Could Better Design Cure our Throwaway Culture Reading Answers

Aug 13, 2024

The topic discussed below is an academic reading answers topic. Could better design cure our throwaway culture Reading Answers have a total of 13 IELTS questions in total. In the questions, you have to choose the correct heading from the passage. In the next set of questions, you have to tell whether the statement is true or false.

Candidates should read the IELTS Reading passage thoroughly to recognise synonyms, identify keywords, and answer the questions below. IELTS Reading practice papers, which feature topics such as Could better design cure our throwaway culture Reading Answers. Candidates can use IELTS reading practice questions and answers to enhance their performance in the reading section.

Section 1

COULD BETTER DESIGN CURE OUR THROWAWAY CULTURE

(A) Jonathan Chapman, a senior lecturer at the University of Brighton, UK, is one of a new breed of 'sustainable designers'. Like many of us, they are concerned about the huge waste associated with Western consumer culture and the damage this does to the environment. Some, like Chapman, aim to create objects we will want to keep rather than discard. Others are working to create more efficient or durable consumer goods or goods designed with recycling in mind. The waste entailed in our fleeting relationships with consumer durables is colossal.

B) Domestic power tools, such as electric drills, are a typical example of such waste. However much DIY the purchaser plans to do, the truth is that these things are thrown away having been used, on average, for just ten minutes. Most will spend 'conscience time gathering dust on a shelf in the garage; people are reluctant to admit that they have wasted their money. However, the end is inevitable for thousands of years in landfill waste sites. In its design, manufacture, packaging, transportation and disposal, a power tool consumes many times its weight in resources, all for a shorter active lifespan than that of the average small insect.

(C) To understand why we have become so wasteful, we should look at the underlying motivation of consumers. 'People own things to give expression to who they are, and to show what group of people they feel they belong to, Chapman says. In a world of mass production, however, that symbolism has lost much of its potency. For most of human history, people had an intimate relationship with objects they used or treasured. Often they made the objects themselves, or family members passed them on. For more specialist objects, people relied on expert manufacturers living close by, whom they probably knew personally, Chapman points out that all these factors gave objects a history - a narrative - and an emotional connection that today's mass production can not match. Without these personal connections, consumerist culture instead idolises novelty. We know we can't buy happiness, but the chance to remake ourselves with glossy, box-fresh products seems irresistible. When the novelty fades we simply renew the excitement by buying more new stuff: what John Thackara of Doors of Perception, a network for sharing ideas about the future of design, calls the "schlock of the new".

D) As a sustainable designer, Chapman's solution is what he calls "emotionally durable design". Think about your favourite old jeans. They just don't have the right feel until they have been worn and washed a hundred times, do they? It is like they are sharing your life story. You can fake that look, but it isn't the same. Chapman says the gradual unfolding of a relationship like this transforms our interactions with objects into something richer than simple utility, Swiss industrial analyst Walter Stahel, a visiting professor at the University of Surrey, calls it the "teddy bear factor". No matter how ragged and worn a favourite teddy becomes, we don't rush out and buy another one. As adults, our teddy bear connects us to our childhoods, and this protects us from obsolescence. Stahel says this is what sustainable design needs to do.

E) It is not simply about making durable items that people want to keep. Sustainable design is a matter of properly costing the whole process of production, energy use and disposal. "It is about the design of systems, the design of culture," says Tim Cooper from the Centre for Sustainable Consumption at Sheffield Hallam University in Britain. He thinks sustainable design has been "surprisingly slow to take off" but says looming environmental crises and resource depletion are pushing it to the top of the agenda.

(F) Thackara agrees. For him, the roots of impending environmental collapse can be summarised in two words: weight and speed. We are making more stuff than the planet can sustain and using vast amounts of energy moving more and more of it around ever faster. The Information Age was supposed to lighten our economies and reduce our impact on the environment, but the reverse seems to be happening. We have simply added information technology to the industrial era and hastened the developed world's metabolism, Thackara argues.

