Đề thi thử IELTS Academic số 2: IELTS Academic Mock Test 2

Listening (30 phút)

Part 1

Questions 1-10. Complete the form below. Write ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer. RIVERSIDE ARTS CENTRE: POTTERY COURSE BOOKING

Phần nghe phát trong phòng thi.

1. Name: Rachel ____
2. Mobile number: ____
3. Day of class: ____ evenings, 7 to 9 pm
4. Length of course: ____ weeks
5. Price: £____
6. Price includes clay and ____
7. Bring: an ____
8. Room: Studio ____, second floor
9. Heard about the course from: the monthly ____
10. Offer: 10% off for both if you bring a ____

Part 2

Questions 11-15: Choose the correct letter, A, B or C. Questions 16-20: What does the speaker say about each facility? Choose the correct answer for each facility.

Phần nghe phát trong phòng thi.

1. When will the leisure centre be fully open?
   • in March
   • in May
   • in September
2. What is most unusual about the building?
   • It produces all its own electricity.
   • Its pools are heated by a neighbouring building.
   • It was built from recycled materials.
3. What does the speaker say about membership?
   • The first 500 members pay no joining fee.
   • Members must sign up for twelve months.
   • Family membership is much cheaper per person.
4. Why was the café moved from its original position?
   • to give it more seating
   • to keep it away from the noise of the gym
   • so that parents can watch the pool
5. What does the speaker say about parking?
   • It is free for up to three hours.
   • There are not many spaces, so the bus is recommended.
   • It is shared with a nearby supermarket.
6. Climbing wall
   • is fully booked for the first month
   • is suitable for children under five
   • requires a short training session
   • is open 24 hours a day
   • has been adapted for wheelchair users
   • is run by an outside company
7. Learner pool
   • is fully booked for the first month
   • is suitable for children under five
   • requires a short training session
   • is open 24 hours a day
   • has been adapted for wheelchair users
   • is run by an outside company
8. Gym
   • is fully booked for the first month
   • is suitable for children under five
   • requires a short training session
   • is open 24 hours a day
   • has been adapted for wheelchair users
   • is run by an outside company
9. Sports hall
   • is fully booked for the first month
   • is suitable for children under five
   • requires a short training session
   • is open 24 hours a day
   • has been adapted for wheelchair users
   • is run by an outside company
10. Physiotherapy clinic
    • is fully booked for the first month
    • is suitable for children under five
    • requires a short training session
    • is open 24 hours a day
    • has been adapted for wheelchair users
    • is run by an outside company

Part 3

Questions 21-25: Choose the correct letter, A, B or C. Questions 26-30: Complete the notes below. Write ONE WORD ONLY for each answer. PRESENTATION NOTES: VERTICAL FARMING

Phần nghe phát trong phòng thi.

1. What have the students decided to focus on in their presentation?
   • energy use
   • water saving
   • food supply in cities
2. What surprised Sam most about the farm he visited?
   • how quiet it was
   • the temperature inside
   • how few people worked there
3. What is Professor Grant's concern about the company report?
   • It is out of date.
   • It may not be objective.
   • It is too technical for the audience.
4. What do the students agree is the main advantage of vertical farms?
   • They use less land.
   • They do not need pesticides.
   • They can produce crops all year.
5. How will the students share the presentation?
   • Sam will speak and Lena will answer questions.
   • Each student will present half of the talk.
   • Lena will present the whole talk.
6. Crops: mainly leafy greens such as ____, plus some herbs
7. Lighting: LEDs give a mix of red and ____ light
8. Wheat and rice are unsuitable because they need huge amounts of ____
9. Conclusion: best for cities with cold ____
10. Ending: show a short ____ from the farm visit

Part 4

Questions 31-40. Complete the notes below. Write ONE WORD ONLY for each answer. THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY ICE TRADE

Phần nghe phát trong phòng thi.

1. The first voyage in 1806 took ice to an island in the ____.
2. The voyage failed mainly because buyers did not know how to ____ the ice.
3. Harvesting: a ____ pulled by horses cut grooves in the ice.
4. Blocks were all the same ____, so they could be packed tightly.
5. Transport: ice was packed in ____ from timber mills.
6. Ice replaced rocks that ships carried as ____.
7. The longest route was to ____ in India.
8. Effects: refrigerated railway cars carried fresh ____ to the east coast.
9. Hospitals used ice to reduce patients' ____.
10. Decline: ____ of rivers and lakes made natural ice seem unsafe.

