Reading 2026-07 Test 1

Tháng thi: 2026-07

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Reading Passage 1 — Liquorice

Liquorice is a type of sweet snack with a semi-firm consistency often black or red in colour, flavoured with the extract of the root of the liquorice plant. In recent years it has been marketed as a healthier snack food because it contains almost no fat per serving. It is one of the oldest forms of confectionery, and continues to be a popular product today.
Liquorice has a long history. In thirteenth century Europe, liquorice root extract was widely used to treat ailments such as coughs and sore throats. It seems likely that merchants who sold these remedies then combined it with honey to produce the first liquorice sweets. Later, in the fifteenth century, when sugar was more readily available, this was used instead of honey. Around this time, liquorice pastilles, which were made in rough moulds, were widely known. The kind of liquorice we eat today is understood to have originated in Holland at the start of the seventeenth century. It became one of the standard products when the confectionery industry developed in the mid-nineteenth century. Today, liquorice accounts for a significant portion of the global non-chocolate confectionery market.
In modern production, corn syrup (also known as glucose syrup) and sugar are the two primary sweeteners of liquorice. The sugar used is derived from beet and sugar cane. It is supplied as small, white crystals, which readily dissolve in water. Since the grade of the sugar is not critical to the consistency of the liquorice, a less refined type can be used, thereby reducing the cost of production. Corn syrup is a thick liquid made from maize (corn) starch. As well as providing sweetness, it keeps the product soft, inhibits sugar crystallisation, and prolongs the product's shelf life by limiting the growth of microbes.
The ingredients are bound together with wheat flour. Wheat flour is primarily composed of starch and protein which, when combined with water, create a paste that can be stretched without breaking. These properties allow the liquorice mixture to be moulded in various ways, creating, for example, straws, shoelaces, twists and ribbons.
Many other ingredients may be incorporated into a liquorice recipe to produce the familiar confectionery. To give the flavour and colour, liquid liquorice extract is used, although since this is quite expensive, it is often diluted with aniseed oils. Liquid caramel may also be used for a similar purpose. Other natural flavours obtained from fruits, berries, honey, molasses, and maple sugar can also be used in liquorice. The strength of the different tastes can be increased by the addition of artificial flavours.
A conventional method of mass-producing liquorice begins by making what is known as a 'slurry'. Batches of this are made by pouring the ingredients into stainless steel tanks, which are equipped with components for steam heating and water cooling. They also have mixers which sweep the sides of the tanks to stop the mixture burning as it is warmed. Once the slurry has passed quality tests, it can be pumped to the cooker.
The main objective of the cooking stage is to reduce the moisture content of the slurry. By using high-pressure cooking methods some manufacturers have cut the cooking time down to just a few minutes. Once the mixture has become a semi-solid paste, it goes through a device called an extruder. Here the paste is pushed out through a small hole as one long rope of liquorice onto a moving platform called a conveyor.
The liquorice then travels to the cutter. It is important that it travels slowly enough to cool to an appropriate temperature, thus allowing the product to harden. When the liquorice rope arrives at the cutter it is cut into pieces of the required length. From the cutter, the liquorice pieces are moved to the packaging equipment. As they go, they may be coated with a special glaze, giving the product an attractive shine. Once at the packaging stage, the liquorice pieces are stacked up. When enough pieces are in place, a plastic wrapper is placed around them, which is sealed at both ends. The package is moved to a stamping machine, which puts a code on it, and then multiple packages are put into individual boxes.

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 contradicts the information; NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this.

  1. 1

    Liquorice sweets were developed from a substance used for its medicinal properties.

  2. 2

    Liquorice sweets made with sugar proved more popular with the public than those containing honey.

  3. 3

    Sales of liquorice are currently increasing faster than those of other non-chocolate confectionery products.

  4. 4

    The texture of liquorice depends on the quality of the sugar used.

  5. 5

    The addition of corn syrup helps maintain the freshness of the liquorice over time.

  6. 6

    The use of wheat flour enables different shapes of liquorice to be created.

  7. 7

    Aniseed oil is added to liquorice extract in order to improve its flavour.

