Reading 2026-08 Test 13 — IELTS Academic Reading Practice Test with Answers

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Reading Passage 1: Studies in the History of Art and Visual Culture

The Department of the History of Art, which operates within the Faculty of History, offers a one-year postgraduate course in the History of Art and Visual Culture. We welcome applicants from a broad range of backgrounds and do not require students to have a first degree in art history. In addition to a compulsory course on Theory and Methods, students take two one-term optional courses, and write a 15,000-word dissertation on a topic of their choice. The course aims to redefine art history and includes a broader range of objects and visual media than other art history courses. Images and objects produced in many contexts - ranging from the scientific to the popular - have been brought together to show how visual styles at different periods and in different places can be understood in relation to the aesthetic, intellectual and social facets of various cultures.

Theory and Methods

This core course provides an advanced introduction to the major methodological issues and traditions of art history. The course is organised around a series of issues that relate to the production of art and people's responses to it. Students will discuss these issues and assigned readings in small weekly classes. In lectures, the tutors will consider works of art from a variety of cultures in order to demonstrate that context and artistic method are important aspects of art history.

Choosing Courses

The optional courses listed below are not available every year and prospective students are advised to check on the availability of specific courses. Students should also note there may be some restrictions on combining particular courses within their degree programme. Students wishing to take a course that does not appear in the list but is offered by the Faculty of History will need to get permission from the relevant Course Tutor. An application should then be made by the candidate's supervisor.

Authenticity and Replication

The course is designed to give students exposure to a central issue of the visual arts in an explicitly inter-disciplinary and cross-cultural framework. It will use a series of case studies to explore the idea of 'the real' or 'the authentic' in both images and objects. The historical and geographical contexts to be addressed will range widely, from ancient Greece and Rome, to early modern China and to contemporary art, including works seen as genuine as well as works regarded as fraudulent. The course will make particularly extensive use of trips to museums to view actual objects and images.

French Painting 1880-1912

The course examines the development of Post-impressionist painting between 1880 and 1912, at which point Cubism began to have a major impact on the thinking of French artists. Rather than tracing a history of styles or individuals, we consider how artistic practices were closely linked to contemporary developments. The rise of new forms of image distribution, including cinema, will be addressed, as well as the changing role of painting in the public sphere. The writings of artists and their contemporaries will be examined alongside recent art-historical work.

Medieval European Art

This course addresses two problems central to the history of art: the roots of artistic invention, and suitable methods for instructing on technique. During this period, young, would-be artists acted as assistants to a master painter in his workshop. With this type of training, what was the scope for originality, and how was stylistic change encouraged? These issues are brought into sharp focus by the changing visual culture of late-medieval Europe, between the twelfth and the fifteenth centuries. The available literature on these themes is rich, yet inconsistent: the course therefore addresses questions that are very much open.

Reception of Classical European Art

From the fourteenth century the discovery of classical antiquities inspired contemporary artists, some copied closely, some restored the ancient in a contemporary style, while others reinterpreted freely. The course focuses on sculpture, painting and architecture in Britain, with a selection of other European works. Sculpture is examined in life-size marble statues, and in miniature with porcelain figurines. Painting is studied through the designs painted on vases, particularly Athenian and South Italian. Architecture is examined through the ancient Greek temples that were excavated in the nineteenth century and also replicated in miniature for sale to travelers.

Women, Art and Culture in Early Modern Europe

This course will explore the various roles played by women in the production and reception of art and architecture in fifteenth- to seventeenth-century Europe. After many decades of relative neglect, the significance of the way women contributed to the art and culture of Early Modern Europe has come to light. By drawing on this wealth of new research, the course will examine the careers of professional women artists working in Northern and Southern Europe. We also consider how famous women patrons, such as Isabella d'Este and Catherine de Medici, influenced the careers of artists and wider perceptions about art. Another topic that will be addressed is the representation of women in the visual arts, for example as sitters for state portraits and marriage paintings.

1
Applicants to the department must have previously studied art history.
2
Students can choose two optional courses instead of the Theory and Methods course.
3
The course organisers had more problems collecting art objects from some historical periods than others.
4
The Theory and Methods course focuses on the way art is made and perceived.
5
Students will be able to do any of the optional courses that are listed.
6
Students may be able to take an unlisted course if they get the appropriate approval.
7
genuine art is studied in addition to that considered ________ (Authenticity and Replication)
8
art objects are studied in ________ (Authenticity and Replication)
9
the course covers the period up to when ________ started to be prominent (French Painting 1880-1912)
10
the course looks at the connections between art and new developments such as ________ (French Painting 1880-1912)
11
the course considers how artists could be original when taught by an expert in a ________ (Medieval European Art)
12
painting is examined by looking at the decoration of ________ (Reception of Classical European Art)
13
architecture is assessed by studying 19th century models bought by ________ (Reception of Classical European Art)

Reading Passage 2: Skyscraper Farming

A Today’s environmental scientists are in no doubt that the world’s resources of fertile soil are rapidly deteriorating, and that new land for agriculture is becoming ever more sparse. Intensive farming, urbanisation, desertification and sea-level rises are all putting growing pressure on the planet’s agricultural land and therefore on food supplies. Currently 24 per cent of the world’s 11.5 billion hectares of cultivated land has already undergone human-induced soil degradation, particularly through erosion, according to a recent study by the UK Government Office for Science.

