott of the Montgomery bus system was a success 33 In 1963 the white people in Alabama wanted desegregation 34 Martin Luther King achieved a lot in his protest against the Vietnam War Questions 35 – 40: Reading Passage 178 has paragraphs Choose the correct heading for each paragraph A – F, from the list of headings Write the correct number, i – viii, in spaces 35 – 40 below 35 Paragraph A 36 Paragraph 37 Paragraph C 38 Paragraph D 39.Paragraph E 40 Paragraph F The memorable speech Unhappy about violence A tragic incident Protests and action The background of an iconic man Making his mark internationally Difficult childhood Black street repairmen Click the button to Show/ Hide Answers Answer: 27 B 28 A 29 D 30 A 31 D 32 YES 33 NO 34 NOT GIVEN 35 v 36 iv 37 ii 38 i 39 vi 4o iii IELTS Academic Reading Sample 179 - Early Telecommunication Devices Last Updated: Sunday, 28 May 2017 14:08 Written by IELTS Mentor Hits: 51693 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions - 14 which are based on Reading Passage 179 below Early Telecommunication Devices Although it is hardly used anymore, the telegraph is familiar to most people This early telecommunication devices is credited, as any school student knows, to Samuel Morse, who, in 1844 made the first long-distance electronic communication via his invention, the Morse's telegraph What is not so commonly known is that Morse's was not the only telegraph nor he the only such inventor at this time A rival system, developed by William Cook and Charles Wheatstone, was patented in England in 1845 and was subsequently adopted for use by British rail companies to enable speedy communication between rail stations However, the Cooke-Wheatstone telegraph, which used six wires and a fragile receiver requiring five magnetic needles, proved to the awkward to use, difficult to transport and expensive to built Morse's version used one wire and a receiver of a simpler and stronger design This is, no doubt, why it became the favored telegraph in many parts of the world, especially the United States, which built a telegraph line along railway tracks crossing the North American continent, linking eastern cities with western frontiers Morse chose the Magnetic Telegraph Company to handle the patents for his telegraph technology, and within seven years of the appearance of his invention, the company had licensed use of the telegraph to more than 50 companies across the US In 1851, twelve of this companies come together to form the Western Union Company By 1866, Western Union had grown to include more than 4000 telegraph offices, almost all in rail stations Another early telecommunications device is still very much with us the telephone Although the telephone is popularly thought to be the brainchild of one man, Alexander Graham Bell, this is not the while truth Phillip Reis, a schoolteacher in Germany, invented a device in 1861 that he labelled a telephone Reis’s invention was limited to transmitting musical tones, however, and could not send the sound of the human voice across the wire While Reis was working on his invention, Bell and another man, Elisha Gray, were also working toward the invention of the telephone, though by an indirect route Both were, in fact, seeking ways of allowing multiple telegraph signals to travel along the some telegraph line - a system known as a harmonic telegraph Bell worked in Boston while Gray was based in Chicago, and the tow were rivals in their area of research for both inventors, the perfection of the harmonic telegraph proved too difficult and both, separately but at around the some time, changed plans and started on the development of a telephone Most interesting of all is the fact that both men applied for a patent to the US patent office for their respective telephones on the same day, 14 February 1876 Bell was lucky enough to have arrived a few hours earlier than Gray and so it was Bell whose name was to be forever associated with the telephone The harmonic telegraph, incidentally, was perfected by Thomas Edison, best known as the inventor of the light built, in 1881 Rights to Bell’s patent (now recognized as the most valuable patent in history of technology) were offered to Western Union for $100000, with the assumption that the giant telegraph company would be enthusiastic about the new technology But Western Union disliked Bell's design and instead asked Elisha Gray to make refinements to his original telephone design Bell`s company began to set up its own business and sell telephones, while Western Union, with its somewhat different design, was its competitor Competition between the two continued for about two years, but all the while, the Bell company was mounting a legal challenge to Western Union, claiming it held the only true basic patents for the telephone it based its claim on the fact that Bell had beaten Gray to the patent office and so should be the sole recognized inventor of the telephone Eventually, Western Union