The Birds Of London, Psychology And Personality Assessment, Titan Of Technology Reading Answers
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The IELTS Reading passage, The Birds Of London, along with the other two Academic passages – Psychology And Personality Assessment and Titan Of Technology makes this a complete Reading practice test.
You will have 60 minutes to complete the whole test, which consists of 40 questions in total.
Here are the question types in this reading test
Reading Passage 1 (The Birds Of London)
- Short answer questions
- Note completion
- Matching features
Reading Passage 2 (Psychology And Personality Assessment )
- Matching headings
- Multiple Choice Questions
- Yes/No or Not Given
Reading Passage 3 (Titan Of Technology)
- Multiple Choice Questions
- True or False / Not Given
- Summary completion
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Reading Passage 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on the Reading Passage below. Find the practice test with The Birds of London PDF here.
The Birds of London
Questions 1-4
Answer the questions below using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.
1 What kind of birds are the London pigeons descended from?
2 What were pigeons given to eat before attitudes towards them changed?
3 What are the routes taken by wood pigeons known as?
4 What TWO activities have contributed to the drastic reduction in the number of
rooks?
Questions 5-9
Complete the notes below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in blank spaces 5-9 on your answer sheet.
SPARROWS
Word meaning 5……………………………. is derived from the bird’s name suited to the atmosphere of London because of a tendency to rapidly 6…………………….. always likely to reproduce close to 7………………………… characteristic noted: 8………………………… because of the attitude of people in London make a sound that seems to be a kind of
9…………………………
Question 10-13
Classify the following as being stated of
A pigeons
B wood pigeons
C sparrows
D chaffinches
E blackbirds
F rooks
10 They are happier with people when they are in rural areas.
11 They rapidly became comfortable being with people.
12 They used to congregate particularly at old buildings.
13 They used to be attacked by people.
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Reading Passage 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on the Reading Passage below. Find the practice test with the Psychology and personality ASSESSMENT PDF here.
Psychology and personality ASSESSMENT
Questions 14-20
Reading passage has seven paragraphs A-Q.
Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number i-x in boxes 14-20 on your answer sheet.
List of Headingsi. The advantage of an intuitive approach to personality assessment ii. Overall theories of personality assessment rather than valuable guidance iii. The consequences of poor personality assessment iv. Differing views on the importance of personality assessment v. Success and failure in establishing an approach to personality assessment vi. Everyone makes personality assessments vii. Acknowledgement of the need for improvement in personality assessment viii. Little progress towards a widely applicable approach to personality assessment ix. The need for personality assessments to be well-judged x. The need for a different kind of research into personality assessment |
14 Paragraph A
15 Paragraph B
16 Paragraph C
17 Paragraph D
18 Paragraph E
19 Paragraph F
20 Paragraph G
Question 21
Choose THREE letters A-F.
Write your answers in box 21 on your answer sheet.
21 Which THREE of the following are stated about psychologists involved in personality assessment?
A ‘Depth’ psychologists are better at it than some other kinds of a psychologist.
B Many of them accept that their conclusions are unreliable.
C They receive criticism from psychologists not involved in the field.
D They have made people realise how hard the subject is.
E They have told people what not to do, rather than what they should do.
F They keep changing their minds about what the best approaches are.
Questions 22-26
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 21 In boxes 22-26 on your answer sheet write.
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.
22 People often feel that they have been wrongly assessed.
23 Unscientific systems of personality assessment have been of some use.
24 People make false assumptions about the expertise of psychologists.
25 It is likely that some psychologists are no better than anyone else at assessing personality.
26 Research since 1940 has been based on the acceptance of previous theories.
Reading Passage 3
Titan of technology
Questions 27-29
27 What do we learn about Gordon Moore’s personality in the first two paragraphs?
A It has changed noticeably as his career has developed.
B It was once considered unsuitable for the particular type of business he was in.
C It made him more suited to producing things than selling them.
D It is less complicated than it may at first appear.
