Table of Contents
BEST IELTS Academic Reading Test 185
IELTS ACADEMIC READING TEST 185 – PASSAGE – 2
IELTS ACADEMIC READING TEST – 185
READING PASSAGE – 2
Tyes and Greens
A. There are a number of settlements in this part of East Anglia with names containing the word “tye”. The word Is Anglo-Saxon in origin, and the Oxford English Dictionary quotes the earliest usage of the term as dating from 832. Essentially a “tye” was green, or a small area of open common land, usually sited away from the main village or settlement, perhaps at the junction of two or more routes. Local people and passing travellers had the right to pasture their horses, pigs and other farm animals on the tye.
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B. In the Pebmarsh area, there seem to have been five or six of these tyes, all except one, at the margins of the parish. These marginal clearings are all away from the richer farming land close to the river, and, in the case of Cooks Green, Haylcs Tye, and Dorking Tye, close to the edge of still existing fragments of ancient woodland. It seems likely than that, here, as elsewhere in East Anglia, medieval freemen were allowed to clear a small part of the forest and create a smallholding.
Such unproductive forest land would, in any case, have been unattractive to the wealthy baronial or monastic landowners. Most of the land around Pebmarsh village belonged to Earls Colne Priory, a wealthy monastery about 10 kilometres to the south, and it may be that by the 13th and 14th centuries the tyes -were maintained by tenant farmers paying rent to the Priory.
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C. Hayles Tye seems to have got its name from a certain John Hayle who Is documented in the 1380s, although there are records pointing to the occupation of the site at a much earlier date. The name was still in use in 1500 and crops up again throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, usually in relation to the payment of taxes or tithes. At some point during the 18th century, the name is changed to File’s Green, though no trace of an owner called File has been found. Also in the 18th century, the original dwellings on the site disappeared.
Much of this region was economically depressed during this period and the land and its dwellings may simply have been abandoned. Several farms were abandoned in the neighbouring village of Alphamstone, and the population dwindled so much that there was no money to support the fabric of the village church, which became very dilapidated. However, another possibility is that the buildings at File’s Green burnt down, fires being not infrequent at this time.
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D. By 1817 the land was in the ownership of Charles Townsend of Ferriers Farm, and in 1821 he built two brick cottages on the site, each cottage occupied by two families of agricultural labourers. The structure of these cottages was very simple, just a two-storey rectangle divided in the centre by a large common chimneypiece. Each dwelling had its own fireplace, but the two families seem to have shared a brick broad-oven which jutted out from the rear of the cottage.
The outer wall of the bread-oven Is still visible on the remaining cottage. The fireplaces themselves and the chimney structure appear to be older than the 1821 cottages and may have survived from the earlier dwellings. All traces of the common land had long disappeared, and the two cottages stood on a small plot of less than an acre where the labourers would have been able to grow a few vegetables and keep a few chickens or a pig. The bulk of their time was spent working at Ferrier’s farm.
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E. Both cottages are clearly marked on maps of 1874, but by the end of the century, one of them had gone. Again, the last years of the 19th century were a period of agricultural depression, and a number of smaller farms in the area were abandoned. Traces of one, Mosse’s Farm, still partly encircled by a very overgrown moat, may be seen less than a kilometre from File’s Green. It seems likely that, as the need for agricultural labour declined, one of the cottages fell into disuse, decayed and was eventually pulled down. Occasional fragments of rubble and brick still surface in the garden of the remaining cottage.
F. In 1933, this cottage was sold to the manager of the newly-opened gravel works to the north-west of Pebmarsh village. He converted these two dwellings into one. This, then, is the only remaining habitation on the site and is called File’s Green Cottage.
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Questions 15-18
Choose the appropriate letters A-D.
15. A tye was …
A. a green
B. a large open area
C. common land with trees
D. found at the junction of two or more routes
16. The Pebmarsh area …
A. probably had seven tyes
B. probably had six tyes
C. appears to have had five or six tyes
D. was not in East Anglia
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17. The tyes in the Pebmarsh area were …
A. near the river
B. used by medieval freemen
C. mostly at the margins of the parish
D. owned by Haris Colne Priory
18. According to the writer, wealthy landowners …
A. did not find the sight of forest land attractive
B. found the sight of forest land attractive
C. were attracted by the sight of forest land
D. considered forest land unproductive
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Question 19-29
Complete the text below, which is a summary of paragraphs 3-6 in Reading Passage 2.
Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage to fill each blank space.
Write your answers in Boxes 19-29 on your answer sheet.
1380s- John Hayle, who is (19)…………, apparently gave his name to Hayles Tye.
1500s- the name of Hayles Tye was still (20)…………, (21)………… again in the following two centuries in relation to taxes.
18th century- Hayles Tye was renamed (22)………… the original dwellings may either have dissappeared, or were (23)………… Charles Townsend.
1817 – the land was (24)………… by Charles Townsend.
1821- Charies Townsend built (25)………… cottages on the site, (26)………… inhabited by two families, but by the end of the nineteenth century only one cottage(27)……… .
1933- The cottage, now called File’s Green Cottage, was bought by the local (28)………… manager who converted the cottage into (29)………… .
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ANSWERS ARE BELOW
ANSWERS
15. A
16. C
17. C
18. D
19. DOCUMENTED
20. IN USE
21. CROPPING UP/AND CROPS UP/AND CROPPED UP
22. FILO’A GREEN
23. BURNT DOWN/ABANDONED
24. OWNED
25. TWO/TWO BRICK
26. EACH ONE/EACH/EACH COTTAGE
27. REMAINED/SURVIVED
28. GRAVEL WORKS
29. ONE DWELLING