IELTS General Reading Practice Test 04
Three sections · Five passages · 40 questions · 60 minutes
SECTION 1
Passage A
City Central Library – New Guidelines and Visitor Information
Welcome to City Central Library. To ensure a quiet and productive environment for all visitors, the local council has recently updated our operational policies and facilities.
Borrowing and Memberships
All residents living within the metropolitan area are eligible for a free library card. With this card, members can borrow up to ten items simultaneously, including books, audiobooks, and educational DVDs. The standard loan period for print books is three weeks, whereas multimedia materials must be returned within seven days to prevent fine accumulation.
Renewals and Reservations
If you require more time with an item, you may apply for a loan extension up to two times, provided that another member has not already placed a formal reservation on it. Renewals can be processed quickly via our website, through our mobile app, or by using the self-service kiosks located near the main entrance foyer.
Library Technology and Spaces
Free high-speed Wi-Fi is accessible throughout the entire building. Members can log in using their library card barcode and password. We have also established two dedicated digital zones equipped with desktop computers for public research. Please note that printing services incur a small fee of twenty pence per sheet for black-and-white documents.
General Behaviour
To preserve a peaceful study environment, mobile phone conversations are strictly prohibited inside the main reading halls. Visitors must switch their devices to silent mode upon entry. If you need to make or receive an urgent telephone call, please proceed to the designated lounge areas on the ground floor. Covered travel mugs and bottled water are permitted, but hot meals or open food containers are disallowed to avoid damage to historical texts.
Passage B
Metrolink SmartCard User Guide
The Metrolink SmartCard is a secure tap-and-go electronic card that replaces traditional paper tickets across our entire municipal public transport network, including buses, trams, and inner-city trains.
Acquiring and Activating Your Card
You can purchase a blank SmartCard for a non-refundable fee of five pounds at any automated ticket machine or authorised retail agent. Before you can begin travelling, you must register your card online through our transport portal to activate fraud protection and load initial funds onto your account balance.
Topping Up Funds
To keep your account active, you can add monetary value manually at transport stations or set up an automatic top-up service. The system transfers twenty pounds automatically from your linked debit card whenever your SmartCard balance drops below five pounds, ensuring you never run out of travel credit.
Using the Card on Your Journey
When boarding a bus or entering a train platform, you must hold your SmartCard flat against the green electronic reader. This is known as “tapping on”. At the end of your journey, you must perform the same action on the reader at your destination, which is referred to as “tapping off”. The computerised gate system calculates the precise distance travelled and deducts the correct fare from your balance.
Penalty Fees and Rules
If you fail to tap off at the conclusion of your journey, the network system will automatically charge a maximum penalty fare of twelve pounds to your card. Inspecting officers regularly board transport vehicles to verify cards. Passengers travelling without an activated or tapped SmartCard will receive an on-the-spot fine.
SECTION 2
Passage C
Vanguard Electronics – New Employee Induction and Workspace Safety
Welcome to Vanguard Electronics. Our corporate health and safety guidelines are designed to protect you, your colleagues, and our specialised manufacturing machinery. Please read this manual carefully during your initial induction week.
Dress Code and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
Because our manufacturing facilities handle highly sensitive electronic components, all workshop employees must wear the company-issued anti-static smock at all times. Loose clothing items, dangling jewellery, and long hair must be safely secured before operating any assembly equipment to prevent mechanical entanglement. Employees working in the logistics warehouse are required to wear steel-toed footwear to prevent impact injuries from falling crates.
Workstation Ergonomics
We aim to prevent repetitive strain injuries by promoting excellent physical posture. Ensure your office chair is adjusted so your feet rest flat on the floor and your computer monitor is positioned exactly at eye level. Staff members are strongly encouraged to take a brief five-minute stretch break every hour away from their screens.
Handling Chemical Substances
Certain assembly processes require the use of industrial solvents and chemical cleaning agents. These fluids must always be kept in their original labelled containers. When using these substances, you must operate within the designated ventilation hoods to avoid inhaling harmful chemical vapours.
Reporting Injuries and Mishaps
All workplace accidents, regardless of how minor they may seem, must be documented immediately. If you suffer a minor cut or burn, locate the nearest first-aid kit, which can be found in the staff room. After receiving basic treatment, you must fill out a formal incident report form and submit it directly to your line manager before finishing your scheduled shift.
Passage D
Novatech Solutions – Staff Professional Development Grant Scheme
Novatech Solutions believes in nurturing professional growth by providing financial support for staff training. The Professional Development Grant Scheme is designed to help permanent employees improve their technical skills and obtain industry-recognised certifications.
Eligibility Criteria
To apply for a professional development grant, you must have completed at least twelve months of continuous service with Novatech Solutions. Employees who are currently on a temporary probation period or have unresolved performance issues are ineligible to receive funding under this specific scheme.
Approved Programmes and Funding
Grants are strictly reserved for educational courses, technical workshops, and professional certifications that directly relate to your current job role or clear corporate career path. The maximum annual funding allowance per employee is two thousand pounds, which covers tuition fees, required textbooks, and exam registration costs. The grant does not cover personal travel expenses or accommodation during the training course.
