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MODEL TEST - ACADEMIC IELTS
(Time: 90 minutes)
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Section 1
Script:
KEITH Hello ... Clark’s Cycle Hire. My name’s Keith. How can I help you? JAN Oh hello. I saw your ad in the local paper, and as I’m thinking of doing some cycling. I’m wondering what kinds of bike you have, and what your prices are like. KEITH Well, we hire out two main types of machine: touring and mountain bikes. Are you likely to be riding off-road, do you think? JAN No, I’ll probably be sticking to roads and country lanes, so a touring bike would be best, I think. KEITH Right, well the rate will be £50 for a week, or £14 per day. JAN So it’s a lot cheaper to rent by the week. KEITH Yes definitely, though it’s important to bring the bike back on time. Otherwise I’m afraid we have to charge a late return fee. JAN And how much is that? KEITH For each additional hour it’s one pound twenty-five. JAN So if you were a day late it would cost another £30? KEITH Yes, that’s right. JAN I’d make sure I didn’t do that then! KEITH I should also point out there’s a deposit, which you get back when you return the bicycle. In good condition, of course. On touring models it’s £60. JAN Is there anything else I’d have to pay? KEITH No, that’s it. Though if you’re planning to ride fairly long distances you might like to have one or two accessories. JAN Such as? KEITH Well, for another £5 we can supply lightweight bags, either panniers or the handlebar sort. It’s amazing how much they can carry, and the way they’re designed means they don’t get in the way when you’re riding. JAN Well, I’ll see. But what about essential things like a pump, and a repair kit? I wouldn’t have to pay extra for those would I? KEITH No no, there’s no charge for things like that, or for a lock. It’s a good strong one, too. Just make sure you don’t lose the key! JAN That reminds me: what about insurance? What happens if someone steals the bike, in spite of the wonderful lock? KEITH Didn’t I mention that? I should’ve told you that’s included in the rental, too. JAN And it covers everything, does it? KEITH Er ... it covers you against theft of the bike, yes. As long as it’s securely locked at the time. You’d have to pay part of any individual claim, though. JAN How much? KEITH If the bike were stolen and not recovered, you’d be liable for the first £100. JAN Hmm. So, if I do go ahead and rent one, how do I pay? By cheque, or would it have to be cash? KEITH Neither, I’m afraid. We can only accept credit card bookings. Otherwise we’d have to ask our customers for the full value of the machine as a deposit. JAN I’ve got a Visa in my name. Would that be OK? KEITH Sure. Complete the notes below. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer. Notes – Clark’s Bicycle Hire Type: touring bike Rental: £50 a week, or (1)……… £ a day Late return fee: (2) ……… £ per extra hour Deposit: £ (3) ……… returnable Accessories: £5 for (4) ……… : pannier or handlebar type free: pump repair kit strong (5)……… Insurance: included, but must pay first £ (6) ……… of claim Pay: by (7) ……… only
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credit card
14
lightweight bags/ bags
100
60
1.25
lock
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Script:
JAN So if I want to have a look at the bikes, how do I find you? I live near the university, by the way. KEITH Right. First you take Woods Road as far as the main police station ... JAN I know it. It’s right next to the park KEITH Yes, that’s it. And after the police station there’s a turning to the right called Oak Street ... JAN At the big supermarket? KEITH No, it’s before then. It’s actually between the police station and a garage on the other side. JAN OK. KEITH So you go down Oak Street until you reach the health centre on the right. If you get to a pub called the Maple Leaf you’ve gone too far. Alright? JAN Yes, I’ve got that. KEITH Now opposite the health centre there’s a pharmacy, and we’re just behind that. JAN OK, fine. I’ll try to call over sometime tomorrow. KEITH Great. See you then. JAN Bye. Choose the appropriate phrase to fill in the map.
