IELTS Mock Test Reading Mar21 2015 下载本文

ATLAN IELTS Mock Test

IELTS Mock Test

READING

Atlan Education

2015/3/21

Atlan IELTS Mock Test

Reading passage 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on ReadingPassage 1 on the following pages

Classifying Societies

A Although humans have established many types of societies throughout history, sociologists and anthropologists tend to classify different societies according to the degree to which different groups within a society have unequal access to advantages such as resources, prestige or power, and usually refer to four basic types of societies. From least to most socially complex they are clans, tribes, chiefdoms and states. Clan

BThese are small-scale societies of hunters and gatherers, generally of fewer than 100 people, who move seasonally to exploit wild (undomesticated) food resources. Most surviving hunter-gatherer groups are of this kind, such as the Hadza of Tanzania or the San of Southern Africa. Clan members are generally kinsfolk, related by descent or marriage. Clans lack formal leaders, so there are no marked economic differences or disparities in status among their members.

CBecause clans are posed of mobile groups of hunter-gatherers, their sites consist mainly of seasonally occupied camps, and other smaller and more specialized sites. Among the latter are kill or butchery sites — locations where large mammals are killed and sometimes butchered — and work sites, where tools are made or other specific activities carried out. The base camp of such a group may give evidence of rather insubstantial dwellings or temporary shelters, along with the debris of residential occupation. Tribe

DThese are generally larger than mobile hunter-gatherer groups, but rarely number more than a few thousand, and their diet or subsistence is based largely on cultivated plants and domesticated animals. Typically, they are settled farmers, but they may be nomadic with a very different, mobile economy based on the intensive exploitation of livestock. These are generally multi-munity societies, with the individual munities integrated into the larger society through kinship ties. Although some tribes have officials and even a “capital” or seat of government, such officials lack the economic base necessary for effective use of power.

EThe typical settlement pattern for tribes is one of settled agricultural homesteads or villages. Characteristically, no one settlement dominates any of the others in the region. Instead, the archaeologist finds evidence for isolated, permanently occupied houses or for permanent villages. Such villages may be made up of a collection of free-standing houses, like those of the first farms of the Danube valley in Europe. Or they may be clusters of buildings grouped together, for example, the pueblos of the American Southwest, and the early farming village or small town of Catalhoyük in modern Turkey. Chiefdom

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FThese operate on the principle of ranking ----differences in social status between people. Different lineages (a lineage is a group claiming descent from a common ancestor) are graded on a scale of prestige, and the senior lineage, and hence the society as a whole, is governed by a chief. Prestige and rank are determined by how closely related one is to the chief, and there is no true stratification into classes. The role of the chief is crucial.

GOften, there is local specialization in craft products, and surpluses of these and of foodstuffs are periodically paid as obligation to the chief. He uses these to maintain his retainers, and may use them for redistribution to his subjects. The chiefdom generally has a center of power, often with temples, residences of the chief and his retainers, and craft specialists. Chiefdoms vary greatly in size, but the range is generally between about 5,000 and 20,000 persons.

Early State

HThese preserve many of the features of chiefdoms, but the ruler (perhaps a king or sometimes a queen) has explicit authority to establish laws and also to enforce them by the use of a standing army. Society no longer depends totally upon kin relationships: it is now stratified into different classes. Agricultural workers and the poorer urban dwellers form the lowest classes, with the craft specialists above, and the priests and kinsfolk of the ruler higher still the functions of the ruler are often separated from those of the priest palace ?s distinguished from temple. The society is viewed as a territory owned by the ruling lineage and populated by tenants who have an obligation to pay taxes. The central capital houses a bureaucratic administration of officials; one of their principal purposes ?s to collect revenue (often in the form of taxes and tolls) and distribute it to government, army and craft specialists. Many early states developed complex redistribution systems to support these essential services.

IThis rather simple social typology, set out by Elman Service and elaborated by William Sanders and joseph Marino, can be criticized, and it should not be used unthinkingly. Nevertheless, if we are seeking to talk about early societies, we must use words and hence concepts to do so. Service’s categories provide a good framework to help organize our thoughts.

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Questions 1-7

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1? In boxes 1—7 on your answer sheet TRUE if the statement is true FALSE if the statement is false NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage

1. Little economic difference could be found between clan members. 2. There are a wide range of plants that grown by the farmers of a tribe. 3. One settlement is the most important in a tribe. 4. How much land a person owns determines his status. 5. People craft goods in chiefdoms.

