IELTS Real Reading Test 2025 - Q2 Test 2 with Practice Test, Answers And Explanation
Luyện tập đề IELTS Real Reading Test 2025 - Q2 Test 2 được lấy từ cuốn sách Real Test 2025 - 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 Real Reading Test 2025 - Q2 Test 2 with Practice Test, Answers And Explanation
Passage
❓ Câu hỏi passage 1
Question 1 - 6
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage?
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
1
Fishbourne Palace was the first structure to be built on its site.
2
Fishbourne Palace was renovated more than once.
3
Fishbourne Palace was large in comparison with Roman palaces in Italy.
4
Research is continuing in the area close to Fishbourne Palace.
5
Researchers agree on the identity of the person for whom Fishbourne Palace was constructed.
6
Fishbourne Palace was burnt down by local people.
Question 7 - 13
Complete the notes below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.
FISHBOURNE PALACE
Construction
- The first buildings on the site contained food for the
7.
.
- The palace building surrounded
8.
.
- In the 2nd and 3rd centuries, colour was added to the
9.
of the palace.
Discovery
- The first part of the palace to be found was part of a
10.
.
Possible inhabitants
- Congidubnus – he is named in several writings.
- Sallustius Lucullu – he may have lived there until about
11.
AD.
- Verica – a British king.
- Catuarus – his
12.
was found there.
Present Day
- A
13.
has been built on the site to help protect it.
Passage
❓ Câu hỏi passage 2
Question 14 - 18
Reading Passage has seven paragraphs A-G
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-G
14
a claim that artists may have no clear objective when creating a piece of art
15
a description of how artists hope to benefit other people
16
a comparison between the arts and things made to perform a particular function
17
a claim that it’s possible to convince the world that anything you have made is a work of art
18
an example of something that has an unintentional benefit for us
Question 19 - 22
Write ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
The arts and human experience
Some people may claim that the arts serve no useful purpose, that they achieve nothing measurable and help nobody. But there are many clear examples of their usefulness, such as the inter-dependent relationship between music and or between the visual arts and the business. A dramatist may use a to draw our attention to various issues in society, for example some kind of injustice which needs correcting. Apart from these obvious practical benefits, there are other benefits that we gain from things, such as the we find in an artist’s work.
Question 23 - 24
Choose TWO letters, A-E.
In paragraph D, which TWO of the following effects does the writer say the arts can have?
A
They can interest people from all over the world.
B
They can make us see things from a different perspective.
C
They can inspire us to take up an artistic activity ourselves.
D
They can encourage us to think about our reactions to things around us.
E
They can draw our attention to serious global issues.
Question 25 - 26
Choose TWO letters, A-E.
Which TWO of the following statements about composers and music does the writer make?
A
Music tends to spring from the composer’s individual experiences.
B
Composers need to structure music very carefully.
C
Music can be quite unrelated to the natural world.
D
Music finds its best expression in a symphony.
E
Composers are good at depicting the world around us.
Passage
❓ Câu hỏi passage 3
Question 27 - 31
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes on your answer sheet.
27
The writer’s purpose in the first paragraph is to
A
oppose the views of Charles Darwin.
B
compare experts’ opinions of Darwin’s theory.
C
explain the theory of evolutionary psychology.
D
name experts in the field of evolutionary psychology.
28
In the third paragraph, which view about evolutionary psychology matches Nicholson’s opinion?
A
Our characters determine our career choices.
B
We begin life without any preconceived notions.
C
Our interests and skills depend on our environment.
D
We inherit ideas and characteristics from our ancestors.
29
The writer discusses the key element of emotion in order to
A
criticise primitive survival strategies.
B
explain attitudes and actions at work.
C
demonstrate the slowness of evolution.
D
suggest companies today are poorly structured.
30
Which of the following does Nicholson predict will happen in the business world?
A
Companies will remain in city centres.
B
Promotion will no longer motivate people.
C
Employees will be less independent than now.
D
Social interaction will remain important to workers.
31
Which of the following is the most suitable title for Reading Passage 3?
A
How successful companies manage change.
B
Understanding the origins of workplace behavior.
C
Darwin’s theories rejected by modern management.
