Learning Lessons From The Past - IELTS Reading Sample with Explanation
The second task of the IELTS is the reading section. It is an important section of IELTS that consists of a comprehensive passage. Candidates must thoroughly read the IELTS reading passage, and answer over 40 questions that target the candidates' comprehension skills. This IELTS Reading sample Reading the screen contains three question types
- Choose the Correct Letter
- True/False/Not Given
- Matching Headings
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Section 1
Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions
Learning Lessons From The Past IELTS Reading Sample
- Many past societies collapsed or vanished, leaving behind monumental ruins such as those that the poet Shelley imagined in his sonnet, Ozymandias. By collapse, I mean a drastic decrease in human population size and/or political/economic/social complexity, over a considerable area, for an extended time. By those standards, most people would consider the following past societies to have been famous victims of full-fledged collapses rather than of just minor declines: the Anasazi and Cahokia within the boundaries of the modern US, the Maya cities in Central America, Moche and Tiwanaku societies in South America, Norse Greenland, Mycenean Greece and Minoan Crete in Europe, Great Zimbabwe in Africa, Angkor Wat and the Harappan Indus Valley cities in Asia, and Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean.
- The monumental ruins left behind by those past societies hold a fascination for all of us. We marvel at them when as children we first learn of them through pictures. When we grow up, many of us plan vacations in order to experience them first hand. We feel drawn to their often spectacular and haunting beauty, and also to the mysteries that they pose. The scales of the ruins testify to the former wealth and power of their builders. Yet these builders vanished, abandoning the great structures that they had created at such effort. How could a society that was once so mighty end up collapsing?
- It has long been suspected that many of those mysterious abandonments were at least partly triggered by ecological problems: people inadvertently destroying the environmental resources on which their societies depended. This suspicion of unintended ecological suicide (ecocide) has been confirmed by discoveries made in recent decades by archaeologists, climatologists, historians, paleontologists, and palynologists (pollen scientists). The processes through which past societies have undermined themselves by damaging their environments fall into eight categories, whose relative importance differs from case to case: deforestation and habitat destruction, soil problems, water management problems, overhunting, overfishing, effects of introduced species on native species, human population growth, and increased impact of people.
- Those past collapses tended to follow somewhat similar courses constituting variations on a theme. Writers find it tempting to draw analogies between the course of human societies and the course of individual human lives - to talk of a society’s birth, growth, peak, old age and eventual death. But that metaphor proves erroneous for many past societies: they declined rapidly after reaching peak numbers and power, and those rapid declines must have come as a surprise and shock to their citizens. Obviously, too, this trajectory is not one that all past societies followed unvaryingly to completion: different societies collapsed to different degrees and in somewhat different ways, while many societies did not collapse at all.
- Today many people feel that environmental problems overshadow all the other threats to global civilisation. These environmental problems include the same eight that undermined past societies, plus four new ones: human-caused climate change, build up of toxic chemicals in the environment, energy shortages, and full human utilization of the Earth’s photosynthetic capacity. But the seriousness of these current environmental problems is vigorously debated. Are the risks greatly exaggerated, or conversely are they underestimated? Will modern technology solve our problems, or is it creating new problems faster than it solves old ones? When we deplete one resource (e.g. wood, oil, or ocean fish), can we count on being able to substitute some new resource (e.g. plastics, wind and solar energy, or farmed fish)? Isn’t the rate of human population growth declining, such that we’re already on course for the world’s population to level off at some manageable number of people?
- Questions like this illustrate why those famous collapses of past civilisations have taken on more meaning than just that of a romantic mystery. Perhaps there are some practical lessons that we could learn from all those past collapses. But there are also differences between the modern world and its problems, and those past societies and their problems. We shouldn't be so naive as to think that study of the past will yield simple solutions, directly transferable to our societies today. We differ from past societies in some respects that put us at lower risk than them; some of those respects often mentioned include our powerful technology (i.e. its beneficial effects), globalization, modern medicine, and greater knowledge of past societies and of distant modern societies. We also differ from past societies in some respects that put us at greater risk than them: again, our potent technology (i.e., its unintended destructive effects), globalization (such that now a problem in one part of the world affects all the rest), the dependence of millions of us on modern medicine for our survival, and our much larger human population. Perhaps we can still learn from the past, but only if we think carefully about its lessons.
Section 2
Solution and Explanation
Questions 1-3
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
- When the writer describes the impact of monumental ruins today, he emphasis
- the income they generate from tourism.