Reading (60 phút)

Passage 1

Read the passage and answer Questions 1-13. Questions 1-6: Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage? Choose TRUE if the statement agrees with the information, FALSE if the statement contradicts the information, NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this. Questions 7-13: Complete the notes below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

THE RETURN OF THE TRAM

At the beginning of the twentieth century, trams were the backbone of public transport in hundreds of cities. The first ones had been pulled by horses along rails laid in the street, which allowed a single animal to pull a far heavier load than it could on a rough road. From the 1880s onwards, electric trams, powered from overhead wires, spread rapidly, and by 1920 it was possible to travel across many large cities without ever walking more than a few hundred metres to a tram stop. Within a few decades, however, most of these networks had gone. Between the 1930s and the 1960s, city after city tore up its tracks and replaced its trams with buses.

The reasons for this decline were partly practical and partly a matter of fashion. Tram tracks and overhead wires were expensive to maintain, and many networks had been neglected during years of economic depression and war. Buses, by contrast, required no rails and could be moved to new routes whenever housing spread into new areas. Above all, the private car had come to represent the future. Planners in the mid-twentieth century imagined cities designed around wide roads and fast traffic, and trams, which ran in the middle of the street and stopped frequently, were seen as an obstacle. In some cities, trams survived only because there was not enough money to replace them.

Today the picture has changed dramatically. Since the 1980s, more than a hundred cities around the world have built new tram systems, often described as light rail, and many more have extended the lines they kept. Some of the most enthusiastic builders have been medium-sized cities with populations of between 200,000 and 500,000 people, too small to justify an underground railway but large enough to suffer serious traffic congestion. For these cities, a tram offers a compromise: it can carry far more passengers than a bus, but it costs a fraction of the price of a metro, because the track is laid on the surface rather than in tunnels.

Supporters of trams point to several advantages. A modern tram can carry around 250 to 300 passengers, roughly three times as many as a standard bus, and because it runs on electricity it produces no exhaust fumes in the street. Trams also tend to attract people who would not normally use a bus. Surveys in several cities have found that a significant proportion of tram passengers previously made the same journey by car. Transport researchers often explain this in terms of permanence and reliability. Tracks in the road are a visible promise that the service will still be there in ten years' time, and because trams often have their own lanes, they are less likely to be delayed by traffic.

There is another, less obvious benefit. Property developers are more willing to invest in areas close to a tram line, for exactly the same reason: the line is unlikely to be moved. In a number of cities, run-down districts along new tram routes have seen new housing, shops and offices built within a few years of the line opening. Some city governments now plan tram lines partly as a tool of urban renewal, deliberately routing them through neighbourhoods that need investment.

Nevertheless, trams are not without their critics. The most common complaint concerns cost. Although a tram line is much cheaper than an underground railway, it is far more expensive than simply improving bus services. Building a new line usually means moving water pipes, electricity cables and other services that lie beneath the road, and this work frequently takes longer and costs more than planned. Construction can also cause years of disruption, and shopkeepers on the route have sometimes seen their trade fall sharply while the street is closed. Critics also argue that some new systems were built mainly for reasons of prestige, and that the money could have been better spent elsewhere.

In response, engineers have looked for ways to reduce costs. One approach is to build the track on a shallow concrete slab that sits above most underground services, so that fewer pipes and cables have to be moved. Another is to do away with overhead wires, which many residents find ugly, especially in historic city centres. Some newer trams carry batteries that are recharged at each stop in the time it takes passengers to get on and off. A third idea, now being tested in several countries, is the so-called trackless tram, a long, rubber-tyred vehicle that follows markings painted on the road. Its supporters claim it offers much of the comfort of a tram at a much lower price, although critics doubt that it will give developers the same confidence as steel rails.

Whatever form they take, trams seem certain to remain part of the urban landscape. After half a century in which they were dismissed as relics of the past, they are now regarded in many cities as a symbol of the future.

