Reading 2026-01 Test 6 — IELTS Academic Reading Practice Test with Answers

基于考生回忆投稿及材料收集整理 — 非官方 IELTS 资料。

Reading Passage 1: Sleep Study on Modern-Day Hunter-Gatherers Dispels Popular Notions

The sleep troubles common in modern life have long been blamed on our industrial society, from the city lights, long work hours and commutes, to caffeine and the Internet. Sleep researchers often look back on a time when humans were able to get more rest by sleeping and waking to the rhythms of the sun. It turns out that may not be quite right. In fact, our ancestors may not have been getting the recommended eight hours of sleep, either.

In a recent study, researchers traveled all over the world to examine sleep in some of the world's last remaining hunter-gatherer societies - the Hadza of Tanzania, the San of Namibia, and the Tsimane of Bolivia. Cut off from media, electricity and other distractions, these pre-industrial societies are thought to sleep the way humans did more than 10,000 years ago. Traveling to where they lived, often in humid remote locations, researchers used medical devices to record the sleeping habits of 94 of these tribespeople and ended up collecting data representing 1,165 days.

They found very similar sleep patterns despite their geographic isolation. On average, all three groups sleep a little less than 6.5 hours a night, do not take naps, and don't go to sleep when it gets dark. Like many of us, the Hadza, San, and Tsimane spend more time in bed - from 6.9 to 8.5 hours - than they do actually sleeping. This adds up to a sleep efficiency that is very similar to today's industrial populations.

According to Jerome Siegel, director of the University of California's Center for Sleep Research, evidence suggests sleep habits may not be environmental or cultural, but central to the physical makeup of humans. These findings question the millions of dollars that have been spent on research that tries to explain why some sleepers get only about six hours of sleep a night. Also, such findings question whether lack of sleep is a cause of obesity, mood disorders, and other physical and mental illnesses which have become so common in recent decades. Scientists have documented that people's energy often falls in the mid-afternoon. Some have suggested that it's because we've managed to suppress a natural desire for a nap.

However, the new study provides evidence that this is unlikely, and that napping was actually rare in hunter-gatherer societies. The researchers estimated that naps may have occurred on up to 7 percent of winter days and 22 percent of summer days. They noted that their devices were only good at detecting longer naps, so it is possible that some of the study subjects took naps that were short, perhaps 15 minutes or less.

Another fascinating finding from the study had to do with the circadian rhythms, our daily activity cycles related to sunlight. Instead of going to sleep right at dusk, tribespeople were staying awake an average of between 2.5 and 4.4 hours after sunset. All three tribes had fires going, but the light itself was much lower than you might get from a light bulb. They did, however, have a tendency to wake up anywhere between an hour before and an hour after sunrise.

Siegel and his co-authors investigated this further by looking into the significance of temperature. They found that it also played a big role, though was somewhat less important than light in influencing sleep patterns. They wrote that "sleep in both the winter and summer usually occurred during the period of cooling and that waking times usually occurred near the height of the daily warming trend."

The tribespeople that were studied are different from people living in modern conditions in a number of respects. Importantly, almost none of them were troubled by sleeplessness. In interviews with the researchers conducted through interpreters, only 1.5 to 2.5 percent of the study subjects said they had severe difficulties sleeping more than once a year. This figure is far lower than the 10 to 30 percent recorded in many industrialized countries today. Siegel suggested that 'mimicking aspects of the natural environment' may therefore help treat some sleep disorders.

The tribespeople are also much healthier. Not a single one is overweight, indicating their overall higher levels of physical fitness. They also tended to have healthier hearts. Thus comes a critical question. If we can't blame our health problems on our lack of sleep, could it be that the reason we feel so unrested is because of poor health?

