IELTS General Training Reading practice test 6

SECTION 1 Questions 1 to 14

Ben Corran Summit Weather Station: Frequently Asked Questions

Ben Corran Summit Weather Station stands 1,120 metres above sea level and is reached by cable car from the village of Glenmorrach. Here are answers to the questions our visitors ask most often. How do I get to the summit? The visitor centre at the summit opens at 9.30 am. The first cable car leaves the valley station at 9.00 am, and cars then run every twenty minutes. The journey takes about twelve minutes, and the last car down leaves the summit at 5.00 pm. What can I see at the station? Staff have recorded the temperature, rainfall and wind at the summit every day since 1884. Some of the original instruments are on display in the entrance hall. A weather balloon is sent up at noon every day of the year, but visitors can only watch the launch from May to September. In the colder months the balloon is released from a sheltered area that is closed to the public. Our exhibition explains the difference between weather, which is what happens on a single day, and climate, which is the average pattern measured over thirty years or more. Interactive screens let you compare today's readings with those taken on the same date in earlier years. Can I go up to the roof? The roof platform is open whenever wind speeds are below 50 km/h. Staff check conditions every hour and close the platform if necessary. On a clear day you can see the islands off the west coast from the top. What happens if the weather is bad? If high winds stop the cable car, your ticket can be used on any other day within twelve months. We are unable to offer refunds. Please check our website on the morning of your visit, as we post an update there by 8.00 am. What should I wear? Even in July, the summit can be ten degrees colder than the valley, so please pack a warm jacket whatever the season. Strong shoes are also recommended, as the paths around the station are often wet.

Kilnhouse Studio, Leeds: Beginners' Pottery Course. Online customer reviews

A Priya I'd wanted to try pottery for years, and this eight-week course was a great introduction. The tutor, Sam, was patient and explained each step clearly. I had to go away for work in week three, but the studio let me join the Saturday group instead, so I didn't fall behind. The Saturday group was just as friendly as mine. I've already paid for the intermediate course, which starts in March. B Tom My wife gave me this course as a birthday present, and it turned out to be one of the best gifts I've ever had. I loved every minute on the wheel, and by week five I could shape the clay without help. The bowl I was proudest of came out of the kiln with a crack down one side, which was a real let-down, though the tutor explained exactly what had gone wrong. I'll know better next time. C Helen I did some pottery at evening classes years ago, so this was a refresher for me. I booked two places so that my daughter and I could do something together on Thursday evenings. She was nervous at first and hardly spoke in the first session, but by the end she was the one giving me advice. There were twelve of us, so we got to know lots of new people, and we came home with a set of mugs that we use every day. D Marcus The wheel was what I'd really signed up for, but with only four wheels between us, I got twenty minutes at most each week. The rest of the time we worked on shaping pots by hand, which was fine but not why I came. Twelve of us in that small room with one tutor was simply too many. Sam did his best, but he couldn't get round to everyone. E Joanne I almost didn't sign up, as I hadn't made anything creative since I left school and was sure I'd be the worst in the room. In fact, hardly anyone had much experience, and Sam made it clear that mistakes are part of learning. My plant pot is a little uneven, but I'm proud of it. I'd love to carry on with pottery one day, when work is less busy.

