IELTS practice test 14 reading academic test

IELTS PRACTICE TESTS

READING
TEST 14


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Reading Academic
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Test 14

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SECTION 1

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Questions 1 – 13

Thin-film solar power
The modernist box that won this year's Solar Decathlon, a contest for solar-powered houses sponsored by
America's Department of Energy, had solar panels of the conventional, crystalline sort on its roof. But the

walls were covered in solar cells made with thin coatings of silicon and other materials in the place of
expensive slices of crystal. Thin film, as this technology is known, is still less popular than crystalline cells
and its move to the mainstream has been a year or two away for a decade. But its time may have come at last.
There are many exotic ideas involving thin film, from the solar shingles recently unveiled by Dow, a big
chemical company, a roof 's worth costs $27,000, to experimental prototypes of power-generating clothes,
roads and cars. However, most thin film comes in the form of panels that resemble crystalline ones. They are
roughly half as efficient, meaning that a panel must be twice as big to generate the same amount of power,
but a third cheaper, watt for watt. So in places where there is no shortage of space, they are the natural
option.
Thin-film cells are also more versatile, since they can be mounted on a variety of materials including flexible
plastics and fabrics. Like all solar cells, they are becoming more efficient: the decathletes of Team Germany,
who designed the winning house, bragged that its north façade was covered in panels that could convert
even indirect sunlight into electricity.

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Over the past year or so, thanks to a crash in demand tied to the recession and falling subsidies in big
markets, the price of crystalline panels has fallen by 30-40%, undermining thin film's relative advantage.
Nonetheless, thin film's share of the market has continued to rise: it is now almost half, compared with just
10% in 2004.
The biggest force in the industry is a firm called First Solar, based in Arizona, a sunny American state. Like
that of virtually all alternative-energy firms, its share price has suffered in the recession. But it has
nonetheless performed considerably better than Standard & Poor's clean-energy index over the past three
years. Its gross margins in the first half of the year were over 50%, on sales of $944m. This month the firm
was added to the S&P 500 stockmarket index of America's biggest firms.

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First Solar looks likely to continue to grow. Last month it signed a memorandum of understanding with
China to install two gigawatts' worth of panels in Inner Mongolia-a place with plenty of space. That is
enough to power 3 million homes. Installation is due to begin next year and finish in 2019. That and other
projects should consume all its output for several years to come.

First Solar's rivals are much smaller. But technological advances may yet catapult one to the fore, says Steve
Milunovich, an analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. First Solar makes its cells from a chemical called
cadmium telluride. But firms such as Nanosolar, which is building factories in California and Germany,
believe that a combination of copper, indium, gallium and selenium known as CIGS will prove cheaper to
produce on a mass scale. Researchers at the University of California, meanwhile, hold out great hopes for
cells made of organic chemicals.
For the moment, however, the cheapest form of solar power is none of these, but the less glamorous
solar-thermal power, which involves heating water with sunlight to make steam. Utilities are also keen to use
lenses to increase the amount of sunlight hitting solar panels-a technique known as concentrating solar
power. They still need subsidies or a high price on carbon emissions to make investments in any sort of solar
power profitable. But the gap between solar and conventional power sources is becoming, well, thinner.

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Questions 1 - 6
Write True, False or Not Given.

1 At this year's Solar Decathlon, 'thin film' covered the roof of the modernist box.
2 When space is not a problem, it's probably better to use crystalline films.
3 Team Germany's house won because of its ability to turn indirect sunlight into electricity.
4 The price reduction of crystalline films has prevented thin films from gaining market share.
5 In the last three years, First Solar's share price has increased more than Standard & Poor's clean-energy
index.

6 First Solar is not yet listed on the S&P 500.

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Questions 7 - 13
Complete the summary with NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the text.

Based on its contract with China, it seems probable that First Solar will 7 ........... further. However, it does
face competition from several sources. First, there are a number of 8 ............... using the potentially 9 ..............
CIGS production process. In addition, 10 ............ power, though perhaps not as 11 ........... as the alternatives
is still the cheapest. And despite a narrowing 12 .............. , solar's biggest competitor is still 13 ............... .

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SECTION 2

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Questions 14 – 26

The DNA of the domesticated horse
THE genomes of many mammals have now been completed, including the cow, the dog, the chimpanzee
and, of course, the human. This week it was the turn of the horse to have its DNA sequence decoded. With it
emerged further evidence of how horses have been close human companions and, like other mammals that
share an evolutionary history with man, how they could help the understanding of hereditary diseases. But

there was also a surprise: horses have a newly forming part in their genetic make-up which shows the
evolutionary process in action in a way that has not been seen before.
A team of researchers led by Claire Wade, then at the Broad Institute, in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
collaborated on the project, which is reported in the latest issue of Science. They analysed DNA from a mare
called Twilight to reveal a genome that consists of up to 2.7 billion base pairs (the “letters” in which the
genetic message is written). This is slightly larger than the genome of a dog, but smaller than that of a
human or a cow. They also compared Twilight, a thoroughbred, with members of other horse breeds.

