Scribd
Upload
9 views4 pages

(Sample) Ielts Reading Test+Questions

Cigarette smoke contains over 4,700 chemicals, including 43 known carcinogens, significantly increasing the risk of various cancers and other fatal conditions. Passive smoking poses serious health risks, with studies indicating that nonsmokers can suffer greater harm than smokers, leading to thousands of deaths annually from heart attacks. The UCSF researchers advocate for smoke-free environments as a crucial measure to combat the dangers of both active and passive smoking.

Uploaded by

petpongkan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
9 views4 pages

(Sample) Ielts Reading Test+Questions

Cigarette smoke contains over 4,700 chemicals, including 43 known carcinogens, significantly increasing the risk of various cancers and other fatal conditions. Passive smoking poses serious health risks, with studies indicating that nonsmokers can suffer greater harm than smokers, leading to thousands of deaths annually from heart attacks. The UCSF researchers advocate for smoke-free environments as a crucial measure to combat the dangers of both active and passive smoking.

Uploaded by

petpongkan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 4

[SAMPLE IELTS READING TEST]

PASSAGE 1

The Risks of Cigarette Smoke


Discovered in the early 1800s and named ‘nicotianine’, the oily essence now called nicotine is the main active
ingredient of tobacco. Nicotine, however, is only a small component of cigarette smoke, which contains more
than 4,700 chemical compounds, including 43 cancer-causing substances. In recent times, scientific research has
been providing evidence that years of cigarette smoking vastly increases the risk of developing fatal medical
conditions.

In addition to being responsible for more than 85 per cent of lung cancers, smoking is associated with cancers of,
amongst others, the mouth, stomach and kidneys, and is thought to cause about 14 per cent of leukemia and
cervical cancers. In 1990, smoking caused more than 84,000 deaths, mainly resulting from such problems as
pneumonia, bronchitis and influenza. Smoking, it is believed, is responsible for 30 per cent of all deaths from
cancer and clearly represents the most important preventable cause of cancer in countries like the United States
today.

Passive smoking, the breathing in of the side-stream smoke from the burning of tobacco between puffs or of the
smoke exhaled by a smoker, also causes a serious health risk. A report published in 1992 by the US Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) emphasized the health dangers, especially from side-stream smoke. This type of smoke
contains more smaller particles and is therefore more likely to be deposited deep in the lungs. On the basis of this
report, the EPA has classified environmental tobacco smoke in the highest risk category for causing cancer.

As an illustration of the health risks, in the case of a married couple where one partner is a smoker and one a
nonsmoker, the latter is believed to have a 30 per cent higher risk of death from heart disease because of passive
smoking. The risk of lung cancer also increases over the years of exposure and the figure jumps to 80 per cent if
the spouse has been smoking four packs a day for 20 years. It has been calculated that 17 per cent of cases of lung
cancer can be attributed to high levels of exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke during childhood and
adolescence.

A more recent study by researchers at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) has shown that
secondhand cigarette smoke does more harm to nonsmokers than to smokers. Leaving aside the philosophical
question of whether anyone should have to breathe someone else’s cigarette smoke, the report suggests that the
smoke experienced by many people in their daily lives is enough to produce substantial adverse effects on a
person’s heart and lungs.

Page 1 of 4
[SAMPLE IELTS READING TEST]

The report, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (AMA), was based on the researchers’
own earlier research but also includes a review of studies over the past few years. The American Medical
Association represents about half of all US doctors and is a strong opponent of smoking. The study suggests that
people who smoke cigarettes are continually damaging their cardiovascular system, which adapts in order to
compensate for the effects of smoking. It further states that people who do not smoke do not have the benefit of
their system adapting to the smoke inhalation. Consequently, the effects of passive smoking are far greater on
non-smokers than on smokers.

This report emphasizes that cancer is not caused by a single element in cigarette smoke; harmful effects to health
are caused by many components. Carbon monoxide, for example, competes with oxygen in red blood cells and
interferes with the blood’s ability to deliver life-giving oxygen to the heart. Nicotine and other toxins in cigarette
smoke activate small blood cells called platelets, which increases the likelihood of blood clots, thereby affecting
blood circulation throughout the body.

The researchers criticize the practice of some scientific consultants who work with the tobacco industry for
assuming that cigarette smoke has the same impact on smokers as it does on nonsmokers. They argue that those
scientists are underestimating the damage done by passive smoking and, in support of their recent findings, cite
some previous research which points to passive smoking as the cause for between 30,000 and 60,000 deaths from
heart attacks each year in the United States. This means that passive smoking is the third most preventable cause
of death after active smoking and alcohol-related diseases.

The study argues that the type of action needed against passive smoking should be similar to that being taken
against illegal drugs and AIDS (SIDA). The UCSF researchers maintain that the simplest and most cost-effective
action is to establish smoke-free work places, schools and public places.

Page 2 of 4
[SAMPLE IELTS READING TEST]

Directions: You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 15-28 which are based on Reading Passage “The
Risks of Cigarette Smoke”

Page 3 of 4
[SAMPLE IELTS READING TEST]

Page 4 of 4

You might also like