Designed to Last Reading Answers
The IELTS reading section examines a candidate’s comprehending skills within the stipulated amount of time. The reading section comprises passages followed with different kinds of questions to holistically judge a student’s grasping abilities while reading.
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This particular IELTS reading sample is an Academic topic and has three types of questions:
- Choose the correct answer
- Summary completion
- Yes / No / Not Given
There are numerous topics found in IELTS reading practice papers for practice.
Section 1
Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions
Designed to Last IELTS Reading Sample
- Jonathan Chapman, a senior lecturer at the University of Brighton, UK, is one of a new breed of “sustainable designers’. Like many of us, they are concerned about the huge waste associated with Western consumer culture and the damage this does to the environment. Some, like Chapman, aim to create objects we will want to keep rather than discard. Others are working to create more efficient or durable consumer goods or goods designed with recycling in mind. The waste entailed in our fleeting relationships with consumer durables is colossal
- Domestic power tools, such as electric drills, are a typical example of such waste. However much DIY the purchaser plans to do, the truth is that these things are thrown away having been used, on average, for just ten minutes. Most will serve conscience time, gathering dust on a shelf in the garage; people are reluctant to admit that they have wasted their money. However, the end is inevitable for thousands of years in landfill waste sites. In its design, manufacture, packaging, transportation, and disposal, a power tool consumes many times its own weight in resources, all for a shorter active lifespan than that of the average small insect.
- To understand why we have become so wasteful, we should look to the underlying motivation of consumers. ‘People own things to give expression to who they are and to show what group of people they feel they belong to’ Chapman says. In a world of mass production, however, that symbolism has lost much of its potency. For most of human history, people had an intimate relationship with objects they used or treasured. Often they made the objects themselves, or family members passed them on. For more specialist objects, people relied on expert manufacturers living close by, whom they probably knew personally. Chapman points out that all these factors gave objects a history – a narrative – and an emotional connection that today’s mass production cannot match. Without these personal connections, consumerist culture instead idolizes novelty. We know we can’t buy happiness, but the chance to remake ourselves with glossy, box-fresh products seems irresistible. When the novelty fades we simply renew the excitement by buying more new stuff: what John Thackara of Doors of Perception, a network for sharing ideas about the future of design, calls the “schlock of the new”.
- As a sustainable designer, Chapman’s solution is what he calls “emotionally durable design”. Think about your favourite old jeans. They just don’t have the right feel until they have been worn and washed a hundred times, do they? It is like they are sharing your life story. You can fake that look, but it isn’t the same. Chapman says the gradual unfolding of a relationship like this transforms our interactions with objects into something richer than simple utility. Swiss industrial analyst Walter Stahel, visiting professor at the University of Surrey, calls it the “teddy-bear factor”. No matter how ragged and worn a favourite teddy becomes, we don’t rush out and buy another one. As adults, our teddy bear connects us to our childhoods, and this protects it from obsolescence. Stahel says this is what sustainable design needs to do.
- It is not simply about making durable items that people want to keep. Sustainable design is a matter of properly costing the whole process of production, energy use, and disposal. “It is about the design of systems, the design of culture,” says Tim Cooper from the Centre for Sustainable Consumption at Sheffield Hallam University in Britain. He thinks sustainable design has been “surprisingly slow to take off” but says looming environmental crises and resource depletion are pushing it to the top of the agenda.
- Thackara agrees. For him, the roots of impending environmental collapse can be summarized in two words: weight and speed. We are making more stuff than the planet can sustain and using vast amounts of energy moving more and more of it around ever faster. The Information Age was supposed to lighten our economies and reduce our impact on the environment, but the reverse seems to be happening. We have simply added information technology to the industrial era and hastened the developed world’s metabolism, Thackara argues.
- Once you grasp that, the cure is hardly rocket science: minimize waste and energy use, stop moving stuff around so much and use people more. EZIO MANZINI, Professor of industrial design at Politecnico di Milano University, Italy, describes the process of moving to a post-throwaway society as “changing the engine of an aircraft in mid-flight’ Even so, he believes it can be done, and he is not alone.
- Manzini says a crucial step would be to redesign our globalized world into what he calls the “multi-local society”. His vision is that every resource, from food to electricity generation, should as far as possible be sourced and distributed locally. These local hubs would then be connected to national and global networks to allow the most efficient use and flow of materials.
- So what will post-throwaway consumerism look like? For a start, we will increasingly buy sustainably designed products. This might be as simple as installing energy-saving light bulbs, more efficient washing machines, or choosing locally produced groceries with less packaging.
