30 - Day Reading Challenge

Contents 4 5 Introduction 6 10 Acknowledgement 14 18 DAY 1 Reading Passage 1: “William Kamkwamba” DAY 2 Reading Passage 2: “White mountain, green tourism” 22 DAY 3 Reading Passage 3: “Reading in a whole new way” 26 DAY 4 Reading Passage 1: “The domestication of horses” 30 DAY 5 Reading Passage 2: “Business case study: 34 Rebranding Shopper’s Stop” 38 DAY 6 Reading Passage 3 42 DAY 7 Reading Passage 1: “The way the brain buys” 46 DAY 8 Reading Passage 2: “The truth about lying” 50 DAY 9 Reading Passage 3 54 DAY 10 Reading Passage 1: “Movers and Shakers” DAY 11 Reading Passage 2: “Establishing your birthrights” 58 DAY 12 Reading Passage 3: “Making a loss is the height of 62 fashion” 66 DAY 13 Reading Passage 1: “Meet the hedgehog” 70 DAY 14 Reading Passage 2: “The house of the future, then 74 and now” DAY 15 Reading Passage 3: “First words” 79 DAY 16 Reading Passage 1: “Going Nowhere Fast” DAY 17 Reading Passage 2: “Bird Migration” DAY 18 Reading Passage 3 DAY 19 Reading Passage 1: “The MIT factor: celebrating 150 years of maverick genius by Ed Pilkington” 2

DAY 20 Reading Passage 2: “Gold dusters” 83 DAY 21 Reading Passage 3: “The Earth and Space Foundation” 87 DAY 22 Reading Passage 1: “The environmental impact of the clothing industry” 91 DAY 23 Reading Passage 2: “Selling the health benefits of enriched “phoods” 95 DAY 24 Reading Passage 3: “Swarm theory” 99 DAY 25 Reading Passage 1: “The history of the posters” 103 DAY 26 Reading Passage 2: “Last man standing” 107 DAY 27 Reading Passage 3: “The new way to be a fifth grader” 111 DAY 28 Reading Passage 1: “Andrea Palladio: Italian Architect” 115 DAY 29 Reading Passage 2: “Corporate Social Responsibility” 118 DAY 30 Reading Passage 3: “The significant role of mother tongue in Education” 123 Supplementary materials 128 248 Answer keys with explanation Word list 3

Introduction “30 – Day Reading Challenge” has been prepared by a team of qualified teachers at IELTS ZONE to help students overcome their difficulties with the IELTS Reading Test. There are 30 Reading Passages which are designed to equip future IELTS candidates with the necessary skills useful for this section. For each practice test, you will find the answer keys with detailed explanations to help you understand your mistakes and find the correct answer. It is strongly recommended that you do the passages in the order they are presented as they are sequenced in accordance with their level of difficulty. It is also vital that you spend an adequate amount of time to analyze all the questions before you move on to the next task. You will also find a list of useful vocabulary and phrases extracted from each passage. Please note that our most important goal is to help you face your fear of IELTS READING. Happy learning! 4

Acknowledgements We acknowledge the following sources of copyright material. While every effort has been made, it has not always been possible to identify the sources of all the material used, or to trace all copyright holders. If any omissions are brought to our notice, we will be happy to include the appropriate acknowledgements on reprinting. “Complete IELTS bands 4.5 – 5.0”/ Student’s book, IELTS practice test, Passage 1, page 146, Passage 2, page 149, Passage 3, page 152; “Complete IELTS bands 5.5 - 6.0” / Student’s book & Workbook, Unit 6 (Making money, spending money, Reading Section 1, page 36 and 58), Unit 7 (Relationship, Reading Section 2, page 44 and 71), Unit 8 (Fashion and design, Reading Section 3, page 48 and 78), by Guy Brook-Hart and Vanessa Jakeman, publisher Cambridge University Press, 2012;“Vocabulary for IELTS (Intermediate)” / Unit 6 (Effective Communication, Test practice, page 35), Unit 9 (The natural World, Test Practice, page 49), Unit 11 (Design and innovation, Test practice, page 61) by Pauline Cullen, publisher Cambridge University Press, 2008; “IELTS Reading Actual Book 2”, Test 3 (Passage 1, page 29), Test 5 (Passage 2, page 59);“IELTS Reading Actual Book 4”, Test 2 (Passage 1, page 15), Test 2 (Passage 2, page 19), Test 2 (Passage 3, page 24)”;“IELTS Test Plus 3” / Test 4, Reading test, Pas- sage 3, page 90 by Margaret Matthews and Katy Salisbury; “Complete IELTS bands 6.5 - 7.5” / Student’s book, Unit 1 (Getting higher Education, Reading Section 1, page 11), Unit 4 (Art and the artist, Reading Section 1, page 41), Unit 5 (Stepping back in time, Reading Section 2, page 54), Unit 6 (IT society, Reading Section 3, page 63), Unit 7 (Our relations with nature, Reading Section 2, page 72), Unit 8 (Across the universe, Reading Section 3, page 85) by Guy Brook-Hart and Vanessa Jakeman, publisher Cambridge University Press, 2013; “Vocabulary for IELTS (Advanced)” / Unit 4 (Scien- tific discovery, Test practice, page 25, Unit 9 (Natural history, Test practice, page 51), Unit 12 (The latest thing, Test practice, page 69) by Pauline Cullen, publisher Cam- bridge University Press, 2012 +97 130 68 22 @ieltszone_uz

Day 1 READING PASSAGE 1 IELTS ZONEYou should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1–13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below. William Kamkwamba At only 14 years old, William Kamkwamba built a series of windmills that could generate electricity in his African village, Masitala, in Malawi, south-eastern Africa. In 2002, William Kamkwamba had to drop out of school, as his father, a maize and tobacco farmer, could no longer afford his school fees. But despite this setback, William was determined to get his education. He began visiting a local library that had just opened in his old primary school, where he discovered a tattered science book. With only a rudimentary grasp of English, he taught himself basic physics – mainly by studying photos and diagrams. Another book he found there featured windmills on the cover and inspired him to try and build his own. He started by constructing a small model. Then, with the help of a cousin and friend, he spent many weeks searching scrap yards and found old tractor fans, shock absorbers, plastic pipe and bicycle parts, which he used to build the real thing. For windmill blades, William cut some bath pipe in two lengthwise, then heated the pieces over hot coals to press the curried edges flat. To bore holes into the blades, he stuck a nail through half a corncob, heated the metal red and twisted it through the blades. It took three hours to repeatedly heat the nail and bore the holes. He attached the blades to a tractor fan using proper nuts and bolts and then to the back axle of a bicycle. Electricity was generated through the bicycle dynamo. When the wind blew the blades, the bike chain spun the bike wheel, which charged the dynamo and sent a current through wire to his house. What he had built was a crude machine that produced 12 volts and powered four lights. When it was all done, the windmill’s wingspan measured more than eight feet and sat on top of a rickety tower 15 feet tall that swayed violently in strong gales. He eventually replaced the tower with a sturdier one that stands 39 feet, and built a second machine that watered a family garden. The windmill brought William Kamkwamba instant local fame, but despite his accomplishment, he was still unable to return to school. However, news of his magetsi a mphepo – electric wind – spread beyond Malawi, and eventually things began to change. An educational official, who had heard news of the windmill, came to visit his village and was amazed to learn that William had been out of school for five years. He arranged for him to attend secondary school at the government’s expense and brought journalists to the farm to see the windmill. Then a story published in the Malawi Daily Mail caught the attention of bloggers, which in turn caught the attention 6

IELTS ZONE 30 - Day Reading Challenge of organisers for the Technology Entertainment and Design conference. In 2007, William spoke at the TED Global conference in Tanzania and got a standing ovation. Businessmen stepped forward with offers to fund his education and projects, and with money donated by them, he was able to put his cousin and several friends back into school and pay for some medical needs of his family. With the donation, he also drilled a borehole for a well and water pump in his village and installed drip irrigation in his father’s fields. The water pump has allowed his family to expand its crops. They have abandoned tobacco and now grow maize, beans, soybeans, potatoes and peanuts. The windmills have also brought big lifestyle and health changes to the other villagers. ‘The village has changed a lot,’ William says. ‘Now, the time that they would have spent going to fetch water, they are using for doing other things. And also the water they are drinking is clean water, so there is less disease.’ The villagers have also stopped using kerosene and can use the money previously spent on fuel to buy othwwer things. William Kamkwamba’s example has inspired other children in the village to pursue science. William says they now see that if they put their mind to something, they can achieve it. ‘It has changed the way people think,’ he says. 7

