30 - Day Reading Challenge

30 - Day Reading Challenge working. (Ants that work outside the nest smell different to those that stay inside.) Before they leave the nest each day, foragers normally wait for early morning patrollers to return. As patrollers enter the nest, they touch antennae briefly with foragers. ‘When a forager has contact with a patroller, it’s a stimulus for the forager to go out,’ Gordon says. ‘But the forager needs several contacts more than ten seconds apart before it will go out.’ To see how this works, Gordon and her team captured patroller ants as they left a nest one morning. After waiting half an hour, they simulated the ants’ return by dropping glass beads into the nest entrance at regular intervals – some coated with patroller scent, some with maintenance worker scent, some with no scent. Only the beads coated with patroller scent stimulated foragers to leave the nest. Their conclusion: foragers use the rate of their encounters with patrollers to tell if it’s safe to go out. (If you bump into patrollers at the right rate, it’s time to go foraging. If not, it’s better to wait. It might be too windy, or there might be a hungry lizard out there.) Once the ants start foraging and bringing back food, other ants join the effort, depending on the rate at which they encounter returning foragers. ‘So nobody’s deciding whether it’s a good day to forage. The collective is, but no particular ant is.’ That’s how swarm intelligence works: simple creatures following simple rules, each one acting on local information. When it comes to swarm intelligence, ants aren’t the only insects with something useful to teach us. Thomas Seeley, a biologist at Cornell University, has been looking into the uncanny ability of honeybees to make good decisions. With as many as 50,000 workers in a single hive, honeybees have evolved ways to work through individual difference of opinion to do what’s best for the colony. Seeley and others have been studying colonies of honeybees to see how they choose a new home. To find out, Seeley’s team applied paint dots and tiny plastic tags to all 4,000 bees in each of several swarms that they ferried to Appledore Island. There, they released each swarm to locate nest boxes they had placed on one side of the island. In one test, they put out five nest boxes. Scout bees soon appeared at all five boxes. When they returned to the swarm, each performed a dance urging other scouts to go and have a look. These dances include a code to give directions to a box’s location. The strength of each dance reflected the scout’s enthusiasm for the site. After a while, a small cloud of bees was buzzing around each box. As soon as the number of scouts visible near the entrance to a box reached about 15, the bees at that box sensed that a decision had been reached and returned to the swarm with the news. The bees’ rules for decision-making – seek a diversity of opinions, encourage a free competition among ideas, and use effective mechanisms to narrow choices – so impressed Seeley that he now uses them at Cornell in his role as chairman of his department. IELTS ZONE +97 130 68 22 @ieltszone_uz

IELTS ZONEDay 24 Questions 1–5 Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D. Write the correct letter in boxes 1–5 on your answer sheet. 1 In the first paragraph, what does the writer conclude about ants? A They are invasive pests in the home. B They can achieve great things working alone. C They form social groups that are similar to human ones. D They are less impressive as individuals than she thought. 2 According to the second paragraph, what is the ‘fundamental question’ in nature? A How do large groups of animals appoint a leader? B How do large groups of animals reach an agreement? C Do different species of animals use similar behaviour? D Why are small insects better organised than larger mammals? 3 What is the focus of Deborah Gordon’s research? A The effects of bad weather on ant colonies. B The number of ants required to maintain the nest. C The methods ants use to assign different jobs. D The role of the queen ant in organising the colony. 4 In the fourth paragraph, what are we told about forager and patroller ants? A A colony needs more forager ants than patroller ants. B Patrollers’ movements determine what foragers will do. C Patrollers are the first ants to bring food back to the nest. D Foragers spend more time out of the nest than patroller ants. 5 In an experiment, Deborah Gordon’s team A mimicked patroller ants returning to the nest. B left a trail of food for patroller ants to follow. C followed patroller ants to see where they went to. D changed the scent of patroller ants to that of forager ants. 101

30 - Day Reading Challenge Questions 6–9 Complete the following sentences using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage. Write your answers in boxes 6–9 on your answer sheet. 6 Approximately …………… different types of ant have been identified. 7 Ants use their …………… to identify another ant. 8 A …………… is one animal that preys on ants. 9 Ant colonies use …………… to reach a decision. IELTS ZONE Questions 10–13 Complete the summary using the list of words, A–G, below. Write the correct letter, A–G, in boxes 10–13 on your answer sheet. Appledore Island honeybee study First, the scientists 10 …………… each of the bees involved in their experiment. Next the bees were 11 …………… . The scientists placed several nest boxes in an area away from the bees. Scout bees inspected the nest boxes and 12 …………… to other bees where the boxes were. They chose their nest box once enough bees had 13 …………… there. A attracted B found C gathered D located E signalled F marked G relocated 102

Day 25 READING PASSAGE 1 IELTS ZONEYou should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1–13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below. The history of the poster The appearance of the poster has changed continuously over the past two centuries. The first posters were known as ‘broadsides’ and were used for public and commercial announcements. Printed on one side only using metal type, they were quickly and crudely produced in large quantities. As they were meant to be read at a distance, they required large lettering. There were a number of negative aspects of large metal type. It was expensive, required a large amount of storage space and was extremely heavy. If a printer did have a collection of large metal type, it was likely that there were not enough letters. So printers did their best by mixing and matching styles. Commercial pressure for large type was answered with the invention of a system for wood type production. In 1827, Darius Wells invented a special wood drill – the lateral router – capable of cutting letters on wood blocks. The router was used in combination with William Leavenworth’s pantograph (1834) to create decorative wooden letters of all shapes and sizes. The first posters began to appear, but they had little colour and design; often wooden type was mixed with metal type in a conglomeration of styles. A major development in poster design was the application of lithography, invented by Alois Senefelder in 1796, which allowed artists to hand-draw letters, opening the field of type design to endless styles. The method involved drawing with a greasy crayon onto finely surfaced Bavarian limestone and offsetting that image onto paper. This direct process captured the artist’s true intention; however, the final printed image was in reverse. The images and lettering needed to be drawn backwards, often reflected in a mirror or traced on transfer paper. As a result of this technical difficulty, the invention of the lithographic process had little impact on posters until the 1860s, when Jules Cheret came up with his ‘three-stone lithographic process’. This gave artists the opportunity to experiment with a wide spectrum of colours. Although the process was difficult, the result was remarkable, with nuances of colour impossible in other media even to this day. The ability to mix words and images in such an attractive and economical format finally made the lithographic poster a powerful innovation. Starting in the 1870s, posters became the main vehicle for advertising prior to the magazine era and the dominant means of mass communication in the rapidly growing cities of Europe and America. Yet in the streets of Paris, Milan and Berlin, these artistic prints were so popular that they were stolen off walls almost as soon as they were hung. Cheret, later known as ‘the father of the modern poster’, organised the first 103

