READING PASSAGE 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.
The coconut palm
For millennia, the coconut has been central to the lives of Polynesian and Asian peoples. In the western world, on the other hand, coconuts have always been exotic and unusual, sometimes rare. The Italian merchant traveller Marco Polo apparently saw coconuts in South Asia in the late 13th century, and among the mid-14th-century travel writings of Sir John Mandeville there is mention of ‘great Notes of Ynde’ (great Nuts of India). Today, images of palm-fringed tropical beaches are clichés in the west to sell holidays, chocolate bars, fizzy drinks and even romance.
Typically, we envisage coconuts as brown cannonballs that, when opened, provide sweet white flesh. But we see only part of the fruit and none of the plant from which they come. The coconut palm has a smooth, slender, grey trunk, up to 30 metres tall. This is an important source of timber for building houses, and is increasingly being used as a replacement for endangered hardwoods in the furniture construction industry. The trunk is surmounted by a rosette of leaves, each of which may be up to six metres long. The leaves have hard veins in their centres which, in many parts of the world, are used as brushes after the green part of the leaf has been stripped away. Immature coconut flowers are tightly clustered together among the leaves at the top of the trunk. The flower stems may be tapped for their sap to produce a drink, and the sap can also be reduced by boiling to produce a type of sugar used for cooking.
Coconut palms produce as many as seventy fruits per year, weighing more than a kilogram each. The wall of the fruit has three layers: a waterproof outer layer, a fibrous middle layer and a hard, inner layer. The thick fibrous middle layer produces coconut fibre, ‘coir’, which has numerous uses and is particularly important in manufacturing ropes. The woody innermost layer, the shell, with its three prominent ‘eyes’, surrounds the seed. An important product obtained from the shell is charcoal, which is widely used in various industries as well as in the home as a cooking fuel. When broken in half, the shells are also used as bowls in many parts of Asia.
Inside the shell are the nutrients (endosperm) needed by the developing seed. Initially, the endosperm is a sweetish liquid, coconut water, which is enjoyed as a drink, but also provides the hormones which encourage other plants to grow more rapidly and produce higher yields. As the fruit matures, the coconut water gradually solidifies to form the brilliant white, fat-rich, edible flesh or meat. Dried coconut flesh, ‘copra’, is made into coconut oil and coconut milk, which are widely used in cooking in different parts of the world, as well as in cosmetics. A derivative of coconut fat, glycerine, acquired strategic importance in a quite different sphere, as Alfred Nobel introduced the world to his nitroglycerine-based invention: dynamite.
Their biology would appear to make coconuts the great maritime voyagers and coastal colonizers of the plant world. The large, energy-rich fruits are able to float in water and tolerate salt, but cannot remain viable indefinitely; studies suggest after about 110 days at sea they are no longer able to germinate. Literally cast onto desert island shores, with little more than sand to grow in and exposed to the full glare of the tropical sun, coconut seeds are able to germinate and root. The air pocket in the seed, created as the endosperm solidifies, protects the embryo. In addition, the fibrous fruit wall that helped it to float during the voyage stores moisture that can be taken up by the roots of the coconut seedling as it starts to grow.
There have been centuries of academic debate over the origins of the coconut. There were no coconut palms in West Africa, the Caribbean or the east coast of the Americans before the voyages of the European explorers Vasco da Gama and Columbus in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. 16th century trade and human migration patterns reveal that Arab traders and European sailors are likely to have moved coconuts from South and Southeast Asia to Africa and then across the Atlantic to the east coast of America. But the origin of coconuts discovered along the west coast of America by 16th century sailors has been the subject of centuries of discussion. Two diametrically opposed origins have been proposed: that they came from Asia, or that they were native to America. Both suggestions have problems. In Asia, there is a large degree of coconut diversity and evidence of millennia of human use – but there are no relatives growing in the wild. In America, there are close coconut relatives, but no evidence that coconuts are indigenous. These problems have led to the intriguing suggestion that coconuts originated on coral islands in the Pacific and were dispersed from there.
Questions 1-8
Complete the table below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 1-8 on your answer sheet.
| THE COCONUT PALM | ||
| Part | Description | Uses |
| trunk | up to 30 metres | timber for houses and the making of 1…………………….. |
| leaves | up to 6 metres long | to make brushes |
| flowers | at the top of the trunk | stems provide sap, used as a drink or a source of 2……………………. |
| fruits | outer layer | |
| middle layer (coir fibres) | used for 3………………………, | |
| Inner layer (shell) | a source of 4…………………….
(when halved) for 5……………………. |
|
| coconut water | a drink
a source of 6…………………….. for other plants |
|
| coconut flesh | oil and milk for cooking and 7…………………….
glycerine (an ingredient in 8……………………….) |
|
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 Coconut seeds need shade in order to germinate.
