Test 8

SECTION 1

You should spend IELTS Reading about 20 minutes on Questions 14-25, which are
based on Reading Passage 2 below

Ancient Chinese Chariots

A The Shang Dynasty or Yin Dynasty, according to traditional historiography,

ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium Archaeological work at
the Ruins of Yin (near modern-day Anyang), which has been identified as the last
Shang capital, uncovered eleven major Yin royal tombs and the foundations of
palaces and ritual sites, containing weapons of war and remains from both animal
and human sacrifices.

B The Tomb of Fu Hao is an archaeological site at Yinxu, the ruins of the ancient
Shang Dynasty capital Yin, within the modem city of Anyang in Henan Province,
China. Discovered in 1976，it was identified as the final resting place of the queen
and military general Fu Hao. The artifacts unearthed within the grave included jade
objects, bone objects, bronze objects etc. These grave goods are confirmed by the
oracle texts, which constitute almost all of the first hand written record we possess
of the Shang Dynasty. Below the corpse was a small pit holding the remains of six
sacrificial dogs and along the edge lay the skeletons of human slaves, evidence of
human sacrifice.

C The Terracotta Army was discovered on 29 March 1974 to the east of Xi’an in
Shaanxi. The terracotta soldiers were accidentally discovered when a group of local
farmers was digging a well during a drought around 1.6 km (I mile) east of the Qin
Emperors tomb around at Mount Li (Lishan), a region riddled with underground
springs and watercourses. Experts currently place the entire number of soldiers at
8,000 — with 130 chariots (130 cm long), 530 horses and 150 cavalry horses
helping to ward of any dangers in the afterlife. In contrast, the burial of Tutank
hamun yielded six complete but dismantled chariots of unparalleled richness and
sophistication. Each was designed for two people (90 cm long) and had its axle
sawn through to enable it to be brought along the narrow corridor into the tomb.

D Excavation of ancient Chinese chariots has confirmed the descriptions of them in

the earliest texts. Wheels were constructed from a variety of woods: elm provided
the hub, rose-wood the spokes and oak the felloes. The hub was drilled through to
form an empty space into which the tampering axle was fitted ， the whole being
covered with leather to retain lubricating oil. Though the number of spokes varied,
a wheel by the fourth century BC usually had eighteen to thirty-two of them.
Records show how elaborate was the testing of each completed wheel: flotation and
weighing were regarded as the best measures of balance, but even the empty spaces
in the assembly were checked with millet grains. One outstanding constructional
asset of the ancient Chinese wheel was dishing. Dishing refers to the dishlike shape
of an advanced wooden wheel, which looks rather like a flat cone. On occasion
they chose to strengthen a dished wheel with a pair of struts running from rim to
rim on each of the hub. As these extra supports were inserted separately into the
felloes, they would have added even greater strength to the wheel. Leather wrapped
up the edge of the wheel aimed to retain bronze.

E Within a millennium, however, Chinese chariot-makers had developed a vehicle

with shafts, the precursor of the true carriage or cart. This design did not make its
appearance in Europe until the end of the Roman Empire. Because the shafts
curved upwards, and the harness pressed against a horse’s shoulders, not his neck,
the shaft chariot was incredibly efficient. The halberd was also part of chariot
standard weaponry. This halberd usually measured well over 3 metres in length,
which meant that a chariot warrior wielding it sideways could strike down the
charioteer in a passing chariot. The speed of chariot which was tested on the sand
was quite fast. At speed these passes were very dangerous for the crews of both
chariots.

F The advantages offered by the new chariots were not entirely missed. They could
see how there were literally the warring states, whose conflicts lasted down the Qin
unification of China. Qin Shi Huang was buried in the most opulent tomb complex
ever constructed in China, a sprawling, city-size collection of underground caverns
containing everything the emperor would need for the afterlife. Even a collection of
terracotta armies called Terra- Cotta Warriors was buried in it. The ancient
Chinese, along with many cultures including ancient Egyptians, believed that items
and even people buried with a person could be taken with him to the afterlife

Questions 1-4

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage
1? In boxes 1-4 on you answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement is true

FALSE if the statement is false

NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage

1. when discovered, the written records of the grave goods proved to be accurate.

2. Human skeletons in Anyang tomb were identified ad soldiers who were killed in
the war.

3. The Terracotta Army was discovered by people lived nearby by chance.

4. The size of the King Tutankhamen’s tomb is bigger than that of in Qin
Emperors’ tomb.

Questions 5-10

Complete the notes below.

