IELTS Mock Test 2022
June
Reading Practice Test 1
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practices 1
READING PASSAGE 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1 -13, which are based on
Reading Passage 1 below.
Cleaner, Abundant Fuels Attracting
Record Investment
A
Renewable energy captured from the wind, sun, Earth’s heat, tides, and from small dams is
drawing record levels of investment as poor villagers and entire nations alike seek clean,
abundant ways to fuel economic growth. Global investment in renewable energy set a new
record of $30 billion in 2004, according to a new report from the Renewable Energy Policy
Network for the 21st Century (REN21). Technologies such as wind, solar, biomass, geothermal,
and small hydro now provide 160 gigawatts of electricity generating capacity – about four per
cent of the world total – the report said. They are growing at rates of around 20-30 per cent per
year, however, compared to two or three per cent for oil and gas.
“Renewable energy has become big business,” said Eric Martinot, lead author of the study,
“Renewables 2005: Global Status Report”. Martinot, a senior fellow at the Washington, DC-
based think tank Worldwatch Institute and a lecturer at Tsinghua University in Beijing, said
renewable energy has attracted some of the world’s largest companies, including General
Electric, Siemens, Sharp, and Royal Dutch Shell. The report estimated that nearly 40 million
households worldwide heat their water with solar collectors, most of them installed in the last
five years. Altogether, renewable energy industries provide 1.7 million jobs, most of them
skilled and well paid.
Martinot and 100-plus researchers in more than 20 countries assessed several renewable
technologies: small hydro ( meaning small dams), modem biomass (agricultural waste, for
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example), wind, solar, geothermal, and biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel. These
technologies now compete with conventional fuels in four distinct markets: power generation,
hot water and space heating, transportation fuels, and rural (off-grid) energy supplies.
Renewable energy is gaining in popularity because it is considered to be in infinite supply –
unlike oil, coal, and gas – and because it involves little or no pollution compared to those
fossil fuels. Scientists blame the burning of fossil fuels for the release of carbon dioxide and
other greenhouse gases that stoke global climate changes, which in turn are intensifying
droughts in some parts of the world, @oods and storms in others, and the spread of tropical
diseases to temperate zones.
Additionally, renewable energy could empower millions of poor and vulnerable people who lack
access to reliable, affordable, and clean modem energy services, UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan said in a message to the Beijing International Renewable Energy Conference,
which opened Monday. Annan said that rising oil prices have hit oil-importing developing
countries especially hard and underscore the need for alternative energy supplies.
According to the REN21 report, government support for renewable energy is growing
rapidly. At least 48 countries now have some type of renewable energy promotion policy,
including 14 developing countries. Typically, they include targets to ensure that renewable
sources generate 5-30 per cent of energy use in a given country by around 2010-2012.
The renewable sector’s prospects appeared to receive a further boost Monday, when China
announced it was raising its target for reliance on renewable energy even as it acknowledged
that coal would remain its primary source for electricity for decades to come. Renewable energy
should account for 15 per cent of national consumption by 2020. China had previously aimed to
get 10 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.
Mandates for blending biofuels into vehicle fuels have been enacted in 20-plus states and
provinces worldwide as well as in three key countries – Brazil, China, and India – the report
said. Government leadership has ensured market success, according to REN21, which is
composed of representatives of governments and non-governmental organisations. Market
leaders in renewable energy in 2004 included Brawl in biofuels, China in solar hot water,
Germany in solar electricity, and Spain in wind power, the report said.
The fastest growing energy technology in the world is grid-connected solar photovoltaic
(PV), existing capacity of which blossomed by sixty per cent per year from 2000-2004, to
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cover
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more than 400,000 rooftops in Japan, Germany, and the United States, it found. Wind
power came second, with generating capacity growing by 28 per cent last year with almost
seventeen gigawatts installed as of 2004. Production of ethanol, biodiesel, and other biofuels
exceeded 33 billion litres in 2004, when ethanol displaced about three per cent of the 1,200
billion litres of gasoline produced globally.
An estimated $500 million goes to developing countries each year as development assistance
for renewable energy projects, training, and market support, with the German Development
Finance Group (GDFG), the World Bank Group, and the Global Environment Facility (GEF)
providing the majority of these funds, and dozens of other donors and programmes providing
the rest, the report said. More than 4.5 million “green” power consumers in Europe, the United
States, Canada, Australia, and Japan purchased renewable electricity in 2004, it added. Asia is
seen as a vast market for renewable energy as it seeks to meet growing demand for power to
feed rapid economic expansion amid runaway oil prices.
Questions 1-4
The text has 9 paragraphs (A – I). Which paragraph contains each of the
following pieces of information?
