The Rainmaker Design Reading Answers

Apr 29, 2023

The Rainmaker Design Reading Answers is based on an actual IELTS Reading test passage. With rigorous practice, IELTS aspirants can make The Rainmaker Design Reading Answers Module their highest-scoring category. To do well in the IELTS Reading Module, candidates must learn how to approach and answer the various question types.
The following types of questions can be found in this IELTS Academic Reading passage- The Rainmaker Design Reading Answers: Diagram Labelling, Summary Completion, and Yes/No/Not Given. Candidates may guarantee that their Reading skills are up to par by solving and reviewing Sample Reading Questions from previous IELTS examinations. Take the practice test below and compare their results to The Rainmaker Design Reading Answers. Candidates can find similar topics from IELTS reading practice papers.

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Section 1

Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions

The Rainmaker Design Reading Answers

Sometimes ideas just pop up out of the blue. Or in Charlie Paton’s case, out of the rain. ‘I was on a bus in Morocco traveling through the desert,’ he remembers. ‘It had been raining and the bus was full of hot, wet people. The windows steamed up and I went to sleep with a towel against the glass. When I woke, the thing was soaking wet. I had to wring it out. And it made me think. Why was it so wet?
The answer, of course, was condensation. Back home in London, a physicist friend, Philip Davies, explained that the glass, chilled by the rain outside, had cooled the hot humid air inside the bus below its dew point, causing droplets of water to form on the inside of the window. Intrigued, Paton – a lighting engineer by profession – started rigging up his own equipment. ‘I made my own solar stills. It occurred to me that you might be able to produce water in this way in the desert, simply by cooling the air. I wondered whether you could make enough to irrigate fields and grow crops.’
Today, a decade on, his dream has taken shape as a giant greenhouse on a desert island off Abu Dhabi in the Persian Gulf – the first commercially viable version of his ‘seawater greenhouse’. Local scientists, working with Paton, are watering the desert and growing vegetables in what is basically a giant dew-making machine that produces freshwater and cool air from sun and seawater. In awarding Paton first prize in a design competition two years ago, Marco Goldschmied, president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, called it ‘a truly original idea which has the potential to impact on the lives of millions of people living in coastal water-starved areas around the world’.
The seawater greenhouse as developed by Paton has three main parts. They both air-condition the greenhouse and provide water for irrigation. The front of the greenhouse faces into the prevailing wind so that hot dry air blows in through a front wall. The wall is made of perforated cardboard kept moist by a constant trickle of seawater pumped up from the ocean. The purpose is to cool and moisten the incoming desert air. The cool moist air allows the plants to grow faster. And, crucially, because much less water evaporates from the leaves, the plants need much less moisture to grow than if they were being irrigated in the hot dry desert air outside the greenhouse.
The air-conditioning of the interior of the greenhouse is completed by the second feature: the roof. It has two layers: an outer layer of clear polyethylene and an inner coated layer that reflects infrared radiation. This combination ensures that visible light can stream through to the plants, maximizing the rate of plant growth through photosynthesis but at the same time heat from the infrared radiation is trapped in the space between the layers, and kept away from the plants. This helps keep the air around the plants cool.
At the back of the greenhouse sits the third element. This is the main water production unit. Here, the air hits a second moist cardboard wall that increases its humidity as it reaches the condenser, which finally collects from the hot humid air the moisture for irrigating the plants. The condenser is a metal surface kept cool by still more seawater. It is the equivalent of the window on Paton’s Moroccan bus. Drops of pure distilled water from on the condenser and flow into a tank for irrigating the crops.
The Abu Dhabi greenhouse more or less runs itself. Sensors switch everything on when the sun rises and alter flows of air and seawater through the day in response to changes in temperature, humidity, and sunlight. On windless days, fans ensure a constant flow of air through the greenhouse. ‘Once it is turned to the local environment, you don’t need anymore there for it to work,’ says Paton. '`We can run the entire operation of one 13-amp plug, and in the future, we could make it entirely independent of the grid, powered from a few solar panels.’
Critics point out that construction costs of around $4 a square foot are quite high. By illustration, however, Paton presents that it can cool as efficiently as a 500-kilowatt air conditioner while using less than 3 kilowatts of electricity. Thus the plants need only an eighth of the volume of water used by those grown conventionally. And so the effective cost of the desalinated water in the greenhouse is only a quarter that of water from a standard desalinator, which is good economics. Besides, it really suggests an environmentally-friendly way of providing air conditioning on a scale large enough to cool large greenhouses where crops can be grown despite the high outside temperatures.

