IELTS Simulation Reading test 8

Clutter Bugs Beware

Having an abundance of stuff is a symptom of 21st Century materialism—people are conditioned by society to think that more is better—but take heed: it can suck your energy and your time. An unruly assortment of stuff littering your room or your home can be both annoying and unsettling. Precious items and anything with real sentimental value should be stored carefully, of course, but clutter such as old receipts, outdated invitations, catalogues, your collection of trashy magazines and unwanted gifts should be disposed of. If you added up the time spent looking for misplaced objects or sifting through unnecessary papers to find what you need, what would that amount to? There is a lot to be said for the old adage: a place for everything and everything in its place.

This ancient organising truism can help you get your life in order and be free from clutter forever. Firstly, develop a system with a restricted series of options. Put all incoming material into your 'inbox' at work, or whatever the equivalent is at home, then deal with the tasks one by one. Either do them immediately or prioritise them into A, B or C tasks ensuring that the 'A' tasks take precedence over all others.

Another simple tip: find a home for everything. Before you toss something down on the countertop or sofa, ask yourself, 'Is that where it belongs?' If it does not have a home, designate a place for that object and use the same spot every time. Label boxes and containers, drawers and cupboards and, remember, procrastination is to be avoided at all costs. Stow belongings and equipment in their assigned places straight away. Get into the habit—concentrate your energy on it until it becomes automatic. Clear off all flat surfaces like the desk in your office, the bench top in the kitchen or the bed in the bedroom.

Be aware of transition stages, when you are moving from one task to another, and exploit this phase productively to clean and clear up. It is a good idea to have an evaluation now and then to review your organising system and make adjustments. Perhaps there is more to de-clutter or perhaps you need to rearrange items, for example, if they are stored in one room but you use them in another. Clutter is also categorized as anything that is not finished so, if you have incomplete projects, make time to get them over and done with. Once you are clutter-free and well-organised, your life may change for the better.

Feng shui principles discourage the accumulation of clutter as 'chi' or energy cannot move freely around masses of material, causing stagnation and a breeding ground for negative energy. For harmony and productivity, chi has to be free flowing and unrestricted. (Interestingly, the word 'clutter' comes from an Old English word which means 'to cause to become blocked or obscured'.) Apparently, hoarding creates excessive 'yin' energy which interferes with the natural flow and causes imbalance. Some of the consequences of this are purported to be poor concentration, stress, resentfulness and a lowered immune system. Clutter is stuck energy that affects people on all levels: physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Clutter traps people in the past. It also shapes their self-image and others' perception of them—perhaps as neglected, unworthy, disorganised or ignored, if it is true that your surroundings reflect your inner self, then cleaning up clutter must surely bring positive change into your life.
Call it feng shui or call it common sense: on a practical level, the accumulation of junk hinders cleaning and fosters dirt and bacteria. It creates chaos, obstructs new opportunities, takes up physical space and harms relationships in your life. So, why do people hoard?

There have been many reasons posited as to why people collect and hang on to junk. Psychologists used to say it sprang from an impoverished childhood with a scarcity of food and material possessions but more recently it has been argued that it arises from an adolescence deprived of emotional support and comfort. Fear obviously has a great deal to do with it, too: fear of not having enough; fear of letting go of the memories associated with the objects; or fear of loss of control or security. Perhaps egotism has a part to play in that people buy and accumulate material objects as a demonstration of their personal power. Others may do it as a form of self compensation to conceal unresolved emotional problems.

Whatever the reason for it, it is said that clutter in your home and in your life is disempowering, that it undermines your energy, erodes your spirit and holds you in the past. It also thwarts financial prosperity. Aim for a harmonious and balanced flow of 'chi' in your home and you may reap the rewards of a cleaner, more attractive, safer and nurturing place that is not only more comfortable but will allow you to pursue more effectively and successfully your true goals in life. Clean up and enjoy better health, wealth and happiness.

Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 1?
In boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet, write
YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

FLUORIDATION OF PUBLIC WATER SUPPLIES

Water fluoridation is the process of releasing small amounts of fluoride into the public water supply as a way to reduce dental health problems. The process of reducing tooth decay through fluoridation is clearly understood, and research confirms water fluoridation's effect on limiting instances of tooth decay. Nevertheless, fluoride is not harmless in all quantities. At levels moderately above those desired, it can result in something known as fluorosis, and at very high levels acute fluoride poisoning can occur.

Fluoride's function is to intervene in the demineralisation mechanism of tooth decay. Demineralisation is a process that begins when sugary carbohydrates are eaten, and organic acids are subsequently generated by bacteria within the dental plaque. When a certain level of acidity is produced (pH in the oral cavity dips below 5.5), the acids waste away the main component of tooth enamel, a substance known as carbonated hydroxyapatite. If this erosion persists for months and years without adequate remineralisation, then tooth decay occurs, and dental cavities form.

Fluoride can greatly assist the mouth with the remineralisation of decaying enamel. Fluoridation creates fluoride ions in saliva that can restore some of the lost mineral content from enamel after sugary acids have left the oral cavity. When these ions exist in plaque fluid alongside dissolved carbonated hydroxyapatite, and the pH is higher than 4.5, a fluorapatite veneer covers the dental enamel. This veneer has the benefit of being more acid-resistant than the tooth's hydroxyapatite, and is formed more quickly than by the natural remineralisation mechanism. Blood plasma transports any fluoride that has been ingested to calcium-rich areas such as the teeth, supporting dental infrastructure from the inside as well.

The U.S. Center for Disease Control has listed fluoridation of the water supply as one of the greatest public health achievements of the 20th century. While tooth decay is rarely a threat to mortality, it is one of the most prevalent chronic diseases globally and affects 60-90 percent of children across industrialised countries. Research suggests that the presence of fluoride in saliva at all times (but in small quantities) is the single most effective preventative measure of tooth decay. Water fluoridation is perfectly geared towards helping to ensure this. Drinking water is the largest source of fluoride for people globally, and evidence demonstrates its efficacy in reducing cavities, particularly among poorer households without regular access to dentists.

Although not considered to be an essential ingredient (a substance necessary to perpetuate human life and biological development), fluoride can be considered a nutrient that counteracts harmful processes from lifestyle or environmental factors. Nevertheless, in doses higher than those desirable, a side effect known as dental fluorosis can occur. Its primary symptoms—pale streaking across the incisors—are considered a cosmetic problem for many people. The key risk period for developing fluorosis is ages one to four, with any likelihood of getting it having depleted by age eight. Young children are therefore encouraged to have their fluoride ingestion monitored—reduction of fluoride in infant formula and children's toothpaste has assisted this process.

Far more serious than mild dental fluorosis, however, yet much rarer, is a condition known as acute fluoride poisoning. This does not happen very often, as it is unlikely that most people would ever come into contact with large amounts of fluoride. When it does happen, it is typically a consequence of water technicians accidentally allowing excess amounts of fluoride into the system, which is then ingested by an unsuspecting public. In one of the worst instances of fluoride poisoning, 262 people became ill and one person died in Alaska in 1992. During 2010 in Asheboro, North Carolina, 60 gallons of fluoride were released into the water supply in 90 minutes; this amount was intended for release over a 24-hour period. These incidents highlight the importance of careful monitoring to ensure public safety.

Not everyone supports water fluoridation. Paul Connett, a chemistry professor from St. Lawrence University, has listed many reasons to oppose the practice. Firstly, he suggests, studies that have tracked the effects of discontinuing fluoridation in communities from Canada, Germany, Cuba and Finland have found that instances of dental decay actually dropped considerably as a result of halting the practice. Secondly, Connett finds that once water supplies are fluoridated it is impossible to control individual doses. This is because some people (manual labourers, athletes, diabetics, and people with kidney disease) drink more water than others, and we also receive fluoride from sources other than tap water.

Connett also expresses concern for purely ethical reasons, believing fluoridation to contradict the medical ethic of informed consent. Informed consent requires patients to be fully informed about medical operations before consenting to them—fluoridation evades this process. Finally, Connett points to the World Health Organisation's acknowledgement that fluoride's benefits are primarily achieved topically, that is, applied to the surface of teeth, rather than systemically (ingested).