Questions 8-13: Flow Chart Completion

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

Mass production of liquorice
Ingredients placed in steel tanks
↓
8. Mixers prevent slurry from ________
↓
After quality checks, mixture moves to cooking stage
↓
9. Cooking process removes ________
↓
10. Paste mixture extruded onto moving belt. Slow movement lets product cool and ________
↓
11. Product is coated in a ________ to improve appearance, cut into pieces
↓
12. Put in wrapper which is then ________
↓
13. A ________ printed onto each wrapper

Reading Passage 2 — The Internal Body Clock

Each of our cells has an internal ‘clock’ which dictates our daily rhythms. But why?
A From buffalo to bacteria, oaks to algae, all life follows the same relentless 24-hour cycle, which is driven by the rising and setting of the Sun. Or is it? Over 250 years ago, a French scientist performed a simple experiment that blew apart the idea that all life on Earth does the bidding of the Sun. Intrigued by the way some flowers open and close their leaves each day, Jean-Jacques de Mairan put a heliotrope in a darkened room and observed the effect. He was expecting the plant, robbed of sunlight, to cease its daily routine. To his astonishment, its leaves continued to open and close as if in response to some invisible timekeeper.
B But what – and where – is this internal timekeeper? And how does it achieve such astonishing regularity? These are the mysteries at the forefront of chronobiology, the study of the effect of time in living organisms. The search for answers is about more than just tying up some scientific loose ends. Internal ‘clocks’ clearly cause a lot of hardship. When an individual’s ‘clock’ is knocked out of synchronization through having to work at night or go on long-haul flights, that person can be left utterly unable to think or act. Yet even when these ‘clocks’ work correctly, the natural rhythms of alertness they generate prove dangerous: traffic accident statistics show two deadly peaks, at 4 a.m. and again twelve hours later when people are at their least alert.
C During the 1970s, best-selling books began to emerge claiming such phenomena were manifestations of so-called biorhythms, a set of three cycles governing physical, emotional and intellectual traits. Said to start from the moment of birth and repeat every 23, 28 and 33 days respectively, they were supposed to result in ‘critical days’ when one or more cycles led to sub-optimal performance, with unfortunate consequences.
D Scientists have since dismissed biorhythms as pseudoscience, insisting the existence of the three cycles has no basis in fact. In 1998, Dr Terence Hines of Pace University, New York State published the most comprehensive study of the claims made for biorhythms, reviewing the results of over 130 investigations. He found that three-quarters of them failed to provide any support for biorhythms. Most of the remainder contained blunders ranging from faulty mathematics to basic errors in statistics, while the handful of positive studies were explicable as flukes.
E But there is no doubting the existence of 24-hour biological cycles – or, rather, ones roughly 24 hours long. Following de Mairan’s pioneering work, other researchers found that when deprived of the cues provided by sunlight, organisms settle down to ‘free-running’ cycles that are close to, but rarely exactly, 24 hours. In the case of humans, the cycle is typically around 24.5 hours long. This is the so-called ‘circadian’ cycle (from the Latin meaning ‘about a day’), the length of which is generated by the mysterious internal ‘clock’.
F During the late 1960s, chronobiologists believed they had found the ‘clock’, in the form of the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), a collection of nerves in a region of the brain known as the hypothalamus. Linked to photosensitive cells in the eye, the SCN senses daylight and triggers the release of hormones like melatonin, which keep body functions in synchronization with the time of day. For a few years the SCN was regarded as the ultimate pacemaker – at least in higher organisms such as ourselves. But in 1971, scientists at the California Institute of Technology working with fruit flies found evidence for something truly amazing. Fruit flies appeared to have genes affecting the daily rhythm of their behavior – suggesting that there are ‘clocks’ inside each of their cells. Further evidence for this emerged in 1995, when researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital isolated nerve cells from the SCN, and found they kept up a circadian cycle without help from daylight. Finally in 1997, scientists at Northwestern University in Illinois found a gene that regulates the daily rhythms of cellular activity in mammals.
G The details of how this gene, known as CLOCK, actually works are still being investigated, but they could culminate in better ways of coping with shift-work and jet-lag. Professor Takahashi, who led the research, says that now that we know that circadian clocks exist throughout our bodies, we will need new strategies and therapeutics to reset all of our cells. But how do all the biochemical ‘clocks’ inside their cells stay in synchronization and why did organisms bother to acquire a link with sunlight? So far, no-one knows, though there are several theories. For example, sunlight might be useful in keeping the myriad cellular ‘clocks’ in lockstep.
H In the search for answers, researchers are studying the behavior of a microbe called cyanobacterium. In 2005, a team at Nagoya University, Japan, showed that chemical reactions between three proteins produced by this bacterium ebbed and flowed on a 24-hour cycle. Cyanobacterium is the oldest form of life on Earth, so this suggests that cellular ‘clocks’ have existed for over three billion years. All subsequent organisms have followed suit, says Professor Johnson of Vanderbilt University, Tennessee. ‘Bacteria, fungi, plants and animals all appear to have evolved clock systems independently from each other.’ Quite why is still unknown. But one thing is clear: the daily routine of life is certainly not a modern invention.

