IELTS Reading Practice Test 133

READING PASSAGE 1

One Hundred Days of Reform

Since the early 1800s, the term one hundred days has represented a political phrase, referring to a short period of concentrated political reform. In most cases, this period comes immediately after a new leader takes over a nation. The original Hundred Days took place between March and June of 1815, when Napoleon escaped from Elba, and King Louis XVIII reclaimed his throne. This was one of the results of the Battle of Waterloo. The Hundred Days of Reform in China (also known as the Wuxu Reform) was inspired by a similar event. After losing the Sino-Japanese war, the Emperor Guwangxu found his country to be in a major crisis. Desperate for change, the emperor hired the help of a young political activist named K’ang Yu-wei. At the age of only 27, K’ang had graduated with the highest degree (chin-shih), written two books on reform, and initiated several of his own political reform movements. K’ang impressed the court and convinced the emperor that China, like Japan, should form a constitutional government and do away with its monarchy.

On June 11, 1898, Emperor Guwangxu entrusted the reform movement to K’ang and put the progressive scholar-reformer in control of the government. Immediately, K’ang, with the help of a few other reformers, began work on changing China into a more modern society. Within days, the imperial court issued a number of statutes related to the social and political structure of the nation. First, K’ang planned to reform China’s education system. The edicts called for a universal school system with an emphasis on practical and Western studies rather than Neo-Confucian orthodoxy.

The new government also wanted to modernize the country’s examination systems and send more students abroad to gain firsthand knowledge of how technology was developing in other countries. K’ang also called for the establishment of a national parliamentary government, including popularly elected members and ministries. Military reform and the establishment of a new defense system as well as the modernization of agriculture and medicine were also on the agenda.

These edicts were threatening to Chinese ideologies and institutions, especially the army, which at the time was controlled by a few governor-generals. There was intense opposition to the reform at all levels of society, and only one in fifteen provinces made attempts to implement the edicts. The Manchus, who considered the reform a radical and unrealistic idea, suggested that more gradual changes needed to be made. Just three months after the reform had begun, a coup d’etat was organized by Yuan Shikai and Empress Dowager Cbd to force Guangxu and the young reformers out of power and into seclusion. A few of the reformer’s chief advocates who refused to leave were executed. After September 21st, the new edicts were abolished, and the conservatives regained their power.

Many Chinese civilians felt that the aftermath of the One Hundred Days of Reform was more detrimental to China than the short-lived failed attempt at reform. Immediately following the conservative takeover, anti-foreign and anti-Christian secret societies tore through northern China, targeting foreign concessions and missionary facilities. The violence of these “Boxer bands” provoked retaliation from the offended nations, and the government was forced to declare war on the invaders. By August, an Allied force made up of armies from nine European nations as well as the United States and Japan entered Peking. With little effort, north China was occupied, and foreign troops had stationed themselves inside the border. The court was ordered to either execute or punish many of its high officials under the Protocol of 1901. Rather than dividing up the occupied territory among the powers, the Allies settled on an “open door” trade policy. Within a decade, the court ordered many of the original reform measures, including the modernization of the education and military systems.

The traditional view of the One Hundred Days of Reform depicted Emperor Guwangxu and K’ang Yu-wei as heroes and Empress Dowager Cixi as the villain who refused to reform even though the change was inevitable. However, since the One Hundred Days has turned into a cliche related to political failures, historians in the 20th century often portray the Wuxu Reform as an irrational dream. The fact that the reforms were implemented in a matter of decades, rather than months, suggests that the conservative elites may have been more opposed to the immediacy of the proposed edicts rather than the changes themselves.

Questions 1-4
What were some of the reforms planned during the One Hundred Days of Reform in China?
Choose four answers from the list below, and write the correct letters, A-G, in boxes 1-4 on your Answer Sheet.

A Modernization of the school system
B Establishment of a parliament
C Focus on the study of Confucianism
D Reorganization of the military
E Abolition of elections
F Improvement of farming
G Initiation of foreign trade

READING PASSAGE 2

Sleep Apnea

Sleep apnea is a common sleeping disorder. It affects a number of adults comparable to the percentage of the population that suffers from diabetes. The term apnea is of Greek origin and means “without breath.” Sufferers of sleep apnea stop breathing repeatedly while they sleep. This can happen hundreds of times during the night, each gasp lasting from 10 to 30 seconds. In extreme cases, people stop breathing for more than a minute at a time.

There are three different types of sleep apnea, with obstructive sleep apnea being the most common. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), which affects 90 percent of sleep apnea sufferers, occurs because of an upper airway obstruction. A person’s breathing stops when air is somehow prevented from entering the trachea. The most common sites for air to get trapped include the nasal passage, the tongue, the tonsils, and the uvula. Fatty tissue or tightened muscles at the back of a throat can also cause the obstruction. Central sleep apnea has a different root cause, though the consequences are the same. In central sleep apnea, the brain forgets to send the signal that tells the muscles that it’s time to breathe. The term central is used because this type of apnea is related to the central nervous system rather than the blocked airflow. The third type of sleep apnea, known as mixed apnea, is a combination of the two and is the most rare form. Fortunately, in all types of apnea, the brain eventually signals for a person to wake up so that breathing can resume. However, this continuous pattern of interrupted sleep is hard on the body and results in very little rest.

