Table of Contents
BEST IELTS General Reading Test 234
IELTS GENERAL READING TEST 234 – PASSAGE – 1
IELTS GENERAL READING TEST
READING PASSAGE – 1
Seeds
A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering. The formation of the seed is part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiosperm plants. Seeds are the product of the ripened ovule, after fertilization by pollen and some breed within the plant. The embryo develops from the zygote, and the seed coat from the integuments of the ovule. Seeds have been an important development in the reproduction and success of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants, relative to more primitive plants such as ferns, mosses, and liverworts, which do not have seeds and use water-dependent means to grow.
Seed plants now dominate biological niches on land, from forests to grasslands both in hot and cold climates. The term “seed” also has a general meaning that antedates the above anything that can be sown, e.g., “seed” potatoes, “seeds” of corn or sunflower “seeds”. In the case of sunflower and corn “seeds”, what is sown is the seed enclosed in a shell or husk, whereas the potato is a tuber. In the angiosperms (flowering plants), the ovary ripens to a fruit which contains the seed and serves to disseminate it.
IELTS General Reading Test
Many structures commonly referred to as “seeds” are actually dry fruits. Sunflower seeds are sold commercially while still enclosed within the hard wall of the fruit, which must be split open to reach the seed. Different groups of plants have other modifications, the so-called stone fruits (such as the peach) have a hardened fruit layer (the endocarp) fused to and surrounding the actual seed. Nuts are the one-seeded, hard-shelled fruit of some plants with an indehiscent seed, such as an acorn or hazelnut.
Seeds are produced in several related groups of plants, and their manner of production distinguishes the angiosperms (“enclosed seeds”) from the gymnosperms (“naked seeds”). Angiosperm seeds are produced in a hard or fleshy structure called a fruit that encloses the seeds for protection in order to secure healthy growth. Some fruits have layers of both hard and fleshy material. In gymnosperms, no special structure develops to enclose the seeds, which begin their development “naked” on the bracts of cones. However, the seeds do become covered by the cone scales as they develop in some species of conifer.
IELTS General Reading Test
Seed production in natural plant populations varies widely from year to year in response to weather variables, insects and diseases, and internal cycles within the plants themselves. Over a 20-year period, for example, forests composed of loblolly pine and shortleaf pine produced from 0 to nearly 5 million sound pine seeds per hectare. Over this period, there were six bumper, five poor, and nine good seed crops, when evaluated for production of adequate seedlings for natural forest reproduction.
Angiosperm (flowering plants) seeds consist of three genetically distinct constituents: the embryo formed from the zygote, the endosperm, which is normally triploid, the seed coat from tissue derived from the maternal tissue of the ovule. In angiosperms, the process of seed development begins with binary impregnation, which involves the fusion of two male gametes with the egg cell and the central cell to form the primary endosperm and the zygote. Right after fertilization, the zygote is mostly inactive, but the primary endosperm divides rapidly to form the endosperm tissue. This tissue becomes the food, and the young plant will consume until the roots have developed after germination.
IELTS General Reading Test
Questions 1 – 7
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage?
TRUE If the statement agrees with the information.
FALSE If the statement contradicts the information.
NOT GIVEN If there is no information on this.
1. The seeds cannot nurture inside a plant.
2. Some seedless plants depend on water resources to propagate.
3. Seed plants used to raise well in hot environment as compared to cold weather in the ancient times.
4. Sunflower seeds are sold commercially by taking them out of their shell.
5. Gymnosperms kernels are formed in a rigid or plump fruit.
6. The angiosperms progression of seed expansion requires two stages of insemination.
7. Zygote remains sedentary immediately after fertilization.
IELTS General Reading Test
Read the text below and answer questions 8-13.
Pop-The Music Culture
A. Pop is a genre of popular music that instigated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms popular music and pop music are often used interchangeably, although the former describes all music that is popular and includes many disparate styles.
Rock and pop remained roughly synonymous until the late 1960s, after which pop became associated with music that was more commercial, ephemeral, and accessible. Although much of the music that appears on record charts is seen as pop music, the genre is distinguished from chart music. Identifying factors usually include repeated choruses and hooks, short to medium-length songs written in a basic format (often the verse-chorus structure), and rhythms or tempos that can be easily danced to. Much pop music also borrows elements from other styles such as rock, urban, dance, Latin, and country.
IELTS General Reading Test
B. According to Frith, features of pop music include an aim of appealing to a general audience, rather than to a particular sub-culture or ideology, and an emphasis on craftsmanship rather than formal “artistic” qualities. Music scholar Timothy Warner said pop music typically has an emphasis on recording, production, and technology, rather than live performance; a tendency to reflect existing trends rather than progressive developments; and seeks to encourage dancing or uses dance-oriented rhythms. In the 1940s, improved microphone design allowed a more intimate singing style and, ten or twenty years later, inexpensive, and more durable 45 rpm records for singles “revolutionized the manner in which pop has been disseminated”, which helped to move pop music to “a film star system”. Another technological change was the widespread availability of television in the 1950s with televised performances, forcing “pop stars had to have a visual presence”.
C. In the 1960s, the introduction of inexpensive, portable transistor radios meant that teenagers in the developed world could listen to music outside of the home. By the early 1980s, the promotion of pop music had been greatly affected by the rise of music television like MTV, which “favoured those channels artists such as Michael Jackson and Madonna who had a strong visual appeal”. Multi-track recording and digital sampling have also been utilize as methods for the creation and elaboration of pop music. During the mid-1960s, pop music made repeated forays into new sounds, styles, and techniques that inspired public discourse among its listeners.
IELTS General Reading Test
D. The word “progressive” was frequently used, and it was thought that every song and single was to be a “progression” from the last. Music detractor, Simon Reynolds writes that beginning with 1967, a divide would exist between “progressive” pop and “mass” pop, a separation which was “also, broadly, one between boys and girls, middle-class and working-class. “The latter half of the 20th-century included a large-scale trend in American culture in which the boundaries between art and pop music were increasingly blurred. Between 1950 and 1970, there was a debate of pop versus art. Since then, certain music publications have embraced the music’s legitimacy, a trend referred to as “poptimism
IELTS General Reading Test
Questions 8 – 13
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write correct letter A-D in your answer sheet.
NB you may use any letter more than once.
8. Characteristics that extricate pop music from other kinds of melody.
9. Factors prompting the reach of pop music.
10. An invention compelling pop singers to create a filmic existence.
11. A music critic’s vision about a split in two types of pop.
12. Origin of pop music.
13. Enhancements in music gear accountable for the circulation of pop music.
IELTS General Reading Test
ANSWERS ARE BELOW
IELTS General Reading Test
ANSWERS
1. FALSE
2. TRUE
3. NOT GIVEN
4. FALSE
5. FALSE
6. TRUE
7. TRUE
8. A
9. C
10. B
11. D
12. A
13. B
IELTS General Reading Test