Table of Contents
BEST Reading IELTS General Test 145
Reading IELTS General Test 145 – Passage – 1
Reading IELTS General Test 145
READING PASSAGE – 1
DVDs
The first DVD player hit the market in March 1997.
A DVD is very similar to a CD, but it has a much larger data capacity. A standard DVD holds about seven times more data than a CD does. This huge capacity means that a DVD has enough room to store a full-length, MPEG-2 encoded movie, as well as a lot of other information.
Here are the typical contents of a DVD movie:
– Up to 133 minutes of high-resolution video, in letterbox or pan-and-scan format, with 720 dots of horizontal resolution (The video compression ratio is typically 40:1 using MPEG-2 compression.)
– Soundtrack presented in up to eight languages using 5.1 channel Dolby digital surround sound
– Subtitles in up to 32 languages
DVD can also be used to store almost eight hours of CD-quality music per side.
BEST Reading IELTS General Test 145
The format offers many advantages over VHS tapes:
– DVD picture quality is better, and many DVDs have Dolby Digital or DTS sound, which is much closer to the sound you experience in a movie theater.
– Many DVD movies have an on-screen index, where the creator of the DVD has labeled many of the significant parts of the movie, sometimes with a picture. With your remote, if you select the part of the movie you want to view, the DVD player will take you right to that part, with no need to rewind or fast-forward.
– DVD players are compatible with audio CDs
– Some DVD movies have both the letterbox format, which fits wide-screen TVs, and the standard TV size format, so you can choose which way you want to watch the movie.
– DVD movies may have several soundtracks on them, and they may provide subtitles in different languages. Foreign movies may give you the choice between the version dubbed into your language, or the original soundtrack with subtitles in your language.
BEST Reading IELTS General Test 145
Questions 1 – 7
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the text?
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. An MPEG-2 encoded movie just fits on to a DVD.
2. Up to 133 minutes of video can be compressed onto a DVD.
3. There are five main advantages of DVDs over VHS.
4. The quality of a DVD picture is nearly the same as the quality in a cinema.
5. With most DVDs you can jump to any part, from the index, without having to rewind or fast-forward.
6. Some movies on DVD have more than one mode of display.
7. Most DVD movies have subtitles for foreign films.
BEST Reading IELTS General Test 145
Read the text and answer Questions 8 – 14
Broadband Providers
A. Dodo Australia has provided Australian consumers with fantastic Internet and Telephony solutions for over five years. Dodo’s range of residential products includes Mobile, Home Phone, ADSL Broadband and Dial-up Internet. Dodo is proudly Australian owned and now is one of Australia’s most recognised brands for providing a reliable service at a cheap price. Dodo’s provides nation-wide access across the country and their technical support operates at 24 hours a day 7 days per week. Dodo is committed to providing telecommunication services at low prices, so give ’em the bird and join Dodo today.
B. Think Mobile is a subsidiary of Pivotel Group, one of Australia’s five licensed mobile telecommunications carriers. Pivotel Group is an Australian-owned private company based on the Gold Coast in Queensland, with local telecommunications infrastructure assets worth over $70m. Pivotel Group companies offer Satellite and Cellular handsets that can provide service throughout Australia and its territorial waters, GSM mobile phones and services, bulk messaging capabilities through its own text messaging infrastructure, and ‘white labeled’ call centre services.
Customers include various State and Federal government departments, major corporates, small to medium enterprise, and consumers. Think Mobile was launched in 2005 as a differentiated GSM mobile service provider. The focus is on winning over customers with their exceptional value, service and easy to understand call charges. Rates are a low 12 cents per 30 sec on the Think Simple 12 Plans. Since their launch, Think Mobile have been awarded 6 medals from the prestigious Money Magazine Best of the Best awards. Including two Gold medals in 2008 and 2009 for the Think Simple 12 Plans. In addition to the Simple 12 Plans, Think Mobile offers competitive Cap Plans and offers a Data plan.
C. EFTel Limited is one of Australia’s largest Internet Service Providers (ISPs). EFTel offers a range of services including: DSL, satellite and dial-up Internet access, web hosting and telephony services to the retail and wholesale telecommunications markets. EFTel’s services are delivered through a nationwide network of Points of Presence in all capital cities, as well as regional areas around Australia. The network architecture and technology allows for the supply of voice, data or video services simultaneously, giving the capability to supply local and long distance calls, high-speed data, Internet and video conferencing services to its customers.
D. iPrimus, a leading provider of broadband and telephone services, has been delivering great value to Australians for over 12 years. Since entering the market in Australia in 1997, Primus has been a frontrunner in ensuring the benefits of competition are passed to customers through lower prices and improved services.With one of the largest and fastest broadband networks in Australia, we’ll give you the speed you need!
E. gotalk group of companies have revenues of over $160 Million and employs over 400 people throughout Australia and New Zealand. Operational since mid 2002 and 100% Australian owned, gotalk has experienced exceptional growth in predominately the residential market but also the SME business market. gotalk’s operational centre is located on the Gold Coast with Corporate offices in Sydney, Melbourne andAuckland. Their growth has been supported by both organic sales and also a large number of Acquisitions. Through sister Company CardCall they support over 25,000 retailer partners delivering a range of gotalk prepaid services.
gotalk offers home and business users a full range of telecommunications services on a single invoice. Services include fixed line (home phone or business lines), GSM Mobile, Internet (Dial Up and Broadband), phonecards and most recently Broadband Voice (VoIP).
F. Virgin Mobile Australia launched on 31 October 2000 and employs over 300 people. They have over 600,000 customers, their products are sold in heaps of retails outlets throughout Australia, and provide mobile coverage to over 96% of the Australian population using the Optus network. Like all Virgin companies, they strive to be the ‘customer champion’, which in the mobile business means providing an easy-to-understand service that is great value for money. You can even call 13 33 23 to speak to a real human being (!), or visit www.virginmobile.com.au 24 hours a day, 365 days a year – either way, if you want to buy, delivery is FREE in Oz!
BEST Reading IELTS General Test 145
Questions 8 – 14
The text has six broadband services, A – F.
Which service offers the following?
You may need to use one letter more than once.
8. a service which was established prior to the year 2000
9. a service which includes manned telephone support
10. a service which has received two gold medals
11. a service which includes all the customer’s products on just one bill
12. a service which already has more than half a million customers
13. a service which is supplied to government bodies
14. a service which claims to be well-known
BEST Reading IELTS General Test 145
ANSWERS ARE BELOW
BEST Reading IELTS General Test 145
ANSWERS
1. FALSE
2. TRUE
3. NOT GIVEN
4. NOT GIVEN
5. FALSE
6. TRUE
7. NOT GIVEN
8. D
9. F
10. B
11. E
12. F
13. B
14. A
BEST Reading IELTS General Test 145