IELTS Forcast Reading Test 2026 - Q2 Test 2 with Practice Test, Answers And Explanation
Luyện tập đề IELTS Forcast Reading Test 2026 - Q2 Test 2 được lấy từ cuốn sách Forcast Test 2026 - Q2 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 2026 - Q2 Test 2 with Practice Test, Answers And Explanation
Passage
❓ Câu hỏi passage 1
Question 1 - 4
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes on your answer sheet.
1
What does the writer say about the period mentioned in the third paragraph?
A
There was a high level of immigration into Rome.
B
The export of minerals made Rome rich.
C
Rome sent armies to control trade with India and East Asia.
D
The Roman standard of living reached its highest level.
2
Ostia is mentioned as
A
a city which often features in literature.
B
an important area for archaeological research.
C
the birthplace of a Roman Emperor.
D
a city whose layout was similar to that of Rome.
3
The statement that ‘Fortune has favoured the historian of this time’ refers to the fact that
A
historians of this period have become wealthy as a result of their discoveries.
B
works on this period are popular among the reading public.
C
a wide range of sources is available for this period.
D
this period has been less studied than many others.
4
In comparing urban and rural life in the Roman Empire, the writer states that
A
rural Romans were largely illiterate.
B
rural life and urban life had little in common.
C
little information is available concerning rural life.
D
most readers of history are more interested in city life.
Question 5 - 9
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?
In following statements below, choose
YES if the statement agrees with the information
NO if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
5
Rome’s conquest of Arabia resulted in large-scale immigration from the east into Rome.
6
More can be learned about Roman life from the literature produced by this generation than from later Latin literature.
7
Discoveries at Herculaneum and Pompeii showed that certain beliefs about Roman life were wrong.
8
Roman peasants provided assistance to the Empire when it was attacked.
9
Rural inhabitants of the Roman Empire had a difficult life.
Question 10 - 13
Complete the summary using the list of words, A-I, below.
Write the correct letter, A-I, in boxes on your answer sheet.
The scope of the writer’s study
It was important for the writer to limit several aspects of his . He decided to focus on a limited in Roman history and to concentrate on the section of the population who were . The writer was interested in the physical environment, the people that ruled the country, and the that contributed both to Rome’s strength and to its weaknesses.
A
emperors
B
setting
C
moral values
D
peasants
E
city-dwellers
F
social classes
G
myths
H
period
I
investigation
Passage
❓ Câu hỏi passage 2
Question 14 - 21
Reading Passage has ten paragraphs A-J
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-J
14
Instruction on how to recognize authentic Maori hooks from counterfeit ones
15
A description of a different type of hooks that are not used to catch fish
16
An acknowledgement that Maori design and craftsmanship are still relevant in the modern world
17
An investigation into how the hooks functioned so effectively
18
A description of how modern technology began to dominate and eventually took over from traditional hook construction
19
A list of raw materials used to construct hooks
20
An outline of how different styles of hooks and types of materials were employed to catch larger fish
21
An account of how the Maori employed new materials and adapted it
Question 22 - 26
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?
In following statements below, choose
YES if the statement agrees with the information
NO if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
22
The early European settlers quickly understood how the Maori fish hook worked.
23
The hook works by making a hole and embedding itself in the mouth of the fish.
24
The Maoris catch seabirds by their feet.
25
There used to be a demand for Maori fish hooks and many counterfeit ones were produced.
26
Today European style hooks have completely replaced the traditional styles used by the Maoris.
Passage
❓ Câu hỏi passage 3
Question 27 - 33
The text has seven paragraphs (A - G). Look at the paragraphs. For which paragraphs are the points true? Write the appropriate letter, A - G. NB You may use any letter more than once.
27
Satellites being smaller and cheaper to launch than they used to be.
28
The fact that the more rubbish there is in space, the more is created.
29
Space junk orbiting more slowly if it comes into contact with electricity.
30
Some paths round the Earth containing less debris than others.
31
Satellites performing a wide range of functions.
32
Space junk being an issue that must be addressed with extreme urgency.
33
Astronauts facing delays and dangers as a result of space debris.
Question 34 - 40
Complete the summary using the list of words, A-J, below.
Write the correct letter, A-J, in boxes on your answer sheet.
Two solutions to the problem of space debris have been developed and are similar in that they both work by changing the of the debris and making it burn up as it enters Earth's atmosphere.
engineers have invented a satellite which uses to catch defunct satellites, although this solution will only work with debris of a certain , while scientists have experimented with a satellite attached by a line to a to force debris to decelerate.
