IELTS Real Reading Test Pre 2025 - Vol 2 Test 5 with Practice Test, Answers And Explanation
Luyện tập đề IELTS Real Reading Test Pre 2025 - Vol 2 Test 5 được lấy từ cuốn sách Real Test Pre 2025 - Vol 2 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 Pre 2025 - Vol 2 Test 5 with Practice Test, Answers And Explanation
Passage
❓ Câu hỏi passage 1
Question 1 - 6
Reading Passage has six paragraphs A-F
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-F
1
Different ways of using robots
2
A robot whose body has the same proportion as that of an adult
3
The fact that human can be copied and replaced by robots
4
A comparison between ASIMO for Honda and other robots
5
The pros and cons of creating robots
6
A robot that has eyebrows
Question 7 - 13
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
In 2003, Massachusetts displayed a robot named ASIMO which was invented by Honda, after a period of in the making. The operating information is stored in the computer in its so that scientists can control ASIMO’s movement.
While Japan is making great progress, MIT is developing robots that are human-like and can humans. What is special about Kismet is that it has different which can be read by human interlocutors. is another robot from MIT, whose body’s proportion is the same as an adult. By responding to the surroundings through , it could develop its .
Passage
❓ Câu hỏi passage 2
Question 14 - 20
Complete the sentences below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
14
Despite differences in
, ‘guit-’ and ‘-tar’ have remained present in guitar-related words.
15
Instruments that we would call acoustic guitars have been made and played for approximately
.
16
No one knows the
when the first six-string guitar was made.
17
The early nineteenth century is widely regarded as the era when the modern guitar’s
were first established
18
A
for an electric guitar was issued in the mid-1930s.
19
Les Paul, the well-known
guitarist, was involved in the development of the electric guitar.
20
Most
of the guitar know little about its rich history.
Question 21 - 26
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Instruments similar to the guitar have been played by musicians for over years. What we know about many of these instruments comes from rather than actual physical examples or music played on them. In some ways, these early stringed instruments were closer to than the guitar as we know it today. We do have examples of six-string guitars that are 200 years old. However, the of six-string guitars made by guitar makers (who are also known as ) before the final decade of the eighteenth century is often open to question.
Although the electric guitar was invented in the 1930s, it took several decades for electric guitars to develop, with the company Rickenbacker playing a major part in this development. Most electric guitars in use today are similar in design to guitars produced by the Fender Musical Instruments Company and the Gibson Guitar Corporation in the 1950s.
Passage
❓ Câu hỏi passage 3
Question 27 - 33
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
27
The town of Whakatane is frequently the setting for Gee's stories.
28
For Gee, the kitchen was as important as Henderson Creek.
29
Gee was correct to avoid basing any of his characters on his father.
30
Gee's mother had a major influence on his development as a storyteller.
31
Gee's Nelson Central School was less popular with readers than his imagined stories.
32
Gee enjoyed the time he spent working in education in Paeroa.
33
Louis Johnson thought that Gee had written a different type of New Zealand novel.
Question 34 - 36
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes on your answer sheet.
34
The writer concludes that The Big Season
A
enables Gee to experiment with ideas he uses again later.
B
develops literary ideas that were popular at the time.
C
describes events that Gee himself experienced.
D
stresses the importance of team loyalty in sport.
35
The writer suggests that In My Father's Den
A
finishes with an inconclusive climax.
B
provided useful practice for A Glorious Morning, Comrade.
C
demonstrates a new confidence in Gee's writing.
D
took less time to write than A Glorious Morning, Comrade.
36
According to the writer, Games of Choice
A
dealt with different issues to Plumb.
B
was an important influence on the creation of Plumb.
C
describes a family of grandparents, parents, and children.
D
was shocking in its presentation of aggression.
Question 37 - 40
Complete each of the following statements with the best ending A-H from the box below.
List of Endings
A
the culture in which Gee set his work.
