IELTS Academic Reading practice test 6

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1 to 13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.

Arguing by the rules: the medieval disputation

Modern universities tend to treat argument as something that happens informally, in seminars or in the letters pages of journals. In the universities of medieval Europe, from Paris and Oxford to Bologna, it was rather different. Argument was not simply tolerated; it was one of the main ways in which knowledge was taught, tested and displayed in public. The formal debate known as the disputation sat at the centre of academic life from the thirteenth century onwards, and for several hundred years it shaped how educated Europeans thought a difficult question ought to be handled. Teaching in the medieval faculty rested on two activities. The first was the lecture, in which a master read aloud from a set text and explained it line by line. The second was the disputation, which turned the same material into a contest. Ordinary disputations were held at regular intervals during the teaching year, and they were treated as major occasions: on those days other lectures in the faculty were cancelled so that students and masters alike could attend. A question would be announced in advance, typically framed so that it could be answered either yes or no, such as whether the world had always existed. The roles were carefully divided. The master set the question, but it was not he who first faced the objections: that task fell to one of his advanced students, known as the respondent. Several opponents, usually younger students or visiting scholars, would rise in turn to raise difficulties with the position the respondent had taken, and he would reply to each as best he could. The master remained in charge throughout, stepping in when the discussion lost its way or when the respondent was clearly struggling. He did not, however, settle the matter on the spot. The master's verdict, known as the determination, was normally given at a separate session, often on the next teaching day. This pause gave him time to review the arguments that had been raised and to organise a considered answer. The contest followed strict rules. Simply disagreeing was not enough; every objection had to be presented as a syllogism, a tightly structured chain of reasoning in which two premises lead to a conclusion. A respondent could then deny one of the premises, or point out that a key term was being used in two different senses. Opponents were expected to support their objections by quoting recognised authorities, such as the Bible or Aristotle. Since these authorities did not always agree with one another, a skilful respondent often had to show how two apparently conflicting texts could both be correct when properly read. Everything was conducted in Latin, however heated the exchange became. For students who had grown up speaking French, English or German at home, this was a demanding test of fluency as well as of logic. A more unpredictable form of the exercise was the quodlibetal disputation, whose name comes from a Latin phrase meaning 'whatever you like'. They were held twice a year, in the weeks before Christmas and Easter, during Advent and Lent. Unlike ordinary disputations, in which the master chose the topic, these sessions allowed anyone in the audience to put a question to the master on any subject at all, from the nature of the soul to whether a merchant could fairly charge interest. The master had no chance to prepare, and the risks were considerable: a master who was caught out in front of the whole university could suffer lasting damage to his reputation. Some of the best-known scholars of the age clearly relished the challenge and held these sessions repeatedly. Yet they were never compulsory, and many masters chose not to hold them at all. For students, the disputation was far more than a spectacle. It was the means by which they learned to think on their feet, to anticipate objections and to state a position precisely. No student could be awarded a degree without first having taken part in disputations, first as an opponent and later as a respondent. By the time a young scholar became a master himself, he would have spent years both attacking and defending positions in public, and he would be expected to run disputations of his own. Disputations did not vanish once the hall had emptied. A student was usually given the task of taking notes as the arguments were made, recording the objections and the replies in order. These notes were later revised by the master, who often added material of his own. Copies were then made and sold through the university's booksellers, so that the arguments reached readers who had never been in the room. Many of the most important philosophical and theological works of the period survive in exactly this form, and they still preserve the shape of a live debate: a question, a list of arguments on one side, a list on the other and finally the master's answer. The standing of the disputation declined sharply in later centuries. Renaissance humanists dismissed the method as hair-splitting and complained that disputants cared more about winning than about truth. They preferred elegant prose and the close study of ancient texts in their original languages. Their criticism was not entirely unfair, since a clever disputant could sometimes defend a weak position simply by exploiting the rules. Modern historians, however, have taken a more generous view. They point out that the disputation required participants to state an opponent's case fairly before answering it, and that it treated disagreement as a normal and productive part of learning.

1. In an ordinary disputation, the first person to deal with the objections was not the master who had chosen the question.

TRUE) TRUE

FALSE) FALSE

NOT GIVEN) NOT GIVEN

2. The master usually gave his final judgement at the end of the same session.

TRUE) TRUE

FALSE) FALSE

NOT GIVEN) NOT GIVEN

3. Opponents were punished if they quoted an authority inaccurately.

TRUE) TRUE

FALSE) FALSE

NOT GIVEN) NOT GIVEN

4. All masters were required to hold a quodlibetal disputation every year.

TRUE) TRUE

FALSE) FALSE

NOT GIVEN) NOT GIVEN

5. Students could not complete their degree without taking part in disputations.

TRUE) TRUE

FALSE) FALSE

NOT GIVEN) NOT GIVEN

6. Written versions of disputations sold more copies than masters' lecture commentaries.

TRUE) TRUE

FALSE) FALSE

NOT GIVEN) NOT GIVEN

7. • On disputation days, other lectures were cancelled so that students and {{7}} could attend.

