TELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep READING PASSAGE 1 Test date: 5.1.2013- 27.03.2010 Questions 1-7 Reading Passage I has seven paragraphs, A-G Choose the most suitable heading for paragraphs A-G from the list of heading below. Write appropriate number (i-x) in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet. List of Headings General points of agreements and disagreements of researchers How much children really know about food Need to take action iv Advertising effects of the “Big Four” ¥ Connection of advertising and children’s weight problems vi evidence that advertising affects what children buy to eat vii How parents influence children’s eating habits viii Advertising’s focus on unhealthy options ix Children often buy what they want Xx Underestimating the effects advertising has on children . Paragraph A . Paragraph B . Paragraph C . Paragraph D . Paragraph E . Paragraph F . Paragraph G 1 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. facebook.com/TELTSstephyst REVIEW OF RESEARCH ON THE EFFECTS OF FOOD PROMOTION TO CHILDREN This review was commissioned by the Food Standards Agency to examine the current research evidence on: * The extent and nature of food promotion to children * The effect, if any, that this promotion has on their food knowledge, preferences and behavior. A. Children’s food promotion is dominated by television advertising, and the great majority of this promotes the so-called ‘Big Four’ of pre-sugared breakfast cereals, soft-drinks, confectionary and savory snacks. In the last ten years advertising for fast food outlets has rapidly increased. There is some evidence that the dominance of television has recently begun to wane. The importance of strong, global branding reinforces a need for multi-faceted communications combining television with merchandising ‘tie-ins’ and point of sale activity. The advertised diet contrasts sharply with that recommended by public health advisors, and themes of fun and fantasy or taste, rather than health and nutrition, are used to promote it to children. Meanwhile, the recommended diet gets little promotional support. B. There is plenty of evidence that children notice and enjoy food promotion. However, establishing whether this actually influences them is a complex problem. The review tackled it by looking at studies that had examined possible effects on what children know about food, their food preferences, their actual food behavior (both buying and eating), and their health outcomes (eg. Obesity or cholesterol levels). The majority of studies examined food advertising, but a few examined other forms of food promotion. In terms of nutritional knowledge, food advertising seems to have little influence on children’s general perception of what constitutes a healthy diet, but, in certain contexts, it does have an effect on more specific types of nutritional knowledge. For example, seeing soft drink and cereal adverts reduced primary aged children’s ability to determine correctly whether or not certain products contained real fruit. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep C. The review also found evidence that food promotion influences children’s food preferences and their purchase behavior, A study of primary school children, for instance, found that exposure to advertising influence which foods they claimed to like; and another showed that labeling and signage on a vending machine had an effect on what was bought by secondary school pupils. A number of studies have also known that food advertising can influence what children eat. One, for example, showed that advertising influenced a primary class’s choice of daily snack at playtime. The next step, of trying to establish whether or not a link exists between food promotion and diet or obesity, is extremely difficult as it requires research to be done in real world settings. A number of studies have attempted this by using amount of television viewing as a proxy for exposure to television advertising. They have established a clear link between television viewing and diet, obesity, and cholesterol levels. It is impossible to day, however, whether this effect is caused by the advertising, the sedentary nature of television viewing or snacking that might take place whilst viewing. One study resolved this problem by taking a detailed diary of children’s viewing habits. This showed that the more food adverts they saw, the more snacks and calories they consumed. Thus the literature does suggest food promotion in influencing children’s diet in a number of ways. This does not amount to proof; as noted above with this kind of research, incontrovertible proof simply isn’t attainable. Nor do all studies point to this conclusion; several have not found an effect. In addition, very few studies have attempted to measure how strong these effects are relative to other factors influencing children’s food choice. Nonetheless, many studies have found clear effects and they have used sophisticated methodologies that make it possible to determine that i) these effects are not just due to chance; ii) they are independent of other factors that may influence diet, such as parents’ eating habits or attitudes; and iii) they occur at a brand and category level. F. Furthermore, two factors suggest that these finding actually down-play the effect that food promotion has on children. First, the literature focuses principally on television advertising; the cumulative effect of this combined with other forms of promotion and marketing is likely to be S = LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep significantly greater. Second, the studies have looked at direct effects on individual children, and understate indirect influences. For example, promotion for fast food outlets may not only influence the child, but also encourage parents to take them for meals and reinforce the idea that this is a normal and desirable behavior. G. This does not amount to proof of an effect, but in our view does provide sufficient evidence to conclude that an effect exists. The debate should now shift to what action is needed, and specifically to how the power of commercial marketing can be used to bring about improvements in young people’s eating. Questions 8-13 Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 1? On your answer sheet please write YES if the statement agree with the writer NO if the statement contradicts with the writer NOTGIVEN _ jf it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this 8 There is little difference between the number of healthy food advertisements and the number of unhealthy food advertisements. 9. TV advertising has successfully taught children nutritional knowledge about vitamins and others. 10. It is hard to decide which aspect of TV viewing has caused weight problems of children. 11. The preference of food for children is affected by their age and gender 12, Wealthy parents tend to buy more “sensible food” for their children, 13. There is a lack of investigation on food promotion methods other than TV advertising. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN viii ii vi v x iii . NO 9. NO 10. YES 11. NOT GIVEN 12. NOT GIVEN 13. YES 1. 2 3. 4, 5. i 6. 7. 8. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep READING PASSAGE 2 Test date: 23.03.2013- 5.03.2009 THE BRIDGE THAT SWAYED When the London Millennium footbridge was opened in June 2000, it swayed alarmingly. This generated huge public interest and the bridge became as London’s “would bridge.” The Millennium Bridge is the first new bridge across the river Thames in London since Tower Bridge opened in 1894, and it is the first ever designed for pedestrians only. The bridge links the City of London near St Paul’s Cathedral with the Tate Modern art gallery on Bankside. The bridge opened initially on Saturday 10" June 2000. For the opening ceremony, a crowd of over 1,000 people had assembled on the south half of the bridge with a band in front. When they started to walk across with the band playing, there was immediately an unexpectedly pronounced lateral movement of the bridge deck, “It was a fine day and the bridge was on the route of a major charity walk,” one of the pedestrians recounted what he saw that day. “At first, it was still. Then it began to sway sideways, just slightly, Then, almost from one moment to the next, when large groups of people were crossing the wobble intensified. Everyone had to stop walking to retain balance and sometimes to hold onto the hand rails for support.” Immediately it was decided to limit the number of people on the bridge, and the bridge was dubbed the ‘wobbly’ bridge by the media who declared it another high-profile British Millennium Project failure. In order to fully investigate and resolve the issue the decision was taken to close the bridge on 12" June 2000. Arup, the leading member of the committee in charge of the construction of the bridge, decided to tackle the issue head on. They immediately undertook a fast- track rescarch project to seek the cause and the cure. The embarrassed engineers found the videotape that day which showed the center span swaying about 3 inched sideways every second and the south span 2 inches every 1.25 seconds. Because there was a significant wind blowing on the opening days (force 3-4) and the bridge had been decorated with large flags, the engincers first thought that winds LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep might be exerting excessive force on the many large flags and banners, but it was rapidly concluded that wind buffeting had not contributed significantly to vibration of the bridge. But after measurements were made in university laboratories of the effects of people walking on swaying platforms and after large-scale experiments with crowds of pedestrians were conducted on the bridge itself, a new understanding and a new theory were developed. The unexpected motion was the result of a natural human reaction to small lateral movements. It is well known that a suspension bridge has tendency to sway when troops march over it in lockstep, which is why troops are required to break step when crossing such a bridge. “If we walk on a swaying surface we tend to compensate and stabilize ourselves by spreading our legs further apart-but this increases the lateral push”, Pat Dallard, the engineer at Arup, says that you change the way you walk to match what the bridge is dosing. It is an unconscious tendency for pedestrians to match their footsteps to the sway, thereby exacerbating it even more. “It’s rather like walking on the rolling ship deck-you move one way and then the other to compensate for the roll.” The way people walk doesn’t have to match exactly the natural frequency of the bridge as in resonance-the interaction is more subtle. As the bridge moves, people adjust the way they walk in their own manner. The problem is that when there are enough people on the bridge the total sideways push can overcome the bridge’s ability to absorb it. The movement become excessive and continues to increase until people begin to have difficulty in walking-they may even have to hold on to the rails. Professor Fujino Yozo of Tokyo University, who studied the earth-resistant Toda Bridge in Japan, believes the horizontal forces caused by walking, running or jumping could also in turn cause excessive dynamic vibration in the lateral direction in the bridge. He explains that as the structure began moving, pedestrians adjusted their gait to the same lateral rhythm as the bridge; the adjusted footsteps magnified the motion-just like when four people all stand up in small boat at the same time. As more pedestrians locked into the same rhythm, the increasing oscillation led to the dramatic swaying captured on film until people stopped walking altogether, because they could not even keep upright. In order to design a method of reducing the movements, an immediate research program was launched by the bridge’s engineering designer Arup. It was decided that the force exerted by the pedestrians had to be quantified and related to LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep the motion of the bridge. Although there are some descriptions of this phenomenon in existing literature, none of these actual quantifies the force. So there was no quantitative analytical way to design the bridge against this effect. The efforts to solve the problem quickly got supported by a number of universities and research organizations. The tests at the University of Southampton involved a person walking on the spot on a small shake table. The tests at Imperial College involved person walking along a specially built, 7.2m-long platform, which could be driven laterally at different frequencies and amplitudes. These tests have their own limitations. While the Imperial College test platform was too short that only seven or eight steps could be measured at one time, the “walking on the spot” test did not accurately replicate forward walking, although many footsteps could be observed using this method. Neither test could investigate any influence of other people in a crowd on the behavior of the individual tested. The results of the laboratory tests provided information which enabled the initial design of a retrofit to be progressed. However, unless the usage of the bridge was to be greatly restricted, only two generic options to improve its performance were considered feasible. The first was increase the stiffness of the bridge to move all its lateral natural frequencies out of the range that could be excited by the lateral football forces, and the second was to increase the damping of the bridge to reduce the resonant response. Questions 14-17 Write the correct letters in boxes 14-17 on your answer sheet. Which FOUR of the following could be seen on the day when the bridge opened to the public? the bridge moved vertically the bridge swayed from side to side the bridge swayed violently throughout the opening ceremony it was hard to keep balance on the bridge pedestrians walked in synchronized steps Cc D E F LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN pedestrians lengthened their footsteps 3TELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep G — amusic and marched across the bridge H the swaying rhythm varied to the portions of the bridge I flags and banners kept still in the bridge Questions 18-23 Complete the summary below Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer Write your answers in boxes 18-23 on your answer sheet To understand why the Millennium Bridge swayed, engineers of Arup studied the videotape taken on the day of the opening ceremony. In the beginning, they thought the forces of 18 might have caused the movement because there were many and banners on the bridge that day. But quickly new understandings arose after series of tests were conducted on how people walk on 19 floors. The tests showed people would place their legs 20 to keep balance when the floor is shaking. Pat Dallard even believes pedestrians may unknowingly adjust their 21 to match the sway of the bridge. Professor Fujio Yozo’s study found that the vibration of a bridge could be caused by the 22 of people walking, running and jumping on it because the lateral rhythm of the sway could make pedestrians adjust their walk and reach the same step until it is impossible to stand 23 LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep Question 24-26 Complete the table below Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer Write your answers in boxes 24-26 on your answer sheet Test conducted by Problems of the test Not enough data collection 24. Not long enough 25. enous 06 Not like the real walking experience LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24, 25. 26. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN TELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN mmo w wind/winds swaying further apart footsteps horizontal forces upright Arup Imperial College University of SouthamptonTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep READING PASSAGE 3 Test date: 30.04.2011- 15.04.2011 Internal Market: Selling the Brand Inside When you think of marketing, you more than likely think of marketing to your customers: how can you persuade more people to buy what you sell? But another “market” is just as important: your employees, the very people who can make the brand come alive for your customers. Yet in our work helping executives develop and carry out branding campaigns, my colleagues and I have found that companies very often ignore this critical constituency. Why is internal marketing so important? First, because it’s the best way to help employees make a powerful emotional connection to the products and services you sell. Without that connection, employees are likely to undermine the expectations set by your advertising. In some cases, this is because they simply don’t understand what you have promised the public, so they end up working at cross-purposes. In other cases, it may be they don’t actually believe in the brand and feel disengaged or worse, hostile toward the company. We've found that when people care about and believe in the brand, theyre motivated to work harder and their loyalty to the company increases. Employees are united and inspired by a common sense of purpose and identity. Unfortunately, in most companies, internal marketing is done poorly, if at all. While executives recognize the need to keep people informed about the company’s strategy and direction, few understand the need to convince employees of the brand’s power-they take it as a given. Employees need to hear the same message that you send out to the marketplace. At most companies, however, internal and external communications are often mismatched. This can be very confusing, and it threatens employees’ perceptions of the company’s integrity: They are told one thing by management but observe that a different message is being sent to the public. One health insurance company, for instance, advertised that the welfare of patients was the company’s number one priority, while employees were told that their main goal was to increase the value of their stock options through cost reductions. And one major financial services institution told customers that it was making a major shift LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep in focus from being a financial retailer to a financial adviser, but, a year later, research showed that the customer experience with the company had not changed. It turned out that company leader had not made an effort to sell the change internally, so employees were still churning out transactions and hadn't changed their behavior to match their new adviser role. Enabling employees to deliver on customer expectations is important, of course, but it’s not the only reason a company needs to match internal and external messages. Another reason is to help push the company to achieve goals that might otherwise be out of reach. In 1997, when IBM launched its e-business campaign (which is widely credited for turning around the company’s image), it chose to ignore research that suggested consumers were unprepared to embrace IBM as a leader in e-business. Although to the outside world this looked like an external marketing effort, IBM was also using the campaign to align employees around the idea of the Internet as the future of technology. The internal campaign changed the way employees thought about everything they did, from how they named products to how they organized staff to how they approached selling. The campaign was successful largely because it gave employees a sense of direction and purpose, which in turn restored their confidence in IBM’s ability to predict the future and lead the technology industry. Today, research shows that people are four times more likely to associate the term “e-business” with IBM than with its nearest competitor. Perhaps even more important, by taking employees into account, a company can avoid creating a message that doesn’t resonate with staff or, worse, on that builds resentment. In 1996, United Airlines shelved its “Come Fly the Friendly Skies” slogan when presented with a survey that revealed the depth of customer resentment toward the airline industry. In an effort to own up to the industry’s shortcomings, United launched a new campaign, “Rising,” is which it sought to differentiate itself by acknowledging poor service and promising incremental improvements such as better meals. While this was a logical premise for the campaign given the tenor of the times, a campaign focusing on customers’ distaste for flying was deeply discouraging to the staff. Employee resentment ultimately made it impossible for United to deliver the improvements it was promising, which in tum undermined the “Rising” pledge. Three years later, United decided employee opposition was undermining its success and pulled the campaign. It has LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep since moved to a more inclusive brand message with the line “United”, which both audiences can embrace. Here, a fundamental principle of advertising —find and address a customer concern —failed United because it did not consider the internal market. When it comes to execution, the most common and effective way to link internal and external marketing campaign is to create external advertising that targets both audiences. IBM used this tactic very effectively when it launched its e- business campaign. It took out an eight-page ad in the Wall Street Journal declaring its new vision, a message directed at both customers and internal stakeholders. This is an expensive way to capture attention, but if used sparingly, it is the most powerful form of communication; in fact, you need do it only once for everyone in the company to read it, There’s a symbolic advantage as well. Such a tactic signals that the company is taking its pledge very seriously; it also signals transparency —the same message going out to both audiences. Advertising isn’t the only way to link internal and external marketing. At Nike, a number of senior executives now hold the additional title of “Corporate Storyteller.” They deliberately avoid stories of financial successes and concentrate on parables of “just doing it,” reflecting and reinforcing the company’s ad campaigns. One tale, for example, recalls how legendary coach and Nike cofounder Bill Bowerman, in an effort to build a better shoe for his team, poured rubber into the family waffle iron, giving birth to the prototype of Nike’s famous Waffle Sole. By talking about such inventive moves, the company hopes to keep the spirit of innovation that characterizes its ad campaigns alive and well within the company. But while their messages must be aligned, companies must also keep external promises a little ahead of internal realities. Such promises provide incentives for employces and give them something to live up to. In the 1980s, Ford turned “Quality Is Job 1” from and internal rallying cry into a consumer slogan in response to the threat from cheaper, more reliable Japanese cars. It did so before the claim was fully justified, but by placing it in the public arena, it gave employees an incentive to match the Japanese. If the promise is pushed too far ahead, however, it loses credibility. When a beleaguered British Rail launched a campaign announcing service improvements under the banner “We've Getting There,” it did so prematurely. By drawing attention to the gap between the promise LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep and the reality, it prompted destructive press coverage. This, in turn, demoralized staff, who had been legitimately proud of the service advanced they had made. Questions 27-32 Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-E below Write the correct letter, A-E in boxes 27-32 on your answer sheet NB You can use any letter more than once 27. Ahealth company 28. A financial institution 29, A computer company 30. An airline 31. A sport shoe company 32. Arailway company A alienated its employees by its apologetic branding campaign B__ attracted negative publicity through its advertising campaign c produced conflicting image between its employees and the general D___ successfully used an advertising campaign to inspire employees E draws on the legends of the company spirit Questions 18-23 Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3? On your answer sheet please write YES if the statement agree with the writer NO if the statement contradicts with the writer NOTGIVEN _ if there is no information about this in the passage. 33. A. strong conviction in the brand can contributed to higher job performance 34, It is common for companies to overlook the necessity for internal communication LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep 35. Consumers were ready to view IBM as a leader in e-business before the advertising campaign. 36. United Airlines’ failure in its branding campaign was due to the bad advice of an advertisement agency. 37. United Airlines eventually abolished its campaign to boost image as the result of a market research. 38. It is an expensive mistake for IBM to launch its new e-business campaign. 39, Nike employees claimed that they were inspired by their company tales. 40. A slight difference between internal and external promises can create a sense of purpose. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep 27. 28. 29, 30. 31. >gaa LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep READING PASSAGE 4 Test date: 14.06.2008 Artist Fingerprints A. Works of art often bear the fingerprints of the artist who created them. Such crucial evidence usually goes unnoticed even by connoisseurs, art experts and conservators. If present, such evidence could be valuable in clarifying questions about authorship and dating. B. The use of the term forensic usually contains elements like crime, legal procedure or academic rhetoric. Our objective, however, is not to see who committed a crime but rather who committed the work of art in question and to put forward evidence sound enough to stand up to professional scrutiny. The value of such evidence is extremely high as the probability for the existence of two identical finger impressions from different individuals is nil and no such occurrence has ever been noticed in any part of the world at any time. The science of fingerprint identification is based on that accepted fact. C. The unique character of ridges on our hands has been recognized for thousands of years. The study of ancient pottery for example reveals the utilization of fingerprint impressions in the clay as a maker’s mark. In prehistoric times, we find examples of hand prints in cave painting. Only as recently as 1858 did Sir William Herschel establish its use for identification. In 1888, Sir Francis Galton undertook to refine and formulate Herschel’s observations. Identification by fingerprint was first adopted in England in 1905 and received general acceptance worldwide in 1908, D. The combination of a number of characteristics in a given finger impression is specific to a particular print. The placing of implicit reliance on fingerprint evidence by our courts of law has always been on the assumption (now accepted as a fact) that no two fingers can have identical ridge characteristics. Galton’s mathematical conclusions predicted the possible existence of some 64 billion different fingerprint patterns. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep E, Artists in the area of the visual arts use their hands for creation, Their tools, such as brushes often isolate them from the surface they are working on. Inaccurate deposits of paints are often corrected by modeling with the fingertip. Some artists used the fingertip to soften the marks left by the brush by gently tapping or stroking the still wet surface. In some instances, the fingertip was used for literally “stamping” the fine network of ridges onto the painting. F. The eventual authentication of a painting by J.MW. Turner entitled Landscape with Rainbow in 1993 is a good illustration of the process, The painting was discovered in the carly 1980s. Fingerprint evidence was discovered on the painting during restoration, appropriately documented and re-examined by a veteran expert. A match was found between the fingerprint on Landscape with Rainbow and one photographed on another painting by the same artist that hangs in the Tate Gallery, London. The evidence was duly disregarded by the puzzled scholars and art experts. But, the fingerprint on Landscape with Rainbow and a fingerprint from Tumer’s Chichester Canal clearly matched. In both instance the fingertip was used to model still wet paint. Turer’s Chichester Canal picture has an unquestionable provenance all the way back to artist. In addition, it is well known that Turner always worked alone and had no assistants. This reduces the chances of accidental contribution substantially. Some of the various experts who formerly rejected the attribution of the painting to Turner recanted under heavy media coverage. The painting was finally sold at auction at Phillips in London in 1995. G.In 1998, three envelopes containing old correspondence had been purchased in an antique shop. One of the envelopes postmarked April 2, 1915 was found to contain a drawing folded in half. The drawing depicts a woman's head. It is executed in red chalk with an inscription written in reverse with brown ink. The design is faded and worm. Some spots suggest foxing and subsequent discoloration. The paper is yellowed and contaminated. H. The newly discovered design bears great similarity to that of the Head of St. Anne by Leonardo da Vinci, in the Windsor Collection since 1629. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep The medium is different, red chalk being used instead of black. The scale of the two images is different so offsetting (copying by contact transference) is not a satisfactory explanation for the new drawing. Differences also exist in the design itself, principally in the folds of the veil, in the presence of an additional strand of braid and in the angle of the head. The figure is softer, which may be due to fading, wear and contamination. In addition, the use of a damp brush is indicated in microscopic examination and is likely responsible in part for the softness of the image. When the paper was first examined, several fingerprints have been noticed in the verso. One of them was found clear and containing many ridges suitable for comparison, however, no analysis was done at the time due to the lack of reference material. Many of Leonardo’s works are not easily accessible and fingerprint data either does not exist or is not published. I. By chance, on March 30, 1999, several clear and useable fingerprints were found on an unusually good detail photo in a publication on Leonardo. The photograph of Leonardo’s St. Jerome, in the Vatican Museum, revealed no less than 16 partial fingertip marks. The importance of this is that the fingerprints are left in the still wet paint and without doubt the use of the fingertip served to model paint. Since the authorship of the painting of St. Jerome is unquestioned by scholarship and has always been ascribed to Leonardo, the conclusion that these fingerprints are his would be hard argue against. J. The fingerprints on St. Jerome the illustration were scanned and enlarged so comparisons could be made with the fingerprint in the newly discovered drawing. One of them proved to match. The result of the analyses was presented on March 31, 1999 to fingerprint examiner Staff Sergeant André Turcotte for an independent assessment. He agreed with the findings and confirmed the conclusion. The matching fingerprint is powerful circumstantial evidence. It dates the drawing to Leonardo’s lifetime and it proved that Leonardo had to have physically handled the paper. Questions 29-35 LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep Complete each sentence with the correct ending A-J, below. Write the appropriate letters in boxes 29-35 on your answer sheet. 29.The fingerprint in ancient pottery 30.The science of fingerprint identification 31. The authentication of a painting without a signature 32.Landscape with Rainbow 33. Visual artists 34.The drawing depicting a woman’s head 35.Leonardo’s fingerprint data used fingers to remove unwanted paint left by brush revealed the utilization of clay was based on Galton’s mathematical assumption was left to identify the person who made it A B c D E was in poor condition F was sold at a high price after its author had been identified G__ was widely accepted because of a reliable system available H_ was preserved at the Windsor Collection. I could be done by comparing with fingerprints left from other sources J could be used to find out who committed a crime K__ was obtained from the painting of St. Jerome Question 35-40 Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3? On your answer sheet please write TRUE if the statement is true FALSE if the statement is false NOTGIVEN _ ifthe information is not given in the passage. 4 LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep 35.It is impossible to find two identical finger impressions from different individuals. 36.Both Landscape with Rainbow and Chichester Canal are attributed to ‘Turner. 37. The drawing in red chalk could be the work of Leonardo da Vinci 38.Head of St. Ann and the drawing contained in the envelope depict the same woman. 39.Many of Leonardo’s works are not accessible largely because fingerprint data has not been published. 40.Leonardo did not use his fingertips to mold paint when painting Head of St. Ann. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep KEY 29.D 30.G 31.1 32.F 33.A 34.E 35.TRUE 36.TRUE 37.TRUE 38.NOT GIVEN 39.FALSE 40.NOT GIVEN LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep READING PASSAGE 5 Test date: 05.04.2008 Pearls Questions 1-5 Choose the most suitable heading for paragraphs A-E from the list of heading below. Write appropriate number (i-x) in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet. NB There are more headings than paragraphs, so you will not use them all. List of Headings i The importance of pearls in ancient time ii The risk of pearl farming The mussels’ life circle iv Different types of pearls ¥ How pearls from naturally vi A cultured pearl is more beautiful and durable vii Pearls represented social class Freshwater pearls are more valuable ix The difference between natural and cultured pearls x What determine the value of the pearl . Paragraph A . Paragraph B . Paragraph C . Paragraph D . Paragraph E wees LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep ‘A. Throughout history, pearls have held a unique presence within the wealthy and powerful. For instance, the pearl was the favored gem of the wealthy during the Roman Empire. This gift from the sea had been brought back from the orient by the Roman conquests. Roman women wore pearls to bed so they could be reminded of their wealth immediately upon waking up. Before jewelers learned to cut gems, the pearl was of greater value than the diamond. In the Orient and Persia Empire, pearls were ground into powders to cure anything from heart disease to epilepsy, with possible aphrodisiac uses as well. Pearls were once considered an exclusive privilege for royalty. A law in 1612 drawn up by the Duke of Saxony prohibited the wearing of pearls by nobility, professors, doctors or their wives in an effort to further distinguish royal appearance. American Indians also used freshwater pearls from the Mississippi River as decorations and jewelry. B. There are essentially three types of pearls: natural, cultured and imitation. A natural pearl (often called an Oriental pearl) forms when an irritant, such as a piece of sand, works its way into a particular species of oyster, mussel, or clam. As a defense mechanism, the mollusk secretes a fluid to coat the irritant. Layer upon layer of this coating is deposited on the irritant until a lustrous pearl is formed. C. A culture pearl undergoes the same process. The only difference natural pearls and cultured pearls is that the irritant is a surgically implanted bead or piece of shell called Mother of Pearl. Often, these shells are ground oyster shells that are worth significant amounts of money in their own right as irritant-catalysts for quality pearls. The resulting core is, much larger than in a natural pearl. Yet, as long as there are enough layers of nacre (the secreted fluid covering the irritant) to result in a beautiful, gem-quality pearl, the size of the nucleus is of no consequence to beauty or durability. D. Pearls can come from either salt or freshwater sources. Typically, saltwater pearls tend to be higher quality, although there are several types of freshwater pearls that are considered high in quality as well. Freshwater pearls tend to be very irregular in shape, with a puffed rice appearance the most prevalent. Nevertheless, it is each individual pearls merits that determines value more than the source of the pearl. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep E, Regardless of the method used to acquire a pearl, the process usually takes several years. Mussels must reach a mature age, which can take up 10 3 years, and then be implanted or naturally receive an irritant. Once the irritant is in place, it can take up to another 3 years for the pearl to reach its full size. Often, the irritant may be rejected, the pearl will be terrifically misshapen, or the oyster may simply die from disease or countless other complications. By the end of a 5 t0 10 year cycle, only 50% of the oysters will have survived. And of the pearls produced, only approximately 5% are of substantial quality for top jewelry makers. From the outset, a pearl fanner can figure on spending over $100 for every oyster that is farmed, of which many will produce nothing or die. F, Imitation pearls are a different story altogether. In most cases, a glass bead is dipped into a solution made from fish scales. This coating is thin and may eventually wear off. One can usually tell an imitation by biting on it. Fake pearls glide across your teeth, while the layers of nacre on real pearls feel gritty. The Island of Mallorca (in Spain) is known for its imitation pearl industry. G. To an untrained eye, many pearls may look quite similar. There is, to the contrary, an intricate hierarchy to pearls and several factors exist that determine a pearls worth. Luster and size are generally considered the two main factors to look for. Luster for instance, depends on the fineness s of the layers. The deeper the glow, the more perfect the shape and surface, the more valuable they are. Moreover, if you can see a and evennes reflection of your face clearly by gazing into the pearls, that is a high quality luster. The foggier the reflection, the less valuable the pearl. Size in the other hand, has to do with the age of the oyster that created the pearl (the more mature oysters produce larger pearls) and the location in which the pearl was cultured. The south Sea waters of Australia tend to produce the larger pearls; probably because the water along the coast line is supplied with rich nutrients from the ocean floor. Also, the type of mussel common to the area seems to possess a predilection for producing comparatively large pearls. H. Pearls also come in many colors. The most popular colors are whites, creams, and pinks. Silver, black, and gold are also gaining increasing interest. In fact, a deep lustrous black pearl is one of the more rare finds LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep in the pearling industry, usually only being found in the South Sea near Australia. Thus, they can be one of the more costly items. I. Historically, the world’s best pearls came from the Persian Gulf, especially around what is now Bahrain. The pearls of the Persian Gulf were natural created and collected by breath-hold divers. The secret to the special luster of Gulf pearls probably derived from the unique mixture of sweet and salt water around the island. Unfortunately, the natural pearl industry of the Persian Gulf ended abruptly in the early 1930’s with the discovery of large deposits of oil. Those who once dove for pearls sought prosperity in the economic boom ushered in by the oil industry. The water pollution resulting from spilled oil and indiscriminate over-fishing of oysters essentially ruined the once pristine pearl producing waters of the Gulf. Today, pearl diving is practiced only as a hobby. Still, Bahrain remains one of the foremost trading centers for high quality pearls. In fact, cultured pearls are banned from the Bahrain pearl market, in an effort to preserve the location’s heritage. J. Nowadays, pearls predominately come from Japan, Australia, Indonesia, Myanmar, China, India, Philippines, and Tahiti. Japan however, controls roughly 80% of the world pearl market, with Australia and China coming in second and third, respectively LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENQuestions 6-11 Complete the table below Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each TELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep answer. Type of Pearls Production Process Comments Natural pearl Forms when a sand works its | 6 would exude way into oysters, mussels, ora fluid continually to cover clams the irritant. Cultured pearl | Forms from a 7 Mother of Pearl is normally beads or shells worth more the core is much 8 than usual ones. Imitation pearl _| Utilize glass bead dipping into| The coating would 10 a solution made from 9 Questions 12-13 Choose the appropriate letter (A-D) and write them in boxes 12-13 on your answer sheet. It can be identified by 11 12, The following statements describe valuable pearls EXCEPT A deeper glow B clearer reflection C pink color D even surface 13, What was the possible reason why pearls from the Persian Gulf were considered best? A. the water was polluted by spilled oil B the pearls were natural and collected by divers who help their breath C there were no cultured pearls in the Bahrain pearl market D the pearls came from the sugary and brackish water LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENKEY . mollusks . implanted . larger . fish scales 10. wear off 11. biting 12.C 13. D LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN TELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystepTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep READING PASSAGE 6 Test date: 19.01.2008 Saving the Sea Cow ‘A mother embracing her child is an all too familiar sight —but did you know that mother dugongs do the same? Did you know that dugongs are the gentlest of all marine creatures, but their death rate is among the highest and that there are now only around 250 of them left in Thai waters? These are some of the findings of researcher Kanjana Adulyanukosol, known among her fellow marine biologists as the godmother of dugongs for her dedication to be study of this marine species. Before Kanjana started her research in the early 1990s, very little was known about dugongs (Dugong, also called the sea cow, or manatee) in Thailand. “Doing research on dugongs is very difficult and very risky, as you can only spot them from the air”, she said at her office at the Phuket Marine Biological Center, where she heads the Marine Endangered Species Unit. “Unlike dolphins, whales and sharks, which can be seen from a boat, dugongs have no fins and leave no signs of their moving. The only time you see them is when they come up for air. They are noiseless and timid, and are easily frightened”. Dugongs have very good eyesight. In clear water they can notice objects from ten yards away. Hearing in the dugongs is formed for lower frequencies between 3 and 5 kHz. Smell and touch are not as potent as their eyesight, but they both play an important role in the survival of the dugong. The taste buds of the dugong are found on the backs of their tongue. It is thought that the taste buds of the dugong have helped it determine what plants are edible and what plants are poisonous. A majority of the dugong’s day is spent eating plants found around and in the water. They may spend up to ten hours a day eating. The rest of their day is spent sleeping, traveling or playfully investigating things in the water. Large adults like to be independent and feed alone but dugongs are usually gregarious and graze in groups of three or five, Kanjana said, “Cows and their calves are always close together, as if the mother is teaching its young how and where to graze”. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep The death rate of dugongs is high because they feed on sea grass in shallow waters, where they are caught in fishermen’s nets or fish traps. “Dugongs can die of shock” Kanjana said. “When they panic they stop breathing. While feeding they have to come up for air every few minutes, so when they are caught in a net or fish trap they can’t come up for air and die”. In the past, the belief that eating dugong meat could give a person a long life led to them being hunted to near extinction. Bones were powdered and used as medicine for a number of ailments, tusks were fashioned into amulets or stones for risings, and skins were dried and made into walking sticks or slippers. Some villagers even believed that dugong tears could be used as an aphrodisiac, or as a potion that a man could use to win the heart of the woman he loved. These beliefs are no longer prevalent, yet the dugong population remains small. This is because of their low birth rate. Kanjana said’ “Like humans they can live to the ripe old age of 70, but they are not ready to mate until they are over 10. Gestation takes one year, and the mother can only give birth to one calf at a time, and then she will nurse her calf for two years. It takes three to seven years before she is ready to mate again”. A newly born dugong is very slim, about 1.2m long, and weighs between 20 and 35kg, Kanjana said. It soon grows to 3m long with an average weight of 300kg. Only 20 to 30 percent of the body weight comprises meat; the rest is fat. Dugongs eat at least 30 kg of grass, or an average of 10 percent of their body weight, every day, There’s no shortage of the dugong’s favorite sea grass. Dugongs can be found in tropical waters from East Africa to Papua New Guinea, and up to Okinawa and China, but their numbers are small. The only country that has a large dugong population is Australia, which protects this marine species well. Australians look after their marine parks well, and they have zoning that prohibits speedboats from entering certain areas and limits their speed in certain areas. Aborigines are allowed to catch dugongs because hunting and eating them is part of their culture. Still, Australia has a dugong population of over 100,000 because Aborigines are allowed to hunt only a certain number per year and the laws are strictly enforced. People often ask, “Can dugongs be cloned? Or bred by artificial insemination?” Even Japan, which is very advanced technologically, has not been LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep able to breed dugongs that have been raising in an aquarium for 20 years. Taken from the Philippines, the dugongs, a male and female, won’t mate, probably because the food is not plentiful or as rich as in the wild, and the conditions where they are kept are not the same. In short, taking dugongs from the wild and raising them in captivity with the purpose of breeding them cannot be done. The best way to sustain the dugong population is by protecting their natural habitat, especially in places where the population is high. Question 14-20 Do the following statements agree with the clai Passage 2? sof the writer in Reading On your answer sheet please write TRUE if the statement is true FALSE if the statement is false NOTGIVEN _ ifthe information is not given in the passage. 14. Knowledge of Dugong was on-existent before Kanjana started her research. 15, It is not possible for us to see dugongs from a boat. 16. Dugongs’ sense of taste is more developed than their smell and touch. 17. Around three quarters of the dugong’s body weight is composed of fat. 18. Dugong adults usually live and feed alone, away from their calves. 19. When tapped by fishermen, all dugongs die of shock. 20. In the past, dugongs were killed by people in order to cure diseases. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep Questions 21-24 Complete the summary below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer. Limited numbers of dugong live in waters from East Aftica to Papua New Guinea, and up to Okinawa and China. 21 holds the largest dugong population for its good protection for this marine species. 22 are permitted to hunt dugongs because it is their custom. Even countries with advanced technology lack the ability of 23 dugongs in aquariums, with the distinct environment from the wild. Therefore, it is believed that the key to dugong protection is to preserve 24 Questions 25-26 Write the appropriate letter (A-D) in boxes 25-26 on your answer sheet. 25. The following statements illustrate Australian’s success in protecting Dugongs EXCEPT A setting up marine parks B limiting boat speed C enforcing legal restrictions D only seasonal hunting 26. Which of the following should be responsible for the failure of dugongs’ mating in aquariums? A lack of nutrient-rich food B low birth rate C inimitable living environment D human activity LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN1 = 2 2 2 R&8 |. NOT GIVEN 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 2. . Aborigines . breeding . their natural habitat 25, 26. FALSE NOT GIVEN TRUE FALSE FALSE TRUE Australia D Cc LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN KEY TELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystepTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep READING PASSAGE 7 Test date: 12.05.2007-28.02.2009 Transit of Venus ‘A. A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when they plant Venus passes directly between the Sun and Earth, obscuring a small portion of the solar disk, During a transit, Venus can be seen from Earth as a small black disk moving across the face of the Sun. the duration of such transits is usually measured in hours. A transit is similar to a solar eclipse by the Moon, but, although the diameter of Venus is almost 4 times that of the Moon, Venus appears much smaller because it is much farther away from Earth. Before the space age, observations of transits of Venus helped scientists use the parallax method to calculate the distance between the Sun and the Earth. B, Transit of Venus are among the rates of predictable astronomical phenomena and currently occur in a pattern that repeats every 243 years, with pairs of transits eight years apart separated by long gaps of 121.5 years and 105.5 years, Before 2004, the last pair of transits were in December 1874 and December 1882. The first of a pair of transits of Venus in the beginning of the 21° century took place on 8 June 2004 and the next will be on 6 June 2012. After 2012, the next transits of Venus will be in December 2117 and December 2125. C. A transit of Venus can be safely observed by talking the same precautions used when observing the partial phases of a solar eclipse. Staring at the brilliant disk of the Sun with unprotected eye can quickly cause serious and often permanent eye damage. D. Venus, with an orbit inclined by 3.4” relative to the Earth’s usually appears to pass under the Sun in the sky at inferior conjunction. A transit occurs when Venus reaches conjunction with the Sun at or near one of its nodes, the longitude where Venus passes through the Earth’s orbital LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep plane, called the ecliptic. Although the inclination between these two orbital planes is only 3.4”, Venus can be as far as 9,6” from the Sun when viewed from the Earth at inferior conjunction. Since the angular diameter of the Sun is about half a degree, Venus may appear to pass above or below the Sun by more than 18 solar diameters during an ordinary conjunction. E. Ancient Greek, Egyptian, Babylonian, and Chinese observers knew of Venus and recorded the planet’s motions. The early Greeks thought that the evening and morning appearances of Venus represented two different objects, Hesperus -the evening star and Phosphorus -the morning star. Pythagoras is credited with realizing they were same planet. In the 4" century BC, Heraclides Ponticus proposed that both Venus and Mereury orbited the Sun rather than Earth, There is no evidence that any of these cultures knew of the transits, Venus was important to ancient American civilizations in particular for the Maya, who called it Noh Ek, “the Great Star” or Xux Ek, “the Wasp Star”; they embodied Venus in the form of the god Kukulkan. In the Dresden Codex, the Maya charted Venus’ full cycle, but despite their precise knowledge of its course, there is no mention of the transit. F. Aside from its rarity, the original scientific interest in observing a transit of Venus was that it could be used to determine the size of the solar system by employing the parallax method and Kepler’s third law. The technique involved making precise observations of the slight difference in the time of either the start or the end of the transit from widely separated points on the Earth’s surface. The distance between the points on the Earth was then used as a baseline to calculate the distance to Venus and the Sun via triangulation. G. Although by the 17" century astronomers could calculate each planet's relative distance from the Sun in terms of the distance of the Earth from the Sun, an accurate absolute value of this distance had not been determined. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep H. In 1631, Johannes Kepler was the first person to predict a transit of Venus. His methods were not sufficiently accurate to predict that the transit would not be visible in most of Europe, and as a consequence, nobody was able to make arrangements to observe the transit. The first European scientific observation of a transit of Venus was made by Jeremiah Horrocks from his home in Much Hoole, near Preston in England, on 4 December 1639. His friend, William Crabtree, also observed this transit from Salford, near Manchester. Kepler had predicted transits in 1631 and 1761 and a near miss in 1639. Horrocks corrected Kepler’s calculation for the orbit of Venus and released that transits of Venus would occur in pairs & years apart, and so predicted the transit in 1639. Although he was uncertain of the exact time, he calculated that the transit was to begin at approximately 3:00 pm. Horrocks focused the image of the Sun through a simple telescope onto a piece of card, where the image could be safely observed. After observing for most of the day he was lucky to see the transit as clouds obscuring the Sun cleared at about 3:15 pm, just half an hour before sunset, Horrocks;’ observations allowed him to make a well-informed guess as to the size of Venus, as well as to make an estimate of the distance between the Earth and the Sun. He estimated the distance of the Sun from the Earth at 59.4 million miles-about half the correct size of 93 million miles, but a more accurate figure than any suggested up to that time. However, Horrocks’ observations were not published until 1661, well after his death. Question 27-32 Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3? On your answer sheet please write TRUE if the statement is true FALSE if the statement is false NOTGIVEN _ ifthe information is not given in the passage. 27. The volume of Venus is about 64 times larger than the moon. 28. Venus’ next pair of transits in the 21" century will be on June 6, 2012. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep 29, Severe and permanent eye injury can be caused by observing the transit of Venus with the naked eye. 30. The ancient Greeks held misconceptions of Venus 31. Observations of transits of Venus could help scientists to testify Venus’ full cycle which was charted by the Maya 32. Johannes Kepler didn’t accurately predict the transit of Venus as his methods were not refined. Questions 33-36 Reading Passage 3 contains 8 paragraphs A -H. Which paragraphs state the following information? Write the appropriate letters A -H in boxes 33 -36 on your answer sheet. 33. The first successful anticipation of transits of Venus. 34, More correctly estimating the distance between earth and sun, 35. The difference between a transit of Venus and a solar eclipse. 36, It was suggested that Venus and Mercury do not orbit the Earth Questions 37-40 Write the appropriate letter (A-D) in boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet. 37. Why observing transits of Venus is important? A. Ithelps us to determine the size of our solar system. B It provides evidence to support Kepler’s third law the parallax method. C Ithelps scientists to record the time from start to finish of the transit. D Ithelps us to determine the distance between points on the Earth. 38. Which of the following statements about the transit of Venus in 1631 is true? A. Johannes Kepler was the only person who predicted it. B_Nobody was able to observe it in Europe C Nobody was certain of the exact time. D Johannes Kepler had predicted transits in 1631 and 1639 39, Which of the following statements about the transit of Venus in 1639 is true? LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep ‘A The transit began at approximately 3:00 pm. B Horrocks was lucky to see the phenomenon because of clouds obscuring the Sun C Horrocks made a guess as to the size of Sun D His observations were published in 1661 40. The passage focuses on the transit of Venus to show A The influences it played on human well-beings. B The value of understanding our solar system’s formation C The development and significance of astronomy D The unfortunate events some astronomers encountered. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep KEY 27, TRUE 28, FALSE 29, TRUE 30. TRUE NOT GIVEN 32. TRUE » § § * -Y Quwr>mpant LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep READING PASSAGE 8 Test date: 10. 01. 2009 The Origin of Writing Writing was first invented by the Sumerians in ancient Mesopotamia before 3,000 BC. It was also independently invented in Meso-America before 600 BC and probably independently invented in China before 1,300 BC. It may have been independently in Egypt around 3,000 BC although given the geographical proximity between Egypt and Mesopotamia the Egyptians may have learnt writing from the Sumerians. There are three basic types of writing systems. The written signs used by the writing system could represent either a whole word, a syllable or an individual sound, Where the written sign represent a word the system is known as logographic as it uses logograms which are written signs that represent word. The earliest writing systems such as the Sumerian cuneiform. Egyptian hieroglyphics and Mayan glyphs are predominantly logographics as are modern Chinese and Japanese writing systems. Where the written sign represents a syllable the writing system is known as syllabic. Syllabic writing systems were more common in the ancient world than they are today. The Linear A and B writing systems today are alphabetical. These involve the written sign (a letter) representing a single sound (known as a phoneme). The earliest known alphabetical systems were developed by speakers of semetic languages around 1700 BC in the area of modern day Israel and Palestine. All written languages will predominately use one or other of the above systems. They may however partly use the other systems. No written language is purely alphabetic, syllabic or logographic but may use elements from any or all systems. Such fully developed writing only emerged after development from simpler systems. Talley sticks with notches on them to represent a number of sheep or to record a debt have been used in the past. Knotted strings have been used as a form of record keeping particularly in the area around the Pacific rim. They reached their greatest development with the Inca quipus where they were used to record payment of tribute and to record commercial transactions. A specially trained group of quipu makers and readers managed the whole system. The use of pictures LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep for the purpose of communication was used by native Americans and by the Ashanti and Ewe people in Africa. Pictures can show qualities and characteristics which cannot be shown by tally sticks and knot records. They do not however amount to writing as they do not bear a conventional relationship to language. ‘An alternative idea was that a system by which tokens, which represented objects like sheep, were placed in containers and the containers were marked on the outside indicating the number and type of tokens within the container gave rise to writing in Mesopotamia. The marks on the outside of the container were a direct symbolic representation of the tokens inside the container. The marks on the outside of the containers were graphically identical to some of the earliest pictogram used in Sumerian cuneiform. However cuneiform has approximately 1500 signs and the marks on the outside of the containers can only explain the origins of a few of those signs. The first written language was the Sumerian cuneiform. Writing mainly consisted of records of numbers of sheep, goats and cattle and quantities of grain. Eventually clay tablets were used as a writing surface and were marked with a reed stylus to produce the writing. Thousands of such clay tablets have been found in the Sumerian city of Uruk. The earliest Sumerian writing consists of pictures of the objects mentioned such as sheep or cattle. Eventually the pictures became more abstract and were to consist of straight lines that looked like wedges. The earliest cuneiform was an accounting system consisting of pictograms representing commodities such as sheep and a number. The clay tablets found might for example simply state “ten sheep”. Such writing obviously has its limitations and would not be regarded as a complete writing system. A complete writing system only developed with the process of phonetization. This occurs when the symbol ceases to represent an object and begins to represent a spoken sound, which in carly cunciform would be a word. This process was assisted when the symbols which initially looked very like the object they represented gradually became more abstract and less clearly related to an object. However while the symbol became more closely connected to words, it was words dealing with objects, such as sheep, bird or pot. It was still not possible to write more abstract ideas such as father, running speech or foreigner. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep The solution to this problem was known as the rebus principle. Words with the same or similar pronunciation to an abstract word could be used to represent the abstract word. The sign for eye could be used to represent the word “I”, The sign for deer could represent the word “dear”. Which word is referred to by the picture is decided by an additional sign. Pictographs which originally represented a word began to represent the sound of the word. The rebus principle is used to represent abstract words in all word writing systems in Sumer, Egypt, China and in the Aztec and Mayan writing in central America. The rebus principle led cuneiform becoming a form of logo-syllabie writing consisting of both logograms and syllabic writing. The effect of the change from logographic to logo-syllabic writing was substantial. Logographic writing cannot produce normal prose and is restricted to nouns, numbers, names and adjectives. The vast majority of early Sumerian writing consisted of bureaucratic records of products received or products distributed. Only when syllabic writing was introduced into cuneiform did it become possible to write prose such as myths and royal propaganda. The next major development in writing in the old world was the development of the alphabet. The alphabet was developed out of Egyptian hieroglyphs which contained 24 signs for 24 Egyptian consonants. About 1700 BC Semites who knew Egyptian hieroglyphs began making certain changes in their writing system. They put the letters in a particular sequence and gave them simple names to assist learning and ease of memory. They also dropped the logograms and other signs used in hieroglyphs and just kept the Egyptian consonants and restricted the signs to those for individual consonants. Finally they introduced vowels into their alphabet. Alphabets were son to spread over most of the world as they provide both flexibility and simplicity for a writing system. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep Question 1-3 Complete the summary below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answer in boxes 1-3 on your answer sheet. There are three types of writing systems. Logography utilizes written signs representing a 1 . Syllabic writing systems were more common in the ancient world, as they adopt written sign symbolizing a 2 . The most common alphabetical systems use a letter to represent a3 Question 4-10 Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 1? On your answer sheet please write TRUE if the statement is true FALSE if the statement is false NOTGIVEN _ ifthe information is not given in the passage. 27. There is no language that adopts elements from only one writing system, 28. Inca quipus used talley sticks to track payments and commercial transactions. 29. The marks on the outside of the containers originated from pictograms used in Sumerian cuneiform. 30. The first written language was created to document the quantities and types of livestock and food 31. Cuneiform could not express abstract concepts at all. 32. Affected by the rebus principle, cuneiform combined the elements of both logograms and syllabic writing 33. Most countries adopt alphabetical writing systems due to their flexibility and simplicity. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep Questions 11-14 Use the information in the passage to match the people (listed A-E) with opinions or deeds (listed 11-14) below. Write the appropriate letters A-E in boxes 11-14 on your answer sheet. NB Some people may match more than one discovery Egyptians Native Americans C_ Semites D Chinese E Sumerians ul developed the alphabet from Egyptian hieroglyphs 12. used pictures for the purpose of communication, 13, invented a written language which consisted of signs looked like wedges. 14, might have independently invented writing 5,000 years ago. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep KEY . word 1 2. syllable 3. single sound/phoneme 4. TRUE 5. FALSE 6. NOT GIVEN 7. TRUE 8. FALSE 9. TRUE 10. NOT GIVEN BE >meO LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep READING PASSAGE 9 Test date: 7.02.2009 4-day Work Week Years ago, about the only workplace where one heard the term “four-day work week” was in the public sector, After all, never-ending budgetary squeezes left governments scrambling for non-money incentives to give their workers. Nowadays, however, more organizations are recognizing the benefits of packing 40 hours of weekly work into a smaller number of days. Whether they are (ill debatable. actually doing anything to change their current set-up is “Five or six years ago, the need for a four-day work week wasn’t really accepted by management”, said Wendy Poirier, an employee health and welfare expert in the Calgary office of Towers Perrin, a human resource consultancy firm. Now, there is an understanding among executives of the importance of these type of programs, she said. Still, “it’s a slow evolution”, Poirier said. Section 1 The latest convert on the road to this particular Damascus was carmaker Chrysler. In August, the company said it planned to talk to the United Auto Workers, which represents Chrysler assembly workers, about switching some plants to a four-day, 10-hours-per-day schedule. The move, the company said, would reduce energy costs and give its employees a permanent three-day weekend. “I would suspect a majority of employees would probably be in favor of something like this these days”, said Chrysler spokesman Ed Saenz in August. Other corporations in Canada and the United States are talking a similar tack when it comes to shifting the work week. Cambridge, Ont., engineering firm Babcock & Wilcox Canada Ltd., for instance, has negotiated a four-day work week in its latest employee contract. Generally, these firms are not talking about people working less, only that they work in four, 10-hour stints. Section 2 LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep One reason for the shift toward a compressed work week is soaring gas prices. Higher fuel prices make it more expensive to commute long distance to work. Advocates of the condensed work week argue employees are saved the aggravation of commuting and can spend more consecutive time of with their families. Employers get a happier employee, and they save energy costs because they shut off the lights and machinery for an extra day. “We have a lot of younger staff members, and they drive an average of 30 miles a day. It was becoming an issue for them”, said Kathryn Olive, president of Koroberi Inc., a web-based marketing firm in Chapel Hill, N.C., which introduced a partial 40-hour work week this summer. “What drove me over the edge is we lost one of our really valuable staff members who got a new job because he couldn’t afford the extra price of gas”, Olive told Associated Press. Ina May survey of human resources executives by outplacements specialists Challenger, Gray and Christmas, more than half of the 100 U.S. companies surveyed said they are looking at some sort of plan to assist commuting employees. And fully 23 percent of those companies already offer a condensed work-week. One Florida small-business expert estimated that keeping the car in the garage that, one extra day saves in the range of US $400 per-year-per-person. For its part, the City of Birmingham, Ala., which also recently introduced a condensed schedule for its employees, estimated the annual cost saving to be in the range of US $750 to $1 million. Section 3 Perhaps more importantly, companies are forced to scramble for skilled employees these days, workers for whom the salary line on a pay cheque might no longer be the most important reason for staying at a job. A Towers Perrin report said that 65 percent of respondents cited a proper work-life balance as important in their job. “A company can’t compete just on pay anymore”, Poirier said. A Florida State University survey of 800 full-time workers went even further, with 33 percent of those employees saying they would quit if they could find a job closer to their home. A move toward a condensed work week is one way corporations are fighting this kind if sentiment among employees. 2 LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep “One reason employers offer these gas-saving perks is to keep their best and brightest from seeking positions closer to home”, said John Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray and Christmas, back in May. Besides environmental benefits, supporters of the shorter work week argue workers are happier under the new regime because they get the Saturday-to- Monday period off with their families. Chicago-based software maker 37 signals introduced a four-day work week in 2005.”We all love it”, said company founder Jason Fried. “The same amount of work gets done, and everyone gets a three-day weekend”, Section 4 Still, the idea of squeezing the same amount of weekly work into fewer days is not without its naysayers. For example, most retailers and restaurants cannot realistically close their operations every Friday or Monday and still make even money to remain viable. These firms can schedule their workers to get an extra day off on different days of the week. But, they will lose the benefits from getting three consecutive days off. In addition, 10-hour days could create havoc with family schedules as most daycares operate in an eight-hour work day. “It’s something that’s easier said than done”, said Joan Jessome, president of the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union, a major public sector union in Nova Scotia. The provincial government has said it is interested in giving employees a four-day work week. But, Jessome said, not all workers will be able to rearrange their lives to accommodate the extra two hours in each working day. “I don’t know if everybody’s lifestyle can accommodate 10 hours a day versus seven”, she said in August. Question 15-21 Use the information in the passage to match the people (listed A-F) with opinions or deeds (listed 15-21) below. Write the appropriate letters A-F in boxes 15-21 on your answer sheet. NB Some people may match more than one opinion A Wendy Poirier LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep B Joan Jessome C Kathryn Olive D Jason Fried E Towers Perrin F The small-business expert 11. A salary is not the only tool a company can employ to attract qualified employees 12. People have more family time under the new regime. 13. A person can save US $400 every year by keeping the car in the garage one more day. 14, It takes time to implement a four-day work week although managers have already realized its importance. 15. This new working schedule does not suit everyone. 16, The traditional working schedule and long distance commutes have depleted human resources. 17. Most people think they should maintain a healthy balance between work and life. Question 22-25 Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 2? On your answer sheet please write TRUE if the statement is true FALSE if the statement is false NOTGIVEN _ ifthe information is not given in the passage. 18. Some plants of Chrysler reduced working hour by introducing the four- day schedule. 19, People often switch to the job closer to their home. 20. Environmental degradation is one of the reasons that companies would cut down work days. 21. According to Jason Fried, four-day schedule is a win-win solution for both the employers and employees. 4 LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep Question 26-28 Complete each sentence below with ONE WORD ONLY from the reading passage for each answer Write your answer in boxes 26-28 on your answer sheet. 26827 and ‘oppose the four-day schedule as they would lose the benefits from getting three consecutive days off. 28 The longer working days could cause for the family with kids. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24, 25. 2 2 28. ms mae > TOD FALSE NOT GIVEN NOT GIVEN TRUE retailers restaurants havoc LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN KEY TELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystepTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep READING PASSAGE 10 Test date: 09.08.2008 New Zealand Algae Bio-diesel ‘A. The world’s first wild algae biodiesel, produced in New Zealand by Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation, was successfully test driven in Wellington by the Minister for Energy and Climate Change Issues, David Parker. In front of a crowd of invited guests, media and members of the public, the Minister filled up a diesel-powered Land Rover with Aquaflow BS blend bio-diesel and then drove the car around the forecourt of Parliament Buildings in Central Wellington. Green Party co- leader, Jeanette Fitzsimons was also on board. Marlborough-based Aquaflow announced in May 2006 that it had produced the world’s first bio-diesel derived from wild microalgae sourced from local sewage ponds. B. “We believe we are the first company in the world to test drive a car powered by wild algae-based biodiesel. This will come as a surprise to some international bio-diesel industry people who believe that this break- through is still years away,” explained by Aquaflow spokesperson Barrie Leay. “A bunch of inventive Kiwis, and an Aussie, have developed this fuel in just over a year,” he comments. “This is a huge opportunity for New Zealand and a great credit to the team of people who saw the potential in this technology from day one.” C. Bio-diesel based on algae could eventually become a sustainable, low cost, cleaner burning fuel alternative for New Zealand, powering family cars, trucks, buses and boats. It can also be used for other purposes such as heating or distributed electricity generation. There is now a global demand for billions of litres of biodiesel per year. Algae are also readily available and produced in huge volumes in nutrient rich waste streams such as at the settling ponds of Effluent Management Systems (EMS). It is a renewable indigenous resource ideally suited to the production of fuel and other useful by-products, The breakthrough comes after technology start-up, Aquaflow, agreed to undertake a pilot with Marlborough District Council late last year to extract algae from the LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep settling ponds of its EMS based in Blenheim. By removing the main contaminant to use as a fuel feedstock, Aquaflow is also helping clean up the council’s water discharge - a process known as bio-remediation. Dairy farmers and many food processors too, can benefit in similar ways by applying the harvesting technology to their nutrient- rich waste streams. S Blended with conventional mineral diesel, bio-diesel can run vehicles without the need for vehicle modifications. Fuel derived from algae can also help meet the Government BS (5% blended) target, with the prospect of this increasing over time as bio-fuel production increases. “Our next step is to increase capacity to produce one million litres of bio-diesel from the Marlborough sewerage ponds over the next year,” says Leay. Aquaflow will launch a prospectus pre-Christmas as the company has already attracted considerable interest from potential investors. The test drive bio-diesel was used successfully in a static engine test at Massey University’s Wellington campus on Monday, December 11. E. Today Algae are used by humans in many ways; for example, as fertilizers, soil conditioners and livestock feed. Aquatic and microscopic species are cultured in clear tanks or ponds and are either harvested or used to treat effluents pumped through the ponds. Algaculture on a large scale is an important type of aquaculture in some places. Naturally growing seaweeds are an important source of food, especially in Asia. They provide many vitamins including: A, B, B2, B6, niacin and C, and are rich in iodine, potassium, iron, magnesium and calcium. In addition commercially cultivated microalgae, including both Algae and Cyan- bacteria, are marketed as nutritional supplements, such as Spirulina, Chlorella and the Vitamin-C supplement. Dunaliella, high in beta- carotene. Algae are national foods of many nations: China consumes more than 70 species, including fat choy, a cyano-bacterium considered as a vegetable; Japan, over 20 species. The natural pigments produced by algae can be used as an alternative to chemical dyes and coloring agents. F. Algae are the simplest plant organisms that convert sunlight and carbon dioxide in the air around us into stored energy through the well understood process of photosynthesis. Algae are rich in lipids and other combustible clements and Aquaflow is developing technology that will LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep allow these elements to be extracted in a cost effective way. The proposed process is the subject of a provisional patent. Although algae are good at taking most of the nutrients out of sewage, too much algae can taint the water and make it smell. So, councils have to find a way of cleaning up the excess algae in their sewerage outflows and then either dispose of it or find alternative uses for it. And that’s where Aquaflow comes in. G. Unlike some bio-fuels which require crops to be specially grown and thereby compete for land use with food production, and use other scarce resources of fuel, chemicals and fertilizer, the source for algae-based biodiesel already exists extensively and the process produces a sustainable net energy gain by capturing free solar energy from the sun. Question 29-33 Reading Passage 3 contains 7 paragraphs A -G. Which paragraphs state the following information? Write the appropriate letters A ~G in boxes 29 -33 on your answer sheet 29, It is unnecessary to modify vehicles driven by bio-diesel. 30. Some algae are considered edible plants. 31. Algae could be used to generate electrical power. 32, Algae bio-diesel is superior to other bio-fuels, 33. A team at Aquaflow is leading the international bio-diesel industry. Question 34-38 Complete the summary below Use NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. Bio-diesel based on algae could become a 34 for New Zealand. It could be used to 35 vehicles such as cars and boats. As a result, billions of litres of bio-diesel are requires worldwide each year. Algae can be obtained by huge volumes of 36 with nutrient materials. With the technology breakthrough, algae are extracted and the 37 is removed from the settling pounds. Dairy farmers, and many food processors can benefit by adopting such 38 LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep Question 39-40 Choose words from the passage to answer the questions 39-40. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer. 39, Though what kinds of process do algae obtain and store energy? 40. What environmental standard would bio-diesel vehicles need to meet? LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENBee “PE 3 3 3 4 BS23 D E Cc G B . fuel alternative . power 36. |. (main) contaminant . harvesting technology . photosynthesis }. the Government BS waste streams LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN KEY TELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystepTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep READING PASSAGE 11 Test date: 19.02.2011-20.10.2012 Bondi Beach In the early 1800s swimming at Sydney’s beaches was a controversial pastime. Convicts were forbidden from bathing in Sydney Harbour because of “the dangers of sharks and stingrays, and for reasons of decorum.” By the 1830’s sea bathing was a popular activity despite being officially banned between 9.00am and 8.00pm. During the 1900s these restrictive altitudes began W relax and the beach became associated with health, leisure and democracy -a playground everyone could enjoy equally. A popular spot There is clear evidence —in the form of significant Aboriginal rock carvings in particular -that Aboriginal people occupied sites in the area now known as Waverley in the period before European settlement. An important type of tool was first found in the region and is still known as the Bondi point. A number of place names within Waverley, most famously Bondi, have been based on words derived from Aboriginal languages of the Sydney region. The beginnings of the suburb go back to 1809, when the early road builder, William Roberts, received from Governor Bligh a grant of 81 hectares of what is now most of the business and residential area of Bondi Beach. In 1851, Edward Smith Hall and Francis O’Brien purchased 200 acres of the Bondi area that embraced almost the whole frontage of Bondi Beach, and it was named the “The Bondi Estate.” Between 1855 and 1877 O’Brien purchased Hall’s share of the land, renamed the land the “O’Brien Estate,” and made the beach and the surrounding land available to the public as a picnic ground and amusement resort. As the beach became increasingly popular, O’Brien threatened to stop public beach access. However, the Municipal Council believed that the Government needed to intervene to make the beach a public reserve. It was not until June 9, 1882, that the Government acted and Bondi Beach finally became a public beach. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep Waverley Council built the first surf bathing sheds in about 1903 and by 1929 an average of 60,000 people were visiting the beach on a summer weekend day. The opening of the pavilion that year attracted and estimated crowd of up to 200 000. By the 1930s Bondi was drawing not only local visitors but also people from elsewhere in Australia and overseas. Advertising at the time referred to Bondi Beach as the “Playground of the Pacific.” Bondi Beach hosted the beach volleyball competition at the 2000 Summer Olympics. A temporary 10,000-seat stadium, a much smaller stadium, 2 warm-up courts, and 3 training courts were set up to host the tournament. Bondi Beach is the end point of the City to Surf Fun Run, the largest running event in the world, which is held each year in August. The race attracts over 63,000 entrants who complete the 14 km run from the central business district of Sydney to Bondi Beach, Other annual activities at Bondi Beach include Flickerfest, Australia’s premier international short film festival in January, World Environment Day in June, and Sculpture By The Sea in November. In addition to may activities, the Bondi Beach Markets are open every Sunday. The surf lifesaving movement The increasing popularity of sea bathing during the late 1800s and early 1900s raised concerns about public safety and how to prevent people from drowning. In response, the world’s first formally documented surf lifesaving club. The Bondi Surf Bathers’ Life Saving Club, was formed in 1907. Surf patrol members wearing their distinctive red and yellow quartered caps first appeared at Bondi that summer. Many key features of surf rescue were established in those arly years, including several Australian inventions. From Bondi, the surf lifesaving movement spread initially through New South Wales and then to the rest of Australia and the world. With the reassuring presence of surf lifesavers on duty, beaches became places of exhilarating swimming and surfing rather than potential tragedy. Along with the digger and the bushman, the surf lifesaver held an iconic place in Australia’s cultural imagery. The lifesaver grew to become an accepted LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep feature of the beach and a symbol of what was seen to be good about being Australian. This was powerfully reinforced by the dramatic events of “Black Sunday” at Bondi in 1938. Some 35,000 people were on the beach and a large group of lifesavers were about to start a surf race when three freak waves hit the beach, sweeping hundreds of people out to sea. Lifesavers rescued 300 people, The largest mass rescue in the history of surf bathing confirmed the place of the lifesaver in the national imagination. Today, Surf Life Saving Australia is one of the largest and most successful nationwide associations of volunteers dedicated to protecting the safety of beach goers. Surf lifesavers have rescued over 520,000 people in the 80 years since records have been kept. Sharks and shark nets Since 1937, not one person has died from a shark attack at Bondi. However there are still regular shark sightings at Bondi. Swimmers are alerted to the presence of sharks when they are detected, but the first line of defence for many decades has been shark nets. Shark nets are used on open ocean beaches in QLD and NSW. They are simply a straight, rectangular piece of net suspended in the water between buoys. They are anchored at either end, usually about 200 meters from shore, in about 10 meters of water. Most shark nets stretch about 200 meters along the beach and down to a depth of 6 meters. Float at the top and sinkers at the bottom keep the net upright in the water. The mesh holes are 50cm wide; small enough to entangle sharks, and other large marine species, but big enough to leave smaller fish alone. The nets, however, are not intended to form a complete barrier, and sharks can still get through. The nets act as a deterrent by interrupting the territorial swimming patterns of sharks. In a typical 20km stretch of coastal surf beach, a strip of net will be set up every couple of kilometers along the beach. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep Questions 1-10 Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage? On your answer sheet please write YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer NOTGIVEN _ffitis impossible to say what the writer thinks about this. 1, Not many people liked to swim at Sydney’s beaches in the early 1800s. 2. Criminals were prohibited from bathing in Sydney Harbour because they were dangerous to public. 3. The Government bought back Bondi beach from O’Brien to make it open to public. . Bondi Beach is a popular place in sports world. Bondi Beach is the most famous beach in Australia. . The official surf lifesaving movement originated from Bondi. . The digger and the bushman also work at the beach to rescue surfers. . Thanks to lifesavers no one drowned on “Black Sunday”. . Shark nets are very effective in protecting swimmers. 10. No shark can pass through the shark nets. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep KEY . NOT GIVEN . NO }. NOT GIVEN . YES . YES . NO . NOT GIVEN . YES 10. NO 1 2. 3. 4. 5. NOT GIVEN 6. 7. 8. 9. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep READING PASSAGE 12 Test date: 19.02.2011-20.10.2012 The Dutch Tulip Mania ‘A. Tulips have long held a significant role in Dutch history and culture ever since they were introduced to the Netherlands from the Ottoman Empire in the mid-1500s. So strong was the Dutch love affair with tulips during the Dutch Golden Age of the mid-1600s that a tulip bulb bubble or “Tulip Mania” even occurred. Generally considered to be the first recorded financial bubble, the Tulip Mania of 1636-1637 was an episode in which tulip bulb prices were propelled by speculators to incredible heights befor collapsing and plunging the Dutch economy into a severe crisis the lasted for many years. B. The Golden Century is the name of the period in Dutch history between 1600 and 1700 when the port city of Amsterdam was one of the richest of all cities in Western Europe due to its strong role in intemational trade. Trading companies became dominant players in the Netherlands’ trade with Indonesia and other faraway lands. Amsterdam’s booming economy led to a flourishing of the arts and architecture, as well as trade in blue glass, china and other luxury goods. C. Dutch trade with foreign lands led to the importation of exotic goods that were never seen before by Europeans. Tulips were first introduced to Europe from Turkey when a sultan sent bulbs and seeds to Vienna, Shortly after 1554, these seeds were sent to Amsterdam, where their popularity began to rise. A university study in 1593 led to the discovery that tulips could withstand the harsh northern-European climate, which further boosted their desirability in the Netherlands. With their intensely colorful petals, tulips were unlike any other flower popular in Europe at that time and having tulips growing in one’s garden became an important status symbol. D. Tulip plants originate in the form of tulip bulbs which do not flower until seven to twelve years later, Between April and May, tulips bloom for about one week, with bulbs appearing between June and September, thus confining Dutch sales to that season. A rudimentary derivatives market, LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep similar to modern-day options and futures contracts, eventually arose so that traders could conduct trade in tulips all year round. Traders entered into tulip contracts by signing contracts for future tulip purchases befor a notary. The very active tulip contract market eventually became an integral part of the overall booming Dutch tulip industry. E. As the Dutch tulip market became increasingly sophisticated, tulips were classified into groups and priced according to their rarity. In general, solid-colored tulips were worth less than those with multiple colors. Couleren was the classification for solid-colored red, white, or yellow tulips, rosen referred to multi-colored tulips, often red, pink, or white and violetten described the white tulips with purple or lilac on them. Bizarden were the most popular tulips, with a yellow background and red, brown, or purple coloration. Tulips that were infected with the benign mosaic virus, which caused “flames” of color to appear upon the petals, sold at a premium due to their unique beauty and rarity. . Tulip prices steadily rose with their growing popularity and bulbs were purchased at higher and higher prices by speculators who planned to turn around and sell them for a profit, similar to modern-day house “flippers.” From 1634 to 1637, an index of Dutch tulip prices soared from approximately on guilder per bulb to a lofty sixty guilders per bulb. Traders who sold their bulbs for a profit began to reinvest all of their profit into new tulip bulb contracts or new bulbs to sell to other Dutch citizens or to take with them on trips around the world to sell alongside with spices from the Dutch East India Company. Many merchants sold all of their belongings to purchase a few tulip bulbs for the purpose of cultivating and selling them for more profit than they could have ever made in a lifetime as merchant. As the tulip bulb bubble crescendoed, already pricey tulip bulbs experienced a twentyfold price explosion in just a single month. By the peak of tulip mania in February of 1637, a single tulip bulb was worth about ten times s craftsman’s annual income. G. Successful Dutch tulip bulb traders, the archaic counterparts to the day traders of the late 1990s Dot-com bubble and the house flippers of the mid-2000s U.S. housing bubble, could earn up to 60,000 florins in a month-approximately $61,710 in current U.S. dollars. Tulip bulb speculation became so widespread by 1636 that they were traded on LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep Amsterdam’s Stock Exchange and in Rotterdam, Haarlem, Leyden, Alkmar, Hoorn, and other towns. Around the same time, tulip speculation even spread to Paris and England, where tulips were traded on the London Stock Exchange. In both cities, traders strove to push tulip prices up to the lofty levels seen in Amsterdam but were only moderately successful in their attempt. Astronomically-high tulip bulb prices resulted in some equally astonishing anecdotes such as the sailor who mistakenly ate an extremely rare Semper Augustus tulip bulb thinking it was an onion. This “onion” was so valuable that it could have fed his whole ship’s crew for an entire year. The helpless sailor was jailed for several months for his innocent but costly mistake. Another similar anecdote is of a traveling English botanist who was unaware of the Dutch tulip mania of the time, who peeled and dissected a wealthy Dutchman’s four thousand florin Admiral Von der Eyk tulip bulb mistaking it for an unusual species of onion. The bewildered English traveller was quickly led through the streets followed by a mob, to be brought before a judge who sentenced him to prison until he could pay for the damage. L. Like all bubbles, the Dutch tulip bulb bubble continued to inflate beyond people’s wildest expectations until it abruptly “popped” in the winter of 1636-37. A default on a tulip bulb contract by a buyer in Haarlem was the main bubble-popping catalyst and caused the tulip bulb market to violently implode as sellers overwhelmed the market and buyers virtually disappeared altogether. Some traders attempted to support prices, to no avail. Within just a few days, tulip bulbs were worth only a hundredth of their former prices, resulting in a full-blown panic throughout Holland. Dealers refused to honor contracts, further damaging confidence in the tulip bulb market. Eventually, the government attempted to stem the tulip market meltdown by offering to honor contracts at 10% of their face value, which only caused the market to plunge even further. The brutal popping of the tulip bulb bubble ended the Dutch Golden Age and hurled the country into a mild economic depression that lasted for several years. The traumatic tulip bulb crash resulted in a suspicion toward speculative investments in Dutch culture for a very long time after. H. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep Questions 1-10 Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage? On your answer sheet please write TRUE if the statement agrees with the information FALSE if the statement contradicts the information NOTGIVEN __ if there is no information on this. 1. It is perceived that the first written account of economic bubble was Tulip Mania. 2. A research found that tulips could well adapt to the demanding environment in Dutch. 3. An advanced futures market developed to help tulip trade all year round. 4. Violetten was more expensive than Couleren. 5. The highest price belonged to tulips with “flames” of color caused by some virus. 6. The CEOs of Dot-com in late 1990s could earn about $61,710 each month, 7. Amsterdam’s Stock Exchange and London Stock Exchange were set up at the same time. 8. One sailor ate a tulip bulb because he considered it was nutritious. ‘nally, The Dutch tulip bubble burst into an economic depression. 10. The government took steps to save the tulip market but failed. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep TRUE . TRUE FALSE TRUE . NOT GIVEN . NOT GIVEN . NOT GIVEN . FALSE TRUE . TRUE 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9 10. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep READING PASSAGE 13 Test date: 25.08.2012 A Brief History of Chocolate A. When most of us hear the word chocolate, we picture a bar, a box of bonbons, or a bunny. The verb that comes to mind is probably “eat,” not “drink,” and the most apt adjective would seem to be “sweet.” But for about 90 percent of chocolate’s long history, it was strictly a beverage, and sugar didn’t have anything to do with it. “I often call chocolate the best-known food that nobady knows anything about,” said Alexandra Leaf, a self-described “chocolate educator” who runs a business called Chocolate Tours of New York City. B. The terminology can be a little confusing, but most experts these days use the term “cacao” to refer to the plant or its beans before processing, while the term “chocolate” refers to anything made from the beans, she explained. “Cacao” generally refers to chocolate in a powdered form, although it can also be a British form of “cacao.” Etymologists trace the origin of the word “chocolate” to the Aztec word “xocoatl,” which referred to a bitter drink brewed from cacao beans. The Latin name for the cacao tree, Theobroma cacao, means “food of the gods.” C. Many modern historians have estimated that chocolate has been around for about 2000 years, but recent research suggests that it may be even older. In the book The True History of Chocolate, authors Sophie and Michael Coe make a case that the earliest linguistic evidence of chocolate consumption stretches back three or even four millennia, to pre- Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica such as the Olmec. Last November, anthropogists from the University of Pennsylvania announced the discovery of cacao residue on pottery excavated in Honduras that could date back as far as 1400 B.C. It appears that the sweet pulp of the cacao fruit, which surrounds the beans, was fermented into an alcoholic beverage of the time. D. It’s hard to pin down exactly when chocolate was born, but it’s clear that it was cherished from the start. For several centuries in pre-modern Latin America, cacao beans were considered valuable enough to use as LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep currency. One bean could be traded for a tamale, while 100 beans could purchase a good turkey hen, according to a 16""-century Aztec document. E. Both the Mayans and Aztecs believed the cacao bean had magical, or even divine, properties, suitable for use in the most sacred rituals of birth, marriage and death. According to the book The Chocolate Connoisseur, Aztec sacrifice victims who left too melancholy to join in ritual dancing before their death were often given a gourd of chocolate (tinged with the blood of previous victims) to cheer them up. F. Sweetened chocolate didn’t appear until Europeans discovered the Americas and sampled the native cuisine. Legend has it that the Aztec king Montezuma welcomed the Spanish explorer Hernando Cortes with a banquet that included drinking chocolate, having tragically mistaken him for a reincarnated deity instead of a conquering invader. Chocolate didn’t suit the foreigners’ taste buds at first “one described it in his writing as “a bitter drink for pigs” but once mixed with honey or cane sugar, it quickly became popular throughout Spain. By the 17" century, chocolate was a fashionable drink throughout Europe, believed to have nutritious, medicinal and even aphrodisiac properties. But it remained largely a privilege of the rich until the invention of the steam engine made mass production possible in the late 1700s. H. In 1828, a Dutch chemist found a way to make powdered chocolate by removing about half the natural fat (cacao butter) from chocolate liquor, pulverizing what remained and treating the mixture with alkaline salts to cut the bitter taste. His product became known as “Dutch cocoa.” And it soon led to the creation of solid chocolate. The creation of the first modern chocolate bar is credited to Joseph Fry, who in 1847 discovered that he could make a moldable chocolate paste by adding melted cacao butter back into Dutch cocoa. By 1868, a little company called Cadbury was marketing boxes of chocolate candies in England. Milk chocolate hit the market a few years later, pioneered by another name that may ring a bell —Nestle. I. In America, chocolate was so valued during the Revolutionary War that it was included in soldiers’ ration and used in lieu of wages. While most of us probably wouldn’t settle for a chocolate paycheck these days, statistics LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep show that the humble cacao bean is still a powerful economic force. Chocolate manufacturing is a more than 4-billion-dollar industry in the United States, and the average American eats at least half a pound of the stuff per month. J. In the 20" century, the word “chocolate” expanded to include a range of affordable treats with more sugar and additives than actual cacao in them, often made from the hardiest but least flavorful of the bean varieties, but more recently, there’s been a “chocolate revolution,” Leaf said, marked by an increasing interest in high-quality, handmade chocolates and sustainable, effective cacao farming and harvesting methods. “I see more and more American artisans doing incredible things with chocolate,” Leaf said. “Although, I admit that I tend to look at the world through cocoa- tinted glasses.” Questions 1-10 Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage? In boxes 1-1 on your answer sheet please write TRUE if the statement agrees with the information FALSE if the statement contradicts with the information NOTGIVEN _ if there is no information on this. 1. Chocolate used to be a bitter drink in the past. 2. Chocolate has been consumed by human beings for more than 3,000 years. 