The Farmers Parade of History Reading Answers

Aug 20, 2022

The farmers parade of history reading answers contains 13 questions which are to be answered in 20 minutes. The farmers parade of history reading answers

consists of three types of questions including- write the correct letter allocated to the paragraph, complete the sentence and match the following people listed to A-C. Candidates are required to write the correct letter allocated to the people from the given options. Candidates are required to complete the sentences using no more than two words and match the people listed from A-C to the given deed option.

Candidates must read the IELTS reading passage, identify keywords, and recognize synonyms to answer the question. In the IELTS Reading Section, the candidates are presented with different question styles with specific instructions. It is important that candidates abide by the word limit as well as answer accurately for what is asked.

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Section 1

Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions

The Farmers! Parade of History - IELTS Reading Sample

History of Fanner trading company: In 1909 Robert Laidlaw establishes mail-order company Laidlaw Leeds in Fort Street, Auckland. Then, Branch expansion: purchase of Green and Colebrook chain store; further provincial stores in Auckland and Waikato to follow. Opening of first furniture and boot factory. In 1920, Company now has 29 branches; the Whangarei store purchased. Doors open at Hobson Street for direct selling to the public. The firm establishes London and New York buying offices. With permission from the Harbour Board, the large FARMERS electric sign on the Wyndham Street frontage is erected.
In 1935, if the merchandise has changed, the language of the catalogues hasn’t Robert Laidlaw, the Scottish immigrant who established the century-old business might have been scripting a modern-day television commercial when he told his earliest customers: Satisfaction or your money back. “It was the first money-back guarantee ever offered in New Zealand by any firm,” says Ian Hunter, business historian. “And his mission statement was, potentially, only the second one ever found in the world.” Laidlaw’s stated aims were simple to build the greatest business in New Zealand, to simplify every transaction, to eliminate all delays, to only sell goods it would pay the customer to buy.
This year, the company that began as a mail-order business and now employs 3500 staff across 58 stores turns 100. Its centenary will be celebrated with the release of a book and major community fundraising projects, to be announced next week. Hunter, who is writing the centenary history, says “coming to a Fanners store once a week was a part of the New Zealand way of life”. By 1960, one in every 10 people had an account with the company. It was the place where teenage girls shopped for their first bra, where newlyweds purchased their first dinner sets, where first paycheques were used to pay off hire purchase furniture, where Santa paraded every Christmas.
Gary Blumenthal’s mother shopped there, and so does he. The fondest memory for the Rotorua resident? “We were on holiday in Auckland … I decided that upon the lookout tower on top of the Farmers building would be a unique place to fit the ring on my new fiancee’s finger.” The lovebirds, who had to wait for “an annoying youth” to leave the tower before they could enjoy their engagement kiss, celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in June.
Farmers, says Hunter, has always had a heart. This, from a 1993 North & South interview with a former board chairman, Rawdon Busfield: “One day I was in the Hobson Street shop and I saw a woman with two small children. They were clean and tidily dressed, but poor, you could tell. That week we had a special on a big bar of chocolate for one shilling. I heard the woman say to her boy, ‘no, your penny won’t buy that’. He wasn’t wearing shoes. So I went up to the boy said, ‘Son, have you got your penny?’ He handed it to me. It was hot, he’d had it in his hand for hours. I took the penny and gave him the chocolate.”
Farmers were once the home of genteel tearooms, children’s playgrounds and an annual sale of celebration for the birthday of Hector the Parrot (the store mascot died, aged 131, in the 1970s his stuffed remains still occupy pride of place at the company’s head office). You could buy houses from Farmers. Its saddle factory supplied the armed forces, and its upright grand overstrung pianos offered “the acme of value” according to those early catalogues hand-drawn by Robert Laidlaw himself. Walkthrough a Farmers store today and get hit by bright lights and big brands. Its Albany branch houses 16 international cosmetics companies. It buys from approximately 500 suppliers, and about 30% of those are locally owned.
“Eight, 10 years ago,” says current chief executive Rod McDermott, “lots of brands wouldn’t partner with us. The stores were quite distressed. We were the first price point focused, we weren’t fashion-focused. “Remove the rose-tinted nostalgia, and Farmers is, quite simply, a business, doing business in hard times. Dancing with the Stars presenter Candy Lane launches a clothing line? “We put a trial on, and we thought it was really lovely, but the uptake wasn’t what we thought it would be. It’s got to be what the customer wants,” says McDermott.
He acknowledges retailers suffer in a recession: “We’re celebrating 100 years because we can and because we should.” Farmers almost didn’t pull through one economic crisis. By the mid-1980s, it had stores across the country. It had acquired the South Island’s Calder Mackay chain of stores and bought out Playwrights. Then, with sales topping $375 million, it was taken over by Chase Corporation. Lincoln Laidlaw, now aged 88, and the son of the company’s founder, remembers the dark days following the stock market crash and the collapse of Chase. “I think, once, Farmers was like a big family and all of the people who worked for it felt they were building something which would ultimately be to their benefit and the benefit of New Zealand… then the business was being divided up and so that kind of family situation was dispelled and it hasn’t been recovered.” For a turbulent few years, the stores were controlled, first by a consortium of Australian banks and later Deka, the Maori Development Corporation and Foodland Associated Ltd. In 2003, it went back to “family” ownership, with the purchase by the James Pascoe Group, owned by David and Anne Norman the latter being the great-granddaughter of James Pascoe, whose first business interest was jewellery.
“Sheer power of the brand,” says McDermott, “pulled Farmers through and now we’re becoming the brand it used to be again.” Farmers were the company that, during World War, topped up the wages of any staff member disadvantaged by overseas service. Robert Laidlaw a committed Christian who came to his faith at a 1902 evangelistic service in Dunedin concluded his original mission statement with the words, “all at it, always at it, win the success”. Next week, 58 Farmers stores across the country will announce the local charities they will raise funds for in their centenary celebration everything from guide dog services to hospices to volunteer fire brigades will benefit. Every dollar raised by the community will be matched by the company. “It’s like the rebirth of an icon,” says McDermott.

