The MIT Factor: Celebrating 150 Years of Maverick Genius Reading Answers

Nov 30, 2022

The MIT Factor: Celebrating 150 Years of Maverick Genius Reading Answers comprises of 13 questions that have to be answered in 20 minutes. The topic has the question types, like- true/false/not given. Candidates for choosing the true/false/not given are needed to have a detail analysis of the passage properly and answer the given questions. Candidates should answer the question in either one or two words based on reading the passage. Reading the IELTS reading passage is vital for the candidates for identifing the keywords, and recognizing synonyms for the answering

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Reading Passage Questions

The musician Yo-Yo Ma’s cello may not be the obvious starting point for a journey into one of the world’s great universities. But, as you quickly realise when you step inside the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, there’s precious little going on that you would normally see on a university campus. The cello, resting in a corner of MIT’s celebrated media laboratory — a hub of creativity — looks like any other electric classical instrument. But it is much more. Machover, the composer, teacher and inventor responsible for its creation, calls it a ‘hyperinstrument’, a sort of thinking machine that allows Ma and his cello to interact with one another and make music together. ‘The aim is to build an instrument worthy of a great musician like Yo-Yo Ma that can understand what he is trying to do and respond to it,’ Machover says. The cello has numerous sensors across its body and by measuring the pressure, speed and angle of the virtuoso’s performance it can interpret his mood and engage with it, producing extraordinary new sounds. The virtuoso cellist frequently performs on the instrument as he tours around the world.

Machover’s passion for pushing at the boundaries of the existing world to extend and unleash human potential is not a bad description of MIT as a whole. This unusual community brings highly gifted, highly motivated individuals together from a vast range of disciplines, united by a common desire: to leap into the dark and reach for the unknown.

The result of that single unifying ambition is visible all around. For the past 150 years, MIT has been leading the world into the future. The discoveries of its teachers and students have become the common everyday objects that we now all take for granted. The telephone, electromagnets, radars, high-speed photography, office photocopiers, cancer treatments, pocket calculators, computers, the Internet, the decoding of the human genome, lasers, space travel ... the list of innovations that involved essential contributions from MIT and its faculty goes on and on.

From the moment MIT was founded by William Barton Rogers in 1861, it was clear what it was not. While Harvard stuck to the English model of a classical education, with its emphasis on Latin and Greek, MIT looked to the German system of learning based on research and hands-on experimentation. Knowledge was at a premium, but it had to be useful.

This down-to-earth quality is enshrined in the school motto, Mens et manus - Mind and hand - as well as its logo, which shows a gowned scholar standing beside an ironmonger bearing a hammer and anvil. That symbiosis of intellect and craftsmanship still suffuses the institute’s classrooms, where students are not so much taught as engaged and inspired.

Take Christopher Merrill, 21, a third-year undergraduate in computer science. He is spending most of his time on a competition set in his robotics class. The contest is to see which student can most effectively program a robot to build a house out of blocks in under ten minutes. Merrill says he could have gone for the easiest route - designing a simple robot that would build the house quickly. But he wanted to try to master an area of robotics that remains unconquered — adaptability, the ability of the robot to rethink its plans as the environment around it changes, as would a human.

‘I like to take on things that have never been done before rather than to work in an iterative way just taking small steps forward,’ he explains.

Merrill is already planning the start-up he wants to set up when he graduates in a year’s time. He has an idea for an original version of a contact lens that would augment reality by allowing consumers to see additional visual information. He is fearful that he might be just too late in taking his concept to market, as he has heard that a Silicon Valley firm is already developing something similar. As such, he might become one of many MIT graduates who go on to form companies that fail. Alternatively, he might become one of those who go on to succeed in spectacular fashion. And there are many of them. A survey of living MIT alumni* found that they have formed 25,800 companies, employing more than three million people, including about a quarter of the workforce of Silicon Valley. What MIT delights in is taking brilliant minds from around the world in vastly diverse disciplines and putting them together. You can see that in its sparkling new David Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, which brings scientists, engineers and clinicians under one roof.