B
those who shared his life.
C
facts that are familiar to most readers.
D
the development of practical skills.
E
colorful vocabulary and complex language.
F
topics other writers did not discuss.
G
reviewers in his own country.
H
characters with unusual problems.
Gee's father encouraged him to take an interest in
37
The novel Plumb continues to be praised by
38
Gee once refused to write an autobiography to protect
39
Trevor James refers to certain words to illustrate
40
DOL IELTS Đình Lực
05/05/2026
📖 Bài đọc passage 1
Man or Machine
A
A. During July 2003, the Museum of Science in Cambridge, Massachusetts exhibited what Honda calls ‘the world’s most advanced humanoid robot’, ASIMO (the Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility). Honda’s brainchild is on tour in North America and delighting audiences wherever it goes. After 17 years in the making, ASIMO stands at four feet tall, weighs around 115 pounds and looks like a child in an astronaut’s suit. Though it is difficult to see ASIMO’s face at a distance, on closer inspection it has a smile and two large ‘eyes’ that conceal cameras. The robot cannot work autonomously – its actions are ‘remote-controlled’ by scientists through the computer in its backpack. Yet watching AIMIO perform at a show in Massachusetts it seemed uncannily human. The audience cheered as ASIMO walked forwards and backwards, side to side and up and downstairs. After the show, a number of people told me that they would like robots to play more of a role in daily life – one even said that the robot would be like ‘another person’.
B
B.
While the Japanese have made huge strides in solving some of the engineering problems of human kinetics and bipedal movements, for the past 10 years scientists at MIT’s former Artificial Intelligence (AI) lab (recently renamed the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, CSAIL) have been making robots that can behave like humans and interact with humans. One of MIT’s robots, Kismet, is an anthropomorphic head and has two eyes (complete with eyelids), ears, a mouth, and eyebrows. It has several facial expressions, including happy, sad, frightened and disgusted. Human interlocutors are able to read some of the robot’s facial expressions, and often change their behavior towards the machine as a result – for example, playing with it when it appears ‘sad’. Kismet is now in MIT’s museum, but the ideas developed here continue to be explored in new robots.
C
Cog (short for Cognition) is another pioneering project from MIT’s former AI lab. Cog has a head, eyes, two arms, hands and a torso – and its proportions were originally measured from the body of a researcher in the lab. The work on Cog has been used to test theories of embodiment and developmental robotics, particularly getting a robot to develop intelligence by responding to its environment via sensors, and to learn through these types of interactions.
D
MIT is getting furthest down the road to creating human-like and interactive robots. Some scientists argue that ASIMO is a great engineering feat but not an intelligent machine – because it is unable to interact autonomously with unpredictabilities in its environment in meaningful ways, and learn from experience. Robots like Cog and Kismet and new robots at MIT’s CSAIL and media lab, however, are beginning to do this.
E
These are exciting developments. Creating a machine that can walk, make gestures and learn from its environment is an amazing achievement. And watch this space: these achievements are likely rapidly to be improved upon. Humanoid robots could have a plethora of uses in society, helping to free people from everyday tasks. In Japan, for example, there is an aim to create robots that can do the tasks similar to an average human and also act in more sophisticated situations as firefighters, astronauts or medical assistants to the elderly in the workplace and in homes – partly in order to counterbalance the effects of an ageing population.
F
Such robots say much about the way in which we view humanity, and they bring out the best and worst of us. On one hand, these developments express human creativity – our ability to invent, experiment, and to extend our control over the world. On the other hand, the aim to create a robot like a human being is spurred on by dehumanized ideas – by the sense that human companionship can be substituted by machines; that humans lose their humanity when they interact with technology; or that we are a little more than surface and ritual behaviors, that can be simulated with metal and electrical circuits.
🔥 Đáp án & giải thích 1
1
E
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 → sẽ nhanh chóng tìm được vị trí đáp án hơn!!
