IELTS Forcast Reading Test 2025 - Q3 Test 2 with Practice Test, Answers And Explanation

Luyện tập đề IELTS Forcast Reading Test 2025 - Q3 Test 2 được lấy từ cuốn sách Forcast Test 2025 - Q3 với trải nghiệm thi IELTS trên máy và giải thích đáp án chi tiết bằng Linearthinking, kèm answer key và list từ vựng IELTS cần học trong bài đọc.

Làm Bài Xem giải thích

IELTS Forcast Reading Test 2025 - Q3 Test 2 with Practice Test, Answers And Explanation

Passage

📖 Bài đọc passage 1

The introduction of gas and electricity to the US
Until the late 1700s, illumination in US households was limited to candles and whale oil lamps, but both were inefficient - it would take a hundred candles to create as much light as a single modem lightbulb - and so expensive as to be beyond the means of most households. For the middle classes, illumination improved dramatically with the invention, in 1783, of the Argand lamp (named after its Swiss creator), which had greater intensity and less flicker. The next step forward was the invention of the oil-based fuel kerosene in 1858, and of petroleum a year later.

But the big transformation came with gas. Initially, gas was used to light streets - Baltimore had gas lamps as early as 1816, before Paris or Berlin - but the dirt, odours and volatility of gas meant it could not be relied on for domestic purposes until the late 1860s. Once some attempt to deal with these problems had been made, gas swept the nation. Each gas outlet provided as much light as a dozen candles. By 1895, the average middle-class home was twenty times better lit than it had been at mid-century. But, even cleaned up and made more stable, gas remained dirty and dangerous. It emitted unpleasant, potentially lethal fumes that required special vents to clear the air. Even then, the carbonic acid and smoke that the lamps produced were harmful to books, curtains, wallpaper and soft furniture, as well as the eyes, lungs and clothes of the inhabitants.

In 1882, domestic electricity at last became a possibility when Thomas Edison's company started providing electricity on a commercial basis. By mid-decade, 200 ofNew York City's grandest households were enjoying the illumination from lightbulbs manufactured by the company. Only the very wealthiest could afford such an indulgence. It was unsurprising, therefore, that household electricity was not an immediate hit with everyone.

Outdoors, however, it was another matter. Almost overnight, the US became the most illuminated country in the world. By the 1890s, Broadway in New York was already being described as 'the Great White Way' because of its dazzling theatre lights and advertising signs. People came from all over just to see the lights, which included the world's first flashing sign, for Manhattan Beach and its hotels. In 1910, Broadway got a sign that was a wonder of electrical engineering. Rising the equivalent of seven storeys above the rooftop of the Hotel Normandie and incorporating 20,000 coloured lightbulbs, it offered in intricate detail the illusion of a 30-second chariot race, complete with cracking whips and flying dust. People were so amazed by it that police had to be assigned to the area to keep pedestrians and traffic moving.

By 1896, electricity had become such an accepted part of life that people began referring to it as 'juice'. By 1930, 70 per cent of US households, some 20 million homes, were electrified-up from ten per cent in 1910, and more than the rest of the world combined at that point in time. The proportion would have been higher still except that rural electrification took so long to complete; even by 1946, as little as half of US farms had electricity.

As electricity became more widely available, electrical products began to come onto the market, starting with the electric sewing machine in 1889. The electric iron appeared in 1893, the electric vacuum cleaner in 1901, the electric washing machine in 1909, and the electric dishwasher in 1918. By 1917, the US householder could choose between 50 types of electrical appliances - and eagerly did so. In that year, people spent $175 million on them. Within a little over a decade, that figure would rise to no less than $2.4 billion a year.

