Table of Contents
BEST IELTS General Reading Test 508
IELTS GENERAL READING TEST 508 – PASSAGE – 2
IELTS GENERAL READING TEST – 508
READING PASSAGE – 2
ANT COLONIES
A. Ant hills are familiar sights. However, these mounds are not actually ant colonies. Instead, they mark the entrance and exit to the colony. These mounds are made up of the dirt, sand and other material the ants must remove as they dig the underground tunnels and chambers in which they nest. In fact, most ant colonies stretch deep underground, some even as deep as 25 feet.
B. In terms of social organization, ant colonies are typically home to three different types of ants. The queen ant is both the founder and leader of the colony. Her primary function is to populate the colony by laying thousands of eggs. The queen’s chambers are located deep within the ant colony as a protection against predators. Queen ants live much longer than the drones and workers who serve her-in some species up to 30 years. They sport wings and are much larger than the average ant encountered outside the colony.
IELTS General Reading Test
C. Drones are male ants whose only function is to mate with the queen so she can lay her eggs. Drones die as soon as they’ve fulfilled this function and are rarely encountered outside the colony. Most ants are females, and nearly every ant encountered outside of the nest is a female. Worker ants are females, but unlike the queen, they don’t lay eggs. Instead, they’re responsible for building and maintaining the nest, protecting the colony from other ants and, most importantly, feeding the colony. Workers forage for, gather and allocate food, making sure the queen’s offspring will grow to fulfill their responsibilities to the colony.
D. Ant colonies generally tend to live as long as their queen, if not longer. Therefore the average lifespan of an ant colony is specific to the species of the ant. Some of the worst ant pests are fire ants and carpenter ants. Fire ants are an aggressive and invasive species that can be very harmful to livestock and even humans, especially children. Fire ant queens can live-and lay more than 1,000 eggs a day-for as long as seven years. Carpenter ants build their colonies in wooden structures and can cause significant damage to your home.
IELTS General Reading Test
E. The average population of an ant colony also depends upon the species of ant. Fire ant colonies can be home to tens of thousands of ants. Like some other species, fire ants can even form what are called super-colonies. These are actually cooperative networks of multiple nests, queens, workers, etc. Super-colonies can cover territories spanning miles and be home to millions of ants.
F. Carpenter ant colonies tend to be somewhat smaller, and their populations grow more gradually. Also, carpenter ant colonies tend to support only a single queen. Odorous house ants, or stink ants (if stepped on or otherwise squashed release a sickly sweet smell compared to rotten coconuts) often forage for the sugary foods they prefer inside human dwellings. Like fire ants, their colonies can be home to multiple queens. These ants also move often, setting up many temporary nests that make it very difficult to estimate the exact number of ants in the colony proper.
IELTS General Reading Test
Questions 14 – 17
Match each statement with the correct paragraph, A to F. You may mention a paragraph more than once or not at all.
14. The ant that you see walking across your bathroom floor is most likely to be a female.
15. Some ant colonies may have more than one queen.
16. Ants do not live in ant hills.
17. Mating causes death to males.
IELTS General Reading Test
Questions 18 – 20
Complete the following sentences using one of the words given in the box below for each answer.
18. You are walking down a path and spot an ant colony. It is more than likely that this ant is much ………………. than the queen ant.
19. By and large, an ant colony will ………………. the queen.
20. The number of ants in an ant colony depends upon the ………………. populating the ant colony.
IELTS General Reading Test
| Bigger | Smaller | Adore | Species | Outlive |
| Stronger | Respect | Drones | Queen | Smarter |
Read the text below and answer Questions 21 – 27.
STEVE JOBS: A BRIEF LIFE HISTORY
In 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak created the first Apple computer, the Apple I. The next year, they unveiled the Apple l, which went on to become the first successful mass-produced computer.
The computer’s success made Jobs a millionaire by the time he was 23. By late 1980, Apple was ready to hold an initial public offering (IPO), a sale that generated more capital than any IPO since the 1956 Ford Motor Company’s offering, and created roughly 300 millionaires instantly, more than any IPO in history.
IELTS General Reading Test
In 1983, Apple had hired PepsiCo executive John Sculley as its CEO. However, Sculley and Jobs had serious differences on the direction the company should take. Those tensions came to a head in 1985, when Jobs resigned, taking a handful of Apple employees with him to create a new company, called NeXT, Inc.
Jobs invested $7 million of his own money, which the company burned through in its first year. Ross Perot stepped in as an investor, and the company released its first product, the NeXT Computer, in 1990. It was state-of-the-art, but, at $9,999, too expensive for most, especially its target customer-the education sector. By 1993, the company had only sold 50,000 machines, and decided to switch to software development. The move led to its first profit, when it netted $1 million in 1994.
IELTS General Reading Test
At the same time, however, Jobs became involved with a venture that would go a long way toward cementing his reputation and his fortune, when he bought Lucasfilm’s computer graphics division for $10 million. The standalone company was renamed Pixar and created a generation of iconic children’s movies, including Toy Story, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and WALL-E. In 2006, The Walt Disney Company acquired Pixar for $7.4 billion in stock, making Jobs the biggest single shareholder of The Walt Disney Company.
In 2000, Jobs returned to Apple as its CEO and he began to look beyond the PC again, first with the groundbreaking iPod digital music player, which changed the way people listened to music. Prior to the iPod’s launch in 2001, very few people listened to music on portable digital players. By 2012, more than 350 million devices had been sold worldwide. The iPod’s sleek design and easy user interface paved the way for the company’s 2007 release of the iPhone, which revolutionized cellular phone design. In 2014 alone, Apple sold roughly 170 million iPhones worldwide.
IELTS General Reading Test
Not content to forever alter the way people used mobile phones and listened to music, Jobs launched the iPad in 2010. The very first version of the compact tablet computer sold more than 250 million units. It has been credited with singlehandedly revitalizing the previously moribund market for tablet computers.
In in 2011, with Apple at the summit of not just the tech industry, but of all of American business, Jobs resigned as Apple’s CEO. He was suffering from pancreatic cancer, and knew he would soon die. After his resignation, he stayed on as chairman of the board, continuing to work for Apple until the day before his death.
IELTS General Reading Test
Questions 21 – 27
Write the correct YEAR.
21. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak created the first Apple computer, the Apple I, in ………….
22. By late …………….. , Apple was ready to hold an initial public offering (IPO).
23. In ………….. , Apple had hired PepsiCo executive John Sculley as its CEO.
24. Ross Perot stepped in as an investor, and the company released its first product, the NeXT Computer, in ……………… .
25. In ………………. , The Walt Disney Company acquired Pixar for $7.4 billion in stock
26. Listening to music on portable digital players was not very common in …………..
27. Jobs launched the iPad in ……………….. .
IELTS General Reading Test
IELTS General Reading Test
ANSWERS
14. C
15. F
16. A
17. C
18. SMALLER
19. OUTLIVE
20. SPECIES
21. 1976
22. 1980
23. 1983
24. 1990
25. 2006
26. 2001
27. 2010
IELTS General Reading Test