Essential strategies and practice techniques for this IELTS Reading question type. Learn how to manage time and improve accuracy.
Originally published May 2018. Last reviewed 3 July 2026.
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READING SECTION 2 - QUESTIONS 15-27
Read the text below and answer Questions 15-20.
The Benefits of Having A Business Mentor
Introduction: If you're starting your own business, you probably need a mentor. This is a business person who volunteers to give their time to help somebody else with their work - particularly somebody who is new to the business. They have a wealth of experience they are willing to share, perhaps from setting up and running their own company. The mentor's role is to support, develop, stimulate and challenge. However, business mentors won't solve your problems for you or tell you what to do: they will talk things over with you, rather than acting as consultants. Many people while setting up their first business have found that a mentor can have a very positive effect on its success.
Why business mentoring is important: If you have a gap in your knowledge or experience, then mentoring could work very well for you. For example, you may have a great concept for a business but need a bit of assistance to turn it into a successful venture.
A mentor can provide you with a number of benefits, such as:
• guidance on developing and improving your business • help with decisions - particularly difficult ones • ideas for new products or services, or for working practices that will improve your efficiency • tips for your business that are gained from practical experience • access to a network of contacts with other business people
A business mentor can also help you to:
• develop key business skills • improve your problem-solving abilities • build confidence • work on your personal development
Face-to-face business mentoring: If you decide that face-to-face business mentoring is right for you, mentor and mentee should decide in advance on the nature of the relationship.
You will need to agree on the degree of involvement that suits you both. Some mentors and mentees work extremely closely, keeping in touch with each other most weeks or even most days. In the majority of cases, however, a mentor will provide help with every few weeks or months. In either case, they might meet, speak on the phone, or exchange emails.
You should also agree on a level of structure to suit you both. Mentoring can be a very formal process with regular meetings which follow a specific agenda and work towards a specific set of goals. It can also be quite a casual arrangement, where the mentee calls on the mentor as and when problems or questions arise.
Questions 15-20
Complete the sentences below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the text for each answer.
Write your answer in boxes 15-20 on your answer sheet.
A mentor 15............................. to help a new business person.
Mentors have a different role from 16..............................
A mentor can:
• help you turn your idea into a successful business • assist when you need to make 17.............................. • suggest how your business can increase it's 18.............................. • introduce you to a business network • help you to develop your skills, abilities and provide you with more 19..............................
To be agreed:
• how much 20............................. the mentor should have
• how much structure the mentoring process should have.
Read the text below and answer Questions 21-27.
A Planning Process For Middle Sized Projects
Any business project - such as reducing energy costs, or improving efficiency - needs to be planned, and time spent planning will save far more time later on.
The typical stages of this planning process are explained below.
Your first task is to spot what needs to be done. Examine your firm’s current position, perhaps making a formal analysis of its strengths and weaknesses. Then think about how you might improve that position: what opportunities are there for achieving this?
The next step is to decide precisely what the aim of your plan is. This is best expressed in a simple single sentence, to ensure that it is clear and sharp in your mind. Doing this helps you to avoid wasting effort on irrelevant side issues.
Next, you should work out how to do it. It is tempting just to grasp the first idea that comes to mind, but it is better to consider a wide range of options: this way, you may come up with less obvious but better solutions.
Once you have explored the options available to you, the selection of which option to use is the next step. If you have the time and resources, you might decide to evaluate all options, carrying out some planning, such as cost, for each. Normally you will not have this luxury.
You already have a broad idea of what your project will consist of. Now is the time to work out the full details, identifying the most efficient and effective method of carrying it out, including answering the questions of ‘who’, ‘what’ and ‘when’.
The next stage is to review your plan and decide whether it will work satisfactorily. This evaluation enables you to change to another option that might be more successful or to accept that no plan is needed.
Once you have finished your plan and decided that it will work satisfactorily, it is time for implementation. Your plan will cover how this is to be done.
Once you have achieved a plan, you can close the project. At this point, it is often worth assessing the project to see whether there are any lessons that you can learn.
Questions 21-27
Choose ONE OR TWO WORDS ONLY AND/OR A NUMBER from the text for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 21-27 on your answer sheet.
Complete the flow-chart below.
Suggested stages in a planning process >
For help to answer these questions with practice please read the posts below >>
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You should spend around 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on reading text 1.