28 What do we learn about Intel when it was first established?
A It was unlike any other company in its field at the time.
B It combined a relaxed atmosphere with serious intent.
C It attracted attention because of the unconventional way in which it was run.
D It placed more emphasis on ingenuity than on any other aspect.
29 What is stated about the setting up of Intel in the third paragraph?
A It was primarily motivated by the existence of funds that made it possible.
B It involved keeping certain sensitive information secret.
C It resulted from the founders’ desire to launch a particular product.
D It was caused by the founders’ dissatisfaction with their employer’s priorities.
Questions 30-34
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading -Passage 3?
In boxes 30-34 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
30 Competitors soon came close to catching up with Intel’s progress.
31 Intel’s Pentium 4 chip was more successful than Moore had anticipated.
32 Moore’s prediction in 1975 was based on too little evidence.
33 Flashing trainers are an example of Moore’s theory about the relationship between cost and applications.
34 Moore has always been confident that problems concerning the sire of components will be overcome.
Questions 35-40
Complete the summary below using words from the box.
Write your answers in blank spaces 35-40 on your answer sheet.
MOORE’S LAW
Gordon Moore’s ability to foresee developments is well-known. In 1965, he referred to the increase in the 35………………………….. of integrated circuits and guessed that the number of transistors would go on rising for a decade. The 36……………………….. of his prediction surprised him. Previously, the 37…………………….. and main 38……………………………………… of integrated circuits had been the major 39……………………….. with regard to their development. But Moore observed that the 40………………………. of integrated circuits was going to improve dramatically. His resulting forecasts concerning chips led to the creation of the term ‘Moore’s Law’.
| design | use | opinion | invention |
| cost-effectiveness | failure | sophistication | proposition |
| production | influence | understanding | cost |
| accuracy | demand | theory | inter-dependence |
| familiarity | reception | appearance | reference |
Answers
The Birds Of London Reading Answers (Passage 1)
1.
Answer: rock doves
Question Type: Short Answer Questions
Answer location: Paragraph A, line 2
Answer explanation: There are details in paragraph A suggest that “it has been suggested that the swarms of feral pigeons are all descended from birds which escaped from dovecotes in the early medieval period; they found a natural habitat in the crannies and ledges of buildings as did their ancestors, the rock doves, amid the sea-girt cliffs.” The pigeons today are descended from birds from the medieval period, and they were descended from rock doves. The pigeons lived on buildings, while the rock doves lived on cliffs.
2.
Answer: stale bread
Question Type: Short Answer Questions
Answer location: Paragraph A, last line
Answer explanation: In the given paragraph it is mentioned that “a modicum of kindness to these creatures seems to have been first shown in the late nineteenth century when they were fed oats rather than the customary stale bread.” People first started to be kind to them in the 19 century, when they gave them oats. Before that, it was common to give them stale (old and not good to eat) bread.
3.
Answer: fly(-)lines
Question Type: Short Answer Questions
Answer location: Paragraph B, line 4
Answer explanation: Paragraph B puts forward the information that “those who look up today may notice their ‘fly-lines’ in the sky from Lincoln’s Inn Fields over Kingsway and Trafalgar Square to Battersea, with other lines to Victoria Park and to Kenwood.” The use of inverted commas indicates that this is the special term used. You can see these lines all over London if you look up, we are told, and examples of places in London that birds fly to and from are given.
4.
Answer: building work; tree(-)felling
Question Type: Short Answer Questions
Answer location: Paragraph D, line 5
Answer explanation: If you observe clearly, it is given that “the rooks of London are, perhaps, the most notable of the disappeared, their rookeries destroyed by building work or by tree-felling.” The places where rooks live (rookeries) have been destroyed by these two activities, and this is why they have disappeared.
5.
