Table of Contents
BEST IELTS General Reading Test 512
IELTS GENERAL READING TEST 512 – PASSAGE – 3
IELTS GENERAL READING TEST – 512
READING PASSAGE – 3
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With the click of a mouse, libraries and museums are reaching a new audience, writes Steve Meacham.
A. Museums and libraries used to be thought of as boring and of little relevance to our mobile- phone generation. And yet, over the past decade, something bizarre has happened to the once rarefied world of museums and libraries. Suddenly they’ve become ‘fashionable’. Some call it ‘a renaissance’, others ‘a revolution’. Either way, many of our most august institutions have reinvented themselves. The walls that once protected their vast collections of artefacts and books from the ravages of the outside world have become porous. Now, people are peering beyond the bricks and mortar, seeing libraries and museums for what they always wanted to be citadels of ideas, stores of human knowledge.
B. Even though many sceptics have questioned whether such ‘elite’ bodies as libraries would become redundant because of the Web – who needs a librarian when you can find out just about anything you need to know on Google? – the statistics show the opposite: libraries and museums are thriving like never before. They’re marketing themselves to an even wider population, opening their doors 24 hours a day, displaying ‘treasures’ that until now have had to be locked away under conservation protocols.
IELTS General Reading Test
C. Take the National Library of Australia (NLA) in Canberra. Relatively few Australians ever venture inside. Yet, according to the director general in charge of public programs, ‘The library collection of documentary heritage is the largest in the nation. We’ve got nine million items. Every year the library accepts the equivalent of five semi-trailer loads of new information.’
D. ‘There’s a lot of rubbish on the Internet,’ says the chief librarian at the State Library of New South Wales. Search engines like Google may be invaluable research tools, she says, but they don’t differentiate between truth and fiction. Libraries can advise people which websites have credibility and which don’t. Librarians, thanks to the Internet, have become web pilots -highly skilled researchers who are expert in the Internet’s electronic tools.
IELTS General Reading Test
E. It is less than a decade since the Australian Museum launched its website. Back in 1995 it was little more than a crude bulletin board, giving details of opening times and admission charges. Now it is one of the most ‘information-rich’ sites in the country. There are interactive forums, such as those on sea slugs and fish, which are recognised as international leaders.
F. As the oldest natural-history institution in the country, the Australian Museum has an estimated 13 million specimens, dating back hundreds of years. Only a tiny fraction can ever be displayed. Preservation, conservation and documentation are vital. Yet digital images of the specimens can be displayed on the museum’s website without risk to the specimens themselves. A good example of this is the feathered cape that belonged to the famous navigator and explorer Captain James Cook, that was given to him by the people of Hawaii. Far too delicate to be displayed except for short periods under subdued lighting, it can be viewed permanently on the museum’s website.
IELTS General Reading Test
The same goes for threatened species. Thanks to the Web, says the curator, ‘We can not only show animals which are rare or endangered, but animals which are extinct.’ By their very nature, many documents stored in libraries are too fragile to be displayed. A classic case is William Wills’ journal of the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition, discovered after the explorers’ deaths. Scrawled in pencil, it is a priceless piece of Australian history. On the Web every page can be read, a poignant account of a monumental folly.
G. A transformation has taken place at another of Sydney’s museums, the Powerhouse Museum, where the Soundbite.org project won a prize for innovation in 2003. This was an online digital music studio, which allowed musicians to play with other musicians around the world. It was used by music teachers throughout Australia, New Zealand and Singapore and became an invaluable teaching tool.
IELTS General Reading Test
H. Our libraries are also combining to make it easier to borrow books and it is predicted that soon Australians will be able to go online and order any book in any Australian library and have it delivered to their local library within seven days. Eventually they will be able to have digitalised versions of books sent to them by email. The result, says one of the librarians at the National Library of Australia, is that younger people are being enticed back to libraries. ‘People realise libraries are alive. Librarians aren’t just looking after dead things.”
Questions 28-35
Reading Passage 3 has eight paragraphs, A-H.
Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number, i-ix.
List of Headings
i. A place that rarely receives visitors
ii. How one museum received an award for linking people across the globe
iii. Looking at real future possibilities
iv. Predictions about museums and libraries are proved wrong
v. The museum that never closes
vi. Items that would not be seen without the Internet
vii. The changing face of museums and libraries
viii. How one museum has undergone huge technological change in the last ten years
ix. Providing a reliable guide to Internet sources
IELTS General Reading Test
28. Paragraph A
29. Paragraph B
30. Paragraph C
31. Paragraph D
32. Paragraph E
33. Paragraph F
34. Paragraph G
35. Paragraph H
IELTS General Reading Test
Questions 36-40
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
36. Unlike search engines such as Google, librarians know the difference between fact and …………….. and people value this.
37. Museum websites can show …………….. of fragile, ancient specimens and provide discussion forums on various species.
38. Precious garments such as a …………….. once worn by Captain Cook can be displayed on a museum website.
39. Libraries contain valuable …………….. that need to be preserved, such as old travel journals.
40. The future collaboration between libraries and the Internet means it will take only …………….. to transfer books from one library to another.
IELTS General Reading Test
IELTS General Reading Test
ANSWERS
28. VII
29. IV
30. I
31. IX
32. VIII
33. VI
34. II
35. III
36. FICTION
37. DIGITAL IMAGES
38. FEATHERED CAPE
39. DOCUMENTS
40. 7/SEVEN DAYS
IELTS General Reading Test