About this set: compiled and lightly cleaned up from real test material that test-takers recalled. IELTS draws from a global question pool, so this material circulates worldwide. To give you a complete, sittable test, material reported around the same period is assembled together — so a set may combine content from several exam dates, not one single sitting. Any audio is a recreation for practice. Organized for study convenience. Based on test-taker recalls — not official IELTS material.
Reading Passage 1: Shadow Puppets In Southeast Asia
In many cultures today, people view puppets as simply toys for children. In Southeast Asia, however, shadow-puppet theatre and shadow-puppet imagery, which date back some 1200 years, fulfil many roles — from ceremonial and ritual purposes to entertainment. Performances are usually held at night, and people of all ages and from all walks of life watch as a puppeteer creates shadow-plots by manipulating puppets between a light source and a white cloth screen, while simultaneously conducting the orchestra. The music highlights the action and dramatic moments, accompanies the singing and evokes appropriate moods.
Shadow puppets are flat objects traditionally created from the skin of an animal that has been cleaned, stretched and dried. This usually comes from the skin of a buffalo or cow, but bear, deer and other animals are sometimes used too. The shape of the puppet is first drawn onto the skin and then cut out. Holes are punched all over the puppet to create the appearance and textures of the character's clothes. Finally these features are painted in and they are fitted with the rods the puppeteers use to move them. Puppeteers can have 200 or more puppets in their collections.
While many of these puppets are generic, playing different roles as necessary, others represent specific characters, some of which have special status. These are treated accordingly, often being separately wrapped in cloth or thread, or kept with offerings such as flowers or money.
Maintaining hierarchy and social organisation, and thus harmony, has always formed part of the conventions of shadow-puppet theatre. This is established through the performance itself, as well as through the stage set-up. For example, puppets are arranged with the honourable characters on the right of the screen, and more negative characters on the left; noble characters are placed close to the screen, and more mundane ones further away and so less clear to the audience. When placed in a travelling case, Thai puppets are traditionally organised with the animals and scenery on the bottom, and the sacred and royal figures on the top. Shadow-puppet theatre thus represents the surrounding universe, presenting its struggles between harmony and chaos in the performance and striving to achieve a balance between them. Individuals and communities still commission shadow-puppet theatre performances, often for major life transitions, such as marriage, as well as to celebrate the harvest and to fulfil vows.
The plays performed today include stories that originated in India and travelled to Southeast Asia via trade routes, as well as locally developed stories based on characters from these narratives. More recently, completely original stories based on local events have emerged, in which the conventional balance between chaos and harmony is not necessarily established during the course of the performance. Stories are primarily performed orally, and puppeteers usually do not use a written script when performing. They rely instead on memorising basic stories, and often improvise during shows, inventing extra material as they go along. Electricity is now widely used to illuminate the screens, replacing candles or oil lamps in many performances. In some instances, electric instruments are played alongside earlier musical forms. While in Java and southern Burma, the theatre has successfully adapted to modern-day needs and interests, in Malaysia public performances have declined dramatically since the 1930s.
Reinterpretations of stories and puppet imagery have resulted in the creation of interesting new forms. Thai puppets from the late 20th century are a particularly interesting example. Some of these present traditional forms, but are made of plastic instead of animal skin. Others obviously reflect the fashion of the era — for example Thai puppets, made of animal skin and with traditional body shapes, yet dressed in 1970s-type flared trousers and high-heeled shoes, are still to be found performing today.
Shadow-theatre's popularity in Southeast Asian society has also led to its imagery and characters being adopted outside their original context. For instance, the legendary warrior figure known as Bima, which originated in India as a character in the epic poem Mahabharata, came to be widely revered beyond the world of puppet theatre as a symbol of strength, courage and righteousness over a thousand miles away in Java. Imagery related to the shadow-puppet form of Bima can still be found there on stone reliefs dating to the 1400s.
Shadow-puppet characters and images have also appeared in many other settings. Coins and medallions with shadow-puppet figures on them were once worn in Malaysia and Indonesia as talismans. Today, shadow-puppet-theatre imagery and puppets form such an integral part of local culture that they are often used commercially. In Thailand, famous clown puppets have become part of local identity and are used in advertising campaigns. Mass media has made some puppeteers celebrities, and performances are now broadcast online. The use and reuse of shadow-theatre elements have a long history and continues to the present day.