6. The king uses military force to maintain the order of a state. 7. Bureaucratic officers receive higher salaries than other members.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 8—13 on your answer sheet

8. What are carried out at the clan work sites?

9. Besides settled farming, what is the other way of life for tribes? 10. What is the arrangement of Catahoyük’s housing units?

11. How does a chief reward his subjects apart from giving crafted goods? 12. What is the smallest possible population of chiefdom?

13. Which group of people is at the bottom of an early state but higher that farmers?

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Reading Passage 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-27, which are based on ReadingPassage 2 on the following pages.

European Skull Were Found in New Zealand

At about midday on 23 October 2004,youngWairarapa local Sam Tobin rounded up his dogs,Gomez and Bertie,and took a wander down to the nearby Ruamahanga River. Having run highfor days, the river had at last fallen and he was eager to see what changes the recent springfloods had wrought. The family farm at Pukio, 15 km southeast of Featherston, bordered theRuamahanga and a purpose-built four-metre-high flood bank set back 30 or 40 paces from thewater testified to its flood-prone nature. Sixteen-year-old Tobin had known the tree-fringedriver to keep to its bed in only one year out of the 11 he had lived on the farm, its shoals andsandy margins endlessly dredged and reworked by the big-muscled seasonal flood.

Stepping out onto a broad shoulder of river sand, studded with stone chip, he noticed whathe took to be the upper surface of a whitish rock lit by the noonday sun. Getting closer hesaw that it was a bone. Such a thing was not uncommon hereabouts - he had often comeacross fragments, and even complete skulls, of cows and sheep. But as he scraped aside thestones and prized the object free, he realized with a shock that he held in his hands a humanskull, discolored with age, and bleached above and behind the right eye socket where it hadlain exposed. There were several holes, one of them in the right temple, perhaps suggestinga violent death.

Tobin replaced the skull and hurried home to tell his mother what the Ruamahanga haddelivered to their doorstep. It would prove to be a spectacular find; setting in motion aninvestigation that would drag on for years and draw in some of the country's most respectedspecialists, stirring heated controversy across the country and making headlines on the otherside of the world. The debate that ensued challenged our most firmly held assertions ofhuman settlement in New Zealand.

The police were called,but despite a thorough search they could find nothing that might shedlight on the identity of the skull, or on the circumstances of its sudden appearance on asecluded bank of the Ruamahanga.

The skull was taken north to be examined by forensic pathologists Dr Rex Ferris and DrTimKoelmeyer at Auckland Hospital. Despite being hampered by its damaged and incomplete condition - the jawbone and lower left portion of the cranium were missing - Ferris andKoelmeyer determined that the skull was that of an adult female.Furthermore,most probablyof European origin and that the deterioration of the bone placed the time of death \memory\conjectured that the holes in the skull,each the size of a 10 cent piece,might represent old injuries,and that one of the perforations looked to have been caused by\

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Wellington-based forensic anthropologist Dr Robin Watt also examined the skull. He concurred with his northern colleagues, stating in his report that it was \about 40-45 years, and probably of European origin\

The experts agreed,and believing that it could be the remains of an old farm burial, DrWattrecommended radiocarbon dating to make sure it wasn't a recent death.A sample of bonefrom the upper part of the skull was duly sent to the Institute of Geological and NuclearSciences (GNS) in Lower Hutt, and a little over three weeks later the result from GNS'sRafter Radiocarbon Laboratory came back.The news was a bombshell.

Cutting through the bewildering complexity of the scientific analysis was a single line, underthe heading\

The inquest heard that the skull was definitely not Maori - the only race known to have inhabited New Zealand in the 1 8th century - and almost certainly of European origin.TheEuropean discovery of the shoreline of New Zealand was made by the Dutch explorerAbelTasman in 1642.Tasman however had no women aboard his expedition.

The Maori are believed to have settled around 1200.The first white women known to have arrived in the country were two convicts who escaped from a penal colony in New South Wales, Australia, in 1806. Gareth Winter, the official Masterton archivist who was called as an expert witness, told The Daily Telegraph that the possibility of a hoax could confidently be ruled out.

