Table of Contents
BEST IELTS General Reading Test 451
IELTS GENERAL READING TEST 451 – PASSAGE – 1
IELTS GENERAL READING TEST – 451
READING PASSAGE – 1
The happiest country in the world
Children growing up in Costa Rica are surrounded by some of the most beautiful and diverse landscapes in the world. Preserving tropical rainforests isn’t Costa Rica’s only success, because the government also makes sure everyone has access to health-care and education. So when the New Economics Foundation released its second Happy Planet Index, Costa Rica came out number one. The index is a ranking of countries based on their impact on the environment and the health and happiness of their citizens.
According to Mariano Rojas, a Costa Rican economics professor, Costa Rica is a mid-income country where citizens have plenty of time for themselves and for their relationships with others. ‘A mid-income level allows most citizens to satisfy their basic needs. The government makes sure that all Costa Ricans have access to education, health and nutrition services.’ Costa Ricans, he believes, are not interested in status or spending money to show how successful they are.
IELTS General Reading Test
Created in 2008, the Happy Planet Index examines happiness on a national level and ranks 143 countries according to three measurements: their citizens’ happiness, how long they live (which reflects their health), and how much of the planet’s resources each country consumes. According to researcher Saamah Abdallah, the Index also measures the outcomes that are most important, and those are happy, healthy lives for everyone.
Questions 1-6
Choose ONE WORD OR ONE NUMBER from the passage for each answer.
The Happy Planet Index
Year started: (1)………………
Number of countries it lists: (2)………………
Measures each country’s happiness according to:
– its effect on the (3)……………… (i.e. the quantity of the Earth’s (4)……………… that it uses);
– the (5)……………… of the population (i.e. how long people live);
– how happy its (6)……………… are.
IELTS General Reading Test
Read the text below and answer questions 7-12.
Freya Stark, explorer and writer
Freya Stark travelled to many areas of the Middle East, often alone. Frey Stark was an explorer who lived during a time when exploreers were regarded as heroes.She travelled to distant areas of the Middle East, where few Europeans – especially women – had travelled before. She also travelled extensively in Turkey, Greece, Italy, Nepal and Afghanistan.
Stark was born in Paris in 1893. Although she had no formal education as a child, she moved about with her artist parents and learned French, German and Italian.She entered London University in 1912, but at the start of World War I, she joined the nurse corps and was sent to Italy. After the war, she returned to London and attended the School of Oriental Studies.
IELTS General Reading Test
Her studies there led to extensive travel in the Middle Studies, enabling her to eventually become fluent in Persian, Russian and Turkish. Stark became well known as a traveller and explorer in the Middle East. She travelled to the Lebanon in 1927 at the age of 33 when she had saved enough money, and while there, she studied Arabic.
In 1928, she travelled bu donkey to the Jebel Druze, a mountainous area in Syria. during another trip, she went to a distant region of the Elburnz, a mountain range in Iran, where she made a map. She was searching for information about an ancient Muslim sect known as the Assassions, which she wrote about in Valley of the Assassins (1934), a classic for which she was awarded a Gold Medal by Royal Geogrpahic Society.
For the next 12 years, she continued her career as a traveller and writer, establishing a style which combined an account of her journey with personal commentary on the people, places, customs, history and politics of the Midle East.
IELTS General Reading Test
Questions 7-12
Using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.
Freya Stark
– Born in Paris in 1893
– First formal education at (7)………………
– Worked as a (8)………………in Italy
– Studied at School of Oriental Studies
– Travelled to the Lebanon, where she learned (9)………………
– Made a journey to the Syrian mountains on a (10)………………
– In 1934, won a (11)………………for a book
– Spent a further (12)………………in the Middle East
IELTS General Reading Test
IELTS General Reading Test
ANSWERS
1. 2008
2. 143
3. ENVIRONMENT
4. RESOURCES
5. HEALTH
6. CITIZENS
7. LONDON UNIVERSITY
8. NURSE
9. ARABIC
10. DONKEY
11. GOLD MEDAL
12. 12 YEARS