10 Coconuts were probably transported to Asia from America in the 16th century.
11 Coconuts found on the west coast of America were a different type from those found on the east coast.
12 All the coconuts found in Asia are cultivated varieties.
13 Coconuts are cultivated in different ways in America and the Pacific.
READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26 which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.
How baby talk gives infant brains a boost
A
The typical way of talking to a baby – high-pitched, exaggerated and repetitious – is a source of fascination for linguists who hope to understand how ‘baby talk’ impacts on learning. Most babies start developing their hearing while still in the womb, prompting some hopeful parents to play classical music to their pregnant bellies. Some research even suggests that infants are listening to adult speech as early as 10 weeks before being born, gathering the basic building blocks of their family’s native tongue.
B
Early language exposure seems to have benefits to the brain – for instance, studies suggest that babies raised in bilingual homes are better at learning how to mentally prioritize information. So how does the sweet if sometimes absurd sound of infant-directed speech influence a baby’s development? Here are some recent studies that explore the science behind baby talk.
C
Fathers don’t use baby talk as often or in the same ways as mothers – and that’s perfectly OK, according to a new study. Mark VanDam of Washington State University at Spokane and colleagues equipped parents with recording devices and speech-recognition software to study the way they interacted with their youngsters during a normal day. ‘We found that moms do exactly what you’d expect and what’s been described many times over,’ VanDam explains. ‘But we found that dads aren’t doing the same thing. Dads didn’t raise their pitch or fundamental frequency when they talked to kids.’ Their role may be rooted in what is called the bridge hypothesis, which dates back to 1975. It suggests that fathers use less familial language to provide their children with a bridge to the kind of speech they’ll hear in public. ‘The idea is that a kid gets to practice a certain kind of speech with mom and another kind of speech with dad, so the kid then has a wider repertoire of kinds of speech to practice,’ says VanDam.
D
Scientists from the University of Washington and the University of Connecticut collected thousands of 30-second conversations between parents and their babies, fitting 26 children with audio-recording vests that captured language and sound during a typical eight-hour day. The study found that the more baby talk parents used, the more their youngsters began to babble. And when researchers saw the same babies at age two, they found that frequent baby talk had dramatically boosted vocabulary, regardless of socioeconomic status. ‘Those children who listened to a lot of baby talk were talking more than the babies that listened to more adult talk or standard speech,’ says Nairán Ramirez-Esparza of the University of Connecticut. ‘We also found that it really matters whether you use baby talk in a one-on-one context,’ she adds. ‘The more parents use baby talk one-on-one, the more babies babble, and the more they babble, the more words they produce later in life.’
E
Another study suggests that parents might want to pair their youngsters up so they can babble more with their own kind. Researchers from McGill University and Université du Québec à Montréal found that babies seem to like listening to each other rather than to adults – which may be why baby talk is such a universal tool among parents. They played repeating vowel sounds made by a special synthesizing device that mimicked sounds made by either an adult woman or another baby. This way, only the impact of the auditory cues was observed. The team then measured how long each type of sound held the infants’ attention. They found that the ‘infant’ sounds held babies’ attention nearly 40 percent longer. The baby noises also induced more reactions in the listening infants, like smiling or lip moving, which approximates sound making. The team theorizes that this attraction to other infant sounds could help launch the learning process that leads to speech. ‘It may be some property of the sound that is just drawing their attention,’ says study co-author Linda Polka. ‘Or maybe they are really interested in that particular type of sound because they are starting to focus on their own ability to make sounds. We are speculating here but it might catch their attention because they recognize it as a sound they could possibly make.’
F
In a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a total of 57 babies from two slightly different age groups – seven months and eleven and a half months – were played a number of syllables from both their native language (English) and a non-native tongue (Spanish). The infants were placed in a brain-activation scanner that recorded activity in a brain region known to guide the motor movements that produce speech. The results suggest that listening to baby talk prompts infant brains to start practicing their language skills. ‘Finding activation in motor areas the baby brain is engaged in trying to talk back right from the start, and suggests that seven-month-olds’ brains are already trying to figure out how to make interesting finding was that while the seven-month-olds responded to all speech sounds regardless of language, the brains of the older infants worked harder at the motor activations of non-native sounds compared to native sounds. The study may have also uncovered a process by which babies recognize differences between their native language and other tongues.
Questions 14-17
Look at the following ideas (Questions 14-17) and the list of researchers below.
Match each idea with the correct researcher, A, B or C.
Write the correct letter, A, B or C, in boxes 14-17 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
14 the importance of adults giving babies individual attention when talking to them
15 the connection between what babies hear and their own efforts to create speech
16 the advantage for the baby of having two parents each speaking in a different way
17 the connection between the amount of baby talk babies hear and how much vocalising they do themselves
List of Researchers
A Mark VanDam
B Nairán Ramirez-Esparza
C Patricia Kuhl
Questions 18-23
Complete the summary below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 18-23 on your answer sheet.