IELTS ZONE 30 - Day Reading Challenge exhibition of posters in 1884 and two years later published the first book on poster art. He quickly took advantage of the public interest by arranging for artists to create posters, at a reduced size, that were suitable for in-home display. Thanks to Cheret, the poster slowly took hold in other countries in the 1890s and came to celebrate each society’s unique cultural institutions: the café in France, the opera and fashion in Italy, festivals in Spain, literature in Holland and trade fairs in Germany. The first poster shows were held in Great Britain and Italy in 1894, Germany in 1896 and Russia in 1897. The most important poster show ever, to many observers, was held in Reims, France, in 1896 and featured an unbelievable 1,690 posters arranged by country. In the early 20th century, the poster continued to play a large communication role and to go through a range of styles. By the 1950s, however, it had begun to share the spotlight with other media, mainly radio and print. By this time, most posters were printed using the mass production technique of photo offset, which resulted in the familiar dot pattern seen in newspapers and magazines. In addition, the use of photography in posters, begun in Russia in the twenties, started to become as common as illustration. In the late fifties, a new graphic style that had strong reliance on typographic elements in black and white appeared. The new style came to be known as the International Typographic Style. It made use of a mathematical grid, strict graphic rules and black-and-white photography to provide a clear and logical structure. It became the predominant style in the world in the 1970s and continues to exert its influence today. It was perfectly suited to the increasingly international post-war marketplace, where there was a strong demand for clarity. This meant that the accessibility of words and symbols had to be taken into account. Corporations wanted international identification, and events such as the Olympics called for universal solutions, which the Typographic Style could provide. However, the International Typographic Style began to lose its energy in the late 1970s. Many criticised it for being cold, formal and dogmatic. A young teacher in Basel, Wolfgang Weingart, experimented with the offset printing process to produce posters that appeared complex and chaotic, playful and spontaneous – all in stark contrast to what had gone before. Weingart’s liberation of typography was an important foundation for several new styles. These ranged from Memphis and Retro to the advances now being made in computer graphics. 104

Day 25 Questions 1–5 Complete the table below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 1–5 on your answer sheet. Early Printing Methods Features Problems • produced large print IELTS ZONEMetal type • cost, weight and 1 ………………… difficulties Wood type • Darius’s wood drill used in connection with another • mixed styles 2 ………………… • lacked both 3………………… • produced a range of letters • mixed type Lithography • letters drawn by hand • had to use a mirror or 5………………… to achieve • design tool – a correct image 4 ………………… +97 130 68 22 @ieltszone_uz

30 - Day Reading Challenge Questions 6–9 Complete the flow chart below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 6–9 on your answer sheet. Jules Cheret 1860s – invention of ‘three-stone lithographic process’ combination of both 6 ………………… on coloured posters 1870s – posters used for advertising and 7 ………………… in Europe 1884–86 – Cheret’s poster 8 ………………… and book on poster art 1890s – posters represent 9 ………………… around the world IELTS ZONE Questions 10–13 Do the following statements agree with the information in the reading passage? In boxes 10–13 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 10 By the 1950s, photographs were more widely seen than artists’ illustrations on posters. 11 Features of the Typographic Style can be seen in modern-day posters. 12 The Typographic Style met a global need at a particular time in history. 13 Weingart got many of his ideas from his students in Basel. 106

Day 26 READING PASSAGE 2 IELTS ZONEYou should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14–26, which are based on Reading Passage 2 below. Last man standing Some 50,000 years ago, Homo sapiens beat other hominids to become the only surviving species. Kate Ravilious reveals how we did it. A Today, there are over seven billion people living on Earth. No other species has exerted as much influence over the planet as us. But turn the clock back 80,000 years and we were one of a number of species roaming the Earth.Our own species, Homo sapiens (Latin for ‘wise man’), was most successful in Africa. In western Eurasia, the Neanderthals dominated, while Homo erectus may have lived in Indonesia. Meanwhile, an unusual finger bone and tooth, discovered in Denisova cave in Siberia in 2008, have led scientists to believe that yet another human population – the Denisovans – may also have been widespread across Asia. Somewhere along the line, these other human species died out, leaving Homo sapiens as the sole survivor. So what made us the winners in the battle for survival? B Some 74,000 years ago, the Toba ‘supervolcano’ on the Indonesian island of Sumatra erupted. The scale of the event was so great that ash from the eruption was flung as far as eastern India, more than 2,000 kilometers away. Oxford archaeologist Mike Petraglia and his team have uncovered thousands of stone tools buried underneath the Toba ash. The mix of hand axes and spear tips have led Petraglia to speculate that Homo sapiens and Homo erectus were both living in eastern India prior to the Toba eruption. Based on careful examination of the tools and dating of the sediment layers where they were found, Petraglia and his team suggest that Homo sapiens arrived in eastern India around 78,000 years ago, migrating out of Africa and across Arabia during a favourable climate period. After their arrival, the simple tools belonging to Homo erectus seemed to lessen in number and eventually disappear completely. ‘We think that Homo sapiens had a more efficient hunting technology, which could have given them the edge,’ says Petraglia. ‘Whether the eruption of Toba also played a role in the extinction of the Homo erectus-like species is unclear to us.’ C Some 45,000 years later, another fight for survival took place. This time, the location was Europe and the protagonists were another species, the Neanderthals. They were a highly successful species that dominated the European landscape for 300,000 years. Yet within just a few thousand years of the arrival of Homo sapiens, their numbers plummeted. They eventually disappeared from the landscape around 30,000 years ago, with their last known refuge being southern Iberia, including Gibraltar. Initially, Homo sapiens and Neanderthals lived alongside each 107

IELTS ZONE 30 - Day Reading Challenge otherand had no reason to compete. But then Europe’s climate swung into a cold, inhospitable, dry phase. ‘Neanderthal and Homo sapiens populations had to retreat to refugia (pockets of habitable land). This heightened competition between the two groups,’ explains Chris Stringer, anthropologist at the Natural History Museum in London. D Both species were strong and stockier than the average human today, but Neanderthals were particularly robust. ‘Their skeletons show that they had broad shoulders and thick necks,’ says Stringer. ‘Homo sapiens, on the other hand, had longer forearms, which undoubtedly enabled them to throw a spear from some distance, with less danger and using relatively little energy,’ explains Stringer. This long-range ability may have given Homo sapiens an advantage in hunting. When it came to keeping warm, Homo sapiens had another skill: weaving and sewing. Archaeologists have uncovered simple needles fashioned from ivory and bone alongside Homo sapiens, dating as far back as 35,000 years ago. ‘Using this technology, we could use animal skins to make ourselves tents, warm clothes and fur boots,’ says Stringer. In contrast, Neanderthals never seemed to master sewing skills, instead relying on pinning skins together with thorns. E A thirst for exploration provided Homo sapiens with another significant advantage over Neanderthals. Objects such as shell beads and flint tools, discovered many miles from their source, show that our ancestors travelled over large distances, in order to barter and exchange useful materials, and share ideas and knowledge. By contrast, Neanderthals tended to keep themselves to themselves, living in small groups. They misdirected their energies by only gathering resources from their immediate surroundings and perhaps failing to discover new technologies outside their territory. F Some of these differences in behavior may have emerged because the two species thought in different ways. By comparing skull shapes, archaeologists have shown that Homo sapiens had a more developed temporal lobe – the regions at the side of the brain, associated with listening, language and long-term memory. ‘We think that Homo sapiens had a significantly more complex language than Neanderthals and were able to comprehend and discuss concepts such as the distant past and future,’ says Stringer. Penny Spikins, an archaeologist at the University of York, has recently suggested that Homo sapiens may also have had a greater diversity of brain types than Neanderthals. ‘Our research indicates that high-precision tools, new hunting technologies and the development of symbolic communication may all have come about because they were willing to include people with “different” minds and specialised roles in their society,’ she explains. ‘We see similar kinds of injuries on male and female Neanderthal skeletons, implying there was no such division of labour,’ says Spikins. G Thus by around 30,000 years ago, many talents and traits were well established in Homo sapiens societies but still absent from Neanderthal communities. Stringer thinks that the Neanderthals were just living in the wrong place at the wrong time. ‘They had to compete with Homo sapiens during a phase of very unstable climate across Europe. During each rapid climate fluctuation, they may have suffered 108

