1、Reading2 Scanning for a specific detail and skimming for general understandingReading 2 Scanning for a specific detail and skimming for general understandingScanningwily, Wired ConsumersThe Internet has empowered shoppers both online and offline.A The amount of time people spend researching, checkin
2、g prices, visiting stores and seeking advice from friends tends to rise in proportion to the value of the product they are thinking of buying. A new car is one of the biggest purchases people make, and buyers typically spend four to six weeks mulling over their choices. So why are some people now wa
3、lking into car showrooms and ordering a vehicle without even asking for a test drive? Or turning up at an electrical store and pointing out the washing machine they want without seeking advice from a sales assistant? Welcome to a new style of shopping shaped by the internet.B More people are buying
4、products online, especially at peak buying periods. The total value of e-commerce transactions in the United States in the fourth quarter of 2004 reached $18 billon, a 22% increase over the same period in 2003, according to the Department of Commerce in Washington DC. But that just represents 2% of
5、Americas total retail market and excludes services, such as online travel, the value of goods auctioned on the Internet, and the $34 billion-worth of goods that individuals trade on eBay.C If you consider the Internets wider influence over what people spend their money on, then the figures escalate
6、out of sight. Some carmakers in America now find that eight out of ten of their buyers have logged on to the Internet to gather information about not just the exact vehicle they want, but also the price they are going to pay. Similarly with consumer electronics, nowadays if a customer wants to know
7、which flat-screen TV they should buy, they are likely to start their shopping online even though the vast majority will not complete the transaction there.D The Internet is moving the world closer to perfect product and price information. The additional knowledge it can provide makes consumers more
8、self-assured and bold enough to go into a car dealership and refuse to bargain. As a result, the process of shopping is increasingly being divorced from the transaction itself. Consumers might surf the web at night and hit the shops during the day. Visiting bricks-and-mortar stores can provide the f
9、inal confirmation that the item or group of items that they are interested in is right for them.E Far from losing trade to online merchants stores that offer the sorts of goods people find out about online can gain from this new form of consumer behaviour. This is provided they offer attractive faci
10、lities, good guarantees and low prices.F Merchants who charge too much and offer poor service, however, should beware. The same,too, for shaky manufacturers: smarter consumers know which products have a good reputation and which do not, because online they now read not only the sales blurb but also
11、reviews from previous purchasers. And if customers are disappointed, a few clicks of the mouse will take them to places Reading2 Scanning for a specific detail and skimming for general understandingwhere they can let the world know.G Some companies are already adjusting their business models to take
12、 account of these trends. The stores run by Sony and Apple, for instance, are more like brand showrooms than shops. They are there for people to try out devices and to ask questions of knowledge staff. Whether the products are ultimately bought online or offline is of secondary importance. Online tr
13、aders must also adjust. Amazon, for one, is rapidly turning from being primarily a bookseller to becoming a mass retailer, by letting other companies sell products on its site, rather like a marketplace. Other transformations in the retail business are bound to follow. 1 Scan the Reading passage for
14、 the following details.(2min)1 a large amount of money 4 two brand-name stores2 a US government department 5 an Internet trading company3 a percentageSkimming read the title and subheading of the article on the next page and predict the content;skim the passage and say what it is about. IELTS Readin
15、g test practice Short-answer questions5 Take ten minutes to answer questions 1-6.Sifting through the Sands of timeWhen youre on the beach, youre stepping on ancient mountains, skeletons of marine animals, even tiny diamonds. Sand provides a mineral treature trove, a record of geologys earth-changing
16、 processes.Sand: as children we play on it and as adults we relax on it. It is something we complain about when it gets in our food, and praise when its moulded into castles. But we dont often look at it. If we did, we would discover an account of a geological past and a history of marine life that