Research into how parents talk to babies
Researchers at Washington State University used 18……………………………, together with specialised computer programs, to analyse how parents interacted with their babies during a normal day. The study revealed that 19………………………… tended not to modify their ordinary speech patterns when interacting with their babies. According to an idea known as the 20……………………….., they may use a more adult type of speech to prepare infants for the language they will hear outside the family home. According to the researchers, hearing baby talk from one parent and ‘normal’ language from the other expands the baby’s 21………………………… of types of speech which they can practise.
Meanwhile, another study carried out by scientists from the University of Washington and the University of Connecticut recorded speech and sound using special 22……………………………… that the babies were equipped with. When they studies the babies again at age two, the found that those who had heard a lot of baby talk in infancy had a much larger 23……………………………. Than those who had not.
Questions 24-26
Reading Passage 2 has six paragraphs, A-F.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 24-26 on your answer sheet.
24 a reference to a change which occurs in babies’ brain activity before the end of their first year.
25 an example of what some parents do for their baby’s benefit before birth
26 a mention of babies’ preference for the sounds that other babies make
READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40 which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.
Whatever happened to the Harappan Civilisation?
New research sheds light on the disappearance of an ancient society
A
The Harappan Civilisation of ancient Pakistan and India flourished 5,000 years ago, but a thousand years later their cities were abandoned. The Harappan Civilisation was a sophisticated Bronze Age society who built ‘megacities’ and traded internationally in luxury craft products, and yet seemed to have left almost no depictions of themselves. But their lack of self-imagery – at a time when the Egyptians were carving and painting representations of themselves all over their temples – is only part of the mystery.
B
‘There is plenty of archaeological evidence to tell us about the rise of the Harappan Civilisation, but relatively little about its fall,’ explains archaeologist Dr Cameron Petrie of the University of Cambridge. ‘As populations increased, cities were built that had great baths, craft workshops, palaces and halls laid out in distinct sectors. Houses were arranged in blocks, with wide main streets and narrow alleyways, and many had their own wells and drainage systems. It was very much a “thriving” civilisation.’ Then around 2100 BC, a transformation began. Streets went uncleaned, buildings started to be abandoned, and ritual structures fell out of use. After their final demise, a millennium passed before really large-scale cities appeared once more in South Asia.
C
Some have claimed that major glacier-fed rivers changed their course, dramatically affecting the water supply and agriculture; or that the cities could not cope with an increasing population, they exhausted their resource base, the trading economy broke down or they succumbed to invasion and conflict; and yet others that climate change caused an environmental change that affected food and water provision. ‘It is unlikely that there was a single cause for the decline of the civilisation. But the fact is, until now, we have had little solid evidence from the area for most of the key elements,’ said Petrie. ‘A lot of the archaeological debate has really only been well-argued speculation.’
D
A research team led by Petrie, together with Dr Ravindanath Singh of Banaras Hindu University in India, found early in their investigations that many of the archaeological sites were not where they were supposed to be, completely altering understanding of the way that this region was inhabited in the past. When they carried out a survey of how the larger area was settled in relation to sources of water, they found inaccuracies in the published geographic locations of ancient settlements ranging from several hundred metres to many kilometres. They realised that any attempts to use the existing data were likely to be fundamentally flawed. Over the course of several seasons of fieldwork they carried out new surveys, finding an astonishing 198 settlement sites that were previously unknown.
E
Now, research published by Dr Yama Dixit and Professor David Hodell, both from Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences, has provided the first definitive evidence for climate change affecting the plains of north-western India, where hundreds of Harappan sites are known to have been situated. The researchers gathered shells of Melanoides tuberculate snails from the sediments of an ancient lake and used geochemical analysis as a means of tracing the climate history of the region. ‘As today, the major source of water into the lake is likely to have been the summer monsoon,’ says Dixit. ‘But we have observed that there was an abrupt change about 4,100 years ago, when the amount of evaporation from the lake exceeded the rainfall – indicative of a drought.’ Hodell adds: ‘We estimate that the weakening of the Indian summer monsoon climate lasted about 200 years before recovering to the previous conditions, which we still see today.’
F
It has long been thought that other great Bronze Age civilisations also declined at a similar time, with a global-scale climate event being seen as the cause. While it is possible that these local-scale processes were linked, the real archaeological interest lies in understanding the impact of these larger-scale events on different environments and different populations. ‘Considering the vast area of the Harappan Civilisation with its variable weather systems,’ explains Singh, ‘it is essential that we obtain more climate data from areas close to the two great cities at Mohenjodaro and Harappa and also from the Indian Punjab.’