Questions 14–18: Matching Information

Reading Passage 2 has eight paragraphs. Which paragraph contains the following information?

  1. 14

    support for an earlier finding from experiments on insects

  2. 15

    criticism of the way some research data was analysed

  3. 16

    reference to a basic test on a plant

  4. 17

    a statement that the length of natural cycles varies slightly between living things

  5. 18

    reference to a theory that became popular with the public

Questions 19–22: Summary Completion

Complete the summary below. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

An overview of research into the existence of the internal ‘clock’
19. Towards the end of the 1960s, research into the SCN, which is located in the hypothalamus led chronobiologists to believe they had found the internal ‘clock’ at last. Their theory was based on the fact that certain hormones that regulate the timing of physical functions are controlled by the SCN. The SCN is able to perceive ________ as a result of connections to the eye.
Several years later, research involving 20 ________ showed that the timing of their normal actions was regulated by certain 21 ________, or ‘clocks’, in their cells. Thus the internal ‘clock’ is not an individual mechanism, as previously thought, but exists within each cell. Other scientists went on to conduct experiments in the dark that proved that a 22 ________ was maintained by individual SCN cells.

Questions 23–24: Multiple Choice (Choose TWO)

Choose TWO correct answers. Which TWO of the following problems are stated as being linked with the internal ‘clock’?

A a decrease in output in workplaces without windows to let in natural light
B a failure among workers on night-shifts to perform tasks
C an increase in casualties on the roads at specific times of day
D a decline in efficiency on certain days in a number of fixed cycles
E a rise in mood swings dependent on the appearance of the Sun
  1. 23

    Which TWO of the following problems are stated as being linked with the internal ‘clock’?

    • A. a decrease in output in workplaces without windows to let in natural light
    • B. a failure among workers on night-shifts to perform tasks
    • C. an increase in casualties on the roads at specific times of day
    • D. a decline in efficiency on certain days in a number of fixed cycles
    • E. a rise in mood swings dependent on the appearance of the Sun

Questions 25–26: Multiple Choice (Choose TWO)

Choose TWO correct answers. Which TWO of the following issues relating to internal ‘clocks’ remain to be solved, according to information in the passage?

A the precise length of the free-running daily cycle in different animals
B the reason for ‘clocks being temporarily driven out of synchronisation
C the reason for living beings forming a connection with the Sun’s rhythms
D the way in which all ‘clocks’ in a single organism are able to stay in step with one another
E the location of the ‘clocks’ across the whole range of living organism
  1. 25

    Which TWO of the following issues relating to internal ‘clocks’ remain to be solved, according to information in the passage?

    • A. the precise length of the free-running daily cycle in different animals
    • B. the reason for ‘clocks being temporarily driven out of synchronisation
    • C. the reason for living beings forming a connection with the Sun’s rhythms
    • D. the way in which all ‘clocks’ in a single organism are able to stay in step with one another
    • E. the location of the ‘clocks’ across the whole range of living organism

