Cambridge IELTS 4 General Training Reading Test B

Booking a Holiday Cottage

How to book. When you have chosen two or three cottages from our brochure, phone the Holiday Booking Office. We will check availability and our staff will help you decide. If none of your choices is available, we will do our best to suggest alternatives.

Office hours. From 31st March to 20th October the office is open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 9.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m., and Thursday from 9.30 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. The office is closed on Saturday and Sunday. From 21st October to 30th March the office is open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 9.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m., Thursday from 9.30 a.m. to 5.00 p.m., and Saturday from 9.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. On Saturdays in winter the office closes earlier than on weekdays. The office is closed on Sundays throughout the year.

Deposit and confirmation. When a provisional reservation has been made it is held for seven days. We give you a holiday reference number and ask you to complete a booking form and return it with a deposit of one third of the cottage rental. If we have not received the completed and signed booking form and deposit within seven days, the reservation is cancelled. When we receive the form and deposit we send you a Booking Confirmation in the post, together with a note showing the balance due.

Balance. For bookings made in the UK, the outstanding balance must be settled within ten weeks of sending the deposit.

Arrival and departure. Please do not arrive at the cottage before 3.30 p.m. or later than 7.00 p.m. On the morning of departure, leave the property by 10 a.m. so that caretakers can prepare it for the next visitors. Please leave the cottage as you found it and do not move furniture.

Overseas bookings. Provisional bookings from overseas visitors are held for 14 days. Payment must be made by credit card or by cheque in Pounds Sterling.

Last-minute bookings. If your reservation is made within ten weeks of the holiday start date, full payment is due at the time of booking. The price is the same as for earlier bookings — no discount is offered for late bookings.

Electricity. In most properties electricity is charged separately from the rental, by meter reading, by a fixed charge, or by a coin meter. In some cottages electricity is included in the rental, and in a very few there is no electricity at all.

Linen. In most properties you may hire linen at an extra cost per person per week, or bring your own. Where linen is hired it includes bed linen, bath and hand towels and tea cloths, but not towels for swimming or beach use. Linen is not available for cots.

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North Coast College Campuses

Wollongbar. Wollongbar is renowned for its Tropical Fruit Growing program. Modules include macadamias, bushfoods and coffee production. The campus attracts students from across the region interested in subtropical horticulture. The Wollongbar area is particularly well suited to this kind of agriculture because of its mild climate.

Grafton. Grafton offers traineeships in agriculture, including Beef and Dairy. The campus has strong links with local farms and rural businesses. Students receive practical training in animal husbandry, pasture management and farm machinery.

Tweed Heads. Tweed Heads is the base for the Fitness Instruction course, which teaches students how to design, plan and lead a safe fitness program. The campus has good sporting facilities and a close relationship with local gyms and community centres.

Lismore. Lismore offers the Aged Support program, which prepares students for careers in residential and community-based care for older people. The course covers personal care, nutrition and social support, with practical placements in local facilities.

Port Macquarie. Port Macquarie offers the Early Childhood Nursing program, giving students the theoretical knowledge and practical experience to work with infants and young children in health care settings. Placements take place in hospitals, clinics and children's centres.

Ballina. Ballina campus is the base for the Environmental Practice course, which includes Coastal Management. The campus is ideally located near the coast and offers students the chance to study coastal ecosystems, dune restoration and beach protection in the field.

Coffs Harbour. Coffs Harbour offers Marine Industry Management programs, which cover aquaculture, commercial fishing, marine conservation and the management of marine resources. The campus has a marina on its doorstep, giving students hands-on access to the marine industry.

Information on Photocopying

Information Services provides a Prepaid Services Card system for student and staff use of photocopiers and associated equipment. The system operates in three locations: the Library, the B Block Computer Labs, and the Student Representative Council (SRC). The same card system is used to pay for laser printing in B Block.

Each card has a unique six-digit account number that accesses the system. Students and other users must purchase a Prepaid Services Card from a teller machine. Teller machines are located in the Library and in the B Block Computer Labs, and a smaller machine is available at the SRC. It is important to keep a record of your card's account number and to sign your name or write your student ID number on the card.

