Table of Contents
BEST IELTS General Reading Test 25
GENERAL READING TEST 25 – PASSAGE – 1
GENERAL READING TEST 25
READING PASSAGE 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-14 which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.
A
An automobile or motor car is a wheeled motor vehicle for transporting passengers; which also carries it sown engine or motor. Most definitions of the tern specify that automobiles are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating foe one to eight people, to typically have four wheels, and to be constructed principally form the transport of people rather than goods. However, the term is far from precise because there are many types of vehicle that do similar tasks.
Automobile comes vi the French language, from the Greek language by combining auto (self) with mobiles’ (moving); meaning a vehicle that move itself, rather than being pulled or pushed by a separate animal or another vehicle. The alternative name car is being to originate from the Latin word carrus or carrum (wheeled vehicle), Middle English word carre (from Old North French), and karros; a Gallic wagon.
As of 2002, there were 590 million passenger cars worldwide (roughly one car per elevon people).
B
Although Nicolas-joseph Cugnot is often credited with building the first self-propelled machine vehicle or automobile in about 1769 by adapting an existing a horse-drawn vehicle, the claim is disputed by someone, who doubted Cugnot’s three-wheeler ever ran or was stable. Other claim Ferdinand Verbiest, a member of a Jesuit mission in China, built the first steam power vehicle around 1672 which was of small scale and designed as a toy for the Chinese Emperor was unstable to carry a driver or a passenger, but quite possibly the first working steam power vehicle (‘auto-mobile’). What is not in doubt is that Richard Trevithick built and demonstrates his Puffing Devil road locomotive in 1801/ believed by many to the first demonstration of a steam-powered road vehicle although it was unbale to maintain sufficient steam pressure for long time periods, and would have been of little practical use.
In Russia in the 1780s Ivan Kulibin started working on a human pedalled carriage with a steam engine. He finished working on it in 1791. Some of its feature included a flywheel, brake gear, box, and bearing, which are also the features of a modern automobile. His designed has three wheels. Unfortunately, like for many of his inventions, the government failed to see the potential market and it was not developed further.
C
Francois Isaac de Rivaz, a Swiss inventor, designed the first international combustion engine, in 1806, which was fueled by a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen and use it to develop the world’s first vehicle, Albeit Rudimentary, to powered by such an engine. The design was not very successful, as was the case with those of Samuel Brown, Samuel Morey, and Etienne Lenoir who each produce vehicles (adapted carriages, carts, or boats) powered by Clumsy Internal Combustion Engines.
In November 1881 French inventor Gustave Trouve demonstrated a working three-wheeled automobile that was powered by electricity, This was at them International Exhibition Of Electricity in Paris.
D
Although several German engines (including Gottlieb Daimler, Wilhelm Maybach, and Siegfried Marcus) were working on the problem at about the same time, Karl Benz generally is acknowledged as the inventor of the modern automobile.
An automobile powered by his own four-stroke cycle gasoline engine was built in Mannheim, Germany by Karl Benz in 1885 and granted a patent in January of the following year under the auspices of his major company, Benz & Cie, which was founded in 1883. It was an internal design, without the adaption of other existing component and including several new technological elements to create a new concept. This is what made it worthy of a patent. He began to shell his production vehicles in 1888.
In 1879 Benz was granted a patent for his first engine, which had been designed in 1878. Many of his inventions made the use of the internal combustion engine feasible foe powering a vehicle.
His first Motorwagon was built in 1885 and he was awarded the patent for its invention as of his application on January 29, 1886. Benz began promotion of the vehicle on July 3, 1886 and approximately 25 Benz vehicles were sold between 1888 and 1893, when his first four-wheeler was introduced along with along with a model intended for affordability. They also were powered with four-stroke engine of his own design, Emile Roger of France, already producing Benz engines under licence, now added the Benz automobile to his line of products. Because France was more open to the early automobiles, initially more were built and sold in France through Roger than Benz sold in Germany.
