Electricity Reading Answers

Mar 10, 2023

Electricity Reading Answers contains 14 questions. It is a topic from the IELTS general reading test. Electricity Reading Answers has been taken from a book called IELTS 5 Practice Tests Academic Set 1. In IELTS reading section, the nature of questions is such that candidates have to read a passage and provide answers from therein, it is to be attempted within 20 minutes. Electricity Reading Answers contains the questions that ask the candidates to find information from the passage and filing in the blanks. To practise reading papers , the candidates can refer to IELTS Reading practice test.

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Section 1

Read the passage to answer the questions that follow

Electricity Reading Answers

Electricity is the set of physical phenomena allied with the occurrence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. In initial days, electricity was considered as being distinct to magnetism. Later, many experimental results and the development of Maxwell's equations showed that both electricity and magnetism are from a single phenomenon: electromagnetism. Various common phenomena are connected to electricity, including lightning, static electricity, electric heating, electric discharges, and many others.
Long before any knowledge of electricity occurred, people were conscious of shocks from electric fish. Ancient Egyptian texts dating from 2750 BCE denoted to these fish as the "Thunder of the Nile" and labelled them as the "protectors" of all other fish. Electric fish were again stated millennia later by ancient Greek, Roman and Arabic naturalists, and physicians. Numerous ancient writers, such as Pliny the Elder and Scribonius Largus, attested to the shocking effect of electric shocks brought by electric catfish and electric rays, and knew that such shocks could travel along conducting objects. Patients suffering from ailments such as gout or headache were focused to touch electric fish in the hope that the powerful jolt might cure them. Possibly the earliest and nearest approach to the discovery of the identity of lightning, and electricity from any other basis, is to be attributed to the Arabs, who before the 15th century had the Arabic word for lightning ra'ad applied to the electric ray.
Ancient cultures round the Mediterranean knew that certain objects, such as rods of amber, could be scrubbed with cat's fur to attract light objects like feathers. Thales of Miletus made a sequence of explanations on static electricity around 600 BCE, from which he supposed that friction extracted amber magnetic, in disparity to minerals such as magnetite, which required no rubbing. Thales was inappropriate in believing the attraction was due to a magnetic effect, but later science would demonstrate a connection between magnetism and electricity. According to a controversial theory, the Parthians may have had information of electroplating, based on the 1936 discovery of the Baghdad Battery, which look like a galvanic cell, though it is indefinite whether the artifact was electrical in nature.
Electricity would remain little more than an intellectual interest for millennia until 1600, when the English scientist William Gilbert wrote De Magnete, in which he made a cautious study of electricity and magnetism, distinguishing the lodestone effect from static electricity formed by rubbing amber. This association gave rise to the English words "electric" and "electricity", which made their first attendance in print in Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemic of 1646.
Additional work was directed in the 17th and early 18th centuries by Otto von Guericke, Robert Boyle, Stephen Gray and C. F. du Fay. Later in the 18th century, Benjamin Franklin directed widespread research in electricity, marketing his Belongings to fund his work. In June 1752 he is reputed to have attached a metal key to the bottom of a dampened kite string and flown the kite in a storm-threatened sky. A series of sparks jumping from the key to the back of his hand exhibited that lightning was certainly electrical in nature. He also clarified the seemingly inconsistent behaviour of the Leyden jar as a device for storage of large amounts of electrical charge in terms of electricity entailing both positive and negative charges.
In 1791, Luigi Galvani printed his discovery of bioelectromagnetic, signifying that Electricity muscles. Alessandro Volta's battery, or voltaic pile, of 1800, made from discontinuous layers of zinc and copper, provided scientists with a more consistent source of electrical energy to the than the electrostatic machines formerly used. The recognition of electromagnetism, the unity of electric and magnetic phenomena, is due to Hans Christian Orsted and André-Marie Ampère in 1819-1820. Michael Faraday designed the electric motor in 1821, and Georg Ohm mathematically analyzed the electrical circuit in 1827. Electricity and magnetism (and light) were definitively linked by James Clerk Maxwell, in precise in his "On Physical Lines of Force" in 1861 and 1862.
While the early 19th century had seen swift growth in electrical science, the late 19th century would see the utmost advancement in electrical engineering. Through such people as Alexander Graham Bel, Ottó Bláthy, Thomas Edison, Galileo Ferraris, Oliver Heaviside, Anyos Jedlik, William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, Charles Algernon Parsons, Werner von Siemens, Joseph Swan, Reginald Fessenden, Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse, electricity turned from a scientific curiosity into a vital tool for modern life.
In 1887, Heinrich Hertz revealed that electrodes illuminated with ultraviolet light generate electric sparks more effortlessly. In 1905, Albert Einstein printed a paper that described experimental data from the photoelectric effect as being the consequence of light energy being carried in distinct quantized packets, energising electrons. This encounter led to the quantum revolution. Einstein was presented the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 for "his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect". The photoelectric effect is also employed in photocells such as can be found in solar panels, and this is often used to make electricity commercially.
The first solid-state device was the "cat's-whisker detector first used in the 1900s in radio receivers. A whisker-like wire is located lightly in connection with a solid crystal (such as a germanium crystal) to sense a radio signal by the contact junction effect. In a solid-state component, the current is restricted to solid elements and compounds engineered precisely to switch and amplify it. Current flow can be understood in two forms: as negatively charged electrons, and as positively charged electron deficiencies called holes. These charges and holes are understood in terms of quantum physics. The building material is most often a crystalline semiconductor.