Questions 1–5
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?
In boxes 1–5 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
- 1
In Southeast Asia, shadow puppet theatre attracts a wide audience.
- A. TRUE
- B. FALSE
- C. NOT GIVEN
- 2
Audiences can learn something about the character of each shadow puppet from its relative position on the screen.
- 3
There are certain customs about the correct storage of Thai shadow puppets between performances.
- 4
Weddings are an area of growing success for shadow puppet theatre.
- 5
Puppet performers follow a fixed storyline during their shows.
Questions 6–13
Complete the notes below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Making shadow puppets
prepare the chosen type of animal skin for use
create the puppet's basic (6) ________ before cutting it out
make a series of (7) ________ to add detail
paint the shadow puppet
add (8) ________ to the puppet
20th-century developments in shadow puppet theatre
Technical changes: (9) ________ is widely used as a source of light in puppet theatre
Regional popularity: notable decline in audiences in (10) ________
Costumes: clear influence of the (11) ________ of the time
Commercial use: shadow-puppet imagery is used in (12) ________ in Thailand
New media: puppet theatre can now be watched (13) ________.
Reading Passage 2: Insect Decision-Making
A It has long been held that decisions made collectively by large groups of people are more likely to turn out to be accurate than decisions made by individuals. The idea goes back to the 'jury theorem' of Nicolas de Condorcet, an 18th-century French philosopher who was one of the first to apply mathematics to the social sciences. Condorcet's theory describes collective decisions, outlining how democratic decisions tend to outperform dictatorial ones. If, for example, each member of a jury has only partial information, the majority decision is more likely to be correct than a decision arrived at by a single juror. Moreover, the probability of a correct decision increases with the size of the jury.
B Now it is becoming clear that group decisions are also extremely valuable for the success of social animals, such as ants, bees, birds and dolphins. Bees make collective decisions, and they do it rather well, according to Christian List of the London School of Economics, who has studied group decision-making in humans and animals. Researchers led by Dr List looked at colonies once the original colony reached a certain size. The queen goes off with about two-thirds of the worker bees to live in a new home or nest, leaving a daughter queen in the old nest with the remaining workers. Among the bees that depart are some that have searched for and found some new nest sites, and reported back using a characteristic body movement known as a 'waggle dance' to indicate to the other bees the suitable places they have located. The longer the dance, the better the site. After a while, other bees start to visit the sites signalled by their companions to see for themselves and, on their return, also perform more waggle dances. The process eventually leads to a consensus on the best site and the breakaway swarm migrates. The decision is remarkably reliable, with the bees choosing the best site even when there are only small differences between alternative sites.
C But exactly how do bees reach such a robust consensus? To find out, Dr List and his colleagues used a computer-generated model of the decision-making process. By experimenting with it, they found that, when bees in the model were very good at finding nesting sites but did not share their information, this dramatically slowed down the migration, leaving the swarm homeless and vulnerable. Conversely, bees in the model blindly followed the waggle dances of others without first checking. The researchers concluded that the ability of bees to identify successfully and quickly the best site depends on both the bees' interdependence in communicating the whereabouts of the best site, and their independence in confirming this information for themselves.
D Another situation in which collective decisions are taken occurs when animals are either isolated from crucial sources of information or dominated by other members of the group. Jose Halloy of the Free University of Brussels in Belgium used robotic cockroaches to subvert the behaviour of living cockroaches and control their decision-making process. In his experiment, the artificial bugs were introduced to the live ones and soon became sufficiently socially integrated that they were perceived by the real cockroaches as equals. By manipulating the robots, which were in the minority, Halloy was able to persuade the living cockroaches to choose an inappropriate shelter—even one which they had rejected before being infiltrated by the robots.
E The way insects put into effect collective decisions can be complex and as important as the decisions themselves. At the University of Bristol, in the UK, Nigel Franks and his colleagues studied how a species of ant establishes a new nest. Franks and his associates reported how the insects reduce the problems associated with making a necessarily swift choice. If the ants' existing nest becomes suddenly threatened, the insects choose certain ants to act as scouts to find a new nest. How quickly they accomplish the transfer to a new home depends not only on how soon the best available site is found, but also on how quickly the migration there can be achieved.
