Ielts A - R - U10

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IETLS A | READING | UNIT 10 – Page 145

READING
UNIT 10
SECTION 1
Introduction
Task type 10: Multiple matching
What are candidates required to do?
Candidates are presented with a number of items, which may be theories, statements, names
of people, places, things etc. The candidates need to match each of these items with one
option from a list of options. The list of options will also form a coherent set of theories,
statements, names of people, places, things etc.

Example:
In the Reading passage, many educators voiced their concerns about school violence
and give their opinions on this issue. Match the following educators (1-5) with the
views (A-E) they hold.
A. Too much time spent in front of the television may result in
1. Francois Marchand
aggressiveness in children.
2. George Gerbner
B. School security systems won't cure the problem.
3. Karen Colvard
C. Children's aggressive tendency should be checked early.
4. Kisa Savolainen
D. School education should be held responsible for violence
that occurred in schools. 5. Peter Lewis

E. Violence in schools is fundamentally caused by ills of


society.

SECTION 2
Presentation
Features:
Is it possible to choose an item more than once?
The instructions will advise the candidate when it is possible to choose an option more than
once.
What skills are being tested?
This item type tests candidates’ ability to skim and scan as well as to understand main ideas in a
section of the passage.

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Page 146 - IELTS A | READING | UNIT 10

SECTION 3
Practice
Practice 1

Weapon Of War
The invention of rockets is linked increase the arrow's stability by moving
inextricably with the invention of 'black the centre of gravity to a position below
powder'. Most historians of technology the rocket. At a similar time, the Arabs
credit the Chinese with its discovery. They had developed the 'egg which moves and
base their belief on studies of Chinese burns'. This 'egg' was apparently full of
writings or on the notebooks of early gunpowder and stabilised by a 1.5m tail.
Europeans who settled in or made long It was fired using two rockets attached to
visits to China to study its history and either side of this tail.
civilisation. It is probable that, some time It was not until the eighteenth century
in the tenth century, black powder was that Europe became seriously interested
first compounded from its basic in the possibilities of using the rocket itself
ingredients of saltpeter, charcoal and as a weapon of war and not just to propel
sulphur. But this does not mean that it other weapons. Prior to this, rockets were
was immediately used to propel rockets. used only in pyrotechnic displays. The
By the thirteenth century, powder- incentive for the more aggressive use of
propelled fire arrows had become rather rockets came not from within the
common. The Chinese relied on this type European continent but from far-away
of technological development to produce India, whose leaders had built up a corps
incendiary projectiles of many sorts, of racketeers and used rockets successfully
explosive grenades and possibly cannons against the British in the late eighteenth
to repel their enemies. One such weapon century. The Indian rockets used against
was the 'basket of fire' or, as directly the British were described by a British
translated from Chinese, the 'arrows like Captain serving in India as ‘an iron
flying leopards'. The 0.7 metre-long envelope about 200 millimeters long and
arrows, each with a long tube of 40 millimeters in diameter with sharp
gunpowder attached near the point of points at the top and a 3m-long bamboo
each arrow, could be fired from a long, guiding stick’. In the early nineteenth
octagonal-shaped basket at the same time century the British began to experiment
and had a range of 400 paces. Another with incendiary barrage rockets. The
weapon was the 'arrow as a flying saber', British rocket differed from the Indian
which could be fired from crossbows. The version in that it was completely encased
rocket, placed in a similar position to in a stout, iron cylinder, terminating in a
other rocket-propelled arrows, was conical head, measuring one metre in
designed to increase the range. A small diameter and having a stick almost five
iron weight was attached to the 1.5m metres long and constructed in such a
bamboo shaft, just below the feathers, to

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IETLS A | READING | UNIT 10 – Page 147

way that it could be firmly attached to the sticks and fastened to the top of the
body of the rocket. The Americans launcher, thereby allowing the rockets to
developed a rocket, complete with its own be inserted and lit from the other end.
launcher, to use against the Mexicans in However, the results were sometimes not
the mid-nineteenth century. A long that impressive as the behaviour of the
cylindrical tube was propped up by two rockets in flight was less than predictable.

