IELTS Real Reading Test 2026 - Q2 Test 4 with Practice Test, Answers And Explanation
Luyện tập đề IELTS Real Reading Test 2026 - Q2 Test 4 được lấy từ cuốn sách Real Test 2026 - Q2 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.
IELTS Real Reading Test 2026 - Q2 Test 4 with Practice Test, Answers And Explanation
Passage
❓ Câu hỏi passage 1
Question 1 - 6
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage?
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
1
Settlers realised that wooden houses were more dangerous than other types of structure.
2
During the 1800s, New Zealand exported wood for use in boat-building.
3
Plantation-grown wood is generally better for construction than native forest wood.
4
Compared with other types of wood, pine has a narrow range of uses.
5
Demand for housing in New Zealand is predicted to fall in the next few years.
6
In future, the expansion of New Zealand’s wood industry will depend on its exports.
Question 7 - 13
Answer the questions below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.
7
Apart from exchange rates, which factor has had a negative impact on New Zealand's forestry exports?
8
Which part of New Zealand's economy does the forestry industry rank third in?
9
According to the New Zealand forestry industry, what could be the size of its workforce by 2025?
10
What kind of timber product is available in large amounts from renewable forests in New Zealand?
11
Which aspect of timber production are New Zealand's main customers increasingly concerned about?
12
Outside the Southern Hemisphere, who are New Zealand forestry's main competitors?
13
Which group of products is New Zealand's forestry industry now having to compete with?
Passage
❓ Câu hỏi passage 2
Question 14 - 19
Reading Passage has seven paragraphs A-G
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-G
14
research in which two substances that tasted alike had different effects on the subjects
15
an instance where controlling emotions while viewing something upsetting led to a lack of perseverance in other activities
16
an explanation of why it is important to eat something before making a decision at the end of the day
17
a reference to a researcher who was not initially convinced of the effect of glucose
18
an account of research that mirrored an experience the researcher had in his personal life
19
an example of how the location of products in a shop can be used to take advantage of 'decision fatigue'
Question 20 - 22
Complete the summary below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
The biological price of decision-making
Even when people attempt to be , they experience 'decision fatigue' if they make several decisions in a row. They are not aware of how they are, but it is increasingly more difficult for their brains to make decisions as the day progresses. After making many decisions in one day, the brain seeks in order to conserve energy. The person may fail to consider the consequences of their decision or not make a decision at all. Avoiding decisions reduces the immediate strain but can cause difficulties later.
Question 23 - 26
Look at the following statements and the list of researchers below.
Match each statement with the correct researcher, A, B or C.
NB You may use any letter more than once
List of Findings
A
Roy F. Baumeister
B
Jonathan Levav
C
Todd Heatherton
23
The energy people have for exercising willpower is limited.
24
Even an unpleasant substance had a positive effect on willpower.
25
People's responses to images changed after having to exercise self-control.
26
The sequence of options presented to consumers could be used to the consumers' disadvantage.
Passage
❓ Câu hỏi passage 3
Question 27 - 31
Complete the summary below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Brian Uzzi’s research into Broadway musicals revealed that the success of a production was not determined by its subject matter or cast, but by the of its creative team. He found that groups composed entirely of newcomers were often unsuccessful due to a lack of . Conversely, teams that had a history of working together also frequently produced because they tended to reuse old ideas. The most successful teams had a of experienced and new members. This balance in network promoted effective communication and creativity.
Question 32 - 36
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?
In following statements below, choose
YES if the statement agrees with the information
NO if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
32
Governments are currently very effective at using social network science.
33
Bring Back Birdie was financially successful.
34
Uzzi’s study analysed musicals from the first half of the 20th century.
35
The eating habits of a teenager can be affected by someone they have never met.
36
Investing money in central figures is guaranteed to be more cost-effective.
Question 37 - 40
Complete the notes below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
The Implications of Network Science
Positive use for governments:
- Can be used to improve public health initiatives, e.g., diet and
37.
.
- Targeting key people in a network can create a
38.
effect, influencing many others.
Risks and challenges:
- Networks can also spread
39.
behaviours, like financial panic or extreme views.
- To use networks effectively, policymakers must understand their
40.
.
