High Speed High Rise Reading Ielts Answers and Questions

Originally published July 2026. Last reviewed 3 July 2026.

Published 3 July 2026.

The Blog post contains the following IELTS Reading Questions:
IELTS Reading Matching Headings.
IELTS Reading Diagram Completion.
IELTS Reading Sentence Completion.
Stay informed and prepared for success – Explore our comprehensive Reading Test Info page to get valuable insights, exam format details, and expert tips for mastering the IELTS Reading section.
IELTS Reading Passage – High speed high rise
High Speed High Rise
A Chinese manufacturer has developed a method for producing 30-story, earthquake-resistant skyscrapers that assemble in just 15 days.
Broad Sustainable Building, also known as “Broad,” was founded and is led by Zhang Yue. On January 1, 2012, a time-lapse film of the 30-story feat was made public. A clock in the bottom-right corner of the screen displays the time as construction workers are seen scurrying about like gnats. A 100-meter-tall tower known as the T30 will be built to overlook the Xiang River in Hunan in under 360 hours from an empty plot. The Broad logo, a lowercase letter that wraps around itself in imitation of the @ symbol, emerges on the screen when the camera circles the building overhead at the end of the video. The business is currently franchising its technology to collaborators in Russia, Brazil, and India. The first standardized skyscraper in the world is what it is offering, and Zhang hopes to make Broad the McDonald’s of the sustainable building sector with it. Zhang responds, “It’s not a construction company,” when asked why he chose to launch a business in the construction industry. It is a structural revolution.
Broad has so far erected 16 structures in China and one more in Cancun. Two facilities in Hunan, about an hour’s drive from Broad Town, the expansive headquarters, are where they are made. The components used to construct the skyscrapers’ floors and ceilings have dimensions of 15.6 by 3.9 meters and a depth of 45 cm. Each floor module is threaded with pipes and ducts for power, water, and garbage while it is still in the factory. Additionally, the flooring of the client’s choice is pre-installed on top. Two modules are delivered to the construction site in standardized truckloads, each containing the required columns, bolts, and equipment to connect them. When they go to the building, which is put together like a set of toy Lego bricks, a crane lifts each part right to the top. Workers connect the pipes and cables swiftly using the materials on the module. The distinctive column design incorporates tabs that bolt into the floors above and below and diagonal bracing at either end. The last process is crane-slotting in the outer walls and windows that are highly insulated. The outcome is by no means appealing, but the technique is surprisingly safe and astonishingly quick.
Zhang credits his inventiveness and outsider viewpoint on technology for his achievement. In the 1980s, Zhang was a student of art, but he quit the field in 1988 to develop Broad. The business originally produced non-pressurized boilers. He built his fortune on boilers, according to Juliet Jiang, his senior vice president. Although he could have continued his business, he realized the importance of nonelectric air conditioning. She argues that by the end of the decade, China’s economy had outgrown the country’s electrical grid. Power shortages were starting to pose a significant threat to growth. Large natural gas-powered air conditioning (AC) machines might save energy costs, cut operating expenses, and provide more dependable climate control for businesses. Today, Broad operates facilities in more than 70 nations, including some of the world’s biggest structures and airports.
The AC company of Zhang was booming in the past 20 years. But a number of things happened in concert to alter his course. Zhang first became an environmentalist. The second occurred in 2008 when an earthquake struck the Sichuan Province of China, resulting in the collapse of several shoddy structures. He claims that in the beginning, he sought to persuade developers to retrofit existing structures in order to make them more solid and sustainable, but he wasn’t very successful. Zhang then hired his own engineers and began investigating ways to create affordable, ecologically friendly buildings that could survive earthquakes. After six months of investigation, Zhang had given up on using conventional techniques. The expense of employing designers and specialists for each new construction irritated him. He determined that moving the building to the factory was the best approach to reduce expenses. However, Broad had to stray from accepted architectural practices in order to build a skyscraper in a factory. It was necessary to change the load-bearing structure as a whole. Less concrete was used in the floors to reduce the building’s overall weight, which allowed for a reduction in structural steel.
Prefabricated and modular buildings are becoming more and more well-liked all around the world. However, prefabricated and modular structures elsewhere are often low-rise. Only Broad uses these techniques for buildings. Zhang believes that the environmental benefits alone are worth the effort. A conventional high-rise will generate approximately 3,000 tons of construction debris, while a Broad structure will generate only 25 tons, according to Broad’s calculations. Broad structures consume no water during construction, in contrast to traditional buildings, which use 5,000 tons of water. Additionally, construction is less risky. The risk of injury can be reduced by installing elevator systems at the factory, including the base, rails, and machine room. Additionally, Broad orders a finished elevator car and drops it into the shaft using a crane rather than bringing it to the location in sections. The goal of elevator manufacturers is to preinstall the doors in the future, entirely removing the possibility that a worker could trip and fall. He claims that conventional construction is disorganized. “We moved construction into the factory,” the statement reads. Zhang claims that his structures will help address the myriad issues facing the construction industry and that they will also be easier and less expensive to create.
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Recommended Questions:
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High Speed High Rise IELTS Reading Questions
Question 1-5 
In the question, you will find a list of headings provided from I to VIII. Each heading will put forward the main idea of the paragraph in the text.
List of headings:
A joint enterprise project
Additional engineering successes
Looking at the overall advantages
A distinctive structure
Traditional techniques have several advantages.
A shift in course
Worldwide brands that are comparable examples
Construction site and factory
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Question 6-9
Label the diagram You can use ONLY ONE WORD, to fill in the answer.
5. Pipes and ducts installed while in ___________.6. Chosen by customer ___________7. Diagonal bracing at top and bottom of ___________8. Section contains less __________ than a conventional building.
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Question 10-13
Choose No More than two words can be used to answer the question. In the answer box, you need to fill the answer with the help of one or two words.
10. Zhang describes his company as a  _______.11. The very first goods produced by Broad were  _______.12. In China, _______ were impeding industrial development in the late 1980s.13. Broad’s AC units increase ______ along with power and cost advantages.
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High speed high rise Reading Answers
1. IV2. VIII3. VI4. III5. FACTORY6. FLOORING OR FLOOR7. COLUMN8. CONCRET9. STRUCTURAL REVOLUTION10. [NON-PRESSURIZED] BOILERS12. POWER SHORTAGE13. CLIMATE CONTROL
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Irish Potato Famine Reading Ielts Answers and Questions

Originally published July 2026. Last reviewed 3 July 2026.

Published 3 July 2026.

