READING TIPS

 First sentence
 Keyword
 Synonym
 First Sentence Method
What is this paragraph about?

TASK-1

Our muscles are amazing structures. With the trigger of a thought,…filaments slide
past each other and bundles of contracting fibers pull on the bones moving our
bodies. The triggered stretching behavior of muscle is inherently based in
geometry, characterized by a decrease in length and increase in volume (or vice
versa) in response to a change in the local environment, such as humidity or heat.

A. humidity and heat

B. environment
C. geometry
D. muscles

TASK-2

Variations of dynamic geometry appear elsewhere in nature, exhibiting variety of

mechanisms and structures and inspiring development in artificial muscle
technology. Spider silk, specifically ornithoctonus Huwena spider silk, now offers
the newest such inspiration thanks to research from a collaboration of scientists in
China and the U.S.

A. inspiration for artificial muscles

B. dynamic geometry
C. spider silk
D. China and the U.S
TASK-3

“Spider silk is a natural biological material with high sensitivity to…… which
inspires us to study the interaction between spider silk and water, said Hongwei
Zhu, a professor of Material Science and Engineering in Beijing and part of the
collaboration. “Ornithoctonus Huwena spider is a unique species as it can be bred
artificially and it spins silk of nanoscale diameter.”

A. Spider silk
B. Spider silk and water
C. Beijing
D. Artificial spiders
 TASK-4

A) One of nature’s greatest mysteries—the ‘Fairy Circles’ of

Namibia-- …been unraveled by researchers. The study suggests
1. Debating causes that the interaction..Termite engineering and the self-organization
of vegetation could be jointly responsible for the phenomenon.

B) The cause of the circular patches of earth surrounded by grass,

which are arranged in honeycomb-like patterns in huge areas of the
2. A spectangular Namib desert, has been the source of scientific debate for decades.
interest The new search, published in scientific journal Nature, suggests
that the Interaction between termite engineering and the self-
organization of vegetation could be jointly responsible for the
phenomenon

C) Regular vegetation patterns spectacular landscapes across the

3. A mystery unraveled
globe, with the Fairy Circles in Namibia holding special interest for
scientists since the 1970s.Some have argued that termites alone
create these patterns by destroying vegetation to reduce
competition for water, while others have suggested the circles
follow patterns of rainfall and are solely caused by competition
between plants
 TASK-5

A) One of nature’s greatest mysteries—the ‘Fairy Circles’ of

1. A long held and Namibia-- …been unraveled by researchers. The study
beautiful interest suggests that the interaction..Termite engineering and the self-
organization of vegetation could be jointly responsible for the
phenomenon.

B) The cause of the circular patches of earth surrounded by

grass, which are arranged in honeycomb-like patterns in huge
2. A puzzle possibly
areas of the Namib desert, has been the source of scientific
solved
debate for decades. The new search, published in scientific
journal Nature, suggests that the Interaction between termite
engineering and the self-organization of vegetation could be
jointly responsible for the phenomenon

3. An ongoing
C) Regular vegetation patterns spectacular landscapes across
dispute.
the globe, with the Fairy Circles in Namibia holding special
interest for scientists since the 1970s.Some have argued that
termites alone create these patterns by destroying vegetation to
reduce competition for water, while others have suggested the
circles follow patterns of rainfall and are solely caused by
competition between plants
 2. KEYWORDS

Keywords are essential nouns, verbs and adjectives.

i) Identify key nouns, verbs and adjectives in the
question.

ii) Find corresponding keywords in the paragraph

iii) Stop! Zoom in on that part of the paragraph

and read it carefully.

iv) Go back and forth until you know the answer.

TASK-1

A computer interface that can decipher

1. What syndrome can
the thoughts of people who are unable
the new technology
help? to communicate could revolutionize the

2. What can the

lives of those living with completely
computer decipher? locked-in syndrome. Counter to

3. How did the expectations, the participants in the

participants report study reported being “happy,” despite
feeling
their extreme condition.
TASK-2

A) Tiny air pollution particles –the type that

mainly….power plants and automobiles
– may greatly increase the chance of
1. What could possibly be dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.
causing dementia?