Reading Passage 3 — Cognitive dissonance

Charles Darwin said, “This not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” So you've sold your home, quit your job, shunned your colleagues, abandoned your friends and family. The end of the world is nigh, and you 'know for a fact' that you are one of the chosen few who will be swept up from the 'great flood' approaching on 21st December at midnight to be flown to safety on a far off planet. And then midnight on 21st December comes around and there is no flood. No end of the world. No flying saucer to the rescue. What do you do? Admit you were wrong? Acknowledge that you gave up position, money, friends - for nothing? Tell yourself and others you have been a schmuck? Not on your life.
Social psychologist Leon Festinger infiltrated a flying saucer doomsday cult in the late 1950s. The members of this cult had given up everything on the premise that the world was about to self destruct and that they, because of their faith, would be the sole survivors. In the lead up to the fateful day, the cult shunned publicity and shied away from journalists. Festinger posed as a cultist and was present when the space ship failed to show up. He was curious about what would happen. How would the disappointed cultists react to the failure of their prophecy? Would they be embarrassed and humiliated? What actually happened amazed him.
Now, after the non-event, the cultists suddenly wanted publicity. They wanted media attention and coverage. Why? So they could explain how their faith and obedience had helped save the planet from the flood. The aliens had spared planet earth for their sake - and now their new role was to spread the word and make us all listen. This fascinated Festinger. He observed that the real driving force behind the cultists' apparently inexplicable response was the need, not to face the awkward and uncomfortable truth and 'change their minds', but rather to 'make minds comfortable' - to smooth over the unacceptable inconsistencies.
Festinger coined the term 'cognitive dissonance' to describe the uncomfortable tension we feel when we experience conflicting thoughts or beliefs (cognitions), or engage in behavior that is apparently opposed to our stated beliefs. What is particularly interesting is the lengths to which people will go to reduce the inner tension without accepting that they might, in fact, be wrong. They will accept almost any form of relief, other than admitting being at fault, or mistaken. Festinger quickly realized that our intolerance for 'cognitive dissonance' could explain many mysteries of human behavior.
In a fascinating experiment Festinger and his colleagues paid some subjects twenty dollars to tell a specific lie, while they paid another group of subjects only one dollar to do the same. Those who were paid just one dollar were far more likely to claim, after the event, that they had actually believed in the lie they were told to tell. Why? Well, because it's just so much harder to justify having done something that conflicts with your own sense of being 'an honest person' for a mere pittance. If you get more money, you can tell yourself: 'Yeah, I lied, but I got well paid! It was justified.' But for one dollar? That's not a good enough reason to lie, so what you were saying must have been true in the first place, right?
Emotional factors influence how we vote for our politicians much more than our careful and logical appraisal of their policies, according to Drew Westen, a professor of psychiatry and psychology. This may come as little surprise to you, but what about when we learn that our favored politician may be dishonest? Do we take the trouble to really find out what they are supposed to have done, and so possibly have to change our opinions (and our vote), or do we experience that nasty cognitive dissonance and so seek to keep our minds comfortable at the possible cost of truth?
Cognitive dissonance is essentially a matter of commitment to the choices one has made, and the ongoing need to satisfactorily justify that commitment, even in the face of convincing but conflicting evidence. This is why it can take a long time to leave a cult or an abusive relationship - or even to stop smoking. Life's commitments, whether to a job, a social cause, or a romantic partner, require heavy emotional investment, and so carry significant emotional risks. If people didn’t keep to their commitments, they would experience uncomfortable emotional tension. In a way, it makes sense that our brains should be hard-wired for monitoring and justifying our choices and actions - so as to avoid too much truth breaking in at once and overwhelming us.
I guess we can't really develop unless we start to get a grip and have some personal honesty about what really motivates us. This is part of genuine maturity. If I know I am being lazy, and can admit it to myself, that at least is a first step to correcting it. If, however, I tell myself it's more sensible to wait before vacuuming, then I can go around with a comfortable self-concept of 'being sensible' while my filthy carpets and laziness remain unchanged. Cognitive dissonance can actually help me mature, if I can bring myself, first, to notice it (making it conscious) and second, to be more open to the message it brings me, in spite of the discomfort. As dissonance increases, providing I do not run away into self-justification, I can get a clearer and clearer sense of what has changed, and what I need to do about it. And then I can remember what Darwin had to say about who will survive...