Answer: friend
Question Type: Note Completion
Answer location: Paragraph B, line 5
Answer explanation: The answer is clearly mentioned in the said paragraph and line. You must note the paraphrasing here. In the passage, it is said that “the sparrows move quickly in public places, and they are now so much part of London that they have been adopted by the native population as the sparred; a friend was known to Cockneys as a ‘cock sparrer’ in tribute to a bird which is sweer and yet watchful, blessed with a dusky plumage similar to that of the London dust, a plucky little bird darting in and out of the city’s endless uproar.” Cockneys (people born and brought up in London) pronounced the word as ‘sparrer’; they had a word, ‘cock sparrer’, which meant ‘friend’. They used the bird’s name in this word because they felt the bird was like a friend, ‘sweet and yet watchful’ (pleasant but also taking care of others).
6.
Answer: lose body heat
Question Type: Note Completion
Answer location: Paragraph C, line 1
Answer explanation: In the said paragraph, you can refer to, “they are small birds which can lose body heat very quickly, so they are perfectly adapted to the ‘heat island’ of London.” London is called a ‘heat island’ (a place where heat is concentrated), and the bird is ‘perfectly adapted’ to such a place because it loses its body heat very quickly, so it can stay warm in London.
7.
Answer: (an) occupied building
Question Type: Note Completion
Answer location: Paragraph C, line 3
Answer explanation: A line in the said paragraph infers that “an ornithologist who described the sparrow as peculiarly attached to man’ said it never now breeds at any distance from an occupied building’.” It was said that it ‘never breeds at any distance from an occupied building’. It always breeds close to buildings with people in them.
8.
Answer: sociability
Question Type: Note Completion
Answer location: Paragraph C, line 4
Answer explanation: A line states that “this sociability, bred upon the fondness of the Londoner, is manifest in many ways.” This means that it likes people and being with people. This characteristic is ‘bred upon the fondness of the Londoner’ – caused and encouraged by the fact that people in London like the bird.
9.
Answer: interrogation
Question Type: Note Completion
Answer location: Paragraph C, line 6
Answer explanation: Here the author suggests that the birds seem to be “uttering a little plaintive note” – making a sad sound that suggests they are asking for something.
10.
Answer: D
Question Type: Matching Features
Answer location: Paragraph D, line 1
Answer explanation: The author points out that Chaffinches are ‘less approachable and trustful in the city than in the country’. They are happier to have people near them when they are in the countryside than when they are in the city.
11.
Answer: B
Question Type: Matching Features
Answer location: Paragraph B, line 1
Answer explanation: From the given information we can infer that woodpigeons ‘were quickly urbanised’ (rapidly became used to living in a city) and they increased in numbers and ‘tameness’ (they became less wild and more used to living with people).
12.
Answer: F
Question Type: Matching Features
Answer location: Paragraph D, line 10
Answer explanation: Paragraph D suggests that “they were venerable London birds, preferring to cluster around ancient churches and the like as if they were their local guardians.” They used to gather in groups at very old churches and at similar very old buildings.
13.
Answer: A
Question Type: Matching Features
Answer location: Paragraph A, line 4
Answer explanation: If you read thoroughly, there’s a line that claims “a man fell from the belfry of St Stephens Walbrook in 1277 while in quest of a pigeon’s nest, while the Bishop of London complained in 1385 of ‘malignant persons’ who threw stones at the pigeons resting in the city churches.” (very nasty, very unpleasant) people who ‘threw stones at the pigeons’.
Psychology And Personality Assessment Reading Answers (Passage 2)
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14.
Answer: vi
Question Type: Matching Headings
Answer location: Paragraph A, line 1
Answer explanation: The opening line of paragraph A states that “our daily lives are largely made up of contacts with other people, during which we are constantly making judgments of their personalities and accommodating our behavior to them in accordance with these judgments.” Hence, according to the author we assess other people’s personalities frequently during our ‘daily lives’, and the rest of the paragraph gives examples of everyday situations in which this happens.
15.
Answer: ix
Question Type: Matching Headings
Answer location: Paragraph B, last line
Answer explanation: A line in the said paragraph indicates “to some extent, understand, and react to the motives and qualities of those we meet; and clearly we are sufficiently accurate for most practical purposes, although we also recognize that misinterpretations easily arise – particularly on the pare of others who judge us!” Hence, the paragraph lists situations in which it is important that correct assessments of people’s personalities are made.
