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BEST IELTS Academic Reading Test 480
IELTS ACADEMIC READING TEST 480 – PASSAGE – 2
IELTS ACADEMIC READING TEST – 480
READING PASSAGE – 2
Walter Elias Disney
A. Walter Elias Disney (December 5, 1901-December 15, 1966) was an American entrepreneur, animator, author, voice actor and film producer. An innovator of the American animation industry, he familiarized several expansions in the production of cartoons. As a film producer, Disney holds the record for most Academy Awards received by an individual, having won 22 Oscars from 59 nominations. He was presented with two Golden Globe Special Achievement Awards and an Emmy Award, among other honours. Several of his films are involved in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
B. Born in Chicago in 1901, Disney established an early interest in drawing. He took art classes as a boy and got a job as a commercial illustrator at the age of 18. He moved to California in the early 1920s and set up the Disney Brothers Studio with his brother Roy. With Ub Iwerks. Walt developed the character Mickey Mouse in 1928, his primary highly popular success; he also provided the voice for his creation in the initial years. As the studio cultivated, Disney became more adventurous, presenting synchronized sound, full-colour three-strip Technicolor, feature-length cartoons and technical growths in cameras.
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The results, seen in features such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Pinocchio, Fantasia (both 1940), Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942), furthered the development of animated film. New animated and live-action films followed World War II, counting the critically successful Cinderella (1950) and Mary Poppins (1964), the latter of which received five Academy Awards.
C. In the 1950s, Disney extended into the amusement park industry, and in 1955 he unbolted Disneyland in Anaheim, California. To support the project, he expanded into television programs, such as Walt Disney’s Disneyland and The Mickey Mouse Club; he was also involved in planning the 1959 Moscow Fair, the 1960 Winter Olympics, and the 1964 New York World’s Fair. In 1965, he started development of another theme park, Disney World, the heart of which was to be a new type of city, the “Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow” (EPCOT). Disney was a heavy smoker through his life and died of lung cancer in December 1966 before either the park or the EPCOT project was accomplished.
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Disney was a shy, self-deprecating and self-doubting man in private but assumed a warm and outgoing public persona. He had high standards and high outlooks of those with whom he worked. While there have been charges that he was racist or anti-Semitic, they have been opposed by many who knew him. His reputation reformed in the years after his death, from a purveyor of homely patriotic values to a representative of American imperialism.
He remains an important figure in the history of animation and in the cultural history of the United States, where he is considered a national cultural icon. His film work endures to be shown and adapted; his namesake studio and company upholds high standards in its production of popular entertainment, and the Disney amusement parks have grown in size and number to attract visitors in numerous countries.
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E. Several of his films are involved in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”: Steamboat Willie, The Three Little Pigs, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Pinocchio, Bambi, Dumbo and Mary Poppins. In 1998, the American Film Institute published a list of the 100 greatest American films, according to industry experts; the list comprised Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (at number 49), and Fantasia (at 58).
F. In February 1960, Disney was inducted to the Hollywood Walk of Fame with two stars, one for motion pictures and the other for his television work; Mickey Mouse was given his own star for motion pictures in 1978. Disney was also inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1986, the California Hall of Fame in December 2006, and was the inaugural receiver of a star on the Anaheim walk of stars in 2014.
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G. The Walt Disney Family Museum records that he “along with members of his staff, received more than 950 honours and citations from throughout the world”. He was made a Chevalier in the French Légion d’honneur in 1935, and in 1952 he was awarded the country’s highest artistic decoration, the Officers d’Académie. Other national awards comprise Thailand’s Order of the Crown (1960); Germany’s Order of Merit (1956), Brazil’s Order of the Southern Cross (1941) and Mexico’s Order of the Aztec Eagle (1943).
H. In the United States, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom on September 14, 1964, and on May 24, 1968, he was subsequently awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. He received the Showman of the World Award from the National Association of Theatre Owners, and in 1955, the National Audubon Society awarded Disney its highest honour, the Audubon Medal, for promoting the “appreciation and understanding of nature” through his True-Life Adventures nature films. A minor planet discovered in 1980 by astronomer Lyudmila Karachkina, was named 4017 Disneya, and he was also awarded honorary degrees from Harvard, Yale, the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles.
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Questions 15-22
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write correct letter A-H in your answer sheet
NB you may use any letter more than once.
15. Recognition for two works of Disney at the Hollywood.
16. Disney setting up his studio and working on cartoons.
17. Presidential honor in the United States.
18. Several awards as a producer.
19. Winning awards from around the globe.
20. Disney’s nature and criticism.
21. Disney’s interest in expanding in Fun Parks Business.
22. Numerous of Disney’s films involved in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
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Questions 23-28
Choose the correct letter A, B or C.
23. Disney was nominated for ……….. Academy awards?
a. 22
b. 59
C. 18
24. At a young age, Disney was interested in ………..
a. Drawing
b. Producing films
c. Cartoons
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25. To fund his amusement park project, Disney expanded into ………..
a. Cartoons
b. Films
c. Television programs
26. Which film features in the top 50 greatest films in America?
a. Bambi
b. Snow white and the Seven dwarfs
c. Fantasia
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27. Disney was inducted into ……….. for one motion picture and one television work.
a. Television hall of fame
b. Hollywood walk of fame
c. Television walk of fame
28. Throughout the world, Disney and his staff received …………. honors.
a. 950
b. 1935
c. 1952
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ANSWERS
15. F
16. B
17. H
18. A
19. G
20. D
21. C
22. E
23. B
24. A
25. C
26. B
27. B
28. A
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