Preview of Essential Readings For IELTS
Preview of Essential Readings For IELTS
Preview of Essential Readings For IELTS
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Essential Readings for the IELTS
Author: Mohammad Ali Salmani-Nodoushan, PhD
Printed in Iran
Salmani-Nodoushan, Mohammad Ali ـ1348 ﻣﺤﻤﺪﻋﻠﻲ،ﺳﻠﻤﺎﻧﻲ ﻧُﺪوﺷﻦ
( اس. ﺗﻲ. ال. اي.)اﻳﺴﻨﺸﺎل رﻳﺪﻳﻨﮕﺰ ﻓﺮ د آي
Essential Readings for the IELTS / Mohammad Ali Salmani-Nodoushan
ﺗﻬﺮان: زﺑﺎﻧﻜﺪه، م2005=1384
. ص180 ، xii
.اﻧﮕﻠﻴﺴﻲ
ISBN ***************
.ﻓﻬﺮﺳﺘﻨﻮﻳﺴﻲ ﺑﺮ اﺳﺎس اﻃﻼﻋﺎت ﻓﻴﭙﺎ
Essential Readings for the IELTS : ﻋﻨﻮان. اﻟﻒ.*** .2 .**** -- زﺑﺎن اﻧﮕﻠﻴﺴﻲ.1
***** PE **** / *****
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م- 84 **** ﻛﺘﺎﺑﺨﺎﻧﻪ ﻣﻠﻲ اﻳﺮان
V
CONTENTS
DEDICATION
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
PREFACE
UNIT ONE
UNIT TWO
UNIT THREE
VII
UNIT FOUR
UNIT FIVE
UNIT SIX
UNIT SEVEN
UNIT EIGHT
VIII
UNIT NINE
African mud architecture Randall Fegley 98
Ways of building in mud Randall Fegley 99
Limitations of mud Randall Fegley 101
Native American architecture Leland M. Roth 103
Bamboo solution Mary Roach 104
UNIT TEN
UNIT ELEVEN
UNIT TWELVE
UNIT THIRTEEN
UNIT FIFTEEN
X
PREFACE
Essential readings for the IELTS is designed for adults who are
interested in strengthening their reading skills for academic, personal, or
career purposes. The book can be used for a variety of purposes. First,
it is suitable for EFL learners in undergraduate classes of reading
comprehension at university level. Second, the book can be used by
undergraduate EFL students who want to expand their reading skills. In
addition, the book can be used for coaching purposes; since the design
of the book follows the design of the general training reading module of
the IELTS test, the book can also be used for coaching.
All the texts in this book emphasize reading practice as well as reading
speed. The passages were taken from magazines, journals,
encyclopedias, leaflets, books, and newspapers. At least one text in
each unit contains detailed logical argument. Moreover, the reading
passages are representative of current non-fiction, magazine or
newspaper writing. They cover a wide range of subject matter in order
to expose the reader to various content demands of general reading
materials. Attempts were made to select the readings with great care so
that almost no adaptations (simplifying structures and vocabulary, and
glossing) would be needed.
The book consists of fifteen units. Each unit is composed of five reading
selections. The first reading selection of each unit includes 155 words.
The second reading selection in each unit includes 237 words, the third
reading selection 379 words, the fourth one 442 words, and the last one
826 words. All the reading selections have a Flesch-Kincaid grade level
of 11 to 12, meaning that they are suitable for intermediate to advanced
learners.
The readings are of graded difficulty; they are arranged in order of
difficulty. Therefore, it is recommended that the units be presented in
the given order if the book is to be used as a textbook in classes of
reading comprehension, or for coaching purposes.
Each unit consists of three sections and a variety of task-based
question types. The first section of each unit includes two reading texts
XI
and two sets of questions: true/false items and sentence-completion
practice. The second section, too, consists of two reading selections
and two sets of questions: true/false items, and outlining practice (i.e.,
choosing suitable paragraph headings from a list). Finally, the third
section consists of only one reading selection and three sets of
questions that fall into two categories: skimming exercises (skimming
for dates, and skimming for names); and eliciting the views of the
writer (i.e., identification of writers’ views or attitudes). On the
whole, each unit consists of 40 questions.
When the reading passages are discussed in class, attention
should generally be directed to sentence and paragraph content
rather than to individual words. If a key word is unfamiliar, the
students should be encouraged to guess the meaning from the
context. They should also be encouraged to see that words can
have different meanings in different contexts.
XII
UNIT ONE
QUESTIONS 1-5
EXAMPLE ANSWER
Natural hazards are responsible for the death of some
people.
● ⓕ ⓝ
UNIT ONE 1
NATURAL HAZARDS
Continuously occurring or chronic natural hazards are often
unrecognized as such and difficult to identify. They may adversely affect
lots of people, animals and plants. Many natural hazards, such as
earthquakes, volcanoes, and hurricanes are unavoidable, but measures
can be taken to lower their impact. Thus buildings can be designed to
withstand quakes, and ways are also being developed to predict their
occurrence.