1 Cases where the use of renewable fuels is in competition with
non-renewable ones
2 The membership of REN21
3 The rates at which the use of renewable fuels is growing faster
than the use of nonrenewable ones in the world
4 The sources of funding for renewable fuels in developing
countries
Questions 5-8
Complete the following sentences using NO MORE THAN THREE
WORDS from the text for each gap.
technology can use 5
Biomass
Governments with renewable energy policies usually set 6 for renewable
energy use.
The most important source of energy for China in 2020 is expected to be
7
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Economic expansion and high oil prices mean that Asian countries are 8
for renewable sources of energy.
Questions 9-13
Do the following statements agree with the information given in
Reading Passage 1?
In boxes 9 -13 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
9 Eric Martinot advises large companies on investing in
renewable energy.
10 Eric Martinot has over 100 people working in his team.
11 Increases in oil prices hurt developing economies more than
developed ones.
12 The use of solar power grew by 60% between the year
2000 and the year 2004.
13 “Green” power consumers only get part of their electricity
from alternative energy sources.
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READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14 – 26, which are based on
Reading Passage 2 below.
A GUIDE TO WOMENOMICS
A
In rich countries, girls now do better at school than boys, more women are getting university
degrees than men arc, and females arc filling most new jobs. Arguably, women are now the
most powerful engine of global growth. In 1950, only one third of American women of working
age had a paid job. Today two thirds do, and women make up almost half of America’s
workforce. Since 1950, men’s employment rate has slid by 12 percentage points, to 77%. In
fact, almost everywhere more women are employed and the percentage of men with jobs has
fallen – although in some countries, the feminisation of the workplace still has far to go: in Italy
and Japan, women’s share of jobs is still 40% or less.
The increase in female employment in developed countries has been aided by a big shift in the
type of jobs on offer. Manufacturing work, traditionally a male preserve, has declined, while
jobs in services have expanded. This has reduced the demand for manual labour and put the
sexes on a more equal footing. In the developing world, too, more women now have paid jobs.
In the emerging East Asian economics, forever)’ 100 men in the labour force there are now 83
women, higher even than the average in OECD countries. Women have been particularly
important to the success of Asia’s export industries, typically accounting for 60- 80% of jobs in
many export sectors, such as textiles and clothing.
Of course, it is misleading to talk of women’s “entry” into the workforce. Besides formal
employment, women have always worked in the home, looking after children, cleaning or
cooking, but because this is unpaid, it is not counted in the official statistics. To some extent,
the increase in female paid employment has meant fewer hours of unpaid housework.
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However, the value of housework has fallen by much less than the time spent on it, because of
the increased productivity afforded by dishwashers, washing machines and so forth. Paid
nannies and cleaners employed by working women now also do some work that used to
belong in the non-market economy.
The increase in female employment has also accounted for a big chunk of global growth in
recent decades. GDP growth can come from three sources: employing more people; using
more capital per worker, or an increase in the productivity of labour and capital due to new
technology’. Since 1970, women have filled two new jobs for every’ one taken by a man. Back-
of-the-envelope calculations suggest that the employment of extra women has not only added
more to GDP than new jobs for men but has also chipped in more than either capital
investment or increased productivity. Carve up the world’s economic growth a different way
and another surprising conclusion emerges: over the past decade or so, the increased
employment of women in developed economies has contributed much more to global growth.
Women are becoming more important in the global marketplace not just as workers, but also
as consumers, entrepreneurs, managers and investors. Women have traditionally done most of
the household shopping, but now they have more money of their own to spend. Surveys
suggest that women make perhaps 80% of consumers’ buying decisions – from health care
and homes to furniture and food.
Women’s share of the workforce has a limit. In America it has already stalled. However, there
will still be a lot of scope for women to become more productive as they make better use of
their qualifications. At school, girls consistently get better grades and in most developed
countries, well over half of all university degrees are now being awarded to women. In America
140 women enrol in higher education each year for every 100 men; in Sweden the number is
as high as 150. (There are, however, only 90 female Japanese students for every 100 males.)
In years to come, better educated women will take more of the top jobs. At present, for
example, in Britain more women than men train as doctors and lawyers, but relatively few arc
leading surgeons or partners in law firms. The main reason why women still get paid less on
average than men is not that they are paid less for the same occupations, such as nursing and
teaching. This pattern is likely to change.
Making better use of women’s skills is not just a matter of fairness. Plenty of studies suggest
that it is good for business, too. Women account for only 7% of directors on the worlds
corporate boards – 15% in America, but less than 1% in Japan. Yet a study by Catalyst, a
consultancy, found that American companies with more women in senior management jobs
earned a higher return on equity than those with fewer women at the top. This might be
because mixed teams of men and women are better than single-sex groups at solving
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problems and spotting external threats. Studies have also suggested that women are often
better than men at building teams and communicating.