The Blog post contains the following IELTS Reading Questions:
IELTS Reading Matching Headings Questions
IELTS Reading Matching Sentence Ending Questions
IELTS Reading Summary completion Stay informed and prepared for success – Explore our comprehensive Reading Test Info page to get valuable insights, exam format details, and expert tips for mastering the IELTS Reading section.
IELTS Reading Passage – Irish potato famine
Irish potato famine
Over 750,000 Irish people perished in the ten years that followed the Irish potato famine of 1845, including many who tried to immigrate to nations like the United States and Canada. One of Ireland’s primary issues before the potato disaster was overcrowding. The population of the nation was thought to be less than three million in the early 1500s, but by 1840 it had nearly tripled. The population increase was partly due to the abundant potato harvest, which includes practically all of the nutrients needed for human survival. However, the population of Ireland was cut in half within five years of the 1845 harvest failure. The dependency of the Irish on the potato crop, the British tenure system, and the insufficient English relief efforts were some of the factors that caused the population of the Irish to drastically decline.
Although the specific circumstances surrounding the potato’s first introduction to Europe are unknown, it is generally accepted that it did so on a Spanish ship some time in the 1600s. The belief that potatoes belonged to a botanical family of a dangerous breed persisted among Europeans for more than a century. Potatoes didn’t become a novelty item until Marie Antoinette had potato blossoms in her hair in the middle of the seventeenth century. When the potato’s nutritional significance was recognized in the late 1700s, European monarchs commanded that the vegetable be widely grown.
The vast majority of Irish people had grown to depend on the potato as their main food source by the year 1800. An Irish potato farmer would typically eat more than six pounds of potatoes every day. Families even fed their livestock potatoes that they had stockpiled for the winter. The unexpected potato blight of 1845 decimated the Irish because of this dependence. Researchers initially hypothesised that the blight was brought on by static electricity, railway smoke, or fumes from subsurface volcanoes; however, the real culprit was later identified as an airborne fungus that originated in Mexico. The disease not only wiped out the potato harvests, but it also affected all of the potatoes that were being stored at the time. Famine was killing their families, but the exhausted farmers had little left of their farming expertise to gather other crops. Those who succeeded in cultivating oats, wheat, and barley relied on the money earned from these exported crops to pay their rent in their rented residences.
Irish people experienced widespread famine as a result of the potato blight, but the British tenure system kept them in their predicament. The English had focused on their colonial land holdings after the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. British landowners understood that the easiest way to make money off of their properties was to extract the resources, export them, and charge high rents and taxes to anyone who wanted to live there. 95% of the Irish land, which was divided into five-acre allotment for people to live and farm on, was owned by Protestant landlords under the tenure system. However, the plots were continually divided into smaller parts as Ireland’s population increased. Living circumstances drastically deteriorated, forcing families to relocate to less productive terrain where essentially nothing but potatoes would grow.
Throughout the same colonisation era. The Penal Laws were also established to break the spirit of the Irish people. Irish peasants were denied fundamental human rights under the Penal Laws, including the freedom to speak their own native language, pursue particular economic opportunities, practise their religion, get education, and possess land. Despite the famine that was wreaking havoc on Ireland, landlords did nothing to help tenants who were unable to pay their rent. Between 1845 and 1847, landowners evicted almost 500,000 Irish tenants. Many of these individuals also had home fires and were imprisoned for unpaid rent.
The laissez-faire doctrine, which backed a strategy of nonintervention in the condition of the Irish, was endorsed by the majority of British officials in the 1840s. Sir Robert Peel, the former prime minister, was an outlier. He moved to remove the Corn Laws, which had been placed in place to shield British grain producers from the competition of foreign markets, out of compassion for the Irish. Peel was swiftly compelled to retire as a result of his rash decision, which cost him the favour of the British people. Lord John Russell, the new prime minister, gave full command of all relief operations in Ireland to Charles Trevelyan, his assistant. Trevelyan thought that Providence should be allowed to handle the Irish crisis. He even took action to shut food depots that were selling maize and to reroute shipments of grain that were already headed to Ireland on the justification that it would be dangerous to allow the Irish to grow dependent on other nations. A few relief initiatives, like soup kitchens and workhouses, were finally put into place; nevertheless, these were badly operated institutions that contributed to the spread of disease, tore families apart, and provided insufficient food supplies in light of the severity of Ireland’s food shortages.
The Irish potato famine still has many aftereffects that are visible today. There are people all over the world who are descended from those who left Ireland in the 1840s. In the Irish hills, a few of the houses that were removed by absentee landlords now stand empty. Many Irish dependents still harbour resentment toward the British for prioritising politics over people. Irish people are still plagued by the potato blight itself during specific planting seasons when the climate is conducive to the fungus’s growth.
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Irish potato famine IELTS reading questions
Question 1-5
The passage has seven paragraphs, A-G. Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter in boxes 1-5 on your Answer Sheet.
1. The British government’s stance on the potato famine2. An explanation of Ireland’s land ownership structure 3. Early European perceptions of the potato4. Justification for Irish farmers’ lack of legal protection5. The significance of potatoes in Irish culture
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Question 6-10
Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-L from the box at the top of the next page. Write the correct letter in boxes 6-10 on your Answer Sheet. There are more endings than sentences, so you won’t use them all.
 Sentence Endings
Because they were unable to pay their farm rent.
Due to the air pollution created by railroad trains.
Because their primary food source was potatoes.
Because Charles Trevelyan assumed control of the relief effort.
Because they needed to pay the rent and needed the earnings.
Since they weren’t properly managed.
Since there wasn’t enough land to accommodate the growing population.
Because the British were against his efforts to aid the Irish.
For the reason that they thought potatoes were harmful.
Due to the British introduction of punitive laws.
Due to the discovery that potatoes are packed with nutrients.
Because Marie Antoinette decorated with potato blossoms.
6. Europeans first refused to consume potatoes.7. European kings promoted potato cultivation8. The Irish were devastated by the potato blight.9. Oat, wheat, and barley farmers didn’t consume these crops.10. Many Irish farmers farmed unproductive land.
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Question 11-13
Complete the summary below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Peel was promptly forced to 11…..………… Because of his imprudent decision. Trevelyan thought that Providence should be allowed to handle the Irish crisis. He even took action to shut 12…………… that were selling maize and to reroute shipments of grain that were already headed to Ireland on the justification that it would be dangerous to allow the Irish to grow dependent on other nations.Irish people are still plagued by the potato blight itself during specific planting seasons when the climate is conducive to the 13……………growth.
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Irish Potato Famine Reading Answers
1. F2. D3. B4. E5. C6. I7. K8. C9. E10. G11. Retire12. Food Depots13. Fungus / Fungus’s
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Australian popular magazines Reading Ielts Answers and Questions

Originally published July 2026. Last reviewed 3 July 2026.

Published 3 July 2026.