IELTS ZONEDay 1 Questions 1–5 Complete the flow chart below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 1–5 on your answer sheet. Building the Windmill William learned some 1 …………… from a library book. First, he built a 2 …………… of the windmill. Then he collected materials from 3 …………… with a relative. He made the windmill blades from pieces of 4 …………… . He fixed the blades to a 5 …………… and then to part of a bicycle. He raised the blades on a tower. 8

30 - Day Reading Challenge Questions 6–10 Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1? In boxes 6–10 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 6 William used the electricity he created for village transport. 7 At first, William’s achievement was ignored by local people. 8 Journalists from other countries visited William’s farm. 9 William used money he received to improve water supplies in his village. 10 The health of the villagers has improved since the windmill was built. IELTS ZONE Questions 11–13 Answer the questions below. Use NO MORE THAN ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 11–13 on your answer sheet. 11 How tall was the final tower that William built? 12 What did the villagers use for fuel before the windmill was built? 13 What school subject has become more popular in William’s village? 9

Day 2 READING PASSAGE 2 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14–26, which are based on ReadingIELTS ZONE Passage 2 below. White mountain, green tourism The French Alpine town of Chamonix has been a magnet for tourists since the 18th century. But today, tourism and climate change are putting pressure on the surrounding environment. Marc Grainger reports. A The town of Chamonix-Mont-Blanc sits in a valley at 1,035 metres above sea level in the Haute-Savoie department in south-eastern France. To the northwest are the red peaks of the Aiguilles Rouges massif; to the south-east are the permanently white peaks of Mont Blanc, which at 4,810 metres is the highest mountain in the Alps. It’s a typical Alpine environment, but one that is under increasing strain from the hustle and bustle of human activity. B Tourism is Chamonix’s lifeblood. Visitors have been encouraged to visit the valley ever since it was discovered by explorers in 1741. Over 40 years later, in 1786, Mont Blanc’s summit was finally reached by a French doctor and his guide, and this gave birth to the sport of alpinism, with Chamonix at its centre. In 1924, it hosted the first Winter Olympics, and the cable cars and lifts that were built in the years that followed gave everyone access to the ski slopes. C Today, Chamonix is a modern town, connected to the outside world via the Mont Blanc Road Tunnel and a busy highway network. It receives up to 60,000 visitors at a time during the ski season, and climbers, hikers and extreme-sports enthusiasts swarm there in the summer in even greater numbers, swelling the town’s population to 100,000. It is the third most visited natural site in the world, according to Chamonix’s Tourism Office and, last year, it had 5.2 million visitor bed nights – all this in a town with fewer than 10,000 permanent inhabitants. D This influx of tourists has put the local environment under severe pressure, and the authorities in the valley have decided to take action. Educating visitors is vital. Tourists are warned not to drop rubbish, and there are now recycling points dotted all around the valley, from the town centre to halfway up the mountains. An internet blog reports environmental news in the town, and the ‘green’ message is delivered with all the tourist office’s activities. E Low-carbon initiatives are also important for the region. France is committed to reducing its carbon emissions by a factor of four by 2050. Central to achieving this aim is a strategy that encourages communities to identify their carbon emissions on a local level and make plans to reduce them. Studies have identified that +97 130 68 22 @ieltszone_uz

IELTS ZONE 30 - Day Reading Challenge accommodation accounts for half of all carbon emissions in the Chamonix valley. Hotels are known to be inefficient operations, but those around Chamonix are now cleaning up their act. Some are using low-energy lighting, restricting water use and making recycling bins available for guests; others have invested in huge projects such as furnishing and decorating using locally sourced materials, using geothermal energy for heating and installing solar panels. F Chamonix’s council is encouraging the use of renewable energy in private properties too, by making funds available for green renovations and new constructions. At the same time, public sector buildings have also undergone improvements to make them more energy efficient and less wasteful. For example, the local ice rink has reduced its annual water consumption from 140,000 cubic metres to 10,000 cubic metres in the space of three years. G Improving public transport is another feature of the new policy, as 80 percent of carbon emissions from transport used to come from private vehicles. While the Mont Blanc Express is an ideal way to travel within the valley – and see some incredible scenery along the route – it is much more difficult to arrive in Chamonix from outside by rail. There is no direct line from the closest airport in Geneva, so tourists arriving by air normally transfer by car or bus. However, at a cost of 3.3 million euros a year, Chamonix has introduced a free shuttle service in order to get people out of their cars and into buses fitted with particle filters. H If the valley’s visitors and residents want to know why they need to reduce their environmental impact, they just have to look up; the effects of climate change are there for everyone to see in the melting glaciers that cling to the mountains. The fragility of the Alpine environment has long been a concern among local people. Today, 70 percent of the 805 square kilometres that comprise Chamonix– Mont-Blanc is protected in some way. But now, the impact of tourism has led the authorities to recognise that more must be done if the valley is to remain prosperous: that they must not only protect the natural environment better, but also manage the numbers of visitors better, so that its residents can happily remain there. 11

IELTS ZONEDay 2 Questions 14–18 Reading Passage 2 has eight paragraphs, A–H. Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter, A–H, in boxes 14–18 on your answer sheet. NB You may use any letter more than once. 14 a list of the type of people who enjoy going to Chamonix 15 reference to a system that is changing the way visitors reach Chamonix 16 the geographical location of Chamonix 17 mention of the need to control the large tourist population in Chamonix 18 reference to a national environmental target Questions 19–20 Choose TWO letters, A–E. Write your answers in boxes 19 and 20 on your answer sheet. The writer mentions several ways that the authorities aim to educate tourists in Chamonix. Which TWO of the following ways are mentioned? A giving instructions about litter B imposing fines on people who drop litter C handing out leaflets in the town D operating a web-based information service E having a paper-free tourist office 12

IELTS ZONE 30 - Day Reading Challenge Questions 21–22 Choose TWO letters, A–E. Write your answer in boxes 21 and 22 on your answer sheet. The writer mentions several ways that hotels are reducing their carbon emissions. Which TWO of the following ways are mentioned? A using natural cleaning materials B recycling water C limiting guest numbers D providing places for rubbish E harnessing energy from the sun Questions 23–26 Complete the sentences below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 23–26 on your answer sheet. 23 The first people to discover the Chamonix valley were …………… . 24 Chamonix’s busiest tourist season is the …………… . 25 Public areas, such as the …………… in Chamonix, are using fewer resources. 26 The …………… on the mountains around Chamonix provide visual evidence of global warming. 13

Day 3 READING PASSAGE 3 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27–40, which are based on ReadingIELTS ZONE Passage 3 below. READING IN A WHOLE NEW WAY As technology improves, how does the act of reading change? Reading and writing, like all technologies, are constantly changing. In ancient times, authors often dictated their books. Dictation sounded like an uninterrupted series of words, so scribes wrote these down in one long continuous string, just as they occur in speech. For this reason, text was written without spaces between words until the 11th century. This continuous script made books hard to read, so only a few people were accomplished at reading them aloud to others. Being able to read silently to yourself was considered an amazing talent; writing was an even rarer skill. In fact, in 15th century Europe, only one in 20 adult males could write. After Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press in about 1440, mass-produced books changed the way people read and wrote. The technology of printing increased the number of words available, and more types of media, such as newspapers and magazines, broadened what was written about. Authors no longer had to produce scholarly works, as was common until then, but could write, for example, inexpensive, eart-rending love stories or publish autobiographies, even if they were unknown. In time, the power of the written word gave birth to the idea of authority and expertise. Laws were compiled into official documents, contracts were written down and nothing was valid unless it was in this form. Painting, music, architecture, dance were all important, but the heartbeat of many cultures was the turning pages of a book. By the early 19th century, public libraries had been built in many cities. Today, words are migrating from paper to computers, phones, laptops and game consoles. Some 4.5 billion digital screens illuminate our lives. Letters are no longer fixed in black ink on paper, but flitter on a glass surface in a rainbow of colors as fast as our eyes can blink. Screens fill our pockets, briefcases, cars, living-room walls and the sides of buildings. They sit in front of us when we work – regardless of what we do. And of course, these newly ubiquitous screens have changed how we read and write. The first screens that overtook culture, several decades ago – the big, fat, warm tubes of television – reduced the time we spent reading to such an extent that it seemed as if reading and writing were over. Educators and parents worried deeply that the TV generation would be unable to write. But the interconnected, cool, thin displays of computer screens launched an epidemic of writing that continues to swell. As a consequence, the amount of time people spend reading has almost tripled since 1980. By 2008, the World Wide Web contained more than a trillion pages, and that total grows 14