F Once the suitable new nest is identified, the chosen ants begin to lead others, which have made it to the new site or which may simply be in the vicinity, back to the original threatened nest. In this way, those ants which are familiar with the route can help transport, for example, the queen and young ants to the new site, and simultaneously show the way to those ants which have been left behind to guard the old nest. In this way, moving processes are accomplished faster and more efficiently. Thus, the dynamics of collective decision-making are closely related to the efficient implementation of those decisions. How this might apply to choices that humans make is, as yet, unclear. But it does suggest, even for humans, the importance of recruiting dynamic leaders to a cause, because the most important thing about collective decision-making, as shown by these insect experiments, is to get others to follow.
Questions 14–19
Reading Passage 2 has six paragraphs, A–F.
Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number, i–vii, in boxes 14–19 on your answer sheet.
List of Headings
i The effect of man-made imitations on insects
ii The need to instruct additional insect guides
iii Signals used by certain insects to indicate a discovery
iv How urgency can affect the process of finding a new home
v The use of trained insects in testing scientific theories
vi The use of virtual scenarios in the study of insect behaviour
vii How the number of decision-makers affects the decision
- 14
Paragraph A
- 15
Paragraph B
- 16
Paragraph C
- 17
Paragraph D
- 18
Paragraph E
- 19
Paragraph F
Questions 20–23
Look at the following findings (Questions 20–23) and the list of academics below.
Match each finding with the correct academic, A–D.
Write the correct letter, A–D, in boxes 20–23 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
List of Academics
A Nicolas de Condorcet
B Christian List and colleagues
C José Halloy
D Nigel Franks and colleagues
- 20
Certain members can influence the rest of the group to alter a previous decision.
- 21
Individual verification of a proposed choice is important for a successful decision outcome.
- 22
The more individuals taking part in a decision, the better the decision will be.
- 23
The decision-making process of certain insects produces excellent results even when fine distinctions are required.
Questions 24–26
Complete the summary below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 24–26 on your answer sheet.
A Study of Insect Decision-making
A Bristol University study looked at how insects make decisions when their home has been (24) ________. The ants in the experiment relied on the use of individuals called (25) ________ to find a new nest and efficiently direct the others to go there. The study concluded that the effective implementation of the ants' decision meant that the insects could change homes quickly. The study emphasized the necessity, for people as well as insects, of having active (26) ________ in order to execute decisions successfully.
Reading Passage 3: Mercator - The Map Maker
Maps codify the miracle of existence. And the man who wrote the codes for the maps we use today was Gerard Mercator, a cobbler’s son born 500 years ago on a muddy floodplain in northern Europe. Mercator was a humble man with a universal vision. In his own time he was ‘the prince of modern geographers’, his depictions of the planet and its regions unsurpassed in accuracy, clarity and consistency. More recently, he was crowned by the American scholar Robert W. Karrow as ‘the first modern, scientific cartographer’. Where his predecessors had adopted a piecemeal approach to cartography, Mercator sought to wrap the world in systematic overlapping maps. Along the way he erected a number of historic milestones. He participated in the naming and mapping of ‘America’, he constructed the two most important globes of the 16th century, and the title of his pioneering ‘modern geography’, the Atlas, became the standard term for a volume of maps. Mercator also devised a new method - ‘a projection’ - of converting the spherical world into a two-dimensional map. Mercator was born in 1512 and died in 1594. His world was one of military conflict, social upheaval, religious revolution - and geographical discovery. He was ten years old when the survivors of the world’s first circumnavigation returned to Spain in their leaking caravel. No better example is required of genius arising from turmoil. He knew poverty, plague, war and persecution. He was imprisoned for his ideas yet patronised by an emperor. His life was one of brilliant breakthroughs and abrupt reversals. In its telling, his is the story of the poor boy made good: the pauper who embraced the world, found fame, faced death, yet triumphed through fortitude. Variously described by his peers as honest, calm, candid, sincere and peaceable, Mercator wore an aura of calm in troubled times. His attitude to his geographical calling was described by his friend and neighbour, William Ghim, as ‘indefatigable’. Some 40 or so of Mercator’s letters have survived, together with examples of virtually all of his printed maps and globes.
