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BEST IELTS Academic Reading Test 508
IELTS ACADEMIC READING TEST 508 – PASSAGE – 1
IELTS ACADEMIC READING TEST – 508
READING PASSAGE – 1
Genetically Modified Crops Accepting the Inevitable
A. Cabaceiras is a town of around 5,000 people situated in Brazil’s northern state of Para. The people are mostly small-scale vegetable farmers, with specialist, traditional knowledge handed down over hundreds of years. But now the natural purity of their produce is under threat from one of the 21st century’s most controversial technological issues: genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Previously one of the world’s last major agricultural exporters to remain GMO free, the Brazilian government has now decided to allow the biotechnology industry to sell GM seed to the country’s farmers.
B. Many people in Brazil feel the acceptance of transgenic crops is a dangerous move. Before this decision, Brazil was the world’s largest exporter of GM-free soya. In 2001, sales of this product alone earned the country US$ 4.1billion – just under one-third of the country’s total income from agricultural exports. Its main market was Europe, where consumers are still suspicious as to whether food species that have been genetically engineered in a laboratory may affect their health. Several UK supermarket chains, for example, insist on GM-free soya and refuse to buy from the USA, where 69 per cent of all soya crops are GM.
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C. European law requires all produce containing more than one per cent of GM ingredients to be labelled as such. At the time when Brazil was totally GM-free, Adriano Campolini, policy director of the development agency ActionAid, pointed out, ‘Brazil faces pressure from countries like the USA and from the biotech industry to come into line. They are afraid that Brazil will have a competitive advantage because of its GM-free status.’
Fearful that health and safety worries were being ignored, ActionAid joined with other non-governmental organisations to stall attempts in Brazil’s congress to legalise GMOs, insisting there must be further research. They gained support among rural peasants such as those who live in Cabaceiras through a public education campaign, staging mock jury trials at which scientists, large-scale farmers, peasants and civic leaders alike were invited to debate the case for and against.
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D. Even now, small family farmers like Lilian Marques, 33, who lives in Cabaceiras with her family, fear GM technology could harm them and their businesses. Lilian is well aware of the possible effects on health of eating GM food, but she also has other concerns, ‘I am afraid that the rich farmers will plant GM seed now it is legalised,’ she explains. ‘The wind could bring the pollen to our plantation, then it will be as if we have planted GM seed too. We produce only natural vegetables, yet we could not be sure what we were eating.’
E. There are other potential consequences that trouble many in this fragile Amazon region, whose biodiversity is the richest on the planet. Some fear there may be a risk of chemical pollution from the products that must be used on the crops. One type of GM maize has even been engineered to be insect-resistant – if a caterpillar eats the leaf, the caterpillar dies. Maybe GM crops could be harmful to the forest and the animals that we eat,’ Lilian suggests. What if an insect eats from the crop, then an animal eats the insect, then we eat the animal?’
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F. The biotech industry says such fears about GM technology are misguided. Monsanto, an international food biotechnology company, has launched a campaign in Brazil, costing US$2 million, to provide information to the public about genetically modified crops. The company insists the process that kills the insects is harmless to humans and that ‘Round-up’- the herbicide used on GM crops – is ‘no more toxic than table-salt’.
‘We are as close to 100 per cent as science can ever be that GM products are safe for human health and the environment,’ says spokesman Gary Barton. Monsanto hails the USA and Argentina – the other two largest exporters of soya – as examples of agricultural exporters that thrive on GM crops, whose merits it says include increased resistance to disease, improved nutritional value and increased levels of production. ‘Three and a half million farmers around the world wouldn’t have adopted biotechnology in their fields if they weren’t seeing any benefits,’ says Barton.
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G. It is not just the biotechnology companies that have an interest in Brazil lifting its GM ban, though they will undoubtedly reap the biggest profits. Francisco Campos, a professor of plant molecular biology in the northeastern city of Fortaleza, has made his own scientific breakthrough but cannot implement it because the embargo has only been lifted on GM soya, not other crops. We need plants to feed animals in order to have milk and meat.
In this region, most of the plants we use for animal food, like cassava and prickly pear, are nutritionally deficient. But we can now insert a gene to add nutritional quality. In my laboratory, we have created our first transgenic cassava like this, but we are not allowed to put it to use. This GM ban undermines the confidence people have in science and its ability to help feed our nation!
H. But the villagers in Cabaceiras are not convinced. ‘In my view, people still don’t know if GM seed is good or bad,’ says Lilian. ‘Therefore, I don’t want to take the risk.’
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Questions 1-8
The Reading Passage has eight paragraphs labelled A-H.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
NB You may use any letter more than once.
1. An example of a part of the world which valued Brazil’s GM-free status
2. An important decision that has been made by Brazilian authorities
3. An account of one organisation’s efforts to reassure the people of Brazil about GMOs
4. The effect on public attitudes to science of the continued ban on some GM techniques
5. The reason why other countries felt threatened by Brazil’s ban on GM products
6. An example of a small community which has, up to now, has been free of GMOs
7. A warning about the possible effects of GM technology on the food chain
8. A method of raising awareness of both positive and negative aspects of GMOs
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Questions 9-13
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Arguments against GM technology
A. Health could be affected by eating GMO foods
B. Danger of 9……………………… of GM crops being carried to plantations of non-GM produce
C. Danger of 10……………………. from products such as insecticides
Arguments for GM technology
A. Insecticides and 11…………………………… products used on GMOs are safe
B. GMO crops bring many benefits
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– e.g. less danger of 12……………………….
– more nutritious
– more productive
C. Already used by 3.5 m farmers worldwide
D. New type of 13 ………………………… plant developed through the insertion of an extra gene could improve yields of meat and milk if used as animal food
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Questions 14
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
14. Which of these statements best summarises the reading passage?
A. The concerns of ordinary people about GMOs should not be dismissed.
B. The environmental and economic disadvantages of GM use outweigh the advantages.
C. Multinational companies should not be allowed to restrict the use of GM technologies.
D. Uneducated people should be reassured about the value of GMOs.
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ANSWERS
1. B
2. A
3. C
4. G
5. C
6. A
7. E
8. C
9. POLLEN
10. CHEMICAL POLLUTION
11. HERBICIDE
12. DISEASE
13. CASSAVA
14. A
IELTS Academic Reading Test