The Sweet Scent of Success - IELTS Reading Sample with Explanation
The IELTS reading section examines a candidate’s comprehending skills within the stipulated amount of time. The reading section comprises passages followed with different kinds of questions to holistically judge a student’s grasping abilities while reading. This particular IELTS Reading Practice Test has a passage on- “The Sweet Scent of Success” which consists of the following types of questions:
- Find in which paragraph the following information is given
- Match with the Given List.
The IELTS Reading Practice Tests contain a variety of sample passages with different kinds of questions which will equip a student with all the possible dimensions of this section. These practice tests should be taken with utmost seriousness to perform brilliantly on D-Day.
Check: Get 10 Free IELTS Sample Papers
Check: Register for IELTS Coaching - Join for Free Trial Class Now
Section 1
Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions
The Sweet Scent of Success - IELTS Reading Sample
- Innovation and entrepreneurship, in the right mix, can bring spectacular results and propel a business ahead of the pack. Across a diverse range of commercial successes, from the Hills Hoist clothes line to the Cochlear ear implant, it is hard to generalize beyond saying the creators tapped into something consumers could not wait to get their hands on. However, most ideas never make it to the market. Some ideas that innovators are spruiking to potential investors include new water-saving shower heads, a keyless locking system, ping-pong balls that keep pollution out of rainwater tanks, making teeth grow from stem cells inserted in the gum, and technology to stop LPG tanks from exploding. Grant Kearney, chief executive of the Innovation Xchange, which connects businesses to innovation networks, says he hears of great business ideas that he knows will never get on the market. “Ideas by themselves are absolutely useless,”he says. “An idea only becomes innovation when it is connected to the right resources and capabilities''.
- One of Australia’s latest innovation successes stems from a lemon-scented bath-room cleaner called Shower Power, the formula for which was concocted in a factory in Yatala, Queensland. In 1995, Tom Quinn and John Heron bought a struggling cleaning products business, OzKleen, for 250,000. It was selling 100 different kinds of cleaning products, mainly in bulk. The business was in bad shape, the cleaning formulas were ineffective and environmentally harsh, and there were few regular clients. Now Shower Power is claimed to be the top-selling bathroom cleaning product in the country. In the past 12 months ,almost four million bottles of OzKleen’s Power products have been sold and the company forecasts 2004 sales of 10 million bottles. The company's sales in2003 reached $11 million, with 700k of business being exports. In particular, Shower Power is making big inroads on the British market.
- OzKleen’s turnaround began when Quinn and Heron hired an industrial chemist to revitalize the product line. Market research showed that people were looking for a better cleaner for the bathroom, universally regarded as the hardest room in the home to clean. The company also wanted to make the product formulas more environmentally friendly. One of Tom Quinn’s sons, Peter, aged 24 at the time, began working with the chemist on the formulas, looking at the potential for citrus-based cleaning products. He detested all the chlorine-based cleaning products that dominated the market. “We didn’t want to use chlorine, simple as that,”he says. “It offers bad working conditions and there’s no money in it.''Peter looked at citrus ingredients, such as orange peel, to replace the petroleum by-products in cleaners. He is credited with finding the Shower Power formula. “The head,”he says. The company's recipe is in a vault somewhere and is my sole owner of the intellectual property.
- To begin with, Shower Power was sold only in commercial quantities but Tom Quinn decided to sell it in 750ml bottles after the constant “raves” from customers at their retail store at , near Brisbane. Customers were traveling long distances to buy supplies. Others began writing to OzKleen to say how good Shower Power was. “We did a dummy label and went to see Woolworths,”Tom Quinn says. The Woolworths buyer took a bottle home and was able to remove a stain from her basin that had been impossible to shift. From that point on, she championed the product and OzKleen had its first super- market order, for a palette of Shower Power worth $3000. “We were over the moon,”says OzKleen’s financial controller, Belinda McDonnell.
- Shower Power was released in Australian supermarkets in 1997 and became the top-selling product in its category within six months. It was all hands on deck at the factory, labeling and bottling Shower Power to keep up with demand. OzKleen ditched all other products and rebuilt the business around Shower Power. This stage, recalls McDonnell, was very tough. “It was hand-to-mouth, cash flow was very difficult,”she says. OzKleen had to pay new-line fees to supermarket chains, which also squeezed margins.
