IELTS READING – Timekeeper 2 Invention of Marine Chronometer S55AT1

A. It was, as Dava Sobel has described a phenomenon: ‘the greatest scientific problem of the age’. The reality was that in the 18th century no one had ever made a clock that could suffer the great rolling and pitching of a ship and the large changes in temperature whilst still keeping time accurately enough to be of any use. Indeed, most of the scientific community thought such clock impossibility. Knowing one’s position on the earth requires two very simple but essential coordinates; rather like using a street map where one thinks in terms of how far one is up/down and how far side to side.

B. _Q2 The longitude is a measure of how far around the world one has come from home and has no naturally occurring base line like the equator. The crew of a given ship was naturally only concerned with how far round they were from their own particular home base. Even when in the middle of the ocean, with no land in sight, knowing this longitude position is very simple in theory. The key to knowing how far around the world you are from home is to know, at that very moment, what time it is back home. A comparison with your local time (easily found by checking the position of the Sim) will then tell you the time difference between you and home, and thus how far round the Earth you are from home.

C. _Q4 Up until the middle of the 18th century, navigators had been unable to determine their position at sea with accuracy and they faced the huge attendant risks of shipwreck or running out of supplies before reaching then destination. The angular position of Moon and other bright stars was recorded in three-hour intervals of Greenwich Time. In order to determine longitude, sailors had to measure the angle between Moon centre and a given star – lunar distance – together with height of both planets using the naval sextant. The sailors also had to calculate the Moon’s position if seen form the centre of Earth. Time corresponding to Greenwich Time was determined using the nautical almanac. Then the difference between the obtained time and local time served for calculation in longitude from Greenwich. The great flaw in this ‘simple’ theory was – how does the sailor know time back home when he is in the middle of an ocean?

D. The obvious and again simple answer is that he takes an accurate clock with him, which he sets to _Q9 home time before leaving. All he has to do is keep it wound up and running, and he must never reset the hands throughout the voyage This clock then provides ‘home time’, so if, for example, it is midday on board your ship and your ‘home time’ clock says that at that same moment it is midnight at home, you know immediately there is a twelve hour time-difference and you must be exactly round the other side of the world, 180 degrees of longitude from home.

E. After 1714 when the British government offered the huge sum of £20,000 for a solution to the problem, with the prize to be administered by die splendidly titled Board of Longitude. The Government prize of £20,000 was the highest of three sums on offer for varying degrees of accuracy, the full prize only payable for a method that could find the longitude at sea within half a degree. If the solution was to be by timekeeper (and there were other methods since the prize was offered for any solution to the problem), then the timekeeping required to achieve this goal would have to be within _Q10 2.8 seconds a day, a performance considered impossible for any clock at sea and unthinkable for a watch, even under the very best conditions.

F. _Q1 It was this prize, worth about £2 million today, which inspired the self-taught Yorkshfre carpenter, John Harrison, to attempt a design for a practical marine clock. During the latter part of his early career, he worked with his younger brother James. Their first major project was a revolutionary turret clock for the stables at Brocklesby Park, seat of the Pelham family. The clock was revolutionary because it required no _Q11 lubrication. 18th century clock oils were uniformly poor and one of the major causes of failure in clocks of the period. Rather than concentrating on improvements to the oil, Harrison designed a clock which didn’t need it. _Q5 In 1730 Harrison created a description and drawings for a proposed marine clock to compete for the Longitude Prize and went to London seeking financial assistance. He presented his ideas to Edmond Halley, the Astronomer Royal. Halley referred him to George Graham, the country’s foremost clockmaker. He must have been impressed by Harrison, for Graham personally loaned Harrison money to build a model of his marine clock. It took Harrison five years to build Harrison Number One or HI. He demonstrated it to members of the Royal Society who spoke on his behalf to the Board of Longitude. The clock was the first proposal that the Board considered to be worthy of a sea trial. In 1736,

G. After several attempts to design a betterment of HI, Harrison believed that the solution to the longitude problem lay in an entirely different design. H4 is completely different from the other three timekeepers. It looks like a very large pocket watch. Harrison’s son William set sail for the West Indies, with H4, aboard the ship Deptford on 18 November 1761. It was a remarkable achievement but it would be some time before the Board of Longitude was sufficiently satisfied to award Harrison the prize.