Questions 1 – 4
Look at the following items (Questions 1-4) and the list of groups below. Match each item
with the group which first invented or used them.
Write the correct letter A-E in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.
© Note: You may use any letter more than once.
First invented or used by
1. black powder
A. the Chinese
2. rocket-propelled arrows for fighting B. the Indians
3. rockets as war weapons C. the British
D. the Arabs
4. the rocket launcher
E. the Americans

Practice 2
Read the passage below and do the task.

Finding the lost freedom


1. The private car is assumed to have widened our horizons and increased our mobility.
When we consider our children's mobility, they can be driven to more places (and
more distant places) than they could visit without access to a motor vehicle.
However, allowing our cities to be dominatedly by cars has progressively eroded
children's independent mobility. Children have lost much of their freedom to explore
their own neighbourhood or city without adult supervision. In recent surveys, when
parents in some cities were asked about their own childhood experiences, the
majority remembered having more, or far more, opportunities for going out on their
own compared with their own children today. They had more freedom to explore
their own environment.
2. Children's independent access to their local streets may be important for their own
personal, mental and psychological development. Allowing them to get to know their
own neighbourhood and community gives them a 'sense of place'. This depends on
'active exploration', which is not provided for when children are passengers in cars.
(Such children may see more, but they learn less.) Not only is it important that
children be able to get to local play areas by themselves, but walking and cycling
journeys to school and to other destinations provide genuine play activities in
themselves.
3. There are very significant time and money costs for parents associated with

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Page 148 - IELTS A | READING | UNIT 10

transporting their children to school, sport and to other locations. Research in the
United Kingdom estimated that this cost, in 1990, was between 10 billion and 20
billion pounds.
4. The reduction in children's freedom may also contribute to a weakening of the sense
of local community. As fewer children and adults use the streets as pedestrians, these
streets become less sociable places. There is less opportunity for children and adults
to have the spontaneous exchanges that help to engender a feeling of community.
This in itself may exacerbate fears associated with assault and molestation of
children, because there are fewer adults available who know their neighbours'
children, and who can look out for their safety.
5. The extra traffic involved in transporting children results in increased traffic
congestion, pollution and accident risk. As our roads become more dangerous, more
parents drive their children to more places, thus contributing to increase levels of
danger for the remaining pedestrians. Anyone who has experienced either the
reduced volume of traffic in peak hour during school holidays, or the traffic jams
near schools at the end of a school day, will not need convincing about these points.
Thus, there are also important environmental implications of children's loss of
freedom.
6. As individuals, parents strive to provide the best upbringing they can for their
children. However, in doing so (e.g. by driving their children to sport, school or
recreation) parents may be contributing to a more dangerous environment for
children generally. The idea that streets are for cars and back yards and
playgrounds are for children is a strongly held belief, and parents have little choice
as individuals but to keep their children off the streets if they want to protect their
safety.
7. In many parts of Dutch cities, and some traffic calmed precincts in Germany,
residential streets are now places where cars must give way to pedestrians. In these
areas, residents are accepting the view that the function of streets is not solely to
provide mobility for cars. Streets may also be for social interaction, walking ,
cycling and playing. One of the most important aspects of these European cities, in
terms of giving cities back to children, has been a range of 'traffic calming'
initiatives, aimed at reducing the volume and speed of traffic. These initiatives have
had complex interactive effects, leading to a sense that children have been able to
'recapture' their local neighbourhood, and more importantly, that they have been
able to do this in safety. Recent research has demonstrated that children in many
German cities have significantly higher levels of freedom to travel to places in their
own neighbourhood or city than children in other cities in the world.
8. Modifying cities in order to enhance children's freedom will not only benefit
children. Such cities will become more environmentally sustainable, as well as more
sociable and more livable for all city residents. Perhaps it is welfare that convinces
us that we need to challenge the dominate of the car in our cities.

