Rebuilt from test-taker recalls — not official IELTS material. Audio and passages are recreations for practice.
Reading Passage 1 — Advertising Needs Attention
The harder advertisers try to get your attention, the more your brain ignores them. Jane Raymond, a consumer psychologist at the University of Wales in Bangor, is carefully holding and gazing at a bottle of Chillz mineral water like a baby. Despite being made of clear plastic, it looks as if it has been carved from ice. This simple feature means shoppers are drawn to this bottle over the others on the shelf and cannot resist picking it up, Raymond says. She studies the subtle factors that motivate us to buy what we buy and advises big companies on how powerful an advertisement is and how it could be designed to stick more firmly in a consumer’s memory. Most of all, she works out how to attract your attention.
In today’s fast-paced consumer world, attention is in short supply. Whether we are taking our time shopping in a mall, surfing the Internet for information, or just watching television as a form of passive entertainment, consumers are surrounded by messages — one every 15 seconds of our waking lives, according to some estimates. Last year, companies worldwide spent $401 billion on advertising, according to the independent World Advertising Research Centre in the UK. But as the graveyard of failed products shows, they usually get it wrong. Nine out of ten new products meet an early death, says Jamie Rayner, director of research at ID Magasin, a UK consultancy specialising in consumer behaviour. And the reason, he explains, is simple: conventional advertising has ceased to work. Rayner and his colleagues have measured how consumers — particularly regular commuters — react to advertising, and their conclusion should alarm many executives. They used a camera embedded in a pair of glasses worn to and from work to record commuters’ gaze as they glanced at advertisements on their journey. After analysing the recordings and questioning the subjects, they found that most of the advertisements made no impression at all: only about one per cent could be recalled without prompting. It seems that although we may be looking at brands and advertisements all day long, most of the time we’re not taking anything in.
Raymond thinks she knows why. Her move from research in visual processing into consumer psychology began in the early 1990s, when she discovered some strange behaviours in the brain’s attentional system. She showed people a stream of letters and numbers on a screen and asked them to look out for a letter X. When she asked her volunteers afterwards what they had seen, she found that if the X appeared up to half a second or so after the white letter, or vice versa, people failed to see it. She concluded that if something catches your attention, your brain is blind to anything else for a short period afterwards. She called this effect the “attentional blink.” “In short, the reason most advertising doesn’t work is that we’re in a severe state of attentional overload. Unless advertising is presented in a way the brain can absorb, it is simply not seen,” Raymond says.
So what does this mean for advertisers? A typical television advertisement consists of a series of attention-grabbing images interspersed with the product. But unless the scenes in the advertisement are cut to take account of attentional blinks, the brain is likely to ignore the information the advertiser wants to get across. The same applies to magazine advertisements, where viewers often register the main image but fail to pick up on the secondary images— the bits advertisers often desperately want us to see. Raymond says advertisers consistently fail to consider how easily the brain misses the point. It’s not that they haven’t realised that the space and time they have to get their message across has shrunk. But advertisers respond by cramming in ever more complex information. Raymond is opposed to this and her advice is simple: deliver your message in a straightforward manner and do so slowly, gently and concisely.
After her research on the attentional blink, she wondered whether attention would be linked to other processes in the brain, particularly emotion. Could our attentional state influence whether we like or dislike a brand, for example? Today, companies are hugely interested in the emotional value of their brands as they want their products to make us feel good. It is well known that if something elicits positive emotions then you are more likely to take notice of it. But Raymond’s further research also demonstrates that if people are distracted by an image or a brand when performing an intellectually demanding task, they tend to instantly dislike the brands, regardless of their emotional value. So, for example, if you are reading a web page when a banner advertisement starts flashing, or are watching a film with intrusive product placement, it is probable you will come to dislike the brand whatever it is.