Section 2

Solution and Explanation

Questions: The reading passage has seven paragraphs labeled from A-I. In the questions from 1-5, write the correct letter allocated to the paragraph which contains the following information:

Generosity is offered on an occasion.
Innovation of an offer made by the head of the company.
Fashion was not its strong point.
A romantic event on the roof of Farmers.
Farmers were sold to a privately owned company.

Question 1. Generosity offered on an occasion.

Answer: E
Supporting Sentence: Farmers, says Hunter, has always had a heart. This, from a 1993 North & South interview with a former board chairman, Rawdon Busfield:“One day I was in the Hobson Street shop and I saw a woman with two small children. They were clean and tidily dressed, but poor, you could tell. That week we had a special on a big bar of chocolate for one shilling. I heard the woman say to her boy, ‘no, your penny won’t buy that’. He wasn’t wearing shoes. So I went up to the boy said, ‘Son, have you got your penny?’ He handed it to me. It was hot, he’d had it in his hand for hours. I took the penny and gave him the chocolate.”
Keyword: had a heart
Keyword Location: Line number 2 in paragraph E
Explanation: In Paragraph E, it is written that the Farmers always had hearts which indicates that they were so generous. Ian Hunter cites Rawdon Busfield's account of a woman passing by his shop with her two young children as evidence for this claim. Busfield related this incident to Ian Hunter during a conversation with the former board chairman. The family was poor. One of the kids had a penny in his hand that he gave to the store owner, and in return, Rawdon Busfield gave him the chocolate which was at a special discount.

Question 2. Innovation of an offer made by the head of the company.

