IELTSFever Academic IELTS Reading Test 128

IELTSFever Academic IELTS Reading Test 128 ( Passage 1 Build a Medieval castle, Passage 2 father of Modern management, Passage 3 Communicating Conflict ) we prefer you to work offline, download the test paper, and blank answer sheet.

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For Answers Academic IELTS Reading Test 128 Answers

Reading Passage 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on the IELTSFever Academic IELTS Reading Test 128 Reading Passage Build a Medieval Castle below.

Build a Medieval Castle

{A} Michel Guyot, owner and restorer of Saint Fargeau castle in France, first had the idea of building a 13th-century style fortress following the discovery that the 15thcentury red bricks of his castle obscured the stone walls of a much older stronghold. His dream was to build a castle just as it would have been in the Middle Ages, an idea which some found mildly amusing and others dismissed as outright folly. However, Maryline Martin – project director – was inspired by the exciting potential for the venture to regenerate the region. It took several months to bring together and mobilise all the various different partners: architects, archaeologists and financial backers. A site in the heart of Guédelon forest was found: a site which offered not only all the resources required for building a castle – a stone quarry, an oak forest and a water supply – but in sufficient quantities to satisfy the demands of this gigantic site. The first team started work and on June 20th 1997 the first stone was laid.

{B} Unlike any other present-day building site, Michel Guyot’s purpose is clear, he warmly welcomes members of the public to participate. The workers’ role is to demonstrate and explain, to a wide audience, the skills of our forefathers. Stone quarrying, the building of vaulted ceilings, the blacksmith’s work and the raising of roof timbers are just some of the activities which visitors can witness during a visit to Guédelon. The workers are always on hand to talk about their craft and the progress of the castle. Each year 60,000 children visit Guédelon with their schools. The site is an excellent educational resource, bringing to life the history of the Middle Ages. Guided tours are tailored to the school curriculum and according to age groups: activity trails for primary school children and interactive guided tours for secondary school children. Pupils of all ages have the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of medieval stonemasons by taking part in a stone carving workshop or discover the secrets of the medieval master-builders at the geometry workshop.

{C} Workers in the Burgundy region of France are building a 13th century castle. They’re not restoring an old castle. They’re actually building a new old castle. See the builders are constructing it from scratch. The craftsmen have been working for nearly ten years now but they’re not even halfway done yet. That’s because they’re using only medieval tools and techniques. The World’s Gerry Hadden takes us to the site of what will be the Guedelon Castle. Another reason said by Jean Francois, a member of Guedelon stone cutter’s guild, for eight hours a day he bangs on a 13th century chisel with a 13th century iron mallet.

{D} The progress of construction has to give way to tourists’ side for their visits. The visitors from 2010, however unsightly they may be, are vital to the project. The initial funding came not from pillaging the local peasantry but from regional councils, the European Union and large companies. For the last 10 years, Guédelon, 100 miles southeast of Paris, has funded itself from its entrance fees. Last year it had a record 300,000 visitors, who paid almost €2.5m, making it the second most-visited site in Burgundy. The most visited site was the Hospice de Beaune, a beautiful 15th-century almshouse built 600 years before, or, if you prefer, 200 years “after”, Guédelon.

{E} limestone is found in the construction of various local buildings, from the great and prestigious edifice of Ratilly castle to the more modest poyaudines houses. This stone contains 30-40% iron oxide; this can make it extremely hard to extract and dress. Having studied the block in order to determine and anticipate the natural fault lines of the stone, the quarrymen first carve a series of rectilinear holes into the block. Iron wedges are then hammered into this line of holes. The shockwaves produced by the quarrymen’s sledgehammers cause the stone to split along a straight line. The highest quality blocks are dressed to produce lintels, voussoirs, corbels, ashlars etc. The medium quality blocks are roughly shaped by the stonecutters and used on the uncoursed curtain walls, and as facing stones on the castle’s inner walls. There are water-filled clay pits in the forest. Clay is taken from these pits, cleaned and pugged. It is then shaped in wooden moulds to form bricks. After the bricks have been left to air-dry, they are fired in a wood fired kiln for about 12 hours, at roughly 1000°c.