Both advancements are a step in the right direction but more is needed to address the growing of space debris.
A
weight
B
orbit
C
volume
D
number
E
cable
F
netting
G
size
H
Swiss
I
Japanese
J
shape
DOL IELTS Đình Lực
05/05/2026
📖 Bài đọc passage 1
Looking at Daily Life in Ancient Rome
In this preface to a history, the writer explains the factors affecting the scope of his study.
If our ideas on Roman life are not to become lost in confusion, we must study it within a strictly defined time. Nothing changes more rapidly than human customs. Looking at our own more familiar world, apart from the great scientific discoveries of recent centuries which have turned it upside down—steam, electricity, railways, motor cars, and aeroplanes, for example—it is clear that the elementary forms of everyday life have been subject to increasing change.
Potatoes, for example, were not introduced into Europe until the sixteenth century, coffee was first drunk there in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth, and the banana was used in desserts in Europe at the beginning of the twentieth. The law of change was not less operative in antiquity. It was a commonplace of Roman rhetoric to contrast the crude simplicity of the Republic (509 BC–27 BC) with the luxury and refinement of the imperial times which followed. There is no common measure, whether of home, or house, or furniture, between ages which are so different.
Since a choice of time must necessarily be made, this history will confine itself to studying the generation which was born about the middle of the first century AD, toward the end of the reign of Claudius (41–54 AD) or the beginning of the reign of Nero (54–68 AD), and which lived on into the reign of Trajan (98–117 AD) and of Hadrian (117–138 AD). This generation saw the Roman Empire at its most powerful and prosperous. It was witness to the last conquests of the Caesars: the conquest of Dacia, in modern-day Eastern Europe, which brought vast mineral wealth into the Empire, and the conquest of Arabia, which helped to bring the riches of India and East Asia flooding into Rome. In the material domain, this generation attained the pinnacle of ancient civilization.
By a fortunate coincidence—all the more fortunate in that Latin literature was soon to run nearly dry—this generation is the one whose records combine to offer us the most complete picture of Roman life that we possess. We have a profusion of vivid and picturesque descriptions, precise and colourful, in such works as the Epigrams of Martial, the Satires of Juvenal, and the Letters of Pliny.
In addition, the Forum of Trajan in Rome itself and the ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii, the two prosperous resorts buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, supply an immense fund of archaeological evidence. Later excavations have also restored to us the ruins of the city of Ostia, which date in the main from the time when the Emperor Hadrian created this great commercial city as a realization of his town planning ideas. Fortune has favoured the historian of this time.
It is not enough to focus our study of Roman life only on a fixed time. It would lack foundation and consistency if we did not also focus it in space—in the country or in the town. Even today, when the facilities for communication bring something of the city into the smallest and most isolated country cottage, there remains a significant difference between rural existence and the excitement of city life: a much greater gulf separated the peasant from the townsman of antiquity.
So large was the inequality between them that, according to the historian Rostovtzeff, it pitted one against the other in a fierce and silent struggle which pierced the wall protecting the Roman privileged classes from the barbarian flood from the north. When the barbarian forces began to invade Roman territory, the peasants decided to fight alongside them.
The townsman, in fact, enjoyed all the goods and resources of the earth. The peasant knew nothing but unending labour without profit and was unable to enjoy the activities available in even the poorest of cities: the liveliness of the sports field, the warmth of the public baths, and the magnificence of public spectacles.
In a work on the history of everyday life, we must give up any attempt to blend two such dissimilar pictures into one and must choose between them. The time which we have chosen to describe day by day is that of those Roman subjects who spent their time exclusively in the town, or rather in The City, Rome, which they regarded as the hub and centre of the universe, proud and wealthy ruler of a world which seemed at that time to have been pacified forever.
To perform our task well, we must first try to form an adequate picture of the surroundings in which our subjects lived and by which their lives were coloured, freeing ourselves from any misconceptions concerning it. We must seek to reconstruct the physical nature of the great city and the social milieu of the various classes of the hierarchy by which it was governed. We must also investigate the moral background of thought and sentiment which can help explain both its strength and its weaknesses.
The way in which the Romans of Rome employed their time can only be studied satisfactorily after we have plotted out the main lines of the framework within which they lived and outside of which the routine of their daily life would be more or less unintelligible.
🔥 Đáp án & giải thích 1
1
D
Giải thích chi tiết
☺️ Ứng dụng Linearthinking để giải quyết dạng bài Multiple Choice
Step 01: Read the question to understand
Simplified: What does the writer say about the period in the third paragraph?