Answer: B
Supporting Sentence: In 1935, if the merchandise has changed, the language of the catalogues hasn’t Robert Laidlaw, the Scottish immigrant who established the century-old business might have been scripting a modern-day television commercial when he told his earliest customers: Satisfaction or your money back. “It was the first money-back guarantee ever offered in New Zealand by any firm,” says Ian Hunter, business historian. “And his mission statement was, potentially, only the second one ever found in the world.” Laidlaw’s stated aims were simple to build the greatest business in New Zealand, to simplify every transaction, to eliminate all delays, to only sell goods it would pay the customer to buy.
Keyword: Offered
Keyword Location: Line number 2 in paragraph B
Explanation: In paragraph 2, It is considered how to write a current television commercial featuring a Scottish immigrant who owned a century-old company. And given its first clients a money-back guarantee. According to business historian Ian Hunter, this offer was the first money-back guarantee ever made by any company in New Zealand.

Question 3. Fashion was not its strong point

Answer: Paragraph G
Supporting Sentence: “Eight, 10 years ago,” says current chief executive Rod McDermott, “lots of brands wouldn’t partner with us. The stores were quite distressed. We were the first price point focused, we weren’t fashion-focused. “Remove the rose-tinted nostalgia, and Farmers is, quite simply, a business, doing business in hard times. Dancing with the Stars presenter Candy Lane launches a clothing line? “We put a trial on, and we thought it was really lovely, but the uptake wasn’t what we thought it would be. It’s got to be what the customer wants,” says McDermott.
Keyword: Fashion
Keyword Location: Paragraph G, line number 3
Explanation: In paragraph G, it has been discussed by the chief executive Rod McDermott, that 8, 10- years ago. A lot of brands disagreed to partner with his company as the stores were quite distressed. Also because the farmers were first to be point focused instead of fashion-focused. The farmer was just a business, doing business in tough times.

A romantic event on the roof of Farmers

Answer: Paragraph D
Supporting Sentence: Gary Blumenthal’s mother shopped there, and so does he. The fondest memory for the Rotorua resident? “We were on holiday in Auckland … I decided that upon the lookout tower on top of the Farmers building would be a unique place to fit the ring on my new fiancee’s finger.” The lovebirds, who had to wait for “an annoying youth” to leave the tower before they could enjoy their engagement kiss, celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in June.
Keywords: Farmers, top, anniversary
Keyword Location: In paragraph D, line numbers 3rd, and 4th.
Explanation: In paragraph D, it was mentioned that the top of a farmer building's roof was a unique location. It is where an elderly married couple opted to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in June.

Farmers were sold to a privately owned company.

Answer: Paragraph H
Supporting Sentence: Then, with sales topping $375 million, it was taken over by Chase Corporation. Lincoln Laidlaw, now aged 88, and the son of the company’s founder, remembers the dark days following the stock market crash and the collapse of Chase. “I think, once, Farmers was like a big family and all of the people who worked for it felt they were building something which would ultimately be to their benefit and the benefit of New Zealand… then the business was being divided up and so that kind of family situation was dispelled and it hasn’t been recovered.”
Keywords: Company
Keyword Location: In paragraph H,
Explanation: In the reading of paragraph H, it has been discussed how the Farmers were sold and then bought by a privately owned company. It has been talked about in the passage that the Farmers had stores across the country during the mid of 1980s. After the sales of the stores topped $375 million, it was then taken over by Chase Corporation. According to the son of the founder of the company Mr. Lincoln Laidlaw, their business was divided up and it hasn’t been recovered till now. Especially after the crash in the stock market and the collapse of Chase.

Question: Complete the sentence below.

In questions 6-10, complete the following summary of the reading passage by writing not more than two words for each answer.

Farmers was first founded as a ________ in Auckland by Mr. Laidlaw.
Farmers developed fast and bought one ________ then.
During overseas expansion, Farmers set up________ in cities such as London.
Farmers held a ________once a year for the well-known parrot.
In the opinion of Lincoln Laidlaw, Farmers is like a ________ for employees, not just for themselves but for the whole country.

Question 6.