G
Petrie and Singh’s team is now examining archaeological records and trying to understand details of how people led their lives in the region five millennia ago. They are analysing grains cultivated at the time, and trying to work out whether they were grown under extreme conditions of water stress, and whether they were adjusting the combinations of crops they were growing for different weather systems. They are also looking at whether the types of pottery used, and other aspects of their material culture, were distinctive to specific regions or were more similar across larger areas. This gives us insight into the types of interactive networks that the population was involved in, and whether those changed.
H
Petrie believes that archaeologists are in a unique position to investigate how past societies responded to environmental and climatic change. ‘By investigating responses to environmental pressures and threats, we can learn from the past to engage with the public, and the relevant governmental and administrative bodies, to be more proactive in issues such as the management and administration of water supply, the balance of urban and rural development, and the importance of preserving cultural heritage in the future.’
Questions 27-31
Reading Passage 3 has eight paragraphs, A-H.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once
27 proposed explanations for the decline of the Harappan Civilisation
28 reference to a present-day application of some archaeological research findings
29 a difference between the Harappan Civilisation and another culture of the same period
30 a description of some features of Harappan urban design
31 reference to the discovery of errors made by previous archaeologists
Questions 32-36
Complete the summary below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 32-36 on your answer sheet.
Looking at evidence of climate change
Yama Dixit and David Hodell have found the first definitive evidence of climate change affecting the plains of north-western India thousands of years ago. By collecting the 32………………………… of snails and analysing them, they discovered evidence of a change in water levels in a 33……………………….. in the region. This occurred when there was less 34…………………………….. than evaporation, and suggests that there was an extended period of drought.
Petrie and Singh’s team are using archaeological records to look at 35…………………………… from five millennia ago, in order to know whether people had adapted their agricultural practices to changing climatic conditions. They are also examining objects including 36………………………….. , so as to find out about links between inhabitants of different parts of the region and whether these changed over time.
Questions 37-40
Complete the summary below.
Look at the following statements (Questions 38-40) and the list of researchers below.
Match each statement with the correct researcher, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter, A, B, C or D, in boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
37 Finding further information about changes to environmental conditions in the region is vital.
38 Examining previous patterns of behaviour may have long-term benefits.
39 Rough calculations indicate the approximate length of a period of water shortage.
40 Information about the decline of the Harappan Civilisation has been lacking.
List of Researchers
A Cameron Petrie
B Ravindanath Singh
C Yama Dixit
D David Hodell
Keys for Cambridge English IELTS 13 Reading Test 03
Passage 01
1. furniture
2. sugar
3. ropes
4. charcoal
5. bowls
6. hormones
7. cosmetics
8. dynamite
9. FALSE
10. FALSE
11. NOT GIVEN
12. TRUE
13. NOT GIVEN
Passage 02
14. B
15. C
16. A
17. B
18. recording devices
19. fathers / dads
20. bridge hypothesis
21. repertoire
22. (audio-recording) vests
23. vocabulary
24. F
25. A
26. E
Passage 03
27. C
28. H
29. A
30. B
31. D
32. shells
33. lake
34. rainfall
35. grains
36. pottery
37. B
38. A
39. D
40. A
Answers and Detailed Explanations for Cambridge English IELTS 13 Reading Test 03
1. furniture
Question: Trunk – timber for houses and the making of……….
Key words: trunk, timber, houses, making
Looking for the key words, we find the reference to the trunk and its uses in paragraph 2. The writer says that: “This is an important source of timber for building houses, and is increasingly being used as a replacement for endangered hardwoods in the furniture construction industry”.
Thus, the trunk is used to build houses and also to make furniture.
– making = construction
The answer is furniture.
2. sugar
Question: Flowers – stems provide sap, used as a drink or a source of……….
Key words: flowers, sap, drink, source
Coconut flowers are also mentioned in paragraph 2: “The flower stems may be tapped for their sap to produce a drink, and the sap can also be reduced by boiling to produce a type of sugar used for cooking”.
Thus, the sap from the flower stems can be used as a drink or to boil and make a kind of sugar.
The answer is sugar.
3. ropes
Question: Fruits – middle layer (coir fibres) used for ………. , etc
Key words: fruits, middle, coir fibres
Look for the information relating to fruits, and we find this in paragraph 3: “The thick fibrous middle layer produces coconut fibre, coir, which has numerous uses and is particularly important in manufacturing ropes”.
So, the fibre from the middle layer, coir, is used to make ropes.
The answer is ropes.
4. charcoal
Question: Fruits – inner layer (shell): a source of ……….
Key words: inner, shell, source
At the end of paragraph 3, the uses of the ‘woody inner layer’ of coconut shells are described: “An important product obtained from the shell is charcoal, which is widely used in various industries…”
The inner layer of the shell, therefore, provides charcoal for industries and also for cooking.
