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666 views13 pagesTest 1 Reading
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© © All Rights Reserved
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/ 13
IELTS cict
READING PASSAGE 1
‘You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1
‘on pages 2 and 3.
Caral: an ancient South American city
‘Huge earth and rock mounds rise out of the desert of the Supe Veley near the coast of Peru in
South America, These immense mounds appear simply to be part of the geographical landseape
in this arid region squeezed between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes mountain. But looks
deceive. These are actually human-made pyramids, Strong evidence indicates they are the
remains of a city known as Caral that flourished nearly 5000 years ago. If true, it would be the
oldest known urban center in the Americas and among the most ancient in the world.
Research undertaken by Peruvian archaeologist Ruth Shady suggests that the 150-acre complex
of pyramids, plazas and residential buildings was a thriving metropolis when Egypt's great
pyramids were still being built. Though discovered in 1905, for years Caral attracted little
attention, largely because archaeologists believed the structures were fairly recent. But the
monumental scale of the pyramids had long interested Shady, who began excavations at the site
in 1996, about 22 kilometers from the coast and 190 kilometers north of Peru s capital city of
Lima
Shady and het erew searched for broken temains of the pots and Containers that most such sites
contain, Not finding any only made hermore excited; it meant Caral could be what
archaeologists term pre-ceramic, that is, existing before the advent in the afew of pot-firing
techniques. Shady's team undertook the task of excavating Piramide Mayor, the largest of the
pyramids. After carefully clearing away many hundreds of years' worth of rubble and sand, they
identified staircases, walls covered with remnants of colored plaster, and brickwork. In the
foundations, they found the remains of grass-like reeds woven into bags. The origmial workers,
she surmised, must have filled these bags with stones froma nearby quarry and laid them atop
one another inside retaining walls, gradually giving rise to the pyramid’s immense structure.
Shady had samples of the reeds subjected to radiocarbon dating and found that the reeds were
4,600 years old. This evidence indicated that Caral was, in fact, more than 1,000 years older than
what had previously been thought to be the oldest urban center in the Americas.
‘What amazed archaeologists was not just the age, but the complexity and scope of Caral.
Piramide Mayor alone covers an atea nearly the size of four football fields and is 18 meters tall
‘A nine-meter-wide staircase rises from a circular plaza at the foot of the pyramid, passing over
three terraced levels until it reaches the top. Thousands of manual laborers would have been
needed to build such a project, not counting the many architects, craftsmen, and managers.
Shady’s team found the remains of a large amphitheater containing almost 70 musical
instruments made of bird and deer bones. Clearly music played an important role in Caral’s
society. Azound the perimeter of Caral are a series of smaller mounds and various buildings.
These indicate hierarchy of living arrangements: large, well-kept rooms atop pyramids for the
Nie, ground level quarters Sr craftsmen and shabbier outlying dwellings for workers.
LUYEN DE THI GOC - TANG BAND THAN TOC
KHONG TRUONG HOAN 100% HOC BHI But why had Caral been built inthe first place? Her excavations convinced Shady that Caral
once served as a trade center for the region, which extends from the rainforest of the Amazon to
the high forests of the Audes. Shady found evidence of a rich trading enviroument, including
seeds of the cocoa bush and necklaces of shells, neither of which was native to the immediate
Caral area, This envitomment gave rise to people who did not take patt in the production of food,
allowing them to become priests and planners, builders and designers. Thus occupational
specialization, elemental to an urban society, emerged
‘But what sustained such a trading center and drew travelers to it? Was is food? Shady and her
team found the bones of small edible fish, which must have come from the Pacific coast to the
‘west, in the excavations. But they also found evidence of squash, sweet potatoes and beans
having been grow locally. Shady theorized that Caral’s early farmers diverted the area’s rivers
into canals, which still cross the Supe Valley today, to irrigate their fields. But because she found
no traces of maize, which can be traded or stored and used in times of crop failure, she concluded
that Caral’s trade leverage was not based on stockpiling food supplies
It was evidence of another crop in the excavations that gave Shady the best clue to Caral’s
success. In nearly every excavated building, her team discovered evidence of cotton - seeds,
fibers and textiles, Her theory fell info place whena large fishing net made of those fibers,
‘unearthed in an unrelated dig on Peru’s coast, turned out to be as old as Caral, “The farmers of
Caral grew the colton thet te fishermen needed to make their uets,” Shady speculates. “And the
fishermen gave them Shellfish and dried fish in exchange for thee nets. “In essence, the people
of Caral enabled fishermen to work with larger and more effective nets, which made the
resources of the sea more readily available, and the fishermen probably usedidried squash grown,
by the Caral people as flotation devices for their nets,
IELTS cict
LUYEN DE THI GOC - TANG BAND THAN TOC
KHONG TRUONG HOAN 100% HOC BHI Questions 1-6
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 17
In boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
1 Caral was built at the same time as the construction of the Egyptian pyramids
2 The absence of pottery at the archaeological dig gave Shady a significant clue to the age
of the site.
