Chapter 2 Descriptive passages

in this unit you will practise:

scanning for specific details
recognising paraphrase
completing notes or a flow-chart
labelling a diagram

1 - Scanning for detail

Ochre find reveals ancient knowledge of chemistry

The oldest ochre-processing toolkits and workshop ever found have been unearthed, indicatingthat as _far back as 100,000 years ago, humans had an understanding of chemistry.

South Africa's Blombos Cave lies within a limestone cliff on the southern Cape coast, 300 km eastof Cape Town. It's known for its 75,000-year-old rich deposits of artefacts such as beads, bonetools and ochre engravings. Some engravings date as far back as 100,000 years.

Archaeologist Christopher S. Henshilwood from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and University of Bergen, Norway has been excavating at the site since 1992, and has reported the discovery of a mixture, rich in ochre, stored in two abalone shells. It dates back to the Middle Stone Age - 100,000 years ago. Ochre is a term used to describe a piece of earth or rock containing red or yellow oxides or hydroxides of iron. It can be used to make pigments, or paints,ranging from golden-yellow and light yellow-brown to a rich red. Its use spans the history of humans - from those living more than 200,000 years ago, to modern indigenous communities.

Made from an array of materials, this mixture, which could have functioned as wall, object and skin decoration or skin protection (acting in a similar way to modern-day sunscreen), indicates the early developments that occurred in the people who originally used the site. "[Judging from] the complexity of the material that has been collected from different parts of the landscape and brought to the site, they [the people] must have had an elementary knowledge of chemistry to be able to combine these materials to produce this form. It's not a straightforward process,' said Henshilwood.

1.1 Spend one minute skim reading the following passage to get a sense of the overall meaning. What is the main topic?

A new discoveries in chemistry

B the discovery of ancient objects

C how international scientific teams work

2- Using words from the passage

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer

The oldest ochre-processing toolkits and workshop ever found have been unearthed, indicatingthat as _far back as 100,000 years ago, humans had an understanding of chemistry.

South Africa's Blombos Cave lies within a limestone cliff on the southern Cape coast, 300 km eastof Cape Town. It's known for its 75,000-year-old rich deposits of artefacts such as beads, bonetools and ochre engravings. Some engravings date as far back as 100,000 years.

Archaeologist Christopher S. Henshilwood from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and University of Bergen, Norway has been excavating at the site since 1992, and has reported the discovery of a mixture, rich in ochre, stored in two abalone shells. It dates back to the Middle Stone Age - 100,000 years ago. Ochre is a term used to describe a piece of earth or rock containing red or yellow oxides or hydroxides of iron. It can be used to make pigments, or paints,ranging from golden-yellow and light yellow-brown to a rich red. Its use spans the history of humans - from those living more than 200,000 years ago, to modern indigenous communities.

Made from an array of materials, this mixture, which could have functioned as wall, object and skin decoration or skin protection (acting in a similar way to modern-day sunscreen), indicates the early developments that occurred in the people who originally used the site. "[Judging from] the complexity of the material that has been collected from different parts of the landscape and brought to the site, they [the people] must have had an elementary knowledge of chemistry to be able to combine these materials to produce this form. It's not a straightforward process,' said Henshilwood.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer

1 Which of the artefacts mentioned are the oldest?

2 When was the material Henshilwood found originally made ?

3 What two common materials did ancient humans use to obtain their ochre?

2.2 Look at the remaining questions, 4-6. Underline the words that will help you locate the information in the passage and highlight the details you need to find. Then answer the questions.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer

The oldest ochre-processing toolkits and workshop ever found have been unearthed, indicatingthat as _far back as 100,000 years ago, humans had an understanding of chemistry.

South Africa's Blombos Cave lies within a limestone cliff on the southern Cape coast, 300 km eastof Cape Town. It's known for its 75,000-year-old rich deposits of artefacts such as beads, bonetools and ochre engravings. Some engravings date as far back as 100,000 years.

Archaeologist Christopher S. Henshilwood from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and University of Bergen, Norway has been excavating at the site since 1992, and has reported the discovery of a mixture, rich in ochre, stored in two abalone shells. It dates back to the Middle Stone Age - 100,000 years ago. Ochre is a term used to describe a piece of earth or rock containing red or yellow oxides or hydroxides of iron. It can be used to make pigments, or paints,ranging from golden-yellow and light yellow-brown to a rich red. Its use spans the history of humans - from those living more than 200,000 years ago, to modern indigenous communities.

Made from an array of materials, this mixture, which could have functioned as wall, object and skin decoration or skin protection (acting in a similar way to modern-day sunscreen), indicates the early developments that occurred in the people who originally used the site. "[Judging from] the complexity of the material that has been collected from different parts of the landscape and brought to the site, they [the people] must have had an elementary knowledge of chemistry to be able to combine these materials to produce this form. It's not a straightforward process,' said Henshilwood.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer

4 -What did the ancient people use to keep their ochre mixture in?

