IELTS Recent Mock Tests Volume 1

Published on: 06 Dec 2017
Tests taken: 3,337,971

Answer Keys:

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Part 1: Question 1 - 13

1 v
2 i
3 vi
4 x
5 ix
6 iv

7 ii
8 TRUE
9 TRUE
10 NOT GIVEN
11 13 C,D,E

Part 2: Question 14 - 26

14 YES
15 YES
16 NO
17 NOT GIVEN
18 YES
19 NOT GIVEN
20 1976, 1995

21 2000 floods/flooding
22 1998 and 2002/1998, 2002
23 1990
24 1781
25 France
26 D

Part 3: Question 27 - 40

27 B
28 C
29 H
30 G
31 E
32 D
33 A

34 bee-keeping
35 life cycles
36 drought(s)
37 C
38 A
39 D
40 D

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24 Oct 2023

Review & Explanations:

READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.

William Gilbert and Magnetism

A - Pioneers of the early science

The 16th and 17th centuries saw two great pioneers of modern science: Galileo and Gilbert. The impact of their findings is eminent. Gilbert was the first modern scientist, also the accredited father of the science of electricity and magnetism, an Englishman of learning and a physician at the court of Elizabeth. Prior to him, all that was known of electricity and magnetism was what the ancients knew, nothing more than that the lodestone possessed magnetic properties and that amber and jet, when rubbed, would attract bits of paper or other substances of small specific gravity. However, he is less well known than he deserves.

B - Early years of Gilbert

Gilbert’s birth pre-dated Galileo. Born in an eminent local family in Colchester County in the UK, on May 24, 1544, he went to grammar school, and then studied medicine at St John’s College, Cambridge, graduating in 1573. Later he travelled in the continent and eventually settled down in London.

C - Professional and social recognition

He was a very successful and eminent doctor. All this culminated in his election to the president of the Royal Science Society. He was also appointed personal physician to the Queen (Elizabeth I), and later knighted by the Queen. Lie faithfully served her until her death. However, he didn’t outlive the Queen for long and died on November 30, 1603, only a few months after his appointment as personal physician to King James.

D - His change of focus

Gilbert was first interested in chemistry but later changed his focus due to the large portion of mysticism of alchemy involved (such as the transmutation of metal). He gradually developed his interest in physics after the great minds of the ancient, particularly about the knowledge the ancient Greeks had about lodestones, strange minerals with the power to attract iron. In the meantime, Britain became a major seafaring nation in 1588 when the Spanish Armada was defeated, opening the way to British settlement of America. British ships depended on the magnetic compass, yet no one understood why it worked. Did the Pole Star attract it, as Columbus once speculated; or was there a magnetic mountain at the pole, as described in Odyssey, which ships would never approach, because the sailors thought its pull would yank out all their iron nails and fittings? For nearly 20 years, William Gilbert conducted ingenious experiments to understand magnetism. His works include On the Magnet, Magnetic Bodies, and the Great Magnet of the Earth.

E - His discovery about magnetism

Gilbert’s discovery was so important to modern physics. He investigated the nature of magnetism and electricity. He even coined the word “electric”. Though the early beliefs of magnetism were also largely entangled with superstitions such as that rubbing garlic on lodestone can neutralise its magnetism, one example being that sailors even believed the smell of garlic would even interfere with the action of compass, which is why helmsmen were forbidden to eat it near a ship’s compass. Gilbert also found that metals can be magnetised by rubbing materials such as fur, plastic or the like on them. He named the ends of a magnet “north pole” and “south pole”. The magnetic poles can attract or repel, depending on polarity. In addition, however, ordinary iron is always attracted to a magnet. Though he started to study the relationship between magnetism and electricity, sadly he didn’t complete it. His research of static electricity using amber and jet only demonstrated that objects with electrical charges can work like magnets attracting small pieces of paper and stuff. It is a French guy named du Fay that discovered that there are actually two electrical charges, positive and negative.