(G) Once you grasp that, the cure is hardly rocket science: minimise waste and energy use, stop moving stuff around so much and use people more EZIO MANZINI, PROFESSOR of industrial design at Politecnico di Milano University, Italy, describes the process of moving to a post-throwaway society as like "changing the engine of an aircraft in mid-flight". Even so, he believes it can be done, and he is not alone.

[H) Manzini says a crucial step would be to redesign our globalised world into what he calls the "multi-local society". His vision is that every resource, from food to electricity generation, should as far as possible be sourced and distributed locally. These local hubs would then be connected to national and global networks to allow the most efficient use and flow of materials. So what will post-throwaway consumerism look like? For a start, we will increasingly buy sustainably designed products. This might be as simple as installing energy-saving light bulbs, more efficient washing machines, or choosing locally produced groceries with less packaging.

We will spend less on material goods and more on services. Instead of buying a second car, for example, we might buy into a car-sharing network. We will also buy less and rent a whole lot more: why own things that you hardly use, especially things that are likely to be updated all the time? Consumer durables will be sold with plans already in place for their disposal. Electronic goods will be designed to be recyclable, with the extra cost added to the retail price as prepayment. As consumers become increasingly concerned about the environment, many big businesses are eagerly opting for sustainable designs and brushing up their green credentials to please their customers and stay one step ahead of the competition.

Questions 1-5

Choose the correct letter.

1. What does 'conscience time' imply in paragraph 2?

A. People feel guilty when they throw things away easily.

B. The shelf in the garage needs cleaning.

C. The consumers are unaware of the waste problem.

D. The power tool should be placed in the right place after being used.

Answer: A

Supporting statement: “.....Most will serve 'conscience time' gathering dust on a shelf in the garage; people are reluctant to admit that they have wasted their money.......”

Keywords: time, reluctant

Keyword Location: para B, lines 4-5

Explanation: The phrase "conscience time" suggests that people feel guilty about having bought something they don't use and hesitate to admit that they wasted money. The unused tools remain on the shelf, serving as a reminder of this guilt. Therefore, the correct answer is A.

2. Before the mass production, people own things to show

A. their quality

B. their status

C. their character

D. their history

Answer: B

Supporting statement: “.....People own things to give expression to who they are, and to show what group of people they feel they belong to.......”

Keywords: group, belong

Keyword Location: para C, lines 1-2

Explanation: The passage explains that before mass production, people owned things to express their identity and to show which social group they belonged to. This implies that ownership was tied to showing status, making B the correct answer.

3. The word 'narrative' in paragraph 3 refers to

A. the novelty culture pursued by the customers

B. the motivation of buying new products

C. object stories that relate personally and meaningfully to the owners

D. the image created by the manufacturers

Answer: C

Supporting statement: “......Chapman points out that all these factors gave objects a history - a narrative - and an emotional connection that today's mass production cannot match.......”

Keywords: history, emotional

Keyword Location: para C, lines 6-7

Explanation: The term "narrative" in this context refers to the personal stories and histories associated with objects, which create a meaningful connection between the owner and the item. The correct answer is C.

4. Without a personal connection, people buy new stuff for

A. sharing

B. freshness

C. collection

D. family members

Answer: B

Supporting statement: “.....Without these personal connections, consumerist culture instead idolizes novelty.......”

Keywords: connection, novelty

Keyword Location: para C, lines 8-9

Explanation: The passage states that in the absence of personal connections to objects, people are drawn to the novelty of new items. This implies that they buy new things for the freshness and excitement they bring, making B the correct answer.

5. The writer quotes the old jeans and teddy bear to illustrate that

A. the products are used for simple u

B. producers should create more spell to attract the consumers.

C. Chapman led a poor childhood life.

D. the emotional connections make us keep the objects for longer.

Answer: D

Supporting statement: “.....No matter how ragged and worn a favourite teddy becomes, we don't rush out and buy another one. As adults, our teddy bear connects us to our childhoods, and this protects it from obsolescence.......”

