Đề thi IELTS READING Paper ngày 8/3/2025: Passage 1 Rubber; Passage 3 Blind to Change

PASSAGE 1:

Rubber

T and W Musgrove discuss the origins and early uses of rubber

The plants that produce rubber are spread right across the globe, and grow in many different habitats. One might think it likely, therefore, that humankind has known about rubber for thousands of years. Yet, while other crops of economic importance, notably rice, are relatively unambiguous in the length of their histories, rubber is different. The history of rubber is relatively anonymous. In fact, until the last 500 years or so, the Incidents of South America appear to be the first people to have understood the properties of rubber, and the Aztecs of what is now Mexico were the first to be recorded using the substance. A wall painting dating back to the sixth century depicts a scene of a factory refining oil of cloves.

After a European expedition in the Americas and the resulting Spanish Empire, further evidence starts to appear concerning the Native American use of rubber. Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas describes a ritual game played with a rubber ball at the court of the Aztecs. Emperor Montezuma II and the Mayan and Inca people are known to have taken part in similar activities. Rubber was also used to make raincoats, shoes, jars, torches and medical instruments, all of which must have been made from the indigenous Castilla elastica, as the Para rubber tree now favoured for rubber cultivation does not grow in the Mexican region.

The first description of latex (liquid rubber) extraction is made by Juan de Torquemada, who noted that if a nonspiked vine was cut and had the Native Americans would place the latex on their hands to allow it to solidify. However, no heat-treated rubber was shown up by European writer Charles de la Condamine, a French mathematician, published an account of his journey to South America in 1755. The journey was undertaken on behalf of the Paris Academy of Sciences to measure an arc of the meridian line on the equator, but the journey home was to turn out to be more significant for the Para purpose of the trip. Condamine stopped Brazil and Para and discovered that the local people used one single piece of coagulated latex to make boats. The boats were impervious to water and, when smoked, looked like real leather. In 1747 the first description of the rubber tree was passed to French Guinea. The publications of Condamine and Fresneau evoked considerable excitement among French scientists, and an attempt was made to discover a solvent that could melt the crude rubber into a substance for commercial application.

In 1818 a British metals and hardware named James Syme first used rubber to make waterproof cloth. Rubber by itself was of little value as an eraser of pencil marks, hence the name ‘rubber.’ Tubes that Syme was experimenting with balloons, rubber bands, braces, boots for the army and other ideas that met with varying degrees of success. In 1839 Thomas Hancock, an English manufacturer of rubber goods such as driving belts, industrial rollers and rubber hoses, invented a machine he called the ‘masticator,’ which chewed up waste strips for reuse. It was discovered that the masticated rubber was more malleable, while remaining much of its flexibility. In Scotland at the same time, Charles Macintosh had also discovered a way of using rubber as waterproofing material, by a process he patented in 1823. Hancock and Macintosh joined forces in 1835, and three years later Hancock patented the first rubber vulcanization process.

Despite the beneficial qualities, such as waterproofing, that rubber was used for, it was still particularly good for using hard materials including the fact that they dissolved malodorous. They were not fully exploited, though, until the Scottish chemist Macadam in the 19th century made great strides in improving road surfaces. Rubber is an important part of the material for surviving extreme heat, stress, exhaustion, stretching and variability, but these were not fully stabilized or governed by the British rubber industry, despite the great potential that rubber was now clearly evident. It played an important role in the Industrial Revolution, being employed in the steam engines found in factories, mills, mines and railways. It made a triumphant entrance as a new and innovative material at the Great Exhibition of 1851, where shoes, garbs, furniture and clothing made out of fully improved rubber were proudly displayed.

One of the most important rubber inventions was made in 1888, when an inshman called John Boyd Dunlop produced the first pneumatic tyre. Sold rubber tyres had been used for the previous 18 years, but Dunlop’s new design, which he updated in 1890, immediately became popular. In 1895 Dunlop’s tyres were first used in motor cars, and with the mass production of cars just over the horizon the rubber industry had never looked healthier. The import levels of rubber over the nineteenth century bear witness to it’s irrepressible rise in 1830 Britain had imported just 211 kg of crude rubber. This had risen to 10,000kg in 1857, and by 1874 levels were just under six times as much again.

Questions 1-6
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage1?
In boxes 1-6 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

1 Rubber plants grow only in certain regions of the world

2. Rubber was extracted in Mexico as early as the sixth century

3. Rubber from the Castillo elastic plant is of poorer quality than that from the Para plant.

4. A French mathematician inspired real interest in rubber amongst Europeans

5. The process of vulcansation was discovered by accident

6. Imports of crude rubber into Britain fell during the nineteenth century.

Questions 7-13
Complete the summary below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer
Write your answers in boxes 7-13 on your answer sheet

The Commercial Development of Rubber

Early European travelers gave accounts of various rubber objects in use in Central and South America, and these accounts created interest in the commercial exploitation of rubber.
In 1818, (7)____________ was produced using rubber, and in 1820 a machine was invented for recycling (8) ___________ of rubber
Over the next few years, other attempts were made to improve rubber, but some problems remained. For example, rubber products smelt bad when they were dissolved, and could turn ether soft or (9)___________ depending on the temperature. However, in 1839, a new process to (10)___________ substance greatly increased its potential. For example, rubber was used in the creation of the (11)___________ . Industry during the industrial revolution. Then in 1888, the (12)___________ was developed, and a few years later, the (13)___________ of the motor car began.

 PASSAGE 3:

Blind to Change

How much of the world around you do you really see?

