IELTS General Training Reading Practice Test 27

Text A — GREENLEAF GARDEN CENTRE: SPRING SEASONAL SALE

Greenleaf Garden Centre is delighted to announce its annual spring sale, running from 15 March to 30 April. Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned gardener, you will find significant savings across all departments. The sale has been argued to be the busiest event of the centre's year.

Key spring offers: - Bedding plants: trays of 24 plants reduced from £6.99 to £4.50 (mix-and-match six trays for £24) - Roses (bare-root, last of the season): all varieties at half price; planting must take place within five days of purchase - Vegetable seed packets: buy three, get one free across the whole range - Composts: 60-litre bags of multi-purpose £4.99 (normally £7.99); three bags for £12 - Garden tools: 25% off all brands except battery-powered tools - Greenhouses and cold frames: 15% off all sizes; free local delivery within ten miles - Outdoor pots and planters: half price on selected lines, indicated by orange stickers

The sale does not apply to plants in flower already, to items marked with a green dot (these are new arrivals), or to gift vouchers. Sale items are normally non-refundable but may be exchanged within 14 days if accompanied by a receipt.

Opening hours during the sale: - Monday to Saturday: 08:30 - 19:00 - Sundays: 10:00 - 16:00 - Bank holidays: 10:00 - 16:00

Loyalty card holders typically receive an additional 5% discount on sale prices. The centre's café and children's play area generally remain open as normal. Plant clinics with a qualified horticulturist are held every Saturday at 11:00; no booking required.

Text B — SPRING PLANTING TIPS: A GUIDE FROM OUR EXPERTS

A successful spring garden depends on careful preparation and timing. The following tips will help you make the most of the season. The advice has been argued to apply across our region, though local microclimates may vary.

Soil preparation: Begin by clearing weeds and breaking up the top 30 centimetres of soil with a fork. Mix in two buckets of well-rotted manure or compost per square metre. Do not work the soil when it is very wet — squeeze a handful: if water runs out, wait a few days.

Frost dates: In our region, the last expected frost is normally around mid-May. Tender plants such as tomatoes, runner beans and courgettes should not be planted outdoors until after this date. Hardy vegetables — peas, broad beans, lettuce — can be sown directly from early April.

Bedding plants: Plant out only when night temperatures are reliably above 7°C. Water well immediately after planting and check daily for the first week. Pinch out the tips of fast-growing bedding such as petunias to encourage bushy growth.

Seed sowing indoors: Seeds sown indoors should be transferred outside gradually over a period of about seven to ten days — a process called 'hardening off'. Put trays outside during the day and bring them back in at night for the first few days.

Watering: New plants need a deep watering twice a week rather than a light daily sprinkle. Water early in the morning if possible; never water in full midday sun.

Pest watch: Slugs and snails are particularly active in damp spring weather. Use copper tape around pots, beer traps near vegetable beds, or wildlife-friendly pellets if needed. Inspect young plants every morning during wet weeks.

Text C — GREENLEAF GARDEN CENTRE: STAFF HANDBOOK INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the Greenleaf team. This handbook summarises the main policies that all employees, including seasonal and part-time staff, are expected to follow. The handbook has been argued to provide all the day-to-day reference points new staff are likely to need in their first months.

Working hours and breaks: - A standard full-time week is 39 hours, normally worked over five days. - Part-time staff are contracted for a minimum of 16 hours per week. - A 30-minute unpaid lunch break is taken after no more than five continuous hours of work. - Two paid 15-minute rest breaks are taken in any shift over six hours. - Staff working bank holidays receive time-and-a-half pay or an additional day of leave by arrangement.

Uniform and appearance: - A polo shirt and gilet are normally provided. Trousers or skirts must be black or dark navy. - Closed-toe shoes are required at all times for safety; sandals and open shoes are not permitted. - Long hair must be tied back when handling plants or operating equipment. - Visible jewellery should be limited to a wedding band and one pair of small ear studs. - The full uniform must be worn whenever you are visible to customers, including in the car park.

Customer service: - All customers should be greeted within five seconds of approaching them; if you are busy, acknowledge them with a smile and a 'someone will be with you very shortly.' - Refunds for non-sale plants are available for 30 days with proof of purchase. After 30 days, refunds normally require manager approval. - We operate a plant guarantee: if a tree, shrub or hardy perennial planted correctly fails within twelve months, we will replace it free of charge on production of the original receipt. - Complaints in person must be referred to a duty manager within ten minutes.

Health and safety: - Manual-handling training is normally mandatory within the first four weeks. Any item over 20 kg must be moved by two people or with a trolley. - Chemical-treatment products may only be handled by staff who have completed the Pesticide and Herbicide Handling module. - Personal protective equipment (PPE) is provided free of charge.

Text D — GREENLEAF GARDEN CENTRE: STAFF DISCOUNTS AND TRAINING

Staff discounts: - All staff typically receive 20% off plants, sundries and garden buildings purchased for personal use, after a six-week probationary period. - The discount applies only to items personally collected and paid for at the till during a shift, never for resale. - The discount does not apply to gift vouchers, books, café food, or any item already reduced by more than 30%. - A separate seasonal-staff discount of 10% normally applies during the spring and autumn sales for short-term employees who have completed at least four weeks' service.

