IELTS Practice Test (Computer-Based)

Questions 27–31

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

27What happened after the 1954 demonstration?

AAutomatic translation was achieved soon afterwards.BEarly systems failed with ambiguous sentences.CIBM stopped working on computers.DThe government increased funding.

28Statistical translation systems worked by

Afollowing grammar rules written by linguists.Bcalculating likely matches between texts.Cimitating the human brain.Dtranslating one word at a time from a dictionary.

29The Canadian parliament is mentioned because its records

Awere the first to be translated by machine.Bare available in two languages.Ccontain many legal terms.Dwere used to test human translators.

30What is the main advantage of neural machine translation?

AIt processes whole sentences at once.BIt needs very little data.CIt works equally well for all languages.DIt never makes mistakes.

31According to the passage, literary translation

Ais now mostly done by machines.Bis the area least affected so far.Cis better paid than post-editing.Dhas disappeared as a profession.

Questions 32–36

Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer? Choose 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.

32It would be wrong to believe that human translators are no longer needed.

YESNONOT GIVEN

33Machine translation is most dangerous when the system is uncertain.

YESNONOT GIVEN

34Yoruba will soon have enough data to train good systems.

YESNONOT GIVEN

35Machine translation has made everyday communication easier for many people.

YESNONOT GIVEN

36Language can be treated simply as a code.

YESNONOT GIVEN

Questions 37–40

Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A–F.

Endings

Abecause there is not enough digital text in those languages.

Bafter a critical government report.

Cbecause the work is often less rewarding.

Dby using statistics instead of rules.

Ebecause computers became cheaper.

Fwhen humans and machines work together.

37Funding for machine translation fell in the 1960s

38Speakers of some major languages get worse results

39Many translators dislike post-editing

40The writer believes the best translations are produced

Reading Test 2 (Academic) – Passage 3

Lost and Found in Translation

Questions 27–31

Questions 32–36

Questions 37–40