Dự Đoán IELTS 2025 passage 1 (quý 1)

Forecast IELTS Reading passage 1 - quý 1 2025. Tổng hợp đề thi từ ngân hàng đề thi, không trôi nổi trên mạng

READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading

Passage 1 on pages 2 and 3

An important language development

Cuneiform, the world’s first known system of handwriting, originated some 6,000 years ago in Sumer in what is now southern Iraq It was most often inscribed on palm-sized, rectangular clay tablets measuring several centimetres across, although occasionally, larger tablets or cylinders were used Clay was an excellent medium for writing Other surfaces which have been employed - for example, parchment, papyrus and paper - are not long-lasting and are easily destroyed by fire and water But clay has proved to be resistant to those particular kinds of damage

The word ‘cuneiform’ actually refers to the marks or signs inscribed in the clay The original cuneiform signs consisted of a series of lines - triangular, vertical, diagonal and horizontal Sumerian writers would impress these lines into the wet clay with a stylus - a long, thin, pointed instrument which looked somewhat like a pen Oddly, the signs were often almost too small to see with the naked eye Cuneiform signs were used for the writing of at least a dozen languages This is similar to how the Latin alphabet is used today for writing English, French, Spanish and German for example

Before the development of cuneiform, tokens were used by the Sumerians to record certain information For example, they might take small stones and use them as tokens or

representations of something else, like a goat A number of tokens, then, might mean a herd

of goat These tokens might then be placed in a cloth container and provided to a buyer as a receipt for a transaction, perhaps five tokens for five animals It was not that different from what we do today when we buy some bread and the clerk gives us back a piece of paper with numbers on it to confirm the exchange

By the 4th century BCE, the Sumerians had adapted this system to a form of writing They

began putting tokens in a container resembling an envelope, and now made of clay instead of cloth They then stamped the outside to indicate the number and type of tokens inside A person could then ‘read’ what was stamped on the container and know what was inside Gradually, Sumerians developed symbols for words When first developed, each symbol looked like the concrete thing it represented For example, an image which resembled the drawing of a sheep meant just that Then another level of abstraction was introduced when symbols were developed for intangible ideas such as ‘female’ of ‘hot’ or ‘God’ Cuneiform, in other words, evolved from a way used primarily to track and store information into a way to represent the world symbolically Over the centuries, the marks became ever more abstract, finally evolving into signs that looked nothing like what they referred to, just as the letters ‘h-

o-u-s-e’ have no visual connection to the place we live in At this last stage in the evolution of cuneiform, the signs took the form of triangles, which became common cuneiform signs

As the marks became more abstract, the system became more efficient because there were fewer marks a ‘reader’ needed to learn But cuneiform also became more complex because society itself was becoming more complex, so there were more ideas and concepts that needed to be expressed However, most linguists and historians agree cuneiform developed primarily as a tool for accounting Of the cuneiform tablets that have been discovered,

excavated and translated, about 75 percent contain this type of practical information, rather than artistic or imaginative work

Cuneiform writing was used for thousands of years, but it eventually ceased to be used in everyday life In fact, it died out and remained unintelligible for almost 2,000 years In the late 19th century, a British army officer, Henry Rawlinson, discovered cuneiform inscriptions which had been carved in the surface of rocks in the Behistun mountains in what is present-day Iran Rawlinson made impressions of the marks on large pieces of paper, as he balanced

dangerously on the surrounding rocks

Rawlinson took his copies home to Britain and studied them for years to determine what each line stood for, and what each group of symbols meant He found that in the writing on those particular rocks every word was repeated three times in three languages: Old Persian, Elamite

and Babylonian ZL 0927090848 Since the meanings in these languages were already known

to linguists, he could thus translate the cuneiform Eventually, he fully decoded the cuneiform marks and he discovered that they described the life of Darius, a king of the Persian Empire in the 5th century BCE

Questions 1–5

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?

In boxes 1–5 on your answer sheet, write

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 Cuneiform tablets were produced in different shapes and sizes

2 When Sumerian writers marked on the clay tablets, the tablets were dry

3 Cuneiform was often difficult to read because of its size

4 A number of languages adopted cuneiform

5 Cuneiform signs can be found in some modern alphabets

Questions 6–13 Complete the notes below

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer

Write your answers in boxes 6–13 on your answer sheet

The development and translation of cuneiform

Before cuneiform

Tokens, for example, 6 were often used

The first tokens were kept in containers made of 7

Tokens were used as a 8 to give when selling something

By 4th century BCE

Tokens were put in a container that looked like a clay 9

Complex, abstract symbols developed

At first, signs looked like what they indicated, e.g 10

Then signs became more abstract

Eventually, cuneiform signs shaped like 11 were developed

According to experts, cuneiform was mainly used for 12

19th-century translation of cuneiform inscriptions by Henry Rawlinson

Rawlinson found cuneiform inscriptions in the Behistun mountains

Rawlinson copied inscriptions onto 13

Rawlinson realised that each word of the inscriptions appeared in different languages When translated, Rawlinson found the writings were about a 5th-century BCE king

READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1 – 13, which are based on reading passage 1 below

Andrew Carnegie, an industrialist and philanthropist

Andrew Carnegie was among the wealthiest and most famous industrialists of his day, Through Carnegie Corporation of New York, he established the innovative philanthropic

foundation He was born in 1835, in Dunfermline, Scotland His family lived by weaving

The town fell on hard times when industrialism made home- based weaving obsolete, leaving workers such as Carnegie's father, Will, hard pressed to support their families Carnegie's family moved to Pennsylvania His father worked in a cotton factory In 1848, Carnegie worked in the same place He educated himself through books, theatres and music

Thomas A Scot, superintendent of the western division of the Pennsylvania Railroad and Andrew Carnegie's boss, initiated the future millionaire's first investment At that time,

Carnegie worked as a secretary to him Carnegie began to invest in car company By 1865, Carnegie had amassed business interests in iron works

In the 1870s, Carnegie was involved in steel production He invented in steel business In 1873,

he built his first steel plant He cut the price of steel down He built the Carnegie Steel

Corporation into the largest steel manufacturing company in the world

In the 1880s, Carnegie bought out Henry Clay Frick's company, which owned coal fields as well

as a large steel mill in Homestead, Pennsylvania Frick and Carnegie became partners Carnegie began to spend half of every year at an estate in Scotland, in charge of different projects Frick stayed in Pittsburgh, running the day-to-day operations of the company,

Carnegie spent a lot time on travelling He thought America is better than unequal European counties Education is important in America Andrew Carnegie's philanthropic career began

around 1870 He founded universities and many educational institutes, donated money to education facilities, set up Funds in various fields

Carnegie began to face a number of problems by the 1890s With the development of

technology, work efficiency improved, fewer workers are needed Frick decided to lower the minimum wage of workers Labor union was formed, and Carnegie believed the workers had

the right to join the union The union which represented workers at the Homestead Mill went

on strike in 1892 Eventually, an armed militia had to take over the plant Eight workers died finally

Carnegie was informed by transatlantic cable of the events in Homestead But he made no statement and did not get involved He was later criticized for his silence As the 1890s

continued, Carnegie faced competition in business, and he found himself being squeezed by tactics similar to those he had employed years earlier He refused to have conversations with his competitors

Carnegie had already been giving money to create museums, such as the Carnegie Institute of Pittsburgh But his philanthropy accelerated after selling Carnegie Steel Carnegie supported numerous causes, including scientific research, educational institutions, museums, and world peace He is best known for funding more than 2,500 libraries throughout the English-speaking world

Questions 1-6

1835-1855

1 Camegie worked in the same place as his father,

2 Camegie leamed through books, theatrical events and pieces of music

6-7: Missing information

Questions 9-13

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?

In boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

9 Carnegie thought there were more work opportunities in America than in European countries

10 Carnegie decreased the number of workers

11 He prevented workers from joining the labor union

12 Carnegie blamed Frick for the strike

13 The libraries that Carnegie founded were limited to people in America

READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading passage 1 on pages 2 and 3

Book review: Triumph of the City

Triumph of the City, by Edward Glaeser, is a thrilling and very readable hymn of praise to an

invention so vast and so effective that it is generally taken for granted More than half the

global population already live in urban areas and, every month, five million more flood into

the cities of the developed and developing worlds The crowds and poverty of some of these modern cities may horrify us They shouldn't, says Glaeser they are signs of growth, energy

and aspiration Cities are our best and brightest hope

This idea has had more than two hundred years of resistance Not long after the Industrial

Revolution began in Britain, the Romantic poets turned away from the smoke and factories

of their cities to celebrate the air and light of untouched nature In 19th-century America, the writer Henry David Thoreau retreated to the wilderness of Walden Pond to live the solitary,

simple life, and convinced generations of Americans that cities were bad and nature was

good

They had, Glaeser admits, a point The early industrial cities were dirty, since they lacked

efficient waste disposal systems, and disease spread rapidly among the population But

more importantly they were profitable, and there were enormous commercial incentives to

make them work, as well as political ones Their transformation could be achieved at a

stroke: in the second half of the 19th century, the French Emperor Napoleon III gave Baron

Haussmann unrestricted power to turn the slum-infested city of Paris into one of the wonders and delights of the modern world Or the transformation could be done by trial and error

Glaeser gives a brilliant account of the stop-start progression of New York to its late 20th- century position as the cultural and economic centre of the world Either way, Paris, New

York and other cities developed because they were truly effective markets of ideas and innovation

