An Ideal City IELTS Reading Answers with Explanation

Luyện tập đề IELTS Reading Practice với passage An Ideal City được lấy từ cuốn sách IELTS Cambridge IELTS Practice Test 18 - Test 2 - Passage 3 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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An Ideal City IELTS Reading Answers with Explanation

📖 Bài đọc (reading passage)

An ideal city
Leonardo da Vinci's ideal city was centuries ahead of its time
The word ‘genius’ is universally associated with the name of Leonardo da Vinci. A true Renaissance man, he embodied scientific spirit, artistic talent and humanist sensibilities. Five hundred years have passed since Leonardo died in his home at Chateau du Clos Lucé, outside Tours, France. Yet far from fading into insignificance, his thinking has carried down the centuries and still surprises today.

The Renaissance marked the transition from the 15th century to modernity and took place after the spread of the plague in the 14th century, which caused a global crisis resulting in some 200 million deaths across Europe and Asia. Today, the world is on the cusp of a climate crisis, which is predicted to cause widespread displacement, extinctions and death, if left unaddressed. Then, as now, radical solutions were called for to revolutionise the way people lived and safeguard humanity against catastrophe.

Around 1486 — after a pestilence that killed half the population in Milan, Italy — Leonardo turned his thoughts to urban planning problems. Following a typical Renaissance trend, he began to work on an ‘ideal city’ project, which — due to its excessive costs — would remain unfulfilled. Yet given that unsustainable urban models are a key cause of global climate change today, it’s only natural to wonder how Leonardo might have changed the shape of modern cities.

Although the Renaissance is renowned as an era of incredible progress in art and architecture, it is rarely noted that the 15th century also marked the birth of urbanism as a true academic discipline. The rigour and method behind the conscious conception of a city had been largely missing in Western thought until the moment when prominent Renaissance men pushed forward large-scale urban projects in Italy, such as the reconfiguration of the town of Pienza and the expansion of the city of Ferrara. These works surely inspired Leonardo’s decision to rethink the design of medieval cities; with their winding and overcrowded streets and with houses piled against one another.

It is not easy to identify a coordinated vision of Leonardo’s ideal city because of his disordered way of working with notes and sketches. But from the largest collection of Leonardo’s papers ever assembled, a series of innovative thoughts can be reconstructed regarding the foundation of a new city along the Ticino River, which runs from Switzerland into Italy and is 248 kilometres long. He designed the city for the easy transport of goods and clean urban spaces, and he wanted a comfortable and spacious city, with well-ordered streets and architecture. He recommended ‘high, strong walls’, with ‘towers and battlements of all necessary and pleasant beauty”.

His plans for a modern and ‘rational’ city were consistent with Renaissance ideals. But, in keeping with his personality, Leonardo included several innovations in his urban design. Leonardo wanted the city to be built on several levels, linked with vertical outdoor staircases. This design can be seen in some of today’s high-rise buildings but was unconventional at the time. Indeed, this idea of taking full advantage of the interior spaces wasn’t implemented until the 1920s and 1930s, with the birth of the Modernist movement.

While in the upper layers of the city, people could walk undisturbed between elegant palaces and streets, the lower layer was the place for services, trade, transport and industry. But the true originality of Leonardo’s vision was its fusion of architecture and engineering. Leonardo designed extensive hydraulic plants to create artificial canals throughout the city. The canals, regulated by clocks and basins, were supposed to make it easier for boats to navigate inland. Leonardo also thought that the width of the streets ought to match the average height of the adjacent houses: a rule still followed in many contemporary cities across Italy, to allow access to sun and reduce the risk of damage from earthquakes.

Although some of these features existed in Roman cities, before Leonardo’s drawings there had never been a multi-level, compact modern city which was thoroughly technically conceived. Indeed, it wasn’t until the 19th century that some of his ideas were applied. For example, the subdivision of the city by function — with services and infrastructures located in the lower levels and wide and well-ventilated boulevards and walkways above for residents — is an idea that can be found in Georges-Eugéne Haussmann’s renovation of Paris under Emperor Napoleon III between 1853 and 1870.

