Plaster Reading Answers

Jul 16, 2025

Plaster Reading Answers is an academic reading answers topic. Plaster Reading Answers has a total of 6 IELTS questions in total. In the question set, you have to fill in the blank with the correct answer in no more than three words and/or numbers for each.

The candidate's understanding and assessment of academic and general texts are examined in the IELTS Reading Section. Using IELTS Reading Practice Questions, you can increase your vocabulary, sharpen your critical reading skills, and become more familiar with the various question types in reading tasks. Furthermore, practice enhances vocabulary and improves analytical reading skills, both of which are necessary for success. It's critical to comprehend the guidelines for every question type and create effective ways to manage time to receive excellent band scores.

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Topic:

PLASTER

Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster' usually means a material used for the interiors of buildings. Another imprecise term used for the material is stucco, which is also often used for plasterwork that is worked in some way to produce relief decoration, rather than flat surfaces. The most common types of plaster mainly contain either gypsum, lime, or cement, but all work in a similar way. The plaster is manufactured as a dry powder and is mixed with water to form a stiff but workable paste immediately before it is applied to the surface.

The reaction with water liberates heat through crystallization, and the hydrated plaster then hardens. Plaster can be relatively easily worked with metal tools or even sandpaper, and can be moulded, either on site or to make pre-formed sections in advance, which are put in place with adhesive. Plaster is not a strong material; it is suitable for finishing, rather than load bearing, and when thickly applied for decoration may require a hidden supporting framework, usually in metal.

Forms of plaster have several other uses. In medicine plaster orthopaedic casts are still often used for supporting set broken bones. In dentistry, plaster is used to make dental impressions. Various types of models and moulds are made with plaster. In art, lime plaster is the traditional matrix for fresco painting; the pigments are applied to a thin wet top layer of plaster and fuse with it so that the painting is actually in coloured plaster.

In the ancient world, as well as the sort of ornamental designs in plaster relief that are still used, plaster was also widely used to create large figurative reliefs for walls, though few of these have survived. Clay plaster has been used since antiquity. Settlers in the American colonies used clay plaster on the interiors of their houses: "Interior plastering in the form of clay antedated even the building of houses of frame and must have been visible in the inside of wattle filling in those earliest frame houses in which wainscot had not been indulged. Clay continued in the use long after the adoption of laths and brick filling for the frame." Where lime was not available or easily accessible, it was rationed or substituted with other binders. In Martin E. Weaver's seminal work, he says, "Mud plaster consists of clay or Earth which is mixed with water to give a "plastic* or workable consistency. If the clay mixture is too plastic, it will shrink, crack, and distort on drying. It will also probably drop off the wall. Sand and fine gravels were put in to reduce the concentrations of fine clay particles which were the cause of the excessive shrinkage."

Straw or grass was added sometimes, with the addition of manure. In the Earliest European settlers' plasterwork, a mud plaster was used or more usually a mud-lime mixture. McKee writes of a circa 1675 Massachusetts contract that specified the plasterer, "Is to lath and seal the four rooms of the house betwixt the joists overhead with a coat of lime and hair upon the clay; also, to fill the gable ends of the house with ricks and plaster them with clay.

Questions 14–19

Write no more than THREE WORDS and/or numbers for each.

14. ..................... is an ambiguous phrase to describe plaster.

Answer: STUCCO

Supporting statement: Another imprecise term used for the material is stucco,

Keywords: imprecise, stucco

Keyword Location: Para 1, Line 3

Explanation: According to the text, stucco was a term used for the material used to provide relief decoration different from the one used in interior designing.

15. Plaster is interspersed with…………..before use.

Answer: WATER

Supporting statement: The plaster is manufactured as a dry powder and is mixed with water to form a stiff but workable paste immediately before it is applied to the surface.

Keywords: dry powder, paste

Keyword Location: Para 1, Lines 6-7

Explanation: Water is added to the plaster powder to make it more workable before using it in the application.

16. The fabricated portions of plaster are fixed with……………

Answer: ADHESIVE

Supporting statement: which are put in place with adhesive.

Keywords: place, adhesive

Keyword Location: Para 2, Lines 3-4

Explanation: Plaster is reasonably easy to work with, using metal tools or even sandpaper. It can be molded on-site or to create pre-formed portions that are glued to the surface.

17. When dense plaster mixture is used for ornamentation, it may well necessitate a concealed…………

Answer: SUPPORTING FRAMEWORK

Supporting statement: Plaster is not a strong material; it is suitable for finishing, rather than load bearing, and when thickly applied for decoration may require a hidden supporting framework, usually in metal.

Keywords: strong, supporting framework

Keyword Location: Para 2, Lines 4-5

Explanation: The plaster by itself is not a strong material, so it requires a framework that will provide support to it.

18. Lime was swapped with …………….when it was not effortlessly obtainable.

Answer: OTHER BINDERS

Supporting statement: Where lime was not available or easily accessible, it was rationed or substituted with other binders.

Keywords: lime, binders

Keyword Location: Para 4, Lines 7-8

Explanation: In place of lime, other binders were used due to the unavailability and inaccessibility of lime.

19. To lessen the disproportionate contraction of clay, ................ And …………... were added to the mixture.

Answer: SAND, FINE GRAVELS

Supporting statement: Sand and fine gravels were put in to reduce the concentrations of fine clay particles which were the cause of the excessive shrinkage

Keywords: Sand and fine gravels, concentrations

Keyword Location: Para 4, Lines 11-12

Explanation: According to the text, to lower the concentrations of fine clay particles that were causing the excessive shrinkage, sand and fine gravel were added.

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