DOL IELTS Đình Lực
22/10/2026
📖 Bài đọc passage 1
Wood: A Valuable Resource in New Zealand’s Economy
During the settlement of New Zealand by European immigrants, natural timbers played a major role. Wood was easily accessible and relatively cheap. A tradition of wooden houses arose, supported by the recognition that they were less likely to collapse suddenly during earthquakes, a not-infrequent event in this part of the world. But in addition to demand from the domestic market, there was also demand for forest products from overseas.
Early explorers recognised the suitability of the tall, straight trunks of the kauri for constructing sailing vessels. The kauri is a species of coniferous tree found only in small areas of the southern hemisphere. So, from the early 1800s, huge amounts of this type of wood were sold to Australia and the UK for that purpose. For a period, the forestry industry was the country's major export earner, but the rate of harvest was unsustainable and, by the beginning of the 20th century, indigenous timber exports were rapidly declining.
From the 1940s, newly established plantations of an imported species of tree called radiata pine supplied timber and other wood products in increasing quantities. By the 1960s, plantation-grown timber was providing most of the country's sawn-timber needs, especially for construction. Today, less than two percent of timber is cut from indigenous forests, and almost all of that is used for higher-value end uses such as furniture and fittings. As the pine industry developed, it became apparent that this type of wood was also well suited for many uses. It makes excellent pulp*, and is frequently used for posts, poles, furnishings and mouldings, particleboard, fibreboard, and for plywood and 'engineered' wood products. Pine by-products are used in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries and residues are consumed for fuel. This amazing versatility has encouraged the development of an integrated forest-products industry which is almost unique in the world.
Exporters of wood products have largely targeted the rapidly growing markets of South and East Asia and Australia. Eighty percent of exports by value go to only five markets: Japan, Korea, China, the United States and Australia. The product mix remains heavily biased towards raw materials, with logs, sawn wood, pulp and paper comprising 75 percent of export value. However, finished wood products such as panels and furniture components are exported to more than 50 countries.
In New Zealand itself, the construction industry is the principal user of solid wood products, servicing around 20,000 new-house starts annually. However, the small size of New Zealand's population (just over four million), plus its small manufacturing and remanufacturing base, limits the forestry industry's domestic opportunities. For the last few years local wood consumption has been around only four million cubic metres. Accordingly, the development of the export market is the key to the industry's growth and contribution to the national economy in decades to come.
In 2004, forestry export receipts were about 11 percent of the country's total export income, their value having increased steadily for ten years, until affected by the exchange fluctuations and shipping costs of recent years. The forestry industry is New Zealand's third-largest export sector, generating around $3.3 billion annually from logs and processed wood products. But it is generally agreed that it is operating well below its capacity and, with the domestic market already at its peak, almost all of the extra wood produced in future will have to be marketed overseas. That presents a major marketing challenge for the industry.
Although the export of logs will continue to provide valuable earnings for forest owners, there is broad acceptance that the industry must be based on value-added products in future. So the industry is investigating various processing, infrastructure and investment strategies with a view to increasing the level of local manufacturing before export. The keys to future success will depend on a variety of factors — better international marketing, product innovation, internationally competitive processing, improved infrastructure and a suitable political, regulatory and investment environment. The industry claims that, given the right conditions, by 2025 the forestry sector could be the country's biggest export earner, generating $20 billion a year and employing 60,000 people.
One competitive advantage that New Zealand has is its ability to source large quantities of softwood from renewable forests. Consumers in several key wood markets are becoming more worried about sustainability, and the industry is supporting the development of national standards as well as the recognition of these internationally.
However, New Zealand is not the only country with a plantation-style forestry industry; Chile, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa and Australia all have extensive plantings of fast-growing species (hardwood and softwood), and in the northern hemisphere, Scandinavian countries have all expanded their forests or controlled their use in the interests of future production.
Finally, in addition to competition from other wood producers, New Zealand faces competition from goods such as wood substitutes. These include steel framing for houses. This further underlines the necessity for globally competitive production and marketing strategies.
*pulp: wood which is crushed until soft enough to form the basis of paper
🔥 Đáp án & giải thích 1
1
False
Giải thích chi tiết
✅Step 1: Phân tích câu hỏi
Simplified: Settlers realised that wooden houses were more dangerous than other types of structure .