This contradicts the more-exposure-the-better rule most of the industry follows, says Raymond, and means that advertising can backfire horribly. Advertisers tend to buy as much exposure for a product as they can — through television and radio commercials, billboards, whatever they think will attract their target audiences— but again Raymond has found that this doesn’t necessarily work in their favour. Perhaps the most dangerous time, says Raymond, is the holiday season when advertisers are madly competing to grab people’s attention. “Marketers don’t realise that humans digest information like they do food. Once they are full, if they are shown any more food, they’re disgusted,” she says.
Questions 1-7: True/False/Not Given
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1? In boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet, write TRUE if the statement agrees with the information, FALSE if the statement disagrees with the information, NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this.
- 1
Jane Raymond states that Chillz mineral water is packaged in a way that is unattractive to consumers.
- 2
Consumers are still exposed to more advertising through television commercials than through the medium of the Internet.
- 3
Jamie Rayner says that people are no longer influenced by traditional advertisements.
- 4
According to Jamie Rayner, the reason that most products are discontinued is that advertising fails to attract consumers.
- 5
Jane Raymond believes that commercials should be simpler in their content.
- 6
Advertisements showing unfamiliar brands affect a person’s concentration more than ones with familiar brands.
- 7
Jane Raymond suggests that a product should be advertised in as many ways as possible.
Questions 8-13: Short Answer
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
- 8
What group of consumers were specifically targeted in Jamie Rayner’s research?
- 9
What subject did Jane Raymond study before focusing on the behaviour of consumers?
- 10
According to the writer, what important aspect of an advertisement in print do many people fail to notice?
- 11
According to the writer, what do companies today want their products to have in order to make consumers feel positive about themselves?
- 12
What does Jane Raymond say will annoy someone watching a movie?
- 13
According to Jane Raymond, when do advertisers promote their products most fiercely?
Reading Passage 2 — Herbal Medicines
The popularity of herbs and plants as medicines could be good for New Zealand
A There is an age-old practice of harvesting plants and herbs in their natural environment for use as medicines. And today there is huge potential for New Zealand to develop a herb industry based on the excellent growing conditions and expertise there, according to Phil Rasmussen, a pharmacist and medical herbalist. Take arnica, for example, a popular pharmaceutical herb used to treat bruises and joint problems. Traditionally collected by Romany communities in Europe, it is now in high demand worldwide as interest develops in the capabilities of the small alpine plant. A 2008 report for the Plant and Food Research organisation concluded that New Zealand has a good opportunity to cultivate arnica flowers and roots for the international markets. However, the initiative was stopped in its tracks when the government abruptly halted funding for the research programme. It was an unjustified move, according to agronomist Malcolm Douglas, based on a number of inaccurate views about weed invasion.
B The history of herbal medicines in New Zealand has long featured disagreements of this sort. For the early Maori people – the original inhabitants of New Zealand – the forest was well stocked with edible plants that were an obvious source of nutrition, but that were taken for the relief of pain as well. While the earliest European doctors in New Zealand relied on imported dried herbs, many were keen to include native plants in their practices: in his book published in 1891, herbalist James Neil described manuka and koromiko as among New Zealand’s most valuable herbs. Despite its popularity among some, however, herbalism continued to have its detractors. In 1907 Neil, president of the then very young New Zealand Association of Medical Herbalists (NZAMH), petitioned parliament for legal status for herbalists, but he was unsuccessful. The Evening Post newspaper perhaps summed up the opposing position by claiming that herbalism ‘is obsolete’.
C In fact, traditional Maori medicine faced a more determined challenge. In 1908 the government passed a controversial law that had the effect of restricting traditional herbal practice, or pushing it underground. Then for a brief period in the mid-20th century, herbal medicine was largely ignored, shunned by the majority of the medical profession, and absent from medical school curricula. But a centuries-old tradition was not going to disappear so easily, and in the 1980s the NZAMH was revived, and it became possible to complete a course in herbal medicine at several polytechnics around the country. However, the problem remained of how to connect the culture of plant-based medicine with conventional scientific thinking in order to promote herbal use within the general population. For many years, the limited evidence there was that herbal medicines worked was undermined by lack of interest among general practitioners and within the scientific community. vegetables, recognise stress – are completely accepted by the medical establishment and widely practised in society as a whole. Natural health products are big sellers in pharmacies, and global pharmaceutical companies are buying up natural supplement.