3 The stones used to build Piramide Mayor came from a location fir away.
4 The huge and complicated structures of Piramide Mayor suggest that its construction
required an organised team of builders
5 Archaeological evidence shows that the residents of Caral were highly skilled musicians.
6 The remains of housing areas at Caral suggest that there were no class distinetions in
residential areas,
1eLTS cic
LUYEN BE THI GOc - TANG BAND THAN TOC
COC
KHONG TRUONG HOAN 100% HOC BHI Questions 7-13
Complete the notes below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY fiom the passage for each answer.
‘Write your answers in boxes 7-13 on your answer sheet.
Caral as a trading centre
Items discovered at Caral but not naturally occurring in the area
+ the7 ofa certain plant
1 Beccccceecceene used to make jewellery
+ the remains of certain food such as 9
‘Clues to farming around Caral
& Warsi still in existence today indicate water diverted from rivers
+ no evidence that 11 oo... eeseeeseee WAS TOWN
Evidence of relationship with fishing communities
+ the excavation findings and fishing nets found onthe coast suggest Caral farmers
traded 12... 2
+ dried squash may have been used to aid 13. ... oP fishing nets
IELTS cict
LUYEN DE THI GOC - TANG BAND THAN TOC
KHONG TRUONG HOAN 100% HOC BHI READING PASSAGE 2
‘You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which are based on Reading Passage 2
‘on pages 7 and 8.
Questions 14-19
Reading Passage 2 hes six paragraphs, A-F
Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.
‘Write the comect number, Hx, in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet.
14
15
16
7
18
19
IELTS cict
List of Headings
i Robots on Barth - a re-evaluation
ii The barriers to cooperation in space exploration
fii Some limitations of robots in space
iy Reduced expectations for space exploration
Vv ‘A general reconsideration of humau/robot responsibilities in space
vi Problems in using humans for space exploration
vii The danger to humans of intelligent machines
vii” Space settlement and the development of greater selPawateiess
ix Possible examples of cooperation in space
Paragraph A
Paragraph B
Paragraph C
Paragraph D
Paragraph E
Paragraph F
LUYEN DE THI GOC - TANG BAND THAN TOC
KHONG TRUONG HOAN 100% HOC BHI IELTS cict
Should space be explored by robots or by humans?
A. The advisability of humans participating directly in space travel continues to cause many
debates. There is no doubt that the presence of people on board a space vehicle make if
design much more complex and challenging, and produces a large increase in cost, since
safety requirements are greatly increased, and the performance of the technology
providing necessities for human passengers such as oxygen, food and water nmist be
guaranteed. Moreover, the systems required are bulky and costly, and their complexity
increases for long-duration missions. Meanwhile, advances in electronics and computer
science allow increasingly complex tasks to be entrusted to robots, aud unmanned space
probes are becoming lighter, smaller and more convenient.