Main idea: Xác định ý chính của tác giả trong đoạn 3.
-------
Step 02: Locate relevant information
🔍 Từ khóa:"third paragraph"
→ Đọc toàn bộ đoạn 3 để rút ra ý chính. Cần xác định thời kỳ được mô tả trong đoạn này – và đặc điểm nổi bật của nó (sức mạnh, thịnh vượng, tiêu chuẩn sống, ...).
-------
Step 03: Read relevant information to understand
📌 Trích dẫn: “Since a choice of time must necessarily be made, this history will confine itself to studying the generation which was born about the middle of the first century AD, ...” (Đoạn 3)
Dựa vào phần Simplify & Connection ở trên, có thể suy ra:
=> Main idea: Giai đoạn này là thời kỳ La Mã đạt đến đỉnh cao về quyền lực, sự giàu có và mức sống – thời kỳ thịnh vượng nhất của nền văn minh cổ đại.
-------
Step 04: Compare meaning with meaning
❌ A. There was a high level of immigration into Rome.
→ Không nhắc đến dân nhập cư → Sai.
❌ B. The export of minerals made Rome rich.
→ Đoạn nói “conquest of Dacia ... brought vast mineral wealth into the Empire” → tức là nhập khoáng sản, không phải xuất khẩu → Sai.
❌ C. Rome sent armies to control trade with India and East Asia.
→ Không nói La Mã kiểm soát thương mại, chỉ nói “riches of India and East Asia flooded into Rome” → Sai.
✅ D. The Roman standard of living reached its highest level.
→ “This generation saw the Roman Empire at its most powerful and prosperous ... attained the pinnacle of ancient civilization.” → La Mã đạt đỉnh cao về đời sống vật chất → Đúng.
-------
✅ Đáp án đúng: D. The Roman standard of living reached its highest level.
A. Maori fish hooks, made from wood, bone, stone and flax, are intended to have the best possible design and function. The hooks are designed to target specific species with precision. In the industry of commercial long-line fishing, there are some Maori hook designs which are making a splash.
B
When Polynesians first came New Zealand sometime within the years 1100-1300 AD, they didn’t have the technology necessary to heat and manipulate metal out of rocks. Meanwhile, fish was the settlers’ main food source at the time, so fishermen made their hooks and fishing gear out of wood, bone, stone and shells. Other plants native to the island of New Zealand, like as flax (harakeke), cabbage tree (ti) and astelia (kiekie) gave the necessary fibrous material to make fishing lines and nets of greater or equal strength to the jute, which was being used by the Europeans at the time. However, as a material, metal is more malleable, and can be changed into any shape, while natural materials are limited in the shapes they can take on. The Maori fish hooks needed to be more innovative in the ways that they dealt with these limitations.
C
Early accounts of Europeans who settled and explored New Zealand claimed that Maori hooks, known as matau, were “odd”, “of doubtful efficacy”, “very clumsy affairs” or “impossible looking.” Archaeologists from more recent times have also mentioned the round hook appearing as odd, with comments such as, “shaped in a manner which makes it very difficult to imagine could ever be effective in catching a fish.” William Anderson, who was aboard the Resolution during Cook’s third voyage in 1777 as the ship’s surgeon, commented that the Maori “live chiefly by fishing, making use…of wooden fish hooks pointed with bone, but so oddly made that a stranger is at a loss to know how they can answer such a purpose.”
D
The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa did their own recent study on Maori fish hooks two hundred and thirty years later, and were able to demonstrate that the unique hook design was a matter of function. The hook’s design allowed it to catch fish by spinning away from the direction of the point and catching their jaws, instead of poking a hole through the fish or by being used as a lever, which some archaeologists also suggested. It seems that the design of the Maori fish hook is, perhaps, the world’s most efficiently and masterfully designed fish hook, likely superior to any modern metal fish hook of today.
E
To make larger hooks, Maori used shanks made of strong wood, with stout points made of bone or shell. They tied tree branches and saplings together to grow them into the ideal shapes for building, then harvested the plants when they grew to the appropriate size. They hardened wood by carefully drying it and burying underground with fires lit above it. Human bone was often used for bone points, which they lashed securely to a groove at the end of the shank with pre-made flax materials (muka). When they wanted to catch larger species like sharks, groper and ling, they used composite hook. However, average the traditional hook was usually not longer than a three finger breadth (128 mm length).
