Eyes on the world travel photography

IELTS READING TEST 14

READING PASSAGE 1

You spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading passage 1 below.

Cities of the future

A.  Researchers recently gave 1,000 people a questionnaire about ‘Cities of The Future’. To answer the questions, the people had to imagine and describe what they thought our cities might look like in the year 2050. Interestingly, a large number of people were anxious that they would become ‘dark, dangerous places’, which had endless traffic jams and very few green spaces. This group also predicted an increase in the level of pollution and thought people would always need to wear facemasks in order to breathe. They also believed that it would be less safe to walk on the street as there would be ‘more stealing’ and other criminal behaviour. A smaller number thought cities might become a lot cleaner, and might be built from more interesting materials. They were also looking forward to new technology such as flying cars and moving pavements. In general, they believed that the cities of the future would offer a much more convenient way of living. A few people were uncertain; for example, they thought the size of apartments might reduce as the population of the city grew, but they also thought that public transport would become better.

B.  What do the results from this questionnaire tell us? In a way, we shouldn’t be amazed by the descriptions of the largest group. So many Hollywood films show cities of the future as frightening places. Online newspapers are also responsible for spreading this same belief. Headlines such as ‘Global population rises – cities become crowded’ are becoming more frequent. Journalists rarely discuss how future cities might be a good place to live.

C.  The facts are these: 50% of people now live in cities, even though cities only occupy 2% of the world’s land. By 2050, it is predicted that the number of people living there will rise to 70%. Some people are worried that villages in the countryside will become empty as everyone leaves for the city, and so traditional ways of life will be lost. This may be true, but we have to accept changes like this as part of human development. Rather than being negative, we should be hopeful that we can improve people’s lives as they move to cities. The way to do this is through intelligent planning.

D.  Architects have a big role to play in our future cities. In the past, the architects who were responsible for planning our cities often designed buildings that they were interested in; but now it is time for them to listen carefully to what people living in cities are asking for. In many countries around the world, people are choosing to have smaller families or to wait longer before they start a family. For this reason, not everyone needs a large house. Smaller and cheaper houses are what they need. But ‘small’ doesn’t have to be the same as ‘ugly’ or ‘boring’. Western architects could perhaps look at some of the architecture in Japanese cities, where very stylish houses are built on small pieces of unused land.

E.  And what might cities of the future be made from? Engineering companies have produced some interesting new products, for example, wood-like material made from recycled newspapers or old drink cartons. One engineering team are even working on a project that uses mushrooms to create a hard building material. These new materials may seem strange, but we should remember that plastic was only invented in 1907 – at the time people thought that this was an unusual product, but now it is something we cannot manage without. Building a city of the future requires imagination and an open mind.

Questions 1-4

The passage has five paragraphs labelled A-E

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter A-E in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.

1. the duties and responsibilities of the people who design our cities ……….

2. the influence of cinema and the media on people’s view of the future ……….

3. the types of material that future buildings might be made from ……….

4. some information and opinions about people living in cities and living in the countryside ……….

Questions 5-8

Choose the correct letter, A, B, or C.

5. What is the writer doing in Paragraph B?

A. Explaining why many people will probably prefer to live in cities in the future.

B. Giving a reason why many people feel negative about cities of the future.

C. Suggesting that newspapers show a more realistic view of future cities than films.

6. What point does the writer make in Paragraph C?

A. It is important to encourage some people to stay in their villages.

B. It is possible to maintain traditional village customs after moving to cities.

C. It is necessary to think in a creative way about city design.

7. Paragraph D: In the writer’s opinion, architects who are responsible for planning cities

A. often make houses that are unattractive.

B. must make buildings based on people’s needs.

C. should get experience by working in foreign cities.

8. Paragraph E: The writer refers to the invention of plastic to make the point that

A. we can expect building materials to be very different in the future.

B. we must accept that good-quality materials take a long time to create.

C. we should use a variety of building materials to make our cities interesting.

READING PASSAGE 2

You spend about 20 minutes on Questions 13-26, which are based on Reading passage 2 below.

‘Eyes on the World’: Travel photography in the 21st century

One of the world’s first travel shoots took place in 1849 when two young Frenchmen, Gustave Flaubert and Maxime Du Camp, decided they would set out on a great adventure and travel to Egypt. Du Camp took hundreds of photographs of the Pyramids and the Sphinx, and when he returned home and published his travel album, the images amazed the European public and turned Du Camp into a celebrity overnight.

While Du Camp’s photographs may appear simple in comparison to modern photographs with their special effects, it seems to me that nowadays the majority of photographers fail to realise what the challenges were in taking photographs in the 19th century. To begin with, foreign travel was expensive and difficult to organise. Fortunately, Du Camp had money of his own and he was also able to get additional funding for the journey from the French government. Another issue was the size and weight of 19th-century cameras – they were very large and heavy. Finally, not only was there a great deal of equipment and chemicals to transport, but travelling itself could be highly dangerous. Of course, travel photographers do still take risks as part of their job, but the level of danger is hardly the same as when Du Camp was travelling across continents.