B. However, experience has shown thet the idea of humans in space is popular with the
public. Humans can also be useful; there are many cases when only direct intervention by
an astronaut or cosmonaut can correct the malfunction of an automatic device. Astronauts
and cosmonauts have proved that they can adapt to conditions of weightlessness and
work in space without encountering too many problems, as was seen in the operations to
repair and to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. One human characteristic which is
particularly precious in space missions, and which so far is lacking in robots, is the ability
to perform a great variety of tasks. In addition, robots are not good at reacting to
situations they have not been specifically: prepared for, This is especially important in the
case of deep space missions. While, in the case of the Moon, it is possible for someone on
Earth to ‘tele-operate’ a robotic device such asa probe, asthe two-way link time is only a
couple of seconds, on Mars the two-way link-timeiis seyeral minutes; so sending
instructions fiom Eath is more difficult,
C. Many of the promises of artificial intelligence are still far fom being fulfilled. The
constriction of machines sinmulating hnman logical reasoning moves towards ever more
distant dates. The more the performance of computers improves, the more we realise how
difficult it isto build machines which display logical abilities. In the past it was
confidently predicted that we would soon have fully automated factories in which all
operations were performed without any human intervention, and forecasts of the
complete substitution of workers by robots in many production areas were uuade. Today,
these perspectives are being revised. It seems that all machines, even the smartest ones,
mnst cooperate with humans. Rather than replacing humans, the present need appears to
be for an intelligent machine capable of helping a human operator without replacing him
or her. The word ‘cobot’, fiom ‘collaborative robot’, has been invented to designate this,
type of robot.
D. A similar trend is also apparent in the field of space exploration. Tasks which were in the
past entrusted only to machines are now performed by human beings, sometimes with the
aim of using simpler and less costly devices, sometimes to obtain better performance. In
many cases, to involve a person in the control loop is a welcome simplification which
may lower the cost of a mission without compromising safety. Many operations
originally designed (o be perfonmed under coupleiely automatic control can be
LUYEN DE THI GOC - TANG BAND THAN TOC
Oa
KHONG TRUONG HOAN 100% HOC BHI rR
IELTS cict
LUYEN DE THI GOC - TANG BAND THAN TOC
performed more efficiently by astronauts, perhaps helped by their “cobots’. The human-
machine relationship must evolve towards a closer collaboration.
One way this could happen is by adopting the Mars Outposts approach, proposed by the
Planetary Society. This would involve sending a number of robotic research stations to
‘Mars, equipped with permanent communications and uavigational systems. They would
perform research, and establish the infrastructure needed to prepare fature landing sites,
for the exploration of Mars by lnmans. It has zIso been suggested that in the most
difficult environments, as on Venus or Jupiter, robots could be controlled by human
beings located in spaceships which remain in orbit around the planet. In this ease the link
time for communication between humans and robots would be far less than it would be
from Earth.
Bult if space is to be more than a place to build automatic laboratories or set up industrial
enterprises in the vicinity of our planet, the presence of humans is essential. They must
learn how to voyage through space towards destinations which will be not only scientific
bases but also places to live. If space is a frontier, that frontier uuist see the presence of
people. So the aim for humankind in the future will be not just the exploration of space,
but its colonisation. The result of exploring and living in space may be a deep change in
the views which humankind has of itself. And this process is already underway. The
images of Earth taken from the Moon in the Apollo programme have given humankind a
new consciousness of its fragility, its smallness, and its unity. These impré3sions have
triggered a realisation of the need to protect and preserve it, for it is the place in the solar
system most suitable for us and.above all itis the only place we have, at least for now.
KHONG TRUONG HOAN 100% HOC BHI IELTS cict
Questions 20 and 21
Choose TWO letters, A-E.
White the correct letters in boxes 20 and 21 on your answer sheet
According to the writer, which TWO predictions about artificial intelligence have not yet been
fulfilled?
Robots will work independently of humans.
Robots will begin to oppose human interests.
Robots will be used to help humans perform tasks more efficiently.
Robots will think in the same way as humans.
Robots will become foo costly to use on space missions.
mone
Questions 22 - 26
Complete the summary below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY fiom the passage for each answer
‘Write your answers in boxes 22-26 on your answer sheet.
‘Humans in space - the Mars Outposts approach and its implications
‘One way of exploring space wonld be through collaboration between Innnans and robots. For
example, when exploring the planet Mars, robots could be used to set up 22 ... and do
initial research before humans arrive. In other eases, humans could stay in orbiting
DB eeeccssesseee and give orders to robots working on the surface of the planet. This would
increase the speed of 24 with the robots.