The Blog post contains the following IELTS Reading Questions:
IELTS reading matching headings questions
IELTS reading matching features questions
IELTS reading locating information question
IELTS reading passage – Australian popular magazines
A. Magazines as a product of entertainment reading, enjoyment, and information, or as gentlemen of the time called “indoctrination”, have their origins in England in the early 18th century when the innovator became Robinson author Daniel Defoe. The term Maga comes from the French Magazin, initially intended as a repository, and was apt because the first published magazine held an inventory of various writings on a wide range of subjects. Defoe titled his magazine “The Review”, which he published five years after the first issue. It was published with the help of various now-famous magazines such as The Trailer and The Spectator. Each produced with the help of the same partner’s authors Richard Steele and Joseph Addison.
B. As for Australian famous magazines, initially, for the founding days of the colonies, readers of the time trusted the sluggish cruising ships from England to deliver most of the different vital items, newspapers, and journals.
C. In 1855, Australia published its first popular magazine. It was a hugely successful Melbourne punch whose longevity stretched into the first quarter of the 20th century.
D. Popular illustrated magazines quickly became a significant factor for the educated Australians, shaping our national image, just as ballad singers and touring entertainers also made major contributions. Against this background, the now famous ‘Old Bulletin’ was created in 1880. From the outset, the Bulletin’s policy has been to promote and encourage Australian writers and artists: it has succeeded in the names and reputation of Henry Lawson, ‘Banjo’ Paterson, Steele Rudd, and dozens of others. He created a new and unique school of black and white art that, for example, gave Phil May his big breakthrough and eventually worldwide recognition. Such was the influence of The Bulletin that this legendary ’90s era is considered the source of our national culture. In this pre-federation era of Australia, not only were several fascinating periodicals founded but many were created and owned by respected writers of the time. These included writers Henry Kendall, Marcus Clarke, Rolf Boldrewood, Randolph Bedford, Edward Dyson, Norman Lindsay, and CJ Dennis, among others.
E. As they were developed, technological advances were quickly taken advantage of. Most notable was the development of photoengraving, which made it possible for the first time to reproduce “halftone” photographs. In this ingenious method, simply rephotographing through a dotted glass plate onto a metal plate, after an acid bath, the color tone is simulated by a pattern of small raised dots of varying sizes. After inking, the metal sheet is ready to reproduce a facsimile picture composed of tiny dots. Historically, artists painted scenes and events upside down on prepared blocks of wood. This was given to the sculptor, who used a variety of delicate cutting tools to scrape away areas of the drawing, leaving a raised surface, then inked and applying pressure to get the black and white impression of the image. And for the first time, photoengraving allowed artists to draw cartoons in any way and any style, and the printed result could be scaled up or down, drawn down to the smallest detail. will be as shown. Other less important technological developments included high-speed printing presses, simultaneous multi-color printing, and certain electronic “scanner” devices for producing color illustrations.
F. In general, Australian journals today do not differ much in content from those of the last century. There are some new addresses. For example, The Bulletin’s highly political content reflects a recognition that Australia is increasingly drawn to the wider international community.  While once popular and hugely successful magazines like Pix and Original People only survived in the 1980s after World War II, the famous Australasian Post survived for more than 120 years (it changed its name slightly in 1946). However, the magazine has long topped the list of the highest circulation magazines of its kind in Australia. Much of this success is due to a deliberate editorial policy with a focus on Australia. Penthouse Australia and other contemporary magazines such as Playboy, Creo, and Cosmopolitan have a policy of striving for international quality rather than national identity, and Penthouse is different.
G. Today, at a new high of public awareness, formerly minor courses of the past take on new significance as reassessments of records for a comprehensive look at our civilization. The changes in social behaviors, interests, attitudes, styles, and manners that they reflect are an important part of our personality.
Australian popular magazines reading questions
Question 1-6
Reading Passage 1 has 7 sections A—G. Choose the most suitable heading for each section from the list of headings below. Write the appropriate numbers (i-x) in boxes 1—6 on your answer sheet.
Note: There are more headings than sections so you will not use all of them. You may use any of the headings more than once. Example C Answer iv
HEADINGS (i–x)
i.     Daniel Defoe wrote Robinson Crusoe
ii.    Culture of Australia and the bulletin
iii.   Australia’s magazines today
iv.   The country’s first magazine
v.    The very first magazines
vi.   Australians rely on the news from England.
vii.  The historical significance of magazines
viii. Printing technology advancements
ix.   Photographic printing
x.   Some periodicals have passed away.
1. Section A
2. Section B
3. Section D
4. Section E
5. Section F
6. Section G
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Question 7–11
Look at the following Questions 7 – 11 and the list of the statements below. Match each 
statement with the correct one.
N  New method of printing illustrations
O  Old method of printing illustrations
B  Both methods of printing illustrations
NB You may use any letter more than once.
7.  a wooden block
8.  a metal sheet
9.  a glass screen
10. inking
11. image is reversed
Question 12–14
Improve your performance in Matching Features questions by clicking here to access our comprehensive guide. Learn how to match specific features or characteristics with the options provided in the IELTS Reading section.
This reading passage has six paragraphs, A–F.F or which magazines are the following statements true? Write the name of ONE appropriate magazine for each question in boxes 12—14 on your answer sheet.
Example: The first magazine Answer: The review
12. is no longer published
13. has changed his name
14. has a strong political focus
Master the art of matching information and boost your score in the IELTS Reading section. Click here to access our step-by-step guide on handling Matching Information questions effectively.
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Australian popular magazines IELTS reading answers
1. V 2.VI  3.II 4.VIII 5.III 6.VII 7.O 9.N 9.N 10.B 11.O 12.MELBOURNE PUNCH / PIX / PEOPLE 13.AUSTRALASIAN POST 14.THE BULLETIN We hope you found this post useful in helping you to study for the IELTS Test. If you have any questions please let us know in the comments below or on the Facebook page.
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‘Hearing Impairment’ Reading Questions and Answers

Originally published July 2026. Last reviewed 3 July 2026.

Published 3 July 2026.

The Blog post contains the following IELTS Reading Questions:
IELTS Reading Matching Information
IELTS Reading Multiple Choice Question
IELTS Reading Short Answer Question
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IELTS Reading Passage -‘Hearing Impairment’
‘Hearing Impairment’
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The best way to keep up to date with posts like this is to like us on Facebook, then follow us on Instagram and Pinterest. If you need help preparing for the IELTS Test, join the IELTS Achieve Academy and see how we can assist you to achieve your desired band score. We offer an essay correction service, mock exams and online courses.

How to Approach This Reading Passage

This passage covers a scientific topic related to hearing impairment. When tackling science-based reading passages in IELTS, focus on understanding the main argument, the evidence presented, and any cause-and-effect relationships described.

Key Reading Strategies

1. Skim for structure: Identify the introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. Note topic sentences.
2. Scan for specific information: When answering detail questions, locate keywords from the question in the passage.
3. Watch for paraphrasing: IELTS questions rarely use the same words as the passage. Match meaning, not just vocabulary.
4. Manage your time: Spend no more than 20 minutes on each passage. Move on if stuck and return later.

Vocabulary from This Passage

Building vocabulary around health and science topics will help with similar passages. Key terms to learn include: auditory, frequency, decibel, cochlear, impairment, congenital, progressive, and intervention.

This Marvellous Invention Reading Answers And Question

Originally published July 2026. Last reviewed 3 July 2026.

Published 3 July 2026.