Sleep apnea is associated with a number of risk factors, including being overweight, male, and over the age of forty. However, like many disorders, sleep apnea can affect children and in many cases is found to be the result of a person’s genetic makeup. Despite being so widespread, this disorder often goes undiagnosed. Many people experience symptoms for their whole lives without realizing they have a serious sleep disorder. Oftentimes, it is not the person suffering from sleep apnea who notices the repetitive episodes of sleep interruption, but a partner or family member sleeping nearby. The air cessation is generally accompanied by heavy snoring, loud enough to rouse others from sleep. Those who live alone are less likely to receive early diagnosis, though other symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, irritability, and exhaustion may cause a person to seek medical advice. If left untreated, sleep apnea, which is a progressive disorder, can cause cardiovascular problems, increasing the risk of heart disease and stroke. Sleep apnea is also blamed for many cases of impaired driving and poor job performance.

In order to diagnose sleep apnea, patients are generally sent to a sleep center for a polysomnography test. This test monitors brain waves, muscle tension, breathing, eye movement, and oxygen in the blood. Audio monitoring for snoring, gasping, and episodic waking is also done during a polysomnogram. Nonintrusive solutions for treating sleep apnea involve simple lifestyle changes. In many cases, symptoms of sleep apnea can be eliminated when patients try losing weight or abstaining from alcohol. People who sleep on their backs or stomachs often find that their symptoms disappear if they try sleeping on their sides. Sleep specialists also claim that sleeping pills interfere with the natural performance of the throat and mouth muscles and suggest patients do away with all sleep medication for a trial period. When these treatments prove unsuccessful, sleep apnea sufferers can be fitted with a CPAP mask, which is worn at night over the mouth and nose, similar to an oxygen mask. CPAP stands for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure.

In extreme cases, especially when facial deformities are the cause of the sleep apnea, surgery is needed to make a clear passage for the air. Many different types of surgeries are available. The most common form of surgery used to combat sleep apnea is uvulo-palato-pharyngoplasty (UPPP). This procedure involves removing the uvula and the excess tissue around it. UPPP helps about 50 percent of patients who undergo the procedure, while the other half continue to rely on the CPAP machine even after the surgery. Another type of surgery called mandibular myotomy involves removing a piece of the jaw, and adjusting the tongue. By reattaching1 the tongue to a position about ten millimeters forward, air is able to flow more freely during sleep. This delicate procedure is performed only by surgeons with expertise in facial surgery and is almost always successful in eliminating the air obstruction. The latest surgical procedures use radio frequencies to shrink the tissue around the tongue, throat, and soft palate.

Questions 14-18
The passage describes three different types of sleep apnea. Which of the characteristics below belongs to which type of sleep apnea? In boxes 14-18 on your Answer Sheet, write

A if it is a characteristic of obstructive sleep apnea.
B if it is a characteristic of central sleep apnea.
C if it is a characteristic of mixed apnea.

14 Its root cause is a blockage at the trachea.
15 It is connected exclusively with the nervous system.
16 It involves blocked airflow and a brain malfunction.
17 It is the most unusual type of sleep apnea.
18 It is the most common form of sleep apnea.

Questions 19-23
Do the following statements agree with the information in Reading Passage 2? Inboxes 19-23 on your Answer Sheet, write

TRUE                        if the statement is true according to the passage.
FALSE                      if the statement contradicts the passage.
NOT GIVEN          if there is no information about this in the passage.

19 Sleep apnea only affects men over 40.
20 Most people with sleep apnea have the problem diagnosed.
21 Often a relative of the sleep apnea sufferer is the first to notice the problem.
22 Sleep apnea is more common in Greece than in other countries.
23 Sleep apnea can cause problems at work.

Questions 24-27
Which treatments for sleep apnea are mentioned in the passage?
Choose four answers from the list below, and write the correct letters, A-G, in boxes 1-4 on your Answer Sheet.

A getting surgery
B wearing a mask
C taking sleeping pills
D reducing one’s weight
E massaging the throat muscles
F sleeping on one’s side
G drinking moderate amounts of alcohol

READING PASSAGE 3

Adult Intelligence

Over 90 years ago, Binet and Simon delineated two different methods of assessing intelligence. These were the psychological method (which concentrates mostly on intellectual processes, such as memory and abstract reasoning) and the pedagogical method (which concentrates on assessing what an individual knows). The main concern of Binet and Simon was to predict elementary school performance independently from the social and economic background of the individual student. As a result, they settled on the psychological method, and they spawned an intelligence assessment paradigm, which has been substantially unchanged from their original tests.

