IELTS Reading Practice Test 2 Printable

Answer Keys

Section 1

1. III. First part of Paragraph One focuses on how fragile the regions of ‘deserts, mountains and Arctic areas’ are. Then, it is said how attractive the business is, because it requires almost no investment. In the second paragraph of the section it is mentioned how important this tourism has become for some countries’ financial well-being.
   Heading VI doesn’t fit here as economic benefits of wilderness tourism is not the main topic of this section.
2. V. All three paragraphs of this section concentrate on the various negative effects of wilderness tourism on the regions – both economically and ecologically. The word ‘disruptive’ here means ‘preventing a system from working of functioning in a traditional, established way’.
   Heading IV shouldn’t be used here. Yes, Paragraph Two focuses on the traditional ways of producing food and harvesting. However, this is not the main topic of the whole section.
3. II. Most of the paragraphs in this section give examples how the local population of the exotic tourism destinations managed to benefit financially from the travel industry. The focus is on how to maintain balance between the influx of tourists that can potentially harm the fragile regions and the money they bring to the local economies.
   Don’t be tempted to choose Heading VI here – economic benefits are mentioned in most paragraphs, but the main idea is divided between that and preserving the regions.
4. Yes. First paragraph of the text, sentence three: ‘The attraction of these areas is obvious’.
5. Yes. Middle of the same paragraph says, that these regions are ‘fragile not just in terms of their ecology, but also in terms of the culture of their inhabitants’. Then they specify the exact range of regions in the following sentence: ‘deserts, mountains and Arctic areas’.
6. No. Last two sentence of the first paragraph state the opposite – these areas are open to tourism for a limited number of days each year because of their ‘marked seasonality’.
7. Yes. First paragraph of Section B mentions how farmers of the hilly regions turned to being porters for tourists, which proved much more profitable and as a result the amount of crops went down: ‘In some hill-regions, this has led to a serious decline in farm output’.
8. No. Second paragraph, the very beginning states the opposite. Ending of sentence one points out how hunting and gathering is spread ‘over a relatively short season’.
9. Not Given. Section B, at the end the second paragraph government handouts are mentioned as being harmful. However, no direct comparison between them and the food-gathering patterns is made.
10. Cheese. Last sentence in the second paragraph of Section C: ‘There has also been a renaissance in communal cheese production in the area’.
11. Tourist/ tourism/tour businesses. Section C, paragraph three, the second sentence: ‘But some Arctic communities are now operating tour businesses themselves.’
12. Pottery. Last sentence of the fourth paragraph in Section C: ‘The Acoma and San Ildefonso pueblos have established highly profitable pottery businesses’.
13. Jewelry/ jewellry. Same last sentence of Paragraph Four: ‘The Acoma and San Ildefonso pueblos have established highly profitable pottery businesses ‘the Navajo and Hopi groups have been similarly successful with jewellery’. ‘Similarly successful’ refers to the business venture of the Acoma and San Ildefonso
    

    Section 2

14. G. Last sentence of Paragraph Two: ‘But he insists that cases are few and far between. ‘It’s a very rare phenomenon,’ he says.’. A short disclaimer: Looking for proper names (just like this task requires us to) is the easiest because they are capitalised, which makes them ideal keywords – they really stand out in the text.
15. A. Last but one sentence of Paragraph Three: ‘‘What you hear is only the tip of the iceberg,’ says Trevor Ford’. He then clarifies that the likely reason for such situation is that ‘No-one wants bad press.’
16. H. Middle of Paragraph Nine has a description of an extreme case of delayed failure in a research building in Lathom, Lancashire.
17. C. Last but one paragraph mentions Waterfront Place undergoing a thorough glass examination due to a high number of failures. The examination was conducted by John Barry.
18. Sharp. Paragraph Four, sentence three mentions the ordinary glass breaking into ‘razor-sharp shards’, whereas toughened glass is different. Not as sharp.
19. Unexpectedly. An adverb is required here. The word is easy to guess from the general context of the passage. Paragraph Nine, sentence three states that ‘The time that elapses before failure occurs is unpredictable.’.
20. Quickly. Paragraph Five gives a description of the glass toughening procedure. First sentence of the paragraph says, that the glass, after being heated is treated with jets of cold air, ‘cooling it rapidly’.
21. Contracts. Paragraph Five, sentence two: ‘This causes the outer layer of the pane to contract and solidify before the interior.’.
22. Warm. Paragraph Nine, sentence three: ‘although if the glass is heated – by sunlight, for example – the process is speeded up’.
23. Disputed. In Paragraph Two Brian Waldron, one of the experts, believes that the cases are few and rare. Then, at the beginning of Paragraph Three it is said that ‘Others disagree.’. Barrie Josie, Tony Wilmott and Simon Armstrong have different experiences and opinions on the topic. Thus, the frequency of occurrences is disputed.
24. True. Last sentence of Paragraph One: ‘minute crystals of nickel sulphide trapped inside the glass had almost certainly caused the failure’.
25. Not given. Paragraph Four gives a brief description of toughened glass properties. However, nothing is said about its visual similarity with the regular glass.
26. False. An incidence is a rate or frequency at which something happens. See Question 23 which covers the same problem. There is no clear data on the frequency of such incidents.
    