F - Questioning traditional astronomy

He also questioned the traditional astronomical beliefs. Though a Copernican, he didn’t express in his quintessential beliefs whether the earth is at the centre of the universe or in orbit around the sun. However, he believed that stars are not equidistant from the earth but have their own earth-like planets orbiting around them. The earth itself is like a giant magnet, which is also why compasses always point north. They spin on an axis that is aligned with the earth’s polarity. He even likened the polarity of the magnet to the polarity of the earth and built an entire magnetic philosophy on this analogy. In his explanation, magnetism is the soul of the earth. Thus a perfectly spherical lodestone, when aligned with the earth’s poles, would wobble all by itself in 24 hours. Further, he also believed that the sun and other stars wobble just like the earth does around a crystal core, and speculated that the moon might also be a magnet caused to orbit by its magnetic attraction to the earth. This was perhaps the first proposal that a force might cause a heavenly orbit.

G - What was new about his scientific research method

His research method was revolutionary in that he used experiments rather than pure logic and reasoning like the ancient Greek philosophers did. It was a new attitude towards scientific investigation. Until then, scientific experiments were not in fashion. It was because of this scientific attitude, together with his contribution to our knowledge of magnetism, that a unit of magneto motive force, also known as magnetic potential, was named Gilbert in his honour. His approach of careful observation and experimentation rather than the authoritative opinion or deductive philosophy of others had laid the very foundation for modern science.

READING PASSAGE 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.

The 2003 Heatwave

It was the summer, scientists now realise, when global warming at last made itself unmistakably felt. We knew that summer 2003 was remarkable: Britain experienced its record high temperature and continental Europe saw forest fires raging out of control, great rivers drying to a trickle and thousands of heat-related deaths. But just how remarkable is only now becoming clear.

The three months of June, July and August were the warmest ever recorded in western and central Europe, with record national highs in Portugal, Germany and Switzerland as well as in Britain. And they were the warmest by a very long way. Over a great rectangular block of the earth stretching from west of Paris to northern Italy, taking in Switzerland and southern Germany, the average temperature for the summer months was 3.78°C above the long-term norm, said the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia in Norwich, which is one of the world's leading institutions for the monitoring and analysis of temperature records.

That excess might not seem a lot until you are aware of the context - but then you realise it is enormous. There is nothing like this in previous data, anywhere. It is considered so exceptional that Professor Phil Jones, the CRU's director, is prepared to say openly - in a way few scientists have done before - that the 2003 extreme may be directly attributed, not to natural climate variability, but to global warming caused by human actions.

Meteorologists have hitherto contented themselves with the formula that recent high temperatures are “consistent with predictions” of climate change. For the great block of the map - that stretching between 35-50N and 0-20E - the CRU has reliable temperature records dating back to 1781. Using as a baseline the average summer temperature recorded between 1961 and 1990, departures from the temperature norm, or “anomalies”, over the area as a whole can easily be plotted. As the graph shows, such is the variability of our climate that over the past 200 years, there have been at least half a dozen anomalies, in terms of excess temperature - the peaks on the graph denoting very hot years - approaching, or even exceeding, 2°C. But there has been nothing remotely like 2003, when the anomaly is nearly four degrees.

“This is quite remarkable,’ Professor Jones told The Independent. “It’s very unusual in a statistical sense. If this series had a normal statistical distribution, you wouldn’t get this number. The return period [how often it could be expected to recur] would be something like one in a thousand years. If we look at an excess above the average of nearly four degrees, then perhaps nearly three degrees of that is natural variability, because we’ve seen that in past summers. But the final degree of it is likely to be due to global warming, caused by human actions.”

The summer of 2003 has, in a sense, been one that climate scientists have long been expecting. Until now, the warming has been manifesting itself mainly in winters that have been less cold than in summers that have been much hotter. Last week, the United Nations predicted that winters were warming so quickly that winter sports would die out in Europe’s lower-level ski resorts. But sooner or later, the unprecedented hot summer was bound to come, and this year it did.

One of the most dramatic features of the summer was the hot nights, especially in the first half of August. In Paris, the temperature never dropped below 23°C (73.4°F) at all between 7 and 14 August, and the city recorded its warmest-ever night on 11-12 August, when the mercury did not drop below 25.5°C (77.9°F). Germany recorded its warmest-ever night at Weinbiet in the Rhine Valley with a lowest figure of 27.6°C (80.6°F) on 13 August, and similar record-breaking nighttime temperatures were recorded in Switzerland and Italy.

The 15,000 excess deaths in France during August, compared with previous years, have been related to the high night-time temperatures. The number gradually increased during the first 12 days of the month, peaking at about 2,000 per day on the night of 12-13 August, then fell off dramatically after 14 August when the minimum temperatures fell by about 5°C. The elderly were most affected, with a 70 per cent increase in mortality rate in those aged 75-94.