- the area of land they occupy.
- their archeological value.
- their romantic appeal
Answer: C. their archeological value.
Supporting sentence: The writer mentions the fascinating beauty of the archeological ruins which have been left behind, after the drastic downfall of many civil societies. It is not just about the beauty which is utmost fascinating about the ruins.
Keyword: archeological, fascinating, ruins
Keyword location: Para 2, lines 2-4
Explanation: The writer highlights its value which is the pinnacle of the many admiring characteristics. The question about the cause of the societies which is all time debatable, but unanimously it can be agreed upon that these ruins are the evidence of the wealth, culture, stories and struggle associated with them, with the builder of these marvelous architecture. The writer puts more emphasis on the cultural value which they possess rather than just their fascinating beauty. Hence the correct answer according to the passage would be option C.
Read More IELTS Reading Related Samples
- Recent findings concerning vanished civilisations have
- overturned long-held beliefs.
- caused controversy amongst scientists.
- come from a variety of disciplines.
- identified one main cause of environmental damage.
Answer: identified one main cause of environmental damage
Supporting sentence: The result of the study conducted by historians, archeologists and related concern institutions, to answer the most genuine question about the vanishing of such hulk sized societies considered as Ecocide.
Keyword: Ecocide
Keyword location: Para 3, lines 2-5
Explanation: The primary cause that might have been the sole reason is the Ecocide as mentioned by the writer. Ecological change which might have taken place due to shifting of humans followed by deforestation, burning of woods caused increase in temperature causing the unpredictable change in environment, to which the brains of the people of that time were not prepared well to handle. The writer adds further that the present scenario about technological advancement is quite a similar change back then when these societies were being nurtured. This assessment affirms the answer to this question is D.
- What does the writer say about ways in which former societies collapsed?
- The pace of decline was usually similar.
- The likelihood of collapse would have been foreseeable.
- Deterioration invariably led to total collapse.
- Individual citizens could sometimes influence the course of events
Answer: A. The pace of decline was usually similar
Supporting sentence: The writer tried to draw a common analogy between the fall of different societies and finds constituting variations on theme.
Keyword: constituting variation
Keyword location: Para 4, lines 1-2
Explanation: He assesses that the rapid downfall of the societies would have been quite an element of surprise and shock to their citizens. He also doesn't deny that there were societies which showed downfall at a much slower pace or did not fall at all.
Questions 4-8
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage?
Write
YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
4) It is widely believed that environmental problems represent the main danger faced by the modern world
Answer: YES
Supporting sentence: It is widely believed that environmental problems represent the main danger faced by the modern world and full human utilization of Earth’s photosynthetic capacity.
Keyword: photosynthetic capacity
Keyword location: Para 5, lines 2-5
Explanation: Presently it is the environmental problems which has taken precedence over all other problems for the decline of major societies. The environmental causes include the additional four problems; human-caused climate change, build-up of toxic chemicals in the environment, energy shortages, and full human utilization of the Earth’s photosynthetic capacity.
5) The accumulation of poisonous substances is a relatively modern problem.
Answer: YES
Supporting sentence: The accumulation of poisonous substances is a relatively modern problem.
Keyword: toxic chemicals, environment
Keyword location: Para 5, lines 3-5
Explanation: Writer illustrates the problems related to the modern world by putting more emphasis on environmental problems. The modern climate change caused by human activities has built up Toxic chemicals in the environment, energy shortages and ultimately greenhouse effect.
6) There is general agreement that the threats posed by environmental problems are very serious.
Answer: NO
Supporting sentence: There is general agreement that the threats posed by environmental problems are very serious.
Keyword: environmental
Keyword location: Para 5, lines 4-6
Explanation: The article mentions that the risk of environmental change is highly debatable. There is a chunk of people who argues that the technology was advanced to decrease human efforts rather than creating a new challenge.
7) Some past societies resembled present-day societies more closely than others.
Answer: NOT GIVEN
Supporting sentence: Some past societies resembled present-day societies more closely than others.
Keyword: present-day
Keyword location: not-given
Explanation: According to the passage there is no mention about the societies which may resemble the present-day societies although there may be some similarities in the few modern day societies but the writer has put emphasis on other important aspects.
8) We should be careful when drawing comparisons between past and present.
Answer: YES
Supporting sentence: We should be careful when drawing comparisons between past and present.
