BEST IELTS General Reading Test 483

BEST IELTS General Reading Test 483

IELTS General Reading Test

Glow-worms

Glow-worm is the common name for various groups of insect larvae and adult larviform females that glow through bioluminescence. They include the European common glow-worm and other members of the Lampyridae, but bioluminescence also occurs in the families Elateridae, Phengodidae, and Rhagophthalmidae among beetles; as well as members of the genera Arachnocampa, Keroplatus, and Orfelia among keroplatid fungus gnats.

Bioluminescence is light produced by a chemical reaction within a living organism. Bioluminescence is a type of chemiluminescence, which is simply the term for chemical reaction where light is produced. Four families of beetles are bioluminescent. The wingless larviform females and larvae of these bioluminescent species are usually known as “glow-worms”. Winged males may or may not also exhibit bioluminescence.

IELTS General Reading Test

Their light may be emitted as flashes or as a constant glow, and usually range in colour from green, yellow, to orange. The families are closely related, and are all members of the beetle superfamily, Elateroidea. Phylogenetic analyses have indicated that bioluminescence may have a single evolutionary origin among Lampyridae, Phengodidae, and Gymnophthalmidae; but is likely to have arisen independently among the families Elateridae.

– Family Elateridae – The click beetles. Of the estimated 10,000 species classified under this family, around 200 species from tropical regions of the Americas and some Melanesian islands are bioluminescent. All of them are members of the subfamily Pyrophorinae, except for one species, Campyloxenus pyrothorax, which belongs to subfamily Campyloxeninae, and Balgus schnusei, in Thylacosterninae.

IELTS General Reading Test

– Family Lampyridae – True fireflies. Contains around 2,000 species found throughout the world. Some “glow worms” are in this family.

– Family Phengodidae – Usually known as glow-worm beetles. Contains around 230 species endemics to the New World. This family also includes railroad worms, which are unique among all terrestrial bioluminescent organisms in producing red light.

– Family Rhagophthalmidae – Contains around 30 species found in Asia. The validity of this family has not been fully resolved. Rhagophthalmidae was formerly considered to be a subfamily under Phengodidae before being treated as a distinct family. Some authors who now believe that it should be classified under Lampyridae.

IELTS General Reading Test

Three genera of fungus gnats are bioluminescent and known as “glow-worms” in their larval stage. They produce a blue-green light. The larvae spin sticky webs to catch food. They are found in caves, overhangs, rock cavities, and other sheltered, wet areas. They are usually classified under the family Keroplatidae, but this is not universally accepted, and some authors place them under Mycetophilidae instead. Despite the similarities in function and appearance, the bioluminescent systems of the three genera are not homologous and are believed to have evolved separately.

Genus Arachnocampa – around five species found only in New Zealand and Australia. The most well-known member of the genus is the New Zealand glowworm, Arachnocampa luminosa. The larvae are predatory and use their lights to lure prey into their webs.

IELTS General Reading Test

Genus Orfelia – sometimes known as “dismalites”. Contains a single species, Orfelia fultoni, found only in North America. Like Arachnocampa spp., their larvae may use their lights to attract prey like springtails and other small insects, but their main food is fungal spores.

Genus Keroplatus – Usually found in Eurasia. Unlike Arachnocampa and Orfelia, the larvae of Keroplatus feed only on fungal spores. Their bioluminescence is believed to have no function and is vestigial.

IELTS General Reading Test

Multiple Choice Questions

Choose your answer from the given options.

14. Glow-worm luminosities by using phenomenon known as:

a. Bioluminescence

b. Electroidea

c. Elateridae

15. The chemical reaction that produces light within the living organisms may possibly or possibly not display this phenomenon in:

a. Wingless larviform females

b. Wingless laviform males

c. Males with wings

IELTS General Reading Test

16. How many of the Family Elateridae species produce light in hot and humid territories?

a. 10,000

b. 20,000

C. 200

17. Which family of species now scholars think that should have belonged to another family?

a. Family Keroplatidae

b. Family Rhagophthalmidae

c. Family Phengodidae

IELTS General Reading Test

18. The bioluminescent techniques of three genera are not similar and are thought to have developed:

a. Independently

b. Parallelly

c. Lately

19. This specie is just found in Oceania region.

a. Genus Orfelia

b. Genus Keroplatus

c. Genus Arachnocampa

IELTS General Reading Test

20. This specie is mostly found in common areas of Asia and Europe.

a. Genus Keroplatus

b. Family Rhagophthalmidae

c. Gymnophthalmidae

Agriculture

A. Agriculture is the exercise of cultivating plants and livestock, Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to live in cities. The history of agriculture began thousands of years ago. After gathering wild grains beginning at least 105,000 years ago, nascent farmers began to plant them around 11,500 years ago.

