IELTS General Training Practice Test 1: Reading

Questions 1 to 14

Parkside Leisure Centre: Swimming Pool Information

Opening hours. The pool is open from 6.30 a.m. to 9.30 p.m. Monday to Friday, and from 8.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. On the first Monday of every month the pool is closed until 2.00 p.m. for deep cleaning.

Lane swimming. Between 6.30 a.m. and 9.00 a.m. on weekdays the pool is divided into slow, medium and fast lanes. Please choose the lane that matches your speed and swim in a clockwise direction.

Family sessions. Family sessions run from 10.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Inflatable toys are brought out on Sundays only.

Children. Children under eight must be accompanied in the water by an adult aged sixteen or over. One adult may supervise a maximum of two children under eight.

What to wear. Swimming caps are not compulsory, but long hair must be tied back. Please shower before entering the pool.

Lockers. Lockers take a returnable coin, which you get back when you open the locker again. The centre is not responsible for valuables left in changing areas.

Lessons. Classes for adult beginners are held on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Places are limited and must be booked at reception at least one week in advance.

Questions 1-7

Do the following statements agree with the information in the text? Write TRUE if the statement agrees with the information, FALSE if the statement contradicts the information, or NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this.

1. The pool opens at the same time every day of the week.
2. The pool is cleaned on the first Monday of every month.
3. Lane swimming is available on weekday mornings.
4. Inflatable toys can be used during both weekend family sessions.
5. An adult may take three children under eight into the pool.
6. Swimming caps can be bought at reception.
7. Adult beginners' lessons must be booked in advance.

Westbrook Adult Education College: Evening Courses

A   Digital Photography. Eight weeks, Monday evenings. Learn to compose better pictures and edit them. No experience is needed, and a phone camera is perfectly acceptable.

B   Conversational Spanish. Ten weeks, Wednesday evenings. For learners who already know some basic Spanish and want to speak with more confidence. This course is not suitable for complete beginners.

C   Home Electrical Safety. A single full-day workshop on a Saturday. Find out how to check wiring, replace plugs and fuses safely, and when to call a professional. Everyone who completes the workshop receives a certificate.

D   Creative Writing. Six weeks. All sessions take place online by video call, so you can join from home. Participants share a short piece of writing each week.

E   Bread and Pastry Baking. Five weeks, Thursday evenings. All ingredients are included in the course fee, and aprons are provided.

Questions 8-14

Look at the five course descriptions, A-E. For which course are the following statements true? Write the correct letter, A-E. You may use any letter more than once.

8. It is held at the weekend.
9. It takes place entirely online.
10. The cost of materials is included in the price.
11. It is not suitable for people with no knowledge of the subject.
12. Participants receive a certificate.
13. Participants may use a mobile phone.
14. It is the longest course.

Questions 28 to 40

Mending the Throwaway Habit

A   It is ten o'clock on a Saturday morning, and a community hall is filling up. Along one wall, volunteers sit behind tables covered in screwdrivers, soldering irons, sewing machines and reels of thread. Opposite them, a queue has formed: a man with a table lamp that flickers, a woman carrying a jacket with a broken zip, a teenager holding a laptop that will not charge. Nobody is paying, and nobody is selling anything. This is a repair café, and the only rule on the poster by the door is that you must stay with the thing you have brought.

B   The idea began in Amsterdam in 2009, when a single event was organised to see whether neighbours would bring broken belongings to be mended by other neighbours. They did, in numbers that surprised the organisers, and the model was simple enough to copy. Within a few years similar events were running in towns across Europe, and by the early 2020s there were more than two thousand repair cafés around the world, most of them meeting once a month in libraries, church halls and community centres.

C   Behind their popularity lies a frustration that many people share. A generation ago, a broken radio or kettle was taken to a repair shop as a matter of course. Today, many products are designed in ways that make repair difficult: cases are glued together rather than held with screws, and the replacement parts that would allow a simple fix are often impossible to buy. Even when repair is technically possible, the cost of an hour's skilled labour can be greater than the price of a new item, so buying a replacement is frequently cheaper. The result is that objects which could work for years more are thrown away.

D   The rule that owners stay beside their item is not a matter of convenience for the volunteers. Organisers explain that watching, and often helping, is the real purpose of the visit. A person who has seen a volunteer open a toaster, find a loose connection and fix it is far less likely to see such objects as mysterious, and far more likely to attempt a similar repair at home next time. Many visitors say that the confidence they take away is worth more to them than the repair itself.

E   The cafés have also become meeting places. For people who live alone, a morning spent talking to a volunteer over a broken clock can be a rare opportunity for conversation. Many volunteers are retired, and the skills they spent a working life acquiring, from tailoring to electronics, are once again valued by others. It is common to see a volunteer in his seventies explaining a circuit to a student, while at the next table a young visitor shows an older one how to back up the photographs on a phone.

F   Not everyone is convinced that the movement can achieve very much. Volunteers themselves admit that some items cannot be saved, and some cafés refuse to work on appliances connected to the mains because of safety concerns. Critics point out that the number of objects mended each month is tiny compared with the quantity of electrical waste a country produces, and argue that the responsibility for designing products that last should lie with manufacturers rather than with unpaid volunteers.

G   There are signs that governments have been listening. In several places, including the European Union, rules introduced in recent years require the makers of certain household appliances to keep spare parts available for a number of years after a model is sold, and to make repair information available to professional repairers. Campaigners describe these laws as a first step rather than a solution, but they note that the question of whether a product can be mended is now being discussed in parliaments as well as in community halls.

Questions 28-33

The text has seven paragraphs, A-G. Choose the correct heading for paragraphs B-G from the list of headings below. Write the correct number, i-ix.

List of headings

i   The appeal of learning to do it yourself

ii   A movement that spread from one city

iii   Why repair has become uneconomic

iv   Official action in support of repair

v   More than mending objects

vi   Doubts about the size of the effect

vii   A typical Saturday morning

viii   The cost of training volunteers

ix   Manufacturers who welcome repair

Example: Paragraph A - vii

28. Paragraph B
29. Paragraph C
30. Paragraph D
31. Paragraph E
32. Paragraph F
33. Paragraph G

Questions 34-36

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

34   According to paragraph D, owners are asked to stay with their item mainly because

A   volunteers need someone to hold the parts.   B   it helps them to attempt repairs themselves later.   C   the café is not insured for unattended items.   D   it reduces the time each repair takes.

35   What does the writer say about retired volunteers in paragraph E?

A   They find it hard to work with modern devices.   B   They are paid a small amount for their time.   C   Their skills are appreciated by other people.   D   They prefer to work with visitors of their own age.

36   According to paragraph F, some critics believe that

A   repair cafés are unsafe and should close.   B   volunteers should be paid for their work.   C   manufacturers should be responsible for making products last.   D   electrical waste is not a serious problem.

Questions 37-40

Complete the summary using the list of words below. Write the correct word for each answer.

Many modern products are difficult to mend because their cases are (37) ______ together, and the replacement (38) ______ needed for a simple repair cannot be found. Because skilled labour is expensive, a new item is often (39) ______ than a repair. New rules in some places now require manufacturers to keep spare parts available for a number of (40) ______.

Word list:   screwed  ·  glued  ·  parts  ·  tools  ·  cheaper  ·  faster  ·  months  ·  years  ·  instructions