D
Why post-industrial organisations need to evolve more quickly.
Question 32 - 35
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
32
Nicholson makes a persuasive argument in his book.
33
Tooby and Cosmides believe natural selection through the generations has prepared our minds well for the modern workplace.
34
Our reliance on technology causes emotional problems in the workplace.
35
People today are more trusting than they used to be.
Question 36 - 40
Complete the summary using the list of words, A-I, below.
Write the correct letter, A-I, in boxes on your answer sheet.
Nicholson’s advice to the corporate world
Nicholson believes that if we know why people act the way they do, we can change so employees will work more efficiently. Nicholson’s ideas are unwelcome to but some executives are more open to what evolutionary psychology says. However, these executives still believe that there is a that will make employees act according to the company’s practices. According to Nicholson, these senior executives are engaging in and we should not try to change but instead we should change our business structures.
A
business leaders
B
MBA graduates
C
promotion structures
D
reward strategy
E
magic formula
F
strategic planning
G
back-to-front thinking
H
business environments
I
human nature
DOL IELTS Đình Lực
05/05/2026
📖 Bài đọc passage 1
Fishbourne Roman Palace
The largest Roman villa in Britain
Fishbourne Roman Palace is in the village of Fishbourne in West Sussex, England. This large palace was built in the 1st century AD, around thirty years after the Roman conquest of Britain, on the site of Roman army grain stores which had been established after the invasion, in the reign of the Roman Emperor Claudius in 43AD. The rectangular palace was built around formal gardens, the northern half of which have been reconstructed. There were extensive alterations in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, with many of the original black and white mosaic floors being overlaid with more sophisticated coloured ones, including a perfectly preserved mosaic of a dolphin in the north wing. More alterations were in progress when the palace burnt down in around 270AD, after which it was abandoned.
Local people had long believed that a Roman palace once existed in the area. However, it was not until 1960 that the archaeologist Barry Cunliffe, of Oxford University, first systematically excavated the site, after workmen had accidentally uncovered a wall while they were laying a water main. The Roman villa excavated by Cunliffe’s team was so grand that it became known as Fishbourne Roman Palace, and a museum was erected to preserve some of the remains. This is administered by the Sussex Archaeological Society.
In its day, the completed palace would have comprised four large wings with colonnaded fronts. The north and east wings consisted of suites of private rooms built around courtyards, with a monumental entrance in the middle of the east wing. In the north-east corner there was an assembly hall. The west wing contained state rooms, a large ceremonial reception room, and a gallery. The south wing contained the owner’s private apartments. The palace included as many as 50 mosaic floors, under-floor central heating and a bathhouse. In size, Fishbourne Palace would have been approximately equivalent to some of the great Roman palaces of Italy, and was by far the largest known Roman residence north of the European Alps, at about 500 feet (150m) square. A team of volunteers and professional archaeologists are involved in an ongoing archaeological excavation on the site of nearby, possibly military, buildings.
The first buildings to be erected on the site were constructed in the early part of the conquest in 43 AD. Later, two timber buildings were constructed, one with clay and mortar floors and plaster walls, which appears to have been a house of some comfort. These buildings were demolished in the 60s AD and replaced by a substantial stone house, which included colonnades, and a bath suite. It has been suggested that the palace itself, incorporating the previous house in its south-east corner, was constructed around 73-75 AD. However, Dr Miles Russell, of Bournemouth University, reinterpreted the ground plan and the collection of objects found and has suggested that, given the extremely close parallels with the imperial palace of Domitian in Rome, its construction may more plausibly date to after 92 AD.
With regard to who lived in Fishbourne Palace, there are a number of theories; for example, one proposed by Professor Cunliffe is that, in its early phase, the palace was the residence of Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus, a local chieftain who supported the Romans, and who may have been installed as king of a number of territories following the first stage of the conquest. Cogidubnus is known from a reference to his loyalty in Agricola, a work by the Roman writer Tacitus, and from an inscription commemorating a temple dedicated to the gods Neptune and Minerva found in the nearby city of Chichester. Another theory is that it was built for Sallustius Lucullus, a Roman governor of Britain of the late 1st century, who may have been the son of the British prince Adminius. Two inscriptions recording the presence of Lucullus have been found in Chichester, and the redating by Miles Russell of the palace was designed for Lucullus, then it may have only been in use for a few years, as the Roman historian Suetonius records that Lucullus was executed by the Emperor Domitian in or shortly after 93 AD.
