Candidate Number

Candidate Name ______________________________________________

INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH LANGUAGE TESTING SYSTEM

Academic Reading

PRACTICE TEST 1 hour

Time 1 hour

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES
Do not open this question paper until you are told to do so.
Write your name and candidate number in the spaces at the top of this page.
Read the instructions for each part of the paper carefully.
Answer all the questions.
Write your answers on the answer sheet. Use a pencil.
You must complete the answer sheet within the time limit.
At the end of the test, hand in both this question paper and your answer sheet.

INFORMATION FOR CANDIDATES

There are 40 questions on this question paper.
Each question carries one mark.

© British Council. All rights reserved. 1

READING PASSAGE 1 Questions 1–13

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1–13, which are based on Reading
Passage 1 on the following pages.

Bioluminescence

Bioluminescence is light created by a living organism; it is a chemical reaction that takes

place inside the plant or animal. In order for a plant or animal to be bioluminescent, two
things must be present. Luciferin, the compound that makes the light, is produced inside the
bodies of some animals and plants. Others get this from bacteria which live inside their
bodies, and which produce light all the time. It is necessary for the organism to have some
way of hiding this light when it is not wanted or needed, and this may be done by pulling the
light-emitting organs inside the body, or by covering them with pieces of skin. Other
bioluminescent creatures get luciferin from the food that they eat. When activated by an
enzyme called luciferase, the resulting chemical reaction creates light, and this is what
makes the plant or animal glow.

The colour of the light emitted by bioluminescent organisms varies greatly, depending on the
habitat of the organism producing the light. Researchers have found that bioluminescence in
the ocean is most commonly blue-green, because blue wavelengths from sunlight filtering
down from the surface are the strongest. There are some exceptions; for example, the light
produced by the dragonfish, known as 'dragonlight', is red. One use of this red glow is to
create a means of private communication between male and female dragonfish that goes
unnoticed by other fish. Land-based organisms that glow exhibit a greater variety of colours,
and a small number glow in more than one colour. One example of this is the railroad worm,
thus named because of its appearance after dark. It is, in fact, the larva of a beetle, not a
worm, which glows red from its head with green bioluminescent spots down its body. Most
often, however, land-based creatures use blue-green bioluminescence as in the ocean, but
in the yellow spectrum. Fireflies are an excellent example of creatures which emit this kind of
colour, with their flashing amber bottoms.

Having the ability to produce light serves multiple purposes. The angler fish is an excellent
example of a deep-sea fish that uses bioluminescence to lure its prey; if smaller creatures
come too close to the glowing fleshy growth which dangles just in front of the sharp-toothed
predator's mouth, they are caught off-guard and eaten. Click beetles crowd on termite
mounds after sunset, and anything that is lured by their glowing light will soon become
sustenance. Having an inbuilt flashlight is an advantage when hunting for food in the dark.
Dragonfish, for example, use their red light to see what is in their immediate environment
and locate their next meal. Unlike the previous two examples, their red light is like a stealth
light that allows them to act as if under an invisibility cloak; thus they can hunt, producing
light to see by, but they remain undetected by their prey.

Defending yourself against predators can be the difference between life and death in the
natural world. Invisibility is an asset; if an animal is not seen then it stands a better chance of
not being eaten. Camouflage in shallow waters can be a challenge, since the sun's rays
penetrate the water and anything swimming in the shallows creates a dark silhouette. Some
species, such as hatchet fish, have developed bioluminescence to eliminate this tell-tale

© British Council. All rights reserved. 2

outline, using a technique known as 'counterillumination'. They project light from the
underside of their form so that they appear to be sunlight travelling through the water,
effectively disappearing from the gaze of predators looking up from below. Some fish can
even adjust the amount of light they emit to perfectly balance with the rays penetrating the
water. gaze: cái nhìn chằm chằm
Other defensive techniques are used underwater. For example, when under attack the sea
cucumber attaches a sticky glowing packet of bioluminescence onto a passing fish so that
the predator chases the fish while the sea cucumber gets away. Some bioluminescent squid
flash brightly to startle any fish that come too close, buying the necessary time to swim to
safety. The vampire squid lives in the dark depths of the ocean, so squirting black ink as
other squid do would be ineffective. Instead, this particular species squirts out thick, glowing
mucus to startle attackers and slow them down. Some insect larvae, commonly referred to
as glow-worms, light up to tell other animals that they are toxic and to be avoided.

