IELTS Forcast Reading Test 2025 - Q1 Test 2 with Practice Test, Answers And Explanation
Luyện tập đề IELTS Forcast Reading Test 2025 - Q1 Test 2 được lấy từ cuốn sách Forcast Test 2025 - Q1 với trải nghiệm thi IELTS trên máy và giải thích đáp án chi tiết bằng Linearthinking, kèm answer key và list từ vựng IELTS cần học trong bài đọc.
IELTS Forcast Reading Test 2025 - Q1 Test 2 with Practice Test, Answers And Explanation
Passage
❓ Câu hỏi passage 1
Question 1 - 7
Choose the correct heading for paragraphs A-G from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number, i-ix on your answer sheet.
List of Headings
I
Cases of Japan, Holland and France
II
City development in Japan
III
Tea drinking in Japan and Britain
IV
Failed to find a plausible cause for mystery about lower mortality rate
V
Preconditions necessary for industrial revolution
VI
Time and place of industrialization
VII
Conclusion drawn from the comparison with Japan
VIII
Relation between population and changes of drink in Britain
IX
Two keys to the puzzle
1
Paragraph A
2
Paragraph B
3
Paragraph C
4
Paragraph D
5
Paragraph E
6
Paragraph F
7
Paragraph G
Question 8 - 13
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?
Choose:
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
8
The industrialization did not happen in China because of its inefficient railway transportation.
9
Tea and beer contributed to protecting people from waterborne diseases.
10
Roy Porter disagreed with the proposed theory about the missing factors
11
The reason of lower child deaths is fully explained by food.
12
The British made beer by themselves.
13
Tax on malt indirectly caused a rise in the death rate.
Passage
❓ Câu hỏi passage 2
Question 14 - 16
Choose THREE letters A-H
Write your answers on your answer sheet.
NB Your answers may be given in any order.
Which THREE statements are true of salt?
A
A number of cities take their name from the word salt.
B
Salt contributed to the French Revolution.
C
The uses of salt are countless.
D
Salt has been produced in China for less than 2000 years.
E
There are many commercial applications for salt.
F
Salt deposits in the state of Kansas are vast.
G
Salt has few industrial uses nowadays.
H
Slaves used salt as a currency.
Question 17 - 21
Complete the summary.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answer on your answer sheet.
Salt is such an that people would not be able to live without it. As well as its uses in cooking this basic mineral has thousands of businesses ranging from making paper to the manufacture of soap. Being a prized and it has played a major part in the economies of many countries. As such, salt has not only led to war, but has also been used to raise by governments in many parts of the world. There are also many instances of its place in religion and culture, being used as a means to get rid of evil
Question 22 - 27
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?
Choose
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
22
It has been suggested that salt was responsible for the first war.
23
The first tax on salt was imposed by a Chinese emperor.
24
Salt is no longer used as a form of currency.
25
Most of the money for the construction of the Erie Canal came from salt taxes.
26
Hopi legend believes that salt deposits were placed far away from civilization to penalize mankind.
27
A lack of salt is connected with the deaths of some soldiers.
Passage
❓ Câu hỏi passage 3
Question 28 - 32
Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage, using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer.
Generally, it is well-known that, at the last maximum ice age, mammals become extinct about . The Irish elk was initially found approximately in Europe and central Asia. Around , they were driven to live in the plain after being restricted to the Ural Mountains. Hunting was considered as one of the important factors of Irish elk's extinction, people have not started hunting until when Irish elk used to get through under a variety of climatic fluctuations. The huge antlers may possibly contribute to the reason why Irish elk extinct, which was highly controversial as they live pleasantly over the span of .
Question 33 - 35
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.
33
What kind of physical characteristics eventually contributed to the extinction of Irish elk?
34
What kind of nutrient substance is needed in maintaining the huge size of Irish elk?
35
What man-made issue besides hunting suggested the advent of human resulted in the extinction of Irish elk?
Question 36 - 39
Choose the letter A-D.
List of Findings
A
Eurasia
B
Australia
C
Africa & Asia
36
The continents where humans imposed little impact on large mammals' extinction.
37
The continents where the climatic change was mild and fauna remains.
38
The continents where both humans and climatic change are the causes.
39
The continents where some animals lost their habitat because of water shortage.
Question 40
Choose appropriate options A, B, C or D.
40
Which statement is true according the Stuart's team's finding?
A
Neanderthals rather than modern humans caused the extinction in Europe.
B
Paleolithic humans in Europe along kill the big animals such as Giant deer.
C
Climatic change was not solely responsible for the mega fauna extinction in Europe.
D
Moderate and staggered extinction was mainly the result of fundamental climatic change.