F
To capture seabirds for food and feathers, like albatross, the islanders used slender hooks which can be differentiated from other hooks intended to catch fish by their lighter build and lack of an inturned point. Many of these hooks were collected by early explorers, suggesting that the taking of seabirds with hook and line was an important source of food and feathers for Maori. (105 mm length). Slender hooks with wide gapes were used to capture albatross and other seabirds for food and feathers, and can be distinguished from hooks intended to catch fish by the lighter construction and lack of an inturned point. Early explorers collected many of these hooks which could indicated that catching seabirds with a hook and line provided significant amounts of food and feathers for the Maori. (105 mm length)
G
Maori adopted new materials quickly once they became available with European explorers, sealers and whalers who began to arrive towards the end of the 1700s. At this point, the Maori were still making their fish hooks, but now using metals and imported materials. Wooden and flax parts of old, abandoned fish hooks decomposed quickly as traditional hooks were cast away in favor of new ones. Tools made of luxury materials such as ivory or greenstone may have been kept around as decorations items, with stylized Maori fish hooks seen today as a symbol of cultural revitalization.
H
The Maori kept recreating traditional designs even as new materials poured in, preferring hook shapes which were introduced by Pakeha into the 1800s. By following the tradition of the rotating hook design, they remained connected with a part of their traditional culture. In the end, though, it was only a matter of time before the amount of mass-produced metal European hooks finally overwhelmed the area, highlighting the difficulty of making hooks from nails, horseshoes and other metal objects, and finally the use of the traditional designs fell out of favor.
I
By the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, tourists and collectors’ demands for Maori artifacts had grown, leading manufacturers to produce large quantities of forged hooks. These replicas were then traded with both Maoris and Europeans to use as forgeries of the real thing, sometimes directly commissioned by artifact dealers themselves. Fake hooks can be spotted by their cheap construction, inconsistent materials, rudimentary lashings, odd or over-elaborate decorative carvings, and finally, by the lack of in-turned points or angled grooves used to actually attach the fishing line.
J
The ways that matau have changed throughout their history is somewhat symbolic of how Maori have adapted to use European tools, materials and technology to their purposes over time, as well as the ways that European influence and technology contributed to, rather overtook, generally compatible Maori skills, and traditional materials were replaced or complemented by metals and, more recently, artificial materials. Commercial longline fishermen everywhere have begun using the circle hook design today, one that is nearly the same as the traditional matau in both its appearance and functionality. It seems that the advantages and improved catch rates of this Maori technology have been recognized once more.
🔥 Đáp án & giải thích 2
14
I
Giải thích chi tiết
☺️ Ứng dụng Linearthinking để giải quyết dạng bài Matching Information
📌 Dạng Matching Information chúng ta nên làm cuối cùng, sau khi đã làm các dạng câu hỏi khác nhé DOLBIES, bởi vì lúc này mình đã đọc và hiểu nội dung của bài rồi, cộng thêm nghệ thuật Specify của Linearthinking → sẽ nhanh chóng tìm được vị trí đáp án hơn!!
-------
Step 01: Read the question to predict
Hiểu câu hỏi: Instruction on how to recognize authentic Maori hooks from counterfeit ones
Specify & Predict: Tìm đoạn đưa ra các dấu hiệu cụ thể để phân biệt thật – giả. Có thể là liệt kê các đặc điểm để phân biệt: vật liệu, cách buộc, chạm khắc, chi tiết kỹ thuật…
-------
Step 02: Khoanh vùng đoạn văn
🔍 Từ khóa: “recognize”, “authentic”, “counterfeit”
→ Dựa vào các từ khoá trên, có thể khoanh vùng được đoạn I vì có xuất hiện cụm "Fake hooks can be spotted" (móc câu giả có thể được phát hiện); và liệt kê các đặc điểm của móc giả như “cheap construction” (kết cấu rẻ tiền); “inconsistent materials” (chất liệu không đồng nhất); “lack of in-turned points” (thiếu móc cong vào trong) → Đây là hướng dẫn cụ thể để nhận biết móc câu Maori thật và giả.
A. When the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik 1 in 1957, it was the first artificial satellite ever to enter orbit around the Earth, and the project's success marked a significant milestone in the history of the exploration of space. There was suddenly a profound change in human perspective, a change which would, in subsequent years, become ever more marked as scientists progressively acquired the ability to study aspects of the planet from a new (and not Earth-bound) point of view. However, the technology employed on that first satellite mission was astoundingly simple when compared to what would follow. To cite just one example of this, Sputnik 1 only employed four very basic radio transmitters. Commercial satellites in 2017 routinely employ dozens of extremely complex ‘transponders’.