Ý câu hỏi: Người định cư cho rằng nhà gỗ nguy hiểm hơn các kiểu công trình khác.
-------
✅Step 2: Locate bằng chứng
Vì câu hỏi này không có từ khoá đặc biệt như tên riêng / con số / địa danh hiếm, ta sẽ đọc nhanh đến chỗ nói về wooden houses và lý do người ta chuộng chúng. Câu liên quan là:
“A tradition of wooden houses arose, supported by the recognition that they were less likely to collapse suddenly during earthquakes, a not-infrequent event in this part of the world.”
-------
✅Step 3: Đọc câu bằng chứng theo Linearthinking
Simplified: A tradition of wooden houses arose , supported by the recognition that they wereless likely to collapse suddenly during earthquakes, a not-infrequent event in this part of the world .
Lưu ý từ khó:
less likely to collapse = ít có khả năng sụp đổ hơn
not-infrequent = khá thường xuyên / không hiếm
Ý của câu: Người ta chuộng nhà gỗ vì họ nhận ra rằng trong động đất, nhà gỗ ít dễ sập đột ngột hơn.
-------
✅Step 4: Compare meaning with meaning
Câu hỏi nói: Người định cư nhận ra rằng nhà gỗ nguy hiểm hơn các loại công trình khác.
Bài đọc nói: Người ta nhận ra rằng nhà gỗ ít có khả năng sập đột ngột hơn khi có động đất.
⇒ Như vậy: Thông tin trong câu hỏi trái ngược với bài đọc. Bài đọc cho thấy nhà gỗ được xem là an toàn hơn, không phải nguy hiểm hơn.
✅ Đáp án: FALSE
-------
❌ Những đáp án “bẫy”:
True - bẫy skim/scan: Thấy từ earthquakes rồi nghĩ nhà gỗ liên quan đến nguy hiểm, nên chọn True.
→ Sai vì câu không nói “động đất làm nhà gỗ nguy hiểm hơn”, mà nói ngược lại: nhà gỗ ít dễ sập hơn khi có động đất.
Not Given - bẫy vì không thấy cụm “other types of structure” xuất hiện y nguyên:
→ Sai vì dù bài không viết đúng nguyên văn “other types of structure”, cụm less likely đã ngầm mang nghĩa so sánh với các loại nhà/công trình khác. Nghĩa là bài đủ thông tin để bác bỏ câu hỏi.
'Decision fatigue' helps explain why ordinarily sensible people avoid making decisions or are easily persuaded to make the wrong decisions when they are tired. Yet few people are conscious of it, and researchers are only beginning to understand why it happens.
A
A. No matter how rational people try to be, they can't make decision after decision without paying a biological price. This 'decision fatigue' is different from ordinary physical fatigue. People are not conscious of being tired, but nevertheless they are low on energy. The more choices one makes throughout the day, the harder it becomes for the brain, and eventually it looks for shortcuts: either to act impulsively instead of expending the energy to think through the possible results, or the ultimate energy saver: do nothing. Avoiding a decision often creates bigger problems in the long run, but for the moment it eases the mental strain.
B
Decision fatigue involves a phenomenon called ego depletion, a term coined by social psychologist Roy F. Baumeister. His research demonstrated that there is a finite store of mental stamina for exerting self-control. For example, when people fended off the temptation to eat freshly baked biscuits, they were then less able to resist other temptations. When they tried to resist the urge to cry during a sad movie, afterwards they gave up more quickly on tasks requiring self-discipline, such as working on a geometry puzzle. The experiments confirmed the 19th-century notion of willpower being like a muscle that became tired with use; something which could be conserved by avoiding temptation.
C
Decision fatigue leaves people vulnerable to marketers who know how to time their sales, as Jonathan Levav demonstrated. He visited a tailor to have a suit made for his wedding and began going through the choices of fabric, buttons, and so forth, and when he got through the third pile of fabric samples. Levav recalls, “I couldn’t tell the choices apart anymore. After a while my only response to the tailor became, ‘What do you recommend?’” Levav put the experience to use in an experiment conducted at German car dealerships, where real customers had to choose among four styles of gearshift knobs, 25 configurations of the engine and gearbox, and a palette of 56 colours for the interior. As they started picking features, customers would carefully weigh the choices, but as decision fatigue set in they would start settling for the default option. By manipulating the order of the car buyers’ choices, the researchers found that customers would end up paying more.
