IELTS General Reading Test 83

Section 1
Read the text below and answer questions 1-6.

Instructions for your new washing machine

• Young children should not be allowed to touch the machine or play with its controls. They should be supervised when the machine is in operation. Older children may use the machine if they have been instructed how to use it and if they are aware of the dangers of misuse.

• Your new washing machine should not be installed in a place where temperatures may drop below 0 degree Celsius or the functioning of the electronic controls may not work properly and water hoses may burst or split.

• Before first use, ensure that the protective transit bars have been removed from the back of your new machine. If they are still there during operation, it can result in damage to your machine.

• If you leave your new washing machine for any length of time, make sure that you turn off the machine’s stopcock.

• If the drain line of your new washing machine is placed in a wash basin, make sure that water can drain away fast enough to avoid flooding. Ensure too that the drain line is secure or the force of the water exiting it may dislodge its position, which also can result in flooding.

• Check all items placed into your new washing machine for coins, nails, paper, tissues and other similar things, as they may clog up or break the machinery.

• Correct use of detergent will avoid the need for descaling, but if it’s necessary, it’s important to use one of the suggested de-scaling agents given at the end of this booklet and follow the agent’s instructions carefully.

• Any items pre-washed in solvent-based agents should be carefully rinsed in cold water before being washed in your new washing machine.

• The first time you use your new washing machine, make sure it’s empty.

• Water and energy consumption are linked to the size of your laundry load. To exploit your new washing machine at its full potential, always fill your machine with the maximum dry load for the programme you have chosen.

Questions 1-6
Complete the sentences below. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.

1. Using the washing machine where it’s too cold can affect its controls and can damage its……………..
2. ……………………….installed for protection of the washing machine should be removed before the washing machine is first used.
3. Poorly attached drain lines can result in…………………….
4. If the…………………is used properly in the washing machine, de-scaling should not be necessary.
5. Clothing should be rinsed in………………….if it has been treated with any solvents before a washing cycle.
6. Filling the washing machine to its recommended maximum for the appropriate programme will allow users to fulfill the machine’s…………………….

Read the text below and answer questions 7-11.

Re: Rubbish collection in your area

Dear Householder,

In order to help protect our environment, your local town council has set itself certain targets regarding rubbish collection and recycling. We hope to reduce the amount of non-recyclable waste that we send to landfill sites and increase recycling. In order to reach our targets, we ask householders to divide their rubbish up by type. We have delivered differently colored rubbish bins with instruction to each house in the area. All you need to do is to put your rubbish into the correct bin and leave the bins out on the correct day for collection.

Collection Days for your Area
Bio-waste: Every Wednesday
Glass and metal: Every other Thursday
Plastics: Every other Thursday
Non-recyclable waste: Every Friday

Bro-waste is burned to generate power. Because of this, please ensure no plastic is in your bio-waste or the fumes from it burning will pollute the air. Collections will take place before 10 a.m. Rubbish bins ought to be put out on the pavement the night before the collection, but they must be returned to your property within 24 hours of the collection.

Bulky Items
We will collect bulky household waste that will not fit into your bin. This service is free but must be booked online in advance. you can book up to six household items per collection. If you have more than six items, you will need to book another collection once the first one is finished or take the items to the council’s Re-Use Centre. The bulky service does not collect any building waste. You can get rid of some materials free of charge at the council’s Re-Use Centre, but there may be a fee for others.

Questions 7-11
Answer the questions below. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the text for each answer.

7. Where does non-recyclable rubbish end up?
8. What should householders be careful not to leave in their bio-waste?
9. Where should rubbish bins be left for collection?
10. What is the maximum number of bulky items that can be picked up at any one collection?
11. What will the bulky rubbish collectors not pick up?

Read the text below and answer questions 12-14.

Blackstone Solicitors

Do you need urgent legal advice?

Blackstone Solicitors will provide you with the highest quality legal service at highly competitive prices. Experts in conveyancing wills, probate, power of attorney, migration and family law.