1
Scientists studied hunter-gatherer societies because their sleep patterns are assumed to be similar to those of humans more than 10,000 years ago.
2
The medical devices used in the research were especially designed for humid conditions.
3
Researchers found that tribespeople stayed longer in bed than inhabitants of industrialised regions.
4
Jerome Siegel believes that environment and culture have little effect on sleep patterns.
5
Scientists have recorded an afternoon drop in ________.
6
Studies of hunter-gatherer societies show that napping was rare and occurred more often during the ________.
7
The devices may not have detected ________ naps.
8
The tribespeople went to sleep several hours after sunset. Even with ________ there was little light.
9
Tribespeople usually woke up around ________.
10
Scientists found that ________ had almost as much influence on sleep patterns as light.
11
________ is something that very few of the tribespeople suffered from.
12
Tribespeople had better fitness than industrialised populations and were not ________.
13
Tribespeople also had stronger ________.

Reading Passage 2: Multi-tasking and the brain

Do you think you're a master of multi-tasking? Think again. Unless you are one of the three percent of super-taskers in the population, research shows that your brain isn't capable of paying close attention to more than one complex task at a time. Researchers who study attention say that effective multi-tasking is beyond most of us. Psychiatrist Edward M Hallowell even describes multi-tasking as 'a mythical activity in which people believe they can perform two or more tasks simultaneously as effectively as they can perform one'.

It is true that you can check your email while eating your lunch, or listen to music while walking. But innate activities like walking, chewing, and breathing do not require you to pay attention, whereas activities such as reading, tapping out a text message, or driving a car do require attention. Why is paying attention to two things at once difficult? 'The brain can perform simultaneous tasks, but attention has capacity limitations,' says Associate Professor Paul E Dux, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Queensland in Australia. When you do only one thing at a time, you're better at that task than when you're doing multiple things concurrently. Take the classic multi-tasking scenario of talking on a mobile phone while driving - an ill-advised activity that many people believe they have mastered. When David Strayer, Professor of Psychology at the University of Utah in the US, and his team observed 56,000 drivers as they approached an intersection, the majority of drivers who were talking on their phone failed to stop in accordance with traffic laws. And it did not matter if the driver was using a handheld or hands-free device. Even with both eyes on the road and both hands on the wheel, drivers' performance was impaired. Strayer's research shows that performance deteriorates drastically when attention is split between tasks: more mistakes are made and it takes longer to complete each activity.

The prefrontal cortex is the brain region responsible for choosing what to pay attention to, and for coordinating inputs from other brain areas. By scanning the prefrontal cortex of people while they multi-tasked, scientists at the French Institute of Health and Medical Research in Paris (INSERM) found that when people focused on a single thing, the right and left sides of the prefrontal cortex work together. But when people attempt to perform two things at once, the sides work independently. Neuroscientist Etienne Koechlin says his study demonstrates that while the brain can switch back and forth between two tasks, we might be in great trouble when we try to juggle more than two tasks, simply because we have only two frontal lobes.

To the question of whether there is a difference between the sexes, Koechlin's imaging studies uncovered no differences in the ability to switch between tasks in the prefrontal cortices of men or women. But other researchers studying real life scenarios such as finding lost keys, believe there might be some truth to the claim that women are superior multi-taskers. Women have a much better strategy for finding the keys, whereas men tend to jump to it and be far less organised and thorough. 'It's as if they don't stop to reflect and plan for a moment,' says Professor Keith Laws from the University of Hertfordshire in England. But while the ability to develop strategies for coping with the numerous tasks in everyday life could give women an advantage, 'nobody can juggle two, never mind three, "complex" tasks at the same time.'

However, David Strayer's research uncovered that some rare people possess extraordinary multi-tasking ability. These so-called 'super-taskers' exhibit different patterns of brain activity when multi-tasking compared to ordinary people: they show less activity in the prefrontal cortex during multi-tasking, suggesting their brains are functioning with a high level of efficiency. Strayer thinks that pilots of high-performance aircraft, high-end chefs who can cook several meals at the same time to perfection, and elite doctors in hospital emergency rooms might all be more likely to be super-taskers. "All other things being equal, we suspect that super-taskers will rise to a top position in any occupation that places a high demand on juggling various tasks that demand attention at the same time."