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The surprise was found on equine chromosome 11, in the form of a developing centromere. This is the
nexus of a chromosome, from which its arms dangle. Relatively little is known about centromeres. They are
difficult to analyse, not least because they contain highly repetitive DNA sequences. But every chromosome
has one, and they play an essential role in ensuring that when a cell divides, each daughter inherits a copy of
every chromosome in the mother cell.

The appearance of a new centromere, therefore, lets geneticists examine the process by which new
chromosomes come into existence. The new horse centromere seems common to all breeds, and has not yet
acquired any repetitive DNA. This discovery solves one mystery: centromeres appear before repetitive DNA,
rather than being caused by it. And it opens more lines of research.

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The equine genome also indicates how extensive crossbreeding was in horse evolution. Domestication
probably began 4,000-6,000 years ago, with wild horses initially being hunted for food, and then herded for
the same purpose, before being harnessed to provide power and transport. This was unlike the
domestication of dogs, where a small number of wolves probably domesticated themselves, by cosying up to
groups of people and acting as four-legged garbage-disposal units, before being selectively in-bred into the
varieties seen today. In horses, a large number of mares but few stallions appear to have been involved in the
development of the genome, and—with the exception of thoroughbreds—there was also a lot of genetic
sharing between breeds.
That pattern is partly a consequence of the fact that herds of horses usually contain a lot of mares guarded

by a single stallion. And then there was the effect of Genghis Khan and his descendants, whose armies
travelled with their ponies across much of Eurasia. According to Dr Wade, who is now at the University of
Sydney, “war and conquest, with the horse as a means of transport, meant the genetics were spread widely”.
As well as developing new centromeres, chromosomes also reorder their genes during the course of
evolution. The researchers found that 53% of horse genes appear on their chromosomes in the same order as
they do in humans—in contradistinction to dogs, where the figure is 29%. Since, even with this relatively
low level of synteny, as the relationship is called, dogs have proved useful in the study of some human
diseases, the researchers hope that the high-synteny horse could be similarly illuminating.

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They tested this by looking for the as-yet unknown genetic mutation involved in what is called the leopard
complex. This afflicts spotted horses, particularly a breed called Appaloosas, with a form of night blindness
similar to one that sometimes afflicts people. Horses with a single copy of the gene in question (inherited
from either sire or dam) have white patches that contain polka dots. If they have two copies (one from each
parent), they show no spots in their patches and are likely to suffer from night blindness. From millions of
possibilities, the researchers were able to whittle the culprit down to being one of two candidates that reside
in an area of the genome that is also responsible for coat markings. The dog may be man’s best friend, but
his horse may thus prove to be more genetically helpful.

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Questions 14 - 18
Which paragraph contains

14 the role of conflict in the development of horses' genes
15 the advancement of horses compared to other animals
16 a revelation about horses genetic form
17 how the discovery of the new centromere cleared up a problem
18 the relative size of a horse's genome

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Questions 19 - 22

Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer.

19 Which comes first, repetitive DNA or centromeres?
20 Why were horses herded originally?
21 Which sex of horse has been most influential on the progression of its genome?
22 What were Genghis Khan's ponies used for?

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Questions 23 - 26
Complete the summary with NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the text.

Researchers believe that studying horses could be equally 23................... as studying dogs because of the
higher level of 24 ................... horses have with humans. A recent study raised this hope. By a study of the
genes of a certain 25 ................... of horse, a gene responsible for 26 ................... in humans was identified.

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SECTION 3

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Questions 27 – 40

This thing called love
A. Love is many things: the protective love of a mother for her child, the passion of a couple newly in love,
the deep love of long-term companions and the divine love of God, to name just a few. Some cultures have
10 or more words for different forms of love, and poets and songwriters always find myriad aspects of love
to celebrate. Is there anything universal behind all this diversity?
B. The science of love is still in its infancy. Yet scientists of many different disciplines are beginning to get
their first insights into the nature and origin of love. We can now look inside brains to view their patterns of
activity, measure biochemical changes that take place in different forms of love, explore diverse human
experiences of love, and look for the evolutionary roots of love in other animals.
C. If the different forms of love have any common evolutionary beginning, where should we look? Maternal
love seems a good place to start. Of all the forms of love, none seems as deep, strong, selfless or enduring as
the love of a mother for her child, nor is any other bond so ubiquitous in the animal kingdom. Biologically
this bond makes perfect sense. In any animal that must provide care for newborn offspring to survive, the

bond is essential if that mother's genes are to be passed on to the next generation.

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D. How is that bond created? Much of what we know about the brain chemistry of bonding comes from
studies of rodents. Whether they feel "love" we cannot say, but they will bitterly defend their young. This
tendency seems directly triggered by motherhood: virgin female rats, or even pregnant ones, will avoid or
attack pups, but just before giving birth their behaviour changes profoundly. So, what makes newborn
infants so special to their mothers? The critical link turns out to be the hormone oxytocin. Late in
pregnancy, raised levels of oestrogen boost the number of receptors for oxytocin in parts of the brain.
During birth, the physical stimulation of labour triggers the release of oxytocin and when the hormone hits
those receptors it causes the mother to become addicted to those pups and their particular smell. "Addicted"
might seem like a strong word, but the process of bonding to the newborn pups involves powerful activation
of a system that carries reward information around the brain. It is this same dopamine reward circuit that
can be artificially stimulated by drugs like cocaine and heroin.