D
Similarly, sweet snacks are featured prominently at cash registers at most supermarkets. With their willpower reduced after shopping, people are especially vulnerable to sweet drinks and snacks. While supermarkets figured this out a long time ago, only recently did researchers discover why. Baumeister’s research team tested the notion that people could build up willpower by first indulging in pleasure. They found that a delicious, thick milkshake strengthened willpower by helping people perform better than expected on their next task. However, the experiment also included a control group who drank a tasteless low-fat dairy beverage. It provided them with no pleasure, yet it produced similar improvements in self-control. Baumeister concluded that even the tasteless drink had worked because the brain, like the rest of the body, derived energy from glucose, the simple sugar manufactured from all kinds of foods, including milk.
E
To establish cause and effect, researchers at Baumeister's lab tried refueling the brain in experiments involving lemonade mixed either with sugar or with a diet sweetener. The sugary lemonade provided a burst of glucose, the effects of which could be observed immediately in the lab; the sugarless sweeteners tasted similar but did not contain the glucose. Again and again, the sugar restored willpower, but the artificial sweetener had no effect. The glucose would mitigate the ego depletion and sometimes completely reverse it, improving self-control and the quality of decisions: the subjects resisted national bias when making choices and, when making financial decisions, they were more likely to choose the better long-term strategy instead of going for a quick payoff.
F
However, some brain researchers had reservations about the glucose connection. "Todd Heatherton, a pioneer of social neuroscience, believed in ego depletion but didn't see how this process could be caused simply by variations in glucose levels." To observe the process, and to see if it could be reversed by glucose, Heatherton's team recorded images of the brains of 45 people who were on a low-calorie diet as they reacted to pictures of food. Next, these dieters watched a comedy video while forcing themselves to suppress their laughter—thereby draining mental energy and inducing ego depletion.
When they were again shown pictures of food, further brain scans revealed more activity in the brain's reward centre and a decrease in the amygdala, which helps control impulses. The food's appeal, in other words, registered more strongly while impulse control weakened. What surprised Heatherton was that administering glucose completely reversed the brain changes brought about by ego depletion.
G
"Good decision-making is not a trait of the person," Baumeister says. "It's a state that fluctuates." His studies show that people with the best self-control are the ones who avoid temptations, and who establish habits that eliminate the mental effort of making choices. Instead of counting on willpower all day, they conserve it so that it's available for important decisions. "Even the wisest people won't make good choices when they're not rested and their glucose is low," Baumeister notes. If a decision must be made late in the afternoon or in the evening, they know not to do it on an empty stomach. The best decision-makers, according to Baumeister, "are the ones who know when not to trust themselves".
🔥 Đáp án & giải thích 2
14
E
Giải thích chi tiết
✅ Step 1: Phân tích câu hỏi (Matching Information)
research in which two substances that tasted alike had different effects on the subjects .
Dự đoán thông tin cần tìm bằng tư duy SPECIFY:
Đề đang hỏi về một nghiên cứu/thí nghiệm có đủ 2 mảnh:
Có 2 chất / 2 loại đồ uống / 2 thứ được dùng trong thí nghiệm
Chúng có vị giống nhau / tasted alike
Nhưng tác động lên người tham gia khác nhau
-------
✅ Step 2: Locate bằng chứng
Dựa vào dự đoán trên, đoạn nổi bật nhất là đoạn E.
Câu bằng chứng then chốt:
researchers at Baumeister's lab tried refueling the brain in experiments involving lemonade mixed either with sugar or with a diet sweetener.
The sugary lemonade provided a burst of glucose ; the sugarless sweeteners tasted similar but did not contain the glucose .
the sugar restored willpower , but the artificial sweetener had no effect .
→ Đây đúng là đoạn mô tả 2 substances tasted similar nhưng effects khác nhau.
-------
✅ Step 3: Đối chiếu paraphrasing
research ⇔ researchers at Baumeister's lab tried ... experiments
two substances ⇔ lemonade mixed either with sugar or with a diet sweetener
tasted alike ⇔ tasted similar
had different effects on the subjects ⇔ the sugar restored willpower, but the artificial sweetener had no effect
→ Match rất khớp, nên đáp án là đoạn E.
