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Building Work - IELTS listening practice test

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Building Work listening practice test has 10 questions belongs to the Recent Actual Tests subject. All of the questions are Summary, form completion form

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Dr Gabor Maté Live in London | The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture

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simply that people with tone deafness (or' amusia") are unable to sing in tune, they are also unable to discriminate between tones or recognize familiar melodies.

Congenial amusia , the inability to distinguish pitches.

while most people can easily distinguish differences smaller than that, when listening to melodies which have had a single note altered so that it is out of key with the rest of the melody, do not notice a problem

it might be expected that a musical impairment may be caused by a language impairment. Studies suggest, however, that language and music ability are independent of one another

Moreover, while amusics show deficiencies in their recognition of pitch differences in melodies, they show no tonal languages, such as Chinese, do not report having any difficulty discriminating between words that differ only in their intonation.

New studies, however, have suggested that the deficits in amusics are located outside the auditory cortex. Brain scans of amusics do not show any reaction at all to differences smaller than a half step, when changes in tones are large, their brains overreact, showing twice as much activity on the right side of the brain as a normal brain hearing the same thing.

The more important question now becomes one of normality

Darwin believed that music was adaptive as a way of finding a mate, but who needs to be able to sing to find a partner in an age when it is possible to express your emotions through a song on your IPod?
it must be done to determine whether lack of musical ability is actually detrimental in any way. If no disadvantages can be found of having amusia, then it is no more a disability than having poor fashion sense or bad handwriting.

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When people are deaf' to music

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 we refer to as " tone deaf". It is not simply that people with tone deafness (or' amusia") are unable to sing in tune, they are also unable to discriminate between tones or recognize familiar melodies. Such a" disorder" can occur after some sort of brain damage , but recently research has been undertaken in an attempt to discover the cause of congenital amusia (when people are born with the condition), which is not associated with any brain damage, hearing problems, or lack of exposure to music.

According to the research of Dr. Isabelie Peretz of the University of Montreat, amusia is more complicated than the inability to distinguish pitches. An amusia (a person who has the condition of amusia) can distinguish between two pitches that are far apart, but cannot tell the difference between intervals smaller than a half step on the Western diatonic scale, while most people can easily distinguish differences smaller than that, when listening to melodies which have had a single note altered so that it is out of key with the rest of the melody, do not notice a problem. As would be expected, amusics perform significantly worse at singing and tapping a rhythm along with a melody than do non-amusics.

The most fascinating aspect of amusia is how specific to music it is. Because of music's close ties

to language, it might be expected that a musical impairment may be caused by a language impairment. Studies suggest, however, that language and music ability are independent of one another. People with brain damage in areas critical to language are often still able to sing, despite being unable to communicate through speech. Moreover, while amusics show deficiencies in their recognition of pitch differences in melodies, they show no tonal languages, such as Chinese, do not report having any difficulty discriminating between words that differ only in their intonation. The linguistic cues inherent in speech make discrimination of meaning much easier for amusics. Amusics are also successful most of the time at detecting the mood of a melody, can identify a speaker based on his or her voice and can discriminate and identify environmental sounds.

Recent work has been focused on locating the part of the brain that is responsible for amusia. The temporal lobes of the brain, the location of the primary auditory cortex, have been considered. It has long been believed that the temporal lobes, especially the right temporal lobe, are most active when activity, so any musical disability should logically stem from here as well. Because it has been shown that there is no hearing deficit in amusia, researchers moved on to the temporal neocortex, which is where more sophisticated processing of musical cues was thought to take place. New studies, however, have suggested that the deficits in amusics are located outside the auditory cortex. Brain scans of amusics do not show any reaction at all to differences smaller than a half step, when changes in tones are large, their brains overreact, showing twice as much activity on the right side of the brain as a normal brain hearing the same thing. These differences do not occur in the auditory cortex, indicating again that the deficits of amusia lie mostly in hearing impairment, but in higher processing of melodies.

So what does this all mean? Looking only at the research of Peretz in the field of neuropsychology of music, it would appear that amusia is some sort of disorder. As a student of neurobiology, however, I am skeptical. Certainly the studies by Peretz that have found significant differences between the brains of so-called amusics and normal brains are legitimate. The more important question now becomes one of normality. Every trait from skin color to intelligence to mood exists on a continuum-there is a great idea of variation from one extreme to the other. Just because we recognize that basic musical ability is something that the vast majority of people have, this doesn't mean that the lack of it is abnormal

What makes an amusic worse off than a musical prodigy? Musical ability is culturally valued, and may have been a factor in survival at one point in human history, but it does not seem likely that it is being selected for on an evolutionary scale any longer. Darwin believed that music was adaptive as a way of finding a mate, but who needs to be able to sing to find a partner in an age when it is possible to express your emotions through a song on your IPod?