For Britain, the year as a whole is likely to be the warmest ever recorded, but despite the high temperature record on 10 August, the summer itself - defined as the June, July and August period - still comes behind 1976 and 1995, when there were longer periods of intense heat. “At the moment, the year is on course to be the third hottest ever in the global temperature record, which goes back to 1856, behind 1998 and 2002, but when all the records for October, November and December are collated, it might move into second place,' Professor Jones said. The ten hottest years in the record have all now occurred since 1990. Professor Jones is in no doubt about the astonishing nature of European summer of 2003. “The temperatures recorded were out of all proportion to the previous record," he said.

“It was the warmest summer in the past 500 years and probably way beyond that. It was enormously exceptional."

His colleagues at the University of East Anglia's Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research are now planning a special study of it. “It was a summer that has not been experienced before, either in terms of the temperature extremes that were reached, or the range and diversity of the impacts of the extreme heat," said the centre's executive director, Professor Mike Hulme.

“It will certainly have left its mark on a number of countries, as to how they think and plan for climate change in the future, much as the 2000 floods have revolutionised the way the Government is thinking about flooding in the UK. The 2003 heatwave will have similar repercussions across Europe."

READING PASSAGE 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.

Amateur Naturalists

From the results of an annual Alaskan betting contest to sightings of migratory birds, ecologists are using a wealth of unusual data to predict the impact of climate change.

A Tim Sparks slides a small leather-bound notebook out of an envelope. The book's yellowing pages contain bee-keeping notes made between 1941 and 1969 by the late Walter Coates of Kilworth, Leicestershire. He adds it to his growing pile of local journals, birdwatchers' lists and gardening diaries. "We're uncovering about one major new record each month," he says, "I still get surprised." Around two centuries before Coates, Robert Marsham, a landowner from Norfolk in the east of England, began recording the life cycles of plants and animals on his estate - when the first wood anemones flowered, the dates on which the oaks burst into leaf and the rooks began nesting. Successive Marshams continued compiling these notes for 211 years.

B Today, such records are being put to uses that their authors could not possibly have expected. These data sets, and others like them, are proving invaluable to ecologists interested in the timing of biological events, or phenology. By combining the records with climate data, researchers can reveal how, for example, changes in temperature affect the arrival of spring, allowing ecologists to make improved predictions about the impact of climate change. A small band of researchers is combing through hundreds of years of records taken by thousands of amateur naturalists. And more systematic projects have also started up, producing an overwhelming response. "The amount of interest is almost frightening," says Sparks, a climate researcher at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Monks Wood, Cambridgeshire.

C Sparks first became aware of the army of "closet phenologists”, as he describes them, when a retiring colleague gave him the Marsham records. He now spends much of his time following leads from one historical data set to another. As news of his quest spreads, people tip him off to other historical records, and more amateur phenologists come out of their closets. The British devotion to recording and collecting makes his job easier - one man from Kent sent him 30 years' worth of kitchen calendars, on which he had noted the date that his neighbour's magnolia tree flowered.

D Other researchers have unearthed data from equally odd sources. Rafe Sagarin, an ecologist at Stanford University in California, recently studied records of a betting contest in which participants attempt to guess the exact time at which a specially erected wooden tripod will fall through the surface of a thawing river. The competition has taken place annually on the Tenana River in Alaska since 1917, and analysis of the results showed that the thaw now arrives five days earlier than it did when the contest began.

E Overall, such records have helped to show that, compared with 20 years ago, a raft of natural events now occur earlier across much of the northern hemisphere, from the opening of leaves to the return of birds from migration and the emergence of butterflies from hibernation. The data can also hint at how nature will change in the future. Together with models of climate change, amateurs' records could help guide conservation. Terry Root, an ecologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, has collected birdwatchers' counts of wildfowl taken between 1955 and 1996 on seasonal ponds in the American Midwest and combined them with climate data and models of future warming. Her analysis shows that the increased droughts that the models predict could halve the breeding populations at the ponds. "The number of waterfowl in North America will most probably drop significantly with global warming," she says.

F But not all professionals are happy to use amateur data. "A lot of scientists won't touch them, they say they're too full of problems," says Root. Because different observers can have different ideas of what constitutes, for example, an open snowdrop. "The biggest concern with ad hoc observations is how carefully and systematically they were taken," says Mark Schwartz of the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, who studies the interactions between plants and climate. "We need to know pretty precisely what a person's been observing - if they just say 'I noted when the leaves came out', it might not be that useful." Measuring the onset of autumn can be particularly problematic because deciding when leaves change colour is a more subjective process than noting when they appear.

