Sources of rubber IELTS Listening Answers with Explanation

Luyện tập đề IELTS Listening Practice với section Sources of rubber được lấy từ cuốn sách IELTS CAM IELTS Practice Test 21 - Test 1 - Section 4 với trải nghiệm thi IELTS trên máy và giải thích đáp án chi tiết bằng Linearthinking, kèm list từ vựng IELTS cần học trong bài đọc.

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Sources of rubber

Three resources which are essential for industrial civilisation
• 
1.
            
﻿

• fossil fuels
• rubber
Natural rubber
This mainly comes from the Para rubber tree, now cultivated in South-East Asia.
The supply is limited because
• the growth of the tree is 
2.
            
﻿
.
• production cannot easily be adjusted because of increasing or decreasing 3.
            
﻿
.
• the tree only grows near the 4.
            
﻿
.
• extracting the latex (rubber) is labour-intensive
• it is very difficult to 5.
            
﻿
 rubber after production.
New threats include
• lack of genetic diversity, leading to danger of disease caused by a 
6.
            
﻿
.
• a shift to the cultivation of palm oil
• extreme 7.
            
﻿
 events.
Synthetic rubber
• may be used for engine parts and cooking utensils
• is less 
8.
            
﻿
 than natural rubber
• is unsuitable for many purposes e.g. the tyres of aircraft.
An alternative source of natural rubber
• A wild flower (a type of dandelion) has rubber in its 
9.
            
﻿
.
• It can be grown in many locations and does not require good 10.
            
﻿
.

❓ Transcript

Sources of rubber

Much of the world now lives in an industrial civilisation, but this

has only become possible because we have the necessary natural resources.

There are three types of natural resource, without which industry could not

exist.

One of these is metal.

Without that, we'd have no machines and no transportation.

Another is fossil fuels, which we need to power those machines.

But there's a third resource that's essential to connect the different parts

of a machine together with belts and pipes and shock absorbers, and

that is rubber.

It's now used in over 40,000 products, from waterproof footwear to

surgical gloves.

At present, we have two types of rubber in common use.

One is natural rubber, which nearly all comes from the Pará rubber

tree.

This was originally native to Brazil, but is now cultivated on plantations

in Southeast Asia.

Recently, however, concern's been growing that supplies may soon be

insufficient for the world's needs.

So what exactly is limiting the supply of natural rubber?

Well, for one thing, rubber trees don't just spring up overnight.

It can take 8 to 10 years for a tree to start

producing rubber, so cultivating them's a slow process.

And this leads to another problem.

With most crops, farmers don't have to think very far ahead, so

they can easily change what crop they produce, or how much of

a crop they produce, if they find the demand for that crop

is rising or falling.

But if you have to plant 8 or 10 years ahead, that's

much harder.

And also, the rubber tree's very choosy about where it grows.

It needs the right temperature, the right amount of rainfall, and the

right altitude – not too high and not too low.

The result is that it can't be grown in the northern or

southern parts of the globe, only around the equator.

Another problem is that the rubber is basically extracted in the same

way as it's been done for hundreds of years, and that's by

hand – by making small cuts in the trunk of the tree,

and putting a little cup there to catch the latex, as the

rubber is called.

It's very labour-intensive.

And it's not just the initial production that's limiting supplies.

With other resources, such as water and glass, when we've finished using

them, we can recycle them.

But although this is also possible with rubber, it's very difficult, so

that also reduces the amount we have available.

And in the last few years, there have been new threats to

the supply of natural rubber.

One problem is linked to the fact that nearly all the rubber

trees in Southeast Asia are descended from just a small number of

seeds brought from Brazil in the 19th century.

This means that there's very little genetic diversity among the trees, which

in turn makes them very vulnerable to disease.

The most dangerous threat is a fungus, which destroyed large numbers of

rubber trees in Brazil, and which could cause devastation to plantations

worldwide.

Another problem is that farmers in Southeast Asia are increasingly turning to

the cultivation of palm oil, which is easier and more profitable for

them.

And finally, in recent years, Southeast Asia, like other parts of the

world, has been repeatedly hit by extreme types of weather, and this

looks likely to continue in the future.

However, as well as using natural rubber, it's also possible to make

rubber synthetically.

This works very well for some purposes, for example making engine parts

or silicon pots and pans used for cooking.

But compared with natural rubber, it's not anything like as strong, and

this means it can't replace natural rubber in other products.

For example, while a mixture of natural rubber and synthetic rubber works

well in car tyres, only natural rubber can stand up to the

extreme speeds of aircraft tyres during take-off and landing.

So for some time, scientists have been looking for alternative sources of

natural rubber.

One that's been known about for some time seems initially to be

a rather unlikely source.

It's a wild plant with yellow flowers that we normally regard as

a weed when we see it in our gardens.

But when it's pulled up and its roots cut open, they're found

to contain rubber.

Now compared to the rubber tree, dandelions produce relatively small amounts of

rubber, but unlike rubber trees, they're very adaptable.

They'll grow in all sorts of places, and they don't need rich

soil.

So at present, there are several projects underway investigating the

possibility of using dandelions as a source of rubber.

Another possibility is a desert shrub grown in Mexico and Texas, which

is also…

🔥 Answer key (đáp án và giải thích)

metal / metals

Giải thích chi tiết

❓ Câu hỏi: Three resources which are essential for industrial civilisation: _______, fossil fuels, rubber

🎯 Xác định loại từ cần điền:

Chỗ trống cần một danh từ song song với fossil fuels, rubber.
Cụm trước đó là three resources which are essential for industrial civilisation nên ta cần nghe tên của một loại tài nguyên thiên nhiên.
Thông tin có thể là nguyên liệu cơ bản phục vụ cho industry.

✅ Đáp án đúng: metal

▶️ Bắt đầu nghe ở: câu nói về three types of natural resource và thông tin giới thiệu loại tài nguyên đầu tiên.

☺️ Giải thích đáp án:

Trước khi nghe, xác định từ khóa chính là three resources, và essential for industrial civilisation.
Khi nghe, người nói mở đầu bằng câu: “There are three types of natural resource, without which industry could not exist.”
Ngay sau đó, người nói nói tiếp: “One of these is metal.”
Cụm One of these dùng để chỉ một trong ba loại tài nguyên vừa được nhắc đến.
Vì vậy, đáp án cần điền là metal.

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