The new and fast-changing market for electrical appliances often gave small companies a chance to thrive. After a major manufacturing rival turned down the idea of a washing machine which ran automatically, a small outfit named Bendix, which had no experience of manufacturing household appliances, took up the idea in 1937 and within a decade had become one of the US's biggest manufacturers of appliances. Much the same happened with a small company called Frigidaire, founded in 1918, which saw an opening for a refrigerator designed for the home and so successfully seized the opportunity that the name almost became generic, although it took until 1927 for General Electric to produce the first million-selling model. However, no product was more successful in this period than the radio. In just three years, beginning in 1922, over four million were sold, at a typical cost of $55. By 1926, there was a radio in five per cent of homes, and by the end of that decade, with almost every household owning at least one, market saturation was practically complete.

❓ Câu hỏi passage 1

In the late 1700s, the majority of families used candles and whale oil lamps regularly.

The light created by the Argand lamp was superior to that of a candle.

Gas was unsuitable for use in homes when it was first developed as a source of light.

By 1895, a number of different companies competed to provide domestic gas.

Gas lighting was found to damage the contents of the home.

The electric lightbulbs manufactured by Edison's company in the 1880s broke very easily.

Year
Some key events in US electrification
7
electricity was supplied to homeowners for the first time.
1889–1918
The sewing machine was the first electrical appliance to appear in this period, while the 8
  was the last.
9
10% of US households had an electricity supply.
10
Consumer spending on electrical appliances totalled $175m.
1927
General Electric produced a million-selling model of a domestic 11
1930–1946
Although 70% of all households had electricity by 1930, only 50% of 12
 were electrified by the end of this period.
1930
There was a 13
 in nearly every home.

Year	Some key events in US electrification
7	electricity was supplied to homeowners for the first time.
1889–1918	The sewing machine was the first electrical appliance to appear in this period, while the 8 was the last.
9	10% of US households had an electricity supply.
10	Consumer spending on electrical appliances totalled $175m.
1927	General Electric produced a million-selling model of a domestic 11
1930–1946	Although 70% of all households had electricity by 1930, only 50% of 12 were electrified by the end of this period.
1930	There was a 13 in nearly every home.

🔥 Đáp án & giải thích 1

Not Given

Giải thích chi tiết

☺️ Ứng dụng Linearthinking để giải quyết dạng bài Yes / No / Not Given

Step 01: Read the question to understand (main idea + detail)

Simplified: The majority of families used candles & whale oil lamps regularly in the late 1700s

-------

Step 02: Locate relevant information

🔍 Từ khóa: “late 1700s”, “candles”, “whale oil lamps”, “households”

-> Dựa vào các từ khoá trên, có thể tìm được trích dẫn ở đoạn 1.

-------

Step 03: Read relevant information to understand (main + detail)

📌 Trích dẫn: “Until the late 1700s, illumination in US households was limited to candles and whale oil lamps, but both were inefficient … and so expensive as to be beyond the means of most households.” (Đoạn 1)

Simplified: Until the late 1700s , illumination was limited to candles & whale oil lamps

Candles & lamps were so expensive as to be beyond the means of most households

-------

Step 04: Compare meaning with meaning

Trong bài đọc: Muốn chiếu sáng thì phải dùng nến và đèn dầu cá voi, nhưng chúng quá tốn kém & vượt ngoài khả năng của hầu hết gia đình. Bài không nói rõ liệu đa số gia đình có phải dùng chúng “regularly” hay không.

Trong câu hỏi: Đa số gia đình thường xuyên dùng nến và đèn dầu cá voi.

⇒ ✅ Chọn: NOT GIVEN

-------

Lưu ý chung:

Nếu là Yes: Bài phải khẳng định phần lớn gia đình thực sự dùng chúng thường xuyên.
Nếu là No: Bài phải khẳng định phần lớn gia đình KHÔNG dùng chúng.