Today, Leonardo’s ideas are not simply valid, they actually suggest a way forward for urban planning. Many scholars think that the compact city, built upwards instead of outwards, integrated with nature (especially water systems), with efficient transport infrastructure, could help modern cities become more efficient and sustainable. This is yet another reason why Leonardo was aligned so closely with modern urban planning and centuries ahead of his time.

❓ Câu hỏi (questions)

People first referred to Leonardo da Vinci as a genius 500 years ago.

The current climate crisis is predicted to cause more deaths than the plague.

Some of the challenges we face today can be compared to those of earlier times.

Leonardo da Vinci's ‘ideal city’ was constructed in the 15th century.

Poor town planning is a major contributor to climate change.

In Renaissance times, local people fought against the changes to Pienza and Ferrara.

Leonardo da Vinci kept a neat, organised record of his designs.

Leonardo da Vinci's ideal city

A collection of Leonardo da Vinci's paperwork reveals his design of a new city beside the Ticino River. This was to provide better﻿ for trade and a less polluted environment. Although Leonardo da Vinci's city shared many of the ideals of his time, some of his innovations were considered unconventional in their design. They included features that can be seen in some tower blocks today, such as﻿ on the exterior of a building.
Leonardo da Vinci wasn't only an architect. His expertise in﻿ was evident in his plans for artificial canals within his ideal city. He also believed that the height of houses should relate to the width of streets in case earthquakes occurred. The design of many cities in ltaly today follows this﻿﻿
While some cities from﻿ times have aspects that can also be found in Leonardo’s designs, his ideas weren't put into practice until long after his death. ﻿ is one example of a city that was redesigned in the 19th century in the way that Leonardo had envisaged. His ideas are also relevant to today’s world, where building﻿ no longer seems to be the best approach.

🔥 Answer key (đáp án và giải thích)

Not Given

Giải thích chi tiết

☺️ Ứng dụng Linearthinking để giải quyết dạng bài True / False / Not Given

Step 01: Read the question to understand (main idea + detail)

Simplified: People first referred to Leonardo da Vinci as a genius 500 years ago

Main idea: Con người → lần đầu nhắc đến Leonardo da Vinci là thiên tài vào khoảng 500 năm trước

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Step 02: Locate relevant information

🔍 Từ khoá: "genius", "Leonardo da Vinci", "five hundred years"

→ Dựa vào các từ khoá trên --> Ta tìm được trích dẫn ở đoạn 1

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Step 03: Read relevant information to understand (main + detail)

📌 Trích dẫn:"The word ‘genius’ is universally associated with the name of Leonardo da Vinci. ... Five hundred years have passed since Leonardo died in his home at Chateau du Clos Lucé, outside Tours, France." (Đoạn 1)

Simplified:

The word ‘genius’ is universally associated with the name of Leonardo da Vinci
Five hundred years have passed since Leonardo died

Main idea: Từ “genius” trước giờ vẫn luôn được gắn với Leonardo da Vinci (thì hiện tại đơn); 500 năm chỉ là khoảng thời gian đã trôi qua kể từ khi ông qua đời ==> Không phải thời điểm con người bắt đầu gọi ông là thiên tài.

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Step 04: Compare meaning with meaning

Trong bài đọc: Tác giả nói rằng từ “genius” trước giờ vẫn luôn được gắn với Leonardo da Vinci; 500 năm chỉ là khoảng thời gian đã trôi qua kể từ khi ông qua đời --> Không đề cập đến thời điểm ông bắt đầu được gọi là "genius".
Trong câu hỏi: Con người lần đầu tiên gọi Leonardo da Vinci là thiên tài cách đây 500 năm.

⇒ ✅ Chọn: NOT GIVEN

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Giải thích đáp án:

NOT GIVEN: Đúng, vì bài đọc không hề đề cập đến thời điểm lần đầu tiên Leonardo được gọi là “genius”. Con số 500 năm chỉ liên quan đến thời gian ông qua đời.
TRUE sẽ đúng nếu bài viết nói rõ: “People first started calling Leonardo a genius 500 years ago.” → Không có.
FALSE sẽ đúng nếu bài viết nói ngược lại, ví dụ: “People only recently began to regard Leonardo as a genius.” → Không có.

Lưu ý chung: Không được đánh đồng mốc thời gian “500 years since his death” với “500 years ago people first referred to him as a genius”.

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