had to agree with Bell and gave up its telephone rights and patents to the Bell company The telephone company's entire network of telephones was handed over to the Bell company As compensation, Western Union was given 20 per cent of revenue from rental of its former equipment, this arrangement was to last until Bell's patents expired In an effort to fight the power the Bell company enjoyed from exclusive rights to Bell's patents, a small telephone company, Pacific Union, established telephone services in the 1920s and 1930s that it claimed were based on the telephone design of Phillips Reis They maintained that because Reis's invention pre-dated Bell1s, the Bell, design was not the first of its kind and, therefore, Bell's patents were not valid Although the court accepted that the company may have been using Reis's technology, it nonetheless held that only Bell's patents could legally by used The Bell company, eventually named American Telephone & Telegraph, thus formed an effective monopoly on telephone services in the United States The company subsequently grew to such an extent that, a century later, it was the largest privately held enterprise in the world, with more than a million employees controlling communication between more than 100 million telephones In 1984, American Telephone & Telegraph was found by a US court to be too monopolistic and was ordered to be broken up into several smaller companies * patent: an official recognition of a person as the inventor of a device * monopoly: exclusive control of a market Question 1-6: Complete the table below Use no more than three words from the reading passage for each answer Write your answers in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet Year Event Inventor (s) (by surname) 1845 Patent of telegraph 1851 Establishment of (2) (1) 1861 Invention of telephone 1876 Application for patent of (4) 1881 Successful development of (5) (3) Gray Edison Question 6-10: Look at the following lists of inventors and companies Match each inventor to one of the companies that used his/their technology Choose E if there is no information in the reading passage Write the appropriate letters A-E in boxes 6-10 on your answer sheet NB: you may use any letter more than once Inventors Morse Example* Example answer: D (6) Bell (7) Cooke and Wheatstone (8) Edison (9) Gray (10) Reis Companies A British rail companies B Pacific Union C American telephone & telegraph D Western Union E no information in reading passage Question 11-14: Using no more than three words, answer the following questions Write your answers in boxes 11-14 on your answer sheet 11) Name one reason why Cooke and Wheatstone's invention was not as successful as Morse's 12) In what type of location did Western Union typically offer its telegraph services? 13) What sort of information was Reis's original invention able to send? 14) What device did Alexander Graham Bell try but fail to invent? Click the button to Show/ Hide Answers Answer: Cooke and Wheatstone Western Union Company Reis Telephones (The) harmonic telegraph C A E D 10 B 11 Awkward to use/ Difficult to transport/ Expensive(to built) 12 Rail stations 13 Musical tones 14 Harmonic telegraph IELTS Academic Reading Sample 180 - Complementary and Alternative Medicine Last Updated: Sunday, 28 May 2017 14:07 Written by IELTS Mentor Hits: 80438 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions - 13 which are based on Reading Passage 180 below Complementary and Alternative Medicine WHAT DO SCIENTISTS IN BRITAIN THINK ABOUT ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES? OR LA KENNEDY READS A SURPRISING SURVEY? Is complementary medicine hocus-pocus or does it warrant large-scale scientific investigation? Should science range beyond conventional medicine and conduct research on alternative medicine and the supposed growing links between mind and body? This will be hotly debated at the British Association for the Advancement of Science One Briton in five uses complementary medicine, and according to the most recent Mintel survey, one in ten uses herbalism or homoeopathy Around £130 million is spent on oils, potions and pills every year in Britain, and the complementary and alternative medicine industry is estimated to be worth £1.6 billion With the help of Professor Edzard Ernst, Laing chair of complementary medicine at The Peninsula Medical School, Universities of Exeter and Plymouth, we asked scientists their views on complementary and alternative medicine Seventy-five scientists, in fields ranging from molecular biology to neuroscience, replied Surprisingly, our sample of scientists was twice as likely as the public to use some form of complementary medicine, at around four in 10 compared with two in 10 of the general population Three quarters of scientific users believed they were effective Acupuncture, chiropractic and osteopathy were the most commonly used complementary treatments among scientists and more than 55 per cent