General Training Reading 2024-11 Test 5 — IELTS General Training Reading Actual Test with Answers

Rebuilt from test-taker recalls — not official IELTS material. Audio and passages are recreations for practice.

Reading Passage 1 — Local Campsites

A. Prettycoat Farm This well-known campsite in the wild near Browbourne is a winner with campers who are looking for time out from their fast-paced jobs in the capital. Despite its limited facilities, the site, with its large tent pitches, is an ideal base for exploring the area and driving to the rock museum, the craft workshops or Gaydon Castle. Just follow the signs. B. Newgammon Wild: This campsite looks like it's going to be a winner. It only opened last year, but already the website has some very positive reviews from the handful of campers who know about it so far. It offers splendid views over some of the country's most attractive beaches, which can be accessed by steep, narrow cliff steps. You need a good level of fitness for these, and don't forget to leave some energy for the return trip at the end of the day. C. Oakerly Estate: You won't be disappointed when you reach Oakerly, despite the problems of getting there by car on such narrow roads. You'll see quite a lot of motorhomes when you hit the clifftop, but there's still plenty of room for tents on the spacious lawn that also offers a camp kitchen, restaurant and bar. Make sure you stay safe and pitch your tent within the white line around the cliff edge, though. D. South Turnbull: The emphasis at this site is on back-to-basics camping. It's advisable to come in a group as there are few facilities and you need to do all your own cooking. The area is rather exposed, and in periods of bad weather it can't be reached at all so check on the website before you go. E. Boxer Tropis: The 20-metre high rock faces that surround this site are especially attractive to rock climbers, who come here to camp from hundreds of miles away so that they can attempt the climb - and not always with success, according to the website! It's not compulsory of course, and there are plenty of other activities for campers to get involved in, such as birdwatching and bathing in the sea.

Questions 1–7: Matching — Campsite Descriptions

Look at the five descriptions of campsites, A-E. For which campsite are the following statements true? Write the correct letter, A-E.

1
The site is impossible to get to at certain times.
- A. Prettycoat Farm
- B. Newgammon Wild
- C. Oakerly Estate
- D. South Turnbull
- E. Boxer Tropis
2
It is in a convenient place for going by car to various tourist spots.
- A. Prettycoat Farm
- B. Newgammon Wild
- C. Oakerly Estate
- D. South Turnbull
- E. Boxer Tropis
3
You should camp somewhere inside the marked zone.
- A. Prettycoat Farm
- B. Newgammon Wild
- C. Oakerly Estate
- D. South Turnbull
- E. Boxer Tropis
4
Campers who enjoy a particular physical challenge come here.
- A. Prettycoat Farm
- B. Newgammon Wild
- C. Oakerly Estate
- D. South Turnbull
- E. Boxer Tropis
5
The difficult journey to the site is worth the effort.
- A. Prettycoat Farm
- B. Newgammon Wild
- C. Oakerly Estate
- D. South Turnbull
- E. Boxer Tropis
6
Few people have heard of this site.
- A. Prettycoat Farm
- B. Newgammon Wild
- C. Oakerly Estate
- D. South Turnbull
- E. Boxer Tropis
7
Some physical effort is needed to enjoy nearby coastal areas.
- A. Prettycoat Farm
- B. Newgammon Wild
- C. Oakerly Estate
- D. South Turnbull
- E. Boxer Tropis

Reading Passage 2 — Have a Greener Garden!