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Step 1: Phân tích câu hỏi (Matching Information)
Different ways of using robots
Dự đoán thông tin cần tìm (SPECIFY):
Đề hỏi “different ways of using robots” ⇒ đoạn đúng phải có nhiều cách ứng dụng robots (không chỉ 1 công dụng chung chung). Cụ thể có thể là:
robots làm việc hằng ngày / việc nhà / routine tasks
robots làm các vai trò chuyên biệt (ví dụ: cứu hoả, y tế, không gian, chăm sóc người già…)
thường sẽ có dấu hiệu như “many uses / a range of uses / for example / such as …” kèm liệt kê.
-------
Step 2: Locate bằng chứng
Đoạn E nói trực tiếp về nhiều ứng dụng khác nhau của humanoid robots và có ví dụ cụ thể ở Nhật.
Câu bằng chứng trong E:
Humanoid robots could have a plethora of uses
--> For example, help with everyday tasks + act as firefighters / astronauts / medical assistants
-------
Step 3: Đối chiếu paraphrasing
“Different ways” ⇔ “a plethora of uses” (= rất nhiều cách sử dụng)
“using robots” ⇔ robots được dùng để:
“free people from everyday tasks” (= làm các việc thường ngày để giải phóng con người)
“act in more sophisticated situations” như firefighters / astronauts / medical assistants (= làm việc phức tạp/chuyên biệt)
⇒ Đoạn E đáp ứng đúng yêu cầu: nêu nhiều cách dùng robots + có liệt kê ví dụ rõ ràng.
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❌ Những đáp án “bẫy” hay dính
Bẫy đoạn A: nói về ASIMO biểu diễn và phản ứng khán giả muốn robots đóng vai trò lớn hơn trong đời sống. Skim/scan thấy “role in daily life” dễ chọn A, nhưng A không liệt kê “different ways” (không có nhiều ứng dụng cụ thể như firefighter/astronaut/medical assistant).
Bẫy đoạn F: nói về robots phản ánh cách con người nhìn “humanity” (mặt tốt/mặt xấu). Có từ “aim to create a robot…” nhưng đây là bình luận xã hội/triết lý, không phải “different ways of using robots”.
The word 'guitar' was brought into English as an adaptation of the Spanish word 'guitarra', which was, in turn, derived from the Greek 'kithara'. Tracing the roots of the word further back into linguistic history, it seems to have been a combination of the Indo-European stem 'guit-', meaning music, and the root ’-tar’, meaning chord or string. The root '-tar' is actually common to a number of languages, and can also be found in the word ’sitar', also a stringed musical instrument. Although the spelling and pronunciation differ between languages, these key elements have been present in most words for 'guitar' throughout history.
While the guitar may have gained most of its popularity as a musical instrument during the modern era, guitar-like instruments have been in existence in numerous cultures throughout the world for more than 5,000 years. The earliest instruments that the modern eye and ear would recognise as a 'normal' acoustic guitar date from about 500 years ago. Prior to this time, stringed instruments were in use throughout the world, but these early instruments are known primarily from visual depictions, not from the continued existence of music written for them. The majority of these depictions show simple stringed instruments, often lacking some of the parts that define a modern guitar. A number of these instruments have more in common with the lute than the guitar.
There is some uncertainty about the exact date of the earliest six-string guitar. The oldest one still in existence, which was made by Gaetano Vinaccia, is dated 1779. However, the authenticity of six-string guitars alleged to have been made prior to 1790 is often suspect, as many fakes have been discovered dating to this era. The early nineteenth century is generally accepted as the time period during which six-string guitars began taking on their modern shape and dimensions. Thus for nearly two hundred years, luthiers, or guitar makers, have been producing versions of the modern acoustic guitar.