G Overall, most phenologists are positive about the contribution that amateurs can make. "They get at the raw power of science: careful observation of the natural world," says Sagarin. But the professionals also acknowledge the need for careful quality control. Root, for example, tries to gauge the quality of an amateur archive by interviewing its collector. "You always have to worry - things as trivial as vacations can affect measurement. I disregard a lot of records because they're not rigorous enough," she says. Others suggest that the right statistics can iron out some of the problems with amateur data. Together with colleagues at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, environmental scientist Arnold van Vliet is developing statistical techniques to account for the uncertainty in amateur phenological data. With the enthusiasm of amateur phenologists evident from past records, professional researchers are now trying to create standardised recording schemes for future efforts. They hope that well-designed studies will generate a volume of observations large enough to drown out the idiosyncrasies of individual recorders. The data are cheap to collect, and can provide breadth in space, time and range of species. "It's very difficult to collect data on a large geographical scale without enlisting an army of observers," says Root.

H Phenology also helps to drive home messages about climate change. "Because the public understand these records, they accept them," says Sparks.
It can also illustrate potentially unpleasant consequences, he adds, such as the finding that more rat infestations are reported to local councils in warmer years. And getting people involved is great for public relations. "People are thrilled to think that the data they've been collecting as a hobby can be used for something scientific - it empowers them," says Root.

TRUE	if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE	if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN	If there is no information on this

Keywords in Questions	Similar words in Passage
Q10: He lost faith in the medical theories of his time.
Note: The theme of the question is matched with the theme of paragraphs D - His change of focus and G - What was new about his scientific research method However, scanning the passage will yield no information about his faith in contemporary medical theories so the answer is NOT GIVEN.

Keywords in Questions	Similar words in Passage
Tips for Q11-13 To answer this kind of question, you need to pick out a certain number of correct statements. Different people will have different strategies, but the two prevalent ones are “proving the rights” and “crossing out the wrongs” and mixed ones. However, whatever strategy, the most important thing is finding the clues which can prove whether an option is correct or not to identify the wrong and right choices. To find the clues, scan the paragraphs for keywords (it is assumed that you have knowledge about the ‘theme’ of each paragraph up to now so that you know where to look first instead of just starting from the beginning). When one finds it hard to to find clues for answers, cross out irrelevant sentences and focus on the potential ones.
Q11-13: A. Metal can be transformed into another.	Gilbert was first interested in chemistry but later changed his focus due to the large portion of mysticism of alchemy involved (such as the transmutation of metal).
Note: With proper skimming, one can find the answer right at the first sentence of paragraph 4. Also note that Gilbert regarded the ideas in alchemy as ‘mysticism’ i.e. he didn’t think it was valid and abandoned it, so of course he could not have made any discovery in the field. Thus, A is NOT an answer.
Keywords in Questions	Similar words in Passage
B. Garlic can remove magnetism.	Though the early beliefs of magnetism were also largely entangled with superstitions such as that rubbing garlic on lodestone can neutralise its magnetism
Note: The important keyword here is ‘magnetism’, which is matched with the ‘theme’ of paragraph E - His discovery about magnetism. Therefore, the paragraph needs to be scanned first. After scanning, one can find ‘rubbing garlic’ mentioned as a ‘superstition’ and no mention of Gilbert as the man behind this superstitious idea. Therefore, B is NOT an answer.
Keywords in Questions	Similar words in Passage
C. Metals can be magnetised.	Gilbert also found that metals can be magnetised by rubbing materials such as fur, plastic or the like on them.
Note: The important keyword here is ‘magnetised’, which points readers to paragraph E. After scanning, one may find the statement mentioned word by word in one sentence, together with the proof that Gilbert ‘found’ the phenomenon, so C is an answer.
Keywords in Questions	Similar words in Passage
D. Stars are at different distances from the earth	However, he believed that stars are not equidistant from the earth but have their own earth-like planets orbiting around them.
Note: The important keyword here is ‘stars’, which points readers to paragraph F about astronomy. After scanning, one can find the proof for Gilbert’s belief in the idea. Hence, D is an answer. *One may find the answer D controversial as what Gilbert believed is not necessarily what he discovered (through experiments, observations, etc.). One may find it proper to leave the answer D there first and address other choices before coming back for it.
Keywords in Questions	Similar words in Passage
E. The earth wobbles on its axis.	The earth itself is like a giant magnet, which is also why compasses always point north. They spin on an axis that is aligned with the earth’s polarity. ... Further, he also believed that the sun and other stars wobble just like the earth does
Note: The key for the answer is unclear. From the later sentence, one can get the idea that ‘the earth wobbles’. However, the information about the ‘axis’ is not definitive enough to conclude that ‘The earth wobbles on its axis’. One may find it proper to leave the choice there first and address other choices before coming back to it. Nevertheless, E is an answer.
Keywords in Questions
F. There are two charges of electricity.	It is a French guy named du Fay that discovered that there are actually two electrical charges, positive and negative.
Note: Seeing ‘electricity’, it will take some skimming to find that ‘electricity’ is mentioned with magnetism in paragraph E. Furthermore, with proper skimming, one may find the clue in the last sentence of paragraph E, which mentions ‘two charges’ discovered by another person. Thus, F is NOT an answer. *After addressing all the choices, one will find that D and E, though controversial, must be the answers as one has strong evidence that A, B, F are not.