In poor countries too, the underutilisation of women stunts economic growth. A study last year
by the World Economic Forum found a clear correlation between sex equality (measured by
economic participation, education, health and political empowerment) and GDP per head.
Correlation does not prove the direction of causation. However, other studies also suggest that
inequality between the sexes harms long-term growth. In particular, there is strong evidence
that educating girls boosts prosperity. It is probably the single best investment that can be
made in the developing world. Not only are better educated women more productive, but they
raise healthier, better educated children. There is huge potential to raise income per head in
developing countries, where fewer girls go to school than boys. More than two thirds of the
world’s illiterate adults are women.
It is sometimes argued that it is short-sighted to get more women into paid employment.
The more women go out to work, it is said, the fewer children there will be and the lower
growth will be in the long run. Yet the facts suggest otherwise. Data shows that countries
with high female labour participation rates, such as Sweden, tend to have the decline in fertility
has been greatest in several countries where female employment is low.
Questions 14-17
The text has 8 paragraphs (A – H). Which paragraph does each of the following
headings best fit?
14
New producers, new consumers
15
More work, fewer children?
16
A better educated workforce
17
Women in new, expanding industries
Questions 18-22
According to the text, FIVE of the following statements are true. Write the
corresponding letters in answer boxes 18 to 22 in any order.
A A higher percentage of Italian women have jobs than Japanese women.
B More women than men work in Asia’s textile industries.
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C The value of housework is not included in official statistics.
D Research shows that men make more purchasing decisions than women. Most
E surgeons in Britain are women.
F Firms with more women in senior management offer higher investment
returns.
G Most illiterate people in the world are women.
H Some people think that lower birth rates lead to lower economic growth.
Questions 23-26
According to the information given in the text, choose the correct answer from the
choices given.
23 Since 1950, the percentage of
A American women with jobs has increased.
B American men with jobs has decreased.
C Japanese and Italian women with jobs has remained stable.
24 Economics can get bigger by
A increasing the size of companies.
B giving shares to workers.
C using more advanced technology.
25 Mixed teams of male and female managers are thought to be better at
A building teams.
B solving problems.
C communicating.
26 Research by the World Economic Forum shows that
A sex equality leads to higher GDP.
B there is a connection between sex equality and GDP.
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C higher education leads to higher GDP.
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READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27 – 40, which are based on
Reading Passage 3 below.
A LIBRARY AT YOUR FINGERTIPS
A few years ago, at the height of the dotcom boom, it was widely assumed that a publishing
revolution, in which the printed word would be supplanted by the computer screen, was just
around the corner. It wasn’t: for many, there is still little to match the joy of cracking the spine of
a good book and settling down for an hour or two of reading. A recent flurry of activity by
big technology companies – including Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo! – suggests that
the dream of bringing books online is still very much alive.
The digitising of thousands of volumes of print is not without controversy. On Thursday, November
3, Google, the world’s most popular search engine, posted a first instalment of books on
Google Print, an initiative first mooted a year ago. This collaborative effort between Google
and several of the world’s leading research libraries aims to make many thousands of books
available to be searched and read online free of charge. Although the books included so far
are not covered by copyright, the plan has attracted the ire of publishers.
Five large book firms are suing Google for violating copyright on material that it has scanned
and, although out of print, is still protected by law. Google has said that it will only publish short
extracts from material under copyright unless given express permission to publish more, but
publishers are unconvinced. Ironically, many publishers are collaborating with Google on a
separate venture, Google Print Publisher, which aims to give readers an online taste of books
that are commercially available. The searchable collection of extracts and book information is
intended to tempt readers to buy the complete books online or in print form.
Not to be outdone, Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, has unveiled plans for its own
foray into the mass e-book market. The firm, which began ten years ago as an online book
retailer, now sells a vast array of goods. No doubt piqued that Google, a relative newcomer,
should impinge upon its central territory, Amazon revealed on Thursday that it would introduce
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two new services. Amazon Pages will allow customers to search for key terms in selected
books and then buy and read online whatever part they wish, from individual pages to chapters
or complete works. Amazon Upgrade will give customers online access to books they have
already purchased as hard copies. Customers are likely to have to pay around five cents a
page, with the bulk going to the publisher.
