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IELTS

INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH LANGUAGE TESTING SYSTEM

ACADEMIC READING

TIME ALLOWED: 1 Hour

                       NUMBER OF QUESTIONS: 38

READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-11 which are based on Reading Passage 1 on pages 2 and 3.

A   The eruption in May 1980 of Mount St. Helens, Washington State, astounded the world with its violence. A gigantic explosion tore much of the volcano's summit to fragments; the energy released was equal to that of 500 of the nuclear bombs that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945.

B   The event occurred along the boundary of two of the moving plates that make up the Earth's crust. They meet at the junction of the North American continent and the Pacific Ocean. One edge of the continental North American plate over-rides the oceanic Juan de Fuca micro-plate, producing the volcanic Cascade range that includes Mounts Baker, Rainier and Hood, and Lassen Peak as well as Mount St. Helens.

C   Until Mount St. Helens began to stir, only Mount Baker and Lassen Peak had shown signs of life during the 20th century. According to geological evidence found by the United States Geological Survey, there had been two major eruptions of Mount St. Helens in the recent (geologically speaking)past: around 1900 B.C., and about A.D. 1500. Since the arrival of Europeans in the region, it had experienced a single period of spasmodic activity, between 1831 and 1857. Then, for more than a century, Mount St. Helens lay dormant.

D  By 1979, the Geological Survey, alerted by signs of renewed activity, had been monitoring the volcano for 18 months. It warned the local population against being deceived by the mountain's outward calm, and forecast that an eruption would take place before the end of the century. The inhabitants of the area did not have to wait that long. On March 27, 1980,a few clouds of smoke formed above the summit , and slight tremors were felt. On the 28th, larger and darker clouds,. consisting of gas and ashes,. emerged and climbed as high as 20,000 feet. In April a slight lull ensued, but the volcanologists remained pessimistic. The, in early May, the northern flank of the mountain bulged, and the summit rose by 500 feet.

E   Steps were taken to evacuate the population. Most- campers, hikers, timbercuttersleft the slopes of the mountain. Eighty-four-year-old Harry Truman, a holiday lodge owner who had lived there for more than 50 years, refused to be evacuated, in spite of official and public, including an entire class of school children, wrote to him, begging him to leave. He never did.

F   On May 18, at 8.32 in the morning, Mount St. Helens blew its top. literally. Suddenly, it was 1300 feet shorter than it had been before its growth had begun. Over half a cubic mile of rock had disintegrated . At the same moment, an earthquake with an intensity of 5 on the Richter scale was recorded. It triggered an avalanche of snow and ice. mixed with hot rock-the entire north face of the mountain had fallen away. A wave of scorching volcanic gas and rock fragments shot horizontally from the volcano's riven flank, at an inescapable 200 miles per hour. As the sliding ice and snow melted, it touched off devastating torrents of mud and debris, which destroyed all life in their path. Pulverised, which destroyed all life in their path. Pulverised rock climbed as a dust cloud into the atmosphere. Finally, viscous lava, accompanied by burning clouds of ash and gas, welled out of volcano's new crater, and from lesser vents and cracks in its flanks.

G   Afterwards, scientists were able to analyse the sequence of events. First, magmamolten rock-at temperatures above 2000oF. had surged into the volcano from the Earth's mantle. The build-up was accompanied by an accumulation of gas, which increased as the mass of magma grew. It was the pressure inside the mountain that made it swell. Next, the rise in gas pressure caused a violent decompression. Which ejected the shattered summit like a cork from a shaken soda bottle. With the summit gone, the molten rock within was released in a jet of gas and fragmented magma, and lava welled from the crater.

H   The effects of the Mount St. Helens eruption were catastrophic. Almost all the trees of the surrounding forest, mainly Douglas firs. were flattened. and their branches and bark ripped off by the shock wave of the explosion. Ash and mud spread over nearly 200 square miles of country. All the towns and settlements in the area were smothered in an even coating of ash. Volcanic ash silted up the Columbia River 35 miles away, reducing the debris that accumulated at the foot of the volcano reached a depth. in places, of 200 feet.

I   The eruption of Mount St. Helens was one of the most closely observed and analysed in history. Because geologists had been expecting the event, they were able to amass vast amounts of technical data when it happened. Study of atmospheric particles formed as a result of the explosion showed that droplets of sulphuric acid, acting as a screen between the Sun and the Earth's surface, caused a distinct drop in temperature. There is no doubt that the activity of Mount St. Helens and other volcanoes since 1980 has influenced our climate . Even so, it has been calculated that the quantity of dust ejected by Mount St. Helens - a quarter of a cubic mile- was negligible in comparison with that thrown out by earlier eruptions, such as that of Mount Katmai in Alaska in 1912 (three cubic miles). The volcano is still active. Lava domes have formed inside the new crater, and have periodically burst. The threat of Mount St Helens lives on.

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Questions 1 and 2

Reading Passage 1 has 9 paragraphs labelled A-I

Answer questions 1 and 2 by writing the appropriate letter A-I inboxes 1 and 2 on your answer sheet.