B The global population is expected to exceed nine billion by 2050 — up a third from today’s level — and studies suggest that food production will have to go up by 70 per cent if we are to feed all of those new mouths. This means that scientists will have to develop new ways of growing crops if we are to avoid a humanitarian crisis. Indeed, UN Food and Agriculture Organization figures suggest that the number of under-nourished people is already growing, and with escalating climate change, crop yields in many areas have been projected to decline.

C With this in mind, some scientists and agricultural experts are advocating an innovative alternative to traditional farming whereby skyscrapers packed with shelf-based systems for growing vegetables on each storey — known as ‘vertical farms’ — could hold the key to revolutionising agriculture. Columbia University professor Dickson Despommier claims that vertical farming could boost crop yields many times over. A single 20-storey vertical farm could theoretically feed 50,000 people. And if the theory translates into reality as proposed, 160 skyscraper-sized vertical farms could feed the entire population of New York City, while 180 would be needed for London, 289 for Cairo and 302 for Kolkata.

D It’s a compelling vision, and one that has already been put into practice in Asia — albeit on a smaller scale. ‘But there are problems, such as initial investment and operating costs that are too great,’ says a spokesman for Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Nevertheless, Tokyo-based mushroom producer Hokuto Corporation is a model example of how a vertical farm can be profitable. With 28 vertical mushroom farms operating across the country, it produces some 68,000 tonnes of mushrooms annually. ‘Vertical mushroom farms have more advantages than ground-level farms,’ says Hokuto’s Ted Yamanoko, who highlights the relative cost-effectiveness of his organisation’s farming practices together with reduced emissions of greenhouse gases.

E And the impact of vertical farms could extend beyond feeding established urban populations. Despommier sees them as being capable of helping centres of displaced persons — such as refugee camps — in much the same way that Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) units are deployed in emergencies. ‘Developing an emergency-response system for crop production inside specially constructed modular and highly transportable greenhouses would allow for humanitarian interventions,’ he says. ‘If you have three or four storeys of food already growing someplace, they could become mobile units that could be picked up by helicopters and dropped into the middle of a crisis zone.’

F But it isn’t only about increasing food production. Despommier is concerned about the harm that farming has done to the world’s landscape over a relatively short time span, particularly the elimination of hardwood forests. ‘Farming is only 12,000 years old,’ he points out. ‘Vertical farming could allow us for the first time to feed everyone on Earth and still return land to its original ecological function.’ Natalie Jeremijenko of New York University agrees. Reducing the land needed for food production could enrich biodiversity, which in turn can raise the productivity of conventional farms. Furthermore, vertical farming could dramatically cut fossil-fuel use and reduce geopolitical tensions in regions where poor farming conditions drive conflict and malnutrition.

14
Paragraph A
- i. Potential production capabilities of vertical farms
- ii. Opposition to new ideas about food production
- iii. A successful application of vertical-farming technology
- iv. The potential to provide urgent relief
- v. The original inspiration for vertical farming
- vi. Various environmental benefits of vertical farming
- vii. An increasing problem for farmers worldwide
- viii. A return to traditional farming methods
- ix. A rising demand for food
15
Paragraph B
16
Paragraph C
17
Paragraph D
18
Paragraph E
19
Paragraph F
20
A UK Government study found that __________ is a significant factor contributing to worldwide levels of soil degradation.
21
Disadvantages of vertical-farming projects include the expense of setting them up, as well as their high __________.
22
__________ could potentially be used to take vertical-farming facilities to areas where there is a critical food shortage.
23
Vertical farming can have financial benefits.
- A. Dickson Despommier
- B. Ted Yamanoko
- C. Natalie Jeremijenko
24
Traditional farming has had a negative effect on the natural world.
25
Vertical farming could dramatically increase world food production.
26
Traditional farms may benefit from wider use of vertical farming.