The idea of "going green" is appealing, but it can also be overwhelming. Here is some advice for having a garden that is interesting to look at, but also good for the environment. Encouraging birds, mammals and insects to visit and live in your garden helps to look after local wildlife, keeps valuable green spaces thriving and can help restrict garden pests by encouraging natural predators. From large gardens to window boxes, all homes can be made more wildlife friendly. Creating spaces to live and nest in is one way of making animals feel at home in your garden. Here are some simple ideas that can help. You can: • leave logs in a corner of your garden to make a home for hedgehogs and insects. • drill holes in pruned branches and logs to provide birds with shelter and nesting space. • leave overgrown areas to provide places for animals, such as hedgehogs or foxes, to rest or hibernate. • use bird and bat boxes. Trees provide food and shelter for many types of wildlife, from insects to birds and bats. Trees like crab apple, pussy willow and hazel will thrive, even in small gardens. You can even grow a tree in a dustbin if you don't have a garden. Native species like silver birch, hawthorn and yew support a wide range of insects, which in turn provide year-round food for mammals and birds. Grants may be available for tree planting, depending on whether you are planting a small wood on your land or a few trees in your community or local school. Starting a compost pile is a great idea. Composting takes your kitchen scraps and converts them to nutrient-rich food for your soil. You'll add less trash to the landfill and make your plants happy. Ponds are a magnet for wildlife, attracting frogs, newts, dragonflies and other insects, as well as providing water for birds. If you haven't got much space, you could use a bathtub. Garden ponds help to conserve aquatic and amphibian life. Conserving rainwater is a great way to make less impact on the Earth while growing a greener garden. A rain barrel is also a relatively easy DIY project. They can also be bought at most garden shops and then all you need to do is to direct the flow of rain water from roofs into the barrel. Attract birds to your garden by using feeders and tables. Providing a bird bath can also help, as birds need to bathe often to keep their feathers in trim. Be sure to clean and top up the feeding areas regularly. Pesticides can kill or discourage the wildlife you want to attract to your garden, including the predators that eat pests. If you use them, always follow the instructions on the label and dispose of out of date or waste products carefully. Never use the drain as a place to get rid of unwanted pesticides - it's against the law and will contaminate water sources. Also avoid putting them in your household waste bin. Make sure pesticides or other hazardous chemicals from paints and finishes don't get into ponds, as they can poison water life. Your council can give you advice on disposing of pesticides that you no longer need, but before you buy pesticides, ask yourself whether they are really necessary.

Questions 8–14: Summary Completion — Greener Garden

Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the text for each answer.

8
What can be used as a natural way of controlling garden pests?
9
What can be put in a garden to create a living place for insects?
10
In what can a tree be planted if people don't have a garden?
11
What can be obtained to help with the financial demands of planting trees?
12
What can be used as an alternative to a traditional garden pond?
13
What can be provided in a garden to help keep birds in good flying condition?
14
Where is it illegal to dispose of pesticides?

Reading Passage 3 — A Day in the Life of a Care Worker

Care workers in Britain provide elderly and disabled people with the opportunity to remain independent at home, rather than moving into a care home. For those interested in the work, here is what a typical day could be like for a trained care worker. Care workers often start early, as the first client of the day may need help getting out of bed and putting on their clothes; they may suffer from a condition that prevents them from doing this easily. Providing these services helps clients to look and feel as good as possible when beginning their day. The care worker may then help to cook breakfast for the client, and this is often a good time to enjoy a conversation and catch up on how they are feeling. Many clients appreciate being able to chat to someone regularly, as some may have no family members or friends living nearby. Next, the care worker may take the opportunity to do some basic housework for the client. Housework is often something that elderly people or people with disabilities may not be able to do themselves. Even something as simple as hoovering the living room can make a huge difference to a client's day. Of course, there may be the breakfast dishes to do as well. Later in the morning, the care worker may move on to another client in order to help them prepare their midday meal. Care workers try to ensure this is healthy because it is so important to keep clients fit and well. When that's finished, the care worker may help the client to carry out their shopping by going with them to the local supermarket. During the afternoon, a care worker may help a third client with an outdoor activity, which could involve going for a short walk in the local area or taking the laundry to the launderette. Elderly people may not feel confident going far on their own, so having company can be a great help. Later may participate in cooking dinner with their last client and, before going home, they may also get out their client's medication. This ensures the client remembers to take it before going to bed.

Questions 15–21: Note Completion — Care Worker Tasks

Choose ONLY ONE WORD for each answer.