DOL IELTS Đình Lực
05/05/2026
📖 Bài đọc passage 1
Tea and Industrial Revolution
A
A. Alan Macfarlane thinks he could rewrite history. The professor of anthropological science at King's College, Cambridge has, like other historians, spent decades trying to understand the enigma of the Industrial Revolution. Why did this particular important event - the world-changing birth of industry - happen in Britain? And why did it happen at the end of the 18th century?
B
B.
Macfarlane compares the question to a puzzle. He claims that there were about 20 different factors and all of them needed to be present before the revolution could happen. The chief conditions are to be found in history textbooks. For the industry to 'take off', there needed to be the technology and power to drive factories, large urban populations to provide cheap labour easy transport to move goods around, an affluent middle-class willing to buy mass-produced objects, a market-driven economy, and a political system that allowed this to happen. While this was the case for England, other nations, such as Japan, Holland, and France also met some of these criteria. All these factors must have been necessary but not sufficient to cause the revolution. Holland had everything except coal, while China also had many of these factors.
C
Most historians, however, are convinced that one or two missing factors are needed to solve the puzzle. The missing factors, he proposes, are to be found in every kitchen cupboard. Tea and beer, two of the nation's favorite drinks, drove the revolution. Tannin, the active ingredient in tea, and hops, used in making beer, both contain antiseptic properties. This plus the fact that both are made with boiled water- helped prevent epidemics of waterborne diseases, such as dysentery, in densely populated urban areas. The theory initially sounds eccentric but his explanation of the detective work that went into his deduction and the fact his case has been strengthened by a favorable appraisal of his research by Roy Porter (distinguished medical historian) the skepticism gives way to wary admiration.
D
Historians had noticed one interesting factor around the mid-18th century that required explanation. Between about 1650 and 1740, the population was static. But then there was a burst in population. The infant mortality rate halved in the space of 20 years, and this happened in both rural areas and cities, and across all classes.
Four possible causes have been suggested. There could have been a sudden change in the viruses and bacteria present at that time, but this is unlikely. Was there a revolution in medical science? But this was a century before Lister introduced antiseptic surgery. Was there a change in environmental conditions? There were improvements in agriculture that wiped out malaria, but these were small gains. Sanitation did not become widespread until the 19th century. The only option left was food. But the height and weight statistics show a decline. So the food got worse. Efforts to explain this sudden reduction in child deaths appeared to draw a blank.
E
This population burst seemed to happen at just the right time to provide labor for the Industrial Revolution. But why? When the Industrial Revolution started, it was economically efficient to have people crowded together forming towns and cities. But with crowded living conditions comes disease, particularly from human waste.
Some research in the historical records revealed that there was a change in the incidence of waterborne disease at that time, the English were protected by the strong antibacterial agent in hops, which were added to make beer last. But in the late 17th century a tax was introduced on malt. The poor turned to water and gin, and in the 1720s the mortality rate began to rise again.
F
Macarlane looked to Japan, which was also developing large cities about the same time and also had no sanitation. Waterborne diseases in the Japanese population were far fewer than those in Britain. Could it be the prevalence of tea in their culture? That was when Mcfarlane thought about the role of tea in Britain. The history of tea in Britain provided an extraordinary coincidence of dates. Tea was relatively expensive until Britain started direct trade with China in the early 18th century. By the 1740s, about the time that infant mortality was falling, the drink was common. Macfarlane guesses that the fact that water had to be boiled, together with the stomach-purifying properties of tea so eloquently described in Buddhist texts, meant that the breast milk provided by mothers was healthier than it had ever been. No other European nation drank tea so often as the British, which, by Macfarlane's logic, pushed the other nations out of the race for the Industrial Revolution.
G
But, if tea is a factor in the puzzle, why didn't this cause an industrial revolution in Japan? Macarlane notes that in the 17th century, Japan had large cities, high literacy rates and even a futures market. However, Japan decided against a work-based revolution, by giving up labor-saving devices even animals, to avoid putting people out of work. Astonishingly, the nation that we now think of as one of the most technologically advanced, entered the 19th century having almost abandoned the wheel. While Britain was undergoing the Industrial Revolution, Mactarlane notes wryly, Japan was undergoing an industrious on.
🔥 Đáp án & giải thích 1
1
VI
Giải thích chi tiết
☺️ Ứng dụng Linearthinking để giải quyết dạng bài Matching Headings
✅ Paragraph A → Đáp án đúng: F. Time and place of industrialization
Step 01: Read to understand main idea
Dựa vào phần Simplify & Connection ở trên, ta có thể rút ra main idea như sau:
Sau khi đơn giản hoá, ta thấy đoạn A không bàn đến nguyên nhân sâu xa hay điều kiện tiền đề; nó tập trung vào hai câu hỏi cốt lõi:
• Tại sao Cách mạng Công nghiệp xảy ra ở Anh? (place)
• Tại sao lại vào cuối thế kỷ 18? (time)
------------------
Step 02: Compare meaning with meaning
Trong danh sách heading:
F. Time and place of industrialization = nội dung đúng với hai câu hỏi “where” & “when” nêu trên.
⇒ Chọn F.
