Green roofs

A.
Rooftops covered with grass, vegetable gardens and lush foliage are now a
common sight in many cities around the world. More and more private companies
and city authorities are investing in green roofs, drawn to their wide-ranging benefits.
Among the benefits are saving on energy costs, mitigating the risk of floods, making
habitats for urban wildlife, tackling air pollution and even growing food. These
increasingly radical urban designs can help cities adapt to the monumental
problems they face, such as access to resources and a lack of green space due to
development. But the involvement of city authorities, businesses and other
institutions is crucial to ensuring their success — as is research investigating
different options to suit the variety of rooftop spaces found in cities. The UK is
relatively new to developing green roofs, and local governments and institutions are
playing a major role in spreading the practice. London is home to much of the UK’s
green roof market, mainly due to forward-thinking policies such as the London Plan,
which has paved the way to more than doubling the area of green roofs in the
capital.
B.
Ongoing research is showcasing how green roofs in cities can integrate with ‘living
walls’: environmentally friendly walls which are partially or completely covered with
greenery, including a growing medium, such as soil or water. Research also
indicates that green roofs can be integrated with drainage systems on the ground,
such as street trees, so that the water is managed better and the built environment
is made more sustainable. There is also evidence to demonstrate the social value of
green roofs. Doctors are increasingly prescribing time spent gardening outdoors for
patients dealing with anxiety and depression. And research has found that access to
even the most basic green spaces can provide a better quality of life for dementia
sufferers and help people avoid obesity.
C.
In North America, green roofs have become mainstream, with a wide array of
expansive, accessible and food-producing roofs installed in buildings. Again, city
leaders and authorities have helped push the movement forward — only recently,
San Francisco, USA, created a policy requiring new buildings to have green roofs.
Toronto, Canada, has policies dating from the 1990s, encouraging the development
of urban farms on rooftops. These countries also benefit from having newer
buildings than in many parts of the world, which makes it easier to install green
roofs. Being able to keep enough water at roof height and distribute it right across
the rooftop is crucial to maintaining the plants on any green roof — especially on
‘edible roofs’ where fruit and vegetables are farmed. And it’s much easier to do this
in newer buildings, which can typically hold greater weight, than to retro-fit old ones.
Having a stronger roof also makes it easier to grow a greater variety of plants, since
the soil can be deeper.
D.
For green roofs to become the norm for new developments, there needs to be
support from public authorities and private investors. Those responsible for
maintaining buildings may have to acquire new skills, such as landscaping, and in
some cases, volunteers may be needed to help out. Other considerations include
installing drainage paths, meeting health and safety requirements and perhaps
allowing access for the public, as well as planning restrictions and disruption from
regular activities in and around the buildings during installation. To convince
investors and developers that installing green roofs is worthwhile, economic
arguments are still the most important. The term ‘natural capital’ has been
developed to explain the economic value of nature; for example, measuring the
money saved by installing natural solutions to protect against flood damage, adapt
to climate change or help people lead healthier and happier lives.
E.
As the expertise about green roofs grows, official standards have been developed to
ensure that they are designed, constructed and maintained properly, and function
well. Improvements in the science and technology underpinning green roof
development have also led to new variations in the concept. For example, ‘blue
roofs’ enable buildings to hold water over longer periods of time, rather than
draining it away quickly — crucial in times of heavier rainfall. There are also
combinations of green roofs with solar panels, and ‘brown roofs’ which are wilder in
nature and maximise biodiversity. If the trend continues, it could create new jobs
and a more vibrant and sustainable local food economy — alongside many other
benefits. There are still barriers to overcome, but the evidence so far indicates that
green roofs have the potential to transform cities and help them function
sustainably long into the future. The success stories need to be studied and
replicated elsewhere, to make green, blue, brown and food-producing roofs the norm
in cities around the world.
Reading Passage 1 has five paragraphs, A-E.
Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter, A-E, in boxes 1-5
on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
1. mention of several challenges to be overcome before a green roof can be installed
2. reference to a city where green roofs have been promoted for many years
3. a belief that existing green roofs should be used as a model for new ones
4. examples of how green roofs can work in combination with other green urban initiatives
5. the need to make a persuasive argument for the financial benefits of green roofs
Complete the summary below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 6—9
on your answer sheet.