1. Rails allowed horses to pull heavier loads than they could on ordinary roads.
   • TRUE
   • FALSE
   • NOT GIVEN
2. Electric trams first appeared in the 1920s.
   • TRUE
   • FALSE
   • NOT GIVEN
3. Some cities kept their trams because they could not afford to replace them.
   • TRUE
   • FALSE
   • NOT GIVEN
4. Most of the new tram systems built since the 1980s are in Europe.
   • TRUE
   • FALSE
   • NOT GIVEN
5. A modern tram can carry about twice as many passengers as a standard bus.
   • TRUE
   • FALSE
   • NOT GIVEN
6. Shopkeepers on new tram routes have been paid compensation for lost trade.
   • TRUE
   • FALSE
   • NOT GIVEN
7. Decline: tracks and overhead wires were expensive to ____.
8. Decline: buses could change routes when ____ spread into new areas.
9. Decline: planners saw the private ____ as the future.
10. Attracting drivers: trams often have their own ____, so they avoid traffic delays.
11. Wider benefits: tram lines are used as a tool of urban ____.
12. Cutting costs: track can be built on a shallow concrete ____.
13. Cutting costs: some trams use ____ that are recharged at each stop.

Passage 2

Read the passage and answer Questions 14-26. Questions 14-18: The passage has six paragraphs, A-F. Which paragraph contains the following information? Choose the correct letter, A-F. Questions 19-22: Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D. Questions 23-26: Complete the sentences below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

HARVESTING WATER FROM THE AIR

A. On the coastal hills of some of the driest places on Earth, rain may not fall for years at a time, yet the air is often heavy with moisture. Thick banks of fog roll in from the ocean on most mornings, drift over the land and disappear by midday, leaving almost nothing behind. For a very long time, a few plants and animals have known how to exploit this hidden water supply. A beetle in one coastal desert of southern Africa, for example, climbs to the top of a sand dune at dawn and tilts its body into the wind, so that tiny droplets of fog collect on its back and run down towards its mouth. Some trees in similar climates catch so much moisture on their leaves that the ground beneath them stays damp while the surrounding land is dust.

B. Fog harvesting is an attempt to copy this trick on a larger scale. The basic equipment is remarkably simple. A large rectangle of fine plastic mesh, typically around four metres high and ten metres long, is stretched between two poles and placed on a hillside facing the prevailing wind. As fog blows through the mesh, droplets hit the fibres, merge with other droplets and grow heavy enough to run down into a gutter at the bottom. From there, the water flows through a pipe into a storage tank. No power is needed, and apart from occasional repairs, the system largely looks after itself.

C. The amount of water collected depends heavily on the location. At the best sites, a single collector can produce several hundred litres on a foggy day, although the average over a year is usually much lower. To find suitable places, engineers first set up small test panels, around one square metre in size, and measure how much they collect over a period of at least a year. The ideal site is usually a ridge between 400 and 1,000 metres above sea level, close to the coast, where fog is pushed up the slope by steady winds. Experience has shown that a site that looks promising from a distance can be disappointing in practice, and projects that skip the testing stage have often failed.

D. When fog harvesting works, the benefits for small communities can be considerable. Before a collection system was installed in one fishing village on a dry coast, families depended on water delivered by truck, which was expensive and often arrived late. After the collectors were built on the hill above the village, households had a regular free supply for drinking and cooking, and some of the surplus was used to grow vegetables in small gardens. The village school, which had previously sent children home early on days when the water ran out, was able to stay open for the full day. In several schemes, the work of looking after the nets has been taken on by local committees, which has given residents a sense that the system belongs to them.

E. Yet the history of fog harvesting also contains a number of failures, and the reasons are often social rather than technical. In one well-known case, a project supplied water for more than a decade but was eventually abandoned after the village was connected to a piped supply. Nobody had been given responsibility for maintenance, and the nets were torn by strong winds and never replaced. Elsewhere, disagreements over who should benefit from the water caused conflict within the community. Researchers who have studied these projects conclude that the most important factor in long-term success is not the design of the nets but the existence of a clear plan, agreed in advance, for who will run the system and pay for repairs.

F. Meanwhile, scientists are working to improve the collectors themselves. One problem with standard mesh is that many droplets pass straight through the holes, while others stick to the fibres and evaporate before they can run off. By studying the surfaces of desert plants and insects, researchers have developed new materials that combine areas that attract water with areas that repel it, so that droplets form quickly and then slide away. In laboratory tests, some of these materials have collected two to three times as much water as ordinary mesh. Another group has designed collectors made from vertical wires, like the strings of a harp, which they say allows droplets to roll down without blocking the gaps. Whether these designs will prove strong and cheap enough for remote hillsides remains to be seen, but they suggest that the potential of fog as a source of water is still far from fully explored.