B) Scientists and engineers found that older

women who live in places with fine
2. What percentage of
particulate matter exceeding the US
dementia cases could
Environmental Protection Agency’s
be attributed to air standard are 81 percent more at risk for
pollution? global cognitive decline and 92 percent
more likely to develop dementia,
3. What needs to be in including Alzheimer’s.
the surrounding
environment to
increase cognitive
decline? C) If their findings hold up in the general
population, air pollution could be
responsible for about 21 percent of
dementia cases, according to the study.
 FIND THE SYNONYMS

Children who believe intelligence can grow pay more

at…… to bounce back from their mistakes effectively
1. Kids than kids who think intelligence is fixed, indicates a new
2. Increase study that measured the young participants’ brain waves.
3. Concentrate
4. Recover
5. Permanent The research suggests teachers and parents should help
6. Errors children pay more attention to the mistakes they make so
7. Recoiling they can better learn from them, as opposed to shying
8. Avoiding away from or glossing over mistakes.
9. Research finding
10. Chance
“The main implication here is that we should pay close
attention to our mistakes and use them as opportunities to
learn,’ said Hans Schroder, lead Schroder, lead author on
the study.
 FIND THE SYNONYM FOR “ACCIDENTLY”, “EXERT EFFORT”,
“ENDEAVOUR”

A) Simply telling people that hard work is more important than ge… causes
positive changes in the brain and may make them willing to try harder, a
study shows, “Giving people messages that encourage learning and
motivation may promote more efficient performance,” said the lead
investigator. “In contrast, telling people that intelligence is genetically fixed
May inadvertently hamper learning.”
B) Were Albert Einstein and Leonardo da Vinci born brilliant or did they
acquire their intelligence, and after eliminating through effort? No one
knows for sure, but telling people the latter – that hard work trumps genes –
causes instant changes in the brain and may make them more willing to
strive for success.
C) The findings suggest the human brain is more receptive to the message that
intelligence comes from the environment, regardless of whether it’s true.
And this simple message, said lead investigator Hans Schroder, may
ultimately prompt us to work harder.
 MOCK TEST 1

The first revision of the cuckoo wasp genus…China has brought to light nine new
gorgeous….species from the genus. The genus is part of…engaging Chrysididae wasp
family, known for their bright metallic body colors and their peculiar parasitizing and
defensive mechanisms.
MOCK TEST-1

The revised genus belongs to the engaging cuckoo wasp family Chrysididae. As their
common name suggests, these wasps have some peculiar parasitoid nesting habits. Often
highly sculptured, with brilliantly colored metallic-like bodies they are also called jewel
wasps, gold wasps, or emerald wasps.

Just like the cuckoo the wasps sneak in and lay their eggs in host nests. When hatched the
larvae consume the host egg or larva, while they are still young, and after eliminating
competition they move onto consuming the provisions. The members of the genus
revised are parasitoids of the prepupae of sawflies.

Another interesting survival mechanism of the cuckoowasps is their ability to curl into a
protective ball when in danger, a process known as conglobation. In nature this
mechanism is also seen in pill bugs and armadillos
Questions 1-4

Match the appropriate heading A, B, C, D

1. Similarities in behavior
2. A change of class defence
3. New types of wasp
4. Unknown defence mechanisms

Questions 5-7

Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D

5. The wasp originates from where

A. Europe

B. Australia

C. Canada

D. China

6. What is the wasps’ strange difference?

A. stings

B. nesting habits

C. wings

D. flying patterns
7. Where do the wasps lay their eggs?

A. in their nests

B. in trees

C. in nearby shrubs

D. in hosts’ nests

Questions 8-11

Does the information in the statements match the information in the passage?

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.

8. The wasp attacks its prey in the air

9. The wasps have several different names.

10. The wasps larvae consume the mother wasp

11. The wasps defence mechanisms are not unusual

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 FIND THE SYNONYMS

1) tops In the reaches of high the trees in tropical forests

2) rainforests nutrients are hard to come by. Many epiphytic plants
3) obtain solve this problem by forming symbiotic relationships
4) find the answer to
with ants, that is, relationships that involve the close and
5) intimate
6) give long term living together of two species. The plants
7) stock provide their insect partners with shelter and a supply of
8) reciprocate nectar, while the ants return the favor by serving as a
9) plant food source of fertilizer – in the form of fecal matter. An
10) ant poo! understanding of how these symbioses originate, evolve,
11) disintegrate
and break down yields insights into the ecological and
12) understandings
13) biotic adaptation evolutionary factors that underlie biotic adaptation.

FIND THE SYNONYM FOR JUMP

Fish on the South Pacific island of Rarotonga have evolved the

ability to survive out of water and leap about on the rocky
shoreline because this helps them escape predators in the
ocean. The new study is the first to examine the pressures
driving fish out of water and shows the ocean is an enemy-
filled environment for the little blennies.