Bioluminescence is also a useful way to attract attention from potential mates and to
communicate. Fireflies flash to indicate that they are looking for a mate, while the less subtle
male lantern shark entices female sharks by lighting up its reproductive organs. Fungi such
as some toadstools or mushrooms use bioluminescence to disperse their spores, glowing to
attract insects with the ultimate goal of broadcasting their colonies far and wide.

disperse : phát tán

spore: bào tử

© British Council. All rights reserved. 3

 BC IELTS Ac eading PT 30

Questions 1–5

Complete the table below.

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

Write your answers in boxes 1–5 on your answer sheet.

Bioluminescence – chemical reaction

Requires: luciferin 2 …………

• made by the organism • works with luciferin to make

the organism light up
OR
• bacteria
can come from 1 …………
inside the organism
OR
• from the diet
Colours produced: habitat
relate to 3 …………
Oceans Land

• blue-green because of • many colours

sunlight
private communication • similarities to ocean-based
• red for 4 ………… between species, but tending towards
pairs of dragonfish the 5 …………
yellow spectrum

© British Council. All rights reserved. 4

 Questions 6–12

Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A–J, below.

Write the correct letter, A–J, in boxes 6–12 on your answer sheet.

NB You will not need to use all the letters.

6 i
Click beetles can use luminescence to … =>h blind box
7 One use of dragonfish luminescence is to …f =>d
8 Hatchet fish are able to use luminescence to …d => J
9 c
Some squid can blink their luminescent light to …
=>a
10 Insect larvae can use luminescence to …
11 Lantern sharks use luminescent body parts to …
g =>f
12 Mushrooms can use luminescence to … =>g

entice= lure = attract meal: con mồi=prey

List of Endings
A … warn predators that they are poisonous.
B … warn others of the same species about predators.
x C … escape from potential predators. =attacker
D … find prey in a dark environment.
hide and seek E … transfer light onto another creature.
F … attract potential mates.
G … enable the spread of reproductive cells.
H … attract food to their light.
I … blind other creatures with their light
x J … hide from their enemies.

© British Council. All rights reserved. 5

Question 13

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write the correct letter in box 13 on your answer sheet.

What is the main purpose of this reading passage?

A to describe research studies of how organisms make and use bioluminescence

B to give an overview of the manufacture and uses of bioluminescence in organisms
C to describe the habitat, mating and feeding patterns of some bioluminescent ocean
species
D to discuss and debate research findings about bioluminescence

© British Council. All rights reserved. 6

READING PASSAGE 2 Questions 14–27

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14–27, which are based on Reading
Passage 2 on the following pages.

Ancient Egyptians – Founding Fathers of Pharmacology?

The Greeks have been credited with being the earliest practitioners of modern Western
medicine. Recent evidence has emerged, however, that suggests that ancient Egyptian
studies of science-based medicine and pharmacology preceded the Greeks and, in
particular, the Greek 'De Materia Medica', a written list of 600 drugs and their uses which
has been dated to 50 CE, and which has historically been regarded as the first
pharmacopoeia. The ancient Egyptians may have blamed disease on supernatural forces
such as demonic attacks, gods or ghosts, and recited spells as cures, but their medical
system also used scientific rigour in the development of drug-based remedies, and they
recorded their pharmaceuticals at the time.

A plethora of Egyptian artefacts, including surgical instruments such as scalpels and pliers,
prosthetic great toes on at least two mummies, and mummified remains revealing the
successful treatment of serious injuries, all point to the substantial medical knowledge of
these ancient people. Debate continues over the existence of a dental profession, as no
evidence for this has yet been collected from mummified remains.

Twelve medical documents written on papyrus (ancient Egyptian paper made from the
papyrus plant) have provided strong evidence that, as well as surgical knowledge, the
Egyptians had a systematic approach to diagnosis and treatment.