Additional theories suggest that either Verica, a British king of the Roman Empire in the years preceding the Claudian invasion, was owner of the palace, or Tiberius Claudius Catuarus, following the recent discovery of a gold ring belonging to him. The palace outlasted the original owner, whoever he was, and was extensively re-planned early in the 2nd century AD, and subdivided into a series of lesser apartments. Further redevelopment was begun in the late 3rd century AD, but these alterations were incomplete when the north wing was destroyed in a fire in around 270 AD. The damage was too great to repair, and the palace was abandoned and later dismantled.
A modern museum had been built by the Sussex Archaeological Society, incorporating most of the visible remains, including one wing of the palace. The gardens have been re-planted using authentic plants from the Roman period.
🔥 Đáp án & giải thích 1
1
False
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: Fishbourne Palace was the first structure to be built on its site
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Step 02: Locate relevant information
🔍 Từ khoá: "Fishbourne Palace", "first structure", "built", "on the site"
→ Dựa vào các từ khoá trên --> Ta tìm được trích dẫn ở đoạn 4
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Step 03: Read relevant information to understand (main + detail)
📌 Trích dẫn: "The first buildings to be erected on the site were constructed in the early part of the conquest in 43 AD. Later, two timber buildings were constructed..." (Đoạn 4)
Simplified:
The first buildings on the site were constructed in 43 AD .
Two timber buildings were constructed later
Main idea: Đã có một số công trình được xây từ 43 AD → Palace không phải công trình đầu tiên
-------
Step 04: Compare meaning with meaning
Trong bài đọc: Khu đất có các công trình khác được xây từ 43 AD, trước Palace.
Trong câu hỏi: Palace là công trình đầu tiên được xây.
⇒ ✅ Chọn: FALSE
-------
Giải thích đáp án sai:
TRUE sai: Vì bài đọc nói rõ đã có công trình khác xây trước Palace.
NOT GIVEN sai: Vì thông tin về các công trình trước Palace được nêu trực tiếp, không thiếu dữ kiện.
Sometimes people question why we need the arts. What functions do art, music, dance and literature serve?
A
A. Imagine a world in which people spend hours working in offices or factories, and then go home in the evening to sit down to dinner, after which they sleep until it’s time to get up and work again. In this world, people do not read or watch TV, listen to music, play computer games or have pictures to decorate their homes. In fact, there are no pictures in this world - not even advertisements are illustrated, but all are words, and very plain ones at that, with no playfulness left in them. The buildings are completely functional without a single decorative feature anywhere, and there is no music to dance to and enjoy. Such a world is a world without the arts in any form.
B
To ask what the arts are good for is not exactly the same as asking what their purpose is. The arts do not have to have a purpose - they do not exist in order to teach, to make a moral point, to entertain, to distract, to amuse, to support a revolution, to disgust, to challenge, to stimulate or to cheer; they exist chiefly for their own sake. It is artists, not the arts as such, that may have an aim in mind, and their aim may be to do any of the things just listed. But equally, artists may just make a work of art because they feel compelled to. Because the work is its own justification, no aim or goal is necessarily required to explain or, still less, to justify its existence.
C
But to say that the arts do not have to serve an aim beyond themselves, even though they may sometimes do so, is not to say that they are good for nothing. On the contrary, as such an important part of human experience, they are good for many things. The distinction here lies between things that are instrumental and things that are ends in themselves. An instrument exists for something beyond itself - namely, for what it can be used to do. We know that pictures are used as instruments in advertising, and the objective is always to persuade us to buy something. Similarly, music can be written chiefly to accompany dancing, or as a soundtrack to a movie. A play can be written to point out to the theatre audience a social injustice or other problems that should be dealt with. But even though the arts can sometimes be instrumental, that fact is not essential to their nature. What the arts are ‘good for’ arises from their being an end in themselves, or more accurately, representing many different things that are valuable for their own sakes - such as, for instance, the creation of beauty.