In 1991 the volcano Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted.
Fortunately a team of geologists from the United States Geological
Survey were present, who predicted the eruption and saved the lives of
many people who were evacuated. Flood impacts can be reduced by
engineering solutions. These solutions may involve water storage and
embankments, and warnings and advice given to the public in advance
of major storms. When Hurricane Andrew struck Florida in 1992 it
caused $12 billion of damage, but due to the advance warning of the
storm only 50 people died.
QUESTIONS 6-13
EXAMPLE ANSWER
National parks are possessed by governments in … A and M
QUESTIONS ANSWER
6 & 7 Forlandet National Park is …
8 & 9 Lake District National Park in the United
Kingdom encompasses …
10 & 11 Lake District National Park in the United
Kingdom encompasses …
12 & 13 National parks and sanctuaries in Britain are
not supervised and controlled …
2 UNIT ONE
POSSIBLE ENDINGS
A South America.
B England’s tallest mountain.
C by the government.
D residence for red deer.
E active farms.
F food for migrating birds on their way to Africa.
G a narrow island and sanctuary located in Norway.
H for purposes of recreation.
I throughout the park.
J ancient settlements.
K an important breeding ground for guillemot ducklike auks.
L habitat for the last surviving wild lynxes.
M the United States.
UNIT ONE 3
Mexico, which creates a mild climate, making this an important breeding
ground for guillemot ducklike auks. Seals, eider ducks, and geese also
depend on its habitats. Spain’s Doana National Park provides a 507
square km wildlife refuge where birds that nest in northern Europe feed
while migrating to Africa. The last surviving wild lynxes in southern
Europe find sanctuary there as well.
QUESTIONS 14-20
Look at THE SENSORY SYSTEMS OF SHARKS below and at the
following statements.
mark ⓣ If the statement is true
ⓕ If the statement is false
ⓝ If the information is not given in the passage
4 UNIT ONE
THE SENSORY SYSTEMS OF SHARKS
UNIT ONE 5
QUESTIONS 21-26
Look at CLASSIFICATION OF AIRPLANES below. From the following
list (i-xi) choose the most suitable summaries for the paragraphs A, C,
and E-H.
Write the appropriate numbers (i-xi) in boxes headed Answer.
NB There are more summaries than paragraphs, so you will not use
them all. (Two examples are provided.)
6 UNIT ONE
CLASSIFICATION OF AIRPLANES
A
Airplanes are classifiable into various classes including land planes,
carrier-based airplanes, seaplanes, amphibians, vertical takeoff and
landing, short takeoff and landing, and space shuttles.
B
Designers usually design land planes to operate from a paved surface,
typically a runway, and equip some of them to operate from grass or
other unfinished surfaces. Land planes usually have wheels. Some
specialized aircrafts operating in the Arctic or Antarctic regions have
skis instead of wheels.
C
As a modified type of land planes which can takeoff from and land
aboard naval aircraft bases, carrier-based airplanes have a
strengthened structure. A landing gear helps them handle the stresses
of catapult-assisted takeoff, in which steam-driven catapults launch the
craft. They also make arrested landings by using hooks attached to the
underside of their tails.
D
Pontoon planes are technically-modified land planes with floats in place
of wheels so they can operate from water. Their designers have
designed a number of seaplanes from scratch to operate only from
water bases. Pontoon planes may have small floats connected to their
outer wing panels to help steady them at low speeds on the water, but
the plane’s floating hull usually bears the weight of the plane.
E
Amphibians operate from both water and land headquarters. Very often,
an amphibian is an extraordinary Pontoon, with a boat-like hull and the
addition of specifically designed under-carriage system. When
extended, it can capacitate the airplane to taxi right out of the water
onto land headquarters. Historically, some Pontoons possessed a
beaching gear, a system of cradles on wheels positioned under the
floating aircraft. It allowed the pilot to roll the aircraft onto land.
UNIT ONE 7
F
Vertical Takeoff and Landing airplanes typically implement the jet thrust
from their turbines, pointed down at the Earth, to take off and land
straight up and down. After taking off, the airplane usually transitions to
wing-borne flight in order to cover a longer distance or carry a
significant load. A helicopter is a typical example of such an aircraft.
G
Short-Takeoff-and-Landing aircrafts are able to function on relatively
short runways. Their designs usually employ optimized wings and high-
lift instruments on the wings for optimum performance throughout
takeoff and landing as distinguished from an airplane that has a wing
optimized for high-speed cruise at high altitude. These airplanes are
usually cargo airplanes. Some serve in a passenger-carrying capacity
as well.