{F} The mortar is the “glue” used to bind the castle’s stones. It is made up of precise doses of lime, sand and water. The people working there wear the tunics, skirts and headgear that they might have worn then, but they wear these over jeans and shoes with reinforced toes. They mix their mortar primarily as they would have done then, using sand they dig themselves, but they are not allowed to use the extremely effective hot lime from medieval days, because of its toxicity, and so they add a modern chemical ingredient instead, to achieve the same effect. Workers in the Mid Age obviously were unaware of it and some died earlier by inhaling toxic gas. And so, we met many wonderful people who do not pretend to be anything but modern human beings practicing an old technique and finding out what it would have felt like, as much as possible, to do it with only the resources of an older time.

{G} We also learned that even if there is a straight lintel across a doorway, you will usually find an arch of stones built into the wall differently. Because of the physics of an arch, which channels the weight above it down into whatever is supporting it at each side instead of pressing down in the middle, this helps to take a lot of the weight off of the lintel itself, whether it is free standing or buried in the wall against the impact of warfare. The arch is the strongest element for spanning space in stone architecture. This is why, in ancient ruins, you will often find the entire wall missing, and the arched windows and doorways still standing, in beautiful patterns against the sky.

Questions 1-4 IELTSFever Academic IELTS Reading Test 128

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

In boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement is True
FALSE if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN If the information is not given in the passage

(1) The French people would not abandon his idea in favor of a realistic one. 

(2) One aim of the castle is to show the ancestral achievement to the public. 

(3) Short lifespan of workers was due to overdue heating. 

(4) stones were laid not in a straight line arrangement to avoid damaging or collapsing.

Questions 5-10 

Summary

Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage, using A-L from the following options for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 5-10 on your answer sheet.

Limestone Processing:

When______5______ found a suitable block, they began to cut lines of______6______ into it. ______7______were used and knocked into and generated shockwaves to make stone______8______ . Different qualities of blocks would be used in different places of the castle. On the other hand,______9______ were shaped from clay in a mould and went through a process of ______10______ for about 12 hours.

A metal/iron wedge B hammer handle C lift D Mason
E patterns F heating G bricks H wood
I experts J split K walls L holes

Questions 11-13

Choose three correct letters, A-F. 

Write your answers in boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet.

Why does the castle building project last 10 years for just half progress?

(A) They lack of enough funds 

(B) Guedelon castle needs a time-consuming design 

(C) Workers obeyed modern working hours 

(D) Their progress were delayed by unpredictable weather 

(E) Guedelon castle need to receive valuable visitors 

(F) They used old techniques and skills 

(G) Stone processing need more labour and time

Reading Passage 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which are based on the IELTSFever Academic IELTS Reading Test 128 Reading Passage Father of modern management below.

Father of modern management

{A} It’s been said that Peter Drucker invented the discipline of management. Before he wrote his first book on the topic, he knew of only two companies in the world with management development programs. Ten years after the book’s publication, 3,000 companies were teaching the subject. Widely considered as the father of “modern management,” he wrote 39 books and countless scholarly and popular articles exploring how humans are organized in all sectors of society-business, government and the nonprofit world. His writings have predicted many of the major developments of the late twentieth century, including privatization and decentralization; the rise of Japan to a world economic power; the decisive importance of marketing, and the emergence of the information society with its necessity of lifelong learning.

{B} Drucker has said that writing is the foundation of everything he does. In 1937, he published his first book, which was written in Europe. The End of Economic Man: A Study of the New Totalitarianism examined the spiritual and social origins of fascism. In 1940, before the United States entered World War II, he wrote The Future of Industrial Man, in which he presented his social vision for the postwar world. In 1943, General Motors asked Drucker to study its management practices. Drucker accepted and spent 18 months researching and writing the 1945 book, Concept of the Corporation.