Xem full giải thích

Passage

📖 Bài đọc passage 2

Will Eating Less Make You Live Longer?
The latest in a conflicting series of studies suggests calorie restriction could potentially slow ageing in humans.
A
A. Calorie restriction, or 'semi-starvation' as some refer to it, has been proven to extend lifespan in many living organisms from yeast to mice, but the picture for primates, including humans, is not so clear. Research published by a team at the University of Wisconsin in the United States shows that rhesus monkeys also live longer on a calorie-restricted diet. But those findings disagree with research by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) in Maryland, also in the United States. Rozalyn Anderson, of the Wisconsin team, says the research is not intended as a recommendation of calorie restriction. 'I find the idea monumentally unattractive!' she says. 'We study it because it is so effective at delaying ageing and the onset of age-related disease. It's a way to tease out what it is that creates increased disease vulnerability as a function of age’.
B
Both groups started long-term trials on rhesus monkeys in the late 1980s to determine whether calorie restriction would extend the lifespan of primates. In mice many experiments had come to the same finding: feed them a diet with 30% fewer calories and see a lifespan extension of 40%. The monkey trials were set up a similar way: researchers took the calorie content of a standard monkey diet, cut it by 30% (while continuing to supply all essential nutrients) and monitored whether those monkeys lived longer, healthier lives than those on the standard diet.
C
In 2009, with the monkeys approaching old age, preliminary findings of the two trials started coming in. For the Wisconsin monkeys, calorie restriction seemed to be working. Compared to well-fed control animals, the lean monkeys were living longer and suffering less from the diseases of ageing: diabetes, heart disease and brain diseases. However, in2012 the NIA results emerged with a dramatically different conclusion: their monkeys were not living any longer than the controls, although they were healthier.
D
The Wisconsin group's latest results confirm that their calorie-restricted monkeys are living longer than the controls. They also offer a possible explanation of why the two groups' findings don't agree and that lies in the treatment of the control group. The Wisconsin study began with monkeys in early adulthood. Initially, all the monkeys were allowed to eat as much as they liked. A few months into the trial, the monkeys were placed into one of two groups: the controls (who continued to be fed as much as they wished) and the calorie-restricted monkeys (who were give an idividualized of 30% less than they were previously eating).
E
The NIA study differed in two ways. First, the control group of monkeys were not allowed to eat as much as they wished. They were given a diet considered to represent a normal calorie count, while the calorie-restricted monkeys were fed 30% less than that. Second, whereas the Wisconsin monkeys were given highly processed food high in sucrose, making it easy to standardise, the NIA diet was based on whole grains, fish oils, and was very low in sugar. These different settings for the normal control diet may provide an explanation of why the two groups showed different results.
F
The Wisconsin group may in effect have studied the effects of 'overeating'. Their control animals weighed up to 10% more than average for their age and gender.Compared to them, the calorie-restricted animals not only suffered fewer diseases, they lived longer. Julie Mattison, head of the NIA study observes that an overweight person who goes to a fast food restaurant every day will obviously benefit if their calories are cut back by 30%.
G
The NIA study fed their control monkeys what they considered a 'standard' caloric intake and saw that longevity for monkeys that were fed 30% less was the same. But in Anderson's view, the NIA control monkeys were not fed enough; the NIA was calorie restricting both groups of animals. Their older female control monkeys, for example, weighed nearly 20% less than the national average. Indeed Anderson points out that several of the NIA control monkeys have lived past the age of 40, far exceeding the 27-year average lifespan for captive rhesus monkeys. 'That's the maximum lifespan ever detected for the species, so the idea that their intervention is doing nothing is really at odds with the data,' says Anderson.
H
However, neither group had the right notion of a standard diet according to Leonie Heilbronn, who researches calorie restriction and healthy ageing at the University of Adelaide in Australia. Heilbronn points out that the NIA controls were a very healthy set of monkeys and leaner than a control monkey should be. On the other hand, she notes, the Wisconsin controls were a little bigger than they had to be. On balance, Heilbronn agrees with the Wisconsin researcher's argument. I think these studies suggest calorie restriction definitely will increase lifespan,' she says.
I
Both studies agree that cutting calories is beneficial to health - in both cases the calorie-restricted monkeys had fewer diseases related to ageing. As to the question of whether calorie restriction extends lifespan in primates, Anderson and Mattison are currently working together to compare the two studies' raw data. They plan to co- publish a joint analysis. The current data conflict will ultimately provide deeper insights into ageing, Anderson predicts. 'The fact the two studies were set up differently, asking the same question in different ways - I think we will gain maximally from that.'