H. _Q3 John Hadley, an English mathematician, developed sextant, who was a competitor of Harrison at that time for the luring prize. A sextant is an instrument used for measuring angles, for example between the sun and the horizon, so that the position of a ship or aeroplane can be calculated. Making this measurement is known as sighting the object, shooting the object, or taking a sight and it is an essential part of celestial navigation. _Q6 The angle, and the time when it was measured, can be used to calculate a position line on a nautical or aeronautical chart. A _Q12 sextant can also be used to measure _Q7 the Lunar distance between the moon and another celestial object (e.g., star, planet) in order to determine Greenwich time which is important because it can then be used to determine the longitude.

I. The majority within this next generation of chronometer pioneers were English, but the story is by no means wholly that of English achievement. One French name, Pierre Le Roy of Paris, stands out as a major presence in the early history of the chronometer. Another great name in the story is that of the Lancastrian, Thomas Eamshaw, a slightly younger contemporary of John Arnold’s. It was Eamshaw who created the final form of chronometer escapement, the spring detent escapement, and finalized the format and the production system for the _Q13 marine chronometer, making it truly an article of commerce, and a practical means of safer navigation at sea over the next century and half.

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IELTS READING – TV Addiction 2 S54AT3

A. Excessive cravings do not necessarily involve physical substances. Gambling can become compulsive; sex can become obsessive. One activity, however, stands out for its prominence and ubiquity—the world’s most _Q38 popular pastime, television. Most people admit to having a love-bate relationship with it. They complain about the “boob tube” and “couch potatoes,” then they settle into their sofas and grab the remote control. Parents commonly fret about their children’s viewing (if not their own). _Q27 Even researchers who study TV for a living marvel at the medium’s hold on them personally. _Q34 Percy Tannenbaum of the University of California at Berkeley has written: “Among life’s more embarrassing moments have been countless occasions when I am engaged in conversation in a room while a TV set is on, and I cannot for the life of me stop from periodically glancing over to the screen. This occurs not only during dull conversations but during reasonably interesting ones just as well.”

B. _Q28 Scientists have been studying the effects of television for decades, generally focusing on whether watching violence on TV correlates with being violent in real life. Less attention has been paid to the basic allure of the small screen—the medium, as opposed to the message.

C. _Q29 The term “TV addiction” is imprecise and laden with value judgments, but it captures the essence of a very real phenomenon. Psychologists and psychiatrists formally define substance dependence as a disorder characterized by criteria that include spending a great deal of time using the substance; using it more often than one intends; thinking about reducing use or making repeated unsuccessful efforts to reduce use; giving up important social, family or occupational activities to use it; and reporting withdrawal symptoms when one stops using it.

D. All these criteria can apply to people who watch a lot of television. That does not mean that watching television, in itself, is problematic. Television can teach and amuse; it can reach _Q31 aesthetic heights; it can provide much needed distraction and escape. The difficulty arises when people strongly sense that they ought not to watch as much as they do and yet find themselves strangely unable to reduce their viewing. Some knowledge of how the medium exerts its pull may help heavy viewers gain better control over their lives.

E. The amount of time people spend watching television is astonishing. On average, individuals in the industrialized world devote three hours a day to the pursuit—fully half of their leisure time, and more than on any single activity save work and sleep. At this rate, someone who lives to 75 would spend nine years in front of the tube. To some commentators, this devotion means simply that people enjoy TV and make a conscious decision to watch it. But if that is the whole story, why do so many people experience misgivings about how much they view? In Gallup polls in 1992 and 1999, two out of five adult respondents and seven out of 10 teenagers said they spent too much time watching TV. Other surveys have consistently shown that roughly 10 percent of adults call themselves _Q39 TV addicts.