Advantages of green roofs

City rooftops covered with greenery have many advantages. These include lessening the
likelihood that floods will occur, reducing how much money is spent on 6 .....................  and
creating environments that are suitable for wildlife. In many cases, they can also be used for
producing 7.............................

There are also social benefits of green roofs. For example, the medical profession
recommends 8  .......................... as an activity to help people cope with mental health issues.
Studies have also shown that the availability of green spaces can prevent physical problems
such as 9.............................

Choose TWO letters, A-E.

Write the correct letters in boxes 10 and 11 on your answer sheet.
Which TWO advantages of using newer buildings for green roofs are mentioned in Paragraph C
of the passage?

 A. a longer growing season for edible produce

 B. more economical use of water
 C. greater water-storage capacity
 D. ability to cultivate more plant types
 E. a large surface area for growing plants

Choose TWO letters, A-E.

Write the correct letters in boxes 12 and 13 on your answer sheet.
Which TWO aims of new variations on the concept of green roofs are mentioned in Paragraph E
of the passage?

 A. to provide habitats for a wide range of species

 B. to grow plants successfully even in the wettest climates
 C. to regulate the temperature of the immediate environment
 D. to generate power from a sustainable source
 E. to collect water to supply other buildings
Passage 1
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 Từ điển

C18 IELTS reading test 4 Thoát

Bộ đề thi: IELTS C18 Full Test 4

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 Passage 1

 Passage 2

 Passage 3

The growth mindset

Over the past century, a powerful idea has taken root in the educational landscape. The concept of
intelligence as something innate has been supplanted by the idea that intelligence is not fixed, and
that, with the right training, we can be the authors of our own cognitive capabilities. Psychologist
Alfred Binet, the developer of the first intelligence tests, was one of many 19th-century scientists
who held that earlier view and sought to quantify cognitive ability. Then, in the early 20th century,
progressive thinkers revolted against the notion that inherent ability is destiny. Instead, educators
such as John Dewey argued that every child’s intelligence could be developed, given the right
environment.

‘Growth mindset theory’ is a relatively new — and extremely popular — version of this idea. In many
schools today you will see hallways covered in motivational posters and hear speeches on the
mindset of great sporting heroes who simply believed their way to the top. A major focus of the
growth mindset in schools is coaxing students away from seeing failure as an indication of their
ability, and towards seeing it as a chance to improve that ability. As educationalist Jeff Howard
noted several decades ago: ‘Smart is not something that you just are, smart is something that you
can get.’
The idea of the growth mindset is based on the work of psychologist Carol Dweck in California in
the 1990s. In one key experiment, Dweck divided a group of 10- to 12 year-olds into two groups. All
were told that they had achieved a high score onatest but the first group were praised for their
intelligence in achieving this, while the others were praised for their effort. The second group —
those who had been instilled with a ‘growth mindset’ — were subsequently far more likely to put
effort into future tasks. Meanwhile, the former took on only those tasks that would not risk their
sense of worth. This group had inferred that success or failure is due to innate ability, and this
‘fixed mindset’ had led them to fear of failure and lack of effort. Praising ability actually made the
students perform worse, while praising effort emphasised that change was possible.

One of the greatest impediments to successfully implementing a growth mindset, however, is the
education system itself: in many parts of the world, the school climate is obsessed with
performance in the form of constant testing, analysing and ranking of students — a key
characteristic of the fixed mindset. Nor is it unusual for schools to create a certain cognitive
dissonance, when they applaud the benefits of a growth mindset but then hand out fixed target
grades in lessons based on performance.

Aside from the implementation problem, the original growth mindset research has also received
harsh criticism. The statistician Andrew Gelman claims that ‘their research designs have enough
degrees of freedom that they could take their data to support just about any theory at all’.
Professor of Psychology Timothy Bates, who has been trying to replicate Dweck’s work, is finding
that the results are repeatedly null. He notes that: ‘People with a growth mindset don’t cope any
better with failure ... Kids with the growth mindset aren’t getting better grades, either before or
after our intervention study.’