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IETLS A | READING | UNIT 10 – Page 149

Questions 1-5 are statements beginnings which represent information given in


Paragraphs 6,7 and 8.
There are some statement endings numbered I-X.
Choose the correct ending for each statement. Write your answers I-X, in the spaces
numbered 1-5.
© Note: One has been done for you as an example. There are more statement endings than
you will need.
Example: By driving their children to school, parents help create …
Answer: I

List of statement endings


I. …......... a dangerous environment. 1. Children should play …
II. …......... modified. 2. In some Gefrfan towns, pedestrians
III. …........ on residential streets. have right of way …
IV. …......... modifying cities.
3. Streets should also be used for …
V. ….......... socialising.
4. Reducing the amount of traffic and
VII. …....... in backyards.
the speed is …
VIII. …....... for cars.
5. All people who live in the city will
IX. …......... traffic calming.
benefit if cities are …
X. ….......... residential.

Practice 3
Read the “Human-powered Pumps for African Farmers” then do the tasks.

Human-powered Pumps for African Farmers


The plight of many African farmers and families in their search for water is well
publicized in terms of disaster relief. Yet in many areas there are small dispersed
sources of shallow ground water, which constitute a considerable resource. This is
often not acknowledged by government agencies which think only in terms of large
dams and perennial rivers.
African farmers are both ingenious and knowledgeable, and the work described
here builds on these indigenous skills. The provision of effective and affordable
human powered pumps transforms the possibilities of water supply for both small
scale irrigation and domestic use. The field work was carried out predominantly in
Zimbabwe, although more recently the pumps described here have been introduced in
Kenya.

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Page 150 - IELTS A | READING | UNIT 10

The need for water


An adequate supply of domestic water is vital for human health and hygiene.
Despite the great progress made in the recent decade, the achievement of the goal of
clean water for all is still a long way off. An adequate water supply is also vital for
the production of food. In many parts of Africa, rainfall is a very unreliable provider
of such water. For example, in Zimbabwe, Mupawose (1984) states that unreliable
rainfall and the incidence of mid-season drought represent the single most critical
uncertainty facing the Zimbabwean farmer today.
While staple foods such as maize and nee produced during the rainy season can be
stored for consumption in the dry season, the same is not true of vegetables and fruit
which are essential for good nutrition. Since the early part of this century, the answer
to the problem of inadequate rainfall has been through the provision of conventional
irrigation schemes.
The failure of such schemes in many parts of Africa is well documented (Morris
and Thorn, 1990) and there is little hope of significant expansion in this sector.
Most of these irrigation schemes depend on the utilization of surface water
resources principally through the construction of dams. There is grave concern over
the use of such dams because of their adverse impact on health, their displacement of
successful farmers and the severe limitations on their useful life due to siltation
(Wright, 1986, Arlosoroffel al 1984, Bell el al, 1987)
In order to develop groundwater resources a suitable water lifting technology
must be employed. While much work has been done on the development of power
sources for water pumping (Hofkes and Visscher, 1986), for many people in rural
Africa the use of human energy remains the only practical option (Lambert and
Faulkner, 1991). In recent years there have been significant improvements in the
design of handpumps for community use. However, community water points still
suffer breakdowns and attempts to remedy this, through community managed pump
maintenance schemes, are still far from universally successful.
The problems of community management could be avoided through the promotion
of household supplies, where these are feasible. An example of such a strategy in
Zimbabwe is the program of upgrading family wells (Mtero and Chimbunde, 1991).
However, most of the pumps developed for community use are either not available to
individual households or are too expensive.
In recognition of the need for simple water-lifting technology, research was
carried out to identify suitable water-lifting devices. Almost all existing human
powered pumps tested could not supply water at more than about 0.3 liters per
second, which is not sufficient for irrigation. Two designs were finally selected as the
most promising for further development, the rope-washer and the treadle (Lambert
and Faulkner, 1991).

