Ielts reading recent actual tests (2016 2017) with answers published by ieltsmaterial com

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Geography in Worcester, Mass. Doing that "in many of the forests of the Western US ... 
is like building homes on the side of an active volcano." In California, where population 
growth has averaged more than 600,000 a year for at least a decade, housing has pushed 
into such areas. "What once was open space is now residential homes providing fuel to 
make fires bum with greater intensity," says Terry McHale of the California Department 
of Forestry firefighters union. "With so much dryness, so many communities to catch fire, 
so many fronts to fight, it becomes an almost incredible job." 
E 
That said, many experts give California high marks for making progress on 
preparedness since 2003, when the largest fires in state history scorched 750,000 acres, 
burned 3,640 homes, and killed 22 people. Stung then by criticism of bungling that 
allowed fires to spread when they might have been contained, personnel are meeting the 
peculiar challenges of neighborhood- and canyon-hopping fires better than in recent 
years, observers say. 
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State promises to provide newer engines, planes, and helicopters have been fulfilled. 
Firefighters unions that then complained of dilapidated equipment, old fire engines, and 
insufficient blueprints for fire safety are now praising the state's commitment, noting that 
funding for firefighting has increased despite huge cuts in many other programs. "We are 
pleased that the Schwarzenegger administration has been very proactive in its support of 
us and come through with budgetary support of the infrastructure needs we have long 
sought," says Mr. McHale with the firefighters union. 
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Besides providing money to upgrade the fire engines that must traverse the mammoth 
state and wind along serpentine canyon roads, the state has invested in better command-
and-control facilities as well as the strategies to run them. "In the fire sieges of earlier 
years, we found out that we had the willingness of mutual-aid help from other jurisdictions 
and states, but we were not able to communicate adequately with them," says Kim 
Zagaris, chief of the state's Office of Emergency Services, fire and rescue branch. After 
a 2004 blue-ribbon commission examined and revamped those procedures, the statewide 
response "has become far more professional and responsive," he says. 

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