The Great Survivor Reading Answers

Jul 15, 2025

The Great Survivor Reading Answers is an academic reading answers topic. The Great Survivor Reading Answers has a total of 13 IELTS questions in total. In the first question set, you have to choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings (I-X). In the last question set given, you have to state whether the statement is true, false or not given with the information given in the text

The IELTS Reading section is an essential part of the test that evaluates a candidate's comprehension and analysis of various passage types. You will work through some IELTS reading practice problems in this section that resemble actual test situations. These questions are designed to help you improve your ability to recognise essential concepts, extract particular facts, and make inferences. Practising these IELTS reading problems can help you get comfortable with the structure and increase your confidence for the exam, regardless of whether you are studying for the Academic or General Training module.

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Section 1

THE GREAT SURVIVOR

TV has coped well with technological change. Other media can learn from it.

A.Newspapers are dying; the music industry is still yelping about iTunes; book publishers think they are next. Yet one bit of old media seems to be doing rather well. In the final quarter of 2009 the average American spent almost 37 hours a week watching television. Earlier this year 116m of them saw the Super Bowl, a record for a single programme. Far from being cowed by new media, TV is colonising it. Shows like “American Idol” and “Britain's Got Talent” draw huge audiences partly because people are constantly messaging and tweeting about them and discussing them on Facebook.

B.Advertising wobbled during the recession, shaking the free-to-air broadcasters that depend on it. But cable and satellite TV breezed through. Pay-television subscriptions grew by more than 2m in America last year. The explosive growth of cable and satellite TV in India explains how that country has gone from two channels in the early 1990s to more than 600 today. Pay-TV bosses scarcely acknowledge the existence of viewers who do not subscribe to multichannel TV, talking only of people who have “ to choose” a provider. This is not merely bluster. As our special report this week explains, once people start paying for greater television choice, they rarely stop.

C.It helps that TV is an inherently lazy form of entertainment. The much-repeated prediction that people will cancel their pay-TV subscriptions and piece together an evening's worth of entertainment from free broadcasts and the Internet "assumes that people are willing to work three times harder to get the same thing", observes Mike Fries of Liberty Global, a cable giant. Laziness also mitigates the threat from piracy. Although many programmes are no more than three or four mouse clicks away, that still sounds too much like work for most of us. And television-watching is a more sociable activity than it may appear. People like to watch programmes when everybody else is watching them. Give them devices that allow them to record and play back programmes easily, and they will still watch live TV at least four-fifths of the time.

D.Yet these natural advantages alone are not enough to ensure television's survival. The internet threatens TV just as much as it does other media businesses, and for similar reasons. It competes for advertising, offering firms a more measurable and precise way of reaching consumers. Technology also threatens to fracture television into individual programmes, just as it has ruinously broken music albums into individual tracks.TV has endured because it has responded better to such threats than other media businesses.

E.One of the lessons from TV is to accept change and get ahead of it. Broadcasters' initial response to the appearance of programmes online was similar to the music industry's reaction to file-sharing: call in the lawyers. But television firms soon banded together to develop alternatives to piracy. Websites like Hulu, a joint venture of the American broadcasters ABC, Fox and NBC, have drawn eyeballs away from illicit sources. Gradually, it has become clear that these websites pose a threat to the TV business in themselves, and that they are not bringing in as much advertising money as might be expected (which is similar to the problem faced by the newspaper business). So television is changing back again.

F.With impressive speed, TV firms are now building online subscription-video services. The trendiest model is authentication: prove that you subscribe to pay-television and you can watch all the channels that you have paid for on any device. Such “TV Everywhere” services are beginning to appear in America and Canada. It is likely that Hulu will become a “freemium” service, mostly free, but with some shows that it is not enough to embrace technological change. Businesses must also work out how to build digital offerings that do not cause their analogue ones to collapse.

G.Television has domesticated other disruptive technologies. Ten years ago digital video recorders like TiVo promised to transform the way people watched TV. The devices made it easy to record programmes and play them back, zooming through ads. The TV networks responded by running advertisements that work at high speed. Cable and satellite companies built cheap digital video recorders into set-top boxes and charged viewers extra for them. In effect, money flowed back to the television business. In Britain those boxes will soon be deployed to deliver targeted advertising, enabling the living-room television to compete with the internet.

H.Other outfits are learning from TV. Record labels sound terribly innovative when they talk about bundling music together with broadband subscriptions. Yet this model comes from television. For the past few years, ESPN, a sports giant, has been showing games on its website. The cost is buried in monthly broadband bills. Hulu-style joint ventures are all the rage in media, too. Magazine publishers have set up Next Issue Media, which is trying to shape the evolution of digital devices to suit their needs. The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem aims to do the same for films.

l.That box might appear to be sitting in the corner of the living room, not doing much. In fact, it is constantly evolving. If there is one media business with a chance of completing the perilous journey to the digital future looking as healthy as it did when it set off, it is television.

Questions 14-20

Choose the correct heading for paragraphs A-I from the list of headings below.

Write the correct number, i-xi.

