IELTS Trainer 2 General Training Reading Test 2 (Online Test)

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 15-27, which are based on Reading Passage 2 below. Read the text below and answer Questions 15-21.

Fruit Picking Work in Australia

Because Australia is such a large place, it has several weather zones and many different crops are grown. This means that there is usually work for fruit pickers somewhere in the country. It's worth remembering that there are other related jobs available after the harvest period, such as pruning and planting.

If you're interested in picking fruit in Australia, plan well and be prepared to work hard!

Here are some tips to help you:

Working in the sun

• Wearing sunglasses, to avoid the glare, and sunscreen is absolutely essential if you want to avoid sunburn. A long-sleeved cotton shirt may not seem appealing, but you will be thankful for it in the heat of the day.
• Keeping hydrated is crucial. You will find that you may drink up to eight litres of water a day if you are working outside. It will save time if you keep your water in something that is clipped onto your belt so that you can take a drink whenever you need to.

Other requirements

• Every farm is different. Sometimes, employers don't supply tools, so workers need to use their own. Check first to make sure you have what you need.
• Consider taking an MP3 player or another device so that you can listen to music. The days can be long, and it makes the time go faster.

Various roles

• Instead of working in the orchard, you may find yourself in a packing shed. There is a lot to be done here too, from packing fruit into boxes, checking quality control and using a forklift to loading large pallets onto trucks.

Payment methods

• Fruit should not be picked when wet so, in the case of rain, you will have to stop work. Therefore, you will not be paid in most instances.
• Some farms pay a flat rate (by the hour), but getting a fixed amount is not common for work that involves collecting fruit; this type of payment is generally for work in the shed. The other, more usual, model is the piece rate: your pay depends on the amount of fruit you bring in at the end of the day.

Remember conditions vary greatly from farm to farm so be sure to check anything you need to know with the employer before you start.

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Read the text below and answer Questions 22-27.

Haast legal services: Orientation day for new employees

Here at Haast, we run regular staff-orientation sessions for our new employees. In your first week with Haast, you can expect to attend an orientation program to help you familiarise yourself with the workplace. Generally, this will be conducted for groups of three or more. Below is a rough outline for the day:

9:00 Induction session, Boardroom 2

Here you will learn about the history of our company and meet some of our team. Our HR manager will take you through what is expected of employees from an HR policy perspective and outline the chief priorities of our firm.

10:15 Tour, morning tea, Cafeteria

Our office manager will take you around the office to show you where everything is, including bathroom facilities, stationery and photocopying, first aid kit and payroll. You'll finish in the cafeteria where you'll have the chance to speak to our administrative support staff as well as some of the executives who sit on the board. This is an informal yet important part of the day.

11:00 Sensitive information awareness, Boardroom 3

Here at Haast we often deal with matters of a sensitive nature whether they be personal / family disputes or financial difficulties. This requires a clear understanding of privacy concerns and a commitment to respecting our clients' information. One of our senior staff will outline our policies.

12:30 Lunch

1:30 HR session, 1 Atrium

Be here after lunch to have your photo taken. You will be issued with an employee card (which can be collected from reception at the end of the day). Topics that will be covered include how to apply for various types of leave, submission of timesheets and our dress code.

2:30 Training in your own department

This is where you will learn more about your specific position. If possible, you will join the person who previously held your role for a handover. If this is not possible, your team leader will tell you what you need to know.

Online modules

You will have a week to complete two online modules which cover Haast's sustainability policy and safety in the workplace. Feedback will be given via the portal or in person if necessary.

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 28-40, which are based on the text below. Read the text below and answer Questions 28-40.

Freya Stark

Freya Stark was a British explorer and writer who had several works published about her travels in the Middle East and Afghanistan, as well as autobiographies and essays.

Born in Paris in 1893, Freya Stark was raised in Italy and England. As a child, she spoke several languages and her upbringing included many outdoor pursuits, like horse riding and mountaineering. With her mother and grandmother as role models, she developed into an unconventional woman who was as at home in elegant salons as she was able to handle hardship and physical exertion.

In 1912, Stark started studying history in London but left for Bologna, Italy, at the beginning of the First World War, to work as a nurse. In 1918, her father gave her a small estate in Mortola on the Riviera in northern Italy, where she grew grapes, vegetables and flowers. But she often travelled to England to take Arabic language courses at the School of Oriental and African Studies. She was nearly thirty by this time. A professor had suggested that she try a non-European language: he recommended Icelandic. Stark, who had been struggling to make a living on the farm in Italy, chose Arabic in the hope that it might provide an opportunity to get away. She had developed a desire to travel to the Middle East and, to this end, applied for the role of governess for the Iraqi princesses at the court of Baghdad, Iraq, but was not successful.

In 1927, she travelled to Lebanon and then on to Damascus, Syria. Travel in the area was restricted at the time, so Stark set off from Damascus in secret on a donkey with a local guide and an English female friend, who had come to join the trip. Stark took pride in travelling without servants or extra belongings, comparing herself favourably in this regard to writer and explorer Gertrude Bell, an Oxford-educated aristocrat who had completed a similar trip with three baggage mules, two tents and three servants. Stark considered herself a more intrepid traveller.

After this, Stark returned to London and went to the Royal Geographical Society to take drawing courses so that she would be able to make her own maps on future trips. In 1929, she set off again for the Middle East and in 1930, Stark reached Persia (now known as Iran). She visited the Valleys of the Assassins, at the time still unexplored by Europeans, and carried out geographical and archaeological studies. On the back of a mule, with a camp bed and a mosquito net, and accompanied by a local guide, Freya Stark rode to the valleys near Alamut to see ruins of a mountain fortress castle which had not yet been recorded on her map. Despite malaria, dengue fever and dysentery, she carried on with her trip and her studies.

Stark's books present a combination of adventure and harsh reality. In The Southern Gates of Arabia she tells of following the ancient trade route for the perfumed substance frankincense in the area that is present-day Yemen. Unfortunately, she had to turn back without realising the goal she had set of finding the legendary lost city of Shabwa.

In 1944, Stark spent time in New Delhi, India at the court of the British viceroy. During political discussions there she met renowned politicians, Gandhi and Nehru. She was a regular guest at parties and official functions, where she became known for her extravagant clothes as well as her life of adventure.

While she did not make any huge new discoveries as an explorer, Freya Stark gained a high degree of respect for her sharp observations and compelling tales of her travels. She was able to accurately record unmarked villages and mountains, using compass points and photographs, but people read her books for the descriptions of the journey.

Often Stark would be the only European woman to have visited the places she travelled to, and often she discovered that the only people available to speak with her were the women. Stark might have approached women as a way of gaining trust and reaching powerful men, but over time she got specialised knowledge of the domestic arrangements, costumes and children's lives in these places thanks to her contact with women.

Stark was not especially interested in politics, beyond a desire to remedy the injustices she saw first-hand on her travels. Her main interest was archaeology. However, her later books such as Rome on the Euphrates, which came out in 1966, was criticised at the time for being overloaded with history and less in the genre of travel book, which is what readers seemed to want from her. Her last significant trip was to Afghanistan, in 1968, when she was 75. She went to see a 12th-century minaret that had only shortly beforehand been discovered by archaeologists.

Stark kept writing throughout her 80s and early 90s (four volumes of autobiography and eight volumes of letters), the last of which was published in 1985 when she was 93. She travelled until she was 92 and lived to be 100 years of age. Towards her final years, she took many of her godchildren on trips to inspire and educate them, telling them what she had learned from those she met along the way. Freya Stark produced 22 books in her lifetime and serves as an inspiration to travel writers to this day.