- We will spend less on material goods and more on services. Instead of buying a second car, for example, we might buy into a car-sharing network. We will also buy less and rent a whole lot more: why own things that you hardly use， especially things that are likely to be updated all the time? Consumer durables will be sold with plans already in place for their disposal. Electronic goods will be designed to be recyclable, with the extra cost added to the retail price as prepayment. As consumers become increasingly concerned about the environment, many big businesses are eagerly adopting sustainable design and brushing up their green credentials to please their customers and stay one step ahead of the competition.
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Section 2
Solution and Explanation
Question 28-32
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D. Write your answers in boxes 28-32 on your answer sheet.
Question 28. What does ‘conscience time’ imply in paragraph 2?
- People feel guilty when they throw things away easily.
- The shelf in the garage needs cleaning.
- The consumers are unaware of the waste problem.
- The power tool should be placed in the right place after being used.
Answer: A. People feel guilty when they throw things away easily.
Supporting Sentence: Most will serve ‘conscience time’ gathering dust on a shelf in the garage; people are reluctant to admit that they have wasted their money.
Keywords: reluctant to admit
Keyword location: Paragraph B third sentence
Explanation: Paragraph B says that people at times tend to leave their bills and other domestic power tools to dust just because they seem to be concerned about waste disposal and do not want to be contributors to the issue. The paragraph however ends by saying that no matter when they are thrown out, the fate of such wastes is to stay intact in landfills for thousands of years. So, the answer is A. People feel guilty when they throw things away easily.
Question 29. Prior to mass production, people own things to show
- their quality
- their status
- their character
- their history
Answer: B. their status
Supporting Sentence: ‘People own things to give expression to who they are, and to show what group of people they feel they belong to,’ Chapman says.
Keywords: to show what group of people they are
Keyword location: Paragraph C second sentence.
Explanation: If people once used to buy commodities for their sustenance, now it has become about projecting their statuses. The statement that states this idea in Paragraph C is said by Chapman. So the appropriate answer for this question is B. their status.
Question 30. The word ‘narrative’ in paragraph 3 refers to
- The novelty culture pursued by the customers
- The motivation of buying new products
- object stories that relate personally and meaningfully to the owners
- the image created by the manufacturers
Answer: C. object stories that relate personally and meaningfully to the owners
Supporting Sentence: ‘For most of human history, people had an intimate relationship with objects they used or treasured. Often they made the objects themselves, or family members passed them on. For more specialist objects, people relied on expert manufacturers living close by, whom they probably knew personally. Chapman points out that all these factors gave objects a history – a narrative – and an emotional connection that today’s mass production can not match.’
Keywords: intimate relationship with objects
Keyword location: Paragraph C fifth sentence.
Explanation: In olden times, objects used to hold value to their owners. Some people used to share a special relationship with certain objects. They even followed the tradition of passing objects onto their younger generation to treasure them. Such objects hold a lot of history and have stories of their own to narrate. Thus the word ‘narrative’ in this paragraph conveys that C. object stories that relate personally and meaningfully to the owners.
Question 31. Without a personal connection, people buy new stuff for
- sharing
- freshness
- collection
- family members
Answer: B. freshness
Supporting Sentence: ‘We know we can’t buy happiness, but the chance to remake ourselves with glossy, box-fresh products seems irresistible. When the novelty fades we simply renew the excitement by buying more new stuff.’
Keywords: remake ourselves with glossy box-fresh products
Keyword location: Paragraph C last sentence.
Explanation: People tend to buy new objects in order to feel fresh and glossy. The last few sentences of this paragraph mention how people idealize novelty and freshness and since no one can buy happiness they instead buy new objects to feel glossy and fresh. This helps to renew their excitement. So, the answer here is B. freshness.
Question 32. The writer quotes the old jeans and teddy bear to illustrate that
- the products are used for simple utility.
- producers should create more special stuff to attract consumers.
- Chapman led a poor childhood life.
- the emotional connections make us keep the objects for longer.
Answer: D. the emotional connections make us keep the objects for longer.
Supporting Sentence: ‘Swiss industrial analyst Walter Stahel, visiting professor at the University of Surrey, calls it the “teddy-bear factor”. No matter how ragged and worn a favorite teddy becomes, we don’t rush out and buy another one. As adults, our teddy bear connects us to our childhoods, and this protects it from obsolescence.’
Keywords: connects us to childhood
Keyword location: Paragraph D ninth sentence.
Explanation: In this paragraph, Chapman is saying that people tend to use their favourite old jeans until they can be used no more and also gets hesitant to move on from their favourite old teddy bear even if they are adults and do not rush out and sell or buy another one. Holding on to favourite old objects lets people hold on to their memories with them. The writer thus uses examples of old jeans and teddy bears to explain how the emotional connections we share with them makes us keep the object for a longer time and so the answer is D.
