An airborne reintroduction programme has helped conservationists take significant steps to protect the endangered Galapagos tortoise.
A. Forests of spiny cacti cover much of the uneven lava plains that separate the interior of the Galapagos island of Isabela from the Pacific Ocean. With its five distinct volcanoes, the island resembles a lunar landscape. Only the thick vegetation at the skirt of the often cloud-covered peak of Sierra Negra offers respite from the barren terrain below. Q1This inhospitable environment is home to the giant Galapagos tortoise. Sometime after the Galapagos’s birth, around five million years ago, the
islands were colonised by one or more tortoises from mainland South America. As these ancestral tortoises settled on the individual islands, the different populations adapted to their unique environments, giving rise to at least 14 different subspecies. Island life agreed with them. In the absence of significant predators, they grew to become the largest and longest-living tortoises on the planet, weighing more than 400 kilograms, occasionally exceeding 1.8 metres in length, and living for more than a century.
B. Before human arrival, the archipelago’s tortoises numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Q2From the 17th century onwards,Q8pirates took a few on board for Q9food, but the arrival of whaling ships in the 1790s saw this exploitation grow exponentially. Relatively immobile and capable of surviving for months without food or water, the tortoises were taken on board these ships to act as food supplies during long ocean passages. Sometimes, their bodies were processed into high-grade Q10oil. In total, an estimated 200,000 animals were taken from the archipelago before the 20th century. This historical exploitation was then exacerbated when Q11settlers came to the islands. They hunted the tortoises and destroyed their habitat to clear land for agriculture. They also introduced alien Q12species – ranging from cattle, pigs, goats, rats, and dogs to plants and ants – that either prey on the Q13eggs and young tortoises or damage or destroy their habitat.
C. Today, only 11 of the original subspecies survive and of these, several are highly endangered. Q3In 1989, work began on a tortoise-breeding centre just outside the town of Puerto Villamil on Isabela, dedicated to protecting the island’s tortoise populations. The centre’s captive-breeding programme proved to be extremely successful, and it eventually had to deal with an overpopulation problem.
D. The problem was also a pressing one. Captive-bred tortoises can’t be reintroduced into the wild until they’re at least five years old and weigh at least 4.5 kilograms, at which point their size and weight – and their hardened shells – are sufficient to protect them from predators. Q4But if people wait too long after that point, the tortoises eventually become too large to transport.
E. For years, repatriation efforts were carried out in small numbers, with the tortoises carried on the backs of men over weeks of long, treacherous hikes along narrow trails. But in November 2010, Q5the environmentalist and Galapagos National Park liaison officer Godfrey Merlin, a visiting private motor yacht captain, and a helicopter pilot gathered around a table in a small cafe in Puerto Ayora on the island of Santa Cruz to work out more ambitious reintroduction. The aim was to use a helicopter to move 300 of the breeding centre’s tortoises to various locations close to Sierra Negra.
F. This unprecedented effort was made possible by the owners of the 67-metre yacht White Cloud, who provided the Galapagos National Park with free use of their helicopter and its experienced pilot, as well as the logistical support of the yacht, its captain, and crew. Originally an air ambulance, the yacht’s helicopter has a rear double door and a large internal space that’s well suited for cargo, so a custom crate was designed to hold up to 33 tortoises with a total weight of about 150 kilograms. This weight, together with that of the fuel, pilot, and four crew, approached the helicopter’s maximum payload, and there were times when it was clearly right on the edge of the helicopter’s capabilities. Q6During a period of three days, a group of volunteers from the breeding centre worked around the clock to prepare the young tortoises for transport. Meanwhile, park wardens dropped off ahead of time in remote locations, cleared landing sites within the thick brush, cacti, and lava rocks.
G. Upon their release, the juvenile tortoises quickly spread out over their ancestral territory, investigating their new surroundings and feeding on the vegetation. Q7Eventually, one tiny tortoise came across a fully grown giant who had been lumbering around the island for around a hundred years. The two stood side by side, a powerful symbol of the regeneration of an ancient species.
Cindy: Right, and are you looking for a flat for yourself or… uhm… a family perhaps?
Martin: Well it’s for three of us myself and two friends – we’re going to share together.
Cindy: I see… erm, what about employment – are you all students?
Martin: Oh no, we’ve all got full-time jobs – Q1two of us work in the Central Bank, that’s Chris and me and Phil – that’s the other one – is working for Hallam cars, you know, at the factory about two miles out of town?