Microsoft, too, has joined the online-book bandwagon. At the end of October, the software
giant said it would spend around $200 million to digitise texts, starting with 150,000 that are in
the public domain, to avoid legal problems. It will do so in collaboration with the Open Content
Alliance, a consortium of libraries and universities. (Yahoo! has pledged to make 18,000 books
available online in conjunction with the same organisation.) On Thursday, coincidentally the
same day as Google and Amazon announced their initiatives, Microsoft released details of a
deal with the British Library, the country’s main reference library, to digitise some 25 million
pages; these will be made available through MSN Book Search, which will be launched next
year.
These companies are hoping for a return to the levels of interest in e-books seen when Stephen
King, a best-selling horror writer, published “Riding the Bullet” exclusively on the Internet in
2000. Half a million copies were downloaded in the first 48 hours after publication. This proved
to be a high-water mark rather than a taste of things to come. While buyers were reluctant to
sit in front of a computer screen to read the latest novels, dedicated e-book reading gadgets
failed to catch on. Barnes and Noble, a leading American bookshop chain, began selling e-
books with fanfare in 2000 but quietly pulled the plug in 2003 as interest faded.
The market for e-books is growing again, though from a tiny base. According to the
International Digital Publishing Forum, which collates figures from many of the world’s top
publishers, in the third quarter of 2004, worldwide sales were 25% higher than the year before.
Unfortunately, this only amounted to a paltry $3.2 million split between 23 publishers in an
industry that made sales worth over $100 billion that year.
Both retailers and publishers reckon they will eventually be able to persuade consumers to do a
lot more of their reading on the web. Some even hope they can become to online books
what Apple’s iTunes is to online music. There are crucial differences between downloading
fiction and downloading funk. Online music was driven from the bottom up: illegal filesharing
services became wildly popular, and legal firms later took over when the pirates were forced
(by a wave of lawsuits) to retreat; the legal providers are confident that more and more
consumers will pay small sums for music rather than remain beyond the law. The iPod music
player and its like have proved a fashionable and popular new way to listen to songs. The
book world has no equivalent.
So the commercial prospects for sellers of online books do not yet look very bright. They may
get a lift from some novel innovations. The ability to download mere parts of books could help,
for instance: sections of manuals, textbooks or cookery books may tempt some customers;
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students may wish to download the relevant sections of course books; or readers may want a
taste of a book that they subsequently buy in hard copy. The ability to download reading matter
onto increasingly ubiquitous hand-held electronic devices and 3G phones may further
encourage uptake. In Japan, the value of e-books (mainly manga comic books) delivered to
mobile phones has jumped, though it will be worth only around ¥6 billion ($51 million) in 2005,
according to estimates.
Questions 27 – 30
For each question, only ONE of the choices is correct. Write the corresponding letter
in the appropriate box on your answer sheet.
27 A few years ago, it was widely thought that
A people would read fewer ‘paper’ books.
B companies like Amazon would go bankrupt.
C the dotcom boom would soon end.
28 Publishers are unhappy with Google because
A Google is only publishing extracts, not complete books.
B they think Google is in breach of copyright.
C Google is co-operating with leading research libraries.
29 Amazon will
A sell books that previously only Google sold online.
B buy the copyright for many books it sells online.
C allow people to buy only parts that they want to read from books.
30 It is clear that most readers, if given the choice, prefer
A ‘paper’ books.
B reading from computer screens.
C using dedicated e-book readers.
Questions 31-35
Complete the following sentences using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from
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the text for each gap.
If companies publish books online that are not covered by copyright, they avoid
31
The 32 is very small but getting larger
The 33 expect that they will be able to convince more people to read
online.
The 34 has nothing similar to an iPod.
Japan, most of the publications sent to mobile phones are 35
In
Questions 36-40
Do the statements on the next page agree with the information given in Reading
Passage 3? In boxes 36 – 40 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
36
Books that are out of print are not covered by copyright law.
37
Amazon began by selling books online.
38
Microsoft signed a deal with the British Library on the same
day as Google and Amazon made their announcements.
39
Barnes and Noble published Riding the Bullet online.
40
The ability to sample a book online before buying it might help
sales.
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Solution:
Part 1: Question 1 - 13
1 C 2 G
3 A 4 I
5agricultural waste 6 targets
7coal 8 a vast market
9 NOT GIVEN 10 NOT GIVEN
11 NOT GIVEN 12 FALSE
13 NOT GIVEN
Part 2: Question 14 - 26
14 D 15 H
16 E 17 B
18
22
B,C,F,G,H 23 B
24 C 25 B
26 B
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Part 3: Question 27 - 40
27 A 28 B
29 C 30 A
31 legal problems 32 market for e-books
33 retailers and publishers 34 book world
35 manga comic books 36 FALSE
37 TRUE 38 FALSE
39 FALSE 40 TRUE
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