Questions 1-7
Text 1 has seven paragraphs, A-G.
Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number, i-x, in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet.
List of Headings
i. New regulations
ii. New rules introduced for those that leave trash on the roads
iii. Environmental destruction
iv. Improving the Environment
v. Guidelines to be followed
vi. The consequences
vii. How wildlife is being affected
viii. The clean up has started
ix. Public incentives
x. The future of littering
1. Paragraph A .....................................
2. Paragraph B .....................................
3. Paragraph C .....................................
4. Paragraph D .....................................
5. Paragraph E .....................................
6. Paragraph F .....................................
7. Paragraph G .....................................
Government publishes new anti-littering strategy
A
Litter louts could be hit with £150 fines as part of ambitious new plans to tackle rubbish in England. Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom unveiled the Government’s first Litter Strategy for England to reduce the near £800m burden to the taxpayer of clean-up costs. Under the new measures, the most serious litterers could be hit with the £150 fines, while vehicle owners could receive penalty notices when it can be proved litter was thrown from their car – even if it was discarded by somebody else.
B
The new motoring rules, which are already in force in London, make owners liable even if they didn’t throw the litter themselves.
Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom said:
Litter is something that affects us all – blighting our countryside, harming our wildlife, polluting our seas, spoiling our towns, and giving visitors a poor impression of our country.
Our litter strategy will tackle this antisocial behaviour by building an anti-litter culture; making it easier for people to dispose of rubbish; and hitting litter louts in the pocket.
We want to be the first generation to leave our environment in a better state than we found it, and tackling litter is an important part of our drive to make the country a better place to live and visit.
C
Further new measures drawn up by the environment, transport and communities departments include:
Issuing new guidance for councils to be able to update the nation’s ‘binfrastructure’ through creative new designs and better distribution of public litter bins, making it easier for people to discard rubbish.
Stopping councils from charging householders for disposal of DIY household waste at civic amenity sites (rubbish dumps) – legally, household waste is supposed to be free to dispose of at such sites.
Recommending that offenders on community sentences, including people, caught fly-tipping, help councils clear up litter and fly-tipped waste.
Working with Highways England to target the 25 worst litter hotspots across our road network to deliver long-lasting improvements to cleanliness.
Creating a ‘green generation’ by educating children to lead the fight against litter through an increased number of Eco-Schools and boosting participation in national clean-up days.
Creating a new expert group to look at further ways of cutting the worst kinds of litter, including plastic bottles and drinks containers, cigarette ends and fast food packaging.
D
Communities Minister Marcus Jones said:
It’s time we consigned litter louts and fly-tippers to the scrap heap of history. Through our first ever National Litter Strategy we plan to do exactly that.
Our plans include targeting the worst litter hotspots, cracking down on litter louts with increased fines and getting people to bin their rubbish properly.
For too long a selfish minority have got away with spoiling our streets. It’s time we sent them a clear message – clean up or face having to cough up.
E
Transport Minister John Hayes said:
Litter on our roads is a major and costly problem to deal with. It makes our roads look messy, can threaten wildlife and even increase the risk of flooding by blocking drains.
To combat this needless blight on our landscape, I am working with Highways England to target the worst 25 litter hotspots on our road network, on which hundreds of thousands of sacks are collected every year with the clean-up bill running into millions of pounds.
By increasing fines and working with local authorities, the Government is taking decisive action to clean up our environment.
F
The strategy also outlines measures to protect seas, oceans and marine life from pollution. It builds on the success of the 5p plastic bag charge, which has led to a 40% decrease in bags found on the beach. Funding will also be made available to support innovative community-led projects to tackle litter that could turn local success stories into national initiatives.
G
The Government will follow the strategy with a new national anti-littering campaign in 2018, working with industry and the voluntary sector to drive behaviour change. The consultation on the new enforcement measures officially opens today. Guidance will then be issued to councils to accompany any new enforcement powers, to make sure they are targeted at cutting litter while preventing over-zealous enforcement or fines being used to raise revenue.
Questions 8-13
Complete the sentences below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the text for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 8-13.
8. The litter removal costs close to 800m funded by the ...............................................
9. Combatting the litter problem now will help the ......................................... in the future.
10. Informing people about keeping the environment clean will start by ..................................................
