Propaganda-The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Reading Answers

Dec 6, 2022

Propaganda-The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Reading Answers contains 14 questions. candidates need to answer the IELTS reading questions in 20 minutes. Propaganda-The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Reading Answers consist of three types of questions - Fill in the blanks and Choose the Correct Letter. Candidates need to look through the passage for keywords, understand the ideas and answer based on the given instructions. For a one-word answer, candidates must read the IELTS reading passage, identify keywords, and recognize synonyms to answer the question. There are similar topics in IELTS reading practice papers that will help the candidates to excel in the IELTS examination.

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Section 1

Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions

Propaganda-The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Reading Answers

Imagine for a moment that you are an impoverished citizen of ancient Egypt, hopefully hoeing the desert and wondering when it will bloom. Suddenly, a cloud of dust appears on the horizon which eventually resolves itself into a gallop of horses and chariots commanded by heavily armed soldiers followed, eventually, by a crocodile of exhausted slaves lugging building materials.
They all come to a halt outside your home and you make a strategic withdrawal indoors, from where you watch them through a slit in the wall. In an amazingly short lime, the slaves build a 40-foot high obelisk which Is then surrounded by it swarm of stonemasons. Then, when the work, whatever it is, has been completed, the entire company withdraws as quickly as it came.
Once the coast is clear, you creep outside to examine their handiwork. The obelisk is covered with carvings of soldiers, looking remarkably like those who have just left, engaged in countless victorious battles, decimating the countryside and gruesomely killing people who look remarkably like you. prominently portrayed, surveying sphinx-like the carnage committed in his same, is the Pharaoh. You can’t read, but you get the picture. You, in consort with your disaffected neigh hours, had been contemplating, in a rather desultory fashion, a small uprising. You change your mind in what is one of the easiest examples of the power of propaganda.
Of course, as is often the case with big ideas when they tire in their infancy, the methods employed. In ancient Egypt were far from subtle, But over subsequent centuries, the use of propaganda was conscientiously honed. It was not until the First World War that propaganda made the quantum leap from the gentler arts of persuasion to become the tool of coercion. As Philip Taylor says in War and the Media: “Before 1914, it simply meant the means by which the proponent of a particular doctrine… propagated his beliefs among his audience … propaganda is simply a process of persuasion. As a concept, it is neutral and should be devoid of value judgements”.
It is unlikely, at least in the West, that propaganda will ever be rehabilitated as a neutral concept. The very word is now so loaded with sinister connotations that it evokes an immediate and visceral sense of outrage. For the use of propaganda reached its apogee in the machinery of the Third Reich. Hitler and Goebbels between them elevated it to a black art of such diabolical power that it has been permanently discredited among those who witnessed its expression. Indeed in 1936 at Nuremberg, Hitler attributed his entire success to the workings of propaganda. He said: “Propaganda brought us to power, propaganda has since enabled us to remain in power, and propaganda will give us the means of conquering the world”.
It is therefore unsurprising that Western governments and politicians are liable to perform the most extreme presentational acrobatics in their efforts to avoid the dreaded “p” word being applied to any of their activities. They have developed impressive lexicons of euphemisms and doublespeak to distance themselves from any taint of it, real or imagined. Inevitably, the media is alive to this hypersensitivity and the “p“ word has become a potent weapon in its arsenal. It is used pejoratively, with intent to discredit and wound, as governments are painfully aware. For propaganda is the spectre that haunts many a government-inspired media fest. It is the uninvited guest, the empty chair which serves to remind the hosts precisely why the gathering has been convened and forces them to run quality tests on the fare on offer — is it factually nutritious, is it presented in a balanced and truthful way, is its integrity intact?
In this one respect, at least, the negative connotations attached to propaganda actually perform a positive function. They offer a salutary reminder of ail that government information is supposed not to be and act as a ferocious curb on any runaway tendency to excess. Most importantly, the public is alive to the dangers of propaganda and alert to its manifestations whether overt or covert. They know that propaganda is the serpent lurking In the tree of knowledge; that it is subtle, it beguiles, it seduces, it obfuscates, it holds out simple dreams and turns them into nightmare realities, it subverts, it pretends to be other than it is. They know that it is the poisoned fruit of the goblin market, not the plain bread of truth that is the staple diet of information. And they will not tolerate It. They succumb instead to the more blatant blandishments of advertising, which might be regarded as the wolf of propaganda, tamed and turned to domestic use. Safe in the knowledge that the wolf has been securely trussed by the rules and regulations of the Advertising Standards Authority, they knowingly consent to be had,

Section 2

Solution and Explanation

Questions 1-10
Complete the text below, which is a summary of paragraphs. Choose a suitable word from the text for each blank.
Write your answers in Blank spaces 1-10 on your answer sheet.
You may use any word more than once.