B
Increasing use of ever-more sophisticated satellites has now permeated almost all aspects of modern life. Telecommunications could not function without them, and neither could the precision geo-location and navigational aids which we all take for granted. Worldwide monitoring of weather patterns has produced not only better forecasting, but an awareness of the human impact on the planet. Satellite imaging of the Earth is essential in conflict resolution and disaster management. Other satellites, such as the Hubble space telescope, are being used to collect data which help us understand the universe beyond our planet. Indeed, the international space station, on which a constantly changing crew of astronauts live, is another type of satellite.
C
Whilst the use of satellite technology has had a far-reaching impact on our lives, the question remains of what happens to these machines when they are no longer functional. In total over 6,600 satellites have been launched since Sputnik 1. Of the estimated 3,600 which are still in Earth’s orbit, only 1,000 remain in operation with the rest having become lifeless space debris. The problem of space debris is also self-perpetuating; when two satellites collide, many more pieces of rubbish are produced. A recent collision between two relatively small satellites created over 2,000 trackable pieces. There are now tens of thousands of objects larger than 5cm in diameter in orbit and an estimated one hundred million man-made pieces larger than 1mm. This ever-growing volume of junk is referred to as the Kessler syndrome, whereby each collision creates ever more debris, increasing chances of further collisions.
D
This growing volume of space waste can have serious consequences. Debris hurtling through space can strike working satellites, rendering them inoperable. Not only is this incredibly costly, but it can also take entire communications or tracking networks offline. The danger increases with the involvement of manned spacecraft. In 2007, a piece of space debris pierced the radiator of US space shuttle Endeavour. The International Space Station has also faced problems. Despite being in an orbit with relatively little space debris, it is frequently forced to make time-consuming manoeuvres out of the path of fragments of rubbish. As a result, it is essential that pieces of space debris are constantly tracked. When they do not have the necessary three days’ warning to change the craft’s path, the crew members are increasingly told to take shelter in Soyuz, the evacuation craft.
E
With more satellites and spacecraft being launched every year, the problem of space debris needs a solution, one of which has recently been trialled by the Japanese. At the end of 2016, Kyoritsu was taken into orbit and released. Kyoritsu is a type of satellite from which a kilometre-long cable manufactured by a fishing net company is tethered to a 20-kilogram mass. As this moves through the Earth’s magnetic field, it generates an electric current which slows down space debris it comes into contact with. When travelling at a slower speed the debris is forced down into the Earth’s atmosphere where it burns up and is destroyed upon falling to Earth. Although the initial trial of Kyoritsu was unsuccessful as the tether failed to deploy, the team are hopeful for its future use.
F
A further solution may come in redesigning both the types of satellites we use and the technology to retrieve them. As technology has improved, we have the opportunity to create much more compact satellites with considerably lower deployment costs. Many scientists worry that this will lead to a proliferation of debris as these smaller devices fall out of service. However, when Switzerland recently launched their first satellites, which were no larger than a briefcase, they understood the need to have a system in place to avoid them ending their life cycle as space debris. It is for this reason that they designed CleanSpace 1, a satellite with a cone-shaped net at the front which can unfold and then entrap smaller satellites. Once its targets have been captured, it can then slow down and de-orbit, burning everything up as it re-enters the atmosphere. CleanSpace 1 is scheduled to launch in 2018 to recapture the Swiss satellites.
G
Brian Weeden, a technical advisor for the Secure World Foundation, has suggested that space debris was a ‘super wicked problem’. Super wicked problems are complex issues without any clear solution, and little time to find one. This is not helped by the fact that no central organisation takes responsibility. However, there are signs that more people are taking this issue seriously with both commercial and national space organisations understanding the need for sustainability in satellite deployment. Technologies like Kyoritsu and CleanSpace 1 are being developed but more programmes are needed. At present, Kessler syndrome still poses a real threat and the volume of space debris is growing.
🔥 Đáp án & giải thích 3
27
F
Giải thích chi tiết
☺️ Ứng dụng Linearthinking để giải quyết dạng bài Matching Information
📌 Dạng Matching Information chúng ta nên làm cuối cùng, sau khi đã làm các dạng câu hỏi khác nhé DOLBIES, bởi vì lúc này mình đã đọc và hiểu nội dung của bài rồi, cộng thêm nghệ thuật Specify của Linearthinking → sẽ nhanh chóng tìm được vị trí đáp án hơn!!