The first electric guitar was not developed until the early twentieth century. George Beauchamp received the first patent for an electric guitar in 1936, and Beauchamp went on to co-found Rickenbacker, originally known as the Electro String Instrument Company. Although Rickenbacker began producing electric guitars in the late 1930s, this brand received most of its fame in the 1960s, when John Lennon used a Rickenbacker guitar for the Beatles' debut performance on the Ed Sullivan show in 1964. George Harrison later bought a Rickenbacker guitar of his own, and the company later gave him one of their earliest 12-string electric guitars. Paul McCartney also used a Rickenbacker bass guitar for recording. The Beatles continued to use Rickenbacker guitars throughout their career, and made the instruments highly popular among other musicians of the era.
The Fender Musical Instruments Company and the Gibson Guitar Corporation were two other early electric guitar pioneers, both developing models in the early 1950s. Fender began with the Telecaster in 1950 and 1951, and the Fender Stratocaster debuted in 1954. Gibson began selling the Gibson Les Paul, based partially on assistance from jazz musician and guitar innovator Les Paul, in 1952. The majority of present day solid-body electric guitars are still based largely on these three early electric guitar designs.
Throughout the history of the guitar, an enormous number of individuals have made their mark on the way in which the instrument was built, played and perceived. Though some of these individuals are particularly well known, like the Beatles or Les Paul, the majority of these people are virtually invisible to most modern guitar fans. By looking at the entire history of the guitar, rather than just recent developments, largely confined to electric guitars, it is possible to see more of the contributions of earlier generations.
🔥 Đáp án & giải thích 2
14
spelling and pronunciation
Giải thích chi tiết
☺️ Ứng dụng Linearthinking để giải quyết dạng bài Gap Fill
Step 01: Read the question to understand (main idea + detail) + Predict Word Form + Meaning
Simplified: Despite differences in ______, ‘guit-’ and ‘-tar’ have remained present in guitar-related words
Main idea: Mặc dù có sự khác biệt về ___, nhưng các yếu tố "guit-" và "-tar" vẫn xuất hiện xuyên suốt trong các từ liên quan đến guitar.
Prediction: Danh từ
-------
Step 02: Locate relevant information
🔍 Từ khoá: “guit-”, “-tar”, “guitar-related words”, "remained present", "differences"
→ Dựa vào các từ khoá trên → Tìm được trích dẫn ở đoạn đầu tiên vì đề cập đến việc các yếu tố “guit-” và “-tar” vẫn còn tồn tại xuyên suốt.
-------
Step 03: Read relevant information to understand (main + detail)
📌 Trích dẫn: "Although the spelling and pronunciation differ between languages, these key elements have been present in most words for 'guitar' throughout history." (đoạn 1)
Simplified: Although spelling and pronunciation differ between languages , these key elements have been present in most words for 'guitar'
Main idea: Dù cách viết và phát âm khác nhau giữa các ngôn ngữ → các yếu tố chính vẫn hiện diện trong phần lớn các từ chỉ "guitar"
-------
Step 04: Compare meaning with meaning
Trong bài đọc: Mặc dù cách viết và phát âmkhác nhau giữa các ngôn ngữ → nhưng các yếu tố “guit-” và “-tar” vẫn còn
Trong câu hỏi: Mặc dù có sự khác biệt trong ______ → “guit-” và “-tar” vẫn tồn tại
→ Suy ra từ/cụm từ tiếng Việt “sự khác biệt” + về ngôn ngữ = “spelling and pronunciation”
Maurice Gee was born in Whakatane, a popular coastal town in New Zealand. However, he spent his childhood in the country town of Henderson and it is only the latter that plays a major role in his fiction. Of special significance is Henderson Creek, a small stream where, Gee said, "I seem to have spent half my boyhood." There, he says, he saw dead animals for the first time, which made a deep impression on him. "I'd run home from the creek to the safety and security of the kitchen," he once said. Gee claimed that the two places were of equal significance: "one the place of safety and affection, the other the place of adventure, danger, excitement."