30 - Day Reading Challenge rapidly every day. But it is not book reading or newspaper reading, it is screen reading. Screens are always on, and, unlike books, we never stop staring at them. This new platform is very visual, and it is gradually merging words with moving images. You might think of this new medium as books we watch, or television we read. We also use screens to present data, and this encourages numeracy: visualising data and reading charts, looking at pictures and symbols are all part of this new literacy. Screens engage our bodies, too. The most we may do while reading a book is to flip the pages or turn over a corner, but when we use a screen, we interact with what we see. In the futuristic movie Minority Report, the main character stands in front of a screen and hunts through huge amounts of information as if conducting an orchestra. Just as it seemed strange five centuries ago to see someone read silently, in the future it will seem strange to read without moving your body. In addition, screens encourage more utilitarian (practical) thinking. A new idea or unfamiliar fact will cause a reflex to do something: to research a word, to question your screen ‘friends’ for their opinions or to find alternative views. Book reading strengthened our analytical skills, encouraging us to think carefully about how we feel. Screenreading, on the other hand, encourage quick responses, associating this idea with another, equipping us to deal with the thousands of new thoughts expressed every day. For example, we review a movie for our friends while we watch it; we read the owner’s manual of a device we see in a shop before we purchase it, rather than after we get home and discover that it can’t do what we need it to do. Screens provoke action instead of persuasion. Propaganda is less effective, and false information is hard deliver in a world of screens because while misinformation travels fast, corrections do, too. On a screen, it is often easier to correct a falsehood than to tell one in the first place. Wikipedia works so well because it removes an error in a single click. In books, we find a revealed truth; on the screen, we assemble our own truth from pieces. What is more, a screen can reveal the inner nature of things. Waving the camera eye of a smartphone over the bar code of a manufactured product reveals its price, origins and even relevant comments by other owners. It is as if the screen displays the object’s intangible essence. A popular children’s toy (Webkinz) instills stuffed animals with a virtual character that is ‘hidden’ inside; a screen enables children to play with this inner character online in a virtual world. In the near future, screens will be the first place we’ll look for answers, for friends, for news, for our sense of who we are and who we can be. IELTS ZONE +97 130 68 22 @ieltszone_uz

IELTS ZONEDay 3 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 What does the writer say about dictation? A It helped people learn to read. B It affected the way people wrote. C It was not used until the 11th century. D It was used mainly for correspondence. 28 According to the writer, what changed after the invention of the printing press? A Romance became more popular than serious fiction. B Newspapers became more popular than books. C Readers asked for more autobiographies. D Authors had a wider choice of topics. 29 In the third paragraph, the writer focuses on the A legal concerns of authors. B rapid changes in public libraries. C growing status of the written word. D recognition of the book as an art form. 30 What does the writer say about screens in the fourth paragraph? A They are hard to read. B They are bad for our health. C They can improve our work. D They can be found everywhere. 31 According to the writer, computers differ from television because they A encourage more reading. B attract more criticism. C take up more of our leisure time. D include more educational content. 16

30 - Day Reading Challenge Questions 32–36 Do the following statements agree with the views of writer in Reading Passage 3? In boxes 32–36 on your answer sheet, write YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this 32 Screen reading has reduced the number of books and newspapers people read. 33 Screen literacy requires a wider range of visual skills than book-based literacy. 34 Screen reading is more active than book reading. 35 Screens and books produce similar thought patterns in their readers. 36 People are easily persuaded to believe lies on the screen. IELTS ZONE Questions 37–40 Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A–F, below. Write the correct letter, A–F, in boxes 37–40 on your answer sheet. 37 The film Minority Report illustrates 38 Our behaviour when we watch a film shows 39 Wikipedia’s success relies on 40 Webkinz is an example of A the accuracy of its information. B people’s ability to concentrate. C the global use of the Internet. D how people behave physically when they read screens. E the screen’s ability to make an object seem real. F how rapidly opinions can be communicated. 17

Day 4 READING PASSAGE 1 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1–13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below. Questions 1–7 Reading Passage 1 has seven paragraphs, A–G. Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below. Write the correct number, i–x, in boxes 1–7 on your answer sheet. IELTS ZONE List of Headings i The fastest breeds of horses ii Developing desirable characteristics iii Playing a less essential role iv Influencing the outcome of conflicts v What different breeds do best vi A wide range of uses for domestic horses vii Horses in agriculture viii An ancient species ix An ideal form of transport x What the earliest horses looked like 1 Section A 2 Section B 3 Section C 4 Section D 5 Section E 6 Section F 7 Section G 18

IELTS ZONE 30 - Day Reading Challenge The domestication of horses A Horses have been racing across the landscape for around 55 million years – much longer than our own species has existed. However, prehistoric remains show that at the end of the Ice Age, some 10,000 years ago, wild horses died out in the Americas and dwindled in western Europe, for reasons that are not clear. But they continued to thrive on the steps of eastern Europe and Central Asia, where short grasses and shrubs grow on vast, dry stretches of land. Most scholars believe it was here that people domesticated the horse. However, the DNA of domestic horses is very diverse. This suggests they may be descended from a number of different wild horse populations, in several locations. B Once horses and humans encountered each other, our two species became powerfully linked. Humans domesticated horses some 6,000 years ago, and over time, we have created more than 200 breeds. The first domestic horses were likely to have been kept mainly as a source of food, rather than for work or for riding. There is evidence of horses being raised for meat in Kazakhstan, in Central Asia, around 5,500 years ago; later they began to pull chariots, and horseback riding became common in Afghanistan and Iran about 4,000 years ago. As we have shaped horses to suit our needs on battlefields, farms and elsewhere, these animals have shaped human history. The ways we travel, trade, play, work and fight wars have all been profoundly shaped by our use of horses. C When people domesticate animals, they control their behavior in many ways. For example, animals that are being domesticated no longer choose their own mates. Instead, people control their breeding. Individuals with traits that humans prefer are more likely to produce offspring and pass on their genes. In the course of several generations, both the body and behavior of the animal are transformed. In the wild, animals that are well adapted to their environment live long and reproduce, while others die young. In this way, nature “chooses” the traits that are passed on to the next generation. This is the process of evolution by natural selection. Domestic animals also evolve, but people do the selecting. Humans seek out qualities like tameness, and help animals with those traits to survive and bear young. This is evolution by artificial selection. Most domestic animals are naturally social. Their wild ancestors lived in groups, with individuals responding to each other – some led, others followed. In domestic animals, the tendency to submit to others is especially strong. Generations of breeding have encouraged them to let people take the lead. D For more than 3,000 years, a fighter on horseback or horse-drawn chariot was the ultimate weapon. Time after time, from Asia to Europe to the Americas, the use of horses has changed the balance of power between civilizations. When people with horses clashed with those without, horses provided a huge advantage. When both sides had horses, battles turned on the strength and strategy of their mounted horsemen, or cavalry. Horses continued to define military tactics well into the 1900s, until they finally became outmoded by machine guns, tanks, airplanes and other modern weapons. 19