    Section 3

27. True. Paragraph Two, third sentence states that the amount of data to support the idea of photoperiodism is ‘considerable’.
28. True. Paragraph Two, sentence four supports this idea by giving an example of simulating longer days to encourage birds to breed.
29. Not given. No such information can be found in any of the paragraphs.
30. False. Last sentence of Paragraph Five states the opposite – these plants use rainfall rather than length of day as a cue to germinate. Therefore, these plants are neither long-day nor short-day.
31. False. First sentence of Paragraph Five gives a different information. According to it, bamboo plants ‘suddenly flower, fruit and die’. Therefore, they can only flower once.
32. True. Paragraph Five, sentence three confirms this information. The trigger, or cue for this species of plants to flower is not known yet.
33. False. Last two sentences of the text contain the answer. However, to interpret the data one has to go back to the beginning of the last paragraph, where the concept of ‘photosynthetic rate’ is explained. In short, hemlock’s photosynthetic rate is low and therefore it is a slow-growing plant.
34. Temperatures. Paragraph Two, sentences two and three talk both about temperatures and length of day. The former can vary and is therefore less predictable, whereas day length changes consistently and is therefore a better cue for the breeding animals.
35. Day-neutral / day-neutral plants. Last sentence of Paragraph Two says that day-neutral plants are plants that flower regardless of photoperiod, which is a term to describe how sensitive a given organism is to the amount of light during the day.
36. Food / food resources / adequate food resources. Last sentence of Paragraph Three gives us the information of birds using warmer seasons to breed because of food being in abundance then.
37. Insects / fertilization by insects. Paragraph Four, second sentence mentions long-day plants relying on fertilization by insects. To answer this question it is important to remember that long-day plants are plants that flower when days become longer (i.e. in summer).
38. Rainfall / suitable rainfall. Last sentence of Paragraph four mentions rain being a trigger for plants in those regions to flower.
39. Sugarcane. Last sentence, Paragraph Six gives the example of sugarcane as a plant that has no limit on the rate of photosynthesis.
40. Classification. Second sentence of the last paragraph talks about horticulture classification.

IELTS Reading Score Reference Table

Vocabulary

The vocabulary below is meant to help you with the more difficult words. If the word isn’t on the list then you are either supposed to know it or it is too specific to be worth learning and you don’t have to know it to answer the question. Symbols in brackets mean part of speech (see bottom of the list). Sentences in italics give examples of usage for some more complex words and phrases.

And remember — you are not given a vocabulary list (or a dictionary) at your real exam.

Section 1

Remote (adj) — distant, away from others. I spent the better part of my life in a remote village in the mountainous regions of Spain.
Booming (adj) — developing at an incredible rate, very popular, successful and producing a lot of money. The booming car industry of 1960s.
By definition (phr) — because of its nature or its features. Religion by its definition is a matter of faith rather than matter.
Prevail (v) — to win or to dominate. Despite our best efforts the opposing team has prevailed in the finals.
Indigenous (adj) — existing in a country or region from the beginning as opposed to having arrived there later. The indigenous people of the tundra.