Or in its Energy Initiative, which acts as a bridge for MIT’s combined work across all its five schools, channelling huge resources into the search for a solution to global warming. It works to improve the efficiency of existing energy sources, including nuclear power. It is also forging ahead with alternative energies from solar to wind and geothermal, and has recently developed the use of viruses to synthesise batteries that could prove crucial in the advancement of electric cars.

In the words of Tim Berners-Lee, the Briton who invented the World Wide Web, ‘It’s not just another university.

Even though I spend my time with my head buried in the details of web technology, the nice thing is that when I walk the corridors, I bump into people who are working in other fields with their students that are fascinating, and that keeps me intellectually alive.’

Solution and Explanation

Questions 1-5:
Do the following statements agree with the information in the reading passage? Write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

Question 1: The activities, going on, at the MIT campus are like those at any other university.

Answer: FALSE
Supporting Sentence: But, as you quickly realise when you step inside the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, there’s precious little going on that you would normally see on a university campus.
Keywords: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. precious little, university campus.
Keyword Location: Para 1, Lines 2-4
Explanation: Lines 2-4 of paragraph I states about a phrase "there's precious little" in the sentence puttting an indication that the activities which are happening at the campus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology are likely to be there in other university campus. So, the answer is regarded as a FALSE one.

Question 2: Harvard and MIT shared a similar approach to education when they were founded.

Answer: FALSE
Supporting Sentence: While Harvard stuck to the English model of classical education, with its emphasis on Latin and Greek, MIT looked to the German system of learning based on research and hands-on experimentation.
Keywords: Harvard, the English model of classical education, Latin, Greek, MIT, the German system of learning, research and hands-on experimentation
Keyword Location: Para 4, Lines 2-4
Explanation: While Harvard University is within the English model of classical education based on Latin and Greek, at that time MIT looked upon the German system of learning which is research and experiments based. So, there are two distinct paths which are followed byt the two universities, giving the indications of the above statement to be FALSE.

Question 3: The school motto was suggested by a former MIT student.

Answer: NOT GIVEN
Explanation: No relevant information regarding this statement is provided in the passage.

Question 4: MIT’s logo reflects the belief that intellect and craftsmanship go together.

Answer: TRUE
Supporting Sentence: That symbiosis of intellect and craftsmanship still suffuses the institute’s classrooms, where students are not so much taught as engaged and inspired.
Keywords: enshrined, school motto, Men’s et manus - Mind and hand, logo, gowned scholar standing beside an ironmonger bearing a hammer and anvil, symbiosis, intellect and craftsmanship,
Keyword Location: Para 5, Lines 1-5
Explanation: Lines 1-5 of paragraph 5 states that a scholar in a cloth is portrayed in the logo standing next to an ironworker carrying a hammer and anvil. It shows intellect and craftsmanship reflected from the logo of MIT University.

Question 5: Silicon Valley companies pay higher salaries to graduates from MIT.

Answer: NOT GIVEN
Explanation: No proper information regarding this statement is provided in the passage.

Questions 6-9:
Complete the notes below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Christopher Merrill - student at MIT
Degree subject: 6
Competition: to 7 the automated construction of a house
Special focus on: the 8 of robots
Future plans: to develop new type of 9

Question 6:

Answer: computer science
Supporting Sentence: Take Christopher Merrill, 21, a third-year undergraduate in computer science.
Keywords: Christopher Merrill, third-year undergraduate, computer science.
Keyword Location: Para 6, Line 1
Explanation: Line 1 of paragraph 6 states that education in computer science is offered to complete an undergraduate course.

