Much domestic port trade has not been recorded. What evidence we have suggests that domestic trade was greater than external trade. Shanghai, for example, did most of its trade with other Chinese ports and inland cities. Calcutta traded mainly with other parts of India and so on. Most of any city's population is engaged in providing goods and services for the city itself. Trade outside the city is its basic function. But each basic worker requires food, housing, clothing and other such services. Estimates of the ratio of basic to service workers range from 1∶4 to 1∶8.
No city can be simply a port but must be involved in a variety of other activities. The port function of the city draws to it raw materials and distributes them in many other forms. Ports take advantage of the need for breaking up the bulk material where water and land transport meet and where loading and unloading costs can be minimized by refining raw materials or turning them into finished goods. The major examples here are oil refining and ore refining, which are commonly located at ports. It is not easy to draw a line around what is and is not a port function. All ports handle, unload, sort, alter, process, repack, and reship most of what they receive. A city may still be regarded as a port city when it becomes involved in a great range of functions not immediately involved with ships or docks.
Cities which began as ports retain the chief commercial and administrative center of the city close to the waterfront. The center of New York is in lower Manhattan between two river mouths, the City of London is on the Thames, Shanghai along the Bund. This proximity to water is also true of Boston, Philadelphia, Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Yokohama, where the commercial, financial, and administrative centers are still grouped around their harbours even though each city has expanded into a metropolis. Even a casual visitor cannot mistake them as anything but port cities.
EXERCISE 1:
Look at the following descriptions of some port cities mentioned in the reading passage. Match the pairs of cities (A-H) listed below, with the descriptions.
1. required considerable harbour development
2. began as ports but other facilities later dominated
3. lost their prominence when large ships could not be accommodated
4. maintain their business centres near the port waterfront
A. Bombay and Buenos Aires
B. Hong Kong and Salem
C. Istanbul and Jakarta
D. Madras and Colombo
E. New York and Bristol
F. Plymouth and Melaka
G. Singapore and Yokohama
H. Surat and London
Here we are provided with a list of city names and we are told to match them to the appropriate statements. If the statements correctly describe these cities, it is a correct match. This section again proves to us the importance of noting hotspots. All of the city names included on the list come directly from examples provided in the reading passage. These proper names, along with numbers, symbols, and data are all hotspots and easily recognizable. We should therefore have noted this information as we scanned.
If we use our hotspots principle, this section will not be problematic at all. This section is in fact very easy. All we need to do is to make reference to the text and confirm which cities match with the given information. There are no real tricks to this section. We simply need to find information written explicitly in the text. So, just rely on our hotspot and mental map strategies and everything will be fine.
Another way the matching section is typically presented is found in Practice Reading Passage Three Questions #8-14. Here, instead of a series of descriptive statements, we are asked to match items on one list (groups of people) with items on another list (types of biometric systems). Again, by making reference to the text and confirming the relationship between these two lists, there should be no problem in dealing with questions of this type.
This test section shows the importance of paying attention to specific examples used in the reading passage as you read. The best way to deal with the large amount of information provided in the text is to underline certain key words while reading. This will reduce the time you spend making reference and make finding the answers that are there in front of you an easier task.
Ⅵ. Conclusion
By now, the IELTS examination should be pretty familiar to you. The fact that there is a method to how the test is constructed should be clear. Once you understand this method, you know the sorts of details that the test makers want to emphasize. They want to emphasize very specific data presented in the text as well as the best ways to summarize particular sections of the reading passage. You also know how to deal with the typical questions of the IELTS and get the answers correct. We know all of this from our seven principles: the answers are all in front of you, hotspots, scan, scan, read, read, mental map, chronological order, ignore your background knowledge, and vocabulary in context. In addition to these seven principles, you also know the particular ways to deal with each individual question type of the IELTS.
As with any test, preparation is extremely important. Once you are well prepared, there is nothing to worry about. By now we have mastered the basic principles—the so-called golden rules—to taking the IELTS examination. As long as you follow these simple guidelines the test will no longer be a mystery to you and your test score should rise immediately. By now the IELTS test is like a familiar friend you have known for a long time. You are comfortable with it and feel confident. Your test scores will reflect this.
Academic Reading Test 1
INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH LANGUAGE
TESTING SYSTEM
ACADEMIC READING
TEST 1
TIME ALLOWED:1 hour
NUMBER OF QUESTIONS:41
Instructions
WRITE ALL YOUR ANSWERS ON THE ANSWER SHEET
The test is in 3 sections:
Reading Passage 1Questions 1-12
Reading Passage 2Questions 13-27
Reading Passage 3Questions 28-41
Remember to answer all the questions. If you are having trouble with a question, skip it and return to it later.
READING PASSAGE 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-12 which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.
Saving the Unique Wildlife of the Galapagos Islands
When Charles Darwin, whose visit to the Galapagos Islands in 1835 inspired his monumental work on evolution, "The Origin of Species", arrived at the islands, there were fewer than 300 human inhabitants, and they had only been there for six years. Today, the permanent population has swelled to 16,109. This influx of people, combined with the approximately 65,000 eco-tourists who visit the islands annually，is placing a heavy strain on the natural balance of life in the Galapagos.
The Galapagos Islands are home to many unique species of animals, birds and plants, and have become known as a "natural laboratory of evolution." Darwin himself wrote, "In that little world within itself, we seem to be brought somewhat near to that great fact—that mystery of mysteries—the first appearance of new beings on this earth." The best known of these creatures is the giant tortoise, which has evolved into 14 distinct forms on different islands. This process is known to scientists as "adaptive radiation". Other classic examples of this phenomenon are several species of plants, especially those of the daisy family, which have spread to different islands and adapted to the distinct conditions there. In addition, the 13 species of "Darwin's finches", small brown finches which eat different foods, are important to scientists trying to understand how evolution occurs.