Gee's father was a carpenter who happily allowed Maurice and his brothers free access to tools and materials for making boats in which to explore the creek. His mother's tales of family history were fundamental to Gee's emerging interest in narrative, providing a sense of social history that he would later use in his writing. His memories of primary school in Henderson are intense and detailed. Furthermore, he seems able to transfer their atmosphere to other schools. There can be few factual accounts of a primary school as vivid as Gee's Nelson Central School (1978), which was a major contribution to the history of schooling and one based on extensive oral research.
For two years he was a schoolteacher in the town of Paeroa, but he moved on feeling disillusioned with the profession. After three years' casual work in various parts of New Zealand, he spent 1961 teaching and writing in England. Ever since university he had been writing. The publication of two stories in the British collection New Authors - Short Story I (1961) created a wider audience for this new voice.
A year later The Big Season, Gee's first published novel, was greeted enthusiastically. The poet Louis Johnson wrote that it challenged the common idea that most New Zealand novels showed the country's way of life as dull. The New Zealand Herald newspaper found it "not always pleasant, but certainly forceful and sincere." The novel celebrates joy in the game of rugby, New Zealand's national sport and passion. It was unusual in those days for writers to express interest in this topic. The central character, Rob Andrews, tries hard on the rugby field but is distracted by his personal romantic interests. He seems to have betrayed the rugby world, but he has not betrayed himself: for all his confusion he is discovering his own potential. It's possible to say that the author is doing the same thing, because patterns and themes that will shape his subsequent books are seen here for the first time.
Gee's third novel was the mystery story In My Father's Den (1972). Despite a rather exaggerated and emotional ending, Gee seems to be more self-assured as an author and in more control of his writing than previously. It was followed by the collection of short stories A Glorious Morning, Comrade (1975), though many of these stories had been written before the novels and could be viewed as apprentice work. In Games of Choice (1976) it is clear that Gee's writing skills are developing quickly. For example, he was able to create a genuine sense of tension and fear. And he really built on this skill and took it to its highest level in his masterpiece Plumb (1978), which provides an image of life in New Zealand over three generations. Local critical response has been enthusiastic and ongoing.
Clearly at the height of his powers, Gee combined work on Plumb with his first work of children's fiction. Under the Mountain (1979) is an Auckland tale stimulated by the volcanoes that dot the cityscape. Strange creatures are planning to make the world their own and only Rachel and Theo can save the local population. The battle between good and evil, a beautiful natural world and a dreary one, is the common theme of the books he wrote at this time.
Going West (1993), which was met with critical acclaim, is significant because it explores how writers create their work. In the novel, the main character, Rex Petley, writes poetry which has a creek as a repeating image. Gee has said that he will never write his own autobiography, because he cannot betray the people who would appear in it, but he frequently includes his personal experience in his work, such as his knowledge of Henderson Creek. Grounded in reality, but adding images from his imagination, Gee thus shapes and enriches his fictional world.
Each of Gee's novels tells us about New Zealand life, and human life in general. Each is full of characters with a variety of intense and unique personalities together with rich images of the natural world. Yet there is always an awareness of danger: one false move and we lose everything. The reviewer, Trevor James, points out the frequency of such words as "abyss," "hole," and "missing," in Gee's writing, which he believes reflects the common desire in New Zealand society not to stand out from the crowd. Rachel Barrowman's biography Maurice Gee: Life and Work was released in 2015. She delves into subjects surrounding Gee that were previously untouched by other biographers. Gee confesses that some of Barrowman's conclusions astonished him and made him rethink what he thought he knew.
🔥 Đáp án & giải thích 3
27
No
Giải thích chi tiết
☺️ Ứng dụng Linearthinking để giải quyết dạng bài Yes / No / Not Given
Step 01: Read the question to understand (main idea + detail)
Simplified: The town of Whakatane is the setting for Gee's stories
Main idea: Whakatane = nơi diễn ra các câu chuyện của Gee → hỏi xem Gee có đặt bối cảnh tác phẩm ở Whakatane không.
