Practice IELTS Reading Test

Academic Module

PAPER ONE

TIME ALLOWED: 1 hour

NUMBER OF QUESTIONS: 42

Instructions
WRITE ALL YOUR ANSWERS ON THE ANSWER SHEET

The test is in 3 sections:

-- Reading Passage 1 Questions 1-14

Reading Passage 2 Questions 15-28

Reading Passage 3 Questions 29-42

Remember to answer all the questions. If you are having trouble with a question, skip it and
return to it later.

66 IELTS to Success
READING PASSAGE 1
You are advised to spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-14, which are based on Reading Passage 1.

Early Telecommunications Devices

Although it is hardly used anymore, the telegraph is familiar to most people. This early telecommuni­
cations device is credited, as any school student knows, to Samuel Morse, who, in 1844, made the
first long-distance electronic communication via his invention, the Morse telegraph. What is not so
commonly known is that Morse's was not the only telegraph nor he the only such inventor at this
time. A rival system, developed by William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone, was patented in England
in 1845 and was subsequently adopted for use by British rail companies to enable speedy communi­
cation between rail stations.

However, the Cooke-Wheatstone telegraph, which used six wires and a fragile receiver requiring five
magnetic needles, proved to be awkward to use, difficult to transport and expensive to build. Morse's
version used one wire and a receiver of a simpler and stronger design. This is, no doubt, why it
became the favoured telegraph in many parts of the world, especially the United States, which built
a telegraph line along railway tracks crossing the North American continent, linking eastern cities
with western frontiers.

Morse chose the Magnetic Telegraph Company to handle the patents for his telegraph technology, and
within seven years of the appearance of his invention, the company had licensed use of the telegraph
to more than 50 companies across the US. In 1851, twelve of these companies came together to form
the Western Union Company. By 1866, Western Union had grown to include more than 4000 tele­
graph offices, almost all in rail stations.

Another early telecommunications device is still very much with us: the telephone. Although the tele­
phone is popularly thought to be the brainchild of one man, Alexander Graham Bell, this is not the
whole truth. Phillip Reis, a schoolteacher in Germany, invented a device in 1861 that he labelled a
telephone. Reis's invention was limited to transmitting musical tones, however, and could not send
the sound of the human voice across the wire.

While Reis was working on his invention, Bell and another man, Elisha Gray, were also working
toward the invention of the telephone, though by an indirect route. Both were, in fact, seeking ways
of allowing multiple telegraph signals to travel along the same telegraph line - a system known as a
harmonic telegraph. Bell worked in Boston while Gray was based in Chicago, and the two were rivals
in their area of research. For both inventors, the perfection of the harmonic telegraph proved too
difficult and both, separately but at around the same time, changed plans and started on the devel­
opment of a telephone. Most interesting of all is the fact that both men applied for a patent to the US
Patent Office for their respective telephones on the same day, 14 February 1876. Bell was lucky
enough to have arrived a few hours earlier than Gray and so it was Bell whose name was to be forever
associated with the telephone. The harmonic telegraph, incidentally, was perfected by Thomas
Edison, best known as the inventor of the light bulb, in 1881.

Rights to Bell's patent (now recognised as the most valuable patent in the history of technology) were
offered to Western Union for .$100 000, with the assumption that the giant telegraph company would
be enthusiastic about the new technology. But Western Union disliked Bell's design and instead asked
Elisha Gray to make refinements to his original telephone design. Bell's company began to set up its
own business and sell telephones, while Western Union, with its somewhat different design, was its
competitor.
(continued)

Practice Reading Papers 67

Competition between the two continued for about two years, but all the while, the Bell company
was mounting a legal challenge to Western Union, claiming it held the only true basic patents for
the telephone. It based its claim on the fact that Bell had beaten Gray to the Patent Office and so
should be the sole recognised inventor of the telephone. Eventually, Western Union had to agree
with Bell and gave up its telephone rights and patents to the Bell company. The telegraph com­
pany's entire network of telephones was handed over to the Bell company. As compensation,
Western Union was given 20 per cent of revenue from rental of its former equipment; this arrange­
ment was to last until Bell's patents expired. In an effort to fight the power the Bell company
enjoyed from exclusive rights to Bell's patents, a small telephone company, Pacific Union, estab­
lished telephone services in the 1920s and 1930s that it claimed were based on the telephone
design of Phillip Reis. They maintained that because Reis's invention pre-dated Bell's, the Bell
design was not the first of its kind and, therefore, Bell's patents were not valid. Although the court
accepted that the company may have been using Reis's technology, it nonetheless held that only
Bell's patents could legally be used.