D
The phrase ‘the arts’ includes painting, sculpture, music, literature, dance and theatre performance, and whatever else (to quote the famous US artist Andy Warhol) anyone can get away with calling their creation a contribution to ‘the arts'. But the generalisation that the arts, whatever else they are, are always an end in themselves, applies to them all. The arts are one major form of response to the world. They are often an attempt to capture an aspect of the world, to draw attention to something about it, to comment on it, to present a surprising or fresh angle on it, to represent it for the sake of exploring something about it, or enjoying or celebrating it. They can help people to focus on, for example, the colour or shape of an object, its eccentricity or typicality, and the interest or perhaps disgust it provokes in them.
E
For a loose comparison, think of laughing at a joke. We do not laugh so that we can achieve a further goal - in order to be healthy or relaxed, say, even if we thereby succeed in being healthier or more relaxed - but simply because the joke has elicited that reaction. But although it is merely a reaction, laughing is, in fact, good for something nevertheless; it does make people feel better. The arts are a reaction in the same way. French artist Cezanne painted Mont Sainte-Victoire repeatedly because he was fascinated by it, not because he thought that painting it would say something about politics or society or human hopes. Being fascinated by something, attracted to it, repelled by it, keen to reveal an unusual aspect of it, are all responses to that thing; the making of the arts is one outstanding way of expressing such responses.
F
But the arts are a response not only to things in the world but also to the experience of the world, which lies inside the artist himself. And they are also often an expression of what presses from within the artist without being elicited by externals. Music is a prime example. A symphony, unless it is devised to represent bird song, rain, the sea and the like, is an abstract expression of a composer's conception. We may be able to describe what the Russian composer Tchaikovsky is doing in his ballet music, but how can we describe what he is expressing in his piano concertos? Composers may experiment with melody and rhythm in very abstract, sometimes mathematical, ways.
G
When artists get to work responding to and expressing ideas, whether or not they also want to make a point, entertain, distract, support a revolution and the rest, they are producing something that someone else will react to in some way. They seek to connect with their audience and express an idea or emotion which has the capacity to enrich our experience of life itself.
🔥 Đáp án & giải thích 2
14
B
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: a claim that artists may have no clear objective when creating a piece of art
Specify & Predict: Tìm đoạn đưa ra lập luận trực tiếp rằng tác phẩm nghệ thuật không nhất thiết phải có mục đích hay mục tiêu cụ thể.
-------
Step 02: Khoanh vùng đoạn văn
🔍 Từ khóa: “no clear objective/aim/goal”, “create art”
→ Dựa vào các từ khoá trên, có thể khoanh vùng được đoạn B vì có xuất hiện các cụm như “artists may just make a work of art because they feel compelled to“(nghệ sĩ có thể chỉ sáng tác vì họ cảm thấy bị thôi thúc) và “no aim or goal is necessarily required”(không có mục đích hoặc mục tiêu nhất thiết phải có) → Đây là lập luận cho rằng nghệ sĩ có thể không có mục tiêu rõ ràng khi sáng tạo tác phẩm.
Charles Darwin, the brilliant anthropologist and creator of the theory of evolution, is not normally associated with the modern business world. Nevertheless, Darwinian evolutionary theory is the foundation of a new wave of ideas about human behavior in general and particularly the way people behave in the workplace; these ideas have given the title of evolutionary psychology. Evolutionary psychology revolves around the notion that our brains, like our bodies, have an inherited evolutionary design that has scarcely changed for 10,000 years. As respected evolutionary psychology experts Leda Cosmides and John Tooby comment, 'our modern skulls house a Stone Age mind.' The US biologist Edward О Wilson sees evolutionary psychology as being a discipline which is based on both socio-biology, which is the study of the biological basis of social behavior, and psychology, which is the systematic study of human behavior.