Keywords in Questions	Similar words in Passage
The average summer temperature in 2003 is almost 4 degrees higher than the average temperature of the past.	the average temperature for the summer months was 3.78°C above the long-term norm
Considering the details in the third sentence of the paragraph, it could be inferred that the QUESTION 14 is confirmed in the passage, thus the answer is YES

Keywords in Questions	Similar words in Passage
Jones believes the temperature variation is within the normal range.	“This is quite remarkable,’ Professor Jones told The Independent . “It’s very unusual in a statistical sense. If this series had a normal statistical distribution, you wouldn’t get this number.
QUESTION 16: ‘This number’ means temperature variation. Since Professor Jones suggested that “It’s very unusual in a statistical sense” so the temperature variation can not be within the normal range, thus the answer is NO

IELTS Recent Mock Tests Volume 1

Part 1: Question 1 - 13

Part 2: Question 14 - 26

Part 3: Question 27 - 40

Tips for improving your ielts score

剑桥雅思7听力原文-TEST2

Questions 1-7

Questions 8-10

Questions 11-13

Questions 14-19

Questions 20-21

Questions 22-25

Question 26

Questions 27-33

Questions 34-36

Questions 37-40

READING PASSAGE 1

William Gilbert and Magnetism

READING PASSAGE 2

The 2003 Heatwave

READING PASSAGE 3

Amateur Naturalists

Comments:

About us

Our mission

	List of headings
i	Early years of Gilbert
ii	What was new about his scientific research method
iii	The development of chemistry
iv	Questioning traditional astronomy
v	Pioneers of the early science
vi	Professional and social recognition
vii	Becoming the president of the Royal Science Society
viii	The great works of Gilbert
ix	His discovery about magnetism
x	His change of focus

YES	if the statement agrees with the views of the writer
NO	if the statement contradicts the views of the writer
NOT GIVEN	if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

Keywords in Questions	Similar words in Passage
There were milder winters rather than hotter summers.	Until now, the warming has been manifesting itself mainly in winters that have been less cold than in summers that have been much hotter
QUESTION 18: Since the winters have been less cold equal milder winter and the summers have been much hotter, these two statements have the same meaning so the answer of this question is YES

Keywords in Questions	Similar words in Passage
Governments are building new high-altitude ski resorts.	Last week, the United Nations predicted that winters were warming so quickly that winter sports would die out in Europe’s lower-level ski resorts
QUESTION 19: Although the United Nations predicted that winters were warming so quickly that winter sports would die out in Europe’s lower-level ski resorts, the writer didn’t mention what governments are going to do to cope with this situation. Therefore, the answer is NOT GIVEN

Keywords in Questions	Similar words in Passage
Q20: What are the other two hottest years in Britain besides 2003?	For Britain, the year as a whole is likely to be the warmest ever recorded, but despite the high temperature record on 10 August, the summer itself - defined as the June, July and August period - still comes behind 1976 and 1995, when there were longer periods of intense heat.
Note: Although Britain is mentioned in the first several paragraphs, it is not until paragraph 9 that the information for Britain is demonstrated in detail. Since the whole passage is talking about 2003, we can confirm that ‘‘the year’’ here refers to 2003. It is said that 2003 is considered the warmest year in the UK, but when considering summer time alone, 1976 and 1995 witnessed the longer sweltering period. Thus, 1976 and 1995 are the other two hottest years in Britain, apart from 2003. Hence the answer for Q20 is 1976, 1995 (no more than two words and/or numbers).

