Cosmetics in Ancient Pas - Tài liệu tham khảo Tiếng Anh ( TA8 ISW) | Đại học Hoa Sen

IPP IELTS CYCLE 04 – READING TEST 09 READING PASSAGE 1
Cosmetics in Ancient Past
A. Since cosmetics and perfumes are still in wide use today, it is interesting to compare the
attitudes, customs and beliefs related to them in ancient times to those of our own day and
age. Cosmetics and perfumes have been popular since the dawn of civilization; it is shown by
the discovery of a great deal of pertinent archaeological material, dating from the third
millennium BC., mosaics, glass perfume flasks, stone vessels, ovens, cooking-pots, clay jars,
etc., some inscribed by the hand of the artisan. Evidence also appears in the Bible and other
classical writings, where it is written that spices and perfumes were prestigious products
known throughout the ancient world and coveted by kings and princes. The written and
pictorial descriptions, as well as archaeological findings, all show how important body care
and aesthetic appearance were in the lives of the ancient people. The chain of evidence spans
many centuries, detailing the usage of cosmetics in various cultures from the earliest period of recorded history.
 Main idea: ………………………………………………………………………………………
B. In antiquity, however, at least in the onset, cosmetics served in religious ceremonies and for
healing purposes. Cosmetics were also connected with cultic worship and witchcraft: to
appease the various gods, fragrant ointments were applied to the statuary images and even to
their attendants. From this, in the course of time, developed the custom of personal use, to
enhance the beauty of the face and the body, and to conceal defects.
 Main idea: ………………………………………………………………………………………
C. Perfumes and fragrant spices were precious commodities in antiquity, very much in demand,
and at times even exceeded silver and gold in value. Therefore, they were luxury products,
used mainly in the temples and in the homes of the noble and wealthy. The Judean kings kept
them in treasure houses (2 Kings 20:13). And the Queen of Sheba brought to Solomon
“camels laden with spices, gold in great quantity and precious stones.” (1 Kings 10:2, 10).
However, within time, the use of cosmetics became the custom of that period. The use of
cosmetics became widespread among the lower classes as well as among the wealthy; in the
same way, they washed the body, so they used to care for the body with substances that
softened the skin and anoint it with fragrant oils and ointments.
 Main idea: ………………………………………………………………………………………
D. Facial treatment was highly developed and women devoted many hours to it. They used to
spread various scented creams on the face and to apply makeup in vivid and contrasting
colors. An Egyptian papyrus from the 16th century BC contains detailed recipes to remove
blemishes, wrinkles, and other signs of age. Greek and Roman women would cover their
faces in the evening with a “beauty mask” to remove blemishes, which consisted mainly of
flour mixed with fragrant spices, leaving it on their face all night. The next morning, they
would wash it off with asses’ milk. The very common creams used by women in the ancient
Far East, particularly important in the hot climate and prevalent in that area of the globe, Page 1 | 6 IPP IELTS CYCLE 04 – READING TEST 09
were made up of oils and aromatic scents. Sometimes the oil in these creams was extracted
from olives, almonds, gourds, sesame, or from trees and plants; but, for those of limited
means, scented animal and fish fats were commonly used.
 Main idea: ………………………………………………………………………………………
E. Women in the ancient past commonly put colors around their eyes. Besides beautification, its
purpose was also medicinal as covering the sensitive skin of the lids with colored ointments
that prevented dryness and eye diseases: the eye-paint repelled the little flies that transmitted
eye inflammations. Egyptian women colored the upper eyelid black and the lower one green
and painted the space between the upper lid and the eyebrow gray and blue. The women of
Mesopotamia favored yellows and reds. The use of kohl for painting the eyes is mentioned
three times in the Bible, always with disapproval by the sages (2 Kings, 9:30; Jeremiah 4:30;
Ezekiel 23:40). In contrast, Job named one of his daughters “Keren Happukh” – “horn of eye paint” (Job 42:14)
 Main idea: ………………………………………………………………………………………
F. Great importance was attached to the care for hair in ancient times. Long hair was always
considered a symbol of beauty, and kings, nobles and dignitaries grew their hair long and
kept it well-groomed and cared for. Women devoted much time to the style of the hair; while
no cutting, they would apply much care to it by arranging it skillfully in plaits and “building
it up” sometimes with the help of wigs. Egyptian women generally wore their hair flowing
down to their shoulders or even longer. In Mesopotamia, women cherished long hair as a part
of their beauty, and hair flowing down their backs in a thick plait and tied with a ribbon is
seen in art. Assyrian women wore their hair shorter, braiding and binding it in a bun at the
back. In Ancient Israel, brides would wear their hair long on the wedding day as a sign of
their virginity. Ordinary people and slaves, however, usually wore their hair short, mainly for
hygienic reasons, since they could not afford to invest in the kind of treatment that long hair required.