The ability to multi-task probably comes down to the DNA you inherit from your parents to a large extent, says Strayer. 'You are either born with the neural structure that allows you to overcome the usual multi-tasking challenges, or you aren't. Super-taskers' brains are doing something we can't do.' All in all, these findings may have very real consequences on our lives.

14
Section A
- i. Professions in which super-taskers are likely to be found
- ii. The effects of multi-tasking on neurological structure
- iii. A distinction between situations when people can and can’t multi-task
- iv. Real multi-tasking is nearly impossible
- v. Multi-tasking and gender
- vi. The neurological reasons for struggling to manage more things
- vii. The ability to multi-task is determined by people’s genes
- viii. Gender and the structure of the brain
15
Section B
16
Section C
17
Section D
18
Section E
19
Section F
20
The brain of a good multi-tasker works differently from other people’s.
21
The rate of error is considerably higher when people multi-task.
22
People are mistaken in their assumption that they can multi-task.
23
One gender does not seem to pause to consider before taking action.
24
Super-taskers are most likely to achieve a _______ that is high on the career ladder.
25
Super-taskers typically have to undertake many tasks simultaneously that need their _______.
26
Genes play an important role in having this capability: these people have a special brain _______, which helps them do what we cannot.

Reading Passage 3: Yawning: How and Why We Yawn

Yawning—how and why we yawn—still presents problems for researchers in an area which has only recently been opened up to study. When Robert R. Provine began studying yawning in the 1960s, it was difficult for him to convince research students of the merits of ‘yawning science’. Although it may appear quirky to some, Provine’s decision to study yawning was a logical extension of his research in developmental neuroscience. The verb to yawn is derived from the Old English ganien or ginian, meaning to gape or open wide. But in addition to gaping jaws, yawning has significant features that are easy to observe and analyse. Provine ‘collected’ yawns to study by using a variation of the contagion response. He asked people to “think about yawning” and, once they began to yawn, to depress a button that would record from the start of the yawn to the exhalation at its end.

Provine’s early discoveries can be summarized as follows: the yawn is highly stereotyped but not invariant in its duration and form. It is an excellent example of the instinctive fixed-action pattern of classical animal-behaviour study, or ethology. It is not a reflex (short-duration, rapid, proportional response to a simple stimulus), but, once started, a yawn progresses with the inevitability of a sneeze. The standard yawn runs its course over about six seconds on average, but its duration can range from about three seconds to much longer than the average. There are no half-yawns: this is an example of the typical intensity of fixed-action patterns and a reason why you cannot stifle yawns. Just like a cough, yawns can come in bouts with a highly variable inter-yawn interval, which is generally about 68 seconds but rarely more than 70. There is no relation between yawn frequency and duration: producers of short or long yawns do not compensate by yawning more or less often.

Furthermore, Provine’s hypotheses about the form and function of yawning can be tested by three informative yawn variants which can be used to look at the roles of the nose, the mouth and the jaws.

i The closed-nose yawn

Subjects are asked to pinch their nose closed when they feel themselves start to yawn. Most subjects report being able to perform perfectly normal closed-nose yawns. This indicates that the inhalation at the onset of a yawn, and the exhalation at its end, need not involve the nostrils—the mouth provides a sufficient airway.

ii The clenched-teeth yawn

Subjects are asked to clench their teeth when they feel themselves start to yawn but allow themselves to inhale normally through their open lips and clenched teeth. This variant gives one the sensation of being stuck mid-yawn. This shows that gaping of the jaws is an essential component of the fixed-action pattern of the yawn, and unless it is accomplished, the programme will not run to completion. The yawn is also shown to be more than a deep breath, because, unlike normal breathing, inhalation and exhalation cannot be performed so well through the clenched teeth as through the nose.

iii The nose yawn

This variant tests the adequacy of the nasal airway to sustain a yawn. Unlike normal breathing, which can be performed equally well through mouth or nose, yawning is impossible via nasal inhalation alone. As with the clenched-teeth yawn, the nose yawn provides the unfulfilling sensation of being stuck in mid-yawn. Exhalation, on the other hand, can be accomplished equally well through nose or mouth. Through this methodology Provine demonstrated that inhalation through the oral airway and the gaping of jaws are necessary for normal yawns. The motor programme for yawning will not run to completion without feedback that these parts of the programme have been accomplished.

