2019年雅思阅读模拟练习题2

　　This reading test contains 10 questions. You should spend about 20 minutes
on this task.

　　To make it more authentic, download the test and do it with pen and
paper.

　　Read the passage below and answer 10 questions.

　　Ethnic Groups in Singapore

　　In addition to being one of the smallest (and youngest) countries in the
world, Singapore, with its population of less than four million, is one of the
world’s most ethnically mixed countries. It is primarily Chinese, a group to
which over three quarters of permanent residents assign themselves, but even in
this group there are differences in languages and cultures. The other two main
ethnic groups in Singapore are Malays and Indians, each representing around ten
percent of the population. It has long been the goal of the government to
promote Singapore as a multicultural society in which all three of these main
groups enjoy equal access to the wealth, education, and social systems that
Singapore offers.

　　For nearly seven hundred years, Chinese have been travelling to Southeast
Asia in search of wealth and prosperity. Those who settled in Singapore came
mainly from southern China and spoke different languages depending on which area
was home. Hokkien, one of the main Chinese languages spoken in Singapore,
originates from Fujian Province. Speakers of Teochew had ancestors from eastern
Guangdong. Hakka has roots in both Fujian and Guangdong. Cantonese is also
spoken in Singapore today, and originates from Guangzhou. All of these languages
(and more) are spoken by the Chinese population of Singapore today, though there
are very few communities now that are linguistically isolated as they were in
the past, and in recent years the government has also heavily promoted the
teaching and learning of Mandarin to serve as a common language for the Chinese
community.

　　Though representing a much smaller proportion of the population, the Malays
are the second largest ethnic group in Singapore and the original inhabitants of
Singapore. They are still today the main ethnic group throughout the region
stretching from Malaysia to Indonesia and the Philippines. The Malay community
in Singapore came mainly from the Malaysian peninsula, though many also came
from Java and other Indonesian islands. The Malay community practices Islam,
which came to the area via Arab and Indian traders in the 1400s, but their
religion also retains some features of pre-islamic Hindu beliefs.

　　The third largest ethnic group in Singapore, slightly smaller than the
Malay community, is that of the Indians. Migration from India dates mainly from
the days of the British colony of Malaya in the 18th century, and most Indians
came to the area as labourers recruited by the British to work on plantations.
Most of the Indian community are Tamil from the southern part of India, but a
sizeable portion originates from Kerala in the southwest.

　　Another group of people with a long history in Singapore are known as the
Peranakans. The word peranakan in Malay means ‘half-caste’ and the Peranakans
are the descendants of Chinese immigrants who settled in the area and married
Malay women. The groups of Chinese who travelled and settled in the region
centuries ago were predominantly (if not entirely) men, and so a most were
married to local women. The culture of the Peranakans is a mix of both Chinese
and Malay traditions, and in most cases this group adopted the name and religion
of their Chinese fathers, but retained the language and customs of their Malay
mothers. Today, the Peranakan population speaks a version of Malay which borrows
from Hokkien so much that Malay speakers often cannot understand the dialect.
While the Peranakan culture is being preserved and revived by organisations in
Singapore, there are just a few thousand Peranakan Malay speakers left on the
island.

　　According to the information in the reading passage, which group(s) have
the following features:

　　A Chinese

　　B Malays

　　C Indians

　　D Peranakans

　　1) Has/Have features of more than ethnic group?

　　2) Is/Are united strongly through religion?

　　3) Speak / Speaks many different languages?

　　4) Is/Are not native to the Singapore region?

　　5) Was originally made up mostly of men?

　　In boxes 6-10 on your answer sheet write

　　Yes if the statement is true according to the article

　　No if the statement is not true according to the article

　　NOT GIVEN if it is not possible to determine the truth of the statement
from the article

　　6) Originally, many Chinese communities in Singapore couldn’t communicate
easily with each other due to linguistic differences.

　　7) Mandarin is the main language of Singapore.

　　8) Indians were the most recent of the three to arrive in Singapore.

　　9) Arab and Indian traders settled in Singapore in the 1400s.

　　10) The Peranakan language is being increasingly used in Singapore.

　　Answers

　　1) D

　　2) B

　　3) A

　　4) A, C

　　5) A

　　6) YES

　　7) NOT GIVEN

　　8) YES

　　9) NO

　　10) NO