believed these were more effective than a placebo and should be available to all on the National Health Service Scientists appear to place more trust in the more established areas of complementary and alternative medicine, such as acupuncture, chiropractic and osteopathy, for which there are professional bodies and recognised training, than therapies such as aromatherapy and spiritual paying people derisory amounts of money for their work results in them enjoying it less and doing it less well than if they had no pay at all The capacity for monetary reward to undermine a person’s intrinsic pleasure in work performance has been demonstrated neurologically In conclusion, people need to realise that their own attitudes to wealth can affect their chances of acquiring both money and happiness As a person begins to embrace self worth and opens himself or herself up to the idea of what is possible, he or she will attract wealth and prosperity into their life The outer world is truly a reflection of people’s inner worlds If someone feels good inside, generally it will show on the outside and they will draw positive experiences into their life Questions 27-29 Complete the notes below Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer Write your answers in boxes 27-29 on your answer sheet Some people unwittingly reject the prospect of becoming rich; these 27 stop them from financial success Most people believe they the best they can, but sometimes they don’t really believe in their potential If people not face up to this lack of self-belief, they’ll encounter more and more obstacles People can also have an 28 about their lack of possessions Anger is a result, which hinders their progress as well People whose parents were poor may feel they will also be poor A 29 who is always negative about a child’s prospects may also be eventually believed Questions 30-34 Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer of the text? In boxes 30-34 on your answer sheet write: YES NO NOT GIVEN if the statement agrees with the writer’s views if the statement doesn’t agree with the writer’s views if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this 30 A person can develop unhelpful imprints about money when a child 31 Although important, belief is not a key part of whether someone can become financially successful 32 Those people stuck in a monthly routine are the most likely to try something different 33 The problem of ‘affluenza’ has been in the media a lot recently 34 ‘Affluenza’ is more common in people who have not had to work for their money Questions 35-40 Complete the summary below Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the text for each answer Write your answers in boxes 35-40 on your answer sheet Money and Happiness (35) mean people are not happier with wealth beyond a certain amount Rich countries are happier than poor ones, but this is simplistic, due to other relevant (36) Salaried workers have been shown to be happier than wage-paid workers, maybe due to (37) Rich people also sometimes not enjoy life’s (38) Money can also relate to how people approach doing things and (39) have proved this The complex relationship between a (40) and enjoyment of work has also been proved Changing their attitudes to wealth can make some people happier and allow them to acquire money more easily Click the button to Show/ Hide Answers Answer: 27 (unconscious) barriers 28 obsession 29 parent 30 YES 31 NO 32 NO 33 NOT GIVEN 34 YES 35 diminishing returns 36 factors 37 career satisfaction 38 simple things 39 (Cognitive) (dissonance) experiments 40 (monetary) reward Academic IELTS Reading Sample 220 - The Columbian Exchange Last Updated: Saturday, 12 August 2017 16:46 Written by IELTS Mentor Hits: 9713 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27- 40, which are based on Passage 220 below The Columbian Exchange Millions of years ago, continental drift carried the Old World and New World apart, splitting North and South America from Eurasia and Africa That separation lasted so long that it fostered divergent evolution; for instance, the development of rattlesnakes on one side of the Atlantic and of vipers on the other After 1492, human voyagers in part reversed this tendency Their artificial re-establishment of connections through the commingling of Old and New World plants, animals, and bacteria, commonly known as the Columbian Exchange, is one of the more spectacular and significant ecological events of the past millennium A When Europeans first touched the shores of the Americas, Old World crops such as wheat, barley, rice, and turnips had not travelled west across the Atlantic, and New World crops such as maize, white potatoes, sweet potatoes, and manioc had not travelled east to Europe In the Americas, there were no horses, B cattle, sheep, or goats, all animals of Old World origin Except for the llama, alpaca, dog, a few fowl, and guinea pig, the New World had no equivalents to the domesticated