IELTS test preparation online | IELTS General Reading Test 36

SECTION 1
Questions 1 – 7
USE THE RIGHT TYPE OF FIRE EXTINGUISHER!
Fire extinguishers come in different types depending on the material combusted.

The five main types of fire extinguisher are described below.

Pressurized water
Used for Class A fires only.

Carbon-dioxide
Used for Class E fires because it does not damage electrical equipment such as computers. Limited use for Class B fires because there is a risk of re-ignition due to a lack of cooling.

Foam-filled
Used for Class B fires. Also used for Class A fires, though not in confined spaces. They are NOT for electrical equipment fires or cooking oil.

Dry powder
Used for Class A, B, C and E fires, with specialist powders for Class D fires. Smothers the fire but does not cool it or penetrate very well so there is a risk of re-ignition.

Wet chemical
Used for Class F fires, especially high temperature deep fat fryers.

There are six classifications of combustible material as shown below.

Class A: flammable organic solids (eg wood, paper, coal, plastics, textiles)
Class B: flammable liquids (eg gasoline, spirits) but not cooking oil
Class C: flammable gas (eg propane, butane)
Class D: combustible metals (eg magnesium, lithium)
Class E: electrical equipment (eg computers, photocopiers)
Class F: cooking oil and fat
The above classifications apply to Europe and Australia.

Questions 1 to 7
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the text?
Write:

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this.

1. Class A fires can be tackled with three types of extinguisher.
2. A gasoline fire extinguished with carbon-dioxide might ignite again.
3. Flammable liquids are more likely to reignite than flammable solids.
4. Foam-filled extinguishers can be used on fires involving plastics.
5. Foam-filled extinguishers should NOT be used outdoors.
6. Cooking oil fires should only be tackled with Class F fire extinguishers.
7. Only one type of fire extinguisher is suitable for a lithium battery fire.

Read the text below and answer Questions 8 to 14.

CONTRACT OF EMPLOYMENT

A Macleods is a soft fruit farm, situated approximately 20 km east of Dundee near the village of Muirdrum. The farm is off the Arbroath Road and clearly signposted. Please see the website for a map and travel details.

B You must bring all essential paperwork, including your letter of acceptance, your passport, National ID card, and a work permit if you are not an EU citizen. If you are a student please bring proof of this. Two passport photographs are required.

C You can stay in our modern and clean caravans. They have two bedrooms, each with a single bed, a fully equipped kitchen, a shower and toilet. There is a fee of £4 per day, which includes gas, electric and laundry use. A breakages deposit of £50 is required which will be returned to you in full when you leave, provided that nothing has been damaged.

D The farm consists of 40 hectares of strawberries and 2 hectares of other soft fruits under the cover of polythene tunnels. We use the table-top system so all the fruit is picked at waist level rather than on the ground.

E This means that you are paid harvest-worker piece rates. You will earn a fixed amount per kilogram of fruit picked, so the more you pick, the more you earn. A good picker can earn upwards of £300 per week. You will receive your wages in cash at the end of the week together with a payslip.

F Our polythene tunnels provide protection from the weather but we can still have problems linked to insects, plant diseases or changes in customer demand, meaning that we cannot promise you any work.

G We reserve the legal right to dismiss any employee who is guilty of serious misconduct or who fails to adhere to our health and safety procedures.

Questions 8 to 14
The text has seven sections, A to G.
Choose the correct heading for the sections A, B, C, D, E, F and G from the list of headings below.

List of headings
i. Accommodation and charges
ii. No guarantee of employment
iii. Bad weather
iv. Sheltered picking
v. Documents
vi. Contract terminated
vii. Hours of work
viii. Location
ix. Piece work
x. Travel information

8. Section A
9. Section B
10. Section C
11. Section D
12. Section E
13. Section F
14. Section G

Section 2
Questions 15 to 27
Read the text below and answer Questions 15 to 20.