The Blog post contains the following IELTS Reading Questions:
IELTS Reading Matching Headings.
IELTS Reading Summary Completion.
IELTS Reading Yes/No/Not Given.
Stay informed and prepared for success – Explore our comprehensive Reading Test Info page to get valuable insights, exam format details, and expert tips for mastering the IELTS Reading section.
IELTS Reading Passage – This Marvellous Invention
This Marvellous Invention
Language must be given honourable mention among all of humanity’s many creations. Our material existence may have been changed by other discoveries like the wheel, agriculture, and sliced bread, but the development of language is what gave rise to the human race. All other inventions are insignificant in comparison to language because language is the foundation of all human achievement. Without language, humans would not have been able to begin our ascent to unmatched dominance over all other animals and even over nature.
Language is important, but not just because it was the first. Although it is based on a concept of brilliant simplicity, it is a tool of extraordinary sophistication in its own right: “This marvellous invention of making out of twenty-five or thirty sounds that infinite diversity of statements which, although in themselves having no likeness to what is in our mind, allow us to expose to others its full secret, and to make known to those who cannot fathom it all that we envisage, and all the many stirrings of our soul.” No one has subsequently praised the magnitude of this achievement more eloquently than the famed French grammarians of the Port-Royal convent near Versailles who did it in 1660. There is only one problem in all of these hymns of praise, however, as the devotion to each language’s singular achievement obscures a little but crucial incongruity. The greatest innovation of mankind is language, except that it was never created. Our interest with language stems from this apparent paradox, which also holds many of its secrets.
Language frequently appears to be so expertly crafted that it is difficult to picture it as anything other than the refined workmanship of a master craftsman. How else could this instrument produce such a large amount of sound from just thirty-two meagre sound bites? These mouth shapes—p, f, b, v, t, d, k, g, sh, a, e, and so on—amount to nothing more than a few careless spits and sputters, meaningless noises that are incapable of expression or explanation. However, if you run them through the gears and cogs of the language machine and arrange them in some very precise orders, there is nothing that these useless streams of air cannot accomplish, from unravelling the fundamental order of the cosmos to signifying the endless boredom of existence.
The most amazing thing about language, though, is that everyone can use it; they don’t need to be geniuses. Everyone, from pre-modern foragers in the subtropical savannah to post-modern thinkers in the sprawling suburbs, can weave these meaningless sounds together into an unlimited number of delicate perceptions, all seemingly without exerting the least effort. However, because language’s victories are typically taken for granted in daily life, it is precisely this misleading ease that becomes language a victim of its own success. The wheels of language move so smoothly that one rarely thinks to pause and think about all the inventiveness and expertise that must have gone into making it tick. Language hides the arts.
Often, the marvel of language design is only realized when one becomes alienated by foreign tongues and all of their bizarre and unusual aspects. Some languages have the power to construct words that are so long that they are literally impossible to breathe, expressing in one word what it would take an English speaker a full phrase to utter. To give one example, the Turkish phrase şehirliliçtiremediklerimizdensiniz literally translates to “you are one of them who we can’t change into a town-dweller.” (In case you were wondering, this monstrosity is actually just one word, not just a bunch of words crammed together; most of its constituent parts can’t even support itself.)
 If you think that’s a one-off freak, think of Sumerian, which was used by people who established writing and allowed for the recording of history some 5,000 years ago on the Euphrates riverbanks. In comparison to the Turkish colossus above, a Sumerian phrase like munintuma’a (‘when he had made it suited for her’) could appear relatively trim. Contrarily, the economical compactness of its construction, not its length, is what makes it so stunning. The term is made up of various slots, each of which corresponds to a distinct semantic component. Due to this sophisticated design, even the lack of a sound may be used to portray a specific idea. Single sounds can even be used to provide useful information. The answer would have to be nothing if you were to inquire as to which portion of the Sumerian term corresponds to the pronoun “it” in the English translation “when he had made it acceptable for her.” But not just any nothing—the nothing that occupies the empty space in the middle, to be exact. The technology is now so refined that, when positioned precisely in a given location, even an inaudible object can perform a specific task. Who could possible have come up with such a nifty contraption?
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Question 1-6
Reading Passage has six paragraphs, A-F. Choose the correct heading for paragraphs A-F from the list of headings below. Write the correct number, i-vii, in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.
list of Headings
Language variations highlight how outstanding they are.
how a small number of sounds can be arranged to represent a wide variety of meaning
why various languages don’t use the same sounds
Apparently conflicting linguistic traits
Even a moment of silence has value.
Why the development of language is the most significant one ever
the shared capacity for language
1    Paragraph A  3    Paragraph C 4    Paragraph D  5    Paragraph E  6    Paragraph F  
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Question 7-10
Complete the summary using the list of words, A-G, below. Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 9-10 on your answer sheet.
The importance of language
The development of the wheel had a significant impact on  7…….. facets of life, but no other invention had an impact as 8……. as language.Despite having only a few sounds, language is very 9……. It seems that language is 10….. to use. But its sophistication is frequently disregarded.
A difficultB complexC originalD admiredE materialF easyG fundamental
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Question 11-14
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage? In boxes 11-14 on your answer sheet, write
YES    if the statement agrees with the views of the writerNO    if the statement contradicts the views of the writerNOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
11. Human beings might have achieved their present position without language.12. The Port-Royal grammarians did justice to the nature of language.13. A complex idea can be explained more clearly in a sentence than in a single word.14. The Sumerians were responsible for starting the recording of events.
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This Marvellous Invention Reading Answers
1. vi2. iv3. ii4. vii5. i 6. v7. E8. G9. B10. F11. NO12. YES13. NOT GIVEN14. YES
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Looking for Life on the Ocean Wave Reading Questions and Answers

Originally published July 2026. Last reviewed 3 July 2026.

Published 3 July 2026.