But yawning is a powerful, generalised movement that involves much more than airway manoeuvres and jaw-gaping. When yawning you also stretch your facial muscles, tilt your head back, narrow or close your eyes, produce tears, salivate, open the Eustachian tubes of your middle ear and perform many other, yet unspecified, cardiovascular and respiratory acts. Perhaps the yawn shares components with other behaviour. For example, is the yawn a kind of ‘slow sneeze’, or is the sneeze a ‘fast yawn’? Both share common respiratory and other features including jaw gaping, eye closing and head tilting. Yawning and stretching share properties and may be performed together as parts of a global motor complex. Studies by J. I. P. de Vries et al. in the early 1980s, charting movement in the developing foetus using ultrasound, observed a link between yawning and stretching. The most extraordinary demonstration of the yawn-stretch linkage occurs in many people paralysed on one side of their body because of brain damage caused by a stroke: the prominent British neurologist Sir Francis Walshe noted in 1923 that when these people yawn, they are startled and mystified to observe that their otherwise paralysed arm rises and flexes automatically in what neurologists term an ‘associated response’. Yawning apparently activates undamaged, unconsciously controlled connections between the brain and the motor system, causing the paralysed limb to move. It is not known whether the associated response is a positive prognosis for recovery, nor whether yawning is therapeutic for prevention of muscular deterioration.

Provine speculated that, in general, yawning may have many functions, and selecting a single function from the available options may be an unrealistic goal. Yawning appears to be associated with a change of behavioural state, switching from one activity to another. Yawning is also a reminder that ancient and unconscious behaviour linking us to the animal world lurks beneath the veneer of culture, rationality and language.

27
Provine’s early findings on yawns: Through his observations of yawns, Provine was able to confirm that __________ do not exist.
- A. form and function
- B. long yawns
- C. 3 seconds
- D. fixed-action pattern
- E. 68 seconds
- F. short yawns
- G. reflex
- H. sneeze
- I. short duration
- J. 6 seconds
- K. half-yawns
28
Just like a __________, yawns cannot be interrupted after they have begun.
29
This is because yawns occur as a __________ rather than a stimulus–response, as was previously thought.
30
In measuring the time taken to yawn, Provine found that a typical yawn lasts about __________.
31
He also found that it is common for people to yawn a number of times in quick succession, with the yawns usually being around __________ apart.
32
When studying whether length and rate were connected, Provine concluded that people who yawn less do not necessarily produce __________ to make up for this.
33
What did Provine conclude from his closed-nose yawn experiment?
- A. Ending a yawn requires use of the nostrils
- B. You can yawn without breathing through your nose
- C. Breathing through the nose produces a silent yawn
- D. The role of the nose in yawning needs further investigation
34
Provine’s clenched-teeth yawn experiment shows that
- A. yawning is unconnected with fatigue
- B. a yawn is the equivalent of a deep intake of breath
- C. you have to be able to open your mouth wide to yawn
- D. breathing with the teeth together is as efficient as through the nose
35
The nose-yawn experiment was used to test whether yawning
- A. can be stopped after it has started
- B. is the result of motor programming
- C. involves both inhalation and exhalation
- D. can be accomplished only through the nose
36
In people paralysed on one side because of brain damage
- A. yawning may involve only one side of the face
- B. the yawning response indicates that recovery is likely
- C. movement in the paralysed arm is stimulated by yawning
- D. yawning can be used as an exercise to prevent muscle wasting
37
In the last paragraph, the writer concludes that
- A. yawning is a sign of boredom
- B. we yawn in spite of the development of our species
- C. yawning is a more passive activity than we imagine
- D. we are stimulated to yawn when our brain activity is low
38
Research students were initially reluctant to appreciate the value of Provine’s studies.
39
When fetuses yawn and stretch, they are learning how to control movement.
40
According to Provine, referring to only one function is probably inadequate to explain why people yawn.