Day 4 E Horses are built for power. Their muscular bodies are heavier in the front than in the back, making them well balanced to pull heavy loads. Yet they can also be agile and quick – fit to carry out difficult tasks at top speed. So for more than a thousand years, people have called on the power of horses to cultivate the land and manage livestock. F For most of human history, there was no faster way to travel over land than on a horse. When it comes to carrying people and their possessions, horses have two important advantages – they can run very fast and very far. Their speed and endurance are unusual for a creature so large, making them the most suitable animals to carry people and goods around the world. Horses offer other advantages as well. Since they eat grass, they can go almost anywhere that humans can, eating as they go. And unlike cows and camels, which must sit and rest to digest food, a horse’s digestive system allows it to graze and walk the whole day without stopping. By carrying people, goods and ideas between civilizations, horses changed history. G Today’s horses are not used to carry soldiers into battle, and do not pull plows and stage-coaches as they once did. But horses are still part of our lives. Today the 58 million horses in the world are used more for companionship, sport and recreation than for work and warfare. IELTS ZONE +97 130 68 22 @ieltszone_uz

30 - Day Reading Challenge Questions 8–10 Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1? In boxes 8–10 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 8 The last of the wild horses lived around 10,000 years ago. 9 Initially people probably used domesticated horses to supplement their diet. 10 Methods of artificial selection have changed over the centuries. IELTS ZONE Questions 11–13 Complete the sentences below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 11–13 on your answer sheet. 11 Having greater weight at the …………… helps horses to pull heavy items. 12 As well as being quicker, horses have greater …………… than most other large animals. 13 Because of the way their …………… works, horses can keep moving all day long. 21

Day 5 READING PASSAGE 2 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14–26, which are based on ReadingIELTS ZONE Passage 2 below. Business case study: Rebranding Shopper’s Stop On April 24, 2008, one of India’s oldest retail chains Shopper’s Stop Ltd unveiled its new logo as a part of its rebranding strategy. The chain undertook the rebranding exercise in a bid to go upmarket, and reposition itself as a ‘bridge to luxury’ store as opposed to its earlier image of a premium retailer. This would mean raising the already high quality of its products, and targeting more affluent consumers. Commenting on the change, B.S. Nagesh, Customer Care Associate and Managing Director, Shopper’s Stop, said, ‘Change is essential. Our consumers are changing; their preferences are constantly evolving. They are getting younger. And so, we have to change along with them. The change in identity is just the beginning of a wave of strategic movements being made in people, practices, introduction of new ways of shopping, technology, investment in customer relationship management, and analytics.’ Shopper’s Stop was founded by K Raheja Corporation in October 1991, with its first store in Mumbai. From selling men’s ready-to-wear clothing it soon evolved into a complete family lifestyle store. As of 2008, Shopper’s Stop had 1.3 million square feet of retail space spread across 24 stores in 11 cities in India, with a retail turnover of over 12.07 billion rupees (approx. US$245m). According to analysts, in the mid-2000s Shopper’s Stop started to lose its market value as it failed to keep pace with changing customer preferences. It faced competition from several retailers such as Globus, Westside and Lifestyle, who were catering to the same segment of customers. Changing consumer behaviour and the growing demand from youngsters for trendy products made Shopper’s Stop consider the option of rebranding itself. It conducted a series of workshops called ‘Trial Room’, to understand the preferences of groups of invited consumers. The workshops revealed that what was needed was a change in the look and feel of the brand. For Shopper’s Stop, rebranding meant not just a change of logo, but the execution of new business strategies, with the core principles remaining intact. According to Ravi Deshpande, Chief Creative Officer with Contract Advertising, the agency which designed the new campaign for Shopper’s Stop, ‘The retailer needed its brand idea to change, in order to connect to younger people. The purpose was also to cut the age of the brand, as fresh ideas do help in making people look differently at the brand.’ As a part of the rebranding efforts, Shopper’s Stop introduced a new rectangular logo designed by Ray+Keshavan. Though the logo was changed, the black and white colour scheme was retained. Govind Shrikhande, Customer Care Associate and Chief 22

IELTS ZONE 30 - Day Reading Challenge Executive of Shopper’s Stop, said, ‘It is more classical, rich, and authoritative – something Shopper’s customers connect with. Black and white gives us a strong brand recall value.’ The tagline was also changed from ‘Shopping and Beyond’ to ‘Start Something New’, which implied that customers should try out something different, and upgrade themselves according to the demands of the changing world. As a part of its new philosophy of providing the customers with a new shopping experience, Shopper’s Stop came up with several initiatives. One plan was to increase the area of each store from around 40,000-45,000 square feet to 75,000-85,000 square feet. It also started a new concept in the retail industry by setting up trial rooms with day and night lighting options, so that consumers could check how garments would look during the day and in the night. The other initiatives included a new dress code of black and white for the employees, and training sessions to help employees tackle demanding customers with varied tastes. Shopper’s Stop also introduced a company anthem for the staff, penned by renowned lyricist Gulzar, and sung by popular Indian singer Sonu Nigam. It was played every morning across all outlets in the country as a song of celebration. Shopper’s Stop brought out collectible shopping bags with different themes and launched the first in the series based on the theme ‘Fashion for the Age’. To make shopping an enjoyable experience for its customers, it launched an in-store radio station in association with Blue Frog Media, which aired popular melodies across all its stores in India, while radio presenters offered tips on fashion and wellness. It also planned to start its online portal by the end of 2008, to enable customers to shop online. In addition to these initiatives, Shopper’s Stop also started an environmental awareness campaign called ‘Think Green’. As part of this initiative, it planted more than 500 trees and distributed 1,500,000 seed sachets among its customers. Besides, a series of print and television commercials in black and white, with an environmental message that also conveyed Shopper’s Stop’s repositioning, were launched. Shopper’s Stop planned to invest around 15 billion rupees to increase the number of outlets to 48 by 2011. It had earmarked 200 million rupees for the rebranding and repositioning exercise. But not everyone favoured the changes. Customers said that from their point of view, there was no major change in terms of price or special offers. Some analysts were of the view that the new logo had nothing unique to offer except for a change in shape. Some even wondered why the retailer had decided to rebrand itself, considering that it was doing reasonably well and had just completed a successful year. 23

Day 5 Questions 14–19 Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A–I, below. Write the correct letter, A–I, in boxes 14–19 on your answer sheet. 14 In rebranding, Shopper’s Stop’s objective was to attract 15 The mid-2000s saw an alteration in 16 In the mid-2000s young people were increasingly interested in buying 17 Workshops showed that Shopper’s Stop needed to modify 18 The new advertising campaign was intended to give the Shopper’s Stop brand 19 The new tagline was intended to encourage consumers to buy A its brand image B designs that were popular in other parts of the world C customers who had stayed loyal to the company D the items that consumers tended to buy E products that they hadn’t tried before F a younger image G the shape of the logo H customers with more money to spend I fashionable goods IELTS ZONE Questions 20–22 Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2? In boxes 20–22 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 20 When Shopper’s Stop first opened it sold products for all the family. 21 Shopper’s Stop and Globus targeted similar sections of the market. 22 The advertising campaign was used to launch new products. 24

30 - Day Reading Challenge Questions 23–24 Choose TWO letters, A–E. Write the correct letters in boxes 23 and 24 on your answer sheet. Which TWO of the following activities were among Shopper’s Stop’s initiatives to help customers? A redecorating its stores B changing the lighting in certain areas of its stores C recruiting additional staff D offering online fashion advice E broadcasting music throughout the stores Questions 25–26 Choose TWO letters, A–E. Write the correct letters in boxes 25 and 26 on your answer sheet. Which TWO of the following comments are reported about Shopper’s Stop’s rebranding? A The company had spent too much on the rebranding. B The company lost customers to its competitors because of the rebranding. C The rebranding did not save consumers money. D The logo was too similar to some other companies’ logos. E The rebranding was unnecessary at that time. IELTS ZONE +97 130 68 22 @ieltszone_uz