-------
Step 01: Read the question to predict
Hiểu câu hỏi: Satellites being smaller and cheaper to launch than they used to be
Specify & Predict: Đoạn văn sẽ đưa thông tin chi tiết hơn về sự cải tiến công nghệ dẫn tới vệ tinh gọn/nhỏ hơn và giảm chi phí triển khai/phóng.
-------
Step 02: Khoanh vùng đoạn văn
🔍 Từ khóa: “satellites”, “smaller”, “cheaper to launch”
-> Dựa vào các từ khoá trên, có thể khoanh vùng được đoạn F vì có xuất hiện các cụm như "more compact satellites" (vệ tinh nhỏ gọn hơn); "lower deployment costs" (chi phí triển khai thấp hơn) -> Đây chính là thông tin cụ thể cần tìm.
If our ideas on Roman life are not to become lost in confusion, we must study it within a strictly defined time. Nothing changes more rapidly than human customs. Looking at our own more familiar world, apart from the great scientific discoveries of recent centuries which have turned it upside down—steam, electricity, railways, motor cars, and aeroplanes, for example—it is clear that the elementary forms of everyday life have been subject to increasing change.
Potatoes, for example, were not introduced into Europe until the sixteenth century, coffee was first drunk there in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth, and the banana was used in desserts in Europe at the beginning of the twentieth. The law of change was not less operative in antiquity. It was a commonplace of Roman rhetoric to contrast the crude simplicity of the Republic (509 BC–27 BC) with the luxury and refinement of the imperial times which followed. There is no common measure, whether of home, or house, or furniture, between ages which are so different.
Since a choice of time must necessarily be made, this history will confine itself to studying the generation which was born about the middle of the first century AD, toward the end of the reign of Claudius (41–54 AD) or the beginning of the reign of Nero (54–68 AD), and which lived on into the reign of Trajan (98–117 AD) and of Hadrian (117–138 AD). This generation saw the Roman Empire at its most powerful and prosperous. It was witness to the last conquests of the Caesars: the conquest of Dacia, in modern-day Eastern Europe, which brought vast mineral wealth into the Empire, and the conquest of Arabia, which helped to bring the riches of India and East Asia flooding into Rome. In the material domain, this generation attained the pinnacle of ancient civilization.
By a fortunate coincidence—all the more fortunate in that Latin literature was soon to run nearly dry—this generation is the one whose records combine to offer us the most complete picture of Roman life that we possess. We have a profusion of vivid and picturesque descriptions, precise and colourful, in such works as the Epigrams of Martial, the Satires of Juvenal, and the Letters of Pliny.
In addition, the Forum of Trajan in Rome itself and the ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii, the two prosperous resorts buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, supply an immense fund of archaeological evidence. Later excavations have also restored to us the ruins of the city of Ostia, which date in the main from the time when the Emperor Hadrian created this great commercial city as a realization of his town planning ideas. Fortune has favoured the historian of this time.
It is not enough to focus our study of Roman life only on a fixed time. It would lack foundation and consistency if we did not also focus it in space—in the country or in the town. Even today, when the facilities for communication bring something of the city into the smallest and most isolated country cottage, there remains a significant difference between rural existence and the excitement of city life: a much greater gulf separated the peasant from the townsman of antiquity.
So large was the inequality between them that, according to the historian Rostovtzeff, it pitted one against the other in a fierce and silent struggle which pierced the wall protecting the Roman privileged classes from the barbarian flood from the north. When the barbarian forces began to invade Roman territory, the peasants decided to fight alongside them.
The townsman, in fact, enjoyed all the goods and resources of the earth. The peasant knew nothing but unending labour without profit and was unable to enjoy the activities available in even the poorest of cities: the liveliness of the sports field, the warmth of the public baths, and the magnificence of public spectacles.
In a work on the history of everyday life, we must give up any attempt to blend two such dissimilar pictures into one and must choose between them. The time which we have chosen to describe day by day is that of those Roman subjects who spent their time exclusively in the town, or rather in The City, Rome, which they regarded as the hub and centre of the universe, proud and wealthy ruler of a world which seemed at that time to have been pacified forever.
To perform our task well, we must first try to form an adequate picture of the surroundings in which our subjects lived and by which their lives were coloured, freeing ourselves from any misconceptions concerning it. We must seek to reconstruct the physical nature of the great city and the social milieu of the various classes of the hierarchy by which it was governed. We must also investigate the moral background of thought and sentiment which can help explain both its strength and its weaknesses.