Reading Passage 3: The Causes of Linguistic Change

All living languages undergo changes of various kinds, for which there are various reasons. The changes that have caused most dispute are those in pronunciation. We have various sources of evidence for the pronunciations of earlier times, like the evidence of spellings, the treatment of words borrowed from other languages or borrowed by them, the descriptions of contemporary grammarians, and the modern pronunciations in all the languages and dialects concerned. These, combined with a knowledge of the mechanism of speech production, can often give us a very good idea of the pronunciation of an earlier age, though absolute certainty is never possible. When we study the pronunciation of a language over any period of a few generations or more, we find that it is subject to change. Moreover, there are always large-scale regularities in the changes: for example, over a period of time, all the long a sounds in a language may change into long o sounds, or all the b sounds in a certain position (for example, at the end of a word) may change into p sounds. Such regular changes are often called sound laws. There are no universal sound laws, but simply particular sound laws for one given language at one given period.

One cause of change is the influence of one language on another. We learn our mother tongue very thoroughly, and acquire a whole set of speech habits which become second nature to us. When later we learn a foreign language, we inevitably carry over some of these speech habits into it, and so do not speak it exactly like a native. Consequently, in bilingual situations the second language tends to be modified. Such modifications may not persist, of course: an isolated Polish or German immigrant to Britain will usually have grandchildren who speak English like natives because the influence of the general speech environment (playmates, school, work) is stronger than that of the home. But if a large and closely knit group of people adopt a new language, then the modifications they make in it may persist among their descendants, even if the latter no longer speak the original language that caused the changes. This can be seen in Wales, where the influence of Welsh has affected the pronunciation of English, and the very characteristic melody of Welsh English has been carried over from Welsh.

It is also possible that fashion plays a part in the process of change. It certainly plays a part in the spread of change: one person imitates another, and people with the most prestige are most likely to be imitated, so that a change that takes place in one social group may be imitated (more or less accurately) by speakers in another group. When a social group goes up or down in the world, its pronunciation will gain or lose prestige. Some of the changes in accepted English pronunciation in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries have been shown to consist of the replacement of one style of pronunciation by another style already existing, and it is likely that such substitutions were a result of the great social changes of the period: the increased power and wealth of the middle classes, and their steady infiltration upwards into the ranks of the landed gentry probably carried elements of middle class dialect into upper class speech. However, besides spreading changes that have already taken place, fashion may actually cause changes in pronunciation. In a stratified society, the important thing about a fashion is that it is exclusive: as soon as the fashion has penetrated to a lower social group, it’s time to move on.

This can be seen in clothes: fashionable people may find it flattering to be imitated, but as soon as the new fashion has really caught on they must change to something else, to mark themselves off as different. It may be the same with language, for social groups use characteristic styles of language to mark themselves off from other groups. A group that has high prestige may find that its style of speech is being imitated by other groups, and then its members may (perhaps subconsciously) begin to change it, perhaps by exaggerating its distinguishing characteristics.

However, while interaction between different languages, and between the dialects of a single language, can explain some changes in pronunciation, it cannot explain them all. Another cause that has been suggested is the fact that the imitation of children is imperfect: they copy their parents’ speech, but never reproduce it exactly. This seems to be true enough and it moreover seems to be true that even adults show a certain amount of random variation in their pronunciation. However, these facts cannot explain changes in pronunciation, unless it can be shown that there is some systematic trend in the failures in imitation. If they are merely random deviations they will cancel one another out and there will be no net change in the language. For some of these random variations to be selected at the expense of others, there must be further forces at work.

One such force, which is often suggested, is known as the principle of ease. We are all naturally lazy, it is argued, and so we tend to take short cuts in the movements of our speech organs, to replace movements calling for great accuracy or energy by less demanding ones, to omit sounds if they are not essential for understanding, and so on. For example, the word scant was once skamt, but the m has been changed to n under the influence of the following t. An economy of effort has thereby been achieved, because n and t are articulated in the same place (with the tip of the tongue against the teeth-ridge), whereas m is articulated elsewhere (with the two lips). The change from skamt to scant would be an example of assimilation, which is a very common kind of change. Assimilation is the changing of a sound under the influence of a neighbouring sound.

Assimilation is not the only way in which we change our pronunciation in order to reduce effort. A sound may come to be pronounced less energetically, wherever it occurs: the English r and h sounds are undoubtedly pronounced much less vigorously now than they were a thousand years ago. In some positions a sound may disappear altogether. At one time the t was pronounced in words like castle and Christmas, and the g in words like gnat and gnaw. Sometimes a whole syllable is dropped out if it occurs twice running. A modern example is temporary, which in Britain is pronounced as if it were tempory.