Day 6 READING PASSAGE 3 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27–40, which are based on ReadingIELTS ZONE Passage 3 below. A Maps vary enormously, from imposing images of the world and its parts to private jottings intended to give an approximate idea of the twentieth-century Antarctic. The materials on which maps are to be found, similarly range from scraps of paper to plaster walls, by way of parchment, copper coins, mosaics, marble, woollen tapestries, silk, gold and more. Attitudes towards maps also vary greatly, and are subject to modification over time. B In recent decades, the view that maps should be assessed primarily in terms of their geometrical accuracy has radically changed. At the same time, they have become available to a range of disciplines. This development has been encouraged by the growing popularity of interdisciplinary studies and by the increasing awareness and appreciation of the importance of the visual – which may be a consequence of the spread of television and the internet, and the ease with which images can be created and manipulated in a digital environment. Academic historians of all types – social, political, diplomatic and fine art, literature specialists, and family historians take an interest in maps and find that they sometimes offer perspectives on their subjects that are not possible from other sources. C All have contributed to a re-evaluation of the subject. It is accepted that for some purposes, such as administration and terrestrial and maritime navigation, mathematical accuracy still plays a major and even sometimes a paramount role in cartography. In other contexts, such as maps of underground railway systems, or maps used for propaganda purposes, such accuracy is irrelevant, and at times even undesirable. Conversely, the very aspects that tended traditionally to be condemned or disregarded, such as distortions and decoration, become of enormous significance. They can give particularly precious insights into the mentalities of past ages, and the views and lives of their creators, as well as being packed with more general cultural information such as the receptiveness to artistic fashions. D For many map enthusiasts the fascination of maps ironically stems from their necessary lack of truth. They can be regarded as the most successful pieces of fiction ever to be created because most users instinctively suspend disbelief until they find that the map they are using does not give truthful information. Yet it has to be that way. Given the impossibility of representing the total reality, with all its complexity, on a flat surface, hard decisions have to be taken as to what features to select for accurate representation, or indeed for representation at all. For most 26

IELTS ZONE 30 - Day Reading Challenge of the time this process of selection is almost instinctive. The mapmaker knows the purpose he intends for his map, and beyond that he is unwittingly guided by the values and assumptions of the time in which he lives – unless these are in conflict with his own value systems, as was the case with Nicholas Philpot Leader in 1827. The map of Ireland (then part of the UK) that Leader commissioned was intended as a strong attack on the then British government. E In order to meet the map’s purpose, the information that is represented will be prioritized according to importance as perceived by the mapmaker – and not necessarily in accordance with actual geographical size. Even on modern national topographic mapping, such features as motorways will be shown far larger than they actually are because they are important to drivers and users will expect to see them without difficulty. Conversely, large features that are considered unimportant might be completely ignored or reduced in size, like parks and other public spaces in some town maps. Often maps will show things that are invisible in the real world, such as relative financial affluence, as in Charles Booth’s maps of London in the nineteenth century, or the geology far below the surface of the planet, as in an 1823 map of the land around Bath. F Sometimes the purpose of the map is even simpler and has nothing to do with geography. The Hereford World Map proclaims the insignificance of man in the face of the divine and the eternal. The plan of Ostia harbour of AD 64 primarily serves as a demonstration of the Emperor Nero’s benevolence. Sometimes, as in depictions of the imaginary land of Utopia, physical reality is totally absent or so distorted as to be geographically meaningless. Instead the map serves as a commentary on the gap between the aspirations and the feeble achievements of mankind. The quality of a map must be judged by its ability to serve its purpose, and not simply by its scientific precision, and in that context aesthetic and design considerations are every bit as important as the mathematical, and often more so. G Plainly, to interpret maps as having followed a path of ever-increasing scientific perfection over time is to miss the main point. In fact, they have responded to the mentalities, and met the requirements of the societies in which they have been created. In ancient Greece and Babylon, and in eighteenth- and twentieth-century Europe, the preoccupation with precision and the scientific indeed predominated. In early modern China and nineteenth-century Europe the administrative use of mapping came to the fore. By contrast, for long periods of time and in many civilizations, the major preoccupation was to define and to depict man’s place in relationship to a religious view of the universe. This was particularly evident in medieval Europe and Aztec Mexico. Clearly, maps can only be fully understood in their social context. 27

IELTS ZONEDay 6 Questions 27–31 Reading Passage 3 has seven paragraphs, A–G. Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter, A–G, in boxes 27–31 on your answer sheet. 27 Examples of maps showing features that cannot be seen on the ground. 28 A list of media that have been used in the creation of maps. 29 Examples of the main function of maps in various periods and places. 30 A contrast between different types of maps with regard to a requirement for accuracy. 31 Speculation about reasons for a change in attitudes towards maps. 28

IELTS ZONE 30 - Day Reading Challenge Questions 32–39 Match each map with the correct purpose, A–I. Write the correct letter, A–I, in boxes 32–39 on your answer sheet. 32 maps of Utopia 33 Charles Booth’s maps of London 34 map commissioned by Nicholas Philpot Leader 35 map of Bath area 36 early modern Chinese maps 37 map of the Antarctic 38 plan of Ostia harbour 39 Hereford World Map A to portray an area very roughly B to create a decorative work C to express political criticism D to show variations in wealth E to show differences below ground level F to show the unimportance of human beings G to glorify the ruler of the country H to contrast ideal and actual human development I to assist in the management of the country Question 40 Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D. Write the correct letter in box 40 on your answer sheet. 40 What is the best title for Reading Passage 3? A Differences in map-making around the world B A growing interest in drawing maps C Re-evaluating the role of maps D Making maps more accurate 29

Day 7 READING PASSAGE 1 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1–13, which are based on ReadingIELTS ZONE Passage 1 below. The way the brain buys Supermarkets take great care over the way the goods they sell are arranged. This is because they know a lot about how to persuade people to buy things. When you enter a supermarket, it takes some time for the mind to get into a shopping mode. This is why the area immediately inside the entrance of a supermarket is known as the ‘decompression zone’. People need to slow down and take stock of the surroundings, even if they are regulars. Supermarkets do not expect to sell much here, so it tends to be used more for promotion. So the large items piled up here are designed to suggest that there are bargains further inside the store, and shoppers are not necessarily expected to buy them. Walmart, the world’s biggest retailer, famously employs ‘greeters’ at the entrance to its stores. A friendly welcome is said to cut shoplifting. It is harder to steal from nice people. Immediately to the left in many supermarkets is a ‘chill zone’, where customers can enjoy browsing magazines, books and DVDs. This is intended to tempt unplanned purchases and slow customers down. But people who just want to do their shopping quickly will keep walking ahead, and the first thing they come to is the fresh fruit and vegetables section. However, for shoppers, this makes no sense. Fruit and vegetables can be easily damaged, so they should be bought at the end, not the beginning, of a shopping trip. But psychology is at work here: selecting these items makes people feel good, so they feel less guilty about reaching for less healthy food later on. Shoppers already know that everyday items, like milk, are invariably placed towards the back of a store to provide more opportunity to tempt customers to buy things which are not on their shopping list. This is why pharmacies are also generally at the back. But supermarkets know shoppers know this, so they use other tricks, like placing popular items halfway along a section so that people have to walk all along the aisle looking for them. The idea is to boost ‘dwell time’: the length of time people spend in a store. Having walked to the end of the fruit-and-vegetable aisle, shoppers arrive at counters of prepared food, the fishmonger, the butcher and the deli. Then there is the in-store bakery, which can be smelt before it is seen. Even small supermarkets now use in-store bakeries. Mostly these bake pre-prepared items and frozen ingredients which have been delivered to the supermarket previously, and their numbers have increased, even though central bakeries that deliver to a number of stores are much more efficient. They do it for the smell of freshly baked bread, which arouses people’s appetites and thus encourages them to purchase not just bread but also other food, including ready meals. +97 130 68 22 @ieltszone_uz

IELTS ZONE 30 - Day Reading Challenge Retailers and producers talk a lot about the ‘moment of truth’. This is not a philosophical idea, but the point when people standing in the aisle decide to buy something and reach to get it. At the instant coffee section, for example, branded products from the big producers are arranged at eye level while cheaper ones are lower down, along with the supermarket’s own-label products. But shelf positioning is fiercely fought over, not just by those trying to sell goods, but also by those arguing over how best to manipulate shoppers. While many stores reckon eye level is the top spot, some think a little higher is better. Others think goods displayed at the end of aisles sell the most because they have the greatest visibility. To be on the right-hand side of an eye-level selection is often considered the very best place, because most people are right-handed and most people’s eyes drift rightwards. Some supermarkets reserve that for their most expensive own-label goods. Scott Bearse, a retail expert with Deloitte Consulting in Boston, Massachusetts, has led projects observing and questioning tens of thousands of customers about how they feel about shopping. People say they leave shops empty-handed more often because they are ‘unable to decide’ than because prices are too high, says Mr Bearse. Getting customers to try something is one of the best ways of getting them to buy, adds Mr Bearse. Deloitte found that customers who use fitting rooms in order to try on clothes buy the product they are considering at a rate of 85% compared with 58% for those that do not do so. Often a customer struggling to decide which of two items is best ends up not buying either. In order to avoid a situation where a customer decides not to buy either product, a third ‘decoy’ item, which is not quite as good as the other two, is placed beside them to make the choice easier and more pleasurable. Happier customers are more likely to buy. 31

