Table of Contents
BEST IELTS General Reading Test 190
IELTS GENERAL READING TEST 190 – PASSAGE – 3
IELTS GENERAL READING TEST – 190
READING PASSAGE – 3
Corks have been used as bottle stoppers for as long as we have had wine. The Greeks in the fifth century BCE sometimes used corks to close wine jugs. Following in their footsteps, the Romans also used the cork as a stopper and also coated corks with pitch to seal the closure. Cork was not immediately as successful as it is today and historian, Sally Marshall, explains why. “Cork’s success as a closure depends upon its fitting snugly into an opening with a relatively uniform diameter. Thus, it was not until the seventeenth century, when glass bottles were first made with openings more or less the same size, that the cork truly came into its own.”
Every time someone buys a bottle sealed with a natural cork stopper, they are helping to sustain one of the world’s most biodiverse forests and protect an extraordinary ecosystem and industry. Using cork also helps protecting jobs. Jose Rivera, a Portuguese cork grower, explains. “While it might seem counterintuitive, the best way to ensure that there is no shortage of cork is to use more cork. That is because the greater the demand for cork, the greater the economic incentive there will be to protect the cork oak forests for future generations.”
IELTS General Reading Test
Cork’s unique attributes make it a multipurpose material. Because cork is composed of a honeycomb of microscopic cells, it is very light, easy to compress yet strong, impermeable to liquids and gases, adaptable to temperature and pressure, an insulator against moisture and noise, and resistant to fire. When it comes to preserving wine, cork allows just the right amount of oxygen to interact with the liquid, making it the perfect material to allow wine to age properly. Wine connoisseur, Jean Costaud, says it also adds to the wine experience. “It’s all to do with when the wine is opened. No artificial stopper can come close to reproducing the iconic “pop” when the cork is removed.”
With all the beneficial properties of corks as bottle closures, there is one significant defect. This is “corkiness”, a condition that exists when wine is tainted by the presence of a chemical compound called 2, 4, 6 – Trichloroanisole – TCA for short. This compound appears to be caused in the cork by the interaction of moisture, chlorine and mould that is always there.
IELTS General Reading Test
Corks are exposed to these elements during their production and TCA can form. Unfortunately, the human nose can detect this “corkiness” at concentrations as low as four parts per trillion! Jean Costaud explains the problem. “A lightly corked wine may simply smell like cork, while a badly corked wine smells musty, like damp cardboard or old newspapers. The usual rich aroma and taste of the wine is stripped away by the musty odor.”
Artificial corks and screw tops are the two main alternatives to natural wood corks. An artificial cork is made of ethylene vinyl acetate. It looks and feels very similar to real cork and a corkscrew is used to remove it from the bottle. It has two drawbacks: one is that it often fits so tightly in the bottle that it is very difficult to remove (a problem that will no doubt be resolved through research).
American wine producer, Alice Deacon, is more interested in the second, more technical problem. “We want to know whether the synthetic material is truly non-reactive and inert over long periods of time. Will it impart any tastes of its own to the wine?” Naturally, wineries using these plastic corks are deliberately aging wines to see what happens, but it is too soon by several years to know the outcome. Nonetheless, more and more low- and mid- range producers are switching to an artificial cork.
IELTS General Reading Test
The screw cap provides an excellent air-tight seal, although there is a question as to whether or not it will protect the wine over a very long period of time. The problem with the screw cap is psychological. Wine merchant, Mary Winters sums up her clients’ feelings. “The image of a screw cap is firmly lodged in many minds as the epitome of cheap wine. Because of this, many of the fine wine producers we deal with are sensitive to the fine wine market. They hesitate to switch to a screw cap, because they do not want their wine to be perceived as of inferior quality.”
Supporters of cork publicise its environmentally-friendly properties. The 6.6 million acres of cork oak forests in the Mediterranean Basin not only serve as a refuge for endangered species, they also help reduce greenhouse emissions. Environmentalist, Charles Wrathe, explains. “It seems like a small thing, but every cork stopper represents a carbon offset of 113.5 grams. Looked at differently, the 6.6 million acres of Mediterranean cork oaks capture approximately 14.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.”
IELTS General Reading Test
While waiting for the wine industry to make up its mind, cork has diversified. In recent years, fashion designers and shoe manufacturers have started to use cork to create their signature footwear. Mike Baker, a CEO at a footwear company, is a big fan. “The transformation of used wine corks into durable and attractive footwear is an easy and elegant way to extend the life- cycle of this remarkable material while providing consumers with a terrific and fashionable new product that literally lightens their carbon footprint.”
Questions 28 – 35
Look at the following statements (questions 28 – 35) and the list of people below. Match each statement with the correct person’s initials.
Write the correct initials in boxes 28 – 35 on your answer sheet.
28. Screw caps can create the perception of a lower class product.
29. Real corks even have a satisfying auditory effect on the person opening a bottle.
30. There is a worry that artificial corks may also affect a wine’s flavour.
31. Cork only became widely used when manufacturing methods were able to create uniformly-sized bottles.
32. Used real corks can be recycled as shoes.
33. Real corks can sometimes negatively affect the flavour of the wine.
34. Even a single real cork can help protect the environment.
35. Using as much real cork as possible will ensure there is no shortage of the material.
IELTS General Reading Test
List of People
SM: Sally Marshall
JR: Jose Rivera
JC: Jean Costaud
AD: Alice Deacon
MW: Mary Winters
CW: Charles Wrathe
MB: Mike Baker
IELTS General Reading Test
Questions 36 – 39
Choose FOUR letters, A – H.
Which of the following sentences below accurately describe information regarding cork given in the text?
Write the correct letter, A – H.
A. Cork does not allow any air at all to reach a bottle’s contents.
B. There is moisture in a cork that can lead to a wine bottle’s contents being spoiled.
C. Artificial corks closely resemble real corks.
D. Wine producers have sent their product to university laboratories to assess the long-term effect of artificial corks.
E. Artificial cork use is becoming more popular with wine producers.
F. Cork is no longer grown around the Mediterranean.
G. Cork forests are good places for animals at risk of extinction to live.
H. Cork is a difficult material to recycle.
IELTS General Reading Test
Question 40
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
40. What is the best title for the text in section 3?
A. A Material for the Future
B. Cork: A versatile Material
C. The End of the Line for Cork
D. How Cork is Manufactured
IELTS General Reading Test
ANSWERS ARE BELOW
IELTS General Reading Test
ANSWERS
28. MW
29. JC
30. AD
31. SM
32. MB
33. JC
34. CW
35. JR
36. B*
37. C*
38. E*
39. G*
40. B
IELTS General Reading Test