11. As a punishment for littering, people will either have to ....................................... or pay.
12. The success of having to pay for plastic bags has seen a ......................................... in bags found on the shore.
13. Officials will push this new regime and promote................................................
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You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which are based on reading text 2.
Hating the Elite
A
Many deride the wealthy elite as symbols of inequality in democratic societies supposedly founded on equality. Why do people hate them so much? If we hate them, why do we tolerate them? Hunter-gatherer bands had few clear status distinctions apart from those of age and gender. Headmen, and occasionally head women, functioned as servant leaders who spent much of their time offering free counselling and conflict resolution services to members of the band. In these societies, headmen were more likely to marry a second wife but received no other benefits of office. Successful hunters had high status in the group and were in greater demand as extramarital partners, but they were always careful to avoid seeming boastful.
B
Anthropologists struggle to explain why inequality first arose but the transition to agriculture is a plausible explanation. Neolithic farmers in Europe had inherited status as revealed by analysis of objects buried with them (grave goods). Men buried with stone adzes (likely used to construct their wooden houses) were of higher status than others and acquired this rank from being raised on fertile loess soil that they inherited from their fathers. Fertile land is a valuable resource and much early warfare involved territorial aggression over land. Warfare required increased social organisation and political leadership increases a person's status. The conversion of material wealth into political power may be the most common mechanism through which inequality arises. Arguably, the Native American Potlatches were not so very different from Hugo Chavez giving away refrigerators to Venezuela's poor.
C
The same theme is expressed in Egypt's Pharaohs controlling their population by creating a monopoly on storable food, such as wheat. The first large city – Uruk - was maintained by a highly productive agricultural system that was based on extensive irrigation. The rulers controlled the public works necessary to provide irrigation water and their administration was by means of an elaborate hierarchy of civil servants with slaves at the bottom and the monarch at the top. Agriculture may have been the earliest form of heritable wealth, but it pales in significance compared to the power of money and modern financial institutions. Unequal distribution of wealth today reflects ownership of financial assets (particularly stocks and bonds). Steady appreciation of these assets over time means that developed countries are increasingly divided into haves and have-nots. That creates problems.
D
Income inequality produces two main kinds of adverse effect. First, it produces or aggravates, many health problems. Second, it undermines social trust thereby impeding the smooth functioning of a society. The health problems are by now fairly well appreciated. Low-income groups have a substantially lower life expectancy. This is another way of saying that they experience a wide variety of health problems that subtract from their longevity. The underlying mechanisms are complex and cause range from environmental pollution to psychological stress, bad diet, and poor lifestyle, all of which are strongly associated with income. Unequal societies lack social trust. There is a pervasive feeling that the social contract is broken so that no one can be expected to obey laws, participate in politics, or invest in their local communities. Of course, some segments of the community are more disaffected than others and their communities are the most dysfunctional and crime-plagued. All of these problems are so serious, and so clearly produced by inequality that inequality itself can be considered a problem that must somehow be addressed, difficult though that might be.
E
Elites elicit hatred because they control resources that others wish they could enjoy. Moreover, humans have always preferred equality in social interactions, judging from the flatness of hunter-gatherer societies. So why do we accept a hereditary elite instead of insisting upon liberty, equality, and brotherly love, as expressed in the slogan of the French Revolution? One fairly obvious answer is in terms of the power structure, whether political or economic. Neolithic farmers who occupied loess soil were healthier and stronger than rivals that enabled them to repel; rivals and perpetuate their hereditary advantage of controlling better land. Analogous advantages are built into other kinds of elites, whether it is the higher earning power of more intelligent people or the systematic advantages enjoyed by financial elites compared to workers.
F
Economists cannot help but be impressed by the fact that financial wealth increases exponentially across generations whereas wages increase more slowly. This means that the financial system, of itself, exacerbates inequality. It is a giant squid that sucks value out of worker effort and secretes it in the accounts of the wealthy, a process that continues until there is a financial collapse. Such shocks may bankrupt the wealthy – unless they get bailed out by the government. The fact that elites may sometimes get bailed out is often dismissed as a side effect of corruption in government but it also suggests that wealthy institutions, such as banks play an essential role in facilitating the smooth functioning of economies. Much as we may hate the elites, there is also a sense that we are actually worse off without them and levelling experiments from the French Revolution to China's Cultural Revolution did not go well. Whether the authority of the monarch, the lending power of the banker, the enterprise of an entrepreneur, or the glamour of a celebrity, the elites may satisfy practical or psychological needs of their victims. Or we are just stuck with them because they have all the power.
