Table of Contents
BEST IELTS General Reading Test 487
IELTS GENERAL READING TEST 487 – PASSAGE – 2
IELTS GENERAL READING TEST – 487
READING PASSAGE – 2
CHOICE OF PROFESSION
The right and timely choice of a career is of fundamental importance. Young people are ambitious and impatient. They aspire for top positions and careers without considering their skills, intellectual capacities, aptitudes, financial and other resources. Choosing a profession for life is a little more than building castles in the air. It is no use shooting in the dark and hoping to hit the bull’s eye. Vain efforts, ill-considered decisions and ill-conceived plans lead to repentance, failure, frustration and waste of national talent.
There are many careers and professions such as teaching, engineering, law, technical trades, business, commerce, computer programming, banking, finance, journalism, publication, government employment, positions in police and armed forces, besides starting one’s own shop, factory or workshop. Then, one can choose acting, films, commercial art, photography or a stenographer. But each and every profession requires special skill, training and knowhow. One cannot choose a career at random.
IELTS General Reading Test
One can take to politics if one has an aptitude for public life and skills to make the people listen and follow. You need not pay heed to the saying that politics is the last refuge of the scoundrels. There have been many highly noble souls and personalities in politics. It is a profession full of ups and downs, sudden reversals of fortunes and, at times, long drawn out struggle and strife. If you possess staunch optimism, strong determination, ambition for fame and popularity and are prepared to face the worst and yet turn it into the best, you are well-suited for the career of a politician.
Similarly, if you are adventurous, bold and dashing, you can choose a military or a police career. There your abilities, skills, and aptitude, etc. will find full scope to flourish and blossom. If you have an aptitude for studies, books, magazines, learning and teaching, you may join the teaching profession as a teacher in a school or a lecturer in a college. Again, if you have enough money and resources and want to grow rich, you can choose to start your own business. The choice is yours but needs a very careful selection for once you have chosen a career.
IELTS General Reading Test
While choosing a career one stands at a cross roads, with many roads converging on the point and you have to decide which one to take. Once the die is cast, there is no way out. In deciding your career, you have to be practical, logical, rational, and shrewd. This is a crucial choice which will make or mar your future and also that of others who depend upon you.
Questions 14-19
Choose NO MORE THAN ONE WORD/ORANUMBER for each answer.
14. One should not choose a ……………………. at random.
15. In deciding your career, you need to be ……………………. , logical, rational and shrewd.
16. For a career in politics, staunch ……………………., strong determination and ambition is requisite.
17. If you are adventurous, bold and dashing, you can choose a military or a ……………………. career.
18. Ill-considered……………………. and ill-conceived plans become determinants of a bad career choice.
19. Politics is usually considered as last ……………………. of the scoundrels.
IELTS General Reading Test
Read the text below and answer questions 20-26.
GENETIC DISORDERS
Researchers have identified more than 4,000 diseases that are caused by mutations. But having a genetic mutation that may cause a disease or condition doesn’t always mean that a person will actually develop that disease or condition. On average, people probably carry from 5 to 10 genes with mutations in each of their cells. Problems happen when the particular gene is dominant or when a mutation is present in both copies of a recessive gene pair. Problems can also happen when several variant genes interact with each other or with the environment to increase susceptibility to diseases.
If a person has a change in a dominant gene that is associated with a particular condition, he or she will usually have features of that condition. And each of the person’s children will have a 1 in 2 (50%) chance of inheriting the gene and developing the same features. Diseases and conditions caused by a dominant gene include achondroplasia (a form of dwarfism), Marfan syndrome (a connective tissue disorder) and Huntington disease (a degenerative disease of the nervous system).
IELTS General Reading Test
People who have a change in just one copy of a recessive gene are called carriers. They don’t usually have the disease because they have a normal gene copy of that pair that can do the job. When two carriers have a child together, however, the child has a 1 in 4 (25%) chance of getting a gene with a mutation from both parents, which would result in the child having the disease.
Cystic fibrosis (a lung disease), sickle cell anemia (a blood disorder), and Tay-Sachs disease (which causes nervous system problems) are caused by recessive mutations from both parents coming together in a child. With recessive gene mutations on the X chromosome, usually only guys can develop the disease because they have only one X chromosome. Girls have two X chromosomes since they have a back-up copy of another X chromosome, they don’t always show features of X-linked conditions. These include the bleeding disorder hemophilia and color blindness.
IELTS General Reading Test
Sometimes when an egg and sperm unite, the new cell gets too many or too few chromosomes, which can cause issues for the child. For example, most children born with Down syndrome have an extra chromosome number 21. Pregnant women can have tests done to see if the fetus they are carrying might have certain genetic illnesses. Genetic testing usually involves taking a sample of someone’s blood, skin, or amniotic fluid and checking it for genetic changes.
Questions 20-26
Write NO MORE THAN ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER from the above text.
20. Achondroplasia is a disease caused by which type of gene?
21. Which gender doesn’t always show features of X-linked conditions?
22. Tay-Sachs disease is caused by which type of mutations?
23. Which number of extra chromosome do children born with Down syndrome have?
24. Name a degenerative disease of the nervous system which is caused by genetic mutations?
25. What do we call people who have a change in just one copy of a recessive gene?
26. Name a bleeding disorder which is an X chromosome linked genetic disease?
IELTS General Reading Test
IELTS General Reading Test
ANSWERS
14. CAREER
15. PRACTICAL
16. OPTIMISM
17. POLICE
18. DECISIONS
19. REFUGE
20. DOMINANT
21. GIRLS
22. RECESSIVE
23. 21
24. HUNTINGTON
25. CARRIERS
26. HEMOPHILIA
IELTS General Reading Test