For these and many other reasons, we should not be so upset by the spectacle of urban poverty The poor flock to cities in the hope of becoming richer (which, by and large, they do) They also reinvigorate the economy of the city It is folly to drive them away by forcing property prices to soar with unreasonable planning regulations Instead, cities should build more houses and thereby hold property prices in check

It can go wrong, of course In Glaeser's view, this is primarily because municipal authorities fail to understand the principal virtues of their cities The heart of Paris, as many Parisians

say, is turning into a museum because of the desire to preserve Baron Haussmann's 19th- century boulevards Glaeser defends their preservation, but argues that in the 1950s the

French made a mistake in establishing a huge high-rise commercial development

- La Défense - on the outskirts of the city Far better, he says, to have turned the central area

of Montparnasse into a new commercial district This would have revitalised much of the city centre without destroying its fabric In India, Mumbai could save itself from ever-more inefficient sprawl over the surrounding area simply by relaxing the rules presently imposed

on the height of new constructions

In America, it is the suburbs that have proved to be the real disaster Glaeser is repentant on this subject himself He moved to the suburbs when he had children His entirely legitimate excuse is that the government made him (and millions like him) do it By under-taxing petrol and imposing tight planning restrictions on inner cities that drove up the cost of property, it made flight to the suburbs more or less inevitable for the middle classes

This is a disaster because nothing is more inefficient than a suburb Suburbanites mingle

less, and lose the face-to-face contact that makes being an urbanite so much more creative Moreover, houses are costlier to heat and cool than flats, and suburbanites drive thousands more miles per year than city dwellers Every aspect of life involves more consumption This leads to the strongest and newest argument in favour of cities — they are good for the environment To live in the country or the suburbs is to have a vastly larger carbon footprint than any urbanite

Full of characters and accessible information, this is a tremendous book, not least because, like me, you will find yourself constantly seeking reasons to disagree Like the poor in the city, this is a sign of success If you hate the city and get moist-eyed at the thought of the country then, one way or another, Glaeser is the man you will have to take on

Questions 1 - 8

Complete the notes below

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer

Write your answers in boxes 1-8 on your answer sheet

Cities Problems with early cities

- dirt

- 1

but there were commercial and 2 reasons for improving them

Urban poverty is not a major problem because poor people

- generally get 3

- help to develop the urban 4

cities do have some problems – e.g

- the centre of Paris is becoming a 5

- Mumbai is negatively affected by height restrictions of new buildings

In the US, the middle classes have moved to the surburbs due to

- cheap petrol

- high 6 prices in inner cities

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?

In boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

9 Glasses believes that congestion and poverty in some modern cities indicate serious problems

10 The writer Henry David Thoreau discussed the ideas of the Romantic poets in his

work

11 Emperor Napoleon III was influenced by the complaints of poor people living in Paris

12 Strict planning regulations may be beneficial for a city’s development

13 Glasses argues that the location of commercial development at La Défense was a bad idea

Answer

B

Bovids are well represented in most parts of Eurasia and Southeast Asian islands, but they are by far the most numerous and diverse in the latter Some species of bovid are solitary, but others live in large groups with complex social structures Although bovids have adapted to a wide range of habitats, from arctic tundra to deep tropical forest, the majority of species favour open grassland, scrub or desert This diversity of habitat is also matched by great diversity in size and form: at one extreme is the royal

antelope of West Africa, which stands a mere 25 cm at the shoulder; at the other, the massively built bison of North America and Europe, growing to a shoulder height of 2.2m

C

Despite differences in size and appearance, bovids are united by the possession of certain common features All species are ruminants, which means that they retain undigested food in their stomachs, and regurgitate it as necessary Bovids are almost exclusively herbivorous: plant-eating “incisors: front teeth herbivorous”

D

Typically their teeth are highly modified for browsing and grazing: grass or foliage is cropped with the upper lip and lower incisors** (the upper incisors are usually absent), and then ground down by the cheek teeth As well as having cloven, or split, hooves, the males of ail bovid species and the females of most carry horns Bovid horns have bony cores covered in a sheath of horny material that is constantly renewed from within; they are unbranched and never shed They vary in shape and size: the relatively simple horns of a large Indian buffalo may measure around 4 m from tip to tip along the outer curve, while the various gazelles have horns with a variety of elegant curves

E

Five groups, or sub-families, may be distinguished: Bovinae, Antelope, Caprinae, Cephalophinae and Antilocapridae The sub-family Bovinae comprises most of the larger bovids, including the African bongo, and nilgae, eland, bison and cattle Unlike most other bovids they are all non-territorial The ancestors of the various species of domestic cattle banteng, gaur, yak and water buffalo are generally rare and

endangered in the wild, while the auroch (the ancestor of the domestic cattle of Europe) is extinct