While the idea of amusia is interesting, it seems to be just one end of the continuum of innate musical ability. Comparing this 'disorder' to learning disorders like a specific language impairment seems to be going too far. Before, amusia can be declared a disability, further research must be done to determine whether lack of musical ability is actually detrimental in any way. If no disadvantages can be found of having amusia, then it is no more a disability than having poor fashion sense or bad handwriting.

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When people are deaf' to music - IELTS reading practice test

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When people are deaf' to music reading practice test has 14 questions belongs to the Recent Actual Tests subject. In total 14 questions, 4 questions are YES-NO-NOT GIVEN form, 5 questions are Matching Information form, 5 questions are Sentence Completion form.

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B2 Reading: Staff training

In this section, you have to read a text in which there are some missing words (gaps). For each gap, you have to write the correct word to complete the sentence. You must write only one word in each space. This section tests your grammatical knowledge of English. You have to decide what part of speech is needed and in which form to complete the text.

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cefr fce- free reading practice  exam practice english language elt efl grammar writing structure cambridge business exercises b2

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Read the text business staff training. Fill in the gaps.

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cefr fce- free reading practice  exam practice english language elt efl grammar writing structure cambridge business exercises b2

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Read the text about music file sgaring. Answer the questions.

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OK the origin of the word

1 the most recognisable word in history

2we use it to  communicate with technology

2a/we use it EVERYWHERE , every language

3 first appeared in 1830

4 23.3 1839  in newspapers

4a/OK  means ALL CORRECT

5 government and the election , but it turned out bad ...orful K-conspiracy , orful K-catastrophe

6 the letter K is unusual . 22nd place in the alphabet when it comes to frequency , JQYX

7TELEGRAPH 1844

8easy to use and in 1865 transmitted messages are only valid if you receive OK, law abiding, everyone must follow

8a/ Marketing use , for the special look of the letter K

9 NEUTRAL answer to many questions , WITHOUT EMOTIONS

10 the FIRST WORD spoken ON THE MOON  on 20th July 1969

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Can you solve the prisoner hat riddle? - Alex Gendler

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B1+ Reading Test

Read the text about eco-terrorism and for questions 1 to 6, choose the correct answers.

Seeding clouds to make rain

Drought is an increasing problem in our warming world. All continents have been experiencing more extended periods without rain, leading to forest fires and poor crop growth. Consequently, people are looking at cloud seeding to solve the problem. Cloud seeding is a method of encouraging precipitation by distributing small particles of silver iodide into clouds.

Cloud-seeding expert Arlen Huggins has been studying its effectiveness. 'My earliest experience was to use cloud seeding to reduce the amount of hail in northeast Colorado. They don't get huge hailstones here, like in the Midwest, but they get it more often. We didn't have any luck with that, but we had success later on in increasing snowfall in Utah. Now, the focus is shifting towards increasing rainfall from summer clouds, which is far more unpredictable.

The problem is that it's pretty hard to know whether precipitation resulted directly from cloud seeding. It might have rained or snowed anyway. Even if you cloud seed in one place and don't in another, it's impossible to know for sure what caused the precipitation unless the cloud system is straightforward, like fog that otherwise has no chance of forming rain or snow.

However, it's not during foggy and snowy conditions that people think of increasing the chance of rainfall. It's when a country is hit by drought, and then cloud seeding isn't an option due to the lack of clouds. In warm conditions, only storm clouds can produce rain by seeding, while during drought, skies tend to be clear with a few wispy clouds. The best option to prevent drought is to seed at times of the year when rainfall levels are normal or higher. That way, slightly more rain can be extracted and stored in reservoirs for the dry season.

As cloud seeding is expensive and its effectiveness tenuous, its usefulness is still a matter of opinion. University of Colorado researcher Katja Friedrich says cloud seeding can't end a drought. However, it can be beneficial, provided it occurs alongside other water conservation strategies. Arlen Huggins is of the same mind. Increasing precipitation through cloud seeding would significantly benefit the economy in the large water basin where he works. Still, for that to happen, the water would need to be captured and stored effectively.

There are also environmental issues regarding the impact of cloud seeding. At high levels, silver iodide can harm humans and other mammals, and some studies have found silver compounds to be slightly toxic. However, several ecological studies have shown minor environmental and health impacts. Where cloud seeding has taken place, the amount of silver compounds in the soil and vegetation has been found to be no higher than natural levels. Even so, some environmentalists are concerned about the long-term impacts, as there isn't data on how much silver iodide accumulates in the environment over periods exceeding ten years.

Another fear is that cloud seeding could potentially steal water from neighbouring areas by encouraging the water in clouds that would otherwise fall somewhere else to fall in your location. According to Maarten Ambaum from the University of Reading, it is possible to use cloud seeding to make rain fall on your farm, which otherwise would fall on your neighbour's farm. It's not the case, though, that if one country uses cloud seeding to create rain, a neighbouring country will lose out because clouds are constantly forming and reforming.