Section 2

Solution with Explanation
Question 27-35:
Which Paragraph contains the following information?
NB you may use any letter more than once

Electricity is becoming a dynamic means for contemporary life and not merely a scientific interest.

Answer: G
Supporting Sentence: Through such people as Alexander Graham Bell, Ottó Bláthy, Thomas Edison, Galileo Ferraris, Oliver Heaviside, Anyos Jedlik, William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, Charles Algernon Parsons, Werner von Siemens, Joseph Swan, Reginald Fessenden, Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse, electricity turned from a scientific curiosity into a vital tool for modern life
Keyword: scientific, modern life
Keyword Location: Paragraph G, 6th line
Explanation: Modern life means contemporary life and scientific curiosity means scientific interest. The supporting sentence says that electricity turned from a scientific curiosity into a vital tool for modern life. Here, vital tools could mean dynamic means and that’s why electricity became dynamic means for modern life and not merely scientific curiosity.

A detector originally used in radio devices that mimics the name of an animal.

Answer: I
Supporting Sentence: The first solid-state device was the "cat's-whisker” detector first used in the 1900s in radio receivers.
Keyword: device, detector, radio
Keyword Location: Paragraph I, 1st line
Explanation: Radio Receiver is a radio device and the supporting sentence says that it used a cat's whisker detector. Cat is an animal after which the detector is named.

Different phenomenon connected with electricity

Answer: A
Supporting Sentence: Various common phenomena are connected to electricity, including lightning, static electricity, electric heating, electric discharges, and many others.
Keyword: phenomenon, connected, electricity
Keyword Location: Paragraph A, 5th line
Explanation: Various could also mean different. So, the supporting sentence says that different common phenomena are connected to electricity.

Primaeval experimentations to entice minor substances.

Answer: C
Supporting Sentence: Ancient cultures around the Mediterranean knew that certain objects, such as rods of amber, could be scrubbed with cat's fur to attract light objects like feathers.
Keyword: attract, ancient
Keyword Location: Paragraph C, 1st & 2nd line
Explanation: Primaeval means the earliest time in history and ancient too denotes the same. Supporting sentence says that ancient cultures knew that objects like rods of amber rubbed with cat’s fur attracted light objects. In here, light object means minor substances and entice means attract. The use of the expression “knew” indicates experimentation because how else would they know? So, ancient cultures did experimentation to attract light objects.

Electricity produced by an aquatic animal.

Answer: B
Supporting Sentence: Long before any knowledge of electricity occurred, people were conscious of shocks from electric fish.
Keyword: electricity, fish
Keyword Location: Paragraph B, 1st and 2nd line
Explanation: The supporting sentence says that people were conscious of shocks from electric fish. If the fish was electric that means the shocks were electric as well. Now, fish is an aquatic animal and the one that gives electric shocks is certainly producing electricity.

Investigation of electricity by means of a flying object.

Answer: E
Supporting Sentence: Later in the 18th century, Benjamin Franklin directed widespread research in electricity, marketing his Belongings to fund his work. In June 1752 he is reputed to have attached a metal key to the bottom of a dampened kite string and flown the kite in a storm-threatened sky
Keyword: electricity, sky, flown
Keyword Location: Paragraph E, 3rd & 5th line
Explanation: The Supporting sentence talks about Franklin’s experiment where he attached a metal key to the bottom of a dampened kite and flew it. So, the kite is the flying object here. It was an investigation of electricity because Franklin is mentioned to have directed widespread research in electricity.