IELTS ZONEDay 26 greater losses of people than Homo sapiens, and thus were slowly worn down,’ he says. If the climate had remained stable throughout, they might still be here.” Questions 14–18 The Reading passage 2 has seven paragraphs, A–G. Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter, A–G, in boxes 14–18 on your answer sheet. 14 a comparison of a range of physical features of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens 15 reference to items that were once used for trade 16 mention of evidence for the existence of a previously unknown human species 17 mention of the part played by ill fortune in the downfall of Neanderthal society 18 reference to the final geographical location of Neanderthals Questions 19–22 Complete the sentences below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 19–22 on your answer sheet. 19 Analysis of stone tools and …………… has enabled Petraglia’s team to put forward an arrival date for Homo sapiens in eastern India. 20 Homo sapiens used both …………… to make sewing implements. 21 The territorial nature of Neanderthals may have limited their ability to acquire resources and …………… 22 Archaeologists examined …………… in order to get an insight into Neanderthal and Homo sapiens’ capacity for language and thought. 109

30 - Day Reading Challenge Questions 23–26 Look at the following statements and the list of researchers, A–C, below. Match each statement with the correct researcher. Write the correct letter, A–C, in boxes 23–26 on your answer sheet. 23 No evidence can be found to suggest that Neanderthal communities allocated tasks to different members. 24 Homo sapiens may have been able to plan ahead. 25 Scientists cannot be sure whether a sudden natural disaster contributed to the loss of a human species. 26 Environmental conditions restricted the areas where Homo sapiens and Neanderthals could live. List of Researchers A Mike Petraglia B Chris Stringer C Penny Spikins IELTS ZONE +97 130 68 22 @ieltszone_uz

Day 27 READING PASSAGE 3 IELTS ZONEYou should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27–40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 below. The new way to be a fifth-grader by Clive Thompson Khan Academy is changing the rules of education. I peer over his shoulder at his laptop screen to see the math problem the fifth-grader is pondering. It’s a trigonometry problem. Carpenter, a serious-faced ten-year-old, pauses for a second, fidgets, then clicks on “0 degrees.” The computer tells him that he’s correct. “It took a while for me to work it out,” he admits sheepishly. The software then generates another problem, followed by another, until eventually he’s done ten in a row. Last November, his teacher, Kami Thordarson, began using Khan Academy in her class. It is an educational website on which students can watch some 2,400 videos. The videos are anything but sophisticated. At seven to 14 minutes long, they consist of a voiceover by the site’s founder, Salman Khan, chattily describing a mathematical concept or explaining how to solve a problem, while his hand-scribbled formulas and diagrams appear on screen. As a student, you can review a video as many times as you want, scrolling back several times over puzzling parts and fast-forwarding through the boring bits you already know. Once you’ve mastered a video, you can move on to the next one. Initially, Thordarson thought Khan Academy would merely be a helpful supplement to her normal instruction. But it quickly became far more than that. She is now on her way to “flipping” the way her class works. This involves replacing some of her lectures with Khan’s videos, which students can watch at home. Then in class, they focus on working on the problem areas together. The idea is to invert the normal rhythms of school, so that lectures are viewed in the children’s own time and homework is done at school. It sounds weird, Thordarson admits, but this reversal makes (line 40*) sense when you think about it. It is when they are doing homework that students are really grappling with a subject and are most likely to want someone to talk to. And Khan Academy provides teachers with a dashboard application that lets them see the instant a student gets stuck. For years, teachers like Thordarson have complained about the frustrations of teaching to the “middle” of the class. They stand at the whiteboard trying to get 25 or more students to learn at the same pace. Advanced students get bored and tune out, lagging ones get lost and tune out, and pretty soon half the class is not paying attention. Since the rise of personal computers in the 1980s, educators have hoped that technology could save the day by offering lessons tailored to each child. Schools have spent millions of dollars on sophisticated classroom technology, but the effort has been in vain. The one-to-one instruction it requires is, after all, prohibitively expensive. What 111

IELTS ZONE 30 - Day Reading Challenge country can afford such a luxury? Khan never intended to overhaul the school curricula and he doesn’t have a consistent, comprehensive plan for doing so. Nevertheless, some of his fans believe that he has stumbled onto the solution to education’s middle-of-the-class mediocrity. Most notable among them is Bill Gates, whose foundation has invested $1.5 million in Khan’s site. Students have pointed out that Khan is particularly good at explaining all the hidden, small steps in math problems – steps that teachers often gloss over. He has an uncanny ability to inhabit the mind of someone who doesn’t already understand something. However, not all educators are enamoured with Khan and his site. Gary Stager, a long-time educational consultant and advocate of laptops in classrooms, thinks Khan Academy is not innovative at all. The videos and software modules, he contends, are just a high-tech version of the outdated teaching techniques–lecturing and drilling. Schools have become “joyless test-prep factories,” he says, and Khan Academy caters to this dismal trend. As Sylvia Martinez, president of an organization focusing on technology in the classroom, puts it, “The things they’re doing are really just rote.” Flipping the classroom isn’t an entirely new idea, Martinez says, and she doubts that it would work for the majority of pupils: “I’m sorry, but if they can’t understand the lecture in a classroom, they’re not going to grasp it better when it’s done through a video at home.” Another limitation of Khan’s site is that the drilling software can only handle questions where the answers are unambiguously right or wrong, like math or chemistry; Khan has relatively few videos on messier, grey-area subjects like history. Khan and Gates admit there is no easy way to automate the teaching of writing–even though it is just as critical as math. Even if Khan is truly liberating students to advance at their own pace, it is not clear that schools will be able to cope. The very concept of grade levels implies groups of students moving along together at an even pace. So what happens when, using Khan Academy, you wind up with a ten-year-old who has already mastered high-school physics? Khan’s programmer, Ben Kamens, has heard from teachers who have seen Khan Academy presentations and loved the idea but wondered whether they could modify it “to stop students from becoming this advanced.” Khan’s success has injected him into the heated wars over school reform. Reformers today, by and large, believe student success should be carefully tested, with teachers and principals receiving better pay if their students advance more quickly. In essence, Khan doesn’t want to change the way institutions teach; he wants to change how people learn, whether they’re in a private school or a public school–or for that matter, whether they’re a student or an adult trying to self-educate in Ohio, Brazil, Russia, or India. One member of Khan’s staff is spearheading a drive to translate the videos into ten major languages. It’s classic start-up logic: do something novel, do it with speed, and the people who love it will find you. 112

IELTS ZONEDay 27 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 do you learn about the student in the first paragraph? A He has not used the maths software before. B He did not expect his answer to the problem to be correct. C He was not initially doing the right maths problem. D He did not immediately know how to solve the maths problem. 28 What does the writer say about the content of the Khan Academy videos? A They have been produced in a professional manner. B They include a mix of verbal and visual features. C Some of the maths problems are too easy. D Some of the explanations are too brief. 29 What does this reversal refer to in line 40*? A going back to spending fewer hours in school B students being asked to explain answers to teachers C swapping the activities done in the class and at home D the sudden improvement in students’ maths performance 30 What does the writer say about teaching to the ‘middle’ of the class? A Teachers become too concerned about weaker students. B Technology has not until now provided a solution to the problem. C Educators have been unwilling to deal with the issues. D Students in this category quickly become bored. 31 Students praise Khan’s videos because they A show the extent of his mathematical knowledge. B deal with a huge range of maths problems. C provide teaching at different ability levels. D cover details that are often omitted in class. 113

30 - Day Reading Challenge Questions 32–36 Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in the reading passage? 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 Thordarson’s first impressions of how she would use Khan Academy turned out to be wrong. IELTS ZONE 33 Khan wished to completely change the way courses are taught in schools. 34 School grade levels are based on the idea of students progressing at different rates. 35 Some principals have invited Khan into their schools to address students. 36 Khan has given advice to other people involved in start-up projects. Questions 37–40 Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A–G, below. Write the correct letter, A–G, in boxes 37–40 on your answer sheet. 37 Bill Gates thinks Khan Academy 38 According to Gary Stager, Khan Academy 39 Sylvia Martinez regrets that Khan Academy 40 Ben Kamens has been told that Khan Academy A is only suited to subjects where questions have exact answers. B can teach both the strongest and the weakest pupils in a class. C means the teaching of other school subjects will have to be changed. D only prepares students to pass exams. E could cause student achievement to improve too quickly. F requires all students to own the necessary technology. G is unlikely to have a successful outcome for most students. 114