Keyword: comparison
Keyword location: Para 6, lines 2-6
Explanation: The writer in the closing of the article affirms that modern societies are highly dependent on modern medicine and technology but still we need to learn from the past and we can only draw conclusions from history only if we draw a careful conclusion from the past.
Question 9-13
Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-F, below.
Write the correct letter, A-F.
| A is not necessarily valid. B provides grounds for an optimistic outlook. C exists in the form of physical structures. D is potentially both positive and negative. E will not provide direct solutions for present problems. F is greater now than in the past. |
- Evidence of the greatness of some former civilisations
Answer: C
Supporting sentence: The whole article lime lights the architectural remains to gaze at its beauty and study of past civilizations. Hence the evidence of the past great civilisation is left in the form of physical structure.
Keyword: Past societies, famous victims, Anasazi and Cahokia, Harappan Indus Valley cities
Keyword location: Para 1, lines 4-9
Explanation: It is indicated in Para 1, that the famous past societies have been victims of collapses. Some of these are Anasazi and Cahokia within the boundaries of the modern US, the Maya cities in Central America, Moche and Tiwanaku societies in South America, Norse Greenland, Mycenean Greece and Minoan Crete in Europe, Great Zimbabwe in Africa, Angkor Wat and the Harappan Indus Valley cities in Asia, and Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean.
- The parallel between an individual’s life and the life of a society
Answer: A
Supporting sentence: The writer finds it tempting to draw a common analogy between the course of individual human lives and those of societies. Hence it is not necessarily valid to draw a parallel between an individual’s life and the life of a society.
Keyword: analogy, individual's life and life of society, proved to be erroneous
Keyword location: Para 4, lines 2-4
Explanation: It is clearly indicated in Para 4, that many writers find it interesting to draw analogies between an individual's life and life of society, however these theories have proved to be erroneous, for many past societies.
- The number of environmental problems that societies face
Answer: F
Supporting sentence: the number of environmental problems which ancient people faced is comparatively of a lower magnitude than we face today. The technological inventions created further toxic chemicals and the photosynthetic quota of Earth today has become very low.
Keyword: environmental problems, eight, four new ones, threats, global civilization
Keyword location: Para 5, lines 2-5
Explanation: It is indicated in Para 5, that environmental problems overshadow the other threats on global civilization. These environmental problems include the same eight that undermined past societies, plus four new ones: human-caused climate change, build up of toxic chemicals in the environment, energy shortages, and full human utilization of the Earth’s photosynthetic capacity.
- The power of technology
Answer: D
Supporting sentence: The motive of all these technologies was/is to reduce the human efforts but its complimentary side is negative it is creating unprecedented environmental damage resulting in climate change
Keyword: potent technology, powerful technology
Keyword location: Para 6, lines 6-10
Explanation: It is indicated in Para 6, that technology has positive and negative effects.Some of those include our powerful technology (i.e. its beneficial effects), globalization, modern medicine, and greater knowledge of past societies and of distant modern societies. The negative effects include our potent technology (i.e., its unintended destructive effects), globalization (such that now a problem in one part of the world affects all the rest), the dependence of millions of us on modern medicine for our survival, and our much larger human population
- A consideration of historical events and trends
Answer: E
Supporting sentence: The reason for decline of societies in the past was ecocide and presently societies are also facing environmental problems but the attitude of problems associated is quite larger now than the past. So, even careful study of the past will not provide a substantive solution for the problems which the present societies are combating.
Keyword: differ, past societies, not yield, simple solution
Keyword location: Para 6, lines 4-7
Explanation: It is indicated in Para 6, that the past will not yield simple solutions, directly transferable to our societies today. We differ from past societies in some respects like technology.
Questions 14
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
- What is the main argument of Reading Passage 3?
- There are differences as well as similarities between past and present societies.
- More should be done to preserve the physical remains of earlier civilisations.
- Some historical accounts of great civilisations are inaccurate.
- Modern societies are dependent on each other for their continuing survival
Answer: A
Supporting sentence: The succinct crux of the debate is there are quite similarities in the societies of the past and present which may be given to ecological change.
Keyword: past societies, modern world
Keyword location: Para 6, lines 3-6
Explanation: In the past civilisation faced ecological change due to human activities such as deforestation, degradation of soil etc. and at present the societies are also combating climate change primarily due to the human activities. But if we try to learn the solutions from the study of the past there lies no rationale as the magnitude of the problems have elevated unsurprisingly.
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