BEST IELTS Academic Reading Test 502

BEST IELTS Academic Reading Test 502

IELTS ACADEMIC READING TEST 502 – PASSAGE – 1

IELTS ACADEMIC READING TEST – 502

READING PASSAGE – 1

An Ancient World Concealed Underground

In cities as old as Naples, residents have become used to unearthing classical treasures, antiquated cisterns and other historic artefacts underneath their homes when the time comes to renovate. More unexpected, however, was the accidental rediscovery in 2005-150m beneath the Monte di Dio neighbourhood was found an impressive underground network of ancient passageways, curiously filled with vintage cars and forgotten World War II relics.

Constructed in 1853, the multilevel, 1,022 sqm Bourbon tunnel network, better known today as the Galleria Borbonica, was built by Ferdinand II of Bourbon. Afraid of an imminent revolution, he had built the subterranean passageway which was large enough for troops and horses to travel from the Royal Palace to the military barracks.

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Later, beginning in the 1930s, the tunnels were used as a warehouse for impounded and contraband vehicles since there was little available space in the tightly packed city. The passageways and cavernous chambers finally served as an air raid shelter during the World War II, before being sealed off in the early 1950s to be forgotten forever.

But in 2012, Tonino Persico, a 90-year-old survivor who remembered hiding down there during the war, contacted the Neapolitan geologist Gianluca Minin, who was leading the excavation of the rest of the tunnels, to alert him to the existence of a bomb shelter below the Palazzo Serra di Cassano.

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It took 3 years for Minin and his team to clean the area of debris, but in December 2015, the Galleria Borbonica Museum launched the deeply affecting Via delle Memorie tour that commemorates the lives of those who sought refuge here.

An official of the Galleria Borbonica Museum led me through the dimly lit tunnels. The stale air was impregnated with a malodorous blend of must, decay and, in places, even urine. As we walked on the hard- packed dirt, we passed small alcoves piled with battery-operated lanterns, shovels and other digging and surveying equipment-there was clearly still a lot of excavation work going on. Other times the labyrinth of tunnels would branch off into narrow stone corridors, which had once carried water from the palace’s cisterns.

BEST IELTS Academic Reading Test 502

Eventually we descended another stairway and came to the old air raid shelter. During the war, the stairways were unlit and, given the frenzy of the crowds, there was no guarantee one would get down safely. One survivor, Professor Aldo De Gioia, whom I had previously met at Napoli Sotterranea, which was another underground museum and former air raid shelter, had told me about a tragic episode in which a girl had died in a stampede.

Sola asked if I wanted to listen to the air raid siren. I did. Hearing a siren in a film is one thing, but hearing that same haunting and very real sound in a bomb shelter made my chest tighten and filled me with a sense of dread.

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‘When enemy planes were sighted from Salerno and the islands of Ischia and Capri, the siren would be sounded 3 times, he explained. ‘This meant that the planes were on their way and that residents had about 15 minutes to get down into the shelters. Over here is the phone that was used by the person responsible for communications, he said, pointing to an old wind-up telephone hanging on a wall.

I noticed an old ampoule and rusted needle that had been found during excavations on display. According to Sola, many people had been wounded above ground or as they fled down the stairs to the shelter. Doctors tried to care for them the best they could in the small space that passed for an infirmary, but there were few medicines available.

Many would have also been ill and malnourished as the port and railroads had been bombed and the food that came in by truck went straight to the black market. The aqueduct had been blown up, so there was no clean water, and the electrical supply had been cut off; down below, the refugees were forced to rely on weak DC battery power.

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Tragically, thousands of Neapolitans lost their homes to the bombs and needed to live in the shelters indefinitely. A dozen or so steps away from the infirmary were the toilets, separated from the showers and sinks by a cement partition. Adjoining this space was a large semi-enclosed area with 3 walls, where people slept. Now, a few thin mattresses were spread out for exposition purposes.

When researchers started excavating the tunnels, they found portable stoves, rusted tin pitchers and blackened pots, flattened doll carriages, mouldy furniture and other evidence of people trying to make some semblance of a life in the darkness and bone-chilling dampness. The poignancy of their suffering was palpable.

But life was not always bleak. While the women and men unable to fight shared their worry and grief for their husbands, fathers and brothers on the front, the children found ways to pass the time.

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‘We played games together, said De Gioia. ‘We played hide and seek, but you could get lost down there! ‘Sometimes, someone would sing the classical Neapolitan song O Sole mio, he remembered, wistfully. In a soft, melodious voice, perfectly on key, De Gioia sang the first 2 verses of the chorus.

Song is a good release for sorrow, the survivor said.

Questions 1-6

Fill in each blank with ONE WORD from the box.

1. In Naples, it was not unusual for people to discover historic artefacts while ………………. their houses.

2. The underground passageway rediscovered in 2005 had forgotten ………………. of the Second World War.

3. Ferdinand II of Bourbon built the underground passageway because he was apprehensive of a ……………….

4. In the 1930s, the authorities started keeping ………………. vehicles in the network of tunnels.

5. In 2012, a 90-year-old survivor of the World War II ………………. geologist Gianluca Minin about the existence of a bomb shelter below the Palazzo Serra di Cassano.

6. The Via delle Memorie tour that commemorates the lives of those who sought refuge there is deeply ……………….

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Questions 7-12

Do the following statements match the author’s claims in Reading Passage 2?

In boxes 7-12 of the sample reading 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.

7. The air raid siren would be sounded less than 15 minutes before the bombers were expected to reach the city.

8. Originally, there were sufficient medicines, but the supplies dwindled over time.

9. The conduit for conducting water to the air raid shelter was destroyed.

10. The air raid shelter provided accommodation for a large number of people for a short period of time.

11. The area where the injured and the sick were treated was not far away from the lavatories.

12. In the inhospitable conditions of the air raid shelter, people tried to make their lives as normal as possible.

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Questions 13 & 14

Choose two letters from A-D.

In the underground shelter, the children found ways to remain cheerful by doing two of the following.

A. Excavating the tunnels

B. Playing hide-and-seek

C. Reading

D. Singing songs

E. Helping their parents in nursing the sick

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ANSWERS

1. REFURBISHING

2. RELICS

3. REBELLION

4. CONFISCATED

5. INFORMED

6. DISTURBING

7. FALSE

8. NOT GIVEN

9. TRUE

10. FALSE

11. FALSE

12. TRUE

13 AND 14. B, D (IN ANY ORDER)

IELTS Academic Reading Test