The Cloud Messenger Reading Answers

Dec 8, 2022

The Cloud Messenger-Reading Answers has a set of 14 questions which the candidates should attempt within the time span of 20 minutes. The given IELTS reading topic comprises of three different sorts of questions, like, match the headings, label the diagram and choose the correct letter. The candidates should mandatorily study the IELTS Reading passage and undertand the core of the passage and then should opt for the section of match the headings. For the section of label the diagram and choose the correct letter, the candidates are required to recognize the synonyms, identify the keywords and understand the concept of the below provided passage. The candidates should take IELTS reading practice papers in their consideration to practice same kinds of samples and for scoring good.

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Reading Passage Questions

At six o’clock one evening in December 1802, in a dank and cavernous laboratory in London, an unknown young amateur meteorologist gave the lecture that teas to make him famous

Luke Howard had been speaking for nearly an hour, during which time his audience had found itself in a state of gradually mounting excitement. By the time that he reached the concluding words of his address, the Plough Court laboratory was in an uproar. Everyone in the audience had recognized the importance of what they had just heard, and all were in a mood to have it confirmed aloud by their friends and neighbours in the room. Over the course of the past hour, they had been introduced not only to new explanations of the formation and lifespan of clouds, but also to a poetic new terminology: ‘Cirrus’, ‘Stratus’, ‘Cumulus’, ‘Nimbus’, and the other names, too, the names of intermediate compounds and modified forms, whose differences were based on altitude, air temperature and the shaping powers of upward radiation. There was much that needed to be taken on board.
Clouds, as everyone in the room would already have known, were staging posts in the rise and fall of water as it made its way on endless compensating journeys between the earth and the fruitful sky. Yet the nature of the means of their exact construction remained a mystery to most observers who, on the whole, were still in thrall to the vesicular or ‘bubble’ theory that had dominated meteorological thinking for the better part of a century. The earlier speculations, in all their strangeness, had mostly been forgotten or were treated as historical curiosities to be glanced at, derided and then abandoned. Howard, however, was adamant that clouds were formed from actual solid drops of water and ice, condensed from their vaporous forms by the fall in temperature which they encountered as they ascended through the rapidly cooling lower atmosphere. Balloon pioneers during the 1780s had continued just how cold it could get up in the realm of the clouds: the temperature fell some 6.5″C for every thousand meters they ascended. By the time the middle of a major cumulus cloud had been reached, the temperature would have dropped to below freezing, while the oxygen concentration of the air would be starting to thin choir dangerously. That was what the balloonists meant by ‘dizzy heights’.
Howard was not, of course, the first to insist that clouds were best understood as entities with physical properties of their own, obeying the same essential laws which governed the rest of the natural world (with one or two interesting anomalies: water, after all, is a very strange material). It had long been accepted by many of the more scientifically minded that clouds, despite their distance and their seeming intangibility, should be studied and apprehended like any other objects in creation.
There was more, however, and better. Luke Howard also claimed that there was a fixed and constant number of basic cloud types, and this number was not (as the audience might have anticipated) in the hundreds or the thousands, like the teeming clouds themselves, with each as individual as a thumbprint. Had this been the case, it would render them both unclassifiable and unaccountable; just so many stains upon the sky. Howard’s claim, on the contrary, was that there were just three basic families of cloud, into which every one of the thousands of ambiguous forms could be categorized with certainty. The clouds obeyed a system and, once recognized in outline, their basic forms would be ‘as distinguishable from each other as a tree from a hill, or the latter from a lake’, for each displayed the simplest possible visual characteristics.
The names which Howard devised or they were designed to convey a descriptive sense of each cloud type’s outward characteristics (a practice derived from the usual procedures of natural history classification) and were taken from the Latin, for ease of adoption by the learned of different nations’: Cirrus (from the Latin for fibre or hair), Cumulus (from the Latin for heap or pile) and Stratus (from the Latin for layer or sheet). Clouds were thus divided into tendrils, heaps and layers: the three formations at the heart of their design. Howard then went on to name four other cloud types, all of which were either modifications or aggregates of the three major families of formation. Clouds continually unite, pass into one another and disperse, but always in recognizable stages. The rain cloud Nimbus, for example (from the Latin for cloud), was, according to Howard, a rainy combination of all three types, although Nimbus was reclassified as nimbostratus by meteorologists in 1932, by which time the science of rain had developed beyond all recognition.
The modification of clouds was a major new idea, and what struck the audience most vividly about it was its elegant and powerful fittingness. All of what they had just heard seemed so clear and so self-evident. Some must have wondered how it was that no one – not even in antiquity – had named or graded the clouds before, or if they had, why their efforts had left no trace in the language. How could it be that the task had been waiting for Howard, who had succeeded in wringing a kind of exactitude from out of the vaporous clouds? Their forms, though shapeless and unresolved, had, at last, it seemed, been securely grasped. Howard had given a set of names to a radical fluidity and impermanence that seemed every bit as magical, to that first audience, as the Eskimo’s fabled vocabulary of snow.