The Blog post contains the following IELTS Reading Questions:
IELTS Reading Matching Information
IELTS Reading Multiple Choice Questions
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IELTS Reading Passage – Looking for Life on the Ocean Wave
Looking for Life on the Ocean Wave
A Put one buccaneering entrepreneur-cum-bioscientist on a luxury yacht. Using some mighty fine nets, let him trawl the world’s oceans for the smallest creatures. Catalogue the genetic diversity of this, the most abundant form of life in the largest habitat on Earth. Then hijack the molecular machinery of these microbes to make clean energy, new drugs or boost the ability of the Earth’s lungs to “breathe” more carbon dioxide, and so limit global warming.
B This may sound like the outline for a sci-fi potboiler, but it sums up the remarkable efforts of Craig Venter, the maverick American scientist. Seven wars ago. Venter announced at the White House that he had identified all the genes – the genome – in the DNA of a human being. It was the culmination of a bitter race with an international consortium of government labs, and his bull-in-a-china-shop approach earned him the epithet “the boy of science”.
C It did not deter him, and while many of the critics in the scientific establishment who vilified him disappeared from view. Venter went on to become the first person to read his own genome and is also undertaking an extraordinary effort to create a synthetic genome for an artificial organism. Today, however, he is bobbing in the middle of the Sea of Cortez, mixing business with pleasure in a project to read marine DNA codes as he sails along the west coast of the Americas. His 29-metre sloop, Sorcerer II, is a floating laboratory. Rather than use the traditional method of studying microorganisms by growing them in the lab, which only works with one species in every 100, Venter is obtaining the genetic codes of anything and everything present in sea water. The result is a radical new view of life in the oceans, the modem answer to Charles Darwin’s I 9th-century voyage on the HMS Beagle. “We are starting to view the world in a gene-centred fashion,” Venter says. “Our goal is to try to sort out evolution, working back from the genes to what organisms are there.” He calls his approach “metagenomics”.
D Microbes make up the vast majority of life on the planet and account for up to 90 per cent of the biological mass in the sea. They are the central processors of matter and energy in ecosystems. They are responsible for the creation and maintenance of the air we breathe. They are also, perhaps, our biggest hope of slowing global warming. Our oceans are the biggest “sink” of carbon, thanks in part to organisms that absorb carbon from the atmosphere to build their skeletons and shells, like “lungs”. Remarkably, the vast majority of these organisms are unknown. “It is important to understand their role and function to ensure the survival of the planet and human life,” says Venter, who is founder and chairman of the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland.
E The Sorcerer II expedition began with a pilot project in 2003 in the Sargasso Sea near Bermuda in which more than a million new genes were discovered in what was thought to be the marine equivalent of a desert. For the next two years, Venter flew back and forth to join the crew as it sampled the waters from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to the Eastern Tropical Pacific. ‘I did all the major ocean passages.” he said. One in particular, through the Panama Canal, up to Cocos Island and down to the Galapagos, “was a transforming event, phenomenal” as he combined genomics with writing an autobiography and diving with sharks, all under the gaze of a Discovery Channel TV crew.
F Using phenomenal computing power to reconstruct and analyse microbial DNA, with a single stage of the calculations taking more than a million hours of supercomputer time, a flood of discoveries has come from the latest phase of the expedition. Venter announced in a trio of papers in PloS Biology a few days ago that his team had returned to port with 400 newly discovered microbes and six million new genes. Each gene contains the instructions used to make the proteins that build and operate living thing’-, and Waiter’s bounty doubles the number known to science. His company, Synthetic Genomics, wants to harness this genetic information to use the microbes to turn carbon dioxide into propane and other fuels, short-circuiting the traditional geological process where ancient creatures are compressed into coal and oil over the aeons. Another target is hydrogen production, the ultimate clean fuel.
G When it comes to climate change, the expedition has thrown up another key insight. Some parts of the ocean have more carbon-hungry organisms than others, and it used to he thought that populations reflected local nutrient levels. Venter has found that t his may not be the case. The culprit could be bacterial viruses phages – which keep microbe levels low in some seas. “If we can understand this relationship more, and find out how to inhibit the viruses, or make the bacteria resistant, we would have a lot more organisms capturing carbon dioxide,” says Venter.
H The biggest impact of his project has been on basic science, overturning many established ideas about the tree of life. It used to be thought that the protein pigment in our own eyes that enables us to detect light was rare. But Venter’s gene trawl reveals that all surface marine organisms make proteorhodopsins that detect coloured light. “They turn out to be one of the most abundant and important, gene families on the planet,” he said. Blue and green variants are found in different environments – blue light preferred in the open ocean such as the indigo Sargasso Sea and green light along coasts. Venter believes these proteins help microbes to use energy from the sun, as plants do, but without photosynthesis. Instead, they use this “light-harvesting” machinery to pump charged atoms in the equivalent of solar batteries.
I The team discovered many new proteins that protect microbes from UV rays and some that are involved in repairing the damage caused by UV. They were also surprised to discover that many kinds of protein that were thought to be specific to one kingdom of life were more widespread. This is only the start. “It’s clear,” says Venter, “that we’ve only begun to scratch the surface of understanding the microbial world.”
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Questions 14-17
The text has 9 paragraphs (A-I).
Which paragraph does each of the following headings best fit?
14. How to save the world?15. Research contradicts conventional ideas16. Genome race winner17. The importance of microbes
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Questions 18-22
According to the text, FIVE of the following statements are true.
Write the corresponding letters in answer boxes 18 to 22 in any order.
A Craig Venter is an unconventional scientistB Venter has no scientific qualificationsC Carbon is used to make shells for sea creaturesD The Sargasso Sea has long been thought of as not rich in lifeE The genes Venter has discovered are interesting but scientifically uselessF Venter wants to make bacteria resistant to virusesG Microbes may use sunlight as energy but without photosynthesisH Bacteria can protect microbes from too much sunlight
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Questions 23-26
According to the information given in Reading Passage 2, choose the correct answer or answers from the choices given.
23. Craig Venter
A is the only person to have read his own generic codeB owns a floating laboratoryC disagrees with Darwin’s theory of evolution
24. Craig Venter’s pilot project
A took place in the Sargasso SeaB ended at the Galapagos islandsC gave him the idea of writing his autobiography
25. Synthetic Genomics, owned by Venter, hopes to
A make fuel from carbon dioxideB produce hydrogenC discover more species of microbe
26 Before Venter’s study, it was thought that
A nutrients level depended on the number of organisms that eat carbonB certain viruses keep microbe levels under controlC bacteria might be responsible for climate change
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A leap into history Reading Answers And Question

Originally published July 2026. Last reviewed 3 July 2026.

Published 3 July 2026.