Giải thích chi tiết
Đoạn A chỉ thiết lập bối cảnh nghiên cứu bằng cách nêu thời gian và địa điểm bùng nổ công nghiệp, chưa đi sâu vào các điều kiện hay so sánh với nước khác.
-> Vì vậy, F. Time and place of industrialization là tiêu đề bao quát chính xác nhất.
A. Salt is so simple and plentiful that we almost take it for granted. In chemical terms, salt is the combination "of a sodium ion with a chloride on, making it one of the most basic molecules on earth. It is also one of the most plentiful: it has been estimated that salt deposits under the state of Kansas alone could supply the entire world's needs for the next 250,000 years.
B
B. But salt is also an essential element. Without it, life itself would be impossible since the human body requires the mineral in order to function properly. The concentration of sodium ions in the blood is directly related to the regulation of safe body fluid levels. And while we are all familiar with its many uses in cooking, we may not be aware that this element is used in some 14,000 commercial applications. From manufacturing pulp and paper to setting dyes in textiles and fabric, from producing soaps and detergents to making our roads safe in winter, salt plays an essential part in our daily lives.
C
Salt has a long and influential role in world history. From the dawn of civilization, it has been a key factor in economic, religious, social, and political development. In every corner of the world, it has been the subject of superstition, folklore, and warfare, and has even been used as currency.
D
As a precious and portable commodity, salt has long been a cornerstone of economies throughout history. In fact, researcher M.R. Bloch conjectured that civilization began along the edges of the desert because of the natural surface deposits of salt found there. Bloch also believed that the first war - likely fought near the ancient city of Essalt on the Jordan River - could have been fought over the city's precious supplies of the mineral.
E
In 2200 BC, the Chinese emperor Hsia Yu levied one of the first known taxes. He taxed salt. In Tibet, Marco Polo noted that tiny cakes of salt were pressed with images of the Grand Khan to be used as coins and to this day among the nomads of Ethiopia's Danakil Plains it is still used as money. Greek slave traders often bartered it for slaves, giving rise to the expression that someone was "not worth his salt." Roman legionnaires were paid in salt - a salarium, the Latin origin of the word "salary."
F
Merchants in 12th-century Timbuktu the gateway to the Sahara Desert and the seat of scholars - valued this mineral as highly as books and gold. In France, Charles of Anjou levied the "gabelle, a salt tax, in 1259 to finance his conquest of the Kingdom of Naples. Outrage over the gabelle fueled the French Revolution. Though the revolutionaries eliminated the tax shortly after Louis XVI, the Republic of France re-established the gabelle in the early 18th century; only in 1946 was it removed from the books.
G
The Erie Canal, an engineering marvel that connected the Great Lakes to New York's Hudson River in 1825, was called "the ditch that salt built." Salt tax revenues paid for half the cost of the construction of the canal. The British monarchy supported itself with high salt taxes, leading to a bustling black market for the white crystal. In 1785, the earl of Dundonald wrote that every year in England, 10,000 people were arrested for salt smuggling. And protesting against British rule in 1930, Mahatma Gandhi led a 200-mile march to the Arabian Ocean to collect untaxed salt for India's poor.
H
In religion and culture, salt long held an important place with Greek worshippers consecrating it in their rituals. Further, in the Buddhist tradition, salt repels evil spirits, which is why it is customary to throw it over your shoulder before entering your house after a funeral: it scares off any evil spirits that may be clinging to your back. Shinto religion also uses it to purity an area. Before sumo wrestlers enter the ring for a match - which is in reality an elaborate Shinto rite - a handful is thrown into the center to drive off malevolent spirits. In the Southwest of the United States, the Pueblo worship the Salt Mother. Other native tribes had significant restrictions on who was permitted to eat salt Hopi legend holds that the angry Warrior Twins punished mankind by placing valuable salt deposits far from civilization, requiring hard work and bravery to harvest the precious mineral. Today, a gift of salt endures in India as a potent symbol of good luck and a reference to Mahatma Gandhi's liberation of India.
I
The effects of salt deficiency are highlighted in times of war when human bodies and national economies are strained to their limits. Thousands of Napoleon's troops died during the French retreat from Moscow due to inadequate wound healing and lowered resistance to disease as the result of salt deficiency.