Training and development: - The centre offers a structured training programme leading to recognised RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) qualifications. Staff in their first year are encouraged to complete RHS Level 1 (Principles of Horticulture), at the centre's expense. - Specialist modules are available in plant identification, pest control, design consultation, and propagation. These normally run as evening sessions during winter months only. - Staff who complete RHS Level 2 within their first two years qualify for an automatic salary increment of £600 per year and may apply for the Plant Adviser role. - Time spent on accredited training is paid at the standard hourly rate. External study time is unpaid but the centre provides revision materials and may, by line-manager arrangement, allow up to two days of paid study leave per qualification.

All training is normally recorded on your personal development plan, reviewed during your annual appraisal in October. Career progression depends primarily on completed qualifications and on demonstrated customer-service skills, rated by mystery shoppers four times per year.

A The British garden, in all its many forms, is widely regarded as one of the most distinctive features of the country's cultural landscape. Yet the idea of a private domestic garden is, in fact, comparatively recent. For most of British history, what we would now call gardens were either the productive plots attached to ordinary cottages, growing vegetables, herbs and a few flowers for the household, or the highly formal landscapes of the very rich. The middle-class ornamental garden, which most people today picture as the typical British garden, apparently only emerged on a wide scale in the nineteenth century, when industrial wealth and new housing patterns created the right conditions for it. The pattern has been argued to mirror the rise of the modern middle class itself, and broadly to reflect the way in which leisure horticulture became a popular pursuit in Britain.

B The earliest documented gardens on British soil reportedly date from the Roman period. The Romans introduced many of the food plants that later became staples of the British vegetable garden, including peas, leeks, walnut trees, mulberries, and the sweet cherry. They also introduced ornamental elements that would only return in force more than a thousand years later: peristyle courtyards, formal beds laid out geometrically, ornamental ponds, and even an early form of underfloor-heated horticulture for sensitive plants. After the withdrawal of Roman administration in the early fifth century, most of these features fell out of use, but some of the food crops survived in monastic gardens.

C Medieval gardens were primarily practical. The monasteries, which were the main centres of horticultural knowledge between the seventh and the fifteenth centuries, cultivated medicinal herbs, fruit trees and vegetables, and kept detailed written records of cultivation techniques. Castle gardens, where they existed, included both productive and decorative elements: walled enclosures known as 'pleasure gardens' planted with roses, lilies, violets and lavender. The medieval love of fragrance — at a time when sanitation was poor — was, according to most accounts, a major driver of garden design.

D The Tudor and Stuart periods brought what is widely regarded as the first great age of ornamental garden design in Britain. The grandest examples, such as Hampton Court Palace under Henry VIII and later under William III, drew on Italian Renaissance and French Baroque models: knot gardens, parterres, fountains, geometric topiary, and long axial vistas. These gardens were status objects, intended to display the wealth, learning and political reach of their owners. Plants began to arrive in great quantities from the New World after 1600: maize, tobacco, tomatoes, dahlias, and many others were grown in Britain decades before they were widely cultivated for food or commerce.

E The eighteenth century saw the most distinctive contribution that Britain has made to garden design: the English landscape garden. Pioneered by William Kent, developed on a vast scale by Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, and refined later by Humphry Repton, the landscape garden essentially rejected the formality of the previous century in favour of apparently natural lakes, sweeping lawns, hidden ditches called ha-has (which kept livestock out without breaking the view), and carefully placed clumps of trees. The aim was to create the impression of a perfected version of natural countryside, often inspired by the paintings of Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin. Capability Brown is said to have designed more than 170 such estates, and his style was widely imitated on the European continent.

F The Victorian period democratised gardening. Industrial wealth and rapid railway expansion produced a large middle class with suburban houses and small gardens of their own. New glass technology made greenhouses affordable; new heating systems made it possible to grow exotic plants year-round. The Victorians were keen plant hunters: explorers funded by botanical institutions and private patrons returned from Asia and the Americas with rhododendrons, fuchsias, chrysanthemums, and many ferns. Bedding-out — the dense planting of brightly coloured annuals in geometric patterns — became fashionable. Gardening magazines, founded from the 1830s onwards, gave ordinary householders practical advice on every aspect of the new hobby.

G The twentieth century saw both modernist experimentation and a return to apparent informality. The writer and designer Gertrude Jekyll, working with the architect Edwin Lutyens around 1900, popularised the herbaceous border — drifts of perennials arranged by colour, height and seasonality — that remains a model for many British gardens today. After 1945, with smaller plots and less domestic help, gardens became more practical: low-maintenance shrubs, decking, raised vegetable beds. The late twentieth century brought renewed interest in wildlife-friendly planting, in heritage vegetable varieties, and in formal influence from continental Europe. Today the British garden continues to evolve, balancing ecological concerns, climate adaptation — with longer dry summers — and the persistent traditional pleasures of growing one's own flowers and food.