Reading Passage 1
Read the text below and answer questions 1-6
Table of Contents
Community Education – Short course
A Math by Mail
Learn creative problem solving, multiple choice, short answer and vocabulary to have a better understanding of math in this 2-month-long course.
2 April – 1 June, 12:30-4:45pm Cost $83
B Book Recycling
Decorate and paint books to alter them into objects of art. All stationery provided.
6 April or 19 April, 9-4pm Cost $70
C Music
Be a part of a week of exploring music through story-telling, movement, visual arts and lots of creativity.
10 March – 17 March, 4-6pm Cost $80
D Theatre
Join renowned actors, vocalists, storage directors and dances for a week and explore the field of the performing arts.
10 April – 17 April, 5-7pm Cost $100
E Painting
Learn how to express through colours and canvases with our esteemed artists. Bring acrylic colours along with you creativity.
20 May or 23 May, 8-9:45am Cost $60
Questions 1-6
The above text lists 5 courses, A-E.
Which is the most suitable course for each person?
Write the correct letter A-E in boxes 1-6 of the sample reading answer sheet. One of the options can be used twice.
- A teacher who loves to sing and narrate stories to her students
- A student who wants to improve his overall academic performance
- A student who wants to refashion an old lock
- A retired person who is looking to kindle his creative instincts
- A professional who is interested in improving his presentations and capturing the attention of the audience by learning the basics of stagecraft
- A busy professional whose hobby is music and participating in live theatre performances
Read the text below and answer questions 7-14
Housing Society Security Management
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF HOUSING SOCIETY SECURITY MANAGEMENT
- To create awareness about security
- To prevent crimes from happening
- To ensure all the residents are safe at all hours
- To ensure property is safe against theft or damage
SECURITY IN THE HOUSING SOCIETY
- All strangers must comply with security check and state the nature of their business
- All visitors to residents should identify themselves
- Only cars with society parking stickers will be allowed entry in the premises
- Maintenance office to be locked after working hours
- Domestic staff must clock-in their entry and exit timings
- Removal of any equipment from the premises without authorization will be considered theft
- Report anything suspicious
REPORTING SECURITY INCIDENTS
- All security breaches must be reported
- In the case of theft or other serious crime it is responsibility of the individual involved to report the incident to the police
- Any technical glitch regarding the elevators must be immediately reported to the guards
Questions 7-14
Complete the sentences below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the text for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 7-14 of the sample reading answer sheet.
- Ensuring ……………………… of the residents is one of the main aims of the management.
- If residents notice anything suspicious it should……………………… immediately.
- ……………………….the maintenance office after working hours is very important.
- ……………………….of all visitors is also crucial to the safety of the residents.
- If any equipment…………………….without permission, it will considered a crime.
- ……………………….the security check is mandatory for strangers who wish to enter the housing society.
- Cars should have housing society parking stickers if they………………………….enter the premises.
- Following these measures is important………………………the safety and security of the housing society residents.
Reading Passage 2 Questions 15-27
Read the text below and answer Questions 15-20
The Treehouse
About the Treehouse
The treehouse is built from Canadian cedar, Scandinavian redwood and English and Scots pine. It sits high in the treetops among a group of mature lime trees and looks as if it’s been there forever.
There are walkways in the sky and wobbly rope bridges, all accessible by wheelchair and buggy. At the heart of the Treehouse is one of the most beautiful and unique restaurants to be found anywhere in the world. There’s a roaring log fire in the center of the room, trees growing through the floor, and handcrafted furniture.
About the Treehouse Restaurant
Always featuring local fish and seafood, meats Northumberland’s farmlands and other regional specialists, the Treehouse restaurant menu highlights local quality, taste and changes throughout the seasons. There’s a great wine list, a good range of beers and regular live music.
For a family dining experience that you’ll all enjoy, a great night out which friends or a romantic dinner for two, there’s nowhere quite like it. We always recommend booking ahead for lunch or dinner.
About the potting shed
If you fancy a satisfying lunch, but don’t want a full restaurant meal, the Potting Shed is perfect for you. During the day you can grab a drink with some friends, a range of hot and cold delicious light choices, and relax – and all as you take in the unique atmosphere. Choose from classics such as bacon sandwich, chef soup of the day, or perhaps some irresistible sweet potato fires.
