PASSWORD AND ANSWERS AT LAST OF THIS BLOG
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READING PASSAGE 3
Keeping the fun in funfairs
A
Fun is becoming a tricky issue for ride designers.
In order to increase excitement, they have been ramping up the accelerations to
create the most dizzying forces possible. But getting it right is far from
easy. Err on the side of caution and people won't bother with a second ride. Go
too far, however, and they may not be able to come back for more. The problem
is that true innovation has been lacking for a while, and fairground rides have
become more about survival than actual enjoyment. So if our thrill-seeking
bodies can really take no more, what’s going to keep dragging us back to
amusement parks? Creating something new and exciting, yet safe, is going to
take some careful thought.
B
When the Disney Corporation asked German designer
Walter Stengel to design a giant loop ride for them in the 1970s, he went to
NASA, the aeronautics and space foundation, to discover the effects of
sustained acceleration on the pilots. NASA’s research suggests that the maximum
level we can endure is 9 g, g being the standard unit of acceleration due to
gravity. Go much beyond that and pilots pass out. Go further still and they
suffer serious internal damage. So, Stengel decided that the maximum vertical
acceleration for the public should be 6, and then only for a second or so.
What’s more, he put firm restrictions on the rate at which acceleration can
increase – you’ll never go down a 45-degree ramp into a tight circular loop,
for instance.
C
But stricter safety limits only intensify the need
to search for novel ways to thrill customers. Part of the problem is that no
matter how exciting an attraction is, after a few rides, the passengers will
have some idea of what to expect. The next stage in designing rides, however, could
throw predictability out of the window. This step has already been taken in the
most recent waltzers, or tea-cup rides. Ride a waltzer and you sit in a car
that spins on its own axis. The car is on a huge platform that also rotates. In
the past, you could take comfort from the fact that the spin was tightly
controlled by gears that turned your car at a rate determined by the rotation
speed of the whole ride. But the latest generation of waltzer cars spin freely,
at a rate determined by the weight and position of the people in them. So you
never have the same experience twice. "People seem to like these 'chaotic
rides'," says Stengel.
D
Although seemingly a passport to endless thrills,
chaos does have one rather obvious drawback: it’s unpredictable. Despite
complex calculations, designers can never be completely sure that something odd
won’t happen, especially since freely turning systems occasionally hit a
resonance frequency. For example, if pushed at a particular frequency, a child
on a swing would go over the top of the swing's frame. Similarly, if you drive
a revolving waltzer car at its resonance frequency, it could speed up
uncontrollably. This could be very hazardous, according to Stengel. If a ride
is subjected to unforeseen stresses, no one can guarantee that it will be able
to cope.
E
No one even knows what the safe limits of rotational
force are, let alone its effect on the human body. Stengel has worked with the
German Air Force, rotating volunteers head over heels while also making them
cartwheel or pirouette like a ballet dancer. It emerged that if the pilots were
turned on all three axes simultaneously, they became so nauseous they almost
blacked out, and when they got off, they couldn't walk. But what Stengel found
particularly puzzling was that they also developed headaches and other problems
about two days later. Since these effects aren't understood, he tries to limit
how people on his rides are rotated. We want to provide fun, not pain.
F
With that goal in mind, Stengel feels that finding
people around in ever more chaotic machines is no longer the way forward. He
believes that the sequence of accelerations, not their size, is what counts,
and that the way to make rides more fun is to put people through a carefully
designed succession of relatively small accelerations. Other experts in this
field agree, and it seems likely that designers could formulate profiles even
for existing attractions that would lead to higher amusement value. Recent experiments
testing the tolerances of Dutch military pilots to a range of accelerations
have shown that tumbling around in machines doesn't have to be unpleasant. When
the force is kept low, the subjects actually enjoy the experience.
G
The fun seems to come from the unforeseen,
particularly when an effect called the Coriolis illusion comes into play. This
is an agreeable tumbling feeling which occurs, for example, when the head is
suddenly tilted while the subject is spinning with eyes closed. It appears that
a roll which includes, for instance, an unexpected change of acceleration from
a small negative g—a feeling of weightlessness—to a small positive g, a slight
crushing sensation, has an extraordinary effect on people. If the theories of
Stengel and other experts really do work, fairground fun might one day be
measured in smiles, not screams.
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27–40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 on pages 11 and 12
Questions 27–32
Reading Passage 3 has seven paragraphs, A–G
Choose the correct heading for paragraphs B–G from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number (i–viii) in boxes 27–32 on your answer sheet.
List of Headings
i. Less is more
ii. Research can’t guarantee safety
iii. Unexplained symptoms
iv. Setting the limits of acceleration
v. The irresistible appeal of speed
vi. Gentle surprises
vii. A difficult task
viii. A different ride every time
Example
Paragraph A – vii
27 — Paragraph B
28 — Paragraph C
29 — Paragraph D
30 — Paragraph E
31 — Paragraph F
32 — Paragraph G
Questions 33-37
Complete the sentences below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from
the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 33-37 on your answer
sheet.
33. Some attractions, such as
the new type of waltzers, depend on both the __________ of their passengers in
order to create a variety of ride experiences.
34. Designers need to be aware
that a "chaotic" ride could accelerate at a violent rate if it
reaches its __________.
35. Research has shown that
people will begin to feel ill if they are subjected to movement on all
__________ at the same time.
36. Volunteers in Stengel's
rotation tests suffered delayed reactions such as __________.
37. A phenomenon known as the
__________ produced a pleasurable sensation in test subjects.
Questions 38-40
Do the following statements agree with the claims of
the writer of Reading Passage 3?
In boxes 38-40 on your answer sheet, write:
- YES if the
statement agrees with the claims of the writer.
- NO if the
statement contradicts the claims of the writer.
- NOT GIVEN if it
is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this.
38. There is still a lot to be
learnt about the rates of acceleration which people can withstand.
39. Children enjoy funfairs more
than adults.
40. Current rides could probably
be adapted to become more enjoyable.
Below are the correct answers with clear location references taken directly from the passage.
✅ ANSWERS WITH LOCATIONS
Questions 33–37 (Sentence Completion)
33. weight and position
Location: Paragraph C
“...the latest generation of waltzer cars spin freely, at a rate determined by the weight and position of the people in them.”
34. resonance frequency
Location: Paragraph D
“...freely turning systems occasionally hit a resonance frequency… it could speed up uncontrollably.”
35. three axes
Location: Paragraph E
“...if the pilots were turned on all three axes simultaneously, they became so nauseous…”
36. headaches
Location: Paragraph E
“...they also developed headaches and other problems about two days later.”
37. Coriolis illusion
Location: Paragraph G
“The fun seems to come from the unforeseen, particularly when an effect called the Coriolis illusion comes into play.”
Questions 38–40 (YES/NO/NOT GIVEN)
38. YES
Location: Paragraph E
“No one even knows what the safe limits of rotational force are…”
This clearly supports the idea that there is still a lot to be learnt.
39. NOT GIVEN
Location: Entire passage
Nowhere does the writer compare enjoyment levels of children vs. adults.
40. YES
Location: Paragraph F
“...designers could formulate profiles even for existing attractions that would lead to higher amusement value.”
This means current rides could be made more enjoyable.
✅ FINAL ANSWER KEY
-
iv
-
viii
-
ii
-
iii
-
i
-
vi
-
weight, position
-
resonance frequency
-
three axes
-
headaches
-
Coriolis illusion
-
No
-
Not Given
-
Yes
PASSWORD: IELTS15NOV
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