Picture the following and prepare to be amazed. You’re walking across a college campus when a stranger asks you for directions. While you’re talking to him, two men pass between you carrying a wooden door. You feel a moment’s irritation, but you carry on describing the route. When you’ve finished, you’re told you’ve just taken part in a psychology experiment. “Did you notice anything after the two men passed with the door?” the stranger asks. “No,” you reply uneasily. He explains that the man who initially approached you walked off behind the door leaving him in his place. The first man now rejoins you. Comparing them, you notice that they are of different height and build and are dressed very differently.

Daniel Simons of Harvard University found that 50% of participants missed the substitution because of what is called change blindness. When considered with a large number of recent experimental results, this phenomenon suggests we see far less than we think we do. Rather than logging every detail of the visual scene, says Simons, we are actually highly selective. Our impression of seeing everything is just that. In fact, we extract a few details and rely on memory, or even our imagination, for the rest.

Until recently, researchers thought that seeing involved making pictures in the brain. By building detailed internal representations of the world, and comparing them over time, we could spot any changes. Then in Consciousness Explained, the philosopher Daniel Dennett claimed that our brains hold only a few salient details about the world – and that is why we are able to operate successfully. This phenomenon, known as change blindness, demonstrates that we don’t actually see as much of the world as we believe. While it might seem that our eyes capture every detail of a scene, our brains often only register a fraction of it, relying heavily on memory and inference to fill in the gaps. This selective attention has broader implications than we might expect, extending into many aspects of our daily lives.

The simple act of driving. How many times have you missed a traffic signal change because your attention was momentarily diverted? This is not just a matter of distraction but a failure of our visual system to detect changes that do not seem immediately relevant. Researchers have even demonstrated that people can miss significant alterations in visual scenes, such as the appearance or disappearance of large objects, especially when their attention is focused elsewhere. One famous experiment involved showing participants a video of a basketball game. They were instructed to count the number of passes made by one team. In the middle of the game, a man in a gorilla suit walked through the scene, yet many participants failed to notice him.

This experiment highlights how attention can be so narrowly focused on a specific task that we become blind to other, seemingly obvious, changes around us.

Simons’ work on change blindness reveals how our brain constructs a coherent reality out of fragments. The brain’s ability to focus on what’s deemed important at the time can lead to significant gaps in our perception. We may believe that we are aware of everything happening around us, but in reality, we only see what we need to see at that moment.

The implications of change blindness extend beyond simple experiments. In real-world situations, such as witnessing a crime or driving, our selective attention can have serious consequences. Eyewitness testimonies, for instance, may be unreliable because individuals often do not register all the details of an event, especially if their attention was focused elsewhere. This raises important questions about how much we can trust our perceptions and memories. Psychologist Christopher Chabris, who worked with Simons on the gorilla experiment, argues that understanding the limitations of our perception can help us better understand how the brain works. Rather than assuming that we see the world as it is, we must recognize that our experience of reality is shaped by our expectations, prior knowledge, and the limited capacity of our visual system.

The phenomenon of change blindness underscores the complexity of human perception. Our brains, while powerful, are not perfect recording devices. They prioritize information, often missing or altering details in the process. This selective attention allows us to function in a complex world but also leaves us vulnerable to mistakes and misinterpretations. As we continue to explore the intricacies of perception, it becomes increasingly clear that what we see is not always what is there.

27. What is the main topic of the passage?
    A) The impact of selective attention on driving
    B) The limitations of human perception and attention
    C) The history of psychological experiments
    D) The effectiveness of memory in recognizing changes
28. What does Daniel Simons’ experiment demonstrate?
    A) That people notice changes if they are significant
    B) That people are always aware of their surroundings
    C) That change blindness is a common phenomenon
    D) That visual memory is accurate and reliable
29. What was the result of the basketball game experiment?
    A) Most participants noticed the man in the gorilla suit
    B) Only a few participants counted the passes correctly
    C) Many participants failed to notice the man in the gorilla suit
    D) Participants were distracted by the game and missed all changes
30. What did participants fail to notice in Simons’ experiment?
    A) The change in the direction they were walking
    B) The substitution of the person asking for directions
    C) The presence of a wooden door between them
    D) The sudden disappearance of the stranger
31. What does the phenomenon of change blindness suggest?
    A) People can remember every detail they see
    B) People often miss significant changes in their environment
    C) Visual scenes are accurately captured by the brain
    D) Our brains create detailed images of the world
32. What did the basketball game experiment reveal about attention?
    A) Participants were more focused on the gorilla than the game
    B) People are always aware of their surroundings
    C) Attention to one task can lead to missing obvious changes
    D) Visual distractions do not affect attention
33. Why might eyewitness testimonies be unreliable, according to the passage?
    A) People tend to exaggerate what they see
    B) Visual memories are often incomplete and selective
    C) Witnesses are easily distracted during important events
    D) Everyone perceives reality in the same way

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 3?

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

34. Researchers have always believed that our brains capture every detail of a visual scene.
35. Daniel Dennett’s theory suggested that our brains store detailed pictures of the world.
36. Eyewitness testimonies are completely reliable according to the passage.

Look at the following statements (Questions 37-40) and the list of researchers below.

37. Daniel Simons
38. Daniel Dennett
39. Christopher Chabris
40. John Grimes

A) Suggested that the brain holds only a few details at a time
B) Conducted the basketball game and gorilla suit experiment
C) Demonstrated change blindness during eye movements
D) Found that 50% of participants did not notice a change in a person
E) Showed that people notice all changes if they are significant
F) Studied the effects of long-term memory on perception

 

SUGGESTED ANSWERS

PASSAGE 1

• False
• True
• Not given
• True
• Not given
• False
• waterproof cloth
• waste strips
• rigid
• stabilise
• steam engines
• pneumatic tyre
• mass production

PASSAGE 3

• C
• A
• G
• F
• True
• True
• Not given
• False
• True
• C
• F
• B
• A
• G