A researcher designating electricity by stroking a substance.

Answer: D
Supporting Sentence: Electricity would remain little more than an intellectual interest for millennia until 1600, when the English scientist William Gilbert wrote De Magnete, in which he made a cautious study of electricity and magnetism, distinguishing the lodestone effect from static electricity formed by rubbing amber.
Keyword: electricity, rubbing
Keyword Location: Paragraph D, 3rd & 4th line
Explanation: Stroking or rubbing means the same thing. William Gilbert is mentioned to be rubbing amber. He is a researcher because the passage calls him a scientist and he is shown to be making a study.

The ultimate recognition of electricity and magnetism.

Answer: F
Supporting Sentence: The recognition of electromagnetism, the unity of electric and magnetic phenomena, is due to Hans Christian Oersted and André-Marie Ampère in 1819-1820.
Keyword: recognition, electric, magnetic
Keyword Location: Paragraph F, 3rd & 4th line
Explanation: Electromagnetism means unity of electric and magnetic phenomenon as mentioned in the supporting sentence. So, recognition of electricity and magnetism is recognition of electromagnetism.

A researcher winning laurels in physics.

Answer: H
Supporting Sentence: Einstein was presented the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 for "his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect"
Keyword: Physics
Keyword Location: Paragraph H, 5th line
Explanation: Laurels means prizes so a laurel in physics would mean Nobel prize in Physics. Einstein is a researcher because the Nobel in Physics is given to those researchers in physics. Hence, it’s a researcher winning laurels in physics.

Questions 36-40:
Complete the fill ups below.
Write no more than THREE WORDS or NUMBERS for each answer.

“Thunder of the Nile” was nominated to ………. by ancient Egyptians.

Answer: Electric Fish
Supporting Sentence: Long before any knowledge of electricity occurred, people were conscious of shocks from electric fish. Ancient Egyptian texts dating from 2750 BCE denoted these fish as the "Thunder of the Nile" and labelled them as the "protectors" of all other fish.
Keyword: Thunder of the Nile
Keyword Location: Paragraph B, 3rd line
Explanation: The expression “these fish” refers to electric fish because it is the object of talk in supporting sentences. The Supporting sentence clearly states that ancient Egyptians called electric fish as thunder of the Nile.

Ancient cultures in the Mediterranean used rods of amber and scoured it with ……. to appeal light substances.

Answer: Cat’s Fur
Supporting Sentence: Ancient cultures around the Mediterranean knew that certain objects, such as rods of amber, could be rubbed with cat's fur to attract light objects like feathers.
Keyword: Ancient, Mediterranean, rods, amber
Keyword Location: Paragraph C, 1st line
Explanation: Scoured means to clean by rubbing it hard. The supporting sentence says that ancient cultures knew that rubbing rods of amber with cat’s fur attracts light objects. Here, attract can also mean appeal and light substances means light objects.

Benjamin Franklin glided ………. in the storm.

Answer: Kite
Supporting Sentence: Later in the 18th century, Benjamin Franklin directed widespread research in electricity, marketing his Belongings to fund his work. In June 1752 he is reputed to have attached a metal key to the bottom of a dampened kite string and flown the kite in a storm-threatened sky.
Keyword: Benjamin Franklin, storm-threatened,
Keyword Location: Paragraph E, 2nd & 5th line
Explanation: He who attached a metal key and flew a kite was Benjamin Franklin because he directed widespread research in electricity. So, the thing that Benjamin Franklin glided in the sky was a Kite.

Photocells are largely constituted in………... which are used to harvest saleable electricity.

Answer: Solar Panel
Supporting Sentence: The photoelectric effect is also employed in photocells such as can be found in solar panels, and this is often used to make electricity commercially.
Keyword: photocells, electricity
Keyword Location: Paragraph H, 7th line
Explanation: The Supporting sentence says that solar panels are used to make electricity, or one can say harvest electricity. It also says that photoelectric effect is employed in photocells which are used in solar panels. Thus, solar panels are the thing which uses photocells and can be used to harvest electricity.

Cat’s Whisker gauge was primarily used in……….

Answer: Radio Receivers
Supporting Sentence: The first solid-state device was the "cat's-whisker” detector first used in the 1900s in radio receivers.
Keyword: Cat’s Whisker, used
Keyword Location: Paragraph I, 1st line
Explanation: The supporting sentence says that cat’s whisker detector was first used in radio receivers. So, radio receivers were its primary usage as they were first used.

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