Day 28 READING PASSAGE 1 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1–13, which are based on ReadingIELTS ZONE Passage 1 below. Andrea Palladio: Italian Architect A new exhibition celebrates Palladio’s architecture 500 years on Vicenza is a pleasant, prosperous city in the Veneto, 60 km west of Venice. Its grand families settled and farmed the area from the 16th century. But its principal claim to fame is Andrea Palladio, who is such an influential architect that a neoclassical style is known as Palladian. The city is a permanent exhibition of some of his finest buildings, and as he was born – in Padua, to be precise – 500 years ago, the International Centre for the Study of Palladio’s Architecture has an excellent excuse for mounting la grande mostra, the big show. The exhibition has the special advantage of being held in one of Palladio’s buildings, Palazzo Barbaran da Porto. Its bold façade is a mixture of rustication and decoration set between two rows of elegant columns. On the second floor the pediments are alternately curved or pointed, a Palladian trademark. The harmonious proportions of the atrium at the entrance lead through to a dramatic interior of fine fireplaces and painted ceilings. Palladio’s design is simple, clear and not over-crowded. The show has been organised on the same principles, according to Howard Burns, the architectural historian who co-curated it. Palladio’s father was a miller who settled in Vicenza, where the young Andrea was apprenticed to a skilled stonemason. How did a humble miller’s son become a world renowned architect? The answer in the exhibition is that, as a young man, Palladio excelled at carving decorative stonework on columns, doorways and fireplaces. He was plainly intelligent, and lucky enough to come across a rich patron, Gian Giorgio Trissino, a landowner and scholar, who organised his education, taking him to Rome in the 1540s, where he studied the masterpieces of classical Roman and Greek architecture and the work of other influential architects of the time, such as Donato Bramante and Raphael. Burns argues that social mobility was also important. Entrepreneurs, prosperous from agriculture in the Veneto, commissioned the promising local architect to design their country villas and their urban mansions. In Venice the aristocracy were anxious to co-opt talented artists, and Palladio was given the chance to design the buildings that have made him famous – the churches of San Giorgio Maggiore and the Redentore, both easy to admire because they can be seen from the city’s historical centre across a stretch of water. He tried his hand at bridges – his unbuilt version of the Rialto Bridge was decorated with the large pediment and columns of a temple – and, after a fire at the Ducal Palace, he offered an alternative design which bears an uncanny resemblance to +97 130 68 22 @ieltszone_uz

IELTS ZONE 30 - Day Reading Challenge the Banqueting House in Whitehall in London. Since it was designed by Inigo Jones, Palladio’s first foreign disciple, this is not as surprising as it sounds. Jones, who visited Italy in 1614, bought a trunk full of the master’s architectural drawings; they passed through the hands of the Dukes of Burlington and Devonshire before settling at the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1894. Many are now on display at Palazzo Barbaran. What they show is how Palladio drew on the buildings of ancient Rome as models. The major theme of both his rural and urban building was temple architecture, with a strong pointed pediment supported by columns and approached by wide steps. Palladio’s work for rich landowners alienates unreconstructed critics on the Italian left, but among the papers in the show are designs for cheap housing in Venice. In the wider world, Palladio’s reputation has been nurtured by a text he wrote and illustrated, “Quattro Libri dell’Architettura”. His influence spread to St Petersburg and to Charlottesville in Virginia, where Thomas Jefferson commissioned a Palladian villa he called Monticello. Vicenza’s show contains detailed models of the major buildings and is leavened by portraits of Palladio’s teachers and clients by Titian, Veronese and Tintoretto; the paintings of his Venetian buildings are all by Canaletto, no less. This is an uncompromising exhibition; many of the drawings are small and faint, and there are no sideshows for children, but the impact of harmonious lines and satisfying proportions is to impart in a viewer a feeling of benevolent calm. Palladio is history’s most therapeutic architect. “Palladio, 500 Anni: La Grande Mostra” is at Palazzo Barbaran da Porto, Vicenza, until January 6th 2009. The exhibition continues at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, from January 31st to April 13th, and travels afterwards to Barcelona and Madrid. 116

Day 28 Questions 1–7 Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1? In boxes 1–7 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 1 The building where the exhibition is staged has been newly renovated. 2 Palazzo Barbaran da Porto typically represents the Palladio’s design. IELTS ZONE 3 Palladio’s father worked as an architect. 4 Palladio’s family refused to pay for his architectural studies. 5 Palladio’s alternative design for the Ducal Palace in Venice was based on an English building. 6 Palladio designed for both wealthy and poor people. 7 The exhibition includes paintings of people by famous artists. Questions 8–13 Complete the sentences below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 8–13 on your answer sheet. 8 What job was Palladio training for before he became an architect? 9 Who arranged Palladio’s architectural studies? 10 Who was the first non-Italian architect influenced by Palladio? 11 What type of Ancient Roman buildings most heavily influenced Palladio’s work? 12 What did Palladio write that strengthened his reputation? 13 In the writer’s opinion, what feeling will visitors to the exhibition experience? 117

Day 29 READING PASSAGE 2 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14–26, which are based Reading Passage 2 below. Questions 14–20 Reading passage 2 has seven paragraphs, A–G. Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below. Write the correct number, i–viii, in boxes 14–20 on your answer sheet. IELTS ZONE List of Headings i How CSR may help one business to expand ii CSR in many aspects of a company’s business iii A CSR initiative without a financial gain iv Lack of action by the state of social issues v Drives or pressures motivate companies to address CSR vi The past illustrates business are responsible for future outcomes vii Companies applying CSR should be selective viii Reasons that business and society benefit each other 14 Paragraph A 15 Paragraph B 16 Paragraph C 17 Paragraph D 18 Paragraph E 19 Paragraph F 20 Paragraph G 118

IELTS ZONE 30 - Day Reading Challenge Corporate Social Responsibility Broadly speaking, proponents of CSR have used four arguments to make their case: moral obligation, sustainability, license to operate, and reputation. The moral appeal – arguing that companies have a duty to be good citizens and to “do the right thing” – is prominent in the goal of Business for Social Responsibility, the leading nonprofit CSR business association in the United States. It asks that its members “achieve commercial success in ways that honour ethical values and respect people, communities, and the natural environment.” Sustainability emphasises environmental and community stewardship. A An excellent definition was developed in the 1980s by Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland and used by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development: “Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Nowadays, governments and companies need to account for the social consequences of their actions. As a result, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a priority for business leaders around the world. When a well-run business applies its vast resources and expertise to social problems that it understands and in which it has a stake, it can have a greater impact than any other organization. The notion of license to operate derives from the fact that every company needs tacit or explicit permission from governments, communities, and numerous other stakeholders to justify CSR initiatives to improve a company’s image, strengthen its brand, enliven morale and even raise the value of its stock. B To advance CSR, we must root it in a broad understanding of the interrelationship between a corporation and society. Successful corporations need a healthy society. Education, health care, and equal opportunity are essential to a productive workforce. Safe products and working conditions not only attract customers but lower the internal costs of accidents. Efficient utilization of land, water, energy, and other natural resources makes business more productive. Good government, the rule of law, and property rights are essential for efficiency and innovation. Strong regulatory standards protect both consumers and competitive companies from exploitation. Ultimately, a healthy society creates expanding demand for business, as more human needs are met and aspirations grow. Any business that pursues its ends at the expense of the society in which it operates will find its success to be illusory and ultimately temporary. At the same time, a healthy society needs successful companies. No social program can rival the business sector when it comes to creating the jobs, wealth, and innovation that improve standards of living and social conditions over time. C A company’s impact on society also changes over time, as social standards evolve and science progresses. Asbestos, now understood as a serious health risk, was thought to be safe in the early 1900s, given the scientific knowledge then available. Evidence of its risks gradually mounted for more than 50 years before any company was held liable for the harms it can cause. Many firms that failed to anticipate the consequences of this evolving body of research have been bankrupted by the 119