8. • Each objection had to be presented as a {{8}}, a tightly structured chain of reasoning.

9. • Every exchange was conducted in {{9}}.

10. • Held twice a year, during Advent and {{10}}

11. • A master who failed to answer could damage his {{11}}.

12. • A student's notes of the event were later {{12}} by the master before copies were sold.

13. • Renaissance critics said that disputants cared more about winning than about {{13}}.

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14 to 26, which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.

Serving time on screen

A For much of the twentieth century, the prison on screen was less a place where people lived than a machine for producing suspense. Most of these films were built around escape attempts or prison riots, and the guards were almost always the villains. The audience was invited to count the days alongside the hero, but only so that the final breakout would feel earned. Such films often filled cinemas, yet their effect depended as much on what they chose to leave out as on what they showed. The long hours of boredom that make up most of any real sentence were left out, judged too uncinematic to hold an audience. Prisoners were either brave planners or dangerous rivals; very few were simply waiting. Even the cell itself tended to appear only as an obstacle, a set of bars to be sawn through or a wall with a tunnel hidden behind a poster. B In the last two decades, however, a growing number of film-makers have turned their cameras towards the quieter business of serving time: the queue for meals, the letter read twice, the card game that lasts all afternoon. In these films, very little happens in the conventional sense. A friendship may develop over months through borrowed books and shared silences, and a single conversation in the exercise yard can carry the weight that a chase scene once did. Why has this happened? Part of the explanation lies in access: some institutions have become more willing to admit researchers and writers, who return with an eye for detail rather than drama. Just as important, productions now routinely hire people who have served sentences themselves as advisers, and they tend to correct the small things: how a bunk is made, how long a phone call lasts. Such corrections may seem trivial, but taken together they change the texture of a film, replacing the familiar shorthand of the genre with something closer to lived experience. None of this means that the older kind of story has disappeared. Escape films still find large audiences, and some of the most expensive productions of recent years have been built on exactly the formula described above. The quieter films exist alongside them rather than in their place. C Shooting inside a working prison is rarely as simple as it sounds. Even with official permission, a crew must stop filming whenever the prisoners are counted, which can happen several times a day. A scene that has taken an hour to set up may have to be abandoned halfway through, and actors who have built up a particular mood must wait and then find it again. Every prisoner who might appear in a shot must agree to be filmed, and anyone who declines has to be kept out of the frame. Perhaps surprisingly, crews report that the guards themselves are generally helpful, often pointing out which corridors will be quiet at a given hour. Yet goodwill cannot remove the basic problem that a prison runs on its own timetable, not on a film schedule. For this reason, many productions end up building sets instead, sometimes copying the layout of a real wing down to the position of the noticeboards. The result can look convincing, though some directors admit that a set never quite reproduces the sound of a real building, where doors and voices echo for longer than anyone expects. D A recent example of the quieter approach is The Long Yard, the first English-language feature by the European director Mara Keller. It follows two older men in an American prison whose cautious friendship grows over the course of a single winter. We never learn what either man did to end up there, and Keller insists this was deliberate: she wanted audiences to judge the two men only by the way they treat each other. Some reviewers have read the film as an attack on the American justice system, but Keller rejects this, describing it as a story about two people rather than a political statement. While writing the script, she spent many hours talking to a man who had spent eleven years behind bars, although the two lead roles went to professional actors, and the film was shot on a purpose-built set rather than in a working prison. Keller argues that coming from outside allowed her to see what local film-makers might take for granted, though she is careful not to claim that she understands the system better than they do. Some critics are less convinced, warning that an outsider can just as easily misread what she sees. Whether or not they are right, the film's reception suggests that the question of who tells a story is now asked as often as the question of what the story should contain.

