Sustainable Architecture – Lessons From The Ant - IELTS Reading Answers & Explanations
From IELTS Practice Test Plus 2 Academic Reading Test 5 · Part 1 · Questions 1–13
Reading Passage
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.
Sustainable architecture – lessons from the ant
Termite mounds were the inspiration for an innovative design in sustainable living
Africa owes its termite mounds a lot. Trees and shrubs take root in them. Prospectors mine them, looking for specks of gold carried up by termites from hundreds of metres below. And of course, they are a special treat to aardvarks and other insectivores.
Now, Africa is paying an offbeat tribute to these towers of mud. The extraordinary Eastgate Building in Harare, Zimbabwe's capital city, is said to be the only one in the world to use the same cooling and heating principles as the termite mound.
Termites in Zimbabwe build gigantic mounds inside which they farm a fungus that is their primary food source. This must be kept at exactly 30.5°C, while the temperatures on the African veld outside can range from 1.5°C at night - only just above freezing - to a baking hot 40°C during the day. The termites achieve this remarkable feat by building a system of vents in the mound. Those at the base lead down into chambers cooled by wet mud carried up from water tables far below, and others lead up through a flue to the peak of the mound. By constantly opening and closing these heating and cooling vents over the course of the day the termites succeed in keeping the temperature constant in spite of the wide fluctuations outside.
Architect Mick Pearce used precisely the same strategy when designing the Eastgate Building, which has no air conditioning and virtually no heating. The building – the country's largest commercial and shopping complex – uses less than 10% of the energy of a conventional building its size. These efficiencies translated directly to the bottom line: the Eastgate's owners saved $3.5 million on a $36 million building because an air-conditioning plant didn't have to be imported. These savings were also passed on to tenants: rents are 20% lower than in a new building next door.
The complex is actually two buildings linked by bridges across a shady, glass-roofed atrium open to the breezes. Fans suck fresh air in from the atrium, blow it upstairs through hollow spaces under the floors and from there into each office through baseboard vents. As it rises and warms, it is drawn out via ceiling vents and finally exits through forty-eight brick chimneys.
To keep the harsh, high veld sun from heating the interior, no more than 25% of the outside is glass, and all the windows are screened by cement arches that jut out more than a metre.
During summer's cool nights, big fans flush air through the building seven times an hour to chill the hollow floors. By day, smaller fans blow two changes of air an hour through the building, to circulate the air which has been in contact with the cool floors. For winter days, there are small heaters in the vents.
This is all possible only because Harare is 1600 feet above sea level, has cloudless skies, little humidity and rapid temperature swings – days as warm as 31°C commonly drop to 14°C at night. ‘You couldn't do this in New York, with its fantastically hot summers and fantastically cold winters,’ Pearce said. But then his eyes lit up at the challenge. ‘Perhaps you could store the summer's heat in water somehow ...’
The engineering firm of Ove Arup & Partners, which worked with him on the design, monitors daily temperatures outside, under the floors and at knee, desk and ceiling level. Ove Arup's graphs show that the temperature of the building has generally stayed between 23°C and 25°C, with the exception of the annual hot spell just before the summer rains in October, and three days in November, when a janitor accidentally switched off the fans at night. The atrium, which funnels the winds through, can be much cooler. And the air is fresh – far more so than in air-conditioned buildings, where up to 30% of the air is recycled.
Pearce, disdaining smooth glass skins as ‘igloos in the Sahara’, calls his building, with its exposed girders and pipes, ‘spiky’. The design of the entrances is based on the porcupine-quill headdresses of the local Shona tribe. Elevators are designed to look like the mineshaft cages used in Zimbabwe's diamond mines. The shape of the fan covers, and the stone used in their construction, are echoes of Great Zimbabwe, the ruins that give the country its name.
Standing on a roof catwalk, peering down inside at people as small as termites below, Pearce said he hoped plants would grow wild in the atrium and pigeons and bats would move into it, like that termite fungus, further extending the whole ‘organic machine’ metaphor. The architecture, he says, is a regionalised style that responds to the biosphere, to the ancient traditional stone architecture of Zimbabwe's past, and to local human resources.
Questions
Questions 1–5 Multiple Choice (One Answer)
Choose the correct answer, A, B, C or D.
Questions 6–10 Sentence Completion
Complete the sentences below with words taken from Reading Passage 1.
Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.
- Warm air leaves the offices through 6.
- The warm air leaves the building through 7.
- Heat from the sun is prevented from reaching the windows by 8.
- When the outside temperature drops, 9 bring air in from outside.
- On cold days, 10 raise the temperature in the offices.