1. an explanation of how suitable locations are identified
   • A
   • B
   • C
   • D
   • E
   • F
2. a description of an animal that collects water from fog
   • A
   • B
   • C
   • D
   • E
   • F
3. the reason why one project stopped being used
   • A
   • B
   • C
   • D
   • E
   • F
4. an account of how a community's daily life improved
   • A
   • B
   • C
   • D
   • E
   • F
5. a comparison between the performance of new and standard materials
   • A
   • B
   • C
   • D
   • E
   • F
6. What does the writer say about the basic fog collector?
   • It needs a small amount of electricity.
   • It has to be cleaned every day.
   • It needs little attention once it is in place.
   • It is usually made of metal wire.
7. According to paragraph C, projects have often failed when
   • the collectors were too large.
   • the site was not tested first.
   • the site was too far above sea level.
   • the winds were too strong.
8. Before the collectors were built, the fishing village got its water from
   • a piped supply.
   • a nearby river.
   • rainwater tanks.
   • deliveries by truck.
9. Researchers believe that long-term success depends mainly on
   • a clear plan for running and repairing the system.
   • stronger and better-designed nets.
   • financial support from the government.
   • a site very close to the coast.
10. The mesh is placed on a hillside facing the prevailing ____.
11. Droplets run down into a ____ at the bottom of the mesh.
12. Test panels are measured for a period of at least a ____.
13. Some new materials have areas that attract water and areas that ____ it.

Passage 3

Read the passage and answer Questions 27-40. Questions 27-31: Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D. Questions 32-35: Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-F. Questions 36-40: Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer? Choose 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.

IN DEFENCE OF BOREDOM

Few emotions have a worse reputation than boredom. It is associated with idleness, with dull jobs and long journeys, and with the restless teenager who complains that there is nothing to do. For most of the twentieth century, psychologists paid it little attention, regarding it as a minor and temporary discomfort rather than a subject worth serious study. Over the past twenty years, however, boredom has become an active area of research, and some of the findings have challenged the assumption that it is simply something to be avoided.

One difficulty for researchers has been agreeing on what boredom actually is. Early definitions tended to describe it in terms of the situation: a person was bored because their surroundings lacked stimulation. More recent work places the emphasis on the mind rather than the environment. On this view, boredom is the uncomfortable feeling of wanting to be engaged in a satisfying activity but being unable to find one. This explains why two people in the same situation, such as a long queue, may feel very differently: one may become intensely bored while the other is content to let their thoughts wander. It also explains why people can feel bored even when there is plenty going on around them, if none of it seems meaningful.

A second line of research has asked what boredom is for. Emotions are generally thought to have evolved because they serve a purpose: fear prompts us to escape danger, and disgust protects us from food that might make us ill. The psychologist Erin Westwood has argued that boredom works in a similar way, acting as a signal that our current activity is no longer worth the effort we are putting into it. "Boredom is a push," she says. "It tells us to stop what we are doing and look for something better." In this sense, she suggests, boredom is closely related to curiosity, since both drive us to search for new goals.

Some of the most widely reported studies have examined the link between boredom and creativity. In one experiment, conducted by a team led by Rajiv Menon, one group of participants spent fifteen minutes copying numbers from a list, a deliberately tedious task, while a second group went straight to the next stage. Both groups were then asked to think of as many uses as possible for a pair of plastic cups. The participants who had been bored produced more ideas, and their ideas were rated as more original. Menon believes that boredom encourages the mind to wander, and that this daydreaming allows connections to form between ideas that would not normally be linked.

These findings have been eagerly taken up by writers urging parents to let their children be bored rather than filling every hour with organised activities and screens. Not all researchers, however, are comfortable with this enthusiasm. Hannah Kowalczyk, who studies boredom in schools, points out that the creativity experiments involved short periods of mild boredom in a laboratory, which is very different from the chronic boredom that some pupils experience day after day. Her own surveys have found that students who report being bored in most of their lessons are more likely to fall behind and to leave school early. "A little boredom may be useful," she says, "but a lot of boredom is a warning sign that something is wrong."

There is also evidence that people find boredom far harder to tolerate than they expect. In one study, participants were left alone in a plain room for fifteen minutes with nothing to do but think. Earlier in the session they had been given a mild electric shock, and many had said they would pay money to avoid experiencing it again. Nonetheless, when left alone with a button that would deliver the same shock, a substantial number of them chose to press it at least once rather than simply sit with their own thoughts. For Westwood, the result illustrates how strong the push of boredom can be: people would rather do something unpleasant than nothing at all.