1. The first cable car of the day leaves before the visitor centre opens.

TRUE) TRUE

FALSE) FALSE

NOT GIVEN) NOT GIVEN

2. The station has a longer record of daily measurements than any other weather station in Scotland.

TRUE) TRUE

FALSE) FALSE

NOT GIVEN) NOT GIVEN

3. Members of the public can watch the weather balloon launch at any time of year.

TRUE) TRUE

FALSE) FALSE

NOT GIVEN) NOT GIVEN

4. The exhibition defines climate as a pattern measured over a period of at least thirty years.

TRUE) TRUE

FALSE) FALSE

NOT GIVEN) NOT GIVEN

5. Visitors to the roof platform must be accompanied by a member of staff.

TRUE) TRUE

FALSE) FALSE

NOT GIVEN) NOT GIVEN

6. Visitors get their money back if strong winds stop the cable car.

TRUE) TRUE

FALSE) FALSE

NOT GIVEN) NOT GIVEN

7. Visitors are advised to bring warm clothing even in the summer months.

TRUE) TRUE

FALSE) FALSE

NOT GIVEN) NOT GIVEN

8. The reviewer attended the course with a relative.

A) Priya

B) Tom

C) Helen

D) Marcus

E) Joanne

9. The reviewer missed a session but was able to make up for it.

A) Priya

B) Tom

C) Helen

D) Marcus

E) Joanne

10. The reviewer would have liked more time on the potter's wheel.

A) Priya

B) Tom

C) Helen

D) Marcus

E) Joanne

11. The reviewer nearly did not join because she had not done anything creative for a long time.

A) Priya

B) Tom

C) Helen

D) Marcus

E) Joanne

12. One finished piece was a disappointment to the reviewer.

A) Priya

B) Tom

C) Helen

D) Marcus

E) Joanne

13. The reviewer has already booked a place on another course.

A) Priya

B) Tom

C) Helen

D) Marcus

E) Joanne

14. The reviewer felt there were too many people in the class.

A) Priya

B) Tom

C) Helen

D) Marcus

E) Joanne

SECTION 2 Questions 15 to 27

Corran Motor Group: A guide to your reward schemes

As well as your basic salary, you may receive extra money through three reward schemes. This guide explains how each scheme works, who can benefit and when payments are made. If anything is unclear, please contact the payroll team at your site. Site Results Payment This scheme rewards the people at each plant for what they achieve together. At the start of every financial year, each site agrees targets for output, quality and safety with the group's operations board, and the payment depends only on what happens at your own site. The more targets a site meets, the higher the payment, which is calculated as a percentage of your basic salary: from 1% at the lowest level up to 5% when every target is reached. You are included in the scheme from your first day of employment, and there is nothing you need to do to join, as payments are made automatically to everyone who qualifies. Half of the Site Results Payment is added to your July salary and the remainder to your January salary. If you leave the company during the year, you will receive a share of the Site Results Payment for each full month you worked. Group Profit Share Each spring, the board decides how much of the previous year's profit will be shared with employees. Like the Site Results Payment, it is paid automatically and is worked out as a percentage of basic salary, but here the percentage is the same for everybody, from apprentices to senior managers. Because the Group Profit Share is based on the results of the whole group, a difficult year for other companies in the group will lower the payment for everyone, even at plants that have performed well. To qualify for the Group Profit Share, you must have worked for the group for at least twelve months on 31 March. The money is paid in a single amount with April salaries, and only to people who are still employed by the group on that payment date. Skills Bonus Corran encourages staff to gain qualifications that are useful in their work, such as certificates in electrical maintenance, welding or team leadership. To be considered for the Skills Bonus, you must register through the training office before you begin an approved course. A list of approved courses is available on request, and staff are welcome to take part from the start of their employment. The Skills Bonus is a fixed sum of £600 for each qualification completed, whatever your grade or pay. It is paid as one amount in the month after the training office receives your certificate, provided you are still working for the company when the course is completed. Courses that were started without registering cannot be added later, so please speak to the training office before you book anything.

Corran Motor Group: Moving to another site

Corran has six plants and two distribution centres across the UK, and every year many employees ask whether they can move from one to another, perhaps to be closer to family or to try a different kind of work. The internal transfer programme allows you to do this without leaving the company and starting again. Getting started Before you apply, talk the idea through with your supervisor, who will need to agree a release date. This conversation helps both of you to plan, as your team may need to arrange cover while you are away. Once a date has been agreed, the HR department takes over and handles your application. Applications must be submitted on the staff portal; vacancies are also shown on site noticeboards, but paper applications are not accepted. You will normally receive a reply from HR within ten working days. The trial Successful applicants first spend a trial period of up to three months at the new site before the move becomes permanent. This should not be confused with the four-week notice period, which only applies to staff who are leaving Corran altogether. During the trial, the company pays mileage between the two sites and meals in the canteen are free, but you will need to arrange and pay for your own accommodation. HR can give you a list of local letting agents and, at some sites, details of colleagues with rooms to rent. Becoming permanent Towards the end of the trial, you will meet your new supervisor to review how things have gone. If you both agree, the move is confirmed. Your pay grade and holiday entitlement may be adjusted to match those at the new site, but your pension continues without any change. Any training you have completed, including courses supported by the Skills Bonus, will remain on your record. Changing your mind Not every move works out, and there is no shame in that. If the new job does not suit you, you have the right to return to your previous role, provided you do so before the trial period ends. After that point, going back is only possible by applying for a vacancy in the usual way. Your first week Every employee who transfers permanently attends an induction session in their first week, which includes site safety training. Even if you have worked for Corran for many years, each plant has its own layout, equipment and emergency procedures, so this session is essential for everyone.