F. _Q32 What is it about TV that has such a hold on US? In part, the attraction seems to spring from our biological ‘orienting response.’ _Q35 First described by Ivan Pavlov in 1927, the _Q40 orienting response is our instinctive visual or auditory reaction to any sudden or novel stimulus. It is part of our evolutionary heritage, a built-in sensitivity to movement and potential predatory threats.

G. _Q36 In 1986 Byron Reeves of Stanford University, Esther Thorson of the University of Missouri, and their colleagues began to study whether the simple formal features of television-cuts, edits, zooms, pans, sudden noises—activate the orienting response, thereby keeping attention on the screen. By watching how brain waves were affected by formal features, the researchers concluded that these stylistic tricks can indeed trigger involuntary responses and ‘derive their attention-al value through the evolutionary significance of detecting movement… It is the form, not the content, of television that is unique.’

H. The orienting response may partly explain common viewer remarks such as: “If a television is on, I just can’t keep my eyes off it,” “I don’t want to watch as much as I do, but I can’t help it,” and “I feel hypnotized when I watch television.” In the years since Reeves and Thorson published then pioneering work, researchers have delved deeper. Annie Lang’s research team at Indiana University has shown that heart rate decreases for four to six seconds after an orienting stimulus. _Q37 In ads, action sequences, and music videos, formal features frequently come at a rate of one per second, thus activating the orienting response continuously.

I. Lang and her colleagues have also investigated whether formal features affect people’s memory of what they have seen. In one of their studies, participants watched a program and then filled out a score sheet. Increasing the frequency of edits (defined here as a change from one camera angle to another in the same visual scene) improved memory recognition, presumably because it focused attention on the screen. Increasing the frequency of cuts—changes to a new visual scene-had a similar effect but only up to a point. If the number of cuts exceeded 10 in two minutes, recognition dropped off sharply.

J. _Q33 Producers of educational television for children have found that formal features can help learning. But increasing the rate of cuts and edits eventually overloads the brain. Music videos and commercials that use rapid intercutting of unrelated scenes are designed to hold attention more than they are to convey information. People may remember the name of the product or band, but the details of the ad itself float in one ear and out the other. The orienting response is overworked. Viewers still attend to the screen, but they feel tired and worn out, with little compensating psychological reward. Our ESM findings show much the same thing.

K. Sometimes the memory of the product is very subtle. Many ads today are deliberately oblique: they have an engaging story line, but it is hard to tell what they are trying to sell. Afterward you may not remember the product consciously. Yet advertisers believe that if they have gotten your attention when you later go to the store you will feel better or more comfortable with a given product because you have a vague recollection of having heard of it.

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IELTS READING – Pottery production in ancient Akrotiri S53AT3

A. Excavations at the site of prehistoric Akrotiri, on the coast of the Aegean Sea, have revealed much about the technical aspects of pottery manufacture, indisputably one of the basic industries of this Greek city. However, considerably less is known about the socio-economic context and the way production was organised.

B. The bulk of pottery found at Akrotiri is locally made, and dates from the late fifteenth century BC. It clearly fulfilled a vast range of the settlement’s requirements: more than fifty different types of pots can be distinguished. _Q27 The pottery found includes a wide variety of functional types like storage jars, smaller containers, pouring vessels, cooking pots, drinking vessels, and so on, which all relate to specific activities and which would have been made and distributed with those activities in mind. _Q28 Given the large number of shapes produced and the relatively high degree of standardisation, it has generally been assumed that most, if not all, of Akrotiri pottery was produced by specialised craftsmen in a non-domestic context. Unfortunately neither the potters’ workshops nor kilns have been found within the excavated area. The reason may be that the ceramic workshops were located on the periphery of the site, which has not yet been excavated. In any event, the ubiquity of the pottery, and the consistent repetition of the same types in different sizes, suggest production on an industrial scale.

