Stadiums: past, present and future: reading answers and analysis
Stadiums are among the oldest urban buildings and have always adapted: Arles became a fortress, then a village, then a bullring, Verona is an opera venue, and Lucca's is a market square. 20th-century stadiums lost that flexibility, but today's architects turn them into mixed-use hubs and solar or wind power stations that feed the surrounding city.
Questions 14-26 · 13 marks · 4 question blocks
Where the answers sit
Section matching (14-17) uses A, D, E and F. The summary (18-22) is in B and C. The first choose-TWO block (23-24) is in D, as the question says, and the second (25-26) is in E and F.
Questions 14-17
The 'growing scepticism' about costly stadiums is in A. The Kaohsiung figures (panels, GWh, tonnes of CO2) are in F. The list of hotels, shops and playgrounds is in E. The drawbacks of 20th-century stadiums (suburban, sport-only, energy-hungry) are in D.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 14 | A | — |
| 15 | F | — |
| 16 | E | — |
| 17 | D | — |
Questions 18-22
Follow Arles's history in order: its first conversion, and what spectators watched when it went back to being an arena. Verona's fame comes from its acoustics. Lucca's site stored one product and now has homes and one other kind of building.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 18 | fortress | — |
| 19 | bullfights | — |
| 20 | opera | — |
| 21 | salt | — |
| 22 | shops | — |
Questions 23-24
D says modern stadiums lost some flexibility (less versatile) and sit in suburbs surrounded by car parks (less convenient). Steel and concrete are mentioned, but nothing says they're less durable.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 23-24 | C and D(in either order) | — |
Questions 25-26
E's mixed-use hubs bring families and a wider community back in, and F's canopies are ideal for solar panels and micro wind turbines. The stadium supplies the area with power. It doesn't help residents use less, and nothing is said about research.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 25-26 | B and E(in either order) | — |
The questions most people get wrong
Arles became a fortress with four towers first, then a village of 200 houses. The order matters because the summary says 'first'.
D tempts because Kaohsiung supplies 80% of the surrounding area. That's generation, not residents using less electricity.
D, not A. A is about sceptical attitudes today, while D lists what went wrong with the stadiums of the early 20th century.
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Cambridge IELTS 17, Test 1, Reading Passage 2. The passage name belongs to Cambridge University Press. No passage text or question wording is reproduced on this page. The answers are published for self-marking, and the analysis is our own.