Cindy: I’ll put you down as young professionals, then and I suppose you’ll be looking for somewhere with three bedrooms?
Martin: Yeah – at least three. Q2 But actually, we’d rather have a fourth room as well if we can afford it – for friends staying over and stuff.
Cindy: Is that with a living room to share? Plus kitchen and bathroom?
Martin: Yeah, that sounds good. But we must have a bathroom with a shower. We don’t mind about having a bath, but the shower’s crucial.
Cindy: OK, I’ll just key that in… And are you interested in any particular area?
Martin: Well, the city centre would be good for me and Chris, so that’s our first preference… but Q3 we’d consider anything in the west suburbs as well really – actually for Phil that’d be better, but he knows he’s outnumbered. But we aren’t interested in the north or the east of the city.
Cindy: OK, I’m just getting up all the flats on our books.
Cindy: Just looking at this list here, I’m afraid there are only two that might interest you… do you want the details?
Martin: OK, let me just grab a pen and some paper… fire away!
Cindy: This first one I’m looking at is in Q4 Bridge Street – and very close to the bus station. It’s not often that flats in that area come up for rent. This one’s got three bedrooms, a bathroom, and kitchen, of course… and a very big living room. That sounds a good size for you.
Martin: Hmm. So, what about the rent? How much is it a month?
Cindy: Q5 The good news is that it’s only four hundred and fifty pounds a month. Rents in that area usually reach up to six fifty a month, but the landlord obviously wants to get a tenant quickly.
Martin: Yeah, it sounds like a bit of a bargain. What about transport for Phil?
Cindy: Well, there’ll be plenty of buses so no problem for him to use public transport… but unfortunately there isn’t a shower in the flat, and Q6 that location is likely to be noisy, of course…
Martin: OK – what about the other place?
Cindy: Let’s see… oh yes. Well, this one is in a really nice location – on Q7 Hills Avenue. I’m sure you know it. This looks like something a bit special. It’s got four big bedrooms and there’s a big living room and … oh- this will be good for you – Q8 a dining room. It sounds enormous, doesn’t it?
Martin: Yeah, it sounds great!
Cindy: That whole area’s being developed, and the Q9 flat’s very modern, which I’m sure you’ll like. It’s got good facilities, including your shower. And of course Q10 it’s going to be quiet, especially compared with the other place.
Martin: Better and better, but I’ll bet it’s expensive, especially if it’s in that trendy area beside the park.
Cindy: Hmm, I’m afraid so. They’re asking £800 a month for it.
Martin: Wow it sounds a lot more than we can afford.
Cindy: Well maybe you could get somebody else to move in too? I’ll tell you what, give me your address and I can send you all the details and photos and you can see whether these two are worth a visit.
Martin: Thanks, that would be really helpful… my address is…
Tony Walters: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to your very own tour of the British Library on this lovely afternoon. My name is Tony Walters and I’m your guide for today. Could I please see your tickets for the guided tour?
I’d also like to remind you that any tickets bought today do not include a visit to the reading rooms. I’m afraid we don’t do visits on Fridays – or any weekday during working hours, so as not to disturb the readers. But if you do want to see those rooms, Q11 the only day there are tours is on Sundays. So, I don’t want anyone to be disappointed about that today. OK? Thank you. Right. We’ll start with a brief introduction. As many of you know, this is the United Kingdom’s National Library and you can see that this is a magnificent modern building. It was first designed by Sir Colin St John Wilson in 1977, and Q12inaugurated by Her Majesty the Queen more than twenty years later, in 1998.
As you can see, the size is immense and the basements alone have 300 kilometres of shelving – and that’s enough to hold about 12 million books. Q13 The total floor space here is 100,000 square metres and, as I’ll show you, the library houses a huge range of facilities and exhibition spaces, and it has a thousand staff members based here in the building – so, you can appreciate the scale of our operation.
In fact, this was the biggest publicly-funded building constructed in the United Kingdom last century. Q14 It is still funded by the government as a national institution, of course, and it houses one of the most important collections in the world. The different items come from every continent and span almost 3000 years.
The library isn’t a public library, though – you can’t just come in and join and borrow any of the books. Q15 Access to the collections is limited to those involved in carrying out research, so it’s really a huge reference library for that purpose, and anyone who wants to consult any materials that are kept here can formally apply to use the library reading rooms.