27
It is known that the pronunciation of language changes over time. The changes include large-scale regularities known as ________.
28
There are several possible causes for change. Firstly, there is the effect of one language on another. Secondly, there is the role of ________.
29
The speech of certain groups has prestige, and is imitated by others. It has also been suggested that some changes are introduced by ________, who are unable to imitate speech in an exact way.
30
Finally, there is a factor referred to as the ________, by which the effort necessary to produce words is reduced.
31
It is impossible to know how words used to be pronounced.
- TRUE. TRUE
- FALSE. FALSE
- NOT GIVEN. NOT GIVEN
32
Some languages appear to have changed more than others.
33
Some changes in English were probably led by the middle classes.
34
Certain English sounds are difficult for all children to pronounce.
35
Scant is generally easier to pronounce than skamt.
36
The spelling of gnat is likely to change in the future.
37
The spelling of temporary no longer reflects its pronunciation.
38
the b sound changing to a p sound at the end of words
- A. large-scale change
- B. influence of one language on another
- C. minimisation of effort
- D. imitation of prestigious group
39
the melodic pronunciation of Welsh English
40
the disappearance of the t sound in Christmas

Answer sheet

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1. FALSE
The passage says applicants do not need to have studied art history before, so the answer is FALSE.
2. FALSE
Students must take the Theory and Methods course; they cannot replace it with two optional courses, so the answer is FALSE.
3. NOT GIVEN
There is no information about whether collecting art objects from some historical periods was more difficult, so the answer is NOT GIVEN.
4. TRUE
The Theory and Methods course is about how art is made and perceived, which matches the answer TRUE.
5. FALSE
Not all optional courses are available to every student; some may not be offered or may have restrictions, so the answer is FALSE.
6. TRUE
Students can take a course not listed if they get the right approval, so the answer is TRUE.
7. fraudulent
The passage says genuine art is studied along with art considered 'fraudulent.'
8. museums
Art objects are studied in 'museums,' as stated in the passage.
9. Cubism
The course covers up to when 'Cubism' became prominent.
10. cinema
The course looks at connections between art and new developments like 'cinema.'
11. workshop
It considers how artists could be original when taught by an expert in a 'workshop.'
12. vases
Painting is examined by looking at the decoration of 'vases.'
13. travelers
Architecture is assessed by studying 19th-century models bought by 'travelers.'
14. vii
Paragraph A discusses the increasing problem for farmers worldwide, matching option vii.
15. ix
Paragraph B talks about the rising demand for food, which is option ix.
16. i
Paragraph C is about the potential production capabilities of vertical farms, so option i is correct.
17. iii
Paragraph D describes a successful application of vertical-farming technology, matching option iii.
18. iv
Paragraph E mentions the potential to provide urgent relief, which is option iv.
19. vi
Paragraph F lists various environmental benefits of vertical farming, so option vi is correct.
20. erosion
The passage says erosion is a significant factor in worldwide soil degradation.
21. operating costs
A disadvantage of vertical farming is its high 'operating costs,' as stated in the passage.
22. helicopters
Helicopters could be used to bring vertical-farming facilities to areas with food shortages.
23. B
Ted Yamanoko (B) is linked to the financial benefits of vertical farming; Dickson Despommier (A) and Natalie Jeremijenko (C) do not mention this.
24. A
Dickson Despommier (A) discusses the negative effects of traditional farming on nature.
25. A
Dickson Despommier (A) says vertical farming could greatly increase world food production.
26. C
Natalie Jeremijenko (C) suggests traditional farms may benefit from vertical farming.
27. sound laws
The passage says pronunciation changes include regularities called 'sound laws.'
28. fashion
The second cause for change is the role of 'fashion.'
29. children
Some changes are introduced by 'children,' who cannot always copy speech exactly.
30. principle of ease
The 'principle of ease' is the factor that reduces the effort needed to say words.
31. FALSE
The passage explains that it is possible to know how words were pronounced in the past, so the answer is FALSE.
32. NOT GIVEN
There is no information about whether some languages have changed more than others, so the answer is NOT GIVEN.
33. TRUE
The passage suggests that some changes in English were led by the middle classes, so the answer is TRUE.
34. NOT GIVEN
There is no information about whether certain English sounds are difficult for all children, so the answer is NOT GIVEN.
35. TRUE
'Scant' is easier to pronounce than 'skamt' because it requires less effort, so the answer is TRUE.
36. NOT GIVEN
There is no information about whether the spelling of 'gnat' will change, so the answer is NOT GIVEN.
37. TRUE
The spelling of 'temporary' does not match its current pronunciation, so the answer is TRUE.
38. A
The b sound changing to a p sound at the end of words is a large-scale change, so A is correct.
39. B
The melodic pronunciation of Welsh English is due to the influence of one language on another, so B is correct.
40. C
The disappearance of the t sound in 'Christmas' is due to minimisation of effort, so C is correct.

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Reading Passage 1: Studies in the History of Art and Visual Culture

Reading Passage 2: Skyscraper Farming

Reading Passage 3: The Causes of Linguistic Change

Answer sheet

Answer key