The Power of Light Reading Answers

Dec 6, 2022

The Power of Light Reading Answers contains three passages and forty questions in total. There are different types of questions found in each IELTS reading passage. It is crucial to read the passage carefully and take mental notes of important points in order to answer the questions quickly. This IELTS reading sample -The Power of Light Reading Answers, is an IELTS Academic topic. The passage contains the following question types from IELTS Reading Question Types: Matching cause with effects, Matching statement, and One-word answer. Candidates can get more IELTS Reading Tips online to excel in the examination. More similar topics are available online in IELTS Reading practice papers.

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Section 1

Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions

The Power of Light IELTS Reading Sample with Explanation

Light reveals the world to us. It sets our biological clocks. It triggers in our brains the sensations of color. Light feeds us, supplying the energy for plants to grow. It inspires us with special effects like rainbows and sunsets. Light gives us life-changing tools, from incandescent bulbs to lasers and fiber optics.
There has been light from the beginning. There will be light, feebly, at the end. In all its in forms, visible and invisible, it saturates the universe. Light is more than a little bit inscrutable. Modern physics has sliced the stuff of nature into ever smaller and more exotic constituents, but the light won’t reduce. Light is light- pure, but not simple. No one is quite sure how to describe it. A wave? A particle? Yes, the scientists say Both.
It is a measure of light’s importance in our daily lives that we hardly pay any attention to in it. Light is almost like air. It’s a given. A human would no more linger over the concept of light than a fish would ponder the notion of water. There are exceptions, certain moments of sudden appreciation when a particular manifestation of light, a transitory glory; appears: a rainbow, a sunset, a flash of lightning in a dark sky the shimmering surface of the sea at twilight, the dappled light in a forest, the little red dot from a professor’s laser pointer. The flicker of a candle, flooding a room with romance. The torch searched for the circuit breakers after a power cut.
Usually, though, we don’t see light, we merely see with it. You can’t appreciate the beauty of a rose if you ponder that the color red is just the brain’s interpretation of a specific wavelength of Light with crests that are roughly 700 nanometers apart. A theatrical lighting director told me that she’s doing her job best when no one notices the lights at all. Her goal is to create an atmosphere, a mood – not to show off the fancy new filters that create colors of startling intensity.
Light is now used for everything from laser eye surgery to telephone technology. It could even become the main power source for long-distance space travel. The spaceship would have an ultrathin sail to catch the ‘wind’ of light beamed from an Earth-based laser. In theory, such a craft could accelerate to a sizable fraction of the speed of light, without carrying fuel.
What we call light is really the same thing in a different set of wavelengths as the radiation that we call radio waves or gamma rays or x- rays. But visible light is unlike any other fundamental element of the universe: it directly, regularly, and dramatically interacts with our senses. Light offers high-resolution information across great distances. You can’t hear or smell the moons of Jupiter or the Crab Nebula. So much of vital importance is communicated by visible light that almost everything from a fly to an octopus has a way to capture it – an eye, eyes, or something similar.
It’s worth noting that our eyes are designed to detect the kind of light that is radiated in abundance by the particular star that gives life to our planet: the sun. Visible light is powerful stuff, moving at relatively short wavelengths, which makes it biologically convenient. To see long, stretched-out radio waves, we’d have to have huge eyes like satellite dishes. Not worth the trouble! Nor would it make sense for our eyes to detect infrared light (though some deep-sea shrimp near hot springs do see this way). That would include almost everything around us. We’d be constantly distracted because in these wavelengths any heat-emitting object glows.
There is also darkness in the daytime: shadows. There are many kinds of shadows, more than I realized until I consulted astronomer and shadow expert David Lynch in Topanga Canyon, up the coast from Santa Monica, California. Lynch points out that a shadow is filled with light reflected from the sky, otherwise it would be completely black. Black is the way shadows on the moon looked to the Apollo astronauts because the moon has no atmosphere and thus no sky to bounce light into the unlit crannies of the lunar surface.
Lynch is a man who, when he looks at a rainbow, spots details that elude most of us. He knows, for example, that all rainbows come in pairs, and he always looks for the second rainbow: a faint, parallel rainbow, with the colors in reverse order. The intervening region is darker. That area has a name, wouldn’t you know Alexander’s dark band. As I took in the spectacular view across the canyon, Lynch explained something else: ‘the reason those mountains over there look a little blue,’ he said, indicating the range that obscures the Pacific, ‘is because there’s sky between here and those mountains. It’s called Fairlight.’
What next for light? What new application will we see? What will orthodoxy-busting cosmic information starlight deliver to our telescopes? Will the rotating disco ball ever make a dance-floor comeback? Above all, you have to wonder: will we ever fully understand light?
There have been recent headlines about scientists finding ways to make the light go faster than the speed of light. This is what science fiction writers and certain overly imaginative folks have dreamed of for decades. If you could make a spaceship that wasn’t bound by Einstein’s speed limit, they fantasized, you could zip around the universe far more easily.
Lijun Wang, a research scientist at Princeton, managed to create a pulse of light that went faster than the supposed speed limit. ‘We created an artificial medium of cesium gas in which the speed of a pulse of light exceeds the speed of light in a vacuum,’ he said, ‘but this is not at odds with Einstein. ’ Even though light can be manipulated to go faster than light, matter can’t. Information can’t. There’s no possibility of time travel.
I asked Wang why the light goes 186,282 miles a second and not some other speed. ‘That’s just the way nature is,’ he said. There are scientists who don’t like ‘why’ questions like this. The speed of light is just what it is. That’s their belief. Whether light would move at a different velocity in a different universe is something that is currently outside the scope of experimental science. It’s even a bit ‘out there’ for the theorists.
What’s certain is that light is going to remain extremely useful for industry, science, art, and our daily, mundane comings and goings. Light permeates our reality at every scale of existence. It’s an amazing tool, a carrier of beauty; a giver of life. I can’t help but say that it has a very bright future.