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1. TRUE
This is TRUE because the passage says scientists studied hunter-gatherer societies to understand sleep patterns similar to those of humans more than 10,000 years ago.
2. NOT GIVEN
NOT GIVEN is correct because there is no information in the passage about whether the medical devices were specially designed for humid conditions.
3. FALSE
This is FALSE because the passage states that tribespeople actually spent less time in bed than people in industrialised regions.
4. TRUE
TRUE is correct because Jerome Siegel is quoted as saying that environment and culture have little effect on sleep patterns.
5. energy
The answer is 'energy' because the passage mentions that scientists recorded an afternoon drop in energy.
6. summer
The answer is 'summer' because studies showed napping was rare and happened more often during the summer.
7. short
'Short' is correct because the passage says the devices may not have detected short naps.
8. fires
'Fires' is correct because even with fires, there was little light after sunset.
9. sunrise
'Sunrise' is correct because tribespeople usually woke up around sunrise.
10. temperature
'Temperature' is correct because scientists found temperature had almost as much influence on sleep as light.
11. sleeplessness
'Sleeplessness' is correct because very few of the tribespeople suffered from sleeplessness.
12. overweight
'Overweight' is correct because tribespeople had better fitness and were not overweight.
13. hearts
'Hearts' is correct because the passage says tribespeople also had stronger hearts.
14. iv
iv is correct because Section A discusses how real multi-tasking is nearly impossible, not just difficult.
15. iii
iii is correct because Section B explains the difference between situations when people can and can’t multi-task.
16. vi
vi is correct because Section C talks about the neurological reasons for struggling to manage more things.
17. v
v is correct because Section D discusses multi-tasking and gender.
18. i
i is correct because Section E mentions professions in which super-taskers are likely to be found.
19. vii
vii is correct because Section F says the ability to multi-task is determined by people’s genes.
20. C
C is correct because the passage says the brain of a good multi-tasker works differently from others; A and B do not mention brain differences.
21. C
C is correct because the passage states that the rate of error is much higher when people multi-task; A and B do not mention error rates.
22. A
A is correct because the passage says people are mistaken in thinking they can multi-task; C is tempting but does not mention assumptions.
23. E
E is correct because the passage says one gender does not pause to consider before acting; A and C do not mention pausing.
24. position
'Position' is correct because super-taskers are most likely to achieve a position high on the career ladder.
25. attention
'Attention' is correct because super-taskers have to do many tasks at once that need their attention.
26. structure
'Structure' is correct because genes give these people a special brain structure that helps them multi-task.
27. K
K is correct because Provine confirmed that 'half-yawns' do not exist.
28. H
H is correct because, like a sneeze, yawns cannot be interrupted after they have begun.
29. D
D is correct because yawns occur as a 'fixed-action pattern' rather than a simple stimulus–response.
30. J
J is correct because a typical yawn lasts about 6 seconds.
31. E
E is correct because people often yawn several times in a row, with about 68 seconds between yawns.
32. B
B is correct because people who yawn less do not produce longer yawns to make up for it.
33. B
B is correct because Provine concluded you can yawn without breathing through your nose.
34. C
C is correct because the experiment shows you have to open your mouth wide to yawn.
35. D
D is correct because the nose-yawn experiment tested if yawning can be done only through the nose.
36. C
C is correct because in people paralysed on one side, yawning can stimulate movement in the paralysed arm.
37. B
B is correct because the writer concludes that we yawn in spite of our species' development.
38. YES
YES is correct because research students were at first reluctant to see the value of Provine’s studies.
39. NOT GIVEN
NOT GIVEN is correct because the passage does not say if fetuses yawn and stretch to learn movement control.
40. YES
YES is correct because Provine says referring to only one function is probably not enough to explain yawning.

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