Nigel Nicholson, an organisational psychologist from the London Business School, is a strong supporter of evolutionary psychology and on this subject has published Managing the Human Animal. His book takes the reader on a journey from the Stone Age plains of the savannah to the modern office, and includes a discussion of Darwinism and behavioural psychology together with a dissection of dysfunctional organisational behavior. It is an effective approach explaining why people behave as they do, particularly at work. Evolutionary psychology is increasingly being cited in management circles, where managers are trying to understand puzzling aspects of human behaviour and by doing so improve the workplace. Nicholson believes that evolutionary psychology can help managers understand what goes wrong in organisational life and what they can do about it.
Nicholson maintains that evolutionary psychology dismisses the long-held assumption that our minds are like blank pages just waiting for culture and experience to write on them and shape our nature. He points out that sophisticated research shows the brain actually houses a store of knowledge when we are born, and now genetic research is establishing there are certain genes that account for abilities, tastes and tendencies. The stored knowledge in the human brain has not changed much since the Stone Age. As Tooby and Cosmides stress, there have not been enough generations for a brain that is well adapted to our post-industrial life to evolve through natural selection.
The evolutionary psychology version of human nature revolves around some key elements which we have inherited from our hunter-gatherer minds. One key element is emotion. Emotion was originally essential to keep early man alive and safe from predators. Emotion was, and continues to be our radar, guiding us throughout today's techno defined business world. Despite this, the business world emphasises rational not emotional behaviour, and does not admit the importance of emotion. We still use the emotional part of our minds to make sense of other people’s behaviour and to create an impression, so we can often be taken in by appearances. This mental predisposition actually works best in small communities (the tribe), not in much larger environments filled with people we barely know (the modern workplace). Our minds naturally try to re-create our ancestral communities with networks of no more than 150 people, where there are clear hierarchies and leaders. As a consequence, it takes very little to trigger people's innate distrust of others because our safety in antiquity depended on supporting our near family and friends whom we valued more than other people.
So what advice does Nicholson have for the corporate world? He thinks that by knowing the reasons for people’s behaviour, it is possible to mould corporate environments into places that have more chance of working efficiently and being pleasant places to work in. Nicholson admits that not everybody in the business word agrees with his belief in the effectiveness of evolutionary psychology in the workplace. One group that resists the theory of evolutionary psychology is young MBA graduates who are just beginning their careers and feel that evolutionary psychology will make their lives at work more difficult. Older and wiser executives point out that they still tend to cling to the idea of a magic formula to bring people into line with corporate strategy. But that is back-to-front thinking according to Nicholson, who contends that we should be reinventing our business structures, not our fundamental human nature.
At the end of his book, Nicholson gives his forecast of what will and will not change in the business world. He believes that most people will still prefer more traditional forms of work and throughout their lives will continue to aim at lifelong status advancement. He also maintains that the line between work and home will be less defined, but that people will prefer traditional working patterns if working from home leaves them isolated from their work community. He doubts that the high-tech ideas of virtual companies will ever be very successful because people will still want to meet each other face-to-face. Nicholson describes his ideal organisation in the future: it would be decentralized, with small sub-units: the staff would be from diverse backgrounds and be allowed a high degree of self-determination. New endeavours and creativity would replace systems and rationality. Nicholson acknowledges that there is a long way to go in terms of the translation of his ideas of evolutionary psychology into practical propositions, but he is confident more and more people will come round to his way of thinking.
🔥 Đáp án & giải thích 3
27
C
Giải thích chi tiết
☺️ Ứng dụng Linearthinking để giải quyết dạng bài Multiple Choice
Step 01: Read the question to understand (main idea + detail)
Simplified: the writer’s purpose in the first paragraph is to...
-------
Step 02: Locate relevant information
-> Đọc đoạn 1 và xác định mục đích của tác giả liên quan đến lý thuyết của Darwin.
-------
Step 03: Read relevant information to understand (main + detail)
📌 Trích dẫn: “Darwinian evolutionary theory is the foundation of a new wave of ideas about human behavior … these ideas have given the title of evolutionary psychology. Evolutionary psychology revolves around the notion that our brains … have an inherited evolutionary design …”
Simplified: Darwinian evolutionary theory is the foundation of new ideas called evolutionary psychology and explains that human behaviour is shaped by inherited evolutionary design
-------
Step 04: Compare meaning with meaning
❌ A. oppose the views of Charles Darwin. -> Sai vì đoạn văn dựa trên Darwin (“is the foundation”), không hề phản đối ông.
