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Space – IELTS Academic Reading Passage all questions solved 100 accurately latest version
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Space – IELTS Academic Reading PassageSection A
The world has changed dramatically since Thomas Malthus’s work An Essay on the Principle of
Population, first published in 1798, argued that by the mid 1800s the unrestricted expansion of the
human population would outgrow the agricultural land available to supply humanity with food. Over
150 years have passed since this theoretical milestone, but mankind, admittedly somewhat more
cramped, is still expanding and will continue to do so.
Section B
The impact of unfettered population growth is clear for all to see. Urbanization is now a more evident
worldwide phenomenon than previously as even greater numbers of people drift from rural areas to
vast cities all over the world like Tokyo, Mexico City and Mumbai (26.4 million, 18.4 million and
18.1 million inhabitants in 2000 respectively) in their quest for a better life. These mega-cities, i.e.
conurbations with an estimated population of more than 10 million people, are springing up in every
continent. Now teeming with humanity, they are hungry for one increasingly valuable resource: land.
While developments in agricultural technology ensure humanity may be able, by and large, to feed
the people flocking to these great metropolises, the expansion of the human race is fuelling an
unprecedented appetite for real estate. Space, whether it be for personal or public use, corporate or
national, human or flora/fauna, is now at a premium as we move into a new century. Not only is more
land required for accommodation, but also for a wide range of infrastructure facilities. Transport
systems including roads within and between cities need to be constructed or upgraded to create
motorways; green fields are turned into airports; virgin forest is stripped to provide food and
firewood. In poorer regions, this newly exposed land becomes desert, completing the cycle of
destruction.
Section C
Hitherto, the most common practice for the utilization of expensive space for living and working has
been to build upwards; hence, the demand for ever higher buildings, both apartment and commercial,
in major cities like New York, Shanghai and Singapore all vying with each other for the tallest
buildings. There has also been a tradition for building underground, not just for transport systems, but
for the storage of waste, depositories for books etc. as in London, where The British Library housing
millions of books has been built largely underground. Recent years have seen more novel
construction developments around the world. In the past, in many countries, Holland and the UK
included, marshes and flood plains have been reclaimed from the sea. Like the city of Venice in Italy,
housing complexes and even airports have now been constructed off-shore to amazing effect. In
Japan, Kansai International Airport has been built off-shore on a man-made island at vast expense
and in Dubai a very imaginative and expensive housing complex in the shape of a palm tree is being
built just off the coast on land created by a construction company. However, these and other
developments are at risk from rising sea levels as a consequence of global warming.
Section D
But where will the human race go when planet earth is full? There have been many theories put
forward about the human population moving to outer space. Marshall Savage (1992, 1994), for
example, has projected that the human population will reach five quintillion throughout the solar
system by the year 3000, with the majority living in the asteroid belt. Arthur C Clarke, a fervent
supporter of Savage, now argues that by the year 2057 there will be humans on the Moon, Mars,
Europa, Ganymede, Titan and in orbit around Venus, Neptune and Pluto. Feeman Dyson (1999)
favours the Kuiper belt as the future home of humanity, suggesting this could happen within a few
centuries.
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