Could Urban Engineers Learn From Dance? IELTS Reading Answers

The Academic passage ‘Could urban engineers learn from dance?’ is a reading passage that appeared in an IELTS Test. Ideally, you should not spend more than 20 minutes on a passage. Let’s see how easy this passage is for you and if you’re able to make it in 20 minutes. If not, try more IELTS reading practice tests from IELTSMaterial.com

The types of questions found in this passage are:

Matching information:

Matching Information questions have a list that contains information taken from the paragraphs. You are asked to find out the paragraph from which the information is taken. Sometimes the question may be indirect because the information given might not be in exact words/phrases as given in the paragraph. In this case, you need to read the paragraph to understand the meaning/idea to answer these questions.

Summary Completion: 

In these questions, you must complete the summary of the given passage by going through the given text and identifying the relevant context mentioned in the summary. Then, fill in the blanks with the missing words or phrases and complete the summary. It should be meaningful in relation to the passage. You might/might not get the exact phrases/words from the passage; hence, pay close attention to the passage.

Could urban engineers learn from dance?

Answers

1 Answer: B

Question Type: Matching information

Answer location: Paragraph B, Introductory lines

Answer explanation: “Dance might hold some of the answers. That is not to suggest everyone should dance their way to work, however healthy and happy it might make us, but rather that the techniques used by choreographers to experiment with and design movement in dance could provide engineers with tools to stimulate new ideas in city-making.” These lines suggest that the idea of that the writer has mentioned an appealing way (healthy and happy) of using dance, but is not proposing (not to suggest) it as a way to head towards their workplace. And this information is in Paragraph B.

2 Answer: C

Question Type:  Matching information

Answer location: Paragraph C, Lines 1-5

Answer explanation: “Whereas medieval builders improvised and adapted construction through their intimate knowledge of materials and personal experience of the conditions on a site, building designs are now conceived and stored in media technologies that detach the designer from the physical and social realities they are creating.” We can understand that the comparison between the ancient or past (medieval) and modern (now) modes of construction of  buildings is drawn in Paragraph C.

3 Answer: F

Question Type:  Matching information

Answer location: Paragraph F, Lines 3-8

Answer explanation: “In order to bring about fundamental changes to the ways we use our cities, engineering will need to develop a richer understanding of why people move in certain ways, and how this movement affects them. Choreography may not seem an obvious choice for tackling this problem. Yet it shares with engineering the aim of designing patterns of movement within limitations of space.” These lines from Paragraph F explains that though there is a difference between dancing (choreography) and engineering, they both have the objective (shares) of designing patterns of movement within limitations of space.

4 Answer: D

Question Type:  Matching information

Answer location: Paragraph D, lines 6-10

Answer explanation: “They failed to take into account that purpose-built street cafés could not operate in the hot sun without the protective awnings common in older buildings, and would need energy-consuming air conditioning instead, or that its giant car park would feel so unwelcoming that it would put people off getting out of their cars.” Overlooking or ignoring (failed to take into account) the effects of the climate (hot sun) by the modern cafes and an unforeseen problem (could not operate) is mentioned in Paragraph D.

5 Answer: E

Question Type:  Matching information

Answer location: Paragraph E, lines 1-6

Answer explanation: “The same is true in transport engineering, which uses models to predict and shape the way people move through the city. Again, these models are necessary, but they are built on specific world views in which certain forms of efficiency and safety are considered and other experiences of the city ignored. Designs that seem logical in models appear counter-intuitive in the actual experience of their users.” The information about the reversing (counter-intuitive) effects of models that, in reality, aim at helping people is brought about in the paragraph E.

6 Answer: A

Question Type:  Matching information

Answer location: Paragraph A, Lines 6-8

Answer explanation: “The ways we travel affect our physical and mental health, our social lives, our access to work and culture, and the air we breathe.” The information about the effect (impact) of travelling (transport) on our health, physically and mentally is brought about in the Paragraph A.

7 Answer: safety

Question Type: Summary Completion

Answer location: Paragraph E, Lines 6-9

Answer explanation: “The guard rails that will be familiar to anyone who has attempted to cross a British road, for example, were an engineering solution to pedestrian safety based on models that prioritise the smooth flow of traffic.” This highlights the function of guardrails is to provide safety to the pedestrians. Hence, the answer would be ‘safety’.

8 Answer: traffic

Question Type: Summary Completion

Answer location: Paragraph E, Lines 6-9

Answer explanation: “The guard rails that will be familiar to anyone who has attempted to cross a British road, for example, were an engineering solution to pedestrian safety based on models that prioritise the smooth flow of traffic.” This sentence highlights that the guard rails apart from aiming at pedestrians’ safety, also ensured that the traffic flow is not disrupted (smooth flow). Hence, the answer is ‘traffic’.

9 Answer: carriageway

Question Type: Summary Completion

Answer location: Paragraph E, Lines 9-12

Answer explanation: “On wide major roads, they often guide pedestrians to specific crossing points and slow down their progress across the road by using staggered access points to divide the crossing into two – one for each carriageway.” This suggests that the pedestrians were guided (led) to cross one (each) carriageway at a time. Hence, the answer is ‘carriageway’.

10 Answer: mobile

Question Type: Summary Completion

Answer location:  Paragraph E, Lines 12-15

Answer explanation: “In doing so they make crossings feel longer, introducing psychological barriers greatly impacting those that are the least mobile, and encouraging others to make dangerous crossings to get around the guard rails.” This suggests that the crossings create psychological barriers (difficulties) which make it difficult for the less (the least) mobile or quite passive people to cross the road. Hence, the answer is ‘mobile’.

11 Answer: dangerous

Question Type: Summary Completion

Answer location:  Paragraph E, Lines 12-15

Answer explanation: “In doing so they make crossings feel longer, introducing psychological barriers greatly impacting those that are the least mobile, and encouraging others to make dangerous crossings to get around the guard rails.” The psychological barriers that were unintentionally created, induces some people to cross the roads dangerously. Hence, the answer is ‘dangerous’.

12 Answer: communities

Question Type: Summary Completion

Answer location:  Paragraph E, Lines 15-17

Answer explanation: “These barriers don’t just make it harder to cross the road: they divide communities and decrease opportunities for healthy transport.” Through this lines, it is suggested that these psychological barriers make it hard for the people to cross the roads and also divide the communities due to the hassles they create in moving across. Hence, the answer is ‘communities’.

13 Answer: healthy

Question Type: Summary Completion

Answer location:  Paragraph E, Lines 15-17

Answer explanation: “These barriers don’t just make it harder to cross the road: they divide communities and decrease opportunities for healthy transport.” This suggests that these psychological barriers make it harder for healthy transport to execute properly. Hence, the answer is ‘healthy’.

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