IELTS Listening Sample Questions # Sleepiness

There are so many times we do get bored by the dull, mundane life going around us. It could be either during a meeting, work, classes or for that matter while travelling. Some people get sleepy because of the lack of sleep they get, while others tend to get sleepy by the kind of activity they are involved in. This time we are going to listen to a BBC podcast that revolves around sleepiness.

The audio has been taken from BBC 6 minutes English.

Answer the following questions in NO MORE THAN FOUR WORDS.

  1. Which biological reason is responsible for our sleepiness and alertness?
  2. What does the word circadian mean?
  3. Which synonym does the  speaker uses for synchronize?
  4. What is the disruption caused to the circadian rhythms by high-speed travelling called?
  5. Which word does speaker uses for internal?
  6. Which word defines the back and forth movement of something?
  7. What is the normal range for the ticking o the endogenous clock in humans?
  8. What is the work outside the traditional 9 to 5 called?
  9. Which word does the speaker uses to refer to adjust?
  10. Which word does the speaker uses for short sleeps?
ANSWERS
  1. Circadian rhythms
  2. around a day
  3. adjust
  4. jet lag
  5. endogenous
  6. oscillate
  7. 23.8 to 24.8 hours
  8. shift work
  9. modulate
  10. naps

IELTS BAND 7

IELTS Practice Reading # Christmas Pickle

The below passage has been taken from the below link –

NEW YORK TIMES

A great many people in the American Midwest have family roots in Germany, and a good number of them can tell you all about a beloved old-country holiday tradition: the Weihnachtsgurke, or Christmas Pickle.

They will tell you that an ornament in the shape of a pickle is always the last one hung on the tree on Christmas Eve, camouflaged somewhere among the pine needles. It might be shiny or matte; it might have gold swirls or a little Santa hat. But whatever the style, the story goes that the first child to find the pickle in the morning is assured of good luck in the coming year and a special gift.

It sounds plausible: Germans tend to love traditions, Christmas and pickles. Versions of the story and speculation over its origins proliferate on the internet. There is only one snag: It is all but unknown in Germany.

The Statista polling agency surveyed 2,057 Germans in November and found that 91 percent had never even heard of this holiday legend attributed to their country.

Sascha Müller of the Lauscha glass center, in the eastern German region where the making of glass Christmas ornaments started in the mid-19th century, said he had learned of the Christmas pickle for the first time in the 1990s, on a trip to Frankenmuth, Mich.

He brought the story home with him, and his artisans now churn out 50,000 pickle ornaments a year, making it a best seller behind only Santa Claus and colored glass balls.

Dieter Dressler, a glass artisan in Weimar, also makes glossy green pickle ornaments, slightly curved and as thick as a large man’s thumb. He said there could be something to the idea that people in the Spreewald region, where cucumbers are grown and pickled, might have once been so poor that they had nothing else to hang on their trees, and that émigrés took the memory with them.

Mr. Dressler said that over the past three years he had been selling more and more pickle ornaments to Germans, who laugh when they hear the story of the Weihnachtsgurke.

“Lots of people ask me if I have a smaller one,” Mr. Dressler said. But being German, he knows you cannot go against tradition. “I tell them: ‘No, that wouldn’t be a pickle. It would be a cornichon.’”

Given below are the meaning of the tough words highlighted in the passage above. So, practice reading and increase chances of getting high band.

 

WORDSMEANING
beloveddearly loved.
traditionthe transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation, or the fact of being passed on in this way.
ornamenta thing used or serving to make something look more attractive but usually having no practical purpose, especially a small object such as a figurine.
picklea relish consisting of vegetables or fruit preserved in vinegar or brine.
camouflagedthe disguising of military personnel, equipment, and installations by painting or covering them to make them blend in with their surroundings.
matteÊdull and flat; without a shine.
swirlsmove in a twisting or spiralling pattern.
plausible(of an argument or statement) seeming reasonable or probable.
proliferateincrease rapidly in number; multiply.
snagan unexpected or hidden obstacle or drawback.
artisana worker in a skilled trade, especially one that involves making things by hand.
cucumbersa long, green-skinned fruit with watery flesh, usually eaten raw in salads or pickled.
ŽmigrŽsa person who has left their own country in order to settle in another, typically for political reasons.
cornichona sour gherkin usually flavored with tarragon.

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IELTS Listening Sample Questions # Craze Off

There was a time people went crazy over the Bermuda pants, cocaine, break dancing and so much more. Soon these fads wore off and new came up. But, what makes these fads to go off and new ones to arrive. What makes the craze off? This time we are going to listen to a BBC audio that talks about the crazy fads, their arrival and why they just went off. Why do some things become craze for people while others just don’t make that impact on lives.

The audio has been taken from BBC 6 minutes English.

 

 

Answer the following questions in NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS.