Questions 11–13 Short Answers
Answer the question below, using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Which three parts of the Eastgate Building reflect important features of Zimbabwe's history and culture? (in order appeared in the reading passage)
Answers & Explanations Summary
| # | Answer | Evidence | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 | B | Termites in Zimbabwe build gigantic mounds inside which they farm a fungus that is their primary food source. This must be kept at exactly 30.5°C, while the temperatures on the African veld outside can range from 1.5°C at night - only just above freezing - to a baking hot 40°C during the day. The termites achieve this remarkable feat by building a system of vents in the mound | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage says that termites build big homes (mounds) where they grow a type of food called fungus. This food needs to stay at 30.5°C. Outside, the temperature changes a lot, from very cold to very hot. The termites use a system of openings (vents) in their mound to keep the temperature just right for their food. Answer Explanation: The answer means that the vents help the termites make (or grow) their food. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is B because the passage explains that termites build mounds to grow a special fungus, which is their main food. This fungus needs a very specific temperature to grow well. The passage clearly states that the termites use a 'system of vents' to keep this temperature steady inside the mound, even when it's very hot or cold outside. Therefore, the vents are important for creating the right conditions for their food to be produced. |
| Q2 | D | These efficiencies translated directly to the bottom line: the Eastgate's owners saved $3.5 million on a $36 million building because an air-conditioning plant didn't have to be imported | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage explains that because the building was designed in a smart, energy-saving way, the owners saved a lot of money. They saved 3.5 million dollars when building the Eastgate Building because they did not need to buy a big air conditioning system from another country. Answer Explanation: The answer means that the Eastgate Building was cheaper to build because it did not require air conditioning machines to cool it. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is D because the passage clearly states that the Eastgate Building did not have air conditioning, which directly led to cost savings during its construction. The text specifically mentions that the owners saved a significant amount of money (3.5 million dollars) because they did not have to buy and bring in an 'air-conditioning plant' from another country. This absence of air conditioning made the building cheaper to build compared to traditional buildings. |
| Q3 | A | This is all possible only because Harare is 1600 feet above sea level, has cloudless skies, little humidity and rapid temperature swings – days as warm as 31°C commonly drop to 14°C at night. ‘You couldn't do this in New York, with its fantastically hot summers and fantastically cold winters,’ Pearce said | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage says that the Eastgate building works well in Harare because the temperature changes a lot from day to night. For example, a hot day can become a cool night very quickly. But the architect mentioned that this design would not work in New York because New York has extremely hot summers and extremely cold winters, meaning its main temperature changes happen between seasons, not daily. Answer Explanation: The answer, A, means that New York's weather changes a lot between very hot summers and very cold winters, but not as much between day and night in the same way Harare does. The Eastgate building's design relies on these big daily changes. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is A because the passage explains that the Eastgate building's design is possible in Harare due to 'rapid temperature swings' where warm days drop significantly to cool nights. The building uses these quick daily changes to cool itself. However, the architect, Mick Pearce, directly states that 'You couldn't do this in New York, with its fantastically hot summers and fantastically cold winters.' This highlights that New York's major temperature differences occur over long seasons, rather than the rapid, significant daily fluctuations that the building's cooling system is designed to exploit effectively. |
| Q4 | C | Ove Arup's graphs show that the temperature of the building has generally stayed between 23°C and 25°C, with the exception of the annual hot spell just before the summer rains in October, and three days in November, when a janitor accidentally switched off the fans at night | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage says that data collected by Ove Arup shows the building's temperature usually stayed between 23 and 25 degrees Celsius. It only got too hot during one yearly very warm period in October and for three days in November when someone turned off the fans by mistake. This means it worked well most of the time. Answer Explanation: The answer means that the Eastgate building's system for controlling temperature works nicely for almost the whole year. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is C because the passage states that the temperature of the building generally stays within a comfortable range for most of the year. The text mentions specific exceptions, like a 'hot spell' or when a 'janitor accidentally switched off the fans,' which implies that outside of these rare issues, the system is effective. The phrase 'generally stayed between 23°C and 25°C' indicates good performance most of the time. |
| Q5 | A | Standing on a roof catwalk, peering down inside at people as small as termites below, Pearce said he hoped plants would grow wild in the atrium and pigeons and bats would move into it, like that termite fungus, further extending the whole ‘organic machine’ metaphor | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage says that the architect, Pearce, wished that natural things like wild plants, birds called pigeons, and bats would come to live inside the building's open space, the atrium. He thought this would make the building feel even more like a 'living machine'. Answer Explanation: The answer is that Mick Pearce thinks his building would be better if more animals and plants could live in it. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is A because the passage states that the architect, Mick Pearce, 'hoped plants would grow wild in the atrium and pigeons and bats would move into it'. This clearly shows his desire for the building to become a home for wildlife, which directly matches answer choice A: 'becoming more of a habitat for wildlife'. |