IELTS ZONEDay 29 results. No longer can companies be content to monitor only the obvious social impacts of today. Without a careful process for identifying evolving social effects of tomorrow, firms may risk their very survival. D No business can solve all of society’s problems or bear the cost of doing so. Instead, each company must select issues that intersect with its particular business. Other social agendas are best left to those companies in other industries, NGOs, or government institutions that are better positioned to address them. The essential test that should guide CSR is not whether a cause is worthy but whether it presents an opportunity to create shared value – that is, a meaningful benefit for society that is also valuable to the business. Each company can identify the particular set of societal problems that it is best equipped to help resolve and from which it can gain the greatest competitive benefit. E The best corporate citizenship initiatives involve far more than writing a check: They specify clear, measurable goals and track results over time. A good example is General Electronics’s program to adopt underperforming public high schools near several of its major U.S. facilities. The company contributes between $250,000 and $1 million over a five-year period to each school and makes in-kind donations as well. GE managers and employees take an active role by working with school administrators to assess needs and mentor or tutor students. In an independent study of ten schools in the program between 1989 and 1999, nearly all showed significant improvement, while the graduation rate in four or the five worst performing schools doubled from an average of 30% to 60%. Effective corporate citizenship initiatives such as this one create goodwill and improve relations with local governments and other important constituencies. What’s more, GE’s employees feel great pride in their participation. Their effect is inherently limited, however. No matter how beneficial the program is, it remains incidental to the company’s business, and the direct effect on GE’s recruiting and retention is modest. F Microsoft’s Working Connections partnership with the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) is a good example of a shared-value opportunity arising from investments in context. The shortage of information technology workers is a significant constraint on Microsoft’s growth; currently, there are more than 450,000 unfilled IT positions in the United States alone. Community colleges, with an enrollment of 11.6 million students, representing 45% of all U.S. undergraduates, could be a major solution. Microsoft recognizes, however, that community colleges face special challenges: IT curricula are not standardized, technology used in classrooms is often outdated, and there are no systematic professional development programs to keep faculty up to date. Microsoft’s $50 million five-year initiative was aimed at all three problems. In addition to contributing money and products, Microsoft sent employee volunteers to colleges to assess needs, contribute to curriculum development, and create faculty development institutes. Microsoft has achieved results that have benefited many communities while having a direct-and potentially significant-impact on the company. +97 130 68 22 @ieltszone_uz

IELTS ZONE 30 - Day Reading Challenge G At the heart of any strategy is a unique value proposition: a set of needs a company can meet for its chosen customers that others cannot. The most strategic CSR occurs when a company adds a social dimension to its value proposition, making social impact integral to the overall strategy. Consider Whole Foods Markel, whose value proposition is to sell organic, natural, and healthy food products to customers who are passionate about food and the environment. The company’s sourcing emphasises purchases from local farmers through each store’s procurement process. Buyers screen out foods containing any of nearly 100 common ingredients that the company considers unhealthy or environmentally damaging. The same standards apply to products made internally. Whole Foods’ commitment to natural and environmentally friendly operating practices extends well beyond sourcing. Stores are constructed using a minimum of virgin raw materials. Recently, the company purchased renewable wind energy credits equal to 100% of its electricity use in all of its stores and facilities, the only Fortune 500 company to offset its electricity consumption entirely. Spoiled produce and biodegradable waste are trucked to regional centers for composting. Whole Foods’ vehicles are being converted to run on biofuels. Even the cleaning products used in its stores are environmentally friendly. And through its philanthropy, the company has created the Animal Compassion Foundation to develop more natural and humane ways of raising farm animals. In short, nearly every aspect of the company’s value chain reinforces the social dimensions of its value proposition, distinguishing Whole Foods from its competitors. 121

IELTS ZONEDay 29 Questions 21–22 Complete the summary below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 21–22 on your answer sheet. The implement of CSR, HOW? Promotion of CSR requires the understanding of interdependence between business and society. Corporations workers’ productivity generally needs health care, education, and given 21 ………… . Restrictions imposed by government and companies both protect consumers from being treated unfairly. Improvement of the safety standard can reduce the 22 ………… of accidents in the workplace. Similarly, society becomes a pool of more human needs and aspirations. Questions 23–26 Look at the following opinions or deeds (Questions 23–26) and the list of companies below. Match each opinion or deed with the correct company, A, B or C. Write the correct letter in boxes 23–26 on your answer sheet. NB You may use any letter more than once. 23 The disposable waste 24 The way company purchases as goods 25 Helping the undeveloped 26 Ensuring the people have the latest information List of Companies A General Electronics B Microsoft C Whole Foods Market 122

Day 30 READING PASSAGE 3 IELTS ZONEYou should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27–40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 below. The Significant Role of Mother Tongue in Education One consequence of population mobility is an increasing diversity within schools. To illustrate, in the city of Toronto in Canada, 58% of kindergarten pupils come from homes where English is not the usual language of communication. Schools in Europe and North America have experienced this diversity for years, and educational policies and practices vary widely between countries and even within countries. Some political parties and groups search for ways to solve the problem of diverse communities and their integration in schools and society. However, they see few positive consequences for the host society and worry that this diversity threatens the identity of the host society. Consequently, they promote unfortunate educational policies that will make the “problem” disappear. If students retain their culture and language, they are viewed as less capable of identifying with the mainstream culture and learning the mainstream language of the society. The challenge for educators and policy-makers is to shape the evolution of national identity in such a way that the rights of all citizens (including school children) are respected, and the cultural, linguistic, and economic resources of the nation are maximised. To waste the resources of the nation by discouraging children from developing their mother tongues is quite simply unintelligent from the point of view of national self-interest. A first step in providing an appropriate education for culturally and linguistically diverse children is to examine what the existing research says about the role of children’s mother tongues in their educational development. In fact, the research is very clear. When children continue to develop their abilities in two or more languages throughout their primary school, they gain a deeper understanding of language and how to use it effectively. They have more practice in processing language, especially when they develop literacy in both. More than 150 research studies conducted during the past 35 years strongly support what Goethe, the famous eighteenth-century German philosopher, once said: the person who knows only one language does not truly know that language. Research suggests that bilingual children may also develop more flexibility in their thinking as a result of processing information through two different languages. The level of development of children’s mother tongue is a strong predictor of their second language development. Children who come to school with a solid foundation in their mother tongue develop stronger literacy abilities in the school language. When parents and other caregivers (e.g. grandparents) are able to spend time with their children and tell stories or discuss issues with them in a way that develops their mother 123