It's an early start for the first client. You may have to help the client get up and dressed if they have a 15 _______ that makes this challenging. The next task may be cooking breakfast and it's nice to have some 16 _______ at this time. It may be a good idea to do some housework after this such as 17 _______ and washing up. You may then visit a second client and help them get a 18 _______ lunch ready. Lunch may be followed by some 19 _______. Afterwards a third client may need help with an activity that involves going out of their home such as doing their 20 _______. You may cook dinner with the final client of the day and also remind them about their 21 _______.

15
You may have to help the client get up and dressed if they have a 15 _______ that makes this challenging.
16
The next task may be cooking breakfast and it's nice to have some 16 _______ at this time.
17
It may be a good idea to do some housework after this such as 17 _______ and washing up.
18
You may then visit a second client and help them get a 18 _______ lunch ready.
19
Lunch may be followed by some 19 _______.
20
Afterwards a third client may need help with an activity that involves going out of their home such as doing their 20 _______.
21
You may cook dinner with the final client of the day and also remind them about their 21 _______.

Reading Passage 4 — McDonalds and KFC

A fast food restaurant, also known as a quick service restaurant (QSR) within the industry, is a specific type of restaurant characterized both by its fast food cuisine and by minimal table service. Food served in fast food restaurants typically caters to a "meat-sweet diet" and is offered from a limited menu; is cooked in bulk in advance and kept hot; is finished and packaged to order; and is usually available ready to take away, though seating may be provided. Fast food restaurants are typically part of a restaurant chain or franchise operation, which provisions standardized ingredients and/or partially prepared foods and supplies to each restaurant through controlled supply channels. The term "fast food" was recognized in a dictionary by Merriam-Webster in 1951. Arguably, the first fast food restaurants originated in the United States with A&W in 1919 and White Castle in 1921. Today, American-founded fast food chains such as McDonald's and KFC are multinational corporations with outlets across the globe. William Ingram's and Walter Anderson's White Castle System created the first fast food supply chain to provide meat, buns, paper goods, and other supplies to their restaurants, pioneered the concept of the multistate hamburger restaurant chain, standardized the look and construction of the restaurants themselves, and even developed a construction division that manufactured and built the chain's prefabricated restaurant buildings. The McDonalds' Speedee Service System and, much later, Ray Kroc's McDonald's outlets and Hamburger University all built on principles, systems and practices that White Castle had already established between 1923 and 1932. While fast food restaurants usually have a seating area in which customers can eat the food on the premises, orders are designed to be taken away, and traditional table service is rare. Orders are generally taken and paid for at a wide counter, with the customer waiting by the counter for a tray or container for their food. A "drive-through" service can allow customers to order and pick up food from their cars. Nearly from its inception, fast food has been designed to be eaten "on the go" and often does not require traditional cutlery and is eaten as a finger food. Common menu items at fast food outlets include fish and chips, sandwiches, pitas, hamburgers, fried chicken, French fries, chicken nuggets, tacos, pizza, and ice cream, although many fast food restaurants offer "slower" foods like chili, mashed potatoes, and salads. Modern commercial fast food is highly processed and prepared on a large scale from bulk ingredients using standardized cooking and production methods and equipment. It is usually rapidly served in cartons or bags or in a plastic wrapping, in a fashion which reduces operating costs by allowing rapid product identification and counting, promoting longer holding time, avoiding transfer of bacteria, and facilitating order fulfillment. In most fast food operations, menu items are generally made from processed ingredients prepared at a central supply facilities and then shipped to individual outlets where they are cooked (usually by grill, microwave, or deep-frying) or assembled in a short amount of time either in anticipation of upcoming orders (i.e., "to stock") or in response to actual orders (i.e., "to order"). Because of commercial emphasis on taste, speed, product safety, uniformity, and low cost, fast food products are made with ingredients formulated to achieve an identifiable flavor, aroma, texture, and "mouth feel" and to preserve freshness and control handling costs during preparation and order fulfillment. This requires a high degree of food engineering. The use of additives, including salt, sugar, flavorings and preservatives, and processing techniques may limit the nutritional value of the final product. Multinational corporations typically modify their menus to cater to local tastes, and most overseas outlets are owned by native franchisees. McDonald's in India, for example, uses chicken and paneer rather than beef and pork in their burgers because Hinduism traditionally forbids eating beef. In Israel some McDonald's restaurants are kosher and respect the Jewish. Fast food outlets have reasons. One is that through economies of scale in purchasing and producing food, these companies can deliver food to consumers at a very low cost. In addition, although some people dislike fast food for its predictability can be reassuring to a hungry person in a hurry or far from home.

