The problems and benefits created by the spread of the water hyacinth in Kenya IELTS Reading Answers with Explanation

Luyện tập đề IELTS Reading Practice với passage The problems and benefits created by the spread of the water hyacinth in Kenya được lấy từ cuốn sách IELTS CAM IELTS Practice Test 21 - Test 4 - Passage 1 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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The problems and benefits created by the spread of the water hyacinth in Kenya IELTS Reading Answers with Explanation

📖 Bài đọc (reading passage)

The problems and benefits created by the spread of the water hyacinth in Kenya
Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes), an aquatic plant native to South America, first appeared in countries in Africa in the early 1900s. Scientists there called it the 'world's worst aquatic weed', after it spread from the southernmost tip of Africa in the early 1900s and started obstructing major dams and rivers.

In east Africa the plant arrived with Belgian colonists in Rwanda, who liked the look of its glossy leaves and delicate purple flowers floating in their ponds. But by the 1980s, it had 'escaped' out of the country via the Kagera river and made its way downstream to Lake Victoria. There, with no natural predators and perfect temperature conditions, the plant began spreading in the open water, blocking fishing routes and providing a new habitat for disease-carrying mosquitoes.

For the women who smoke fish from the lake to sell it has meant declining income, as the boats that once brought the fish to shore by the hundreds struggle to navigate through the mass of plants. But water hyacinth isn't their only headache. In order to smoke the fish that they buy, they must gather huge quantities of firewood, sometimes walking as far as 10km each way to collect enough to complete their work. And each day as they cook, they breathe in the thick, grey smoke. About three out of four families in Kenya depend on wood or charcoal to cook their daily meals, and the rate is even higher in rural areas, Kenya's latest demographic and health survey shows. Using solid fuels like these for cooking increases indoor pollution. The World Health Organization estimates that about 14,300 Kenyans die annually as a result of indoor air pollution - most of which is caused by cooking and heating sources.

Some years ago, on the shores of Lake Victoria, huge piles of water hyacinth that villagers had taken out of the water in an attempt to clear it were a common sight. But buried in those decaying waxy leaves was a renewable energy gold mine. It turns out the floating plant isn't just good at spreading - its foliage also contains a high ratio of carbon to nitrogen. It's a magic combination that has captivated researchers' imaginations since as early as the 1980s when, across the world, they began to explore its potential as a biofuel. Just about 4kg of the dried plant would be enough to cater for a large family's daily energy needs, early research predicted.

In 2014, Nigerian academics announced they had got better yields of biofuel gas when they mixed the plant with chicken manure. A few years later, Kenyan scientists confirmed what their Nigerian peers and others had already found: manure worked to improve the process of converting the weed into gas.

In 2018, the technology came to a village on the shore of Lake Victoria, called Dunga. The project promised a two-for-one solution to the dual menaces of the water hyacinth and dependence on firewood. The community received a pair of donated biogas digesters - machines that would transform a mix of water hyacinth and cow dung into biogas for cooking. 

The digesters work a bit like a stomach. The mixture goes in one end - think of it as a mouth - and over the next 20 to 30 days, it goes through a fermentation process and breaks down, giving off gas that comes out the other end. From there, the clean- burning gas is passed through pipes to the point of use, just like traditional domestic gas. In Dunga, the machines produce enough gas to serve about 60% of the village's population. It is used in domestic stoves and for other household tasks such as purifying water and incubating chicks.

The project is testing whether biogas can provide an effective alternative to firewood and charcoal in rural Kenyan communities. Results indicate that the programme seems to be working. The women who smoke the lake fish are already getting sick less often. Besides, they don't have to devote a lot of time every day to gathering firewood, which is a great relief. As a result, they're able to make more money for their families from other enterprises.

Kanyiva Muindi is an epidemiologist and air pollution research fellow at the African Population and Health Research Centre in Nairobi. She says families who switch to the smokeless cooking method could expect fewer respiratory diseases. Women, young girls and children are particularly vulnerable because they are the ones who cook in the kitchen or outside over fires.