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E. The 'prize' circuits originate near the base of the brain in the ventral tegmental area (VTA). Nerve fibres
from here connect to the front of the brain, most importantly to the nucleus accumbens that lies just
beneath the frontal cortex, where they release the neurotransmitter dopamine. Ultimately, it is in the cortex
that 'prize' information is coordinated with emotions and memories and where, in humans, subjective
feelings are created, but it is the VTA that sends on the key information about the value of an activity and
helps stamp it into memory.
F. When a rat is bonding to her pups, this reward system is boosted by oxytocin at the same time as the
hormone facilitates sensitivity to smell, ensuring that the bonding is specific to the unique smell of the
mother's own pups. Every time the mother sniffs its pups again, it may sense that same feeling of impending
reward, much as a drug addict feels cravings at the thought of the drug.
G. Care of the young is even more important in the higher mammals. Chimpanzees don't leave their
mothers until they are more than seven years old and human children stay around far longer. You might
think that alongside the strengthening bond between mother and infant there should be a similar trend in

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another form of love - a monogamous bond between male and female parents, once again designed to
ensure survival of the young. Think again. No such trend exists. Among mammals, love them and leave
them is most often the rule: fewer than 5 per cent of mammalian species are monogamous, and there is no
simple pattern that explains why it occasionally appears. Surprisingly, the need for care from two parents is
unlikely to be the main driving force for its evolution, as even among species that are monogamous many
have fathers that never provide for their offspring.
H. That leaves an interesting question: if monogamy is an evolutionary oddity rather than a trend, how does
evolution occasionally redesign a species to behave so differently from other closely related ones? The
answer seems to be that evolution stole the biochemistry and neural tricks that bond mother to infant and
reinstalled them, so as to bind male and female together.
I. That is the message from two species of vole that provide a natural experiment. One species, the prairie
vole, bonds extraordinarily closely to its mate. In contrast, its close relative the meadow vole is promiscuous.
Partners mate and move on. The difference between them comes down to where receptors for oxytocin and
a closely related hormone, vasopressin, are located in the brain. Those hormones are produced during "the
extended tactile pleasures of mating" as one research paper puts it. In the promiscuous meadow vole, few
receptors for the vasopressin hormone are found in the dopamine reward region, but in the monogamous
prairie vole the receptors are there in abundance, turning sex into a powerful reward that bonds the male to
its partner.

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J. Small changes in a single gene determine whether there will be many vasopressin receptors in the reward
region or not. Larry Young and his colleagues at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, were able to make

promiscuous meadow voles monogamous simply by injecting them with a virus that carried the prairie vole
gene variant into their brain cells. Just as predicted, if prairie voles are given drugs that arrest their
vasopressin receptors, they become as promiscuous as meadow voles.
K. Of course, voles aren't humans and their pair bonding can't really be called love. But it is worth noting
that among humans, there is considerable individual variation in the gene that controls the distribution of
the receptors, although no one knows if it correlates with fidelity. Oxytocin and vasopressin certainly seem
important in human love. When Andreas Bartels and Semir Zeki at University College London scanned the
brains of couples who had been together for several years while they looked at a picture of their partner,
they found that activity rose in just those parts of the brain that are rich in receptors for these two
hormones.

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Questions 27 - 37
Match each heading to the most suitable paragraph.

i

A biological transfer

ii

The 'relationship' hormone

iii

Receptors in the human brain

iv

The movement of receptor locations

v

The route to reward

vi

Early scientific steps

vii

Behaviourism at play

viii

A lack of fidelity

ix

The starting point

x

The significance of receptor locations

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xi

Love comes in many forms

xii

The transferability of the key genes

27

Paragraph A ..........

28

Paragraph B ..........

29

Paragraph C ..........

30

Paragraph D ..........

31

Paragraph E ..........

32

Paragraph F ..........

33

Paragraph G ..........

34

Paragraph H ..........

35

Paragraph I ..........

36

Paragraph J ..........

37

Paragraph K ..........

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Questions 38 - 40

Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer.

38 In the monogamous prairie vole, vasopressin hormone receptors are found .................. .
39 If the vasopressin receptors of prairie voles are blocked, the voles act in a .................. way.
40 Vasopressin

appears to play a significant role in ................. .

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Answers

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1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

False
False
Not Given
False
True
False
grow
rivals
cheaper
solar-thermal
glamorous
gap
conventional
power

14

15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26

F
E
A
D
B
centromeres
for food
the female
/ the mare
/ mares
transport
illuminating
synteny
breed
night
blindness

27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40

xi
vi
ix
ii
v
vii
viii
i
x
xii
iii
in abundance
promiscuous
human love

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