Section 2

Solution and Explanation
Questions 1-5.

Establish the cause-and-effect relationship between List A and List B.
Note: There are more effects mentioned than required so you will have to carefully leave 3 of the effects and pair the rest.
Tip: Try and find the keyword that will help you establish a relationship.

List A(Causes)	List B (Effects)
1. Much of the time, visible light is all around us.	A. Nearly all living creatures can detect it.
2. Light can sometimes appear in an interesting way.	B. There is a dark gap between rainbows.
3. Visible light carries a lot of essential information.	C. Light from Earth could power a spacecraft.
4. Without an atmosphere, light is not reflected onto solid surfaces.	D. Shadows are totally black.
5. Only light can exceed 186,282 miles per second.	E. We cannot return to the past.
-	F. We don’t really notice or think about it.
-	G. Certain creatures can detect infrared light.
-	H. We instantly become aware of it.

Question 1.

Answer: F
Supporting Sentence: It is a measure of light’s importance in our daily lives that we hardly pay any attention to in it.
Keywords: Notice, attention, Light around us
Keyword Location: Paragraph C, line 1
Explanation: The author states that light is always around us but we don't pay attention. It is so much so that we treat it like “air”. We do not really notice it and think about it. Hence, we really don't think or notice it is the correct choice.

Question 2.

Answer: H
Supporting Sentence: There are exceptions, certain moments of sudden appreciation when a particular manifestation of light, a transitory glory; appears: a rainbow, a sunset, a flash of lightning in a dark sky, the shimmering surface of the sea at twilight.. etc.
Keywords: Exception, aware
Keyword Location: Paragraph C, line 3
Explanation: The passage states that the cause here is “being different” meaning to be there in a different way. A sudden change in light for example “The torch searched for the circuit breakers after a power cut” makes us notice what is missing and is required. With the change of time, light changes. Hence we tend to notice it, resulting in instantaneous awareness of light.

Question 3.

Answer: A
Supporting Sentence: So much of vital importance is communicated by visible light that almost everything from a fly to an octopus has a way to capture it.
Keywords: information, detect, communicate
Keyword Location: Paragraph G, line 1
Explanation: The author talks about visible light. Light carriers information so when it comes in contact with a living organism that information is registered through the senses. In the passage, it is mentioned that light interacts with our senses. Hence, A is the correct answer..

Question 4.

Answer: D
Supporting Sentence: Lynch points out that a shadow is filled with light reflected from the sky, otherwise, it would be completely black.
Keywords: Black, Shadow, atmosphere
Keyword Location: Paragraph H, 3rd last line
Explanation: The writer gives the example of astronauts going to the moon and not being able to see anything but shadows. This was due to the absence of an atmosphere which helps the light to reflect. Hence, without light, there will be no shadows. This means they are completely black.

Question 5.

