Table of Contents
BEST IELTS General Reading Test 315
IELTS GENERAL READING TEST – PASSAGE – 1
IELTS GENERAL READING TEST
READING PASSAGE 1
POLITICAL BELIEFS
Fifty years ago, if you knew whether someone was a liberal or a conservative politically, you didn’t necessarily know a lot about the person’s moral values; party affiliation told you even less about someone’s preferences in restaurants or movies. There was so much diversity within each party that stereotyping was harder and cross-party alliances were much easier.
Nowadays you can make predictions about people’s values and votes from just a few seemingly unrelated things, such as whether they find exotic cuisines appealing or how messy their desks are. A research institute has surveyed more than five hundred thousand about their personality traits and moral values. They found very consistent differences between political beliefs in a few values.
IELTS General Reading Test
For example, how strongly do you agree or disagree with these two statements:
1) “Compassion is the most important virtue.”
2) “The world would be a better place if we let unsuccessful people fail and suffer the consequences.”
The liberals in the sample strongly indentify with the compassion statement and strongly reject the failure statement. In contrast, those with conservative political beliefs endorse both statements mildly are equally.
IELTS General Reading Test
What’s going on here? A useful way to think about these differences, especially when discussing viewpoint on economic policies, is that it’s a battle between the law of karma and the principle of compassion. Conservations generally want to live in a world governed by karma, the ancient Hindu idea that people reap the fruits of their actions, both good and bad.
Karma was usually thought of as a law of the universe, like the law of gravity. Part of the reason conservatives have historically opposed the growth of the welfare state is the belief that it grants people a sort of karmic exemption, allowing those who are lazy or irresponsible to draw resources from those who are more hardworking. Conservations agree that the world would be a better place if we “let unsuccessful people fail” whether it be an individual, company or even a country.
IELTS General Reading Test
Liberals, by contrast would prefer to live in a world governed by compassion. They are more likely to give people second and third chances. For example, they are more likely to endorse this statement: “It is generally better to show mercy than to take revenge.” Karma and compassion are both necessary pillars of a well-functioning society. Conservatives are right that a world in which the law of Karma applies tends to work better than one in which it doesn’t. Results from studies in experimental behavior illustrate that cooperation rates skyrocket when cheaters expect to be punished.
IELTS General Reading Test
However, the law of Karma is not real. In free-market societies, had work does pay off much better than laziness yet cancer, unemployment and other forms of bad luck can strike anyone. And cheaters, exploiters and law-breakers do often proposer. If we want to live in a truly just world, in which honest work is rewarded, cheaters are punished and people can bounce back from misfortune and mistakes, we’ll have to engineer it ourselves. Karma and compassion don’t balance themselves; that’s a job we must do.
IELTS General Reading Test
Questions 1-6
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
1. Surprisingly, you can predict someone’s political viewpoints by
A. Interviewing a person at length about their voting history.
B. Looking at how his or her parents voted along party lines.
C. Drawing conclusions based on their moral attitudes.
D. Determining whether they are immigrants in their country.
2. The number of people who participated in the research study was
A. More than 500.
B. Almost half a million.
C. Give or take 5,000.
D. In excess of 500,000.
IELTS General Reading Test
3. The study shows that those with conservative political beliefs think
A. People should receive success based on their efforts
B. People should be less forgiving towards
C. That karma is insignificant in their attitude towards life.
D. That giving to the poor is a great idea.
4. Those with liberal political viewpoints have
A. Placed a premium on the role of karma.
B. Valued empathy and forgiveness in shaping their thinking.
C. The belief that those who experience failure deserve it.
D. Little use for kindness and karma in their political world view.
IELTS General Reading Test
5. According to the text, the law of karma
A. Fails to look at the power of larger economic or social forces.
B. Gives too much credit to political parties in deciding elections.
C. Determine if a country succeeds or fails financially.
D. Plays a larger role in who becomes the leader of a country.
6. Choose the most suitable title for the text from the list below.
A. Karma’s influence on Political Elections
B. What Determines a Winner and a Loser
C. Why your Values Are Important
D. The Economics of Karma
IELTS General Reading Test
Recipe for a Delicious Apple and Honey Cake
Ingredients:
– 100g castor sugar
– 3 large eggs
– 70g honey
– 300g self-raising flour
– 80g butter
– 1 tsp cinnamon
– 3-4 dessert apples: peeled, cored and diced into small cubes
IELTS General Reading Test
Honey apple sauce
– 1 cup honey
– 1 cup apple juice or cider
Pour honey and apple juice or cider into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Stir sauce constantly until the mixture thickens to required consistency. Spoon warm sauce over the top and sides of honey and apple cake and serve immediately.
This moist honey and apple cake is a delicious dessert alternative for any dinner party or holiday gathering and it’s sure to become a well-loved family favourite.
IELTS General Reading Test
Method:
– Heat oven to 180C/ 350F/ Gas mark 4 and grease a 20 cm cake tin.
– Add sugar, honey and eggs to mixing bowl and whisk with electric mixer for around tem minutes, until mixture is pale and fluffy in texture.
– Cut softened butter into small squares and beat into mixture.
– Sieve flour and add to mixture into greased cake tin and place in hot oven for around 45 minutes. Check cake after 25 minutes. It top has browned sufficiently cover with foil to ensure it does not burn.
– Test cake with a skewer before removing from oven – there should be no uncooked mixture in the middle of the cake.
– Drizzle honey over top of cake and dust with sifted icing sugar.
– Serve with cream or thick honey and apple sauce or ice cream.
IELTS General Reading Test
Questions 7-14
Complete the sentence below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the text for each answer.
7. The dessert is great for family functions and any…………………………..parties.
8. Once you place the cake mixture in the oven, make sure in no less than………………………..the top has reached the required colour.
9. In order to make cake, you’ll need three……………………………. .
10. The apples should be diced………………………….before they are added to the mix.
11. One should pour the………………………………..into the tin and then insert it into the oven.
12. The dish should be served to guests with cream or thick………………………….sauce.
13. To create the honey apple sauce use one cup………………………..or cider.
14. Use a spoon to cover the dessert with the…………………………over the top and sides.
IELTS General Reading Test
ANSWERS ARE BELOW
IELTS General Reading Test
ANSWER
1. DINNER
2. 25 MINUTES
3. LARGE EGGS
4. INTO SMALL CUBES
5. CAKE MIXTURE
6. HONEY AND APPLE
7. OF APPLE JUICE
8. WARM SAUCE
9. C
10. D
11. A
12. B
13. A
14. C
IELTS General Reading Test