{C} The concepts Drucker introduced in the 1940s and 1950s have endured. In 1954, Drucker wrote his first book that taught people how to manage. Titled The Practice of Management, it introduced the concept of “management by objectives”. Management by objectives requires managers to establish goals for their subordinates and devise means of measuring results. Workers are then left alone to perform as they will and measure their performance. Drucker wrote, “It is not possible to be effective unless one first decides what one wants to accomplish. He went on to explain that every worker must be given the tools “to appraise himself, rather than be appraised and controlled from the outside. Management by objectives has become an accepted business concept and is probably Drucker’s most important contribution. Drucker issued challenges to junior, middle and senior management: ‘The very term “middle management” is becoming meaningless [as some) will have to learn how to work with people over whom they have no direct line control, to work transnationally, and to create, maintain, and run systems–none of which are traditionally middle management tasks. “It is top management that faces the challenge of setting directions for the enterprise, of managing the fundamentals.

{D} Drucker interviewed executives and workers, visited plants, and attended board meetings. While the book focused on General Motors, Drucker went on to discuss the industrial corporation as a social institution and economic policy in the postwar era. He introduced previously unknown concepts such as cooperation between labor and management, decentralization of management, and viewing workers as resources rather than costs. Drucker saw people as a resource, and considered that they would be more able to satisfy customers if they had more involvement in their jobs and gained some satisfaction from doing them. Drucker claimed that an industrial society allows people to realize their dreams of personal achievement and equal opportunity-the need to manage business by balancing a variety of needs and goals, rather than subordinating an institution to a single value. This concept of management by objectives forms the keynote of his 1954 landmark The Practice of Management. He referred to decentralization as ‘a system of local self government, in which central management tells division managers what to do, but not how to do it. The young executives are given the freedom to make decisions — and mistakes — and learn from the experience. Top leaders at General Motors disliked the book and discouraged their executives from reading it. Many other American executives criticized Concept for its challenge to management authority.

{E} Drucker wasn’t immune to criticism. The Wall Street Journal researched several of his lectures in 1987 and reported that he was sometimes loose with facts. Drucker was off the mark, for example, when he told an audience that English was the official language for all employees at Japan’s Mitsui trading company. And he was known for his prescience. Given the recent involvement of the US government with financial companies, he was probably correct in his forecast when he anticipated, for instance, that the nation’s financial center would shift from New York to Washington. Others maintain that one of Drucker’s core concepts—”management by objectives”—is flawed and has never really been proven to work effectively. Specifically, critics say that the system is difficult to implement, and that companies often wind up overemphasizing control, as opposed to fostering creativity, to meet their goals. Drucker didn’t shy away from controversy, either.

{F} Throughout his career, Drucker expanded his position that management was “a liberal art” and he infused his management advice with interdisciplinary lessons including history, sociology, psychology, philosophy, culture and religion. He also strongly believed that all institutions, including those in the private sector, had a responsibility for the whole society. “The fact is,” Drucker wrote in 1973, “that in modern society there is no other leadership group but managers. If the managers of our major institutions, especially in business, do not take responsibility for the common good, no one else can or will.” In his books, lectures and interviews, the emergence of knowledge workers is only one of the demographic changes Drucker warns businesses to prepare for. Others include a decreasing birth rate in developed countries, a shift in population from rural to urban centers, shifts in distribution of disposable income and global competitiveness. Drucker believes these changes will have a tremendous impact on business. Drucker held a profound skepticism of macroeconomic theory and contended that economists of all schools fail to explain significant aspects of modern economies. Business “gurus” have come and gone during the last 50 years, but Drucker’s message continues to inspire managers. During the 1990s, Drucker wrote about social, political and economic changes of the ” post capitalist” era, which he says are as profound as those of the industrial revolution. In Managing for the Future: The 1990s and Beyond (1992), Drucker discussed the emergence of the “knowledge worker” — whose resources include specialized learning or competency rather than land, labor or other forms of capital.

Questions 14-19 

Reading Passage 2 has 6 paragraphs A-F. Choose the correct heading for paragraphs A-F from the list of headings below. 

Write the correct number: i-x, in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet.

