English Base

Test 014

Reading Practice: The Hidden Life of Soil

Reading Text

A handful of soil lifted from a garden bed looks inert, yet it is anything but. In the palm it may hold more living organisms than there are people on the planet, almost all invisible. A single gram of healthy earth can contain billions of bacteria, together with fungi, tiny worms and single-celled animals. What appears to be dirt is in fact a crowded community, working quietly.

Among these inhabitants, fungi deserve attention. Their thread-like growth spreads through the soil and links the roots of neighbouring plants, forming networks that have gradually been recognised as an underground transport system. Water and nutrients can be moved along these threads, and carbon may pass from one plant to another. The exchange is not simple charity, since the fungi receive sugars in return. Evidence from forests shows that one network may connect dozens of trees.

This arrangement is easily damaged. Heavy machines driven over a field press the air out of the spaces between particles, and once collapsed they recover only slowly. Compacted ground sheds water instead of absorbing it, so roots struggle to breathe and to extend. Farmers have long noticed that footprints pressed into a wet field may last for years, while the crop above them looks healthy.

One practical response has been the wider use of cover crops — plants grown not to be harvested but to shield the surface between main seasons. Their roots loosen the ground, their remains feed the organisms below, and such a field holds moisture better in dry spells. The approach is not free of cost: seed must be bought and sowing timed carefully. Even so, the argument for it has grown stronger as evidence has accumulated.

Judging the health of soil is harder than measuring its chemistry. Laboratory tests report nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, and these figures are reliable as far as they go, but there is a tendency to treat them as a full description, though they reveal nothing about structure or the community in the ground. Newer methods count microbial DNA, weigh the carbon stored in organic matter, or time how quickly water sinks into a sample. No single reading is enough.

Soil, then, is better understood as a system than as a substance. Its fertility is not a fixed quantity stored in a bag but a condition that can be maintained or destroyed by how the land is treated. Only when the underground community is taken into account will the phrase 'healthy soil' acquire a precise meaning.

Comprehension Test

Question 1. What is the author's main point about a handful of soil in the first paragraph?

✗ IncorrectThe text never compares soil with other materials; the comparison is between the number of organisms and the number of people on the planet.

✓ CorrectThe paragraph speaks of "more living organisms than there are people on the planet, almost all invisible" and calls the soil "a crowded community".

✗ IncorrectThe author stresses how ordinary the soil looks ("what appears to be dirt"), not that it varies from one garden to another.

✗ IncorrectThe organisms are working in the ground itself; lifting the soil merely gives the observer a chance to discuss them.

Question 2. Why does the author compare the number of soil organisms with the number of people on the planet?

✗ IncorrectThe very next words say the organisms are "almost all invisible", so the comparison cannot be about their size.

✗ IncorrectThe passage is about soil life; human population growth is never discussed, and the figure of people serves only as a yardstick.

✗ IncorrectThe gram is simply the unit used for the second figure; the passage gives no reason for preferring it to other units.

✓ CorrectThe scale of the comparison ("a handful", "a single gram") is meant to make the density of soil life imaginable.

Question 3. According to the second paragraph, the networks formed by fungi

✓ CorrectThe text states that "water and nutrients can be moved along these threads" and that "carbon may pass from one plant to another".

✗ IncorrectForests are named only as places where evidence was gathered, not as the sole habitat of such networks.

✗ IncorrectThe passage explicitly says the fungi "receive sugars in return", so the flow is not one-way.

✗ IncorrectThe threads "link the roots of neighbouring plants"; they attach to the roots rather than taking their place.

Question 4. The phrase "not simple charity" in paragraph two implies that the exchange between fungi and plants

✗ IncorrectIf the arrangement favoured plants alone there would be no payment, yet the fungi "receive sugars in return".

✗ IncorrectThe word "charity" is denied, not increased: what is denied is that the giving is one-sided.

✓ CorrectPlants gain water, nutrients and carbon, while the fungi "receive sugars in return" — a trade rather than a gift.

✗ IncorrectNothing in the paragraph suggests damage; on the contrary, both sides are described as gaining something.

Question 5. What does the author suggest by noting that one network may connect dozens of trees?

✗ IncorrectThe passage makes no comparison between forest and farmland; forests appear only where the research was done.

✓ Correct"Dozens of trees" joined by "one network" shows that the fungal threads reach well beyond a single root system.

✗ IncorrectThe text limits neither the fungi nor their networks to forests; the forest is an example, not a boundary.

✗ IncorrectThis contradicts the sentence directly: the network itself is shared, which is why it can connect dozens of trees.

Question 6. Why does compacted ground make life difficult for roots?

✓ CorrectThe text says such ground "sheds water instead of absorbing it, so roots struggle to breathe and to extend", and that the air spaces collapse.