Questions 27–33: Matching Headings

Reading Passage 3 has eight paragraphs, A–H. Choose the most suitable headings for these paragraphs from the list of ten headings below. Write the appropriate number i-x in the text boxes 27-33. There are more paragraph headings than paragraphs, so you will not use them all.

List of headings:
i. Leon Festinger: On being stood up by the aliens
ii. Dishonest politicians? Never!
iii. Mind manipulation: the true reason of strange behaviour
iv. You can't handle the truth!
v. The catastrophe of 21st December
vi. Grow up - make cognitive dissonance work for you
vii. How many dollars would you take to tell a lie?
viii. Revealing mysteries: Darwin was right.
ix. Cognitive dissonance: who are you kidding?
x. The high cost of commitment exposes us to cognitive dissonance
  1. 27

    Passage B

  2. 28

    Passage C

  3. 29

    Passage D

  4. 30

    Passage E

  5. 31

    Passage F

  6. 32

    Passage G

  7. 33

    Passage H

Questions 34–40: Multiple Choice

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D. Write the correct letter in boxes 34-40 on your answer sheet.

  1. 34

    After the space ship didn’t show up on the fateful day, the members of flying saucer doomsday cult

    • A. didn’t want to admit the uncomfortable truth and still believed that the world would self destruct.
    • B. were embarrassed and humiliated because of their failure.
    • C. wanted media attention to say that they saved the planet.
    • D. admitted they were wrong and left the cult.
  2. 35

    The main reason why people fight cognitive dissonance is

    • A. a desire to reduce the inner tension.
    • B. people’s unwillingness to accept their mistakes.
    • C. wish to avoid the awkward feeling of lying for not a good reason.
    • D. to justify their beliefs to others.
  3. 36

    During the experiment, people who were telling lies were more likely to claim that they believed in the lie if

    • A. they were paid less.
    • B. they were paid more.
    • C. they felt uncomfortable because of lying
    • D. they were not paid at all.
  4. 37

    Commitment to the choices someone has made, and the ongoing need to justify that commitment, despite the conflicting evidence can be explained by the fact that

    • A. it causes uncomfortable emotional tension.
    • B. commitments require heavy emotional investment.
    • C. our brain always justifies our choices.
    • D. people are afraid of change.
  5. 38

    The big part of genuine maturity is the ability of

    • A. sensible reasoning.
    • B. disregarding cognitive dissonance.
    • C. being honest with yourself.
    • D. avoiding uncomfortable truths.
  6. 39

    According to the text, which of the situations below is NOT an example of cognitive dissonance?

    • A. A man learns that his favored politician is dishonest, but continues to vote for him.
    • B. A woman doesn’t want to do vacuuming, but convinces herself that otherwise her carpet will remain filthy and finally does it.
    • C. A woman has been dating with her boyfriend for five years. Everyone tells her that it’s an abusive relationship because he often beats and humiliates her, but she doesn’t want to leave her romantic partner.
  7. 40

    Charles Darwin quote from the beginning of the text implies that

    • A. cognitive dissonance helps us to change and therefore makes us more enduring species
    • B. people often accept almost any form of relief, rather than admitting being at fault, to survive.
    • C. fighting the discomfort caused by cognitive dissonance is a survival mechanism developed during the evolution.

Phiếu trả lời

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Hiện đáp án

Đáp án

  1. 1. TRUE

    This is TRUE because the passage says liquorice root extract was used to treat ailments like coughs and sore throats, and merchants later combined it with honey to make the first liquorice sweets.

  2. 2. NOT GIVEN

    NOT GIVEN is correct because the passage mentions that sugar replaced honey in liquorice sweets, but it does not say whether sweets with sugar were more popular than those with honey.

  3. 3. NOT GIVEN

    NOT GIVEN is correct because the passage only says liquorice is a significant part of the non-chocolate confectionery market, but does not compare its sales growth to other products.

  4. 4. FALSE

    FALSE is correct because the passage says the grade of sugar is not critical to the consistency of liquorice, so texture does not depend on sugar quality.

  5. 5. TRUE

    TRUE is correct because corn syrup 'prolongs the product's shelf life by limiting the growth of microbes,' which helps keep liquorice fresh.