-------
❌ Những đáp án “bẫy” dễ nhầm
Dễ nhầm với đoạn D vì đoạn này cũng nói về đồ uống và self-control.
Nếu skim/scan, học sinh có thể thấy:
milkshake
tasteless low-fat dairy beverage
similar improvements in self-control
rồi chọn D ngay.
Nhưng D không đúng vì:
Đoạn D không nhấn vào hai chất có vị giống nhau
Quan trọng hơn, 2 loại đồ uống trong D lại cho kết quả tương tự nhau (produced similar improvements in self-control), trong khi câu hỏi yêu cầu different effects
New research shows how the people we are in social contact with can influence us for better – and worse. Governments should take heed.
From healthcare to climate change, governments today face a range of problems in which they must persuade people to change their behaviour. But maybe instead of relying on their powers of persuasion, governments should consider using the science of social networks as a tool to do this. True, many claims for the power of these are based on the hype surrounding major social networking websites. But the basic idea is simple: people can join together in groups with particular patterns of social links, and these patterns then have important effects on the way they behave.
The shape of these networks has surprising effects. Take an unlikely example: stage musicals. Brian Uzzi is a sociologist at Northwestern University in Chicago. He is also a big fan of musicals. Musicals have been big business for decades, but investors have to guess which shows will be a hit. Bye Bye Birdie, a profitable 1960 production, ran for 607 nights. Bring Back Birdie, its 1981 sequel, closed after just four. Intrigued, Uzzi used network science to find out why.
He investigated 321 American musicals that were launched between 1945 and 1989, paying particular attention to whether the team of director, producers, choreographers and writers had worked together before. After crunching the statistics, he discovered something remarkable. Teams who had never worked together, perhaps unsurprisingly, fared poorly: their ‘weak’ networks meant a lack of creative vision, and lots of failures. And at the other extreme, teams that had worked together successfully also tended to produce flops. Sometimes, lacking outside creative input, the team just rehashed the same ideas that worked the last time; sometimes, lacking newcomers, they ‘developed’ their vision in unwise ways. Either way, lightning rarely struck twice. But, in between, Uzzi found a point of balance. Groups with exactly the right mix of new and old participants reliably produced hits. This variation in the ‘density’ of the ties allowed easy communication and fostered greater creativity; new ideas from the outsiders meshed with the experience of the insiders. It made no difference whether a musical was about cats or roller-skating, or who starred in it – what mattered was the nature of the network binding its team together.
These insights have some fascinating consequences for policymaking-particularly in the area of health. According to network science, teenagers are more likely to adopt unhealthy eating habits if their friends’ friends consume junk food, even if they don’t personally know those individuals. Conversely, they may be encouraged to eat more healthily if their immediate friends do. This opens up opportunities for governments to reduce spending. For example, suppose a health authority has £100 and wants to improve the diets of ten people. If it invests £10 in each individual separately, it might only influence one or two. However, by investing the entire sum in persuading one or two key individuals who are central to a social network, the authority could trigger a cascade effect, influencing the entire group for a fraction of the cost. The same principle could be applied to other areas, such as encouraging physical exercise or quitting smoking.
However, the influence of networks is not always positive. The same mechanisms that can spread healthy behaviours can also amplify harmful ones. Financial panic, political extremism, and the rapid proliferation of unhealthy fads can all be accelerated by tightly-knit social networks. This presents a significant challenge for policymakers: how to harness the power of social connectivity for good while mitigating its potential for harm. Understanding the precise structure of these networks—identifying the key influencers and the strength of the connections between people—is therefore critical. Without this map of human relationships, any intervention risks being inefficient or could even produce unintended negative consequences.
🔥 Đáp án & giải thích 3
27
nature
Giải thích chi tiết
✅ Step 1: Phân tích câu hỏi
Simplified: the success of a production was not determined by its subject matter or cast , but by the ______ of its creative team .
Ý câu hỏi: Thành công của một vở nhạc kịch không phụ thuộc vào nội dung hay diễn viên >< mà phụ thuộc vào một đặc điểm nào đó của đội ngũ sáng tạo.