| Q6 | ceiling vents | Fans suck fresh air in from the atrium, blow it upstairs through hollow spaces under the floors and from there into each office through baseboard vents. As it rises and warms, it is drawn out via ceiling vents and finally exits through forty-eight brick chimneys | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage says that fresh air first goes into offices from 'baseboard vents' (openings near the floor). Then, as this air gets warm and moves up, it is pulled out of the rooms using 'ceiling vents' (openings in the ceiling). After leaving the offices, the warm air then goes out of the whole building through 'forty-eight brick chimneys'. Answer Explanation: The answer 'ceiling vents' means openings in the top part of the rooms where warm air can go out. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is 'ceiling vents' because the passage explains how air moves through the Eastgate Building. It states that after air enters the offices through 'baseboard vents' and gets warm, it then leaves the offices through the 'ceiling vents'. This is part of the natural cooling system inspired by termite mounds. |
| Q7 | the brick chimneys / the chimneys / brick chimneys / chimneys | As it rises and warms, it is drawn out via ceiling vents and finally exits through forty-eight brick chimneys | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage explains that air goes up and gets warm inside the building. Then, this warm air is pulled out from the top of the rooms and eventually leaves the building completely through tall 'brick chimneys'. Answer Explanation: The answer 'brick chimneys' means that the warm air from inside the building goes out through tall, hollow structures made of bricks at the top of the building. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is 'brick chimneys' because the passage explains the path of air within the Eastgate Building. It states that after the air rises and warms, it is drawn out and 'finally exits through forty-eight brick chimneys'. This clearly identifies the method by which warm air leaves the entire structure of the building. |
| Q8 | cement arches | To keep the harsh, high veld sun from heating the interior, no more than 25% of the outside is glass, and all the windows are screened by cement arches that jut out more than a metre | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage says that to stop the strong sun from warming up the inside of the building, not much of the outside is made of glass. Also, all the windows are covered by 'cement arches' that stick out over a meter. These arches act like a shield against the sun's heat. Answer Explanation: The answer is 'cement arches.' These are curved structures made of cement that extend out from the building. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is 'cement arches' because the passage explains how the building stops the sun's heat from coming inside. It states that the windows are covered by these structures. The word 'prevented' in the question means 'stopped,' and the passage clearly says the 'cement arches' 'screen' the windows to keep the sun's heat out. This design helps keep the building cool without needing traditional air conditioning. |
| Q9 | the big fans / big fans | During summer's cool nights, big fans flush air through the building seven times an hour to chill the hollow floors | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage says that during cool nights in summer, large fans push air through the building many times each hour. This action helps to cool down the empty spaces under the floors. Answer Explanation: The answer is 'big fans'. This means large fans are used to bring in outside air. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is 'big fans' because the passage explains how the building cools itself during different times. When the temperature outside drops, specifically during 'cool nights', the building uses these large fans to bring in fresh air. The text mentions that 'big fans' are used to 'flush air through the building' to make it cooler when it's cold outside at night. |
| Q10 | the small heaters / the heaters / small heaters / heaters | For winter days, there are small heaters in the vents | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage states that when the weather is cold, during 'winter days', the building uses 'small heaters' located inside the air vents to increase the warmth in the offices. Answer Explanation: The answer 'small heaters' means little machines that make heat. These machines warm up the offices. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is 'small heaters' because the passage explains how the building manages its temperature. It specifically mentions that during cold periods, or 'winter days', additional warmth is provided by 'small heaters' that are placed in the vents to make the indoor spaces warmer. The phrase 'raise the temperature' in the question refers to making it warmer, which is the function of heaters. |
| Q11 | the entrances / entrances | The design of the entrances is based on the porcupine-quill headdresses of the local Shona tribe | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage states that how the main doors, or 'entrances,' of the building look is copied from the special hats, called 'porcupine-quill headdresses,' that are worn by the 'local Shona tribe' in Zimbabwe. This shows a part of the country's culture. Answer Explanation: The answer, 'entrances,' refers to the doors or ways into the Eastgate Building. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is 'entrances' because the passage states that their design was inspired by a cultural element of the local Shona tribe in Zimbabwe. The passage explicitly links the 'design of the entrances' to the 'porcupine-quill headdresses' of this tribe, which is a clear reference to Zimbabwe's culture. |
| Q12 | the elevators / elevators | Elevators are designed to look like the mineshaft cages used in Zimbabwe's diamond mines | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage says that the lifts in the building, called 'elevators', were made to look like the special cages used in the deep holes where people dig for diamonds in Zimbabwe. This shows a link to the country's past mining work. Answer Explanation: The answer says that 'elevators' are one part of the Eastgate Building that shows something important about Zimbabwe's past and culture. Elevators are lifts that take people up and down in a building. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is supported by the passage because it states that the 'elevators' in the Eastgate Building were designed to look like 'mineshaft cages' from Zimbabwe's 'diamond mines'. This connects the building's design directly to a significant part of Zimbabwe's history and industry, making the elevators a feature that reflects its culture. |
| Q13 | the fan covers / fan covers | The shape of the fan covers, and the stone used in their construction, are echoes of Great Zimbabwe, the ruins that give the country its name | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage says that the way the fan covers look, and the kind of stone they are made from, remind people of an old place called Great Zimbabwe. This very old place is so important that it actually gave Zimbabwe its name. Answer Explanation: The answer 'fan covers' means the round or decorative parts that cover the fans inside the Eastgate Building. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is 'fan covers' because the passage states that their design reflects an important part of Zimbabwe's past. The text specifically mentions that 'the shape of the fan covers' are like 'echoes' of 'Great Zimbabwe,' which are ancient 'ruins' that gave the country its name. This directly connects the fan covers to the historical and cultural heritage of Zimbabwe. |