C. The Akrotirian potters seem to have responded to pressures beyond their households, namely to the increasing complexity of regional distribution and exchange systems. We can imagine them as full-time craftsmen working permanently in a high production-rate craft such as pottery manufacture, and supporting themselves entirely from the proceeds of then craft. In view of the above, one can begin to speak in terms of mass-produced pottery and the existence of organised workshops of craftsmen during the period 1550— 1500 BC. Yet, how pottery production was organised at Akrotiri remains an open question, as _Q34 there is no real documentary evidence. Our entire knowledge comes from the ceramic material itself, and the tentative conclusions which can be drawn from it.

D. The invention of units of quantity and of a numerical system to count them was of capital importance for an exchange-geared society such as that of Akrotiri. In spite of the absence of any written records, the archaeological evidence reveals that concepts of measurements, both of weight and number, had been formulated. _Q29 Standard measures may already have been in operation, such as those evidenced by a graduated series of lead weights— made in disc form— found at the site. _Q30 The existence of units of capacity in Late Bronze Age times is also evidenced, by the notation of units of a liquid measure for wine on excavated containers.

E. It must be recognised that the function of pottery vessels plays a very important role in determining then characteristics. The intended function affects the choice of clay, the production technique, and the shape and the size of the pots. For example, large storage jars (pithoi) would be needed to store commodities, whereas smaller containers would be used for transport. In fact, _Q35 the length of a man’s arm limits the size of a smaller pot to a capacity of about twenty litres; _Q31 that is also the maximum a man can comfortably carry.

F. The various sizes of container would thus represent standard quantities of a commodity, which is a fundamental element in the function of exchange. Akrotirian _Q36 merchants handling a commodity such as wine would have been able to determine easily the amount of wine they were transporting fiom the number of containers they carried in then ships, since the capacity of each container was known to be 14-18 litres. (We could draw a parallel here with the current practice in Greece of selling oil in 17 kilogram tins.)

G. We may therefore assume that the shape, capacity, and, sometimes decoration of vessels are indicative of the commodity contained by them. Since individual transactions would normally involve different quantities of a given commodity, a range of ‘standardised’ types of vessel would be needed to meet traders’ requirements.

H. In trying to reconstruct systems of capacity by measuring the volume of excavated pottery, a rather generous range of tolerances must be allowed. It mind, and tried to reproduce them using a specific type and amount of clay. However, _Q32 it would be quite difficult for them to achieve the exact size required every time, without any mechanical means of regulating symmetry and wall thickness, and some potters would be more skilled than others. In addition, variations in the repetition of types and size may also occur because of unforeseen circumstances during the throwing process. For instance, instead of destroying the entire pot if the clay in the rim contained a piece of grit, a potter might produce a smaller pot by simply cutting off the rim. _Q39 Even where there is no noticeable external difference between pots meant to contain the same quantity of a commodity, differences in their capacity can actually reach one or two litres. _Q37 In one case the deviation from the required size appears to be as much as 10-20 percent.

I. The establishment of _Q38 regular trade routes within the Aegean led to increased movement of goods; consequently a regular exchange of local, luxury and surplus goods, including metals, would have become feasible as a result of the advances in transport technology. _Q38 The increased demand for standardised exchanges, inextricably linked to commercial transactions, might have been one of the main factors which led to the standardisation of pottery production. Thus, the whole network of ceramic production and exchange would have depended on specific regional economic conditions, and would reflect the socio-economic structure of prehistoric Akrotiri.

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IELTS READING – The future never dies? S53AT2

The prospects for humanity and for the world as a whole are somewhere between glorious and dire. It is hard to be much more precise.