Questions 14-18
Text 2 has six paragraphs, A-F.
Which paragraphs contain the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet.
NB you may use any letter more than once.
14. The class system started many years ago and now has grown out of control.
15. The upper class have formed good connections with finance companies and the government.
16. The ownership of certain items gives a person status.
17. Many people are envious of what the elected population have.
18. The suggestion that fortunate workers held more status.
Questions 19 and 20
Choose TWO letters, A-E.
Write the correct letters in boxes 19-20 on your answer sheet.
Which TWO of these possible reasons for hating the elite are mentioned in the text?
A. They are obnoxious.
B. They are financially prosperous.
C. They promote a certain type of lifestyle.
D. They are mostly bankers.
E. They hold power in society.
Questions 21 and 22
Choose TWO letters, A-E.
Write the correct letters in boxes 21 and 22 on your answer sheet.
The list below shows possible forms of proof that people hate the elite.
Which TWO possible forms of proof does the writer say has been found?
A. People have started petitions.
B. They control the media and the masses do not want this.
C. There have been large-scale protests.
D. They have been saved by financial institutions when needed, furthering the gap between those who have and those who have not.
E. In social situations, the elite are ignored.
Questions 23-26
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in text 2?
In boxes 23-26 on your answer sheet, write
YES - if the statement agrees with the views or claims
NO - if the statement contradicts the views or claims
NOT GIVEN - it is impossible to say what the writer's views/claims are
23. The elite should receive more funds from the government.
24. There are problems between the elite and society.
25. The elite has been integral in helping to shape and form communities.
26. There is evidence to support the writers claims that people hate the elite.
If you need help to answer these questions with extra practice please read the posts below >>
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You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on reading text 3.
Juvenile Crime in the 19th Century
Novels such as Oliver Twist have made Victorian child-thieves familiar to us, but to what extent did juvenile crime actually, exist in the 19th century? Drawing on contemporary accounts and printed ephemera, Dr Matthew White uncovers the facts behind the fiction. The success of Oliver Twist owes much to the biting satire and keen social observations contained within its pages. The misery of workhouses, the morally corrosive effects of poverty and the degradation of life in Victorian slums all received Dickens’s close attention. The novel’s prominent theme though is criminality, witnessed most vividly in the activities of Fagin’s gang of nimble-fingered child-thieves. But how realistic was Dickens’s portrayal of criminality among Victorian boys and girls?
Although youth crime had been a concern since the 1700s, a decline in formal apprenticeships and the disruptive effects of industrialisation on family life after 1800 did much to create fears among the general public about the activities of criminal gangs of boys and girls in London and elsewhere.
Sensational stories of crime and violence filled the pages of the popular press after 1800 with details of juvenile crime appearing in newspapers, broadsides and pamphlets. The activities of so-called ‘lads-men’ were regularly reported. These were criminal bosses who supposedly trained young boys to steal and then later sold the stolen goods they received from them. Thomas Duggin, for example, was an infamous ‘thief-trainer’ who worked in London’s notorious St Giles slum in 1817, and as late as 1855 The Times newspaper reported the activities of Charles King, a man who ran a gang of professional pick-pockets. Among King’s gang was a 13-year-old boy named John Reeves, who stole over £100 worth of property in one week alone. Similarly, Isaac ‘Ikey’ Solomon was a well-known receiver of stolen goods in the 1810s and 1820s who was arrested several times, and on one occasion escaped from custody. Solomon gained notoriety for being a trainer of young thieves and was for some time (incorrectly) considered to be the inspiration behind Dickens’s character of Fagin owing to his similar Jewish heritage.
‘Flash-houses’ also received regular attention from the police during the first half of the century. These were pubs or lodging houses where stolen property was ‘fenced’, and was considered by the police and magistrates to be ‘nurseries of crime’. One report in 1817 described flash-houses as containing ‘distinct parties or gangs’ of young boys, while later in 1837 a police witness recalled how one lodging house in London had ‘20 boys and ten girls under the age of 16’ living together, most of whom were ‘encouraged in picking pockets’ by their ‘captain’.