The way in which the Romans of Rome employed their time can only be studied satisfactorily after we have plotted out the main lines of the framework within which they lived and outside of which the routine of their daily life would be more or less unintelligible.
B. When Polynesians first came New Zealand sometime within the years 1100-1300 AD, they didn’t have the technology necessary to heat and manipulate metal out of rocks. Meanwhile, fish was the settlers’ main food source at the time, so fishermen made their hooks and fishing gear out of wood, bone, stone and shells. Other plants native to the island of New Zealand, like as flax (harakeke), cabbage tree (ti) and astelia (kiekie) gave the necessary fibrous material to make fishing lines and nets of greater or equal strength to the jute, which was being used by the Europeans at the time. However, as a material, metal is more malleable, and can be changed into any shape, while natural materials are limited in the shapes they can take on. The Maori fish hooks needed to be more innovative in the ways that they dealt with these limitations.
C. Early accounts of Europeans who settled and explored New Zealand claimed that Maori hooks, known as matau, were “odd”, “of doubtful efficacy”, “very clumsy affairs” or “impossible looking.” Archaeologists from more recent times have also mentioned the round hook appearing as odd, with comments such as, “shaped in a manner which makes it very difficult to imagine could ever be effective in catching a fish.” William Anderson, who was aboard the Resolution during Cook’s third voyage in 1777 as the ship’s surgeon, commented that the Maori “live chiefly by fishing, making use…of wooden fish hooks pointed with bone, but so oddly made that a stranger is at a loss to know how they can answer such a purpose.”
D. The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa did their own recent study on Maori fish hooks two hundred and thirty years later, and were able to demonstrate that the unique hook design was a matter of function. The hook’s design allowed it to catch fish by spinning away from the direction of the point and catching their jaws, instead of poking a hole through the fish or by being used as a lever, which some archaeologists also suggested. It seems that the design of the Maori fish hook is, perhaps, the world’s most efficiently and masterfully designed fish hook, likely superior to any modern metal fish hook of today.
E. To make larger hooks, Maori used shanks made of strong wood, with stout points made of bone or shell. They tied tree branches and saplings together to grow them into the ideal shapes for building, then harvested the plants when they grew to the appropriate size. They hardened wood by carefully drying it and burying underground with fires lit above it. Human bone was often used for bone points, which they lashed securely to a groove at the end of the shank with pre-made flax materials (muka). When they wanted to catch larger species like sharks, groper and ling, they used composite hook. However, average the traditional hook was usually not longer than a three finger breadth (128 mm length).
F. To capture seabirds for food and feathers, like albatross, the islanders used slender hooks which can be differentiated from other hooks intended to catch fish by their lighter build and lack of an inturned point. Many of these hooks were collected by early explorers, suggesting that the taking of seabirds with hook and line was an important source of food and feathers for Maori. (105 mm length). Slender hooks with wide gapes were used to capture albatross and other seabirds for food and feathers, and can be distinguished from hooks intended to catch fish by the lighter construction and lack of an inturned point. Early explorers collected many of these hooks which could indicated that catching seabirds with a hook and line provided significant amounts of food and feathers for the Maori. (105 mm length)
G. Maori adopted new materials quickly once they became available with European explorers, sealers and whalers who began to arrive towards the end of the 1700s. At this point, the Maori were still making their fish hooks, but now using metals and imported materials. Wooden and flax parts of old, abandoned fish hooks decomposed quickly as traditional hooks were cast away in favor of new ones. Tools made of luxury materials such as ivory or greenstone may have been kept around as decorations items, with stylized Maori fish hooks seen today as a symbol of cultural revitalization.
H. The Maori kept recreating traditional designs even as new materials poured in, preferring hook shapes which were introduced by Pakeha into the 1800s. By following the tradition of the rotating hook design, they remained connected with a part of their traditional culture. In the end, though, it was only a matter of time before the amount of mass-produced metal European hooks finally overwhelmed the area, highlighting the difficulty of making hooks from nails, horseshoes and other metal objects, and finally the use of the traditional designs fell out of favor.
I. By the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, tourists and collectors’ demands for Maori artifacts had grown, leading manufacturers to produce large quantities of forged hooks. These replicas were then traded with both Maoris and Europeans to use as forgeries of the real thing, sometimes directly commissioned by artifact dealers themselves. Fake hooks can be spotted by their cheap construction, inconsistent materials, rudimentary lashings, odd or over-elaborate decorative carvings, and finally, by the lack of in-turned points or angled grooves used to actually attach the fishing line.