Answer the questions below using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet.

Employment, Underemployment and Unemployment

The last few decades have been turbulent for the global employment market, particularly in post-industrial countries. Around one third of the OECD labour force is unemployed, and global unemployment figures reached a historical peak of 185.9 million workers in 2003. Beyond this, a phenomenon known as 'underemployment' is becoming the normative practice in many industries. Once considered a passing aberration, underemployment is now an entrenched and seemingly intractable feature of the economy that involves people scraping by in precarious and temporary forms of work—typically casual, seasonal, or fixed-term work and often on part-time contracts.

Many scholars have offered their own theorisations of the employment crisis and put forward some possible solutions. Certainly, almost all of these understandings differ over the finer analytical details, but more significantly there is almost no consensus around what anchors the disruptive changes to employment patterns. A majority of theorists stick to traditional models of unemployment, and argue that policy-makers in the West should now focus on finding salvation in the 'knowledge economy', but others find this to be a mythical possibility. Broadly, it is too soon to say who is the closest to being correct, but history is sure to pick a winner.

One common denominator amongst nearly every scholar is an unwillingness to reflect adequately upon work as an existing social practice, and as such solutions are put forward that are overly-derived from possibilities (that may not even be feasible) further down the track. Andre Gorz, for example, emphasises the need for governments to shift the locus of work away from the abstracted labour that characterises private employment and towards social labour that involves more public activities such as communal childcare, artistic exploration, community work, charities and so on. This, he suggests, strengthens and integrates human relationships while supporting people in finding outlets for their own creative and personal needs. Similarly, Ulrich Beck suggests that global employment markets are now riddled with risk and a precariousness that demands alleviation. The solution, he suggests, is activating paid civil labour within national voluntary sectors while activating this labour internationally as well. Both of these sound like good ideas, but are they plausible given the present constraints upon governments and people? Neither Gorz nor Beck says.

Another problem with analyses of the crisis tends to be a narrow sectoral focus that fails to problematise existing notions of work and employment. Jeremy Rifkin, for example, argues that the employment crisis is a result of accelerated technological growth that in turn displaces the labour intensitivity of some work practices. This process is not itself unprecedented, he suggests—in the early 20th century, for example, more efficient technologies in agriculture displaced farm labour in the south of the United States. At that time, however, new opportunities in the industrialising north of the country were able to absorb these surpluses. Rifkin's thesis posits that this is no longer happening—technological growth is making labour redundant without new opportunities emerging.

Gorz builds on this theorisation to advocate policies, not of generating 'new' employment, but rather of distributing employment so that everyone can access a job. In doing so, he suggests, we can use the labour-saving gains of technology to free up time for other more socially meaningful pursuits. The problem with Rifkin's and Gorz's approaches, however, is that they assume the divisions between employment and non-employment are still pertinent and ultimately determinative of working practices. As Hasmet M. Uluorta indicates, however, the employment crisis may not be so much a crisis of jobs (or the number of jobs), technologies or tensions between paid and unpaid work, but rather a crisis of social reproduction—that is, the ways in which we sustain or perpetuate our social structure.

Whereas most scholars look to a renewed labour market for answers, or suggest that we need to bolster the voluntary sector as a supportive mechanism, Uluorta implores us to return to the drawing board and think about what really constitutes 'work'. It is not, he argues, solely the domain of employment geared towards production and consumption, but is characterised by production in a broader sense for the purposes of social reproduction as well. We should no longer be asking 'How is it possible to generate employment?' but rather 'How is it possible to (re) produce our social existence?' The answers to the crisis, Uluorta argues, are already being constituted as people renegotiate work even in the absence of labour market employment, but legal and institutional mechanisms have yet to respond to these changes.

We are ultimately left with a situation in which almost everyone agrees that there is a global crisis of employment, but there is widespread divergence of opinions over its nature. For some, the solution requires simply encouraging new forms of employment in the knowledge economy. Others believe that we need to balance employment with increased emphasis on voluntary and civil sector projects. Yet others believe that the crisis has in part come about because of a valorisation of employment over other forms of work, namely the work of social reproduction.

Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 3?
In boxes 27-32 on your answer sheet, write
YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this