Mr. Winter said that Captain Cook recorded, in the log of his second journey to New Zealand aboard the Resolution in 1772-1775,a tale told to him by a Maori chief of a ship having beenshipwrecked many years earlier. Cook said the Maori told him that they had given the ship'scaptain the name \

Archaeologists believed that the most likely site of such a shipwreck was Cape Palliser, the windswept southern-most point of North Island. Early missionaries wrote of hearing thesame story from Maori, who related that the survivors of the ship had been killed and eatenwhen they came ashore. They said that many Maori had subsequently died in an epidemic,possibly as a result of exposure to a newly introduced infection from Europe. Archaeologistssaid that the wrecked ship had crockery on board, and that Maori wore pieces of it aspendants around their necks, convinced the missionaries that the vessel had indeed beenEuropean.

Calibration

Report\

announced

an

electrifying

conclusion.It

read:\ 35 years BP\

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Questions 14-18

Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 2?In boxes 14- 18 on your answer sheet, write

YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

14 Tobin's hometown floods frequently.

15 Tobin mistook the human skull at the beginning.

16 Tobin didn't determine that the bone is of which part of the body. 17 Tobin's mother didn't feel surprised when Tobin told her about the skull. 18 This discovery confirmed our belief for humans to settle in New Zealand.

Questions 19-22

Complete the flow-chart below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY AND /OR A NUMBER for each answer. At first, some esteemed 19 of the country set up investigating. Dr Rex Ferris and Dr Tim Koelmeyer identified it's possibly a female skull of 20 ancestry. Dr Watt suggested using 21 dating to make a further determination. The testing result showed that the skull was dating back around 22 years.

Questions 23-27

Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage 2. Choose NO MORE THAN ONE WORD from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 23-27 on your answer sheet.

From the investigation, it can be sure that the 23 of the skull wasn't Maori. It was 1806 when two white women got away from 24 to New Zealand, later than the skull's owner. According to a story told by Maori, 25 estimated that the skull was probablyfrom the survivors of a 26 _ which happened in Cape Palliser, because a lot of Maori died ofa / an 27 from Europe caused by killing and eating the survivors.

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READING PASSAGE 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 28-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 on the following pages.

Left-handed or Right-handed

Section A

The probability that two right-handed people would have a left-handed child is only about 9.5 percent.The chance rises to 19.5 percent if one parent is a lefty and 26 percent if both parents are left-handed.The preference, however, could also stem from an infant’s imitation of his parents.To test genetic influence, starting in the 1970s, British biologist Marian Annett of the University of Leicester hypothesized that no single gene determines handedness. Rather, during fetal development, a certain molecular factorhelps to strengthen the brain’s left hemisphere, which increases the probability that the right hand will be dominant, because the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body, and vice versa. Among the minority of people who lack this factor, handedness develops entirely by chance.

Research conducted on twins complicates the theory, however. One in five sets of identical twins involves one right-handed and one left-handed person, despite the fact that their genetic material is the same. Genes, therefore, are not solely responsible for handedness.

Section B

Genetic theory is also undermined by results from Peter Hepper and his team at Queen’s University in Belfast, Ireland In 2004 the psychologists used ultra sound to show that by the 15th week of pregnancy, fetuses already have a preference as to which thumb they suck. In most cases, the preference continued after birth.At 15 weeks, though, the brain does not yet have control over the body’s limbs. Hepper speculates that fetuses tend to prefer whichever side of the body that is developing quicker and that their movements, in turn, influence the brain’s development. Whether this early preference is temporary or holds up throughoutdevelopment and infancy is unknown. Genetic predetermination is also contradicted by thewidespread observation that children do not settle on either their right or left hand until they are two or three years old.

Section C

But even if these correlations were true, they did not explain what actually causes left- handedness. Furthermore, specialization on either side of the body is common among animals. Cats will favor one paw over another when fishing toys out from under the couch. Horses stomp more frequently with one hoof than the other. Certain crabs motion predominantly with the left or right claw. In evolutionary terms, focusing power and dexterity in one limb is more efficient than having to train two, four or even eight limbs equally,Yet for most animals,the preference for one side or the other is seemingly random.The overwhelming dominance of the right hand is associated only with humans. That fact directs attention toward the brain’s two hemi-spheres and perhaps toward language.

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Section D

Interest in hemispheres dates back to at least 1836.That year, at

amedicalconference,Frenchphysician Marc Dax reported on an unusual commonality among his patients. During his many years as a country doctor, Dax had encountered more than 40 men and women for whom speech was difficult, the result of some kind of brain damage. What was unique was that every individual suffered damage to the left side of the brain. At the conference, Dax elaborated on his theory, stating that each half of the brain was responsible for certain functions and that the left hemisphere controlled speech. Other experts showed little interest in the Frenchman's ideas.