Questions 22–27: TFNG — Fast Food

Do the following statements agree with the information given in the text? Write TRUE if the statement agrees with the information, FALSE if it contradicts the information, NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this.

22
Processing and preparation on a large scale from volume ingredients use consistent cooking and production techniques and appliances in time-honored profitable fast food.
23
Processed components used to make menu items are primed at a central supply facility and then shipped to individual outlets where they are cooked or accumulated as per the order.
24
Due to profit-making prominence, more attention is on magnitude rather than excellence.
25
Nutritional value of the concluding product is limited to use of flavors, preservatives and processing techniques.
26
Overseas outlets are possessed by indigenous franchisees to make local revenue and supplementary profit.
27
Indian McDonald's use chicken and paneer rather than beef and pork because of religion customary values.

Reading Passage 5 — The Forgotten Role of Women in Medieval Arts

A. A team of archaeologists recently and unexpectedly revealed direct archaeological evidence of the involvement of medieval women in the production of manuscripts. This challenges the widespread assumptions that men were the sole producers of books throughout the period in European history known as the Middle Ages (600-1500 AD). They did so by identifying particles of blue pigment in the fossilised dental plaque of a medieval woman as lapis lazuli, an extremely valuable stone at the time. The findings are the first of their kind and strongly suggest it will be possible to increase the profile of ancient female artists. In the historical and archaeological record by analysing their dirty teeth. B. This discovery was made possible by applying technological advances in the field of archaeological science to a little-studied deposit on teeth known as tartar, which is mineralised dental plaque. In most societies today, oral hygiene practices are part of our daily routine, meaning that dental plaque is regularly removed and doesn't have a chance to build up on our teeth. This was not the case in the past. Plaque built up and mineralised over the course of people's lives. This solid deposit has unique archaeological potential. A key characteristic of dental plaque is that while it forms it has the ability to entrap a wide range of microscopic and molecular debris that enters a person's mouth. When dental plaque hardens and becomes tartar, it can entomb these particles and molecules for hundreds or thousands of years - potentially even millions. C. The majority of scholarly work conducted on ancient tartar has been centered on what people ate but, besides taking in food, the human mouth is subject to a constant influx of particles of different types directly from the environment. Tree and grass pollen, spores, cotton fibers, medicinal plants and micro-charcoal have all been reported among the finds from this type of dental analysis. Despite such promising evidence, the value of tartar as environmental evidence has not, so far, been much exploited. D. The team analyzed the skeletal remains of a female individual, known as B78, who lived in the 11th-12th century. She was buried in the grounds of a former women's monastery in Dalheim, Germany, that is in ruins today but was occupied by various religious groups for around a thousand years. They found well over 100 bright blue particles, in the form of small crystals and individual flecks, scattered throughout the tartar which was still preserved on her teeth. Her skeletal remains had not indicated anything particular about her life, besides a general indication that she probably did not do any hard labor. The blue particles were unlike any other discovery - firstly because of their color, and secondly because of their sheer number. E. To be sure about the nature of the particles of bright blue powder trapped in the woman's tartar, a range of microscopy techniques were used. All techniques provided the same results: the blue specks were lazurite, the blue portion of the lapis lazuli stone, a substance more precious than gold in Medieval Europe. Afghanistan was the only source of the stone at the time, and the preparation of the pigment took great skill. F. So how did particles of this precious material end up deposited on this woman's teeth? A variety of reasons were possible, from painting to accidental ingestion during pigment preparation, or even the consumption of the powder as a medicine. But the way in which the blue particles were found in her tartar - single flecks in different areas - pointed to repeated exposure, not a single intake. And creating a vivid blue pigment from lapis lazuli required an Arabic method of oil flotation that did not appear in European artists' manuals until after the 15th century. This all suggests that it's more likely that this ultramarine pigment was brought into the region as a finished product for use by artists. G. The most likely explanation, then, is that this was an artist who repeatedly used her lips to make a fine point on the end of her brush in order to paint intricate detail on manuscripts. This finding suggests that women were more involved in the production of books throughout the Middle Ages than tends to be thought. Before the 12th century fewer than one per cent of the books that still remain can be traced to the work of women. Additionally, artists are largely invisible in both the historic and archaeological records as they rarely signed their work before the 15th century and, until now, there have been no known skeletal markers directly associated with producing art. The work strongly points to the possibility of using microscopic particles entombed in ancient tartar to track the artists of ancient times. It also suggests that it may be possible to track other 'dusty crafts using this method and thereby reveal the invisible workforce behind many forms of art.