1.   Which paragraph describes the evacuation of the mountain?

2.   Which paragraph describes the moment of the explosion of Mount St. Helens?

Questions 3 and 4

3.               What are the dates of the TWO major eruptions of Mount St. Helens before 1980?

   Write TWO dates in box 3 on your answer sheet.

4   How do scientists know that the volcano exploded around the two dates above?

    Using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS , write your answer in box 4 on your answer sheet

Questions 5-8

Complete the summary of events below leading up to the eruption of Mount St. Helens. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 5-8 on your answer sheet.

In 1979 the Geological Survey warned ... (5) ... to expect a violent eruption before the end of the century. The forecast was soon proved accurate. At the end of March there were tremors and clouds formed above the mountain. This was followed by a lull, but in early May the top of the mountain rose by ... (6)... . People were ...(7) ... from around the mountain. Finally, on May 18th at ...(8) ..., Mount St. Helens exploded.

Question 9 and 10

Complete the table below giving evidence for the power of the Mount St. Helens eruption.

Write your answers in boxes 9 and 10 on your answer sheet.

Question 11

Choose the appropriate letter A-D and write it in box 11 one your answer sheet.

11. According to the text the eruption of Mount St. Helens and other volcanoes has influenced our climate by ...

    A  increasing the amount of rainfall.

    B  heating the atmosphere.

    C  cooling the air temperature.

    D  causing atmospheric storms.

READING PASSAGE 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 12-25 which and based on Reading Passage 2 on pages 6 and 7.

Questions 12-16

Reading Passage 2 has seven paragraphs A-G.

Choose the most suitable headings for paragraphs B-E and G from the list of heading below.

Write the appropriate numbers (i-x) in boxes 12-16 on your answer sheet.

NB  There are more headings than paragraphs so you will not use all of them.

     You may use any of the headings more than once.

   12. Paragraph B

   13. Paragraph C

   14. Paragraph D

   15. Paragraph E

   16. Paragraph G

PEOPLE AND ORGANISATIONS: THE SELECTION ISSUE

A    In 1991, according to the Department of Trade and Industry, a record 48,000 British companies went out of business. When businesses fail, the post-mortem analysis is traditionally undertaken by accountants and market strategists. Unarguably organisations do fail because of undercapitalisation, poor financial management, adverse market conditions etc. Yet, conversely, organisations with sound financial backing, good product ideas and market acumen often underperform and fail to meet shareholders' expectations. The complexity, degree and sustainment of organisational performance requires an explanation which goes beyond the balance sheet and the "paper conversion" of financial inputs into profit making outputs. A more complete explanation of "what went wrong" necessarily must consider the essence of what an organisation actually is and that one of the financial inputs, the most important and often the most expensive, is people.

B    An organisation is only as good as the people it employs. Selecting the right person for the job involves more than identifying the essential or desirable range of skills, educational and professional qualifications necessary to perform the job and then recruiting the candidate who is most likely to possess these skills or at least is perceived to have the ability and predisposition to acquire them. This is a purely person/skills match approach to selection.

C    Work invariably takes place in the presence and/or under the direction of others, in a particular organisational setting. The individual has to "fit" in with the work environment, with other employees, with the organisational climate, style or work, organisation and culture of the organisation. Different organisations have different cultures (Cartwright & Cooper, 1991; 1992). Working as an engineer at British Aerospace will not necessarily be a similar experience to working in the same capacity at GEC or Plessey.

D    Poor selection decisions are expensive. For example, the costs of training a policeman are about £ 20,000 (approx. US$ 30,000). The costs of employing an unsuitable technician on an oil rig or in a nuclear plant could, in an emergency, result in millions of pounds of damage or loss of life. The disharmony of a poor person-environment fit (PE-fit) is likely to result in low job satisfaction, lack of organisational commitment and employee stress, which affect organisational outcomes i.e. productivity, high labour turnover and absenteeism, and individual outcomes i.e. physical, psychological and mental well-being.

E    However, despite the importance of the recruitment decision and the range of sophisticated and more objective selection techniques available, including the use of psychometric tests, assessment centres etc., many organisations are still prepared to make this decision on the basis of a single 30 to 45 minute unstructured interview. Indeed, research has demonstrated that a selection decision is often made within the first four minutes of the interview. In the remaining time, the interviewer then attends exclusively to information that reinforces the initial "accept" or "reject" decision. Research into the validity of selection methods has consistently demonstrated that the unstructured interview, where the interviewer asks any questions he or she likes, is a poor predictor of future job performance and fares little better that more controversial methods like graphology and astrology. In times of high unemployment,! recruitment becomes a "buyer's market" and this was the case in Britain during the 1980s.

F    The future, we are told, is likely to be different. Detailed surveys of social and economic trends in the European community show that Europe's population is falling and getting older, The birth rate in the Community is now only three-quarters of the level needed to ensure replacement of the existing population. By the year 2020, it is predicted that more than one in four Europeans will be aged 60 or more and barely one in five will be under 20. In a five-year period between 1983 and 1988 the Community's female workforce grew by almost six million. As a result, 51% of all women aged 14 to 64 are now economically active in the labour market compared with 78% of men.

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