Answer: E
Supporting Sentence: Even though light can be manipulated to go faster than light, matter can’t. Information can’t. There’s no possibility of time travel.
Keywords: Time Travel, manipulate
Keyword Location: Paragraph L, the last line
Explanation: Although light in another medium can travel faster than light in a vacuum it's still not possible for humans to time travel and go into the past. In the sentence, there is a reference to the speed of light in a vacuum and the speed of light in other mediums. It might run fast but the information which is the carrier, cannot travel so fast. Hence there is no possibility for time travel which refers to going into the past.

Questions 6-10.
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 1? Write

YES the statement agrees with the views of the writer
NO the statement does not agree with the views of the writer
NOT GIVEN there is no information about this in the passage

It is difficult to find a single word to say exactly what light is.

Answer: Yes.
Supporting Sentence: “No one is quite sure how to describe it. A wave? A particle? Yes, the scientists say Both.
Keywords: wave, particle
Keyword Location: Paragraph B last 2nd line
Explanation: The author mentions that no one is quite sure what light is. It is mentioned in the paragraph that no one can accurately or precisely describe the light. There are numerous theories about it but it is clear that no one can exactly present its derivation. Hence, the statement is True.

Thinking about the physics of light can make an object seem even more beautiful.

Answer: No.
Supporting Sentence: You can’t appreciate the beauty of a rose if you ponder that the color red is just the brain’s interpretation of a specific wavelength of Light with crests that are roughly 700 nanometers apart.
Keywords: beauty
Keyword Location: Paragraph D, line 1
Explanation: The author in the above passage talks about light in terms of physics. He says that we can’t appreciate the beauty of an object if we ponder about the brain’s interpretation. Hence, the statement is not true.

Light from the sun makes it possible for life to exist on other planets.

Answer: Not given.
Explanation: The writer did not talk about the existence of life because of light on the planet, anywhere in the passage.

It is more practical for humans to detect visible light rather than radio waves.

Answer: Yes
Supporting Sentence: To see long, stretched-out radio waves, we’d have to have huge eyes like satellite dishes.
Keywords: long, Huge eyes
Keyword Location: Paragraph G, line 4
Explanation: The supporting sentence says that we need satellite-sized eyes to see radio waves. Due to shorter wavelengths, it is biologically more convenient for us to detect visible light than radio waves. Hence, the statement is correct.

David Lynch sometimes notices things that other people don’t.

Answer: Yes.
Supporting Sentence: “Lynch is a man who, when he looks at a rainbow, spots details that elude most of us.”
Keywords: details, elude
Keyword Location: Paragraph I, lines 3-4
Explanation: Here elude means to avoid or escape. The writer meant by saying that what an average human being tends to avoid, Lynch is capable enough to see it.

Questions 11-13.

Answer the following questions using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.
Note: In the below questions the words and the sentence in use are mentioned in the passage. They are also mentioned along with the answers.

Question 11: What appearance can the land have when seen from a distance?

Answer: A LITTLE BLUE.
Supporting Sentence: “the reason those mountains over there look a little blue”
Keywords: Blue, mountains
Keyword Location: In paragraph I, line 6
Explanation: The writer describes what he and astronomer and shadow expert David Lynch see in Topanga Canyon, up the coast from Santa Monica, California. The passage states ‘the reason those mountains over there look a little blue,’ he said, indicating the range that obscures the Pacific. The word over there means from a distance. hence, they seem little blue due to the distance.

Question 12. What did some people imagine traveling?

Answer: A SPACESHIP.
Supporting Sentence: If you could make a spaceship that wasn’t bound by Einstein’s speed limit, they fantasized, you could zip around the universe far more easily.
Keywords: Einstein’s speed
Keyword Location: In Paragraph E, lines 2-3
Explanation: The author states that if there was no speed limit in a spaceship, we could zip around the universe easily. Spaceship is what science fiction movies in Hollywood have painted a picture of traveling to outer space. Hence, people imagine traveling in spaceships.

Question 13. In what substance did the light go faster than previously thought possible?

Answer: CESIUM GAS
Supporting Sentence: We created an artificial medium of cesium gas in which the speed of a pulse of light exceeds the speed of light in a vacuum.
Keywords: pulse, light, vacuum
Keyword Location: In Paragraph L, lines 2-3
Explanation: The passage clearly states that in artificial cesium gas light speeds up more than in a vacuum. The main thing to keep in mind is to find the keyword. In this case, the Keyword is the Medium in which the light travels. Hence Cesium gas is the correct answer.

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