The islands are volcanic in origin, and lie in the Pacific Ocean, about 1,000 km from South America and straddling the Equator. There are 13 large islands, six smaller ones and 107 islets and rocks. They were officially "discovered " in 1535 by Tomas de Berlanga, bishop of Panama, when his ship was blown off course. There were no aboriginal human inhabitants, and no permanent population at all until Ecuador annexed the Galapagos in 1832, and used them as a penal colony.
One of the biggest threats to the wildlife and ecosystem as a whole on the Galapagos is the exploding population of domestic animals and plants which were brought in by early settlers and allowed to become feral ［"wild"］: Goats compete for grazing with native herbivores ［"vegetarian animals"］ such as tortoises and iguanas, and on some islands, have devastated natural vegetation. Feral dogs and cats prey on iguanas and sea bird chicks. Some introduced plants are seriously threatening the survival of native species.
In 1959, Ecuador designated 97% of the land area of the Galapagos as a national park. In 1986, the Galapagos Marine Resources Reserve was established to protect the waters around the archipelago ［"group of islands"］. The islands have also been recognized internationally as a Man and Biosphere reserve and as a World Heritage Site by Unesco. Ecuador manages the islands through the Galapagos National Park Service. In addition, the Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS), which is operated by the international Charles Darwin Foundation, carries out scientific research and assists the Park Service in what the latter's director Juan Sanchez calls, "a successful example of cooperation between national and international agencies."
To ensure that the human population does not spiral out of control, Ecuador enacted the Special Law for the Galapagos in 1998. Under the law, the government recognizes as permanent residents of the islands only those who were born there to at least one resident parent; those who, on the date the law took effect, had lived in the Galapagos for five continuous years; and those married to a permanent resident. Meanwhile, the government is preparing a database of all permanent residents, who will be issued identification cards.
In order to boost the awareness of the fragile nature of the ecology on these unique islands, environmental impact assessments are regularly made by a team headed by Sanchez, and both locals and tourists are educated in the importance of conservation.
At the same time, eradication programs aimed at eliminating alien species are being put into effect, as well as strict quarantine inspections—even bacteria brought to the islands on the soles of tourists' shoes carry potential harm. An imaginative program encourages tour operators to purchase food and supplies locally. According to a spokesman for the CDRS, this will have the advantages of both aiding the local economy and avoiding possible transport of invasive species from the mainland.
The spokesman commented, "Though far more pristine than other archipelagos, the Galapagos are being degraded at an accelerating rate." All the experts agree that the principal threat to the bio-diversity of the Galapagos is the presence of alien plants, diseases, insects and other organisms that people bring inadvertently to the islands.
Questions 1-7
Use the information in the text to match the people (listed A-E) with opinions or deeds (listed 1-7) below. Write the appropriate letter (A-E) in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet. Some people may match more than one discovery.
A Charles Darwin
B Juan Sanchez
C Tomas de Berlanga
D The spokesman for the CDRS
E Unesco
Example Answer
The Galapagos are less spoiled than other groups of islands. D
1 The discovery of the Galapagos
2 The Galapagos Islands are a self-contained world.
3 National and international agencies cooperate successfully in the Galapagos.
4 Local purchasing will have a dual benefit for the islands.
5 Recognition of the islands as a World Heritage Site
6 The theory of evolution
7 Environmental impact assessments
Questions 8-10
Using the information in the passage, complete the table below. Write your answers in boxes 8-10 on your answer sheet.
Area of the islands taken up by the national park 8
Number of types of giant Galapagos tortoise 9
Distance between the Galapagos and the mainland 10
Questions 11-12
Choose the appropriate letters A-D and write them in boxes 11 and 12 on your answer sheet.
11 The biggest enemy of the unique Galapagos ecology is:
A 65,000 eco-tourists a year.
B alien organisms.
C eradication programs.
D feral dogs and cats.
12 To curb population growth on the Galapagos, the Ecuadorian government:
A has ordered people to live there for only five years.
B plans to issue identification cards.
C says that an outsider must be married to a permanent resident.
D enacted the Special Law for the Galapagos in 1998.
READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 13-27 which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.
Doctors Divided Over Heart Pills
A group of drugs now being marketed in the United States under a variety of brand names have been proved to reduce deaths among heart-attack survivors by more than 40% over five years. The drugs are collectively known as statins, and are currently being taken by over 10 million Americans. Doctors are currently wondering if statins will be just as effective in preventing heart attacks in people who do not necessarily fit the profile of a "high-risk" patient.
The people the doctors are targeting for possible prescription of statins are those whose LDL, or "bad" cholesterol, is somewhat high, or their HDL, or "good" cholesterol is a little low. Again, maybe they have diabetes, which commonly leads to cardiovascular disease, but do not yet show symptoms of the latter.
A study report in the British Medical Journal concluded that statins could reduce by 30% the risk of dying from a heart attack, even among people with normal cholesterol levels and no signs of cardiovascular disease.
Leading pharmaceutical companies have gone so far as to petition the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to allow consumers to buy some low-dose statins without having to first obtain a physician's prescription, or "over the counter".
Statins work by partly blocking an enzyme, known as HMG, found in the liver that turns some of the food that you eat into cholesterol. The body, in fact, needs some cholesterol to produce hormones and Vitamin D. Excess cholesterol builds up in the arteries, reducing the blood flow and increasing the danger of heart disease. By slowing down the function of the HMG enzyme, statins reduce the amount of cholesterol entering the blood stream, and force the body to draw on the cholesterol already in the arteries to make up the shortfall in its needs. Thus, there is a regular clearing out of cholesterol from the arteries. Doctors emphasize that statins work best when a person adopts a low-fat diet.