H
A NASA space shuttle is an aircraft unprecedented by any other
because it flies as a fixed-wing airplane within the atmosphere and as a
spacecraft in outer space. After rising from the launching base, the
space shuttle flies like a rocket out of the atmosphere. During landing,
the shuttle becomes the world’s most sophisticated engine-less glider.
MISSION TO MOON
In 1958, the United States and the USSR were both working hard to be
the pioneer to send a satellite to the Moon. Their early probes failed. On
October 11, 1958, Pioneer 1 was launched by the United States to orbit
the Moon. It did not reach a high enough speed to reach the Moon, but
reached a height above Earth of more than 110,000 km. In December
1958 Pioneer 3 also failed to leave high Earth orbit. It did, however,
discover a second Van Allen belt of radiation around Earth.
On January 2, 1959, after two earlier failed missions, the USSR
launched Luna 1, which was expected to hit the Moon. Although it
missed its target, Luna 1 did become the first artificial object to escape
Earth orbit. On September 14, 1959, Luna 2 became the first artificial
object to strike the Moon, impacting east of Moon’s Mare Serentitatis. In
8 UNIT ONE
October 1959, Luna 3 flew around the Moon and radioed the first
pictures of the far side of the Moon, which is not visible from Earth.
In the United States, efforts to reach the Moon did not resume until
1962, with a series of probes called Ranger. The early Rangers were
designed to eject an instrument capsule onto the Moon’s surface just
before the main spacecraft crashed into the Moon. These missions were
plagued by failures—only Ranger 4 struck the Moon, and the spacecraft
had already ceased functioning by that time. Rangers 6 through 9 were
similar to the early Rangers, but did not have instrument packages. They
carried television cameras designed to send back pictures of the Moon
before the spacecraft crashed. On July 31, 1964, Ranger 7 succeeded in
sending back the first quality images of the Moon before crashing, as
planned, into the surface. Rangers 8 and 9 repeated the feat in 1965.
By then, the United States had embarked on the Apollo program to land
humans on the Moon. With an Apollo landing in mind, the next series of
U.S. lunar probes, named Surveyor, was designed to “soft-land” (that is,
land without crashing) on the lunar surface and send back pictures and
other data to aid Apollo planners. As it turned out, the Soviets made their
own soft landing first, with Luna 9, on February 3, 1966. The first
pictures of a dusty moonscape from the lunar surface were radioed by
Luna 9. Surveyor 1 successfully reached the surface on June 2, 1966.
Six more Surveyor missions followed, but only two were successful.
Thousands of pictures of the lunar surface were sent back by the
Surveyors. Two of the probes were equipped with a mechanical claw,
remotely operated from Earth, that enabled scientists to investigate the
consistency of the lunar soil.
At the same time, the Lunar Orbiter probes were launched by the United
States, which began circling the Moon to map its surface in
unprecedented detail. Lunar Orbiter 1 began taking pictures on August
18, 1966. Four more Lunar Orbiters continued the mapping program,
which gave scientists thousands of quality photographs covering nearly
all of the Moon.
Beginning in 1968, unpiloted Zond probes—actually a lunar version of
their piloted Soyuz spacecraft—were sent around the Moon by the
USSR. These flights, initially designed as preparation for planned piloted
missions that would orbit the Moon, returned high-quality photographs of
the Moon and Earth. Two of the Zonds carried biological payloads with
turtles, plants, and other living things. Both the United States and the
USSR were achieving successes with their unpiloted lunar missions.
However, the Americans were pulling steadily ahead in their piloted
program. As their piloted lunar program began to lag, the Soviets made
UNIT ONE 9
plans for robotic landers that would gather a sample of lunar soil and
carry it to Earth. Although this did not occur in time to upstage the Apollo
landings as the Soviets had hoped, Luna 16 did carry out a sample
return in September 1970, returning to Earth with 100 g (4 oz) of rock
and soil from the Moon’s Mare Fecunditatis. In November 1970 Luna 17
landed with a remote-controlled rover called Lunakhod 1. The first
wheeled vehicle on the Moon, Lunakhod 1 traveled 10.5 km (6.4 mi)
across the Sinus Iridium during ten months of operations, sending back
pictures and other data. Only three more lunar probes followed. Luna 20
returned samples in February 1972. Lunakhod 2, carried aboard the
Luna 21 lander, reached the Moon in January 1973. Then, in August
1976 Luna 24 ended the first era of lunar exploration.
Exploration of the Moon resumed in February 1994 with the U.S. probe
called Clementine, which circled the Moon for three months. In addition
to surveying the Moon with quality cameras, Clementine gathered the
first exact data on lunar topography using a laser altimeter. Clementine’s
laser altimeter bounced laser beams off of the Moon’s surface,
measuring the time they took to come back to determine the height of
features on the Moon.
QUESTIONS 27-31
Complete the table below. Write a date for each answer. The first one
has been done as an example for you. Write your answers in boxes
headed DATE.
10 UNIT ONE