Table of Contents
BEST IELTS General Reading Test 499
IELTS GENERAL READING TEST 499 – PASSSAGE – 3
IELTS GENERAL READING TEST – 499
READING PASSAGE – 3
SHARK BITES
Unprovoked shark bites occur to varying water users in a number of different habitat types, but globally, the majority occurs on surfers at ocean beaches, with swimmers making up the next highest category. In addition to beaches, unprovoked shark bites often occur in open water, coral reefs and rocky reefs. In addition to surfers and swimmers, they can also occur on users undertaking a diversity of water-based leisure activities, e.g. snorkelling, scuba diving and spearfishing.
Globally, the frequency of unprovoked shark bites has been increasing. The reasons for this increase are complex. While the greater number of water users is the major factor contributing to this trend, it does not explain it entirely, with a number of natural and human factors contributing. Over the last 30 years, unprovoked shark bites have been recorded from 56 countries and territories, with the majority (84%) having occurred in the United States, South Africa, Australia, Brazil, the Bahamas and Reunion Island.
IELTS General Reading Test
While the probability of an unprovoked shark bite remains low, its vivid nature ensures a high degree of media reporting and public concern, even though globally most shark bites result in very minor injuries only. When a number of unprovoked shark bites occur at a single location or region over a short period of time, it potentially becomes a societal problem that might require government intervention at that locality.
Globally, there are a large number of shark species implicated in unprovoked shark bites, however, great white sharks, tiger sharks and bull sharks account for nearly 60 per cent of all bites over a thirty year period. In addition, during the same period, these three species have accounted for all but three fatalities, which were reliably attributed to the oceanic white tip shark.
IELTS General Reading Test
In Australian waters, tiger, bull and great white sharks occur over a relatively wide geographic area and the most recent unprovoked bites have been attributed to great white sharks. There are also some unprovoked shark bites where the species of shark is not identified, with the lack of certainty due to the shark not being seen clearly, eyewitness reports being of a generic nature or conflicting, or failure to confirm the species responsible from assessments of wounds or damage to water craft.
Responses to unprovoked shark bites involve public policies and management approaches that contend with the needs of public safety, and the responsibility to protect native species in their natural environment, particularly threatened species. Government agencies may implement measures that attempt to reduce the risk posed, placate the public, or provide information aimed at identifying the presence of sharks at a beach in real-time and allowing water users to make more informed decisions about utilising a particular area at a particular time.
IELTS General Reading Test
No single mitigation measure is 100 per cent effective in all circumstances. Responses to unprovoked shark bites need to consider how the various water users utilise a beach area. Bathers may be happy to congregate in a relatively small area on a beach very close to shore, whereas surfers often seek out less crowded areas where good surfing waves can be found and their activities place them in deeper water for longer periods of time.
Because of the publicity that shark bites attract, Australian states are embracing new multi-faceted shark mitigation strategies that include State Governments’ pledges to provide subsidies for independently verified personal electronic shark deterrent devices. As most victims of shark attacks over the last 15 years have been surfers, state governments have decided they need to help provide these water users with additional protection.
IELTS General Reading Test
In 1995, it was discovered that sharks have a heightened sensitivity to low frequency, close range electrical fields. Two decades of intensive global research have developed this knowledge into a reliable piece of equipment that protects visitors to the ocean and the sharks that live there. All sharks have highly sensitive electrical receptors called the ‘Ampullae of Lorenzini’ located in their snouts. These tiny gel filled sacs can only sense electrical fields from prey at distances of typically less than one meter – it is a myth that sharks can detect electrical impulses over long distances.
The electronic shark deterrent technology creates a powerful three-dimensional electrical field that causes severe spasms in these sensitive receptors turning sharks away, including Great Whites. This does not harm the shark in any way. From testing, the closer the shark is to the electronic field, the more acute the result in the sharks’ snouts, thereby protecting the user. With no known permanent harm to sharks, the products directly support shark conservation by removing the need for culling or lethal means of enabling humans and sharks to share the oceans.
IELTS General Reading Test
The electronic deterrents also do not affect ocean fauna that are nearby. This technology has been developed over twenty years in partnership with the world’s leading experts in sharks, including the KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board in South Africa and independent universities, resulting in peer-reviewed science journals confirming the technology’s effectiveness in deterring sharks.
It will yet be seen whether Australian water users will purchase the electronic shark deterrents and it seems that it’s now a question for marketing to convince them to do so. In theory, if enough of the electronic deterrents are used, the terrible news stories of shark attacks could become a thing of the past.
IELTS General Reading Test
Questions 28-33
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the text?
In boxes 28-33 on your answer sheet write:
TRUE – if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE – if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN – if there is no information on this
IELTS General Reading Test
28. It is rare for an unprovoked shark bite to happen in the open ocean.
29. The rise in numbers of people enjoying the water around the world is directly correlated to the increased numbers of shark attacks.
30. Only a few species of shark are responsible for total unprovoked shark bites.
31. Identification of the species of shark involved in some attacks is impossible because the bite damage to the victim is not evaluated properly.
32. Some government action against shark attacks is designed to only make people feel better.
33. Information given to the public about the presence of sharks near a particular bathing beach is now the job of the town council responsible for the beach.
IELTS General Reading Test
Questions 34-39
Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.
Electronic Shark Deterrent Devices
Various strategies are being implemented by Australian states to protect water users, especially (34)………….. who are the most threatened.
Electronic deterrent devices exploit sharks’ vulnerability to low frequency electrical fields at (35)…………..
The electrical field upsets small gel-filled sacks in sharks’ (36)………….. causing the sharks’ receptors to suffer acute (37)………….. . This creates no permanent harm tosharks or other (38)…………..
The technology has been confirmed by various universities and several (39)………….. publications / science journals.
IELTS General Reading Test
Question 40
Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D.
40. What is the writer’s purpose in the text in section 3?
A. To explain why several species of shark are so dangerous in Australia.
B. To summarise the situation regarding shark attacks in Australian waters and to present a new way to reduce them.
C. To review initiatives taken by Australian states to update their beach defence against shark attacks.
D. To describe the ineffectiveness of many types of shark deterrents in Australian waters.
IELTS General Reading Test
IELTS General Reading Test
ANSWERS
28. FALSE
29. TRUE
30. FALSE
31. TRUE
32. TRUE
33. NOT GIVEN
34. SURFERS
35. CLOSE RANGE
36. SNOUTS
37. SPASMS
38. (OCEAN) FAUNA
39. PEER-REVIEWED
40. B
IELTS General Reading Test