5 -Nowadays, who makes use of ochre?

6 -Apart from painting, what else might ancient humans have used ochre for?

3 - Notes/flow-chart/diagram completion

The questions in 3.1 all focus on paraphrase. Paraphrase is the use of different words with the same meaning.

This helps to test how much of the Reading passage you understand.

3.1 Look again at Questions 4-6,

1 - For Question 4, which word is in the passage mean the same as `keep . -. in'?

2 - For Question 5, which word in the passage helped you to identify what happens 'nowadays'?

3 - For Question 6, which word is in the passage mean the same as 'used for'?

Sentence completion questions also test your ability to find specific details or information in the passage. Youmust fill in the gaps in the sentences with appropriate words from the passage. The sentences will paraphrasethe words and ideas. They also contain details that help you find the part you need to read in detail.

3.2 Spend 30 seconds skim reading the next part of the Reading passage to get the general meaning.

The Blombos Cave discovery is the earliest-known example of a pigment- or paint-producing workshop.All of the materials were discovered at the same site, and they included an array of raw materials including samples of bone and charcoal, as well as pigment-producing equipment such as grindstones and hammerstones. Judging by the equipment, which shows signs of wear, Henshilwood and his team were able to deduce the process used to produce the ochre mixture.

First, the pieces of ochre were rubbed on quartzite slabs and crushed to produce a red powder.This was combined with ground-up mammal bone, the traces of which show signs that it was heated before being ground. The ochre powder and the bone pieces were mixed with charcoal, stone chips, quartz grains and a liquid (perhaps water) and was then transferred to abalone shells to be gently stirred before being ready for application.

Look at the sentence completion task below. Find words in thepassage in 3.2 that are paraphrases of the underlined words.

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

1 - Two ingredients used to make paint found in the cave were ............................ and .......................

2 - Two examples of tools used to make the paint that were found in the cave are............................. and........................

3 - The scientists used the....................... on the equipment to help work out how the paint was made.

Flow-chart and Note completion tasks

The oldest ochre-processing toolkits and workshop ever found have been unearthed, indicatingthat as _far back as 100,000 years ago, humans had an understanding of chemistry.

South Africa's Blombos Cave lies within a limestone cliff on the southern Cape coast, 300 km eastof Cape Town. It's known for its 75,000-year-old rich deposits of artefacts such as beads, bonetools and ochre engravings. Some engravings date as far back as 100,000 years.

Archaeologist Christopher S. Henshilwood from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and University of Bergen, Norway has been excavating at the site since 1992, and has reported the discovery of a mixture, rich in ochre, stored in two abalone shells. It dates back to the Middle Stone Age - 100,000 years ago. Ochre is a term used to describe a piece of earth or rock containing red or yellow oxides or hydroxides of iron. It can be used to make pigments, or paints,ranging from golden-yellow and light yellow-brown to a rich red. Its use spans the history of humans - from those living more than 200,000 years ago, to modern indigenous communities.

Made from an array of materials, this mixture, which could have functioned as wall, object and skin decoration or skin protection (acting in a similar way to modern-day sunscreen), indicates the early developments that occurred in the people who originally used the site. "[Judging from] the complexity of the material that has been collected from different parts of the landscape and brought to the site, they [the people] must have had an elementary knowledge of chemistry to be able to combine these materials to produce this form. It's not a straightforward process,' said Henshilwood.

The Blombos Cave discovery is the earliest-known example of a pigment- or paint-producing workshop.All of the materials were discovered at the same site, and they included an array of raw materials including samples of bone and charcoal, as well as pigment-producing equipment such as grindstones and hammerstones. Judging by the equipment, which shows signs of wear, Henshilwood and his team were able to deduce the process used to produce the ochre mixture.

First, the pieces of ochre were rubbed on quartzite slabs and crushed to produce a red powder.This was combined with ground-up mammal bone, the traces of which show signs that it was heated before being ground. The ochre powder and the bone pieces were mixed with charcoal, stone chips, quartz grains and a liquid (perhaps water) and was then transferred to abalone shells to be gently stirred before being ready for application.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer

How pigment was made in ancient times

A colourful 1....................................was created by rubbing te ochre against pieces of quartzite.

Mammal bones were 2................................. and then crushed and added to the ochre.

The bones and ochre were mixed with other solids and the researchers believe 3............................... was then added.

The mixture was poured into 4......................................then mixed by hand.

The final mixture was ready to use for either 5.............of walls or as an early type of 6........................... for the body.

3.9 - Complete the notes below.

The oldest ochre-processing toolkits and workshop ever found have been unearthed, indicatingthat as _far back as 100,000 years ago, humans had an understanding of chemistry.

