IELTS Academic

A The Harappan Civilisation of ancient Pakistan and India flourished 5,000 years ago, but a thousand years later their cities were abandoned. The Harappan Civilisation was a sophisticated Bronze Age society who built ‘megacities’ and traded internationally in luxury craft products, and yet seemed to have left almost no depictions of themselves. But their lack of …

Whatever Happened To The Harappan Civilisation? – IELTS Academic Reading Passage Read More »

A The typical way of talking to a baby – high-pitched, exaggerated and repetitious – is a source of fascination for linguists who hope to understand how ‘baby talk’ impacts on learning. Most babies start developing their hearing while still in the womb, prompting some hopeful parents to play classical music to their pregnant bellies. Some …

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For millennia, the coconut has been central to the lives of Polynesian and Asian peoples. In the western world, on the other hand, coconuts have always been exotic and unusual, sometimes rare. The Italian merchant traveller Marco Polo apparently saw coconuts in South Asia in the late 13th century, and among the mid-14th-century travel writings …

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Most managers can identify the major trends of the day. But in the course of conducting research in a number of industries and working directly with companies, we have discovered that managers often fail to recognize the less obvious but profound ways these trends are influencing consumers’ aspirations, attitudes, and behaviors. This is especially true …

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A Oxytocin is a chemical, a hormone produced in the pituitary gland in the brain. It was through various studies focusing on animals that scientists first became aware of the influence of oxytocin. They discovered that it helps reinforce the bonds between prairie voles, which mate for life, and triggers the motherly behaviour that sheep show …

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Cinnamon is a sweet, fragrant spice produced from the inner bark of trees of the genus Cinnamomum, which is native to the Indian sub-continent. It was known in biblical times, and is mentioned in several books of the Bible, both as an ingredient that was mixed with oils for anointing people’s bodies, and also as …

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A. The benefits of vitamins to our well-being are now familiar to most; however, when the link between diets lacking in citrus fruits and the development of the affliction ‘scurvy’ in sailors was first discovered by James Lind in 1747, the concept of vitamins was yet to be discovered. Scurvy, which causes softening of the …

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A. In response to the emergence of the ‘metro-sexual’ male, In other words, an urban, sophisticated man who is fashionable, well-groomed and unashamedly committed to ensuring his appearance is the best it can be, a whole new industry has developed. According to research conducted on behalf of a leading health and beauty retailer in the …

THE FACE OF MODERN MAN? – IELTS Academic Reading Passage Read More »

A. It is often more difficult for outsiders and non-sufferers to understand mental rather than physical illness in others. While it may be easy for us to sympathise with individuals living with the burden of a physical illness or disability, there is often a stigma attached to being mentally ill, or a belief that such …

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A Creatures across the animal kingdom have a preference for one foot, eye or even antenna. The cause of this trait, called lateralisation, is fairly simple: one side of the brain, which generally controls the opposite side of the body, is more dominant than the other when processing certain tasks. This does, on some occasions, let …

Left or right? – IELTS Academic Reading Passage Read More »