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BEST IELTS General Reading Test 408
IELTS GENERAL READING TEST 408 – PASSAGE – 2
IELTS GENERAL READING TEST – 408
READING PASSAGE – 2
Dance Forms
A. The word dance comes from the old German word “danson”, which means “to stretch”. All dance forms are built upon stretching and relaxing. Dance makes the whole body vibrant. Dance is broken down into five elements: Body, Action, Space, Time and Energy. These five elements work together in dance to bring life to the dance. Dance not only changes the dancer’s mood, also viewer psychology will as a result of connecting with a dancer, with its being. Even, there are different sorts of dance forms such as jazz, folk dance, ballet, Irish dance etc., related to different forms of mood and life.
B. Dance can be even therapeutic, if we dance without caring about the way we dance, it releases the stress and anxiety embedded in the unconscious mind. We can also consciously construct the dance movements to tap the specific mood in the viewers. Indian classical dance is such. It is stated that there are two basic aspects of Indian classical dance – Tandava and Lasya. Tandava denotes movements and rhythm and Lasya denotes grace and bhava. It is further broken down into three components which are Natya, Nritta and Nritya. One of the great books about Indian dance is Natya Shastra written by Bharat Muni.
IELTS General Reading Test
C. There are instances, where dance forms of minorities became popular in the world. For example, Jazz. Jazz has its roots in Africa. America bought several african as a slave. Those African slaves are performed their traditional dances such as Cakewalk during plantation. This progressively moved in the position of Jazz. Jazz dance became a popular feature in ballroom in the 1940s and 1950s. Jack Cole and Gus Giordano are some of the popular jazz dancers.
D. One can even use the dance as a resistance against domination. Dance symbolizing the resistance as such it connects the other people. Michael Jackson is one who uses his art for rebellion and protest. He is a big proponent of freedom. He claimed that one of his popular songs, “They Don’t Care About Us”, is a call for protest against oppressive forces. He even introduced and popularized some of the famous dance movements such as “Moonwalk”.
IELTS General Reading Test
Questions 15 – 18
The reading passage has four paragraphs, A-D.
Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number, i-vii, as your answer to each question.
List of Headings
i. Indian Classical Dance
ii. Origin of Jazz Dance
iii. Hazards of Dance
iv. Michael Jackson as a Rebellion
v. Rudolf Nureyev
vi. Criticism on Dance
vii. Types of Dance
15. Paragraph A
16. Paragraph B
17. Paragraph C
18. Paragraph D
IELTS General Reading Test
Read the text below and answer Questions 19-23.
Surrealism
A. In 1924, a small group of writers and artists in Paris founded a Surrealism movement which is about tapping the unconscious mind to unlock the power of the imagination. It became an influential movement in the twentieth century. Salvador Dali and Man Ray are some of the popular surrealists who bring forth surrealism in commercial works. Andre Berton wrote in his Manifesto of Surrealism that artists and writers should access the unconscious mind to express psychic automatism in its pure state.
B. Surrealists disdained rationalism and realism, which they perceived as restrictors of imagination. They are powerfully influenced by Sigmund Freud, psychoanalyst, who stated that our repressed thoughts and feelings are embedded in our unconscious mind. Surrealists believed that the conscious mind represses the power of imagination. Also, influenced by Karl Marx, they thought that the unconscious mind reveals internal contradictions in everyday’s life which can seed the revolution.
IELTS General Reading Test
C. Surrealism has the shades of Dada, which characterizes anti-rationalism. Breton believed that artists can unite to protest war by actualizing the subconscious thoughts. They were interested in disclosing the inner worlds of sexuality and violence and the topic they’ve touched upon most is transgressive behaviour. Artworks in Surrealism are mostly in bizarre and weird fashion. They derived archetypal symbols from their unconscious mind.
D. Most often, Surrealism is identified with a group of men and as this was envisioned women as a cultured. But, it is found that women were also part of the surrealist group in the 1930s. Some of the famous surrealists such as Salvador Dali depicted the female form as muses. Many female surrealists depicted themselves as animals or mythical creatures.
E. Max Ernst, a German Artist, quoted, “Creativity is that marvelous capacity to grasp mutually distinct realities and draw a spark from their juxtaposition”. He views that creativity has the ability to create new and unique realities and can derive inspiration by criss crossing those realities in our mind.
IELTS General Reading Test
Questions 19- 23
This reading passage has five paragraphs, A–E.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A – E, as your answer to each question.
Note: You may use any letter more than once.
19. Mention of women participation in surrealism
20. Surrealists are influenced by Sigmund Freud
21. Max Ernst view on creativity
22. The style of surrealism is bizarre and weird
23. Salvador dali popularized the surrealism by bringing it into commercial works
IELTS General Reading Test
ANSWERS
15. vii
16. i
17. ii
18. iv
19. D
20. B
21. E
22. C
23. A
IELTS General Reading Test