BEST IELTS Academic Reading Test 497

BEST IELTS Academic Reading Test 497

IELTS Academic Reading Test

The Whaling Industry in the Nineteenth Century

A journey through fishing, fuel and fashion

A. The whaling industry was brutal and dangerous but incredibly profitable. From the 1860s, sailing ships with manned rowboats were replaced by fast steamships with on-board cannons that fired iron harpoons directly into the sides of whales. Some even contained an explosive on their tip. After being harpooned, the whale soon grew exhausted while trying to escape, with the harpoon being attached to the ship by a rope. Drawn up alongside the ship, the whale would then be killed by a lance thrust into the heart or lungs. Once dead, it was chained to the side of the ship, a wooden stage was erected around it, and the messy business of chopping it up was initiated.

B. The whale’s blubber was boiled down on the deck in huge metal pots to extract whale oil. A large whale could supply up to 100 barrels of oil, which was used for the new practice of lighting streets at night with lamps. This was a step in civilization which was changing the face of cities all around the world, but it required increasing amounts of fuel to be produced, and at the time the whale was a major source for the fuel.

IELTS Academic Reading Test

C. Whale oil was preferred to other animal fats because it produced less smell when it burned and less residue in the air. It was also used to light factories and lighthouses, as well as streets. It could withstand very high burning temperatures so it could be used as a lubricant on fast-moving factory machinery. It was also used for heating homes, making soap and candle wax, and the processing of textiles and rope. Whale oil essentially greased the gears of the Industrial Revolution.

D. Another valuable product that could be harvested from a whale was spermaceti, a liquid wax found in the whale’s head. This mysterious wax was like gold for the whalers. It needed no processing and, when burned, it was odourless and smokeless. In dark, airless nineteenth-century homes, a source of clean lighting in lamps and candles could fetch very high prices. The American inventor Benjamin Franklin liked reading by the light of spermaceti candles. Spermaceti became a status symbol for the wealthy in Europe and America.

IELTS Academic Reading Test

Another precious whale product was ambergris, a grey rock-like substance found in the sperm whales’ intestines. It can still be found occasionally washed up on beaches, but at the time it was removed from the whale’s body. Beached ambergris is still used in the production of fragrances as a fixative that allows the scent to endure much longer. It is an ingredient of luxury perfume Chanel No. 5.

E. Whale oil was used in all types of soaps and cosmetics, and in the twentieth century it was even used in the production of edible products such as margarine. Another whale product that was a valuable commodity and a part of the fashion industry was baleen. Baleen is the fine, fibrous teeth-like projections that hang down from the upper jaws of baleen whales (whale species that have no teeth, such as the humpback) and are used to filter tiny crustaceans and fish from the sea. It is strong but flexible, and was therefore perfect for making hoops for large skirts and boning the women’s corsets that were so fashionable at the time.

IELTS Academic Reading Test

It was also used for strengthening umbrellas and parasols, and for stiffening hats and luggage. Fashion items were not the only use for baleen. Its flexibility made it perfect for fishing rods, bows and arrows, horse whips, and springs on carriages. Anyone who had a horse and carriage needed a whip, so millions of whips were produced. Baleen was even used in the field of medicine – it was perfect for setting broken bones. What started as a by-product of whaling, became one of the leading uses of whale products, as other sources of fuel started to become available and displace whale oil.

F. Towards the end of the century, machines used in industry and transport began switching from coal to petroleum products such a gasoline, and as a result other petroleum products like kerosene and paraffin wax were cheaper alternatives to whale oil or spermaceti for lamps and candles. Paraffin wax was also used instead of spermaceti in the production of cosmetics. Whaling was still important to the fashion industry well into the twentieth century, but over time, it was replaced by other materials that could be manufactured instead of being hunted down at sea.

IELTS Academic Reading Test

G. The early years of the twentieth century saw a fall in demand for whale products, but world populations of whales were already in massive decline. After the Second World War, and in the decades that followed, most countries around the world agreed to shut down their commercial whaling industries to save them. Today we see whales as beautiful and noble animals that deserve conservation.

It is easy to look back and judge the brutality of the whalers of previous centuries with our modern values, but we need to remember that whaling brought light and warmth to humans, and this was essential to progress. When alternatives to whale products, such as petroleum and plastics, were discovered, we did not know at the time that these too would bring their own set of even greater problems. Now in the modern world, the search is on for new products to replace them.

IELTS Academic Reading Test

Reading Passage 1 has seven paragraphs, A-G.

Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.

Write the correct number, i-x.

List of headings

i. A way of life unchanged for 200 years

ii. Alternatives to cut the cost

iii. A global decision for conservation

iv. A violent but lucrative way to make a living

v. Birth of the fashion industry

vi. Keeping the wheels of industry turning

vii. Bending without breaking

viii. The source of many precious metals

ix. Bringing new visibility to dark urban spaces

x. Luxury products and uses

IELTS Academic Reading Test

1. Paragraph A

2. Paragraph B

3. Paragraph C

4. Paragraph D

5. Paragraph E

6. Paragraph F

7. Paragraph G

IELTS Academic Reading Test

Label the diagram below. Choose NO MORE THAN ONE WORD for each answer.

IELTS Academic Reading Test

IELTS Academic Reading Test

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

11. What did whale oil do for the Industrial Revolution?

A. It was the cause of it.

B. It brought it to an end.

C. It made it more complicated.

D. It kept it rolling.

12. The whaling industry went into decline in the twentieth century because

A. whales were harder to find.

B. it was competing with other energy sources.

C. whales became protected by law.

D. the fashion industry stopped using its products.

IELTS Academic Reading Test

13. What does the author say about modern substitutes for whale products in the final paragraph?

A. They are worse for the environment.

B. They are more effective.

C. They are less expensive.

D. They are necessary for human advancement.

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BEST IELTS Academic Reading Test 497

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IELTS Academic Reading Test

1. IV

2. IX

3. VI

4. X

5. VII

6. II

7. III

8. SPERMACETI

9. AMBERGRIS

10. BALEEN

11. D

12. B

13. A

IELTS Academic Reading Test

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