Nevertheless, as any professional photographer knows, to be good at the job still requires hard work and dedication. The popular idea that great photographs are often the result of a photographer being in exactly the right place at exactly the right time, just by chance, does not reflect reality. Last year, for example, on a visit to Reykjavik, Iceland, I met several photographers I knew. We were all there for the annual Winter Lights festival, involving works by many artists and musicians. One shot we all wanted was the perfect image of the aurora borealis – the strange green lights that sometimes appear briefly in the sky as the sun is going down. It took hours for everyone to decide how best to catch this moment and to work out where to place themselves to get the best result. In the end, I was delighted with the way my photographs turned out. In general, professional photographers share the feeling that the most rewarding photographs are the ones you’ve worked hard for.

Events like this attract photographers because the atmosphere can help create some wonderful photo opportunities. The Day of the Dead in Mexico is a perfect example. Although other countries have a similar event, for example, All Souls Day in the Philippines, the Mexican event is a photographer’s dream. It’s a time of celebration, when people remember relatives who have already passed away. Good photographs will capture that sense of joy in the bright and colourful decorations on the gravestones and in the faces of the families who are using humour and art to remember their dead. What’s more, the local people are usually happy to share this experience with outsiders so visitors can participate if they wish. The festival is held in November, and should be included in any photographer’s diary.

Travelling as a photographer has encouraged me to question some ideas I previously believed to be true. An example of this is the popular belief that some groups of native Americans strongly dislike photographs and will turn away from cameras. This, however, is not the case. From talking to native Americans I’ve met on my journeys, it seems that it is now acceptable to regard photographs as valuable connections to ancestors and even include them in important ceremonies, some of which I have been lucky to observe and record.

One question that people often ask is whether it’s possible to make a reasonable living in the travel photography industry today. Gone are the easy days when photographers simply shot photos for magazines and newspapers, sent them to an editor and got paid at the end of every month: these forms of media now usually buy photos for their stories directly from companies that store millions of them. As a result, photographers now need to be more flexible about the kind of projects they work on. One way to do this is by working for big businesses. In the past, photographers often decided where they would like to go, and could perhaps experiment more with the kinds of photographs they took. However, working for a big business often means that you are sent where the company wants you to go; perhaps to a beach or a mountain if they want to promote these as tourist destinations. The desert is another popular place: many car companies like to shoot this kind of background to advertise their new vehicles. Of course, nowadays this kind of well-paid work opportunity is very popular, so a huge number of photographers will all apply for the same job; a situation which you didn’t see so much in the past. Nevertheless, in my experience, whether photographers are amateurs or professionals, there is a generally positive feeling between them: they are supportive of each other and willing to share advice about work opportunities and the risks that travelling to foreign destinations sometimes involves.

Questions 9-15

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

In boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet, write

YES If the statement agrees with the writer’s claims
NO If the statement contradicts the writer’s claims
NOT GIVEN If there is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

9. Most photographers understand how hard it was to take photographs in the 19th century.  ……….

10. Some of the chemicals that Du Camp used for his photography were unsafe.  ……….

11. There is a lot of luck involved in taking really good photographs.  ……….

12. It’s usually photographs that require a lot of effort that professional photographers are most pleased with.  ……….

13. All Souls Day in the Philippines is an older festival than the Day of the Dead in Mexico.  ……….

14. Mexican locals are happy for foreigners to attend Day of the Dead celebrations.  ……….

15. It has become common for some native American groups to photograph important ceremonies.  ……….

Questions 16-19

Read the final paragraph of the text.

Choose FOUR ideas which are found in the text.

A. Some photographers like to take photographs of serious subjects while others like to take amusing ones.

B. The typical career of a photographer is not the same today as it was in the past.

C. Newspapers no longer buy so many photographs from individual photographers.

D. Big businesses sometimes use photographers to take pictures of their products or services.

E. The internet has made it much easier to see the work of many photographers.

F. There are a huge number of training courses if people want to study photography.

G. Photographers talk to each other about their experiences and provide useful information.

Questions 20-23

Complete the summary below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Nowadays photographers no longer receive (20) ………… from the work they do, and they need to look for different kinds of project. One option is to get a job with a large company and take photographs for (21) ………… . A job like this is attractive to many photographers, and there is (22)…………  between them. However, it is also true that in general, photographers form  (23)…………  with each other, no matter whether they take photos for fun or as a career.

Lost for Words

Many minority languages are on the danger list

In the Native American Navajo nation which sprawls across four states in the American south-west, the native language is dying. Most of its speakers are middle-age or elderly. Although many students take classes in Navajo, the schools are run in English. Street sign, supermarket goods and even their own newspaper are all in English. Not surprisingly, linguists doubt that any native speakers of Navajo will remain in a hundred years’ time.