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IELTS reading Matching Information
IELTS reading Multiple Choice Question
IELTS reading Yes/No/Not Given
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IELTS reading passage – A leap into history
A leap into history
Between the Inishowen peninsula, north-west of Derry, and the Glens of Antrim, in the cast beyond the Sperrin Mountains, is found some of Western Europe’s most captivating and alluring landscape.The Roe Valley Park, some 15 miles east of Deny is a prime example. The Park, like so many Celtic places, is steeped in history and legend. As the Roe trickles down through heather bogs in the Sperrin Mountains to the South, it is a river by the time it cuts through what was once called the “garden of the soul” – in Celtic “Gortenanima”.The castle of O’Cahftn once stood here and a number of houses which made up the town of Limavady. The town takes its name from the legend of a dog leaping into the river Roe carrying a message, or perhaps chasing a stag. This is a magical place, where the water traces its way through rock and woodland; at times, lingering in brooding pools of dark cool water under the shade of summer trees, and, at others, forming weirs and leads for water mills now long gone.The Roe, like all rivers, is witness to history and change. To Mullagh Hill, on the west bank of the River Roe just outside the present day town of Limavady, St, Columba came in 575 AD for the Convention of Drumccatl, The world is probably unaware that it knows something of Limavady; but the town is, in fact, renowned for Jane Ross’s song Danny Boy, written to a tune once played by a tramp in the street.Some 30 miles along the coast road from Limavady, one comes upon the forlorn but im­posing ruin of Dunluce Castle, which stands on a soft basalt outcrop, in defiance of the turbulent Atlantic lashing it on all sides. The jagged – toothed ruins sit proud on their rock top commanding the coastline to cast and west. The only connection to the mainland is by a narrow bridge. Until the kitchen court fell into the sea in 1639 killing several servants, the castle was fully inhabited, In the next hundred years or so, the structure gradually fell into Its present dramatic state of disrepair, stripped of its roofs by wind and weather and robbed by man of its carved stonework. Ruined and forlorn its aspect may be, yet, in the haunting Celtic twilight of the long summer evenings, it is redolent of another age, another dream.A mile or so to the cast of the castle lies Port na Spaniagh, where the Neapolitan Gaileas, Girona, from the Spanish Armada went down one dark October night in 1588 on its way to Scotland. Of the 1500’Odd men on board, nine survived.
Even further to the east, is the Giant’s Causeway, a stunning coastline with strangely sym­metrical columns of dark basalt – a beautiful geological wonder, Someone once said of the Causeway that it was worth seeing, but not worth going to see, That was in the days of horses and carriages, when travelling was difficult. But it is certainly well worth a visit. The last lingering moments of the twilight hours are the best time to savour the full power of the coastline’s magic; the time when the place comes into its own. The tourists are gone and if you are very lucky you will be alone, It is not frightening, but there is a power in the place; tangible, yet inexplicable. The feeling is one of eeriness and longing, unci of some­thing missing, something not quite fulfilled; the loss of light and the promise of darkness; a time between two worlds, Once experienced, this feeling never leaves you: the longing haunts and pulls at you for the rest of your days.Beyond the Causeway, connecting the mainland with an outcrop of rock jutting out of the turbulent Atlantic, is the Carrick-a-Hedc Hope Bridge- Not a crossing for the faint-hearted. The Bridge swings above a chasm of rushing, foaming water that seeks to drag the unwary down, and away.
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Questions 1-5
Choose one phrase (A-E) from the list of places to label the map below,
Write the appro­priate letters (A-li) in Boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet,
List of places
A. The Sperrin MountainsB. Dunluce CastleC. InishowenD. The Glens of AntrimE. Limavady
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Questions 6-9
Do the statements below agree with the Information in Reading Passage? In Boxes 6-9, write ”
Yes                 if the statement agrees with the information in the passageNo                  if the statement contradicts the information in the passageNot Given   if there is no information about the statement in the passage
Example: Inishowen is in the north-west of Ireland. Answer: Yes.
6) After 1639 the castle of Dunluce was not completely uninhabited.7) For the author Dunluce castle evokes another period of history.8) There were more than 1500 men on the Girona when it went down.9) The writer disagrees with the viewpoint that the Giant’s Causeway is not worth going to
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Questions 10-12
Choose the appropriate letters A-D and write them in Boxes 10-12 on your answer sheet.
10) The writer feels that the Giant’s Causeway is …
A. un unsettling placeB.  relaxing placeC. a boring placeD. a place that helps one unwind
11) Where was this passage taken from?
A. the news section of a newspaperB. A travel section in a newspaperC. a biographyD. an academic journal on geography
12) Which of the following would be a good title for the passage?
A. The Roe Valley ParkB. The Giant’s CausewayC. Going East to WestD. A leap into history
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Answers 1) C2) E3) B4) D5) A6) Not Given7) Yes8) Yes9) Yes10) A11) B12) D
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Money Transfers by Mobile Reading Questions and Answers

Originally published July 2026. Last reviewed 3 July 2026.

Published 3 July 2026.

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IELTS Reading Matching Information
IELTS Reading Sentence Completion
IELTS Reading True/False/Not Given
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IELTS Reading Passage – Money Transfers by Mobile
Money Transfers by Mobile
A The ping of a text message has never sounded so sweet. In what is being touted as a world first, Kenya’s biggest mobile operator is allowing subscribers to send cash to other phone users by SMS. Known as M-Pesa, or mobile money, the service is expected to revolutionise banking in a country where more than 80% of people are excluded from the formal financial sector. Apart from transferring cash – a service much in demand among urban Kenyans supporting relatives in rural areas – customers of the Safaricom network will be able to keep up to 50,000 shillings (£370) in a “virtual account” on their handsets.
B Developed by Vodafone, which holds a 35% share in Safaricom, M-Pesa was formally launched in Kenya two weeks ago. More than 10,000 people have signed up for the service, with around 8 million shillings transferred so far, mostly in tiny denominations. Safaricom’s executives are confident that growth will be strong in Kenya, and later across Africa. “We are effectively giving people ATM cards without them ever having to open a real bank account,” said Michael Joseph, chief executive of Safaricom, who called the money transfer concept the “next big thing” in mobile telephony.
C M-Pesa’s is simple. There is no need for a new handset or SIM card. To send money, you hand over the cash to a registered agent – typically a retailer – who credits your virtual account. You then send between 100 shillings (74p) and 35,000 shillings (£259) via text message to the desired recipient – even someone on a different mobile network – who cashes it at an agent by entering a secret code and showing ID. A commission of up to 170 shillings (£1.25) is paid by the recipient but it compares favourably with fees levied by the major banks, whose services are too expensive for most of the population.
D Mobile phone growth in Kenya, as in most of Africa, has been remarkable, even among the rural poor. In June 1999, Kenya had 15,000 mobile subscribers. Today, it has nearly 8 million out of a population of 35 million, and the two operators’ networks are as extensive as the access to banks is limited. Safaricom says it is not so much competing with financial services companies as filling a void. In time, M-Pesa will allow people to borrow and repay money, and make purchases. Companies will be able to pay salaries directly into workers’ phones – something that has already attracted the interest of larger employers, such as the tea companies, whose workers often have to be paid in cash as they do not have bank accounts. There are concerns about security, but Safaricom insists that even if someone’s phone is stolen, the PIN system prevents unauthorised withdrawals. Mr. Joseph said the only danger is sending cash to the wrong mobile number and the recipient redeeming it straight away.
E The project is being watched closely by mobile operators around the world as a way of targeting the multibillion pound international cash transfer industry long dominated by companies such as Western Union and Moneygram. Remittances sent from nearly 200 million migrant workers to developing countries totalled £102 billion last year, according to the World Bank. The GSM Association, which represents more than 700 mobile operators worldwide, believes this could quadruple by 2012 if transfers by SMS become the norm. Vodafone has entered a partnership with Citigroup that will soon allow Kenyans in the UK to send money home via text message. The charge for sending £50 is expected to be about £3, less than a third of what some traditional services charge.
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SECTION 1: Questions 1-4
The text has 5 paragraphs (A – E).
Which paragraph contains each of the following pieces of information?
1. A possible security problem2. The cost of M-Pesa3. An international service similar to M-Pesa4. The fact that most Kenyans do not have a bank account
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Questions 5-8
Complete the following sentences using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the text for each answer.
Safaricom is the (5)………………mobile phone company in Kenya. An M-Pesa account needs to be credited by (6)………………..(7)…………………….companies are particularly interested in using M-Pesa. Companies like Moneygram and Western Union have (8)……………….the international money transfer market.
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Questions 9-13
Do the statements below agree with the information given in Reading Passage? In boxes 9 – 13 write
TRUE                       if the statement agrees with the informationFALSE                     if the statement contradicts the informationNOT GIVEN         if there is no information on this
9. Most Kenyans working in urban areas have relatives in rural areas.10. So far, most of the people using M-Pesa have used it to send small amounts of money.11. M-Pesa can only be used by people using one phone network.12. M-Pesa can be used to buy products and services.13. The GSM Association is a consumer organisation.
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Patients Are a Virtue Reading Questions and Answers

Originally published July 2026. Last reviewed 3 July 2026.