Keywords in Questions	Similar words in Passage
Q21: What has also influenced government policies like the hot summer in 2003?	“It will certainly have left its mark on a number of countries, as to how they think and plan for climate change in the future, much as the 2000 floods have revolutionised the way the Government is thinking about flooding in the UK.
Note: The question features the word ‘‘also’’ which signposts that the answer is an event having similar impacts on government policies as the 2003 summer. Accordingly, the final paragraph mentions the hot summer in 2003 led to a lasting effect (left it mark) on the way many countries dealing with climate change. This is compared to the 2000 floods with the equivalent effect (much as) on the government revolutionised thoughts about flooding. Hence, 2000 floods/flooding is the answer for Q21.

Keywords in Questions	Similar words in Passage
Q22: The other two hottest years around the globe were	“At the moment, the year is on course to be the third hottest ever in the global temperature record, which goes back to 1856, behind 1998 and 2002
Note: In answering Q20, you might be considering the year 1998 and 2002 as well and might be trapped by the phrase ‘‘the third hottest ever’’. However, the difference is Q20 asks for the two other hottest years in Britain and Q22 asks for the whole world. Since 2003 is said to be the ‘‘third hottest ever in the global temperature record’’ which is behind 1998 and 2002, 1998 and 2002/1998, 2002 is the answer for Q22.

Keywords in Questions	Similar words in Passage
Q23:The ten hottest years on record all come after the year	The ten hottest years in the record have all now occurred since 1990.
Note: This question is very clear as almost exactly the same phrase ‘‘ten hottest years on record’’ was used and ‘‘come after’’ is the same as ‘‘occur since’’. Thus the answer for Q23 is apparently 1990.

Keywords in Questions	Similar words in Passage
Q24: This temperature data has been gathered since	For the great block of the map - that stretching between 35-50N and 0-20E - the CRU has reliable temperature records dating back to 1781.
Note: The 4th paragraph discusses how the extreme hot summer in 2003 is considered the greatest anomaly according to the temperature records by CRU. Within this paragraph, there is one sentence suggesting that CRU has been keeping reliable records of temperature since 1781, which means they started collecting data from that year. Thus 1781 is the answer for Q24.

Keywords in Questions	Similar words in Passage
Q25: Thousands of people died in the country of	The 15,000 excess deaths in France during August, compared with previous years, have been related to the high night-time temperatures.
Note: The fastest way to scan the answer is to look for the number. Since ‘‘15,000 excess deaths’’ is matched with the keyword ‘‘thousands of people died’’ in the question, France is the answer for Q25.

Keywords in Questions	Similar words in Passage
Q26: Which one of the following can be best used as the title of this passage?
Note: Consider the introduction and conclusion, both focus on the catastrophic summer heat in 2003 rather than discuss global warming in general. Thus, D is apparently the answer for Q26.

Keywords in Questions	Similar words in Passage
Q27: The definition of phenology	These data sets, and others like them, are proving invaluable to ecologists interested in the timing of biological events, or phenology.
Note: The term ‘‘phenology’’ is first introduced in paragraph B with its concise definition of ‘‘the timing of biological events’’. Thus, B is the answer for Q27.

Keywords in Questions	Similar words in Passage
Q28: How Sparks first became aware of amateur records	Sparks first became aware of the army of "closet phenologists”, as he describes them, when a retiring colleague gave him the Marsham records
Note: Right from the beginning of paragraph C, the author mentions the occasion in which Sparks knew about ‘‘closet phenologists’’ for the first time, when he received the Marsham records from a retiring colleague. Since ‘‘closet’’ means not being displayed to the public, we understand that they are just amateur recorders, which matches with the keywords in Q28. Thus, C is the answer for Q28.

Keywords in Questions	Similar words in Passage
Q29: How people reacted to their involvement in data collection	People are thrilled to think that the data they've been collecting as a hobby can be used for something scientific - it empowers them," says Root.
Note: One thing about this question is it asks for amateur naturalists’ reaction to their own work, not how professionals react to amateur involvement in data collection so the answer is neither E, F nor G. Indeed, the information is displayed in paragraph H which mentions the thrilled feeling of amateur phenologists when they realise the usefulness of their mere hobby for professional data collection. Hence, H is the answer for Q29.

