The Motor Car - IELTS Reading Answers With Explanations

The IELTS Academic Reading passage on the topic, ‘The Motor Car,’ can help you in handling different types of questions efficiently under IELTS exam conditions. 

With the right practice and effort, the reading section can become a very high-scoring one. The most important trick is to understand the different question types, as well as gain experience in strategically tackling them.

By practising reading passages like ‘The Motor Car,’ you will be able to identify how the information is presented in the passage and develop skills for scanning keywords, and interpreting complex ideas to score a band 8+

Types of Questions in ‘The Motor Car’ IELTS Reading Passage 

Acquaint yourself with the question types of the IELTS Reading test, so that it becomes easy for you to attempt the passage ‘The Motor Car.’ Remember to note the strengths and weaknesses for each question type so that you can work towards a higher band score, and this will develop your critical thinking abilities while sharpening your focus.

The question types in this Reading Passage include:

• IELTS Reading Matching Headings (Q. 1-6)
• IELTS Reading Yes/No/Not Given  (Q. 7-12)

Reading Passage - The Motor Car

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1 - 12, which are based on the Reading Passage below.

A. There are now over 700 million motor vehicles in the world - and the number is rising by more than 40 million each year. The average distance driven by car users is growing too - from 8 km a day per person in western Europe in 1965 to 25 km a day in 1995. This dependence on motor vehicles has given rise to major problems, including environmental pollution, depletion of oil resources, traffic congestion and safety.

B. While emissions from new cars are far less harmful than they used to be, city streets and motorways are becoming more crowded than ever, often with older trucks, buses and taxis, which emit excessive levels of smoke and fumes. This concentration of vehicles makes air quality in urban areas unpleasant and sometimes dangerous to breathe. Even Moscow has joined the list of capitals afflicted by congestion and traffic fumes. In Mexico City, vehicle pollution is a major health hazard.

C. Until a hundred years ago, most journeys were in the 20 km range, the distance conveniently accessible by horse. Heavy freight could only be carried by water or rail. The invention of the motor vehicle brought personal mobility to the masses and made rapid freight delivery possible over a much wider area. Today about 90 per cent of inland freight in the United Kingdom is carried by road. Clearly the world cannot revert to the horse-drawn wagon. Can it avoid being locked into congested and polluting ways of transporting people and goods?

D. In Europe most cities are still designed for the old modes of transport. Adaptation to the motor car has involved adding ring roads, one-way systems and parking lots. In the United States, more land is assigned to car use than to housing. Urban sprawl means that life without a car is next to impossible. Mass use of motor vehicles has also killed or injured millions of people. Other social effects have been blamed on the car such as alienation and aggressive human behaviour.

E. A 1993 study by the European Federation for Transport and Environment found that car transport is seven times as costly as rail travel in terms of the external social costs it entails such as congestion, accidents, pollution, loss of cropland and natural habitats, depletion of oil resources, and so on. Yet cars easily surpass trains or buses as a flexible and convenient mode of personal transport. It is unrealistic to expect people to give up private cars in favour of mass transit.

F. Technical solutions can reduce the pollution problem and increase the fuel efficiency of engines. But fuel consumption and exhaust emissions depend on which cars are preferred by customers and how they are driven. Many people buy larger cars than they need for daily purposes or waste fuel by driving aggressively. Besides, global car use is increasing at a faster rate than the improvement in emissions and fuel efficiency which technology is now making possible.

G. One solution that has been put forward is the long-term solution of designing cities and neighbourhoods so that car journeys are not necessary - all essential services being located within walking distance or easily accessible by public transport. Not only would this save energy and cut carbon dioxide emissions, it would also enhance the quality of community life, putting the emphasis on people instead of cars. Good local governments are already bringing this about in some places. But few democratic communities are blessed with the vision - and the capital - to make such profound changes in modern lifestyles.

H. A more likely scenario seems to be a combination of mass transit systems for travel into and around cities, with small 'low emission' cars for urban use and larger hybrid or lean burn cars for use elsewhere. Electronically tolled highways might be used to ensure that drivers pay charges geared to actual road use. Better integration of transport systems is also highly desirable - and made more feasible by modern computers. But these are solutions for countries which can afford them. In most developing countries, old cars and old technologies continue to predominate.

Questions

Questions 1-6

Reading Passage has eight paragraphs (A-H). Which paragraphs concentrate on the following information?

Write the appropriate letters (A-H) in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.

You need only write ONE letter for each answer.

1. a comparison of past and present transportation methods

2. how driving habits contribute to road problems

3. the relative merits of cars and public transport

4. the writer's own prediction of future solutions

5. the increasing use of motor vehicles

6. the impact of the car on city development

Questions 7-13

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

In boxes 7-13 on your answer sheet write

YES if the statement agrees with the information

NO if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this in the passage.

7. Vehicle pollution is worse in European cities than anywhere else.

8. Transport by horse would be a useful alternative to motor vehicles.

9. Nowadays freight is not carried by water in the United Kingdom.

10. Most European cities were not designed for motor vehicles.

11. Technology alone cannot solve the problem of vehicle pollution.

12. People's choice of car and attitude to driving is a factor in the pollution problem.

13. Redesigning cities would be a short-term solution.

The Motor Car IELTS Reading Answers with Location and Explanation 

Check out the answers with answer location and explanation for the passage ‘Jargon’. Remember to note the areas of improvement so that you can work on them before practising more passages like this. This will help you get a higher IELTS Band Score!

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Tricks to Answer the Question Types in ‘The Motor Car’ IELTS Reading Passage 

Matching Information Questions

• In the IELTS Reading matching information questions, you should begin by stripping every question statement down to its core function. Understand its definition, reason, issue, solution, or comparison. 
• Scan the reading text only for words with contrast markers like ‘however, although,’ cause links like ‘because, therefore,’ and example-giving words like ‘for instance.’ This is because these kinds of words give you the paragraph’s purpose. 
• When several paragraphs have similar vocabulary, trust the purpose-match rather than the word-match. The IELTS exam traps you with many synonym clusters that may appear correct but often serve a different function. 
• Once you fix one answer, eliminate its paragraph from the remaining possibilities to reduce getting confused.

Yes/No/Not Given Questions

• Like the IELTS Reading True/False/Not given questions, the Yes/No/Not Given questions also have various question statements given. 
• You will have to find out if the question statement that has the opinion of the author matches the reading text for a “Yes.”
• If it contradicts the information in the passage, the answer is “No”, and if there is no content present about a particular statement, then it is “Not Given.” 
• Go through the passage for keywords related to the question statement using the IELTS Reading keyword techniques to find out the relevant information.
• Look out for words like rarely, nearly, often, majorly, almost, some, etc. These can slightly change the meaning of the whole sentence. 

By practising with passages like this one on the topic, ‘The Motor Car,’ you will be able to master the IELTS Reading module in no time. However, remember to monitor your progress level so that you will be able to identify your weak areas and work towards it. Hence, you need to get familiar with the question types, strategies, and then attempt the passages to achieve a band score of 8+.

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