Cambridge IELTS 16 Test 2 Reading Passage 1 là một bài tập không quá khó nhưng vẫn đủ thử thách để luyện tập cho phần thi IELTS Reading. Để cùng vận dụng hết những từ vựng mà bài có thì hãy cùng ISE giải đề và phân tích đáp án nhé!

1. Phần thi Cambridge IELTS 16 Test 2 Reading Passage 1 là gì?

 1.1. Thông tin bộ sách Cambridge IELTS 16

Cambridge IELTS là một bộ sách được xuất bản bởi Cambridge với mục đích luyện đề thi IELTS và được ra mắt vào tháng 5 hàng năm.

Các đề từ Cambridge IELTS nhìn chung bám khá sát với đề thi thực tế và đã được thí sinh trên toàn thế giới thêm vào danh sách các bộ đề luyện thi IELTS uy tín.

Nội dung sách bao gồm các phần thi của cả 4 kỹ năng trong bài thi IELTS Academic bao gồm: Reading, Listening, Speaking và Writing.

1.2. Tổng quan Cambridge IELTS 16 Test 2 Reading Passage 1

Bài đọc Cambridge IELTS 16 Test 1 Reading Passage 1 có tên là “The White Horse of Uffington” và đây là một bức vẽ địa kỹ thuật “geoglyph” đã được tìm thấy gần khu làng Uffington. Các nhà khoa học đã tìm hiểu, nghiên cứu về bức ảnh cũng như tìm hiểu những nét văn hóa truyền thống gắn liền với nó.

Phần Passage 1 sẽ bao gồm 13 câu hỏi từ câu 1 đến 13 của phần Reading Test 1.

2. Bài đọc và đề bài Cambridge IELTS 16 Test 2 Reading Passage 1

 READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on QUESTIONS 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.

THE WHITE HORSE OF UFFINGTON

The cutting of huge figures or ‘geoglyphs’ into the earth of English hillsides has taken place for more than 3,000 years. (Q1) There are 56 hill figures scattered around England, with the vast majority on the chalk downlands of the country’s southern counties. (Q2) The figures include giants, horses, crosses and regimental badges. Although the majority of these geoglyphs date within the last 300 years or so, there are one or two that are much older.

The most famous of these figures is perhaps also the most mysterious — the Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire. (Q3) The White Horse has recently been re-dated and shown to be even older than its previously assigned ancient pre-Roman Iron Age date. (Q4) More controversial is the date of the enigmatic Long Man of Wilmington in Sussex. While many historians are convinced the figure is prehistoric, others believe that it was the work of an artistic monk from a nearby priory and was created between the 11th and 15th centuries.

(Q5) The method of cutting these huge figures was simply to remove the overlying grass to reveal the gleaming white chalk below. However, the grass would soon grow over the geoglyph again unless it was regularly cleaned or scoured by a fairly large team of people. (Q6) One reason that the vast majority of hill figures have disappeared is that when the traditions associated with the figures faded, people no longer bothered or remembered to clear away the grass to expose the chalk outline. (Q7) Furthermore, over hundreds of years the outlines would sometimes change due to people not always cutting in exactly the same place, thus creating a different shape to the original geoglyph. The fact that any ancient hill figures survive at all in England today is testament to the strength and continuity of local customs and beliefs which, in one case at least, must stretch back over millennia.

The Uffington White Horse is a unique, stylised representation of a horse consisting of a long, sleek back, thin disjointed legs, a streaming tail, and a bird-like beaked head. The elegant creature almost melts into the landscape. (Q9) The horse is situated 2.5 km from Uffington village on a steep slope close to the Late Bronze Age (c. 7th century BCE) hillfort of Uffington Castle and below the Ridgeway, a long-distance Neolithic track.

The Uffington Horse is also surrounded by Bronze Age burial mounds. It is not far from the Bronze Age cemetery of Lambourn Seven Barrows, which consists of more than 30 well-preserved burial mounds. The carving has been placed in such a way as to make it extremely difficult to see from close quarters, and like many geoglyphs is best appreciated from the air. Nevertheless, there are certain areas of the Vale of the White Horse, the valley containing and named after the enigmatic creature, from which an adequate impression may be gained. Indeed on a clear day the carving can be seen from up to 30 km away.