J. The ways that matau have changed throughout their history is somewhat symbolic of how Maori have adapted to use European tools, materials and technology to their purposes over time, as well as the ways that European influence and technology contributed to, rather overtook, generally compatible Maori skills, and traditional materials were replaced or complemented by metals and, more recently, artificial materials. Commercial longline fishermen everywhere have begun using the circle hook design today, one that is nearly the same as the traditional matau in both its appearance and functionality. It seems that the advantages and improved catch rates of this Maori technology have been recognized once more.
B. Increasing use of ever-more sophisticated satellites has now permeated almost all aspects of modern life. Telecommunications could not function without them, and neither could the precision geo-location and navigational aids which we all take for granted. Worldwide monitoring of weather patterns has produced not only better forecasting, but an awareness of the human impact on the planet. Satellite imaging of the Earth is essential in conflict resolution and disaster management. Other satellites, such as the Hubble space telescope, are being used to collect data which help us understand the universe beyond our planet. Indeed, the international space station, on which a constantly changing crew of astronauts live, is another type of satellite.
C. Whilst the use of satellite technology has had a far-reaching impact on our lives, the question remains of what happens to these machines when they are no longer functional. In total over 6,600 satellites have been launched since Sputnik 1. Of the estimated 3,600 which are still in Earth’s orbit, only 1,000 remain in operation with the rest having become lifeless space debris. The problem of space debris is also self-perpetuating; when two satellites collide, many more pieces of rubbish are produced. A recent collision between two relatively small satellites created over 2,000 trackable pieces. There are now tens of thousands of objects larger than 5cm in diameter in orbit and an estimated one hundred million man-made pieces larger than 1mm. This ever-growing volume of junk is referred to as the Kessler syndrome, whereby each collision creates ever more debris, increasing chances of further collisions.
D. This growing volume of space waste can have serious consequences. Debris hurtling through space can strike working satellites, rendering them inoperable. Not only is this incredibly costly, but it can also take entire communications or tracking networks offline. The danger increases with the involvement of manned spacecraft. In 2007, a piece of space debris pierced the radiator of US space shuttle Endeavour. The International Space Station has also faced problems. Despite being in an orbit with relatively little space debris, it is frequently forced to make time-consuming manoeuvres out of the path of fragments of rubbish. As a result, it is essential that pieces of space debris are constantly tracked. When they do not have the necessary three days’ warning to change the craft’s path, the crew members are increasingly told to take shelter in Soyuz, the evacuation craft.
E. With more satellites and spacecraft being launched every year, the problem of space debris needs a solution, one of which has recently been trialled by the Japanese. At the end of 2016, Kyoritsu was taken into orbit and released. Kyoritsu is a type of satellite from which a kilometre-long cable manufactured by a fishing net company is tethered to a 20-kilogram mass. As this moves through the Earth’s magnetic field, it generates an electric current which slows down space debris it comes into contact with. When travelling at a slower speed the debris is forced down into the Earth’s atmosphere where it burns up and is destroyed upon falling to Earth. Although the initial trial of Kyoritsu was unsuccessful as the tether failed to deploy, the team are hopeful for its future use.
F. A further solution may come in redesigning both the types of satellites we use and the technology to retrieve them. As technology has improved, we have the opportunity to create much more compact satellites with considerably lower deployment costs. Many scientists worry that this will lead to a proliferation of debris as these smaller devices fall out of service. However, when Switzerland recently launched their first satellites, which were no larger than a briefcase, they understood the need to have a system in place to avoid them ending their life cycle as space debris. It is for this reason that they designed CleanSpace 1, a satellite with a cone-shaped net at the front which can unfold and then entrap smaller satellites. Once its targets have been captured, it can then slow down and de-orbit, burning everything up as it re-enters the atmosphere. CleanSpace 1 is scheduled to launch in 2018 to recapture the Swiss satellites.
G. Brian Weeden, a technical advisor for the Secure World Foundation, has suggested that space debris was a ‘super wicked problem’. Super wicked problems are complex issues without any clear solution, and little time to find one. This is not helped by the fact that no central organisation takes responsibility. However, there are signs that more people are taking this issue seriously with both commercial and national space organisations understanding the need for sustainability in satellite deployment. Technologies like Kyoritsu and CleanSpace 1 are being developed but more programmes are needed. At present, Kessler syndrome still poses a real threat and the volume of space debris is growing.