❌ B. compare experts’ opinions of Darwin’s theory. -> Sai vì đoạn không so sánh quan điểm trái chiều; các chuyên gia chỉ được nhắc để minh hoạ cho lý thuyết.
✅ C. explain the theory of evolutionary psychology. -> Đúng vì đoạn 1 giới thiệu nguồn gốc và giải thích khái niệm cốt lõi của evolutionary psychology.
❌ D. name experts in the field of evolutionary psychology. -> Sai vì việc nêu tên Cosmides, Tooby, Wilson chỉ là chi tiết phụ minh hoạ, không phải mục đích chính của đoạn.
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➡️ Đáp án: C. explain the theory of evolutionary psychology.
Fishbourne Roman Palace is in the village of Fishbourne in West Sussex, England. This large palace was built in the 1st century AD, around thirty years after the Roman conquest of Britain, on the site of Roman army grain stores which had been established after the invasion, in the reign of the Roman Emperor Claudius in 43AD. The rectangular palace was built around formal gardens, the northern half of which have been reconstructed. There were extensive alterations in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, with many of the original black and white mosaic floors being overlaid with more sophisticated coloured ones, including a perfectly preserved mosaic of a dolphin in the north wing. More alterations were in progress when the palace burnt down in around 270AD, after which it was abandoned.
Local people had long believed that a Roman palace once existed in the area. However, it was not until 1960 that the archaeologist Barry Cunliffe, of Oxford University, first systematically excavated the site, after workmen had accidentally uncovered a wall while they were laying a water main. The Roman villa excavated by Cunliffe’s team was so grand that it became known as Fishbourne Roman Palace, and a museum was erected to preserve some of the remains. This is administered by the Sussex Archaeological Society.
In its day, the completed palace would have comprised four large wings with colonnaded fronts. The north and east wings consisted of suites of private rooms built around courtyards, with a monumental entrance in the middle of the east wing. In the north-east corner there was an assembly hall. The west wing contained state rooms, a large ceremonial reception room, and a gallery. The south wing contained the owner’s private apartments. The palace included as many as 50 mosaic floors, under-floor central heating and a bathhouse. In size, Fishbourne Palace would have been approximately equivalent to some of the great Roman palaces of Italy, and was by far the largest known Roman residence north of the European Alps, at about 500 feet (150m) square. A team of volunteers and professional archaeologists are involved in an ongoing archaeological excavation on the site of nearby, possibly military, buildings.
The first buildings to be erected on the site were constructed in the early part of the conquest in 43 AD. Later, two timber buildings were constructed, one with clay and mortar floors and plaster walls, which appears to have been a house of some comfort. These buildings were demolished in the 60s AD and replaced by a substantial stone house, which included colonnades, and a bath suite. It has been suggested that the palace itself, incorporating the previous house in its south-east corner, was constructed around 73-75 AD. However, Dr Miles Russell, of Bournemouth University, reinterpreted the ground plan and the collection of objects found and has suggested that, given the extremely close parallels with the imperial palace of Domitian in Rome, its construction may more plausibly date to after 92 AD.
With regard to who lived in Fishbourne Palace, there are a number of theories; for example, one proposed by Professor Cunliffe is that, in its early phase, the palace was the residence of Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus, a local chieftain who supported the Romans, and who may have been installed as king of a number of territories following the first stage of the conquest. Cogidubnus is known from a reference to his loyalty in Agricola, a work by the Roman writer Tacitus, and from an inscription commemorating a temple dedicated to the gods Neptune and Minerva found in the nearby city of Chichester. Another theory is that it was built for Sallustius Lucullus, a Roman governor of Britain of the late 1st century, who may have been the son of the British prince Adminius. Two inscriptions recording the presence of Lucullus have been found in Chichester, and the redating by Miles Russell of the palace was designed for Lucullus, then it may have only been in use for a few years, as the Roman historian Suetonius records that Lucullus was executed by the Emperor Domitian in or shortly after 93 AD.