In such ways, robots might be used to work in space in commercial enterprises or
IS veoessvoeeeseens However, the final aim ofhumankind may be the 26 ...............« fspace aud
this could in turn change people’s attitudes towards Earth.
LUYEN DE THI GOC - TANG BAND THAN TOC
KHONG TRUONG HOAN 100% HOC BHI READING PASSAGE 3
‘You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which based on Reading Passage 3 on
pages 10 and 11
The dark side of the technological boom
‘What are the effects on the individual of working in modern technological workplaces?
Changes in the way we work and how our offices are structured come at us faster and faster:
Waves of state-of the-art information technology and instant telecommmanications let us reach
anyone, anywhere, and speed is the key, Most of us are too busy struggling to keep pace with
‘ongoing innovations to question the implications of our new electronic authority figures.
According to a number of psychologists, however, the need to stay on top of the information
flow and the consequent degree to which we renin in touch with our offices exact a profound
toll onus as individuals
‘Mass exposure to technological innovations in the workplace has come too recently for
psychologist to reach a consensus on its societal implications. Many agree, however, that one of
the first signs of the struggle to adapt to the electronic office is often ‘technostress’, a cognitive
shift that results ffom an over-identification with information systems. Psychologist Craig Brod
says people become accustomed to the patterns set byelectronic 1001s = accelerated time and
‘yes/no logic = and internalize these pattems, ‘When they leave the office or go home,” Brod says,
“they need complete isolation to recover fioin the effects of the technology”
Brod warns that over-reliance on eleetronic tools could also have serions repercussions on our
ability to think creatively and develop new ideas. Because we don’t create in a vacuum, he points
ont, we need to avoid the temptation to replace informal gatherings for bouncing ideas off
colleagues with electronic networking. It’s also more difficult to spot errors or even evaluate the
shape of a project displayed in a flat, two-dimensional way on a screen,
Electronically networked offices can also make it increasingly difficult to convince ourselves
that we're doing an adequate job and accumulating enough information to make informed
decisions. Philosopher Daniel Dennett points out that modern technology eliminates the
possibility of avoidable ignorance. As the opportunity to amass information grows larger, the
obligation to make accurate predictions - the ‘right’ decisions - becomes more onerous. Instead
of consoling ourselves that we're doing as good a job as we can, we are tormented by the
knowledge that the world of information is limitless,
For executives near the top of the office pyramid, the benefits of the electronic revolution - like
telecommuting and flexible scheduling - may outweigh the disadvantages of being continuously
on call. But in Workplace 2000, authors Joseph Boyett and Henry Conn describe a future in
which millions of people now charged with analyzing information and making routine decisions
will be replaced by less skilled workers using ‘intelligent’ software to make decisions for them.
They predict that a cult of performance excellence will engulf most businesses.
IELTS cict
LUYEN DE THI GOC - TANG BAND THAN TOC
KHONG TRUONG HOAN 100% HOC BHI IELTS cict
The millions of people on the bottom levels of electronic hierarchies are increasingly likely to
spend their days in an isolated no-man’s land, subservient to intelligent information systems that
report their progress to wiseen supervisors far away. Because computers measure quantity better
than quality, such systems tend to reward employees who work faster more than those who work
better
Service people on the telephone or at a cash register curtly terminate attempts at idle
conversation because their performance is being electronically monitored, Once judged on their
ability to communicate with customers or troubleshoot unexpected situations, they're now
evolunted by the number of transactions they complete in a shift or the number of keystrokes
required to draft « document. In these electronic ‘sweatshops’, the computers are running the
people, not the other way around.
“I think people are going to feel an increased fragmentation of self. They won't be able to hold
the pieces together,” human resource consultant Philip Nicholson says. “How do you keep a
coherent space if you're going in and out of spaces that don’t exist?” He likens the psychic
numbing of electronic information overload to symptoms of post-traumatic stress syndrome (a
mental disorder following a horrific event). In office ‘wars’, people become overwhelmed by the
sheer amount of information available, intemalize the diversity of the world outside, and fear
Josing control over their own lives.
Tf we are to survive the challenges of information