❓ Câu hỏi passage 2

A reference to studies based on the same level of calorie reduction with different animals.

A comment that some control monkeys in one study reached a higher age than normal for animals of their kind.

Distinctions between the types of food in each study that may have led to a contrast in findings.

Examples of health problems which monkeys on calorie-restricted diets were less likely to get.

A researcher’s negative opinion of a calorie-restricted diet.

A reference to the stage in the monkeys’ lives at which research commenced in one study.

List of Findings

Rozalyn Anderson

Julie Mattison

Leonie Heilbronn

It is good that the two studies took dissimilar approaches.

Neither study used diets that are typical for monkeys.

Calorie restriction is a method of finding out about health issues connected with ageing.

Calorie reduction will have a positive effect on people who have unhealthy diets.

Agreement between the two studies on calorie restriction in rhesus monkeys

The two studies were in agreement that it is beneficial to cut calories, in terms of health. Monkeys whose calories were restricted suffered fewer diseases that are associated with the ﻿ process. Anderson and Mattison have undertaken research to determine if a calorie-restricted diet increases primates' ﻿. Although there is a ﻿ between the two sets of data, Anderson believes they will help researchers reach a better understanding.

🔥 Đáp án & giải thích 2

Giải thích chi tiết

☺️ Ứng dụng Linearthinking để giải quyết dạng bài Matching Information

📌 Dạng Matching Information chúng ta nên làm cuối cùng, sau khi đã làm các dạng câu hỏi khác nhé DOLBIES, bởi vì lúc này mình đã đọc và hiểu nội dung của bài rồi, cộng thêm nghệ thuật Specify của Linearthinking → sẽ nhanh chóng tìm được vị trí đáp án hơn!!

-------

Step 01: Read the question to predict

Hiểu câu hỏi: Studies based on the same level of calorie reduction with different animals
Specify & Predict: Đoạn văn sẽ đưa thông tin chi tiết hơn về mức giảm calo cụ thể (ví dụ 20%, 30%, ... ) và ít nhất hai loài khác nhau (ví dụ chuột và khỉ) được đem ra so sánh trong nghiên cứu.

-------

Step 02: Khoanh vùng đoạn văn

🔍 Từ khóa: “reference", "studies", "same level", "calorie reduction", "different animals"

-> Dựa vào các từ khoá trên, có thể khoanh vùng được đoạn B vì có xuất hiện các cụm như: "mice" (chuột) và "monkey" (khỉ) -> đại diện cho different animals. Cả hai nghiên cứu này đều dùng chung một mức độ là "30% fewer calories" (chuột) và "cut it by 30%" (khỉ) -> ứng với "the same level of calorie reduction".

✅ Chọn PARAGRAPH B.

Xem full giải thích

Passage

📖 Bài đọc passage 3

Marine mammals exhibit their ingenuity
Dolphins use 'tools' to help hunt for food
Dolphins use 'tools' to help hunt for food

In the deep, clear channels of Australia's Shark Bay, bottlenose dolphins have discovered tools, raising questions about the origins of intelligent behavior, the nature of learning. and the birth of technology. There, dolphins in one extended family routinely use sponges, to protect their noses as they forage for fish hidden in the abrasive seafloor sand, according to Georgetown University scientists.

As far as the researchers can tell, a single dolphin may have invented the technique relatively recently and taught it to her offspring. The simple innovation dramatically changed their behavior, hunting habits and social life, the researchers found. Those who adopted it became loners who spend much more time hunting than others, and dive more deeply in search of prey. The sponging dolphins teach the technique to all their young, but only the females seem to grasp the idea. 'It is indisputably tool use,' says primate anthropologist Craig Stanford at the University of Southern California, an authority on animal cognition and behavior. For those seeking a glimpse of our own beginnings, the dolphins of Shark Bay offer a hint of the inventive impulse that occurred when our earliest ancestors first shaped destiny by fashioning implements with their hands.