Right, well, here we are, standing at the Meeting Point on the lower ground floor just to the right of the Main Entrance. I’ve given you all a plan of the building so that we can orientate ourselves and get an idea of where we’ll be going. Now outside the Main Entrance, you’ll see the wide Piazza with the stunning sculpture of Newton.
The sculptor was Paolozzi, but it’s based on the famous image by William Blake – and it’s definitely worth a closer look. Q16 On the other side of the Piazza from the statue is the Conference Centre, which is used for all kinds of international conventions – we’ll take a quick look inside at the end of our tour.
Looking ahead of us now, you’ll see that we’re standing opposite the staircase down to the basement where you’ll find the cloakroom, Q17 and to the left of that, we have the information desk where you can find out about any current exhibitions, the times of the tours and anything you need to know – if you don’t have a tour guide. As you can see, on this lower ground floor Q18 we also have a bookshop – that’s the area over to the left of the main entrance. You’ll be free to browse there when we get back to the ground floor.
Now,Q19 opposite the main entrance on this floor we have the open stairs leading up to the upper ground floor. And at the top of them, in the middle of the upper ground floor, you can see a kind of glass-sided tower that rises all the way up through the ceiling and up to the first floor. Q19 This is called the King’s Library – it’s really the heart of the building – it was built to house the collection that was presented to the nation in 1823 by the King. You can see it from every floor above ground. When we go up there, you’ll find the library’s Treasures Gallery on the left. Can you find it on your plan? That’s the exciting one, so we’ll be visiting that first, but we’ll also Q20 take a look at the stamp display situated behind it, on the way to the cafe – a lot of people miss that. The Cafeteria runs along the back of the floor and, in the right-hand corner, you’ll find the lifts and toilets… ha, always good to locate them. The other main area on that floor is the Public Access Catalogue section and I’ll show you how that operates when we get up there…
IELTS READING – FLYING TORTOISES S24AT1
/in IELTS Reading Academic /by IELTS SimulatorIELTS READING S24AT1
An airborne reintroduction programme has helped conservationists take significant steps to protect the endangered Galapagos tortoise.
A. Forests of spiny cacti cover much of the uneven lava plains that separate the interior of the Galapagos island of Isabela from the Pacific Ocean. With its five distinct volcanoes, the island resembles a lunar landscape. Only the thick vegetation at the skirt of the often cloud-covered peak of Sierra Negra offers respite from the barren terrain below. Q1 This inhospitable environment is home to the giant Galapagos tortoise. Sometime after the Galapagos’s birth, around five million years ago, the
Attempt full reading test…
islands were colonised by one or more tortoises from mainland South America. As these ancestral tortoises settled on the individual islands, the different populations adapted to their unique environments, giving rise to at least 14 different subspecies. Island life agreed with them. In the absence of significant predators, they grew to become the largest and longest-living tortoises on the planet, weighing more than 400 kilograms, occasionally exceeding 1.8 metres in length, and living for more than a century.
B. Before human arrival, the archipelago’s tortoises numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Q2 From the 17th century onwards, Q8 pirates took a few on board for Q9 food, but the arrival of whaling ships in the 1790s saw this exploitation grow exponentially. Relatively immobile and capable of surviving for months without food or water, the tortoises were taken on board these ships to act as food supplies during long ocean passages. Sometimes, their bodies were processed into high-grade Q10 oil. In total, an estimated 200,000 animals were taken from the archipelago before the 20th century. This historical exploitation was then exacerbated when Q11 settlers came to the islands. They hunted the tortoises and destroyed their habitat to clear land for agriculture. They also introduced alien Q12 species – ranging from cattle, pigs, goats, rats, and dogs to plants and ants – that either prey on the Q13 eggs and young tortoises or damage or destroy their habitat.
C. Today, only 11 of the original subspecies survive and of these, several are highly endangered. Q3 In 1989, work began on a tortoise-breeding centre just outside the town of Puerto Villamil on Isabela, dedicated to protecting the island’s tortoise populations. The centre’s captive-breeding programme proved to be extremely successful, and it eventually had to deal with an overpopulation problem.
D. The problem was also a pressing one. Captive-bred tortoises can’t be reintroduced into the wild until they’re at least five years old and weigh at least 4.5 kilograms, at which point their size and weight – and their hardened shells – are sufficient to protect them from predators. Q4 But if people wait too long after that point, the tortoises eventually become too large to transport.