Dự đoán ô trống:
Loại từ: noun, vì đứng sau the và trước of its creative team
Nghĩa/loại thông tin: một đặc điểm/bản chất/cấu trúc của team, không phải người hay hành động
-------
✅ Step 2: Locate bằng chứng
Dựa vào từ khoá là subject matter, cast và creative team, ta dễ dàng định vị được câu quan trọng sẽ là:
“It made no difference whether a musical was about cats or roller-skating, or who starred in it – what mattered was the nature of the network binding its team together.”
-------
✅ Step 3: Đọc câu bằng chứng theo Linearthinking
Simplified: whether a musical was about cats or roller-skating, or who starred in it made no difference – what mattered was the nature of the network binding its team together .
Lưu ý từ khó:
nature ở đây không phải “thiên nhiên”, mà là bản chất / tính chất
binding its team together = gắn kết các thành viên trong team lại với nhau
Ý của câu: Không phải chủ đề vở diễn hay ngôi sao tham gia mới quyết định thành công, mà là bản chất của mạng lưới quan hệ trong team.
-------
✅ Step 4: Compare meaning with meaning
Câu hỏi thì nói: thành công của một production không do subject matter hay cast quyết định, mà do cái gì đó của creative team.
Bài đọc lại nói: It made no difference whether a musical was about cats or roller-skating, or who starred in it – what mattered was the nature of the network binding its team together.
During the settlement of New Zealand by European immigrants, natural timbers played a major role. Wood was easily accessible and relatively cheap. A tradition of wooden houses arose, supported by the recognition that they were less likely to collapse suddenly during earthquakes, a not-infrequent event in this part of the world. But in addition to demand from the domestic market, there was also demand for forest products from overseas.
Early explorers recognised the suitability of the tall, straight trunks of the kauri for constructing sailing vessels. The kauri is a species of coniferous tree found only in small areas of the southern hemisphere. So, from the early 1800s, huge amounts of this type of wood were sold to Australia and the UK for that purpose. For a period, the forestry industry was the country's major export earner, but the rate of harvest was unsustainable and, by the beginning of the 20th century, indigenous timber exports were rapidly declining.
From the 1940s, newly established plantations of an imported species of tree called radiata pine supplied timber and other wood products in increasing quantities. By the 1960s, plantation-grown timber was providing most of the country's sawn-timber needs, especially for construction. Today, less than two percent of timber is cut from indigenous forests, and almost all of that is used for higher-value end uses such as furniture and fittings. As the pine industry developed, it became apparent that this type of wood was also well suited for many uses. It makes excellent pulp*, and is frequently used for posts, poles, furnishings and mouldings, particleboard, fibreboard, and for plywood and 'engineered' wood products. Pine by-products are used in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries and residues are consumed for fuel. This amazing versatility has encouraged the development of an integrated forest-products industry which is almost unique in the world.
Exporters of wood products have largely targeted the rapidly growing markets of South and East Asia and Australia. Eighty percent of exports by value go to only five markets: Japan, Korea, China, the United States and Australia. The product mix remains heavily biased towards raw materials, with logs, sawn wood, pulp and paper comprising 75 percent of export value. However, finished wood products such as panels and furniture components are exported to more than 50 countries.
In New Zealand itself, the construction industry is the principal user of solid wood products, servicing around 20,000 new-house starts annually. However, the small size of New Zealand's population (just over four million), plus its small manufacturing and remanufacturing base, limits the forestry industry's domestic opportunities. For the last few years local wood consumption has been around only four million cubic metres. Accordingly, the development of the export market is the key to the industry's growth and contribution to the national economy in decades to come.
In 2004, forestry export receipts were about 11 percent of the country's total export income, their value having increased steadily for ten years, until affected by the exchange fluctuations and shipping costs of recent years. The forestry industry is New Zealand's third-largest export sector, generating around $3.3 billion annually from logs and processed wood products. But it is generally agreed that it is operating well below its capacity and, with the domestic market already at its peak, almost all of the extra wood produced in future will have to be marketed overseas. That presents a major marketing challenge for the industry.
Although the export of logs will continue to provide valuable earnings for forest owners, there is broad acceptance that the industry must be based on value-added products in future. So the industry is investigating various processing, infrastructure and investment strategies with a view to increasing the level of local manufacturing before export. The keys to future success will depend on a variety of factors — better international marketing, product innovation, internationally competitive processing, improved infrastructure and a suitable political, regulatory and investment environment. The industry claims that, given the right conditions, by 2025 the forestry sector could be the country's biggest export earner, generating $20 billion a year and employing 60,000 people.