17、goes back thousands and in some cases millions of years.Sand covers not just seashores, but also ocean beds, deserts and mountains. It is one of the most common substances on earth. And it is a major element in man-made items too concrete is largely sand,while glass is made of little else.What exact
18、ly is sand? Well, it is larger than fine dust and smaller than shingle. In fact, according to the most generally accepted scheme of measurement, devised by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, grains qualify if their diameter is greater than 0.06 of a millimeter and less than 0.6 of a millimet
19、er.Depending on its age and origin, a particular sand can consist of tiny pebbles or porous granules. Its grain may have the shape of stars or spirals, their edges jagged or smooth. They have come from the erosion of rocks, or from the skeletons of marine organisms which accumulate on the bottom of
20、the oceans, or even from volcanic eruptions.Reading2 Scanning for a specific detail and skimming for general understandingColour is another clue to sands origins. If it is a dazzling white, its grains may have the shape of stars or spirals, their edges jagged or smooth. They have come from the erosi
21、on of rocks, or from the skeletons of marine organisms which accumulate on the bottom of the oceans, or even from volcanic eruptions. Colour is another clue to sands origins. If it is a dazzling white, its grains may be derived from nearby coral outcrops, from crystalline quartz rocks or from gypsum
22、, like the white sands of New Mexico. On Pacific islands jet black sands form from volcanic minerals. Other black beaches are magnetic. Some sand is very recent indeed, as is the case on the island of Kamoamoa in Hawaii, where a beach was created after a volcanic eruption in 1990. molten lava spille
23、d into the sea and exploded in glassy droplets.Usually, the older the granules, the finer they are and the smoother the edges. The fine, white beaches of northern Scotland, for instance, are recycled from sandstone several hundred million years old. Perhaps they will be stone once more, in another f
24、ew hundred million.Sand is an irreplaceable industrial ingredient whose uses are legion: but it has one vital function you might never even notice. Sand cushions our land from the seas impact, and geologists say it often does a better job of protecting our shores than the most advanced coastal techn
25、ology.Answer the questions below.Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.1 What TWO materials made by humans are mentioned in the passage?2 Which part of a grain of sand have scientists measured?3 What TWO factors determine the size and shape of a piece of sand?4 Which event
26、 produced the beach on Kamoamoa island?5 Where, according to the passage, can beaches made of very ancient sand be found?6 Who claims that sand can have a more efficient function than coastal technology?Vocabulary builder7 Take five minutes to find out what the passage starting with the follow passa
27、ge is about.8 Scan effects on Salmon Biodiversity for words 1-9 and then match them to definitions A-I.Words Definitions 1 endangered 2 migrations 3 mature4 breeding5 hydropower6 survival7 disorient8 modify 9 habitatA electricity produced from fast-flowing waterB confuse someone or something about w
28、here it is goingC change the shape or appearance of something slightlyD at risk of being harmed or destroyedE continued existence of a speciesF become adultG natural area in which an animal livesReading2 Scanning for a specific detail and skimming for general understandingH mass movement of a specie
29、sI producing youngEffects on Salmon BiodiversityThe number of Pacific salmon has declined dramatically but the loss of genetic diversity may be a bigger problem.Each year, countless salmon migrate from the rivers and streams along the western coasts of Canada and the US to the Pacific Ocean, while a
30、t the same time others leave the ocean and return to freshwater to spawn a new generation. This ritual has been going on for many millennia. But more than a century ago, the number of salmon returning from the sea began to fall dramatically in the Pacific Northwest. The decline accelerated in the 19
31、70s and by the 1990s the US Endangered Species Act listed 26 kinds of salmon as endangered.In North America, there are five species of Pacific salmon: pink salmon, chum, sockeye, coho and Chinook. Most of these fish migrate to the sea and then return to freshwater to reproduce. They are also semelpa