The answer is charcoal.
5. bowls
Question: Fruits – inner layer (shell): when halved used for ……….
Key words: inner, shell, halved
As we continue reading paragraph 3, the other use of the inner layer – the shell – is mentioned: “When broken in half, the shells are also used as bowls in many parts of Asia”. Halves of shells are used as bowls.
– halved = broken in half
The answer is bowls.
6. hormones
Question: Fruits – coconut water: a source of ………. for other plants
Key words: coconut water, source, other plants
In paragraph 4, we find the uses of coconut water: “…coconut water, which is enjoyed as a drink but also provides the hormones which encourage other plants to grow more rapidly and produced higher yields”.
The coconut water provides hormones for other plants, therefore it is a source of hormones for those plants.
The answer is hormones.
7. cosmetics
Question: Fruits – coconut flesh: oil and milk for cooking and ……….
Key words: coconut flesh, oil, milk, cooking
The author continues in paragraph 4: “Dried coconut flesh, copra, is made into coconut oil and coconut milk, which are widely used in cooking in different parts of the world, as well as in cosmetics”.
Thus, coconut oil and milk are used for cooking and for making cosmetics.
The answer is cosmetics.
8. dynamite
Question: Fruits –coconut flesh: glycerine (an ingredient in) ……….
Key words: coconut flesh, glycerine, ingredient
It is also stated in paragraph 4 that: “A derivative of coconut fat, glycerine, acquired strategic importance in a quite different sphere, as Alfred Nobel introduced the world to his nitroglycerine-based invention: dynamite”.
‘Nitroglycerine-based means that glycerine was one of the basic ingredients. Nobel’s invention was dynamite.
The answer is dynamite.
9. FALSE
Question: Coconut seeds need shade in order to germinate
Key words: seeds, shade, germinate
These key words can be found in paragraph 5. There, the writer tells us how coconut seeds germinate: “Literally cast onto desert island shores, with little more than sand to grow in and exposed to the full glare of the tropical sun, coconut seeds are able to germinate and root”. ‘Glare’ means to shine with a very bright and unpleasant light – we often wear sunglasses to protect against the glare of the sun. It is the opposite of the shade. So, coconut seeds do not need shade in order to germinate, they can germinate in the sun.
The statement is FALSE.
10. FALSE
Question: Coconuts were probably transported to Asia from America in the 16th century
Key words: transported, Asia, America, 16th century
In the last paragraph, the writer tells us about the origins of coconuts. “16th century trade and human migration patterns reveal that Arab traders and European sailors are likely to have moved coconuts from South and Southeast Asia to Africa and then across the Atlantic to the east coast of America”.
This sentence tells us that coconuts were probably moved from Asia to America – via Africa. This route is the opposite of the statement.
– probably = likely
– transported = moved
The statement is FALSE.
11. NOT GIVEN
Question: Coconuts found on the west coast of America were a different type from those found on the east coast
Key words: west coast, America, different, east coast
In the last paragraph, the writer simply tells us that: “In America, there are close coconut relatives, but no evidence that coconuts are indigenous”.
Thus, we do not know if the coconuts on the west and east coasts of America are different.
The statement is NOT GIVEN.
12. TRUE
Question: All the coconuts found in Asia are cultivated varieties.
Key words: all, Asia, cultivated
This information is also given in the last paragraph: “In Asia there is a large degree of coconut diversity and evidence of millennia of human use – but there are no relatives growing in the wild”.
As there are no wild coconuts growing in Asia, all the varieties must be cultivated.
– varieties = relatives
The statement is TRUE.
13. NOT GIVEN
Question: Coconuts are cultivated in different ways in America and the Pacific.
Key words: cultivated, different, America, Pacific
The key words are also found in the last paragraph. Here, it is stated that: “In America there are close coconut relatives, but no evidence that coconuts are indigenous. These problems have led to the intriguing suggestion that coconuts originated on coral islands in the Pacific and were dispersed from there”.
Thus, the only information given here is that the origins of coconuts are not known for certain, but nothing is stated about the methods of cultivation, either in America or the Pacific.
The statement is NOT GIVEN.
14. B
Question: the importance of adults giving babies individual attention when talking to them
Key words: adults, babies, individual attention, talking
In paragraph D, the author writes about the study of Nairan Ramirez-Esparza. She says: “We also found that it really matters whether you use baby talk in a one-on-one context…The more parents use baby talk one-on-one, the more babies babble, and the more they babble, the more words they produce later in life”.
A ‘one-on-one context’ means a situation in which the parent is alone with the baby, talking to the baby and giving it individual attention.
– importance ~ it really matters
– individual = one-on-one
The answer is B.