One competitive advantage that New Zealand has is its ability to source large quantities of softwood from renewable forests. Consumers in several key wood markets are becoming more worried about sustainability, and the industry is supporting the development of national standards as well as the recognition of these internationally.
However, New Zealand is not the only country with a plantation-style forestry industry; Chile, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa and Australia all have extensive plantings of fast-growing species (hardwood and softwood), and in the northern hemisphere, Scandinavian countries have all expanded their forests or controlled their use in the interests of future production.
Finally, in addition to competition from other wood producers, New Zealand faces competition from goods such as wood substitutes. These include steel framing for houses. This further underlines the necessity for globally competitive production and marketing strategies.
*pulp: wood which is crushed until soft enough to form the basis of paper
supported by the recognition that
they
wereless likely to collapse suddenly during earthquakes
a not-infrequent event in this part of the world
B. Decision fatigue involves a phenomenon called ego depletion, a term coined by social psychologist Roy F. Baumeister. His research demonstrated that there is a finite store of mental stamina for exerting self-control. For example, when people fended off the temptation to eat freshly baked biscuits, they were then less able to resist other temptations. When they tried to resist the urge to cry during a sad movie, afterwards they gave up more quickly on tasks requiring self-discipline, such as working on a geometry puzzle. The experiments confirmed the 19th-century notion of willpower being like a muscle that became tired with use; something which could be conserved by avoiding temptation.
C. Decision fatigue leaves people vulnerable to marketers who know how to time their sales, as Jonathan Levav demonstrated. He visited a tailor to have a suit made for his wedding and began going through the choices of fabric, buttons, and so forth, and when he got through the third pile of fabric samples. Levav recalls, “I couldn’t tell the choices apart anymore. After a while my only response to the tailor became, ‘What do you recommend?’” Levav put the experience to use in an experiment conducted at German car dealerships, where real customers had to choose among four styles of gearshift knobs, 25 configurations of the engine and gearbox, and a palette of 56 colours for the interior. As they started picking features, customers would carefully weigh the choices, but as decision fatigue set in they would start settling for the default option. By manipulating the order of the car buyers’ choices, the researchers found that customers would end up paying more.
D. Similarly, sweet snacks are featured prominently at cash registers at most supermarkets. With their willpower reduced after shopping, people are especially vulnerable to sweet drinks and snacks. While supermarkets figured this out a long time ago, only recently did researchers discover why. Baumeister’s research team tested the notion that people could build up willpower by first indulging in pleasure. They found that a delicious, thick milkshake strengthened willpower by helping people perform better than expected on their next task. However, the experiment also included a control group who drank a tasteless low-fat dairy beverage. It provided them with no pleasure, yet it produced similar improvements in self-control. Baumeister concluded that even the tasteless drink had worked because the brain, like the rest of the body, derived energy from glucose, the simple sugar manufactured from all kinds of foods, including milk.
E. To establish cause and effect, researchers at Baumeister's lab tried refueling the brain in experiments involving lemonade mixed either with sugar or with a diet sweetener. The sugary lemonade provided a burst of glucose, the effects of which could be observed immediately in the lab; the sugarless sweeteners tasted similar but did not contain the glucose. Again and again, the sugar restored willpower, but the artificial sweetener had no effect. The glucose would mitigate the ego depletion and sometimes completely reverse it, improving self-control and the quality of decisions: the subjects resisted national bias when making choices and, when making financial decisions, they were more likely to choose the better long-term strategy instead of going for a quick payoff.
F. However, some brain researchers had reservations about the glucose connection. "Todd Heatherton, a pioneer of social neuroscience, believed in ego depletion but didn't see how this process could be caused simply by variations in glucose levels." To observe the process, and to see if it could be reversed by glucose, Heatherton's team recorded images of the brains of 45 people who were on a low-calorie diet as they reacted to pictures of food. Next, these dieters watched a comedy video while forcing themselves to suppress their laughter—thereby draining mental energy and inducing ego depletion.