Section 2
Script:
You will hear a man giving a talk to new members of a Wildlife Club in the South of England. Hello, I’m delighted to welcome you to our Wildlife Club, and very pleased that you’re interested in the countryside and the plants and creatures of this area. I think you’ll be surprised at the variety we have here, even though we’re not far from London. I’ll start by telling you about some of the parks and open spaces nearby. One very pleasant place is Halland Common. This has been public land for hundreds of years, and what you’ll find interesting is that the River Ouse, which flows into the sea eighty kilometres away, has its source in the common. There’s an information board about the plants and animals you can see here, and by the way, the common is accessible 24 hours a day. Then there’s Holt Island, which is noted for its great range of trees. In the past willows were grown here commercially for basket-making, and this ancient craft has recently been reintroduced. The island is only open to the public from Friday to Sunday, because it’s quite small, and if there were people around every day, much of the wildlife would keep away. From there it’s just a short walk across the bridge to Longfield Country Park. Longfield has a modern replica of a farm from over two thousand years ago. Children’s activities are often arranged there, like bread-making and face-painting. The park is only open during daylight hours, so bear that in mind if you decide to go there. Complete the table below. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer. PARKS AND OPEN SPACES Name of place | Of particular interest | Open | Halland Common | source of River Ouse | 24 hours | Holt Island | many different (1).......... | between Friday and (2)............ | Longfield Country Park | reconstruction of a 2,000-year-old (3).......... with activities for children | daylight hours |
Script:
Longfield Park has a programme of activities throughout the year, and to give you a sample, this is what’s happening in the next few days. On Monday you can learn about herbs, and how they’ve been used over the centuries. You’ll start with a tour of our herb garden, practise the technique of using them as colour dyes for cloth, and listen to an illustrated talk about their use in cooking and medicine. Then on Wednesday you can join local experts to discover the variety of insects and birds that appear in the evening. We keep to a small number of people in the group, so if you want to go you’ll need to phone the park ranger a few days ahead. There’s a small charge, which you should pay when you turn up. I’m sure you’re all keen to help with the practical task of looking after the park, so on Saturday you can join a working party. You’ll have a choice of all sorts of activities, from planting hedges to picking up litter, so you’ll be able to change from one to another when you feel like it. The rangers will be hard at work all day, but do come and join in, even for just a short while. One thing, though, is to make sure you’re wearing something that you don’t mind getting dirty or torn. Choose a correct answer choice to complete each sentence about the Longfield Park.
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1. As part of Monday′s activity, visitors will
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Explain:
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2. For the activity on Wednesday,
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Explain:
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3. For the activity on Saturday, visitors should
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Explain:
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Section 3
Script:
Student: Hello. I was wondering if you could give me some information about using the archives. Librarian: I’d be happy to. Are you a resident of the city? Student: Actually, I live just outside the city, but I study at the university downtown. Librarian: That’s fine. All you need to do is show your university identification card and you can use the archives at no charge, as long as your ID card is current, of course. Student: Yes, it’s valid. So I don’t have to pay anything? Librarian: No. City residents pay an annual fee, but students can use the archives for free. Everyone else needs to get special permission from the director, but that doesn’t apply to you, of course. Student: Oh, good. I was also wondering about the schedule. I have classes every day, Monday through Friday, and I also have a part-time job, so I could really only use the archives on weekends. Librarian: That’s not a problem at all. We’re open all weekend; actually the only day we’re closed is Monday. So you can come any day, Tuesday through Sunday. Student: Are you open in the evenings? Librarian: Yes, we’re open from 9:30 in the morning until 8:30 in the evening. Student: That will fit my schedule well. Complete the information about the archives. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer. Welcome to City Archives The following people may use the archives: • University students with a valid (1)......... • City residents with payment of (2)......... • All others: Special permission from the director is required. Hours: Days: (3)……… through Sunday. Hours: 9:30 A .M . until (4)……… P .M .