FIND THE SYNONYMS

1) understand
2) associating Humans are able to interpret the
3) cognitive behavior of others by attributing
4) empathizing with mental states to them (and to
5) feelings themselves). By adopting the
6) goals perspectives of other people, we can
7) the wild assume their emotions, needs and
8) show intentions and react accordingly. In
9) is looking at the animal kingdom, the ability to
10) understand signals attribute mental states (Theory of
Mind) is highly contentious issue.
Cognitive biologists could
demonstrate with a new test
procedure that dogs are not only able
to identify whether a human has an
eye on a food source and, therefore,
knows where the food has been
hidden. They can also apply this
knowledge in order to correctly
interpret cues by humans and find
food they cannot see themselves

FIND THE SYNONYM FOR “TELLING THE DIFFERENCE”

Everybody loves those rare “agha

moments” where you suddenly and
unexpectedly solve a difficult problem
or understand something that had
previously perplexed you. But until
now, researchers had not had a good
way to study how people actually
experienced what is called “epiphany
learning”
 FIND THE SYNONYM FOR “TAKE OUT”

Random number generators are crucial to the encryption that protects our
privacy and security when engaging in digital transactions such as buying products
online or withdrawing cash from an ATM. For the first time, engineers have
developed a fast random number generator based on a quantum mechanical
process that could deliver them world’s most secure encryption keys in a package
tiny enough to use in a mobile device.

FIND THE OPTION WHICH SUMMARISES THE PARAGRAPH

SCAN TO GET MAIN IDEA

Its long been associated with anger and coarseness but profanity can have
another, more positive connotation. Psychologists have learned that people who
frequently curse are more honest.

A. People who swear are less

likely to lie
B. Swearing can have positive
effects
C. Psychologists believe swearing
can have positive mental
effects Male domestic fowl are less
D. People whoaggressive
swear aretowards
usually related males
angrier than to unrelated males when
competing for females. This suggests
that domestic fowl can recognize their
kin along individuals in a group, and
that their behavior is different
towards kin and non-kin.
A. Hens behave strangely
around roosters
B. Roosters are nicer to their
relatives
C. Roosters compete for female
D. Chickens are unuasually
aggressive
 A. Salty foods makes you
thirstier We’ve all heard it: eating salty foods makes you
B. Salty foods makes you less thirstier. But what sounds like good nutritional
thirsty advice turns out to be not true in the long run. In a
C. Salty foods makes you study carried out during a simulated mission to
energetic Mars,an international group of scientists has found
D. Salty foods are important on exactly the opposite to be true. Cosmonauts’ who
Mars ate more salt retained more water, weren’t as
thirsty, and needed more energy.

A. Ocean litter
B. The world’s oceans Billions of pounds of plastic waste are littering the world’s
C. Fuel from plastic oceans. Now, an organic chemist and a sailboat captain
D. Mobile reactors report that they are developing a process to reuse certain
plastics, transforming them from worthless trash into
valuable diesel fuel with a small mobile reactor that could
operate on land or at sea.
 1. MULTIPLE CHOICE-SIMPLE

Questions 1-2

Choose the appropriate answer A, B, C or D

Write your answer for questions 1 on the answer Jay has a red car. He bought his car off
sheet provided his uncle Tim for $400.It rattles and it
smokes but it still works.
1.What colour is Jay’s car

A. Pink

B.Green

C.Red

D.Black

2.From whom did Jay purchase his car?

A.Rattle

B.Smoke

C.Jay

D.Tim
 MULTIPLE CHOICE-REAL
Questions 1-2
Choose the appropriate answer A, B, C or D
Write your answer for question 1-2 on the
answer sheet provided
1. Pupil size naturally adjusts to
A. the volume of the music
B. the beat of the music
C. the emotion conveyed by the music
D. the types of instruments used in the
music
2. Why are pupil sizes being measured
A. to improve musical reactions
B. to guage reactions to music
C. to modulate thoughts
D. to solve complex problems
When people are listening to music,
their emotional reactions to the music
are reflected in changes in their pupil
size.Both the emotional content of
the music and the listeners’ personal
environment with music influence
pupil dilation. Researchers are
usingpupil size measurement to probe
listeners’ reactions to music. However
pupil ize is also modulated by
thoughts, emotions, or mentl effort.
For instance, the pupil dilates when
trying to solve a difficult mental
computation.
 2. TRUE / FALSE/ NOT GIVEN-SIMPLE

Questions 3-5
Jay has a red car. He bought his car off
Does the information in the
his uncle Tim for $400.It rattles and it
statements match the information in
smokes but it still works.
the passage?