Additional theories suggest that either Verica, a British king of the Roman Empire in the years preceding the Claudian invasion, was owner of the palace, or Tiberius Claudius Catuarus, following the recent discovery of a gold ring belonging to him. The palace outlasted the original owner, whoever he was, and was extensively re-planned early in the 2nd century AD, and subdivided into a series of lesser apartments. Further redevelopment was begun in the late 3rd century AD, but these alterations were incomplete when the north wing was destroyed in a fire in around 270 AD. The damage was too great to repair, and the palace was abandoned and later dismantled.
A modern museum had been built by the Sussex Archaeological Society, incorporating most of the visible remains, including one wing of the palace. The gardens have been re-planted using authentic plants from the Roman period.
FALSE
B. To ask what the arts are good for is not exactly the same as asking what their purpose is. The arts do not have to have a purpose - they do not exist in order to teach, to make a moral point, to entertain, to distract, to amuse, to support a revolution, to disgust, to challenge, to stimulate or to cheer; they exist chiefly for their own sake. It is artists, not the arts as such, that may have an aim in mind, and their aim may be to do any of the things just listed. But equally, artists may just make a work of art because they feel compelled to. Because the work is its own justification, no aim or goal is necessarily required to explain or, still less, to justify its existence.
C. But to say that the arts do not have to serve an aim beyond themselves, even though they may sometimes do so, is not to say that they are good for nothing. On the contrary, as such an important part of human experience, they are good for many things. The distinction here lies between things that are instrumental and things that are ends in themselves. An instrument exists for something beyond itself - namely, for what it can be used to do. We know that pictures are used as instruments in advertising, and the objective is always to persuade us to buy something. Similarly, music can be written chiefly to accompany dancing, or as a soundtrack to a movie. A play can be written to point out to the theatre audience a social injustice or other problems that should be dealt with. But even though the arts can sometimes be instrumental, that fact is not essential to their nature. What the arts are ‘good for’ arises from their being an end in themselves, or more accurately, representing many different things that are valuable for their own sakes - such as, for instance, the creation of beauty.
D. The phrase ‘the arts’ includes painting, sculpture, music, literature, dance and theatre performance, and whatever else (to quote the famous US artist Andy Warhol) anyone can get away with calling their creation a contribution to ‘the arts'. But the generalisation that the arts, whatever else they are, are always an end in themselves, applies to them all. The arts are one major form of response to the world. They are often an attempt to capture an aspect of the world, to draw attention to something about it, to comment on it, to present a surprising or fresh angle on it, to represent it for the sake of exploring something about it, or enjoying or celebrating it. They can help people to focus on, for example, the colour or shape of an object, its eccentricity or typicality, and the interest or perhaps disgust it provokes in them.
E. For a loose comparison, think of laughing at a joke. We do not laugh so that we can achieve a further goal - in order to be healthy or relaxed, say, even if we thereby succeed in being healthier or more relaxed - but simply because the joke has elicited that reaction. But although it is merely a reaction, laughing is, in fact, good for something nevertheless; it does make people feel better. The arts are a reaction in the same way. French artist Cezanne painted Mont Sainte-Victoire repeatedly because he was fascinated by it, not because he thought that painting it would say something about politics or society or human hopes. Being fascinated by something, attracted to it, repelled by it, keen to reveal an unusual aspect of it, are all responses to that thing; the making of the arts is one outstanding way of expressing such responses.
F. But the arts are a response not only to things in the world but also to the experience of the world, which lies inside the artist himself. And they are also often an expression of what presses from within the artist without being elicited by externals. Music is a prime example. A symphony, unless it is devised to represent bird song, rain, the sea and the like, is an abstract expression of a composer's conception. We may be able to describe what the Russian composer Tchaikovsky is doing in his ballet music, but how can we describe what he is expressing in his piano concertos? Composers may experiment with melody and rhythm in very abstract, sometimes mathematical, ways.
G. When artists get to work responding to and expressing ideas, whether or not they also want to make a point, entertain, distract, support a revolution and the rest, they are producing something that someone else will react to in some way. They seek to connect with their audience and express an idea or emotion which has the capacity to enrich our experience of life itself.