• Over 30 years experience
• Free initial consultation
• Nationwide service
• No hidden charges
• Discounts for over 65’s
• 24 hour helpline

www.blackstonesolicitors.com
0800 738 2435

Questions 12-14
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the advertisement for Blackstone Solicitors?
In boxes 12-14 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

12. Blackstone Solicitors has a fixed price of only E50 for the first meeting with one of their solicitors.
13. Blackstone Solicitors specialize in immigration cases.
14. Blackstone Solicitors can conduct initial consultations online.

Section 2
Read the text below and answer questions 15-20.

Starting a business in New Zealand – Types of Structures

Did you know there are a few different ways you can structure your business? It’s possible to do business in New Zealand under one of three basic types of business structure. Each offers varying degrees of control and responsibility.

Sole Traders
If you’re a sole trader, your business is built around you. The entire operation relies on you, but you can still employ others to help you. You’re 100% accountable for your business’ liabilities, but you also retain full control of the business and its profits. Many small business owners start out as sole traders, because sole traders aren’t required to spend money following any formal or legal processes to establish their business, unlike companies. This is because sole traders and their businesses are considered to be the same legal entity.

Partnerships
A partnership is when two or more people or entities join together to pool their assets and divide the profits and liabilities in a business. They often bring different skills to the table and varying resources, with the division of profits and liabilities – in addition to individual roles and responsibilities – outlined in a partnership agreement. Individuals are liable for their own debts and you can also be liable for business debts incurred by your partners if they become insolvent.

Companies
Companies are separate legal entities to their shareholders. This provides shareholders with limited liability from any of the business’ debts beyond the value of their shares in the company. However, if a shareholder is involved in the running of the business (as a director, for example), and he or she is found to have traded recklessly, fraudulently or not in the company’s best interests, they can still be made liable. Most financial lenders will also only give a business loan in exchange for a personal guarantee overriding limited liability. Shareholder dividends undergo taxation at a different rate to the company itself. All companies have to declare their director and shareholder details by registering for incorporation with the Companies Office.

Questions 15-20
Complete the notes below. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.

New Zealand Business Structures

Sole Traders
The owner is the business, but can take on employees. Owner wholly responsible for (15)……………..business operations and profits. Good way to start due to less red tape – owner and business are the (16)……………

Partnerships
2 or more people combine (17)………………and share profits and losses. All aspects of a partnership summarized in a partnership agreement. If a partner is (18)…………….the other is responsible for all debts.

Companies
Separate from shareholders – creates limited liability (unless shareholder takes part in running the company and is doing so poorly). Moneylenders often only offer loans when there is a (19)…………………Shareholder income is subject to different (20)……………..Companies must declare various company details at the Companies Office.

Read the text below and answer questions 21-27.

Company expenses – Information for Employees

Expenses are paid back to employees every quarter. Fill out digitally the expenses form, which is available in the company forms section on the shared drive of your computer. Send the expenses form to your line manager by email. Take all the relevant receipts for your expenses and place them in an envelope, which you must give to your line manager. Make sure your name and date references are on the outside of the envelope. Please keep a digital copy of the form that you send your line manager. We do not expect you to shoulder a financial burden for us. If you find that you are paying out of your own pocket more money than your personal finances can deal with, please get in contact with your line manager immediately and he/she will ensure that you are repaid immediately.

Travel
You can claim expenses for all your legitimate business travel, including when you travel to a temporary workplace. Examples of items you can claim for while on company business:
• Travel on planes, buses, ferries and taxis
• Parking, congestion charges, travel tolls
• Hotel bills and meals
• Subsistence expenses (such as eating away from your usual workplace)
• An amount per kilometre using your own vehicle – this amount changes periodically
• $30 incidental expenses per day on day trips
• $60 incidental expenses per day on overnight trips

You cannot claim expenses for travel to and from your living place and usual office location.

