BEST IELTS Academic Reading Test 465

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IELTS ACADEMIC READING TEST 465 – PASSAGE – 2

IELTS ACADEMIC READING TEST – 465

READING PASSAGE – 2

A. Though the new 12-sided pound coin is still a charming novelty to most British people on the high street, for policymakers at the Royal Mint and the Bank of England, it may be the solution to a serious problem: counterfeit coin manufacturing.

B. Counterfeit money has been in circulation for almost as long as legitimate currency. During the foundation of the American Colonies, shells were often traded as a form of currency. Blue-black shells had a higher worth than the more common white coloured shells, as such, some traders would attempt to paint white shells with blue and black paint in order to illicitly create more valuable currency. During the American Revolutionary War, counterfeit American money was produced tactically by British subjects, with the intention of lowering the value of legitimate American currency by flooding the market with forgeries, and causing an economic disaster.

IELTS Academic Reading Test

C. Today, counterfeiters are very rarely motivated by such political aims. Most forgeries are created simply in order to provide the counterfeiters with more disposable income. But whatever the reason for creating counterfeit money is, the significant problems they can impose on the economy remain the same.

D. A study in May 2015 found that 2.55% of pound coins in circulation at that time were fakes, down from an estimate of 3.03% in May 2014. Over the preceding decade, the percentage of fake coins had almost doubled, as counterfeiters began to make use of more advanced technology to produce these illegal items. In total, there are around 30 million fake pound coins in circulation, making it a much more commonly forged item than the £2 coin, which is harder to replicate due to its bimetallic composition. Other commonly forged currencies include the euro: in the second half of 2016, over 350,000 fake euro banknotes were removed from circulation by monitors.

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E. In 2016, an East London gang were found to have created £16,000 worth of counterfeit money in only a month. The gang created their own counterfeit coin press and used ingots of metal to create one and two pound coins. Though Royal Mint experts claimed the forgeries were very crude copies, which were magnetic and different in size to authentic real one and two pound coins, the counterfeit coins would have been convincing enough to fool unsuspecting cashiers.

F. It is often possible to tell whether a pound coin is fake or not by looking at the edges of the coin to see whether they are rough. If they are rough, this proves that the coin is a fake, as an authentic pound coin should have smooth edges. Another way to check that currency is not counterfeit is to check to see if the designs on each side of the coin are slightly unaligned with each other. Counterfeit coins are often unable to match the precision and symmetry of an authentic coin.

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G. Although the only certain way to detect a forgery is to examine the coin with E a specially designed scanner, many less competent counterfeiters leave deficiencies in one or more of the already described areas. There are plenty of urban legends about other ways to tell a fake: for instance, it is commonly believed that a false pound coin will lose its colour if its surface is scraped with a copper 1p or 2p coin. In fact, this will only be the case with the shoddiest, least proficiently produced forgeries.

H. Most commonly, however, people who are given a fake coin simply remain unaware of its status. Sometimes, people discover the truth when they try to use their coin in an automatic vending machine or parking meter, as these devices can be fitted with machines which authenticate coins based on their chemical composition. The Royal Mint encourages anyone who spots a fake coin to take it to their local police station-but, since no replacement money can be given for these technically worthless items, it is perhaps unsurprising that few people who detect false coins ever hand them in.

IELTS Academic Reading Test

It’s also been suggested that, if people did begin to recognise and hand in fakes in large numbers, police officers might in fact be displeased, as they would then have to spend much or their time and energy on registering fake coins. Technically, anyone who elects to use a coin that they know to be false is breaking the law: whilst in practice the authorities will usually only pursue those who are using or manufacturing fake money in bulk, anyone who knowingly uses even one of these coins is officially guilty of a crime.

Questions 13-20

Reading Passage 2 has eight paragraphs, A-H.

Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below. Write the correct number, i-xi, in boxes 13-18 on your answer sheet.

Headings

i. Identifying forgeries

ii. How to mint money

iii. A modern day example

iv. Modern motivations of counterfeiters

v. Counterfeiting through the ages

vi. Why are so many counterfeits never reported?

vii. How most counterfeits are produced\

viii. Misconceptions for spotting forgeries

ix. The punishments given for counterfeiting money

x. An original solution

xi. How much of our money is counterfeit?

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13. Paragraph A

14. Paragraph B

15. Paragraph C

16. Paragraph D

17. Paragraph E

18. Paragraph F

19. Paragraph G

20. Paragraph H

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Questions 21-26

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Counterfeit money has almost existed as long as 21…………… During the American Revolution, counterfeit money was produced with the in an attempt to trigger an 22……………. Today, counterfeit money is simply produced in order to allow the counterfeiter to buy more things, though counterfeit money still causes significant damage to the UK economy. 23……………. of pound coins were found to be fake in the UK in 2015.

In 2016, a gang in London produced counterfeit money by pressing 24……………of metal into a homemade coin press. Fake coins will often have rough sides and edges, and the image on each side of the coin will often not line up, whereas they will always be perfectly aligned in legitimate coins. It is an 25…………. that a fake coin can be detected by scraping another coin along the surface of it, as this will only work with the 26…………… counterfeit money in current circulation.

IELTS Academic Reading Test

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