15. The amount may be reduced because of difficulties elsewhere in the organisation.

A) Site Results Payment

B) Group Profit Share

C) Skills Bonus

16. Staff who leave the company during the year still receive part of the payment.

A) Site Results Payment

B) Group Profit Share

C) Skills Bonus

17. Employees must apply in order to take part.

A) Site Results Payment

B) Group Profit Share

C) Skills Bonus

18. The money is paid in two separate parts during the year.

A) Site Results Payment

B) Group Profit Share

C) Skills Bonus

19. The amount does not depend on the employee's salary.

A) Site Results Payment

B) Group Profit Share

C) Skills Bonus

20. New employees have to wait for a certain period before they can benefit.

A) Site Results Payment

B) Group Profit Share

C) Skills Bonus

21. Employees who want to move to another site should first discuss the idea with their {{21}}.

22. Applications are made online through the staff {{22}}.

23. Successful applicants then work at the new site during the {{23}} period, which lasts up to three months.

24. During this time, the company pays travel costs between sites, but staff must pay for their own {{24}}.

25. After a permanent move, pay and holidays may change, but the employee's {{25}} stays the same.

26. Anyone who is unhappy at the new site may go back to their previous {{26}}, as long as they do this within those three months.

27. Everyone who moves permanently attends the {{27}} session at the new site during their first week.

Read the text below and answer Questions 28 to 40.

Who referees the referees?

A For most of its history, the Westmere Valley Amateur Football Association has attracted little attention beyond the touchlines of its forty-two member clubs. Its most important institution is also its least visible: a five-member disputes tribunal that meets in a back room of the association's office whenever a club or a player challenges a decision. The tribunal was set up in 1994, after a season in which clubs accused one another of bending the rules, so that appeals about results, player eligibility and discipline could be decided by people with no ties to any club. Many other amateur sports bodies now have similar panels. Westmere's members are unpaid volunteers, usually former players, teachers or retired officials, and for three decades their rulings have been respected even by the clubs that lost. The arrangement worked precisely because nobody could say the tribunal belonged to one side. B That confidence was shaken at this year's annual general meeting in June. Three members of the tribunal had come to the end of their terms, and the clubs voted to replace them with candidates chosen from a shortlist of five. Under the rules as they then stood, however, new members could only be appointed with the signature of the association's president, Martin Okafor. Mr Okafor declined to sign the appointments, arguing that the vote had been rushed through at the end of a long meeting. Without his signature the three new members could not take their seats, and a tribunal that needs five members to sit has not heard a single case since August. The two remaining members have continued to receive appeals, but they can do nothing except file them. C The files now fill two cabinets, and every week brings new cases. Behind each of these cases is a person: a midfielder who has missed eleven matches for an offence he insists he did not commit, an under-16 side playing a division below where its results say it belongs, and two long-serving referees who have quietly handed back their whistles. Clubs have also paid appeal fees that the association is still holding. The midfielder's club says he has lost not only his place in the team but also his enthusiasm for the game, and is unlikely to return even if he is cleared. The under-16 coach reports that several of his players have begun training with clubs in neighbouring leagues. The two referees, who between them had officiated for more than thirty years, gave a simpler explanation: they were tired of making decisions on the pitch that no one could review off it. D For several weeks the association's committee hoped that Mr Okafor would change his mind. When he did not, it acted. At a special meeting in October, the committee changed the rules so that elected tribunal members take office without the president's signature. Helen Ward, who chairs the committee, said the decision had not been taken lightly. The association's rules promise every member a hearing within 28 days, a promise it had now broken more than forty times. Clubs had been writing to the committee about the delays since the summer, and she felt it could not go on answering them with apologies. Moreover, she said, a body that allowed one officer to set aside the members' vote 'could hardly ask anyone to trust its own decisions'. Some committee members had suggested simply waiting, since Mr Okafor's term as president ends next spring, but most felt that another six months without hearings would do lasting damage. Before the vote, the committee asked a lawyer whether the change was within its powers, and was advised that it was. E The committee may have had little choice, but its move risks deepening the crisis rather than ending it. Mr Okafor has already said that he will not recognise any ruling made by the three new members. There is a real danger that the association will end up with two rival tribunals, each insisting that it alone is legitimate. In that situation, any player who loses an appeal could challenge the result in court, arguing that the panel which heard the case had no authority to do so, and the costs of a legal battle could easily exceed the association's modest reserves. Outsiders are watching too. The town council, which owns most of the pitches, has warned that it may withhold its funding for youth football next season until the matter is settled. A wiser course would be for both sides to accept an independent mediator, perhaps a retired judge with no connection to local football. Such a person could oversee talks between Mr Okafor and the committee, and the three appointments could then be confirmed by a fresh ballot of all member clubs, held by post so that no one can claim it was rushed. That would delay matters by a few more weeks. But a tribunal exists to settle arguments, not to become the subject of one, and only a solution that both sides have accepted is likely to restore the calm that Westmere's clubs enjoyed for thirty years.

