Recent IELTS Reading Actual test 68

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

In 1979 the Chinese government introduced a policy that no other country had ever introduced before. Each couple was restricted by law to having to only one child. This one-child policy, although highly controversial, is believed to have helped prevent the rapidly growing Chinese population from becoming unsustainable.

In 2015 the one-child policy was finally relaxed, allowing couples to now have two children. According to the Communist Party of China, 400 million births have been prevented since the policy was introduced, and the Chinese population has become sustainable. Meanwhile, other developing countries like India and Nigeria, where such a policy has never been nationally enforced, continue to struggle with population explosions.

On a statistical level, it is easy to suggest that the one-child policy has been rather successful in China. It has lessened the negative environmental impact that rapid industrialisation and population growth have had on China since being implemented. However, there are plenty of grounds for criticism, especially from human rights activists, as well as advocates for freedom of choice. The main question raised by such a move is should a government be allowed to control family size, or is that too much control over individual liberty?

In the poorer rural areas of China, where life has changed very little for hundreds of years, farmers often used to rely on their children to help out on the farm. It was common for couples to have many children because infant mortality was high and the burden of work could not be handled by just a few people. It was generally considered that a girl was bad luck in this case because she would not be able to do as much manual labour. However backwards this way of thinking may seem to many people, the sad reality was that the instances of infanticide of female babies began to rise rapidly in the 1980s in China, as a result of the one-child policy.

Despite this raising other important concerns such as gender inequality in China, the growing problem of infanticide did lead to change; the government relaxed the one-child policy so that a couple could have a second child, but only if their first child was a girl. On the other hand, the government has also faced heavy criticism of its methods of trying to enforce the one-child policy in the past. In rural areas, it was very difficult for the government to enforce the policy, and so only really applied in urban areas of the country.

In extreme cases, the government in China would force pregnant women who already had one child to have an abortion. However, they were also forced to introduce laws in 2005 outlawing sex-selective abortions, which were increasingly common choices being made by couples who knew the sex of their baby to be female before birth.

Whilst true statistics are difficult to obtain from China, it is thought that there are now 60 million more men than women in China. This gender imbalance is almost certainly an indirect result of the one-child policy. Another theory suggests that there are unofficially millions of more women in China who were never registered with local authorities by their parents through fear of being fined or losing their child.

The necessity of having children in some parts of China is something many in the West have trouble understanding. After all, increasing numbers of adults in the West now choose not to have children purely for environmental reasons.

Research by statisticians at Oregon State University in America fund that because of the average American’s huge carbon footprint, having a child in America increased a person’s long-term carbon output by up to 20 times. T put this into greater context, the long-term pollution output of a child born in the U.S. can be up to 160 times higher than that of a child born in Bangladesh.

One of the reasons in China for changing the one-child policy to a two-child policy in 2015 was that the original policy was almost redundant anyway. The original legislation was only aimed at a single generation. Under the ruling, any couple in China who were both sole children to their respective parents were allowed to have two children. Therefore the two-child policy was already in effect for most couples already by 2015.

China has a rapidly developing economy, and with such development comes a higher average carbon output per person. This leads some authorities to worry that the already-strained environment in China will suffer even more in decades to come. Having said that, as China continues to experience such rapid economic development, Chinese people are enjoying increased personal wealth and financial stability. With that may also come the philosophy of choice, such as having the luxury to choose not to have children purely for environmental reasons, just like in the U.S.

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

In boxes 1-7 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

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26 which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.

The Effects of Deforestation

A

Every year it is estimated that roughly 5.2 million hectares (52,000 km2 of the forest is lost worldwide. That is a net figure, meaning it represents the area of the forest not replaced. T put this size in context, that is an area of land the size of Croatia lost every single year. There is a wide range of negative effects from deforestation that range from the smallest biological processes right up to the health of our planet as a whole. On a human level, millions of lives are affected every year by flooding and landslides that often result from deforestation.