(Q10) The earliest evidence of a horse at Uffington is from the 1070s CE when ‘White Horse Hill’ is mentioned in documents from the nearby Abbey of Abingdon, and the first reference to the horse itself is soon after, in 1190 CE. However, the carving is believed to date back much further than that. Due to the similarity of the Uffington White Horse to the stylised depictions of horses on 1st century BCE coins, it had been thought that the creature must also date to that period.

(Q11) However, in 1995 Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) testing was carried out by the Oxford Archaeological Unit on soil from two of the lower layers of the horse’s body, and from another cut near the base. The result was a date for the horse’s construction somewhere between 1400 and 600 BCE — in other words, it had a Late Bronze Age or Early Iron Age origin.

The latter end of this date range would tie the carving of the horse in with occupation of the nearby Uffington hillfort, indicating that it may represent a tribal emblem marking the land of the inhabitants of the hillfort. Alternatively, the carving may have been carried out during a Bronze or Iron Age ritual. (Q12) Some researchers see the horse as representing the Celtic horse goddess Epona, who was worshipped as a protector of horses, and for her associations with fertility. However, the cult of Epona was not imported from Gaul (France) until around the first century CE. This date is at least six centuries after the Uffington Horse was probably carved. Nevertheless, the horse had great ritual and economic significance during the Bronze and Iron Ages, as attested by its depictions on jewellery and other metal objects. (Q13) It is possible that the carving represents a goddess in native mythology, such as Rhiannon, described in later Welsh mythology as a beautiful woman dressed in gold and riding a white horse.

The fact that geoglyphs can disappear easily, along with their associated rituals and meaning, indicates that they were never intended to be anything more than temporary gestures. But this does not lessen their importance. These giant carvings are a fascinating glimpse into the minds of their creators and how they viewed the landscape in which they lived.

Questions 1—8

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?

In boxes 1—8 on your 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

1. Most geoglyphs in England are located in a particular area of the
2. There are more geoglyphs in the shape of a horse than any other
3. A recent dating of the Uffington White Horse indicates that people were mistaken about its
4. Historians have come to an agreement about the origins of the Long Man of
5. Geoglyphs were created by people placing white chalk on the
6. Many geoglyphs in England are no longer
7. The shape of some geoglyphs has been altered over
8. The fame of the Uffington White Horse is due to its

Questions 9—13

Complete the notes below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 9—13

3. Đáp án và giải thích chi tiết

 3.1 Câu 1 – 8 – True / False / Not Given

Trong phần câu 1-8, bài thi yêu cầu thí sinh cần hiểu được đại ý trong các câu hỏi để đưa ra được lựa chọn đúng, thí sinh cần nắm rõ keywords và paraphrase của nó trong bài cũng như đại ý của các phần câu hỏi đặt ra.

3.2. Câu 9 – 13 – Notes Completion

Trong phần câu 9 – 13, bài thi yêu cầu thí sinh cần hiểu được đoạn tóm tắt, và đặc biệt phải nắm được từ đồng nghĩa và paraphrase để có thể lựa chọn từ phù hợp cho chỗ trống, đồng thời xác định được các mục được liệt kê trong bảng (nơi tìm ra, thời gian và các mối liên hệ trong nền văn hóa) và tìm được vị trí của chúng trong bài đọc.

TỔNG KẾT VỀ CAMBRIDGE IELTS 16 TEST 2 READING PASSAGE 1

Vậy là chúng ta đã cùng nhau đi qua những câu hỏi tuy không quá khó nhưng cũng có thể dễ dàng đánh lừa thí sinh. Bài đọc này được ISE đánh giá là vừa sức với các bạn thi IELTS do chủ đề không quá hàn lâm và từ vựng cũng không quá cao cấp. Vì vậy, việc đạt được điểm tối đa ở bài đọc Cambridge IELTS 16 Test 2 Reading Passage 1 là hoàn toàn có thể nếu bạn có một chiến thuật làm bài hợp lý. Các thí sinh cũng có thể mua sách Cambridge IELTS 16 để tham khảo và tự thực hành các bài tại nhà nhé.

Bạn có thể liên hệ ISE để đăng ký tư vấn lộ trình học IELTS phù hợp tại:

Chi nhánh 1: 02 Nguyễn Huy Lượng,Phường 14, Quận Bình Thạnh, TP.HCM

Chi nhánh 2: 393 Điện Biên Phủ,Phường 4, Quận 3, TP.HCM

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