Table of Contents
BEST IELTS Academic Reading Test 465
IELTS ACADEMIC READING TEST 465 – PASSAGE – 1
IELTS ACADEMIC READING TEST – 465
READING PASSAGE – 1
War in the Sunny Alps
Estorick Collection, London, Islington
Finally reopened to the public following a five-month renovation, the Estorick Collection in Islington is celebrating its return with a major exhibition of rarely seen works documenting the role of British forces in Italy during the final years of World War One. A collection of drawings, paintings and photographs from local and official war artists highlights an easily forgotten aspect of Britain’s involvement in this terrible conflict which took place almost a hundred years ago.
The collection makes an effort to challenge expectations. There’s no mud, or trenches, or blood. There aren’t any dead bodies, or bombs, or weapons. Despite the collection’s title, though, there isn’t any sunshine, either. Poverty, destruction and desolation are consistent themes throughout the exhibition, despite the perhaps jronic efforts of some of the contributors to add an apolitical romanticized aura to the conflict.
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Shattered churches are covered in pure white snow under the warmth of a friendly sun; disillusioned youngsters smile with apparent innocence; war tanks are surrounded by pretty young ladies carrying colourful flower baskets; heroic troops in beautiful uniforms march into the mountain-peaked horizon. These are just some of the many controversial and perhaps misleading landscapes presented in the collection that might lead one to believe the war never truly happened.
Philip Carson’s remarkable drawings and paintings of aerial battles focus on the plastic beauty of one of the ugliest times in human history. The landscapes are breath-taking enough to cause you to consider what fantastic holiday destinations the war bases would have made. Carson first created these pieces while serving as a fighter pilot, aspects which might explain his reputed ’emotional detachment from the more brutal of the conflict. Such detachment would have been a helpful survival tool when one was both a soldier and an artist in the midst of a war.
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His work appears to present a version of the war emotionless enough to allow him to accept what was happening at the time. Carson produced images that would make the act of destruction seem less horrific and more factual; simply a moment in human history. Somehow, as an artist if not as a pilot, Carson missed his mark. His top-down approach to the events on land can generally only be found amidst charity fundraising luncheons of those who are willing to help the less fortunate as long as champagne is provided.
The photographer Edward Banks who served on the Western Front, (some say he asked to be transferred there so as not to miss any of the action,) makes a Hollywood inspired contribution to the collection. The photographs he took during his assignment to Italy sensitively represent the daily difficulties faced by front-line combat troops and dispossessed Italian civilians scratching a living behind Anglo-Italian lines. Banks’s scenes work beautifully with the impressive, mountainous landscapes, but unfortunately, some of his portraits take on a strong resemblance backstage shots from a period soap opera.
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Despite the evident failings of some of the work, the collection does have its merits, and these come largely through the work of Peter Paul Carroll. His work reveals a passionate feel for the stunning views of the Italian Alps, interspersed with sympathetic images of young Italian women working for the British Army Service Corps, unloading railway wagons, cooking for the ‘enemy’ or washing British Army uniforms. Carroll’s work gives a true representation of what life would have been during and shortly after the conflict, without presenting sterile, emotionless images. The dense atmosphere is masterfully conveyed and the expressions of grief and desperation are sensitively portrayed by the artist.
Aside from the fact that the exhibition does not give a sunny vision to the viewer, making the title blatantly misleading, War in the Sunny Alps offers very different perspectives on this final apocalyptical stage of the First World War, fought in what was one of the most formidable landscape of the entire conflict.
IELTS Academic Reading Test
Questions 1-6
Do the following statements agree with the writer’s opinion in Reading Passage 1?
In boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet write
YES – if the statement agrees with the writer’s opinion
NO – if the statement contradicts the writer’s opinion
NOT GIVEN – if there is no information about the writer’s opinion
1. The art gallery looks smarter after its five-month renovation.
2. Local artists have forgotten about the late events of World War One.
3. Some of the pieces could be interpreted as ironic.
4. There are some remarkable paintings of several aerial battles.
5. None of the photographs were taken after the sunset.
6. Peter Paul Carroll disliked the local women.
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Questions 7-12
Choose the appropriate letters A-D.
7. According to the writer, Philip Carson
A. enjoyed fighting in the war.
B. had a detached personality.
C. did not express any feelings towards WWI in his work.
D. enjoyed fundraising events.
8. The writer believes that Edward Banks
A. Edwards Banks’s photographs look as if they were staged.
B. Edward Banks was a sensitive artist.
C. was extremely unimaginative in his artistic choices.
D. was skilled at presenting a realistic image of the events.
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9. The writer admires the work of
A. Philip Carson
B. Edward Banks
C. Woody Allen
D. Peter Paul Carroll
10. The writer believes that Paul Peter Carroll’s work
A. is largely sterile and emotionless in tone.
B. Presents a realistic image of the events.
C. has a limited number of merits.
D. is unsympathetic to the grief and desperation felt by others.
IELTS Academic Reading Test
11. The writer concludes that
A. the exhibition portrays World War One from different angles.
B. World War One was misleading.
C. different perspectives are important in art.
D. the sunshine undoubtedly made the conflict less apocalyptical.
12. The writer describes the scenery of the Alps as
A. plastic
B. apocalyptical
C. sunny
D. formidable
IELTS Academic Reading Test
IELTS Academic Reading Test
ANSWERS
1. NOT GIVEN
2. NOT GIVEN
3. YES
4. YES
5. NOT GIVEN
6. NO
7. C
8. A
9. D
10. B
11. A
12. D