  6. 6. TRUE

    TRUE is correct because wheat flour allows the mixture to be 'moulded in various ways,' making different shapes like straws and ribbons.

  7. 7. FALSE

    FALSE is correct because aniseed oil is added to dilute the expensive liquorice extract, not to improve its flavour.

  8. 8. burning

    Mixers prevent slurry from burning, as they 'sweep the sides of the tanks to stop the mixture burning as it is warmed.'

  9. 9. moisture

    The cooking process removes moisture, as the main objective is 'to reduce the moisture content of the slurry.'

  10. 10. harden

    Slow movement lets the product cool and harden, as it must 'cool to an appropriate temperature, thus allowing the product to harden.'

  11. 11. glaze

    The product is coated in a glaze to improve appearance, as it 'may be coated with a special glaze, giving the product an attractive shine.'

  12. 12. sealed

    The wrapper is then sealed at both ends, as stated: 'a plastic wrapper is placed around them, which is sealed at both ends.'

  13. 13. code

    A code is printed onto each wrapper, as 'the package is moved to a stamping machine, which puts a code on it.'

  14. 14. F

    F is correct because it mentions research with fruit flies showing genes affecting daily rhythms, supporting earlier findings about internal clocks.

  15. 15. D

    D is correct because it describes how most studies supporting biorhythms had errors in their data analysis, like 'faulty mathematics' and 'basic errors in statistics.'

  16. 16. A

    A is correct because it refers to de Mairan's experiment with a plant in a dark room, a basic test on a plant.

  17. 17. E

    E is correct because it says organisms have 'free-running' cycles that are close to, but rarely exactly, 24 hours, so the length varies slightly.

  18. 18. C

    C is correct because it talks about the popularity of the biorhythm theory in the 1970s.

  19. 19. daylight

    The SCN is able to perceive daylight due to its connections to photosensitive cells in the eye.

  20. 20. fruit flies

    Fruit flies are the animals whose research showed their actions were regulated by internal clocks.

  21. 21. genes

    Genes are the 'clocks' in the cells that regulate the timing of fruit flies' actions.

  22. 22. circadian cycle

    A circadian cycle was maintained by individual SCN cells, as they 'kept up a circadian cycle without help from daylight.'

  23. 23. B / C

    B and C are correct: B because people with 'clock' problems are 'utterly unable to think or act' (like night workers), and C because there are 'two deadly peaks' in traffic accidents when people are least alert. Option D is tempting but refers to biorhythms, which the passage says are not supported.

  24. 25. C / D

    C and D are correct: C because the passage says it is unknown why organisms formed a link with sunlight, and D because it is not known how all the clocks in a body stay in step.

  25. 27. i

    i is correct for Passage B because it discusses the search for the internal clock.

  26. 28. ix

    ix is correct for Passage C because it covers the rise and fall of the biorhythm theory.

  27. 29. iv

    iv is correct for Passage D because it criticizes the analysis of biorhythm research.

  28. 30. vii

    vii is correct for Passage E because it explains the variation in natural cycles.

  29. 31. ii

    ii is correct for Passage F because it describes the discovery of the SCN and genetic clocks.

  30. 32. x

    x is correct for Passage G because it discusses new questions and future research about internal clocks.

  31. 33. vi

    vi is correct for Passage H because it looks at the origins of biological clocks in ancient life forms.

  32. 34. C

    C is correct because after the spaceship failed to appear, the cultists 'wanted media attention and coverage' to say their faith saved the planet.

  33. 35. A

    A is correct because people fight cognitive dissonance mainly to reduce the uncomfortable inner tension from conflicting beliefs or actions.

  34. 36. A

    A is correct because those paid less were more likely to claim they believed the lie, as it's harder to justify lying for little reward.

  35. 37. B

    B is correct because the passage says commitments require heavy emotional investment, which explains the need to justify them even against evidence.

  36. 38. C

    C is correct because genuine maturity is described as being honest with yourself about your motivations.

  37. 39. B

    B is correct because convincing yourself to vacuum is not cognitive dissonance; the other options show people ignoring evidence to avoid discomfort.

  38. 40. A

    A is correct because the Darwin quote suggests that being able to change (as cognitive dissonance can help us do) makes us more able to survive.

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