IELTS reading

Cambridge 16 · Academic Reading Test 2

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Section 1

Reading Passage 1

The White Horse Of Uffington

The cutting of huge figures or geoglyphs into the earth of English hillsides has taken place for more than 3,000 years. There are 56 hill figures scattered around England, with the vast majority on the chalk downlands of the country’s southern counties. The figures include giants, horses, crosses and regimental badges. Although the majority of these geoglyphs date within the last 300 years or so, there are one or two that are much older. The most famous of these figures is perhaps also the most mysterious — the Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire. The White Horse has recently been re-dated and shown to be even older than its previously assigned ancient pre-Roman Iron Age date. More controversial is the date of the enigmatic Long Man of Wilmington in Sussex. While many historians are convinced the figure is prehistoric, others believe that it was the work of an artistic monk from a nearby priory and was created between the 11th and 15th centuries. The method of cutting these huge figures was simply to remove the overlying grass to reveal the gleaming white chalk below. However, the grass would soon grow over the geoglyph again unless it was regularly cleaned or scoured by a fairly large team of people. One reason that the vast majority of hill figures have disappeared is that when the traditions associated with the figures faded, people no longer bothered or remembered to clear away the grass to expose the chalk outline. Furthermore, over hundreds of years the outlines would sometimes change due to people not always cutting in exactly the same place, thus creating a…

Questions 1–8

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

1.Most geoglyphs in England are located in a particular area of the country.

2.There are more geoglyphs in the shape of a horse than any other creature.

Section 2

Reading Passage 2

I Contain Multitudes

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Wendy Moore reviews Ed Yong’s book about microbes Microbes, most of them bacteria, have populated this planet since long before animal life developed and they will outlive us. Invisible to the naked eye, they are ubiquitous. They inhabit the soil, air, rocks and water and are present within every form of life, from seaweed and coral to dogs and humans. And, as Yong explains in his utterly absorbing and hugely important book, we mess with them at our peril. Every species has its own colony of microbes, called a ‘microbiome’, and these microbes vary not only between species but also between individuals and within different parts of each individual. What is amazing is that while the number of human cells in the average person is about 30 trillion, the number of microbial ones is higher — about 39 trillion. At best, Yong informs us, we are only 50 per cent human. Indeed, some scientists even suggest we should think of each species and its microbes as a single unit, dubbed a ‘holobiont’. In each human there are microbes that live only in the stomach, the mouth or the armpit and by and large they do so peacefully. So ‘bad’ microbes are just microbes out of context. Microbes that sit contentedly in the human gut (where there are more microbes than there are stars in the galaxy) can become deadly if they find their way into the bloodstream. These communities are constantly changing too. The right hand shares just one sixth of its microbes with the left hand. And, of course, we are surrounded by microbes. Every time we eat, we swallow a million microbes in each gram of food; we…

Questions 14–16

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

14.What point does the writer make about microbes in the first paragraph?

Section 3

Reading Passage 3

How To Make Wise Decisions

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Across cultures, wisdom has been considered one of the most revered human qualities. Although the truly wise may seem few and far between, empirical research examining wisdom suggests that it isn’t an exceptional trait possessed by a small handful of bearded philosophers after all — in fact, the latest studies suggest that most of us have the ability to make wise decisions, given the right context. ‘It appears that experiential, situational, and cultural factors are even more powerful in shaping wisdom than previously imagined,’ says Associate Professor Igor Grossmann of the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. ‘Recent empirical findings from cognitive, developmental, social, and personality psychology cumulatively suggest that people’s ability to reason wisely varies dramatically across experiential and situational contexts. Understanding the role of such contextual factors offers unique insights into understanding wisdom in daily life, as well as how it can be enhanced and taught.’ It seems that it’s not so much that some people simply possess wisdom and others lack it, but that our ability to reason wisely depends on a variety of external factors. ‘It is impossible to characterize thought processes attributed to wisdom without considering the role of contextual factors,’ explains Grossmann. ‘In other words, wisdom is not solely an “inner quality” but rather unfolds as a function of situations people happen to be in. Some situations are more likely to promote wisdom than others.’ Coming up with a definition of wisdom is challenging, but Grossmann and his…

Questions 27–30

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

27.What point does the writer make in the first paragraph?

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Answers & explanations

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40 answers3 explanations open

1
TRUE
The correct answer is TRUE because the excerpt clearly states that the vast majority of the 56 hill figures in England are found in the southern counties. This aligns with the statement that most geoglyphs in England are located in a particular area of the country.
2
NOT GIVEN
The correct answer is 'NOT GIVEN' because the passage does not mention the exact number or comparison between geoglyphs in the shape of a horse and those in the shape of other creatures. Therefore, it is not possible to determine if there are more geoglyphs in the shape of a horse than any other creature based on the given information.
3
TRUE
The correct answer is TRUE because the passage indicates that the White Horse is older than its previously believed age, implying that people were mistaken about its age before the recent dating.
4
FALSE
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5
FALSE
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6
TRUE
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7
TRUE
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8
NOT GIVEN
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9
Ridgeway
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10
documents
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11
soil
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12
fertility
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13
Rhiannon
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14
D
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15
C
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16
A
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17
G
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18
B
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19
H
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20
E
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21
YES
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22
NO
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23
NOT GIVEN
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24
YES
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25
NOT GIVEN
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26
NO
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27
B
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28
C
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29
B
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30
D
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31
D
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32
A
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33
C
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34
F
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35
G
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36
FALSE
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37
NOT GIVEN
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38
NOT GIVEN
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39
TRUE
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40
TRUE
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Understand why, not only what.

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