Answer: mail-order company
Supporting Sentence: History of Fanner trading company: In 1909 Robert Laidlaw establishes mail-order company Laidlaw Leeds in Fort Street, Auckland.
Keyword: Laidlaw, Auckland
Keyword Location: In the first paragraph, line number 1
Explanation: In first paragraph A, it has been discussed how the company was established first as a mail-order company. It was led by Mr. Laidlaw in Fort Street, Auckland. After that, its branch expanded and had 29 branches in the year 1920.

Question: 7

Answer: chain store
Supporting Sentence: Then, Branch expansion: purchase of Green and Colebrook chain store; further provincial stores in Auckland and Waikato to follow. Opening of first furniture and boot factory.
Keyword: chain store
Keyword Location: Paragraph A
Explanation: In the first paragraph, the history of The Farmers has been discussed. In the second line of the paragraph, it is written that after the expansion of their branch, they purchased a Green and Colebrook chain store.

Question: 8

Answer: offices
Supporting Sentence: The firm establishes London and New York buying offices. With permission from the Harbour Board, the large FARMERS electric sign on the Wyndham Street frontage is erected.
Keyword: London
Keyword Location: In Paragraph A, in the last line
Explanation: In the last line of paragraph A, it is written that the firm was established in London and New York and bought offices in the cities of these countries.

Question: 9

Answer: celebration (Sale)
Keyword: Farmers, annual, parrot
Keyword Location: Line number 1, in paragraph F
Explanation: In paragraph F, it is discussed that The Farmers used to celebrate an annual sale birthday celebration of a parrot named Hector who died at 131, in the 1970s. The parrot’s stuff remains to occupy a pride of place in the office of the company’s head.

Question: 10

Answer: big family
Supporting Sentence: “I think, once, Farmers was like a big family and all of the people who worked for it felt they were building something which would ultimately be to their benefit and the benefit of New Zealand… then the business was being divided up and so that kind of family situation was dispelled and it hasn’t been recovered.”
Keyword: Lincoln Laidlaw, farmers
Keyword Location: In paragraph H, line numbers 6, 7
Explanation: In paragraph H, Lincoln Laidlaw, the son of the company's founder expresses how The Farmers was like a big family for the people serving the company. As they were working to build something to be there and New Zealand’s ultimate benefit.

Questions 11 - 13: By using information given in the passage, match the following people listed A to C, with the opinions or deeds mentioned in questions 11-13.

You may use any letter more than once.

Lincoln Laidlaw
Rod McDermott
Ian Hunter

The product became worst as the wrong aspect focused.
An unprecedented statement made by Farmer in New Zealand.
The character of the company was changed

(Guide: Candidates need to answer questions 11 to 13 by selecting options from A to C)

Question 11.

Answer: Option (B)
Supporting Sentence: “Eight, 10 years ago,” says current chief executive Rod McDermott, “lots of brands wouldn’t partner with us.
Keyword: Focused.
Keyword Location: In paragraph G, line number 2.
Explanation: The chief executive of the Farmers store, Rod McDermott tells that, 8-10 years before, there were a lot of brands who didn’t partner with them. As the stores were quite distressed. He tells that at first, their company was price point focused and wasn’t fashion-focused. They realized that uptake should be what the customer wants.

Question: 12

Answer: Option (C)
Supporting Sentence: Robert Laidlaw a committed Christian who came to his faith at a 1902 evangelistic service in Dunedin concluded his original mission statement with the words, “all at it, always at it, win the success”.
Keyword: Statement.
Keyword Location: In Paragraph I, line number 3.
Explanation: In Paragraph I, Robert Laidlaw, concluded his mission statement with the words “all at it, always at it, wins success” in a city of New Zealand named Dunedin. It was decided that the company will raise funds for local charities in their centenary celebration.

Question: 13.

Answer: Option (A)
Keyword: Companies.
Keyword Location: Paragraph F, line number 5.
Explanation: In paragraph F, Rod McDermott is talking about how the Farmers store was once a home of genteel tearooms. A playground for children, and an annual celebration for Hector the Parrot’s birthday. The factory used to supply saddles to the armed forces and several other things. Later the farmer's store became a big brand having bright lights and all. It suggests that the focus of the company or the store changes from what it was previously.

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