Example: propaganda – the good, the ____________ and the ugly.
Answer: Bad.

1) ______ that you are a poor 2) ______ living in ancient Egypt, when a band of soldiers accompanied by a 3) _____ of slaves carrying building materials appears on the scene. While you are inside your house, the slaves erect an 4) _____ and the whole company disappears. The 5) ______ features figures like those soldiers who have just left engaged in victorious battles and, in a prominent position, the figure of the sphinx-like 6) ________. After briefly considering an 7) _____, you and the other inhabitants change your 8) ______ In what is one of the earliest Instances of the power of 9) _______, albeit a not very 10) _____ one.

Question 1:

Answer: Imagine
Supporting statement: For a moment try to imagine yourself as an impoverished citizen of ancient Egypt. You were hopefully hoeing the desert and wondering about the time of its blooming.
Keyword: Egypt, poor, Citizen.
Keyword Location: 1st paragraph, 1st line
Explanation: The passage states ‘For a moment try to imagine …. citizen of ancient Egypt.’ Here we can see clearly the word imagine has been used so it will be the right choice.

Question 2:

Answer: Citizen
Supporting statement: For a moment try to imagine yourself as an impoverished citizen of ancient Egypt. You were hopefully hoeing the desert and wondering about the time of its blooming.
Keyword: Egypt, poor, Citizen
Keyword Location: 1st paragraph, 1st line
Explanation: The 1^st line of the passage talks about citizens of Egypt hoeing the desert. The sentence means poor citizen. Here we can see clearly the word citizen has been used so it will be the right choice.

Question 3:

Answer: crocodile
Supporting statement: All of a sudden, it appears a cloud of dust on the horizon, eventually, it resolves itself into a gallop of horses and chariots which are commanded by armed soldiers followed by a crocodile of slaves who are lugging building materials.
Keywords: crocodile, slaves, soldiers, building materials.
Keyword Location: 1st paragraph, last line
Explanation: The passage states that chariots are accompanied by armed soldiers followed by a crocodile of slaves carrying building materials. This line indicates the answer is a crocodile.

Question 4:

Answer: obelisk
Supporting statement: Just in a short period of time, a 40-foot high obelisk is built by the slaves surrounded by a swarm of stonemasons.
Keywords: obelisk, slaves
Keyword Location: 2nd paragraph, 1st line, and 2nd line.
Explanation: The question asks what the slaves erect or build. The passage states that a 40-foot high obelisk is built by the slaves surrounded by a swarm of stonemasons. As it is clearly mentioned here, hence obelisk is the right answer.

Question 5:

Answer: obelisk
Supporting statement: After the clearance of the coast, you trail outside for examination of their handiwork. The carving of soldiers covered the obelisk. It looks remarkably like the ones who have just left, who engaged in numerous glorious battles and killed thousands of people who look just like you.
Keyword: obelisk, soldiers
Keyword Location: 3rd paragraph, 1st line
Explanation: The passage describes the features of the obelisk. The carving of soldiers covered the obelisk. It looks remarkably like the ones who have just left, who engaged in numerous glorious battles and killed thousands of people who look just like you. This line indicated the answer should be an obelisk

Question 6:

Answer: Pharaoh

Supporting statement: In a prominent position, the figure is just like a sphinx is the pharaoh. It is not readable by you, but you recognize the picture.
Keyword: Pharaoh, sphinx-like the carnage
Keyword Location: 3rd paragraph, 3rd line.
Explanation: As per the author, in a prominent position, the figure is just like a sphinx is the pharaoh. The question also asks the same. The supporting sentence is indicating that answer is Pharaoh.