Evidence from the courts and newspaper articles during the first half of the 19th century suggests that juvenile crime was indeed a genuine problem. Dr Valerie Watters reported that the picking of pockets was especially troublesome, particularly the theft of silk handkerchiefs, which had a relatively high resale value and could thus be easily sold. Field Lane in London for example (the setting of Fagin’s den in Oliver Twist) was the home to several notorious receivers of stolen goods, where it was believed more than 5,000 handkerchiefs were handled each week. Often these were hung on poles outside the shops for sale to passers-by, many of whom went there to buy back their own stolen property.
Crowded places such as fairs, marketplaces and public executions were particularly profitable for young thieves. In 1824, for example, a 15-year-old boy, Joseph Mee, was charged with picking pockets at a public execution taking place at the Old Bailey; a youth described by the magistrate as a ‘hardened and unconcerned’ offender. At Greenwich Fair in 1835 13-year-old Robert Spencer was caught by a policeman drawing a handkerchief from the pocket of a gentleman in the crowd, while later in 1840 another constable stated in court how he witnessed 11-year-old Martin Gavan and another boy ‘try several pockets’ before stealing a gentleman’s handkerchief among a crowd that had gathered around a traffic accident.
Around three in every four petty thefts of personal property recorded in the county of Middlesex in the first quarter of the 19th century were committed by people under 25 years old, the vast majority of whom were teenagers or younger boys. Between 1830 and 1860, over half of all defendants tried at the Old Bailey for picking pockets were younger than 20 years of age.
London Labour and the London Poor Mayhew described life in the capital’s ‘low-lodging houses’, where he found several young boys engaged in daily petty thefts, including one who recounted how he was regularly drunk at the age of 10. Mayhew also described the activities of ‘Mudlarks’: boys and girls aged between eight and 15, who plundered goods from barges moored on the River Thames. However, historians have debated the true extent of juvenile crime in the 19th century. Changes in the way that children could be prosecuted after 1847, more sophisticated ways of gathering statistics and an over-emphasis on child criminality by moral reformers may have contributed to an exaggeration of an assumed increase in ‘juvenile delinquency’.
To modern eyes, the treatment of juvenile criminals in the 19th century appears particularly savage. After 1800 children between the ages of seven and 14 were considered incapable of forming criminal intentions, but could nevertheless be found guilty where this was proven beyond doubt. In theory, children convicted of serious felonies, therefore, faced the full penalty of the law: namely sentences of imprisonment, transportation and death.
Historian Martin Jones said, 'In reality, death sentences bestowed on children were almost always commuted to lesser sentences on the grounds of leniency'. Of the 103 children aged 14 or under who were sentenced to death at the Old Bailey between 1801 and 1836, not one was executed. Typically, when two 13-year-olds and a 12-year-old were convicted of a burglary in 1821, they were ‘recommended to mercy on account of their youth’: a phrase that was regularly recorded by the courts. The last execution of a juvenile in England was probably that of John ‘Any Bird’ Bell, at Maidstone in Kent in 1831: a 14-year-old who committed a cold-blooded murder of a 12-year-old boy during a bungled robbery. His sentence by this time was already considered exceptional.
Death sentences for girls and boys under 16 years of age were in practice usually commuted to transportation. By the 1830s, each year around 5,000 prisoners, some of whom were as young as 10, were carried by ship to penal colonies in Australia, to serve sentences of seven or 14 years (and occasionally life). Once safely arrived, the convicts were set to work on public projects (such as building harbours or prisons) or were otherwise given manual tasks as servants to private employers, all of which (it was hoped) would help reform the offenders. Transportation was finally abolished in 1857 following concerns about the deterrent effect of the sentence on would-be criminals.
Questions 27-30
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes 27-30 on your answer sheet.
