Reading Comprehension Practice Set

Over the past decade, the “gig economy” — a labour market built on short-term contracts and freelance work rather than permanent jobs — has grown rapidly. Companies that connect workers with customers through mobile apps argue that this model gives people freedom: workers can choose their own hours and be their own bosses. For many, this flexibility is attractive, especially for students, parents, and others who cannot commit to a fixed schedule.

However, critics point out that this freedom comes at a cost. Gig workers are usually classified as independent contractors rather than employees. As a result, they do not receive benefits such as paid holidays, health insurance, or a guaranteed minimum wage. When business is slow, their income can fall sharply, and they have little protection if they are injured or become ill.

Supporters of the gig model respond that traditional employment is not disappearing; rather, the economy is simply offering more choices. They note that many gig workers use such jobs to add to a main income rather than to replace it. Some economists, however, warn that if the trend continues, a growing share of the workforce may lack the stability that earlier generations took for granted.

The debate is unlikely to end soon. Governments around the world are now considering new laws that would give gig workers some of the protections enjoyed by traditional employees, without removing the flexibility that makes the work appealing in the first place.

Coral reefs are often called the “rainforests of the sea” because they support an enormous variety of marine life. Although reefs cover less than one percent of the ocean floor, they provide a home for about a quarter of all known ocean species. The bright colours of healthy coral come not from the coral animals themselves but from tiny algae that live inside them. These algae produce food through photosynthesis and share it with the coral, while the coral offers the algae shelter.

This partnership is sensitive to temperature. When ocean water becomes too warm, the coral pushes out the algae living in its tissue. Without the algae, the coral loses both its colour and its main source of food, turning white in a process known as “bleaching.” Bleached coral is not immediately dead, but it is weak and far more likely to die if the warm conditions continue.

In recent decades, rising ocean temperatures have caused bleaching events on a scale never recorded before. Some reefs that took thousands of years to form have lost large portions in only a few seasons. Scientists warn that if temperatures keep climbing, many reefs may not recover.

Yet there is some hope. Researchers have found that certain corals can adapt to warmer water, and conservation programmes are working to protect the healthiest reefs and to grow new coral in laboratories. Whether these efforts can keep pace with the warming oceans, however, remains uncertain.

For much of the twentieth century, city planners designed urban areas around the automobile. Wide roads, large parking lots, and distant suburbs assumed that residents would travel mainly by car. In recent years, however, a different idea has gained influence: the “walkable city,” in which homes, shops, schools, and workplaces are close enough that people can reach them on foot or by bicycle.

Supporters of walkable cities argue that they offer many advantages. Reducing car use lowers air pollution and traffic. Walking and cycling improve public health. Local shops benefit when more people pass by on foot, and neighbourhoods often feel safer and more social when streets are full of pedestrians rather than fast-moving cars.

Critics, however, caution that the model is not suitable everywhere. In regions with very hot or very cold climates, walking long distances may be unpleasant or even dangerous. Building dense, walkable neighbourhoods can also raise housing prices, pushing lower-income residents out of the very areas that planners hoped to improve.

Most experts agree that no single design fits every city. Instead, they suggest that planners study the needs of each community before deciding how much to invest in pedestrian-friendly features. A city that grows around walking, they argue, is not simply more convenient; it reflects a choice about what kind of daily life its residents wish to share.

Before the middle of the fifteenth century, books in Europe were copied by hand, usually by monks working slowly in monasteries. Because each copy required months of labour, books were rare and expensive, and only the wealthy or the church could own them. This began to change when Johannes Gutenberg introduced a printing press that used movable metal type around 1450.

Gutenberg’s invention allowed many identical copies of a text to be produced quickly. Within a few decades, presses had spread across Europe, and the number of books in circulation increased dramatically. Prices fell, and reading was no longer limited to a small elite. Ideas that once travelled slowly, if at all, could now reach distant readers in printed form.

Historians often connect the printing press to some of the great changes that followed. The spread of new scientific ideas, religious reform movements, and the growth of national languages were all helped by the easy circulation of printed material. Some argue that without printing, these movements would have developed far more slowly.

It would be a mistake, however, to credit the press alone. Printing was effective because European society was already changing in ways that created a demand for books — growing cities, expanding trade, and rising literacy among merchants. The press did not create these conditions; rather, it sped up changes that were already underway.

Honeybees are best known for producing honey, but their most important role in nature may be pollination. As bees move from flower to flower collecting nectar, grains of pollen stick to their bodies and are carried to other plants. This transfer allows many plants to produce seeds and fruit. A large share of the crops that humans eat, from apples to almonds, depend on insect pollination, and honeybees are among the most effective pollinators.

In recent years, beekeepers in many countries have reported alarming losses. Whole colonies have sometimes collapsed, with worker bees disappearing and leaving the queen behind. Scientists have not found a single cause for these losses. Instead, they point to a combination of factors: certain pesticides, the spread of parasites and diseases, and the loss of wild flowers as land is cleared for farming and building.

The decline of bees worries farmers and scientists alike. If pollinators continue to disappear, the cost of growing many fruits and vegetables could rise, and some crops might become difficult to produce at all. A few researchers have even experimented with tiny machines designed to pollinate plants, though such methods are far from practical on a large scale.