-------
Step 02: Locate relevant information
🔍 Từ khóa: “Whakatane”, “Gee’s stories”, “setting”
=> Dựa vào các từ khoá trên -> Tìm được trích dẫn ở đoạn 1.
-------
Step 03: Read relevant information to understand (main + detail)
📌 Trích dẫn: “Maurice Gee was born in Whakatane, a popular coastal town in New Zealand. However, he spent his childhood in the country town of Henderson and it is only the latter that plays a major role in his fiction.”
Simplified: Maurice Gee was born in Whakatane but spent childhood in Henderson
-> it is onlyHendersonthat plays a major role in his fiction
Main idea: Gee sinh ra ở Whakatane →nhưngHenderson (không phải Whakatane) mới là bối cảnh chính trong truyện của ông.
-------
Step 04: Compare meaning with meaning
Trong bài đọc: Henderson (nơi Gee lớn lên) mới là bối cảnh chính trong tác phẩm, Whakatane chỉ là nơi ông sinh ra → Whakatane không phải là setting của các truyện.
Trong câu hỏi: Whakatane là bối cảnh thường xuyên của truyện Gee.
⇒ Hai ý trái ngược ->✅ Chọn: NO
-------
Lưu ý:
Nếu đáp án là YES: đoạn văn phải nói rằng Gee thường viết truyện lấy bối cảnh ở Whakatane.
Nếu đáp án là NOT GIVEN: đoạn văn không được nhắc tới mối liên hệ giữa Whakatane và các tác phẩm.
While the Japanese have made huge strides in solving some of the engineering problems of human kinetics and bipedal movements, for the past 10 years scientists at MIT’s former Artificial Intelligence (AI) lab (recently renamed the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, CSAIL) have been making robots that can behave like humans and interact with humans. One of MIT’s robots, Kismet, is an anthropomorphic head and has two eyes (complete with eyelids), ears, a mouth, and eyebrows. It has several facial expressions, including happy, sad, frightened and disgusted. Human interlocutors are able to read some of the robot’s facial expressions, and often change their behavior towards the machine as a result – for example, playing with it when it appears ‘sad’. Kismet is now in MIT’s museum, but the ideas developed here continue to be explored in new robots.
C. Cog (short for Cognition) is another pioneering project from MIT’s former AI lab. Cog has a head, eyes, two arms, hands and a torso – and its proportions were originally measured from the body of a researcher in the lab. The work on Cog has been used to test theories of embodiment and developmental robotics, particularly getting a robot to develop intelligence by responding to its environment via sensors, and to learn through these types of interactions.
D. MIT is getting furthest down the road to creating human-like and interactive robots. Some scientists argue that ASIMO is a great engineering feat but not an intelligent machine – because it is unable to interact autonomously with unpredictabilities in its environment in meaningful ways, and learn from experience. Robots like Cog and Kismet and new robots at MIT’s CSAIL and media lab, however, are beginning to do this.
E. These are exciting developments. Creating a machine that can walk, make gestures and learn from its environment is an amazing achievement. And watch this space: these achievements are likely rapidly to be improved upon. Humanoid robots could have a plethora of uses in society, helping to free people from everyday tasks. In Japan, for example, there is an aim to create robots that can do the tasks similar to an average human and also act in more sophisticated situations as firefighters, astronauts or medical assistants to the elderly in the workplace and in homes – partly in order to counterbalance the effects of an ageing population.