Solution and Explanation
The reading passage has 6 paragraphs.
Questions 1-6:
You need to choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings bellow.
Write the correct number i-x in the boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.

The lists of headings are as follows

An easily understood system
Doubts dismissed
Not a totally unconventional view
Theories compared
A momentous occasion
A controversial use of terminology
Initial confusion
Previous beliefs replaced
More straightforward than expected
An obvious thing to do

Question 27. Paragraph A

Answer: (e) A momentous Occasion
Supporting Sentence: By the time that he reached the concluding words of his address, the Plough Court laboratory was in an uproar.
Keywords: Plough Court laboratory, uproar.
Keyword Location: line 2, paragraph A
Explanation: According to line 2 of paragraph A, the Plough Court laboratory was in a turmoil by the time Luke Howard got to the end of his speech.Luke Howard's presentation at the lab and its impact on the audience, which became aware of how important what they were hearing was. Hence, option e is the right option.

Question 28. Paragraph B

Answer: (h) Previous beliefs replaced
Supporting Sentence: The earlier speculations, in all their strangeness, had mostly been forgotten or were treated as historical curiosities to be glanced at, derided and then abandoned.
Keywords: earlier speculations, forgotten, historical curosities.
Keyword location: line 3, paragraph B
Explanation: Line 3 of paragraph B explains that most of the preceding hypotheses had mostly been forgotten or were seen as historical oddities to be gazed at, mocked, and then abandoned because of their peculiarity. So, option h will be an appropriate answer.

Question 29. Paragraph C

Answer: (c) Not a totally unconventional view
Supporting Sentence: It had long been accepted by many of the more scientifically minded that clouds, despite their distance and their seeming intangibility, should be studied and apprehended like any other objects in creation.
Keywords: scientifically minded, intangibility, objects in creation.
Keyword location: lines 1-2, paragraph C
Explanation: The paragraph C explains that Howard was not the first person to assert that clouds should be viewed as physical beings with their own set of laws that regulate the rest of the natural world, of course (with one or two interesting anomalies: water, after all, is a very strange material). Many of the more scientifically inclined people had long agreed that despite their distance and seeming intangibility, clouds should be investigated and understood similarly to other items in creation. Thus, option c is the right choice here.

Question 30. Paragraph D

Answer: (i) More straightforward than expected
Supporting Sentence: Howard’s claim, on the contrary, was that there were just three basic families of cloud, into which every one of the thousands of ambiguous forms could be categorized with certainty.
Keywords: Howard’s claim, three basic families, ambiguous forms.
Keyword location: line 4, paragraph D
Explanation: As per paragraph D, Luke Howard also asserted that there were a set number of fundamental cloud types and that this number was not (as the audience might have assumed) in the hundreds or thousands, like the teeming clouds themselves, with each as unique as a thumbprint. If this were the case, they would be impossible to categorise and inexplicable, simply another stain on the sky. Contrarily, Howard asserted that there were just three fundamental families of clouds, into which each of the tens of thousands of confusing forms could be categorised with confidence.Thus, option i is the right choice.

Question 31. Paragraph E

Answer: (a) An easily understood system
Supporting Sentence: The names which Howard devised or they were designed to convey a descriptive sense of each cloud type’s outward characteristics (a practice derived from the usual procedures of natural history classification) and were taken from the Latin, for ease of adoption by the learned of different nations’
Keywords: devised, descriptive sense, ease of adoption.
Keyword location: lines 1-2, paragraph E
Explanation: Paragraph E implies that the names that Howard came up with or they were aimed to convey a descriptive sense of each cloud type's external qualities (a practise derived from the common practises of natural history classification) were adopted from the Latin, for ease of adoption by the learned of other nations. Therefore, option a is a right choice.

Question 32. Paragraph F

Answer: (j) An obvious thing to do
Supporting Sentence: The modification of clouds was a major new idea, and what struck the audience most vividly about it was its elegant and powerful fittingness.
Keywords: modification of clouds, elegant, powerful fittingness
Keyword location: lines 1-2, paragraph F
Explanation: According to paragraph F, the audience was introduced to a significant new concept—the modification of clouds—and were most strongly struck by its elegant and potent application. Everything they had just heard appeared to be so obvious and self-evident. So, option j is the right option here.