IELTS ZONE 30 - Day Reading Challenge tongue, children come to school well-prepared to learn the school language and succeed educationally. Children’s knowledge and skills transfer across language from the mother tongue to the school language. Transfer across language can be two-way: both languages nurture each other when the educational environment permits children access to both languages. Some educators and parents are suspicious of mother tongue-based teaching programs because they worry that they take time away from the majority language. For example, in a bilingual program where 50% of the time is spent teaching through children’s home language and 50% through the majority language, surely children won’t progress as far in the latter? One of the most strongly established findings of educational research, however, is that well-implemented bilingual programs can promote literacy and subject-matter knowledge in a minority language without any negative effects on children’s development in the majority language. Within Europe, the Foyer program in Belgium, which develops children’s speaking and literacy abilities in three languages (their mother tongue, Dutch and French), most clearly illustrates the benefits of bilingual and trilingual education (see Cummins, 2000). It is easy to understand how this happens. When children are learning through a minority language, they are learning concepts and intellectual skills too. Pupils who know how to tell the time in their mother tongue understand the concept of telling time. In order to tell time in the majority language, they do not need to re-learn the concept. Similarly, at more advanced stages, there is transfer across languages in other skills such as knowing how to distinguish the main idea from the supporting details of a written passage or story, and distinguishing fact from opinion. Studies of secondary school pupils are providing interesting findings in this area, and it would be worth extending this research. Many people marvel at how quickly bilingual children seem to “pick up” conversational skills in the majority language at school (although it takes much longer for them to catch up with native speakers in academic language skills). However, educators are oftenmuch less aware of how quickly children can lose their ability to use their mother tongue, even in the home context. The extent and rapidity of language loss will vary according to the concentration of families from a particular linguistic group in the neighbourhood. Where the mother tongue is used extensively in the community, then language loss among children will be less. However, where language communities are not concentrated in particular neighbourhoods, children can lose their ability to communicate in their mother tongue within 2-3 years of starting school. They may retain receptive skills in the language but they will use the majority language in speaking with their peers and siblings and in responding to their parents. By the time children become adolescents, the linguistic division between parents and children has become an emotional chasm. Pupils frequently become alienated from the cultures of both home and school with predictable results. 124

Day 30 Questions 27–30 Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D. Write the correct letter in boxes 27–30 on your answer sheet. 27 What point did the writer make in the second paragraph? A Some present studies on children’s mother tongues are misleading. B A culturally rich education programme benefits some children more than others. C Bilingual children can make a valuable contribution to the wealth of a country. D The law on mother tongue use at school should be strengthened. 28 Why does the writer refer to something that Goethe said? A to lend weight to his argument B to contradict some research C to introduce a new concept D to update current thinking 29 The writer believes that when young children have a firm grasp of their mother tongue A they can teach older family members what they learnt at school. B they go on to do much better throughout their time at school. C they can read stories about their cultural background. D they develop stronger relationships with their family than with their peers. 30 Why are some people suspicious about mother tongue-based teaching programmes? A They worry that children will be slow to learn to read in either language. B They think that children will confuse words in two languages. C They believe that the programmes will make children less interested in their lessons. D They fear that the programmes will use up valuable time in the school day. IELTS ZONE +97 130 68 22 @ieltszone_uz

30 - Day Reading Challenge Questions 31–35 Complete the summary using the list of words, A–J, below. Write the correct letter, A–J, in boxes 31–35 on your answer sheet. Bilingual Children It was often recorded that bilingual children acquire the 31 ………… to converse in the majority language remarkable quickly. The fact that the mother tongue can disappear at a similar 32 ………… is less well understood. This phenomenon depends, to a certain extent, on the proposition of people with the same linguistic background that have settled in a particular 33 ………… . If this is limited, children are likely to lose the active use of their mother tongue. And thus no longer employ it even with 34 …………, although they may still understand it. It follows that teenager children in these circumstances experience a sense of 35 ………… in relation to all aspects of their lives. IELTS ZONE A teachers B school C dislocation D rate E time F family G communication H type I ability J area 126

Day 30 Questions 36–40 Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading passage 3? In boxes 36–40 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 36 Less than half of the children who attend kindergarten in Toronto have English as their mother tongue. IELTS ZONE 37 Research proves that learning the host country language at school can have an adverse effect on a child’s mother tongue. 38 The Foyer program is accepted by the French education system. 39 Bilingual children are taught to tell the time earlier than monolingual children. 40 Bilingual children can apply reading comprehension strategies acquired in one language when reading in the other. 127

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS ANSWER KEYS WITH EXPLANATIONS 128

30 - Day Reading Challenge DAY 1 READING ANSWER KEYSIELTS ZONE Questions 1 – 5 Q 1. William learned some ............... from a library book. Answer: (basic) physics Part of the passage: 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. Explanation: learned = taught himself basic physics from science book he discovered in a local library. Q 2. First he built ............... of the windmill. Answer: (small) model Part of the passage: He started by constructing a small model. Explanation: started by constructing = first he built. Q 3. Then he collected materials from ............... with a relative. Answer: scrap yards Part of the passage: 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. Explanation: materials = old tractor fans, shock absorbers, plastic pipe, etc.; relative = cousin. Q 4. He made the windmill blades from pieces of ............... . Answer: bath pipe Part of the passage: For windmill blades, William cut some bath pipe in two lengthwise, then heated the pieces over hot coals to press the curried edges flat. 129

IELTS ZONEDay 1 Answer Keys Explanation: He cut some bath pipe in two lengthwise, then heated the pieces (those two he cut) over hot coals (and that’s how he made his blades). Q 5. He fixed the blades to a ............... and then to part of a bicycle. Answer: tractor fan Part of the passage: He attached the blades to a tractor fan using proper nuts and bolts and then to the back axle of a bicycle. Explanation: fixed = attached; the back axle = part of a bicycle. Questions 6 – 10 Q 6. William used the electricity he created for village transport. Answer: False Part of the passage: 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. ...He eventually replaced the tower with a sturdier one that stands 39 feet, and built a second machine that watered a family garden. Explanation: He used the electricity generated for his own household purposes (send- ing electrical current to his house, and later watering a family garden), NOT for village transport (otherwise it would’ve been mentioned). Q 7. At first, William’s achievement was ignored by local people. Answer: False Part of the passage: The windmill brought William Kamkwamba instant local fame, but despite his accomplishment, he was still unable to return to school. Explanation: instant local fame = he instantly became famous (NOT ignored by local people). Q 8. Journalists from other countries visited William’s farm. Answer: Not Given Part of the passage: He arranged for him to attend secondary school at the govern- ment’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 of organisers for the Technology Entertainment and Design conference. +97 130 68 22 @ieltszone_uz

IELTS ZONE 30 - Day Reading Challenge Explanation: We don’t know whether or not the journalists were from other countries. The text only mentions that journalists came to the farm to the windmill. Q 9. William used the money he received to improve water supplies in his village. Answer: True Part of the passage: With the donation, he also drilled a borehole for a well and wa- ter pump in his village and installed drip irrigation in his father’s fields. Explanation: donation = money received; a well and water pump = water supplies. Q 10. The health of villagers improved since the windmill was built. Answer: True Part of the passage: 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.’ Explanation: It is straightforward, the text clearly says the windmills brought lifestyle and health changes and there is less disease because of it. Questions 11 – 13 Q 11. How tall was the final tower that William built? Answer: 39 feet Part of the passage: He eventually replaced the tower with a sturdier one that stands 39 feet, and built a second machine that watered a family garden. Explanation: final tower = eventually replaced the tower; ‘stands’ shows how tall something is. Q 12. What did villagers use for fuel before the windmill was built? Answer: kerosene Part of the passage: The villagers have also stopped using kerosene and can use the money previously spent on fuel to buy other things. Explanation: Very easy question; no need for explanation. 131

IELTS ZONEDay 1 Answer Keys Q 13. What school subject became more popular in William’s village? Answer: science Part of the passage: William Kamkwamba’s example has inspired other children in the village to pursue science. Explanation: the trap here is physics because it was mentioned earlier in the passage, but since the answers to ‘short-answer questions’ follow the same order as in the pas- sage, the answer to Q 13 comes after Q12’s answer, so you should look further. And most Uzbek students may not translate ‘science’ as a subject, since direct translation is slightly different. But in English ‘science’ is the general subject including chemistry, biol- ogy and physics. 132