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IETLS A | READING | UNIT 10 – Page 151

In the section after the subheading, The need for water, there are 7 references cited.
Questions 1 – 6 list 6 of the references. Below is a list of statements A-K which are
supported by the references.
Match each reference (questions 1 – 6) with its corresponding statement.
© Note: One has been done for you as an example. There are statements than references do
you won’t use them all.
Example: Lambert and Faulkner, 1991.
Answer: K

1. Mupawose, 1984

2. Morris and Thorn, 1990

3. Wright, 1986; Arlosoroff et al, 1984; Bell et al, 1987

4. Hofkes and Visscher, 1986

5. Lambert and Faulkner, 1991

6. Mtero and Chimbunde, 1991

List of statements
A. Dams usually take up a lot of land so that farmers have to move somewhere else.

B. There has been little success with irrigation projects.

C. It is important to have an adequate water supply.

D. Human power is still cheaper and more readily available.

E. Rainfall is too little and too irregular when most needed.

F. Building dams has helped improve health.

G. There is a plan to improve individual domestic wells.

H. Experiments have been done to provide energy to pump water.

I. Most families cannot afford to buy pumps.

J. The design of hand pumps has improved lately.

K. The rope washer and treadle will help solve the problem.

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Page 152 - IELTS A | READING | UNIT 10

SECTION 4
Vocabulary Practice
Vocabulary Practice 1
Addition, equation and conclusion
Put the following words and expressions into their correct place in the below column
depending on their function.
• to sum up briefly • it can be concluded that • also
• similarly • likewise • besides • to conclude • too
• in addition • in brief • in the same way • thus
• what’s more • furthermore • moreover • along with
• to summarise • as well as • therefore • correspondingly

Addition Equation Conclusion


and equally in conclusion

Vocabulary Practice 2
Ownership, giving, lending and borrowing
Complete sentences 1-12 with an appropriate word from the box.
© Note: In some cases, more than one answer may be possible.

• possessions • lease • owners • tenants • rent • property

• mortgage • estate • proprietors • belongings • landlords • loan

1. The law ensures that _____________ respect the privacy of the people who live in their
houses.

2. __________________ of restaurants across the country protested at the new government


tax that was put on food.

3. Private car ___________________ were hit the hardest when tax on petrol was increased.

4. The price of commercial ___________________ has almost doubled in the last four years.

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IETLS A | READING | UNIT 10 – Page 153

5. When the recession hit, he was forced to sell his 250-acre ____________________.

6. Many families lost all their ____________________ when the river flooded.

7. Put your ____________________ in the locker and give the key to the receptionist.

8. We will need to relinquish the offices when the ____________________ runs out at the
end of the year.

9. They applied to the World Bank for a ____________________ to help pay off their balance
of payments deficit.

10. A lot of people lost their homes when the interest rate rose so much they were unable to
pay off their ____________________.

11. The ____________________ complained to the council that the house they were living in
was overrun with vermin.

12. The law does little to protect families who are thrown out of their homes because they are
unable to pay the ____________________.

SECTION 5
Grammar Practice
Grammar revision
Parallelism
1. In certain structure items, the correct use of parallel structures is tested.
Parallel structures have the same grammatic form and function. Look at the following
sentences:
+ She spends her leisure time hiking, camping, and fishing.
+ He changed the oil, checked the tire pressure, and filled the tank with gas.
+ Nancy plans to either study medicine or major in biology.
+ Nancy plans to study either medicine or biology.

2. All of the structures in italics are parallel.


In the first, three gerunds are parallel; in the second, three main verbs; in the third, two
simple forms; and in the fourth, two nouns. Many other structures must be parallel in certain
sentences: adjectives, adverbs, infinitives, prepositional phrases, noun clauses, and others.