Telephones and Internet
If you ever use your home phone or mobile for company business, you can claim the cost of these calls. You cannot claim the cost of rental or contract respectively, as this will be treated as a benefit in kind on which you will pay tax. If you use your own Internet connection, then you may only claim a proportion of the bill based on your company usage.

Entertainment
This can be a problematic area for the company when we make deductions against corporation tax Expenses related to entertaining are allowed if they meet the following criteria:
• You are entertaining customers or potential customers
• None of your family or friends is present
• If the entertaining is not Just a social event

You may be asked for details of any entertaining you claim for. Please try and acquire receipts for any items for which you plan to claim. The company can reimburse you for some expenses without receipts, but we try and keep this to a minimum.

Questions 21-27
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the text? In boxes 21-27 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

21. All company expenses can only be paid at the end of every three months.
22. Employees can claim for food when staying at a hotel on company business.
23. Employees can only claim for using their car when the company cars are not available.
24. Employees cannot claim back any money on their personal cell phone contract, even when they use it for company purposes.
25. Employees can claim some money back on their own home Internet connection if they use it sometimes for work purposes.
26. Employees cannot claim taxi expenses for their customers when entertaining.
27. No expenses can be paid without production of the relevant receipt.

Section 3

The Alvarez Hypothesis

In 1980, Luis and Walter Alvarez offered their meteorite impact theory after examining research sites around the world. Their hypothesis suggested that the mass extinction of the dinosaurs was caused by the impact of a large meteorite on Earth about sixty-five million years ago.

Meteorites are lumps of stony or metallic material that were parts of asteroids. Meteorites commonly collide with Earth, but the majority are destroyed in the impact with the Earth’s atmosphere. Asteroids are planetary bodies or objects that revolve around the Sun and most are found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Some meteorites survive after entering the Earth’s atmosphere and impact on the Earth’s surface. The Alvarez Hypothesis theorises that a meteorite the size of San Francisco, travelling faster than a bullet, slammed into Earth sixty-five million years ago. The impact delivered a destructive blast thousands of times more powerful than the combined yield of all the world’s nuclear weapons, setting off earthquakes greater than eleven in magnitude and widespread tsunamis, and shrouding the globe for years in a thick cocoon of sky-blackening dust and debris. This cataclysm effectively ended the reign of the dinosaurs and opened the door for the ascension of mammals.

The story began in 1977 in Gubbio, Italy, a tiny village halfway between Rome and Florence, where geologists Luis and Walter Alvarez were collecting samples of limestone rock for a paleomagnetism study. The limestone outside of Gubbio, which was once below the sea, provides total geological evidence of the end of the Cretaceous period and the beginning of the Tertiary period This time span is sometimes referred to as “the Great Dying,” because a massive extinction claimed nearly seventy-five per cent of all the species of life on our planet, including, in addition to the dinosaurs, most types of plants and many types of microscopic organisms. Luis and Walter Alvarez found that forming a distinct boundary between the limestone of the two periods was a thin layer of red clay. Immediately below this clay boundary, the Cretaceous limestone was heavily populated with a wide mix of the fossils of tiny marine creatures. Above the clay layer in the Tertiary limestone, however, only the fossils of a single marine species could be seen. The clay layer itself contained no marine fossils at al. The two geologists consulted two nuclear chemists in Berkley, who had developed a technique called neutron activation analysis. This enabled precise measurements of very low concentrations of elements.

Luis Alvarez believed that neutron activation analysis would help determine how long it took for the clay layer to form. To the amazement of everyone involved, the measurements showed that the clay layer was about six hundred times richer in iridium than the surrounding limestone. Iridium, a silvery-white metallic element related to platinum, is virtually absent from the Earth’s crust, but high concentrations are common in extra-terrestrial objects, such as asteroids. These same iridium results were subsequently also discovered in clay layers at locations in Denmark and New Zealand, and later dozens of other sites around the world where the geological record of the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundaries is also complete. These iridium-spiked layers of clay also contained an abundance of soot.