E. For years, repatriation efforts were carried out in small numbers, with the tortoises carried on the backs of men over weeks of long, treacherous hikes along narrow trails. But in November 2010, Q5 the environmentalist and Galapagos National Park liaison officer Godfrey Merlin, a visiting private motor yacht captain, and a helicopter pilot gathered around a table in a small cafe in Puerto Ayora on the island of Santa Cruz to work out more ambitious reintroduction. The aim was to use a helicopter to move 300 of the breeding centre’s tortoises to various locations close to Sierra Negra.
F. This unprecedented effort was made possible by the owners of the 67-metre yacht White Cloud, who provided the Galapagos National Park with free use of their helicopter and its experienced pilot, as well as the logistical support of the yacht, its captain, and crew. Originally an air ambulance, the yacht’s helicopter has a rear double door and a large internal space that’s well suited for cargo, so a custom crate was designed to hold up to 33 tortoises with a total weight of about 150 kilograms. This weight, together with that of the fuel, pilot, and four crew, approached the helicopter’s maximum payload, and there were times when it was clearly right on the edge of the helicopter’s capabilities. Q6 During a period of three days, a group of volunteers from the breeding centre worked around the clock to prepare the young tortoises for transport. Meanwhile, park wardens dropped off ahead of time in remote locations, cleared landing sites within the thick brush, cacti, and lava rocks.
G. Upon their release, the juvenile tortoises quickly spread out over their ancestral territory, investigating their new surroundings and feeding on the vegetation. Q7 Eventually, one tiny tortoise came across a fully grown giant who had been lumbering around the island for around a hundred years. The two stood side by side, a powerful symbol of the regeneration of an ancient species.
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IELTS LISTENING – What is Martins Occupation? S45T1
/in IELTS Listening, IELTS Listening Easy Demo for All /by IELTS SimulatorIELTS LISTENING S45T1
Cindy: Hello, Brindall’s Estate Agents here. How may I help you?
Martin: Oh, good morning, I’m ringing to see what flats you have for rent at the moment.
Cindy: Right. Can I start by just taking your name Mr…
Martin: Hill, Martin Hill.
Attempt full listening test…
Cindy: Right, and are you looking for a flat for yourself or… uhm… a family perhaps?
Martin: Well it’s for three of us myself and two friends – we’re going to share together.
Cindy: I see… erm, what about employment – are you all students?
Martin: Oh no, we’ve all got full-time jobs – Q1 two of us work in the Central Bank, that’s Chris and me and Phil – that’s the other one – is working for Hallam cars, you know, at the factory about two miles out of town?
Cindy: I’ll put you down as young professionals, then and I suppose you’ll be looking for somewhere with three bedrooms?
Martin: Yeah – at least three. Q2 But actually, we’d rather have a fourth room as well if we can afford it – for friends staying over and stuff.
Cindy: Is that with a living room to share? Plus kitchen and bathroom?
Martin: Yeah, that sounds good. But we must have a bathroom with a shower. We don’t mind about having a bath, but the shower’s crucial.
Cindy: OK, I’ll just key that in… And are you interested in any particular area?
Martin: Well, the city centre would be good for me and Chris, so that’s our first preference… but Q3 we’d consider anything in the west suburbs as well really – actually for Phil that’d be better, but he knows he’s outnumbered. But we aren’t interested in the north or the east of the city.
Cindy: OK, I’m just getting up all the flats on our books.
Cindy: Just looking at this list here, I’m afraid there are only two that might interest you… do you want the details?
Martin: OK, let me just grab a pen and some paper… fire away!
Cindy: This first one I’m looking at is in Q4 Bridge Street – and very close to the bus station. It’s not often that flats in that area come up for rent. This one’s got three bedrooms, a bathroom, and kitchen, of course… and a very big living room. That sounds a good size for you.
Martin: Hmm. So, what about the rent? How much is it a month?
Cindy: Q5 The good news is that it’s only four hundred and fifty pounds a month. Rents in that area usually reach up to six fifty a month, but the landlord obviously wants to get a tenant quickly.
Martin: Yeah, it sounds like a bit of a bargain. What about transport for Phil?
Cindy: Well, there’ll be plenty of buses so no problem for him to use public transport… but unfortunately there isn’t a shower in the flat, and Q6 that location is likely to be noisy, of course…
Martin: OK – what about the other place?
Cindy: Let’s see… oh yes. Well, this one is in a really nice location – on Q7 Hills Avenue. I’m sure you know it. This looks like something a bit special. It’s got four big bedrooms and there’s a big living room and … oh- this will be good for you – Q8 a dining room. It sounds enormous, doesn’t it?