30 - Day Reading Challenge DAY 2 READING PASSAGE 2IELTS ZONE Questions 14 – 18 Q 14. a list of the type of people who enjoy going to Chamonix Answer: C Part of the passage: 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. Q 15. reference to a system that is changing the way visitors reach Chamonix Answer: G Part of the passage: 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. Q 16. the geographical location of Chamonix Answer: A Part of the passage: 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 high- est mountain in the Alps. Q 17. mention of the need to control the large tourist population in Chamonix Answer: H Part of the passage: But now, the impact of tourism has led the authorities to recog- nise 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. Q 18. reference to a national environmental target Answer: E Part of the passage: Low-carbon initiatives are also important for the region. France is 133

IELTS ZONEDay 2 Answer Keys 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. Questions 19 – 20 The writer mentions several ways that the authorities aim to educate tourists in Chamonix. Answer: A giving instructions about litter Part of the passage [Par D]: 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. Answer: D operating a web-based information service Part of the passage [Par D]: An internet blog reports environmental news in the town, and the ‘green’ message is delivered with all the tourist office’s activities. Questions 21 – 22 The writer mentions several ways that hotels are reducing their carbon emissions. Answer: D providing places for rubbish Part of the passage [Par E]: 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; Answer: E harnessing energy from the sun Part of the passage [Par E]: others have invested in huge projects such as furnishing and decorating using locally sourced materials, using geothermal energy for heating and installing solar panels. Questions 23 – 26 Q 23. The first people to discover the Chamonix valley were …………… . Answer: explorers Part of the passage [Par B]: Tourism is Chamonix’s lifeblood. Visitors have been encouraged to visit the valley ever since it was discovered by explorers in 1741. 134

30 - Day Reading Challenge Q 24. Chamonix’s busiest tourist season is the …………… . Answer: summer Part of the passage [Par 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. Q 25. Public areas, such as the …………… in Chamonix, are using fewer resources. Answer: ice rink Part of the passage [Par 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. Q 26. The …………… on the mountains around Chamonix provide visual evidence of global warming. Answer: melting glaciers Part of the passage [Par 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. IELTS ZONE +97 130 68 22 @ieltszone_uz

Day 3 Answer Keys DAY 3 READING PASSAGE 3IELTS ZONE Questions 27 – 31 Q 27. What does the writer say about dictation? Answer: B It affected the way people wrote. Part of the passage: Reading and writing, like all technologies, are constantly changing. In ancient times, authors often dictated their books. Dictation sounded like an uninter- rupted 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 silent- ly 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. Q 28. According to the writer, what changed after the invention of the printing press? Answer: D Authors had a wider choice of topics. Part of the passage: 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, heart-rending love stories or publish autobiographies, even if they were unknown. Q 29. In the third paragraph, the writer focuses on the Answer: C growing status of the written word. Part of the passage: 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, ar- chitecture, 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. Q 30. What does the writer say about screens in the fourth paragraph? Answer: D They can be found everywhere. 136

IELTS ZONE 30 - Day Reading Challenge Part of the passage: 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. Q 31. According to the writer, computers differ from television because they Answer: A encourage more reading. Part of the passage: 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. Questions 32 – 36 Q 32. Screen reading has reduced the number of books and newspapers people read. Answer: Not Given Part of the passage: 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. Explanation: The authors says screen reading is different from book reading or newspaper reading, but does not claim that it has affected the number of books or newspapers people read. Q 33. Screen literacy requires a wider range of visual skills than book-based literacy. Answer: Yes Part of the passage: But it is not book reading or newspaper reading, it is screen read- ing. 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 137

IELTS ZONEDay 3 Answer Keys 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. Explanation: The writer is comparing screen literacy to book-based literacy by claiming that this new platform is very visual. Later, he lists these new visual skills we’ve gained as a result: visualizing data, reading charts, looking at pictures and symbols. Q 34. Screen reading is more active than book reading. Answer: Yes Part of the passage: 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 charac- ter stands in front of a screen and hunts through huge amounts of information as if con- ducting 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. Explanation: First two sentences show how screen reading moves our body more than the book reading. Q 35. Screens and books produce similar thought patterns in their readers. Answer: No Part of the passage: 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. Screen reading, 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. Explanation: Book reading encouraged more analytical thinking. Screen reading, on the other hand (shows contrast), encourages practical thinking. Q 36. People are easily persuaded to believe lies on the screen. Answer: No Part of the passage: Screens provoke action instead of persuasion. Propaganda is less effective, and false information is hard to 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. Explanation: 1st and the 2nd sentence contradict the given statement. 138

IELTS ZONE 30 - Day Reading Challenge Questions 37 – 40 Q 37. The film Minority Report illustrates Answer: D how people behave physically when they read screens. Part of the passage: 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. Q 38. Our behaviour when we watch a film shows Answer: F how rapidly opinions can be communicated. Part of the passage: Screen reading, 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; Q 39. Wikipedia’s success relies on Answer: A the accuracy of its information. Part of the passage: 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. Q 40. Webkinz is an example of Answer: E the screen’s ability to make an object seem real. Part of the passage: 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 vir- tual world. 139

Day 4 Answer Keys DAY 4 READING PASSAGE 1IELTS ZONE Questions 1 and 8 Highlighted in red = Question 1 Highlighted in blue = Question 8 Part of the passage [Par 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 Cen- tral 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. Main idea in paragraph A: Horses have been around since prehistoric times. Possible headings: viii An ancient species x What the earliest horses looked like Comment: Any other heading does not look even close, but if you look attentively, only one of these two possible headings match the paragraph. Does it (the 1st para- graph) mention how the earliest horses looked (their appearance)? No, it generally mentions that horses have lived on Earth for so many years since prehistoric (ancient) times. So the correct answer is: Q 1. Section A: viii An ancient species Comment: After reading the 1st paragraph, can we answer any other question from a different set? Q 8. The last of the wild horses lived around 10,000 years ago. Meaning: Did wild horses die out completely (last) around 10,000 years ago? Answer: No. Therefore, False Explanation: Wild horses in America died out around that time; in Western Europe, their +97 130 68 22 @ieltszone_uz

IELTS ZONE 30 - Day Reading Challenge numbers dwindled (declined), but in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, they continued to live. Questions 2 and 9 Highlighted in red = Question 2 Highlighted in blue = Question 9 Part of the passage [Par 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. Main idea in paragraph B: Use of horses influenced how we travel, trade, play, work and fight. Possible headings: vi A wide range of uses for domestic horses v What different breeds do best iv Influencing the outcome of conflicts Comment: For paragraph B, it is easier to decide. Let’s eliminate two unsuitable headings first: Comment: Even though it says “we have created 200 breeds”, the paragraph does not focus on what each breed does best. It just mentions what domesticated horses were used for generally (travel, trade, play etc) v What different breeds do best Comment: Another heading some students might choose is iv, which is about war. The text mentions that horses were used in battlefields and other places, but does not go in depth about the outcome (result) of these wars. iv Influencing the outcome of conflicts Comment: The whole paragraph discusses a wide range of uses for domestic horses: being a source of food at first, and later being used for horseback riding or pull- 141