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identification card/ID card / ID
an annual fee
8:30
Tuesday
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Script:
Librarian: Is there something else I can help you with? Student: Yes. One thing I’ll be needing to see for one of my class projects is old photographs. Do you have photographs of the city in the nineteenth century that I could look at? Librarian: Yes, we store all the photographs in the basement. Those stairs over there will take you down to the photography collection. Just tell the librarian there what you’re interested in, and he’ll help you. Student: Those would be nineteenth-century photographs? Librarian: Yes, the entire collection is there. Now, if you’re interested in seeing documents from the nineteenth century, those are right here on the ground floor. Student: I would like to see some of those documents. Does that collection include newspapers, too? Librarian: No, all the newspapers from the earliest ones, in the eighteenth century, up to the current time, are on the second floor. Here, let me just give you this map of the archives, and you’ll be able to find whatever it is you need. Student: Thank you. Oh, I see you have a whole room devoted to maps. Librarian: Yes, on the third floor. Student: That’s great because one thing I need to do is look at how the city has developed over time. Librarian: I’m sure you’ll find a lot of helpful information there. Of course, some of the maps are several centuries old, so generally visitors are only allowed to see photographic reproductions of them. Student: That shouldn’t be a problem. What’s this on the fourth floor — Ogden’s Woolen Mill? Librarian: As I’m sure you know, Ogden’s Woolen Mill was the major entity responsible for the growth of this city in the nineteenth century. The Ogden heirs gave money for the archives to devote an entire floor to information about the history of the mill. Student: Will I be able to find information about the Ogden family there — photographs, personal papers, things like that? Librarian: Probably the family photographs are stored downstairs in the photography collection. The personal papers would be on the fifth floor, where we keep all the personal papers of famous residents of our city. Student: Thank you so much for your help. I’ll be able to do a lot of my research here. What can be found on each floor of the archives building?
Section 4
Script:
LECTURER Good afternoon everyone, and welcome lo this short talk on the subject of fireworks. Now, fireworks, as I’m sure many of you know, were invented in China, though there has long been disagreement as to exactly when, or even in which century. The consensus nowadays, though, is that it was in the sixth, as there is considerable evidence of war rockets being made then. We also know that fireworks were in use by the seventh century in Arabia, where they were called ‘Chinese Arrows’, reflecting their military potential. It then took a long time for them to spread to Europe: in fact it wasn’t until the twelve hundreds that fireworks made their appearance there.
Complete the sentences below. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer.
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Europe
sixth/ 6th
Chinese Arrows
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Script:
LECTURER The basic ingredients of fireworks have changed little to this day. Their explosive capacity comes mainly from black powder, also known as gunpowder, which is produced from a mixture of charcoal, sulphur and potassium nitrate. A modern aerial firework - the kind used nowadays in big public displays, not the small rocket type that you might remember from your childhood - is normally made in the form of a shell, often a sphere about the side of a peach. Inside the shell are a number of stars surrounded by black powder, and running through the centre of the round shell is a charge that makes the firework explode when it reaches the desired altitude. This is known as the bursting charge. When this explodes, it ignites the outside of the stars, which begin to burn with bright showers of sparks. Since the explosion throws the stars in all directions, you get the huge sphere of sparkling light that is so familiar at firework displays. A shell of this kind is launched from a 75 millimetre-diameter mortar, which in some ways resembles the type used by the military. The mortar is a steel or - increasingly, for safety reasons — shatterproof plastic pipe. This is likely to be 500 millimetres long and sealed at one end. The other end is aimed at the sky and at the bottom of the pipe, below the shell, is placed a cylinder containing black powder. This has a long fuse which projects out of the tube. When this is lit, it quickly burns down to the lifting charge, which explodes to launch the shell. In so doing, it also lights the shell’s fuse. The shell's fuse burns while the shell rises to its correct altitude, and then ignites the bursting charge so it explodes. More complicated shells are divided into sections and burst in two or three phases. Shells like this are called multibreak shells. They may contain stars of different colours and compositions to create softer or brighter light, more or less sparks, etc. Some shells contain explosives designed to crackle in the sky, or whistles that explode outwards with the stars. The sections of multibreak shell are ignited by different fuses and the bursting of one section ignites the next. The shells must be assembled in such a way that each section explodes in sequence to produce a distinct separate effect. The pattern that an aerial shell paints in the sky depends on the arrangement of stars inside the shell. For example, if the stars are equally spaced in a circle, with black powder inside the shell, you will see an aerial display of smaller star explosions equally spaced in a circle. To create a specific figure in the sky, for instance a heart shape, you create an outline of the figure in stars inside the shell. You then place explosive charges inside those stars to blow them outward into the shape of a large heart. Each charge has to be ignited at exactly the right time or the whole thing is spoiled. Many other shapes have particular names, like the Willow. This is formed by stars that fall in the shape of willow tree branches spreading a little to the side and then downwards. The high charcoal composition of the stars makes them long-burning, so they may even stay visible until they hit the ground. The Ring Shell is fairly basic. It is produced by stars exploding outwards to produce a symmetrical ring of coloured lights. More complex is the pattern created by the Paha, which contains large comets, or charges in the shape of a solid cylinder. These travel outwards, explode and then curve downwards like the limbs of a palm tree. The Serpentine, the last one for now, is different again. When this one bursts, it sends small tubes of incendiaries scattering outwards in random paths, which may culminate in exploding stars. It can be quite spectacular. Label the diagram. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.