How much better the biogas stoves will be for the community's health still needs more research, says Dominic Kahumbu Wanjihia, Biogas lnternational's chief executive. But unless the price of the machines drops, it's pretty clear that most communities will never be able to afford any, since they sell for about $750.

Kanyiva says affordability is a challenge worth addressing, given the huge health and environmental dangers posed by 'dirty' fuels such as wood, charcoal and kerosene. If biogas could become affordable on a large scale, she says it 'would be life-changing for millions on the African continent and beyond'.

❓ Câu hỏi (questions)

Water hyacinth was introduced as a decorative plant in east Africa.

Fishermen took some water hyacinth plants to Lake Victoria.

It is now difficult to force boats through the thick water hyacinth on Lake Victoria.

Chemicals produced by the water hyacinth plants are affecting the numbers of fish in Lake Victoria.

Cooking with charcoal has been proved to be even worse for people's health than cooking with wood.

People found it impossible to remove much water hyacinth from Lake Victoria.

Scientists started investigating the possibility of using water hyacinth to generate biogas in the last century.

Generating biogas for domestic use in Dunga

STEP 01

First, place water hyacinth together with some ﻿ into a digester

STEP 02

Leave the mixture until the ﻿ is completed

STEP 03

Capture the gas emitted by the digester and use ﻿ to transport it to individual homes

STEP 04

Then use the gas for cooking as well as making water fit for human consumption

Cooking with biogas in Dunga

Benefits for the women in the village of cooking with biogas:
• No need for them to spend so much 
11.
            
﻿
 collecting fuel.
• They can focus on different tasks that bring in 12.
            
﻿
.
• They are less likely to experience certain diseases connected to burning wood.
Drawbacks of changing to biogas:
• The 
13.
            
﻿
 of the digesters is beyond the reach of most villages.

🔥 Answer key (đáp án và giải thích)

True

Giải thích chi tiết

✅Step 1: Phân tích câu hỏi

Water hyacinth was introduced as a decorative plant in east Africa .

Ý câu hỏi: Xác định xem water hyacinth có được đưa vào east Africa như một loại cây để trang trí hay không.

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✅Step 2: Locate bằng chứng

Dựa vào từ khoá đặc biệt là east Africa, ta dễ dàng định vị được câu quan trọng sẽ là:

“In east Africa the plant arrived with Belgian colonists in Rwanda, who liked the look of its glossy leaves and delicate purple flowers floating in their ponds.”

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✅Step 3: Đọc câu bằng chứng theo Linearthinking

In east Africa the plant arrived with Belgian colonists in Rwanda , who liked the look of its glossy leaves and delicate purple flowers floating in their ponds .

Lưu ý từ khó:

glossy leaves = lá bóng, đẹp mắt
delicate purple flowers = hoa tím mảnh / thanh đẹp Những từ này đều gợi rõ lý do thẩm mỹ, nên giúp ta hiểu “decorative plant”.

Ý của câu: Ở đông Phi, cây này theo chân người Bỉ vào Rwanda, và họ thích vẻ đẹp của nó trong ao. => Nghĩa là nó được đưa vào vì lý do trang trí / thẩm mỹ.

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✅Step 4: Compare meaning with meaning

Câu hỏi nói: Water hyacinth was introduced as a decorative plant in east Africa.

Bài đọc nói: Ở đông Phi, cây này đến Rwanda cùng người Bỉ, và họ thích vẻ ngoài của lá và hoa của nó nổi trên ao.

⇒ Như vậy, bài đọc ủng hộ ý trong câu hỏi: cây được đưa vào vì vẻ đẹp, tức là để trang trí.

Đáp án: TRUE

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❌ Những đáp án “bẫy”:

False: bẫy nếu học sinh chỉ thấy về sau bài đọc nói cây này là “the world's worst aquatic weed” hoặc gây hại cho hồ, cản đường đánh cá, tạo nơi cho muỗi sinh sống. → Sai vì đó là hậu quả sau này, không phải lý do ban đầu nó được đưa vào đông Phi.
Not Given: bẫy nếu học sinh nghĩ bài không nói thẳng chữ decorative. → Sai vì bài có paraphrase rất rõ: liked the look of... flowers = thích vì đẹp = dùng để trang trí.

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