Reading comprehension test

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Seeding clouds to make rain - B1+ English Reading test - Test-English

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English reading comprehension test for upper-intermediate students (CEFR B2.1). Read a text about cloud seeding and answer the questions.

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Rubik's Cube - How the puzzle achieved success

Erno Rubik first studied sculpture and then later architecture in Budapest, where he went on to become a teacher of interior design. It was while he was working as a teacher that he began the preliminary work on an invention that he called the 'Magic Cube'.

Rubik was inspired by geometric puzzles such as the Chinese tangram, a puzzle consisting of various triangles, a square and a parallelogram which can be combined to create different shapes and figures. However, unlike the tangram, which is two- dimensional, Rubik was more interested in investigating how three-dimensional forms, such as the cube, could be moved and combined to produce other forms.

His design consisted of a cube made up of layers of individual smaller cubes, and each smaller cube could be turned in any direction except diagonally. To ensure that the cubes could move independently, without falling apart, Rubik first attempted to join them together using elastic bands. However, this proved to be impossible, so Rubik then solved the problem by assembling them using a rounded interior. This permitted them to move smoothly and easily. He experimented with different ways of marking the smaller cubes, but ended up with the simple solution of giving a different colour to each side. The object was to twist the layers of small cubes so that each side of the large cube was an identical colour.

Rubik took out a patent for the Cube in 1977 and started manufacturing it in the same year. The Cube came to the attention of a Hungarian businessman, Tibor Laczi, who then demonstrated it at the Nuremberg Toy Fair. When British toy expert Tom Kremer saw it, he thought it was amazing and he persuaded a manufacturer, Ideal Toys, to produce 1 million of them in 1979. Ideal Toys renamed the Cube after the toy's inventor, and in 1980, Rubik's Cube was shown at toy fairs all over the world. It won that year's prize in Germany for Best Puzzle. Rubik's Cube is believed to be the world's best-selling puzzle; since its invention, more than 300 million Cubes have been sold worldwide.

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Rubik's Cube - How the puzzle achieved success - IELTS reading practice test

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Rubik's Cube - How the puzzle achieved success reading practice test has 7 questions belongs to the Short Practice subject. All of the questions are Summary, form completion form

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The ballpoint pen

The ballpoint pen

Most of us have at least one, but how did this popular item evolve?

One morning in 1945, a crowd of 5,000 people jammed the entrance of Gimbels Department Store in New York. The day before, Gimbels had placed a full-page advertisement in the New York Times for a wonderful new invention, the ballpoint pen. The advertisement described the pen as 'fantastic' and 'miraculous'. Although they were expensive, $12.50 each, all 10,000 pens in stock were sold on the first day.

In fact, this 'new' pen was not new at all. In 1888, John Loud, a leather manufacturer, had invented a pen with a reservoir of ink and a rolling ball. However, his pen was never produced, and efforts by other people to produce a commercially successful one failed too. The main problem was with the ink. If it was too thin, the ink leaked out of the pen. If it was too thick, it didn't come out of the pen at all.

Almost fifty years later, in 1935, a newspaper editor in Hungary thought he spent too much time filling his pens with ink. He decided to invent a better kind of pen. With the help of his brother, who was a chemist, he produced a ballpoint pen that didn't leak when the pen wasn't being used. The editor was called Ladislas Biro, and it was his name that people would associate more than any other with the ballpoint pen.

By chance, Biro met Augustine Justo, the Argentinian president. Justo was so impressed with Biro's invention that he invited him to set up a factory in Argentina. In 1943, the first Biro pens were produced.

Unfortunately, they were not popular, since the pen needed to be held in a vertical position for the ink to come out. Biro redesigned the pen with a better ball, and in 1944 the new product was on sale throughout Argentina.

It was a North American, Milton Reynolds, who introduced the ballpoint pen to the USA. Copying Biro's design, he produced the version that sold so well at Gimbels. Another American, Patrick Frawley, improved the design and in 1950 began producing a pen he called the Papermate. It was an immediate success, and within a few years, Papermates were selling in their millions around the world.

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The ballpoint pen - IELTS reading practice test

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The ballpoint pen reading practice test has 5 questions belongs to the Short Practice subject. All of the questions are Sentence Completion form

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Read an email managing the problems faced by a member of an international team.

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WF052 - An Unusual Park - Word Formation

Gap-fill exercise

Fill in all the gaps, then press "Check" to check your answers. Use the "Hint" button to get a free letter if an answer is giving you trouble. You can also click on the "[?]" button to get a clue. Note that you will lose points if you ask for hints or clues!