3. The most common situation in which parallel structures are required is in a sequence
(A, B, and C), as in the first two sentences above.
Parallel structures are also required with correlative conjunctions such as either . . . or or
not only . . . but also.

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Page 154 - IELTS A | READING | UNIT 10

Grammar Practice 1
Directions: If the underlined form is parallel to other forms in the sentence, mark the sentence
C. If the underlined form is not parallel, mark the sentence X and write a correction for the
underlined form in the blank at the end of the sentence.

______ 1. Steel is alloyed with manganese to increase its strength, hardness, and resistance
to wear.

______ 2. The type of plant and animal life living in and around a pond depends on the soil of
the pond, what the quality of the water is, and the pond’s location.

______ 3. Philosophers are concerned with questions about nature, human behavior, society,
and reality.

______ 4. When taking part in winter sports, one should wear clothing that is lightweight,
warmth, and suitable for the activity.

______ 5. Folklore consists of the beliefs, customs, traditions, and telling stories that people
pass from generation to generation.

______ 6. Major sources of noise pollution include automobiles and other vehicles, industrial
plants, and heavy construction equipment.

Grammar Practice 2
Circle the underlined portion of the sentence that would not be considered correct.

1. The bellflower is a wildflower that grows in shady fields, in marshes, and mountain slopes.
A B C D
2. Computers are often used to control, adjustment, and correct complex industrial operations.
A B C D
3. Eggs may be boiling in the shell, scrambled, fried, and cooked in countless other ways.
A B C D
4. Many places of history, scientific, cultural, or scenic importance have been designated
A B C
national monuments.
D
5. Modern motorcycles are lighter, faster, and specialized than motorcycles of twenty-five
A B C D
years ago.
6. Many people who live near the ocean depend on it as a source of food, recreation, and
A B C
to have economic opportunities.
D

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SECTION 6
Homework
Homework 1
The reading passage describes a situation, a problem, a proposed solution to the
problem, the implementation of the proposal, and includes a disadvantage and various
criticisms of the proposal.

The grand embankment


Bangladesh’s floods can be devastating. But an ambitious scheme to control
the waters is also causing concern.

1. No country is as profoundly influenced by water as Bangladesh. The land, culture and


lifestyle of the people are shaped by three of the world’s most powerful rivers – the
Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna. These spread their floods across one-third of the
countryside each summer.
2. The great rivers carry soil sediment from the Himalayas which they deposit in a huge,
constantly changing delta at the head of the Bay of Bengal. They bring the fertility which
supports 110 million of the poorest people on earth and they can also bring disaster to
this low-lying land. The just one breach of the right bank of the Brahmaputra in the 1988
floods inundated 1000 square kilometers of farmland.
3. For much of the year there is too little water. When landscape changes completely,
boats replace bicycles as the means of local transport and deepwater rice flourishes with
the rising floodwaters. All of this is essential for the farming season. But when rainfall is
exceptional and floodwaters rise higher than normal, the effects can devastate.
4. The farmers of Bangladesh are adept at making the most of their tiny plots of land. But
with 11.6 people per cultivable hectare they are already at the extreme. Increased food
production in an already hungry land means investing in dry-season agriculture. And
this means protection from the floods.
5. After the disastrous floods in 1988 the Bangladesh government sought to determine
whether modern engineering techniques and computer-aided technology could solve the
problem. Aid organizations of all shapes and sizes offered flood-control assistance. When
the reports were represented to the Bangladesh government in 1989, the advice was
somewhat conflicting.
6. The French proposal was for embankments up to seven metres high to be built along
the length of all the major rivers. They estimated the cost at $10,000 million up front and
$150 million for annual repair and maintenance. Such expenditure would plunge the
country into massive debt and divert money from other programmes.
7. By no means all the potential investors thought this was the answer. In the end the
World Bank was asked to formulate an action plan. They did so, unveiling it in London in
December 1989, and the $150 million needed for pilot schemes immediately became
oversubscribed. The plan envisages as a first stop finding out what social and technical
problems the embankments would cause.

