IELTS Reading Academic Test Pattern 23A Remarkable Beetle
IELTS Reading Academic Test Sample 23 | Passing the Academic Test is very essential to prepare for the top bands in the IELTS reading exams. Never take it as the highest band you can achieve in the IELTS reading test as if we are comparing it with other Ielts exam modules such as IELTS Speaking, IELTS Listening, and IELTS Writing. Here what is the basic necessary condition is to have a strong vocabulary and a strong knowledge of sentence structure, this is sure that you can get 9 bands in Ielts reading and it would affect your overall IELTS exam result.
Some of the most notable bugs are dung beetles, which spend almost their entire lives eating and reproducing in dung.
More than 4,000 species of these remarkable creatures have evolved and adapted to the different climatic conditions of the world and the droppings of many animals. The native Australian dung beetles are scrub and woodland dwellers specializing in coarse marsupial dung and avoiding the soft cattle dung in which bush flies and buffalo flies breed.
IELTS Reading Academic Test Sample 23 A Remarkable Beetle
In the early 1960s, George Bornemissza, then a scientist at the Australian government’s leading research organization, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), suggested that dung beetles should be introduced to Australia to control breeding flies in the feces. Between 1968 and 1982, CSIRO imported insects from about 50 different dung beetle species from Asia, Europe, and Africa to adapt them to different climate zones in Australia. Of the 26 species known to have successfully integrated into the local environment, only one, an African species released in northern Australia, has reached its natural range.
Putting dung beetles on pasture is a simple process: approximately 1,500 beetles are released; a handful at a time into fresh cow pats 2 in the pasture. The beetles immediately disappear under digging and tunneling, and if they successfully adapt to their new environment, they soon become a permanent, self-sustaining part of the local ecology. Over time, they multiply and the benefits for grazing are obvious within three to four years.
Also Read:-
IELTS WRITING TASK 1 CHART VOCABULARY WORDS
IELTS Reading Academic Test Sample 23 A Remarkable Beetle
Dung beetles work from the inside of the heel so they are protected from predators such as birds and foxes. Most species burrow into the soil and bury their droppings in tunnels directly under the patches that are excavated from the inside. Some large species native to France dig tunnels approximately 30 cm below the droppings. These beetles create sausage-shaped brood chambers along the tunnels. The shallowest tunnels belong to the much smaller Spanish species, which buries its droppings in chambers that hang like fruit from the branches of a pear tree. South African beetles dig narrow tunnels approximately 20 cm below the surface of the pats. Some surface-dwelling beetles, including a South African species, carve perfectly shaped balls from the foot that roll off and attach to the bases of plants.
Farmers require different species with overlapping periods of activity for maximum dung burial in spring, summer, and autumn. In the cooler climate of Victoria, the large French species (2.5 cm long) is a match for the smaller (half-size) temperate Spanish species. The former slowly recover from the winter cold and produce only one or two generations of offspring from late spring to fall. A rapid breeder in early spring produces two to five generations per year. As a subtropical beetle, the South African ball-rolling species prefers the climate of northern and coastal New South Wales, where it commonly works with South African tunneller species. In warmer climates, many species are active for longer periods of the year.
IELTS Reading Academic Test Sample 23 A Remarkable Beetle
Dung beetles were originally introduced in the late 1960s to control buffalo flies by removing dung within a day or two, thus preventing the flies from breeding. However, there were other benefits as well. Once the beetle larvae have pupated, the residue is a prime source of fertilizer. The tunnels left by the beetles provide excellent aeration and water channels for the root systems. Additionally, when a new generation of beetles leaves the nest, the abandoned burrows are an attractive environment for soil-enriching earthworms. The digested dung in these burrows is an excellent food for earthworms, which further decompose it and provide essential nutrients to the soil. Without a manure spreader, chemical fertilizer and manure would be washed by rain into streams and rivers before being absorbed into the hard ground, polluting waterways and causing blue-green algae blooms. Without the beetles to dispose of the dung, cow patting would litter the pastures, making the grass inedible for the cattle and depriving the soil of sunlight. Each of Australia’s 30 million head of cattle produces 10-12 cowpats a day. That’s 1.7 billion tonnes a year, enough to suffocate about 110,000 square kilometers of grassland, half the area of Victoria.
Dung beetles have become an integral part of successful dairy farm management in Australia in recent decades. Several species are available from CSIRO or through a small number of private breeders, most of whom were entomologists from the CSIRO Manure Unit who took their specialist knowledge of insects and opened small businesses in direct competition with their former employer.
Glossary
- dung: – dung or excrement of animals
- patting cows:- cow dung
Questions 1-5
Do the following statements reflect the writer’s claims in Reading Passage 6? In boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet, write:
NOT GIVEN if you can’t tell what the author thinks about it
1 Bush flies are easier to control than buffalo flies.
2 The CSIRO originally brought four thousand species of dung beetles to Australia.
3 Fertilizers were brought to Australia by the CSIRO over fourteen years.
4 At least twenty-six introduced species have become established in Australia.
5 Dung beetles cause an immediate improvement in cow pasture quality.
Questions 6-8
Label the tunnels in the image below. Select labels from the box below the drawing. Write your answers in boxes 6-8 on the answer sheet.
Write your answers in boxes 6-8 on the answer sheet.
Questions 9-13
Fill in the table below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS OR A NUMBER from Reading Passage 6 for each answer.
Also Read:-
IELTS ACADEMIC READING TEST 18
IELTS Reading Academic Test Sample 23 A Remarkable Beetle
[…] IELTS Reading Academic Test Pattern 23A Remarkable Beetle […]