BEST IELTS Daily Reading Practice Test 2020, 4th April

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BEST IELTS Daily Reading Practice Test 2020, 4th April

IELTS Reading Practice test – 5, Passage – 3

Reading Passage – 3

Questions 29-35

Read the text below and answer Questions 29-35.

The Evolution of Long-Distance Communication

A. Long-distance signalling was used as far back as the time of ancient civilisations in China, Egypt and Greece. Primitive as the methods may sound today. Signalling took the form of messages communicated through smoke or drumbeats. Bad weather, however, would have often interrupted the line of sight between receptor points, making such signalling methods ineffective.

B. Even centuries later, the more sophisticated long-distance signalling method known as semaphore, proved susceptible to weather and other factors stopping visibility. Developed in the early 1790s, the semaphore consisted of a series of hilltop stations that each had large movable arms to signal letters and numbers and two telescopes with which to see the other stations. However, during bad weather, signalling would prove impossible. Clearly a different method of transmitting information was required to make regular and reliable long-distance communication workable.

C. The beginning of the nineteenth century was to herald the invention of two major technological advances that would lay the groundwork for more effective long-distance communication. In 1800, Italian scientist Alessandro Volta invented the battery and in 1820 Dutch physicist Hans Christian Oersted demonstrated the connection between electricity and magnetism. Volta’s invention permitted electric currents to be stored and later used under controlled conditions, whilst Oersted’s discovery showed how a magnetic needle could be deflected by electric currents.

D. In the mid-nineteenth century Volta’s invention and Oersted’s discovery were brought together to create a major communications breakthrough: the telegraph. In its early stages, the telegraph system comprised five magnetic needles that could be pointed around a panel of letters and numbers by using an electric current.

E. Later, Samuel Morse, in scientific collaboration with a group of other inventors, would take the invention a stage further. Building on the telegraph system, Morse and his associates created a device capable of transmitting electrical impulses over a wire between stations. Morse then created a code of dots and dashes, relating to each letter of the English alphabet. The transcription of electrical impulses into letters was thereby created, permitting complex messages to be sent across telegraph lines and thereby allowing long-distance communication with a device known as the telegraph.

F. In 1844, Morse sent his first telegraph message from Washington DC to Baltimore, Maryland. A deeply religious man, he ensured that the wording delivered a suitable message: ‘What God hath wrought!’ Just over two decades later, in 1866, the first telegraph line had been laid across the Atlantic from the US to Europe.

G. The electric telegraph transformed how wars were fought and won and how journalists and newspaper did business. Rather than taking weeks to be delivered by horse-and-carriage mail carts, pieces of news could be exchanged between telegraph stations almost instantly. The telegraph also had a big economic effect, allowing money to be ‘wired’ across great distances.

H. With the beginning of the 20th century, the telegraph had become almost obsolete, replaced by faster and more effective means of communication such as the telephone, the fax machine and, more recently, the internet. These invention, though would not have been possible without the telegraph first paving the way for such technological breakthroughs. Morse is still remembered in the code that bears his name, and the world-famous emergency S.O.S code that is based on the Morse code.

Questions 29-35

The text has eight paragraphs, A-H. Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 29-35 on your answer sheet.

The practical impact of technology ………………………………
An old problem comes back ………………………………..
Recognition of a higher authority …………………………………
Communication is scripted ……………………………
Remember forever ………………………………………..
Certain practices now seen basic ………………………………
Dual achievements …………………………………

Questions 36-40

Complete the summary below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the text for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 36-40 on your answer sheet.

Smoke-signalling and drumbeating were used by 36……………………… as primitive forms pf long-distance communication. However such communication methods in addition to the much later and more sophisticated semaphore signalling system, were at the mercy of the 37……………………….. . A need for a more effective long-distance communication system was obvious.
The nineteenth century was witness to a couple of 38……………………… which would introduce a revolutionary form of long-distance communication: the telegraph. In its initial stages, the telegraph system was not capable of long-distance communication until its development by Samuel Morse and his associate. Morse is also to be credited with the development of 39…………………….. that transcribed electrical impulses into letters. The resulting invention was known as the telegraph and it soon became an intrinsic part of everyday life. Later, in the 20th century, more effective means of long-distance communication, such as the internet, phone and fax made the telegraph 40………………………… .

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