Ielts reading question-type based tests true false not given matching headings

Questions 1-8 
Complete the table below. 
Choose 
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS 
from the passage for each answer. 
TIME 
TRAVELLER 
DESTINATION 
PURPOSE OF TRAVEL 
Classical Greece 
Herodotus 
Egypt and Anatolia 
To gather information for 
the study of Q1 ________ 
Han Dynasty 
Zhang Qian 
Central Asia 
To seek Q2 ___________ 
Roman Empire 
Ptolemy, Strabo,
Pliny the Elder 
The Mediterranean 
To acquire
Q3 ___________ 
Post-classical era 
(about 500 to 1500 CE) 
Muslims 
From East Africa to 
Indonesia, Mecca 
For trading and
Q4 ___________ 
5
th
– 9
th
Centuries CE 
Chinese Buddhists 
Q5 ___________ 
To collect and Buddhist
texts and for spiritual 
enlightenment. 
Early modern era 
(about 1500
to 1800 CE) 
European explorers 
The New World 
To satisfy public curiosity 
for the New World 
During 19
th
century 
Colonial 
administrations 
Asia, Africa 
To provide information for 
the Q6 ___________
they set up
By mid-century of the 
1800s
Sun Yat-sen, 
Fukuzawa 
Yukichi
Europe and
the United States 
To study the
Q7 ___________
of their societies 
20
th
century 
People from 
Q8 ___________ 
countries 
Mass Tourism 
For entertainment and 
pleasure 

---

Welcome to Mr Aslanov’s Lessons 
QUESTION-TYPE BASED TESTS 
FunEnglishwithme [phone] 
TEST 3 – The Development of Plastics 
When rubber was first commercially produced in Europe during the nineteenth century, it rapidly 
became a very important commodity, particularly in the fields of transportation and electricity. However, 
during the twentieth century a number of new synthetic materials, called plastics, superseded natural rubber 
in all but a few applications. 
Rubber is a polymer—a compound containing large molecules that are formed by the bonding of 
many smaller, simpler units, repeated over and over again. The same bonding principle—polymerization—
underlies the creation of a huge range of plastics by the chemical industry. 
The first plastic was developed as a result of a competition in the USA. In the 1860s, $10,000 was 
offered to anybody who could replace ivory—supplies of which were declining—with something equally 
good as a material for making billiard balls. The prize was won by John Wesley Hyatt with a material called 
celluloid. Celluloid was made by dissolving cellulose, a carbohydrate derived from plants, in a solution of 
camphor dissolved in ethanol. This new material rapidly found uses in the manufacture of products such as 
knife handles, detachable collars and cuffs, spectacle frames and photographic film. Without celluloid, the 
film industry could never have got off the ground at the end of the 19th century.
Celluloid can be repeatedly softened and reshaped by heat, and is known as a thermoplastic. In 1907, 
Leo Baekeland, a Belgian chemist working in the USA, invented a different kind of plastic, by causing 
phenol and formaldehyde to react together. Baekeland called the material Bakelite, and it was the first of 
the thermosets—plastics that can be cast and moulded while hot, but cannot be softened by heat and 
reshaped once they have set. Bakelite was a good insulator, and was resistant to water, acids and moderate 
heat. With these properties it was soon being used in the manufacture of switches, household items such as 
knife handles, and electrical components for cars.
Soon chemists began looking for other small molecules that could be strung together to make 
polymers. In the 1930s British chemists discovered that the gas ethylene would polymerize under heat and 
pressure to form a thermoplastic they called polythene. Polypropylene followed in the 1950s. Both were 
used to make bottles, pipes and plastic bags. A small change in the starting material—replacing a hydrogen 
atom in ethylene with a chlorine atom —produced PVC (polyvinyl chloride), a hard, fireproof plastic 
suitable for drains and gutters. And by adding certain chemicals, a soft form of PVC could be produced, 
suitable as a substitute for rubber in items such as waterproof clothing. A closely related plastic was Teflon, 
or PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene).
This had a very low coefficient of friction, making it ideal for bearings, rollers, and non-stick frying 
pans. Polystyrene, developed during the 1930s in Germany, was a clear, glass-like material, used in food 
containers, domestic appliances and toys. Expanded polystyrene a white, rigid foam was widely used in 
packaging and insulation. Polyurethanes, also developed in Germany, found uses as adhesives, coatings, 
and—in the form of rigid foams as insulation materials. They are all produced from chemicals derived from 
crude oil, which contains exactly the same elements carbon and hydrogen as many plastics. 
The first of the man-made fibres, nylon, was also created in the 1930s. Its inventor was a chemist 
called Wallace Carothers, who worked for the Du Pont company in the USA. He found that under the right 
conditions, two chemicals hexamethylenediamine and adipic acid would form a polymer that could be 
pumped out through holes and then stretched to form long glossy threads that could be woven like silk. Its 
first use was to make parachutes for the US armed forces in World War H. In the post-war years nylon 
completely replaced silk in the manufacture of stockings. Subsequently many other synthetic fibres joined 
nylon, including Orion, Acrilan and Terylene. Today most garments are made of a blend of natural fibres, 
such as cotton and wool, and man-made fibres that make fabrics easier to look after. 
The great strength of plastic is its indestructibility. However, this quality is also something of a 
drawback: beaches all over the world, even on the remotest islands, are littered with plastic bottles that 
nothing can destroy. Nor is it very easy to recycle plastics, as different types of plastic are often used in the 
same items and call for different treatments. Plastics can be made biodegradable by incorporating into their 

---