Mercator’s most significant work was a project of cosmic proportions. A multi-part cosmography, the work would include a section on astronomy, a chronology of world events and a modern geography, which would eventually contain over 100 maps. Before he commenced the great work, Mercator produced in 1569 an enormous world map on a new projection. His method for converting the spherical globe into a two-dimensional map helped to solve the greatest cartographic riddle of the day: how could the course of a ship following a constant compass bearing be represented as a straight line on a map which had been constructed on a grid of latitude and longitude? Mercator’s solution was to progressively increase the space between his lines of latitude, away from the equator. The effect was to straighten the lines of constant compass bearing (also known as rhumbs or loxodromes). Unfortunately, straightening the rhumbs caused areal distortion: at the map’s northern and southern extremities, the polar regions occupied the full width of the map, while North America appeared to fill half the circumference of the world.
Few of Mercator’s contemporaries understood what he was up to, despite the map’s title explaining that it was intended ‘for use in navigation’. Mercator knew that his projection was unsuitable as an areal description of the world, but it would be several decades before the map’s true navigational value would be recognised. Meanwhile, Mercator was marshalling and editing all the geographical data he needed for his modern regional maps of the world. His sources were wide-ranging and multitudinous, including an imperial physician in Vienna and his competitor, the Viceroy of Holstein. He was still working on these maps when he died. The great cosmography that Mercator had already titled ‘Atlas’ would never be finished. In the Atlas, Mercator had embodied the principles of future mapmaking: his italic lettering, his identical map overlaps, his complete coverage of regions at more than one scale, his consistent use of grids of latitude and longitude, his singular editorial control, were all adopted as cartographic standards. ‘Atlas’, the cosmography, became ‘atlas’, the (Oxford English Dictionary) term for ‘a collection of maps in a volume.’
The projection assumed a life of its own. So powerful a cartographic tool did it become that Mercator the man became subsumed by his own device. By the 20th century, Mercator’s Projection had been adopted by state cartographers to map the land that he had named ‘North America’. In 1938, Mercator’s Projection was selected by the Ordnance Survey to map Britain anew. And in 1974, the American cartographer Alden P. Colvocoresses used the Space Oblique Mercator Projection for the first satellite map of the USA. When the Jet Propulsion Laboratory sent Mariner 8 and Mariner 9 to map Mars, they undertook their Martian cartography on a standard Mercator Projection. One by one, the mappable orbs of our solar system are appearing on the worldwide web, flattened for our screens according to Mercator’s cartographic principles. Mercator’s Projection succeeded in reconciling the sphere and the plane, while his Atlas enveloped the world with an integrated system of maps.
Questions 27–34
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 3?
In boxes 27–34 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
- 27
Cartographers before Mercator had tended to produce separate, individual maps.
- A. TRUE
- B. FALSE
- C. NOT GIVEN
- 28
Mercator was critical of the work of his contemporaries.
- 29
During his life, Mercator experienced great changes of fortune.
- 30
Most of Mercator’s published work remains intact today.
- 31
Mercator started work on his projection shortly after embarking on his cosmography.
- 32
Mercator’s Projection was immediately seen as a major breakthrough.
- 33
Mercator produced an accurate area description of the world.
- 34
Mercator consulted the work of various people when producing his maps.
Questions 35–40
Complete the notes below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 35–40 on your answer sheet.
Mercator's Projection:
His attempt to represent the globe as a (35) ________ map
Problem:
When sailors used a map based on lines of latitude and longitude and kept to a constant compass bearing, the course of the ship could not be shown as a (36) ________ on a map.
Solution:
To increase the space separating the lines of latitude, the further they are from the equator.
Result:
When Mercator straightened the 'rhumbs' as intended, this produced (37) ________ at the northern and southern extremities, with the full width of the map being taken up by the (38) ________.
Original intention:
Mercator originally designed the map for (39) ________ purposes.
Uses of Mercator's Projection up to the present day:
Various uses including the mapping of (40) ________ by state cartographers
Also used to portray planets in our solar system on the web
Answer sheet
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Show answer key
Answer key
1. A
2. A
3. A
4. C
5. B
6. shape
7. holes
8. rods
9. electricity
10. Malaysia
11. fashion
12. advertising
13. online
14. vii
15. iii
16. vi
17. i
18. iv
19. ii
20. C
21. B
22. A
23. B
24. threatened
25. scouts
26. leaders
27. A
28. C
29. A
30. A
31. B
32. B
33. B
34. A
35. two-dimensional
36. straight line
37. areal distortion
38. polar regions
39. navigation
40. North America