Users prepay for Library, Computer Lab or SRC services by adding value to their Prepaid Services Card. There are no refunds, so only add value for the amount of prepaid services you intend to use. The maximum amount of prepaid services or value that can be added to a card is $50.00.

The two note and coin teller machines — one in the photocopy room on Level 2 of the Library and the other in the B Block Computer Labs — accept any denomination of coins or notes up to $50.00. The smaller SRC machine accepts coins only.

When a new card is purchased, the Library and B Block Computer Labs teller machines automatically issue a receipt to the user. When adding credit to an existing card, the printing of receipts is optional.

The card system is used for copying and printing. It is not linked to any other system, and it cannot be used to pay library fines, which must be settled by other means.

For added security, a card user may choose to allocate a PIN (Personal Identification Number) to their Prepaid Services Card. The PIN must then be entered each time the card is used. A PIN is not assigned automatically — the user must request one.

Understanding Bee Behaviour

A Bee behaviour has always been a source of wonder. Ancient civilisations marvelled at the organisation of the hive and at the way bees seem to act as a single, intelligent colony. For centuries, however, the question of how bees communicated with one another when they found food remained a mystery. The idea that bees might possess a form of language was dismissed by most scientists, and the study of bee communication would eventually revolutionise the whole field of animal behaviour.

B The breakthrough came in the twentieth century, when the Austrian scientist Karl von Frisch began a long series of careful observations. Working with specially designed glass-walled observation hives, he was able to watch what returning forager bees did when they arrived back at the nest. Von Frisch noticed that returning bees performed a series of distinctive movements on the vertical comb. He realised that these 'dances' were not random movements but appeared to convey information to the other bees.

C Von Frisch identified three different kinds of dance. The first, a simple circular movement, seemed to tell the other bees that a food source was nearby. The second, a semicircular or 'sickle' movement, appeared to be used when the food was slightly further away. The third was a more elaborate movement which he called the 'waggle' dance. Each dance seemed to correspond to a different distance, and each was performed with increasing excitement the richer the food source.

D Experimenting further, von Frisch unravelled the mystery of the two simpler dances. These dances, he concluded, told the bees simply that within a short distance of the hive there was a food source worth chasing. The longer and more excitedly the scout danced, the richer the promise of the food source. The scent she carried on her body was a message to the other bees that this particular food was the one they were looking for. The others would then troop out of the hive and fly in spiralling circles, sniffing the wind for the promised food.

E At first von Frisch thought the bees were responding only to the scent of the food. But what did the third dance mean? And if bees were responding only to the scent, how could they also sniff out food hundreds of metres away from the hive, food which was sometimes downwind? On a hunch he started moving the feeding dish further and further away and noticed that the dances of the returning scouts began to change. When he placed the dish over nine metres away, the sickle dance came into play. Once he moved it past thirty-six metres, the scouts began to perform the waggle dance. The measurement of distance was precise: a dish three hundred metres away produced fifteen runs through the pattern in thirty seconds, while at sixty metres the number dropped to eleven.

F Von Frisch noticed something further. When the scout bees came home to tell their sisters about a food source, sometimes they would dance outside on the horizontal entrance platform of the hive, and sometimes on the vertical wall inside. The outside dance was fairly easy to decode: the straight portion of the waggle dance pointed directly towards the food source, so the bees merely had to decode the distance message and fly off in that direction to find their food.

G By studying the dance on the inner wall of the hive, von Frisch discovered a remarkable method the dancer used to tell her sisters the direction of the food in relation to the sun. When inside the hive the dancer cannot see the sun, so she uses gravity instead. The direction of the sun is represented by the top of the hive wall. If she runs straight up, the feeding place is in the same direction as the sun. If, for example, the feeding place is 40 degrees to the left of the sun, the dancer runs 40 degrees to the left of the vertical line. This was the first of von Frisch's remarkable discoveries, and it would go on to revolutionise the study of animal behaviour.