F. Such robots say much about the way in which we view humanity, and they bring out the best and worst of us. On one hand, these developments express human creativity – our ability to invent, experiment, and to extend our control over the world. On the other hand, the aim to create a robot like a human being is spurred on by dehumanized ideas – by the sense that human companionship can be substituted by machines; that humans lose their humanity when they interact with technology; or that we are a little more than surface and ritual behaviors, that can be simulated with metal and electrical circuits.
help with everyday tasks
act as firefighters / astronauts / medical assistants
The word 'guitar' was brought into English as an adaptation of the Spanish word 'guitarra', which was, in turn, derived from the Greek 'kithara'. Tracing the roots of the word further back into linguistic history, it seems to have been a combination of the Indo-European stem 'guit-', meaning music, and the root ’-tar’, meaning chord or string. The root '-tar' is actually common to a number of languages, and can also be found in the word ’sitar', also a stringed musical instrument. Although the spelling and pronunciation differ between languages, these key elements have been present in most words for 'guitar' throughout history.
While the guitar may have gained most of its popularity as a musical instrument during the modern era, guitar-like instruments have been in existence in numerous cultures throughout the world for more than 5,000 years. The earliest instruments that the modern eye and ear would recognise as a 'normal' acoustic guitar date from about 500 years ago. Prior to this time, stringed instruments were in use throughout the world, but these early instruments are known primarily from visual depictions, not from the continued existence of music written for them. The majority of these depictions show simple stringed instruments, often lacking some of the parts that define a modern guitar. A number of these instruments have more in common with the lute than the guitar.
There is some uncertainty about the exact date of the earliest six-string guitar. The oldest one still in existence, which was made by Gaetano Vinaccia, is dated 1779. However, the authenticity of six-string guitars alleged to have been made prior to 1790 is often suspect, as many fakes have been discovered dating to this era. The early nineteenth century is generally accepted as the time period during which six-string guitars began taking on their modern shape and dimensions. Thus for nearly two hundred years, luthiers, or guitar makers, have been producing versions of the modern acoustic guitar.
The first electric guitar was not developed until the early twentieth century. George Beauchamp received the first patent for an electric guitar in 1936, and Beauchamp went on to co-found Rickenbacker, originally known as the Electro String Instrument Company. Although Rickenbacker began producing electric guitars in the late 1930s, this brand received most of its fame in the 1960s, when John Lennon used a Rickenbacker guitar for the Beatles' debut performance on the Ed Sullivan show in 1964. George Harrison later bought a Rickenbacker guitar of his own, and the company later gave him one of their earliest 12-string electric guitars. Paul McCartney also used a Rickenbacker bass guitar for recording. The Beatles continued to use Rickenbacker guitars throughout their career, and made the instruments highly popular among other musicians of the era.
The Fender Musical Instruments Company and the Gibson Guitar Corporation were two other early electric guitar pioneers, both developing models in the early 1950s. Fender began with the Telecaster in 1950 and 1951, and the Fender Stratocaster debuted in 1954. Gibson began selling the Gibson Les Paul, based partially on assistance from jazz musician and guitar innovator Les Paul, in 1952. The majority of present day solid-body electric guitars are still based largely on these three early electric guitar designs.
Throughout the history of the guitar, an enormous number of individuals have made their mark on the way in which the instrument was built, played and perceived. Though some of these individuals are particularly well known, like the Beatles or Les Paul, the majority of these people are virtually invisible to most modern guitar fans. By looking at the entire history of the guitar, rather than just recent developments, largely confined to electric guitars, it is possible to see more of the contributions of earlier generations.
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Maurice Gee was born in Whakatane, a popular coastal town in New Zealand. However, he spent his childhood in the country town of Henderson and it is only the latter that plays a major role in his fiction. Of special significance is Henderson Creek, a small stream where, Gee said, "I seem to have spent half my boyhood." There, he says, he saw dead animals for the first time, which made a deep impression on him. "I'd run home from the creek to the safety and security of the kitchen," he once said. Gee claimed that the two places were of equal significance: "one the place of safety and affection, the other the place of adventure, danger, excitement."
