IELTS Academic Reading Practice Test 13

The economics of space exploration has undergone a fundamental transformation in the twenty-first century. What was once the exclusive domain of government agencies with virtually unlimited budgets has become an increasingly commercial enterprise. NASA's Apollo programme, which landed humans on the Moon in 1969, cost approximately $25.4 billion at the time, equivalent to roughly $260 billion in current values. By contrast, SpaceX's development of the Falcon 9 rocket cost approximately $390 million, a figure that would have been inconceivable under traditional government procurement models.

The reduction in launch costs has been the most significant economic development in the space industry. SpaceX's reusable Falcon 9 rocket has reduced the cost of placing one kilogram of payload into low Earth orbit from approximately $54,500 (on the Space Shuttle) to around $2,720. The company's Starship vehicle, currently in development, aims to reduce this further to approximately $10 per kilogram, a cost reduction that would fundamentally alter the economics of space-based activities including satellite deployment, manufacturing, tourism, and resource extraction.

The satellite communications sector has emerged as the largest commercial space market, generating revenues exceeding $280 billion annually. Low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations, such as SpaceX's Starlink (operating over 5,000 satellites) and Amazon's planned Project Kuiper, aim to provide global broadband internet coverage. The potential to connect the estimated 3 billion people currently without reliable internet access represents an enormous commercial opportunity, while also addressing a significant digital divide. However, the proliferation of satellites has raised concerns about orbital debris, light pollution affecting astronomical observations, and the environmental impact of frequent rocket launches.

Space mining represents perhaps the most speculative yet potentially transformative economic opportunity beyond Earth. A single metallic asteroid measuring 500 metres in diameter could contain platinum-group metals worth trillions of dollars at current market prices. Several companies, including Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries (both subsequently acquired), have been founded with the explicit goal of asteroid mining. While the technical challenges are formidable and the regulatory framework virtually non-existent, the passage of the US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act in 2015, which granted American citizens the right to own and sell resources extracted from celestial bodies, provided a legal foundation for future commercial activity.

The geopolitical dimensions of space economics are increasingly significant. China's space programme has advanced rapidly, achieving lunar far-side landings and constructing the Tiangong space station. The European Space Agency, India's ISRO, and Japan's JAXA continue to pursue ambitious programmes. The Artemis Accords, championed by the United States, seek to establish norms for peaceful exploration and resource utilisation, though not all space-faring nations have signed. The potential for conflict over lunar resources, orbital slots, and radio frequency allocation ensures that space economics will remain intertwined with international relations for decades to come.

Antibiotic resistance has been described by the World Health Organisation as one of the greatest threats to global health, food security, and development. Bacteria evolve resistance to antibiotics through genetic mutations and the horizontal transfer of resistance genes between species. The overuse and misuse of antibiotics in human medicine, agriculture, and animal husbandry have dramatically accelerated this natural evolutionary process. An estimated 1.27 million deaths in 2019 were directly attributable to antibiotic-resistant infections, with a further 4.95 million deaths associated with resistance, according to a landmark study published in The Lancet.

The development pipeline for new antibiotics has slowed dramatically since the golden age of antibiotic discovery in the mid-twentieth century. Of the 18 classes of antibiotics currently in clinical use, most were discovered between 1940 and 1962. No entirely new class of antibiotic has been approved for clinical use since 1987. The economics of antibiotic development are unfavourable: new antibiotics are typically reserved for resistant infections, limiting sales volumes, while development costs rival those of other pharmaceuticals. Several pharmaceutical companies have exited the antibiotic market entirely.

Alternative approaches to combating bacterial infections are attracting increasing research investment. Bacteriophage therapy, which uses viruses that naturally prey on bacteria, has shown promise in treating infections resistant to all available antibiotics. CRISPR-based antimicrobials that target specific resistance genes represent a more technologically ambitious approach. Vaccines that prevent bacterial infections in the first place reduce the need for antibiotics altogether. Meanwhile, stewardship programmes that promote appropriate antibiotic use, restrict agricultural applications, and improve infection prevention in healthcare settings remain essential for slowing the development of resistance.

Creativity, broadly defined as the ability to produce work that is both novel and useful, has long fascinated psychologists, educators, and business leaders. Early theories, influenced by Romantic notions of artistic genius, treated creativity as an innate gift possessed by a talented few. Modern research has substantially revised this view, demonstrating that creativity is a cognitive process that can be understood, developed, and enhanced. Divergent thinking, the ability to generate multiple solutions to open-ended problems, and convergent thinking, the ability to evaluate and select the most promising ideas, are both essential components.

The neuroscience of creativity has revealed that creative thinking involves dynamic interactions between multiple brain networks rather than a single 'creativity centre.' The default mode network, active during mind-wandering and daydreaming, generates spontaneous ideas and associations. The executive control network evaluates these ideas against task requirements. The salience network switches between the two, identifying promising ideas worthy of further development. Functional MRI studies have shown that highly creative individuals display greater connectivity between these networks, enabling more fluid transitions between idea generation and evaluation.

Environmental factors significantly influence creative output. Teresa Amabile of Harvard Business School has identified three components of workplace creativity: domain expertise, creative thinking skills, and intrinsic motivation. Her research demonstrates that external rewards and time pressure can actually reduce creativity by shifting attention from the task itself to the reward or deadline. Conversely, psychological safety, the belief that one can take risks without being punished, has been consistently associated with higher levels of team creativity. Google's Project Aristotle famously identified psychological safety as the single most important factor in high-performing teams.