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Created with Hot Potatoes by Half-Baked Software, registered to Klaus Rosmanitz.

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WF052 - An Unusual Park - Word Formation

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WF052 - An unusual Park - Word Formation - English Grammar Exercises

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Read Section 3 and answer Questions 29-40
CALISTHENICS The world's oldest form of resistance training
(A) From the very first caveman to scale a tree or hang from a cliff face, to the mighty armies of the Greco-Roman empires and the gymnasiums of modern American high schools, calisthenics has endured and thrived because of its simplicity and utility. Unlike strength training which involves weights, machines or resistance bands, calisthenics uses only the body's own weight for physical development.

(B) Calisthenics enters the historical record at around 480 B.C., with Herodotus' account of the Battle of Thermopolylae. Herodotus reported that, prior to the battle, the god-king Xerxes sent a scout party to spy on his Spartan enemies. The scouts informed Xerxes that the Spartans, under the leadership of King Leonidas, were practicing some kind of bizarre, synchronised movements akin to a tribal dance. Xerxes was greatly amused. His own army was comprised of over 120,000 men, while the Spartans had just
300. Leonidas was informed that he must retreat or face annihilation. The Spartans did not retreat, however, and in the ensuing battle they managed to hold Xerxes' enormous army at bay for some time until reinforcements arrived. It turns out their tribal dance was not a superstitious ritual but a form of calisthenics by which they were building awe-inspiring physical strength and endurance.

(C) The Greeks took calisthenics seriously not only as a form of military discipline and strength, but also as an artistic expression of movement and an aesthetically ideal physique. Indeed, the term calisthenics itself is derived from the Greek words for beauty and strength. We know from historical records and images from pottery, mosaics and sculptures of the period that the ancient Olympians took calisthenics training seriously.
They were greatly admired - and still are, today - for their combination of athleticism and physical beauty. You may have heard a friend whimsically sigh and mention that someone 'has the body of a Greek god'. This expression has travelled through centuries
and continents, and the source of this envy and admiration is the calisthenics method.

(D) Calisthenics experienced its second golden age in the 1800s. This century saw the birth of gymnastics, an organised sport that uses a range of bars, rings, vaulting horses and balancing beams to display physical prowess. This period is also when the phenomena of strongmen developed. These were people of astounding physical strength and development who forged nomadic careers by demonstrating outlandish feats of strength to stunned populations. Most of these men trained using hand balancing and horizontal bars, as modern weight machines had not yet been invented.

(E) In the 1950s, Angelo Siciliano - who went by the stage name Charles Atlas - was crowned "The World's Most Perfectly Developed Man". Atlas's own approach stemmed from traditional calisthenics, and through a series of mail order comic books he taught these methods to hundreds of thousands of children and young adults through the 1960s and 1970s. But Atlas was the last of a dying breed. The tides were turning, fitness methods were drifting away from calisthenics, and no widely-regarded proponent of the method would ever succeed him.

(F) In the 1960s and 1970s calisthenics and the goal of functional strength combined with physical beauty was replaced by an emphasis on huge muscles at any cost. This became the sport of body building. Although body building's pioneers were drawn from the calisthenics tradition, the sole goal soon became an increase in muscle size. Body building icons, people such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sergio Oliva, were called mass monsters because of their imposing physiques. Physical development of this nature was only attainable through the use of anabolic steroids, synthetic hormones which boosted muscle development while harming overall health. These body builders also relied on free weights and machines, which allowed them to target and bloat the size of individual muscles rather than develop a naturally proportioned body.
Calisthenics, with its emphasis on physical beauty and a balance in proportions, had little to offer the mass monsters.

(G) In this "bigger is better" climate, calisthenics was relegated to groups perceived to be vulnerable, such as women, people recuperating from injuries and school students.
Although some of the strongest and most physically developed human beings ever to have lived acquired their abilities through the use of sophisticated calisthenics, a great deal of this knowledge was discarded and the method was reduced to nothing more than an easily accessible and readily available activity. Those who mastered the rudimentary skills of calisthenics could expect to graduate to weight training rather than advanced calisthenics.

(H) In recent years, however, fitness trends have been shifting back toward the use of calisthenics. Bodybuilding approaches that promote excessive muscle development frequently lead to joint pain, injuries, unbalanced physiques and weak cardiovascular health. As a result, many of the newest and most popular gyms and programmes emphasize calisthenics-based methods instead. Modern practices often combine elements from a number of related traditions such as yoga, Pilates, kettle-ball training, gymnastics and traditional Greco-Roman calisthenics. Many people are keen to recover the original Greek vision of physical beauty and strength and harmony of the mind-body connection.

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IELTS General Reading free samples. Sample 2.3 - IELTS-up

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IELTS General Reading practice: sample with auto-correction and answers 2.3.