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lifting
75 mm/75 millimetres/seventy-five mm/ seventy-five millimetres
500 mm/ 500 millimetres/five hundred mm/ five hundred millimetres
shell
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Passage 1
BAKELITE The birth of modern plastics In 1907, Leo Hendrick Baekeland, a Belgian scientist working in New York, discovered and patented a revolutionary new synthetic material. His invention, which he named 'Bakelite', was of enormous technological importance, and effectively launched the modern plastics industry. The term 'plastic' comes from the Greek plassein, meaning ‘to mould’. Some plastics are derived from natural sources, some are semi-synthetic (the result of chemical action on a natural substance), and some are entirely synthetic, that is, chemically engineered from the constituents of coal or oil. Some are 'thermoplastic', which means that, like candlewax, they melt when heated and can then be reshaped. Others are 'thermosetting': like eggs, they cannot revert to their original viscous state, and their shape is thus fixed for ever. Bakelite had the distinction of being the first totally synthetic thermosetting plastic. The history of today's plastics begins with the discovery of a series of semi-synthetic thermoplastic materials in the mid-nineteenth century. The impetus behind the development of these early plastics was generated by a number of factors - immense technological progress in the domain of chemistry, coupled with wider cultural changes, and the pragmatic need to find acceptable substitutes for dwindling supplies of ‘luxury’ materials such as tortoiseshell and ivory. Baekeland's interest in plastics began in 1885 when, as a young chemistry student in Belgium, he embarked on research into phenolic resins, the group of sticky substances produced when phenol (carbolic acid) combines with an aldehyde (a volatile fluid similar to alcohol). He soon abandoned the subject, however, only returning to it some years later. By 1905 he was a wealthy New Yorker, having recently made his fortune with the invention of a new photographic paper. While Baekeland had been busily amassing dollars, some advances had been made in the development of plastics. The years 1899 and 1900 had seen the patenting of the first semi-synthetic thermosetting material that could be manufactured on an industrial scale. In purely scientific terms, Baekeland's major contribution to the field is not so much the actual discovery of the material to which he gave his name, but rather the method by which a reaction between phenol and formaldehyde could be controlled, thus making possible its preparation on a commercial basis. On 13 July 1907, Baekeland took out his famous patent describing this preparation, the essential features of which are still in use today. The original patent outlined a three-stage process, in which phenol and formaldehyde (from wood or coal) were initially combined under vacuum inside a large egg-shaped kettle. The result was a resin known as Novalak, which became soluble and malleable when heated. The resin was allowed to cool in shallow trays until it hardened, and then broken up and ground into powder. Other substances were then introduced: including fillers, such as wood flour, asbestos or cotton, which increase strength and moisture resistance, catalysts (substances to speed up the reaction between two chemicals without joining to either) and hexa, a compound of ammonia and formaldehyde which supplied the additional formaldehyde necessary to form a thermosetting resin. This resin was then left to cool and harden, and ground up a second time. The resulting granular powder was raw Bakelite, ready to be made into a vast range of manufactured objects. In the last stage, the heated Bakelite was poured into a hollow mould of the required shape and subjected to extreme heat and pressure, thereby 'setting' its form for life. The design of Bakelite objects, everything from earrings to television sets, was governed to a large extent by the technical requirements of the moulding process. The object could not be designed so that it was locked into the mould and therefore difficult to extract. A common general rule was that objects should taper towards the deepest part of the mould, and if necessary the product was moulded in separate pieces. Moulds had to be carefully designed so that the molten Bakelite would flow evenly and completely into the mould. Sharp corners proved impractical and were thus avoided, giving rise to the smooth, 'streamlined' style popular in the 1930s. The thickness of the walls of the mould was also crucial- thick walls took longer to cool and harden, a factor which had to be considered by the designer in order to make the most efficient use of machines. Baekeland's invention, although treated with disdain m its early years, went on to enjoy an unparalleled popularity which lasted throughout the first half of the twentieth century. It became the wonder product of the new world of industrial expansion - 'the material of a thousand uses'. Being both non-porous and heat-resistant, Bakelite kitchen goods were promoted as being germ-free and sterilisable. Electrical manufacturers seized on its insulating properties, and consumers everywhere relished its dazzling array of shades, delighted that they were now, at last, no longer restricted to the wood tones and drab browns of the pre-plastic era. It then fell from favour again during the 1950s, and was despised and destroyed in vast quantities. Recently, however, it has been experiencing something of a renaissance, with renewed demand for original Bakelite objects in the collectors' marketplace, and museums, societies and dedicated individuals once again appreciating the style and originality of this innovative material.
