BEST IELTS General Reading Test 486

Table of Contents

IELTS GENERAL READING TEST 486 – PASSAGE – 3

IELTS GENERAL READING TEST – 486

READING PASSAGE – 3

AMATEUR CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

A Science is our most reliable system of gaining new knowledge and citizen science is the public involvement in inquiry and discovery of new scientific knowledge. A citizen science project can involve one person or millions of people collaborating towards a common goal. Typically, public involvement is in data collection, analysis, or reporting.

Citizen science is a field enabling ordinary people, often without formal training, to contribute to scientific research in their spare time. The range of involvement varies. Some citizen scientists donate idle time on their home computers for use in solving problems large in scale. Other projects encourage participants to contribute small bits of data about themselves or their environments. Amateur citizens played an important role in cataloging local flora and fauna. Active lay communities exist in fields like astronomy and ornithology.

IELTS General Reading Test

B Science and citizen science have the same historic roots that link it to people who sought discovery in their leisure time. When science became a profession in the 1800s, contributions from non professionals continued. Yet, only recently has the profession of science reunited with leisure participation. Many recent studies have shown data from volunteers are as reliable as from professionals. For more challenging areas, many new statistical techniques have been developed to address data quality and other aspects of ‘big data’. The number of research studies benefitting from citizen science is growing every year.

C Here are four common features of citizen science practice: (a) anyone can participate, (b) participants use the same protocol so data can be combined and be high quality, (c) data can help real scientists come to real conclusions, and (d) a wide community of scientists and volunteers work together and share data to which the public, as well as scientists, have access. The fields that citizen science advances are diverse: ecology, astronomy, medicine, computer science, statistics, psychology, genetics, engineering and many more.

IELTS General Reading Test

The massive collaborations that can occur through citizen science allow investigations at continental and global scales and across decades-leading to discovery that a single scientist could never achieve on their own. “Amateur science,” “crowd sourced science,” “volunteers monitoring,” and “public participation in scientific research” are also common aliases for citizen science.

D The Internet and mobile phones now connect more people than ever before, changing how scientists and citizens interact. Today’s citizen science is born from and reinforces other shifts in the digital world-“big data,” open access and mobile technology foremost among them—and borrows heavily from aspects of Internet culture: forums, gaming, and social media, to name just a few. You can use your mobile phone or the internet to collect and submit observations and to see results. There are as many varieties of citizen science as there are of science. In some fields, researchers look to citizen volunteers for help sifting through the deluge of information from microscopes, satellites, and telescopes.

IELTS General Reading Test

E The emergent, accessible platforms make it possible to help the USGS measure and record earthquake tremors; join NASA’s effort in counting passing meteors, and even help monitor noise and light pollution in our communities. Platforms like Project NOAH, SciSpy and iNaturalist provide free mobile apps for participants to share photos and observations of wildlife and nature in their backyards, cities, and towns. For some projects, like Yard Map, volunteers literally don’t have to go farther than their own backyards to contribute.

In other fields-like ornithology, for example, the platform eBird, functions like a Facebook for birders, allowing users around the globe to log their observations and compare. The observations posted on eBird contribute to detailed maps of bird migrations-analytic capabilities have outstripped the available data, and scientists are asking citizens to gather more. The Great Sunflower Project provides a platform for logging and sharing observations of pollinators like bees and wasps. Still other efforts enlist laypeople to tag and analyze images.

IELTS General Reading Test

F Citizen Science bridges gaps by harnessing the power of people who are motivated by curiosity, a desire to advance research, or a concern about environmental conditions in their communities, then connecting them to projects that benefit from their energy and dedication. In the past, collecting large samples of data for research was the most challenging task of any initiative.

However, with today’s interconnected world, thousands of people from around the globe can remotely contribute to a study and provide, analyze, or report data that researchers can use. It enables investigations that would not otherwise be possible, ones that push new frontiers in our understanding of our world. Increased public participation in scientific research will ideally cultivate a citizenship that is knowledgeable about the scientific enterprise.

Citizen science encourages people to take a stake in the world around them. As a result, the hope is that this informed public will play a valuable role in influencing larger decisions about science policy. There are national and international groups pushing for this right now.

IELTS General Reading Test

Questions 27-32

The text has six sections, A-F.

Choose the correct heading for each section from the list of headings below.

Write the correct number, I-VI, in boxes 27-32 on your answer sheet.

LIST OF HEADINGS

I. Anamnesis of citizen science

II. Platforms and projects

III. Citizen science defined

IV. Role of public in science

V. Scope of citizen science

VI. Digital world and citizen science

IELTS General Reading Test

27. Section A

28. Section B

29. Section C

30. Section D

31. Section E

32. Section F

IELTS General Reading Test

Questions 33-36

Writ NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer.

33. Which platform functions like Facebook for birders?

34. Name the platform for logging and sharing observations of pollinators like bees and wasps?

35. For which project can volunteers use their own backyards for contributions to data?

36. For sharing photos of what, do the platforms like SciSpy and iNaturalist provide free mobile apps for?

IELTS General Reading Test

Questions 37-40

Do the following statements agree with the information given in the above text?

In boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet, write

YES – if the statement agrees with the information

NO – if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN – if there is no information on this

37. The ginormous collaborations that occur through citizen science allow investigations at continental and global scales.

38. Aggrandized public participation in scientific research ideally doesn’t cultivate a citizenship that is knowledgeable about the scientific enterprise.

39. The popularity of citizen science and its usefulness in research endeavors may paradoxically diminish the quality of engagement for its lay participants.

40. The aspect of ‘big data’ coincides with the statistical techniques which have been augmented to address data quality.

IELTS General Reading Test

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