How to create a blog

A blog is an online journal of your ideas, thoughts or opinions on a topic that interests you. Topics tend to be news orientated to reflect current issues or events. Blogs are often linked to web pages to give a website an up-to-date feel, but you can also create stand-alone blogs. A blogging service will provide you with a free account and a selection of templates that enable you to customize the layout and colours of your blog. Blogs are easier to create than web pages and are more interactive. It is possible to add pictures to your blog and links to other websites that visitors might find useful.

Sharing information
Before you post a blog you need to decide whether it is to be made public or kept private. Public information can be seen be any internet user. Private information is restricted to people you choose; for example, friends and family. You can also password protect your blog so that it can be accessed only by users who have logged in. Guest users are sometimes permitted to see some but not all of the blog articles.

How to post information
Readers are invited to respond to your blog by clicking on a ‘leave a comment’ link. Typically, a series of dialogue boxes appear, inviting the reader to enter the following pieces of information:

● the blogger’s real name or a blogging name
● an e-mail address
● a website address if they have one
● a title for the article
● the text that the blogger wishes to post, which is the main part of the blog, usually written in a conversational tone.

The replies to your blog are date and time stamped with the most recent blog displayed first. You will need to update your blog frequently and to respond to blogger’s comments promptly if you wish to maintain the interest of your visitors. If other bloggers’ comments are not to your liking you can choose to delete them.

Read the text below and answer Questions 21 to 27.

Print, copy and scan
The library has print, copy and scan provision. A universal swipe card is available from the card vending machine near the check-out desk. The card costs $2 and will show a balance of $1 when swiped through a machine for the first time. There are two laser printers, two photocopiers and one scanner in the Lower library and one laser printer and one photocopier in the Upper library.

Laser printing
You can print from any PC in the library. The default setting is black and white doublesided printing. If you want color prints or single-sided copies then click on ‘Properties’ to see the drop down menu. Any URL addresses in a document will automatically print in blue. Please note that your document may be held in a queue.

Photocopying
Please follow the instructions next to the machine. The default setting is Letter size single-sided black and white copies.

Scanning
You can scan your documents to an e-mail address or a USB stick. Please note that any color in a document is detected automatically and will be charged accordingly.

SCANNING: 2 cents in black and white, and 4 cents in colour.

Questions 21 to 27
Classify the following statements as referring to:
A Printer
B Copier
C Scanner
D All three machines.

21. It does not take Ledger size paper.
22. It is not found in the Upper library.
23. Takes a swipe card.
24. You may have to wait for your document to appear.
25. It is the most expensive per side.
26. It cannot automatically print in color.
27. It costs twice as much in color as in black and white.

Section 3
Questions 28 to 40
Read the passage and answer questions 28 to 40.

Old dogs and new tricks

The first days of an animal’s life play a major part in shaping its future.

Cormorant birds are used in China and Japan to catch fish in a traditional method of river fishing that dates back thousands of years. A cormorant dives under the water catches a fish, and then clings to a bamboo pole that the fisherman swings into the boat. It is easy to train a cormorant to behave like this because the bird has been imprinted on the fisherman instead of its natural mother. The fisherman imprints the cormorant on himself by appearing to the chick when it hatches out of the egg. The young bird mistakes the fisherman for the mother bird and bonds with him, responding to his voice and, later, swimming alongside his boat. This ‘follow response’ is nature’s way of preventing young birds from straying from their mother. The process of imprinting lasts for a period of up to two days after hatching. After this sensitive period the effect of the imprinting remains unchanged for the lifetime of the bird and cannot be reversed.

Dogs, cats, sheep, horses and other animals go through a process of imprinting similar to birds. In the case of dogs, the sensitive period lasts for up to 12 weeks. During this time the puppy can imprint on both its natural mother and on humans. Puppies are born blind and deaf, and naturally stay close to their mothers so they do not need an immediate ‘follow response’. The sensitive period lasts from the second week to the fourteenth week of life. It is critical that a dog is socialized with other dogs, family pets and with people within this time frame. If the basic social behaviour is not imprinted in a puppy by the fourteenth week it will lead to behavioural problems later in life that are difficult to change.