27. What does the writer state about juvenile crime in the 19th century in the first paragraph?
A. Poverty caused young people to commit crimes.
B. Many children were sold to workhouses.
C. The children were often in gangs.
D. That the novel Oliver Twist by Dickens gives us an insight.
28. What are we told about the punishments for juvenile crimes?
A. Children under the age of 15 were given light sentences.
B. The laws did not affect children younger than 8.
C. Young offenders received the same sentences as adults with the same punishments for heinous crimes.
D. Many children were allowed to complete their sentence in a workhouse.
29. The writer refers to death sentences and transportation in order to
A. Show the serious way in which all crimes were dealt with in the 19th century.
B. Relay the facts of available punishments for juveniles.
C. Explain which crimes would receive those punishments.
D. Justify the need for such serious punishments.
30. In the sixth paragraph, we are told that
A. Serious crimes were committed regularly.
B. Pickpockets were rife.
C. Young offenders worked in gangs and shared profits.
D. Many youths were held accountable for their actions.
Questions 31-35
Look at the following opinions and the list of people below.
Match each opinion with the correct person, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter, A, B, C or D, in boxes 31-35 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
31. Stealing from people was easy for children with small hands, particularly smaller luxury items
32. Children were often given shorter more lenient sentences.
33. The most problematic crime was stealing from pockets.
34. Wanted to find out the truth about youth crimes in the 19th Century.
35. Regular minor thefts were performed daily by young boys.
List of People
A. Dr Matthew White
B. Mayhew
C. Martin Jones
D. Dr Valerie Watters
Questions 36-39
Complete the summary using the lists of words, A-H below.
Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 36-39 on your answer sheet.
Juvenile Crime In The 19th Century
According to Dr Matthew White, there have been varied accounts of juvenile crime in the 19th century, with vivid accounts coming from the novels of 36. .................................. In truth, many youths were recruited into 37. ............................... and trained to perform variously skilled robberies on unsuspecting victims. Pickpockets often stole 38. ......................................... which were easy to sell on for a high price. The consequences for crimes in the 19th century varied but were known to be severe, including 39. ..................................... and even death.
List of words >>
A. imprisonment
B. pockets
C. Dickens
D. items
E. gangs
F. Fagin
G. handkerchiefs
H. transportation
Question 40
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in box 40 on your answer sheet.
40. The writer's purpose in writing the article is to
A. illustrate how the judiciary system worked in the 19th Century.
B. criticise the treatment of convicted children.
C. explain the various crimes and punishments of young people beginning from around the 1700's.
D. promote the advantages of the youth justice system from that time.
If you need help to answer these questions with extra practice please read the posts below >>
We hope you found this post useful in helping you to study for the IELTS Test. If you have any questions please let us know in the comments below or on the Facebook page.
The best way to keep up to date with posts like this is to like us on Facebook, then follow us on Instagram and Pinterest.
If you need help preparing for the IELTS Test, join the IELTS Achieve Academy and see how we can assist you to achieve your desired band score. We offer an essay correction service, mock exams and online courses.
You should spend around 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on reading text 1.
THE VIKINGS AS EXPLORERS AND SETTLERS
As impressive as the Vikings’ accomplishments as raiders and warriors were, their accomplishments as explorers and settlers were equally magnificent. The Vikings ventured far from their homelands in Scandinavia and became the first Europeans to discover Greenland and even North America (which they called “Vinland”) – roughly 500 years before Christopher Columbus. Along the way, they became the first people to establish sizable settlements in Iceland and other North Atlantic islands, and also colonised the territories their warriors conquered throughout northern Europe. These explorations and settlements have had a decisive impact on these places that persists even today.
The Vikings’ motivations for faring so far across the globe and founding new settlements in the lands they reached were as varied as the individuals who undertook these tremendous projects. But a few motives stand out as being especially strong and generally applicable. In places that the Vikings were the first sizable group to explore and/or settle, these were the quest for fame, prestige, and honor; the desire for the level of personal freedom that one can only find in a sparsely-populated area with no pre-established government; and the ability to take advantage of virgin natural resources.
In places where the Vikings conquered existing populations, they were driven by political ambitions, the desire for wealth through tribute and the control of trade, and, as in newly-inhabited lands, the ability to make a name for oneself.
The Vikings didn’t just explore and settle new territories. They also settled in the lands in Europe that they conquered through warfare. In such cases, it was sometimes just the warriors themselves who settled down, began working the land, and took wives from among the native population. At other times, whole families moved from Scandinavia to the newly-conquered territories. In the British Isles, for example, the Scandinavian genetic contribution to some areas is evenly split between men and women, whereas in other places it’s overwhelmingly male.