Question 33-36:

Label the diagram below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 33-36 on your sheet.

Question 33:

Answer 33: Dizzy heights
Supporting Sentence: That was what the balloonists meant by ‘dizzy heights’.
Keywords: major cumulus, balloonists, dizzy heights.
Keyword location: line 6-7, paragraph B
Explanation: As per last lines of paragraph B, the temperature would have fallen below freezing and the oxygen content of the air would have begun to dangerously deplete by the time the centre of a major cumulus cloud had been reached. The balloonists meant that when they spoke.

Question 34:

Answer 34: major cumulus cloud
Supporting Sentence: By the time the middle of a major cumulus cloud had been reached, the temperature would have dropped to below freezing, while the oxygen concentration of the air would be starting to thin choir dangerously.
Keywords: temperature, below freezing, thin choir
Keyword location: line 6, paragraph B
Explanation: Line 6 of paragraph B states that the air would have become dangerously depleted of oxygen by the time a huge cumulus cloud's centre had been reached, and the temperature would have plunged below freezing.

Question 35:

Answer 35: Oxygen
Supporting Sentence: ...while the oxygen concentration of the air would be starting to thin choir dangerously.
Keywords: oxygen, air, dangerously.
Keyword location: line 6, paragraph B
Explanation: As per paragraph B, The air's oxygen content would be dangerously starting to dwindle down since the temperature would have dipped below freezing.

Question 36:

Answer 36: 6.5° Celsius, 1000 meters.
Supporting Sentence: Balloon pioneers during the 1780s had continued just how cold it could get up in the realm of the clouds: the temperature fell some 6.5″C for every thousand meters they ascended.
Keywords: Balloon pioneers, 6.5″C, thousand meters.
Keyword location: line 5, paragraph B
Explanation: Lines 5 of paragraph B states that the temperature dropped by about 6.5′′C for every thousand metres that balloon pioneers ascended during the 1780s, demonstrating just how cold it could get up in the cloud realm.

Reading Passage has 3 has six paragraphs.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter A-F in boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet.
NB: You may use any letter more than once.

Question 37. An example of modification made to work done by Howard.

Answer: Paragraph E
Supporting Sentence: The rain cloud Nimbus, for example (from the Latin for cloud), was, according to Howard, a rainy combination of all three types, although Nimbus was reclassified as nimbostratus by meteorologists in 1932, by which time the science of rain had developed beyond all recognition.
Keywords: rain cloud, Howard, nimbostratus
Keyword location: line 5, paragraph E
Explanation: Paragraph E suggests that the cloud of precipitation, for instance, Nimbus (from the Latin for cloud) was described by Howard as a rainy combination of all three categories. However, in 1932, meteorologists reclassified Nimbus as nimbostratus since by that time the science of rain had advanced beyond all recognition.

Question 38. A comparison between Howard's work and another classification system.

Answer: Paragraph F
Supporting Sentence: Howard had given a set of names to a radical fluidity and impermanence that seemed every bit as magical, to that first audience, as the Eskimo’s fabled vocabulary of snow.
Keywords: radical fluidity, impermanence, Eskimo’s fabled vocabulary.
Keyword location: line 5, paragraph F
Explanation: To that initial audience as stated in paragraph F, Howard's naming of a radical fluidity and impermanence seemed just as magical as the fabled Eskimo vocabulary of snow.

Question 39. A reference to the fact that Howard presented a very large amount of information.

Answer: Paragraph A
Supporting Sentence: whose differences were based on altitude, air temperature and the shaping powers of upward radiation. There was much that needed to be taken on board.
Keywords: differences, upward radiation, on board.
Keyword location: lines 5-6, paragraph A
Explanation: Each type of information Howard provided is included in the the lines 5-6 of paragraph A. There was a lot of material for the listener to grasp and consider, as indicated by the last sentence's phrase "much that needed to be taken on board."

Question 40. An assumption is that the audience asked themselves a question.

Answer: Paragraph F
Supporting Sentence: Some must have wondered how it was that no one – not even in antiquity – had named or graded the clouds before, or if they had, why their efforts had left no trace in the language.
Keywords: Some, wondered, no trace in the language.
Keyword location: lines 2-3, paragraph F
Explanation: Lines 2-3 of paragraph F implies that surely, some people were curious. The narrator asserts that he is aware that audience members wondered why no one had developed a system for identifying and rating clouds prior to Howard.