Navajo is far from alone. Half the world’s 6,800 languages are likely to vanish within two generations – that’s one language lost every ten days. Never before has the planet’s linguistic diversity shrunk at such a pace. “At the moment, we are heading for about three or four languages dominating the world”, says Mark Pagel, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Reading. “It’s a mass extinction, and whether we will ever rebound from the loss is difficult to know.’

Isolation breeds linguistic diversity as a result, the world is peppered with languages spoken by only a few people. Only 250 languages have more than a million speakers, and at least 3,000 have fewer than 2,500. It is not necessarily these small languages that are about to disappear. Navajo is considered endangered despite having 150,000 speakers. What makes a language endangered is not that the number of speakers, but how old they are. If it is spoken by children it is relatively safe. The critically endangered languages are those that are only spoken by the elderly, according to Michael Krauss, director of the Alaska Native Language Center, in Fairbanks.

Why do people reject the language of their parent? It begins with a crisis of confidence when a small community finds itself alongside a larger, wealthier society, says Nicholas Ostler of Britain’s Foundation for Endangered Languages, in Bath. ‘People lose faith in their culture’ he says. ‘When the next generation reaches their teens, they might not want to be induced into the old tradition.’

The change is not always voluntary. Quite often, governments try to kill off a minority language by banning its use in public or discouraging its use in school, all to promote national unity. The former US policy of running Indian reservation in English, for example, effectively put languages such as Navajo on the danger list. But Salikoko Mufwene, who chairs the Linguistics Department at the University of Chicago, argues that the deadliest weapon is not government policy but economic globalisation. ‘Native Americans have not lost pride in their language, but they have had to adapt to socio-economic pressures’ he says. ‘They cannot refuse to speak English if most commercial activity is in English”. But are languages worth saving? At the very least, there is a loss of data for the study of languages and their evolution, which relies on comparisons between languages, both living and dead. When an unwritten and unrecorded language disappears, it is lost to science.

Language is also intimately bond up with culture, so it may be difficult to reserve one without the other. ‘If a person shifts from Navajo to English, they lose something’ Mufwene says. ‘Moreover, the loss of diversity may also deprive us of different ways of looking at the world’, says Pagel. There is mounting evidence that learning a language produces physiological changes in brain. ‘Your brain and mine are different from the brain of someone, who speaks French, for instance’ Pagel says, and this could affect our thoughts and perceptions. ‘The patterns and connections we make among various concepts may be structured by the linguistic habits of our community.’

So despite linguists’ best efforts, many languages will disappear over the next century. But a growing interest in cultural identity may prevent the direst predictions from coming true. ‘The key to fostering diversity is for people to learn their ancestral tongue, as well as the dominant language’ says Doug Whalen, founder and president of the Endangered Language Fund in New Haven, Connecticut. ‘Most of these languages will not survive without a large degree of bilingualism’ he says. In New Zealand, classes for children have slowed the erosion of Maori and rekindled interest in the language. A similar approach in Hawaii has produced about 8000 new speakers of Polynesian languages in the past few years. In California, ‘apprentice’ programmes have provided life support to several indigenous languages. Volunteer ‘apprentices’ pair up with one of the last living speakers of Native American tongue to learn a traditional skill such as basket weaving, with instruction exclusively in the endangered language. After about 300 hours of training, they are generally sufficiently fluent to transmit the language to the next generation. But Mufwene says that preventing a language dying out is not the same as giving it new life by using every day. ‘Preserving a language is more likely preserving fruits in a jar’ he says.

However, preservation can bring a language back from the dead. There are examples of languages that have survived in written form and then been revived by latter generations. But a written form is essential for this, so the mere possibility of revival has led many speakers of endangered languages to develop systems of writing where none existed before.

Questions 24-26

Complete the summary below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

There are currently approximately 6,800 languages in the world. This great variety of languages came about largely as a result of geographical (24) ………… . But in today’s world, factors such as government initiatives and (25) …………  are contributing to a huge decrease in the number of languages. One factor which may help to ensure that some endangered languages do not die out completely is people’s increasing appreciation of their  (26)………… . This has been encouraged though programmes of languages classes for children and through ‘apprentice’ schemes, in which the endangered language is used as the medium of instruction to teach people a (27)………… . Some speakers of endangered languages have even produced writing systems in order to help secure the survival of their mother tongue.

Questions 28-32

Match each statement with the correct person A-E.

Write the correct letter A, B, C, D or E in boxes 5-9 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

28. Endangered languages cannot be saved unless people learn to speak more than one language.

29. Saving languages from extinction is not in itself a satisfactory goal.

30. The way we think may be determined by our language.

31. Young people often reject the established way of life in their community.

32. A change of language may mean a loss of traditional culture.

Questions 33-36

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

In boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet, write

YES If the statement agrees with the writer’s claims
NO If the statement contradicts the writer’s claims
NOT GIVEN If there is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

33. The Navajo language will die out because it currently has too few speakers. 

34. A large number of native speakers fails to guarantee the survival of a language. 

35. National governments could do more to protect endangered languages.

36. The loss of linguistic diversity is inevitable. 

Answers