✗ IncorrectWeight is not the issue: the problem is that the air spaces between the particles have been pressed out of existence.

✗ IncorrectTemperature is never mentioned as a consequence of compaction; the paragraph deals with air and water.

✗ IncorrectThe opposite is described: compacted ground sheds water, so the shortage rather than the surplus is the difficulty.

Question 7. What does the detail about footprints in a wet field demonstrate?

✗ IncorrectThe author reports what farmers have noticed; no rule about walking on fields is proposed anywhere in the passage.

✗ IncorrectSoftness merely explains how the mark appears; the point being made is how long the mark survives.

✓ CorrectThe footprints "may last for years", which illustrates the slow recovery mentioned just before ("they recover only slowly").

✗ IncorrectCompression is described as removing air, so a footprint cannot be presented as a way of letting air in.

Question 8. The author notes that the harm caused by compaction is easy to miss because

✗ IncorrectThis reverses the text: compacted ground makes roots "struggle to breathe and to extend", so deeper growth is exactly what is blocked.

✗ IncorrectNo such repair is described; on the contrary, recovery is said to be slow and marks last for years.

✗ IncorrectThe passage in fact credits farmers with noticing long-lasting footprints, so inattention is not the explanation offered.

✓ CorrectThe last sentence sets the healthy look of "the crop above them" against roots that "struggle to breathe and to extend" in compressed ground.

Question 9. Cover crops are planted mainly in order to

✗ IncorrectThe definition given is "plants grown not to be harvested", so a saleable second crop is exactly what they are not.

✓ CorrectTheir purpose is "to shield the surface between main seasons"; the paragraph then lists the loosening of soil and the feeding of organisms below.

✗ IncorrectAnimals are not mentioned at all; the only consumers named are "the organisms below" in the soil.

✗ IncorrectThe text presents cover crops as adding to the soil system, not as stripping anything out of it.

Question 10. Which drawback of cover crops does the text mention?

✓ Correct"The approach is not free of cost: seed must be bought and sowing timed carefully" — that is the single practical objection named.

✗ IncorrectThe text claims the opposite: a field treated this way "holds moisture better in dry spells".

✗ IncorrectInsects appear nowhere in the paragraph; the author is concerned with soil condition, not with pests.

✗ IncorrectNeither climate nor region is discussed in the paragraph, so nothing restricts cover crops to cold areas.

Question 11. What is the author's attitude towards cover crops?

✗ IncorrectThe closing sentence reports that "the argument for it has grown stronger", which is the opposite of lasting doubt.

✗ IncorrectCosts are acknowledged but not weighed as equal: the author still says the case for cover crops has become stronger.

✓ CorrectThe author lists the benefits, admits that "the approach is not free of cost", and concludes that the argument has grown stronger.

✗ IncorrectThe paragraph names real limitations — seed must be bought and sowing timed carefully — so the claim that they settle every question is too absolute.

Question 12. What weakness of standard laboratory tests does the text point out?

✗ IncorrectPrice is discussed only for cover-crop seed; laboratory costs are never mentioned.

✗ IncorrectThe tests are said to report nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, so nutrients are exactly what they do measure.

✗ IncorrectTheir results are called "reliable as far as they go"; the criticism concerns what they leave out, not inconsistency.

✓ CorrectThe figures "reveal nothing about structure or the community in the ground", which is why the author asks for several different readings.

Question 13. In paragraph five, the word "reliable" most nearly means

✗ Incorrect"Reliable" refers to the trustworthiness of the figures, not to the price of obtaining them.

✓ CorrectThe phrase "as far as they go" narrows the meaning: the numbers can be trusted for chemistry and nothing beyond it.

✗ IncorrectNothing is said about how farmers receive the results; the word describes the figures themselves.

✗ IncorrectPrediction of harvests is never attributed to the tests, and the paragraph stresses what they cannot show.

Question 14. Which statement best expresses the author's conclusion?

✓ CorrectFertility is described as "a condition that can be maintained or destroyed by how the land is treated" rather than "a fixed quantity".

✗ IncorrectThe previous paragraph insists that "no single reading is enough" and that several measurements are needed together.

✗ IncorrectThe whole passage argues the reverse: chemistry alone is called an incomplete measure, and the living community is what the author wants included.

✗ IncorrectThis contradicts the final claim that the phrase "healthy soil" cannot be made precise until that community is taken into account.

Question 15. The tone of the passage is best described as

✗ IncorrectProblems such as compaction are reported calmly and with practical responses; the author never calls for emergency action.

✗ IncorrectThere is no joke or wordplay in the passage; the style is explanatory and measured throughout.

✓ CorrectThe author explains the science and then steadily builds a case for treating soil as a living system, using phrases such as "the argument for it has grown stronger".

✗ IncorrectResearch is treated as useful but incomplete; the author asks for more kinds of measurement, not for less trust in science.
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