3. Before chocolate was made, cacao beans had been worthless. . Chocolate had been considered as a medicine and used in hospitals. . Chocolate was confined to the rich because people believed it was nutritious. 6. The first modern chocolate bar was made by a Dutchman. 7. Nestle was the brand name of the first milk chocolate. 8. During the Revolutionary War, chocolate was used to pat the wages of ‘American soldiers. 9. On average, an American consumed over a pound of chocolate per day. 10. Handmade chocolates are much more expensive 3 LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep KEY . TRUE TRUE . FALSE . NOT GIVEN . FALSE . NOT GIVEN . TRUE TRUE . FALSE . NOT GIVEN 1 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep READING PASSAGE 14 Test date: 05.03.2009 Self-esteem Myth People intuitively recognize the importance of self-esteem to their psychological health, so it isn’t particularly remarkable that most of us try to protect and enhance it in ourselves whenever possible. What is remarkable is that attention to self-esteem has become a communal concern, at least for Americans, who see a favorable opinion of oneself as the central psychological source from which all manner of positive outcomes spring. The corollary, that low self-esteem lies at the root of individual and thus societal problems and dysfunctions, has sustained an ambitious social agenda for decades. Indeed, campaigns to raise people’s sense of self-worth abound Consider what transpired in California in the late 1980s, Prodded by State ‘Assemblyman John Vasconcelos, Governor George Deukmejian set up a task force on self-esteem and personal and social responsibility. Vasconcelos argued that raising self-esteem in young people would reduce crime, teen pregnancy, arud abuse, school underachievement and pollution. At one point, he even expressed the hope that these efforts would one day help balance the state budget, a prospect predicated on the observation that people with high self-regard earn more than others and thus pay more in taxes. Along with its other activities, the task force assembled a team of scholars to survey the relevant literature. The results appeared in a 1989 volume entitled The Social Importance of Self-Esteem, which stated that “many, if not most, of the major problems plaguing society have roots in the low self-esteem of many of the people who make up society.” In reality, the report contained little to support that assertion. Gauging the value of self-esteem requires, first of all, a sensible way to measure it. Most investigators just ask people what they think of themselves. Naturally enough, the answers are often colored by the common tendency to want to make oneself look good. Unfortunately, psychologists lack any better method to judge self-esteem, which is worrisome because similar self-ratings of other attributes often prove to be way off. Consider, for instance, research on the relation between self-esteem and physical attractiveness. 1 LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep It seems plausible that physically attractive people would end up with high self-esteem because they are treated more favorably than unattractive ones —being more popular, more sought after, more valued by lovers and friends, and so forth. But it could just as well be that those score highly on self-esteem scales by claiming to be wonderful people all around also boast of being physically attractive. At the outset, we had every reason to hope that boosting self-esteem would be a potent tool for helping students. Logic suggests that having a good dollop of self-esteem would enhance striving and persistence in school, while making a student less likely to succumb to paralyzing feelings of incompetence or self- doubt. Early work showed positive correlations between self-esteem and academic performance, lending credence to this notion. Modern efforts have, however, cast doubt on the ideal that higher self-esteem actually induces students to do better. Even if raising self-esteem does not foster academic progress, might it serve some purpose later, say, on the job? Apparently not. Studies of possible links between workers’ self-regard and job performance echo what has been found with schoolwork: the simple search for correlations yields some suggestive results, but these do not show whether a good self-image leads to occupational success, or vice versa, In any case, the link is not particularly strong. Further researches show that high self-esteem does not lessen a tendency toward violence, that is does not deter adolescents from turning to alcohol, tobacco, drugs and sex, and that it fails to improve academic or job performance. Then we got a boost when we looked into how self-esteem relates to happiness. The consistent finding is that people with high self-esteem are significantly happier than others. They are also less likely to be depressed, One especially compelling study was published in 1995, after psychologists at the University of Utah, surveyed more than 13,000 college students, and high self-esteem emerged as the strongest factor in overall life satisfaction. Robin Di Matteo of the University of California at Riverside reported data from more than 600 adults ranging in age from 51 to 95. Once again, happiness and self-esteem proved to be closely tied. Before it is safe to conclude that high self-esteem leads to happiness, however, further research must address the shortcomings of the work that has been done so far. 2 LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep When they should we do? Should parents, teachers and therapists seek to boost self-esteem wherever possible? In the course of our literature review, we found some indications that self-esteem is a helpful attribute. It improves persistence in the face of failure. And individuals with high self-esteem sometimes perform better in groups than do those with low self-esteem. Also, a poor self- image is rick factor for certain eating disorders, especially bulimia. Other effects are harder to demonstrate with objective evidence, although we are inclined to accept the subjective evidence that self-esteem goes hand in hand with happiness. So we can certainly understand how an injection of self-esteem might be valuable to the individual. But imagine if a heightened sense of self-worth prompted some people to demand preferential treatment or to exploit their yellows. Such tendencies would entail considerable social costs. And we have found little to indicate that indiscriminately promoting self-esteem in today’s children or adults, just for being themselves, offers society and compensatory benefits beyond the seductive pleasure it brings to those engaged in the exercise. Questions 1-10 Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage? In boxes 1-10 on your answer sheet please write YES if the statement agree with the claim of the writer NO if the statement contradicts the claim of the writer NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this. 1. Governor claimed that higher self-esteem would benefit government's revenue. 2. The report asserted that many social problems stemmed from the low self-esteem of people. 3. Good looking is a reliable attribute to measure self-esteem. 4. High self-esteem helps students achieve better scores 5. Students with better academic performance are likely to achieve later occupational success. 6. People with high self-regard are less likely to smoke, LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep 7. There is positive correlation between happiness and self-esteem. 8. Adults generally feel much happier than college students do. 9. Low self-esteem may cause ill-health. 10.People’s self-esteem can be boosted by taking a training course. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep KEY YES YES NO NO » NOT GIVEN NO YES . NOT GIVEN YES ). NOT GIVEN ye now ae ye 10. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep READING PASSAGE 15 Test date: 19.05.2012 Jethro Tull and Seed Drill While a British rock band made his name famous nearly 300 years after his birth, Jethro Tull (1644-1741) was renowned in his own right as an agricultural pioneer and the inventor of the seed drill, the horse drawn hoe, and an improved plough, all major developments in the 18" century agricultural revolution, a period marked by rapid advancement in agricultural productivity and developments farming technology. Tull was born in Basildon, Berskhire, England in 1664. He studied law and graduated from Oxford University in 1699. Although he was admitted to the bar in the same year, he never practiced law. Tull began farming in his father’s land in 1700 and took great interest in agricultural processes. At the time, farmers typically planted crop seeds by carrying the seeds in a bag and walking up and down the field while randomly throwing or broadcasting the seed by hand on to the ploughed and harrowed ground. Tull deemed the method inefficient as the seed was not distributed evenly and much of it was wasted and did not take root. In 1701, Tull solved this problem with an invention called the seed drill. A seed drill is a machine for sowing seeds that exactly positions the seeds in the soil and then covers them. It would sow seeds in uniform rows repeatedly instead of the wasteful method of scattering seeds by hand. The seed is stored in a hopper (seed box) and delivered by a tube into furrows in the ground. The furrows are made by a set of blades, or coulters, attached to the front of the drill. A harrow is drawn behind the drill to cover up the seeds. The seed drill allows farmers to sow seeds in well-spaced rows at specific depths at a specific seed rate; each tube creates a hole of a specific depth, drops in one or more seeds, and covers it over. This invention gave farmers much greater control over the depth that the seed was planted and the ability to cover the seeds without back-tracking. This greater control meant that seeds germinated consistently and in good soil. The result was an increased rate of germination, and a much-improved crop yield. According to Royal Berkhire History, Tull said of his invention, “It was named a drill because when farmers LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep used to sow their beans and peas into channels or furrows by hand, they called that action drilling.” Tull’s improved drilling method a allowed farmers to sow three rows of seeds simultaneously. Tull took further scientific interest in plant nourishment. He correctly theorized that plants should be more widely spaced and the soil around them thoroughly broken down during growth. He further theorized that plants surrounded by loose soil would grow better not only during sowing, but in the early stages of growth as well. Tell’s theory, however, was based upon a fundamental error. He believed that the nourishment which the plant took from the earth was in the form of minute particles of soil. He did not believe that animal manure, which was commonly used as fertilizer, provided the plant with nourishment, but rather it provided a fermentative action in breaking up the soil particles. He saw no additional value in manure. He was highly criticized for this belief. In 1709, he moved to a parcel of inherited land in Hungerford, called Prosperous Farm, where he continued his novel farming methods. In 1711, a pulmonary disorder sent him to Europe in search of treatment and a cure. While traveling, he noted the cultivation methods employed in the vineyards in the Languedoc are of France and in Italy, where it was usual practice to hoe the ground between the vines rather than manuring. One returning to Prosperous in 1714, he applied the same practice on his fields of grain and root crops. Tull’s crops were sown in widely spaced rows to allow the horse, drawing the hole, to walk without damaging the plants, while enabling tillage to the soil during most of the period of growth. This ongoing cultivation of the soil while the plant was growing was the central point of Tull’s theory and the practice continues today. He believed that the cultivation of the soil released nutrients and reduced the need for manure. While apparently successful —he grew wheat in the same field for 13 successive years without manuring —some believe that is more likely that the technique succeeded because it simply prevented weeds from overcrowding and compering with the seed. At the time, there was much skepticism toward Tull’s ideas. His seed drill was not immediately popular in England, although it was quickly adopted by the colonists in New England, In 1731, Jethro Tull published “An Essay on the LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep Principles of Tillage and Vegetation.” The book caused great controversy and his theories fell into disrepute, particularly his opinion on the value of manure for plant growth. Although Tull laid the foundations for modern techniques of sowing and cultivation, a hundred years passed before his seed-drill displaced the ancient method of hand broadcasting the seed. While several other mechanical seed drills had also been invented, Tull’s rotary system was a major influence on the agricultural revolution and its impact can still be seen in today’s methods and machinery. His seed drill was improved in 1782 by adding gears to the distribution mechanism. Tull died in the village where he was born in Shalbourne, Berkhire, England, on February 21, 1741, at the age of 67. Questions 1-4 Label the diagram below Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. a2. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep KEY 1. harrow 2. hopper 3. tube 4. blades/coulters 4 LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN SeeTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep READING PASSAGE 16 Test date: 07.02.2009-09.05.2009 Two Wings and a Kit-box A. Many animals use tools, but tool manufacture is rare. Rarer still is cumulative change in tool manufacture. Chimpanzee and orangutan tool manufacture, for example, is often haphazard, and their tools show no evidence of incremental improvements overtime. In contrast, current human technology is the result of a long series of cumulative changes. The “ratchet-like” nature of this technological evolution means that design changes are retained at the population level until new, improved designs arise. This ratchet effect is possible because tool manufacture methods are socially transmitted with sufficient fidelity that individuals do not need to reinvent or recapitulate past inefficient designs. The skills required for the development of this cumulative technology are claimed to include high-fidelity social learning, an understanding of physical relationships and functional properties of objects, and the ability for fine object manipulation. Animals other than humans are generally presumed to lack the necessary neural hardware and cognitive sophistication for cumulative technological evolution. B. The New Caledonian crow, Corvus moneduloides, is an ideal model species to examine the links between tool manufacture, social learning and cognition. These crows make tools out of the twigs and the long, prickly edges of the leaves of the tropical pandanus tree to facilitate the capture of invertebrates, says New Zealander Gavin Hunt. He studies these crows, which live on islands between Australia and Fiji. Dr. Hunt has discovered that New Caledonian crows have three different designs for tools. They also make two kinds of stick tools-hooked and not hooked. The manufacture of pandanus tools provides a unique opportunity for study because a record of tool manufacture is faithfully recorded in “counterparts” or outlines remaining on the leaf edges. In the wild, adult New Caledonian crows sever long narrow pandanus (a stilt- rooted palm native to Southeast Asia) leaves and split them to keep the sharply serrated outside edge intact. The split leaves are cut again in LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep roughly 8 lengths for bill-controlled tools to hook small insects from cracks or to swish rapidly through leaf litter to impale other prey. C. Recent work has revealed that these tools have four features previously thought to be unique to primitive human: a high degree of standardization, the use of hooks, “handedness”, and cumulative changes in tool design. Evidence has been discovered of cumulative changes in a field survey documenting the shapes of 5,500 tools from 21 sites throughout the range of pandanus tools. Three distinct tool designs are found: wide tools, narrow tools, and stepped tools. The lack of ecological correlates of the different tool designs and their geographic overlap make it unlikely that they evolved independently. Similarities in the method of manufacture for cach design suggest that pandanus tools have gone through a process of cumulative change from a common historical origin. D. Evidence is accumulating quickly on the inherent talent of crow’s tool- making ability which indicates that this ability is at least pertly inherited and not dependent on learning through social contacts. To date there is only circumstantial evidence that New Caledonian crows transmit tool- making knowledge via social learning. These crows live in small family units where juveniles have ample opportunity to lear foraging techniques. The social learning and reasoning abilities of other Corvus species are well documented. The high fidelity in the shape of tool design at sites makes individual trial-and-error learning unlikely. Similarly, the evidence that crows might have some grasp of the functional properties of their tools is also only inferential. E. Researchers have also found that crows use different sides of their beaks to make and use tools. This suggests that different parts of the brain may control making and using tools, and that the biology of handedness —or beakedness —may be more complex than we thought. Just like humans, New Caledonian crows are usually right “handed” when it comes to tasks such as making tools. But it turns out the birds use their tools with left and right sides equally, although individual crows prefer one side or the other. “This has opened up Pandora’s box”, says William McGrew, who studies chimpanzees’ tool use at Miami University. “People always assumed handedness would be the same for using and making tools”. “Scientists will now be more vary of making this assumption”, he adds. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep F. A major breakthrough in these studies occurred when it became evident that traditional theory of brain evolution as espoused by Ludwig Edinger, a neurobiologist and the leading comparative anatomist of a hundred years ago, was wrong. He believed that brains evolves in a straight line with invertebrates at the low end and progressed upwards through fish, reptiles, birds, to mammal, with humans at the top. Neurobiologists now understand that bird brains, although constructed differently from that of mammals, nonetheless function as elegantly as any mammals’ brain. In fact, in proportion to body size, a crow’s brain is as large as a chimpanzee’s. G. In mammals, the lower third of our brains consists of groups of neurons, whereas the upper two thirds there exists neo-cortexes made up of flat cells, six cell layers thick. The top part generates our rational or intellectual activity, whereas the bottom third controls our instinctive reactions such as extending an arm to soften a fall or jerking away a hand when touching something hot. In human evolution the six cell-layered sheet on the top of the brain spread to such an extent that the only way the scull-confined brain could contain its increased area was for it to become convoluted, ie, with many folds and crevices. The tops of bird brains are smooth, not folded, and until recently were thought to consist of cells grouped in clusters similar to the lower part of mammal brains, and thus would make all bird behavior merely instinctive. We know now this is not the case, but the exact neural pathways are still unclear. What seems to have happened is an example of convergent evolution of intelligence where two differing forms of brain structure eventually lead to almost equivalent brain power. “New Caledonian crows teach us that in many ways other animals are not so different from us, and we should respect them for their differences and similarities”, says Hunt. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENIELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN IELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep Questions 1-3 Look at the following diagrams A-F Match the correct diagram to reach tool manufactured by the New Caledonian crow. 1. Hooked stick 2. Not hooked Stick 3. Pandanus tool book [ELT SstepbyTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep 1.C 2.B 3. E LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN wmw.facebook.com/IELTSstepbystep,TELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep READING PASSAGE 17 Test date: 14.10.2010 The Oceanographer’s Dream Ship It is every oceanographer’s dream start to the day. Get out of bed, slip on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, then take a lift to the bottom of the sea. No wetsuit, no submersibles, no decompression tanks, just a permanent trapdoor to the ocean floor. Nobody’s throwing away their wetsuit just yet, but a non-profit group of maritime engineers called the Ocean Technology Foundation reckon they can make the dream come true within ten years. They’re planning to build a vessel that will take scientists, divers, tourists or anyone else who'll pay, to the bottom of the sea with the minimum of fuss. One plan is for a vessel called the Deep Water Flip Ship. On paper at least, this is a huge, tubular boat that measures 330 meters from bow to stern, longer than the Eiffel Tower. To get access to the seabed, the ship first sails to wherever it’s needed and then performs an astounding manoeuvre. Three huge ballast tanks on the stern flood with water and the rear part of the ship plunges beneath the waves, pulling the vessel through a 90° flip. Once vertical, more than three-quarters of the ship is submerged while the front end, with its cabins, control rooms and helicopter landing pad, sits up above the water. Most of the equipment on board is designed to rotate so it stays the right way up throughout the flip. The idea may sound preposterous, but a smaller craft that performs similar maritime gymnastics has been around for nearly 30 years. Dubbed FLIP, or Floating Instrument Platform, it’s operated by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, California. FLIP looks like a regular ship with the stern chopped off and a 100 meter pipe welded in its place. The pipe is basically on big ballast tank that floods to make the ship tip over. Once submerged, the tank provides stability so that scientists can park the craft and get in with their experiments. Besides being able to perform the same manoeuvre, the ship designed by the Ocean Technology Foundation would bear little resemblance to FLIP. For one LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep thing, it’s more than three times as long. What's more, its rear portion isn’t just a ballast tank but is designed to deposit the researchers as close to the seabed as possible while keeping them at atmospheric pressure. To do this, the hull is a seabed tube which, once flipped, turns into a lift shaft. Along the length of the shaft are laboratories linked to the surface by the lift and stairs. The flipped sip could stay in one place for weeks or months at a stretch, stabilized by the submerged stern and the ship’s propellers. And by varying the amount of water in its ballast tanks, the crew could control how much of the ship is submerged. The basic design has a depth range of 225 to 275 meters, enough to visit the deepest parts of the continental shelf. A wider range would be made possible by removing or adding segments to the hull, because this plan calls for the segments to be bolted together rather than welded. This would also mean specialized labs could be slotted in if need be. At first this would have to be done in dock, but it is hoped that it would eventually be possible at sea. Pumping the water back out of the ballast tanks would right the craft. The experts estimate the manoeuvre would take around 12 hours, as would flipping from horizontal, but in an emergency the thanks could be blasted out with compressed air and the ship flipped in about a minute. The slip ship, however, has its drawbacks. While cheaper than the previous type, it would still cost an estimated $200 million. And its depth range is limited. With these problems in mind, Clifford Ness, a retired Electric Boat submarine designer and a member of the Ocean Technology Foundation, came up with an alternative plan. Why not build a massive hinged arm with labs at the end that could be lowered like a penknife blade from the bottom of a ship? Ness has been working on a plan to attach a 200-meter arm to a disused oil tanker. The appendage would be bolted to one end of the ship and housed in a hollowed-out compartment on the bottoms. As with the flip design, the labs at the end of the arm would be designed to rotate, meaning they could be used at any angle. That would give the hinge ship more versatility than the flipper: the arm could be lowered to any depth down to 200 meters. Economically, the arm also has the edge. While the flip ship would have to be built from scratch, the arm could be added to a converted oil tanker. Thanks to new regulations requiring the phasing out of single-hulled tankers in favor of LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep stronger double-hulled ships, second-hand tankers are two a penny. Ness thinks one could be purchased and converted for around $60 million. Details remain sketchy, but Ness envisages a lift running up and down the arm to ferry people and equipment to the labs. Extending the arm would take several hours, but the design allows for a 10-minute emergency retraction. The arm would also act as a massive keel, giving the ship tremendous stability. This, of course, would put enormous strain on the hinge. Ness says he’s solved the problem but his tricks are under wraps until he can file a patent. The Ocean Technology Foundation still has some way to go before it has enough money to build a ship. It’s prepared to rope in anyone with an interest in the deep sea, from the oils and gas industry to the Navy. But the overall aim is to open up a new are of ocean exploration. Bizarre they may be, but ships that slip or have giant hinged arms might just be the breakthrough oceanography has been waiting for. Questions 1-3 Complete the picture below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS _from the passage for each answer. ‘The Flip Ship LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep 1. (the disused) oil tanker 2. (the) arm 3. labs LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep READING PASSAGE 18 6.05.2009 Perfume Perfume comes from the Latin “per” meaning “through” and “fumum”, or “smoke”. Many ancient perfumes were made by extracting natural oils from plants through pressing and steaming. The oil was then burned to scent the air. Since the beginning of recorded history, humans have attempted to mask or enhance their own odor by using perfume, which emulates nature's pleasant smells, Many natural and man-made materials have been used to make perfume to apply to the skin and clothing, to put in cleaners and cosmetics, or to scent the air, Because of difference in body chemistry, temperature, and body odors, no perfume will smell exactly the same on any two people. Before perfumes can be composed, the odorants used in various perfume compositions must first be obtained. Synthetic odorants are produced through organic synthesis and purified. Odorants from natural sources require the use of various methods to extract the aromatics from the raw materials. Enfleurage, a process that uses odorless fats that are solid at room temperature to capture the fragrant compounds exuded by plants, is the oldest of fragrance extraction techniques. The process can be “cold” enfleurage or “hot” enfleurage. In cold enfleurage, a large framed plate of glass, called a chassis, is smeared al matter, usually petals or whole flowers, is then placed on the fat and its scent is with a layer of animal fat, usually from pork or beef, and allowed to set. Botani allowed to diffuse into the fat over the course of 1-3 days. The process is then repeated by replacing the spent botanicals with fresh ones until the fat has reached a desired degree of fragrance saturation. In hot enfleurage, solid fats are heated and botanical matter is stirred into the fat. Spent botanicals are repeatedly strained from the fat and replaced with fresh materials until the fat is saturated with fragrance. In both instances, the fragrance-saturated fat is now called the “enfleurage pomade”. The enfleurage pomade is washed or soaked in ethyl alcohol to draw the fragrant molecules into the alcohol. The alcohol is then separated from the fat and allowed LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN SeeTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep to evaporate, leaving behind the essential oil of the botanical matter. The spent fat is usually used to make soaps since it is still relatively fragrant. This method of fragrance extraction is by far one of the oldest. It is also highly inefficient and costly but was the sole method of extracting the fragrant compounds in delicate floral botanical such as jasmine and tuberose, which would be destroyed or denatured by the high temperatures required by methods of fragrance extraction such as steam distillation. The method is now superseded by more efficient techniques such as solvent extraction or supercritical fluid extraction using liquid carbon dioxide (CO,) ot similar compressed gases. The results of the extraction are either essential oils, absolutes, concretes, or butters, depending on the amount of waxes in the extracted product. All these techniques will to a certain extent, distort the odour of the aromatic compounds obtained from the raw materials. This is due to the use of heat, harsh solvents, or through exposure to oxygen in the extraction process which will denature the aromatic compounds, which either change their odour character or renders them odourless. The country-island Madagascar -known for its extremely unique biodiversity ~is recognized as holding tremendous potential for the development of new products in the essential oils, cosmetic and body care, due to the fact that 80% of its flora and fauna is endemic ~meaning so unique that they are found nowhere else in the world For 85 million years, the flora and fauna of Madagascar evolved in isolation from the rest of the world. Examples of the totally unique essential oils and botanicals from Madagascar include the Ravinsara leaf known for its aroma, spice and therapeutic applications. Aroma-therapists believe that the oil can travel deep into muscle tissues and joints. Some have suggested that the oil has antiviral properties, and it is thought to relieve rheumatism and joint inflammation. Another totally unique essential oil from Madagascar to relieve rheumatic paints is Katrafay, which is also used in Madagascar by women after giving birth as a fortifier and tonic. It is also believed to have anti-inflammatory properties. Cinnamosma fragrance is used traditionally as a decoction for treatment of lalarial symptoms. The essential oil is used for tired and aching muscles. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep ‘According to suppliers, there are quite a few other high quality aromatherapy oils produced in Madagascar. These include niaouli used for clearing, cleansing and mental stimulation; lantana camara used for flu, colds, coughs, fevers, yellow fever, dysentery and jaundice; ylang-ylang used as an aphrodisiac; cinnamon (bark and leaf) used to destroy microbes and bacteria, and holding promise for people with diabetes; tamanu (Calophyllum inophyllum) used to treat skin ailments; wild orange petit grains, used as a lively and soothing fragrance and to relieve dry skin; a unique ginger (fresh) oil used for circulation, aching muscles and nausea; and clove bud oil, which has been utilized as a local anesthetic in dentistry, as a food preservative and as an alternative to Deet. Because perfumes and essential oils depend heavily on harvest of plant substances and the availability of animal products, perfumery can often turn risky. Thousands of flowers are needed to obtain just one pound of essential oils, and if the season’s crop is destroyed by disease or adverse weather, perfumeries could be in jeopardy. In addition, consistency is hard to maintain in natural oils. The same species of plant raised in several different areas with slightly different growing conditions may not yield oils with exactly the same scent. Problems are also encountered in collecting natural animal oils. Many animals once killed for the value of their oils are on the endangered species list and now cannot be hunted. For example, sperm whale products like ambergris have been outlawed since 1977. Also, most animal oils in general are difficult and expensive to extract. Deer musk must come from deer found in Tibet; civet cats, bred in Ethiopia, are kept for their fatty gland secretions; beavers from Canada and the former Soviet Union are harvested for their castor. Synthetic perfumes have allowed perfumes more freedom and stability in their craft, even though natural ingredients are considered more desirable in the very finest perfumes. The use of synthetic perfumes and oils climinates the need to extract oils from animals and removes the risk of a bad plant harvest, saving much expense and the lives of many animals. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN Questions 1-5 The flowchart below demonstrates the cold enfleurage method of fragrance extraction. Complete the flowchart with NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each blank from the passage. LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYENTELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN ww. faccbook.com/TELTSstephystep . chassis 1 2. enfleurage pomade 3. (ethyl) alcohol 4. to produce soaps 5. the essential oil LELTS step-by-step MR. ZENICNGUYEN See