A puppy should be left with its natural mother and the litter for several weeks before being socialized with people. If a puppy is taken away from its natural mother too early and handled by people then it sees humans as its natural companions and dogs as complete strangers. Dogs that have only been socialized with people are likely to be aggressive towards another person’s dog or even attack it. Conversely, a dog that has been kept with the mother and litter for too long will not regard humans as companions and is more likely to be aggressive towards people and bite them. Dogs that have not been adequately socialized with both dogs and people can be difficult to control and will not respond to training.

Negative experiences with humans during the imprinting stage can have lasting effects on a dog. It is a cliché, but bad behaviour in a dog is usually the fault of its owner. A rescue dog that was neglected and abused by its owner is likely to remain nervous and fearful of humans. It is possible for a dog to overcome behavioural problems that originate from imprinting but it requires a lot of training and may not be completely successful. Negative behaviours are often reinforced inadvertently when a dog receives more attention for behaving badly than for behaving well.

In obedience training, the dog is taught to respond to basic commands such as sit, stay, down and release. In one training technique, the owner shouts a command – for example, sit – and if the dog acts accordingly it is rewarded with its favourite toy and is verbally praised. The dog associates the action of sitting with praise from its owner and learns to comply. Punishment and negative experiences are best avoided to ensure a confident, happy and obedient dog. Even an old dog can be taught new tricks, or at least new behaviours, with training every day.

Not all dog behaviour can be explained by imprinting and training. Generations of breeding in captivity has domesticated dogs so that they can live in people’s homes as pets, or as working animals. Dogs have been selectively bred to have their natural abilities enhanced or suppressed to suit the needs of man. For example, Border Collies and Belgian Shepherd dogs are pure-bred to herd sheep and protect them, more so when a dog has been imprinted on the flock. Spaniels and Retrievers are used as gun dogs to retrieve game birds for hunters. Scent hounds like the Beagle and the Fox Hound are used for their extra keen sense of smell when sniffing and tracking prey like rabbits and foxes. Some dogs, like Pit Bull Terriers, have been deliberately bred for fighting and can make dangerous pets. It is worth remembering that all dogs have been domesticated from wolves, so any dog has the potential to ‘bite the hand that feeds it’, no matter how well it has been socialized and trained.

Questions 28 to 32
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the text?
Write:

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this.

28 Cormorants imprinted on fishermen are difficult to train.
29 Imprinting stops young birds from getting separated from their mother.
30 Chicks are sensitive to imprinting for up to 48 hours after hatching.
31 Imprinting in birds is temporary.
32 Puppies can only imprint on other dogs and humans.

Questions 33 to 36
Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D for the question based on the General Reading
Passage.

33 Socialization of puppies is very important
A because they cannot hear or see anything.
B for developing an immediate follow response.
C for the first twelve weeks of their life.
D between the second and fourteenth weeks.

34 Imprinting in puppies
A is complete by the fourteenth week.
B lasts for twelve weeks from birth.
C is impossible to change.
D occurs only with the natural mother.

35 A puppy that is handled and petted too soon will not
A be happy with people.
B be happy with dogs.
C be happy with dogs and people.
D have behavioural problems.

36 Bad behaviour is often
A a cliché.
B the fault of the dog rather than the owner.
C encouraged by mistake.
D due to insufficient training.

Questions 37 to 40
Choose FOUR letters A to I.
The writer describes how a dog can be trained and how its behaviour is instinctive. Which FOUR of the following methods encourage good behaviour in dogs?

A receiving punishment for bad behaviour
B daily training
C by being made to comply
D using words of approval
E by choosing a suitable breed
F by acknowledging bad behaviour
G by teaching new tricks
H by using the toy it likes most
I by encouraging the wolf instincts

Show answers

1. True
2. True
3. Not given
4. True
5. False
6. True
7. Not given
8. viii
9. v
10. i
11. iv
12. ix
13. ii
14. vi
15. blogging service
16. guest users
17. dialogue boxes
18. text
19. interest
20. delete
21. D
22. C
23. D
24. A
25. B
26. A
27. C
28. False
29. True
30. True
31. False
32. Not given
33. D
34. A
35. B
36. C
37. B
38. C
39. D
40. H (37 – 40 in any order)