Over time, however, scientists found more and more evidence of people experiencing speech difficulties following injury to the left brain, Patients with damage to the right hemisphere most often displayed disruptions in perception or concentration. Major advancements in understanding the brain’s asymmetry were made in the 1960s as a result of so-called split-brain surgery, developed to help patients with epilepsy. During this operation, doctors severed the corpus callosum — the nerve bundle that connects the two hemispheres. The surgical cut also stopped almost all normal communication between the two hemispheres,which offered researchers the opportunity to investigate each side’s activity. Section E

In 1949 neurosurgeon Juhn Wada devised the first test to provide access to the brain's functional organization of language. By injecting an anesthetic into the right or left carotid artery, Wada temporarily paralyzed one side of a healthy brain, enabling him to more closely study the other side's capabilities. Based on this approach, Brenda Milner and the late Theodore Rasmussen of the Montreal Neurological Institute published a major study in 1975 that confirmed the theory that country doctor Dax had formulated nearly 140 years earlier: in 96 percent of right-handed people, language is processed much more intensely in the left hemisphere.The correlation is not as clear in lefties, however. For two thirds of them, the left hemisphere is still the most active language processor. But for the remaining third, either the right side is dominant or both sides work equally, controlling different language functions.

That last statistic has slowed acceptance of the notion that the predominance of right- handedness is driven by left-hemisphere dominance in language processing. It is not at all clear why language control should somehow have dragged the control of body movement with it.Some experts think one reason the left hemisphere reigns over language is because the organs of speech processing — the larynx and tongue — are positioned on the bod’s symmetry axis. Because these structures were centered, it may have been unclear, in evolutionary terms, which side of the brain should control them, and it seems unlikely that shared operation would result in smooth motor activity.

Language and handedness could have developed preferentially for very different reasons as well. For example, some researchers, including evolutionary psychologist Michael C, Corballis of the University of Auckland In New Zealand, think that the origin of human speech lies in gestures. Gestures predated words and helped language emerge. If the left hemisphere began to dominate speech, it would have dominated gestures, too, and because the left brain controls the right side of

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the body, the right hand developed more strongly. Section F

Perhaps we will know more soon. In the meantime, we can revel in what, if any, differences handedness brings to our human talents. Popular wisdom says right-handed, left-brained people excel at logical, analytical thinking. Left-handed, right-brained individuals are thoughtto possess more creative skills and may be better at combining the functional featuresemergent in both sides of the brain. Yet some neuroscientists see such claims as pure speculation. Fewer scientists are ready to claim that left-handedness means greater creative potential.Yet lefties are prevalent among artists, composers and the generally acknowledged great political thinkers. Possibly if these individuals are among the lefties whose language abilities are evenly distributed between hemispheres, the intense interplay required could lead to unusual mental capabilities. Section G

Or perhaps some lefties become highly creative simply because they must be cleverer to get by in our right-handed world. This battle, which begins during the very early stages of childhood, may lay the groundwork for exceptional achievements.

Questions 28-32

Reading Passage 3 has seven sections from A-G,Which section contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A—G, in boxes 28—32 on your answer sheet

NB You may use any letter more than once

28 29 30 31 32

phenomenon of using one side of their body for animals statistics on rate of one-handedness born

the age when the preference of using one hand is fixed great talents of occupations in left-handed population earliest record of researching hemisphere’s function

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Questions 33-36

Look at the following researchers and the list offindings below Match each researcher with the correct finding.

List of Researchers A Brenda Milner B Marian Annett C Peter Hepper D MichaleCorballis

33 34 35 36

Ancient language evolution is connected to body gesture and therefore influences handedness. A child handedness is not determined by just biological factors.

Language process is generally undergoing in the left-hemisphere of the brain.

The rate of development of one side of the body has influence on hemisphere preferencein fetus.

Questions 37-40

Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3? In boxes 37—40 on your answer sheet, write YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer NOif the statement contradicts the claims of the writer NOT GIVENif it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

37 The study of twins shows that genetic determination is not the only factor for left handedness. 38 The number of men with left-handedness is larger than that of women . 39 Marc Dax’s report was widely recognized in his time.

40Juhn Wada based his findings on his research of people with language problems.

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