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Reading Test 1

Short Reading 
  • 1

    Answer the next TWO questions based on the below paragraph:

     There is a place forty kilometers north-east of Portland, Victoria, which makes for an
    unusual visit. It is Lake Condah. Here are to be found remains of aboriginal settlements:
    the circular stone bases of several hundred huts, rock-lined water channels, and stone
    tools chipped from rock not normally found in the area. One of the attractions of Lake
    Condah long ago was its fish and the most startling evidence of aboriginal technology and
    engineering to be found there are the systems built to trap fish.
    Water courses had been constructed by redirecting streams, building stone sides and
    even scraping out new channels. At strategic spots, they piled rocks across the water
    courses to create weirs and build funnels to channel eels and fish into conical baskets.
    This is an eel-fishing technique which has hardly changed to the present day. Beside
    some of the larger traps, there are the outlines of rectangular, stone-lined ponds, probably
    to hold fish and keep them fresh.
    On the bluffs overlooking the lake, stone circles are all that remain of ancient dwellings.
    Not all of the stones were quarried locally. The huts vary in size, but all have gaps for
    doorways located on the lee side, away from the prevailing wind. One theory is that the
    stone walls were only waist to shoulder high, with the top roofed by branches and
    possibly packed with mud.
    The site presents a picture of a semi-settled people quite different from the stereotype of
    nomadic hunter-gatherers of the desert.

     

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  • 4

    Read the following paragraphs to answer the next four questions.


    Between us there was, as I have already said somewhere, the bond of the sea. Besides
    holding our hearts together through long periods of separation, it had the effect of making
    us tolerant of each other's yarns-and even convictions. The Lawyer-the best of old
    fellows-had, because of his many years and many virtues, the only cushion on deck, and
    was lying on the only rug. The Accountant had brought out already a box of dominoes,
    and was toying architecturally with the bones. Marlow sat cross-legged right aft, leaning
    against the mizzen-mast. He had sunken cheeks, a yellow complexion, a straight back,
    an ascetic aspect, and, with his arms dropped, the palms of hands outwards, resembled
    an idol. The Director, satisfied the anchor had good hold, made his way aft and sat down
    amongst us. We exchanged a few words lazily.
    Afterwards there was silence on board the yacht. For some reason or other we did not
    begin that game of dominoes. We felt meditative, and fit for nothing but placid staring.
    The day was ending in a serenity of still and exquisite brilliance. The water shone
    pacifically; the sky, without a speck, was a benign immensity of unstained light; the very
    mist on the Essex marshes was like a gauzy and radiant fabric, hung from the wooded
    rises inland, and draping the low shores in diaphanous folds. Only the gloom to the west,
    brooding over the upper reaches, became more sombre every minute, as if angered by
    the approach of the sun.
    And at last, in its curved and imperceptible fall, the sun sank low, and from glowing white
    changed to a dull red without rays and without heat, as if about to go out suddenly,
    stricken to death by the touch of that gloom brooding over a crowd of men.

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  • 9

    Read the following paragraphs to answer the next four questions.


    Among predatory dinosaurs, few flesh-eaters were bigger, faster and nastier than the
    "tyrant lizard" of popular imagination, the Tyrannosaurus Rex. At least, that is what we
    have been led to believe.
    Now research suggests that, far from being the Ferrari of dinosaurs, Tyrannosaurus Rex,
    whose ferocious reputation has fascinated generations of schoolchildren, was in fact a
    cumbersome creature with a usual running speed of twenty-five kilometres an hour. This
    is a mere snail's pace compared with modern animals such as the cheetah.
    Unlike some of the predators of today's African savannah, which can change direction
    almost immediately, the dinosaur would have had to turn slowly or risk tumbling over. And
    while a human can spin forty-five degrees in a twentieth of a second, a Tyrannosaurus
    would have taken as much as two seconds, as it would have been hampered by its long
    tail. Thankfully, however, all its prey, such as triceratops, would have been afflicted with
    the same lack of speed and agility.
    The findings were reached after researchers used computer modelling and biomechanical
    calculations to work out the dinosaur's speed, agility and weight. They based their
    calculations on measurements taken from a fossil dinosaur representative of an average
    Tyrannosaurus and concluded the creatures probably weighed between six and eight
    tonnes.
    Calculations of the leg muscles suggest that the animal would have had a top speed of
    forty kilometres an hour, which is nothing compared to a cheetah’s one hundred
    kilometres an hour. It is sobering to reflect, though, that an Olympic sprinter runs at about
    thirty-five kilometres an hour, not sufficient to outrun a Tyrannosaurus, should Man have
    been around at that time!

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