28. Section A

i) A refusal that brought decisions to a halt

Financial difficulties facing the association

Why the solution may create new problems

The origins and purpose of an independent body

v) How other sports have dealt with similar disputes

A bold step taken to restore trust

A plan to hand disputes to paid professionals

The human cost of an unresolved dispute

29. Section B

i) A refusal that brought decisions to a halt

Financial difficulties facing the association

Why the solution may create new problems

The origins and purpose of an independent body

v) How other sports have dealt with similar disputes

A bold step taken to restore trust

A plan to hand disputes to paid professionals

The human cost of an unresolved dispute

30. Section C

i) A refusal that brought decisions to a halt

Financial difficulties facing the association

Why the solution may create new problems

The origins and purpose of an independent body

v) How other sports have dealt with similar disputes

A bold step taken to restore trust

A plan to hand disputes to paid professionals

The human cost of an unresolved dispute

31. Section D

i) A refusal that brought decisions to a halt

Financial difficulties facing the association

Why the solution may create new problems

The origins and purpose of an independent body

v) How other sports have dealt with similar disputes

A bold step taken to restore trust

A plan to hand disputes to paid professionals

The human cost of an unresolved dispute

32. Section E

i) A refusal that brought decisions to a halt

Financial difficulties facing the association

Why the solution may create new problems

The origins and purpose of an independent body

v) How other sports have dealt with similar disputes

A bold step taken to restore trust

A plan to hand disputes to paid professionals

The human cost of an unresolved dispute

33. Which TWO reasons does the writer give for the committee's decision to change the rules without the president's agreement?

A) The association had promised members that appeals would be heard within a set period

B) The committee believed its own credibility depended on respecting the members' vote

C) The president was expected to leave office within a few weeks

D) A court had ruled that the president's refusal was unlawful

E) Several clubs had threatened to leave the association

34. Which TWO reasons does the writer give for the committee's decision to change the rules without the president's agreement?

A) The association had promised members that appeals would be heard within a set period

B) The committee believed its own credibility depended on respecting the members' vote

C) The president was expected to leave office within a few weeks

D) A court had ruled that the president's refusal was unlawful

E) Several clubs had threatened to leave the association

35. The president has said he will not {{35}} any ruling made by the three new members.

36. Clubs could find themselves dealing with two {{36}} tribunals, each claiming to be the real one.

37. A player who loses an appeal might decide to take the case to {{37}}.

38. The town council, which owns most of the pitches, could hold back its {{38}} for youth football next season.

39. The writer believes both sides should accept help from an independent {{39}}.

40. The writer also proposes that the three appointments should be confirmed by a fresh {{40}} of all member clubs.