Pigs, sheep, and cattle were domesticated over 10,000 years ago. Plants were independently cultivated in at least 11 regions of the world. Industrial agriculture based on large-scale monoculture in the twentieth century came to dominate agricultural output. Modern agronomy, plant breeding, agrochemicals such as pesticides and fertilizers, and technological developments have sharply increased crop yields.

IELTS General Reading Test

B. The use of these pesticides and fertilizers has created widespread ecological and modern breeding and practices in animal environmental damage. Selective husbandry have similarly increased the output of meat but have raised concerns about animal welfare and environmental damage. Environmental issues include contributions to global warming, depletion of aquifers, deforestation, antibiotic resistance, and growth hormones in industrial meat production.

Agriculture is both a cause of and sensitive to environmental degradation, such as biodiversity loss, desertification, soil degradation and global warming, all of which can cause decreases in crop yield. Genetically modified organisms are widely used, although some are banned in certain countries. The major agricultural products can be broadly grouped into foods, fibres, fuels, and raw materials (such as rubber).

IELTS General Reading Test

C. Food classes include cereals (grains), vegetables, fruits, oils, meat, milk, fungi, and eggs. Over one-third of the world’s workers are employed in agriculture, second only to the service sector, although in recent decades, the global trend of a decreasing number of agricultural workers continues, especially in developing countries where smallholding is being overtaken by industrial agriculture and mechanization.

The development of agriculture enabled the human population to grow many times larger than could be sustained by hunting and gathering. Agriculture began independently in different parts of the globe, and included a diverse range of taxa, in at least 11 separate centres of origin. Wild grains were collected and eaten from at least 105,000 years ago. From around 11,500 years ago, the eight Neolithic founder crops, emmer and einkorn wheat, hulled barley, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chickpeas, and flax were cultivated in the Levant. Rice was domesticated in China between 11,500 and 6,200 BC with the earliest known cultivation from 5,700 BC, followed by mung, soy and azuki beans.

IELTS General Reading Test

D. Sheep were tamed in Mesopotamia between 13,000 and 11,000 years ago. Cattle were kept as pet from the wild aurochs in the areas of modern Turkey and Pakistan some 10,500 years ago. Pig production emerged in Eurasia, including Europe, East Asia, and Southwest Asia, where wild boar was first domesticated about 10,500 years ago.

In the Andes of South America, the potato was domesticated between 10,000 and 7,000 years ago, along with beans, coca, llamas, alpacas, and guinea pigs. Sugarcane and some root vegetables were domesticated in New Guinea around 9,000 years ago. Sorghum was domesticated in the Sahel region of Africa by 7,000 years ago. Cotton was domesticated in Peru by 5,600 years ago and was independently domesticated in Eurasia. In Mesoamerica, wild teosinte was bred into maize by 6,000 years ago.

IELTS General Reading Test

E. Scholars have offered multiple hypotheses to explain the historical origins of agriculture. Studies of the transition from hunter-gatherer to agricultural societies indicate an initial period of intensification and increasing sedentism; examples are the Natufian culture in the Levant, and the Early Chinese Neolithic in China. Then, wild stands that had previously been harvested started to be planted, and gradually came to be domesticated.

F. Agriculture, specifically farming, remains a hazardous industry, and farmers worldwide remain at high risk of work-related injuries, lung disease, noise-induced hearing loss, skin diseases, as well as certain cancers related to chemical use and prolonged sun exposure. On industrialized farms, injuries frequently involve the use of agricultural machinery, and a common cause of fatal agricultural injuries in developed countries is tractor rollovers.

IELTS General Reading Test

Choose the correct heading for the given sections from the list of headings below. Write the correct number in the answer sheet.

List of Headings

i. Pigs and sheep were easy to domesticate than other animals

ii. Few practices responsible for surge in agrarian produce.

iii. Findings of the changeover from foragers to farming cultures suggest an early phase of intensification.

iv. The worldwide movement of a dwindling number of agrarian laborers persists.

v. Farming industry proving to be unsafe for human wellbeing.

vi. Even Now a huge percentage of people reliant on the cultivation for their survival.

vii. Domestication of livestock in different societies.

viii. Agriculture leading to ecological harm.

ix. Role of tractors in farming.

IELTS General Reading Test

21. Paragraph A

22. Paragraph B

23. Paragraph C

24. Paragraph D

25. Paragraph E

26. Paragraph F

IELTS General Reading Test

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BEST IELTS General Reading Test 483

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IELTS General Reading Test

14. A

15. C

16. C

17. B

18. A

19. C

20. A

21. ii

22. viii

23. iv

24. vii

25. iii

26. v

IELTS General Reading Test

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