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Page 156 - IELTS A | READING | UNIT 10

8. Many informed observes are extremely skeptical about the scheme. Despite assurances
from the World Bank’s Vice-President for Asia, Atilla Karalsmanoglu, that the people of
Bangladesh will be consulted at every stage, the British aid agencies involved in disaster
relief after the 1988 floods do not believe that people at the grass roots will be
adequately involved. By what line of communication can the planners conceivably
consult the poor?
9. Steve Jones, the European Community’s advisor on the action-plan team says that the
embankments are bound to have a huge social impact. Under the French proposal,
around 20,000 hectares of land would be requisitioned and 180,000 people affected.
Some households would lose everything, adding their numbers to Bangladesh’s already
burgeoning landless population.
10. Jones also points out that the embankments will take decades to complete and other
flood-protection measures – improved flood warning, better disaster management-will
be needed.
11. No one knows more about managing the flood waters than the Bangladeshi people who
live perched above them and whose welfare depends upon them. And it is essential that
‘experts’ brought in to help should be ready to learn from the existing ‘experts’. Their
ingenuity includes floating hen coops and mesh fences to ponds. Ideas like these could be
more widely promoted.
12. Meanwhile there will be profound environmental effects from canalizing such vast
bodies of water. Every step forward on the grand embankment plan will have to be
watched with care.

Match the labels (1-4) with the following conclusion sentences.


© Note: There are more sentences than you need. Write only one letter in each space. The
first one has been done for you as an example.

The grand embankment


Situation: The yearly monsoon leads to rising waters in Banglades.
Example: The problem Your answer: C

1. A proposed solution...

2. A disadvantage of the proposal...

3. The implementation of the proposal...

4. One criticism of the proposal...

Conclusion: Care should be taken in implementing the proposal.


A. The World Bank Action Plan E. Embankments along all the major rivers
B. Computerised flood control systems F. Land would be taken from people
C. Flooding can be disastrous G. High cost which could lead to debt
D. Disagreement amongst investors H. No one knows more about managing the
flood waters than the Bangladeshis

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IETLS A | READING | UNIT 10 – Page 157

Homework 2
Read the passage below then look at the following statements and the list of dates of
letters sent by Groucho to Sheekman.

Groucho Marx
Arthur Sheekman
In a show-business career that spanned over seventy years,
Groucho Marx successfully conquered every entertainment
medium, becoming a star of the vaudeville stage, Broadway,
motion pictures, radio and television. But, as the author of seven
books, a play, two film screenplays and over one hundred
magazine articles and essays, Groucho quietly conquered another medium, one in which he
was as proud to work as any of the others. His writing is often overlooked in studies of his
career, perhaps due to the quantity and variety of his other work.

Throughout his literacy career, Groucho was dogged by the incorrect and unfair
assumption by many critics and even by his biographer that he used a ghost writer. Most
Hollywood celebrities who wrote books had professional writers do the actual work. The
fact that Groucho publicly stated on many occasions that he abhorred ghost writers is
clouded by his relationship with Arthur Sheekman. Friends for many years, Groucho and
Sheekman had an unusual literacy relationship. They worked in collaboration and each
offered the other editorial help. For a brief time in the early 1940s, Groucho fronted for
Sheekman, who was having trouble selling his work. By thus lending his name to another
writer's work. Groucho subjected all of his literacy endeavors to suspicion from critics who
simply refused to believe that an entertainer could write.

That some of Sheekman's magazine pieces got into print under Groucho's byline
becomes apparent from reading the unedited correspondence between the two of them.
The letters indicate that Groucho's essays from this period fall into three categories: first,
pieces written by Groucho with no input from Sheekman at all. In a July 1, 1940, letter to
Sheekman, Groucho asked, 'Did you see that little piece I wrote for Reader's digest?' On
March 17, 1941, he wrote, 'My drool is coming out in next week's issue of This Week so
cancel your subscription now.' Clearly Sheekman could not have had anything to do with a
piece that he was told to look for.