In 1896, Benz designed and patented the first internal-combustion flat engine, called a boxermotar in German. During the last years of the nineteenth century, Benz was the largest automobile company in the world with 572 units produced in 1899 and because if its size, Benz &Cie, become a joint-stock company.
E
Daimler and Maybach founded Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (Daimler Motor Company, DMG) in Cannstattin 1890 and under the brand name, Daimler, sold their first automobile on 18982, which was a horse-drawn stagecoach built by another manufacturer, that they retrofitted with an engine of their design. By 1895 about 30 vehicles had been built by Daimler and Maybach, either at Daimler works or in the Hotel Hermann, where they set up shop after falling out with their backers. Benz and Maybach and Daimler team seem to have been unaware of each other’s early work. They never worked together because by the time of the merge of the two companies, Daimler and Maybach were no longer part of DMG.
Daimler died in 1900 and later that year, Maybach designed an engine named Daimler-Mercedes that was placed in a specially ordered model built to set by Emil Jellinek. This was a production of a small number of vehicles for Jellinek to rack and market in his country. Two years later in 1902, a new model DMG automobile was produced and the model was named Mercedes after Maybach engine which generated 35 hp. Maybach quit DMG shortly thereafter and opened a business of his own. Rights to the Daimler brand name were sold to other manufacturers.
F
Karl Benz proposed co-operation between DMG and Benz & Cie, when economic condition began to deteriorate in Germany following the First World War, but the director of DMG refused to consider it initially. Negotiations between the two companies resume several years later when these conditions worsened and in 1924, they signed an Agreement and Mutual Interest, valid until the year 2000. Both enterprises standardized design, production purchasing and sales and they advertising or marketed their automobile models jointly – although keeping their respective brands.
On June 28, 1962 Benz & Cie and DMG finally merged as the Daimler-Benz company, baptizing all of its automobiles Mercedes Benz as a brand honouring the most important model of DMG automobiles, the Maybach design later referred to as the 1902 Mercedes 35hp, along with Benz name. Karl Benz remained a member of the board of director of Daimler-Benz until his death in 1929 and at time, his two sons participated in the management of company as well.
Question 1-6
From the list of heading below, choose the most suitable heading for section A-F. Write the appropriate number I -VIII on answer sheet.
1) Paragraph A
2) Paragraph B
3) Paragraph C
4) Paragraph D
5) Paragraph E
6) Paragraph F
LIST OF HEADING
i. Karl Benz’s success
ii. Standard design
iii. Maybach quit DMG
iv. What is automobile?
v. Failure of combustion engine
vi. Benz & Cie, joint stock company
vii. History of first vehicle
viii. Unification of two standards
ix. Nicolas Joseph Cugnot
x. Story of DMG
xi. Mercedes and Karl Benz
xii. Vehicle with four wheels
Questions 7-12
Do the following statements agree with the information in Reading Passage 1? Write your answer.
YES – if the statement agrees with the information
NO – if the statement contradicts with the information
NOT GIVEN – if there is no information on this in this passage
7) According to French and Greek language auto mobile means self-moving vehicle.
8) In 2002, eleven people could sit in car.
9) First power vehicle was invented in 1769.
10) Ivan Kulibin’s work as approved by government.
11) Combustion engine by Rivaz was fueled by hydrogen and oxygen.
12) Engine developed by Karl Benz is still in use
Question 13-14
Choose the appropriate letter a-d.
13) Automobile means
(a) Pulling machine
(b) Vehicle with four wheels
(c) Self-start machine
(d) Vehicle that moves itself
14) Choose the best title for passage
(a) Meaning of vehicle
(b) History of automobiles
(c) Development of automobile
(d) First self-moving machine
ANSWER KEY
1) iv
2) vii
3) v
4) i
5)x
6) viii
7) Yes
8) Not Given
9) No
10) No
11) Yes
12) Not Given
13) D
14) B
