Cambridge IELTS 17 Test 1 Reading Passage 3 là một bài tập không quá khó nhưng vẫn đủ thử thách để luyện tập cho phần thi IELTS Reading. Để cùng vận dụng hết những từ vựng mà bài có thì hãy cùng ISE giải đề và phân tích đáp án nhé!

 1. Phần thi Cambridge IELTS 17 Test 1 Reading Passage 3 là gì?

1.1. Thông tin bộ sách Cambridge IELTS 17

Cambridge IELTS là một bộ sách được xuất bản bởi Cambridge với mục đích luyện đề thi IELTS và được ra mắt vào tháng 5 hàng năm.

Các đề từ Cambridge IELTS nhìn chung bám khá sát với đề thi thực tế và đã được thí sinh trên toàn thế giới thêm vào danh sách các bộ đề luyện thi IELTS uy tín.

Nội dung sách bao gồm các phần thi của cả 4 kỹ năng trong bài thi IELTS Academic bao gồm: Reading, Listening, Speaking và Writing.

1.2. Tổng quan Cambridge IELTS 17 Test 1 Reading Passage 3

Bài đọc Cambridge IELTS 17 Test 1 Reading Passage 3 là một bài bình phẩm về quyển sách “To Catch A King,” mà tác giả đã cho thấy được một quá trình chạy trốn thoát thân của vua Charles Đệ Nhị. Câu chuyện bắt đầu từ những lý do dẫn đến sự nổi loạn của Quốc Hội, trận chiến và một khoảng thời gian 6 tuần mà vị vua trẻ phải trốn chạy đến Pháp sau một trận chiến thất bại. Ngoài ra, tác giả còn đưa ra những nhận định, đánh giá về quyền sách, lối hành văn và những điều còn thiếu sót.

Phần Passage 3 sẽ bao gồm 14 câu hỏi từ câu 27 đến 40 của phần Reading Test 1.

 2. Bài đọc và đề bài Cambridge IELTS 17 Test 1 Reading Passage 3

READING PASSAGE 3

You should spend about 20 minutes Questions 1—13, which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.

TO CATCH A KING

 Anna Keay reviews Charles Spencer’s book about the hunt for King Charles II during the English Civil War of the seventeenth century

(Q 36) Charles Spencer’s latest book, To Catch a King, tells us the story of the hunt for King Charles II in the six weeks after his resounding defeat at the Battle of Worcester in September 1651. And what a story it is. (Q 27 + 28) After his father was executed by the Parliamentarians in 1649, the young Charles II sacrificed one of the very principles his father had died for and did a deal with the Scots, thereby accepting Presbyterianism* as the national religion in return for being crowned King of Scots. His arrival in Edinburgh prompted the English Parliamentary army to invade Scotland in a pre-emptive strike. This was followed by a Scottish invasion of England. The two sides finally faced one another at Worcester in the west of England in 1651. (Q 29 +) After being comprehensively defeated on the meadows outside the city by the Parliamentarian army, the 21-year-old king found himself the subject of a national manhunt, (Q 30) with a huge sum offered for his capture. (Q 31) Over the following six weeks he managed, through a series of heart-poundingly close escapes, to evade the Parliamentarians before seeking refuge in France. For the next nine years, the penniless and defeated Charles wandered around Europe with only a small group of loyal supporters.

Years later, after his restoration as king, the 50-year-old Charles II requested a meeting with the writer and diarist Samuel Pepys. (Q 32) His intention when asking Pepys to commit his story to paper was to ensure that this most extraordinary episode was never forgotten. (Q 33) Over two three-hour sittings, the king related to him in great detail his personal recollections of the six weeks he had spent as a fugitive. As the king and secretary settled down (a scene that is surely a gift for a future scriptwriter), (Q 34) Charles commenced his story: ‘After the battle was so absolutely lost as to be beyond hope of recovery, I began to think of the best way of saving myself.’

(Q 35) One of the joys of Spencer’s book, a result not least of its use of Charles II’s own narrative as well as those of his supporters, is just how close the reader gets to the action. (Q 37) The day-by- day retelling of the fugitives’ doings provides delicious details: the cutting of the king’s long hair with agricultural shears, the use of walnut leaves to dye his pale skin, and the day Charles spent lying on a branch of the great oak tree in Boscobel Wood as the Parliamentary soldiers scoured the forest floor below. Spencer draws out both the humour – such as the preposterous refusal of Charles’s friend Henry Wilmot to adopt disguise on the grounds that it was beneath his dignity – and the emotional tension when the secret of the king’s presence was cautiously revealed to his supporters.

Charles’s adventures after losing the Battle of Worcester hide the uncomfortable truth that whilst almost everyone in England had been appalled by the execution of his father, they had not welcomed the arrival of his son with the Scots army, but had instead firmly bolted their doors. This was partly because he rode at the head of what looked like a foreign invasion force and partly because, after almost a decade of civil war, people were desperate to avoid it beginning again. This makes it all the more interesting that Charles II himself loved the story so much ever after. As well as retelling it to anyone who would listen, causing eye- rolling among courtiers, he set in train a series of initiatives to memorialise it. There was to be a new order of chivalry, the Knights of the Royal Oak. A series of enormous oil paintings depicting the episode were produced, including a two-metre-wide canvas of Boscobel Wood and a set of six similarly enormous paintings of the king on the run. In 1660, Charles II commissioned the artist John Michael Wright to paint a flying squadron of cherubs* carrying an oak tree to the heavens on the ceiling of his bedchamber. (Q 38) It is hard to imagine many other kings marking the lowest point in their life so enthusiastically, or indeed pulling off such an escape in the first place.