🔥 Đáp án & giải thích 2
14
B
Giải thích chi tiết
☺️ Ứng dụng Linearthinking để giải quyết dạng bài Multiple Answers
Step 01: Read the question to understand
Simplified: Which THREE statements are true of salt?
Main idea: Tìm 3nhận định đúng về muối.
-------
Step 02: Locate relevant information
🔍 Từ khóa: "THREE statements", "true", "salt" → Dựa vào options A-H có thể chú ý các từ khoá: a number of cities, name, French Revolution, countless, China, 2000 years, commercial applications, salt deposits, Kansas, industrial uses, currency.
-------
Step 03: Read relevant information to understand
📌 Trích dẫn: “In France, Charles of Anjou levied the ‘gabelle,’ a salt tax, in 1259 to finance his conquest of the Kingdom of Naples. Outrage over the gabelle fueled the French Revolution.”(Đoạn F)
Simplified:
Charles of Anjou levied a salt tax → Outrage over the gabelle fueledthe French Revolution
--> Chọn B
📌 Trích dẫn: "we may not be aware that this element is used in some 14,000 commercial applications" (Đoạn B)
Simplified:
this element is used in some 14,000 commercial applications
14,000 commercial applications = many commercial applications --> Chọn E
14,000 commercial applications # countless --> Loại C
14,000 commercial applications ><few industrial uses --> Loại G
📌 Trích dẫn: "In 2200 BC, the Chinese emperor Hsia Yu levied one of the first known taxes." (Đoạn E)
Simplified: the Chinese emperor levied one of the first known taxes
Main idea: Vào năm 2200 TCN, hoàng đế Trung Quốc đã ban hành một trong những loại thuế đầu tiên được biết đến. Ông đánh thuế muối.--> Không nhắc đến việc sản xuất muối tại Trung Quốc --> Loại D
📌 Trích dẫn: "Greek slave traders often bartered it for slaves, giving rise to the expression that someone was "not worth his salt." (Đoạn E)
Simplified: Greek slave traders often bartered itfor slaves
Main idea: Kẻ buôn nô lệ dùng muối để đổi lấy nô lệ, chứ nô lệ không phải người sử dụng muối làm tiền tệ
--> Loại H
📌 Trích dẫn: “It is also one of the most plentiful: it has been estimated that salt deposits under the state of Kansas alone could supply the entire world's needs for the next 250,000 years.” (Đoạn A)
Simplified: Salt deposits under the state of Kansas alone could supply the entire world's needs for the next 250,000 years
Main idea: Chỉ riêng trữ lượng muối dưới bang Kansas là đủ để đáp ứng nhu cầu toàn thế giới trong 250,000 năm tới → muối ở Kansas là nguồn tài nguyên khổng lồ. --> Chọn F
-------
Step 04: Compare meaning with meaning
❌ A. A number of cities take their name from the word salt.
--> Không có thông tin nào về tên thành phố xuất phát từ “salt.”
✅ B. Salt contributed to the French Revolution.
--> Khớp hoàn toàn với thông tin “Outrage over the gabelle fueled the French Revolution.” → Tức là thuế muối là nguyên nhân gây phẫn nộ, từ đó góp phần dẫn đến Cách mạng Pháp.
❌ C. The uses of salt are countless.
--> Đề cập ở đoạn B (về 14,000 applications), nhưng không liên quan đến French Revolution.
❌ D. Salt has been produced in China for less than 2000 years.
--> Đoạn E nói về thuế muối ở Trung Quốc 2200 BC, không khớp với thông tin “muối được sản xuất.”
✅ E. There are many commercial applications for salt.
--> Đúng. Khớp hoàn toàn với ý “used in some 14,000 commercial applications.” → chứng minh muối có vô số ứng dụng thương mại khác nhau.
✅ F. Salt deposits in the state of Kansas are vast.: Hoàn toàn khớp với ý “salt deposits … could supply the entire world’s needs for 250,000 years” → chứng minh trữ lượng muối cực lớn.
❌ G. Salt has few industrial uses nowadays
--> Sai nghĩa hoàn toàn. Đoạn B khẳng định salt có 14,000 ứng dụng thương mại, chứng tỏ rất nhiều, chứ không ít như “few industrial uses.”
❌ H. Slaves used salt as a currency
--> Đoạn E nói người buôn nô lệ (slave traders) dùng muối để đổi lấy nô lệ, chứ nô lệ không phải người sử dụng muối làm tiền tệ. → Đảo ngược chủ thể hành động nên sai nghĩa.