The Bell company, eventually named American Telephone & Telegraph, thus formed an effective
monopoly on telephone services in the United States. The company subsequently grew to such an
extent that, a century later, it was the largest privately held enterprise in the world, with more than
a million employees controlling communications between more than 100 million telephones. In 1984,
American Telephone & Telegraph was found by a US court to be too monopolistic and was ordered to
be broken up into several smaller companies.

patent: an official recognition of a person as the inventor of a device

monopoly: exclusive control of a market

Questions 1-5

Complete the table below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each
answer. Write your answers in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.

Inventor(s)
Year Event (by surname)

1845 patent of telegraph ... (1) ...

1851 establishment of ... (2) ...

1861 invention of telephone ... (3) ...

application for patent of Gray

1876
... (4) ...

successful development of Edison

1881
... (5) ...

68 IELTS to Success
Questions 6-10

Look at the following lists of in'Ventors and companies. Match each in,'Ventor to ONE of the com­
panies that used his/their technology. Choose E if there is no information in the reading passage.
Write the appropriate letters A-E in boxes 6-10 on your answer sheet.

N.B.: You may use any letter more than once.

Inventors Companies

A British rail companies

(6) Bell B Pacific Union

(7) Cooke and Wheatstone C American Telephone & Telegraph

(8) Edison D Western Union

(9) Gray or

(10) Reis E no information in reading

passage

Questions 11-14

USING NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS, answer the following questions. Write your answers in
boxes 11-14 on your answer sheet.

11. Name ONE reason why Cooke and Wheatstone's invention was not as successful as Morse's.

12. In what type of location did Western Union typically offer its telegraph services?

13. What sort of information was Reis's original invention able to send?

14. What device did Alexander Graham Bell try but fail to invent?

Practice Reading Papers 69

READING PASSAGE 2
You are ad'Vised to spend about 20 minutes on Questions 15-28: which are based on Reading Passage 2.

Categorising Love
Although many people would no doubt think it or less equally balanced, however, the relation­
impossible, social psychologists over the past ship can be called one of consummate lo'Ve, and
several decades have been attempting to catego­ this, says Sternberg, is probably the healthiest
rise and quantify the notion of love. And while in terms of the longevity of the relationship and
there may never be agreement on how this is the happiness of the partners.
best done, much of the research to date is quite
thought-provoking. In yet another categorisation of love, Lee (1973)
divides the emotion into six different styles,
Sternberg (1986) sees love in terms of the inter­ each with its own name:
play between three independently quantifiable
aspects: passion, intimacy and decision/com­ Love style Characteristics
mitment. Sternberg defines passion as the
romantic and sexual components of a relation­
ship. Intimacy is the degree of closeness a
eros romantic, passionate love;
person feels for another. Decision/commitment
based on ideal images of one's
concerns both one's decision about being in love
partner
with a person and, once in an established
relationship with that person, how committed
one is to loving one's partner. ludus game-playing love; playful and
teasing

storge friendship love

pragma practical, logical love; a

'shopping-list' approach to
seeking a partner

mania possessive, dependent love

decision/ -----­ ------ passion
commitment

agape selfless, altruistic love; puts

The intensity of each of the three aspects tells partner's interests above own
us how a love relationship can be characterised.
If decision/commitment is strong, for example,
but intimacy and passion are low, then the Lee believes most people feel or experience love
result is empty lo'Ve, according to Sternberg. He as a combination of two or more of the above
defines liking, meanwhile, as the type of love styles, and that both partners may approach
resulting from a high degree of intimacy but low their relationship with styles that are sometimes
decision/commitment and passion. When pas­ compatible and sometimes not. Hendrick and
sion is the only component that is strongly felt, Hendrick (1986) investigated how men and
this means that infatuation best describes the women categorise their feelings and experi­
relationship. Romantic lo'Ve occurs when there ences of love using scales developed to measure
is a balance of passion and intimacy at relatively Lee's six styles. They found that women scored
high levels but there is little decision/ higher on storge, pragma and mania styles,
commitment. When all three aspects are more while men scored higher on ludus.