LIST OF HEADINGS

i. How people subscribe TV channel

ii. Changes in services offered by TV firms

iii. A good example for other businesses

iv. A kind of media that never failed

v. Comparison between TV and internet

vi. How TV business survived despite advertising declination

vii. The advantages of indolence

viii. Valuable experience gained from TV business

ix. Superiority over other media businesses in competition

x. Benefits from the adoption of threatening technology

xi. Successful operation of an old media business

14. Paragraph A

Answer: XI

Supporting statement: Yet one bit of old media seems to be doing rather well.

Keywords: old media, rather well

Keyword Location: Para A, Line 2

Explanation: Para A of the passage states that television is the only survivor still operating despite technological advancements.

15. Paragraph B

Answer: VI

Supporting statement: Advertising wobbled during the recession, shaking the free-to-air broadcasters that depend on it. But cable and satellite TV breezed through.

Keywords: Advertising, satellite TV

Keyword Location: Para B, Lines 1-2

Explanation: Paragraph B mentions that the TV business survived despite the decline in advertising during the recession.

16. Paragraph D

Answer: IX

Supporting statement: TV has endured because it has responded better to such threats than other media businesses.

Keywords: endured, media businesses

Keyword Location: Para D, Lines 5-6

Explanation: According to the passage in paragraph D, it is mentioned that TV has survived the technological advancements, as it responded efficiently to the threats from other competitors by changing its functionality.

17. Paragraph E

Answer: VIII

Supporting statement: One of the lessons from TV is to accept change and get ahead of it.

Keywords: lessons, accept change

Keyword Location: Para E, Line 1

Explanation: In paragraph e of the passage, it is mentioned that television made changes in its working when faced with a threat; it kept changing and came up with ways to cope with the changes occurring due to the internet.

18. Paragraph F

Answer: II

Supporting statement: Such “TV Everywhere” services are beginning to appear in America and Canada.

Keywords: TV Everywhere, America and Canada

Keyword Location: Para F, Lines 3-4

Explanation: In paragraph F, it is given that the television started changing due to the ongoing technological changes, and services such as TV Everywhere started appearing in America and Canada.

19. Paragraph G

Answer: X

Supporting statement: The TV networks responded by running advertisements that work at high speed.

Keywords: networks, advertisements

Keyword Location: Para G, Lines 3-4

Explanation: According to para G, When faced with competition from others, the TV networks responded by showing ads that work within minutes. Set-top boxes were equipped with inexpensive digital video recorders by cable and satellite operators, which charged customers more for them.

20. Paragraph H

Answer: III

Supporting statement: For the past few years, ESPN, a sports giant, has been showing games on its website. The cost is buried in monthly broadband bills.

Keywords: ESPN, sports giant, broadband bills

Keyword Location: Para H, Lines 3-4

Explanation: Para E mentions sports giant, ESPN, is a good example for other businesses due to its working strategy.

Questions 21-26

Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading passage 2?

In boxes 21-26 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer

FALSE if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer

NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

21. TV business is declining as other media such as newspaper, music industry and book

publisher.

Answer: FALSE

Supporting statement: Newspapers are dying; the music industry is still yelping about iTunes; book publishers think they are next. Yet one bit of old media seems to be doing rather well.

Keywords: Newspapers, music industry, book publishers

Keyword Location: Para A, Line 1

Explanation: The passage states that the TV business did not decline compared to the newspaper, music industry and book publishing industry.

22. People are usually reluctant to withdraw once they make decisions on television choice.

Answer: TRUE

Supporting statement: As our special report this week explains, once people start paying for greater television choice, they rarely stop.

Keywords: special report, paying

Keyword Location: Para B, Line 7

Explanation: The text states that once a person starts paying for a wide range of television choices, they probably will keep paying for the services, as mentioned in a special report.

23. TV audiences will cancel pay-TV subscriptions to turn to the Internet program.

Answer: NOT GIVEN

Explanation: No information about people cancelling TV subscriptions to turn to Internet programs is given in the text.

24. The reason for TV business to survive is that new technology does not pose as much threat as other media businesses.

Answer: FALSE

Supporting statement: Yet these natural advantages alone are not enough to ensure television's survival. The internet threatens TV just as much as it does other media businesses, and for similar reasons.

Keywords: natural advantages, internet, media businesses

Keyword Location: Para D, Lines 1-2

Explanation: According to the text, the internet poses a similar threat to TV as it poses to other media businesses.

25. Websites like Hulu have not brought large profits to television business as expected.

Answer: TRUE

Supporting statement: and that they are not bringing in as much advertising money as might be expected (which is similar to the problem faced by the newspaper business).

Keywords: money, problem

Keyword Location: Para E, Lines 7-8

Explanation: The text clearly states that a free website such as Hulu does not generate any profit for the television.

26. Record labels were the first to combine music with broadband subscriptions.

Answer: FALSE

Supporting statement: Record labels sound terribly innovative when they talk about bundling music together with broadband subscriptions. Yet this model comes from television.

Keywords: Record labels, broadband

Keyword Location: Para H, Lines 1-2

Explanation: According to the text, television was the first to come up with the idea, for example, ESPN, a sports giant, that has been showing games on its website while hiding the cost for the same in its broadband bill.

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