Reading 2026-03 Test 9 — IELTS Reading Actual Test with Answers

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Reading Passage 1 - DEEP SEA DISCOVERY

Recent research has provided new insights into how fish communicate A. Nico Michiels is an ecologist from the University of Tubingen in Germany who spends part of each year in Egypt, where he dives in the Red Sea, observing fish life and gathering data on its coral reefs. In September 2007 he decided to find out how far red light could penetrate the ocean depths. Seawater absorbs different colours at different depths, and as an experienced diver, Michiels was aware that red light is extinguished not far below the surface whereas blue-green light penetrates deeper. To find out the depth at which red disappeared in this particular ocean, however, he attached a special plastic filter to his dive mask which was designed to block out all colours except red. Then he began to descend. In theory, once he reached about 15 metres, he should have been plunged into darkness. Instead, something totally unexpected happened. Sure enough, 20 metres down it was as dark as night. 'All the fish disappeared. With no light from the surface, they were effectively black and had become invisible,' he says. But it didn't stay black for long. Then I saw a group of goby fish with bright red eyes lit up against the background. After that red spots began to show up all over the reef. B. Even with the red filter removed, Michiels could pick them out without much trouble once his eyes grew accustomed to the gloom. It seems strange that no diver or researcher had spotted all this red before, but as Michiels points out, no one saw it because no one expected to see it. On that one dive Michiels discovered three fish species with prominent red markings, and has found many others since. C. But how can fish appear red where there's no red light? Ordinary red pigments look red because they reflect red light while absorbing all other wavelengths. At 20 metres down, there had to be some other explanation for the red Michiels was seeing. He suspected fluorescence. Fluorescent pigments behave differently from ordinary ones: they receive incoming light of one wavelength, for example blue, and emit light of a longer wavelength, in this case red. On the reef in the Red Sea during daytime, the most likely explanation was that the predominantly blue and green wavelengths at depth triggered the emission of fluorescent red in the fish. D. With only a week left in Egypt, and lacking the equipment to confirm that the fish were fluorescent, Michiels photographed as many of them as he could. Then once back in Germany, he bought an assortment of tropical fish and installed them in his lab. Here he confirmed that the fish did indeed fluoresce. In most of the fish he looked at, the fluorescence could be traced to specialised pigment cells that lie in the skin beneath the scales. These cells contain guanine crystals, which scatter light to give fish their silvery sheen. However, Michiels says they are still not sure exactly what is fluorescing. It's not the crystals themselves. It's probably a fluorescent protein built into the crystals, and we have a suspicion that it might be made by bacteria. E. Intrigued, Michiels began a systematic search for red fluorescence in reef fish. He and his colleagues, Nils Anthes and Dennis Sprenger, have identified some 50 species with red fluorescence. The most common markings tend to be on the body towards the head and to a lesser extent around the eyes, and then the fins. To Michiels, the distribution of these markings is one of the strongest indications that red fluorescence has a very particular function: communication with other members of the species. According to several recent studies, a whole range of animals employ fluorescence as a natural highlighter to boost the visibility of body parts they use to signal, for example to ward off enemies. In reef fish, the red tends to be confined to parts of the body used to signal, suggesting those markings serve a similar function. But instead of highlighting an existing colour, the fluorescence gives the fish a colour that otherwise wouldn't exist. For example, fish commonly use eye rings to signal that they are present and their direction of gaze, and Michiels suspects that red-eyed gobies use signals to indicate their location and keep their group together. F. Red light, whatever its source, doesn't travel far through water, which suggests signals are intended to be private, seen only by nearby fish of the right species. There are several lines of evidence to support this, says Michiels. And closely related species do not have completely identical markings, which suggests they might be important in species recognition. G. Michiels suspects red fluorescence has another important role for some reef fish: helping them blend in. During his first dive with the red filter, he noticed corals glow a dark but faint red too. Against this irregular red background, a fish that glows red all over would be hard to distinguish. More compelling for Michiels is the case of the scorpionfish, which lies perfectly still until food swims past which it then sucks in. H. Yet if red plays any part in a fish's life then it must be able to see it. Fish that live in a world dominated by blue-green light are assumed to have eyes tuned to those wavelengths, and most marine fish that have been studied are thought incapable of seeing red. One exception is the seahorse, whose eyes are sensitive to red. As for the other fish, it remains to be seen. *pigments: a pigment is a substance that gives something a particular colour

Questions 1-6: True/False/Not Given

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1? In boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet, write TRUE if the statement agrees with the information given in the text, FALSE if the statement contradicts the information, or NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this.