Choose ONE WORD from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in
boxes 5-10 on your answer sheet

5. The hub is made wood from the tree of………………….

6. The room through the hub was to put tempering axle in which is wrapped up by
leather aiming to retain………………….

7. The number of spokes varied from…………………….to ………………….

8. The shape of wheel resembles a…………………….

9. Two was used to strengthen the wheel…………………….

10. Leather wrapped up the edge of the wheel aimed to

remain………………………..

Questions 11-13

Answer the questions below.

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the

passage for each answer.

11. What body part of horse was released the pressure from to the shoulder

12. what kind road surface did the researchers measure the speed of the chariot ?
13. What part of his afterlife palace was the Emperor Qin Shi Huang buried?

SECTION 2 - Saving the British Bitterns

A Breeding bitterns became extinct in the UK by 1886 but, following re-

colonisation early last century, numbers rose to a peak of about 70 booming
(singing) males in the 1950s, falling to fewer than 20 by the 1990s. In the late
1980s it was clear that the bittern was in trouble, but there was little information on
which to base recovery actions.

B Bitterns have cryptic plumage and a shy nature, usually remaining hidden within
the cover of reedbed vegetation. Our first challenge was to develop standard
methods to monitor their numbers. The boom of the male bittern is its most
distinctive feature during the breeding season, and we developed a method to count
them using the sound patterns unique to each individual. This not only allows us to
be much more certain of the number of booming males in the UK, but also enables
us to estimate local survival of males from one year to the next

C Our first direct understanding of the habitat needs of breeding bitterns came from
comparisons of reedbedsites that had lost their booming birds with those that
retained them. This research showed that bitterns had been retained in reedbeds
where the natural process of succession, or drying out, had been slowed through
management. Based on this work, broad recommendations on how to manage and
rehabilitatereedbeds for bitterns were made, and funding was provided through the
EU LIFE Fund to manage 13 sites within the core breeding range. This project,
though led by the RSPB, involved many other organisations.

D To refine these recommendations and provide fine-scale, quantitative habitat

prescriptions on the bitterns7 preferred feeding habitat, we radio-tracked male
bitterns on the RSPB’s Minsmere and Leighton Moss reserves. This showed clear
preferences for feeding in the wetter reedbed margins, particularly within the
reedbed next to larger open pools. The average home range sizes of the male
bitterns we followed (about 20 hectares) provided a good indication of the area of
reedbed needed when managing or creating habitat for this species. Female bitterns
undertake all the incubation and care of the young, so it was important to
understand their needs as well. Over the course of our research, we located 87
bittern nests and found that female bitterns preferred to nest in areas of continuous
vegetation, well into the reedbed, but where water was still present during the driest
part of the breeding season.
E The success of the habitat prescriptions developed from this research has been
spectacular. For instance, at Minsmere, booming bittern numbers gradually
increased from one to 10 following reed bed lowering, a management technique
designed to halt the drying out process. After a low point of 11 booming males in
1997, bittern numbers in Britain responded to all the habitat management work and
started to increase for the first time since the 1950s.

F The final phase of research involved understanding the diet, survival and
dispersal of bittern chicks. To do this we fitted small radio tags to young bittern
chicks in the nest, to determine their fate through to fledging and beyond. Many
chicks did not survive to fledging and starvation was found to be the most likely
reason for their demise. The fish prey fed to chicks was dominated by those species
penetrating into the reed edge. So, an important element of recent studies
(including a PhD with the University of Hull) has been the development of
recommendations on habitat and water conditions to promote healthy native fish
populations

G Once independent, radio-tagged young bitterns were found to seek out new sites
during their first winter; a proportion of these would remain on new sites to breed if
the conditions were suitable. A second EU LIFE funded project aims to provide
these suitable sites in new areas. A network of 19 sites developed through this
partnership project will secure a more sustainable UK bittern population with
successful breeding outside of the core area, less vulnerable to chance events and
sea level rise.

H By 2004, the number of booming male bitterns in the UK had increased to 55,
with almost all of the increase being on those sites undertaking management based
on advice derived from our research. Although science has been at the core of the
bittern story, success has only been achieved through the trust, hard work and
dedication of all the managers, owners and wardens of sites that have implemented,
in some cases very drastic, management to secure the future of this wetland species
in the UK. The constructed bunds and five major sluices now control the water
level over 82 ha, with a further 50 ha coming under control in the winter of
2005/06. Reed establishment has principally used natural regeneration or planted
seedlings to provide small core areas that will in time expand to create a bigger
reed area. To date nearly 275,000 seedlings have been planted and reed cover is
extensive. Over 3 km of new ditches have been formed, 3.7 km of existing ditch
have been re-profiled and 2.2 km of old meander (former estuarine features) has
been cleaned out.

