IELTS Reading Sample

How people migrated to the Pacific islands A. The many tiny islands of the Pacific Ocean had no human population until ancestors of today’s islanders sailed from Southeast Asia in ocean-going canoes approximately 2,000 years ago. At the present time, the debate continues about exactly

Graziers see them as pests, and poisoning is common, but some biologists think Australia’s dingoes are the best weapon in a war against imported cats and foxes. A A plane flies a slow pattern over Carlton Hill station, a 3,600 square kilometre ranch in the

A Most social scientists stubbornly resist the idea that animals have culture. Even such advanced cetacean mammals as whales and dolphins clearly don’t have art, literature, or architecture. But patient observation over many years has begun to reveal behaviors that can only have been learnt

A. Some years ago, Professor Robert Havighurst of the University of Chicago, USA, proposed that stages in human development can best be thought of in terms of the developmental ‘tasks’ that are part of the normal transition. He identified ten developmental tasks associated with the

A. The word ‘guitar’ was brought into English as an adaptation of the Spanish word ‘guitarra’, which was, in turn, derived from the Greek ‘kithara’. Tracing the roots of the word further back into linguistic history, it seems to have been a combination of the

A. Music has long been considered a uniquely human concept. In fact, most psychologists agree that music is a universal human instinct. Like any ability, however, there is great variation in people’s musical competence. For every brilliant pianist in the world, there are several people

Katherine Mansfield was a modernist writer of short fiction  who was born and brought up in New Zealand  A. Katherine Mansfield Beauchamp Murry was born in 1888, into a prominent family in Wellington, New Zealand. She became one of New Zealand’s best-known writers, using the

A Everyone is familiar with scented flowers, and many people have heard that floral odors help the plant attract pollinators. This common notion is mostly correct, but it is surprising how little scientific proof of it exists. Of course, not all flowers are pollinated by

For thousands of years, the handshake has been used for different purposes.  A. There is a lot that can be conveyed in a handshake, a kiss, or a hug. Throughout history, such a greeting was used to signal friendship, finalize a business transaction, or indicate

A. This year, the number of retired pensioners in the UK exceeded the number of under 18 years old for the first time in history. That’s remarkable in its own right, but the real ‘population explosion’ has been among the oldest of the old —

A Parrots are found across the tropic and in all southern hemisphere continents except Antarctica, but nowhere do the display such a richness of diversity and form as in Australia. One- sixth of the world’s 345 parrot species are found there, and Australia has long

A strong, light bio-material made by genes from spiders could transform construction and industry A Scientists have succeeded in copying the silk-producing genes of the Golden Orb Weaver spider and are using them to create a synthetic material which they believe is the model for