Section 2

Solution with Explanation
Questions 27-31:
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage?
In boxes 27-31 in your answer sheet, write

YES if the statement agrees with the information provided
NO if the information provided is contradictory to the statement.
NOT GIVEN if there is no information to corroborate the statement

The idea just came to Charlie Paton by accident

Answer: YES
Supporting Sentence: Sometimes ideas just pop up out of the blue.
Keyword: idea, Charlie Paton
Keyword Location: Section A, 1st & 2nd Line
Explanation: The first line of the passage says that the idea tends to pop out of the blue. Out of the blue means out of nowhere or by accident. Similarly, the idea popped out of the rain for Paton which means he noticed a phenomenon due to rain and discovered it by accident. Hence, the statement is correct.

The Bus was well ventilated

Answer: NO
Supporting Sentence: The windows steamed up and I went to sleep with a towel against the glass.
Keyword: steamed up, windows
Keyword Location: Section A, 5th Line
Explanation: The author in the passage suggests that windows had steamed up. Since the windows steamed up, means that there was no passage for air to go in and out of the Bus. Hence, the bus was not well-ventilated. This makes the statement contradictory to the passage.

After waking up, Paton found his towel was wet

Answer: YES
Supporting Sentence: When I woke, the thing was soaking wet.
Keyword: towel, wet
Keyword Location: Section A, 6^th statement
Explanation: Paton in the passage describes that he did put a towel against the steaming window. When he woke up, the towel was wet because it had soaked water condensed in the windows. Hence, the statement goes in sync with the passage.

The fan on the bus did not work well

Answer: Not Given
Explanation: There is no such information provided in the passage. Hence, the answer is not given.

Paton immediately operated his own business in the Persian Gulf after talking with Phillip Davies

Answer: NO
Supporting Sentence: Today, a decade on, his dream has taken shape as a giant greenhouse on an island off Abu Dhabi in the Persian Gulf – the first commercially viable version of his ‘seawater greenhouse’.
Keyword: Persian Gulf, commercially viable
Keyword Location: Section C, 4th & 5th Line
Explanation: the passage states that it took a decade for the first commercially viable seawater greenhouse to take shape and without a commercially viable product no business can be run. So, Paton didn’t start his business immediately but had to work on it for 10 years.

Questions 32-36:
Complete the sentences
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Question 32:

Answer: Hot Dry Air
Supporting Sentence: the front of the greenhouse faces into the prevailing wind so that hot dry air blows in through a front wall.
Keyword: hot dry air
Keyword Location: Section D, 3^rd sentence
Explanation: The diagram shows a red arrow near the front wall. As per the passage, the front of the greenhouse faces prevailing hot and humid air. This means that it is hot dry air. Also, the prevailing wind in the desert area of Persian has to be Hot and Dry. Hence, Hot Dry Air is the correct answer.

Question 33:

Answer: Moist
Supporting Sentence: the wall is made of perforated Cardboard kept moist by a constant trickle of seawater pumped from the Ocean.
Keyword: Cardboard, moist
Keyword Location: Section D, 8th Line
Explanation: The diagram points towards the cardboard. Now, according to the process written in the passage, the Cardboard is kept moist through seawater. This is because the oncoming air is hot and dry and to make water out of it, some humidity shall be introduced to it. Hence, moist is the correct answer.

