Daily IELTS Reading

Test 195 The countryside also suffered. To supply the workhorses with oats and hay, additional land had to be cleared of its natural animal life and vegetation, and sometimes water had to be diverted to irrigate it, with considerable negative effects on the whole area. It could be argued that modern transportation allowed the development of remote regions, allowed agricultural land to return to a wild state, and helped prevent depletion of water resources. Modern transportation may have been a major contributor to a wealthier, cleaner and more sustainable world.

Test 194 Contrary to what most people believe, the growth in cities is a positive development. In the words of economist Ed Glaeser: ‘Residing in a forest might seem to be a good way of showing one’s love of nature, but living in a concrete jungle is actually far more ecologically friendly.’

Test 193 Improvements in logistics also allowed the production and export of food from locations where water was abundant to regions where it was scarce, thus preventing the depletion of water resources there.

Test 192 Over time, the concentration of food production in the world’s best locations allowed some agricultural land to revert to a wild state. For instance, France benefited from an expansion of its forest area by one third between 1830 and 1960. This so-called ‘forest transition’ occurred in the context of a doubling of the French population and a dramatic increase in standards of living.

Test 191 Before they were available, poor soils often meant that a large amount of land was required to sustain a household, and much environmental damage, primarily in the form of soil erosion, was caused by trying to farm these soils. It could be argued that modern transportation allowed the development of remote regions like the Canadian prairies and allowed more suitable crops to be grown in the poorer soils in Europe before being sold elsewhere.

Test 190 Two rival groups of researchers have each attacked the techniques used by the other to ascertain the date of Mungo Man. Bowler has strongly challenged the results ever since. ‘Dating human bones is notoriously unreliable,’ he says. In addition, the sand sample used by Thorne’s group was taken hundreds of metres from the burial site.

Test 189 In the 1999 study, Thorne’s team used three techniques to date Mungo Man — bone, tooth enamel and sand.

Test 188 Bowler’s comprehensive study of different sediment layers has concluded that both graves are 40,000 years old. This is much younger than the 62,000 years Mungo Man was attributed with in 1999 by a team led by Professor Alan Thorne. The revision of Mungo Man’s age has refocused attention on academic disputes about mankind’s origins.

Test 187 Forty thousand years ago, families took refuge at the lake from the encroaching desert, leaving artefacts such as stone tools.