For now, most experts agree that protecting bees is far cheaper and more reliable than replacing them. Planting wild flowers, reducing harmful pesticides, and supporting healthy habitats are among the simple steps that could help these vital insects recover.

When large numbers of employees began working from home, many managers feared that productivity would fall. Without the structure of an office, they worried, workers would be distracted and difficult to supervise. Several years later, the evidence is more complicated than these early fears suggested.

Studies have found that many employees are at least as productive at home as in the office, and sometimes more so. Without long commutes and frequent interruptions, some workers complete tasks faster and report greater job satisfaction. Companies, in turn, can save money on office space and recruit talented people regardless of where they live.

Yet remote work also brings challenges. New employees may struggle to learn from colleagues when everyone is separated by screens. Creative collaboration, which often depends on casual conversation, can be harder to arrange. Some workers also report feeling isolated or find it difficult to separate their professional and personal lives when both happen in the same place.

In response, many organizations have adopted “hybrid” arrangements, in which employees spend part of the week at home and part in the office. Supporters argue that this approach captures the benefits of both settings: the focus of home and the connection of the workplace. Whether hybrid work becomes the lasting standard, or simply a stage on the way to something else, is a question that businesses are still working to answer.

Wind and solar power have become much cheaper in recent years, and in many places they now produce electricity more cheaply than coal or gas. Yet these sources share a basic limitation: they are not always available. The sun does not shine at night, and the wind does not blow on demand. To rely on renewable energy, societies must find ways to store electricity for the times when generation is low.

The most familiar storage technology is the battery. Large banks of batteries can absorb electricity when production is high and release it later when demand rises. Battery costs have fallen sharply, but storing energy for several days, rather than a few hours, remains expensive. For this reason, engineers are exploring other methods.

One approach uses surplus electricity to pump water uphill into a reservoir; when power is needed, the water flows back down through turbines. Another converts electricity into hydrogen gas, which can be stored and later burned or used in fuel cells. Each method has its own advantages and costs, and no single solution is likely to fit every situation.

What is clear is that storage has become central to the future of clean energy. Generating renewable electricity is no longer the main obstacle; the greater challenge is keeping the lights on when the sun sets and the wind is still. Solving that problem, many experts believe, will determine how quickly the world can move away from fossil fuels.

In 1964, a crime in a large American city drew national attention not only because of the act itself but because of the reaction of those nearby. According to early reports, many witnesses heard or saw the event yet did nothing to help. Psychologists were puzzled: why would so many people fail to act?

Researchers who studied the question proposed an explanation now known as the “bystander effect.” Their experiments suggested that people are actually less likely to help when others are present. In a crowd, responsibility seems to be shared among everyone, so each individual feels less personally responsible. People also look to those around them for cues. If no one else reacts, each person may conclude that help is not needed.

Later studies refined these ideas. The number of bystanders matters, but so do other factors, such as whether people feel able to help and whether the situation is clearly an emergency. Interestingly, when one person does step forward, others often follow, suggesting that a single example can break the spell of inaction.

The research has had practical effects. Safety programmes now teach people to overcome the bystander effect by acting decisively and by addressing individuals directly — for example, by pointing to one person and asking that specific person for help. Understanding why people hesitate, researchers argue, is the first step toward encouraging them to act.

Doctors have always relied on patterns. A skilled physician learns to recognize the signs of a disease by studying many cases over many years. Recently, artificial intelligence has begun to assist with this task. By analysing thousands of medical images, AI systems can learn to detect certain conditions, such as some cancers, sometimes as accurately as experienced specialists.

The promise of such tools is considerable. In parts of the world where trained specialists are scarce, an AI system could help local doctors identify serious conditions earlier. Because software can examine an image in seconds, it might also reduce the long waits that patients sometimes face for results.

There are, however, important cautions. An AI system is only as good as the data used to train it. If that data comes mostly from one group of patients, the system may perform poorly for others. Moreover, these tools can make mistakes that are hard to predict, and they cannot explain their reasoning the way a human doctor can. For these reasons, most experts argue that AI should support doctors rather than replace them.

The likely future, then, is one of partnership. The machine can quickly flag images that deserve a closer look, while the human doctor brings judgement, experience, and an understanding of the patient as a whole. Used wisely, such cooperation may improve care without removing the human element that medicine requires.

Before writing was common, human communities preserved their knowledge through spoken words. Stories, histories, laws, and practical skills were passed from one generation to the next entirely from memory. To modern people, who can store information in books and on devices, this may seem fragile. Yet oral traditions could be remarkably accurate, and they relied on techniques that helped memory rather than left it to chance.

One common technique was rhythm. Information set to a regular beat, or arranged as poetry, is far easier to remember than ordinary speech. Rhyme works in a similar way, since the sound of one word helps the speaker recall the next. Repetition, too, strengthened memory, as did linking knowledge to familiar places or objects that a community saw every day.

Researchers who study oral cultures have found that skilled storytellers could recite extremely long works with great consistency. The stories were not memorized word for word like a modern script; rather, performers learned a structure and a set of phrases that they recombined as they spoke. This flexible method allowed long traditions to survive while still adapting to each new audience.

The arrival of writing changed this relationship with memory. As information could be stored outside the mind, the need to memorize declined. Something was gained — vast amounts of knowledge could now be preserved — but something may also have been lost: the highly trained memory that oral cultures once developed and prized.