List of Headings

(i) Introducing new management concepts to postwar era 

(ii) Ideas that stood the test of time 

(iii) Early publications 

(iv) Shifting the focus of management in modern manufactures 

(V) Thinker and scholar with world-wide popularity 

(vi) Drucker’s concepts are flawed 

(vii) The changing role of employees in management 

(viii) Find fault with Drucker 

(ix) Iconic view of “management by objectives”

(14) Paragraph A

(15) Paragraph B

(16) Paragraph C

(17) Paragraph D

(18) Paragraph E

(19) Paragraph F

Questions 20-23 IELTSFever Academic IELTS Reading Test 128

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2? 

In boxes 20-23 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement is True
FALSE if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN If the information is not given in the passage

(20) Drucker believed the employees should enjoy the same status as the employers in a company 

(21) middle management tasks will change since companies become more complicated and run business globally 

(22) Drucker strongly support that economists of schools have resources to explain the problems of modern economies at least in a macroeconomics scope 

(23) Drucker’s ideas proposed half a century ago are out of date in modern days

Questions 24-25

Choose TWO letters from A-E. 

Write your answers in boxes 24 and 25 on your answer sheet. 

Which TWO of the following are true of Drucker’s views?

(A) Managers should be responsible for the common good of the whole society. 

(B) Young executives should be given chances to start from low level jobs 

(C) More emphasis should be laid on fostering the development of the union. 

(D) Management should facilitate workers with tools of self-appraisal instead of controlling them from the outside. 

(E) management should go beyond an isolate discipline as to incorporate ideas with many subjects

Questions 26-27 IELTSFever Academic IELTS Reading Test 128

Choose TWO letters from A-E. 

Write your answers in boxes 26 and 27 on your answer sheet. 

Which TWO of the following are mentioned in the passage as criticisms of Drucker and his views? 

(A) He did not show enough respect to Japanese employees when he said English was the official language for all employees at Japan’s Mitsui trading company. 

(B) His lectures are too broad and lack being precise and accurate about the facts. 

(C) His concepts helped corporate executives but not average workers. 

(D) His ideas are sometimes impractical and result in opposite outcomes. 

(E) He was overstating the case for knowledge workers when warning businesses to get prepared.

Reading Passage 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on the IELTSFever Academic IELTS Reading Test 128 Reading Passage Communicating Conflict! below.

Communicating Conflict!

Section A As far back as Hippocrates’ time (460-370 B.C.) people have tried to understand other people by characterizing them according to personality type or temperament. Hippocrates believed there were four different body fluids that influenced four basic types of temperament His work was further developed 500 years later by Galen. These days there are any number of self-assessment tools that relate to the basic descriptions developed by Galen, although we no longer believe the source to be the types of body fluid that dominate our systems.

Section B The values in self-assessments that help determine personality style. Learning styles, communication styles, conflict-handling styles, or other aspects of individuals is that they help depersonalize conflict in interpersonal relationships. The depersonalization occurs when you realize that others aren’t trying to be difficult, but they need different or more information than you do. They’re not intending to be rude: they are so focused on the task they forget about greeting people. They would like to work faster but not at the risk of damaging the relationships needed to get the job done. They understand there is a job to do. But it can only be done right with the appropriate information, which takes time to collect. When used appropriately, Understanding communication styles can help resolve conflict in teams. Very rarely are conflicts true personality issues. Usually they are issues of style, information needs, or focus.

Section C Hippocrates and later Galen determined there were four basic temperaments: sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholic and choleric. These descriptions were developed centuries ago and are still somewhat apt, although you could update the wording. In today’s world, they translate into the four fairly common communication styles described below: 

Section D The sanguine person would be the expressive or spirited style of communication. These people speak in pictures. They invest a lot of emotion and energy in their communication and often speak quickly. Putting their whole body into it. They are easily sidetracked onto a story that may or may not illustrate the point they are trying to make. Because of their enthusiasm, they are great team motivators. They are concerned about people and relationships. Their high levels of energy can come on strong at times and their focus is usually on the bigger picture, which means they sometimes miss the details or the proper order of things. These people find conflict or differences of opinion invigorating and love to engage in a spirited discussion. They love change and arc constantly looking for new and exciting adventures.