70 IELTS to Success
In a subsequent study, Hendrick and Adler anxious-ambivalent. An avoidant style results
(1988) looked at how men's and women's scores from regular refusal by the care-giving adult to
for the six love types correlated with satisfac­ give attention or physical contact to the infant.
tion in their love relationships. The findings
were that a relationship was more likely to be Hazan and Shaver (1987), believing love to be a
satisfactory if eros and agape scores for both form of attachment, speculate that early attach­
partners were high, while a high score of ludus ment styles extend into adulthood and charac­
was more common in relationships marked by terise a person's style of showing love for another
dissatisfaction. person. They base their suppositions on the
reported histories of over 1200 people, who
The question of why different types or styles of wrote of both their adult romantic experience
love exist may best be addressed by attachment and their relationships with their parents.
theory. The theory is based on observations of Adults with secure attachment styles reported
infants developing attachments to adults - that they found it fairly easy to get close to other
interpreted by Bowlby (1980) as a natural, evo­ people and enjoy a relationship characterised
lutionary behaviour that promotes survival of by mutual dependence. Moreover, there was
the infant by staying close to adults when there little fear of being rejected by others. Those
is danger. Ainsworth et al. (1978) divide attach­ with avoidant attachment styles said they were
ment behaviour into three types: secure, not comfortable getting close to others, found it
anxious-ambivalent and avoidant. A secure difficult to trust others completely and did not
attachment style forms when the infant and the like having to rely on others. People in the
care-giving adult interact with consistent caring anxious-ambivalent category felt their partners
and regular physical contact, giving the infant did not wish to become as intimate with them as
confidence to explore the world with little fear. they themselves would have liked. They also
When the adult gives care inconsistently or tries worried that they were not loved by their part­
to interfere too much in the infant's activities, ners and constantly fretted about their romantic
the attachment style is more likely to be relationships.

Questions 15-19

On page 72 there are several diagrams illustrating the triangular relationship of passion, intimacy
and decision/commitment, as defined by Sternberg (1986) in Reading Passage 2. Look at each dia­
gram and determine whether it illustrates:

A consummate love

B romantic love

C empty love

D infatuation

E liking

or

F no information in the reading passage.

Practice Reading Papers 71

Write the appropriate letters A-Fin boxes 15-19 on your answer sheet.

decision/-- ---­ ------ passion

commitment

15. 18.

decision/-- ---­ ----- passion decision/ -----­ passion

commitment commitment

16. 19.

decision/.----­ passion decision/ -----­ passion

commitment commitment

17.

decision/ -4----­ -----. passion

commitment

72 IELTS to Success
Questions 20-25

In Reading Passage 2, Lee (1973) divides love into six distinct styles. Each of the comments below
can be attributed to a person with one of those styles. Classify the comments as typical of

A agape

B eros

C ludus

D mania

E pragma

F storge

Write the appropriate letters A-F in boxes 20-25 on your answer sheet.

Example
'I would rather suffer myself than l�t"my partner suffer.'
Answer: A

20. 'Our relationship is satisfying because it developed from a deep friendship.'

21. 'I can't relax if I suspect my partner is with somebody else. I want him/her all to myself.'

22. 'When I chose my partner, I considered how he/she would affect my career ambitions.'

23. 'My partner looks just like the kind of person I've always wanted to be with. I was attracted to
him/her as soon as we met.'

24. 'I wouldn't hesitate to give everything I own to my partner if he/she wanted it.'

25. 'I like to keep my partner guessing whether I really love him/her.'

Questions 26-28

Complete the sentences below with words taken from Reading Passage 2. Use NO MORE THAN
TWO WORDS for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 26-28 on your answer sheet.

26. If adults consistently withdraw from contact with an infant, the likely result will be a(n)
...... attachment style.

27. Adults with ............................... attachment styles tend to wish for more closeness from their partners
than they are getting.

28. Dependence on others may present a problem for people with ............................... attachment styles.

Practice Reading Papers 73

READING PASSAGE 3
You slwuld spend about 20 minutes on Questions 29-42, which are based on Reading Passage 3.

Questions 29-33

Reading Passage 3 has 6 paragraphs.

Choose the most suitable headings for paragraphs B-F from the list of headings below. Write the
appropriate numbers (i-ix) in boxes 29-33 on your answer sheet.

N.B.: There are more headings than paragraphs so you will not use all of them. You may use any of
the headings more than once.

