Ielts reading question-type based tests true false not given matching headings

Welcome to Mr Aslanov’s Lessons 
QUESTION-TYPE BASED TESTS 
FunEnglishwithme [phone] 
within the ancient forest. Resin in the process of hardening usually develops a skin whilst the interior is still 
soft. Occasionally amber of this nature has impressions stamped on its surface and thus becomes a trace 
fossil. For instance the clear impression of a cat’s paw has been found on a piece of amber found in the 
Baltic area. 
The faking of inclusions in amber has been a major cottage industry since the earliest times. Gum is 
melted gently and suitable inclusions placed into the matrix; this is frequently some kind of colourful insect. 
Artificial colour is always a dead give away of a bogus amber fossil. 
Questions 1-3 
Choose 
THREE 
letters 
A-H
.
 
Which 
THREE 
of the following are NOT given as possible reasons for the production of the resin by tress 
which later forms amber? 
A.
A defence system. 
B.
Changes in the molecular structure of the tree. 
C.
A development side-effect. 
D.
An effect of the Baltic weather. 
E.
A way of dealing with water loss. 
F.
The result of oxidization. 
G.
Part of the reproduction process. 
H.
A result of damage. 
 

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Welcome to Mr Aslanov’s Lessons 
QUESTION-TYPE BASED TESTS 
FunEnglishwithme [phone] 
TEST 8 – Unlikely Boomtowns: The World’s Hottest Cities 
Megacities like London, New York and Tokyo loom large in our imaginations. They are still 
associated with fortune, fame and the future. They can dominate national economies and politics. The last 
fifty years has been their era, as the number of cities with more than ten million people grew from two to 
twenty. But with all respect to the science fiction novelists who have envisioned a future of urban giants, 
their day is over. The typical growth rate of the population within a megacity has slowed from more than 
eight percent in the 1980s to less than half that over the last five years, and numbers are expected to be static 
in the next quarter century. Instead, the coming years will belong to a smaller, more humbler relation - the 
Second City. 
Within a few years, more people will live in cities than in the countryside for the first time in human 
history. But increasingly, the urban core itself is downsizing. Already, half the city dwellers in the world live 
in metropolises with fewer than half-a-million residents. Second Cities from exurbs, residential areas outside 
the suburbs of a town, to regional centres are booming. Between 2000 and 2015, the world’s smallest cities 
(with under 500,000 people) will grow by 23 per cent, while the next smallest (One million to five million 
people) will grow by 27 per cent. This trend is the result of dramatic shifts including the global real estate 
bubble; increasing international migration; cheaper transport; new technologies, and the fact that the baby-
boom generation is reaching retirement age. 
The emergence of Second Cities has flowed naturally (if unexpectedly) from the earlier success of the 
megacities. In the 1990s, megacities boomed as global markets did. This was particularly true in areas with 
high tech or 'knowledge based' industries like finance. Bonuses got bigger, bankers got richer and real estate 
prices in the world’s most sought-alter cities soared. The result has been the creation of what demographer 
William Frey of the Washington based Brookings Institute calls ‘gated regions’ in which both the city and 
many of the surrounding suburbs have become unaffordable for all but the very wealthy. Economically, after 
a city reaches a certain size its productivity starts to fall,’ notes Mario Pezzini, head of the regional 
competitiveness division of the OECD. He puts the tipping point at about six million people, after which 
costs, travel times and the occasional chaos create in which the centre of the city may be a great place, but 
only for the rich, and the outlying areas become harder to live and work in. 
One reaction to this phenomenon is further sprawl high prices in the urban core and traditional 
suburbs drive people to distant exurbs with extreme commutes into big cities. As Frey notes, in the major 
US metropolitan areas, average commuting times have doubled over the last fifteen years. 
Why does one town become a booming Second City, while another fails? The answer hinges on 
whether a community has the wherewithal to exploit the forces pushing people and businesses out of the 
megacities. One key is excellent transport links, especially to the biggest commercial centres. Though barely 
a decade old, Goyang is South Koreas fastest- growing city in part because it is 30 minutes by subway from 
Seoul. 
Another growth driver for Second Cities is the decentralisation of work, driven in large part by new 
technologies. While more financial deals are done now in big capitals like New York and London than ever 
before, it is also clear that plenty of booming service industries are leaving for ‘Rising Urban stars’ like 
Dubai, Montpellier and Cape Town. These places have not only improved their Internet backbones but often 
have technical institutes and universities that turn out the kinds of talent that populate growth industries. 
Consider Montpellier, France, a case study in urban decentralisation. Until the 1980s, it was like a big 
Mediterranean village. Once the high speed train lines were built, Parisians began pouring in for weekend 
breaks. Some bought houses, creating a critical mass of middle-class professionals who began taking 
advantage of flexible working systems to do three days in Paris, and two down South, where things seemed 
less pressured. Soon big companies began looking at the area, a number of medical technology and 
electronic firms came to town, and IBM put more investment into service businesses there. To cater to the 
incoming professionals, the city began building amenities: an opera house, a tram line to discourage cars in 

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