D Today, the ideas of herbalists in the 1980s – eat a varied diet, include lots of fresh fruit and brands or developing their own. What’s more, according to Rasmussen, robust clinical trials show that herbal medicine is generally safe – safer than most drugs. ‘It doesn’t do everything,’ he says, ‘but there’s a lot it does do, particularly in terms of preventative health care.’ One significant issue for today’s export-oriented herbal medicine producers is the question of how to guarantee standards for consumers in different countries. In other words, there is the need for some form of globally recognised system of documentation. Rasmussen’s range of extracts are produced under the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) scheme, which is respected around the world. So too is the range produced by Sandra Clair, who says that such assurance is expensive but necessary if you want to export herbal remedies to the rest of the world. Moves to launch a joint Australia–New Zealand agency to regulate herbal remedies under a single, streamlined licensing process have recently been revived, after being abandoned in 2007 through lack of support in parliament.
E There are those in the industry who support further regulation still. According to Rasmussen, some herbs should require a prescription from a suitably qualified medical herbalist or doctor. For example, consumers shouldn’t be able to go to their local supermarket and buy St John’s Wort, according to Rasmussen, because it can interact in harmful ways with at least ten pharmaceutical drugs. Isla Burgess, who is part of the International Research Group for the Conservation of Medicinal Plants, agrees that tighter regulation is necessary, but for a different reason. ‘More than 400,000 tonnes of medicinal and aromatic plants are traded in the world each year,’ says Burgess. ‘The great majority of these are harvested from the wild, so they each have an impact on their local ecosystem.’ She gives the example of elm trees in the USA, ringbarked and stripped for the growing market for a product called ‘slippery elm’: this endangered tree should be protected. But others argue that more regulation would be prohibitively expensive for all but the largest manufacturers – a change, cautions Clair, that would probably put some local companies out of business. So, for the time being at least, it seems that the topic of herbal medicines will continue to provoke debate.
Questions 14–17: Paragraph Matching
Reading Passage 2 has five paragraphs, A–E. Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter, A–E, in boxes 14–17 on your answer sheet. NB You may use any letter more than once.
- 14
a reference to the interest shown by large corporations in herbal remedies
- 15
examples of the uses of one particular herbal medicine
- 16
a warning that small companies cannot afford stricter controls of the herbal medicine industry
- 17
a statement by one expert about the effectiveness and limitations of herbal medicines
Questions 18–21: Summary Completion
Complete the summary below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
The history of herbal medicines in New Zealand
Originally, the Maori people consumed plants to help deal with 18 ________, and also as food. When Europeans settled in the country, a 19 ________ by James Neil showed that some of them also recognised the medicinal value of native plants. However, criticism of herbal medicine appeared in one newspaper in 1907. The following year, the use of herbal medicines was made more difficult because of a new 20 ________, and for a time in the mid 20th century, they were largely ignored. Then in the 1980s a number of institutions started offering a 21 ________ in the subject, although for many years there was still little evidence to support their use, because doctors and academics were not interested.
- 18
Originally, the Maori people consumed plants to help deal with 18 ________, and also as food.
- 19
When Europeans settled in the country, a 19 ________ by James Neil showed that some of them also recognised the medicinal value of native plants.
- 20
The following year, the use of herbal medicines was made more difficult because of a new 20 ________, and for a time in the mid 20th century, they were largely ignored.
- 21
Then in the 1980s a number of institutions started offering a 21 ________ in the subject, although for many years there was still little evidence to support their use, because doctors and academics were not interested.
Questions 22–26: Matching (People to Statements)
Look at the following statements (Questions 22–26) and the list of people below. Match each statement with the correct person, A, B, C or D. Write the correct letter, A, B, C or D, in boxes 22–26 on your answer sheet. NB You may use any letter more than once.