1
During his 2007 dive, Michiels expected to encounter total darkness at about 15 metres.
2
Michiels could see the red markings on ﬁsh without the aid of the red ﬁlter.
3
Other divers had assumed they would see ﬁsh with red markings.
4
All the ﬁsh with red markings that Michiels found during his diving expeditions came from the Red Sea.
5
Michiels ﬁrst thought of the possibility that ﬁsh could ﬂuoresce while he was in Germany.
6
Michiels remains uncertain as to what creates ﬂuorescence in ﬁsh.

Questions 7-13: Note Completion

Complete the notes below. Write ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Michiel's ﬁndings 50 types of ﬁsh with red ﬂuorescence in total markings mainly near the 7. _________ Some of Michels beliefs are that red ﬂuorescence is used speciﬁcally for 8. _________ purposes ﬁsh, like some animals, use ﬂuorescence to keep 9. _________ away gobies depend on red ﬂuorescence to show their 10. _________ there are variations in the markings of ﬁsh among those 11. _________ similar Other beneﬁts of red ﬂuorescence: ﬁsh cannot easily be seen near backgrounds of 12. _________ which give oﬀ a red light helps some ﬁsh catch their prey The ability to see red amongst ﬁsh the only ﬁsh proven to have this ability is the 13. _________

7
markings mainly near the 7. _________
8
red ﬂuorescence is used speciﬁcally for 8. _________ purposes
9
ﬁsh, like some animals, use ﬂuorescence to keep 9. _________ away
10
gobies depend on red ﬂuorescence to show their 10. _________
11
there are variations in the markings of ﬁsh among those 11. _________ similar
12
ﬁsh cannot easily be seen near backgrounds of 12. _________ which give oﬀ a red light
13
the only ﬁsh proven to have this ability is the 13. _________

Reading Passage 2 - The history of the Celtic language

A. In November 1897, in a field near the village of Coligny in eastern France, a local inhabitant unearthed two strange objects. One was an imposing statue of Mars, the Roman god of war. The other was an ancient bronze tablet, 1.5 metres wide and 1 metre high. It bore numerals in Roman but the words were in Gaulish, a version of the Celtic language spoken by the inhabitants of France before the Roman conquest in the first century BC. The tablet turned out to be one of the most important sources of words from this extinct language. B. Two researchers, geneticist Dr Peter Forster and linguist Dr Alfred Toth, have now used the calendar and other Celtic inscriptions to reconstruct the history of Celtic and its position in the Indo-European family of languages. They say that Celtic became a language in its own right and entered the British Isles much earlier than supposed. Then in the first century BC, the Romans defeated the Celts, both in France and in Britain, so decisively that their language, Latin, and its successor languages displaced Celtic over much of its former territory. In the British Isles, Celtic speakers survived in two main groups: the Goidelic branch of Celtic, which includes Irish and Scots Gaelic, and the Brythonic branch, formed mainly of Welsh and Breton, a Celtic tongue carried to Brittany in France by emigrants from Cornwall. C. Because languages change so fast, historical linguists have little faith in language trees that go back more than a few thousand years. Dr Forster has developed a new dating method for relating a group of languages, basing it on the tree-drawing techniques used to trace the evolutionary relationships among genes. The method will work on just a handful of words, a fortunate circumstance since only some 30 Gaulish words have known counterparts in all the other languages under study. Dr Forster and Dr Toth have used the method to draw up a tree relating the different branches of Celtic to one another and to other Indo-European languages like English, French, Spanish, Latin and Greek. In a published article, they say that soon after the ancestral Indo-European language arrived in Europe over 5,000 years ago, it split into different branches leading to Celtic, Latin, Greek and English. Within Celtic, their tree shows that Gaulish - the mainland European version of the language - separated from its Goidelic and Brythonic cousins, much as might be expected from the facts of geography. D. The researchers' method even dates the points at which their language tree divides, although the dates have a wide range of possibility. They calculate that the Indo-European language initially fragmented in Europe around 8100 BC, plus or minus 1,900 years, and the divergence between the mainland European and British versions of Gaelic took place in 3200 BC, plus or minus 1,500 years. These dates are much earlier than previously estimated. 'The traditional date of the Indo-European fragmentation has been 4000 BC for some time,' said linguist Dr Merritt Ruhlen. He said the new method 'seems pretty reasonable' and should be useful in tracing back the earlier history of the Indo-European language. E. Specialists have long debated which country was the homeland of the Indo-Europeans and whether their language was spread by conquest or because its speakers were the first agriculturists whose methods and tongue were adopted by other populations. The second theory, that it was spread by agriculture, has been advocated by archaeologist Dr Colin Renfrew. Dr Forster, who works with Dr Renfrew, said in an interview that the suggested date 8100 BC for the arrival of Indo-European in Europe does seem to vindicate Renfrew's archaeological idea that the Indo-European languages were spread by farmers. Agriculture started to arrive in Europe from the Near East around 6000 BC, which is earlier than the traditional date proposed by linguists for the spread of Indo-European. This writing would fit with the lower end of Dr Forster's range of dates. F. Dr Forster said that his estimated date of 3200 BC for the arrival of Celtic speakers in the British Isles is also much earlier than the usual date, 600 BC, posited on the basis of archaeological evidence. Dr Forster and Dr Toth said their method of evaluating groups of languages against each other was similar to historical linguists, many of whom restrict their research to how words in only one single language have changed over time. Asked what linguists thought of his approach he said: 'To be honest, they don't understand it, most of them. They don't even know what I'm talking about.' The method used by Dr Forster and Dr Toth has two parts. One is to draw a tree on the basis of carefully chosen words; the second is to date the splits in the tree by calibrating them with known historical events. This is similar to the way geneticists date their evolutionary trees by tying one or more branch points to known dates from the fossil record. G. Dr April McMahon, a linguist at the University of Sheffield in England, said that Dr Forster's method 'seems to me to be a good start', and that it was reasonable to base a language family tree on just a handful of well-chosen words. She had less confidence in the dating method, she said, because language changes in an irregular way based on social factors like the size of the speaker's group and its degree of contact with others.