15. C
Question: the connection between what babies hear and their own efforts to create speech
Key words: connection, hear, efforts, speech
In paragraph F, the author refers to a study in which Patricia Kuhl took part: “The results suggest that listening to baby talk prompts infant brains to start practicing their language skills”. Thus, when babies listen to (= hear) baby talk, this stimulates their brains to try to practice their own language skills.
The passage continues: “Finding activation in the motor areas of the brain when infants are simply listening is significant, because it means the baby brain is engaged in trying to talk back right from the start, and suggests that seven-month-olds’ brains are already trying to figure out how to make the right movements that will produce words”.
– create speech = produce words
The answer is C.
16. A
Question: the advantage for the baby of having two parents each speaking in a different way
Key words: advantage, two parents, different way
In paragraph C, the author tells us about the study of Mark VanDam. He found that mothers and fathers (the two parents) each spoke to children in a different way: “The idea is that a kid gets to practice a certain kind of speech with mom and another kind of speech with dad, so the kid then has a wider repertoire of kinds of speech to practice”.
The advantage for the baby when parent speak in these different ways, is that it grows up having a wider range (= repertoire) of kinds of speech, which it can then practice.
– a different way ~ another kind
The answer is A.
17. B
Question: the connection between the amount of baby talk babies hear and how much vocalising they do themselves
Key words: connection, amount of baby talk, vocalising
In the middle of paragraph D, the author writes about a study which found that “…the more baby talk parents used, the more their youngsters began to babble”. Nairan Ramirez-Esparza adds: “Those children who listened to a lot of baby talk were talking more than the babies that listened to more adult talk or standard speech”.
She found, therefore, that there is a connection between the amount of baby talk which babies listened to, and how much talking the babies did.
– vocalising = babble/ talking
The answer is B.
18. recording devices
Question: Researchers at Washington State University used ………………….. , together with specialised computer programs, to analyse how parents interacted with their babies during a normal day.
Key words: Washington State University, computer programs, interacted, normal day
We find a reference to Washington State University in paragraph C. “Mark VanDam of Washington State University at Spokane and colleagues equipped parents with recording devices and speech-recognition software to study the way they interacted with their youngsters during a normal day”.
– specialised computer programs ~ speech-recognition software
– analyse = study
The answer is recording devices.
19. dads/fathers
Question: The study revealed that …………… tended not to modify their ordinary speech patterns when interacting with their babies.
Key words: not modify, speech patterns, interacting
Also in paragraph C, VanDam explains: “Dads didn’t raise their pitch or fundamental frequency when they talked to kids”.
In other words, fathers spoke to their babies in a similar way that they would speak normally. Their ‘pitch and fundamental frequency’ refers to the ‘ordinary speech patterns’ which fathers use to talk to their babies.
– interacting with ~ talked to
– babies ~ kids
The answer is dads/fathers.
20. bridge hypothesis
Question: According to an idea known as the ……………….. , they may use a more adult type of speech to prepare infants for the language they will hear outside the family home.
Key words: idea, adult, speech, prepare, language, outside
Continuing with the findings of the study in paragraph C, the author says of fathers: “Their role may be rooted in what is called the bridge hypothesis, which dates back to 1975. It suggests that fathers use less familiar language to provide their children with a bridge to the kind of speech they’ll hear in public”.
So, the author suggests that fathers may use ‘less familiar’ (= more adult) language to talk to their babies, which helps to prepare these infants for what they will hear when they are not in the family home.
– idea = hypothesis
– language = speech
– outside the family home ~ in public
The answer is bridge hypothesis.
21. repertoire
Question: According to the researchers, hearing baby talk from one parent and ‘normal’ language from the other expands the baby’s ………………. of types of speech which they can practice.
Key words: normal language, expands, types of speech
We find the answer at the end of paragraph C. We know from the previous question that fathers speak to babies using less ‘baby talk’ and more normal speech, using adult language. “The idea is that a kid gets to practice a certain kind of speech with mom and another kind of speech with dad, so the kid then has a wider repertoire of kinds of speech to practice’, says VanDam”.
A repertoire refers to all the things that a person – in this case, a baby – is able to do. So, the baby is able to practice different kinds of speech with each parent.
The answer is repertoire.
22. (audio-recording) vests
Question: Meanwhile another study carried out by scientists from the University of Washington and the University of Connecticut recorded speech and sound using special …………. That the babies were equipped with.
Key words: Washington, Connecticut, recorded, equipped
In paragraph D, we find a reference to the University of Washington and the University of Connecticut. This enables us to know where to look for the answer: “Scientists from the University of Washington and the University of Connecticut collected thousands of 30-second conversations between parents and their babies, fitting 26 children with audio-recording vests that captured language and sound….”
