BEST IELTS Reading Daily Test, 24th March

BEST IELTS Reading Daily Test, 24th March

IELTS Reading Practice Test – 3, Passage – 1

Reading Passage – 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.

CONTROLLING  DEATHWATCH  BEETLES

All of the organisms that damage timber in buildings are part of the natural process that takes dead wood to the forest floor, decomposes it into humus, and recycles the nutrients released back into trees. Each stage in this process requires the correct environment and if we replicate this in our buildings then the organisms belonging to that part of the cycle will invade. A poorly maintained roof is, after all, just an extension of the forest floor to a fungus.

The first fact to remember about deathwatch beetles in your building is that they have probably been there for centuries and will continue long after you have gone. Beetle damage in oak timbers is a slow process and if we make it slower by good maintenance then the beetle population may eventually decline to extinction. The second fact is that natural predation will help you. Spiders are a significant predator and will help to keep the beetle population under control. They will speed up the decline of a beetle population in a well-maintained building.

The beetles fly to light and some form of light trap may help to deplete a population. The place in which it is used must be dark, so that there is no completing light source, and the air temperature must rise above about 17 degree during the emergence season (April to June) so that the beetles will fly. Beetle holes do not disappear when the beetles have gone so it is sometimes  necessary to conform active infestation if remedial works are planned. This is generally easy with beetle damage in sapwood because the holes will look clean  and have sharp edges, usually with bore duck trickling from them. Infestation deep within modified heartwood is more difficult to detect  particularly because the beetles will not necessarily bite their own emergence holes if plenty of other holes are available. This problem may be overcome by clogging the suspected holes with furniture polish or by covering a group of hokes tightly with paper or card. Any emerging beetles will make a hole that should be visible, so that the extent and magnitude of the problem can be assessed. Unnecessary pesticide treatments must be avoided.

Sometimes a building cannot be dried enough to eradicated the beetles or a localised population will have built up unnoticed. A few scattered beetles in a building need not cause much concern, but dozens of beetles below a beam-end might indicates the need for some form of treatment if the infested timber is accessible. Insecticides formulated as a paste can be effective – either applied to the surface or caulked into per-drilled holes – but formulations may only be obtained by a remedial company. Surface spray treatments are generally ineffective because they barely penetrate the surface of the timber and the beetles’ natural behavior does not bring it into much contact with the insecticide. Contact insecticides might also kill the natural predators.

Heat treatments for entire buildings are  available and the continental experience is that they are effective. They are also likely to be expensive but they may be the only way to eradicate a heavy and widespread infestation without causing considerable structural degradation of the building.

Two other beetles are worth a mention.

The first is the House Longhorn Beetle

(Hylotrupes bajulus). This is a large insect that produces oval emergence holes that are packed with little cylindrical pellets. The beetle restrict their activities to the sapwood of 20^th century softwood, although there is now some evidence that they will attack older softwood. The beetle larvae can cause considerable damage but infestation has generally been restricted to the south-west of London, possibly because they need a high temperature before the beetles will fly. Old damage is, however, frequently found elsewhere, thus indicating a wider distribution in the past, and infested timber is sometimes imported. This is an insect tgat might become more widespread because of climate change.

The second is the Lyctus or powder post beetle. There are several species that are rather difficult to tell apart. These beetles live in the sapwood of oak. The beetles breed rapidly so that many cylindrical beetles may be present and the round emergence holes resemble those of the furniture beetle. Thus is, and has always been, a pest of newly-installed oak. Timbers with an exploded sapwood surface are frequently found in old buildings and the damage will have occurred during the first few decades after the timbers were installed. Our main interest with these beetles is tgat they seem to have become more common of late. Beetle infestation within a few months of a new oak construction will be Lyctus beetles in the sapwood and not furniture beetles. The problem can be avoided by using oak with minimal sapwood content. The beetle infestation will cease after a few years but spray treatment may be necessary if an infestation is heavy.

Questions 1-4

Complete each sentence with the correct ending A-H below.

Write the correct ending A-H in spaces 1-4 below.

1. One species of the beetle population may spread ………………..

2. You can detect the presence of beetles ………………………..

3. You may kill household spiders ………………

4. Beetles will disappear at a faster rate …………..

Questions 5-9

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?

In spaces 5-9 below, write

TRUE  if the statement agrees with the writer’s claims

FALSE if the statement contradicts the writer’s claims

NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

5. Infestation by beetles deep within modified heartwood can be identified by the type of hole visible. ………………..

6. Clogging a hole with furniture polish or paper will trap the beetle inside permanently. …………….

7. Paste insecticides are less effective than any other kind. ……………….

8. Surface sprat treatments are sometimes effective for the House Longhorn Beetle …………………..

9. Heat treatments tend to cause less damage than other treatments …………………..

Questions 10-13

10. The point the writer makes about deathwatch beetles id that

A. They must be eliminated quickly.

B. Only natural predation will keep them under control.

C. With good maintenance it may be possible to eliminate them.

D. They are here to stay and do great damage.

11. One way to trap deathwatch beetles is to attract them to

A. Daylight.

B. A totally dark environment.

C. A constantly warm environment.

D. A light trap in a dark place.

12. Surface spray treatments are not effective because

A. The  beetles are immune to them.

B. They do not reach the beetles.

C. They react poorly to wooden surfaces.

D. They attract other harmful creature.

13. Damage by the House Longhorn Beetle is sometimes found further afield than London because

A. Temperatures have increased.

B. The timber was not local timber.

C. There was no effective treatment previously.

D. The type of timber has changed

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Answers:-

1. F
2. B
3. D
4. A
5. FALSE
6. FALSE
7. FALSE
8. NOT GIVEN
9. TRUE
10. C
11. D
12. B
13. B