I Bitterns now regularly winter on the site some indication that they are staying
longer into the spring. No breeding has yet occurred but a booming male was
present in the spring of 2004. A range of wildfowl breed, as well as a good number
of reed bed passerines including reed bunting, reed, sedge and grasshopper
warblers. Numbers of wintering shoveler have increased so that the site now holds
a UK important wintering population. Malltraeth Reserve now forms part of the
UK network of key sites for water vole (a UK priority species) and 12 monitoring
transects has been established. Otter and brown-hare occur on the site as does the
rare plant. Pillwort.

Questions 14-20

The reading passage has seven paragraphs, A-H

Choose the correct heading for paragraphs A-H from the list below. Write the
correct number, i-viii, in boxes 14-20 on your answer sheet.

List of Headings

i. research findings into habitats and decisions made

ii. fluctuation in bittern number

iii.protect the young bittern

iv. international cooperation works

v. Began in calculation of the number

vi. importance of food

vii. Research has been successful.

viii. research into the reedbed

ix. reserve established holding bittern in winter

14. Paragraph A
15. Paragraph B

16. Paragraph C

17. Paragraph D

18. Paragraph F

19. Paragraph G

20. Paragraph H

Example Paragraph E vii

Questions 21-26

Answer the questions below.

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the

passage for each answer.

21. When did the bird of bitten reach its peak of number?

22. What does the author describe the bittern’s character?

23. What is the main cause for the chick bittern’s death?

24. What is the main food for chick bittern?

25. What system does it secure the stability for bittern’s population?

26. Besides bittern and rare vegetation, what mammal does the plan benefit?

Questions 27

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write your answers in boxes 27 on your answer sheet.

27. What is the main purpose of this passage?

A Main characteristic of a bird called bittern.

B Cooperation can protect an endangered species.

C The difficulty of access information of bittern’s habitat and diet.

D To save wetland and reed bed in UK.

SECTION 3 - E-training

A E-learning is the unifying term to describe the fields of online learning, web-
based training, and technology-delivered instruction, which can be a great benefit
to corporate e-learning. IBM, for instance, claims that the institution of its e-
training program, Basic Blue, whose purpose is to train new managers, saved the
company in the range of $200 million in 1999. Cutting the travel expenses required
to bring employees and instructors to a central classroom accounts for the lion’s
share of the savings. With an online course, employees can learn from any Internet-
connected PC, anywhere in the world. Ernst and Young reduced training costs by
35 percent while improving consistency and scalability.

B In addition to generally positive economic benefits, other advantages such as

convenience, standardized delivery, self-paced learning, and variety of available
content, have made e-learning a high priority for many corporations. E-learning is
widely believed to offer flexible “any time, any place” learning. The claim for “any
place” is valid in principle and is a great development. Many people can engage
with rich learning materials that simply were not possible in a paper or broadcast
distance learning era. For teaching specific information and skills, e-training holds
great promise. It can be especially effective at helping employees prepare for IT
certification programs. E-learning also seems to effectively address topics such as
sexual harassment education,5 safety training and management training — all
areas where a clear set of objectives can be identified. Ultimately, training experts
recommend a “blended” approach that combines both online and in-person training
as the instruction requires. E-learning is not an end-all solution. But if it helps
decrease costs and windowless classrooms filled with snoring students, it definitely
has its advantages.

C Much of the discussion about implementing e-learning has focused on the

technology, but as Driscoll and others have reminded us, e-learning is not just
about the technology, but also many human factors. As any capable manager
knows, teaching employees new skills is critical to a smoothly run business.
Having said that, however, the traditional route of classroom instruction runs the
risk of being expensive, slow and, often times, ineffective. Perhaps the classroom’s
greatest disadvantage is the fact that it takes employees out of their jobs. Every
minute an employee is sitting in a classroom training session is a minute they’re not
out on the floor working. It now looks as if there is a way to circumvent these
traditional training drawbacks. E-training promises more effective teaching
techniques by integrating audio, video, animation, text and interactive materials
with the intent of teaching each student at his or her own pace. In addition to higher
performance results, there are other immediate benefits to students such as
increased time on task, higher levels of motivation, and reduced test anxiety for
many learners. A California State University Northridge study reported that e-
learners performed 20 percent better than traditional learners. Nelson reported a
significant difference between the mean grades of 406 university students earned in
traditional and distance education classes, where the distance learners outperformed
the traditional learners.