16.
Answer: iii
Question Type: Matching Headings
Answer location: Paragraph C, line 1
Answer explanation: The paragraph begins by stating that it becomes very clear when inaccurate assessments of people’s personalities have been made, and then examples are given of the results when this has happened. “Errors can often be corrected as we go along. But whenever we are pinned down to a definite decision about a person, which cannot easily be revised through his feedback’, the Inadequacies of our judgments become apparent.” (Paragraph B is about needing to make accurate assessments, while Paragraph C is about what happens if inaccurate assessments are made.)
17.
Answer: vii
Question Type: Matching Headings
Answer location: Paragraph D, line 1
Answer explanation: The paragraph begins by stating that little attention has been paid to the question of how personality can be assessed or how accurately personalities are assessed. It then states that people have been attracted by a number of ‘unscientific systems’ for assessing personality because they realise there are ‘weaknesses in their judgments’, and they are ‘desirous of’ (they want) better methods for assessing personality. This means that people know they are not very good at it and want to get better at it.
18.
Answer: ii
Question Type: Matching Headings
Answer location: Paragraph E, line 1
Answer explanation: The main point of the paragraph is that a lot of psychologists consider that their main role is to deal with ‘general laws and principles’ concerning human behaviour and thought. They think it is not their role to find ‘practical uses’ for their knowledge, and they do not think they have great skill at judging other people themselves. As a result, they do not want to give ‘definite predictions or decisions about other people’. Some psychologists are moving into work that Involves doing this, we are told at the end of the paragraph, but the main point is that psychologists think they should deal with general theories and not try to give practical guidance.
19.
Answer: viii
Question Type: Matching Headings
Answer location: Paragraph F, line 1
Answer explanation: The main point of this paragraph is that ‘unscientific methods of assessment’ are still used because, although psychologists have done research on personality assessment, they have not produced techniques for doing this that ‘are sufficiently reliable and accurate to win general acceptance.’ They have therefore not made much progress towards coming up with methods that are of practical use in society in general.
20.
Answer: v
Question Type: Matching Headings
Answer location: Paragraph G, line 3
Answer explanation: In the first half of the paragraph, we are told about unsuccessful approaches to personality assessment by a variety of people who “make ‘bad appointments’ because of poor personality assessment methods. In the last part of the paragraph, we are told about attempts to find ‘better methods” (more successful ones) that have been used by certain organisations.
21.
Answer: C [C/D/E :in any order]
Question Type: Multiple Choice Questions
Answer location: Paragraph E, last line
Answer explanation: The last line of paragraph E, states that they are ‘under constant fire’ (constantly criticised severely) by ‘other psychologists’ (ones not working in the area of personality assessment).
21.
Answer: D [C/D/E :in any order]
Question Type: Multiple Choice Questions
Answer location: Paragraph F, line 1
Answer explanation: Psychologists involved in personality assessment have shown people who have to make important decisions in society how difficult it is to assess personality. It can be confirmed from the line “the success of psychologists in personality assessment has been limited, in comparison with what they have achieved in the fields of abilities and training, with the result that most people continue to rely on unscientific methods of assessment.”
21.
Answer: E [C/D/E :in any order]
Question Type: Multiple Choice Questions
Answer location: Paragraph G, line 2
Answer explanation: A line provides the information that “but it is not much use telling employers, educationists and judges how inaccurately they diagnose the personalities with which they have to deal unless psychologists are sure that they can provide something better.” The writer is saying that psychologists have shown people that their judgments of personality are poor, but they have not managed to ‘provide something better’ (suggest a better method).
22.