Complete the summary. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
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chemistry
candlewax
synthetic
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Complete the flow-chart. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. 
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raw
Novalak
hexa
pressure
fillers
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1. Which TWO of the following factors influencing the design of Bakelite objects are mentioned in the text?
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Explain:
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Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage? TRUE if the statement agrees with the information FALSE if the statement contradicts the information NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
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1. Modern-day plastic preparation is based on the same principles as that patented in 1907.
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Explain:
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2. Bakelite was immediately welcomed as a practical and versatile material.
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Explain:
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3. Bakelite was only available in a limited range of colours.
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Explain:
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Passage 2
WHALE STRANDINGS Why do whales leave the ocean and become stuck on beaches? When the last stranded whale of a group eventually dies, the story does not end there. A team of researchers begins to investigate, collecting skin samples for instance, recording anything that could help them answer the crucial question: why? Theories abound, some more convincing than others. In recent years, navy sonar has been accused of causing certain whales to strand. It is known that noise pollution from offshore industry, shipping and sonar can impair underwater communication, but can it really drive whales onto our beaches? In 1998, researchers at the Pelagos Cetacean Research Institute, a Greek non-profit scientific group, linked whale strandings with low- frequency sonar tests being carried out by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). They recorded the stranding of 12 Cuvier’s beaked whales over 38.2 kilometres of coastline. NATO later admitted it had been testing new sonar technology in the same area at the time as the strandings had occurred. ‘Mass’ whale strandings involve four or more animals. Typically they all wash ashore together, but in mass atypical strandings (such as the one in Greece), the whales don't strand as a group; they are scattered over a larger area. For humans, hearing a sudden loud noise might prove frightening, but it does not induce mass fatality. For whales, on the other hand, there is a theory on how sonar can kill. The noise can surprise the animal, causing it to swim too quickly to the surface. The result is decompression sickness, a hazard human divers know all too well. If a diver ascends too quickly from a high-pressure underwater environment to a lower-pressure one, gases dissolved in blood and tissue expand and form bubbles. The bubbles block the flow of blood to vital organs, and can ultimately lead to death. Plausible as this seems, it is still a theory and based on our more comprehensive knowledge of land-based animals. For this reason, some scientists are wary. Whale expert Karen Evans is one such scientist. Another is Rosemary Gales, a leading expert on whale strandings. She says sonar technology cannot always be blamed for mass strandings. "It’s a case-by-case situation. Whales have been stranding for a very long time - pre-sonar.” And when 80% of all Australian whale strandings occur around Tasmania, Gales and her team must continue in the search for answers. When animals beach next to each other at the same time, the most common cause has nothing to do with humans at all. "They're highly social creatures,” says Gales. "When they mass strand - it’s complete panic and chaos. If one of the group strands and sounds the alarm, others will try to swim to its aid, and become stuck themselves.” Activities such as sonar testing can hint at when a stranding may occur, but if conservationists are to reduce the number of strandings, or improve rescue operations, they need information on where strandings are likely to occur as well. With this in mind, Ralph James, physicist at the University of Western Australia in Perth, thinks he may have discovered why whales turn up only on some beaches. In 1986 he went to Augusta, Western Australia, where more than 100 false killer whales had beached. “I found out from chatting to the locals that whales had been stranding there for decades. So I asked myself, what is it about this beach?” From this question that James pondered over 20 years ago, grew the university's Whale Stranding Analysis Project. Data has since revealed that all mass strandings around Australia occur on gently sloping sandy beaches, some with inclines of less than 0.5%. For whale species that depend on an echolocation system to navigate, this kind of beach spells disaster. Usually, as they swim, they make clicking noises, and the resulting sound waves are reflected in an echo and travel back to them. Flowever, these just fade out on shallow beaches, so the whale doesn’t hear an echo and it crashes onto the shore. But that is not all. Physics, it appears, can help with the when as well as the where. The ocean is full of bubbles. Larger ones rise quickly to the surface and disappear, whilst smaller ones - called microbubbles - can last for days. It is