animals associated with the Old World, nor did it have the pathogens associated with the Old World’s dense populations of humans and such associated creatures as chickens, cattle, black rats, and Aedes aegypti mosquitoes Among these germs were those that carried smallpox, measles, chickenpox, influenza, malaria, and yellow fever As might be expected, the Europeans who settled on the east coast of the United States cultivated crops like wheat and apples, which they had brought with them European weeds, which the colonists did not cultivate, and, in fact, preferred to uproot, also fared well in the New World John Josselyn, an Englishman and amateur naturalist who visited New England twice in the seventeenth century, left us a list, “Of Such Plants as Have Sprung Up since the English Planted and Kept Cattle in New England,” which included couch grass, dandelion, shepherd’s purse, groundsel, sow thistle, and chickweed C One of these, a plantain (Plantago major), was named “Englishman’s Foot” by the Amerindians of New England and Virginia who believed that it would grow only where the English “have trodden, and was never known before the English came into this country” Thus, as they intentionally sowed Old World crop seeds, the European settlers were unintentionally contaminating American fields with weed seeds More importantly, they were stripping and burning forests, exposing the native minor flora to direct sunlight, and the hooves and teeth of Old World livestock The native flora could not tolerate the stress The imported weeds could, because they had lived with large numbers of grazing animals for thousands of years Cattle and horses were brought ashore in the early 1600s and found hospitable climate and terrain in North America Horses arrived in Virginia as early as 1620 and in Massachusetts in 1629 Many wandered free with little more evidence of their connection to humanity than collars with a hook at the bottom to catch on fences as they tried to leap over them to get at crops Fences were not for keeping livestock in, but for keeping livestock out D Native American resistance to the Europeans was ineffective Indigenous peoples suffered from white brutality, alcoholism, the killing and driving off of E game, and the expropriation of farmland, but all these together are insufficient to explain the degree of their defeat The crucial factor was not people, plants, or animals, but germs Smallpox was the worst and the most spectacular of the infectious diseases mowing down the Native Americans The first recorded pandemic of that disease in British North America detonated among the Algonquin of Massachusetts in the early 1630s William Bradford of Plymouth Plantation wrote that the victims “fell down so generally of this disease as they were in the end not able to help one another, no, not to make a fire nor fetch a little water to drink, nor any to bury the dead” The missionaries and the traders who ventured into the American interior told the same appalling story about smallpox and the indigenes In 1738 alone, the epidemic destroyed half the Cherokee; in 1759 nearly half the Catawbas; in the first years of the next century, two thirds of the Omahas and perhaps half the entire population between the Missouri River and New Mexico; in 1837-38 nearly every last one of the Mandans and perhaps half the people of the high plains The export of America’s native animals has not revolutionised Old World agriculture or ecosystems as the introduction of European animals to the New World did America’s grey squirrels and muskrats and a few others have established themselves east of the Atlantic and west of the Pacific, but that has not made much of a difference Some of America’s domesticated animals are raised in the Old World, but turkeys have not displaced chickens and geese, and guinea pigs have proved useful in laboratories, but have not usurped rabbits in the butcher shops F The New World’s great contribution to the Old is in crop plants Maize, white potatoes, sweet potatoes, various squashes, chiles, and manioc have become essentials in the diets of hundreds of millions of Europeans, Africans, and Asians Their influence on Old World peoples, like that of wheat and rice on New World peoples, goes far to explain the global population explosion of the past three centuries The Columbian Exchange has been an indispensable factor in that demographic explosion G All this had nothing to with superiority or inferiority of biosystems in any absolute sense It has to with environmental contrasts Amerindians were accustomed to living in one particular kind of environment, Europeans and Africans in another When the Old World peoples came to America, they brought H with them all their plants, animals, and germs, creating a kind of environment to which they were already adapted, and so they increased in number Amerindians had not adapted to European germs, and so initially their numbers plunged That decline has reversed in