List of headings

(i) Responsibilities of responding police officers

(ii) Perceived advantages of rapid response

(iii) Police response to public satisfaction

(iv) Communicating response time to people requesting

help

(v) When rapid response is and is not necessary

(vi) Role of technology in improving police response

(vii)_ Response time and success of response

(viii) Public demand for catching criminals

(ix) Obstacles to quickly contacting the police

29. Paragraph B

30. Paragraph C

31. Paragraph D

32. Paragraph E

33. Paragraph F

74 IELTS to Success
 Rapid Police Response
A Police departments in the United States and Canada see it as central to their role that they respond
to calls for help as quickly as possible. This ability to react fast has been greatly improved with the aid of
technology. The telephone and police radio, already long in use, assist greatly in the reduction of police
response time. In more recent times there has been the introduction of the '911' emergency system, which
allows the public easier and faster contact with police, and the use of police computer systems, which assist
police in planning patrols and assigning emergency requests to the police officers nearest to the scene of the
emergency.
B An important part of police strategy, rapid police response is seen by police officers and the. public
alike as offering tremendous benefits. The more obvious ones are the ability of police to apply first-aid life­
saving techniques quickly and the greater likelihood of arresting people who may have participated in a
crime. It aids in identifying those who witnessed an emergency or crime, as well as in collecting evidence.
The overall reputation of a police department, too, is enhanced if rapid response is consistent, and this in
itself promotes the prevention of crime. Needless to say, rapid response offers the public some degree of satis­
faction in its police force.
C While these may be the desired consequences of rapid police response, actual research has not shown
it to be quite so beneficial. For example, it has been demonstrated that rapid response leads to a greater like­
lihood of arrest only if responses are in the order of 1-2 minutes after a call is received by the police. When
response times increase to 3-4 minutes - still quite a rapid response - the likelihood of an arrest is sub­
stantially reduced. Similarly, in identifying witnesses to emergencies or crimes, police are far more likely to
be successful if they arrive at the scene no more than four minutes, on average, after receiving a call for help.
Yet both police officers and the public define 'rapid response' as responding up to 10-12 minutes after calling
the police for help.
D Should police assume all the responsibility for ensuring a rapid response? Studies have shown that
people tend to delay after an incident occurs before contacting the police. A crime victim may be injured and
thus unable to call for help, for example, or no telephone may be available at the scene of the incident. Often,
however, there is no such physical barrier to calling the police. Indeed, it is very common for crime victims
to call their parents, their minister, or even their insurance company first. When the police are finally called
in such cases, the effectiveness of even the most rapid of responses is greatly diminished.
(continued)

· "' -� .r• ._-,

. . ..
.. . . _: .....:.::;:h-.;. �.;,:�+�}-;�-;:-�·-.._:· : ·. ·: �·-�

Practice Reading Papers 75

E The effectiveness of rapid response also needs to be seen in light of the nature of the crime. For
example, when someone rings the police after discovering their television set has been stolen from their
home, there is little point, in terms of identifying those responsible for the crime, in ensuring a very rapid
response. It is common in such burglary or theft cases that the victim discovers the crime hours, days, even
weeks after it has occurred. When the victim is directly involved in the crime, however, as in the case of
a robbery, rapid response, provided the victim was quickly able to contact the police, is more likely to be
advantageous. Based on statistics comparing crimes that are discovered and those in which the victim is
directly involved, Spelman and Brown (1981) suggest that three in four calls to police need not be met with
rapid response.

F It becomes clear that the importance of response time in collecting evidence or catching criminals
after a crime must be weighed against a variety of factors. Yet because police department officials assume
the public strongly demands rapid response, they believe that every call to the police should be met with it.
Studies have shown, however, that while the public wants quick response, more important is the information
given by the police to the person asking for help. If a caller is told the police will arrive in five minutes but in
fact it takes ten minutes or more, waiting the extra time can be extremely frustrating. But if a caller is told he
or she will have to wait 10 minutes and the police indeed arrive within that time, the caller is normally satis­
fied. Thus, rather than emphasising rapid response, the focus of energies should be on establishing realistic
expectations in the caller and making every effort to meet them.

Questions 34 and 35

Name the TWO LATEST technological de'Velopments that reduce police response time. Using
NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer, write the two de'Velopments separately in boxes
34-35 on your answer sheet.

Questions 36-42

Do the following statements reflect the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3? In boxes 36-42
write:

YES if the statement reflects the writer's claims

NO if the statement contradicts the writer

NOT GWEN if there is no information about this in the passage

36. Police believe there is a better chance of finding witnesses to a crime if response is rapid.
3 7. A response delay of 1-2 minutes may have substantial influence on whether or not a sus­
pected criminal is caught.
38. The public and the police generally agree on the amount of time normally taken for a rapid
response.
39. Physical barriers are the greatest cause of delay in contacting police.
40. Rapid response is considered desirable in handling cases of burglary.
41. Research shows that some 7 5 per cent of crimes are discovered by victims after they have
been committed.
42. Police departments are usually successful in providing a rapid response regardless of the cir­
cumstances of the crime or emergency.

76 IELTS to Success