South Africa's Blombos Cave lies within a limestone cliff on the southern Cape coast, 300 km eastof Cape Town. It's known for its 75,000-year-old rich deposits of artefacts such as beads, bonetools and ochre engravings. Some engravings date as far back as 100,000 years.

Archaeologist Christopher S. Henshilwood from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and University of Bergen, Norway has been excavating at the site since 1992, and has reported the discovery of a mixture, rich in ochre, stored in two abalone shells. It dates back to the Middle Stone Age - 100,000 years ago. Ochre is a term used to describe a piece of earth or rock containing red or yellow oxides or hydroxides of iron. It can be used to make pigments, or paints,ranging from golden-yellow and light yellow-brown to a rich red. Its use spans the history of humans - from those living more than 200,000 years ago, to modern indigenous communities.

Made from an array of materials, this mixture, which could have functioned as wall, object and skin decoration or skin protection (acting in a similar way to modern-day sunscreen), indicates the early developments that occurred in the people who originally used the site. "[Judging from] the complexity of the material that has been collected from different parts of the landscape and brought to the site, they [the people] must have had an elementary knowledge of chemistry to be able to combine these materials to produce this form. It's not a straightforward process,' said Henshilwood.

The Blombos Cave discovery is the earliest-known example of a pigment- or paint-producing workshop.All of the materials were discovered at the same site, and they included an array of raw materials including samples of bone and charcoal, as well as pigment-producing equipment such as grindstones and hammerstones. Judging by the equipment, which shows signs of wear, Henshilwood and his team were able to deduce the process used to produce the ochre mixture.

First, the pieces of ochre were rubbed on quartzite slabs and crushed to produce a red powder.This was combined with ground-up mammal bone, the traces of which show signs that it was heated before being ground. The ochre powder and the bone pieces were mixed with charcoal, stone chips, quartz grains and a liquid (perhaps water) and was then transferred to abalone shells to be gently stirred before being ready for application.

Choose NO MORE THAN ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage

Blombos Cave discovery

Background

location: South Africa.

the date digging began: 1 ....................

·Previous ancient objects found in this area:

2..................
3..........................
4.........................

Recent findings

·a mixture containing a substance called 5.................

(used to provide colour)

·equipment

·a range of additional 6 ....................... . including animal bone and charcoal.

Conclusion

In prehistoric times, humans knew basic 7..............

Diagram completion tasks

3.12 . Look at the diagram. Try to imagine how the hydro power plant would work. Pay attention to how the parts are connected.

The power of water

Most hydropower plants rely on a dam that holds back water, creating a large reservoir behind it. Often, this reservoir is used as a recreational lake and is also known as the intake. Gates on the dam open and gravity pulls the water through the penstock, a line of pipe that leads to the turbine. Water builds up pressure as it flows through this pipe. The water strikes and turns the large blades of a turbine, which is attached to a generator above it by way of a shaft. As the turbine blades turn, so do a series of magnets inside the generator producing alternating current (AC] by moving electrons. The transformer.located inside the powerhouse, takes the AC and converts it to higher-voltage current.

Write NO MORE THAN ONE WORD from the text for each answer.

3 - Understanding the main ideas

In this unit you will practise:

distinguishing main ideas from supporting ideas

·understanding the main points

·identifying information in a Reading passage

·matching headings

·multiple choice

·True / False / Not Given

1.2 Skim read the passage below to get the overall meaning.

A
The notion of planning entire communities prior to their construction is an ancient one. In fact, one of the earliest such cities on record is Miletus, Greece, which was built in the 4th century BC. Throughout the Middle Ages andthe Renaissance, various planned communities (both theoretical and actual) were conceived. Leonardo da Vincide signed several cities that were never constructed. Following the Great Fire of London in 1666, the architect Christopher Wren created a new master plan for the city, incorporating park land and urban space. Several 18th-century cities, including Washington D.C., New York City, and St Petersburg, Russia, were built according to comprehensive planning.

B
One of the most important planned city concepts, the Garden City Movement, arose in the latter part of the 19th century as a reaction to the pollution and crowding of the Industrial Revolution. In 1898, Ebenezer Howard published the book To-Morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform in which he laid out his ideas concerning the creation of new economically viable towns. Howard believed that these towns should be limited in size and

density, and surrounded with a belt of undeveloped land, The idea gained enough attention and financial backing to lead to the creation of Letchworth, in Hertfordshire, England. This was the first such 'Garden City'. After the First World War, the second town built following Howard's ideas, Welwyn Garden City, was constructed

C
In the early 1920s, American architects Clarence Stein and Henry Wright, inspired by Howard's ideas and the success of Letchworth and Welwyn, created the city of Radburn, New Jersey. Conceived as a community which would be safe for children, Radburn was intentionally designed so that the residents would not require automobiles. Several urban planning designs were pioneered at Radburn that would influence later planned communities, including the separation of pedestrians and vehicles, and the use of 'superblocks', each of which shared 23 acres of commonly held parkland,

D
In America, following the stock market crash of 1929, there was great demand for both affordable housing and employment for workers who had lost their jobs, In direct response to this, in 1935 President Roosevelt created the Resettlement Administration, which brought about a total of three greenbelt towns: Greenbelt, Maryland;Greenhills, Ohio; and Greendale, Wisconsin. These towns contained many of the elements of the Garden City Movement developments, including the use of super blocks and a 'green belt' of undeveloped land surrounding the community.

