IELTS 2021
Reading Practice Test 3
page 1
,Reading Passage 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-14 which are based on this passage.
Wolves, dogs and humans
There is no doubt that dogs are the oldest of all species tamed by humans and their
domestication was based on a mutually beneficial relationship with man. The conventional view
is that the domestication of wolves began between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago. However, a
recent ground-breaking paper by a group of international geneticists has pushed this date back
by a factor of 10. Led by Dr. Robert Wayne, at the University of California, Los Angeles, the
team showed that all dog breeds had only one ancestor, the wolf. They did this by analysing
the genetic history through the DINA of 162 wolves from around the world and 140 domestic
dogs representing 67 breeds. The research also confirms, for the first time, that dogs are
descended only from wolves and do not share DNA with coyotes or jackals. The fact that our
companionship with dogs now appears to go back at least 100,000 years means that this
partnership may have played an important part in the development of human hunting
techniques that developed 70,000 to 90,000 years ago. It also may even have affected the
brain development in both species.
The Australian veterinarian David Paxton suggests that in that period of first contact, people
did not so much domesticate wolves as wolves domesticated people. Wolves may have started
living at the edge of human settlements as scavengers, eating scraps of food and waste. Some
learned to live with human beings in a mutually helpful way and gradually evolved into dogs. At
the very least, they would have protected human settlements, and given warnings by barking
at anything approaching. The wolves that evolved into dogs have been enormously successful
in evolutionary terms. They are found everywhere in the inhabited world, hundreds of millions
of them. The descendants of the wolves that remained wolves are now sparsely distributed,
often in endangered populations.
In return for companionship and food, the early ancestor of the dog assisted humans in
tracking, hunting, guarding and a variety of other activities. Eventually humans began to
selectively breed these animals for specific traits. Physical characteristics changed and
individual breeds began to take shape. As humans wandered across Asia and Europe, they took
their dogs along, using them for additional tasks and further breeding them for selected
qualities that would better enable them to perform specific duties.
page 2
, According to Dr. Colin Groves, of the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at
Australian National University, early humans came to rely on dogs’ keen ability to hear, smell
and see - allowing certain areas of the human brain to shrink in size relative to oilier areas.
‘Dogs acted as human's alarm systems, trackers and hunting aids, garbage disposal facilities,
hot-water bottles and children's guardians and playmates. Humans provided dogs with food
and security. This symbiotic relationship was stable for over 100,000 years and intensified into
mutual domestication,’ said Dr. Groves. In his opinion, humans domesticated dogs and dogs
domesticated humans.
Dr. Groves repealed an assertion made as early as 1914 that humans have some of the same
physical characteristics as domesticated animals, the most notable being decreased brain size.
The horse experienced a 16 percent reduction in brain size after domestication while pigs’
brains shrank by as much as 34 percent. The estimated brain-size reduction in domesticated
dogs varies from 30 percent to 10 percent. Only in the last decade have archaeologists
uncovered enough fossil evidence to establish that brain capacity in humans declined in Europe
and Africa by at least 10 percent beginning about 10,000 years ago. Dr. Groves believes this
reduction may have taken place as the relationship between humans and dogs intensified. The
close interaction between the two species allowed for the diminishing of certain human brain
functions like smell and hearing.
Questions 1-5
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer of the passage?
Write:
YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
1 The co-existence of wolves and humans began 10,000 years
ago.
2 Dogs, wolves, jackals and coyotes share a common ancestor.
3 Wolves are a protected species in most parts of the world.
4 Dogs evolved from wolves which chose to live with humans.
5 Dogs probably influenced the development of human hunting
skills.
Questions 6-8
page 3
Reading Practice Test 3
page 1
,Reading Passage 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-14 which are based on this passage.
Wolves, dogs and humans
There is no doubt that dogs are the oldest of all species tamed by humans and their
domestication was based on a mutually beneficial relationship with man. The conventional view
is that the domestication of wolves began between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago. However, a
recent ground-breaking paper by a group of international geneticists has pushed this date back
by a factor of 10. Led by Dr. Robert Wayne, at the University of California, Los Angeles, the
team showed that all dog breeds had only one ancestor, the wolf. They did this by analysing
the genetic history through the DINA of 162 wolves from around the world and 140 domestic
dogs representing 67 breeds. The research also confirms, for the first time, that dogs are
descended only from wolves and do not share DNA with coyotes or jackals. The fact that our
companionship with dogs now appears to go back at least 100,000 years means that this
partnership may have played an important part in the development of human hunting
techniques that developed 70,000 to 90,000 years ago. It also may even have affected the
brain development in both species.
The Australian veterinarian David Paxton suggests that in that period of first contact, people
did not so much domesticate wolves as wolves domesticated people. Wolves may have started
living at the edge of human settlements as scavengers, eating scraps of food and waste. Some
learned to live with human beings in a mutually helpful way and gradually evolved into dogs. At
the very least, they would have protected human settlements, and given warnings by barking
at anything approaching. The wolves that evolved into dogs have been enormously successful
in evolutionary terms. They are found everywhere in the inhabited world, hundreds of millions
of them. The descendants of the wolves that remained wolves are now sparsely distributed,
often in endangered populations.
In return for companionship and food, the early ancestor of the dog assisted humans in
tracking, hunting, guarding and a variety of other activities. Eventually humans began to
selectively breed these animals for specific traits. Physical characteristics changed and
individual breeds began to take shape. As humans wandered across Asia and Europe, they took
their dogs along, using them for additional tasks and further breeding them for selected
qualities that would better enable them to perform specific duties.
page 2
, According to Dr. Colin Groves, of the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at
Australian National University, early humans came to rely on dogs’ keen ability to hear, smell
and see - allowing certain areas of the human brain to shrink in size relative to oilier areas.
‘Dogs acted as human's alarm systems, trackers and hunting aids, garbage disposal facilities,
hot-water bottles and children's guardians and playmates. Humans provided dogs with food
and security. This symbiotic relationship was stable for over 100,000 years and intensified into
mutual domestication,’ said Dr. Groves. In his opinion, humans domesticated dogs and dogs
domesticated humans.
Dr. Groves repealed an assertion made as early as 1914 that humans have some of the same
physical characteristics as domesticated animals, the most notable being decreased brain size.
The horse experienced a 16 percent reduction in brain size after domestication while pigs’
brains shrank by as much as 34 percent. The estimated brain-size reduction in domesticated
dogs varies from 30 percent to 10 percent. Only in the last decade have archaeologists
uncovered enough fossil evidence to establish that brain capacity in humans declined in Europe
and Africa by at least 10 percent beginning about 10,000 years ago. Dr. Groves believes this
reduction may have taken place as the relationship between humans and dogs intensified. The
close interaction between the two species allowed for the diminishing of certain human brain
functions like smell and hearing.
Questions 1-5
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer of the passage?
Write:
YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
1 The co-existence of wolves and humans began 10,000 years
ago.
2 Dogs, wolves, jackals and coyotes share a common ancestor.
3 Wolves are a protected species in most parts of the world.
4 Dogs evolved from wolves which chose to live with humans.
5 Dogs probably influenced the development of human hunting
skills.
Questions 6-8
page 3