- OzKleen’s next big break came when the daughter of a Coles Myer executive 1 used the product while on holidays in Queensland and convinced her father that Shower Power should be in supermarkets. Despite the product's success, Peter Quinn says the company was wary of how long the sales would last and hesitated to spend money on upgrading the manufacturing process. As a result, he remembers long periods of working round the clock to keep up with orders. Small tanks were still being used, so batches were small and bottles were labeled and filled manually. The privately owned OzKleen relied on cash flow to expand. “The equipment could not keep up with demand,” Peter Quinn says. Eventually a new bottling machine was bought for $50,000 in the hope of streamlining production, but he says: “We got ripped off.” Since then, he has been developing a new automated bottling machine that can control the amount of foam produced in the liquid, so that bottles can be filled more effectively - “I love coming up with new ideas.” The machine is being patented.
- Peter Quinn says OzKleen’s approach to research and development is open slather. “If I need it, I get it. It is about doing something simple that no one else is doing. Most of these things are just sitting in front of people ... it’s just seeing the opportunities.” With a tried and tested product, OzKleen is expanding overseas and developing more Power-brand household products. Tom Quinn, who previously ran a real estate agency, says: “We are competing with the same market all over the world, the cleaning products are sold everywhere.” Shower Power, known as Bath Power in Britain, was launched four years ago with the help of an export development grant from the Federal Government. “We wanted to do it straight away because we realized we had the same opportunities worldwide.” OzKleen is already number three in the British market, and the next stop is France. The Power range includes cleaning products for carpets, kitchens and pre-wash stain removal. The Quinn and Heron families are still involved. OzKleen has been approached with offers to buy the company, but Tom Quinn says he is happy with things as they are. “We’re having too much fun.”
Check: Get 10 Free IELTS Sample Papers
Check: Register for IELTS Coaching - Join for Free Trial Class Now
Section 2
Solution with Explanations
Questions 1-7:
Reading Passage has six paragraphs, A-G.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter A-G, in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
- Description of one family member persuading another of selling cleaning products.
Answer: F
Supporting sentence: OzKleen’s next big break came when the daughter of a Coles Myer executive 1 used the product while on holiday in Queensland and convinced her father that Shower Power should be in supermarkets.
Keywords: family member, persuading, cleaning products
Key Location: Paragraph F, 1st line
Explanation: This is the correct answer because it is only in Paragraph F that there’s any mention of one family member namely the daughter convincing the father to sell the product in the supermarkets.
- An account of the cooperation of all factory staff to cope with sales increase.
Answer: E
Supporting sentence: It was all hands on deck at the factory, labeling, and bottling Shower Power to keep up with demand.
Keywords: cooperation, factory stuff, sales increase
Key Location: Paragraph E, 2nd line
Explanation: This is the correct answer because when the demand suddenly dropped on releasing the product in the supermarkets, all the staff worked hard to keep up with the demand, as the process was hands-on and not automated.
- An account of the creation of the formula of Shower Power.
Answer: C
Supporting sentence: He is credited with finding the Shower Power formula.
Keywords: creation, formula, shower power
Key Location: Paragraph C, 2nd last line
Explanation: This is the correct answer because Peter was credited with finding the shower power formula because he detested chlorine and was the one to look at citrus ingredients as a replacement and the formula of shower power is given in Paragraph C.
Check: Get 10 Free IELTS Sample Papers
Check: Register for IELTS Coaching - Join for Free Trial Class Now
Read More IELTS Reading Related Articles
- An account of buying the original OzKleen company.
Answer: B
Supporting sentence: In 1995, Tom Quinn and John Heron bought a struggling cleaning products business, OzKleen, for 250,000.
Keywords: buying, original, company,
Key Location: Paragraph B, 2nd line
Explanation: it is given at the beginning of the passage that the company, OzKleen was brought by Quinn and Heron, the original company made 100 different kinds of cleaning products. This information is given in Paragraph B.
- Description of Shower Power’s international expansion.
Answer: G
Supporting sentence: Tom Quinn, who previously ran a real estate agency, says: “We are competing with the same market all over the world, the cleaning products are sold everywhere.
Keywords: international, exposure, shower power
Key Location: Paragraph G, 4th line
Explanation: This is the correct answer because in paragraph G there is mention of shower power being exported to Britain which can be considered as international exposure.
- The reason for changing the packaging size of Shower Power.