For a fantastic family lunch, why not eat outside on our Treehouse decking? Just order inside, eat outside – simple as that! Adults can relax to sunshine and birdsong, while kids can dash across rope bridges, run around and enjoy the enchanting walkways.
In the evening the potting Shed really comes to life, and is open exclusively for our dinner guests to enjoy a pre-dinner before moving on to the Restaurant for their meal, or a leisurely nightcap to end the evening.
Questions 15-20
Look at the following statements and the different sections of the Treehouse below.
Match each statement with the correct section, A-C.
Write the correct letter, A-C, in boxes 15-20 on your answer sheet.
NB you may use any letter more than once.
15. Highlights the lunch time menu
16. It’s much better to make a reservation before you go
17. Discusses certain environmentally aspects of the building
18. Their menu focuses on local food
19. Disabled people have easy access
20. This is a great place for children to play
| The Treehouse A. About the Treehouse B. About the Restaurant C. About the Potting Shed | |
English Gardens
The English landscape garden is a style of landscape garden which emerged in England in the early 18th century, and spread across Europe as the principal gardening style of Europe. The English garden was seen as a way to present an idealization view of nature and was influenced by gardens from the East and West.
The National Arboretum
Westonbirt really comes into its own when the trees show off their autumn colour. There are over 16,000 trees and 17 miles of paths at westonbirt, which also looks its best in spring with displays of rhododendrons, azaleas and magnolias.
Hidcote Manor
This is an Arts & Crafts masterpiece hidden down a series of twisting country lanes in the Cotswolds. It was designed and developed by current owner Maj. Lawrence Johnston, a wealthy, well educated and eccentric American who fought with the British Army in the Boer and First World Wars. Johnson sponsored and participated in plant hunting expeditions around the world to secure rare and exotic species for this extremely pretty garden.
Stourhead
Found in Wiltshire, this is an outstanding example of an 18th century English landscaped garden – not so much rows of flowers beds and herbaceous borders, as sweeping lawns, a picturesque lake and temples was the location of a rain soaked (and unsuccessful) marriage proposal scene in the 2005 film Pride and Prejudice.
Hampton Court Palace
Vieitors can get lost in the gardens surroundings Henry VIII’s famous palace – literally. There is a maze dating back to about 1700, commissioned by William III. Originally planted using hornbeam trees and later replanting using yew trees, the Hampton Court maze covers a third of an acre, is trapezoid in shape and is the UK’s oldest surviving hedge maze.
Sissinghurst Castle Gardens
Visited by Queen Elizabeth in the 16th century, this is one of the most celebrated gardens in the world. Set in the ruins of an Elizabeth house, it offers spectacular views on all sides across the fields and meadows of the Kentish landscape. Close by is the aromatic garden built around a slender brick-built castle tower.
Questions 21-27
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the reading passage?
In boxes 21-27 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
- The English landscaped garden started in England in the 1880s.
- Westonbirt is really worth seeing in at least two different seasons.
- It might be difficult to find Hidcote Manor.
- The owner of Hidcote manor is quite young.
- The gardens in Stourhead were first established to film Pride and prejudice.
- Henry VIII used to spend a lot of time at Hampton Court Palace.
- The Elizabeth house in Sissinghurst Castle Gardens has now been rebuilt.
Reading Passage 3 Questions 28-40
Read the passage below and answer the questions that follow.
SEADRAGON SEARCH
In appearance, they are unmistakable dragons, but in other ways these delicate creatures of the sea bear little resemblance to their fierce, mythical namesake. They are only 45 cm long, fragile, harmless and vulnerable. Belonging to the same family as seashores, seadragons come in two different species: ‘weedy’ (resembling blades of brown seaweed) and the more showy and more endangered ‘leafy’ (looking like aquatic ‘leaves’). They are found only in coastal southern Australian waters and because they resemble swaying seaweed, can be difficult to find in their natural habitat.
Though well camouflaged, their brilliant colours are visible in sun-dappled waters. Both species inhabit rocky rocky reefs, seaweed beds and sea grass meadows colonised by seaweed .They are most often seen in shallow coastal waters. Camouflage is their only protection. Otherwise sea-dragons are poorly equipped for fleeting from pursuers. The outer skin is composed of solid bony plates, which limit mobility. The only way they can propel themselves along is through rapidly oscillating their ventral and air bladder, used for vertical motion. With little effort, they can rise or settle to another depth simply by changing the air volume within the bladder. Because they blend easily with the background, sea dragons are agile enough to hunt downtiny shrimps, their main quarry.
Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about sea-dragons is that it is actually the male of the species which carries the young. During mating, the female lays 100-250 eggs onto the underside of the male’s tail, where they are attached and fertilized. After a period of about four to six weeks from conception, the male ‘gives birth’ to miniature juvenile versions of itself. As soon as a baby sea dragon leaves the safety of its father’s tail, it is independent and receives no further help from its parents.
There is increasing concern about the future of these vulnerable and fragile creatures. Both seadragons and their close relatives, seahorses, are threatened globally by habitat destruction. The inshore areas of seagrass they inhabit are threatened by pollution and excessive fertiliser run off. Each year, an estimated 20 million seahorses (but not seadragons) are taken for traditional Asian medicines. The international trade in seahorses involves more than 30 countries and is growing. Fortunately, seadragons currently are not used for the medicine trade; however they have been targeted by the aquarium fish trade. Unscrupulous ‘collectors’ have denuded the more accessible seagrass areas of this amazing creature.
Keeping live seadragons is extremely difficult and collectors often target male with eggs, hatching out and selling the young. Removing breeding animals from the wild populations may have an impact on local populations of seadragons. To date, no successful, closed cycle, captive breeding program has occurred. There has not yet been a generation of captive seadragons which has bred. Economically and environmentally it makes sense to limit collection and export of this species until more is known about them. Because seadragons require live food and an exact water temperature, most die quickly in captivity. It is illegal to take or export them without a permit. Concerned by the rapidly decreasing numbers of the leafy sea-dragon, the department of fisheries declared it a totally protected species in 1991.
It is for these reasons that Dragon search has been initiated. This community-based monitoring program involves nearly 20 organizations around Australia. The project encourages members of the community to provide information on saedragon sightings. Recreational divers and snorkelers are invited to record sightings of seadragons in their dive logs and to transfer relevant information to Dragon Search sighting sheets. Likewise, anyone who visits the beach and sports either live seadragons in the water or their remains washed up on shore may also participate. The information submitted is entered into a confidential database and is used to encourage the protection of these wonderful creatures and to promote the establishment of marine reserves. It is hoped that increased awareness and involvement of local communities will help prevent poaching of seadragons and encourage the protection of both species and their habitat.
Questions 28-33
Look at the following statements.
Write:
TRUE if the statement is true according to the passage
FALSE if the statement is false according to the passage
NOT GIVEN if there is no information about this in the passage
- Seadragons are found all around the Australian coast.
- Weedy seadragons are more common than leafy seadragons.
- Body armour gives seadragons effective protection from predators.
- The air bladder enables seadragons to move with great speed.
- Eggs are laid by the male seadragon.
- The male and female stay together to look after the eggs.
Questions 34-38
Choose the correct letter A-D
- Which of the following is NOT a threat to the survival of seadragons?
- Habitat destruction
- Difficulty of breeding in captivity
- Use in Chinese medicine
- The aquarium trade
35. Seadragons do NOT do well in captivity because…….
- They require warm water.
- They are difficult to catch without injury.
- They die quickly when stressed.
- They only eat live food.
36. Breading of captive seadragons has been…………
- Against the law.
- Unsuccessful.
- Limited.
- A growing industry.
37. It is illegal to………………
- Capture leafy seadragons.
- Trade in seadragons.
- Keep seadragons in aquariums.
- Export seadragons.
38. One purpose of Dragon Search is………..
- To capture live seadragons.
- To help divers locate seadragons.
- To move seadragons to safer areas.
- To increase public awareness of seadragons.
Questions 39-40
Answer the following using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS FOM THE PASSAGE.
39. What can public involvement in dragon Search help to stop?
…………………………………………………………………………………
40. What do the organizers of Dragon Search hope to set up?
………………………………………………………………………………….
Answers:-
- C
- A
- B
- E
- D
- C
- the safety/the security
- be reported
- Locking
- (the) identification
- is removed
- Compliance with
- wish to/want to
- to ensure
- C
- B
- A
- B
- A
- C
- FALSE
- TRUE
- TRUE
- FALSE
- FALSE
- NOT GIVEN
- FALSE
- FALSE
- TRUE
- FALSE
- FALSE
- FALSE
- NOT GIVEN
- C
- D
- B
- A
- D
- poaching (seadragon)
- marine reserves
