ielts_trainer_2_academic_six_practice_tests

READing PASSAge 1
Questions 1–13
1 TRUE: The texts states that dance historians have
‘remarkably similar views’ about ‘the evolution of
modern American dance’. However, it’s necessary
to comprehend the meaning of a reasonably long
sentence in order to complete the task.
2 FALSE: The texts states that dance ‘moved away
from previous approaches’ and rejected both ballet
and vaudeville. Hence dancers in the early 1900s did
not tend to copy earlier dancers. In fact, they made
‘a fresh start’.
3 NOT giVEN: The text provides various details about
Fuller’s style of dance, including the fact that she
emphasised visual effects rather than storytelling.
However, there is no information about whether
she preferred to dance alone or as part of a large
company.
4 FALSE: Instead of ‘complicated clothing’, the text
states that Duncan ‘refused to wear elaborate
costumes, preferring to dance in plain dresses and
bare feet’.
5 NOT giVEN: Duncan preferred music written by
classical composers to contemporary music. The
inference might be that this was unusual at the
time, but there is no reference to criticisms from
other dancers.
6 TRUE: St Denis opened a dance training academy
so she could pass on her dance style to the next
generation.
7 walking The question includes the word ‘breathing’
so it is necessary to find a grammatically compatible
second word to complete the set. ‘Patterns’
might be tempting but doesn’t fit the grammar.
‘Observing’ might also be tempting, but isn’t what
the text says.
8 book The difficulty here comes from the fact that
the answer, ‘book’, is obscured by the complexity of
the sentence before it: ‘She explored the concept of
gravity, allowing her body to fall, only to recover at
the last moment.’
9 humour The idea of the Broadway stage might be
tempting here, but Holm did not ‘introduce’ these.
Her ‘innovation’ was to bring humour to these
performances, hence she ‘introduced’ humour.
10 documentary The whole idea of the ‘interactions
of ordinary people going about their everyday lives’
might be tempting here. However, no part of that
sentence will fit the key in terms of grammar and
meaning. Only a documentary can ‘outline’ Taylor’s
working life.
11 lecturing ‘Travelled’ might be tempting here but
doesn’t fit the grammar.
12 comics ‘Costumes’ and ‘stage design’ might be
tempting here, but they cannot be ‘influences’ in this
context. Rather they were influenced ‘by’ comics.
13 mirrors ‘Limbs’ and ‘backbones’ might be tempting
here but do not make sense in the context.
READing PASSAge 2
Questions 14–26
14 B very hard = almost impossible; to pretend to
laugh = to imitate laughter
15 A a reference to research = all the studies show;
people do not know how often they laugh = we
laugh more frequently than we realise
16 D stop themselves laughing = suppress laughter;
the reason why = this is possible because
17 A The health benefits include improving
cardiovascular function, boosting the immune
system and the release of beneficial hormones into
the bloodstream.
18 C a medical condition = a rare neurological disorder
named aphonogelia; stops some people making a
noise when laughing = prevents some people from
laughing out loud
19 D paragraph E: research = an international online
survey; personal experience = the reactions his
own jokes received; wide range of subjects and
situations = diverse and often contradictory variety
of topics and scenarios
20 C paragraph C: ideas about what is amusing = tastes
in jokes; changed considerably over time = evolved
markedly with the passing of the centuries
21 E paragraph E: to intentionally make other people
laugh = making jokes for a living; an unusual
combination of skills and characteristics =
a psychologist and social commentator, be
empathetic, self-aware, observant, stubborn
and have great timing.
22 B paragraph B: Jocelyn Barnes explains that while
we may laugh because something is funny, the real
purpose of laughter is sometimes social bonding;
ordinary people = outside the scientific community
23 eyes paragraph B: The sentence has a clear locator
in the name of the French neurologist. Distraction
is provided by the names of the two muscles and
by ‘feet’, but these words do not make sense in this
context.
89