Question 7:

Answer: program
Supporting Sentence: The contest is to see which student can most effectively program a robot to build a house out of blocks in under ten minutes.
Keywords: contest, student, most effective program, robot, build, house, blocks, ten minutes.
Keyword Location: Para 6, Lines 2-3
Explanation: Lines 2-3 of paragraph 6 states that the usage of computer software will be implemented in order to control the building of a house.

Question 8:

Answer: adaptability
Supporting Sentence: But he wanted to try to master an area of robotics that remains unconquered — adaptability, the ability of the robot to rethink its plans as the environment around it changes, as would a human.
Keywords: to master an area of robotics, adaptability, ability, to rethink, plans, environment, as would a human.
Keyword Location: Para 6, Lines 5-6
Explanation: Lines 5-6 states about an importance on how robots can plan and construct a house in according to the surrounding nature.

Question 9:

Answer: contact lens
Supporting Sentence: He has an idea for an original version of a contact lens that would augment reality by allowing consumers to see additional visual information.
Keywords: idea, original version, contact lens, consumers, additional visual information.
Keyword Location: Para 7, Lines 1-3
Explanation: Lines 1-3 of paragraph 7 states about the upcoming plans for the future purpose which are mentioned with a concept-which is indicating towareds the contact lens.

Questions 10-13:
Answer the questions below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Question 10: What proportion of workers in Silicon Valley are employed in companies set up by MIT graduates?

Answer: one quarter
Supporting Sentence: A survey of living MIT alumni found that they have formed 25,800 companies, employing more than three million people, including about a quarter of the workforce of Silicon Valley.
Keywords: survey, living MIT alumni, 25,800 companies, employing three million people, about a quarter, workforce, Silicon Valley.
Keyword Location: Para 7, Lines 7-9
Explanation: Lines 7-9 of paragraph 7 suggests that according to a survey of present MIT alumni, they have discovered 25,800 businesses that recruit more than three million people, as well as a quarter of Silicon Valley's workforce.

Question 11: What problem does MIT’s Energy Initiative aim to solve?

Answer: global warming
Supporting Sentence: Or in its Energy Initiative, which acts as a bridge for MIT’s combined work across all its five schools, channelling huge resources into the search for a solution to global warming.
Keywords: Energy Initiative, a bridge for MIT’s combined work, all five schools, channelling, huge resources, and the search for a solution to global warming.
Keyword Location: Para 8, Lines 1-2
Explanation: Lines 1-2 of paragraph 8 states that in its energy initiative, which serves as a platform for MIT's coordinated work across all five of its schools and directs symbolic resources towards the hunt for a counter measure to global warming. Thus, global warming is a problem MIT’s Energy Initiave are intended to solve.

Question 12: Which ‘green’ innovation might MIT’s work with viruses help improve?

Answer: electric cars
Supporting Sentence: It is also forging ahead with alternative energies from solar to wind and geothermal, and has recently developed the use of viruses to synthesise batteries that could prove crucial in the advancement of electric cars.
Keywords: forging ahead, alternative energies, solar to wind and geothermal, the use of viruses, synthesising batteries, the advancement of electric cars.
Keyword Location: Para 8, Lines 3-5
Explanation: Lines 3-5 of paragraph 8 explains that energy sources which are different and fusion of batteries for the purpose of running the electic cars.

Question 13: In which part of the university does Tim Berners-Lee enjoy stimulating conversations with other MIT staff?

Answer: corridors
Supporting Sentence: Even though I spend my time with my head buried in the details of web technology, the nice thing is that when I walk the corridors, I bump into people who are working in other fields with their students that are fascinating, and that keeps me intellectually alive.’
Keywords: Tim Berners-Lee, the Briton, head buried in the details of web technology, walking the corridors, bumping into people, working in other fields, students, fascinating, intellectually alive
Keyword Location: Para 9, Lines 3-5
Explanation: Line numbers 3-5 of paragraph 9 explains that at the time of walking down the corridors, Tim Berners-Lee along with the other MIT staffs relish the chats with proper enthusiasm.