14. Section A

i) The influence of prison films on public policy

Why real prisons are difficult places to film

The commercial appeal of early prison dramas

Debating the value of an outsider's perspective

v) A genre built on suspense rather than daily life

Former prisoners' views of how they are portrayed

A shift towards the ordinary routines of confinement

15. Section B

i) The influence of prison films on public policy

Why real prisons are difficult places to film

The commercial appeal of early prison dramas

Debating the value of an outsider's perspective

v) A genre built on suspense rather than daily life

Former prisoners' views of how they are portrayed

A shift towards the ordinary routines of confinement

16. Section C

i) The influence of prison films on public policy

Why real prisons are difficult places to film

The commercial appeal of early prison dramas

Debating the value of an outsider's perspective

v) A genre built on suspense rather than daily life

Former prisoners' views of how they are portrayed

A shift towards the ordinary routines of confinement

17. Section D

i) The influence of prison films on public policy

Why real prisons are difficult places to film

The commercial appeal of early prison dramas

Debating the value of an outsider's perspective

v) A genre built on suspense rather than daily life

Former prisoners' views of how they are portrayed

A shift towards the ordinary routines of confinement

18. Which TWO reasons does the writer give for the recent change in the way prison life is shown on screen?

A) Some prisons have become more open to visits from researchers

B) Streaming platforms have increased demand for slower, character-led drama

C) Former prisoners are now employed to advise film crews

D) Audiences have grown tired of action-based prison stories

E) Lighter cameras have made filming in small spaces easier

19. Which TWO reasons does the writer give for the recent change in the way prison life is shown on screen?

A) Some prisons have become more open to visits from researchers

B) Streaming platforms have increased demand for slower, character-led drama

C) Former prisoners are now employed to advise film crews

D) Audiences have grown tired of action-based prison stories

E) Lighter cameras have made filming in small spaces easier

20. Which TWO difficulties of filming inside a working prison does the writer mention?

A) Prison staff are often unwilling to cooperate with crews

B) Filming has to be interrupted when prisoners are counted

C) The lighting in cells is too poor for good pictures

D) Prisoners who refuse permission cannot appear on screen

E) Crews are not allowed to stay inside overnight

21. Which TWO difficulties of filming inside a working prison does the writer mention?

A) Prison staff are often unwilling to cooperate with crews

B) Filming has to be interrupted when prisoners are counted

C) The lighting in cells is too poor for good pictures

D) Prisoners who refuse permission cannot appear on screen

E) Crews are not allowed to stay inside overnight

22. Which TWO claims does Mara Keller make about her film?

A) It was intended as a criticism of the American prison system

B) Its main roles are played by men who have been in prison

C) She deliberately chose not to reveal why the two men are in prison

D) Her background allowed her to notice details that local directors might miss

E) Most of it was filmed inside a prison that was still in use

23. Which TWO claims does Mara Keller make about her film?

A) It was intended as a criticism of the American prison system

B) Its main roles are played by men who have been in prison

C) She deliberately chose not to reveal why the two men are in prison

D) Her background allowed her to notice details that local directors might miss

E) Most of it was filmed inside a prison that was still in use

24. For much of the twentieth century, the plots of prison films typically revolved around riots or {{24}} attempts.

25. The guards in these films were nearly always presented as the {{25}}.

26. The {{26}} that makes up most of a real sentence was seldom shown because it was thought unsuitable for the screen.

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27 to 40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.