Section E Tile phlegmatic person – cool and persevering – translates into the technical or systematic communication style. This style of communication is focused on facts and technical details. Phlegmatic people are orderly. methodical way of approaching tasks, and their focus is very much on the task, not on the people, emotions, or concerns that the task may evoke. The focus is also more on the details necessary to accomplish a task. Sometimes the details overwhelm the big picture and focus needs to be brought back to the context of the task. People with this style think the facts should speak for themselves, and they are not as comfortable with conflict. They need time to adapt to change and need to understand both the logic of it and the steps involved.

Section F Tile melancholic person who is softhearted and oriented toward doing things for others translates into the considerate or sympathetic communication style. A person with this communication style is focused on people and relationships. They are good listeners and do things for other people- sometimes to the detriment of getting things done for themselves. They want to solicit everyone’s opinion and make sure everyone is comfortable with whatever is required to get the job done. At times this focus on others can distract from the task at hand. Because they are so concerned with the needs of others and smoothing over issues, they do not like conflict. They believe that change threatens the status quo and tends to make people feel uneasy, so people with this communication style, like phlegmatic people, need time to consider the changes in order to adapt to them.

Section G The choleric temperament translates into the bold or direct style of communication. People with this style are brief in their communication – the fewer words the better. They are big picture thinkers and love to be involved in many things at once. They are focused on tasks and outcomes and often forget that the people involved in carrying out the tasks have needs. They don’t do detailed work easily and as a result, can often underestimate how much time it takes to achieve the task. Because they are so direct, they often seem forceful and can be very intimidating to others. They usually would welcome someone challenging them. But most other styles are afraid to do so. They also thrive on change, the more the better.

Section H A well-functioning team should have all of these communication styles for true effectiveness. All teams need to focus on the task, and they need to take care of relationships in order to achieve those tasks. They need the big picture perspective or the context of their work, and they need the details to be identified and taken care of for success. We all have aspects of each style within us. Some of us can easily move from one style to another and adapt our style to the needs of the situation at hand whether the focus is on tasks or relationships. For others, a dominant style is very evident, and it is more challenging to see the situation from the perspective of another style.

The work environment can influence communication styles either by the type of work that is required or by the predominance of one style reflected in that environment. Some people use one style at work and another at home. The good news about communication styles is that we have the ability to develop flexibility in our styles. The greater the flexibility we have, the more skilled we usually are at handling possible and actual conflicts. Usually it has to be relevant to us to do so, either because we think it is important or because there are incentives in our environment to encourage it. The key is that we have to want to become flexible with our communication style. As Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right!”

 Source articledashboard.com

Questions 27-34 

Reading Passage 3 has eight sections A-H. 

Choose the correct heading for each section from the list of headings below.  Write the correct number i-x in boxes 27-34 on your answer sheet.

List of Headings

(i) Different personality types mentioned 

(ii) recommendation of combined styles for group 

(iii) Historical explanation of understanding personality 

(iv) A lively and positive attitude person depicted 

(V) A personality likes challenge and direct communication 

(vi) different characters illustrated 

(vii) Functions of understanding communication styles 

(viii) Cautious and considerable person cited 

(ix) Calm and Factual personality illustrated 

(X) Self-assessment determines one’s temperament

(27) Section A

(28) Section B

(29) Section C

(30) Section D

(31) Section E

(32) Section F

(33) Section G

(34) Section H

Questions 35-39 IELTSFever Academic IELTS Reading Test 128

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1 In boxes 35-39 on your answer sheet, write 

TRUE if the statement is True
FALSE if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN If the information is not given in the passage

(35) it is believed that sanguine people do not like variety

(36) Melancholic and phlegmatic people have similar characteristics

(37) It is the sanguine personality that needed most in the workplace.

(38)  It is possible for someone to change type of personality.

(39)  Work surroundings can affect which communication style is the most effective.

Question 40

Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D. 

Write your answers in box 40 on your answer sheet. 

The author thinks self assessment tools can be able to

(A) assist to develop one’s personality in a certain scenario. 

(B) help to understand colleagues and resolve problems 

(C) improve relationship with boss of company 

(D) change others behaviour and personality

For Answers Academic IELTS Reading Test 128 Answers

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