Questions 14-18: Matching headings

Reading Passage 2 has seven paragraphs, A-G. Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet.

14
a difference of opinion about where a group of languages originated
15
a reference to a mythological figure
16
an expression of one person's doubt about a particular method of analysing scientific data
17
an explanation of how one particular Celtic language spread due to the movement of people
18
the reason why some language experts distrust language trees

Questions 19-22: Matching researchers

Look at the following statements (Questions 19-22) and the list of people below. Match each statement with the correct researcher or researchers, A, B, C or D. NB You may use any letter more than once.

List of Researchers A. Dr Peter Forster & Dr Alfred Toth B. Dr Merritt Ruhlen C. Dr Colin Renfrew D. Dr April McMahon

19
An approach commonly used in language research has too narrow a focus.
20
The number of people who use a language has an effect on the modifications the language undergoes.
21
The Celtic language has been a distinct language for longer than experts previously thought.
22
The use of one family of languages may have become more extensive due to farming practices.

Questions 23-26: Sentence Completion

Complete the sentence below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

23
The script on the bronze tablet discovered in Coligny in France was written in a form of Celtic called _________.
24
After the success of the Roman Empire in conquering many parts of Europe, _________ and its related languages became the predominant languages.
25
According to Forster and Toth, there was a division between the mainland European and the British versions of the Gaelic language around 3200 BC.
26
For social reasons, developments in languages are _________.