32、rous they die after spawning once. The life cycle of a typical salmon begins with females depositing eggs in nests, or redds, on the gravel bottoms of rivers and lakes. There must be large quantities of gravel for this process to be successful. The young emerge from here and live in freshwater for p
33、eriods ranging from a few days to several years. Then the juveniles undergo a physiological metamorphosis, called smoltification, and head towards the ocean. Once in the sea, the salmon often undertake extensive migrations of thousands of miles while the mature. After anywhere from a few months to a
34、 few years, adult salmon return with high fidelity to the river where they were born. There they spawn and cycle begins again.Stream-type Chinook spend one or more years in freshwater before heading to sea; they also undertake extensive offshore voyages and return to their natal streams during the s
35、pring or summer, often holding in freshwater for several months before spawning. In contrast, ocean-type Chinook move out very early in life, before they reach one year of age. But once these salmon reach open water, they do not travel far offshore. They usually spend their entire natal streams imme
36、diately before spawning.Because salmon typically return to reproduce in the river where they were spawned, individual streams are home to local breeding populations that can have a unique genetic signature and the state of the oceans influences this. Also, salmon react in complex ways to human-induc
37、ed changes to their environment.The extensive development of hydropower on the major rivers of the western US has clearly disrupted populations of salmon. Other problems come from the very engineering fixes made to protect these fish from harm. Dams on some rivers are equipped with submersible scree
38、ns designed to divert migrating juveniles away from turbines. Unfortunately, these measures do not benefit all fish. These screens steer as many as 95 percent of the stream-type Chinook around the turbines, but because of idiosyncrasies in behaviour these measures redirect as few as 15 percent of oc
39、ean-type Chinook. One thus expects to see genetic shifts in favour of the stream types.Fish ladders too have drawbacks. Although these devices have helped to bring survival rates for mature fish closer to historic levels, dams have certainly altered their upstream journey. Rather than swimming again
40、st a flowing river, adults now pass through a series of reservoirs punctuated by dams, where discharge from the turbine can disorient the fish and make it hard for them to find ladders. Such impediments do not kill the fish, but they affect migration rates.Dams may also modify salmon habitat in more
41、 subtle ways. An indirect effect of the 92-metre Reading2 Scanning for a specific detail and skimming for general understandingBrownlee Dam on the Snake River provides a dramatic example. Historically, the upper Snake River produced some 25,000 to 30,000chincook salmon that spawned during the early
42、fall. The completion of the dam in the late 1950s not only rendered the vast majority of their habitat inaccessible, but also led to more extreme water temperatures downstream from the dam. These changes, in turn, altered the life cycle of the small population of Snake River Chinook that remained. T
43、oday young Chinook emerge from the gravel later than they did before the dam was built, and thus they migrate downstream later, when temperatures are higher and water levels lower.Following referencing9 Scan the text for the following reference words or phrases and then say what they refer to.this r
44、itual (Para.1) these measures (Para.5)the decline (para.1) these devices (Para.6)there they spawn (Para.2) such impediments (Para.6)influences this (Para.4) these changes (Para.7)other problems (Para.5)IELTS Reading test practice completing a flowchart/diagram/table10 Answer questions 1-5 and comple
45、te the flowchart.(8min)Complete the flowchart below.Choose NO MORE THAN ONE MORD from the passage for each answer.Life cycle of salmon Females lay eggs in 1 _ on floor of river/ lake, where there must be plenty 2 _.Reading2 Scanning for a specific detail and skimming for general understandingYoung s
46、almon occupy 3_ for up to several yearsProcess known as 4_Migration to oceansReturn to 5_of birth11 Answer questions 6-12 and complete the table.(10min)Complete the table below.Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.Effects of engineering projects on salmonEngineering object
47、Purpose Impact Outcomesubmersible screens Keep young migrating salmon clear of 6_mainly protect 7_ Chinook.one species will become more numbers8_ to assist journey fish cant locate them because of turbine dischargeNegative impact on 9 _Brownlee Dam fish cant get to normal 10_ very great changes in 11_12_ of Snake River Chinook changed