A. Toothed cats, mastodons, giant sloths, woolly rhinos, and many other big, shaggy mammals are widely thought to have died out around the end of the last ice age, some 10,500 years ago. The Irish elk is also known as the giant deer (Megaloceros giganteus). Analysis of ancient bones and teeth by scientists based in Britain and Russia show the huge herbivore survived until about 5,000 B.C.-more than three millennia later than previously believed. The research team says this suggests additional factors, besides climate change, probably hastened the giant deer's eventual extinction. The factors could include hunting or habitat destruction by humans.
B
The Irish elk, so-called because its well-preserved remains are often found in lake sediments under peat bogs in Ireland, first appeared about 400,000 years ago in Europe and central Asia. Through a combination of radiocarbon dating of skeletal remains and the mapping of locations where the remains were unearthed, the team shows the Irish elk was widespread across Europe before the last "big freeze." The deer's range later contracted to the Ural Mountains, in modern-day Russia, which separate Europe from Asia.
C
The giant deer made its last stand in western Siberia, some 3,000 years after the ice sheets receded, said the study's co-author, Adrian Lister, professor of palaeobiology at University College London, England. "The eastern foothills of the Urals became very densely forested about 8,000 years ago, which could have pushed them on to the plain," he said. He added that pollen analysis indicates the region then became very dry in response to further climactic change, leading to the loss of important food plants. "In combination with human pressures, this could have finally snuffed them out" Lister said.
D
Hunting by humans has often been put forward as a contributory cause of extinctions of the Pleistocene mega fauna. The team, though, said their new date for the Irish elk's extinction hints at an additional human-made problem-habitat destruction. Lister said, "We haven't got just hunting 7,000 years ago-this was also about the time the first Neolithic people settled in the region. They were farmers who would have cleared the land." The presence of humans may help explain why the Irish elk was unable to tough out the latest of many climatic fluctuations-periods it had survived in the past.
E
Meanwhile, Lister cast doubt on another possible explanation for the deer's demise-the male's huge antlers. Some scientists have suggested this exaggerated feature the result of females preferring stags with the largest antlers, possibly because they advertised a male's fitness-contributed to the mammal's downfall. They say such antlers would have been a serious inconvenience in the dense forests that spread northward after the last ice age. But, Lister said, "That's a hard argument to make because the deer previously survived perfectly well through wooded interglacials [warmer periods between ice ages]." Some research has suggested that a lack of sufficient high-quality forage caused the extinction of the elk. High amounts of calcium and phosphate compounds are required to form antlers, and therefore large quantities of these minerals are required for the massive structures of the Irish Elk. The males (and male deer in general) met this requirement partly from their bones, replenishing them from food plants after the antlers were grown or reclaiming the nutrients from discarded antlers (as has been observed in extant deer). Thus, in the antler growth phase, Giant Deer were suffering from a condition similar to osteoporosis. When the climate changed at the end of the last glacial period, the vegetation in the animals' habitat also changed towards species that presumably could not deliver sufficient amounts of the required minerals, at least in the western part of its range.
F
The extinction of megafauna around the world was almost completed by the end of the last ice age. It is believed that megafauna initially came into existence in response to glacial conditions and became extinct with the onset of warmer climates. Tropical and subtropical areas have experienced less radical climatic change. The most dramatic of these changes was the transformation of a vast area of north Africa into the world's largest desert. Significantly, Africa escaped major faunal extinction as did tropical and sub-tropical Asia. The human exodus from Africa and our entrance into the Americas and Australia were also accompanied by climate change. Australia's climate changed from cold-dry to warm-dry. As a result, surface water became scarce. Most inland lakes became completely dry or dry in the warmer seasons. Most large, predominantly browsing animals lost their habitat and retreated to a narrow band in eastern Australia, where there was permanent water and better vegetation. Some animals may have survived until about 7000 years ago. If people have been in Australia for up to 60,000 years, then megafauna must have co-existed with humans for at least 30,000 years. Regularly hunted modern kangaroos survived not only 10,000 years of Aboriginal hunting, but also an onslaught of commercial shooters.
G
The group of scientists led by A.J. Stuart focused on northern Eurasia, which he was taking as Europe, plus Siberia, essentially, where they've got the best data that animals became extinct in Europe during the Late Pleistocene. Some cold-adapted animals, go through into the last part of the cold stage and then become extinct up there. So you've actually got two phases of extinction. Now, neither of these coincide-these are Neanderthals here being replaced by modern humans. There's no obvious coincidence between the arrival of humans or climatic change alone and these extinctions. There's a climatic change here, so there's a double effect here. Again, as animals come through to the last part of the cold stage, here there's a fundamental change in the climate, reorganization of vegetation, and the combination of the climatic change and the presence of humans causes this wave of extinction. There's a profound difference between the North American data and that of Europe, which summarizes that the extinctions in northern Eurasia, in Europe, are moderate and staggered, and in North America severe and sudden. And these things relate to the differences in the timing of human arrival. The extinctions follow from human predation, but only at times of fundamental changes in the environment.