IELTS ZONEDay 4 Answer Keys ing chariots. The last sentence summarizes this by again listing different aspects of human lives (work, play, trade etc) being shaped (influenced) by domesticated horses: Q 2. Section B: vi A wide range of uses for domestic horses Comment: Is there any other question we can answer in paragraph B? Q 9. Initially people probably used domesticated horses to supplement their diet. Meaning: Is it true that at first people may have used domesticated horses for food? Answer: Yes. Therefore, True Explanation: According to the text, the first domesticated horses were probably kept as a source of food, rather than other purposes (see the highlighted part). Questions 3 and 10 Highlighted in red = Question 3 Highlighted in blue = Question 10 Part of the passage [Par 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 environ- ment 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 nat- ural 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 natu- rally social. Their wild ancestors lived in groups, with individuals responding to each oth- er – 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. Main idea in paragraph C: Domesticated horses develop qualities that humans prefer. Possible headings: ii Developing desirable characteristics iii Playing a less essential role 142

IELTS ZONE 30 - Day Reading Challenge Comment: When searching for the most suitable heading, make sure the heading you choose reflects the main idea. For paragraph B, some students may be trapped and think domesticated horses play a less essential role than wild horses. It is true that this paragraph compares these two different types, but does not claim one is more essential than the other. iii      Playing a less essential role Comment: The main idea of the paragraph is expressed at the beginning and it is about the different traits (qualities) that domesticated horses have. And these traits are developed because that is what humans desire in their domesticated horses: Q 3. Section C: ii Developing desirable characteristics Comment: There is another question we can answer using the information in this paragraph: Q 10. Methods of artificial selection have changed over the centuries. Meaning: Have people changed their methods of artificial selection over the centuries? Answer: We don’t know. Therefore, Not Given Explanation: This paragraph applies the law of ‘natural selection’ to ‘artificial selection’ where humans, not the nature, select the desirable traits. However, it does not mention any methods being changed over time. Question 4 Part of the passage [Par 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. Main idea in paragraph D: Use of horses (with or without, strength and strategy) determined who won the battle in wars for over 3000 years. Possible headings: iv Influencing the outcome of conflicts 143

IELTS ZONEDay 4 Answer Keys Comment: There is no any other heading in the list that could confuse students. The whole paragraph centers around the idea of horses helping in wars: Q 4. Section D: iv Influencing the outcome of conflicts Questions 5 and 11 Highlighted in red = Question 5 Highlighted in blue = Question 11 Part of the passage [Par 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. Main idea in paragraph E: Horses have been used in agriculture for over a thousand years. Comment: It is a short paragraph, and the main idea is expressed at the end with help of the signal word ‘so’. Previous sentences support this main idea. Again because the paragraph is short, the most suitable heading is easy to spot: Q 5. Section E: vii Horses in agriculture Comment: There is a sentence-completion question from this paragraph: Q 11. Having greater weight at the ……………… helps horses to pull heavy items. Part of the passage [Par E]: Their muscular bodies are heavier in the front than in the back, making them well balanced to pull heavy loads. Comment: Having greater weight = their muscular bodies are heavier Comment: Helps horses to pull heavy items = making them well balanced to pull heavy loads Answer: front Questions 6, 12 and 13 Highlighted in red = Question 6 Highlighted in blue = Questions 12 and 13 Part of the passage [Par F]: For most of human history, there was no faster way 144

IELTS ZONE 30 - Day Reading Challenge 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. Main idea in paragraph F: Horses were the best way to travel on land for most of the human history. Possible headings: ix An ideal form of transport i The fastest breeds of horses Comment: Even though paragraph F talks about speed, it only mentions it as one of the advantages of travelling on horses. And it definitely does NOT compare different breeds of horses based on speed. i    The fastest breeds of horses Comment: The main idea of the paragraph is how horses were ideal form of transport and it is supported by giving a number of reasons: They are fast (speed), they can go far (endurance), and most importantly, they can go without stopping while eating (grazing): Q 6. Section F: ix An ideal form of transport Comment: We have two more sentence-completion questions taken out of this paragraph: Q 12. As well as being quicker, horses have greater ………….… than most other large animals. Part of the passage [Par F]: 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. Comment: As well as being quicker = their speed and Comment: They have two advantages over other large animals: speed and endurance. Since speed is already given in the question, the noun we are looking +97 130 68 22 @ieltszone_uz

IELTS ZONEDay 4 Answer Keys for is endurance. Answer: endurance Q 13. Because of the way their ……………… works, horses can keep moving all day long. Part of the passage [Par F]: a horse’s digestive system allows it to graze and walk the whole day without stopping. Answer: digestive system Question 7 Part of the passage [Par 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. Comment: This is one of the paragraphs where there is no clear topic sentence. Students need to read the whole paragraph to understand the main idea, which is the fact that horses performed more important chores in the past (carried soldiers, pulled plows etc). So the only possible heading you can choose is clear: Q 7. Section G: iii Playing a less essential role 146

30 - Day Reading Challenge DAY 5 READING PASSAGE 2IELTS ZONE Questions 14 – 19 Q 14. In rebranding, Shopper’s Stop’s objective was to attract. Part of the passage: 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 under- took 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. Answer: H customers with more money to spend Explanation: to go upmarket = to offer goods and products intended for people who are quite rich; affluent = rich; According to the first paragraph, the goal behind rebranding was to attract even richer customers. Q 15. The mid - 2000s saw an alteration in Part of the passage: 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 Answer: D the items that consumers tended to buy Explanation: alteration = change; customer preferences= the things customers tend to buy; In the question stem the word ‘saw’ means ‘experienced’; we can also use this structure in Task 1 writing. Q 16. In the mid-2000s young people were increasingly interested in buying. Part of the passage: Changing consumer behaviour and the growing demand from youngsters for trendy products made Shopper’s Stop consider the option of rebranding itself. Answer: I fashionable goods 147

IELTS ZONEDay 5 Answer Keys Explanation: growing demand = increasingly interested; trendy products = fashionable items; Q 17. Workshops showed that Shopper’s Stop needed to modify. Part of the passage: It conducted a series of workshops called ‘Trial Room’, to under- stand 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. Answer: A its brand image Explanation: show = reveal; need to modify = what was needed was a change; Q 18. The new advertising campaign was intended to give the Shopper’s Stop brand. Part of the passage: According to Ravi Deshpande, Chief Creative Officer with Contract Advertising, the agency which designed the new campaign for Shopper’s Stop, ‘The re- tailer 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.’ Answer: F a younger image Explanation: to cut the age of the brand = to make the brand younger (as it was already old); A new brand image was intended to attract more young people. Q 19. The new tagline was intended to encourage consumers to buy. Part of the passage: 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. Answer: E products that they hadn’t tried before Explanation: Do not be discouraged if you see unfamiliar words. Do I need to know the word ‘tagline’ to answer the question? Of course, not! The answer is very easy to spot: try out something different = products that they hadn’t tried before; 148

IELTS ZONE 30 - Day Reading Challenge Questions 20 – 22 Q 20. When Shopper’s Stop first opened it sold products for all the family. Meaning: When Shopper’s Stop first opened, did it sell products for all the family? Answer: No, THEREFORE, False Part of the passage: 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. Explanation: They first specialized in men’s ready-to-wear clothing before becoming a complete family lifestyle store. Q 21. Shopper’s Stop and Globus targeted similar sections of the market. Meaning: Did these two stores target similar sections of the market (similar custom- ers)? Answer: Yes, THEREFORE, True Part of the passage: It faced competition from several retailers such as Globus, Westside and Lifestyle, who were catering to the same segment of customers. Explanation: cater to = serve; segment of customers = sections of the market; Q 22. The advertising campaign was used to launch new products. Meaning: Was it used to launch (start) new products? Answer: We don’t know, THEREFORE, Not Given Part of the passage: 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. Explanation: It is true that customers are encouraged to try out something new, but it does not talk about any specific new product launch. Questions 23 – 24 Answer: B changing the lighting in certain areas of its stores. 149