Martin: Yeah, it sounds great!
Cindy: That whole area’s being developed, and the Q9 flat’s very modern, which I’m sure you’ll like. It’s got good facilities, including your shower. And of course Q10 it’s going to be quiet, especially compared with the other place.
Martin: Better and better, but I’ll bet it’s expensive, especially if it’s in that trendy area beside the park.
Cindy: Hmm, I’m afraid so. They’re asking £800 a month for it.
Martin: Wow it sounds a lot more than we can afford.
Cindy: Well maybe you could get somebody else to move in too? I’ll tell you what, give me your address and I can send you all the details and photos and you can see whether these two are worth a visit.
Martin: Thanks, that would be really helpful… my address is…
Attempt full listening test…
IELTS LISTENING – The British Library S45T2
/in IELTS Listening, IELTS Listening Easy Demo for All /by IELTS SimulatorIELTS LISTENING S45T2
Tony Walters: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to your very own tour of the British Library on this lovely afternoon. My name is Tony Walters and I’m your guide for today. Could I please see your tickets for the guided tour?
Attempt full listening test…
I’d also like to remind you that any tickets bought today do not include a visit to the reading rooms. I’m afraid we don’t do visits on Fridays – or any weekday during working hours, so as not to disturb the readers. But if you do want to see those rooms, Q11 the only day there are tours is on Sundays. So, I don’t want anyone to be disappointed about that today. OK? Thank you. Right. We’ll start with a brief introduction. As many of you know, this is the United Kingdom’s National Library and you can see that this is a magnificent modern building. It was first designed by Sir Colin St John Wilson in 1977, and Q12 inaugurated by Her Majesty the Queen more than twenty years later, in 1998.
As you can see, the size is immense and the basements alone have 300 kilometres of shelving – and that’s enough to hold about 12 million books. Q13 The total floor space here is 100,000 square metres and, as I’ll show you, the library houses a huge range of facilities and exhibition spaces, and it has a thousand staff members based here in the building – so, you can appreciate the scale of our operation.
In fact, this was the biggest publicly-funded building constructed in the United Kingdom last century. Q14 It is still funded by the government as a national institution, of course, and it houses one of the most important collections in the world. The different items come from every continent and span almost 3000 years.
The library isn’t a public library, though – you can’t just come in and join and borrow any of the books. Q15 Access to the collections is limited to those involved in carrying out research, so it’s really a huge reference library for that purpose, and anyone who wants to consult any materials that are kept here can formally apply to use the library reading rooms.
Right, well, here we are, standing at the Meeting Point on the lower ground floor just to the right of the Main Entrance. I’ve given you all a plan of the building so that we can orientate ourselves and get an idea of where we’ll be going. Now outside the Main Entrance, you’ll see the wide Piazza with the stunning sculpture of Newton.
The sculptor was Paolozzi, but it’s based on the famous image by William Blake – and it’s definitely worth a closer look. Q16 On the other side of the Piazza from the statue is the Conference Centre, which is used for all kinds of international conventions – we’ll take a quick look inside at the end of our tour.
Looking ahead of us now, you’ll see that we’re standing opposite the staircase down to the basement where you’ll find the cloakroom, Q17 and to the left of that, we have the information desk where you can find out about any current exhibitions, the times of the tours and anything you need to know – if you don’t have a tour guide. As you can see, on this lower ground floor Q18 we also have a bookshop – that’s the area over to the left of the main entrance. You’ll be free to browse there when we get back to the ground floor.
Now, Q19 opposite the main entrance on this floor we have the open stairs leading up to the upper ground floor. And at the top of them, in the middle of the upper ground floor, you can see a kind of glass-sided tower that rises all the way up through the ceiling and up to the first floor. Q19 This is called the King’s Library – it’s really the heart of the building – it was built to house the collection that was presented to the nation in 1823 by the King. You can see it from every floor above ground. When we go up there, you’ll find the library’s Treasures Gallery on the left. Can you find it on your plan? That’s the exciting one, so we’ll be visiting that first, but we’ll also Q20 take a look at the stamp display situated behind it, on the way to the cafe – a lot of people miss that. The Cafeteria runs along the back of the floor and, in the right-hand corner, you’ll find the lifts and toilets… ha, always good to locate them. The other main area on that floor is the Public Access Catalogue section and I’ll show you how that operates when we get up there…
Attempt full listening test…