IELTS reading

Reading Test 8

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Section 1

Reading Passage 1

How the mind ages

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The way mental function changes is largely determined by three factors-mental lifestyle, the impact of chronic disease and flexibility of the mind. Experiments have shown that younger monkeys consistently outperform their older colleagues on memory tests. Formerly, psychologists concluded that memory and other mental functions in humans deteriorate over time because of changes in the brain. Thus mental decline after young adulthood appeared inevitable. The truth, however, is not quite so simple. Stanley Rapoport at the National Institute of Health in the United States measured the flow of blood in the brains of old and young people as they completed different tasks. Since blood flow reflects neural activity. Rapoport could compare which networks of neurons were the same, the neural networks they used were significantly different. The older subjects used different internal strategies to accomplish comparable results at the same time,'Rapoport says. At the Georgia Institute of Technology, psychologist Timothy Salthouse compared a group of fast and accurate typists of college age with another group in their 60s. Both groups typed 60 words a minute. The older typists, it turned out, achieved their speed with cunning little strategies that made them more efficient than their younger counterparts. They made fewer finger shifts, gaining a fraction of a second here and there. They also read ahead in the test. The neural networks involved in typing appear to have been reshaped to compensate for losses in motor skills or other age changes. In fact, there's evidence that…

Questions 1–3

Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D. Write the correct letter in boxes 1-3 on your answer sheet.

1.What does the writer say about the performance of older typists on the test?

2.The experiment with the rats showed that

Section 2

Reading Passage 2

Ensuring our future food supply

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Climate change and new diseases threaten the limited varieties of seeds we depend on for food. Luckily, we still have many of the seeds used in the past-but we must take steps to save them. Six miles outside the town of Decorah, Iowa in the USA, an 890-acre stretch of rolling fields and woods called Heritage Farm is letting its crops go to seed. Everything about Heritage Farm is in stark contrast to the surrounding acres of intensively farmed fields of corn and soybean that are typical of modern agriculture. Heritage Farm is devoted to collecting rather than growing seeds. It is home to the Seed Savers Exchange, one of the largest non government-owned seed banks in the United States. In 1975 Diane Ott Whealy was given the seedlings of two plant varieties that her great grandfather had brought to America from Bavaria in 1870: Grandpa Ott’s morning glory and his German Pink tomato. Wanting to preserve similar traditional varieties, known as heirloom plants, Diane and her husband, Kent, decided to establish a place where the seeds of the past could be kept and traded. The exchange now has more than 13,000 members, and the many thousands of heirloom varieties they have donated are kept in its walk-in coolers, freezers, and root cellars the seeds of many thousands of heirloom varieties and, as you walk around an old red barn that is covered in Grandpa Ott’s beautiful morning glory blossoms, you come across the different vegetables, herbs, and flowers they have planted there. "Each year our members list their seeds in this,"Diane Ott Whealy says, handing over a copy of the…

Questions 14–20

Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage? In boxes 14-20 on your answer sheet, write TRUE if the statement agrees with the information, FALSE if the statement contradicts the information, or NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this.

14.Heritage Farm is different from most other nearby farms.

Section 3

Reading Passage 3

The fluoridation controversy

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The long-standing debate about whether to fluoridate our drinking water continues Fluoridation is the addition of fluorine to public water supplies with the aim of reducing tooth decay. The fluorine, when mixed with water, becomes fluoride and the desired concentration of fluoride in public water is approximately one part per million, depending on the regional temperature and hence the amount of water people are likely to drink. Many studies, such as those by McClure in 1970 through to Burt in 1983, have shown that when children drink fluoridated water, their average rate of tooth decay seems greatly reduced. A typical figure claimed is 50 percent reduction. This apparently enormous benefit for children's teeth is the major argument in favor of fluoridation. Three main grounds for opposition to fluoridation have been expressed. First, opponents claim the benefits are exaggerated or not established. Second, there are claims of health risks to pans of the population, for example, allergic reactions. It is also accepted that high levels of fluoride can cause discoloration of otherwise healthy teeth. Proponents do not consider this to be a problem in such small concentrations, whereas opponents disagree - especially because some people drink more water and obtain much more than the standard 1 milligram of fluoride per day. Third, fluoridation is thought to be an infringement on individual rights because it is compulsory medication of all members of a community. An understanding of the fluoridation issue has important implications. If, according to the experts, fluoridation is…

Questions 27–31

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D. Write the correct letter in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet.

27.The optimum amount of fluorine in fluoridated water is calculated partly according to

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Answers & explanations

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40 answers3 explanations open
  1. 1

    C

    Scan the keyword “older typists” to find the answer in paragraph C. It clearly states that the older people were able to outperform the younger participants by the use of tactful strategies at typing, so they can save a little time (a fraction of a second). Answer: C

  2. 2

    D

    Skim to find that paragraph 3 deals with an experiment in rats. The text states that depending on the environment (in isolation or with other rats) and then the mental activity of rats (the interaction between rats), the rat’s brain shrank (become smaller) or expanded (become bigger). Answer: D

  3. 3

    B

    Scan the keyword “chess” to find the answer in paragraph I. It is stated that When asked to remember the patterns of chess pieces (or the layout of pieces) arranged on a board, the children won (or the children had better memory, or better recall). Answer: B

  4. 4

    semantic

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  5. 5

    episodic

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  6. 6

    algebra

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  7. 7

    metamemory

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  8. 8

    psychological

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  9. 9

    vocabulary

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  10. 10

    E

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  11. 11

    A

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  12. 12

    C

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  13. 13

    B

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  14. 14

    TRUE

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  15. 15

    FALSE

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  16. 16

    NOT GIVEN

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  17. 17

    FALSE

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  18. 18

    NOT GIVEN

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  19. 19

    NOT GIVEN

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  20. 20

    TRUE

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  21. 21

    appearance

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  22. 22

    rainforests

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  23. 23

    apples

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  24. 24

    50 percent

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  25. 25

    famine

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  26. 26

    Population

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  27. 27

    A

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  28. 28

    C

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  29. 29

    D

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  30. 30

    A

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  31. 31

    B

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  32. 32

    NO

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  33. 33

    YES

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  34. 34

    NOT GIVEN

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  35. 35

    YES

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  36. 36

    B

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  37. 37

    G

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  38. 38

    A

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  39. 39

    D

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  40. 40

    C

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Understand why, not only what.

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