IELTS ZONEDay 7 Questions 1–4 Label the diagram below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 1–4 on your answer sheet. Layout of typical supermarket 32

30 - Day Reading Challenge Questions 5–10 Do the following statements agree with the information given in the reading passage? In boxes 5–10 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 5 The ‘greeters’ at Walmart increase sales. 6 People feel better about their shopping if they buy fruit and vegetables before they buy other food. 7 n-store bakeries produce a wider range of products than central bakeries. 8 Supermarkets find right-handed people easier to persuade than left-handed people. IELTS ZONE 9 The most frequent reason for leaving shops without buying something is price. 10 ‘Decoy’ items are products which the store expects customers to choose. Questions 11–13 Complete the flow chart below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 11–13 on your answer sheet. In-store bread production process The supermarket is sent 11 …………… and other items which have been prepared earlier. Baking bread in-store produces an aroma. Shoppers’ 12 …………… are stimulated. They are then keener to buy food, including bread and 13 …………… . 33

Day 8 READING PASSAGE 2 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14–26, which are based on Reading Passage 2 below. Questions 14–19 The reading passage has six paragraphs, A–F. Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below. Write the correct number, i–viii, in boxes 14–19 on your answer sheet. IELTS ZONE List of headings i some of the things liars really do ii when do we begin to lie? iii how wrong is it to lie? iv exposing some false beliefs v which forum of communication best exposes a lie? vi do only humans lie? vii dealing with known liars viii a public test of our ability to spot a lie 14 Paragraph A 15 Paragraph B 16 Paragraph C 17 Paragraph D 18 Paragraph E 19 Paragraph G 34

IELTS ZONE 30 - Day Reading Challenge The truth about lying Over the years Richard Wiseman has tried to unravel the truth about deception – investigating the signs that give away a liar. A In the 1970s, as part of a large-scale research programme exploring the area of interspecies communication, Dr Francine Patterson from Stanford University attempted to teach two lowland gorillas called Michael and Koko a simplified version of Sign Language. According to Patterson, the great apes were capable of holding meaningful conversations, and could even reflect upon profound topics, such as love and death. During the project, their trainers believe they uncovered instances where the two gorillas’ linguistic skills seemed to provide reliable evidence of intentional deceit. In one example, Koko broke a toy cat, and then signed to indicate that the breakage had been caused by one of her trainers. In another episode, Michael ripped a jacket belonging to a trainer and, when asked who was responsible for the incident, signed ‘Koko’. When the trainer expressed some scepticism, Michael appeared to change his mind, and indicated that Dr Patterson was actually responsible, before finally confessing. B Other researchers have explored the development of deception in children. Some of the most interesting experiments have involved asking youngsters not to take a peek at their favourite toys. During these studies, a child is led into a laboratory and asked to face one of the walls. The experimenter then explains that he is going to set up an elaborate toy a few feet behind them. After setting up the toy, the experimenter says that he has to leave the laboratory, and asks the child not to turn around and peek at the toy. The child is secretly filmed by hidden cameras for a few minutes, and then the experimenter returns and asks them whether they peeked. Almost all three-year-olds do, and then half of them lie about it to the experimenter. By the time the children have reached the age of five, all of them peek and all of them lie. The results provide compelling evidence that lying starts to emerge the moment we learn to speak. C So what are the tell-tale signs that give away a lie? In 1994, the psychologist Richard Wiseman devised a large-scale experiment on a TV programme called Tomorrow’s World. As part of the experiment, viewers watched two interviews in which Wiseman asked a presenter in front of the cameras to describe his favourite film. In one interview, the presenter picked Some Like It Hot and he told the truth; in the other interview, he picked Gone with the Wind and lied. The viewers were then invited to make a choice – to telephone in to say which film he was lying about. More than 30,000 calls were received, but viewers were unable to tell the difference and the vote was a 50/50 split. In similar experiments, the results have been remarkably consistent – when it comes to lie detection, people might as well simply toss a coin. It doesn’t matter if you are male or female, young or old; very few people are able to detect deception. D Why is this? Professor Charles Bond from the Texas Christian University has conducted surveys into the sorts of behaviour people associate with lying. He has +97 130 68 22 @ieltszone_uz

IELTS ZONEDay 8 interviewed thousands of people from more than 60 countries, asking them to describe how they set about telling whether someone is lying. People’s answers are remarkably consistent. Almost everyone thinks liars tend to avert their gaze, nervously wave their hands around and shift about in their seats. There is, however, one small problem. Researchers have spent hour upon hour carefully comparing films of liars and truth-tellers. The results are clear. Liars do not necessarily look away from you; they do not appear nervous and move their hands around or shift about in their seats. People fail to detect lies because they are basing their opinions on behaviours that are not actually associated with deception. E So what are we missing? It is obvious that the more information you give away, the greater the chances of some of it coming back to haunt you. As a result, liars tend to say less and provide fewer details than truth-tellers. Looking back at the transcripts of the interviews with the presenter, his lie about Gone with the Wind contained about 40 words, whereas the truth about Some Like It Hot was nearly twice as long. People who lie also try psychologically to keep a distance from their falsehoods, and so tend to include fewer references to themselves in their stories. In his entire interview about Gone with the Wind, the presenter only once mentioned how the film made him feel, compared with the several references to his feelings when he talked about Some Like It Hot. F The simple fact is that the real clues to deceit are in the words that people use, not the body language. So do people become better lie detectors when they listen to a liar, or even just read a transcript of their comments? The interviews with the presenter were also broadcast on radio and published in a newspaper, and although the lie-detecting abilities of the television viewers were no better than chance, the newspaper readers were correct 64% of the time, and the radio listeners scored an impressive 73% accuracy rate. 36

IELTS ZONE 30 - Day Reading Challenge Questions 20–23 Look at the following statements and the list of experiments below. Match each statement with the correct experiment, A–C. Write the correct letter, A–C, in boxes 20–23 on your answer sheet. NB You may use any letter more than once. 20 Someone who was innocent was blamed for something. 21 Those involved knew they were being filmed. 22 Some objects were damaged. 23 Some instructions were ignored. List of Experiments A the gorilla experiment B the experiment with children C the TV experiment Questions 24–26 Complete the sentences below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 24–26 on your answer sheet. 24 Filming liars has shown that they do not display …………… behaviour. 25 Liars tend to avoid talking about their own …………… . 26 Signs of lying are exposed in people’s …………… rather than their movements. 37

Day 9 READING PASSAGE 3 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27–40, which are based on ReadingIELTS ZONE Passage 3 below. An astonishingly intricate project is being undertaken to restore a legendary theatrical dress, Angela Wintle explains. On December 28th, 1888, the curtain rose on a daring new stage revival of Shakespeare’s Macbeth at the Lyceum Theatre in London. Topping the bill, playing Lady Macbeth, a main character in the play, was Ellen Terry. She was the greatest and most adored English actress of the age. But she didn’t achieve this devotion through her acting ability alone. She knew the power of presentation and carefully cultivated her image. That first night was no exception. When she walked on stage for the famous banqueting scene, her appearance drew a collective gasp from the audience. She was dressed in the most extraordinary clothes ever to have graced a British stage: a long, emerald and sea-green gown with tapering sleeves, surmounted by a velvet cloak, which glistened and sparkled eerily in the limelight. Yet this was no mere stage trickery. The effect had been achieved using hundreds of wings from beetles. The gown – later named the ‘Beetlewing dress’ – became one of the most iconic and celebrated costumes of the age. Terry was every bit as remarkable as her costumes. At 31, she became a leading lady at the Lyceum Theatre and for two decades, she set about bringing culture to the masses. The productions she worked on were extravagant and daring. Shakespeare’s plays were staged alongside blood-and-thunder melodramas and their texts were ruthlessly cut. Some people were critical, but they missed the point. The innovations sold tickets and brought new audiences to see masterpiece that they would never otherwise have seen. However, it was a painter who immortalised her. John Singer Sargent had been so struck by Terry’s appearance at that first performance that he asked her to model for him, and his famous portrait of 1889, now at the Tate Gallery in London, showed her with a glint in her eye, holding a crown over her flame red hair. But while the painting remains almost as fresh as the day it was painted, the years have not been so kind to the dress. Its delicate structure, combined with the cumulative effects of time, has meant it is now in an extremely fragile condition. Thus, two years ago, a fundraising project was launched by Britain’s National Trust1 to pay for its conservation. It turned to textile conservator Zenzie Tinker to do the job. Zenzie loves historical dress because of the link with the past. ‘Working on costumes like the Beetlewing dress gives you a real sense of the people who wore them; you can see the sweat stains and wear marks. But it’s quite unusual to know who actually wore a garment. That’s the thing that makes the Beetlewing project so special.’ 38