🔥 Đáp án & giải thích 3
28
10,500 years ago / 10.500 years ago / 10500 years ago
Giải thích chi tiết
☺️ Ứng dụng Linearthinking để giải quyết dạng bài Gap Fill
Step 01: Read the question to understand (main idea + detail) + Predict Word Form + Meaning
Simplified: It is well-known that mammals become extinct about ______, at the last maximum ice age .
Main idea: Tại kỷ băng hà cuối cùng → các loài động vật có vú trở nên tuyệt chủng khoảng khi nào.
Prediction: Một mốc thời gian cụ thể (số + years ago).
-------
Step 02: Locate relevant information
🔍 Từ khóa: “generally well-known”, “last maximum ice age”, “mammals become extinct"
-> Dựa vào các từ khóa trên, tìm được trích dẫn ở đoạn A.
-------
Step 03: Read relevant information to understand (main + detail)
📌Trích dẫn: "Toothed cats, mastodons, giant sloths, woolly rhinos, and many other big, shaggy mammals are widely thought to have died out around the end of the rearmost ice age, some 10,500 years ago." (Đoạn A)
Simplified: Toothed cats, mastodons... + other mammalsare widely thought to have died out around the end of the last ice age= some 10,500 years ago
Main idea: Các động vật có vú được nghĩ rằng đã chết khoảng 10,500 năm trước.
-------
Step 04: Compare meaning with meaning
Trong bài đọc: Các động vật có vú được nghĩ là đã tuyệt chủng vào cuối kỷ băng hà, "some 10,500 years ago" (khoảng 10,500 năm trước).
Trong câu hỏi: Các loài động vật có vú tuyệt chủng khoảng khi nào (tại kỷ băng hà cuối cùng)?
Macfarlane compares the question to a puzzle. He claims that there were about 20 different factors and all of them needed to be present before the revolution could happen. The chief conditions are to be found in history textbooks. For the industry to 'take off', there needed to be the technology and power to drive factories, large urban populations to provide cheap labour easy transport to move goods around, an affluent middle-class willing to buy mass-produced objects, a market-driven economy, and a political system that allowed this to happen. While this was the case for England, other nations, such as Japan, Holland, and France also met some of these criteria. All these factors must have been necessary but not sufficient to cause the revolution. Holland had everything except coal, while China also had many of these factors.
C. Most historians, however, are convinced that one or two missing factors are needed to solve the puzzle. The missing factors, he proposes, are to be found in every kitchen cupboard. Tea and beer, two of the nation's favorite drinks, drove the revolution. Tannin, the active ingredient in tea, and hops, used in making beer, both contain antiseptic properties. This plus the fact that both are made with boiled water- helped prevent epidemics of waterborne diseases, such as dysentery, in densely populated urban areas. The theory initially sounds eccentric but his explanation of the detective work that went into his deduction and the fact his case has been strengthened by a favorable appraisal of his research by Roy Porter (distinguished medical historian) the skepticism gives way to wary admiration.
D. Historians had noticed one interesting factor around the mid-18th century that required explanation. Between about 1650 and 1740, the population was static. But then there was a burst in population. The infant mortality rate halved in the space of 20 years, and this happened in both rural areas and cities, and across all classes.
Four possible causes have been suggested. There could have been a sudden change in the viruses and bacteria present at that time, but this is unlikely. Was there a revolution in medical science? But this was a century before Lister introduced antiseptic surgery. Was there a change in environmental conditions? There were improvements in agriculture that wiped out malaria, but these were small gains. Sanitation did not become widespread until the 19th century. The only option left was food. But the height and weight statistics show a decline. So the food got worse. Efforts to explain this sudden reduction in child deaths appeared to draw a blank.
E. This population burst seemed to happen at just the right time to provide labor for the Industrial Revolution. But why? When the Industrial Revolution started, it was economically efficient to have people crowded together forming towns and cities. But with crowded living conditions comes disease, particularly from human waste.
Some research in the historical records revealed that there was a change in the incidence of waterborne disease at that time, the English were protected by the strong antibacterial agent in hops, which were added to make beer last. But in the late 17th century a tax was introduced on malt. The poor turned to water and gin, and in the 1720s the mortality rate began to rise again.
F. Macarlane looked to Japan, which was also developing large cities about the same time and also had no sanitation. Waterborne diseases in the Japanese population were far fewer than those in Britain. Could it be the prevalence of tea in their culture? That was when Mcfarlane thought about the role of tea in Britain. The history of tea in Britain provided an extraordinary coincidence of dates. Tea was relatively expensive until Britain started direct trade with China in the early 18th century. By the 1740s, about the time that infant mortality was falling, the drink was common. Macfarlane guesses that the fact that water had to be boiled, together with the stomach-purifying properties of tea so eloquently described in Buddhist texts, meant that the breast milk provided by mothers was healthier than it had ever been. No other European nation drank tea so often as the British, which, by Macfarlane's logic, pushed the other nations out of the race for the Industrial Revolution.