Answer: YES
Question Type: Yes/No/Not Given Questions
Answer location: Paragraph B, last line
Answer explanation: The author in paragraph B states that we “to some extent, understand, and react to the motives and qualities of those we meet; and clearly we are sufficiently accurate for most practical purposes, although we also recognize that misinterpretations easily (it is easy for people to make inaccurate personality assessments) arise – particularly on the pare of others who judge us!” (rather than when we judge others).
Answer: NOT GIVEN
Question Type: Yes/No/Not Given Questions
Answer location: Paragraph D, line 3
Answer explanation: Various ‘unscientific systems’ are mentioned in the middle of the paragraph. The writer says that these have become popular because people want to get better at assessing personality, but he does not say whether or not any of them have actually been useful in a practical way.
24.
Answer: YES
Question Type: Yes/No/Not Given Questions
Answer location: Paragraph D, last line; Paragraph E, line 1
Answer explanation: The writer says that it is ‘natural’ (understandable) that people think that psychologists are experts on personality, but that this belief is ‘hardly justified’ (not really correct at all) because they are not experts on this.
25.
Answer: YES
Question Type: Yes/No/Not Given Questions
Answer location: Paragraph G, line 3
Answer explanation: The writer refers to ‘university psychologists’ and says that when they appoint a new member of staff, they ‘probably make at least as many bad appointments as other employers do’. They assess personality using the same ‘traditional methods’ that other people use, and they judge personality as inaccurately as other people do.
26.
Answer: NO
Question Type: Yes/No/Not Given Questions
Answer location: Paragraph G, last line
Answer explanation: In the said paragraph, you can point out that the research since 1940 that the writer mentions has involved ‘the experimental development of better methods’, which means it has tried new methods and has not been based on the theories that led to the previous methods.
Titan Of Technology Reading Answers (Passage 3)
27.
Answer: C
Question Type: Multiple Choice Questions
Answer location: Paragraph B, line 1
Answer explanation: If you read thoroughly, a line in the passage specifies that he had the most important role in Research & Development (coming up with new products) and was not as ‘extrovert’ (lively, confident, and enjoying talking to people) as his partner, whose role was to represent the company in public.
28.
Answer: B
Question Type: Multiple Choice Questions
Answer location: Paragraph B, line 4
Answer explanation: The company was ‘laid-back’ (had a calm and relaxed approach and atmosphere), but this never ‘implied lack of ambition’ (meant that the company wasn’t ambitious). Option A [2nd paragraph) is incorrect because the company was ‘distinctively Californian’ (it was clearly very typical of companies in California at the time). Option C (2nd paragraph) is incorrect because it may have been unconventional – people wore casual clothes and Moore did not have special treatment even though it was his company – but there is no suggestion that these aspects attracted attention. Option D (2nd paragraph) is incorrect because the emphasis was equally on ‘intellectual pizazz’ (having clever and exciting ideas) and the ‘ability to deliver a product’ (they saw having clever ideas and producing products as equally important).
29.
Answer: D
Question Type: Multiple Choice Questions
Answer location: Paragraph C, line 1
Answer explanation: Few lines in said paragraph discusses that “fairchild’s success put money in Moore and Noyce’s pockets, but they were starved of R&D money. They resigned, frustrated, to found Intel in 1968. ‘It was one of those rare periods when money was available,’ says Moore.” They got paid well, but they were frustrated because the company did not provide funding for research and development, and so they left and set up their own company.
30.
Answer: FALSE
Question Type: True/False/Not Given Questions
Answer location: Paragraph C, last line
Answer explanation: In the reference paragraph, the author mentions that “Intel was seven years ahead of the competition in terms of research and development, and we are told that it did not ‘relinquish’ this lead” (it never lost this advantage). The competition, therefore, did not catch up with Intel.
31.
Answer: NOT GIVEN
Question Type: True/False/Not Given Questions
Answer location: Paragraph D
Answer explanation: If you read clearly, it seems clear that it was successful, but we are not told anything about Moore’s expectations concerning how successful it would be.
32.