Published 3 July 2026.

The Blog post contains the following IELTS Reading Questions:
IELTS Reading Matching Information
IELTS Reading Multiple Choice Questions
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IELTS Reading Passage – Patients Are a Virtue
Patients Are a Virtue
A Despite conference jeers, job cuts, and a financial crisis, health secretary Patricia Hewitt may find a reason to smile this week, as the NHS (British National Health Service) was named one of the top places to work by students. Among engineering, science, and IT students, the health service was ranked second in this year’s Universum UK graduate survey of ideal employers, a leap of 54 places from last year. The annual survey, conducted in the UK since 1997, canvassed the opinions of more than 7,700 final and penultimate-year students studying for degrees in business, engineering, science, IT, and the humanities, at 39 universities, between January and March this year.
B Each student was presented with a list of 130 employers, nominated by students through a separate process, from which they selected the five they considered to be ideal employers. The Universum list is based on the frequency of an organisation being selected as an ideal employer, following a weighting process. This year, government departments and public sector organisations dominated the top spots, with the BBC ranked first among humanities, engineering, science, and IT students, retaining its place from last year, and coming third for those studying business. Among humanities students, the BBC was followed closely by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Civil Service fast stream. The Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Defence were not far behind, ranked fifth and sixth respectively. As well as the NHS, engineering, science, and IT students favoured the Environment Agency, which leapt 83 places, from 86 in 2005 to number three this year. Meanwhile, business students voted accountancy giants PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as their favoured employer, followed by HSBC.
C At a London awards ceremony sponsored by the Guardian, Foluke Ajayi, head of NHS careers at NHS employers, said its success this year reflected the reality of the health service, which is the third largest employer in the world and the largest in Europe. “We employ people in other clinical areas, such as health care. We employ IT managers, engineers, architects,” she said, adding that the health service is no longer seen as a “second choice” career. “People recognise that they can give something back to the community, but still develop a worthwhile career.”
D Sarah Churchman, director of student recruitment and diversity at PwC, said her company’s success is down to a good campus presence, its commitment to invest in its employees and, with offices around the world, the chance to travel, something which just under half of the students polled said was an important factor when it came to looking for work. One of the big four accountancy firms, PwC is not into gimmicks, and it does not offer freebies but, said Churchman, it does offer “a solid foundation” for anyone wanting a career in business. “We sell our people skills, so we are interested in building skills. We’re not selling something, we invest in our people,” she added.
E Further down the rankings, but still with reason to celebrate, was John Lewis, which matched bumper sales this year with a leap from 111th place in 2005 to 26th among this year’s humanities students. Sky found itself in 12th place, up from 104th last year, and the Environment Agency also proved popular among this student group, rising from 138th in 2005 to 7th this year. Among the business fraternity, shell saw a reversal of fortunes, rising to 30th place after last year’s 76th position. There were a few dramatic drops in the rankings. The Bank of England fell from 14th in 2005 to 27th this year among humanities students, although it retained its mid-table position among those studying business. British Airways also saw a slight dip, as did McKinsey & Co, which dropped from 11th to 22nd among business undergraduates.
F Perhaps more surprisingly, this year was the first appearance in the rankings of Teach First, a small charity launched three years ago that aims to create the “leaders of the future” by encouraging top graduates who would not normally consider a career in teaching to commit to work in “challenging” secondary schools for at least two years. The organisation came straight in at number eight among humanities students and was voted 22nd by those studying engineering, science, and IT. James Darley, director of graduate recruitment at Teach First, said he was “bowled over” by the news. “We were not expecting this. We’re a registered charity, only able to physically go to 15 universities.”
G The scheme, based on one run in the US, has the backing of more than 80 businesses, including Deloitte and HSBC. During their two years, candidates undertake leadership training and emerge from the programme with a range of skills and experiences. “We hope in the long term they will be our ambassadors, as we call them, in politics, industry, charities, who will have done it and continue to support the educationally disadvantaged,” adds Darley. This year, 260 graduates are expected to take up the Teach First challenge in schools in London and Manchester, more are expected over the coming years, as the scheme expands to Birmingham and three other cities by 2008. Of the first set of recruits to complete the programme, half have gone on to work for “some amazing companies”, while the other half have chosen to stay on in their schools for a further year – 20% in leadership roles.
H While more than half of students were concerned about achieving a good work life balance, a third said they wanted a job that would challenge them. Although male Students tended to focus more on the practical aspects of work, such as “building a sound financial base”, women, particularly those studying for humanities degrees, had a more idealistic outlook, saying making a contribution to society was a key career goal. Almost half of all students said that paid overtime was a key part of any company compensation package, However, business students said that the most important compensation, apart from salary, was performance-related bonuses, while important considerations for humanities students were retirement plans. Working overseas also scored highly among those surveyed this year, with 45% of business students, and 44% of humanities students, listing it as a priority. Ethical considerations and corporate social responsibilities were also mentioned, with a large percentage of humanities and engineering, science and IT students saying it was a key consideration when it came to choosing an employer.
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Questions 14-17The text has 8 paragraphs (A – H).
Which paragraph does each of the following headings best fit?
14. Most popular employers for different students15. Students’ expectations16. Give and develop with the NHS17. Reason for the NHS to be happy
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Questions 18-22According to the text, FIVE of the following statements are true.
Write the corresponding letters in answer boxes 18 to 22 in any order.
A In the survey students could only rate employers on a given listB The Environment Agency rose the most places in this year’s surveyC The NHS offers a variety of careers outside health careD British Airways fell in popularity amongst business studentsE James Darley was surprised by his organisation’s performance in the surveyF Most Teach First teachers continue in a teaching career after two yearsG Most students want to achieve a good work life balanceH Most business students were concerned about working for an ethical company
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Questions 23-24According to the information given in the text, choose the correct answer or answers from the choices given.
23. The survey covered studentsA from all British universitiesB studying a variety of subjectsC who were in their last year of studies only
24. The BBCA was first choice in most categoriesB was unpopular with business studentsC employs more graduates than most other organisations and companies
Questions 25-26According to the information given in the text, choose the correct answers from the choices given.
Sarah Churchman says PwC did well in the survey because itA often goes to universities to meet studentsB provides many scholarships for studentsC offers many opportunities to travel
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No Growing Pains for Daniel Radcliffe Reading Questions and Answers

Originally published July 2026. Last reviewed 3 July 2026.

Published 3 July 2026.