Despite the fact that translators have been working on ancient Egyptian written records
since the early nineteenth century, some meanings are still not exact, and pharmacological
records are a particular challenge. Rosalie David, director of the KNH Centre for Biomedical
Egyptology, explains that translators need to be able to cross-reference the meaning of a
particular word in different contexts in order to exactly clarify its meaning. Some of the
words in the medical papyrus texts appear only in lists and not in complete sentences, and
often in one document only. Over the past 200 years, translators have been forced to

© British Council. All rights reserved. 7

make educated linguistic guesses at many words, followed by consultation of a current
pharmacopeia to identify which commonly used pharmaceuticals of their own time had
the same medicinal use as those stated in the papyrus. Until recently, however, about a
third of the references to pharmaceutical constituents remained unclear.

Dr Jackie Campbell at the University of Manchester in Great Britain set out to conduct a
meticulous five-year study of the papyrus texts to establish firmer identification of the
constituent elements of Egyptian pharmacology, in order to determine the depth and
efficacy of Egyptian pharmaceutical knowledge. Not being a linguist, Campbell employed
scientific methods to validate the papyrus prescriptions.

As with artefacts and ruins, Egyptian flora is well-documented and verified and can be
reconstructed in detail. Campbell began by cross-checking that the plants in the
prescriptions actually grew or were traded in Egypt when the parchments were written;
any that couldn't be verified at that time were ruled out. She then set out to study four
vital parchments covering prescriptions dating from circa 1850 BCE to 1200 BCE, when
precise measurement was introduced. These medical records all contained instructions
which followed a systematic recording of the list of constituents and the means by which
these were assembled and mixed for use, how they were dispensed, and the appropriate
dosage. Comparing each prescription with current standards and scientific protocols,
Campbell was able to verify or, in some cases, invalidate the medical efficacy of the
remedy. Some constituents, such as aniseed, were included in the translations but would
not have worked as prescribed, nor were they found in the region at that time.

Scientists are now able to clearly identify the constituents of over half of the original one
thousand prescriptions and specify if each one would indeed have worked for its intended
purpose. For a further 156 prescriptions, there were only minor constituents which could
not be identified. Over sixty per cent of the prescriptions would have been of therapeutic
value, at least to some extent, including those where not every constituent was verifiable.
There are still over two hundred unaccounted for items; Campbell says it may never be
possible to identify some of them.

© British Council. All rights reserved. 8

 After consulting a 1977 pharmacopoeia, Campbell found that sixty-two per cent of the
verified constituents were still in use in the 70s; in fact, many are common today, albeit in
synthetic form. The preparation of the ancient remedies also had parallels with techniques
used by pharmacists today: boiling to concentrate a chemical, diluting when necessary, or
grinding to release the active constituent from its surrounding plant matter. Seemingly
without any knowledge of modern chemistry, Egyptians were able to use appropriate
extraction techniques, such as soaking plants in either water or mild alcohol, depending on
the solubility of the active compound. Some remedies required a two-phase extraction.
Campbell found that over sixty per cent of the ancient remedies complied with the 1973
British Pharmaceutical Codex in all but one area; Egyptians did not know of the need for
sterility protocols, although they did value cleanliness in their medical professionals.

The final test of Egyptian pharmacology was to discover the efficacy of the remedies for the
problems they were prescribed for. Once again, Campbell was surprised by her findings.
Despite the fact that Egyptians were primarily treating symptoms, lacking precise knowledge
of the root cause of most medical ailments, she found that even down to the exact dosage,
sixty-four per cent of those prescriptions had curative value comparable to contemporary
prescriptions.

© British Council. All rights reserved. 9

Questions 14–16

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write the correct letter in boxes 14–16 on your answer sheet.

14 What do we learn in the first paragraph of this text?

A The ancient Greeks were the first people to study drugs for medical purposes.
B The ancient Greeks made the earliest written version of a drug dictionary.
C The ancient Egyptians wrote down drug treatments earlier than the Greeks.
D The ancient Egyptians based all their medical practices on a belief in magic.