The second and probably largest category of Groucho's essays of this period consists of
those written by Groucho and sent to Sheekman for editorial assistance. On July 20, 1940,
Groucho wrote: 'I'm enclosing a copy of the piece I wrote. Probably another page or so is
needed to complete it, but our starting date (for filming Go West) came and I just haven't
had time to finish it. Let me know what you think of it and be honest because any other
kind of opinion would be of no value to me. I won't attempt to influence you by telling you
the reactions I've already had, so for the love of God tell me the truth. Shortly thereafter, on
October 10, Groucho wrote: 'I received your suggestions on my piece – I'm glad you liked it,
if you did – you're probably right about the beginning. I'll do it over again.' By the time
Groucho wrote to Sheekman on July 25, 1942, it appears that some sort of financial

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Page 158 - IELTS A | READING | UNIT 10

arrangement had been made regarding Sheekman's suggestions. On that date Groucho also
wrote: 'I'm writing an unfunny piece on insomnia and I'll send it in a week or so, I hope, for
you to read – I'd like your opinion, proofread – correcting all the glaring illiteracies and,
otherwise, do a fine polishing job.'

The remainder of Groucho's essays from this period comprise the third category.
Sheekman compositions with varying degrees of input from Groucho. The level of Groucho's
contributions to the articles in the third category ranges from actually suggesting the topic
and drawing up an outline to simply rewriting a few paragraphs for the purpose of
injecting his own style into the piece. In a July 10, 1940, letter Groucho wrote: 'I think you
ought to try another political piece – a campaign thing – for This Week or some other
magazine. This will be an extremely hot topic for the next few months and I think you
should take a advantage of it. If you'll write to me, I'll try to jot down a few items that you
could complain about.' Presumably, the chain of events would continue with Sheekman
sending an essay to Groucho for his approval and whatever rewrites were needed. On May
29, 1940, Groucho wrote, 'Received your piece and looked it over.' In these letters to
Sheekman, Groucho always referred to a piece as either 'my piece' or 'your piece'. The letter
continued, 'I thought the piece was was good … and I'll send it to Bye and see if he can sell it
… I'll just rewrite a couple of paragraphs in your piece – not that I can improve them, but
perhaps they'll sound a little a more like me.' Groucho was concerned enough about this
arrangement to take the care to at least make the piece somewhat his own.

Groucho really had no need for this entire enterprise. He gave the money to Sheekman
and had no trouble getting his own work published. The principal reason for him
submitting Sheekman's work to magazines as his own was that it made Sheekman's
material easily marketable based on Groucho's celebrity. Sheekman couldn't have been
altogether happy with the arrangement, but the reality was that he was periodically
unemployed and the use of Groucho's name brought in occasional paychecks. So it is not
quite fair to call Sheekman Groucho's ghost writer. A more apt description of their literary
relationship at this time is that Groucho occasionally fronted for Sheekman and offered him
the services of his literary agent, while each offered the other editorial advice. The reasons
for some of their collaborative efforts not being credited as such remain unexplained, but
Groucho was never shy about crediting his collaborators, and in every other case he did so.
Match each statement 1-5 with the letter A-G which is related to.

1. Groucho referred to his own inadequacy with regard to use of language.


2. Groucho explained his reason for amending an essay.
3. Groucho agreed that part of an essay needed revising.
4. Groucho drew Sheekman's attention to an essay soon to be published.
5. Groucho suggested that an essay should adopt a negative point of view.

List of Letters sent by Groucho to Sheekman


A. July 1, 1940 D. October 10, 1940 G. May 29, 1940
B. March 17, 1941 E. July 25, 1942
C. July 20, 1940 F. July 10, 1940

FOR IN-HOUSE USE ONLY

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