Question 34:

Answer: Infrared Radiation
Supporting Sentence: this combination ensures that visible light can stream through to the plants, maximizing the rate of plant growth through Photosynthesis but at the same time heat from the infrared radiation is trapped in the space between the layers, and kept away from plants.
Keyword: infrared radiation, trapped
Keyword Location: Section E, 10th Line
Explanation: The diagram is pointing at something that gets caught. As per the passage, the objective of the process is to trap infrared radiation. This is done so that the heat is kept away from plants. Hence, infrared radiation is the correct answer.

Question 35:

Answer: Pure Distilled Water
Supporting Sentence: Drops of pure distilled water form on the condenser and flow into a tank for irrigating the crops.
Keyword: pure Distilled water
Keyword Location: Section F, 11th Line
Explanation: as shown in the diagram the end product trickles down into water storage and according to the passage the last stage of the process is making pure distilled water by using a condenser so that it can be used for irrigating crops. The water is distilled because it was originally seawater but it has been distilled through evaporation and condensation to make it fit for plants.

Question 36:

Answer: Condenser
Supporting Sentence: here, the air hits a second moist cardboard wall that increases its humidity as it reaches the condenser, which finally collects from the hot humid air the moisture for irrigating the plants.
Keyword: Condenser
Keyword Location: Section F, 5th Line
Explanation: The image points towards a pane that almost overlaps with distilled water. This water is being formed over a condenser because it’s the only object which can take atmospheric humidity and turn it into real water. Hence, condenser is the correct answer.

Questions 37-40:
Complete the sentences
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer

To some extent, the Abu Dhabi greenhouse functions automatically. When the day is sunny, the equipment can respond to the changes in several natural elements. When there is no wind, (37) ………… help to retain the flow of air. Even in the future, we have an ideal plan to power the Greenhouse from (38) …………. However, there are still some critics who argue that (39) ………. are not good economics.To justify himself, Paton presents favorable arguments against these critics and suggests that it is an (40) …………. Approach to provide air conditioning in a scale large sense.

Question 37:

Answer: Fans
Supporting Sentence: on windless days, fans ensure a constant flow of air through the greenhouse.
Keyword: windless, fans, flow of air
Keyword Location: Section G, 6th & 7th Line
Explanation: The author in the passage directly states that on windless days, fans ensure the flow of air. Windless days are those when no wind is flowing. Hence, a fan ensures that wind is introduced into the system so that air can be condensed and made into water. This makes fans the correct answer.

Question 38:

Answer: Solar Panels
Supporting Sentence: “We can run the entire operation of one 13-amp plug, and in the future, we could make it entirely independent of the grid, powered from a few solar panels.”
Keyword: future, powered, solar panels
Keyword Location: Section G, 12th, 13th & 14th Line
Explanation: As per the author, the future plan is to power the greenhouse through solar panels. This is in an attempt to make it entirely independent of the grid.

Question 39:

Answer: Construction Costs
Supporting Sentence: Critics point out that construction costs of around $4 a square foot are quite high.
Keyword: construction costs, critics
Keyword Location: Section H, 1st Line
Explanation: As per the Critics of this seawater greenhouse, the construction costs aren’t good economics. This is because $4/square foot is quite high in terms of economic viability considering these greenhouses tend to be very large.

Question 40:

Answer: Environmentally-Friendly
Supporting Sentence: Besides, it really suggests an environmentally-friendly way of providing air conditioning on a large scale enough to cool large greenhouses where crops can be grown despite the high outside temperatures.
Keyword: environmentally-friendly, air conditioning, large scale
Keyword Location: Section H, 13th &14th Line
Explanation: The passage also counters the critics. The passage suggests that this seawater greenhouse has an environmentally-friendly approach to solving the water problem. The reason is that it doesn’t cause any emissions, and recycles the water it uses hence not causing any groundwater depletion which normal irrigation can cause. This means that they are environmental friendly.

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