Question 33-36
Complete the summary using the list of words, A-H, below. Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 33-26 on your answer sheet.
Tim Cooper claims that although sustainable design proceeds 33………………………, the coming problems are pushing the move. In accordance with Tim Cooper, Thackara believes that the origins of the looming environmental crises are weight and 34………………………. The technology which was assumed to have a positive effect on our society actually accelerates the world’s 35…………………… To cure this, Manzini proposes a ‘multi-local society’ which means every resource should be located and redeployed 36……………………..
- properly
- energy
- locally
- economy
- slowly
- speed
- quickly
- metabolism
Question 33.
Answer: E. slowly
Supporting Sentence: ‘He thinks sustainable design has been “surprisingly slow to take off” but says looming environmental crises and resource depletion are pushing it to the top of the agenda.’
Keywords: slow to take off
Keyword location: Paragraph E last sentence.
Explanation: Tim Cooper from the Centre for Sustainable Consumption at Sheffield University in Britain is quoted in Paragraph E of the passage. He says even though sustainable development is slow to take off it is now at the top of the agenda because of the arising environmental issue and natural resources depletion. The fill in the blanks question refers to this part of the passage and so the answer is E. slowly.
Question 34.
Answer: F. speed
Supporting Sentence: ‘Thackara agrees. For him, the roots of impending environmental collapse can be summarized in two words: weight and speed.’
Keywords: speed
Keyword location: Paragraph F last sentence.
Explanation: Takara agrees with Tim Cooper and in this paragraph, it says that for Thackara environmental collapse is associated with two words: weight and speed. Fill in the blanks 34. here refers to this belief of Thackara and thus, the answer is F. speed.
Question 35.
Answer: H. metabolism
Supporting Sentence: ‘The Information Age was supposed to lighten our economies and reduce our impact on the environment, but the reverse seems to be happening. We have simply added information technology to the industrial era and hastened the developed world’s metabolism, Thackara argues.’
Keywords: world’s metabolism
Keyword location: Paragraph F last sentence.
Explanation: Thackara argues that the Information Age is fastening up the world’s metabolism rather than helping in lightening economies and reducing our impact on the environment which was what it was assumed to do. The question refers to this argument by Thackara and thus the answer is H. metabolism.
Question 36.
Answer: C. locally
Supporting Sentence: Manzini says a crucial step would be to redesign our globalized world into what he calls the “multi-local society”. His vision is that every resource, from food to electricity generation, should as far as possible be sourced and distributed locally.’
Keywords: sourced and distributed locally
Keyword location: Paragraph H first sentence.
Explanation: Manzini’s solution is the localisation of resources and food. He says that every resource from food to electricity must be distributed locally.. He calls this vision of his multi-local society. Mazani says that it is a crucial step. The apt answer here thus is C. locally.
Question 37-40
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3? In boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet, write
YES if the statement is true
NO if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage
Question 37. People often buy things that are seldom used and throw them away.
Answer: YES
Supporting Sentence: ‘When the novelty fades we simply renew the excitement by buying more new stuff’
Keywords: novelty fades, new
Keyword location: Paragraph C last sentence
Explanation: In Paragraph C it says that people tend to idolize novelty. They are attracted to items and objects. When an item fades its novelty, they just throw it away and buys new ones. They may be used or unused, it doesn’t matter.
Question 38. In a post-throwaway society, we will pay extra money after disposing of electronic goods.
Answer: NO
Supporting Sentence: ‘So what will post-throwaway consumerism look like? For a start, we will increasingly buy sustainably designed products.’
Keywords: sustainably designs products
Keyword location: Paragraph I second sentence
Explanation: Paragraph I discusses what we must do in a post-throwaway society. It says that we must start buying sustainable products. This means that we must buy products that use minimum energy and resources and causes negligible pollution. The statement given is therefore false and so the answer is NO.
Question 39. Some businesses have jumped on the sustainability bandwagon.
Answer: YES
Supporting Sentence: ‘As consumers become increasingly concerned about the environment, many big businesses are eagerly adopting sustainable design and brushing up their green credentials to please their customers and stay one step ahead of the competition.’
Keywords: businesses, sustainable design
Keyword location: Paragraph J last sentence
Explanation: The last paragraph of the passage ends by saying how consumers are increasingly concerned about the environment these days. This had made many big businesses adopt the sustainable design to be better than their competitors. So the statement here is true.
Question 40. Company will spend less on repairs in the future.
Answer: NOT GIVEN
Explanation: Nothing relating to the statement is mentioned in the passage. Hence the answer is NOT GIVEN.
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