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Passage 1 T1

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
313 views4 pages

Passage 1 T1

Uploaded by

aliyoldoshev06
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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READING

READING PASSAGE 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1–13, which are based on Reading
Passage 1 below.

The history of the pencil


The history of the pencil starts with a at around 3,500 degrees Celsius. This
violent thunderstorm. When some made it invaluable to the British army
particularly ferocious weather struck and navy as a secret ingredient in the
the Lake District in North West manufacture of cannon balls. The
England in the sixteenth century, Royal Ordnance, or weaponry section
locals in the village of Borrowdale of the British armed forces, used
discovered a large uprooted tree. graphite as a lining inside the moulds
Underneath the tree lay an unknown for cannon balls, as a result of which
black substance which, as we now the British could turn them out faster
know, was slightly shiny and smooth to and more cheaply than their European
the touch. And it left a black smear on rivals. In addition to its value to the
the hands of all who touched it. armed forces, the government quickly
realised the commercial potential of
Initially, the local farmers used the the graphite at Borrowdale and
newly discovered material as a handy assumed control of all the mines there
way to identify their sheep. However, during the sixteenth century. Armed
others quickly realised the potential for guards accompanied the precious
using this intriguing substance to write graphite all the way down to the metal
on paper. When it was untreated, the foundries by the naval shipyards in the
material was very soft, which meant south of England. The graphite was so
that it was messy to handle. To make it valuable that the locals, who called it
fit for use with paper, people enclosed wadd, started to steal it. As a
a thin core of the substance in stiff deterrent, an act of parliament in 1752
sheep hides or rope. At this time made this offence punishable by time
chemistry was still in its infancy. in prison.
People searched for a word to
describe this increasingly useful The Italians originally invented the
substance and came up with wooden casing to hold a thin rod of
“plumbago,” which, in Latin, means plumbago firmly in place for ease of
“acts or writes like lead”. Later the writing. Italian craftsmen hollowed out
name was changed to graphite. But two small sections of cedar wood, into
because words have remarkable one of which they laid the lead. They
staying power, we still call graphite the then glued the other section over the
“lead” of a pencil even though it is now top and left the two halves to set.
known that there is no trace of real When dry, the whole apparatus formed
lead in graphite. what today we know as a pencil. The
Germans took this technique and
Graphite has a very high melting point, developed it further by applying mass-

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production techniques to pencils. At although other grades can still be
the same time Nicolas-Jacques Conte, found, and England's pencil industry
a French officer in Napoleon continues to thrive in the nearby town
Bonaparte's army during the late of Keswick.
1700s, developed a method of mixing
powdered graphite and clay together The pencil has turned out to be a
for firing in a kiln. Adding more clay to remarkably resilient and valuable tool
the mixture helped make the pencil whose use has survived well into our
harder, sharper, and more precise in high-tech times, as a well-known story
its mark. More graphite helped make a shows. It is sometimes said that the
pencil mark that was softer, thicker American space programme spent
and darker. millions of dollars to invent a pen
capable of writing in the zero gravity of
The varying quality of pencil leads space. The Russians, by contrast,
eventually gave rise to a system for simply equipped their astronauts with
categorizing the fineness of the pencil good old-fashioned pencils that never
mark. Pencil manufacturers all over let them down. It should be pointed out
the world still use this so-called HB though, that the popular myth about
grading system today. The H stands Americans overlooking the practical
for the hardness of the pencil while the advantages of pencils in zero gravity is
B stands for its blackness. An HB merely fiction. In actual fact, both
pencil is a standard pencil and a American and Russian astronauts
variety of letters and numbers are were equipped with pencils in their
used to designate different types of respective country's first space flights.
lead. A private company later developed
pens for writing in zero gravity. In fact,
Significant seams of graphite exist in astronauts of every nation now use
parts of China, which now produces pens. But no matter – pencils remain
most of the world's pencils. in use in every classroom, every
Interestingly, the Borrowdale mine in planning, building and drawing office,
the Lake District remains the only and in every art studio in the world.
significant source of graphite in its And there is nothing to suggest that we
near-pure form in the world. Nowadays are likely to invent anything better than
the highest grade of graphite at graphite to use in our pencils.
Borrowdale is totally exhausted,

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Questions 1-6

Complete the notes below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.

The early history of graphite in Britain


• Graphite was first found below a 1 ................... blown down in a storm.

• The first use of graphite was to make marks on 2 ……………

• The characteristics of raw graphite:

- dirty to use because it is so 3 ……………

- originally wrapped in 4 ................... or animal skin to make it useable as a


pencil.

• Graphite came to the notice of the government for military and commercial
purposes.

- The government completely took over the 5 ................... at Borrowdale.

- They employed guards to protect the graphite on its journey south.

• Local people began to 6 ................... graphite for the money involved.

- The government passed a law to protect the graphite industry.

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Questions 7–13

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?

In boxes 7–13 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information


FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

7 The Italians were the first to make pencils out of wood.

8 The Germans used different types of wood to produce pencils.

9 More clay in a pencil makes it write more darkly.

10 After the HB code was introduced, it very quickly became used by all
manufacturers.

11 English pencil factories have now all closed down.

12 American astronauts used pencils on their early journeys into space.

13 The use of graphite pencils is unlikely to continue into the future.

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