Keywords: connections, keep

Keyword Location: para D, lines 5-6

Explanation: The examples of old jeans and a teddy bear are used to illustrate how emotional connections with objects can make us keep them for longer, despite their wear and tear. The correct answer is D.

Questions 6-9

Complete the summary using the list of words, A-H, below.

Tim Cooper claims that although sustainable design proceeds 6....•..... the coming

Answer: E

Supporting statement: “......He thinks sustainable design has been 'surprisingly slow to take off' but says looming environmental crises and resource depletion are pushing it to the top of the agenda......”

Keywords: design, slow

Keyword Location: para E, lines 2-3

Explanation: Tim Cooper mentions that sustainable design has been slow to gain momentum, making "slowly" the correct word.

problems are pushing the move. By Tim Cooper, Thackara believes that the origins of the looming environmental crises are weight and 7...... The

Answer: F

Supporting statement: “......For him, the roots of impending environmental collapse can be summarized in two words: weight and speed......”

Keywords: collapse, weight

Keyword Location: para F, lines 1-2

Explanation: Thackara attributes environmental crises to "weight and speed," making "speed" the correct word to complete the sentence. Hence F is the correct answer.

technology which was assumed to have a positive effect on our society

accelerates the world's 8 …….... To cure this, Manzini proposes a 'multi-local society'

Answer: H

Supporting statement: “......We have simply added information technology to the industrial era and hastened the developed world's metabolism, Thackara argues......”

Keywords: hastened, world's

Keyword Location: para F, lines 5-6

Explanation: Thackara argues that instead of reducing the impact, technology has accelerated the world's "metabolism," making "metabolism" the right choice here.

which means every resource should be located and redeployed 9..........

Answer: C

Supporting statement: “......His vision is that every resource, from food to electricity generation, should as far as possible be sourced and distributed locally......”

Keywords: distributed, locally

Keyword Location: para H, line 2-3

Explanation: Manzini proposes that resources should be sourced and distributed locally, so "locally" is the appropriate word to complete the sentence. Hence C is the correct answer.

A. properly

E. slowly

B. energy

F. Speed

C. Locally

G. quickly

D. economy

H. metabolism

Questions 11-13

Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage? write

YES - if the statement agrees with the writer E

NO - if the statement does not agree with the writer

NOT GIVEN - if there is no information about this in the passage

10. People often buy things that are seldom used and throw them away.

Answer: YES

Supporting statement: “.......Domestic power tools, such as electric drills, are a typical example of such waste. However much DIY the purchaser plans to do, the truth is that these things are thrown away having been used.....”

Keywords: used, thrown

Keyword Location: para B, lines 2-4

Explanation: The passage confirms that people often buy tools that are rarely used and eventually discarded, supporting the statement as true. Hence the statement is correct.

11. In a post-throwaway society, we will a money after disposing of electro

Answer: NO

Supporting statement: “......Electronic goods will be designed to be recyclable, with the extra cost added to the retail price as prepayment......”

Keywords: goods, recyclable

Keyword Location: para H, lines 12-13

Explanation: The passage mentions that electronic goods will include a cost for recycling, but it does not state that people will earn money from disposing of them. This makes the statement false.

12. Some businesses have jumped on the sustainability bandwagon.

Answer: YES

Supporting statement: “......As consumers become increasingly concerned about the environment, many big businesses are eagerly adopting sustainable design and brushing up their green credentials to please their customers.......”

Keywords: businesses, sustainability

Keyword Location: para H, lines 14-15

Explanation: The passage indicates that many businesses are adopting sustainable practices to appeal to customers, making the statement true.

13. Companies will spend less on repairs in the future.

Answer: NOT GIVEN

Explanation: There is no specific information in the passage about whether companies will spend less on repairs in the future.

Read More IELTS Reading Related Samples