List of People
A. Phil Rasmussen
B. Malcolm Douglas
C. Sandra Clair
D. Isla Burgess
- 22
There ought to be restrictions on where you can buy some herbal medicines.
- 23
The authorities stopped supporting one project without a good reason.
- 24
The herbal medicine industry has an effect on the environment where some plant-based medicines are found.
- 25
New Zealand has the human resources and natural environment to grow herbs commercially.
- 26
It is essential for herbal medicines to have international certification, despite the cost.
Reading Passage 3 — The Mystery of the Easter Island
A Easter Island, a small, hilly, treeless volcano, is one of the world's most celebrated archaeological sites. However, it is rarely visited and not inhabited. The island was named Easter Island by Jacob Roggeveen, a Dutch Captain, who visited the island on 5th April 1722 and was the first European to set foot on the island. Following the mystery of its inhabitants, a Norwegian explorer called Thor Heyerdahl visited the island in the early 1950s. Heyerdahl suggested that the original inhabitants of the island were Indian societies that had originated from the Southern coast of America. However, after a broad ethnographic, linguistic and archaeological research, this theory was found to be inaccurate.
B According to research and DNA extracts from the exhumed skeletons on the island, the original inhabitants of the island were from the Marquesas Islands in Polynesia. According to the carbon dating of reeds collected from the graves, these people arrived on the island in 318 AD. It is believed that at that time, the island had lots of trees, swarming with both land and sea birds and there were abundant food sources from fish, plants, and birds that made the human population grow rapidly, giving rise to a rich artistic and religious culture.
C Among some of the most famous features of the culture of the inhabitants are the moai, which are gigantic stone statues. It is believed that there were at least 288 of these moai statues that were erected on about 250 stone plateaus known as ahu and each of the ahu is approximately 1.5 miles from another one, forming a continuous line around the island. In addition to the moai statues that sit on the ahu plateaus, there are other unfinished moai statues that spread across the island. Some of them are found in quarries, and others along ancient roads and coastal areas. On average, the moai statues are 14.5 feet tall with a weight of 14 tones and they are mostly carved from Rono Raraku, a type of volcanic stone, which is tough. There are other larger moai statues that weigh 80 tones with a height of about 33 feet. Going by the enormous size of these statues, it is assumed that it took about 50 to 150 people to move them across the island on rollers and sleds made from trees.
D It has been difficult to conclusively explicate the purpose of the moai statues. However, it is believed that the idea originated from a similar practice back in Polynesia though it was done differently in the Easter Island. The statues had some human characteristics. According to iconographic and archaeological analysis, the cult of carving the statues was founded on a male philosophy, based on the authority of a certain lineage. Therefore, the statues were symbols of both political and religious authority and power. To the people that used them, they were sources of sacred spirits. In Polynesian religions, when wood objects and carved stones were ritualistically prepared, people believed that some magical spiritual power referred to as mana changed them. Therefore, the ahu platforms on the Easter Islands were sanctuaries while the moai statues were the sacred objects.
E The island also has other names like the Mata-Ki-Te-Rani, which means ‘Eyes Looking at Heaven’, and Te-Pito-O-Te-Henua, which means ‘The Navel of the World’. These two names, though ignored by most archaeologists, show that there is a possibility that the island could have been used as an astronomical observatory site and a geodetic sign respectively. Graham Hancock, in his book Heaven's Mirror, suggests that the island may have been an important scientific outpost of the antediluvian civilisation. Other scholars like Robert Lomas and Christopher Knight have studied the ancient geodetic signs and suggested that they were used for forecasting and preparing for future disasters in their book called Uriel's Machine.
F At the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, scientists and writers came up with a number of theories as to why civilisation on Easter Island declined just about the time the first European made contact with the island. One of the theories, which has been rendered inaccurate, was formulated by Jared Diamond in his book known as Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive.