G. But, if tea is a factor in the puzzle, why didn't this cause an industrial revolution in Japan? Macarlane notes that in the 17th century, Japan had large cities, high literacy rates and even a futures market. However, Japan decided against a work-based revolution, by giving up labor-saving devices even animals, to avoid putting people out of work. Astonishingly, the nation that we now think of as one of the most technologically advanced, entered the 19th century having almost abandoned the wheel. While Britain was undergoing the Industrial Revolution, Mactarlane notes wryly, Japan was undergoing an industrious on.
C. Salt has a long and influential role in world history. From the dawn of civilization, it has been a key factor in economic, religious, social, and political development. In every corner of the world, it has been the subject of superstition, folklore, and warfare, and has even been used as currency.
D. As a precious and portable commodity, salt has long been a cornerstone of economies throughout history. In fact, researcher M.R. Bloch conjectured that civilization began along the edges of the desert because of the natural surface deposits of salt found there. Bloch also believed that the first war - likely fought near the ancient city of Essalt on the Jordan River - could have been fought over the city's precious supplies of the mineral.
E. In 2200 BC, the Chinese emperor Hsia Yu levied one of the first known taxes. He taxed salt. In Tibet, Marco Polo noted that tiny cakes of salt were pressed with images of the Grand Khan to be used as coins and to this day among the nomads of Ethiopia's Danakil Plains it is still used as money. Greek slave traders often bartered it for slaves, giving rise to the expression that someone was "not worth his salt." Roman legionnaires were paid in salt - a salarium, the Latin origin of the word "salary."
F. Merchants in 12th-century Timbuktu the gateway to the Sahara Desert and the seat of scholars - valued this mineral as highly as books and gold. In France, Charles of Anjou levied the "gabelle, a salt tax, in 1259 to finance his conquest of the Kingdom of Naples. Outrage over the gabelle fueled the French Revolution. Though the revolutionaries eliminated the tax shortly after Louis XVI, the Republic of France re-established the gabelle in the early 18th century; only in 1946 was it removed from the books.
G. The Erie Canal, an engineering marvel that connected the Great Lakes to New York's Hudson River in 1825, was called "the ditch that salt built." Salt tax revenues paid for half the cost of the construction of the canal. The British monarchy supported itself with high salt taxes, leading to a bustling black market for the white crystal. In 1785, the earl of Dundonald wrote that every year in England, 10,000 people were arrested for salt smuggling. And protesting against British rule in 1930, Mahatma Gandhi led a 200-mile march to the Arabian Ocean to collect untaxed salt for India's poor.
H. In religion and culture, salt long held an important place with Greek worshippers consecrating it in their rituals. Further, in the Buddhist tradition, salt repels evil spirits, which is why it is customary to throw it over your shoulder before entering your house after a funeral: it scares off any evil spirits that may be clinging to your back. Shinto religion also uses it to purity an area. Before sumo wrestlers enter the ring for a match - which is in reality an elaborate Shinto rite - a handful is thrown into the center to drive off malevolent spirits. In the Southwest of the United States, the Pueblo worship the Salt Mother. Other native tribes had significant restrictions on who was permitted to eat salt Hopi legend holds that the angry Warrior Twins punished mankind by placing valuable salt deposits far from civilization, requiring hard work and bravery to harvest the precious mineral. Today, a gift of salt endures in India as a potent symbol of good luck and a reference to Mahatma Gandhi's liberation of India.
I. The effects of salt deficiency are highlighted in times of war when human bodies and national economies are strained to their limits. Thousands of Napoleon's troops died during the French retreat from Moscow due to inadequate wound healing and lowered resistance to disease as the result of salt deficiency.
are
true of salt?
Charles of Anjou
levied
a salt tax
Outrage over the gabelle
fueled
the French Revolution
this element
is used
in some 14,000 commercial applications
14,000 commercial applications
many commercial applications
14,000 commercial applications
countless
14,000 commercial applications
few industrial uses
the Chinese emperor
levied
one of the first known taxes
Simplified: Greek slave traders often bartered itfor slaves
Main idea: Kẻ buôn nô lệ dùng muối để đổi lấy nô lệ, chứ nô lệ không phải người sử dụng muối làm tiền tệ
Salt deposits under the state of Kansas alone
could supply
the entire world's needs for the next 250,000 years
B. The Irish elk, so-called because its well-preserved remains are often found in lake sediments under peat bogs in Ireland, first appeared about 400,000 years ago in Europe and central Asia. Through a combination of radiocarbon dating of skeletal remains and the mapping of locations where the remains were unearthed, the team shows the Irish elk was widespread across Europe before the last "big freeze." The deer's range later contracted to the Ural Mountains, in modern-day Russia, which separate Europe from Asia.