15 Which of the following is NOT mentioned as evidence of Egyptian medical skills?

A ancient bodies with healed wounds

B medical equipment for operations
C artificial digits such as toes
D jawbones with extracted teeth

16 Why is it difficult to study written Egyptian pharmaceutical records?

A There are no existing translations of the original Egyptian language.

B It is hard to translate words which appear only a few times in short documents.
C The writing on the pharmaceutical records was damaged.
D Egyptians used drugs differently from how modern medicine uses them.

© British Council. All rights reserved. 10

Questions 17–21

Complete the summary below.

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

Write your answers in boxes 17–21 on your answer sheet.

Ancient Egyptian Pharmacology – Research Study

Campbell’s study aimed to make clearer 17 ………… of Egyptian drug ingredients to find out
how effective their knowledge had been. She used current knowledge of 18 ………… to
check that the ingredients listed would have been available. She also examined key
documents from the period when 19 ………… was first used. These documents listed
ingredients, their preparation and administration, and the 20 ………… . She wanted to
validate or disprove each recipe; a few ingredients, e.g. 21 …………, had clearly been
incorrectly translated.

Questions 22–27

Complete the notes below.

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

Write your answers in boxes 22–27 on your answer sheet.

Results of the Study

Identification of ingredients
• All or most of the ingredients for the majority of remedies have now been verified
• More than half the remedies would have had some 22 …………
• Some of the ingredients are still a mystery and may remain so
Comparison with current pharmaceuticals
• Many Egyptian ingredients are still used, though some are now in 23 …………
• Extraction methods included the use of a suitable medium according to the
24 ………… of the drug
• Every treatment obeyed the current rules for use, with the exception of
25 …………

Establishing the 26 ………… of Egyptian drugs

• The Egyptians did not understand the causes of most diseases
• Yet, over half of their remedies would have worked as well as 27 …………

© British Council. All rights reserved. 11

READING PASSAGE 3 Questions 28–40

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 28–40, which are based on Reading
Passage 3 on the following pages.

Questions 28–32

Reading Passage 3 has five sections, A–E.

Choose the correct heading for each section from the list of headings below.

Write the correct number, i–viii, in boxes 28–32 on your answer sheet.

NB You will not need to use all the headings.

List of Headings

i deepening our understanding through research

ii more complex challenges in understanding happiness
iii happiness as part of the human survival mechanism
iv the effects of addiction on the happiness response
v deficiencies in neural mechanisms for happiness
vi the pros and cons of our awareness of happiness
vii relationships between cell phone usage and happiness
viii differentiating pleasure responses in the brain

28 Section A
29 Section B
30 Section C
31 Section D
32 Section E

© British Council. All rights reserved. 12

 Happiness – It's All in Your Head

Section A

The need to survive and procreate is at the root of adaptive behaviours for all life forms.
However, humans may be distinct in their ability to respond consciously to a pleasurable
stimulus, to recall this afterwards, and thus to anticipate another period of happiness and
actively plan actions that may bring this about. This facility of abstract consciousness confers
an evolutionary advantage on humankind, but at the price of an appreciation of our own
potential unhappiness and inevitable mortality. Nonetheless, most humans are engaged in a
constant struggle to achieve, and the urge to maximise and prolong happiness is one of our
primary motivations for doing so.

Section B

To search for the specific areas of the brain responsible for happiness, more than a hundred
students from the University of Wisconsin were recruited for an experiment. Each was sent
25 text messages a day, asking them to rank their positive and negative emotions
throughout the day, both during ordinary activities and when playing a game which offered
$15 rewards. In another part of the experiment, the research team used Magnetic
Resonance Imaging scans to search for those parts of the brain that lit up in response to
feelings of happiness. The team are wondering whether the information they collected will
allow us to train our brains to extend and even multiply our happy moments.

The experiment found that one small area of the brain appears to be the source of the
prolongation of positive feelings. Repeated neuron firings in this area are associated with an
extended duration of happy feelings. A team psychologist, Aaron Heller, believes that it is
important to recognise that the duration of enjoyable emotions is as valuable as their
strength. He is keen to learn more about the difference between someone who can richly
enjoy a sunset and another who responds little to this event, and for whom happy emotions
quickly diminish.