Keywords in Questions	Similar words in Passage
Q30: The necessity to encourage amateur data collection	The data are cheap to collect, and can provide breadth in space, time and range of species. "It's very difficult to collect data on a large geographical scale without enlisting an army of observers," says Root.
Note: Although subjecting to potential problems, amateur records are hailed in paragraph G as an inexpensive and widespread method to upscale the geographical breadth of data collection in natural research. Thus, this implies the necessity to empower and facilitate amateur observers to continue gathering data which may be used to serve professional research. Thus, the answer for Q30 is G.

Keywords in Questions	Similar words in Passage
Q31: A description of using amateur records to make predictions.	The data can also hint at how nature will change in the future.
Note: Paragraph E provides an example of how the amateur record of a birdwatcher has been used by an ecologist, alongside with climate data and models to predict the number of wildfowl at ponds to be halved in the future due to increased droughts. Therefore, it is clear that the information in Q31 can be found in paragraph E.

Keywords in Questions	Similar words in Passage
Q32: Records of a competition providing clues to climate change	studied records of a betting contest in which participants attempt to guess the exact time at which a specially erected wooden tripod will fall through the surface of a thawing river
Note: Paragraph D depicts an unusual method carried out by a researcher, which is to draw data from a betting contest. Since the participants only guessed the time of a phenomenon, they can only provide clues instead of facts for what was happening. Hence, paragraph D matches with Q32 and is the answer for this question.

Keywords in Questions	Similar words in Passage
Q33: A description of a very old record compiled by generations of amateur naturalists	Around two centuries before Coates, Robert Marsham, a landowner from Norfolk in the east of England, began recording the life cycles of plants and animals on his estate...Successive Marshams continued compiling these notes for 211 years.
Note: Paragraph A mentions a record by Robert Marsham. He is a landowner which means he is not a professional naturalist. His record dates back to hundreds of years ago, matching with the keyword ‘‘very old record’’. It is also worth noting that his work was compiled for 211 years by his successive generations. Thus A is the answer for Q33.

Keywords in Questions	Similar words in Passage
Q34: Walter Coates’s records largely contain the information of	The book's yellowing pages contain bee-keeping notes made between 1941 and 1969 by the late Walter Coates of Kilworth, Leicestershire.
Note: It’s not hard to detect the information about Walter Coates’s records in paragraph A. The text states clearly that the yellowing pages of Walter Coates’s notes are about bee-keeping, so bee-keeping is the answer for Q34.

Keywords in Questions	Similar words in Passage
Q35: Robert Marsham is famous for recording the […] of animals and plants on his land	Around two centuries before Coates, Robert Marsham, a landowner from Norfolk in the east of England, began recording the life cycles of plants and animals on his estate
Note: The information in paragraph A provides the description of the record of Robert Marsham, which is about ‘‘the life cycles of plants and animals on his estate’’. Since ‘‘estate’’ is the synonym for ‘‘land’’, the answer for Q35 is life cycles

IELTS Recent Mock Tests Volume 1

Part 1: Question 1 - 13

Part 2: Question 14 - 26

Part 3: Question 27 - 40

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剑桥雅思7听力原文-TEST2

Questions 1-7

Questions 8-10

Questions 11-13

Questions 14-19

Questions 20-21

Questions 22-25

Question 26

Questions 27-33

Questions 34-36

Questions 37-40

READING PASSAGE 1

William Gilbert and Magnetism

READING PASSAGE 2

The 2003 Heatwave

READING PASSAGE 3

Amateur Naturalists

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Keywords in Questions	Similar words in Passage
Q36: According to some phenologists, global warming may cause the number of waterfowl in North America to drop significantly due to increased	the increased droughts that the models predict could halve the breeding populations at the ponds. "The number of waterfowl in North America will most probably drop significantly with global warming," she says.
Note: Paragraph E mentions the fact that amateur records combining climate models and data allow phenologists to make predictions about the future. One example of such predictions is the number of waterfowl in North America may be reduced dramatically. The reasons are mentioned in the previous sentence which are increased droughts. As ‘‘increased’’ matches with the keyword in the question, the answer for Q36 is droughts.