Thus, these scientists recorded the language and sounds, using audio-recording vests fitted to the babies.
– recorded = captured
The answer is (audio-recording) vests.
23. vocabulary
Question: When they studied the babies again at age two, they found that those who had heard a lot of baby talk in infancy had a much larger …………… than those who had not.
Key words: age two, babies again, larger
We now have to find more information on the study conducted by the scientists mentioned in the previous question. Again, the answer is in paragraph D: “And when researchers saw the same babies at age two, they found that frequent baby talk had dramatically boosted vocabulary….”
At the age of two, babies who had heard a lot of baby talk, had more vocabulary than those who had not heard much baby talk.
– a lot of ~ frequent
– had a much larger vocabulary ~ dramatically boosted vocabulary
The answer is vocabulary.
24. F
Question: A reference to a change which occurs in babies’ brain activity before the end of their first year
Key words: change, brain activity, end of first year
The answer is in paragraph F. The author writes about a publication called Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In this publication, a study was reported which was carried out with babies of 7 months and 11.5 months – in other words, before the end of their first year.
“The infants were placed in a brain-activation scanner that recorded activity in a brain region known to guide the motor movements that produce speech. The results suggest that listening to baby talk prompts infant brains to start practicing their language skills”.
So, listening to baby talk leads to changes in the activity of ‘infant brains’.
The answer is F.
25. A
Question: an example of what some parents do for their baby’s benefit before birth
Key words: example, baby’s benefit, before birth
The answer can be found in paragraph A. “Most babies start developing their hearing while still in the womb, prompting some hopeful parents to play classical music to their pregnant bellies”. Most babies, therefore, start to hear when they are still inside the body of the mother. So, some parents start to play music for these unborn babies to stimulate their hearing.
– before birth ~ still in the womb
The answer is A.
26. E
Question: a mention of babies’ preference for the sounds that other babies make
Key words: preference, sounds, other babies
The answer is at the beginning of paragraph E. “Another study suggests that parents might want to pair their youngsters up so they can babble more with their own kind. Researchers from McGill University and Universite du Quebec a Montreal found that babies seem to like listening to each other rather than adults…”
More details of this study are given in the paragraph, and these refer specifically to the sounds made by babies: “… the ‘infant’ sounds held babies’ attention nearly 40 per cent longer” than the sounds made by adults.
– preference ~ seem to like
The answer is E.
27. C
Question: proposed explanations for the decline of the Harappan civilisation
Key words: explanations, decline
Causes for the decline of the Harappan civilisation are found in paragraph C. There are different suggestions or explanations: changes affecting water supply and agriculture, population growth, a breakdown of trade, invasion and even environmental changes related to climate.
“It is unlikely that there was a single cause for the decline of the civilisation”.
– explanation = cause
The answer is C.
28. H
Question: reference to a present-day application of some archaeological research findings
Key words: present-day application, archaeological, findings
The final paragraph relates what we can learn from the archaeological research into the Harappan civilisation to tackle some issues today.
“By investigating responses to environmental pressures and threats, we can learn from the past to engage with the public, and the relevant governmental and administrative bodies, to be more proactive in issues such as the management and administration of water supply, the balance of urban and rural development, and the importance of preserving cultural heritage in the future”.
The answer is H.
29. A
Question: a difference between the Harappan civilisation and another culture of the same period
Key words: difference, another culture, same period
The question asks us to look for a comparison between the Harappan civilisation and another particular culture at that same time. The answer is in paragraph A. The people of the Harappan culture did not leave pictures of themselves, “But their lack of self-imagery – at a time when the Eyptians were carving and painting representations of themselves all over their temples – is only part of the mystery”.
Thus, a contrast is made between the Harappan civilisation and Egyptian culture at the same period.
The answer is A.
30. B
Question: a description of some features of Harappan urban design
Key words: features, urban design
In paragraph B, Dr Cameron Petrie describes Harappan cities. They had: “… great baths, craft workshops, palaces and halls laid out in distinct sectors. Houses were arranged in blocks, with wide main streets and narrow alleyways, and many had their own wells and drainage systems”. All of these are features of urban design – things that we find in the sites of Harappan cities.
The answer is B.
31. D
Question: reference to the discovery of errors made by previous archaeologists
Key words: errors, previous archaeologists
In paragraph D, we find several references to the mistakes made by previous archaeologists: “… many of the archaeological sites were not where they were supposed to be, completely altering understanding of the way that this region was inhabited in the past. The new research team “…found inaccuracies in the published geographic locations of ancient settlements ranging from several hundred metres to many kilometres”. The result was that “…any attempts to use the existing data were likely to be fundamentally flawed”.
All of these are errors of previous archaeologists, discovered by the research team of Dr Petrie and Dr Singh.
The answer is D.
