Great Inventions - IELTS General Reading Sample With Explanation

IELTS Reading section contains three passages and forty questions to test the candidate’s reading skills. This IELTS reading sample - Great Inventions is an IELTS General Training topic. Candidates need to properly study the passage, and answer the thirteen questions given here. IELTS reading practice papers can prepare to increase their score. This passage contains:

1. Matching information
2. Identifying information

IELTS Reading Sample - Great Inventions

There are some things we use every day. Can you imagine a world without zippers to fasten clothing? Have you ever wondered about the layout of the keyboard of a typewriter, which we see every day on the computer? These are just two of the many inventions which have made our lives easier. Maybe that’s why we don’t think about them very much!

The Zipper

Whatever did we do before the invention of the zipper?

In 1893 the world’s first zipper was produced in Chicago. Although the inventor claimed that it was a reliable fastening for clothing, this was not the case. The Chicago zipper sprang open without warning or jammed shut, and it swiftly lost popularity. Twenty years later a Swedish-born engineer called Sundback solved the problem. He attached tiny cups to the backs of the interlocking teeth, and this meant that the teeth could be enmeshed more firmly and reliably.

At first, zippers were made of metal. They were heavy, and if they got stuck it was difficult to free them. Then came nylon zippers which were lighter and easier to use, and had smaller teeth. The fashion industry liked the new zippers far better because they did not distort the line of the garment or weigh downlight fabrics. They were also easier for the machinists to fit into the garment.

Meanwhile, a new fastening agent made its appearance at the end of the twentieth century: velcro. Velcro is another product made from nylon. Nylon is a very tough synthetic fibre first developed in the 1930s, and bearing a name to remind the hearer of the two places where it was developed: NY for New York and LON for London. Velcro is made with very small nylon hooks on one side of the fastening which catch tiny looped whiskers on the other side of the fastening. It is strong and durable.

Velcro is used on clothing, luggage and footwear. It is quick and easy to fasten and unfasten and has taken a large part of the zipper’s share of the market. It is also used in ways a zipper cannot be used – for instance as an easily changed fastening on plaster casts, and to hold furnishing fabrics in position.

The Typewriter and the Keyboard

The keyboard of the modern typewriter is laid out in the oddest fashion. Why would anyone place the letters on the left side of the top row of the keyboard in the order QWERTY? The answer is simple: to slow the typist down. But first, let’s consider the history of the typewriter itself.

In the 1860s a newspaper editor called Christopher Sholes lived in Milwaukee, USA. Sholes invented the first of the modern typewriters, although there had been patents for typewriter-like machines as early as 1714 when Queen Anne of England granted a patent to a man called Henry Mill for a machine which would make marks on paper “so neat and exact as not to be distinguished from print“. In 1829, across the Atlantic in Detroit USA, William Austin Burt took out a patent on the typewriter-like machine, four years before the French inventor Xavier Projean produced his machine designed to record words at a speed comparable to someone writing with a pen.

So the typewriter was not a new idea, although there had not been a successful realisation of the idea before Christopher Sholes’ machine. His typewriter became very popular, and soon people learned to type very quickly – so quickly, in fact, that the keys became tangled. On manual typewriters, the characters were set on the end of bars which rose to strike the paper when the key was pressed. In the first models, the keys were set alphabetically. When a quick typist tapped out a word like federal, it was very likely the adjacent e and d keys would become entangled.

Sholes, therefore, set about finding ways to slow the typist down. He looked for the letters which were most often used in English and then placed them far away from each other. For instance, q and u, which are almost always used together in English, are separated by five intervening letters. The plan worked, and the typist was slowed down a little.

When computers came into use in the latter part of the twentieth century it was suggested that the keyboard should be rationalised. After all, there was no longer any need to avoid clashing manual typewriter keys. One new board included keys which produced letters which frequently occur together in English, like ing and th and ed, so the word thing would take two strokes to write instead of five. Although this made perfect sense, people found it very hard to learn to use a new keyboard, and the idea was dropped. It is unlikely that the keyboard will ever be changed: as we approach the twenty-first century the voice-activated computer, already in an advanced state of development, is becoming more and more accessible. It is very likely that we will soon have machines which take dictation as we speak to them, and the keyboard will be used for corrections.

Questions 1 - 6

From the information in the reading passage, classify the following events as occurring:

1. before the nineteenth century
2. during the nineteenth century
3. in the first half of the twentieth century
4. at the end of the twentieth century

Write the appropriate letters A-D in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.