(Q 39) Charles Spencer is the perfect person to pass the story on to a new generation. His pacey, readable prose steers deftly clear of modern idioms and elegantly brings to life the details of the great tale. He has even-handed sympathy for both the fugitive king and the fierce republican regime that hunted him, and he succeeds in his desire to explore far more of the background of the story than previous books on the subject have done. Indeed, the opening third of the book is about how Charles II found himself at Worcester in the first place, which for some will be reason alone to read To Catch a King.

(Q 40) The tantalising question left, in the end, is that of what it all meant. Would Charles II have been a different king had these six weeks never happened? The days and nights spent in hiding must have affected him in some way. Did the need to assume disguises, to survive on wit and charm alone, to use trickery and subterfuge to escape from tight corners help form him? This is the one area where the book doesn’t quite hit the mark. Instead its depiction of Charles II in his final years as an ineffective, pleasure-loving monarch doesn’t do justice to the man (neither is it accurate), or to the complexity of his character. But this one niggle aside, To Catch a King is an excellent read, and those who come to it knowing little of the famous tale will find they have a treat in store.

Questions 27–31

Complete the summary using the list of phrases, A–J, below.

Write the correct letter, A–J, in boxes 27–31 on your answer sheet.

Questions 32–35

Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3?

In boxes 32–35 on your answer sheet, write

            YES                             if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer

            NO                               if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer

            NOT GIVEN                if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

32. Charles chose Pepys for the task because he considered him to be trustworthy.
33. Charles’s personal recollection of the escape lacked sufficient detail.
34. Charles indicated to Pepys that he had planned his escape before the battle.
35. The inclusion of Charles’s account is a positive aspect of the book.

Questions 36–40

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write the correct letter in boxes 36–40 on your answer sheet.

36. What is the reviewer’s main purpose in the first paragraph?

1. to describe what happened during the Battle of Worcester
2. to give an account of the circumstances leading to Charles II’s escape
3. to provide details of the Parliamentarians’ political views
4. to compare Charles II’s beliefs with those of his father

37. Why does the reviewer include examples of the fugitives’ behaviour in the third paragraph?

1. to explain how close Charles II came to losing his life
2. to suggest that Charles II’s supporters were badly prepared
3. to illustrate how the events of the six weeks are brought to life
4. to argue that certain aspects are not as well-known as they should be

38. What point does the reviewer make about Charles II in the fourth paragraph?

1. He chose to celebrate what was essentially a
2. He misunderstood the motives of his
3. He aimed to restore people’s faith in the
4. He was driven by a desire to be

39. What does the reviewer say about Charles Spencer in the fifth paragraph?

1. His decision to write the book comes as a
2. He takes an unbiased approach to the subject
3. His descriptions of events would be better if they included more
4. He chooses language that is suitable for a twenty-first-century

40. When the reviewer says the book ‘doesn’t quite hit the mark’, she is making the point that

1. it overlooks the impact of events on ordinary
2. it lacks an analysis of prevalent views on
3. it omits any references to the deceit practised by Charles II during his time in
4. it fails to address whether Charles II’s experiences had a lasting influence on

3. Đáp án và giải thích chi tiết

3.1 Câu 27 – 31 – Multiple Choice Questions

Trong phần câu 27 – 30, bài thi yêu cầu thí sinh cần hiểu được đại ý trong các câu hỏi để đưa ra được lựa chọn đúng, thí sinh cần nắm rõ keywords và paraphrase của nó trong bài cũng như đại ý của các phần câu hỏi đặt ra, và đôi khi cần để ý đảo ngược tình huống (người thua -> người thắng).

3.2 Câu 32 – 35 – YES/NO/NOT GIVEN

Trong phần câu 32 – 35, bài thi yêu cầu thí sinh cần hiểu được ý chính mà tác giả nói đến trong bài, cũng như những cụm từ cho biết sự đồng tình, không đồng tình hay không nhắc đến, tránh suy nghĩ theo ý riêng.

3.3 Câu 36 – 40 – Multiple Choice Questions

Trong phần câu 36 – 40, bài thi yêu cầu thí sinh cần hiểu được keywords và paraphrase của nó trong bài cũng như đại ý của các phần câu hỏi đặt ra.

TỔNG KẾT VỀ CAMBRIDGE IELTS 17 TEST 1 READING PASSAGE 3

Vậy là chúng ta đã cùng nhau đi qua những câu hỏi tuy không quá khó nhưng cũng có thể dễ dàng đánh lừa thí sinh. Bài đọc này được ISE đánh giá là vừa sức với các bạn thi IELTS do chủ đề không quá hàn lâm và từ vựng cũng không quá cao cấp. Vì vậy, việc đạt được điểm tối đa ở bài đọc Cambridge IELTS 17 Test 1 Reading Passage 3 là hoàn toàn có thể nếu bạn có một chiến thuật làm bài hợp lý. Các thí sinh cũng có thể mua sách Cambridge IELTS 17 để tham khảo và tự thực hành các bài tại nhà nhé.

Bạn có thể liên hệ ISE để đăng ký tư vấn lộ trình học IELTS phù hợp tại:

Chi nhánh 1: 02 Nguyễn Huy Lượng, Phường 14, Quận Bình Thạnh, TP.HCM

Chi nhánh 2: 393 Điện Biên Phủ, Phường 4, Quận 3, TP.HCM

Chi Nhánh 3: 15 Hoàng Trọng Mậu, Phường Tân Hưng, quận 7, TP.HCM

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