With few exceptions, the development of adult intelligence assessment instruments proceeded along the same lines of the Binet-Simon tests. Nevertheless, the difficulty of items was increased for older examinees. Thus, extant adult intelligence tests were created as little more than upward extensions of the original Binet-Simon scales. The Binet-Simon tests are quite effective in predicting school success in both primary and secondary educational environments. However, they have been found to be much less predictive of success in post-secondary academic and occupational domains. Such a discrepancy provokes fundamental questions about intelligence. One highly debated question asks whether college success is actually dependent on currently used forms of measured intelligence, or if present measures of intelligence are inadequately sampling the wider domain of adult intellect. One possible answer to this question lies in questioning the preference of the psychological method over the pedagogical method for assessing adult intellect. Recent research across the fields of education, cognitive science, and adult development suggests that much of adult intellect is indeed not adequately sampled by extant intelligence measures and might be better assessed through the pedagogical method (Ackerman, 1996; Gregory, 1994).

Several lines of research have also converged on a redefinition of adult intellect that places a greater emphasis on content (knowledge) over process. Substantial strides have been made in delineating knowledge aspects of intellectual performance which are divergent from traditional measures of intelligence (e.g., Wagner, 1987) and in demonstrating that adult performance is greatly influenced by prior topic and domain knowledge (e.g., Alexander et al., 1994). Even some older testing literature seems to indicate that the knowledge measured by the Graduate Records Examination (GRE) is a comparable or better indicator of future graduate school success and post-graduate performance than traditional aptitude measures (Willingham, 1974).

Knowledge and Intelligence
When an adult is presented with a completely novel problem (e.g., memorizing a random set of numbers or letters), the basic intellectual processes are typically implicated in predicting which individuals will be successful in solving problems. The dilemma for adult intellectual assessment is that the adult is rarely presented with a completely novel problem in the real world of academic or occupational endeavors. Rather, the problems that an adult is asked to solve almost inevitably draw greatly on his/her accumulated knowledge and skills—one does not build a house by only memorizing physics formulae. For an adult, intellect is better conceptualized by the tasks that the person can accomplish and the skills that he/she has developed rather than the number of digits that can be stored in working memory or the number of syllogistic reasoning items that can be correctly evaluated. Thus, the content of the intellect is at least as important as the processes of intellect in determining an adult’s real-world problem-solving efficacy.

From the artificial intelligence field, researchers have discarded the idea of a useful general problem solver in favor of knowledge-based expert systems. This is because no amount of processing power can achieve real-world problem-solving proficiency without an extensive set of domain-relevant knowledge structures. Gregory (1994) describes the difference between such concepts as “potential intelligence” (knowledge) and “kinetic intelligence” (process). Similarly, Schank and Birnbaum (1994) say that “what makes someone intelligent is what he [/she] knows.”

One line of relevant educational research is from the examination of expert- novice differences which indicates that the typical expert is found to mainly differ from the novice in terms of experience and the knowledge structures that are developed through that experience rather than in terms of intellectual processes (e.g., Glaser, 1991). Additional research from developmental and gerontological perspectives has also shown that various aspects of adult intellectual functioning are greatly determined by knowledge structures and less influenced by the kinds of process measures, which have been shown to decline with age over adult development (e.g., Schooler, 1987; Willis & Tosti-Vasey, 1990).

Shifting Paradigms
By bringing together a variety of sources of research evidence, it is clear that our current methods of assessing adult intellect are insufficient. When we are confronted with situations in which the intellectual performance of adults must be predicted (e.g., continuing education or adult learning programs), we must begin to take account of what they know in addition to the traditional assessment of intellectual processes. Because adults are quite diverse in their knowledge structures (e.g., a physicist may know many different things than a carpenter), the challenge for educational assessment researchers in the future will be to develop batteries of tests that can be used to assess different sources of intellectual knowledge for different individuals. When adult knowledge structures are broadly examined with tests such as the Advanced Placement [AP] -and College Level Exam Program [CLEP], it may be possible to improve such things as the prediction of adult performance in specific educational endeavors, the placement of individuals, and adult educational counseling.

Questions 28-34
Complete the sentences below about the reading passage. Choose your answers from the box below, and write them in boxes 28-34 on your Answer Sheet. There are more choices than sentences so you will not use them all.

The psychological method of intelligence assessment measures (28)………………………..
Binet and Simon wanted to develop an assessment method that was not influenced by the child’s (29)……………………
The Binet-Simon tests have been successfully used to predict (30)………………….
The Binet-Simon tests are not good predictors of (31)…………………….
According to (32)………………………, the pedagogical method is the best way to assess adult intelligence.
The pedagogical method is a better measure of adult intelligence because most problems that adults encounter in real life are not completely (33)…………………………..
In the area of artificial intelligence, (34)…………………….. systems are preferred.

Questions 35-39
Do the following statements agree with the information in Reading Passage 3? In boxes 35-39 on your Answer Sheet, write

TRUE                       if the statement is true according to the passage.
FALSE                     if the statement contradicts the passage.
NOT GIVEN         if there is no information about this in the passage.

35 The Binet-Simon tests have not changed significantly over the years.
36 Success in elementary school is a predictor of success in college.
37 Research suggests that experts generally have more developed intellectual processes than novices.
38 Knowledge structures in adults decrease with age.
39 Better methods of measuring adult intelligence need to be developed.

Question 40
Choose the correct letter, A-C, and write it in box 40 on your Answer Sheet.

40 The Advanced Placement and College Level Exam Program tests measure
A thought processes
B job skills
C knowledge