G Basically, most of these theories state that the island was unable to replenish itself ecologically following the demand for lots of resources for the growing population after colonisation. As a result, the forests on the island had been depleted by 1400s. The ground cover had been removed. Springs had dried up and the swarms of birds had vanished. Since there were no trees to cut logs for building canoes that could have been used for offshore fishing, and the birds and wildlife had been depleted, people lacked enough food. The crop yield had also declined and the consequent famine struck resulting in cannibalism. And since there was no food to feed the population on the island including the priests and administrators, there was a social and cultural collapse. According to the theories, the population had dropped to a tenth of its original number and most of the moai statues were destroyed during clan wars in the 1600s and 1700s.
H These theories presented defective ideas starting with the racialist's assumptions by Thor Heyerdahl. These ideas were then propagated by writers like Jared Diamond who had no historical archaeological knowledge of the actual events that took place on Easter Island. The most convincing hypothesis is that the devastation of Easter Island was as a result of the cold-hearted European visitors, especially the slavers. They introduced diseases like smallpox on the island and murdered natives on Easter Island and transported them to South America as slaves.
Questions 27–34: Heading Matching
Reading Passage 3 has eight paragraphs, A-H. Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below. Write the correct number, i-xi, in boxes 27-33 on your answer sheet.
List of Headings
i. Mapping the universe to understand the past
ii. Indication of an ancient research site
iii. Declined population due to the lack of food
iv. The cultural significance of statues
v. A mystery that attracted early explorers
vi. A loss of habitat
vii. The stone-made giants
viii. Trapped on an island
ix. Modern assumptions about a coincidence
x. The early days of the island's thriving environment
xi. A persuasive explanation for the collapse of Easter Island
- 27
- 28
- 29
- 30
- 31
- 32
- 33
- 34
Questions 35–37: True/False/Not Given
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 3? In boxes 35-37 on your answer sheet, write TRUE if the statement agrees with the information, FALSE if the statement disagrees with the information, NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this.
- 35
There are no permanent residents living on Easter Island.
- 36
After arriving on Easter Island, Polynesians planted lots of trees there.
- 37
The writer largely agrees with the conclusions drawn by Jared Diamond.
Questions 38–40: Summary Completion
Complete the summary below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Easter Island is famous for the seemingly unexplained disappearance of its inhabitants, and its infamous giant statues, the moai. These statues are generally found on the island's plateaus but some statues located in other parts of the island are 38______. The giant statues were formed out of a kind of 39______, and while a definitive explanation of the moai is still unknown, current theories suggest that they served a 40______ function. Many theories on the islanders' disappearance have been proposed.
- 38
These statues are generally found on the island's plateaus but some statues located in other parts of the island are 38______.
- 39
The giant statues were formed out of a kind of 39______.
- 40
Current theories suggest that they served a 40______ function.
Show answer key
Answer key
1. FALSE
This is FALSE because the passage says the Chillz bottle 'looks as if it has been carved from ice' and 'shoppers are drawn to this bottle over the others on the shelf and cannot resist picking it up,' showing it is attractive to consumers.
2. NOT GIVEN
NOT GIVEN because the passage mentions consumers are surrounded by messages in malls, on the Internet, and on television, but does not compare the amount of advertising seen on TV versus the Internet.
3. TRUE
TRUE because Jamie Rayner says 'conventional advertising has ceased to work' and that most advertisements 'made no impression at all' on people.
4. TRUE
TRUE because Rayner says 'the reason...is simple: conventional advertising has ceased to work,' and 'nine out of ten new products meet an early death,' linking product failure to advertising's lack of impact.
5. TRUE
TRUE because Raymond advises to 'deliver your message in a straightforward manner and do so slowly, gently and concisely,' meaning commercials should be simpler.
6. NOT GIVEN
NOT GIVEN because the passage discusses how distracting advertisements can make people dislike brands, but does not compare the effect of unfamiliar versus familiar brands on concentration.
7. FALSE
FALSE because Raymond says buying as much exposure as possible 'doesn't necessarily work in their favour' and that advertising can 'backfire horribly,' so she does not suggest advertising in as many ways as possible.
8. regular commuters
The answer is 'regular commuters' because Rayner and his colleagues 'measured how consumers - particularly regular commuters - react to advertising.'