 Main idea: ………………………………………………………………………………………
G. From the Bible and Egyptian and Assyrian sources, as well as the words of classical authors,
it appears that the centers of the trade-in aromatic resins and incense were located in the
kingdoms of southern Arabia, and even as far as India, where some of these precious
aromatic plants were grown. “Dealers from Sheba and Rammah dealt with you, offering the
choicest spices…” (Ezekiel 27:22). The Nabateans functioned as the important middlemen in
this trade; Palestine also served as a very important component, as the trade routes
crisscrossed the country. It is known that the Egyptian Queen Hatsheput (15th century BC)
sent a royal expedition to the Land of Punt (Somalia) in order to bring back myrrh seedlings
to plant in her temple. In Assyrian records of tribute and spoils of war, perfumes and resins
are mentioned; the text from the time of Tukulti-Ninurta II (890-884 BC) refers to balls of
myrrh as a part of the tribute brought to the Assyrian king by the Aramaean kings. The trade-
in spices and perfumes are also mentioned in the Bible as written in Genesis (37:25-26),
“Camels carrying gum tragacanth and balm and myrrh”. Page 2 | 6 IPP IELTS CYCLE 04 – READING TEST 09
 Main idea: ……………………………………………………………………………………… Questions 01 – 07
Reading Passage has 7 paragraphs . A-G
NB You may use any letter more than once
1. ________ways of dealing with facial issues caused by aging.
2. ________perfumes were presented to conquerors in war.
3. ________special meanings in celebrations.
4. ________evidence exists in abundance showing cosmetics use in ancient times.
5. ________protection against health issues.
6. ________a location with geographical significance in terms of trade.
7. ________reference to resources where records of cosmetics could be found.
Questions 08 – 13 True / False / Not Given
8. The written record for cosmetics and perfumes dates back to the third millennium BC.
9. Since perfumes and spices were luxury products, their use was exclusive to the noble and the wealthy.
10. In the ancient Far East, fish fats were used as a cream by a woman from poor households.
11. The teachings in the Bible were repeatedly against the use of kohl for painting the eyes.
12. Long hair as a symbol of beauty was worn only by women of ancient cultures.
13. The Egyptian Queen Hatsheput sent a royal expedition to Punt to obtain seedlings and
establish a trade route for myrrh. Page 3 | 6 IPP IELTS CYCLE 04 – READING TEST 09 READING PASSAGE 2 Finches on Islands
A. Today, the quest continues. On Daphne Major – one of the most desolate of the Galápagos
Islands, an uninhabited volcanic cone where cacti and shrubs seldom grow higher than a
researcher’s knee – Peter and Rosemary Grant have spent more than three decades watching
Darwin’s finch respond to the challenges of storms, drought and competition for food
Biologists at Princeton University, the Grants know and recognize many of the individual
birds on the island and can trace the birds’ lineages hack through time. They have witnessed
Darwin’s principle in action again and again, over many generations of finches.
B. The Grants’ most dramatic insights have come from watching the evolving bill of the
medium ground finch. The plumage of this sparrow-sized bird ranges from dull brown to jet
black. At first glance, it may not seem particularly striking, but among scientists who study
evolutionary biology, the medium ground finch is a superstar. Its bill is a middling example
in the array of shapes and sizes found among Galápagos finches: heftier than that of the small
ground finch, which specializes in eating small, soft seeds, but petite compared to that of the
large ground finch, an expert at cracking and devouring big, hard seeds.
C. When the Grants began their study in the 1970s, only two species of finch lived on Daphne
Major, the medium ground finch and the cactus finch. The island is so small that the
researchers were able to count and catalog every bird. When a severe drought hit in 1977, the
birds soon devoured the last of the small, easily eaten seeds. Smaller members of the medium
ground finch population, lacking the bill strength to crack large seeds, died out.
D. Bill and body size are inherited traits, and the next generation had a high proportion of big-
billed individuals. The Grants had documented natural selection at work-the same process
that, over many millennia, directed the evolution of the Galápagos’ 14 unique finch species,
all descended from a common ancestor that reached the islands a few million years ago.
E. Eight years later, heavy rains brought by an El Nino transformed the normally meager
vegetation on Daphne Major. Vines and other plants that in most years struggle for survival
suddenly flourished, choking out the plants that provide large seeds to the finches. Small
seeds came to dominate the food supply, and big birds with big bills died out at a higher rate
than smaller ones. ‘Natural selection is observable,’ Rosemary Grant says. ‘It happens when
the environment changes. When local conditions reverse themselves, so does the direction of adaptation.