C. The giant deer made its last stand in western Siberia, some 3,000 years after the ice sheets receded, said the study's co-author, Adrian Lister, professor of palaeobiology at University College London, England. "The eastern foothills of the Urals became very densely forested about 8,000 years ago, which could have pushed them on to the plain," he said. He added that pollen analysis indicates the region then became very dry in response to further climactic change, leading to the loss of important food plants. "In combination with human pressures, this could have finally snuffed them out" Lister said.
D. Hunting by humans has often been put forward as a contributory cause of extinctions of the Pleistocene mega fauna. The team, though, said their new date for the Irish elk's extinction hints at an additional human-made problem-habitat destruction. Lister said, "We haven't got just hunting 7,000 years ago-this was also about the time the first Neolithic people settled in the region. They were farmers who would have cleared the land." The presence of humans may help explain why the Irish elk was unable to tough out the latest of many climatic fluctuations-periods it had survived in the past.
E. Meanwhile, Lister cast doubt on another possible explanation for the deer's demise-the male's huge antlers. Some scientists have suggested this exaggerated feature the result of females preferring stags with the largest antlers, possibly because they advertised a male's fitness-contributed to the mammal's downfall. They say such antlers would have been a serious inconvenience in the dense forests that spread northward after the last ice age. But, Lister said, "That's a hard argument to make because the deer previously survived perfectly well through wooded interglacials [warmer periods between ice ages]." Some research has suggested that a lack of sufficient high-quality forage caused the extinction of the elk. High amounts of calcium and phosphate compounds are required to form antlers, and therefore large quantities of these minerals are required for the massive structures of the Irish Elk. The males (and male deer in general) met this requirement partly from their bones, replenishing them from food plants after the antlers were grown or reclaiming the nutrients from discarded antlers (as has been observed in extant deer). Thus, in the antler growth phase, Giant Deer were suffering from a condition similar to osteoporosis. When the climate changed at the end of the last glacial period, the vegetation in the animals' habitat also changed towards species that presumably could not deliver sufficient amounts of the required minerals, at least in the western part of its range.
F. The extinction of megafauna around the world was almost completed by the end of the last ice age. It is believed that megafauna initially came into existence in response to glacial conditions and became extinct with the onset of warmer climates. Tropical and subtropical areas have experienced less radical climatic change. The most dramatic of these changes was the transformation of a vast area of north Africa into the world's largest desert. Significantly, Africa escaped major faunal extinction as did tropical and sub-tropical Asia. The human exodus from Africa and our entrance into the Americas and Australia were also accompanied by climate change. Australia's climate changed from cold-dry to warm-dry. As a result, surface water became scarce. Most inland lakes became completely dry or dry in the warmer seasons. Most large, predominantly browsing animals lost their habitat and retreated to a narrow band in eastern Australia, where there was permanent water and better vegetation. Some animals may have survived until about 7000 years ago. If people have been in Australia for up to 60,000 years, then megafauna must have co-existed with humans for at least 30,000 years. Regularly hunted modern kangaroos survived not only 10,000 years of Aboriginal hunting, but also an onslaught of commercial shooters.
G. The group of scientists led by A.J. Stuart focused on northern Eurasia, which he was taking as Europe, plus Siberia, essentially, where they've got the best data that animals became extinct in Europe during the Late Pleistocene. Some cold-adapted animals, go through into the last part of the cold stage and then become extinct up there. So you've actually got two phases of extinction. Now, neither of these coincide-these are Neanderthals here being replaced by modern humans. There's no obvious coincidence between the arrival of humans or climatic change alone and these extinctions. There's a climatic change here, so there's a double effect here. Again, as animals come through to the last part of the cold stage, here there's a fundamental change in the climate, reorganization of vegetation, and the combination of the climatic change and the presence of humans causes this wave of extinction. There's a profound difference between the North American data and that of Europe, which summarizes that the extinctions in northern Eurasia, in Europe, are moderate and staggered, and in North America severe and sudden. And these things relate to the differences in the timing of human arrival. The extinctions follow from human predation, but only at times of fundamental changes in the environment.
Simplified: Toothed cats, mastodons... + other mammalsare widely thought to have died out around the end of the last ice age= some 10,500 years ago
Main idea: Các động vật có vú được nghĩ rằng đã chết khoảng 10,500 năm trước.