9. visual processing
The answer is 'visual processing' because Raymond's 'move from research in visual processing into consumer psychology began in the early 1990s.'
10. secondary images
The answer is 'secondary images' because the passage says in magazine ads, 'viewers often register the main image but fail to pick up on the secondary images.'
11. emotional value
The answer is 'emotional value' because companies 'are hugely interested in the emotional value of their brands as they want their products to make us feel good.'
12. intrusive product placement
The answer is 'intrusive product placement' because Raymond says if you are 'watching a film with intrusive product placement, it is probable you will come to dislike the brand.'
13. holiday season
The answer is 'holiday season' because Raymond says 'the most dangerous time...is the holiday season when advertisers are madly competing to grab people's attention.'
14. D
D is correct because it mentions 'global pharmaceutical companies are buying up natural supplement brands or developing their own,' showing large corporations' interest.
15. A
A is correct because it gives examples of arnica being used to treat bruises and joint problems.
16. E
E is correct because it says stricter regulation 'would probably put some local companies out of business,' warning that small companies cannot afford it.
17. D
D is correct because Rasmussen says herbal medicine 'doesn't do everything...but there's a lot it does do,' showing both effectiveness and limitations.
18. pain
The answer is 'pain' because the passage says Maori used plants 'for the relief of pain as well' as for food.
19. book
The answer is 'book' because James Neil 'described manuka and koromiko as among New Zealand's most valuable herbs' in his book.
20. law
The answer is 'law' because in 1908 'the government passed a controversial law that had the effect of restricting traditional herbal practice.'
21. course
The answer is 'course' because in the 1980s 'it became possible to complete a course in herbal medicine at several polytechnics.'
22. A
A is correct because Rasmussen says 'some herbs should require a prescription' and 'consumers shouldn't be able to go to their local supermarket and buy St John's Wort.'
23. B
B is correct because the arnica research was stopped when 'the government abruptly halted funding for the research programme,' and Douglas said it was 'an unjustified move.'
24. D
D is correct because Burgess says 'the great majority of these are harvested from the wild, so they each have an impact on their local ecosystem.'
25. A
A is correct because it says New Zealand has 'excellent growing conditions and expertise' for developing a herb industry.
26. C
C is correct because Clair says international certification is 'expensive but necessary if you want to export herbal remedies to the rest of the world.'
27. v
v is correct because Paragraph A introduces the island and its discovery, matching the heading about the island's discovery and early exploration.
28. x
x is correct because Paragraph B discusses the origins of the island's inhabitants, matching the heading about the origins of the islanders.
29. vii
vii is correct because Paragraph C describes the statues and how they were made and moved, matching the heading about the statues' construction.
30. iv
iv is correct because Paragraph D discusses the purpose and meaning of the statues, matching the heading about their function.
31. ii
ii is correct because Paragraph E discusses the island's other names and possible uses, matching the heading about alternative names and uses.
32. ix
ix is correct because Paragraph F discusses theories about the island's decline, matching the heading about the decline of the civilization.
33. iii
iii is correct because Paragraph G explains the ecological collapse theory, matching the heading about environmental destruction.
34. xi
xi is correct because Paragraph H criticizes previous theories and presents a new explanation, matching the heading about new interpretations.
35. TRUE
TRUE because the passage says Easter Island 'is rarely visited and not inhabited,' meaning no permanent residents live there.
36. NOT GIVEN
NOT GIVEN because the passage says the first inhabitants arrived when the island had lots of trees, but does not say they planted them.
37. FALSE
FALSE because the writer says Jared Diamond's theory 'has been rendered inaccurate' and criticizes his ideas.
38. unfinished
The answer is 'unfinished' because the passage says 'there are other unfinished moai statues that spread across the island...in quarries, and others along ancient roads and coastal areas.'
39. volcanic stone
The answer is 'volcanic stone' because the statues are 'mostly carved from Rono Raraku, a type of volcanic stone.'
40. political and religious
The answer is 'political and religious' because the statues were 'symbols of both political and religious authority and power.'