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BEST IELTS General Reading Test 332
IELTS GENERAL READING TEST 332 – PASSAGE – 1
IELTS GENERAL READING TEST – 332
READING PASSAGE – 1
ALL ABOUT COBRAS
Nearly everyone recognizes a cobra. This is primarily due to the fact that cobras display one of the most iconic snake poses: the rearing, hooded display. For proof of this, look no further than ancient Egypt. In ancient Egyptian culture, a hooded cobra symbol known as Uraeus was used to represent sovereignty, royalty, deity, or divine authority. This article provides a brief introduction to several cobra species.
A. King Cobra: The King Cobra may live up to 25 years and is a very large snake. Despite their size, king cobras are extremely fast and agile, and have inspired many myths and legends. Unlike other cobras, it has a proclivity for ingesting other snakes. The king cobra has a larger head and narrower hood compared to other cobra species.
In spite of its fearsome reputation, the king cobra is generally a shy snake, avoiding confrontation with humans as much as possible. Its bite is considered more serious than those from other cobra species because a greater volume of venom is injected, as well as a more rapid onset of neurotoxic symptoms. That said, bites from king cobras are rare.
IELTS General Reading Test
B. Monocled Cobra: The Monocled Cobra is one of the most readily recognized cobra species because of the unique, 0-shaped pattern on its dorsal hood. It is found in several Asian countries including Thailand, where it is responsible for the greatest number of human fatalities resulting from snake bites. Often, they are found in agricultural zones such as rice paddies. The Monocled Cobra exhibits bio-geographical variation between their venoms, and it has been documented that different toxicities exist between Malaysian, Thai and Vietnamese monocled cobras. They live in small rodent burrows and feed on small mammals, rodents, snakes and amphibians.
C. Indian Cobra: The Indian Cobra is one of the most dangerous cobra species in India. They are found in Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Malaysia. They have a very distinct dorsal hood pattern, and most have a v-shaped “spectacle” marking on the back of the hood. Adults feed primarily on rodents and are often encountered in villages because of the availability of abundant prey, although the cobra’s natural habitat includes open fields, forest edges, agricultural land and wetlands. The Indian cobra is the species typically used by snake charmers in India.
IELTS General Reading Test
D. Forest Cobra: The forest cobra is considered the largest true cobra species. It lives primarily in forest or woodlands, and it is the only cobra species found in such areas in Africa. Due to it ecological niche, humans do not often encounter forest cobras, and the species is one of the lea: frequent causes of snakebites suffered by humans in Africa.
E. Spitting Cobras: Spitting cobras have evolved the ability to project venom from their fangs. The venom is generally aimed at the eyes of the target, and if even a small quantity of venom contacts the eye, it produces intense pain, disruption of the cornea, and swelling of the eyes. These snakes are very unlikely to bite as a defensive behaviour. When interacting with any spitting species of cobras, it is imperative to wear protective eye gear, or even an entire face shield, to prevent any venom from entering your eyes if the animal decides to spit venom.
IELTS General Reading Test
Questions 1— 7
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the text? In boxes on your answer sheet, 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.
IELTS General Reading Test
1. The authority of the state in ancient Egypt was represented using a symbol known as Uraeus.
2. The King Cobra is disinclined to eat other snakes.
3. King Cobras are the fastest and most agile of all cobras.
4. Monocled cobras are responsible for the largest number of deaths from snake bites in Asia.
5. Indian cobras are found near villages because farm animals are available in abundance in these places.
6. Forest cobras hardly bite human beings because they hardly come across each other often.
7. If threatened, spitting cobras are likely to spout rather than bite.
IELTS General Reading Test
Read the text below and answer Questions 8-14.
PLAYS RUNNING AT WEST END
The West End of London refers to a distinct region of Central London, in which many of the city’s theatres are located. A snapshot of plays running in the West End theaters.
A. The Price: David Suchet delivers a comic tour de force as a silver-tongued 90 year old furniture dealer in Arthur Miller’s masterpiece, The Price’. Two brothers, Victor and Walter Franz, one a New York cop and the other a successful surgeon, meet for the first time in sixteen years to sell their family furniture. Revelation follows stunning revelation as each brother realises the price they have paid for heart breaking decisions made decades earlier.
B. The Night of the Iguana: Globe-winner Clive Owen returns to the West End for the first time in 18 years to play Rev. T. Lawrence Shannon in ‘The Night of the Iguana’, a new production directed by James Macdonald. Set in the strange limbo of 1940, in a hot and humid Mexico, a group of travellers meet at the run-down Costa Verde Hotel, which brings them together in an epic battle between flesh and spirit, captivity and freedom, art and faith, heightened by a tropical rain-storm.
IELTS General Reading Test
C. Admissions: Alex Kingston stars in this award-winning and bitingly funny new comedy. Sherri is the Head of Admissions at a private school, fighting to diversify the student intake and she wants you to know about it. When her son is deferred from his university of choice, and his best friend – who ‘ticks more boxes’ — makes it, Sherri’s personal ambition collides with her progressive values. Piercing and provocative, ‘Admissions’ dares to question whether the race to the top is ever simply black and white.
D. The Mousetrap: Agatha Christie’s legendary whodunit, The Mousetrap, is still thriving after over 60 years in the West End. The world’s longest-running play, this masterpiece goes from strength to strength as a new generation of theatregoers are tricked and teased at St. Martin’s Theatre. Experience this cracking yarn today – an irresistible treat for amateur sleuths everywhere!
IELTS General Reading Test
E. Cyprus Avenue: David Ireland’s black comedy Cyprus Avenue returns to West End for a limited four-week run. Eric Miller is a Belfast Loyalist. He believes his five-week old granddaughter is Gerry Adams. His family keep telling him to stop living in the past and fighting old battles that nobody cares about anymore but his cultural heritage is under siege. He must act. This is the story of one man struggling with the past and terrified of the future.
F. The Toast: Following a phenomenal sell-out run at the Traverse part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival Toast now makes its West End debut. Nigel Slater’s Toast is a new play based on his award-winning autobiography. Vividly recreating suburban England in the 1960s Nigel Slater’s childhood is told through the tastes and smells he grew up with. From making the perfect sherry trifle, waging war over cakes through to the playground politics of sweets and the rigid rules of restaurant dining, this is a moving and evocative tale of love, loss and…toast.
G. Strange Fruits: Alvin and Errol are young, black and living in England in the 1980s, with an entire country and political system set against them. They focus firmly on their past — the sunny Caribbean and heroic father they left behind when their mother brought them to England twenty years ago. But when Alvin returns home from his grandfather’s funeral a new version of their past emerges and the two brothers are caught in a desperate struggle to unearth the truth about their existence.
IELTS General Reading Test
Questions 8 — 14
Identify the play from the following hints. Write your answers A-G on questions 8-14 of your answer sheet.
8. This play will be staged in West End for the first time.
9. The place where the actors meet is not very well maintained
10. This play is a mystery story.
11. One of the actors speaks very persuasively.
IELTS General Reading Test
12. New facts come to light after a death in the family.
13. It is a story where one’s personal values come into conflict with what the actor wants in real life.
14. This play looks at the funny side of things usually considered very serious.
IELTS General Reading Test
IELTS General Reading Test
ANSWERS
1. TRUE
2. FALSE
3. NOT GIVEN
4. FALSE
5. FALSE
6. TRUE
7. TRUE
8. F
9. B
10. D
11. A
12. G
13. C
14. E
IELTS General Reading Test