our time as Amerindian populations have adapted to the Old World’s environmental influence, but the demographic triumph of the invaders, which was the most spectacular feature of the Old World’s invasion of the New, still stands Questions 27-34 Reading Passage 220 has eight paragraphs A-H Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter A-H in boxes 27-34 on your answer sheet 27 A description of an imported species that is named after the English colonists 28 The reason why both the New World and Old World experienced population growth 29 The formation of new continents explained 30 The reason why the indigenous population declined 31 An overall description of the species lacked in the Old World and New World 32 A description of some animal species being ineffective in affecting the Old World 33 An overall explanation of the success of the Old World species invasion 34 An account of European animals taking roots in the New World Questions 35-38 Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage? In boxes 35-38 on your answer sheet write TRUE if the statement agrees with the information FALSE if the statement contradicts the information NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this 35 European settlers built fences to keep their cattle and horses inside 36 The indigenous people had been brutally killed by the European colonists 37 America's domesticated animals, such as turkey, became popular in the Old World 38 Crop exchange between the two worlds played a major role in world population Questions 39-40 Answer the questions below using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer 39 Who reported the same story of European diseases among the indigenes from the American interior? 40 What is the still existing feature of the Old World's invasion of the New? Click the button to Show/ Hide Answers Answer: 27 C 28 G 29 A 30 E 31 B 32 F 33 H 34 D 35 FALSE 36 TRUE 37 FALSE 38 TRUE 39 missionaries and traders 40 demographic triumph Academic IELTS Reading Sample 221 - Cork Last Updated: Saturday, 12 August 2017 17:07 Written by IELTS Mentor Hits: 15527 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1- 13, which are based on Passage 221 below Cork Cork - the thick bark of the cork oak tree (Quercus suber) - is a remarkable material It is tough, elastic, buoyant, and fire-resistant, and suitable for a wide range of purposes It has also been used for millennia: the ancient Egyptians sealed then sarcophagi (stone coffins) with cork, while the ancient Greeks and Romans used it for anything from beehives to sandals And the cork oak itself is an extraordinary tree Its bark grows up to 20 cm in thickness, insulating the tree like a coat wrapped around the trunk and branches and keeping the inside at a constant 20°C all year round Developed most probably as a defence against forest fires, the bark of the cork oak has a particular cellular structure - with about 40 million cells per cubic centimetre - that technology has never succeeded in replicating The cells are filled with air, which is why cork is so buoyant It also has an elasticity that means you can squash it and watch it spring back to its original size and shape when you release the pressure Cork oaks grow in a number of Mediterranean countries, including Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece and Morocco They flourish in warm, sunny climates where there is a minimum of 400 millimetres of rain per year, and no more than 800 millimetres Like grape vines, the trees thrive in poor soil, putting down deep root in search of moisture and nutrients Southern Portugal’s Alentejo region meets all of these requirements, which explains why, by the early 20th century, this region had become the world’s largest producer of cork, and why today it accounts for roughly half of all cork production around the world Most cork forests are family-owned Many of these family businesses, and indeed many of the trees themselves, are around 200 years old Cork production is, above all, an exercise in patience From the planting of a cork sapling to the first harvest takes 25 years, and a gap of approximately a decade must separate harvests from an individual tree And for top-quality cork, it’s necessary to wait a further 15 or 20 years You even have to wait for the right kind of summer’s day to harvest cork If the bark is stripped on a day when it’s too cold - or when the air is damp - the tree will be damaged Cork harvesting is a very specialised profession No mechanical means of stripping cork bark has been invented, so the job is done by teams of highly skilled workers First, they make vertical cuts down the bark using small sharp axes, then lever it away in pieces as large as they can manage The most skilful cork- strippers prise away a semi-circular husk that runs the length of the trunk from just above ground level to the first branches It is then dried on the ground for about four months, before being taken to factories, where