When they were again shown pictures of food, further brain scans revealed more activity in the brain's reward centre and a decrease in the amygdala, which helps control impulses. The food's appeal, in other words, registered more strongly while impulse control weakened. What surprised Heatherton was that administering glucose completely reversed the brain changes brought about by ego depletion.
G. "Good decision-making is not a trait of the person," Baumeister says. "It's a state that fluctuates." His studies show that people with the best self-control are the ones who avoid temptations, and who establish habits that eliminate the mental effort of making choices. Instead of counting on willpower all day, they conserve it so that it's available for important decisions. "Even the wisest people won't make good choices when they're not rested and their glucose is low," Baumeister notes. If a decision must be made late in the afternoon or in the evening, they know not to do it on an empty stomach. The best decision-makers, according to Baumeister, "are the ones who know when not to trust themselves".
or with
a diet sweetener
The sugary lemonade
provided a burst of glucose
the sugarless sweeteners
tasted similar but did not contain the glucose
the sugar
restored willpower
but
the artificial sweetener
had no effect
research
researchers at Baumeister's lab tried ... experiments
two substances
lemonade mixed either with sugar or with a diet sweetener
tasted alike
tasted similar
had different effects on the subjects
the sugar restored willpower, but the artificial sweetener had no effect
New research shows how the people we are in social contact with can influence us for better – and worse. Governments should take heed.
From healthcare to climate change, governments today face a range of problems in which they must persuade people to change their behaviour. But maybe instead of relying on their powers of persuasion, governments should consider using the science of social networks as a tool to do this. True, many claims for the power of these are based on the hype surrounding major social networking websites. But the basic idea is simple: people can join together in groups with particular patterns of social links, and these patterns then have important effects on the way they behave.
The shape of these networks has surprising effects. Take an unlikely example: stage musicals. Brian Uzzi is a sociologist at Northwestern University in Chicago. He is also a big fan of musicals. Musicals have been big business for decades, but investors have to guess which shows will be a hit. Bye Bye Birdie, a profitable 1960 production, ran for 607 nights. Bring Back Birdie, its 1981 sequel, closed after just four. Intrigued, Uzzi used network science to find out why.
He investigated 321 American musicals that were launched between 1945 and 1989, paying particular attention to whether the team of director, producers, choreographers and writers had worked together before. After crunching the statistics, he discovered something remarkable. Teams who had never worked together, perhaps unsurprisingly, fared poorly: their ‘weak’ networks meant a lack of creative vision, and lots of failures. And at the other extreme, teams that had worked together successfully also tended to produce flops. Sometimes, lacking outside creative input, the team just rehashed the same ideas that worked the last time; sometimes, lacking newcomers, they ‘developed’ their vision in unwise ways. Either way, lightning rarely struck twice. But, in between, Uzzi found a point of balance. Groups with exactly the right mix of new and old participants reliably produced hits. This variation in the ‘density’ of the ties allowed easy communication and fostered greater creativity; new ideas from the outsiders meshed with the experience of the insiders. It made no difference whether a musical was about cats or roller-skating, or who starred in it – what mattered was the nature of the network binding its team together.
These insights have some fascinating consequences for policymaking-particularly in the area of health. According to network science, teenagers are more likely to adopt unhealthy eating habits if their friends’ friends consume junk food, even if they don’t personally know those individuals. Conversely, they may be encouraged to eat more healthily if their immediate friends do. This opens up opportunities for governments to reduce spending. For example, suppose a health authority has £100 and wants to improve the diets of ten people. If it invests £10 in each individual separately, it might only influence one or two. However, by investing the entire sum in persuading one or two key individuals who are central to a social network, the authority could trigger a cascade effect, influencing the entire group for a fraction of the cost. The same principle could be applied to other areas, such as encouraging physical exercise or quitting smoking.
However, the influence of networks is not always positive. The same mechanisms that can spread healthy behaviours can also amplify harmful ones. Financial panic, political extremism, and the rapid proliferation of unhealthy fads can all be accelerated by tightly-knit social networks. This presents a significant challenge for policymakers: how to harness the power of social connectivity for good while mitigating its potential for harm. Understanding the precise structure of these networks—identifying the key influencers and the strength of the connections between people—is therefore critical. Without this map of human relationships, any intervention risks being inefficient or could even produce unintended negative consequences.
made no difference
what mattered
was the nature of the network binding its team together