IELTS ZONE 30 - Day Reading Challenge Before any of Zenzie’s conservation work can begin, she and her team will conduct a thorough investigation to help determine what changes have been made to the dress and when. This will involve close examination of the dress for signs of damage and wear, and will be aided by comparing it with John Singer Sargent’s painting and contemporary photographs. Then Zenzie and the National Trust will decide how far back to take the reconstruction, as some members feel that even the most recent changes are now part of the history of the dress. The first stages in the actual restoration will involve delicate surface cleaning, using a small vacuum suction device. Once the level of reconstruction has been determined, the original crocheted2 overdress will be stitched onto a dyed net support before repairs begin. ‘It’s going to be extraordinarily difficult, because the original cloth is quite stretchy, so we’ve deliberately chosen net because that has a certain amount of flexibility in it too,’ says Zenzie. When the dress is displayed, none of our work will be noticeable, but we’ll retain all the evidence on the reverse so that future experts will be able to see exactly what we’ve done – and I’ll produce a detailed report.’ Zenzie has estimated that the project, costing about £30,000, will require more than 700 hours’ work. ‘It will be a huge undertaking and I don’t think the Trust has ever spent quite as much on a costume before,’ she says. ‘But this dress is unique. It’s very unusual to see this level of workmanship on a theatrical costume, and it must have looked spectacular on stage.’ If Terry was alive today, there’s no doubt she would be delighted. Unlike many other actresses, she valued her costumes because she kept and reused them time and time again. ‘I’d like to think she’d see our contribution as part of the ongoing history of the dress,’ says Zenzie. 1 A conservation organisation whose work includes the funding of projects designed to protect and pre- serve Britain’s cultural heritage 2 Produced using wool and a special needle with a hook at the end adapted from Sussex Life magazine 39

IELTS ZONEDay 9 Questions 27–32 Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D. Write the correct letter in boxes 27–32 on your answer sheet. 27 What do you learn about Ellen Terry in the first paragraph? A Lady Macbeth was her first leading role. B The Lyceum was her favourite theatre. C She tried hard to look good on stage. D She wanted to look young for her audience. 28 What is the writer’s purpose in paragraph 2? A to describe different responses to the Beetlewing dress B to explain why the Beetlewing dress had such a big impact C to consider the suitability of the Beetlewing dress for the play D to compare the look of the Beetlewing dress on and off the stage 29 According to the writer, the main effect of the Lyceum productions was to A expose more people to Shakespeare’s plays. B reduce the interest in other types of production. C raise the cost of going to the theatre. D encourage writers to produce more plays. 30 In the fourth paragraph, what comparison does the writer make between Sargent’s portrait and the Beetlewing dress? A The dress has attracted more attention than the painting. B The dress is worth more money than the painting. C The painting took longer to produce. D The painting looks newer. 31 Zenzie says the Beetlewing project is particularly special because A the dress is very old. B people know who wore the dress. C the dress was designed by someone famous. D there is evidence that the dress has been used. 32 Which of the following is the most suitable title for the passage? A A lesson from the past B A challenging task C An unusual fashion show D An unexpected discovery +97 130 68 22 @ieltszone_uz

30 - Day Reading Challenge Questions 33–36 Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in the reading passage? In boxes 33–36 on your answer sheet, write YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this 33 The National Trust conducted useful research to assist Zenzie’s plans for the dress. 34 There will be some discussion over the changes that Zenzie’s team should make to the dress. IELTS ZONE 35 Zenzie’s estimate for the timing of the project is realistic. 36 Ellen Terry’s attitude towards her dresses was typical of her time. Questions 37–40 Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A–F, below. Write the correct letter, A–F, in boxes 37–40 on your answer sheet. 37 Pictures will be used 38 A special machine will be used 39 A net material has been selected 40 Work will be visible on one side A to show how the team did the repairs on the dress. B to reduce the time taken to repair the dress. C to remove the dirt from the top layer of the dress. D to demonstrate the quality of the team’s work on the dress. E to match a quality of the original fabric used in the dress. F to help show where the dress needs repair work. 41

Day 10 READING PASSAGE 1 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1–13, which are based on ReadingIELTS ZONE Passage 1 below. MOVERS AND SHAKERS Discover the stories behind two enthusiastic entrepreneurs who are creating major waves in the UK business world Retailers often declare that customers are their most important asset. But, while some sound as if they are paying lip service to the idea, Sally Bailey, chief executive of White Stuff, is a true believer. Even the clothing retailer’s website reflects her view, declaring: ‘Lovely clothes for lovely people’. Ms Bailey says: ‘The most important people are those who buy our product. This includes the buyers who select it, and the customers who buy it in our shops. Everything we do is about service to get the product into the customer’s hands.’ So, when research revealed that customers disliked changing rooms that opened directly onto the shop floor, White Stuff amended its floor plans, introducing a false wall that screened off the changing area. ‘It’s not rocket science,’ explains Ms Bailey. ‘You just need to listen to what the customer is saying. We are dedicated to pleasing them. We ask: “What is the best thing we could do?”’ Hence, the introduction of one oversized fitting room in each of White Stuff’s 54 stores to enable mothers to bring their buggies in while they change. ‘When a customer walks into a White Stuff shop, we want them to feel like they are at home,’ says Ms Bailey. ‘There are chairs to sit down on, water coolers, and staff will come along with colouring books to entertain children while the customer browses.’ Even the background music is carefully considered. On Saturdays it has a faster tempo. On Sundays, when customers may prefer a quieter atmosphere, the tone is softer. ‘The music is changed by the hour, according to the day,’ says Ms Bailey. White Stuff has eschewed the shop design of a traditional fashion retailer, preferring to model its interiors on a Victorian house where Ms Bailey believes her customers aspire to live. Since her arrival, White Stuff has sought locations away from the beaten track and shopping centres are viewed as anathema. ‘To be honest, we do have some stores that are very hard to find,’ says Ms Bailey. ‘In Exeter, for example, there’s the High Street and the shopping centre, but you have to turn left down an alley to find White Stuff, right by an organic butcher and coffee shop.’ Yet White Stuff’s customers, whom Ms Bailey describes as ‘extremely loyal’, are not deterred by these intrepid expeditions. When she took over five years ago, White Stuff had 15 stores and an annual turnover of £14m. Today, turnover is in excess of £55m, with stores generating annual revenues between £500,000 and £2.5m from an average customer spend of £35. 42