The four scientists published their paper: “Extra-terrestrial Cause for the Cretaceous – Tertiary Extinction”. This paper was immediately resisted by scientific critics, who argued that volcanic eruptions were behind the demise of the dinosaurs and cited as evidence the thousands of miles of volcanic rock in an area of India known as the Deccan Traps. However, that argument was weakened by two subsequent findings. First, there was the discovery of shocked quartz along with the iridium and soot in the clay layer samples from around the world, which could only have been produced in the heat and violence of a titanic smash. Second came the discovery in 1991 of the scene of the titanic smash – the Chicxulub crater. This meteorite impact was thought to have caused the broken up quartz. The Chicxulub crater is a 180-kilometerwide, 20-kilometer-deep impact crater off the northern coast of the Yucatan peninsula in the Gulf of Mexico that is buried a kilometre deep. The discovery of this impact site answered critics of the Alvarez Hypothesis who’d been demanding to know: if an asteroid impact killed the dinosaurs, where’s the crater?

The Chicxulub crater was explored by drilling over two months. The crater r nowadays is buried beneath a thousand meters of sediment. Under this is a layer of what is known as impact breccias and then a layer of the impact melt. Beneath that is the rock that was needed to be brought to surface for research. The rock was shown to be made of anhydrite, which is a mineral that, if it were vaporised in an impact event, would produce the particular gases that could alter the Earth’s climate.

The question of why the dinosaurs died out is still not definitively answered. Sixty-five million years ago is a large age gap to find conclusive evidence. Today, most scientists agree with the ‘The Alvarez Hypothesis’ and that the Earth was indeed struck by a large meteorite at the end of the Cretaceous period. Whether this was the actual reason the dinosaurs died out or whether it was only a contributing factor will probably never be proved.

Questions 28-34
Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D.

28. Most meteorites colliding with Earth
A usually have trajectories that head towards the sun.
B are broken up and destroyed when they enter the Earth’s atmosphere.
C are usually found beyond the farthest planet.
D lost their power to threaten Earth millions of years ago.

29. The Alvarez Hypothesis theorised that the impact of the meteorite
A triggered a nuclear explosion.
B was preceded by a series of earthquakes.
C had no effect on sea life.
D darkened the sky of the Earth.

30. Gubblo was a good place to research for Luis and Walter Alvarez, because
A it was close to where they lived.
B the area had a strong magnetic field.
C rock there provides a complete geological record of the relevant time frame.
D it is close to the sea.

31. ‘The Great Dying” was a time when
A all life on Earth was wiped out.
B almost three-quarters of life on Earth was wiped out.
C only plants were left alive on Earth.
D only a few dinosaurs were left alive.

32. The thin layer of red clay found by Luis and Walter Alvarez
A was coloured by the decay of the limestone on either side.
B had no fossils from the sea.
C contained only a few dinosaur fossils.
D was a record of the first few million years of the Tertiary period.

33, The surprise from the neutron activation analysis results was
A how exact the measurements were.
B how fast the clay layer took to form.
C how slow the clay layer took to form.
D how high the levels of a certain element were.

34. Samples around the world from the same time period also showed
A uneven results of irridium.
B the Cretaceous period ended at different times around the world
C high levels of soot.
D similar fossil records.

Questions 35-37
Complete each sentence with the correct ending (A – F) below. Write the correct letter (A – F) in answer boxes 35-37 on your answer sheet.

35. The paper that was published on the Alvarez Hypothesis
36. The impact of the meteorite 65 million years ago
37. The site of the Chicxulub crater

A was not published until some time later.
B was discovered after the initial publication of the Alvarez Hypothesis.
C was initially preferred to the theory of volcanic eruptions killing the dinosaurs.
D was not accepted at once by fellow scientists.
E was replaced by soot in some research sites around the world.
F was later thought to be responsible for the broken up quartz in the rock samples

Questions 38-40
Label the diagram below. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.