The Blog post contains the following IELTS Reading Questions:
IELTS Reading Matching Information
IELTS Reading Multiple Choice Questions
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IELTS Reading Passage – No Growing Pains for Daniel Radcliffe
No Growing Pains for Daniel Radcliffe
A You know those tales of lost youth that spring from actors who are too successful too soon? You will probably not hear any about Daniel Radcliffe, who conjures up his alter ego Harry Potter for the fourth boy-wizard film saga, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”, opening Nov. 18 (after its premiere Saturday in New York City). “If childhood is being surrounded by people who you love being around and being incredibly happy, then I absolutely have had that,” he says. “It’s been a bizarre childhood. It’s been strange, but it’s been great.”
B Radcliffe, now an articulate 16-year-old, has not been arrested, has not warred with his parents over his millions now tucked away, or thrown hissy fits on the set. What in the name of Macaulay Culkin is going on? “They all know exactly what they’re worth,” “Goblet” director Mike Newell says of Radcliffe and co-stars Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, “but they have not become impossible.” Radcliffe became a global icon as a 10-year-old when he won a worldwide casting call to breathe life into the hero from J. K. Rowling’s best-selling fantasy books. Despite endless adoration, he seems to be avoiding that notorious fraternity of thespian lads who turn rotten.
C In a one-to-one conversation at a London hotel, the 5-foot-7 Radcliffe, without those H. P. spectacles, emerges as very much a boy, but with a showman’s polish that no abracadabra could evoke when he first wielded a magic wand. He makes small talk before the first question is popped and, later, in a press conference, works the room like a professional comedian. He has never been stung by a bad review or an unflattering portrait. That is because he has never read any of his press. His parents, Alan Radcliffe and Marcia Gresham, have provided a magic carpet ride into puberty by protecting him from both the adulation and the evisceration.
D Radcliffe remains blissfully ignorant of his riches as well – reported to be next in line behind fellow young Brits Charlotte Church and Prince Harry. “To be honest, I don’t actually know how much at this point,” Radcliffe says. “I don’t, really. In a way, I think that’s right. It’s not something that affects the way I think about things.” Radcliffe’s Groucho-eyebrow-draped blue eyes lock in without trepidation. Although he gives relatively few interviews, he does not flinch at potentially awkward questions, either. He is the land of millionaire action-figure boy-next-door with whom you’d like to take your teen daughter out for a soda. Radcliffe wears a green striped dress shirt, and his only accessory is his publicist and long-time family friend Vanessa Davies.
E Except for premieres, Radcliffe’s family employs no bodyguards, according to the actor. At school, the hubbub over his presence dies down after a few weeks. Fan interest “never got too aggressive”, he says. “I know there are people who are slightly obsessed, but it doesn’t really worry me too much. As long as it stays at the pitch it is now. Occasionally you meet someone slightly worrying, but I never really feel in danger.” The security issue that absorbs him at the moment is longevity as an actor. For the first time since he began the “Harry Potter” installments, Radcliffe is set to work on another feature, “December Boys”, a coming-of-age tale in which he plays an orphan. It begins shooting in Australia in December.
F Taking a cue from one of his idols, Gary Oldman, who plays Harry’s godfather Sirius Black in the Potter movies, Radcliffe wants to forge various on-screen personas. “If I was to complete the series without having done anything else during that time, it would be harder to be seen as anything else,” he says. “It’s just showing people I can do other things.” At the moment, Radcliffe is preparing for the fifth Potter edition, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”. It requires him to take tutoring at the Leavesden Studios in Hertfordshire. Although he has aged out of many of the restrictions of England’s child labour laws, he is determined to stick to his old schedule. Each film typically takes 11 months to finish.
G “It would be too intense if I did that much school and that much filming at the same time,” he says. “Both my performance and schoolwork would suffer.” Radcliffe is prepared to work the same routine if called upon to do No. 6, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”. (Rowling is at work on a seventh.) “Ultimately it comes down to whether I feel like doing it,” he says. “If it’s a great script, a great director and it will challenge me, there’s no reason for me not to do it. I’ve read the sixth book. It’s such an amazing part for me if I was to do it. That would definitely be something that would challenge me. However, it’s a long way away.”
H No. 5 puts Radcliffe through his paces in a hormonally charged setting. Newell says he crafted it first as a thriller, pitting the budding sorcery prodigy against Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes), who has not appeared since he killed Harry’s parents 13 years earlier. Although he is a poor swimmer, Radcliffe immersed himself in an extended underwater scene. “He won’t turn into a stuntman, but he’s a responsible boy,” producer David Heyman says. Radcliffe seems to enjoy the spotlight more than his co-stars, piping in with glib comments as Grint, 17, stumbled through the afternoon news conference.
I All the while, Radcliffe’s parents sat in the back row, watching with thin smiles and arms folded. “I might be arrogant and big-headed, but they kept me really grounded, and I can’t thank them enough for that,” Radcliffe says. He is still just a teenager, more an on-screen dragon slayer than ladykiller. Radcliffe spoke frankly about his less-than-magical ways with girls, saying their expectations of him as Harry dissolves into a “grimmer reality”. He knows the Potter experience will long outlive his awkwardness. After all, millions of moviegoers have fallen under his spell. “This has given me a feeling of confidence,” says Radcliffe, “which I might not have had otherwise.”
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Questions 14-17The text has 9 paragraphs (A -I).
Which paragraph does each of the following headings best fit?
14. Security15. Underwater scene16. Balancing filming and studies17. Not a bad star
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Questions 18-22According to the text, FIVE of the following statements are true.
Write the corresponding letters in answer boxes 18-22 in any order.
A The first showing of Harry potter and goblet of fire was in New YorkB Daniel Radcliffe started acting when he was ten years oldC Daniel Radcliffe does not talk to reporters oftenD Daniel Radcliffe is treated specially at schoolE When filming Daniel Radcliffe is tutored at the film studioF Daniel Radcliffe gets on with the Harry Potter directorG Daniel Radcliffe seems to be better at dealing with reporters than Rupert GrintH Daniel Radcliffe’s parents were unhappy with the press conference
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Questions 23-26According to the information given in the text, choose the correct answer or answers from the choices given.
23. The writer says that Daniel RadcliffeA looks taller without his glassesB behaves very professionallyC does not read reviews of his acting
24. Daniel Radcliffe says that heA has less money than Prince HarryB does not know how much money he has madeC does not care how much money he has made
25. Daniel Radcliffe wants to play roles other than Harry Potter becauseA his idol Gary Oldman did thatB his idol Gary Oldman suggested itC he does not want people to think he can only play Harry Potter
26. Daniel Radcliffe says that he has not been successful with girls becauseA he is still a teenagerB they expect him to be like Harry PotterC his parents won’t let him go dating
Ready to improve your performance in Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)? Click here to access our comprehensive guide on how to tackle MCQs effectively in the IELTS Reading section.
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Recommended Questions:
Renewable Energy IELTS Reading Question with Answer
We hope you found this post useful in helping you to study for the IELTS Test. If you have any questions please let us know in the comments below or on the Facebook page.
The best way to keep up to date with posts like this is to like us on Facebook, then follow us on Instagram and Pinterest. If you need help preparing for the IELTS Test, join the IELTS Achieve Academy and see how we can assist you to achieve your desired band score. We offer an essay correction service, mock exams and online courses.