F. Recently, the Grants witnessed another form of natural selection acting on the medium
ground finch: competition from bigger, stronger cousins. In 1982, a third finch, the large
ground finch, came to live on Daphne Major. The stout bills of these birds resemble the
business end of a crescent wrench. Their arrival was the first such colonization recorded on
the Galápagos in nearly a century of scientific observation. ‘We realized,’ Peter Grant says,
‘we had a very unusual and potentially important event to follow.’ For 20 years, the large
ground finch coexisted with the medium ground finch, which shared the supply of large seeds Page 4 | 6 IPP IELTS CYCLE 04 – READING TEST 09
with its bigger-billed relative. Then, in 2002 and 2003, another drought struck. None of the
birds nested that year, and many died out. Medium ground finches with large bills, crowded
out of feeding areas by the more powerful large ground finches, were hit particularly hard.
G. When wetter weather returned in 2004, and the finches nested again, the new generation of
the medium ground finch was dominated by smaller birds with smaller bills, able to survive
on smaller seeds. This situation, says Peter Grant, marked the first time that biologists have
been able to follow the complete process of an evolutionary change due to competition
between species and the strongest response to natural selection that he had seen in 33 years of tracking Galápagos finches.
H. On the inhabited island of Santa Cruz, just south of Daphne Major, Andrew Hendry of
McGill University and Jeffrey Podos of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst have
discovered a new, man-made twist in finch evolution. Their study focused on birds living
near the Academy Bay research station, on the fringe of the town of Puerto Ayora. The
human population of the area has been growing fast – from 900 people in 1974 to 9,582 in
2001. Today Puerto Ayora is full of hotels and Mai Tai bars,’ Hendry says. ‘People have
taken this extremely arid place and tried to turn it into a Caribbean resort.’ I.
Academy Bay records dating back to the early 1960s show that medium ground finches
captured there had either small or large bills. Very few of the birds had mid-size bills. The
finches appeared to be in the early stages of a new adaptive radiation: If the trend continued,
the medium ground finch on Santa Cruz could split into two distinct subspecies, specializing
in different types of seeds. But in the late 1960s and early 70s, medium ground finches with
medium-sized bills began to thrive at Academy Bay along with small and large-billed birds.
The booming human population had introduced new food sources, including exotic plants
and bird feeding stations stocked with rice. Billsize, once critical to the finches’ survival, no
longer made any difference. ‘Now an intermediate bill can do fine,’ Hendry says.
J. At a control site distant from Puerto Ayora, and relatively untouched by humans, the medium
ground finch population remains split between large- and small-billed birds. On undisturbed
parts of Santa Cruz, there is no ecological niche for a middling medium ground finch, and the
birds continue to diversify. In town, though there are still many finches, once-distinct populations are merging.
K. The finches of Santa Cruz demonstrate a subtle process in which human meddling can stop
evolution in its tracks, ending the formation of new species. In a time when global
biodiversity continues its downhill slide, Darwin’s finches have yet another unexpected
lesson to teach. ‘If we hope to regain some of the diversity that’s already been lost. Hendry
says, ‘we need to protect not just existing creatures, but also the processes that drive the origin of new species. Page 5 | 6 IPP IELTS CYCLE 04 – READING TEST 09 Questions 14 – 17
Complete the table now. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer. Year Climate Finch’s condition
small-beak birds failing to survive, without the 1977 14. __________________
power to open 15. _________________ 16. _________________
big-beak birds dying out, with ___________ 17. 1985 brought by El Nino as the main food resource Questions 18 – 21
Complete the following summary using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer.
On the remote island of Santa Cruz, Andrew Hendry and Jeffrey Podos conducted a study on reversal
__________________ due to human activity 18.
. In the early 1960s medium ground
finches were found to have a larger or smaller beak. But in the late 1960s and early 70s, finches with
_____________________ flourished. The study s 19.
peculates that it is due to the growing
20. _______________ who brought in alien plants with intermediate-size seeds into the area and the birds ate ________________ sometimes. 21.
Questions 22 – 26 True/ False/ Not Given
22. Grants’ discovery has questioned Darwin’s theory.
23. The cactus finches are less affected by food than the medium ground finch.
24. In 2002 and 2003, all the birds were affected by the drought.
25. The discovery of Andrew Hendry and Jeffrey Podos was the same as that of the previous studies.
26. It is shown that the revolution in finches on Santa Cruz is likely a response to human intervention. Page 6 | 6