B

There are 5 million people living in areas deemed at risk of flooding in England and Wales. Global warming, in part, worsened by deforestation, is responsible for higher rainfalls in Britain in recent decades. Although it can be argued that demand for cheap housing has meant more houses are being built in at-risk areas, the extent of the flooding is increasing. The presence of forests and trees along streams and rivers acts like a net. The trees catch and store water, but also hold the soil together, preventing erosion. By removing the trees, the land is more easily eroded increasing the risk of landslides and also, after precipitation, less water is intercepted when trees are absent and so more enters rivers, increasing the risk of flooding.

C

It is well documented that forests are essential to the atmospheric balance of our planet, and therefore our own wellbeing too. Scientists agree unequivocally that global warming is a real and serious threat to our planet. Deforestation releases 15% of all greenhouse gas emissions. One-third of the carbon dioxide emissions created by human activity comes from deforestation around the globe.

D

In his book Collapse, about the disappearance of various ancient civilisations, writer Jared Diamond theorises about the decline of the natives of Easter Island. European missionaries first arrived on the island in 1722. Research suggested that the island, whose population was in the region of two to three thousand at the time, had once been much higher at fifteen thousand people. This small native population survived on the island despite there being no trees at all. Archaeological digs uncovered evidence of trees once flourishing on the island. The uncontrolled deforestation not only led to the eradication of all such natural resources from the island but also greatly impacted the number of people the island could sustain. This underlines the importance of forest management, not only for useful building materials but also for food as well.

E

Forestry management is important to make sure that stocks are not depleted and that whatever is cut down is replaced. Without sustainable development of forests, the levels of deforestation are only going to worsen as the global population continues to rise, creating a higher demand for the products of forests. Just as important though is consumer awareness. Simple changes in consumer activity can make a huge difference. These changes in behaviour include, but are not limited to, recycling all recyclable material; buying recycled products and looking for the FSC sustainably sourced forest products logo on any wood or paper products.

F

Japan is often used as a model of exemplary forest management. During the Edo period between 1603 and 1868 drastic action was taken to reverse the country’s serious exploitative deforestation problem. Whilst the solution was quite complex, one key aspect of its success was the encouragement of cooperation between villagers. This process of collaboration and re-education of the population saved Japan’s forests. According to the World Bank, 68.5% of Japanese land area is covered by forest, making it one of the best performing economically developed nations in this regard.

G

There is, of course, a negative impact of Japan’s forest management. There is still a high demand for wood products in the country, and the majority of these resources are simply imported from other, poorer nations. Indonesia is a prime example of a country that has lost large swaths of its forest cover due to foreign demand from countries like Japan. This is in addition to other issues such as poor domestic forest management, weaker laws and local corruption. Located around the Equator, Indonesia has an ideal climate for the rainforest. Sadly much of this natural resource is lost every year. Forest cover is now down to less than 51% from 65.4% in 1990. This alone is proof that more needs to be done globally to manage forests.

H

China is leading the way in recent years for replenishing their forests. The Chinese government began the Three-North Shelter Forest Program in 1978, with aims to complete the planting of a green wall, measuring 2,800 miles in length by its completion in 2050. Of course, this program is in many ways forced by nature itself; the expansion of the Gobi Desert threatened to destroy thousands of square miles of grassland annually through desertification. This is a process often exacerbated by deforestation in the first place, and so represents an attempt to buck the trend. Forested land in China rose from 17% to 22% from 1990 to 2015 making China one of the few developing nations to reverse the negative trend.

Glossary

exemplary: serving as a perfect example

exacerbate: make worse

The reading passage below has eight paragraphs, A-H.

Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.

Write the correct number, i-xi, in boxes 14-20 on your answer sheet.

i Atmospheric impacts

ii Ideal forestry management example

iii No trees, less people

iv Good uses for wood

v Looking after the forests

vi Numbers of lost trees

vii Wasted water

viii Replanting forests

ix Happy trees

x Flood risks

xi Poorer nations at higher risk

Example Answer

Paragraph A vi

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40 which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.