1.1 Read headings i—vii. What topic do all of the headings have in common? Underline the main points in each heading.

List of headings

i The future of urban planning in America

ii Conflicting ideas through the history of urban planning

iii Urban planning has a long and varied history

iv Financial problems helped spread an urban planning concept

v The background to one particular planned community

vi Political change obstructs progress in urban planning

vii An urban plan to reduce traffic

1.3 . Read Paragraph A and choose the best summary:

A Past, present and future examples of urban planning

B The history of urban planning

C Problems associated with urban planning

1.4 .Create a shortlist of possible answers for Paragraph A.

1-Decide which headings (i—vii) you can confidently say are not connected to the main topic of paragraph A.

2-Look at your shortlist again and choose the heading that best summarises the main idea of all of paragraph A.

1.5 . Read Paragraphs B—D again, and repeat the steps above.

3 - Identifying information in a passage

For True / False / Not Given tasks, you need to look at a list of sentences or statements and decide whether they are:

True (the statement agrees with the information in the text)
False (the statement is incorrect and does not agree with the information in the text)
Not Given (you cannot say whether the statement is true or false because there is no information about this in the text)

3.1 Skim read this passage to get the general idea of the content

In 1818, Luke Howard published The Climate of London in which he identified an emerging problem:urban development was having a direct impact on the local weather. The early 1800s was a time of great expansion for London and Howard noticed that temperatures in the city were gradually becoming higher than those in rural areas. We now refer to these areas as Urban Heat Islands. 'The difference in temperature is usually greater at night and the phenomenon occurs in both winter and summer.'Experts agree that this is due to urban development, when open green spaces are replaced with asphalt roads and tall brick or concrete buildings.These materials retain heat generated by the Sun and release it through the night. In Atlanta,in the US, this has even led to thunderstorms occurring in the morning rather than, as is more common, in the afternoon. Officials there are advising builders to use light-coloured roofs in a bid to reduce the problem.

Large cities around the world are adopting strategies to combat this issue and it is not uncommon to find plants growing on top of roofs or down the walls of large buildings. In Singapore, the government has pledged to transform it into a 'city within a garden'and, in 2006, they held an international competition calling for entries to develop a master plan to help bring this about. One outcome was the creation of 18' Super trees These metal constructions are made to resemble very tall trees and range in height from 25m to 50m. Each one is a vertical freestanding garden and is home to exotic plants and ferns.Their structure allowed the designers to create an immediate rain forest canopy without

having to wait for trees to reach such heights. They contain solar panels used to light the trees at night and also containers to collect rain water, making them truly self-sufficient.

3.2 Decide if statements 1-3 are True, False or Not Given according to the underlined parts of the text.

Luke Howard invented the term 'Urban Heat Island'.
City temperatures are higher than country temperatures regardless of the season.
Experts have failed in their efforts to create heat-reflecting concrete and brick.

3.3 Read statements 4-8, then underline the relevant parts in the text. Are the statements True, False or Not Given ?

4 Atlanta has experienced more dramatic weather change than other areas of the US.

5 Roofs that are dark in colour help address the issue of Urban Heat Islands.

6 Singapore's Supertrees are made entirely from natural materials.

7 The designers of the Supertrees originally planned to plant very tall trees.

8 The Supertrees require regular maintenance

1.3 Look at extracts A-H from different Reading passages and match them to the type of information that best describes them.

A

Water is forced at pressure through an arrow pipe. The water

hits the top of the water wheel, causing it to turn.

B

The water is warm thanks to a natural hot spring beneath the river bed.

C

Our study looked at the surrounding environment while previous researchers have concentrated on diet.

D

We achieved this by weighing the animals both before and after periods of exercise.

E

They live in dark, humid areas and so tend to be found in and around tropical rain forests.

F

A month later, we were able to test it again and the results showed a significant change in temperature when the insulation was used.

G

After ten years, they gave up. The experiment had failed and, as a result, the public grew angry at the waste of public funds.

H

It takes 35 days for the chick to leave the nest and fly

Types of information

1 the findings of a study

2 the method used in a research study

3 the reaction to something

4 a description of a habitat

5 the difference between current and past studies

6 a description of how something works

7 the cause of something

8 the amount of time needed for something