(Guide: Candidates need to find the correct information from the passage and match the same with the questions)

1. Sundback’s zipper

Answer: C

Supporting Sentence: Sundback, who was a Swedish-born engineer, solved the drawbacks of the existing zipper after twenty years it was first made. As the first zipper was produced in the year 1893, twenty years from then it will land in the first half of the twentieth century.

Keywords: zipper, Sundback’s

Keyword Location: third paragraph; third and fourth sentences.

Explanation: In the third paragraph it has been mentioned that Sundback produced his zipper after twenty years of the first zipper, made in 1893. Hence, 'C' is the correct option.

Also check:

2. the development of nylon

Answer: C

Supporting Sentence: Nylon is a very tough synthetic material developed in the 1930s for the first time, bearing the name of the two places where it was developed: 'NY' for New York and 'LON' for London.

Keywords: Nylon, Development

Keyword Location: Fifth paragraph, fourth sentence.

Explanation: In the fifth paragraph the decade of the 1930s has been mentioned as the precise time of the development of a much lighter material than metal, nylon. Hence, 'C' is the right option.

3. the development of velcro

Answer:D

Supporting Sentence: velcro, a fascinating product made of nylon was produced at the end of the twentieth century.

Keywords: Velcro, Twentieth century.

Keyword Location: Fifth paragraph, first sentence.

Explanation: In the fifth paragraph it has been clearly mentioned that velcro was used for the first time at the end of the twentieth century. so, 'D' is the right option.

4. the development of the first typewriter-like machine

Answer: A

Supporting Sentence: The first typewriter-like machine was first patented in 1714 when Queen Ann of England granted a patent to Henry Mill for a machine that made marks neatly on paper, just like print.

Keyword: typewriter-like machine

Keyword Location: Seventh paragraph, second sentence.

Explanation: In the seventh paragraph under the section 'The typewriter and the Keyboard' it has been mentioned that a typewriter-like machine, made by Henry Mill, received a patent from Queen Ann of England for its ability to make neat and clear markings on paper. So, 'A' is the right option.

5. The first appearance of Sholes’ typewriter

Answer: B

Supporting Sentence: A newspaper editor named Christopher Sholes of Milwaukee, USA invented the first modern-day typewriter in the 1860s that is during the nineteenth century.

Keyword: Shole’s typewriter

Keyword Location: Seventh paragraph. First sentence.

Explanation: In the first paragraph under the section 'The typewriter and the Keyboard' it is mentioned that Christopher Sholes invented the first of the modern typewriters in the 1860s. So, 'B' is the right option.

6. the development of the voice-activated computer

Answer:D

Supporting Sentence: as we more approach the twenty-first century, voice-activated computers are likely to be more accessible; the machines that are capable of taking dictations and only function of the keyboard would remain is correcting.

Keyword: voice-activated computer

Keyword Location: Last paragraph, fifth line.

Explanation: In the last paragraph it has been broached that in the twenty-first century voice-activated computers are likely to take place of keyboard-based computers while keyboards are to be used to make corrections in the recorded correction. So, 'D' is the right option.

Questions 7-9

In boxes 7-9 on your answer sheet write

TRUE if the statement is true
FALSE if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage

(Guide: Candidates need to study the passage, and identify the facts by answering ‘true’ or ‘false’ or ‘not given’)

7. The first zipper was successful as a fastener.

Answer: FALSE

Supporting Sentence: The Chicago zipper used to open up without any warning or jammed stuck. As a result, it lost its popularity quite fast. Hence the given statement is ‘False’.

Keywords: first zipper

Keyword Location: Third paragraph. Third and fourth sentence.

Explanation: Under the ‘The Zipper’ section it has been clearly mentioned that despite the inventor claimed it worked reliably the Chicago zipper was unpopular because it not only used to spring open all of a sudden but also it often jammed stuck. So the first zipper was not successful as a fastener. Hence the statement is false.

8. Nylon was used a lot during the Second World War, 1939-1945.

Answer: NOT GIVEN

Explanation: There is no such information given in the passage.

9. The first typewriter’s keyboard was different from the modern keyboard.

Answer: TRUE

Supporting Sentence: On the manual typewriter, the characters were placed alphabetically. As a result, they used to get entangled when typed quickly. So Christopher Shole had to find a new way to slow down the typist and he did it by placing the more often used letters far from each other.

Keyword: typewriter’s keyboard, modern keyboard.

Keyword Location: Ninth and tenth paragraph.

Explanation: it is clear from the line “manual typewriters, the characters were set on the end of bars which rose to strike the paper when the key was pressed. In the first model, the keys were set alphabetically” mentioned in the third paragraph under section “The Typewriter and the Keyboard”