Modern technology has changed our relationship with boredom in ways that researchers are only beginning to understand. Smartphones mean that most people never need to experience even a few moments without stimulation; a gap in conversation or a short wait for a bus can be filled immediately. Some psychologists worry that this constant access to entertainment makes us less able to cope when boredom does arrive. Menon suggests that the habit of reaching for a phone may also deprive us of the daydreaming that boredom provokes, although he admits that this has not yet been tested directly. Others are less concerned, noting that complaints about new forms of entertainment ruining concentration are as old as the novel and the radio.

What emerges from this research is a more balanced picture. Boredom is unpleasant, and in large doses it can be harmful. But it is also a useful signal, one that can prompt us to change direction, to imagine alternatives and to seek out more meaningful activities. The challenge, perhaps, is not to eliminate boredom but to respond to it well: to treat it as a question about what we really want to be doing, rather than as a silence to be filled as quickly as possible.

1. According to the second paragraph, more recent definitions of boredom focus on
   • a lack of stimulation in the surroundings.
   • a person being unable to find a satisfying activity.
   • the amount of time spent waiting.
   • the number of people in a situation.
2. Why does the writer mention fear and disgust?
   • to show that boredom is less harmful than other emotions
   • to explain why boredom is difficult to measure
   • to contrast them with curiosity
   • to support the idea that emotions serve a purpose
3. In Menon's experiment, the participants who had copied numbers
   • thought of more original uses for the cups.
   • completed the second task more quickly.
   • said that they had enjoyed the first task.
   • found it harder to concentrate afterwards.
4. What is Kowalczyk's main criticism of the creativity studies?
   • They used too few participants.
   • They did not include any children.
   • The boredom they created was brief and mild.
   • Other researchers have not repeated them.
5. The study involving electric shocks suggests that
   • men are more easily bored than women.
   • many people prefer an unpleasant experience to doing nothing.
   • people overestimate how much they dislike pain.
   • boredom disappears after a few minutes.
6. Erin Westwood believes that boredom
   • may make people less able to cope with boredom.
   • is linked to pupils falling behind and leaving school early.
   • should be removed from classrooms entirely.
   • tells us to stop an activity and find a better one.
   • allows connections to form between unrelated ideas.
   • has been proven to improve concentration.
7. Rajiv Menon thinks that daydreaming
   • may make people less able to cope with boredom.
   • is linked to pupils falling behind and leaving school early.
   • should be removed from classrooms entirely.
   • tells us to stop an activity and find a better one.
   • allows connections to form between unrelated ideas.
   • has been proven to improve concentration.
8. Kowalczyk's surveys show that frequent boredom in lessons
   • may make people less able to cope with boredom.
   • is linked to pupils falling behind and leaving school early.
   • should be removed from classrooms entirely.
   • tells us to stop an activity and find a better one.
   • allows connections to form between unrelated ideas.
   • has been proven to improve concentration.
9. Some psychologists worry that constant access to entertainment
   • may make people less able to cope with boredom.
   • is linked to pupils falling behind and leaving school early.
   • should be removed from classrooms entirely.
   • tells us to stop an activity and find a better one.
   • allows connections to form between unrelated ideas.
   • has been proven to improve concentration.
10. For much of the twentieth century, boredom was not regarded as an important subject for research.
    • YES
    • NO
    • NOT GIVEN
11. People in the same situation always feel the same level of boredom.
    • YES
    • NO
    • NOT GIVEN
12. Erin Westwood's theory of boredom is now accepted by most psychologists.
    • YES
    • NO
    • NOT GIVEN
13. Research shows that boredom has only negative effects.
    • YES
    • NO
    • NOT GIVEN
14. People today experience boredom more often than people did a century ago.
    • YES
    • NO
    • NOT GIVEN

Writing (60 phút)

Task 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task. Write at least 150 words.

1. The graph below shows the number of visitors, in thousands, to three tourist attractions in the coastal town of Port Ellis between 2000 and 2025. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

   Tối thiểu 150 từ.

Task 2

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task. Write at least 250 words.

1. In many organisations, employees now work from home for part or all of the working week. Do the advantages of this development outweigh the disadvantages? Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

   Tối thiểu 250 từ.