Charles Darwin, the brilliant anthropologist and creator of the theory of evolution, is not normally associated with the modern business world. Nevertheless, Darwinian evolutionary theory is the foundation of a new wave of ideas about human behavior in general and particularly the way people behave in the workplace; these ideas have given the title of evolutionary psychology. Evolutionary psychology revolves around the notion that our brains, like our bodies, have an inherited evolutionary design that has scarcely changed for 10,000 years. As respected evolutionary psychology experts Leda Cosmides and John Tooby comment, 'our modern skulls house a Stone Age mind.' The US biologist Edward О Wilson sees evolutionary psychology as being a discipline which is based on both socio-biology, which is the study of the biological basis of social behavior, and psychology, which is the systematic study of human behavior.
Nigel Nicholson, an organisational psychologist from the London Business School, is a strong supporter of evolutionary psychology and on this subject has published Managing the Human Animal. His book takes the reader on a journey from the Stone Age plains of the savannah to the modern office, and includes a discussion of Darwinism and behavioural psychology together with a dissection of dysfunctional organisational behavior. It is an effective approach explaining why people behave as they do, particularly at work. Evolutionary psychology is increasingly being cited in management circles, where managers are trying to understand puzzling aspects of human behaviour and by doing so improve the workplace. Nicholson believes that evolutionary psychology can help managers understand what goes wrong in organisational life and what they can do about it.
Nicholson maintains that evolutionary psychology dismisses the long-held assumption that our minds are like blank pages just waiting for culture and experience to write on them and shape our nature. He points out that sophisticated research shows the brain actually houses a store of knowledge when we are born, and now genetic research is establishing there are certain genes that account for abilities, tastes and tendencies. The stored knowledge in the human brain has not changed much since the Stone Age. As Tooby and Cosmides stress, there have not been enough generations for a brain that is well adapted to our post-industrial life to evolve through natural selection.
The evolutionary psychology version of human nature revolves around some key elements which we have inherited from our hunter-gatherer minds. One key element is emotion. Emotion was originally essential to keep early man alive and safe from predators. Emotion was, and continues to be our radar, guiding us throughout today's techno defined business world. Despite this, the business world emphasises rational not emotional behaviour, and does not admit the importance of emotion. We still use the emotional part of our minds to make sense of other people’s behaviour and to create an impression, so we can often be taken in by appearances. This mental predisposition actually works best in small communities (the tribe), not in much larger environments filled with people we barely know (the modern workplace). Our minds naturally try to re-create our ancestral communities with networks of no more than 150 people, where there are clear hierarchies and leaders. As a consequence, it takes very little to trigger people's innate distrust of others because our safety in antiquity depended on supporting our near family and friends whom we valued more than other people.
So what advice does Nicholson have for the corporate world? He thinks that by knowing the reasons for people’s behaviour, it is possible to mould corporate environments into places that have more chance of working efficiently and being pleasant places to work in. Nicholson admits that not everybody in the business word agrees with his belief in the effectiveness of evolutionary psychology in the workplace. One group that resists the theory of evolutionary psychology is young MBA graduates who are just beginning their careers and feel that evolutionary psychology will make their lives at work more difficult. Older and wiser executives point out that they still tend to cling to the idea of a magic formula to bring people into line with corporate strategy. But that is back-to-front thinking according to Nicholson, who contends that we should be reinventing our business structures, not our fundamental human nature.
At the end of his book, Nicholson gives his forecast of what will and will not change in the business world. He believes that most people will still prefer more traditional forms of work and throughout their lives will continue to aim at lifelong status advancement. He also maintains that the line between work and home will be less defined, but that people will prefer traditional working patterns if working from home leaves them isolated from their work community. He doubts that the high-tech ideas of virtual companies will ever be very successful because people will still want to meet each other face-to-face. Nicholson describes his ideal organisation in the future: it would be decentralized, with small sub-units: the staff would be from diverse backgrounds and be allowed a high degree of self-determination. New endeavours and creativity would replace systems and rationality. Nicholson acknowledges that there is a long way to go in terms of the translation of his ideas of evolutionary psychology into practical propositions, but he is confident more and more people will come round to his way of thinking.
human behaviour is shaped by inherited evolutionary design
