CAMBRIDGE IELTS 13 TEST 2 (READING) PASSAGE 2

CAMBRIDGE IELTS 13

TEST 2 (READING)

PASSAGE 2

READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.

Bringing Cinnamon to Europe

Cinnamon is a sweet fragrant spice produced from the inner bark of trees of the genus Cinnamomum, which is native to the Indian sub-continent. It was known in biblical times, and is mentioned in several books of the bible, both as an ingredient that was mixed with oils for anointing people’s bodies but also as a token indicating friendship among lovers and friends. In ancient Rome, mourners attending funerals burnt cinnamon to create pleasant scent. Most often, however, the spice found its primary use as an additive to food and drink. In the middle ages, Europeans who could afford the spice used it to flavour food, particularly meat, and to impress those around them with their ability to purchase an expensive condiment from the ‘exotic’ East. At a banquet, a host would offer guests a plate with various spices piled upon it as a sign of the wealth at his or her disposal. Cinnamon was also reported to have health benefits, and was thought to cure various ailments, such as indigestion. Toward the end of the Middle Ages, the European middle classes began to desire the lifestyle of the elite, including their consumption of spices. At that time, cinnamon was transported by Arab merchants, who closely guarded the secret of the source of the spice from potential rivals. They took it from India, where it was grown, on camels via an overland route to the Mediterranean. Their journey ended when they reached Alexandria. European traders sailed there to purchase their supply of cinnamon, then bought it back to Venice. The spice then travelled from that great trading city to markets all round Europe. Because the overland trade route allowed for only small quantities of the spice to reach Europe, and because Venice has a virtual monopoly of the trade, the Venetians could set the price of cinnamon exorbitantly high. These prices, coupled with the increasing demand, spurred the search for new routes to Asia by Europeans eager to take part in the spice trade. Seeking the high profits promised by the cinnamon market, Portuguese traders arrived on the island of Ceylon in the Indian Ocean toward the end of the 15th century. Before Europeans arrived on the island, the state had organized the cultivation of cinnamon. People belonging to the ethnic group called the Salagama would peel the bark off young shoots of the cinnamon plant in the rainy season, when the wet bark was more pliable. During the peeling process, they curled the bark into the ‘stick’ shape still associated with the spice today. The Salagama then gave the finished product to the king as a form of tribute. When the Portuguese arrived, they needed to increase the production significantly, and so enslaved many other members of the Ceylonese native population, forcing them to work in cinnamon harvesting. In 1518, the Portuguese built a fort on Ceylon, which enabled them to protect the island, so helping them to develop a monopoly in the cinnamon trade and generate very high profits. In the late 16th century, for example, they enjoyed a tenfold profit when shipping cinnamon over a journey of eight days from Ceylon to India. When the Dutch arrived off the coast of southern Asia at the very beginning of the 17th century, they set their sights on displacing the Portuguese as kings of cinnamon. The Dutch allied themselves with Kandy, an island kingdom in Ceylon. In return for payments of elephant and cinnamon, they protected the native king from the Portuguese. By 1640, the Dutch broke the 150-year Portuguese monopoly when they overran and occupied the factories. By 1658, they had permanently expelled the Portuguese from the island, thereby gaining control of the lucrative cinnamon trade. In order to protect their hold on the market, the Dutch, like Portuguese before them, treated the native inhabitants harshly. Because the need of boost production and satisfy Europe’s ever-increasing appetite for cinnamon, the Dutch began to alter the harvesting practices of the Ceylonese. Over time, the supply of cinnamon trees on the island became nearly exhausted, due to systematic stripping of the bark. Eventually, the Dutch began cultivating their own cinnamon trees to supplement the diminishing number of wild trees available for use. Then 1796, the English arrived on Ceylon, thereby displacing the Dutch from their control of the cinnamon monopoly. By the middle of the 19th century, production of cinnamon reached 1.000 tons a year, after a low grade quality of the spice became acceptable to European tastes. By that time, cinnamon was being grown in other parts of the Indian Ocean region and in the West Indies, Brazil, and Guyana. Not only was a monopoly of cinnamon becoming impossible, but the spice trade overall was diminishing in economic potential, and was eventually superseded by the rise of trade in coffee, tea, chocolate, and sugar.

Questions 1-9

Complete the notes below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 1-79on your answer sheet.

THE EARLY HISTORY OF CINNAMON
Biblical times	added to 1______________ used to show 2______________ between people
Ancient Rome	used for sweet smell at 3______________
Middle Ages	added to food especially meat was indication of person’s 4______________ known as treatment for 5______________ and other health problems grown in 6______________ merchants used 7______________ to bring it to the Mediterranean arrived in the Mediterranean at 8______________ traders took it to 9______________ and sold it to destinations around Europe.

Questions 10-13

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?

In boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN

if the statement agrees with the information if the statement contradicts the information if there is no information

10	The Portuguese had control over the cinnamon in Ceylon throughout the 16th century.
11	The Dutch took over the cinnamon trade from the Portuguese as soon as they arrived in Ceylon.
12	The trees planted by the Dutch produced larger quantities of cinnamon than the wild trees.
13	The spice trade maintained its economic importance during the 19th century.

ANSWER KEY

1	oils
2	friendship
3	funerals
4	wealth
5	indigestion
6	India
7	camels
8	Alexandria
9	Venice
10	TRUE
11	FALSE
12	NOT GIVEN
13	FALSE