Questions 28–31: Multiple Choice — Medieval Women Artists

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

28
What did the skeleton of B78 suggest about her?
- A. She had not been very old when she died.
- B. Her life had not been very physically demanding.
- C. Her teeth had more tartar than most skeletons of that age.
- D. She had been given a grander burial than other women of her time.
29
What problem does the writer highlight about medieval artists?
- A. the poor facilities available to females in the profession
- B. the small number of projects available to them
- C. the difficulties locating their skeletal remains for study
- D. the lack of evidence for their contribution to books
30
Which paragraph contains the following information? 32. reference to the possible length of time that tartar can preserve particles from the air
- A. A
- B. B
- C. C
- D. D
- E. E
- F. F
- G. G
31
Which paragraph contains the following information? 33. two reasons why the particles that the team found in teeth were unique
- A. A
- B. B
- C. C
- D. D
- E. E
- F. F
- G. G

Questions 32–35: Matching — Paragraph Information

Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter, A-G.

32
reference to the possible length of time that tartar can preserve particles from the air
- A. A
- B. B
- C. C
- D. D
- E. E
- F. F
- G. G
33
two reasons why the particles that the team found in teeth were unique
- A. A
- B. B
- C. C
- D. D
- E. E
- F. F
- G. G
34
various examples of the types of particle that can be discovered in old teeth
- A. A
- B. B
- C. C
- D. D
- E. E
- F. F
- G. G
35
a suggestion that the blue pigment might have been used in medieval times to cure illness
- A. A
- B. B
- C. C
- D. D
- E. E
- F. F
- G. G

Questions 36–40: Summary Completion — Medieval Pigment

Choose ONE WORD ONLY for each answer.

A blue pigment used to create artworks in Europe in the Middle Ages was derived from a stone called lapis lazuli. In medieval times, even 36 _______ was not as valuable. Lazuli could only be found in Afghanistan and a lot of 37 _______ was needed to make the pigment from the stone. The procedure used to do this appeared much later in the 38 _______ used by European artists and this suggests that the product came to their countries as an imported powder. Artists often had to make a 39 _______ on their brushes using their mouths, which then enabled them to produce the fine features needed for 40 _______ and books.

36
In medieval times, even 36 _______ was not as valuable.
37
Lazuli could only be found in Afghanistan and a lot of 37 _______ was needed to make the pigment from the stone.
38
The procedure used to do this appeared much later in the 38 _______ used by European artists.
39
Artists often had to make a 39 _______ on their brushes using their mouths.
40
which then enabled them to produce the fine features needed for 40 _______ and books.

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1. D
2. A
3. C
4. E
5. C
6. B
7. B
8. natural predators
9. logs
10. a dustbin
11. grants
12. a bathtub
13. a bird bath
14. the drain
15. condition
16. conversation
17. hoovering
18. healthy
19. shopping
20. laundry
21. medication
22. FALSE
23. TRUE
24. NOT GIVEN
25. TRUE
26. NOT GIVEN
27. TRUE
28. C
29. A
30. B
31. D
32. B
33. D
34. C
35. F
36. gold
37. skill
38. manuals
39. point
40. manuscripts