  1. In which game do the players have to catch the virtual monsters?
  2. Which two words are used to define a sudden and widespread enthusiasm for something that lasts for only a short time?
  3. What term is used to define the situation when a digital information is layered on top of a smartphone?
  4. What is the best selling toy of all time?
  5. Which term is used to describe how people get influenced by their peers to adopt certain behaviors?
  6. What acronym is used for the fear of missing out?
  7. Which word describes the first model of a machine from which others develop things?
  8. Which country did the inventory of the Rubik’s cube belong to? Hungary
ANSWERS
  1. Pokemon Go
  2. craze, fad
  3. Augmented reality
  4. Rubik Cube
  5. Herd mentaility
  6. FOMO
  7. Prototype
  8. Hungary

IELTS BAND 7 

IELTS Reading Sample Questions # Climate Change

READING PASSAGE 2

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

[A]Temperatures in the Arctic in the last two months have hit more than 20C above normal for the time of year. Temperatures that unusual in the UK and Europe would produce 45C summers. As a result, sea ice has shrunk to levels that scientists describe as “off the scale”. Mapping the changes to the extent of sea ice over the last 40 years confirms that: on a graph, the lines are clustered together like threads in a hank of silk, warming and cooling in line with each other – until this year. This year’s line drops down like a thin thread dangling into the void.

[B]Extrapolating data from a single year must be done with caution. When El Niño boosted global temperatures to make 1998 the hottest year on record, a position it held until 2014, deniers claimed that this showed that global warming had “paused”. In fact, several years after 1998 came within 0.3C of the record. The rise of a huge 20C over normal in the Arctic, the region that acts as one of the most important regulators in the global climate system, means that all expectations must now be rewritten.

[C]Arctic snow and ice reflect heat back into space – the albedo effect. When there is less ice, less sunlight is reflected and the sea, newly exposed, absorbs more heat, which melts more ice, and so on in a cycle. This is of vital importance: it could represent a tipping point, beyond which the Arctic ice cap, by some projections, might soon disappear altogether in summer and this is not the only crucial climate role the Arctic plays. Sea and air currents swirling over and under the ice cool the globe and affect weather systems on the other side of the world, sometimes in ways that are still not fully understood.

[D]Arctic sea ice has recovered in extent from previous lows. But that does not tell the whole story. When temperatures are less volatile, sea ice forms in layers over multiple years to a thick and solid mass. Ice that forms under this year’s conditions is likely to be thinner and less stable than what it replaces, more vulnerable to another year’s warming and less effective as a temperature regulator. For these reasons, the current drastic melting of the Arctic cannot be regarded merely as an outlier. While the effects of an ice-free Arctic on global weather systems are still in the realm of known unknowns, it is a known known that they will be disruptive. Also, the current Arctic temperature and sea ice charts look like the beginning of a whole new trend, one that could change the global climate system for ever.

[E]The imperative for action is therefore overwhelming. Reducing carbon dioxide is vital, and it is encouraging that annual emissions have been flat for three years. But now it is necessary to move further, faster. Some experts advocate cutting the amount of black, unburnt carbon – soot – as a matter of urgency. Much of this soot is borne by air currents to the Arctic, depositing it on pristine snow that turns black, and so more heat-absorbent. Some measures to stop soot, like capping coal-fired power stations and banning agricultural burning, are relatively easy. Others – cleaner vehicles and spreading the use of solar cookers in developing countries – might take longer.

[F]Getting rid of potent hydrofluorocarbon gases, commonly used in refrigeration, has the broad backing of governments and industry, and will buy time. Methane, often a byproduct of fossil fuel exploration, should be used as an energy source, or at least flared, which is less harmful. Cutting these “short-lived climate pollutants” could prevent 0.5C of warming over the next 30 years, the research suggests. These are opportunities that must be taken; they are necessary, though not sufficient. And, so governments should also convene an Arctic council to explore other ways of protecting the region.

[G]Driving progress demands just the kind of leadership that looks very much to have disappeared from the global scene. Vladimir Putin’s Russia has been laying claim to vast Arctic areas, anticipating the realms of new possibility for commerce – new shipping lanes, cutting thousands of miles from current journeys – as well as oil and gas exploration that an ice-free Arctic would open up. For Donald Trump, such an unfrozen Arctic might allow the US to control key shipping routes, and find new oilfields and gas fields. Mr. Trump’s choice of Rex Tillerson, former head of Exxon Mobil and cheerleader for Mr. Putin, as secretary of state is deeply worrying. Two friendly world leaders facing one an other across a vanishing Arctic ice cap and the thawing of the cold war is no longer a metaphor.

Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter, A–F, in boxes 14-20 on your answer sheet.

14. Methane is a good alternative for fuel exploration.

15. Changing Arctic temperatures can lead to complete change in the world temperature.

16. A rise of a score was observed  in less than a decade after the world hit its highest temperature.

17. A drop in the level of sea ice has been observed by scientists.

18. The ice and the snow in Arctic reflect back the heat into space.

19. We have a long way before developing countries massively use cleaner vehicles.

20. There are lot of commercial opportunities in Arctic, according to Russia.

Answers

14. F

15. D

16. B

17. A

18. C

19. E

20. G

 

IELTS Band7 Dehradun

IELTS Band7 Dehradun

IELTS BAND 7

 

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