Porter (n) — a person whose job is to help carry your bags, i. e. luggage. Porters make most of their money from tips, so they salary is adjusted accordingly.
Trekker (n) — a person engaged in trekking – walking long distances, especially over hilly or mountainous terrain. We met a group of trekker on our way up the hill.
Irrigation (n) — an act or system of providing plants with water to ensure their sustained growth. This facility has developed an advanced irrigation system which they are very proud of.
Culprit (n) — something or someone that is the cause of the problem. I couldn’t start my car and it took the repairman less that a minute to find the culprit – a burnt fuse.
(Government) handouts (phr) — money or goods given by the government to certain groups of population that require it, usually the less financially secure ones. Many people of the rural region rely on government handouts.
Undermine (v) — to make something weaker, less likely to succeed, over time. Susan and her endless gossip really undermines our company’s morale.
Dry up (phr v) — to end (about a supply, source of income and so on). Once our savings dry up you will have to find a job!

Legion (adj) — very large in number. The number of problems new government will have to deal with is legion.
Reinvigorate (v) — to bring back to life, to return lost energy. Reading Ayn Rand reinvigorated my passion for fiction and books in general.
Impose (v) — to force something, such as a tax or a limitation to be obeyed. The government has imposed a number of restrictions on imported goods to support local production.
Transient (adj) — temporary, passing, lasting for a short time. Most of her hobbies were transient – they wouldn’t last two months.
Repatriate (v) — to bring someone or something back to the country they came from. Nowadays our country is trying to repatriate young professionals by offering them competitive salaries.
Thereby (adv) —as a result of this action. She took up running, thereby improving her health and quality of life.
Accrue (v) — to increase over a period of time. Over her lifetime she has accrued wisdom few could claim to have.

Section 2

Toughened (adj) — reinforced, made stronger than it normally is. Life in this crime-ridden neighbourhood toughened Luigi, making him more ready for the hardships to come.
Minute (adj) — extremely small. Our minute disagreements shouldn’t stand in the way of friendship.
Bad press — to have bad press means to be criticized in the media, e.g. in newspapers, on the radio and so on. If this information leaks our candidate is going to get a lot of very bad press.
Shatter (v) — to break into many pieces. Your boy has shattered the window with a ball!
Transparent (adj) — if something is transparent, it is easy to see through it. Tinting car windows makes them less transparent, hence it is illegal in some states.
Exert (v) — to use power, force, influence etc to make something happen. The politician exerted all his influence on the ruling body to get more votes.
Propagate (v) — here: to spread. All they do is propagate lies.
Impurity (n) — here: an unwelcome inclusion of different material. If the total amount of impurities exceed 0.2% the material can’t be used for production.
Molten (adj) — in a liquid state. Because of extreme temperatures, molten steel produces a beautiful orange glow.
Primed (adj) — prepared, in full readiness for something. We have primed the engine for its first start-up.
Unleash (v) — to release something uncontrollable or having great force. Making this news a matter of public knowledge would unleash a massive scandal.
Batch (n) — here: a group of items produced in one go. This batch of beer can’t be shipped because we have used the wrong ingredients.
Cradle (n) — a small bed for baby that can be rocked from side to side. The cradle was empty, my wife must have taken the baby to our bed.

Section 3

Cue (n) — a signal or a reminder to do something. Green traffic light is a cue to start moving.
Fluctuate (v) — to change frequently. Currency exchange rates fluctuate on a daily basis, and some people make quite good money off it.
Occur (v) — to happen (especially about something unexpected). Yesterday a big problem occurred at work, happily we managed to resolve it quickly.
Offspring (n) — young of an animal, also used to refer to children in a humorous, not serious way. Cat’s offspring is called kitten.
Fledge (v) — (of a bird) to grow feather and learn how to fly. The amount of time before fledging hugely varies from one bird species to another.
Germinate (v) — (about a plant seed) to start growing. Water the seed frequently to make it germinate sooner.
Perennial (adj) — lasting for a very long time. When talking about plants, perennials live for two years or more.
Horticulture (n) — study or practice of growing plants and flowers. Horticulture is a very popular pastime in Britain.