it is boiled to kill any insects that might remain in the cork Over 60% of cork then goes on to be made into traditional bottle stoppers, with most of the remainder being used in the construction trade, Corkboard and cork tiles are ideal for thermal and acoustic insulation, while granules of cork are used in the manufacture of concrete Recent years have seen the end of the virtual monopoly of cork as the material for bottle stoppers, due to concerns about the effect it may have on the contents of the bottle This is caused by a chemical compound called 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA), which forms through the interaction of plant phenols, chlorine and mould The tiniest concentrations - as little as three or four parts to a trillion - can spoil the taste of the product contained in the bottle The result has been a gradual yet steady move first towards plastic stoppers and, more recently, to aluminium screw caps These substitutes are cheaper to manufacture and, in the case of screw caps, more convenient for the user The classic cork stopper does have several advantages, however Firstly, its traditional image is more in keeping with that of the type of high quality goods with which it has long been associated Secondly - and very importantly - cork is a sustainable product that can be recycled without difficulty Moreover, cork forests are a resource which supports local biodiversity, and prevents desertification in the regions where they are planted So, given the current concerns about environmental issues, the future of this ancient material once again looks promising Questions 1-5 Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 221? In boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet, write TRUE if the statement agrees with the information FALSE if the statement contradicts the information NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this The cork oak has the thickest bark of any living tree Scientists have developed a synthetic cork with the same cellular structure as natural cork Individual cork oak trees must be left for 25 years between the first and second harvest Cork bark should be stripped in dry atmospheric conditions The only way to remove the bark from cork oak trees is by hand Questions 6-13 Complete the notes below Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer Write your answers in boxes 6-13 on your answer sheet Comparison of aluminium screw caps and cork bottle stoppers Advantages of aluminium screw caps • not affect the of the bottle contents • are to produce • are to use Advantages of cork bottle stoppers • suit the of quality products • made from a 10 material • easily 11 • cork forests aid 12 • cork forests stop 13 happening Click the button to Show/ Hide Answers Answer: NOT GIVEN FALSE FALSE TRUE TRUE taste cheaper convenient image 10 sustainable 11 recycled 12 biodiversity 13 desertification Academic IELTS Reading Sample 222 - Collecting as a hobby Last Updated: Saturday, 12 August 2017 17:42 Written by IELTS Mentor Hits: 20613 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14- 26, which are based on Passage 222 below Collecting as a hobby Collecting must be one of the most varied of human activities, and it's one that many of us psychologists find fascinating Many forms of collecting have been dignified with a technical name: an archtophilist collects teddy bears, a philatelist collects postage stamps, and a deltiologist collects postcards Amassing hundreds or even thousands of postcards, chocolate wrappers or whatever, takes time, energy and money that could surely to much more productive use And yet there are millions of collectors around the world Why they it? There are the people who collect because they want to make money - this could be called an instrumental reason for collecting; that is, collecting as a means to an end They'll look for, say, antiques that they can buy cheaply and expect to be able to sell at a profit But there may well be a psychological element, too - buying cheap and selling dear can give the collector a sense of triumph And as selling online is so easy, more and more people are joining in Many collectors collect to develop their social life, attending meetings of a group of collectors and exchanging information on items This is a variant on joining a bridge club or a gym, and similarly brings them into contact with like-minded people Another motive for collecting is the desire to find something special, or a particular example of the collected item, such as a rare early recording by a particular singer Some may spend their whole lives in a hunt for this Psychologically, this can give a purpose to a life that otherwise feels aimless There is a danger, though, that if the individual is ever lucky enough to find what they're looking for, rather than celebrating their success, they may feel empty, now that the goal that drove them on has gone If you think about collecting postage stamps another