Film Noir

After the Second World War, a curious change came over the outlook of Hollywood films. Rather than the positive, happy-ending stories that dominated the silver screen before the war, pessimism and negativity had entered American cinema. This post-war disillusionment was evident in Hollywood and the movement became known as film noir.

One would be mistaken to call film noir a genre. Unlike westerns or romantic comedies. film noir cannot be defined by conventional uses of setting or conflict in a way that is common to genre films. Film noir is more of a movement. pinned to one specific point in time in much the same way as Soviet Montage or German Expressionism was. Instead, the defining quality of film noir was linked to tone, lighting and an often a sombre mood.

True film noir refers to Hollywood films of the 1940s and early 1950s that dealt with dark themes such as crime and corruption. These films were essentially critiquing certain aspects of American society in a way film had never done before. Since that time there have occasionally been other great noir films made, such as Chinatown, but the mood and tone are often different to the original film noir movies. One possible reason for this is the time in which the films were made. A common perception of art is that it reflects the society and time in which it is made. That makes film noir of the Forties and Fifties quite inimitable because, luckily, the world has not had to endure a war of the scale and destruction of the Second World War again.

Paul Schrader, a writer of films like Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, sees film noir as one of Hollywood’s best and least-known periods. In his essay Notes on Film Nair, he admits that classifying film noir is almost impossible because many films considered as film noir vary greatly in style. He observed that there were four main traditions in film noir. First were the films specifically about war and post-war disillusionment. Schrader believes these films were not only a reflection of the war but also a delayed reaction to the great economic depression of the 1930s. The trend in Hollywood throughout this period and into the war was to produce films aimed at keeping people’s spirits up, hence the positivity. As soon as the war ended, crime fiction started to become popular, which mirrored growing disillusionment in America. Films such as The Blue Dahlia and Dead Reckoning picked up on a trend started during the war with The Maltese Falcon in 1941, which is seen as the first example of film noir.

Another film noir tradition was post-war realism. This style of the film was similar to some European films of the same era, such as Italy’s neorealist films like Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves and Roberto Rossellini’s Open City. Part of this style was created by filming in real locations and away from constructed sets. The honesty of this style of film suited the post-war mood in America and is demonstrated well in Jules Dassin’s Night and the City, much of which was filmed in and around London.

The third tradition of film noir according to Paul Schrader involves what he characterises as ‘The German Influence’. Especially during the 1920s German Expressionism was one of the most unique and creative firms of cinema. Many German, Austrian and Polish directors immigrated to America before or during the rise of Hitler and in part due to the increasing control and prevention of artistic freedom. Many of them, such as Fritz Lang and Billy Wilder, would find their way into the Hollywood system and to this day remain some of the most celebrated directors of all time.

It was the lighting developed in German Expressionism, in particular, that was most influential on film noir. The interplay of light and shadow created by chiaroscuro was highly suggestive of hidden darkness and was largely responsible for creating the mood and feeling of film noir. But it was the coupling of expressionist lighting with realistic settings that really gave film noir its authenticity. It is no surprise then that two of the most popular film noir feature films, Sunset Boulevard and Ace in the Hole, were both directed by Billy Wilder.

The final tradition of film noir noted by Schrader is what he dubs ‘The Hard-Boiled Tradition’. He notes how American literature of the time was the driving force behind much of this style of film noir. Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain were tough, cynical and uncompromising and their work reflects this type of attitude. If German Expressionism influenced the visual aspect of film noir, it was this hard-boiled writing style that influenced the characters, stories and scripts depicted on screen. Raymond Chandler adapted the screenplay for the film noir classic Double Indemnity from a James M. Cain story. This writing team, with Billy Wilder, again directing, was the perfect combination for one of Hollywood’s most celebrated films.

Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3?

In boxes 27-32 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