D On the other hand, nobody said E-training technology would be cheap. E-

training service providers, on the average, charge from $10,000 to $60,000 to
develop one hour of online instruction. This price varies depending on the
complexity of the training topic and the media used. HTML pages are a little
cheaper to develop while streaming-video (presentations or flash animations cost
more. Course content is just the starting place for cost. A complete e-learning
solution also includes the technology platform (the computers, applications and
network connections that are used to deliver the courses). This technology
platform, known as a learning management system (LMS), can either be installed
onsite or outsourced. Add to that cost the necessary investments in network
bandwidth to deliver multimedia courses, and you’re left holding one heck of a bill.
For the LMS infrastructure and a dozen or so online courses, costs can top
$500,000 in the first year. These kinds of costs mean that custom e-training is, for
the time being, an option only for large organizations. For those companies that
have a large enough staff, the e-training concept pays for itself. Aware of this fact,
large companies are investing heavily in online training. Today, over half of the
400-plus courses that Rockwell Collins offers are delivered instantly to its clients in
an e-leaming format, a change that has reduced its annual (training costs by 40%.
Many other success stories exist.

E E-learning isn71 expected to replace the classroom entirely. For one thing,
bandwidth limitations are still an issue in presenting multimedia over the Internet.
Furthermore, e-training isn,t suited to every mode of instruction or topic. For
instance, it’s rather ineffective imparting cultural values or building teams. If your
company has a unique corporate culture it would be difficult to convey that to first
time employees through a computer monitor. Group training sessions are more
ideal for these purposes. In addition, there is a perceived loss of research time
because of the work involved in developing and teaching online classes. Professor
Wallin estimated that it required between 500 and 1,000 person-hours, that is,
Wallin-hours, to keep the course at the appropriate level of currency and
usefulness. (Distance learning instructors often need technical skills, no matter how
advanced the courseware system.) That amounts to between a quarter and half of a
person-year. Finally, teaching materials require computer literacy and access to
equipment. Any e-Learning system involves basic equipment and a minimum level
of computer knowledge in order to perform the tasks required by the system. A
student that does not possess these skills, or have access to these tools, cannot
succeed in an e-Learning program.

F While few people debate the obvious advantages of e-learning, systematic

research is needed to confirm that learners are actually acquiring and using the
skills that are being taught online, and that e-learning is the best way to achieve the
outcomes in a corporate environment. Nowadays, a go-between style of the
Blended learning, which refers to a mixing of different learning environments, is
gaining popularity. It combines traditional face-to-face classroom methods with
more modem computer-mediated activities. According to its proponents, the
strategy creates a more integrated approach for both instructors and learners.
Formerly, technology-based materials played a supporting role to face-to-face
instruction. Through a blended learning approach, technology will be more
important

Questions 28-33

The reading passage has seven paragraphs，A-F

Choose the correct heading for paragraphs A-F from the list below. Write the
correct number, i-xi in boxes 28-33 on your answer sheet.

List of Headings

i overview of the benefits for the application of E-training

ii IBM’s successful choice of training

iii Future direction and a new style of teaching

iv learners7 achievement and advanced teaching materials

v limitations when E-training compares with traditional class

vi multimedia over the Internet can be a solution

vii technology can be a huge financial burden

viii the distance learners outperformed the traditional university learners in

worldwide

ix other advantages besides economic consideration

x Training offered to help people learn using computers

28. Paragraph A

29. Paragraph B

30. Paragraph C

31. Paragraph D

32. Paragraph E

33. Paragraph F

Questions 34-37

The reading Passage has seven paragraphs A-F.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter A-F, in boxes 35-37 on your answer sheet.

34. Projected Basic Blue in IBM achieved a great success.

35. E-learning wins as a priority for many corporations as its flexibility.

36. The combination of the traditional and e-training environments may prevail.

37. Example of a fast electronic delivery for a company’s products to its customers.

Questions 38-40
Choose Three correct letters, among A-E

Write your answers in boxes 38-40 on your answer sheet.

A Technical facilities are hardly obtained.

B Presenting multimedia over the Internet is restricted due to the bandwidth limit.

C It is ineffective imparting a unique corporate value to fresh employees.

D Employees need block a long time leaving their position attending training.

E More preparation time is needed to keep the course at the suitable level.