Gee's father was a carpenter who happily allowed Maurice and his brothers free access to tools and materials for making boats in which to explore the creek. His mother's tales of family history were fundamental to Gee's emerging interest in narrative, providing a sense of social history that he would later use in his writing. His memories of primary school in Henderson are intense and detailed. Furthermore, he seems able to transfer their atmosphere to other schools. There can be few factual accounts of a primary school as vivid as Gee's Nelson Central School (1978), which was a major contribution to the history of schooling and one based on extensive oral research.
For two years he was a schoolteacher in the town of Paeroa, but he moved on feeling disillusioned with the profession. After three years' casual work in various parts of New Zealand, he spent 1961 teaching and writing in England. Ever since university he had been writing. The publication of two stories in the British collection New Authors - Short Story I (1961) created a wider audience for this new voice.
A year later The Big Season, Gee's first published novel, was greeted enthusiastically. The poet Louis Johnson wrote that it challenged the common idea that most New Zealand novels showed the country's way of life as dull. The New Zealand Herald newspaper found it "not always pleasant, but certainly forceful and sincere." The novel celebrates joy in the game of rugby, New Zealand's national sport and passion. It was unusual in those days for writers to express interest in this topic. The central character, Rob Andrews, tries hard on the rugby field but is distracted by his personal romantic interests. He seems to have betrayed the rugby world, but he has not betrayed himself: for all his confusion he is discovering his own potential. It's possible to say that the author is doing the same thing, because patterns and themes that will shape his subsequent books are seen here for the first time.
Gee's third novel was the mystery story In My Father's Den (1972). Despite a rather exaggerated and emotional ending, Gee seems to be more self-assured as an author and in more control of his writing than previously. It was followed by the collection of short stories A Glorious Morning, Comrade (1975), though many of these stories had been written before the novels and could be viewed as apprentice work. In Games of Choice (1976) it is clear that Gee's writing skills are developing quickly. For example, he was able to create a genuine sense of tension and fear. And he really built on this skill and took it to its highest level in his masterpiece Plumb (1978), which provides an image of life in New Zealand over three generations. Local critical response has been enthusiastic and ongoing.
Clearly at the height of his powers, Gee combined work on Plumb with his first work of children's fiction. Under the Mountain (1979) is an Auckland tale stimulated by the volcanoes that dot the cityscape. Strange creatures are planning to make the world their own and only Rachel and Theo can save the local population. The battle between good and evil, a beautiful natural world and a dreary one, is the common theme of the books he wrote at this time.
Going West (1993), which was met with critical acclaim, is significant because it explores how writers create their work. In the novel, the main character, Rex Petley, writes poetry which has a creek as a repeating image. Gee has said that he will never write his own autobiography, because he cannot betray the people who would appear in it, but he frequently includes his personal experience in his work, such as his knowledge of Henderson Creek. Grounded in reality, but adding images from his imagination, Gee thus shapes and enriches his fictional world.
Each of Gee's novels tells us about New Zealand life, and human life in general. Each is full of characters with a variety of intense and unique personalities together with rich images of the natural world. Yet there is always an awareness of danger: one false move and we lose everything. The reviewer, Trevor James, points out the frequency of such words as "abyss," "hole," and "missing," in Gee's writing, which he believes reflects the common desire in New Zealand society not to stand out from the crowd. Rachel Barrowman's biography Maurice Gee: Life and Work was released in 2015. She delves into subjects surrounding Gee that were previously untouched by other biographers. Gee confesses that some of Barrowman's conclusions astonished him and made him rethink what he thought he knew.
Simplified: Maurice Gee was born in Whakatane but spent childhood in Henderson
-> it is onlyHendersonthat plays a major role in his fiction
Main idea: Gee sinh ra ở Whakatane →nhưngHenderson (không phải Whakatane) mới là bối cảnh chính trong truyện của ông.
it
is only
Hendersonthat plays a major role in his fiction
Main idea: Gee sinh ra ở Whakatane →nhưngHenderson (không phải Whakatane) mới là bối cảnh chính trong truyện của ông.