32. shells
Question: By collecting the …………… of snails and analysing them, they discovered…
Key words: collecting, snails, analysing
In paragraph E, we find a reference to the research of Yama Dixit and David Hodell. “The researchers gathered shells of Melanoides tuberculata snails from the sediment of an ancient lake and used geochemical analysis as a means of tracing the climate history of the region”.
Therefore, the researchers collected and analysed the shells of snails.
– collect = gather
The answer is shells.
33. lake
Question: they discovered evidence of a change in water levels in a ………… in the region
Key words: change, water levels
In paragraph E, the author continues: “As today, the major source of water into the lake is likely to have been the summer monsoon’, says Dixit. ‘But we have observed that there was an abrupt change about 4,100 years ago, when the amount of evaporation from the lake exceeded the rainfall – indicative of a drought”.
About 4,100 years ago, there was a sudden change, when the water level in the lake fell.
The answer is lake.
34. rainfall
Question: This occurred when there was less ……………. than evaporation, and suggests that there was an extended period of drought
Key words: less, evaporation, drought
In the same sentence in paragraph E, we find the answer. This is the same period “…when the amount of evaporation exceeded the rainfall – indicative of a drought”.
If the evaporation exceeded the rainfall, leading to a drought, this means that there was less rainfall than evaporation.
The answer is rainfall.
35. grains
Question: Petrie and Singh’s team are using archaeological records to look at …………. from five millennia ago, in order to know whether people had adapted their agricultural practices to changing climatic conditions.
Key words: Petrie, Singh, records, five millenia ago
We find the answer at the beginning of paragraph G. “Petrie and Singh’s team is now examining archaeological records and trying to understand details of how people led their lives in the region five millennia ago. They are analysing grains cultivated at the time and trying to work out whether they were grown under extreme conditions of water stress, and whether they were adjusting the combinations of crops they were growing for different weather systems”.
– look at ~ analyse
– adapt = adjust
– agricultural practices ~ combinations of crops
– changing climatic conditions ~ different weather systems.
The answer is grains.
36. pottery
Question: They are also examining objects including …………. , so as to find out about links between inhabitants of different parts of the region and whether these changed over time.
Key words: examining objects, links, inhabitants, changed
The answer is also in paragraph G. The researchers “…are also looking at whether the types of pottery used, and other aspects of their material culture, were distinctive to specific regions or were more similar across larger areas. This gives us insight into the types of interactive networks that the population was involved in, and whether those changed”.
– look at ~ examine
– links = interactive networks
– inhabitants = population
The answer is pottery.
37. B
Question: Finding further information about changes to environmental conditions in the region is vital
Key words: changes, environmental conditions, vital
We find the answer at the end of paragraph F: “Considering the vast area of the Harappan Civilisation with its variable weather systems’, explains Singh, ‘it is essential that we obtain more climate data from areas close to the two great cities at Mohenjodaro and Harappa and also from the Indian Punjab”.
Ravindanath Singh is saying that we must find more climate data about the variable weather systems in the area.
– information = data
– changes to environmental conditions ~ variable weather systems
– vital = essential
The answer is B.
38. A
Question: Examining previous patterns of behaviour may have long-term benefits
Key words: previous, behaviour, long-term benefits
In the last paragraph, Cameron Petrie’s ideas relate the work of archaeologists to possible benefits today from studying such work. Petrie says that: “By investigating responses to environmental pressures and threats, we can learn from the past to engage with the public, and the relevant governmental and administrative bodies, to be more proactive in issues such as…..”
Petrie believes that the work of archaeologists in investigating how past civilisations responded to environmental challenges, can help us to tackle such problems today. These are the potential long-term benefits.
– examining = investigating
– patterns of behaviour ~ responses
The answer is A.
39. D
Question: Rough calculations indicate the approximate length of a period of water shortage
Key words: calculations, length, water shortage
In paragraph E, Yama Dixit comments on the effects of drought on the drying of a great lake. However, it is David Hodell who comments on the possible length/duration of this drought: “Hodell adds: ‘We estimate that the weakening of the Indian summer monsoon climate lasted about 200 years before recovering to the previous conditions…”
– rough calculations ~ estimate
– approximate ~ about
– a period of water shortage ~ weakening of the Indian summer monsoon climate
Therefore, it was David Hodell who made this rough calculation.
The answer is D.
40. A
Question: Information about the decline of the Harappan Civilisation has been lacking
Key words: decline
In paragraph B, Cameron Petrie says: “There is plenty of archaeological evidence to tell us about the rise of the Harappan Civilisation, but relatively little about its fall’, explains archaeologist Dr Cameron Petrie…”
– information ~ evidence
– decline = fall
As there is not much evidence about the fall/decline of the Harappan Civilisation, we know that this information is lacking.
The answer is A.