Section C

Following on from these initial findings, it appears that there are many parts of the brain that
offer reward systems that respond to pleasurable stimuli, or that give us pleasure: three can
be found deep within the brain and four others in the cerebral cortex (the outer layer of brain
tissue). However, there are very few mechanisms that cause pleasure reactions in the form
of a response we usually label as 'liking' – that is, a promotion and continuation of the

© British Council. All rights reserved. 13

pleasurable feeling. Of these, there are two or three tiny hotspots in the sub-cortex and
some in the brainstem region. In experiments, these hotspots can be stimulated with tiny
injections of drugs to produce a doubling or tripling of the sensation of liking.

A further discovery is the motivational process we might describe as 'wanting', which

responds to an attractive stimulus and desires the reward of repeated exposure to it.
Drawing from these conclusions, we can perceive different areas of brain activity which
correspond to 'pleasure', as a short-lived impact on the individual, to 'liking', as a more long-
term response to that pleasure that can lead to improved mood, and to 'wanting', that
operates as a motivational force to repeat pleasurable experiences.

Section D

The fact that these responses are different and occur in different parts of the brain may help
to explain why addicts of all kinds may crave a reward without necessarily liking that reward.
In extreme circumstances, an addict may want something that is fully recognised
consciously as being undesirable – the dissociation occurs because of the lack of integration
of the mental faculties and may be expected to lead to unhappiness.

Similarly, the situation is bleak for someone whose pleasure regions of the brain do not
function normally. The lack of a sensation of pleasure is an important symptom of mental
illnesses, including depression. Damage to one area has proved to be a direct cause of
'anhedonia', or lack of pleasure. In animals with such damage, even the delight in sugary
tastes can be lost so that they react as if the substance is bitter or otherwise foul-tasting.

In humans, anecdotal evidence tells us that Parkinson's Disease patients who have been
treated with tiny electrical probes to destroy a small group of cells in the brain may show a
reduction in emotional expression, while stimulation of this area appears to help with
depression. Changes in the structure of the brain here, caused by injury or disease, have
been found to produce a complete absence of pleasurable sensations.

This is not the full story about depression; however, in some cases there may be a kind of
automatic appreciation of fundamental pleasures, but the more developed thought
processes that normally arise, such as reflection on the enjoyment or anticipation of renewed
pleasure, may no longer be available to some people.

© British Council. All rights reserved. 14

Section E

This identification of brain regions related to enjoyment brings some confidence in

understanding the mind's reception of sensory pleasures, but there are still significant gaps
in our appreciation of the processes behind more sophisticated levels of enjoyment which
might come from the arts, or from joyful play. Further, there are the broader pleasures that
come from social interactions which are essential to humans: they run from the heightened
sensory responses to touch from loved ones to the more abstract appreciation of reciprocity,
social rewards and valued relationships.

© British Council. All rights reserved. 15

Questions 33 and 34

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write the correct letter in boxes 33 and 34 on your answer sheet.

33 According to Section A, what is one reason why people set goals?

A They need to prosper, to eat and to reproduce.

B They have a highly developed consciousness.
C They are trying to avoid depression and misery.
D They are seeking pleasurable sensations.

34 What do we learn about happiness in Section B?

A Most people's state of happiness varies throughout the day.

B Computer game playing is an addictive form of happiness.
C At least one part of the brain makes us feel happy for longer.
D A strong response to pleasurable events is very important.

© British Council. All rights reserved. 16

Questions 35–40

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 3?

In boxes 35–40 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 There are fewer 'pleasure' sites in the brain than 'liking' ones.
36 'Liking' is usually a weaker response than 'pleasure'.
37 Some people suffer from a disconnect between the different brain responses to
pleasurable stimuli.
38 People with depression can suffer from disturbances to their sense of taste.
39 Depression may be correlated with an inability to remember, or look forward to,
pleasure.
40 We now understand the brain chemistry that controls complex forms of pleasure.

© British Council. All rights reserved. 17

© The British Council 2012. All rights reserved. 15