these that absorb whale 'clicks! "Rough weather generates more bubbles than usual,” James adds. So, during and after a storm, echolocating whales are essentially swimming blind. Last year was a bad one for strandings in Australia. Can we predict if this - or any other year - will be any better? Some scientists believe we can. They have found trends which could be used to forecast ‘bad years’ for strandings in the future. In 2005, a survey by Klaus Vanselow and Klaus Ricklefs of sperm whale strandings in the North Sea even found a correlation between these and the sunspot cycle, and suggested that changes in the Earth’s magnetic field might be involved. But others are sceptical. “Their study was interesting ... but the analyses they used were flawed on a number of levels,” says Evans. In the same year, she co-authored a study on. Australian strandings that uncovered a completely different trend. “We analysed data from 1920 to 2002 ... and observed a clear periodicity in the number of whales stranded each year that coincides with a major climatic cycle.” To put it more simply, she says, in the years when strong westerly and southerly winds bring cool water rich in nutrients closer to the Australia coast, there is an increase in the number of fish. The whales follow. So what causes mass strandings? “It's probably many different components,” says James. And he is probably right. But the point is we now know what many of those components are.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
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around Tasmania/ Tasmania
sperm/ sperm wales/ sperm whale
skin/ skin samples
noise/ noise pollution
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Label the diagram below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
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microbubbles
blood
nutrients
sound waves
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Do the following statements agree with the information given in the reading passage? True if the statement agrees with the information False if the statement contradicts the information Not given if there is no information on this
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1. The aim of the research by the Pelagos Institute in 1998 was to prove that navy sonar was responsible for whale strandings.
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Explain:
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2. The whales stranded in Greece were found at different points along the coast.
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Explain:
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3. Rosemary Gales has questioned the research techniques used by the Greek scientists.
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Explain:
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4. According to Gales, whales are likely to try to help another whale in trouble.
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Explain:
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5. There is now agreement amongst scientists that changes in the Earth′s magnetic fields contribute to whale strandings.
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Explain:
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Passage 3
The First Antigravity Machine? It was one of the biggest science stories of the 1990s. Even now, the facts behind it remain hotly disputed. And small wonder, for if the claims made for the small disc, the focus of the controversy, are true, it may be possible to break through one of the great barriers in the scientific world and control the most potent of cosmic forces: gravity. Huge innovations in flight and space travel could arise from that. The first gravity-blocking system to be taken seriously by scientists appeared in a laboratory in Tampere University of Technology, Finland. A Russian scientist named Dr Evgeny Podkletnov created a disc 275mm across, made from a substance which combined copper, barium and the ‘rare Earth metal’ called yttrium, which is known to be a high-temperature superconductor (a substance that conducts electricity without resistance). When chilled with liquid nitrogen at -196° C (a high temperature compared with other superconductors), this material loses all its electrical resistance, and can levitate (lift) in a magnetic field. That may seem amazing for a ceramic-like material - and it won a Nobel Prize for the scientists, Karl Muller and Johannes Bednorz, who first demonstrated it in the 1980s. But according to Podkletnov, the disc had another far more astounding property. In 1992, while experimenting with rotating superconductors, Podkletnov noticed that pipe-smoke from a nearby researcher was drifting into a vertical column above the spinning disc. Intrigued by this phenomenon, he decided to devise an experiment to investigate further. A superconductive disc, surrounded by liquid nitrogen was magnetically levitated and rotated at high speed - up to 5,000 revolutions per minute (rpm) in a magnetic field. An object was suspended from a sensitive balance above the disc. It was enclosed in a glass tube to shield it from any effects of air currents. During the course of a series of tests, Podkletnov was able to observe that the object lost a variable amount of weight from less than 0.5 percent to 2 percent of its total weight. This effect was noted with a range of materials from ceramics to wood. The effect was slight, yet the implications were revolutionary: the disc appeared to be partly shielding the object from the gravitational pull of the Earth. This was just the start, claimed Podkletnov. While far short of the 100 percent reduction in weight needed to send astronauts into space, for