Question 7:

Answer: uprising
Supporting statement: You and your disaffected neighbors had been considering, in a rather rambling way, a small uprising. Then you changed your mind in one of the easiest examples of the power of propaganda.
Keywords: uprising, propaganda.
Keyword Location: 3rd paragraph, last line
Explanation: The passage states ‘You and your disaffected …., a small uprising.’ Hence, from this, we know that neighbors were considering the uprising. We can understand from this line that uprising is the correct answer.

Question 8:

Answer: mind/minds
Supporting statement: You and your disaffected neighbors had been considering, in a rather rambling way, a small uprising. Then you changed your mind in one of the easiest examples of the power of propaganda.
Keywords: uprising, propaganda.
Keyword Location: 3rd paragraph, last line
Explanation: ‘Then you changed your mind in one of the easiest examples of the power of propaganda.’ Here it is clearly mentioned that “you change your mind” which says the mind is the correct answer.

Question 9:

Answer: propaganda
Supporting statement: You and your disaffected neighbors had been considering, in a rather rambling way, a small uprising. Then you changed your mind in one of the easiest examples of the power of propaganda.
Keywords: uprising, propaganda.
Keyword Location: 3rd paragraph, last line
Explanation: ‘Then you changed your mind in one of the easiest examples of the power of propaganda.’ From this line, we can say the answer is propaganda.

Question 10:

Answer: subtle
Supporting statement: In ancient, Egypt had a farness from subtle, but over the centuries, the application of propaganda was conscientiously honed.
Keywords: propaganda, Egypt
Keyword Location: 4th paragraph, 2nd line
Explanation: The author states that in ancient, Egypt had a farness from subtle. This clearly matches the blank in the question. Hence, subtle is the correct choice.

Questions 11-14:
Choose the correct letter A, B, C, D and write them for questions 11 - 14 on your answer sheet.

11) Philip Taylor says that propaganda …

is needed to propagate the beliefs of people
prior to 1914 it was a tool of correction.
always remains as a neutral force
was simply the process to persuade people to do things before 1914

Answer: D
Supporting statement: In War and the Media Phillip Taylor says,” prior to 1914 it simply meant how the proponent of a particular doctrine
Keywords: Phillip Taylor, 1914
Keyword Location: 5th Paragraph, 2nd line.
Explanation: As per the passage, we can see that prior to 1914 propaganda was meant to persuade people to do things. This matches exactly with option D. Hence, D is the correct option.

12) Philip Taylor said that, propaganda …

can not be considered as a neutral concept
until 1914 it is value loaded up
is a neutral concept till today
until 1914 it was a neutral concept up

Answer: D
Supporting statement: Circulated his thoughts among his audience … the process of persuasion is simply called propaganda. it is neutral as a concept and must be divested of value Judgements.”
Keywords: Phillip Taylor, 1914
Keyword Location: 5th Paragraph, 2nd line.
Explanation: The author in the passage states that propaganda is a neutral concept. The line ‘it is neutral as a concept and must be divested of value Judgements.’ suggests the same. This makes D as the correct answer.

13) Governments and Politicians of the West …

will do everything in their range to avoid using the word propaganda
like the usage of the word propaganda in front of the media
do not afraid of the “p” word
are ideal acrobats

Answer: A
Supporting statement: It is not surprising that the politicians and governments of the west are ready to do the most difficult presentational gymnastics within their efforts to avoid the dangerous “P” word to apply in any of their activities.
Keywords: politicians,
Keyword Location: 7th Paragraph, 1st line.
Explanation: “It is not surprising that the politicians and governments of the west are ready to do the most difficult presentational gymnastics within their efforts to avoid the dangerous “P” word to apply to in any of their activities.’ The “P” word is indirectly suggesting propaganda hence A is the correct answer.

14) The public …

feel joyful to be deceived by media
are deceived by media and advertisers
are not cheated by advertisers
have respect for the advertisers

Answer: B
Supporting statement: the most important thing is the public is alive to The venture of propaganda and alert to its disclosure whether covert or overt.
Keywords: public, propaganda
Keyword Location: 9th Paragraph, 3rd line.
Explanation: Covert means have hidden. The author in the passage mentions covert which means hidden. hiding something is also deceiving. From this, we can say B is the correct option.

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