tailieunhanh - IELTS Academic Reading 11

Hi vọng IELTS Academic Reading 11 sẽ cung cấp những kiến thức bổ ích cho các bạn trong quá trình ôn tập nâng cao kiến thức trước khi bước vào kì thi của mình. Mời các bạn cùng tham khảo. | IELTS Academic Reading 11 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-14 which are based on following reading passage THE ROCKET - FROM EAST TO WEST A The concept of the rocket or rather the mechanism behind the idea of propelling an object into the air has been around for well over two thousand years. However it wasn t until the discovery of the reaction principle which was the key to space travel and so represents one of the great milestones in the history of scientific thought that rocket technology was able to develop. Not only did it solve a problem that had intrigued man for ages but more importantly it literally opened the door to exploration of the universe. B An intellectual breakthrough brilliant though it may be does not automatically ensure that the transition is made from theory to practice. Despite the fact that rockets had been used sporadically for several hundred years they remained a relatively minor arte-fact of civilization until the twentieth century. Prodigious efforts accelerated during two world wars were required before the technology of primitive rocketry could be translated into the reality of sophisticated astronauts. It is strange that the rocket was generally ignored by writers of fiction to transport their heroes to mysterious realms beyond the Earth even though it had been commonly used in fireworks displays in China since the thirteenth century. The reason is that nobody associated the reaction principle with the idea of traveling through space to a neighbouring world. C A simple analogy can help us to understand how a rocket operates. It is much like a machine gun mounted on the rear of a boat. In reaction to the backward discharge of bullets the gun and hence the boat move forwards. A rocket motor s bullets are minute high- speed particles produced by burning propellants in a suitable chamber. The reaction to the ejection of these small particles causes the rocket to move forwards. There is evidence that the reaction .