Tool use of any sort among wild animals is rare, difficult to document reliably, and controversial. The line between instinct, Ingenuity and intelligence is easily blurred by wishful thinking, experts caution. Field observations often give rise to scholarly disputes. Even so, IO primate species of monkeys and apes, along with 30 species of birds, are thought to use sticks, rocks or leaves as tools.

In the first in-depth analysis of this natural dolphin behavior, marine biologist and psychologist Dr Janet Mann at Georgetown University and her colleagues found that the dolphins of Shark Bay use their makeshift hunting masks more often than any other species uses tools, except human beings.

The curious hunting habit was first observed by a local fisherman who reported to marine biologists that he had seen a dolphin with an odd growth on its nose. Monitoring its movements the bay's unusually clear waters, researchers soon discovered that the dolphin was actually balancing a conical basket sponge on its nose.

At first, it was not evident what the dolphin was doing with a sponge. Observing from a small boat, Dr. Mann and her colleagues eventually identified 41 dolphins who regularly used sponges to hunt, cataloging 1,295 dives in which they surfaced with sponges on their snouts. Researchers were startled to realize that the dolphins of Shark Bay employed once living creature as a tool to help hunt another.

Not any basket sponge would do, the researchers soon learned. The dolphins might search for 10 minutes to locate one with the right conical shape to cap their nose, tear it free of its mooring, and then carry it to a preferred hunting ground along channels between eight meters and 13 meters deep. "You can see that they are scattering the sand gently as they go along," says Dr. Mann. 'When they startle a fish out of the sand they immediately drop the sponge and go after it.

'They return to retrieve the sponge and pick up the hunt again, repeating the pattern. "They really use these sponges as a foraging tool," says dolphin biologist Maddalena Bearzi, president of the Ocean Conservation Society of Los Angeles, 'They discovered it could create an advantage in their foraging technique, and they pass it from generation to generation.' However, among the hundreds of dolphins living in this bay. Only a few dozen use sponges to keep from scraping their noses, and that offered researchers an opportunity to compare creatures that use tools to others of the same species that do not.

Although these dolphins all appear to be related, researchers at the University of New South Wales suggest that nurture, not nature, is the reason these dolphins use tools, ruling out genetic explanations for the behavior. Instead, they are convinced that the use of sponges is passed from one generation to the next through imitation. Among bottlenose dolphins, mothers nurse their young for up to eight years, ample time for calves to absorb their mother's hunting tricks by observation. "This is an example of culture among these animals," says Dr. Bearzi. This is part of the reason it is so important.'

So far, almost all of the dolphin spongers have proven to be female. "The sex difference is really striking," says Dr. Mann. 'l don't know of another species where it is so dramatic.' of the sponge offspring, only the daughters could be seen still sponging once they reached maturity. The sons tried it but almost always abandoned It. Male dolphins rarely play a role In child rearing and tend to fish in packs.

For Dr. Mann, the discovery that dolphins, too, are tool users adds an unexpected dimension to the history of innovation, shedding new light on animal intelligence. Clever mimics and fast learners, dolphins have unusually large brains - four times the Size of a chimpanzee's and second only to humans in relative size, 'It speaks to this whole issue of creativity and learning and brain size,' she says. The number one question that drives me and others is: Why do dolphins have such big brains? What are they doing down there in the water that requires them to be so smart?'

❓ Câu hỏi passage 3

Researchers believe that the use of sponges for hunting may have originated with one female dolphin's experimentation.

Research into tool use by dolphins can help us understand the origins of use of tools by humans.

There is general agreement amongst researchers on the relationship of tool use amongst animals and animal intelligence.

Dr Mann's analysis of dolphin behaviour has been criticized by some other scientists

Some bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay use sponges

to attract fish. 

to avoid getting hurt. 

to supplement their diet. 

as a form of decoration

The use of sponges by bottlenose dolphins results in their

living longer.

attracting more mates. 

becoming more isolated 

becoming more aggressive.

