IELTS Mock Test 2025 December Reading Practise Test 2

Huge earth and rock mounds rise out of the desert of the Supe Valley near the coast of Peru in South America. These immense mounds appear simply to be part of the geographical landscape in this arid region squeezed between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes mountains.But looks deceive. These are actually human-made pyramids strong evidence indicates they are the remains of a city known as Caral that flourished nearly 5,000 years ago. It true, it would be the oldest known urban center in the America and among the most ancient in the world. Research undertaken by Peruvian archaeologist Ruth Shady suggests that the 150-acre plex of pyramids, plazas and residential buildings was a thriving metropolis when Egypt's great pyramids were still being built. Though discovered in 1905, for years Caral attracted little attention, largely because archaeologists believed the structures were rainy recent. But the monumental scale of the pyramids had long interested Shady, who began excavations at the site in 1996, about 22 kilometers from the coast and 190 kilometers north of Peru's capital city of Lima. Shady and her crew searched for broken remains of the pots and containers that most such sites contain. Not finding any only made her more excited: it meant Caral could be what archaeologists term pre-ceramic, that is, existing before the advent in the area of pot-firing techniques. Shady's team undertook the task of excavating Piramide Mayor, the largest of the pyramids. After carefully clearing away many hundreds of years' worth of rubble and sand, they identified staircases, walls…

A. The advisability of humans participating directly in space travel continues to cause many debates. There is no doubt that the presence of people on board a space vehicle makes its design much more complex and challenging, and produces a large increase in costs, since safety requirements are greatly increased, and the technology providing necessities for human passengers such as oxygen, food water must be guaranteed. Moreover, the systems required are bulky and costly, and their complexity increases for long-duration missions. Meanwhile, advances in electronics and computer science allow increasingly complex tasks to be entrusted to robots, and unmanned space probes are becoming lighter, smaller and more convenient. B. However, experience has shown that the idea of humans in space is popular with the public. Humans can also be useful; there are many cases when only direct intervention by an astronaut or cosmonaut can correct the malfunction of an automatic device. Astronauts and cosmonauts have proved that they can adapt to conditions of weightlessness and work in space without encountering too many problems, as was seen in the operations to repair and to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. One human characteristic which is particularly precious in space missions, and which so far is lacking in robots, is the ability to perform a great variety of tasks. In addition, robots are not good at reacting to situations they have not been specifically prepared for. This is especially important in the case of deep space missions. While, in the case of the Moon, it is possible for…

What are the effects on the individual of working in modern technological workplaces? Changes in the way we work and how our offices are structured come at US faster and faster. Waves of state-of-the-art information technology and instant telecommunications let us reach anyone, anywhere, and speed is the key. Most of US are too busy struggling to keep pace with ongoing innovations to question the implications of our new electronic authority figures. According to a number of psychologists, however, the need to stay on top of the information flow and the vent degree to which we remain in touch with our offices exact a profound toll on US as individuals. Mass exposure to technological innovations in the workplace has come too recently for psychologists to reach a consensus on its societal implications. Many agree, however, that one of the first signs of the struggle to adapt to the electronic office is often 'technostress, a cognitive shift that results from an over-identification with information systems. Psychologist Craig Brod says people become accustomed to the patterns set by electronic tools - accelerated time and yes/no logic - and internalize these patterns. When they leave the office or go home, Brod says, they need complete isolation to recover from the effects of the technology. Brod warns that over-reliance on electronic tools could also have serious repercussions on our ability to think creatively and develop new ideas. Because we don't create in a vacuum, he points out, we need to avoid the temptation to replace informal gatherings for bouncing ideas off…