Much of this criticism is not lost on Dweck, and she deserves great credit for responding to it and
adapting her work accordingly. In fact, she argues that her work has been misunderstood and
misapplied in a range of ways. She has also expressed concerns that her theories are being
misappropriated in schools by being conflated with the self-esteem movement: ‘For me the growth
mindset is a tool for learning and improvement. It’s not just a vehicle for making children feel
good.’

But there is another factor at work here. The failure to translate the growth mindset into the
classroom might reflect a misunderstanding of the nature of teaching and learning itself. Growth
mindset supporters David Yeager and Gregory Walton claim that interventions should be-delivered
in a subtle way to maximise their effectiveness. They say that if adolescents perceive a teacher’s
intervention as conveying that they are in need of help, this could undo its intended effects.

A lot of what drives students is their innate beliefs and how they perceive themselves. There is a
strong correlation between self-perception and achievement, but there is evidence to suggest that
the actual effect of achievement on self-perception is stronger than the other way round. To stand
up in a classroom and successfully deliver a good speech is a genuine achievement, and that is
likely to be more powerfully motivating than vague notions of ‘motivation’ itself.

Recent evidence would suggest that growth mindset interventions are not the elixir of student
learning that its proponents claim it to be. The growth mindset appears to be a viable construct in
the lab, which, when administered in the classroom via targeted interventions, doesn’t seem to
work. It is hard to dispute that having faith in the capacity to change is a good attribute for
students. Paradoxically, however, that aspiration is not well served by direct interventions that try
to instil it.

Motivational posters and talks are often a waste of time, and might well give students a deluded
notion of what success actually means. Teaching concrete skills such as how to write an effective
introduction to an essay then praising students’ effort in getting there is probably a far better way
of improving confidence than telling them how unique they are, or indeed how capable they are of
changing their own brains. Perhaps growth mindset works best as a philosophy and not an
intervention.

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write the correct letter in boxes 14-16 on your answer sheet.

14

What can we learn from the first paragraph?

A. where the notion of innate intelligence first began

B. when ideas about the nature of intelligence began to shift

C. how scientists have responded to changing views of intelligence

D. why thinkers turned away from the idea of intelligence being fixed

15

The second paragraph describes how schools encourage students to

A. identify their personal ambitions.

B. help each other to realise their goals.

C. have confidence in their potential to succeed.

D. concentrate on where their particular strengths lie.

16

In the third paragraph, the writer suggests that students with a fixed mindset

A. tend to be less competitive.

B. generally have a low sense of self-esteem.

C. will only work hard if they are given constant encouragement.

D. are afraid to push themselves beyond what they see as their limitations.

Look at the following statements (Questions 17-22) and the list of people below. Match each
statement with the correct person or people, A-E.
Write the correct letter, A-E, in boxes 17-22 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

List of People

 A. Alfred Binet
 B. Carol Dweck
 C. Andrew Gelman
 D. Timothy Bates
 E. David Yeager and Gregory Walton

17
The methodology behind the growth mindset studies was not strict enough.

18

The idea of the growth mindset has been incorrectly interpreted.

19

Intellectual ability is an unchangeable feature of each individual.

20

The growth mindset should be promoted without students being aware of it.

21

The growth mindset is not simply about boosting students’ morale.

22

Research shows that the growth mindset has no effect on academic achievement.

Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 2? In boxes 23
—26 on your answer sheet, write

YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer

NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

23

Dweck has handled criticisms of her work in an admirable way.

 YES

NO

NOT GIVEN

24

Students’ self-perception is a more effective driver of self-confidence than actual achievement is.

YES

NO

NOT GIVEN

25

Recent evidence about growth mindset interventions has attracted unfair coverage in the media.

YES

NO

NOT GIVEN

26

Deliberate attempts to encourage students to strive for high achievement may have a negative effect.

YES

NO

NOT GIVEN