The Application Procedure
Before enrolling in any external course, you must download the official Training Proposal Form from the internal staff intranet. Fill out the form completely, detailing the total costs, course dates, and how the skills gained will benefit your daily departmental tasks. You must obtain written authorisation from your immediate department head before forwarding the completed paperwork to the Human Resources department for final budgetary approval.
Reimbursement Rules
Novatech Solutions distributes grant money via a reimbursement process. You must pay the course provider upfront and retain all official payment receipts. Upon successful completion of the training programme or exam, submit your receipts alongside your certificate of achievement to HR. Funds will be deposited directly into your bank account within fourteen days of submission.
SECTION 3
Passage E
The Evolution and Impact of Urban Vertical Farming
A The global population is growing rapidly, with demographic data predicting that nearly seventy percent of the world's population will reside in urban areas by the middle of this century. This massive demographic shift presents a severe challenge to traditional agriculture, which relies on vast expanses of rural land, predictable weather cycles, and enormous quantities of freshwater. As cities expand, the long-distance transportation of food from rural farms to urban consumers creates significant greenhouse gas emissions, while extreme weather events linked to climate change increasingly disrupt crop yields. In response to these vulnerabilities, agricultural scientists and urban architects are turning to vertical farming—a method of cultivating crops indoors in vertically stacked layers.
B While early concepts of indoor agriculture emerged decades ago, modern vertical farming relies on a sophisticated combination of advanced technologies. Instead of relying on unpredictable sunlight, these facilities use specialised Light Emitting Diode (LED) lamps. These lamps emit precise wavelengths of light customised to accelerate photosynthesis, which is the natural process plants use to convert light into energy. Furthermore, vertical farms operate within completely closed, indoor environments. This allows growers to regulate ambient temperature, humidity levels, and carbon dioxide concentrations with extreme precision, creating ideal growing conditions throughout the entire calendar year regardless of the weather outside.
C A defining feature of vertical farming is the complete elimination of soil, which is replaced by advanced soil-less cultivation techniques. The most common method used is hydroponics, a system where plant roots are continuously submerged in a circulating, water-based solution packed with vital minerals and nutrients. Another rapidly growing technique is aeroponics, where plants are suspended in the air and their exposed roots are misted with a nutrient-dense fluid at regular intervals. By delivering water and nutrients directly to the root networks, these methods eliminate resource waste. Consequently, vertical farms consume up to ninety-five percent less water than conventional outdoor farms, making them exceptionally sustainable in regions facing severe water scarcity.
D The environmental advantages of vertical farming extend beyond water conservation. Traditional outdoor farming requires immense quantities of chemical pesticides and herbicides to protect crops from insects and weeds. These chemicals often run off into nearby rivers and ecosystems, causing widespread pollution. In contrast, because vertical farms operate in carefully controlled indoor environments, the risk of pests and weeds is greatly reduced. As a result, growers can substantially reduce or sometimes avoid the use of chemical pesticides and herbicides, producing cleaner crops while limiting chemical runoff. Additionally, because these facilities are constructed inside cities, the physical distance between the farm and the consumer's plate is reduced to a few miles, virtually eliminating the carbon footprint associated with long-distance food transport.
E Despite these clear benefits, vertical farming faces substantial economic and operational hurdles that prevent widespread adoption. The most prominent barrier is the massive initial capital investment required to purchase urban real estate and install advanced automated technology, climate sensors, and LED lighting arrays. Additionally, running hundreds of powerful grow lamps and temperature control systems twenty-four hours a day requires an immense amount of electricity. Critics point out that unless this power is generated from renewable resources like solar or wind energy, the high electricity consumption can counteract the environmental benefits of the local food production.
F To address these energy challenges, agricultural engineers are continuously introducing innovations to maximise efficiency. Modern vertical farms are increasingly integrating artificial intelligence (AI) software and automated robotics into their operations. Computer algorithms monitor data from thousands of digital sensors throughout the facility, tracking minor adjustments in crop health and growth rates. These automated systems can adjust light exposure and nutrient delivery for individual plant racks, ensuring zero resource waste. Robotics are also used to manage tasks like planting seeds, transferring trays, and harvesting mature greens, which dramatically reduces ongoing labour costs.
G Currently, the commercial scope of vertical farming is limited by crop physiology. The vast majority of vertical farms produce leafy salad greens, herbs, and certain varieties of soft berries. These specific plants are commercially viable because they have short growth cycles, small physical dimensions, and high financial market value. Massive staple crops such as wheat, maize, and rice, which provide the bulk of global caloric intake, cannot currently be grown profitably in vertical facilities due to their large physical height and long maturation periods. Therefore, vertical farming is currently viewed as a supplement to traditional farming rather than a complete replacement for it.
H Looking to the future, vertical farming is poised to transform urban spaces into productive agricultural hubs. Forward-thinking architects are already designing mixed-use skyscrapers that integrate residential apartments with automated vertical growing levels, allowing city dwellers to access fresh food grown inside their own buildings. As technology costs fall and renewable energy grids expand, vertical farms will play an increasingly vital role in securing the food supply of global cities, proving that the future of sustainable food production may involve looking up instead of out.
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