IELTS Reading Sample (Academic) #14
IELTS Reading Tip
A lot of students find the concept of NOT GIVEN very difficult to grasp. Remember that some of the sentences in the questions are not addressed in the passage. When you think you have found a sentence that deals with the subject of a sentence in the questions, you need to read it very carefully - it may not express agreement OR disagreement.
Questions 1-5
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage?
In boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet, write
YESif the statement agrees with the writer's claims
NOif the statement contradicts the writer's claims
NOT GIVENif there is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
1Scientific predictions about how much it will be possible to lengthen human life vary greatly.
2Research into extending life involves both new drugs and changes to genes.
3Scientific experiments have not succeeded in making any animals live longer.
4Most people in the future will decide not to have children.
5Life expectancy has improved partly because people eat better.
Questions 6-9
Look at the following names of people or organisations (Questions 6-9) and the list of opinions (A-F).
Match each name with the opinion which the person or organisation expressed.
NB There are more opinions than names, so you will not use them all.
6Eukarion
7Rich Miller
8David Gems
9John Polkinghorne
Question 10
Which TWO of the following are characteristics of free radicals?
Choose TWO letters A-E.
Questions 11-14
Complete the following summary of the scientific progress towards extending life expectancy.
Choose your answers from the box below the summary.
NB There are more words than spaces, so you will not use them all.
Exam Tip
Here, you can find a number of techniques:
1) Putting the words in the boxes in categories e.g. names
of animals, words referring to chemicals, other words etc. before you start.
2) Looking for synonyms of particular words and phrases
e.g. by half (by 50 per cent), growing, growth, live more, live up to 80
per cent longer.
3) Reading through the summary when you have finished and
deciding whether it makes sense both for meaning and grammar.
In one experiment using anti-ageing chemicals, the life of (11) was extended by half. (12) like the ones which control the ageing process in these animals have also been found in other species. Unfortunately, however, experiments on (13) have been less successful: while they live longer, the (14) controlling their growth are also affected with the result that they grow less.