Answer: D
Supporting sentence: To begin with, Shower Power was sold only in commercial quantities but Tom Quinn decided to sell it in 750ml bottles after the constant “raves” from customers at their retail store, near Brisbane.
Keywords: packaging size, reason, change
Key Location: Paragraph D, 1st line
Explanation: This is the correct reason because the reason for changing the packaging size to 750ml bottles was because of the “raves” from the customers which are given in paragraph D.
- An example of some innovative ideas.
Answer: A
Supporting sentence: Some ideas that innovators are spruiking to potential investors include new water-saving showerheads, a keyless locking system, ping-pong balls that keep pollution out of rainwater tanks, making teeth grow from stem cells inserted in the gum, and technology to stop LPG tanks from exploding.
Keywords: example, innovative ideas
Key Location: Paragraph A, 4th line
Explanation: This is the correct answer because the passage starts with paragraph A talking about various innovative ideas that didn’t make it to the market.
Check: Get 10 Free IELTS Sample Papers
Check: Register for IELTS Coaching - Join for Free Trial Class Now
Questions 8-11:
Look at the following people and a list of statements below.
Match each person with the correct statement.
Write the correct letter A-E in boxes 8-11 on your answer sheet.
| List of Statement A Described his story of selling his product to a chain store B Explained there was a shortage of money when sales suddenly increased C Believe innovations need support to succeed D Believes new products like Shower Power may incur risks E Says business won’t succeed with innovations |
- Grant Kearney
Answer: C
Supporting sentence: “An idea only becomes innovation when it is connected to the right resources and capabilities".
Keywords: innovations, need, support, succeed
Key Location: Paragraph A, last line
Explanation: This is the correct statement because, in the opening paragraph A, Grant Kearney says that innovative ideas are useless unless they have proper resources and capabilities which is the support they need to be successful.
- Tom Quinn
Answer: A
Supporting sentence: With a tried and tested product, OzKleen is expanding overseas and developing more Power-brand household products.
Keywords: selling product, chain stores
Key Location: Paragraph G, 3rd line
Explanation: This is the correct statement because Tom Quinn, one of the two individuals who brought the original Ozkleen mentioned that they will be expanding overseas with this product because he thinks they are competing with the same product everywhere.
- Peter Quinn
Answer: D
Supporting sentence: Despite the product’s success, Peter Quinn says the company was wary of how long the sales would last and hesitated to spend money on upgrading the manufacturing process.
Keywords: new products, risks
Key Location: Paragraph F, 2nd line
Explanation: This is the correct statement because Quinn does mention was hesitant about upgrading as a new product’s success can be sudden and fade away easily.
- Belinda McDonnell
Answer: B
Supporting sentence: This stage, recalls McDonnell, was very tough. “It was hand-to-mouth, cash flow was very difficult,” she says.
Keywords: a shortage of money, sales, increased
Key Location: Paragraph E, 4th line
Explanation: This is the correct statement because we see McDonnell mentioning how when the demands increased due to the product being released to the supermarket there were difficulties with cash flow and managing the huge orders as they didn’t have much financial backing or funding.
Check: Get 10 Free IELTS Sample Papers
Check: Register for IELTS Coaching - Join for Free Trial Class Now
Questions 12-13:
Choose the correct letter A, B, C, or D.
Write your answers in boxes 12-13 on your answer sheet.
- Tom Quinn changed the bottle size to 750ml to make Shower Power.
- Easier to package.
- Appealing to individual customers.
- Popular in foreign markets.
- Attractive to supermarkets.
Answer: B
Supporting sentence: Customers were traveling long distances to buy supplies. Others began writing to OzKleen to say how good Shower Power was.
Keywords: change, bottles size
Key Location: Paragraph D, 2nd line
Explanation: This is the correct reason because the reason for changing the packaging size to 750ml bottles was because of the “raves” from the customers.
- Why did Tom Quinn decide not to sell OzKleen?
- No one wanted to buy OzKleen.
- New products were being developed in OzKleen.
- He couldn’t make an agreement on the price with the buyer.
- He wanted to keep things unchanged.
Answer: D
Supporting sentence: OzKleen has been approached with offers to buy the company, but Tom Quinn says he is happy with things as they are.
Keywords: not to sell, OzKleen
Key Location: Paragraph G, 2nd last line
Explanation: This is the correct reason because Quinn was happy with the way things were and didn’t want anything to change, so he turned down the buyers.
Comments