Table of Contents
BEST IELTS General Reading Test 481
IELTS GENERAL READING TEST 481 – PASSAE – 1
IELTS GENERAL READING TEST – 481
READING PASSAGE – 1
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music, and dance. Elements of art, such as painted scenery and stagecraft such as lighting are used to enhance the presence, and closeness of the experience.
Modern Western theatre comes, in large measure, and are imposing than the theatre of ancient Greece, from which it borrows technical terminology, classification into genres, and many of its themes, stock characters, and plot elements. Theatre artist Patrice Pavis defines theatricality, theatrical language, stage writing and the specificity of theatre as synonymous expressions that differentiate theatre from the other performing arts, literature, and the arts in general.
IELTS General Reading Test
Modern theatre includes performances of plays and musical theatre. The art forms of ballet and opera are also theatre and use many conventions such as acting, costumes and staging. They were influential to the development of musical theatre. Western theatre developed and expanded considerably under the Romans.
The Roman historian Livy wrote that the Romans first experienced theatre in the 4th century BCE, with a performance by Etruscan actors. Beacham argues that they had been familiar with “pre- theatrical practices” for some time before that recorded contact. The theatre of ancient Rome was a thriving and diverse art form, ranging from festival performances of street theatre, nude dancing, and acrobatics, to the staging of Plautus’s broadly appealing situation comedies, to the high-style, verbally elaborate tragedies of Seneca.
IELTS General Reading Test
Although Rome had a native tradition of performance, the Hellenization of Roman culture in the 3rd century BCE had a profound and energizing effect on Roman theatre and encouraged the development of Latin literature of the highest quality for the stage. The only lingering plays from the Roman Empire are ten dramas attributed to Lucius Annaeus Seneca, the Corduba-born Stoic philosopher and tutor of Nero. In Indonesia, theatre performances have become an important part of local culture, theatre performances in Indonesia have been developed for hundreds of years. Most of Indonesia’s oldest theatre forms are linked directly to local mythical traditions.
The prominent puppet theatres, wayang golek (wooden rod-puppet play) of the Sundanese and wayang kulit (leather shadow-puppet play) of the Javanese and Balinese draw much of their repertoire from indigenized versions of the Ramayana and Mahabharata. These tales also provide source material for the wayang wong (human theatre) of Java and Bali, which uses actors. Some wayang golek performances, however, also present Muslim stories, called menak.
IELTS General Reading Test
Questions 1-7
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage?
TRUE – If the statement agrees with the information.
FALSE- If the statement contradicts the information.
NOT GIVEN – If there is no information on this.
1. The performers connect to the spectators through signs, dialog, melody, and other forms in theatre.
2. Decorated backdrop and illumination are used to augment the attendance, and proximity of the experience.
3. The primeval Greek theatres were grander than the contemporary western auditoriums.
4. The western theatres did not thrive under the Romans.
5. Nude dancing and acrobatics were abolished from theatres by the Romans.
6. The tutor of Nero play did not survive from the Roman Empire.
7. Majority of Indonesia’s original theatre forms are related unswervingly to local fictional traditions.
IELTS General Reading Test
Read the text below and answer questions 8-14.
Air Conditioning
Air conditioning is the process of removing heat and controlling the humidity of air in an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment by use of powered ‘air conditioners’ or a variety of other methods including passive cooling and ventilative cooling. Air conditioning is a member of a family of systems and techniques that provide ‘heating, ventilation, and air conditioning’ (HVAC). Air conditioners, which typically use vapor-compression refrigeration, range in size from small units used within vehicles or single rooms to massive units that can cool large building.
Air source heat pumps, which can be used for heating as well as cooling are becoming increasingly common in cooler climates. According to the IEA, as of 2018, 1.6 billion air conditioning units were installed which accounted for an estimated 20% of energy usage in buildings globally with the number expected to grow to 5.6 billion by 2050. The United Nations called for the technology to be made sustainable to mitigate climate change using techniques including passive cooling, evaporative cooling, selective shading, windcatchers and better thermal insulation.
IELTS General Reading Test
Refrigerants used within air conditioners have caused damage to the ozone layer and are also worsening climate change. Air-conditioning dates back to prehistory. Ancient Egyptian buildings used a wide variety of passive air-conditioning techniques. These became widespread from the Iberian Peninsula through North Africa, the Middle East, and Northern India. Similar techniques were developed in hot climates elsewhere.
Passive techniques remained widespread until the 20th century, when they fell out of fashion, replaced by powered A/C. Using information from engineering studies of traditional buildings, passive techniques are being revived and modified for 21st-century architectural designs. Air conditioners allow the building indocr environment to remain relatively constant largely independent of changes in external weather conditions and internal heat loads.
IELTS General Reading Test
They also allow deep plan buildings to be created and have allowed people to live comfortably in hotter parts of the world. Ductless systems typically supply conditioned and heated air to a single or a few rooms of a building, without ducts and in a decentralized manner. Multi-zone or multi-split systems are a common application of ductless systems and allow up to eight rooms to be conditioned independently from each other, each with its own indoor unit and simultaneously from a single outdoor unit. The main problem with multi-split systems is the length of the refrigerant lines for connecting the external unit to the internal ones.
The first mini-split systems were sold in 1954-1968 by Mitsubishi Electric and Toshiba in Japan, where its development was motivated by the small size of homes. Multi-zone ductless systems were invented by Daikin in 1973, and variable refrigerant flow systems were also invented by Daikin in 1982.
IELTS General Reading Test
Both were first sold in Japan. Variable refrigerant flow systems when compared with central plant cooling from an air handler, eliminate the need for large cool air ducts, air handlers, and chillers; instead cool refrigerant is transported through much smaller pipes to the indoor units in the spaces to be conditioned, thus allowing for less space above dropped ceilings and a lower structural impact, while also allowing for more individual and independent temperature control of spaces, and the outdoor and indoor units can be spread across the building. Variable refrigerant flow indoor units can also be turned off individually in unused spaces.
Ductless split air conditioners are the most common type of air conditioner in Israel, where their low initial cost (compared to ducted central systems), quiet operation (compared to window air conditioners), and ease of use and maintenance are preferred. They are also the largest residential electrical energy consumers in Israel.
IELTS General Reading Test
Questions 8-14
Write no more than THREE WORDS or NUMBERS for each answer.
8. Air conditioning process comprises eliminating warmth and modulating the …………….. in a walled area.
9. The cooling refrigerant passes through considerable slenderer tubes in the case of …………….. flow systems.
10. Span of the …………….. for joining the two units is the major issue with multi-split systems.
11. Air conditioners are not only exacerbating climate change but also are the origin for the deterioration of ……………..
12. Air source heat pumps are becoming gradually prevalent in ……………..
13. The UN screamed for the technology to be created …………….. to alleviate climate transformation.
14. For contemporary architectural projects, passive techniques are being …………….. and invigorated.
IELTS General Reading Test
IELTS General Reading Test
ANSWERS
1. TRUE
2. TRUE
3. FALSE
4. FALSE
5. NOT GIVEN
6. FALSE
7. TRUE
8. HUMIDITY OF AIR / HUMIDITY
9. VARIABLE REFRIGERANT
10. REFRIGERANT LINES
11. THE OZONE LAYER
12. COOLER CLIMATES
13. SUSTAINABLE
14. MODIFIED
IELTS General Reading Test