Reading Passage 3 - Looking for Inspirations

People have speculated their creativity for centuries. Initially they link creative activities have a connection with intelligence. This has lured many research studies. In the early 1970s, creativity was still seen as a type of intelligence. But when more subtle tests of IQ and creativity skills were developed in the 1970s, particularly by the father of creativity testing, Paul Torrance, it became clear that the link was not so simple. Creative people are intelligent, in terms of IQ tests at least, but only averagely or just above. While it depends on the discipline, in general beyond a certain level IQ does not help boost creativity. Because of the difficulty of studying the actual process, most early attempts to study creativity concentrated on personality. According to creativity specialist Mark Runco, the 'creative personality' tends to place a high value on aesthetic qualities and to have broad interests, providing lots of resources to draw on and knowledge to recombine into novel solutions. Creative people have an attraction to complexity and an ability to handle conflict. They are also usually highly self-motivated, perhaps even a little obsessive, when it comes to chase after their ambitions. But there may be a price to pay for having a creative personality. A link has been made between creativity and mental illness. Psychiatrist Kay Redfield, who herself has suffered from bipolar disorder, found that established artists are significantly more likely to have mood disorders. But she suggests that a change of mood state might be the key to triggering a creative event, rather than the negative mood itself. Jordan Peterson, a psychologist at the University of Toronto, says that the brains of creative people seem more open to incoming stimuli than less creative types. One of the first studies of the creative brain at work was by Colin Martindale. Back in 1978, he used a network of scalp electrodes to record the pattern of brain waves when people made up stories. Creativity has two stages: inspiration and elaboration, each characterized by very different states of mind. He found that while people were dreaming up their stories, their brains were surprisingly quiet. The dominant activity was alpha waves, indicating a very low level of cortical arousal: a relaxed state, as though the conscious mind was quiet while the brain was making connections behind the scenes. It's the same sort of brain activity as in some stages of sleep, dreaming or rest, which could explain why sleep and relaxation can help people be creative. However, in the story-telling stage, the alpha wave dropped off and the brain became busier, revealing increased cortical arousal. Strikingly, it was the people who showed the biggest difference in brain activity between the inspiration and development stages who produced the most creative storyline. Guy Claxton said 'it is like a less creative person cannot shift gear, creativity requires different kinds of thinking. Very creative people move between these states intuitively.' Creativity is about mental flexibility: perhaps not a two-step process, but a toggling between two states. Creativity also has a clear link with social interaction. Vera John-Steiner says that to be really creative you need strong social networks and trusting relationships, not just active neural networks. One vital characteristic of highly creative person is that they have at least one other person in their life that doesn't think they are completely nuts.

Questions 27-32: Matching people to opinions/deeds

Use the information in the passage to match the people (listed A-E) with opinions or deeds below. Write the appropriate letters, A-E, in boxes 27-32 on your answer sheet.

List of People A. Paul Torrance B. Mark Runco C. Kay Redfield D. Jordan Peterson E. Guy Claxton F. Vera John-Steiner

27
Creative people have the ability to work with numerous data at the same time.
28
Creative people have the ability to let their different brain parts to work together.
29
Creative people may suffer from mental disorder.
30
Creative peoples' IQ ability is on average or above.
31
Creative people participate in social interaction.
32
Creative people persist to achieve their dreams.

Questions 33-36: Summary Completion

Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

33
In 1978, Colin Martindale made records of the pattern of brain waves as people made up stories by applying a system constituted of many 33. _________.
34
The two phases of creativity, such as 34. _________ were found.
35
However, experiment proved the signal of 35. _________ activity went down and the brain became busier revealing increased cortical arousal, when these people who were in the laidback state were required to produce their stories.
36
Strikingly, it was found that person who was perceived to have the greatest 36. _________ in brain activity between the 2 stages, produced storylines with highest level of creativity.

Questions 37-40: True/False/Not Given

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage? In boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet, write TRUE if the statement is true, FALSE if the statement is false, NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage.

37
High IQ guarantees better creative ability in one person that who achieves an average score in an IQ test.
38
Creative people have disadvantages.
39
A creative person does not necessarily suffer more mental illness.
40
The current society put more emphasis on individuals' language proficiency.