For questions 3-5 in 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 statement

3. Jay owns a green car

4. Jay’s car is old

5. Jay owns a red car

 TRUE/ FALSE/ NOT GIVEN – REAL

Questions 3-5 It is a boy or is it a girl? For baby sea turtles it’s not that
cut and dry. Because they don’t have an X or Y
Does the information in the chromosome, baby sea turtles’ sex is defined during
statements match the information in development by the incubation environment. The nest’s
the passage? thermal environment determines whether an embryo
For questions 3-5 in your answer will develop as a male or female. Warmer sand
sheet, write temperatures produce more males. To make things even
more complicated, in some species of sea turtles, their
TRUE if the statement agrees with the sexual anatomy is not physically apparent until about a
information decade or so when they approach sexual maturity.

FALSE if the statement contradicts the

information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information

on this information

3. Sea turtle sex is determined by

chromosomal changes

4. Fluctuating sand temperatures

affect turtle life-spans

5. Sea turtle sexual anatomy is only

visible after approximately 10 years.
 3. MATCH SENTENCE ENDINGS-SIMPLE

Questions 6-8

Complete each sentence with the

correct ending A-C from the box
below Jay has a red car. He bought his car off
his uncle Tim for $400.It rattles and it
Write the correct latter A-C for smokes but it still works.
questions 6-8 on the answer sheet
provided.

6. Jay’s uncle Tim

7. Though the car rattles,it

8 Jay’s car

A. still runs
B. sold him the car for $400
C. is red
 1. MATCH SENTENCE ENDINGS-SIMPLE

Questions 6-9

Complete each sentence with the correct ending A-C
from the box below.
Write the correct letter A-C for questions 6-9 on the
answer sheet provided
6. Increased sand temperatures
7. The sex of baby sea turtles
8. A high number of males
It is a boy or is it a girl? For baby sea turtles it’s not that
cut and dry. Because they don’t have an X or Y
chromosome, baby sea turtles’ sex is defined during
development by the incubation environment. The nest’s
thermal environment determines whether an embryo
will develop as a male or female. Warmer sand
temperatures produce more males. To make things even
more complicated, in some species of sea turtles, their
sexual anatomy is not physically apparent until about a
decade or so when they approach sexual maturity.

9. The sexual maturity of turtles.

A. is determined by the temperature of the nest

B. are the result of colder sand

C. yield higher numbers of females

D. is reached after about ten years.

Questions 3-6

Does the information in the statements math the information in Do you ever dream of becoming the
the passage next Picasso? A new study
comparing art and social science
For questions 3-6 in your answer sheet, write
students has found that visually
T if the statement agrees with the information. creative people evaluate their sleep
as of lower quality. Visually creative
F if the statement contradicts the information. people report disturbed sleep
leading to difficulties in daytime
NG if there is no information on this statement.
functioning. In the case of verbally
3. People who are visually creative suffer more frequent creative people, they sleep more
nightmares hours and go to sleep and get up
later. In other words, the two types
4. Visually creative people daydream more than normal people of creativity were associated with
different sleep patterns. This
5. Verbally creative people sleep longer than visually creative
demonstrates that the expression of
people
visual creativity involves different
6. Visual and verbal creativity utilize similar mental and physical psychological and biological
workings. mechanisms to those found in
verbal creativity.
 Jay has a red car. He bought his car off his uncle Tim
Questions 7-10
for $400.It rattles and it smokes but it still works.
Complete the sentences below.
Choose NO MORE THAN ONE WORD
from the text for each answer
Jay is a really funny guy. He tells jokes all the time.
Write your answers for questions 7-10
People always laugh at him. Sometimes he does
on the answer sheet
stand up comedy.
21. The colour of Jay’s car is

22. Jay sometimes does stand up

23. At Skill Raiser, Anju teaches

Anju teaches English at Skill Raiser. It’s a cool
company that makes passing your English tests
much easier.
After a rough night’s sleep, your ability to recognize whether those around you are
happy or sad could suffer. Participants had a harder time identifying facial
expressions of happiness or sadness when they were sleep deprived versus well-
rested.

The sleepy participant’s ability to interpret facial expressions of other emotions --

anger, fear, surprise and disgust – was not impaired, however. That’s likely because
we’re wired to recognize those more primitive emotions in order to survive acute
dangers.

While emotions such as fear and anger could indicate a threat, social emotions such
as happiness and sadness are less necessary for us to recognize for immediate
survival. When we’re tired, it seems we’re more likely to dedicate our resources to
recognizing those emotions that could impact our short-term safety and well-being.