potential reason for it - Or, perhaps, a result of collecting is its educational value Stamp collecting opens a window to other countries, and to the plants, animals, or famous people shown on their stamps Similarly, in the 19th century, many collectors amassed fossils, animals and plants from around the globe, and their collections provided a vast amount of information about the natural world Without those collections, our understanding would be greatly inferior to what it is In the past - and nowadays, too, though to a lesser extent - a popular form of collecting, particularly among boys and men, was trainspotting This might involve trying to see every locomotive of a particular type, using published data that identifies each one, and ticking off each engine as it is seen Trainspotters exchange information, these days often by mobile phone, so they can work out where to go to, to see a particular engine As a by-product, many practitioners of the hobby become very knowledgeable about railway operations, or the technical specifications of different engine types Similarly, people who collect dolls may go beyond simply enlarging their collection, and develop an interest in the way that dolls are made, or the materials that are used These have changed over the centuries from the wood that was standard in 16th century Europe, through the wax and porcelain of later centuries, to the plastics of today's dolls Or collectors might be inspired to study how dolls reflect notions of what children like, or ought to like Not all collectors are interested in learning from their hobby, though, so what we might call a psychological reason for collecting is the need for a sense of control, perhaps as a way of dealing with insecurity Stamp collectors, for instance, arrange their stamps in albums, usually very neatly, organising their collection according to certain commonplace principles-perhaps by country in alphabetical order, or grouping stamps by what they depict -people, birds, maps, and so on One reason, conscious or not, for what someone chooses to collect is to show the collector's individualism Someone who decides to collect something as unexpected as dog collars, for instance, may be conveying their belief that they must be interesting themselves And believe it or not, there is at least one dog collar museum in existence, and it grew out of a personal collection Of course, all hobbies give pleasure, but the common factor in collecting is usually passion: pleasure is putting it far too mildly More than most other hobbies, collecting can be totally engrossing, and can give a strong sense of personal fulfilment To non-collectors, it may appear an eccentric, if harmless, way of spending time, but potentially, collecting has a lot going for it Questions 14-21 Complete the sentences below Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer Write your answers in boxes 14-21 on your answer sheet 14 The writer mentions collecting as an example of collecting in order to make money 15 Collectors may get a feeling of from buying and selling items 16 Collectors’ clubs provide opportunities to share 17 Collectors’ clubs offer with people who have similar interests 18 Collecting sometimes involves a life-long for a special item 19 Searching for something particular may prevent people from feeling their life is completely 20 Stamp collecting may be because it provides facts about different countries 21 tends to be mostly a male hobby Questions 22-26 Do the following statements agree with the information given in the reading passage? In boxes 22-26 on your answer sheet, write TRUE if the statement agrees with the information FALSE if the statement contradicts the information NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this 22 The number of people buying dolls has grown over the centuries 23 Sixteenth century European dolls were normally made of wax and porcelain 24 Arranging a stamp collection by the size of the stamps is less common than other methods 25 Someone who collects unusual objects may want others to think he or she is also unusual 26 Collecting gives a feeling that other hobbies are unlikely to inspire Click the button to Show/ Hide Answers Answer: 14 antiques 15 triumph 16 information 17 contact 18 hunt/desire 19 aimless/empty 20 educational 21 trainspotting 22 NOT GIVEN 23 FALSE 24 NOT GIVEN 25 TRUE 26 TRUE ... fumes It’s hard to say how greatly this affects the animals, but think how breathing polluted air affects us (i.e., smog in large cities like Los Angeles, breathing the foul air while sitting in... regularly dive up to 800 feet in this area Researchers tend to think that during these deep dives the whales may be feeding on bottomfish Bottomfish species in this area would include halibut,... two thirds of the scientists who replied to our survey believed that aromatherapy and homoeopathy were no better than placebos, with almost a half thinking the same of herbalism and spiritual thinking