IELTS ZONE 30 - Day Reading Challenge Matt Stockdale, managing director of HomePride, which this year will turn over more than £4m, has the mother of former Tesco buyer Fraser McDonald to thank for his success. Desperate to get the supermarket chain to stock his oven cleaning product, Oven Pride, Mr Stockdale bombarded the buyer with calls. But it was to no avail: ‘The response was always “Thanks but no thanks”,’ he recalls. ‘So I said, “Let me send some to your mother, your aunt, your grandmother…” and, I think to make me go away, he gave me his mother’s address.’ Two weeks later, Mr Stockdale was in the buyer’s office signing a deal to supply his product to 30 stores. ‘He told me that his mother wanted him to give me a chance but that he didn’t give me much hope,’ says Mr Stockdale. A year later he was supplying 130 Tesco stores. ‘I didn’t realise when I first approached Tesco that it was the UK’s biggest supermarket chain,’ says Mr Stockdale. ‘I just knew that I shopped there.’ The idea for the oven cleaner came in 1999 when, after being made redundant from his job as a sales manager for a telecoms business, Mr Stockdale decided to fulfil a lifelong ambition to run his own company. ‘I looked at a catalogue business first because direct sales was what I knew,’ he says. ‘But I came across chemical companies making products, one of which was an oven cleaner. I was always the one lumbered with cleaning our oven, so I was intrigued.’ He tested one product, a bottle of white fluid, which produced such great results that he started to research the oven cleaner marketplace. ‘I found the hardest thing was to clean the racks,’ says Mr Stockdale. He decided to create kits to make cleaning racks easy, sourcing packaging, disposable gloves and a bag, into which the racks could be placed with he cleaning fluid. ‘I created 5,000 units and sent one each to Kleeneze, Betterware and QVC, and got nowhere,’ he recalls. Dejected, Mr Stockdale found another sales job but, 15 months later, a fax arrived with a purchase order from Kleeneze. ‘I went to the garage and dusted down the stock,’ he says. Kleeneze sold out within weeks, and placed more orders. Then QVC faxed across an order. ‘I was suddenly on national television, but in eight weeks QVC had sold out,’ he says. ‘I didn’t realise what I had.’ It took a letter from a satisfied customer, asking when the cleaner would be available in shops, to prompt Mr Stockdale to change his strategy and approach high street retailers. Enter Tesco. In its first year, HomePride turned over £90,000 but soon reached £1.1m. ‘Going into retail changed everything for me,’ says Mr. Stockdale. 43

Day 10 Questions 1–3 Label the diagram below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 1–3 on your answer sheet. IELTS ZONEQuestions 4–8 Do the following statements agree with the information given in the reading passage? In boxes 4–8 on your answer sheets, 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 1 Sally Bailey intends to find locations for White Stuff in shopping centres. 2 Sally Bailey started White Stuff. 3 The buyer at Tesco initially rejected Oven Pride. 4 The buyer’s mother often gives him advice on products. 5 Matt Stockdale discovered important information about Tesco after contacting the company. 44

30 - Day Reading Challenge Questions 9–13 Complete the flow chart below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 9–13 on your answer sheet. The story of HomePride Matt Stockdale made redundant from job in telecoms Thought of starting a catalogue business (experience in 9 ……………) Saw chemical products and became interested in oven cleaners Tested a white fluid for cleaning ovens and researched the market Observed that the biggest problem was how to get 10 …………… clean Made 11 …………… to solve this problem Sent his product to various companies First order came after 12 …………… Product appeared on TV and sold out A question asked by a 13 …………… gave him the idea of approaching shops IELTS ZONE +97 130 68 22 @ieltszone_uz

Day 11 READING PASSAGE 2 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14–26, which are based on Reading Passage 2 below. Questions 14–19 The reading passage has six paragraphs, A–F. Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below. Write the correct number, i–ix, in boxes 14–19 on your answer sheet. List of headings i Children’s views on birth order ii Solutions are more important than causes iii Characteristics common to all children regardless of birth order iv Doubts about birth-order theory but personal experience supporting it v A theory that is still supported vi Birth-order characteristics continuing as children get older vii A typical example of birth-order behaviour in practice viii Exceptions to the rule of birth order ix A detailed description of each child in families in general IELTS ZONE 14 Paragraph A 15 Paragraph B 16 Paragraph C 17 Paragraph D 18 Paragraph E 19 Paragraph F 46

IELTS ZONE 30 - Day Reading Challenge ESTABLISHING YOUR BIRTHRIGHTS Position in the family can play a huge role in shaping character, finds Clover Stroud A Last week I was given a potent reminder of how powerful birth order might be in determining a child’s character. My son, Jimmy Joe, nine, and my daughter, Dolly, six, were re-enacting a TV talent show. Jimmy Joe elected himself judge and Dolly was a contestant. Authoritative and unyielding, he wielded a clipboard, delivering harsh criticisms that would make a real talent show judge flinch. Initially Dolly loved the attention, but she soon grew tired of his dominance, instigating a pillow fight, then a fist fight. It ended, inevitably, in tears. A visiting friend, with an older, more successful sister, declared it ‘classic first child behaviour of dominance and supposed authority’. Dolly’s objection to her brother’s self-appointed role as leader was justified, he announced, while Jimmy Joe’s superiority was characteristic of the forceful personality of firstborns. Birth order, he said, wasn’t something they could just shrug off. B Debate about the significance of birth order goes right to the heart of the nature versus nurture argument and is, consequently, surrounded by huge controversy. This controversy has raged since the 19th century, when Austrian psychiatrist Alfred Adler argued that birth order can define the way someone deals with life. He identified firstborns as driven and often suffering from a sense of having been ‘dethroned’ by a second child. Younger children, he stated, were hampered by having been more pampered than older siblings. It’s a view reiterated by Professor Frank Sulloway’s influential work, Born to Rebel. Sulloway, a leading proponent of the birth order idea, argued it has a definitive effect on the ‘Big Five’ personality traits of openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. C According to the birth-order theory, first children are usually well-organised high achievers. However, they can have an overdeveloped sense of entitlement and be unyielding. Second children are sometimes very competitive through rivalry with the older sibling. They’re also good mediators and negotiators, keen to keep everyone happy. Middle children, tagged the ‘easy’ ones, have good diplomacy skills. They suffer from a tendency to feel insignificant beside other siblings and often complain of feeling invisible to their parents. Youngest children are often the most likely to rebel, feeling the need to ‘prove’ themselves. They’re often extroverts and are sometimes accused of being selfish. Twins inevitably find it harder to see themselves as individuals, unless their parents have worked hard to identify them as such. It’s not unusual for one twin to have a slightly dominant role over the other and take the lead role. D But slapping generalised labels on a child is dangerous; they change all the time, often taking turns at being the ‘naughty one’ or the ‘diligent one’. However, as one of five children, I know how hard it is to transcend the tags you earn according to when you were born. It is unsurprising then that my eldest sister is the successful entrepreneur, and that, despite covering all the big bases of adult life like marriage, kids and property, my siblings will probably always regard me as their spoilt 47

IELTS ZONEDay 11 younger sister. E ‘As the oldest of three, I’ve found it hard not to think of my own three children as having the same personality types that the three of us had when I was growing up,’ says Lisa Cannan, a teacher. ‘I identify with my eldest son, who constantly takes the lead in terms of organisation and responsibility. My daughter, the middle child, is more cerebral than her brothers. She’s been easier than them. She avoids confrontation, so has an easy relationship with both boys. My youngest is gorgeous but naughty. I know I’m partly to blame for this, as I forgive him things the elder two wouldn’t get away with.’ F As a parent, it’s easy to feel guilty about saddling a child with labels according to birth order, but as child psychologist Stephen Bayliss points out, these characteristics might be better attributed to parenting styles, rather than a child’s character. He says that if a parent is worried about having encouraged, for example, an overdeveloped sense of dominance in an older sibling or spoiled a younger child, then it’s more useful to look at ways this can be addressed than over-analysing why it happened. Bayliss is optimistic that as adults we can overcome any negative connotations around birth order. ‘Look at the way you react to certain situations with your siblings. If you’re unhappy about being treated as a certain type of personality, try to work out if it’s a role that you’ve willingly accepted. If you’re unhappy with the role, being dynamic about focusing on your own reactions, rather than blaming theirs, will help you overcome it. Change isn’t easy but nobody need be the victim of their biography.’ 48

IELTS ZONE 30 - Day Reading Challenge Questions 20–23 Look at the following statements and the list of people below. Match each statement with the correct person, A–D. Write the correct letter, A–D, in boxes 20–23 on your answer sheet. NB You may use any letter more than once. 20 Experience as a child can affect behaviour as a parent. 21 Birth order may not be the main reason why children have the personalities they have. 22 There is a link between birth and a group of important characteristics. 23 It is possible for people to stop feeling bad about how family members behave with them. List of people A Alfred Adler B Professor Frank Sulloway C Lisa Cannan D Stephen Bayliss Questions 24–26 Complete the sentences below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 24–26 on your answer sheet. 24 First-born children have expectations that are too high with regard to …………… . 25 Middle children are often considered …………… by their parents. 26 Youngest children may be described as …………… by other people. 49