The Shark Bay fisherman mentioned in the passage

provided an explanation for the dolphins' hunting habits.

made numerous observations of the dolphins in Shark Bay.

notified the media about dolphins balancing sponges on their noses.

thought the sponge was permanently attached to the dolphin's nose.

The dolphins sometimes take some time to find a sponge because

some sponges are too heavy. 

sponges are quite rare in Shark Bay.

they are only satisfied with sponges that fit well 

they have individual preferences for types of sponges.

The fact that only a few dozen Shark Bay dolphins use sponges in this way allowed researchers to 

investigate different behaviors within one species.  

track individual members of a species.  

decides whether the behavior was tool use or not.  

explain the purpose for this behavior.

List of Endings

is more frequent amongst female dolphins.

is possibly linked to a physical characteristic.

is only possible in salt water.

is more typical of male dolphins.

is evidence of a dolphin's use of sound.

is a threat to commercial fishing

is the most likely way that sponge use is learned.

is not accepted by investigators.

A genetic explanation for the dolphins' use of sponges

Observation of the behavior of their mothers

The continued use of sponges in adulthood

A tendency to hunt for fish in groups

The clever behavior of the dolphins

🔥 Đáp án & giải thích 3

Yes

Giải thích chi tiết

☺️ Ứng dụng Linearthinking để giải quyết dạng bài Yes / No / Not Given

Step 01: Read the question to understand (main idea + detail)

Simplified:

The use of sponges for hunting may have originated with one female dolphin's experimentation

Main idea: các nhà nghiên cứu tin rằng → hành vi dùng bọt biển để săn mồi bắt nguồn từ → sự thử nghiệm của một con cá heo cái.

-------

Step 02: Locate relevant information

🔍 Từ khóa: “researchers”, “use of sponges”, “originated”, "for hunting", “one female dolphin”

→ Dựa vào các từ khoá trên → Tìm được trích dẫn ở đoạn 2

-------

Step 03: Read relevant information to understand (main + detail)

📌 Trích dẫn: “As far as the researchers can tell, a single dolphin may have invented the technique relatively recently and taught it to her offspring.” (Đoạn 2)

Simplified:

A single dolphin may have invented the technique + taught it to her offspring

Main idea: Một con cá heo có thể đã phát minh ra kỹ thuật này → và truyền lại cho con cái của cô ta → hành vi này xuất phát từ sự sáng tạo của một cá thể.

-------

Step 04: Compare meaning with meaning

Trong bài đọc: Hành vi dùng bọt biển để săn mồi có thể bắt nguồn từ một con cá heo cái duy nhất, con này đã phát minh ra kỹ thuật và dạy lại cho con mình.
Trong câu hỏi: Các nhà nghiên cứu tin rằng hành vi này bắt nguồn từ sự thử nghiệm của một con cá heo cái.

⇒ ✅ Chọn: YES

-------

Lưu ý chung:

Đáp án là YES vì khẳng định trong câu hỏi trùng khớp với ý trong bài → bài nói rõ “a single dolphin may have invented the technique” + "taught it to her offspring" = “originated from one female dolphin’s experimentation”.
Nếu đáp án là NO: thì bài phải nói rằng hành vi này bắt nguồn từ nhiều cá thể khác nhau, hoặc không do cá heo cái phát minh ra.
Nếu đáp án là NOT GIVEN: thì bài sẽ không đề cập ai là cá thể đầu tiên hoặc không có thông tin về giới tính của cá heo phát minh kỹ thuật này.

Xem full giải thích

IELTS Online Test

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IELTS Forcast Reading Test 2025 - Q3 Test 2 with Practice Test, Answers And Explanation

Passage

📖 Bài đọc passage 1

❓ Câu hỏi passage 1

🔥 Đáp án & giải thích 1

Giải thích chi tiết

Passage

📖 Bài đọc passage 2

❓ Câu hỏi passage 2

🔥 Đáp án & giải thích 2

Giải thích chi tiết

Passage

📖 Bài đọc passage 3

❓ Câu hỏi passage 3

🔥 Đáp án & giải thích 3

Giải thích chi tiết

IELTS Online Test

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