example, it was infinitely greater than the amount predicted by the best theory of gravity currently in existence: Einstein’s theory of general relativity (GR), published in 1905. According to Einstein, gravity is not some kind of ‘force field’, like magnetism, which can - in principle at least - be screened out. Instead, GR views gravity as a distortion in the very fabric of space and time, that permeates the whole cosmos. As such, any claim to have shielded objects from gravity is to defy Einstein himself. Podkletnov’s claims were subjected to intense scrutiny when he submitted them for publication. The UK Institute of Physics had Podkletnov’s paper checked by three independent referees, but none could find a fatal flaw. His research was set to appear in the respected Journal of Physics D when events took an unexpected turn. The claims were leaked to the media, sparking world-wide coverage of his apparent breakthrough. Then Podkletnov suddenly withdrew the paper from publication and refused to talk to the press. Rumours began to circulate of unknown backers demanding silence until the device had been fully patented. But for many scientists the strange events were all too familiar. Podkletnov was just the latest in a long line of people to have made claims about defying gravity. Most of these have come from madcap inventors, with bizarre devices - often with some kind of spinning disc. But occasionally, respectable academics have made such claims as well. One instance of this occurred in the late 1980s when scientists at Tohoku University, Japan, made headlines with research suggesting that apparatus, known as a gyroscope, lost 0.01 percent of its weight when spinning at up to 13,000 rpm. Oddly the effect only appeared if the gyroscope was spinning anticlockwise - raising suspicions that some mechanical peculiarity was to blame. Attempts by scientists at the University of Colorado to replicate the effect failed. Then Professor Giovanni Modanese, an Italian theoretical physicist, became interested. He had read an earlier paper by Podkletnov, hinting at a connection between superconductivity and gravity shielding. Modanese wondered if the magnetic fields surrounding the superconductive disc might somehow assimilate part of the gravitational field under it. He published some calculations based on his idea in 1995 - and soon discovered that taking ‘antigravity’ seriously was a career-limiting move. The revelations about Podkletnov’s antigravity research led to reports of major corporations setting up their own studies. In 2000, the UK defence contractor BAE Systems was said to have launched ‘Project Greenglow’ to investigate Podkletnov’s gravity shield effect. Then it emerged that the US aircraft builder Boeing was also investigating, suggesting it too had an interest in the effect. Groups in other countries were also rumoured to be carrying out studies. Yet not one of the teams has reported confirmation of the original findings. Some projects have been wound up without producing results either way. So for the time being, it seems that the dream of controlling gravity will remain precisely that.
Label the diagram below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.
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glass tube
5,000 rpm / five thousand rpm /5,000 revolutions per minute / five revolutions per minute
sensitive balance / balance
liquid nitrogen
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Classify the following findings as belonging to Podkletnov, Tohoku University, or Modanese.
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1. The experiment only works if the equipment moves in a particular direction.
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Explain:
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2. Varying amounts of weight are lost as a result of the test.
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Explain:
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3. Gravity could be absorbed by a magnetic field.
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Explain:
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4. Superconductive material seems to screen an object from gravity.
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Explain:
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5. Weight loss occurs when the equipment rotates at speeds reaching 13,000 rpm.
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Explain:
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Do the following statements agree with information given in the reading passage?TRUE if the statement agrees with the information FALSE if the statement contradicts the information NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this.
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1. Podkletnov won a prize for his initial work on superconductive substances.
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Explain:
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2. A chance observation led Podkletnov to experiment with gravity blocking.
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Explain:
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3. Einstein challenged earlier experiments on antigravity.
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Explain:
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4. Modanese suffered professionally after following up Podkletnov′s findings.
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Explain:
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5. An aircraft company announced that it had replicated Podkletnov′s results.
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Explain:
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