Answer: NOT GIVEN
Question Type: True/False/Not Given Questions
Answer location: Paragraph E, line 3
Answer explanation: His estimation in 1975 of how much growth there would be was ‘pessimistic’ (it was too low)’, so it was inaccurate, but we are not told how much evidence he based the prediction on.
33.
Answer: TRUE
Question Type: True/False/Not Given Questions
Answer location: Paragraph F, line 1
Answer explanation: The opening line of the passage mentions that “and there’s a corollary, says Moore. If the cost of a given amount of computer power drops 50 per cent every 18 months, each time that happens the market explodes with new applications that hadn’t been economical before. ” Hence, Moore says that every time the cost of producing more computer power falls, an enormous number of new products using microprocessors appear because they can now be produced more cheaply. Flashing trainers are an example of such a product.
34.
Answer: FALSE
Question Type: True/False/Not Given Questions
Answer location: Paragraph F, last line
Answer explanation: In the said paragraph, you can find out that ‘I suspect I shared Moore says that he agreed in the past that there would be a point where no more development was possible, but he had been proved wrong about this because the ‘barriers’ (problems connected with making components even smaller) had ‘melted away’ (disappeared because people had found ways of solving these problems).
35.
Answer: sophistication
Question Type: Summary Completion
Answer location: Paragraph D, line 7
Answer explanation: Few lines in the said paragraph discuss that ” In 1965, while still head of the R&D laboratory at Fairchild, he wrote a piece for Electronics magazine observing ‘that over the first few years we had essentially doubled the complexity of integrated circuits every year. ” He referred to the fact that the ‘complexity’ of integrated circuits had ‘doubled’ (they had become twice as complex’). In this context, ‘sophistication’ means ‘complexity’.
36.
Answer: accuracy
Question Type: Summary Completion
Answer location: Paragraph D, 3rd last line
Answer explanation: In the said paragraph, you can find out that “it proved a much more spot-on prediction than I could ever have imagined, up until then, integrated circuits had been expensive and had had principally military applications.” His prediction proved to be more ‘spot-on’ than he had expected. If something is ‘spot-on’, it is completely accurate or correct.
37.
Answer: cost
Question Type: Summary Completion
Answer location: Paragraph D, last line
Answer explanation: At the end of paragraph D it is given that “it proved a much more spot-on prediction than I could ever have imagined, up until then, integrated circuits had been expensive and had had principally military applications.” Before then, integrated circuits had been ‘expensive’, so the cost was an issue.
38.
Answer: use
Question Type: Summary Completion
Answer location: Paragraph D, last line
Answer explanation: A line in the given paragraph suggests that “it proved a much more spot-on prediction than I could ever have imagined, up until then, integrated circuits had been expensive and had had principally military applications. But I could see that the economics were going to switch dramatically. This was going to become the cheapest way to make electronics.” Before then, integrated circuits had had ‘principally military applications’ – they had been used mainly in military equipment.
39.
Answer: influence
Question Type: Summary Completion
Answer location: Paragraph D, last line
Answer explanation: A line in the given paragraph suggests that “it proved a much more spot-on prediction than I could ever have imagined, up until then, integrated circuits had been expensive and had had principally military applications. But I could see that the economics were going to switch dramatically. This was going to become the cheapest way to make electronics.”The cost of producing them and the main way in which they were used had obviously affected the development of integrated circuits. Moore felt that this was going to change and that these factors would no longer be such an influence.
40.
Answer: cost-effectiveness
Question Type: Summary Completion
Answer location: Paragraph D, last line
Answer explanation: The answer is clearly mentioned in the said paragraph and line. You must note the paraphrasing here. In the passage, it is said that “it proved a much more spot-on prediction than I could ever have imagined, up until then, integrated circuits had been expensive and had had principally military applications. But I could see that the economics were going to switch dramatically. This was going to become the cheapest way to make electronics.” He predicted that there was going to be a dramatic change in the cost of producing integrated circuits – it was going to come down a lot. They were going to become ‘the cheapest way to make electronics’. If a product can be made cheaply in comparison with how much it can be sold for, it is cost-effective.
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