Viking rulers in conquered territories largely adapted to what was expected of a ruler in those lands rather than simply imposing Scandinavian customs on the populace. Viking rulers in non-Norse lands often maintained good relations with the Christian Church, used written documents in governance, and even minted coins. Their Viking followers did likewise, to the point that archaeologists often find it nearly impossible to distinguish the graves of Vikings from the graves of non-Vikings in Viking-controlled territories.
The Viking conquest with the deepest and longest impact was that of the British Isles. The Scandinavians who migrated to England, Scotland and Ireland forever changed the character of those countries. Perhaps this should be unsurprising given the sheer extent of Viking rule in these places. By the late ninth century, the Norse controlled virtually all of England besides Wessex, and large swaths of Scotland and Ireland as well.
Even after the English regained control of the country in the mid-tenth century, many Scandinavian settlers remained and had a large influence on England’s culture, as loanwords, place-names, law codes, and other lines of evidence indicate. The modern English language, for example, has no less than 600 loanwords from Old Norse, including such common words as “cast,” “knife,” “take,” “window,” “egg,” “ill,” and “die.”
The Vikings settled northern Scotland especially heavily, mostly due to the fact that it was both close to Norway and a convenient jumping-off point for raids in England and Ireland. The Norse found and conquered lots of already-thriving settlements there in the ninth century, subjugating the local populations. The level of Norse influence upon the people of Scotland and its islands was so great that today, Shetlanders have 44 percent Scandinavian DNA, the Orkneys’ inhabitants have 30 percent, and those who live in the Western Isles have 15 percent. The inhabitants of the Orkney and Shetland Islands spoke Norn, a dialect of Old Norse, until the nineteenth century. The influence didn’t just go one way, however. The Norse adapted to the local customs, including becoming Christians.
Over the course of the ninth century, as the Vikings settled in Ireland, they became more and more integrated into Irish society. They fought wars on behalf of Irish leaders, intermarried with the Irish, adopted Christianity, and so forth. The Irish had no particular tradition of trade with the outside world and relied on the enterprising and well-connected Vikings to perform this activity on their behalf so that they could enjoy the fruits of interaction with international markets. While Viking settlements in Ireland were confined to trade towns – the Irish made a point to keep them out of the rest of the country – those trade towns had a great impact on the contemporary and subsequent character of the country. One of them, Dublin, is now Ireland’s capital city.
Questions 1-8
Do the following statements agree with the information given in text 1 above?
In boxes 1-8 on your answer sheet, write
True - if the statement agrees with the information
False - if the statement contradicts the information
Not Given - if there is no information present
1. The Vikings were renowned for their ability to travel and discover new places.
2. The Vikings were happy to bow to the rule of the lands they found, with little initiative among them.
3. The Vikings claimed many new places through battles.
4. Viking elders were tough and often unkind to those that they ruled over.
5. In England, the Vikings contributed to the development of its personality
6. The impact of Old Norse on the English Language was nil.
7. The Vikings preferred to raid Scotland as there was a smaller population.
8. All of Ireland was commanded by the Norse culture.
Questions 9-13
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write your answers in boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet.
9 - When the Vikings left Scandinavia they
A. sailed around the world.
B. tried to impress rulers.
C. discovered and colonised new lands.
D. terrorised many populations.
10 - What are we told about the Vikings in the fifth paragraph?
A. Viking rulers enforced strict laws.
B. The Vikings adapted well to new customs.
C. They ignored the Christian Church.
D. They merged their own culture with that of the place they settled.
11. The Vikings who settled in England, Scotland and Ireland
A. helped to shape aspects of the culture of the nation.
B. raided the lands.
C. held many battles with the people of the lands.
D. decided to leave.
12. What is the writer doing in the seventh paragraph?
A. Criticising the Norse culture.
B. Explaining how Old Norse words have been integrated into the English language.
C. Describing how the English language has developed.
D. Rejecting the idea that the English language has an outside influence.
13. What is the writer's main point in the final paragraph?
A. That the Vikings adopted Irish customs.
B. The Irish people disliked the Viking culture and all that was associated with it.
C. Explaining the wealth of influence the Vikings had in Ireland.
D. The Irish people allowed the Vikings to settle wherever they wished, with lands given to them as spoils of war.
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