แสดงคำตอบ

1. TRUE
Michiels expected total darkness at about 15 metres because 'red light is extinguished not far below the surface' and 'in theory, once he reached about 15 metres, he should have been plunged into darkness.'
2. TRUE
He could see the red markings without the red filter, as stated: 'Even with the red filter removed, Michiels could pick them out without much trouble once his eyes grew accustomed to the gloom.'
3. FALSE
Other divers did not expect to see red markings, as it says 'no one saw it because no one expected to see it.'
4. NOT GIVEN
It is not stated whether all the fish with red markings came from the Red Sea; the passage only mentions he found many others since his first dive.
5. FALSE
Michiels suspected fluorescence during his dive in Egypt, not in Germany: 'He suspected fluorescence...on the reef in the Red Sea during daytime.'
6. TRUE
He remains uncertain about what creates fluorescence: 'they are still not sure exactly what is fluorescing...It's probably a fluorescent protein...and we have a suspicion that it might be made by bacteria.'
7. head
The markings are mainly 'on the body towards the head and to a lesser extent around the eyes, and then the fins.'
8. communication
Red fluorescence is used for communication: 'the distribution of these markings is one of the strongest indications that red fluorescence has a very particular function: communication with other members of the species.'
9. enemies
Fluorescence is used to keep enemies away: 'a whole range of animals employ fluorescence as a natural highlighter to boost the visibility of body parts they use to signal, for example to ward off enemies.'
10. location
Gobies use red signals to indicate their location: 'Michiels suspects that red-eyed gobies use signals to indicate their location and keep their group together.'
11. closely
There are variations in markings among closely related species: 'closely related species do not have completely identical markings.'
12. corals
Fish cannot easily be seen near backgrounds of corals: 'he noticed corals glow a dark but faint red too. Against this irregular red background, a fish that glows red all over would be hard to distinguish.'
13. seahorse
The only fish proven to see red is the seahorse: 'One exception is the seahorse, whose eyes are sensitive to red.'
14. E
Section E discusses the debate about the homeland of Indo-Europeans and how their language spread, showing a difference of opinion.
15. A
Section A mentions 'an imposing statue of Mars, the Roman god of war,' which is a mythological figure.
16. G
Section G contains Dr April McMahon's doubt about the dating method, saying she had 'less confidence in the dating method...because language changes in an irregular way.'
17. B
Section B explains how Breton, a Celtic language, was carried to Brittany in France by emigrants from Cornwall, showing language spread due to movement of people.
18. C
Section C says 'Because languages change so fast, historical linguists have little faith in language trees that go back more than a few thousand years,' giving the reason for distrust.
19. A
Section A says many linguists 'restrict their research to how words in only one single language have changed over time,' showing a narrow focus.
20. D
Section D mentions that language changes are based on social factors like 'the size of the speaker's group and its degree of contact with others,' showing the number of people affects language changes.
21. A
Section A says 'Celtic became a language in its own right and entered the British Isles much earlier than supposed,' meaning it has been distinct for longer than thought.
22. C
Section C discusses the theory that Indo-European languages spread by agriculture, saying this 'vindicates Renfrew's archaeological idea that the Indo-European languages were spread by farmers.'
23. Gaulish
The passage says the words on the bronze tablet were 'in Gaulish, a version of the Celtic language.'
24. Latin
After the Roman conquest, 'their language, Latin, and its successor languages displaced Celtic over much of its former territory.'
25. divergence
The passage says 'the divergence between the mainland European and British versions of Gaelic took place in 3200 BC.'
26. irregular
Section G says language changes in an 'irregular way based on social factors.'
27. D
The passage says creative people have 'broad interests, providing lots of resources to draw on and knowledge to recombine into novel solutions,' meaning they can work with numerous data.
28. E
Guy Claxton says creativity is about 'mental flexibility' and 'very creative people move between these states intuitively,' showing different brain parts work together.
29. C
The passage links creativity and mental illness: 'established artists are significantly more likely to have mood disorders.'
30. A
It says 'Creative people are intelligent, in terms of IQ tests at least, but only averagely or just above.'
31. F
Vera John-Steiner says 'to be really creative you need strong social networks and trusting relationships,' showing creative people participate in social interaction.
32. B
Creative people are 'highly self-motivated, perhaps even a little obsessive, when it comes to chase after their ambitions,' meaning they persist to achieve their dreams.
33. scalp electrodes
Colin Martindale 'used a network of scalp electrodes to record the pattern of brain waves when people made up stories.'
34. inspiration
He found creativity has two stages: 'inspiration and elaboration.'
35. alpha wave
During story-telling, 'the alpha wave dropped off and the brain became busier,' so the signal of alpha wave activity went down.
36. difference
It was 'the people who showed the biggest difference in brain activity between the inspiration and development stages who produced the most creative storyline.'
37. FALSE
The passage says 'in general beyond a certain level IQ does not help boost creativity,' so high IQ does not guarantee better creativity.
38. TRUE
The passage says there may be a price to pay for having a creative personality, linking creativity and mental illness, so creative people have disadvantages.
39. TRUE
It says a change of mood state might trigger creativity, not the negative mood itself, so a creative person does not necessarily suffer more mental illness.
40. NOT GIVEN
There is no information in the passage about society putting more emphasis on individuals' language proficiency.