A. By ‘glorious’ I mean that our descendants – all who are born on to this Earth could live very comfortably and securely, and could continue to do so for as long as the Earth can support life, which should be for a very long time indeed. We should at least be thinking in terms of the next million years. Furthermore, our descendants could continue to enjoy the company of other species – establishing a much better relationship with them than we have now. Other animals need not live in constant fear of us. _Q14 Many of those fellow species now seem bound to become extinct, but a significant proportion could and should continue to live alongside US. Such a future may seem ideal, and so it is. Yet I do not believe it is fanciful. There is nothing in the physical fabric of the Earth or in our own biology to suggest that this is not possible.

B. ‘Dire’ means that we human beings could be in deep trouble within the next few centuries, living but also dying in large numbers in political terror and from starvation, while huge numbers of our fellow creatures would simply disappear, leaving only the ones that we find convenient – chickens, cattle – or that we can’t shake off, like flies and mice. I’m taking it to be self-evident that glory is preferable.

C. Our future is not entirely in our own hands because the Earth has its own rules, is part of the solar system and is neither stable nor innately safe. Other planets in the solar system are quite beyond habitation, because their _Q20 temperature is far too high or too low to be endured, and ours, too, in principle could tip either way. Even relatively unspectacular changes in the atmosphere could do the trick. The core of the Earth is hot, which in many ways is good for living creatures, but every now and again, the _Q21 molten rock bursts through volcanoes on the surface. Among the biggest volcanic eruptions in recent memory was Mount St Helens, in the USA, which threw out a cubic kilometre of ash – fortunately in an area where very few people live. In 1815, Tambora (in present-day Indonesia) expelled so much ash into the upper atmosphere that climatic effects seriously harmed _Q22 food production around the world for season after season. Entire civilisations have been destroyed by volcanoes.

D. Yet nothing we have so far experienced shows what volcanoes can really do. Yellowstone National Park in the USA occupies the caldera (the crater formed when a volcano collapses) of an exceedingly ancient volcano of extraordinary magnitude. Modem surveys show that its centre is now rising. _Q16 Sometime in the next 200 million years, Yellowstone could erupt again, and when it does, the whole world will be transformed. Yellowstone could erupt tomorrow. But there’s a very good chance that it will give US another million years, and that surely is enough to be going on with. It seems sensible to assume that this will be the case.

E. The universe at large is dangerous, too: in particular, we share the sky with vast numbers of asteroids, and every now and again, they come into our planet’s atmosphere. An asteroid the size of a small island, hitting the Earth at 15,000 kilometres an hour (a relatively modest speed by the standards of heavenly bodies), would strike the ocean bed like a rock in a puddle, send a _Q23 tidal wave around the world as high as a small mountain and as fast as a jumbo jet, and propel us into an _Q24 ice age that could last for centuries. There are plans to head off such disasters (including _Q25 rockets to push approaching asteroids into new trajectories), but in truth, it’s down to luck.

F. On the other hand, the archaeological and the fossil evidence shows that no truly devastating asteroid has struck since the one that seems to have accounted for the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. So again, there seems no immediate reason for despair. _Q15 The Earth is indeed an uncertain place, in an uncertain universe, but with average luck, it should do us well enough. If the world does become inhospitable in the next few thousand or million years, then it will probably be our own fault. In short, despite the underlying uncertainty, our own future and that of our fellow creatures is very much in our own hands.

G. Given average luck on the geological and the cosmic scale, the difference between glory and disaster will be made, and is being made, by politics. Certain kinds of political systems and strategies would predispose US to long-term survival (and indeed to comfort and security and the pleasure of being alive), while others would take us more and more frenetically towards collapse. The broad point is, though, that we need to look at ourselves – humanity – and at the world in general in a quite new light. Our material problems are fundamentally those of biology. We need to think, and we need our politicians to think, biologically. Do that, and take the ideas seriously, and we are in with a chance. Ignore biology and we and our fellow creatures haven’t a hope.

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