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BEST IELTS General Reading Test 550
IELTS GENERAL READING TEST 550 – PASSAGE – 3
IELTS GENERAL READING TEST – 550
READING PASSAGE – 3
Poison rain
A: In the late 1970s, people in northern Europe were observing a change in the lakes and forests around them. Areas once famous for the quality and quantity of their fish began to decline, and areas of once-green forest were dying. The phenomenon they witnessed was acid rain – pollutants in rain, snow, hail and fog caused by sulphuric and nitric acids.
B: The principal chemicals that cause these acids are sulphur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen, both by-products of burning fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas). A percentage of acid rain is natural, from volcanoes, forest fires and biological decay, but the majority is unsurprisingly manmade. Of this, transportation sources account for 40%; power plants 30%; industrial sources 25%; and commercial institutions and residues 5%.
IELTS General Reading Test
What makes these figures particularly disturbing is that since the 1970s, nitrogen oxide emissions have tripled. Each year the global atmosphere is polluted with 20 billion tons of carbon dioxide, 130 million tons of sulphur dioxide, more than three million tons of toxic metals, and a wealth of synthetic organic compounds, many of which are proven causes of cancer, genetic mutations and birth defects.
C: For natural causes of acid rain, nature has provided a filter. Naturally occurring substances such as limestone or other antacids can neutralise this acid rain before it enters the water cycle, thereby protecting it. However, areas with a predominantly quartzite- or granite-based geology and little top soil have no such effect, and the basic environment shifts from an alkaline to an acidic one. Recycled and intensified through the water table, acid rain has reached such a degree in some parts of the world that rainfall is now 40 times more acidic than normal – the same acidic classification as vinegar.
IELTS General Reading Test
D: Environmentally, the impact is devastating. Lakes and the life they support are dying, unable to withstand such a battering. This has a direct effect on the animals that rely on fish as a food source. Certain species of American otter have had their numbers reduced by over half in the last 20 years, for example. Yet this is not the only effect.
Nitrogen oxides, the principal reagent in acid rain, react with other pollutants to produce ozone, a major air pollutant responsible for destroying the effectiveness of farmland, making it significantly less productive. With scientists working on producing ever bigger and longer lasting genetically modified foods, some farmers are reporting abnormally low yields. Tomatoes grow to only half their full weight and the leaves, stalks and roots of other crops never reach full maturity.
IELTS General Reading Test
E: Naturally it rains on cities too, eating away stone monuments and concrete structures, and corroding the pipes which channel the water away to the lakes where the cycle is repeated. Paint exposed to rain is not lasting as long due to the pollution in the atmosphere speeding up the corrosion process. In some communities the drinking water is laced with toxic metals freed from metal pipes by the acidity.
After any period of non-use, we are encouraged to run taps for at least 60 seconds to flush any excess debris, as increased concentrations of metals in plumbing such as lead, copper and zinc result in adverse health effects. As if urban skies were not already grey enough, typical visibility has declined from ten to four miles, in many American cities, as acid rain turns into smog. Also, now there are indicators that the components of acid rain are a health risk, linked to human respiratory disease.
IELTS General Reading Test
F: Acid rain itself is not an entirely new phenomenon. In the nineteenth century, acid rain fell both in towns and cities. What is new, and of great concern, is that it can be transported thousands of kilometres due to the introduction of tall chimneys dispersing pollutants high into the atmosphere, allowing strong wind currents to blow the acid rain hundreds of miles from its source. Thus the areas where acid rain falls are not necessarily the areas where the pollution comes from.
Pollution from industrial areas of England are damaging forests in Scotland and Scandinavia. Acids from the Midwest United States are blown into northwest Canada. More and more regions are beginning to be affected, and given that 13 of the world’s most polluted cities are in neighbouring Asia, countries like Australia and New Zealand are increasingly under threat.
IELTS General Reading Test
G: Transboundary pollution, the spread of acid rain across political and international borders, has prompted a number of international responses. International legislation during the 1980s and 1990s has led to reductions in sulphur dioxide emissions in many countries but reductions in emissions of nitrogen oxides have been much less, leading to the conclusion that without a cooperative global effort, the problem of acid rain will not simply blow away.
Questions 26 – 31
The text has seven paragraphs A–G. Choose the most suitable heading for the paragraphs from the list below.
List of headings
i. Impact on the urban landscape
ii. Higher dispersal creates a global problem
iii. Recent changes in Europe
iv. Artificial causes of acid rain
v. Metals in acid rain
vi. International reactions
vii. Secondary impact on flora and fauna
viii. First signs
ix. Acid rain in Asia
x. Effects of the natural environment
IELTS General Reading Test
26. Paragraph B
27. Paragraph C
28. Paragraph D
29. Paragraph E
30. Paragraph F
31. Paragraph G
IELTS General Reading Test
Questions 32 – 40
Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND A NUMBER from the text.
32. A deterioration in lakes and forests in northern Europe was first noticed in ……………….
33. Pollution in rain is a result of sulphuric and nitric ……………….
34. Nearly half of manmade sources of acid rain are due to ……………….
35. Some animals have declined in number by over 50% as that rely on fish as a ……………….
36. Land used for farming is becoming ……………….
37. Urban household water supplies are contaminated by ……………….
38. Air pollution is travelling further as it is disgorged through ……………….
39. Legislation passed in the 1980s and the 1990s was a response to ……………….
40. A solution to the problem must involve a ……………….
IELTS General Reading Test
IELTS General Reading Test
ANSWERS
26. IV
27. X
28. VII
29. I
30. II
31. VI
32. THE LATE 1970S
33. ACIDS
34. TRANSPORTATION
35. FOOD SOURCE
36. (SIGNIFICANTLY) LESS PRODUCTIVE
37. TOXIC METALS
38. TALL CHIMNEYS
39. TRANSBOUNDARY POLLUTION
40. COOPERATIVE GLOBAL EFFORT
IELTS General Reading Test