Beyond the label: why what we eat is not only up to us

For much of the past half-century, governments in English-speaking countries approached the question of diet in much the same way. Their main tool was information. Packets of food were required to carry tables listing their energy, fat, sugar and salt content, and public campaigns urged people to eat more fruit and vegetables, cut down on fried food and read labels before they bought. The thinking behind such policies was straightforward: if people ate badly, it was chiefly because they lacked the knowledge to do otherwise. Over the past two decades, however, a growing number of critics have questioned this assumption. In their view, the main obstacle to healthier eating is not ignorance but what they call the food environment: the range of products that are available in a particular place, the prices at which they are sold and the ways in which they are promoted. A person who knows perfectly well that an apple is better for them than a chocolate bar may still buy the chocolate if it is cheaper, closer to hand and advertised on every corner. The history of the nutrition table illustrates the difficulty. Tables printed on the back of packets were intended to allow shoppers to set one product against another and select the healthier option. Yet observation of supermarket shoppers suggests that most choices are made within a few seconds, far too quickly for a table of figures on the back of a packet to be read, let alone compared. Many people, it seems, rely on habit, brand familiarity and the price on the shelf edge, and turn the packet over only rarely, if at all. Partly in response, a number of countries have adopted colour-coded labels on the front of packs, which show at a glance whether a product is high, medium or low in fat, sugar and salt. Such labels are at their most effective when a shopper is comparing two similar items, two breakfast cereals, for instance, side by side. Here a quick look at the colours can tip the balance towards the product with less sugar. They do far less, though, to help someone choose between very different kinds of food. A cereal bar and a piece of fruit are not usually labelled in the same way, and a shopper deciding between them is unlikely to be guided by a panel of coloured circles. Manufacturers, too, have responded to public concern, most notably through reformulation, that is, changing the recipes of existing products. Some manufacturers have lowered the salt content of popular products in a series of small steps, each too slight for regular customers to notice. Over several years, the cumulative reduction can be considerable, and because tastes adjust gradually, the products continue to sell. Useful as reformulation is, it cannot by itself solve the problem, since a biscuit with slightly less sugar is still a biscuit, designed and marketed to be eaten in quantity. Nor does reformulation alter where products are placed or how often people are encouraged to buy them. Labels have certainly made the content of food easier to see, and campaigns have left most people with a fair idea of what a balanced diet looks like. Even so, diets have been slow to change. None of this means that information has been wasted; it means that information alone was never likely to be enough. To see why, it helps to look more closely at the places where food is bought. Many purchases are unplanned: shoppers arrive with a list, or at least a rough idea of what they need, and leave with several items they had not intended to buy. Such decisions are strongly influenced by layout, and the most visible spots in any shop, the shelves beside the checkouts and the displays at the end of each aisle, are disproportionately given over to confectionery and snacks. This is rarely an accident. Positions of this kind are valuable, and suppliers often pay retailers for these positions, through payments known in the trade as slotting fees. Price plays a similar role. Discounts on sweet and processed foods are common, and they are not always simple reductions. Multi-buy offers, in which a second or third packet comes cheaply or free, encourage shoppers to leave with more than they came in for. If the environment can push people towards less healthy food, it can also be arranged to push them the other way, and some institutions have begun to do exactly that. In workplace and school canteens, for example, serving salad as the default, with chips available on request, shifts what diners eat while leaving every option on the menu. Nobody is forbidden anything; the healthier choice has simply become the easier one. Local authorities have experimented along similar lines. In one English example, the council in Port Alder, a small coastal town, removed advertisements for high-sugar foods from bus shelters and other sites it owned, reasoning that residents travelling by public transport, many of them schoolchildren, saw these images several times a day. At the same time, it tried to improve what was on offer in neighbourhoods without a large supermarket, and offered small grants, enough to buy a refrigerated display unit, to corner shops prepared to stock more fresh produce. Neither step prevented anyone from buying what they wished. What such measures share is a view of diet not as a matter of personal responsibility alone but as a shared responsibility of retailers, manufacturers, councils and individuals. This does not mean that people cease to be responsible for what they eat. Individuals still make choices, every day and many times a day, but they make them within a setting that others have shaped, often with considerable care and for their own commercial reasons. Policies that address only the individual, by informing, advising or urging, leave that setting untouched. Policies that also address the setting, the critics argue, are more likely to change what ends up on people's plates.

27. Policies based on nutrition labelling assumed that people ate badly mainly because they did not know enough about food.

TRUE) TRUE

FALSE) FALSE

NOT GIVEN) NOT GIVEN

28. Most shoppers study the nutrition table carefully before choosing a product.

TRUE) TRUE

FALSE) FALSE

NOT GIVEN) NOT GIVEN

29. Colour-coded labels on the front of packs were first introduced by supermarket chains.

TRUE) TRUE

FALSE) FALSE

NOT GIVEN) NOT GIVEN

30. Colour-coded labels work best when shoppers are choosing between similar products.

TRUE) TRUE

FALSE) FALSE

NOT GIVEN) NOT GIVEN

31. Reducing salt gradually has cost manufacturers more than other ways of changing recipes.

TRUE) TRUE

FALSE) FALSE

NOT GIVEN) NOT GIVEN

32. The writer considers changing recipes to be an adequate solution to unhealthy eating on its own.

TRUE) TRUE

FALSE) FALSE

NOT GIVEN) NOT GIVEN

33. The writer concludes that giving consumers nutritional information has been of no value.

TRUE) TRUE

FALSE) FALSE

NOT GIVEN) NOT GIVEN

34. Many food purchases are unplanned, and the most visible places in a shop, such as the shelves beside the {{34}}, are often filled with confectionery.

35. Suppliers sometimes pay retailers for prominent positions through what are known in the trade as {{35}}.

36. Price promotions such as {{36}} lead shoppers to buy more than they had intended.

37. In canteens, serving salad as the {{37}}, with chips available only on request, changes what people choose without removing any option.

38. The council in Port Alder removed advertisements for high-sugar foods from {{38}} and other council-owned sites.

39. It also offered small grants to corner shops willing to stock more {{39}}.

40. The writer argues that such measures treat diet as a {{40}} rather than a purely private matter.